Reading Round-Up: March 2024

Here’s what I’ve been reading, listening to, and watching in March 2024!

BOOKS

I read 8 books in March: 4 in print, 3 in e-book format, and 1 in audio format. They were:

1.       Something is Killing the Children Volume 7 by James Tynion IV, Werner Dell’Edera, Miguel Muerto and others. (PRINT, GRAPHIC NOVEL CHALLENGE)

2.       Death Comes Too Late by Charles Ardai (E-BOOK, ARC) REVIEW LINK

3.       Crone Unleashed (Crone Wars #4) by Lydia M. Hawke (PRINT)

4.       Chita: A Memoir by Chita Rivera (AUDIO, NON-FICTION CHALLENGE)

5.       The Vineyard Remains by Addison McKnight (E-BOOK, ARC) REVIEW LINK

6.       A Voice Calling by Christopher Barzak (E-BOOK)

7.       Mammoths at the Gates (Singing Hills Cycle #4) by Nghi Vo (PRINT, REREAD) REVIEW LINK

8.       Seven Swords by Evan Daugherty, Frederico Dallochio, Riccardo Latina, Valentina Bianconi, and Dave Sharpe (PRINT, GRAPHIC NOVEL CHALLENGE)

STORIES

Here’s what I read this month and where you can find them if you’re interested in reading them too. If no source is noted, the story is from the same magazine or book as the story(ies) that precede(s) it.

1.       “Let the Star Explode” by Shingai Njeri Kagunda, in Lightspeed Magazine #166, edited by John Joseph Adams

2.       “An Incomplete Body Has No Answers” by Angela Liu

3.       “The Three Thousand, Four Hundred Twenty-First Law of Robotics” by Adam-Troy Castro

4.       “Islands of Stability” by Marissa Lingen

5.       “Fragments of a Symbiotic Life” by Will McMahon

6.       “Kopki and the Fish” by Alex Levine

7.       “Only Some of True Love's Miracles” by P H Lee

8.       “Season of Weddings” by Sharang Biswas REVIEW LINK

9.       “The Home Front” by Charles Ardai, in Death Comes Too Late

10.   “Game Over” by Charles Ardai

11.   “The Day After Tomorrow” by Charles Ardai

12.   “The Case” by Charles Ardai

13.   “Goin' West” by Charles Ardai

14.   “The Shadow Line” by Charles Ardai

15.   “Nobody Wins” by Charles Ardai

16.   “Jonas and the Frail” by Charles Ardai

17.   “The Deadly Embrace” by Charles Ardai

18.   “Don't Be Cruel” by Charles Ardai

19.   “Mother of Pearl” by Charles Ardai

20.   “The Fall of Man” by Charles Ardai

21.   “Fathers and Sons” by Charles Ardai

22.   “Sleep! Sleep! Beauty Bright” by Charles Ardai

23.   “Masks” by Charles Ardai

24.   “My Husband's Wife” by Charles Ardai

25.   “Secret Service” by Charles Ardai

26.   “A Bar Called Charley's” by Charles Ardai

27.   “A Free Man” by Charles Ardai

28.   “The Investigation of Things” by Charles Ardai

29.   “Hello! Hello! Hello!” by Fiona Jones, in Clarkesworld #210, edited by Neil Clarke

30.   “Big Bad” by Chandler Baker, from Amazon’s Creature Feature collection

31.   “Best of Luck” by Jason Mott

32.   “The Pram” by Joe Hill

33.   “Ankle Snatcher” by Grady Hendrix

34.   “It Waits in the Woods” by Josh Malerman

So that’s 34 short stories in March. More than “1 per day” for the first time this year, which catches me up a little bit but still behind pace for the year so far. (March 31st was the 91st day of 2024.)

MOVIES

March was an improvement over February because I managed to watch one movie in March:

1.       Gamera vs. Gyaos (1967)

TELEVISION

·       Slow Horses Season 2, Episodes 2-6 (5 episodes) REVIEW LINK

·       Love, Death & Robots Season 2, Episodes 1 – 8 (8 episodes)

·       Love, Death & Robots Season 3, Episodes 1 – 9 (9 episodes)

·       Star Trek: Discovery Inside the Final Season (1 episode)

That’s 23 episodes of television, again not the “1 per day” I was shooting for, but slightly better than February’s total.

LIVE THEATER

It was a good month for live theater:

·       Drunk Shakespeare, Ruby Theater, NYC (for goddaughter’s 21st birthday) REVIEW LINK

·       Alan Cumming Is Not Acting His Age, Studio 54, NYC (cabaret-style show)

·       All The Devils Are Here, DR2 Theater, NYC (2nd time seeing Patrick Page’s 1-man show about Shakespeare’s villains) REVIEW LINK (from the first time I saw the show; 2nd time was as great)

Summary of Challenges:

“To Be Read” Challenge: This month: 0 read; YTD: 1 of 14 read.

366 Short Stories Challenge: This month:  34 read; YTD: 79 of 366 read.

Goodreads Challenge: This month: 8 read; YTD: 27 of 120 read.

Graphic Novels Challenge:  This month: 2 read; YTD: 8 of 52 read.

Non-Fiction Challenge: This month: 1 read; YTD: 4 of 12 read.

Read the Book / Watch the Movie Challenge: This month: 0 read/watched; YTD: 1 read/watched.

Movie Challenge: This month: 1 watched; YTD: 5 of 52 watched.

