Apr 11 2023

The Little Wooden Robot And The Log Princess by Tom Gauld

I didn’t even know Tom Gauld had written a children’s book! This is his first of hopefully many, especially given the delightful allusions peppered throughout this volume to the title characters’ adventures while on their epic journey.

Once upon a time, a king and queen lived happily but for the fact that they had no children. My eldest child, who was reading this with me, asked, “So why didn’t they just do a funny?” (that being what his circle of friends apparently calls sex nowadays. Twelve year olds, y’all.) I had to explain to him that not all sex leads to pregnancies or subsequent childbirth, tho many of them do, so point one to the book for helping introduce that concept.

Anyway, the king turns to an inventor and the queen to a witch, and next thing you know, they have a wooden robot and a log princess for children. And everyone is very happy and loving and kind. But the princess has a secret: every time she falls asleep, she turns into a log who can only be awoken with a certain phrase. Usually, it’s the robot’s job to wake his sister so they can spend the day playing. Alas, he gets distracted by the circus coming to town one morning. When he remembers to go wake the princess, he finds that an oblivious maid has tossed her out the window. The robot goes chasing after, but will he able to recover his sister and bring her home?

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Apr 09 2023

Human Chain by Seamus Heaney

So here I am at the end of Seamus Heaney’s major collections. I came via the sideways path, the one that starts with his Nobel lecture, which is brilliant, and has repaid many re-readings. It took me through Finders Keepers a collection of his prose, and then through his Beowulf. I no longer remember just why I picked up Stepping Stones, a collection of interviews of Heaney conducted over several years by Dennis O’Driscoll, a fellow Irish poet. After reading that collection, listening to the two of them talk about life and poetry for several hundred pages, I decided it was time to go and find the poems. And so I have. Following the Frumious advice, I began at the beginning and now I have come, more or less, to the end. Human Chain is the last collection of poems published in his lifetime. I may go back and pick up some of his translations — Sweeney Astray piqued my interest, and somewhere I think I still have my copy of his translation of Jan Kochanowski’s Laments — or maybe the collections that he edited together with Ted Hughes. But for major collections, it’s re-reading from now on. The poems will have to come back to me as if new.

Human Chain by Seamus Heaney

Human Chain seems to me to have more longish poems, or at least longish for Heaney, than most of his other collections. “Eelworks” offers six sections, short though each might be, while two poems later “A Herbal” has fifteen unnumbered parts across nine pages. “Route 110” makes its journey across twelve twelve-line sections, and there are nine “Hermit Songs” dedicated to Helen Vendler, a colleague of Heaney’s during his Harvard years. He is giving himself room, loosening up the concision that marks so much of his other work. The poems in this collection also seemed to me to have more than Heaney’s usual amount of non-English words and phrases dropped into the ordinary run of the lines, as if, as he neared the line between life and death, the borders among this world’s languages became more porous, his thoughts ran as naturally through one as through another and he wanted his readers to experience this unity as he did.

His eye for longer views by no means keeps him from appreciating, and sharing, more fleeting moments as in the poem that opens the collection:
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Apr 08 2023

Chernobyl by Serhii Plokhy

Thirty-six seconds. That’s how long the test that sealed Chernobyl’s fate lasted. The test itself was not unreasonable, and could only be performed as a reactor — one of four in operation at the power station in 1986 — was being shut down. It was designed to provide data to understand how the reactor and the systems surrounding it performed under certain unusual circumstances, data that were intended to make long-term operation safer and more reliable. Almost all of the decisions leading up to those thirty-six seconds were reasonable, and even the few that were questionable were well within the norms of Soviet industry, which rewarded getting things done regardless of circumstances, which often set unreasonable goals, and which generally operated among shortages and cutting corners. Each of those choices, some made as far back as when the reactors were designed, had the effect of narrowing the margin for error.

Chernobyl by Serhii Plokhy

Some uranium atoms naturally shed neutrons. Most of the time, the result of this process is unremarkable. Bring enough uranium close enough, though, and the neutrons will cause other uranium atoms to split and shed additional neutrons. If more neutrons are produced by splitting uranium than are absorbed by nearby materials, the process continues as a chain reaction that releases vast amounts of energy and produces a variety of other materials, some of them highly radioactive. Starting a nuclear chain reaction requires nothing more than the material and proximity. Controlling a chain reaction requires quite a bit more: some kind of medium to make sure that the reaction continues at a steady rate, neither stopping nor accelerating out of control, plus cooling to ensure that the heat is dispersed, and the systems necessary to guide and monitor all of these processes. Making use of a chain reaction requires a further layer: a means to convert the heat that fission releases into electricity. The heat converts water near the reaction into steam, which is then piped to spin a turbine, which spins and generates electricity. The steam then condenses back into liquid water. After sufficient cooling, it is piped back through the system, and the cycle continues.

