What a mixed month. Good times at the Pumpkin Festival, bad times with getting needles in the eyes. And everything in between. I rode the rollercoaster of emotions for the full gamut. The month ended on a pretty down note when the volunteer situation I mentioned earlier in one of My Week posts got booted up the ladder to the paid people in charge. They officially endorsed the no youth decision. I didn’t even realize how upset it had made me until I couldn’t sleep. I was awake for close to 40hrs after that happened because I was so stressed out. Thankfully, I’ve been purposefully letting it go and praying that my attitude stays right. But boy, 40hrs without sleep took a long time to recover from. I guess I’m not 30 any more.
On the reading side, I managed to bag a total of 19. That pushes me over the 150mark for the year, which is always my unofficial goal. So now I’m coasting for the rest of the year, which is always a good feeling to have, as life seems to get especially busy from now until New Years.
Cover Love:
Lallia, the next book in the Dumarest series. Chickie-boo dies, just so you know.
Plans for Next Month:
art credit to sxwx
Got a serious Hate Read going for Neuromancer. That is so I can participate in Scifi Month. Oh, the Hate will be strong in this one! I guarantee that with every iota of my being.
Emperor Palpatine wants YOU to read Neuromancer!
Blogging will probably be lighter, quite a bit lighter in fact. I just got the wind knocked out of me in October and I know that kind of thing always plays havoc with my desire and ability to churn out the posts.
ps, I am going into work early today and looking at a 10hr+ day. So I don’t know when I’ll be able to respond to comments. Just making sure you know I’m not ignoring your comments.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Monster Hunter Alpha Series: MHI #3 Author: Larry Correia Rating: 5 of 5 Stars Genre: Urban Fantasy Pages: 402 Words: 148K
When I originally read this back in 2012, I remember loving it. Nothing changed in the intervening 12 years 😀
This was non-stop werewolf action. The main badguy werewolf ends up with a magic doohickey that allows him to become a 20foot tall werewolf. How awesome is that? It’s pretty awesome, that’s how awesome it is. Throw in the snow shredder scene (where Earl and one of the Good Town Folk literally harvest a crop of werewolves with it) and man, this was just awesome. Are you getting the idea that maybe I really liked this book? Good. Because I did!
For those of you who might not know what a snow shredder is, I’m including a picture so you can visualize it chewing through a whole pack of evil, insane and psychopathic werewolves.
I had forgotten this is where we are introduced to the werewolf who is supposedly now the love of Earl’s life. I can’t remember if she makes any more appearances after she’s whisked away by Special Task Force Unicorn at the end of this book. Another reason to do re-reads.
Anyway, I had a lot of fun reading this and it was even better than my previous read and everything here only firmed up my resolve to keep up this re-read. The series is fun monster killing and I thoroughly enjoy it from beginning to end.
★★★★★
From MHI.Fandom.com
Synopsis – click to open
Earl Harbinger may be the leader of Monster Hunter International, but he’s also got a secret. Nearly a century ago, Earl was cursed to be a werewolf. When Earl receives word that one of his oldest foes, a legendarily vicious werewolf that worked for the KGB, has mysteriously appeared in the remote woods of Michigan, he decides to take care of some unfinished business. But another force is working to bring about the creation of a whole new species of werewolf. When darkness falls, the final hunt begins, and the only thing standing in their way is a handful of locals, a lot of firepower, and Earl Harbinger’s stubborn refusal to roll over and play dead.
Plot
Earl Harbinger lost some of his memories during his encounter with the demon he nicknamed “Rocky” at the end of Monster Hunter Vendetta so he started writing them down in the form of journals in order to learn the extent of his loss. This book contains the third of the journals which focuses on his experiences as a werewolf. We also learn more about how the Alpha is designated and what it means to be the Alpha werewolf. Monster Hunter Alpha opens with Earl going off on his own to take care of personal business with Earl’s backstory interspersed.
Earl meets with an old handler from his time in Vietnam and learns of the presence of an old enemy, Nikolai Petrov, in Northern Michigan. It turns out that Nikolai is not the only issue in Copper Lake, MI however. There is another person who is angling to be the Alpha and he has some extra help in the form of a magic amulet and then some.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Much like the Nero Wolfe books, I have come to realize, albeit much sooner than with Wolfe, than I am thoroughly enjoying these books enough to bump them up to a standard 4star level. They meet all of my criteria for 4stars and I realized I needed to stop being so stingy with my ratings. I’m not going to go broke if I rate a series higher for goodness sake. While I am not going to go all Fraggle and read these back to back to back, I can totally see myself re-reading these in several years. And that “re-readability” is usually the tipping point from 3.5 to 4 stars. Not always, but usually
Mrs Pollifax is roped into another assignment for the CIA and once again is promised it will be a cakewalk. All she has to do is go on a Safari in Africa and while taking pictures on the safari, take pictures of everyone on the safari. Because one of them is a ruthless, unstoppable assassin. So of course everything goes straight to pot and derails like a freight train plunging off a cliff and Mrs Pollifax does a LOT more than just taking pictures.
