#James Clow

[nicoleclowes]

I bet we were fun

[lichqueenlibrarian]

Jim summons Spock to his quarters in such a mood that Uhura is giving Spock a sympathetic look. On arrival Spock finds that it’s a summons from Nogura that’s got Jim riled up and afraid the admiral is going to try and keep him grounded this time. He is in the midst of a full blown panic over it, and hoping Spock will be able to find a solution to his problem.

I love this, because both acknowledge in their internal monologues that this isn’t the sort of situation Jim would usually ask Spock to help with- Spock thinks that if Jim wanted reassurance he’d have asked for McCoy instead, and Jim realizes he’s asked Spock because he believes wholeheartedly that Spock will be able to pull a rabbit out of his hat and fix things. Nonetheless Spock does find a way to get Jim calmed down and provides him with a way to evade Nogura while not actually disobeying him.

I just really like the thought that Jim calls on Spock when he needs a) someone who will not be shocked or surprised to see their captain in a tizzy and b) someone who will work a miracle for him.

The insight into Jim’s character is also fascination- would the Jim of the first 5 year mission be reacting this way to a summons by Nogura? How else has his time grounded and working in Starfleet HQ changed him? The thought of being taken away from the Enterprise again has him actually shouting for Spock.

[downthetubes]

"Monica" by Daniel Clowes wins le Fauve d’or, “Best Book of the Year” at Angoulême - and other winners

Daniel Clowes autobiographical graphic novel Monica has won Best Book of the Year in awards presented at this year’s Festival International de la Bande Dessinée d’Angoulême. There were plenty more prizes awarded, too…

[ironfey-42]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Doctor Strange (2016), Cardcaptor Sakura Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Tony Stark/Stephen Strange, James “Rhodey” Rhodes & Tony Stark, Pepper Potts & Tony Stark, Happy Hogan & Tony Stark, Friday & Tony Stark, Tony Stark & Hope Van Dyne, Scott Lang & Tony Stark Characters: Tony Stark, Stephen Strange, Pepper Potts, Happy Hogan, James “Rhodey” Rhodes, Friday (Marvel), Hope Van Dyne, Scott Lang Additional Tags: IronStrange Bingo 2019, there was no cardcaptor sakura au for this ship, so i decided to write it, Friday as Keroberos Series: Part 11 of Izzy’s IronStrange Bingo 2019, Part 1 of CardCaptor Tony Stark Summary:

IronStrange Bingo Square: Evil Twin

Tony has an evil twin/doppelganger and they’re wreaking havoc around town. Is this the work of a Clow Card?

@ironstrangebingo

[columbosunday]

2023 Favorites:

Books:

- Nada by Jean-Patrick Manchester

- Vertigo by Narcejac & Boileau

- Pronto by Elmore Leonard

- Mister Wonderful by Daniel Clowes

- Someone Who Isn't Me by Geoff Rickey

Albums:

- Speed, Sound, Lonely KV by Kurt Vile

- Matthew & Son by Cat Stevens

- Tell Mama by Etta James

- The Art Pepper Quartet by Art Pepper

- Count Bassie and the Kansas City 7

Movies:

- The Man from Laramie dir. Anthony Mann

- Forty Guns dir. Samuel Fuller

- Three Days of the Condor dir. Sydney Pollack

- The Children's Hour dir. William Wyler

- Brazil dir. Terry Gilliam

- Hud dir. Martin Ritt

- Written on the Wind dir. Douglas's Sirk

- Basket Case 3 dir. Frank Henenlotter

- Magic dir. Richard Attenborough

Tagged by: @dejavu2006 and @streetlegal1978

[krystal280791]

Anyway… considering that Minnie Driver will be in both the movie Uproar and in OFMD season 2, do you think there is hope to see James Rolleston (the kid actor from Taika's "Boy" who is also in Uproar) as a young Ed in some flashback? Or am I just clowing too much? 😅🤡

[bobbyinthegarden]

February Reading Wrap-Up

Doing my own little review of all of my February reads in the style of one of @isfjmel-phleg‘s posts (in no particular order)

Alec by William di Canzio 

I did a whole review for this one, so I don’t feel the need to add much in terms of commentary. 

The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez

I’ve actually got a whole review in-coming for this one, which I’m in the process of writing, as I read this book as part of my 2023 Reading Challenge for the Vampires category. I gravitated towards this book because I am a big fan of genre bending, and this has that in spades: it’s historical fiction, it’s queer romance, it’s eco-feminist fiction, it’s sci-fi, it’s everything. No regrets, I had fun, more thoughts in-coming.

The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. LeGuin  

This is the second book in the Earthsea series. I absolutely adored A Wizard of Earthsea when I read it in January, and bought the second book immediately after finishing the first and it didn’t disappoint. I’m not going to write a whole review for this book, so I’ll just lay my thoughts down here. I love Tenar so much, she’s such a great character to spend 250 pages with, the story is mature and timeless, the world building is great and the prose is beautiful, plus it was great to see Ged again, and see what’s he’s up to. No notes, highly recommend to everybody. I’ve still got four other books in the series to read and I can’t wait.

Return to the Secret Garden by Holly Webb

I understand that I’m not the target audience for this book (the audience in question being like 7-13 year old girls), but man, this book was a slog to get through. I mentioned above when I was talking about The Tombs of Atuan that Tenar is such a great character to spend 250 pages with, and I cannot say the same about Emmie (the protagonist of this story). I have a whole review in the works for this one, but the long and short of it is that this book is basically just less interesting rehash of the original book, and I did not enjoy it.

