I’ve read a few Ward Just novels and none of them made much of an impression. Sure, Ward Just novels have been finalists for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, but they leave me cold.

I decided to give Ward Just one more try, so I picked Forgetfulness (2006). Ward Just’s 15th novel begins in the Pyrenees, with four men carrying the injured Florette DuFour down a treacherous mountain trail in the dark. Florette decided to take a walk while her husband stayed in a restaurant to drink wine with some old friends. But, a miles away from the restaurant, Florette stumbled and fractured her ankle.

Florette’s accident takes place near a mountain shelter equipped with a stretcher. Four men find her, but speak a language Florette doesn’t understand. They place Florette on the stretcher and start to take her down the mountain. At a certain point, the men put the stretcher down to rest. The leader slits Florette’s throat.

At this point, I thought Forgetfulness would turn into a revenge novel. Florette’s American husband, Thomas, has some CIA connections in his past. But, Ward Just decides to explore the treatment of political prisoners.

Once again I came to the end of Ward Just novel with disappointment. Forgetfulness will be the last Ward Just novel I’ll read. But, to be fair, you might want to check out this laudatory review which calls Forgetfulness one of Ward Just’s best novels here. GRADE: C

I’ve been a fan of Justin Marriott’s PAPERBACK FANATIC series for years. This new issue focuses on the paperbacks of Belmont Books and Tower Books (Tower would merge with Belmont in the 1970s). Justin’s method is simple: show the covers and write a paragraph about the book, the author, and the cover artist.

PATERBACK FANTATIC #45 includes about 330 paperback covers. The most famous–or infamous–of these Belmont Books is Harlan Ellison’s Doomsman. Ellison would rip the book apart in front of the shocked owner who wanted Ellison to sign Doomsman at a convention. There are many stories about when Ellison destroyed every copy of Doomsman he came across. I suspect it had something to do with Belmont’s payments (or lack thereof).

If you’d like to google at hundreds of paperback covers and learn obscure facts about them, PAPERBACK FANATIC #45 is just waiting to turn you on! GRADE: A

The last time I watched a concert DVD of The Pretenders, it was almost a year ago (you can read my review here) and they were performing in a sweltering venue. Chrissy Hynde’s make-up and eye shadow dripped down her face like melting ice cream. Fortunately, The Pretenders Loose in L.A. features a live concert at the Wiltern Theatre on February 2003 where the temperature was more moderate.

My favorite performances from this concert are: “Lie to Me,” “Nothing Breaks Like a Heart,” and “Brass in Pocket.” The Pretenders included many of their hits like “Talk of the Town,” “Back On the Chain Gang,” and “I’ll Stand By You.” The audience cheered enthusiastically and the camera crew kept going back to a redhead in the front row again and again. All in all, a very satisfying concert video! Are you a fan of The Pretenders? Or…do you just pretend you are? GRADE: A

SET LIST:

I wasn’t familiar with Holly Black before I read The Poison Eaters and Other Stories (2010). I don’t remember where or when I acquired The Poison Eaters but suspect it was some time ago. But, now that I’ve read some of Holly Black’s work, I want to read more.

One of my favorite stories in this collection is “Paper Cuts Scissors” about a librarian who is hired by a book collector to catalog his library. But, the librarian discovers a secret the collector hides about activities that occur after Midnight.

I also was mesmerized by the title story in this collection, “The Poison Eaters.” Three sisters of a royal family try to negotiate the politics of the Royal Court. Their father is on the outs with the King so recruiting possible suitors challenges the family. Through a series of actions two of the three sisters become ghosts. The lone surviving sister finds a dire future before her.

Holly Black’s The Poison Eaters and Other Stories presents a range of stories, but all of them are well-crafted and some will haunt you long after you finish them. GRADE: B+

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

• The Coldest Girl in Coldtown — 1
• A Reversal of Fortune — 29
• The Boy Who Cried Wolf — 49
• The Night Market — 57
• The Dog King — listen to it on Podcastle — 77
• Virgin — 91
• In Vodka Veritas — 105
• The Coat of Stars — 123
• Paper Cuts Scissors — listen to it on Podcastle — 147
• Going Ironside — 171
• The Land of Heart’s Desire — 175
• The Poison Eaters — 195

If you’re a fan of The Twilight Zone and Night Gallery you’ll enjoy this horror anthology series. There are eight episodes and Guillermo del Toro wrote two of them, “Lot 36” and “The Murmuring,” the first and last episodes.

