October, 2022 Readings: " October, tuck tiny candy bars in my pockets and carve my smile into a thousand pumpkins."

This month's quote courtesy Rainbow Rowell.

How come I can't have a cool author's name like that? The best name I've ever heard belongs to a local real estate agent, her signs all over town: "Karen Nighttraveller".

I would KILL to have a name like that, instant bestsellerdom.

Sigh.

This month, my reading pile is a combination of history tomes and literary novels.

In other words, same old, same old.

>1 CliffBurns: When I was in college, there was a house down the road from me with a brass plaque by the gate. The plaque declared it to be the residence of a "Dr. Dagger".

I was very careful not to get ill, just in case my housemates dashed out to find the nearest medical practitioner....

>2 RobertDay: Great name. Like a Marvel Comics supervillain.

My name, unfortunately, brings to mind a Walmart clerk or a particularly bland, undistinguished insurance salesman.

>3 CliffBurns:, to be honest I might have presumed you were Native American. Wildfires on the prairies, near a precipice.

>4 Cecrow: I'll take that!

Recent reading.

Don’t Tell Alfred, Nancy Mitford - her last novel, which features the families of both Love in a Cold Climate and The Blessing. Fanny and Alfred are in Paris - Alfred has been made ambassador - and their time is one long involved comedy of manners. There's a definite feeling of condescension, not just to the French, but to all Brits not of the same class as the characters. Mitford's novels are amusing, and in many ways better than Waugh's, but the world would be a better place if the entire class of people it describes had been strangled at birth.

The Night Lies Bleeding, MD Lachlan - final book of a five-book series following an avatar of Fenris through through the last 100 years. This one is set during WWII, and the bombing of Coventry is a major set-piece. (I know the city well - I attended university there.) An immortal academic is investigating some ritual murders with the police, while trying to prevent himself from being taken over by the wolf. Meanwhile, at Wewelsburg Castle, a reluctant Wehrmacht doctor has been charged by the SS with discovering telepathy using prison labourers. As Ragnarök approaches, the two narratives come together. An excellent series. Recommended.

Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner - can't fault Brunner's ambition here, but time has not been kind to this novel. Ignoring the fact overpopulation is no longer an issue, Brunner's concerns which he extrapolated into his future are just woefully off-base. The tech is a mix of hit and miss, which is hardly unusual in sf novels of the time. But to have an entire class of young women who act as "rent-a-girlfriend", dependent entirely on the men they live with before moving on, seems the exact opposite of feminist. The racial politics are also completely bizarre (not to mention the casual racism). Chad C Mulligan, a Norman Mailer-type figure, whose works are excerpted between chapters, just writes complete bollocks. Stand on Zanzibar is an historical document, I wouldn't wish it on anyone in the 21st century. If science fiction is a genre written by 40 year old men for 14 year old boys, who then continue to esteem the books for the rest of their lives, often without bothering to reread with an adult eye... well, Stand on Zanzibar is a perfect example.

Unconquerable Sun, Kate Elliott - and from 1960s sf to 2020s sf, and this is a poor example, for all the praise it has received. I bounced out one of Elliott's fantasy novels years ago, and was ready to bounce out of this one - the first five chapters are mostly info-dumps and history lessons. Things picked up a little after that. But no one in this space opera seemed to act credibly, and all the best ideas in it were only hooks for the sequel. Which I won't be reading. At a time when some writers are doing interesting things with space operas, this one is almost the dictionary definition of the form as it existed before the New Wave of British Space Opera.

The Gate to Women’s Country, Sheri S Tepper - in a post-apocalypse world, women live in walled towns, guarded by barracks of men outside the walls. The women are definitely in charge, however. It's an interesting set-up, and cleverly rationalised. Tepper does her usual and monsterises most of her male characters, often to the point of caricature. She also completely erases gay people - describing it at one point as "mental disease" that was eradicated. Which leaves a sour taste. But the world is cleverly worked out and the plotting surprisingly effective. Some of Tepper's targets are more than deserving, and she plants a few good shots. Worth reading.

