Books Completed Since June 1

  Butcher & Blackbird, Brynne Weaver
Our friends' daughters were passing this around at a birthday dinner at a Korean steakhouse. I bit more than the delicious dinner.

The protagonists are Sloane Sutherland and Rowan Kane. Both are serial killers who only kill serial killers. Rowan's known as the Boston Butcher, Sloane as the Orb Weaver (because after she kills she creates a "map" of the serial killer's victim's locations with thread and the victim's flesh and eyeballs). They meet when Rowan rescues her from a cage in which she's trapped with her latest victim. There's no denying the sexual attraction, or the competition between the two, so once a year they meet up to see who can take down a serial killer first, a game arranged by Rowan's older brother, who's a hit man. (In the real world, Sloane is a data scientist and Rowan is a chef.)

You're right if you think this is a dark romance. Very, very dark. Both have their demons—in Sloane and her best friend Lark's case, it was a school at which they were abused—and their sex and their romance and the text is all very rough. Not for kids or people who get nightmares easily.

  Watership Down: The Graphic Novel, Richard Adams, James Sturm and Joe Sutphin
I've read the book, but the graphic novel looked so beautiful...there are wonderful watercolor-looking drawings of the English countryside and the little farms and nature scenes. The rabbits are slightly anthropomorphized (the big eyes, especially the blue eyes on Fiver and Pipkin), but they don't look cartoonish, and the other animals are beautifully drawn.

   Re-read: Enterprising Women, Camille Bacon-Smith
Two seminal texts on (mostly) fanfiction came out in 1992; I snapped both of them up at Magicon (the 59th World Science Fiction Convention in Orlando, FL) and re-read them every so often, because it was so novel to see serious writing, indeed serious educational writing, about a subject much-maligned: fanfiction ("All written," detractors jibe, "by hormonal teenagers who want to have sex with Spock").

Bacon-Smith, an ethnographer (studying of cultural norms in individual groups), became interested in the mostly female fans of Star Trek, Blake's 7, other science fiction shows, and also non-science fiction series (mainly Starsky and Hutch and The Professionals) who, for entertainment purposes only, wrote further tales involving the characters from their favorites in various themes: hurt/comfort tales, continuing adventures, psychological thrillers, and sexual encounters both hetero- and homosexual. As she became friends with the participants, she found that they bonded through these stories, worked out emotional disruptions in their lives, and took a far more realistic look into the emotional lives of the characters and the original characters created to interact with them than the source material, since the source material had to "play it safe" within boundaries set by the producers.

As indicated by the title, the text concentrates on women in (mostly SF) fandom, a place where many times they have been unwelcome, and how they made a society for themselves. While the shows and also the media (fanzines and story sharing) have aged, the themes have not (women worrying about sexual harassment, for example). Pair with Textual Poachers for a wide view of fandom.

  Re-read: Textual Poachers, Henry Jenkins
This was the other academic study of fandom and, by extension, fanfiction that came out in 1992. Jenkins' text takes off from William Shatner's infamous "Get a Life" Saturday Night Live skit, in which incensed fans responded that they did have a life; that interest in science fiction/detective series/British programming was just as legitimate as sports fandom or any other intense interest. It also takes the time to define "fan" and "fandom," and note how fans have been portrayed as distorted crazies.

The following chapters address much more than fanfiction: one discusses how the fans of the fantasy drama Beauty and the Beast felt betrayed by the network's choice to turn the romantic/action storyline to just action. Another discusses fanfiction, while a third addresses slash fanfiction, and there is also a chapter about music videos and another about filksongs, something rare in the online fandom today. Although the author in this case is male, there is still much discussion about women being the primary "makers" in fandom and how they react to female characters being marginalized in programming at that time.

Fan art is scattered throughout the book.

Again, much academic vocabulary, but the fan studies are fascinating.

  Not in Love, Ali Hazelwood
Rue Siebert grew up in an uncertain world: her mother was chronically underemployed and she and her brother often had to shift for themselves. Now she has a stable job in the food science industry under an clever woman who has fought her way up in the business world, and she feels safe for the first time in her life.

