Switzy by Emma Cline

This was a difficult read, and that is at least partly due to the subject at hand. The main character, David, is a former business executive who was good at what he did, successful and it seems also trsuted, who has made a monumental business error, and one that he cannot quite remember the exact details of. He has what seems to be a rapidly progressing dementia, more like Lewy Body dementia that Alzheimers, and he has a care taker whose job is to keep him more or less out of trouble. It is not a 24/7/365 kind of situation, but when left to his own devices, David gets into trouble, and he cannot see his way out of it once he is there. David has elected to go to Switzerland to have euthanasia, which I know from reading Amy Bloom's memoir In Love that you have to be cognizant enough to be able to consent to the procedure. It is expensive but allows for death before all dignity is lost. David is on a farewell tour before his final act, where he first meets with his estranged daughter--she is unaware of his illness, and is encouraging to continue in work. They lack a connection, and it seems that the feelings are mutually distant. Then he meets briefly with a childhood friend who he wronged, or at least who he did not stand up for, and he wants to apologize to him, which he does. The friend has long ago forgiven him and is quite puzzled by his visit--as was I. Perhaps in the throes of forgetting the present we are haunted by past wrongs, but in any case this meet up ends with a wimper rather than a roar. The book is all told through David, so there is a fair amount of forgetting and confusion, a failure to read the social cues, and also a feeling that while he grasps what he is about to do, he is not altogether with it. The people around him back away from his confusion rather than correcting him. and it is also quite clear that this is a rich man's exit, one that is not available to most of us. It was long listed for the Booker prize, and is very much in keeping with what you might routinely find in books with that recognition. It is well written, off beat, and unusual.

Litt Kaos, Drammen, Norway

We arrived in Oslo in the early evening after a long travel day with a stop over in Franfurt. We wanted to stay outside the city, but not drive too too far that first night, and Drammen was perfect. This restaurant was a nice first meal--we had the fixed proce menu, which included a charcuterie board and five small dishes to share, and the food was well prepared and swiftly served, which suited us well. The restaurant was hopping on a Saturday night, with a couple of tables occupied when we arrived and while we ate the restaurant filled up. We each had a beer, which was pricy and also wise because the legal limit for alcohol in Norway is .02, one of the lowest in the world, and basically even one beer might be pushing it--we looked this up after we had made this choice, and decided that for the rest of the trip we would either drink or drive but not both. We stayed at a new Thon hotel, which was very nice if hard to find, with excellent parking, but it wasn't especially near the downtown area, and we were fortunate that for the rest of the trip we were mostly in a place where we did not have to drive after dinner. I would recommend this as both affordable (for Norway, where it is very challenging to eat out for less than $50 a person) and good.

Wide Sargasso Sea bu Jean Rhys

This is a Parnassus Book recommendation, and I felt slightly handicapped reading it, having not read the book which it spins off from. It is a retelling of Jane Eyre from the point of view of Mr Rochester’s first wife – the mad woman in the attic. This is an imagining of what happened to her, how she ended up with Mr. Rochester, and what went terribly wrong. The settung is Jamaica in the 1830’s, and it starts with the disturbing childhood of Antoinette (Bertha) Cosway. White descendants of slave owners, Antoinette’s family is initially impoverished after emancipation until her mother remarries. Her stepfather sets Antoinette up with a decent fortune to attract a young Englishman and the majority of the novel focusses on the deterioration of her marriage during their honeymoon--and then he puts it all in his son-in-law's hands "because I trust him". Her mother questioned the wisdom of that, leaving her daughter at her husband's command rather than retaining some control of her personal fortune, and that is the moral of the story as far as I am concerned. Never give up control of your purse strings, especially if it is not required. This is the book that revived Rhys' career, and it is an idea I would like to see pursued more often--it is common with Austen novels in every possible way, which I happen to love--and would like to see something similar with other classics.

The Mandalorian and Gorgu (2026)

I watched this on an airplane, which is clearly not showing it off to it's cinematic best, bit is it also a venue where I tend to be pretty forgiving. Not so this time. I have unexpectedly loved both Mando and Grogu. finding them individually and collectively charming. Not so in this rendition, and while there is not much about this that is substantively different than the series, I really loved those. Perhaps it is the length of the plot line, watching it all at once rather than in shorter bits. In any case, while I certainly wouldn't steer a fan away from this, it was darker and nowhere near as enjoyable as I have found this couple to be in the past.

The Poisoned King by Katherine Rundell

I loved this second installment in the Impossible Creatures series, maybe more than the first because I knew what I was getting in to and I wasn't disappointed. Christopher Forrester is unexpectedly woken by Jacque, a small dragon chewing on his face, and his heart leaps for joy. For months he’s dreamed of returning to the Archipelago – the secret islands where all the creatures of myth still live. Jacque has an urgent message to return because the dragons are dying. Christopher, as heir-to-the-protector (his grandfather is the current one) immediately leaves his home in London and dashes off to Scotland to enter the portal near his grandfather’s home. Anya, granddaughter to the titular king, is on the run from the villain who not only killed the king but framed Anya’s father for the murder. Teaming up, the only question is which problem Christopher and Anya should tackle first – save the dying dragons or rescue Anya’s father, facing execution for a crime he did not commit. The story is also about loyalty, greed, friendship, courage and fear, all themes that middle schoolers are already well versed in, and still enjoyable for those of us well beyond that point. The story is encased in immersive prose and a fascinating world and I eagerly await the next one.

