by Saul Bass and Leonore Klein (1962)Ever wonder what Saul Bass would do with a children’s book? Well, wonder no more because he illustrated one called Henri’s Walk to Paris.
It’s predictably delightful with unique designs and charming colors.
It’s also quite fun to read to Van saying “Hon-reee’s walk to Par-eeee!”
Thanks to Brain Pickings for calling our attention to this tiny masterpiece.
by Maureen McHugh (2005)I’m on a bit of a Maureen McHugh kick, finding her one of the most compelling and innovative writers today. With Mothers and Other Monsters I continued to be awed.
The collection includes genre defying stories that are often truly brilliant: the off world saga The Cost to be Wise left me stunned and Interview: On Any Given Day which takes place in a future where the aging are reversing the process and partying with actual young people – which leads to unexpected complications.
She is a fresh, amazing voice in science fiction but, defying categorization, most of the other stories barely dabble in the genre, like Eight-Legged Story and Presence which take on the very real dramas of being a step parent and watching a loved one struggling with alzheimer’s.
The latter is particularly depressing, though no less brilliantly written. (I just needed a breather and a dose of something happy after finishing it.)
I look forward to reading her novel Nekropolis soon (and refrained from reading the short story that lead to it in this collection).
By Elmore Leonard (1980)It’s always a good idea to pepper your reading list with a few Elmore Leonard novels. His snappy crime sagas are always entertaining, always satisfying.
In City Primeval, he takes us to Detroit, where handsome detective Raymond Cruz is on the trail of the seriously dangerous “Oklahoma Wildman” Clement Mansell. Cruz suspects Mansell is responsible for a random double killing and is determined to get justice after Mansell walked away from an air tight murder case based on a technicality. He’s not afraid to go beyond the law to see him pay either.
Throw in a larger than life and corrupt judge, a sexy lawyer, and a bunch of really angry Albanians and you get the kind of thriller we know to expect from Leonard. It’s smart, it’s tense, it’s funny, it’s a perfect quick read.
by Maureen McHugh (2011)After the Apocalypse has solidified Maureen McHugh as one of my favorite current authors. I recommended her novel China Mountain Zhang a while back and have only grown fonder of it over time.
Her latest, well reviewed collection of short stories is bookended by more well worn apocalyptic scenarios: zombies and refugees walking through abandoned, dangerous suburbs towards (hopefully) a safe place.
With McHugh’s unique prose (she’s got an amazing ability to speak believably from a wide range of points of view) and creative mind, even zombies can be new again.
The other stories, which take on the apocalypse in different ways, are unique, humorous, and very human. There’s a debilitating disease transmitted through chicken nuggets, a woman struggling to get by in a shattered economy by making custom baby dolls and dildoes, a boy who develops amnesia after a dirty bomb explodes in Baltimore, and a group of people that get the unnerving sudden ability to fly.
While the stories are paranoid and frightening, they’re also almost optimistic. Each one is about survival, not in a Rambo sort of way, but how normal people under horrible circumstances just manage to carry on.
I really love this book and want to run out and get more of her work. It’s been truly inspiring to me (especially as I am writing short stories myself) and I’ve even contemplated writing a fan letter (which I never do).
by Alan Garner (1973)A young troubled man in love in the 1970’s, the violent siege of a church during the English civil war, and a berserker and his fellow deserter soldiers during Roman times; the elements of Alan Garner‘s slim but substantial novel Red Shift are interesting even if I had a hard time getting a concrete grasp on them.
It’s a little like reading poetry… You’re thrust into conversations that can be vague and complex, using language and history forgotten and the narrative jumps from one story to another without warning. Rather than always “getting” everything that was on a page, I’d (sometimes after re-reading) get a resonating feeling of what was taking place instead.
It’s not a simple, easy read but it is rewarding. Symbolism is rarely this effective and the bitter, violent themes are haunting.
Jim got this for me after hearing about it on Gawker, so I had no idea what to expect–but even if I had read a summary, it wouldn’t have prepared me for the interesting use of language and ideas here.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about it until I’d finished, and even now it grows more interesting as I look back on it… it’s exciting to be surprised, challenged and rewarded by a book.
by The Publishers of Phaidon Press (2001)While I sometimes bemoan the waste of my days of dual incomes and thoughtless spending (where’d it all go??) it’s nice to still reap the benefits.
