207 Book Talk

Would you go back in time, and face whatever potential consequences there might be for that choice, if you could erase a mistake or eliminate a painful memory? That is a central question of Recursion  by Blake Crouch .  I am a huge fan of this author, and I was excited to realize he had written another book since Dark Matter  (which I loved), and that it fit prompts for both the PopSugar and Around the Year in 52 books challenges for 2021.  I found the premise of this book super interesting at first, but then I really struggled to stay engaged when the focus first shifted from Barry to Helena, and I found throughout the story that I enjoyed the portions told from Barry's point of view much more than those told by Helena.  Basically (and this story is NOT basic... brace yourself for lots of neuroscience), NYPD Detective Barry Sutton goes to a call for a woman sitting on the ledge of a tall building in NYC. She is suffering from False Memory Syndrome, a known but ...

 I noticed when I added Believe Me  by J.P. Delaney to my currently reading shelf on Goodreads that it had a rating of 3.68. In the past, a lower score like this led me to shy away from a book unless I really wanted to read it, but I have learned that while I sometimes agree with other readers, there are often times that I just don't, and this ended up being one of them. The book opens with a scene, as it might be written in a movie script or play. This made me a bit nervous, but I quickly realized the whole book was not written in this style, and I was intrigued from the first pages.  Claire is a struggling actress from the UK trying to make it, without a green card, in New York City. To make ends meet, she works for a law firm to catch men willing to cheat on their wives. She doesn't feel great about it, but it gives her a chance to practice her acting and it helps pay the bills.  Enter Stella, wife of Patrick Fogler, a Columbia University professor. Claire is aske...