“The Great Hunt” by Robert Jordan

 This is where I stop reading “The Wheel of Time” series. Robert Jordan is not a good writer, and his world building is ridiculously complex and convoluted. It does not shine clearly and true, unlike “Game of Thrones” or “Lord of the Rings”.

“The Red Haired Woman” by Orhan Pamuk

 When reading this book, I mostly thought it was a decently written but uninspiring story with the clear voice of a Turkish intellectual. But the final section, which shifted to the point of view of the red haired woman, makes this book a work of art. Its themes are fathers and sons murdering each other, Oedipus etc etc. And of course, the role of women.

“The Headmaster’s Wager” by Vincent Lam

 At the beginning I thought this book was excruciatingly slow. But I ended up liking it very much and indeed would even call it amazing. The complex life story of a Chinese English Headmaster/owner of an English school in Vietnam during Japanese occupation and then the Vietnam war felt so very real. Of course, my familial relationship to Vietnam added to my interest in the book.

“Sea of Tranquility” by Emily St. John Mandel

 This book is lightly related to the author’s previous book “Glass Hotel”. It dragged a bit in parts but overall I found it to be enjoyable.  It played with the concepts of time travel and simulated reality. The protagonist got a job with the Time Institute to investigate an apparent anomaly in reality that supported the concept of a simulation. It turned out that he triggered the anomaly.

“Origin A genetic history of the Americas” by Jennifer Raff

As usual, I did not retain much from this scholarly book. But I thoroughly enjoyed learning how the various disciplines, especially archaeology and genetics work together in interpreting the history of our earliest ancestors. In this case, the focus is on the various models for explaining how the Americas were populated. The author is very good at making a scene come alive. And she is opened my eyes to important ethical issues regarding taking genetic information from indigenous peoples, and of how they have been badly used in the past.

“A Tale for the Time Being” by Ruth Ozeki

 I enjoyed this book very much and found some parts riveting. The Japanese girl who wrote the diary was very wise and matter-of -fact, and her 104 year old Zen Buddhist nun great grandmother was an amazing influence on her. The book showed life in Japan and on a remote island in BC, with a smattering of Sunnyvale California as well. It also had a nice small touch of quantum/physics and entanglement science fiction. It was recommended to me by the Carleton retired professor who did a course on time in the LifeLong Learning program.

“Personal Librarian” by Maria Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

 I enjoyed this book about JP Morgan’s personal librarian who acquired amazing and rare items for his library. The historical context of early 20th century America was particularly interesting to me.