psutto's 7th challenge

In 2017 I'm going to admit that I have much less time to read and especially to write reviews. This means that I'll restrict my challenge. I will still record my reading, but for the challenge specifically I'll only do 1 review a month.

So for my review challenge for 2017 I'm going to read 1 woman writer, new to me, a month and review them

January -

monstress volume 1 - fits my challenge, it's written by a woman, new to me, but I didn't like it enough to review it, it was pretty average - the art is good, the story had a LOT of exposition so the 2nd may be better, but I'm not sure if I'm motivated enough to get the 2nd

The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan - really a book in two half, the first being about the dangers of pseudoscience and illogical thinking, which was great, and the second a eulogy for science, which was a bit preachy - I'm a science graduate but not everything can be solved with science - still well worth a read

spill, simmer, falter, wither by Sara Baume - really enjoyed this book - review below )soon)

Alien skies - Got this as a present and it's an interesting little primer for exoplanet atmospherics. It is quite short and spends half of its time bringing you up to speed with what's known about the atmospheres of the planets in the solar system before moving onto exoplanets so therefore didn't really hit the mark for me as I found I knew a lot of the info already. It is a neat little book though and I'd recommend it to folk with an interest, but not necessarily a background, in science.

Crawlspace - interesting psychological thriller, bit pf a page turner after a slow start - published in 1972 but didn't feel too out of date, even though plenty of people have done similar stories since

The open curtain Evenson's second novel (I think) but published much later - this deals, in a fictional way, with his fall from Mormonism. I think I don't know enough about Mormonism to totally get it, but Evenson is a great writer and the book was very readable anyway

Metronome First of all - what a beautiful cover! And it really does set the scene of the book. This is a gorgeously produced book and you just know that care and attention has been lavished on it. And the writing needs to be special to deserve that attention doesn't it? Luckily Langmead's second novel does.

The book opens in an old folks' home where we are introduced to William Manderlay, an aging violinist who once wrote an album whilst in a fever-dream. When Manderlay starts having bizarre dreams he discovers that his album, Solomon's Eye, has a deeper meaning in the world of dreams.

Most of the action takes place in a lovingly built dreamworld. Here Langmead excels, the worldbuilding plays a starring role. That's not to say that characterisation or plot or any other factor is neglected, but the worldbuilding lifts it all up.

There are a couple of niggles. I did wonder what the point of setting up the old folks' home was, apart to set up Manderlay's character, which could have been done whilst the plot is rolling. Also the ending left me a little unsatisfied but maybe due to the fact that it left me wanting more. Although I think what I wanted more of was development of the idea revealed late on (no spoilers).

Langmead excels at action and the plot skips along merrily. There's some great imagery in there and it was a very quick and enjoyable read. I look forward to seeing what he does next.

I tried to read a couple of books and gave up:

The Night Manager wow, so dull, so very, very dull

The notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge by Rainer Maria Rilke - failed to grab me

I also read The museum of Eterna's novel - OK that was bizarre, I'm still thinking about it - I'll probably do a revie. It has a LOT of prologues!

I've just started Into the mist which feels a bit like a cross between Congo and Predator at the moment, but is an enjoyable romp - but am guessing won't finish it today so it'll go in the February pile...

February -

Into the Mist by Lee Murray - review below
Suffragette: My own story by Emmeline Pankhurst
It Can't happen here by Sinclair Lewis
Kingdom Come by J G Ballard
Genes of Isis by Justin Newland
Complete stories Flannery by Flannery O'Connor
What am I doing here? by Bruce Chatwin
The Memoirist by Neil Williamson
Arrival of Missives by Aliya Whiteley
Love and Romanpunk by Tansey Rayner
Thief of Lives by Lucy Sussex
Two Bear Mambo by Jo R Lansdale
Carter & Lovecraft by Jonathan L Howard
last days of new paris by China Mieville
Delusions of Gender by Cordelia Fine
Two old women by Velma Wallis

March -

Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link
My name is Mary Sutherland by Kate Farrell
Of worlds beyond by Various
The transmigration of bodies by Yuri Herrera
Detective story by Imre Kertesz
The Vanishing, Tim Krabbe
Novelists on the novel
Becoming a writer by Dorothea Brande
catacombs of terror by Stanley Donwood
light of the fireflies By Paul Pen
The girls of slender means by Muriel Spark
The storytelling animal by Jonathan Gottschell
Understanding Fiction bY Cleanth Brooks & Robert Penn Warren
the soul of an octopus by Sy montgomery
the book thief by Marcus Zusak
on writing well by William Zinsser

April -

Persona by Genevieve Valentine
Chalk by Paul Cornell
things fall apart by Chinua Achebe
republic of the imagination by Azir Nafisi
Shane by Jack Shaefer
A book of strange stories by Herbert Van Thal
Entropic Angel by Gareth L Powell
A Glass of Shadow by Liz Williams
Arguably by Christopher Hitchens
The Enclave by Anne Charnock
the wicked + the divine volume 1
the wicked + the divine volume 2
the wicked + the divine volume 3
Writers at work seventh series
The art of fiction, Gardner
Norse mythology
Rhetoric of fiction
beowulf
the scheme for full employment
dark mountain volume 1

May -

I play the drums in a band called okay
Brick moon
six memos for the next millenium
the weird and the eerie
the short story a critical introduction
How music works
It must have been dark by then
The wayward bus
Dark Mountain Volume 2
The parts we play
the art of fiction
the art of fiction, David Lodge
Daybook the journey of an artist
The ode less travelled
uncivilisation
Through splintered walls
city of miracles
children of time
the cone gatherers
the three, lotz
the boy on the bridge
Dark Mountain volume 3
Seven brief lessons on physics
Reel Terror
Poetic Diction a study in meaning
Quesadillas
Mooncop
Livestock by Hannah Berry
If you steal
Rick and Morty vol 1
Judgment on Gotham
Strange weather lately vol 1

June -

MFA in a box
October: Russian revolution
The Modern Orpheus by MJ Duggan
Understanding novels
The craft of verse
austerlitz
pastoralia
writing great fiction
Gemsigns
The poisoner's handbook
the awkward squad
Needlepoint by Hazel Hammond

