Howling Frog Books

 Jews Don't Count, by David Baddiel I'd never heard of David Baddiel, but I came upon a strong recommendation for this book, and oh it was a good idea.  It's a short book, and it's kind of an angry polemic rather than a carefully constructed argument, and it's riveting reading. So, for my fellow Americans, who the heck is David Baddiel?  He's a British comedian/TV guy/writer who says he's one of the relatively few people in the UK who are famous as Jews.  And this is a very British book!  He talks a lot about famous Brits and events -- about half of the things mentioned were things I'd never heard of.  (Even I know about Jeremy Corbyn and the mural, though.  I'm still not too sure who Piers Morgan is but this week I learned that he is a TV person, not a politician.)  American issues sometimes get in, but this is mostly a very UK book, which means I learned a lot. The premise here is one that I think is completely true.  Baddiel argues that, ...

 Guards!  Guards! by Terry Pratchett This was a great re-read.  It's been so long since I read the early Watch novels, and I think I should revisit them.  I ran into many moments that I remembered well, but that I did not remember as being in this particular book -- the introduction of L-space, for example, always a favorite among librarians. Sam Vimes is an officer of the Watch, but nobody takes the Watch seriously any more.  There are only a few of them left, and Vimes is best known for being drunk at all times.  Lord Vetinari has deliberately arranged the city to be full of rival Guilds that he can control, and for the Watch to be utterly irrelevant.  And then, young Carrot Ironfoundersson, a surprisingly tall dwarf with a very pure heart and a lot of energy, signs on.  And a dragon appears in Ankh-Morpork -- not your small swamp-type dragon, but the real, huge, people-eating kind.   There's plenty of Pterry's trademark observations a...

 The Left-Handed Booksellers of London, by Garth Nix I fell behind again.  But I've been reading a lot, which has been very pleasant.  And I made a skirt I've been meaning to make for years, and I got my fancy big project quilt in for quilting!  Sewing the backing was a lot of work. This novel has been making people's lists lately, and I happened upon it at the library, so I thought I'd see what the fuss was.  I've actually never read Garth Nix, though of course his name is familiar as one of the juvenile fantasy writers who gained popularity in the last 20 years.  Plus I'm always a sucker for a London story.  So: it's 1983 (and a slightly alternate universe), and Susan Arkshaw has just turned 18, and is off to London to make her fortune -- and find her father.  Her dreamy, will-o'-the-wisp mother has dropped hints here and there, but has never identified Susan's father by name.  Susan just has a collection of vague clues and names.  So ...

 Song of Names: A Mormon Mosaic, by James Goldberg and Ardis E. Parshall Here are another two LDS writers I've followed for a while, and they have produced an amazing, lyrical work.  Ardis Parshall is a historian and runs a fascinating blog of historical bits, Keepapitchinin .  James Goldberg is a writer and poet, and also has a blog, Mormon Midrashim, which he hardly ever posts to but it's worth it when he does.  James writes: A few years ago, Ardis and I started writing a book together. An ambitious book, that would combine history and poetry to give people a viewed of Mormon history through individual lives as varied as stained glass. We wanted to take the extra research steps and writing steps to get at pieces of the past left out past the edges of our collective memory.   We did our best to find and sing forgotten names. So this is a book of poems about the lives of real people.  Each one starts with a page of context -- a short description of th...

 The Burning Girls, by C. J. Tudor I'd seen good reviews of this gothic thriller, so when I saw it at the public library I took it home.  Then I had to read it since library books come with a deadline! Reverend Jack Brooks, single mom, is forcibly transferred to the tiny Sussex village of Chapel Croft after a devastating tragedy in her previous inner-city parish.  Her daughter Flo, age 15, is naturally none too happy about this.  And Chapel Croft has a history -- several Protestants were burned as martyrs under Queen Mary I, and thirty years ago, two girls disappeared and were never seen again. Everyone in the village talks a lot about fresh starts and leaving the past behind, which is remarkably unhelpful as Jack promptly starts getting warnings and strange packages that nobody wants to talk about.  Flo meets both the local outcast nerd boy and the local bullies, and Jack is nervously protective about the whole thing.   As they try to settle in, it b...

 If Truth Were A Child: Essays by George Handley I had been wanting to read this book of essays for some time, and when a friend had it on her summer pile I told her that I wanted to borrow it when she was done.  She loved it so much that she thought I needed my own copy, and gave it to me as a gift!  How lovely of her!   And, the odd title is explained by the use of the story of the two mothers who appeal to King Solomon.  George Handley is a professor at BYU who does a lot of writing about "the intersection between religion, literature, and the environment."  His degrees are in comparative literature (Spanish being one specialty) but he teaches in interdisciplinary humanities, which to me sounds a lot like 'comp lit with other stuff too.'    Anyway I followed his blog, when it existed, and I'm always interested to see what he's writing. And these essays are fantastic; I enjoyed them so much.  There must be 20 little tabs marking t...

