Book Talk – January 11th, 2026

Beth, Linda, Jim, Michael, and Peggy joined us for some pleasant conversation this month.

Christina had some Zoom problems, so couldn’t join us, but did provide a list of the books she has been reading.

I also heard from Tamara, who we haven’t seen in a while.  She had emergency surgery for retinal detachment, which thankfully has now healed, but lost complete vision in her right eye for three months.  She is hoping to come back to book club soon.  We also missed Cynthia, who had some unexpected company drop by.

Aside from the 68 books reviewed, we talked about phones, college football (Indiana), pro football (Broncos) and I forgot what else.  Peggy visited our old friend Barbara when she took her Christmas vacation to Maryland.

Jim passed along yet another source of audio books.  This one gives a share of the income to a local bookstore chosen by you: https://libro.fm/.

The full list of our books can be found here:

https://mamensa.org/category/book-lovers-sig-book-talks/

Book Lovers SIG always meets the second Sunday of each month; in this case February 8.  We meet online using Zoom, so it is easy to join in.  Folks generally start checking in around 2 p.m. for a bit of socialization.  Book discussions begin around 2:30 p.m., more or less, or when Peggy says, “OK, Let’s talk about books!”.

To join us on Zoom, simply click on the link shown below:

https://tinyurl.com/BookLoversSIG

You can also open your Zoom app and use these parameters:

Meeting ID: 946 0436 4344
Passcode: 844358

*****

Linda

The Proving Ground by Michael Connelly.  4*

#8 of the Lincoln Lawyer series.  Haller ventures into a civil case for a change.  An AI company’s chatbot encouraged a sixteen-year-old boy to kill his ex-girlfriend and the girlfriend’s family is suing the company.

Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah.  3*

Two teenagers become friends, and the story follows them over 30 years of ups and downs.  Chick lit, but fairly good.

Dinners with Ruth by Nina Totenberg.  3*

Totenberg was friends with RBG long before the Supreme Court appointment and remained so afterward.  The book focuses maybe too much on Totenberg’s career rather than RBG.  But still an enlightening look into the private lives of two very impressive women.

Gracelin O’Malley by Ann Moore.  3*

Historical fiction/romance set in Ireland at the time of the potato famine.  Likeable main character.  First of a series — don’t know if I’ll continue.

The Hallmarked Man by Robert Galbraith.  3*

I have loved this series but looking at my ratings — varying from 3 to 5 stars, I guess I think it’s somewhat uneven.  This one was WAY too long at 900 pages, the continuing characters kept waffling about their feelings.  If you’re reading it, you know what the suspense line is and it continues to be frustrating.

The plot line centers on a corpse found in the vault of a silver shop.  Multiple suspects and possible motives.  A central theme is Freemasonry, which seems very odd: Who cares about this organization anymore?

The Amateur by Robert Littell.  3*

Set during the Cold War years.  A CIA employee who is not a field agent decides to take on a field case on his own, as revenge for a crime that affected him personally.  Apparently, this is a new movie with the great Rami Malek so I will check that out.

The Widow by John Grisham.  4*

Pure Grisham: A small-town lawyer whose life is falling apart takes on the apparently simple task of writing a new will for a wealthy widow. Somehow this gets him accused of murder.  Lots of courtroom details, a solid read.

These Summer Storms by Sarah McLean.  2*

Pretty predictable romance/suspense about a wealthy family dealing with the contents of their patriarch’s will.  Some lengthy sex scenes if you like that stuff.  Not really recommended.

