Between you and me: a memoir, by Mike Wallace

 

I enjoyed this memoir by 60 Minutes correspondent Mike Wallace, although it's less a memoir about his life and career and more a collection of favorite interviews. While he does mention his career steps, they're more as background to his interviews, and not presented in chronological order. Rather, he organizes the book into types of interview subjects or themes, such as presidents, race, the Middle East, and celebrities. In his decades-long career, Wallace has interviewed a wide spectrum of people from Eleanor Roosevelt to Tina Turner, and has turned his style of gotcha journalism on all of them. He was 87 when this book was published but nearing the end of his career; he retired just a year later. His writing is clear and concise and includes snippets from his interviews. This was a fun and interesting memoir that dips into the political, historical, and cultural world from the 1940s on.

The best man to die, by Ruth Rendell

This is the 4th book in Ruth Rendell's Inspector Wexford series, and it's the best-written book yet. Charlie Hatton is murdered the night before he is set to serve as best man at a wedding, and it turns out that there is more than one person who had motive and opportunity to kill him. Rendell does a good job leading the reader down one path after another before finally revealing the killer (surprise) in the final pages, although I have to admit, the clues were there for us to see. She also expands on Wexford's personality more than in earlier book so we get to know him a little better. The writing and pacing are excellent.
 

Hercule Poirot's Christmas, by Agatha Christie

 

This is another satisfying mystery featuring detective Hercule Poirot by Agatha Christie. Poirot is brought in to help identify the killer of Simeon Lee, the patriarch of a family who has mostly come to fear and loathe him. Found inside a locked room after a violent struggle, Poirot struggles to figure out how he could have been killed and who could have done it. As usual, he prevails!

Damascus Station, by David McCloskey

 

I really enjoyed this spy thriller by author David McCloskey. Primarily based in Syria during the civil war, it features a CIA agent who recruits a Syrian woman who works for the government to identify who is responsible for the killing of another CIA agent. Their mutual spying eventually encompasses a much larger aim: to prevent Syria from deploying chemical weapons against its own citizenry. The writing is very good, and the plotting meticulous. The book also demonstrates how difficult it was for any Syrian citizen to take a stand against a government and leaders who wouldn't hesitate to torture and kill relatives as punishment for anyone who doesn't obey.

Uncivilized beasts and shameless hellions: travels with an NPR correspondent, by John F. Burnett

 

This is a fascinating collection of essays by NPR correspondent John Burnett about his experiences reporting some of the biggest stories of the previous decades (this book was published in 2006). Chapters cover his time spent in the Middle East (Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan), Guatemala, Kosovo, and Mexico. Other chapters cover dramatic episodes in U.S. history such as Hurricane Katrina and the Waco siege. I always find it fascinating getting the inside scoop on important stories, often including details and anecdotes that don't make it into the daily reporting, and this book doesn't disappoint. 

Double trouble: a dual memoir of alcoholism, by Martha Grimes and Ken Grimes

 

Mystery author Martha Grimes teamed up with her son to write this slight (211 page) memoir about their respective experiences with alcoholism. As of the writing of this book (published in 2013), they both had about two decades of sobriety. Chapters alternate between both of their perspectives about their addictions and eventual sobriety with a few chapters that are simply a transcribed conversation between the two. They write about how they began drinking, and in Ken's case, doing drugs; how their behavior impacted each other; and how they achieved sobriety, Martha through a clinic and Ken through a 12-step program. I have mixed feelings about this book. I like the concept of a dual memoir about two people facing the same challenge and how they overcame that challenge in different ways. However, I feel like the book would have better served if the stories were told in a more chronological manner. This book hops around quite a bit and that makes it feel a little disjointed. It feels dashed off, and I wonder that a stronger hand wasn't taken with the editing and shaping of the book. I do note that there isn't an acknowledgement page, and in the dedication (which includes a few thanks), there is no mention of editors who might have helped.

Prima facie, by Ruth Downie

 

This novella is the ninth and last entry in Ruth Downie's Medicus series which follows the life of a doctor in the Roman army during the 2nd century BCE. In this entry, Downie fills in the gap of what happened to Gaius and his British wife Tilla while they were making their way from Rome (book 7) to Britain (book 8), stopping off in Gaul for Gaius to visit his family. While there, he's thrust into the middle of a mystery and must solve the murder of a young man in order to save Gaius' sister's boyfriend, who is the murdered man's half brother and chief suspect. Although very short, this novella delivers a satisfying mystery, plot, and conclusion. I just wish it weren't the last in the series as I really enjoyed these books.

