This was recommended to me as a good detective series if I was looking for one. I liked the detective character--Peter Diamond, an old-school technology eschewing guy--but found the plot of this story a little basic at the beginning and convoluted at the end. It’s from the nineties, so we don’t have cell phones or really personal computers, just a lot of “working the problem.” A good book for nighttime when it’s helpful if stories are a bit dull.

A collection of Monteiro essays that from a couple of different places, mostly advice to designers especially younger, new-career ones. If you know the sort of writing he does, this is the short form version of it. There’s some overlap because he’s talking to different audiences (you’ll read a couple of anecdotes twice) but it’s strong, forceful and says things that need to be said about how to do the business part of design, from talking to clients to getting paid.

Taylor was the fastest bicycle racer in the early days of cycling. He was also Black and dealing with the post-Civil War era in the US with its rabid racists, some of them cyclists. Taylor was a Christian and opted often for a “turn the other cheek” approach, but not always. This book is about his early life and racing career, from his first to his last race, including a lot of international travel. It tells a great story about a fascinating man who should be better known.

Book 73: Villain. Picking up where Hench left off, sort of a “What kind of person becomes a villain, and what motivates them to do evil things?” novel where the protagonist is the hench person to a villain named Leviathan who is partially insectoid. Things get complicated when he defeats his rival (in the last book) and loses a sense of purpose. Then they get somewhat involved and there’s a whole bolted-on segment about their sex life. Then they fight the good guys. Not as good as the original (too much relationship-angst for my tastes and some weird nonconsensual stuff which isn’t sex stuff but still feels difficult) but otherwise still pretty clever and fun.

This is a problematic series of books that I nonetheless continue to read because I like the characters and the author, very wisely, has moved on from it mainly being about the Israeli secret services. In fact, Israel isn’t mentioned at all to the best of my recollection except for some brief memories. This episode was about a billionaire whose wife is kidnapped (or is she?) and about some Russian oligarchs who may or may not be behind it all. A fairly pat book (I was expecting nothing more) and slightly better than usual though I could have done with some more art restoration themes.

I got this book as a set of books from a publisher who I had done some work for. This was a big swing for me, the sort of book I would have devoured in college but not lately. It’s a reprint of Attfield’s book originally from 2000 with a bit of new material at the beginning and the end. She really looks into the theory of items after they’ve been purchased and as they get used (wild things), not just the design-y aspect of them. In fact it’s a lot more about everyday items than “high style” ones. A dense read but a good one.