June 2023

 Books read this month.

• American Pastoral, by Phillip Roth. I haven't written about this yet. Not sure what I think about it. Great writing, but ugly, ugly story. 
• The History Man, by Anthony Burgess. A campus novel, so...yeah! But, what crap people.
• The Glass Hotel, by Emily St. John Mandel. Love this author. 
• Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, by P.G. Wodehouse. One of his best. Hadn't read this Jeeves yet.
• Modernaj Robinzonoj, de Tivadar Soros. Bonega libro, en la temo al mi tre placxas: milito kaj subpremo.  
• The Passage, by Justin Cronin. Very clever vampiric story.
• The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein. What did I ever see...
• Amaro, by Brad Thomas Parsons. Wonderful book about a wonderful drink. My homemade amaro from this book is almost ready!
• The Woman in the Dunes, by Kobo Abe. Strange.

Books bought this month:

• 100 Hieroglyphs: Think Like an Egyptian, by Barry Kemp. Love his Egyptological works. 
• About Face, by David Hackworth. One bad-ass mofo. RIP, colonel.
• Underworld, by Don DeLillo. Will read this finally.
• Piercing, by Ryu Murakami. Loved his other one I read recently. This one seems...disturbing.
• Down There on a Visit, by Christopher Isherwood. Love his work.
• Words Into Type, by Marjorie Skillin. Required reading for copyeditors (and copyeditor wanna-be's, like me!)
• La horo 25, de Constantine Virgil Gheorghu. Tre bona (ĝis nun...mi finlegis nur triono). 

The History Man, by Malcolm Bradbury

 Ugh. Campus novel, sure. But was it good? 

Spoilers:

Howard Kirk is an asshole. Truly. Sure it's the 70s, but he can still be an asshole. Swinging times. Typical prof sleeping with his students. Or female professors. Wives taking weekends in London to go sleep with their boyfriends. Both husband and wife knowing this. And apparently okay with it. Gross.

The writing was good. I had read one of his short stories in The Penguin Book of Modern British Short Stories and it was good. This one reminded me a bit of Saramago, as all the dialog was continuous in paragraphs, meaning something like this:

'Isn't that debatable, Dr Kirk?' he asks, 'I mean, are you sociology?' 'Yes,' says Howard, 'for the present purpose, I am.' (p143)

It is a critique of academia of the 1970s, and I'd say it could be a critique of today's academia, too, except for not as much (any?) sex on today's campuses. A preview of the gender and pronoun craziness of today:

'I got up to offer her my seat,' says Dr Macintosh, 'and then I suddenly realized that in this radical climate there's no way to address her. Finally I said: "Excuse me, person, would you like to sit down?".' (p158)

Plenty of protest as well. 

'This lecture [guest speaker] is forbidden by radical opinion.' The audience had roared its assent, 'Forbidden, forbidden,' and 'Fascist, fascist...' (p228)

 Glad to be done. It got repetitive. 3.5 stars, if I'm giving stars. (Considering not in the future.)

Spoilers done.

There was a movie, the author writes about it in the afterword. 

 

 

The Glass Hotel, by Emily St. John Mandel

 Another great one by this author, my third. 

Spoilers below:

And apparently, I read the last two out of order! I was plenty in when I realized some of the characters seemed familiar. Vincent (female) came up early, but I just figured the author liked using that unusual name for a woman. But no, same Vincent as in my last of hers, Sea of Tranquility. This one less sci-fi but equally magical realism, if a bit more muted. 

Vincent of the 5-min videos, which got her into trouble (or will) in the last book I read. Mirella searching her out, blaming her for the suicide of her husband/boyfriend, Faisal. 

This one centers upon a Madoff-like Ponzi scheme (the author admits to using that as the model), led by Alkaitis, who meets and 'acquires' Vincent in the glass hotel of the title. Fake wife, fake life. Vincent meets Mirella and become friends. 

The book bops around in time, Vincent's drug addicted brother making appearances (also in the next book). He steals her films and makes a short-lived career of it. 

Alkaitis is caught, of course. It's 2008 and everyone is asking for their funds. He doesn't have enough in the fake fund he's running to pay them out and finally the woman who's been screaming to the rooftops of his criminality is proven right, and off to jail he goes for 170 years. 

No, he doesn't live that long. The reader doesn't know how much of his sentence he serves (another book, Ms. St. John Mandel?), but he does start seeing the ghosts of his closest investor-friends, dreaming of a "counter-life" where he escapes to UAE instead of being arrested. Other characters start seeing ghosts too, to include Paul after his sister Vincent dies.

Spoilers done.

This author is very good, reminding me of Victor LaValle. She's got other books I haven't read yet which I probably will. But I'm kind of interested if any of them or her future books will include these familiar characters. I've kind of grown attached.

Jeeves & the Feudal Spirit

 Great book in the Jeeves series. I laughed out loud several times during this one. Again, "read" it on Audible. (Jonathan Cecil, you're a god.) 

God, the names. Stilton Cheesewright. /snort/  Florence, his cousin. (Francesca Folan in the wonderful A&E series.) Aunt Dahlia, not as bad as Aunt Agatha. His uncle Tom. All wonderful. 

And still, we don't know how the darts tournament turned out. Did Gorringe and Wooster win? I need to know. 

This was the June selection for the FB P.G. Wodehouse Book Club. Can't wait for the July selection. Not going to look ahead. Want to be surprised!

