May Reading Summary

I easily made it through my usual 8 books by remaining authors in the Avon/Equinox project.  The only author I am really tired of is Piers Anthony.  I am going to finish reading the actual books of his I have in my possession, and not purchase any ones I don't have.  I hit some amazing stories this time around by the other writers, so here we go.

First came the next volume of the collected stories of Robert Silverberg, called The Palace At Midnight 1980-82.  Volume 5 of the collected stories contains 23 stories and an intro by the author.  Each individual story also has a short intro by the author.  Seven of the stories turned into top notch ones, with several others being excellent as well.  The best of the them was Homefaring, a novella; The Changeling, Jennifer's Lover, Thesme and Gayhrog (from a short story collection tied to the Majipoor series), The Pope of the Chimps, Gianni, and The Man Who Floated in Time.  Details of these and other stories and books mentioned here can be found at my Avon Equinox blog site.

So things got off to a roaring start.  Then came a novel by Piers Anthony.  The book likely sold well, due to a brilliant cover (which wins this month's Cover of the Month), and the name attached to the story.  It was called Mercycle, and must be avoided by readers at all cost.  If you want proof that just about anything will be published once an author's name is out there, look no further.  First written in 1971, the book was rejected by numerous publishers.  For once, Anthony agreed with them; it was his worst novel.  So he dusted it off, rewrote it, added 25,000 more words, and ended up with--a total mess that should not have been published.  Published in 1991, it is a crime against science fiction and fantasy.

Cover of the Month, by Barclay Shaw.  This colourful and intriguing cover hides a very bad novel. 

Mercifully, along cames Harry Harrison to the rescue.  King and Champion, from 1996, is the third and final book of the author's totally brilliant historical fantasy trilogy, The Hammer and the Cross.  By now it has gone beyond being a totally fantastic series of Vikings versus the English.  The action shifts to the Mediterranean Sea, and the action is almost nonstop.  We learn the real truths behind not only the Grail (which is not a cauldron after all), but what happened to Jesus once he was taken down from the cross (hint: he did not resurrect, because he never died).  This book is the best of the three, and the other two were fantastic to read!  Each book is very long, exceeding 500 pages, but they literally fly past.  Great story!!

Kenneth Bulmer's continuing seafaring adventure series was next.  While very short, these novels are great examples of the best king of pulp style writing.  Fox 3: Prize Money is among the best of Bulmer's writing.  He is not shy to show his great sense of humour, and the way Mr. Fox ends up at the end of the story is quite hilarious.  His prize money (loot from captured galleons) isn't quite what he expected.  He also manages to mostly save the British navy in each book, and not get any credit for it (he is not high born).  A fun series, but devastating at the same time.

Next came Iron Head, a collection of five stories by E C Tubb, another great writer of pulp SF.  The title story is the best of the bunch, detailing what it might be like to be the only non-telepath in a society of telepaths.  Would there be advantages to such a situation, or only condemnation and third class citizenship?  Mr. Tubb will be pleased to tell you all about it.

Jack Williamson was 91 when The Silicon Dagger was published. From 1999 comes this 334 page misnamed adventure thriller.  Any SF element does not become apparent until almost page 190.  Up till then it is a political thriller, with rednecks from Kentucky trying to take over the USA.  A better title would have been The Silicon Shell (as in domed city). The author has a lot to say about the information age and internet (which he calls infonet in the story), as well as freedom, overreach of government, racism, armed militias, and lots of other things that seem to be more current each and every day.  I liked the book up until the SF element makes a rude entrance.  Williamson was not around to see the thing on live TV as we did, when Trump and his supporters tried to take over the White House, claiming that they had not lost the election.  As ugly as that scene was, Williamson's is much uglier when one digs underneath just a little bit.  Try to imagine nearly every county in the US (thousands of them) suddenly deciding they wanted "freedom."  To call this book politically incorrect doesn't  go far enough; it is dangerously politically naive, despite several good points the book brings out.  Read it for yourself and decide.

Next to Harrison's volume, the best book of the month (and best book of many months) was Michael Moorcock's highly imaginative and very effective look at moments in history, called Breakfast In The Ruins, from 1971.  Forget the interludes between two gay men.  Forget the ridiculous "What Would You Do?" segments after each chapter.  Just read the main text, a group of very loosely related historical tales featuring the same character in each story, at a different age.  This is high octane writing at its finest, and the segments would make such a great series of short films.  My favourite one is longer than most of them, and involves Karl as a child getting unwittingly involved with Russians escaping the secret police in Russia, coming to 1905 London to start new lives, and still having to deal with them.  The story is devastating not just for what happens, but for the setting itself, and the people who are trapped by their poor paying jobs, working all hours of the day and into the night.  Each of the tales is a window into worlds that people don't often shine lights into.  They are parts of true history best forgotten, according to many.  But Moorcock gives us scenes of horror from many different countries and times, each one sacrificing a different version of Karl.  The stories don't really even have to be read in any particular order, if the linking story is ignored.  This book must be read.

Lastly came a novel by Malzberg, who hits the 3rd home run of the month (after Harrison and Moorcock), with his unforgettable Lady of a Thousand Sorrows, from 1977.  It is a fictional account of the inner life of Jackie Kennedy-Onassis, and is so brilliant and devastating that Istill can't believe that someone wrote this, and that I stumbled across it.  To a certain generation, the Kennedy assassination was the most traumatic event of our childhood, showing us for the first time that the world could change overnight, and not for the better.  Malzberg gets into  the head of a very private person.  She either would have died laughing if Jackie had read this story, or tried everything in her power to sue for damages.  This a story of stories, told by a master of being able to get inside the minds of warped people.

I began my project of reading the Avon/Equinox SF Rediscovery Series, and then expanded to reading the complete works of those 24 authors represented in the series, six years ago June 1st.  Since then I have read 684 books by those authors (all male, unfortunately).  In this year (#6), I read 102 books, mostly by the remaining 8 authors.  However, in addition I also read 46 books unrelated to my main reading project since last June.  These I call my off the shelf reads, as I try to clear a backlog of novels and non-fiction that have been accumulating on my shelves, awaiting their turn.  This month I managed to read 6 of those, though only one was truly off the shelf.

That one was called A Book of Five Rings, a translation of the famous strategy guide by Musashi.  He had a unique way of killing opponents that seems to have worked well for him, but his ability to communicate his methods to readers is woefully inadequate.  His aversion to schools of martial arts means that we can only try to guess at what he says most of the time.  Still, a lot of his words have been incorporated into these arts for a very long time, likely because they are common knowledge and logical in the first place.  As a person who has studied judo, karate, and iado, I can vouch for the benefit of schools and teachers.  Trying to learn these things from a book just doesn't work very well.  However, a person must also carve out some individuality within these teachings, as must a good piano student from their teacher.  Not a very helpful book, though it does contain several nuggets worth considering.

