C.A. Gray's Blog, page 3

Merlin’s Tour of the Universe, Neil deGrasse Tyson

For what this is, it’s really fun. I didn’t quite know what to expect, but it’s a compilation of “letter to the editor” style Q&As from readers to Neil deGrasse Tyson, and apparently this is what got him his start. But it’s a really clever design: Tyson replies as if he’s an almost immortal extraterrestrial named Merlin from a neighboring galaxy. So there’s whimsy, and also some really great nuggets of detail about all manner of subjects regarding outer space. I took notes and saved them–for what, I have no idea. Just interesting information.

My rating: ****1/2

Language: none

Sexual content: none

Violence: none

Political content: none

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The Confident Mind, Nate Zinsser

I honestly didn’t expect to finish this — I picked it up because it was free on Kindle I think, and then went ahead and bought it on audible because it was intriguing enough to warrant that. I had assumed (like with most self-help books) that I’d heard it all, and I only gave this one a try because it was written by someone who teaches at West Point.

I don’t know that I necessarily learned anything brand new, but it expanded quite a bit on the concept of affirmations, combining them with visualization of success, and backed them up with science. (I do have to say that every time he said “The Science,” it set my teeth on edge because that term has become a buzzword in recent years, but he literally meant, this is what the studies show, and then he went on to describe them. He didn’t just use it as a “trust me, I’m an expert” cop-out.) I love how biblical all of this is, though he never once says that–that’s not the point of the book. But it is, and it’s great to hear that these principles are being taught even at West Point. And it’s a great reminder that visualization, reframing, and similar techniques actually work.

My rating: ****1/2

Language: none

Sexual content: none

Violence: none

Political content: none

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Have I Told You Lately, Beth Moran

Beth Moran has done it again – she’s definitely one of my favorites, though her books always follow a formula. I like the formula.

This story follows Emmaline Brown, who works in the Sherwood Forest airport in a pasty shop that her adopted mother built, a few years after her mother passed away. (This is her “ordinary life.”) She doesn’t have a social life. She has one friend, Blessing, but her mother was a workaholic and taught her to be the same, even though she doesn’t have the same personality. She’s had a crush for years on Pip, a Scottish farmer in a grad school program that takes him through the airport from time to time, though he otherwise lives in the remote and idyllic Isle of Siskin. Once, Pip saw Emmie in the midst of overwhelm and jumped in to help her manage the rush of customers, and she’s fantasized about him ever since. But she’s never had an actual relationship, with him or anyone else.

Then one day, Emmie wins the lottery — not a huge jackpot, just enough to spontaneously buy a one-way plane ticket. She’s just stumbled across letters her mother left behind, discovering to her shock that at one point, her mother had actually been married–and had lived on the Isle of Siskin of all places. Pip comes through the airport and tells her this will be the last time, as he’s graduating soon… so to get answers to her mother’s past (among other reasons), Emmie buys a ticket on the same flight as Pip back to his home island.

Pip doesn’t immediately take her under his wing, as that might seem weird… so she tries to figure it out on her own for a bit. But eventually he finds her stranded, and brings her to his sister’s bed and breakfast. She quickly finds herself immersed in his family, his community, and his world, and meanwhile discovers her mother’s ex-husband in the unlikeliest of places…

This is a feel-good chick lit story like all of Moran’s, with somewhat contrived misunderstandings that lead to tumultuous confrontations, forgiveness, and an eventual and well-earned happily ever after. Her stories all blur together, but they’re clean, uplifting, and a great escape.

My rating: *****

Language: none

Sexual content: none

Violence: none

Political content: none

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500 Miles from You

3/7/25

Haha I had no idea that I’d tried to read this before when I picked it up! Wow, I guess I really should check my goodreads before I try a new book…

But I think in 2021 I was very sensitive to political agendas, far more than I am now that the world has calmed down a bit. I noticed the same scenario I mentioned below (and quite a few other strategic woke placements), but this time I could overlook them easier since they didn’t actually affect the story that much.

