justchris reads more but talks less in 2016

I'm still tracking my reading, even if I'm not talking much about it. 2015 was a challenging year. I separated from my partner and moved into an apartment without internet. That made many things interesting and challenging. Certainly didn't help reverse my radio silence on LT.

Personal life is still in limbo. Will be moving in the summer regardless of the final disposition of the relationship.

In the meantime, I read...

Happy New Year to everyone! As always, full of optimism, goals, and aspirations.

January

1. Lord Peter Takes the Case by Dorothy L. Sayers*
2. Pulp Fiction edited by Maxim Jakubowski
3. Why Marriages Succeed or Fail by John Gottman NF
4. The Fire Sword by Adrienne Martine-Barnes
5. The Black Sheep by Georgette Heyer*
6. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen*

February

7. The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer*
8. False Colours by Georgette Heyer*
9. Redemolished by Alfred Bester
10. Long Hidden edited by Rose Fox and Daniel Jose Older
11. Applied Tai Chi Chuan by Nigel Sutton NF
12. The Watcher's Mask by Laurie J. Marks

March

13. When I Say No, I Feel Guilty by Manuel Smith NF
14. The Drama of the Gifted Child by Alice Miller NF
15. Dead Heat by Patricia Briggs
16. Fire Touched by Patricia Briggs (eBook)
17. Nancy Drew and the Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene
18. Miles in Love by Lois McMaster Bujold (*)
19. The Long Hunt by Debra Doyle and James P. McDonald*
20. Uprooted by Naomi Novik*
21. Miles Errant by Lois McMaster Bujold*

April

22. Diplomatic Immunity by Lois McMaster Bujold*
23. Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold*
24. Memory by Lois McMaster Bujold*
25. 10-lb Penalty by Dick Francis (*)
26. Field of Thirteen by Dick Francis
27. Excluded by Julia Serano
28. Lady Susan by Jane Austen
29. Love and Friendship by Jane Austen
30. The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold*
31. Greenwitch by Susan Cooper

May

32. The Grey King by Susan Cooper
33. The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester NF
34. Silver on the Tree by Susan Cooper
35. The Secret Feminist Cabal by Helen Merrick NF
36. The Tuesday Club Murders by Agatha Christie
37. Mr Parker Pyne Detective by Agatha Christie
38. Sleeping Murder by Agatha Christie(*)
39. Passenger to Frankfurt by Agatha Christie

June

40. Dragon Blood by Patricia Briggs*
41. The Masqueraders by Georgette Heyer*
42. Frederica by Georgette Heyer*
43. Strong Poison by Dorothy Sayers*
44. Holiday in Bath by Laura Matthews*
45. Devil's Cub by Georgette Heyer*
46. These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer*
47. Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers*
48. Dragon Bones by Patricia Briggs*
49. Have His Carcase by Dorothy Sayers*
50. Thrones and Dominations by Dorothy Sayers*
51. Busman's Honeymoon by Dorothy Sayers*

July

52. Lord Peter by Dorothy Sayers*
53. A Child Called "It" by Dave Pelzer NF
54. The Duke's Daughter by Melinda McRae*
55. The Corinthian by Georgette Heyer (*)
56. The Unknown Ajax by Georgette Heyer (*)
57. The Scandalous Lady Robin by Sylvia Thorpe*
58. The Nine Tailors by Dorothy Sayers*
59. Catfantastic edited by Andre Norton and Martin H. Greenberg*
60. The Seventh Suitor by Laura Matthews*
61. Sea of Time by P. C. Hodgell*

August

62. The Black Moth by Georgette Heyer*
63. Sunshine by Robin McKinley*
64. Tea with the Black Dragon by R. A. MacAvoy*
65. The Sword that Cut the Burning Grass by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler
66. Permaculture Solutions to Climate Change by Randall Jamrok NF
67. Heroics for Beginners by John Moore*

September

68. Fire Logic by Laurie J. Marks
69. Beyond Binary edited by Brit Mandelo
70. Moonbane Mage by Laurie J. Marks*
71. Delan the Mislaid by Laurie J. Marks*

October

72. Ara's Field by Laurie J. Marks*
73. Last Act in Palmyra by Lindsey Davis*
74. Time to Depart by Lindsey Davis
75. Superluminal by Vonda McIntyre*
76. Shroud of Dishonour by Maureen Ash
77. The Raven Ring by Patricia C. Wrede*
78. Daughter of Witches by Patricia C. Wrede*
79. Caught in Crystal by Patricia C. Wrede*
80. Shadow Magic by Patricia C. Wrede*
81. Tracker by C. J. Cherryh
82. Flying Finish by Dick Francis*
83. Uhura's Song by Janet Kagan*

November

84. Full Moon City edited by Darrell Schweitzer and Martin Greenberg
85. A Dying Light in Corduba by Lindsey Davis
86. A Stir of Bones by Nina Kiriki Hoffman*
87. Secret of the Lost Race by Andre Norton*
88. Star Guard by Andre Norton*
89. Miss Chartley's Guided Tour by Carla Kelly*
90. The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley*
91. Witch World by Andre Norton*
92. Web of the Witch World by Andre Norton*
93. Three Against the Witch World by Andre Norton*

December

94. Warlock of the Witch World by Andre Norton*
95. Sorceress of the Witch World by Andre Norton*
96. Trey of Swords by Andre Norton*
97. Briar Rose by Jane Yolen*
98. Silent Dances by A. C. Crispin and Kathleen O'Malley*
99. StarBridge by A. C. Crispin*
100. Under the Sweetwater Rim by Louis L'Amour*
101. Shadow World by A. C. Crispin and Jannean Elliott
102. Sisters of the Raven by Barbara Hambly

NF nonfiction (going to try harder this year)
P poetry (definitely need to expand)
~P text contains significant chunks of poetry

My previous 75 Book Challenge threads:

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

Welcome back! I can relate to personal life limbo, though in a bit different flavor from yours. I hope things settle out quickly!

Hey Chris, sad to hear about all the drama but delighted to see you here!

drneutron, thanks for the welcome as always. Quickly doesn't seem to be an option due to my own personality quirks and the logistics of the situation. I am proving that I am the type to drag the bandaid off very slowly. I hope your limbo is for positive reasons. And if not, I am sorry and hope that you have all the support you want during transition.

Roni, thanks for also popping in so quickly to say hello too! I am always glad to be here, even though I have not been particularly active for years now.

Good news: On New Year's Day, I met a friend who gave me some beading lessons, so I am hoping to move into that activity during the year. I hope you're very much enjoying retirement.

Hi Chris - wishing you well with resolution of upheavals. I also struggle with maintaining LT radio communication despite the fact that I enjoy it here so much. I took up kumihimo beading last year - sort of. Made a few pieces, started others, set it down and still working on getting back to it. All the best for the new year!

>6 muddy21:: Marilyn, thank you for stopping by and your support and commiseration. I have friends who do kumihimo and really enjoy it.

Btw. Chris, have been thinking of you all last year as I read Max Gladstone's Craft Sequence. Why? Remembering your wonderful thoughtful reviews, love the ethnic and gender inclusiveness.

>8 ronincats: Thanks for the good word. Not familiar with Gladstone's writing. Might have to look him up. The books sound interesting. I haven't explored new writers much between the firm resolve to get a handle on the unread books on my own shelves (ha!) and endlessly rereading comfort books under stress (sigh).

