(1958) Juvenile delinquent Ross Murdock is given a choice: Rehabilitation, or volunteer for a secret government project that has specifically requested his recruitment. Soon Ross is transported to a prehistoric arctic wilderness, where the free world conducts a cold war against Soviet Russia over alien technology using human tribes as pawns. Plot-driven and undemanding, it's a fun palate cleanser after a couple of weeks spent on 18th-C conduct lit

(1740)

Hooray for the magic of low expectations! I'd braced myself for a tedious slog, so was pleased to find an unexpectedly engaging story of power and resistance. Pamela's obsession with Virtue doesn't resonate, but as a drama of compulsion and consent, it's surprising how much still works. Of course a lot doesn't work: Pamela is as exasperatingly twee as she is sympathetic, and the hero belongs in prison. But I was prepared for so much worse.

Those days when you work in a library and step out for lunch and think, you know, maybe there's no hurry to get back.

When I woke up, my roommate, Johanna, was dead.

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

And here's my #BookSpinBingo card for September. Good luck everybody!

And thanks for hosting @TheAromaofBooks !

Here are my #readYourEbooks picks for September. These are all appealing.

Thanks for hosting @Cbee !

My #BookSpin read for September is Samuel Richardson's “Pamela“, a book I've eyed with both interest and dread. Pamela is a milestone in the development of the English novel, but it's a work of “conduct literature,“ a genre I associate with stuffy moralizing, running over 700 pages.

And so for the #DoubleSpin the BookSpin Fates have assigned a much shorter stuffless read as my reward for finishing Pamela.

Thanks for hosting, @TheAromaofBooks !

(2022) I expect I'll probably lose some sort of genre-fan credit by confessing that I've never understood the appeal of “The Fall of the House of Usher.“ I've read it a dozen times (it's short at least), each time hoping it will knock me over, but then don't get it all over again. So I'm pleased that T. Kingfisher has taken that cipher of a story and crafted something engaging, accessible and even creepy. Of this version, I'd read a sequel.

I failed to score in #BookSpinBingo in August, which makes no sense because ... well, take a look. Nobody's fault but mine. I kept thinking, oh I have plenty of time to make that bingo just let me read this other book first.

On the other hand, I completed my #BookSpin and #DoubleSpin reads, and two of my #ReadYourEbooks picks, which was my goal.

My #readYourEbooks list for September, pulled almost randomly from the large and growing archive of unread books I've acquired for Kindle and Kobo.

Thanks for hosting @Cbee !

Here's my #BookSpin #DoubleSpin #BookSpinBingo list for September.

Thanks for hosting again, @theAromaOfBooks !

(2012) Second in Tallerman's humorous high-fantasy series featuring thief Easie Damasco. My response to the first was lukewarm, but the second was already on my Kindle so ...

And I liked this one. I'm not sure whether Tallerman's storytelling improved or my mood matched the product, or maybe it's just the magic of accurate expectations. Easie still wasn't sympathetic exactly, but I found him less annoying and he made me laugh.

(1969) It's a story about culture clash and friendship on a world whose natives are sexually neuter for most of their lives, except once a month when they may become either male or female. I remember bouncing off this when I first encountered it in grade school, so was delighted to find it completely absorbing as a thought piece, as a story about cross-cultural friendship, and as an adventure yarn.

This was the August pick for #ClassicLSFBC

(1966) “Between Fire and Ice“

Continuing their adventureson an ice-covered Pleistocene Earth, Don Redhorse and his exploratory team follow radio signals coming from the ruins of a Lemurian city. They discover a settlement of Lemurian refugees in prolonged conflict with hostile “mutants.“ But all is not as it seems.

Yes that's a woman on the cover. No it doesn't end well for her. It's hard to be a woman in the PR universe. More on that next ish

I'll make my report as if I told a story, for I was taught as a child on my homeworld that Truth is a matter of the imagination.

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

(2012) First in a fantasy series about a farmer boy who longs for something other than farming, and by accident stumbles upon a maguffin that gives him entry into matters of universal importance. Yeah, you've heard this before, but the world is unique and the story hits all the right notes. I dug it and will read the next.

This was a #readYourEbooks pick for August

(1739, English translation 1740)

One man falls in love with a friend's wife after he and the wife accidentally have sex (Hey, it happens.) (I guess.) Another loves a woman who lacks a fortune, which is the one quality his family demands. And an English soldier loves a French nun. The subtitle says it's “an historical novel,“ but really it's more an amatory novel in historical setting, with buckets of tears and an occasional swoon.

(1966) "Under the Glaciers of Nevada"

While the CREST crew deal with energy-sucking insects, an exploratory team led by Don Redhorse flee fire-spitting lizards. A series of misadventures lands them in an ice-covered North America circa 49500 BCE. There, they discover an underground Lemurian city ruled by a tyrant that enforces its will through deadly robotic mice. Lots of moving parts here, but it develops with admirable smoothness

Monsieur de Vienne, descended from one of the most considerable Families in Burgundy, had only one Daughter by his Marriage with Mademoiselle de Chauvirey.