TV Shows Challenge: This month: 23 episodes watched; YTD: 63 of 366 watched.

Live Theater Challenge: This month: 3 shows attended; YTD: 4 of 12 attended.

Sunday Shorts: Two by Sharang Biswas

Sharang Biswas is a game designer, writer, and artist based in New York City whose stories and poetry have appeared in Nightmare Magazine, Fantasy Magazine, Baffling Magazine, Sana Stories, Strange Horizons, and elsewhere. Look him up on his website. Today, I’m going to look at his two most recent stories that appeared in Lightspeed Magazine, edited by John Joseph Adams. Lightspeed Magazine contents are free to read on the website and e-book subscriptions are also available.

“Real Magic” (Lightspeed Magazine #153, February 2023)

Three townspeople visit the Witch in the Woods to ask for help with their problems. She extracts a different price from each, something either cherished or endemic to the person’s sense of self. Each visitor ultimately finds what they are searching for (or searching for relief from), but not in the way they or the reader expects. The witch uses their ingredients to do real magic. This is a beautifully told story, a fairy tale in style but cloaked in Biswas’ beautiful sense of character and community. Biswas uses the needs of the visitors (and their resolutions) to show that every individual action has an effect outside the moment in which that action is taken or that choice is made. Nothing happens in a vacuum, no one person’s fate is theirs alone. What one person discards (willingly or not) may be picked up by another (who may or may not benefit from it). I also loved how Biswas doesn’t spoon-fed the connections between the villagers’ stories but lets them come out organically and not all at once.

“Season of Weddings” (Lightspeed Magazine #166, March 2024, story goes live on the website March 28th)

Nate receives seven wedding invitations in one year. Okay, two of them are for his job, which is maybe a little less fun than attending as a guest. Especially because it quickly becomes apparent to the reader that Nate is Thanatos, god of death. Sometimes, people die at weddings. Still reeling from his most recent relationship break-up (with Thor, who has moved on to loving a mortal woman), Nate must navigate these weddings, new singlehood, his job, his perhaps too-pushy best friend, and a cute guy he keeps bumping into at the weddings. This story is so sweet, so romantic and wistful. I recognized some of myself in Nate’s self-esteem issues around romance and relationships, which made me connect to the work even more. The world-building is also wonderful, bringing together characters from all sorts of world mythologies and religions but tweaking them in new and interesting ways (for instance, the Thor is this story is neither the “drunken jock” we often see nor the blond-tressed super-hero). I won’t spoil who all shows up, because part of the fun of the story is the reveals of Nate’s friends’ circle. I’m a sucker for “deities and personifications of human concepts walk among us and act like every-day people” types of stories (think the classic issue number eight of Neil Gaiman’s the Sandman, illustrated by Mike Dringenberg, among others), and this one fits the description very well. It also fits very well as a paranormal romance, and I love it when authors blend and blur genres.

I love short fiction, and Sunday Shorts is the feature where I get to blog about it. I’ve considered promising to review a short story every day, but that’s a lot of pressure. And while no one will fault me if I miss days, I’ll feel guilty, which will lead to not posting at all. So better to stick to a weekly post highlighting a couple/three stories, as I’ve done in the past. Click on the Sunday Shorts tab at the bottom of this post to find earlier entries in the series!

Book Review: DEATH COMES TOO LATE

TITLE: Death Comes Too Late

AUTHOR: Charles Ardai

397 pages, Hard Case Crime, ISBN 9781803366265 (paperback, e-book)

MY RATING:  5 stars out of 5

MY THOUGHTS: In celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Hard Case Crime imprint, the publishers have released Death Comes Too Late, a collection of 20 mostly noir short stories from across the career of imprint founder Charles Ardai. The author admits the choice of title is a bit cheeky for a collection of stories in which death seems to arrive in a timely manner, if not early and unexpectedly. Regardless, it is a phenomenal collection by an author who I think is truly underrated. I say this as someone who is mostly familiar with Ardai as founder/editor/publisher and who had previously read only one of the stories contained herein.

That story, “Mother of Pearl,” blew me away when I first read it in From Sea to Stormy Sea (edited by the great Lawrence Block), and it blew me away again here. It is one of the few non-noir stories in the collection, if noir must include a crime or double-cross of some kind. There is a mystery at its core – who is this nameless, seemingly genderless, narrator telling us this tale of a young woman’s search for the truth of her father’s death and the mother who put her up for adoption? As I said back in 2020, the story is “a rumination on success, failure, identity, and the search for where we come from,” and upon multiple rereads I continue to find some moment or bit of phrasing or twist in the story that didn’t stand out to me on previous reads. As with most of the stories in Death Comes Too Late, “Mother of Pearl” has layers upon layers, twists to the twists, that keep you wondering where Ardai is leading you right up to the last paragraph.

I think it is safe to say that the whole collection is a rumination on success, failure, identity, and the search for where we come from (sometimes to embrace it, sometimes to understand it, sometimes to leave it behind). And equally safe to say that most of the time, those ruminations take some long, complicated routes to get to that moment of embracing, understanding, or leave-taking.

The book starts strong with “The Home Front,” in which a private investigator hired by the United States government to suss out black marketeers during World War Two is responsible for the accidental death of a young man he’s just arrested – which is just the start of a journey that turns brutal and bloody by the end while our protagonist tries to decide who he is after the tragedy. This is followed by “Game Over,” which starts with a boy’s simple wish to treat his less-well-off best friend to a free afternoon of video games at the local pizza place but whose plan to do so results in wounded pride, misunderstanding, harsh accusations, and yes tragedy. Two quite different time frames with characters of very different ages, both dealing with expectations of who they are based on something someone else has done (or not done). “The Fall of Man” is another heartbreaking story with a teen at the center, a startlingly honest look at suicide and its aftermath.