Next, I greedily read five books from different authors in my Kindle editions of Delphi Classics.  First came Basil, by Wilkie Collins, his first non-historical novel, published in 1852, with some corrections and a new introduction from 1862.  Ah, there is nothing quite like the fever pitch that can be reached in a true Victorian novel, and Basil does the job magnificently.  Consider poor Basil.  Younger son in an old and well established English family, he falls hopelessly in love at first sight with a beautiful young woman (a girl, actually) on an omnibus, a draper's daughter.  He marries her, but promises her father that the marriage will not be physically fulfilled for one year, when the girl will turn 18.  Everything must be kept top secret from his family, of course, as papa is completely intolerant of having anything to do with mere trades people.  The plot thickens as the emotionless, mysterious draper's business aid is seen to have almost total control over the young woman (Margaret).  The story becomes thick and involved, and of course the dreaded "brain fever" strikes our poor hero when he realizes he has been betrayed.  This being only Collins' second novel, by mid-19th C standards it's a pretty good story.  But the hero, Basil, is such a milquetoast that this reader wants to grab and shake him violently at several key moments in the plot, shouting "Do something, you incompetent fool!"

Next came the best book about late 19th C sea travel ever written, saddled with the most unfortunate title of Nigger of the Narcissus.  Joseph Conrad's 1898 novel also uses the "n...." word copiously in the story, thus dooming it from school reading lists, and probably many libraries, today.  While the story centres around Jimmy, a black East Indian sailor, it is mostly about shipboard life on a sea journey from Bombay to London.  Hell, thy name is shipboard life in 1898.  Things don't go too badly until the feared passing of the Cape of Good Hope, the southern tip of Africa.  This is still a very bad area in which to sail a ship.  The good ship Narcissus encounters a storm of storms, and its fate is narrated with such vivid and detailed descriptions that it will seem as if you, the reader, are on board the boat.  I have never read this Conrad novel before, no doubt put off by the title (which was changed for American publication at the time).  It turned into one of the best novels I have ever read, with drama, humour, insight, a fight against Nature to the death, and more demonstration of sea and ship knowledge than I have ever encountered.  Very highly recommended.  Readers will never think of the ocean in quite the same way after this book.

 After that came another tremendous highlight of my reading career, F Marion Crawford's first novel, Mr. Isasacs, from 1882.  Paul Griggs, an American, is in northern India, working for a newspaper (The Howler!).  He meets the most extraordinary man he has ever met, a Mr. Isaacs, who turns out to be Persian (Iranian), and a learned and very charismatic man.  They become fast friends, and when Mr. Isaac falls madly in love with an English girl, Griggs is there to help him out.  The story takes place after a disastrous encounter in Afghanistan with the British army, and the plot involves rescuing the Emir of Afghanistan from British custody.  However, the plot aside, what make this book so wonderful are the lengthy and varied philosophical discussions the two main characters have, at all hours of the day and night.  It is like an Indian version of My Dinner With Andre, only the discussions here are much more interesting, stretching from females, men, humanity, mysticism, through to the soul.  I found the book fascinating, despite the tiger hunt.

Next was Edgar Wallace's first great mystery novel, the one that nearly bankrupted him when he turned it into a contest to see if anyone could guess the solution to the word puzzle.  A Case For Angel, Esquire is from 1908, and is almost a direct rebuke of the Holmes and Watson stories.  Here we have a most competent and highly intelligent and well informed Scotland Yard detective on the trail of a group of bandits (they are almost comical, and remind me of the Beagle Boys from the Scrooge comics) trying to steal the inheritance of a young lady.  Wallace might be the most prolific author England ever produced, so I look forward to many more hours of fun and pleasure with his upcoming stories.  The lead character, detective Angel Esquire (his odd name is explained near the beginning) also featured in two short stories, which were included with the novel at this point.  "The Yellow Box" is an amusing tale, simply told and easily solved by the detective, reminds me of the first story in the successful African detective series by McCall Smith.  Much longer and more serious is "The Silver Charm," from 1910, which also has amusing aspects, telling a bit about the hero's time in west Africa, which leads to the solution to a mystery.  Several hundred short stories and novels await me.

Lastly came the 3rd Oz book by Frank L Baum, written at the request of children who sent him letters asking for more about Oz.  Ozma of Oz features Dorothy and all her original Oz friends, in addition to some new ones.  The wind up man Tiktok is introduced to readers, and Bill (Billian) the hen.  Dorothy's adventures take place mostly in another kingdom across the desert from Oz, but once her friends arrive to help free 11 captives of the Nome King, things seem as if they are back in a part of Oz.  The writing is truly delightful and fun for an adult to read, and the colour and black and white illustrations, beautifully rendered in my Kindle edition, add zest and energy to the story.

The original cover of the 3rd Oz book.

One of many colour illustrations from the novel, reproduced in my Kindle version from Delphi Classics.  Dorothy and Ozma bargain with the Nome King. 

And so begins a new year of reading within the Avon/Equinox authors, and a continuation in the pruning of my miscellaneous book shelf.  As promised near the end of the last blog entry, I am about to reveal a new reading project, that I will hopefully undertake in the near future.  Since the Avon/Equinox project was an entirely male author reading project, I am going to try and make some amends by embarking on an all female SF author reading project.  I will begin with the Hugo and Nebula winners, and possibly branch out from there.  I will likely bypass the fantasy winners (such as J K Rowling), and try to stick to SF authors.  More later as I develop a reading program.

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

Snake In The Grass

 Well, a snake skin in the garden, anyway.  Quite a large fox snake, as is likely, and probably catching as many mice as our cats used to do.  Yesterday was grass cutting day, the fourth one of the year.  Hopefully I didn't run over the snake out there.  It is humid and starting (today) to get warm, heading towards our second major heat event of the season.  As a result, the grass grows alarmingly fast. And thick.

Fox snake skin, from our front garden yesterday.

As I write this, about a thousand (no exaggeration) motorcycles (many of them very noisy) are passing by the Homestead, on an official "ride."  Likely for charity, but I am not a fan of noisy bikes.  Wouldn't it be nice if instead of riding around the county, polluting with noise and their dirty engines, they did a 5 km walk instead?  Not the biker way, I'm afraid.

I have just started reading my final book for May, and will soon be summing up for the month.  It's also the time for a yearly summing up, as my legendary Avon/Equinox project began six years ago on June 1st.  The reading blog should appear next here, at everyone's favourite blog.

