Here’s the report on week 2 of my short story reading. I read 28 short stories this week, and also received a novel in from the library, so I’ll mix that in next week.
First, the short stories. I started out with seven stories from War and Space – Collected Short Stories of Lester Del Rey, Volume 1:
- “For I Am A Jealous People!”
- “Return Engagement”
- “Omega and the Wolf-Child”
- “Uneasy Lies the Head”
- “And There Was Light”
- “Battleground”
- “Kindness”
From The Power of Illusion by Christopher Anvil:
- A Taste of Poison
- The Gold of Galileo
- The Day the Machines Stopped
- The Middle Smasher
- The Problem Solver and the Hostage
- The Defector
- Key to the Crime
- The Problem Solver and the Burned Letter
- The Problem Solver and the Killer
- The Hand From the Past
- The Warped Clue
- The Coward
- Sense of Disaster
- Destination Unknown
From other collections:
- The Boy Detective of OZ – Tad Williams – Very Best of Tad Williams
- The Emperor, The Town – Robert Lynn Asprin – Sanctuary
- Cold Comfort – Charles Todd – Tales
- The Maharani’s Pearls – Charles Todd – Tales
- The White Pillars Murder – G.K. Chesterton – Murder At the Manor
- The Secret of Dunstan’s Tower – Ernest Bramah – Murder At the Manor
- The Manor House Mystery – J. S. Fletcher – Murder At the Manor
I’m about to start From Doon with Death (1964), the first Chief Inspector Reginald Wexford novel by Ruth Rendell. I’m reading it for a single-author Friday Forgotten Books on March 4th. I’ve not read anything by Rendell, so this should be interesting.
Barbara finished Deadly Echoes by Philip Donlay, is nearly finished with Alex by Pierre Lemaitre, the second in the series by the popular French author to be translated into English. The eponymous character, beautiful and alone, tries to tell herself that she isn’t being watched by the man across the street… Spooky stuff. Two more books from the library await her reading pleasure.
Have you read any of these stories or authors?
What are you reading? Any short stories?
Tip the Wink 
I’ve been reading a good many stories in the latest issues of EQMM and AHMM. Also the stories in THE DOCTOR’S SON by John O’Hara.
This week I finished Jay Parini’s PROMISED LAND: 13 BOOKS THAT CHANGED AMERICA. Parini writes essays on the 13 books he feels have best represented the American experience. Some choices are hard to argue with (WALDEN, HUCK FINN), some are more debatable (ON THE ROAD), others seem to come totally out of left field (HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE, DR. SPOCK’S BABY BOOK), but for each selection, Parini crafts a persuasive argument. And his essay on UNCLE TOM’S CABIN was so good, it made me want to read it again–and I really thought nothing could make me want to do that!
I also finished Melanie Benjamin’s THE SWANS OF FIFTH AVENUE, a fictionalized account of the life of Truman Capote, focusing specifically on his relationship with a group of New York society woman (especially Babe Paley, wife of the president of CBS), and how Capote’s betrayal of their secrets in a gossipy short story published in the late 1970s shattered that bond irrevocably.
I’m now reading a Catherine Aird mystery from the 1970s: SOME DIE ELOQUENT. It has an arch tone I’m not sure I like, but the mystery is interesting (a teacher dies from diabetic complications, but how did a quarter-million pounds get into her bank account?), so I’m continuing to read it.
Good luck with your surgery today. I hope all will be well.
You’ve read some pretty interesting stories this week, Richard. The only author you listed that I haven’t read is Tad Williams; I think I have some of his books buried somewhere but I doubt I’ll get around to them any time soon.
This week I read Henry Kuttner’s THE TIME AXIS, a pulp super-cience story first printed in a 1948 STARTLING STORIES, and took a tour through the Sumatran jungle with ERB’s TARZAN AND THE FOREIGN LEGION (my FFB this past Friday). I also finished Ira Peck’s 1965 anthology A TREASURY OF GREAT GHOST STORIES.
For my story a day challenge I read tales by Michael Fayette, Mrs. Gaskell, Curt Siodmak, Tolstoy, Gogol, H. Nearing, and David Drake. The great thing about this challenge is that it gives me a chance to read some of the stories that I’ve always been meaning to read but never got around to.
You and Barbara are in our thoughts today. Heal well and fast.
28 stories in a week is a pretty good total IMHO, and your list certainly sounds better than somwe of what I’ve read lately. After the dark and creepy book by Toronto-based Shaun Meeks, I read GUN SEX (another free ebook) by Oakland-based Pearce Hansen, which I liked better but still will delete as soon as I get home. One story I did like that George Kelley and Patti Abbott would enjoy, however, was “Tom Ripley: A SPECTRE Profile,” suggesting how that fictional organization might best dispose of that sociopath. Currently I’m reading Rosen Trevithick’s SEESAW – Volume I. Trevithick talks in the introduction about being bipolar and the difficulties in writing, but sadly this does not make me like the book more In fact, I can only get through the stories by skimming judiciously. The first story is the darkest, but so far the only one I’ve read without cringing. Let’s just say, it isn’t to my taste.
And then I read: first, GAME OF MIRRORS, the next to latest Insp. Salvo Montalbano book by 90 year old Sicilian author Andrea Camilleri. I won’t try to convert you or anyone else. Either you’re a fan and you’ll read it, or you aren’t and you shouldn’t bother. Someone (Bill Crider, perhaps) recommended the YA book by CHris Grabenstein, ESCAPE FROM MR. LEMONCELLO’S LIBRARY, first in a series. Unlike so many of the YA books I’ve read in recent years, this one really does seem aimed mostly at kids rather than adults. In any case, a book that extols libraries and reading has a lot of positives going for it, and though I didn’t love it as much as like it a lot, I will be reading the sequel. Incidentally, I downloaded a copy from the library back home to the Kindle, which was cool.
Next up was the second book in Andre Norton’s series about the Solar Queen’x trading expedition through 19560’s space, PLAGUE SHIP. I have the other two at home. I’m currently reading a pseudonymous Bill Crider western.
And feel better soon!
I’m reading a Fletcher Flora collection from STARK HOUSE. With Polar Vortex temperatures, it makes more sense to stay in than go out and freeze. Good luck today! Get well soon and hurry back to join us!
I’ve read the Lester Del Rey. He was a staple of my early reading years
It went okay, he’s pretty doped up still, asked me to post this comment. Answers when I can, thank you for the nice anniversary wishes.
– Barbara
I went through Murder at the Manor a couple of weeks ago. The Chesterton story (not Father Brown) was a gem, one I’d not seen anthologized before. Best of luck with whatever ails you.
Yes, I read and admired ALEX. But had no desire to dip into that world again. Reading SAN DIEGO NOIR and ALL THE LIGHT YOU CANNOT SEE.
Barbara liked it enough that she just got, from the library, IRENE, the first in the series. She’ll start it after she finishes her current book, which I can’t recall just now.