Beth

The Witch King by Martha Wells.  This is the first book of a (currently 2) book saga.  The main character is a demon, who has a body in the underearth, and has been gifted a recently dead body in the upper earth.  The demon part of him gives him immortality so that he can repair the body he has been gifted.  There is a war among many factions, driven by the Hierarchs, who through their expositor slaves have enormous powers and can kill at a distance and control other people, magical or not.  The story starts with the protagonist, Kai, awaking in dead body and bringing it back to life.  He then goes to hunt for his partner, Zeide, who is a witch who controls wind.  They go on a quest to find out how they were captured, and to rid the world of the scourge of the Hierarchs.  The story shifts from the past to the present, and it takes a long time to figure out what is happening.  This is a story that I think will grow on me, maybe the 3rd book will shed more light.

Queen Demon by Martha Wells.  Book 2 of the Witch King.

What Stalks the Deep by T. Kingfisher.  This is 3rd in a series, and I haven’t read the first two.  A person goes looking into a strange mine in West Virginia that he has inherited.  He then disappears, and his friends go to look for him.  They find strange things, and it is the story of the beings that they encounter and how they deal with them.  This explores intellectual curiosity, courage, and compassion as a response to the unknown.

Hemlock and Silver by T. Kingfisher.  A retelling of Snow White, as a person who specializes in poisons, is called to save the King’s daughter.  There are magic mirrors, and almost an Alice in Wonderland type of world, that gets frighteningly real.

The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland.  This story revolves around a physicist who is exploring the multiverse, the military who butts in and provides money first, then control, then open warfare carried out across the worlds as they try to change history for the advantage of the US.  Problem is that you need witches to do it, and magic had disappeared from the world in 1851.

The Master of the Revels by Nicole Galland.  The story of DODO continues.  Time travel asking the question of who and what, on what timeline is real, and what about killing off the NPCs on inconvenient timelines.  Asking the question of what we want — magic or technology, and who gets to decide.  When a new idea, or new technology, or a new spell is discovered, people fight to control, wield, or destroy it.  Whose nature can absorb the changes?

His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman.  It was good to reread this as a refresher before reading the last installment of the series.  There are many levels, the story in front of you, the casual loss of bit players and NPCs.  The choice between revenge and growth.  About making choices with not enough information, and who to trust, when you know you have a very high risk of being betrayed.  Good and evil, redemption and loss, the human saga.

The Song of the Blue Bottle Tree by India Hayford.  Tangled family feuds with sex abuse as a prerogative and foundation of power and control, upended by someone who finds a way to cut out the worst offender, but still doesn’t change the culture.  Saving people, one person at a time.

Tea and Alchemy by Sharon Lynn Fisher.  More vampires, but this one is a curse spread by one creature.  It is like beauty and the beast that turns out well.

The Recital by Gregg Hurwitz.  Short Story. Joey grows up a little bit more, and takes on a challenge where her native talents can’t help her.

The Intern by Gregg Hurwitz.  Short Story.  A reporter and his intern go looking for a scoop at the scene of one of Orphan X’s conflicts and they get attacked.  A look at growing up, or not.

The List by Gregg Hurwitz.  Short Story.  Joey gets revenge on the bad boys at college.

Buy a Bullet by Gregg Hurwitz.  Short Story.  Orphan X rescues a woman being held in sex slavery by a tech bro.

Hard Fought by Greg Bear.  Interaction between humans and a very alien species bent on extermination of each other.  They end up assimilating.

Anathem by Neal Stephenson.  The multiverse- this is another look at how it works.  On a world where the elite academics are sequestered away to cogitate on their own, with very limited (annual, 10 years, 100 years, 1000 years) contact with the outside world.  One (or more) academics figures out that there are other cosmos’ and that their world has a visitor.  The people of the world have to learn to cooperate or risk an unknown fate.  Being absorbed, annihilated?  There is a good amount of orbital mechanics in discovering the invading spaceship with some pretty primitive equipment, and then a good bunch of playing around in space and the spaceship itself.

And I don’t think she has read it, but Beth also mentioned Only Begotten Daughter, a satirical fantasy novel by James Morrow that tells the story of Julie Katz, the daughter of God, conceived through a sperm bank donation.  Julie is portrayed as a miracle child with divine abilities, such as walking on water and healing the blind.  The book invites comparisons to the works of authors like Kurt Vonnegut and Salman Rushdie.