I know I say this for every book, but Gilman is an absolute master at upping the ante very organically for Mrs Pollifax. Nothing that happens is so outlandish that it makes me suspend my belief in the story or feel like it is Authorial Fiat/Machina Ex Deus. It takes a really good author to write that way and to go from Point A to Point Z, hitting the rest of the alphabet on the journey without making one feel like a lamb being led to the slaughter.
Thoroughly enjoyed this book and I continue to thoroughly enjoy the series. I don’t know how much more of a recommendation I could give. Thankfully, I’m not trying to sell this to you. I’m simply chronicling my enjoyment. If you don’t read this series, that’s fine. It’s your loss alone 🙂
★★★★☆
From Wikipedia.org
Synopsis – click to open
Mrs. Pollifax is called upon by the CIA to undertake another mission, this time to photograph members of a safari in Zambia, one of whom is an international assassin nicknamed Aristotle. She innocently posts an ad in the local newspaper trying to contact her old friend Farrell from the first book. This leads to major complications, as Farrell is involved with the freedom fighters across the border and has made some enemies. Another entertaining outing and with a bit of romance as a fellow traveler takes a fancy to Mrs. Pollifax.
Ahhh, the good old days when Enemy and Ally colors actually mattered. Red and White were enemies on the color pie, and Wizards of the Coast made cards specifically for and against other colors.
Of course, this was probably inspired by a wildfire in California or something.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPresss & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: The Romanoff Jewels Series: The Shadow #19 Authors: Maxwell Grant Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars Genre: Crime Fiction Pages: 142 Words: 43K
Commies, Czar’ists and The Shadow all collide! Man, this was a weird read. Russian Royalty simply hasn’t been a part of our world close to 100 years now and so to read a story about it just after its heyday, still a force to be reckoned with, really threw me. It was kind of hard to take seriously too.
The Shadow really plays up the human factor in this story. He’s fully Lamont Cranston as much as he is the Shadow and he gets shot and beaten up and generally manhandled as any one person would in these circumstances. I’m used to The Shadow utterly triumphing, not surviving by the skin of his teeth.
I’ve never heard of the Romanoff Jewels, so everything about them, (a fabled stash of jewels representing the sum wealth of the Czars that was hidden away for their eventual return) was brand new and any info in the book I just took at face value. I did have some problem with the revelation that they were all fakes at the end. I had to roll my eyes at the naivete and stupidity of both commies and czarists thinking they were real. One jeweler is all it would have taken to prove things. It was shown that The Shadow’s ghirasol ring WAS one of the originals, and while it seems to have no purpose or function, it has a mystical mystique about it that in turn conferred such a feeling on the rest of the horde (that turned out not to exist). It would be like finding out that my food pantry was made up of a piece of wood from the Ark of the Covenant and that Putin and Kamala Harris were both after it.
Another good read and I enjoyed it. Overall, I don’t ever see myself re-reading these Shadow books, but that’s ok. Not every book is written to be re-read. Once and done is sometimes ok…
★★★✬☆
From the Publisher
Click to Open
The lofty towers of the Kremlin loomed like spectral spires against a darkened sky. Senov – master spider in a web of espionage – was about to ensnare America in the most nefarious deal of all time: behind the guise of a trade detente, he and his treacherous American trusties will swap the Romanoff jewels for help in restoring the ancient Russian monarchy! Only a certain black-clad form, swept like the shroud of night itself across the oceans and mountains of a desperate world, could hope to challenge such global enemies… and from the mysteries of New York’s Cobalt Club to the thrills of a breathtaking submarine voyage the Shadow carves a dark and hidden path for the forces of justice: beware The Shadow as you beware the darkest unknown!
If you wonder why there is no support at WordPress.com now, it’s because the owner just kicked out almost 10% of the workers. He paid anyone who disagreed with him to leave. Awesome.
Where can I get some of that moulah? I’d leave wordpress for 30K in a heartbeat.
Oh, this was supposed to be a celebratory post? My bad. Let me switch the flip and go into happy mode.