Charles Ardai is an expert at making sure his stories don’t end where they start – those long, complicated routes mentioned earlier – even when obeying genre dictates. “The Case” starts out as a standard “missing luggage” story but neatly twists through two characters’ points-of-view into something that would be at home on Alfred Hitchcock Presents. “Goin’ West” starts with a classic “Hollywood casting couch” scene (only in New York) that doesn’t quite go where you’d expect but with a conclusion that feels inevitable. “The Shadow Line” opens with our narrator waking up in a room in Mexico with a sex worker, intent on hunting down a man he’s been sent to locate – but not for the reasons that seem apparent. “Jonas and the Frail” is a “bodyguard loses his teenage charge, chaos ensues” tale with a killer reveal and ending; “Sleep! Sleep! Beauty Bright” is a revenge tale writ large; “My Husband’s Wife” is a riff on “disaffected corporate wife has affair” type stories. But they all take surprising turns, and each protagonist faces challenges that reveal something about where they came from or who they really are.

Ardai is also not above twisting his genres. “The Deadly Embrace,” one of my favorites in the collection, is a neat bit of super-hero noir that takes the real-world fierce competition between comics publishers in the 1950s (think the famous DC vs. Fawcett lawsuit over the original Captain Marvel) and combines it with a twist on the Hollywood Studio System in a world where super-heroes are real but under contract to the comics companies, which some of them find stifling. “Don’t Be Cruel” plays with conspiracy theories (particularly around Elvis’s supposed survival) in a noir light. “The Day After Tomorrow” is another tale that is not really noir at all, but more horror.

The collection ends with another decidedly non-noir tale, the mystery “The Investigation of Things.” If any story in the book can be called “Sherlockian,” it is this one. Two brothers in 11th century China, both detectives with decidedly different investigatory styles, are called to solve the murder of a Buddhist monk and stumble upon the invention of something we are all too familiar with as a weapon of murder in our modern era. There are twists upon twists, with one brother looking at minute and seemingly unimportant minute details while the other systematically interviews reluctant peers of the deceased (said brother even utters a variation on Detective Columbo’s famous “oh, just one more question” line, which brought a smile to this reader’s face).

If you love short stories in the mystery/crime genre that are more than just a recitation of the facts of the case or the reveal of the mystery, stories that explore the breadth of human interactions and passions, then Charles Ardai is your man, and Death Comes Too Late is your next must-read short story collection.

I received an advance reading copy of this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Those interested can find my review of From Sea to Stormy Sea, where Charles Ardai’s story “Mother of Pearl” first appeared, HERE.

Sunday Shorts: Two by Dane Kuttler

I love short fiction, and Sunday Shorts is the feature where I get to blog about it. I’ve considered promising to review a short story every day, but that’s a lot of pressure. And while no one will fault me if I miss days, I’ll feel guilty, which will lead to not posting at all. So better to stick to a weekly post highlighting a couple/three stories, as I’ve done in the past.

TWO BY DANE KUTTLER

Dane Kuttler is a wonderful poet (https://www.danepoetry.com/about.html), who has also had two science fiction short stories published in the past year in the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, edited by Sheree Renee Thomas. The two stories are quite different in tone and topic but are equally engaging.

“The Interspatial Accessibility Compact’s Guidelines for Cross-Cultural Engagement” (Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Winter, 2024)

On a multi-species space station where sound carries very well and certain species have a harder time communicating, a florist helps an Earthman express his affection for a coworker is from a sound-sensitive species. This far-future, outer-space story is so sweet, so endearing, so romantic and so recognizable in the awkwardness on the part of all three of the main characters. It’s not easy expressing your affection for someone who essentially speaks a different language, with completely distinct cultural landmarks and social cues. It’s also not easy being the one trying to help two people who clearly care for each other but who aren’t navigating how to communicate with each other. I’ve been in both positions and felt all of the awkwardness. But also felt all of the happily-ever-after (or at least, the happy for now). In other hands, the drama of the situation might have been drawn out into a longer piece with more roadblocks for the protagonists, but Kuttler keeps the story to a tight, fast-moving but still emotionally investing seven pages.

“Off the Map” (Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Jan-Feb 2023)

Ava is in danger of losing her children to the system after a second “neglect” infraction that any rational person would consider unwarranted. Then she receives an offer to relocate to a new town in Florida under the auspices of Better Days, an organization that will give her full-time work, a home, a school that works with students’ learning disabilities and alternative learning styles, and access to therapy and guidance counselors. But is it all too good to be true, especially in a post-climate change, high scarcity of resources world? This story is an incisive and biting look at corporate involvement in social issues, and how the most vulnerable are mistreated and used to further other ends. I’ve read this one multiple times since it was published a year ago, and each time I reread it the injustice and abuse the characters experience (both the abuse they know of, and the stuff they are unaware of) hits hard.

SUNDAY SHORTS: Three From Giving The Devil His Due

I love short fiction, and Sunday Shorts is the feature where I get to blog about it. I’ve considered promising to review a short story every day, but that’s a lot of pressure. And while no one will fault me if I miss days, I’ll feel guilty, which will lead to not posting at all. So better to stick to a weekly post highlighting a couple/three stories, as I’ve done in the past.

