Joshua Glasgow > Recent Status Updates

Alright. In the last 30% of book, it got me. I still think I favor THE ANIMATORS, ultimately, but this book has won me over. As with Whitaker’s last, there are certain things… I didn’t have the exact same experience, but they hit close to home. Consequently, my investment in the book has increased. I’m reading it ravenously. I’m surprised I didn’t stay up past midnight to finish it.

Audiobook. Even though it’s only 5 hours, I’m willing to bet it’ll get returned before I finish and I’ll have to put it back on hold. Idk, I might give this more time/focus in order to avoid that. So far, the author’s interest in David Starr Jordan calls to mind my own interest in Floyd Schmoe. He even had a memoir called THE DAYS OF A MAN, which is similar in title to Schmoe’s— THE YEARS OF MY DAY.

Huh. Well, it’s not gone in exactly the inevitable tragedy direction I had been anticipating. I’d say I’m enjoying it overall but definitely not hitting me the way THE ANIMATORS did. Still a ways from finishing, but I’m already thinking about my rating. Is this the time to break out one of Goodreads’ new partial stars? A 3.75, mayhaps? Ehh, probably still too early to say.

I wasn’t expecting a jump forward in time. The first of multiple, I wonder? Everyone’s growing up. Maybe “up” isn’t correct. Maybe “growing” gives the wrong impression, too. They’re certainly changing, though. Toughening up. Becoming jaded. I’m not quite sure what emotion to feel in response.

I’m much more into this book now. There’s a lot of tension in when will everything blow up. All the characters are making bad choices. You’re rooting for Fran while also realizing she’s doing wrong. Also: I wonder if Whitaker had any actresses in mind when imagining Fran and Wendy. Or do writers not usually do that—write while imagining their writing as a movie?

At about 20 pages in, I wasn’t sure about this book. It was a lot of names and was about a business transaction and… I couldn’t tell if I was going to like it. It made me reluctant to read it, so I’ve not really read much over the past several days. Today, though, I read further and now I’m more interested. I don’t feel it’s extraordinary yet, but I can imagine getting there. I hope it happens.

I doubt anybody is losing any sleep worrying about this but I wrote most of my review for Scott Hawkins’ BLACKTAIL earlier today and only have like 2 paragraphs left to write… but I was writing it on my home computer and now I’m out of town and unlikely to be back until late tomorrow. Expect the review completed on Sunday. Something to look forward to, to give meaning to your miserable life. 😘

Can you DNF when you’re nearly 90% done? Because I’ve still got an hour left on this audiobook but I don’t care about anything happening in it. Naw, I’m kidding—I’ll finish it. But I’m not kidding about the not caring part. Idk if I’d feel differently if I’d read this from the page instead of audio in bits and pieces for a month. I suspect not, but hard to say. Unlikely to seek more PKD after this.

It’s still very cool. The pace of quotes being saved has slowed, but that’s not unusual. It’s often early on that I’m saving the most quotes. I don’t know yet if I can go 5 stars or not… we’ll see how this last 20% goes and read a few other reviews before deciding. But it’s possible. Definitely 4… maybe a Goodreads 4 with a 4.5 review. Or maybe I will be persuaded further. Hard to say yet.

I’m not totally following what’s happening in this book. They’re suffering delusions and killing one another. There’s a gun involved, so ofc they’re killing each other with it. Why is this occurring again? Aliens who live on the planet they’re “researching”? Are they actually prisoners? Is this supposed to be “Hell” in some sci-fi-theological sense? Am I supposed to know these things?

Funny enough, the back of my last book (THERE IS NO ANTIMEMETICS DIVISION by QNTM) had a quote from the Scott Hawkins praising it, and the back of this book has a quote from QNTM praising this one! Oh man, I can already tell I’m going to like this book much better. I’ve taken down a lot of quotes already, and there have been multiple badass scenes and pithy one-liners. Excited to see where it goes.

I read a lot of this today. I could conceivably stay up another 30 minutes and finish tonight but I think I’d rather just do it tomorrow. My feeling overall is… I wish I liked this more than I do. It seems like something I should like. Unfortunately, I’m not sure I really do. It’s fine, but… I dunno. Too impersonal, maybe? It’s all about the plot, the characters are secondary.

All I knew about this book is it’s currently popular and presumably sci-fi? The back cover has praise from Blake Crouch (author of RECURSION, which I love), Steven Hall (author of THE RAW SHARK TEXTS, which I love), Scott Hawkins (LIBRARY AT MOUNT CHAR, which I liked a lot), Jason Pargin, and Stephen Graham Jones (both of whom I respect). Wow. This definitely makes me hopeful that I’ll love this book.

I had to re-read a chapter because I didn’t feel I’d fully absorbed what had occurred in it. I think that is a positive sign, actually: that I would be inclined to re-read the whole chapter rather than just move along. I do feel that I got more out of it the second time. I’m not sure it was POSSIBLE to fully understand on a first go-round, in fact. Knowing the outcome helps contextualize earlier bits.

