The Orange Tree by Mildred Walker, edited by Carmen Pearson “Known in the mid-20th century for her American chronicles (Winter Wheat; Fireweed), Walker (1905-1998) was unable to publish this 1970s tale of two couples’ unlikely friendship during her lifetime. Newlyweds Olive and Ron Fifer live in a Boston apartment adjacent to Tiresa and Paulo Romano, an English professor and eye doctor who are a generation older. . . . As the couples come to know each other, their lives and marriages change irrevocably. In a manner reminiscent of Paula Fox (particularly in the dialogue), Walker delineates her characters with surety, … Continue reading The Orange Tree

he England bit first. I was there and was asked to share some pictures. I am on a recent horror kick in my reading material. It started with finding Chuck Palahniuk’s novel Haunted while traveling in England. The book has, no kidding, a parental advisory notice on it. Whether that is real (I’ve never seen a book with one before) or part of some marketing gimmick, it worked as a marketing gimmick. I picked it up. It’s more revolting than terrifying. More cheap mind games than true spine tingling. So I put it down and decided I wanted the real thing. The real thing is in two anthologies. Anthologies don’t sell well, but I love them.

The first is The Mammoth Book of Short Horror Novels edited by Mike Ashley. When I first read it, it was the summer I was sixteen and I didn’t quite understand all the stories. Of course I loved "The Monkey" by Stephen King.

Continue reading “Horror, Terror, and England”

he airwaves and e-world are awash, of course, in carnivorous speculation about what Fidel Castro is suffering from.  The prurient guesses about his intestines and the conspiracy theories aren’t overly interesting; there is a surplus of talking heads to handle those angles.  The burning question of what exactly post-Castro Cuba will look like, however, is a hot and valid topic.  As I listen to the somber, proud Communist assurances that the “revolutionary project will continue” and the fanatical Miami crowing about “victory at last” and “death to the tyrant” I wonder, as I often have, just what that funny middle ground called truth will look like when the rhetorical dust settles and el Comandante is resting his ultimate rest.

According to his enemies, Castro is a cutthroat, a thug, a terrorist, a repressive tyrant that has ruled Cuba for so long only by way of brutality and threat.  To his admirers he is a strong, just, heroic leader, and the only head of any nation to successfully defy the subversion, bombast, and sabotage that the U.S. government has meted out to its enemies since throughout the modern era.  What’s not debatable is that Castro hails from an upper-middle class Cuban family and that his privilege and the accompanying education was the doorway through which he entered revolutionary, populist politics.  Therefore, loathe him or venerate him, Castro is assuredly a complex figure and, by now, a stone-cast political and cultural icon. 

It seems to me, though, that the important question isn’t what the pundits in Washington, the scorned hordes in Miami, or the ranks of armchair revolutionaries think of Mr. Castro.  The important question is—or will become, once there is space to hear it asked—is what his people feel about him.

Continue reading “The Looming End: Castro and My Best Friend”

Novel Idea Bookstore
118 N 14th St
Lincoln, NE

(The following interview with Cinnamon Dokken was conducted via email, August )

Q.  Why open a bookstore and, more importantly, why open a used bookstore?

A.  There’s a romantic image of what it means to be a bookseller — the misty vision of Audrey Hepburn sipping a latte and having erudite conversation while classical music softly plays in the background.  Sometimes, that’s exactly what it’s like.  Sometimes, it’s less intellectual and more physical – unloading the 50th box of books purchased on a buying trip while Pat Benatar sings "Hit Me
With Your Best Shot" in the background.  (Classical music just doesn’t cut it when it comes to unloading the truck.)

Either way, being surrounded by books is a good gig.  I learn a lot every day.  Having a "used" bookstore rather than a "new" bookstore increases the level of unpredictability and surprise, which I like.  You truly never know what you’ll find.  We carry a variety of fiction and non-fiction books that range from mass-market paperbacks to books signed by Harry Truman.  When a customer brings in a box of books to sell, it can be like opening a birthday present. 

Being around the people that gravitate to bookstores is another huge benefit.  The range of books attracts a range of people — and they’re excited about whatever subject they’re into.  Superstring theory doesn’t float my boat but I can get a vicarious thrill out of being around somebody who’s passionate about it.  I’m constantly reminded that the world offers endless possibilities.  I like that.

Continue reading “August Featured Bookstore”

‘m not sure it’s a good sign I really started getting into Shelley’s The Last Man when things started going downhill,

but I had been anticipating a devastating plague followed by an apocalypse since the introduction by Judith Tarr. Quite a while.

Shelley achieves many admirable things in "Volume I," including crafting self-respecting Romantic heroines (and heroes) and painting a hopeful future for a Republic of Britain under Raymond, a complex but essentially militantly heroic character. On that stage the Furies are then released in "Volume II."

For more details, read on, but watch your step for spoilers…

Continue reading “And Mm. Shelley’s Apocalypse Begins”

rom The Collected Poems of Weldon Kees, Bison Books: THE BEACH IN AUGUST The day the fat womanIn the bright blue bathing suitWalked into the water and died,I thought about the humanCondition. Pieces of old fruitCame in and were left by the tide. What I thought about the humanCondition was this: old fruitComes in and is left, and driesIn the sun. Another fat womanIn a dull green bathing suitDives into the water and dies.The pulmotors glisten. It is noon. We dry and die in the sunWhile the seascape arranges old fruit,Coming in with the tide, glisteningAt noon. A woman, moderately … Continue reading August with Weldon Kees

The Indian Interviews of Eli S. Ricker, 1903-1919 Voices of the American West, Volume 1  andThe Settler and Soldier Interviews of Eli S. Ricker, 1903-1919Voices of the American West, Volume 2  Edited by Richard E. Jensen “[A]mazing personal accounts [are] in these volumes, which present for the first time the extensive turn-of-the-century interviews of Eli S. Ricker, a pioneering Nebraska judge and newspaperman who traveled across the Dakotas a hundred years ago, interviewing the last of the old-timers on the northern prairie. . . . Here are the authentic voices of the real people who were actually there at Beecher’s … Continue reading Voices of the American West, Volumes 1 and 2

Nebraska Folklore by Louise Pound “Those of us not from Nebraska may be unfamiliar with Louise Pound, an oversight well remedied by this volume. Issued numerous times since its introduction in 1947 . . . it is now a classic.”—Bloomsbury Review Continue reading Nebraska Folklore

Mad Seasons by Karra Porter “Relive all of the great moments, the troubling challenges, the highlights, the star players, and gain a whole new perspective of what it took to get professional basketball into the spotlight that is today’s NBA and WNBA. There’s plenty for men and women alike to enjoy about Karra Porter’s Mad Seasons.”—Bill Ingram, Hoopsworld.com Continue reading Mad Seasons

have returned from England and am now all tan since it never rained once the whole time I was there.  But I did get to ride the London Underground, took pictures of Hadrian’s Wall and saw lots of castles.  I also did some reading.  I know.  Big surprise there.

I finally got to read a novel my husband has been pushing on me for months.  Heroics for Beginners by John Moore is the story of Prince Kevin Timberline who is in love with a princess.  Unfortunately the princess can only marry the man who returns the Ancient Artifact Model Seven to the kingdom and Prince Kevin really isn’t good at that sort of thing.  But he tries anyway and fails miserably, but by failing, saves everything.  It’s a funny, easy read.  I read it in one evening. 

Continue reading “Summer Reading, SF style”