Reading - March 2023

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (2021)

Very readable and lots of fun, with loads of very plausible-sounding details. If some of the plot works out because some, let's say, "other parties" have amazing talents, then that's just story-telling and doesn't spoil the plot for me. Very enjoyable.

London Review of Books (Volume 45 Number 5 / 2 March 2023)

For my birthday, B very thoughtfully bought me a subscription to the London Review of Books, which I had heard of but never read. I wasn't sure what to expect - I mean, book reviews, duh, but a whole magazine of them? Actually, it turns out that essentially the LRB is, firstly, more of a newspaper in format (approximately tabloid size) and secondly, well, about everything - unsurprisingly, really, since books are also about everything. But the LRB isn't really reviewing books; rather, it has long essays on subjects broadly suggested by whichever books are chosen, which might not even be particularly recent. Those subjects are all rather self-consciously "serious": art, poetry, politics, history, culture. As a result, despite not being particularly long, there's a lot to take in. Possibly, the intention isn't that you read it all anyway, but just choose the subjects in which you're interested. I think when I was younger, I would have read everything: the intellectual slant and, disputably, pretentiousness of the pieces would have appealed to my view of myself, as much as anything else. But now I'm older, I have a clearer idea of what I am interested in, and more to the point, what I am willing to spend time on (hint: not poetry), and so I am happier to pick and choose. (As an aside, I am very interested to learn that not only is there an LRB bookshop but an LRB cake shop. Cake is a subject I am willing to spend time on. This is definitely getting a visit next time I am in London.)

The House on Main Street by Shirlee McCoy (2013)

Sweet, escapist romantic fiction set in small town US. Reminds me of Stacy Finz's "Nugget" series, albeit a bit less racy - but then, I suspect that there are a lot of these kind of series around!

Going Home by Stacy Finz (2014)

So I went straight onto the first book in the "Nugget" series. This is my second time of reading this and, if anything, I enjoyed it more the second time round. Lots of interesting characters, plenty of story and plot as well as the obviously central romance, and all-in-all, very believable. It also highlights the differences between this and the previous book - this is much more complete and engrossing.