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

Thanks for hosting again, @thearomaofbooks !

This collects stories from the author's “Fairy Tale Almanacs“ of 1826-1828. They are of their time: orientalist and antisemitic stereotypes sometimes make the stories not so much enjoyable as, let's say, historically interesting. But they can also be charming. My favorite is “The Cold Heart,“ in which a young man makes foolish bargains with spirits of the Black Forest in hope of riches.

(1951, from stories 1941-1949)

I read and enjoyed this back around 1980, but avoided revisiting it because I remembered a libertarian/gun-rights theme that I'd now find irksome. Which is true a little, but it's hard to stay irked by something so bonkers. For me this is peak Van Vogt: so packed with ideas it can't be bothered with things like consistency, craft or common sense: a hot mess that tips “hot“ enough to be enjoyable still

#ClassicLSFBc

And here's my 2025 #IndependentBookstoreDay haul.

The tote is a holiday incentive. I wish there'd been one that said “Oh yes definitely smut what's it to y'all“ because that would make me seem *so* much more interesting, but it's still my favorite free tote in a long time.

(Also: Mrs Swynn assures me that's exactly what the tote says but with fewer words)

Happy #IndependentBookstoreDay !

It's a rainy day in Tulsa, but Magic City Books had a pretty good crowd when we stopped by after lunch.

(2023) It's a middle-grades supernatural thriller about a basketball player who is recovering from a serious accident while dealing with a monster from his nightmares. I'm not the target audience, but it's fun for what it is. I picked it up for its terrific cover.

(1984) It's a collection of three interconnected novellas, about a failed revolution on Mars and what happens after, set in the 23rd-27th centuries. The “icehenge“ of the title is a megalithic structure on Pluto, which may have been constructed by Martian rebels, or by aliens ancient or recent, or something else. I quite liked the premise and the epistemological themes, but found it difficult to engage with the story.

Es zog einmal eine große Karawane durch die Wüste.

“Once upon a time, a large caravan moved through the desert.“

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

(1966) “The Invasion of the Dead“

Perry and the crew of the CREST III fall into a trap that transports them to the Milky Way Galaxy and 50,000 years into the past, to a time when Earth was called Lemuria and the Lemurians fought a doomed war against invading Haluters. Much to like here: there's plenty going on, it's rich with references to backstory, and the debut of Lemurians puts one more piece of the Perryverse in place. I'm a happy reader.

(2019) A telepath and her partner are trapped in the caves of a prison planet. She doesn't remember what she did to get there; her partner says it was mass murder, but she has no recollection -- and then she sensed the presence of another person who may have a different story. It's fine, though it dwells more on relationship drama than I prefer. Others have loved it and I'm sure they're right.

(1966) “Seven Hours of Fear“

Last episode ended with Perry and the crew of the CREST III in pursuit of a Tefroder ship which was making duplicates of Gucky, Icho Tolot, and Andre Noir. As this ep opens, the Terrans have just seven hours to destroy the ship before the duplicates are complete -- but the Tefroders won't wait that long to teleport a troop of still-developing Guckys onto the CREST. And if that sounds nuts, you probably read it right.

(2020) It's a collection of five stories set in and around the Rwandan genocide. It's a gut-wrenching theme, Mukasonga's prose is graceful and restrained, and the stories will break your heart. The last story, “Grief,“ centered on a woman who attends funerals of strangers in search of comfort for the unobserved deaths of her own family, broke mine. This is what stories are for, so much that I found it hard to take more than one or two at a time

(2025) It's a supernatural thriller set in a maternity home for pregnant teenagers in the 1970s. Forced by circumstances into a place where they have no agency, some of the girls are drawn to a darker path that leads to a tight spot between the patriarchy and a a power that demands more than they may be willing to give. It moves right along, delivers the promised suspense, and wraps nicely. Recommended.

(2006) It's a collection of essays addressing issues of ownership and trade in cultural objects, mostly in the context of the looting and illegal trade in Iraqi antiquities that flourished following the 2003 invasion. Authors are museum professionals, dealers, a collector and an archaeologist, so multiple perspectives are represented and all are well stated. The context is a little dated, but the arguments are evergreen.

(2017) This was an audiobook for a long drive, and served nicely. It's an historical novel with dual timelines, one featuring a woman spy in WWI, and the other a young socialite searching for a friend lost in WWII. I'd read another by the author.