The Norwegian Breakfast

It had been far too long since we have been in a Scandanavian country--so long that I had forgotten how much I loved the breakfasts. I booked rooms with breakfast included because I did remember just how expensive food is, especially food that people prepare for you. I am not exactly sure why that would be, but my hypothesis is that they pay people living wages and that translates into higher prices in restaurants. In any case, while I am not usually a big fan of breakfast, I chose that option because the hotels that included it were not more expensive than those that do not, so maximizing our value without a clear diminusion in sleeping arrangements. I am not one to overpay on hotel--even if we spend time in the room when we are awake, we pack lightly and can always make due. Well, our very first morning (at a Thon hotel, which is a chain in Norway, and it was a spectacular introduction. There was lots of everything--cheese and charcuterie, breads and pastries, fruit and yogurt and nuts, a large hot food buffet, and coffee and juice. We only had one morning on our trip where we needed to get up and go, so each morning other than that one we had a leisurely and gradual start to the day that held us until an early dinner.

Maggie; Or A Man And A Woman Walk Into A Bar by Katie Yee

Wow, just wow. There is an awful lot of emotional baggage to unpack here. First of all the title seems unnecessarily lengthy and obscure. But that is easily explained. A man and a woman walk into a restaurant. The woman expects a lovely night filled with delicious food and merriment. Instead, she finds out her husband is having an affair with a woman named Maggie. A short while after, her chest starts to ache--she initially delays investigating it, even though her mother had breast cancer at a young age. She eventually walks into an examination room, where she finds out the pain in her breast is indeed cancer. She decides to call the tumor Maggie. Unfolding in fragments over the course of the ensuing months, the narrator embarks on a journey of grief, healing, and reclamation. She overgenerously creates a “Guide to My Husband: A User’s Manual” for Maggie (the other woman, not her tumor), a somewhat sardonic accounting of her soon-to-be ex-husband’s whims and quirks. She turns her children’s bedtime stories into retellings of Chinese folklore passed down by her own mother, in an attempt to make them fall in love with their shared culture—and to maybe save herself in the process. This is well written, concise, and emotionally laden in a good way--the thing I found irritating is that she does what she can to spare her husband in all ways. She hides her cancer diagnosis and spares him from being the guy who leaves his spouse when she is facing a life threatening diagnosis. She also agrees to stay in their house, which locks her in to being constantly reminded of her previous life rather than getting to start over. So I was irritated throughout.

Remember by Joy Harjo

Remember the sky that you were born under, know each of the star’s stories. Remember the moon, know who she is. Remember the sun’s birth at dawn, that is the strongest point of time. Remember sundown and the giving away to night. Remember your birth, how your mother struggled to give you form and breath. You are evidence of her life, and her mother’s, and hers. Remember your father. He is your life, also. Remember the earth whose skin you are: red earth, black earth, yellow earth, white earth brown earth, we are earth. Remember the plants, trees, animal life who all have their tribes, their families, their histories, too. Talk to them, listen to them. They are alive poems. Remember the wind. Remember her voice. She knows the origin of this universe. Remember you are all people and all people are you. Remember you are this universe and this universe is you. Remember all is in motion, is growing, is you. Remember language comes from this. Remember the dance language is, that life is. Remember.

Daughters of the Sun and Moon by Lisa See

The depth of racism in America is what is on offer here, as well as the deep and wide exploitation of women. If either of these things are anathema to you, skip this book. I have independent of this book been reading banned books, and this has a lot of elements that lead to getting on those lists—it negates the message that the United States is a country of equality, where all are treated equally, but where white men are superior. This takes place in a frontier town and follow three different women, all from China coming to AMerica hoping for something better and basically not finding it, but on different paths until they land in the same boat. They are: • Dove: The innocent, bound-footed daughter of an imperial scholar who arrives to marry an older merchant. • Petal: A peasant’s daughter with unbound feet who is sold into indentured servitude and sex work. • Moon: An educated, English-speaking beauty married to a traditional Chinese medicine doctor, carrying a limp from a failed childhood foot-binding So they come from wildly different backgrounds but they end up in much the same situation—which they provide support for each other. I like this author and she has a large body of work that is aimed at better understanding cultural backgrounds and what the différences are.

Project Hail Mary (2026)

I really liked the book--which I would never have picked up on my own, but did so on the strength of it being on Obama's reecommended reading list, which is a relable source and often features books that I would otherwise have missed. The movie was more of a stretch for me--and I love Ryan Gosling, but felt that the movie was strongest when it flashed back to before he was rocketing through space trying to save the sun. The story goes that Dr. Ryland Grace travels through space alone toward a distant star that he hopes holds the key to saving life on Earth. Along the way, however, he meets a surprising extraterrestrial being whose world is under threat as well. Their journey makes the expected visual nods to sci-fi classics and attempts to offer some blockbuster spectacle. But the harder the film tries, the more one feels pulled along rather than effortlessly transported. Much like with all space movies, there just isn't a whole lot to do there, and it is less riveting for me (the exception being Apollo 11, where they are doing quite a lot)--but I especially enjoyed seeing Sandrs Huller again--she made quite the showing in films that rose to award level attention a couple years ago and hope we see more of her. This is good but not great in my estimation.