The Man Who Turned Into Himself - David Ambrose

 

I was looking over the way-too-many books I have and couldn't remember reading this one before. It's a short,clever, slightly disturbing novel about a man who experiences a split personality after a traumatic event - or does he?  Are there really alternate realities as predicted by quantum mechanics? Are we living an infinite number of different lives and can we go back and forth between them?  A good read.

Quotes: 

"The point I'm making...is that you can never get back to where you were. That's the one frustration, you can't go back. The universe you want to change goes on just the way it would have."

Published: 1993  Read: August 2026  Genre: Fiction

I'm Not Rappaport - Herb Gardner

 

I picked this up at a used book sale out in Carefree last spring and finally got around to reading it in a couple of nights.  Written 20 years ago I was pleasantly surprised how the theme centered around the lives of a pair of older men surviving in a world where they are largely irrelevant. It was different to read a play, to imagine the characters and see pictures of the actors that performed the play on Broadway.  An enjoyable read and a thoughtful commentary on aging.

Quotes:

page 47 - [Nat's lecture to Danforth on older people] "you collect old furniture, old cars, old pictures everything but old people. Bad souvenirs, they talk too much. Even quiet, they tell you too much; they look like the future and you don't want to know. Who are these people, these oldies, this strange race? They're not my type, put them with their own kind, a building, a town, put them someplace. You idiots, don't you know?  One day you too will join this weird tribe. Yes, Mr Chairman, you will get old; I hate to break the news. And if you're frightened now, you'll be terrified then. The problem is not that life is short it's but that it's very long; so you better have a policy....don't you understand? The old people, their the survivors, they know something, they haven't just stayed late to the party....you tell him that he is unnecessary, that he is a sin, that is a sin against life, that is abortion at the other end."

Published: 1986  Read: August 2026  Genre: Play 

Thunderstruck - Erik Larson

 

I've read several of the author's books and thoroughly enjoy his writing: The Demon of Unrest, The Splendid and the Vile, In the Garden of the Beast, and Dead Wake, He uses original documents, transcripts, and documented facts to tell the story of a time and place.  He usually weaves a piece of history with a crime story that keeps you engaged throughout the book.

This novel tells of the invention and implementation of wireless telecommunication invented and commercialized by Marconi, a very young Italian who persisted in bringing it to the public.  His story is told in parallel to a notorious murder in London in the early 1900s.  

Larson gets bogged down sometimes in the minutes of his sources.  I admire the way he knits together actual dialogue and reports from the past into a coherent whole in the context of the times.  It took more than a third of the book to understand how the murder and Marconi's invention converged, probably because I wasn't familiar with English history of the time. 

It was a satisfying read and I enjoyed learning.  I wish there had been more explanation of how wireless transmission actually works and why. 

Published: 2006  Read: 2026  Genre: History

Like Mohter, Like Mother - Susan Rieger

 This was the best read so far this year.  My sister recommended it based on the story that is about a family whose mother was put in an asylum...or was she?  The story follows her daughter, Lila, who bore the brunt of her abusive father's treatment but didn't learn to parent herself and leaves her daughter to be raised by her husband.  Her daughter, Grace, resents her absent mother and goes on a quest to find out what happened to her grandmother.

The book is mostly dialogue, rapid moving, sharp witted and insightful as it explores the relationships between mothers and daughters.  It even uses DNA to explore the mystery of the grandmother's disappearance.  Recommended.

Quote:

[Grace reflecting on her self] "I don't so much lose my temper as I give in to it."

Published: 2024  Read: August 2026  Genre: Fiction