This is really just a chick lit story, similar to Beth Moran’s, except that she has NO political agendas or sexual content at all, which is why I read her so much. This one also turned out to be a feel-good story about working through trauma, finding home, peace, and eventually also love. There was a classic chick flick scene at the end involving a misunderstanding and a near miss encounter, followed by a long distance chase culminating in romantic bliss.

_____
3/27/21
I was well into this one before I finally stopped it. The story itself is delightful: it’s about a pair of nurses who swap places, one in the city and one in the country. What connects them is a heart transplant: the girl who leaves London, Lissa, watched a hit-and-run of a boy she knew, and the man in the countryside, Cormac, was treating the girl who received the boy’s heart. Lissa has PTSD from the event, and is sent away so she can slow down and heal. The story is thus episodic, following each of them through their fish-out-of-water experiences as they deal with the other nurse’s patients. It’s told in such a charming, human way: each patient is a real person, and Lissa and Cormac are forced to forget themselves and tend to someone else’s needs as best they can. But it’s not a job to either of them–they really care about people.

Because it was so charming, I overlooked a lot of the political agendas that were slyly hinted at here and there, because they seemed peripheral to the story. A few of the patients they met spoke in fluent f-bombs, but since the whole story wasn’t like that, I overlooked it too. I finally stopped in disgust when one of Cormac’s patients who believes in homeopathy and doesn’t believe in vaccinations is portrayed as a heartless idiot without an ounce of compassion for her daughter or common sense. I don’t mind subtle agendas, but I do mind overt stereotyping.

My rating: ***1/2

Language: moderate

Violence: present but sensitively handled (like with kid gloves) 

Sexual content: alluded to only

Political content: heavy enough that I stopped reading the first time, but not central to the plot

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The Last of August, Brittany Cavallaro

I tried this one again several years later, but I wasn’t aware when I picked it up that I’d tried and given up on it the first time (in 2021) — I should always consult my Goodreads account first I guess! I remember being enthralled particularly with the characterization of the first book in this series, and I’m a big fan of Sherlock Holmes in general, so this was a unique twist.

While both books had objectionable material as far as I’m concerned (lots of language, as well as wokeness and some sexual content), this one seemed to me more language than anything else. The sexual content is just innuendo–nothing happens between Jamie and Charlotte, because in book 1, Charlotte was raped and she’s traumatized. That, juxtaposed against the growing attraction between them essentially explains their relationship in a nutshell: massive sexual tension, combined with Charlotte’s derision of Jamie’s ordinary intelligence in contrast to her own. You’d think she wouldn’t be likable for that, but somehow, because she’s a Holmes, she still is.

There was enough of a refresher of book 1 that I could follow the plot even though I read the first one 4-5 years ago, but I probably wouldn’t recommend reading this one if you’ve never read the first. Honestly I wasn’t paying all *that* much attention to the particulars of the actual mystery, though (which involved the kidnapping of Charlotte’s favorite uncle Leander, who also happened to have been best friends and roommates with Jamie’s father growing up). I was more focused on the big picture character dynamics, which were still quite well done. But once again, I don’t know if that’s enough for me to continue reading the rest of the series.

My rating: ***

Language: LOTS

Sexual content: innuendo but it was heavy at times

Violence: it was there but not over the top

Political content: moderate

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The Death and Life of Superman, Roger Stern

Back in the 1990s I was obsessed with “Lois and Clark,” to the point where (before I wrote any novels of my own) I wrote fan fiction (for that, and for some other favorite shows back in the day). During that era, I discovered this book in the library, and devoured it. When I found “Lois and Clark” briefly free on Tubi, I began to re-watch, and while a lot of it was silly and eye-rolling, I found that I still loved it (until about halfway through season 3, which might have been where I stopped before). The show jogged my memory of this book too… and it was surprisingly hard to find! It doesn’t even exist in Kindle or audio which are my usual modes of digital consumption, so my husband found a hardback for me on ebay.

