Continuing my ongoing listing of books most recently read, and continuing the practice just lately begun of presenting such listing in convenient (to me) twenty-five (25) book chunks, for reasons touched upon in the first such set (viewable here), I herewith present the most recent twenty-five (25) books read, #326 – #350 in my count since I began keeping track in 2015. (As usual, I do not include comics and graphic novel books in my count, though they are listed below.)
Book read #326 was and is the first ‘e-book’ I have read, the progenitor of all Scandinavian crime fiction, The Iron Chariot by Stein Riverton. Stein Riverton was the nom de plume of the Norwegian Sven Elvestad, who began his writing career like O. Henry after a small touch of embezzlement. The novel itself is a pleasantly troubling work, not entirely plausible but a nice enough deceitful first-person narration of a puzzling crime. I read this in digital format because I could not find it in physical format, and had read several paeans to this author—for whom the Norwegian crime fiction award is named—so that when I was given a Kindle credit I used it to check out the beginnings of the current Scandinavian mystery boom. The author seems to be ripe for any biographer who understands Norsk, with a strange and secretive life of alcohol abuse and hints of sexual and other mysteries that might repay the researcher who can read the traces left in the palimpsests Elvestad left behind.
Also read at the beginning of this tranche of books was The Case Of The Journeying Boy, a fantastic thriller from Michael Innes. Though passing time has made much of the narration a historical period piece (it was originally published in 1949), Innes wrote a truly brilliant book. Its overdose of erudition frames the story of the protagonist, who is not the titular ‘boy’ but his would-be tutor, troubled by his charge and the bizarre situations the boy manipulates. A few Children’s books show up in this slice, due to new access to some old books of mine, as well as a noted novel I wrote a note on here.
| # | Read | Author | Title | Genre |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 326 | 6/22/19 | Stein Riverton | The Iron Chariot | Mystery |
| 327 | 7/1/19 | Thomas Malory; Sidney Lanier, ed. | King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table | Children’s |
| 328 | 7/2/19 | Barbara K. Walker & Maki Tezel | The Mouse and the Elephant | Children’s |
| 329 | 7/9/19 | Michael Innes | The Case of the Journeying Boy | Mystery |
| 330 | 7/15/19 | Charlotte Brontë | Jane Eyre | Fiction |
I finally read The Wizard of Oz, which I knew many literary lights and others have cited as their favorite kid’s book. After seeing the interesting display about Oz at the San Diego Country Fair, I jumped once more into the breech and found a very different story than that in the MGM film. The Dorothy of L. Frank Baum is a much more self-confident, much more wholly American, and a much younger (obviously) girl than the heroine portrayed by Judy Garland. Though the Land of Oz gives her many surprises, she meets them all with pluck and intelligence. I look forward to reading more of Baum’s works, to see how well his intention to create truly American fairy tales succeeded. Also of note is John Varley’s The Persistence of Vision, a short story collection made creepy by the passing of time and the Age of Groupies, but of interest nonetheless. The less said about Amanda Cross the better.
| # | Read | Author | Title | Genre |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 331 | 7/22/19 | L. Frank Baum | The Annotated Wizard of Oz | Children’s |
| 332 | 7/25/19 | Amanda Cross | Death in a Tenured Position | Mystery |
| 333 | 7/28/19 | Amanda Cross | In the Last Analysis | Mystery |
| 334 | 7/30/19 | Amanda Cross | Poetic Justice | Mystery |
| 335 | 7/31/19 | John Varley | Persistence of Vision | SF/Fantasy |
The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy is a much tighter and therefore much better book than L.A. Confidential. The gritty (think of the gravel in your scraped knee as a kid) portrayal of the Los Angeles police department during the postwar ’40s makes compelling reading, though the mystery is ultimately less about the Black Dahlia murder and more about Ellroy, as usual. The Herbert Gans text on Popular Culture and High Culture is, of course, a classic sociological text, though the most interesting thing I found in this original edition is the observation that attacks upon ‘low’ culture by the intellectual elite correspond to the erosion of power held by that elite in the society as a whole. The Dragon magazine was read as an exercise in nostalgia, pure and simple.
