Hi everyone. It's already time for my January book list. This past month I only listened to one very long book. And to make up for that long book listen, I read a few short ones. It was a good month for reading since it wasn't a big outdoor month. It was also a good month to visit many different places in the world through my book selection. 😏
My first listen for 2025 was this classic by James Michener. I actually have my mother's copy of this book (since Michener was one of her favorite authors), but it is very large, so I decided to keep the paper copy on my shelf and get an Audible edition to listen to. This book was originally published in 1959 just as Hawaii was becoming a new US state, and for a bit of useless trivia, was the book my mother read while she was pregnant with me. She always said it was her favorite book of all time. Because of that I've been wanting to read this novel for a long time, and January seemed like a good time to tackle all 51+ hours of listening.
Wow, what a book! As is typical in many of the author's other novels, he starts with the geology and the forming the Hawaiian Islands. He then moves onto stories about the people who first arrived to the Islands from Bora-Bora, one about a rather obnoxious New England missionary from the early 1800's, the arrival of the Chinese and then Japanese populations, the leper colony and the sugar plantations, the introduction of pineapples, and many more moments in the island's history. I also liked how he approached the events of Pearl Harbor in 1941, making it more of a Hawaii population event rather than only the military event.
The author creates some novels within the huge novel, each long enough to be a book on its own, each with some fictional and nonfictional characters living in each time frame in the island's history. To make it even more cohesive, the characters carry over so in many cases, you follow people through their lives and then onto their children's and grandchildren's lives. Those stories were fascinating. My one complaint about Michener in general is that his women were often portrayed through the eyes of a 1950's man and at times are a bit stereotypical of that era. It's not a negative view because he does create some strong women, but is a bit dated. Of course, to change any of that now would be to take away from this book which was, as I mentioned, published in 1959. You just have to go with it or not read the book.
Michener's chapters tend to be long which is good if you like the characters or too long if you don't. That was particularly true of the missionary one I mentioned earlier. That particular character had me rolling my eyes and commenting so many times I couldn't wait to finish that story, but in the big scheme of things, it was a strong part of the overall novel. However, as much as I couldn't stand this small minded character, Michener did make his point.
I'm not certain if all the historical information in this book is up to date, although it is based on actual recorded history. Michener did research his subjects, but since this book was published 66 years ago, and since it had to take the author some time to write the stories before that, those theories/histories might have have been modified or revamped.
This book was excellent, and even though I was ready to be done with this volume within a few hours of finishing it, I'm glad I took the 50+ hours to listen to it. There was an introduction by author Steve Berry that talked a bit about Michener's life and how he hooked a teenage Steve Berry to become a reader. That was partially true for me too, as I've read several of the author's novels when I was young after snagging them off my mother's bookshelf. In this intro, Steve Berry also mentioned how today people don't want to be taken on such long reading journeys, and I agree with him that its sad because this book, although very very long, was definitely a fantastic adventure.
I read a few actual books while listening to Hawaii, and since that was such a LONG book, I chose shorter books to actually read. The first one was the latest Inspector Galileo mystery from Keigo Higashino. Higashino is a Japanese author who writes several mysteries series, but this one is a police procedural set in Tokyo where a physics professor helps on the case. Chief Inspector Kusanagi is friends with the professor who is referred to as Inspector Galileo but is actually named Manabu Yukawa. Time has passed since this series began, (which the author does a great job subtly showing) and in this particular story, a man has been found shot and floating in the sea while his girlfriend has gone missing.
The missing girlfriend seems to have disappeared with a friend of her mother's, but since the story also begins with a baby being dropped off at an orphanage, there's lots of questions about who this friend of the mother's actually is. In fact the mother's friend is a children's author who writes science books, and she communicated with the professor before one of her books was published. This is the link that brings Yukawa into this story.
I thought this was one of the better books in this series. Maybe it was the biologist in me and the DNA connections. Maybe it was also that I didn't have to be convinced of an unusual but concocted way to commit murder (however much I loved those concoctions 👍). The story may not have as many unusual twists as the other books in this series, but it did have some twists and a few surprises too. I also like how the story has some non-linear segments too. Although this is book 5, I think you might be able to follow this story even if you haven't read the others in the series.
My next read was this easy to read little novel that had been sitting in a pile of books next to my bed for too long. It was a magical story that I thoroughly enjoyed. (Thank you whoever mentioned it a few years back; perhaps it was Jeanie or Mae.)
Suppose you were walking through a French vineyard one night back in 1954. The wine you've drunk is particularly good, and you're taking a bottle home with you. While you're walking you see a space ship in the sky. They've been reports of them all over France, and you decide not to drink that bottle of wine you were carrying. Perhaps it's your souvenir of that night in the vineyard when the skies were so busy.
The bottle sits unopened until your children take you to see Close Encounters of the Third Kind in a theater in 1977, and you recognize the space ship. When you get home, you'd decide it is time to share the bottle because obviously there is someone else who knows what you saw in the vineyard that night. This movie supports your story, or at least some of it. Then, a short time later, you and your dog disappear off the face of the earth.
This is how this novel begins, The story then jumps to 2017 to a building in Paris, where the grandson of the UFO seeing man has just bought a tiny apartment. He's quite taken by the woman who lives in the building and runs a repair shop on the ground floor. Plus there's the man who has spent his whole life living in the building his family built back around 1888, and there's an American who happens to be staying in one of the apartments that's an Air B&B type place. These 4 people become connected through a chance evening event, and they all share a bottle of this 1954 vintage that one of them discovered in the basement, the same vintage that the man was carrying and saved from the night of the UFO sighting. And the next morning, the 4 of these people find that everything has changed in so many ways.
