assassination of margaret thatcher

I assume that because Margaret Thatcher has been dead for some time, the title of this post, and the title of the book--The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher--won't get me put on an FBI (or MI6) watchlist. Here's hoping! I picked this book up at the library book sale. I'm pretty sure it was in Littleton, because I purchased some books at the book sale at my local library as well, and they label their books with a rubber stamp; this one doesn't have that, and its definitely a library book that has been withdrawn, or weeded, from the library's collection. yep, just did a search for the on the interwebs, definitely on a watchlist

This collection of short stories is from the author of Wolf Hall, and its follow-up; Bring Up the Bodies. I haven't read either of them, but it says so right on the cover. Wolf Hall won the Man Booker Prize in 2009, and is apparently based on Thomas Cromwell, as is the follow-up,* and I understand that the third in a trilogy is forthcoming. The reason I mention this is that I presume that is why this collection was published: to take advantage of the acclaim Hilary Mantel has garnered with her two popular historical novels. That isn't to say these short stories aren't any good, on the contrary they were very good.

If this collection had a theme I'd say that they reflect the darker side of human feelings. These stories are filled with anguish, fear, anxiety, hatred, loss, sadness, sickness, politics and racism. There are also comedic breaks, that are both funny and in some cases awkward, or a bit sad, such as in the first story: "Sorry to Disturb," a young British woman living in Saudi who spends her time at home while her husband works, allows a Pakistani man into her apartment to use the telephone in an emergency, who then returns to thank her and strikes up a friendship she doesn't want but is somehow unable to extract herself from. According to one review I read, this story was originally part of a memoir, and is based on the author's own time in Saudi Arabia.

Mantel's writing is beautiful, almost to a fault. Take a look at this example from the last story, from which the book takes its title: 

"Once more I am reminded of something priestly. A wasp dawdles over the sill. The scent of the garden is watery, green. The tepid sunshine wobbles in, polishes his shabby brogues, moves shyly across the surface of the dressing table."

Things are dawdling and wobbling all over. And I'm hoping the brogues metaphor is intentional and isn't something that just popped into her head while writing about an IRA assassination plot. 

The Wikipedia article about Mantel indicates that this short story title also got her into a bit of trouble, when she said in an 2014 interview with The Guardian that she fantasized about the assassination of Thatcher, which Thatcher supporters responded to by calling for a police investigation. Guess we're both on the watchlist. and so are the 6 people who will ever read this I enjoyed this collection, even if some of it was horrifying. 

That's the last book for 2021 folks! Lets hope 2022 is better than this year. Happy New Year!

* The follow-up: Bring Up the Bodies won the Man Booker prize as well, in 2012.

 

 

 

near dark

If you're looking for the guy that's read all 42 Scott Harvath books in order, and is blogging about the latest installment, you've got the wrong place; that's three doors down, on the right. 

I did, however, go look this up and its apparently number 19 in the Harvath series, and Scot is spelled with one T. I've also read at least one of the other 18 books in this series,* and according to my review I thought that one was pretty good too. Brad Thor is doing a pretty good job here.

Harvath is your standard super secret agent man, who doesn't work for the CIA, or the NSA, or NPR, or STP, or anyone else who's going gonna' try and hold a good man down. Harvath works for a private company that Uncle Sam calls upon when they need to get crap done, and maybe eliminate some baddies with extreme prejudice and still have some plausible deniability. Licensed-to-kill paired with license for some politician to say 'who me?'

In this venture, its a little more personal, and Harvath's taking out the trash trip isn't exactly sanctioned. I'm not even sure anyone even knows about it, but I guess they hold him in pretty high regard because if he determines that you need some killin', thar's gonna' be some killin'! So for those of you who wish we had someone who could just get rid of these bad guys around the world, this fella seems like he's going to push all the right buttons for you. We don't read these things without being ready to suspend our disbelief. Thankfully, Thor doesn't take advantage of that tolerance, as some others in this genre often do. This one tide me over until Christmas came along and filled my figurative stocking with literal books. see what I did there

Happy New Year!

* Its apparently 19 others, for a total of 20 as of this writing Black Ice is currently for sale. Number 21, Rising Tiger is due next Summer.**

** For you nerds out there, Thor has also released some bonus material for a few of these. At least three novellas, or additional chapters, that fill in some of the time between, or expand upon, some of the novels.

night fire

The Night Fire is a recent Michael Connelly novel in the Harry Bosch series that has more recently evolved to include another LAPD detective named Renée Ballard. I get the feeling we’ll be seeing the two of these characters for a while and I wouldn’t be surprised if we see more of Ballard, perhaps in a novel of her own. 

Bosch and Ballard make a pretty good team but it's clear that they aren’t partners in the traditional police detective mold and that gives them more flexibility to pursue things on their own when they need to. That aspect of their relationship, along with the fact that they are often working on different cases, is what makes me think we may see Ballard on her own at some point, much the way we saw the Lincoln Lawyer step out. Do I have that right? Was the Lincoln Lawyer a spin off of Bosch, or vice versa? so i checked According to this site, the Bosch books began in 1992, and Mickey Haller, the aforementioned enLincolned lawyer, showed up in 2005.*

This was the last book I had around so I’ll have to venture back out to the library to find some other things to read.** This was a good installment in the series but by no means the best. There were a couple of plot points that made me say really? I not sure they could pull that off. But Connelly had the answers for the most egregious of those things and only the fiddly stuff got by, so good on you Mike. Can I call you Mike? Seems like I’ve known you for years. 