In film news, Deb's festival weekend is underway.  Besides her two regular choices, she gets three additional films to screen for her audience (of two).  Or, as in the case this month, one very long film.  More on that one later.  The first of two films directed by women was called The Wonders, a truly strange Italian and German film from 2014.  A fierce man lords it over his all female family (wife and four daughters, the two youngest being virtually wild animals), as they are almost like slaves to his bee keeping business.  The 2nd oldest daughter is who the film is really about.  She is around 14, and beginning to realize the limitations of her life, and the fact that the family is destitute and in need of cash.  She enters the family into a contest, without her father's permission, one of those indescribable Italian TV events that is in search of some of the Wonders of rural Italy.  One industrious family will be chosen as the winner, and given a large cash prize.  It's a very good film, definitely recommended, with some funny scenes mixed in with all the drama (where the family sleeps at night, for example).

Leaving Criterion May 31st. 

Next up was a Brazilian film from 2015, directed by Anna Muylaert.  Called The Second Mother, it is about an older woman, the housekeeper for a wealthy Sao Paulo family in the leafy suburbs.  Her day to day existence, living with the family, is told in a detailed but not tedious fashion.  She is very close to the boy, whom she has raised and grown to love as a son.  The father is an effete artist, the mother is an "influencer", and the son is a student trying to get into college.  Val, the housekeeper, is perfectly played by Regina Case, who must have been a housekeeper in a previous life.  She is the star of the film, and she is in nearly every scene.  She has a teenage daughter, around 17 or 18, from whom she is estranged.  When the daughter comes to live with her, and realizes the subservient role she plays in life, she is morally outraged.  They quarrel often.  the movie could be classed as a comedy/drama, as Val's musings and daily trials are sometimes amusing.  Sometimes the viewer wants to punch the "influencer" in the head.  Again, a very good film and well worth watching.  Deb scores two points for her choices.

Showing on Criterion until May 31st. 

Returning to landscape (mostly) art from the DIA, Culebra Cut is a fine example of late American Impressionism.  From 1913 and painted by Jonas Lie, it is a stunning rendition of the building of the Panama Canal.  Sending a strong statement of humans overcoming natural obstacles, it is filled with both the power of humans and of nature.  As steam and smoke rise from the vast worksite, the perspective of distance makes those powerful steam engines seem small and insignificant compared to the vast walls of the hillsides, and the huge expanse of sky.  This is one of my favourite Impressionist paintings, American or French.

Culebra Cut, 1913.  Jonas Lie, American (1880-1940).  Oil on canvas, 50" x 60" unframed.  Collection Detroit Institute of Arts. 

Book summary for May coming soon, along with a major announcement of my next major reading project.  Stayed tuned to this blog.

Mapman Mike

 

Bunuel

Turning first to dental news (always popular with my readers), Deb has had a tooth bothering her for many months now, an upper rear molar.  It really began to make itself noticed last Friday.  It was a long weekend, so she had to suffer until Tuesday morning, when she was able to call for an appointment.  She got one for today--Thursday--at 3 pm.  She was back out at the car by 3:45 pm.  She has been referred to an oral surgeon, who will remove the tooth, someday soon she hopes.  Her consultation with that doctor is next Wednesday.  Our family dentist took some pressure off the upper tooth by filing down the lower one, which has helped considerably.  The area is infected, so she is on antibiotics for 9 days, 4x daily.  Except for the drugs, this is all out of pocket expense for us, as we have no dental plan.  It's been a weird month for unexpected expenses, including our faulty garage door spring.  Our eave troughs also were installed, to the tune of $2700.  I am paying a small fortune to have my book translated into French, and we are trying to enter Deb's newest film into a major festival each month.  On it goes.  Good thing we are extremely rich, on our half pensions.

It has been raining lately, and we got caught in a major downpour returning from Windsor this afternoon.  The Homestead grass is growing much faster than bamboo, and the humidity feels tropical.  Next comes the extreme heat, due to last for a while.

A group of high speed cyclists zooms past the Homestead.  I was sitting on our front steps awaiting a ship to pass by on the Detroit River.  As can be seen in the photo, once things are leafed out our view is somewhat obstructed.

The Federal Bering is one of five ships I watch constantly on my marine traffic website page.  Flagged from the Marshall Islands, this ocean going ship is an occasional visitor to the upper Great Lakes.  Making its first pass of the new season, it is heading for Windsor, where it will load up with salt.  It came most recently from northern Scotland, and I was able to follow its journey day by day.  It was last seen passing downstream on October 30th, 2021. 

Turning to film (next week I'll discuss books read), we have watched 3 good films since my last report.  First from Mexico came Danzon, a harmless and very charming film from 1991, by female director Maria Novarro.  It's about a woman who leaves her job and teenage daughter in Mexico City to search for her older male dancing partner, whom she believes might be in Vera Cruz.  There isn't very much plot, but the lead actress has great charisma and is a natural in front of the camera, making the film easy and fun to watch.  Recommended for fun and relaxing viewing.

Now showing on Criterion. 

I chose Viridiana, the 1961 film by Bunuel.  Filmed in Spain, it was never allowed to be screened there, after the church complained about it.  It won the main prize at Cannes, however, and today is regarded as his masterpiece.  There are 4 extras that come with it on Criterion, including an interview with the actress who played Viridiana, the virgin who inherits her uncle's estate (along with his son), and tries to convert a part of it to a place to house and feed the extremely poor.  The film is easy to watch, very funny in places, and totally devastating in others.  The uncle (played by Fernando Rey) dies early on by suicide, after attempting to seduce the extremely religious Viridiana, his niece.  She is expressionless and without much emotion throughout the film, seeing herself as a mother figure to the poor and downtrodden.  Rich with symbolism (The Last Supper) and filled with scenes that cannot be forgotten once seen, this b & w film still packs a punch over 60 years later.

Now showing on Criterion, in a pristine print. 

Lastly comes The Bandit, from 1946, from the same director that brought forth the 1949 Italian film The Mill on the Po.  This story takes place immediately after the war, when Italian prisoners are returning to their homes by train.  It is winter and very dismal.  Two army buddies bid adieu to one another.  One returns to his farm and his young daughter, but Ernesto is soon embroiled with a violent outlaw gang that robs and kills, just managing to stay one step ahead of the law.  This film is a classic sleeper, seen by hardly anyone but worth viewing both because of its fine story, and its stark view of post war Italy.  Starring Anna Magnani as a woman not to be crossed.

Showing on Criterion until May 31st. 

We've also being watching various lecture courses on Wondrium.  I am nearly done with the SF course, and we are about half way through the archeology of North America.  Deb is also watching a botany course.  And we are into the second season of Undone, showing on Amazon, an amazing animated fantasy series we started watching just before the pandemic struck.  Season 2 finally made it, and it's quite as good as the first season.

