“Station Eleven” by Emily St. John Mandel

Despite the subject matter, an apocalyptic pandemic, I enjoyed this book very much. It is cleverly structured and the author has a fresh voice.

“The Agency” by William Gibson

 I enjoyed the book for its decent pace and its idea of stubs, which were machine-created alternate timelines. The idea of communicating across stubs digitally in drones etc was amazing. I missed out a bit by not having read the first book in the Jackpot trilogy, but I think I’ve had enough Gibson for awhile. .. His ideas are genius!

“Bel Canto” by Ann Patchett

 A book inspired by a hostage taking incident in Peru hardly sounds like something I would want to read. But I ended up enjoying this book very much. One of the best books I’ve read in awhile. .. one of its messages was, rich or poor, we are so busy living/surviving that we lose sight of/ or never find, our true happy selves.

“Troubled Blood” by Robert Galbraith

 I enjoyed this book, but it was definitely bloated. It would have been a much better and effective book if the editor had taken a firm hand. Not surprisingly, Rawling thanked her editor at the end of the book.

“Gods of Jade and Shadow” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

 I enjoyed this book for its strong feminist bent, for its kind moral underpinnings and for the Mayan mythology.

“Trickster Drift” by Eden Robinson

 Volume 2 of the TrIckster trilogy is an interesting read but it takes awhile to get going. The author seems to glory in writing about the mundane... drinking coffee, cooking stuff, etc etc. And there is quite a bit of unhappiness as well as love.

“All Tomorrow’s Parties” by William Gibson

 The writing style, with chapters that were mostly 2-3 pages long, was very choppy so it took me a long time to finish this book. As usual, with Gibson, the original ideas made it worth the read. I particularly liked the image of all those people living on the disabled Sean Francisco bridge.