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| Puppy Clyde.... He's not that young now |
So let's move on to the topic for which I started this BLog. Books!
Just Finished
(I've finished six books since my last update. I don't know if I'll finish any more before the end of the month)
"I have previously enjoyed the Witch Boy trilogy by Molly Knox Ostertag. It was an enjoyable YA fantasy trilogy. So I figured that The Deep Dark would probably be a similar type story. I was wrong.
The Deep Dark is a more adult fantasy story although I think it could also be read by teens and Young adults, but it is a darker story indeed. Magdalena Herrera lives with her grandmother, her abuela, in a desert community in California. Grannie has cancer so Mags' life revolves around caring for her. There is a mystery to their lives. The story does move between the past and present as the story develops. What is the mystery? Something in the cellar.
Mags has a difficult relationship with one of the girls in school. Ava loves Mags but also has a boyfriend so their get togethers are necessarily clandestine. Mags has difficulty having a personal life because of her family issues. Compounding Mags' situation, an old friend, Nessa turns up for a visit. Mags hasn't seen her since a childhood incident. Nessa has now transitioned from a boy to a her / she.
So besides the personal issues in Mags' life, there is this mystery... what is in the basement? What happened to another youngster back when Mags and Nessa were kids? What killed Emil? Why does Mags go down into the cellar every night and why is her hand always bandaged?
It's a fascinating, twisty story filled with guilt, love, friendship. And when Nessa's ex-boyfriend, Aaron shows up, there are even more twists. Lots of surprises, great relationship development and interesting characters. And great artwork. All in all, an interesting graphic novel that will have you turning page to page to see what is going to happen next. I may have to check out The Girl from the Sea or Darkest Night. (4.0 stars)"
"Autocracy, Inc. by Anne Applebaum, a staff writer for The Atlantic is a short, succinct but powerful look at 'how autocracies work together to undermine the democratic world.'
Applebaum wastes no time getting into her premise. The cartoon image of an autocratic state is a country with a bad man at the top who controls law enforcement and the army. She explains that nowadays autocracies are not run by one bad guy but 'sophisticated networks relying on kleptocratic financial structures, a complex of security services and tech experts who provide surveillance, propaganda and disinformation.'
The autocrats network with other autocratic countries, doing business with one another. Countries like Russia and China are making deep inroads into Africa and South America, providing police assistance, weapons, disinformation systems, surveillance systems. A country like Mali is basically run by the Russian - financed Wagner group, which came in to provide security for a dictator president, then began killing opponents, taking over gold and diamond mines.
For its brevity, it's a powerful, scary book. Chapters dealing with 'controlling the narrative' talk about how Russia and China and others have begun to take over the 'airwaves' in many countries feeding Russia's disinformation and lies in their efforts to destroy democratic efforts in those countries, basically making democracy the enemy. Opposition leaders are discredited, terrorized along with their families, imprisoned. Countries like Russia do murder opponents but for some, murder just makes the opposition more powerful so it's better to just discredit and the other tactics mentioned previously.
Even international norms are being changed. Applebaum discusses how the international system began, and the creation of the Commission on Human Rights. 'All human beings are born free and equal.' It stated that 'everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person'. The autocracies are now working to remove this language from the documents. 'For China to attain the moral legitimacy, respect and recognition it needs for leadership of a new world order, it must remove the threat of Western universal human rights.' The words 'right to development' and 'sovereignty' are the new words. Of course this isn't limited to China, but all autocracies are using them to an extent. Russia's invasion of Ukraine is to extend 'sovereignty'.
It's all very scary and should be read. Does Anne Applebaum offer solutions. Stop isolationism. Networks must be forced to be transparent. It's a bit fuzzy. Suffice it to say, be so aware of the misinformation, the lies and be prepared to fight against it. I can't say I'm very good at presenting this. Read the book. (3.5 stars)"
"Ariel was written by Sylvia Plath just before her death in 1963. The collection was rated very highly by a number of art critics. There are a variety of themes laid out in this collection; her father (who died when Plath was 8 years old), bee keeping (her family kept bees when she was a child and she and her husband Ted Hughes also kept bees when they were in England) and others. My ability to grasp poetry is always suspect but there also appeared to be themes where she highlighted her previous suicide attempts.