I'm trying to ease back into a regular diet of LT as part of my logging in routine at work. We'll see how it goes. Maybe if I have time, I'll pull together a review of the Dorothy Sayers omnibus I just finished. I am almost done with the The Mammoth Book of Pulp Fiction collection too. But then, I remember that I am almost a year overdue in writing up an analysis of the abuse apologism in the Mercy Thompson books, which I have enjoyed greatly but have become increasingly uncomfortable with.

Today's a holiday, so I managed to take the time to assemble a review. I'll post it for the compilation volume and the individual bits for the books as appropriate.

Lord Peter Takes the Case is an omnibus edition containing the stories Unnatural Death, Clouds of Witness, The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, and The Five Red Herrings. I have read each of these stories exactly once before, so I cannot tell if this Book-of-the-Month Club edition has abridged any of them. The back of the dustjacket and the page preceding the title page both contain the fictional Debrett's entry for Lord Peter: family listing, including his marriage and oldest son; education, military service, authorship; hobbies, clubs; residences; heraldry. The incongruous bit of this is listing his bachelor Piccadilly flat but not the house and country cottage that comprise the homes of his married life. I wonder if it's like Baker Street being forever linked with Sherlock Holmes. And the irony of this official summary is that Bunter is nowhere listed, yet who is central to Lord Peter's continued existence and success as a sleuth. Thus, what is official too often differs from what is important.

The volume opens with “Biographical Note communicated by Paul Austin Delagardie.” Again, this is republished as I have read it in conjunction with other Lord Peter stories. It's a charming overview of Lord Peter's character, those of his immediate family, and so on. Critics have condemned Dorothy Sayers for the cardinal sin of falling in love with her own creation. It is completely understandable—I have quite a crush on Lord Peter Wimsey myself. He is portrayed as a feminist man well before the feminist movement of the 1960s. Educated, sensitive, caring, smart, capable of treating women as human beings and equals, usually by simply listening to them, believing they have valuable contributions to make, and offering them opportunities to shine. Born to privilege, and using that privilege to leverage justice and opportunity for others. And frequently pausing to reflect and reaffirm his course. What's not to love?

Anyway, on to the stories. As usual, each story is divided into chapters each with a title and opening with a literary quotation. In Unnatural Death and Clouds of Witness, the 23 and 19 respective chapter titles are fairly prosaic but indicating the main point contained therein, and in Unnatural Death the chapters are organized into 3 sections, each with its own quotation. The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club is arranged into 22 chapters that riff on a bridge game, followed by a post-mortem that contains 5 snippets of dialogue that indicate the ending disposition of the various principles involved. Finally, Five Red Herrings has 29 chapters, each indicating the person driving the action in that chapter. What I find interesting is that The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club is typeset differently from the other 3 stories.

Unnatural Death opens with a bystander overhearing a dinner conversation between Lord Peter and his best friend and colleague (besides Bunter, that is), Charles Parker, an Inspector at Scotland Yard. The bystander is a doctor who had public doubts about an apparent natural death due to cancer that defied his predicted survival timeframe. He paid a high social cost for expressing his concern and wanted to move on. Lord Peter took his doubts seriously enough to figure out the name and location of the decedent and embark on an investigation. This is the book where Charles is introduced to Miss Climpson, Lord Peter's premier confidential agent, hilariously misunderstood to be a love interest in a discreet love nest. Peter sends Miss Climpson to the village to dig up gossip and observe the local characters involved. And Bunter plays a role at appropriate moments, as does Mr. Murbles, Lord Peter’s solicitor. Charles Parker doesn't believe there's anything to investigate for the first half of the story, until additional people associated with the case die of apparent natural causes and a motive is finally uncovered. By the end, there were 3 murders, 3 attempted murders, and 1 suicide, all starting with an old woman supposedly dying of metastatic cancer in the hospice care of the day. The visual aid of a genealogical table at the end helps put the motive in perspective. I think it might be the highest body count of any of the Lord Peter mysteries, and certainly one of the most violent near misses. . The murderer is unrepentant and fighting to the end. This book was very much a contemplation on gender norms and roles and implicit lesbian relationships, as well as Lord Peter questioning whether his activities cause more harm than good

Clouds of Witness opens with Lord Peter returning from a vacation in Corsica, on the advice of Sir Julian Freke in the wake of the "Battersea Mystery" (ie, the events in Whose Body?). His leisurely stopover in Paris turns into a rush home because his brother, the Duke of Denver has been arrested for the murder of Captain Denis Cathcart, who was engaged to their younger sister, Lady Mary Wimsey. The three of them, along with some additional guests (2 couples and Freddy Arbuthnot, a frequent supporting character) were staying at Riddlesdale Lodge in Yorkshire, supposedly for a hunting holiday. This is the closest view we get of Lord Peter’s family, and the book where Charles and Mary meet. The events leading up to the death of Captain Cathcart are a collision course of hidden agendas on the parts of Gerald, Duke of Denver, Captain Cathcart, and Lady Mary. Both Gerald and Mary have something to hide, leading to confusion, suspicion, perjury, stonewalling, and false confession, not to mention misunderstandings, mistaken assumptions, and misperceptions of the various bystander witnesses. Lord Peter and Charles must go to great lengths to follow the case: the wild moors of Yorkshire, Captain Cathcart’s apartment in Paris, the Soviet Club in London. Mr Murbles and Sir Impey Biggs are both frustrated with the lack of cooperation by their ducal client. The case goes all the way to trial in the House of Lords, with all of the archaic pageantry and tabloid headlines. It’s played for maximum melodrama, including a secret witness and an eleventh hour overseas flight in a two-seater airplane during a thunderstorm to secure the critical evidence and the courtroom denouement.

The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club is another apparent death of natural causes that unravels into tampering with a corpse and murder. Like Unnatural Death, the motivation revolves around securing an inheritance. In this instance, Lord Peter’s lawyer, Mr. Murbles asks him to ascertain the time of death of General Fentiman, who appeared to pass away in his sleep in front of the fire in Bellona Club on Armistice Day. Both younger Fentimans and Dr. Penberthy, the family doctor, are also members are on scene in the Bellona Club when old General Fentiman is discovered, and all play key roles in ensuing events. The question is whether he predeceased his estranged sister, Felicity Dormer, who died after a prolonged illness around the same time after their deathbed rapprochement. If so, the bulk of her estate will pass to her niece, Miss Ann Dorland, who dabbles in art and science. If not, then the bulk of her estate will pass to his grandsons, bachelor Captain George Fentiman (on active duty) and Robert Fentiman, married and disabled after war injuries, including PTSD, and dependent on his wife’s employment income. Lord Peter warns Mr. Murbles that he might not like the outcome of the investigation, and it might not be in the best interest of the Fentimans, his clients. Mr. Murbles insists on the integrity of his clients and the importance of the truth. The investigation involves a mysterious witness, an exhumation, a detective agency following leads in mainland Europe, a shifty-looking lawyer and legal assistant. Lord Peter uses his connection (Marjorie Phelps, the ceramicist) in the artsy/intelligentsia community to get a handle on Ann Dorland’s character and motivations. The murderer and other principle actors display varying degrees of remorse and regret. Bunter is involved early on by pretending to be a journalist to photograph the club interior, but Charles Parker doesn’t show up until about a third of the way into the story. Colonel Marchbank is a recurring minor character who was one of the guests in Clouds of Witness and is the reason for Lord Peter’s presence in the Bellona Club at the beginning of this story. The tabloid journalists show up again too. The minor recurring characters provide valuable continuity among the various stories. Another perpetrator who feels remorse, or at least that there’s only one way to make the situation better, thanks to Lord Peter’s convincing argumentation.

