Howling Frog Books

Heinrich von Ofterdingen , by Novalis Novalis was one of the great German Romantics, but he died young in 1801, leaving this fragmentary novel behind him.  This is the story of Heinrich, a legendary/fictional poet of the High German Middle Ages, who also appears in a few other places: ETA Hoffman has him in a story, and I gather he appears in Tannhäuser. Heinrich, an idealistic young man, hasn't figured out what he wants to be, but he has had a vision of a Blue Flower, which seems to embody everything that is most desirable and unattainable, Now he is traveling with his mother to Augsberg, from the cold and austere north to the fruitful and friendly south.  As he goes, he meets various people who educate him about aspects of the world.  Merchants tell him about commerce and recite tales to make the weary miles shorter.  At an inn, an old miner beguiles everyone with his paean to mining, which is a wonderful occupation (Novalis thought of becoming a mining engineer)....

The Incandescent , by Emily Tesh  Emily Tesh is one of the hosts of the excellent Eight Days of Diana Wynne Jones podcast (she's the British one), and the author of several novels.  Last year I read Some Desperate Glory , which was pretty amazing, and so I grabbed her latest, The Incandescent . In an alternate world, magic is both an inborn talent and a skill that can be learned, but since it's not an area with a lot of lucrative jobs, magic tends to be a neglected subject at most state schools.  Chetwood School, a posh prep school, does teach high-level magic and takes in sorcerers -- children born with wild talent that need training.  Dr. Sapphire Walden is the director of the magic teaching department, and like any head teacher at a boarding school, she works all the time and lives and breathes the school.  One thing about a boarding school with about 600 magically-inclined, half-trained teenagers is that it is a fairly dangerous place.  Teenagers, afte...

 Web , by John Wyndham John Wyndham wrote British SF classics like Day of the Triffids and The Chrysalids,  so of course when I saw this I grabbed it.  This novel was published posthumously, and I don't know if it lacked editing or anything like that; it seemed whole and complete. The narrator is a fellow who gets involved with a scheme to set up a new, independent society that will evolve its own government, hopefully in a way that is better than ever before and which will become an intellectual and social center of the world!  It's backed by a rich lord, and they seek out a remote uninhabited island to live on. We now break for a comprehensive history of the island; why is it uninhabited?  Well, it was habited by a nation of islanders, and while officially under the British Empire, was pretty much left alone until after WWII, when nuclear testing meant the populace had to be moved temporarily.  A few people refused to leave, and the island's high priest...

 The Botanic Age; Planting the Seeds of Human Evolution , by Dean Falk Paleontologists and so on have tended to assume that early hominins evolved into the Stone Age, and that the development of stone tools (by males) is what sets us apart from the other great apes.  Falk and others have started proposing that our evolutionary path went through another, earlier stage that just didn't leave a lot of obvious traces behind -- a Botanic Age during which hominins used plant matter as their primary tools and which moved much of our evolution into humans.  Since the clues are hardly ever physical, they must be found in evolution, behavior, and psychology.                                                                                     Because!  Other large ape...

  Witchcraft for Wayward Girls , by Grady Hendrix Florida, 1970, at the Wellwood House, a home for pregnant teenage girls where they can be anonymous, invisible, have their babies adopted out (whether they want to or not), and go home with no-one the wiser.  It's a sweltering summer when "Fern" arrives and meets "Rose," who wants to keep her baby and go live on a hippie commune; "Zinnia," who wants to marry her musician, and "Holly," barely 14, mute, and with no named father.  Among 15+ plus other girls, they are strictly controlled.  Plenty of chores, restricted diets (no salt?!), lots of guilt, and no freedom at all. When the bookmobile librarian offers Fern a book on witchcraft, the girls are not impressed, but they are bored and resentful of the doctor who insists Zinnia's constant nausea is all in her head.  So they try something to give him uncontrollable nausea -- and it works.  Now the librarian wants them to join her coven and ...

 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 .