#GarbAugust

[readeropolis]

Happy GarbAugust, everyone! Welcome to Read-a-Rag-opolis, the trashiest corner of GarbAugust! 

[markhodderauthor]

I have completed a fun #GarbAugust 2024 with @whatmeworry_reads by finishing (in a single sitting) CONQUEST OF THE PLANET OF THE APES by John Jakes (1969). This is by far the best of the movie novelisations so far, adding just enough to the fourth of the original films to make it a worthwhile read. The plot is a big improvement over the dire second instalment and the rather straightforward third, with the saga now fast careening into its circular timeline. Of course, I'm over-familiar with the subject matter, having watched the originals a gazillion times (don't talk to me about the modern versions. They are dreary and lacking in charm) but I'm nevertheless enjoying these revisits. There's a day remaining of #GarbAugust but it's time now for me to head into #SPYtember with my next read for #MyNovelLife. Stay tuned!

[drfloundus]

Readymade collection. #thrift #secondhand #secondhandbooks #usedbooks #didntbuy #themanfromuncle #serial #garbaugust #books #bookstagram #booktube #booktuber #thrifted https://www.instagram.com/p/CpK0iD5u4kh/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[aliteraryprincess]

August Wrap Up

Well, this month has sucked. And that’s all I have to say about that.

Books Read: 15

But at least I read a lot. My favorite by far was Babel, and I really don’t have a least favorite. There was nothing under 3.5 stars. But seriously, go check out Babel, it’s freaking amazing. Books marked with ® are rereads.   

Belinda by Maria Edgeworth - 5 stars

Blood, Bread, and Poetry: Selected Prose, 1979-1985 by Adrienne Rich - 4 stars

New Woman Fiction: Women Writing First-Wave Feminism by Ann Heilmann - 4 stars

Hard Times by Charles Dickens - 4.5 stars ®

Lady Windermere’s Fan by Oscar Wilde - 4 stars

The Clever Woman of the Family by Charlotte Mary Yonge - 4 stars

The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination by Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar - 4 stars

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde - 4 stars

Victorian Women’s Fiction: Marriage, Freedom, and the Individual by Shirley Foster - 4 stars

The Proper Lady and the Woman Writer: Ideology as Style in the Works of Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley, and Jane Austen by Mary Poovey - 3.5 stars

Kim by Rudyard Kipling - 3 stars

Babel, or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution by R. F. Kuang - 5 stars

Marcella by Mary Ward - 3.5 stars

Mrs. Warren’s Profession by George Bernard Shaw - 4 stars ®

The ‘Improper’ Feminine: The Women’s Sensation Novel and the New Woman Writing by Lyn Pykett - 4 stars

On Tumblr:

There’s some stuff here; mostly tags, but I did participate in the first half or so of the 1K Pages Readathon.

1K Pages Readathon August 2022

July Wrap Up

Book Quotes: Babel by R. F. Kuang

Tagged: Sequel Stack Challenge

Tagged: Pink Book Stack

Tagged: Yellow Book Stack

Reblogged: Queer Fantasy Recommendations

On the Blog:

Hey, look, there’s something here! What a miracle!

Book Review: Babel: An Arcane History by R. F. Kuang

On YouTube:

And there’s a nice selection here, as usual.

My INSANE August TBR

July Wrap Up - 8 Books for Jane Austen July and Exams!

A Bookish Birthday Haul

Underrated Victorian Recommendations #3

Currently Reading 8/15/22

GarbAugust Trashy Book Tag

[markhodderauthor]

I just read for #GarbAugust 2024 with @whatmeworry_reads: THE OBSESSION by G. F. Newman (1980). This was very, VERY challenging. I purchased it alongside the trashy-looking NEL paperback editions of SIR, YOU BASTARD and YOU NICE BASTARD by the same author (which I've not read). Newman turns out to be better known and better respected than I thought and is still active, especially in the realm of TV crime shows. His novels remain available... except this one, which I have seen described as "deleted" as opposed to "out of print". I'm not surprised. THE OBSESSION tells of a "love affair" between a high-ranking 42-year-old politician and a 12-year-old girl. As a father of a daughter around that age, my alarm bells were jangling from the outset. Kalmann (the male character) is not portrayed as a predatory paedophile but rather as a lonely, confused figure, damaged by the death of his young daughter, the loss of his wife, and the brutality of the political arena. By contrast, Afra (the child) is absorbed in her own budding sexuality and willingly enters into an intimate relationship with him. Graphic sex scenes follow. Much is made of Kalman's confusion, guilt and fear, and of Afra's enthusiasm, which had me feeling that I, as a reader, was supposed to feel sympathy for the abuser. But... NOPE. Instead, I kept wondering: what the hell prompted the author to write this? What was he trying to achieve? Was it intended to be insightful? If so, I must have missed something because I only found it misjudged and sleazy, as if a much-reduced Nabokov's LOLITA had been squeezed through the filter of the grubby 1970s. A highly disturbing book... but mainly by virtue of the fact that it should probably never have existed.

