Author: HCNewton Page 103 of 609

As has been noted previously, today marks 11 years since I started putting things up on teh IntraWebs as The Irresponsible Reader. Inspired by A Literary Escape (and some others that I forgot to note), I decided to do a little AMA to go along with last year’s anniversary. I had a great time doing this—and hope at least one other person enjoys reading this 1/8th as much as I enjoyed the questions.

Thank you to Allyson Johnson, Paul Nydegger, Bob Germaux, and Bookstooge for these questions.

About what percent of your blog’s subscribers are friends/family? What’s your most effective way of recruiting new subscribers?
asked by: Allyson Johnson, http://allysonjohnson.com
I’m pretty sure most of my nuclear family subscribed early on just to help out my numbers (and still occasionally reads the posts). To the best of my knowledge, there are two friends who subscribe to this (at least they were friends pre-subscription/following, I’d like to think I’ve reached at least Internet-friend status with a few others). Less than 5% (likely much less).

The most effective way of recruiting is doing those things that Carol talked about in her recent guest post, Don’t Be a Stranger: How to Make Connections in the Book Blogging Community. My Saturday Miscellany tends to attract some people (especially when I link to the post of someone who isn’t familiar with me)—but interacting on Social Media platforms (Twitter and BlueSky are the best for me, but individual results will verify) is the most effective way that I’ve come across. Like Carol says, “Yes, this takes time and is uncomfortable for introverts at first, but if you want to find your people and have people find you (a community), you need to promote yourself consistently.”

Have you ignored any other writers up close and personal as you have Craig Johnson?

asked by: Paul Nydegger
HA! No.

For those of you who aren’t Paul, this goes back to Johnson’s appearance in Boise in 2018. While Paul and I were waiting in line to pay for parking, I see a gentleman walk up wearing a large hat. I mutter something to myself about hoping I didn’t get stuck behind this guy, because between that hat and his height, there was no way I’d be able to see Johnson. Actually, given the “Western wear” the guy was sporting, he could almost pass for Johnson, I remember thinking. Except this gentleman was younger than I remembered pictures of Johnson appearing. Naturally, about ten minutes later, we’re talking to people sitting in the same row who talked about riding up in the elevator with Johnson. I said something about talking myself out of thinking he was in line behind us for parking. They replied with something about the green plaid shirt and I felt like the world’s worst fan. Clearly, I care more about a writer’s words than his appearance.

Fast-forward to last year when he was in Nampa. Paul and I are wandering around downtown killing time before we can show up to the bookstore for his appearance. We pass a couple walking the other way on the sidewalk. The male was a tall man in Western wear and a large hat, the woman was shorter than I remember Mrs. Johnson being, but still… So (as I recall it), Paul and I spent a few minutes trying to convince ourselves that we didn’t just run into Johnson before his event without saying something to him again. I also recall our efforts to convince ourselves were half-hearted at best and even less effective.

Next time he comes back to this area, I trust that we will be ready and on the lookout for him. Ensuring, naturally, that we won’t see him until he’s behind the microphone.

Was there ever a time when you weren’t hooked on books, perhaps back in your wild days, before you attached Reader to Irresponsible? A time when your attention was more focused on sports, girls, movies, etc.
asked by: Bob Germaux, https://www.amazon.com/stores/Robert-Germaux/author/B00QMW2V70
I’d say that reading has taken a disproportionate amount of my attention going to my childhood (see below). But, it’s never been my only hobby. I used to play a couple of instruments, and in the 80s I spent a lot of time playing Intellivision and ColecoVision games, and as many Commodore 64 games as I possibly could (at least two of those led to reading particular books).

Now that I’ve sent most of my readers to Wikipedia/a search engine to understand those references, let me answer your specifics:
I’ve never been all that coordinated, so participating in them was largely an exercise in futility and an opportunity for growth in humility. I’ve tried to get into sportsball things at several points in my life—mostly because I determined I needed to in order to fit in. It occurs to me that most of those efforts led to me reading books/articles about the sport I decided to follow to help me understand what was on my TV screen (there was probably a clue there). For the first decade that we were married, my wife and I spent a good deal of time watching baseball together (and will still try to watch the Little League World Series when we can—it feels purer), but that dropped off as the kids got older.