Then she finds out her boss started Kline, the business, with a big loan, and the Harkness Group has taken over that loan. Is the Harkness Group also going to buy out Kline? For Rue, this fact is almost as bad as when representatives of Harkness come to talk to Kline's scientists, it turns out she knows one of them: it's Eli Killgore, the man she unsuccessfully hooked up with on a dating app, only to have her brother horn in on their meetup.

As it works out, Rue and Eli are much more than rivals; they're rivals with an undeniable attraction for each other which they give into—surely two adults who are not in love can have kick-ass sex and not get emotionally involved? Outside of the hot sex, there's a duplicitous co-worker lurking at Kline and an injustice trying to be resolved. Much more sex that Hazelwood's usual mix and a sniffly HEA but still not quite up to Love Hypothesis.

  American Ramble: A Walk of Memory and Renewal, Neil King Jr.
King had, for some time, toyed with an idea to walk from Washington, DC, where he lived, to New York City, but after a cancer scare and treatments, decided to make the dream real. So in the spring of 2021, with a backpack and arrangements to stay at small bed and breakfasts or alternative lodging (and not averse to sleeping wild), King did just that, traveling the back roads from his home "nine blocks east of the U.S. Capitol" to the Ramble in Central Park. What follows are his adventures along the road, including incredulous people who can't believe he's walking the whole way (he does, except for a couple of minimal car rides), encounters with curious people along the way, including Amish and Mennonite communities, stops at tiny museums (like one which holds only tools that early Americans would have used) and historical spots, meeting people of all philosophies from MAGA stalwarts to offbeat rebels, enjoying spring blossoming over the countryside (he walks north just in time to follow the flowers blooming), crossing through historic sites (like the crossing of the Delaware and also Valley Forge), and other diverse adventures.

One interesting part is his endeavor to use only old roads and ways to travel, so he doesn't wish to cross modern bridges. This leads him to being lent a kayak to cross a river gap only otherwise accessible through a major highway. He also accepts a ferry ride from the New Jersey shore to Staten Island.

I enjoyed hell out of this, although I could never emulate him!

  Winter's Gifts, Ben Aaronovitch
FBI Special Agent Kimberley Reynolds, who was introduced in Aaronovitch's "Rivers of London" in Whispers Under Ground, is the focus of this short novella with a seasonal theme (after The October Man and What Abigail Did That Summer). A retired FBI agent calls in an alarm about a mysterious event in Eloise, Wisconsin, that no one understands until Reynolds finds out about it. She travels to Eloise to find that portions of the town have been destroyed by an "ice tornado," the FBI agent is missing, and some ominous creatures are wandering the shore of the nearby lake.

This starts out slowly, with Reynolds narrating her involvement due to her knowledge of esoteric activity that she learned from Peter Grant during his involvement in the previous case and talking about her past. However, the pace picks up very quickly as odd "monsters" creep out of a blizzard and wreak havoc in the town. The end is a tense chase straight out of a horror film as a long-buried curse has been unearthed involving Native American spirits.

I enjoyed this although it was a different narrative from the British-set books. Some British-isms do creep in, but I don't find them all that distracting. Reynolds herself is an interesting character because she was brought up as a strict Christian, but is now dealing with otherworldly events with no relation to the beliefs her mother tried to instill in her. I also liked the slow-attraction romance that is very peripherally part of the story (the ending is particularly sweet).

  Any Other Name, Craig Johnson
The tenth book in the Longmire series. Longmire's daughter Cady, now married to the brother of Walt's undersheriff Victoria Moretti, is expecting her first child and expecting Walt to be there at the birth. And he expected to be there, until his friend and former boss Lucian Connally asks if he will help out in the case of a fellow law-enforcement officer in the next county who apparently committed suicide. He figures it will only take a day or two.

If you believe that, you haven't read a Longmire book. Vic Moretti and Walt's best friend Henry Standing Bear end up helping in the investigation, which comes to involve a missing woman from a strip club, sending Walt from a casino to a lodge on the trail of what made Gerald Holman kill himself.

Slow build with a frantically tense ending involving a railroad spur line that will leave you gasping.

Does Longmire make the birth? It's Walt—you figure it out.

 The Joy of Independent Living for Seniors, FC&A Publishing
From the book sale. Really nothing I didn't know. I got some tips from it, though. Worth the $1.50 I paid for it.

A'Book Sale-ing...