I assume Bosch fans are all aware of the Amazon TV series about Bosch. While I was rabbit-holeing why does that sound off-color? around on the internets, I learned that a new Bosch series, as well as a Lincoln Lawyer series are both in the works, and Michael Connelly is reportedly involved in both. And on a related note, I'll leave you with this tidbit, which I thought was charming. Michael Connelly dedicated The Night Fire to Titus Welliver, and thanked him for bringing Bosch to live.

* I read The Lincoln Laywer, but it doesn't show up on this blog, which only dates back to 2009. For the record, it was pretty good. I enjoyed it enough that I also watched the movie, which was also pretty good.

** UPDATE: I found a Brad Thor book called Near Dark in the house that I'm going to read.

identical

Identical is a novel written by Ellen Hopkins--in verse--for the teen lit market, based on the labeling from the library (weeded and discarded by my local library) the tone of the blab on the back cover, and the front matter, the subject matter, and feedback from my oldest. Some of that feedback included a summary of books chosen by school departments for students, usually being centered on teen suicide, drug use, Nazis, or all of the above.

No Nazis in this one. but just about every other horror

I picked this up from the library book sale for two reasons. The first, and most import reason is that I needed something to read. The second reason is because a quick flip through this told me it was a novel written in poetry. I mean, come on, sign me up for the crazy stuff. What's this, Beowulf up in here? hwæt!

I can imagine middle school kids reading this for English class, thinking: Why do I have to read this? That's not to say this isn't any good, just seems a little grim for the young adult market. Now, will the harsh realities and horrors described in this story help some kids who have to deal with things like this to feel better, or at least better understood? I guess so. Will it help some dealing with the things described here--or knows someone who is--to get up the strength to ask for help? I guess that may be true as well. But is it worth it to expose the rest of the young population to this, I'm not sure. But, is any kind of discussion about these awful realities which helps to drag them out of the shame and silence that typically surrounds them, and into the light, better than the traditional response of ignoring them. I think the answer to that is a clear yes.

This is an interesting way to spin a tale, and the twists and turns this story takes because of that, makes it worth the read alone. The layering and symmetrical construction of the verse in this story adds to the charm and depth of of the story, in spite of the subject matter.

october list

Jeffrey Deaver is probably best known for his Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs crime procedural novels. Of course, that's not all he writes. He seems to have another returning character named Colter Shaw, whom I haven't read about, and another one called Kathryn Dance, who I may have read about, but I'm not sure. a quick check of the blog seems to indicate: no And a few years ago he was tapped to write a James Bond novel.

This story seems like a one off, although I guess its possible that we may see Gabriella in another story. Or perhaps the Kepler and Surani duo of police detectives? I guess we'll wait and see. In any case, this is an interesting take on a novel; The October List is sub-titled, A Novel in Reverse (with photographs by the author.) And when you open up, it begins with chapter 36. I don't think I'm giving too much away there, but as you can imagine, the story unfolds backwards, and we learn what we need to know to explain the things we've read, buy the time we get to the beginning.

This is not the first time we've ever encountered something like this, the movie Memento comes to mind right away, and there have been others--Deaver mentions a few more examples in the Foreword, at the back of the book, or course. It seems like a trick to plot out a story that works in reverse, and when successful, as this seems to be, I'm not sure it would work if read chronologically. Oh, I'm sure the story would hang together, it just wouldn't have any suspense, and I'm not sure it would actually go anywhere.

This one took a little while to read, so I wasn't on the edge of my seat, dying to find out what happened, and it was only at the end that the pieces started to drop into place and the pace picked up. The pace is a strange term here, in that speed is distance times time, and in this case, time is a negative number, so the product of that equation is negative speed. So does that mean it sped up, or actually slowed down, at the end?

Beginning?

Math.

devices and desires

Devices and Desires was written by PD James in 1989; I read the first Vintage Books edition, printed in May 2004. The front matter includes information about PD James, indicating that she authored 20 other books, many about Commander Adam Dalgliesh who appears in this one. James won a number of awards including being named Baroness James of Holland Park in 1991. James died in 2014. I think I’ve read something else by James, and after a quick look I find that I read The Black Tower in 2011.

Adam Dalgliesh is visiting the (imaginary) Headlands on the north-east coast of Norfolk. In an authors note PD James adds that “Lovers of this remote and fascinating part of East Anglia will place it between Cromer and Great Yarmouth.”

D & D has a pretty big cast of characters, and James does her job giving us a reason that just about anyone of these characters could have done the deed, leaving us guessing until the end. Now, if you were an avid reader, and were really motivated to figure out whodunit before the end, I guess there may be enough information given for you to figure it out, but I' not that guy. I'm the guy that lets the author do their thing and tell me a story. Trying to figure it out, like a puzzle, is someone else's job, I'm here to be entertained. I was.