Now showing on Prime. 

Later.

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

 

Detroit Day #2

It rained.  Oh how it rained.  All day.  So our walk around downtown was postponed indefinitely.  My 2nd visit to Detroit since the start of the pandemic was with Jenn G, who hadn't been over yet since it all began.  She wanted to see the Artemisia exhibit at the DIA.  She drove from Cambridge that morning, picked me up at the house at 11, and we were off.  Deb is still unable to cross, or if she does she cannot enter her mom's LTC facility for 14 days afterwards.  We hope this rule changes soon.

After easily getting over the border with no wait time, we drove to Eastern Market.  I purchased coffee at Germack roasters, then we drove off to Hopcat, a craft ale hot spot in Midtown Detroit.  We each had three 5 oz glasses of different craft ales, then ordered their vegan tacos.  The beer and tacos were excellent.  We sat at the bar.  The place would usually have been very busy at lunchtime, but it was rather quiet today.  Many people continue to work from home, and street life has yet to really recover.

Next stop was the DIA.  Jenn went to see the main exhibit, whilst I wandered the quiet and darkened rooms of the Asian collection for an hour.  I also spent some time at a car design show in the modern galleries, and took in a bit of early Flemish art.  We were to meet afterwards in Rivera Court.  I had time to sit and look at the wonderful murals once again, and took a few photos.  The murals still appear as if they were just recently painted.  It is a very popular place at the museum, and seldom empty of admirers.

Rivera Court murals, Detroit Institute of Arts.

Mural detail.  Fritz Lang, anyone?

Detail of above.

One of the main panels, Diego Rivera mural in Detroit. 

Two concept cars from the auto design exhibit at the DIA. 

Henri Met de Bles, Detroit Institute of Arts.

Central panel of an early Italian tryptych.  I love the colours and patterns in these kinds of paintings.

Medieval Madonna and Child, evoking a sense of calm and sanity. 

We left the DIA hoping that the rain would stop and we could go downtown and walk...nope.  So it was off to another pub.  8 Degrees Plato is the perfect combination of tap room and beer and wine shop.  There are always about a dozen taps pouring strange and wonderful brews from around the world, and the shop can be browsed for an hour at least.  Again we had three short samples before deciding to pack it in and head for home.  Back in A'burg Jenn stayed for dinner before heading back towards home.  We hope to visit the art museum in Toledo next time.

In haircut news, we both got haircuts on Friday.  I am on FB with many former APS students.  Several of them cut hair.  But one of them now comes to your home to cut.  So on Friday afternoon Garnette came over to undertake badly needed services.  We haven't seen her since Gr. 8 graduation!  She has two daughters, and many nephews and nieces.  She did a fantastic job with both of us, and I suddenly feel civilized once again.

In garage door news, as we exited the house Tuesday evening for groceries, the large spring on the garage door broke.  Upon our return the door would not open.  Deb called Dorco (yup) Wednesday morning, and they came out Thursday morning.  It was repaired with a brand new spring, and now works better than when it was new.  The door will not open without that spring.  Weirdness.

Turning finally to film news, we have now watched six b & w movies in a row.  My niece, who turns 13 soon, will not watch anything in b & w.  She hates it.  Is that common today among youngsters?  What a loss for them if this is so.

The Mill on the Po is an Italian melodrama from 1949, directed by Alberto Lattuada.  It follows two families, one a farming one and the other one millers.  Farm boy loves miller girl, and they get caught up in a political and social upheaval, as a general strike is called to protest working conditions.  It is very well acted by the principals, including the belligerent, bellowing, bigger than life brother of the girl, who eventually causes the central tragedy of the film.  Quite good, with some excellent river and rural photography.

Showing on Criterion until May 31st.

Next came Fassbinder's 2nd last movie, Veronika Voss.  From 1982 it deals with the drug addition of a fading former movie star, and the corrupt medical profession and police that surround her and take advantage of her.  When she falls for a sports writer,  he gets dragged into a very sordid environment, losing his girlfriend and his sense of who he is.  Based loosely on a real German actress who died by suicide in the 1950s, it is a pretty good film, with some bizarre scenes and dialogue.

Now showing on Criterion.

Our last b & w film (ending our streak) was International House, starring W C Fields and a host of other entertainers, including Baby Rose Marie and Cab Calloway, whose band perform "Reefer Man".  The action takes place in Wu Hu, China.  I probably needn't say too much more.  Still, it is very funny and quite wild in places, and certainly worth watching.  Some fun musical numbers, and lots of pre code underwear on display.  Bela Lugosi has a fun role as a jealous Russian general.

Showing on Criterion until May 31st 

Mapman Mike

 

New Mexico Fires

I really dislike it when NM is in the news.  For one thing, the place is a secret, and I would like it kept from the masses at all costs.  Secondly, the old adage often holds true: no news is good news.  In this case, the news is bad.  Not a shooting on a movie set this time.  The drought in the Southwest USA is already legendary.  We have seen the results of previous devastating fires in New Mexico, wiping out huge areas we would have loved to have explored, or have already explored and loved.  The fire season used to be June and July, and that was bad enough.  But since April the fires have been non stop, and still growing.  Right now the largest fire in NM recorded history is still burning out of control, two fires joined into one, actually.  It's burning in areas we are very familiar with.  In fact, if you were passing on the Amtrak train or Interstate route from Colorado, you would be encountering smoke for about a hundred miles of travel.  It's very bad.  The winds are now blowing the fire directly into several of our most recent prime hiking areas in the Rocky Mtns.  All I can do is sit at home and let it burn.

The May issue of National Geographic Magazine (one of our few remaining subscriptions) is all about forests and trees.  It makes for fascinating and substantial reading, from old growth European Forests, Australian Forests, the Amazon, and North America.  There isn't much good news, especially in areas experiencing prolonged dry spells.  People who believe that we can simply plant 10 billion trees and everything will be alright again are in for a sad awakening.  I was one of those believers.  Periodic fires are generally good for forests and savannas.  They allow for regrowth, usually.  However, if the fire burns too hot, which it does during a drought due to the extreme dryness of the trees, the reproduction does not occur.  There is simply too much damage to the cones and seeds, and they can't sprout.  Also, if the fires happen too close together, the same thing happens, or rather, doesn't.  Fires are not only becoming larger and burning hotter, but they are becoming more frequent.  Even if the ground has been reseeded, a new fire can wipe them out.  And that is what is happening.  More fires, bigger fires, and hotter fires, due to drier trees and hotter climate.  Even worse, these hotter fires are releasing more captured carbon into the atmosphere, from the soil where it is stored.