Five Red Herrings is a play on the timetable style of whodunit, and opens with a map of the area showing roads, train routes, and local towns and villages. It’s set in Galloway, Scotland, and the victim and suspects are all painters, a mix of year-round locals and seasonal artists. The story opens with the dead man’s last night, which includes a bar fight that Lord Peter breaks up, and a roadside confrontation later on. The death was arranged to look like an accident while painting the following morning, but Lord Peter quickly discerns that it must have been staged based on a vital missing clue that is not revealed until the end. Early on, train time tables are provided as well, as this is a key part of people’s movements and establishing alibis. The victim was generally awful, treated everyone horribly, thus resulting in a multitude of suspects (and so, the title of the story). The situation is a jumble of angry motivations of suspiciously absent suspects with partial or fabricated or no alibis; mysterious strangers on bikes, trains and automobiles; stolen bicycles and surprising witnesses; and general confusion. Charles Parker has a small role because one of the suspects disappears from Galloway and turns up in London. The case is being investigated by Lord Peter and Bunter, local Constables Ross and Duncan, local Sergeant Dalziel, Inspector Macpherson, Chief Constable Sir Maxwell Jamieson. The end of the book begins with all of the investigators coming together, each pitching their own theory featuring a different suspect, proposed timetable, and explanation for the assembled evidence. After hearing the cases against the 5 red herrings, Lord Peter proposes recreating the crime and the movements of the real perpetrator. This action takes up the last 3 chapters, convincing his fellow investigators who go along either roleplaying victim and suspects or simply observers, to the bemusement and surprise of various previously interviewed witnesses and new bystanders along the route. It’s a pretty rousing climax that results in a confession and sense of relief by the perpetrator.

(Edited to fix a couple points of uncertainty and add the sentence on typesetting.)

Look, 2 reviews in 2 days, and the third lined up for tomorrow! That's better than last year.

Pulp Fiction is an anthology of 32 stories edited by Maxim Jakubowski and published by Castle Books in 2002, but originally produced by Carroll & Graf in 1996. It’s important to note the specifics as there appear to be multiple anthologies with this title, or very similar, including the same editor. The stories were originally published between 1930 and 1996: 3 from the 1930s, 4 from the 1940s, 12 from the 1950s, 5 from the 1960s, 4 from the 1970s, 3 from the 1980s, and the previously indicated one from the 1990s. That’s a pretty good normal distribution chronologically speaking. The shortest story was Charles Willeford’s “Citizen’s Arrest” at 6 pages (1966), while the longest was the novella “Flight to Nowhere” by Charles Williams at 51 pages (1955), organized into 20 chapters. All of the authors are men (or writing under a male pseudonym), as are all of the protagonists with the exception of “Forever After.” The introduction by the editor declares that “the pulps had had one golden rule which unsung editors insisted upon and good and bad writers alike religiously followed: adherence to the art of storytelling.”

The storytelling opens with Dashell Hammet’s Sam Spade in “Too Many Have Lived” (1933), hired to investigate a missing man turned into murder victim with a dubious background. The final story is “Ordo” by Donald E. Westlake (1977). I found that one the most interesting—a contrast to all that went before. It was entirely a character study centered on the eponymous character trying to understand the transformation of the girl he was briefly married to 20 years before into the movie star she became.

The stories largely featured shady characters engaged in shady activities, living in the margins of society, which I imagine is what gave so many of them pulpy appeal to the strait-laced readers of the Golden Age of the 1950s. Some of the stories feature average guys whose lives are disrupted by bad people (for example, “Flight to Nowhere,” “Cigarette Girl,” “Citizen’s Arrest,” and “So Young, So Fair, So Dead”), while others are down on their luck as alcoholics (“The Wench Is Dead” and “A Candle for the Bag Lady”) or ex-cons (“The Bloody Tide” and “Hell on Wheels”). Others feature morally ambiguous guys who deal on their own terms with bad people (see “Black,” “Divide and Conquer,” “Finders, Killers!” and “Stacked Deck”). Still others feature bad guys involved with reprehensible people (“Forever After” and “Death Comes Gift-Wrapped,” “A Real Nice Guy,” “A Matter of Principle,” and “Enter Scarface”). Some protagonists are the classic private detectives (the aforementioned Sam Spade, Sandy McKane in “Hibiscus and Homicide,” Nick Ransom in “Preview of Murder” and Paul Pine in “So Dark for April”).

The stories feature assassinations (“The Getaway,” “Forever After,” “A Real Nice” and “Hell on Wheels”), con jobs (“Murder’s Mandate,” “Death Is a Vampire”), heists (“Black,” “We Are All Dead,” “Flight to Nowhere,” and “Finders, Killers!”), organized crime (“Black,” “The Getaway,” “The Bloody Tide and “Divide and Conquer”), double crosses (“Finders, Killers!” “Black Pudding,” “So Dark Is April,” and “We Are All Dead”), revenge (“The Getaway,” “Preview of Murder,” “The Girl Behind the Hedge,” “Sleeping Dogs,” “Killing Bernstein,” “Black Pudding” and “We Are All Dead”). There are the damsels in distress (“Flight to Nowhere,” “Murder’s Mandate,” “Cigarette Girl” and “A Matter of Principle”), and the femme fatales (“Forever After” and “Hell on Wheels”). Some of the stories are hard to classify (“Second Coming” and “Effective Medicine”), and one has a science fiction punchline (“Killing Bernstein” by Harlan Ellison).

Sometimes the protagonist dies at the end, sometimes he lives happily ever after with the girl, sometimes we’re not quite sure whether he lives or dies, and sometimes he returns to the same old life or even moves into something new. While all of the protagonists (with the exception of “Enter Scarface”) and most of the villains are white, several stories feature characters who are Mexican or Chicano, and the story set in Hawaii includes Filipinos native Hawaiian, Japanese and mixed race characters. Most of the beautiful women in these stories are described as blond, but not all of them, and many of the women are not beautiful at all, particularly in “Black Pudding,” where her face is disfigured by severe scars. Most of the stories are shallow, gritty, and straightforward, no matter how many plot twists are rolled into the narrative. A few have more interesting and sensitive characterizations, more subtle storytelling. I tended to prefer those. Like most anthologies, it was a mix of styles and quality. About halfway through, I was painfully reminded of why I had made the decision to stop consuming stories about terrible people doing terrible things, but not all of the items in this collection fit that description, and those I tended to enjoy all the more for the contrast with the formulaic. I am glad that I made it to the end, because I found “Ordo” particularly rewarding.

Welcome back Chris. Very sorry to hear 2015 was such a difficult year for you. I certainly hope 2016 is better.

>10 justchris: Enjoyed reading your reviews of the Lord Peter books - I read the series for the first time a few years ago and enjoyed them a lot.

Why Marriages Succeed or Fail by John Gottman is a self-help book published in 1994 and written for a general audience based on his decades of research on married couples. It’s his first effort to move beyond the scientific literature and reach the everyday person. He assures us this is unlike previous books written on the topic because science. It’s an easy read, and like many books of this style, filled with anecdotes, quizzes, facile metaphors to help with understanding, etc. Gottman’s group is still doing this research and still sharing lots of useful information. Their website is a very handy resource. I’d like to think the current materials have moved beyond heterosexual married couples, which are the entire focus of this book. It’s also unclear what kind of diverse demographics in terms of race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic class his study population had by 1994. I suspect not so much as scientists do love to control as many variables as possible.