Three From GIVING THE DEVIL HIS DUE

Giving The Devil His Due, edited by Rebecca Brewer, is a charity anthology published by the Pixel Project comprised of stories in which the men who abuse and kill women and girls get their just desserts, usually through supernatural means. There are 16 stories in the anthology. Here are my thoughts on a few of them:

Nisi Shawl’s “The Tawny Bitch” is an epistolary story with endnotes, one of my favorite types of stories to read. Belle is imprisoned by her paternal cousin John after she has “inappropriate liaisons” with a female classmate at school. She writes letters she knows her lost lover may never see, telling of her abuse, neglect, and sexual assault by her cousin and the married couple he hires to mind her. A tawny-colored female dog plays a key role in the story. The “end-notes” are those of a later historian trying to piece together the true identities of the people Belle mentions. This is a classically Gothic story: lost love, a woman locked in a dark tower room, a slight supernatural vibe. Shawl pulls all those elements together with a narratorial voice that is warm and inviting and which never makes us doubt the experiences the narrator is relating. (I also enjoyed the mention of a visiting doctor named Hesselius and the implication that someone is impersonating the “real” man by that name whose adventures were made famous by author Sheridan Le Fanu.)

In Kelley Armstrong’s “Happy Birthday Baby,” Lisette meets her friend Roger for dinner to celebrate the birthday of Lisette’s late sister. The sister has been dead for three years and the police have not been able to prove that her estranged abusive husband was the one who killed her. Lisette tells Reggie she’s hired a private investigator, has uncovered the truth of that night, and is ready to murder her sister’s killer since the police can’t seem to catch him. Of course, there are more twists to the story – and it’s a fair-play type of story in that the clues to what’s really going on are well planted from the very beginning. The story is wonderfully paced, moves very fast, and hits all the right “revenge on the killer who got away” vibes and notes. It’s one of the few stories in the anthology in which the supernatural element is almost non-existent until the key moment, which also makes it stand out from the crowd.

“The Moon Goddess’s Daughter” by Lee Murray is described by the author as a “prose poem.” The language used is poetic; I’m inclined to describe it as ethereal. Even concrete details are given a certain weightlessness, or perhaps dreaminess is a better descriptor, by the way the words are used. This makes this story of a young woman in an abusive marriage different from the more direct and detailed looks at surviving abuse that surround it in the anthology – but no less, and perhaps even more, powerful. Stories that are ethereal/dream-like are not necessarily lacking in impact, as this story clearly demonstrates. Also interesting is the structure of the story, using the phases of the moon as a chart for the protagonist’s journey. The story is based on a legend of the Chinese moon goddess Princess Chang’e, and thus leans more into the fantasy side of the supernatural than the horror side that the previous two stories dwell in.

Giving The Devil His Due is still available as an e-book. Other authors featured in the anthology include Kaaron Warren, Stephen Graham Jones, Angela Yuriko Smith, Jason Sanford, Linda D. Addison, and Christina Henry.

READING ROUND-UP: April, 2021

Very much belatedly, the monthly summary of what I read and listened to in April 2021!

BOOKS

I read 9 books in April: 5 in print, 2 in e-book format, and 0 in audio format. They were:

1.       Lightspeed Magazine #131 (April 2021 issue), edited by John Joseph Adams. The usual fine assortment of sf and fantasy short stories. This month’s favorites for me were An Owomoyela’s “The Equations of the Dead,” Seanan McGuire’s “Swear Not by The Moon,” Ashok K. Banker’s “The Giving One,” and Genevieve Valentine’s “Blood, Ash, Braids.”

2.       Angel of the Overpass (Ghost Roads, Book 3) by Seanan McGuire (writer). The third novel featuring hitch-hiking ghost Rose Marshall (also known as The Girl in the Green Silk Gown, the Phantom Prom Date, and more) brings her afterlife-long battle with her killer, the immortal Bobby Cross, to a head. There’s action, character growth, world-changing moments, and my favorite ghost dinosaur ever. FULL REVIEW HERE. (Did I mention the ghost dinosaur? Seriously worth the price of admission alone.)

3.       Glitter + Ashes: Queer Tales of a World That Wouldn’t Die edited by dave ring. Wonderful collection of post-apocalyptic short stories centering characters from across the LGBTQIA+ spectrum.

4.       A Field Guide to the Spirits: Poems by Jean LeBlanc. Poems about life, love, grief, and more, many with a fantasy, science fiction, or mythological tone.

5.       Harryhausen: the Lost Movies by John Walsh. Interesting coffee table book tracking all the film projects Ray Harryhausen ended up not working on, from his own aborted ideas to the opportunities he turned down to work on others’ projects. Tons of original sketches, test models, and photographs make this a must-read for any Harryhausen fan.

6.       Ancient Songs of Us by Jean LeBlanc. More poems by a truly wonderful poet.

7.       The Impossible Resurrection of Grief by Octavia Cade. A stunningly emotional novella in which loss and sadness bring on Grief, an irreversible mental and physical deterioration. FULL REVIEW TO COME.

8.       Prince Neptune by Cody Simpson. Poems by the former teen singer/songwriter/YouTube star (and current potential Olympic swimmer), focused on saving the environment but also on teen emotional and sexual angst.

9.       A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark. The first full-length novel in Clark’s alternate history, magic-infused steampunk Cairo is a wonderful fair-play murder mystery. FULL REVIEW HERE.