There is no doubt that the Southwest US, including much of California, will soon lose their entire upper altitude evergreen forests, which has some of the most beautiful landscape the planet has to offer.  Of course the issue deals with more than just fire; trees are under tremendous stress today.  Insects, clear cutting, and diseases are claiming more trees each year than are regrown.  We are taking a net loss of trees each year.  A bit sobering.

Last night was lunar eclipse night. It was cloudy.  We got 1" of rain.  There was no eclipse for Essex County.  We had our party anyway.  We needed the rain (Laughs hysterically).  Our opera for this month was Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites a very fine musical setting of the murdering of the order of nuns by the Citizens during the French revolution Terror.  The ending is absolutely devastating, and done to perfection.

In movie news, I am pretty far behind on my reporting.  We had a run of pretty mediocre films, with one bright spot recently, thanks again to Steve Buscemi (and a few others).

Lone Wolf and Cub #4: Baby Cart in Peril, continues the massacre of bad guys in wide screen and blood gushing colour.  In #3 Lone Wolf killed around 200 bad guys.  He likely exceeded that in #4.  This one had a beautiful tattooed girl on Lone Wolf's assassin list.  She was out for revenge against the creep that raped her as a young girl.  She gets her revenge, and then Lone Wolf gets her.  And so the story goes.  New to this one, Lone Wolf gets really, really angry.  He is one guy you do not wish to anger; trust me.

Lone Wolf #4, showing on Criterion Channel. 

Jitterbugs is from 1943, and stars Laurel and Hardy.  While it isn't a laugh riot, and they are getting rather old, it has its moments of hilarity, and it was fun seeing the duo doing what they do best.  They are a two-man band that performs in small towns.  Their act is pretty good, too!  They fall under the spell of a man selling gasoline pills, which claim to turn water into gasoline.  They help out with the scam, not realizing it's a scam.  Definitely some choice moments, some involving coal shoveling, and others involving bed springs.  There are three unfortunate songs.  At least the movie is very short.

Showing on Criterion until May 31st/22 

Hot Saturday is from 1932, and stars Cary Grant and Randolph Scott, along with Nancy Carroll.  A young woman has to make some important choices in a hurry.  It costs her her job at the small town bank, but she finally makes a decision.  Only it turns out to be the wrong one.  Randolph Scott blows his big chance to win her.  She finally takes off with carefree Cary Grant, leaving her small minded small town friends behind her for good.  A fairly good story, with lots of pre code underwear and nighties in some scenes.  And a great house on a lake owned by Grant.

Leaving Criterion May 31st/22 

In The Soup is a 1992 film starring Steve Buscemi, Jennifer Beals, and a truly wonderful Seymour Cassel.  Buscemi lives in a slum apartment in New York, next door to waitress Beals, whom he loves.  He writes a 500 page movie script, then places it for sale in the want ads.  Cassel finds it, meets with Buscemi, tells him he will fund his film, and things begin to go off the rails from that moment on.  The film won the Grand Jury prize at Sundance.  A really fun film, and definitely the best of the bunch lately.  Recommended.  Buscemi plays it like always. Beals is pretty good, too.  But Cassel really steals the film, in a fantastic performance as the "producer."  There is a wonderful and funny duo cameo appearance by Jim Jarmusch and Carol Kane.

Showing on Criterion Channel. 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

No More Leaders

The world is leaderless, at a critical time in its history.  I can not think of a single major free country that has a political leader worth the title.  There is no one to take initiative, no one worth listening to, and certainly no one worth following.  As the world teeters towards total meltdown, there is simply no one to step up to the plate and take things in hand.  It has always been up to the US to take such a role, but it will never happen that way again in my lifetime.  That country, like many others, is simply too divided on too many issues.  And it is about to get much worse.  As our little county burns through 80 degree days in early May, as India endures an unendurable early May heat wave, as the glaciers recede at an ever faster rate, etc. etc., nothing really is being done.  People are flying everywhere again (or trying to), driving more and more miles by car (despite gas now being more than $2 dollars a litre in Canada), and consuming "things" at a rate that increases month after month.  There are solutions, but the majority of people are just trying to live day by day, trying to survive.  But we are not going to survive.  At least not those of us without billions of dollars to help us escape to somewhere as things continue to bottom out.  At least it is a very interesting time to live, not boring at all.  It's a bit like reading the last chapter of a very good series of books.  You know the end is coming, and you can do nothing to stop it, and you are saddened that you will not be able to "live" in that fictional world any longer, or see new events transpire.  I will now officially become a doomsayer:  The end is near, and it won't be pretty.

In happier news, the new James Webb Space Telescope is acing its tests, and will soon be revealing some very stunning discoveries and images.  Not only is it one of the largest and most sophisticated telescopes ever built, but it's in space!  No humid air to see through, no clouds, no sudden temperature changes.  And the Mars rovers are still going great guns, American and Chinese.

Continuing along happy news lines, today we finally made it to our May 1st forest and wildflower walk, a Beltane tradition for many years here at the Homestead.  We returned to a favourite woodland path not too far from us, discovering about a dozen wildflower species on our half hour stroll.  It was a day of hazy sunshine and very warm temps--we are currently in a mini heat wave here, day 2, and it will continue through Sunday.  Here are a few photos from today's walk at Maidstone Woods....

 

Landscape on a stump, with cliff.

 

Fungus.

 

It has been a very slow and wet Spring.  Things are still nearly two weeks behind.  the trail was muddy in spots, but there are a few long elevated boardwalks.

 

 

Wild violets.

Buttercups, Spring Beauties, and more Violets. 

 

There was a profusion of Jack-In-the-Pulpits, and wild Ginger had really spread since our last visit.  The only common flower that doesn't seem to be at this location is the Trillium, though it can be found in nearly every woodlot within a hundred miles of us.  So we had a fun outing.  We then drove to Kingsville, where we ate lunch at Lakeside Park.  After lunch I dropped Deb off to visit with her mom, then returned to the park to read for a few hours.  It was a spectacular day to be outdoors, doing outdoorsy stuff.

There are a few weird movies to report.  Sun Ra's Space Is The Place, from 1974, had Deb wondering several times what type of drugs he was using at the time.  This is a very strange and convoluted movie about coming to Earth and taking Black people away to a planet where they can live without white oppression.  His mystical powers can also take any whiteness away from a Black person, thus making them more fit to be one of the colonists of this new world.  There are some very funky cars, and a scene where Ra and a partner are dressed in full Egyptian regalia, riding in the back seat of a pink Cadillac El Dorado convertible, driving down a busy road as bystanders gawk at their passage.  Most of the film is quite dreary, and parts of the plot are totally ridiculous.  I'm sure it meant more at the time.  Today, it stands as a milestone of 70s weirdness.

