Howling Frog Books

Akenfield: Portrait of a Country Village, by Ronald Blythe In 1966 - 67, Ronald Blythe set out to collect oral histories from the older people in and around his home village (which is actually Charsfield and environs) in Suffolk.  Suffolk people being famously taciturn and private, it took a familiar person to get these interviews.  Mostly what Blythe did was to listen to whatever the people had to say about their lives; he presents them with a description of the person, but little commentary from his own point of view.  The result was a stunningly vivid collection of people's thoughts about their own lives and experiences.  It was hailed as a modern classic upon publication in 1969.  At the time, it was an unusual sort of book; now, of course, we collect oral histories regularly, and Svetlana Alexievich has brought the form to new heights.  But in 1969, while people thought Akenfield was wonderful, they weren't sure what to call it. We find portrait...

The Cuckoo's Calling, by Robert Galbraith (J. K. Rowling) I've always kind of meant to give Rowling's mysteries a try.  After all, I love mysteries, and I enjoyed Harry Potter just fine, and everybody seems to like the Galbraith series.  So I finally picked up a copy and read this, the first in a series about private detective Cormoran Strike.  I'm probably the last person on earth to get around to it! Cormoran Strike's life is pretty much a garbage fire.  The private detective agency business he founded is on the brink of insolvency, he's just broken up with his fianceé (for good this time, he's sure), and that makes him homeless so he has to sleep in his office.  The temp agency has sent over a new secretary, Robin, and he can't even afford that....and then John Bristow walks in and offers Strike a whole lot of money if he will investigate his sister's death.  Lula Landry was the biggest supermodel in the UK, and her fall from her apartment b...

The Secret Chapter, by Genevieve Cogman I've enjoyed the whole Invisible Library series.  This one is #6, and for some reason I felt like it was going to be a wrap-up volume.  I was very wrong! Irene, librarian, has brokered a sort of peace treaty between the dragons and the Fae, but it's not complete quite yet.  She also has a new assignment: the world she spent her school years in is veering towards being more chaotic and in control of the Fae.  To stabilize her former home, she'll have to collect a book from that world -- a unique version of an ancient Egyptian folktale -- which is in the possession of Mr. Nemo, a very powerful Fae who has not signed on to the peace treaty at all.  Mr. Nemo lives out the archetype of a super-criminal boss; think James Bond villains, elaborate hidden lairs, and infinite resources with which to carry out complicated heists.  He offers Irene a deal.  If she and her dragon partner, Kai, join a team to steal a pain...

Rivers of London series, by Ben Aaronovitch Last summer, I posted about Midnight Riot, the first in the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch.  Since then I've been getting the other books in the series through the magic of ILL, and sometimes a small Kindle purchase.  I'm finding that they're not that easy to come by in the US, but they are so much fun, it's worth it to pursue them. Peter Grant is just a regular London copper until he and his partner run into a murder witnessed only by a ghost.  Constable Grant is then launched on a strange career in the small and unpopular department known as "Falcon," which handles the weird stuff -- anything having to do with the minor gods, Fae, and various supernatural phenomena -- and involves training as a wizard. The head wizard is Nightingale, the only practising wizard left in the UK...or so he thought.  Turns out that not only is magic increasing, it never went away and there are some very bad practitio...

The Ultimate Tragedy , by Abdulai Sila This novel is from the West African country of Guinea Bissau.  Written in Portuguese, it's the first to be translated into English from that country.   Guinea Bissau used to be known as Portuguese Guinea until its independence in 1973, and this novel is set during that colonial period, but I'm not sure exactly when.  I was imagining sometime in the 1950s or 60s. Ndani needs to leave her village; the djambakus (a religious leader) decided that she has an evil fate hanging over her, and she is blamed for anything that goes wrong.  So her beloved stepmother advises her to go look for work as a housemaid in the city, so she can get away.  Ndani spends a few years working for Dona Linda, who eventually develops ambitions to be a leader in local religious affairs.  Her husband, however, has different ideas. Ndani leaves and ends up in a nearby village, where the chief plans to make her his sixth wife.  Inst...

I am so happy that Kristen is hosting March Magics again this year!  It's been tough times lately, so we're taking it easy.  Kristen says: As I am a bit scattered, stressed, demoralized, and a host of other not-fun emotions at the moment, and since I know some of you are feeling the same, I wanted to continue with last year's theme and have this event really be about the joy you find while you spend time with these two authors. Simply pick up your absolute favorites, dive into them, and lose yourself for a few hours. Afterwards, share that love with others. If you want to host a readalong or a giveaway, DO IT! If you want to write a blog post, share on social media, or even read with your kids--PERFECT! If you want to pick up that last book you have been saving with a heavy heart, this is the time. Yep, this is an event I can really get on board with.  Diving into an alternate reality (or several) and finding some joy there seems like an excellent plan....

