Todd Klein's Blog, page 9

Rereading: THE BOGGART AND THE MONSTER by Susan Cooper

Cover art by Trina Schart Hyman

In this sequel to Cooper’s “The Boggart,” Jessup and Emily are back in Scotland visiting Mr. Machonochie, the man who bought their family’s ancestral castle home Castle Keep on Loch Linnhe. They and local friend Tommy Cameron find out they all know about The Boggart, that mischievous spirit who lives in the castle and loves to play tricks.

Mr. Mac, as they call him, decides to take the children on a camping trip to see some of the other lochs, and The Boggart stows away in their camping gear and goes too. When the reach Loch Ness, the Boggart senses a kindred spirit sleeping at the bottom of the loch. Meanwhile, the children have met Harold Pindle, in charge of a new scientific expedition to find the Loch Ness Monster using scientific scanners and submersibles. This seems interesting, and the campers are present when the shape of Nessie (the Monster) is seen on their screens. The Boggart is also quite interested because Nessie is really a very old friend, another boggart attached to Loch Ness’s Castle Urquhart. That boggart is the source of the Nessie sightings and myths, but he’s been sleeping for decades. The Boggart decides to wake him up and get reacquainted, and that’s when all kinds of trouble ensues.

A fun read, recommended.

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My Music: AN OLD-FASHIONED BALLAD

One of my favorite songs that I play often. My notebook says I wrote it July 30, 1978. I don’t know what inspired it, but it reminds me of the Jack Finney novel “Time and Again,” and a film I will mention below that came out later. The song: An Old-Fashioned Ballad

In 1980 I was dating Kathy, and we shared an interest in music and singing. We played and sang together regularly for a while. I lent her “Time and Again,” and she loved it as much as I did. When the film “Somewhere in Time” came out in the fall of 1980, we saw it together and loved it, too. Kathy and I decided to rent Victorian costumes for Halloween in New York City, and we attended several parties dressed like this. We also performed this song at one of them, and it was a perfect match. Now, 45 years later, the song and the performance are also a golden memory.

An Old-Fashioned Ballad is © Todd Klein, all rights reserved.

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Rereading: CHIVALRY by James Branch Cabell

The sixth book in the series, originally published in 1909, the 1921 edition I have was revised to fit into Cabell’s masterwork with the overall title “The Biography of the Life of Manuel.” Cabell may have been the second twentieth century author to retroactively put much of his work into one overall connected world and story after L. Frank Baum, both perhaps inspired Robert A. Heinlein to do the same many years later.

There are ten stories here, plus introduction, preface, and afterword, that tell of medieval kings and queens of England, France, and Spain mainly. They are love stories, but often tales of frustrated love or love gone wrong in some way as much as anything. Each involves one or more descendant of Manuel of Poictesme, the mythical French province, a man of great military success, and great success with women, gods, and demons too. Several of his children and later offspring became rulers with much larger kingdoms than his, and Cabell follows those threads, though the only magic is perhaps in the bloodline and talents of Manuel’s offspring.

Adherents of Chivalry aim to achieve honor in battle, honor before God, and honor to women. To them, love is as sacred as any holy vow, even if it be their undoing, as it is in some of these stories. While Cabell’s tales are medieval in tone and subject, his more modern understanding of relationships, human nature, and humor, make this an entertaining read. Recommended.

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Rereading: THE FOLK OF THE AIR by Peter S. Beagle

Cover art by Romas

Beagle’s third novel published in 1986 sort of combines biographical experience with fantasy in an interesting and complex way.

Joe Farrell, a world wanderer and lute player, has come to Berkeley, California to look up his old friend Ben, living with an older woman named Sia in her unusual house in the hills. (Joe appeared previously in the short story “Lila the Werewolf,” which I would not have remembered except that Beagle has Joe mention it halfway through the book.) Ben is involved with a group who recreate medieval life as a hobby, along the lines of the Society for Creative Anachronism. They have events like jousts and dances where members play characters, dressing accordingly. They try to speak with old styles of language, adhere to old customs, fight with arcane weapons, and play and dance to ancient music, which is where Joe fits in. Ben brings Joe to a dance, and there, on the outskirts, Joe sees a teenage girl who likes to play witch call up a figure with ritual, like one would call up a demon, though Nicholas Bonner is not quite that, he’s more of a trickster, and a perfect partner for the malicious games of young Barbara who goes by the name Aiffe. Before long they are creating all kinds of trouble for the society and its events.

