The good: telling the mystery from the perspective of a black maid, the type of person who is underestimated by genteel white society. Exposes racism and black life in a way most crime fiction I've read does not.

The bad: I still don't understand how major parts of the conspiracy fit. More than one what, what, huh?

I'm about a quarter through this now. I generally prefer books to introduce the central conflict or situation early, and it doesn't feel like it's gotten to the point of the story yet. So this may not be my thing.

A decent police procedural, and I'm glad Gerritsen did not dwell on psychological terror this time around.

Got some reading in for the first time in weeks. I am probably going to stick to easy reading for the duration of this soft quarantine.

Got this from the Tor free book of the month list a while ago. Palwick is an amazing writer. Het book Mending The Moon is one of the few I've ever read that gets the complexity of grief. So now I'm starting on this one, which appears to be fantasy.

I got a Crosstime Traffic book free about a decade ago and never started it. Thought i would pull something off the pile that I've been putting off.

But... I had no idea this was YA. And it comes across as badly written YA. Everything is explained in the most didactic way possible, as if told by an adult who thinks young people are dumb.

Bailed less than a chapter in. 🤬🤬🤬

It's a pretty typical police procedural, but i like them when done competently. Also has a decent dose of feminism, though it's mostly Feminism 101 level stuff.

One of these days i need to find a police procedural series that centers regular everyday murders, not convoluted serial killings. No idea if that exists.

Three MB does not have that much detail!!

I'd forgotten this book has feminist commentary such as this bit. Also had a bit a couple pages ago on cops being control freaks in a way that pulls back the curtain a little on some of the seedier aspects of cop culture.

A reread, which i don't tend to do much of because there's too many good books out there that i haven't read. I read this maybe a decade ago and don't have much recollection.

Low-stakes near-future techno-thriller based on machinations between governments that run 100,000 person mini-states right before a decennial election. Ken works for one of them that is hoping to have a chance at the Supermajority (i.e., running the most mini-states). Mishima works for Information, the non-partisan technocratic organization that conducts elections & disseminates information. They team up to counter the bad guys & have sex.

I see why people like Jon Ronson now, though this feels way more like a radio program than a book in audio form. I'll have to think about whether I want to count Audible Originals as books in my totals.

Ronson & his producers investigate the death by suicide of porn star August Ames. Her husband blames bullying in the porn industry. The porn industry blames her controlling husband. Ronson weaves a nice story with a complicated conclusion.

My plan is to read the rest of the evening. Unless i get tired, i should finish Infomocracy tonight.

Infomocracy is finally getting a little interesting.

There's a natural disaster and some political intrigue and some people sexing each other.

Porn star tweets something homophobic. Twitter gets mad. Porn star dies by suicide. Jon Ronson interviews husband, who has decided that “social justice warriors“ are bad.

So I'm 7 minutes into this short original, and already I dislike everyone except Jon Ronson. I've heard good things about Ronson, so hopefully he pulls this one out of the trash fire.

Let's finish this audiobook off while I work this afternoon. It's been a slog. Started off great, but when Baru Cormorant hits the “traitor“ part, the whole thing becomes a giant cross of Risk and palace intrigue, and boring as hell.

It feels like something is about to happen finally. There was a little bit of intrigue between different governments the last time.

Bedtime reading.

The last few in this book have been boring. This one is better. A detective interviews a boarder in a house where the husband murdered his wife with an axe. The boarder claims he knew the murder would happen for a month.

Getting some reading in at bedtime. Gotta be up early to watch soccer.

Infomocracy is about a future where governments rule areas with exactly 100000 people, and there's a few thousand parties that run. Doesn't seem like a 2nd place party gets a say in each "centenal" but i am not far enough in to grok the complete setup. There's some political chicanery afoot, but it's too early to tell what or to care much.

My Sounders team scarf (and season tickets) came today, so I'm wearing it and starting chapter 3.

I wasn't aware that Dickens wrote any detective stories. I don't think it's very good tho.

Most of the stories so far, excepting the first, just aren't all that dastardly. This one isn't very dastardly.

Starting the next book. I've heard good things about this one.

What if the writer thinks affirmative action is stupid so he writes a story about AA in the mob?

The preview chapter means I'm done with the book!

A fine, if uncomplicated, crime novel where the hero is ultra-competent. Everything fits together. No false leads. Just lots and lots of plot.

First time I've ever thought to look up "lugubrious". I thought it meant some sort of jolly.

Plot twist in last night's reading! Dun dun dun...

Chewing through Killing Floor like it's perfectly cooked bacon.

Annoying sendup of Sherlock Holmes or annoying homage to Sherlock Holmes, i am not sure which.

One story before bed is a sendup of Sherlock Holmes by J. M. Barrie. It reminds me a lot of Nick Mamatas' Twitter trolling.

Next novel up is Killing Floor. Trying to incorporate a few more straight up fun books in the mix not just stuff I'll like on a deeper level but take more thought.

Reading over lunch. Thomas Jones has a great book called Mastering Genealogical Proof.

New book for the stack. I have mixed feelings about Ms. Mills', but she's one of the smartest people in genealogy today and has advanced professional methods more than just about anyone in the field. This is the new edition of *the* reference work.

Detective Thinlock Bones annoyingly interrupts everyone to demonstrate his superior ability to predict what someone is about to say.

Robert St. Timon and his father want to bilk a rich widow out of her money, but the plan goes awry and St. Timon is there to find out from Bones why.

Hate every character in all 3 pages of this story. Burn them all in a firey pit.

The book starts off confusing, then gets interesting, then gets boring at the end, to the point where I just didn't care what happened. There's such a thing as too imaginative for me, and that's how it ends, like a young child telling a story but losing all grounding. The middle is great though, and makes sense of the confusing part at the beginning! If you're cool with wild, unmoored endings, this will be a pick for you.

In the home stretch!

I only got a few pages read last time. Then i was drowsy. Getting an earlier start tonight.

The plot is starting to make sense now. Maybe? I think?

The first story According To Plan by Ray Darby is a great 4 page noir-ish murder. Adventure of the Baritone Singer by George Barton has three versions of the murder: what the young lady saw, what the young man did, and the truth. And the truth is boring.

A little audiobooking while folding laundry tonight. I'm not really enjoying this one any more, but I'm close to the end so finish it I will.

New plan! Read one story from this most nights at bedtime. Each story is very short.

Reading in bed tonight.

Bookly predicts about 6 hours. Kobo says 3 hours. Kobo is taking good drugs.

Back reading at Polar Bar for semi-social reading night

What to do when you are waiting for Iowa caucus results. Read.

Is it aliens?

Booting up The Three-Body Problem.

I didn't get to read last night because i attended a community meeting. 29 of 31 days in January is pretty good tho.

Reading at Polar Bar tonight, like most Wednesdays. Luckily, no shootings this week to interrupt the trip here.

If a work of fiction mentions a web site, I'm gonna check it out. Sadly, no functioning web site.

The Kobo estimate of time-to-finish is always wildly optimistic.

Bookly's estimate is 8½ hours.