Steve (swynn) reads and runs in 2022

I'm Steve, 53, a technical services librarian at a medium-sized public university. I live in Missouri with my wife and son and Buddy, a Terrier-mix chaser of squirrels, rabbits, opossums, deer, and (alas) skunks. This is my 13th year with the 75ers.

My reading follows my whims, but is heaviest with science fiction and fantasy. I also read mysteries, thrillers, and horror. I don't read enough non-fiction, but when I do it covers a range of subjects including history, language, popular science, unpopular mathematics, running, library science, and shiny stuff.

I'm usually reading at least three books:
(1) something on the Kindle app, which I read whenever I'm standing in line or when the lights are off;
(2) a paperback, usually from my own shelves, which I read while walking Buddy; and
(3) something borrowed from the library, of which there is usually a larger stack than I can reasonably expect to finish and which I call "The Tower of Due." Here's what it looks like now:

(A) The DAWs

For several years now, I've been reading through the catalog of DAW, the first American imprint exclusively devoted to science fiction & fantasy publishing. It launched in 1972 under the editorship of Donald A. Wollheim (hence the name), and continues today, publishing new books at a rate faster than I'm catching up. Last year I read 17; this year I hope to aim for about one a week but realistically I think I can get 30.

DAWs so far: 0
Next up: The Tides of Kregen by Alan Burt Akers (i.e., Kenneth Bulmer)

(B) Bestsellers

For the last few years, Liz (lyzard) and I have been reading through American bestsellers at a rate of one per month. Last year I caught up to Liz, and hope to stay that way through 2022.
Bestsellers so far: 0
Next Up: Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach

(C) Banned in Boston

Another project I've been co-reading with Liz is a list of books that were "banned in Boston." I'm behind on this one, but hope to catch up.

Too Hot for Boston so far: 0
Next up: Oil! by Upton Sinclair

(D) Kurd Lasswitz Prize

A new project this year is reading through the winners of the Kurd Lasswitz Prize for Best Novel. I don't have a good sense of how quickly I'll move through these, but with New Year's optimism I want to aim for one a month.

KLP so far: 0
Next up: Die Enkel der Raketenbauer by Georg Zauner

Diversity goals

Left to itself, my reading skews straight, white, and male. Wonder why. For the last couple of years I've tracked proportion of non-straight, non-white, and non-male authors in an effort to be more conscious of this. Last year I read: 18% LGBTQ, 22% authors of color, and 49% women and nonbinary authors. (Targets were 15, 20, and 50.) Targets this year are again 15%, 20%, and 50%. Recommendations welcome.

(E) Not Straight: 0
(F) Not White: 0
(G) Not Dudes: 0

Other Good Intentions

Continue more series than I start. According to the spreadsheet where I keep track, I have started but not finished 309 series. My insufficient strategy for managing that number is to continue more series than I start and to finish a series every now and then. Last year I started 22, continued 18, and finished 7.

• (H) Series started: 0



• (I) Series continued: 0



• (J) Series finished (or up-to-date): 0

1) What White People Can Do Next (FG)
2) The Book of Eels ()
3) Stone and Steel (EFG)
4) The Warmth of Other Suns (FG)
5) The Tides of Kregen (AI)
6) The Man Who Didn't Fly (G)
7) The Book of Accidents ()
8) The Wife Upstairs (G)
9) The Secret of Terror Castle (H)
10) The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 2 (AI)
11) The Echo Wife (EG)
12) The Cruelest Month (GI)
13) The Wrong End of the Telescope (EF)
14) Jonathan Livingston Seagull (B)
15) The Rise of Renegade X (G)
16) Daughter of the Bright Moon (G)
17) Earth Factor X (A)
18) The Prophets (EF)
19) A Whiff of Madness (A)
20) Underbug (G)
21) Dreamland Burning (G)
22) Sant of the Secret Service ()
23) Oil! (C)
24) The Hate U Give (FGH)
25) A Home for Goddesses and Dogs (G)
26) These Toxic Things (FG)
27) Checkmate in Berlin ()
28) Something Wicked (GI)
29) Wholehearted Librarianship ()
30) Fer-de-lance (H)
31) Felix Ever After (EF)
32) Rudder Grange (H)
33) Interstellar Empire (A)
34) Centennial (B)
35) Jesus and John Wayne (G)

***RUNNING POST***

I run. Sometimes I race. Sometimes I post about it here. I also comment on tracks from my running playlist -- my taste runs to blues, rock, industrial metal and German pop. I'll mark running posts thus:

** RUNNING POST**

for the benefit of those who look for running stories and those who look for anything but.

** The Perry Rhodan Post **

Perry Rhodans so far: 0
Next Up: #171 Kampf der vier Mächte

For those who have never encountered it: Perry Rhodan is the hero of a weekly German science-fiction serial that is marketed as the world's largest science fiction series. I don't know whether that claim is true -- no doubt it depends on how one measures "large." Measured by words in print, PR has few if any competitors, certainly neither the Star Wars nor Star Trek franchises, which are relatively puny. The main series has been continuously published since September 1961 in weekly novella-length adventures. The current issue is number 3150. The English translations of these episodes ran to about 100 pages per, so we're talking about a story 315,000 pages long and growing. And that's just the main series. Besides the main series there have been over 400 standalone paperback novels, not to mention spinoffs (the spinoff series Atlan ran for 850 episodes), reboots (the reboot series Perry Rhodan NEO appears biweekly and is currently in its 268th episode), miniseries, video games, comic books, and one comically awful movie.

* Why am I reading this?

I first encountered the series as an exchange student to West Germany in 1986. I fell in love with everything about the series: the complicated backstory, the cheesy plots, the lurid covers, even the cheap newsprint. At that time I had access only to the latest issues and random back issues as I discovered them at flea markets so plots were frequently opaque, which actually added to the series's appeal. A couple of years ago I discovered that digitized back issues could be bought in packages online: I started from issue number 1, and all of that love came back.

So my reasons for reading are multiple and personal. It's about nostalgia, maintaining language skills, and feeding my inner middle-schooler. I wouldn't necessarily recommend the series except in small doses for curiosity's sake. But neither will I apologize: I love this crap even (maybe especially) when Perry Rhodan is an asshole. Which, actually, is most of the time.

* The Story So Far

Each episode is a standalone story, but the narrative is organized into story arcs, mostly running to 50 or 100 episodes. The arcs are usually separated by significant chronological gaps, which serve the marketing function of making the beginning of a story arc a good entry point for new readers.

Episodes 1-49: The Third Power (1971-1984)

The series begins with the first manned lunar mission in 1971. On the moon, Perry Rhodan and his crew discover a foundered spacecraft of the Arkonide Empire. Rhodan eliminates cold-war hostilities, establishes a Terran government capable of dealing with extraterrestrial threats, builds bases through the solar system, and assembles a team of psychically-talented mutants (*ahem* predating the X-Men by two years). He also meets IT, a disembodied benevolent superintelligence that offers Perry and other Terrans an anti-aging treatment.

Episodes 50-99: Atlan and Arkon (2040-2045)

The Terrans face multiple threats: the powerful interplanetary Arkonide Empire; the "Springers," a society of galactic merchants; the "Aras," a race of unscrupulous physicans, and the Druuf, inhabitants of a parallel universe that temporarily overlaps ours. Perry also meets Atlan, a practically immortal Arkonide who has been living on Earth since prehistory waiting for an opportunity to go home.

Episodes 100-149: The Posbis (2102-2112)

A united Terran/Arkonide empire faces new challenges. First, Terrans discover Arkon's progenitors the Akons, who regard both Arkonides and Terrans as inferiors. Then, the Milky Way galaxy is attacked by two extragalactic invaders: the Posbis, machine/biological hybrids hostile to all biological life; and the Laurins, invisible warriors hostile to the Posbis and anyone who gets in their way.

Episodes 150-199: The Second Empire (2326-2329)

The superintelligence IT announces that it is fleeing the galaxy in order to avoid some terrible looming danger, and so IT can no longer offer the anti-aging treatment. To compensate for this loss, IT scatters 25 immortality devices around the galaxy. A freak accident with one of the devices wakes a new threat: Hornschrecken, ravenous fast-reproducing caterpillar-things that can eat a planet smooth as a billiard ball within weeks; also the Hornschrecken's mature form, the Schreckworms. The Schreckworms are in an uneasy alliance with the Blues, who rule a second interplanetary empire on the "east side" of the galaxy. The Blues use molkex, an excretion of the Hornschrecken, to shield their space fleet; in exchange for molkex, the Blues transport Schreckworms to new planets where they can reproduce. Multiple attempts to communicate with the Blues have ended in hostilities.

As we join the story in episode 171, the Terrans have secretly formed their own alliance with the Schreckworms, hoping to cut off the Blues' supply of molkex. The Terrans have also established a secret base on Gatas, home planet of the Blues' ruling clan.

Greetings of the Season, Steve, I'm glad to see you back among us.

Looking forward to lots of great sci-fi and fantasy recommendations from you over the course of the new year, Steve. Happy New Year!

>5 swynn:
>6 richardderus:

Thanks Richard and Stasia! Happy New Year!

This group always helps me to read; welcome back to the group, Steve.

Happy reading in 2022, Steve!
Looking forward to some nice YouTube links in your **RUNNING POST**'s.

Welcome to 2022! I hope your reading and running is great this year!

Enjoy your 2022 reads!

Happy to see you back, Steve!

>9 PaulCranswick:
>10 FAMeulstee:
>11 drneutron:
>12 thornton37814:
>13 MickyFine:

Thanks for the welcomes, and I'm off to star all your threads.

1) What White People Can Do Next by Emma Dabiri
Date: 2021

Lots to chew on here, most interestingly the author's take on "allyship," which she feels has the unintended consequence of reinforcing power structures rather than dismantling them. The model she offers as an alternative is coalition-building: working together for common goals across identity groups. Details are light, and examples are more historical than aspirational, but still, it's concisely and persuasively presented.

>15 swynn: First book bullet of the year for me from you, Steve. I will see if my local library has a copy. Thanks!

Happy New Year, Steve.

>15 swynn: Exactly...ally is fine, as far as it goes; but the problem is much like "allowing" same-sex couples to get married, creating civil unions/pacsé as other legal forms of marriage: Permission and support shouldn't be at issue.

There needs to be recognition of the reality that all privileges apply to all people or you're enshrining inequality.

>5 swynn: >15 swynn: Oh my! I came here because I saw your intro, and immediately got multiply book bulleted. And it's only the second of January.

I see you'll be keeping my TBR list hopping, all on your own.

With regard to the allyship model, my cynical side asks whether reinforcing power structures is in fact an unintended consequence, particularly after watching events play out at my workplace.

Hi, Steve - Happy New Year, Group and Thread!

I just wanted to say again how very much I appreciate your company in working through the challenges. Fingers crossed that this year lets us keep ticking along!

(BTW it turns out my sister-in-law owns a copy of JLS so that's taken care of. TIOLI #3??)

>16 alcottacre: Hope you find it enlightening, Stasia!

>17 BLBera: Happy New Year to you too, Beth!

>18 richardderus: Yes. A "privilege" that can be granted to some groups and not to others is very subject to shifting accounting on which groups are considered "most favored." A government that can deny same-sex couples a right to marry can -- and has -- denied marriage on other grounds as well. Advocating for marriage equality isn't just something a cis-gendered straight white guy should do for his "gay friends"; but rather with the keen knowledge that his own rights are at stake.

>19 ArlieS: Welcome, Arlie! I'll head over to your thread and drop a star so I can get book bullets from you too.

With regard to the allyship model, my cynical side asks whether reinforcing power structures is in fact an unintended consequence

Good point, and Dabiri argues that for some agents, it is emphatically not unintended. Generously speaking, it may be unintended for well-meaning white folks who follow some advice for "being an ally"

>20 lyzard: My own library has a copy, and I am happy to report that it's even shorter than Love Story. (Curious that Jonathan's and Erich's surnames are so phonetically similar.)

TIOLI #3 works for me. (And there are pictures too? Um, is this karma going to be balanced by a Michener or something?)

>23 swynn: One of many reasons y'all should get nervous: Revoking the Loving decision is not something this Court would balk at.

>25 swynn: Man, that has been on my radar for years. I have zero doubt that ballot initiatives about "miscegenation" have already been prepared, and not just in southern states.

>27 swynn: This world is the one They wanted...and I emphatically Do Not Want.