Oh frabjous day, oh hurray, hurray. Everything is just perfect and wonderfully and happy. Yippee ki-yay, miserable frackers!
That’s what happens when I stay awake for 40hrs. It has taken me all week to get over that little episode.
Sadly, work was absolutely bonkers this week. Several of the project managers had big jobs coming due and they were panicking like chickens with their heads cutoff. On Tuesday we started out scheduled to stay at one job for the whole day. By the end of the day, we had gone to 4 different jobs, and because we’re so fething awesome, we finished them all! Of course, on Wednesday we got jerked around again, but accomplished almost nothing. That day I went home, ate a bowl of cold cereal and went to bed.
Thursday I had a “writer” encounter with a solicitation to review a book. Nobody gets to tell me how to review their book, period. Doesn’t matter if it’s as simple as “You have to be completely honest”. That is a “condition”, a boundary, a limiting of MY FREEDOM as a reader and reviewer. They weren’t necessarily bad conditions or even onerous, but NOBODY tells me how I review a book. I left devilreads (that wretched hive of scum and villainy) over that very issue. Thankfully, it ended up being ok, as I simply declined after the conditions were revealed and we each went our separate ways. No harm, no foul. But I really could have done without that bit of straw on this camel’s back.
This whole week I have wanted to go to bed and not bother getting up. Just 9 more hours to go…
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot, by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: The Pirates of Salgari Series: Groo the Wanderer #33 Author: Sergio Aragones Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars Genre: Comics Pages: 27 Words: 2K
Well, it turns out that Rufferto the dog is some sort of anti-kryptonite for Groo. If Rufferto is on a ship, it can’t sink, even if Groo is on board. But as soon as Rufferto leaves, if Groo is still on board, sploosh, that’s it for that poor ship!
This was a great misadventure of Groo ending up fighting for both sides and not having a clue, as usual. And the ending was just SO GROO. People are fighting, so he just jumps in, hahahaha.
I included this picture because of the first two panels specifically. It was SO expressive of just what was going on. It is simplistic but it conveys everything needful of that situation. From Groo (who isn’t even pictured but is kicking butt!) to the Leader of the Pirates to the onlookers. You read those two panels and you know exactly everything everyone is doing and feeling. How incredible is that? And I think that is why I keep reading this comic. Aragones is good at telling a short story and making his art support it every step of the way.
★★★✬☆
From Bookstooge.blog
Synopsis – click to open
A town is plundered by pirates and offers a reward for the return of all their goods. Groo hears about it and with his dog Rufferto’s help, sails to the pirate island, where he inevitably becomes the leader of the pirates. And leads a raid on the town who is offering the reward. Groo doesn’t get his reward and goes off to sulk. Soldiers from the king attack the pirates cum villagers and Groo ends up attacking everybody. The End.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Doctor Syn Returns Series: Doctor Syn #3 Author: Arthur Russell Thorndike Rating: 3 of 5 Stars Genre: Historical Fiction Pages: 154 Words: 74K
Syn is not so bloody thirsty and hypocritical in this one, but I still had serious issues with the liqueur smuggling going on. While I’m not a fan of the government taxing the soul out of us (one of the reasons America kicked the Brits ass back in ‘76 after all), I don’t feel that the smuggling of alcohol is in any way justified. Alcohol is almost as evil as drugs and I’ll go so far as to say that it IS a drug, as bad as meth, crack or marijuana. While we have the God given right to defend ourselves (why I AM in favor of gun running, ghost guns and other such libertarian ideals that are opposed to a tyrannical dictatorship run by a woman who was not actually elected), He did NOT give us the right to get shit faced drunk. So do yourself a favor and get rid of it.
This was the story where The Scarecrow is given life and while we only see him in action once or twice, he’s as great a character as Captain Clegg was. Considering they are both Syn, it’s no wonder.
I’m still on the fence about this series. I can see myself waffling about it right up until I finish it and I can see myself just throwing it away in disgust and dnf’ing at a moment’s notice. Taking this one book at at time.
Even if I do finish the series, it’s not one I’ll ever recommend.
★★★☆☆
From Wikipedia & Bookstooge.blog
Synopsis – click to open
It tells the story of Syn, who has tired of piracy, tries to settle down as the vicar of the little town of Dymchurch in Kent, England.
Syn’s attempt to live an obscure life fails when he is drawn into the local smuggling trade. To protect his parishioners from the agents of the King’s Revenue, Syn becomes the masked Scarecrow of Romney Marsh and becomes leader of the smugglers.