It's hard to drag me out of bed these days. Except for two days ago; Friday I was up before the alarm, dressing, breakfasting, and "perambulating the pooch." What causeth such furor? What else? It was library book sale day!

Arrived there fifteen minutes early to find lines trailing out either end of the entrances to the Cobb County Civic Center. Since I've had such poor luck with the children's books since they moved from Jim Miller Park, I decided to start downstairs instead where all the nonfiction and hardback fiction was. Ended up in line behind an old hippie with a silvery ponytail wearing a cowboy hat. The usual complement of SAHMs and elderly were the majority of the crowd, dragging anything capable of holding a load: reusable shopping bags like me, luggage carriers, boxes on wheels, large suitcases, red wagons... The doors opened promptly at nine and off we went. After two hours upstairs and downstairs (finding nothing I'd hoped to find), there I was with

 The Corfu Trilogy, Gerald Durrell (reading this already; just don't expect it to be a lot like The Durrells in Corfu)

 Life Among the Savages/Raising Demons, Shirley Jackson (because I loved her short story "Charles" so much; part of a longer sequence in this book)

 Neither Wolf Nor Dog, Kent Herburn (man tours West with Native American guide; figure if I'm watching Molly of Denali I should also be learning more about other Native cultures)

 A Book of Christmas Folklore, Tristram P. Coffin (I've borrowed this from the library before, liked it enough to want to own it)

 Memorable Christmas Stories (book of short stories from a Mormon publisher; Chicken Soup for the Soul-type stuff)

 Letters from the Editor, the correspondence of Harold Ross (the original editor of "The New Yorker")

 Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul, John Barry (one of the two Roger Williams books out there)

 Crossing Antarctica, Will Steger (by dogsled in 1990)

 Time to Be in Earnest, P.D. James ("fragments" of an autobiography, as she calls it)

If you know me, you also know that is never that. Yes, as soon as I finished all my chores today, I left James to his telephone calls and headed back over there about 12:30 p.m. Sunday is "box day," and no matter how big a box you bring in, you can fill it for $20. I just brought a shopping bag, and I'm a piker. I was in line behind the hippie with the ponytail again, and he had the box a combination TV/VCR came in (he must have been saving that a while!). Someone near the front of the line had a refrigerator box! In fact, several people in line had huge boxes and I feared for the books.

I needn't have feared: the people with the biggest boxes went straight to the CDs and DVDs and just swept them into the boxes with great sweeps of their arms and left the books alone. They are probably going to re-sell them on EBay, pawn them, or turn them in for credit or cash at places like 2nd and Charles or McKay's or CD Warehouse. (James thinks they are buying them for their own resale shops. I did always dream about having a used bookstore and picking up my original stock at library book sales.)

Anyway, the books were all left, in nice straight lines, for we searchers for the perfect read.

 More Extraordinary Uses for Ordinary Things by Reader's Digest (love these books; they're like peanuts, so I get them cheap)

 America Celebrates! A Patchwork of Weird & Wonderful Holiday Lore, Hennig Cohen and our old friend Tristram P. Coffin (wow! even Native American celebrations——all they missed was Day of the Dead)

 Travels, Michael Crichton (which I've been looking for at a booksale for ages; now if I could have only found a book on Dorothy Kilgallen...)

 Spice: The History of a Temptation, Jack Turner (not just for eating; the book opened to advice to guys on how to improve your sex life with a honey and ginger rub)

 Boston: A Social History, Brett Howard (Alcott, Holmes, and even Ponzi!)

 North to the Night, Alvah Simon (couple sails the Arctic Ocean)

 A Country Life: Scenes from a Veterinary Life, Douglas Whynott (I adore vet memoirs; this one takes place in New Hampshire)

 Thurber on Crime, James Thurber (the only fiction I bought, collection of Thurber shorts with a mystery theme, including my favorite "The Macbeth Murder Mystery")

I also bought, although it sounds kind of odd, a book called How to Care for Aging Parents. I am done with that, and James' mom is cared for very well and very ably by my sister-in-law, but I looked at it as "well, we're the aging ones now, so maybe there are some good tips for us." Maybe it sounds strange. Whatever.