Now showing on Criterion. 

Next came an nearly equally bizarre film starring W C Fields, the 1932 Million Dollar Legs.  Fields is the leader of a small country known for its goats and nuts.  Tying in to the 1932 LA Olympics, the plot features the unbeatable athletes from Fields' country, including his daughter, who is a swimmer and diver.  Faster moving than some of Fields' other films, this one also gets lots of laughs and is worth checking out.

Showing on Criterion until May 31st. 

Lastly, for this report, comes a film from Morocco called Adam, from 2019.  Technically a picture for women, I quite enjoyed it.  A young and very pregnant woman comes to the city looking for work.  She is alone.  Eventually a stern, older woman, a widow with a young daughter, takes her in and lets her help run her small bakery business.  The main characters are these two women, and how they slowly grow closer, but the young daughter steals many of the scenes that feature her.  Even the baby, Adam himself, steals a few scenes.  The film is slowly paced and very charming.  The young woman realizes that she has to give up the baby for adoption, since without a father his life growing up with her only will be a torment.  Recommended.

Now showing on Criterion. 

And finally in Homestead news, the first of three major outdoor projects has been completed.  We now have brand new and much more efficient eaves troughs!  Isn't that exciting? Thank you to Authentic Eavestroughs.  These ones have leaf guards on them, so the drains won't get clogged with debris.  If you are driving by, make sure you stop to look at them.  Two big projects remain; the cement stairs and veranda, and a very tall popular tree that needs cutting.  Stay tuned for further updates.

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

 

 

More Rain, More Movies

 It rained all day Thursday and much of Friday.  But the long range forecast says no more for a whole week.  We shall see.  The grass has not yet been cut, though I may try some tomorrow.  The grass is still squishy.  I managed another clear night on Wednesday, and I ended up at Hallam, the club observatory.  My friend Larry was also there.  I have not observed from there in a couple of years now, preferring to go 7 miles further east where the skies are noticeably better.  I hadn't seen Larry in a very long time, either, so it was great to talk with him (in the dark).

Last weekend and week was my bimonthly film festival.  I get to choose three extra films over my usual two per week.  For a long time now I have been concentrating on the Czech New Wave series from the 1960s that Criterion is featuring.  This month we finally saw the final two films in that experimental and quite fantastic series.

All My Good Countrymen is from 1970, and is a fairly devastating account of communism taking over well run privately owned farms, and turning traditional villages and village life into depressing, demoralizing undertakings.  Though nothing says it better than Orwell's Animal Farm, the Czech film seems to conjure up, in Deb's opinion, Eastern European folktales, as we follow the fate of seven or eight good friends before and during the advent of communism.   As one man says to one of the village directors, "You are just like the Nazis."  All in all it's a pretty impressive film.

Now showing on Criterion. 

Next was The Ear, a film about the paranoia of living in communist Czechoslovakia.  It focuses on a man and his wife as they go to a party, coming home afterwards and getting into a serious argument.  They begin to discover all the hidden microphones in their house, and their paranoia increases to a fever pitch.  It makes you wonder about all the yahoos (in Canada and elsewhere) who march for "freedom," not even knowing that the fact they can march for it means they already have it.  Trying to imagine how it would be to live in such an environment (currently Russia and Belarus, to take only two examples) is a pretty terrifying look into an alternate reality not many people would welcome.  And now in some of the US states, civilians can turn in their neighbours and friends for seeking out abortions.  Land of the free.  Anyway, this is a very taut and suspenseful film, with an ending that is both unexpected, and expected.

Now showing on Criterion. 

My 3rd festival choice was a very obscure silent film from 1928, by a virtually unknown Detroit black director, Richard Maurice.  Produced and largely filmed in Detroit, ELEVEN P.M. is "a surreal melodrama in which a poor violinist named Sundaisy (Maurice) tries to protect an orphaned girl (Wanda Maurice) from a small-time hoodlum. The story, which may or may not be a dream concocted by a struggling newspaperman, has one of the most bizarre endings in film history, when the spirit of the deceased Sundaisy possesses the body of a dog in order to take vengeance upon the crook."  One of the weirder films in the Criterion collection, I came across it in the catalogue just by chance.

Now showing on Criterion.

Now that the Czech New Wave collection has been viewed, I am moving on to something called Afro-Futurism, a collection of films that are part SF, part mystical musical, and part story of the Black experience on this planet.  Seems very promising, with lots of experimental things to watch.

Mapman Mike

 

 

One Great Film, Two Not So Great

We have been having tropical rain for a long time now, and it goes on and on.  The grass is growing but much too wet to put the tractor on it.  It's like a marsh.  Yesterday was an all day rain event, and more is coming tomorrow and Friday.  No baby birds yet, but they are expected any day now.  Lots of budding trees.  The furnace still comes on in the morning for a turn.

As I write this, I am also monitoring a 3D view of a flight from Paris approaching Detroit.  Two flights a day to the French capital, and when they depart they often fly right over our house, as do the Amsterdam flights and London and Frankfurt.  Because the winds are from the northeast today, landings and takeoffs are reversed, so I might see it on approach.  Right now the flight is just passing Toronto, and just about to begin its descent.  Fun to watch on Flight Radar, as are the ships that pass by.  Yesterday a 1,000' ship went upstream, the equivalent of seeing a 110 story building float by.  Very impressive on a rainy, foggy evening.  And today a very cute little Italian tanker went downstream.  Here is an internet photo of that one, looking very spic and span.  Well done, deckhands!

I watched this Italian tanker pass by this morning as I was on the treadmill. 

There is an impressive cruise ship now touring the Great Lakes.  I missed its upriver pass, on its way to Detroit, but I will try and catch it when it returns.  The excitement never stops around here.

In movie news, the best film we have seen in a long while, and certainly one of the most colourful, was Frida, from 2002.  It was showing on Roku, with commercials, but there were hardly any.  My only gripe is that they glossed over the couple's Detroit visit.  The art museum there has the only mural by Rivera in the US, though the film spends a lot of time with the New York mural, which was torn down before it was completed (the Chicago one was cancelled as a result).  But Detroit managed to hold on to its prize, even through some rough tides.  They spent time on Frida's miscarriage, which happened in Detroit, but the location is not mentioned.  This is one superb film, and one feisty woman.  Highly recommended, even for a 2nd viewing.

Now showing uncut on the Roku channel, with a few short commercial breaks. 