This was a slow read, which tells me I wasn't on the edge of my seat, dying to know what happens next. That doesn't mean I didn't have a good time. I'll keep my eye out for other PD James books, I just won't run out and buy everything she's ever written tomorrow.

recursion

Recursion is a novel by Blake Crouch that seems to be a riff on a time-loop theme that we've all seen before in movies like Terminator, Edge of Tomorrow, Looper, and even Dr. Strange. There are piles of movies, and even more books. A search of 'time loop books' actually brought back another book by Blake Crouch called Dark Matter. its promoted on the of this book! see! its right there.

Anyway, I got distracted. Its Sunday and dinner won't be ready for hours, so pre-dinner drinks and a quick visit from the in-laws have taken a small toll on my train of thought... read: ability to for coherent thoughts I'm pretty sure that what I was trying to say is that Crouch has taken a shot at a well worn trope, but he has managed to build a story that surprisingly has an interesting new twist. You'd think that ground this well plowed would have little fruitful crop to be harvested how's that for a tortured metaphor? or is it a simile? gulp

Recursion follows the exploits of New York City detective Barry Sutton, who is driven to understand the suicide of a random jumper with a wild story of false memories; and Helena Smith, the creator of a new scientific breakthrough she has been working on to try and record, retrieve, or recreate her dementia-ridden mother's memories. You can perhaps see how these two might meet in the Big Apple, but where their story leads is not what I was expecting. There was even a small taste of Freaky Friday on this one, altho I expect that anyone else who has read this may find that a stretch. i said there were drinks! But maybe we'll just agree that it was freaky, and leave it at that. There was a small amount of repetitiveness, that repeated itself a little, but only a few times over again, before we got to the climax, but it was only a little bit, and then it was over, and we got to the climax.

Crouch is apparently pretty well know for Dark Matter, and maybe I'll take a look if I run across it. This one was pretty good.

machines like me

I don't think I'm giving too much away when I say that Ian McEwan's Machines Like Me is an alternate history soft-SciFi story that takes place in the 1980s. This is an interesting take in that it isn't set in a what-if future, rather its set in a possible past which may have been different for all of us if just a few things had played out a little differently. That premise, al by itself, is a fun thing to think about and is a little brain-bendy.

The main protagonist, Charlie Friend, tells the story first person, which is where the 'like me' comparative phrase in the title comes from. Mr. Friend sounds made up (scoff) is a little insecure, has some vague experience writing, and maybe some office-type work in his past but has given it up for self-employment. A venture he is not always successful at, but keeps at it nonetheless. Mr. Friend admits that he hasn't always made sound monetary decisions, but that doesn't keep him from pushing on. 

Just upstairs lives Miranda, Charlie's friend, who is also a graduate student and mid-twenties to his early thirties. Charlie's insecurity extends to his feelings for Miranda, which complicates their friendship, if only because Charlie is in his head too much and not really living. Into this complicated dynamic, Charlie brings a machine, and what he (and we) thought was complicated before, gets even more complex.

McEwan has spun an intriguing story here that reminds me of Asimov's I, Robot series in its examination of what it means when thinking machines become part of our lives, both for us, and for them.

knife

Harry Hole is a recurring character in a series of books written by Jo Nesbø, a Norwegian writer, and there have been a bunch of them. Knife was published in 2019, and translated into English by Neil Smith the same year, which is what I read. I'm pretty sure I've read at least one other Jo Nesbø book, and I'm also pretty sure it was a Harry Hole story, but I guess I didn't write about it here on the blog. Maybe it was during that blackout period in the latter part of 2019 and a large portion of 2020. looking at the Harry Hole list, it may have been The Devil's Star, I'm not sure

Knife is a murder mystery, and Harry Hole isn't approaching this the way he normally would, I assume, as a detective with the Oslo Police Department, as he doesn't have the resources of the department to back him up on this one.

The story arc is varied and kept me guessing as the story progressed, always with a nagging concern in the background about this one would end up. Nesbø has done a fine job of knitting together a fine story in the tradition of Hercule Poirot and other old timey mysteries where there are many possibilities, and one is not sure until the very end who may have done it.

ship breaker

I've had a few books tucked away in my public library account read list; Ship Breaker, a young adult novel by Paolo Bacigalupi, is not one of them. Drowned Cities by the same author is, but it wasn't until after I read that one that I discovered that its part of a series, and this current read is the first in that series. Good news is, it doesn't seem to matter much in what order these were read, at least that is my impression after reading two of the three in the series.

Ship Breaker definitely takes place in the same dystopian future Earth as the The Drowned Cities, after what I assume is run away global warming has led to massive ocean level rise and the breakdown of organized governments in favor of a few massive corporations and the rest of humanity living hand-to-mouth in a kind of Mad Max lawlessness, which pockets of semi-civilized population centers that are just mentioned as remote and inaccessible to the poor protagonists that inhabit this series.

One of the characters from The Drowned Cities features in this story as well, so I predict that it may be that character that ties these stories together. I guess we'll see. The third in the series is called Tool of War so I've made my bet already and I'm feeling pretty good about the odds.

thousand autumns

I put the novel The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet on my read list because of other books I've read by the author David Mitchell. Mitchell writes on that wobbly line between--or maybe its the smeary overlap in the Venn diagram--of science fiction, speculative fiction, and fantasy. Maybe David Mitchell would hate that description, I don't know. I guess he could describe it better himself, and perhaps has, elsewhere. What I do know is that Mitchell seems to have a fascination with time, and how we, as humans (and perhaps other human-adjacent creatures) move through it.

