Steve reads stuff he shouldn't in 2023

Tämä viestiketju jatkuu täällä: Steve reads stuff he shouldn't in 2023. Part 2, More stuff.

Keskustelu75 Books Challenge for 2023

Liity LibraryThingin jäseneksi, niin voit kirjoittaa viestin.

Steve reads stuff he shouldn't in 2023

1swynn
Muokkaaja: tammikuu 1, 2023, 8:28 pm

I'm Steve, 54, a technical services librarian at a medium-sized public university. I live in Missouri with my wife, son, mother and my running partner Buddy. This is my 14th year with the 75ers.

My reading follows my whims, but is heaviest with science fiction and fantasy. I also read mysteries, thrillers, and horror. I don't read enough non-fiction, but when I do it covers a range of subjects including history, language, popular science, unpopular mathematics, running, library science, and shiny stuff. I've also been reading a lot of books that have been challenged or banned, and I expect that to continue, hence my thread's title, "Steve reads stuff he shouldn't."

I'm usually reading at least three books:
(1) something on the Kindle app, which I read whenever I'm standing in line or when the lights are off;
(2) a paperback, usually from my own shelves, which I read while walking Buddy; and
(3) something borrowed from the library, of which there is usually a larger stack than I can reasonably expect to finish and which I call "The Tower of Due." Here's what it looks like now:


2swynn
Muokkaaja: tammikuu 3, 2023, 3:52 pm

(A) The DAWs

For several years now, I've been reading through the catalog of DAW, the first American imprint exclusively devoted to science fiction & fantasy publishing. It launched in 1972 under the editorship of Donald A. Wollheim (hence the name), and continues today, publishing new books at a rate faster than I'm catching up. Last year I read 14; this year I hope to aim for about one a week but realistically I think I can get 30.

DAWs so far: 0
Next up: The Final Circle of Paradise by Arkadi and Boris Strugatski

(B) Bestsellers

For the last few years, Liz (lyzard) and I have been reading through American bestsellers at a rate of one per month. I stayed caught up to Liz through most of 2022, and am feeling good about 2023.
Bestsellers so far: 0
Next Up: The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub

(C) Banned in Boston

Another project I've been co-reading with Liz is a list of books that were "banned in Boston."

Banned in Boston so far: 0
Next up: The Sorrows of Elsie by Andre Savignon

(D) Banned Here and Now

In the U.S., we currently have an epidemic of book challenges and bans targeted especially at school and public libraries, with the intent of silencing all perspectives other than straight cisgendered white evangelical Christian ones. One of the things I do in response to this is to read the books the banners would like to see disappear.

Banned so far: 0
Next up: Can't Take That Away by Steven Salvatore

Diversity goals

Left to itself, my reading skews straight, white, and male. For the last few years I've tracked proportion of non-straight, non-white, and non-male authors in an effort to be more conscious of this. Last year I read: 20% LGBTQ, 23% authors of color, and 49% women and nonbinary authors. (Targets were 15, 20, and 50.) Targets this year are again 15%, 20%, and 50%. Recommendations welcome.

(E) Not Straight: 0 (0%)
(F) Not White: 0 (0%)
(G) Not Dudes: 0 (0%)

Other Good Intentions

Continue more series than I start. According to the spreadsheet where I keep track, I have started but not finished 309 series. My insufficient strategy for managing that number is to continue more series than I start and to finish a series every now and then. Last year I started 20, continued 27, and finished 5.


  • (H) Series started: 0


  • (I) Series continued: 0


  • (J) Series finished (or up-to-date): 0



3swynn
tammikuu 1, 2023, 8:11 pm

Reserved for The List

4swynn
Muokkaaja: tammikuu 1, 2023, 10:05 pm

** The Perry Rhodan Post **

Perry Rhodans so far: 0
Next Up: #203 Die Stadt der Verfemten by William Voltz

For those who have never encountered it: Perry Rhodan is the hero of a weekly German science-fiction serial that is marketed as the world's largest science fiction series. I don't know whether that claim is true -- no doubt it depends on how one measures "large." Measured by words in print, PR has few if any competitors, certainly neither the Star Wars nor Star Trek franchises, which are relatively puny. The main series has been continuously published since September 1961 in weekly novella-length adventures. The current issue is number 3202. The English translations of these episodes ran to about 100 pages per, so we're talking about a story 320,000 pages long and growing. And that's just the main series. Besides the main series there have been over 400 standalone paperback novels, not to mention spinoffs (the spinoff series Atlan ran for 850 episodes), reboots (the reboot series Perry Rhodan NEO appears biweekly and is currently in its 294th episode), miniseries, video games, comic books, and one comically awful movie.

* Why am I reading this?

I first encountered the series as an exchange student to West Germany in 1986. I fell in love with everything about the series: the complicated backstory, the cheesy plots, the lurid covers, even the cheap newsprint. At that time I had access only to the latest issues and random back issues as I discovered them at flea markets so plots were frequently opaque, which actually added to the series's appeal. A couple of years ago I discovered that digitized back issues could be bought in packages online: I started from issue number 1, and all of that love came back.

So my reasons for reading are multiple and personal. It's about nostalgia, maintaining language skills, and feeding my inner middle-schooler. I wouldn't necessarily recommend the series except in small doses for curiosity's sake. But neither will I apologize: I love this crap even (maybe especially) when Perry Rhodan is an asshole. Which, actually, is most of the time.

* The Story So Far

Each episode is a standalone story, but the narrative is organized into story arcs, mostly running to 50 or 100 episodes. The arcs are usually separated by significant chronological gaps, which serve the marketing function of making the beginning of a story arc a good entry point for new readers.

Episodes 1-49: The Third Power (1971-1984)

The series begins with the first manned lunar mission in 1971. On the moon, Perry Rhodan and his crew discover a foundered spacecraft of the Arkonide Empire. Rhodan eliminates cold-war hostilities, establishes a Terran government capable of dealing with extraterrestrial threats, builds bases through the solar system, and assembles a team of psychically-talented mutants (*ahem* predating the X-Men by two years). He also meets IT, a disembodied benevolent superintelligence that offers Perry and other Terrans an anti-aging treatment.

Episodes 50-99: Atlan and Arkon (2040-2045)

The Terrans face multiple threats: the powerful interplanetary Arkonide Empire; the "Springers," a society of galactic merchants; the "Aras," a race of unscrupulous physicans, and the Druuf, inhabitants of a parallel universe that temporarily overlaps ours. Perry also meets Atlan, a practically immortal Arkonide who has been living on Earth since prehistory waiting for an opportunity to go home.

Episodes 100-149: The Posbis (2102-2112)

A united Terran/Arkonide empire faces new challenges. First, Terrans discover Arkon's progenitors the Akons, who regard both Arkonides and Terrans as inferiors. Then, the Milky Way galaxy is attacked by two extragalactic invaders: the Posbis, machine/biological hybrids hostile to all biological life; and the Laurins, invisible warriors hostile to the Posbis and anyone who gets in their way.

Episodes 150-199: The Second Empire (2326-2329)

The superintelligence IT flees the galaxy in order to avoid some looming danger. No longer able to offer the anti-aging treatment, IT scatters 25 immortality devices around the galaxy. Searching for the devices, Terrans encounter two new threats: first, Hornschrecken, ravenous fast-reproducing caterpillar-things that can eat a planet smooth as a billiard ball within weeks; also the Hornschrecken's mature form, the Schreckworms. The second threat is the Blues, rulers of a second interplanetary empire on the "east side" of the galaxy, and who are allied with the Schreckworms and are also hostile to Terrans -- in fact, to any life other than Blues. Following a war with the Blues, Perry Rhodan is kidnapped by a would-be usurper from a Terran colony world. While Rhodan is absent, imperial treaties with Akon and the Blues are strained, and the Alliance with Arkon is strained to the breaking point.

5swynn
Muokkaaja: tammikuu 3, 2023, 2:52 pm

The last Perry Rhodan update brought us to episode 190. Perry Rhodan and his closest advisors Atlan and Reginald Bull, along with Melbar Kasom and Andre Noir, have been missing for some time and are widely presumed dead. They are of course not dead but have survived a series of adventures: kidnapped by insurrectionists; abducted by Kahals, aliens with advanced technology which they barely understand; then transported to an uniabited planet on the galaxy's edge. Perry and friends manage to send a weak distress signal, which is picked up by a crew of mouse-beavers but also by the Blues.

       

Perry Rhodan 191: Tschato der Lowe = "Tschato the Lion" by William Voltz

The mouse-beaver "Admiral" Gecko and his crew have located Perry Rhodan, but in a system swarming with Blues battleships. They make a desperate play to call more Terran ships for help, but mostly just attract more Blues. Fortunately their call is also received by the Terran ship LION, helmed by Nome Tschato, master tactician and scourge of arms smugglers.

Perry Rhodan 192: Die Kriegslist des Akonen = "The Akon's Stratagem" by William Voltz

Having fought of the Blues to rescue Perry Rhodan, a small fleet of battle-damaged Terran ships carries him back home. But en route they meet a lone Akonish convoy smuggling illegal weapons to the Blues. Such an easy target, the Terrans commit what ships they can to apprehending it. But the convoy turns out to be bait for an ambush ...

Perry Rhodan 193: Panik im Sonnensystem = "Panic in the Solar System" by Kurt Brand

Perry and his missing team return to Earth, but have no time for R&R: the parliament of Terran colony worlds has met to discuss dissolving the Terran Empire, and a terrorist organization has launched a destructive campaign of bombings on Mars, the Moon, and Earth.

Perry Rhodan 194: Die Heimliche Invasion = "The Secret Invasion" by Kurt Mahr

As the Terran-Arkonide Empire falls apart, Perry hopes to keep Earth and its colony worlds unified. Complicating that goal is the government of Plophos, who see themselves as Earth's successors. In this episode, a Terran team goes undercover on Plophos to create an underground rebellion ... Or at least, the appearance of one.

Perry Rhodan 195: Der Sturz des Sterndiktators = "The Fall of the Star-Dictator" by Kurt Mahr

Undercover Terran agents lead a rebellion against the authoritian leader of Plophos. Lots of sneaking and fighting and narrow escapes.

     

Perry Rhodan 196: Planet der letzten Hoffnung = "Planet of Last Hope" by K.H .Scheer

Last Hope is a hell-planet: boiling hell on the day side, frozen hell on the night, and on the twilight border a secret Plophosian outpost where scientists try to reverse-engineer the Terrans' most powerful weapons. Most scientists work against their will, so news of the Plophosian dictator's fall leads to a showdown between those who want their freedom and the dictator's loyal taskmasters.

Perry Rhodan 197: Höllentanz der Riesen = "Hell-Dance of the Giants" by William Voltz

Nome Tschato and the crew of the LION discover a derelict Akonish ship, apparently damaged when it collided with something in hyperspace. Investigating, the crew suspect neo-molkex, the schreckworm-stuff used for armor on Blues ships. Their theory is confirmed when they find a nearby planet covered with the stuff -- but also swarming with creatures that seem to feed off it.

Perry Rhodan 198: Die letzte Bastion = "The Last Bastion" by H.G. Ewers

Iratio Hondro, ex-dictator of Plophos, has been on the run since his overthrow in episode 195. Most recently he has been hiding out and plotting revenge with his most trusted followers on planet Opposite. Following last episode's events Hondro's hideout is exposed, but he's not going down without a (monster robot) fight.

Perry Rhodan 199: Arkons Ende = "Arkon's End" by Kurt Brand

As the Terran worlds are distracted by Perry's wedding with Mory Abro, the Blues attack Arkon. There's stuff to like and to not here: yay space battles; Yay Mory for retorting to Perry, when he tells her to sit this one out, that she was a resistance fighter long before she was his girlfriend; but wtf Atlan for a creepy monolog about survival of the strongest.

And that's a wrap on the 4th Perry Rhodan story arc, "The Second Empire." I'm pretty excited about the next arc, "The Masters of the Island," which is the first 100-episode story arc and where a lot of fans feel the series first hits it stride.

6swynn
tammikuu 1, 2023, 8:12 pm

Happy New Year all!

7PaulCranswick
tammikuu 1, 2023, 8:37 pm



Happy New Year Steve!

8richardderus
tammikuu 1, 2023, 9:05 pm

2023...weren't we supposed to have flying cars by now?

...wait...we do...helicopters. Never mind, I forgot we're living in a sci fi novel.

9drneutron
tammikuu 1, 2023, 9:55 pm

Welcome back, Steve!

10swynn
Muokkaaja: tammikuu 1, 2023, 10:07 pm

>7 PaulCranswick:
>8 richardderus:
>9 drneutron:

Welcome, and happy new year Paul, Richard and Jim!

11ronincats
tammikuu 1, 2023, 10:11 pm

Happy New Year, Steve!

12kgodey
tammikuu 1, 2023, 10:38 pm

Hi Steve, I have you starred.

13swynn
tammikuu 2, 2023, 1:37 am

>11 ronincats:
>12 kgodey:

Welcome Roni and Kriti!

14BLBera
tammikuu 2, 2023, 8:03 am

Happy New Year, Steve. I hope 2023 is a good one for you. Maybe we'll see each other in Iowa City!

15swynn
tammikuu 2, 2023, 8:25 am

>14 BLBera: Welcome Beth! I'm definitely open to meetups in the area.

16bell7
tammikuu 2, 2023, 9:33 am

Happy new year, Steve! We may end up sharing some reads off the recently-banned lists. I got started last year on the top ten most banned in 2021 and hope to read some more this year as well.

17swynn
tammikuu 2, 2023, 11:47 am

>16 bell7:. Welcome Mary! Happy New Year!

18MickyFine
tammikuu 2, 2023, 12:11 pm

Starred, of course.

19ArlieS
tammikuu 3, 2023, 1:33 pm

>1 swynn: Hiya Steve. How could I not drop a star on a thread with a title like that?

I also very much hear you on the Tower-of-Due; I have a bag of no longer renewable books to go back to the library today, which includes 2 unstarted books and one that I started but didn't finish for lack of time. And that's after heroic efforts to finish them, and an extra week of loan time because of the winter holiday season.

20lyzard
tammikuu 3, 2023, 3:07 pm

Hi, Steve - starred of course! :)

I'm getting an itch to take on some of your banned books though I *really* don't need another category... :D

21swynn
tammikuu 3, 2023, 5:14 pm

>19 ArlieS:
>20 lyzard:

Welcome Arlie and Liz!

Re: Tower of Due: the struggle is real.
Re: needing more categories: Of course not, but did you really need the last fwumpty-seven categories? ... well, yes, you probably did once you thought about them. So, you know, think about it.

22swynn
Muokkaaja: tammikuu 4, 2023, 12:19 pm



1) Assassination Classroom, vol. 1 by Yusei Matsui
Date: 2012

Manga is mostly a Not My Thing thing, but Amber (scaifea) has been reading through this series and it sounded like it might be an exception. It's about a class of outcast high school students trying to assassinate their teacher, a creature who has destroyed the moon and promises to do the same to the earth if someone doesn't kill it first. Sure, the creature is a psychopath, but it also happens to be the best teacher the class has ever had. It's as nuts as it sounds and (surprise!) My Thing after all. I'll continue this one.

23scaifea
tammikuu 5, 2023, 12:51 pm

24richardderus
tammikuu 5, 2023, 1:04 pm

>22 swynn: ...wow...the year's off to a very unpredictable start over here....

25swynn
Muokkaaja: tammikuu 6, 2023, 10:26 am

>23 scaifea: Thanks for the rec, Amber!

>24 richardderus: More predictable stuff coming. I'm working now on H.W. Brands's Our First Civil War, which is this month's pick for a local book club. It's fine, but I don't think Brands is making his point very well -- I'm actually struggling to figure out what his point *is* -- and it's slow going at times, with lots of excerpts from 18th century letters and documents. Assassination Classroom provided a nice contrast.

26alcottacre
tammikuu 6, 2023, 10:55 am

A belated Happy New Year, Steve! I hope to get a lot of sci-fi recommendations from you as I try and expand my reading in that area.

27swynn
tammikuu 6, 2023, 11:43 am

Welcome, Stasia!

28FAMeulstee
tammikuu 10, 2023, 2:46 am

Happy reading in 2023, Steve!

29swynn
tammikuu 16, 2023, 3:10 pm



2) Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison
Date: 2021

Follow-up to The Goblin Emperor, which I read back in 2015 when it was nominated for a Hugo. This volume foregrounds a secondary character from the first book, a sort-of priest who speaks to the dead, occupied here with investigating a murder. I liked this better than the first, which was too heavy with petty court intrigue for my taste. (And was the whole point, so definitely a me thing.) This one has less intrigue but still the world and the heart. Maybe I won't wait so long to pick up the third.

30swynn
tammikuu 16, 2023, 3:12 pm



3) The Mystery of the Silver Spider by Robert Arthur
Date: 1967

Eighth in the Three Investigators series, and the weakest so far. The prince of a tiny European monarchy invites the boys abroad to attend his coronation. The US government gets involved, and employs the boys as "junior agents" inside the castle. It's less a mystery than a Ruritanian adventure, and feels out of place in the series, though I probably liked it fine when I was in the target audience.

31swynn
tammikuu 16, 2023, 3:32 pm



4) Our First Civil War by H. W. Brands
Date: 2021

It's another retelling of the American Revolution, this time mostly from the perspectives of Ben Franklin and George Washington. It focuses more on diplomacy, and personal reflections than on battles, and frequently works in excerpts from correspondence and memoirs. It's fine for what it is, but it isn't the book it presents itself to be. In the introduction Brands talks about how everyone forgets the Revolution was a civil war. (Do we really? What exactly does this claim even mean? Are there Revolutions that aren't civil wars? How does viewing the Revolution as a civil war shed light on later civil conflicts?) Brands also seems to promise insights about patriots and loyalists that he never delivers. In his wrap-up, Brands claims without evidence that post-Revolution historians quickly recast the Revolution as a foreign conflict between "Americans" and "British." This is also a very interesting claim, and I wish Brands found it interesting enough to explore.

32rosalita
tammikuu 16, 2023, 3:47 pm

>30 swynn: Yes, the "junior agent" bit stretches credulity beyond the breaking point, doesn't it? Like you, I'm sure I liked it when I first read it as a kid.

33swynn
tammikuu 16, 2023, 3:47 pm



5) Assassination Classroom, vol. 2 by Yusei Matsui
Date: 2012

Second in a manga series about a class of outcast high school students trying to assassinate their teacher before he destroys the earth. In this volume we meet a new teacher/professional assassin/sex object, learn a little more about the school, and join the students on a class trip. I'm no fan of the hypersexualized new teacher -- one of the tropes that often turns me off in manga stories. More intriguing to me are revelations about the students' institutional role.

34lyzard
tammikuu 16, 2023, 4:11 pm

>30 swynn:

I was taken aback during this re-read to realise they were, literally, spying! A very odd beast, as highlighted by the fact that all I remembered of it was where the spider was hidden. :)

>31 swynn:

I think the demonisation of the British that tends to mark any depiction of the Revolutionary War these days has begun to obscure the fact that a hell of a lot of Americans were fighting for the British: you only see events from the POV of those who didn't. There's a sense of it now as Americans fighting an invader rather than brother-against-brother, and the inconvenient truth that it was a civil war is lost or ignored.

(To give an odd example, this piece of history was relentlessly hashed over by the dreaded Elsie books, but entirely in terms of patriotic Americans and evil Britishers. So that sort of thing started early.)

35swynn
Muokkaaja: tammikuu 16, 2023, 8:49 pm

RANT FOLLOWS.

>34 lyzard: I think the demonisation of the British that tends to mark any depiction of the Revolutionary War these days has begun to obscure the fact that a hell of a lot of Americans were fighting for the British: you only see events from the POV of those who didn't. There's a sense of it now as Americans fighting an invader rather than brother-against-brother, and the inconvenient truth that it was a civil war is lost or ignored.