Wyrd Sisters, Terry Pratchett - the sixth novel in the Discworld series. The title characters are three witches from the Ramtop Mountains... so of course the novel opens with a spoof of the witches scene from the Scottish Play. In fact, Shakespeare and his play are a running joke throughout the book, as a king is murdered, his son spirited away and brought up in a troupe of travelling actors... Good jokes, clever plotting, and a social conscience. The writing is also improving with each new book. Only thirty or so more to go...

City of the Dead, Anton Gill - the final book of the original trilogy set during the reign of Tutankhamun. I'm not sure what the state of Ancient Egyptology was when Gill wrote these novels, but in the book Tutankhamun is murdered while on a hunt, and ex-scribe Huy is charged with finding out the truth of the matter. Good evocation of the time and place, even if study of the period has since the books were published has invalidated some of it.

Had to take a break from Timothy Snyder's BLOODLANDS, it was giving me nightmares. Fourteen million people died in that part of Europe (a strip stretching from Poland to Ukraine) between 1933-45. Snyder recently portrays the indiscriminate killing by both the Nazis and Soviets. I'm getting close to the end, ethnic cleansing on a mammoth scale after 1945. Hard reading.

Distracted myself with SING BACKWARDS AND WEEP, Mark Lanegan's memoir. It was grim stuff too, rife with addiction and bad behavior, but this is self-inflicted horror, not the kind of mass butchery Snyder details.

I won't be reading BLOODLANDS before bed any more, I'll tell you that.

Have a Little Faith – Mitch Albom
Audiobook read by the author
3.5***

As he did with his breakout work, Tuesdays With Morrie, Albom recounts his interviews / conversations with his rabbi, who asked him to give the eulogy at “The Reb’s” funeral. Albom figured he needed to know more about the man and spent several years visiting with the Reb, learning about his way of living his faith.

In the meantime, Albom also came across a compelling story on his Detroit beat. Henry Covington was the pastor of I Am My Brother’s Keeper Ministry. He, too, was called “The Reb” but his congregation was very different from that of Rabbi Lewis, and his path to the pulpit was unusual, to say the least.

And yet, both men, in the ways they led their lives exemplified faith and compassion and dignity and humility and courage and love.

There were a couple of times when I bristled at the feeling of being emotionally manipulated, but I knew going in what kind of work I was likely to experience. This isn’t the first book by Albom that I’ve read. In the end, I found it moving and thought-provoking, comforting and challenging.

Albom narrated the audiobook himself. I cannot imagine anyone else doing a better job of it.

A Tale For the Time Being – Ruth Ozeki
Book on CD read by the author
4****

This is Ozeki’s most widely-read work (if the Goodreads ratings are any indication). It was nominated for both the Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and it won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

The novel is told in a dual timeframe with two distinct narrative arcs. We have Ruth, who is an author living on a remote island off the coast of British Columbia in about 2013; and we have Nao, a US-born Japanese student living in Tokyo some 8-10 years earlier. What brings them together is Nao’s diary / journal, which Ruth discovers on the beach near her cottage, along with other items a young teen might accumulate, all preserved in a plastic bag inside a Hello Kitty lunchbox.

I don’t think I’ve ever read anything quite like this. Yes, I’ve read other books with multiple narrators and with multiple time lines. But there is an ethereal quality to Ozeki’s novel that I can’t remember ever encountering. I felt transported and immersed in these characters’ lives.

Not that I always wanted to be there. Nao’s story is particularly distressing with the bullying she endures, her family’s disastrous financial situation and her father’s deep depression. But, like Nao, I find some solace in the time spent with her grandmother – a bald, Buddhist nun living a life of quiet contemplation.

The audio edition is read by Ozeki, herself. I can’t imagine anyone else doing a better job of it. Clearly this is a very personal sort of story for her to tell. Others have complained about her droning voice in certain segments, but I found this effective when used for these sections of the book (although, yes, I also disliked the voice).

Halfway through Jonathan Lethem's THE FERAL DETECTIVE I realized I'd read it about five years ago.

I'm getting old...but it was a fun (if rare) re-read.

