READING ROUND-UP: July 2024

Here’s what I read, listened to, and watched in July 2024!

BOOKS

I read 15 books in July: 9 in print, 3 in e-book format, and 3 in audio format. They were:

1.       Represent! by Rosalie Mastaler, Hunter Mastaler and Brant Day (PRINT)

2.       Let the Games Begin by Rosalie Mastaler, Hunter Mastaler and Betty Yuku (PRINT)

3.       Hunter's Tall Tales by Rosalie Mastaler, Hunter Mastaler, and Danelle Prestwich (PRINT)

4.       A Scout Is Brave by Will Ludwigsen (E-BOOK) REVIEW HERE

5.       Caesar Now Be Still (Wilson Hargreave #1) by Frank Schildiner (E-BOOK) REVIEW HERE

6.       Changes in the Land by Matthew Cheney (PRINT)

7.       Prez: Setting a Dangerous President by Mark Russell, Benjamin Caldwell, Wilfredo Torres, Mark Morales, and others (PRINT, Graphic Novel Challenge)

8.       Reflections (Indexing #2) by Seanan McGuire (AUDIO)

9.       Star Trek Adventures: The Operations Division Supplemental Rulebook by Chris McCarver, Andy Peregrine, Jack Geiger, and others (PRINT)

10.   Dancing on the Edge by Russ Tamblyn (AUDIO, non-fiction challenge)

11.   Lovely Creatures by KT Bryski (PRINT)

12.   A Stick-Figure Macbeth by Mya L. Gosling (PRINT) REVIEW HERE

13.   Super Sons: The Complete Collection Book 1 by Peter J. Tomasi, Jorge Jiminez, Patrick Gleason, Carlo Barberi, and others (PRINT, graphic novel challenge)

14.   We by Yvgeney Zamyatin, translated by Clarence Brown (AUDIO)

15.   Victory Harben: Tales from the Void, edited by Christopher Paul Carey (E-BOOK, ARC (book to be published in September)

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.       “The Last Lucid Day” by Dominique Dickey in Lightspeed Magazine #170, edited by John Joseph Adams

2.       “The Only Writing Advice You'll Ever Need to Survive Eldritch Horrors” by Aimee Picchi

3.       “The Heist for the Soul of Humanity” by Filip Hajdar Drnovšek

4.       “The Aliens Said They Want to Party” by Joel W.D. Buxton

5.       “Songs of the Sorrow of Thorns” by Amayah Perveen

6.       “The Red Queen's Heart” by Vanessa Fogg

7.       “A Guide on How to Meet the Deity of Many Faces” by Oyedotun Damilola Muess

8.       “Between Above and Below” by Carrie Vaughn

9.       “The Girl Who Loved Peacocks” by Seanan McGuire, from the Author’s Patreon

10.   “The Terms and Conditions of Kindness” by James Bennett, from The Dark #110, edited by Clara Madrigano and Sean Wallace

11.   “That Maddening Heat” by Ray Cluley

12.   “Every Hopeless Thing” by Tia Tashiro, from Clarkesworld #214, edited by Neil Clarke

13.   “Pellucidar: Dark of the Sun” by Christopher Paul Carey, from Victory Harben: Tales from the Void, edited by Christopher Paul Carey

14.   “Victory Harben: Clash on Caspak” by Mike Wolfer

15.   “Victory Harben: Stormwinds of Va-Nah” by Ann Tonsor Zeddies

16.   “Victory Harben and the Lord of the Veiled Eye” by Christopher Paul Carey

17.   “Jason Gridley of Earth: Across the Moons of Mars” by Geary Gravel

18.   “Beyond the Farthest Star: Rescue on Zandar” by Mike Wolfer

19.   “Grottmata” by Thomas Ha, from Nightmare Magazine #142, edited by Wendy N. Wagner

20.   “Automaton Boy” by Sara S. Messenger

21.   “The Museum of Cosmic Retribution” by Megan Chee

22.   “Tamaza's Future and Mine” by Kenneth Schneyer, from Asimov's Science Fiction 582/583, edited by Sheila Williams

23.   “The Phantasmagoria of Castle Specfel” by Greta Hayer, from Kaleidotrope Summer 2024, edited by Fred Coppersmith

So that’s 23 short stories in July. Less than “1 per day” again, which puts me slightly behind again for the year! (July 31st was the 213th day of 2024.)