I think this is probably true, and I want to know more about it, and that's my central frustration with Brands's book. He lays out interesting questions about the Revolution as a civil war and what forces compelled participants to choose sides. But instead of exploring these questions, the main body of the text just rehashes the revolution. Brands's discussion of the Revolution-as-civil-war stops and starts with "X was a patriot" and "Y was a loyalist."

In fairness, he does foreground the relationship between Benjamin Franklin (patriot!) and his son William Franklin (loyalist!) as an example of how the conflict strained family relationships. But I want the claim, "The Revolution was a civil war" to have more interesting consequences than just "Some Americans sided with the English against the patriots." What proportion of the colonials were loyalist? Brands doesn't even guess. What does it mean to say that the Revolution was an American civil war, when the loyalist leadership, power structures, and financing were mostly British? (Or were they? Brands doesn't say, but implies that they were.)

If Brands's point is just that some Americans were loyalists, then that's just boring and hardly needs 450 pages to explicate. I'm puzzled that it's needed at all. The history curricula I've encountered since Junior High School taught that the colonials were divided. And the historical fiction that lives rent-free in my head -- My Brother Sam is Dead, Octavian Nothing, Fenimore Cooper's The Spy for some reason -- depends on loyalists for its plots. So, what texts or conversations does Brands have in mind? He never says. When you cite Elsie Dinsmore, you've offered more support for Brands's argument than Brands ever does.

I think Brands's claims, properly sharpened, are probably true, so for me it's a huge missed opportunity -- interesting things to explore, but no interest for exploring them.

36lyzard
Muokkaaja: tammikuu 16, 2023, 9:20 pm

>35 swynn:

You appreciate that I come at this as a complete outsider: I've never studied the subject, just picked up my knowledge in scraps from reading and movies. I don't know it in detail, but I know enough to know when I'm being offered a skewed or edited version of events.

As an outsider, then, I tend to get what has filtered through as acceptable for history-as-entertainment, rather than history as such.

Sometimes it's both: for example, in the Elsie books we eventually get the story of Major John André, which I already knew from the movie, The Scarlet Coat. Those books bang on endlessly about Benedict Arnold (and occasionally make a case for him), but that's as far as they go in acknowledging the split views---probably because that involved an individual grudge, not a broader philosophical divide. They have no interest in Americans who weren't "patriots".

And if I can make another observation from my own perspective - and if I can be forgiven for saying this at all these days - the French seem to be another inconvenient truth. :)

37swynn
tammikuu 17, 2023, 12:43 pm

>36 lyzard: I appreciate your extra-American perspective, Liz. I also suspect that my own asocial habits of information-gathering mean that I'm frequently clueless about what my neighbors think.

And yeah -- I share your sense that French (and Hessian) participation in the Revolution is deemphasized or even disregarded today, though it certainly loomed large in the colonials' understanding. Beans certainly does not ignore this, focusing as he does on Franklin who spent much of his time in Paris during the war, advocating for the patriots. I think Brand does a better job showing that, from another perspective, the American Revolution was a theater in a larger European conflict, than he does showing that it was an American civil war.

38lyzard
tammikuu 24, 2023, 3:51 pm

Well, well, well...what have we here?---



...a work of historical fiction by an American author, with an American protagonist, set just before the War of Independence, that demonises the British?? Say it ain't so! :D

Anyway. Having pondered, if you want to start with the earlier Auel books, I guess we can do that; and we may as well space them out rather than cramming. So if it suits you, we'll start with The Clan Of The Cave Bear next month and go from there? (Unless you're already cramming, in which case we'll revisit.)

39swynn
Muokkaaja: tammikuu 24, 2023, 6:35 pm

>38 lyzard: I think I can pass on that one, but yeah ...

I read the Brands book for a RL book group, and can report that my take on it was a minority one. Most others in the group agreed that they had never thought of the Revolutionary War as a civil war, and felt that Brands's book was a valuable corrective. In particular, the relationship between Franklins Sr. and Jr. was an effective demonstration of how the Revolution tore families apart. (Also Franklin père was kind of an asshole. We agreed on that, at least.) Puzzlingly, this is the same group with which I read The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, which I thought did a much better job of portraying divisions among colonials than Brands did.

One member of the group felt that Brands spent too little time discussing the experience of Black colonials and especially enslaved people. This too was a minority view, though I thought it was spot on and spoke to missed opportunities in linking the Revolution-as-Civil-War to longer-term divisions in the republic. I think part of the reason for this omission is that his method relies too heavily on personal memoirs, letters, and the kind of documents that enslaved people were prevented from producing.

It's very possible I'm missing the point because it wouldn't be the first time.

I also expect that Brands is right about American narratives quickly slanting to pretend that righteous American colonists presented a united front against the wicked British. I just wish he'd told that story instead of reducing it to an unsupported throwaway claim.

But: Earth's Children. I'm wrapping The Talisman tonight, and was going to start The Clan of the Cave Bear after that, but will be happy to kick that down the road to February.

40lyzard
tammikuu 24, 2023, 4:49 pm

>39 swynn:

Black and enslaved colonials do not tend to rate a mention in the 'entertainment' versions of the story. I would agree with your group member that this is a very neglected (or deliberately ignored) aspect of the story.

Apropos, the protagonist of Captain Nemesis comes from a slave-owning South Carolina family and the novel slides over this with an assertion that English hypocrisy on the subject of slavery is worse than actual slavery, and then interrupts the New Englander who is obviously about to argue the point. There is also an assertion that sailors in the British navy were treated worse than American slaves. Because, British! :D

Weirdly enough, the point at which the book absolutely has a point, the pressganging of random Americans, isn't pursued.

Anyway--- The Clan Of The Cave Bear in February it is, then.

41swynn
Muokkaaja: tammikuu 25, 2023, 5:01 pm

>41 swynn: *English* hypocrisy on the subject of slavery, huh? Never mind the actual slavemasters who start a war because they feel they've been done unto the way they've done unto others. Brands quotes a letter from Washington stating exactly this. "They treat us the way we treat our slaves!" The very nerve.

I finished The Talisman last night, and ended up liking it more than I did at the halfway point. The homoerotic thread, though -- where the first half is heavy with homophobic anxiety and slurs, but then the second half where Jack and Richard have a sort of romance -- I'm not sure how to read all that and am still pondering.

42jjmcgaffey
tammikuu 25, 2023, 2:52 pm

>41 swynn: I stalled out in the first half (quarter, actually, I think) of The Talisman. I'm encouraged to go back and see if I can slog through the mess in the front...

43swynn
Muokkaaja: tammikuu 25, 2023, 5:25 pm

>42 jjmcgaffey: Valid response. I won't promise the rest isn't a mess, but there is at least a point where it picks up.

44swynn
tammikuu 27, 2023, 3:20 pm



6) Paper Girls Volume 4 by Brian K. Vaughan
Date: 2018

More time-hopping shenanigans, and the various plot threads are finally starting to come together.

45swynn
Muokkaaja: tammikuu 27, 2023, 3:37 pm



7) Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, September-October 2022

It's a mostly-satisfying issue. My favorites were the ones by Reynolds, Arnason, and Egan.

Solidity by Greg Egan
Omar falls asleep in class and wakes up in a different one -- in a world where object permanence is broken, where people and possessions can disappear as soon as you let them out of your sight

Sparrows by Susan Palwick
Set on a college campus in the face of a unspecified, probably climate-related, disaster; everyone else has left campus because what's the point in staying? But Lacey stays to finish and submit her term paper because what's the point in anything else?

Things to do in Deimos when you're dead by Alastair Reynolds
A space-merchant faces a sort of virtual afterlife on Mars's moon Deimos

BAKEHAFU OK by Jendayi Brooks-Flemister
A sex worker in Tokyo accepts all clients, including human/animal hybrid Bakehafu

The Rules of unbinding by Geoffrey A. Landis
Just another genie-in-a-bottle story

One night stand by Eileen Gunn
Terry brings home the wrong man for a one-night stand, which leaves her dead and her daughter abducted. Terry's ghost sticks around for the investigation.

Bonus footage by Marissa Lingen
Humorous story about the star of a reality-related travel show, who visits dangerous locales on different planets.

Island history by Lia Swope Mitchell
Diary of a scientist researching an epidemic of madness on a remote island.

Grandmother troll by Eleanor Arnason
A teenage girl wakes a troll while visiting her family's summer home in rural Iceland.

The extraterrestrials are coming! The extraterrestrials are coming! by Peter Wood
Earth receives a message that extraterrestrials will arrive in thirty days. Politicians scramble to spin the story.

The rise of Alpha Gal by Rich Larson
A young scientist develops a serum that causes permanent severe allergy to red meat. Next question is how to use it .

The Court Martial of the Renegat Renegades, Part I by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
The first half of a short novel from Rusch's Diving Universe. It involves a spaceship returning from a mission one hundred years after setting out, ony half its crew remaining, and its original captain among the lost. The survivors are brought up on charges of mutiny.

46swynn
tammikuu 27, 2023, 3:43 pm



8) Generation Loss by Elizabeth Hand
Date: 2007

Cass Neary was once a promising young photographer, documenting the excesses of the punk music movement. But she also participated in the same excesses and now she's washed up, strung out, and scraping by. Then her agent offers her an interview with a reclusive artist who lives on an island off the coast of Maine. Partly for the money, partly because the artist was a personal influence on her own work, Cass takes the job ... and steps into a mess of scandal, resentment, and rivalry. It's a noirish crime thriller with a dislikeable, barely functional hero. I enjoyed it much.

47lyzard
tammikuu 27, 2023, 3:58 pm

>41 swynn:

The point comes up when the characters start their career as anti-pirate pirates by hijacking a loaded slave-ship---but having brought it up, the novel shifts away from the subject as soon as it can.

If you can't deal with historical reality, you probably shouldn't be writing historical fiction. Or at least, don't (unnecessarily) make your hero a southerner.

It's hard to say if we're meant to interpret that as thematically connected or if the former is just "shit that happens". Mid-80s the latter was probably the daring part of it - not that the feelings are there, but that they're expressed so frankly - and the boys just young enough that they could get away with it.

Maybe the positive spin would be that it's another form of "twinning"? - don't let this garbage stop you loving and caring for your friends. :)

48swynn
tammikuu 30, 2023, 12:57 am

>47 lyzard: Re: Revolutionary War fiction. Oh dear, I feel myself intrigued and I really do not need to slide down a rabbit hole of Revolutionary War fiction. I still haven't read Winston Churchill's Richard Carvel, but remember reading that Churchill was so kind to his British characters that some reviewers thought Churchill himself was British. But I really really don't need that project ....

And The Talisman: In 1984 I would have read the first half with less discomfort, and would probably have wondered whether the authors really meant to imply a romantic relationship. Now part one is itself creepy and the part two is not subtle at all. Times are different, and I'm a different reader. I'll be interested to see how the television series handles it.

49swynn
Muokkaaja: tammikuu 30, 2023, 6:37 pm



9) The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub
Date: 1984

This was the bestselling book in the U.S. in 1984, also the first appearance of Stephen King here at the top. I expect we'll see him again.This one is a boy's adventure: twelve-year-old Jack Sawyer sets out on foot to cross the United States from New Hampshire to California in order to save his mother's life. Along the way he shifts into and out of a parallel world he calls "The Territories," a sort of pseudo-medieval fantasy world. The Territories and Jack's world are intimately linked, and in unpredicatable ways: events in one world can cause disasters in another, and (nearly) everyone has a counterpart or "twin" in the other world, whose fates are linked. Jack's mother for instance is a queen in the Territories with a sickness related to real-world Jack's mom who is terminally ill with cancer. If Jack can make it to California and retrieve The Talisman he can save his mother in both worlds.

Some thoughts, because my take on this book is still not coherent, and might not become more so without a reread, and I'm not interested in that just now:

By design it's episodic and pacing suffers occasionally, especially in the first half. As Jack acquires friends and experience, though, the story also becomes more engaging.

Stylistically this feels much more like King's book than Straub's, and I am not a fan of King's rambling prose style so that was sometimes a barrier for me as well.

There's some talk above about the tension between some homophobic anxiety early on and a positive same-sex attraction later, but I still have nothing enlightening to say about it so I'll just note that it's here and I found the contrast not easily resolvable.

50jjmcgaffey
tammikuu 30, 2023, 11:26 pm

LOL. I stalled out in The Talisman by Sir Walter Scott. Which also starts out with a lot of homoerotic anxiety and slurs. I wonder if it settles in the latter half, as King's does...

51swynn
tammikuu 31, 2023, 11:54 am

>50 jjmcgaffey: Yeah, I expect that's a very different book. :D

52swynn
Muokkaaja: tammikuu 31, 2023, 5:12 pm



10) Two Travelers by Sarah Tolmie
Date: 2016

Here's one from the 2016 Locus Recommended Reading List, which doesn't seem to have caught on, which is a shame. It contains two fantasy stories about outsider experiences. The first seems to me to be a parable about neurodivergence, and the second a story about immigration. Of the two the second is more powerful, exploring the differing responses to birth home/found home among the members of an immigrant family. But both are quite good, and I'll seek out more of Tolmie's work.

Dancer on the Stairs (which you can read here on Strange Horizons) is a novelette narrated by a women who wakes up on the staircase of an multilevel mansion. The stairs are crowded, and access to floors is strictly regulated by guards who demand payment in specie the narrator does not have. Eventually she finds someone to sponsor her, but even then she is clearly an outsider, as the mansion's residents live by an elaborate code of social ritual which nearly everyone seems to understand intuitively but herself.

The Burning Furrow is a novella about a family who has moved to the United States from a fantasy parallel universe. In our world, the family runs a diner; in their own, the father is a freedom fighter. He appreciates the safety and routine of his new home, but also misses the adventure and respect of his birth home. Others in the family -- the man's wife and two children -- also balance advantages of two worlds and their disadvantages, and each reaches their own conclusions about preferred realities, all different and none simple.

53swynn
tammikuu 31, 2023, 5:12 pm



11) The Red Box by Rex Stout
Date: 1937

Fourth in Stout's mystery series featuring eccentric orchidist Nero Wolfe. In this one, theatrical producer Llewelyn Frost arrives at Wolfe's home to beg the detective to investigate the death of a model by poison chocolate. He even convinces Wolfe to venture outdoors in order to visit the crime scene. But when Wolfe's investigation raises suspicions about his niece Helen, Frost orders Wolfe off the case. Pfft. As if. There follows a series of new clients and more bodies -- one of them the victim's boss and probable target of the chocolate poisoning Boyden McNair, who dares to die in Wolfe's very presence and makes the case personal (that is, even more personal than unwanted exposure to fresh air did). The solution is complicated and seems to emerge folly formed from nowhere, but the banter between Wolfe and his assistant Archie Goodwin makes the series worthwhile.

54swynn
tammikuu 31, 2023, 5:52 pm



12) Paper Girls Volume 5 by Brian K. Vaughn
Date: 2018

Time-traveling shenanigans continue, with storylines converging. Looking forward to the conclusion.

55swynn
Muokkaaja: helmikuu 1, 2023, 1:29 pm



13) Can't Take That Away by Steven Salvatore
Date: 2021

Finally fulfilling my promise to "read stuff I shouldn't," I submit for further signal-boosting this YA book that has been the target of book bans. It appears on the list of books that Texas lawmaker and swamp lizard Matt Krause wants to remove from libraries. And according to PEN America it was removed from shelves in the Collierville, Tennessee school district.

It's about Carey Parker, a genderqueer highschooler and Mariah Carey lamb who dreams of being a diva. Carey has a new boyfriend and a star role in the school production of "Wicked," but also a queerphobic teacher determined to sabotage any performance that might feature "boys kising"; they also have to deal with a bully who believes that if a nice guy like himself can't get a date then it's probably the queer kid's fault. It's very YA, and Carey's diva ambitions are a bit much (Carey wants to participate in the show only if they can be the star -- I mean I love you kid, but breathe a minute will ya?) but I appreciated that they get support from peers and from sympathetic faculty. I especially like its treatment of hate as a community problem, and organized resistance as a strategy for dealing with it.

56swynn
Muokkaaja: elokuu 14, 2023, 3:21 pm



14) Anthologie jüngster Lyrik = (Anthology of Recent Poetry), edited by Willi Fehse and Klaus Mann
Date: 1927

Here's a collection of interwar German poetry which appeared in the Nazis' "Black List," books to feed the flames of the book burnings that swept Germany in 1933. It's not clear to me exactly why this one was banned, but with a foreword by Jewish author Stefan Zweig and an editorial credit and afterword by the openly gay and vocally antinazi Klaus Mann ... well, it's not like they needed much excuse. The content is to my ear mostly innocuous, though mine is admittedly not the most sensitive. Still, there are selections with pacifist, erotic, and urban themes that could not possibly have improved its chances.

Here's a piece by the socialist poet Hanns Vogts, who seems to have sensed what was coming:

Es kommen wieder die Tage,
die Dämmerungen des November.
Wo aus der Stille, des In-Uns-Seins
wir aufbrechen lassen die Schleusen des Muts.
Wo wir die Winde Wollen,
die uns tragen
trotz Föhn, Samum und Hurikan,
wo wir die Lichter giessen ....
Licht über violette Brücken
von Leibern, grüssend Verfall.
Verfall trotz aller Ethik, Demokratie
und der Allerwelts-Menschlichkeit,
trotz schönster Hymnen von Einigkeit, Recht un Freiheit

Das haben alles gekannt wir.
Das war unsere Jugend
mit achtzehn Jahren.

Es kommen wieder die Tage,
die Dämerungendes November --
Wo wir, einst achtzehnjährig,
den Sieg in schrägste Menschenschädel hämmern.
_____

The days are coming again,
the twilights of November.
Where from the quiet of the being-in-us
we let open the floodgates of courage.
Where we want the winds
that carry us
despite Föhn winds, samum and hurricane
where we cast the lights ...
Light over violet bridges
of bodies, greeting decay.
Decay despite all ethics, democracy
and ordinary humanity,
despite prettiest hymns of unity, justice, and freedom.

All of that we knew.
That was our youth
at eighteen years.

The days are coming again,
The twilights of November --
Where we, once eighteen,
Hammer victory into the most deviant human skulls.

57lyzard
helmikuu 8, 2023, 2:52 pm

You bouncing from angsty YA to interwar socialist German poetry delights my heart. :)

Listen, my man---I don't know if you've been peeking ahead, but I just finished Horizon (thanks again!) and I at least am going to have trouble with our next banned book, which is "The Sorrows Of Elsie" by André Savignon, a translation of his La Tristesse D'Elsie. It isn't in LT, which speaks for itself.

I have no access at all to this; and while there are a few copies around, they're quite expensive. So unless you've already done something, I'm content to skip this one; and if you have done something, this time I'm splitting it with you, okay?

58swynn
Muokkaaja: helmikuu 8, 2023, 3:36 pm



15) Stolen Focus by Johann Hari
Date: 2022

Johann Hari talks about an epidemic of attention problems, which he links to a number of factors in our current environment: some because of diet, some because of stress, and a whole lot because of pervasive and profitable technology designed to distract us. Hari gives a few suggestions for improving things on an individual level but also argues that only so much can be done without systemic change. We have currently given media and advertising companies free reign to intrude and manipulate our attention at will. The controls we demand -- "opt out" features or communication settings -- are meager and mostly serve to let us pretend that any problems can be blamed on failures of personal responsibility. And yeah, this all sounds about right. Unfortunately, I don't see the systems landscape improving soon. Quite the opposite, alas.

59swynn
Muokkaaja: helmikuu 8, 2023, 3:35 pm

>57 lyzard: Yeah, it's hard to get. I just received my copy yesterday, via ILL from the University of Alabama. So the disposition of this copy will be back to Tuscaloosa.

Considering the difficulty with access, though, you're welcome to skip it. After all, you gave me a pass on The American Caravan for weaker reasons.

60lyzard
Muokkaaja: helmikuu 8, 2023, 3:46 pm

>59 swynn:

Ah, lucky you! It was never released here.

