At this very moment, I am reading georgekelley.org. Go figure. Please don’t get a swelled head, but it’s my first stop every day.
This week, i read a Three Investigators juvenile, M. V. Carey’s THE SECRET OF THE HAUNTED MIRROR, (my FFB) and Stephen King;s LATER. The King was well nigh un-putdownable. At first it seemed as if he was channelling his inner Dean Koontz with the young protagonist being able to see dead people, a la Odd Thomas, but King soon veered into his own territory, spinning a fantastic tale of horror and discovery. Coincidently, the next book I picked up was Dean Koontz’s latest, THE OTHER EMILY. This one concerns a man who lost the love of his life, presumably the victim of a serial killer who refuses to tell who fourteen of his twetny-seven victims were nor where the bodies are. Now the man meets meet a woman who is the exact copy of his lost Emily as she was when she vanished ten years before. Inexplicble mysteries shroud this “other Emily,” as another person who nis well and truly dead keeps popping up. I’m about halfway through this one. In addition, I’m continuing to read a lot of short stories, both on-line and in collections — mainly mystery, science fiction, and fantasy, with a couplem of westerns thrownnin for good measure.
Today is National Applesauce Cake Day. Also, on this day in 1965, The Rolling Stones released their single (I CAN’T GET NO) SATISFACTION. I hope you and Diane get some satisfaction from applesauce cake today (or whatever floats your boat).
Jeff, as I mentioned in my comment to Jerry, I read a haunting Dean R. Koontz story, “We Three,” from the time in his career when Koontz wrote SF. Chilling!
Jerry, thank you for your kind words! A couple days ago I read a chilling Dean R. Koontz story, “We Three,” and I’m still haunted by it. I remember listening to “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” for the first time on our local Rock & Roll radio station and being blown away! Last week Diane whipped up some home-made apple sauce…but without the cake. Diane also claims my head sometimes swells from complements to such an extent that it doesn’t fit through the door!
I’m currently reading the four book Cassie Dewell series by C. J. Box that was the basis of the ABC series BIG SKY that concluded its first season last month and has been renewed for a second. The first season is also available on Hulu. Box is best known for his Joe Pickett series, which people have been recommending to me for years. I decided to start with the shorter Cassie Dewell series because I’d enjoyed BIG SKY. Also just finished a MWA anthology called WHEN A STRANGER COMES TO TOWN edited by Michael Koryta. The overall quality of the stories is pretty high. My favorite was a particularly nasty bit of work by Joe Lansdale.
Dan, I just finished another volume of THE BEST FROM FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION whose review will show up on this blog in August (I work ahead). I’m very tempted to go see A QUIET PLACE 2 in a movie theater…but I’m going to hold off until July 9 for the BLACK WIDOW movie.
I’m reading an entertaining book that popped up on my Kindle Unlimited recommendations: THE STORYTELLING ANIMAL: HOW STORIES MAKE US HUMAN by Jonathan Gottschall. It’s a very interesting look into why humans tell stories—starting with little kids playing “let’s pretend” games and going through all the ways creating & consuming fiction (including dreams, books, movies, commercials, etc.) contribute to being human. Unsurprising to those of us here, Gottschall reports that studies show a strong link between reading fiction and being socially-aware and empathetic. My only minor quibble with the book is that it was published almost a decade ago (2012) and so does not include much about the storytelling/fictions of social media “influencers” and their carefully-curated online stories about the way they supposedly their lives.
Deb, my nephew is a psychiatrist who specializes in the treatment of troubled teens. He says social media does more damage than good to these youths. They are bombarded by peer pressure, judgments, conspiracy theories, and threats. The online storytelling/fictions can be incredibly destructive.
True. One of the things Gottschall discusses is how those very things that make us human—being predisposed to responding to fiction/stories and attempting to find patterns & meaning in random events—often makes us susceptible to believing conspiracy theories or falling prey to scams & cons. It’s not all unalloyed joy being “the storytelling animal”!