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

That feeling when the book you're reading references the next in your stack ...

I don't remember hearing that d'Alembert's birth mother was Mme de Tencin, but if I did it didn't stick with me because who the heck is Claudette de Tencin? I only encountered her earlier this year through her proto-gothic Memoirs of the Count of Comminges -- and my next read, her historical novel “The Siege of Calais.“

In Aczel's story she does not seem pleasant

(2011) It's a popular history of Western mathematics light on mathematical detail and heavy on biographical anecdotes. Some favorite stories are included: the Cardano-Tartaglia and Newton-Leibniz feuds, Galois's stupid and romantic death at 20, the Bourbaki pranksters and Grothendieck's reclusiveness. But for me the stories were familiar and Aczel's retelling didn't add much. I'd have liked more math, but that's not the kind of book this is.

(1966) “Flagship in Distress“

Perry and the crew of the CREST III have narrowly escaped the dangers of 50,000(ish) BCE by jumping forward 500 years. But their new hideout world wasted no time in presenting new hazards and this episode brings more, in the forms of energy-sucking insects that swarm around the CREST; and hostile bat-people with an inexplicable grudge against Terrans. Fun, but I'm ready for them to return to the 25th century

(1959) Third in Norton's series about the merchant spaceship Solar Queen, this is a novella-length adventure set on a planet colonized by Black refugees of an African race war. Yes, it's awkward: on the positive side there is little overt racism; but at the end of the day, Khatka is a safari planet, the villain is a “witch doctor“ and the white hunters prevail thanks to science. Not as bad as it might have been, but from 2025 it's just a bad idea

(2023) Second in an epic fantasy/dying Earth trilogy. I had some issues with the first, but liked it well enough to continue. My feelings continue mixed: some very cool new settings and a couple of appealing new characters, but some plot threads just seem to hit the same note over & over, and occasional anachronisms make me grit my teeth. Still: it's more fun than not, and I'll read the next (final?) volume.

(2015) Moreno-Garcia's debut novel is a YAish book about three high school kids in 1988 Mexico City who use music to work magic, in a dual timeline with a story about their adult selves reconnecting twenty years later. The 1988 story is appealing and its high school character dynamics ring true for me. It's less clear to me what the author intended with the later timeline, which for my taste could have been omitted. Soft pick.

(2014) One of my #ReadYourEbooks picks this month, I picked this up back in 2015 as a Kindle freebie. And it's not bad. Set in a distant future where humanity has left Earth and survives on colony ships in deteriorating states of repair. Secrets, intrigue, relationship drama. There's one more book, and though this one was fun I don't feel compelled; it may appeal more to fans of relationship drama

“The World of the Bodiless“ (1966)
Perry and the crew of the CREST have for several episodes been stranded 50,000 years in the past. The way back to their 25th-century present is blocked by hostile forces, but they have found a way to jump just 500 years forward: it's not where they want to be, but a place their pursuers won't find them. Only now they're hiding out on a planet of reptilians and bodiless cloud-creatures. Frying pan/fire?

It's an appealing selection for #ReadYourEbooks this month: Thanks for hosting, @CBee !

(1951) A recent conversation with a friend has me thinking about the "juvenile" science fiction that was available when I was in the target audience, and brought to mind this gem, of which I owned a copy back in the day, about a strong-minded aunty who comes upon a mission to Mars in her cow pasture and accidentally makes the trip. This has not held up well, but Miss Pickerell is still a hoot and I'm giving it a thumbs-up from elementary-school me

(2025) In a future climate apocalypse, Minor lives with her family and friends in a flooded Manhattan, on the roof of the Museum of Natural History. But when a superstorm forces them inland, they have to face the usual dangers of traveling a postapocalyptic dystopia. It's fine: the writing is lovely but the territory is familiar and the resolution is implausibly optimistic.

Friends, it appears that the #BookSpin fates have noted my recent inattention to the Perry Rhodan saga and have ordered its immediate correction. Their will is not to be questioned.

In all seriousness, thanks for hosting @theAromaOfBooks !

Here's my August list for #ReadYourEbooks pulled approximately randomly from my unread books on Kindle and Kobo. Thanks for hosting, @cbee !

No bingo in July. 🙁

Also the pace of Perry Rhodans continues lackluster. 🙁

But really I can't call my July reading a disappointment. I finished both #BookSpin and #DoubleSpin reads, and one #ReadYourEbooks pick. And the books I got to were mostly pretty damn good.

What the heck, let August come.

Despite my earnest request for a delay, it turns out that August arrives tomorrow. I am unprepared in almost every way but one: here's my #BookSpin #DoubleSpin #BookSpinBingo list.

