THE BRIDE WORE BLACK LEATHER, SIMON GREEN

This is the last of the NIGHTSIDE series by Simon Green, and I hate to disappoint anyone with spoilers.  But we're starting off with the great characters JOHN TAYLOR and his now girl-pal SUSIE SHOTGUN.  They've had a troubled relationship--she's otherwise known as "Oh God it's her, run," and "Just go ahead and shoot yourself, it will be easier." Quite damaged,but slowly making some changes.  JOHN TAYLOR is making some changes, too--he has a new job description now which I absolutely cannot tell you about.

Just get the first one in the series, SOMETHING FROM THE NIGHTSIDE and then start there. It can get really dark at times in this series, but GREEN really balances that with humor. I will say that GREEN makes one wonderful pun. JOHN TAYLOR is a investigator working in the Nightside, and he has a special talent. He can see where anyone is when he opens his third eye, his "private eye." Lovely.

Like most other things in the Nightside, this costs almost too much each time he uses it.  He can see others, but use of his power allows others to see and find him. Neat conundrum.

KNIGHTHOODS

The Beatles and Mick Jagger have all received knighthoods for their service to music, the Beatles in 1996 and Jagger in 2003.  Jagger's honor, like the man, has been much more controversial.   Jagger, of ironic,  devilish music,  a countercultural icon, and a checkered personal life is now Sir Michael Phillip Jagger, gone all respectable. Keith Richard has chided Jagger for accepting the honor, saying that this is is not what THE ROLLING STONES  are all about.  It does seem odd. The author of "Under My Thumb,"(I Can't Get No)Satisfaction, and "Sympathy for the Devil," has been awarded such an honor.  He once called the queen "the chief witch," and she stymied his award for several years.  Queen Elizabeth scheduled to be elsewhere at his ceremony, leaving Prince Charles to do the honors.

So perhaps the Lady Gaga, who is nearly nude in many videos, and whose songs, persona, and fashion styles have been criticized as immoral and vulgar, will be made a Dame one day. One thing's for sure, they probably won't use BAD ROMANCE  as a background music video.

YESTERDAY..AND TODAY, BEATLES BUTCHER ALBUM COVER1966

Speaking of Gaga's meat dress, it is startling to realize that the idea was not new to her. Even the Fab Four experimented with this look.  In 1966 Capitol Records planned to issue their ninth compilation record.  For various reasons the "nice group" planned to change their image to show they were aware of life's cruelties.   In a surreal photo shoot created by an Australian photographer, Bob Whitaker, he posed them in butcher's smocks, with sausages and meat draped around them, and decapitated dolls completing the bizarre look. 
  John Lennon in particular wanted this picture because he was tired of the Beatles' reputation as innocuous compared to the rebellious Rolling Stones.  Another reason he stated was that the cover reflected the groups' commentary on the Vietnam war.
Disk jockeys and those who had received advance copies strongly protested the cover, and it was withdrawn after one month. Capitol Records discarded many of these in a landfill, while others had the offensive photo covered over with a generic picture.  The surrealistic photo shoot pictures can be seen here:

 http://www.neatorama.com/2012/09/13/The-Beatles-Troublesome-Butcher-Album-Cover/

THE LONG DARK TEA-TME OF THE SOUL, BY DOUGLAS ADAMS

Another oldy but goodie , TEA-TIME was published in 1990. I hadn't read any Adams since I  slogged through "LIFE, THE UNIVERSE, AND EVERYTHING," and learned that the answer was 42. Bleah.

Throughout most of this book I was thinking, "This is wonderful. Why didn't anybody tell me that Douglas Adams was a comedic genius." An explosion in an airport is declared an Act of God.  But which god? Adam's world building is similar to Terry Pratchett's, and quite fun. But when I reached the end, he didn't stick the landing.

