by Alvaro Enrigue

I read this on someone’s recommendation and against my initial reluctance after a brief sample. It’s a retelling of Cortez and Montezuma mostly from the perspective of several powerful Aztecs and various Spanish soldiers and translators. I was gripped through most of it, waiting for the big finish. Things went a little off the rails at the end. I feel like certain plot points were unsatisfied. I could be wrong – this book was very hard to follow. Normally I ignore “cast of characters” lists in a book, and challenge the author to engage me enough to keep track of who’s who. But everyone here had several different names, and some of the Aztec names were a mouthful and too similar to each other. So I had to bookmark the cast of characters. I’d say I was thoroughly hooked on the story through 90% of it, so overall “enjoyed” the book. But the ending really wasn’t satisfying.

by Judith & Neil Morgan

Ted Geisel seemed a fun guy. I kept picturing him as Groucho Marx. This was a good bio that stayed interesting.

by George Loewenstein

“Misery is inescapable. It is not some malfunction or bug in the system. It IS the system.”