Fall is here?

My errands are completed and I should really mow the lawn... But.. well, let's do some book updating instead.

Completed

(Two books completed since my last update)

1. Shout Kill Revel by Jarret Hartnell (2024).

"How to describe Shout Kill Revel by Canadian artist Jarret Hartnell? In some ways it reminds me of the Monstress graphic novel series by Marjorie Liu, in that Helmina also has some 'creature / spirit' within her trying to take her over to achieve its own ends. It kind of reminds me of Brzrkr by Keanu Reeves and finally a bit like East of West by Jonathan Hickman, because, hey, it's a western of sorts.

Shout is a combination of horror, fantasy and western. A group of beings the Undrowned have taken over the 'world' and have a plan to bring the Flood. Everyone lives in fear of them. Helmina wanders alone, having inherited her father's hat and along with that, the creature that lives within. The Undrowned seem to want her to help achieve their final aims. (It's kind of confusing). Helmina is fighting for control of the being and just wants to be left alone.

But the people believe only she can save them from the Undrowned. Oh, Helmina's brother Batiste seems to be held in thrall by the Undrowned. So that's the basic premise as I understand it. The story moves along at breakneck pace, with wild psychedelic drawings, especially when this internal creature is trying to take over Helmina. Interspersed with this is the story of the past, beautifully drawn and colored which tries to explain how Helmina became who she is and what's happened to her family. 

It's a fantasy / western on steroids, action, fights, killing and just strange and also wonderful. It's Hartnell's debut graphic novel and I wonder what he'll do next? Will we see more of Helmina? (3.5 stars)"

2. Linghun by Ai Jiang (2023).

"Linghun is a novella, along with a couple of short stories and one essay, by Canadian author, Ai Jiang. I was pleasantly surprised by it, such great writing.

In Linghun, Wenki and her mother and father move to the town of Home. Normally when a home is vacant in this town (or more just a street I guess), there is an auction so the Lingerers (more on them later, if I remember) can try to buy one. In Wenki's case, they bought the house from cousins who moved out.

So the reason people move to Home is to try to make contact with the spirits of dead family members. In Wenki's case, it is her older brother who died when Wenki was just a youngster. Wenki's mother is desperate to find Tianqi and basically ignores Wenki and her sympathetic husband. Wenki must try to live a normalish life by going to school, which basically lives in the past and the last class of the day is a round table where the children tell of the success or lack thereof in seeing their dead kin.

The story is told between three characters, Wenki of course. There is Liam, a fellow student, a Lingerer. So, Lingerers are families who move to Home but can't afford a home and basically live in the yards of those who have homes, hoping to acquire a home through the auction. (Think of The Lottery, but darker, when you think of the auction process) The third character is Mrs., an older mysterious woman who lives across the street from Wenki.

It's a strange story as these varied people try to find ways to see their dead kin, some successfully, some not. Wenki and Liam basically want to leave, try to get back to a normal existence. Will they be able to? The discussion of death, coping / or not, living for the present or the past and making it such a fascinating story, a page turner, impressed me deeply. Ai Jiang elaborates on her thoughts on this matter in a follow-on essay and then also provides to short stories; Yongshi and Teeter - Totter just for additional enjoyment. Beautiful writing, dark setting, super story / stories. (4.5 stars)"

Currently Reading

(Two books sent to me from the authors)

1. How America Works and Why It Doesn't: A Brief Guide to the US Political System by William Cooper (2024). Interesting so far.

"Twenty-first-century America isn’t working the way it’s supposed to. This book explains why.

Americans in the twenty-first century are becoming increasingly untethered from both reality and the essential principles and traditions that have shaped the nation’s historic success. A big part of why America isn’t working is because far too many Americans neither know nor care how it’s supposed to work.

Cooper explains key aspects of recent US political history to give the background to recent, dangerous developments, including how political groups have reshaped since the 1964 Civil Rights Act; the rise of Newt Gingrich and the Tea Party; the profound impact of the internet and social media; and the threats posed to the electoral system by the growth of extreme polarization and growing irrationality.

Cooper shows how these recent developments have their roots in the deeper past, with the establishment of the political system in the first place and all the knocks and tweaks to it along the way. He also reveals how, as a result of increasing politicization, the US Supreme Court is now exacerbating polarization instead of acting as an effective check on executive power."

2. Odd Jobs: Six Files from the Department of Inhuman Resources edited by TJ Price (2024). Sent to me for a review by one of the authors, Ai Jiang.

"They don't want you to read this.

