Wave - reading

Finished "Wave" by Sonali Deraniyagala. This book is about a Sri Lankan woman who lost her family - her husband, her two young sons, and her parents - in the tsunami of December 26, 2004. In a single, random act of self-preservation as she floated along with the current flowing out to sea, she grabbed onto the branches of a tree and survived. Then she fell apart into drinking and self-destructive behavior. 

Then she started listening to The Smiths.

There is no happy ending here. There's just the coping with loss and eventually coming to terms with the fact that everyone was dead to the point that she could say it and know it was true. And knowing it was true did not stop her memories from triggering at little things that reminded her of her former existence.

Prince of Chaos - reading

Finished "Prince of Chaos" by Roger Zelazny. This is the last of the Amber series which ties up several of the story lines. I am amused that Frakir is a loose end (snicker) that was left hanging (snicker), as I would like to have known more of her fate.

Merlin is a character who probably has problems sleeping at night: when you have to worry about assassins from relatives and enemies, but also the "universe?" That could leave a mark.

It was a good end to a good series. I still think the first five books (about Corwin) are better overall than the second five (about Merlin), and that the end of the series could have spread into one more book.

The Picture of Dorian Gray - reading

Finished "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde. Who hasn't heard about this picture? But the specifics - the events - they went beyond what I expected. Also, when I started, I didn't realize it was such a bromance!

I can't say I really got into the writing style. People didn't have conversations, they endured soliloquies! Superficialities abounded, but that at least made sense in the context of the story. And the ending was pretty abrupt. Still an interesting read, though.

The Signal and the Noise - reading

Finished "The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail - But Some Don't" by Nate Silver. "Stop and smell the data." If this book were turned into a textbook for a statistics or forecasting course I would have loved that course. As it was, though, I'm not a huge math geek, and there were interesting points and dull points. Like baseball? Investing? Weather? Gambling? Chess? These things are covered pretty nicely, and it often boils down to Bayesian analysis.

Knight of Shadows - reading

Finished "Knight of Shadows" by Roger Zelazny. It's nice to see the author tweaking the rules of his world to make things interesting! There are a lot of places where there is a wall of explanation disguised as the main character thinking back on what has happened to him, and there are a lot of characters to keep track of, but things seem to be coalescing now. Good thing, too - one book left!