This novel seems to fall more squarely into the historical fiction genre, but I wasn't too far in before I began to get a sense of time as a character in this story. de Zoet is a carefully told story, of Europeans in c. 1800 Japan, where they were not welcome, and were mostly segregated from the populace to prevent European influence in the general culture. The pacing of the story recalls that attachment to history, tradition, and sameness the leaders of Japan held dear tat the time. Jacob de Zoet himself is a classic reluctant hero, in the form of a mid-level clerk who see himself as an uphold of what is righteous and true, which is mostly expressed in his manners and dignity, until he is called upon to uphold those ideals in a more taxing sense.

Mitchell thumbs his nose at the demand for fast paced, action drama and paints a picture of 'modern' Europeans, doing their best to take advantage of the closed Japanese culture, while the Japanese did the same from their point of view, all the while both looking at the other as the barbarian. Mitchell uses this backdrop to explore the relationships between the very few people on either side of this cultural divide who saw one another as human, with similar feelings, thoughts, and goals, and who reached across this divide toward one another, while early geopolitics tried to hold them back.

There is a whole chapter where Mitchell gives himself up to the poetry of what he is doing. Its like a treasure or a hidden message for us in the midst of of this love letter to an earlier time, which tries to express how different we are, and how much the same.

drowned cities

Apparently, The Drowned Cities is part of a trilogy, and as luck would have it, this is book two. The front matter in this book indicates that it is a 'companion book' to Ship Breaker, and it doesn't talk about a trilogy. But maybe this is one of those things where the third book just grew out of the success of the first two. Ship Breaker won a couple of awards; Drowned Cities was nominated for a few as well. The Ship Breaker Trilogy is rounded out by Tool of War. So, I guess I'll stick that on the list as well.

The Drowned Cities is listed as teen or young adult science fiction, so it is a little simpler in its overall story arc than either The Water Knife or The Windup Girl, which I have to say, I enjoyed more. That said, I did enjoy this, and it was a welcome break from the crime/spy novels I've been reading.

A quick look at the cover art will tell you that this story takes place in a time in the not too distant future when society has broken down. That post-apocalyptic world is Paolo Bacigalupi's playground, based on the stories I've read thus far. I assume the stories share the same universe, and therefor the same apocalypse, but that isn't touched on specifically in this book. The world does seem hotter however, so... there is no such thing as global warming. note: this sarcastic remark is posted in the color of smog. see, that's art

This story goes together like a kit of parts. Its fast moving, not overly complicated, has some compelling characters, and an interesting backstory that seems to drive the background narrative. Easy, right? I burned through this pretty quickly, and not just because its written in an easy-to-read manner, but because its engaging. I have ordered book 1 (Ship Breaker) from the library; our local library is doing self-service holds, so I can just put them on hold on the interwebs, and then trot down and pick them up.

An interesting aside from our local library. When I picked this book up, along with the Charles Yu book, about 3 weeks ago, a sign on the door read "Masks Welcome." Now the sign on the library door says "Masks Required." My city went to masks required in all public buildings in the middle of August, sometime. I assume its in advance of school starting up, and the Commonwealth's DESE (Department of Elementary and Secondary Education) decision to not allow remote learning in public schools this year.

science fictional universe

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu was pretty popular when it came out in 2010 if I remember correctly. I added to my reading list then, but I haven't gotten around to it until now. I get a kick out of the cover art, which appears to be a study in old school ray gun design, along with a Star Trek font for the text. A closer look at the ray guns shows that they aren't all different--which is slightly disappointing--and one of them isn't a ray gun at all.

What is great about this story is that it reads a little like an autobiography (written in first person, and the protagonist's name is Charles Yu) and a little like the diary of an emotionally damaged man, and a little like the service manual for a futuristic device that isn't really well explained, and a little like a letter to one's future self about how to be better, and a little like wholly metaphoric construct created to path to reckoning with regret and time wasted.

I think that amorphous quality of the story may be what makes it so popular. It has the ability, like a good fortune teller does, to spin a tale charged enough to latch onto our shared experiences, and vague enough to allow us to bring more of ourselves to the story as readers. In the end, it looks like Yu has told us a story of himself, and ourselves, and maybe hasn't told a science fiction story at all.

Read this book.

book of treasures

was scrolling through LinkedIn today, as I normally do not do, and I found a video post from the American Library Association which offered a glimpse at the Book of Treasures, or in the original old French "Li livres dou tresor," a medieval illuminated manuscript by Brunetto Latini, politician, historian, poet, philosopher, and teacher (and friend) of Dante Alighieri. Ooo, I thought, a glimpse at a great old tome from the National Library of Russia, count me in.

My first thoughts when the video starts: Wow, that book looks great for its age. Wow, that's not the book that's a box. A box? Wow, that book looks great for its age. Why does that guy opening it have his bare hands on it? Wow (now looking inside at the illustrated manuscript pages on vellum) that book looks great for its age. Well... [spoiler] its a copy. Limited? sure. Less than a thousand copies? yep. Handmade? no doubt. For sale, and this is the glam video for all those patrons of book porn? you got it. The LinkedIn poster: Victor Moliero. The Company: M. Moliero. to be fair, Vic is proly a member of the ALA. whatever.

