Now that my tropical vacation is over, I’m back to the Arctic winds. I’m almost recovered from that nasty virus, so I’m back to writing. Today, after a glimpse of a Cuban beach, let’s talk about books, especially your best book recommendations.
Cuba, January 2024.Love that sugar sand.
This is a recent view from my front door. We’ve been pummeled by dangerous polar temperatures lately. In the depths of winter, I especially enjoy sitting by the wood stove or in bed and reading a book. Snowstorms outside, a good book, and hot chocolate inside make for an especially cozy reading experience.
Audiobooks keep me occupied while I work out, cycle, or do the dishes.Chirp serves up audiobooks very inexpensively. I listen through Audible, but Spotify has audiobooks now, too.You’ll find lots of classics there.
I enjoyed going through Mark Manson’s best fiction list. I’d read most of them but found a few missing from my reading history. You might want to check out his website, markmanson.net.
What fiction do you consider essential reading, and what are you reading this weekend?
When I was in university, I loved Crime and Punishment. I loved In Cold Blood. I tolerated Good Guys Don’t Dance. Recently, I found out Spotify offers audiobooks. I was curious to see what classics from dead authors I might devour as I worked out and did the dishes.
Since Crime and Punishment was a hit with me, I decided to commit to Dostoevsky’s much-admired masterpiece, The Idiot. I’m not far into it, but the listening experience has me doubting myself. I read Crime and Punishment in paperback. Listening is much less demanding, and yet I find I don’t have the patience for The Idiot.
The ponderous character descriptions do not end. The exposition falls flat. Was I more patient in the ’80s? Have I changed that much, or is it the text? Maybe I’ll have to reread Crime and Punishment to test my mettle.Am I the idiot now?
A recommendation
Meanwhile, I just began Matt Haig’s The Life Impossible. The Midnight Library was good. I find myself charmed by this story of an elderly woman solving a mystery in Ibiza. You know how a certain turn of phrase can catch you? That’s what happened to me with The Life Impossible. To paraphrase, “The woman spoke with a voice so cool, her words might have just been pulled from a refrigerator.”
Nice. I wish I’d written that.
To my question: What book do you read and reread that holds up years later? I welcome your recommendations.
I recently watched Things to Come, a movie from 1936 based on the work of HG Wells. It’s not a great film, but the subtext feels prophetic. The world of the 1930s devolves into a decades-long war that destroys civilization. Warlords take over. Scientific progress is lost. When a movement rises to bring a troubled hellscape back to modernity, those in power resist change. The good guys — in this case, an army of scientists — win. They improve on what came before the apocalypse and build a utopia. However, a hundred years later, angry mobs rise up to bring scientific progress to a halt.
At every tick of history’s clock, some people will try to hold back the hands of time. No matter how good the future might be, they want to return to a time when they thought things were better, perhaps simpler. The worst part is they want to choose for you, not just themselves. I’d prefer to order off the menu myself, thanks. Leave me and that bright, hopeful future alone.
HG Wells never watched a political debate on TikTok at 3 a.m., but he saw the anti-intellectualism coming. That’s been going on for a long time, of course, but the US election year will ramp up the nonsense, and plenty. We have a rough road ahead in 2024. I won’t list all the frets, but you’ve seen the news. You know what piles on the stress. We call it doomscrolling now, but we used to call it “watching the news,” or “being aware of current events.” You’re going to hear a lot more arguing. Don’t expect well-mannered debates on the road to truth, just stubborn parroting of propaganda impenetrable to facts. Motivated reasoning is not reasonable.
You’ll also get exposed to some happy, slappy messages about how everything’s fine or will be. When crises go on too long, misery becomes normalized. The worst is when you point out an injustice and some clod mutters, “That’s nothing new.” Yeah, ya lazy dick! We should have fixed it by now, huh? But we haven’t. I fear we won’t fix much of anything.
Whatever your cause, there’s a good chance some experts are working on it. Just as surely, a bunch of idiots are maintaining the status quo or wrecking the DeLorean’s transmission by throwing Time into reverse.
