FollowI’m a bit late this month!
Red Hook and Londongrad by Reggie Nadelson
These are part of a series featuring Artie Cohen, a noirish New York police detective whose father was a KGB officer. The series explore the Russian communities in New York and elsewhere. I’m reading them way out of order but am looking forward to the other seven books.
How compassion works: A step-by-step guide to cultivating well-being, love, and wisdom by John Makransky and Paul Condon
A readable guide to compassion practice and psychological theory, How Compassion Works focuses on three styles of meditation: connecting with caring moments, recognizing the role of care in our lives, and expanding our thinking to adopt a stance of compassion toward others. The authors connect their practice to psychological theory as well as religious practice and other practice exercises. Read it slowly to get the most from the book.
Transgender Intersections: Race and Gender through Identities, Interactions, and Systems of Power by Carey Jean Sojka and Kylan Mattias de Vries.
A readable sociological study documenting the ways in which the gender transition experience can shifts not only gender, but also categories of identity such as race, social class, sexuality, and disability. The book combines theory (intersectionality, hypervisibility, etc.) with the voices of transgender individuals reflecting on the ways in which their identities were perceived. An enlightening and accessible book. Perhaps future edition should include a glossary.
Lethal Prey by John Sanford
I’ve read all the prey novels and the Virgil Flowers and Letty Davenport books as well. This latest book, featuring Davenport and Flowers working a twenty-year cold case. This one has the usual realism and quirky characters, the mostly infallible detectives, and it makes use of an unusual motif: true crime bloggers. Plus there is a cliffhanger ending setting up a future story.
The Moonpool by P T Deutermann
A selection for by book group, featuring private detectives who get pulled into investigating a security lapse at a nuclear power plant when one of their colleagues ends up killed from radiation poisoning. It was kind of implausible and kitchen-sinky, but the engaging characters (and dogs) and fast pace made the story work. I’ll read Deutermann again.