Jeff Meyerson
Great cartoon, George. I finally finished all three of the short story collections I’ve been reading for more than a week – I read at least one story from each of them every day – Jim Shepard, LOVE AND HYDROGEN; Antonya Nelson, FEMALE TROUBLE; and the MWA anthology edited by Michael Koryta, WHEN A STRANGER COMES TO TOWN.
I’m over 200 pages into FIRST RESPONDER, the memoir by EMT Jennifer Murphy, who volunteers with the Park Slope Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
Books from the library keep pouring in. Not sure if I will read it – I will try a story and see if I like it – but I downloaded Rodrigues Ottolengui’s FINAL PROOF, a collection of stories originally published in 1898 and reprinted in the Library of Congress Crime Collection. I’ve been interested in this since I read about it in Barzun & Taylor’s A CATALOGUE OF CRIME. The other book I downloaded from the library was Jon Talton’s historical mystery of 1930s Phoenix, CITY OF DARK CORNERS. I’ve read most of his David Mapstone series, which always has a tie-in to historical events in Phoenix’s past. I think a young Barry Goldwater might be in this one.
After that, I have a list of library books on Kindle that are available to download – collections by Christopher Fowler and Mark Polanzak (which George just reviewed) and David Gates and Nathan Englander, plus the books I already have on hold.
I wonder if CITY OF DARK CORNERS includes a reference to Winnie Ruth Judd, the infamous “trunk murderess” who supposedly killed her two best friends and stuffed them in a trunk in Phoenix in 1931. The murders were the inspiration for Megan Abbott’s very good BURY ME DEEP.
Deb, I can’t wait to read Megan Abbott’s new novel!!
Jeff Meyerson
From what the person who recommended it said, I think it does. She used to live in the Phoenix area and said the Judd case was still remembered. Judd didn’t die until 1998.
Jeff, the Library books keep pouring in here, too! I’m back up to a dozen Library books with several falling in the 14-Day category (which usually means they can’t be renewed). And, I just talked the Acquisitions Librarian into buying four more new Big Fat Books that loom in the future.
I just finished Blood Grove by Walter Mosley. The latest in his Easy Rawlins series. Also just read a short novel by Daryl Gregory, The Album of Dr. Moreau. I am currently reading short stories in two collections-Bullets and Other Hurting Things and When a Stranger Comes to Town. Also reading Clandestine by James Ellroy. His second published novel. Next up The Quiet Boy by Ben H. Winters.
Steve, I’m impressed with the volume of reading you’re doing! I just ordered a bunch of Vampire novels. I’m planning a VAMPIRE WEEK sometime in October.
George, if you don’t already have it let me recommend THE SOUTHERN BOOK CLUB’S GUIDE TO SLAYING VAMPIRES by Grady Hendrix. Yeah, yeah, it’s a terrible title but it’s very creepy and frequently funny as hell. Hendrix is a rising star.
Michael, I don’t have Grady Hendrix’s THE SOUTHERN BOOK CLUB’S GUIDE TO SLAYING VAMPIRES, but I’m going to order it Right Now! Thanks for the heads up!
Jeff Meyerson
George, of course I haven’t read it yet, but that SOUTHERN BOOK CLUB was the last book that Beth sent us.
Rick, right now zombies are the rage (like ARMY OF THE DEAD). But I predict Vampires will rise again…from the dead!
Patti Abbott
I am trying to get into the making of the movie, Giant, which Megan sent me. She and a friend read a book every month about show business and this was one she especially liked. Right now they are reading one on Ethel Merman.
I have pretty much given up on my book club book and wonder if we should not meet in the summer. Or maybe 20 years is just too long for a group. The book review section of the NYT today had a lot of good books reviewed. But I keep buying books and not reading them. I think my library is reopening for 30 minute visits this week. Thank goodness.
Thanks for the shout-out, Deb. I think that is one of Megan’s best books but it is rarely mentioned.
