The Dawg House - Blackdogbooks in 2019

Welcome to the Dawg House in 2019. I've been a lot more circumspect in the group - focused on my own reading and writing. But I love being a part of this group and staying in touch with old friends.

To start, a list of everything I read last year:

1. Faithful Place by Tana French
2. D is for Deadbeat by Sue Grafton
3. E is for Evidence by Sue Grafton
4. F is for Fugitive by Sue Grafton
5. G is for Gumshoe by Sue Grafton
6. H is for Homicide by Sue Grafton
7. I is for Innocent by Sue Grafton
8. J is for Judgment by Sue Grafton
9. L is for Lawless by Sue Grafton
10. M is for Malice by Sue Grafton
11. New Mexico’s Troubled Years by Calvin Horn
12. New Mexico Place Names
13. All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren
14. Memoirs, 1892-1969: A New Mexico Item by William A Keleher
15. Great Dream of Heaven by Sam Shephard
16. Walking the Bones by Randall Silvis
17. O is for Outlaw by Sue Grafton
18. P is for Peril by Sue Grafton
19. Q is for Quarry by Sue Grafton
20. R is for Ricochet by Sue Grafton
21. S is for Silence by Sue Grafton
22. T is for Trespass by Sue Grafton
23. U is for Undertow by Sue Grafton
24. Skulls of Istria by Rick Harsch
25. Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
26. V is for Vengance by Sue Grafton
27. Train Dreams by Denis Johnson
28. W is for Wasted by Sue Grafton
29. X by Sue Grafton
30. Y is for Yesterday by Sue Grafton
31. Bleak House by Charles Dickens
32. Kinsey and Me by Sue Grafton
33. Lincoln’s Battle with God by Stephen Mansfield
34. To the End of the Earth by Stanley Hordes
35. The Silent Corner by Dean Koontz
36. Fireflies by David Morrell
37. Sleeping Beauties by Stephen and Owen King
38. Bluefeather Fellini by Max Evans
39. Broken Harbor by Tana French
40. A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute
41. The Outsider by Stephen King
42. Voices After Evelyn by Rick Harsch
43. Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor
44. Watership Down by Richard Adams
45. Elevation by Stephen King
46. Gwendy’s Button Box by Stephen King
47. Light the Dark ed. By John Fossler

My favorite read of last year was easily Great Dream of Heaven by Sam Shepard - maybe the single best collection of short fiction I've ever read, save Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson. Indeed, Train Dreams, by Johnson, would be an excellent companion book to Shepard's, same spare Western voice - and Johnson is firmly a favorite. Lot's of New Mexico history last year, and the most interesting was probably the one about Crypto-Jewish history, to the End of the Earth, though the territorial governor book and the memoir about early days here were also very good. Obviously, I read through Sue Grafton's catalog, and I enjoyed it a great deal. The most surprising there was Kinsey and Me which was early short stories and essays from Grafton, detailing her motivations and how her personal history influenced the books and character. I also read a few more from Tana French - they continue to be good, if a little uneven. The last needed a red pen the most, like she had been given rein to write without editing. The best mystery/thriller of the year was Walking the Bones an unfortunately little known author, Randall Silvis - he balances the literary and mystery elements better than anyone I've read save maybe Turow. Loved the Shute book, particularly, that it was such an Australian outback story. Some King, all good but the best his mystery The Outsider. Watership Down was a complete surprise - one of those on a list I've been reading through that I wasn't sure I would like, but did a great deal. The set of essays on writing, Light the Dark, was amazing - lot's of inspiration and insight.

I didn't write many reviews this year - only 2. That should say something about what was important in the reading, as both were from a fellow LibraryThing user and writer, the expat Rick Harsch. I think I preferred Skulls of Istria, though it's a close call. Either way, part of what is important to me here is the support between authors here on LT. Rick's been very generous and supportive in my own writing endeavors. More than just returning the favor, though, I sincerely enjoy his work.

On that note, an update on all my own pursuits:

I had 4 stories published in journals this year, the most recent is a new one - Touch. It was published in The MacGuffin in November and is now available online http://www.schoolcraft.edu/macguffin . Price is $9.

Another is available online digitally, no fee - The Preacher - which was published late last year in Slush Pile. http://www.slushpilemag.com/#/twenty-three/

Another journal accepted 2 additional short fiction works which will someday be included in an anthology. They were prompted stories, tied to a larger theme with work from a of other writers. Don't know when it will be available, but I will keep you all posted.

I also finished a second novel, and will be sending it on to my agent for inclusion with the first in securing a publisher. It's called Diagnosis of Exclusion and is a continuation of the story in the first book, Brownian Motion.

Some of you have supported my work by purchasing journals and reading my short fiction - and I sincerely appreciate it. I hope to see more of you all here.