As I read it again, I guess I could see why it was hard to find (haha). It’s a complete mess, and more so as the story goes on, ignoring most of the usual rules of storytelling. There is an “ordinary world” at first (Superman is in Metropolis, engaged to Lois who at this point knows of his secret identity), and there are rather too many flashbacks to tell us how he got there. We also get a very important detail in this segment, that while it seems to the outside observer that Superman is completely invulnerable except for kryptonite, that’s not actually true — he’s just far, far stronger than humans, and whenever he does manage to get at all depleted, he simply recharges whenever he’s exposed to sunlight. I’d forgotten that in this story, the Justice League also plays a big role, as does Supergirl, too. Lex Luthor, we gather, has already at some point in the past faked his own death, and come back in the guise of his own son… and he’s now hooked up with Supergirl. But all right, we can suspend disbelief on that one.

Then Doomsday, a sadistic and horrifically ugly alien shows up, bent on destruction for its own sake. Superman fights him, and after many pages of epic battles with collateral damage, Superman at last succeeds in killing him, but he dies himself shortly thereafter. There are many chapters after that of the outpouring of grief (even including Lana Lang, Clark’s girlfriend from high school who apparently wasn’t ever actually his girlfriend in this version, she was just his best friend who was in love with him). There’s a funeral, and Lex Luthor pays for an elaborate tomb. But meanwhile, one faction works to raise Superman from the dead, by cloning him. Clark’s father suffers a heart attack in the midst of all the stress, though, and he goes over to the “other side,” where he encounters Clark, and convinces him to return to the land of the living.

So far the arc of the story is more or less what one would expect. But then, before the real Superman actually returns, we get three imposters: one insufferable teenage clone (Superboy), one who looks exactly like Superman except his suit is black and he wears a visor over his eyes, and he is completely unmerciful, and one cyborg, whose human parts look like Superman, but he’s mostly machine. Then there’s the Man of Steel, a member of the Justice League who builds himself an indestructible suit, and one sweet little guy who adores Superman and just goes around doing good things in his name. Most of these sow confusion, and destroy Superman’s good name and legacy in the process, even as a bunch of cultists preach that he will rise again (lots of Messianic overtones, as there always is with Superman).

Meanwhile, we go back and forth to the Fortress of Solitude in Antarctica, where visored Superman and also (we think?) the real Superman end up… and then, because we had to end the story somehow, an enormous space ship enters earth carrying an old enemy of Superman who vaporizes an entire city in California, and is on the way to do the same to Metropolis, when all the (good, fake) Supermen and the real Superman at last have to come together to stop him.

Oh, and at the end, Doomsday isn’t dead either. Of course he isn’t.

The whole thing was a ridiculous romp, and yet I read the whole thing, rolling my eyes but enjoying it somehow nonetheless.

My rating: *** (for entertainment)

Language: none

Violence: comic book style only

Sexual content: none

Political content: none

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Skin in the Game, Nassim Nicholas Taleb

This book reminds me of the main premise of “Freakonomics,” phrased a different way and applied slightly differently. Their main point in that book was that if you can find the hidden motive, you can explain seemingly disparate and bizarre social phenomena. This book makes the similar point, but calls it having “skin in the game”. Rather than explaining why things happen the way they do, it instead argues that to be good in any field (indeed, in order not to be a hypocrite, or an idiot–the author likes to denigrate most people’s intelligence), one must have “skin in the game” so that screwing up will affect them, and they will learn from it. Then he uses many different examples to illustrate the point, including religion and politics and economics and healthcare in order to make this point.

It should be obvious, but he’s right; most intellectuals and bureaucrats don’t have skin in the game, which is why they often do make admittedly stupid decisions affecting people other than themselves, and then never learn from them because there are no pain points. There must be consequences for our actions, or of course we’ll never learn. The Bible says the same thing: “a man of great anger must pay the penalty; if you rescue him, you will have to do so again” (Prov 19:19).