I hate skipping things but I think this time I'll have to. Read it at your leisure and I will look forward very much to your take on it. :)

61swynn
Muokkaaja: helmikuu 14, 2023, 11:21 am

Academic library anecdote. We report various statistics annually to ACRL, the Association of College and Research Libraries. This year somebody misspelled "external" in their reporting rules, instructing respondents instead to report funds received from "eternal bodies."

And now I'm thinking that as a state institution we probably aren't allowed to accept such revenue. Also that, all things considered, it's probably just as well.

62rosalita
helmikuu 14, 2023, 8:41 am

63swynn
helmikuu 14, 2023, 11:35 am



16) The Looking Glass War by John Le Carré
Date: 1964

This is Le Carré's follow-up to The Spy Who Came In From the Cold, and apparently intended for readers who found that work romantically naïve. It's a cynical gem about a British intelligence agency trying to gather information about a possible military buildup on the East German border. But "The Department" is so plagued by nostalgia, overconfidence, budget constraints, and bureaucratic rivalries that the adventure can end only one dreadful way. I can't say I "enjoyed" it but I do admire it

64swynn
helmikuu 14, 2023, 11:45 am



17) Assassination Classroom, volume 3: Time for a Transfer Student by Yusei Matsui
Date: 2013

Third in a manga series featuring a class of misfit high-schoolers whose alien teacher has promised to destroy the Earth if they don't assassinate him by the year's end. I think I need to slow the pace on these, because the joke is wearing thin for me.

65lyzard
helmikuu 14, 2023, 5:39 pm

>63 swynn:

I never really understood that attitude to The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, but yeah...romanticise THIS. :D

66swynn
helmikuu 15, 2023, 10:15 am

>65 lyzard: Right? I thought TSWCIFTC was pretty stripped-down and grim. But TLGW resets the bar.

67scaifea
helmikuu 15, 2023, 1:20 pm

>64 swynn: Same. I'm reluctant to stop completely, though, because I feel the need for completion. And I want to know if they actually get him in the end...

68swynn
Muokkaaja: helmikuu 15, 2023, 1:23 pm

>67 scaifea: Exactly. I know that it wraps up, and want to know how, but (one, two, three, ... ) *eighteen* more volumes? It's making me think the horrible words: Maybe I should just watch the movie.

69scaifea
helmikuu 15, 2023, 1:26 pm

>68 swynn: Maybe I should just let you know what happens in the end when I get there and take one for the team...

70swynn
helmikuu 15, 2023, 2:43 pm

>69 scaifea: I would probably read that spoiler. But I'll probably also read at least one more volume, just in case the plot gets moving again soon.

71swynn
helmikuu 15, 2023, 3:43 pm



18) Bayou Folk by Kate Chopin
Date: 1894

It's a collection of 23 stories, mostly set in rural Louisiana near Natchitoches. The stories range from humorous to poignant, sometimes both. They're heavy with phonetically-rendered dialect, a trend whose time I am glad has passed, but was part of the regionalist technique so it's silly to criticize Chopin for doing it. Chopin's Acadian characters are nuanced and sympathetic, though Black and Native characters are less so. Given the times it could have been much worse, and it's worth saying that Chopin's attitude seems to me not actively hostile toward her characters of color. Her prose is clear and efficient, and the best stories combine history, setting, characters, and anecdotes into twisty parables. I especially liked "A no-account Creole," about a romantic rivalry between a New Orleans businessman and local man of little ambition and much passion; and "A gentleman of Bayou-Têche," an ironic dig at the local-color movement and its impulse to turn human beings into caricatures.

72BLBera
helmikuu 16, 2023, 9:46 am

>71 swynn: I love Chopin's stories.

73swynn
Muokkaaja: helmikuu 16, 2023, 12:09 pm

>72 BLBera: I was familiar only with The Awakening and "The Story of an Hour," which I read thirty-something years ago for an American lit survey course. I've re-read and admired The Awakening since then, but never dipped into her other work. This sample was rewarding, and I'd read more.

74richardderus
helmikuu 21, 2023, 8:42 pm

>71 swynn: Sarah Orne Jewett was my intro and outro to local-color writing. Some good stories but more set-pieces than plots...a major part of the local-color movement.My mother called her writing "an excuse to hog the conversation to tell yet another version of the same story" and sadly for me that was my impression of Kate Chopin, too. It's been a good long time since I read her stories and I've never cracked one of her (two?) novels but the cult adulation of her in recent years hasn't helped. I admire you for being so scrupulously fair in your review.

75swynn
Muokkaaja: helmikuu 22, 2023, 12:19 pm

>74 richardderus: I was going to say that my exposure to Sarah Orne Jewett is only from a college survey course where we read (I think) "The White Heron." But checking my reading history, I see that I read A Country Doctor, and Selected Stories and Sketches back in 2014, probably for a Maine read when I was doing the 50 states challenge. My comments at the time indicate that my response was lukewarm. And now I barely remember it, so that's probably accurate.

I liked the Chopin stories better. Her sense of humor helps a lot, in distinction to what I remember of Jewett. I understand why readers are introduced to Chopin's work through The Awakening and "The Story of an Hour," but I think those pieces also lack the humor of the stories in Bayou Folk, which is unfortunate.

76swynn
Muokkaaja: helmikuu 22, 2023, 1:02 pm

Apropos of nothing, I picked up the Chopin collection because I've been admiring "a-book-a-year" lists that I've seen on some other threads (Liz's, for instance.)

Thanks to the Bestseller challenge, I discovered that I have the 20th century covered. The 19th century has rather more gaps. But why start with 1800? How far back might one go? Any date is arbitrary, and my interest tends to decrease with distance, but still ...

So I've been toying with the idea of "a book a year" beginning sometime in the 18th century. Leaning toward 1719 (Robinson Crusoe) or maybe 1764 where the good stuff starts (The Castle of Otranto). I'd thought about 1688 for Oroonoko but the thought of filling in the thirty years between that and RC was daunting. That gives me a lot -- but not an impossible lot -- of slots to fill in the twenty or thirty years I have left.

Anyway, this potential project has been occupying a weirdly large portion of my idle thoughts for the last couple of months, so I might as well give in and see how long the impulse lasts.

77swynn
Muokkaaja: helmikuu 22, 2023, 6:19 pm

For those interested, here's what I have so far.

1719 Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (Reading)
1720 Captain Singleton by Daniel Defoe
1764 The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
1777 The Old English Baron by Clara Reeve
1782 Letters from an American Farmer by Hector St. John de Crevecoeur
1813 Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
1814 The History of Nourjahad by Frances Sheridan
1818 Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
1821 The Spy by James Fenimore Cooper
1823 Koningsmarke by James Kirke Paulding
1826 The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
1837 Eveline Mandeville, or, The Horse Thief Rival by Alvin Addison
1839 A Hero of Our Times by Mikhail Lermontov
1840 The Pathfinder by James Fenimore Cooper
1841 The Deerslayer by James Fenimore Cooper
1843 A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
1846 Typee by Herman Melville
1847 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
1850 The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawhtorne
1851 Moby Dick by Herman Melville
1852 Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
1854 Walden by Henry David Thoreau
1855 The Warden by Anthony Trollope
1861 Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
1862 Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev
1864 Notes from Underground by Fyodr Dostoevsky
1866 Crime and Punishment by Fyodr Dostoevsky
1869 War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
1872 Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
1874 Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
1876 The Adventures of tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
1878 Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
1880 Ben-Hur by Lew Wallace
1883 Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
1884 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
1885 The Rise of Silas Lapham by William Dean Howells
1886 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
1887 She by H. Rider Haggard
1889 A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain
1890 The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
1894 Bayou Folk by Kate Chopin
1895 The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
1896 Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz
1897 Dracula by Bram Stoker
1898 Edison's Conquest of Mars by Garrett P. Serviss
1899 The Story of the Treasure Seekers by Edith Nesbit
1900 The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

78richardderus
helmikuu 22, 2023, 12:59 pm

>75 swynn: I'll have to read Bayou Folk, then...it was on Project Gutenberg so I've downloaded it. Can't sleep on the chance to make a new authorial acquaintance.

79swynn
helmikuu 22, 2023, 2:16 pm

>78 richardderus: Hope you find some good in it, Richard! Either way I look forward to your thoughts.

Also: it's great to have you around again!

80richardderus
helmikuu 22, 2023, 4:38 pm

>79 swynn: Thank you, Steve. It's a great feeling to be able to be around, I must say!

81lyzard
helmikuu 23, 2023, 3:36 am

>76 swynn:, >77 swynn:

You're familiar with my blog, right? YOU DO NOT WANT TO GO DOWN THIS ROAD!! :D

82swynn
Muokkaaja: helmikuu 23, 2023, 9:22 am

>81 lyzard:

Probably not. Fortunately, I'm blessed with a short attention span so when my enthusiasm runs out I'm confident I'll find two other projects to keep me busy.

83BLBera
helmikuu 23, 2023, 11:57 am

Are you only reading books you own? Catherine Maria Sedgewick (an ancestor of Kyra, in case you're interested) wrote a bunch in the early 1800s. Much better than Fennimore Cooper. I know there are more early American women writers who have been more or less forgotten.

84swynn
helmikuu 23, 2023, 1:04 pm

>83 BLBera: Thanks for the suggestion, Beth! Catherine Sedgewick was not on my radar, so I've added her works to the list of candidates.

85lyzard
helmikuu 23, 2023, 3:42 pm

>82 swynn:

Su-uu-uu-re ya will.

That's a great list, BTW, and I shall watch with interest. :)

86swynn
helmikuu 26, 2023, 5:40 pm



19) Kecksies by Marjorie Bowen
(1976, stories originally published 1907-1933)

Oh now these were fun: old-fashioned, atmospheric ghost stories that remind me of the tales of Arthur Machen and M.R. James, which (have I mentioned?) I love. I'm not sure how I've failed to learn about Marjorie Bowen all this time, but am delighted to discover her now.

The Hidden Ape (1933) A scientist reconsiders his opinion of his assistant after the assistant saves the scientist's son in an accident. He had always thought of the assistant of something beneath him -- but they were both surely human, after all? Or not ...

Kecksies (1925) A couple of dandies take shelter in a country house when caught in a storm. There they find a wake being held for a man who had been an enemy to one of them. They devise a cruel prank which backfires.

Raw Material (1933) Prompted to tell a ghost story, an experienced barrister who has seen many things in his career offers up a story of an elderly miser, a missing fortune, and a meek couple who may or may not be murderers. And, of course, a ghost.

The Avenging of Ann Leete (1923) The painting of an unidentified woman leads to a dark story about unrequited love and slow vengeance.

The Crown Derby Plate (1933) A collector of china goes looking for the single plate missing from her collection. She tracks down the house where the collection was originally sold, and has a very odd encounter with its resident.

The Sign-Painter and the Crystal Fishes (1909) The most unusual story in the collection, this one is a a sort of dream fantasy about a sign-painter who is robbed of a crystal fish -- and his eventual vengeance.

Scoured Silk (1918) An eccentric old scholar takes for second wife a personable young woman -- but he retains a strange preoccupation with his first wife, and a stranger interest in introducing his new wife to his first.

The Breakdown (not previously published?) A rail passenger inconvenienced by a breakdown late in the day, decides to walk the final leg of his journey. En route he finds a inn where wishes are granted.

One Remained Behind (1936) A deal-with-the-devil story about a would-be sorceror and an ancient grimoire with ambiguous instructions.

The House by the Poppy Field (not previously published?) A man inherits a house that is not exactly *haunted* but rather haunted by the absence of the ghosts that one feels *ought* to haunt such a place. By the house is a poppy field, in which a mysterious man mows and tells a story about the previous owner who tried to raise the dead.

Florence Flannery (1924) The newly married Florence Flannery moves into her husband's mansion, where she learns about another Florence Flannery, long dead, who left a curse on the family.

Half-Past Two (1928) Returning to his apartment late at night, a man encounters an intruder hiding in his room. The intruder explains he is hiding from someone with whom he has an appointment which he intends to avoid.

87swynn
helmikuu 26, 2023, 5:47 pm



20) Baptized in Tear Gas by Elle Dowd
Date: 2021

Elle Dowd is an activist and ELCA pastor who participated in protests in and around Ferguson MO following the murder of Michael Brown. Here she shares her experiences and offers guidance, especially for white folks who want to get involved in social justice activism. Enlightening and challenging.

88swynn
helmikuu 26, 2023, 5:49 pm



21) How It All Blew Up by Arvin Ahmadi
DAte: 2020

When a homophobic classmate threatens to out Amir to his culturally conservative Iranian-American family, Amir runs away -- and lands in Rome, where he finds a second family among a group of gay American expats. It's awkward and funny and offers a hopeful resolution.

Also, according to PEN America is has been "banned pending investigation" in schools in Tennessee and Texas.

89swynn
Muokkaaja: helmikuu 28, 2023, 10:41 am



22) The Grief of Stones by Katherine Addison
Date: 2022

Second in the "Cemetaries of Amalo" series, set in the same world as Addison's The Goblin Emperor. The CoA series features an elf cleric who can read the last thoughts of the dead, and uses the skill to solve mysteries. I'm enjoying this subseries more than I did the original novel, since it focuses less on court manners and more on plot. But in all the books I appreciate Addison's characters and how she finds sympathy even in her villains. Apparently it's planned to be a trilogy, so we can expect one (and only one) more CoA book. I look forward to it.

90rosalita
Muokkaaja: helmikuu 26, 2023, 6:28 pm

>86 swynn: I've never heard of Marjorie Brown before, either, but you've put her on my radar with this overview. Thanks, Steve!

ETA: I couldn't find that particular volume anywhere, but Kobo has The Complete Works of Marjorie Bowen for a mere $1.89 — while they are selling some of the individual titles mentioned in your review for 89 cents each. Seems like the bundle might be the way to go here ...

91lyzard
Muokkaaja: helmikuu 27, 2023, 4:11 pm

>86 swynn:, 90

Be aware that Marjorie Bowen wrote in a number of genres under a number of pseudonyms, so depending on what you want, you may need to search out other names.

You can find many of her books for free here (as well as a breakdown of her identities).

92rosalita
Muokkaaja: helmikuu 27, 2023, 4:31 pm

>91 lyzard: The Complete Works ebook is listed as more than 3,000 pages, so if she's written other stuff that isn't contained in it, I'll just have to learn to live with the disappointment, I think!

ETA: And now that I've gone back and looked at the description on the Kobo website, I think it's fine: "Margaret Gabrielle Vere Long, who used the pseudonym Marjorie Bowen, was a British author who wrote historical romances, supernatural horror stories, popular history and biography."

93lyzard
Muokkaaja: helmikuu 27, 2023, 4:42 pm

>92 rosalita:

If it really is complete that must be an amazing collection! I have come at Bowen sideways: one of her things is historical fiction based on true crimes (her "Joseph Shearing" novels) and I've read a few of those rather than the supernatural stuff she's better known for.

I also keep threatening my blog with her trilogy of novels about William of Orange but haven't psyched myself up to those yet. :)

94swynn
Muokkaaja: helmikuu 28, 2023, 10:42 am

>90 rosalita:
>91 lyzard:
>92 rosalita:

Before Liz linked to the Roy Glashan page (which looks like hours of fun), I picked up a collection of her stories for a similar price for the Kindle. But sometime soon I'd like to start with her first novel, The Viper of Milan, which, sez Wikipedia, was rejected by several publishers who considered it inappropriate to have been written by a young woman. And that's what I call an advertisement. Freely available at Project Gutenberg and the Roy Glashan page, so the only excuse to wait is ... well, all these other books ...

95lyzard
helmikuu 27, 2023, 4:44 pm

>93 lyzard:

Yyyyyeah...but give me a yell anyway, I guess. :D

96scaifea
helmikuu 28, 2023, 1:19 pm

>76 swynn: >77 swynn: Oooh, I've been working on this for myself for a few years now. Good luck - I've had fun with it so far.

97swynn
maaliskuu 2, 2023, 12:22 pm

>96 scaifea: Do you have your list posted somewhere? I'd like to take notes ...

98ronincats
maaliskuu 2, 2023, 9:38 pm

>77 swynn: I've read 21 of those. Good luck!

Glad to see you're enjoying the Addison books. I think she does such a good job with them.

99scaifea
maaliskuu 3, 2023, 12:54 pm

>97 swynn: I don't; I just have it in an excel file. If you PM me your email address I'll share it with you...

100swynn
maaliskuu 3, 2023, 3:42 pm

>98 ronincats: I agree; I ought to pick up Angel of the Crows while I'm waiting for the next. Have you read it?

101swynn
maaliskuu 3, 2023, 3:43 pm

102swynn
Muokkaaja: maaliskuu 3, 2023, 5:50 pm



23) Lagoonfire by Francesca Forrest
Date: 2021

Second in the author's Tales of the Polity series, featuring lead character Sweeting, job title Decommissioner Thirty-Seven, whose occupation is decommissioning deities whose moment of belief has waned. Decommissioning transitions gods to mortal existence, allowing them to live out their lives in quiet dignity and public safety. In this entry, officials suspect that Sweeting botched a decommissioning job. Flooding at a development project seems supernatural, and bears the marks of the sea god Laloran-morna, whom Sweeting decommissioned years ago. But Sweeting doubts that conclusion, and her unauthorized investigation leads her to suspect an even older deity -- one who was not only never decommissioned, but whose very existence Sweeting's employers are not prepared to acknowledge ...

I quite liked the first in this series (The Inconvenient God) and this is a satisfying follow-up, developing background and adding to the politics Sweeting has to navigate. There's room for many more stories here, and I hope Forrest continues to write them.

103swynn
Muokkaaja: maaliskuu 3, 2023, 4:39 pm



24) Paper Girls 6
Date: 2019

Nice wrap-up. I think I get what was going on now. I mean, mostly? Okay: I'm still fuzzy on details, but clear on the fact that it was a blast.

Those who have seen it: was the Netflix series worth your time?

104swynn
Muokkaaja: maaliskuu 3, 2023, 4:16 pm



25) And What Can We Offer You Tonight? by Premee Mohamed
Date: 2021

Set in a near-future world ravaged by climate change and capitalism: Win is a courtesan murdered by a client who faces no consequences due to his extreme wealth. But then Win isn't dead anymore, and starts behaving like someone with a grudge and nothing left to lose. (What, after all, are they going to do, kill her? Been there.) Win's friend and fellow courtesan Jewel has to decide whether to join Win in her plan for retribution, or play it safe to preserve her own precarious comforts. It's a dark meditation on friendship, dignity, and justice, and I loved it.

105swynn
Muokkaaja: maaliskuu 3, 2023, 4:59 pm



26) Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
Date: 1719

If you had told me that Robinson Crusoe was about a shipwrecked slave trader who spent his time in isolation constructing a miniature empire and having a religious crisis in which God reveals that the greatest sin isn't failing to love one's neighbor but rather failing to obey one's parents, I'd have thought you were (1) exaggerating and (2) talking about the subtext. Nah, y'all, that's the damn plot.

Can't say I enjoyed it, but it is ... very interesting. I've heard other readers complain about pacing in the first half, with tedious accounts of supplies and so on. And yes, pacing is all over the place, but I found it much less boring than I was expecting. Less boring and also more strange.

106lyzard
maaliskuu 3, 2023, 4:43 pm

>105 swynn:

It's very curious, isn't it, the wildly inaccurate versions of stories that filter through to us?

And I say that as someone who has just read The Hunchback Of Notre Dame. :D

107swynn
Muokkaaja: maaliskuu 3, 2023, 4:56 pm

>105 swynn: Having only been exposed to adaptations and one severely abridged version of Hunchback, I'm now intrigued by what I've missed.

But for Robinson Crusoe: yeah, this is a very different story than I expected. (And what's the episode about fighting wolves in France all about?)

There is a sequel that I both don't want to read and also think I can't not.

108jjmcgaffey
maaliskuu 3, 2023, 11:09 pm

>100 swynn: I've read Angel of the Crows - note that I think Sherlock Holmes is an annoying know-it-all and Jack the Ripper is - in himself, too nasty to read about and also way overdone and over-written-about.