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Apr 06 2023

Codex Black Vol 1: A Fire Among Clouds by Camilo Moncada Lozano

with colors by Angel/Michi DeSantiago.

This is a really fun graphic novel that I almost bounced off of in the first few pages because it’s so darn dark. And I don’t mean in mood: I mean that it’s so visually murky that my brain was refusing to engage with the images on the page. I’d had that problem before when my husband gave me a physical copy of Kill Six Billion Demons for Christmas: it looked way better on my PC than on the page. So I went to check out Codex Black’s origins on Tapas and was pretty surprised by the choice to drag down the beautiful clean lines and graphic pops of color of the original webcomic with the saturated blacks of the physical book’s first few pages.

Fortunately, the book soon switches back to the webcomic’s aesthetics, tho I have to concede that the digital art actually does look much more impressive via digital medium. But I, of all, people, cannot complain: physical comics are way easier for me to read in general. It’s just easy to tell when something was originally created for a different platform, as it doesn’t have quite the same flow as a story written for print.

But enough of my quibbling! You should read this book because it’s a really fun story that showcases an under-explored genre in English-speaking literature. In Codex Black, two unlikely young heroes with supernatural powers get together to unravel a personal mystery that promises to have consequences for the entirety of 15th century Mesoamerica.

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Apr 03 2023

The Keep Within by J. L. Worrad

Due to my absolutely bonkers (and entirely self-inflicted) work schedule over at CriminalElement.com, I feel like I’ve had to dial back a lot on my professional obligations w/r/t books over here, but you’d best believe that when the chance to join the book tour for J. L. Worrad’s latest book came up, I jumped on it! Pennyblade was one of my favorite books of last year (note to self: go nominate it for a Hugo once the Chengdu website starts working) and I was super ready to read more set in that universe.

So, the bad: Kyra isn’t in this book. As far as I can tell, no one from Pennyblade appears in The Keep Within (except for maybe the gross country priest?) but I am also notoriously bad with names and details.

But the good? Oh, there is so much good!

The world depicted in TKW is the same as Pennyblade’s, tho I couldn’t tell you how far from that era it may or may not be. My grasp of real world history also tends to be shaky, but TKW feels very Tudor, if not outright Elizabethan. One of our four viewpoint characters is Sir Harrance “Harry” Larksdale, one of the reigning King Ean’s many bastard siblings. Unlike his brothers, he’s never taken to the study of the blade, preferring instead the stage. As the proprietor of The Wreath, the foremost theater in Becken, he’s a known dandy who’s given free access to the royal seat of Becken Keep, where the king and his court reside.

In the keep, the king’s First-Queen, Carmotta Il’Lunadella, is scheming. She knows that the heavily pregnant Third-Queen Emmabelle is plotting against her, but isn’t quite sure how. Chafing at the bonds that constrain her due to her sex, Carmotta plans out her intrigues even as rumors of coup swirl throughout the court.

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Apr 02 2023

The October Man by Ben Aaronovitch

The October Man begins with what I have come to think of as a hallmark of Ben Aaronovitch‘s Rivers of London: a death that is in nearly equal measure grisly, fascinating and supernatural. This novella offers “a suspicious death with unusual biological characteristics.” (p. 4) The narrator’s local police liaison adds, a few pages later, “The paramedics declared it a biohazard.” (p. 8)

The October Man by Ben Aaronovitch

In contrast to the other books in the series that I have read, The October Man gives readers rivers but no London. The story is set in and around the German city of Trier, and the narrator is not Peter Grant but Tobias Winter. He is a member of a special unit within Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office, the Bundeskriminalamt or BKA (pronounced in German like “bay-kah-ah”). He knows more magic than Grant, though his relations with the head of his department within the BKA are perfectly correct but not warm. She’s originally from eastern Germany, he’s from westernmost parts and from a police family too, whereas it’s implied that magical practitioners in East Germany skirted even what passed for law in the communist times. All of that, though, is background for future intrigues within the bureau for Complex and Diffuse Matters (Komplexe und diffuse Angelegenheiten, KDA) — the perfectly German bureaucratic name for Winter’s department.

His liaison in Trier is a young and ambitious police officer named Vanessa Sommer, her last name being the German word for summer. “It might have been a coincidence but someone, I knew, somewhere, was enjoying a laugh at my expense.” (p. 6) She is not only fiercely competent but also an expert in winemaking, and the sorts of crimes that go along with it. Trier is near the heart of the Mosel, one of Germany’s premier wine regions. The Mosel is also the river that flows past the city. Like London’s, Trier’s river also has an incarnation; unlike London’s, Trier’s presents as a wildly enthusiastic and precocious five-year-old girl. Sommer and Winter don’t meet her until later, but the chain of events leading to the meeting starts with the potentially biohazardous corpse: it’s discovered on a riverbank.