During this time, he falls in love with the oldest daughter of his best friend only for her to die. He also finds his wife, who is on death’s door. She has a daughter by her lover. Said lover pretends to be the Pirate Captain Clegg and dies so that Syn will take care of his baby daughter.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine Series: June 2012 Editor: Linda Landrigan Rating: 3 of 5 Stars Genre: Crime Fiction Pages: 123 Words: 47K
Slightly better than the previous magazine, but not by much. Weighing in at only 120+ pages, this doesn’t feel like a collection; which to be fair, it isn’t, it is a magazine. But that has made me realize that I’m not a fan of magazine length collections of stories.
Also, these really feel like reject stories that weren’t good enough for anywhere else. My bias is definitely playing a big part of that, but these stories just don’t have the verve, the snap, the creepiness that the stories in the old “Alfred Hitchcock Presents…” books had. Part of that is because the stories are trying to ape those by using the 1920’s through the 1980’s as their setting but with 2010’s sensibilities. You can’t do that successfully and none of these authors did.
I’ll read the rest of what I’ve got available for this magazine, but after that I’ll go deep diving on the dark net and dig up whatever old collection of Alfred Hitchcock’s collections from back in the day that I can find.
I guess this magazine just leaves a faint aftertaste of disappointment in my literary mouth.
★★★☆☆
Table of Contents:
Click to Open
Department: EDITOR’S NOTE: CRIME TIME by Linda Landrigan
Department: THE LINEUP
Fiction: THE SELLOUT by Mike Cooper
Fiction: THEA’S FIRST HUSBAND by B.K. Stevens
Fiction: CUPS AND VARLETS by Kenneth Wishnia
Fiction: LAST SUPPER by Jane K. Cleland
Department: MYSTERIOUS PHOTOGRAPH
Fiction: THE POT HUNTERS by David Hagerty
Department: BOOKED & PRINTED by Robert C. Hahn
Mystery Classic: AFTERNOON OF A PHONY by Cornell Woolrich, Selected and Introduced by Francis M. Nevins
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Enter a Murderer Series: Roderick Alleyn #2 Author: Ngaio Marsh Rating: 3 of 5 Stars Genre: Mystery Pages: 163 Words: 57K
The next in the “Inspector” Roderick Alleyn books. I enjoyed this more than the first book, but it still had that “edge” that unsettled me in the first book so I’m not raising my rating, not yet anyway.
This time around we’re dealing with a group of actors (stage actors, not movie actors, because of the times this is taking place in), but they are just as insufferable, arrogant and in general as much jackasses as any actor today. They are almost without fail horrible people and I didn’t feel sorry a single one of them at the inconviences, etc they had to endure while the investigation went on. It also didn’t help that Nigel, one of the characters from the first book, was here and basically being a complete idiot at every turn. Alleyn had to handle him without appearing to handle him. It was like watching a master craftsman turn a lump of turd into a turd statue. Not exactly pleasing, but still, shows skill.
I enjoyed the writing itself this time. There is something that pleases me down deep when an author shows their complete grasp of the English language and it’s multitudinal rules. It is an art and it is an art that I can actually intrinsically appreciate. Probably because “words” is my primary love language, so seeing them used absolutely correctly just pleases me.
Murder mysteries are a window into the heart of darkness and it never ceases to amaze me what people will murder for. Yes, this is fiction, but anything that some author can “think up’, well, the reality is that that has actually happened in some form or another. I don’t want to become jaded but at the same time I know I can have a rose tinted view of just what people can actually do, so it is good for me to be reminded of the reality of fallen human nature. Because if you think people are basically good, then they don’t need to be saved. And if they don’t need to be saved, then they don’t need a Savior. And if someone doesn’t think they need a savior, they will never consider turning their life over to Jesus. And that decision has eternal consequences I’m afraid.
★★★☆☆
From Wikipedia
Synopsis – click to open
Journalist Nigel Bathgate accompanies his friend Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn to a production of “The Rat and the Beaver” at the Unicorn Theatre. The star of the show is Felix Gardener, a friend of Nigel’s, who plays the titular Rat. The production is fantastic, and Alleyn and Bathgate’s eyes are glued to the stage. In the climactic scene, the Rat makes a dramatic entrance and shoots the Beaver, played by Arthur Surbonadier. The Beaver stares angrily at the Rat and drops dead. Only, this is not part of the show. Surbonadier really is dead, having been killed because the prop bullets in the Rat’s gun were secretly replaced by real ones.
