Howling Frog Books

Happy Halloween everybody!  I'll be trick-or-treating and going to the traditional pumpkin drop, but first...some upcoming fun events!  Tender lumplings everywhere will want to be in on these: Today marks the start of Witch Week, our favorite magical week, which ends on November 5, Guy Fawkes Day.  We're hoping for a bonfire this year!  Lory at Emerald City Book Review hosts her traditional Witch Week event, so drop by her blog and see what's going on--there's a new fun thing every day.  I'm looking forward to the readalong with one of my favorite Halloween books! Brona at Brona's Books is starting her annual AusReading Month , so pick an Australian title and get reading!  She's got some good recommendations.  I have one or two in mind that I might pick. And November is also the month to discuss non-fiction at Doing Dewey and company .  This looks like fun, and I plan to participate.  Though I have an awful suspicion that I'v...

It's the final installment of The Master and Margarita!  What will be their fate? Margarita and the master are installed in their old home and feeling peaceful, but they're the only ones.  Moscow authorities are in an uproar over all the outrages of the last couple of days.  The theater has had to be shut down because practically the entire staff has disappeared.  Police visit Berlioz' apartment...and find nothing.  There is no record of Woland anywhere, so how did all this happen?  It must have all been a lot of nonsense and hysteria induced by a gang, and everything is rationalized away by the authorities (who didn't meet Woland) as they find and question every victim.  The only thing that puzzles them is why everyone seems to want "to be hidden in a bulletproof room with an armed guard." Woland and company are still in the apartment, but not for long; they're packing up.  Behemoth and Koroviev go on a farewell rampage in Moscow, causing may...

The Threepenny Opera , by Bertold Brecht When I first put my Classics Club list together, I pulled from a lot of pretty random sources and I put some things on the list that I'd vaguely heard of, but didn't know anything about.  That way, I'd learn new things!  (This is kind of how I operate in a lot of areas.)  Somehow, I wound up with two Brecht plays on my list, and what I've mainly learned from that is that I do not like Bertold Brecht.  So now I've learned some new things, yep. The Threepenny Opera is a musical play that was based on the 18th century Beggar's Opera by John Gay.  Although it was originally written in German (during the inter-war period), it's set in Victorian London.  It's supposed to be a savage commentary on capitalist bourgeois society from a Socialist standpoint.  It was a big hit in Germany.  Critics in the baby USSR loved it.  Americans liked the music, but not a lot else; one critic called it "a dreary enigma...

I have six, no eight, books to tell you about, so I'm going to do something completely frivolous and do this fun handwriting tag thing.  Esther at Chapter Adventures did it the other day and I thought I'd follow suit. This is a very simple meme: write down your answers on a sheet of paper, take a picture, and post it. I hope you can read this! I sure hope it's legible.  It comes out kind of small no matter what I do. I'm not tagging anyone because I just never do that.  But I would love to see anybody do their own version!  Please consider yourself invited. And now some other news: for the last few years I've participated in a fundraiser for our county's literacy program.  It's a trivia night with three-person teams competing over three rounds.  My team, the Bibliomaniacs, has won first place for the past two years, and we're aiming for a three-peat tomorrow.  Wish us luck!  And if you're local and want to cheer us on, the Trivia ...

Good old Shambhala* Siddhartha , by Hermann Hesse I always had this vague impression that Siddhartha was a book about Buddhism that deep people read in college.  I never had any particular desire to read it myself, but eventually I figured that I don't know anything about Hermann Hesse and maybe I ought to find out.  For one thing, The Glass Bead Game sounds like something I do want to read, but it's on the scary side, so maybe I should start slow with Siddhartha and Steppenwolf , huh? Hesse was an intellectual, philosopher kind of guy with severe health problems that prevented him from doing the things that were normal for people his age, like university and war.  He wound up in Switzerland and did join the military during World War I, but was unfit for front duty.  Anyway, he was totally uninterested in the nationalistic trends around him and instead read a lot about Theosophy, Buddhism, and pacifism, and all that led to the writing of Siddhartha in 192...

The Masked City , by Genevieve Cogman I got the Invisible Library sequel!  This second volume did not disappoint, and I'm looking forward to #3 and finding out more about the mysterious Library, which has clearly got more agenda than Irene, a junior Librarian, can know about. Irene and Kai have been settled into their station on an alternate world--the one from the first book--for some months now.  They're good friends with the master detective Vale and are doing pretty well, but then Kai disappears, abducted by an unknown agent (who is not the fae Silver).  Since Kai is in fact a dragon, this is both incredible and extremely dangerous, since the dragons consider it to be an act of war, and will have no compunction about destroying entire worlds and uncounted human lives in exacting their revenge. Irene has a tricky job: find Kai and get him back before he's killed or the dragons go to war.  It's extremely dangerous, and a political minefield, and the Library ...

