Mumble Herder

Books 1-10.
Books 11-20.
Books 21-30.
Books 31-40.
Books 41-50.
Books 51-60.
Books 61-70.
Books 71-80.
Books 81-90.
Books 91-100.
101. Old Fort Snelling: 1819-1858 by Marcus L. Hansen.
102. Thor: The Mighty Avenger, Volume 1 by Roger Landgridge, Chris Samnee, and Matthew Wilson.
103. Ripley Under Water by Patricia Highsmith.

104. Darkness Calls by Marjorie M. Liu. Second book in the Hunter Kiss series, the sequel to The Iron Hunt. I can't figure out if Liu's mythology is mostly idiosyncratic, or it's drawing upon influences that I'm just not familiar with; whatever the case, I found myself (again) pretty off-balance through much of the book. At times this was frustrating, but Liu pulls it off in the end, despite the complexity. In large part this is because she's good at keeping the reader wanting to know what happens next; more than once I realized I had started a new chapter without even realizing it. These books are such a blend of genres and genre-twisting--I suppose they might be closest to paranormal romance, but with the sort of Beta-Male approach of Jenn Reese's Jade Tiger, and a Buffy-like mix of apocalyptic fantasy and superhero team-building (except darker). I guess the fact that it's hard to describe is part of why I enjoy it; I have some small reservations (like the fact that Maxine's demon-tattoo-bodyguards have terrible taste in music), but I will be reading the third book in this series before long.

Books 1-10.
Books 11-20.
Books 21-30.
Books 31-40.
Books 41-50.
Books 51-60.
Books 61-70.
Books 71-80.
Books 81-90.
Books 91-100.
101. Old Fort Snelling: 1819-1858 by Marcus L. Hansen.

102. Thor: The Mighty Avenger, Volume 1 by Roger Landgridge, Chris Samnee, and Matthew Wilson. I don't keep up very well on comics these days, largely because of budgetary issues; I'd love to be able to get an iPad or something and read them online, as I understand that this is a thing that is done nowadays, but, well, budgetary issues. But I follow a lot of comics blogs and creators and folks on Twitter, and when this series was canceled a few weeks ago, there was such an outcry that I thought I should look into it. And it is pretty wonderful--it flies directly in the face of the sort of thing that has become far too commonplace in comics, which is dark, dark, dark: tragedy, over-the-top violence, heroes being pushed to the brink (or beyond it) of villainy, etc. Sometimes those stories are well done, but of late (by which one could easily say, for the past twenty years or more) it's felt like a thing that is done because once or twice it's been really compelling. I am very much in favor of books that take the screwball creativity of the Silver Age and combine it with a humane sensibility and dialogue that doesn't sound like it was written by a twelve-year-old. The best example of this from my own recent reading is (perhaps unsurprisingly), Morrison and Quitely's All-Star Superman. This book doesn't quite reach those sublime heights, but it is gorgeous and funny and FUN; Jane Foster actually has a personality here, and Thor is noble and clueless and sweet and heroic. This is a comic you could put in front of your kids without any misgivings, and that is something that can be said of ridiculously few comics being put out nowadays. Go ahead and pick this up as a last-minute gift to yourself or someone else; maybe if we buy enough copies, Marvel will reconsider the cancellation.

Books 1-10.
Books 11-20.
Books 21-30.
Books 31-40.
Books 41-50.
Books 51-60.
Books 61-70.
Books 71-80.
Books 81-90.
91. Over the Earth I Come: The Great Sioux Uprising of 1862 by Duane Schultz.
92. Ripley Under Ground by Patricia Highsmith.
93. The Ant King and Other Stories by Benjamin Rosenbaum.
94. The Wind's Twelve Quarters by Ursula K. Le Guin.
95. Ripley's Game by Patricia Highsmith.
96. A Fisherman of the Inland Sea: Stories by Ursula K. Le Guin.
97. The Boy Who Followed Ripley by Patricia Highsmith.
98. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, translated by Edith Grossman (Re-read).
99. Four Ways to Forgiveness by Ursula K. Le Guin.

100. Through Dakota Eyes: Narrative Accounts of the Minnesota Indian War of 1863 edited by Gary Clayton Anderson and Alan R. Woolworth. The Dakota Wars from thirty-six different viewpoints, representing a fairly wide range of backgrounds; some tribal leaders, some farmers who were largely assimilated into white society, some belligerents in the conflict and some captives. The unifying thread is that all had at least some Dakota ancestry. I should have read this book before I started on the current section of the novel; although much of the information here--including some of the very same excerpts--has been in my other reading, the presentation of it here helped convince me that I was taking an approach that doesn't quite gibe with the reality of the war and its aftermath. There's still not nearly enough information from the perspective of the Mdewakantons themselves, especially the women, but this is one of the best resources I've encountered for information on their society at that time.

