Howling Frog Books

This Book is Full of Spiders (Seriously Dude, Don't Touch It), by David Wong/Jason Pargin  I found the title irresistible, though I'm not sure this is really quite my style of novel.  It's #2 in John Dies at the End -- there are 4 in total -- and I've liked them fine, but I'm not sure I like them enough to read more.  (Which is pretty common for me these days; there have been lots of series where I read and liked the first one, but never felt the need to keep going.) Story: David and John, who live in Weirdsville USA, can see critters from other dimensions because they took the 'soy sauce' drug.  A horrifying spider-esque parasite invades David's house, tries to eat him, and then breeds, turning quite a few of the town's residents into hosts -- and the whole place into a zombie apocalypse scenario.  Amid military lockdown, panic, flailing, and way too many guns in the hands of guys who have no idea how to use them well, it's up to David, Amy, an

And the lucky Spin number is...   20! So I'll be reading Rob Roy , by Sir Walter Scott.  I've never planned to read all, or even most, of Scott, but I've kind of had this one in the back of my head for many years, despite knowing nothing whatsoever about it.  I gather that the protagonist is a young man who appeals to the (in)famous Rob Roy for help, and it all takes place in about 1715, just before the second Jacobite rebellion.  Rob Roy was a real person, and was also the kind of person who attracts legends, so that he ended up a sort of Highlander Robin Hood figure.  We'll see!    

 Revelations of Divine Love, by Julian of Norwich In 1373, a 30-year-old nun was dying of an illness.  Instead of dying, she had a series of visions and got well.  Over the next 15 years or so, she composed two narratives of the visions she had seen -- a short version, and a long version containing everything she felt like she'd learned about her revelations since.  Julian of Norwich was an anchoress attached to -- surprise -- Norwich cathedral and she became quite well known.  Margery Kempe visited her, which means two of the earliest women writers we have in English knew each other.  These visions were about the Crucifixion and about God's infinite love for His creations.  Here are a few of my favorite bits, some of which are very well-known:   'It is true that sin is the cause of all suffering, but all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.' 'Since I have set right what was the greatest harm, it is my will that you should kno

 Treacle Walker, by Alan Garner This very short novel was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2022, which I find an unusual choice.  I like Garner; it's neat that he was up for the Booker; but did anybody understand this one?  OK, here we go: Young Joe Coppock lives alone in an old house with a massive chimney, and he's supposed to wear a patch to strengthen his lazy eye.  When the rag-and-bone man comes by, Joe trades his old pajamas and a lamb bone he found for an old china pot and a donkey stone* marked with (from the description) the Uffington Horse.  Joe is stunned to find that these things give him the glamorie -- suddenly he can see things in other layers of reality, though only with one eye.  He and Treacle Walker, the rag-and-bone man, develop a strange friendship. I'm not at all sure that Joe is actually alive.  He lives alone, reading his favorite comics (such as Stonehenge Kit, the Ancient Brit, Garner's own favorite from childhood) and playing with his marb

 Hooray, it's the 36th Classics Club Spin!  You know the drill, so here's my list: No Name, by Wilkie Collins Second-Class Citizen, by Buchi Emecheta Sybil, by Disraeli The Leopard, by di Lampedusa  Phineas Finn, by Anthony Trollope The Black Arrow, by R. L. Stevenson Ring of Bright Water, by Gavin Maxwell The Tale of Sinhue (ancient Egyptian poetry)   Eichmann in Jerusalem, by Hannah Arendt   The Obedience of a Christian Man, by William Tyndale It Can't Happen Here, by Sinclair Lewis Conjure Tales, by Charles Chesnutt The Well at the End of the World, by William Morris It is Acceptable (Det Gaar An), C. J. L. Almqvist  Two Years Before the Mast, by Richard Henry Dana  Amerika, by Kafka Peter the Great's African, by Pushkin  The Beggar's Opera, by John Gay The Duchess of Malfi, by John Webster Rob Roy, by Sir Walter Scott  Scary list!  I wonder which one it will be??

 The Light Ages: The Surprising Story of Medieval Science, by Seb Falk You know I always love a good book about how the Middle Ages were way cooler than you thought.  This one came out at almost the exact same time as another book called The Bright Ages , so there was definitely something in the air that year.  This book, however, is specifically about certain aspects of scientific progress during the Middle Ages, especially astronomy, and it constructs its narrative around a monastery in St. Albans, which is just north of London. We start with a very grabby story, about how in the 1950s a scholar found an old hand-written astronomical treatise at Cambridge and thought, for fairly good reasons, that it might possibly be a holograph by Chaucer.  The manuscript described an instrument that was not an astrolabe...what even was it?   And from there we set off to St. Albans and a tour of medieval calendar math, clocks, universities, astronomical prediction (with a side trip into arguments o

