Looking for Your Next Book

This was the oldest book in my ARC queue. It took me awhile to get to reading this not because of a lack of interest but because a death of a Kindle and a change in Kindle behavior meant I had lost the book to digital atoms. It's because I DID want to read this that I pursued getting my own copy. I can't imagine anyone who reads fantasy not being familiar with L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (probably first from the movie) even if they aren't aware that there were many books in the series. The student-geared abridged version of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was the first book I ever read cover to cover in one day when I was in second grade during a snow day in 1969 (yes, it was special enough that I remember it quite well). Editors John Joseph Adams and Douglas Cohen have collected an all-star group of authors to add their own Oz stories into the mythology. I've wondered why the book has so much appeal, but I think Gregory McGuire nails it in his Foreword:...

CLASSIC SCI-FI WEEK Richard Ayrault is a major player (a stockholder) with Terrestrial Axis Straightening Company. The company has begun the process of tilting the Earth's axis so that it might be more useful to the most people on the planet. With this already well underway, the adventurous men decide they should travel to some of the other planets in the solar system and see what they might be able to accomplish there. Space travel isn't too difficult with "apergy" - an opposite force to gravity. But first the spaceship needs to be designed and built. Ayrault takes bids - making sure it will have all the essentials ... you know, carpeting and drapes.  And rain gutters on the exterior to capture the rain on Jupiter. Although they will pass Mars, they use the opportunity to take plenty of pictures, rather than making a stop. Once they get to Jupiter they need to make sure there's a breathable atmosphere, and of course the best way to do that is to crack the window....

CLASSIC SCI-FI WEEK  In the course of interstellar colonization, humans discover the L'Vrai - another race rapidly expanding their own presence in the galaxy. It's important to make contact and hopefully prevent a costly war or even genocide. There are 'tamers' - the front line soldiers sent to meet the L'Vrai head on; but it seems that the best way to reach the other race is via telepathy.  However, the telepathic worm that is used, kills the host.  Except for Jacque Lefavre, who is now the only person able to communicate with the enemy, creating the bridge between minds. I remember reading this, age 15, when it was first released through the Science Fiction Book Club (I may even still have that copy somewhere, signed by the author at a convention). I read it in one sitting and was blown away. My how times have changed. Reading it now, I was mostly bored.  It felt as though we would have the teams try something. Something dangerous happens. Try again. Repeat. What ...

CLASSIC SCI-FI WEEK Nevia is a planet many light years away from Earth. The planet is running out of iron - an essential source of energy for the aquatic inhabitants. The Nevians have developed technology that can pull the iron out of just about anything ... including human blood. The Nevians attack an unsuspecting Earth - a planet rich with their needed resource - destroying the city and surrounding area of Pittsburgh, and then head back to their planet with a load of ore and three human captives. Among the prisoners is Conway Costigan, an undercover agent with the Triplanetary Patrol. His difficult job is to assess any Nevian weaknesses and get information back to Earth and the Patrol. But simply staying alive will be his biggest challenge. I've been reading science fiction for nearly 50 years and while I've heard about and been casually familiar with E. E. "Doc" Smith and the Lensman series, I'd never read anything by Smith prior to this.  Something about the a...

CLASSIC SCI-FI WEEK Kim Stanley Robinson is one of my favorite, working authors, and has been since I started reading his work in the late 1980's. It's nice to see that his older work is being reissued to be found by new audiences or re-discovered and re-enjoyed by those of us who've read it before. The book Icehenge is a collection of three novellas, from three different points of view. The first takes place in 2248 with Emma Weil narrating. Currently on board an asteroid mining ship, she becomes hostage to the ship's crew who want her to help them to convert three stolen ships from the Mars Starship Association. They'd like the ships to be capable of ferrying passengers on centuries-long voyages. Born on Mars, Emma isn't keen on doing favors for dissidents or revolutionaries stealing Mars property.  But the longer she spends time with the dedicated crew, the more she sympathizes with them despite returning to her home. The second story then takes place in 254...