2) The Book of Eels by Patrik Svensson
Date: 2020 (Translated from the Swedish "Ålevangeliet", 2019)

This is a good one: part memoir, part nature journalism, part cultural history, all eel. And y'all, those creatures turn out to be fascinating. Svensson presents a series of essays focused the European eel (Anguilla anguilla), a weird fish-not-fish which hatches, breeds, and dies exclusively in the Sargasso sea, but spends its life -- which in extreme cases can exceed 100 years -- in freshwater streams of the continent. Not that anyone has actually ever *seen* a European eel hatch. Or breed. Or die. Nobody has: eels do not cooperate with human observers. Svensson explains what is known and how we know it; and why efforts to discover more have been frustrated -- sometimes as if the universe is determined to keep us in the dark. He also visits moments in humanity's history of the eel, with some suprising moments. (Very early in his career, Sigmund Freud studied eels in Italy. At that time, no sex organs had been definitively identified in eels, and Freud's goal was to discover testes. He failed. Then spent the rest of his career writing about repressed sexuality. Huh.) And spread through the entire book are memories of the author's formative years, eel-fishing with his father.

Connections between history, science, religion, and personal reflection are rich, and the result is a delight. Recommended.

>29 swynn: The Swedes really like that sort of meditative excursion into Nature, it seems. Years ago I read and enjoyed THE FLY TRAP: A Book About Summer, Islands and the Freedom of Limits, which reminds me a good deal of this book (from your review).

>30 richardderus: Well, crap. Now I want that.

But then you knew I would, didn't you?

>31 swynn: ...it's possible that it crossed my mind...

>31 swynn: He's bad like that...

>25 swynn:

Short AND with pictures, yes! And pssst...I haven't looked yet, but I've heard a rumour it was #1 in '73 as well, so it might also be gifting us a month off. (To shift focus to our banned books, with any luck!)

>15 swynn:

Random thought: isn't "an alliance" usually two groups of people getting together to gang up on a third? (The enemy of my enemy, etc.) "Coalition" is problematic to me in the same way: it doesn't necessarily suggest positivity of purpose. We need words without political baggage.

>29 swynn: Yes, available in Dutch translation at the library, I hope to pick it up later this week :-)

>32 richardderus: I suspected.

>33 drneutron: Yes he is.

>34 lyzard: Happy two months! Time for Oil!

Interesting that the OED defines "coalition" as a type of "alliance":

coalition: A single group or alliance formed by a number of separate groups, states, people, etc., to further a common interest or achieve a shared purpose

It's not obvious to me that the term is necessarily confrontational, though I think I associate the term more with political contexts and "alliance" with military contexts. (Except in the current usage, where I have a feeling "ally" is acquiring increasingly heavy baggage in the advocacy context, as a low-stakes way of convincing one's self that one is a "good" white or heterosexual or cis-gendered or male person.) But this is an area where I've not read (or done) nearly as much as I should have -- are there better terms?

>35 FAMeulstee: Oh good! Hope you like it, Anita!

>29 swynn: That one sounds very interesting. I will have to check it out. I loved Sy Montgomery's The Soul of an Octopus when I read it.

**RUNNING POST**

Miles last week: 8
Total miles: 8
Longest run: 5 miles
Fastest mile: 9:30

Ankle feels good. Legs feel good. Treadmill sucks.

Thank goodness for a new Feuerschwanz album! Feuerschwanz is a "medieval metal" band from Bavaria. Their stuff is a lot of fun, and I recommend it to anyone who thinks, "You know, heavy metal is okay but what it really needs is more fiddle and bagpipes." (Rats. I'm not selling it well, am I?)

Soundtrack: Memento Mori by Feuerschwanz
BPM: 170

>37 alcottacre: The Soul of an Octopus has been in the Someday Swamp for awhile. I should bump it up.

I look forward to your thoughts if you get to The Book of Eels

>39 swynn: Well, my local library does not have The Book of Eels so it might be a while. . .

>38 swynn: "You know, heavy metal is okay but what it really needs is more fiddle and bagpipes." (Rats. I'm not selling it well, am I?)

Well you got my attention. :)

>38 swynn:, >41 MickyFine: Can I tempt you with banjo and accordion metal? Here's Steve 'N' Seagull with Thunderstruck

>38 swynn: (Rats. I'm not selling it well, am I?)

...not to me...

>36 swynn: *injured silence*

>38 swynn: You sold Feuerschwanz well enough to me, Steve :-)

>41 MickyFine: Success!

>42 drneutron: You can, and they rock!

>43 richardderus: I did not intend injury, and apologize for it. It's very possible I'm reading "allyship" and Dabiri's take on it wrong.

>44 FAMeulstee: Glad you liked them, Anita!

3) Stone and Steel by Eboni J. Dunbar
Date: 2020

Aaliyah is a warrior returning from a successful campaign only to find that her queen -- who is also her lover and her adopted sister -- has turned into a wicked monarch in her absence, and the populace urges Aaliyah to take her place.

I felt for Aaliyah's bewilderment over the betrayal, but the world felt too arbitrary and the prose often overdone, a problem worsened by careless editing. And I think I'm getting tired of stories whose solution to bad monarchs is different monarchs.

>46 swynn: Sounds like I can give that one a pass. Sorry to hear it was not a better read for you.

>47 alcottacre: Sorry I couldn't recommend it. But better books are coming ...

>46 swynn: And I think I'm getting tired of stories whose solution to bad monarchs is different monarchs.

...a problem that crops up with distressing regularity in real life as well...

4) The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
Date: 2010

This is the January pick of my real-life book club, and it's the sort of Book Club where one doesn't say, "fucking brilliant," so I'm saying it here because Reader that's what it is.

It's the story of the "Great Migration" of black citizens from southern states north- and westward during the twentieth century, beginning circa-WWI and continuing into the 1970's. It is enlightening with respect to the oppression its subjects faced in the South, and the limits to which northern states offered an escape. It's also insightful regarding demographic patterns of migration, and these things alone would have made a fascinating piece of popular history. But Wilkerson aims for a work that is emotionally engaging as well, so she weaves in the personal biographies of three people who made the move: one each to New York, Chicago, and California. These aren't composites, but real interviewees whose stories illustrate the historical points and define the human stakes for the Migration. The result is a terrific piece of history and humanity: fascinating, affecting, enthusiastically recommended.

>49 richardderus: Agreed.

5) DAW #204: The Tides of Kregen by Kenneth Bulmer, writing as "Alan Burt Akers"
Date: 1976

Twelfth in the "Dray Prescot" sword-and-planet series featuring the adventures of an 18th-century sailor magically transported to the planet Kregen. In this one, Prescot is sent back to Earth for several years, which prevents him from answering a call-to-arms of the Krozairs, his beloved order of warriors. When he finally returns to Kregen, it is to unexpected disgrace: the order strips Prescot of membership, and consigns him to a slave galley from which he cannot possibly escape. He escapes, of course, and sets out to restore his honor, which will take the next couple of books to accomplish.

I have nostalgic fondness for this series but its flaws are significant so I won't recommend it to anyone else except to say that it delivers what it promises. If you've read John Carter and want more of the same, then Dray Prescot isn't a bad choice.

Cover is by Michael Whelan.

>50 swynn: Your book bullet has scored on me; one more for the TBR.

>53 ArlieS: I hope you find it as captivating/enraging as I did, Arlie!

Happy New Year, Steve!

>50 swynn: Yes, it is, Steve. :)

>55 ronincats: To you too, Roni! And thanks for the nudge -- I need to go drop a star on your thread.

>56 BLBera: Beth, I think it's the best thing I've read in a long time. Such an important topic, well-conceived structure, and admirable execution. I may have to muzzle myself at the meeting tonight to stop gushing.

Book club discussion of The Warmth of Other Suns was last night. It was fine, but not one of the better ones: lots of "What did you think about X?" and "What was the most Y?" The most enlightening parts were when some members recollected local racial history. (I think I was the youngest participant, and I'm not a local native, so some of the recollections were stories I've never heard before despite being a resident for about twenty years.)

6) The Man Who Didn't Fly by Margot Bennett
Date: 1955

A private plane goes down in the Irish Sea en route from Wales to Dublin. Eyewitnesses testify that three men and a pilot boarded the plane, but four passengers are known to have been scheduled. The eyewitnesses can't identify the three who did fly, and no bodies are recovered. Insurance companies are reluctant to pay benefits for persons seventy-five-percent-probably-dead, so who -- and where -- is the fourth? After some amusing interviews with eyewitnesses, the investigation settles on the Wade family, landowners of decreasing wealth and marriageable daughters, through whose property all four potential passengers passed in the days prior to the flight. It's a fun vintage cozy with an unusual premise and a sharp sense of humor. (I can hear Liz saying "1955? Vintage? Amateur." But still.)

>59 swynn: Sounds like fun. If I see it, I'll glom it.

>58 swynn: That local-history bit makes a lot of blahblahblah worth it though, don't you think? Not every discussion can be a great one but one does at least want to come away from the experience with SOMEthing!

Whippersnapper.

>60 richardderus: Oh yes, the local history talk appeals to me at least as much as the book talk in these meetings. Often more.

>59 swynn:

:D

I'll have you know I've read *two* books that post-date that one of yours so far this year.

Granted, they add up to about 120 pages between them, one of them being Jonathan Livingston Seagull...

Morning, Steve!

>59 swynn: Oh, that one sounds good! I'm adding it to my list.

>62 lyzard: Oh dear, I hope I haven't been a corrupting force in your modernization :)

>63 scaifea: Hope you like it if you get to it, Amber!

**RUNNING POST**

Miles last week: 20
Total miles: 28
Longest run: 7 miles
Fastest mile: 9:40

A cold snap and icy surfaces convinced me to move a couple of runs to the treadmill last week. Running on the treadmill hasn't bothered me in the past, especially when I discovered that it allowed me to read while running. But the podiatrist has advised me not to do it (i.e., that I shouldn't run on the treadmill; I doubt it occurred to her to advise me on reading while running), and given the pandemic I run masked while inside, which turns the workout into something awful. I suppose that the mask gives me some additional pulmonary workout but fun it ain't. And Buddy disapproves when I come home from the gym smelling like I've been running without him.

Soundtrack: Peace in the Valley by Delbert McClinton
BPM: 162

>62 lyzard: Jonathan Segal Chicken was funnier.

>66 richardderus:

We had a local version too, Jonathan Livingston Budgerigar.

>67 lyzard: Ha!

The Man Who Didn't Fly sounds like a fun read, Steve.

>59 swynn: This one appeals to me. Our library has gotten a bunch of these British Crime Classics the last couple years. Some paper, some ebooks. I've put this on my someday list.

ETA: The one I was eyeballing recently was Death of an airman by Sprigg, C. St. John. This series has been coming out from Poisoned Pen press and seems to be popular.

>69 BLBera: It was!

>70 RBeffa: I hope you like it, and the Sprigg, if you get around to them. I'd be interested in your thoughts. I too feel like I should read more vintage mysteries -- of course, I feel like I should read more of just about everything, which is a problem.

7) The Book of Accidents by Chuck Wendig
Date: 2021

Here's a wild ride. A family of three -- father Nate, artist mother Maddie, precocious bullied son Ollie -- return to Nate's hometown when his father dies and leaves Nate the family home. By "leave" I mean that the father's will instructs that it be sold to Nate for a dollar, so that if Nate sells it he'll be stuck with a huge capital-gains tax bill. Because that's the kind of vindictive abusive low life Nate's father was. But they've barely moved in when weird things start happening -- Nate starts seeing ghosts, including the father he would rather have put in the grave personally than ever see again; Maddie's art seems to take on a life of its own; and Ollie makes a friend who does magic tricks and tells Ollie that he can too. It's marketed as horror, but really it's an elaborate dark fantasy, reminding me a lot of the books Clive Barker wrote in the 1980s and early 1990s, only with Wendig exploring cycles of abuse the way Barker examined desire. TW for abuse and self harm.

8) The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins
Date: 2021

Part psychological thriller, part crime novel, part romance, partly inspired by Jane Eyre. "Jane" is a graduate of the foster care system, a petty criminal lying low from the Law and paying the bills by walking dogs for a wealthy suburban neighborhood. She falls into a relationship with Eddie Rochester, a rich widower whose wife disappeared in a boating accident. (I won't spoil it, but will say that if you put "inspired by Jane Eyre" and "The Wife Upstairs" together then you've already figured out the mid-book twist.) It's okay, though for me the resolution didn't tie up all the narrative threads. Then again, I listened to it as an audiobook so I probably missed some.

9) The Secret of Terror Castle by Robert Arthur
Date: 1964

First in the "Three Investigators" series of juvenile mysteries, featuring three teenage boy detectives. In this one Jupiter, Pete, and Bob learn that famous director Alfred Hitchcock seeks a genuinely haunted mansion for his next hilm. Jupiter has a property in mind: the abandoned mansion of a silent film star, who died in a car crash years ago and whose residence has stood empty ever since. Surely if any house is haunted it must be that one -- but first the boys have to gather proof.

