Continuing the monthly summaries of what I’ve been reading and listening to. Better late than never, August’s tally!
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 21 books in August: 13 in print, 5 in e-book format, and 3 in audio format. They were:
1. Lightspeed Magazine #123 (August, 2020 issue), edited by John Joseph Adams. The usual fine assortment of sf and fantasy short stories. This month’s favorites for me were Caroline M. Yoachim’s “The Shadow Prison Experiment,” Carrie Vaughn’s “The Huntsman and the Beast,” Sam J. Miller’s “My Base Pair,” Eden Royce’s “Miss Beulah’s Braiding and Life Change Salon” and Katherine Creighton’s “Sing In Me, Muse.”
2. Hawkman Volume 2: Deathbringer by Robert Venditti, Bryan Hitch and others. Venditti, Hitch and company’s run continues to deepen and expand the concept of Hawkman and Hawkgirl’s reincarnation cycle in a way that is faithful to what’s gone before while still breaking new ground. Loved this second volume.
3. If It Bleeds by Stephen King. Four excellent new novellas by King. I’m a sucker for his stories about writers and their muses/psychoses, so “Rat” was probably my favorite of the four. “Mr. Harrigan’s Phone” was my second favorite, and “Life of Chuck” moved me in unexpected ways. The title novella ties heavily into King’s “Bill Hodges Trilogy” (Mr. Mercedes, etc.) and The Outsider, none of which I’ve read – but I never felt lost, just intrigued by the hints of what I’d missed.
4. Sorcerers by Maurice Broaddus. A really terrific new addition to the urban fantasy genre, focused on a young black protagonist who finds out that his grandfather’s stories are more than just stories, and that he’s been groomed for a job he didn’t know existed. I am really hoping there’s more coming in this world ASAP.
5. Sgt. Janus: Spirit-Breaker by Jim Beard. Flinch Books recently re-issued the novel that introduced Beard’s occult detective. The covers are beautiful, and the lead character is intriguing, but it’s the way Beard tells the stories that really hooked me. There’s a Series Saturday about the Sgt. Janus series coming soon.
6. JSA Presents: Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. Volume 1 by Geoff Johns, Lee Moder, others. The inspiration for the Stargirl television series. I somehow missed this series when it came out in monthly form back in the day. Moder’s art is cartoony fun, and Johns’s devotion to DC Comics history, especially where the Justice Society is concerned, is wonderful.
7. Where The Veil is Thin edited by Cerece Renee Murphy and Alana Joli Abbott. A really wonderful short story collection about the darker side of fairies and their interaction with humans. Includes stories by Seanan McGuire, C.S.E. Cooney, Carlos Hernandez and more.
8. Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones. Terrific novella that twists the “unkillable serial killer” trope of slasher flicks in very cool ways. Full Review Here.
9. A Killing Frost (October Daye #14) by Seanan McGuire. Another great installment in what may be my favorite urban fantasy series. McGuire sets yet another roadblock in front of Toby and Tybalt’s impending wedding, but that’s just the set-up of a novel that might turn out to have changed everything about the series going forward. Full Review Here.
10. The Haunted Mansion: Frights of Fancy by Sina Grace, Egle Bartolini, Nicoleta Baldari and others. Absolutely adorable short graphic novel in which a new, eager young ghost joins the cast of the Haunted Mansion and tries to make her mark.
11. Bella! Bella! by Harvey Fierstein. Harvey’s one-man (one-woman?) show about Bella Abzug recorded as an Audible original. Terrific monologue and pacing. Alternately funny and emotional.
12. Famous First Editions: New Fun Comics #1 by various. A hardcover Tabloid-sized edition of the very first DC Comic from the 1930s, in the tradition of DC’s Famous First Edition tabloid sized FFE’s of the late 70s. Very nostalgic.
13. Sgt. Janus Returns by Jim Beard. Flinch Books’ second Janus re-issue with a beautiful new cover puts an even larger spin on the life and adventures of Beard’s intriguing occult detective.
14. Life Ever After by Carla Grauls. An intriguing Audible Original. A two-person radio play about the way a relationship starts and changes thanks to every-advancing technology. Lots to think on.
15. Certain Woman of an Age by Margaret Trudeau. Trudeau’s one-woman show about her life as the wife of Canada’s Prime Minister (and the mother of another) navigating undiagnosed bipolar disorder.
16. JSA Presents Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. Volume 2 by Geoff Johns, Lee Moder and others. The second half of the original run of comics that introduced Courtney Whitmore and was the basis of the Stargirl television series is just as good as the first volume.