I saw several books in today’s NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW that tempted me. I’m trying NOT to buy any books the Library would buy. My Library system has an aversion to small press books so I usually end up buying them.
I read Seventy-Seven Clocks by Christopher Fowler, the third Bryant and May book, and Ten Second Staircase, the fourth in the series, the latter of which I liked a lot, though they are all very good. I finished the ebook of Mike Ripley-edited Mammoth Book of Locked-Room Mysteries and Impossible Crimes, which I enjoyed a lot. Many good stories in it, some classics. I read The Place to Be by Roger Mudd about his years at CBS News, which was interesting but awfully full of names and places, as you would expect.
I’m continuing to read short stories from the Norvell Page collection, and am about to finish the first book in Jodi Taylor’s new Time Police series, Doing Time which I’m enjoying a lot and will finish today. Then, probably, another short story collection, Hayden’s World volume 1.
Library books are slow in coming. There are several I’ve had on hold for many weeks and I’m still not close to being next.
Rick, maybe it’s just me but the type of books I request from the Library usually arrive at the speed of light…and in bunches! I’ve got over a dozen Library books waiting to be read.
Since shutting down for the pandemic, our library system has been very, very slow to re-open, and glacial in placing books. They hardly order anything, and few copies of those. Where they once ordered a dozen copies of a book by a popular author, now it’s two. I put in a hold for Horowitz’ MOONFLOWER MURDERS over 2 months ago and I’m still 22nd on 3 copies.
We make a donation too, as in there is a special libraries bond which we pay. Doesn’t help, once the pandemic arrived 18 months ago. But then Since 3/2020, Oregon has been behind in just about everything…
Cap'n Bob Napier
I’m reading the fourth book in James Reasoner’s Rattler series, about a sheriff in the Old West. Also a collection of skiffy short stories, although the current one, by Joseph Campbell, isn’t grabbing me.
Currently reading THE UNDER DOG by Agatha Christie, and the Jan/Feb 2021 issue of F&SF.
Recently finished: THE SECRET OF CHIMNEYS and THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD by Christie, and the first (2015} volume of THE BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY, edited by John Joseph Adams and Joe Hill. Like a lot of the Best American books, this had a bookmark in it, and I decided to finish it off. An excellent anthology, full of very good stories.
Before the Christie books, I reread three by Edgar Rice Burroughs: THE MONSTER MEN, THE WARLORD OF MARS, and THE BEASTS OF TARZAN. When I finish the Christie, probably tonight, it’ll be on to a couple by Ann Cleeves. I only started reading her last year, and I just have half a dozen or so left. I read her first book, thought, that wasn’t bad, then read the first Vera, and thought, this is exactly how I like a book told. So I read practically nothing but her all last year. (I did read RED HOOD by Elana Arnold twice last year, because I loved that so much. I may have mentioned that already — it’s a YA werewolf novel, and one of the bloodiest books I’ve ever read. Oddly, while I visualize most books I read as movies, I visualize this one as pen-and-ink drawings.)
Jeff, I just came into a batch of Edgar Rice Burroughs paperbacks. I read a lot of ERB’s books back in the 1960s, both ACE Books and Ballantine Books editions. If I can whittle down the stack of Library books–there’s at least a dozen there–I might dive into a Tarzan novel.
I have to envy you all – right now I don’t have the time/can’t concentrate on reading books but I’m online every day – so much interesting info, mainly political.
The developments in Europe look promising at least.
At this very moment, I am reading georgekelley.org. Go figure. Please don’t get a swelled head, but it’s my first stop every day.