My rating: ****

Language: I think there might have been a bit? Can’t recall

Violence: none

Sexual content: none

Political content: if anything it seemed right wing, but not dramatically so

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How to Get Ideas, Jack Foster

This is a fun, insightful read! It explores the nature of creativity from a marketing perspective, but the same rules apply to all forms of creativity really. I don’t know that I learned anything brand new, but it emphasized the concepts of reading widely, being curious about the world, the importance of mindset (if you don’t believe you can come up with an idea for something, you won’t–but conversely, if you believe there are an endless lists of ways to solve a problem, you can’t help but come up with some of them), and juggling multiple projects at once. (That way, if you get stuck on one issue, you can switch to something else, and then come back to it fresh, trusting that your subconscious is on the job.) I also loved that every chapter opens with witty, relevant quotes.

My rating: ****1/2

Language: none

Sexual content: none

Violence: none

Political content: none

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Gretchen and the Bear, Carrie Ann Noble

This was a very weird story. Mostly that was because it didn’t follow any recognizable trajectory — normally there’s the typical plot arc, starting in the ordinary world, with rising action to a climax, falling action, and then resolution. Ideally the climax will be predictable based upon the conflicts that have come before, with the villains and heroes you expect.

In this one, Gretchen and Arthur both do start out in their respective “ordinary worlds”–Gretchen in her interstellar world while Arthur (who shapeshifts to bear form once a month) lives back on Earth in the wild forests, overrun by faeries. Gretchen has to go back to Britannia where the faeries are, sent by her stepmother to rescue her stepsister, who has been taken as the bride of the faerie prince. If she doesn’t save her stepsister, her stepmother will murder her father. Along the way, she meets Arthur and his family of bear shapeshifters… where his mother in particular is fixated upon a prophecy that the Silverhair will one day come and save the bearfolk from their enemies. Gretchen has a silver streak in her hair, so Arthur’s mother is convinced that it’s her, and she kidnaps her in order to force the prophecy to come true. Meanwhile, Arthur very quickly falls in love with Gretchen, which is forbidden (she’s human, not bearkind after all).

It’s a unique story thus far… but it leads one to believe that the climax will be one thing. Only when we get there, we’re not even halfway through the story. There were probably four or five different climaxes and stories within the story along the way. Noble kept introducing new characters and acts. I grew weary of them eventually, but I’d invested so much time that I wanted to see the resolution…

One thing about Noble’s books is that they are always both whimsical and clean, and the tension remains at a manageable level, so they’re good reads for just before bedtime. As usual, I got a happily ever after at the end.

My rating: ***1/2

Language: none

Sexual content: none

Violence: none

Political content: none

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Miracles, C.S. Lewis

I didn’t know there were any C.S. Lewis books I’d never read before, but apparently there was–at least one I’d never read completely! I think when I tried to read this one in the past, I was bored by the topic, because I was already convinced that miracles existed and so contemplating the topic seemed a pointless exercise. But this time, what really arrested me was that Lewis wasn’t so much arguing for miracles, as he was dismantling the illogic of the opposite point of view. Lewis I think must have been one of the clearest thinkers ever to live and also write (I don’t know about those who never wrote anything down). I marvel when I read his work, wondering whether talking to him was like reading his work. Did he just come up with the perfect, pithy words in dialogue, too, able to reduce all complex concepts into a single, all-encapsulating sentence? Or did he have to work at it, and try on multiple metaphors for size until he found just the right one to commit to pen and ink?

At any rate, because this book starts with first principles of what is knowable about the world at large, and worldviews and how they color our perceptions, it was particularly relevant for what I happen to be writing myself at the moment.

My rating: ****

Language: none

Sexual content: none

Violence: none

Political content: none

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