July -

The drowned world
Borne
Bodies of water
Jacob's Ladder
successful author's mindset
She sat, he stood
Consider the Lobster
Amatka
hammers on bones
the writing of fiction
the collected essays of Virginia Wolf
every heart a doorway
the grieving stones
Story structure
sin and syntax
Stiff
Three moments of an explosion
what is history?
Hard Boiled wonderland

August -

Past Mortems
The last days of Jack Sparks
Pseudotooth
Boundaries and other stories of horror by Finnish authors
The ritual
Smoke gets in your eyes
Teeth of a lock
Dark Mountain volume 5

September -

Kingdom Cons
Vex, Hex, Smash, Smooch
The undertaking
A way with words iv
Predgarians
Before you write your novel
Clear and simple as the truth
Art of description
Wonderbook
The three body problem
The productivity bundle
The Burial by Courtney Collins
writers market 2018

October -

the authentic william james
writing novels & short stories
Writing past dark
Dark Mountain 7
A curtain of green
Rosemary's baby
The road through the wall
Creating characters
Gnomon
The art of creative thinking
A Small Killing
writing fiction - guide to narrative craft
writers at work 1
Teach yourself writing poetry
Horrorstor

November -

47 mind hacks
Sheltering Desert
Skeleton Coast
Dylan Thomas Omnibus
A thousand coloured castles
The ministry of Nostalgia
The comforters
songs of a dead dreamer
The paper cell
How to build a universe

December -

Carthago
I am Legend
Robinson
Phantoms on the bookshelves
First thought best thought
the ghost stories of charles dickens volume one
the last draft
NOS4R2
A Place in the country
white ravens
atlas of cursed places

Sounds good to me, Pete! Looking forward to seeing what you read.

Great plan! Looking forward to your reviews.

Great to see you, Pete! :)

This past year I gave up and started recording my reading at the end of the month with brief comments, including my favorite reads. When life gets too busy, we have to simplify. Reading is for our enjoyment. I hope you have some time for enjoyable reading.

Thanks folks - looking forward to this discoverability challenge - recommendations are welcome too :-)

Your simplicity approach is great, and I'm looking forward to your woman writer reviews. :)

Happy to see you back for another year and looking forward to reading your monthly review.

A lot of simplifying going around this year.

Enjoy your reading!

I'm glad that you'll have a presence here. It will be interesting to see what new female authors you find. Good luck on all your endeavors in 2017!

Hi Pete!

Wishing you a wonderful year and great reading to go with it.

Hello & thanks for the messages - I'm going to wait to see what I get for Xmas & Birthday to choose my first read of the year...

Lucky you Xmas and birthday close to each other! I have cousins believe it or not with birthdays December 27, 29 and January 3rd all siblings. One loved it the other two not so much!

Books I got for Christmas (so far, only see one half of the family up to now) -

the book of universes by John Barrow
Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson
Collected stories: Flannery O'Connor by Flannery O'Connor

So I'll be starting the year with Flannery O'Connor - but I'll be reading a few stories in between other books. I've nver read O'Connor before, so she counts towards the "female author new to me" theme (but see below)

I have 32 short story collections on my TBR so this year I aim on reading 3 short stories between each novel I read (if I read 90 novels like in 2016 that'll be 270 stories which must be a few short story books! - the thickest of those books (the collected Roald Dahl) has 52 stories)

I have around 40-50 books by women on my TBR, most of them are by new to me authors, so hopefully I'll be able to kill two birds with one stone... But the point of doing a review for discoverability is to turn people onto living authors - so I'll also be applying that criteria

I also have around 50 novella length (less than 150 pages) books that I'm going to try and get off my TBR too

Sp this year may be dominated by the short form...

My own writing wise - I'm revising "Seven Deadly Swords" which is a novel I signed a contract for in September and short stories, I'll probably attempt a novella too ;-)

More to be added above once I see the rest of the family & add my birthday books (3rd Jan) - having birthday & Christmas so close isn't great tbh - for many years I got "this is your joint Christmas and birthday present" )grew up poor) and 3rd Jan sucks if you want people to celebrate, no-one is ready to go out and party so close to Christmas & New Year!

First book of the year is Demon haunted world by Carl Sagan. Obviously not a fit for the discoverability challenge... but it was a birthday present and something I've wanted to read for a looong time :-)

I'll update the book haul later when I have all of them in front of me

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year!

Other books for Xmas& bday

collected cheever
How to read a novelist
the open curtain
alien skies
understanding fiction warren
oroonoko
Crawlspace
so the wind won't blow it all away
the notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge

Came across this on the interwebs - http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/chained-libraries-of-the-world

How is spill, simmer, falter, wither going? I received that as a Christmas gift.

I like your plan to read 3 short stories in between the novels you read; I have tons of anthologies on my TBR and while I'm focusing on series this year, I may try to insert some short story reading in between.

>35 LisaMorr: I really enjoyed spill, simmer, falter, wither and will be doing a review soon.

So far I'm managing to read shorts and articles between books - I'm reading fact and fiction and the complete stories of Flannery O'Connor and they are progressing incrementally...

The first book that qualifies, and is therefore my January Discoverability read is Spill, Simmer, Falter, Wither by Sara Baume.

The book is told as an ongoing 'conversation' between a man and his dog, One eye.

You find me on a Tuesday, on my Tuesday trip to town. A note sellotaped to the inside of the jumble-shop window: COMPASSIONATE & TOLERANT OWNER. A PERSON WITHOUT OTHER PETS & WITHOUT CHILDREN UNDER FOUR.

The book explores the friendship of man and beast, with both being outcasts and misfits. It is often lyrical and beautifully developed. It is literary but not self-consciously though, I've read reviews that say it is plotless, which is a little unfair. There is a sense of forlorn loneliness that runs through the novel and it could have been maudlin if mishandled. But Baume has a deft touch and it is therefore touchingly melancholy. But it is still a pleasurable read as Baume's imagery and poetic prose is a delight.