Alleyn takes control of the investigation and learns nearly everyone in the cast hated Surbonadier. He fought with Gardener about several things, most importantly actress Stephanie Vaughn. The prop bullets were stored in a desk and must have been switched when the lights went out before the play began. Everybody seems to have an alibi. A pair of grey woolen gloves are found, smeared with stage makeup. The prop bullets have a similar substance on them. Alleyn learns very little from his interviews but suspects that Props, the prop manager, knows more than he lets on.
Alleyn, aided by Bathgate and Inspector Fox, begins to look into Surbonadier’s personal life. The actor’s uncle, Jacob Saint, owns the Unicorn and was once the target of a libelous accusation of being involved in a drug smuggling ring. The letter was allegedly written by a journalist named Edward Wakeford, but many people believe Arthur wrote it himself as an attempt to blackmail his wealthy uncle. When Alleyn searches the actor’s flat, he finds a what looks like a sheet of paper used to practice forging Wakeford’s signature. Alleyn arrests Saint, but is coy publicly about what the exact charges are.
Alleyn asks for a recreation of everyone’s movements backstage before the play began. The night before the recreation is to take place, a police deputy tracks a suspect back to the Unicorn, where he is soon found dead. Although it looks like suicide, Alleyn knows it is murder and uses the reaction from his prime suspect to the discovery of the body to prove that it was murder.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Plot It Yourself Series: Nero Wolfe #31 Author: Rex Stout Rating: 4 of 5 Stars Genre: Mystery Pages: 152 Words: 56K
I’ve been giving these Nero Wolfe books 3 ½ stars for just about the entire series so far. But I’ve realized that every story is solid (even if I don’t care for it) and that I KNOW I’ll be re-reading these (but not like Fraggle, who read them back to back to back. You go girlfriend!) and thus I’ve realized something. These totally deserve 4stars as the base rating and thus from here on out, that’s what I’m planning on doing.
I especially enjoyed this story because it was about authors and plagiarists and murder. If you don’t know, I have a “complicated” relationship with authors. As long as they write their books and entertain me, me and authors get along famously. But as soon as they try to become “people” and use their books for whatever cause they happen to believe in at that moment, well, then I despise, detest and generally am ready to throw them off a cliff. Throw in an entitled attitude or two and usually I just do my best to avoid authors as people. So in this story several authors get murdered and that made me very happy. All of the people involved, authors to publishers, in the plagiarist side of things lie to Wolfe and each other and thus I was perfectly ok with them being killed. Couldn’t have happened to a more deserving bunch.
That really added some relish to my reading. Sometimes an idea or plot point just clicks and makes the whole book that much better. This was one of those times.
I have also come to realize that I am not a Do It Yourself Detective either. I don’t WANT to solve the mystery myself or before the main character. I want the author to do all the work and I just sit back and enjoy the ride. It’s tough to do that with Agatha Christie novels or Ellery Queen mysteries, which is why I’ve given up on both those authors. They think (technically, thought, since they are dead and not thinking at all right now) they were clever, but the reality is that they were just doofuses who enjoyed confusing people. Rex Stout enjoys telling a good story first and foremost. Which is why I’m still reading Nero Wolfe stories 31 books later 🙂
★★★★☆
From Wikipedia
Synopsis – click to open
Someone has been getting away with a different spin on plagiarism. It’s the old scam – an unsuccessful author stealing ideas from an established source – but it’s being worked differently. Now, the plagiarists are claiming that the well-known authors are stealing from them (as Wolfe puts it, “plagiarism upside down.”[2]). And they are making their claims stick: three successful claims in four years, one awaiting trial, and one that’s just been made.
These claims have damaged both the publishers and the authors. The Book Publishers of America (BPA) and the National Association of Authors and Dramatists (NAAD) form a joint committee to explore ways to stop the fraud, and the committee comes to Wolfe for help. The first four claims have shared certain characteristics: in the first, for example, the best selling author Ellen Sturdevant is accused by the virtually unknown Alice Porter of stealing a recent book’s plot from a story that Porter sent her, asking her suggestions for improvement. Sturdevant ignores the accusation until Porter’s manuscript is found in Sturdevant’s house. The writing and publishing industry is convinced that the manuscript was planted, but the case was settled out of court.
That scenario, with minor variations, is repeated four times, with other authors and by other plagiarists. The latest complaint has been made only recently, and the target of the complaint wonders when a manuscript will show up somewhere that it wasn’t the day before.