Its a nice copy, I'm sure. I would have preferred to ogle the original however.*

Also known as Tesoro or Trésor (the treasure) the encyclopedia was written in French during Latini's exile to France between 1260 and 1267. There is a copy of the manuscript in the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana in Florence, where it is labeled as Ashburnham 125, which may or may not be the very volume from his old teacher that Dante read. The encyclopedia contains three books: biblical, Troy, troyian? Roman, and Middle Ages histories, and natural history, including astronomy, geography and animalia, the second book is about ethics, vices, and virtues, and the third book concerns political science as seen, and in the opinion of, the author. 

The National Library of Russia manuscript is rife with decorated initials, borders, and miniature illustrations including many "arabesques and drolleries" according to the Moliero video, which is why they chose this version to reproduce. Arabesques are ornate designs of interwoven geometric, floral, foliate figures. Drolleries are comedic images, designed to be oddly amusing, whimsical, or jesting. Examples of drolleries in this book include: deer-riding arrow-shooting monkeys, children jousting while riding piggyback on their parents, and a sword swallower. Many of the illuminations are gilded. Other versions are not as illuminated.

More about M. Moliero and what they do can be found on their website if you're interested in, what I assume, is an expensive copy of an awesome old book.

* I tried to find images of the original the Moliero folks copied on line so I could check it out--and share it here--but no luck. If you find it let me know in a comment.

english assassin

Gabriel Allon book two, The English Assassin, was a good installment in the series and a fun read. Given what our man Allon has had to go through its surprising he stays in the game. I guess that is maybe what makes the difference between a storybook hero and a real one; storybook heroes are what we expect heroes to be, real heroes aren't. They are just folks doing their job, doing what's right, doing what needs to be done. 

When folks call other folks heroes, it usually pisses them off. Being compared to something dreamed up, isn't always flattering I guess, when viewed from the receiving end. Calling someone a hero, is like saying "you aren't real, your accomplishments are imaginary, fanciful." I guess I may not like it either, but then, we all do these tiny thought experiments in our heads; ask others "what would you do if..." questions, but none of us really knows how to answer truthfully. Or maybe accurately is a better term. When we think about these hypothetical situations, how we would react is just how we hope we'd react. None of us really knows, I'm sure. We're just guessing. 

Thought experiments like this, strung together into a narrative, is what a story is. Silva has created a character in Allon that he uses to test these thought experiments, and create a dreamworld where Israel works secretly through their clandestine services to right the wrongs done to the Jews for centuries, and we we cheer yearning for justice as we follow along. Justice is what heroes do after all.

What does all that have to do with an English assassin, or Switzerland, or Venice? You'll have to catch up and read this thing! I'll give you some time, I have another few books I'll be reading in the meantime, and I'm sure I'll get back to Gabriel Allon at some point.

kill artist

Daniel Silva's first Gabriel Allon book is called The Kill Artist. As I mentioned in my last post, my wife has decided to go back and read all of Daniel Silva's works, and has collected them in paperback from a variety of sources. A quick look through 'The Books' page here on the blog tells me that the first one I read was in 2013, which I bought in a tiny English language section of a bookstore in Sulmona, Italy. there's my blog, doing its job as intended. thank me very much

After reading this one, I read a second, which I just finished. I'll write about that one in a little while, but I am going to hold off on the Silva books for a while as my library has re-opened--a little while ago actually, but has just recently returned to regular hours so I can go over there after work. Which I have now done, and I now have a few books lined up that don't have Silva's name on them.

Allon is a great character for a variety of reasons, including his reluctance to do what he knows needs to be done, his haunted past, his professionalism, his humanity (in spite of what he does) and his weaknesses and fallibility. When I spell it out like that, it sounds a lot like the advice the give writers on what makes up a good hero, so I guess Silva has been listening. I thought that going back to book one would be like an origin story, but it isn't. I hope that's not too much of a spoiler, but its seems to me that that story hasn't been told yet, except as background. But who knows, maybe it in one of the others I haven't read yet.

mark of the assassin

My wife decided that she needed to go back and read the rest of Daniel Silva's earlier books, so she did an online search and purchased them in paperback, used. Packages started to arrive from all over; there must be a dozen of them. So I took a quick look into the order of them and found the answer in the frequently asked questions section of Silva's website.

The Mark of the Assassin is the first of two books written about CIA agent Michael Osbourne. As far as I know, there are only two, but on the same FAQ page linked above, there is a question about whether Osbourne will be back or not, and the answer is left open. you know, like when you asked for ice cream, or to go bowling, when you were eight, and one of your parents said "we'll see" and your eight-year-old brain was like; that means no The second Osbourne book does not appear to be in the stack of books recently sourced by my wife.

