tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-99957182024-03-17T23:03:39.600-04:00Olman's Fifty58 in 2005, 32 in 2006, 46 in 2007, 54 in 2008, 27 in 2009, 73 in 2010, 61 in 2011, 67 in 2012, 26 in 2013, 28 in 2014, 32 in 2015, 18 in 2016, 58 in 2017, 57 in 2018, 104 in 2019, 66 in 2020, 57 in 2021, 59 in 2022, 93 in 2023OlmanFeelyushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17521657876810568251noreply@blogger.comBlogger1070125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9995718.post-70279853257408063442024-03-09T09:03:00.002-05:002024-03-09T09:03:35.600-05:0014. The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxKTAsXCy-XccZCIQAThzGxdCaBr6aTA68y9XEuB6xZNeTZMXYh22Hmevv8_YUip_8src7hE7-jf_5BhVYKsoD2irctQILdHaDOsPgY62HElMHJWk8S8d718ejy7MPKE4vB2yE0SL_vOq5R3gaZaRbOhyg16GRmyWYWjsRFSzhbBPjJsXrc6RR/s401/the-blue-sword-robin-mckinley-9780141309750.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="401" data-original-width="264" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxKTAsXCy-XccZCIQAThzGxdCaBr6aTA68y9XEuB6xZNeTZMXYh22Hmevv8_YUip_8src7hE7-jf_5BhVYKsoD2irctQILdHaDOsPgY62HElMHJWk8S8d718ejy7MPKE4vB2yE0SL_vOq5R3gaZaRbOhyg16GRmyWYWjsRFSzhbBPjJsXrc6RR/s320/the-blue-sword-robin-mckinley-9780141309750.jpg" width="211" /></a></div>I bought this book new at the great White Dwarf Books in Vancouver. They recommended it as a good fantasy book for a pre-teen and I've been reading it to my pre-teen for the last few weeks. It was also a favourite of my wife who actually read it as a teen herself. We read the trade paperback on the right, but she has the lovely original proper-sized paperback, pictured below. It was written in 1982, back in the day when YA fantasy, though still a sub-genre, was not an industry where every book has to be a series with a netflix tie-in. It is refreshingly just a book. Elements of the story and setting are left unexplained for one's imagination to ponder.<p></p><p>The protagonist is Harry Crewe a young woman/older girl (her age is never clearly established), whose parents died and is sent to a remote colonial outpost where her brother is an officer to live with a semi-noble couple. They are in the desert region of Damar where mining has attracted what their country's expansion. The natives are called the Hill-Folk and there is a separation between them and the Homelanders as they are called, though not necessarily the violence and genocide that usually comes with this kind of resource colonialism. It's a little hard to figure out what is going on in the beginning, as Harry is new and only overhearing things and the reader sees things mostly through her eyes. There is a conflict arising with some other Northern tribe, with rumours of strange magic, rumours the Homelanders consider superstition.</p><p>The story really gets moving when Harry gets kidnapped by the intense, powerful leader of the Hillfolk, Corlath. She doesn't know why he took her and it turns out, neither did he. Rather, he was compelled by his <i>kelar</i>, the innate magic that the Hill-folk cultivate but has been dwindling in recent generations. The bulk of the narrative is Harry learning about the Hill-folk and becoming a part of them and more, leading up to a battle with the Northerners that is quite cool. It's an interesting mix of very big and epic changes to her as a character with the action being an important but small tactical battle.</p><p>I would say the language and structure of The Blue Sword might be somewhat sophisticated for a pre-teen. At times, my daughter got a bit confused as to what was going on, as things are often implied or not said altogether so you have to infer from the context and leading narrative as to what is actually going on. I quite enjoyed it myself, but reading it aloud, it is hard for me to give a true impression as my mind can wander and I don't always internalize a book the same way. We both felt that Harry's big emotion of feeling that Corlath was going to be all mad at her was forced and felt artificial, but the rest of it we got quite into and by the end felt very absorbed by the story and the setting. Recommended.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE-a82cHNDxCkWh1lYSk2dutgi1b9MR53-nzgjUdTeWKSCWdYHuSyWvF6P7l74c-oAWoZtmkOVZZTg4DMLMmeJID_-hcH9YIzYHBqa8I-FGJBonnoqBDddDCt3bCbe3nboNUKgV7ddgZ-aPxDQ75qbqAwECk-kwzTi-9DH6z43eJSk0rT79_nD/s882/bluesword.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="882" data-original-width="540" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE-a82cHNDxCkWh1lYSk2dutgi1b9MR53-nzgjUdTeWKSCWdYHuSyWvF6P7l74c-oAWoZtmkOVZZTg4DMLMmeJID_-hcH9YIzYHBqa8I-FGJBonnoqBDddDCt3bCbe3nboNUKgV7ddgZ-aPxDQ75qbqAwECk-kwzTi-9DH6z43eJSk0rT79_nD/s320/bluesword.jpg" width="196" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p> </p>OlmanFeelyushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17521657876810568251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9995718.post-59490629553832745482024-03-04T23:00:00.001-05:002024-03-07T12:02:28.750-05:0013. The Hit by Brian Garfield<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtHiW2qo37NWV53vMebYiKtrZPBTz7K1eAqzPdJQWYqj8rYbXjdes_Cug5z4rfO1gK-NjLN9Ys-AoaVCFkvMJ9pJFlu25rALYLv1669Kdz4BNkISXOIhEzYwJSduz6GsFWSbQme3FrnK78cBpDS3m5EbT5bX4frU-PPLohkcKoZjcUuwEmeJwI/s1280/photo_2024-03-07_12-00-54.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="811" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtHiW2qo37NWV53vMebYiKtrZPBTz7K1eAqzPdJQWYqj8rYbXjdes_Cug5z4rfO1gK-NjLN9Ys-AoaVCFkvMJ9pJFlu25rALYLv1669Kdz4BNkISXOIhEzYwJSduz6GsFWSbQme3FrnK78cBpDS3m5EbT5bX4frU-PPLohkcKoZjcUuwEmeJwI/s320/photo_2024-03-07_12-00-54.jpg" width="203" /></a></div>I found this in near pristine condition (though faded with age, it appeared that it may have never been opened or at least barely) in a small used bookstore in Nashville. I quite enjoyed Garfield's Death Wish and he is part of that small group of crime fiction writers of which Donald Westlake is the most famous that made their mark on the genre in the 70s and 80s so I had to pick this up. <p></p><p>This is one of those thin novels of the past, with a simple premise and a quick resolution (at least compared to the tomes of today). Simon Crane is an ex-cop somewhere in the Southwest (I suspect a secondary city in Phoenix) who gets sucked into the aftermath of a robbery on a mob safe (and the disappearance of the mobster whose house it was in). His connection is that he had an ex who was the secretary at the house who discovered the place robbed and was too scared to go the mob bosses and went to him instead, making them both suspects.</p><p>The plot itself didn't grab me that much. I can't quite put my finger on it, but it felt like it kind of went in various directions with new characters popping up but none of them having that much meaning to the protagonist or the crime itself. When he finally does figure out who did the job, it's not all that interesting. What was really good in this book was the location. His description of a desert town that is evolving economically from a kind of shitty backwater to a more respectable and wealthier retirement and tourist area was really well done. The city itself and the desert outside it are evocatively described as are the various weird characters who live there. The Hit, written in 1970, feels predictive of the desert noir mini-trend that would come two decades later to the movies.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE3pn7w1oMbjlcmRfdn9Rz524Qmz7Z8Caf1PGKbZf1txFfw5tpwuit9h4K5QpP9vI4LXHc0PYKtc44fIzpuLvvehphwiw-ZpwJdVBdtDFnTqfiKXwy9Wo_GvoDtWrDBl2VpKHU9DlQTclENG6savuckD8hpPKMg1qDruTBhiTFoAZY0nSJkjHX/s1280/photo_2024-03-07_12-00-58.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="785" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE3pn7w1oMbjlcmRfdn9Rz524Qmz7Z8Caf1PGKbZf1txFfw5tpwuit9h4K5QpP9vI4LXHc0PYKtc44fIzpuLvvehphwiw-ZpwJdVBdtDFnTqfiKXwy9Wo_GvoDtWrDBl2VpKHU9DlQTclENG6savuckD8hpPKMg1qDruTBhiTFoAZY0nSJkjHX/s320/photo_2024-03-07_12-00-58.jpg" width="196" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>OlmanFeelyushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17521657876810568251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9995718.post-1349715739227560682024-02-28T17:39:00.002-05:002024-02-28T17:39:28.013-05:0012. The Widow of Bath by Margot Bennett<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii4zR8f6sixIU3StsWpJY6M7FMLJphtP8DyLF0j26pSvVka5lRvqJ7rMPwJxQyCp-g-Vjz-o4umdTHZaHIyF8bFinXJTyxHRixPcWth0nayQ3JvfURzkjnIiMfbsl-hz5JtlCCMKS5hnl6gN32KGNjsa49jtoh_dcN7kv53j7VqWBeuQCe8DsV/s1000/widow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="691" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii4zR8f6sixIU3StsWpJY6M7FMLJphtP8DyLF0j26pSvVka5lRvqJ7rMPwJxQyCp-g-Vjz-o4umdTHZaHIyF8bFinXJTyxHRixPcWth0nayQ3JvfURzkjnIiMfbsl-hz5JtlCCMKS5hnl6gN32KGNjsa49jtoh_dcN7kv53j7VqWBeuQCe8DsV/s320/widow.jpg" width="221" /></a></div>I have been looking for this book forever and finally found this nice trade paperback edition at the <a href="https://www.whiteelephantsale.org/" target="_blank">White Elephant sale</a> in Oakland. I'm not a fan of trade paperbacks on principle but this one I have to admit is quite nicely designed. I think it was Kenneth Hite that made me aware of this book, but I can't remember for sure. She clearly has been somewhat forgotten.<p></p><p>I enjoyed this book in the end, but I have to admit being quite stymied in the first half. It was both a bit too sophisticated for me and perhaps too much of its time. The dialogue was excessively clever to the point that I couldn't understand what characters were trying to say. Every line was a clever metaphor or indirect allusion or obscure reference. Perhaps this was how upper class post-WWII drifters talked at the time or perhaps Bennett was trying too hard. It reminded me a bit of some of the British version of the worst excesses of John D. MacDonald's hipster early 60s dialogue (though in this case, it was more baffling than annoying). </p><p>The protagonist is Hugh Everton, an embittered hotel reviewer for a travel agency. It is suggested that though he himself was not wealthy, that he had in the past hobnobbed with a wealthy or at least upper class set. There was a scandal while he was working for the British embassy in Paris that ended with him in prison for cheque fraud (after being rescued from being drowned in the Seine). He runs into two women from that scene at a mediocre resort on the English coast, as well as a stiff military man named Atkinson who looks almost identical to a Ronson, but behaves differently, who was responsible for his fraud and near-drowning incident.</p><p>One of the women is the beautiful Lucy, who was the one who needed the money that Everton made the fake cheque four. She is now married to a judge. She persuades Everton to come back to his place on the hill and while there, a dog howls, a shot is heard and the judge is found dead in his room, while the other four were all playing bride, alibis established. And thus the mystery begins.</p><p>Everton is kind of a broken man, but also impulsive. Part of the narrative arc alongside the mystery itself is him finding his moral core. The story gets quite good by the end when the murder moves beyond just personal motives into post-war smuggling of undesirable "refugees" from Europe. And the mystery itself was multi-layered in a complex yet reasonable way that made the resolution fairly satisfying. I couldn't entirely shake the distancing of the weird characters and their crazy dialogue, so I'm not sure I'll seek out her other books, but if I stumble upon one, I will pick it up and read it.</p>OlmanFeelyushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17521657876810568251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9995718.post-77479818972412903022024-02-27T08:19:00.004-05:002024-02-27T08:19:48.746-05:0011. Affliction by Russell Banks<p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpxbUoBJ5GI14w8sL4PsVojzcAs9f2-TqPhcHKKKk-XH60DbkwuU7N3daLUzZJFEyb5oQ_jgipMNFIHpP3kr7b29JEOJ0GfgfnPhoECbnQ6Gs4F1f9yLR8k0o6THhr0uJtI1OUVSWwuoUaTNAynAm7m75vEOwvgwm9_bF_MwrGuzFWAd87-1AY/s1280/AfflictionCover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="778" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpxbUoBJ5GI14w8sL4PsVojzcAs9f2-TqPhcHKKKk-XH60DbkwuU7N3daLUzZJFEyb5oQ_jgipMNFIHpP3kr7b29JEOJ0GfgfnPhoECbnQ6Gs4F1f9yLR8k0o6THhr0uJtI1OUVSWwuoUaTNAynAm7m75vEOwvgwm9_bF_MwrGuzFWAd87-1AY/s320/AfflictionCover.jpg" width="195" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nice edition</td></tr></tbody></table>Readin me some literachoor! I think I must have been drawn in by the trade dress as this is a nicely produced paperback with a great illustrated cover and layout from 1989. A part of me was also curious about Banks' work, which I guess I learned about when The Sweet Hereafter movie came out. Since it was Canadian, it got a lot of press with the assumption that everybody should know who Russell Banks was. Well I guess I finally do now know.