This week, i read a Three Investigators juvenile, M. V. Carey’s THE SECRET OF THE HAUNTED MIRROR, (my FFB) and Stephen King;s LATER. The King was well nigh un-putdownable. At first it seemed as if he was channelling his inner Dean Koontz with the young protagonist being able to see dead people, a la Odd Thomas, but King soon veered into his own territory, spinning a fantastic tale of horror and discovery. Coincidently, the next book I picked up was Dean Koontz’s latest, THE OTHER EMILY. This one concerns a man who lost the love of his life, presumably the victim of a serial killer who refuses to tell who fourteen of his twetny-seven victims were nor where the bodies are. Now the man meets meet a woman who is the exact copy of his lost Emily as she was when she vanished ten years before. Inexplicble mysteries shroud this “other Emily,” as another person who nis well and truly dead keeps popping up. I’m about halfway through this one. In addition, I’m continuing to read a lot of short stories, both on-line and in collections — mainly mystery, science fiction, and fantasy, with a couplem of westerns thrownnin for good measure.
Today is National Applesauce Cake Day. Also, on this day in 1965, The Rolling Stones released their single (I CAN’T GET NO) SATISFACTION. I hope you and Diane get some satisfaction from applesauce cake today (or whatever floats your boat).
Yeah, I thought Odd Thomas too when I started the King. I haven’t read a Koontz in some time.
Jeff, as I mentioned in my comment to Jerry, I read a haunting Dean R. Koontz story, “We Three,” from the time in his career when Koontz wrote SF. Chilling!
Jerry, thank you for your kind words! A couple days ago I read a chilling Dean R. Koontz story, “We Three,” and I’m still haunted by it. I remember listening to “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” for the first time on our local Rock & Roll radio station and being blown away! Last week Diane whipped up some home-made apple sauce…but without the cake. Diane also claims my head sometimes swells from complements to such an extent that it doesn’t fit through the door!
I’m currently reading the four book Cassie Dewell series by C. J. Box that was the basis of the ABC series BIG SKY that concluded its first season last month and has been renewed for a second. The first season is also available on Hulu. Box is best known for his Joe Pickett series, which people have been recommending to me for years. I decided to start with the shorter Cassie Dewell series because I’d enjoyed BIG SKY. Also just finished a MWA anthology called WHEN A STRANGER COMES TO TOWN edited by Michael Koryta. The overall quality of the stories is pretty high. My favorite was a particularly nasty bit of work by Joe Lansdale.
Michael, Joe R. Landsdale is a favorite of mine, too. I just picked up a collection of Landsdale’s western short stories.
THE PRISONER ATE A HEARTY MEAL, a 1939 novel by Jerome Ellson.
And you?
Dan, I just finished another volume of THE BEST FROM FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION whose review will show up on this blog in August (I work ahead). I’m very tempted to go see A QUIET PLACE 2 in a movie theater…but I’m going to hold off until July 9 for the BLACK WIDOW movie.
I’m reading an entertaining book that popped up on my Kindle Unlimited recommendations: THE STORYTELLING ANIMAL: HOW STORIES MAKE US HUMAN by Jonathan Gottschall. It’s a very interesting look into why humans tell stories—starting with little kids playing “let’s pretend” games and going through all the ways creating & consuming fiction (including dreams, books, movies, commercials, etc.) contribute to being human. Unsurprising to those of us here, Gottschall reports that studies show a strong link between reading fiction and being socially-aware and empathetic. My only minor quibble with the book is that it was published almost a decade ago (2012) and so does not include much about the storytelling/fictions of social media “influencers” and their carefully-curated online stories about the way they supposedly their lives.
“…supposedly live their lives.”
Deb, my nephew is a psychiatrist who specializes in the treatment of troubled teens. He says social media does more damage than good to these youths. They are bombarded by peer pressure, judgments, conspiracy theories, and threats. The online storytelling/fictions can be incredibly destructive.
True. One of the things Gottschall discusses is how those very things that make us human—being predisposed to responding to fiction/stories and attempting to find patterns & meaning in random events—often makes us susceptible to believing conspiracy theories or falling prey to scams & cons. It’s not all unalloyed joy being “the storytelling animal”!
Great cartoon, George. I finally finished all three of the short story collections I’ve been reading for more than a week – I read at least one story from each of them every day – Jim Shepard, LOVE AND HYDROGEN; Antonya Nelson, FEMALE TROUBLE; and the MWA anthology edited by Michael Koryta, WHEN A STRANGER COMES TO TOWN.