STORIES

I have a goal of reading 365 short stories (1 per day, essentially, although it doesn’t always work out that way) this year. Here’s what I read this month and where you can find them if you’re interested in reading them too. If no source is noted, the story is from the same magazine or book as the story(ies) that precede(s) it.

1.       “The Equations of the Dead” by On Owomoyela, from Lightspeed Magazine #131 (April 2021 issue), edited by John Joseph Adams

2.       “Swear Not by The Moon” by Seanan McGuire

3.       “The Ocean Between the Leaves” by Ray Nayler

4.       “Complete Exhaustion of the Organism” by Rich Larson

5.       “The Justified” by Ann Leckie

6.       “The Giving One” by Ashok K. Banker

7.       “Blood, Ash, Braids” by Genevieve Valentine

8.       “Single Origin” by A.Z. Louise, from Fantasy Magazine #66 (April 2021), edited by Christie Yant and Arley Sorg

9.       “The Woman with No Face” by Alice Goldfuss

10.   “So. Fucking. Metal.” by Shane Halbach

11.   “How I Became MegaPunch, or, Why I Stay with Dylan” by Y.M. Pang

12.    “Earth to Charity” by Seanan McGuire, on the author’s Patreon page.

13.   “Forward, Victoria” by Carlie St. George, from The Dark #71 (April 2021), edited by Sean Wallace

14.   “A Study in Ugliness” by H. Pueyo

15.   “Worm Blood” by Octavia Cade

16.   “Wrath of a Queer God” by Anthony Moll, from Glitter + Ashes: Queer Tales of a World That Wouldn’t Die, edited by dave ring

17.   “Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel” by Christopher Caldwell

18.   “The Descent of Their Last End” by Izzy Wasserstein

19.   “Soft” by Otter Lieffe

20.   “The Black Hearts of La Playa” by Jordan Kinella

21.   “The Bone Gifts” by Michael Milne

22.   “When the Last of the Birds and Bees Have Gone” by C.L. Clark

23.   “A Future in Color” by R.J. Theodore

24.   “Champions of Water War” by Elly Bangs

25.   “A Sound Like Staying Together” by Adam R. Shannon

26.   “Be Strong, Kick Many Asses” by Ann-Julie Riddle

27.   “Venom and Bite” by Darcie Little Badger

28.   “The Currant Dumas” by L.D. Lewis

29.   “The Limitations of Her Code” by Marianne Kirby

30.   “You Fool, You Wanderer” by Brendan Williams-Childs

31.   “A Party-Planners Guide to the Apocalypse” by Lauren Ring

32.   “Imago” by A.Z. Louise

33.   “Safe Haven” by A.P. Thayer

34.   “Note Left on a Coffee Table” by Mari Ness

35.   “The Valley of Mothers” by Josie Columbus

36.   “For the Taking, For the Making” by V. Medina

37.   “When She Nothing Shines Upon” by Blake Jessop

38.   “The Last Dawn of Targadrides” by Trip Galey

39.   “The Dreadnought and the Stars” by Phoebe Barton

So that’s 39 short stories in April. Back to a bit more than “1 per day” but I’m still slightly ahead for the year. (April 30th was the 120th day of 2021.)

Summary of Reading Challenges:

“To Be Read” Challenge: This month: 0 read; YTD: 6 of 24 main titles read. (0 of 4 alternate titles read)

365 Short Stories Challenge: This month: 39 read; YTD: 143 of 365 read.

Graphic Novels Challenge:  This month: 0 read; YTD: 8 of 52 read.

Goodreads Challenge: This month: 9 read; YTD: 46 of 125 read.

Non-Fiction Challenge: This month: 1 read; YTD: 8 of 24 read.

Read the Book / Watch the Movie Challenge: This month: 0; YTD: 0 read/watched.

Complete the Series Challenge: This month: 0 book read; YTD: 0 of 14 read.

                                                          Series fully completed: 0 of 4 planned

Monthly Special Challenge:   April’s mini-challenge was poetry, as April is National Poetry Month. I am not a consistent reader of poetry, but in April I usually try to read at least a couple of poetry collections. I managed three: two by American poet Jean LeBlanc and one by Australian Cody Simpson. I also read a couple of poems in Fantasy Magazine #66: “Appeal to the Doppleganger” by Terese Mason Pierre, and “The Knitting Bowl” by Tristan Beiter.

May’s mini-challenge is to read some works by authors of Asian Pacific and/or South Asian descent, for Asian Pacific and South Asian Heritage Month.

Sunday Shorts: Two Updated Slave Folktales

Sunday Shorts is a series where I blog about short fiction – from flash to novellas. For the time being, I’m sticking to prose, although it’s been suggested I could expand this feature to include single episodes of anthology television series like The Twilight Zone or individual stories/issues of anthology comics (like the 1970s DC horror or war anthology titles). Anything is possible. But for now, the focus is on short stories.

Every now and then the timing is right and I end up reading two stories with similar themes or structures or what-have-you in two different publications and realize I need to blog about them together. That happened last week with two reprinted stories: “Ah Been Buked” by Maurice Broaddus, which originally appeared in the author’s short story collection Voices of Martyrs and will be reprinted in the December 2020 issue of Lightspeed Magazine (#127), and “The Night Doctors,” which originally appeared in Eyedolon and is reprinted in the November 2020 issue of Nightmare Magazine (#98). Both stories trade on the history of collecting slave narratives and folktales and add fantasy/supernatural elements.