</p><p>This is a sad book. It starts out seeming to be like a good noir, with a brother telling the story of his older brother's crime (not yet detailed) and subsequent disappearance. But it is much more of an exploration of male violence and small town New England. The protagonist, Wade Whitehouse, is the high school cool guy with a mean streak who has lost his way, now the local police officer (basically directing traffic in front of the school) and dogsbody for a local developer. His ex-wife has moved with their 11 year-old daughter to the bigger city down south and Wade keeps screwing up every time it is his turn for custody. As the brother unveils his investigation into Wade's unravelling, we see into his mind and slowly get his entire history, especially that of the abuse he suffered at the hands of their alcoholic dad.</p><p>It is a moving book and a stark portrayal of what today is known as toxic masculinity. In my adult life, I have been tangentially exposed to the working class side of New England, where the proximity of Boston and New York City, as well as just being older, makes the distinctions between the rich and poor much more stark than on the west coast. Affliction really gives you a look at the roots of the poverty and resentment from a neglected small town where everybody with any spark or imagination flees. In the description of the fictional New Hampshire town of Lawford, it reminded me a bit of Stephen King's It, though obviously somewhat less fantastic.</p><p>Though many mainstream reviewers called this noir and tried to compare it to a hard-boiled thriller, it really isn't. There isn't much of a mystery, besides what is held back by the narrator. It lacks the punch of a true noir because it is so verbose. However, it does deliver some thoughtful and powerful substance on what makes men violent and some ideas on how we can stop being so.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmC3yxkmKTr83TwnEtBByIzkkPqsoCTSyf4YLPWuF_4C_HX_j_LKLG4udpE8SToP7O3p0-SiHgTllyPI4DqpDPO00M8vKRgeZGM-Nv1jnI9oaOb9i4j6NTCgNKhwpxzElvX-cz9fMMZg-2IQXfAuNtbxFjrYisACXaNGKfrqWjhZ1eMRDKtoH1/s1280/afflictionBack.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="759" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmC3yxkmKTr83TwnEtBByIzkkPqsoCTSyf4YLPWuF_4C_HX_j_LKLG4udpE8SToP7O3p0-SiHgTllyPI4DqpDPO00M8vKRgeZGM-Nv1jnI9oaOb9i4j6NTCgNKhwpxzElvX-cz9fMMZg-2IQXfAuNtbxFjrYisACXaNGKfrqWjhZ1eMRDKtoH1/s320/afflictionBack.jpg" width="190" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>OlmanFeelyushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17521657876810568251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9995718.post-14196643409119652262024-02-23T15:34:00.004-05:002024-02-23T15:34:24.674-05:0010. Perilous Passage by Arthur Mayse<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYdrBiR4abO1Q3tssgrZqNP095Dgyrfc2KwaeydVVDD_nGxhqygQPHVJurVF-iaalftrERW7iZkWlOO67yGJRFc5DO13ECF5ysg5iAzMfKoq3UV-qYfwOSvLMgcKilGthHTB0I5gNtRUG0uBI1ePNCRlk4qTqbdPpAv0gDbrXei_JFUTJ4ZmNQ/s1728/perilousRicochet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1728" data-original-width="1050" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYdrBiR4abO1Q3tssgrZqNP095Dgyrfc2KwaeydVVDD_nGxhqygQPHVJurVF-iaalftrERW7iZkWlOO67yGJRFc5DO13ECF5ysg5iAzMfKoq3UV-qYfwOSvLMgcKilGthHTB0I5gNtRUG0uBI1ePNCRlk4qTqbdPpAv0gDbrXei_JFUTJ4ZmNQ/s320/perilousRicochet.jpg" width="194" /></a></div>This is another entry in the great series or reprints of lost Canadian "genre" books by Brian Busby working with Ricochet books. I assumed this was going to be another Montreal-based book but was pleasantly surprised to learn it was a west coast thriller, taking place in the waters outside Northwest Washington State in the 50s. Thanks to the nice forward by the author's daughter, Susan Mayse, I learned that Arthur Mayse was a long-time journalist and writer in the B.C. He had quite a cool, old school, hard knocks B.C. life back before it it's suburban respectability facelift.<p></p><p>The story starts out like a classic hard-boiled thriller of the period. Clinton Farrell wakes up on a boat in bad shape with a young girl holding a rifle leaning over him. His recent memory is gone but he knows he is a drifter on the after having escaped juvie, done some boxing for money and eventually got a job working on a troller. The girl, Devvy, turns out to be the surviving daughter of a failed farmer who found his boat drifting when she was out fishing. She has taken over her father's farm, with the help of a mysterious old character who has a more prestigious past but has taken to the bottle. </p><p>As usual, in these kinds of books, the plot is actually fairly simple but hidden away from the reader due to the memory loss among and distrust among potential allies. The pleasure is in the peeling away of the layers to figure out what is going which is only mildly interesting here. However, the characters themselves, the location and action is all pretty exciting, so the simple plot is excusable. The bad guy first takes the form of Joe Peddar, childhood friend of Devvy, sometime boyfriend by default, from the bad family who himself has turned quite bad. There are some great fights between him and Clint, described in almost technical detail yet exciting and really tough.</p><p>It's an interesting read, as the tone is an odd mix of, dare I say it, American and Canadian. On the former side, it is quite hard-boiled. The bad guys are nasty and the punches feel like they hurt. On the other hand, there is an undercover RCMP agent who is almost like a superhero and the whole thing wraps up on a very optimistic note. Here is a great quote that thrust the tone from grim to almost melodramatic, in a way that I quite enjoyed:</p><p></p><blockquote>Patty straightened his hunched shoulders. The change in him was almost frightening. Behind the hired man's ragged clothes, behind the dry and easy humor, you could see the grim manhunter whom neither fear nor pity could swerve.</blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN2QpdEqeOVCPshdGScX69dgN8S5__LKj9IG7nsmvXTcC6mhmCkCKTd47kXPFc3XASgbC49Afn78HhB4d0sSSs46lYpws5I2X5KNl7eVoNLJL4KELxLEO3R_GJaVvcgxLWjsyEqYBEq9lBYDRjXjiL7o61FJ8vcLZKHdwOOwrEVfRJoyzCcsAG/s1280/perilousBack.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="821" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN2QpdEqeOVCPshdGScX69dgN8S5__LKj9IG7nsmvXTcC6mhmCkCKTd47kXPFc3XASgbC49Afn78HhB4d0sSSs46lYpws5I2X5KNl7eVoNLJL4KELxLEO3R_GJaVvcgxLWjsyEqYBEq9lBYDRjXjiL7o61FJ8vcLZKHdwOOwrEVfRJoyzCcsAG/w256-h400/perilousBack.jpg" width="256" /></a></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2ZS8hR3maWsCZV_-t9b-5NE43tV1rz3PMv8syZ7iTKRoiHkeDE24h7tsp9s-I42JYBXBqOuCC6gvkNf8K-h5ReaGYrtrWULfkOQXCmjMaL23YhnwcguUG1HVQrioe0DFP-3E6RXs-pawMl5JN4qte3QMHnBmjl-Geo-SsYxGKtc_m0Vbmz7cs/s1920/PB727.PERILOUSPASSAGE.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="1234" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2ZS8hR3maWsCZV_-t9b-5NE43tV1rz3PMv8syZ7iTKRoiHkeDE24h7tsp9s-I42JYBXBqOuCC6gvkNf8K-h5ReaGYrtrWULfkOQXCmjMaL23YhnwcguUG1HVQrioe0DFP-3E6RXs-pawMl5JN4qte3QMHnBmjl-Geo-SsYxGKtc_m0Vbmz7cs/w412-h640/PB727.PERILOUSPASSAGE.jpeg" width="412" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here is the original pocket book which would be a sweet find!</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><br /></p><p> </p><p></p>OlmanFeelyushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17521657876810568251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9995718.post-53294521886248581342024-02-21T20:50:00.000-05:002024-02-21T20:50:39.526-05:009. This Boy's Life: a Memoir by Tobias Wolff<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFO6kTXbgI5XGDVoR3qdyVIl79vqZUh0I2tmL5JbN4KQgjPlF3-uD5vNKySEUitBchkBgzfJL1y_OivuVxmFlGDots_xfzx9K4E5AhOOvIR2iWqrsKMLPCeAoMx_Sn6miCY_2weT5tVH0Yl2alKD-nfWjE0UEay0-fK4Rx1Oj-dSZ92McgX3HU/s500/boyslife.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="333" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFO6kTXbgI5XGDVoR3qdyVIl79vqZUh0I2tmL5JbN4KQgjPlF3-uD5vNKySEUitBchkBgzfJL1y_OivuVxmFlGDots_xfzx9K4E5AhOOvIR2iWqrsKMLPCeAoMx_Sn6miCY_2weT5tVH0Yl2alKD-nfWjE0UEay0-fK4Rx1Oj-dSZ92McgX3HU/s320/boyslife.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>My sister really wanted me to read this as she quite enjoyed it. I found it quite good but have trouble moving it into the excellent category. I feel like these kinds of memoirs came out in the late 80s early 90s and furthermore these kinds of books are just not my jam. I say all that to make clear my biases, because objectively speaking it is a really enjoyable and interesting read, with emotional and intellectual resonance. It's Wolff's narrative of his own childhood following his divorced mother around as she tried to make a go of it in various cities. The bulk of the narrative takes place in Chinook, Washington, where she eventually gave in to the ministrations of a pathetic and abusive mechanic named Dwight to marry her. He is a real asshole, especially to Tobias, but the writing is so subtle in its tone that you are almost sympathetic to him rather than outraged, which I think is Wolff's ultimate revenge. <p></p><p>It has a removed tone and a clear style, which made the pages really turn for me. They are also a real counterpoint to today's youth culture of self-diagnosed anxiety and trauma as identity. This kid really had a rough upbringing but he didn't realize it himself until much later. There is no self-pity here, which makes you sympathize with him even more. I am glad to hear that this book is sometimes used in the high school curriculum, because I think it portrays the freedom and fear that used to be childhood back before we started putting foam on every counter corner.</p>OlmanFeelyushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17521657876810568251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9995718.post-86084155729558980542024-02-20T12:58:00.002-05:002024-02-20T12:58:20.175-05:008. Stopover Tokyo: A Mr. Moto Adventure by John P. Marquand<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicVmJFAUU38JzYxKSixTZx3RdjvarixDJJSxCXRMe4dQsXgoy7B6qOCVqQyv-FBwpw-TWsfloheSTFZH-JOp6bncj-iT8u8CUkwUClYdyj5m9qmexYt2Ki2SKVKbVPhpAlKeP-UE_-HRIRfOxWZZbngh8JO9m-LK2WuIs8m0Ut8BIatbEn1fkE/s1280/motofront.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="768" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicVmJFAUU38JzYxKSixTZx3RdjvarixDJJSxCXRMe4dQsXgoy7B6qOCVqQyv-FBwpw-TWsfloheSTFZH-JOp6bncj-iT8u8CUkwUClYdyj5m9qmexYt2Ki2SKVKbVPhpAlKeP-UE_-HRIRfOxWZZbngh8JO9m-LK2WuIs8m0Ut8BIatbEn1fkE/s320/motofront.jpg" width="192" /></a></div>This was a thin novel that I should have finished in a few days. Unfortunately, it was so boring and overly-written and predictable, that I had to force myself to get to the end, with my mom telling me to just skip to the end and stop complaining. She's wild. I see this is the last Mr. Moto adventure and Marquand died at only 60 a few years later. I guess he was trying to get out of the game himself, because the theme is of the spy in the business who allows himself to become personally involved and thus compromises himself.<p></p><p>The story, as far as there is one, is centered around all-American 50s spy, Jack Rhyce, going after the "commies". The red menace here is insanely vague, akin to the I Was a Communist for the FBI radio series. There seem to be a lot of very real-seeming Americans abroad who have somehow been indoctrinated and now work for the other side, but what they actually do that is so bad is barely explained. Only at the end, do we learn that they plan to assassinate a liberal Japanese politician and blame it on the Americans.</p><p>But really nothing much happens in this book except Jack meets a beautiful female spy and they have endless conversations where they play their roles and then complain about playing their roles until I guess they fall in love and decide to leave the business when this job is over. Of course, she gets killed (and worse). Mr. Moto is on the sidelines being suspicious and then assisting. The only element of interest is the background on Big Ben, the big commie who was snubbed at a Southern college so decided to destroy America, I guess. There was some hints at interesting class issues, but otherwise this book was a snoozer, too caught up in its time to say anything interesting about it, yet not committing to the insanity of that time to at least have fun.