Penguin Classics has put together three Oz books under one cover: The Wizard of Oz ; The Emerald City of Oz ; and Glinda of Oz . These are NOT the first three books in the Oz series. They are the first, the 7th, and the 14th (the last written by Baum). I'm not entirely sure why we get these specific three books - I thought I had read an explanation, but if I did, I can't seem to find it.  Editor and folklore specialist Jack Zipes provides a really great Introduction, giving us a snapshot of L. Frank Baum and how and why he came to writing the fourteen books in the Oz series between 1900 and 1920. This brief biography is worth the price of the book. I've read and reviewed the first book years ago, but I've copied (and edited/updated) it here. THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ - L. Frank Baum So many people think they know this book because they are so familiar with the classic MGM movie. Of course there really is so much more in the book that it might surprise people. I have a ...

 Wow.  Really, just ... wow. Author Lev Grossman (of The Magicians fame) takes on a classic legend with his new look at King Arthur, the knights of the roundtable, and all the usual, familiar characters whom we've read about in other versions of the legends. Grossman brings us into the story with a new knight, Collum of the Out Isles. Collum is a wide-eyed teenager, a bastard child who comes from nothing and thus has everything to gain and nothing to lose. Skilled with a sword he sets out to join King Arthur and, hopefully, become a knight of the Roundtable. He needs to prove his skill along the way, taking his first life, which is disturbing to him, but he did everything he could (he feels) to avoid the situation and in the name of Arthur he did what he had to do. But when he arrives to King Arthur's court, Collum discovers a kingdom in ruins and Arthur himself dead, with the few surviving knights (names Collum once thought of with respect and awe) lost and floundering, tryi...

CLASSICS WEEK I remember reading Oliver Twist back in high school (oh, the snickering over the name of the character of Master Bates) but that was a long time ago and so, since I had a free copy from Open Road Media on my Kindle, I thought I'd give it another read. This book definitely stands the test of time (not all classics do) and as an adult reader, I'm sure I picked up on some things that hadn't occurred to me in my teens (I'm sure my English teachers were trying to get some of this across). I hadn't realized how much 'the workhouses' played a part in some of Dickens' work (I'm thinking of Scrooge's comments, in addition to the plight of Oliver's mother). Dickens paints a bleak look at 1800's England. I hadn't remembered that Fagin played such a major role in the book.  When I think of a villain, I tend to think of Bill Sikes and his killing of Nancy. Of course Sikes is part of Fagin's gang. I felt less optimistic at the end...

CLASSICS WEEK Prior to this the only thing I've read by Mary Shelley was Frankenstein and so I thought I might broaden my reading horizons by checking out some of her other works.  Given the premise here and how sci-fi it seems, I thought this might be a good place to start. The Last Man narrates the story of, well, the last man on earth. Set in Shelley's future (now almost our past), a plague has wiped out all of humanity save for one man. The book doesn't start with the last man, but rather it spends a great deal of time spent of reflection and philosophy.  This is slow going.  Seriously slooooooowwwwwww going. I can't imagine any modern reader getting through this purely for the sake of reading enjoyment.  English majors and literature students may have to suffer through, and I can imagine the kinds of papers one might have to write, examining the general philosophy of the day and how Shelley's book challenges that thinking.  Frankly, I struggled to get thr...

CLASSICS WEEK Homer's The Iliad has been one of those books that I'd never read but always meant to 'get around to it.' When I saw this ARC for a new translation I thought it might spur me on, but even so it's been ten years! Finally, though, I devoted time to this reading and all I can say is ... really? The translation by Barry B. Powell is fantastic.  It is very readable to a modern reader and the notes are extensive, often helping to understand some of the relationships, locations, or what weapons of war are being used. I will say that while it is helpful on the one hand, it also slows the reading down. There is so much to unpack in a classic like this. But the story ... I can honestly say that I didn't realize that it was basically a very long poem/story about war, fighting, and killing. One man after another kills and/or dies and someone is anguished by this. And then there's Achilles .... What a jerk! He's like that bombastic starting quarterback ...