(1967) I've tried this one before and didn't get far, and even this time I found that it takes some time to get used to the premise and the space. But once it clicks -- for me it clicked in the third chapter -- it is a delight. It's humorous, intriguing, and sneakily serious about the role of religion in civilization. A potential future re-read for sure.

Thanks #ClassicLSFBC for prompting me to move it from “someday“ to “okay, now“

(2017) It's a running memoir by an athlete who used to blog as “fatgirlrunner“, it has the usual mix of autobiographical anecdotes, race reports, and inspirational cheering. This one also includes insight on participating in sport as a plus-size athlete: the message is of inclusivity, that every body can be an athlete's body. Valerio's enthusiasm for running and her sense of humor are infectious.

(2004) I adored Perdido Street Station and loved The Scar, so even though I had heard that Book 3 was the weakest in the series I still went in with high expectations. And there's much to admire here: Miéville's imagination is fertile as ever, and the fantastical settings and creatures are terrific. But at heart it wants to be a social-realist (-surrealist?) novel about The Revolution, and the characters all feel more like tools than living beings

(1737) It's a sort of amatory fairy-tale about a beautiful princess facing an arranged marriage to a wicked king. (How wicked, you ask? Well, he turns his subjects into ostriches whenever they fall in love, which is wicked enough.) it's very busy, with many transformations and a visit to -- I swear I am not making this up -- a libertine shepherds' colony on Venus. A little bonkers but also much fun, and accessible to my very basic French.

(1976) The second volume of original Star Trek tie-in fiction (after James Blish's “Spock Must Die!“), this is a collection of short stories that had been written by and circulating among fans since the original series' cancellation: so, fanfic basically. As fanfic it's not bad: the characters are respected, and there's a dose of inside humor But the crew takes so much shore leave you wonder when they work, and Kirk/Spock ... well, you know ...

(2017) Three brothers who are sort of prophets, sort of musicians, and sort of mystical warriors, wander a post-apocalyptic wasteland killing monsters and carrying out missions given to them in riddles. There is plenty of action and the resolution is satisfying, but the world's rules rarely made sense to me and the brothers' interpersonal dynamics were frequently annoying. There's a follow up but I think I won't continue.

(2020) Here's a quick, cute fairy tale about a king and queen who fall out of love -- but are sent by a witch on a quest that has them giving their relationship a second chance. The romance angle is not usually my kind of thing but I fell for the light humor and the clever banter. And for the cloak that thinks it's a horse: I'd read a sequel just about the horse cloak.

(2017) A Black Texas Ranger investigates the murders of a young white woman and a black stranger in rural East Texas, uncovering a story of race, sex, class, love, ambition, and The Blues, wrapped in a noir aesthetic of moral ambiguity, and y'all I am here for it.

Once upon a time, there lived twelve reasonably attractive princesses who, when lined up together, caused such a sight that the world agreed to call them beautiful.

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

(2012) So this is actually a #ReadYourEbooks pick from June that I started but wasn't feeling so figured I'd abandon it. But it hung around on my phone beckoning Come on, you know you want to know. So I gave in and finished. It's a historical technothriller set at the birth of MIT, heavy on “historical,“ light on “thriller“. Several things didn't work for me, but a book that refuses abandonment gets my respect.

(2010) Set in a Johannesberg, South Africa, where criminal acts -- or maybe feelings of guilt, it's not clear to me -- attract animal familiars, who sometimes bring superpowers with them. Heroine Zinzi December is such a guilty person, matched with a sloth and a talent for finding lost things. The plot is a noir mystery, involving Zinzi's search for a missing pop star and what happens next. I loved the world and the character and found it much fun

(1966) “Ultimatum to the Unknown“

Last episode, the crew of the CREST captured a Tefroder time agent in hopes of learning a way to return to 2404. Under interrogation, the agent reveals the existence of an “interim transmitter“, which can be used to jump forward in time but only 500 years at a time. Not a favorite: the “interim transmitter“ feels like a gimmick to drag things out, and some of the Terran actions are, let's say, ethically suspect.

(2024) It's 1924, and Veronica is being taken to an asylum on the moon, to be treated for "black spells" and neglecting her "wifely duties." And from there things turn weird. Let's just say that if you feel the title promises literal moon-spiders you will not be disappointed. It's "The Yellow Wallpaper" by way of Strange Tales: unsettling, disorienting, more than a little gross and also very good reading.

(2025) It's a story about a dragon-slayer who faces a conflict between her professional and personal commitments. Lovely prose, engaging characters, and a perfect resolution make a tight and satisfying novella. Recommended enthusiastically for readers whose kind of thing this is

In a country near the Kingdoms of Romance, there once was a wicked king named Tecserion: no one ever saw him smile; he knew no pleasures but doing evil; in addition he had a figure that Nature seemed to have given him to make him hated all the more; in a word, his ugliness equalled the wickedness of his character.

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

And here's my #bookSpinBingo card for July.

Thanks for hosting @thearomaofbooks !