The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick

by Carol2 Comments
First off, the obvious question - why did I read The Man in the High Castle. I don't WW2 books or, in general, sci-fi. A friend made me borrow it and he never suggests books, so I felt like I ought to read it. And then Michelle came up with her Sci-Fi Summer read-a-thon, so it was the prefect excuse. After all, according to the blurb, this is the book that established "Philip K. Dick as an innovator in science fiction." On a side note, I never realized alternative history is a sub-genre of sci-fi. I tend to think of it more as fantasy. Wikipedia says, "since the 1950s, this type of fiction has, to a large extent, merged with science fiction tropes involving time travel between alternate histories, psychic awareness of the existence of one universe by the people in another, or time travel that results in history splitting into two or more timelines. Cross-time, time-splitting, and alternate history themes...
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Hinterkind Vol. 1: The Waking World by Ian Edginton, illustrated by Francesco Trifogli

by Carol3 Comments
A couple of days ago I was sitting on the recliner in the basement and David must have been watching hockey or baseball or something on tv. Anyway, I was bored and my phone and current read were both upstairs. I was also feeling rather lazy and The Waking World was sitting on the shelf on the end table, so I picked it up, read half that evening and finished it the next day. To be honest, I'm not sure how I got ahold of this originally. I don't read many graphic novels, but I must have purchased it at some time. It's enjoyable enough, but there's nothing really exciting about it. It's just okay. The world is interesting, with all the fairy creatures returning, but they're nothing unique. There's a semi-military group too, but they've run a bit amok and once again don't strike me as truly unique. The teenage boy could be more than he seems, but his individual...
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Buried Threads by Kaylin McFarren

by Carol5 Comments
I'm sorry. I had to give up on this one half-way through, and it took me a month to get that far. I just couldn't get into it. I didn't care about the characters and found the plot a little confusing. They were going on a dive to find swords but yakuza were somehow involved and there was a monk who I think was good guy but was in love with a giesha who ended up "owned" by another man. Then that guy ended up dead and I quit reading. It just wasn't for me....
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Morning the Burned House by Margaret Atwood

by CarolNo Comments
I've read several of Atwood's books over the years, but that's not why I picked this one up, even though I do enjoy the short pieces of hers I've read. When we heard Louise Penny speak, she said that several pieces of the poetry in her Gamache series come from Morning in the Burned House. The poems are lovely and dark and sad. They are full of feminine power and grief, truth and mythology, anti-war messages and pro-environment. I love how the words sounds and feel, how the phrases at times are just perfect, although not always. Not every poem struck me, but enough did to make this worth reading. I wanted to give you a few bits, but taking out a few lines from the poetry doesn't really give you the feel, takes away the meaning and most of the feel of the poems. I will give you a middle bit from "The Loneliness of the Military Historian", but you can find the whole...
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The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe

by Carol8 Comments
Amber's been reading Poe stories in her English class at school - it's a shame I borrowed her book. No, I'm not that mean, they have copies to read at school. But I do have to thank Michelle at Castle Macabre for making me pull the Poe stories out. It's given Amber and me the chance to talk about Poe stories in general and specifically "The Cask of Amontillado," since we both read that this month. Poe is many things, subtle not being one of them. "The Fall of the House of Usher" borders on the melodramatic, but in a good way. Poe's writing is ornate and poetic, which is probably why I find Poe best read aloud, even if it's just me reading to myself.  This story is very much a Poe story - we have several trademarks, from the just overall oppressive atmosphere to the crazy male lead to someone being buried alive, but it's a formula that works for him, that he...
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The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe

by Carol8 Comments
I don't read much horror, but Michelle is hosting read-alongs of three of Poe's short stories at Castle Macabre this month and they fit in so well with RIP X that I decided to join her on a couple. My daughter is a huge Poe fan, so I borrowed her paperback copy of Great Tales and Poems of Edgar Allen Poe. I wasn't sure about reading The Cask of Amontillado. Being buried alive is one of my fears, silly I know but that's beside the point. I may have read too many stories like Poe's when I was younger, but the victim here is bricked into a wall, which is somehow different. I don't want to tell too much about the story, it's only 9 pages long and you really should just take the few minutes and read it. A couple of things really stuck me, though. First is, as always, how much good short story writers can cram into those pages,...
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