The Cuckoo's Calling, by Robert Galbraith, a.k.a. J.K. Rowling

(hb; 2013: first book in the Cormoran Strike series)


From the inside flap:

"After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator.  Strike is down to one client, and creditors are calling.  He has also just broken up with his longtime girlfriend and living in his office.

"Then John Bristow walks through his door with an amazing story: His sister, the legendary supermodel Lula Landry, known to her friends as the Cuckoo, famously fell to her death a few months earlier.  The police ruled it a suicide, but John refuses to believe that.  The case plunges Strike into the world of multimillionaire beauties, rock-star boyfriends, and desperate designers, and it introduces him to every variety of pleasure, enticement, seduction, and delusion known to man."


Review:

Cuckoo's Calling is a solid detective novel with cinematic sensibilities - it emphasizes noiresque undercurrents and glitz in equal measure.  The element that kept me reading this novel, though, was its fully engaging, complex characters; its 'mystery' element was an okay-whatever affair for me, because I figured out who did what to whom early on (this isn't a knock on Rowling or her writing, but rather a symptom of me reading too many mysteries in as many years).

Solid, genre-familiar read, worth checking out from the library.

Followed by a future sequel whose title I don't know yet.

Gustav Gloom and the Four Terrors. by Adam-Troy Castro

(hb; 2013: third book in the Gustav Gloom series. Cover and interior illustrations by Kristen Margiotta)


From the back cover:

"Gustav Gloom's neighbors think he is the unhappiest little boy in the world.  But what they don't know is that the strange, dark house Gustav lives in is filled with more wonders and mysteries than could ever be explained.  But explain is exactly what Gustav needs to do when Fernie What moves in across the street.  And that's when the adventure really begins.

"When Gustav decides to rescue his father from the Dark Country, he needs Fernie's help.  He convinces Fernie's father to enter the Gloom mansion with Fernie and Pearlie, assuring him that nothing bad will happen.  When the Four Terrors escape from the Hall of Shadow Criminals, all kinds of bad - horribly bad - things start to happen.  Soon it's up to Fernie to save her family and Gustav before it's too late."


Review:

Like its predecessors, Gustav Gloom and the People Taker and Gustav Gloom and the Nightmare Vault,  Terrors is an adventurous, imaginative and offbeat kid's book, with something for both children and adults.  On a character-specific note, I especially enjoyed the presence of Hives, the Terrible Butler and Fluffy the. . . well, you'll see if you read this book.

Charming and immediately immersive work, this, between the dark, kid-friendly charm of Adam-Troy Castro's story and characters, and Kristen Margiotta's perfect-for-the-book illustrations. 

Also, like its prequels, this is a book worth owning.

Followed by another sequel, whose title I don't know yet.  According to the author, there are six books in the series, all of them completed and the last three awaiting publication.

Inside from the Outside: A Journey in Sudden Fiction, by Peter Baltensperger

(pb; 2013: microstory anthology)


From the back cover:

"Dealing with the basic elements that make us human, the short stories contained in Inside from the Outside represent explorations of various aspects of human nature in all its complexity and variety.  Author Peter Baltensperger has incorporated elements of experimental, surrealistic, and bizarre short fiction in the development of his themes."


Overall review:

Inside is not an anthology for mainstream genre readers looking for easy and obvious thrills; such readers may be disappointed  - underwhelmed or overwhelmed - by the sixty-four stand-alone, cerebral and symbol-laden vignettes and microstories in this collection.  The reason for this is that Baltensperger favors a psychologically-intense approach that loosely links these elements: the works Carl Jung and Sǿren Kierkegaard; nature appreciation; mirrors; circuses and parades; romance and sexuality; and (often) quiet reflective realizations.  

Normally, I wouldn't read such work - I'm largely a fiction-genre (crime, horror, etc.) junkie.  But Baltensperger's intriguing word pairings, his sublime and often poetic language and images, and skillful juggling of the aforementioned themes made Inside a wow-worthy anthology that stands out from others' mood-linked volumes that strive for such sublimations/realizations, but so often fall short.

Of course, not every piece in this sixty-four tale book completely thrilled me - a relative few felt superfluous, due to their too-similar elements which did little or nothing to further the concepts and emotions of preceding tales.  The occasional "lapse" tale is a given, of course (at least for this reader), in a collection with this many pieces, so it's a minor nit at worst.