Lightning Men – Thomas Mullen
Digital audiobook performed by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II
3.5***

Book two in the Darktown series continues the story of a newly integrated Atlanta police force in the 1950s. Officer Danny Rakestraw (“Rake”) and “Negro Officers” Lucius Boggs and Tommy Smith have their hands full. Rake’s brother-in-law tries to rally the Ku Klux Klan to “save” their all-white neighborhood after a handful of black families, including Smith’s sister, beginning moving in. Boggs and Smith, meanwhile are trying to shut down the supply of white lightning and drugs.

There’s a lot going on here from the basic police procedural involving the crimes the officers are trying to solve, to the racism on the force, to the ugly and dangerous tactics of the Klan, to some personal marital issues, to political corruption. It certainly captured my attention, but I felt a little lost regarding the relationships between the characters. Still, Mullen crafts a tight thriller, with complex characters, and a couple of stunning scenes.

I came to this book because it was recommended for my F2F book club by one of the members. I hadn’t read the first book in the series and I think I really missed something because I didn’t fully understand the interrelationships of the characters. When I asked the person why she didn’t recommend the first book, she said she thought this one was better written, and that “If you are interested enough in the characters you’ll go back and read the first book.” Clearly, she doesn’t understand the concept of spoilers. I expect that knowing what will happen to these people will completely spoil the author’s attempt to develop of their relationships in book one. S*I*G*H.

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II does a good job of narrating the audiobook version. He sets a good pace and tries to give the many characters sufficiently unique voices to distinguish them from one another.

THE FIGHT FOR THE SOUL OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY, John Nichols' excellent book on the vice-presidency of Henry Wallace, whose aspirations for a better world were thwarted by hacks in the Democratic party. There are obvious echoes of similar things happening today, (see: Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders), the powers that be determined to entrench their positions of influence and continually defy efforts to reform a broken political system.

Highly recommended.

Pied Piper –Nevil Shute
4****

This work of fiction was written in 1942, and set in 1940, so the events portrayed were contemporary. The basic story line involves an elderly British man, John Howard, who goes on holiday to France’s Jural Mountains, near the border with Switzerland in April, planning to stay three months. But the Germans begin to cross into France while he is on holiday, and he must make the decision to return to England. A British woman staying at the same small inn with her two children, asks him to please take the boy and girl with him to their aunt in England. He agrees, expecting a non-eventful journey of two days. But …

This is a road trip and a suspense thriller with an undercurrent of family relationships and love. Mr Howard is a marvelous character. He’s unaccustomed to children but does his best; the boy and girl are only eight and five, after all. They don’t know to be frightened of German soldiers or tanks or airplanes. They’re excited by the adventure. They also need to be fed and clothed and bathed and given shelter. Sometimes they need to be entertained or to play. Sometimes they just don’t want to walk any more, or eat dry bread, or speak French. Along the way Mr Howard encounters other refugee children. He can’t very well leave them alone, so he takes them along as well.

There are several people who help Mr Howard – a ride here, a place to sleep there. I really liked the subplot of Nicole, a young French woman whose father once befriended Mr Howard and who agrees to help him. Their conversations help to uncover the hurt and pain each has suffered and that they share. And the reader witnesses how they open up to one another and begin to heal from past hurts.

Courage does not always involve fighting the enemy. Mr Howard and Nicole display the kind of quiet courage that comes from a deep conviction that what they are doing is correct, and a strong faith that somehow, they will prevail.

Just finished Sodom and Gomorrah by Proust. Includes many conversations about homosexuality. More frank than what I would've thought. The weird thing about the whole Remembrance project is how breezy it feels.

>14 mejix:, always a step ahead of me on this project, I'm on page 25!

>15 Cecrow:
You'll probably pass me soon. I'm not sure when I'll read the next volume. Enjoy!

It wasn't preplanned, but I'm reading something else on the side so I presently have the fun of saying "I'm reading Sodom & Gomorrah and The Lies of Locke Lamora." It gets better every time. Need to find more people to say that to.

Just finished A SHOUT IN THE RUINS by Kevin Powers.

His first novel, THE YELLOW BIRDS, was a critically lauded book about the Iraq War (Powers is a veteran)...gifted it to my son, who's in the military, a couple of Christmases ago.

This one is a multi-layered story set mostly in the Civil War South, but with narrative threads reaching almost to the present day.