Wolfe’s first step is to acquire and read the manuscripts that form the basis for the complaints. Wolfe’s love of literature turns out to be useful in his investigation: from the internal evidence in the manuscripts, Wolfe concludes that they were all written by the same person. Aspects such as diction, punctuation and syntax – and, most convincingly, paragraphing – point Wolfe directly to the conclusion that one person wrote all the manuscripts.
At first, this seems like progress, but then it becomes clear that it’s the opposite. The task initially seemed to be to show that the first fraud inspired a sequence of copycats, and the universe of suspects was limited to the complainants. But now that Wolfe has determined that one person wrote all the fraudulent manuscripts, that one person could be anyone. Wolfe meets with the joint committee to discuss the situation.
A committee member suggests that one of the plagiarists be offered money, along with a guarantee of immunity, to identify the manuscripts’ actual author. The committee concurs, and asks Wolfe to arrange for the offer to be made to Simon Jacobs. The next day, Archie goes to make the offer to Jacobs, but finds Sergeant Purley Stebbins at the Jacobs apartment: Mr. Jacobs has been murdered, stabbed to death the night before.
In short order, Archie discovers two more dead plagiarists. Wolfe blames himself for not taking steps to protect Jacobs and the others, who had been made targets by the plan to pay for information. The only one left is Alice Porter, who first worked the fraud successfully, and who is now repeating it with Amy Wynn and her publisher. Wolfe, concentrating on Porter, catches her in a contradiction that identifies the murderer for him.
This is the first journal from the 8 Journals I ordered last month. It is a letter from Renoir to Morisot with Renoir’s famous “Bed of Anemones” as the backdrop. I included front, back, fully extended and then one of it open so you can see how flat it lies on its own. I mentioned that in the 8 Journals post so I wanted to show you what I meant. It is practically like having a writing desk included.
Had a situation this week where I thought I was doing the right thing only to find out that someone else thought I was doing the wrong thing, on purpose. It really set me back for a couple of days. I volunteer once a month and after December will not be able to continue it due to various reasons. So I began approaching some of the younger people I know asking them if they had any interest in getting training and beginning to volunteer themselves. I presented the volunteer leader with a list of teenager’s names with a note about each’s seeming interest (from highly interested to not really but said yes just to get rid of me, hahahah). Well, boy howdy did I get raked over the coals by him for that! He replied to my email, leaving out key people who I had initially included so as not to step on anybody’s toes, and impugned my motives and told me that kids weren’t welcome as the program being done right was more important than anything. Sadly, I’ve seen this kind of behavior before and it always ends in a death spiral for whatever program is in question. That just kept me in a state of low level turmoil until Wednesday.
Injections in both my eyes on Wednesday. Amazing how some pain and suffering can wipe away emotional baggage in about an hour. Can’t say I was particularly thankful for that, but I was glad to stop thinking about the volunteer situation. I do not need to get bitter about it.
Today I have some more Endo (endocrinology for my diabetes) appointments. After that, going to try to catch up on some blog posts, as I didn’t write for most of the week because I didn’t feel like it. It still amazes me, after all these years, just how much work a hobby can be 😀
But for some surprisingly GOOD news. We are having Mac-N-Choose for dinner. I am getting the philly steak and cheese mac and cheese. Oh yeah baby!
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: The Death of Ivan Ilyich Series: (The Russians) Author: Leo Tolstoy Translator: Rating: 3 of 5 Stars Genre: Classic Pages: 82 Words: 22K
While I found this engaging and well written (ie, translated), I also had issues with it on multiple levels.
On a literary level, Ilyich is an unpleasant man who becomes even more unpleasant as he sees his death approaching. I did not enjoy reading about him. And as he got sicker and became more and more unpleasant and unbearable, it was not cathartic knowing he was going to die. The story starts AFTER his death and even that was unpleasant as the people he associated with were just as unpleasant as him.
On a spiritual level, I also found this unpleasant. Ivan Ilyich is dying and somehow magically sees God’s Plan and loses all fear of death, or something like that. There wasn’t one mention of Jesus Christ or His death, resurrection and redemption of humanity. This is one ongoing issue I have with old time’y Russians who claim to be Christians. Most of their spiritually is as mystical and unknowable as any pagan religion. This was one of the more egregious examples and it totally rubbed me the wrong way.
Thankfully, at just over 80 pages it didn’t last long. I’m glad I read this but like a lot of these Russian novellas, have no plans to ever re-read it.
★★★☆☆
From Wikipedia.org
Synopsis – click to open
Ivan Ilyich lives a carefree life that is “most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible.” Like everyone he knows, he spends his life climbing the social ladder. Enduring marriage to a woman whom he often finds too demanding, he works his way up to be a magistrate, thanks to the influence he has over a friend who has just been promoted, focusing more on his work as his family life becomes less tolerable.