I’ve always been a big TV/movie guy, too—I make less time for films now and I miss them. I got a couple in during my recent recovery—that was nice and really makes me want to juggle my time a little so I can watch more regularly. I’m behind on the more “prestige” shows (read: the ones I have to put my laptop aside to watch) that I like, but I can make time for those a bit more easily.

As for girls? Well, as you can imagine, in the 80s a non-coordinated guy who was super-into comics, computer games, Star Trek, and books, I was quite the hit with the ladies. 🙂 So, yeah, that never took a big chunk of my time, much to my dismay. Thankfully, I eventually was blessed enough to meet someone who did appreciate that combo (or was willing to undertake an improvement project).

Following up on the previous question, how old were you (or in what grade at school) when you first realized how much you enjoyed reading? Was there a particular book or author that caught your eye?
asked by: Bob Germaux, https://www.amazon.com/stores/Robert-Germaux/author/B00QMW2V70

Donald J. Sobol was the tipping point. The first time I realized (and likely my parents realized, too) just how avid a reader I was/would be came the summer after second grade. My family was on a forever-long road trip (Eastern Idaho to Southern California) and I was bored, so I demanded my parents buy me something to read. Clearly, I wasn’t a pleasure to be stuck in a station wagon with, because at the next town, they did. I got two books, Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective and Sugar Creek Gang Screams in the Night. I read them both several times before we got back to Idaho (I don’t think I demanded or received another book on the trip). That was the last time I went somewhere over 40 minutes away from my home without at least one book.

I’d read a lot before then—and demanded my mother read to me a lot before then, too—but I think it was just something I just happened to do. This trip got us all to realize that this was “my thing” (I can’t believe we used this expression back in the early 80s when he had this realization, but whatever the equivalent was at the time). So my library trips—public and school—became more frequent and intense. Also, the mystery/thriller genre became a focus—many more Encyclopedia Browns, a few more Sugar Creek Gang books (the library didn’t have many, and I hadn’t yet figured out how to get my family to buy me books to the extent they do now), and then The Three Investigators came on their heels. SF and Fantasy came soon after.

One more question. Clearly, you have an advanced case of RO (Reading Obsession). It’s okay. I’m likewise afflicted. Just in case it isn’t genetic, which three books would you insist be read aloud to your grandcritters before they’re old enough to flip those pages themselves?
asked by: Bob Germaux, https://www.amazon.com/stores/Robert-Germaux/author/B00QMW2V70
This is a fantastic question—and one I don’t really have an answer to. Anything by Sandra Boynton. And I’m trying a handful of different things to figure out his taste for the present.

But I don’t know what to do when he’s able to handle longer narratives, I really don’t remember what his aunt, uncles, and father liked (or what I liked reading with them). I think that I’m going to try to spend some time in Narnia with him, and maybe a quick trip to Middle Earth, before he’s able to read himself. We’ll definitely check into Hogwarts when he’s a bit older. I think Prydain needs to be in the older section, too, to really appreciate. Fitzgerald’s The Great Brain is episodic and simple enough that I could probably interest him in those. Maybe Caddie Woodlawn? (I’m going to skip the Laura Ingalls Wilder books because when I tried them with my kids I found them mind-numbingly dull, but Caddie was a lot of fun)

(obviously, Mom and Dad might swoop in and beat me to those).

I have a couple of friends who have children a couple of years older than the grandcritter, so I’m going to be looking to them for advice—as well as hunting down more children’s lit bloggers—when he gets to that stage.

Seconds before I hit “publish” I remembered Kate DiCamillo exists. I think I discovered her too late to really get my kids into her as I read to them (but I think my daughter may have followed her on her own a bit), The Tale of Despereaux and Because of Winn-Dixie are must-reads. You might enjoy them, too, Bob.