17. Hoodoo Harry (Bibliomysteries #33) by Joe R. Lansdale. My first exposure (long overdue) to Landsdale’s Hap and Leonard, in this novella about a missing Bookmobile that turns up with a driver who is way too young and a bunch of bodies in the back. Definitely makes me want to read more Hap and Leonard.
18. Foxy Heart (Blade and Dust 0.5) by Rhys Lawless. Interesting intro novella to a new series in which a normal human discovers the supernatural world because he’s the fated mate of a fox-shifter.
19. Lumberjanes Volume 15: Birthday Smarty by Shannon Watters, Kat Leyh, Anne Marie Rogers, Maarta Laiho and others. April goes overboard trying to top her previous years’ birthday parties for best friend Jo. I admit, it made me tear up several times.
20. Sgt. Janus on the Dark Track by Jim Beard. The first totally new Janus novel in several years continues the series’ strong trend of twisting the tropes of the occult detective genre in surprising ways.
21. The Gospel of Sheba (Bibliomysteries #18) by Lyndsay Faye. Faye’s Sherlock Holmes pastiches are always wonderful, but I love that in this Bibliomystery about a cursed edition of a long-lost gospel, she focuses on a new character whose life has overlapped with Holmes and Watson but who is very much his own man – a sub-librarian and scholar who is as adept as reading clues as the Great Detective. No idea if Faye has done more with this character and his family, but I hope so.
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. “Still You Linger, Like Soot in the Air” by Matthew Kressel, from Lightspeed Magazine #123 (August 2020 issue), edited by John Joseph Adams.
2. “My Base Pair” by Sam J. Miller
3. “Sing In Me, Muse” by Catherine Crighton
4. “All These Guardians of Order and Clarity, None of Them Can Abide A Free Witch” by Benjamin Rosenbaum
5. “Miss Beulah’s Braiding and Life Change Salon” by Eden Royce
6. “The Bone-Stag Walks” by KT Bryski
7. “The Huntsman and the Beast” by Carrie Vaughn
8. “What Was I Meant to Do?” by Seanan McGuire, on the author’s Patreon page.
9. “Mr. Harrigan’s Phone” by Stephen King, from if It Bleeds.
10. “The Life of Chuck” by Stephen King
11. “If It Bleeds” by Stephen King
12. “Rat” by Stephen King
13. “The Tooth Fairies” by Glenn Parris, from Where The Veil Is Thin, edited by Cerece Renee Murphy and Alana Joli Abbott.
14. “Glamour” by Grey Yuen
15. “See A Fine Lady” by Seanan McGuire
16. “Or Perhaps Up” by Hugh Howey
17. “The Oracle of Exile” by C.S.E. Cooney
18. “Don’t Let Go” by Alana Joli Abbott
19. “The Loophole: A Story of Elsewhere” by L. Penelope
20. “The Last Home of Master Tranquil Cloud” by Minsoo Kang
21. “Your Two Better Halves: A Dream, With Fairies, in Spanglish” by Carlos Hernandez
22. “Take Only Photos” by Shanna Swendson
23. “Old Twelvey Night” by Gwendolyn N. Nix
24. “The Seal-Woman’s Tale (A Tale of Arriland)” by Alethea Kontis
25. “The Storyteller” by David Bowles
26. “Summer Skin” by Zin E. Rocklyn
27. “Colt’s Tooth” by Linda Robertson
28. “Shine in Pearl” by Seanan McGuire, from A Killing Frost
So that’s 28 short stories in August. Not quite “1 per day,” but pretty close and keeping me on track. (August 31st was the 244th 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: 28 read; YTD: 245 of 366 read.
Graphic Novels Challenge: This month: 6 read; YTD: 19 of 52 read.
Goodreads Challenge: This month: 21 read; YTD: 98 of 125 read.
Non-Fiction Challenge: This month: 2 read; YTD: 9 of 24 read.
Read the Book / Watch the Movie Challenge: This month: 0; YTD: 0 read/watched.
Complete the Series Challenge: This month: 0 books read; YTD: 6 of 16 read.
Series fully completed: 0 of 3 planned
Monthly Special Challenge: August’s mini-challenge was supposed to be “pulp and new-pulp adventure/horror/etc.” I also have several ARCs to read of books coming out in September. So that’s two mini-challenges! I read two ARCs (A Killing Frost and Night of the Mannequins) and the three Jim Beard Sgt. Janus books count as “pulp/new-pulp.” I also started Greatheart Silver, Philip Jose Farmer’s love-song to the pulp heroes, near the end of the month but didn’t finish it til September.
As I’m writing this summary near the end of September, I won’t even pretend I tried to do a mini-challenge.