The book is divided into 8 chapters. Chapter 1, “What Makes Marriage Work” summarizes the research methods and their key findings. Chapter 2, “Marriage Styles: The Good, the Bad, and the Volatile” focuses on 3 stable communication dynamics. Chapter 3, “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Warning Signs” describes the first downward spiral that can happen. Chapter 4, “Your Private Thoughts Become Cast in Stone” proceeds with the second negative cascade that can happen. Chapter 5, “The Two Marriages: His and Hers” discusses stereotypical gender dynamics in failing marriages and the different biological responses and childhood socialization that contribute to these differences. Chapter 6, “Your Marriage: The Diagnosis” emphasizes the quizzes. Chapter 7, “The Four Keys to Improving Your Marriage” presents the communication strategies to break up the toxic dynamics. Chapter 8, “Strengthening the Foundation” recaps the information covered in the book.

The gist of Dr Gottman’s research on marriage is that there are 5 communication patterns that couples tend to fall into when addressing conflicts: validating, conflict avoidant, volatile, hostile/engaged, and hostile/detached. The first 3 are stable and lead to long-term relationships. Marital conflict is described as having 3 phases: each person stating their viewpoint (and being validated by the partner), each person attempting to persuade the other, and achieving (mutually agreed upon) resolution. The validators spend lots of time on hearing and validating each other. The volatile couples tend to skip that and move right into persuading each other. The conflict avoiders tend to go with the resolution that will make the disagreement end quickest (without necessarily resolving the underlying problem) and tend to be indirect in their approaches. Each of these 3 stable marriage patterns relies on a 5:1 ratio of positive/negative interactions and demonstrating a great deal of love and respect to maintain the relationship. Dr Gottman stresses that some conflict and negativity is essential to developing a stable communication pattern and maintaining a healthy relationship long term. The couple needs to be able to handle conflict and disappointment together.

What Dr Gottman calls the 4 Horsemen are (in this specific order) criticism, contempt, defensiveness, and stonewalling. Criticism differs from a complaint by being more of an ad hominem attack on the person, not a “specific statement of anger, displeasure, distress, or other negativity” that is about the behavior (or event). It very much reminds me of Jay Smooth’s video on how to call out racism. The defensive tactics are described as denying responsibility, making excuses, disputing by negative mind reading (assumptions about motives/feelings), cross-complaining (counter attack), rubber person (blame the partner), yes-butting (disagreement couched in initial agreement), repeating yourself (broken record without listening), whining (‘nuff said), body language (false smile, arms folded across chest, shifting side to side). And stonewalling is just shutting down, verbally, mentally, physically, sometimes just walking away when conflict happens. These negative spirals tend to result in the hostile/engaged and hostile/detached dynamics that are not stable.

The breakup tends to happen once the negativity expressed in the dynamics of the couple comes to dominate their headspace. Distorted thinking can reinforce itself and cast every interaction in terms of being victimized or feeling unending righteous indignation. Once this is the internal narration, it’s hard to have a fair perspective on the situation, and confirmation bias reinforces this interpretation of the situation. Dr Gottman then proceeds to describe “flooding,” a kind of emotional and physiological overload, which sounds a lot like what is called being triggered these days. The heart rate goes up, the person feels overwhelmed by the partner’s negativity and their own emotional reaction of distress, upset, hostility, etc. Muscles tense, and the person may hold their breath; thoughts may become disorganized or shut down. The negative thoughts and the body’s arousal form a feedback loop. The person over time with chronic flooding feels that negativity is the norm in the relationship. This situation leads to what Dr Gottman calls the “distance and isolation cascade.” First, the problems in the marriage are perceived as severe. Second, it seems useless to try to sort it out with the partner. Third, the couple starts leading separate and parallel lives because they’re no longer emotionally connected. Fourth, there’s nothing lonelier than feeling trapped in a loveless marriage. The personal narrative of the early days of the relationship gets rewritten to focus on the negative. Brings new meaning to “revisionist history.” In fact, this can be an early warning sign of impending doom if changes aren’t made—Dr Gottman claims a 94% success rate in predicting future divorce based on the man’s framing of the beginning of their relationship.

And the common gender dynamics: woman does the emotional labor of the relationship, which means she is usually the one who brings up problems for discussion. She is also the one who consistently seeks an emotional connection with her partner. Man cannot handle emotions, taught to suppress them, more likely to be flooded, gets defensive easily, withdraws/stonewalls. Woman gets frustrated, escalates, desperate to be heard. Rinse, repeat. Women are trained from childhood to understand, interpret, and discuss emotions; men are not and don’t have the tools. “Usually, boys care most about the game, while girls care most about the relationship between the players.” Men dominate their environment and emotions, and women support, etc. Dr Gottman then goes on to say that there are biological gender differences in the physiological stress reactions. Men get overwhelmed quickly and take much longer to calm down after emotional arousal. Men often get flooded by the first negative behavior of criticism, while women often don’t get flooded until contempt is expressed at the second negative stage. Also, stonewalling is primarily performed by men, and is unusually triggering for women. This is a particularly asymmetrical gender difference. The man tends to interpret stonewalling (either performing or receiving it) as being neutral, but the woman tends to interpret (receiving it) as disapproval and rejection.

This whole chapter on gender dynamics opens with a strong caveat that these are generalizations that don’t apply to everyone, which I appreciate, but a few reiterations of that throughout the gendered examples, especially when getting to the “But biology” part would have been helpful. It didn’t quite descend into evo psych rationalization, at least. I did appreciate the following assertion very much: “In fact, we find that, by and large, in happy marriages there are no gender differences in emotional expression! But in unhappy marriages all the gender differences we’ve been talking about emerge.” Gender imbalances masquerading as norms are more an indication of dysfunction than anything else. The specific advice to men is to embrace their wives’ anger. It is a gift to show how important an issue is. And listening to her will help her calm down. The specific advice to women is to air a complaint gently and calmly as possible; when sharing a complaint, it is important to reiterate love and specify the desire that he change a specific problematic behavior.

Also, Dr Gottman points out that disagreements about sex and housework are exceedingly common and most likely to be flashpoints for conflict. The gender differences around sex, according to Dr Gottman, mean that men seek intimacy by having sex, or consider sex as no-strings pleasure, and seek sex even when the situation is emotionally tense. Meanwhile, women use sex to confirm intimacy, which is already expressed through affection and daily interactions. Dr Gottman recommends that the man learn to pleasure his wife rather than concentrating solely on his own pleasure during sex, and that he learn and meet her specific requirements leading up to sex, which usually involve some degree of attention and care outside of the bedroom, and likely especially equity in housework. Men tend to seriously overestimate their contributions to domestic chores and childcare and almost never initiate these discussions or take charge of organizing the household and associated tasks. “The message you send your wife when you do so little around the house is a lack of respect for her.” And “If you are a husband, you are not doing your wife a favor by ‘helping’ with the housework—you are sharing necessary chores to make your lives more comfortable.” Repeated for truth! These basic inequities in daily living profoundly affect women’s satisfaction in marriage. In other words, men need to try harder to not be sexist jerks (no free pass for liberal men here), and women need to hold their hands and treat them as gently as possible when confronting said sexism. But I’m not bitter much. I am also very, very happy to be living alone right now.

