Friday Reads

Here’s what I’m reading right now.

Recently finished:

Titanium Noir by Nick Harkaway — I got an ARC of this book from the publisher, but it will be out in August, and I highly recommend it to anyone who’s a fan of sci-fi and detective stories. I’m a huge fan of Harkaway’s work, but I got a particular amount of joy out of this one. In a near future, the very rich have access to a process that cures all their ills and extends their lives for decades. But it makes them literally larger than life, increasing their size and height, which leads to their nickname: Titans. A private detective specializing must solve the murder of a Titan, and it tangles him back in the world of impossibly wealthy oligarchs who look down on everything around them. It’s the best metaphor for the billionaire class I’ve read yet.

Currently reading:

The Jesse Stone novels — I’m working my way through all of Robert B. Parker’s Jesse Stone books. I’d read several of them years ago, but I was always more of a Spenser fan. Now that I’m going through them from the start, I like Jesse much more than I did on my first run. There is a sadness and grace and solidity to Jesse that I missed the first time. He carries a great deal of undeserved guilt, which makes him a good caretaker of other people, but not very careful with himself. Like Spenser, he has an unshakeable moral core. That was Parker’s great skill: creating characters who embodied a particular morality without any speeches. It’s much harder to do on paper than you’d think, and I’m having a great time watching the master at work.

Next on the shelf:

Trust the Plan by Will Sommer — A history of the growth of the QAnon conspiracy theory from the lunatic fringe to the mainstream of U.S. politics. I really want to know how a delusional mishmash of a dozen different plots from TV, movies, and antisemitic propaganda became a movement that includes people who have been elected to Congress.

Tell me what you’re reading in the comments. I’m always looking for the next book.