Where will our reading obsession take us this week? Let’s find out!
Here are the books we’re talking about:
- Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert
- The Eighth Detective by Alex Pavesi
- Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell (this is the book recap for the week, as well!)
- Werner’s Nomenclature of Colors adapted to Zoology, Botany, Chemistry, Mineralogy, Anatomy, and the Arts by P. Syme
- One True Sentence by Craig McDonald
- Holier Than Thou by Jackie Hill Perry
Dune Messiah – Frank Herbert
This is the Sequel to Dune, which I (Andrew) thoroughly enjoyed. Frank Herbert wrote six novels, so we’ll see if I enjoy others in the series as much as the first one.
I’m 20% of the way through and intrigued by the direction of the story. Can’t wait to see where this goes!
The Eighth Detective – Alex Pavesi
Andrew was really sweet and did a fun thing last Sunday- spontaneously drove by my favorite bookstore in our area on the way home from church. So I got this book and another book I’m going to discuss later.
This book was really really good. I wasn’t so sure about it some of the time, but it kept me guessing and it was super fun.
I’m going to do my best to talk about the layout without giving away any spoilers:
The premise of this novel is one time a Mathematician made this theory describing a mystery novel in mathematical terms- and, based on this theory, you could describe every possible permutation of a detective story. He writes this book that includes an explanation of his theory, plus 7 stories illustrating it. He self-publishes, and it goes largely unnoticed, until the present day when this small publishing house decides they want to print it.
So the story is of the editor and the author discussing each of the stories- what part of the theory they’re illustrating, as well as some *inconsistencies* in those stories that she starts to notice pretty much immediately.
I basically inhaled this book this week, which is super fun- it’s been a minute since I’ve been this obsessed with a book!
Outliers – Malcolm Gladwell
Andrew finished this book this week! It’s the book recap for this episode, so we’ll save any further thoughts on it for that section. 🙂
Other episodes that include discussion of this book: Dead Man’s Profit First, Take Back Your Cat
Werner’s Nomenclature of Colors adapted to Zoology, Botany, Chemistry, Mineralogy, Anatomy, and the Arts – P. Syme
This book was recommended by Amazon when I (Julianne) was going down a rabbit hole looking at home design books one day. I thought it sounded fun, so I added it to my list. Then, we found it for half off at the bookstore. It’s used, apparently, but it’s in new condition. And it’s delightful.
One True Sentence – Craig McDonald
This is a mystery set in 1920’s Paris where literary editors are being murdered in droves. Several main characters are well-known authors, including Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein.
This novel was a bit more crass than I (Andrew) was expecting. There’s a fair amount of gore, sexual acts, and language. Enjoyable storyline thus far. I’m about a third of the way through.
NOTE after finishing: I do not recommend this book. I read it because I didn’t feel like switching to a different book, but in hindsight, I wish I had.
Holier Than Thou – Jackie Hill Perry
Didn’t get as far in this book as I (Julianne) would have liked, but right now I’m in the chapter on how God’s holiness means he must be just. I cannot stress enough how good this book is!
I’ve mentioned this book in a few other episodes: Think You Have Atomic Habits? Think Again, A Minute to Finish
Book Recap: Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
You can see Andrew presenting this slideshow on our Youtube Channel!