(1966) “The Master Plan“

The Tefroders set a trap for the Terrans: an apparently damaged and abandoned spaceship with multiduplicators to capture Terran boarding teams and duplicate them for interrogation. The trap captures Gucky, Icho Tolot, and “hypno“ Andre Noir, who escape but not before the Tefroders capture the information they need to make duplicates. Now the Terrans must destroy the ship before the Tefroders can complete the process.

You were a displaced little girl like me, sent off to Nyamata for being a Tutsi, so you knew just as I did the implacable enemy who lived deep inside us, the merciless overlord forever demanding a tribute we couldn't hope to scrape up, the implacable tormentor relentlessly gnawing at our bellies and dimming our eyes, you know who I'm talking about: Igifu, Hunger, given to us at birth like a cruel guardian angel ...

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

(2003) A young magician works a spell far above his level of training to summon a demon for a plan of petty revenge. Things go downhill from there. For a book in which all the characters are dislikable except for the demon a little bit, it's surprisingly fun.

And here's my#BookSpinBingo card for April. Good luck everybody! And thanks @thearomaofbooks !

Here are my #ReadYourEbooks picks for April.

Thanks @Cbee !

My #BookSpin and #DoubleSpin reads for April are a couple of short weird novels. Looking forward to both

Thanks @thearomaofbooks !

I only read one title off my March #ReadYourEbooks list, despite some very appealing picks, so I hope April is more productive.

Thanks for hosting @Cbee !

Here's my #BookSpin #DoubleSpin #Bookspinbingo list for April.

The temperature of the room dropped fast.

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

(2000) There's disappointingly little math here for a book titled “The Geometry of Love.“ But it's interesting for what it is: a discussion of a church, Sant'Agnese Fuori la mura near Rome, from as many perspectives as possible, ranging from architecture and art history to theology, hagiography, folklore, and personal response. It's interesting and occasionally fascinating. A bit unfocused for me, but arguably that's the point. Also: no pictures?

(1977) John Grimes, exiled from space service after events of The Big Black Mark, starts an interplanetary mail business. But on his very first job he and the postmistress are hijacked by bee-people. It's very 1970s, with sexual situations probably intended to be modern that now seem icky and misogynistic instead. We get past that to a serviceable but forgettable escape-and-revenge plot, but still not one of the series' highlights, for sure

(1966) “The Devil's Factory“

We learn more about the Tefroders' capabilities, as the CREST III is attacked in “linear space“ -- roughly, PR's version of hyperspace where attacks had been thought impossible -- then land on a planet where a Tefroder factory produces android clones. It's a functional story that seems mostly concerned with hitting world-building points, but one assumes the payoff is coming ...

(1736) Set in a time before the world was remade for Adam's arrival, this is the story of the princess Eovaai who is deceived by an evil counselor and loses her kingdom and very nearly her Virtue. It's a strange book that lurches from utopian treatise to Arabian Nights pastiche to amatory-fiction shenanigans, with occasional flashes of brilliance and humor (both intentional and un-) and a generous serving of WTF?!?

This is my March #DoubleSpin

(1953) Yay for the #ClassicLSFBC because here's one I should have read long ago and never got around to till now. Maybe it's just as well, because I think younger-me may have struggled to engage with the very loose plot, flat characters, and wooden dialog. OTOH maybe I would have loved the big-picture speculation about humanity's nature, future, and our place in the universe(s?). I'll never know, but now-me found it a rewarding read.

The volcano that had reared Tratua up from the Pacific depths had been sleeping now for half a million years.

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

(1966) “Ghosts of the Past“

Inside Andromeda's forbidden zone and hiding from Tefroder pursuers, the CREST III picks up a transmission from a planet near its hideout. Perry sends the “parasprinter“ Woolver twins to investigate. They discover armies from several eras of Earth's history, from Neanderthal hordes to medieval knights to WWII soldiers and veterans of the war with the Blues. It's an interesting mystery, but no answers in this episode.

(1966) “The Uncanny Robot“

Last episode, the Terrans captured a Tefroder ship that had been damaged in battle, and also met a new ally, a psychic robot named -- I kid not -- “Lucky Log.“ As Perry and crew move the ship to safe place for further investigation, they get caught up by an automatic wreck-collection system that transports them into Andromeda's forbidden zone. This one is packed with action and incident and does not disappoint.

(2025) This one was a delight. A disabled Nigerian American with a habit of being her own worst enemy writes a runaway bestseller, which gives her freedom she didn't have before. There is so much going on here, about family, identity, creativity, celebrity, technology, and the functions of story that I always had at least three different things to be thinking about, and the resolution left me wanting to start again. Enthusiastically recommended.

