Jo is having an afternoon nap. After her chemo session, she rarely sleeps the night after so she's trying to catch up this afternoon. I'm going to do a quick update while she's snoozing, then I might have one myself...
Newly Completed
"Cracking the Nazi Code: The Untold Story of Canada's Greatest Spy by Jason Bell is the true story of Canadian Winthrop Bell, a philosophy professor who also worked as a spy for the British between WWI & WWII and was one of the first people to crack the 'Nazi Code', who determined what Hitler actually wanted to do to create an Aryan state.
Bell went to Gottingen in 1911 to do his dissertation on phenomenology, a branch of philosophy. At that time, Germany was gearing up for WWI and when it started, Bell spent time in a prison camp with other foreign nationals. After the war, he became involved with British intelligence, helping both the Canadian and British representatives at the Peace conferences, try to decide what kind of reparations Germany should pay for starting the war and for its actions during the war.
During his travels throughout Germany and his contacts with leading German Liberal democratic leaders he could see the frustration growing amongst the common German people. They were starving, without jobs, being goaded by factions on both the Communist left and the fascist right, to blame the Allies for their troubles. Soldiers were being cashiered, and joining either side just to get a salary and be able to find food. Bell pressed this information on the Canadian delegation and the British delegation, advising that if they wanted to avoid a 2nd World War and a rise in the fascists, they needed to help the German economy; provide the German people with food to live, jobs to earn a living. It seems the French were very intransigent about this.. To be fair they had born the brunt of the war.
Bell researched the Fascist undercurrents, led by a German general Ludendorff, who was an antisemite and severe right wing leader. He and his allies wanted to create an Aryan state / empire and Bell could see this and wrote constantly both to the British press and to the British government spy service about it. He became a most reliable source of information and began to work for the British as a spy within Germany... (He was named A12)
It's a fascinating story, bridging the period between two wars. Bell was one of the first to see the Nazi Code; that the Nazis and Hitler, when he took over, had a plan to create this Aryan empire and anyone they deemed not to be Aryan (they didn't define it specifically) were to be brushed off the face of the Earth. The Jews were always a target but the plan included any nation that the Nazis took over as well, the Poles, the Ukrainians, the Czechs and eventually, when they took over the world, any non-Aryans in the Americas and Africa. It was a plan on such a scale that it was hard to accept by news organizations and politicians.
Bell risked his life and his health. He was an honorable, fascinating, unassuming man who was in the very thick of what was happening in those days. His work helped prevent a German & Russian joint take over of the Baltic States between the Wars. The author believes his information was probably influential in the creation of the Marshal Plan after World War II.
What I found scary about this story is how the rise of this fascist state in Germany seems to parallel much of what we see going on south of the border this past few years; the deportations of non-whites, the arming of ICE to make it larger than many armies, the growing antisemitism, the harassment of the press, the threats to other countries. As a Canadian in the small country (population - wise) to the North, I sometimes feel like Poland must have felt like on the border of Nazi Germany. I just hope that there are smart people out there nowadays who recognize the threat and don't just appease, but fight back. But that's for another discussion, I guess. Excellent book, well-written and fascinating look at an important part of our history. (4.0 stars)"
"In the past few years, I've read a couple of the works of Richard Matheson, The Incredible Shrinking Man and I Am Legend (a collection of his short stories) and enjoyed them both very much. I bought them because I liked the movies based on his books, or were the books based on movies? Not a matter. Anyway, I've seen various iterations of the Haunting of Hell House and when I discovered he'd also wrote Hell House and it being Hallowe'en month, I decided to give it a try.
Most of you know the story probably. Four people are invited to spend a week in an old mansion (Belasco House) that's become known as Hell House. There have been previous visits that have all resulted in tragedy for the visitors. This group includes a scientist in parapsychology Lionel Barrett, accompanied by his wife, Edith. There are two mediums, Florence Tanner, a mental medium, and Benjamin Franklin Fischer, a physical psychic, who had been the only survivor of the last visit, 40 years previously.