In particular I have a great collection of beautiful art books and Phaidon’s The House Book is one of my favorites.
It’s a comprehensive but friendly to limited attention spans with large beautiful photographs and brief synopsis of architects and architectural styles.
Heavy hitting household names like Frank Lloyd Wright and Frank Gehry are here as well as less well known masters like Daniel Grataloup and Osamu Ishiyama.
There’s plenty of fodder for dream house building in your mind though it might also make you feel dismayed that our country is such a wasteland of cookue cutter blandness.
I read less than usual this year – but number one of my list was about 10,000 pages, so I don’t feel so bad.
If you’re looking for good reads, you’ll not only find a partially genius, mostly amazing, spiraling unfinished sic fi epic, but a terse sci-fi classic of a different sort.
You’ll read about rich people doing bad and bad crooks getting in too deep.
There are curious stories that will haunt you and a high school required reading that I missed in my youth.
by Andrew Bolton (2011)The book accompanying the Met’s extraordinary Alexander McQueen exhibit, Savage Beauty is exquisite.
If you weren’t able to make it to the show, (I am truly sorry) This book should be on the top of your wish list.
While I’ve mentioned it before (and posted images) on my review of the exhibit, it’s worth mentioning again because it’s on crazy sale on Amazon and makes a great present for fashion lovers of all kinds.
I recently gave it to a nine year old cousin who was simply beside herself, jumping up and down at the photos.
The images are bold and many and the hologram cover is pretty awesome. A fantastic retrospective of an incredibly creative career cut far to short sniff .
by Doris Lessing (1988)Devilish children, whether possessed or born evil has been the subject of many a horror book and film (for a couple good ones see The Bad Seed, A Good and Happy Child, and of course, The Exorcist).
Doris Lessing‘s The Fifth Child does something slightly different with the genre. The horror is subtler, the child isn’t even recognized as being anything but spirited and unloved by doctors, and the unease taps more into the guilt and paranoia that comes with parenting rather than fear of a murderous tot a la Damien in The Omen.
It’s far more realistic than many like minded stories and in that way all the more terrifying. Even Lessing found writing it very “upsetting”.
It reminded me of an article I read many years ago about parents with overly aggressive sons whom they feared yet had to take care of. There was nothing they could do about it, and the futility and complete control the situation had over their lives, it stayed with me and scared me.
After all, in our real lives, isn’t it losing our happiness: happy marriages, happy family dynamics, happy sense of peace that is most frightening?
In the novel, that’s exactly whats threatened by Ben, the titular fifth child when he arrives in a bustling, loving family.
With his dead eyes, hobbit like appearance, incredible strength and tendency to kill animals he slowly destroys a happy family.
Lessing’s writing is sharp, like a great wit that never quite has anything nice to say about anybody. I breezed through the book in one day. While it frankly probably would have been a dissappointnent to a young me looking for more outward appearing horrors, it is a page turner for adults, especially parents that hold their small pleasures dear and know what they have to lose.
by Chester Himes (1957)It’s a shame that the name Chester Himes is not as well know as Raymond Chandler or Elmore Leonard. His colorful mix of humor, poetic despair, violence, and action put him on par with the best noir writers. A Rage in Harlem is my first Himes read but definitely won’t be my last.
It concerns a gullible square named Jackson who’s been had by some no good swindlers and a dame. In a half brained frenzy to put things right, he only spirals into deeper and deeper trouble leading him to seek help from his doped up street smart brother Goldy who makes his way by impersonating a nun and selling tickets to heaven.
The book is packed with wild, intriguing characters like Goldy ( including two hard ass cops named Grave Digger and Coffin Ed) but Harlem itself plays the biggest role.
Vivid and taut, this book is both gruesome and absurdly funny. While reading, I kept thinking what a great movie it would make and was surprised to learn there already is one from the early 90’s starring Forrest Whittaker. It’s said to be pretty good so I look forward to watching it.
PS – the book as also released under the name For Love of Imabelle and I’d love to get my hands on those photo cover Panther editions!