| # | Read | Author | Title | Genre |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 336 | 8/4/19 | Anne Brontë | Agnes Grey | Fiction |
| 337 | 8/9/19 | Bruce H. Wilkinson | The Prayer of Jabez: Breaking Through to the Blessed Life | Religion & Spirituality |
| 8/12/19 | Doug Miers | Trade Paperback #1 | Comics & Graphic Novels | |
| 338 | 8/12/19 | Kim Mohan, ed. | Dragon Magazine No. 102 | D&D |
| 339 | 8/14/19 | Herbert J. Gans | Popular Culture and High Culture: An Analysis and Evaluation of Taste | Sociology |
| 8/15/19 | Buddha | Comics & Graphic Novels | ||
| 340 | 8/20/19 | James Ellroy | The Black Dahlia | Mystery |
Finally read Stephen Mitchell’s version of Gilgamesh, a Christmas present from my brother at least a half decade ago. (So don’t be surprised if I don’t immediately read a book you give me or recommend; I’ll get around to it eventually as the planets align.) Mitchell does a good job forming a coherent and compelling narrative out of the often fractured material, but I still feel that I just don’t ‘grok’ the Gilgamesh tale, that it just cannot move me in the same way the tales of crafty Odysseus do. I also read Michael Crichton’s Airframe, a good read recommended by one of the two—or is it three now?—reader’s of this blog’s Friday Vocabulary feature.
| # | Read | Author | Title | Genre |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 341 | 8/24/19 | Keith Laumer | Zone Yellow | SF/Fantasy |
| 342 | 8/28/19 | Stephen Mitchell | Gilgamesh: A New English Version | Mythology & Folklore |
| 343 | 8/29/19 | Neil Gaiman | Smoke and Mirrors | SF/Fantasy |
| 344 | 8/30/19 | Frederik Pohl & C.M. Kornbluth | Critical Mass | SF/Fantasy |
| 345 | 8/31/19 | Michael Crichton | Airframe | Mystery |
Science Fiction also predominates the last portion of these last twenty-five books, and I am likely to focus more on this genre, if only to make some room for books bought but not yet shelved. The absolute highlight of these last five books is the slim Strange Invasions by Michael Kandel, whom you may know as the translator of some of Stanislaw Lem’s books. The novel is a stunner, exploring the boundaries between sane and unsane, both within the mind of the troubled narrator as well as in society as a whole. I already wrote about William Gibson’s Burning Chrome and am happy to report that Neuromancer is a much better book.
Bulmer’s Land Beyond the Map is workmanlike but with interesting ideas, while its tête-bêche partner, Edmund Hamilton’s Fugitive of the Stars is silly but engaging. But Fat Freddy’s Cat beats both storytellers in his recounting of the War of the Cockroaches.
| # | Read | Author | Title | Genre |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 346 | 9/2/19 | Michael Kandel | Strange Invasion | SF/Fantasy |
| 9/2/19 | Gilbert Shelton | The Adventures of Fat Freddy’s Cat Book 6 | Comics & Graphic Novels | |
| 9/2/19 | Al Moore | 1963 – Book Six: Tomorrow Syndicate | Comics & Graphic Novels | |
| 347 | 9/6/19 | Norman Fischer | Sailing Home: Using Homer’s Odyssey to Navigate Life’s Perils and Pitfalls | Religion & Spirituality |
| 348 | 9/8/19 | William Gibson | Burning Chrome | SF/Fantasy |
| 349 | 9/10/19 | Kenneth Bulmer / Edmond Hamilton | Land Beyond The Map / Fugitive Of The Stars [Ace Double M-111] | SF/Fantasy |
| 350 | 9/15/19 | William Gibson | Neuromancer | SF/Fantasy |
I mentioned the current focus on Science Fiction, and I am also trying to slog through some books I’ve turned up which look like I won’t want to keep them (such as the boring Buddhist book vaguely referencing the Odyssey). The pile next to my bed is a trifle lower, and I have several choices which do not look that good at all in my office. Until next time….
The lists of previously read books may be found by following the links:
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