I don't always 'get' poetry but whether her themes are dark or not, there is no denying Plath's beautiful use of words and her crafting of her individual poems.
For example, just look at the opening lines of the titled poem, Ariel -
"Stasis in darkness.
Then the substanceless blue
Pour of tor and distances.
God's lioness,
How one we grow, Pivot of heels and knees! - The furrow
Splits and passes, sister to
The brown ar
Of the neck I cannot catch, "
And the final poem, Words;
"Axes
After whose stroke the wood rings,
And the echoes!
Echoes travelling
Off from the centre like horses.
The sap
Wells like tears, like the
Water striving
To re-establish its mirror
Over the rock.
That drops and turns,
A white skull,
Eaten by weedy greens,
Years later I
Encounter them on the road -
Words dry and riderless,
The indefatigable, hoof-taps,
While
From the bottom of the pool, fixed stars
Govern a life."
There is a dark beauty to this collection. But don't trust my thoughts. Judge for yourself. (3.5 stars)"
"I'm really not sure how to rate Pavane by Keith Roberts. I have enjoyed alternative history stories in the past and that is where this fits in. Basically, the premise is that an assassin had killed Queen Elizabeth I back in 1588 and tries to imagine how the world changed.
The Catholic Church now rules supreme and England remains a Catholic country. The Church holds back science and you can see this in the level of technology that now exists. The story jumps to 1968. There are no telephones or telegraph. Instead the country, and in fact, the whole world, is dotted with semaphore towers and information is passed via the Guild of Signallers. There seem to be cars of sorts but freight is hauled more by large steam driven vehicles, as highlighted in the first story.
The book is more a collection of short stories, each featuring different (although there are links between the stories) characters; the freight hauler hoping to marry, a signaller who dies on his own, a mad monk, a princess who dares take on the might of the church.
The stories are very well - written and the era and people described in such a way as to draw you in. Some of the writing is almost poetic. The stories are all interesting. My favorite chapter deals with Lady Eleanor's fight against the Church. She is a wonderful, brave, intelligent character. But at the same time, a part of me just thought .... so what. As an alternative history, it's interesting. But, I repeat, so what. Was Roberts trying to make a point. I didn't get it. So, for the enjoyment of his writing style and the description of this alternate era, I think it was interesting. But it left me feeling kind of blah. Try it yourself. (3.0 stars)"
"East of West, Vol. 2: We Are All One is, of course, the 2nd volume of the East of West graphic novel series by Jonathan Hickman. It consists of Chapters 6 - 10 of the interesting story.
I'm still not sure I get what's going on but I have to admit I still find it very interesting. It's kind of a dystopic, fantasy, western as probably the most apt description. The US is divided into 7 states. The 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse make deals with the various leaders. Only Death is on his own, on a journey with two spirit friends to try and find his son.
It's a stark, dark, fascinating world with spirits, technological beings, etc. I repeat it's very hard to describe. It's drawn beautifully, fascinating creatures and people and even amazing landscapes. Who will save the world? Will anyone? I will definitely keep reading. 3.5 stars)"
"A Guest in the House is the latest graphic novel / horror story by Canadian graphic novelist Emily Carroll. They have written other stories, probably most notable, When I Arrived at the Castle, which I will now have to find.
A Guest in the House is a wonderful mix of stark black and white portraits intermingled with dramatic colored portions of the story. The story follows Abby, a grocery store clerk in small town Ontario who is newly married to the new town dentist David and his daughter Crystal. David's first wife died when they lived out on the West Coast. Abby is a quiet, somewhat insecure young lady, adjusting to this new life. She is generally happy but there are things going on under the surface in this new family.
As a child, Abby lived in a bit of a fantasy world, imagining herself as a gallant knight (these portions are wonderfully colored). In her current life, she begins to suspect or feel a presence in the house and starts seeing a ghostly presence; first as a drowned misshapen lady and then when she finds it too scary, as a beautiful woman. The presence indicates that she is David's first wife and we begin to start unravelling the mystery of her death.
Krystal also seems to see her mother's ghost. David refuses to let Krystal on the dock, demanding that she stay out of the water of the lake. Mind you, he does let her swim when they go camping (all of which Abby finds very strange). The story begins to get stranger. Who is the lady who says she's living in a house down the road with her family for the summer? Why does David keep the attic locked?