So what to do when negativity is tending to dominate? The tools involve self-soothing to break out of the negative mix-tape in your head, and soothing your partner—these are called repair mechanisms. In general, take steps to break out of the negative spiral. Specific repair mechanisms comprise stop action (hold the conversation until calmer), editing (respond only to constructive bits from partner), gate-keeping (guiding the conversation forward), getting back on beam (stopping off-topic discussion), affection humor, conflict-avoiding techniques (appeal to shared values, relative insignificance of current conflict), feeling probes (ask and listen to partner’s emotions), metacommunication (discuss the communication process), softening persuasion attempts (avoid gridlock and hardened positions).There is advice for couples that do not have compatible conflict resolution styles, which puts them at higher risk for trouble, as well as advice specific to each of the 3 stable styles. Each of the “4 horsemen” is revisited, and specific approaches offered for backing away from and responding to criticism, contempt, defensiveness, and stonewalling. Similarly, tools are offered for disrupting distress-maintaining thought loops, flooding, the distance and isolation cascade, rewriting the narrative of the marriage history, and gendered dynamics.

An entire chapter is focused on 4 specific strategies for stepping back from the brink and strengthening the relationship. First, calm down. Monitor your pulse, and call a time out. Work on relaxing and disrupting negative thoughts. Second, speak and listen nondefensively. Express praise, gratitude and admiration even during conflict but also during daily life. These expressions of acceptance reduce the likelihood of a defensive reaction during a disagreement or difficult conversation. When listening, offer indications of actual listening (called back channel communications), pay attention to facial expressions, and your own body language. Use “X, Y, Z statements”: when you X in Y situation, I felt Z. Focus on the message content and disregard the negative tone as much as possible. Third, validate your partner. Take responsibility, apologize, and compliment when possible. Fourth, overlearn—practice over and over until it becomes second nature and kicks in automatically during high-stress situations.

Finally, the book closes with strategies for managing conflict pro-actively in a relationship. Schedule discussions so that any problems become part of routine communication rather than blowing up into a crisis. Structure disagreements by explicitly mapping out and progressing through the 3 stages: declaring the topic and validating, persuasion and argumentation, compromise and resolution. And think about how you might frame your personal narrative in terms of overcoming challenges together. “Stable couples’ stories serve to bolster their faith in one another and their union.” The successful bottom line: love, respect, and valuing your shared history together.

I summarized the contents of the book as the Cliff Notes version of the key points. This is mostly for me to refer to later. If you think any of this might be useful to you, by all means, get the book and read up on the sample scripts and interventions to disrupt negative feedback loops and develop more positive connections. Having explicit scripts, particularly in response to specific derailing methods, is extremely useful. There were definitely some painful twinges of recognition reading through the transcripts of couples’ interactions. Whether these were verbatim transcripts of actual conversations, or composites of multiple instances among the study participants, they are illustrative. The main limitations of this book is that (1) it addresses only straight married couples without acknowledging any other possible intimate relationship; (2) it doesn’t really touch on abusive dynamics beyond clearly stating that contempt is a form of psychological abuse—frankly, all the good will and good technique in the world is not going to turn an abusive predator into a supportive and caring spouse, and some discussion, however brief, of the difference between dysfunction between well-meaning people (bad fit!) and dysfunction by intent and malice (feature, not bug!) would be good; (3) it touches on the possibility of divorce only in the last page or so, though it talks about the study participants who end up divorced in earlier chapters.

I picked up Redemolished at the local university library. It's got a collection of science fiction that really surprised me, so I keep trying out items like this. Alfred Bester's The Demolished Man won a Hugo back in its day, and I definitely found it original and interesting. But this collection of his writing is difficult. The stories are so dark, and depressing, and not much fun. I can only do 1-2 at a time, then take a break for a few weeks.

Belatedly dropping by to welcome you back to the group, Chris. I had a tough 2015 too so I hope that this new one is much kinder to the both of us.

>15 PaulCranswick: I hope your 2016 is better than last year, Paul. Though my 2015 was rough, it was still better than 2014, which was a shattering year for me.

I am in a much better place emotionally and physically already this year. And excited about upcoming changes. Trying to pace myself with a routine so that I can stay involved with LT instead of fizzling out rapidly and disappearing except for updating my reading list.

And yet, already several books behind in reviews. So it goes. I'm too busy right now putting together a presentation for a class that I am guest speaker for on Monday. And trying to wrap up a link roundup on institutional racism for the racial healing series that ended last November. So some serious catch up to do...no wonder I never get anywhere with my own writing for my own purposes.

Wishing you a great weekend, Chris.

Hi, Chris! It's a very cold weekend here so I'm indoors, mostly reading. Took some time off to play on the computer a bit and catch up with some threads. Hope all's well - and good luck with Monday's presentation.

>17 PaulCranswick: Thanks for the good wishes!

>18 muddy21: Thank you, Marilyn. The presentation went well. It was fun to dust off the photos and memories and share some stories as well as basic info. But it's been so long that I totally blanked on some of the names. Oh well.

It's been bitterly cold here for the last week, so I hear you on staying indoors. It's snowing again today, but I hear it's supposed to be warm this coming weekend, and that the daffodils are starting to push up.

I am updating my reading list only sporadically, and I feel like I'm missing something there...maybe it'll come to me. (Edited to add: Ha! Figured it out when I started adding books to my library)

I returned last week from a 10-day trip. I brought 2 books with me and read neither of them. Instead, I bought several books and read some of those. Oh well.

Starting next week, I begin the process of packing up the bulk of my worldly goods and vacating the house I bought with my partner 5 years ago. We might salvage our relationship, which these days is on very friendly terms, but I don't aspire to live together again any time soon.

I signed a contract for a short-term self-storage unit close to my new apartment. The fine print says I shouldn't put books and other valuables (antiques, writings, personal memorabilia, etc) in the unit because they're not responsible for any losses. Well, I was planning on starting in the basement and garage before moving to the library. It's a relatively small unit, so I might fill it before I get to the bookshelves.

It's been so hard being separated from the bulk of my collection and particularly my comfort reads. But my current apartment is so tiny that I just can't fit any more books in. Especially as I have a stack of read books on the floor in the hope that I might manage to put together a few book reviews this year.

I am really looking forward to moving into my new, larger, long-term apartment in June so that I can go from limbo to leading a full life again! Very excited! I'd like to leave the cheap bookcases behind me and invest in something solid that can bear the weight. Not sure whether that'll fit in my budget. I was very fortunate to find a couple of great, strong bookcases for my current tiny apartment that will definitely be kept.

After over a year of separation, I am finally reunited with all of my books! Mostly still in boxes, but in my (new) home. With me. Except that I'm dog-sitting for a couple of weeks and away from home. But I dropped off the last load of boxes yesterday. Squee!

I am trying to downsize, but that means letting go of 1-2 books for maybe every hundred or so. It's not much of a clearing out. I had this vision of carefully sorting through everything and bringing only the keepers into my apartment. But the further I go along, the more the equation has flipped: just get it out of the house so I am done with the house, and take my time in the relaxing comfort of my own space to go through things at my own pace to let go. Which I need to do, because it's too much stuff for a one-bedroom apartment.

It's a busy year of transitions. I miss writing book reviews. I draft them in my head sometimes, but too many things to do for such self-indulgence right now. Maybe starting this winter...

I miss your book reviews too, but am glad you are in your own place and soon to be imposing order upon chaos!

>22 ronincats: Thanks, Roni! Everything has been on hold, but finally all that's left to deal with in the house are odds and ends inside and all of the yard/garden/plant/shed stuff, which is still quite a bit but doesn't have the same mental weight as the household goods.

But there is water damage after some of the serious storms in the last weeks, so there is ongoing drama around the place and unexpected expenses. I am glad to get the books away from that. Last night I had a dream that my apartment was on the third floor (not remotely resembling my actual apartment), under the eaves and part of the ceiling had fallen in from the weight of water leaking from above, and there were pipes running through different rooms that also had pinpoint leaks that were spraying water out and generally was a water hazard zone. Anxiety much?

