 |
| The Storygraph's new month summary |
This month's update: 571 day reading streak, 57 books this year (goal of 52 met) and 17,333 pages. July saw 8 more books and another 2,439 pages.
Other stato bits: Pages +5%, Books +14%, Average rating 4.25 (which is not surprising as I don't tend to finish those that I don't get on with). 75% fiction, 50% on Kindle, a single audio-book. 310-pages average and 14-days to finish on average (the non-fiction and audiobook skew this).
Let's dive in...
I read two non-fiction books, three roleplaying game books and four novels.
The first non-fiction book was Nuclear War by Annie Jacobsen, a terrifying reminder of how things can escalate and the crazily short times that those in charge have to make decisions on limited (and potentially flawed data). The scenario posits an opening missile strike at the continental US by North Korea, difficulties in the US contacting Russia, and a mis-read escalation. It's an all too plausible scenario into armageddon, chilling and horrifying as you can see the way things are going just before they happen. A timely reminder of the dangers of the likes of Trump and Putin who aren't shy of threatening the use of such weapons.
The second non-fiction book was Madly, Deeply, Alan Rickman's diaries. This was a fascinating insight into the life of an actor I deeply respect. I rarely read this kind of book, but enjoyed it a lot.
I read the first two seasons (expansions) for the Broken Compass RPG, Golden Age and Jolly Roger. I've reviewed both of these in detail. I preferred the Caribbean pirate supplement to the Pulp 1920s/30s, but both are great. Click the links above to get to the reviews if you've not seen them. The other book I read was the Fading Suns 4 Universe Book, which I managed to beat First Age to a physical copy of. I really enjoyed returning to this setting and may well pop are more detailed review up here later in the month.
At the start of the month, I discovered that David Downing, the author of the John Russell Berlin Stations series set around the Second World War had released two more books in the same series; a prequel and a sequel set in LA and Berlin. These books are gripping and give a really grounded feel of living in Berlin in the various as the Nazis rose to power and after the city is divided by the Soviets and Allies.
Wedding Station covers the period when the Reichstag is burnt down, and the Nazi's dominate the elections and then pass the enabling act to effectively suspend the rule of law. You can feel the fear and helplessness of those who didn't support the changes; much of the story is about how Russell comes to terms with this while trying to downplay his past links to the communist party. Union Station sees Russell and his wife Effi Koenen, a Jewish-German Movie Star who has made a career in the USA, facing the challenge of corruption and the threat of the House Un-American Activities Committee investigating their friends. They end up returning to Berlin for a film-festival and are caught between actions of Soviet and US intelligence. I enjoyed both these books greatly, with Wedding Station just edging ahead in my preferences.
I also read Lake County, by Lori Roy, which is described as Southern-Gothic Noir, where the niece of Marilyn Monroe is planning to leave with her when she visits and make a career for herself in Hollywood. However, local events happen involving murders and gangsters and people's past history coming back to haunt them. This was an impulse buy for me when in popped on the 99p daily deal, and I wasn't certain whether I was enjoying it the first few chapters, but it was fun once it got going.
My favourite fiction this month was David Downing's Wedding Station. The non-fiction reads were both excellent and so I'm calling that a dead heat between Nuclear War (Annie Jacobsen) and Madly, Deeply, Alan Rickman's diaries.
 |
| The cover collage |
No comments:
Post a Comment