I was keen to get my hands on this book.

The author won the 2020 Hugo Award for her debut novel A Memory Called Empire (2019).

Arkady Martine is the pen name of AnnaLinden Weller, a historian and city planner in New Mexico.

AnnaLinden was a SciFi geek from a young age. A big reader too.

The book starts well.

A young female ambassador is sent from tiny Lsel Station to the home planet of the Teixcalaanli Empire.

She’s a fish-out-of-water. Unsophisticated. But with a secret technology.

I was hooked.

But about half way through I was tempted to give up. The palace intrigue not intriguing enough for me.

Not enough action.

Most people love this book. I made it through. But I won’t continue with the inevitable sequel.

related – The Verge – A Memory Called Empire is a brilliant blend of cyberpunk, space opera, and political thriller

Excellent. 

Based on a true story. 

Tom Holland will play the lead in the Hollywood movie adaptation.

For some reason I’d never thought about Italy during WW II — before reading this book.

Pino Lella wants nothing to do with the war or the Nazis. He’s a normal Italian teenager—obsessed with music, food, and girls—but his days of innocence are numbered. When his family home in Milan is destroyed by Allied bombs, Pino joins an underground railroad helping Jews escape over the Alps, and falls for Anna, a beautiful widow six years his senior.

In an attempt to protect him, Pino’s parents force him to enlist as a German soldier—a move they think will keep him out of combat. But after Pino is injured, he is recruited at the tender age of eighteen to become the personal driver for Adolf Hitler’s left hand in Italy, General Hans Leyers, one of the Third Reich’s most mysterious and powerful commanders.

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Tana French is widely considered one of the best murder mystery writers. No surprise, she lives in Dublin.

The Searcher (2020) — her 8th book — did surprise me in many ways.

Released immediately before COVID-19 lockdowns, it has an upbeat ending. Twists and turns. Kept me focused right to the last page.

French said it was a traditional Western updated for modern rural Ireland.

I’d recommend the audio version so you can enjoy the many Irish dialects.

After twenty-five years in the Chicago police force and a bruising divorce, Cal Hooper just wants to build a new life in a pretty spot with a good pub where nothing much happens.

But when a local kid whose brother has gone missing arm-twists him into investigating, Cal uncovers layers of darkness beneath his picturesque retreat, and starts to realize that even small towns shelter dangerous secrets.

The 3rd book in the Odd series is not quite as compelling as the first two. But I’ll continue on to #4.

I’m no fan of horror. But like the humour. The banter. The philosophy.

Easy reading.

Odd Thomas has been a guest at St. Bartholomew’s Abbey, where he hopes to seek peace and understanding. …

Rodion Romanovich, the abbey’s other guest, is an excellent character. He steals every scene.

Brother Knuckles, former mafia goomba is somehow now a monk. Also entertaining.