16 reviews 9 YES · 3 DEPENDS · 2 DNF · 2 NO Who this is

• NONFICTION Roundtable Into Thin Air Jon Krakauer · 1997 The book’s value is that it shows exactly how a carefully organised undertaking can become unsound while everyone involved is still insisting that the next step is manageable. A System Under Load YES
• HISTORICAL FICTION Roundtable Lonesome Dove Larry McMurtry · 1985 I liked Lonesome Dove more than I expected to, although I did not enjoy all of it. A Fine Herd, Poor Planning, and a Lot of Dead Men YES
• CRIME & THRILLER Roundtable Only to Sleep: A Philip Marlowe Novel Lawrence Osborne · 2018 The best reason to read Only to Sleep is not to find out whether Donald Zinn has faked his death. Marlowe, Maintenance Required YES
• HORROR Roundtable Swan Song Robert R. McCammon · 1987 For all its excess, Swan Song earned its ending. A Very Long Way to Find Out What Survives YES
• HISTORICAL FICTION Roundtable The Name of the Rose Umberto Eco · 1980 I enjoyed The Name of the Rose, although I did not enjoy every page equally. A Proper Mystery, With Too Much Furniture YES
• CLASSICS Roundtable The Razor's Edge W. Somerset Maugham · 1944 The book takes a long route to it, with several unnecessary detours, but it gets there. A Long Detour Towards a Sensible Question YES
• NONFICTION Roundtable Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert M. Pirsig · 1974 My final view is therefore mixed, but not evenly mixed. A Very Long Way to Find the Useful Point DEPENDS
• CRIME & THRILLER Roundtable Bits and Pieces Nichole Severn · 2021 I said the book is a romantic suspense, but the romance that matters most is between the killer and a dead man. A Freezer Full of Labels YES
• CRIME & THRILLER Roundtable Unspoken Truths Liz Mistry · 2019 The family stuff runs in parallel and I am not sure every strand earned its keep, but it is the same book about things left unsaid until they rot. Check the door wedge before you trust the confession YES
• LITERARY FICTION Roundtable May We Feed the King Rebecca Perry · 2026 I was simply no longer interested enough in the repeated demonstrations surrounding it. Too long arranging the evidence DNF
• CRIME & THRILLER Roundtable Perfect Remains Helen Fields · 2017 That is the trouble when this kind of thriller starts performing intelligence instead of doing the graft. Shelved with the Scottish procedurals, written like a seminar NO
• ROMANCE Roundtable Shadow Assassin Elle James · 2021 Leaving an active threat to roam a building because you wish to avoid an awkward conversation is a dereliction of duty. A failure of basic site security and structural logic DNF
• ROMANCE Roundtable Some Like It Psychic Ruby West and Ella Winters · 2021 The book is at its best when it stops explaining the magic and simply watches its heroine become the person she was supposed to be all along. For the Right Reader, This Is Just the Thing DEPENDS
• HORROR Roundtable The Gospel of Z Stephen Graham Jones · 2014 You can see exactly where the contractor has tried to hide the shortfall, but the numbers still refuse to add up. A catastrophic failure of basic structural logic NO
• CLASSICS Roundtable The Magician's Nephew C. S. Lewis · 1955 But the founding of Narnia is the best thing in the book, and it does not work by description; it works by process. Workings shown YES
• ROMANCE Roundtable Wyoming Cowboy Marine Nicole Helm · 2019 I wish the rest of the book had kept that discipline up, because it doesn't, not by a long chalk. Confident to the Nearest Ten Per Cent DEPENDS

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