All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot

The whiplash of reading Return to the Secret Garden and then immediately following it up with All Creatures Great and Small was quite astounding, in the best way possible. James Herriot (the pename of Alf Wright) is an incredibly compelling writer and relays his experiences of veterinary practice in Yorkshire in the 1930s with wit and charm. I feel like I learnt a lot from this book, as he is able to balance storytelling with technical language about complex medical procedures very well, but the book is also really funny at times, I was genuinely laughing out loud at the parts with Ticki Woo. I’ll probably read the other books in the series too, once I can get around to them.

Ghost World by Daniel Clowes

This isn’t a book as such, but a serialised comic book which has since been released together as a graphic novel. I was very into the Terry Zwigoff film adaptation when I was a teenager, and I did read the comics before, but many years ago. They’re extremely edgy. I’m quite difficult to shock, but there was some jokes that really made my mouth drop at times. Others have drawn similarities to The Catcher in the Rye and I completely see why, teen angst and alienation are major themes in both works. It’s pretty depressing and (like I said) edgy, so definitely not for everybody, but I do think it’s good.

The Secret Garden on 81st Street by Ivy Noelle Weir and Amber Pedilla  

Got a whole review coming for this one too. I definitely liked this one more than Return to the Secret Garden. The art style isn’t really my aesthetic, but it’s cute. There are things to like here, though I have very mixed feelings about Colin’s portrayal, and the book really feels like a PSA about mental health sometimes. Like I say, I’m going to write a whole review soon, and I’ll explore my thoughts in more detail then.

I also bought some self-published comic books from some other tumblr users this month, which I thoroughly enjoyed, they were:

Tender is the Night by @thequeenofbithynia

Really wonderful 1920s inspired short comic about butches in love. Was a nice palate cleanser after reading Alec (I highkey actually enjoyed it more than Alec though) with absolutely gorgeous art and illustrations, Andreas’ art style is beautiful and 100% my aesthetic. Here’s a link to where you can buy it is you’re interested.

Signals by @wuntrum

Really cool semi-relgious horror story about a girl who becomes obsessed with and begins to worship a radio tower after she becomes convinced that she can feel the word of god through electrical currents. Really cool, plus the art is also amazing. It kind of reminded me a bit of Serial Experiments Lain (which is an anime from the 90s that I really like). And here’s a link to where you can buy that one too.

[wolfpants]

ten books to know me

thank you for the tag lovely @moony-saraneth and @schmem14! No pressure tagging @danpuff-ao3 @sitp-recs @getawayfox @tackytigerfic @maesterchill and anyone who wants to join in!

The Baby-Sitter's Club book series, by Ann M. Martin I don't know what to tell you, I was hooked on these books as a kid. I used to beg my school library and my local library to stock more of them and I'd always get a new one for Christmas. I even wrote to Scholastic thinking they'd tell Ann M. Martin I was her biggest fan, and in return I got a little note from who probably was their intern at the time, and a free book. My favourite character was Dawn 🍃

Point Horror book series After the Baby-Sitters came the teens tortured by slashers, ghosts, and possessed funhouses. What can I say, I evolved. I loved these books. I might even still have a few knocking about somewhere, but I distinctly remember enjoying The Lifeguard and The Snowman. Which really brought me onto...

Carrie, Stephen King And basically every King book of that ilk. I'm a huge fan. This was the first book I read, I took it out my school library and devoured it in a night. My best friend and I used to call each other without fail every night at 8pm (this is when everyone had landlides) and I remember boring her silly with my gushing over Stephen King (and Buffy and Harry Potter, and eventually fandom).

Drawing Blood, Billy Martin This is still published under Billy's deadname, fyi. DB was the first book of his I read and let me tell you, I was floored. I found out about his work via the good ol' dial up internet/discussion forums when I was trying to find some new queer horror to indulge in. I was into the Vampire Chronicles but it just didn't hit the spot for me back then, you know (I was about 16 and very sheltered). My mum, having no idea what the content of this book was, took me to Waterstones in Edinburgh to buy this and Lost Souls together from the horror section, and from then on I was hooked. Now this is what I call queer horror!! Disturbing, sexy, nasty, emotional, dramatic, it has it all.

Mysterious Skin, Scott Heim I read this book when I was 17 and it blew me away. It's harrowing, horrific, disturbing stuff, and I loved Heim's ability to weave in all these different voices and trauma responses. It's not for everyone. The film is pretty good, too.

Ghost World, Daniel Clowes I love Ghost World so much I have some of it permanently etched onto my skin. Two nihilistic girls against the world and, eventually, against each other as they grow up and grow apart. Oh, and Enid Coleslaw really did inform some of my wardrobe choices as a student.

More Than This, Patrick Ness This book had a profound impact on me when I read it for the first time. I have suffered from thanatophobia on and off for decades, and I'm definitely better about it now than I used to be, but something about this book really comforted me in a time of crisis when I needed it most. I found it incredibly healing.

Captive Prince series, C.S. Pacat To say I am obsessed with this series and the world within it is probably an understatement. I have read and reread these books an embarrassing amount of times, and they're always the comfort I turn to when I need a good distraction from the world around me! Beautifully written and realised, and a central relationship where both characters are flawed, strong, competent, and complex.

The Testament of Gideon Mack, James Robertson My favourite piece of modern literature. Flawless (to me, at least, I understand everyone has different tastes!) from the first page to the last. Bizarre, heartbreaking, funny, and very Scottish. I love the exploration of religion/atheism, mental health, reputation, and the paranormal. This is my desert island book.

