Climbing Mount TBR

The first book club read of the year!

I read this trilogy in a bit over a week.  This usually means it was great, I'm upset it ended and I'm looking for other books by the same author.  Well 2 out of 3 ain't bad.  I will be looking for other books by these authors but I'm likely to stop reading after book 1 if its a trilogy.  The high level ratings

The Relic - This is Great!

The Reliquary - Well okay then

The Cabinet of Curiosities - WTF did I just read

Looking up to make sure I checked the spoiler box, yep I did because there will be spoilers.

The Relic was an awesome read.  I loved the way the story is told through multiple points of views.  I'm also a sucker for the up through the ranks, says it like it is cop.  Add in a couple of strong female characters and I'm all in.     I could believe there was a monster in the basement of the NY Natural History museum.  That place is huge, who knows whats down in the deepest basement.  They made the science believable.  I have no expertise in genetics, other than understanding there's a great deal of data to compare when working with it.  There was actually a significant delay for computer processing when doing DNA analysis and you needed someone trained to read the results.  Yes this is real world not the usual I hit enter 2 seconds later the info scrolls past and the with it 12 year old nerd can read the results crap.  

Through hard work and planning the monster is vanquished and our heroes win the day.  Not without some significant collateral damage but hey these things happen.  I was even looking forward to book two what with Greg swiping some of the monster making plant fibers for his own work.

The Reliquary - a frequently frustrating read did make me want to research underground New York.  Seriously its very near water how much usable underground can there be?  I did like the symmetry of the police diver Snow at the initial discovery and at the rescue.  Pendergrast gets the whole gang back together including pulling Frost out of retirement.  They have a whole new set of Museum bureaucrats but they aren't central to this particular story, instead we get a view of the corrupt police/city government and the homeless problem.  Smithback continues to be an idiot who can't think past the possibility of the "big story"   

Our boy Greg has figured out how to grow the monster plant and has been editing the DNA to avoid that eating the plant turns you into a monster problem.   He also discovered its a drug and has been selling the stuff to support his sciencing habit.  Really!   Well he was selling it before he got all the monstery bits edited out and that's how you get wrinklers.  Semi reptilian people that live in the lowest, deepest parts of underground NY and have been leaving behind beheaded corpses much like the museum beast did.  Which is why Pendergrast got the old gang together.   This all culminates in a massive Charlie Foxtrot where upper class New Yorkers are having a protest while the powers that be have decided to flood the underground tunnels using water from the reservoir.   Turns out the monster plants are growing in the reservoir (they are a sort of lily so makes since) and the new lead monster is counting on this since the virus in the monster plants will trigger a new evolutionary wave.  

Because big macho NY cops won't listen to Hayward (I needed more Hayward) you end up with angry homeless people popping out of manhole covers right in the middle of rich people march and a riot ensues.   I have to admit the mental image of hordes of the dispossessed popping out of manhole covers was magical.

Pendergrast and crew save the day in a less than believable way, but I am happy they survive except for Smithback.  Seriously, the dude should have consequences but no he keeps making it through scrapes and emerging relatively unscathed.

Cabinet of Curiosities 

And I'm still reading because I've read trilogies where the middle is meh but the bookends are wonderful.

Okay by this point I've decided that Pendergrast is a sort of Voodoo Batman Sherlock character, he just does what he wants and knows stuff.   The old gang has moved on, because seriously who wouldn't, except for Smithback who is still looking for that Pulitzer.  And I will point out I checked spoilers.  Some dude (who turns out to be Pendergrast's great-great-uncle) was looking for the secret to extend life in the late 19th century.  This turns out to be a side mission because the dude's ultimate goal is to destroy humanity because we're evil.   Insanity evidently runs in Pendergrast's family.  Imagine that.   Although I did like the walks through the memory palace and other conceits I read the last 100 pages of this thinking, how is he going to get out of this?  The only high point is Smithback finally gets consequences, almost deadly ones. Now I have to look up cabinet of curiosities because silly me I thought they referred to actual pieces of furniture containing things not entire buildings.

Now I'm going to read some nice soothing historical-fiction.

Could not put this book down.  This was a wonderful novel in the gothic tradition.  Complete with storied manor that has seen better days, titled family that peaked generations ago and hints of otherworldly activity.  Even though everyone emphatically does not believe in ghosts.  This was a story told by two women from two different eras in alternating chapters.    The author managed to create a seamless story with this back and forth.  

Each year I make reading goals for the year.  2019 was a complete and total wash.  I read a fraction of what I intended to read and I added 50+ books to my TBR pile.  Its kind of scary.  There are books on every horizontal surface in my home with the exception of the kitchen.  Part of my goals is reducing that pile.  

Year goal is 70 books.  60 have to be from my stash.  I need the 10 book wiggle room because I do belong to a book club.   This isn't too much of a stretch since I can comfortably read a book a week on a busy month and I've already designated some Sunday's as reading time only.

For January.  I plan on finishing Educated, Something Like Love, Evil Genius, Fiercombe Manor, and Quiet.   Then read a Gentleman in Moscow for my book group.  I'm going to plan on finishing 7 books a month.  That will allow for wiggle room when I read something with 700 pages and it takes longer to finish.

Okay full disclosure, I like shifter stories, I like them with romance, I like them without romance.  I like the entire they're hiding among us hidden idea.  I like the "true mate" concept where shifters know who their person is.   This was a new author I hadn't read previously so giving them a try.   I gave 2-1/2 stars because while I enjoyed her writing and could like the characters I didn't like her world.  I expect a certain amount of conflict in the story but this was just more than I could cope with.  Shifters meet gangsters kind of violence and casual abuse of female shifters.   The one bright spot is the main character, a bear shifter alpha, was trying to manage the violence. 

Somewhat fitting that my last book of 2019 was about the exploitation of native people.  This was a difficult reading, even knowing that not all of the story was Rigoberta's personal story.   I could probably find similar stories of American colonists taking over native lands here and we're still doing it.

The book was a bit difficult to read due to the language.  Rigoberta does not have a standard education and her word choice and story telling can occasionally be repetitive and hard to follow.  It still added to my understanding of how native people's view the world very differently from western European capitalists.   It was also interesting having her explain how they merged Catholicism/Christianity in with their own beliefs.  Ending up rejecting the "accept suffering here because you're going to a better place" line of reasoning and replacing it with "God would want us to alleviate suffering here and now".  Then taking their own lessons from the bible, especially the underdog defending our territory lessons.   

Rigoberta is still alive and still fighting.