Two Envelopes And A Phone > Recent Status Updates

Oops. I said last time that I was in for one of her slightly longer stories, but actually, ‘Blue Woofers’ - which I just read - still wasn’t very long, and it’s the next one that stretches itself a bit…’The Secret Language of Old White Ladies’. Title is long, too…and strange…

I started strong with Gruber’s stuff, when I plucked his novel The Whispering Master off a list of recommended Mysteries with music as the focus. It was, for me, the sort of book that makes me want to read all of his novels, unless, say, I read 5 lousy ones in a row. That hasn’t happened, and I doubt it will. The Talking Clock was no Whispering Master…but it was still terrific, as is the start of this one.

So, this will likely be my last look at vampires in September; I was going to read 13 Bullets, but I’ve temporarily reneged on that novel, and will save it for October. I thought I had lost this magazine, but to my intense relief it turned up after some searching…and since I was denied a Blade story in Vampire Tales #10, I really want one next. I know the Blade tale is short, but I’m okay with that.

‘The Shoot’ was a fascinating story. I’m beyond trying to figure out everything Anthony is up to, in each 10 or 12 page expedition, but overall, these tales are interesting reading. Just very sad, a lot of the time. I think the next story is one of the longer ones - let’s see what happens when she adds 15 or 20 pages…

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea is the first book I remember reading...or at least the first book I recall reading, that had one fish, two fish, red fish, and blue fish, but was for grown-ups. I know it was a Scholastic Edition, and I like to think it was unabridged. I return to Jules Verne with special fondness. Some other subterranean fictions come to mind - Styx, by Christopher Hyde, is a favourite.

This will be the first book I read from my newly-cobbled-together TBR called “Goodis, MacDonald and Friends”. The idea - once I realized I had 4 David Goodis novels and 4 R. MacDonald novels - is 30 mostly Noir choices that I already own. I’m excited - and this will have to be interwoven with my “Creepy Reading List” for the season. French Key probably paired with Bussi’s Lying in Wait (cuz Bussi’s, y’know, French).

It's riveting reading...but I will be very glad when the story is brought to a close.

Almost perfect. I’m flashing back to reading The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Not many books vibe that way - but this one does, still with its own treats, and that is wickedly wonderful.

If a story in here is not Science Fiction, then it’s Horror, or Horror mixed with SF. So…good book for the season, bad for happy feels.

Benny Goodman's recording of 'Sing, Sing, Sing' is mentioned in this novel - and that sort of freaked me, because I had just read something else that mentioned Benny Goodman's 'Sing, Sing, Sing', right before starting this novel! I thought it was in Gideon's Day - the scenes at Chang's joint - but I can't find it. Now I'm thinking it was in Sandman Mystery Theatre (which is set in 1938), and I need check later. Odd!

I wanted to finish this book at Starbuck’s tonight, but unfortunately a woman there with a laptop was playing a video of someone’s wife preaching at a memorial service, loud enough so that the whole coffee shop could hear it, and I felt that my personal choice to listen or not listen to that memorial service had been violated, and so I left early, wondering about the future of me reading at coffee shops any more.

I guess I’m emerging from the section that must have caused a lot of DNF’ing (if the beginning didn’t)…and regarding that issue, for me, it’s fiction. I can detach, after reading it. I don’t have trauma over anything that is not real. On the other hand, I don’t watch the news or immerse myself in real-life stories that are terrible…like the equivalent of any fiction I read. But, to each their own, pain is personal.

Okay, I’m definitely Team ‘I Love It After 53 Pages’. Getting all kinds of splendid vibes - Patricia Geary, Lisa Tuttle, Lisa Goldstein, John Crowley, Arthur Machen, James Branch Cabell, Ramsey Campbell, Roger Zelazny, Gene Wolfe, Joe Hill - coagulating into a fresh new thing.

This and then Pretty Girls. Turned my reluctance over doing two books from 2015 in a row - I usually like to shake up the years I visit - into enthusiasm: “this will be cool! Let’s flash back ten years via two novels that hit big!”. Big expectations for this, and Pretty Girls, so we’ll see if they can both deliver. The two are from my 30-book, seasonal Creepy Reading List of Horror and Creepy Crime offerings.