I finished Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane, which was an enjoyable read. He’s a great writer and a great plotter. This book is very much in the vein of what he does, but he changed the perspective around and it works. It isn’t his best book, but it’s refreshing.

I started The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. I’ve never read anything by him before but I’ve always heard about this book. Finally picked it up, and it’s very early going, but I love what I’ve read so far. I’m going to end up having more to say about this book.

I’m listening to The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. I read it in hardcover sometime not that long after it came out, but it’s fun revisiting it. I remember the writing differently than it sounds.

Please Look After Mother by Kyung-Sook Shin. Finding it a little slow right now but I heard it’s an emotional read so i’m willing to stick with it.

I just gave up on Lily and the Octopus (by Steven Rowley) and had to give up on it half way through. It’s about a guy who’s dog is getting old and has cancer. He calls the tumor on her head an octopus. And he acts like it’s a real octopus, and maybe he can convince it to leave and go back to the ocean. No one else sees it this way, but it’s not clear whether the MC is nuts, or if this is just supposed to be a cute twist of reality. But at one point he slaps the octopus, and since hes’ already unlikable and I can’t tell if he just straight-up smacked his sick dog, I cannot continue.

I’m re-reading “The Many Coloured Land” by Julian May (an amazing sci-fi series), highly recommended

Just started The End of Loneliness after giving up on my third attempt at Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring. Time to admit my love for fantasy novels in my early teens didn’t follow me into adulthood.