While hanging curtains for his new home one day, he falls awkwardly and hurts his side. Though he does not think much of it at first, he begins to suffer from a pain in his side. As his discomfort grows, his behavior towards his family becomes more irritable. His wife finally insists that he visit a physician. The physician cannot pinpoint the source of his malady, but soon it becomes clear that his condition is terminal (although no diagnosis is ever stated by the physician.) Confronted with his terminal condition, Ivan attempts every remedy he can to obtain a cure for his worsening situation, until the pain grows so intense that he is forced to cease working and spend the remainder of his days in bed. Here, he is brought face to face with his mortality and realizes that, although he knows of it, he does not truly grasp it.
During the long and painful process of dying, Ivan dwells on the idea that he does not deserve his suffering because he has lived rightly. If he had not lived a good life, there could be a reason for his pain; but he has, so pain and death must be arbitrary and senseless. As he begins to hate his family for avoiding the subject of his death, for pretending he is only sick and not dying, he finds his only comfort in his peasant boy servant, Gerasim, the only person in Ivan’s life who does not fear death, and also the only one who, apart from his own son, shows compassion for him. Ivan begins to question whether he has, in fact, lived a good life.
In the final days of his life, Ivan makes a clear split between an artificial life, such as his own, which masks the true meaning of life and makes one fear death, and an authentic life, the life of Gerasim. Authentic life is marked by compassion and sympathy, the artificial life by self-interest. Then “some force” strikes Ivan in the chest and side, and he is brought into the presence of a bright light. His hand falls onto his nearby son’s head, and Ivan pities his son. He no longer hates his daughter or wife, but rather feels pity for them, and hopes his death will release them. In so doing, his terror of death leaves him, and as Tolstoy suggests, death itself disappears.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Lallia Series: Dumarest #6 Author: EC Tubb Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars Genre: SF Pages: 154 Words: 44K
Dumarest meets another chickie-boo, has some adventures in space, finds an ancient artifact that performs miracles of healing and gets a better idea of where Earth is located. Of course, Chickie-boo dies. I suspect every girl Dumarest meets is going to fall in love with him and then die. Talk about a Black Widower
These adventures of Earl’s are like mini-adventures. Just enough to keep life interesting but not long enough to call it an adventure steak. It’s like getting one big steak tip, knowing there’s a whole bowlful of them.
So while I’d like gorge myself, Tubb is forcing self-control on me by doling these out one at a time. It’s good for me, so I can only complain so much about it before being forced to admit the justice of it all.
★★★✬☆
From Wikipedia.org Dumarest is searching for old charts, and takes passage as a cargo handler on a run-down old trading ship. The dynamics of the flawed men forming the crew are well-described. An agent of the Cyclan confronts Dumarest, and indirectly this reveals a secret property of Dumarest’s ring. Dumarest is healed by an alien ship or device, which gives him a vision showing where Earth is located.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: My Grave Ritual Series: Warlock Holmes #3 Author: Gabriel Denning Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars Genre: Fantasy Parody Pages: 268 Words: 98K
Once again, another fabulous read.
This time around, I was bowled over at just how Denning took a Sherlock Holmes short story, parodied it AND tied it into a bigger narrative that overarched the entire book. It was impressive, especially when you consider the original short stories about Sherlock Holmes weren’t really tied to each other. Denning did a great job of twisting the original stories and stringing them altogether to make a cohesive whole without making it feel clunky.
In that regards, Dennings really shows his writing chops. I really wish he had other books I could read but sadly, it appears that Warlock Holmes was his only literary endeavor.
I guess I shall have to just savor the final two Warlock Holmes’ books that I have left all the more. That’s not really a bad problem to have if you think about it…
★★★★✬
From the Publisher
Synopsis – click to open
As they blunder towards doom, Warlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson find themselves inconvenienced by a variety of eldritch beings. Christmas brings a goose that doesn’t let being cooked slow it down; they meet an electricity demon, discover why being a redhead is even trickier than one might imagine, and Holmes attempts an Irish accent. And, naturally, Moriarty is hanging around… in some form or other. Just as Holmes and Watson are hitting their stride, a pair of ancient enemies return. James Moriarty reclaims his criminal empire and Irene Adler bests Watson with a kiss.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Predator: If It Bleeds Series: —– Author: Bryan Schmidt Rating: 3 of 5 Stars Genre: SF Pages: 292 Words: 115K
Much, much better than that horrible Eyes of the Demon collection. At the same time, some of these stories just felt like they were missing something. Like the author had heard about the Predator but hadn’t actually seen any of the movies or read any of the comics. Yet some of stories were so spot on that it felt like a good starter script for another “good” Predator movie.