And I adored this story of a Sherlock Holmes(ish) with some very odd twists and a Watson with even more, hunting down (among others) Jack the Ripper. I don't know how she does it but the story is _amazing_.

>107 swynn: Huh. I had never seen that there was a sequel... tempted, although most of what I remember of the book was that I didn't enjoy it much.

109MickyFine
maaliskuu 4, 2023, 3:40 pm

>103 swynn: Premee Mohammed was a featured writer at my work library a few years ago (she was a delight to work with) and I'm so happy to see her getting so much recognition in the last couple years.

110lyzard
maaliskuu 4, 2023, 3:43 pm

>107 swynn:

I can't say that I would recommend it - I was reading it chiefly to check whether my vague memory of the plot-aspect that always gets ignored was correct (it was) - but of course YMMV. You'd better enjoy dissertations on 15th century architecture, though. :D

111swynn
maaliskuu 6, 2023, 4:28 pm

>108 jjmcgaffey: That's a strong rec for Angel of the Crows. I've requested it.

I think the best thing to do about my impulse to read the Crusoe sequel is to read other books until the impulse passes. On the other hand ...

>109 MickyFine: I have another of hers coming soon: The Annual Migration of Clouds is on my stack for sometime this month. So great when you hear that an author you've enjoyed is also a good human being.

Speaking of meeting authors: I've recently learned that Katherine Arden will be a guest at my library's annual Children's Literature Festival. I'm pumped to meet her and will for sure have a copy of The Bear and the Nightingale for signing ...

>110 lyzard: Like I say, maybe wait til it passes? But as it happens I have a long drive coming up, and LibriVox has a recording for free ....

112swynn
maaliskuu 9, 2023, 6:21 pm



27) The Mystery of the Screaming Clock by Robert Arthur
Date: 1968

Ninth in the Three Investigators series of juvenile mysteries. In this one the boys are between cases, so when Jupiter Jones discovers an odd clock among the new acquisitions of his uncle's junkyard, he proposes investigating its origins. The odd thing about the clock is its alarm, which is the sound of a human scream so blood-curdling that the boys speculate it could be a heart-attack-inducing murder weapon. The investigation has the boys meeting D-list Hollywood celebrity and of course eventually a nefarious criminal plot. Nothing much to say about this: it's the kind of thing the Three Investigators do, and they do it just fine.

113swynn
Muokkaaja: maaliskuu 9, 2023, 6:25 pm



28) The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean Auel
Date: 1980

A Cro-Magnon girl, separated from her birth family in an earthquake, is taken in and raised by a clan of Neanderthals. The girl learns herbal medicine from the clan's healer, and teaches herself how to hunt with a sling. Her wide-ranging curiosity challenges the clan's rules about division of labor, and her independent spirit is challenged by the leader's heir apparent. I read this one in the mid-1980s when I was in high school. Full disclosure: my curiosity was piqued by a review that described the series as loaded with sex. On that point this first volume is a disappointment: there is little sex and what there is, is nonconsensual ick. But I liked the book then, and liked it again this time, for its setting and its construction of a strange and (mostly) plausible alt-human culture.

114swynn
maaliskuu 17, 2023, 2:31 pm



29) DAW # 218: The Final Circle of Paradise by Arkady & Boris Strugatsky
Date: 1976 (Russian original 1965)

Ivan Zhilin arrives in an unnamed resort town, ostensibly as a tourist but actually as an agent investigating a series of mysterious deaths. The resort is, on the one hand, a sort of paradise where all material needs are met; and on the other hand, a chaotic environment home to multiple gangs and special -interest thugs. There are also rumors of a drug that offers the ultimate state of well-being, and just may be the reason behind the deaths. Ivan's investigation quickly goes awry, as his contacts turn out to be unreliable.

Or something. The storyline goes in multiple directions and I frequently didn't know what was going on. Thematically it seems to argue that satisfying material comforts for the masses will lead to mass laziness and violence -- not a theme I expect from the Strugatskys. Of their work, this is easily the darkest and least optimistic that I've encountered so far. It's likely I'm missing something. Some of its social commentary almost certainly has referents I just don't recognize; also, ISFDB says that this is the fifth book in a series, not all of which are available yet in English. In short: I didn't like it much, and can't recommend it, but also suspect strongly that I just didn't get it. Maybe I'll reread it someday.

115swynn
Muokkaaja: maaliskuu 17, 2023, 3:03 pm



30) The Secret Skin by Wendy N. Wagner
Date: 2021

June Vogel returns to her family estate, a mansion on an island off the coast of Oregon. June does not have fond memories of the place and would not have returned except that her brother asked her as a special favor, to watch over her niece while brother honeymoons with his new wife. The house is haunted, the child odd, and when June's brother and new sister-in-law return unexpectedly early things get complicated.

It's very aware of the tropes it invokes, and often waves to its predecessors. I mean, it begins: "Last night I dreamt of Storm Break ... "; for someone more familiar with gothic romance, I expect there are many more allusions and in-jokes than caught my eye. Even as a genre ingenue though, I enjoyed the story and the suspense.

116swynn
Muokkaaja: maaliskuu 20, 2023, 3:06 pm

*** Pedantry Warning ***

I've been reading another 18th century text and and am struck by the frequency of it's -- with the apostrophe -- as a possessive pronoun:

Have -- you no Charms -- or have not I a Heart? -- A most susceptible and tender Heart -- Yes, you may feel it Throb, it beats against my Breast, like an Imprison'd Bird, and fain wou'd burst it's Cage! to fly to you, the aim of all it's Wishes!

The possessive "it's" happens frequently enough that it's clearly not an error but rather editorial policy. (Yes, the random capitalization is also weird, as is the use of an apostrophe to elide letters that are silent anyway -- or were they? -- focus, Steve, focus ... ) In a 21st century text the possessive it's would make my teeth grind but apparently in 1720 it's was okay, so I went to Merriam-Webster for therapy and thought others might be interested:

Around 1600 it's began to be used—and it had an apostrophe, just like a possessive noun would. ... This apostrophe form of the possessive remained extremely common throughout the 17th century and was used by the likes of Thomas Jefferson and Jane Austen. The version without the apostrophe only became dominant in the 18th century—probably because it's was taking on a new role, replacing the contraction 'tis.

More here.

Well dang I've read Jefferson and Austen and never noticed this usage, or if I did probably sniffed at the editors (and I expect it's "corrected" in modern editions). But knowing it now, I guess I'm just going to have to find another pet grammatical peeve.

117MickyFine
maaliskuu 20, 2023, 4:07 pm

I appreciate this deep dive and look forward to hearing what your new pet peeve will be. :)

118qebo
maaliskuu 21, 2023, 9:12 am

>116 swynn: Jane Austen
That's exactly where I have noticed it. And yes, it takes some effort to calm the visceral reaction.

119rosalita
maaliskuu 21, 2023, 10:52 am

>116 swynn: I remember when I first learned this, it was a real blow to no longer be able to turn my nose up at anyone misusing "it's/its" in any writing. I don't think I've recovered from the shock to this day. Sometimes I wish I was one of those people who never let facts get in the way of a good peeve.

120richardderus
maaliskuu 21, 2023, 10:55 am

>116 swynn: Interesting! Like the pedantic hollering over singular "they," pedantry about English usage can always be proved wrong. We've mugged the world's languages for syntax, grammar, and vocabulary for centuries, and invented what we couldn't find to steal, so getting one's back up over "errors" is simply a waste of energy.

121swynn
Muokkaaja: maaliskuu 22, 2023, 9:54 am

>117 MickyFine: I look forward to it too Micky! But honestly I'm leaning toward the position Richard describes - what I've spent my life thinking of as grammatical laws are mostly conventions and conveniences, and are as arbitrary as any alternatives. Calories burned on huffery are better burnt otherwise. (Now watch me smolder "literally" as an intensifier. Or ya'll. Urgh. See how well I've learned my lesson?)

>118 qebo: Good to see you Katherine! I've only read Pride and Prejudice and it was in a modern edition, probably with updated spellings & punctuation. But yeah ... if it's is good enough for Austen then maybe I should get over it.

>119 rosalita: We feel each other's pain Julia!

>120 richardderus: This is where I want to be. There's barely a rule that didn't used to be different, or isn't prone to change by some generation arriving soon. Embrace it, Steve.

122swynn
maaliskuu 23, 2023, 6:13 pm



31) Grim Tales by Edith Nesbit
Date: 1893

It's a collection of ghost stories for adults, by an author who wrote mostly for children (The Railway Children, The Treasure Seekers, etc.) They're fine: mostly predictable, but the best have the creepy atmosphere you look for in such stories. The standout for me was "Man-size in Marble."

The Ebony Frame
A working-class man inherits a fortune including a family mansion, in whose attic he finds two remarkable portraits: one of an impossibly lovely woman, and the other of himself in cavalier dress. He hangs the woman's portrait in his dining room and finds himself calling to it ... and she answers ...

John Charrington's Wedding
The narrator never expected May Forster to marry John Charrington, and even after their engagement wasn't sure whether Forster really loved him. But cutting across the country through a graveyard one afternoon, the narrator overhears Charrington promise Forster that he'd even come back from the dead if she wanted him ...

Uncle Abraham's Romance
The narrator's aging uncle relates the one romantic thing that ever happened in his life: the girl he used to speak to in the churchyard, who may have died a hundred years earlier.

The Mystery of the Semi-detached
A young lover visiting his fiancee discovers the door of her semi-detached standing open. Venturing inside he wanders through an empty house, until he arrives at her room where he finds her dead body. Fleeing the house, he informs the police who investigate only to find nothing out of order: in fact, his fiancee answers the door proving it had all been a dream. Except he can't shake the feeling of doom ...

From the Dead
When Ida Helmont presents Arthur Marsh with a letter proving that Arthur's fiancee Eliza is in fact in love with Ida's brother, Arthur realizes two things: (1) he must grant Eliza her freedom and (2) Ida Helmont is in love with him. The two couples go on to wedded bliss, until the day that Ida confesses the letter was a forgery.

Man-size in Marble
Two artists buy a home in the country, and hire a "tall old peasant woman" to keep house. The woman quits after three months, telling a superstitious story about a nearby church, where the altar is flanked by two marble knights, who, it is said, go walking on All Saints Eve.

The Mass for the Dead
A young musician returns from years of study abroad to learn the woman he loves is marrying another man whom she does not love. The night before the wedding the musician hears a mysterious funeral mass, and he determines to see her one last time.

123swynn
Muokkaaja: maaliskuu 23, 2023, 11:13 pm



32) My Body Is Not a Prayer Request by Amy Kenny
Date: 2022

Author Kenny discusses disability rights issues from the perspective of church. (Though the points she makes have broader application.) Kenny describes her experiences with mobility issues and chronic pain, and how her church experiences have been welcoming or distancing, and how to do better. It made me think, and changed my perspective on a couple of points, so it's definitely recommended from me.

124swynn
Muokkaaja: maaliskuu 23, 2023, 6:30 pm

33) The Sorrows of Elsie by André Savignon
Date: 1927

Sailor Pat Donovan thinks he has fallen in love when he meets the English girl Elsie Farquhar and shares an evening of chaste flirtation and a "virginal" kiss. Donovan's bunkmate Graham Howard sees the girl on Donovan’s arm as they part, and himself falls in love at the sight of her. Weeks later, when Elsie returns all of Donovan’s letters (some unopened) with a note saying simply, "As if love was the great business of life, the only thing that mattered!" Howard sees Elsie's reply as an opening for his own overtures, and soon the two are rivals in love – in each other’s eyes though hardly in Elsie’s. Their rivalry soon becomes bitter, culminating in a brutal duel in which each man cuts off digits from the left hand of the other, each man’s stoic endurance of the injury somehow proving the worth of his love. The story of this duel finds its way back to Else, who can hardly believe it. But then one night after she resists a stranger’s advances, he shows her the stump of his arm and tells her that it is he, Howard. Elsie is repulsed, but also fascinated by this "man who for his love for her had risked his life." Oh child.

Howard leaves in a huff (to resume the duel, as it turns out) but Elsie finds herself more perplexed than ever about what love is, what it ought to be, and whether she will ever achieve the ideal. She spends the rest of the book trying on various notions: she resides briefly with a puritanical family of strictest sexual mores until the man of the house is revealed as a not-especially secret womanizer. She rooms with a girl her age who cultivates close relationships with older men, and learns that (1) one can thus make a living, and (2) different ethical systems hold for different economic classes. Eventually, tired of being disappointed in idealized versions of love, Elsie seeks out a purely physical relationship without love at all – but even that fails to meet expectations.

It’s not hard to see why it was banned in Boston. There are brothels. There are prostitutes. Men of upright character behave shamefully. Sex neither requires marriage nor impends calamity. People say "virgin". It's enough to make Boston quake. On the other hand, it's harder to imagine that anyone would find it titillating. The story's central preoccupation is the relationship between ideas of love and the physical act, and Elsie's ponderings are abstract and navel-gazey. If you're looking for the naughty bits you’ll have to be satisfied with "Then she fell into his arms."

The prose reads smoothly, mostly (yay for the translator), though it's aimed at a literary audience and sometimes doesn't know when another image is too much. The most striking image, of course is its account of sailors mutilating themselves for love -- which is probably the one thing I'll remember about this book a year from now -- but nothing else meets that early promise. One can't help thinking that the censors might just as well have let it be forgotten.

125richardderus
maaliskuu 23, 2023, 6:39 pm

>123 swynn: Awomen, Sister Lady.

126richardderus
maaliskuu 23, 2023, 6:43 pm

>124 swynn: ...doesn't that just sound simply catatonia-inducingly tedious...

Steve...I'm getting worried here...so many truly blah-minus reads! Cram in some Piserchia or a soupçon of Serge Brussolo before you go off reading altogether!

127swynn
Muokkaaja: maaliskuu 24, 2023, 10:29 am

>125 richardderus:
>126 richardderus:

Awomen, Sister Lady.
Hear hear. Despite the religious context and maybe even because of the same, it's a message I needed, and appreciated.

...doesn't that just sound simply catatonia-inducingly tedious...
In spots, yes.

... so many truly blah-minus reads!
Better stuff is icumen in, including one recommended by yourself.

128richardderus
maaliskuu 24, 2023, 10:42 am

>127 swynn: Better stuff is icumen in, including one recommended by yourself.

I'm glad whichever one I recommended wasn't a meh-minus read. Those get less and less tolerable for me. I'm abandoning things I do not love quite readily post-Event...who knows which read will be my last? I'd prefer to go out on a high.

129swynn
maaliskuu 24, 2023, 6:11 pm



34) Corregidora by Gayl Jones
Date: 1975

Ursa Corregidora is a blues singer, and an heir to generational trauma: she is the carrier of stories passed down from her grandmothers, who were victims of unspeakable abuse at the hands of the man who enslaved them and the culture which endorsed and protected him.To ensure that their experiences will not be forgotten, it is Ursa's responsibility to bear her own daughters and pass the memory on to them. So when her husband pushes her down the stairs, causing a miscarriage which leads to a hysterectomy, Ursa loses not only her ability to bear children but also her very reason for being. As she recovers from the injury and its treatment, she also has to confront the history she has received in order to find a way forward.

It's short, uncomfortable, infuriating, and exhausting. It's also bone-shaking powerful, and something I've been somehow unaware of for fifty years. Thanks Richard for mentioning this author and recommending this book as an entry point.

130swynn
maaliskuu 24, 2023, 6:22 pm



35) Diving Into the Wreck by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Date: 2009

First in Rusch's "Diving" series. I picked this up because the latest entry in the series was just serialized in IASFM and I read it and dug it and now I'm going back to the beginning. This entry is essentialy three novellas, two of which had previously been published in IASFM (though unread by ). They follow the far-future adventures of a character known only as Boss, who makes a living "diving" into derelict spaceships. Unfortunately for her, her latest find is a very old wreck and incredibly dangerous one: a ship from humanity's distant past, at coordinates it should never have reached, carrying working examples of forgotten stealth technology which is better left forgotten. But because it offers clear military advantages, the goverment is of course interested in resurrecting it. We have adventure here, with mystery and spooky atmosphere, supporting a David-and-Goliath story. Nothing to not like, and so I will read some more.

131richardderus
maaliskuu 24, 2023, 6:37 pm

>129 swynn: Oh...this one...yeah, no chance of ~meh~ here! Love it or hate it, you'll come away with a serious opinion about this story.

132richardderus
maaliskuu 24, 2023, 6:39 pm

>130 swynn: MUCH more the thing. I'm so glad this one spoke loud and clear to you.

133swynn
Muokkaaja: maaliskuu 27, 2023, 6:26 pm



36) The Hunt for Vulcan by Thomas Levenson
Date: 2015

In the 19th century, the young, ambitious (and apparently insufferable) astronomer Urbain Le Verrier, investigating the stability of the solar system -- e.g., will the moon crash into the Earth and if so, when -- rigorously applied Newton's laws to the observed positions of the planets. Based on calculus and the motions of Uranus, Le Verrier concluded that there most be some undiscovered planet affecting Uranus's orbit; he also predicted about where the mysterius planet would be ... and damn if Neptune didn't turn up right where he predicted.

That kind of success begs for more success (though it rarely makes its subjects more sufferable), and Le Verrier carried out his calculations on the rest of the planets. Most of the others behaved very Newtonishly, except for Mercury, which repeatedly failed to obey the math. Therefore, Le Verrier reasoned, there must exist an undiscovered planet affecting Mercury's orbit, and should be found somewhere between Mercury and the Sun. A generation of astronomers searched for (and sometimes sighted) a planet which it turns out doesn't exist. The mystery was ultimately solved by Einstein, whose general theory of relatively explains Mercury's orbit more or less completely.

Levenson describes the hunt for Mercury and Einstein's solutions, with lessons about how science proceeds when observations don't match theory. If it sounds interesting I expect you'll find it so: it's fun, short, popular, and accessible. By "accessible" I mean "no math" which given the subject is no small accomplishment.

134scaifea
maaliskuu 27, 2023, 5:58 pm

>116 swynn: I struggle with grammar peeves, too. The magnanimous part of me knows that only dead languages don't change and if you can understand what's trying to be conveyed then the language is working just fine. But. BUT. I also just want people to know and use the rules!! *sigh*

>123 swynn: Oooh, that one looks good!

135rosalita
maaliskuu 28, 2023, 10:44 am

>133 swynn: I was teetering on the edge of Wishlist Cliff, and your "no math" promise pushed me over. So thanks, Steve.

136MickyFine
maaliskuu 28, 2023, 1:34 pm

This conversation suddenly twigged in my brain that there's a whole book about this coming out soon: Like, Literally, Dude: Arguing for the Good in Bad English. It's been on The List since I ordered it for work but it may catch your fancy as well.

137swynn
maaliskuu 29, 2023, 2:06 pm

>134 scaifea: Re: rules: Same. (And I personally of course, along with my preferred authors, should be allowed to break the rules when I please because after all I know them. I am nothing if not inconsistent.)

>135 rosalita: I hope you like it if you get around to it, Julia!

>136 MickyFine: Oooh, thanks for the rec, which is right up my alley. In fact, I think I'll request a copy for the library ...

138swynn
maaliskuu 29, 2023, 2:25 pm



37) The Disaster Tourist / Ko-Eun Yun
Date: 2020

Yona is star employee at her travel agency, which specializes in disaster tourism: she plans and organizes vacations to sites visited by natural or human-made disasters. But lately, her star seems to be waning: she has attracted the unwanted sexual attention of her supervisor, and her tasks seem to be going to other workers. Things come to a crisis when she is ordered to take a vacation, and strongly urged to take one of the agency's own underperforming packages to evaluate whether it should remain in the company catalog. It's a make-or-break assignment that could either mean new opportunities for Yona in the company, or her departure from it. The tour goes more or less as expected: awkward and underwhelming, and Yona ponders the industry's ethics and her participation in it. But s on the return trip, Yona is separated from her group and must overstay her itinerary -- it's then that she sees the actual conditions of the vacation destination, and learns the perverse incentives of disaster tourism.

