Howling Frog Books

 The Well at the World's End , by William Morris I did it!  This was kind of fun.  It's an absolute avalanche of Victorian pseudo-medieval story and prose.  One has to presume a Christian European setting, but completely fictional as far as landscape and countries go.  It is indeed kind of Arthurian, as there are whole sections that involve wandering through a massive forest and popping out here and there to a castle, or a hermit, or just a clearing with a knight or so in it.  But there's plenty else. I've already told you that our hero is Sir Ralph (Rafe), the youngest son of the king.  Their land is the small and prosperous pastoral kingdom of Upmeads, and you get the impression that it's pretty far out, away from the major action.  Ralph sets out a green young man looking for any adventure he can find, and soon hears of the Well at the World's End, which piques his interest.  It's supposed to grant refreshment, health and long life, and wi...

 Reproductive Wrongs: A Short History of Bad Ideas About Women , by Sarah Ruden I've really liked what I've read of Sarah Ruden in the past, so I was looking forward to this book!  Ruden is a classicist/historian/translator, and also a Quaker, and she often focuses on the intersection of Christianity and classicist discipline -- territory few have dared to tread. This work is a survey of 'bad ideas about women,' especially about child-bearing, through Western history, studied through seven texts: Poetry of Ovid Timothy and Titus  St. Augustine Malleus Maleficarum Dickens, especially "The Chimes" Eugenics texts! Gianna  Super-interesting, quite depressing and rage-inducing, but enlightening. Best chapter was definitely the one on witch-hunting and the Malleus Maleficarum . 

 Closed for the Season, by Mary Downing Hahn Mary Downing Hahn is hard to beat for scary middle-grade horror -- though this one is more of a thriller. Logan is not thrilled to be moving to a new and very small town just before 8th grade, and he's definitely not thrilled to move into a dilapidated house in the country, next door to Arthur, clearly the school nerd.  (Logan, a nerd himself, was hoping to develop a cooler image!)  But while Arthur is kind of irritating and does his best to eat everything in Logan's house, he is also a fount of information, especially about the murder two years ago, right in Logan's house. Pretty soon the boys are tearing around poking in to things, especially the derelict little amusement park, the Magic Forest.  It's nearly buried under kudzu now, but Arthur remembers it well, and it's about to be torn down for development.  Could the murder, the embezzlement that closed the park, and the future of the Magic Forest be connected?...

 The Twisted Ones, by T. Kingfisher Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon) is so prolific that I can't keep up at all.   This one turns out to be several years old, and I thought it was new. Mouse's grandmother was the meanest woman around, and now, after a couple of years in assisted living, she has died, so someone has to go empty out her house, and Mouse's editing job is flexible, so off she goes, her doofy coondog in tow.  Grandma lived deep in the North Carolina woods, and she was a hoarder; Mouse is dismayed to be confronted by stacks of newspaper, endless bins of wire hangers, and one entire room crammed with dolls. Then she finds her step-grandfather's diary, and it reads like a lunatic's ravings...but it's not.  There are creatures in the woods.  All the nightmarish stories appear to be true, and they're coming after Mouse. This was a great and spooky, riveting horror read.  I loved it.  My youngest is going to love it, I'm sure.

  Calling In: How to Start Making Change With Those You'd Rather Cancel, by Loretta J. Ross I really appreciated the theme of this book.  It's an argument against calling people out, which often comes with publicly humiliating them.  A callout triggers a person's fight-or-flight defenses and makes them defensive and angry -- it definitely doesn't change hearts and minds.  And often, the person doing the callout is not aware of all the circumstances or the intention of the called-out person.  It can cause a lot of damage and destroy relationships. Why not try calling in instead?  It's more difficult!  It takes discipline and thought and empathy!  It's work, and you might not feel like you owe this jerk your work.  In which case maybe you don't want to do that right now, but it's better to stay quiet than to start spraying everyone with a firehose of anger. Calling in is making an effort to draw nearer, to find out why that person made such a...

 The Legend of the Seventh Virgin, by Victoria Holt How to resist such a title and cover?  I didn't.  Plus I've never read Victoria Holt, and she was one of the major authors of Gothic romances in the 1960s, so why not.  It was no surprise to me that the story was set in Cornwall, date unspecified, but probably 19th century, the earlier part without too many railways. Kerensa Carlee is a cottage child, cunning, ambitious, and rather tough, and she's fascinated by the local manor house, the Abbas belonging to the St. Langstons.  She isn't too friendly with other children, and the St. Langstons are a bit older.  Then there's Mellyora, the rector's daughter; Kerensa despises her at first because she looks so sweet and helpless, but they find hidden depths in each other.  After a while, times get hard in the cottage with Granny Bee, and Kerensa finds she must humble herself to go out to hire at the fair.  Mellyora takes her on as a servant and then c...

 Galahad and the Grail, by Malcolm Guite A young coworker of mine follows this author and let me know about this project: a four-volume poetic retelling of the Arthurian story.  It's titled "Merlin's Isle."  This is the first volume, and The Coming of Arthur will be the second in November. Malcolm Guite is an Anglican pastor and has spent much of his life studying the stories.  I'm pretty picky about my modern retellings, but the beautiful cover attracted me, and I was very curious. First, the part where the story is entirely in poetry.  Guite keeps it simple, in balladic lines that are easy to read and would be pleasant to read aloud.  He sometimes uses common phrasing from ballads, which is nice.  Otherwise, it's arranged in three books of several staves (chapters) each. And Guite certainly knows his stuff!  An appendix explains his sources, here mostly Malory and the Quest for the Holy Grail  (this gave me an opportunity to feel extremely...