Clown town, by Mick Herron

With this ninth book in the Slow Horses series, Mick Herron has once again delivered a page turner with intricate plotting, fascinating characters, and hilarious dialog. I loved this entry in the saga of Slough House, the division of MI5 where agents are sent to encourage them to leave out of boredom or frustration with their dull and tedious assignments. And as usual, they are caught up in the middle of a conspiracy and have to use their unique skills to figure out what's going on and block the nefarious actions of the MI5 leadership. I am sad to have finally caught up with the series, but happy that Herron is planning a 10th book although a release date has not been announced. According to his website, a collection of his novellas is being released in October, but it appears to be a re-release of the novellas already published as Standing by the wall (also the name of one of the novellas included in it). 
 

Appointment with death, by Agatha Christie

 

This is another satisfying mystery starring Hercule Poirot and set in the Middle East. Poirot is vacationing but is called in to help solve the murder of Mrs. Boynton, a very unpleasant and controlling woman who is traveling with her five stepchildren. The children, all but one of whom are adults, want to get away from her but they've been beaten down for so long that they can't manage to do anything without her approval. Poirot has some insight given that he's overheard two of the children saying that Mrs. Boynton should be killed. The murder doesn't take place until 100 pages into the book; up to that point Christie is just setting the scene, introducing the characters, and delving into their interactions and motivations. Poirot is brought in to the plot in Part 2 and promises to identify the murderer within 24 hours, which he does, of course.

The loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, by Kiran Desai

 

This was my local book club's September pick, giving us the summer to read this exceedingly long novel, at 670 pages. I found it hard to get into this book, partly because the character of Sonia becomes involved with an older man early on in the book. An artist, Ilan is possessive, controlling, and as it becomes increasingly clear, a complete whack job. I found it difficult to read about Sonia's continuing debasement of herself in this relationship. Sunny is involved in a complicated relationship with a white woman from a conservative family in the Midwest. This book is about not just Sonia and Sunny, both of whom hail from India, but their parents and other relations. So I found myself much more drawn to the character of Sonia's mother who has decided to leave her abusive and overbearing husband and retreat to her own family's estate in the mountains. When Sonia finally leaves her older boyfriend and flies home for comfort from her family, she spends most of her time with her ailing father. Sunny and Sonia finally meet and begin an on-again, off-again relationship. Interspersed throughout the book are the stories of Sunny's mother and her family members who are part of the criminal underworld. The book alternates between all of these perspectives, showing how Sonia and Sunny ultimately find their way back to each other, Sunny's mother comes to terms with her financial and family circumstances, and Sonia's father dies from cancer. While the writing is very good, most of the people in this book are not very likable, making it hard to empathize. The character in whom I was most interested was Sonia's mother, but after she leaves her husband, she barely shows up in the book at all. The writing is very good, and the ending is somewhat satisfying, but it took a lot of meandering to get there. 

Outlive: the science & art of longevity, by Peter Attia

 

Author Peter Attia is a medical doctor who dropped out of his medical residency to become a consultant for McKinsey & Company, and later formed a concierge medical practice that focuses on longevity. With Outlive, he first describes what he calls the four horsemen of premature death: cancer, metabolic dysfunction, heart disease, and neurodegenerative diseases, then follows that with his advice on staving off those diseases through better nutrition, exercise, sleep, and other means. He ends with a chapter emphasizing the importance of mental health. Attia presents a lot of research in this very informative book, yet it is very readable with many personal anecdotes mixed in.

Memento mori, by Ruth Downie

 

Memento mori is the 8th book in the Medicus series of mysteries by author Ruth Downie. Set in the 2nd century when Rome occupied a good part of the British Isles, Downie's main character is Gaius Petreius Ruso, a doctor who worked for many years in the Roman army. This book starts with Ruso living with his British wife Tilla, their adopted baby Mara, and two British slaves whom they bought during their trip to Rome (in the previous book). Ruso receives word that his doctor friend Valens is suspected of murdering his wife Serena in the town of Aquae Sulis (modern day Bath). Serena has been stabbed and left in one of the hot baths, something the priests and other local officials are hoping to keep from visitors. Valens' father-in-law Pertinax suspects Valens of the murder because Serena had recently asked for a divorce to be with another man, Terentius, who has also vanished. Ruso travels to Aquae Sulis with his entire household to try to defend Valens and find the real killer. Once there, they get caught up in the conflicting factions existing there, putting all of their lives at risk. Although at first they're at odds, ultimately Ruso and Pertinax work together to find the truth about what happened and identify the culprits.