I took you up on your no-fee story - The Preacher. Wow! Shades of Tony Hillerman. Your characters voices were perfect. Enjoyed it. Thank you for sharing!

Glad to see you, Mac!

Countrylife - Thanks for reading it! I'm so glad you enjoyed it. Hope to see more of you around here in the Dawg House.

Alcott - great to see you here - I was just telling my wife about your supernatural reading habits the other day.

Welcome back!

Thanks, Doc

Happy 2019
A year full of books
A year full of friends
A year full of all your wishes realised

I look forward to keeping up with you, Mac, this year.

Nice to see you hear Paul. I hope the same for your year and to see you back as I post more.

Happy reading in 2019, Mac!

Happy New Year, Mac. Happy New Thread. You immediately caught me with Great Dream of Heaven: Stories. This one sounds like my cuppa. I have been on a serious short fiction kick these past couple of years. I think we are in a golden age of short fiction, and it has been tough to keep up.

Happy reading in 2019.

>4 blackdogbooks: They have not been very supernatural in the past several years, Mac, due to school and health issues, but I am hoping that changes this year.

More old friends, good to see you guys.

Good to see you again, Mac.

Thanks, Chris. Good to see you back, too.

I'll try to be better about checking in here this year, especially with updates of my reading.

So far:

1. Bonfire by Krysten Ritter
2. Hemingway in Cuba by Hillary Hemingway

Bonfire was a great little debut mystery by the actress who plays Jessica Jones - a much more literary offering than expected. Sometimes I felt like she was trying too hard, but the effort mostly pays off. Hemingway in Cuba was a great exposition of Papa's time there - lots of great barely believable stories about his exploits. It helped that I read Scott Berg's book on Max Perkins a couple years back, as it highlighted the other side of things. Recommend both.

Bonfire looks like one for the list. 😀

Doc, I think you’ll like it because there’s a fair amount of talk about the science of pollution, scrapping the surface but still.

3. Moonheart by Charles de Lint

I’m surprised there’s not more talk about this guy among the fantasy ranks. Overshadowed by his fellow Canadian, Atwood, I guess. But I’ve never been disappointed by any of his books. Classic, rich urban fantasy, and extremely well-written.

That one’s my favorite de Lint. I haven’t read it in decades so I suppose I should pull it off the shelf!

Book #4 Barrabas by Par Lagerkvist

This book was complete and utter revelation - a recommendation from a fellow LT reader and author. Before the recommendation of this speculative story following the life of the criminal who was spared in Christ's stead, I'd never hear of the book or the writer. How is that possible? This guy is a Nobel winner.

I can't begin to number the readings of the crucifixion story, the number of sermons I heard my father preach on the topic. But, true to the lack of curiosity too often associated with religion, I'd never wondered about what happened to the criminal. Everyone focuses on the two criminals crucified with him, not the guy whose sentence was commuted. Lagerkvist really quickens his story, cuts to the core of the conflicting feelings and potential faith the experience could have produced. It's not by any means a feel-good story, or one of miraculous salvation. It could have been manipulated or dressed up into a 'message'. Instead, it's a bitter and hard-fought story of doubt and pride and longing.

The narrative is drenched in symbolism. Barrabas literally spends most of the rest of his life in dark, dank caves, slaving to see the light, and failing more often than succeeding. The parable-like nature is Biblical, and also a little like Paul Cohelo.

A couple passages:

Describing Lazarus, when he is taken to meet the resurrected man for evidence of Christ's power - "Barrabas sat opposite him and withdrawn to examine his face. It was sallow and seemed as hard as bone. The skin was completely parched. Barrabas had never thought a face could look like that and he had never seen anything so desolate. It was like the desert."

Lazarus' comment when asked what being dead was like - "The realm of the dead isn't anything. It exists, but it isn't anything."

"It is not so easy to please the dead."

Upon emerging for a cave - "He breathed heavily, for the air was sultry and hot. It felt feverish - or was it he who was feverish, who was ill, who had got death in him down there? Death! He always had that inside him, he had that inside him as long as he lived. It hunted him inside, in the dark mole's passages of his mind. And filled him with terror."

Book #5 Lazy B by Sandra Day O'Connor

Sandra Day O'Connonr was a fellow desert rat, born in the very same hospital as I was, and a graduate of my own alma mater. Every one is enamored of RBG these days - and I like her a bunch, loved the documentary and fictionalized film about her life also. But how everyone feels about RBG now is how I've always felt about Sandra D. Great description of desert and ranch living - she was a tough one.

Hi, Mac!
>20 blackdogbooks: That sounds like a good one.

Welcome, Terri!! I think you'd love it.

75'ers, I have another publication - a story called Bones - and I wanted to let you all know. This one is available a couple different ways:

Online for free:
http://phoebejournal.com/48-1-winter-2019/

Or print by order for $7:

https://phoebe.submittable.com/submit/132212/purchase-phoebe-issue-48-1-winter-2...