The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller This book changed my brain chemistry. To adapt a piece of ancient literature and tell it with such power and stab you in the heart and make you eat it beauty... I just. No words. To me, this is the ultimate love story.

[intofolkloreee13]

I’m clowing myself into beliveing that the Matthew/Cordelia/James love triangle will be solved by the three of them becoming a throuple and getting their happy endings instead of Matthew being killed off😀🤡

[hividsmarttv]

Movies Inspired By Comics

© James O'Barr from "The Crow", 1989, Kitchen Sink Press

Comic book adaptations have become increasingly popular in recent years, with many of the biggest blockbuster movies being based on comic book characters and stories. However, not all comic book adaptations are as well-known as the likes of Spider-Man or Batman. Here are 10 movies that you may not have known were inspired by comics.

A History of Violence (2005) - Directed by David Cronenberg, this thriller stars Viggo Mortensen as a small-town diner owner with a dark past. The movie is based on a graphic novel by John Wagner and Vince Locke.

Blue is the Warmest Color (2013) - This French coming-of-age drama, directed by Abdellatif Kechiche, won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. The movie is based on a graphic novel by Julie Maroh.

The Crow (1994) - Directed by Alex Proyas, this gothic action movie stars Brandon Lee as a murdered musician who comes back from the dead to seek revenge. The movie is based on a comic book by James O'Barr.

Ghost World (2001) - Directed by Terry Zwigoff, this indie comedy stars Thora Birch and Scarlett Johansson as two teenage misfits who struggle to find their place in the world. The movie is based on a graphic novel by Daniel Clowes.

Road to Perdition (2002) - Directed by Sam Mendes, this crime drama stars Tom Hanks as a hitman in 1930s Chicago who goes on the run with his son after a job goes wrong. The movie is based on a graphic novel by Max Allan Collins and Richard Piers Rayner.

Snowpiercer (2013) - Directed by Bong Joon-ho, this post-apocalyptic action movie stars Chris Evans as a rebellious passenger on a train that travels around a frozen world. The movie is based on a graphic novel by Jacques Lob and Jean-Marc Rochette.

Tamara Drewe (2010) - Directed by Stephen Frears, this British comedy stars Gemma Arterton as a young journalist who returns to her rural hometown and causes a stir. The movie is based on a graphic novel by Posy Simmonds.

2 Guns (2013) - Directed by Baltasar Kormákur, this action-comedy stars Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg as two undercover agents who are forced to work together. The movie is based on a graphic novel by Steven Grant and Mateus Santolouco.

V for Vendetta (2006) - Directed by James McTeigue, this dystopian thriller stars Hugo Weaving and Natalie Portman as freedom fighters in a totalitarian Britain. The movie is based on a graphic novel by Alan Moore and David Lloyd.

Whiteout (2009) - Directed by Dominic Sena, this thriller stars Kate Beckinsale as a US Marshal investigating a murder in Antarctica. The movie is based on a graphic novel by Greg Rucka and Steve Lieber.

These 10 movies show that comic book adaptations can be found in all genres, from indie comedies to dystopian thrillers. Whether you're a fan of comics or not, these movies are sure to entertain and surprise you.

[truck451]

Every Person Born In The Year 1975 And Beyond, Including Modern NASCAR Drivers Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Elliott Sadler, Matt Kenseth And His Son Ross, Brian Vickers, Casey Mears, Denny Hamlin, Kasey Kahne; Modern Formula One Drivers Nick Heidfeld And Jenson Button; Modern Indy Car Drivers James Hinchcliffe, Josef Newgarden, Robert Wickens, And Conor Daly; NHL Players Derek Morris, Shane Doan, And Ryane Clowe; MLB Players Steve Pearce, Tyler Collins, Adam Wainwright, And Brett Gardner; NBA Player Scot Pollard, Modern Actors Daniel Henney, Joe Manganiello, And Brothers Chris And Scott Evans; And Neo-Country Music Artist Walker Hayes Should Read This Publication Regarding Amateur/Ham Radio, And Come To Terms With How Much More Important It Is Than Sports And Fitness

Every Person Born In The Year 1975 And Beyond, Including Modern NASCAR Drivers Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Elliott Sadler, Matt Kenseth And His Son Ross, Brian Vickers, Casey Mears, Denny Hamlin, Kasey Kahne; Modern Formula One Drivers Nick Heidfeld And Jenson Button; Modern Indy Car Drivers James Hinchcliffe, Josef Newgarden, Robert Wickens, And Conor Daly; NHL Players Derek Morris, Shane…

[brookstonalmanac]

Birthdays 4.14

Beer Birthdays

George Schmitt (1869)

Aran Leon (1983)

Five Favorite Birthdays

Gerry Anderson; animator, supermarionation (1929)

Ritchie Blackmore; rock guitarist (1945)

Robert Doisneau; photographer (1912)

Shorty Rogers; jazz trumpeter (1924)

Pete Rose; Cincinnati Reds OF, 1B, 2B, 3B (1941)

Famous Birthdays

Gene Ammons; jazz saxophonist (1925)

Abigail Breslin; actor (1996)

Adrian Brody; actor (1973)

James Branch Cabell: writer (1879)

Robert Carlyle; actor (1961)

Julie Christie; actor (1941)

Daniel Clowes; comic book artist, writer (1961)

Péter Esterházy; Hungarian writer (1950)

Sarah Michelle Gellar; actor (1977)

John Gielgud; actor (1904)

Anthony Michael Hall; actor (1968)

Richard Jeni; comedian (1957)

David Justice; Atlanta Braves RF (1966)

Loretta Lynn; country singer (1935)