Beyond that inevitable complaint, I found something - a character, a mating of choice words, an image - to enjoy in almost all of the mood stories represented here.  I should also note that this is a slow burn, read-a-few-tales-a-day work, a compilation to be read, analyzed and savored over a prolonged period of time.  (It took me two months to read this - a worthwhile endeavor, in my estimation.)

Worth owning, this - if you're looking for a romantic, cerebral and mood-suffusive anthology.


Standout stories:

1.)  "Through Disarticulations": Surreal, beautiful and romantic nature- and music-based piece.  Excellent.


2.)  "Snippets in a Hot Afternoon":  I especially enjoyed the effective, full-circle finish of this microstory.


3.)  "Equine Afternoons":  Dream-like microtale about a "woman with beautiful breasts", horses and squirrels.


4.)  "Dilemma for Rain":  Especially striking imagery in this one (e.g., "a herd of snails").


5.)  "Fusions and Diffusions":  A woman and an artist hook up.  Romantic, effective - I love the line: "Hunter took her to his apartment and painted a fragmented sentence for her, flashing colors splashed over a large canvass. . ."


6.)  "Under Uncertain Skies":  A storm brings together two carnival performers (a wolfman and a bearded lady).  Sweet work.


7.)  "Blind Eyes in a Dark Jungle":  Timely vignette about a shopping mall-traumatized woman.


8.)  "Rain Games":  Two temperamentally different brothers attend a party.  Effective, stripped-down tale of familial vengeance, in its various forms.


9.)  "By Fractured Continuations":  Effective mood piece about a woman wrestling with her sense of time and being.


10.)  "Whispers from the Rain":  Nighttime precipitation holds a special allure for a curious woman.  Sweet-toned offering.


11.)  "Spring Thaw":  Wintry thoughts negate a possible love match.


12.)  "Points of Diffusion":  A couple come together between corporate meetings and a placid lakeside.


13.)  "What Is and Can Be":  A man and woman conquer winter and  a mountain.


14.)  "For a Crescendo":  Music, insects and desire bring lovers together.


15.)  "Anatomy of a Treadmill Runner":  A runner goes through his circular routines.  The story structure reflects this.


16.)  "Inside a Puzzle":  An artist struggles to hold onto joyous moments.


17.)  "Parenthesis for a Liberation":  I love the images of this microtale, in which a fanciful woman exercises while her thoughts may or may not run wild.


18.)  "Tremolando for Rain":  Two lovers meet and celebrate during a rainstorm.  One of my favorite works in this collection.


19.)  "Performance Art in a Meadow":  A circus troupe perform and live their oddly relatable lives on a rainy day.


20.)  "Through Viscous Hours":  Gregory Bergman, a night-restless man, encounters a personalized source of terror while walking his dog.


21.)  "Going By Rivers":  Two lovers join each other on a river.  Romantic-effective work.


22.)  "Notes on a Journey":  A man revisits his hometown. Effective dovetail finish to this one.


23.)  "Dilemmas of Empty Spaces":  A woman ponders her strange sense of fulfillment, while nature works its own animalistic magic.

The Adventurous Couple's Guide to Sex Toys, by Violet Blue

(pb; 2006, 2013: sexual nonfiction / sex guide.  "Foreword" by Charles Glickman, PhD)


From the back cover:

"Violet Blue is one of the top sex educators in the world and whether she is schooling Oprah Winfrey on porn or at Google headquarters talking about sex and technology, millions are listening and learning.  With a practical, sex-positive approach to pleasure, Blue leads readers through the maze of toys for adults in [this book].  She explains the many options now available, how to use lubricant to enhance your experiences, care and cleaning, where to find reputable shops - and how to send your sensuality quotient soaring with the right tools to bring you and your partner closer than ever.  Nothing says 'sexy' like giving a sex toy to your lover."


Review:

Adventurous lives up to its back cover description.  It's an excellent, no-frills-all-informative-thrills and friendly manual that's indispensable for readers new to sex toys; beyond those readers, it looks to be a worthwhile read/update for those who are already familiar with those instruments but may be looking to expand the contents of their buzz bins.

Worth owning, this.

A Feast For Crows by George R. R. Martin

(pb; 2005: Book Four of A Song of Fire and Ice)


From the back cover:

"After centuries of bitter strife, the seven powers dividing the land have beaten one another into an uneasy truce.  But it's not long before the survivors, outlaws, renegades, and carrion eaters of the Seven Kingdoms gather.  Now, as the human crows assemble over a banquet of ashes, daring new plots and dangerous alliances are formed while surprising faces - some familiar, others only just appearing - emerge from an omnivorous twilight of past struggles and chaos to take up the challenges of the terrible times ahead.  Nobles and commoners, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and sages, are coming together to stake their fortunes. . . and their lives.  For at a feast for crows, many are the guests - but only a few are the survivors."