Books 1-10.
Books 11-20.
Books 21-30.
Books 31-40.
Books 41-50.
Books 51-60.
Books 61-70.
Books 71-80.
Books 81-90.
91. Over the Earth I Come: The Great Sioux Uprising of 1862 by Duane Schultz.
92. Ripley Under Ground by Patricia Highsmith.
93. The Ant King and Other Stories by Benjamin Rosenbaum.
94. The Wind's Twelve Quarters by Ursula K. Le Guin.
95. Ripley's Game by Patricia Highsmith.
96. A Fisherman of the Inland Sea: Stories by Ursula K. Le Guin.
97. The Boy Who Followed Ripley by Patricia Highsmith.

98. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, translated by Edith Grossman (Re-read). Technically a re-read, although when I read this book previously it was the J.M. Cohen translation; considering that was a little over ten years ago, I couldn't say whether there were any substantive differences. At that time I read it for a Lit in Translation course, the last semester of my lengthy undergrad career; the course was taught by an Italian professor on the verge of retirement whose admiration for Cervantes was matched only by his sardonic impatience with the apathy of most of the class. I don't recall his name--I might still have my notes somewhere, but they are not to hand--but I recall him fondly both for his quiet, insightful lectures and for a couple of conversations we had during his office hours.

I don't re-read very often. Partly this is because all through junior high and high school I re-read constantly, sticking mainly to the same handful of fantasy authors, Greek, Norse and Christian mythology, tales of King Arthur, and the Arabian Nights. I think, though, that I now have a re-reading schedule of at least one book, because over the past month and a half, when it came time to go to bed and read a couple of chapters of the Quixote, I was often giddy with anticipation. I know that sounds odd, but it's true. I think the danger in talking about the Quixote is to bore people with how IMPORTANT it is, and I'm as guilty of that as anyone; but to most of us, "important" sounds much like "humorless" or "homework." What gets lost in the importance of Cervantes is the pleasure of this book, which is hilarious, inventive, weird and surprising. Which is all part of why people consider it important, true, but somehow that label is calcifying; the novel begins to look, from the outside, like petrified wood, when in fact it's lively and experimental and relevant. I suspect that most of you have not read it, and I hope that this entry may convince some of you to do so. If the length intimidates you, read a chapter or two a night, and take your time; I think you will find it rewarding.

¡Oh autor celebérrimo! ¡Oh don Quijote dichoso! ¡Oh Dulcinea famosa! ¡Oh Sancho Panza gracioso! Todos juntos y cada uno de por sí viváis siglos infinitos, para gusto y general pasatiempo de los vivientes.

Books 1-10.
Books 11-20.
Books 21-30.
Books 31-40.
Books 41-50.
Books 51-60.
Books 61-70.
Books 71-80.
Books 81-90.
91. Over the Earth I Come: The Great Sioux Uprising of 1862 by Duane Schultz.
92. Ripley Under Ground by Patricia Highsmith.
93. The Ant King and Other Stories by Benjamin Rosenbaum.
94. The Wind's Twelve Quarters by Ursula K. Le Guin.
95. Ripley's Game by Patricia Highsmith.

96. A Fisherman of the Inland Sea: Stories by Ursula K. Le Guin. More stories, mostly quite good, a few good but not too memorable. Standouts, for me, were "Newton's Sleep," "The Rock That Changed Things," and "The Shobies' Story," the last of which is seriously unsettling. I think I would prefer not to mess with churten travel, thanks. The title story starts out feeling sort of like just reading someone's slightly rambly life story and then suddenly turns into something much more boggling; in retrospect it seems clear that it was structured that way for a reason, and it's an interesting, risky choice. It worked for me, ultimately, but I could see where it might not for another reader.

Books 1-10.
Books 11-20.
Books 21-30.
Books 31-40.
Books 41-50.
Books 51-60.
Books 61-70.
Books 71-80.
Books 81-90.
91. Over the Earth I Come: The Great Sioux Uprising of 1862 by Duane Schultz.
92. Ripley Under Ground by Patricia Highsmith.
93. The Ant King and Other Stories by Benjamin Rosenbaum.

94. The Wind's Twelve Quarters by Ursula K. Le Guin. This was Le Guin's first collection. As such, there are a couple of stories that are less then impressive; on the other hand, there are stories like "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas," which is one of the best stories I've ever read by anyone. Let me repeat that: "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" is not just one of the best Le Guin stories I've read, it is among the best stories I have read by anyone in my lifetime. (Just wanted to get that point across.) I also particularly liked "The Day Before the Revolution," a sort of prequel/denouement to The Dispossessed, "Darkness Box," and the proto-Earthsea stories "The Word of Unbinding" and "The Rule of Names."

Books 1-10.
Books 11-20.
Books 21-30.
Books 31-40.
Books 41-50.
Books 51-60.
Books 61-70.
Books 71-80.
Books 81-90.
91. Over the Earth I Come: The Great Sioux Uprising of 1862 by Duane Schultz.