How much time, on a weekly basis, do you spend reading?
asked by: Bookstooge, http://bookstooge.blog
Not as much as I’d like, but my eyes can only handle so much. And my body insists on this thing called “sleep.” (the former is decreasing and the latter is increasing lately). I think 2-3 hours a day, typically. Saturdays tend to be a lighter day for reading, but I still manage to cram in an hour (occasionally, I get several hours in, see below). So, 11-16 hours a week, I guess is the answer. I actually assumed that’d be higher.

I do get 18-20 hours of audiobook listening in during the work week (depending on my commute and workload), too.

So that’s 29-36 hours of involvement with books a week.

How much time, on a weekly basis, do you spend writing blog posts?
asked by: Bookstooge, http://bookstooge.blog
Not as much as I’d like, but my brain can only handle so much—more importantly, there are dogs, a grandcritter, and a wonderful wife to pay attention to (among other things).

Typically Saturdays are my big day (unless I get wrapped up in a book or non-book activities), 5-7 hours there. Then I spend 1-3 hours a day Monday-Thursday (probably closer to 90 minutes-2 hours, unless I have a mindless police procedural or something like that on, almost no time on Fridays and Sundays. Making that 10-24 hours a week (imagining some Friday time).

Wow, Bookstooge—this quick look at how I spend my time is more than a little eye-opening for me. I don’t know the last time I counted that. Thanks! (I think)

Happy 11th Blogiversary to Me

By HCNewton

On May 29, 2024

In Calendar Items, Miscellany, News/Misc.

Since I can’t imagine that I’ll be around for the 111th anniversary, I’m going to use this occasion to bastardize a certain writer of a travelogue/memoir on his eleventy-first birthday.

My dear People, My dear Bagginses and Boffins, and my dear Tooks and Brandybucks, and Grubbs, and Chubbs, and Burrowses, and Hornblowers, and Bolgers, Bracegirdles, Goodbodies, Brockhouses and Proudfoots. Also my readers, authors, and other bloggers I welcome you back again to The Irresponsible Reader. Today is the blog’s eleventh anniversary: Eleven years of blogging about reading irresponsibly!

I hope you are all enjoying yourselves as much as I am. I shall not keep you long. I have called you all together for a Purpose. Indeed, for Three Purposes!

First of all, to tell you that I am immensely fond of you all, and that eleven years is too short a time to blog among such excellent and admirable hobbits and readers.

I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.*

Secondly, to celebrate my anniversary. It’s been 11 years and 5,065 posts, 2 template facelifts, 2 webhosts, thousands and thousands of pages read, and hundreds and hundreds of hours of listening.

If I may be allowed to refer to ancient history, my arrival on the Internet by this name wasn’t an auspicious arrival–and not terribly readerly, either, that started the next day. As I’ve noticed with my reposts this week, I wasn’t terribly wordy then, but I’ve largely recovered from that.

I wish to make an ANNOUNCEMENT.

I regret to announce that – eleven is far too short a time to spend among you – this is the NOT END. I am going nowhere. I am NOT leaving NOW.

This is NOT GOOD-BYE!

* Not true…but you can’t mess with that line.

Okay, I can’t torture Tolkien’s wording enough to get this in, but it’s the most important part:

I’ve had a blast doing this. I’ve read so many great things—many, many things I’d never have even heard of without this blog. I’ve corresponded with more great authors than I can think of—and best of all, there’s you readers.

I want to thank all of you for your time, your comments, your support (particularly through the whole recent cancer/surgery thing) your encouragement—and occasionally, your editing (I always appreciate it, I just regret the necessity). I assure you that every view, every like, every comment, every retweet, every email is encouraging and I can’t thank you enough. Hopefully, I’m saying that often enough.

BLOGIVERSARY REPOST: The Girl with the Iron Touch by Kady Cross

By HCNewton

On May 29, 2024

In Fiction, Science Fiction, Steampunk, YA/MG/Children's Books

To commemorate the 11th Blogiversary of The Irresponsible Reader, I’m reposting the first six books I blogged about this week.