Greg Maddux; Atlanta Braves P (1966)

Ryan O'Neal; actor (1941)

Thomas Schelling; economist (1921)

Frank Serpico; NYC policeman (1936)

Rod Steiger; actor (1925)

John Paul Stevens; U.S. Supreme Court justice (1920)

Anne Sullivan; educator (1866)

Arnold Toynbee; English historian (1889)

[ramrodd]

Your Bible is CORRUPTED | Bart D. Ehrman

COMMENTARY:

The Isaiah Scroll of the Dead Sea Scrolls utterly rebuts your assertion that the was significant quality assurance issues in the transmission of the the  autograph of  the first 19 books of the New Testament, The title to this interviewed  The Scribble Corruption of the Scriptures is totally bogus. Your whole textual analysis mojo amounts to the piccolo trying to transcribe Stars and Stripes Forever into a  waltz during a performance,

Now, I know your fraud is the basis of your business model , which, is a matter of indifference to me, what offends me is that you rare corrupting the literature of the Bible to your students in a manner I consider academic mal practice.

The only people corrupting the Gospels are the people who are publishing a Bible that has this translation of John 18:3 Judas then, having received the Roman cohort and officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, came there with lanterns and torches and weapons.

The correct translation of this verse Judas brought a band of soldiers and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees. They arrived at the garden carrying lanterns, torches, and weapons

The Romans weren't involved, James Tabor has an interview where he claims Pilate order the arrest of Jesus,  Pilate didn't know Jesus from any official channel, Cornelius did and was in the rom with the two of them. For all intents and purposes, Cornelius is quelle,

Corruption like that didn't happen between St, Mark's scribes in Alexandria and the king James Bible and the Guttenberg Press, It has happened since 1968 and is connected with Campus Crusade for Christ and the Campus anti-war radicals of the weather Underground engaged in a program of subversion to overthrow the federal government and end the draft, Jimmy Tabor is an academic Peter Pan of the Students for a Democratic Society and draft dodger,

After Tet 68. the Weather Underground was recruiting people to get drafted in order to go into the belly of the Beast and foment mutiny, I was unaware of this going on at the time: i was an ROTC cadet and had no interest in what the generational food fight was all about, But when I got to Vietnam and became part of the perimeter defense around a gunship base on the coast,  I discovered the  subversion was much farther along than I could have imagines. for one thing, Black Power was a source of rebellion in the Army overwatered and race riots had occurred on Aircraft Carriers in the South China sea

now, my senior officers saw  this and it was all they saw, but among the white enlisted troops, the Specialist 4th & 5th Class were clerk at all the point of nexus in all the various branches, such as Finance and Personnel  I recognized them from their rhetoric, but my senior officers hadn't been on campus with these clows for four years and I couldn't get anyone to see the danger,

The good news is that the Army fell apart so fast afterr Cambodia that the whole general mutiny thing fell apart, globally, It had to start in Vietnam and Cambodia made it impossible,

The thing is, Jimmy Tabor was part of that t crowd and bent his academics to fit his subversion, He's a  Fellow Traveler with MAGA Mike Johnson, the David Koresh of the January 6 agenda to blow up America.

ntil you can refute the Isaiah Scroll of the Dead Sea Scrolls, you are peddling theological crap.

[laceyrowland]

UBN Challenge 2023 Recap - Part II

Photo by freddie marriage on Unsplash

Part II of the Ultimate Book Nerd Challenge 2023 Recap - Categories 11-20!

One of the many upsides to this challenge is that it provides me an opportunity to read more graphic novels! If you haven't discovered their awesomeness, I encourage you to check them out. I was first introduced to graphic novels in an undergrad literature class (I know, I'm always late to the party). We read Ghost World by Daniel Clowes. Since then I've read dozens of graphic novels. You'll notice a few pop up here and there on this list. They add a cool dimension to the story, and I appreciate all the different styles of illustrators.

I feel like graphic novels are dismissed as being juvenile or not very literary - I think that sentiment couldn't be more inaccurate. Case in point, number 20 on this list - Maus I (and II) by Art Spiegelman. It's a crushing, powerful story of a Jewish family and generational trauma passed down as a result of the Holocaust. You'll be changed after reading it - I can promise you that much.

Now for the recap:

11. Read the first book in a series - Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

12. Read the second book in a series - Maus II by Art Spiegelman * 

13. Read the third book in a series - Junk by Tommy Pico

14. Read a book by an author from The Cabin’s “Readings and Conversations series” (past or present) - The Good Lord Bird by James McBride *

15. Read a book where the narrator is not the main character - Less by Andrew Sean Greer *

16. Read a book found while browsing (the library, a bookstore, OverDrive, GoodReads, etc.)  - I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong *

17. Read a book of nature writing - Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer *

18. Read a book written by an author over 50 - Citizen by Claudia Rankine *

19. Read a book about the experience of a refugee - Freedom Hospital by Hamid Sulaiman *

20. Read a book about different socioeconomic class - Maus I by Art Spiegelman *

*books I'd recommend to a friend and/or read again

Check out what I read for the UBN Challenge 2023 Categories 1-10!

[emiliodown]

Lay Me by the Shore from David Findlay on Vimeo.

Introducing a young cast of first time actors, ‘Lay Me by the Shore’ follows a week in the life of Noah, a high school senior in his final days of school as he comes to terms with his best friend’s passing.