</p><p>I read that this was an outlier of the Mr. Moto books as the others were pre-WWII and not dealing with the cold war, but I didn't love the first one so despite the beautiful paperback designs, I am done with Mr. Moto.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzFJ8exYto-gkolO63MIpMbipEJ7QUPF8xj8g5_0D1QwwQfdY9wSR5k5SKbqpRvXN9eFlZorOm1aMsYbTbtbLPQpy1_5ucON3dnN-Jkt-_cjUXmlVc7CGGF_TZOxJFPYxjj_NkVHaatvaaC9t92XGV0HFiR0c2wyGxAtSz2NaA7EvcbVo9R5jX/s1280/motoback.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="801" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzFJ8exYto-gkolO63MIpMbipEJ7QUPF8xj8g5_0D1QwwQfdY9wSR5k5SKbqpRvXN9eFlZorOm1aMsYbTbtbLPQpy1_5ucON3dnN-Jkt-_cjUXmlVc7CGGF_TZOxJFPYxjj_NkVHaatvaaC9t92XGV0HFiR0c2wyGxAtSz2NaA7EvcbVo9R5jX/s320/motoback.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lies!</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><br /></p>OlmanFeelyushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17521657876810568251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9995718.post-55685771600397480472024-02-14T12:58:00.004-05:002024-02-15T11:05:56.718-05:007. Mirror Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold (#8 in the Vorkosigan saga) + Labyrinth novella<p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9tA2X7VS5AUUV9OkbTLDpSWQEcIxzCDCpQ_2QpM49WrZRTlIke4NK_YLY0ykstMayDMeBgS56GKxp8P-cZ7QjC7K5MvlLJUDCJkuF-mqtZNlDRefNqAhkB6i5PMucLa24d6pIfvBhZlzn6frn5s_SqpBwIz8ujez5YRaMN8wy6B4xuCFD1_uC/s680/mirrordance.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="680" data-original-width="510" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9tA2X7VS5AUUV9OkbTLDpSWQEcIxzCDCpQ_2QpM49WrZRTlIke4NK_YLY0ykstMayDMeBgS56GKxp8P-cZ7QjC7K5MvlLJUDCJkuF-mqtZNlDRefNqAhkB6i5PMucLa24d6pIfvBhZlzn6frn5s_SqpBwIz8ujez5YRaMN8wy6B4xuCFD1_uC/s320/mirrordance.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I don't have this edition</td></tr></tbody></table>Mirror Dance takes the series in a new direction by giving Miles' clone-brother Mark a full narrative and development of his character. I assume he will show up in other stories in various levels of import. The tone here, or perhaps the intensity, is really ramped up as well with some horrific torture and more sex.<p></p><p>The story follows directly on from Brothers in Arms, where we first meet Mark and learn about his creation as a secret clone of Miles, trained and indoctrinated to be used as a sabotage device by Komorran rebels. The story in Mirror Dance starts with him impersonating Miles and tricking a subset of his crew of Dendarii mercenaries to go on a mission to Jackson's Whole, the immoral cloning world, to liberate a bunch of clones from the clone-creche where he was raised (their destiny is to have their brains removed and their bodies used by their elderly owners). The raid goes wrong and the real Miles in hot pursuit, tries to rescue them and he himself gets killed.</p><p>Mark makes it out and his plan is revealed to both the Dendarii mercenaries and Barrayar's ImpSec and Miles' family. The problem is that one of the medics stuck Miles body in a cryochamber and shipped it off planet when they were under fire (this was kind of a cool idea, that there was an automated shipping center all handled by machines that did its job despite a firefight going on around them). The first half of the book is Mark returning to Barrayar and being accepted as a Vorkosigan but with much guilt and trepidation on both sides. I found this section a bit trying, as Mark is really unlikable, whiny and insecure. It makes sense as he is basically a profound victim of abuse, but it grated on me.</p><p>Fortunately, it gets much better as Mark starts to figure himself out and assists with the search for missing Miles and the narrative switches over to Miles himself who finds himself as a sort of prisoner/patient in a very high-end clinic manned (womanned) by clones. There is lots of excitement as Miles figures out what is going on and the various narratives converge. The end result is that a blow is struck against the evil Houses of Jackson's Whole and Mark learns who he really is, what he is good at and what he wants to do. It's all a bit accelerated but that is the fun of these books. Furthermore, Miles now has a real rival for his own hyper-success. We shall see how their relationships develop.</p><p>I found this book quite interesting, as it is a strange blend of Georgette Heyer (namechecked by Anne McCaffrey on the back cover) filtered through good old nerdy sci fi space opera and spiced up with some real nastiness. Mark's torture session with Baron Ryoval is about as dark and nasty as you can get psychologically and physically and yet somehow lightened up so that it is all kind of fun reading (especially the outcome). It's quite a trick Bujold plays. She also deals with a lot of themes of abuse and consent while yet still having oddly inappropriate behaviours (Miles and Mark are often kissing women where maybe they shouldn't be) which I guess is a function of the late 90s when they were written.</p><p><br /></p><p>Addendum: Labyrinth (novella)</p><p>The one real issue with the Vorkosigan saga is the editions that Baen puts out. The order is super confusing and often makes no sense. Part of it may be a function of when Bujold published her books, but still it really requires way too much work to figure out what book you are supposed to read next. When I started Mirror Dance, there is a cool new character Taura, a genetically-engineered wolf/human super soldier with reference to her having a romantic connection with Miles as well as to Jackson's Whole. But she came out of nowhere. Turns out her backstory is in this novella Labyrinth, which I could read in either a collection called Borders of Infinity (which has framing devices of him talking with Illyan but otherwise two stories that I have already read) and the one I did pick up (in at least a normal paperback size for once instead of those oversized volumes that scream nerd and take up half my bag on the plane) called Miles, Mutants & Microbes. This book has Falling Free, a story that takes place 200 years before Miles is born and Diplomatic Immunity which is the 16th book in Miles' narrative! I guess it is thematically built around quaddies, the species of two sets of hands and no legs that is introduced in Labyrinth, but still.</p><p>Anyhow, this story was really cool! Miles and the Dendarii mercenaries are sent on a mission to pick up a top geneticist from Jackson's Whole who wants to secretly defect. However, the scientist won't leave unless they also take his viral research, which he injected into a failed super soldier experiment, which had recently been sold to evil Baron Ryoval. So Miles and the crew are sent to find this creature, destroy it and cut out a chunk of its calf with the genomes. I really wish I had read this before Mirror Dance, because the surprise is quite fun. Also, you really get to hate Baron Ryoval here, so his comeuppance in Mirror Dance would have been that much more satisfying.</p>OlmanFeelyushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17521657876810568251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9995718.post-76939936697906933092024-02-04T19:19:00.002-05:002024-02-04T19:19:26.504-05:006. The Tribe that Lost its Head by Nicholas Monsarrat<p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyRqIDFAra8j3wuFrA7rPNsucVP8hvXcnOtoMpShsxgtZGWDpSi3ZXc6taiw1y7X7otuIduLsGHhUCJRFULX7Lshjnp2A-_ZUaMfH8D5yOjWyBVsX0Ua9TnkDBXoJAURozoaj6cUfkFMyENPOzHi6_p-KoEiHcgQoQjyFzUtRWjamu_suTJHJ2/s1280/photo_2024-02-04_19-17-54.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="824" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyRqIDFAra8j3wuFrA7rPNsucVP8hvXcnOtoMpShsxgtZGWDpSi3ZXc6taiw1y7X7otuIduLsGHhUCJRFULX7Lshjnp2A-_ZUaMfH8D5yOjWyBVsX0Ua9TnkDBXoJAURozoaj6cUfkFMyENPOzHi6_p-KoEiHcgQoQjyFzUtRWjamu_suTJHJ2/s320/photo_2024-02-04_19-17-54.jpg" width="206" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I mean look at this beauty!<br /></td></tr></tbody></table>Well this was a massive disappointment. I loved the Cruel Sea and over the years I had several other of Monsarrat's books that I've discovered. I also have a certain affection for him having also migrated to Quebec and was a minor literary name here back in the day. I also had found Richer than all his Tribe, the sequel to this book first and had been looking for this one for a few years and finally found this beautiful Pan edition. So I was quite excited to read these two.</p><p>My legion of readers will know that I am quite capable of enjoying a good adventure even if I don't always agree with the politics behind them. Most of these post-war manly British adventure guys were often quite conservative. This book, though, was straight out racist and worse (well not really worse but it pissed me off more), couched the racism in some of the most extreme pax britannica ideology that I have possibly ever read. Basically, if it wasn't for the British coming in and imposing some civilization on these savages in Pharamaul (the invented island nation of the west coast of Africa) and India, Burma, etc. they would be killing themselves and others and also not advancing their economy. This argument is presented repeatedly throughout the narrative, so that even if I agreed with it, I would have found it annoying. Monsarrat wrote this after leaving his posting in South Africa and I can only guess that he had a lot of resentment and was using this to burn it off.</p><p>What makes the racism and simplistic pro-colonialism thesis worse is that much of the book is a generally scathing critique, almost to the point of parody, of many of the institutions which make up the expat world in colonial countries. The media is satirized ruthlessly, primarily in the form of a rabble-rousing British reporter for a leftist newspaper (owned by a lord, of course) who sets the whole thing off by quoting the returning king out of context. There are also caricatures of the American journalist who is critical of everything British, the ex-soccer jock super racist South African and the presumably lesbian American photojournalists whose every shoot is to amplify the shocking. Likewise, many of the Brits themselves working either in the ministry in London or locally on Pharamaul, especially the wives are broad caricatures. And these caricatures, while broad, are thoroughly done and accurate. Was Monsarrat so caught up in his ideology that he couldn't apply this same critical lens to the colonial structure itself, which is so obviously the cause of all the trouble.</p><p>The story has many characters. The main "hero" is young David Bracken, who has just been posted to Gamate, the central village in Pharamaul. He meets lovely secretary Nicole and their love is basically a done deal. The main catalyst character is the tribal king to be, Dinnamaula, who is just returning from his education at Oxford, ambivalent about his role and his future. A few off-the-cuff remarks by him, exploited by the newspaper man cause all the problems. First, he says that he wants to modernize his people, which causes the British government to freak out. Instead of sitting down with him and discussing how they can work together, the district officer barks at him like an unruly child. He then says to the same reporter that he wants to marry a white woman, which really lights the fuse. Everybody behaves stupidly with some idea that if only they are "firm" with the natives, with the opposition, that everything will calm down once the natives realize the errors of their ways. Their firmness consists of basically taking Dinnamaula and putting him under house arrest, which makes things much worse.</p><p>What's so weird about this book is that all the things that actually happen are inherently critical of colonialism, yet Monsarrat keeps on arguing that the tribes are not ready to get out from under colonial rule. It's like he's arguing against himself or at least the reality he created. Where it really took a nose-dive, was the finale, where the lone white couple in the northern village are set upon and brutally gang-raped and tortured. It is so over the top and insane and just nasty. I hate books that use sexual violence to try and give weight to their story or thesis and this was one of the most grotesque and artificial that I have read in a while. And then to make it even more insance, the denouement is that the hero and his pregnant wife get given that position in that same village and he is psyched about it! WTF?!