The Girl with the Iron Touch by Kady Cross

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Another fun installment in Cross’ Steampunk Chronicles. As silly as I feel reading a book with the Harlequin Teen logo on it, I really enjoy this series (‘tho maybe I should switch to the ebook edition to protect my rep). Once again, Cross balances a steampunk-y adventure story with strong emotional plotlines, with some fun banter between her characters, making for an addictive read.

This time out the primary focus is on Emily — the technomancer, and on both her personal and professional crisis. Just as it seems she’s making some progress on getting Sam to say how he feels about her, as well as to accept what she did to save his life, she’s kidnapped by a bunch of automatons so she can perform a brain transplant from a very injured scoundrel into a semi-organic android. No really, that makes sense in context.

Everyone else, in one way or another, is dealing with the fallout from their trip to the U.S. (and from the events in the first book), while also trying to find Emily and bring her home safely. Obviously, it’s worst for Jasper, more withdrawn from both his friends and the events in the book as a whole.

Griffin and Finley are also dealing with their relationship’s progress — with all the complications, ups adn downs that such entails. Griffin started dealing with something relating to his power in the States and it’s having a devastating impact on him back home (and in turn, that’s impacting everyone around him), causing Finlay to fret over him. My biggest beef with this book comes from the Finlay/Griffin interactions, which are far too similar to the Emily/Sam interactions, covering nearly the same grounds with both couples.

There’s a new character introduced that should provide a good deal of fodder for storylines in the future, and I eagerly await more of her. Really can’t say more without entering Spoiler City, so, I’ll just limit myself to saying that Cross’ creativity and inventiveness is on full display with her creation, and she’s already one of my favorites in the series.

One other note, one of the automatons we spend the most time with was described as a spider with a doll’s head. I certainly hope Cross was trying to get her readers to envision that creepy doll from Toy Story — because every one I know whose read this is seeing that.* Griffin and his team find her just as unnerving as Woody and Buzz did (don’t blame them), either.

Things are getting harder, and stakes are getting higher for our intrepid adventurers — whatever’s next will likely push them further yet.

This was a fun, quick read and I’m already impatiently waiting for the next installment.

*That’d be my wife and I.

The Good Samaritan Strikes Again by Patrick F. McManus: Gentle Humor about Idaho Life

By HCNewton

On May 28, 2024

In Humor, Non-Fiction

The Good Samaritan Strikes Again

by Patrick F. McManus

DETAILS:
Publisher: Holt Paperbacks
Publication Date: August 15, 1993
Format: Paperback
Length: 211 pg.
Read Date: May 8-17, 2024

Over half a century of poking around the woods and mountains, I have rescued several dozen wild creatures from life-threatening situations. Almost none ever expressed an iota of gratitude. Instead, they have attempted to bite me, peck me, claw me, scratch me, gore me, even as | rendered them the service. The only one to repay the favor of my rescuing it was a skunk, when I was eight years old, and it spent all of its resources to purchase my freedom from school for a whole week. In my experience, however, that skunk was unique among wild creatures for its kindness and generosity.

What’s The Good Samaritan Strikes Again About?

This is a collection of 24 of McManus’s essays, pulled from a variety of sources talking about…well, mostly the things he always talks about—his life, hunting, fishing, and things he finds interesting.

There’s not a recurring theme or anything, I’m guessing this is just a collection of pieces written in the early 1990s (the previous collection was published in ’91, the following in ’94).

McManus’s Humor

I think the best way to describe this humor is gentle. He’s not one for clever wordplay (although he will occasionally indulge), this isn’t biting satire, he’s not as outlandish and goofy as Barry. It felt like Lewis Grizzard at half-volume—I think it’s similar to Garrison Keillor (although I really can’t say) or Tom Bodett.

I can’t imagine you’ll guffaw—or laugh out loud. But you’ll be amused. You’ll smile—maybe even chuckle.

So, what did I think about The Good Samaritan Strikes Again?