It starts out as a business novel set in the tourism industry, then at about halfway it takes a sharp turn into Kafkaland. The plot twist is both bizarre and scary plausible. I'd read more.

139scaifea
maaliskuu 30, 2023, 7:59 am

>137 swynn: Ha! Yep, we who love the rules are sometimes above them because we love them.

140bell7
huhtikuu 8, 2023, 8:11 am

Like, Literally, Dude is also entirely up my alley, so I'll be adding that to the ever-growing TBR list as well.

By the way, I just finished Out of Darkness all in a rush this morning and will look forward to your thoughts on it. Reviews on the work page are *very* divided.

141richardderus
huhtikuu 8, 2023, 12:36 pm

>138 swynn: A great switcheroo novel is hard to pull off, and it sounds to me like this one gets really close to getting it right. Of course, that could be my cynical lefty heart resonating with the capitalism critique....

Happy weekend's reads, Steve.

142drneutron
huhtikuu 10, 2023, 8:56 am

>138 swynn: Well, you got me with that one!

143swynn
huhtikuu 10, 2023, 10:57 pm

>140 bell7: Comments on Out of Darkness coming soon. I didn't like it as well as I'd hoped, and the climax in particular went in a direction that I first didn't buy and then thought was too much.

I took a peek at the comments you posted yesterday, and agree with your observation that the book's opponents take passages out of context. Even the passages the haters complain about reflect common sentiments that every high schooler will recognize. It's definitely a book for high schoolers, and I agree it belongs in school libraries.

144swynn
huhtikuu 10, 2023, 10:58 pm

>144 swynn: Well it certainly spoke to my cynically lefty heart

145swynn
huhtikuu 10, 2023, 10:58 pm

>145 swynn: Hope you like it Jim!

146swynn
huhtikuu 10, 2023, 11:07 pm



38) The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed
Date: 2021

Set in a near-future Alberta devastated by climate change and plagued by an epidemic of an untreatable fungal parasite. The adolescent narrator Reid and her mother live hand-to-mouth in a fragile and shrinking community outside the cities. So when Reid receives an invitation to attend university everyone recognizes it as an escape from a dead-end existence (except those who think it's an elaborate con -- and dang, it may just be an elaborate con). But Reid must also think about those she may leave behind, especially her ill mohter, and so takes a dangerous risk to balance the scales. It's bleak story about what we owe ourselves and what we owe each other, and I want a sequel.

147swynn
Muokkaaja: huhtikuu 11, 2023, 12:37 pm

39) Love in Excess by Eliza Haywood
Date: 1720

Count D'elmont has just returned to Paris from the Nine Years' War, and reader he is a fine piece of manflesh. Every woman who sees desires him, but only the Lady Alovisa dares to declare her love. We can only assume that Alovisa is not a reader of romances, because she declares her love in an anonymous letter not suspecting that this will lead D'elmont to pursue another. Complications ensue. The plot is dense and involves love, deception, infidelity, love, mistaken identity, disguise, love, scandal, kidnapping, love, revenge, honor, true love, and swooning. OMG you would not believe the swooning. It is ridiculous. Also I kind of dug it: there is never *not* something happening, and events often deliver the impending disaster they continually promise.

148swynn
huhtikuu 10, 2023, 11:48 pm



40 The Castle in Transylvania by Jules Verne
Date: 2010, French original 1892

Jules Verne's "Château des Carpathes" is the opposite of what you expect from Verne: its plot focuses on an apparently haunted castle and supernatural events. The residents of a Carpathian village are concerned when a nearby abandoned castle shows signs of activity. They send two men to investigate, who return with fantastic stories of mysterious lights and noises and forces that make the castle and grounds impenetrable. Shortly afterward, two travelers pass through the town, hear the story, and investigate. There is some effective atmosphere and fun adventure, but it's unfortunately spoiled by a tired love story, a few too many improbabilities, and a random dash of antisemitism.

149swynn
Muokkaaja: huhtikuu 11, 2023, 5:37 pm



41) The Valley of Horses by Jean Auel

Follow-up to Auel's Clan of the Cave-Bear, in which the Cro-Magnon girl Ayla was raised in a clan of Neanderthals. CotCB closed as a change in leadership forced Ayla's banishment from the clan, making her effectively dead to her former family. In this one, Ayla sets out on her own, hoping to find others of her "kind" but more immediately concerned with finding shelter and sustenance. She finds an ideal location in the titular valley, where she spends several years living on her own, gathering food and herbs, adjusting her perspective to her solitary condition, and domesticating a horse and mountain lion. Meanwhile, a couple of Cro-Magnon brothers, Jondalar and Thonolan, set out on a sort of Wanderjahr, looking for their place in the world and talking about love. They briefly settle down with a Cro-Magnon tribe where Thonolan falls in love and gets married. But when tragedy strike, the two set out again, only to encounter a mountain lion. The lion kills Thonolan and severely wounds Jondalar. Ayla saves Jondalar from the lion, and brings him to her cave where she nurses him back to health and he teaches her how to speak and make love.

As mentioned above, I first read Clan of the Cave Bear in high school and was surprised by how well I liked it (and by how little sex it contained). It held up on re-reading, and I was optimistic going into The Valley of Horses. Alas, this one was a miss for me, and not even because of the porny sex scenes, which are several. (I don't exaggerate much when I say that Jondalar's penis is a character all its own.) What bothered me more were the characters' modern sensibilities and obsessions that make it read less like Clan of the Cavebear than The Flintstones without the jokes. Throw in a mostly eventless plot, and it adds up to a slog of a read.

150richardderus
huhtikuu 11, 2023, 6:11 pm

>148 swynn: I think Verne was on the government's side in l'Affaire Dreyfus of 1898, so it might be a dusting of his anti-Jewish personality for real. I don't remember where I read this, but I remember thinking "oh boo hiss Jules!" This one sound like a real chore to read, so I think I won't.

>149 swynn: Sad when a re-read goes south, too...like Kalliope taking aim at your reading life, somehow.

151swynn
Muokkaaja: huhtikuu 12, 2023, 9:15 am

>150 richardderus: It was deflating to encounter it, since I don't remember ever hearing about Verne's antisemitism before -- but a few Google searches now suggest to me that it was a recurring theme in his work, though mostly in lesser-known books. And yeah, in the Dreyfus affair he was apparently on the side of the devils.

The expected defenses exist: Verne was a product of his time, he was not as bad as others, he occasionally said nice things about Jewish people. All of which are probably true to some degree and also beside the point.

152SirThomas
huhtikuu 16, 2023, 5:35 am

It took me a while to find you.

>4 swynn: >5 swynn: You have awakened many good memories of great reading material and a good friend.
He collected the booklets and was a huge fan.
Until I moved out and we lost touch, he let me borrow the first 1,000 episodes of the series. I enjoyed it very much. Some of the writers have also written good books outside the series.

You have read some books I love and some I will certainly read.
It's a bit late for a happy new thread, but I wish you all the best for the new week!

153swynn
huhtikuu 16, 2023, 8:22 pm

>152 SirThomas: Welcome Thomas! And thanks for your memories of Perry Rhodan! I'm enjoying the series, and that reminds me I'm way overdue for an update. I'll have to add one soon

154swynn
Muokkaaja: huhtikuu 18, 2023, 10:07 am



42) Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Perez
2015

Naomi is a Latina teenager who moves with her half-siblings to live with her stepfather, who works in the East Texas oil fields. When Naomi was younger her stepfather sexually abused her, so she is not enthusiastic about the move but her grandparents' declining health make it necessary, and her stepfather's recent religious conversion gives the move a veneer of safety. But Naomi isn't in her new home long before she encounters signs of trouble: she is refused service at the Whites-only grocery store, encounters prejudice at school, and her father's religious conversion proves fragile. The one bright point in her life is a boy, Wash, whose skin is even darker than hers and with whom she absolutely should not fall in love. It's not a pleasant book, and is not meant to be: racism is ugly, sexual abuse is horrifying, and the story goes in an ugly, horrifying direction. When a disaster occurs at the white school, the community's anxieties and loss provoke mob violence.

There is frank description of sex and sexual abuse, and unflinching treatment of racist prejudice. The direct handling of controversial issues has earned the book awards, but has also caught the attention of haters who challenged it onto the American Library Association's list of "Most Challenged Books."

For me, the story makes a few missteps, especially in its resoluton. There's a bit near the end where a lynch mob is diverted by a preacher who convinces the mob to hang its victims in effigy rather than in fact. This seems unrealistically optimistic to me, in that (1) the white preacher resists, rather than participates in, the lynching, and (2) the mob is open to criticism. It's an implausible twist whose only purpose is to spare the victim for an even more vicious death later on. The later scene's setup feels contrived and its violence gratuitous. For me, it raises a question about the boundary between criticizing violence and getting a thrill out of it. Which I think is a good question to ask, considering how much media we have that gets a thrill out of uncriticized violence. Not a book I'd recommend, but way the hell not a book I'd ban.

155swynn
Muokkaaja: huhtikuu 16, 2023, 9:39 pm



43) Red Cavalry by Isaac Babel
Date: 1926

Isaac Babel was a Russian Jew, and also served with the Red Army in the Soviet-Polish war. Red Cavalry is a collection of very short pieces inspired by his experiences, which highlight the casual violence and maddening illogic of war, edged with dark satirical humor. The volume I read included Babel's war diaries, which are bleak and sobering.

Red Cavalry was burned by the Nazis and suppressed by the Soviets. With his satire in Red Cavalry Babel made enemies, some of whom saw to his execution on fabricated charges of espionage and treason.

156swynn
huhtikuu 16, 2023, 9:45 pm



44) DAW #219: Spectrum of a Forgotten Sun by E.C. Tubb
Date: 1976

Fifteenth in Tubb's space opera series featuring Earl Dumarest, orphan of Earth trying to find his way home. In this one, Dumarest gets caught up in a heist gone wrong, trapped on a plague ship, then drafted into serving as champion to a disgraced aristocrat. The action is fun as usual, though the misogyny is strong.

157swynn
huhtikuu 16, 2023, 11:01 pm



45) The Helios Syndrome by Vivian Shaw
Date: 2023

Devin Stacey is a "Contingency Communications Specialist" for the National Transportation Safety Board -- which is a way to say without sounding crazy that he talks to dead people for air crash investigations. What's even more far-out are the faceless pilot haunting him and the inexplicable crashes he has been investigating. It's a fun story with an engaging voice that leaves plenty of room for follow-ups, which I would read

158richardderus
huhtikuu 19, 2023, 10:20 am

>155 swynn: Is your edition the Pushkin Press one? It's on my Kindle. I keep putting it off because it's pretty tough sledding for a casual read.

>157 swynn: Looks good to me. Sold!

159swynn
huhtikuu 19, 2023, 12:05 pm

>158 richardderus: No, mine was from Norton. It included a handful of uncollected Red Cavalry stories and Babel's war diaries. And you're right: it's not a casual read.

And hope you like the Shaw!

160richardderus
huhtikuu 19, 2023, 12:25 pm

>159 swynn: I think the Pushkin Press edition is only the collection not the diaries. I guess I'll see when I get to it. Whenever that ends up happening.

The Shaw looks like a good read. I'll let you know when I have read it.

161swynn
Muokkaaja: huhtikuu 20, 2023, 9:48 am



46) The Mammoth Hunters by Jean Auel
Date: 1985

Third in the Jean Auel's "Earth's Children" series of historical dramas featuring Ayla, a Cro-Magnon woman who was raised in a clan of Neanderthals. In this one, Ayla and her new Cro-Magnon boyfriend Jondalar leave their secluded idylls in the valley of horses to join up with the Mamutoi, tribes of Cro-Magnon mammoth hunter. They join a tribe, who invite Ayla and Jondalar to join based on Jondalar's invention of the spear-thrower and Ayla's skill in making fire using flint and iron. Events follow: Ayla is drawn to a half-Neanderthal child in the tribe; Jondalar worries what their new clan will think of them when they learn that Ayla is herself the mother of a half-Neanderthal chld; she domesticates a wolf cub; she is initiated into the mysteries of the Mamutoi; one of the Mamutoi resents her presence; and Jondalar acquires a romantic rival. This last is the central and most exasperating thread of what passes here for plot: Jondalar loves Ayla and Ayla loves Jondalar but there's a Black guy in the Mamutoi tribe and there's exactly one way to find out what he's packing. Both A & J are unclear about how exclusive they expect each other to be and it doesn't occur to them to just talk about it. Jondalar wants Ayla to go steady with him but won't say so, and Ayla would prefer Jondalar over the new guy except now he's acting all standoffish and weird. (And if that sounds more like High School Problems than Cro-Magnon Problems then you and I have something in common.) One conversation would resolve the problem but Auel has six hundred pages and a plan to stretch the angst out for every bit of it.

It's not all bad. Auel's accounts of stone-age customs and technology are consistently interesting. But she often has trouble shifting from exposition to dialog, with the effect that it's often difficult to sort her modern explanations from her characters' prehistoric perceptions. The awkwardness is often jarring: after a musical performance described in musicological detail one character comments, "What strange, asymmetrical, compelling music." Yes, that is an actual line of dialog uttered by a caveperson who does not even understand that sex makes babies but has a refined musical palate. It's a mixture of fun and frustrating that would be more appealing if only it didn't run so damn long.

This was the bestselling book in the U.S. in 1985, which was the point of reading the series this far, so now I get to stop and that is fine with me.

162richardderus
huhtikuu 19, 2023, 2:18 pm

163swynn
huhtikuu 19, 2023, 4:08 pm

>162 richardderus: *whew* indeed

164swynn
Muokkaaja: huhtikuu 20, 2023, 5:43 pm



47) American Hippo by Sarah Gailey
Date: 2018

In much contrast to The Mammoth Hunters this offers plenty of plot, action, and plain fun. I had read and enjoyed River of Teeth years ago, but put off Taste of Marrow to a point that when I finally picked it up I realized I had to re-read RoT to know what was going on. So hooray for this omnibus edition, which includes both novellas and a couple of short stories. They're caper stories set in an alternative 19th century America where feral hippos roam the Mississippi. It leaves some things unresolved, and other things ignored, but it's fast, light, and has hippopotamuses.

165swynn
Muokkaaja: huhtikuu 26, 2023, 1:13 pm



48) Grimus by Salman Rushdie
Date: 1975

I'm actually not entirely sure what the book is about, but the story follows a young man who falls through a hole in the Mediterranean and arrives on the shore of an island of immortals. The hero is looking for his sister, but also a cure for immortality, and most importantly a place in the world. His search takes him on a surreal journey up the island's mountain. "Magical realism," I guess it is, but it feels like a fantasy written by an author who thinks worldbuilding is for nerds: the world feels incoherent and events random. It would be easier to dismiss except that Rushdie writes so well on a sentence level, and works in so much wordplay, puzzles, and literary allusion that the prose is fun in spite of the impenetrable story, even if many of the jokes go over one's head.

166richardderus
huhtikuu 26, 2023, 3:19 pm

>164 swynn: The having of hippopotamus es/I is the thing I enjoyed most about that series. There really is just a scandalously small hippopotamus presence in modern fiction.

167richardderus
huhtikuu 26, 2023, 3:21 pm

>165 swynn: one of Sir Salman's that I have never heard of before. Don't think I'll be rushing out to get one, either. I like my conventions honored, even if not observed.

168swynn
huhtikuu 27, 2023, 7:07 am

>167 richardderus: It's his inaugural novel, and feels a lot like a clever young author flaunting his cleverness. I think your choice not to rush is the right one.

169richardderus
huhtikuu 28, 2023, 7:30 pm

>168 swynn: not being a completist, I am sure I can ignore it.

170swynn
Muokkaaja: toukokuu 16, 2023, 12:47 pm



49) Be Dazzled by Ryan La Sala
Date: 2021
Raffy is a high schooler who's into crafting and especially cosplay. He enters a local cosplay competition but finds himself pitted against his ex-boyfriend Luca, for whom Raffy's fire still smolders. The angst is thick: Raffy's art-world mother disapproves of his lowbrow hobby, Luca has to play straight to cope with his religious family, and friends/frenemies/ex-friends complicate the drama.

I liked parts and I eye-rolled parts -- I may have sprained an an extraocular muscle on the suddenly-tidy ending -- but I'll still give it respect for pissing off the haters, since it appears on (Texas state representative and probable lizard-person) Matt Krause's list of books to remove from school libraries.

Read banned books, y'all.

171swynn
Muokkaaja: toukokuu 16, 2023, 12:57 pm



50) The Shadowglass by Rin Chupeco
Date: 2019

Third and last in Chupeco's "Bone Witch" fantasy series, about a super-smart super-magic teenager who accidentally learns she can raise the dead and change the world. I wasn't crazy about the first but I got all three in an omnibus collection so continued with the second which I liked better and so here I am on number three. I'm still not a fan: the series is too angsty, too preoccupied with explicating the world's complicated rules, and framed with a dual-timeline gimmick that I don't think helps the story at all. But given the first two volumes, this one delivers as satisfying an ending as I could have asked for.

172richardderus
toukokuu 16, 2023, 1:12 pm

>170 swynn: Based on the hate monger's blacklist I'll go get one.

173swynn
toukokuu 16, 2023, 6:22 pm

>172 richardderus: Yea! I hope you even like it.

174swynn
Muokkaaja: toukokuu 16, 2023, 7:29 pm



51) Honeymoon With Murder by Carolyn G. Hart
Date: 1988

Fourth in Hart's "Death on Demand" series, featuring bookstore owner Annie (Laurance) Darling. This is the one where Annie Laurance becomes Annie Darling as she marries her boyfriend Max. Unfortunately for Annie and Max, their honeymoon must be postponed due to murder: Annie's friend and bookstore employee Ingrid Jones has disappeared, leaving the body of a local creep dead in her empty house. Police conclude that Ingrid is a murderer on the run, but Annie is certain her friend has been kidnapped, and all postmarital festivites must be postponed until she can solve the mystery and clear Ingrid's name. The solution here stretches belief, but the series's bread and butter are its eccentric characters and its frequent allusions to other mysteries, and on those points it delivers.

175swynn
Muokkaaja: toukokuu 16, 2023, 7:29 pm



52) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Date: 1925

I was an English major who somehow never landed in a course where Gatsby was required, so my sense of it has been based on a few excerpts and so many conversations and lectures about that damn green light that I could probably convince you that I'd already read it. But I hadn't; it was just a text I intended to get around to someday.

Well, I've gotten around to it and now I get it. It's brilliant, and still resonates. Although I can't help feeling that if Fitzgerald thought he'd seen grotesque wealth and toxic ambition and uncrossable class boundaries he might've bothered to live another hundred years and kept taking notes.

176swynn
Muokkaaja: toukokuu 16, 2023, 7:27 pm



53) Madam de Beaumont by Penelope Aubin
Date: 1721

While strolling on his seaside estate, a Welsh gentleman spies "a maid of exquisite beauty and shape" standing in the opening of a cave. He discovers that the girl and her mother are exiles from France and have taken up residence in the cave under diminished conditions: they have only one servant and but a fraction of their furniture. The mother, Madam de Beaumont, is the child of a French nobleman and an English woman from a Royalist (albeit protestant) family who had fled to France with James II. Through a series of unlikely events Mme. de Beaumont married a young French lord against his catholic father's wishes. When she refused to convert after years of education and exhortations, the father determined to separate them. Mme. de Beaumont and her young daughter departed for England where they could practice their religion in peace but alas their ship foundered on the coast of Wales and they set up house in a surprisingly cozy cave. Upon hearing this story, not to mention smitten with the younger Beaumont, the Welsh gentleman determines to restore the lives of the De Beaumonts and marry the maid. It's a frenetic plot, with characters constantly being moved around to France, to Sweden, to Wales, to the next county over; there are family issues, highway robbers and more missing persons than you'd expect could be lost in the pages of such a short novel. It's busy, prone to moralizing, and a little bonkers, but there is never nothing happening and it engaged my enjoyment better than that crackpot colonizer Crusoe did.