</p><p>Really beneath Monsarrat's other work, a true disappointment. He wrote the sequel 10 years later, so I can only hope that his views had evolved somewhat and his simplistic patriotism mellowed.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhitud0fTjYcvN8wD7mbmNsbgsMEf9opiVS_wNdHYWT-92CGPrqJJXo1Mcmrj_DgWFm6bFYYdhgzTMEaCw9-5JN4qE1_T3djd6WMtSYNFFxjx33JT1cDcckCwBlKLoRfFxpZi7_Fx1-sSUb56lGQMf7pF78FSWim_FVIljQ6TwHll0WG4kbaxfk/s1280/photo_2024-02-04_19-18-03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="793" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhitud0fTjYcvN8wD7mbmNsbgsMEf9opiVS_wNdHYWT-92CGPrqJJXo1Mcmrj_DgWFm6bFYYdhgzTMEaCw9-5JN4qE1_T3djd6WMtSYNFFxjx33JT1cDcckCwBlKLoRfFxpZi7_Fx1-sSUb56lGQMf7pF78FSWim_FVIljQ6TwHll0WG4kbaxfk/s320/photo_2024-02-04_19-18-03.jpg" width="198" /></a></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwXXpakoCqs6lr7OgM55T_0-CFBloaSw4c0R_FKO8C8KwP0XD21-gD8nL24KEZ7WCbj_DBjUAD6zRTvc9e-u-AVBd91ycE_XllB6TPuJooFBvYk7Wl0PzSH0-_8kYJ45OZP-oGVCzmXyyCkpI4VEHwi0IgNz25CoJEEyi5rEVqRvBQ_rgbNgDh/s1280/photo_2024-02-04_19-18-00.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="805" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwXXpakoCqs6lr7OgM55T_0-CFBloaSw4c0R_FKO8C8KwP0XD21-gD8nL24KEZ7WCbj_DBjUAD6zRTvc9e-u-AVBd91ycE_XllB6TPuJooFBvYk7Wl0PzSH0-_8kYJ45OZP-oGVCzmXyyCkpI4VEHwi0IgNz25CoJEEyi5rEVqRvBQ_rgbNgDh/s320/photo_2024-02-04_19-18-00.jpg" width="201" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It even has an awesome map!<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /> <p></p>OlmanFeelyushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17521657876810568251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9995718.post-79026371256718175932024-01-23T12:16:00.002-05:002024-01-23T12:16:19.052-05:005. Needles by William Deverell<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ_CWOHsgAaEcIEK0_JE_dHSnHuwqgcTAGPGmOV6rEFT5vVDYHrhEYsLNlclcuvfndUUHDWtpHMBfGuBp2_QLZz33wMwBWmjDYpvd88TnPW6oXqqDCt7Vz5Z7jb2oHpr9MT3fmazlBDqj-426T2QPf0-mTvODL9BIFSo7DYeDE4g4UEuWPDuOo/s1280/photo_2024-01-23_12-15-16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="849" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ_CWOHsgAaEcIEK0_JE_dHSnHuwqgcTAGPGmOV6rEFT5vVDYHrhEYsLNlclcuvfndUUHDWtpHMBfGuBp2_QLZz33wMwBWmjDYpvd88TnPW6oXqqDCt7Vz5Z7jb2oHpr9MT3fmazlBDqj-426T2QPf0-mTvODL9BIFSo7DYeDE4g4UEuWPDuOo/s320/photo_2024-01-23_12-15-16.jpg" width="212" /></a></div>I've been looking for this book for a while and I finally found it in a pretty appropriate place: the Pulp Fiction on Commercial. He is a B.C./Vancouver writer after all. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), it is a first edition hardback and I paid a whopping $21 for it! This was the book that started it all for Deverell, as it loudly proclaims on the cover. He is quite a productive person, a journalist, editor then a lawyer and finally an author who also started the B.C. Civil Liberties Union in his spare time. He lives on Pender Island now and probably has a sweet pad there. What I find quite odd is that I never heard of him as an author or a local celebrity while we were on the Island (Vancouver, not Pender). The literary scene in Canada is quite small and on the island even smaller (Margaret Atwood once stayed at a friend's dad's house and we found out about it because the news travelled up the town that she was swimming in the bay). My mother had never heard of him when he's written a very popular series and won a Hammett. I've got no explanation.<br /><p></p><p>I discovered him myself thanks to Andrew Nette, who specifically recommended this book. I forgot his exact words, but my memory of his portrayal was that it was quite gritty. This set up some false expectations for me, because though this book has a great portrayal of seedy Vancouver in the 70s, it is far from gritty. Rather, I liken it to that collection of really readable mystery/legal/thrillers that are almost over the top, along the lines of Ross Thomas and Carl Hiassen. Right at the beginning, we are introduced to Vancouver drug kingpin Dr. Au, a pretty racist (though probably considered the opposite at the time) portrayal and a way over-the-top badguy. He gets his sexual kicks by expertly torturing people (using a buffet of various orientalisms) and then slicing off their genitals before killing them. That is not quite "gritty". So I was a bit thrown off.</p><p>Once we got into the case and the main narrative, about hotshot lawyer and (recently backslid) heroin addict Foster Cobb who has the case to prosecute Au for the murder thrust upon him, the book gets quite enjoyable. There isn't a lot of suspense here as the reader knows what actually happened. The conflict is whether or not Cobb can maintain his skills while maintaining his addiction and the cops on his side can overcome Au's pressure on the witnesses and the corrupt mountie with whom he is working. The court case has some exciting moments and there are lots of great little scenes in various parts of sketchy Vancouver that are also enjoyable. The ending is also a bit silly, with a final action scene on the west coast of Vancouver island, but very beautiful. And oh yeah, Cobb's other big conflict is that his marriage to his super hot, young ski pro wife is on the rocks and he has to decide whether or not he should get with his super hot, super smart also young Chinese-Canadian lawyer assistant in the case who is a hippy and smokes dope and throws herself at him. It's all very much of his time, but nevertheless quite entertaining and you can see how the later books are worth following. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhHyTEk3J17d3V2TEKhvP2iUOknoOQjCDOtGAXZYtaV3WJqnf23Hec9JHNisrl3f080nIiQRuE1ZkfNidgMXdQHYsbZ2Ma7fUa321LSV6m0Ao_X3oWbIPrF4vlmkBqjW1X4NZK23xTP1aawwuUOKSya4N0hRvfF84yIYag0shraWUSiz4kJPvw/s1280/photo_2024-01-23_12-15-12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="841" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhHyTEk3J17d3V2TEKhvP2iUOknoOQjCDOtGAXZYtaV3WJqnf23Hec9JHNisrl3f080nIiQRuE1ZkfNidgMXdQHYsbZ2Ma7fUa321LSV6m0Ao_X3oWbIPrF4vlmkBqjW1X4NZK23xTP1aawwuUOKSya4N0hRvfF84yIYag0shraWUSiz4kJPvw/s320/photo_2024-01-23_12-15-12.jpg" width="210" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>OlmanFeelyushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17521657876810568251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9995718.post-19552302633474908722024-01-17T21:01:00.000-05:002024-01-17T21:01:05.723-05:004. The Japanese Girl by Winston Graham<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1d_8w2fVarYM2jJ08fMtijdMLYQygEO8_KvIjF7Ysc740kvmGC2hkfkWv7OtBiu-ckSwVmLXXvbDsY9afN2VZfPsa_x6WmLS6X8s_bl4A80tIKQP_xLMGN-QcGU6caYAygVgM7CBRgcZqicMexj1kdwGZxHsxaHN8o0mI2elF44ucEm8JywGj/s1280/japaneseFront.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="759" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1d_8w2fVarYM2jJ08fMtijdMLYQygEO8_KvIjF7Ysc740kvmGC2hkfkWv7OtBiu-ckSwVmLXXvbDsY9afN2VZfPsa_x6WmLS6X8s_bl4A80tIKQP_xLMGN-QcGU6caYAygVgM7CBRgcZqicMexj1kdwGZxHsxaHN8o0mI2elF44ucEm8JywGj/s320/japaneseFront.jpg" width="190" /></a></div>This is a book of short stories that I picked up entirely on the basis of the cover design, a classic 1970s Fontana photo cover paperback. These stories were not my usual jam, but almost all of them were very readable and kind of fun. Graham writes with a rich yet easy prose. The themes often involve chance encounters between men and women, relationships that get delayed or strained somehow with hints of the supernatural. Many of the stories have very light twists at the end. I've said before that I am not a big fan of short stories because I prefer a longer and more involved narrative. Because of the exploration of consistent themes, this collection was somehow more satisfying than I expected, even if many of the individual stories were somewhat light or ended ambiguously. <p></p><p>The only story that I didn't really like was the last one, "But for the Grace of God", which was about another Jesus who was a contemporary of the real Jesus. I find Christianity super boring and I didn't really get what the point of this one was about. Some of the highlights were the titular "The Japanese Girl" about a frustrated bank clerk who plans to steal from his bank, give it to his mistress and then do the time to get out to be with her. They share a love of travelling and plan on taking the money and go around the world when he gets out. Things go wrong, of course, but not in the way you would expect. I also enjoyed "The Basket Chair" about a wealthy director of a paranormal society with a heart condition convalescing at his niece's who encounters the paranormal for the first time. It had such an obvious twist but somehow I was totally fooled. Graham is a good writer. "The Cornish Farm" was also a great little horror story about a couple who purchase a hobby farm and discover it has a nasty past. </p><p>Graham is best known for his historical Poldark series, about which I know nothing. I see he also wrote several thrillers, which I will definitely check out. Hmm, actually I may have to read the Poldark series too.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpZGHBocytmsrDQxF1HlK9VLYcZBVL3ITrv9sxzHDWlS0LvswqgKyaZmQGp4fL7HRfxNcaex_rkKkQ2jxk_WaUt6tenbWDAQsVHiO0SIhNVa7khGrqD10NxPPcc7LuxyhyqmNRC5CAEMO-jv_QuR2m2nkG-2WvWn1TSwDFpMzrYpeW5DxLX3Rz/s1280/JapaneseBack.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="758" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpZGHBocytmsrDQxF1HlK9VLYcZBVL3ITrv9sxzHDWlS0LvswqgKyaZmQGp4fL7HRfxNcaex_rkKkQ2jxk_WaUt6tenbWDAQsVHiO0SIhNVa7khGrqD10NxPPcc7LuxyhyqmNRC5CAEMO-jv_QuR2m2nkG-2WvWn1TSwDFpMzrYpeW5DxLX3Rz/s320/JapaneseBack.jpg" width="190" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>OlmanFeelyushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17521657876810568251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9995718.post-71993430456098147202024-01-12T17:48:00.001-05:002024-01-12T17:48:52.095-05:003. Cold Steal by Alice Tilton<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjytCWdq7cyIoChHZulXXNjHsPLxoCxqu-woPagSBteJVr5Y3vL1kCl3xiTSR3_RL-IFsRYY7EBBXxq_GBJUDpMm64PfGXLuastUfJ6FtILWNP0icgMiL1nazV8dlvwJv8sZQ1zeOJGIKoD8ic_Ksfe4Lu5cdELnZR5njdmALA3moMVNobedgdB/s1280/coldstealFront.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="859" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjytCWdq7cyIoChHZulXXNjHsPLxoCxqu-woPagSBteJVr5Y3vL1kCl3xiTSR3_RL-IFsRYY7EBBXxq_GBJUDpMm64PfGXLuastUfJ6FtILWNP0icgMiL1nazV8dlvwJv8sZQ1zeOJGIKoD8ic_Ksfe4Lu5cdELnZR5njdmALA3moMVNobedgdB/s320/coldstealFront.jpg" width="215" /></a></div>I think I must have found this in a Montreal free box, because it has a stamp inside that says "JM Albot, Robertsonville, Que, Canada" and I usually don't buy mapbacks unless it is an author I know, despite the temptation. It is really beautiful. It has three pages of guiding info at the beginning, which I did not read until after I had finished the book: a "Persons this <i>mystery</i> is about-", a "What this <i>mystery</i> is about-" section and a "Wouldn't you like to know-". I'm glad I didn't because I probably would not have wanted to read the book.<p></p><p>I did some reading on the author before I wrote this. I usually do it after to be neutral, but this book was so different than anything I read or expected. I guess it's supposed to be super funny, kind of a slapstick, Nick and Nora style mystery with aspirational elements. I found it very difficult to read and not funny at all. There is tons of dialogue where the main thread keeps getting interrupted by silly double entendres of others characters not letting the speaker finish their sentence and thus misunderstanding them. I guess audiences of the time find it funny, but it fell very flat for me.</p><p>The plots, such as it is, starts out on a train. Our protagonist, Leonidas Witherall, is returning to his newly built home that he has not yet seen. He oversees a woman surreptitiously putting a package into a garbage can and then a whole lot of wackiness ensues, almost all of it taking place in his new home. It centers around a mean wealthy woman who opposed the building of the home being found dead in the car of its new garage. I'm so exhausted from forcing myself to get through this book and the plot is so convoluted and unresolved that it's not even worth making any more effort to write about.</p><p>I hope others in our modern times can enjoy these as I appreciate a prolific female author (she wrote a lot to survive the depression), but these are just not for me. Well now I know.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUEJFBCUhN3V5u7xE23Lxj9GVQyz7DCdHYbW8t037sm6OfpyDqIjFVfT8_j86yYWvsKyFesveDz83DlRFcORQgaboUQfdsUVyHG73ni0A0KsLa_KAi5208XrVx-fgEWIliq9W8wUmKq8tUW5CCN2taXcrdCCxG5XJ9OtIiqtohMiEes9hkkjyM/s1280/coldstealback.