Thanks for the kind words. They are always appreciated.

Is the water damage in the new house or the old apartment? And yes, such vivid dreaming! Definitely a touch of anxiety.

>24 ronincats: Hey, Roni! The water damage is at the house. Hence the relief of getting them all to my apartment. The fiction boxes are stacked in the bedroom. The nonfiction are stacked in the living room. I am hoping to unpack the latter this week. I'm hoping they'll fit on the bookcases I have currently. And then I can figure out how much more shelving I will need. Not sure where it would go. Downsized from full ranch house to a one-bedroom apartment.

I just picked up the life-changing magic of tidying up, following an offhand comment from someone on a forum. That is exactly what I am engaged in right now. Clearing out so much physically, emotionally, and so on. Trying to let things large and small go. It will be interesting to see how the whole "sparking joy" part of it will go if I try out Marie Kondo's . I was very sad to get rid of my little radio/CD player. I found it at a thrift store and it kept me company in the kitchen for many years, but the CD player part was failing. But that is the first thing I think of as sparking joy in me. Every time I saw its 1970s bright orange body with the silly big floral prints on it, I would smile. The replacement works well, gets better reception, but is a very boring matte black. Pleasure, but no joy.

Kondo goes too far for me, especially in the matter of books, but I did adopt her way of folding clothes in my drawers--I can fit so much more in them and also easily see what I have!

>26 ronincats: I can believe she goes too far--the whole mindset sounds pretty extreme. The intro where she admits to going into her siblings' rooms and gets rid of things for them on a regular basis...what a violation of privacy and autonomy. But I figured what the hell, I'm already trying to declutter. I thought it would be interesting to try out what she says. And yeah, on a booklovers forum, we can certainly agree that getting rid of most of our collections is just wild talk.

Normally, I mark up nonfiction because I approach that sort of material as a very active reader. But for this book, I think maybe a few penciled stars next to key passages at most. I probably won't keep this one. Might pass it along. But then again, maybe not. Been recommending Unfuck Your Habitat to folks, and that has a philosophy that's diametrically opposed.

>14 justchris: I enjoyed The Demolished Man when I read it many years ago. However, I could never get into The Stars, My Destination. I can imagine his short fiction being a pretty dark word. Thank you for your thoughts.

Chris, I think you might be interested in Mary Robinette Kowal's newest book, Ghost Talkers. I haven't read it yet, but Tor's review comments on how, set during the Great War in Europe, it has a full complement of genders and ethnicities represented as full-blown characters. I've enjoyed her other books a lot.

>28 brodiew2: Thanks for stopping by, Brodie! I finished the short stories and held onto the book because I wanted to pull together a full review, but ended up returning it to the library when I moved. Ugh. Those stories. I've implemented a general policy of no media that features terrible people doing terrible things. Therefore, I will never watch Breaking Bad. Or Even Mad Men. Or read Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Sure, these stories are amazingly well done, and the central white/straight/male protagonist in 2 of them can be sympathetic at times. But ugh. And violence toward women as the central operating principle. Ugh again. Centering these sorts of stories--done now. That's pretty much what Bester's short fiction collection was like. Ergh. Very much a reflection of the darkness and angst of the Cold War and the impacts of WWII and its atrocities.

>29 ronincats: I've seen the buzz here and on various SF blogs around Mary Robinette Kowal's works, and saw Ghost Talkers at the bookstore this week. But I am old, slow, and stodgy and tend to concentrate a lot of my reading on backlists rather than recent publications. But I will add her to my TBR list for some future point in time. Well, okay, a lot of my reading is re-reading comfort reads. Or concentrating on catching up with already familiar authors. Or dealing with the pile of interesting books I already own. Or preparing for specific activities, like MOOCs or stuff I am teaching/facilitating. The only reason I read Uprooted, which I loved, was because my partner spotted it and picked it up. Same with The School for Good and Evil. He tends to browse and read current pubs. Sometimes it rubs off on me. Well, did. Now ex. Perhaps I will join the pool of his exes who do book swaps with him.

So yeah, there's a whole bunch of newish (not really, anymore, just from my stodgy perspective) authors I want to try, but when? When? For example, the whole steampunk thing. Gail Carringer. Ann Leckie. Ken Liu. It goes on and on. I do so much less reading and writing compared to a couple decades ago.

I can help with some steampunk suggestions when you're ready! :)

>31 drneutron: Thank you for the kind offer, you enabler.

Stayed up until 2 am re-reading Superluminal. Something reminded me of this story, and I wanted to reacquaint myself with it. I particularly love the scene where Orca tells off Dr Kristen van de Graaf, the administrator who is supervising the debriefing of the pilots and crew from the unprecedented search and rescue success of a lost space ship and subjecting them to a battery of medical tests and generally keeping them locked away from everyone and everything:

At the hatch of the shuttle, Orca stopped short.
"Wait a minute," she said, "Where are you planning to take us?"
"Back to earth," Van de Graaf said.
"Very funny," Orca snapped. "Landing where?"
"White Sands."
"I can't land at White Sands."
"Why not?"
"Because I have no intention of being and arrested and interned as a prisoner of war. Surely you know that my family has never made peace with the United States government."
After a moment of incomprehension, van de Graaf said, "Oh. I'd forgotten all about that. Surely in an emergency--"
"No! Even if they promised me free passage I wouldn't believe them. Besides, I'd be in trouble with my own people if I accepted it."
"We all have more important things to think about than ancient history."
"Do you think this is some kind of joke?" Orca said angrily. "It may be ancient history to you, but my family has an even longer memory than the U.S. Navy--and the U.S. Navy blows us out of the water whenever they have a chance. They still consider us traitors, if not spies."
"I'll get you a world council safe-conduct on the way down--"
"Let me explain it to you in terms you may understand, doctor," Orca said. "Not landing in the United States is in my contract."

I like the characters and the concepts in this story. Maybe the news story about researchers recording an apparent conversation between dolphins brought this novel to mind. Or returning to visit the PNW earlier this year (I so miss that area!).

Orca is a genetically engineered diver--humans adapted to become marine mammals who have formed clans with adoptive family ties to different whale species with whom they have created a shared society. The divers can still operate on land, and Orca has taken a job as a spaceship crew member, though some of the divers never interact with the landers, preferring to stay within their own territory, learning from the wisdom of the great whales, such as Orca's younger brother. I like this vision of a future where a subset of humanity has found a way to not only coexist with other dominant species, but to thrive with them in a cooperative society of mutual learning.

But actually, all of that is just backstory and subplot. The novel opens with Laenea Trevelyan waking up from the surgery to remove her heart. The story is really an exploration of love and loss, identity and transformation and even transcendence, in many flavors: star-crossed lovers whose passionate affair is intense but all too brief, family members who love but don't quite understand each other either, friends with mysterious pasts, the transition from crew to pilot, from sea to land to space, from the 3 dimensions that everyone experiences to higher dimensions that so few people can perceive or experience, the sacrifices and difficult choices people must make when they don't quite fit in anymore, and finding connections between the familiar and the alien.

The story is full of strong female characters--in fact, I think there might be more female characters than male, or perhaps they're at parity. But the men have strong roles too. And there is a great diversity of representation in terms of race and ethnicity--from a new world colonized by Australian aboriginals (and a crew member returning home to them), to crew and pilots with French Canadian, Japanese, Latino, eastern European, Russian, and various Anglo names. There's plenty of action, interesting characters, good dialogue, adventure and wonder. What more can you ask for in science fiction?