MOVIES

I watched one movie in July:

1.       The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)

The week ending July 28th was the 31st week of the year, so I’m still way behind on the “1 movie per week” challenge.

TELEVISION

·       Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2, Episodes 1 – 20 (20 episodes)

That’s 20 episodes of television, which is well below the “1 per day” I was shooting for and keeps me behind the pace for this challenge.

LIVE THEATER

I didn’t get to any live theatrical performances in July!

Summary of Challenges:

“To Be Read” Challenge: This month: 0 read; YTD: 6 of 15 read.

366 Short Stories Challenge: This month:  23 read; YTD: 202 of 366 read.

Goodreads Challenge: This month: 15 read; YTD: 75 of 120 read.

Graphic Novels Challenge:  This month: 2 read; YTD: 15 of 52 read.

Non-Fiction Challenge: This month: 3 read; YTD: 12 of 12 read.

Read the Book / Watch the Movie Challenge: This month: 1 read/watched; YTD: 2 read/watched. (I read The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie earlier in the year and finally watched the movie this month.)

Movie Challenge: This month: 1 watched; YTD: 17 of 52 watched.

TV Shows Challenge: This month: 20 episodes watched; YTD: 149 of 366 watched.

Live Theater Challenge: This month: 0 shows attended; YTD: 9 of 12 attended.

READING ROUND-UP: June 2024

A little late in the month, here’s what I read, listened to, and watched in June 2024!

BOOKS

I read 9 books in June: 4 in print, 4 in e-book format, and 1 in audio format. They were:

1.       Next of Kin (Stardust and Ashes Book 1) by Melinda Mitchell (PRINT, Sparta Books Book Club pick)

2.       Losing Hit Points by Kristopher Mielke (E-BOOK)

3.       The Unwanted by Jeffrey Ricker (E-BOOK, To Be Read Challenge)

4.       Fever by Jordan L. Hawk (E-BOOK)

5.       The Deep Dark by Molly Knox Ostertag (PRINT, Graphic Novel Challenge)

6.       You Like It Darker: Stories by Stephen King (PRINT)

7.       Captain Kid Volume 1 by Mark Waid, Tom Peyer, Wilfredo Torres, Kelly Fitzpatrick, and A Larger World (PRINT, Graphic Novel Challenge)

8.       Pangs by Jerry Wheeler (E-BOOK, To Be Read Challenge)

9.       Indexing (Indexing #1) by Seanan McGuire (AUDIO)

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.       “The Waking Sleep of a Seething Wound” by dave ring in Lightspeed Magazine #169, edited by John Joseph Adams

2.       “Udo Gehler and the Virgin Bitch of the Resistance” by Andrea Kriz

3.       “The Help Hotline” by Dominica Phettleplace

4.       “Warning Notes from an Annihilator Machine” by Oyedotun Damilola Muess

5.       “Sparrow and the Parasol” by Varsha Dinesh

6.       “An Otherworldly Cat Tells You the Secrets of the Universe” by Megan Chee

7.       “In the Hands of the Mountain God” by Deborah L. Davitt

8.       “The Weight of Salt” by Shanna Germain

9.       “No One Leaves for Good” by Seanan McGuire, from the Author’s Patreon

10.   “Two Talented Bastids” by Stephen King, from You Like It Darker: Stories

11.   “The Fifth Step” by Stephen King

12.   “Willie the Weirdo” by Stephen King

13.   “Danny Coughlin's Bad Dream” by Stephen King

14.   “Finn” by Stephen King

15.   “On Slide Inn Road” by Stephen King

16.   “Red Screen” by Stephen King

17.   “The Turbulence Expert” by Stephen King

18.   “Laurie” by Stephen King

19.   “Rattlesnakes” by Stephen King

20.   “The Dreamers” by Stephen King

21.   “The Answer Man” by Stephen King

So that’s 21 short stories in June. Less than “1 per day” again, which puts me slightly behind again for the year! (June 30th was the 182nd day of 2024.)

MOVIES

I watched five movies in June:

1.       Beautiful Thing (1996)

2.       Gamera vs. Jiger (1970)

3.       Gamera vs. Zigra (1971)

4.       Gamera: Super Monster (1980)

5.       Jim Henson Idea Man (2024)

The week ending June 30th was the 26th week of the year, so I’m still way behind on the “1 movie per week” challenge.