If any of you decide to read it, I'd love to hear your feedback.

Mac! I just found your thread. Good to see you.

Glad you found me, Roni!

>20 blackdogbooks: Sounds like an interesting book, and your sense of connection sounds lovely.

>23 blackdogbooks: As always, very well told and very evocative of your landscape.

I spent one summer working at Carlsbad Caverns and very much liked the landscape, though I definitely missed trees. I'm from the Midwest, and it was my only time living in the Southwest, and it certainly felt like an alien-to-me landscape, but also approachable. I love the starkness of Midwestern winters, and the Chihuahua desert had a similar starkness I loved.

Thanks for always reading the stories and leaving feedback, Chris. Glad you enjoyed it.

Just catching up, Mac.

>23 blackdogbooks: Will certainly go and investigate.

Glad to see you checking in, Paul. Hope you enjoy.

Book #6 - Pet Sematary by Stephen King

Rather than a review, a couple of quotes that caught my attention on this re-read -

"Louis Creed was no psychiatrist, but he knew there are rusty, half-buried things in the terrain of any life and that human beings seem compelled to go back to these things and pull at them, even though they cut."

"It's probably wrong to believe there can be any limit to the horrors which the human mind can experience. On the contrary, it seems that some exponential effect begins to obtain as deeper and deeper darkness falls - as little as one may like to admit it, human experience tends, in a good many ways, to support the idea that when the nightmare grows black enough, horror spawns horror, until finally blackness seems to cover everything. And the most terrifying question of all may be just how much horror the human mind can stand and still maintain a wakeful, staring, unrelenting sanity. That such events have their own Rube Goldberg absurdity goes almost without saying. At some point, it all starts to become rather funny. That may be the point at which sanity begins either to save itself or to buckle and break down; that point at which one's sense of humor begins to reassert itself."

I did some reviews after all on these last two - couldn't stop thinking about them.

Book #6 Pet Sematary by Stephen King

My Review on the book's home page:

It’s 1983, and I’ve secured a paperback copy of a book that all my friends are talking about. It’s a horror book by this guy named Stephen King who I’ve never heard of before, but everyone in school is talking about this thing. Home from school, through the house without engaging in conversation with the parental units, slammed door, dumped school books, plop on bed, start reading. As the afternoon sun wans, I’m too riveted to get up and pull the drapes, a mistake I’ll regret when the dark descends in earnest. Banging on the door – it’s Wednesday, and I’ve lost track of time and will be late for the mid-week Bible service, but it’s just a quick walk across a parking lot to the church building. Through the singing and reading and praying, all I can think about is Victor Pascow, the reanimated, gooey harbinger in Louis Creed’s dreams, or was it a dream – Louis had scratches on his arm and pine needles in the bed. On the walk back across the parking lot, the dark is oppressive – it’s never been this dark. Back on the bed, only to realize an hour or so later, I still forgot to pull the drapes, but I’m not going over to that window now, safer in the bed. Book finished well into the night, maybe midnight or later. No sleep.

36 years later, I’ve never forgotten Victor Pascow, or Paxcow, as Louis Creed’s daughter calls him. Never forgotten the Pet Sematary. As I re-read the book for the first time in so long, I knew what was coming next. But what was fresh for me was the literary quality of the book. Back in 1983, I didn’t have as many books under my belt, and didn’t notice the slow burn King manages in the lead up to the horror. It’s like the moment you wake feeling something on your face, knowing something is crawling on you and afraid to open your eyes but, in the same moment, desperate to open your eyes and get whatever creepy-crawly it is off your face. The suspense is a low-voltage charge, building and building and building to what you know is going to be a heart-bursting conclusion.

King is much more literary in Pet Sematary than is evident from all the attention the horror elements in the book garner. ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah,’ you say, not buying it from a Constant Reader like me – here’s a couple quotes to prove my point:

"Louis Creed was no psychiatrist, but he knew there are rusty, half-buried things in the terrain of any life and that human beings seem compelled to go back to these things and pull at them, even though they cut."

"It's probably wrong to believe there can be any limit to the horrors which the human mind can experience. On the contrary, it seems that some exponential effect begins to obtain as deeper and deeper darkness falls - as little as one may like to admit it, human experience tends, in a good many ways, to support the idea that when the nightmare grows black enough, horror spawns horror, until finally blackness seems to cover everything. And the most terrifying question of all may be just how much horror the human mind can stand and still maintain a wakeful, staring, unrelenting sanity. That such events have their own Rube Goldberg absurdity goes almost without saying. At some point, it all starts to become rather funny. That may be the point at which sanity begins either to save itself or to buckle and break down; that point at which one's sense of humor begins to reassert itself."

I dare you – I triple-dog dare you. Pull the drapes open and sit down with this great book.