Initially, I wasn't sure if I'd get on with the style but I soon settled into Baume's rhythm and couldn't wait to get back to the book on the few occasions I had to put it down.

I'd highly recommend this book

>37 psutto: Thanks for the review Pete. I look at this book every time I go to a book store and leave, undecided about buying it. It's definitely going on the buying list now.

>38 VioletBramble: I'll be buying her second book as soon as it's out in March :-)

To celebrate my book making it to the preliminary ballot for the Bram Stoker award it's currently on a price promotion and costs pennies! (on amazon.com & .co.uk)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tiding-Magpies-Peter-Sutton-ebook/dp/B01FOPDY5S/ref=sr_...

>40 psutto: Congratulations!!

>40 psutto: Congratulations Pete!
I just downloaded the book. On a scale of 1-10 how scary is it? Just asking because I need to schedule really scary reads at times when it does't matter if I get any sleep.

I'm looking forward to reading this, Pete.

>40 psutto: How exciting -- congratulations!

>40 psutto: 'grats Pete!

Thanks all

>42 VioletBramble: - I try for unsettling rather than scary, and I initially resisted being classed as horror ;-)

>46 psutto: Thanks Pete.

Into the Mist by Lee Murray

I picked this up as it was on the Stoker preliminary ballot and I'm not disappointed. Reading like a mix of Congo, Predator and Valley of the Gawnji set in New Zealand, Murray provides a white-knuckle ride from page one. Throw in a hefty mix of Maori mysticism and you have a unique monster tale.

A geological survey team with a military escort is sent into Te Urewera, an area of mostly forested, sparsely populated, rugged hill country in the North Island of New Zealand . The escort is there to investigate some disappearances, including a previous military expedition.

Murray excels at action and the novel has many thrilling page-turning moments. There is a large cast of characters and mostly I was able to keep them straight but occasionally the fast pace made me think 'who was that again?' The landscape is evocatively crafted, although, having been to NZ perhaps my memory provided some of the backgrounds. The mists visibly swirled throughout the pages and the unique New Zealand fauna breathed in the margins.

I would definitely read another of Murray's books and this one gets a recommendation from me, If you like monster movies or military SF you should check it out.

>40 psutto: Into the Mist sounds good and the New Zealand setting & mythology adds to the interest for me. Ading to the wishlist and thanks for the review.

Think you have the wrong touchstone for the book though ;)

You got me, too, with the New Zealand setting.

Yup touchstone was wrong - which is weird as I had to do the whole search for more and choose Murray's book...

Yeah the NZ setting really does elevate it

>48 psutto: Into the Mist sounds like a good one to add to Mount TBR.

>37 psutto: - Great review of the Baume book.

>40 psutto: - Congratulations! How exciting!

I’ve read a triptych of books in the past week that all throw light on our particular situation.

The first was Suffragette: My Own Story by Emmeline Pankhurst

The second was It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis

And the third is Kingdom Come by J G Ballard

Suffragette was an eye-opener. Of course we all know the basic details, women agitated, sometimes violently, for the vote. However this book fills in a lot of detail, and the political thinking behind the struggle.

In this day where we have proto-fascists in the White House and the MRA, some of whom advocate that women should remain at home, it is odd to see that we have both progressed and that some things remain the same.

This book should be required reading by those who want to #Resist. History has treated Pankhurst with some equivocation. The received wisdom is that her violent protest – the window smashing campaign, the mailbox burnings etc. set the women’s movement back. However it is difficult to credit that view when reading this book. The government of the day forever put off the question, giving it a very low priority whilst women were just asking nicely.

This shows that petitions (in fact the right to petition in person was lost to us because the government of the day changed the rules specifically to thwart the suffragettes) and gentle protest and even rallies can be easily ignored.(cf the march against the war in Iraq)

The absolute vehemence that the men in power showed in resisting progress is enlightening. As is the duality of how they treated male suffrage and home rule movements against how they treated the women’s movement. The Cat and Mouse act was particularly cruel. Women, let out of prison on medical grounds due to hunger strikes were re-arrested as soon as they were fit again, and so the cycle continued.

As I said, it was an eye-opening read and one I thoroughly recommend.

Next and more immediately prophetic was Sinclair Lewis’s It Can’t Happen Here which is an alternative history book about how fascists took over 1930’s USA (published in 1935).

“… they’ve realised that this country has gone so flabby that any gang daring enough and unscrupulous enough, and smart enough not to seem illegal, can grab hold of the entire government and have all of the power and applause and salutes, all the money and palaces and willing women they want”

Buzz Windrip runs for president on a “Make America great again” platform and wins. It is a mostly racist campaign against both people of colour and jews. He institutes a private army, called the Minute Men, and redivides the USA according to corporate rules. There is talk of war with Mexico.

This does have some similarities with today’s situation especially in the form of Buzz:

“… could not explain his power of bewitching large audiences… was vulgar, almost illiterate, a public liar easily detected, and in his ‘ideas’ almost idiotic… Certainly, there was nothing exhilarating in the actual words of his speeches…”

It spends much more time concentrating on the little man, the hero of the piece a mild-mannered newspaper editor, than on the movers and shakers of the fascist state.

It doesn’t feel very dated, although Lewis’s style is to tell the reader through narrative summary virtually everything, using immediate scene sparsely. This makes for quite a dry read full of distance. The world of the book also felt very small with no great sense of the States as a nation.Although some of the horror is muted because of the aforementioned distance, it is still there, there is still the sense, when reading, of ‘what would I do?’

From Wikipedia:

Keith Perry argues that the key weakness of the novel is not that he decks out American politicians with sinister European touches, but that he finally conceives of fascism and totalitarianism in terms of traditional American political models rather than seeing them as introducing a new kind of society and a new kind of regime.Windrip is less a Nazi than a con-man-plus-Rotarian, a manipulator who knows how to appeal to people’s desperation, but neither he nor his followers are in the grip of the kind of world-transforming ideology like Hitler’s National Socialist.