Berlinale, 2022 TIFF, 2022

"Lay Me by the Shore" is this week's Staff Pick Premiere. Our new interactive player enables viewers to watch the film, play with Director's Commentary, and read a Q&A with director David Findlay. To return to the main menu, click "Menu" in the upper left hand corner of the screen at any time.

lay me by the shore Starring Isla Pouliot & Kai Smith Written & Directed by David Findlay Inspired by the Music of The White Birch (Ola Fløttum) Produced by Joaquin Cardoner

Cinematographer Evan Prosofsky Editor Alexander Farah Production Designer Kathleen Cooper Sound Designer Mitchell Allen

Executive Producers Sultan Al Saud, Evan Landry Co-Producers Nicolas Tiry, Aline Meyerhoffer, Neel Gupta Associate Producers Philippe Widmer, Max De Pfyffer, Michael Kuna

With Brennan Smart, Aslan Campbell, Tait Jordan, Mary Alef, Jacob Milton, Quinn Bovell, Elyse Farmer, Dylan Macauley, Luca Jacoe, Amadou Bella Diallo, Julian Pineda, Caleb Richmond, Paul Snider, Vivi Harder, Demelza Randall, Ian Kim, Austin de St Croix, Sylvain Rousseau, Brittany Charlston, Gwenna Cooper, Kalayna Kozak, Sam deBock, Nicky Lee Evans, Christopher Evans, Vincent Delorme, Halia Hirniak, Ethan Chao, Sam Gilling, Asaad Al Arid, Charles Booth, Krystal Issa, Lyall Woznesensky, Debbie Woznesensky, Scott Girling, Maria Lefebvre, Aggie Cheung, Jodie Bartman, Anthony Curtis, Nicholas Chase, Mathew King

Casting by Kris Woznesensky & Kara Eide Casting Associate James Kirk

Production Manager Angelica Stirpe 1st AD (mvp) Nano Clow 2nd AD Dide Su Bilgin

Colourist Sam Gilling 1st AC Jared Boyce 2nd AC Chris Merrell Loader Angelo Daniele Steadicam Operator Peter Park 2nd unit DP Jeremy Cox 2nd unit 1st AC Cody Preston

Gaffer Greg Goudreau add'l Gaffers Torbin Doege & Adrianna Hankins Genny Op Ben Graham Key Grip Andriy Lyskov Grips Benedict Dawson, Jan Schädle Ubeda, Greg Sisson, Rob Hastings

Art Director/Man of the Year Jordan Macken Art Department Justin Macken, Sebastian Cerani, Chino Cando, Myra Gimenes Stylist Nina Maidment Style Assists Jordan Campbell, Nina Cheb-Terrab, Samantha Green

Music Supervisor Dondrea Erauw VFX Evan Graves & David McDonald Stunt Coordinator Owen Walstrom Stunt Driver Brennan Walstrom Kayak Instructor Kiah Schaepe

Sound Mix Harry Knazan - OSO Sound Recordist Jjuan Marcos Percy Production Coordinator Sydney Robertson Key Production Assistant Grayson Lang Production Assistants

[theletterunread]

Books in 2020

Since this year is preserved in amber, I’ve done a much better job remembering the books I read as compared to 2019. Only six books have turned to dust in my mind.¹ On the other hand, I only read about two-thirds as many books as usual. It’s a minor example of the way the pandemic crabbed everyone’s life in 2020, but it can be added to the quilt.

Almost everything we did that year was dictated by the practicalities the pandemic forced on us. In a dull way, that “looking inward” we all had so much time to do strongly shaped this list, particularly the middle of it: when I needed something to read, I could only look inside my apartment.

Fates and Furies, Lauren Groff (Jan. 2-17)

Lots of acclaim for this book. All of it misplaced. The main problem is that the novel concerns (in part) one character’s brilliantly written plays. But on the basis of the material we see, the plays are pretty weak, so the credibility of the larger story is shot. I suppose the character’s work is as good as the writing in this novel itself, which I also thought little of. Tediously dour (it takes place in a world where, apparently, nobody has ever laughed or been laughed at) and full of sentences that sound clever, but don’t actually mean anything (to paraphrase a movie). Barack Obama said it was his most enjoyed book of 2015, which I have to hope was just the stress of the job getting to him.

Sabrina, Nick Drnaso (Jan. 2-5)

Timeliness is not something that I usually value, but Sabrina makes it seem like a worthy pursuit. It’s about crime and the ugliness of the internet and “fake news,” so it’s sure to grab any contemporary reader’s attention. But the craftsmanship of the art and the intelligence in the writing are so good that this would be an interesting book, even if we lived in Universe B, where those issues aren’t so omnipresent.

Qualification, David Heatley (Jan. 18-23)

I once read Heatley slagging off Monty Python and the Holy Grail on the grounds of it not being wholesome enough. So I shunned him for ten years, until this book popped up at the library. It’s about the numerous 12-step programs Heatley participated in and essentially became addicted to. That irony is sort of analyzed, but not deeply enough to feel that it’s really been addressed. Still, his honesty, the details of how the programs work, and the depictions of the people he meets there are good enough.

The Child in Time, Ian McEwan (Jan. 21-31)

The set-up is a nightmare, one of the scariest things I can imagine – a child is kidnapped and never found – but most of the book deals instead with the aftermath, years later, as the father tries to reintegrate into a world that’s moved on from his horror. The relationship between the main character and his estranged wife is good, and though some of the other threads (political, ghostly) didn’t stick with me so much, the well-captured emotions of the characters alone make this worth a read. I’m only now realizing, with surprise, that I haven’t picked up any of McEwan’s other books since this.

