Because of a great deal of personal chaos in my life — such as remodeling our kitchen and dining room — and the substantial additional effort it took to research, calculate, write and deliver Solar Express, I haven’t done as much personal reading as I usually do. One of the books that did stand out, not so much for its content as its presentation, was actually a non-fiction book entitledThe Island of Knowledge, by Marcelo Gleiser. The book’s subtitle (“The Limits of Science and the Search for Meaning”) is as good a summary as any. I also enjoyed, as much as a guilty pleasure as anything, the latest Alex Benedict novel, Coming Home, as well as an older book, The Crown Jewels, by Walter John Williams. I also read a quite a few fantasies by new authors, with none of which did I find worth mentioning.

Since the last time I posted, I’ve actually read a few books that I’ve enjoyed, along with more than a few that I didn’t or thought were vastly overhyped, and one that I enjoyed but, upon reflection, felt… well, you’ll see. For just fun, I liked Alex Bledsoe’s The Sword-Edged Blonde, although the title is really a stretch, and Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane, which, although delightfully written, is mostly just fun, with a hint of Peter Pan growing up thrown in.  Another fantasy PI novel was Ari Marmell’s Hot Lead, Cold Iron, which mixes faerie with 1930s Chicago underworld.  Another book that I liked, but had reservations of a different sort about was Charles Stross’s Neptune’s Brood, since I thought his take on future interstellar economics was, shall I say, either a bit-far-fetched or an incredibly sarcastic and sardonic not-so-veiled commentary on our current economic structure, with the resolution turning on a long-hidden, but unveiled just-in-time technological deus ex machina  totally at odds with the entire technology Stross so carefully constructed.  I liked it, but….  As for the other books I’ve read recently, let’s just say that while I feel I need to know what others are writing, there are some writers I may not be revisiting, at least not soon.