Two Envelopes And A Phone > Recent Status Updates

Some or all of this tomorrow (really counts as a re-read of more of my favourite comics by Marv Wolfman (and there are many)), and then an Irish Mystery writer on Monday.

Oh it’s so good. I’m halfway through, and I already know this will be one of my Best Reads of the Year. I love it. I would love to meet this woman, go back in time and hear her speak.

I’m not sure how much of this series I will ultimately revisit, but I am having reading #s 76-80 in order, as opposed to reading them in the order I found them scattered around bookstores in the city, New and Used, all those decades ago. I don’t want to be a deceptive rater…but I’m going to resist the urge to tamper with my star-ratings. I will respect the reader who was me, age 11-17.

Lots of fun. I cannot get a line on the killer - or why.

I like it. Big cats with nasty claws lurking in a Mystery novel have come my way before, at least twice: Perfect End by William Marshall, and Zero at the Bone by Mary Willis Walker. Sometimes, the ‘big cats’ turn out to be either an outright trick, or, if they exist, they are being framed for a murder they did not commit. We’ll see. That part of the mystery has already broken open a bit, here.

One of the first Perry Rhodan books I read. I read #61 first, and I'm sure that I read this one among the next three. I got hooked on the series at around 11 years old, and didn't know it at the time, but it was just becoming unavailable in translation. Boxed sets and even some single books were being unloaded at sale price, except for anything earlier than, say, around #50, which were hard to find, except Used.

Obviously, anything we have by this author is from before he boarded the Titanic, and stayed on it while allowing his wife and others to depart in lifeboats. Here, his main character is a plucky female spy, so I'm intrigued. First chapter already has me keen on her way of doing things...

I didn't plan to be bouncing back and forth between short-story books that sort of compliment each other - but now I realize it's going to be interesting dealing with both the hunger for food, in The Uncanny Gastronomic, and the hunger for sex, in Scared Stiff. I knew as I was reading 'Dolls' - first tale in here - that it must be early Ramsey Campbell, and a check shows 1976; so that's going back! I liked it a lot.

I gotta get reading women authors this month - maybe the majority of picks from here on in; we’ll see. This author has impressed me in the past, but the series and detective will be new to me.

Okay. I won't continue with only one novel set in the US, per month. Trying to avoid USA fiction simply reminds me of US politics, and I get more upset trying to avoid certain books every month...thus the pride and contentment I wanted to feel for four years is replaced by me being more pissed off than ever. I've scrubbed my life as free as it can be of certain things, people. Keeping books separate is better.

Besides many Horror films that feature something that likes to eat people (Jaws, Tremors, etc.), some other films centred on dining have been interesting viewing: Dinner Rush, The Big Feast (La Grande Bouffe) even Who is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? I notice Stanley Ellin's tale 'The Specialty of the House' is not in this book. Okay. Novels of note: Under the Skin, Off Season, Thinner...

A return to a series of my younger years. Always a bit sad that most of it never made it to North America in translation. But we did get the early years! I have plans to re-read #s 76-80, then maybe #s 71-75…more…

Almost-y!

At the rate I’m going, weekend in place, I might finish this by tomorrow night. Not sure. Monday at the latest, I think. It is compulsive reading, so I get a lot done during any one sit-down with it.