Quick Take Catch Ups: Strange Planet; Claire Dewitt and the City of the Dead; Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore; Paper: Paging Through History

This is an odd group of books, I realize—there’s no theme or anything. Most are books that I can’t find the time to write a full post about, and one I don’t want to spend the time on. To do justice to the Claire DeWitt book would take at least two of my longer-sized posts, and I’d want to read the book at least two more times—so, that’s just not happening, I’ll settle for this sketch. The point of these quick takes posts is to catch up on my “To Write About” stack—emphasizing pithiness, not thoroughness. As you’ll see here.

Strange Planet by Nathan W. Pyle Series: Strange Planet, #1 Hardcover, 144 pg. Morrow Gift, 2019 Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore

(the official blurb)
I’m not sure how to talk about this collection. If you’ve seen the comics floating around online, you either love ’em or hate ’em. If you haven’t seen the comics floating around online, you’re probably wrong, they’re fairly ubiquitous.

Having these in one handy collection is great—this covers the topics “Young Beings,” “Friendship,” “Adulthood,” and “Recreation” from Pyle’s distinctive perspective. They’re great to dip into and out of—either in order or just randomly. I could (and have) spend too much time reading/rereading this.

Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead by Sara Gran Series: Claire DeWitt Mysteries, #1 Paperback, 273 pg. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012 Read: February 15, 2021 Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore

(the official blurb)
I have copious notes on this one, and I just can’t decide how to talk about it. So…I’ll cheat and do this.

It’s like someone decided to do a serious take on Dirk Gently and his approach to detection. And it is pretty serious—although it has moments where I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to laugh or not. A former teen detective turned “world’s best detective” comes to post-Katrina New Orleans to hunt for a missing D.A. Following the idiosyncratic methods of her mentors (in both print and in real life), DeWitt deals with the good, the bad, and the hard-to-fathom that make up New Orleans. She also deals with some ghosts from her past as she uncovers the truth about the DA (including many things he’d probably want no one to uncover).

It’s a book about literary private eyes as much as it is a literary private eye story. I do recommend it, you’re not likely to read anything like it. I’m coming back for the sequel soon.

Not that there was a great danger of this, but between this book and Treme there is zero chance I’ll ever live in New Orleans.

Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew J. Sullivan, Madeleine Maby (Narrator) Unabridged Audiobook, 8 hrs., 59 min. Simon & Schuster Audio, 2017 Read: February 24-26, 2021 Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore

(the official blurb)
A bookstore clerk finds a frequent customer dead in the shelves after he committed suicide. He has some sort of connection to her as a child, she discovers, and has left his few possessions to her. She’s compelled to learn why he killed himself, why he died with a photo of her as a child in his possession, and along the way has to come to terms with horrific events from about the time the photo was taken.

There are a lot of layers to this novel—fantastic concept, heartbreaking conclusion. I never really connected with the protagonist, but I couldn’t stop listening, either.

Mabey did a fine job with the narration, I should add. Looking over some of her other titles suggests that I’ll be running into her again.

Paper: Paging Through History by Mark Kurlansky, Andrew Garman (Narrator) Unabridged Audiobook, 13 hrs., 42 min. Recorded Books, 2016 Read: March 4-9, 2021 Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore

(the official blurb)

This vacillated between intensely interesting and stultifyling dull, overly detailed, and seemingly random in focus, provocative and insulting. More than once I wondered about the connection between paper and whatever particular period of history he wanted to sound off on—the connection was usually there and clear (and germane), but he stretched it more than once. Also, Kurlansky seems to have a real chip on his shoulder regarding religions of many stripes. That’s fine, it’s just not all that germane.

I’m not sure audio was the right for this medium, outside of the irony. There was just so much thrown at the listener, I can’t imagine how anyone could retain any details—I didn’t even try.

None of my problems were with Garman’s narration (although I questioned a few of his pronunciation), it was simply the text.

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