If it wasn’t for Bannon I think this could apply to Drumpf & his regime…

The last book in the triptych is Ballard’s last book – Kingdom Come and that’s the one that seems the most prescient and the most descriptive of where we are now in Britain, but also predicts a Consumerist authoritarian fuhrer – a la Drumpf. And its message is that Consumerism can lead to Fascism:

“The danger is that consumerism will need something close to fascism to keep growing.”

Ballard posited that consumerism was the great cause of our age and that it leads to a spiritual boredom, a desire to break free with social pathology. A collective and willing madness that desires a bloodletting:

“People still think that the Nazi leaders led the German people into the horrors of race war. Not true. The German people were desperate to break out of their prison… and they chose Hitler to lead the hunting party… They needed a psychopath god to worship… ”

Ballard paints a bleak picture of England (the book was published in 2006) – riddled with apathy and ennui and a longing for belonging that is not being fulfilled. A land where ugly nationalism is beginning to rear its head, where in a motorway town in Surrey the men wrapped in St George’s cross rule and ethnic minorities cower in fear. Towns, where the only commonality to bind people is consumerism:

“You have to think of England as a whole… The churches are empty, and the monarchy has shipwrecked itself on its own vanity. Politics is a racket, and democracy is just another utility, like gas and electricity. Almost no-one has any civic feeling. Consumerism is the one thing that gives us our sense of value.”

“We have to keep buying or we fail as citizens. Consumerism creates huge unconscious needs that only fascism can satisfy. If anything, fascism is the form that consumerism takes when it opts for elective madness…

‘And the fuhrer figure?’

‘He hasn’t arrived yet. He’ll appear, though, walking out of some shopping mall or retail park… Everyone will be waiting for him, and he’ll seize his chance.”

This is eerily prescient I think. Ballard spotted that the zombie horde (cf Dawn of the Dead) are merely the foot troops of a new fascism. That our collective ennui seeks an outlet and that elective madness is our escape valve. (cf Mackay’s Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds). And he spotted that we were ripe for another bout of madness. His bleak vision noted that liberalism was dying and that the population was colluding in its own delusion.

The elective madness is “… primate behaviour at its most extreme. Witch-hunts, auto-da-fés, heretic burnings, the hot poker shoved up the enemy’s rear, gibbets along the skyline. Willed madness can infect a housing estate or a whole nation.”

I choose to view Brexit through this lens. A willed madness – all the signs point to our divorce from the EU being a massively self-harming gesture and yet it is ‘The will of the people’ and those that say otherwise are the new heretics.

“Consumerism is optimistic and forward-looking. Naturally, it asks us to accept the will of the majority. It’s driven by emotion…”

It is the ennui of consumerism, the failure of globalism, that have led us here. Progressive policies that have engendered equality are being pointed to with fingers of blame. To many, loss of privilege feels like oppression. In the USA this has led to a whitelash, here in the UK there is s strand of this, but our most vitriolic demagogues rail against the East Europeans as much as against the Islamists.

“We have to prepare our kids for a new kind of society… The old ideas of citizenship… are really rather selfish…What’s the use of free speech if you have nothing to say? What’s the point of privacy if it’s just a personalised prison? Consumerism is a collective enterprise… it celebrates coming together. Shared dreams and values, shared hopes and pleasures.

‘So Liberalism, liberty, reason?’

‘They failed. People don’t want to be appealed to by reason any more… liberalism and humanism are a huge brake on society. They trade on guilt and fear. Societies are happier when people spend not save. People long for authority…”

It’s a deeply cynical vision but one that feels realistic. There is an emptiness at the heart of our society and deep down we all know it.

“The human race sleepwalked to oblivion, thinking only of the corporate logos on its shroud.”

>54 psutto: Really interesting comments; thanks for sharing. I just picked up It Can't Happen Here when I was in the UK over the last couple of weeks - it was on the front counter of the Waterstones I was in. I'll be getting to it sooner rather than later.

I finished The view from the cheap seats I've done a blog about it, it's not really a review but if you're interested it's over here: https://petewsutton.com/category/general/

Have had a terrible cold, worst sore throat I've ever had, coughing up phlegm, dizzy spells the works so have been laid up last couple of weeks - I have been reading though

I picked up love and romanpunk and thief of lives at a convention the year before last and have just got round to reading them. I really like the Twelve Planets format - 4 short pieces on a theme by a female writer and enjoyed these. Although Love and Romanpunk was much better than Thief of Lives (IMO) - possibly because Sussex set a story in my home city of Bristol (she's a writer from New Zealand) and took some liberties which kept jarring me out of the story - even though I was telling myself it was an alternative Bristol...

I also read the amazing Arrival of Missives this is a beautiful novella that I'm seeing on award shortlists this year. I thoroughly recommend this book - a love story between a student and a teacher who returns from the great war as "less than a man" - it's beautifully written and has a good streak of the weird running through it. I'm expecting Whitely to be a big star, this is from a tiny press but I think she'll break into the genre mainstream at some point.

I finished Chatwin's What am I doing here? which I think is for die hard fans only and the complete Flannery O'Connor and she is as good a short story writer as people say she is - I'd only read a couple of them before and it was interesting to see the progress, the returning to certain themes, the characters and the voice develop over time.

I read the two bear mambo at the height of my illness, Lansdale is a comfort read and always enjoyable

And I read the memoirist by Neil Williamson. I've read most things Neil has written since reading his novel the moon king (which is fantastic) and this didn't disappoint - it poses the question - what if no-one could keep a secret? Near future SF at its best...

I'm now in the middle of Carter & Lovecraft by Jonathan L Howard who writes the Johannes Cabal books. The MC isn't as engaging as Cabal but the plot is great and is full of nods to Lovecraft's work and I'm really enjoying it.

>57 psutto: Oh no! I hope you are on the mend and on your way to feeling better!

Get well soon Pete!

Feel better soon, Pete. I have the first two Hap and Leonard series by Joe Lansdale on my shelves and hope to get to the first one soon!

Thanks folks - I'm definitely on the mend now :-)

Glad to see that you are on the mend from that nasty cold/sore throat.