For fans of Henry Kuttner, “Graveyard Rats” will be a delight as a desperate grave robber finds more than he bargained for. Lovecraft is represented by two classic stories: “Pickman’s Model” and “Dreams in the Witch House.” I was also happy that Michael Shea’s underrated story, “The Autopsy,” fits right into the vibe of this series.

I’m glad I finally caught up with this series on Netflix. If you’re looking for a 21st Century version of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone and Night Gallery, here it is. GRADE: A

I read Matt Ruff’s Lovecraft Country back in 2016 (you can read my review here) and watched the HBO series based on Lovecraft Country (you can read my review of that series here). Now, Ruff returns with a sequel to Lovecraft Country and a promise of several more books chronicling the Turner and Dandridge families in the late 1950s as they confront racism…and Lovecraftian weirdness.

The Destroyer of Worlds opens in 1957 with Chicago’s Turner and Dandridge families once again menaced by alien forces. Atticus Turner and his taciturn father, Montrose, are in Virginia looking for evidence of their Black slave ancestors when they find they’re suddenly under attack by a White Supremacist they faced in Massachusetts in Lovecraft Country. The chase is on!

Hippolyta Berry, Atticus’s aunt and the most scientifically minded family member, is in Las Vegas with her moody 15-year-old son, Horace, and good friend Letitia Dandridge. What is supposed to be a vacation instead turns out to be a delivery of a rare object to sinister pawnbroker who holds the keys to a device able to transport people from Earth to any place in the galaxy.

George Berry, who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, makes a Faustian bargain with the ghost of Hiram Winthrop, the brilliant, malevolent scientist from Lovecraft Country who promises to provide George with a cure for his cancer…if George can find a cadaver for Winthrop.

Ruby Dandridge, Letitia’s sister, who has the power to turn herself into a redheaded White woman named Hillary Hyde, faces the prospect that her supply of potions enabling her transformation may run out.

These are just a few of the storylines Matt Ruff weaves into The Destroyer of Worlds. I enjoyed this sequel as much as I enjoyed Lovecraft Country. And, I can’t wait for more books in this series to be published. My only minor quibble is that I would like MORE Lovercraft elements in these books. GRADE: B+

I read a lot of books that involve magic. Most fantasy novels include magic and witches and sorcerers. So I decided to read this brief book by Sarah Lyons who explains the history of magic, describes the different types of magic (chaos magic is very hot right now), and the elements of witchcraft.

I particularly liked Lyons’s discussion of Tarot cards and the various decks available.

Do you believe in magic? GRADE: B

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 Why Study Magic? 5

Chapter 2 The Basics 13

Chapter 3 Chaos Magic 37

Chapter 4 Spell Books and Grimoires 57

Chapter 5 Ceremonial Magic 83

Chapter 6 Witchcraft 117

Chapter 7 Paganism, Gods, and History 141

Chapter 8 Where to go from here 161

Acknowledgments 173

Um, Sources for These Claims? Or Selected Bibliography 175

Further Reading 177

Index 179

I enjoy literary history and Martin Puchner’s The Written World tells the story of how writing spread around the world. Puchner takes a world-wide approach to his subject and provides insights I was not aware of despite my decades of reading and studying Literature.

The first surprise was that Alexander the Great spread writing in very country he conquered. His favorite book was The Iliad which he carried everywhere he traveled. Puchner surmises Alexander the Great was inspired by the events in The Iliad and they led him to his conquests.

I knew about book piracy and the fake “sequels” to Don Quixote but I had no idea of the extent of the practice until Puchner enlightened me. I was also aware of Benjamin Franklin’s important work spreading printing presses throughout the new United States, but again the extent of Franklin’s efforts astonished me.

My favorite chapter in The Written World is Chapter 13. I’m a huge fan of Isaiah Berlin and I’ve read many of his books. But, I did not know the story of Berlin traveling to Russia to meet with the banned poet Anna Akhmatova. The weight of the Soviet Government landed on Akhmatova reducing her to poverty despite her world-class reputation. Berlin spent a couple of days with Akhmatova in her squalid hovel–Puchner hints some romantic incident may have occurred–and Berlin later championed Akhmatova in the Western World. I knew Berlin operated as a diplomat for the British Government, but I had no idea he was also a spy.