The group has been offered $100,000 by the owner, Mr. Deutsch, if they find the facts about Hell House.. .basically, if it's actually haunted or not. Deutsch's son doesn't want this to happen. He just wants to sell the house.
So off the 4 go to Hell House. Barrett is a bit at odds with the two psychics. He believes that if there is anything in the house it has to do with electro-magnetic conditions rather than haunting spirits and if he can prove it, he will put out a manuscript with his proof.
Things begin to happen pretty quickly. The story moves from individual to individual and explores what they are feeling. Something seems to be digging into their deepest fears, feelings, desires, doubts and enhancing them. The previous owner, Belasco, had turned the home into a den of inequity where his guests could indulge in any excess, physical, sexual. And the Florence immediately begins to feel the spirits surrounding her. Edith starts having strange desires.
When Florence is about to have a sitting to try and contact the spirits, Barrett insists she put on a special suit and Edith has to watch her, very embarassed, and at the same time feeling that someone is also with them, watching her reactions. Things like that happen constantly. Tables begin to be thrown about. The visitors are attacked. Fischer isn't as bothered as the others, but that is probably because he refuses to open up his senses. (I don't blame him).
Edith is particularly attacked, especially in a sexual way. She has a drink one night, finds a hollowed book with photographs of men and women engaged in sex acts. Her repressed nature begins to open up. She attacks Fischer, her husband (because of a childhood polio, he can't respond), even Florence. There are so many things going on that I hesitate to elaborate too much. Suffice it to say, it's a story with constant tension, that builds steadily.
The characters are fully developed; their personalities, their thoughts and beliefs, making the story rich in so many ways. Just an all out fascinating story that is also scary to boot. Excellent (4.5 stars)"
"The author of Coup de Grâce, Sofia Ajram provided the following Author's note at the beginning of the novel.
"Coup de Grace is a story primarily about depression and suicide. In dealing with these subjects, the book includes scenes with reference to suicidal ideation and depictions of self-harm.
If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, please reach out for support. Please do not struggle in silence."
With that caveat, the story is a suicide attempt by Vicken which degenerates into a terrifying journey through an ever-expanding subway station. Vicken's plan is to take the Montreal Metro to the end of the line and then to walk into the St. Lawrence River. But the plan changes totally. There is no end to the Metro. He spends days, maybe, wandering around an underground system that grows and grows. (Think of Mark Danielewski's House of Leaves. On his journey he meets one person, a young woman known only as Pashmina (for her scarf) and they wander together for a time period.
The story is about this journey, about Vicken's internalizations of his life, his desire to end it, his possible love for Felix. There is an interesting episode on an elevator where Vicken plays a game, that I gather is from a book called Dangerous Games to Play in the Dark, the game being 'The Elevator Game'... it's strange.
It is a fascinating story, not terrifying maybe but both creepy, a kind of psychological horror. The ending is especially interesting, as Vicken considers his options, involving the reader in his choices. It's not long, thoughtfully written and worth checking out. An excellent 1st novel. (4.0 stars)"
Just Started
"On a rainy night in postwar Berlin, British journalist John Terrant encounters Ellen Content, a young civilian typist in the American Army's office of information. Their romance quickly blossoms, but as soon as Terrant realizes that Content is a spy, she abruptly vanishes into the divided city's treacherous maze of ruined streets. Terrant's anguished inquiries receive only bland assurances from the authorities that Content will contact him when her job is finished.
Two years later, Terrant's compulsively close reading of newspapers uncovers his first clue since Content's her name appears in a list of passengers recently embarked on an ocean liner headed from London to New York. Within a few hours, the reporter is headed for the United States, despite dire warnings from the CIA and Scotland Yard to desist in his pursuit. After long months of inactivity, suddenly every minute counts as Terrant races to solve the mystery, find his lover, and avoid becoming the latest victim in a string of killings."
