Finished The Pursuit of the Pankera by Heinlein. Not great, but a helluva lot better than The Number of the Beast (Which PotP was rewritten into) was.
Now I’m reading The WorldCon Guest of Honor Speeches and Ancient Astronauts, Cosmic Collisions, and other Popular Theories About Man’s Past by William H. Stiebing, Jr. The latter is a quick read I picked up for free. It’s a Prometheus Press debunking book that I probably would have bought when it first came out some forty years ago, but missed somehow.
On audio, I’m coming to the end of Stephen King’s Billy Summers, which is very good. It’s one of his crime novels, with nothing supernatural about it, except that he briefly mentions the Overlook Hotel and weird goings on there. King seems to have this need to slip in at least some mention of the supernatural in his novels, even if it’s not appropriate. In Cujo hehad that brief interlude with the Boogeyman in the closet, for instance.
I finished my John Langan stories and have moved on to something light and fun, T. Kingfisher’s A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking. Man, I could really go for a doughnut right now.
The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine Who Outwitted America’s Enemies Jason Fagone
The remarkable life story of Elizebeth Smith Friedman: She grew up in a small town in Indiana. As a young adult, a chance meeting in a library in Chicago led her to being hired by a strange millionaire who was trying find hidden messages in Shakespeare’s plays. That didn’t pan out, but it gave her a love of solving codes and ciphers, and she was hired by the U.S. government in World War I to decrypt German radio messages, and then to do the same against organized crime in the 1920s and 1930s.
Her most impressive achievements were in World War 2, when she and the group she led penetrated codes used by Nazi spies in South America.
Finished A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking. It didn’t have the zest of some of her other books, but that’s to be expected since this is at a middle grade level. Reading reviews, I’m surprised to hear that some people think this is too dark! Like, have you met kids? They would love this. In my opinion, the sidekicks (a gingerbread cookie and a sourdough starter) stole the show.
I had the same thoughts when I heard those criticisms! Kids LOVE to be scared, they love dark content and they LOVE kids their own age defeating said darkness.
Now reading Neil Gaiman’s Stardust, illustrated by Charles Vess. I’m not much of a one for graphic novels, but this one has a lot of text, and I am enjoying the art.
I’m nearing the end of Stephen King’s Billy Summers on audio. Not that long ago I read his recent book Later, also on audio.
I’ve noticed a disturbing trend in recent Stephen King novels. He’s now basically writing “Choose your own Adventure” books, at least as far as the endings go. He presents a long and detailed ending, then backs up to a branch point and says, in essence, “…but this is how it really ends.”. He gives you a Happy Ending and a Sad Ending.
He had played with this in his earlier works, going down one pathway of the “What ifs?” before going back to his main narrative. (remember the one in Pet Sematary? Is Gage hit by the truck or not?) But now they’re longer, and at the end of the book.
I finished The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom last night. Honestly, I only finished it because the entire thing was 200 pages. It felt schmaltzy and like it was a chore to get through.
Last night I finished Immersion: A Pilgrimage into Service by James Menkhaus, about meaningful, non-oppressive and non-judgmental Christian missionary work. I know the author and wanted to be able to post a good Amazon review.
The library yanked back my audiobook copy of Sally Rooney’s contemporary Irish novel Beautiful World, Where Are You, which I’d gotten about three-quarters of the way through, dammit, so I’m taking an involuntary break from that. I’ve begun another audiobook, The Longest Day, Cornelius Ryan’s much-praised history of the WWII D-Day landings, in the meantime.
I’ve also started Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun by Rhoda Blumberg, a Newbery prizewinner about the U.S. 1853-54 diplomatic initiative to open Japan to foreign trade.
So do I. I read Gun in Cheek and Son of Gun in Cheek (my favorite of the three) many years ago. Pronzini’s Six-Gun in Cheek is also a lot of fun. It includes gems such as “Yo’re lying!” cracked the cruelster." (Note: In context, the last word means “Someone who does cruel things.”)
Now I’m reading Rediscovery: Science Fiction by Women (1958-1963). It’s a collection of stories, and no editor is listed.
Started today on Beneath a Pale Sky, a short story collection by Philip Fracassi. I haven’t got far enough to have any opinions yet, but I see it’s been nominated for a 2021 Bram Stoker award, so that bodes well.
Finished Rediscovery: Science Fiction by Women (1958-1963) , which is an anthology. Normally, I list only my favorite story from an anthology here, but this time the quality is so high that I’m listing three:
Best Twist: “The Pleiades”, by Otis Kidwell Burger
Best Action Sequence: “A Matter of Proportion”, by Anne Walker
Best Overall: “Unwillingly to School” by Pauline Ashwell
I’m surprised that these stories aren’t better known. I strongly recommend all three.
Now I’m reading Surgeon in Blue: Jonathan Letterman, the Civil War Doctor Who Pioneered Battlefield Care, by Scott McGaugh.
Mmm, I’m not going to read this. At three and a half stories in, I realized I wasn’t having any fun. I think it might be more apt to call these stories “weird” than to call them horror.