TELEVISION

·       Shoresy Season 3, Episodes 1 – 6 (6 episodes)

·       Doctor Who (2024) Season 1, Episodes 6-8 (3 episodes)

·       Dead Boy Detectives Season 1, Episodes 1 – 8 (8 episodes)

·       The 77th Annual Tony Awards (1 episode)

That’s 18 episodes of television, which is well below the “1 per day” I was shooting for and keeps me behind the pace for this challenge.

LIVE THEATER

·       The Play That Goes Wrong Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Central Valley PA

·       N/A, Mitzi Newhouse Theatre, Lincoln Center, NYC

Summary of Challenges:

“To Be Read” Challenge: This month: 2 read; YTD: 6 of 15 read.

366 Short Stories Challenge: This month:  21 read; YTD: 179 of 366 read.

Goodreads Challenge: This month: 9 read; YTD: 60 of 120 read.

Graphic Novels Challenge:  This month: 2 read; YTD: 13 of 52 read.

Non-Fiction Challenge: This month: 0 read; YTD: 9 of 12 read.

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

Movie Challenge: This month: 5 watched; YTD: 16 of 52 watched.

TV Shows Challenge: This month: 18 episodes watched; YTD: 129 of 366 watched.

Live Theater Challenge: This month: 2 shows attended; YTD: 9 of 12 attended.

SUNDAY SHORTS: Two from Lightspeed #144

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 From Lightspeed Magazine #144

Grace Chan’s “Nobody Ever Goes Home to Zhenzhu” starts out as a simple missing persons thriller: Orin’s sidekick/mechanic Calam, an orphan taken under Orin’s wing a decade earlier, has pulled the disappearing act Orin always suspected he would – but Orin isn’t letting go that easily. The pilot/Beaconer wants answers about who Calam really is and where he came from. And so Orin tracks Calam back to Calam’s homeworld. If this story was a simple “find the missing person / learn their secret” story, it would still be fantastic. Chan paces the reveals wonderfully throughout, threading Orin’s feelings about Calam neatly into the overall narrative. But the story takes on added resonance as Orin learns more about the injustice Calam’s family, in fact entire society, has been dealt. Without spoiling too much: this is a story about colonization, about how the winners write the history books, and about how the colonized are forced to assimilate or be wiped out. I had just recently completed Roxane Dunbar-Ortiz’s An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States before reading this story, and the non-fiction book heavily influenced my reaction to the events of the fictional story. The reveal of what happened to Calum’s family is not the denouement of the story, however. There’s more to it than that, and Chan kept me riveted up to the final paragraph.

In “The Plastic People,” Tobias S. Buckell extrapolates a future in which Earth is essentially a giant trash heap and the rich have, generations ago, escaped to live in orbiting space stations. Occasionally, the children of these families like to camp amongst the trash-heaps for a bit of adventure. On one such trip, Rhea finds a seemingly-feral child among the trash and decides to “rescue” the boy – after all, bringing the boy to live among the civilized surely must be better for him than leaving him among the trash where his own parents don’t seem to care if he’s fed or lives or dies. Complications ensue, of course. Buckell makes his main character likeable at first, but she’s still very, very flawed thanks to the way she’s been raised. The privilege of Rhea and her friends is on display from the very start of the story, and even though she thinks she’s doing something good and noble she’s still mis-informed about the nature and history of the people still living below – including why families like hers left Earth for … well, not greener pastures, exactly, but certainly for a less polluted life. The story comments on how what’s passed down as family historical truth isn’t always true, how the privileged often take on “rescue” projects that they then lose interest in, and how sometimes the idea of “one life-changing encounter” is just that – a nice idea, but not something that happens as often as one would hope. But there’s also a nice underthread about the resiliency of humanity in general, and how we might adapt physically to survive, even if that survival doesn’t look like the gleaming future we’ve longed hoped for.

Full disclosure: I am one of the proofreaders for Lightspeed Magazine, as well as its sibling publication Fantasy Magazine.

Sunday Shorts: Two Fairy Tales by P H Lee

I love short fiction, and Sunday Shorts is the feature where I get to blog about it. Posts will range from flash to novellas. At some point, I might delve into individual stories/episodes of anthology formats in other media, like television and comics, but for the time being, I’m sticking to prose in print and audio.