177MickyFine
toukokuu 17, 2023, 1:38 pm

>175 swynn: I'm glad it lived up to the hype for you, Steve. I read it for high school English and have loved it ever since. Probably due for a re-read, actually.

178swynn
toukokuu 22, 2023, 2:20 pm

>177 MickyFine: It definitely did! Now I'm ready for Nghi Vo's retelling, The Chosen and the Beautiful

179swynn
Muokkaaja: toukokuu 22, 2023, 5:54 pm



54) A Plunge Into Space by Robert Cromie
Date: 1890

Eccentric scientist Henry Barnett discovers how to manipulate "forces" to negate Earth's gravity. Barnett's explorer friend MacGregor organizes an expedition to Mars, assembling a team including a novelist, an artist, a politician, a journalist, and a businessman. (All the skills necessary for taming a new world, I guess.) They launch from a site in the Alaskan wilderness, where they first slaughter some natives before taking their message of peace into space. The spacecraft functions through managing the forces of planetary gravity: as Barnett cancels the effect of Earth's gravity the ship is caught by that of Mars, and the explorers feel as if they are falling toward their destination -- hence, "plunging" into space. Arriving on Mars, they meet an ancient race living in utopian anarchism, along with a beautiful Martian maiden, for whose attentions the crew compete. Eventually the Martians ask the crew to leave, on grounds that their attentions to the Martian girl are not entirely proper, and that the politician and businessman just won't stop talking about parliamentary government and banking. I mean, I'd kick 'em out too, wouldn't you?

It's a little difficult to know how to read this: the adventure parts are not bad, but the utopian travel narrative is muddled and silly, and one is tempted to read the whole thing as a satire on the Vernish adventure genre it seems to imitate. But if it is a joke, it's an exceptionally dead-pan one because you never get the feeling that it's intended as such, and what critical commentary I can find seems to take it at face value. Even more to the point, it was originally published with an introduction by Jules Verne (reproduced in the Hyperion Press "Classics of Science Fiction" edition, which is the one I read), who would hardly have been inclined to participate in the joke. Most interesting is how the plot anticipates better-known stories like The First Men in the Moon and The Cold Equations.

180swynn
Muokkaaja: toukokuu 24, 2023, 4:51 pm



55) The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
Date: 1719

Robinson Crusoe was such a success that Defoe rushed a sequel to press the very same year. Following the adventures of the first book, Crusoe has settled down and started a family. But he continues to long for adventure and particularly to see his island again. Upon the death of his wife, Crusoe buys a merchant ship, appoints his nephew commander, and arranges to have it stop for a few days at his former island home where he checks in on the Spanish castaways and English mutineers whose hands he left it in. The first half of the book recounts their story, which involves internal conflict until they must band together against the threat of hostile neighbors. Crusoe and a shipwrecked priest spend time hand-wringing over the thought that some of the men are living with native women as husband and wife without benefit of clergy. They must be married for the sake of their souls; but they cannot be married until the women are converted. This is apparently Very Important. Having put his little colony in order, Crusoe then travels further around the world through more adventures. They stop at Madagascar, where one of the Europeans rapes a local girl; the natives react by capturing the rapist and hanging him, which the sailors regard as an outrageous overreaction, so in retaliation they respond by slaughtering the natives and burning their village. Crusoe objects, and so finds himself marooned once again. This time, however, he is fortunately closer to civilization and makes his way back to England through Cambodia, China, Russia, and Germany. More adventures are had: he is mistaken for a pirate, meets a Catholic priest who Crusoe decides is almost as good as a Christian (yay for ecumenicism, I guess), and destroys a pagan idol for Jesus.

It is difficult to sympathize with RC's 18th century preoccupations and prejudices but it's consistently interesting, often for reasons Defoe probably did not intend.

181swynn
toukokuu 25, 2023, 9:25 am



56) The Last Ocean : What Dementia Teaches Us About Love by Nicci Gerrard
Date: 2019

The author lost her father to Alzheimer's. Some of his last months were spent in a hospital during COVID, and she is convinced that the isolation contributed to his decline. This book is collects her thoughts and experiences, and things she has learned about dementia. I've mentioned that my mother is in the early, maybe middle, stages of the disease -- anyway, she has progressed to a point where she can no longer live independently. I was hoping for some insight and maybe some guidance but didn't feel I got it from this book. It's well arranged, and well written, but it's not a practical guide, and (for me) not especially informative, but rather a collection of essays and meditations on mostly affective aspects dementia. I appreciate the author's openness about her own experience, but I find that my response is lukewarm. Others have loved it, and reviews are uniformly positive, so let's assume it's a mismatch between what it is and what I was looking for.

182richardderus
toukokuu 25, 2023, 9:35 am

>181 swynn: We're early days in the dementia literature and haven't yet got critical mass on the concerns we need to address. Memoirs like this are going to fall by the wayside and be replaced with more actionable stuff but there is no critical mass of information needing to be disseminated.

Frustrating, isn't it?

Maybe something broader about eldercare could help...?

183MickyFine
toukokuu 25, 2023, 12:18 pm

>181 swynn: Being a non-fiction librarian at a public library I can't resist the urge to provide some alternatives that might be more what you're looking for. Use or ignore as suits you:

The 36-Hour Day - Nancy L. Mace
Creative Care - Anne Basting
Dementia: A Very Short Introduction - Kathleen E. Taylor

This last one is right on the border of being 5 years old, which is when I start getting hesitant about recommending for medical material but this series is really great:

Alzheimer's Disease & Dementia: What Everyone Needs to Know - Steven R. Sabat

184swynn
toukokuu 29, 2023, 4:13 pm

>182 richardderus:
>183 MickyFine:

Funny thing is, I'd picked it up without even realizing I was looking for something. I'd seen a recommendation for it and thought, "Oh, that's something I can relate to," and it was only while reading that I realized I'd really like to read something else.

Thanks for the suggestions, and the recs! I'd already found The 36-hour day, which sounded more like the book I wanted The Last Ocean to be and it's on the way!

185MickyFine
toukokuu 29, 2023, 5:20 pm

>184 swynn: I hope it's useful!

187ArlieS
kesäkuu 2, 2023, 3:57 pm

>186 swynn: There can be only one.

188richardderus
kesäkuu 4, 2023, 7:06 pm

>186 swynn: so adorable! signed, the guy with over 13,000 Kindlebooks alone and less than 20 years to go

189RBeffa
kesäkuu 5, 2023, 5:33 pm

>161 swynn: I lost track of your thread. The Mammoth Hunters. This series went downhill so fast that this book was my last I could read, all those years ago. I did have a go at The Plains of Passage a few years after this when it came out but I couldn't tolerate it. You gave a very nice summary of the mess of Mammoth Hunters.

Glad to see you haven't completely forgotten the DAWs.

190swynn
kesäkuu 10, 2023, 3:37 pm

>187 ArlieS:
>188 richardderus:

Right? The whole "You can only read one book at a time, so just buy your next one and put everything else on a 'someday' list" .... well, I'm glad it works for him.

>189 RBeffa: Hi Ron! Yes, I'm happy to have left the Earth's Children series after book 3.

And DAWs: I'm going through them less fast than I used to but haven't forgotten them. There's an Elric book up next, which I hope to read this month.

191swynn
Muokkaaja: kesäkuu 10, 2023, 10:40 pm

I have been reading much faster than I've posted reviews, so I have fallen far behind. What do y'all say to a Saturday sprint?



57) Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance and other stories by Tobias S. Buckell
Date: 2023

Here's a collection of fifteen hard-sf stories by Caribbean author Buckell. I first encountered Buckell through his story for the New Suns anthology, "Galactic Tourist Industrial Complex," a story about a cabbie in a Manhattan turned intergalactic tourist trap. That story is included. Several others are set in a future world where Earth has been colonized by hypercapitalist aliens. These are the kind of stories you'd expect to find in Analog, only without the libertarian politics. I liked 'em, and will look for more.

192swynn
kesäkuu 10, 2023, 4:36 pm



58) Can't Nothing Bring Me Down by Ida Keeling
Date: 2018

This is the memoir of centenarian sprinter Ida Keeling, who took up running in her sixties and set records into her 100's. Somewhat to my disappointment, only about 20 of 200 pages are about running. Instead it focuses on her struggles as a black single mother in early-20th century Harlem. For what it is, it is an interesting and valuable document; and kudos to Ida for the life she lived. I just wanted more running.

193swynn
kesäkuu 10, 2023, 5:24 pm



59) Chasing Whispers by Eugen Bacon
Date: 2022

This is a collection of stories by the author of Mage of Fools, which Richard recced to me last year with excellent reason. I'm afraid I found this collection more opaqe than MoF: bluntly, I did not always know what was going on. The cover story features a woman who starts having hallucinations after eating the bark of a magical tree. Other stories involve mermaids, skinless girls, and a raven campaigning to be a witchdoctor's familiar. All have gorgeous prose, vivid surreal imagery, and narratives that demand close attention.

194swynn
kesäkuu 10, 2023, 5:34 pm



60) The Phoenix and the Carpet by E. Nexbit
Date: 1904

Sequel to Nesbit's Five Children and It. In this one, the children hatch a Phoenix egg and go for adventures on a flying carpet. Mostly fun with the expected mix of "that didn't age well" moments.

195swynn
kesäkuu 10, 2023, 7:11 pm



61) The British Recluse by Eliza Haywood
Date: 1722

Belinda, a "young Lady of considerable Fortune," stops at a boarding house while visiting London. She learns of another boarder who always takes meals in her room and is known only as "the Recluse." Belinda arranges to meet, and they trade stories of being deceived in love. They also form a friendship over their mutual storytelling, resulting in a resolution that grants both women agency and a lasting bond.

The plot here is less frenetic than Haywood's earlier "Love in Excess", but the lurve is just as thick. Still, these eighteenth-century "amatory fiction" works are not as intolerable as I expected -- actually, they've so far been kind of fun.

196swynn
kesäkuu 10, 2023, 7:29 pm



62) Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
Date: 2021

It's a YA thriller about two Black kids at an otherwise all-white academy who become targets of an anonymous harassment campaign. One is a girl at the top of the social ladder and from an upper-class family; the other is a scholarship student, a musician and gay. All they have in common is the color of their skin and the attention of a blackmailer who goes by "Aces."

I liked the premise, and most of the development (granted the expected angst), but the climax was too rushed and contrived for me. But I'm not the target audience and others have loved it so ymmv.

The reason I read it is because it has been a target of book bans, presumably because of its gay character and social justice themes.

197swynn
kesäkuu 10, 2023, 7:33 pm



63) Dreams and Dream Stories by Anna Bonus Kingsford
Date: 1888

Author Kingsford was one of the first formally-trained women physicians, also a committed anti-vivisectionist, vegetarian, and theosophist. This is a collection of her dreams and stories inspired by her dreams. Her dreams tend to be much more coherent than my own, with clear and didactic interpretations. The stories contain some arresting imagery, but also suffer from stock characters and over-earnest prose.

198swynn
kesäkuu 10, 2023, 7:47 pm



64) My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix
Date: 2016

Abby and Gretchen have been friends since middle school. When Gretchen disappears overnight during a sleepover at a friend's home, Abby becomes convinced that during her mysterious absence, Gretchen became possessed by the devil. It's a horror-comedy thick with references to 1980's pop culture, very light but also very fun.

199swynn
kesäkuu 10, 2023, 7:55 pm



65) Defekt by Nino Cipri
Date: 2021

Follow-up to Cipri's Finna, in which employees of an Ikea-like department store get lost in parallel dimensions. In this one, the store's most loyal employee Derek is assigned to a super-secret "inventory" team charged with finding and neutralizing furniture monsters. Which is strange enough, but why is everyone on the team another "Derek"? It's got parallel universes, sentient furniture, clones, anticorporate satire, and nothing not to love.

200swynn
Muokkaaja: kesäkuu 10, 2023, 8:25 pm



66) Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
Date: 1722

Here's another one that I've known by reputation since I can't remember when. It's about a woman who marries repeatedly, once unwittingly to her own half-brother, and is occasionally a "whore" (here apparently in the sense of living conjugally without benefit of clergy, not in the sense of prostitution). Eventually she becomes a thief and then through lucky turns of fate wealthy, from which position she can afford a conscience and therefore repents. These aren't spoilers: they're in the subtitle. What struck me most was the narrative's preoccupation with economics: most of Moll's relationships are motivated by money as much as or more than love. Curiously, Moll is better than her husbands at money management, a point which seems to comment on women's economic place in Restoration England. That said, it's also entertaining to ask just how much of Moll's self-serving account is "true". I liked this better than I expected to do.

Also a banned book! Under the terms of the 1873 Comstock Act, Moll Flanders was prohibited from being sent through the United States Postal Service.

201swynn
kesäkuu 10, 2023, 8:33 pm



67) The Strange Adventures of the Count de Vinevil and His Family by Penelope Aubin
Date: 1721

Count de Vinevil leaves France and moves to Constantinople with his daughter Ardelisa and foster son Longueville to avoid onerous taxes. But in Turkey his daughter catches the eye of a lustful and powerful "Mahometan" who plans to abduct the girl and kill her family. Longueville runs to the sea, hoping to join with Vinevil and Ardelisa later, but their adversary spoils that plan by attacking the Vinevil estate, killing the Count while Ardelisa flees into the Turkish countryside. The rest of this short novel follows Ardelisa's and Longueville's efforts to reunite. It's a strange, xenophobic story with an implausible plot, unpleasant characters and a moralizing narrator. It's difficult to enjoy, even when granting license for its time.

202swynn
kesäkuu 10, 2023, 10:15 pm



68) It by Stephen King
Date: 1986

This was the bestselling novel in the United States for 1986. It follows six adults who return to their hometown when a horror resurfaces that they faced together as middle schoolers. The monster manifests as each victim's personal fears, but also as an evil clown. The narrative proceeds along two timelines. The earlier timeline is set in the 1950s, in which the characters' younger selves band together as outcasts and victims of the local bullies and face down both bullies and clown monster. In the later "present" (i.e., 1980s) timeline the older, more jaded, adults have to remember how to defeat the monster and recover the bond that made it possible.

I think I have mentioned that I often like Stephen King's ideas more than his execution, and that in his longer works I find his repetition and rambling so frustrating that I sometimes want it to stop more than I want to find out what happens. That was the case with It, which I've attempted once back in the late 1980s but gave up about 2/3 of the way through. I stuck it out this time, so I now know how it ends, but still think that 30-years-younger me made a sensible decision. The story is pretty good, set pieces are effective, and it's easy to see its lasting appeal, but Stephen King needs an editor and it's too damn long by half. (Also: *ew* on the middle-grades sewer gangbang)

203swynn
kesäkuu 10, 2023, 10:21 pm



69) Kibogo by Scholastique Mukasonga
Date: 2022

It's a set of interconnected stories focusing on cultural conflicts in colonial Rwanda, where European capital and religion collide with traditional social structures and narratives. The missionaries' stories about Jesus and Mary meet and mingle with indigenous stories, particularly about the folk hero Kibogo, who went away and will someday return when his people need him. This is brilliant: tight prose, layered narrative, powerful themes, and sly humor, it's one of the best things I've read this year.

204swynn
kesäkuu 10, 2023, 10:37 pm



70) The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne by Ann Radcliffe
Date: 1789

Radcliffe's first novel is a short one, and concerns clan rivalry in the Scottish Highlands. The story begins twelve years after the good Earl of Athlin died in battle against the evil Malcolm of Dunbayne. When the Earl's son Osbert grows into a young man he learns about his father's unjust defeat and determines to recover the family estate. In this revolutionary project Osbert is helped by Alleyn, a commoner who musters support for Osbert among the clan. There is little hint of the supernatural here, but it does offer star-crossed romance, old castles with secret passageways, and a sensational plot involving treachery, revenge, and a lost heir. It's fun in its way. I ear-read the Librivox version, performed very well by Lauren Randall.

205swynn
Muokkaaja: kesäkuu 10, 2023, 10:39 pm



71) White Plague by James Abel
Date: 2015

U.S. Marine and bioterror specialist Joe Rush is sent to the arctic where the crew of a nuclear submarine have fallen ill with an unidentified sickness. But the Marines aren't the only ones interested: someone has been feeding information to the Chinese, who send a sub of their own. It's a pretty good technothriller, acknowledges the effects of global warming on the arctic, and offers some difficult moral dilemmas.

206lyzard
kesäkuu 25, 2023, 6:41 pm

Hi, hon - I am still not caught up on your thread and clearly I have a LOT of catching up to do (Eliza Hayward and Ann Radcliffe, good lord!!??) but assuming that you know what our next best-seller is, I wanted to get in early and see if you wanted to read The Hunt For Red October first? I gather that The Cardinal Of The Kremlin is a fairly direct sequel.

207swynn
Muokkaaja: kesäkuu 26, 2023, 8:31 am

Sure, I'm up for reading The Hunt for Red October first. Do you also want to read Patriot Games, or is it your sense that that one is less necessary?

I am of course interested in your thoughts on my recent reads, especially the ones where I may have missed important features. But take your time; they'll still be here when you get around to them. In fact, I'm pretty sure there will be more ...

208richardderus
kesäkuu 26, 2023, 9:03 am

>193 swynn: Bacon seems to me to be getting more sibylline as the career goes on...not always too pleasurable to read, TBH. Still, the party ain't over just yet; only the catering's a bit heavy on the stodge.

>195 swynn: Peculiar stuff, "amatory fiction".

>200 swynn: It was banned in Texas in the 1960s. Defoe could offend prudes of every epoch.

>203 swynn: You liked it! You liked it! I'm so pleased you enjoyed the Rwandan verssion of an Arthur cycle.

Happy week-ahead's reads, Steve.

209swynn
Muokkaaja: kesäkuu 26, 2023, 12:02 pm

>208 richardderus:

Peculiar stuff, "amatory fiction".

Indeed. I've been surprised at how much it has distracted me the last couple of months with its strange, "I see your genres and reject them," vibe. Of course, my sense of that vibe is historically reversed but still that's how it strikes me. I'll no doubt get my fill of it soon, but not just yet.

It was banned in Texas in the 1960s. Defoe could offend prudes of every epoch.

I knew it by reputation, and I was expecting more scandal -- something closer to Fanny Hill. From which it was very far. Still, it doesn't take much for some people -- and for the book-banners there's certainly more than reason enough.

I'm so pleased you enjoyed the Rwandan version of an Arthur cycle.

So brilliant how it played with how stories are created, appropriated, and internalized, in a setting that manages to be deadly serious, comic, and joyful simultaneously. It is just so very good.

210richardderus
kesäkuu 26, 2023, 5:31 pm

>209 swynn: Moll Flanders shocked and infuriated my mother when my oldest sister told her about its thesis of the relationships being transactional, including marriage. Tellingly, though, she never said not to read it, she just argued that this cynical and reductive take on human intimacy was wrongheaded. Religious nut or no, she was 100% against book-banning.

Since Ma Mukasonga made such a hit, may I suggest The Barefoot Woman, a tribute to her mother?
A moving, unforgettable tribute to a Tutsi woman who did everything to protect her children from the Rwandan genocide, by the daughter who refuses to let her family's story be forgotten.

The story of the author's mother, a fierce, loving woman who for years protected her family from the violence encroaching upon them in pre-genocide Rwanda. Recording her memories of their life together in spare, wrenching prose, Mukasonga preserves her mother's voice in a haunting work of art.

I recommend the read with vigor.

211lyzard
kesäkuu 26, 2023, 7:06 pm

>207 swynn:

Ohhhhh, my quick look at things was clearly too quick, didn't pick up that detail. :D

I guess I'm up for it if you are? And later we can look into why it's always the third book in the series that hits the top of the lists...

212swynn
Muokkaaja: kesäkuu 27, 2023, 4:27 pm

*** German nerdery ***

Ugh: "Karen" is a loanword.