It's a confusing, intense at times, wonderfully drawn story. I have to say, I ended up confused by the ending, but how the tension ramps up to this final interaction is very well presented. A dark, creepy (especially for its apparent normalcy), building to quite scary story. I look forward to exploring Emily Carroll's work more. They have definitely whetted my appetite for her unique style of horror. (4.0 star)"
Currently Reading
"Murder on the Telly Lochdubh, a remote village reached only by a one-track lane, nestles serenely amid Scotland's hills...until well-known TV reporter Crystal French races into town in her bright BMW. And Constable Hamish Macbeth, dourly wed to duty instead of the fiancée who dumped him, promptly gives her a summons for reckless driving. Outraged, Crystal makes Macbeth's life a misery with a TV report on policing in the Highlands. When she also rakes up old local scandals for her new hit show, Macbeth notes that someone besides himself might be dead keen to stop her. Then someone does-with stealth and violence. Now, finding out who did it will lead the laconic Macbeth down roads he never envisioned, into a dark story of passion and vengeance...and perhaps a crisis of the heart all his own."
"They were disappearing, one at a time, in spite of the fact that in the crowded, hungry world of 2490 there was really nowhere worth going. Then they began to reappear, not in Moscow or Nairobi or LA--but in 1970, 1981, even the nostalgic days of the roaring 2100's. A way to the past had been found & people were flocking thru it for a better life--no matter what peril they might pose to the threatened present.
Earth in the late 25th Century is an unpleasant place for many. People are crowded into most available areas. Unemployment is rampant. A highly stratified society provides luxury & space for a few, while lower levels live crowded in tiny apartments. Into this situation comes a hope of escape–-escape into the past, before the world was crowded.The story follows several characters. 1st is Joe Quellen, a midlevel Secretariat of Crime bureaucrat with a secret African residence, reached by a private teleportation booth. He heads the investigation into unauthorized time travel. Another is Norman Pomrath, Joe's brother-in-law, an unemployed low-level worker. He swears he wouldn't abandon his wife & children if presented with a chance to become a hopper."
The world is nothing like it once was: climate disasters have wracked the continent, causing food shortages, ending industry, and leaving little behind. Then came Cad, mysterious mind-altering fungi that invade the bodies of the now scattered citizenry. Reid, a young woman who carries this parasite, has been given a chance to get away - to move to one of the last remnants of pre-disaster society - but she can't bring herself to abandon her mother and the community that relies on her.
When she's offered a coveted place on a dangerous and profitable mission, she jumps at the opportunity to set her family up for life, but how can Reid ask people to put their trust in her when she can't even trust her own mind?"
Sixteen-year-old Roz is preoccupied with normal teenage stuff: navigating high school friendships, worrying about college, and figuring out what to wear to prom. When her estranged Por Por abruptly arrives for a seemingly indefinite visit, the already delicate relationship between Roz and her mother is upended. With three generations under one roof, conflicts inevitably arise and long suppressed family secrets rise to the surface.
Told in alternating perspectives, Age 16 shifts seamlessly between time and place, exploring how this pivotal year in adolescence affects three women in the same family, from Guangdong in 1954 to Hong Kong in 1972, and Toronto in 2000.
Award-winning creator of Living with Viola Rosena Fung pulls from her own family history in her YA debut to give us an emotional and poignant story about how every generation is affected by those that came before and affect those that come after."
They killed my mother.
They took our magic.
They tried to bury us.
Now we rise.
ZĂ©lie Adebola remembers when the soil of OrĂŻsha hummed with magic. Burners ignited flames, Tiders beckoned waves, and ZĂ©lie’s Reaper mother summoned forth souls.
But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, maji were killed, leaving ZĂ©lie without a mother and her people without hope.
Now ZĂ©lie has one chance to bring back magic and strike against the monarchy. With the help of a rogue princess, ZĂ©lie must outwit and outrun the crown prince, who is hell-bent on eradicating magic for good.
Danger lurks in OrĂŻsha, where snow leoponaires prowl and vengeful spirits wait in the waters. Yet the greatest danger may be ZĂ©lie herself as she struggles to control her powers—and her growing feelings for an enemy."
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