Bottom Line:Close the drapes before you start, you’ll appreciate the other qualities of this book that don’t get enough attention.

4 ½ bones!!!!!


Book #7 Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself by David Lipsky

My Review on the book's home page:

Infinite Jest is one of those books – on the same shelf as, say Ulysses, Naked Lunch, Gravity’s Rainbow, Look Homeward, Angel – in the literary, and popular, conscience without having been widely read, except for a rabid and vocal few. I count myself among the few who started and finished Jest. And while I’m not so rabid or vocal, I’m glad to have read it, and I’ve thought a lot about it since finishing the last page, and last footnote. When it was published in 1996, the 1000+ page beast met with the most extreme ballyhoo in maybe a century, and David Foster Wallace was at the center of that firestorm. One reviewer crowned him the winner of book awards before the book had even hit the shelves. DFW captured people’s imaginations in a way that almost no other author had in his contemporary society. What must that have been like?

Lipsky’s book is a window into the answer, as it chronicles a five day, grinding interview in March, 1996 at the end of DFW’s book tour publicizing the book. The interview was meant to support a Rolling Stone feature on DFW, though it was never written. Instead, Lipsky eventually transcribed the interview, layering in some commentary and bookending the interview with a background introduction and afterword. This isn’t a book for everyone. But it’s for more than just Jesters. If you want to get inside a writer’s head during the whirlwind surrounding publication, or find out how much of fictional narratives are cobbled from biographical details, or learn about the process of editing, read this book.

There’s no twist at the end. At this point, everyone knows how the story ends, what Lipsky will dwell on in the afterword – the Titanic will not veer around the iceberg and pull into New York City with a mere scratch in the hull. But that is another reason to read the book – if you want a brief glimpse into the psychic pain that leads to suicide. Knowing how the story ends, the passages where DFW talks about how the simplest things can be exhaustively cycled through his brilliant mind until it’s an ego-breaking moment, well, those are monumentally painful.

There’s another reason to read it – as unreliable narrators, these guys are in a Herculean universe. Lipsky panders with one comment and skewers with the next, desperate for DFW’s regard. Wallace shucks and jives all the way through, dismissive of the attention but an open hand still levitating in the air because, after laying himself bare over the course of 1000 pages, he just as desperately wants validation. Sifting through all the subtle subterranean motives to find the truth is a terribly interesting, if sad, exercise.

There are things that don’t settle well. I mean, beyond knowing DFW’s fate; I mean, bookish things. Lipsky’s a terrible interviewer. Terrible. If you don’t almost toss the book across the room at some of his follow-ups or strings of questions, you probably shouldn’t be reading the books in the first place. And, while the bad questions are evidence of his underlying motivations and self-interest, it is still maddening. Ditto on some of his inserted commentary – he can get it so wrong sometimes. But, to be fair, he was in the room, the car, the diner, and I wasn’t. Also, though the book’s strength is that Lipsky mostly just transcribes the five days, I would have liked to see his commentary urges used to explain some of the breaks in the tape a few more times, or used to describe the scene a few more times.

On balance, if you’re not in any way interested in Infinite Jest, if you’re not interested in reading and writing, or if you’re not interested in how a brilliant, tortured mind works, don’t read this book – but, then, if you’re a serious reader, shouldn’t you be interested in those things?

Bottom Line:DFW unplugged and live.

4 bones!!!!!

Book #8 Wittgenstein’s Mistress by David Markson

My Review on the book's home page:

A woman alone in the apocalypse – or alone in her mind, and quite mad. The manuscript she types leave you the clues, or the evidence, to determine which. Or does it. Or does it matter at all.

"For the life of me I have no idea why I did that.
If I had understood why I was doing that, doubtless I would not have been mad.
Had I not been mad, doubtless I would not have done it at all.
I am less than positive that those last two sentences make any particular sense."
...
It did run on, that madness.
I was not necessarily mad when I went to Mexico, however. Surely one does not have to be mad to decide to visit the grave of one's dead little boy."Bottom Line:DFW unplugged and live.”

From David Foster Wallace’s afterword:
“Markson's WM succeeds in doing what few philosophers glean and what neither myriad biographical sketches nor Duffy's lurid revisionism succeeds in communicating: the consequences, for persons, of the practice of theory; the difference, say, between espousing 'solipsism' as a metaphysical 'position' and waking up one fine morning after a personal loss to find your grief apocalyptic, literally millennial, leaving you the last and only living thing on earth, with only your head, now, for not only company but environment and world, an inclined beach sliding toward a dreadful sea. Put otherwise, Markson's book transcends, for me, its review-enforced status of 'intellectual tour de force' or 'experimental achievement': what it limns, as an immediate study of depression and loneliness, is far too moving to be the object of exercise or exorcism.