Here's a YouTube video by Teresa Reichl, a German scholar, slam poet, and author of a recent book about diversifying the canon, Muss ich das gelesen haben? (= "Do I Have to Have Read That?") In the video, Reichl summarizes the Harry Potter series in sixty seconds. The interesting bit is at 0:39, where Reichl describes Dolores Umbridge as "The Mother of all Karens," which, auf Deutsch, is apparently "die Mutter aller Karens":

https://youtu.be/X2Tns129jkY

I've never liked the term "Karen" -- there are too many people named "Karen" who are wonderful human beings -- and I have hoped in vain that some other term would displace it soon. And here it is showing up as a loanword in other languages.

213swynn
kesäkuu 27, 2023, 12:00 pm

>210 richardderus: After Kibogo I need little persuasion to read more. I've requested The Barefoot Woman by interlibrary loan, so should get to it soon.

>211 lyzard: I am up for it, and frankly am looking forward to this three-month project more than the last one. This optimism is subject to change.

214richardderus
kesäkuu 27, 2023, 5:14 pm

>212 swynn: Gross! We need to stake "Karen" through the eyes.

>213 swynn: Yay!!

215swynn
Muokkaaja: heinäkuu 3, 2023, 4:11 pm



72) Eastbound by Maylis de Kerangal
Date: 2023 (French original 2012)

A young French woman Hélène meets Russian conscript Alyosha on the trans-Siberian railway. Both are fleeing something: Hélène is escaping a relationship, and Alyosha is desperate to desert. On an impulse, Hélène lets Alyosha into her cabin to abet his escape.

Neither Hélène nor Alyoshe know what they're doing, exactly: Hélène doesn't speak Russian, and Alyosha is so inept and poorly connected that he couldn't even escape conscription. Nor do they trust each other, exactly: Hélène wonders what kind of mess she bought herself with her impulsive decision, and Alyosha knows it. What they have in common is a sense that life has to offer something better and that risks must be taken to find out what that might be.

Also, y'know, *Siberia*

It's a short literary thriller with lovely prose, brisk pacing, and a rich setting. Enthusiastically recommended.

Thanks Richard for the rec on this one!

216swynn
Muokkaaja: heinäkuu 5, 2023, 10:36 pm



73) Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, November-December 2022

I liked most stories in this issue, but especially Suzanne Palmer's "Falling Off the Edge of the World," Ray Nayler's "The Empty," and the end of Kris Rusch's "Court Martial of the Renegat Renegades."

Falling Off the Edge of the World by Suzanne Palmer
After their spaceship collides with an unknown force in deep space, a survivor terraforms the craft itself, and settles in for a long wait to be rescued, his only companion another survivor living in an inaccessible section of the wreck.

I'll be Moon for Christmas by Michèle Laframboise
A solar flare cuts off all communication between Earth and an outpost on the Moon; the colonists find a way to send a message.

It's Time to Wake Up! by Nick Wolven
An activist fights a losing battle for programs to address climate change, and has recurring dreams about being surrounded by shadowy monsters urging her to wake up.

The Empty by Ray Nayler
A robot-minder balances career and conscience when a broken-down truck leads to a suspicion that somebody's life is in danger in a remote and officially deserted location.

Flicker by Michael Cassutt
An ecoterrorist is captured after attacking a ship in the North Pacific. The ship is supposed to be doing weapons testing, but the ecoterrorist convinces one of her guards that there's more to their targets than the crew have been told.

The Long Revenge of Chenda Sebalko by Tom Purdom
Very elderly men play very long cons in order to destroy each other.

When the Signal Is the Noise by Rajan Khanna
A mysterious object appears over Angeles National Forest, where it remains in position and "does a whole lot of nothing." Monique is asked to help investigate the object due to her pattern-sensing ability to see the signal in the noise."

Forty-Eight Minutes at the Trainview Café by M. Bennardo
In a where virtual simulations are multitudinous and varied, the protagonist stumbles across a program that simulates waiting at a train station -- initially boring, but weirdly popular and inexplicably appealing.

Lonely Hill by James Maxey
A farmer discovers a buried flying saucer on his land.

Drowned in the Sun by Nick Mamatas
A Cypriot visionary pitches a plan to ignite a dormant volcano ... and also to repopulate Cyprus.

The Court Martial of the Renegat Renegades by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Conclusion to the novel begun in the previous issue, featuring the courtroom drama for which the first part was prelude. The conclusion pulls off a satisfying twist.

217swynn
heinäkuu 5, 2023, 10:57 pm



74) Assassination Classroom, vol. 4 by Yusei Matsui
Date: 2013

I was going to give a rest to this manga series about a class of high school students trying to assassinate their tentacle-monster teacher, but then I saw that it has been banned from some schools due to its violence and sexual content. I'd be a lot more sympathetic if only it weren't that the crowd trying to ban pictures of guns is also trying to ensure easy and ubiquitous access to actual guns. Anyway, the story is more of what's gone before: new assassins, new failed attempts to kill the teacher, more clues to the teacher's history. It's a clever idea dragged out too long, but I'll probably read some more because a pox on all book-banners.

218swynn
heinäkuu 6, 2023, 1:10 pm



75) 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill
Date: 2005

I think I've mentioned that I'm not as big a fan of Stephen King as I feel I ought to be. Among my unpopular opinions is this: Joe Hill is the writer that Stephen King has always been hyped to be. I'm embarrassed it took me so long to get to this terrific collection of terrific stories.

219FAMeulstee
heinäkuu 7, 2023, 4:04 am

>218 swynn: Congratulations on reaching 75, Steve!

220SirThomas
Muokkaaja: heinäkuu 8, 2023, 10:09 am

Congratulations on reaching 75, Steve!
Good that it was also a good one - i also found it very worth reading.

221richardderus
heinäkuu 8, 2023, 10:11 am

>218 swynn: And it was a good read! Bravo.

222drneutron
heinäkuu 8, 2023, 7:01 pm

Congrats!

223swynn
Muokkaaja: heinäkuu 10, 2023, 10:54 am

>219 FAMeulstee:
>220 SirThomas:
>221 richardderus:
>222 drneutron:

Thanks! Still behind on reviews, so there's plenty more a-coming.

224swynn
Muokkaaja: heinäkuu 11, 2023, 1:28 pm



76) Spock Must Die! by James Blish
Date: 1970

This was the first original Star Trek tie-in novel. As I understand the story, author Blish had been contracted to adapt the television scripts as short stories, which were collected in Star Trek 1-12, and his contract allowed him to write his own novel set in the Star Trek universe. Blish wanted to kill a main character, and originally planned to target Kirk -- but when he discovered that Spock was actually more popular than Kirk (Blish's wife told him that she preferred Spock) he chose to kill Spock instead.

The plot involves a transporter malfunction, and the story opens with Scotty and McCoy discussing McCoy's reservations about having his "molecules scrambled and beamed around as if \he\ were a radio message." Scotty gives it a long think, and proposes a new process involving tachyons and technobabble that answers McCoy's objections and incidentally extends the transporter's range dramatically. Just in time, too: because the Klingons have broken the Organian peace treaty and launched an attack on Federation Space. For the uninitiated: the Klingons shouldn't be able to do this, because the Organian treaty is enforced by super-powerful noncorporeal peacemongers who shouldn't allow it. Thanks to Scotty's new invention, the Enterprise is in transporter range of Organia, and Spock is appointed to go to Organia and find out what happened. But the new process malfunctions, resulting in two Spocks on the Enterprise. Worse, one of the Spocks is eeeevil and communicating with the Klingons. But which one?

It's an odd one: the series had already done an evil-doppelganger-by-transporter story ("The Enemy Within"), so the premise here doesn't feel fresh; and there are moments where characters don't feel true to the series. (I didn't read the original edition, which according to Blish had everyone addressing MccCoy as "Doc" because the editor didn't like the nickname "Bones." This at least was corrected in later editions.) Also, the denouement has the Organians interdicting Klingon planets and colony worlds from space flight for a thousand years, practically removing Klingons from the series for the foreseeable future. Which we know is not the case.. On the other hand it's short and gets right to the things that made the original series fun. So it's a strange read but mostly not an annoying one, a glimpse at a Star Trek universe that might have been.

Oh also, we get James Kirk's regrettable thoughts on what makes Spock so hot:
What was the source of the oddly overt response that women of all ages and degrees of experience seemed to feel toward Spock? Kirk had no answer, but he had two theories, switching from one to the other according to his mood. One was that it was a simple challenge-and-response situation: he may be cold and unresponsive to other women, but if I had the chance, I could get through to him! The other, more complex theory seemed more plausible to Kirk only in his moments of depression: that most white crewwomen, still the inheritors after two centuries of vestiges of the shameful racial prejudices of their largely Anglo-American forebears, saw in the Vulcan half-breed — who after all had not sprung from any Earthly colored stock — a “safe” way of breaking with those vestigial prejudices — and at the same time, perhaps, satisfying the sexual curiosity which had probably been at the bottom of them from the beginning.

So, um, that didn't age well.

225swynn
Muokkaaja: heinäkuu 10, 2023, 6:54 pm



77) Check, Please! Book 1: Hockey by Ngozi Ukazu
Date: 2018

I read the printed, bound edition, but originally it's a web comic about Eric "Bitty" Bittle, a figure skater who joins a college hockey team. Bitty also has his own video blog, likes to bake pies, and is gay. Eric is an outstanding skater, but is not prepared for the physical confrontations of hockey; but his teammates are supportive -- also they like pie. Bound like this, it's a graphic novel that is cute, humorous, and sometimes affecting.

According to PEN America, it has also been banned from libraries and classrooms in the Frisco (TX) Independent School District, and has been challenged in in other schools also. Maybe it's because gay characters exist; or maybe it's because they sometimes say the F-word (unlike actual hockey players). So, trigger warning for potty mouth I guess but if you can unclutch your pearls about that then it's great fun.

226swynn
heinäkuu 11, 2023, 1:47 pm



78) New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson
Date: 2017

In 2140, lower Manhattan is flooded turning the area into a sort of American Venice: the buildings continue to be inhabited, transportation is via water, and despite obvious infrastructure problems there is interest from real estate investors and developers. The loose plot follows various inhabitants of the MetLife building, who range from a trader specializing in sea level futures, to a streaming video personality specializing in wildlife adventures and losing her clothing on camera, to a couple of lower-class kids who just may have discovered a lost sunken treasure. Meanwhile, the building's management tries to maintain cooperative leadership in the face of an aggressive takeover attempt. Despite a sometimes aimless plot, Robinson held my attention with the rich detail of his carefully-imagined world. The wrap-up feels excessively optimistic to me, but he kept my disbelief suspended for the first 90% or so.

227swynn
heinäkuu 11, 2023, 4:11 pm



79) Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo
Date: 2022

This is the third and latest volume in Vo's "Singing Hills Cycle", which follows the travels of Chih, a non-binary folklorist cleric, in a world inspired by imperial China. In this one Chih ventures into the Rivrlands, where they hope to gather stories about legendary martial artistis. Chih picks up companions (who may be more than they seem ...), encounters a dangerous band of outlaws, and gets some stories.

I didn't like this one as well as When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain, but really this series has no duds and its exploration of stories and the people who tell them, hear them, and live them is something very special. Looking forward to volume 4, due in September.

228swynn
heinäkuu 12, 2023, 6:10 pm



80) Too Many Cooks by Rex Stout
Date: 1938

Nero Wolfe leaves the shelter of his NY brownstone for a gathering of master chefs in Jim-Crow West Virginia. Wolfe's agenda is to eat and to deliver an address on American cuisine -- certainly not to detect. So when one of the chefs is murdered, Wolfe resists getting involved. But when suspicion falls on Jacque Berin, a chef whose secret recipe Wolfe has long coveted but been denied, Wolfe sees an opportunity to improve his negotiating position and sets out to clear Berin's name. When the police's suspicioin turns to the black waitstaff, Wolfe interviews the staff. The staff are (reasonably) reluctant to speak to police or to Wolfe, but Wolfe's humane and personable appeal to their sense of justice opens a door to a witness statement that exonerates Berin. Mission accomplished, Wolfe is ready to return attention to his belly and his speech when an assassin tries to eliminate him ... thereby irritating Wolfe into solving the whole damn thing. This is a good one: the mystery is a nice little puzzle, the patter is amusing as usual, and Wolfe's appeal to the wait staff works in a pointed critique of the racial caste system, which reads a little awkwardly today but has aged much better than you'd expect.

229rosalita
heinäkuu 12, 2023, 9:50 pm

>228 swynn: Glad you liked it, Steve! It's one of my favorites in the series. Even though every time I read it I get hungry for sausage.

230BLBera
heinäkuu 15, 2023, 8:28 am

Congrats on reaching and passing 75, Steve. Eastbound, and the Robinson and Vo all caught my eye. I'd been wondering about the Robinson because one of my library challenges is to read a book with a state name in the title, and they are fairly hard to find.

231swynn
heinäkuu 17, 2023, 2:27 pm

>229 rosalita: It's my favorite so far. Though I understand we still have a few to go ....

>230 BLBera: Thanks Beth! I recommend Eastbound and Into the Riverlands without hesitation. Both are wonderful and short. I have a little more hesitation with New York 2140 since it's longer, has some issues, and requires a certain tolerance for infodumps and editorializing. But I'd love to hear your response to it if you get around to it.

232rosalita
heinäkuu 17, 2023, 2:51 pm

>231 swynn: I wouldn't quibble with anyone who feels Too Many Cooks is their favorite after reading the whole corpus, so you really can't lose. As a matter of fact, the next one up (Some Buried Caesar) is also one of my favorites, and introduces a character who will appear throughout the rest of the series.

233richardderus
heinäkuu 17, 2023, 5:16 pm

>226 swynn: He's a very tendentious writer. Luckily he's also a good storyteller. I seldom like his endings, a lot like Gaiman...though without the fury the latter elicits from me. I possess the Kindlefile so getting to this one ought to be done....

234swynn
heinäkuu 18, 2023, 9:39 am

>233 richardderus: Yes, "tendentious" is a good word. It's put me off his work in the past, so that this is the first Robinson I've finished. But this one I like well enough to think I ought to give some of his others a try (or re-try)

It helps that Robinson's editorializing went in (anticapitalist) directions I either agree with, or sympathize well enough that I was interested in what he had to say.

235swynn
Muokkaaja: heinäkuu 18, 2023, 7:13 pm



81) The Life and Amorous Adventures of Lucinda by Penelope Aubin
Date: 1721

Lucinda is the daughter of a rich merchant, and beautiful so that as she approaches eighteen her house is filled "with the young and handsome, as well as the old and rich" who come to court her. Lucinda sets her devotion upon a neighbor merchant's son Charles, but her parents arrange to marry her to a suitor of the "old and rich" variety. Lucinda and Charles plan to elope, but en route to their secret meeting Lucinda is abducted by another old and dull merchant who imprisons her in his country estate where he hopes to persuade her to fall in love with and marry him. And reader, from there the pace picks up into a sort of eighteenth-century "Perils of Pauline." From being abducted and imprisoned she proceeds to being rescued, besotted, betrothed, neglected, widowed, wooed, won, disguised, captured, enslaved, courted, delivered, enlisted, and embattled before she gets her happy ending. It moves fast and goes unexpected places. In particular, there is a bit where Lucinda is taken captive while disguised as a man and sold as a slave in Constantinople. And who should she find upon arriving at her new master's residence but her original lover Charles, also enslaved to the same master. (This is a spoiler only for readers who haven't read the discursive subtitle.) Charles does not recognize Lucinda because she is still disguised as a man -- but the disguised and gender-swapped Lucinda resembles Charles's lost love so much that at first opportunity Charles embraces him/her and delivers "a thousand surprising kisses." Surprise indeed in an 18th-century moralist's tale. Charles explains his behaviour:

"Pardon me, my fellow-slave", said he, "for being so impertinent to disturb you with these testimonies of my friendship; this manner of address I know is not customary among men, but you must excuse me, since every time I look upon you, I have a secret inclination that makes me covet you in my arms, so perfectly does your figure represent the most dear and faithless mistress of my heart."

Packed as it is with incident, the pace is so rapid that Aubin squeezes in a couple of embedded stories to pad out the text to what we'd call novella length. This is for me the chief surprise of eighteenth-century amatory fiction. Knowing that "amatory fiction" is a precursor to the genre we call "romance," I expected a leisurely pace and lengthy passages examining Feelings (with 18th-century diction, no less). But there's very little of that (so far) in Haywood and Aubin. It's not so much sentimental drama as it is adventure with sentimental motivations -- more a precursor to "Perils of Pauline" than Harlequin romances. Which is a good thing for this reader's interest: I'm enjoying this stuff much more than expected.

236swynn
Muokkaaja: heinäkuu 18, 2023, 7:06 pm



82) The Fixed Period by Anthony Trollope
Date: 1882

Here's a science fiction story from Anthony Trollope, set in 1980 on the fictional South Pacific island nation of Britannula, which has recently won its independence from Great Britain. Britannula's constitution mandates that citizens be euthanized at 68 in order to minimize the social and economic burden of elder care. The euthanasia law has been enthusiastically promoted by Britannula's silver-tongued president John Neverbend. Its implementation seems humane, even generous: upon turning 67, every citizen will retire to a "College" that will provide their every need and comfort while the citizen prepares for their death at 68. But until recently the law has been an abstraction. Britannula's settlers were young enough that it is only now that one of them reaches 67 years: Neverbend's close friend Gabriel Crasweller. But Craswaller is still alert, fit, and able, and also suspects that his successors are unready to carry on after him. Now that it comes to it, Craswaller would really rather not enter the College. Worse, the population of Britannula seems to sympathize with him. Worse still, the overthrown colonizer Great Britain wants to insert itself into the matter. Narrated by Neverbend, we're treated to his ruminations on his life's work and legacy and the weariness that comes with recognizing that nobody else seems to care about them as much as he does, not even his family or closest friends. It's a gentle satire that provokes a few chuckles but runs too long for the joke.

237BLBera
heinäkuu 22, 2023, 10:10 am

Thanks for the recs, Steve.

238MickyFine
heinäkuu 22, 2023, 4:05 pm

I loved both volumes of Check, Please and am delighted to see it finding another appreciative reader.

239swynn
heinäkuu 24, 2023, 11:52 am

>237 BLBera: Hope you like them!

>238 MickyFine: Volume 2 is close to the top of the Tower of Due. Looking forward to it sometime this week, and if it's as good as volume 1 I'll mostly be sad there aren't more.

240swynn
Muokkaaja: heinäkuu 24, 2023, 6:04 pm



83) Star Soldiers by Andre Norton
Date 2001 (contents 1953-1955)

This is an omnibus edition of two early military-sf books by Andre Norton. Together, they comprise her "Central Control" series, in which humans have encountered an advanced interstellar alien empire which classifies humans as "barbarians", and prevents humans from space travel except as mercenary troops for Central Control. The two books are independent of each other and set millennia apart: Star Guard occurs early in Earth's relationship to Central Control; Star Rangers much later, when a weakened and declining Central Control is losing control of its disintegrating empire. I liked both of these adventures.

Star Guard (1955)
Swordsman Third Class Kana Karr just wants to see the stars, but because of Central Control's restrictions must do so as a soldier. He is trained as an "arch," a type of soldier trained only in primitive weaponry, to be deployed on planets where the level of indigenous technology is low. But his skill and interest have also secured him training as an "alien liaison," with expertise in communicating with aliens. Having just completed his training, Karr is assigned his first mission, a police action on planet Fronn. But when Karr arrives on Fronn, his team is in for surprises. The "police action" actually consists of providing support for a rebel leader aiming to take over the throne of the local monarchy. Odd, but Karr accepts it -- it's not like he has any choice. But then the rebel's enemies turn out to carry better armament than expected -- at a level of technology that implies they're getting illegal support from forces in Central Control. When the rebel leader is killed, and many of the team's leadership are captured or also killed, the team finds itself stranded far from their ships with the prospect of crossing hostile territory held by better-armed forces. Karr's skills in communicating with nonhuman species may be the best tool they have ...

