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 and stand-alone short stories in e-book format as “books.” I read or listened to 13 books in November: 8 in print, 2 in e-book format, and 3 in audio. They were:
1. Lightspeed Magazine #114 (November 2019 issue), edited by John Joseph Adams. The usual fine assortment of sf and fantasy short stories. This month’s favorites for me were Matthew Bright’s “The Concubine’s Heart,” Theodora Goss’s “A Country Called Winter,” Melissa Marr’s “Knee Deep in the Sea,” and Ken Liu’s “The Hidden Girl.”
2. Lucky at Cards by Lawrence Block. Lawrence Block wrote under a lot of psuedonyms, and Hard Case Crime has over the years reissued many of those books under Block’s actual name. This was one of their earliest. It’s a pretty straight-forward grifter story, about a card sharp who falls for a femme fatale, and it’s a fast-paced good time with several neat twists.
3. Astro City Volume 17: Aftermaths by Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson, and others. The final Astro City trade collection, as the monthly series reaches its end, covers some unanswered questions and side-characters from earlier in the run, and even loops us back to one of the earliest, and most emotional resonant, AC stories. The title will continue as Original Graphic Novels, and I’m happy for that. It might be time for a complete series re-read.
4. The Big Sleep (Philip Marlowe Cases #1), by Raymond Chandler. I have never read a Philip Marlowe novel before this month. There, I admitted it in public. So with so much driving to do this month, I decided to finally change that. I can now say I see what all the fuss is about. The Big Sleep, especially as read by Ray Porter, IS noir and sets the standard.
5. Ms. Tree Volume 1: One Mean Mother by Max Allan Collins, Terry Beatty and others. And from there to more modern noir. I read quite a few Ms. Tree comics back in the day, but not the stories collected here. Ms. Tree is Marlowe’s match, for sure, just in a more recent time period. Beatty’s smooth lines keep the story both focused and active. And there’s a long unreprinted prose story at the back as an added bonus.
6. More Than a Vintage Death by Dennis R. Miller. The start of a new adventure/thriller series (I hope) about vintage paperback collector Alec Knight and his retired FBI friend Ravi Khan going up against a dark secret society. You can read my Full Review HERE.
7. Farewell, My Lovely (Philip Marlowe Cases #2), by Raymond Chandler. The second Philip Marlowe adventure, also narrated by Ray Porter, dives a bit deeper into the first-person narrator introspection than The Big Sleep did, and really cements these books as the foundations of noir.
8. Eridani’s Crown by Alex Shvartsman. A new epic fantasy from an author usually known for his comedic fantasy and SF. This one deals with prophecy, revenge, and honor. A longer review will be appearing on Strange Horizons sometime in January.
9. Carmilla by J. Sheridan leFanu. Another classic I’ve left unread for far too long. I listened to the full cast production with David Tennant as Doctor Hesselius. A very enjoyable listen during a dark, snowy/rainy drive. I can see why the story make so many writers want to play with the characters and their family trees.
10. Hawkman Volume 1: Awakening by Robert Venditti, Bryan Hitch, and more. Hawkman is one of those DC characters whose history has been rewritten multiple times since the late 1980s (after DC’s Crisis on Infinite Earths combined all Earths into one Earth for a couple of decades). Venditti and Hitch are the latest creators to try to make sense of that muddled history and make it all work together, and so far I like what they’re doing. Extra points for going out of their way, in the first storyline, to reunite Hawkman with possibly his best friend in the Silver Age Justice Society, the Atom (Ray Palmer). Their banter really rang true to this long-time fan.
11. Magic Order, by Mark Millar, Olivier Coipel and more. Netflix is moving into comics production (I guess the theory is certain properties will then move into the live action or animated series realm). This one riffs on comics’ magical super-heroes: a top-hatted stage magician, his equally-abled children, and their peers (including mysterious librarians and ancient folks who hide as plain mortals) take on a former friend turned foe. Coipel’s art is evocative and shadowy, as befits such a series.
12. Snagglepuss Chronicles by Mark Russell, Mike Feehan, and others. I’d heard good things about this controversial reinvention of Snagglepuss, Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw, Augie Doggie, and Peter Potomus, and I’m glad I finally read it. Russell gets the history down-pat (and acknowledges in end-notes where he fudges things a little for storyline sake). Feehan’s art walks that tough line of incorporated anthropomorphized animals with human characters and makes it work. This is not a “funny animal” book but a look at a dark period in our history via reimagined versions of childhood favorites.
13. Fence Volume 3 by C. S. Pacat, Johanna the Mad, Joana LaFuente, and others. The third trade collection of the BOOM! Monthly comic finally answers the question of who will make it onto the King’s Row Prep School fencing team. I’m really enjoying these characters and was happy to hear that even though the monthly comic has been cancelled, the series will continue in Original Graphic Novels. Because I really want to know if Nick and Seiji are going to go from enemies to teammates to friends to more.
STORIES
I have a goal of reading 365 short stories (1 per day, essentially, although it doesn’t always work out that way) each 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 Concubine’s Heart” by Matthew Bright, from Lightspeed Magazine #114 (November 2019 issue), edited by John Joseph Adams.
2. “Her Appetite, His Heart” by Domenica Phettleplace
3. “Overburden” by Genevieve Valentine
4. “Eros Pratfalled, Or, Adrift in the Cosmos With Lasagna and Mary Steenburgen” by Adam-Troy Castro
5. “The Second-Last Client” by Yoon Hal Lee
6. “A Country Called Winter” by Theodora Goss
7. “Knee Deep in the Sea” by Melissa Marr
8. “The Hidden Girl” by Ken Liu
9. “Winter Sunshine” by Seanan McGuire, on the author’s Patreon page.
10. “Inconvenience Store” by Max Allan Collins, prose short story included in the Ms. Tree graphic novel collection One Mean Mother.
So that’s 10 short stories in November. Well under “1 per day,” but still enough to keep me way ahead for the year so far. (November 30th was the 334th day of 2019.)
Summary of Reading Challenges:
“To Be Read” Challenge: This month: 0 read; YTD: 3 of 14 read.
365 Short Stories Challenge: This month: 10 read; YTD: 374 of 365 read.
Graphic Novels Challenge: This month: 6 read; YTD: 32 of 52 read.
Goodreads Challenge: This month: 13 read; YTD: 131 of 125 read.
Non-Fiction Challenge: This month: 0; YTD: 5 of 24 read.
Read the Book / Watch the Movie Challenge: This month: 0; YTD: 0 of 10 read/watched.
Complete the Series Challenge: This month: 0 books read; YTD: 0 of 16 read.
Series fully completed: 0 of 3 planned
Monthly Special Challenge: I may not do something like this every month but November’s mini-goal was crime/mystery/noir because November is “Noirvember.” I did okay with this one: 5 of the titles I read I would count as some combination of crime, mystery, and/or noir (and 1 of the 10 short stories I read counts as well).
I’m forgoing a mini-challenge for December. I’m hoping to read some stuff I’ve recently acquired (in the past few months) that I haven’t had a chance to get to.