Robert Galbraith, Lethal White

I really don't know much about mysteries and so am no authority on British mysteries for sure, but as the old Genesis song says, I know what I like and I really, really like J.K. Rowling writing as Robert Galbraith. I've read each of the Cormoran Strike mysteries and they are all a great ride. I just finished Lethal White five minute ago and am already thinking about re-reading the three previous books starting tomorrow and then re-reading Lethal White.

If nothing else, maybe this time I would be able to put two and two together. Though, in fairness, given the complexity especially of Lethal White it's more like putting the limit as x approaches infinity of the quantity one plus one over x all raised to the power of x together with...well, you get the idea, it's complicated.

That complication didn't bother me one bit as I read, racing through the last three hundred pages (and not just because my wife was desperate to get her hands on the book). I was never going to guess the killer or the motive or really understand things even after all was revealed, but none of that matters because I love the characters of Robin and Cormoran and now Sam Barclay. Mostly it's Robin I find enthralling and so very real.

Rowling is brilliant. There is no doubt she's one of the great writers working today. I am simply amazed at her talents and, as it was between Harry Potter books, can't believe that I will now have to wait years for the next installment. I might survive, but it won't be pleasant waiting.

Stephen King, Elevation

It's one of those books you can read in a day, in a single sitting if you like. At 146 small pages it just goes by like a long short story or a novella, whatever you like to call it. And it's a good Stephen King, especially for someone like me who is too dainty for horror stories and doesn't enjoy gore. Like Rita Hayworth And Shawshank Redemption or The Body, this is just good storytelling, a yarn, something I followed from beginning to end gladly, hungrily.

If Stephen King isn't one of our best writers he is most certainly one of our best storytellers. Writing that down, I have to say that I think King a very good writer and I admire how prolific he is, how successful he has been, and how generous he seems to other writers and people like me who wish to become writers. I bet I would like talking with him. Actually, I'd prefer to just listen to him. Yeah, I should just listen and learn. He'd have plenty to teach me.

Elevation is the story of a man who is losing weight but not getting any smaller. It's a weird tale, almost comic book in nature but maybe more like those great old science fiction movies of the fifties. And here's what King does: he makes it all seem normal and he gets at what it might be like to be that character. Where those old movies couldn't be bothered with character because they were too stuck on their gimmick (a fifty-foot tall woman or a giant blob for instance), King allows the character to make the whole thing feel real.

There were times in the last forty pages when I felt like he was trying too hard and at least once a piece of dialogue landed like bird shit on my head, but these are small things and this was a small book that I imagine came together fast. (As did this review.) Yarns aren't perfect. This isn't trying to be Literature (said with a musty accent). It's a story. A damn good one. And told by someone who is a master of the craft.

Just go read it. You'll have a good time. It's a light tale that won't take long to get through. I feel lighter already.

2018 Top Rereads

Following up on my list of best first-time reads of 2018, here are the best books I've returned to this year. These are books that not only survive multiple readings but become richer on repeated reads.

1. Austin Kleon, Show Your Work. This is why I started bgfay.com and the newsletter

2. Rick Bass, Winter. There’s nothing I’ve read quite like this book. I read it in summer and kept thinking, like Bass, I’ve got to stockpile more firewood.

3. Linda Cline, The Ghost Of Cramer's Island. I read this for the first time in 3rd grade. It has been years since I reread it and it still feels great. Better than Where The Red Fern Grows.

4. Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without A Country. Thank goodness Vonnegut only had George W. Bush as the worst president in his life. He might have killed himself if he saw who we have now.

5. Christopher McDougall, Born To Run. People think it’s just a barefoot running book. It’s hardly that. McDougall has written a nonfiction thriller as good as anything I’ve ever read.

6. Stephen King, On Writing. Anyone who thinks Stephen King isn’t a brilliant writer hasn’t read this. Great memoir and good advice for writers. This keeps me writing. I read it once a year.

7. Annie Dillard, The Writing Life. I forgot what a poet Dillard is. I wanted to copy huge sections out of this. The word lyrical may have been coined to describe this book.

8. J.K. Rowling, The Harry Potter Series. Every summer my daughter and I each reread these books. I never tire of them and they shine as bright as they ever have. Rowling is supremely gifted.

2018 Top New (To Me) Books

My 2018 top-ten list of new (to me) books ended up being eleven. Oh well. These are listed in the order that I read them. All eleven are nonfiction. That sounds about right for me.

1. Damon Krukowski, The New Analog. This confirmed what I’ve felt about turntables and taught me the value of signal and noise.

2. Alan Jacobs, How To Think. This really got me thinking about how to think. That’s not something most books do for me.

3. Alan Lightman, Searching For Stars On An Island In Maine. Lightman deftly showed how faith and logic can live together, how religion and science intersect. It's quite a high-wire act.

4. Jaron Lanier, Ten Arguments For Deleting All Your Social Media Accounts Right Now. Technology companies are using me. This book convinced me to delete my long-held Facebook and Twitter accounts. I'm quitting Amazon but won't ever quit Google.

5. Richard Russo, The Destiny Thief. Russo's prose is as good as anyone writing today or yesterday. I wish he wrote more essays. I’ll reread this book someday soon.

6. Hans Rosling, Factuflness. My friend Laurie begged me to read this. Now I beg everyone else to read it. It turned me around. One of the most important books of this new century.

7. Chris Offutt, My Father The Pornographer. The best memoir I’ve read in a couple years. It's difficult to get through because of who and how his father was. The prose is lyrical. This is a writer’s writer but the book is for everyone.

8. David Sedaris, Calypso. Sedaris is the humorist of our times, which is a weightier mantle than that of comedian. He's also one of the best writers I've read.

9. Stephen Kuusisto, Have Dog, Will Travel. How is this not on every Best of 2018 list? Kuusisto is an honest to God poet and his prose is infused with both poetry and his vision of being a blind man in a sighted world.

10. Deborah Levy, The Cost Of Living. No book stuck with me more. Levy’s style is brilliant, forceful, spare, and so far beyond my abilities I almost want to cry but that would get in the way of reading more of her stuff.

11. Kristi Coulter, Nothing Good Can Come From This. I love this. Her mix of humor and honesty raise the book beyond the typical alcoholic's memoir. I can’t wait to read what she does for a second book.

Next up: 2018 Top Re-Reads