Peggy

The Black Wolf by Louise Penny.  A follow-up to last year’s Grey Wolf, which was about a terrorist attack on Montreal’s water system.  Ganache thinks they missed a larger plot and searches for clues from the last book.  Penny, a Canadian, wrote the book in 2024 but ran into real life in one of her created plot points.  Oh, and no one dies in Three Pines this time.

Replaceable You by Mary Roach.  Some of the parts we replace in the body are standard (contacts, hip replacements, prosthetics, hair plugs); some are historic (nose guards after a duel lopped off the original); and some are futuristic (printed hearts).  And some are quintessentially Mary Roach (anal sphincters).  Not her best book but still enjoyable.

The Christmas Promise by Charles Todd.  In 1920, when a crime must be investigated at Christmas, the single Inspector Rutledge is sent to investigate an attack on a lord.  But he can’t find the horse supposedly involved in the attack.  This novella looks at the damage done by war to all involved but has a happy Christmas ending.

Michael

I was in hospital and only had time to read Phillip Pullman’s The Rose Field and Roger Zelazny’s Lord of Light.  I was disappointed in The Rose Field.  I think the first two volumes of His Dark Materials are great, but that the quality falls off gradually in the next four volumes.  Lord of Light is about the conquest of a planet by men who imitate the gods of Buddhism and Hinduism to cow the locals.  I quit reading it because it was going nowhere.  An excellent opportunity to say something about religion, culture, and society wasted on pretty costumes and special effects.

Christina

For Winterween:

The Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne.  A re-read for Nathanuary.  A cautionary tale about marrying a tech bro.  This is probably my favorite Hawthorne story.

Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne.  Another re-read for Nathanuary.  (There will be at least one more next month.)  I liked this one better now that I know more about Hawthorne’s family history and why he changed the spelling of his name.

Murder by the Book by Lauren Elliott.  First in a bafflingly long series.  An irritating young woman inherits an estate full of books from an aunt she forgot she had, so she opens a bookshop despite obviously having no idea how to operate a retail establishment.  She makes enemies but befriends the police chief’s sister, then people start dying and she begins meddling in the investigations until the police chief is so annoyed that he kisses her.  Yeah, this is a mess.  Not recommended.  Read for the Comfy Cozy Book Club.

An American in Scotland by Lucy Connelly.  Another first in a series, but I will probably continue to read this one, despite its similarities to MbtB.  A young American woman moves to Scotland for a fresh start as a country doctor in a remote area.  As soon as she arrives, she has a run-in with the local curmudgeon, and he dies within a few hours.  Much Highland wackiness ensues.

For Diversity Book Bingo:

Severance by Ling Ma.  This is a dual timeline pandemic story set in an alternate 2011.  It bounces between peri-apocalyptic NYC, where our protagonist is an office worker dedicated to finishing out her contract, and the post-apocalyptic road trip she winds up taking.  The book came out in 2018, and it is eerie how much pre-ages 2020.  There’s some really good satire here, but it’s also pretty grim in places, so proceed with caution.  Read for B&N’s January theme, Time.

The Babysitter Lives by Stephen Graham Jones.  A high school senior is babysitting a pair of fraternal twins for the first time on October 30th.  She hopes to get them fed and to bed early enough to study for the SAT the next morning.  That … does not happen.  Wackiness does not even begin to describe this haunted house story.  Time and space do strange things, and the tone is reminiscent of SGJ’s Mapping the Interior.  Read for B&N’s January theme, Time.

They All Fall Down by Rachel Howzell Hall.  This is yet another ’inspired by And Then There Were None’ story.  Of the current pack, I’d say this was the most disappointing I’ve read so far.  The characters are lacking in nuance, and their interactions didn’t make much sense to me.  The only thing that held my attention was the Glass Onion atmosphere.