If Literary History excites you as much as it does me, give The Written World a look. GRADE: A

Table of Contents:

Introduction: Earthrise     — xi                                                                                                         
Map and Timeline of the Written World          — xxiv                                                                        

Chapter 1: Alexander’s Pillow Book     — 3                                                                                 
Chapter 2: King of the Universe: Of Gilgamesh and Ashurbanipal            — 24                             
Chapter 3: Ezra and the Creation of Holy Scripture            — 46                                                    
Chapter 4: Learning from the Buddha, Confucius, Socrates, and Jesus     — 62                              
Chapter 5: Murasaki and The Tale of Genji: The First Great Novel in World History    — 98        
Chapter 6: One Thousand and One Nights with Scheherazade            — 121                                   
Chapter 7: Gutenberg, Luther, and the New Public of Print        — 145                                            
Chapter 8: The Popol Vuh and Maya Culture: A Second, Independent Literary Tradition     — 171 
Chapter 9: Don Quixote and the Pirates              — 193                                                                    
Chapter 10: Benjamin Franklin: Media Entrepreneur in the Republic of Letters        — 211 
Chapter 11: World Literature: Goethe in Sicily        — 232                                                            
Chapter 12: Marx, Engels, Lenin, Mao: Readers of The Communist Manifesto, Unite!         — 252
Chapter 13: Akhmatova and Solzhenitsyn: Writing Against the Soviet State        — 272      
Chapter 14: The Epic of Sunjata and the Wordsmiths of West Africa            — 290             
Chapter 15: Postcolonial Literature: Derek Walcott, Poet of the Caribbean       — 306                      
Chapter 16: From Hogwarts to India                               — 326                                                       

Acknowledgements                                                — 339                                                                 
Notes                                                             — 341                                                                          
Illustration Credits                          — 389                                                                                         
Index — 393

Bill Crider was a big fan of Robert R. McCammon’s work and urged me to read his books. I confess, I much preferred Stephen King books over Robert R. McCammon’s work although both writers worked the same side of the Horror street.

I’ve had this copy of They Thirst since it was first published in 1981 by Avon books and I finally got around to reading it. They Thirst is McCammon’s fourth book and this is significant because McCammon later “disowned” his first four books (Baal, Bethany’s Sin, The Night Boat, and They Thirst) and resisted their reprinting.

They Thirst concerns a vampire apocalypse aimed at Los Angeles. Vampire Prince Conrad Vulkan and his minions set up residence in an abandoned castle in the hills of LA. From there, they slowly start their move to take over the city.

McCammon’s 531 page book features a dozen characters: a newspaper reporter, a policeman whose father was bitten by a vampire, a dying priest who senses the vampire conquest, a comedian and his girl friend who are chased by vampires, and plenty of Bad Guys.

The problem in books like They Thirst is how does the writer sustain the horror of the event. After the first dozen blood suckings what do you do to carry the plot forward? That’s something Stephen King figured out…but McCammon did not at this point in his writing career. GRADE: C+

Here are two different music CDs with the same title. Shake It Up by The Cars is basically a collection of some of their early hits from 1981 rereleased in 2018…but most of these songs sound 40 years old even with remastering. “Shake It Up” still receives airplay on our local Oldies radio station.

Shake It Up: America Rocks is a dance music compilation with classics like C & C Music Factory’s “Gonna Make You Sweat,” Marky Mark and The Funky Bunch’s “Good Vibrations,” and Technotronic’s “Pump Up the Jam.”

Do any of these songs shake it up for you? GRADE: B (for both)

TRACK LIST:

TRACK LIST:

1. C & C Music Fatctory — Gonna Make You Sweat 6:50
2. Lil Louis — French Kiss 9:54
3. Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch — Good Vibrations 4:25
4. Snap — The Power 5:42
5. Black Box — Everybody Everybody 5:20
6. Technotronic — Pump Up the Jam 5:23
7. AB Logic — The Hitman 4:03
8. Digital Underground — The empty Dance 4:40