I finished Carter & Lovecraft which wasn't as good as the Cabal books but still very readable & obviously setting up for a new series

I also read Last days of New Paris by China Mieville - which is an interesting alternative history novella where surrealist art comes alive in WW2 Paris, not his best book by any stretch but an OK book by Mielville is still worth reading

and Delusions of Gender which was OK - it had lots of fascinating information in it but I kind of lost interest before the end as it was more a tearing down of others' theories rather than setting its own theory - still it's worth reading if you're interested in the latest theories on biological neurological gender differences

just in under the wire for February is Two old women by Velma Willis - a novella about indigenous Alaskan people. This is a very quick read and concentrates on the decision to leave old people behind by hunter gatherers once they are a burden. I really enjoyed it

>64 psutto: Hi Pete, yours is the second favorable comment I've read about Two Old Women and I am adding it my wishlist.

Finished reading of worlds beyond which is a "symposium" of writing advice by some of the giants in the field - Edward E. Smith, PhD, John W. Campbell, Jr., L. Sprague de Camp, Robert A. Heinlein, Jack Williamson, A.E. van Vogt
& John Taine - it includes Heinlein's rather famous 5 rules of writing:

You must write.
You must finish what you start.
You must refrain from rewriting except to editorial order.
You must put it on the market.
You must keep it on the market until sold.

of which he says - The above five rules really have more to do with how to write speculative fiction than anything said above them. But they are amazingly hard to follow – which is why there are so few professional writers and so many aspirants, and which is why I am not afraid to give away the racket!…

These rules have been repeated by many luminaries and it was nice to track down the original article. There was also a ton of good advice in here from the other authors included and it's a neat little book if you want to be a writer...

>63 psutto:
I am so behind on my Miéville reading! I had high hopes for Last days of New Paris, but I'll adjust my expectations. :)

>67 -Eva-: - I just didn't know enough about the Surrealist movement I think - I also guess that you should have Google open whilst reading, consult Mieville's notes in the back and study the paintings/poems etc he references to get the full worth out of it...

>68 psutto:
Great tip, thank you!

My name is Mary Sutherland

The narrator of this tale is a young girl, the eponymous Mary Sutherland, who lived in Aigburth and who had family in Birkenhead. I grew up in Birkenhead so her voice was immediately recognisable.

The book starts with a TV crew coming to interview Mary who is in an institution. Mary then tells the story in her own words of how she ended up in the institution, the trouble started when her mother got sick.

Farrell is great at creating suspense and you know that it doesn't end well, but you don't know exactly why until right the last moment. It was an effective little plot tightly told in 170 odd pages.

I didn't think the framing device (of the TV interview) was needed personally and there was an occasional lapse in voice but overall this is a well-written book.

Recommended

Finished Pretty Monsters Kelly Link is a pretty good short story writer, conjuring up a world in a short space, but in this collection she has placed three stories (out of 9) that were in her previous collections (which I've read) and some of the stories are over 60 pages long so novelletes really, and I found that they read like short novels that hadn't made the cut - that being said a bad shor (no matter how long it is) from Link is better than an OK short from many other writers - however I'd recommend Stranger things happen instead

I also abandoned novelists on the novel which was a turgid mess, basically snipping short passages from several authors on writing out of context and long "worthy" discussions on literature - really dry as dust and enough to put off anyone - those that think litcrit is dull would be vindicated here

and Becoming a writer a classic of its type from the 1930's by an author of a best-selling self-help book. This one was rather good (although a bit dated with advice on typewriters natch) but good advice on the writing habit - before sitting down to try and write something to sell...

Catacombs of Terror by Stanley Donwood

Valpolicella is a PI in Bath and he is told that he's going to be arrested for murder in a few days and the only way to circumvent this looming fate is to investigate the company that runs the CCTV, who are also doing an archaeological dig just outside of town.

The tagline reads - "Guns! Drugs!! Pigs!!!"

There's an amusing "How this book got published" story - created for the fundraiser that funded the book - about writing the book for a cider-fuelled bet with a publisher, the rise of Amazon, rare book dealers and other insalubrious dealings...

The book itself romps along running on whiskey, cigarettes and lines of coke with an amiable narrator and enough of a plot to leave you guessing. There's a rather abrupt end but on the whole it's a very enjoyable read.

It's worth mentioning that the cover is fantastic, the paper edges are red and overall it's a very handsome book to have on your shelf.

Recommended.

>72 psutto: That does sound entertaining!

I read Light of the fireflies which was an interesting novel but one ultimately that failed in verisimilitude I think - an interesting experiment though

I've read some more books for March:

The girls of slender means by Muriel Spark was OK, very slim book so a fast read & insight into a post WW2 world

The storytelling animal by Jonathan Gottschell - interesting pop psychology over the human need for storytelling

Understanding Fiction bY Cleanth Brooks & Robert Penn Warren - this is like a how to write a short story course in a book, lots of interesting stories with detailed criticism - the only issue was that it was a bit dated

the soul of an octopus by Sy Montgomery - everything you've wanted to know about Octopuses - Montgomery is a bit 'breathless' sometimes (I imagine her as the kind of person who squees) but it's an engaging book

the book thief by Marcus Zusak - I can see what the fuss was about. Zusak is a master storyteller and this is a great book, my second 5 star read of the year (first being arrival of missives)

on writing well by William Zinsser - classic writing advice book, well-written and entertaining but the middle section on how to write specific things (like newspaper articles) was less useful (to me) than the generic sections - still worth a read if you're a writer

>72 psutto: The company that runs the CCTV is also in charge of an archeological dig. That's some diversity in one company. Where do the pigs come in?

>75 psutto: The Book Thief is a wonderful book. One of my favorites. I should plan a re-read.

>76 VioletBramble: - the pigs are underground, descended from plague pigs - it all ties up with the mythological genesis of the city of Bath ;-)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bladud

>75 psutto: Yay for the The Book Thief. I loved it too.

Falling behind on reviews when I'm only committing to 1 review a month! Need to review The Enclave which is a short novella (66 pages) by Anne Charnock

Also read Norse mythology in two bites - Gaiman's easy English version of the sagas of the Norse god's was a very easy read.

Just two of the 16 books I've read this month so far...