In this fourth, and final, volume in the Olav Audunsson series by Sigrid Undset, Winter , Olav's life is wrapped up as the man, now in his twilight years, looks on at his life and guilt over some of his actions (as detailed in the previous three books) overwhelms him and he wants to set things right with what time he has left. Watching his son, Eirik make mistakes, may be the most difficult thing for Olav to see as he reflects on his own poor choices. Forgiveness might be impossible, but he might be able to clear his conscience with some effort.  It's difficult to say whether or not this would have the same impact on a reader if this were the only volume of the series to be read.  There is some reflection on past deeds, but to not have read of the events definitely would prove to be a disadvantage - this is the end of a long life and things are slower, more reflective.  The excitement happens in the previous three volumes. But this is an important look at not only Olav's ...

My familiarity with Oscar Wilde is based primarily on his plays. What college theatre student isn't familiar with The Importance of Being Earnest which generally leads to reading some of his other works. Only one other play is included in this collection (which, honestly, was a little disappointing), that being An Ideal Husband . For the most part, this book is a decent sampler of all that Wilde had to offer and interested readers can certainly seek out more pretty handily. The only work of fiction that I had previously read was The Picture of Dorian Gray  (and that reading was decades ago), and the non-fiction was completely new to me. However, what I took away from reading through this was that my impression of Wilde has changed greatly since my college play reading days. Whereas he at one time seemed so clever and witty, I now see a man who was so completely full of himself.  What was once clever repartee now seems out of place - as if really all he wanted to do was be quo...

 Philip Francis Nowlan's Armageddon 2419 A.D. is a sci-fi classic, a book I've long wanted to read and I finally got around to it. For those who think you've never heard of this book, chances are you know of it by the name of the central figure ... Buck Rogers. It's 1927 and WWI vet Anthony Rogers, working for American Radioactive Gas Corporation, is trapped in a cave-in with some radioactive gas which puts Rogers into suspended animation. It is nearly 500 years before he wakes up. He does so just in time to save a beautiful woman, Wilma Deering, and he learns that some awful things have happened in 500 years. The United States is in chaos, having been conquered by Asian powers. Small bands of rebels fight against their oppressors with limited success. With Deering's help to connect with the rebels, Rogers shows them how to work together, giving them hope and spurring a revolution. Although this was my first time reading the book, I've been familiar with the ch...

"The history of every country begins in the heart of a man or a woman." - O Pioneers! by Willa Cather  I first encountered Willa Cather's work when I was in college and we read My Antonia for a modern lit class. I was impressed with the writing, but I never read anything else by Cather ... until now. The American frontier ... the prairie fields of Nebraska. It is a harsh and lonely life to be one of the pioneers in a young country. Willa Cather's novel, O Pioneers! is a poetic look at the realities and struggles of these early pioneers - specifically the often unsung, over-looked women who fought and toiled in the country. Swedish immigrants, the Bergson's, work a farm near Hanover, Nebraska.  When the patriarch, John Bergson, dies, his daughter Alexandra inherits the farm and despite set-backs that have neighbors giving up and moving on, she is determined to make it work. The book was published in 1913, and really brings the harsh reality of pioneer life into ...

 I reviewed this book on Goodreads ten years, just before starting my book review blog, and while I liked it well enough, I had only given it 3 stars. But do you recommend a 3 star book to friends and family? Tor Books has rereleased the book, now as a "Tor Essential" - meaning (from the Tor website) "Tor Essentials line was created to give readers new editions of science fiction and fantasy titles that have stood the test of time, and to bring back ones current SFF fans might have missed out on in the past." And with this rerelease I was able to get an ARC (is it still an Advanced Reader Copy if it's a reprint?) which motivated me to read this classic, this 'essential' again. The valiant crew of the Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid have suspicions that there is something uniquely unusual going on with their ship and their senior crew. That senior crew - those bridge officers, mostly - will survive the worst disasters ever faced by man or beast, wh...