The writing is careful, well-considered, the end result a superb novel.

Recommended.

>17 Cecrow:
After that, Tora! Tora! Tora! and poetry by Javier Zamora .

>19 mejix:, love that movie, haven't seen it since we retired our VCR.

Finished Black Wings Has My Angel by Elliot Chaze. A pulp fiction classic to wash the Proust from my mouth. Not sure how to score this one. First 3/4 were okayish, but the ending was strong. The relation between the main characters turned out to be very interesting.

THE LONG WAY TO A SMALL ANGRY PLANET by Becky Chambers.

Light, fluffy, SF, with more than a few similarities to the TV series "Firefly". I didn't know it was originally self-published until I read the Afterword; exhibits the flaws you'd expect from a young, developing writer, but not completely stupid and occasionally great fun.

>18 CliffBurns: This is on my TBR pile; may have to pull it out soon.

>22 CliffBurns: It was a kickstarter, iirc, and then picked u by a UK publisher who hyped it all over social media. I thought ti was terrible. Zero plot, just a string of back-stories. The aliens were all single-note, notable for one characteristic. Chambers has since churned a series of very similar novels and novellas.

>22 CliffBurns: >24 iansales: The science sucked rhino too.

>24 iansales: >25 justifiedsinner: I found it an (at times) entertaining yarn, no more and no less. The bar isn't set very high in SF in terms of stylistic and thematic innovation and for a space opera, it was about par for the course. Certainly better than anything, for instance, Andy Weir has concocted (I've tried reading his work but it's dull and about as "literary" as the back of a cereal box).

Something Wicked This Way Comes – Ray Bradbury
Book on CD performed by Christian Rummel
5*****

Jim Nightshade and Will Halloway are neighbors, best friends, and born just minutes apart. The 13-year-old boys live in the small town of Green Town, Illinois and are looking forward to Halloween. But this year, Halloween will come early, because on Oct 24, just after midnight, Cooger & Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show will come to town with its carnival rides, mirror maze, sideshow freaks, and a carousel that can change your life.

Bradbury was a master of suspense and sci-fi. Here he turns his imagination loose on every child’s dream – and nightmare. Clowns and fortune tellers are both fascinating and frightening. A trip inside the funhouse mirror maze elicits feelings of adventure and claustrophobia. And who doesn’t love to be scared on a carnival ride – whipped around on the Tilt-a-Whirl, feeling your heart drop as you round the top of the Ferris wheel, made dizzy as the carousel spins round and round? Parents are old and useless, except when they are inventive and heroic.

This book scared the beejesus out of me – and I was listening ONLY in broad daylight, during my daily commute. Like the best roller coaster, Bradbury S-L-O-W-L-Y drew me up the incline of suspense, dropped me into terror, and then evened out to let me catch my breath, only to realize there was another, steeper, incline ahead. When, finally, the ride was over I was giddy with relief … and wanted to “go again!”

Kevin Foley’s performance on the audio was magnificent. His youthful enthusiasm for Jim and Will made me willing to go along on this adventure that I would NEVER attempt in real life. Just remembering his oily voice for Mr Dark gives me the shivers.

Update 30Oct2022 I first listened to the audio performed by Kevin Foley in July 2012.
Ten years later I decided to re-read (or re-listen) to this classic – a perfect Halloween book!. I searched all the libraries in the county for Foley’s performance, because it was so memorable, but it was no longer available. Well, Christopher Rummel was more than up to the task. He is a talented voice artist. His Dust Witch and Mr Dark are perhaps even more frighteningly evil than Foley’s! As I did before, I listened ONLY during broad daylight. Still scared the beejesus out of me. Bravo!

Finished Ottessa Moshfegh's MCGLUE, a dark little novella set in mid 19th century America. The title character regularly drinks himself blind and when his best friend is discovered murdered, guess who's the prime suspect. But...did he do it?

Nice ring of authenticity to the tale, the writing consistent and convincing.

TIME IS A MOTHER, Ocean Vuong's latest collection of poetry.

His voice is very vivid and his verse sound--he's number one on the poetry hit parade in America and I can see why. He's earning a lot of attention and plaudits for a guy who's, what, barely thirty?

Good on him.