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="830" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUEJFBCUhN3V5u7xE23Lxj9GVQyz7DCdHYbW8t037sm6OfpyDqIjFVfT8_j86yYWvsKyFesveDz83DlRFcORQgaboUQfdsUVyHG73ni0A0KsLa_KAi5208XrVx-fgEWIliq9W8wUmKq8tUW5CCN2taXcrdCCxG5XJ9OtIiqtohMiEes9hkkjyM/s320/coldstealback.jpg" width="208" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFPq54Vunk41HDsB-EbhRs4ojQn9LoIJH90GkK0uzKj0n7Cb0_IWWWKzvxUcS9RsT8j4deVRuzoR1UYzELRa6k1kdHQZb_dY6HZLqHLMc3loRAhLLyrBe_J6XNF_EBnNKlNz_S8BMFZmR_5OWsQTLwkBe1hld0Q8vEghJEXd8aSwPyTv3cAPKH/s1280/coldstealstamp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="960" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFPq54Vunk41HDsB-EbhRs4ojQn9LoIJH90GkK0uzKj0n7Cb0_IWWWKzvxUcS9RsT8j4deVRuzoR1UYzELRa6k1kdHQZb_dY6HZLqHLMc3loRAhLLyrBe_J6XNF_EBnNKlNz_S8BMFZmR_5OWsQTLwkBe1hld0Q8vEghJEXd8aSwPyTv3cAPKH/s320/coldstealstamp.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br />OlmanFeelyushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17521657876810568251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9995718.post-82350198010273269032024-01-08T14:30:00.003-05:002024-01-09T02:02:53.408-05:002. Through a Glass, Darkly by Helen McCloy<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGkGr01ZJZ5Ngf-d-R-qMB17P4CvsETc78-4bglg0viZdeEnIYD_26YaXTxD8Xu8eBrfwpeH0aSvrXuvJYlG18oQXoRvMRxli2L8AXRBDC-Pqulnbw7T0IEYPEgD2i_pDedRxRGofUhfrgPBxLICXN7ykTiYYErIwes4YMSUtuhWgc3bw3e84W/s400/through.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="261" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGkGr01ZJZ5Ngf-d-R-qMB17P4CvsETc78-4bglg0viZdeEnIYD_26YaXTxD8Xu8eBrfwpeH0aSvrXuvJYlG18oQXoRvMRxli2L8AXRBDC-Pqulnbw7T0IEYPEgD2i_pDedRxRGofUhfrgPBxLICXN7ykTiYYErIwes4YMSUtuhWgc3bw3e84W/s320/through.jpg" width="209" /></a></div>I discovered this book along with several others in this great article from Publisher's Weekly "<a href="https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/tip-sheet/article/89878-10-most-puzzling-impossible-crime-mysteries.html" target="_blank">10 Most Puzzling Impossible Crime Mysteries</a>" As I've said before, I am a very lazy mystery reader, preferring to be led along by the narrative but the books from this list have started to push me somewhat to try and figure out the mysteries myself. Some people are really good at this (I remember reading about someone in Murder Ink who reads the first few chapters, then tries to guess it and then skips to the end; if they are wrong, they will then read the book, otherwise they don't bother!). I'm still on the hunt for The Three Coffins by John Dickson Carr. I'm kicking myself that I didn't figure out the main twist of this mystery, especially as it should be easier (spoilerish hint coming) in these more woke times.<p></p><p>The story started off in an infuriating way! Not in the sense that the book itself angered me but the actions of the characters pissed me off so much that I was all fuming in bed about it and it triggered adolescent revenge fantasies. Faustina Cayle is a new art teacher in an elite all-girls school in Connecticut who is called in by the headmistress and fired after only a few weeks into her year-long contract. The headmistress won't tell her why, only that her character isn't right, nor will she give her a reference. Despite paying her for the first 6 months, it's super fucked and actionable, but Cayle is shy and accommodating and doesn't want her own reputation ruined. We soon sense that there is something going on with her reputation at the school by the behaviour of the girls, the maid who is supposed to clean her room and the other teachers.</p><p>It's not super spoiler ish to reveal what it is but if you are interested (and this is a good book), I'd recommended that you stop reading here. One of the teachers, Grisela, is an educated and upper class European refugee (this is right after WWII) who is sympathetic and happens to be romantically linked to the New York state psychiatric coroner Dr. Basil Willing. She writes to him and he sense something quite serious is a foot. The deal is that Faustina seems to have a doppelganger. The students and the maid have spotted her at the same time in two locations (or so close in time that it was physically impossible) and it has so spooked them that she becomes a pariah. This is what pissed me off so much, the Yankee puritanism of the time where instead of helping her, they just ship her out. Fucking puritans are so triggering!</p><p>It's very well-written and an easy page turner. I enjoyed the rich depiction of the milieu of post-WWII New York and New England. I also found it kind of scary at moments and even at one point got a bit freaked out thinking about it after reading it late at night. It is one of those mysteries that has depth and several characters, but McCloy is skillful enough that the reader has no problem remembering them, their movations and characters. So they mystery is quite hard but she does lay it all out for you in a fair and enjoyable way. You can just read it or try and figure it out for yourself.</p><p>There was some digression in discussions between Grisela and Willing about the supernatural, which given how impossible the facts were made sense. I also think these ideas of spiritualism were somewhat in vogue at the time. I found these somewhat distracting although interestingly, she never fully denies that there may be a spiritual element.</p><p>I would have loved to have found an original paperback, but I appreciated this reprint with a cool, illustrated cover. McCloy is another great female author who has unfairly disappeared. I found her book to be an interesting contrast with Mary Stewart's The Moon Spinners, written 15 years later. Somehow, though the gender mores of McCloy's world are even more strict than Stewart's, she as an author comes off as less sexist. You could make a similar comparison with Dorothy Hughes earlier books who was her contemporary. I need to think it through more and this is also a potential undergrad thesis for somebody, a study and comparison of female authors and their relative internalized gender discrimination (or something). In any case, McCloy is worth a look.</p>OlmanFeelyushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17521657876810568251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9995718.post-74729945900812896822024-01-06T23:00:00.001-05:002024-01-09T01:13:30.929-05:001. Zero History by William Gibson<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGo4kYy5sw2ltWuXdq3c9W5AG322wnye5VdogM6pNlmnHAA8MKFWCzMYvMzkJ9WDF9i-qxnT5hn-t0JDQxqexfpkRisFywwnYKYLseMZ7zZE23nPmpUhh5tQoDLzFgkYw7UnRki3ZO84e7cRadUJ7Bbln0KbYvpyHeiU5_lVkuXpuIGQJf1h8b/s987/zero.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="987" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGo4kYy5sw2ltWuXdq3c9W5AG322wnye5VdogM6pNlmnHAA8MKFWCzMYvMzkJ9WDF9i-qxnT5hn-t0JDQxqexfpkRisFywwnYKYLseMZ7zZE23nPmpUhh5tQoDLzFgkYw7UnRki3ZO84e7cRadUJ7Bbln0KbYvpyHeiU5_lVkuXpuIGQJf1h8b/s320/zero.jpg" width="207" /></a></div>I rediscovered Gibson with, <a href="https://olmansfifty.blogspot.com/2021/09/58-spook-country-by-william-gibson.html">Spook Country,</a> the second book in what is called the Blue Ant trilogy. This is the conclusion and even though all 3 work alone and he doesn't really like to consider it a trilogy, it would have been better to have read them in order and closer together. A lot of the value in this last book comes from knowing (and remembering) what happens in the first two, especially the second one. I actually found this one to be quite a drag up until the end. There just isn't much going on and Gibson as usual keeps the back story vague, sort of like a mystery. The problem is I couldn't connect with any of the characters and nothing of what they were working seemed to have any impact until the backstory was sort of revealed and then it keeps getting explained over and over again.<div><br /></div><div>The two main characters are Hollis Henry, the ex-singer of a successful 80s band and Milgrim, the now recovered pill addict. Both are being led around on various missions by Hubertus Bigend, the corporate hipster super-boss of design/marketing/whatever firm Blue Ant who is the puppet master in all 3 books. They are on the hunt for various clothes and the designers who made them that are somehow connected to military uniform contracting. It's all a bit convoluted and obscure and much of the action in the beginning is them going from hotel to hotel in different European cities with maybe some people following them and maybe not. I found it all a bit boring and sadly Gibson's excellent prose style that I usually love seems to come off pretentious and tired.</div><div><br /></div><div>It does pull itself together in the end somewhat, with a somewhat cool hostage exchange whose conclusion connects all 3 books. There is a very arbitrary unromantic reconnection between Hollis and her ex-boyfriend that I guess was supposed to move us and a more effective one between Milgrim who comes out of his manipulated addict shell and a motorcycle courier, but ultimately it all left me unmoved. It may have been more effective had I read Spook Country just before but overall it just felt like an unnecessary stretching out of a story that just didn't have that much substance to it. Too bad. </div>OlmanFeelyushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17521657876810568251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9995718.post-29854470069862492642023-12-31T23:30:00.007-05:002024-01-08T17:50:02.518-05:002023 Year-end wrap-up<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizAiTltc6B3j8FEl4JChpJaHv-GbT09DLdNY0kMA2dfvgJ6oHmJYgkvQGXhhpMoQczzvEanVeiLDK71E3JME62VHf9IGLmLw0B_zuMZ-Lob11GVYLaIzCFemkenkmn91Opq6O57G1OMRht9O7c9lYbqbuVTjz0Z-zcdbPwbPqcNwpjQdpcthPQ/s1024/2023.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizAiTltc6B3j8FEl4JChpJaHv-GbT09DLdNY0kMA2dfvgJ6oHmJYgkvQGXhhpMoQczzvEanVeiLDK71E3JME62VHf9IGLmLw0B_zuMZ-Lob11GVYLaIzCFemkenkmn91Opq6O57G1OMRht9O7c9lYbqbuVTjz0Z-zcdbPwbPqcNwpjQdpcthPQ/s320/2023.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Well I read a lot of books this year! Not my record, but pretty damn good and I feel that I have developed a pretty good long-term rhythm and stamina for reading at this stage in my life. My shit changes all the time so my reading could come to a sudden halt (or more likely a slowdown) with some cool videogame or life opportunity happens. For now, though, at the very least I will follow the principle of having a book on the go all the time.<p></p><p>Hard to summarize any single given theme for 2023's reading. I was all over the map. Lots of new stuff and lots of my old favourites. I continued to move forward on my fantasy series reading with another Robin Hobb trilogy (The Tawny Man, 3rd trilogy now two more left to go) and 4 more read in Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan saga. I also increased my history and non-fiction to 12 including two massive histories (one of the world and the other of Iran)<br /></p><p>Here are my diversity stats. Out of 93 books:<br /></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>28 were written by women</li><li>10 by Canadians (including Jane Jacobs in there as an honorary Canadian and because it was about Quebec)</li><li>and 6 by writers of colour (yikes!)</li></ul><p> Lowlights</p><p>The Bamboo Blonde saddened me to learn that Dorothy B. Hughes early mysteries are just not good. The books are not that interesting or exciting and she is not able to transcend the sexism of the time. The Sun Chemist also bummed me out that Lionel Davidson though interesting as a writer of "thrillers" that often concerns Israel and Jewish characters with real history are just not that thrilling.</p><p>The real bummers were National Lampoon's The Paperback Conspiracy just the worst kind of mean, stupid humour reeking with self-congratulatory privilege and smugness. These guys thought they were the cool guys in Animal House when they were actually the uptight prigs. Coming a close second, though way less hateful, was All the King's Men. Just so much empty, repetitive wanking I guess from a time when you could convince the Pulitzer voters that run-on sentences meant depth if you are from the south. </p><p>Highlights</p><p>For non-fiction, Abbas' history of Iran was incredibly informative and an amazing combo of real history and readability. Jane Jacobs A Question of Separatism which I went into with the deepest skepticism really floored and surprised me in that it argued for Quebec's independence and pretty much convinced me as well.