I haven’t read McManus since the mid-80s—there were a couple of years where some of his early collections were in heavy rotation amongst my extended family and I sampled a few. Mostly I didn’t get his humor at the time—even then I didn’t relate too much to the hunting and fishing jokes. I understood more of them now, at least—but I don’t know that I found them more amusing now.

I feel like I need to turn in my Idaho Citizen card for saying that kind of thing—McManus and I were born in the same city, we were inculcated with many of the same values, and had the same kind of environment growing up. But our senses of humor didn’t develop along the same lines.

The pieces that had the least to do with outdoors-y topics worked best for me. He touches on aging and worry, there’s a little bit of satire relating to PR, there’s some stuff on coping with stress, recounting his first kiss…the title essay involves trying to help a motorist following an accident. Then there are a lot of things involving camping, hiking, fishing, hunting and the like…most of those had something I found amusing—a paragraph, a clever sentence—many of them were largely entertaining. But that’s for me—and humor is more subjective than most things I talk about here (although everything is pretty subjective here)—so who knows how you’ll react.

When Ford Prefect’s editors were done with his revisions to the entry for Earth in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the entry summing up our planet read “Mostly harmless.” Similarly, I think The Good Samaritan Strikes Again could be summed up as: Mildly amusing.

Your results may vary, obviously, but it’s a pleasant way to spend some time—not much more. But honestly, who wouldn’t mind a pleasant couple of hours?

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.
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LITERARY LOCALS: A Q&A About Writing in Idaho with Steve McGill

By HCNewton

On May 28, 2024

In A Few Quick Questions With..., Literary Locals

Literary Locals logo
I had the pleasure of meeting McGill and having a brief conversation with him at the recent Library Book Fair–and am now happy to bring you this look at writing in Idaho from a relatively recent arrival.

Before we get into things, why don’t you give the reader a brief introduction to you and your work.
I’m a veteran teacher. I taught elementary grades for the first eight years of my career; for the next eighteen, I taught middle school. I’m now a professor of English at San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton, California, where I’ve been an instructor for twenty-five years. I wrote “The Cave” in 2008. It was an exciting time for me, attending book signings at places like Barnes and Noble and Borders Book stores. I published “No Father No Son” in 2022. It’s interesting that when I honestly answer the question, “What’s it about,” with the reply, “It’s the sad story of a boy’s childhood and how he copes,” people get very quiet.

What brought you to Idaho in the first place? What is it about Idaho that keeps you here?
I lived in California all my life until I moved to Idaho in January 2023. California has so much beauty, but it also has so much filth. The beauty is nature, and the filth is anything but nature. The filth stems from human interaction. It’s somewhat political in nature, but there’s more to it. Much more.

Are you tied into some sort of local author/bookish group/culture? If so, tell us about it
and how it helps you as an author. If you’re not, is there a reason for it?
I am not a part of a book club or group. The reason is that any club I’ve joined in the past tends to consist of less than serious readers. My experience with “intellectuals” is saturated with ego.

What kind of events in the area do you attend—either to sell/promote your books or to network with authors? Are there any outside of this area that you hit regularly and wish we had something like it here?
No for the same reason.

What’s the breakdown of your audience—do you have a strong local base, or are your readers from other parts of the world?
Most of my readers have been adults who enjoy an adventure story. Ironically, most of the readers of my young reader novel are adults.

Do you think there are particular challenges or advantages to being a writer in the Treasure Valley? (possibly both)
I hope the Treasure Valley consists of communities that are still readers, but social media has attracted even some of the most avid readers. There’s a vast difference between the experience found in deep reading and the experiences of cheap, shallow reading found online.

Do you bring Idaho (or some sort of Idaho-sensibility, assuming one exists) to your work? Whether or not anyone else sees it, can you look at some aspect of your writing and think “That’s Idaho” or “I would do ____ differently if I was a Kentuckian or from Illinois?”
I’ve only been in Idaho for a bit longer than a year, so the question may not apply.

One final question, is there a book (or two…or 18, if you get really carried away), that embodies Idaho/the Idaho spirit to you to recommend to my readers?
See the previous answer.