Meanwhile, Joe is troubled by Ben’s behavior, and equally by Sia and her strange house, which seems to change from day to day. He meets an old girlfriend, Julie, they become close again, and Julie tells him of other evil things Aiffe has done. Before long, Joe is deep into the dark, mysterious magic that troubles Ben, surrounds Sia, and is being used by Aiffe and Nick Bonner to increase their power and endanger lives. What Joe can do about it is unknown, but he means to find out.

Well written, lots more characters and plot than I can cover here, a long novel that delivers thrills, human fallibility, and a wide array of historical, musical, and mythical curiosities. Recommended.

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Rereading: THE MAGIC OF OZ by L. Frank Baum

The thirteenth Oz book by Baum of 1919 tells several intertwined stories featuring magic. It begins on remote Mount Munch in Munchkinland, where Bini Aru, a former sorcerer, is reluctant to destroy his most powerful magic, the word P y r z q x g l which, if pronounced just right, can transform any being into any other living shape. He decides to hide the instructions in case he ever needs them again. His son Kiki Aru, who longs to escape Mount Munch to see the rest of Oz and the countries around it, finds those instructions, and learns them by heart. Then he transforms himself into a powerful bird and flies off to find adventure. He meets Ruggedo, the former Nome King, now a disgraced wanderer, and the two decide to team up to conquer Oz.

Meanwhile, in the Emerald City, friends of Ozma, their ruler, are trying to think of unique birthday gifts for her upcoming party. The American girl Trot and her friend Cap’n Bill follow the Glass Cat to a magical flower hidden in a forest on an island that they think would make a perfect gift, but soon run into serious trouble trying to retrieve it. Dorothy and The Wizard have another idea that requires the help of some monkeys from the forest of Gugu, so they travel there with the Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger. When they arrive, they find Kiki and Ruggedo, disguised as unusual animals, trying to incite a revolt. Before long, Kiki has transformed them, the animal leaders, and even Ruggedo to animal forms because he was frightened. How can all these wrongs be righted?

A fun story, I enjoyed rereading it. Recommended.

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My Music: A ROUND SONG

As the lyrics point out, this song doesn’t have much to say, it’s just a bit of amusing fluff that I came up with on June 17, 1978, and recorded around that time. Perhaps I was thinking of tunes that seem to roll along like clockwork, there are plenty of folk songs that do. Here it is: A Round Song.

A Round Song is © Todd Klein, all rights reserved.

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My World Series of Birding 2025

Me at left with the 2017 Century Run Team, the last year I have a photo for.

Two weeks from today, Saturday May 10th, is the annual outdoor escapade and fundraiser known as The World Series of Birding. I’ve signed up with the Cape May Bird Observatory Century Run team as I have many times in the past, beginning in 1988. It’s the only fundraiser I participate in. Along with lots of other teams we will attempt to spot as many bird species as possible on that day. The top teams will go from midnight to midnight, and cover the entire state of New Jersey. Our Century Run team’s goals are a little more relaxed: we go from 4:30 AM to about 10 PM and stay within Cape May County. It’s still an exhausting marathon to test one’s determination and stamina, but usually a lot of fun, too. During covid the rules changed some, and now you can be a part of the team while birding on your own from anywhere, and add your species to the team total. The traditional method of a group traveling by bus is what I will be doing, as I always have.

Each participant pledges a minimum of $1 per species counted, I will be pledging at least $2 per species (for myself and in memory of Ellen, who did this as well many times), and I will probably donate more. All donations go to New Jersey Audubon, and their valuable mission of conservation, education and research. Current and proposed trends in our government do not bode well for environmental issues and groups, or for the birds, animals, insects and plants we share the planet with, so causes and organizations like this are more important now than ever. I realize these are uncertain financial times for everyone, but if you should be willing to support my efforts, here’s a link to my Donation Page.