Carmen Jones, from 1954, stars an all black cast in an updated Americanized filming of Bizet's Carmen.  Starring Harry Belafonte and Dorothy Dandridge, most of the singing is dubbed.  The acting is good, and several of the ensemble numbers are outstanding, but, like the opera itself, there are long moments when the film lags and loses momentum.  Instead of a bull fighter we have a prize fighter, but most of the plot is intact.  A few non-Bizet numbers are truly bad (and a few of the Bizet ones, too).  Oscar Hammerstein arranged and wrote some of the music.  Pearl Bailey stars and sings a solo.  Some of this movie works, and some doesn't.  Dandridge makes a very fine Carmen.

No longer showing on Criterion. 

We interrupt this blog to bring you an announcement on the inbound flight to Detroit from Paris.  I just went to the front door and watched it fly past, across the river and heading south.  Usually I do not see the approach, but the wind has forced the flight to come around and approach the airport from the south.  Pretty cool!  That was the Delta flight.  The Air France one arrives later this afternoon.  End of bulletin.

The final movie today is Resnais' Last Year At Marienbad, a film that continues to polarize viewers and critics.  I found it very tedious, again since I really cared nothing about any of the three main characters in the film.  Who cares if the main couple met last year and had an affair.  Who cares if he is a ghost, or if she is imagining the whole thing.  She is empty of soul and emotion, he is empty, and the possible husband is empty.  The organ music is awful.  As if to make up for the emptiness of the characters in the movie, the palace/hotel is a pretty fine sight.  I liken the film to a bad Pepe Le Pew cartoon, with a man chasing a woman who always says no, and go away, and leave me alone, but he never does.  My advice is to avoid this film and go look at some fine de Chirico pictures instead.  End of rant.

Now showing on Criterion. 

Later.

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

April Books Read

As per usual, I read 8 books from the authors included in the Avon/Equinox SF Rediscovery Series.  By the end of this year that number should be down to six authors.  Usually I finish those books near mid-month, reserving the rest of the month for reading books by any and all authors with books on my miscellaneous shelf, or in my Kindle collection.  For now the first half of the month begins with a book by Robert Silverberg, and ends with one by Barry Malzberg.  Here we go....

Shadrach In The Furnace is from 1986, and is the last novel Silverberg wrote before his big burnout.  He would not have written this one, but his contract with a publisher meant he owed them one more novel.  After this he abstained from writing for several years, until out came Lord Valentine's Castle in 1980.  Shadrach concerns a black man with a Jewish name.  Shadrach Mordeci is an odd name for a non Jewish black American doctor, but don't worry, Silverberg does explain everything well later on.  He is physician to the current world leader, Genghis II Mao IV.  He is hooked into his elderly patient's vital signs, and keeps tabs on him 24/7.  When not having organ transplant surgery, Genghis II rules the world with an iron hand.  There is an antidote to the disease plaguing the planet, but Genghis is not sharing it except for his small circle of government employees.  As if that could ever happen (cough cough).  Much of the action is set in world headquarters in Ulan Bator (now called Ulaan Baatar), except when the doctor takes a round the world trip for his vacation.  Overall, this is a pretty solid read, another in the successful post-apocalyptic genre so common to SF writers.

Being A Green Mother is from 1987, and is Piers Anthony's 5th book in his Incarnations of Immortality series.  Had he written these books with a slightly more serious outlook, this could have become one of the greatest book series ever written.  As it is he only takes the books half seriously, and there is just too much to do with Satan and his doings, funny and clever as they are.  The books' plots become very convoluted after a time, with characters from other volumes popping in and out, and story lines that cross over from one book to the next.  The author plays around with Time a lot, too, causing great confusion for readers who do not wish to go back and read long passages from previous volumes.  All in all somewhat enjoyable as a series, but somehow missing much as a literary epic.  Anthony seems to have lost his writing soul somewhere along the way, in his method of writing so many words per day, perhaps, no matter what.

Speaking of Satan, Harry Harrison's next book in the very funny Rat series is called The Stainless Steel Rat Goes To Hell.  Reunited with his lovely but cold-bloodedly efficient wife Angelina, and their twin boys (whom Dad cannot tell apart), we get another rousing adventure, filled with much humour, a somewhat confusing plot (does Satan do this to all writers who try to put him on paper?), and plenty of action and adventure.  Not one of the best of the series, but a must for fans.  Published in 1996, this one also wins the cover of the month award.

Cover art of the month for April, by Walter Valez. 

 

The Press Gang is Kenneth Bulmer's 2nd book in his Fox series, about a lower class Londoner who joins the Royal Navy, sailing the high seas and fighting the French.  The book is brutal, and not light entertainment.  Press gangs were the most evil way Britain had to get badly needed  sailors onto ships.  There are sea battles aplenty, related to us as if the author had really been present during the battles.  Pain and suffering becomes completely normal, and death is sure and often sudden.  I would probably not be able to watch a filmed version of these books; there is more brutality per page than I can normally handle.  But there is excitement, and certainly plenty of truth, to the tale.  Looking forward to more in this series.

 

E C Tubb wrote in many genres besides SF, and I have yet to begin exploring those other worlds of his.  However, in 1955 he wrote Assignment New York, a non SF private eye crime novel.  As expected, Mike Lantry smokes too much, drinks too much, eats poorly, gets clobbered a lot, and shot at quite a bit, too.  All in a day's work.  Tubb only wrote one such crime mystery, and it's a shame, since he has the style down perfectly and has written a very fine novel.  It would also be a great Noir film.

From 1997 comes Jack Williamson's 352 page SF novel The Black Sun, about the final human seed ship to leave a troubled Earth, blasting off from White Sands, NM for its journey, hopefully to a habitable planet.  Mr. Williamson has some of the best plots and story lines in the entire genre, and this particular kind of story is one of my favourite to read.  Unfortunately, one of Jack's worst aspects as a writer pops up here again.  In a book that really doesn't need any, he has three of the worst kind of stereotypical villains involved in the story, something that came close to ruining to book for me.  Don't the poor colonists have enough to deal with without taking along Dr Smith from Lost in Space, and two others like him?  Several times I wanted to throw the paperback against the wall.  The word "sneer" seems to appear virtually every time one of these bad guys appears.  At least, unlike Dr. Smith, they all do get what's coming to them, eventually.  I'm pretty certain I could have kept the story interesting and on the same lines as the author, without these pulp era bad characters being involved.  Even with all its flaws, I still rated the book very highly.  The bad guys always get their comeuppance, at least. A wonderful imagination at work here.

Next came three novellas by Michael Moorcock, all about the adventures of Elric.  The best of the three is While The Gods Laugh,  from 1961.  This is a good adventure story, as Elric falls in with a strange and beautiful woman.  They go in search of a lost magic book, each hoping to have their main wish granted.  Elric wishes to find out if there is one god above all the others.  They gain another ally on their journey.  This is a story very much in the tradition of Conan, and is well told.  The other two are also quite good; The Dreaming City and The Singing Citadel, from 1967.