Subtly Worded, by Teffi I didn't know anything about Teffi, and that turned out to be a real shame, so I'm going to give you a quick rundown.  Teffi is a Russian author not to be missed! Nadezhda Alexandrovna Lokhvitskaya, married name Buchinskaya, lived ~1872 - 1952.   She became an established writer of great popularity in the early 1900s -- everybody liked Teffi, from Tsar Nicholas II to Lenin.  Teffi mostly wrote short stories, sparkling satires and tragicomedies that often seem like comedy until you look again.  Some of her works were not very friendly to the tsarist government, and in 1917, she was a supporter of the October Revolution.  She soon realized that the Bolsheviks were not what she hoped, and escaped to Istanbul and then Paris, where she spent the rest of her days, along with so many other Russian émigré s.  She continued to write her short stories until the end of her life. Subtly Worded is a survey of Teffi's short works, inc...

The Murderbot Diaries, by Martha Wells: Artificial Condition Rogue Protocol Exit Strategy I read All Systems Red a while ago, and I thought it was pretty good.  So when I saw the other three Murderbot Diaries volumes at the library, I snapped them up and read one per day.  They were great!  This is a highly recommended SF series. When last we saw Murderbot, a Security Unit who is an amalgam of cyber and organic programmed as a bodyguard and soldier, the dire situation had been resolved and Dr. Mensah had bought Murderbot with the plan of letting it live free and learn.  Murderbot promptly learned to leave.  It wants to find out just what the deal was in its terrible past, and find out some crucial information for Dr. Mensah as well.  Navigating a society filled with artificial intelligences, humans, various blends of the two, and cutthroat corporations, Murderbot has a lot to learn -- about itself and everything else. The story is filled with th...

Tales of the Marvelous and News of the Strange: The First English Translation of a Medieval Arab Fantasy Collection This is kind of a neat collection of tales.  They're not from the 1001 Nights , though they may not be a whole lot different.  These stories are from a medieval Arabic manuscript that has lost its original title, but contains the "tales of the marvelous and news of the strange" description on the first extant page.  Penguin made a very nice effort with the book, which is hardbound with a pretty gold stamped design on the cover and matching endpapers. In these stories, young warriors go on quests and kill lots of other warriors.  Beautiful maidens (who are also very well-educated) fall in love and either waste away or emerge triumphant.  Everybody recites poetry a lot.  People end up in prison, or are given lavish gifts, or meet magic animals. It did take me a long time to read this collection, because the stories do get a bit repetiti...

Passing, by Nella Larsen It took me a while to get to one of the great Harlem Renaissance women writers, and I got there kind of backwards, but here I am at last.  Nella Larsen was born in the US, but her mother was Danish and her father was from the Danish Virgin Islands (Denmark had a colony there from 1754 - 1917, at which point it sold out to the US).  She worked as a librarian (yay!) and then as a nurse, and also wrote works which weren't as appreciated at the time as they are now.  She's now considered one of the major writers of the Harlem Renaissance (or so says my book). I first heard of Larsen because she was the person who circulated a copy of the Danish author J. P. Jacobsen's first novel, Marie Grubbe , around her literary circle, which wound up sparking a truly great novel.  (See my post for details on the story, which I think is really neat.)    And so I've been wanting to read Larsen's own work for a while.  Passing has been on my ...

Women Without Men, by Shahrnush Parsipur It's 1953 in Iran, and it's dangerous out there.  But that's only the backdrop to the stories of five women from Tehran who all wind up in the same villa, in a pretty little town next to a river, where very unusual things happen.  This is a magical realism kind of novel, in fact.  And it also became a famous film. Mahdokht used to be a teacher, but now she just wants everything to be in harmony, so she plants herself in the villa's garden and waits to bloom. Fa'iza goes to see her friend Munis, who she doesn't actually like very much.  (She's hoping that Munis' brother will notice her.)  The two women's lives become intertwined, even though Munis has died a couple of times and can now hear the thoughts of others...they end up together at the villa. Farrokhlaqa, middle-aged housewife, is now a widow with ambitions in local politics.  She lets the others live with her in her new villa, and tries to write...

Amrita, by Banana Yoshimoto Banana Yoshimoto is just so darn famous that I'd really been meaning to read one of her works, so I've had Amrita sitting around the house for a while.  And I did it!  I liked this novel, but I'm finding it hard to describe. Sakumi is just a 90s girl in Tokyo, a young adult.  Her sister, Mayu, was a famous movie star whose life ended in a tragic suicide, and Sakumi herself is recovering from a severe accidental head injury; she's lost large chunks of her memory.  Through the novel, she takes her younger brother (who has some sort of ESP) and her sister's former boyfriend along on her journey through her dreams, thoughts, and grief, making some new friends along the way. This is not a novel that is packed with action.  Things happen, and they are carefully savored.  Other people -- their appearances, reactions, and feelings -- are described at length.  Memories and emotions are noticed and saved for later.  Much of...