Review:

It would be difficult for Martin to top the character-familiar plot corkscrews and karmic resolutions of the third book, A Storm of Swords, which was a near-operatic culmination of two books' worth of personal machinations, often grim and rape-fixated actions and bloody conflicts whose survivors who found themselves with the taste of ashes and bitterness in their mouths. 

I bore this in mind as I read Feast.  I'm glad I did, because  while I wasn't as emotionally invested in this fourth Song novel, I enjoyed it a lot.  Getting to know new characters, a few of whom aren't chapter titled by their names, was initially a bit of a chore after my familiarity with the characters in the previous books - but, ultimately, it was worth it, between Martin's fast and furious plotwork and writing, as well as the equally familiar grim and bloody actions of its characters; because of these elements, Feast proved to be a worthwhile sequel to its predecessors.

Of course, I missed certain characters - e.g., Tyrion Lannister, aka "the Imp" - whose stories weren't told in Feast, but given the narrative flow of this novel I understand why Martin chose to save their stories for later.

This is worth reading if you don't mind being introduced to new characters, and don't expect the easy familiarity of characters from the first three books.  Feast is clearly setting up a new round of love, lust and war, and I look forward to seeing how it plays out.

Followed by A Dance with Dragons.

A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin

(pb; 2000: Book Three of A Song of Fire and Ice)


From the back cover:

"Of the five contenders for power, one is dead, another in disfavor, and still the war rages, as alliances are made and broken.  Joffrey sits on the Iron Throne, the uneasy ruler of the Seven Kingdoms.  His most bitter rival, Lord Stannis, stands defeated and disgraced, victim of a sorceress who holds him in her thrall.  Young Robb still rules the North from the fortress of Riverrun.  Meanwhile, making her way across a blood-drenched continent is the exiled queen, Daenarys, mistress of the only three dragons left in the world.  And as opposing forces maneuver for the final showdown, an army of barbaric wildlings arrives from the outermost limits of civilization, accompanied by a horde of mythical Others - a supernatural army of the living dead whose animated corpses are unstoppable.  As the future of the land hangs in the balance, no one will rest until the Seven Kingdoms have exploded in a veritable storm of swords."


Review:

All the elements, plot-twisty action and characters that made A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings great reads structure and set the tone of this second sequel.  This grim, bloody, whimsical and sometimes surprising (but always character-consistent) series continues to wow; it has made me excited to be a reader, in a way that I haven't been in a long time.

Worth owning, this - as are the first two novels.

Followed by A Feast For Crows.

#

Most of the events in Storm are the basis for the third season of the first HBO/cable series, A Game of Thrones.  The series' first episode originally aired on April 17, 2011.  HBO recently aired its Season 3 finale, with a fourth Season set to air next year. 

Given the many characters in this series, I'm not going to list the characters, nor the actors who play them.  (I have a busy schedule.  Maybe later, when I have a little more time, I'll list those who have worked on the series.)

**Richard Cody's microstory Unidentified Flying Object was published in issue 7 of Vine Leaves Journal

Richard Cody, whose mini-tales – Alice and Lisa - appeared on Microstory A Week, has published another microstory, Unidentified Flying Object, in issue #7 of Vine Leaves Journal.  (You can read this charming tale on page 8.) 

Check this microstory out!

**Peter Baltensperger's The Call of the Loon was published on Siren

Peter Baltensperger, whose Nocturnal Tableaux* graced the Microstory A Week site in October 2012, has had another microstory published: The Call of the Loon, on Siren.

Loon, an atmospheric, occasionally hallucinatory work, details the carnal joining of a man and woman (a recurring theme in Baltensperger's oeuvre).  For this reason, this is an 'eighteen years and older' piece.

Check this story out!

#

*Nocturnal Tableaux also appears in Baltensperger's story/vignette anthology Inside from the Outside.

Then They Came For Me: A Family's Story of Love, Captivity and Survival, by Maziar Bahari with Aimee Molloy

(hb; 2011: political nonfiction)


From the inside flap:

"When Maziar Bahari left London in June 2009 to cover Iran's presidential election, he assured his pregnant fiancée, Paola, that he'd be back in just a few days, a week at most.  Little did he know, as he kissed her good-bye, that he would spend the next three months in Iran's most notorious prison, enduring brutal interrogation sessions at the hands he knew only by his smell: Rosewater.