This series occupies a significant space in my development as a reader.I haven't revisited the series for over thirty years, partly because the books haven't been readily available, partly because I expected that a reread at this stage of life would only spoil my memory of it. Then Liz and Julia started reading them and pointed me to this, and I thought, why not? I'm pleased to say that my good feelings about the series are largely intact. Sure, the spooky stuff is less spooky, the peril less perilous and there are references to "gipsies" and "Arabs" that would (fortunately) not be published today, but at least are not intentionally malicious. But the story still works pretty well and I'll (re-)read some more.

Something that puzzles me, though I can't recall it ever occurring to me when I was in the target audience, is the occurrence of what I think of Britishisms: "torch" for "flashlight", "boot" for "trunk." The setting is California, the publisher American (Random House), the primary audience (I've always assumed) American. Why the British terms? Or do (did?) the terms I think of as "British" have some currency on the West coast?

>73 swynn: & >72 swynn: Not a damn chance! But hey, not everything's for everyone, is it. I will say that I think you'd like The Maid because it's witty.

Perry Rhodan update:

         

The last Perry Rhodan update brought us to episode #167. The Terrans have forged an alliance with the Schreckworms, and can now focus on the threat of the Blues. The Blues comprise an expansionist interstellar empire on the "east side" of the galaxy, hostile to the Terrans and Arkonides and for that matter any civilization other than the Blues. Their military capabilities are balanced against those of the Terran/Arkonides: the Terrans have better weapons, but the Blues have superior defenses. In particular, the Blues have indestructible shields made from molkex, a Hornschreck excretion.

One observation about these last few episodes is a welcome trend of Terrans making mistakes, sometimes clumsy mistakes, with real consequences from an adversary quick to take advantage. It's a welcome development from the earliest episodes where Perry could do no wrong and the plucky Earthers could carry out any plan no matter how unlikely.

Perry Rhodan 168: Die Eisfalle (= The Ice Trap) by William Voltz
From a prisoner taken in episode 167, the Terrans learn the location of Gatas, home planet of the ruling Blues clan. Perry sends a team to establish a secret base on an outlying planet of the same system. The base is established deep beneath the frozen planet, but soon after the base is established, the Blues discover it, leading to a desperate standoff between Terrans and Blues in unstable ice caves.

Perry Rhodan 169: Die kleinen Männer von Siga (= The Little Men from Siga) by K. H. Scheer
When the Blues take the Terrans' base near Gatas, they also take prisoners for interrogation. Any plan for rescue must be discreet, so Perry chooses a team of agents and microtechnicians from the planet Siga. The advantage of Siganese is that they are small: the team is led by the 19-cm-tall Lemy Danger. Danger has a personal stake as well, since his partner Melbar Kasom is among the prisoners. The team's orders are to enter the Blues's system attached to a freighter; when the Blues destroy the freighter then the team will land on Gatas disguised as wreckage. After rescuing the surviving prisoners, the team is to await further orders.

Perry Rhodan 170: Im Dschungel der Sterne (= In the Jungle of Stars) by Kurt Brand
The Terrans' alliance with the Schreckworms is based on a promise that when the Schreckworms are ready to reproduce, the Terrans will transport them to uninhabited planets. The Schreckworms notify Perry that three worms are ready for transport. Perry sends two ships, one to scout for locations (it's not clear why this wasn't being done already) and the other to carry the Schreckworms. What should be a milk run becomes anything but, when experiments with a hypnotic-suggestion device have unexpected side effects, and one of the uninhabited planets turns out to be not so uninhabited after all ...

Perry Rhodan 171: Kampf der vier Mächte (= Battle of Four Powers) by Clark Darlton
In the previous episode, a Terran ship transported a Schreckworm to the planet Trio for its end-of-life reproduction cycle. But Trio is not uninhabited: it is home to an outpost of pioneers from the system's second planet who are immediately hostile to the Terran invaders. The hostilities alarm the Schreckworm, who suspects treachery and telepathically calls some nearby Blues for help. That's when things *really* go south.

Perry Rhodan 172: Das Geheimnis der heiligen Insel (= The Secret of the Holy Island) by Kurt Mahr
When the EX-318 is damaged in an encounter with the Blues, its few remaining crew make an emergency landing on the planet Trap, home to a civilization that probably descended from an ancient colony of Akons. But Trap is no refuge: the Blues have targeted Trap for colonization and will soon destroy all life on it. The castaways' only hope is to access a transporter that may be hidden on a sacred island, protected by an impenetrable force field whose purpose and controls are lost to time.

Perry Rhodan 173: Unternehmen Nautilus (= Operation Nautilus) by K. H. Scheer
We return to the secret base on the Blues' home planet Gatas, where Lemy Danger and Melbar Kasom infiltrate a Blues manufacturing center. They hope to learn how the Blues turn molkex into indestructible shields, and even more importantly develop a strategy for destroying the shields.

>75 richardderus: Rec noted, The Maid Swamp'd. Thanks!

>74 swynn:

Maybe Alfred Hitchcock is supposed to be telling the story?? :D

The racial aspect of these books remains a bit uncomfortable: there's a "foreigner" in each story, and treated as such; but (as you say) there's no malice, and you can tell they're actually trying to be broadminded. Points for that but still a bit squirmy.

10) DAW #205: The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 2 edited by Lin Carter
Date: 1976

I read the first entry in this series back in 2019, and noted that it seemed to be stuck in the past, heavy with stories by past masters and imitations of past masters. I also grumbled that it was presumptuous of Carter to include one of his own stories. I'm sorry to report that the theme of mining the past continues and Carter includes *two* of his own stories. Once again: it's not a bad anthology, and some stories I found very good but I do wish Carter would get over himself.

Cover is by George Barr.

Demoness by Tanith Lee
In a tower by the sea lives a woman reputed to be a demoness. In fact, she does not know what she is, but when men fall under her spell she absorbs their knowledge and reason, leaving them empty husks. A warrior comes to the castle intending to avenge a friend, but finds he cannot kill the woman. He shares her bed and leaves her. The rejection makes him irresistible, and the woman follows him across the world.

The Night of the Unicorn by Thomas Burnett Swann
A small tourist town in Mexico prepares for the return of a unicorn. The beast last visited one hundred years ago, when it walked through town acknowledging the purest souls in the village. Everyone wants to be ready for its next visit, even the former prostitute ostracized by her neighbors.

Cry Wolf by Pat McIntosh
A warrior woman who is forbidden to fraternize with men and a warrior man (maybe a werewolf) forbidden to fraternize with women deal with their attraction to each other. This is okay, but is the sort of story that feels like chapter one of a longer piece.

Under the Thumbs of the Gods by Fritz Leiber
Tired of being ignored by Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, the gods of Lankhmar play a prank on the two adventurers: they set up a situation where F&TGM encounter a series of desirable women and are rejected by each in turn. This one has aged about as well as it sounds.

The Guardian of the Vault by Paul Spencer
Two watchers are chosen to guard the prison of a demon, whose prison is sealed by a spell preventing its escape so long as the seal is watched. But when one guardian dies ...

The Lamp from Atlantis by L. Sprague de Camp
Mike Devlin has been plagued by bad luck all his life. His latest attempt to change that luck involves a relic from lost Atlantis that will allow him to make a pact with a very old god.

Xiuhrn by Gary Myers
I'm not sure what this is about, but the intro describes it as a cross between Dunsany and Lovecraft. If that's what explains the stilted syntax and the baroque vocabulary -- half of which seems to have been invented for the story -- then I guess that's what it is.

The City in the Jewel by Lin Carter
Thongor of Lemuria encounters a gigantic gem, within which lies an enchanted city. Thongor enters the city by magical means, and soon falls into the disfavor of the city's ruler.

In 'Ygiroth by Walter C. DeBill, Jr.
An ambitious young scholar enters the abandoned forbidden city 'Ygiroth, where evil secrets are said to be written on the walls of a labyrinth beneath an ancient temple.

The Scroll of Morloc by Clark Ashton Smith and Lin Carter
When the shaman Yhemog is denied honors of his sect, he renounces his religion and determines to steal its secrets.

Payment in Kind by C.A. Kador
A dream-curse passes from person to person until it finds its target.

Milord Sir Smiht, the English Wizard by Avram Davidson
Davidson's character Doctor Eszterhazy, a detective in an alternate nineteenth-century Europe, investigates the case of Milord Sir Smiht, an experimenter with paranormal "odyllic forces."

>78 lyzard: I don't get the impression that Hitchcock is supposed to be narrating.

Usually I'd just call it an odd choice of words and move on. But in this context I had a weird moment of recognition: wait a minute, they're carrying flashlights! I'm sure that in an earlier reading I had a mental image of the boys carrying flaming sticks around the spooky castle, and all this time they were just flashlights.

It's disappointing about the badly-aged racial content, and also unsurprising.

>79 swynn: I read at least one of the books in this series as well as Flashing Swords #1 and one or two standalone books by Carter back in the late 70's. I was very under impressed and felt he only did these collections in order to promote his own works which weren't very good. He tried to imitate Robert E Howard and Burroughs and such but just didn't have what it takes.

>81 RBeffa: Agreed. In this volume, "The City in the Jewel" is a Howard pastiche, and while it's not the worst thing of Carter's I've read, it's also not all that special; "The Scroll of Morloc" is a "posthumous collaboration" with Clark Ashton Smith, and a better story but one that wants a more judicious editor. This volume also has a list of the best fantasy novels of the year -- and includes his The Enchantress of World's End in its select list of eight. It does not belong.

I read Carter's "Green Star" series as part of the DAW project, and while I found the first few volumes okay, the series ended in a way that was subprofessional and offensive. So I'm not inclined to cut him much slack.

>82 swynn: I am almost embarrassed to confess the love for sword & sorcery stuff i had in my early 20s. I had loved most of Burroughs books but i always blame picking up a copy of Elric, a DAW undoubtedly, and then went on a multi-year jag getting just about everything in the genre new and used that I could find. Most of the Moorcocks worked for me but not Lin Carter. I probably read more than I recall because you have reminded me of the green star books and I had several.

>83 RBeffa: I'm a fan too! I love the old Weird Tales stories although lots of it shows its age. My complaint with this volume isn't so much that the stories are bad -- mostly they aren't -- but I'd expect to see stories of different types, showing the state of the field. Maybe the field was underdeveloped in 1975, but I can't believe *everything* was imitating the Lovecraft/Howard/Dunsany styles.

And the Moorcocks are coming soon. I assume that DAW acquired rights to a chunk of MM's back catalog because pretty soon Wollheim starts releasing them at a rate of about once a month. I'm looking forward to them.

You've been reading up a storm! Is that why we got all that wintry weather?

>84 swynn: I do think fantasy was in a rut of sorts when this came out. Books like the forgotten beasts of eld were the excitement and this book of stories is not long after the real epic fantasy of Tolkein had reignited the field. This style persisted for a time and the Conan and Sheena etc films of the 80s correspond to that. You have some real DAW fun coming up. I will relive my past reads as you plow thru Moorcocks and dumarest and all those goodies. I ate them up and I am planning to read a batch of fantasy this year that might include a revisit to a few.

>85 thornton37814: Oh goodness I hope not. I promise I'd slow down if I thought it would help. Because that's just a vicious cycle: the more it snows the more I read.

>86 RBeffa: Very possible that there just weren't other things to publish. Funny you should mention The Forgotten Beasts of Eld because it was another of Carter's "Best Books of the Year." The other books he seemed especially interested in were Richard Adams's Shardik, which had been on the NY Times bestseller list where genre titles rarely surfaced; and J.R.R. & Christopher Tolkien's The Silmarillion, which had been delayed for another year.

The Moorcock wave starts with Elric of Melniboné, DAW #214.

>87 swynn:

Noting that our 1971 Publishers Weekly list included both The Exorcist and The Other. Not the kind of fantasy you guys are discussing but perhaps an intimation that tastes were shifting.

>88 lyzard: I would call those books horror and altho one may have science fiction or fantasy with horror elements, I tend to think of all of those books popular then like the ones you mentioned and The Omen and Rosemary's baby and so on as horror. The general reading public ate those up but would not read other fantasy. I used to be able to see clearly that Anne Rice, or Brian Lumley, Clive Barker, Robert McCammon, Stephen King, Richard Matheson and others were mostly writing horror novels. Nowadays there are so many teen vampire and to a lesser extent werewolf types of stories that I don't know how to classify them. You can call them both I suppose. Our library friends sales have a very large collection of science fiction and fantasy. Hundreds and hundreds of them. Close to a thousand possibly at times. I have volunteered to sort and file the collection and folks generally lump almost all of it in to one heap since there is so much crossover. A woman at the last sale was asking where fantasy started in the many shelves and I told her it was all mixed together. She wanted some Redwall books, Jacques, and I told her they could be here (there was one I later saw) or in general fiction or in teen fiction most likely.

