Recent Books -- Crowley, Goldbarth, Bob Hope, Phenomena, Raj, Harry August, Tom Rob Smith, etc

Some winners and losers.

• Little, Big by John Crowley. Well-regarded and I enjoyed some of the characters, but it lost me when it quickly flipped into faerie. Gave up on.
• The Adventures of Form and Content by Albert Goldbarth. Goldbarth can be challenging but these are excellent essays. I aspire to be as well-read and thoughtful as he is.
• Hope by Richard Zoglin. I never thought I’d be interested in a biography of Bob Hope, but a fascinating life story. He was an absolutely dominant entertainer in almost all forms of popular media, and could be incredibly generous, and yet had massive massive flaws. An interesting human being.
• Phenomena by Annie Jacobsen. Got great reviews but the nonsense discussed drove me away. Gave up on.
• The Chaos of Empire by Jon Wilson. Another I abandoned quickly. From past readings I’ve know the British were none too pleasant as they built their empire, and I wanted to learn more, but the early parts of this book just droned on and on with no insight.
• The Farm by Tom Rob Smith. His earlier books are excellent, but he just never found his voice in this one. A satisfying ending but not a great read.
• The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North. Fun. Not memorable but fun.
• Dark Orbit by Carolyn Ives Gilman. My Kindle says I read this, and the Amazon blurb sounds familiar, but for the life of me, I couldn’t tell you anything about. Read whatever you want to into this.
• Three Graves Full by Jamie Mason. An attempt at a Fargo-like tale but eh. Not funny enough.