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The Orphans of Raspay by Lois Mcaster Bujold
Back to the fantasy realm for a bit while I await more books from the library. This is another novella in the Penric and Desdemona series. I actually started reading this on a backpacking trip and only now got back to completing. It's a quick read. A short adventure as Penric finds himself a prisoner and about to be sent into slavery. He needs to escape from the pirate isle in the company of two young girls who are the titular orphans.
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The Physicians of Vilnoc by Lois Mcaster Bujold
Another novella detailing the adventures of Penric and his demon Desdemona. This time Penric has to save Vilnoc from a mysterious plague. There are plenty of passages of Penric using his powers to cure the sick. Lots of dialogue scenes about what could be causing the plague. Not a lot of action.
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As We Were Told, Volume II by Coarsegold Historical Society
More of the oral history of Eastern Madera County with a focus on the Coarsegold area. This book wasn't as good as the first volume. The history is of a much more recent origin. The people interviewed were born in the 1910s and 1920s so they don't have as many origin stories. I have learned a lot about cattle ranching, though. I still would like a map to place the ranch locations. The bonus of the book is that it completely reprints John Shay's book about being a blacksmith in Grub Gulch.
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Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho
NPR released a list of the 50 best F/SF Novels of the last ten years. This has given me a whole new vein of books to explore. I started with Sorcerer. It's a Victorian age coupled with magic users. But magic is vanishing from the realm and the Supreme Sorcerer who no one likes must figure out why. There is also an upstart woman who wants to be a sorcerer but woman aren't allowed to use magic at this time because they are too delicate. There are a couple other subplots rolling around in there as well.
It didn't strike me as all that good.
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I took a look at that list and was disappointed to see that about 3/4 of it was books that are part of a series because I don't want to read series. I had already read four books on the list. I did see four or five others that I add to my "for later shelf" on the library website, so thanks Greg!
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City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty
A fantasy novel set in the middle east with Djinns and Ifrits rather than the usual Dragons and Orcs. Nahri is a con-artist and sometime healer living in 19th century Cairo. She accidentally summons a Djinn and an Ifrit during a grift gone wrong. The Djinn or Daeva named Dara becomes Nahri's protector as they race for the protection of the city of Daevebad. Things only get worse when they arrive.
Another book from the list of NPRs 50 best. I was hoping it was a standalone. it's not. Thankfully all the books are available from the library. I will continue.
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The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Nobel and Booker prize winning author of Remains of the Day brings you a fantasy novel base in a post-Arthurian Britain.
Axl and Brittany, an older couple suffering memory loss, decide it is time to go to the next village to see their son after many years apart. Along the way they meet a warrior on a mission to slay a dragon, a boy bitten by a ghoul who might become a ghoul and Sir Gawain. On the journey they also come to the realization that maybe their memory loss is unnatural since so many people suffer from it.
Some of the book is allegory. Some of it is straight up adventure story. All of it is slow and ponderous. None of the narrators are reliable. At the end, the story was kind of interesting but I had to do a lot of work to figure out what was going on. It's the kind of book you need to read the cliff notes for to really understand the book.
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In the Heart of the Sierras: Yo Semite Valley and the Big Trees by James M. Hutchings
The space in the middle of Yosemite in the title is deliberate. That's how they spelled it back in the day.
James Mason Hutchings was one of the original tourists to Yosemite valley. He made his first trip to the valley back in 1855. He had heard rumors about Savage's expedition and wanted to see the valley. The only problem was that nobody from Savage's expedition remembered the route. Hutchings was eventually directed to some Native Americans who knew how to get there.
This book is a travelogue about getting to Yosemite and what to see once you get there. It was first published in 1886 and was based on the numerous articles Hutchings wrote for his magazine Hutching's Illustrated California Magazine The book is a wealth of detail from every single stop the stages made on the various routes into the valley to biographies of all the Inn Keepers in the valley. There is also a lot of background about how Hutchings became a hotel keeper himself. His writing is florid and of that time. But it is entertaining and I've added several more anecdotes to my stockpile.
But I don't know if Hutchings is to be trusted as a narrator. He is a self promoter and behooved him to paint as good a picture about Yosemite as he could. It's also odd than John Muir's name never comes up in the book despite the fact Muir worked for Hutchings at Hutchings's saw mill. The saw mill was located near Yosemite Falls. Rumor has it that Hutchings was jealous of all the attention Muir got for talking about Yosemite.
The book is informative.
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The Making of Yosemite by Jen A. Huntley
The subtitle to this work is: James Mason Hutchings and the origin of America's Most Popular National Park.
After reading Into the Sierras, I figured I needed to know more about Mr. Hutchings since he seemed to be at the center of the development of Yosemite. This book was quite the rabbit hole to go down. I feel like Roddy Piper putting on the sunglasses in They Live. I learned so much about early California, maybe too much. Not a lot of the stories put the Anglos in a good light. Hutchings had his good points and his bad points. According to this book Hutchings kind of fell into the roll of villain to John Muir's hero because it makes a much better narrative. It's not entirely accurate.
The book was an expansion of Huntley's doctoral thesis so there are extensive notes to back up all her assertions. It also showed me more rabbit holes to explore.