In a small village in La Mancha, Spain, the noble Alonso Quijano has become completely consumed by the stories he's read of knights and their valiant chivalry and so he imagines himself one of these knight, renames himself Don Quixote, and with his loyal servant Sancho Panza, sets off on a series of (mis)adventures, battling imaginary foes and treating common women as a knight would treat a duchess, all in the name of chivalry. I have a literary bucket list of classics I've been wanting to read and this has been high on my list.  I have been glad that a number of publishers have been reissuing classics (often with new translations) as most of what I read lately are ARCs. Not having read this before, and really, not knowing as much about it as I thought I did, I was a little surprised by the episodic nature of the book. I was expecting a longer story with a series of mishaps along the way. And while that could be an interpretation of this book, this came across more as a series...

Somehow I managed to get through high school and college without ever having read The Aeneid .  I'm happy to have finally corrected that. Inspired by Homer's slightly better-known, more familiar works, Virgil's The Aeneid takes the hero, Aeneas, a survivor of the fall of Troy, and tells his story of war and defeat, his loves and passion, and presents the best of human nobility and the pain of human suffering. The book is much more episodic than I was expecting (I guess I wasn't expecting anything, specifically). Our hero wanders and has some encounters. This takes up the early portions of the book.  Then his wanderings get him to places where he isn't wanted and this the second portion of the book. He may have lost the war, but the gods haven't abandoned him ... or have they?  These ancient Greek gods don't always seem to have their s*** together and they're just as likely to use a mortal to mess with another god as they are to help the suffering man. B...

Nikolai Gogol.  Like many, I suppose, I first encountered the work of Nikolai Googol while in college.  I found his stories "The Nose" and "The Overcoat" entertaining, original, with some biting social commentary ... exactly the sort of writing a university student might really get into. This collection includes Gogol's arguably three most famous short stories ("The Nose," "Diary of a Madman," and "The Overcoat") as well as two other, lesser-known works.  The collection is billed as 'Essential Stories.' Other than the first three stories (which can be found just about anywhere), I don't know how 'essential' this collection is.  It is, however, nice to have these stories collected and in hand for quick and easy reading. I find that these stories, like any true classic, stand the test of time.  Not only are they a great look at manners, customs, and social conventions of some 150+ years ago, the human emotions and ...

 Mabel Seeley was a mystery writer who published a few novels beginning in the late 1930's through the early 1950's. The Chuckling Fingers was first published in 1941.  In it, the Heaton family (Minnesota lumber tycoons) experience some strange goings-on at their remote estate (called "Fiddler's Fingers") along the shore of Lake Superior. Ann Gay has received a letter warning her that her cousin and friend, Jacquelin "Jacqui" Heaton, may be in danger. Jacqui is newly married to Bill Heaton and Ann wants to make sure everything is okay. Ann arrives to the Heaton estate to find tensions everywhere and minor, but irritating incidents occurring - acid has burned a hole in Bill's suit, a bed has been set on fire, and even Ann is not able to escape the incidents as her robe is cut to ribbons.  Jacqui, meanwhile, appears to be unstable and all the evidence to the incidents points right to her.  But Ann suspects something else may be behind this. I'm no...

"The Lost Generation."  Following World War I a group of friends try to find some meaning in their lives as they hang out and party and drink in Europe.  I read and reviewed this book a little over five years ago, and I'll use a lot of that review here because my thoughts about this book haven't changed.  This was one of the first books I read in college that made me realize that the 'classics' weren't all dull because they sure seemed that way before I read this. In 2016 I had this to say: Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises is a novel of the 'Lost Generation' -- a generation that came of age during World War I. it is the story of a group of friends, British and American, who seem to have very few cares in the world other than one another. The men look to be as masculine as they can be, and the women flirtatious and non-committal. The main character, Jake Barnes, struggles with the loss of his manhood during the war, but harbors a passion for Lady ...