Little Brother. Cory Doctorow. 2007.  Free to anyone.  .  Always a favorite Sci fi writer, this book can bring shivers.  What could happen t some tech savvy teenagers, if Homeland Security went apeshit in their city?  What if the teens were versed in personal freedoms and decided that the DHS was way out of line, as were most adults after a terror attack?  Thats the thesis and Doctorow does a masterful job of weaving tech, civil rights and sci fi into a compelling hard to put down story.  Read this and you will learn quite a lot.  As well as having a blast while reading

Anansi Boys. Neil Gaiman. 2005. ISBN 978006051518.  When life is looking “ordinary” it’s time to read a Gaiman book.  under the theme of lesser gods among us, w meet the Anasi family – Father and two brothers akin to The Spider.  Mix in some  small-time neighborhood old lady witches and add an unscrupulous criminal accountant.    Fast moving tale, that never teeters into a reality, but still, you grow to bond with the protagonists.  Good one for a cross country flight.

Seven Eves. Neal Stephenson. 2015. Awesome book.  I always like his work and this one is right up there. What happens to earth if the moon exploded and eventually renders the Earth uninhabitable for thousands of years?  But you have several years to prepare for it.   This book unfolds over 5000 years and is very intriguing.  Its a very large scope for a book. Good character development and context explanations.

The House of the Spirits. Isabel Allende. 1972.  I am a fan of Allende’s work, even her early books.  This is fiction based on fact around the intertwined fates of two families in an unnamed Latin country.  I saw similarities to Argentia, Venezuela, El Salvador history.  One family has beautiful, spiritual but tragic daughters and another has the rags to riches story of a son.  This is all bound up in a showdown between capitalism and socialism, leading to a fascist state. The lives, love and eventual deaths of many protagonists are clearly laid out. Allende has a rich descriptive sensual style reminiscent of DH Lawrence.  Easy to read and skillfully done.

The Edge of Eternity. Ken Follett. 2020.  Following two fictional families, one in East Germany and one in USA ( black) from building the Wall, the Kennedy years, Johnson, Carter, Reagan, Bush, the fall of the Wall, Europe Spring.  The families, their contacts, their enemies are intertwined with these events in history.  If you lived through some or all of this, you may not be able to put the book down.   Leaders are not always shown in a kindly light, with JFK taking quite a hit on his morals ( or lack of).  Worth the read as it is recent enough to ring true.

Simon Scarrow. Cato and Macro series (1-17).  Scarrow is a prolific writer on the Roman expansion era ranging from the invasion of Britannia, in the Med., and the Middle East, and Rome all the way to the wars with Persia.  His two heroes, Cato and Macro are regular Roman fighters who get in and out of many deadly scrapes. The author’s research gives you an on-ground view of the life of a Roman soldier.  His writing is fast-paced, but with enough detail to keep you intrigued. Very enjoyable if you are a historical fiction buff.

A Long Petal of the Sea. Isabel Allende. 2020. ISBN 9781984820167. I am a long time fan of Allende’s work.  She weaves feeling. the human condition and history into a seamless tapestry.  This book starts with the  Spanish war between Republicans and Fascists that was a warm-up to WWII. We follow the hero ( a medical student)  through being on the desperate Republican side, what happens to his family and then fleeing to France. After they flee to Chiulem, build a life and then after Allende is killed, fleeing again to Argentina and starting over. The protagonist is jailed and tortured several times. Yet the characters survive the harshness and scarcities of war and repressions.  A great read that will stay with you for quite some time.

Master and Commander series. Patrick O’Brian.   These books ( 21)  were written from 1969 to 2004.  The author focussed on the topics of Royal Navy sailing man of war during the era of the Napoleonic and US independence wars.    The series follows the career of Jack Aubrey – captain and his friend Stephen Maturin – Physician, naturalist and secret agent.   The details of sailing from England around the world, exploring, fighting and surviving are fascinating.  These sailors were intrepid, rugged and aggressive. One has to admire their abilities to overcome so much.  The author did a lot of research to align this series with real events.  Great tales, intrigues, plots and lots of action, with a major focus on men and their attitudes.  The books in the series are:

Master and Commander (1969)
Post Captain (1972)
HMS Surprise (1973)
The Mauritius Command (1977)
Desolation Island (1978)
The Fortune of War (1979)
The Surgeon’s Mate (1980)
The Ionian Mission (1981)
Treason’s Harbour (1983)
The Far Side of the World (1984)
The Reverse of the Medal (1986)
The Letter of Marque (1988)
The Thirteen-Gun Salute (1989)
The Nutmeg of Consolation (1991)
Clarissa Oakes (1992) – (The Truelove in the US)
The Wine-Dark Sea (1993)
The Commodore (1995)
The Yellow Admiral (1996)
The Hundred Days (1998)
Blue at the Mizzen (1999)
The Final Unfinished Voyage of Jack Aubrey (2004).

The Robert Hunter series. Chris Carter. 2013-2019.  Robert Hunter is the lead detective in the Ultra violent Crimes Homicide Unit in LA police.  The stories involve the sickest of the sick killers.  Hunter  is a genius at solving these things, But make no mistake, non of these stories will feature in a episode of Criminal Minds.   Carter has no delusions about the venality and cruelty of the general public and he exposes it relentlessly.   Despite the vivid portrayals of gruesome subject matter the stories are very fast paced and well constructed.  This makes each novel hard to put down.

I read:

• The Hunter
• The Crucifix Killer
• Executioner
• The Night Stalker
• The Death Sculpter
• One by One
• An Evil Mind
• The Caller

The Witcher series ( 1-7) . Andrzej Sapkowski.  A Polish writer of sword and sorcery books, Sapkowski paints intense word pictures of other worlds that gently touch on ours.  There is a overriding arc to the stories which allows all the series to be brought together at the very end. Recurring characters, embedded stories and myths make the total more than each individual title. The titles are;   The last Wish, The Sword of Destiny, Blood of Elves, The Time of Contempt, Baptism of Fire, The Tower of Swallows, Lady of the Lake .

The books are full of action, and sympathetic characters.   Netflix has a TV series The Witcher.  There is a set of Witcher video games.