Wow, it's probably been 30 years since I read Superluminal (but it's still on my bookshelves with all the other McIntyre's) and I remember totally nothing of it except that, if it's McIntyre, it's good.

>34 ronincats: Yeah, I don't reread Superluminal often. I tend to reread Dreamsnake much more frequently. I enjoy both of them. Orca and Snake are both favorite characters of mine. Eventually I figured out that they were feminist novels that had strong female characters and societies without sexism (though not free of violence in general and sexual violence, but the sexual violence was seen as a serious aberration rather than something that just happens--boys will be boys, amirite?). It took me a while to notice how much the assumptions in these stories differed from a lot of other SF stories out there.

It's been interesting reading about the history of science fiction and feminism and recognizing that Vonda McIntyre was one of the vocal feminists in the fan community as part of the Second Wave. The Secret Feminist Cabal was a real eye opener. When I was younger and before there was the internet, it was just me and the stories and no thought of the people behind them. I never went to cons or participated in fandom (though many of my friends did). I didn't really start paying attention to the authors and the community and the issues until around 2008-2009, or maybe earlier, when I learned about Orson Scott Card's political beliefs. Still haven't been to any cons or active in fandom, but I lurk and pay attention to what's going on out there.

On Thursday night, I assembled the second "media storage unit" that happens to be the perfect size for paperbacks (at least, perfect for old-school mass market paperbacks). I finally unpacked the last of my books. All of the fiction has been stuffed higgledy-piggledy on these shelves. Tonight, I'm going through and starting to organize them. And making a list of books I need to fill in some incomplete series or seriously worn and falling apart old books.

There's a surprising number of books that I've acquired over the last few years (or have been given to me) and that I haven't gotten around to reading. Time to get on that.

Plus, I am trying to declutter, so I am going through them with an eye to which books I really love vs rather meh.

I'm thinking I might need to go through the entire Norton collection. I know which ones are my favorites that I reread at intervals, but others I've read only once or twice. Is it really worth keeping them if I am not enthusiastic about those particular stories?

I've gone through completist and purge phases in the past. I'm largely over the completist impulse. I sloughed off her YA Star Ka'at books (published in the 1970s) years ago, though I liked them well enough.

Plus, Norton books are an interesting case for me. I like her early stuff from the 1930s through the 1970s. And I was excited when she wrote follow-ups to The Crystal Gryphon. In fact, Gryphon's Eyrie co-written with A. C. Crispin and published in 1984 is the most recent Norton book that I own.

But the later co-written books and shared universe books? Not so much. I've hand a chance to try several of them, thanks to my mom's collections. The much later follow-ups to the Time Agents and Solar Queen series were painful to me. And the shared Witch World anthologies just didn't have the same unique flavor as the original books. Other writers just don't have Norton's style. I'm afraid to try the Beast Master sequels after being so disappointed with Firehand, because I really love the original duology.

So keep them all for old time's sake? Or get rid of singletons like Yurth Burden and No Night Without Stars that just don't capture my imagination like Secret of the Lost Race and The X Factor.

I'm a purge kind of guy. If I'm not gonna read it again, I want to use the shelf space for something else!

That's a hard one, Chris. I'm a completist with Norton. I had purged, for example, Merlin's Mirror because I really didn't like it. But I reaquired it because otherwise I wouldn't have all her books. This was back when it was harder to have them all, and most of mine are original publications. Like you, the older ones are my favorite, and some of the High Halleck ones. At this point, I do have them securely shelved so probably won't cull that particular collection. She was so influential on my reading, the only woman author during my high school years that was available, and I love books like Catseye and Year of the Unicorn so much.

>37 drneutron: I hear you on that. In the past, I've been even more conservative--if I'm not going to invest in this author, then I will just read library books. But I've been reckless in recent years with BookMooch and very cheap books for Sea Siege/Eye of the Monster when I was in the third grade). I lifted all of them from her as a set when I went off to college and have kept them ever since. So are they mine, truly, to dispose of as I wish? Or do I have them in trust from my mom? I have gone ahead and repatriated some books back to my mom when I've gone through earlier purge cycles of books that originated from her shelves (and whatever additions to the series that I made) with respect to other authors. But my mom lives in an old farmhouse plagued by mice. And it's already way too overstuffed. Not quite hoarding, but not something I want to contribute to either.

So keep the less liked Norton books? Return them to my mom and the mice? Or rehome them? Maybe I will procrastinate by reading through the entire oeuvre in the coming months. As it happens, it's not an urgent question because the shelving I got for my fiction paperbacks isn't filled to capacity (yet).

>38 ronincats: Yeah, I picked up Merlin's Mirror ages ago because it wasn't part of my mom's original set, but I can't say I'm that enthusiastic about it. More meh. I love the original High Hallack stories too, and Catseye and Year of the Unicorn.

She was very influential for me too. When I first tried my hand at writing stories when I was very young, it was very derivative of Norton's human-animal stories. I'm not sure I was aware that she was a female author when I was very young. By high school, my reading had branched out quite a bit, but still leaned heavily to women and somehow missed the "Giants" like Asimov and Bradbury and Heinlein (with the exception of Friday).

Let's see, in high school, in addition to Norton, I was heavily into Thieves' World, the Deryni chronicles, the Shannara books, the Stainless Steel Rat stuff and everything else by Harry Harrison, David Brin, most stuff by Anne McCaffrey and Piers Anthony, C. J. Cherryh, Jo Clayton, Barbara Hambly, Patricia McKillip, Robin McKinley, Patricia Wrede, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Elizabeth Scarborough, David Eddings, James H. Schmitz, Alan Dean Foster, some Ursula LeGuin, some Lynn Abbey, and lots of oddball less-known authors like Doris Piserchia, Phyllis Gottlieb, Ardath Mayhar, Mark Helprin, etc. Most of those authors are not represented in my current holdings because they were fun, but not what I considered keepers, or else I developed too many reservations about the author (Piers Anthony, I am looking at you for your pedophilia apologia).

In my 20s, I moved on average every 6 months, so my book holdings slimmed down a lot. I had to really want to reread those stories to hold on to them through so many relocations. Or else felt like maybe they didn't really belong to me in the end.

Thanks, Roni! I hope you had a lovely holiday.

Witch World was the book that started it all. Well, maybe not, but it is the first of all the Witch World books, Andre Norton’s longest, oldest and most beloved series. I suspect that it’s also one of the first stories to blend fantasy and science fiction elements, but don’t quote me on that. I have the original 1963 Ace edition, which includes the title page illustration by Jack Gaughan (cover artist too). I went online today and looked up Norton’s entire bibliography, and it looks like this is her first fantasy novel, though some of her earliest historical/contemporary fiction may contain some fantastical elements (I don’t really remember the details of Ralestone Luck).

The protagonist is Simon Tregarth, a WWII veteran of Cornish extraction who left the US Army on bad terms after being convicted of black market dealing while part of the Allied Occupation of Berlin, and has been living on the shady side for the last several years. This places the opening scene sometime in the 1950s, at the beginning of the Cold War, with the Holocaust atrocities of the Nazis and the rise of fascism very much a part of public consciousness. This context very much informs the themes and plotline of the story. Re-reading this after many, many years (and thus not remembering the specifics) and in the wake of Trump’s election makes the story all the more gripping for me, I guess.

