Wednesday wrestled with microfilm for the first time in quite some while
What I read
Elizabeth Bear, Stone Mad (2018), sequel to Karen Memory: short (novella-length) but v good and packs a lot in.
Reread two of the D. B. Borton Cat Caliban mysteries from the early 90s still on my shelves: slightly cozier than I recollected, but not entirely squishy. Our protag is a 60-ish recent widow in Cincinnatti with ambitions to become a PI and there's a certain amount of mean streets. Also, points for the protag not running some twee business and just happening to come across Orrid Crimez. One for the Money, Two Points for Murder (both 1993): not bad, held up reasonably well.
Cynthia Heimel, When Your Phone Doesn't Ring, It'll Be Me (1996): because, reminded of her work by notices of her recent demise, I was looking to see if there was anything I had missed, and I couldn't recall this. However, although I couldn't find a copy on my shelves, at least in the place where I would expect to find it, I had definitely read this before. A lot of it is very much Of Its Time: but there are still things there that, alas, Still Pertinent.
While I was looking at Stop You're Killing Me to see what Borton had been up to lately, I was lured aside into looking for other authors I have followed in the past and found that there was a late Robert Barnard, A Charitable Body (2012), that I didn't think I'd read, and when I got my hands on a copy, found I hadn't. However, it's by no means a high spot in Barnard's distinguished oeuvre and I wouldn't recommend anyone to start there.
Vita Sackville-West, Grand Canyon (1942) - which I had seen various mentions of lately because I think it's up for a Retro-Hugo? It is sf - it's set in a hotel at the eponymous location, and there is a general air of impending unease, and we gradually find that the Nazis have taken all of Europe and large parts of the rest of the globe and although USA entered into a treaty, looks like they are next on the list... It takes a very weird turn which I will not spoil, but I found it a generally compelling read. A certain amount of period attitudes, though one could I think support a reading that VSW is critiquing the commercialisation of 'Indian culture', and there is another quiet zinger on racial inequality in USA.
On the go
Besides (still) What Are We Doing Here?, Deborah Philips, Women's Fiction: From 1945 to Today (2014), which somebody mentioned to me in a specific research context, but I am finding of more general interest.
Up next
Not sure: have been in a phase of buying stuff because it's on offer or somebody recommended it or whatever. This entry was originally posted at https://oursin.dreamwidth.org/2744386.html. Please comment there using OpenID. View
comments.