Thanks for your time and participation!

Literary Locals logo

BLOGIVERSARY REPOST: Pros and Cons: A Short Story by Janet Evanovich & Lee Goldberg

By HCNewton

On May 28, 2024

In A-F, Fiction, Fox and O'Hare, Janet Evanovich, Lee Goldberg, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller

To commemorate the 11th Blogiversary of The Irresponsible Reader, I’m reposting the first six books (or, I guess, stories) I blogged about this week. This post got me my first comment here—from Goldberg himself! I did go on to love the series (at least until Goldberg moved on), so the first thing I predicted came true.

I spent the better part of an hour writing a different review this morning — it wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be, but I’d worked on it a lot. And then I lost it. One stupid, wrong and mostly stupid click of the mouse and …poof. Didn’t have time to try to recreate it, but wanted to post something new today. And hey, I just purchased the Evanovich/Goldberg short story, Pros and Cons. Perfect! That’d fit the bill. Right? well…

—–

Pros and Cons: A Short Story by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg
Series: Fox and O’Hare, #0.5
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I’ve been eagerly awaiting The Heist since it was first announced — I’m a big fan of both Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg, so when this short story prequel was released I couldn’t resist.

I probably should have found the will power. This, at best, was not bad. Amusing at times, but most of the humor felt forced. Even then, the humor was overly broad most of the time. Worse than that, the story was chock-full of exposition dumps that are almost worthy of Dan Brown.

That said, I’ve read almost 30 books by these two over the years and have no doubt that the novels are going to be better. The primary characters — Agent O’Hare and scoundrel Fox, are promising and chock-full of potential. Sure, I’m a little less enthused about The Heist than I was yesterday, but I’ll get over that once it’s in my hot little hands.

Short version: Skip this tease, come back for the real thing.

Highlights from April: Lines Worth Repeating

By HCNewton

On May 27, 2024

In Books, Currently Reading, News/Misc., Quotations

Highlights from the Month
This is two months in a row where I’ve posted this in its closing days. I’m going to (try to) finish the May version this weekend. I know I’m the only one who cares, but it niggles at the back of my mind. There’s no theme this month, which is fine, but I enjoy it when one emerges. I’m babbling for the sake of babbling here it seems, like Skulguggery below I’ve lost track of this, so I’m just going to get on with things.

Skulduggery Pleasant: The Faceless Ones Trilogy by Derek Landy

They both got out and opened the bonnet. “Well,” her mother said, looking at the engine, “at least that’s still there.”

“Do you know anything about engines?” Stephanie asked.

“That’s why I have a husband, so I don’t have to. Engines and shelves—that’s why man was invented.”

Stephanie made a mental note to learn about enginges before she turned eighteen. She wasn’t too fussed about the shelves.

“Am I going mad?”

“I hope not.”

“So you’re real, you actually exist?”

“Presumably.”

“You mean you’re not sure if you exist or not?”

“I’m fairly certain, I mean I could be wrong. I could be some ghastly hallucination, a figment of my imagination.”

“You might be a figment of your own imagination?”

“Stranger things have happened. And do, with alarming regularity.”

Every solution to every problem is simple. It’s the distance between the two where the mystery lies.

Her parents wanted her to find her own way in life. That’s what they’d said countless times in the past. Of course, they’d been referring to school subjects and college applications and job prospects. Presumably, at no stage did they factor living skeletons and magic underworlds into their considerations. If they had, their advice would probably have been very different.

“What does a clue look like?” Tanith whispered.

Stephanie fought the giggle down and whispered back. “I’m looking for a footprint or something.”

“Have you found one yet?”

“No. But that’s probably because I haven’t moved from this spot.”

“Maybe we should move, pretend we know what we’re doing.”

“Skulduggery,” the tall man said eventually, his voice deep and resonant, “trouble follows in your wake, doesn’t it?”

“I wouldn’t say follows,” Skulduggery answered. “It more kind of sits around and waits for me to get there.”