Admittedly, the fantasy/supernatural element of Maurice Broaddus’ “Ah Been Buked” is almost non-existent, practically an afterthought. The spirit stone is more a framing device, a reason for former slave Viney Scott to tell her story while standing over the grave of the man she loved (and have it recorded by someone named John Henry Freeman, presumably sent by the Federal Writers Project to collect slave narratives, but who we never see or hear from in the story itself). “Ah Been Buked” is, fantasy aside, the story of how one woman lost almost everything – parents, friends, lover – to a cruel plantation master, but has survived to tell her tale. Viney’s voice is colloquial and engaging. Every time I read this story (and this makes probably the fourth or fifth time I’ve done so), I cannot turn away until Viney’s story is done. Each time, I notice something different in the way people are described or events are reconstructed, the way she draws out some moments and leaves others to be implied. The anguish of living under slavery is prevalent, but so is the love with which she describes her father, her favorite aunt, and her lover. The twist at the end is more horror than fantasy, giving a satisfactorily dark conclusion to Viney’s story (but not to her life, which has clearly carried on but of which we get only hints). I probably say this a lot, but this is one of those stories I would love to see performed as a monologue. Preferably by Cecily Tyson or Phylicia Rashad.

The narrator of P. Djèlí Clark’s “Night Doctors” has also been tasked by the Federal Writers Project to collect slave narratives, and we find him in Durham NC in 1937 (two years later and several states southeast of the setting of “Ah Been Buked”). But for this Mister Bisset, collecting those narratives is a convenient cover story. What he’s really searching for is proof the folkloric Night Doctors really exist. Night Doctors are night-time beings who steal slaves away for nefarious research purposes. Some believed they were plantation owners just out to scare slaves into not running away, while others believed they were actual white doctors stealing (or being given) slaves or the dead bodies of slaves to perform medical research. Bisset believes there’s more to them than that, if he can only find a way to meet them. Which of course he does in this story, thanks largely to conversations with a former slave. The supernatural and horror elements of this story are far from subtle. Clark’s description of the Night Doctors is eerie and disturbing and lingers well after the story is done – I can still sort of see them out of the corner of my eye while thinking about other things. But there’s also the very human horror of Bisset’s actions when he’s not interviewing former slaves – bloody revenge writ large and in detail (in one scene, at least), trading on the folklore Bisset is in Durham to investigate. I suspect this is another of those stories that will reveal more of itself to me upon multiple rereads. It should also be noted that while “Night Doctors” stands complete in itself, it also serves as something of a prequel to Clark’s recent novella Ring Shout, which I reviewed recently. The two stories come at slave folklore and the power of Story from very different directions but complement each other.

Reading Round-Up: April 2020

Continuing the monthly summaries of what I’ve been reading and writing.

BOOKS

To keep my numbers consistent with what I have listed on Goodreads, I count completed magazine issues as “books.” I read or listened to 11 books in April: 5 in print, 5 in e-book format, and 1 in audio format. They were:

1.       Lightspeed Magazine #119 (April 2020 issue), edited by John Joseph Adams. The usual fine assortment of sf and fantasy short stories. This month’s favorites for me were Yoon Ha Lee’s “Always The Harvest,” Andrew Dana Hudson’s “Voice of their Generation,” Celeste Rita Baker’s “Glass Bottle Dancer,” and Fred Van Lente’s “Neversleeps.”

2.       The Long Goodbye (Philip Marlowe #6) by Raymond Chandler. Marlowe makes a friend, and the friend commits murder and goes on the run, leaving Marlowe to figure out what really happened while he’s arrested as an accomplice. Listened to the abridged audiobook narrated by the always excellent Elliot Gould.

3.       The Burglar in Short Order by Lawrence Block. Finally, a collection of every short story, vignette and non-fiction piece featuring or about the writing/creation of Block’s burglar/bookshop owner Bernie Rhodenbarr. Not a bad piece in the bunch, including a new essay about how certain characters don’t age but do sometimes fade gracefully from the spotlight.

4.       Miles Morales: Spider-Man Volume 1: Straight out of Brooklyn by Saladin Ahmed, Javier Garron, others. Like I said about Seanan McGuire’s “Spider-Gwen” runs last month: Saladin Ahmed has gotten me invested in a character I knew almost nothing about before he started writing the character. I knew vaguely who Miles Morales was because of all the press when he succeeded Peter Parker as the Ultimate Universe Spider-Man and again when he was merged onto the main Marvel Earth, but otherwise my only familiarity was from the Into the Spider-Verse movie. Now I’m totally on board with Miles, his family, and his friends.

5.       Miles Morales: Spider-Man Volume 2: Bring on the Bad Guys by Saladin Ahmed, Javier Garron, others. A solid second collection, continuing Miles’ adventures and increasing the tension surrounding what new villain in town Ultimatum wants with Miles.

6.       Common Source (John Simon Thrillers #3) by Bryan Thomas Schmidt. Schmidt’s third near-future-SF buddy cop thriller lowers the city-wide stakes slightly (no terrorists looking to destroy major landmarks) but increases the personal stakes, as android cop Lucas George must deal with several of his brethren gone rogue and his Maker going missing. Full Review coming closer to the book’s May release date. (I received an Advance Review Copy from the publisher.)

7.       How to Flirt in Fairieland & Other Wild Rhymes by C.S.E. Cooney. I am really not a strong poetry reader, and I usually don’t feel equipped to judge poems on anything more than an “I liked it” scale. I can say that I enjoyed this collection of fantasy poems, all of which tell stories one wants to fall into.