Books Finished Since July 1

 UnSpun, Brooks Jackson and Kathleen Hall Jamieson
Thinking critically about "spin," whether it be political or the product of advertising. I saw this last year among the "required summer reading" books. Apparently some people wanted more specific things to investigate, like websites, politicians, and books, according to the reviews I read. This isn't a book that is partisian. Rather, it gives you examples of words, emotional triggers, and other propaganda tools that should make you "look twice" at a statement of "fact."

 Trolls in the Hamptons, Celia Jerome
Willow Tate, graphic novelist, lives in her family's old New York apartment, envies her cousin Susan, and tries to cope with her odd family, who all have special gifts (grandma's a herbalist; Mom is kind of a "dog whisperer"). Belatedly, Willow discovers she has her own gift: working on a new idea, she draws a red troll—who promptly appears in real life, wreaking havoc on her neighborhood.

Via a sexy British representative of a hush-hush Department of Unexplained Events, Willow learns she's a Visualizer, someone who can bring a fantasy world alive. And, though desperately reluctant, she becomes involved with a kidnapped child, a boy Agent Grant tells her is being forced to break the barriers between the magic world and the human world. The more Willow tries to ignore the threat, the more it is brought home to her.

This is pleasant fantasy fluff with a strong romance novel element (Chapter 24 has a really steamy sex scene). Willow is a plucky but flawed heroine, Grant lends the proper male romance counterpart, and there are some funny quirky characters, including Willow's crusty mother, the deceptive "super" of the apartment building across the street from Willow's apartment, and even a three-legged Pomeranian. I'll definitely pick up the sequel, but be warned: if you're looking for hard fantasy, this isn't it.

 The Penderwicks at Point Mouette, Jeanne Birdsall
In this newest outing with the Penderwick girls, the four sisters are separated for the first time in their lives. While Mr. Penderwick and his new bride (and her baby) are in England for a belated honeymoon, eldest Rosalind will be spending time with her friend Anna in New Jersey while Skye, Jane, and little Batty accompany Aunt Claire to a cottage in Maine.

It's a fun, but occasionally stressful adventure for them all: a guest they were told would not be accompanying them does arrive, Skye feels overwhelmed by her responsibilities as now oldest sister, Jane runs into an unexpected roadblock while doing research for her new "Sabrina Starr" book, and little Batty gets addicted to golf balls—and music! A neighbor and his dog add another spark of interest to the story, and, although at a certain point, as in the proceeding book, a plot point becomes very obvious, by then you are so drawn into the story you are eager to see how it all comes out.

This is such a delightfully old-fashioned book: although it's definitely the present (Aunt Claire and other adults have cell phones, and the books the children are reading are modern), the girls aren't overwhelmed by television and other technology, they explore, fight but don't cat-fight, and aren't drowning in girly "princess" stuff. As much as I hate sports, I wouldn't mind playing a game of soccer with the Penderwick family, and then discuss astronomy with Skye, writing with Jane, and take Batty to see a moose and her calves on a misty summer morning!

 A Woman's Guide to a Healthy Stomach, Jacqueline L. Wolf
Since I occasionally suffer from various types of digestive problems, I was interested to see what this book had to say. It was a bit comforting to read the case histories in this book and to learn that "I am not alone," and that so many women felt embarrassed or frustrated by their conditions.

As this book illustrates, sometimes there are no "easy fixes" with digestive, reproductive, or elimination problems. Dr. Wolf takes various conditions—endometriosis, acid reflux, diarrhea, constipation, bowel irregularities, etc.—chapter by chapter, discussing causes and treatments for each. I found the charts, such as the one for fiber foods, and the one for which bacteria causes what type of food poisoning, very useful. I wish there had been a little more information on diets, but I suspect this can be solved by a more specialized book.

In summary, I found this a satisfactory overview about the subject, a good jumping off point for discussions with a doctor or further research on a particular issue (like celiac disease or IBS.

 The Orchid Affair, Lauren Willig
In the present, perpetual grad student Eloise Kelly and her boyfriend Colin Selwick are in Paris, visiting Colin's mother and his odious stepfather, his cousin Jeremy. But in the world of Eloise's historical investigation of the British spy ring of the "Pink Carnation," Laura Gray, one of the newest graduates of the Selwick spy school, is sent on a delicate mission: to pose as governess to the two children of French official Andre Jaouen. Jaouen was once an ardent revolutionary, but, unknown to the Pink Carnation, is disillusioned at how the freedoms he dreamed of have been turned around by a new "aristocracy" ruled by fear.