Other People, Joff Winterhart (Jan. 23-27)

Two stories, one about a son and a mother, the other about a son and a father figure. Both a little sad, both a little sweet. The older folks are a bit buffoonish, but turn out to be subtly good influences on the teenagers. I liked that the stories were about young people and drawn in a style that looked like something a high schooler (a talented high schooler!) would have drawn in his or her notebook.

Peepshow, Joe Matt (Jan. 8 - Feb. 1)

Not sure if I remember this one, or if I’m just remembering other Joe Matt comics I’ve seen throughout the years. But either way, I can confidently say that it’s full of frank presentations of Matt’s life and relationships, with no censorship of his most depraved thoughts and behaviors. It’s the sort of thing that could seem false and self-aggrandizing (“I fear not the audience’s gaze, ecce homo, etc, etc”), but in Matt’s case, it never comes off that way. He’s just telling the story as it comes naturally to him, and if you can tolerate his excesses, it’s enjoyable.

Magic Mirrors, John Bellairs (Feb. 1-11)

I have read and re-read all of John Bellairs’ young adult novels, but I had never before attempted his adult work, all of which is anthologized in this book. The Pedant and the Shuffly and St. Fidgita and Other Parodies are forgettable, but The Face in the Frost and its incomplete sequel, The Dolphin Cross, are great fun. They’re both about Prospero, a wizard who does very little magic, and mostly wanders around from one odd, irreverent chapter to another. I most enjoyed the town that disintegrates as Prospero tries to flee, and the dinner scene with the tank of sentient fish.

Into the War, Italo Calvino (Feb. 13-19)

No fantasy, no whimsy, no invention. This is a most un-Calvino-like collection of three short, probably autobiographical stories about being a teenager at the onset of World War II. It’s never terribly interesting, and you start to sense that Calvino felt obligated to write this, as though he wasn’t sure if he was allowed to put his talents to use on off-the-wall novels rather than sober stories of important (“important”) realism (“realism”). What does work, though, is his rendering of teenage life, which seems to be consistent across time and place.

There There, Tommy Orange (Feb. 19-27)

It’s very good. Chapters jump between the stories of a dozen Native Americans in the Oakland area, all of which eventually coalesce gracefully and unpredictably. There’s a lot of nicely rendered detail and effortless intelligence in the characters and the plotting, and there’s the charge that you get from realizing, as you read their stories, how infrequently these stories are told.

Once I Was Cool, Megan Stielstra (Feb. 28 - Mar. 5)

A collection of essays about being young, about being a thirtysomething, and about being a thirtysomething who’s reminiscing about being young. It’s all fine and Stielstra never once lapses into the sort of loathsome snobbery that you sometimes see in essay collections like this. But none of the material ever achieves escape velocity; it’s always mildly interesting and mildly amusing. There may be some loathsome snobbery at work in me, though: having lived so long in New York, I reflexively view Stielstra's Chicago-based anecdotes as inherently trifling.

L.A. Woman, Eve Babitz (Mar. 6-11)

I don’t think I was at all aware of Babitz’s celebrity when I picked up this book, but even I could tell that it was a memoir disguised as a novel. That works okay – the vision of Los Angeles that she presents (appalling and vicious, yet you wouldn’t want to be left out of it) is powerful in any format – but the book might have been stronger without the vague gestures towards a novelistic structure. Of course, my appraisal came from a distracted mind: this is the book I was reading when the world started to fall apart.

Thieves Fall Out, Cameron Kay (Mar. 13-24)

Written pseudonymously by Gore Vidal for some quick cash. He hoped it would be forgotten, and it was only after his death that it was republished. Vidal was perhaps overly dismissive of the book, but nothing of value would have been lost if the publisher had respected his wishes. The Egyptian setting is decently evoked, and the twists and turns of the pulpy plot are serviceable, but the whole thing is impersonal – surprising for a writer who usually had no trouble putting his voice to work.

The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil, Stephen Collins (Mar. 16-18)

A cute little fairy tale about a neat, orderly island that is disrupted by one man’s beard, which grows and grows until it overwhelms everyone’s existence. It could probably be read successfully as a cheeky story about conformity, but I hope there wasn’t anything that prosaic or moralistic behind it. I like it more as a loony story with no point. The art style reminds me of the end credits of the 2004 film adaptation of A Series of Unfortunate Events ­(which is a compliment, as the credits sequence was the best part of the movie). After I checked out this and the Vidal book, the Los Angeles libraries shut down, even to returns, so these two sat on my table for months.

4 3 2 1, Paul Auster (Mar. 25 - Apr. 18)

Stuck at home, I started reading books that I’d had on the shelf for years, books too heavy to have read during my commute. This one introduced me to the new experience of being disappointed by Paul Auster. It’s not as dazzling as his other books, which usually pack so much invention into a brisk story. Other than the premise (four divergent versions of the same man’s life told concurrently), this one is pretty conventional. And there’s a lot of seen-it-before reminiscences about the America the Boomers grew up in, and the upheavals of the 1960s. Boring material in anyone’s hands. Still, page by page, the writing was good enough. The nested story that his hero writes about the inner life of a pair of shoes was terrific.

Ulysses, James Joyce (Apr. 19 - May 1)

I did read every single word of this, but very little of it stuck with me. Aside from the lines that seemed to cater to me specifically – nostalgia-inducing descriptions of Dublin streets; a gorgonzola sandwich; and an early scene of Bloom talking to his cat (who says, “Mrkgnao!”) – I didn’t understand what I was reading. This is probably due to me not being smart enough, but how about this: Samuel Beckett said that James Joyce “had gone as far as one could in the direction of knowing more…I realized that my own way was impoverishment, in lack of knowledge and in taking away, subtracting rather than adding.” So maybe some of us are wired to receive Joyce, and some of us are wired to receive Beckett.