</p><p>For fiction, I was really pleased to discover some new favourites in my preferred genres. Ross Macdonald's The Zebra-Striped Hearse just had so much great detecting and beautifully captured the time and place of pre-60s California. The Hot Spot was great but it was the hilariously ironic ending which really did it for me, a noir fate fare worse than death. For manly war action, The Heights of Zervos was a great find for combining excellent on-ship intrigue in the first half and then tough, gripping war action for the second. It's too bad his later books are supposed to be quite bad. Finally, The Runaways perfectly captured the evocative adolescent escapism of YA fiction with the practical benevolence that is the best of British culture.</p><p>All in all a very enjoyable year of reading. Much more awaits me in 2024 as my on-deck shelf will not shrink.<br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1hnKZwrzvqP05NlGBsxjLTHLVJ4Dc4XYrtUjYmJkqFC8WWJNK9LqBzCVPO3ZlCreDN_f0jKeB43cKtzrV8wE01nPsQpEqbSCwVk7ZFxqO2BluOzsUNiGnxzqJZ1q5GD7xPMDocZ6SQlAkKvcXKGtf9cxfdRbhUOfgap11LZJ2dBGI1n-dl7H6/s1280/ondeck.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="497" data-original-width="1280" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1hnKZwrzvqP05NlGBsxjLTHLVJ4Dc4XYrtUjYmJkqFC8WWJNK9LqBzCVPO3ZlCreDN_f0jKeB43cKtzrV8wE01nPsQpEqbSCwVk7ZFxqO2BluOzsUNiGnxzqJZ1q5GD7xPMDocZ6SQlAkKvcXKGtf9cxfdRbhUOfgap11LZJ2dBGI1n-dl7H6/w640-h248/ondeck.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Like my waistline, not shrinking</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><br /></p>OlmanFeelyushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17521657876810568251noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9995718.post-72335327781583560532023-12-30T18:10:00.004-05:002023-12-30T18:10:45.908-05:0093. The Sailcloth Shroud by Charles Williams<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbGx9Gd8rYGsR747kVEsKCHHBe_cB0f839_gP1aHg7xbGs-jUir3mzqV4N83hOQnOfasHhLXmtumJ9GVpcxKZPQpytDnXY2uHVKzB2mOa1QTZ8ufoEVZ2h25upDgIe6JYWOMZzPyW43135n7LBy5vBoD-ybxlZDrvHASgjwgXYXkH2pkst1Nr-/s1280/shroudFront.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="766" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbGx9Gd8rYGsR747kVEsKCHHBe_cB0f839_gP1aHg7xbGs-jUir3mzqV4N83hOQnOfasHhLXmtumJ9GVpcxKZPQpytDnXY2uHVKzB2mOa1QTZ8ufoEVZ2h25upDgIe6JYWOMZzPyW43135n7LBy5vBoD-ybxlZDrvHASgjwgXYXkH2pkst1Nr-/s320/shroudFront.jpg" width="192" /></a></div>When I first saw this, I thought it was the prequel to Dead Calm, which got me excited, but that is actually called Aground. The Sailcloth Shroud was published in 1960, the same year as Aground (and maybe just before?). It starts off with the protagonist, Stuart Rogers, high up on a mast, sanding away, when two police officers come to visit him. The first half of the book is very enjoyable, as the backstory is slowly teased out. We learn that Rogers had bought a sailboat in Panama and with two hired deckhands had piloted it to Southshore, Texas. Along the way, Baxter, the taciturn expert sailor had died of a heart attack. When we get to the present of the book, that had all been settled. This time, it was the other hired man, Keeler, a merchant marine who knew how to work on big shipping vessels but didn't know how to sail, who had been found dead.<p></p><p>The narrative is in two streams, with Rogers trying to help the aggressive cops and the more friendly FBI, but slowly becoming snagged himself in what become more and more suspicious circumstances as more info is revealed. Because they were way out in the middle of the trip when Baxter died and it was hot, they eventually had to bury him at sea and now with Keeler dead (with $4000 unexplained cash) it is only Rogers' word that Baxter really died the way he said he did.</p><p>The only way to extricate himself is try and find out who Baxter was and that is the second narrative stream, as Rogers remembers the time together on the ship. The second half, once we learn the entire backstory is only okay. It's a bit of a simple story that Williams elongates and makes mysterious in the telling. The action at the end was cool but nothing mind-blowing and while you sympathize with the protagonists, his biggest character trait is that he knows boats. The denouement is a bit of an anti-romantic bummer which felt a bit forced to me, although perhaps more realistic. This book is saved by Williams tight prose but the narrative is limited.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoXGMoJRzDAj6ZsLx_BWbzc5B-yp5pkaPqlKOcTcA48hFq2rEPKk0WLT1v7X7GcWiflvjd4j90J1J7T-gmNnRMDDnT1c74_6I0pxB77mMzOG3bHaH0Nw_tVE6jcuMDX_2wVd38LfQL0tPmf0QijjKgcVyJQlpYIsZ8VvFdJkOCy_Hz5Tday8Fp/s1280/shroudBack.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="770" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoXGMoJRzDAj6ZsLx_BWbzc5B-yp5pkaPqlKOcTcA48hFq2rEPKk0WLT1v7X7GcWiflvjd4j90J1J7T-gmNnRMDDnT1c74_6I0pxB77mMzOG3bHaH0Nw_tVE6jcuMDX_2wVd38LfQL0tPmf0QijjKgcVyJQlpYIsZ8VvFdJkOCy_Hz5Tday8Fp/s320/shroudBack.jpg" width="193" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>OlmanFeelyushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17521657876810568251noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9995718.post-40296174623937086012023-12-29T18:15:00.004-05:002023-12-29T18:15:43.492-05:0092. The Moon Spinners by Mary Stewart<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVxpdnwz4dqCThxSqC4WjMyy37pp_oQLGtSNqmdNoffesfeg_cbeJiiI1bqYHBtolsZM6mfi9ZEgKYEeIglVr-S_zOadbuqcRjggNRBm7McsSx2WO0WRR5Qln5hKqgBP71ZAlCIMW0GnKbyl1MxSSWlu7v2V2yqR3cIYADyKscX8RNeJKdacit/s1280/moonFront.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="822" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVxpdnwz4dqCThxSqC4WjMyy37pp_oQLGtSNqmdNoffesfeg_cbeJiiI1bqYHBtolsZM6mfi9ZEgKYEeIglVr-S_zOadbuqcRjggNRBm7McsSx2WO0WRR5Qln5hKqgBP71ZAlCIMW0GnKbyl1MxSSWlu7v2V2yqR3cIYADyKscX8RNeJKdacit/s320/moonFront.jpg" width="206" /></a></div>A decent undergrad thesis for a lit major could be made by a deep analysis of the feminist balancing act of Mary Stewart's books. The female protagonists walk a very thin, wavering line between being active heroines and passive recipients of masculine heroics. As the protagonist, they are the smarter, richer characters, yet the dangers they get themselves in often involve a man who controls some of the decision-making and much of the information. You get these capable, confident and brave young women who must help out but are rebuffed by the men and then often rebuff themselves whenever things get "dangerous". It's an odd sensation as a contemporary reader where you can't quite tell if Stewart is feeling bound by the strictures of mid-century British gender rules or if she accepts them and maybe even want to reinforce them. It was a confusing time to be an independent young woman.<div><br /></div><div>In the Moon-Spinners, Nicolas is a young English woman who lives and works in Athens at the British embassy. She plans a trip to get away from the busy city during Easter week to go to a remote village on the coast of the island of Crete. Due to a mixup with her visiting cousin, she is dropped off a day early at a trailhead in the mountains that leads down to the village. She decides to explore a bit first and after some very beautiful descriptions of the mountains and wildflowers, she discovers a wound englishman, Mark and a greek guide named Lambis. Supposedly, they had earlier stumbled upon a murder and were attacked themselves and are now hiding out, not sure what to do. They can't go to the village because the murderers were local and they are still holding the Mark's 15 year old brother.</div><div><br /></div><div>Despite Mark's insistence that she just leave them alone and ignore them and go about her vacation, Nicola can't help but ask questions and investigate. She soon learns that the murdered may be the proprietors of the hotel where she is staying. There isn't much of a mystery here. The tension comes from her trying to find Mark's brother without being discovered that she knows what is going on. She really is quite brave and the climax where she has to swim out at night is exciting and somehow sort of hot (she strips down to bra and panties which for 1962 feels quite racy). There is the almost bare minimum of interaction between she and Mark, but somehow it leads to love as you knew it would and it feels romantic. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRtU0kMaWgNhFfH41956tVONbaM1z2RLDp6SUx2Dl9xuDvaCQRv8vn6GKPhbNTSTXl8nhtiS6HMw9dQCklWsdQefessRyPuCwWtf5vXFpJSMqachcJ_h0-38gKDzYq607r7X36bKWGhe45KHOBa6b4-EdrIWfJ7OeiBTYGs4RCHNbeMK-7tUNG/s1280/moonBack.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="814" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRtU0kMaWgNhFfH41956tVONbaM1z2RLDp6SUx2Dl9xuDvaCQRv8vn6GKPhbNTSTXl8nhtiS6HMw9dQCklWsdQefessRyPuCwWtf5vXFpJSMqachcJ_h0-38gKDzYq607r7X36bKWGhe45KHOBa6b4-EdrIWfJ7OeiBTYGs4RCHNbeMK-7tUNG/s320/moonBack.jpg" width="204" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div>OlmanFeelyushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17521657876810568251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9995718.post-38158222380249426202023-12-27T15:33:00.004-05:002023-12-27T15:35:35.421-05:0091. Duffy by Dan Kavanagh<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz-sglsP1K2cV5grd6QNc48p6xRwjHdnwhDnQa5nLXD6ZM0gg8muTRdwwqLaCk8Bi0zgEe7xb_t7KytKb_5DF0LkAaf2WiLh-ibLhg5OqeL6C57lEn4DbykMfqmgrHq3FSo433i5DEkPYv3VfwpPjdORc9igqYJlv59PIe-_6nwyQJ9nJc7bpA/s1280/duffyFront.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz-sglsP1K2cV5grd6QNc48p6xRwjHdnwhDnQa5nLXD6ZM0gg8muTRdwwqLaCk8Bi0zgEe7xb_t7KytKb_5DF0LkAaf2WiLh-ibLhg5OqeL6C57lEn4DbykMfqmgrHq3FSo433i5DEkPYv3VfwpPjdORc9igqYJlv59PIe-_6nwyQJ9nJc7bpA/s320/duffyFront.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Reading Duffy reminded me of why I enjoy crime and so-called "pulp" fiction so much. When it is done right, it is quick, efficient and can evoke intense reader reaction at the end. I believe I picked up Duffy at S.W. Welch's closing sale. The story starts off with a great line, "The day they cut Mrs. McKechnie, not much else happened in West Byfleet. And it is a nasty scene, with those really scary English "villains" who are super polite and verbal as they tell you what horrible thing they are going to do to you. In this case, they tie up and very deliberately cut the shoulder of a housewife and also, really horribly, stuff the cat into the rotisserie oven and cook it.<p></p><p>At first the crime seems to have zero motivation. Mr. McKechnie is a small businessman in Soho who imports novelty items. He is having an affair with his secretary (whom the men seemed to know about as they mentioned her name to the wife), but otherwise not mixed up in anything. Soon after, however, he gets a phone call, again with the creepy eloquence and this time asking for money. It's a blackmail scheme where the threat is actually done up front. McKechnie goes to the police, who are basically useless, possibly to the point where they may be in on it. He does have one friend on the force who refers him to an ex-cop, now security systems installer, called Duffy.</p><p>Duffy is almost the typical ex-cop character who got kicked off the force for a scandal. What makes him interesting is that he is bisexual, the scandal was him picking up an underage boy. As he begins to investigate back in his old patrol grounds, he finds the case is connected back to him. He pokes his way around to finding the real badguy, the educated son of a Maltese villain who died in prison named Big Eddy. This guy is an excellent British criminal leader, just evil as fuck in the guise of a modern businessman. His success is due to patience and accumulating a rich file on all kinds of people. When Duffy gets too close and then stupidly disregards his warning, Eddy pulls an incredibly nasty bit of blackmail material on him. Oh man this was shocking even for me. </p><p>Great, tight little read. Recommended if you can find it.</p><p>Postscript: This was actually written by Julian Barnes under a pseudonym!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_iqniT-aSpCd9dXpWDSbSOF23Ywdgcg6D-lSW_bzC4XpiuRhvAqeovWcr1lO6fWXYDi0t5asMFJjK_tbbE75xJYPUhV2oxiBsNspqGnhQat_z7A-KONyeYVnIOVkkMqMOQDYV-6Pm_adV3X_bBgwrO9ICAx4Iyy6ETelRTjJhgz05VPDtZQhyphenhyphen/s1280/duffyBack.