Author P H Lee has begun an intriguing series of “secondary world fairy tales” under the umbrella title of Tales from the Great Sweet Sea. I have no idea how many of these Lee is intending to write, but the two that have appeared so far (in the December 2020 and January 2021 issues of Lightspeed) have captured my interest and have me yearning for more. Mostly because these two stories are just that good, but also partly because I want to learn more about this secondary world the stories and their framing device are set in.

The narrator of both tales is a traveling storyteller named Dusty Boots, who hails from the valley of Erwhile and who is in love with a girl they can never have. In introducing each tale, Dusty Boots tells us that in the tale-spinners’ guild, half of the tale-spinner are pledged to never tell the truth and the other half to never tell a lie … and that Dusty Boots is one of those sworn to the Truth. So, each of these fairy tales he tells must be the truth, right?

One of the things I loved about both stories was the way Dusty Boots has of including other versions of the story, or other possible outcomes that follow the story, without breaking the vow to tell only the Truth. While Dusty Boots is not a participant in the stories they tell, they are also not complete cyphers. Bits and pieces of their history and personality filter through. And one wonders if, somewhere down the line, we’ll learn more about how and Dusty Boots became a tale-spinner (and why they swore to the Truth and not Lies).

“Ann-of-Rags” appeared in the December 2020 Lightspeed and is a reworking in part of Hansel and Gretel, with a few other tales filtered in in part. (And for this reader, at least, the name of the titular doll conjured images of Raggedy Ann, adding another layer to the story.) In “Ann-of-Rags,” a young girl wanders into the woods and gets lost. As night falls and goes on, her doll Ann offers several solutions to their predicament, encouraging the girl to follow the doll’s animal friends out of the woods. But to a young child, wild animals are scary, and so she refuses their help but accepts the help of an elderly woman wandering the woods at night because she looks kindly. One of the classic morals of fairy tales (especially “Hansel and Gretel”) is that appearances are often deceiving, and Lee illustrates that so well in this story. But that’s not all the story is about. Once in Bone Grandmother’s clutches, the story takes an even darker turn and started to remind me a little bit of Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree: to get the young girl to safety, Ann-of-Rags offers to sacrifice more and more of herself. Thus, the story is also a heart-breaking look at how children don’t always realize, or even remember, the sacrifices loved ones are willing to make on their behalf. I don’t want to spoil the end of the story for anyone who might venture over to Lightspeed to read it (Here’s the Direct Link to the story), but I will say that it brought tears to my eyes.

“Frost’s Boy” is already available if you subscribe to the e-book edition of Lightspeed Magazine and have received the January 2021 issue. If you don’t subscribe, the story will be live on the Lightspeed website on January 28th. Dusty Boots is back to tell us another story, this one combining aspects of many “child left for dead in the woods gets adopted by someone else” tales. Except in this case, the adopting parent isn’t a human woodsman or lonely couple but rather a personification of a seasonal attribute: Frost itself. Naturally, the child grows up cold, controlling, basically heartless. Parts of this story may not be an easy read for some folks as the titular character is essentially a serial killer preying on young women – young women especially who have heard the legends and know they should just run away but somehow believe they will be the one to break the string and thaw Frost Boy’s heart. Eventually we are introduced to the girl who may very well succeed, with the help of her parents. Frost’s Boy reminds me a bit of Rumpelstiltskin: selfish, egotistical, and manipulative, a being who thinks he is so far beyond the mortals he’s dealing with that there’s no way they can get the better of him. And like the farmer’s daughter in Rumple’s tale, the farmer’s daughter in “Frost’s Boy” is the person we really end up rooting for. In a neat bit of subversion to the standard tale, we don’t meet Frost Boy’s farm girl until halfway through the story, where in so many other tales we meet the girl first. Again, I don’t want to ruin anything about the way the story plays out, but I can say that second half of the story is suspenseful in the way of fairy tales (using repeated phrases by the characters and by the talespinner, Dusty Boots) and I was satisfied with the way the whole thing ends.

Linking the tales together is a mention of Bone Grandmother, who here seems a bit more like a personification than the actual person we saw in “Ann-of-Rags.” I found this to be really effective in reminding us that these tales have been told and retold in this secondary world we are learning about, and that Dusty Boots’ versions are the True Versions insofar as the talespinner believes they are.

I’m really looking forward to reading more of these fairy tales by P H Lee, and I highly recommend seeking these two out via Lightspeed as soon as possible.