A round-up of my January reading. The Spy and the Traitor and Thinking in Systems were this month’s stand-outs.
- The Spy and the Traitor — This reads like a spy novel, in that it’s hard to believe the events described really happened. But they did! Anyway, it is so, so compelling, and if you are at all interested by the phrase ‘Russian double agent,’ you should clear your calendar and read it.
- Squeeze Me — an absurdist novel that pokes fun at Trumpian and Floridian excess. There are pythons. I think too much Trump for my liking.
- A Great Reckoning — I’m working my way through Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache mysteries in order. This was #12, and the inspector is in charge of the student academy so we don’t get as much of Three Pines as we normally do. Neither my favourite nor my least favourite instalment in the series.
- Where the Crawdads Sing — A recommendation from my sister, this was a very compelling piece of fiction. Part mystery, part coming-of-age story, all page turner.
- The Likeness — The second book in Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad series. The premise was a bit too implausible for me to enjoy it as much as the first one (In the Woods), and I found it perhaps a bit over-long. But overall a stellar murder mystery.
- Thinking in Systems — I’m working on a longer review of this book, because it was just so compelling. I originally picked it up as a ‘professional’ book, but it has such a marvellous combination of philosophy and pragmatism that I think it will be interesting to anyone who thinks about interconnections in the world and what that means for moving ahead.