Anyway, >87 swynn: The early Elric books I have not read since they came out altho I have the seventh book The Fortress of the Pearl that I never read. I'm not sure I even knew about it until a dozen years ago. I bought the Elric book several times. I would "lend' away my copies and they didn't come back!

>88 lyzard: Yeah: it's my feeling that the early seventies are about the time that horror fiction hits the mainstream, with 1967's Rosemary's Baby as an example from just a few years earlier. I think Carter would probably argue that those are horror stories, but genre boundaries are fuzzy. Carter must have known that, since he refers repeatedly to Lovecraft as a master of fantasy. Maybe he avoided the weirder, dark-fantasy stories for this anthology because DAW also had a series of "best horror stories of the year"? I also think it's interesting that Carter hails the bestseller status of Shardik as a demonstration of fantasy's mainstream appeal in way that somehow Watership Down didn't do just the year before.

Maybe we're looking both at shifting tastes, and at changing definitions for the genre. I remember a time when I thought of "fantasy fiction" as synonymous with adventures in worlds derived from premodern European history and folklore (Tolkien, Conan, King Arthur, etc.) Maybe that view of the genre wasn't just mine.

>89 RBeffa: I'm not sure myself where the border lies between horror and fantasy. I remember reading a Clive Barker book and suddenly realizing that Barker wasn't trying to scare me, he was building a fantasy world where some characters happened to be monsters. I don't remember whether the book was Weaveworld or The Great and Secret Show; it may have been the latter with the realization that, wait a minute, that's what Weaveworld was all about too. Lumley's "Necroscope' series struck me a similar way, though in that case earlier volumes felt like horror but feel increasingly like fantasy as the series continues (and yeah, gets less good)

>50 swynn: I have had that one in the BlackHole forever. I really need to get it read!

>59 swynn: Looks fun! I will see if I can find a copy.

Happy Thursday, Steve!

>89 RBeffa:, >90 swynn:, >91 swynn:

Certainly horror, and you're right to point out Rosemary's Baby as the ur-work in this shift. But these are still works set in a recognisable reality, and we are yet to see a further shift towards the kind of alternative-world fantasy that you guys were referencing.

>93 lyzard:

The recognisable-reality vs. alternative-world distinction is maybe what excites Carter about Shardik relative to Watership Down (btw, I went back to the 1975 volume of "Best Fantasy Stories" and he was *really* excited about Watership Down that year. (The Illiad! The Odyssey! With rabbits! Exclamation points!)

>94 swynn:

Particularly exclamation points!!

Yes, we haven't discovered much like that on our best-seller lists: maybe Mary Stewart's The Crystal Cave, her "biography" of Merlin, which was 1970? It will be interesting to see what emerges over the next few years.

BTW, I meant to ask: since JLS was also #1 in 1973, God help us, shall we have a month off, or would you rather move on to 1974?

>76 swynn:

BTW again, I don't know if it's the way you're telling them, but your recent Perry Rhodans sound interesting and rather, well, sensible? Is that a good thing or disappointing??

>95 lyzard: I don't feel strongly about proceeding/waiting, and will let you make the call.

>96 lyzard: I'm honestly impressed with the current PR storyline. When the Hornschrecken first showed up it felt fun but cheesy (not a criticism, exactly, since that has been the standard mode) -- but at this point, with interdependencies of Schreckworms and Blues, the failures of the Terrans, and now a development that I can't help reading as a critical comment on the military-industrial complex (which has been celebrated thus far), I find myself drawn in, and that's probably reflected in my comments.

>97 swynn:

My first thought was to take the break, partly to give you a chance to tackle Oil! (though my resumption of library access for that challenge remains uncertain); but having just had a peek and learned that 1974 is - ulp! - another Michener, I though we'd better consult again about when that might best fit with other plans / commitments.

It's always disconcerting when something takes a turn for the better, isn't it?? That's an interesting theory about what the books might have been alluding to at that time.

I'll take the break. I have a couple of other thick books planned for next month, one of them probably Oil! which I thought I'd get to this month, and probably will still start it but it's looking decreasingly likely that I'll finish it in January. Hopefully I'll keep the Michener in mind and give it thinner shelf-companions in March.

11) The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey
Date: 2021

Evelyn is a research geneticist and a leader in cloning technology. She's very much career-focused, which was a factor in the dissolution of her marriage, and has multiple feelings about her ex Nathan's new girlfriend Martine. It seems that Nathan used Evelyn's research to make a clone of Evelyn, a version whose priorities align more closely with his own. Then, when Nathan turns up dead, the fun begins. I liked the themes of power and patriarchy, the unexpected plot twists, and the boldness to explore the story's ideas with a whole cast of unlikeable characters. But the science is handwavey and inconsistent, and the story tends to ignore ethical and legal complications, so mixed feelings about this one.

>100 swynn: The ethical handwaviness made me so blindingly furious I stopped reading at 11%. Just...ick. Never Let Me Go was the last time I'll read that particular twist.

>99 swynn:

March it is then, thanks.

12) The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny
Date: 2007

Third in Louise Penny's "Inspector Gamache" series, featuring more murder at Three Pines, this time during an Easter seance at the misfortune-prone Old Hadley House. I'm enjoying the series: the cast is appealing and the detective is admirably humane. There are mystery-novel tropes that taste a little ripe, but it kept me entertained on a long drive.

>101 richardderus: I sympathize with that response.

>102 lyzard: Looking forward to it! It's the one Michener I've read before this project. I remember liking it well and also wishing it were shorter.

13) The Wrong End of the Telescope by Rabih Alameddine
Date: 2021

Mina, a Lebanese trans woman physician, travels to Lesbos at the urging of a friend and colleague. The island serves as an exit point for refugees fleeing violence in Syria. Mina's medical skills are desperately needed, but she also knows something of being rejected from one's home, of crossing borders and of searching for refuge. Mina bonds with a family whose matriarch has had to make impossible decisions, and has more yet to make. MHer story provides a framework for vignettes, not only about the Syrian civil war, but about an entire recent history of humanitarian failures and of finding kindness and love despite them.

Richard recommended this one, and he's right. It's difficult, nuanced, and brilliant.

>106 swynn: *happy dance* I am SO GLAD you resonated with that story! It almost made my six-stars-of-five list.

>107 richardderus: Thanks for recommending it, Richard!

**RUNNING POST**

Miles last week: 14
Miles the week before: 21
Total miles: 63
Longest run: 7 miles
Fastest mile: 9:13

Soundtrack: Missouri Boy by the Hooten Hallers
BPM: 173

**Race Report**
Race: ROC 7k Trail Race
Location: Columbia, Missouri
Distance: 7k (4.3 miles)
Time: 55:28 (self-timed)

The course for the ROC 7K is single-track dirt trail built for mountain biking: lots of roots, rocks, gravel, slopes and switchbacks, and in January some lovely patches of hard-packed snow and ice. Given the conditions, my goals were to finish upright and that's it. And: mission accomplished!

>109 swynn: Congrats!

Nice run! Congrats on finishing, and at a decent pace.

>109 swynn: Bravo! Upright and still runnin'!

>109 swynn: Reached your goal, congrats, Steve!

>110 BLBera:
>111 drneutron:
>112 richardderus:
>113 FAMeulstee:

Thanks!

14) Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
Date: 1970

This is a short parable (less than 100 pages, including many that are just photographs of seagulls) about a seagull who likes to fly more than a proper seagull should. The other seagulls kick him out of the flock, but he just keeps flying, eventually learns superflying, and eventually returns to the flock to share the things he has learned. I'm broadly sympathetic to the message of following and sharing one's passion while ignoring the haters but this was lightweight and over-earnest even before JLS starts teleporting through space and time. Judging from comments on LibraryThing and Goodreads, it appears that this very-seventies story still speaks to some readers, but I am not among them.

In reference to a conversation above, I will suggest this might be our first example of a fantasy story in the bestseller project.

>115 swynn: Fair and balanced review.

>116 richardderus: Less fair and balanced: I don't think a book has ever made me pivot so fast from "This is nuts." to "Wait, that's it?"

Well, maybe a Chuck Tingle story, but in an entirely different way ...

15) The Rise of Renegade X by Chelsea M. Campbell
Date: 2010

Damien Locke is the son of a supervillain, and looks forward to becoming a supervillain himself. But on his sixteenth birthday -- for weird worldbuilding reasons -- he learns that his previously-unkown father is a superhero, which means he might become a superhero too. Snark and shenanigans ensue. It's the beginning of a YA superhero series, which I picked at random from my "Unread on Kindle" list. Mostly it's light and moves fast but there are some things that make me uncomfortable -- the implication that there are genetic markers for heroism and villainy, Damien's preoccupation with his mother's sex life, and a cringey homophobic bit where he kisses his nemesis at a party in order to mock him. I won't continue this series.

>118 swynn: Hard pass. Thanks for the warn-off...I've purged it.

>119 richardderus: Happy to be of service.

16) Daughter of the Bright Moon by Lynn Abbey
Date: 1979

Rifkind is a healer/warrior from a desert clan goes wandering after her family is slaughtered. She never got on well with them -- they had ideas she did not share about a woman's proper role, but still. She and her war horse, with whom she shares a telepathic bond, travel out of the desert and into "civilization," where she finds allies among some mountain people and fights a magician who was raised in the desert clans but went bad. This is the first of two novels Abbey wrote about Rifkind around 1980; I read and enjoyed them in the late 1980s. I enjoyed it less this time around, and liked it less: I found its pace slow and its world ambiguously drawn; but I do still like the character and found the climactic battle satisfying.

17) DAW #206: Earth Factor X by A.E. Van Vogt
Date: 1976 (Originally published 1974 as "The Secret Galactics")

The earth is being secretly invaded by several races of aliens. The invaders have genetically engineered to look like human men, and their plans are complicated by their desire for, and inability to comprehend the mystery that is, human women. There's also the very beginning of a story about a brain that was removed from the body of a dying man and transferred to a mobile machine, which wants to solve its own murder -- but that quickly gets lost in a busy plot that barely makes sense and seems primarily interested in whingeing against beautiful deceptive frigid women. And if that sounds offensive, then it's probably worse than it sounds: remember it was written in the 1970s by a dude who was at the top of his game in the 1950s and adjust expectations accordingly. I often enjoy Van Vogt's bonkers stories, but this was one continuous cringe.

18) The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr.
Date: 2021

Dang, it's barely February and I may already have had my best read of the year. This is a historical novel set on an antebellum cotton plantation, where two enslaved men have an emotional and physical relationship. Given the setting we know their story cannot end well, and Jones's account of the tragedy is layered, nuanced, poetic, and gut-wrenching.

This book, y'all

Thanks Richard for recommending it.

>123 swynn: *preens*

This one is very beautiful and will, I think, be a survivor as Time winnows stories down as he always does.

>124 richardderus: It is gorgeous, Richard. It was one of the rare cases where I finished the Library's book then ordered my own copy so that I could keep the words for my very own.

**RUNNING POST**

Miles last week: 21
Total miles: 84
Longest run: 8 miles
Fastest mile: 9:27

Soundtrack: Tina Marie by Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Bryan Lee
BPM: 117

>125 swynn: I totally understand that. I am really quietly astonished at the power of his writing.

19) DAW #207: A Whiff of Madness by Ron Goulart
Date: 1976

Muckraking reporter Jack Summer is sent to the planet Peregrine, to investigate a serial killer who may be a local monarch. There follows a nonsensical plot, with exploding steam robots, lizard-, cat- and owl-people, and more boob jokes than you'd expect to find outside a middle school hallway. I probably would have loved this forty years ago, and it managed to provoke a few chuckles still, but the humor is to broad for me to confidently recommend it in general.

>128 swynn: I just discovered that Ron Goulart has died. I'll post it to the memorial page in a sec. I read one of his stories this past weekend and it was pretty entertaining for a novelette "The Curse of the Demon" from 1998. Nothing that offended me.

more boob jokes than you'd expect to find outside a middle school hallway

Brilliant! Gotta remember that line...

>129 RBeffa: Very sorry to hear that. The Goulart works I've read recently (as part of the DAW project) have mostly been of a sort similar to A Whiff of Madness and I haven't been kind to them, but this was not his only mode (for instance, he ghost-wrote William Shatner's Tek series) and he had a direct, transparent style that kept his stories moving.

>130 drneutron: You're certainly welcome to it, though I'm sorry to hear that you think you may have opportunity to use it.

>132 swynn: I liked that response, Steve! I remember making a self-deprecating joke about my man-boobs when I was having my hair cut at work during the lock-down (long story) that got completely misunderstood and I had half the ladies in our office up in arms until they realised that I didn't seriously consider myself the owner of the finest pair in the country.

Have a great weekend.

>133 PaulCranswick: It's weirdly reassuring to know that others have that desperately cringey experience of going from "Oh this will sound clever" to "Please earth open up and swallow me" in the time it takes to mouth-fart a dozen words. Been there, man.