Lastly from my Avon/Equinox authors came Barry Malzberg's The Last Transaction, from 1977. 

It is about a former president dictating his memoirs.  William Eric Springer, born 1910, became President of the United States in 1980, at the age of 70.  He lost his bid for re-election in 1984.  At the age of 80, a very sick man, he began his memoirs, which are really a jumbled collection of half memories and half musings.  He has advanced arteriosclerosis, his blood pressure is through the roof, and his doctor is trying to keep him alive as long as possible.  But Springer is near the end, and becomes very paranoid.  Married twice, with one child, they all died before he did.  Written four years before Ronald Reagan became president, this has some uncanny resemblances to that man and his presidency.  Malzberg has given us a novel as strange as any he has ever conceived and written.  Besides the personal failures of his relationships with his two wives and son (he doesn't seem to have any friends whatsoever), he had one major controversy to deal with as president.  So much of the time here has him reflecting on the people he was close to, and to that one major event with which he had to deal as president.  A very engaging novel, I gave it a high rating.

Six miscellaneous books were read, one of them being very long and one of them very short.  The first book was the long one.  Joan Vinge's Catspaw has been sitting on my shelf a very long time.  It is a very well written cyber punk SF novel, well planned and well executed.  It reads like a good pulp novel, and especially at the beginning I felt as if I was reading a late SF novel by Kenneth Bulmer.  This epic would have been three Bulmer novels in his day.  The story begins with a very familiar SF trope, an innocent person being kidnapped by a special military force, as he is needed for a certain task and is thought to be the best person for the job.  So many Bulmer and Tubb novels use this sort of thing that I felt right at home already.  It turned into an excellent read, despite the fact that all the lead female characters are good people, and only some of the males are the bad guys.  But there are good male characters, too.  Another trope I find annoying from so many modern writers is that the main character has to be beaten to within an inch of his life before he can truly said to be finished with his adventure.  I've never seen this happen to a female main character, only male ones.  Anyway, the book is heartily recommended, and the (many) pages do fly past.

Next came three novels from incredible Delphi Classics Kindle collection, a resource I am coming to love more and more.  I passed on this series to my friend in Paris, a publisher, and he freaked out about it.  He publishes translations of older classics, including high fantasy (like Worm Ouroboros).  Anyway, I became with an early novel by Robert Chambers, made famous more by his ghost stories, especially "The King In Yellow," which was read and mentioned here several months ago.  This time I read In The Quarter, a very well written fin de siecle novel of a young American artist living and studying in Paris.  I had been introduced to this theme by the author in some of the short stories in the King In Yellow collection.  Written in 1894, it still seems like a modern novel in so many ways.  It is an excellent peek into Paris through the eyes of someone who knows part of that city very well, and the people who inhabit it.  There is a long break from Paris when the man inherits money and travels to Bavaria, spending time in the mountains hunting, fishing, and enjoying the close companionship of different friends from those of Paris.  Like a Puccini opera, there is a tragic ending, quite unexpected and severe.  Drat.

 

I returned to the work of G K Chesterton, reading and thoroughly enjoying his first novel (1904) The Napoleon of Notting Hill.  The author's ideas were stolen by Neil Gaiman for his fun by somewhat clumsy Neverwhere.  And John Cleese certainly got his silly walk idea from this novel.  It is a rich and wonderfully fanciful tale of London 80 years hence (thus, 1984--did someone else get an idea or two from Chesterton also?), when each separate part of the city divides into small dukedoms, all ruled over by a randomly chosen "king," Auberon Quinn.  His silly ideas actually inspire one man, Adam Wayne of Notting Hill, to take them seriously, with results that will eventually change the entire city by the end of the story.  Each page of this novel is an eye-opening wonder, and I am so thankful I got to read it!  My version had the original illustrations, too, an added bonus.  I read so many parts of it aloud to my wife as I went along that she certainly heard a good slice of the volume, which is some 300 pages long.  Highly recommended!

Next came my highly anticipated reading of Kate Chopin's 2nd story collection, A Night In Acadie.  Published in 1897, there are 21 stories that must be read.  There is no less likely place I will ever visit than the backwoods bayous of central and northern Louisiana, and yet I feel when I read these stories that I was born there, and understand nearly everything about the people who live there.  While each story is unique and brutal in its honesty, Chopin shines such a filtered light onto the characters we encounter that it seems as if their strengths and foibles are universal, and we feel ourselves projected into their time, with their problems and (sometimes) solutions.  My very favourite stories were:  After The Winter, Regret, A Matter of Prejudice, Caline, A Dresden lady In Dixie (the very very very best!), The Lilies, At Cheniere Caminada, Tante Catrinette (incredible!), and Ozeme's Holiday.  Each of these stories is a masterpiece, and most of the others, too.  I still have her two novels to read, and about 40 uncollected short stories.  Then I will likely begin reading her stuff over again.

Iain Banks' 2nd novel was next.  Walking on Glass is from 1985, and is not his best work.  It consists of three novellas that eventually become loosely strung together.  Divided into six sections, each section (except the final one) has a chapter from each novella.  The first novella is a twisted love story about an art student and a slightly older, previously married woman.  This one is a pretty good read, and, like the Chambers novel discussed above, has a tragic ending.  The 2nd novella concerns a very paranoid schizophrenic man.  He usually goes outside wearing a hard hat, but the one time he is unable to wear it....yup, he gets a pretty hard knock on the noggin'.  Some of this story reminded me strongly of some of Barry Malzberg's writing. The third novella is a fantasy/SF one, about two people stuck in a bizarre castle having to play games to learn anything about their mysterious plight.  Think Kafka and Gormenghast and you will get some idea of what this castle is like.  To be honest, trying to turn these stories into a unified novel is a mistake; I would have enjoyed them a bit more if they were published in one volume as completely separate stories (which they virtually are).  Still readable and enjoyable.

The last book read this month was also the shortest one (I lost two days and nights of reading to astronomy outings in April).  The Woggle-Bug Book by L Frank Baum is not considered part of the Oz canon, but the character of Woggle-Bug is so endearing that it is worth reading after the 2nd Oz book, where he is introduced as a main character.  My Delphi edition came with all the original b & w drawings, and was a delight to read.  The bizarre adventures all have to do with a certain pattern on a dress he sees in a shop window, and falls in love with.  The various permutations this material goes through during the story is quite hilarious.  Anything by Baum can be recommended to readers.

Back with more later....

Mapman Mike