8.       Carson of Venus: The Edge of All Worlds by Matt Betts. Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. launches an official, canonical new set of books starting here: the first new official Carson of Venus novel in decades. New canonical Tarzan, Pellucidar and John Carter novels will follow over the coming year. A longer review is forthcoming next week, but suffice to say I loved it and want more! (I received an Advance Review Copy from the publisher.)

9.       A Sinister Quartet, edited by Mike Allen. A wonderful collection of fantasy-horror novellas by C.S.E. Cooney, Jessica P. Wick, Amanda J. McGee, and Editor Mike Allen. I loved every part of this book, but can’t give a more detailed review at the moment pending possible review publication elsewhere. (I received an Advance Review Copy from the publisher.)

10.   The Adventure of the Naked Guide (The Blood-Thirsty Agent #3) by Cynthia Ward. Ward’s third, penultimate, adventure of Lucy Harker takes her from war-time Germany into the hidden world beneath the Earth’s crust for a reunion with family and with old foes. Non-stop action from start to finish.

11.   The Klaus Protocol by Frank Schildiner. A most excellent Russian spy thriller set in the Asian theater of war in the days before World War Two. Full Review HERE.

STORIES

I have a goal of reading 366 short stories (1 per day, essentially, although it doesn’t always work out that way) this year (366 because it’s a Leap Year). Here’s what I read this month and where you can find them if you’re interested in reading them too. If no source is noted, the story is from the same magazine or book as the story(ies) that precede(s) it:

1.       “The Least of These” by Veronica Roth, from Lightspeed Magazine #119 (April 2020 issue), edited by John Joseph Adams.

2.       “Always The Harvest” by Yoon Ha Lee

3.       “Voice of Their Generation” by Andrew Dana Hudson

4.       “A Subtle Web: A Tale From The Somadeva Chronicles” by Vandana Singh

5.       “Bow Down Before The Snail King!” by Caleb Wilson

6.       “Glass Bottle Dancer” by Celeste Rita Baker

7.       “Neversleeps” by Fred Van Lente

8.       “The Witch Sleeps” by Rati Mehrotra

9.       “In The Land of Rainbows and Ash” by Seanan McGuire, on the author’s Patreon page.

10.   “How To Submit” by Don Redwood, from Daily Science Fiction, edited by Jonathan Laden and Michele-Lee Barasso

11.   “A Bad Night For Burglars” by Lawrence Block, from The Burglar In Short Order

12.   “Mr. Rhodenbarr, Bookseller, Advises A Young Customer On Seeking A Vocation”

13.   “The Burglar Who Strove To Go Straight”

14.   “Like A Thief in the Night”

15.   “The Burglar Who Dropped In On Elvis”

16.   “The Burglar Who Smelled Smoke”

17.   “The Burglar Who Collected Copernicus”

18.   “The Burglar Takes A Cat”

19.   “Monsters” by Jim Butcher, from Parallel Worlds, edited by L.J. Hachmeister and R.R. Verdi

20.   “The Dark of the Sun” by Christopher Paul Carey, from Carson of Venus: The Edge of All Worlds, edited by Christopher Paul Carey

21.   “The Sinister Quartet (Introduction)” by Mike Allen, from The Sinister Quartet, edited by Mike Allen

22.   “The Twice-Drowned Saint (Being A Tale of Fabulous Gelethel, the Invisible Wonders Who Rule There, And The Apostates Who Try To Escape” by C.S.E. Cooney

23.   “An Unkindness” by Jessica P. Wick

24.   “Viridian” by Amanda J. McGee

25.   “The Comforter” by Mike Allen

So that’s 25 short stories in April. Once again under “1 per day,” putting me further behind for the year so far. (April 30th was the 121th day of 2020.)

Summary of Reading Challenges:

“To Be Read” Challenge: This month: 0 read; YTD: 3 of 14 read.

366 Short Stories Challenge: This month:  25 read; YTD: 84 of 366 read.

Graphic Novels Challenge:  This month: 2 read; YTD: 9 of 52 read.

Goodreads Challenge: This month: 11 read; YTD: 50 of 125 read.

Non-Fiction Challenge: This month: 0 read; YTD: 4 of 24 read.

Read the Book / Watch the Movie Challenge: This month: 0; YTD: 0 read/watched.

Complete the Series Challenge: This month: 1 books read; YTD: 6 of 16 read.

                                                                Series fully completed: 0 of 3 planned

Monthly Special Challenge: April was National Poetry Month, so my goal was to read some poetry. I am notoriously not a reader of poetry, but I did manage to read one poetry collection by C.S.E. Cooney.

May is Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, so my goal is to read a number of authors either from or descended from that part of the world and maybe squeeze in some non-fiction about that part of the world.

Reading Challenges For 2020

I always set myself more than one reading challenge per year. Some carry over from year to year, and some are new. Some are broad and some are themed. And in many cases, books read will help me meet more than one challenge. Here’s this year’s list.