20) Underbug by Lisa Margonelli
Date: 2021

Termites. And not just termites, but the people who study termites, and how termites inform research in half a dozen fields from engineering biofuels to building structures on Mars, using automated agents in combat, and understanding cognition. The bugs themselves are terrifically interesting, as are the applications. Toward the end Margonelli veers in philosophizing and moralizing, which is less interesting but doesn't take away from the very cool stuff that came before.

>135 swynn: Ow! Ow! Stop that book-bulleting!

>136 richardderus: Steve got me with that one too.

>136 richardderus:
>137 ArlieS:

Hope you like it!

2020 Black Lives Matter Marches by Joyce Markovics
Date: 2021

This 24-page picture book about the Black Lives Matter movement tops a list of 850 books that Texas legislator Matt Krause wants removed from school libraries. I assume Krause's issue with it -- assuming the suggestion that black lives even matter is insufficient -- is that it mentions "structural racism," which is a trigger phrase for CRT-phobia:

Structural racism offers White people advantages that Black Americans cannot get. For example, it's more difficult for Black people to get a quality education, live in safe neighborhoods, access healthcare, and find good jobs. This occurs despite laws that protect them from discrimination. As a result of structural racism, Black people are six times more likely than White people to be put in prison. Even more troubling, Black men are more than twice as likely to be shot and killed by police as White men.

It's pretty simple and factual, and probably won't appeal to readers older than the target audience. But Matt Krause hates it, so I'm obligingly raising its signal.

21) Dreamland Burning by Jennifer Latham
Date: 2017

Rowan is a high school student in contemporary Tulsa. William is a high-school student in 1921 Tulsa. Both have mixed racial heritage, and complicated relationships to race and class. During renovations on Rowan's family's property, workers uncover an old body, and items from the body's wallet indicate that it may have been a victim of the 1921 "race riot," when upstanding white citizens looted and burned Greenwood, the thriving black business district of North Tulsa, and slaughtered its residents. In alternating chapters, Rowan solves the mystery of the body's identity, while William is caught up in events leading to the atrocity. I read this for my RL reading group. We agreed that it's okay, but very YA. It has some pretty intense scenes, but also flinches from some of the ugliness, sanitizing language and the scale of the violence.

A topic that, while growing in public profile, remains underknown. But that isn't the way I want to learn more about it, and sounds like it wouldn't really scratch my particular itch.

I needed the clonk, however, to go to the catalogs and look for new stuff!

>141 richardderus: I first learned about the "race riot" when I lived in Tulsa in the 1990s. While I was there, the state had appointed a commission to study the event, and a member of that Commission was also a member of the church I attended, a Unitarian-Universalist congregation on Greenwood. The story is horrible, many times over, as is the continuing sentiment in some quarters that it should be forgotten or turned into some sort of unfortunate tragedy based on mutual misunderstanding.

>142 swynn: I spent about half of 1978 & 1979 there, but heard not peep one about it. Quel surprise, right?

>143 richardderus: Right.

I love seeing the old DAW editions, they have such great covers - I only have a couple as they weren't sold here in the UK unfortunately

>145 feca67: Glad to share them!

22) Sant of the Secret Service by William Le Queux
Date: 1918
Gerry Sant, agent of the French secret service, captures the Kaiser's spies and spoils plots by "the Hun" to sabotage allied military resources. It's very episodic, apparently a fix-up of shorter published pieces. It's quite readable but also mechanical: this happened and then this and then that. Best part is that several episodes feature Madame Gabrielle, a partner in counterespionage who -- to my surprise given the date -- never faints, never needs rescuing, and always contributes materially to the case's resolution. Frankly, she consistently upstages the rather dull Sant.

23) Oil! by Upton Sinclair
Date: 1926

Bunny Ross is the son of an independent oilman, and grew up in the passenger seat of his father's car, literally and metaphorically. His father Ross Sr., was once a mule-driver, but built his oil business to fabulous success, learning the tools of the industry and business along the way, including a necessary ruthlessness. He dotes on Bunny, and wants his son to take his place. But Bunny's temperament is not his father's, and he cannot accept the ways that the business exploits labor. Despite class differences, Bunny establishes a lifelong friendship with a labor organizer and political activist, which complicates his prospects as heir apparent to an oil empire. Sinclair's novel is part Bildungsroman, part satire (of big oil, of Hollywood, of the religious revival industry), part anticapitalist polemic, part generational epic, and no little mess. It has a sense of humor to balance its earnestness, which is nice, but it rambles a lot too and feels every bit of its 550 pages.

Banned in Boston for ... I don't know, maybe the free love, maybe the Bolshevism, maybe both.

Hello Swynn. I hope your new year is going well.

>1 swynn: I'm interested in your thoughts on Checkmate in Berlin. I read a Giles Hilton last year on Britain's guerrilla warfare division. I hope this one is as good.

>148 swynn:

The sex scenes, apparently - or at least officially - but the whole thing would have been objectionable, I imagine.

Hmm, what did I say about it?---

...overlong, undisciplined, and about as subtle as knee to the groin...and while the facetious tone of the narrative not infrequently becomes tiresome, this does at least mean that the novel doesn't pummel the reader into submission quite so unmercifully as Sinclair's more seriously-toned works tend to do...

But anyway, whoo! - we're back on an even keel. However my academic library access has been shut down again, so if we do move on to From Man To Man I'll have to do it as an in-library read at the State Library.

So please let me know when/if you find a copy.

>149 brodiew2: I just started it yesterday, and haven't gotten far -- so far, just the introduction, which covers the Yalta Conference, where Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin discussed the administrative division of Germany and Berlin; and the first chapter, which introduces the American and British administrators of Berlin as Allied forces approach the city. So far so good! It hits some history I wasn't aware of, which is always fun, and the local color is fun: Yalta is surreal, and the historical persons have personalities.

>150 lyzard: Getting From Man To Man shouldn't be a problem for me, since there are multiple copies available in my library consortium. No rush, though: I'd like to knock a few volumes off the Tower of Due before I pick up the next bestseller -- which I'm actually looking forward to, since I read and very much enjoyed it forty or something years ago . But it will be a commitment.

Also, FWIW, I've ILL'd a copy of Fer-de-Lance. Rex Stout was a favorite of my father's, and I've always thought I should read a few but never got around to it. I'm honestly not sure whether I will this time either.

>152 swynn:

No hurry on my part, under the circumstances, so if you'd rather put it off for a bit, that's fine. In fact delaying it until after the Michener probably makes sense! (And lordy, I've got a group read next month too!)

Yeah, me too. I didn't even have the Wolfe books on The Lists until recently, despite Julia's proselyting: they're just a bit outside my usual time and place.

We haven't decided yet whether we'll be reading Fer-de-Lance this month or next either, so give me a shout when your ILL comes in and we'll decide then.

I am 60 posts behind, Steve, and not even attempting to catch up. Thanks for stopping by the Acre!

Have a wonderful week!

>153 lyzard: According to the library system, my copy is "In Transit" so don't wait on my account.
>154 alcottacre: Thanks for stopping by, Stasia!

Kids these days ....

Vandegrift students create 'Banned Book Club,' hoping more student voices will be heard

God, I love kids these days. It's the kids of *my* days that keep me awake at night.

>156 swynn: I know Kendall Howe's parents! I'm so glad she's turning out the way she is.

>157 richardderus: Yay Kendall!

>156 swynn: That is wonderful! I am so glad it is not just a rebellious "why can't we read this book?" kind of attitude, but a thoughtful one in reading and discussing the books. Brava!

>159 alcottacre: I know, right? And I love their Instagram posts describing their discussion of Out of Darkness and their take on whether the ban was justified.

**RUNNING POST**

Miles last two weeks: 21
Total miles: 105
Longest run: 8 miles
Fastest mile: 8:40

Soundtrack: Guided by Angels by Amyl and the Sniffers
BPM: 92

Week before last was a bust: winter mess came through and I nope'd a couple of runs, then ... inertia ... but bounced back last week & did most runs. Looks like this week could very well be a repeat of the inertia week because there's winter mess coming through again tonight. Stay safe, all.

>156 swynn: That's fantastic! I agree - kids these days are pretty great.

>151 swynn: Hi swynn. I picked up Checkmate in Berlin from the library today. I may start it next or after Ace Atkins new Spenser audio.

Did you jump on board the Reacher tv series on Prime. I haven't gotten into the books, but the show was excellent.

I hope all is well.

>163 brodiew2: Ooh, I'm looking forward to your thoughts. When I last talked about it I called it fun -- which it was -- and then turned very un-fun as the Soviets rolled into Berlin and the western Allies let them pillage and plunder for awhile.

I haven't made much progress in the last week or so, because I've been reading product proposals for a couple of RFPs at work. Leisure reading has been very comic-book and audiobook-y.

I haven't gotten into Reacher, or watched much television at all lately. I hear it's good!

And speaking of audiobooks. I've never been much of an audiobook consumer -- I don't have the attention for it, I'm afraid -- but I've been listening to more as I've needed to go on long drives more frequently. And dangit, now I'm turning into one of those "ear-readers" (to borrow a phrase from Richard) who also have favorite readers, and seek out audiobooks based on the performer rather than (just) the author.



24) The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Date (2017)

I keep thinking I've read this one, and Mrs. swynn keeps correcting me, so when I saw it as an option on Hoopla I figured I could at least correct that recurring mistake. (It came out, IIRC, about the same time as Nic Stone's Dear Martin and I'm embarrassed to say I kept conflating the two.) Now that I've read it, I have nothing to add to what's already been said about this honest engaging enraging book. It's terrific. I was expecting the righteous anger, the violence, and the social justice themes; I wasn't expecting that to be balanced with humor, nor to be so taken with the characters. I can imagine revisiting this one.

Also: audiobook reader Bahni Turpin is great. I wonder what else she has read ....

>165 swynn: *appalled silence*

>165 swynn: Oh yay! This is one that I think every single middle school and high school student in this country should read. It's so well done and so important.

>166 richardderus: Sorry. There are more coming, I'm afraid.

>167 scaifea: It's just terrific, and terrifically on point. And yes, this is the discussion that needs to be started early.

>165 swynn: Glad you were able to read that and get it straightened out in your head! I haven't read Dear Martin, though maybe I should. Bahni Turpin is a fantastic narrator and I can recommend her reading of Justina Ireland's books, Nicola Yoon's books (maybe a little on the lighter side for you, but I really liked The Sun Is Also a Star), and Fighting Words by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley.

>169 bell7: Thanks for those suggestions, Mary! I've already read Ireland's Dread Nation books, so will probably put off the audiobooks for those; but Nicola Yoon and Kimberly Brubabker Bradley are new-to-me authors who I will check out.

As for my poor head ... ugh. Fortunately, having read both books now I'm unlikely to confuse them as they are in fact very different books. So yes: mission accomplished!

25) A Home for Goddesses and Dogs by Leslie Connor
Date: 2020

Another audiobook (not narrated by Bahni Turpin, but the one I had next in the queue after The Hate U Give). This one is about a girl in her early teens whose artist mother dies of a heart condition. With her mother gone, and her father absent, Lydia moves from Rochester, NY, to live with her Aunt Brat in a rural Connecticut town. Shortly after her arrival, her new family -- Aunt Brat, Brat's wife, and an elderly friend who shares their home -- adopts a messy, poorly behaved, rescue dog. At Brat's, Lydia deals with her grief, makes new friends, and learns to love the best bad dog in Connecticut. It's a feel-good book, a middle-grades version of the sort of minimal-conflict story with supportive relationships and nice people being nice to each other, that I usually find wearing. But I'm willing to give this one some slack because: (1) there are dogs who don't die, (2) it pissed off the self-appointed censors, and (3) dammit, I think the genre is growing on me.

Respecting (2): AHFGAD appears on a list of offensive books which Texas lawmaker and antiliteracy crusader Matt Krause wants removed from school libraries. The list doesn't give a reason for hating AHFGAD, but considering there is no discussion of social justice issues and no sex (footnote), I assume that it earned a spot on the list because Lydia's aunt has a wife. And the very existence of same-sex couples is an offense which cannot be countenanced by Krause's hate club. Read banned books, y'all.

Footnote: by "no sex", I'm not counting a scene where an early-teen girl says she might like to kiss somebody someday, maybe even a girl. Really, that's as steamy as it gets.

>171 swynn: *appalled silence*

mentally beams comments at Apostate Heretical Earreader WynnThat yahoo Krause must be working for the publishers because I hear sales are up! Heartening to me to learn that Murruhkunz will say "oh YEAH?!" even to the goofballs who represent their worst selves once in a while.

>172 richardderus: I'm very happy to hear that. I expected that the news would generate a surge in sales for high-profile titles, like Maus and The Bluest Eye, but that the unintentional marketing wouldn't trickle down to less-recognized titles. Good for everybody! And I intend to do my small part.