This book was written in 1998, so its dated, and the technology is dated as well. But not so dated as to be old timey, like an Ian Fleming novel or something. There are cell phones in this book, for example, they are just fixed in vehicles--with handsets on them. Just reading about them weighs about 2 pounds. There are some glimmers of modernity, and the women aren't all helpless damsels, altho Osbourne's wife does seem a little clingy for a high-powered lawyer. They're all like: "I don't know what I'd do if somethin' happened to you Michael, I jus' love you so much! I'd trow myself in a wood chipper or sumfin!" -gush- "I know baby." -smolder-  those aren't quotes from the book, no spoilers. little syrupy tho, no?

This story is tightly written, and other than a few things that probably read fine in '98, it hands together pretty well and came to a fine, if expected, climax. Silva has a style, and this is a great example of the early formation of that style. Its fun to see him working things out, that seem to be a easy for him now. It will be interesting to read the follow up to this if and when I run into it. Next up is the first Gabriel Allon book in that series. For folks that are only interested in Allon, it appears to me that this Osbourne story seems to be written in the same universe that Allon has his adventures.

while justice sleeps

While Justice Sleeps is written by Stacey Abrams, who served for eleven years in the Georgia House of Representatives, seven of those years as Democratic Leader. Then in 2018, Abrams was the Democratic nominee for Governor of Georgia, which she might have won if not for alleged irregularities in the polling. Those irregularities became the impetus for Abrams to create her Fair Fight organization.

According to her Abrams for Governor website, which is still up, she has also authored eight romantic suspense novels under the pen name Selena Montgomery. In the front matter of Justice lists only two books by Abrams, and they don't sound like romance novels. Justice has a little boy-girl tension, but its not a romance novel. By contrast, take this line from the description of Secrets and Lies on the Harper Collins website: "She just witnessed her uncle’s murder, she’s running for her life, and now Dr. Katelyn Lyda is face-to-face with a breathtaking man who could be her salvation. It’s too bad [he] is one of the bad guys." cue heavy breathing

So you get the idea. nom de plume indeed.

This book had a nice pace, and the characters were nicely developed, and how they reacted to the things around them was mostly on point. Every now and again, and author needs to ask us to suspend disbelieve more than they normally would. Typically its with more outlandish stuff, fantasy and SciFi, but when it happens in a modern day set crime drama, it needs to be reasonable. A current day novel is essentially a 'what if?' scenario; if the the response to that what if, is a resounding 'never in a million years,' then the author has asked for too much. Abrams didn't go that far, but some things were a stretch. I also think there may be a plot hole. I'm not the most careful reader, but at one point our protagonist, Avery Keene contacted a mystery person who gave a false name. A chapter or so later, Avery knew who that mysterious person was, but how she figured that out, I don't think was covered in the text. if you've read this, and I missed it, let me know in the comments below

That said, While Justice Sleeps was a fun read, and an original plot line. I read this in just a few days, so that's always an indicator of a fun read. I'm under the impression we may not have seen the last of Ms. Keene either. Nice work Ms. Abrams, and go get 'em.

atlas of middle earth

When you create a reference book about a fictional place is your reference book fiction, or non-fiction?

Given that Middle Earth has almost no reliable  empirical data, I guess Karen Wynn Fonstad had to take some creative license in order to produce the maps and plans she did.  That said, I think she did consult with Christopher Tolkien; I’m pretty sure I read something he wrote indicating the he had worked with her on something. Not sure what that was, but it may have been a forward in one of the History of Middle Earth books. Speaking of which, I haven’t read all of those yet. Fonstad also consulted drawings and maps done by Tolkien, and his son, which were used in earlier published works, as well as unpublished drawings and sketches form the professor’s notes, the text of the books, and further information from the Histories, published by Christopher Tolkien which provided additional information and was the impetus for the revisions Fonstad made in the updated Atlas. 

By tying the maps and the landforms they represent to the distance data provided in the various texts, Fonstad has created maps that can be scaled and therefor, in many cases, actually differ from the maps published in versions of The Lord of the Rings. That takes some getting used to. btw, I’m not used to it, and I may not get there

Any serious fan of the world building accomplished by Tolkien will recognize the dedication and joy expressed by Fonstad in her work. The Atlas is clearly a labor of love undertaken by a cartographer who really just wanted a more complete picture of the lands she followed our mutual friends through on their adventures. Are there problems? Sure. Do I hate that all of her hills, mountains, and downs end in the same elephant toenail roundness? Sure. Am I grouchy that the publisher (or some other bean counter) decided that two colors was plenty to adequately express the level of detail included in all of the maps in the Atlas. You bet. And finally, is it—and has it been, over the years I’ve had this book—aggravating to consult the maps it contains while reading The Silmarillion or The Lord of the Rings and find that they are so different (for the sake of scale accuracy?) that they confuse more than clarify. Ya, you betcha. But that doesn’t mean I’m a hater. 

 

Karen Wynn Fonstad has done an admirable job of researching and providing insight many of us would never otherwise have access to. It’s the same issue diehard fans have when someone makes a movie of a book like The Lord of the Rings, it’s bound to contradict our individual visions of what happens in the stories we read. Our internal visions are a dialog with the author’s written word. Seeing someone else's vision of that material is always jarring, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have value. I went to see all of the movies, and they were great. They just weren’t how I would do it. 

And neither is The Atlas of Middle Earth. But I keep going back to it. And so should you.