We've reached the apex of the novel, and the end is in sight.  What happened this week? It's time to prepare for Satan's Great Ball, so Hella washes Margarita in blood and rose oil, and so on.  She gets rose-petal slippers, a tiara, and a heavy pendant of a black poodle, but otherwise she's still naked.  The demons instruct her on how to behave and the guests pour in--murderers, forgers, traitors, and all, straight from the grave.  They all bow to Margarita and kiss her knee, and after hours of this, she is bruised and exhausted, but must never stop.  She sees Caligula and lots of famous people, but few interest her.  When the stream of guests finally stops, she must fly around the room and greet everyone, so she sees many bizarre scenes.  Woland finally enters (still in his dirty nightshirt) and the demons give him Berlioz' head.  Woland gives Margarita a cup of blood to drink, and the whole thing disappears. The apartment is once more as it...

Curfew and Other Eerie Tales , by L. M. Boston I bought this book on my UK trip and have been saving it for October!  L. M. Boston wrote several creepy stories in the early 1930s, but only three were ever published (each in different anthologies).  The stories were found among her papers and published together in this collection, along with a short play suitable for young amateurs to put on.   The stories are really pretty creepy!  I enjoyed them a lot.  They are similar in style to M. R. James' stories, in that they have a kind of domestically-flavored horror, and frequently feature children, but Boston is less tidy in her endings; they are left open and mysterious, with no solid conclusion. The play, "The Horned Man," is set at a country manor house in the reign of King James I, who has sent witchfinders to roust out any witches there might be around.  The two older daughters of the house, bored and mischievous, try to curry favor with the off...

Here's the third installment of Reading Rambo's readalong of The Master and Margarita, by Michail Bulgakov.  I'm a bit late with my reading this week, so I probably won't be able to do a really long post--we'll see.  Last time I mysteriously skipped a chapter and then read too far.  Weird.  So I went back and read: In another Pilate novel chapter, the disciple Matthew runs to the desert as Yeshua is crucified.  He decides to kill his master to spare him pain, but by the time he arrives, the executioner has already stabbed all three. In Moscow, Berlioz' cousin has arrived in town to try to get hold of the apartment, but the demons whap him with a roast chicken and throw him out.  The barman of the ill-starred theater shows up to ask after Woland, who tells him that he'll die of liver cancer within the year, so the poor man panics and runs off to the nearest doctor.  He pays with magic rubles, the demons visit the doctor, and he ends up with leec...

  The History of the Franks , by Gregory of Tours I was pretty scared of this book, which is a solid 600 pages of early medieval history.  I should not have been nervous at all, because this history is crammed full of gripping stuff!  Feuds, intrigues, miracles, and weird stories spill out all over the place.  I had about as much fun with this as it is possible to have with 600 pages of early medieval history. Gregory was the bishop of Tours in the late 6th century, during the Merovingian dynasty of Frankish kings.  He served through four reigns.  His history is in ten books, and starts with the creation of the world, moving to Frankish history, and then to the history he personally witnessed.  Of course he wrote in Latin. Book I is a summary of Biblical history, pretty much, except that Gregory continues through early Christian history up to the death of St. Martin of Tours in 397.  I will admit to skimming this one, since I am already pr...

The House of Dies Drear, by Virginia Hamilton  The Mystery of Drear House When I was about 10, I checked The House of Dies Drear out of the library and read it, but I did not understand a whole lot of it.  I remember it was kind of spooky and massively confusing.  When Leila (formerly of Bookshelves of Doom) mentioned it at her new blog, The Backlist, a couple of weeks ago, I went back and read it again, along with the sequel.  It makes a lot more sense now! Thomas' family is moving from the mountains of North Carolina to a small college town in Ohio, where Mr. Small will teach history.  He is delighted to find an old mansion on the edge of town that belonged to an eccentric and wealthy man who was a major force in the Underground Railroad.  The house is full of secret cupboards and cave tunnels under the house, and there are rumors of ghosts.  Thomas is both nervous and thrilled with the house, and determined to figure out all the mysteries....