I love that this book has romance, time travel, aliens, famous people and France all in just over 200 pages. It was an enjoyable read.
Natalie Goldberg has written many books, many (but not all) of them about the writing process. This book is one of those writing books that she wrote, and it was an enjoyable 200-ish page read that had me thinking. And yes, a writing process book can be an enjoyable read.
Goldberg sets up this book with short chapters, each on a topic about discovering yourself through writing. It is very auto-biographical and her writing style is flowing, loose and I'm guessing, quite honest. She talks about events in her life. Some are writing events and some are not, but those later events lead her to self discovery. Here and there she throws in something you could try to make your writing more authentic.
I didn't read this book with the purpose of improving my writing, but of course, I learned things by reading this book that I hope will add something.
This is NOT a textbook style book, but more about the journey. Goldberg adds her Buddhist views, her writing and painting knowledge as well as her travels to put together a good read. I've read a few other books by this author that I enjoyed, including her art book, Living in Color. I should really give that book a reread as it would be a good way to inject a little novelty in my art journaling.
Until Thy Wrath Be Past is book 4 in Rebecka Martinsson mystery series. This series is set in far northern Sweden. Rebecka is a lawyer/district prosecutor who in this book, works closely with the police, especially with the head inspector Anna-Marie Mella. Both characters were in the other 3 earlier books of this series.
This book starts off with a frightening intro to the story. You meet the victims and read through their eyes how they died. Then one victim becomes a ghost, visiting characters throughout the book. When I write that it sounds like it could be a cute addition, but there is nothing cute about this book. This book is dark and at times bluntly frightening.
One thing I found very interesting about this mystery is the story of a WW2 German plane that crashed into a lake and how that ties into the neutrality of Sweden during that war. I didn't realize there was so much German activity happening in (at least) northern Sweden, and this information plays an important part in this book's story and deaths.
I had to take a break before going onto book 5 in this series as this book could be intense, but it was a very good story. And if you’re interested I think it would be better read the first 3 stories in this series before this one although this is a recommended mystery.
Mozart's Starling by Lyanda Kynn Haupt is a relatively short read that combines history, bird lore and research along with the story of Carmen, a starling that the author pulled out of a nest as a tiny infant to raise. The nest was due to be destroyed because starlings are often considered a major invasive pest in many cities.
Besides describing Carmen's life and growth, the author tells us about the famous composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and a pet starling he had called Star. I didn't know starlings were such fantastic mimics, nor did I know much about starling behavior. I enjoyed that part of the book. I also enjoyed the connection to Mozart, since I didn't know much about his life either.
Not living in a highly populated area, I wasn't familiar with the problems huge flocks of starlings create in the US. They are not native species, and many consider them pests that should be destroyed without discretion. What merit is in this belief I don't know, but the author does include some information to dispute that statement, as well as including some information to support it. It's interesting that adding trees and woodland to the environment seems to keep starling numbers down, which is what I see in my yard. I only get a couple of these birds every now and again. And after reading this volume, I do have more appreciation for what kind of birds they are.
I enjoyed this book. There were parts I found more interesting than others and parts I wish were longer, but the overall length of the book was just enough on the subject without turning it into a scientific treatise. I loved that it included photos, and it is indexed.
My next book, Overland Before the Hippie Trail, was a great little treasure that came up in my Amazon recommendations. I'm glad I took a chance on it. (I mean, who could resist that title?)
The author was a new bride in 1965. She and her husband had decided to head to Europe where hopefully he could pick up some teaching jobs so they could live and travel around the continent. During their time overseas she kept journals, which were later packed away in a box. In the 2010's she was cleaning and pulled them out, deciding that she should write something for her family to have. Then came 2020 and COVID. With time on her hands, Sullivan decided to take her family book and rewrite it for general publication.
You can tell by the title that their journey became more than just visiting Europe. They ended up headed east right through much of central and southern Asia before ending up in Japan.
And if you’re looking for travel tips, I doubt this book would do you much good since politically and even geographically places have changed. As the author states, when she was in Jordan the West Bank was part of that country and now we know it is a part of Israel. However, if you enjoy vintage travel tales and visions of what the world was in 1965 and 1966 (a much bigger place than today) then you might enjoy this read. I found it fascinating, and wow, what a journey Patricia and her husband Mick went on.
I also like how the author gives us quick glimpses into this couples life after the big trip, including some of their later travels. I wondered through much of the book what they did with the rest of their lives after completing such an immense and fascinating journey while in their 20’s, and the author satisfied that question with a postscript.
For my last book of the month I went back to another Rebecka Martinsson mystery. This volume is book 5 out of the 6 in this series. Like book 4 which I mentioned earlier in this post, this book starts with another scary scene, this time a large and angry bear. And this book is also set in far Northern Sweden, above the Arctic Circle.
In this story an older woman is murdered. The story also ties back to this woman's grandmother who came north to the "new community of Kiruna back just before the First World War. The Kiruna area is where this series is mostly set, and I learned how this city was built in the early part of the 20th century because of a large iron ore mine. I also learned how even to this day, because of the mine, the city is being moved.
Prosecutor Rebecka Martinsson has been taken off this murder case, but all of the police detectives and other people you meet in the earlier books are here. Martinsson is also here, and even though she's off the case, she's still involved unofficially. Like the last book, I like how this one is not only the modern story but the historical murder too. And like the last book, it is NOT a cozy mystery. I didn't figure out who the murderer ended up being either, and the twist towards the end of the book pulled of the both stories together.
As you can see, January was a good book month, especially with the cold and being inside so much. And since I wasn't going many places, I'm glad my reading took me away. As always, if you have any recommendations, I'd love them, and thanks (in advance) for telling me about them.