 

 

Silmarillion

Sweet, sad, Silmarillion. 

The Wikipedia entry refers to The Silmarillion as a mythopoetic collection of stories. I had to look that one up; and I kind of like it. The tone the stories are told in is a little reserved. Some of the early ones, chronologically speaking, read like bible entries. But when you’re talking about the birth of the Earth—or Ea, Tolkien calls it—then I guess biblese seems appropriate. 

As I understand it, Tolkien felt the absence of a traditional English mythology beyond the tall tales of Arthur Pendragon and his ilk. Something of the scope and depth of the kind the Greeks, Romans, and Norse cultures have; stories that underlay their culture and belief systems, and tie them to their spiritual past. A careful look at what Tolkien has done shows that. From his proto-nursery rhymes, to the linguistic underpinnings of English, present in the early languages of the Quendi, the Elves. 

The Silmarillion is Tolkien’s unfinished backstory, the framework of his world building upon which he built the Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. But it’s more than that; it’s his notes on dozens of other stories that he didn’t get the chance to finish. Christopher Tolkien did a great job, organizing, editing and releasing many of these work in the decades after his father’s death. Working, as he says he did when his father was alive, as a kind of amanuensis. One can only imagine what kind of works Tolkien may have produced had he had access to modern word processing or even speech-to-text technology. 

Tolkien described the creation of the world as the first collective music of the Ainur, made manifest by the one god Illuvatar, with all of the good, the bad, and the ugly of a first run, still in there. It’s like a proud papa pasting his kid’s first crayon drawing on the fridge... and then asking us all to live there for eons. augh, I don't wanna live in a first draft. Melkor is licking his finger and touching me! But don’t worry, says Eru, the big man, this is like a dry run. We’ll work out the bugs then bang out a fresh one all fixed up!*

What? Yeah, this ones probly gonna suck, for you guys and everyone else down there, but screw it, right? You guys made it, let’s see what happens!**

In here we find everything from the beginning of the world to the creation myths of the sun, the moon, and the stars; from the origins of elves, dwarves, and men, to the flat world theory; from the flood story to the making of dragons; and from the invention of war, to the making of rings. That last one was inspired, by the way, by the same fables and myths that inspired Wagner and his Der Ring des Nibelungen, "The Ring of the Nibelung," often referred to as the Ring Cycle. Tolkien was also inspired by the Edda, as was Wagner. 

 

This isn't the first time I've read this book, and it won't be the last. My last time through was nearly ten years ago. That review is maybe better than this one. If you want to know why you should read The Silmarillion, or even some pointers on how to read it, check out my earlier review.

Either way, read this book.

 

* I'm paraphrasing, nerds

** Yep, paraphrasing again

 

 

firing point

Take a look at this book cover. Do you know who DIDN'T write this book?

That's right Tom Clancy didn't write this book. He "slipped the surly bonds of Earth" nearly 10 years ago. it means he's dead

So is this a "Tom Clancy Brand" book or something? Has anyone Penguin Random House come out and said what this is about? My wife bought this book, thinking it was written by Tom Clancy. The publishers must know that is going to be the case, and I'm sure they feel confident that adding the real author's name on there covers them in the legal department, but is that the right way to do business? Lying to customers? I don't think so. its not the smallest font on the cover I guess

For a while, books like this said something like "Tom Clancy's: super bad-ass character," which claimed some ownership, either of the story, or the characters, or something. When you look at the Tom Clancy page at Penguin Random House the 's books way outnumber the books Clancy actually wrote. Penguin Random House has them listed as books Tom Clancy "contributed to." That sounds a lot like the co-authorship attributed to James Patterson on approximately 30% of the books published in America, based on my extensive sarcastic research project. After reviewing 3 or 4 Wikpedia articles on Clancy, it looks like he started to work with co-authors a few years before he died. He also appears to have collaborated with Steve Pieczenik on the creation of the Op-Center and Net Force novel series, of which he wrote nothing. So he an Steve came up with these ideas, and then some authors got assigned to it like cub reporters in a publishing newsroom or something. 

Its like the Agribusiness of writing.

So I finished it. Jack Ryan Jr. is in the same vein as Son of Frankenstein, as far as I can see. They'd like to keep writing Jack Ryan stories but the haven't figured out how to disengage him from a normal human life span like they've managed to do with James Bond. So Jack Jr. does the same kind of word saving things his dad did, just not as well written.

If you're into the whole Tom Clancy brand, and you assume that the publishers are only working with authors who have Clancy's raw talent, and would otherwise be writing bestsellers on their own, if they weren't so interested in keeping Clancy's characters going, then you'll probably enjoy this. Mike Maden asked me to suspend disbelieve a few times too far.

I wouldn't bother. In fact I'd say we skip the book mill fake authors like the Clancy brand and James Patterson and anyone like them. We don't need publishers and marketing executives clogging up the bookshelves with curated crap and formulaic plot points designed to drive sales and make money. We want quality authors, working hard at what they do, and we want room for them on the shelves. 

Organic, farm-to-table writing, please.

wonder woman - final final

My final design. click to see larger.

