Closing tabs

It gets quiet on this blog, I think, when I am training a lot and writing more than one post a day at my other one!

A lot of pretty decent light reading: Thomas Berger, Meeting Evil, which gave me a strong urge to reread the strange Margery Allingham novel The Tiger in the Smoke (I am keen on books in this vein); Lee Child's Jack Reacher teaser, Not a Drill, which did indeed make me hungry for the next one (more hungry than I already was, I mean!); Michael Koryta, Those Who Wish Me Dead, which I am sorry to say reminded me why I have historically avoided reading his books - he is a very capable writer, but it is absolutely preposterous, people simply don't act like this!; Patrick Lee, Runner, which I enjoyed enormously and highly recommend to readers of thrillers; Tom Bouman, Dry Bones in the Valley (very good indeed - read if you like Woodrell et al., or the Longmire/Justified TV axis - excellent police procedural, beautifully written, interesting setting).

Just finishing up a really satisfying one, Tim Powers' Declare, which B. drew to my attention on the basis of an interesting conversation between Ian Tregillis and Charlie Stross, both of whose roughly comparable spy-novel-meets-Cthulhu-and-higher-mathematics novels I enjoy hugely. Made me remember reading a few of Powers' novels more than a decade ago, the Fault Line trilogy I believe: I am sure they were a big influence when I was writing The Explosionist. Hmmm, there are a lot of novels by Powers that I have never read, that is appealing....

Many tabs to close:

Dyer on Dyer.

Jennifer Michael Hecht reads Lucie Brock-Broido (a former teacher of mine, and now my upstairs neighbor).

M. H. Abrams honored with the National Humanities Medal.

Living on the internet: part one, part two.

Black cats unsuited to selfies?

Also: I finally got to try salt fish and ackee. It is delicious although the ackee bears a slightly disturbing resemblance to scrambled eggs.