Howling Frog Books

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 . 

 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...

 I've been collecting some of these old 80s horror stories for teens, and RIP is the time!  Here we go: The Haunting of Frances Rain , by Margaret Buffie :  Lizzie's family is a mess, but now it's summer and they're going out to the island to live with Gran.  It's Lizzie's true heart-home, and she's got serious plans for doing archaeology on nearby Rain Island to see what she can find.  In the ruined foundations of an old cabin, she finds a pair of glasses -- and when she puts them on, she sees the events of nearly 60 years ago.  Lizzie learns that the island was once the home of Frances Rain, a schoolteacher who loved the solitude of island life.  But who was the girl who came to live there for a summer, and what happened to them? This one was a little unusual, interesting and fun.  And it's a Canadian story that takes place in the Winnipeg area! Dream Date , by Sinclair Smith :  Shy Katie has just moved to town and is hoping to reinvent her...

 Strange Buildings , by Uketsu It's another Uketsu book!  This one is a follow-up to Strange House , which I read in the manga version with several volumes.  The still-unnamed writer has been getting all these stories about strange houses ever since publishing Strange House .  Out of many stories, eleven stand out as being somehow possibly related.  So we get eleven files, and some clues do start to emerge.   The author goes to visit the same architect buddy and they come up with some unnerving theories....but the real story is something that winds through generations, all over the country, in complex family arrangements and even a strange 90s cult. As always, it's a fun and addictive read, and quite spooky in it's own oddball way.  Since it is pretty much a sequel, I'd advise reading Strange House first, but that's not truly necessary.

As long as I'm on a reading roll, I'm joining RIP XXI, which it seems has mostly moved to Instagram, where I am not.  But I am undaunted and have collected all the spooky books on my TBR pile, and we'll see how much I can get done.  Gotta love me some spooky season reads!  

 Woohoo, I did it!  I combated my reading slump and reached my goal, and I had a lot of fun doing it.    I went off the rails a bit from my list, but that's what lists are for; so you can turn into a pirate and flout them if you want.  A couple I decided not to read; I've color-coded a few for if I'm partly into them or just haven't gotten to them yet. Going to the Wars, by John Verney Walking the Bones of Britain, by Christopher Somerville Castle Dor, by Arthur Quiller-Couch and Daphne du Maurier  The Curse of the Montrolfes, by Ronan O'Grady  Germany Jekyll and Hyde, by Sebastian Haffner  (whoa, seriously heavy-duty, save for later) The Elements of Typographic Style, by Robert Bringhurst  Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer Knock Three Times! by Marion St. John Webb The Otterbury Incident, by C.Day Lewis  The Millicent Quibb School....by Kate McKinnon  (got 5 pages in, not for me) Kraken, by China Mieville When They...

Sunken Lands: A Journey Through Flooded Kingdoms and Lost Worlds, by Gareth Rees  I loved this book.  Rees has, since childhood, had a fascination with legends of sunken cities, and I get that!  What's more enticing?  So I've been excited to read this, and it was good stuff.  Rees is British, and the British Islands have lots of sunken lands around the edges.  Former ice ages bound lots of water up in glaciers, and when those ice ages ended, the seas rose and covered coastal regions.  He starts off with Doggerland, which was inundated tens of thousands of years ago, and works around through ancient forests to the Lowland Hundred, Lyonesse, and other lands that passed into legend.  Then he looks at manmade land sinks, like the eastern fenlands. The second half of the book ranges abroad, first through myth with a long section on the stories of Atlantis, and then to the ancient Roman resort town of Baiae (across the bay from Pompeii, it was not dest...

 The Power of the Powerless, by Vaclav Havel This is one of those very famous books you always mean to read, and so I thought I'd give it a try this summer.  It's short and dense, just 21 chapters long, and published in 1978.  The edition I read has a very helpful introduction from Timothy Snyder, and so here's some information I cribbed from that: Ten years after the Prague Spring, nobody was particularly pro-communist anymore, but Havel was worried about how everyone just...adapted and resigned themselves to the status quo.  He wrote this book asking what ordinary people could do to make change wherever they were; he considered that he was critiquing the West too. Essentially, Havel asks, do we just go along, playing the game (whatever it may be), or do we try to live in truth?  By 'live in truth,' he doesn't mean to take up another Big Philosophy and live by it, or foment yet another revolution; he means to make decisions according to a personal sense of what...

Walking the Bones of Britain:  A 3,000 Million Year Geological Journey from the Outer Hebrides to the Thames Estuary, by Christopher Somerville I suppose it's a bit ironic that this was my first summer book, and it just took me the whole time to read it.  There's a lot of geology and it's not a terribly light read, so I took it slow and enjoyed the walk. Christopher Somerville is the walking correspondent for the Times, because of course the Times has a walking correspondent.   This is the UK, and walking is big.  He's written quite a few books, and this one I picked up two years ago in a little bookshop during our Ridgeway hike.  (I told the bookshop lady I liked books about walking, but not Robert Macfarlane, and she showed me this guy.  Yes!) The premise of this particular book is that if you look at a geological map of Great Britain, especially the simple and colorful kind of Somerville's old schoolbooks, you see that you can kind of start at t...

 War in Heaven, by Charles Williams  I sort of started this accidentally; I wasn't sure if I'd read it before, and next thing I knew, I was away.  Charles Williams, quite a strange man, wrote novels which were also quite strange.  He worked at Oxford University Press, but in London, was a connection of the Inklings, had a large theological and literary interest, and seems to have been highly charismatic.  He wrote six novels, all "supernatural thrillers," and this was the first, published in 1930.  Williams' ideas of what a supernatural thriller might be are not at all what anybody else would think of. We start at a publishing house in London, where Mr. Rackstraw comes back from lunch and discovers a dead body in his office.  So there's a mystery there.  Also, one of his authors has just turned in a manuscript tracing the history of the Holy Grail (Graal), and concluding that it currently rests in a small country church in the village of Fardles....

 Adventures of a Cat-Whiskered Girl , and Crazy in Poughkeepsie, by Daniel M. Pinkwater I feel like this might be cheating, but I did read these books and they are new to me, so I guess they count.  The two books I read recently, earlier works the Neddiad and the Yggysey , and these two all go together, sort of.  They, sort of, take place in about the same universe, characters go in and out, etc. though they are not necessarily consistent all the time.  Why worry? Adventures of a Cat-Whiskered Girl is about Big Audrey, who is in the Yggysey in Los Angeles.  She comes from a parallel dimension/universe, and even in the world she grew up in, having cat whiskers is pretty unusual.  Audrey catches a ride from LA to Poughkeepsie with this actor guy, Marlon Brando, who plays the bongos a lot.  There she gets a job at a UFO bookstore and makes some friends, especially a professor and Molly (the Dwerg), who both spend time at the mental asylum down the roa...