The Making of Yosemite is really well written and completely eye opening examination of Yosemite. Yes, it made me sad.
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Radiance by Catherine Valente
This book was a mishmash of styles and tropes and somewhere in the middle of it, I think there was a story about the disappearance of a woman called Severin. I think I need notes to fully explain what the hell was going on in the book.
First, there are a lot of elements of filmmaking in the book, because in one of the many narratives, Percy is making a movie about the dissappearance of his daughter Severin on the moon of Venus. Many chapters discuss which genre of filmmaking they will use to tell the story. Then there are the scenes of the movie told in other chapters using the various genres. Plus there are some meta bits. It's hard to describe.
Plus, every planet in the galaxy is inhabitable each with their own unique traits. And the story travels to quite a few of them. Lots of steampunk references. It's almost if the world of Melies was brought to life.
In the end there wasn't a distinctive enough narrative for me to fully enjoy the book although some of Radiance was really well written.
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The Last of the California Rangers by Jill L. Cossley-Batt
California Rangers came out in 1928. It's a biography of William Howard who was born in Virginia on a slave plantation, took those slaves to Texas and eventually found his way to Mariposa. You would think that a book written fifty years after the end of the Civil War you might at least start thinking of the other races as human beings, but no so much in this book. There was one story in the book where an African American man was beaten and dragged through the streets after he purported to assault a white woman. The African American was eventually killed by the mob. Captain Howard (self appointed) saw the mob but his big take away was that he met a pretty girl during the festivities and they made a date to meet up later. It was a little off putting. But there were lots of scenes like that in the book.
This book caught my eye, because it has one of the other accounts of the Mariposa Battalion and the entry into the Yosemite Valley. James Savage comes across as a con man in this telling of the story. There is also made mention of Bunnell's book on the same subject and how it is now the authority on the subject despite it's inaccuracies. That being said, Cossley-Batt liberally quotes Bunnell in her book about the incidents.
The book is written in a very hyperbolic style. All the men are true and forthright and clear eyed, unless they are scoundrels. And in the end, I didn't get as much out of the book as I hoped. But I do know that Captain Howard was able to build a home on Mirror Lake.
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Indians of the Yosemite by Galen Clark Published in 1907
Galen Clark is an interesting figure in the annals of the park but I haven't come across a lot of information despite reading a biography of him. According to the introduction of this book, Clark was urged to write it because he was one of the people who knew most about the Indians at that time. He was urged to write other books about things he knew but they never came to fruition.
Most of the information in the book wasn't new to me. I have read the tales of Tenaya in other books. I did get a better idea of where the reservation lies where all the Indians were sequestered once they surrendered. There were a few Indian folk tales Clark recounted and I did enjoy those. I need to start working the Indian names for places in the park into conversation.
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The Heathens by Ace Atkins
Taking a break from all the death in Yosemite to read a murder mystery.
TJ is on the run after being accused of murdering her mom. Quin Colson is tasked with the job of finding out who actually did murder the mom and save the teenage TJ before she is killed by the people in pursuit of her.
Like most of the recent Colson books, it is more about the characters surrounding Colson than actually Colson himself. He hunts for clues, smokes his cigars, and generally provides information. The real stars of the book is everybody else. TJ and her gang of fellow teens have plenty to do. The murderers have plenty to do. The people that hired the murderers have plenty to do. Not Colson. I want him to to do more.
I'm reading this series mostly out of habit at this point. The Queen did ask me in disbelief whether I was still reading his books. Atkins also writes the continuing adventures of Robert B. Parker's Spencer novels so I get to read him twice a year.
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The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey
From the women who brought you Magic for Liars comes this awesome story about what to do when you find out your ex-husband has made a clone of you with all the rough edges removed. But it's so much more. The story kept surprising me as the tale went in unexpected places. At the heart of the story is the cloning but it so much more than that.
I recommend this book. No swords fights.
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09-28-2021, 11:05 AM
(This post was last modified: 09-29-2021, 07:33 AM by Greg.)
Imperfect Union by Steve Inskeep
The rest of the title for the book is "How Jessie and John Fremont mapped the west, invented celebrity, and helped cause the Civil War"
My subtitle would just be "People are Dumb"
Fremont swung into my orbit because Mariposa County used to be John Fremont's estate. He owned 44000 acres there, purchased on one of his 5 exploratory visits to California. When I saw that, I realized that, despite hearing his name my entire life, I knew nothing about Fremont or his journey's. I certainly didn't know he ran for president as the first candidate from the newly formed Republican party.
I did learn a lot. The thing I learned the most is don't go exploring with Fremont. He's one of the few that came back alive. He tended to start late and end up crossing the Sierra Mountains in winter. There was a lot of horse and mule eating. I don't come away from the book with a very high sense of Mr. Fremont.
There is a lot about Jessie Fremont in the book as well. Jessie and John were a team and she was the publicity wing of the enterprise. She helped write a lot of his reports. She was the buffer between him and the public in many cases. And she was the one constantly abandoned when John got itchy feet and had to go exploring.
I'm not going to take just Mr. Inskeep's word about the life of Fremont. I have another biography on him waiting to go.
As a matter of fact, my anger does keep me warm
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