Book Blog
September 27, 2026
kay, don’t dismiss this out of hand, but I got this book from a young (and sharp) kid who attends my Zen class. But, yeah, we both read a lot and we both like China Miéville so there’s that. Anyway, The Nonexistent Knight is a delightful tale by Italo Calvino, written (I’m thinking) in 1950 or so (judging from the copyright). I’m going to make a guess and figure the entire point of this novel is to mock the ideas of chivalry, of knighthood, and the tales which speak worshipfully of them. We begin with King Charlemagne riding along his assembled army, […]
September 20, 2026
his one is another of those Golden Oldies I got from the big used bookstore, by Poul Anderson back in 1968. And a funny little story about this. Was sitting in a fast food joint a week or so back, going from somewhere to somewhere else, just grabbing a bite and sitting in a booth with my book. Reading and chewing. A booth or two down on the other side of the aisle, two churches (a man and a woman, not seemingly married) were yacking away about some sort of church speech or presentation they were going to make, outlining […]
September 6, 2026
o a very interesting novel by S.M. Stirling, and part of a series (I think, possibly The Sky Kings). This novel, In the Courts of the Crimson Kings, we seem to be in the middle of things. This novel assumes (as its plot twist) that we’ve long observed life on Venus and Mars. In fact, it opens at a science fiction convention (with cameo by famous authors) in 1962. It’s known that Russian probes to Venus has found scifi staples of dinosaurs, cave men and (of course) beautiful cave gals. And on Mars, we’ve observed cities and canals on this arid, […]
August 16, 2026
read this when it hit the shelves in the early nineties and remembered loving it. Even gave my copy to my sister-in-law to read (and, evidently, misplaced in Horder’s Hell). Alas. So, Jumper is about a young boy whose father is extremely abusive. Having chased off his mother (more like her fleeing for her life), his father turns his rage on the boy, often beating him with a belt with a rodeo buckle on it. And one night, because he’s drunk, hates himself, hates his life, for whatever reason, he turns his rage (and belt) on his son again. David […]
August 9, 2026
new series by (I guess) our new author J.S. Dewes, a tale of betrayal and terror on the literal edge of the universe. So rich boy Cavalon, a privileged brat who annoyed his all-powerful granddad in a very rebellions manner, gets “French Foreign Legioned” to the Argus, a decommissioned battleship now serving as a gutted watchpost, eyes on the “frontier”, supposedly watching for the return of an alien horror that all but annihilated us in two wars. Of course, he’s a rich boy in a ship full of angry troops who have all been sent to this outpost in the literal […]
August 2, 2026
his all began when my siblings press-ganged me into driving up to take care of my mom for three days. Of course, it’s a full (and taxing) drive each way, so that’s five days. And since there may be delays in my relief, that’s six. So no big deal. Since I’d be driving alone (and since rental cars no longer have CD players) I could not borrow from the library and was sorta stuck, that is, until my pal Jesse bought me a Fire so I could get Audible books. I’ve already reviewed my “test” book, The Last Days of New […]
July 26, 2026
ubtitled as “A true story of Love, Desperation and GPS Technology”, this was an interesting bio from a young woman (Caroline Paul) who starts her recounting with smashing her ultralight and pulping her leg (okay, THAT caught my attention). Finally leaving the hospital, she returns home to her two cats (Fibby and Tibby). So she’s confined with her injury, somewhat smacked out on drugs, depressed, whiny, all those recovery things. And that’s when TIbby goes missing. Weeks pass. Hobbling around the immediate area, calling Tibby’s name, aided by her good friend (and illustrator) Wendy MacNaughton, she starts her quest. Fearful […]
July 19, 2026
f you look into my entire Library of Alexandria, you’ll find a review for Shades of Grey, a curious book by Jasper Fforde. Red Side Story is the second (and possibly final) book of the series set up by the author, where a strange, tightly-controlled society with it’s hierarchy based on archaic rules and your ability to see one certain color) comes totally unglued. We have Edward and Jane, my favorite ruf-love couple, trying to make things work around the rule-checking yellows and the governing purples, all supported by the various other hues, with everyone lording over the greys (basically, the unwashed, […]
June 28, 2026
kay, I have to mention that this book came to me in a strange way, and nearly left in another strange way. I became aware of this while driving home from Tampa, listening to NPR (because, God Sakes, what else is there to listen to at Plant City). They had a story about how books get selected by “Book Buyers”, people who represent chains of bookstores and consider books based on dimensions, cover art, content and market appeal. The interviewer was talking to one Book Buyer about all this, and asked for an example. The buyer said something like, “Well, […]
June 21, 2026
ecommended this book to a friend, based on my fond memories of it. He said he sounded interested. That made me interested. I hadn’t read it for 40 years (since it came out). Did I even still have my old copy? After all, there was the cull I’d done when I had to move everything out to a pod and back in the blazing sun (termite treatment in the house). Happily, I found it. And since I wasn’t reading anything, I put it on the top of my list. So Cosmic Banditos is a book that explores the drug trade, South American […]