Death on the Nile, by Agatha Christie

 

I really enjoyed reading Death on the Nile, one of the most famous of Agatha Christie's novels featuring Hercule Poirot. While I'm positive that I read it as a teenager, most of my memories about the plot come from the 2022 film starring Kenneth Branagh, which I also enjoyed very much. (And now I want to see it again!) The premise is that Poirot is on vacation, taking a cruise up the River Nile to see ancient Egyptian archeological sites, when one of the passengers is found murdered. Her new husband as well as her former friend and now nemesis both have what appear to be airtight alibis, so who could have killed her? As usual, the writing is very good and Poirot suspects one passenger after another before nailing down the whole story.

Packing for Mars: the curious science of life in the void, by Mary Roach

 

Author Mary Roach does a great job presenting much of the research that has taken place to allow humans to go into outer space. In her humorous way she shares how NASA and other research institutions have investigated the impact of space travel, weightlessness, isolation, and other factors on the human body and mind. She devotes chapters to the development of food for astronauts, the invention of devices and methods for going to the bathroom, dressing, exercising, sex, hygiene, and more in cramped and weightless spaces. She not only looks at the published research but she interviews astronauts and scientists to create this fascinating, funny, and informative narrative. I'm sure the science has advanced since 2010 when this book was published but it's still a worthwhile read.

Wolf to the slaughter, by Ruth Rendell

 

Wolf to the slaughter is the third Inspector Wexford novel by mystery author Ruth Rendell. A scatter-brained artist reports to the police that his sister Anita has gone missing. Right around the same time the police get an anonymous tip that someone named Ann has been murdered by a man named Geoff Smith. Following the tip, they track down the identity of the person who sent the note, and find that a man rented a room for three hours for an assignation, and the owner found a bloodied carpet and a lighter engraved with the name Ann on it. Trying to stay out of trouble, the owner's boyfriend, a recently released ex-con, sent the note. But finding the person who rented the room leads the police on a twisted journey pursuing one lead after another until they finally reach the answer in the final pages. In the meantime, Drayton is becoming increasingly obsessed with a young woman who clerks in her father's small shop nearby; Wexford warns him off since she is tangentially related to the investigation, but he ignores the warning, possibly at the risk of his career. This is a very intriguing mystery that kept me turning the pages, and the final twist is quite a surprise.

Bad actors, by Mick Herron

 

In the 8th entry of the Slough House series of spy novels, the slow horses are looking for a missing government advisor who turns out (not a spoiler) to have been a Russian plant. At the same time, whispers that MI5 has possibly implemented the Waterproof protocol (which "disappears" people) implicates head Diana Taverner and she has to evade arrest and work with Jackson to find out who's behind the rumors and the missing Russian spy. River is out of the picture, recuperating from his recent injuries, but there's a new slow horse, Ash, the MI5 agent whose arm Jackson broke near the end of the previous book when she was sent to follow him and was discovered (and neutralized) by Jackson. And Shirley Dander has been sent to an agency rehab facility that results in a mistaken identity subplot that is action-packed and very funny. As usual, the plot is exciting and the dialog is highly entertaining. Plot twists and turns are numerous, and keep the tension high throughout. 

Deluged with dudes: platonic & erotic love poems to men, by Alta

 

I don't always "get" poetry, but I loved this collection of poems by Alta published in 1989 by Shameless Hussy Press. A co-worker had recommended it and I picked up a copy that I read back then and kept all this time. I thought it was funny and sweet, and after reading it again, I feel the same. They're mostly short, personal poems about the author's relationships with men, including her three husbands and too-many-to-count lovers. She also writes about some of her platonic friendships with men, many of them quite young. I re-read this because I'm trying to downsize my book collection, off-loading many of the books that I've already read. I'm glad that I read this again; there aren't too many books (especially poetry) that make me laugh out loud, but this is one of them.