“But the death of her son and separation from her husband are also in WM presented as a very particular emotional 'explanation' of Kate's psychic 'condition,' a peculiar reduction of Markson's own to which I kind of object.”

What I had feared, may have turned out to be somewhat true – I worried that lack of knowledge on Ludwig Wittgenstein’s philosophical stance, or the larger philosophical world, would hinder an understanding of this book. DFW’s afterword bridges the gap nicely. Though, I didn’t end up agreeing with him about Markson’s book, not altogether.

I quibble with DFW's quibble. That because Kate's real history is a possible explanation, it's somehow less profound in its philosophical weight. The earlier quotes excerpted above tend toward that theory, that it doesn't matter whether it's an explanation or not, that the point is Kate is alone in her own head either way. There are a couple of passages from the book that actually support that conclusion - where Kate talks about being just as alone before her son dies, or as he dies. But DFW descends into gender politics, looking at reviews that say Kate's description/character is too masculine, or too stereotypically female. And he says the characterization isn't the problem, it's that she reduces her dilemma to her gender - I don't see it that way.

Bottom Line: A philosophical mystery.

3 ½ bones!!!!!

Also, Book #9 The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi - near post-apocalyptic in a water-starved and divided country. Good premise, that devolved into some not great dialog, a chapter of sex that was just shock value, and a not very satisfying ending which screams sequel. I liked it more than it sounds, but not enough to recommend it.

Excellent reviews as always, Mac.

Have a great weekend.

Thanks, Paul.

Thought of Doc and Roni on this next one -

Book #10 Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse

My Review on the book's home page:

The post-apocalyptic genre has exploded over the last decade, what with the rebirth of zombie hordes and handmaids. But the methods of killing our species off and the look of what’s left have started to dwindle, become so obvious and commonplace as to be unremarkable – the end of the world shouldn’t be unremarkable. So, Rebecca Roanhorse’s Trail of Lightning deserves your attention, because of its fresh creative spirit and in giving voice to an overlooked culture.

The way the world ends here is The Big Water – a decidedly ecological holocaust bent, which is a sort of new sub-genre. And it leaves most of the world, including the United States, under water. But the Navajos saw it coming, and so they built a wall around the perimter of the reservation to keep the unwanted out. They tap into some serious traditional magic to create the boundary, and some serious monsters and origin gods come back in the wake. Maggie Hoskie hunts the monsters, and converses with the gods.

The charm of the book is Roanhorse’s ability to transform the rez environs into such unusual and cool spectacles. Clan connections become superpowers, derelict hotels become Xanadu-like oases. The prose has a way to go to match the creative hutzpah in the story concepts, but it’s clearly going to be a series. One improvement would be not to write in present tense, which jolts a reader out of the narrative very quickly. Another would be the forced, near-romance-novel antics – it only happened a couple times, but when it did I expected a bodice to get ripped. Though it has made a push these days. Honestly, I didn’t expect to like the book, may have even gone into the first few pages skeptically. But Roanhorse and Maggie won me over.

Bottom Line:Extremely creative post-apocalypse with the Navajo culture on display.

4 bones!!!!!

Wow, sounds great! I've got to find that one.

I figured you'd like it - as I said above, roni is the other person who immediately came to mind. I hope she comes 'round.

Book #11 The Passage by Justin Cronin

{This is a reread, as I wanted to read the first two again in preparation for finally reading the last book. I adjusted the review a bit and corrected a couple mistakes. I should also note, this is the book series that the recent television series is based upon. If you've seen the show, read the book - the show is good, but the book is so much richer.}

My Review on the book's home page:

The Passage, the first in a series of books by Justin Cronin, is one of those epic and sprawling stories that is a comfort to settle into; one that seems never ending but never tiring. It is a book where the author seems to have settled in with you, taken time to flesh everything out, follow every rabbit trail, describe every sense and every emotion in every setting. The spell allows a reader to completely forget the outside world and step into another, making friends of the characters, tasting and smelling and feeling what they do. But few authors are capable of casting that spell; and even fewer editors or book publishing houses are apt to allow an author to conjure such a spell, shooting instead for the comfort that comes of predictability and reading bytes – or bites, either word fits here.

The Passage starts with a virus discovered in the dark reaches of a tropical jungle by a scientist. The set-up sounds like any number of other thriller books or movies that have been churned out since 1980, think Crichton. But Cronin distinguishes himself and his story by taking the time to tell a whole story, instead of just writing one of those books that seems like the jacket copy or screenplay was written first and then sent to some hack to fill in. The scientist, James Lear, is distraught from the recent death of his wife from cancer and he hopes to cure the disease and any other that could take a loved one away before their time. He enlists the help of the military and some murky government types, always a sign of trouble to come. But again, Cronin distinguishes his story in the details, focusing on another lost soul, FBI Special Agent Wolgast, who is asked to convince 12 death row inmates to be the first test subjects of the virus. Wolgast’s pain and hopelessness ooze off the page. After he has succeeded, he is then asked to bring Amy, a six year old girl abandoned by her mother at a convent, to the secret Colorado complex where the virus is being tested. But there is definitely something different about Amy, and it's not just her age. Soon after Amy's arrival, the experiment goes awry, as was its destiny, and all 13 test subjects escape into the world. The world collapses into chaos, destruction, and death – the test subjects feeding on and infecting the rest of the country.