When the Guardian of the West Passage died in her bed, the women of Grey Tower fed her to the crows and went back to their chores. No successor was named as Guardian, no one took up the fallen blade; the West Passage went unguarded.
Now, snow blankets Grey in the height of summer. Rats erupt from beneath the earth, fleeing that which comes. Crops fail. Hunger looms. And none stand ready to face the Beast, stirring beneath the poisoned soil.
The fate of all who live in the palace hangs on narrow shoulders. The too-young Mother of Grey House sets out to fix the seasons. The unnamed apprentice of the deceased Grey Guardian goes to warn Black Tower. Both their paths cross the West Passage, the ancient byway of the Beast. On their journeys they will meet schoolteachers and beekeepers, miracles and monsters, and very, very big Ladies. None can say if they'll reach their destinations, but one thing is for sure: the world is about to change."
Harper Lee remains a landmark figure in the American canon – thanks to Scout, Jem, Atticus, and the other indelible characters in her Pulitzer-winning debut, To Kill a Mockingbird; as well as for the darker, late-’50s version of small-town Alabama that emerged in Go Set a Watchman, her only other novel, published in 2015 after its rediscovery. Less remembered, until now, however, is Harper Lee the dogged young writer, who crafted stories in hopes of magazine publication; Lee the lively New Yorker, Alabamian, and friend to Truman Capote; and the Lee who peppered the pages of McCall’s and Vogue with thoughtful essays in the latter part of the twentieth century.
The Land of Sweet Forever combines Lee’s early short fiction and later nonfiction in a volume offering an unprecedented look at the development of her inimitable voice. Covering territory from the Alabama schoolyards of Lee’s youth to the luncheonettes and movie houses of midcentury Manhattan, The Land of Sweet Forever invites still-vital conversations about politics, equality, travel, love, fiction, art, the American South, and what it means to lead an engaged and creative life.
This collection comes with an introduction by Casey Cep, Harper Lee’s appointed biographer, which provides illuminating background for our reading of these stories and connects them both to Lee’s life and to her two novels."
Gracetown, Florida
June 1950
Twelve-year-old Robbie Stephens, Jr., is sentenced to six months at the Gracetown School for Boys, a reformatory, for kicking the son of the largest landowner in town in defense of his older sister, Gloria. So begins Robbie’s journey further into the terrors of the Jim Crow South and the very real horror of the school they call The Reformatory.
Robbie has a talent for seeing ghosts, or haints. But what was once a comfort to him after the loss of his mother has become a window to the truth of what happens at the reformatory. Boys forced to work to remediate their so-called crimes have gone missing, but the haints Robbie sees hint at worse things. Through his friends Redbone and Blue, Robbie is learning not just the rules but how to survive. Meanwhile, Gloria is rallying every family member and connection in Florida to find a way to get Robbie out before it’s too late.
The Reformatory is a haunting work of historical fiction written as only American Book Award–winning author Tananarive Due could, by piecing together the life of the relative her family never spoke of and bringing his tragedy and those of so many others at the infamous Dozier School for Boys to the light in this riveting novel."
A demon. An angel. A city that burns at the heart of the world.
The demon Vitrine—immortal, powerful, and capricious—loves the dazzling city of Azril. She has mothered, married, and maddened the city and its people for generations, and built it into a place of joy and desire, revelry and riot.
And then the angels come, and the city falls.
Vitrine is left with nothing but memories and a book containing the names of those she has lost—and an angel, now bound by her mad, grief-stricken curse to haunt the city he burned.
She mourns her dead and rages against the angel she longs to destroy. Made to be each other’s devastation, angel and demon are destined for eternal battle. Instead, they find themselves locked in a devouring fascination that will change them both forever.
Together, they unearth the past of the lost city and begin to shape its future. But when war threatens Azril and everything they have built, Vitrine and her angel must decide whether they will let the city fall again.
The City in Glass is both a brilliantly constructed history and an epic love story, of death and resurrection, memory and transformation, redemption and desire strong enough to burn a world to ashes and build it anew."
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