The Passage, by Justin Cronin

 Great dystopia, a la The Stand and Alas, Babylon. A little long, but well worth it.

Spoilers henceforth:

The book is practically in two sections. The first covers how we (read: the USG) ruined the world. (Or at least North America.) Of course we experiment on death row prisoners who turn out to become vampiric. Don't forget the weird (read: autistic) little girl who probably is the key to everything.

Part two is the resultant world 90+ years later. A colony, walled in. Think The Walking Dead. Somewhat similar. But these guys have lights. Which stay on all night long. So much so that no one really knows what stars are, except for the old lady (Auntie). 

One night, the little girl arrives. (Yes, that little girl from 90 years earlier! Wha?!?!) And everything starts to go bad. 

Enter the Army. Enter more dracs or smokes or whatever they decide to call the twelve original death row vampires. Hey, let's take a walk of about a year or two. 

Sounds silly, but it really was very good. The author does a good job of getting the reader interested in the lives of these folks. (Although I wanted Wolgast to come back in the end...sigh, he did not, but Sister Lacey!)

Spoilers complete.

Pretty good book. Helped that I got it out of the library and got the audiobook from the Boston library. Because 770+ pages take a while...

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein

 I read this book in the late '80s/early '90s, in my sci-fi fever. I read all the classics at that point and loved them all. 

What was wrong with me?

Family book club read Stranger in a Strange Land a couple years ago. Equally horrible. Same with Ringworld. Why didn't I see it? Is it my age? My reading of the past decades change my attitudes or expectations? I equally thought Into the Stars was terrible, and it is recent, so... 

This one though? Preachy. Like John Galt's famous speech, all 98 pages of it (does anyone actually read it all?), but spread over 380+ pages. Terrible. 

Save yourself. Read Alastair Reynolds instead. Start with Revelation Space and enjoy the ride!

The Woman in the Dunes, by Kobo Abe (tr. E. Dale Saunders)

 What a strange book! This is the first in my personal challenge to read one translated author for every letter in the alphabet. Letter A complete!

Spoilers:

An amateur entomologist and full-time teacher decides to take a trip to a very sandy, dune-y area to seek out a unique beetle. Get his name on it. The buses have stopped running so he needs a place to stay. There are concerns in the village that he might be from the government. He's asked twice and finally convinces the local cabal of aged old men that he is, in fact, not a govvie. Too bad.

He is offered a place to stay for the night, in a decrepit house deep in a hole in the sand/dunes. The lady of the house welcomes him, cooks for him, keeps mentioning how things will change in a few days. "But, dear lady, I'm only here for the night." 

Six-plus months later, he's still there. 

At its root, this is a kidnap story, a story of someone with Stockholm syndrome. He escapes once, and the action of him getting away, or attempting to get away, from the locals is quite well written. My heart was beating for him and I was cheering him on. Alas, he was caught. 

Months go by. He and the woman form a home, and she gets pregnant. A couple months in she has some bleeding, and a village veterinarian is worried about her and tells the cabal to lower the rope ladder (which brought the man into the hole months ago) to get her out, for a hospital visit. They leave the ladder. The man climbs up. Will he finally escape while everyone else is worried about the woman? No, he descends back into the hole, ready for his woman to return (will she?) so they can continue their nightly work. Horrible.

Spoilers done.

The writing was great. But the story? Meh. 3.5 stars.

May 2023

 Books read this month. Damn, read more than I thought this month:

• Mother Night, by Vonnegut. Wunderbar. 
• Ukridge, by PG Wodehouse. Genius.
• Daingerfield Island, by John Wasowicz. Not so good.
• This Census-Taker, by China Mieville. Weird. 
• In the Miso Soup, by Ryu Murakami. Doubly weird.
• Sea of Tranquility, by Emily St. John Mandel. Oh so good. 
• The Copyeditor's Handbook, by Amy Einsohn. Will re-read.
• 99 Novels, by Anthony Burgess. My checklist for future classics.
• The Black Dahlia, by James Ellroy. Oy. 
• Chronicle of the Narvaez Expedition, by Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca. Years of travel (barefoot) and deprivation. 
• Election, by Tom Perrotta. Quick read. Movie just as good.

Books bought in May:

• Amaro: The Spirited World of Bittersweet, Herbal Liqueurs, with Cocktails, Recipes, and Formulas, by Brad Thomas Parsons (author of Bitters). Holy crap. After my first bottle of Amaro Montenegro, I couldn't help myself. I'm now on to Amaro Nonino. (Yum!)
• Freelance Editor's Handbook, by suzy bills. Yes, she used all lower-case.
• Election, by Tom Perrotta. 
• The War Against Cliche, by Martin Amis. RIP, Mr. Amis.
• The Pumpkin Eater, by Penelope Mortimer. Read about this book so many years ago on one of my book blogs. Thought it would be great. When this appeared in Kindle deals, I had to get it.
• The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, by Heinlein. 
• Return from the Stars, by Stanislaw Lem. Lem is classic, and for two bucks...
• Breasts and Eggs, by Mieko Kawakami. This was recommended years ago and for two bucks and to count for one of my translation books for the year? No question. Had to buy it.
• Language and Silence, by George Steiner. The man about translation. 
• Pattern Recognition, by William Gibson. It's been a few reads since I read a Gibson, and this is #1 in the Blue Ant books, so must read it (soon).
• The Scar, by China Mieville. A continuation, IIRC, of Perdido Station.