TO BE READ CHALLENGE

In past years, the wonderful Roofbeam Reader has hosted a “To Be Read Challenge” with specific rules about posting, etc. He’s not hosting one this year, but I’m going to do a version of the challenge for myself without making it a separate post this year. The idea is to pick 12 books (plus 2 alternates in case you find yourself unable to finish a couple of your main choices) that have sat unread on your bookshelf for a year or more. Thus, books published in 2019 wouldn’t be eligible, nor would re-reads. I plan to come back to this post and add “date completed” for each book individually and for each series as a whole. Here are my 14 for 2020 (not listed in intended reading order):

1.       Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin

2.       No Longer at Ease by Chinua Achebe

3.       Logan’s Run by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson

4.       A Diet of Treacle by Lawrence Block

5.       Shadowhouse Falls by Daniel Jose Older

6.       Greatheart Silver by Philip Jose Farmer - finished September 23, 2020

7.       Pirates of Venus by Edgar Rice Burroughs - finished January 22, 2020

8.      The Bad Seed by William March - finished October 30, 2020

9.    The Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler - finished February 19, 2020

10.   Choke Hold by Christa Faust - finished March 29, 2020

11.   Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse

12.   The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Alternate #1: The Mystery of the Sea by Bram Stoker

Alternate #2: Excalibur! by Gil Kane and John Jakes

366 SHORT STORIES CHALLENGE

Every year, I challenge myself to read one short story per day. Some years I keep the pace pretty well, and some years I fall behind and then scramble to catch up (and some years, I catch up and fall behind again). I used to post thoughts on each individual story over on my now-largely-defunct Livejournal; this year I plan to review a story or two in-depth each Sunday and then do a monthly “round-up” of all stories read that month. I’m defining “short story” as anything from flash fiction to novella-length. If a story/novella is published as a stand-alone book (ebook or otherwise), that story will also count towards my annual Goodreads “Books Read Challenge.” 2020 being a leap-year, the goal is 366 instead of the usual 365.

GOODREADS CHALLENGE

Goodreads allows members to set a challenge. In 2019, I set a goal of 125 books and actually read 144. For 2020, I’m setting the same goal of 125 to start with, and we’ll see what happens. Goodreads counts magazines and individually-published short stories as “books,” so I count them for this challenge as well. Of course, any book read for the TBR Challenge, or the other challenges mentioned in this post count towards this one.

GRAPHIC NOVEL CHALLENGE

I own far more graphic novels and trade paperback collections of classic comics than I’ve read. In 2017 I started trying to turn that around, and I’m again setting a goal in 2020 of reading one graphic novel per week, so 52 for the year, tracking them in the monthly Reading Round-Up Posts.

NON-FICTION CHALLENGE

As with graphic novels, I tend to get intrigued by and purchase far more non-fiction books than I actually end up reading. In an effort to clear some shelf-space, justify the money spent, and increase my knowledge a bit, I’m setting myself a new challenge this year to read two (2) non-fiction books per month, or 24 for the year, also tracked via the monthly Reading Round-Up posts.

READ THE BOOK / WATCH THE MOVIE CHALLENGE

I have so many books in my collection that are the basis for classic (and sometimes not-so-classic) movies that I thought it would be fun to read some of them and then see how the movies compare. In 2019, I didn’t do so well on this challenge, but I’m game to try again, and of course track them in the monthly Reading Round-Up posts.

COMPLETE THE SERIES CHALLENGE

In previous years I’ve challenged myself to come “up to date” on series I’d started but fallen behind on. Last year, I challenged myself to also read one series that I own but have not read. Titles that I have read in each series are indicated with (read). Last year, I blew this completely, so I’m repeating two of the challenges from last year, adding two (one that will be audio rather than print) for 2020.  I plan to come back to this post and add “date completed” for each book individually and for each series as a whole. If I complete any other series on my shelves, I’ll come back and add that series to this entry.

THE VELVETEEN SERIES by Seanan McGuire

1.       Velveteen Vs. The Junior Super-Patriots

2.       Velveteen Vs. The Multiverse

3.       Velveteen Vs. The Seasons

THE AFRICA TRILOGY BY Chinua Achebe

1.       Things Fall Apart – read in 2018

2.       Arrow of God - read in February 2020

3.       No Longer At Ease

CARSON OF VENUS by Edgar Rice Burroughs

1.       Pirates of Venus - read in January 2020

2.       Lost on Venus

3.       Carson of Venus

4.       Escape on Venus

5.       The Wizard of Venus

THE PHILIP MARLOWE SERIES (audiobook versions)

1.       The Big Sleep – listened to in November 2019

2.       Farewell, My Lovely – listened to in November 2019

3.       The High Window - listened to in January 2020

4.       The Lady in the Lake - listened to in January 2020

5.       The Little Sister - listened to in January 2020

6.       The Long Goodbye - listened to in April 2020

7.       Playback

8.       Poodle Springs (started by Chandler, completed by Robert B. Parker)

MONTHLY MINI-CHALLENGES

In 2019 for the first time I set myself some monthly mini-challenges based on various factors. I’m going to do it again in 2020, but list those challenges here as well:

January: No specific challenge (because I want to catch up on stuff from late 2019)

February: Authors from Africa or of African descent (for Black History Month)

March: Women Authors (for Women’s History Month)

April: Poetry (for National Poetry Month)

May:  Asian/Pacifican Authors (for Asian Pacific / South Asian Heritage Month)

June: Queer Authors (for Pride Month)

July: US and World History (because of Independence Day)

August: Classic and New Pulp Authors (because Pulpfest/Farmercon is held this month)

September: Hispanic authors (Hispanic Heritage Month)

October: Horror! Horror! Horror! (because Halloween, obviously)

November: Noir (because “Noirvember”)

December: Winter Holiday-related Fiction (Christmas, Hannukah, etc.)