Thirty Years of Rain - Edited by Elaine Gallagher, Cameron Johnston & Neil Williamson

Published by Taverna Press (20 Sept. 2016)

This is a collection of stories and poetry from members of the Glasgow science fiction writers group. When the North Bristol writers group created its first anthology North by Southwest one criticism, that we attempted to turn into a strength, was that the book was incredibly eclectic (we had a very loose theme of 'North'). Although Thirty Years of Rain has a similar issue, with only 'science fiction' to bind them, it does make eclectism work.

There are some familiar names in here, and some I'm less familiar with but the level of quality in the stories was consistently high. There's around 30 stories in the book across the range of SF so there is something in here for every type of SF fan I think.

Standouts for me were: TJ Berg's tale of grief The Freedom of Above, which was a very human story but still managed to have a big SF idea at its heart; Headkiller by Michael Cobley which was a PKD style story of future assassins; The Marquis of Alcatraz by Richard Mosses which revolved around an unknown Dumas novel; The Lodger by Brian M Milton an epistolic tale about alien refugees and in contrast to that one Neil Williamson's affecting tale of refugees from a broken Earth - Foreign Bodies. There were very few stories that didn't hit the spot, and no duds at all. - that is unusual in a collection. Recommended.

Chalk by Paul Cornell

After a gentle introduction to the mystical English setting of Wiltshire with its chalk hill figures Cornell then hits you with an astonishing incident of bullying that is breathtakingly brutal. I admit that I didn't think the novel could sustain itself after the opening; I didn't see how the stakes would be increased. However any scepticism was soon dispelled as the supernatural element of the plot kicked in.

You get some typical Cornellisms - the TV program Doctor Who plays a part, there is a psychogeographical overlay of mystical history over the landscape and there are characters that, like us at first, don't understand the supernatural forces that buffet them.

There are some excellent ideas in here, like scrying using number ones and the overall concept of the story (which I won't give away) and there was an extra frission for myself as it's set in the early 80's with a protagonist roughly the age I was at the time. But this is no nostalgia trip. If anything it is anti-nostalgic, a reminder of the darker parts of growing up, the lack of control you have, the intense peer pressures, status battles. This is the best of Cornell's work I've read so far.

The Enclave by Anne Charnock

Other reviewers like this book because it allows them to live a little longer in the world of her novel A Calculated Life. However I've not read the novel, but after reading this novella I would like to. It seems like a well-drawn world and Charnock writes with both grace and heart. This novella is the story of a young climate change refugee, Caleb, who has been sold into indentured servitude to Ma Lexie in The Enclave of the title. Ma Lexie's crew recycles trash into sellable goods. Caleb demonstrates aptitude and skill in sewing clothes and allowing Ma Lexie to make money in the market. He also has a remote friendship with another such as himself in a neighbouring Enclave who he communicates with by putting messages in a bottle which he tosses over the gap between buildings.

This is an interesting, character driven, social and political science fiction. I will be checking out A Calculated Life based on my enjoyment of this novella.

This is one of four novellas from Newcon Press that are collected in a beautiful box set.

Entropic Angel and other stories by Gareth L Powell

NewCon Press (24 April 2017)

I've been lucky enough to hear Powell read some of these stories at various events but it's nice to sit down and read them through. It's also nice to get a bit of explanation at the end of the stories as the author relates what inspired the story.

Powell won the BSFA for his his novel Ack-Ack Macaque in 2013 and at least one of the stories in this collection was also nominated for the award. So you know you are getting some good writing.

Standouts were The Last Reef, a tale of AI evolution, Gonzo Laptop a story written in response to Hunter S Thompson's death, Hot Rats a flash fiction about travelling in time and Memory Dust which had more than a hint of Lovecraft to it. But I enjoyed the whole collection, these are just the ones that I enjoyed especially. The majority of these stories have made the grade and been published in magazines. This is a nice collection and it's interesting to see Powell's inspirations and influences - Gonzo, the beats, some Banks perhaps.

Overall - a very enjoyable collection. Recommended.

>80 psutto: Glad to hear you think Paul Cornell's books are getting better. I've still got to get to most of them having only read London Falling so far.

Just started Robert Jackson Bennet's city of miracles and so far it's just as good as the first two and I find that although I only read a bit last night before bed and this morning over breakfast I've read a 1/4 of the book! This is such a great series!

I've also read a few craft books this month, How music works which wasn't what I expected, a lot more of Byrne in it than I thought, I expected him to relate musical theory with his own music but it often reads more like an autobiography than about music per se

Toby Litt's I play the drums in a band called okay was both entertaining and moving and well worth checking out and I also read a Victorian science romance Brick moon which was all kinds of odd and quirky

May seems to have added quite a few books to the read pile so far and I'm travelling with work next week so have lots of train and plane time to read so hope to advance even more too.

Two other books I'd recommend from this month's reading are The wayward bus by Steinbeck, that man can just write - it's a strange little story but a compelling read - and the parts we play by Stephen Volk who I only knew as a scriptwriter (I became a little obsessed by Ghostwatch in my 20's - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghostwatch ) but picked up this collection at Eastercon & glad to say it's very good!

Read the 3rd Divine Cities book by Robert Jackson Bennett City of miracles which was just as good as the first two - really impressed with this series

Now starting last year's Clarke winner Children of Time

About to travel with work (hence choosing a chunkster - it's 600 pages long)

Finished several books on the work trip, including the category challenge one for this month The three, Lotz (review soon)

Just finished The boy on the bridge by MR Carey which is a prequel? of The girl with all the gifts - not quite as brilliant, but well worth revisiting the world

Livestock, by Hannah Berry marks my 100th book read so far this year! Which is the most I've read at this point in the year since 2013 - 2014, 15 & 16 were spent writing - seems that the major rewrite of my latest novel (coming soon from Kristell Ink) has left me more time to read - but I'm currently planning out a novella and the next novel and the edit of Seven Deadly Swords (my next novel) is coming end of June - so I expect the 2nd half of the year will be slower on the reading front.

>84 psutto: The Boy on the Bridge probably has too much to live up to in comparison to TGWATG but good to hear it's still worth the read.

>85 psutto: Ooh good! A new Hannah Berry for me to look forward to.