 Old Testament Legends: Being Stories Out of Some of the Less-Known Apocryphal Books of the Old Testament, by M. R. James Remember a little while ago I read the Apocalypse of Abraham ?  It's this very fun legendary story about Abraham figuring out that idols are just wood or stone.  Well, M. R. James (of spooky ghost story fame) thought it was a neat story too, so he put it into a book for children, along with other spurious legends about Old Testament characters. ...Perhaps I have now said enough to show of what sort the tales are that are told in this book -- some of them told for the first time in English.  They are not true, but the are very old; some of them, I think, are beautiful, and all of them seem to me interesting. The stories include the deaths of Adam and Eve, how Asenath became the wife of Joseph of Egypt, an elaboration of the story of Job, how Solomon controlled demons, and others.  There's one about a man who went to gather figs and then slept ...

 My Best Friend's Exorcism, by Grady Hendrix When I saw this book, set in the 80s and obviously riffing on the popular worries about Satanism, I just had to get it.  I mean, look at it!   It's got a VHS cover and everything about the design is perfect!   The Kindle version comes with a link to a Spotify playlist to listen to, and claims to have animated cover art, though I certainly didn't find it.  Some of the fun extras were in fact a little tricky to find, so look carefully.  It's 1988, and Abby is a sophomore at a fancy private school where she's the poor scholarship student.  She and her best friend, Gretchen, are inseparable, and they do everything together with their two other girlfriends.  One night they try LSD, which seems to be a complete dud, but Gretchen gets lost in the woods and and after that night, she's different. At first, Gretchen appears to be alternately moody and terrified.  She's acting so strangely that Abby...

 Beasts in My Belfry, by Gerald Durrell I've loved Gerald Durrell's books for many years, and if you've never tried them, I hope you do.  Durrell was the founder of the world-famous conservation zoo on Jersey , and he wrote the books for publicity and fund-raising...plus he had a massive talent for writing about animals, founded in his love of all critters.  I saw Beasts in My Belfry at the public library and grabbed it with gleeful cries, because this is one I've never read. From childhood, Jerry had only one ambition: to become an animal collector and perhaps even have his own zoo.  When he finished school, he wrote to every collector he could find, asking for a job as an assistant, but they all wanted someone experienced.  So Jerry applied to a zoo instead, hoping to gain experience with animals that someone would respect (because raising scorpions on your own doesn't count).   In 1945, he got a job as an assistant keeper at the Whipsnade Zoo, whic...

 I started March off right, with Power of Three , as I planned.  I love this story, which is probably familiar to most DWJ fans.   At first, it seems like a fairy tale set in a different place.  Adara and her people live in mounds, have swords, and use magic words, and they have two enemies: Dorig (who live in water) and Giants.  Only gradually do we realize that this story is in our own world, and we are the Giants; there are three races of people.  There are also three siblings at the center of the story, and it's up to them and their new friends to try to make peace between the three races, who at the moment can only see each other as aliens and enemies, even though the consequences of that enmity will be terrible for all of them. Two of the human races can work "green gold" and wear it as collars -- what we call torcs.  The gold has to be worn and exposed to sunlight, or it turns back into crumbly black ore. DWJ's unfortunate dislike (ingraine...

Every time I think I'm going to catch up with this blog, I get one post up, feel proud, and then all of a sudden it's a week (or more!) later and I have no idea what happened.  Well, now I'm on spring break, and any big fancy plans I had fell through, so I have few excuses.  Prepare to hear from me a lot.  I hope. Also, just a quick note, I'm not seeing your posts right now, because my blog feed software was elderly and it gave up the ghost.  I'm working on getting something new going.... I've been doing a lot of cool stuff though!  I applied for a grant at work, finally finished a major quilt top I've had in the works for a long time, made a blank book, and today I went on our traditional spring wildflower hike.  Behold, Kellogg's monkeyflower!  (Regular monkeyflower is yellow.)  Too big to get into the photo A book!  With Coptic stitch! Stay tuned, I'm working on posts!

 Beyond the Rice Fields, by Naivo I have all these books here to post about, but the time flies by and I still haven't written!  Well, here's one, anyway.  The first novel from Madagascar, written in Malagasy, to be translated into English.  Naivo is a pen name for Naivoharisoa Patrick Ramamonjisoa, and this is his first novel -- and it's historical fiction. The story is set in the early 19th century.  Tsito is a little boy whose village was attacked, and he's been sold into slavery.  He's fortunate to be bought by a trader who is kind to him, teaches him a lot, and then leaves him in the village of Sahasoa with his former girlfriend, Bao, and their daughter Fara.  Fara and Tsito grow up together as close companions.  At the same time, Europeans are just barely beginning to arrive in Madagascar, which has a destabilizing effect on society, even though not many people convert. As Tsito grows up, his fortunes rise and he's able to gain a good educat...

  Jonah's Gourd Vine, by Zora Neale Hurston Erica at The Broken Spine has started a two-year project of reading the works of Zora Neale Hurston, which I think is an excellent plan.  Although I'm not planning to participate every month (who knows, I might!), I am planning to join in here and there.  The first book on the list is Hurston's first novel, Jonah's Gourd Vine, which was published in 1934, and I'm here to tell you that it's a great novel.  As a young man, John Buddy leaves home at 16 to escape increasing abuse from his stepfather.  He is strong and handsome, and is a great success with the other workers.  Lucy is only a schoolgirl when they first meet, but after a few years, they marry.  Lucy is a careful planner, where John tends to take things as they come. Eventually they move down to Florida, to an all-black town,* where John works as a carpenter and Lucy raises their many children.  John has a wandering eye, and Lucy has to put up ...