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Mar 29 2023

The Story Of The Saxophone by Lesa Cline-Ransome and James E Ransome

If you think of the saxophone nowadays, you think of jazz musicians, perhaps John Coltrane and Stan Getz if you’re of a certain musical inclination, perhaps Lisa Simpson and Kenny G if your knowledge of the instrument tends more towards mainstream pop culture like my own does. But the saxophone has a long and storied history that springs from across the Atlantic in Belgium and the life of perhaps the unluckiest man in the world.

Born in 1814, Adolphe Saxe was so unlucky that his nickname was “Ghost Child” because no one, not even his own mother, believed that he was long for this world. By the age of ten, he’d been in any number of scrapes that would have killed a far less resilient kid, including accidentally drinking poison no less than three times. But he was also smart, curious and often bored. His parents were instrument designers and makers who allowed him to tinker in the family shop. Adolphe soon learned how to play any number of musical instruments, both of his own and other’s devising.

But young Adolphe had in mind a particular sound. He wanted an instrument that could play as sweetly as a clarinet, as deeply as a trumpet and as delicately as a violin. When he finally unveiled his new invention, later to be dubbed the saxophone, a rival at the Belgian National Exhibition was so incensed that he kicked it across the floor, in only the first of many, many overreactions from heated opponents.

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Mar 28 2023

OMFG, BEES! by Matt Kracht

with the absolutely delightful subtitle: Bees Are So Amazing and You’re About to Find Out Why.

I am 100% the target audience for this humorous non-fiction book extolling the benefits and wonders of bees. Heck, I even wrote a hybrid role-playing/board game, Honey Hex, that benefits the National Wildlife Federation’s efforts to protect pollinators. In addition, I’m a big fan of Matt Kracht’s other books detailing dumb birds, a seemingly insulting yet ultimately engaging way to explore the wonders of the natural world and expose them to a wider audience.

He brings that same sense of humor to the subject of bees, tho with a decidedly less derisive angle. And how could he not, because bees are awesome! Mr Kracht is not afraid to tell you why, detailing what all the bees of the world have in common and what makes each kind stand apart from its peers, and how bees in general differ from other winged stingers. But he doesn’t stop there, providing readers with a most excellent, accessible amount of information on these important honey-producers and pollinators and how crucial they are for the world’s food supply. It’s truly absorbing stuff, presented in easily digestible layman’s terms and spiced up with his trademark over-the-top sensibilities.

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Mar 23 2023

Zara’s Rules For Living Your Best Life by Hena Khan

with the most charming of illustrations, as with the other books in the series, by Wastana Haikal.

Salam Ramadan, readers! Do I have the perfectly timely OwnVoices read for you, the third and latest in one of my favorite middle grade series.

As Zara’s Rules For Living Your Best Life opens, Spring Break is springing! Zara and her neighborhood friends, but especially her best friend Naomi, have any number of plans for how they want to spend this precious week off from school. But Naomi’s mom throws a wrench into the works when she tells them that she’s signed Naomi and her brother up for day camp. Unwilling to be parted from her best friend, Zara asks her mom whether she can go to camp, too. Alas for our young heroine, Mom has already made other arrangements. Zara and her younger brother Zayd are going to spend their days at their grandparents’ house while Mom and Dad are at work that week.

At first, Zara is actually pretty psyched about this. Nana Abu has recently retired, so should be ready to spend all day having fun with them, even as their Naano fusses and tries to get them to do chores instead. Zara is shocked to discover that all Nana Abu wants to do, however, is watch TV and nap, a far cry both from his past active self and from her idea of what a properly retired person should do with their suddenly abundant free time. Worst of all, spending her days at her grandparents is threatening to be boring, a far cry from all the grand plans she’d been making for spending the week with her friends. What will Zara do to save Spring Break, and possibly her Nana Abu, from settling far too firmly into a less than optimal rut?

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Mar 22 2023

Lilancholy by John Battle

This is a strange, arresting book that one hundred percent works better as a novel(la) than as the lyric game it purports to be.

Ostensibly a collection of spells and games created and played by two young girls living within recent memory, the short descriptions take common childhood games of the West and give them a sinister turn. The spells and games sections are connected by the story of the girls, who’ve since grown up and apart. Their tale is half paracosm (a known weakness of mine) and half horror story, with evil fairies working to steal what humanity they can from the unwitting humans around them.

The story is great, and the inclusion of the spells and games inspired: granted, I have a weakness for stories that experiment with form, in addition to my Achilles’ heel for childhood paracosms. The narrator is unreliable, in the way that the heightened emotions of childhood allow the boundaries between reality and fiction to blur. My only complaint about the story itself is the ending. I don’t mind stories that begin in media res or end in a way that’s open to the reader’s interpretation. Abrupt endings that seem better suited to the middle of the book, on the other hand, are far more frustrating than interesting for me, especially when it seems unlikely that a sequel will ever be written.

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