 Radical Love: Learning to Accept Yourself and Others, by Zachary Levi I like Zachary Levi, so when this (rather surprising) book came out, it caught my eye.  Levi writes about his long struggles with mental health and relationships, and it's a sweet and deeply felt story that I found valuable. The short version is that Levi comes from generations of family abuse and re-enactment -- lots of people who had no idea how to love others or themselves.  They would escape their family homes, only to build new ones that were just the same.  Kid Zachary found escape in making people laugh, and threw himself into a Hollywood career, but by the age of 37, after a short disaster of a marriage, he was falling apart and had no idea how to cope.  Never having been loved as a child, he didn't know how to accept himself as a regular imperfect person. A lot of intensive therapy later, Levi learned to build basic skills like not beating himself up at every moment.  He was also greatly helped by f

 Co-Wives, Co-Widows, by Adrienne Yabouza This short novel, originally written in French with some Sango, is the first from the Central African Republic to be translated into English.  It's set in Bangui, the capital and largest city of the CAR. Lidou is doing pretty well for himself.  At 49, his building business is going well, he's got two lovely wives and several children, he is respected -- life is good.  He's a little worried about his vitality, though, so he gets some stuff from his cousin Zouaboua. A few days later, Lidou is dead.  His wives, Ndongo Passy and Grekpoubou, are stricken, but there's no time to mourn; Zouaboua has accused them of witchcraft and murder.  The neighborhood is with them, but bribes are all Zouaboua needs to get the law on his side.  In their mutual trouble, Ndongo Passy and Grekpoubou draw closer together and find that their sisterhood is their best help.  As they support each other and refuse to betray each other, they find their streng

  The Marvelous Land of Oz, by L. Frank Baum, illustrated by John R. Neill Dorothy has gone home, but the land of Oz continues!  Baum was inundated with letters begging for more, so he wrote a sequel, in which he introduces a whole slew of new characters.  I remember this story very well; I must have read it many times as a kid.  It was fun to get an adult perspective on the story. We start off with old Mombi, a would-be wicked witch whose ambition is held down by the local Good Witch.  (Mombi lives in the land of the Gillikins, which is all purple.)  She has a boy, Tip, who she uses as a slave, and when she's gone on a trip, he makes a jack o'lantern, gives him a body of sticks, and sets his pumpkin man up to scare Mombi on her way back.  She turns the tables on him by using her new Powder of Life to bring Jack to life, and then imprisons them both.  Tip and Jack escape and figure they might as well head to the city of Oz, and on the way Tip brings a wooden sawhorse to life. 

 My local library has decided to host a fun reading challenge this year!  I thought I'd just let you know in case you are local and want to participate (or hey, do it from afar!).  Finish up, and you get a nice custom sticker featuring the library's new mascot, Felix.  Isn't he a cutie?   Some of these are a little tricky for me.  A western?  A fanfiction??  Help!  I've seen the list of best-sellers from my birth year and I was not impressed.  I bet there was some decent children's literature being published then, though...maybe Zilpha Keatley Snyder? I'll see how it goes, and let you know.  I really like stickers...  

 Fanda at ClassicLit is doing a fun thing this year, and I'm going to join in.  It's the Agatha Christie Short Stories of 2024!    She has picked out two short stories to read each month. The January stories are "The Coming of Mr. Quin"  and "The Adventure of the Italian Nobleman," an early Poirot story, and there's plenty of time for you to join in. "The Coming of Mr. Quin" was published in 1923 (says my book; Fanda says '24) and was Christie's first published short story.  All the Quin stories feature him and Mr. Satterthwaite, who provides the point of view.  When Mr. Quin arrives, he doesn't solve a mystery; he simply asks a few questions and inspires others to solve the problem.  In this case, several people are gathered at a country home where, ten years ago, a friend of theirs killed himself.  Why?  The answer is crucial to two other people staying in the house... I always like Quin stories.  They're fun, and very differ

Les Misérables, by Victor Hugo It's the big ambitious 2024 book, Les Misérables !  The book I was most afraid of reading!  And I read it all!  This was enabled by a) my sister and b) a Substack that posted one chapter a day.  It so happens that Les Misérables has 365 chapters, so if you read one chapter a day, you'll get it done in a year. I was always about as ignorant of Les Misérables as it is possible to be.  I saw a local production of the musical once because some friends were in it.  So pretty much everyone else in the world knows more than I do, and I won't presume to tell you the plot, but just a couple of things I learned. I'd always assumed that this story is set during the French Revolution, but it isn't.  Jean Valjean is released from prison in 1815, and the story ends in about 1833.  The revolt that is the big climax of the story is one of the students of Paris against the government -- an anti-Orléanist demonstration.  It gets them all killed, ex