A Trace of Poison by Colleen Cambridge.  The second in the Phyllida Bright series.  Phyllida is the housekeeper at the fictional Mallowan Hall, home to fictional versions of Max and Agatha (Christie) Mallowan.  Agatha and some of her author friends are judging a story contest as part of a murder festival in the nearby village.  Of course, one of the contestants is poisoned at the opening reception.  Much homicidal wackiness ensues.  I’m not entirely on board with part of the final explanations, but this was a solid mystery with some good twists, and I enjoyed the characters.

Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa, translated by Polly Barton.  Intellectually, I appreciate what Ichikawa has done here, exploring some neglected themes surrounding disability.  But I cannot say I enjoyed the book at all.  The sex is not just graphic; it is grotesque.  And that’s purposefully done, and part of the whole point of the story.  I understand why it is an award-winning book, and there are people to which I would actively recommend this book.  I am just not one of them.  Read for the F*cked-Up Book Club.

Nonfiction:

84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff.  Another re-read, this time for Epistolary January.  And this time I read my paperback copy.  It felt more real, somehow, seeing the physical formatting of the letters.  Great snapshots of life on both sides of the pond in the decades following WWII, and a collective love letter to the magic of books and bookish community.  Read for B&N’s January theme, Time, and GenreLand’s January theme, Epistolary.

BTW, I am moving the GenreLand Book Club to The Storygraph, with a monthly video wrap-up on YouTube.  New members welcome! https://app.thestorygraph.com/book_clubs/5af2c11b-3fb1-42c2-983e-ba4771d780c9/forums.

Jim

The Almagest by Claudius Ptolemy (Edited with notes by William H. Donahue)

Ptolemy is the one who formalized the earth-centric universe theory, and invented epicycles to explain perturbations from theoretical predictions.  His view lasted over 1000 years, until Copernicus challenged it.  The Almagest ‘proves’ his theory with lots of math.  He also invented a form of trigonometry based on chords of a circle.  I always wanted to see the thinking behind the theory explained.  Fascinating!!!

Special and General Relativity by Albert Einstein

Einstein wrote this to explain the subject of relativity to non-scientists. He uses his talent for mental simulations to explain it all quite well!

The Way Out by Alan Gordon, LCSW

This outlies a process to get rid of chronic pain, which he classifies as of psychological origin: neuroplasticity. I used it successfully to get rid of my own chronic pain. Well worth reading

Doctor Who Classics

This is basically a comic book of really short stories.  It was great to visit with my favorite Doctor again.

The Greatest Science Stories Never Told by Rick Beyer

This book is about scientists who discovered amazing things but never got proper recognition in history.  Some amazing and surprising stories!

The Upanishads

A classic of Hindu religious scripture.  I read it every year or two to remind myself.

Another Monster at the End of This Book (Sesame Street) by Jon Stone

I got this book to read to my kids back in the 80’s and read it to my grandkids … with the proper voices, of course.  Elmo is afraid to turn the page and puts up increasing defenses, and Cookie Monster encourages him to keep turning the page.  By the end of the book, THEY are the monsters at the end of this book.  A joy to read over and over.

The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History by Ned Blackhawk

A history of America for the last 500 years, as told from a Native American perspective.  It was an eye opener!!!  Highly recommended.

Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume

A classic banned book, that I finally read.  Margaret is a teenager in a Christian/Jewish family who doesn’t know which God she should believe.  It was banned because of mention of her having a period.  She finally comes to a decision for herself.

Six by Seuss — Dr. Seuss (Author)

And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street
The 500 Hats of Barthalomew Cubbins
Horton Hatches the Egg
Yertle the Turtle
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
The Lorax

Kings, Queens, and In-Betweens by Tanya Boteju

A teenage girl (14) who has known since she was 8 years old that she was attracted to women accidentally wanders into a drag show and is entranced by the fabulous drag queens and kings.  She takes baby steps in learning about it and then at 18 jumps feet first into the culture.  She finally accepts herself as she is.