This manuscript—leaked to the public by the (former) director of the Department of Inhuman Resources, TJ Price—comprises six accounts about the Company from award-winning and noteworthy authors:

AI JIANG details a terrifyingly plausible ordeal in a near-future where every day is slick with oil (read this one so far. Neat)
IVY GRIMES tells the tale of one promotion-obsessed worker in a very strange bookstore (half way through this one)
ERIK McHATTON delves into corporate horror to find the cosmic menace lurking in the sub-basement of an office
CARSON WINTER relates a hellish onboarding experience with a body-disposal company in the aftermath of quarantine
CHRISTI NOGLE recounts how an English professor is drawn into the investigation of a strange disappearance
CALEB STEPHENS connects technological terror with the banality of human evil in a suspiciously familiar big-box electronics store

Accompanied by facsimiles of HR documents from each case, this anthology aims to open your eyes to the nefarious doings of the Company, for whom you may already be working—even if you aren’t aware of it. Consider this a new handbook to the working world, and follow its warnings carefully, else you might be caught unprepared when called to that mysterious office on the top floor…"

New Books

(I've been checking out books from a variety of sites; an Ursula K. Le Guin annual Sci Fi award site & a CBC site recommending books to read in the summer of 2024. Yes, I'm behind with that. 😏😐😒)

1. Speaks the Nightbird by Robert McCammon (Matthew Corbett #1 / 2002). I enjoyed Boy's Life very much.

"The Carolinas, 1699: The citizens of Fount Royal believe a witch has cursed their town with inexplicable tragedies, and they demand that beautiful widow Rachel Howarth be tried and executed for witchcraft. Presiding over the trial is traveling magistrate Isaac Woodward, aided by his astute young clerk, Matthew Corbett. Believing in Rachel's innocence, Matthew will soon confront the true evil at work in Fount Royal.

After hearing damning testimony, magistrate Woodward sentences the accused witch to death by burning. Desperate to exonerate the woman he has come to love, Matthew begins his own investigation among the townspeople. Piecing together the truth, he has no choice but to vanquish a force more malevolent than witchcraft in order to save his beloved Rachel and free Fount Royal from the menace claiming innocent lives."

2. The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War - 1890 - 1914 by Barbara Tuchman (1965). One of my favorite History books was Tuchman's The Guns of August. She is an expert on this era. I don't know why I never tried this book before.

"During the fateful quarter century leading up to World War I, the climax of a century of rapid, unprecedented change, a privileged few enjoyed Olympian luxury as the underclass was “heaving in its pain, its power, and its hate.” In The Proud Tower, Barbara W. Tuchman brings the era to vivid life: the decline of the Edwardian aristocracy; the Anarchists of Europe and America; Germany and its self-depicted hero, Richard Strauss; Diaghilev’s Russian ballet and Stravinsky’s music; the Dreyfus Affair; the Peace Conferences in The Hague; and the enthusiasm and tragedy of Socialism, epitomized by the assassination of Jean Jaurès on the night the Great War began and an epoch came to a close."

3. Steeple by John Allison (2020 / Steeple 1 - 5). I have read one other of Allison's graphic novels and enjoyed it very much. This looked kind of neat.

"A supernatural tale of friendship, the devil, and moral gray areas.

Two women with wildly different worldviews become unlikely friends as they navigate the supernatural happenings in a sleepy coastal parish--and soon find themselves forced to choose sides in the war between good and evil, facing demons, curses, and a miniature Rapture!"

4. The Downloaded by Robert J. Sawyer (2024).

"The new novel by Canada's top Science Fiction writer In 2059 two very different groups have their minds uploaded into a quantum computer in Waterloo, Ontario. One group consists of astronauts preparing for Earth's first interstellar voyage. The other? Convicted murderers, serving their sentences in a virtual-reality prison. But when disaster strikes, the astronauts and the prisoners must download back into physical reality and find a way to work together to save Earth from destruction. The Downloaded debuted in a six-month exclusive window as an Audible Original narrated by Academy Award-winner Brendan Fraser promoted by national TV and radio ad campaigns. This print edition is coming out immediately after Audible's exclusivity ends and is being supported by a six-city cross-Canada author book tour."

5. When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain by Nghi Vo (The Singing Hills Cycle #2 / 2020).

"The cleric Chih finds themself and their companions at the mercy of a band of fierce tigers who ache with hunger. To stay alive until the mammoths can save them, Chih must unwind the intricate, layered story of the tiger and her scholar lover—a woman of courage, intelligence, and beauty—and discover how truth can survive becoming history.

Nghi Vo returns to the empire of Ahn and The Singing Hills Cycle in this mesmerizing, lush standalone follow-up to The Empress of Salt and Fortune."

Women Whose Work I've Been Enjoying - Nicolle Wallace

Nicolle Wallace

Jo and I first became aware of Nicolle Wallace back with Donald Trump ran the first time for President.. Omigod! How long ago was that? It seems ages ago. Anyway, the US presidential election interested us and we subscribed to MSNBC and CNN. Nicolle Wallace hosted Deadline: White House and it was one of our favorite news shows. She still hosts it btw. At some point, I discovered that she had written 3 fiction books set in the White House and featuring the first woman president. Of course the subject matter was right up Wallace's area of expertise as she is a political animal and had served as George Bush's WH Communications Director. So the three stories explored the politics of Washington very nicely. They have a little bit of everything, romance, political intrigue and just entertaining fiction. I've enjoyed the 3 books.

1. Eighteen Acres (2010).

"I've been interested in checking out Nicolle Wallace's writing ever since I started watching her on MSNBC's Deadline Washington. My wife bought me the first book in her White House Series, Eighteen Acres: A Novel, for Xmas this year. Eighteen Acres stands for the plot of land that the White House occupies in Washington, DC

Eighteen Acres focuses on three women; the first woman President of the US, Charlotte Kramer, her Chief of Staff, Melanie Kingston and a reporter who is having an affair with Charlotte's husband, Dale Smith. Each chapter focuses alternatively on one of these characters.