[markhodderauthor]

I just read for #GarbAugust 2024 with @whatmeworry_reads: THE SURVIVALIST 11 - THE REPRISAL by Jerry Ahern (1985). The author throws EVERYTHING at this one... and it's a blast! We have space shuttles bringing a group of "perfect" Americans home from cryogenic storage in space, we have the resurrection of the hero's worst enemy, and we have Nazi's emerging from the jungles of Argentina. The series has definitely upped the ante in terms of craziness... and I'm all for it. I love bonkers novels! That said, I still think Jerry Ahern is terrible at writing action scenes.

[markhodderauthor]

I just read for #GarbAugust 2024 with @whatmeworry_reads: THE HIPPY CULT MURDERS (1970). If you ever happen across this slim novel at a reasonable price, buy it at once. It is extremely difficult to find and goes for CRAZY money on Ebay. It also happens to be a fascinating (albeit not particularly good) exploitative horror novel, riding the coat-tails of the Charles Manson killings, and capturing that moment in history when "unwashed peaceniks" suddenly became a sinister threat. The plot is a thin echo of the horrific true events, the violence being cheap and nasty and the psychedelia fun, but the novel is memorable more for its sleazy, drug-soaked atmosphere and excellent cover art than for anything else.

[markhodderauthor]

I just read for #GarbAugust 2024 with @whatmeworry_reads: DOC SAVAGE 11 - FEAR CAY by Kenneth Robeson (1934), resuming my progress through the series after a years-long lapse. These adventures read like comic books, with condensed plots, cartoonish characters, and basic dialogue. They are, however, action-packed, great fun, and just the right (short) length. This one was particularly entertaining, with Doc Savage and his gang tussling with a 130-year-old man on a mysterious island. It includes an absurd scene in which our hero contorts himself in order to undo a knot behind his back using his toes!

[markhodderauthor]

I just read for #GarbAugust 2024 with @whatmeworry_reads THE EAGLES 5: SEA OF SWORDS by Andrew Quiller (1977). With Marcus Julius Britannica having finished his four-novel mission of vengeance, this fifth instalment feels a little like a transition story, with new challenges looming but never manifesting. Regrettably, what has been an excellent series ends messily, the novel being a string of incidents that are only vaguely connected. Nevertheless, it provides the usual hefty dose of sex and violence, all great fun, and it has left me wanting more… much more! I must now explore other Roman gladiator book series in the hope of finding a worthy replacement.

[markhodderauthor]

I just read for #GarbAugust 2024 with @whatmeworry_reads and for the #MyNovelLife challenge (rules in the comments), from 1980 when I was 18 years old: THE NEST by Gregory A. Douglas. This is the third “Creature Feature” novel I’ve read for GarbAugust. The author does a great job of creating an immersive little community before throwing at it an over the top (but surprisingly believable) threat. Cockroaches! ORGANISED cockroaches! AAARGH!!! Yes, I think he rather fumbled the ending, but this was a fun read nevertheless.

[markhodderauthor]

After seeing that @whatmeworry_reads had read one of the Blade books for #GarbAugust 2024 I decided to do the same. I have just finished: BLADE 1 - THE BRONZE AXE by Jeffrey Lord (1973). Back in the day, I had half a shelf of these but never read a single one. Now I only own the fist of the series, which, of course, is the best place to start. It reminded me very much of Richard Corben’s DEN comic strip in Métal Hurlant, with the hero being a testosterone-charged mashup of pulp hero John Carter and porn star John Holmes. I rather enjoyed it, despite the inevitable 70s sexism, and will now have to rebuild the collection!