Amy and Wolgast's narrative was enough for a full book, if a little dark and unhappy. But for Cronin, the first 300 pages were just aprologue. For the next 500 pages tell the story of what emerged from the chaos and destruction – a small compound of about 100 souls, protected each night from the ‘virals’ by walls and nets and lights, existing outside of time and outside of any hope that life has continued elsewhere. Peter Jaxon, one of the young men of the compound, encounters Amy on a patrol outside the walls. Amy, now a 100 year old adolescent, follows Peter back to the village, and the ‘virals’ follow her. Peter and his friends let Amy into their world but death follows, and the small civilization is again thrown into chaos. Peter and his friends discover some of what Amy is and decide to leave their safe haven for the site of Amy’s quickening, Colorado. On their journey, they discover that other pockets of human life have survived, though not all are hospitable.

None of this does Cronin’s story any justice, as the real beauty is in the unhurried and indulgent manner in which Cronin tells the story. Few authors take their time this way – recently, I’ve read Wallace Stegner’s Angle of Repose and there is any number of Stephen King books, including The Stand, to which Cronin’s book is often compared. If there is a comparison between King’s The Stand and Cronin’s The Passage, it has to exist on a level besides the obvious – a virus causes the country to collapse and a new dystopian way of life emerges. It has to exist in comparing these author’s inclination to take their time, to draw the story out and tell all of it, every detail. No one will begrudge Cronin’s descriptions of place and time and feeling once they’ve given the story a reading. And no one will begrudge him the time and effort in examining every detail of each character’s life, because they all are us – they are all the people we recognize in our lives every day.

Bottom Line: Epic story-telling – unhurried and indulgent in a way that comforts the reader, transports them to another place to commune.

4 1/2 bones!!!!!

>39 blackdogbooks: "comfort to settle into; one that seems never ending but never tiring."

Oh that more books were like that Mac.

Have a great weekend.

Book #12 The Twelve by Justin Cronin

{This is a reread, as I wanted to read the first two again in preparation for finally reading the last book. I adjusted the review a bit and corrected a couple mistakes. I should also note, this is the book series that the recent television series is based upon. If you've seen the show, read the book - the show is good, but the book is so much richer.}

My Review on the book's home page:Justin Cronin’s

The Twelve picks up the apocalyptic and dystopian story he began with The Passage. Some 100 years after the destruction of most of civilization at the hands of a race of beastly vampires, several bands of humans try to rebuild. At the center of the story is one particular group from an outpost in California and a young girl who has been infected with the same virus that created the vampire plague.

It’s difficult to distill the story Cronin tells with The Twelve, just as it was with the first book in the series. The sheer depth and breadth of the story is measure. Cronin adroitly shifts back and forth in time, picking up loose threads from the original story and weaving them into the story as it has grown with time. We find the backstory of a new band of survivors from Kerrville, TX, and how they fit into the new events surrounding Amy and Peter. We learn more about the history of the original twelve vampires. And we learn how the twelve have found a way to begin to organize and harvest the blood they need to survive without extinction. But the thrust of the story is the coming war between the vampires and the survivors.

The fact that the story is hard to distill reflect the principal strengths of Cronin’s storytelling. First, the story is humongous – epic is such a trite word, and humongous is really more fitting. Second, with such a large story, in time and space and character, it would be easy to lose track of some of the threads. But Cronin’s narrative never loses focus and his characters are never empty or inconsistent. Finally, the space such a big novel creates leaves a lot of room for Cronin to show off his prose. Such a big space might prove too big to fill, but Cronin takes his time and each line, each paragraph, each chapter hits just the right note. I never got tired or impatient with the story or with Cronin. The book is a great object lesson for writers in taking your time and letting your voice find its own pace.

Bottom Line: Humongous story but one that never gets lost, hitting just the right note.

4 ½ bones!!!!!

Book #14 The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

My Review on the book's home page:

The Hugo Award is a big deal. So, they are usually safe bets. and N.K. Jemisin has three to her name, in consecutive years between 2016-2018. The Fifth Season, in the Broken Earth trilogy, was the first. The concept is wildly creative from a world-building standpoint - the earth itself has revolted, leaving a morphing single continent populated, in part, by humans who can manipulate stone. But the delivery on the concept grew tired about halfway through the book. Jemisin works too hard, beating on the same stone with the same blunt and scuffed hammer. There's only so many times her characters can formulate some new curse with some variation on the word 'earth' before it loses its sheen. And the reveal, that the three perspectives the narrative switches between are actually the same person in different times, is telegraphed too clearly to be much of a reveal. Maybe the series gets better in the sequels, but its not worth the patience required. Jemisin has a creative mind, but her creations need more substance, more grounding, if you'll forgive the pun, in the human condition.