"For the Bahari family, wars, coups and revolutions are not distant concepts but intimate realities they have suffered for generations: Maziar's father was imprisoned by the shah in the 1950s, and his sister by the Ayatollah Khomeini in the 1980s.  Alone in his cell at Evin Prison, fearing the worst, Maziar draws strength from his memories of the courage his father and sister in the face of torture, and hears the voices speaking to him across the years.  He dreams of being with Paola in London, and imagines all that she and his rambunctious, resilient eighty-four year-old mother must be doing  to campaign for his release.  During the worst of his encounters with Rosewater, he silently repeats the names of his loved ones, calling on their love and strength to protect him and praying he will be released in time for the birth of his first child."


Review:

Then They Came For Me is a worthwhile, interesting and emotionally involving nonfiction read highlighted with Iranian political history and strange/dark humor.  Check this book out.

#

Jon Stewart is directing the renamed film version, Rosewater.  The film, which Stewart also scripted, is scheduled for 2014 stateside/theatrical release. 

Gael Garcia Bernal plays Maziar Bahari.  Haluk Balginer plays Baba Akbar.  (I'll update this as soon as more information becomes available.)

The Association, by Bentley Little

(pb; 2001)


From the back cover:

"Congratulations, Barry and Maureen:  You've been approved by the Association and are encouraged to move into our exclusive gated community as soon as possible.  Please be aware that we reserve the right to approve your décor, your landscaping, your friends and your job.  All relationships with neighbors should be avoided.  Any interference from the outside will not be tolerated.  Any attempt to leave will be stopped.  Any infraction of the rules could result in severe fines, physical punishment or death.  Please send all other inquiries to the house on the hill.  Preferably before dark.  P.S. You're being watched.  Sincerely, The Association."


Review:

The first quarter of The Association is good, well-written, character solid, with smart, semi-satirical touches of humor thrown into the mix.  Somewhere between that first quarter and midway through, it becomes ridiculous - pet murders, and mutilated homeless people pop up, and everyone pretends like that's normal.  Then, home invasions, audio and visual surveillance inside and outside the homes, "mysterious" disappearances and murders of residents and visitors, as well as overt threats of physical violence. . . and the residents of this gated community do don't anything until it's way too late.  In short: this overly long novel suffers from a case of Plot Convenient Stupid People Move Into New Homes and Are Afraid to Leave, Despite Obvious/Repeated Threats to Their Lives.

Given the timing and location of the novel (2001, Utah), it feels like Little is making a quirky Grand Statement about the United States.  While that ambition is admirable, especially with its aforementioned humor,The Association should have been written as a character-smart, plot-trimmed novella, not a full-length novel.

Good writer (I've read other works by Little), crappy novel. 

A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin

(pb; 1999: Book Two of A Song of Fire and Ice)


From the back cover:

"A comet the color of blood and flame cuts across the sky.  And from the ancient citadel of Dragonstone to the forbidding shores of Winterfell, chaos reigns.  Six factions struggle for control of a divided land and the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms, preparing to stake their claims through tempest, turmoil, and war.  It is a tale in which brother plots against brother and the dead rise to walk in the night.    Here a princess masquerades as an orphan boy, a knight of the mind prepares a poison for a treacherous sorceress, and wild men descend from the Mountains of the Moon to ravage the countryside.  Against a backdrop of incest and fratricide, alchemy and murder, victory may go to the men and women possessed of the coldest steel. . . and the coldest hearts.  For when kings clash, the whole land trembles."


Review:

All the elements, plot-twisty action and characters that made A Game of Thrones a great read structure and set the tone of this first sequel.  This grim, bloody, whimsical and sometimes surprising (but always character-consistent) series continues to wow; it has made me excited to be a reader, in a way that I haven't been in a long time.


Worth owning, this - as is its source novel.

Followed by A Storm of Swords.

#

The events in Clash are the basis for the second season of the first HBO/cable series, A Game of Thrones.  The series's first episode originally aired on April 17, 2011.  HBO recently aired its Season 3 finale, with a fourth Season set to air next year. 

Given the many characters in this series, I'm not going to list the characters, nor the actors who play them.  (I have a busy schedule.  Maybe later, when I have a little more time, I'll list those who have worked on the series.)