Books Read: November 2022

Fall arrived in earnest at the beginning of the month, with the warm afternoons ending and a week of rain that was very welcome. This week winter should arrive, tonight in fact, with possible snow at our house, we’ll see if that really happens or not. But the darker days and the cooler weather meant that I did read a bit, but I also watched a lot of things, so didn’t read as much as I do when I sit outside in the summer sun reading and watching wildlife. We’re heading for the end of 2022 and I’m contemplating a reading goal for 2023, maybe reading something that is long and difficult, giving myself the year to do it? We’ll see.

Force of Nature

Another Jane Harper thriller with Aaron Falk investigating and it didn’t disappoint. Falk’s investigation is related to the incident which drives the book, as women who work together go on a 3 day camping and hiking weekend as part of a work event. But of course things don’t go as planned and as the book jumps between current events and the past, you learn more and more about what’s really going on, both with each woman in their personal life and with the company as a whole.

Wanderlust: A History of Walking

I’m a walker, it’s by far my favorite form of exercise. I’ve walked all around my small town and neighborhood and I use walking not just for exercise by as a form of transportation, often running errands as I walk and check out my town. When I saw Rebecca Solnit had written about walking I knew I had to read this book and I’m so glad I did. She starts with anthropology and works through history and through movements, ending with the fact that in many places we’ve made it physically hard to walk. If you, like me, like to walk and look around and see what’s going on, this book is for you.

March

Geraldine Brooks takes the part of Little Women we know nothing about, the story of Mr. March as he’s off at war, and creates a great novel. It took me about a hundred pages to really get into this story, but once it grabbed me I could hardly put it down. March goes to war to be a chaplain and finds out so much more about his own story and the story of people he encountered long ago. And, in many ways, we learn a lot about Marmee too. I’ve no idea what Alcott would think of this book, but I loved it.

Thunderstruck

Erik Larson is now one of my favorite non fiction authors around. He finds stories that you know nothing about but they’re absolutely fascinating. In this book he weaves the story of a man working to make wireless telegraphy work across the Atlantic with the story of a doctor in a bad marriage. I know, you’re thinking, really? But it works so well and each story is a fascinating look at the times in which they lived (the beginning of the 20th century). And it was also an interesting time to be reading about someone trying to make connections between people faster via a network with all that’s been happening lately.