>86 AHS-Wolfy: The Boy on the Bridge is a good book, but does feel a little like a reprise of Gifts

We went to Hannah's launch, the book is good, sadly she announced it'll be her last Graphic Novel http://mailchi.mp/99066643a504/ink-issue-10-hannah-berrys-last-graphic-novel-eis...

I am 6 books away from 1000 in my library on here...

>88 psutto: Nice! :)

>88 psutto: So close to such a milestone! Congrats! The real question is -- which is your favorite of the 996?

>90 pammab: - Oh I couldn't choose just one!

>88 psutto: Nice!

Hi Pete, I just wanted you to know that I have just read and reviewed your book, A Tiding of Magpies. I had to come and thank you for such a fun read. You have a strange way of looking at things and I, for one, love your unique view. I thoroughly enjoyed the stories!

>93 DeltaQueen50: - That's so kind of you & it means a lot! I'm working on another novel - awaiting the second edit back off the publisher & hoping that will come late this year/early next year but don't have a date yet - I've also just signed a new two book deal with the horror publisher to do another short story collection and another novel so I'm just starting to get there - all small press stuff, but that fits me fine so far.

Glad you enjoyed the book!

>94 psutto: Good to hear that things are progressing for you Pete and congrats on the new book deal.

>95 AHS-Wolfy: Thanks!

I've just had some great news - my short story collection has just been shortlisted for the British Fantasy Awards!!

>96 psutto: Congratulations!!!

Congratulations on both the new two book deal and for being shortlisted for the British Fantasy Awards! Double WOOT!

Thanks! I'm a little stunned to be honest - it's the first book and it's nominated for a major industry award!

>96 psutto: That's amazing! Congratulations!

>99 psutto: That's even better news! Many congratulations on the nomination as well as the new book deal!

Excellent news about being shortlisted for the British Fantasy Awards. :) So happy for you that things are really starting to happen.

Thanks all!

I forgot to do a mid-year update so it's a slightly more than mid-year update ;-)

I've read 130 books so far this year - which is more than I read in total 2014, 15 & 16 but less than I'd read by this point in 2013 - which is my previous high water mark.

27% are by women which is better than last year but a bit surprisingly low as I'm consciously reading more books by women!

Congratulations about the British Fantasy Awards! Wonderful news!

Congratulations on making the shortlist! So exciting.

I'm trying to catch up with threads, and I'm seeing only great news here. Congrats on the book deal and the award nomination!

Thanks all! - it's all a bit surreal, definite imposter syndrome!

Just back from 9 Worlds and Worldcon - didn't get much of a book haul except for The last days of Jack Sparks a great modern horror, film rights picked up with Ron Howard to direct - really enjoyed this one.

I also picked up Pseudotooth which is a weird one - really interesting, mixed William Blake with Le Corbusier and a dysfunctional family. Strong tasting fiction.

That's all so exciting--congratulations!!!

Somehow this month I've slowed right down - apart from the books I read on planes and trains and lying by the lake in Finland I don't seem to have read much - how odd...

I'm currently half way through The Ritual by Adam Nevill who's a guest at our local HorrorCon in October. It's about to come out as a film too - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5638642/

I really must get round to reviewing the challenge books!

I was in Brighton last weekend and picked up a curious little book called Teeth of a Lock -it came wrapped in a ribbon with several prints, beautifully made - http://www.klara.co.uk/blog/tag/teeth-of-a-lock-and-the-art-of-losing/ -I'm guessing she is local to Brighton. I do like picking up these ephemeral books that don't get wide distribution

I also read The Ritual after several recommendations. It's going to be a film (opening on Friday 13th October) and I think it'll make a great film (if scary films are your thing)

Adding my congrats a little late; I picked your book up a little while ago - this is a very good reason to move it to the top of the pile!

>112 LisaMorr: - Thanks!

I tried to read The three body problem which won awards and plaudits but I found incredibly choppy and dry, don't know if it was the translation or not but I just didn't care about anyone, or the plot...

I found The Three-Body Problem hard to read as well but thought it might have been the ebook formatting. My library's ebook app doesn't handle footnotes/endnotes very well, and the translator's notes seemed too important to ignore, but it was annoying having to flip back and forth (and sometimes the footnote/endnote links didn't work).

Hmm almost into October. October is my busiest month so I usually take a holiday in November and this year is no different -once November vacation is out of the way it's December and Christmas and the end of the year :-o

As it seems I have no time to do reviews I'm pondering next year's challenge group. I find tracking my reading very useful but am not sure how to "challenge" it next year...

Appointment in Arezzo

“This book is an intimate, fond and funny memoir of one of the greatest novelists of the last century.”

Alan Taylor has written a very personal and compelling biography of his friend, the novelist, Muriel Spark. Spark wrote 22 novels which will be coming out from Polygon next year in handsome hardback editions to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Spark’s birth. Best known for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Spark also wrote short stories, plays, reviews, essays and biographies.

“The Muriel Spark 100 programme will celebrate the life and literary achievements of one of Scotland’s finest and most internationally respected writers across the year, through a series of events, including talks, exhibitions, readings, publications and screenings.”

In advance of the reprints and the 100 years program Alan Taylor’s biography is published in November 2017. I received an advanced copy in return for a review.

Taylor first met the author in 1990 in Tuscany when he interviewed her. They hit it off and Taylor subsequently house sat for her as well as accompanied her on some of her foreign trips. He came to know her well and this is an intimate portrait.

Written in a very companionable style the book creates a colourful picture of Spark. A passionate and fiercely intelligent woman and one of our greatest writers. Taylor includes the contentious stuff – her attitude to her Jewish roots, her failed marraige, her estrangement from her son and her self-exile from Scotland. But the threads of her life are woven into a tale of warmth that shows the great affection Taylor had for her.

It does what a biography should – it brings to life the subject and makes you know them better. Spark comes across as someone you’d like to invite to a dinner party. I’ve read several of Spark’s books and she’s one of those authors you look out for in second hand shops, so a new set of hardbacks is very welcome.