“I want you all to know, ” Skulduggery said, “that we are the first line of defense. In fact, we’re practically the only line of defense. If we fail, there won’t be a whole lot that anyone else will be able to do. what I’m trying to say, is that, failure at this point, isn’t really the smart move to make. We are not to fail—do I make myself absolutely clear? Failure is bad. It won’t help us in the short term, and certainly won’t do us any favors in the long run. And I think I’ve lost track of this speech, and I’m not too sure where it’s headed, but I know where it started and that’s what you’ve got to keep in mind.”

“Cheer up everyone, since we’re all going to die horribly anyway, what’s there to be worried about?”

“I’m placing you under arrest for murder, conspiracy to commit murder and, I don’t know, possibly littering.”

You’d Look Better as a Ghost by Joanna Wallace

…I’m beginning to realize I’ve never given grief the respect it deserves. Drawing no distinction between strong, weak, rich or poor, it plows through everyone’s lives the same, leaving identical mounds of emotional debris behind.

Raw Dog by Jamie Loftus

Hot dogs are the kind of American that you know there is something deeply wrong with but still find endearing.

Dietrich by Don Winslow

Big John was face down in a sphere of dried blood. Someone put two in the back of his head. “Natural causes?” Dietrich thinks, “you get two bullets in the head, naturally you’re going to die.”

They say that water is the most powerful erosive force in the world, it wears away rock, it cuts canyons. But sorrow, too, erodes. You see so much sadness on this job. it wears you down year after year, murder after murder, heartbreak after heartbreak. It washes away joy, carries it downstream like silt. But slowly, you don’t see it happening, you don’t really feel it, and then one day you wake up and you realize you no longer have the capacity for happines.

Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

But the Law is still, in certain inevitable cases, the pre- engaged servant of the long purse…

Shall I confess it, Mr. Hartright?— I sadly want a reform in the construction of children. Nature’s only idea seems to be to make them machines for the production of incessant noise.

Some of us rush through life, and some of us saunter through life. Mrs. Vesey SAT through life. Sat in the house, early and late; sat in the garden; sat in unexpected window-seats in passages; sat (on a camp-stool) when her friends tried to take her out walking; sat before she looked at anything, before she talked of anything, before she answered Yes, or No, to the commonest question…

A mild, a compliant, an unutterably tranquil and harmless old lady, who never by any chance suggested the idea that she had been actually alive since the hour of her birth. Nature has so much to do in this world, and is engaged in generating such a vast variety of co-existent productions, that she must surely be now and then too flurried and confused to distinguish between the different processes that she is carrying on at the same time. Starting from this point of view, it will always remain my private persuasion that Nature was absorbed in making cabbages when Mrs. Vesey was born, and that the good lady suffered the consequences of a vegetable preoccupation in the mind of the Mother of us all.

The best men are not consistent in good—why should the worst men be consistent in evil?

Spelunking Through Hell by Seanan McGuire

… when you’re already talking about people who have twenty-eight words for “wound” but only two for “friend,” you don’t want to deal with them when they get cranky.

The Botanist by M.W. Craven

‘I didn’t want you thinking I’d panicked. I didn’t want you thinking less of me.’

Poe was lost for words. ‘Why would I think less of you?’ he said eventually. ‘You’d just found your father’s corpse. There was a bullet hole in his head. If you can’t panic then, when can you?’

Poe had optimistically hoped that Stahl’s flat might be like a grease-spattered kettle — filthy on the outside but sparkling on the inside. He was wrong. if anything, the interior was worse than the exterior.

The discoloured carpet was littered with crushed beer cans, vodka bottles and containers from what looked like every takeaway in Plaistow. A teetering stack of empty pizza boxes reached for the tobacco-stained ceiling like a cardboard stalagmite. Scattered rodent droppings made it look as though someone had dropped a packet of raisins.

And the smell … It was somehow both cloyingly sweet and acrid. Although Poe could smell vomit, urine and faeces, the overriding smell was stale alcohol. It seemed Stahl had hit rock bottom, then taken the elevator down a few more floors.