Julia and I are just sorting our reading order out: are you up for Fer-de-Lance this month, or would you rather put it off until next? Or until April, depending on how Centennial goes!? :D

>171 swynn:

{*disgusted eye-roll*}

>174 lyzard: With one week left, it'd be a push to finish this month, but I'll follow the crowd. I expect it to move quickly, and I do have all weekend ...

>175 swynn:

Okay, this month it is. Thanks!

Oh, the lovely things one discovers while browsing academic journals:

Jean Farago. “Travelling Optimally across Asimov’s The Caves of Steel.” European Journal of Physics 40, no. 6 (November 2019)
doi:10.1088/1361-6404/ab26cb

Abstract: In his famous novel The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov imagined a public
transportation system based on a series of parallel moving walkways accelerating
pedestrians progressively toward a high-speed central lane which
continuously carries the crowds of the gigantic cities of our future Earth. In
this paper, it is shown that the user of this system would face an interesting
optimization problem, namely the design of the path which would minimize
the travel time from one place to another. This problem is solved with the
classical techniques of Lagrangian mechanics.

>176 lyzard: I'm bumping it up!

>177 swynn: ...
...
...
...well...
...
...whatever works, I guess.

>179 richardderus: Niche audience, maybe. (Well, by "maybe" I mean probably apparently okay, obviously.) But any paragraph that begins with the phrase "famous novel The Caves of Steel" will provoke a smile from me. That it ends with "classical techniques of Lagrangian mechanics" is sheer delight.

26) These Toxic Things by Rachel Howzell Hall
Date: 2021

Not an audiobook, but a "Prime First Reads" pick from last year that also made PW's list of best mysteries & thrillers of 2021. It's about a creator of digital scrapbooks whose client dies, leaving our protagonist to finish the job in an increasingly tense environment with intrigue of several sorts and increasing peril, while she also juggles a love triangle and secrets from her own past. The story logic is a little stretchy for me, but that comes with the genre, I suppose: given a high tolerance for coincidence and unlikely motivations it delivers what one reads thrillers for.

>181 swynn: I read that last year and was as underwhelmed as it sounds like you were.

>180 swynn: mmm

Lovely-jubbly indeed.

>164 swynn: Hi swynn. I started Checkmate in Berlin this week. I'm in the Malta introduction. Interesting behind the scenes of the conference. Stalin seemed the online in good health or a sound mind. Kidding, a little. A lot of oppulence, which I guess is to be expected of the victors dividing the spoils. Keep you posted.
I didn't read your spoiler, so I'm not sure if it is true spoiler or not.

Have a good one!

>183 brodiew2: Wasn't that enlightening? I've been aware of the Yalta Conference since high school History classes. but have never imagined what it must have been like: the remote resort town, the opulence demanded by a meeting of three heads of state trying to impress each other, and the very different personalities of those three leaders. Stalin definitely makes an impression as the only one in total command of himself & the situation.

I'm making slow progress, but hope to finish by this weekend. I look forward to your thoughts.

>146 swynn: I just realised, the last time I did the 75 Books challenge, which was back in 2012, you were working your way through all the DAW titles, and in order I think. Have you managed to collect them all yet? How many are there, and how many do you have?

>185 feca67: Hi feca! I'm still plugging away at them, though probably at a rate slower than new ones are being published, which means that between the DAW and Perry Rhodan projects, I'll finish sometime after I die. I'm not sure what the latest number is, but Nnedi Okorafor's Noor is number 1897, so there have to be at least 1,900 now. I'm on number 208, John Brunner's Interstellar Empire so there's plenty of reading still ahead.

>183 brodiew2: The Yalta conference was a landmark in international diplomacy with the Big Three true figures of consequence. Flash forward 75 years and Putin, Biden and Johnson meet. Oh my God! Sleepy Joe in cognitive decline, Boris never cognitively sound anyway and that fox Putin. Russia would get the better of any conference.

>186 swynn: Ah, I didn't realise DAW titles were still being published, still, reading over two hundred is an achievement for sure. By co-incidence, an uncle gave me a big set of Perry Rhodan books back in the 80's, but I didn't take to them so I passed them on, there were quite a few I seem to remember, maybe about 50 at a guess. I know they were really popular back in the 60s but I'd completely forgotten about them until you reminded me.

>187 PaulCranswick: I'm not sure that the FDR of Yalta would compare especially favorably with Biden. FDR was a giant, and it's hard for me to imagine him as anything less, but at Yalta he was suffering from congestive heart failure, high blood pressure, and brain hemorrhages. How much that illness affected his performance is, I understand, something that historians delight in arguing. I am no historian, but it seems plausible to me that it affected him seriously, which is the scenario that Milton presents.

>188 feca67: Ace published 137(!) Perry Rhodans back in the day, but the German series still appears weekly and is now up to episode 3,158. I'm on episode 177 and falling farther behind -- but having fun with it.

>189 swynn: Point taken Steve, my comment probably more a statement of increasing alarm at the bungling of the current administration. The world is decidedly less safe in the last year with him as POTUS than it has been at any time since probably the early sixties. Putin has been the leader of Russia for 22 years and is not a suddenly changed beast. Bush, Obama and Trump did not lead to even the sniff of war with Russia - even though he did annex Crimea during Obama's term. Putin understands weakness - he didn't see it in Bush, Obama or Trump but it is manifest right now.

>191 PaulCranswick: I'm no student of geopolitical 5-dimensional chess, but I'm skeptical that Putin's relationship to Trump was based on fear. Not on Putin's part, anyway. Especially considering Trump's reaction to what Putin's done so far -- "Genius!" "We should do that!" -- what, was Putin afraid that if he invaded Ukraine under Trump's watch then he might die of embarassment from Trump's excessive PDA? No, the explanation I find most plausible is that Putin was using Trump to destabilize European alliances, and now that it looks like Biden might reverse Trump's efforts (plausibly: Biden's team might reverse Trump's efforts while Biden stays out of their way), Putin is moving before the opportunities for his ambition narrow.

>192 swynn: Plausible analysis too, Stephen. I would question what exactly Biden has done to reform Europe's alliances though especially given the very negative reaction to his botched Afghanistan withdrawal in most of Europe which talked of forming alliances without him and has seen Macron go to Moscow to play politician instead of the US and the anger in France at the deal he cut with the British and Australian's over their submarines.

I am no fan of Trump and his twitter Presidency did much harm to the standing of your country internationally but replacing him with someone so sadly unfit for office any longer has not been the antidote to the excesses of the preceding four years that many of us hoped for.

>193 PaulCranswick: Good points also, and my sense of the Biden administration's work to repair Trump's sabotage of U.S.-European relations may be overly optimistic, and improvements so far may have more to do with tone than substance. Still, there's not nothing: for example Biden's decision to maintain American forces in Germany, reversing Trump's order to withdraw --surely a signal of U.S. recommitment to mutual defense?

>194 swynn: I do think Stephen that one of the very few things Trump did articulate reasonably well was the need for the other NATO participants to pay their way. It is inequitable that the USA is expending its vast resources to protect Germany against Russia whilst Germany's own contribution is negligible and in fact they are instead paying huge sums to enrich Putin by buying his gas supplies.

Biden had less qualms about Germany buying their gas from Russia which is why he removed the Nordstream 2 pipeline sanctions and why he has shorn his domestic oil & gas companies. It was part of his show and tell green agenda to report ecological measures on the home front by pushing the problem instead to elsewhere with a nett zero reduction. I agree that the Biden administration has done much more in the way of bi-lateral and multi-lateral diplomacy than Trump ever considered but I have grave concerns about the abilities of the key actors they have overseeing that diplomacy. Blinken has zero gravitas and looks entirely wimpish, Harris is so far out of her depth she cannot see the surface, the National Security Advisor is besmirched by his actions for the Clinton campaign and Biden is clearly and I have to say from a human point of view very sadly in cognitive decline. If you see pictures of or watch footage of Biden, say six years ago and then look at him now, it is a piteous thing.

I have a far more natural affinity for those of the left and remain part of the British Labour Party so I take very little comfort in my concerns.

>164 swynn: Hello swynn. I am deeper into the unfun part of Russian troops taking of Berlin. It was already a disaster area and the Russian troops came in a made it a deeper ring of hell.

I am looking forward to how the Allies will thwart the Soviet's desire to control Berlin entirely.

It has also been interesting reading your discussion with Paul. Enlightening analysis.

>195 PaulCranswick: I'm encouraged by the messaging currently being issued about sanctions. Worried that it won't survive any rise in fuel prices. And enraged that some voices with very large platforms seem to be promoting Putin over basic human decency. We'll see.

>196 brodiew2: Me too. I've known for most of my life the general story of the division of Germany & Berlin, the deteriorating relations, the building of the wall, the airlift, the decades of a divided city. But Milton is breathing life into the story, and I am here for it.

I should add that I'm appreciating the discussion too: I confess that my impression has been that the Biden administration has largely been addressing the Russia/Ukraine situation as well as it could. But Paul's prodding had me looking this afternoon for more careful analysis. With the conclusion that, yeah, we've mishandled Russia over several administrations despite warnings. (Hello, twenty-twenty hindsight.) I found Alexander Vindman's piece in the Atlantic an especially enlightening summary.

Obviously, I'm the opposite of an authority on this, and right now appreciate references to readings that others have found especially enlighting.

Also obviously (I hope). ... goddamn.

Know what scares me leaky? Not Little Vladdy Pu-Pu and his reabsorption of Ukraine, inevitable since he took Crimea away in 2014. He'll treat 'em nice enough.

It's what Xi is gonna do to Taiwan this year, and Hong Kong here shortly. Hey, if no one's doing anything about the Sudetenland, I mean Ukraine!, then Hellfire, let's us grab Manchuria, I mean Taiwan...and gotta get Shanghai (oh heck I mean Hong Kong) sorted, too much goes through it to just let it dingle-dangle.

I agree guys it has been an enlightening discussion for me too.

>199 richardderus: You are right RD that the absorption of Crimea passed the Obama administration by somewhat in 2014 and his then National Security Advisor was on TV yesterday admitting that in retrospect that their response had been too weak.

The whole Trump/Russia stuff was an unhelpful distraction from bi-lateral relations and, though it does now appear to have been largely concocted by the Hilary campaign, it did compromise the last administration in dealing with Putin. Steve's earlier comment about Putin gloating while the West pulled itself apart over the collusion stuff and Trump's upsetting of his coalition of rivals with a call for them to pay their share. He was right but he shouldn't have been saying it quite so openly.

RD is also spot on that the bigger fear is what happens next. Does he turn against Poland? I think it unlikely. Does this trigger China to go take Taiwan? More probable. Does it trigger North Korea to flex its muscles against South Korea? Maybe. What will Iran do?

>199 richardderus: Agreed. It's also my understanding that China is in a much more stable economic position than Russia, from which it can more easily laugh off sanctions, probably with less pushback from Europe.

Not that the economic instability of a nuclear power is an ingredient for pleasant dreams.

I do want to push back on the characterization of the "whole Trump/Russia stuff" as "largely concocted by the Hillary campaign." It's pretty clear that Clinton exploited the available data, but it was not invented out of whole cloth. It's well-established (by Senate intelligence reports for example) that Russia interfered on Trump's behalf in both the 2016 and 2020 campaigns. To what extent they interfered is ambiguous, and whether they worked directly with the Trump campaign is debatable. The evidence of direct collaboration is circumstantial, but not -- or not entirely -- "concocted" by the Clinton campaign. Exploited yes -- she'd have been a fool not to exploit it, just as Trump exploited far less plausible rumors and prejudices about Clinton (Satanic cannibalistic pedophiles, anyone?)

Personally, I wish she'd challenged the results in some states in 2016. But those were different times.

>201 swynn: Not quite sure, Steve, that it can be said that she merely "exploited the available data"; the Durham investigation has revealed that her campaign paid a tech-company to "infiltrate" his home, office and indeed the executive office of the POTUS after his election. Sussman her campaign lawyer has been indicted for lying to the FBI about the fabricated Steel dossier. It is a bit more than exploiting available data.

It could well have been that Putin felt that Trump was a better fit for him than Clinton but the fact is that Russia and the US have been interfering with each other across the ether almost as soon as computers were born.

I certainly don't want to be an apologist for Trump, Steve, as I cannot abide the man - I only wish that the Dems had put up a better candidate in 2016 or that the one they did put up had not taken her eye off the ball so badly in the days leading up to the election and avoided campaigning in Wisconsin for example. I think she would have been a terrible President but she would have still been better than Trump.

Certainly Trump supporters should be very careful levelling accusations against the Clintons for sexual mores. It would appear that he spent as much time in the company of Jeffrey Epstein as Bill Clinton did.