The Complete Eightball, Daniel Clowes (May 2 - June 7)

I had read most of these stories in reprints and anthologies, but this collection has them as they originally appeared in Clowes’ comic books. This is the best way to read them. A chronological arrangement means you can see the evolution of his talents. Plus, you get the original covers, as well as all the sundry material that filled up the pages between stories, like advertisements, editor’s notes, and letters from readers who accuse him of selling out by moving from Chicago to Oakland. I particularly liked when Clowes encouraged his readers to record their crank calls (“long denied [their] rightful place as one of the great, indigenous American artforms”) and send the tapes to him for evaluation and prizes. The contest is “quite legit, I assure you.”

The End, Karl Ove Knausgaard (May 2-20)

The last of his six-volume autobiography cycle, but the first one I read. The ordinary details of his life are reported nicely, without ornamentation, and the meta-material, as he deals with the fallout from having used his friends and family as grist in the earlier volumes, is candid and reflective. There’s a long and slightly baffling section in the middle where he discusses Hitler’s autobiography, but it makes you feel appreciative: Knausgaard read it so you will never have to.

United States, Gore Vidal (May 21 – June 19)

The best of Vidal. 40 years of essays in one 1,700-page book with miniscule type. There are, of course, lots of good zingers and well-aged material about drug laws, police brutality, and the corruption of the political process. But with such a quantity of work, you get to spot some of his usually deemphasized sweetness. There are warm remembrances of Tennessee Williams and Eleanor Roosevelt and the Wizard of Oz books.

Flappers and Philosophers and Tales of the Jazz Age, F. Scott Fitzgerald (June 20-30)

19 stories across two collections. Fitzgerald apparently referred to about half of them as “trash,” but I liked them. There’s a good balance of humor and happy endings with some unexpectedly gothic material. “The Diamond as Big as the Ritz,” a gruesome tale about greed and the terrors of rural America, is a standout, and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” would be too, if we weren’t already so familiar with the premise.

The Coast of Utopia, Tom Stoppard (July 11-17)

I had this trilogy of plays on my shelf for ten years, carried it between five homes, waiting for the right time to read them, hoping that I would have the opportunity to see them performed first. I should have kept waiting. The scripts are impenetrable, owing mostly to there being several dozen characters (with long Russian names) to keep track of.  

Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi (July 20-25)

The first book in four months that I was able to check out of the library. I had to pick it up in a sanitized paper bag from a branch miles from my home. It was worth the trip. The novel follows two branches of a family down through several generations. One stays in Ghana, the other is taken to America. Each chapter follows a new descendant in the family line, and each time a chapter ended, I was sad to be leaving behind that character and that setting. But every subsequent chapter was just as good, so I was happily swept through to the end.

All Trivia, Logan Pearsall Smith (July 26-30)

It was well reviewed in the Gore Vidal collection. A couple hundred short aphorisms and observations on all manner of things, both physical and abstract. Pretty good, and I remember reading a few of the best ones aloud to people in earshot, but they’ve all disappeared now. There was something funny about sunspots…

Another Day in the Death of America: A Chronicle of Ten Short Lives, Gary Younge (Aug. 3-8)

Younge picks a 24-hour period and tells the stories of 10 American children (aged nine to 19) who died by gun violence in that time. It’s a really expert example of journalism. Younge renders the victims, the killers, the survivors and the deaths themselves vividly without ever become maudlin or trashy. Nor is he heavy-handed. This isn’t a gun control advocacy tract (though it works very well as that); it’s just a description of ten deaths that would otherwise have not been known to the wider public, and an invitation to think about how you feel to be living in a society where this happens every day.

The Groves of Academe, Mary McCarthy (Aug. 8-13)

After my success with McCarthy in 2019, we slid right back into the mud on this one. It’s a satire about universities, with one professor out for revenge after his teaching assignment is rescinded. I usually flip for novels like this, or at least I used to, but this one never grabbed me. And yet, I still keep checking the “McC” shelf at the library…

Why Time Flies: A Mostly Scientific Investigation, Alan Burdick (Aug. 13-17)

Pop science about time and how we perceive it. Pretty good, and has some fun little facts to deploy in party conversations (“Want to know what happens when a person lives in a cave for two months without sunlight or clocks to tell time?”), but at length it wasn’t as interesting as the excerpts in the New Yorker review that made me want to check it out in the first place.

Who the Hell’s in It: Portraits and Conversations, Peter Bogdanovich (Aug. 17-27)

A good collection of profiles and critical appraisals of actors and directors. Bogdonavich doesn’t bring out the knives. He seems to like everyone, or at least have a fondness for everyone he talks to or about. He even likes Jerry Lewis, which is hard to understand, based on the person that Lewis reveals himself to be in their long interview: vain, angry, and constantly bestowing his “generosity” on those less talented than him. I’m not sure it could have been more damning if it had been writing by a person who hated Jerry Lewis.

Moby-Dick, Herman Melville (Sep. 4-16)

This one works. It lives up to the hype. Much livelier and more readable than you would believe. It’s diverse in its approach, taking the whale narratively, biologically, symbolically, historically…any way you want to look at a whale, it’s here. And each chapter is so short that even if you come upon a dull one, you can just gloss through it and quickly be on to something new. Captain Ahab deserves his reputation as an eternal character. My favorite scene is the one where the ship encounters another captain injured by Moby Dick, and Ahab becomes infuriated that this other man has managed to laugh about it and move on with his life.

