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The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson (2016) – BR00186 (2020) – 🐸🐸⚪⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
March 20 2020

Plot or Premise

This is a self-help guide to reducing your stress levels by choosing to care only about those things that are important to you.

What I Liked

I found this a very odd book to read. In almost every chapter, I found myself disagreeing with his evidence and examples, often thinking they proved the opposite of what he was trying to use them to prove, yet at the same time agreeing with some of the premises. It felt more like he had some solid ideas throughout, just not very well developed. Like, for instance, that we have limited bandwidth to care about things and therefore we should not care about a lot of unimportant stuff (hence the title), finding problems you like to solve (i.e., what you love), prioritizing better values for ourselves in line with what we love, and certainty being an enemy of growth (so you should risk failure more).

What I Didn’t Like

Most of his examples are Millenial-style rants, not actual evidence to support his arguments, and it is a lot of work to come to the familiar conclusion “don’t sweat the small stuff and it is all small stuff”, except with swearing.

The Bottom Line

Not worth reading but at least I got a reading badge for it.

The Wives by Tarryn Fisher (2019) – BR00184 (2020) – 🐸⚪⚪⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
January 27 2020

Plot or Premise

A wife of a polygamist starts to wonder about his other two wives and seeks them out, only to find a potentially dark secret.

What I Liked

The original premise was unusual and intriguing, and the writer’s use of an unreliable narrator is creative.

What I Didn’t Like

The original premise is interesting enough for you to want to find out about a three-wife relationship, where all three wives are kept separate. For most people, the immediate reaction would be, “Why would any woman agree to this ridiculously unbalanced relationship?”, and for the story to work, you have to see it “working”. Except it never does. For example, you don’t see why the protagonist would agree, nor given the fact she is neurotic and alone for four days of the week, she never tries to find out info about the other two. Really? Add in some obvious and not-so-obvious gaslighting themes that go nowhere, plus a ridiculous fantasy ending, and it’s hard to finish. More importantly, she’s a nurse who learns medical info from a lawyer; she is comforting a potential abuse victim and when she starts looking for the door, the narrator puts her hand on her arm to comfort her / encourage her to stay; and she describes herself in one scene as plain Jane and then later as reasonably attractive. I felt ripped off with the ending, not rewarded for making it through. Thank heavens I get a “badge” for this in my reading challenge hehehe.

The Bottom Line

Unreliable narrator, inconsistent story, ridiculous ending.

Down The River Unto The Sea by Walter Mosley (2018) – BR00183 (2020) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
January 27 2020

Plot or Premise

A detective was framed for rape, temporarily jailed, kicked off the police force and is working as a private investigator looking at a potential case of corrupt cops who tried to commit murder.

What I Liked

Mosley always creates compelling characters (like Easy Rawlins) and Joe King Oliver is no exception. Much of what you see is part of a long history … the story could have been told as a Western, or as pulp noir with Sam Spade, or as Spenser for Hire (or any of Robert B. Parker’s characters really). It is a “man’s story” taking care of “his business”, in a dark world that is full of violence which he would prefer to avoid but willing to endure when necessary. The main case (Oliver’s own) is compelling, but a little light in places. Where it falters, the case of his client steps in to keep the story moving. It was an Edgar Award nominee, and it was well-deserved.

What I Didn’t Like

His family (daughter and ex-wife) are a bit too much in the background (i.e., Oliver keeps the women-folk safe, so to speak), his relationship with an ex-prostitute is beyond confusing, and the relationship with his mentor is obvious long before a revelation.

The Bottom Line

Great character, great story, a few weak spots

The Word Is Murder by Anthony Horowitz (2017) – BR00177 (2020) – 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
January 18 2020

Plot or Premise

A fictionalized “true” story of the author observing a brilliant detective attempting to solve the murder of a woman who went to plan her funeral and was murdered the same day.

What I Liked

The premise of the story of the woman planning her funeral and then being murdered was a great Agatha Christie-style plot, more so than Sherlock Holmes. Yet the writing arrangement of Horowitz as Watson and Hawthrone as Holmes works reasonably well, even if Hawthorne is more prickly and flawed. Lots of different characters to meet. While I figured out several red herrings and had most of the clues assembled at the end, I didn’t quite interpret them the way the final answer is given.

What I Didn’t Like

There are three things in the story that bothered me. First and foremost, Horowitz has inserted himself as the narrator as if the premise is real. It’s a bit gimmicky, but if you ignore that, and treat it as if it was a fictionalized person, the premise works okay but not great. Yet, as a result, he pulls in various people he knows in real life, and, of course, they are treated with kid gloves. All positive words, meeting people like Spielberg for instance, so no chance he might be sued. Second, Horowitz or his fictionalized version is downright whiny. He complains about everything. He reads like a self-righteous child in many places. Third, there is a premise introduced very early on, and not only does it not play out the way it was described, the real explanation is done only through assumption and speculation. It didn’t feel like the book played fair with that clue or the character. Equally, the ending has a lot of exposition that implies “this is the only explanation” but there were several other equally plausible solutions.

The Bottom Line

Interesting premise, average mystery, soft ending.

Two O’Clock, Eastern Wartime by John Dunning (2001) – BR00176 (2020) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
January 12 2020

Plot or Premise

The year is 1942, and Jack Delaney is working as a writer for the local radio station where weird things happen, like actors going missing and potential German spies hiding in plain sight.

What I Liked

The story starts off confused, and a hint of someone in trouble. Delaney has to escape a chain gang to help a woman he loves, even if she is already spoken for in his mind. And the trail leads to a radio station in a coastal town where he gets work. At that point, the story is three-fold — a mystery involving German spies, a love story of sorts, and him learning about the radio business as a writer. The radio business part is awesome.

What I Didn’t Like

The German mystery is confused and the love story doubly so. Most of it makes very little sense and is more “hinted at” than “made real”.

The Bottom Line

Fantastic view of a wartime radio drama.