Since this is a Pink Carnation book, you can possibly guess the outcome; the "fun" is the ride there, as Laura is endangered by the machinations of Gaston Delaroche and becomes friends with the enemy, including her two charges and their handsome father (shades of The Sound of Music). There's a deceptive lack of tension during a change of venue that builds to a corking ending, while Laura and Andre slowly pull back each other's layers to discover the real person within. A solid entry in the Carnation series. So when's the next? :-)

 Unnatural Issue, Mercedes Lackey
Elemental Earth Master Richard Whitestone goes mad with grief after the death of his wife in childbirth and gives the raising of the child over to his faithful servants, until the day he sees eighteen-year-old Susanne from his window. She is the image of her late mother, and Whitestone's mad mind conceives the idea of bringing back the spirit of his wife and lodging it within his daughter's body. Luckily Susanne discovers the plot and flees; while the White Lodge detects traces of evil magic and sends Lord Peter Ansley to investigate.

There are several things to like about this book, the main being Lackey's Lord Peter Wimsey avatar, Peter Ansley. He and his faithful Bunter stand-in, Garrick, conceive a plan to track down the evil magic, and then to help Susanne, with the help of his landowning friends. I did think it a bit much that the avatar of Peter is also named Peter, and his friend is Charles, the same as in the Wimsey mysteries. Like the other female leads in these Elemental Master novels, Susanne is resourceful and no shrinking violet, and the portion of the book that deals with her service in the war is quite good. I also enjoyed the way Whitestone's real character was revealed as the story progressed. I did find Susanne a bit dull, however; not as compelling as Maya Scott, for example. I would get this from the library first, or wait until the paperback release.

 Hallmark: A Century of Caring, Patrick Regan
Okay, it's a bit of a Hallmark shill, but it's supposed to be. This is a big coffee-table book packed with information about the founding, innovations, and family running of Hallmark Cards. If biographies of executives aren't your thing, there are special pages devoted to the different decades of card designs, insights into the artists behind the cards, including several pages about White House Christmas cards, several pages about J.C. Hall's parallels with Walt Disney, who was also raised in Kansas City, a chapter about television's Hallmark Hall of Fame, and more. This book can be bought at bargain prices, and at those, it is a worthwhile indulgence.


 Queen of the Road, Doreen Orion
What do two successful psychiatrists do when they want a change of place? In the case of Doreen Orion, self-proclaimed home and possessions worshipper, and her husband Tim, they buy a custom-built bus and take a year off to tour the country (after a few months of working the bugs out of the vehicle's custom gadgets) with their standard poodle and two cats, including the one that starts out hiding the moment the bus moves. They travel to 48 states, discover the good and the bad about campgrounds, take in tourist attractions and the joys of visiting relatives, and encounter crickets and other "wildlife." Along the way, Doreen, who initially comes off as self-absorbed, agoraphobic, and frivolous(you'll certainly wonder how she ended up as a practicing psychiatrist), comes to realize that life in the great outdoors, without television and in the company of family and friends, is quite worthwhile after all.

This book can be quite funny, but you may wonder if Ms. Orion has an alcohol problem, given her penchant for concocting a martini for every occasion. She does touch on some neat places and personalities discovered in their cross-country odyssey, but your enjoyment will depend on how well you cope with her quirky personality.

 Discounts, Deals & Steals, Readers Digest Books
For people over 50, advice on bargains for grandparents, for travelers, for everyday spending. A good book if this is what you're looking for.

 Picturing Rhode Island, Maureen A. Taylor
I saw this book in Borders last year on vacation, but the high price tag made me gape. I found an excellent copy used instead, and in general I am pleased, but I wish they'd cut three-quarters of the "esthetic white space." The author advises you to use a magnifying glass to check out the details of the photos; I'd advise making them larger in the first place. This is a book, not a modern art gallery. The photos themselves are super; so many I've never seen before, or angles I've never seen before, of Downtown Providence and Newport, including a sequence of the State House being built, and the cleared landscape before I-95 was built.