Poe’s eyes began to sting. Flynn put a tissue over her mouth and nose, didn’t even try to hide her disgust.

‘It’s the maid’s week off,’ Stahl said.

Douglas Salt was too tall for his build. If he’d been four inches shorter he might have got away with it, but at six-foot-five he just looked weird, like he’d been put through a pasta machine. He had compensated as best he could. His face was tanned and symmetrical and his teeth were whiter than snow. Poe suspected his tan came out of a bottle, surgeons had sculptured his face, and his teeth had been bleached until they were down to the quick. His hair was ordered and neat. He wore cream chinos, a polo shirt and, despite being indoors and in his own home, he had a pink jumper slung over his shoulders. For some reason, he reminded Poe of American cheese.

(Image by DaModernDaVinci from Pixabay)

BLOGIVERSARY REPOST: Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child

By HCNewton

On May 27, 2024

In C-E, Fiction, Jack Reacher, Lee Child, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller

To commemorate the 11th Blogiversary of The Irresponsible Reader, I’m reposting the first six books I blogged about this week. This was apparently the first book I discussed here—something I don’t remember looking up until I prepped this.

Gone Tomorrow by Lee ChildSeries: Jack Reacher, #13
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

4.5 out of 5 really. Not sure why I’m holding that .5 out, but let’s say it wasn’t perfect — just so, so close.

On the one hand, this was a typical Jack Reacher novel* — Reacher sees a wrong that needs righting, a question that needs answered, someone who needs a little help, a little vengence that needs meting out, and he takes care of business, period. On the other hand — this was more intense, had more twists and turns, with higher (personal) stakes than your typical Reacher novel.

So, I guess it was a typical Reacher novel — just turned up to 11.

It’s really hard to say much about this Gone Tomorrow without spoiling the whole thing. But I’m going to try a bit: From the outset, it’s hard to tell who Reacher is working for until a little over halfway through the book (I think–didn’t take notes); everyone (everyone) lies to him about all sorts of things — but there’s enough truth mixed into the lies that I didn’t just spoil anything there; the violence (at least on Reacher’s part) is a bit more concentrated than usual, but once it starts…whoa, Nelly.

The biggest difference in this one is the looming specter of various counter-terrorism agencies and entities, functioning in the full protection and powers given by the Patriot Act and so on. Reacher and other characters in this book aren’t reticent to voice their complaints with these powers and the curtailment on citizen rights, honestly, to an extent that surprised me. While Reacher’s not directly in opposition to these agencies (he never would be that), his purposes and theirs do not directly align. Which gives an extra layer of danger for him — if Reacher’s not careful, he can disappear like he’s never existed before.

Basically the only other thing I can say without spoiling the crap out of this is simply: With Gone Tomorrow, Child, once again, shows that he and Reacher are the best around.

——-

* And a typical Jack Reacher novel is a great read, so don’t take this characterization as a complaint.

BLOGIVERSARY REPOST: Christ Of The Bible And The Church’s Faith by Geoffrey Grogan

By HCNewton

On May 26, 2024

In Non-Fiction, Theology/Christian Living

To commemorate the 11th Blogiversary of The Irresponsible Reader, I’m reposting the first six books I blogged about this week. We’ll start here.

Christ Of The Bible And The Church by Grogan, Geoffrey
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

It’s tough to know what to say about this, it’s a wholly carefully-written, exhaustive, entirely orthodox look at Christ as set forth in Scripture and in the doctrines of the Church. It’s an apologetic for the Faith once delivered as well as an explanation of it.

However, wow. It just didn’t work for me at all. The points I liked, I’ve seen better developed, better explained elsewhere. His most evangelical moments seemed half-hearted and perfunctory (although I don’t think they were, it just struck me that way). He is far too concerned with unbelieving scholarship, and does not respond to critics with as much force and thoroughness as he ought. There’s just doesn’t seem to be much heart to this work.

Your results may vary, certainly any book carrying the cover blurbs on it that this does would catch my eye, and I’d expect to be well worth the time, but this just didn’t work for me.