2150 A.D. by Thea Alexander

A man who is approaching the end of his Ph.D. process in psychology in 1976 goes to sleep and wakes up in the year 2150.  He finds a utopian society that works.  The world population is only 300 million, because natural disasters and continental shift killed most of the world’s population.  He is told that if he develops 3 psychic powers then he can remain in 2150.  He wakes up back in 1976 and tells his roommate all about it.  He finds that in his sleep he can go back there.  He develops telekinesis in 1976 and shows his roommate.  The book is about his journey to permanently transfer to 2150.  This was given to me by a friend in 1980, and I have read it many times since then.  I gives me hope that there really is a utopia that we can achieve.

The Art of Trader Joe’s by Julie Averback

Given to me by my son for Christmas this year.  The author previously did most of the book as her thesis for a degree in Art.  It shows how the various art around 150+ Trader Joe’s stores are intentional: they make the store a Closet of Curiosities and encourage shoppers to try new things that are not related to each other.  They use mainly Victorian art images because they are free of copyright restriction.  I must say that I will never look at the store the same way again.

The Hainish Cycle by Ursula K. Le Guin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hainish_Cycle

There is postulated a League of Worlds in the galaxy with over 80 member planets.

They have some interesting technology (as described below).

-        The ansible is a communication device that provides instant communication regardless of distance.

-        Faster Than Light ships (FTL) carrying only non-living materials and weapons of planetary destruction and can strike instantly.

-        Near light speed ships that travel near the speed of light.  Passengers only age a few months to years while their origin world ages centuries.

-        Mind speaking and mind hearing are skills common across the galaxy.

-        Mind razing erases all biographical memory leaving the victim an animal unable to speak or think.

Rocannon’s World by Ursula K. Le Guin

The protagonist, Gaveral Rocannon, returns to the planet Fomarlaut II to conduct a survey of Higher Intelligent Life Forms (HILFs).  He gets stranded when he is the sole survivor of his ship.  He encounters 3 different species.  His purpose is to beckon the League of Worlds to save the planet by destroying The Enemy.  He has to interact with all 3 species in his journey.

Planet of Exile by Ursula K. Le Guin

The story is set on Werel, the 3^rd planet of the Gamma Draconis star system.  The planet has an orbital period around its sun of 60 Earth years, so each season is about 15 years long. In addition to the various indigenous peoples, there is a small community of aliens who came on the ship Antares 23 generations ago.  People don’t reckon dates of birth, they are Summer-born, Autumn-born, etc.  At the beginning of each winter, a mass migration of the Gaal people head south until spring.  Normally they will travel in small bands or tribes, but this time, they travel together as a single mob — tens of thousands strong. They kill everyone in their path and grab all the food and resources that they can.  The story revolves around an unlikely encounter between an indigenous girl and an alien, and how they plan to survive the assault of the Gaal.

City of Illusions by Ursula K. Le Guin

This story takes place on Earth (now Terra) 1,200 years after an evil race of aliens called the Shing.  In normal mind speaking, it is impossible to lie because the mind speech bypasses any filters.  The Shing have learned to mind-lie. They are known for lying about everything and cannot be trusted.  A traveler from Werel lands on the planet after his ship is shot down, and his mind has been razed by the Shing.  He wanders out of the woods and is taken in by some natives.  As he grows up, he gets the feeling that his purpose is to go west to the Shing to discover his real identity.  He has a long journey and finally reaches their city.  He soon learns that he can’t trust anything.  They tell him that they have been looking for him for years so that they can send him and another survivor back to their home planet.  But they don’t know where it is, and he’s the navigator.  They really want to know where the planet is so they can destroy it.  Hijinks follow and the tale concludes with… ??