If you are a fan of Muriel Spark then this is a must have biography. If you are just generally interested in writers lives it is also well worth your time. Recommended.

>117 psutto: Thumbs up for a great review!

Thanks!

>114 psutto: >115 rabbitprincess: It was a bit of a challenge to get through The Three-Body Problem but I managed and was glad I did. However, I abandoned the sequel, The Dark Forest, after 40 pages or so. I may try again later on.

I'm currently reading Gnomon by Nick Harkaway - I'm a big fan of Harkaway and I' enjoying it when I'm reading it but finding excuses not to pick it up. It's a beast at almost 700 pages, which may be something to do with it, or it may be because there are lots of tangents...

Which is a shame as I have a bunch o Halloween-type reads -which may just bleed over to November now!

I was at Bristol HorrorCon yesterday and was very good, I only bought Some will not sleep which won the BFA in the short story collection category (which meant I didn't win -still, an honour to be nominated)

October is a whirl of events for me - I help organise Bristol HorrorCon, BristolCon (SF&F Con) and Bristol Festival of Literature. But I've still managed to read a few books. I gave up on Gnomon - it just wasn't doing it for me, a real shame as I've liked his other books. I've just finished Horrorstor which was a great read and I'm mid-way through Songs a dead dreamer

>122 psutto: Sad to hear the latest Harkaway didn't live up to previous heights for you.

>123 AHS-Wolfy: - I've seen others rave about it so I probably wasn't in the right mood - it's a rambling sprawl of a novel and that's a hard sell for me rightr now

I haven't been by since June. You've been busy! Congratulations on all your exciting news!

>125 mamzel: - Thanks!

I've just returned from Namibia- what a great country to visit. I read a couple of Namibian books - the sheltering desert and Skeleton Coast

>126 psutto: Wow, what an interesting vacation spot, so different from your everyday life. I bet you had a great time.

>127 DeltaQueen50: - brilliant holiday yeah :-)

How do you organise your library? I personally have each shelf unit in alphabeical order and group books as fiction or non-fiction - and in NF I have various shelves dedicated to carious subjects - like I have a pop science shelf, a travel shelf, a history shelf etc...

http://lithub.com/how-11-writers-organize-their-personal-libraries/

>129 psutto: I like this question! I don't really have enough shelves for all my books, so I've had to sort by size -- mass market paperbacks on top, trade paperbacks and hardcovers below. After that division, I arrange them alphabetically by author and don't split them further into genres. But I'm thinking of doing a massive reorganization and grouping books based on whether I've read them or not. I'd like to have a separate "TBR shelf" so that, when I'm thinking about what to read next, I'll be able to go directly to that shelf (or, you know, bookcase).

I organize roughly by genre and then by size (and overflow gets crammed in any old where). Non-fiction usually ends up being on the bottom shelf of a bookcase because those books often end up being hardcovers or oversized.

Obviously I am author-orientated as my books are shelved in alphbetic order. If I tried any other system I would be hopelessly lost.

I have a seperate TBR bookshelf which is double stacked!

>129 psutto: - Good question! Like Christina, I sort by size first and then by author last name, followed by series order. That being said, I am in the process of reading through my print books and at some point will just have e-books, which are currently sorted on my devices by date added.

I shall probably be winding down for the year - I'm reading the collected stories of MR James, Dickens's Ghost tales, and an anthology of Winter Tales by Fox Spirit Books. I also aim to read Nos4R2 this month which is a chunkster. I'll be back later this month to do a scores on the doors style wrap up post.

I've just counted my TBR and after a big effort this year it's below 300 for the first time in ages :-o at 286

1 Graphic Novel (I usually read GN's pretty fast)
32 Short Story Books
63 Non-Fiction books
190 Fiction Books

Read a volume of Dickens's ghost stories including, on Christmas Eve, A Christmas Carol - which I'd never read before. Of course I've seen lots of adaptions.
I did Dickens in school (age 15/16 - Oliver Twist) and that put me off him for many years (until now really) - his shorts were quite good, no overly long-winded (like I remember Twist to be) I *might* check out a novel (I have lots of other books to tackle first!)

Hope everyone had a very nice Christmas. I'm still reading Nos4R2 as well as all of MR James's ghost tales - I'll hopefully be finished with both by end of the year...

I read A Christmas Carol for the first time this year and really enjoyed it!

>137 rabbitprincess: I enjoyed it too

My full book stats for 2017:

Books read:209
Of which unfinished (at least 50 pages read): 41
Rated Average: 17
Rated Good: 142
Rated Brilliant: 9

By men: 132
By Women: 56
By various authors: 21

12 ARCs
10 Presents
103 off TBR
84 Bought in 2017

10 Graphic Novels
2 Poetry collections
17 short story collections/anthologies
97 Non-Fiction books
83 Fiction

14 audio books
17 ebooks
177 physical books
1 multimedia book

January 16
February 17
March 15
April 22
May 36
June 18
July 22
August 9
September 20
October 20
November 13
December 13

Nationality:
Various 5 (collections)
Argentina 2
Australia 4
Austria 2
Canada 1
China 1
Finland 2
France 4
Germany 3
Holland 1
Hungary 1
Iran 1
Ireland 2
Italy 4
Japan 1
Mexico 3
Namibia 2
New Zealand 2
Nigeria 1
Norway 1
South Africa 1
Spain 1
Sweden 1
USA 75
UK 91

The Brilliant books (Books I think everyone should read):

Arrival of missives
The book thief
Shane
The ode less travelled
City of miracles
Amatka
The last days of Jack Sparks
Wonderbook
How to build a universe

In 2016 I kept less stats but to compare with this year:

Read 90

9 as Brilliant

15 books by women

17 ARCs

51 bought in 2016

21 ebooks

Congrats on 209 books! Also, I'm very impressed that you read two books by Namibian authors! And I agree, The Book Thief is absolutely wonderful.

>139 psutto: Very impressive especially considering your writing accomplishments as well.

Happy New Year!

Thanks guys

I've been mostly editing 2017 so have naturally read more - 2018 is bound to be less reading - am writing another novel (as well as editing one)

Happy New Year - see you over on the 2018 Group