Kitchen confidential: adventures in the culinary underbelly, by Anthony Bourdain

 

Anthony Bourdain's 2000 memoir about his more than (at that point) 20 years in the restaurant industry is fascinating but also a little off-putting. He writes about how his love for good food was awakened during a childhood summer in France visiting his extended family. His admirable later career started out with a not very admirable young adulthood with a few years at Vassar wasted with too many drug and alcohol fueled indulgences. A summer in Provincetown working in a seafood restaurant led to his decision to attend the Culinary Institute of America and commit to the culinary industry. While Bourdain is perhaps famous for his bad-boy image and irreverence, I found it to be unlikable in the book. I don't know if he's exaggerating or dramatizing for comedic effect, but if it's not then I think it's a little horrifying what goes on in even upscale restaurants' kitchens. As I read I was torn between going out for a bite right now and never eating out again. Bourdain also seems to have a high level of contempt for restaurant owners, his bosses, his coworkers, and the dining public. There are no moments when he seems to feel gratified or appreciated by the people eating his food. He acknowledges some of these criticisms in the preface to the 2000 Ecco edition, which is the one I have, but he writes that he wrote the book for other people in the industry, not the public, so he has no apologies for them or any of the (sometimes gross) practices that he reports on in his kitchens. (There have been subsequent editions with updated prefaces, so he may have changed his attitude over time.) He seems to mellow out near the end of the book when he is asked to go to Tokyo to help the chef with French cooking practices. He describes his first day trying to find breakfast in the city and being intimidated by the many choices. He finally settles on getting a latte in Starbucks before getting up the courage to go into the first noodle shop he saw and just asking for the same thing the guy next to him had. That humanized him a bit for me. As the trip went on he became more and more adventurous, walking and eating all over the city. His descriptions of those quests made it clear how suited he was to his later TV shows. Overall, this book is worth reading, although it's sad to read about his adventures knowing how he later died.

The legatus mystery, by Rosemary Rowe

Overall, I enjoyed this fifth book in this series about Libertus, a former enslaved British man who was freed and made a Roman citizen when his owner died. A mosaic artist by trade, he is regularly pulled into murder mysteries by his patron, Marcus Aurelius Septimus. I found this entry in the series to be entirely convoluted, with an unidentified body that disappears, strange and scary sounds emanating from who knows where, blood spots appearing out of nowhere, imperial rings showing up multiple times, and then more bodies appearing and disappearing. It seemed more like a farce than a murder mystery at times. I also found Libertus to be acting strangely out of character in this book, with him exhibiting paralyzing fear about the happenings in the temple. The plot was overly complicated, the characters were difficult to keep track of (too many temple officials and priests with unfamiliar titles), and the author took too long to get to the point. Then, in the end, Libertus explains everything to us, as if he had it figured out all along. It was a little more satisfying when he wrapped it up, but it didn't make up for the long slog ahead of that. So far, in five books, three have been pretty good, but the first and the fifth have been weaker. The best parts of the book are the characters Junio, his slave, and Gwellia, his former wife who was kidnapped into slavery and with whom he was reunited at the end of the last book. I'll keep reading in the hope that the plotting gets a little tighter and they improve. 
 

Dinners with Ruth: a memoir on the power of friendships, by Nina Totenberg

 

I really liked this touching and heartfelt memoir by NPR reporter Nina Totenberg about her decades long friendship with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Long before Ruth became a Justice, she argued cases before the court beginning early in the 1970s, and Nina interviewed her regularly about those cases. What began as a professional relationship grew into a close personal friendship with both Nina and her first (and later second) husband dining regularly with Ruth and her husband. I find it amusing that in both cases, the husbands were the better cooks than the wives, so they did most of the cooking when hosting. When Nina lost her first husband in the late 90s, Ruth was very supportive, a favor that Nina returned when Ruth lost her husband Marty two decades later. I loved reading not just about their growing friendship but also how their careers began and flourished. Both women faced gender discrimination throughout their respective careers, and Totenberg shares those experiences through her many anecdotes scattered through the book but without dwelling overly long on those issues. Totenberg makes clear the historical importance of RBG's appointment as the second woman Supreme Court Justice, and she writes about Ruth's friendships and working relationships with Sandra Day O'Connor and Antonin Scalia. She discusses many of the cases that came before the court over the last 50-plus years without becoming dry or overly detailed. This is a fairly short book (304 pages) and she covers a lot of ground, all while keeping it highly interesting and entertaining.