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

Book 4 of the Hainish Cycle

The story follows an alien from the League of Worlds who is scouting to see if this planet wants to become a new member.  He encounters one society which is ruled by a king with an iron fist and allows no freedom.  He encounters another society which is free, but people have their ID papers checked dozens of times per day.  The people on the planet Gethen are ambisexual — they are of no sex except for 5 days each month, when their body turns either male or female and goes into a rutting season of sex.  Their body gives no advance notice of which way it will go each time.  Consequently, there are no gender or class issues on the planet.  Even the King gets pregnant!  The main character, an alien Genly Ai, has many adventures between the two societies.

Brad (2025: 78/31,068; 2026: 6/1,184)

The Making of the Atomic Bomb: 25th Anniversary Edition by Richard Rhodes.  ***** at p. 1499

This book goes way beyond the making of the atomic bomb, delving into great detail all of the chemistry and physics breakthroughs in the 150 or so previous years that resulted in the bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima.  If you want to strictly learn about the Manhattan Project, I suggest reading Now It Can Be Told: The Story of the Manhattan Project, General Leslie R. Groves’ firsthand account of directing the development of the atomic bomb.

National Book Award (1987), 1988 Pulitzer Prize Winner in General Nonfiction (1988)

The Stars, Like Dust by Isaac Asimov.  *** at p. 243

There is a kid who is just about to graduate from university on earth, when he is told his father has been arrested for plotting against the Khan, ruler of an association of planets.  He is persuaded to skip graduation and leave Earth, but in all actuality is being led into a trap.  Lots more soap opera follows.

Asimov called it his “least favorite novel”, and I would have to agree.

Windigo Island (Cork O’Connor #14) by William Kent Krueger.  **** at p. 353

The body of young girl washes up on the shore of Windigo Island.  It turns out she was one of two girls that left town together and were never heard from again.  The parents of the other girl ask Cork to help find her.  It turns out that there is a big sex trafficking ring operating out of Duluth, taking advantage of young native American runaways.  I’d say that this is one of the toughest cases to solve Cork has ever worked on.

Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman, Robert Chandler (Translator).  **** at p. 906

A book judged so dangerous in the Soviet Union that not only the manuscript but the ribbons on which it had been typed were confiscated by the State when it was written in 1960.

Ernie Pyle wrote for Stars and Stripes during WWII.  Grossman was the Russian equivalent, writing for Red Star.  Life and Fate draws on much of what Grossman observed during the war, from the siege of Stalingrad to the breakout of Russian forces and their march towards Berlin.

59 Minutes: A Novel by Holly Seddon.  ** at p. 320

Good premise, bad book.  An alert goes out in England; nuclear weapons have been launched and will strike in 59 minutes.  The story pretty much goes downhill after that.  Very little of what happens is believable.  Don’t waste your 59 minutes reading this book.

Orphan X Short Stories

The List (Orphan X #5.5) by Gregg Hurwitz.  ***** at p. 49
The Intern (Orphan X #3.5) by Gregg Hurwitz.  *** at p. 16
Buy a Bullet (Orphan X #1.5) by Gregg Hurwitz.  ****at p. 16
Nemesis (Orphan X #10) by Gregg Hurwitz.  ***** at p. 456

Dang.  After Orphan X discovers the guns used to harm an innocent and kill him, Evan gets into it with his former ally and weapons supplier, Tommy.   There is much fussin’ and fightin’.  If he can no longer trust Tommy, who can he trust?

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder by David Grann.  **** at p. 327

I selected this to read because Grann wrote Killers of the Flower Moon, which he had well researched and well written.  Unusual combination.

Turns out this is not about gambling, but instead a story of survival on the high seas by the crew of an English vessel, The Wager, in search of a Spanish armada.  The book reminded me of another story about English castaways, Lord of the Flies, which I now wonder wasn’t inspired by this true story.

Goodreads Choice Award Winner for Readers’ Favorite History & Biography (2023)