I know, I said final, but after it sits with you for a little bit, and you think about it, sometimes you need to go back in and do some tweaking. That's what happened, and here's where I'm at. As much as I don't like it, and I don't see the need for it, Wonder Woman iconography is pretty well tied to the tiara. If you didn't know the 'final' drawing I posted was a image of Wonder Woman, you may not immediately guess. So I've added a very understated head adornment. I was going for something small, like those eleven crowns from The Lord of the Rings movies.*

I also added a few highlights to the drawing, which made way more of a difference than I thought it would. If I haven't bragged enough about how good this drawing/painting application is, here I go. This was all done with Sketchbook which you can download for free from AutoDesk, the folks that make AutoCAD, among other things.

 

That's it! Let me know what you think.

* Bro, I don't remember crowns in the books. The only thing I recall that was similar is the Star of Eärendil which was given to him by his wife, Elwing, after being recovered from Morgoth's iron crown by Beren and Lúthien. Eärendil wore it on his brow, to light his way, and I assumed that it was set in something metal. Other than that, I don't recall crowns. Am I missing anything nerds?

last trial

Its been years since I read anything from Scott Turow. 

I think... I'll check the Books page here to see if hes on there at all.... Nope, nothing noted here since I began the blog in 2009. 12 years, oh crap! I recall reading Presumed Innocent, and then going to see the movie when it came out a few years later. Since then, I guess I may have if my wife bought something. I think Turow does courtroom stuff, right? Presumed Innocent had the crime thing, and that's not usually what I like to read. With the library closed for the VID, I've been a little lazy about picking something out and having it set out for me so I can run by there and pick it up. I'm not quite sure why tho, its pretty convenient, but not as convenient as reading stuff my wife has, or this most recent book, which is one of four books I got from my mom and dad. One of those books was good, and one was so crappy that I recycled it and the other one by the same author.

The Last Trial started out a little slow, but once I got into it the pace picked up and I enjoyed it. I could see some of the developments coming down the pike, but there was enough dodge and weave to keep me interested in how it was going to end up. 

This book, like a lot of others I've read in recent years has a 'Prologue' that is actually a peek at a further point in the story. I'm not sure where this ploy originated, but I get the feeling the idea comes from the publishers rather than from the author. I'm not sure why an author would encourage you to flip open to the last 20 percent of the story and read what's going to happen. Seems like a hook, or a coming attraction. Reminds me of the Mission Impossible opening credits which showed tiny clips of what was coming up in the episode. An idea picked up in the movies too. I'm not a fan of spoilers, so this type of 'Prologue' seems dumb to me.

dutch house

I went to visit my mom in her new little house, and we spent a few hours catching up, playing Rummy 500 (she won) and having a small lunch. Before I left we talked a little about what we were reading. We're a reading family. I was just finishing a David Baldacci book, and she was reading something in the same genre. She asked if I'd like to look through the books to see if there was anything I wanted to read. I was going to grab one; she gave me four.

The first one I started was written by an ex-soldier about some crackerjack team of ex-special forces, run by a secretly funded government group, sent to solve problems for Uncle Sam, with plausible deniability. never heard that idea before Written by Brad somebody. Less than 50 pages in, the leader of this crackerjack team admits to blacking out in anger so badly that he just murders everyone. This is the leader of the most secret, most capable tactical team in America, that is secretly saving us all? Oh, and gay bashing too. So that, and the other book by the same Brad guy, went in recycling. the writing stunk too, so even if you like gay-bashing, secret-police murder-boys, don't bother

Any-HOO...

Why I've brought you here today is to discuss Ann Patchett's The Dutch House. After adding a few of the crime/spy type novels to my arms, Mom passed me this book saying, "I asked Dad to pick out something different for me." Mom's copy has a little gold label on the cover that indicates it was a Pulitzer Prize finalist, for 2020. I'm not sure if it was that, or some other reason my dad thought she would like it, but she seemed satisfied with it, so I took it.

Its been a little while since I skipped doing other things so I could spend some more time reading a book. This one pulled me in. The Dutch House is the story of a family, and how it grew, evolved, fractured off, and came together again, around a house. The Dutch House was their escape, their palace, their history, and for some of them it was their misery. Still others, their obsession. Now don't get me wrong, this isn't some melodramatic horror movie about a haunted house, but the ghosts that whisper through the rooms and look down from the gilded frames of the past are almost characters in this story themselves.

What The Dutch House is really about is the love--and a certain amount of resentment--that still binds this little family together through the generations. Its a treatise on the work it takes to love one another. Its a study in delft blue. The characters and their relationships are real, complex and fully formed. By the end of this book, I felt like I would have recognized many of them on the streets of New York, or in a suburb north of Philly.

Patchett's writing is crisp, refreshing, and [sparingly] sprinkled with some perfectly formed phrases. Little gems that I read through, and then a few sentences later, went back and read again. I don't think I've read anything by Ann Patchett before, but looking at the list of her books on her website, I'm pretty sure I've seen some of them on reading lists, and among the recommended at libraries and bookstores. And speaking of bookstores, Patchett has opened her own with a partner, and you can find a link to her store on her website. She's all in.

Patchett also keeps a blog, which is linked to her site, and I noticed that one of the entries is a list of questions and answers from readers of The Dutch House. party on if you want to know more

I'm going to add Ann Patchett to my list of authors to read more of. 

Read this book.