Bottom Line: Creative promise short on delivery.

2 bones!!!!!

Hey 75'ers, been over a month since I've checked in. Thought I'd update you all on my reading and writing.

First reading - let's see, I last reviewed Book #14 for the year - since then:

15. The Fireman by Joe Hill - solid dystopian/horror; flashes of his father but still his own man.
16. Earth Abides by George Stewart - classic dystopian, really one of the first, and very good, oft anthropological in feel
17. SevenEves by Neal Stephenson - hard sci-fi, and a hard but rewarding read - doc neutron should read this one
18. Wool by Hugh Howley - uneven and it turns out the author wrote it in fits and starts with suggestions from internet fans
19. Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan - fun book, but sometimes it tried too hard, female characters got the short end of the stick
20. The Glass Castle by Jennette Walls - really well done memoir; an assault to the senses because of what the author lived through

Don't know when or if I'll get reviews on those.

Now, on writing - I had a story published online recently - what is referred to as Creative Non-Fiction. The journal is called Two Hawks Quarterly and is a publication of the creative writing program at Antioch University in Los Angeles, CA. Here's a link to the story, if you're interested.

https://twohawksquarterly.com/creative_nonfiction/2019/05/20/blue-by-mac-mccaski...

Good to see you, Mac! Looks like a pretty good batch of books you've read. I liked The Fireman, haven't read Earth Abides in ages, SevenEves is already on my list! Plus, I thought Penumbra was quite fun, though I agree with you on the female characters.

Been about a month since I last checked in with you voracious readers here - I looked back and I only ever met the 75 mark once since I've been reading here. But that goal still motivates me. Since I last checked in:

21. Where’d You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple - fun read, interesting epistolary concept, with unique characters, even if it tried a little too hard at times to amp up the quirk.

22. Quiet by Susan Cain - really important book about cognition, personality, education - there's so many applications here, primary being the validation of the quiet ones in the world.

23. The Broken Girls by Simone St. James - solid ghost story - interestingly, it turned stereotypes on their heads; in this one the males characters got the short end of the stick.

24. Place Last Seen by Charlotte McGuinn Freeman - really, really good story about a Downs child missing in the wilderness - nothing stereotypical here, and the book is very realistic.

25. Wastelands, Stories of the Apocalypse ed. By John Joseph Adams - this was so much fun, seeing different takes on the apocalypse and reactions to it. Introduced me to some new authors to try in Fantasy/Sci-Fi.

On the writing front, I have another story available, though this one doesn't have a free option. It's available at:

https://www.darkink-press.com/magazine

Thanks to everyone who has bought/read any of the stories over the last couple years.

Great to see you again! I’m glad the writing is going well.

Number 25 looks great!

Thanks, Doc! I thought of you, of course, when I posted Wastelands. As you can probably tell, I've been reading a lot of post-apocalyptic fiction. Feeding some inspiration needs, as I was working on a novel in that arena. Finished it up recently, and have it out to a couple beta readers.

About a month since I've checked in here. This is the reading list updated:

26. The Ivory and the Horn by Charles de Lint - Nobody, I mean nobody, does urban fantasy like Charles de Lint. So, this was every bit as good as expected. A collection of short stories set in the Newford universe.

27. Shadow of Thunder by Max Evans - Far underrated Western genre author, and a local around here. Very authentic and, this time, with a hint of the supernatural hanging over the novella. A traveling preacher with a potion that sets the locals wild.

28. Great Ghost Stories of the Old West ed. by Betty Baker - Not too many books or story collections with Old West ghost tales - surprisingly good.

29. Robbers Rogues and Ruffians: True Tales of the Wild West by Howard Bryan - Can you tell that I'm reading some Western stuff these days? As much history as I've read about NM and the Old West, there is always more to learn. And I'm always surprised at how much more violent and strange the truth is than fiction. Who knew how many lynchings we had?

30. Nightmares in the Sky by Stephen King and f-stop Fitzgerald - A rare find in my local bookstore. Photographs of all shapes and sizes of gargoyles with an essay by Uncle Stevie.

31. The Earps Talk ed. by Alford Turner - In their own words, with commentary to sift out where they're exaggerating or prevaricating. The gunfight was NOT at the OK Corral, by the way.

Hi, Mac! I hope you are well.
I suspect I'd enjoy Great Ghost Stories of the Old West.

Thanks, tymfos. It's a great little book.