>202 PaulCranswick: I'm taking the Durham investigation with a grain of salt.

Sussman has not been charged with lying about the Steele dossier. He has been charged with lying about whether he represented any particular client when he turned over data documenting (what he regarded as) suspicious connections between the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank. Durhams indictment says a lot more about a much larger conspiracy but so far, Sussman has actually been charged only with saying he wasn't representing any client in the meeting, when in fact he was -- and in fact he charged his time to the Clinton campaign.

There's a lot of back-and-forth on matters I'm no expert on. IIRC, Sussman maintains that he wasn't representing anyone in particular and the fact that he billed the Clinton campaign for the time he spent talking to the FBI is misleading because legal billing doesn't always mean what it seems to mean, which I find hard to believe except that ... well, *lawyers*, so maybe ...

But the data Sussman gave the FBI is accurate. Nobody disputes this. It turned out to have a more likely and less nefarious interpretation than collusion with a foreign government -- and the FBI would have figured that out sooner if Sussman had been up front about his client. Or so goes the argument.

It seems an awfully weak hook to hang a conspiracy on.

Maybe Durham has more coming and maybe I'm naive, but so far it feels to me like a big pile of nothing much. We'll see.

For those tired of my underinformed takes on public issues and apropos of nothing: Buddy and I went for a walk last night and met a fox.

It was dark. Snowing. Buddy spotted a something in the road. He gave alarm, and instead of running away the something ran *toward* us. And damn, it was a fox. We have sometimes seen foxes on our walks, but always from far away, and they always jet into the bushes before we can come near.

Not this fox.

For the next fifteen minutes, the fox followed us on our walk, just out of reach of the leash. Buddy was barking like mad, and the fox jumped a little closer, jumped farther away, jumped close again, sat on his haunches like a cat who knows the dog can't reach them, and when we walked on he followed us to play the game again.

Like he was just sitting in the cold dark snowy street waiting for someone to come make noise at him.

Anyway, this was one of my favorite moments in a long time and I'm just sharing with anyone who will listen.

>204 swynn: That is so cool, Steve. All my encounters with foxes have been of the kind you would expect. I would have probably had to go home and change my underwear had I met such an emboldened one.

For what it is worth, I think that your posts have shown you to be anything but underinformed.

>204 swynn: >205 PaulCranswick: Very cool, indeed. Don't see a fox every day, much less have them follow you around.

>204 swynn: Sounds like a wonderful encounter, Steve.
My guess it was a young one, that found out a nice game to play :-)

>204 swynn: Ha! I *love* that story!

Excellent story, Steve.

>205 PaulCranswick: On the matters I've recently expressed opinions about, my confidence that I'm correct is around 60 percent.

Except for the fox. Man, that happened one hundred per, and I will not forget it soon.

>206 brodiew2: Right? Just a sighting is something special, but this was something else.

>207 FAMeulstee: My one worry is that it was a young one, and without a healthy fear of people and dogs it won't grow old. But that thought can't spoil the moment.

>208 scaifea: Thanks Amber!

>209 MickyFine: Thanks Micky!

27) Checkmate in Berlin by Giles Milton
Date: 2021

Giles Milton presents a popular history of Berlin, from the end of World War II through the Soviet blockade. It follows the city's administrative division under the Allies, the personalities involved, and the always-tense and ultimately impossible relationship between the Soviet Union and the Western Allies. And the ending is the terrific story of the Berlin Airlift -- something I've always thought of as a feel-good story, and I love that Milton shows how those good feelings are built on engineering and logistical challenges whose solutions were amazing and all-but-impossible. This is a good one, the absorbing kind of popular narrative history I enjoy from writers like Candice Millard and Erik Larson. It's also unexpectedly timely, with its themes of Cold War, disinformation, brinksmanship, and the founding motivations of NATO. If it doesn't give you chills about contemporary parallels then you aren't paying attention. Recommended.

>211 swynn: I though Holt gave me a DRC of that! Apparently not...so onto ye olde librarye liste. We're really looking at the second cold war's opening salvos. It's so disheartening, isn't it?

I hope you can get it it. It's just really well told.

It so feels like we just stepped off this tightrope, and here we are again ...

>213 swynn: Katie said, recently, that when we were younger there was some silly idea about The End of History being bruited about...what seems actually to have happened is that we hit the Loop function.

28) Something Wicked by Carolyn Hart
Date: 1988

Third in Hart's "Death on Demand" series, featuring South Carolina bookstore-owner Annie Laurence. In this one, Annie joins the cast of an amateur production of "Arsenic and Old Lace." The production is plagued by increasingly morbid pranks, until the show's headliner, an aging Hollywood hunk slumming it in summer stock, is murdered and Annie's fiance is the prime suspect. The series's sense of humor is welcome, as are its frequent literary references; but its pacing and tone feel erratic to me, and some of the events and characters are just too melodramatic: the investigating detective is excessively obtuse, the fiance's lawyer is excessively slimy, Annie's future mother-in-law is excessively excessive. Worst, there is a subplot that has not aged well: we are presented with a sexual relationship between a high school student and teacher where the teacher is presented as the victim.

This one won the inaugural Agatha Award, and I get the appeal of the literary references and in-jokes. I think though that the series is not for me.

>214 richardderus: Oh hooray because it wasn't sufficiently destructive the first time ...

29) Wholehearted Librarianship by Michael Stephens
Date: 2019

This collects posts from the author's blog, mostly focusing on change (especially technological change) in libraries. The subtitle "finding hope, inspiration, and balance" suggested something a little different to me, and this collection felt more like professional-development conversations than inspirational heart-of-the-profession conversations. Still, there are some interesting thoughts here about trends and librarians' need to adjust with them; for library students and early professionals there is pretty good advice for professional development and attending conferences. I expect it will appeal mostly librarians and library students.

>217 swynn: Interesting! It seems to me, as an outsider, that librarianhood comes at the public in two main streams: organizing collecting hoarders, and proselytizing sharing explainers. The two aren't always met in the same person. That rare soul is, to me, the Platonic ideal of a librarian.

Roughly, that's not far off: we have technical services librarians and public services librarians, and stereotypes about either one. Of course, reality is richer: many of the organizing collecting sort are hoarders, but many are much more selective for example. (I remember being surprised in my Archives classes how much effort in that corner of our discipline is spent throwing things away -- the right things, of course.)

>219 swynn: I hyperventilate when I hear librarians talk about throwing stuff away. Look at Nineveh! Chucked the lot out, dupes and drafts and superannuated stuff; now it's all we have left!

::fantods::

>221 swynn: I'm a hoarder, so I sympathize. With archives, though, the considerations are: (1) records management issues, where records disposition policies ensure that sensitive information is kept exactly as long as needed/mandated and no longer. A big part of it is legal CYA, of course, but there are are also concerns relating to privacy and in some cases security -- IP security in corporate cases, national security in government cases, and CYA security in all cases; and of course (2) space issues: you have x linear feet of shelving, it's already full, and HR is looking to cannibalize space for a Wellness Room. What do you *really* need to keep?

Don't like it, but it's a job needs doing, and some of my colleagues are really good at it.

>221 swynn: some of my colleagues are really good at it

...and I have little voodoo dollies aaalll ready for their knees, wrists, and elbows...no throwin' away whatcha can't carry...

>211 swynn: >212 richardderus: >213 swynn: Hello Steve. I'm slow going in Berlin but not for lack of interest. I've gotten through the Soviet ooting of the museums and citizenry, which is so disheartening , and the rounding up of the scientists. I completely agree that this is a well told story.

>222 richardderus: Yeah, I'm one who agonizes about withdrawing the fourth edition of a book when the fifth becomes available. Not cut out for that, temperamentally.

>223 brodiew2: That's some really disturbing stuff, even considering that the Berliners were Germans, and German forces had committed similar atrocities. And Milton points out that, as an urban center, Berlin was not exactly a center of Nazi support during Hitler's rise to power, robbing us even of whatever weak rationalization "Well they were Nazis, so" might provide.

30) Fer-de-lance by Rex Stout
Date: 1934

The first entry in Stout's long running "Nero Wolfe" series involves a university president who drops dead on the golf course, apparently the victim of an ingenious poisoning plot.

The Nero Wolfe series was one of my father's favorites (somewhere far behind the Perry Mason series, but still), and I've long thought I should read a few. Liz (lyzard) and Julia (rosalita) have started reading them from the beginning, and I thought I'd join in for at least few. I enjoyed the character dynamic between Wolfe and his assistant Archie Goodwin, which was more barbed than I'd imagined. I also liked the punchy prose, which contrary to my expectations owes more to hardboiled mysteries than cozies. Looking forward to more.

>220 richardderus: I've too often had the experience of a book becoming unrenewable (too many renewals) while I or my housemate still wants it; once we return it, we try to check it out again on our next visit, only to find it's been de-accessioned.

>226 ArlieS: This makes me a complete crazy person. WHY THROW IT AWAY WHEN SOMEONE JUST CHECKED IT OUT?!?!?

>225 swynn: I read the first dozen or so back in the 70s but just forgot about them for ages. One or another of my sisters is fond of them but even that failed to draw me in.

>226 ArlieS:
>227 richardderus:
I assume they have reasons for their deselection policies, but they certainly don't match ours; I'm currently working on a list for deselection, where we're looking at things that (1) have been in the collection for at least 20 years, and (2) have not been checked out in the last 20 years; and I'm asking the collection's primary user community for reasons to keep them. (Which I'll do, cheerfully.)

I agree that what Arlie experienced is frustrating.

Interesting hearing about different library's weeding processes. I go through our adult fiction collection with a list of books that haven't gone out in 2 years, but I'll also keep them on the shelves for various reasons (part of a series, classic, or even "oooh, I bet this will go out if I put it on display, let's try it!"). I can afford to be pretty ruthless because our interlibrary loan system is really robust - we're in a consortium with 160+ libraries, and have options for going further for hard to find titles. Unless a book was in rough shape, I wouldn't delete something right after it came back, and even in that case I'd probably repurchase it if I could.

>229 bell7: We're an academic library with a small popular literature collection for leisure reading. We are a little ruthless with trimming the pop-lit collection, but even in that case we'll keep things that are circulating actively: we move them to our general collection, where circ activity almost invariably falls off a cliff. But in the general collection we tend to keep titles for a long time and withdraw only reluctantly.

Alas, stacks space is finite, and the options to fill it unbounded.

31) Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender
Date: 2020

It's a YA romance narrated by a trans boy dealing with his identity, bullying, abandonment issues, academic pressure, and falling in love. When an anonymous bully stages an unauthorized exhibition of Felix's pre-transition photos, using his deadname, Felix feels he knows who is behind the attack: Declan, who has been inexplicably hostile to Felix and Felix's bff Ezra for years. Felix plans to avenge himself by pretending to be an admirer of Declan's on social media. Plan is, to learn an embarrassing secret to use in a revenge prank. But it does not go as expected: Declan was not behind the gallery stunt, and as they exchange messages Felix develops feelings.

This isn't my usual thing -- the angst, the drama, the Feelings -- but I did appreciate the perspective.

This is another from the Matt Krause list, so yay Kacen Callender for making it real enough that the morals thugs want it suppressed.

It's also an ear-read, FWIW.

I am now plugging away at Centennial, so it might be awhile ...

>232 swynn:

Ha! - so am I, and just wanted to check if the 4+ rating challenge suited you?

ETA: Hmm. Looking closer, it seems to be the only option we have, so there's that. :D

>233 lyzard: Works for me.

(Status: p. 246 of 909)

>234 swynn:

280 of 1068. :D

We're having shocking storms here, one consequence of which is long wakeful hours spent reading. Yay, I guess?

>231 swynn: I really wanted to like that one, but the angst was just too much for me. *shrug*

>235 lyzard: Well, if one's eyes must be open ....

>236 scaifea: Yeah, it was ... very YA in parts. I'm glad I finished it, though.

**RUNNING POST**

Miles last two weeks: 6
Total miles: 111
Longest run: 3 miles
Fastest mile: 9:10

Soundtrack: Tausend Mann und ein Befehl by OOMPH!
BPM: 123

Embarrassing, but here it is. It's been a tepid couple of weeks, running-wise, which I'm blaming on erratic weather and road conditions, horror at world developments, and miscellaneous life events that combined for a lack of motivation and loss of momentum. Future weeks will be better, I hope, on all accounts.

I think it's a repeat, but the tune running through my head more than any other has been OOMPH!'s 2019 antiwar song, "Tausend Mann und ein Befehl," so that's this week's pick.

Status on Centennial: p. 456 of 909

I first read Centennial back when the television miniseries was aired. Checking Wikipedia, I see that this was in late 1978, so I probably would have read it late 1978/early 1979. (Holy cow, 10-year-old me, you sure you're ready for that?)