[markhodderauthor]

My seventh read for #GarbAugust 2024 with @whatmeworry_reads: HERNE THE HUNTER 1 - WHITE DEATH by John J. McLaglen (1976). This felt a little like Guy N. Smith doing a western (“John J. McLaglen” was in fact Laurence James and John Harvey)... bad writing but a fast and blood-soaked story. The setup is 100% cliche: Jeb Herne’s pregnant wife is savagely raped by seven men, miscarries, and later commits suicide — possibly because her husband says: “Sure it was bad, but you’re alive. Listen, it’s our third anniversary on Monday. Try and get over it.” WT-actual-F??? Herne, having thus established his credentials as an absolute asshole, sets off on a mission of vengeance, accompanied by a neighbour, who proves to be an even more gigantic asshole. “McLaglen” makes it all as graphically violent as possible, which is entertaining, but the plotting is lousy and the authors’ unavoidable Englishness strips away any hint of authenticity, making it all rather daft. Lawd sakes, the gosh-durned dialogue is straight outa one o’ them thar kinematographs! This novel registered in the red zone on my trashometer.

[markhodderauthor]

I just finished for #GarbAugust 2024 with @whatmeworry_reads: THE DRACULA ARCHIVES by Raymond Rudorff (1971). This has been gathering dust at the back of my shelves for a few years, ignored because Dracula prequel/sequels have never failed to disappoint. “It looks like garbage,” I thought. Then along came GarbAugust, so... why not? And WOW! Written in the same epistolary style as Bram Stoker’s masterpiece, the tale begins with an account of a night spent in the notorious Countess Bathory’s castle. From there, the plot unfolds through a sequence of cleverly interwoven narratives that brilliantly recapture DRACULA’s sense of creeping dread, deliver a wealth of background material, and lead slowly and surely toward the man himself. I liked it a lot. But how come this novel isn’t better known? Why is it not still in print or available as an ebook? Dracula fans need to read this!

[markhodderauthor]

I just finished for #GarbAugust 2024 with @whatmeworry_reads: SLUGS by Shaun Hutson (1982). My last two reads were problematical, so it feels good to be back on track with 100% uncomplicated, unadulterated trash. Firmly in the tradition of James Herbert’s seminal THE RATS (1974), here we are led along a squishy, slimy trail of terror by an author whose boundless enthusiasm just about compensates for his many, many stylistic shortcomings. You have to turn your brain off to enjoy this sort of sticky silliness but I’m pretty good at doing that (switching it back on afterwards is more difficult) and can overlook the limitations of the material (there is no mention of salt) to enjoy it for what it is: akin to a ride at a fun fair, meaningless and forgettable but a right old laugh when you’re in the middle of it. Low rent, high marks. Also: cleft.

[markhodderauthor]

I just finished for #GarbAugust 2024 with @whatmeworry_reads, CONFESSIONS OF A WINDOW CLEANER by Timothy Lea (1971). Unless you lived in the UK during the 1970s (and were old enough to know you were doing it), you’ll probably find this novel unendurably offensive... but let’s look at it in context. In that decade, the generic white straight male response to emerging feminism, gay rights, and a wave of immigration was to push back hard with demeaning language, mocking attitudes, and hardcore stereotyping, all of it frequently delivered in the guise of “comedy.” I went from age 8 to 17 with it shaping the playground humour I experienced almost every day, too young to realise how nasty it was. Then my generation grew up, gained clarity, and hit back with “alternative” comedy, wherein the mockers became the mocked. CONFESSIONS OF A WINDOW CLEANER is brimming with the awfulness that we railed against. It is the first of a long series of saucy novels that also became a series of films (often described as CARRY ON WITH TITS). That is the background. Now to my reading experience: I laughed out loud. Like I say, it is my playground humour, and I can’t help myself. There are some wonderful one-liners here. BUT (and it’s a very big butt... ooh-er, here I go) the humour wore thin after the first couple of chapters. The casual sexism, misogyny and racism had me thinking, with astonishment, “How the hell did anyone ever consider any of this okay?” Revisiting the stupid attitudes that surrounded me as a child gave me a belly laugh or two but also reminded me that we must never, ever allow their return.

[markhodderauthor]

I just finished for #GarbAugust 2024 with @whatmeworry_reads: THE EAGLES 4 - BLOOD ON THE SAND by Andrew Quiller (1977). The penultimate novel in what has become one of my all-time favourite trashy book series. I absolutely LOVE this brutal mix of swords, sandals, and sex! This one follows the usual pattern: Marcus Julius Britannicus fights in the arena — this time against a gigantic crocodile — and thinks back to an earlier adventure, which forms the bulk of the novel. Here, it involves the circumstances that led to him becoming a gladiator, along with his continuing quest to punish the men who killed his parents. The action is gory, the pace is fast, and as far as trashy books go, everything is perfect!