Star Rangers (1953)
In the waning years of Central Control, the Galactic Patrol ship Starfire is sent on a futile mission to reestablish the empire's control on its borders by re-mapping systems that nobody had visited in generations. The empire no longer has the resources to support the mission, so the ship is increasingly undermanned and undermaintained and crew know that they are only some unknown number of stops away of being lost forever. When they crash they are fortunate to land on an Earth-type planet where they can at least live out their lives. But scouts soon discover that the planet is already inhabited by human settlers; and then the difficulties really begin. Because some of the Starfire's crew are eager to throw in their lot with the established settlers, while others -- in particular the Rangers, whose job it is to explore and deal with hazards of new worlds -- are cautious, especially of the settlement's authoritarian structure. There follow conflicts of rank, of expertise, and of race: because some of the Rangers are nonhuman and such are not welcome in the human settlement.

241swynn
heinäkuu 24, 2023, 6:16 pm



84) Magic Bleeds by Ilona Andrews
Date: 2010

Fourth in Andrews's urban fantasy series set in an Atlanta where magic sometimes works, featuring Kate Daniels, a mercenary with a complicated past. In this one, a magically powerful villain is turning Atlantans into gods -- usually killing them in the process -- and causing widespread mayhem. Kate investigates, learns uncomfortable things about her past, gets closer to her were-lion boyfriend Curran, and makes many snarky jokes. This series is light, but a lot of fun and growing on me.

242swynn
heinäkuu 25, 2023, 2:40 pm



85) The Sailor on the Seas of Fate by Michael Moorcock
Date: 1976

Second in Moorcock's series featuring the moody Melnibonéan monarch Elric. This is a fix-up of three shorter works, two of which had been published earlier under different titles. They're much fun. Although occasionally dark, they're more adventurous and broody.

Sailing to the Future Elric is far from home and in trouble, with the sea on one side and a pursuing army on the other. He is rescued by a mysterioius ship carrying a small team of powerful warriors. The captain explains to Elric that he is sailing across time, space, and multiple realities to face a threat to the multiverse. The other warriors are heroes in other Moorcock stories: Erekosë, Hawkmoon, and Corum. Together with Elric, the warriors are all manifestations of the Eternal Champion, an everyhero who shows up throughout Moorcock's work. It turns out that the multiverse has been invaded by two creatures who hope to consume our reality(ies) in order to return more powerful to their own.

Sailing to the Present Following the first adventure, Elric is dropped off in a world somewhere near his own reality but he must find a portal to complete his journey home. Here he gains a companion, Smiorgan, and encounters a character from Melnibonéan history, Saxif D'an, a cruel sorceror chasing his lost love; and gets in between Saxif D'Or and the legendary rival for the girl's affections.

Sailing to the Past Elric and Smiorgan return to Elric's world, where they join an expedition to an ancient and abandoned Melnibonéan city. The leader of the expedition hopes to recover two gems that according to legend were the eyes of a giant jade statue. The party fights reptilian creatures; meet the city's sole remaining resident, the legendary "Man Doomed to Live"; and learn that the lost gems are ... well, it's complicated.

243swynn
Muokkaaja: heinäkuu 25, 2023, 4:30 pm

Random comment re: "multiverse"

I'm pretty sure I was aware of the word "multiverse" before it was a Marvel thing, but seeing it in Sailor on the Seas of Fate made me wonder about its origins so I went to the Oxford English Dictionary and thought I'd share its wisdom for other word nerds.

The OED's earliest credit for "multiverse" goes to William James and his 1895 essay, "Is life worth living?" The word appears in a passage criticizing "natural religion":

Visible nature is all plasticity and indifference, a multiverse, as one might call it, and not a universe. To such a harlot we owe no moral allegiance; with her as a whole we can establish no sentimental communion; and we are free in our dealings with her several parts to obey or destroy, and to follow no law but that of prudence in coming to terms with such of her particular features as will help us to our private ends. If there be a divine spirit of the universe, nature, such as we know her, cannot possibly be its ultimate word to man.

Um ... Obviously James doesn't have Dr. Strange and Spider-Man in mind. There's a lot to unpack here, but precious little about the "multiverse," at least in our sense. The OED defines James's sense as

1.a. The universe considered as lacking order or a single ruling and guiding power.

I don't remember encountering this sense in the wild, but apparently it had some traction, since the OED includes examples of this usage up to 1985. So where *does* Spider-Man come in? Oh, look at 1.b.:

1.b. Originally Science Fiction. A hypothetical space or realm of being consisting of a number of universes, of which our universe is only one; (Physics) the large collection of universes in the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, according to which every event at the quantum level gives rise to a number of parallel universes in which each in turn of the different possible outcomes occurs.

And who does the OED credit with the first use of "multiverse" in this sense? Our guy Michael Moorcock, that's who, in his 1965 story "The Blood Red Game":

Jewelled, the multiverse spread around him, awash with life, rich with pulsating energy.

Good word, Mike. (No, not "pulsating." The other one. Nice.)

In case anyone was wondering.

244MickyFine
heinäkuu 25, 2023, 4:44 pm

>243 swynn: I highly appreciated this!

245richardderus
heinäkuu 25, 2023, 6:09 pm

>240 swynn: I've made it about halfway through Star Rangers in this omni and I'm finding it too hard to invest in for some reason...maybe because I'm 63 not 13?

>243 swynn: Really cool that he's immortalized in the OED!

246ChrisG1
heinäkuu 25, 2023, 6:26 pm

>242 swynn: I read the Elric series in my college years (late 70's). I should get back to it. Have you read any of Moorcock's other "Eternal Champions"?

247drneutron
heinäkuu 25, 2023, 7:42 pm

>243 swynn: Well, that was just cool. Thanks for sharing that! I haven’t read any Moorcock in ages and ages…

248swynn
heinäkuu 26, 2023, 10:37 am

>244 MickyFine: Glad you liked it!

>245 richardderus: Probably that's it. I never connected with Andre Norton as a teenager, but reading some of these early novels I've sometimes thought, "Why didn't I try these?" I think 13-year-old me would have loved these Central Command stories.

>246 ChrisG1: Like Andre Norton, Michael Moorcock was an author I didn't connect with as a teenager, and have only gotten around to recently. I do remember encountering some Elric and Hawkmoon comics in my college years or around there (late '80's), but I didn't really engage with him until just a couple of years ago, when the Oswald Bastable books came up in the DAW project. I have some catching up to do, and there are several more coming up soon in the DAW project.

"Soon," of course, depends on my pace for this project.

>247 drneutron: You're welcome, glad you liked it!

249RBeffa
heinäkuu 28, 2023, 10:25 pm

>240 swynn: I read the star guard novel in 2014 and dropped a review on LT. I was one who read quite a few Norton stories from about age 11 starting with Time Traders until my mid teens. I discovered Moorcock and Elric around the end of college and read an absurd number of his books over the next decade, including the blood red game. I guess I got clued into multiverse pretty early. It really was a Moorcock thing. Eventually I tired of too many eternal champions in too many linked whatevers but I really liked some of his novels. Thanks for your wordquest there!

250swynn
elokuu 1, 2023, 6:09 pm

>249 RBeffa: Thanks for the pointer to your review Ron. I think I may have enjoyed it better than you did, but my expectations were a little different too: I repeatedly bounced off Andre Norton's works when I was younger, and my recollection is that it had to do with very mannered prose that I found off-putting. Reading through these earlier works, I'm impressed at how natural her prose feels, and I wonder whether middle-grade me might have formed a different opinion if I'd encountered these instead.

I haven't read much Moorcock, but I will be reading more.

251swynn
Muokkaaja: elokuu 1, 2023, 7:57 pm



86) The Injur'd Husband, and, Lasselia by Eliza Haywood
Date: 1999 (selections 1722-1723)

Here are two "amatory" novels by Eliza Haywood, together with an introduction that discusses how Haywood balances sexual fantasy with conventional condemnation:

Haywood boldly represented the power of female desire, while shrewdly grasping and articulating the paradox that such desire always involved for women of her generation. What she understood was that, however real and palpable, it could not be acted out, but only indulged in an act of the imagination by participation in a fantasy; and it finally had to be restrained (fantasy itself had to come to an end) if the woman was to live without imperiling herself.

The two included novels represent two types of heroine that Haywood returned to repeatedly: the sexually aggressive woman, who must come to no good end; and the ingenue who follows her curiosity into deeper waters than she can safely swim who likewise must be punished.

The sexually agressive woman at the center of The Injur'd Husband is the baroness Madame de Tortillée, an extravagant and irresistible woman who has married a rich but oblivious husband who keeps her in luxuries but fails to notice that she spends her time collecting lovers. Indeed, such is her talent for misdirection that each of her lovers believes he is her one and only True Love. To maintain this illusion, she employs a henchman, Du Lache. When she falls in love with the young hunk Beauclair, hopelessly devoted to the beautiful and virtuous Montamour, Tortillée orders DuLache to separate the happy couple. DuLache first spreads rumors that Montamour is unfaithful, then ingratiates himself with Beauclair over their mutual love of music. DuLache hires two mercenaries to stage a duel where Beauclair can see it, and when Beauclair interrupts the fight one mercenary flees and the other pretends to be a go-between for Montamour and her secret lover. Thus convincing Beauclair of Montamour's faithlessness, DuLache invites Beauclair to Tortillée's salon -- and the trap is sprung. Beauclair becomes Tortillée's next lover for a time, but the affair can only end in sadness: Tortillée's appetites must eventually move on to another target, her increasing boldness vis-a-vis her husband can only end in discovery, and the sordid plot respecting Montamour must eventually be made plain. What's interesting here, as Beasley discusses, is Tortillée's position in a role usually occupied by male characters: the rake who moves casually from one affair to the next. The difference, of course, is that male rakes do not necessarily face consequences for their libertine behavior, certainly not in Haywood's stories, but Haywood's design cannot allow such license to a woman like Mme. de Tortillée.

Lasselia is the innocent type of heroine. She is a young French woman who has grown up in and around the court of Louis XIV: she is a niece and ward of Madame de Montespan, a famous lover of the King's. Montespan is very fond of her niece, but when Lasselia captures the King's attention, Montespan recognizes her as a rival. Lasselia has no interest men generally and none at all in King Louis (old dude, ick), so she begs Montespan to send her to the country. This solution works for a little while until one day, while Lasselia is visiting the l'Amye family at Ombre, M. l'Amye nosebleeds on her. I swear I am not making this up: apparently a nosebleed is an ominous sign indicating a secret passion and though the company make a joke of it (ha ha, better watch yourself, ha ha) Lasselia can't shake the suspicion that l'Amye *might* have a thing for her and you know what, maybe that wouldn't be so bad. Soon she and l'Amye are caught up in a passionate love affair which they must hide from Mme. l'Amye and their circle of friends ... meanwhile, Louis is badgering Montespan about how Lasselia *must* return to Paris and the King is unaccustomed to hearing the sort of answers Montespan supplies.

Like I've mentioned with other "amatory fiction" reads: this is weird stuff. It has its own agenda and its own ideas about narrative should progress and be resolved. I'm surprised at how much I'm enjoying it, but it's so odd I can't not.

252swynn
Muokkaaja: elokuu 2, 2023, 6:10 pm



87) The Tommyknockers by Stephen King
Date: 1987

Bobbi Anderson, a writer of popular western novels and owner of several acres of Maine woods, discovers a buried spaceship on her land. As she uncovers more and more of the ship, her personality begins to change: she has ingenious ideas, writes effortlessly, and is increasingly obsessed with exposing more of the ship. She's not sure anything is wrong, but has a feeling something isn't right, and so contacts her old mentor James Gardner. When Gardner receives her call, he is in the middle of a self-destructive meltdown, biting hands that feed him and self-medicating with alcohol. Gardner is immune to the mind-controlling effects of the spaceship, due to a steel plate in his skull; he sees its effects on Bobbi and others in the community, and wonders about the wisdom and ethics of what they're doing. But what else are they going to do? Call the government? That'd be like asking the Dallas Police to protect JFK. Gardner solves the problem by withdrawing into an alcoholic haze, while Anderson and her friends turn into something not exactly human, and whatever-it-is on the space ship grows increasingly powerful.

The Tommyknockers has a reputation for ranking among the worst of King's works -- Vulture.com rates it 63rd out of 64, better only than Rose Madder, to which I cannot comment. King himself has criticized it, blaming its awfulness on his own substance abuse. (Curiously, the period of its composition strongly overlaps that of It, which is generally regarded as one of his best. Did the coke improve the one and ruin the other? Addiction is strange.)

Me, I don't get the criticism. Yes, it's rambly and doesn't always know where it's going, but that's just Stephen King to me. Yes, there are bizarre set pieces that don't quite work -- but nothing like, say, the middle-school sewer orgy of a better-regarded book. The worst you can say (other than the usual) is that there aren't any sympathetic characters here. It's a relentlessly misanthropic book, maybe for King a uniquely misanthropic one though I haven't read enough to say so confidently. But that's not a bad thing necessarily: Gardner's and Bobbi's aversion to government authorities is rational and well-founded, but that doesn't mean a populist faith in nongovernment agents is preferable. Anthropoi merit an occasional dose of mis.

So will you like it? Probably not -- fans generally don't seem to, and if you're not a fan then King's weaknesses are enough to disrecommend it. But it's not his worst. I mean, I've read Insomnia (well, most of it) and The Regulators. This was better.

This was the bestselling book in the U.S. for 1987.

Oh, also: like many of King's works, The Tommyknockers has also been the target of book bans. Read banned books, y'all.

253RBeffa
elokuu 2, 2023, 5:47 pm

>252 swynn: Interesting review. I don't recall Tommyknockers as a bad book. I read it when it was pretty new, say around 1990. It does however seem mark the end of my liking Stephen King reading for a long period. When I returned to King, slightly, in later years I had changed and maybe King had changed, but I began to actively dislike some of his books. DNF a bunch of them including that Gunslinger book. I still give him a chance and recently read and enjoyed the Gwendy series he co-wrote.

I might give Tommyknockers another look to see how I react now.

254richardderus
elokuu 2, 2023, 5:54 pm

>252 swynn: I wasn't a King reader in 1987 but I did read this one because everyone kept dissing it.

Not bad, not great. Anthropoi = hoi polloi IMO, but this won't surprise you.

255swynn
elokuu 3, 2023, 11:52 am

>253 RBeffa:
>254 richardderus:

Agreed that it's not King's best book, but certainly not his worst. Ron, if you decide to revisit it, I'd be definitely be interested in your thoughts.

256swynn
Muokkaaja: elokuu 3, 2023, 12:02 pm



88) A House With Good Bones by T. Kingfisher
(2023)

Sam is an entomologist whose fieldwork job has just fallen through, so she moves in with her mother. whose personality has inexplicably changed. Her mother has always been been an independent-minded, self-possessed, and politically liberal woman, but her mannerisms, opinions, and home decor have turned into something more like Sam's creepy, cruel, racist grandmother's. Things get weirder, and there are lots of vultures. The creepy bits are mixed with snarky humor and a generous helping of random facts about bugs and vultures. (Misunderstood birds, vultures, and much nicer than the people who get stuck with the name.) The result is a lot of fun. And though I hadn't imagined ever saying it: Yay vultures!

257RBeffa
elokuu 3, 2023, 10:30 pm

>255 swynn: my library only has the audio book and it was something like 28 hours. Yikes. I will keep it in mind if I run across a paper copy.

258swynn
elokuu 4, 2023, 10:54 am

>257 RBeffa: I agree it's not worth 28 hours of your time.

259swynn
Muokkaaja: elokuu 8, 2023, 10:00 am



89) Those Other People by Alice Childress
Date: 1989

A high school student is sexually assaulted by her gym teacher and the only witnesses are a black student and a young computer instructor rumored to be gay. (He is in fact gay.) As the setup suggests, the book explores the effects of various kinds of prejudice, and does so through multiple first-person narratives. It's insightful, but also mostly forgotten and very dated: I suspect that one subplot might be opaque to today's target demographic without a lesson in history of computing. I hope that today's readers would also find it weird that the gym teacher hadn't already been fired ages ago.

Despite its age and creakiness, Those Other People is apparently still such a danger to today's youth that Texas rep Matt Krause wants it banned. Probably because gay people exist and he's mad about it.

260richardderus
elokuu 4, 2023, 1:04 pm

>259 swynn: Mad...or scared?

I think I'll pass but I might go buy one to make its sales figures go up.

261swynn
elokuu 8, 2023, 10:01 am

>260 richardderus:

Mad ... scared ... both ... I hope it keeps him up at night.

262swynn
Muokkaaja: elokuu 11, 2023, 1:26 pm

I'd hoped to do a review sprint this weekend, but my workplace flooded and I spent a chunk of time moving wet things and extracting water. So let's do one-at-a-times for a few days more.

90) Serious Reflections During the Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
Date: 1720

The third and last book in Defoe's trilogy about Robinson Crusoe is a book of essays, purportedly authored by Crusoe in his waning years. It is ... what it is, and mostly interesting for its 18th-century perspective on the topics it treats (solitude, honesty, polite conversation, and religion). For the most part, there is little connection to the rest of the series apart from an occasional allusion and a couple of exceptions. One exception is the first section, "On Solitude," where Defoe/Crusoe compares the castaway's experience to life in civilization. He discusses the impulse to escape society and look for enlightenment or communion with God through voluntary solitude like monasticism, but he is against such behavior -- he calls it a "rape on human nature" -- and is suspicious of the kind of religion that thrives only in solitude. The other exception is in discussions of whether his story is "true" or not, especially in his section on "Honesty." I'm guessing he was writing in response to criticism that Robinson Crusoe is fiction and fiction is lies and therefore evil. He argues that every bit of his story is true although his story selects and structures facts to improve the narrative, and (IIUC) in some cases when he says an anecdotes is "true" he sometimes means that the character's thoughts & emotions are actual thoughts and emotions, though they may have been thought and felt under different circumstances than those presented. I suspect that RC's critics found the "Just because it didn't happen doesn't mean it isn't true" argument as empty as I do, though their hang-ups with fiction are more tedious than Defoe's defense.

Not recommended -- but if you're thinking about reading it then you're probably motivated by factors other than my recommendation anyway.

263ArlieS
elokuu 11, 2023, 10:49 am

>262 swynn: Ugh. I hope nothing important was ruined, and that there's not likely to be a repeat flooding.

264swynn
elokuu 11, 2023, 1:25 pm

>263 ArlieS: Happily, no collection materials were damaged, though we did lose some supplies and a couple of boxes of books that were going to our annual booksale.

After a week of running fans in our department we're pretty well dried up, and don't anticipate another flood soon. Apparently the cause was the rate of rainfall last Friday night. We got too much volume in too short a time, and our drains couldn't keep up. It's the first time it's happened in my department in 23 years, and if it holds off for at least a few more years then when it does happen again it will be somebody else's problem. :)

265swynn
Muokkaaja: elokuu 11, 2023, 1:29 pm



91) The Seventh Sinner by Elizabeth Peters
Date: 1972

First in Peters's series featuring librarian detective Jacqueline Kirby. In this one, set among young academics in Rome, Kirby investigates the death of an unpleasant looney-fringe scholar and a series of attempts on the life of a friend. I liked this one: the mystery is satisfying, the setting is intriguing, and Kirby herself, with her middle-aged, seen-that-before, librarian demeanor and banter is a hoot.

266MickyFine
elokuu 13, 2023, 3:11 pm

>262 swynn: Oof, I missed this mention of the flood the last time I was here.

One of my coworkers used to work at one of the university libraries in town and likes to tell tales of the day that the cataloguing department was flooded just after they'd pulled materials from the special collections for recataloguing. Some of it was recovered, some of it was not.

I hope the clean up process is mostly done at this point for you.

267swynn
elokuu 13, 2023, 10:54 pm

>266 MickyFine: Ugh. That's the nightmare, that you'd lose something irreplaceable.

Fortunately, our disaster was mostly a nuisance. And yes, we're pretty well dried now and back to business as usual.
Tämä viestiketju jatkuu täällä: Steve reads stuff he shouldn't in 2023. Part 2, More stuff.