April (second week) 2017 Reads

This week I retried an author I didn't like when I was in school. Then I followed a link to a fun short story,  found a new online magazine and a couple of other online goodies,  went to the library (oops, shouldn't have done that), read a novel and a book of short fiction, and did some brain teasers....

 “Deal Me In 2017!”

The Story: In the Forests of the North (in Children of the Frost by Jack London)
I put this on my roster because I hadn't read anything by Jack London since a required reading in junior high school. Back then I hated London, but I thought it was time to give him another chance. I still don't like him.

The Card: Six of Diamonds: This card found at a stock photo site, 123RF, has nothing to do with the story I read except that it illustrates how I felt when I finished the story. Grrrr!




Here's a story I did like...

online...
“Bluebeard’s Wife”  a short story by T. Kingfisher
Found through Deal Me In participant Katherine Nabity,  The Writerly Reader

Freedom From Language by  By Merve Pehlivan
An essay on writing in a foreign language. In this case, it is a native speaker of Turkish writing in English.
This is from a new online journal the Bosphorus Review of Books which features "Words straight from the Bosphorus Strait: An online literary magazine about Istanbul." It has poetry, short fiction, and non-fiction. Reviews will come. The first issue was published in January, the second in March, and the third will be in May. For a more detailed profile see Leyla Yvonne Ergil's  Turkey's first English language online literary magazine.

52 Types of Wood and the Trees They Come From
A wonderful infographic from Alan Bernau Jr. of AlansFactoryOutlet.com

It's breakfast time someplace...Roads & Kingdoms Breakfast is a daily feature highlighting the morning meal around the world. Pretty pictures and foodie essays.

from my "owned-but-unread" shelf...

What Lies Within by Tom Vowler
A psychological suspense novel of a woman trying to put a traumatic event of the past behind her. The past catches up with her and she must struggle to save her family.
I liked it, but not as much as I liked Vowler's later book That Dark Remembered Day.





The Fata Morgana Books by Jonathan Littell; Translated from the French by Charlotte Mandell
I struggled with this one. Originally published separately by French publisher Fata Morgana, four short surreal works are translated and collected into one volume. I really liked the first--Etudes (the French was published in 2007). The next--A Story About Nothing was OK but a little more surreal (French edition published in 2009). Quarters (original 2010) and An Old Story (original 2012) just got too weird for me. Like listening to someone's boring dreams. These two were the longest pieces so I only liked about a quarter of the book.
From my subscription to Two Lines Press.




Project Gutenberg find...

The Santa Claus' Book of Games and Puzzles by John H. Tingley (published in 1864)
All kinds of brain teasers with plenty of illustrations. Riddles, acrostics, anagrams, rebus, mazes, etc.  Really challenging. Some use now obsolete language and/or refer to historical events long forgotten.  (For example here's one of the answers to a rebus puzzle: Ere long expect a great overturning and uprising in Europe.) It also helps to know Roman numerals (Puzzle 29: One thousand five hundred divided by one, Will express what a lamp is, compared with the sun. Answer: Dim.)
Even with these difficulties it's fun to try and, thankfully, they do give you the answers.

Next week will be a "mostly library books" read.