We travel from events at the White House, to a trip by Charlotte and her Secretary of Defense Roger Taylor, as well as Dale Smith, along with the Press pool, to Afghanistan where elections are taking place and then for the last half of the book, on the campaign trail as Charlotte. is running for a second term in office along with her new Vice Presidential nominee, Tara Meyers.

It's a fascinating, well-crafted, concise story that Nicolle Wallace has presented. The story definitely focuses on the 3 main women, with subsidiary characters added to the mix to enrich the story. Melanie is an intelligent, hard-working, well-respected Chief of Staff who has worked for 3 different presidents in different roles. She has let her personal life slide as she focuses on serving the President and the country. Charlotte has also let her personal life be affected by her time in government, from Governor to President. Her husband, Peter, has become distant and now spends as much time as possible with Dale Smith. Dale, herself, is an ambitious reporter who is working to become one of the main network anchors.

While this might seem like just a normal romance story with many entanglements, actually, it offers an interesting insight into the running of the White House and the President's life. Oh to have a sensible, dedicated President like Charlotte Kramer! We have press intrigue; is the Pres having an affair? We have a trip to Afghanistan that turns tragic and has the potential to crash the Presidential ambitions of Charlotte. And the campaign is presented in a fascinating way, with friction between Melanie and the upcoming Vice President and many more things. All in all, it was an engrossing read and I'm looking d to checking out the 2nd book, It's Classified: A Novel. (4 stars)"

2. It's Classified (2011).

"It's Classified by Nicolle Wallace is the second book in her 18 Acres trilogy, about the first female president of the United States. (wouldn't that be nice!) Wallace is currently the anchor of MSNBC's Deadline: White House and previously was White House communications director under George W. Bush and also campaign advisor for John McCain during his run for President. So she brings a solid knowledge of the workings in Washington DC and in the White House specifically.

It's Classified focuses on 3 women President Charlotte Kramer (now in her 2nd term as President), Tara Meyers, her Democratic Vice President and Dale Smith, a reporter who was having an affair with Kramer's husband in the first book, now working as senior communications adviser to the V.P. This may seem strange but in fact Dale was recommended for the job by President Kramer.

In this second book, we watch the difficulties being experienced by Tara as the VP and gradually watch her spiraling out of control due to issues from her past life. We also experience matters that are currently occurring in the US political scene; a Special Counsel investigation, the possibility of impeachment of the President herself by Congress. 

It's an interesting story with a bit of everything for everybody; political intrigue, the running of the US administration, personal issues, romance, all of the good things in a political thriller. Nicolle Wallace continues to provide an excellent picture of a White House under stress and how the characters deal with it. I do enjoy the fact that the story also portrays powerful women in powerful positions and also doesn't shy away from showing their personal issues and weaknesses as well. You have a woman Secretary of Defense, women Secretary of State, all competent and skilled at their jobs. 

All in all, an enjoyable, fast paced, entertaining story. I look forward to getting the 3rd book in the series and seeing how Ms. Wallace resolves everything. (3 stars)"

3. Madam President (2015).

"Madam President is the 3rd and final book in the Eighteen Acres political trilogy by Nicolle Wallace. As in the other books the focus is on the 3 women who are the main characters; President Charlotte (now in her 2nd term), Melanie (previously Charlotte's Chief of Staff, now her Defense Secretary) and Dale (a WH reporter previously, who had had a relationship with Charlotte's husband, now her Press Secretary)

Madam President basically takes place over one day when America is hit by terrorist actions in cities across the US, bombings in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Miami and Washington DC. Charlotte is in the midst of giving a speech about Planned Parenthood when the first bombs explode. Dale is working out of the White House, coordinating a Day in the Life of the President and WH with a CBS crew lead by anchors, Lucy and Richard. Melanie has been in Iraq visiting troops and heading back to try and help Charlotte.

The story alternates between the 3, each chapter dealing with one or the other as they work on the crisis. It's a fascinating look at how a crisis is dealt with by the WH, the people involved, the relationships between the 3 main characters, their loved ones and the press. Of the characters, I continue to prefer Melanie, a level - headed, smart, quick decision maker. Melanie is now pregnant and trying to maintain contact with her husband, a WH reporter. Charlotte is still dealing with her tense relationship with her husband Peter and her children, plus with a possible leaker in the White House. Dale still reviews her feelings for Peter and a budding relationship with a WH adviser, Warren. 

The story is an excellent mix between personalities, crisis management and relationships. The story flows along at an excellent pace and keeps the tension ratcheted up throughout. Personally I find the relationship aspect tiresome at times, but that's just a personal preference, but they are critical to the way each of the main characters react to the crisis. All in all, it was an enjoyable trilogy and an excellent final book with a satisfying conclusion. (4 stars)"

These are the only books Nicolle Wallace has written. I hope she writes more as she has an excellent turn of phrase. Maybe after this upcoming election.