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

A Year by the Sea - Joan Anderson

Sub-title: Thoughts of an unfinished woman

My sister recommended this as one of her favorites.  The writing was lyrical and evocative of the sea and living in a small place solo.  A fiftyish woman escapes to her bungalow on Cape Cod when her husband suggests they move across country for his job.  She reviews her life, decides she's been too giving and then welcomes him back when he decides to retire, although researching after reading the book he eventually got into other things and she had huge success that gave her a whole new career.  They are in their 50s, obviously financially very comfortable.  First world problems.  Thinking they have changed and will hold on to those changes after 50 apparently worked as she runs workshops on "getting finished".  Not a favorite as it is overly romantic and simplistic.

Published: 1999  Read: August 2026  Genre: Memoir 

Being Good - Simon Blackburn

 Sub-title: A Short Introduction to Ethics

Reading philosophy texts can be dense, with lots of vocabulary to grasp and concepts to unpack.  This slim book attempts to simplify the task, covering Aristotle, Kant, Plato and others.  The focus of the book is to address criticism of different ethical philosophies.  I don't know that I grasped all of its arguments, but it exercised my thinking and helped me understand some of the issues in the field.

Quotes:

"The Nobel prize winning economist Amartya Sen has calculated that there are over 100 million "missing women"..birth rates indicate that here should be slightly more females than males [but there aren't] because of inequalities in medical care, and sustenance as well as deliberate infanticide."

"Many philosophers argue, and I agree, that belief in the afterlife is an indefensible metaphysics; a false picture of how we as persons relate to our physical bodies. It imagines the soul as only accidentally and temporarily lodged in a body, like a person in a car. Whereas many philosophers think of the distinction between mind and body as much more subtle than this. They might say it is  much more like the distinction between a computer program and the machine it runs on. There is a distinction, sure enough, but not one that gives you any license to imagine the software running, but without any hardware at all."

Published:       Read: July 2026  Genre: Philosophy