Knot of Shadows by Lois McMaster Bujold

 I've said it before, I'm certain, but Bujold is one of those writers whose works I can enjoy over and over again. She's like comfort food for my brain.

Knot of Shadows continues the saga of Penric and Desdemona which began with Penric's Demon, and has generated a total of nine novelettes so far. Can't determine whether the story length selection by Bujold has been an inspirational affair or a financial decision; more books at a lower prices = better net sales over time? It certainly has made it an easier decision for me to pull the trigger on the latest Kindle offering at $3.99 rather than $14.99 for most other authors. Dorothy Grant has done something similar that seems to be working out well.

Anyway, most of the recent offerings in this saga have had at their heart some quirky mystery that Penric needs to solve, using his wits, sorcerous skills, and Desdemona's experience, as well as a little help from his friends. In this story, a body has been fished out of the harbor which is only, as they say "mostly dead". It turns out to have been inhabited by a ghost, not the spirit of the person who occupied the body originally, who has been slain by death magic, or death miracle, depending on your theological point of view in the world of the Five Gods.

For those who have been following Bujold for some time, this further explores some concepts that arose in her first book in this world, Curse of Chalion, about how death magic/miracles work and some of their more unexpected consequences. Hmmm...we don't seem to have any novels by Bujold involving death magic where it happens exactly as expected, do we? Point to ponder.

Reading this one inspired me to go back and binge read Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls over the weeekend. I highly recommend all of Bujold's books, but most especially the Vorkosigan stories and the Five Gods stories.

Elements of Investing by Burton Malkiel

 Malkiel is the author of A Random Walk Down Wall Street, long considered to be one of the classic books on investment, so I thought I'd check out this book by him, as well. 

I think I've been studying investing too long now, as absolutely nothing in here came as a surprise to me. He and his co-author, to varying degrees, simply advocate buying broadly-based index funds with low expense ratios and relying on the overall market to deliver perfectly good returns without worry nor fuss. Pick an age-appropriate asset allocation, with a certain percentage allocated to bond funds, a percentage to international stocks and a percentage to domestic stocks, rebalance annually, and you can go on blissfully enjoying life on autopilot until retirement.

They provide a lot of data, painstakingly gathered over the years, to support their conclusions, which I certainly can't refute, and probably wouldn't want to. My only problem with it is it's all just so...boring. What would I fiddle with and fixate upon if I just handled all of my investments that way?

All kidding aside, this is actually very sound strategy, and could have been summed up in a simple news headline, rather than a novel-length work of non-fiction. However, it's a good idea to provide the facts to back up one's arguments, and Malkiel has done just that.

For the most part, I suppose, in my own strategy within 401k plans offered by my employers over the years, I have done something very similar to that, picking three or four funds, setting the autobalance switch to "on" and letting it ride until something changed, such as adding or removing fund selections by the custodial firm running the plan. And I've certainly recommended something similar to my own children and employees (surrogate children) over the years. 

A pretty decent book for those just encountering the idea of retirement investing, but nothing new nor exciting for those of us who have been around a while.

Full Shovels

 When I was young, my maternal grandfather, "Gramps" ran a septic pumping and sewer contracting business (Forgive me for flaunting my white privilege, please). On a side note, one of the most spectacular things in my perspective as an eight year old boy was getting to watch Gramps dump several thousand gallons of raw sewage at the waste facility out in L.A. County one day. A seemingly never-ending torrent of poop!

Anyway, Gramps' profession resulted in him being able to dig a hole or ditch faster than nearly anyone I have ever known, and when I was a teenager, that seventy five year old man could outwork me all day long. Gramps instilled in me a strong work ethic; an almost pathological need to make sure all my work for the day is done before allowing myself to go off and play.

I spent a good part of one summer with him in the mountains at his hunting cabin, digging fence post holes and other chores. At one point we were in the process of digging a well where the dowser had indicated we'd find water. I remember him saying to me, "Full shovels, Jon! Full shovels! If you're going to the trouble of lifting a shovel all the way out of the hole, make sure it's all the way full, not just half-full."

That little lesson from Gramps stuck with me all of my life. If you're going to the trouble to perform a task, be sure that you're getting the maximum results from your efforts. Don't settle for partial results and inefficiency.

Full shovels, folks, full shovels!

Back?

  So, I'm feeling the urge to write a bit again; I might even have the glimmer of some ideas about a book on running a small restaurant, but that will probably be on hold till I retire.

However, regarding other folks' books, I've been reading some books by Catherine Asaro, the Major Bhaajan series, lately. I recall having read one of Asaro's books in the Skolian Empire series a long time ago, but for some reason I just couldn't get into it, probably a bit too romance-y for me. Hmmm...this brings to mind the thought that there's a ton of PNR genre, which everyone knows, but lesser known is the SFR genre, which actually dates back pretty far...some of the old Marion Zimmer Bradley and Andre Norton springs to mind...can't recall who wrote the Rissa and Tregare series (F.M. Busby), but that would certainly fall into it, as well as some of Tanya Huff's books. Guys who wrote SFR? Not so many, but if I give it enough time it will come to me.

Anyway, this series is about a retired major who is now a private investigator, hired by powerful people to find and return one of their family who has been kidnapped or perhaps simply run away from home. It's set on a desolate and dying planet with a sharply divided population; the dust rats who live in the Undercity (coincidentally the title of the first book) and the middle and upper classes who live in the city of Cries, itself. The second and third novels are titled The Bronze Skies and The Vanished Seas.

Bhaajan was born and raised (metaphorically by wolves) in the Undercity, and fought prejudice and poverty by enlisting in the military and working twice as hard as those of higher social class in order to become an officer. I wonder if there's some Asaro novels about that story. Off to Goodreads!

Her background makes her uniquely qualified to search the labyrinth of the Undercity for the missing person, and along the way she begins to become an influencer for change in her world's culture.

Rich background, colorful characters, and an intriguing mystery to follow in each of the books so far have made these an enjoyable read.