I just finished A Book of Horrors, edited by Stephen Jones. Overall, I didn’t care for it. There were a few stories I liked, but they were outnumbered by the ones that were too gory for me (notably Peter Crowther’s “Ghosts with Teeth”). There was also included one of the type I hate hate hate, in which the story is just bizarre and surreal, then just stops, and you realize it was never intended to have a point and you just wasted your time reading it. That was “Alice Through the Plastic Sheet” by Robert Shearman (may a bird shit on his windshield).
So I’ve been distracting myself with the smart phone I finally purchased. Downloaded the Kindle software, a bunch of those Everything A Classic Author Wrote for 99 cents, a few of my favorite SF novels & even some out of print Ford Madox Ford (for free). The phone’s screen is quite big & I do most of my reading on the commute–so it can recharge at work. Will eventually buy a Kindle. Although that will not render my home book-free, by any means!
Probably Really Ought To Read Cloud Atlas, as I have a copy…
Anno Dracula: Dracula Cha Cha Cha by Kim Newman. Newman’s Anno Dracula series is being re-released and I’ve been re-reading it as the volumes come out. (And I’m mentioned in Dracula Cha Cha Cha so bonus points for me.)
Also picked up a copy of Nuremberg: Infamy on Trial by Joseph Persico yesterday and started that. Looks pretty good and I’ve liked other stuff by Persico.
That’s why I don’t read new horror anymore. They’re either gore porn or pointless surreal crap. I’ve forgotten the title, but it was a recent award-winner (horror award) where all the action was a guy feeding lemons to his garbage disposal and looking out his kitchen window.
I’m reading this one too. So far, it’s very satisfying. Real stories! Stuff happens!
All right I finished The Mask of Ra and I think I shall take jsgoddess’s (?) advice and strike him from my list of authors to read. Good God man, I wanted a mystery! A plot! A whoddunit…
Why do so many authors writing of the Ancient past have to try to retell the history instead of just having a nice little mystery set during X’s reign?
Just finished A Very Fine Appearance by Donald H. Wickman, about George Houghton, a prominent Vermont photographer during the Civil War. He traveled quite a bit with Vermont troops and took some memorable images. His picture of the 5th Vermont, on parade at Camp Griffin in northern Virginia, was used on the covers of both the book and soundtrack of Ken Burns’s PBS series on the war:
Just started re-reading The Haunting by Shirley Jackson. It’s been a number of years and it was on the shelf. Seemed appropriate.
Michael Crichton’s Timeline is next on my nightstand. I found it going through my bookshelves and realized I never actually read it when it came out. Not sure how I missed it.
I just finished a binge in which I read all the books up to Betrayer (12th in the series) of C. J. Cherryh’s ateva series. Then there was a buy 3 get one free paperback offer I took up. Right now I’m in the middle of two of the paperbacks - The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi and Bitter Seeds by Ian Tregillis.
Bitter Seeds is ok so far, parts of it are very engaging. The characterization is flat, especially of the women. I love stories about spies and horrors (like Stross’s Laundry series and Declare by Tim Powers) and this is in that vein, so I’m enjoying it despite the flaws.
Quantum Thief is impressive, maybe a bit too virtuoso-ish but it’s definitely outdoing the recent similar type books I’ve read such as The Golden Age and sequels by John Wright. Maybe I only like it better because it’s inviting comparisons to less stellar similar novels? Also it’s really well written in many dimensions - plot, character, narrative style, world building, language use.
Just started Elizabeth Street by Laurie Fabiano. It’s about Italian immigrants in New York City in the early 1900’s, and so far, I’m liking it. The main character is a midwife who runs afoul of the Black Hand.
Finished White Cat by Holly Black, a YA urban fantasy. It wasn’t bad - it held a few surprises - but in the end I found the protagonist somewhat of a sad-sack and unlikable. I haven’t decided if I will read the next.
I should add that even if you have the books already, you should check out these new editions. Newman writes new notes and annotations and includes new stories and other material (like the script for a proposed-but-never-made Anno Dracula movie).
I finished Graves’ End, by Sean Patrick Traver. I borrowed the ebook from Amazon, as a perk of my Prime membership. The book follows the story of Lia, a witch living in modern day LA, who gets mixed up with Dexter Grave, a skeleton visiting from 1950. Along with Lia extremely unusual cat, they battle bug monsters, cast spells and turn night to day, all in the hopes of thwarting the King of Death’s malevolent plans.
I don’t usually have high hopes for the books I borrow from Amazon, but this one was just great. Fun and witty.
Also read The Fear Institute, the third in Jonathan Howard’s Johannes Cabal series. I had to order this book from the U.K., because it just will not come out in the States. The book was wonderfully bizarre and filled with my favorite anti-hero at his best.
Cherries in Winter was a recommendation from one of the librarians at my local branch.
Colon was let go from her job at a prestigious women’s magazine at the start of the recent recession and found herself turning to her family’s recipe collection for inspiration. Not only does she discover some “sturdy food” meals, but learns how these ladies dealt with their own difficult times, financial as well as personal. Colon shares the stories of her female ancestors, interspersed with recipes from the collection, as well as the author’s own adaptations of these dishes. While Colon comes off as a bit privileged at times, as she goes through her family history, she seems to learn a bit of humility and resilience.
Recommended as a library read to fans of cozy memoirs and family histories. A Secret Gift is also a family history, but it touches on a community’s history as well. Just before Christmas 1933, an ad was placed in the Canton OH newspaper - informing readers that a B. Virdot was offering $10 to 75 needy families who could write in to share their stories. More than 70 years later, the author discovers a suitcase of letters and newspaper clippings and learns that his grandfather, Sam Stone was the mysterious benefactor. Gup puts his investigative reporter skills to work, tracing the writers of the letters and their descendants to learn the stories behind the requests. Along the way, Gup also learns why his grandfather felt drawn to make this generous offer, due to his own dark, destitute history.
Being a family history researcher, I can appreciate the effort Gup put in to track these people down; I also appreciated the way he told their stories, bringing these people to life and drawing parallels between the Hard Times of the 1930’s and the current difficult economic situation. Gup manages to elicit sympathy without manipulating the readers’ emotions and does not gloss over the less savory details of either the letter writers’ lives or his own family history.
I’d read about A Secret Gift in a back issue of The Smithsonian magazine and checked it out from the local library. Recommended it to those interested in the Great Depression and how it affected smaller communities.
That’s all I ask!