92. Ripley Under Ground by Patricia Highsmith. Since the events of the first book, Tom Ripley (called "Tome" by his French wife, Heloise, and their live-in housekeeper) has settled into a fairly comfortable life of domesticity, occasional fraud, and mundane courier intrigue. It's the fraud, in the form of a forgery operation built around a painter whom only the principals (including Ripley) know is dead, that precipitates a crisis here, although the particular way in which things fall apart suggests that it's really Tom's boredom that pushes him into that old familiar mix of murder and subterfuge. Initially the violence is about as unremarkable as tea, and only slightly more spontaneous, but things get very messy (and gruesome) in the end, while never quite managing to push Tom out of the reader's sympathy.

Books 1-10.
Books 11-20.
Books 21-30.
Books 31-40.
Books 41-50.
Books 51-60.
Books 61-70.
Books 71-80.
81. The Dakota Indian Internment at Fort Snelling, 1862-1864 by Corinne L. Monjeau-Marz.
82. A Life on Paper: Selected Stories by Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud, translated by Edward Gauvin.
83. The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith.
84. Best American Fantasy, edited by Ann Vandermeer, Jeff Vandermeer, and Matthew Cheney.
85. It Walks in Beauty: Selected Prose of Chandler Davis, Edited and with an Introduction by Josh Lukin.
86. All Flesh Is Grass by Clifford D. Simak.
87. The Word for World Is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin.
88. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou.
89. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie.

90. The Poison Eaters and Other Stories by Holly Black. I like Holly's novels, but after reading this I wonder if I might like her short stories even more. One of the stories here, "The Land of Heart's Desire," features characters from her Modern Faerie books; it's a strong entry, but my favorite story is "The Coat of Stars," about a grown-up costume designer's uncomfortable (at first) trip home, and the unfinished business he ends up taking care of there. The story's strength, and that of the best stories here, is in how the fantastic serves as an accompaniment to the emotional trials of the character, instead of drowning them out. A really solid and enjoyable collection.

Books 1-10.
Books 11-20.
Books 21-30.
Books 31-40.
Books 41-50.
Books 51-60.
Books 61-70.
Books 71-80.
81. The Dakota Indian Internment at Fort Snelling, 1862-1864 by Corinne L. Monjeau-Marz.
82. A Life on Paper: Selected Stories by Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud, translated by Edward Gauvin.
83. The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith.
84. Best American Fantasy, edited by Ann Vandermeer, Jeff Vandermeer, and Matthew Cheney.
85. It Walks in Beauty: Selected Prose of Chandler Davis, Edited and with an Introduction by Josh Lukin.
86. All Flesh Is Grass by Clifford D. Simak.
87. The Word for World Is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin.

88. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. This is one of those books that I feel sort of silly commenting on, given how influential and important it is. But here we go. There are some moving episodes here, but I felt the book as a whole lacked structure, which tempered my appreciation of it; if it had been presented as a series of essays (and a few sections had been edited out) I think I would have liked it more. But that's where I start to feel silly, so I'll just shut up now.

Books 1-10.
Books 11-20.
Books 21-30.
Books 31-40.
Books 41-50.
Books 51-60.
Books 61-70.
Books 71-80.
81. The Dakota Indian Internment at Fort Snelling, 1862-1864 by Corinne L. Monjeau-Marz.
82. A Life on Paper: Selected Stories by Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud, translated by Edward Gauvin.
83. The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith.
84. Best American Fantasy, edited by Ann Vandermeer, Jeff Vandermeer, and Matthew Cheney.
85. It Walks in Beauty: Selected Prose of Chandler Davis, Edited and with an Introduction by Josh Lukin.

86. All Flesh Is Grass by Clifford D. Simak. So at DiversiCon I was telling Mark Rich about my novel-in-progress, and he said "That sounds sort of similar to a Clifford D. Simak novel." In essence, All Flesh Is Grass is about a village that wakes up one morning to find itself surrounded by a mysterious, invisible dome that won't allow anyone in or out. This isn't exactly what goes on in my WIP, but it is similar (and yes, I also know about the Stephen King novel and I'm not too worried about it). Even before reading it I was less distressed by the similarities than you might think, because Mark made it clear that Simak's premise was science fictional, and mine is very definitely fantastical. But I was interested, and I realized that I hadn't read Simak before, despite his being probably the only Grand Master from this region--born in Wisconsin, lived in the Twin Cities for much of his later life. Dude was prolific; this is, according to his Wikipedia page, the 11th of 30 novels he wrote. I found it very engaging to start with; his prose style is accessible but sophisticated, and the premise unfolds with a mix of logic and absurdity. I liked the aliens, too. (SPOILER THERE ARE ALIENS IN THIS BOOK.) The characterization wears a bit thin after a while, though, and the novel gets crowded with villagers. Then it ends, rather abruptly and not entirely convincingly, as if Simak just decided he was sick of it and was ready to move on to the next. I'm guessing there are better novels I could have started on Simak with, and despite the flaws of this one I intend to read more by him; have to keep filling in those gaps.