So, what to do? You’re going to go to bed each night, heave a heavy sigh, and say in a thick Southern accent, “Mama’s had a day.” I say that to my wife each night because we’re going to have to hold on to our sense of humor through it all. I don’t have a solution to the climate crisis, threats of war, or a (legal) way to convince flat earthers they’re wrong. Maybe afflict the comfortable and write letters to whoever’s in charge of the circus? In your off-time, rest and recover.
Here’s my rest and recovery protocol:
Guard your peace from those who would rob you of it.
The usual: Sleep, eat well, and exercise.
Put your phone down more often.
Avoid trying to reason with unreasonable folks. Helping anyone out of ignorance is noble, but fuckwits will just waste your precious time, and time is life.
Watch Stanley Tucci in Searching for Italy. This will reinforce your belief in the hope of a common humanity that is kind, curious, and appreciative.
Binge-watching Modern Family will ease your mind and bring you comfort.
If childhood was a better time for you, revel in nostalgia. I watched an episode of Barney Miller last night.
Read fiction. It will pull you out of the forest fire that is your existence, at least for a while.
Gather with the like-minded and enter the bar back to back, heads on a swivel.
Laugh at determined fools. When reason fails, laughter is often the more effective weapon.
Finally, and most importantly:
Read my fiction. Mama’s had a day, and I need money.
Years ago, before it closed, World’s Biggest in downtown Toronto was my shrine. Munro’s Books in Victoria is a lovely place to spend a few hours on a rainy afternoon. I remember stumbling across an amazing little bookshop in Glastonbury that made me want to move there.
Recently, She Who Must Be Obeyed and I took a couple of days off to escape to Stratford. It’s a sweet little town known worldwide for theater. It’s a small town, yes, but maybe you’ll look up, momentarily startled, to find Colm Feore passing you on the sidewalk. Stratford has many quaint shops and restaurants along the main drag. It’s the sort of town where shops should be spelled shoppes.
What makes Fanfare different from other bookstores?
When I was a book rep for sixteen publishers in Toronto, chain stores often gave me the feeling that the book buyers’ tastes were miles wide and a centimeter deep. Fanfare is not a large store, but the curation is excellent. Lots of theatre books, of course, but you’ll find stuff that would be difficult to discover elsewhere. For its excellent stock, it’s the biggest little bookstore I’ve had the pleasure of browsing.
My latest buys from Fanfare: Mickey 7 by Edward Ashton, History’s Weirdest Deaths by James Proud, and Taste by Stanley Tucci.
Your next buy from Fanfare: Endemic!
~ If you can’t get to Stratford, click the links to the right to find all my books online.
Life’s not fair. It’s our job to make it that way.
In an eerily familiar near-future, America has fallen to fascism. Citizenship is attainable only through military service or immense wealth. The Resistance is broke and broken. Amid this dystopian landscape, New Atlanta has become a fortress reserved for the billionaire elite.
Hopes to save the nation have faded but Kismet Beatriz remains defiant. The intrepid young survivor embarks on a desperate mission to storm the castle of the Select Few. To win, she must face the future without flinching.
Don’t hope. Do.
CITIZEN SECOND CLASS WILL SOON BE AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER.
Sometimes when I review a book, I do a video review. Yes, you can do that on Amazon. For instance, yesterday I gave a review to Audiobooks for Indies by Simon Whistler. If you have the time, video reviews are great.
However, if you don’t have the time, a review doesn’t have to be an elaborate, divinely crafted time suck. Just a sentence or two saying you want to join the cult and have the author’s babies will do just fine.
Seriously, though, if you enjoyed a book, please do spread the word. That’s how the last book makes the next book possible.
For your consideration. Thanks! Now go have a great day, or make it a great day.
If you ever wondered about some behind-the-scenes stuff about writing a massive apocalyptic saga, check out my fun interview on Armand Rosamilia’s Arm Cast: Dead Sexy Horror Podcast.
We have a good talk. The interview begins at about 9 minutes. (It’s Episode 2 of the podcast as listed on iTunes.)
Oh, and in case you missed it, here’s the new cover for This Plague of Days, Omnibus Edition. Read all three seasons, back to back to back for one low price. (And if you love it, or merely like it a lot, please don’t forget to review it. Thanks!)
Please click the image in the sidebar to pick a book.