Been awhile since I updated the reading list for this year, so here it is:

32. Doc by Mary Doria Russell - this was a great western, and featured a lot of historically accurate information about John Henry Holliday and Wyatt Earp. She's an underrated writer, and diverse.

33. Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horowitz - I heard an interview with Horowitz on NPR shortly after his unexpected death and he was wildly interesting. The book was a deeply thoughtful book on the cultural divide in the country at an earlier point in time. I'm looking forward to the follow up book for which he was on book tour when he passed.

34. The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning - Great book on faith and grace, often looked down upon by folks who don't like the concepts and overrated by folks who are superficially driven by the concepts.

35. Storm of Locusts by Rebecca Roanhorse - Sequel to a surprisingly good debut of post-apocalyptic fiction set in the Southwest, in and around Indian Country. She uses Navajo culture to flesh out the supernatural beings. A local author making good.

36. No-No Boy by John Okada - Forgotten classic re-released with three others by Penguin to highlight Asian authors. I'm glad I found out about these and look forward to the other three - if this one is any indication, it's a real shame these classics went out of print at any point.

37. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot - I've been meaning to read this one ever since it came out. Very well researched, but it doesn't lose its sense of the personal for all the facts.

38. Day Out of Days: Stories by Sam Shepard - Every time I read something by Shepard I am more deeply saddened to have lost his unique voice. His tone and characters really speak to me.

39. The Library Book by Susan Orlean - I never read The Orchid Thief, which was a sensation, but I have it now after reading this one. Anyone who loves books or a good true crime story should read this one.

40. The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles - I'm still picking away at a few 100 best lists and this one appears there. I liked The Collector but hated The Magus, so I was hesitant to read another. This shows off Fowles' talent, as it is a Victorian narrative and very Austenian. And I liked it much better than expected.

41. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood - Third reading of this, and it never suffers from a re-read. Atwood is a wordsmith and artist with her language. I wanted to read this again before starting on The Testaments.

Good to see you again. I knew my mom had passed Confederates in the Attic to me, so when I saw your review, I turned around and there it was. How's that for instant gratification? I'm putting on to my more immediate TBR pile.
Glad your writing is doing well!

Glad I could move a book up for you!

Wow, good list there.

Thanks, Doc - you expressed interest in Trail of Lightning and you'll like the follow-up, as well, in the list above - Storm of Locusts.

Yup, haven’t made it to the first, but both are now on my list!

First, a little good news - I learned yesterday that a journal where I'd published a story earlier in the year - phoebe - has nominated me for a Pushcart Prize. The prize honors the best in short fiction published by small presses during the year. The stories chosen from the nominations are published in an anthology each year.

The story is still available online at this link - click the link on the page that is ISSUU and you can read it online, if interested.

http://phoebejournal.com/48-1-winter-2019/

On to the reading update:

42. The Testaments by Margaret Atwood - From the last update, you'll know that I'm a big Atwood fan. This was a nice followup novel. The writing is quite as eloquent as the previous one, and there seems to be an urge to fit the new material into the cannon established by the Hulu series. But it is still classic Atwood. Highly recommended.

43. A Long Way Down by Randall Silvis - This guys continues to be one of the best literary crime novelists you've never heard of. The writing is crisp and poetic, and the narrative character driven rather than plot driven. I can't recommend this series highly enough. He publishes what I aspire to write.

44. The Man from the Train, Discovering America’s Most Elusive Serial Killer by Bill James and Rachel McCarthy James - A total surprise, I picked it up on a whim at a bookstore and was amazed by the level of detail in the research and the accuracy of the criminal investigative analysis. James is known for his baseball work in analytics, but he could have been a criminal investigator with this kind of work. Another highly recommended book.

45. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling
46. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling
47. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling - Apologies to fanatics but I'm a little underwhelmed by these. Rowling is imaginative and creative with the story ideas but they aren't what I expected. I can certainly see how they've become so popular with kids and families, but I think I expected more from all the hype. I'll finish the series, but I probably won't keep them in the library.

Hooray for being nominated, that's a big deal! Good luck!

I read The Man from the Train last year and was also impressed by James' research and the connections he made, which makes for a convincing argument that it was all the same murderer.

Thanks, Ms. Jenn. It was a real, and encouraging, surprise.

I definitely was on track with the conclusion James made.

Congrats on the nomination!

I read James' Popular Crime: Reflections on the Celebration of Violence a couple of years ago and was amazed at his depth on knowledge with regard to true crime. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it.

Thanks, doc!

And I'll be on the lookout for that James book - sounds like you'd like the one I read a lot.

Thank you, ms jenn. And to you.

Thank you for keeping me company in 2019.......onward to 2020.

Thanks, Paul - hope your holidays are wonderful as well.

For any of you who want to continue to stay in touch on my new thread -

https://www.librarything.com/topic/314440