Overall, I was quite satisfied with this collection and I think I’ll let it stay in my personal library for if I ever decide to re-read it.
★★★☆☆
Table of Contents:
Click to Open
INTRODUCTION by Bryan Thomas Schmidt
DEVIL DOGS by Tim Lebbon
STONEWALL’S LAST STAND by Jeremy Robinson
REMATCH by Steve Perry
MAY BLOOD PAVE MY WAY HOME by Weston Ochse
STORM BLOOD by Peter J. Wacks and David Boop
LAST REPORT FROM THE KSS PSYCHOPOMP by Jennifer Brozek
SKELD’S KEEP by S. D. Perry
INDIGENOUS SPECIES by Kevin J. Anderson
BLOOD AND SAND by Mira Grant
TIN WARRIOR by John Shirley
THREE SPARKS by Larry Correia
THE PILOT by Andrew Mayne
BUFFALO JUMP by Wendy N. Wagner
DRUG WAR by Bryan Thomas Schmidt and Holly Roberds
Glad it was a woman who drew this, so in 20 years she couldn’t be accused of sexism. Cause this elemental is HOT! hahahahahahaa. Oh, I crack myself up sometimes.
Episode 13 – Sakura and the Elephant’s Test of Strength
Episode 14 – Sakura, Touya, and Cinderella
Episode 15 – Sakura and Kero’s Big Fight
Episode 16 – Sakura and the Rainbow of Memories
This dvd was a mix of capturing Clow cards and fill-in stories about Sakura’s history and current life. It was cute, it was fun and it filled a Sunday afternoon perfectly. While this is aimed at the tween girl crowd, CLAMP still tells a good story that everyone can appreciate.
With so much darkness out there, violence, destruction and existential despair and hopelessness, watching a movie today is fraught with the danger of wondering if anything is worth it. CCS is a good antidote to such a world view. It’s not a deeply philosophical counterpoint, mind you, but considering how shallow the bad movies are, it only follows that an antidote should be just as shallow. I guess today is your lucky day, hahahahaa!
The (Great) Pumpkin Festival officially starts at 5pm. So we drove down to the local County Store to park at 4:30pm. This was possible because I worked my backside off at work to get out at 3pm. Yeah, I’m just that good.
As is our custom, (and yes, we do have a custom when it comes to the Pumpkin Festival) we first went down to Food Alley. Not every place was open but most were and we took advantage of that to score ourselves some food and some open tables. Trust me, after 5:30pm it is standing room only, everywhere.
Mrs B stopped at the Fried Tempura vendor and got a fried vegetable platter. It was a lot!
It was also incredibly greasy. Just the way fried food should be!
Last year I had seen a vendor selling Elephant Ears, so this year I was curious enough to find out just what that was.
It turns out Elephant Ears are massive amounts of fried dough. HUGE!
Then we wandered around, looking at various vendors selling brightly colored crap.
Or vendors trying to sneakily separate you from your money for other kinds of brightly colored crap.
It was perfect! Even the obnoxious bands playing all over the place. I believe there were 3 this year. One in the center of the Oval, one off to one side and the third down at the beer garden a street over. There was also some “music” up by the Post Office. So no matter where you went, you were assailed by sight and sound. And jostled by people.
Unless you were me. Because I had a staff and people don’t mess with guys in cloaks who carry a staff as tall as they are.
Then the (Great) Pumpkin rose into the sky and the town was safe for another year!
Eat your heart out, Linus
Thus Sir Bookstooge navigated another deadly, people infested adventure and nobody died. That’s how you know it was good.
Tonight is the Pumpkin Festival. I wanted something to celebrate that event, as I don’t know if I’ll be able to get pictures and write up a post like I did last year (Pumpkin Fest ’23). So I asked Miss Ross to do something Festival’y and I think she delivered in spades. I’m pretty happy with this and I hope you can enjoy it too.
The week, up to this point, has been something else. My coworker took the week off, just because apparently, so I was working with the new guy. He’s been hired to work in both the field and the office, and he’s 6’6″. I’m 5’3″. It has made setting up our equipment a real chore and I’ll be glad when things return to normal next week.
Other than that and the falling temps and leaves, not much else to report.
Have a good day and if there is a Pumpkin Fest post, it won’t be until after 8pm tonight, so don’t hold your breath 🙂