Anyway, Simon is presented to us as a good man played by the unscrupulous or having bad luck at the worst moments so that he is on the run from a hit man. But he’s also a bad man, in the sense that he is dangerous and willing to kill to survive the mean streets of the underworld. Dr Jorge Petronius offers him an escape through the legendary Siege Perilous, linked to Arthurian legend, a mystical gateway to a new world.

Simon takes this one-way trip and finds himself on a moor, where he soon encounters a woman being chased by a pack of hunting dogs and hunters on horseback. He helps her escape and thus joins the forces of Estcarp, where most of the Old Race live and the all-female Guardian and Council rule, relying on their magical power and the Guardsmen to protect their borders. Estcarp is a country under attack, with the uneasy neighboring countries of Karsten to the south and Alizon to the north, and the mysterious Kolder encroaching from their beachhead on the conquered island of Gorm off the western coastline having originated from overseas somewhere.

Estcarp and the Old Race are presented as an ancient people with special connections to the land and its flora and fauna. Simon feels the weight of millennia in Es City that vastly exceeds any sense of the weight of history he once felt walking on old Roman roads in Europe. The people of Karsten are a mix of matrilineal nobility and mercenaries who have conquered and/or married into the landed gentry, as well as some of the Old Race who live among them. In addition to these, the Sulcar traders have established Sulcarkeep on a peninsula ceded to them by Estcarp, and the Falconers they brought as refugees working as marines for the Sulcar trade fleet from overseas have settled in the southern mountains between Estcarp and Karsten. Finally, the Tormen live in the mysterious and impenetrable wetlands between Alizon and Estcarp.

The Old Race are presented not quite as a dying race, but certainly not as a booming population. This is because any girls with any hint of Power are recruited and trained by the witches. The witches guard their names and take vows of celibacy to preserve their powers, thus reducing the number of marriageable women in the population, leading to a huge gender imbalance not unlike what China is experiencing as a result of its generational one-child policy and consequent gender-selective abortion trends. The Old Race and Sulcar are longtime allies who have successfully intermarried, while the Falconers were not welcomed, given their deeply misogynistic male military society with their women confined to breeding villages being abhorrent to a culture dominated by women.

Simon works to fit in, learning the language, signing up for guard duty, starting to use a sword while readily adapting to dart guns. He ponders the incongruities displayed by the different groups—swords and guns but no bows and arrows, horses and sailing ships and castles, but also remote communication devices and artificial lighting. And he feels a continuing connection to the witch he first met fleeing for her life on the moors, who is surprised to discover that a man seems to have some magical abilities in contrast to everything she’s ever understood.

In addition to Simon and the witch he meets and works with again and again over the course of the story, two others are central to the plot. First is Koris, formerly of Gorm. He is the offspring of the Lord Defender of Gorm and a Torwoman who is suspected of ensorceling her noble husband. Koris is considered monstrous, with a handsome face but an apelike poorly proportioned body as a result of his mixed bloodlines, and his stepmother and younger half-brother invite the Kolder to Gorm to back their coup in the wake of the old lord’s death. Koris finds refuge in Estcarp and becomes Captain of the Guard, while Gorm succumbs entirely to the Kolder and nothing more is known of its people. Second is Loyse, daughter of Fulke, lord of Verlaine, a coastal holding that has a long Wrecker history, enriching the lord by luring and looting ships and murdering any shipwreck survivors. Fulke married into the old Verlaine family but represents the brutal nouveau riche of former bandits turned landlords. He has political ambitions and arranges a marriage between Loyse and the Duke of Karsten, the most powerful lord in the land. The marriage ceremony is performed and witnessed by 3 representatives of the Duke, with an axe as a proxy for the groom (this ceremony appears in other stories set in this world), but Loyse has plans to escape during the drunken revelry of the wedding feast.

This is something of an adventure tale, with the characters moving from one conflict or intrigue to the next as skirmishes turn into battles turn into war. The story is arranged in four sections (Venture of Sulcarkeep, Venture of Verlaine, Venture of Karsten, and Venture of Gorm), each subdivided into multiple named chapters. It is clearly set up for its sequel Web of the Witch World, because the end of this story is a pause after the climactic (initial) confrontation with the Kolder, and Simon’s insight into their origins and purposes.

One could argue that the Old Race is modeled on the Jews, and that the Kolder are similar to Nazi Germany invading or manipulating the governments of other countries while persecuting the Jews and intent on world domination and the subjugation of “inferior” races. Certainly, events in Karsten are not unlike what happened in Europe in terms of the Jews being rounded up, and those discovered to shield or aid them being imprisoned or murdered in their turn by the Nazi regime. Or perhaps Estcarp is an inverse interpretation of Israel: instead of being a new country created by the European powers in atonement for the Holocaust but at the expense of Palestinians and resented and threatened by surrounding Muslim Arab countries, it is the original country surrounded by relatively recent immigrant nations who resent its history and fear and hate the special powers of the witches. Karsten sounds similar to England, with its mix of Anglo-Saxon followed by Norman invaders, its Welsh wrecker heritage, while the Sulcar might be considered cognates to the Phoenicians or the Scandinavians.

The story passes the Bechdel test, largely in terms of Loyse interacting with various women over the course of the story. Women are certainly key to driving the plot forward. Not much racial diversity, though. One nameless dead person at the end appears to be black, possibly also one legendary figure; everyone else in the story is described in terms of typical European ethnicities. Not much gender or sexual diversity either, but then this was written in the early 1960s—we’re lucky to have strong women characters even.

I enjoyed rereading it. The book is quick and generally fast-paced and full of happy coincidences that manage to line up neatly so that our band of heroes come out on top after sometimes harrowing and desperate moments. Sometimes the exposition bogs it down. I find it funny to see Simon Tregarth called an outlander repeatedly, ages before the bestseller and now TV series Outlander. The story explores universal themes of what it means to be human, alienation and exile, overcoming stereotypes and discovering the limitations of one’s own worldview, finding one’s own identity and place in the world, the dangers of forbidden knowledge, and more.

ps, why does Ender's Game keep showing up as the default touchstone for Witch World? Weird.

Wouldn't it be nice if 2017 was a year of peace and goodwill.
A year where people set aside their religious and racial differences.
A year where intolerance is given short shrift.
A year where hatred is replaced by, at the very least, respect.
A year where those in need are not looked upon as a burden but as a blessing.
A year where the commonality of man and woman rises up against those who would seek to subvert and divide.
A year without bombs, or shootings, or beheadings, or rape, or abuse, or spite.

2017.

Festive Greetings and a few wishes from Malaysia!

This is the Christmas tree at the end of the Pacific Beach Pier here in San Diego, a Christmas tradition.

To all my friends here at Library Thing, I want you to know how much I value you and how much I wish you a very happy holiday, whatever one you celebrate, and the very best of New Years!

>43 PaulCranswick: >44 ronincats: Thank you, Paul and Roni for the holiday greetings! I hope your Christmas was joyous each and everyone.

Belated Merry Christmas and happy New Year!

Looking forward to your continued company in 2017.
Happy New Year, Chris

>47 PaulCranswick: Happy New Year!

New Year's greetings, Chris! I fizzled out on LT last year as has been my habit in past years but I'm back again with new resolve. I haven't seen a 2017 thread for you yet - maybe I've missed it - but I'm here to encourage you. Even when I don't comment much, I do stop by to check in on people's reading from time to time and I do enjoy hearing about what you have on the boards.

>49 muddy21: Thanks, Marilyn! In fact, I ended up with 2 threads because of my inability to endure a typo I couldn't fix. Find me here:
https://www.librarything.com/topic/245950

Good luck in 2017! I tend to fizzle too, so you're not alone.