Not quite a book review

My friend Jeanne has a blog that I’d call a book blog. While she dabbles in other topics, she mostly focuses on books and poetry. Even if I don’t share her love of poetry, I am an avid reader and always enjoy her reviews. She’s been generous with me, sending books she thinks I might like, or in the case of one author, a copy of a book she knew I was looking forward to reading once it was published.

She made a comment a week or so ago on her blog (I think? Or maybe it was on Facebook.) about how she likes to know what others think of the books she’s read and recommended. So I thought it was past time to share my take on some she’s sent me.

Gnomon by Nick Harkaway. This is the book I mentioned earlier—I have read his other books (Gone Away World, Angelmaker, Tigerman) and loved them all. They’re well-written, I loved the story arcs and the characters, and could not wait until Gnomon was released. But I really didn’t like this book, and it took me a bit to figure out why. First, the book felt preachy to me. I disliked that about The Handmaiden’s Tale (which I read way back in 1986 when when it was first released), Seveneves was even worse—so bad that I stopped reading it at 94% done according to my Kindle. This book felt that way too.

The second reason surprised me when I finally figured it out. I never really cared about any of the characters and I realized that part of what makes a book compelling and good is when I can sort of fall in love with a character. And I didn’t really care what happened to anyone in this book.

Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty. I enjoyed this book, it was a quick read for me. Basically, it’s a mystery set in space so combined two genres I like. Add in the question of what makes us human, and that made the story line worth reading for me. This was another gift from Jeanne, and one I wouldn’t have picked up without her review and her gift—thank you, Jeanne!

Autonomous by Annalee Newitz. Oh boy. This book falls into the very preachy category for me (big pharma is bad, big government is bad, second class citizens are bad, etc.), with the addition of taking on too many social issues in one book and thus not doing any of them justice. I’m about two thirds of the way through and I don’t think I can finish it. This book also feels very young adult—what I mean is that there’s just so much angst and indecision. Yes, maybe that’s how things are, but I can’t stick with that over the entire course of a book.

All Systems Red by Martha Wells. LOVED this one, absolutely loved it. Again, it’s science fiction but also all about what defines us as human or sentient and looks at what it means to be self-determining. I had seen this book when searching for something to read on Amazon but passed it up because it’s pretty short and the sample shared on Amazon was a bit flip in style. Again, this was another gift from Jeanne and I liked it so much I will get the second book in the series (it’s already out) and almost certainly the third book when it’s published.

I also realized something else while reading these physical, paper books. I far prefer my Kindle. That may be heretical to some but here’s why. My hands aren’t super strong and the way I read is in bed, usually lying down holding the book and turning the pages with one hand. That’s really hard to do with traditional books, and most especially with longer books. The second reason is the lighted screen. I don’t have an especially bright bedside lamp, nor do I want one. But I need more light to read, and the Kindle solves that problem.

Thoughts while temporarily less than fully abled

I’ve been on crutches just over a month now. Good thing I already had strong arms, shoulders and back! I haven’t had any muscle soreness there. What I’ve had instead is pain in the heels of my hands, especially the left hand, I’ve developed a weird discrete lump on the top knuckle of my left thumb on the outside (not the palm side). It’s not in the joint, it’s clearly separate and I’ve noticed that it gets bigger (and more painful) if I’ve been using the crutches a lot and goes down when I’m on them less. Oh and my left pinky finger is on fire (guessing tendons or ligaments or something).

Basement stairs are on the right

When Kent and I bought our home just over five years ago, we thought this house would be suitable for aging in place. After being on crutches this long, I think we were mostly right. It’s a ranch house, so the only stairs are the couple of stairs to get into the house (front door or through the garage), and the stairs to get to the basement. However, while I can manage the stairs to the garage, if I were truly disabled, say needed a walker, I’m not sure I could get into the garage directly from the house. If you look at the picture, you can see the problem. The stair at the door to the house is narrow front to back, and we can’t add another stair because the stairs to the garage are right there. We can’t move the stairs to the garage, or at least we couldn’t move them without a lot of money and somehow rebuilding the entire garage because the stairwell is concrete.

The shower in the master bathroom might be problematic if either of us were truly disabled—it’s got a lip about four inches tall and three inches wide, but that could be fixed. The other bathroom has a tub/shower combo so that one would just go unused.

It’s also been interesting to see how people react or don’t react when I’m out and about. People at work have been great, offering to hold doors, help me set up for meetings, things like that. When I’ve been out with Kent running errands, some people notice and are careful to give me extra room but a lot are just flat out oblivious. Since I’m the one who’d pay if I got knocked over, I stay extra vigilant. Children are, ironically, mostly the best about paying attention. I suspect it’s because they see the crutches more because of their eye height. When they notice, I can tell they’re really curious and they often stare almost rudely (I take zero offense). However, if children are roughhousing in a store or chasing each other, then I really have to pay attention. They are so focused on their fun that they often don’t see me until it would be too late.

I can tell the fracture is healing, although not fully healed. When I am at home, I can lurch around a bit with either one crutch or sometimes no crutches. But based on everything I've read (thank you, Dr. Google), I need to give this fracture plenty of time to heal. Others who've had the same injury have reported it taking months (like four, five, or more). My long term goal remains to return to running so I will (or not do) what it takes to get there.