I’m over 200 pages into FIRST RESPONDER, the memoir by EMT Jennifer Murphy, who volunteers with the Park Slope Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
Books from the library keep pouring in. Not sure if I will read it – I will try a story and see if I like it – but I downloaded Rodrigues Ottolengui’s FINAL PROOF, a collection of stories originally published in 1898 and reprinted in the Library of Congress Crime Collection. I’ve been interested in this since I read about it in Barzun & Taylor’s A CATALOGUE OF CRIME. The other book I downloaded from the library was Jon Talton’s historical mystery of 1930s Phoenix, CITY OF DARK CORNERS. I’ve read most of his David Mapstone series, which always has a tie-in to historical events in Phoenix’s past. I think a young Barry Goldwater might be in this one.
After that, I have a list of library books on Kindle that are available to download – collections by Christopher Fowler and Mark Polanzak (which George just reviewed) and David Gates and Nathan Englander, plus the books I already have on hold.
So, no shortage of reading material here.
I wonder if CITY OF DARK CORNERS includes a reference to Winnie Ruth Judd, the infamous “trunk murderess” who supposedly killed her two best friends and stuffed them in a trunk in Phoenix in 1931. The murders were the inspiration for Megan Abbott’s very good BURY ME DEEP.
Deb, I can’t wait to read Megan Abbott’s new novel!!
From what the person who recommended it said, I think it does. She used to live in the Phoenix area and said the Judd case was still remembered. Judd didn’t die until 1998.
Jeff, the Library books keep pouring in here, too! I’m back up to a dozen Library books with several falling in the 14-Day category (which usually means they can’t be renewed). And, I just talked the Acquisitions Librarian into buying four more new Big Fat Books that loom in the future.
I just finished Blood Grove by Walter Mosley. The latest in his Easy Rawlins series. Also just read a short novel by Daryl Gregory, The Album of Dr. Moreau. I am currently reading short stories in two collections-Bullets and Other Hurting Things and When a Stranger Comes to Town. Also reading Clandestine by James Ellroy. His second published novel. Next up The Quiet Boy by Ben H. Winters.
Steve, I’m impressed with the volume of reading you’re doing! I just ordered a bunch of Vampire novels. I’m planning a VAMPIRE WEEK sometime in October.
George, if you don’t already have it let me recommend THE SOUTHERN BOOK CLUB’S GUIDE TO SLAYING VAMPIRES by Grady Hendrix. Yeah, yeah, it’s a terrible title but it’s very creepy and frequently funny as hell. Hendrix is a rising star.
Michael, I don’t have Grady Hendrix’s THE SOUTHERN BOOK CLUB’S GUIDE TO SLAYING VAMPIRES, but I’m going to order it Right Now! Thanks for the heads up!
George, of course I haven’t read it yet, but that SOUTHERN BOOK CLUB was the last book that Beth sent us.
Jeff, I ordered Grady Hendrix’s THE SOUTHERN BOOK CLUB’S GUIDE TO SLAYING VAMPIRES and I can’t wait to read it!
Vampire novels are so 2000’s. Surely we are over that fad by now!
Rick, right now zombies are the rage (like ARMY OF THE DEAD). But I predict Vampires will rise again…from the dead!
I am trying to get into the making of the movie, Giant, which Megan sent me. She and a friend read a book every month about show business and this was one she especially liked. Right now they are reading one on Ethel Merman.
I have pretty much given up on my book club book and wonder if we should not meet in the summer. Or maybe 20 years is just too long for a group. The book review section of the NYT today had a lot of good books reviewed. But I keep buying books and not reading them. I think my library is reopening for 30 minute visits this week. Thank goodness.
Thanks for the shout-out, Deb. I think that is one of Megan’s best books but it is rarely mentioned.