Quick Service, P.G. Wodehouse (Sep. 27-30)

Everything Wodehouse writes is brilliant to some degree and forgettable to some degree – forgettable because all of his stories are so similar as to run together in your memory. (This is not a strike against him; the familiarity is what gives him space to run wild with set pieces and verbal invention.) This novel has a higher than average degree of forgettability, owing to less than average characters and scenarios. Still, reading anything by Wodehouse will only make you healthier.

The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist, Adrian Tomine (Sep. 30 – Oct. 2)

Simple vignettes of incidents in Tomine’s life that shaped him as a cartoonist. By a freak chance, these are totally congruent with extremely humiliating moments in his life. The only complaint I have is that it was too short.

Cosmicomics, Italo Calvino (Oct. 1-5)

If Into the War was an un-Calvino-like book, this one is Calvino-ish to a fault (if it’s possible to find fault in him). These 12 stories are about outer space and ancient life: the last dinosaur, the first creatures to walk on land, a time when the moon was close enough to the earth that people could hop between them. I was about to say that this was maybe shaky ground on which to build, that Calvino is better when he begins in our familiar Earth and then gets fanciful…but even writing that list of topics made me smile. And then there’s the best story, where the narrator, searching the skies, sees a galaxy with a sign reading, “I saw you,” and realizes that he was spotted, one hundred million years before, doing something embarrassing! Forget what I started to say. This book is great.

Picturing Will, Ann Beattie (Oct. 7-12)

Will is a little kid, surrounded by struggling adults. There’s not much of a plot, just images from the life of a small family. Like everything Beattie writes, the story is fragile and slow and devastating, and she fills her characters with a lot of psychological depth. I have to dock it points, however, for the introduction and mishandling of a particular plot point that I won’t spoil. I’m not sure you can casually bring something so fraught on board without it capsizing the whole book.

’Tis, Frank McCourt (Oct. 14-21)

The sequel to Angela’s Ashes, following McCourt as he tries to make it as a young man in America. Even away from horrible Irish poverty, his life is still pretty bleak. McCourt takes a lot of abuse from all sorts of people, and even once he’s settled down with a teaching career and a family, the hits keep coming. And that’s not to mention the horrendous health problems (endless eye infections!) that plague him for the first few years. But, “stories only happen to those who are able to tell them,” and McCourt relays everything with a lot of humor and sincerity and poetry.

Nineteen Stories, Graham Greene (Oct. 22-31)

The short story isn’t his medium. All 19 of them are fine, but only two are memorable: The End of the Party” about a child’s game of hide-and-seek that ends tragically, and “The Basement Room,” about a young boy disappointing and being disappointed by his hero. Interesting that an author famous for writing about grown-up matters like politics, espionage and war should write so well and so evocatively about the experiences of children. (Wait, no, that isn’t interesting.)

Hate Inc., Matt Taibbi (Oct. 31 – Nov. 7)

In his introduction to this book about the deterioration of the media, Matt Taibbi offers himself as an example of how nastiness has been incentivized, recounting that he once won the National Magazine Award for an article referring to Mike Huckabee as a “nut job” who resembled an “oversized Muppet.” I don’t think he needs to apologize for that (and amusingly, later in this book, he reflexively lets fly some even more juvenile insults without realizing he’s fallen back on his old tricks), but it’s a fair starting point for his dissection. Nothing in this book is a surprise – yes, the political media, particularly cable news, profits from keeping its audience in a state of constant agitation – but the examples he marshals are good, and his style is clean and straightforward.

Roads, Larry McMurtry (Nov. 24-27)

McMurtry’s memoir of driving across the country. It’s unusually decentered for a journey immortalized in a book: he’s not driving for more than a few days per month, he’s not taking scenic routes (he sticks to the biggest interstates), he’s skipping big portions of the highways he does take, and he doesn’t spend too much time talking about his destinations. He calls the book Roads, and he means it. But he makes it work. His thoughts and observations, whether of the landscape surrounding him or merely inspired by it, are aimless, but smart and confident. Though my attitude towards cars is less fond than his (it’s been rudely called “ecoterroristic”), McMurtry evokes a convincingly romantic view of American driving.

Misery, Stephen King (Nov. 27 - Dec. 2)

Highly acclaimed and deservedly so. The claustrophobic set-up never gets old. The violence, though shocking and extreme, never become tasteless or silly, as in a few of King’s stories I could mention. And the villain, Annie Wilkes, steals the show. It’s quite scary to have the dawning realization that she’s sane enough to successfully pull off her hideous plan, but too crazy to be reasoned with, or even predictably strategized against. It’s perhaps an unrealistic balance, but in Misery, I believed it unreservedly.

                                                     ***

There are two ways to look at it. It was a successful year: I only read one out-and-out stinker. At the same time, it’s a highly conservative list. Not to put down any of these authors individually, but I feel a little embarrassed by the cumulative effect of all of these familiar names. I can stick most of the blame on having been unable to wander the library and browse, but it could also be an incipient impatience. I’m getting older. Maybe I just don’t feel like taking my chances with some new author.

Or maybe this is just one of those bad habits that we get to leave behind in 2020, chalking it up to the pressures of facing that endlessly rising tide of shit, rather than any personal failings. That’s the fun (or the “fun”) of having survived a pandemic. You get to look back at your life and figure out, “Was that me? Or was it the virus?”

¹Heads or Tails, Lilli Carré; Old Souls, Brian McDonald & Les McClaine; Alex, Mark Kalesniko; The Hard Tomorrow, Eleanor Davis; Cannonball, Kelsey Wroten; and The Collected Stories of Mavis Gallant