Last week everybody was pretty confused, and I'm guessing that this week's reading hasn't helped much!  With a new character or so in every chapter, a constant stream of chaotic events, and the usual trouble with Russian names, it's not easy to follow. The first section we read struck me with its religious references and implicit criticism of writers who produce lies on demand.  This part has a whole lot about the secret police and 'disappearances.'  Just like in Soviet life at the time, the secret police are never mentioned directly; when people disappear, the book sort of ignores it (so watch out for it!).  Anybody can disappear at any time, and nobody will question it.  This week's update: Nikanor, chairman of the tenants' association* for Berlioz' apartment building, is flooded with desperate requests for the half-apartment.  (There's a severe housing shortage, which gives him a lot of power.)  When he goes up to take a look at the ap...

I've finished the second half of Book III!  I know, it's taking me forever; I'm amazed that o has managed to power through the whole thing and finish !  Our original idea of doing this in a few weeks was clearly insane.  I've been running into the problem that I get really sleepy while reading; it's gotten to the point that ten verses will put me right to sleep no matter how energetic I felt when I started!  Even the weirdest Spenserian action makes me sleepy, but I am enjoying learning the stories and figuring things out, so no quitting allowed.  To continue the stories of Britomart, Amoret, and more ... Florimell (who, you might recall, loves Marinell, who doesn't love her and is currently recuperating with his mother) is fleeing.  It took me a while to figure out that she wasn't running, but riding a horse, and symbolically speaking, she's emotionally out of control.  The exhausted horse stops and Florimell finds a cottage, but the residents a...

Time for a Mount TBR checkpoint.  Holy cow, I only have a few months left on this.  Help.  Bev says: 1. Tell us how many miles you've made it up your mountain (# of books read).  If you're really ambitious, you can do some intricate math and figure out how the number of books you've read correlates to actual miles up Pike's Peak, Mt. Ararat, etc.  2. Complete ONE (or more if you like) of the following: A. Who has been your favorite character so far? And tell us why, if you like. B. Pair up two of your reads. But this time we're going for opposites. One book with a male protagonist and one with a female protagonist. One book with "Good" in the title and one with "Evil." Get creative and show off a couple of your books. C. Which book (read so far) has been on your TBR mountain the longest? Was it worth the wait? Or is it possible you should have tackled it back when you first put it on the pile? Or tossed it off the ...

I feel like such a dope--I've been kind of behind in the blogging and failed to do a post on Witch Week 2016 when I should have, but there's still time! Lory, our wonderful hostess, has chosen to do a "Made in America" theme this year.  She's got some goodies planned, like an interview with Kat Howard (author of Roses and Rot ), a Top Ten, a discussion of Oz, some talk about Neil Gaiman and American Gods , and all sorts of things. And I'm especially excited about the readalong, which will be Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes , possibly the iconic Halloween classic.  I've already put my copy on hold!  The discussion will be on November 5. I hope you'll join Lory, and me, and quite a few others in reading and discussing some great fantasy during Witch Week.  (If you're not familiar with the term, Witch Week is the week between Halloween and Guy Fawkes, referenced in Diana Wynne Jones' wonderful Witch Week. )

And it's #1, which means.... Light in August , by William Faulkner. Uh-oh. Really, Faulkner? My doom is come upon me. I kind of thought #1 wouldn't happen because, hey, we had #1 already a few Spins ago, but that's randomness for you.  Still.  Faulkner. Scary! I have read exactly one Faulkner title in the past, in Comparative Literature 1B in my first semester at Cal in the spring of 1992.  I think it was Absalom, Absalom! but I don't really know at this distance.  There may have been something about a funeral and a bridge.  It made no sense to me.  I think I put Faulkner on my CC list because it was so scary, and also because my American literature is so awful in general.  I'm now re-thinking the wisdom of that decision. I've put a hold on it at the public library.  I ought to be able to get it at work, but during the Great Summer Weed I noticed that all the famous Faulkner titles had disappeared over the years (like they ...

I've read the first eight chapters of The Master and Margarita , and it's pretty much just as deranged as when I read it the first time, but then that's the whole point.  Here we go-- Some background first: Bulgakov started it early on in his career, in the late 1920s, but never expected to publish his novel during his lifetime.  It was dangerous even to write these thoughts down, and at one point he burned most of the manuscript.  Over the years, he wrote and rewrote the story, continuing to make changes right up until his death in 1940.  Bulgakov had a difficult writing career and was officially marginalized; in 1930 he took the rather dramatic step of asking to either emigrate or be given a job in the theater.  This tactic actually worked, and he was given a job at the Moscow Art Theater, but even so, he rarely succeeded in putting on a play. Master and Margarita has two plots: first, the devil comes to Moscow and wreaks havoc among a standardized, repre...