(1969) This is Norton's follow-up to February's #classicLSFBC pick, “The Zero Stone.“ I've mentioned that I quite like TZS; I like Uncharted Stars only a little less. The resolution seems too abrupt: at least one more chapter, better yet at least one more book, is needed for closure, and I strongly suspect that Norton had ideas for the latter and just never got around to writing it. But the fact that I wish there was another entry is review enough

People who include sightseeing in their travels can scarcely avoid visiting churches.

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

(1966) “The Micro-Executioners“

This one is a transitional volume, containing a summary of the last few episodes, re-introductions to the cast, and a tour of the CREST III. By the time that's all done, there's little room left for the story, which involves an apparently derelict spaceship in intergalactic space. Great for readers who have recently joined the story, I guess, but not a lot for the faithful readers

(2017) We think of reading as a solitary activity, but in eighteenth century England, reading was also a social one: families read together in the evening, friends read to one other, readers formed clubs to read aloud from novels, histories, and plays. William's study discusses the why, where, who, how, and what of reading in company and it's a fascinating world with very different habits of literary consumption.

And here are my #BookSpin and #DoubleSpin: a science fiction novel set somewhere in the future, and an eighteenth-century satirical fantasy set in “pre-Adamitical times.“ Looking forward to both though with very different expectations.

Thanks @TheAromaofBooks!

With all the slots now filled in, here's my #BookSpinBingo card for March

Thanks @theAromaOfBooks!

Here are my #ReadYourEbook picks for March. It's an especially appealing selection this month, I'll have a hard time choosing.

Thanks @cbee !

Interesting: the 18th century book market saw a demand for “miscellanies,“ collections of choice excerpts from longer works.

Some critics at the time were concerned about the ruin of culture due to the new generation's education through shallow excerpts instead of longer texts. Three hundred years later I share their concern, but maybe it's just history rhyming again.

(2016) I've been reading this one since January, but it refused to be read faster. I've had to take it in more manageable chunks, contemplate its points, and follow up on some of its references. Such an insightful, thorough book -- I had several lightbulb moments while reading. I'll seek out more by Kendi but I know I'll also return to this one

(1966) “The Three-Killer“

Because (plot), Captain Arl Tratlo races to Andromeda's forbidden zone for a meeting with Perry Rhodan. Tratlo arrives first at the rendezvous point, where his ship is shot down by a Tefroder battleship. Tratlo crashes on a nearby planet, where he and his crew discover a secret Tefroder base and must stay alive until Rhodan arrives. It's a pretty good adventure, and adds to the mystery of the new adversaries.

I'd been sitting on my #BookSpin #DoubleSpin #Bookspinbingo list because of a couple of titles I wasn't sure I'd finish by the deadline. But the #BookSpin picks are out early and I MUST KNOW, so here's my list before I go take a peek.

Thanks @thearomaofbooks !

Here's my list for March #readYourKindle : a random-ish selection from my List of unread ebooks.

Thanks for hosting, @cbee !

Google Translate renders “ich kippe aus den Latschen“ as “I'll freak out,“ but literally it's “I'll tip out of the slippers“, as in: “I'll tip out of my slippers if I have to stay here another minute longer.“

My brand-new quest for the week is to find an opportunity to say, “I'll tip out of my slippers.“

(1968) This is one of my favorite Nortons, so I was happy to read it again for #classiclsfbc . For me, this hits a sweet spot of straightforward adventure with some of Norton's favorite tropes but without her sometimes-excessively mannered prose style. Others in the group were underwhelmed, which is (sigh) but also fine: I've bounced off more than a few Nortons too, and what's a sweet spot for me won't be for others. Looking forward to next month!

(2024) It begins as a wish-fulfillment fantasy about a bookstore employee who comes into possession of a magical book that lets her go anywhere in the world by walking through a door. It turns darker when she learns there are other magical books, some owned and used by malicious people. By story's end, it's the kind of twisty plot-driven supernatural thriller where things don't make sense until they do. It's much fun.

In Kellner Books on the Upper East Side of New York City, a few minutes before his death, John Webber was reading The Count of Monte Cristo.

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

(1966) “In the Realm of the Center Guardians“

Perry, Atlan, Gucky, and Icho Tolot sneak onto Tefrod, the heavily-guarded home planet of the aliens who guard whatever secrets lie at the center of the Andromeda Galaxy. Given the threat that the Tefroders represent, it's almost comical how easily Perry and team can break in, poke around, and leave again. It's disappointing, and even a little silly, but we do learn a little more about Tefroders.