Anyway, a life of reading gives me a head full of images, some of them disturbing, and some floating there so long that I have forgotten where they came from. It was a deeply weird sense of recognition to find that a few of those disturbing images were born while reading the "Massacre" chapter of Centennial.

And my parents were worried about monster movies.

>239 swynn: My mother's most astute comment about nightmares was in 1973, when I was seeing Shoah in our Social Studies/World History class and reading Blatty's famous book: "the Holocaust *should* give you nightmares, it was real, but this stupid stuff (The Exorcist) isn't worth the trouble."

>240 richardderus: In this case I agree with your mother. There are things in our history that should give us nightmares, and the genocide of Native Americans ranks among them.

Hello Steve. I'm about halfway through Checkmate in Berlin. Churchill just made his 'Iron Curtain' speech and the Soviets manipulated the combination of the Democratic and Socialist parties in their Sector. The Soviet spy ring in Canada was exposed by the defector. The memorandum about the deviousness of the Soviets has gotten traction.

The narrative struggled to keep my interest for a couple of chapters, but the tension is rising again. I'll keep you posted.

>242 brodiew2: Sorry that was kind of a slump. Maybe the narrative seems to lose its way when the focus moves outside Berlin? For me, those chapters were very enlightening in terms of outlining the breakdown in Soviet-Western relations after the War. I hadn't realized that there was so much desire to pretend that Soviet foreign policy wasn't as awful as it was. I think you'll find it keeps picking up, and the Berlin Airlift chapter really sticks the landing.

32) Rudder Grange by Frank R. Stockton
Date: 1879)

The narrator and his wife, authors of a book on economically purchasing and furnishing a house, discover that they cannot afford to purchase and furnish house based on their own advice. They go looking for alternatives -- and buy a canal boat for a home. Misunderstandings, mishaps, and not-especially-perilous adventures ensue. It's light and good-natured, and made me laugh.

"Oh!" cried Euphemia, looking out of a back window. "What a lovely little iron balcony! Do you sit out there on warm evenings?"

"That's a fire-escape," said the ex-boarder. "We don't go out there unless it is very hot indeed, on account of the house being on fire. You see there is a little door in the floor of the balcony and an iron ladder leading to the balcony beneath, and so on down to the first story."

"An you have to creep through that hole and go down that dreadful steep ladder every time there is a fire?" said Euphemia.

"Well, I guess we would never go down but once," he answered.

"No indeed," said Euphemia, "you'd fall down and break your neck the first time," and she turned away from the window with a very grave expression on her face.

33) DAW #208: Interstellar Empire by John Brunner
Date: 1976; selections originally published 1953-1965

This is a collection of three stories set in a far future interstellar empire where the empire's spaceships are scavenged from the relics of a vanished civilization. The stories are okay, but don't feel like they were intentionally connected before being collected in this volume. "The Altar on Asconel" is the best; the others are okay.

The Altar on Asconel Three sons of an emperor live in voluntary exile, leaving management to someone else. But then they hear reports that the empire's home planet has been taken over by a religious cult whose zombified followers lose all will to do anything but worship the new god. So they team up to investigate.

The Man from the Big Dark A unidentified ship lands in a busy spaceport, and the pilot disappears before authorities arrive. A search of the craft uncovers the body of a murdered woman. Meanwhile, the mysterious pilot goes on a mission of his own among local revolutionaries.

The Wanton of Argus When the emperor dies, the evil princess and her sorceror lover are poised to take over the throne ... until a woman claiming to be the long-lost true heir to the throne arrives unexpectedly, traveling on a ship returning from the edges of settled space.

34) Centennial by James Michener
Date: 1973

The bestselling book in the U.S. for 1974 was this, Michener's saga about the American West viewed through the lens of Colorado history. Since it's Michener, the historical drama begins with a narrative essay on origins of the state's geological features, then scenes in the lives of the dinosaurs, and so on. Eventually we follow stories about Arapaho warriors, European fur trappers and traders, settlers, soldiers, cowboys, ranchers, farmers, businesspeople, con artists, and so on. There are personal dramas, but those are almost beside the point, because for Michener the main character is history.

As I've mentioned above, I read this a long time ago and mostly just recall enjoying it. I'm happy to report that I enjoyed it again. The thing that strikes me most this time around is something I mentioned above: this book had a huge impact on me, larger than I realized before this rereading. In a post above, I mentioned recognizing pieces of my mental furniture in a chapter describing a massacre of Native Americans. This experience was repeated in later chapters: there are passages on dust storms that I could have sworn were from The Grapes of Wrath (and whose absence from that book puzzled me when I reread it for this challenge a few years ago). There is a passage about homesteading that I would have guessed came from a nonfiction book. But no: I got those images and events from Centennial. It turns out that Centennial is a sort of forgotten blueprint for the mental space where I think about the American West and westward expansion.

Which probably doesn't help you decide whether *you* want to read it. Well, here's the thing: it's a long damn book. It offers a series of episodes dramatizing various moments and themes in the history of the American West. Some of these episodes are better than others. Most are good enough to hold your attention, though most you're also likely to forget once the book is done. Still, the structure generating those stories -- Michener's historical research -- just might weasel its way into your consciousness and hang on even after the plots have gone to dust. If that appeals to you then, well, just be warned again: it's a long damn book.

>246 swynn: They want $12.99 for the Kindle edition! Shouldn't there be a logorrhea discount?

I'm glad it was a pleasant re-read. It would be a shame to go 127634564.75 pages thinking "o GAWD will this man *never* stuff a sock in it!" like reading, say, Chuckles the Dick.

>245 swynn: ...I wonder if I've ever even heard of those...no bells ringing...except now I think I know where the Foundation narrative conceit came from.

>246 swynn:

Well done! I expect to finish tonight.

Yeah, it's not that it's a hard read - that is, with regard to the style, not some of the material - just that there is SO DAMN MUCH OF IT.

>247 richardderus: It *was* a pleasant re-read, though it would have been pleasanter for it to go more quickly. OTOH, a shorter Centennial would not have made the same impression, I suspect; and the major takeaway from this reading is that the impression was stronger than I suspected.

Happily (or ... ?), my library has the television miniseries on DVD. We'll see what memories that evokes.

I'm not sure I follow your comment on Foundation, which preceded Interstellar Empire. The story goes that it was inspired by Gibbon, though I never read enough Gibbon to see the connection.

>248 lyzard: Yay for finishing big damn books!

>249 swynn: Oh no, not the stories, the Apphole TV series has three clone-brother siblings as Emperors. "The Altars" plot reminded me of the fact that no one really understands where the showrunners came up with the non-canonical character/s...and that's a possible source.

>251 richardderus: Oh, that makes sense. I've been aware of the television adaptation, but haven't watched it yet. I don't know whether I will.

I was talking to a colleague last week who noted that he finds sustained reading increasingly difficult, and attributes it to the attention-stealing design of online media consumption. Weirdly, I've recently noticed something like what he describes, but with screen media. Sustained print reading is still no problem for me -- I maintain an active practice regimen, one might say -- but I find it increasingly difficult to maintain attention for television and movies.

>252 swynn: I don't spend a lot of time watching an entire show anymore, at least not all at once. Only if I'm watching with Rob, and then it's interrupted by the conversation we have.

>252 swynn:

I suffer from that too, but I feel it has as much to do with a need to keep my hands busy as a lack of concentration. Reading occupies your hands, but watching doesn't; and it's so ingrained these days to either have your hands on the keyboard and mousepad, or on your phone, that just keeping them still while you focus on something becomes a challenge. I either end up snacking, which has problems of its own, or my fingers automatically start fiddling with the phone and that takes my focus off the program. I need to be completely mentally engaged by a movie or show not to do it.

A new interpretation of 'idle hands', I guess. I just wish I could knit like my mother used to do, without looking. :D

>253 richardderus:
>254 lyzard:

I think Liz may be onto something, for my case at least. Mostly when I watch television it's while grabbing a bite of something, or while doing something-or-other on my phone (after which I have decreasing awareness of the show.) Effect is that, like Richard, when I watch something it's usually over multiple sittings. For which, thank goodness for Netflix.

35) Jesus and John Wayne by Kristin Kobes Du Mez
Date: 2021

Why did white evangelicals, who have spent the last century or so calling for "moral" leaders and "family values," turn out in such high numbers for a vicious little crook like Donald Trump? Du Mez argues that white evangelicalism has a strong strain of patriarchal authoritarianism which valorizes brawlers and bullies. Hence, Trumpism.

I have mentioned occasionally that I was raised evangelical, and Du Mez's claims match my recollections about evangelical masculinity during the time I was involved. After I left the faith in the early 1990s, I mostly stopped paying attention. Still, most of my family remained evangelicals so I heard things, and the things I heard got steadily weirder into the 2000s. (Mixed martial arts for Jesus? Promise Keepers? Fox News as a spiritual resource? Mark Driscoll? Whatever, man. Donald Trump as national savior? Whoah, where'd that come from?) So one thing I found especially valuable was how Du Mez lays out the disturbing trajectory of gender discourse in evangelical churches after I stopped paying attention. It was a dot-connecting read for me. It's a little more polemical than I expected, but it's a polemic that matches my experience one hundred per cent.

A couple more personal notes:

To be clear, my own father was a gem. My parents framed their marriage as "male leadership," but they were best friends and they modeled collaborative decision-making, never mind the words they used to describe it. I do know how lucky I am.

In evangelical circles there has been something of a kerfuffle about this book, with author Du Mez accused of everything from false teaching to Satanism. Watching the fuss, I started following her on Twitter, and soon found myself in a brand new world of "deconstructing" evangelicals and "exvangelicals." I am delighted to see the support on social media for evangelicals pushing back against toxic elements of their faith and even for leaving the faith. I wish I'd had that kind of social support thirty years ago when I was sorting out my theology.

>256 swynn: I'm glad it exists now; I lament that it has taken so long to develop a proper head of steam.

>257 richardderus: It's social media. I hate Facebook and I mostly hate Twitter, but it's a fact that you can find kindred souls who would have been invisible to you pre-Internet. ('Course, Nazis can find their fellow-travelers too. It's a mixed blessing, but a blessing it can be.)

Rats. Heads up, everyone who might be thinking of reading Chester Williams's Kioga series. (Pause for the laughter to die down.) Book 1 is actually Book 2. Start with Hawk of the Wilderness.

>259 swynn: *reshuffles reading piles*

>255 swynn:

I think it's a muscle-memory thing. Our hands are so used to being occupied that when they're not, they get twitchy.

>256 swynn:

It must be terrible to be caught in the nexus between genuine faith and religion as a cover and excuse for toxic patriarchy. It's reassuring to hear there is some pushback from the inside. (Suffering from Trumpism here too, on a smaller but little less destructive scale.)

>258 swynn:

That was always my argument against the "the internet is desocialising" crowd: who in my real life do you think I talk to about the obscure and ridiculous stuff I'm interested in?

>259 swynn:

Aw, don't you hate it when that happens?? :D

>72 swynn: This is one that I've been wanting to read. I'm definitely finding a copy...

>256 swynn: I'm not plugged into evangelical circles. Worse perhaps, I'm the person their mothers warned them against (sic), violating many of their taboos in simply living my life. (Female with a career and no husband - the horror - as well as somewhat aggressively not Christian.)

The resulting conflict leaves me incapable of nuanced thinking about them, and sometimes about Christians in general. Mostly I just avoid them.

I'm wondering now whether it would be good for me to read this book, and perhaps develop a bit more nuance. But I'm afraid that I'd just manage to take in only what confirmed my existing prejudices.

And certainly "Evangelicals as patriarchal authoritarians" fits my overall impression, except I'd normally phrase it somewhat more rudely.

>252 swynn: I rarely watch movies anymore - to the tune of maybe 1 or 2 a year. My husband and I watch a single episode of something each day, but anything beyond 45 minutes of sitting and watching seems like too much. I never thought about it being a possible result of spending time online, but maybe.

>260 richardderus: Wow, that's a really tall pile Richard ....

>261 lyzard: It is tough, and my own experience was relatively benign. The most disturbing chapter in Du Mez's book (and apparently the one that attracts the most hate mail) is the final one, in which she recites a sobering series of cases of sexual harassment, abuse, and cover-ups in prominent evangelical churches. (It's not just the Catholic Church. It was never just the Catholic Church.) The thought of facing a crisis of faith at the same time as trauma and rejection by the community that ought to have your back, is heartbreaking.

>263 ArlieS: I'm guessing that it probably won't change your mind, though it could very well fill in some details. Mostly it's for people who remember the Moral Majority crying about public integrity and who wonder how we got to this religious enthusiasm for the current batch of unrepentant scoundrels. The answer, of course, is that it's not really about public integrity and never was.

>264 ursula: I had no idea how many others were experiencing this. I feel seen!