I saw several books in today’s NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW that tempted me. I’m trying NOT to buy any books the Library would buy. My Library system has an aversion to small press books so I usually end up buying them.
I read Seventy-Seven Clocks by Christopher Fowler, the third Bryant and May book, and Ten Second Staircase, the fourth in the series, the latter of which I liked a lot, though they are all very good. I finished the ebook of Mike Ripley-edited Mammoth Book of Locked-Room Mysteries and Impossible Crimes, which I enjoyed a lot. Many good stories in it, some classics. I read The Place to Be by Roger Mudd about his years at CBS News, which was interesting but awfully full of names and places, as you would expect.
I’m continuing to read short stories from the Norvell Page collection, and am about to finish the first book in Jodi Taylor’s new Time Police series, Doing Time which I’m enjoying a lot and will finish today. Then, probably, another short story collection, Hayden’s World volume 1.
Library books are slow in coming. There are several I’ve had on hold for many weeks and I’m still not close to being next.
Rick, maybe it’s just me but the type of books I request from the Library usually arrive at the speed of light…and in bunches! I’ve got over a dozen Library books waiting to be read.
Since shutting down for the pandemic, our library system has been very, very slow to re-open, and glacial in placing books. They hardly order anything, and few copies of those. Where they once ordered a dozen copies of a book by a popular author, now it’s two. I put in a hold for Horowitz’ MOONFLOWER MURDERS over 2 months ago and I’m still 22nd on 3 copies.
Rick, somehow my local Libraries deliver quick service and buy anything I request. Of course, I make a donation to them each year…
Our library system stopped accepting buy requests more than a year ago. But your library treats you special, George.
We make a donation too, as in there is a special libraries bond which we pay. Doesn’t help, once the pandemic arrived 18 months ago. But then Since 3/2020, Oregon has been behind in just about everything…
I’m reading the fourth book in James Reasoner’s Rattler series, about a sheriff in the Old West. Also a collection of skiffy short stories, although the current one, by Joseph Campbell, isn’t grabbing me.
Bob, you can’t go wrong with a James Reasoner book. The guy is a born storyteller!
Currently reading THE UNDER DOG by Agatha Christie, and the Jan/Feb 2021 issue of F&SF.
Recently finished: THE SECRET OF CHIMNEYS and THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD by Christie, and the first (2015} volume of THE BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY, edited by John Joseph Adams and Joe Hill. Like a lot of the Best American books, this had a bookmark in it, and I decided to finish it off. An excellent anthology, full of very good stories.
Before the Christie books, I reread three by Edgar Rice Burroughs: THE MONSTER MEN, THE WARLORD OF MARS, and THE BEASTS OF TARZAN. When I finish the Christie, probably tonight, it’ll be on to a couple by Ann Cleeves. I only started reading her last year, and I just have half a dozen or so left. I read her first book, thought, that wasn’t bad, then read the first Vera, and thought, this is exactly how I like a book told. So I read practically nothing but her all last year. (I did read RED HOOD by Elana Arnold twice last year, because I loved that so much. I may have mentioned that already — it’s a YA werewolf novel, and one of the bloodiest books I’ve ever read. Oddly, while I visualize most books I read as movies, I visualize this one as pen-and-ink drawings.)
Jeff, I just came into a batch of Edgar Rice Burroughs paperbacks. I read a lot of ERB’s books back in the 1960s, both ACE Books and Ballantine Books editions. If I can whittle down the stack of Library books–there’s at least a dozen there–I might dive into a Tarzan novel.
I have to envy you all – right now I don’t have the time/can’t concentrate on reading books but I’m online every day – so much interesting info, mainly political.
The developments in Europe look promising at least.
Wolf, New York State is approaching 70% vaccination rate. Just about everything here will be completely open by July 4.
I am reading The Invisible Husband of Frick Island. I have just over 100 pages left and I’m really enjoying it thus far.
Carl, sounds like my kind of book!
My error! It was John W. Campbell and it didn’t work well for me!