Thanks for your consideration, looking forward to a strenuous but fun day in the field, hoping for good weather!

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Rereading: THE BLACK STALLION MYSTERY by Walter Farley

Illustrated by Mal Singer

The thirteenth book in the horse series by Farley takes readers to Europe and beyond, and has elements of gothic horror and a quite good mystery.

Alec Ramsey and his partner Henry Dailey discover three yearlings shipped from Spain that have the exact look of their own champion race horse The Black, and they decide to trail those horses to their source. It takes them to a remote ranch in Spain, where the owner uses his horses against bulls in a private ring, but the trail continues. The actual source of the yearlings is further east in a hidden valley in mountains near Arabia, also the source of The Black. When Henry, Alec and their horse arrive, they discover a large ancient home and grounds owned by Tabari, daughter of The Black’s original Arabian owner and breeder, and her husband Abd. The mystery that they discover there revolves around Ziyadah, sire of The Black, who Alec and Henry had been told was long dead. Their eyes and ears suggest it’s not so, or is the strange horse running free with a flaming tail and hoofs actually a ghost? Alec and Abd try to track him down, but then Alec finds even stranger secrets below the ancient mansion.

Well done, the mystery fooled me until the reveal at the end, and the characters are interesting, if a bit melodramatic. Recommended.

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And Then I Read: FOOLS AND MORTALS by Bernard Cornwell

My brother Doug recommended this book by an author he likes, and I found it excellent.

It takes place in London in Shakespeare’s time, and the main character is Shakespeare’s younger brother Richard, who followed him to a career on stage, joining the same company. William and Richard have a difficult relationship, possibly William is a bit jealous of Richard’s good looks, and William does not offer him much help. In fact, Richard is stuck with playing female roles, even though he’s getting too old for them, and is practically penniless. As the story takes place William has written two new plays: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, to be performed at the wedding of their sponsor’s daughter, and Romeo and Juliet, to be premiered at the company’s playhouse. The company has many Puritan enemies who want to stop the showing of plays altogether, as well as rival companies who lust after their scripts, and Richard is implicated in a plot to steal William’s new plays. When that happens, he must prove his innocence and retain his place as an actor by somehow getting them back. That makes the most exciting part of this fine novel, which not only brings the period and the plays to life, but so many of the people of the time as well, from Queen Elizabeth down to the very poor living in the streets.

Highly recommended, a fine combination of historical fiction, mystery, suspense, and a window into what makes Shakespeare and his plays so timeless and memorable.

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Rereading: FRIEND MONKEY by P. L. Travers

Best known for her Mary Poppins books, this novel is long for her, and not as good, but has its moments.

Friend Monkey is a curious ape living on a small island, and when a sailor lands there to collect coconuts, he stows away inside the sack and finds a new home on the ship. Friend Monkey can’t talk, but he wants to be friends with and help everyone. Unfortunately, his help often goes overboard or does more harm than good. Eventually he ends up in London in the household of shipping clerk Alfred Linnet, who lives with his wife and three children in the home of her grumpy uncle. A neighbor, Mrs. Brown-Potter, takes to Friend Monkey right away, and when a fire causes the Linnets to abandon their house, she takes them all in. Friend Monkey has all kinds of adventures in London, and finally the Linnet and Brown-Potter families decide to bring him back to Africa by boat. Mrs. Brown-Potter has been there before and knows a village where they all can live. But then things on the boat become even stranger, and the group finds themselves going in a different direction.

I can see several reasons why this was not as successful as the Mary Poppins books. For one, the title character never speaks, nor do we know his exact thoughts, keeping him somewhat remote. Also, there’s lots of social satire that tends to bog down the story, and none of the magical adventures of Poppins. Still, I found this an interesting reread, and at times charming and funny. Mildly recommended.

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