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="808" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_iqniT-aSpCd9dXpWDSbSOF23Ywdgcg6D-lSW_bzC4XpiuRhvAqeovWcr1lO6fWXYDi0t5asMFJjK_tbbE75xJYPUhV2oxiBsNspqGnhQat_z7A-KONyeYVnIOVkkMqMOQDYV-6Pm_adV3X_bBgwrO9ICAx4Iyy6ETelRTjJhgz05VPDtZQhyphenhyphen/s320/duffyBack.jpg" width="202" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>OlmanFeelyushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17521657876810568251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9995718.post-85987448200507254052023-12-27T14:59:00.000-05:002023-12-27T14:59:49.089-05:0090. The House of Elrig by Gavin Maxwell<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjou45RsqbfrNOFGQhjVst-WilF-vx9w3wZoZjNlQePxPVasktmF9qyto5WTln3OaA-JLvsuHXQv_XXKvE13yOBBheF7lpRYPZ3KsQ7eIvobqqEb2ZDljFac-RXFkS63cCXwXwR5z3ho4MP4J_lI11UiOhBZHtRQlP6aewt9abVwdm_qCKqbmC-/s1280/elrigFront.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="829" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjou45RsqbfrNOFGQhjVst-WilF-vx9w3wZoZjNlQePxPVasktmF9qyto5WTln3OaA-JLvsuHXQv_XXKvE13yOBBheF7lpRYPZ3KsQ7eIvobqqEb2ZDljFac-RXFkS63cCXwXwR5z3ho4MP4J_lI11UiOhBZHtRQlP6aewt9abVwdm_qCKqbmC-/s320/elrigFront.jpg" width="207" /></a></div>I had never heard of Gavin Maxwell and just picked this book up on the strength of its old Pan aesthetic and the potential for some good British outdoorsieness. Maxwell was famous for the book Ring of Bright Water (which you can see promoted on the cover), a book about an otter he adopted. I guess this one, a literary biography of his childhood, came after. <p></p><p>It is indeed what I expected, a story about Maxwell growing up on various estates owned (or maybe leased, these artistocratic property machinations get very confusing) by various family members and in particular the house at Elrig. It was just him and his family and other than his brothers and sister he basically saw no other children for most of his childhood. He and his brother must have ravaged their land for wildlife because they ran free and collected everything, especially eggs. There is a horrible moment where he meets a neighbouring land-owner adult who is also an egg collector but explains that among the pros, you are supposed to take the entire nest, not just a single egg!</p><p>The later chapters narrate his times at the 3 schools he was sent to (the first two sounded just horrific and reminded me of my own 8th grade in boarding school) and then his sickness and convalescence at the age of sixteen. The ending is brief, where for the first time, Maxwell is allowed to invite a school friend to Elrig for the holidays and when asked what he would be doing during the holidays at home while they are hunting for an eagle's nest, the friend says "nothing as good as this" and it is a very fitting and satisfying ending to the book which neatly conveys his love of his childhood land and the struggles he had in the social realm. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihZYT5WqdfK-B8U19dSTeLCjWWO75jsxewnMpMwEWVr6m_XT2Sih1hi21sOWho6qahyphenhyphenowJrF4CJdMHS0lakXMtLjWbKlUmduyt70hD2A9nxsRJdgDW-1ggd3xtkTsnagUIrNJOTw1lemIU7Uu_WpLUCXWATMOGe5DT-0ydZ_83AvdONYX-6Zy_/s1280/elrigBack.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="822" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihZYT5WqdfK-B8U19dSTeLCjWWO75jsxewnMpMwEWVr6m_XT2Sih1hi21sOWho6qahyphenhyphenowJrF4CJdMHS0lakXMtLjWbKlUmduyt70hD2A9nxsRJdgDW-1ggd3xtkTsnagUIrNJOTw1lemIU7Uu_WpLUCXWATMOGe5DT-0ydZ_83AvdONYX-6Zy_/s320/elrigBack.jpg" width="206" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>OlmanFeelyushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17521657876810568251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9995718.post-41048420663175299752023-12-21T14:16:00.000-05:002023-12-26T14:17:04.922-05:0089. Brothers in Arms by Lois McMaster Bujold (#7 in the Vorkosigan saga plus Borders of Infinity novella)<p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbfkZ9AecPuuCpeMANkSMhQ66Vu2RVLwlMuX7t0I3SunFWUzgiBdaDGAuhn4cq_opSJrm-8E4E1OxduEx6On4pdIdlMzSPGIMedSlBGOmim0qAAeR20Rm8JjvqJYbeFIwpBz03ceHbpHvnugou_n-k94SZrKJESsEh9H64F7vXIEREReUFEC2o/s965/Miles-Errant-cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="965" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbfkZ9AecPuuCpeMANkSMhQ66Vu2RVLwlMuX7t0I3SunFWUzgiBdaDGAuhn4cq_opSJrm-8E4E1OxduEx6On4pdIdlMzSPGIMedSlBGOmim0qAAeR20Rm8JjvqJYbeFIwpBz03ceHbpHvnugou_n-k94SZrKJESsEh9H64F7vXIEREReUFEC2o/s320/Miles-Errant-cover.jpg" width="212" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">There are no non-human species<br />in this book so far</td></tr></tbody></table>I enjoyed Ethan of Athos but it left me hankering to get back to Miles Vorkosigan's primary narrative so I jumped right into Borders of Infinity and then Brothers in Arms, both of which are collected in the weird over-sized Baen collection called Miles Errant. I don't like the look of these books nor am I fan of their size, but I have to admit at this age they are somewhat easier to read when you are at home.</p><p>Borders of Infinity starts in medias res with Miles being released into a prisoner of war bubble run by victorious Cetagandans. I say bubble because it is contained by a giant force sphere that regulates temperature, oxygen and light (and of course entrance and exit) that extends under the earth. The other prisoners are from Marilac, a planet that Cetaganda had invaded and as we learn Miles is there as Admiral Naismith on a mission to rescue a high-ranking colonel. The prisoners have descended to a near-barbaric state, fighting each other for what little resources they have and the women separated into a self-defensive tribe on one side of the sphere. They were all part of a resistance army and one planet and Miles/Naismith uses his strategic skills to figure out the Cetagandans psychological tactics and unite the prisoners. It's cool.</p><p>In Brothers in Arms, Miles is called to Earth, on duty at the embassy there (starting to see a small pattern in the plot structures with these books now as this is the second time where that is the setup). His mercenaries are also here, stuck in a holding pattern and running out of funds while waiting for Barrayar to pay them. Miles superior is a Komarran, a planet which Barrayar subjugated and Miles is suspicious. Soon after, he is kidnapped and discovers that a clone of him has been made as part of a long, elaborate plan of revenge. </p><p>The politics of the series in this book are interesting, especially at this time when Israel is invading Gaza in retaliation of the surprise terrorist attack. Everything is quite abstracted at the planetary level but there are parallels. Komarr is strategically important because it has the jump gate next to Barrayar and Komarr allowed the Cetagandans to use that in their attempted invasion of Barrayar. So after Barrayar pushed back the Cetagandans, they then invaded and took over Komarr. The book does not judge this negatively, seeming to frame it as a necessity and glosses over the details of how one planet could subjugate another. The perspective seems to be that atrocities were committed and they were bad but now that Barrayar is in control, it would be best for Komarr to join up and fit in. Questionable politics and I'll be curious to see if they are explored more deeply in future books.</p>OlmanFeelyushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17521657876810568251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9995718.post-89994778003251989732023-12-16T17:34:00.001-05:002023-12-17T17:35:24.504-05:0088. Ethan of Athos by Lois McMaster Bujold (#6 in the Vorkosigan saga)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9Vwig6KSE8TLnKzVlPLN5WxbkqEvYdI0bMGx1d-PYzjvIMzG-SHaaNWzgKhBOn_UdiW3jCFtj-PS96-n9rbg7pXOzqyVKHnR8I7FKMdilZZiw0-tWPW-NQN4WF31HEA2RiNLUYOrhhyphenhyphenFv_PKcb4qABEcIwiS5_38C0oO-rRCLnx-gBqd2TPwo/s1280/ethanFront.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="801" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9Vwig6KSE8TLnKzVlPLN5WxbkqEvYdI0bMGx1d-PYzjvIMzG-SHaaNWzgKhBOn_UdiW3jCFtj-PS96-n9rbg7pXOzqyVKHnR8I7FKMdilZZiw0-tWPW-NQN4WF31HEA2RiNLUYOrhhyphenhyphenFv_PKcb4qABEcIwiS5_38C0oO-rRCLnx-gBqd2TPwo/s320/ethanFront.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>This is sort of the 6th book in the Vorkosigan saga. I guess chronologically (by story, not publication date) it comes after Cetaganda and before Brothers in Arms. However, it does not have Miles at all. It is really a side adventure taking place in the Vorkosigan universe, with Eli Quinn, one of the characters Miles meets in his side job as Admiral Naismith of the Dendarii mercenary fleet. Quinn is not even the main protagonist, but more of a catalyst who makes the connection with Miles but really could have been any intelligence agent.<p></p><p>The premise interesting and promising. Dr. Ethan Urquhart is a geneticist on a remote, struggling world whose extreme religious dogma outlaws women altogether. They aren't on the planet at all and aren't even allowed to visit. They create new children (boys only) in the lab. They are already struggling with limited resources and a dwindling population when Ethan discovers that the precious genetic materials of high end ovaries he had ordered was somehow swapped with discarded cow parts. He is sent to Kline station to try and get a refund. It's the naive fish out of water story that jettisons him quickly into adventure and intrigue as he finds himself pursued by scary Cetagandan agents, who seem to think the crappy shipment he got back on Athos had something precious in it.</p><p>It's a fun adventure and you get to see some of the workings of the backend of a space station. It never really paid off as I had hoped, though, as the idea of the all-male society as well as Ethan's relative inexperience in greater space never really paid off story wise. It was an enjoyable adventure and I hope that some of what we learn about Quinn as a character and her backstory (she is from Kline originally) will come up in later stories.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR2bUxCOoHknUQ6Eoxiiol2DWargQvVANbwg5J8ZfpfuyNZwwgxQCeEGjrlZ9S63R7iuhJHng1vRGCUnxvKkcgJTjGfO3ZJeGPRYktdEqoHG8syBzpDubSfIiUBlLw9MyosWXjB2y6UtSO4z0OXBwmphll92S2df-ey6JuYe5aZ9TY4MxnHlnj/s1280/Ethanback.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="778" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR2bUxCOoHknUQ6Eoxiiol2DWargQvVANbwg5J8ZfpfuyNZwwgxQCeEGjrlZ9S63R7iuhJHng1vRGCUnxvKkcgJTjGfO3ZJeGPRYktdEqoHG8syBzpDubSfIiUBlLw9MyosWXjB2y6UtSO4z0OXBwmphll92S2df-ey6JuYe5aZ9TY4MxnHlnj/s320/Ethanback.jpg" width="195" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>OlmanFeelyushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17521657876810568251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9995718.post-32947088603233090812023-12-10T22:00:00.001-05:002023-12-11T17:13:30.982-05:0087. Races: the Trials & Triumphs of Canada's Fastest Family by Valerie Jerome<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF057tZtDskrbqkE55jKvdZxz4oe4D98zbnKet8WuGGdJqUBfV-u9kqMLJCb6txk7aNCCEbWs8BLCuSHsTWHVVV0n81zoezXWjNrcVCRNNH2p6oa8v31NBQau28e8IrbDmrVr_Xp_UG880xgSzhBA-EGncIdqv-GOnoIL_QWavOV_SJEq0mubh/s1170/races-by-valerie-jerome-2005211481.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1170" data-original-width="780" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF057tZtDskrbqkE55jKvdZxz4oe4D98zbnKet8WuGGdJqUBfV-u9kqMLJCb6txk7aNCCEbWs8BLCuSHsTWHVVV0n81zoezXWjNrcVCRNNH2p6oa8v31NBQau28e8IrbDmrVr_Xp_UG880xgSzhBA-EGncIdqv-GOnoIL_QWavOV_SJEq0mubh/s320/races-by-valerie-jerome-2005211481.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>Harry Jerome was Canada's fastest man and an early international sports celebrity for Canada. There is a statue of him in Stanley Park, though I fear that many younger people do not know about him and his contributions. I have a tangential connection to the family and it was my aunt who is good friends with Valerie who passed me on this book. It's really more of a family history. Though the narrative is anchored around Harry Jerome's life and sporting career, you can't understand him without understanding his family and the world they grew up in. Even without the focus on a famous person, the book is a fascinating and often infuriating personal history of what it was like to grow up black in Canada in the second half of the twentieth century.<p></p><p>Canada is a great country in many ways, but I am not one of those who is under the illusion we are somehow morally superior to the United States when it comes to social issues. I grew up in a small town in Vancouver Island and the racism there was blatant. It was particularly directed against the First Nations but also Indian, Chines and Vietnamese immigrants. There would have been a lot more racism against Black people but there simply weren't any. Still, reading this book was pretty painful. The shit was way worse if you actually were black. So I wasn't surprised by any of it, but it hurts nonetheless to read about the hateful behaviour of so many people in Canada towards the Jerome family. It goes from the bottom with school kids throwing rocks at them on their first day in North Vancouver to the top, with national sports journalists constantly attacking Harry Jerome for his supposed arrogance and aloofness, calling him a quitter when he didn't finish a race because he snapped his hamstring.