“Hidden Figures” by Margot Lee Shetterly

The book was quite boring because it was factual, and in fact, it had too many facts. The movie was much more human and alive and interesting. I skipped a lot of sections. Admittedly though, it was interesting and somewhat depressing to get the black perspective.

“Stephen Fry’s Greek Myths 1” by Stephen Fry

 This is a pleasantly modern retelling of the Greek myths. It gave me some new insights into the whole mythology thing. For example, the style of the tv show Lucifer is Greek mythology. The gods walk among us and have human foibles.

“Song of Achilles” by Madeline Miller

 To my surprise, I ended up enjoying this book very much. Initially, I thought it was too focussed on a homosexual love affair, but eventually, the book drew me in. It made me feel that I understood the mindset of the Greeks, it was interesting to be given a broader understanding of a very well established story, and I grew to like Patroclus, the narrator, very much. At first, I had pegged him as a weak person, but he grew in confidence as the story progressed and truly became the best of the Greeks.

"The Foundation Trilogy" by Isaac Asimov

 So, I have finally read these creaky, seminal science fiction books.

“An Irish Country Doctor” by Patrick Taylor

Despite a somewhat pedestrian writing style, I enjoyed this book enough to ask for volume 2 from the library. It immerses you very nicely in 1960’s Northern Ireland village life, and the characters are interesting enough. You can definitely tell that the writer is a medical doctor. His medical descriptions are somewhat too detailed for the ordinary writer/reader.

"The Age of Innocence" by Edith Wharton

This book seems like a good study of the era, especially of the society of the New York City rich. The rigid thinking of the New York tribe and their strict rules of behaviour remind my very much of my mother. My favorite part was actually the last chapter, where Wharton described the changes that had taken place in New York society after 30 years.

“Indians on Vacation” by Thomas King

This was a very readable book. I enjoyed hearing about Prague and other parts of Europe, and the jumps in time were well done. The idea looking for the family’s medicine bundle is appealing and I really liked the character of Mimi, the protagonist’s wife. Two seniors looking back on their life together.

But the underlying theme was our helplessness to change the big wrongs of the world. Writing articles, etc etc does not change anything. I think there was some optimistic message at the end but I missed it. This is not an existential concern that interests me. Sometimes the author took me out of the book by being too expository about the ills of the world.