I’m getting kind of lost on where the characters are or how they got there. Or how many characters there are, in fact. I feel like more keep getting named who I’ve not heard mentioned before, even though it’s supposed to be a contained number of people killed off one by one. A bizarre affectation: there’s swearing in this book, but either PKD or the character(s) will only say “poop” instead of “shit”.

Holly started reading THE THINGS WE NEVER SAY, not realizing the book I am reading is by the same author! So now we are both reading Elizabeth Strout simultaneously. That’s kind of fun. ☺️ Also: ever since I said it, I can’t get the Madea comparison out of my mind, even if Google’s AI says the two are “entirely separate” from one another. Nevertheless, I’d say I’m quite enjoying this read.

This might be too reductive, but it occurred to me tonight that Olive Kitteridge is kind of like a white Madea: large and ornery—rude even, at times—imparting life lessons to others while dealing with her own hang-ups in private. I just Googled “who is the white Tyler Perry” and I think the best answer it gave was Adam Sandler. Can Adam Sandler play Olive Kitteridge? Idk, I feel like he could pull it off.

I’m only a little ways further into the book than my last update, but I’m already regretting the half-hearted tone I used to describe the book before. I feel like something clicked for me in the most recent chapter or two and I’m now finding the book quite affecting. It’s definitely a lot about loneliness, aging, and the difficulty of relating to others. It’s honestly kind of cutting.

The book really leaned into the “Suzie Smart is a huge slut” storyline for a while there. Now it’s pushing forward the mystery aspect, with two people recently dead. I’m not really invested in that mystery yet. I am still wondering about the religious element, though: what is really going on? And who is “Specktowski”? I assume he will appear in the book in the flesh eventually, right?

Oh. Yeah, I feel like I do recall someone saying this is a series of vignettes. So far, I’m… enjoying it, I would say. I haven’t taken down any quotes, though. The writing generally doesn’t jump out at you— it’s more the sentimental, melancholy tone of the stories that appeals than any especially poetic or showy writing. That’s fine, I guess, but I tend to prefer writing which draws attention to itself.

This was a recommendation from Jessica Sullivan, who, like me, loves IDAHO and LINCOLN IN THE BARDO, and who also recommended a book I ended up giving 5 stars—THE ANIMATORS. Of this book, she wrote: “This book stirred something deep inside of me. It changed me.” Well, I’m sold! Four other GR friends each gave it 4 stars, too, so I feel pretty confident I’ll end up liking this. Too early to confirm, though.

The quasi-religious references to prayer and intercessors and deities is kind of intriguing, because what do these terms REALLY refer to? But mostly my feeling is that the characters are written very badly. They do seem like children play-acting at being adults. They’re stumbling toward a mystery, though, so maybe that’ll win me over. At the moment, my feeling about the book is unease.

This book is the definition of a 2.5. Perfectly forgettable. I might round down, both because the writing is so pedestrian (except for when the title “Dream Storm” arrives, which does have K.A.’s voice) and because the storm is such a letdown. Once again, we have something capable of creating ANYTHING you can imagine, and what the book offers is so small and boring. This series continues to disappoint.

This book caused me to have some deep thoughts about infinite regress and whether, applied to time and space, it might answer any concerns about “the origin” of the universe. We know infinite regress does exist, e.g. in mathematics, so it has some basis in reality, whereas a supernatural realm, or even just a pre-universe existence, requires positing some *additional* thing. Infinity is, oddly, smaller.

Every male character POV includes them creeping on the women. Oh, he’s tall. He has a firm handshake. She has well-rounded breasts. It’s disturbing. Also, I’m guessing there was a reason for it but when 2 different characters arrived separately, the scene of introductions repeated word-for-word. Weird. Last: Susan Smart says “they” call her Suzie Dumb. Wtf, are these scientists all 12 years old?

It’s so much about this one woman, alone, trying to survive, but there have been a few quotes about life “before” her current predicament I took down because they struck me as poignant. It took me a while to get into this book, but I think I’m largely on board now.

There’s a part where the main character talks about reading a book & quickly growing sleepy, suggesting the book’s owner intentionally used the book as a sleeping aid. I feel the same way about this book. It’s interesting, but the pages are so full of words and there are no chapter breaks or even line breaks between paragraphs, so it looks like endless. It’s been knocking me out when I try to read it.

I wanted to read a little bit before bed but the book about fascism I’m currently reading didn’t sound like a good before-sleep book. I needed a narrative. So I started this book instead. Very early in but it’s reminding me of ON THE CALCULATION OF VOLUME so far. It’s even set on a November day (though not the 18th).

I’ve never read any Philip K. Dick, so I chose this for my latest audiobook. I’m already worried about whether it’s going to be a DNF for me in this format. It’s all weird sci-fi words which may be easier to follow from the page but less so when listening and driving. I’m not sure I understand anything that’s happened so far, except the main guy spoke to an AI chatbot that acts like Gandalf.

I don’t know how to feel about this satire so far, but it’s super short, just 114 pages, so I’ll have to figure it out pretty quickly.