What this book needed? Twice as many pages! :-) I couldn't believe there wasn't a picture of the old meeting house in Cranston, or the exterior of the old Normal School, or more of the downtown shopping district, or a few more modern photos of the amusement parks.

 Into That Silent Sea, Francis French and Colin Burgess
When I read In the Shadow of the Moon (a book about the Gemini era in the American space program) three years ago, I didn't realize it was part of a series called "A People's History of Spaceflight" until I bought the volume about the Apollo missions. This is the book about the Mercury era—but what I found most fascinating was that fully half the book concentrates on the Russian Vostok program, with biographies of each of the Soviet astronauts, including Yuri Gagarin, Gherman Titov, and Valentine Tereshkova. Even more intriguing was a chapter about "the Mercury 13," thirteen women pilots, including the famous Jackie Cochran, who attempted to get the space program opened to women.

This is a super series of books for anyone interested in the space program; there is also a volume called To a Distant Day about the rocket pioneers, and books about unmanned spacecraft and Spacelab. Highly recommended!

 Requiem for a Mezzo, Carola Dunn
Daisy Dalrymple only knows one of her neighbors is a gifted mezzo-soprano who lives with her husband and sister. But when she goes next door to borrow a baking item, she finds herself propelled into the lives of the narcissistic parents' favorite Betsy "Bettina" and her plain sister Muriel, Bettina's put-upon husband Roger, and their music students. Still, when Daisy and her Scotland Yard beau Alec Fletcher attend Bettina's performance in Mozart's Requiem, no
one's more surprised than Daisy—or more frustrated than Alec—when vain Bettina is poisoned onstage.

This adventure propels Daisy and Alec into the histrionic world of opera, where each of the suspects has a good reason for wanting Bettina dead, and dozens of alibis as well. There's an entertaining supporting cast, including Alec's faithful sidekick Sergeant Tring, the members of the opera company, and even a brief glimpse at Alec's little daughter Belinda, whose acceptance of "Miss Dalrymple" in Alec's life shows a preview of things to come. Another sprightly adventure in the Dalrymple series, although I guessed early who the real culprit was.

 The Reading Promise, Alice Ozma
Alice's librarian father loved to read to his children's classes, and to his daughters. When Alice was ten, she and her father made a promise that he would read to her every night for one hundred days, no matter what. The one hundred days became a thousand, through colds and adolescence and arguments, then continued into a nightly habit until Alice's first day at college.

This is a book about a bond between a father and a daughter that seems to come about partially to compensate from problems with home life. Her parents' marriage was fragile and eventually her emotionally-troubled mother left, leaving her father to bring up two daughters. Her father held himself aloof from a social life so his daughters would not feel they had been abandoned. So their reading "streak" became a coping mechanism as well as a loving tradition.

Despite the melancholy behind this volume, there are several magical moments in this book, including Alice and her father watching a thunderstorm that reminded me of my own childhood. My mother kept me from being afraid of thunder by telling me it was "the angels bowling," and each loud clap became a strike, a softer one a spare. This chapter had a similar feel. For those who love books, or who have used books to get through those tough moments of their life.

(Note to the editors of this book: why is Alice selling her bicycle door-to-door? Oh, you meant she was pedaling her bicycle, not peddling it! Why didn't you say so?)

 The Dime Novel in Children's Literature
I thought it about time I got to this one, which I bought with interest last year at DragonCon. McFarland is known for publishing narrow-interest, but excellent nonfiction, so I was a bit dismayed as I got into this one. There is much good information about the predecessors of books for children (hornbooks, broadsides, chapbooks, religious tracts) and the way dime novels/series books/pulp magazines were treated the way the internet is vilified today, television was in the 1960s, comic books in the 1950s, radio serials in the 1940s, and the movies in the 1920s, as bad influences on children. (Indeed, even novels were suspect in the 1700s.)

However, the book is pretty badly written, with stiff prose, repeated information, and often conflicting data. In one paragraph, five sentences one after the other begin with the same three words. There are noticeable typos, like "Blumfeld" for "Plumfield" in a list of significant children's books, and the author even states that Nathaniel Hawthorne created the character of Natty Bumppo (I've never read Cooper, but even I know who created one of the most significant early leads in American fiction!). If you are truly interested in dime novels and their influence and appeal to children, I suggest you find a used copy of the book.