</p><p>It's really the sports journalists that anger me the most. This shit still goes on today, it's just much much subtler because there are now so many Black athletes and their power has grown. But the double standard is still there. It's especially ire-inducing in Canada when we have so few good athletes that stand out on the world stage and when one does, who really is a testament to Canada's freedom (though much of Jerome's success was also done despite a lot of racist blockages put in his way), the press just tear him down. In this case, it was primarily fueled by classic racism but also exacerbated by Canada's pathetic self-loathing and petty envy where we have no pride and can't value our own. </p><p>I'm ranting. The book itself is written in a very straightforward manner. The racism that they suffered externally was even worse inside the family, as their mother who passed for white (or tried) was extremely abusive. I wish there had been more analysis of her character but possibly those wounds were already difficult for the author to want to dig any deeper. She not only abused them physically but seemed to hate and resent any success they had. The father was very loving but worked as a porter (also super racist as these were the few jobs that black men could have in Canada and he was constantly getting punished for speaking out against injustice on the job) so was away for weeks at a time. Harry's response to the racism and abuse in and out of his house was to close himself down, turn the other cheek and just work. I think this is part of the reason we don't ever get a rich picture of his personality; much of it was suppressed out of self-protection.</p><p>The story itself is so interesting and their challenges so rough that I am glad I read the book and would hope it gets read by many younger Canadians. I was left wanting a bit more depth as to who the family members were as people to be around, but the story stands up on its own and gives you enough to understand why those things might be hard to dig into. Even though Canada has grown a lot, we still have a lot of work to do and the backbone of this country is still run by east coast white male elites. It trickles down to the culture and allows us to keep being blind and stubborn. <br /><br /></p>OlmanFeelyushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17521657876810568251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9995718.post-3874077876951536102023-12-08T17:55:00.002-05:002023-12-08T17:55:29.001-05:0086. Cetaganda by Lois McMaster Bujold (#5 in the Vorkosigan saga)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzL-a61izQ4PXpw5ox3XN0lhi2wJ3DuqOxgEjAOcoqYQ57qcuEDWFw7aARMGpi31VqZR0CWcOMoxIdt-Xe83AyKTuiDamrlmSuPMy5W3WzLzw0zjZHEVPKAbcSpLXR3k5COtM60fOSsr4Rbb_KNKPI8VDr-fJWIv_mycVmvYvlcktCUuEh0_JK/s1137/Screenshot%202023-12-08%205.54.54%20PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1137" data-original-width="694" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzL-a61izQ4PXpw5ox3XN0lhi2wJ3DuqOxgEjAOcoqYQ57qcuEDWFw7aARMGpi31VqZR0CWcOMoxIdt-Xe83AyKTuiDamrlmSuPMy5W3WzLzw0zjZHEVPKAbcSpLXR3k5COtM60fOSsr4Rbb_KNKPI8VDr-fJWIv_mycVmvYvlcktCUuEh0_JK/s320/Screenshot%202023-12-08%205.54.54%20PM.png" width="195" /></a></div>I am firmly in the Vorkosigan saga now and trying to decide whether I should read another one immediately after this or take another break. So far, each book survives on its own, but there are references to Miles' past exploits as well as the very complex galactic politics around which civilization controls which jump gates that make me want to keep reading lest I forget it all again. For instance, in Cetaganda, Miles and his physically superior and mentally inferior cousin Ivan travel on a diplomatic mission to Cetaganda. This powerful and advanced empire made an attempt to invade some region (Wikipedia reminds me it was the Hegen hub) to control a jump gate. Miles had foiled their plot in The Vor Game. I remember it all coming quite fast at the end of that book, so it was nice to have a single plot line here, focused on a single adversary/allied civilization.<p></p><p>Barraya is ostensibly though warily at peace with Cetaganda and Miles and Ivan are sent to deliver a gift and participate in the funeral services for the Queen Emperor. They get into trouble upon docking, when they are directed to the wrong airlock and as soon as it opens, they are attacked. They rebuff their assailant, who leaves a very high-quality stun gun and a high tech sealed cylinder. Instead of reporting this, Miles, telling himself he wants to avoid a diplomatic incident, starts investigating on his own.</p><p>We learn about the complex Cetagandan society, which is run by the haut, a genetically modified superior class and the ghem, lower in social scale (though still quite elite) and the ones who control the military and economy. The haut are so high class that the women go around in floating chairs hidden by force shields so they are basically floating eggs at social events. Their beauty is so rarified and their status so elevated that only other haut see them and high-ranking ghem to whom they are sometimes married. </p><p>The plot involves a conspiracy to steal the genetic material that the haut use to continue to improve their species and maintain power. The tension for Miles is to figure out the mystery without involving his own local superior or the ambassador, because he doesn't want the case taken away from him. The risk is that Barrayar will be used as a scapegoat for the theft. It's a lot of fun with some cool high tech and a neat look at a super wealthy and advanced society in this universe.</p>OlmanFeelyushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17521657876810568251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9995718.post-79831364114542512232023-12-01T21:30:00.035-05:002023-12-02T10:49:41.142-05:0085. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Mongomery (reread)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5MHUiDeefETXiSYCY6PEkTS6Z4H71ArJYiyQ4PRs-Us8Jgxh8x4QOlgnKTiQEUl04WJlxP4DBa6ddEF-gdaFRMjaP9l7hxQNoyNrIK6FNki63YPeJ8zmr8hM9mNnLxefcfZrr9cieIPMNyTBF_4l7xohqStDsWRk2ODV-orxvUPu3QXrL9wwC/s1280/anne.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="782" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5MHUiDeefETXiSYCY6PEkTS6Z4H71ArJYiyQ4PRs-Us8Jgxh8x4QOlgnKTiQEUl04WJlxP4DBa6ddEF-gdaFRMjaP9l7hxQNoyNrIK6FNki63YPeJ8zmr8hM9mNnLxefcfZrr9cieIPMNyTBF_4l7xohqStDsWRk2ODV-orxvUPu3QXrL9wwC/s320/anne.jpg" width="196" /></a></div>So this is <a href="https://olmansfifty.blogspot.com/2011/07/41-anne-of-green-gables-by-lucy-maud.html">my second time</a> reading this Canadian classic. This time I read it to my daughter. It is an ideal night-time reading book as it is divided into fairly short chapters, each of which is an episode of its own. I don't have much to add on this second reading beyond my first-time feelings. It holds up and maybe even gets stronger on a re-reading (also really helps to have a listener who one hopes is absorbing the goodness). I teared up several times and was basically crying at the last chapter (to the somewhat sympathetic but mainly derision of my tween daughter who is in her anti-sentimental phase (at least I hope it's a phase).<p></p><p>One thing that struck me on the second reading is how powerful and important Anne's relationship with Matthew is and yet how actual little real interaction they have in the book. Their relationship is basically static and wonderful. I don't quite know what to make of this but when I think of it, Anne has no direct relations with any other adult male either. Maybe this is just that we are in a woman's world here, maybe something deeper about men being an unchanging external force which Anne's spirit reacts to or elides. </p><p>This edition was published in the states and has a very nice afterword by Jennifer Lee Carrell which has an opening sentence that captures the book very well: </p><p></p><blockquote>...a bright dream of paradise: not an ecstatic vision of heaven but a gentle glow of domestic happiness hedged with just enough shadow to make it precious.</blockquote><p></p><p>Anyhow, a classic and deservedly so. Read it.</p>OlmanFeelyushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17521657876810568251noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9995718.post-22659729714886856712023-11-30T22:30:00.054-05:002023-12-02T09:57:30.748-05:0084. Yellow Line by Sylvia Olsen<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoGVXdMvTg0yuVc7ULW-zUMsXetgFEMu0cy9QaZ38GvFc1l5Y_iNqiaQkL46t9cm4BfyQ4WXlGZk9W23DkfQCc-cJvlcqcMb45lwtvdBr8BXFoPXTWZ75c4TX8GY-CYAkkMheDhPiijr_a_U7EEI9sW9AWsnRLOaaM22qloXDt2iTOm_54pYJ8/s1280/yellowroad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="806" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoGVXdMvTg0yuVc7ULW-zUMsXetgFEMu0cy9QaZ38GvFc1l5Y_iNqiaQkL46t9cm4BfyQ4WXlGZk9W23DkfQCc-cJvlcqcMb45lwtvdBr8BXFoPXTWZ75c4TX8GY-CYAkkMheDhPiijr_a_U7EEI9sW9AWsnRLOaaM22qloXDt2iTOm_54pYJ8/s320/yellowroad.jpg" width="202" /></a></div>I grabbed this one from the free box on Esplanade really for my daughter. At first glance it looked to be about a small town in B.C. where the First Nations and the white kids are separated, which it was. I grew up in a similar situation and had some exposure and interaction with First Nations kids and people. Out here in hipster Montreal, she doesn't have that opportunity so I want her at least to be aware of the reality of their existence on a day-to-day level. Now that I've read it, I think it's a bit too old for her. Though it is large print and a quick read, it is really targeted at teen readers.<p></p><p>The story is from the perspective of a white kid, Vince, whose dad is in forestry and is a straight up racist and whose mom says the right things but basically believes things should be the way they are. The way they are is captured in the school bus ride where the First Nations kids (which they call "Indians" in the book, as we did) all sit at the front of the bus and the white kids at the back with an empty row in between. Likewise, the First Nations stay on the reserve. The conflict begins when the Vince's childhood friend who went to the city and sort of grew up starts dating a cool Indian kid called Steve. At the same time, a First Nations girl who seems quite cute starts giving Vince the eye and he can't get her out of his head. Vince's initial resistance to Steve and his friend causes a big conflict at the high school with the Indian kids threatening to beat Vince up. Vince tells his parents about the relationship which then causes a real furor and fucks it up for his friend whose parents are going to send to live with her uncle back in the city.</p><p>It's a very short book (I read it in one sitting) and at times a bit awkward. Some of the details seem a bit wrong, like I don't know if there are rugby teams in small town B.C. (the Indian kids all play rugby while the white kids play basketball which doesn't ring true to me). I get the feeling that Olsen really understands teenage issues and the racism towards the First Nations in B.C. but her perspective of shit-kicking B.C. logging towns is from someone who has only lived in Victoria. Otherwise, though, I think for a story aimed at teens who aren't big readers, it keeps moving along and captures fairly well some of the realities of that racism and the complex interactions between what we are calling settlers today and the Indigenous people in western Canada. I may keep it hanging around until my daughter gets older.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtdRwC9I85vvFr6ImfcLb6tjPwhY99yGUa15lSj3TTzSoa3CIBj3LRM1Y24C2YBQHxFllpPtntzJvSc5i2_JYoTfYCpQCSltsdaKDesLeYk2BEvmLivk0tCDuiOlAmbQdHEh_xUDh0K7pLs4a14dof6sJRsgmxDs7UDOcWvCYvbZ92arfkghoj/s1280/yellowroadback.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="787" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtdRwC9I85vvFr6ImfcLb6tjPwhY99yGUa15lSj3TTzSoa3CIBj3LRM1Y24C2YBQHxFllpPtntzJvSc5i2_JYoTfYCpQCSltsdaKDesLeYk2BEvmLivk0tCDuiOlAmbQdHEh_xUDh0K7pLs4a14dof6sJRsgmxDs7UDOcWvCYvbZ92arfkghoj/s320/yellowroadback.jpg" width="197" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>OlmanFeelyushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17521657876810568251noreply@blogger.com0