“A Spool of Blue Thread” by Anne Tyler

Anne Tyler writes beautifully about family dynamics. As a result, this novel was quite easy for me to read in long unbroken stretches. And the ending, dealing with Denny, the troublesome son, did theoretically tie everything together very nicely, including that blue spool of thread that fell into Denny’s hand. Nevertheless, I feel that there is something missing. It might be that I have to give the book a more careful analysis to fully appreciate it. I guess I’m troubled because it turned out that Denny was the protagonist, and yet he was absent for long stretches of the book, and many of his motivations remain a mystery.

“The Witches of New York” by Ami McKay

The book’s strongest point was also, I think, its greatest weakness. The author obviously enjoyed writing about the historical backdrop of 19th century New York City and about witchcraft, up to the point where there was in fact, more description than necessary. And I don’t think she was as successful in developing her characters as she was the city. Admittedly, the ghost of the little boy caused me some tears, but I did not become entranced with any of the 3 witches. I suppose I’ll read volume 2 of the series, but I don’t expect much from it.... Perhaps the 2nd novel will be better because the author would have move beyond the point of ”setting the stage”?

“Jailbird” by Kurt Vonnegut

This is the first book I’ve read by Vonnegut, and though it’s not his best, it’s good enough for me to understand his success.

"The Order of Time" by Carlo Rovelli

This is an interesting book about the nature of time. It is written by a physicist, and it contains scientific explanations as well as philosophical thoughts. Considering that Rovelli touched on Greek philosophers and ancient Indian texts, he must be amazingly erudite. I'm sure that I understand only a small bit of the implications in this book. My most important take-away is that we see and understand so little of the actual world... atoms, relationships between objects, relativity etc etc.

“Knots and Crosses” by Ian Rankin

This is the first novel in the Rebus series, and the first book by Rankin that I’ve read. From it, I have learned that Rankin is not a hack writer. He is quite good, though I must say that I’m glad I read Rankin’s introduction. It explains quite nicely why, as an ambitious young author’s first crime novel, the language was sometimes too literate. Also, he developed Rebus as quite a complex character because he did not intend to write any more books about him. Given his complex backstory, I’m interested in finding out how Rebus evolves in succeeding books.

“Diary of a Wimpy Kid” by Jeff Kinney

This is a very well written and funny book for preteens. Lucas loaned it to me and I will honestly be able to tell him I enjoyed it.