I’m under strict orders to rest as much as I can this weekend to speed up the healing of my banged-up brain (as opposed to being messed up, which I’ve experienced also.) This is an excellent way to feel good about resting, a strong enticement; I’m focusing on three exciting books right now with a fourth (Rosamund Lipton’s Three Hours coming next week).

I’ve got three books ready for this weekend. I expect to get through at least two of them.

Ava Glass’s Alias Emma is the first of her new and much-praised British spy series. I’ve just finished the second, and I liked it so much that I got the first even before I finished the second. I didn’t want there to be any space between them..

I highly recommend Glass; she is one of the new wave of women spy novelists entering LeCarre territory.

Lecrewas is unique and a genius; his books were about much more than spies. I am sure he will stick out as one of the great writers of his time.  It’s unfair to keep comparing everyone who writes a spy novel with him. There is no one like him.

Glass doesn’t write like him, and his character Emma is cheerful, young, and not yet made cynical by the ruthless, dark,  and devious world of spying as LeCarre saw it. Like LeCarre, Glass has been there; she is familiar with spy talk and procedure. Emma is a young warrior for MI5, eager to plunge into where others don’t dare to go. Russian murderers are her favorite target, and since her father was a British spy killed by the Russians, she takes it seriously. I’m a fan.

I just ordered one of Jonathan Lethem’s early books, brilliant novels focusing on the gentrification of Brooklyn people and neighborhoods. He’s a wonderful writer. I’m excited about this weekend. Maria and I are having a quiet weekend so I can heal and she can deal with her mother’s death.

Gentrification was much worse than I imagined, and his stories are reaching and beautifully written.  The poor always get knocked out of their lives by rich yuppies who don’t care whose lives they disrupt.

I love his writing and am excited to return to it, even though The Fortress of Solitude was only available in paperback, a form I  try to avoid. The type is reliable, tiny, and hard to read, and I like the feel of hardcovers. He’s worth it.

I’m eager to read Rosamund Lipton’s much-loved and praised story of the fight to save the lives of children in a British private school attacked by terrorists. The children have saved the life of the wounded and brave headmaster, but the question is how the children can be saved in what has become a gripping standoff. The book is a testament to love and courage, not a bloody horror story. The subject matter is sadly timely.  It should be here by October 2nd.

I keep putting off Louise Penny’s new book, A World Of Curiosities. I like Penny’s writing and settings and enjoy following Inspector Gamache’s story. Still, I find his terrible fights with his trusted in-law companion tiring, irrelevant, and distracting. I expect to get around to the book, but I see that I am not rushing to read it, which always tells me something.

What does his troubled aide and in-law to do with the murders they are supposed to be investigating?

I like the work of the new generation of female crime writers more. Her writing is stiff at times.