#MonthlyBookChallenge – January, 2019.

#MonthlyBookChallenge – January, 2019.

Well, this month has been crazy busy! Stephen King's and Richard Chizmar's utterly charming “Gwendy's Button Box” seems like so long ago... purchased at an Indigo Boxing-Day Sale, this was the first book of the month for me. I went on to read, upon recommendation (and to which I have fully appreciated this recommendation), “The Bullet Journal Method” – wannabe organizers, get ready to change our life! And I finally got through – or, rather, I finally gave my undivided attention to – Philip Kerr's Nazi-noir-thriller “Prague Fatale”, based around the novels of Agatha Christie, and quite good fun to read, too. I also finally introduced myself to Thomas Pynchon after years of curiosity, thanks to a local library sale, with “The Crying of Lot 49”, a very weird but electric hippie-underground-caper. I have come to believe that only Pynchon can make a caper story completely un-caper-like, as he'd apparently also created the ultimate un-noir noir thriller “Inherent Vice”. I think I'll track that one down next. I also, finally (and surprising that I waited this long?) checked out the writings of the Marquis de Sade, “The Mystified Magistrate” and “Philosophy in the Bedroom”, the latter book being of several catalystic influences for the films of Jess Franco. Lastly, I read JB Priestley's “An Inspector Calls”, a play that was brought to my attention during these strange times of social shaming, bullying, and the suicides of young people (please check out Jon Ronson, by the way, if your interest is piqued); Priestley's play is from 1912, if memory serves, but is in context now a chilling prediction of the power social media, and specifically social media shaming, can have on people. “An Inspector Calls” is still in print today and has also been adapted into a graphic novel, exemplifying its literary relevance today, over a hundred years later. 

--V.

 

3 Books a Month – December (Holiday Reading)

I'm seriously impressed that we've been able to continue this #3booksamonth challenge going since the spring of 2018 – but here we are, and Happy New Year to everyone! My first book of December seems so long ago it could've been months ago. It was Peter Straub's brilliant and deeply insightful serial killer novel “Koko”, and for those of you who think you may know Straub's name, I urge you to think about “The Talisman”, his famous collaboration with Stephen King. But “Koko” is one of the best horror novels I've read in a long, long time. It's a very rich book for the horror genre, but the picture it ultimately paints is vast as well as deep, weaving the mystery of the killer and those who attempt to find him or her with or without the help of the police, with the backdrop of the horrors of the Vietnam war, bot on and off the battlefield. It's complex and brilliant. Following that, I took a trip back to Dean Koontz land with his old horror/sci-fi/suspense novel “Lightning”, which I found at a Value Village while

searching for a different book entirely. “Lightning” is exciting and satisfying, as with most of Koontz' early genre works, it's entire out-of-reach in terms of identifiable protagonists, but you do love his good guys, regardless, they're just so perfectly perfect. Like how fudge is sweeteningly sweet. But, hell, who doesn't like fudge, right? A novel like “Lightening” is what happens when a movie like “The Terminator” inspires a time-travel scenario in another creative writer.

The third book (of four this month for me, all just barely squeezed in by New Year's Day) is actually an amazing, inspiring self-help book titled “You Are a Badass at Making Money”, which was recommended to me by Nicki, who said, “You're almost there, sweetie, I think you need to read this”. Whether you think you need to read something like this or not, it is a good, inspiring read by an inspired author. I closed the year out with the 1926 short novel “Dream Story” (aka “Traumnovelle”) by author Arthur Schnitzler, which was the basis for one of my go-to Christmas films, Eyes Wide Shut, by Stanley Kubrick. In the closing credits of Eyes Wide Shut it states that Kubrick's film was “Inspired by” the book... No, it was wholly based on Schnitzler's material, even using dialogue lifted directly from the book for the film version. All books this month are highly recommended (as usual). 

--V.