I realized that Pratchett's conclusions are sharply defined. While he doesn't  beat you over the head, you are not left, for example, in any doubt as to why a few City Guards wear sprigs of lilac in their helmets on a certain day. (NIGHT GUARD.)The ending truly satisfies the long buildup.

With Douglas Adams, I am not sure quite what happened.  The payoff doesn't reward the reader. I am reminded of Neal Stephenson who creates a fine story line in an alternate universe, and then throws it away. I would have rated Tea-Time as a five, but I'd drop it to a three for not finishing what he started. It's still worth a read.

BAD ROMANCE LADY GAGA MUSIC

 I had barely taken notice of Lady Gaga, being only aware that she had outrageous costumes, such as the meat dress. I hadn't listened to her until I heard "BAD ROMANCE" at a store.  I really enjoyed the lively beat and chorus.  Then I watched her video, was confused, and hated it. The white wedding dress with the polar bear skin train was just odd, and the explanation for the video didn't help.  I'd have dropped Gaga, but my sister sent me the link to a parody, "BAD PROJECT." This is the lament of a graduate student who's been lumbered with a bad lab project and hates her life. As a former biology geek, and witness to my sister's wrestles with her PhD., I identified completely.
“Bad Project” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl4L4M8m4d0
There are many, many Gaga parodies out there, not surprising because she's almost a parody herself.
If you brave the original, you'll be rewarded with 
 “Bad Romance Women's Suffrage” an unexpectedly touching video about the fight for women's suffrage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYQhRCs9IHM

The inimitable Weird Al's “PERFORM THIS WAY,” parody of “BORN THIS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ss_BmTGv43M

The best complication of the parodies:http://lookatmenow.hubpages.com/hub/The-Best-Lady-Gaga-Parodies-on-Youtube

I'm really attached to “Bad Project” and “Bad Romance Women's Suffrage.”Give them a try.

A FALL OF MOONDUST, ARTHUR CLARKE (1960)

I've been re-reading some favorite books, and this one is an old friend. Set in the near future, a fascinating tourist destination on the moon is the SEA OF THIRST, filled with a peculiar kind of moondust which has developed over billions of years. As the tourbus SELENE returns to the base, a huge underground cavern collapses, and the bus falls into the pit. The bus is trapped underground with the pilot PAT HARRIS, and twenty-two passengers. Luckily, one of the tourists is COMMODORE HANSTEEN, a distinguished space pilot who welds the passengers into a team to survive. Besides Pat's viewpoint we follow several others, especially CHIEF ENGINEER LAWRENCE, who must rescue them. The dust puts up trap after trap for LAWRENCE--first the heat exchangers fail, and the passengers risk heat stroke. Then the other systems of the bus fail slowly, and the passengers experience oxygen deprivation, a further fall of the bus into the now muddy dust, and finally a fire.  Each challenge is met with creativity by LAWRENCE, but the SEA OF THIRST seems to be malevolently toying with him.


It's a great yarn, made better by  CLARKE's excellent writing. "(The dust) had reached the lower edge of the windows; now it was creeping up the panes; and at last it had covered them completely. Pat cut the motors before they tore themselves to pieces, and as he did so, the rising tide blotted out the last glimpse of the crescent Earth.  In darkness and in silence, they were sinking into the moon." Gives me chills every time.

THE NOVICE'S TALE, BY MARGARET FRAZER

Set in a 15th century English convent, this series stars the pragmatic Benedictine nun Sister Frevisse. She's in the Brother Cadfael vein, someone whose real-world experience prepares her for challenges outside the cloister, but she's unique, and not an imitation.

The devout novice Sister Thomasine, two weeks away from her final vows, is forced back to worldly concerns when her braying virago aunt Ermentrude arrives at the convent determined to wrench her away from her prayers. When Ermentrude dies the "crowner," (coroner) wants to sweep the case under due to Ermentrude's hard-living, hard-drinking life. When Frevisse proves that it's poison, Sister Thomasine then becomes the main suspect and the crowner is eager to hang her. In a wonderful scene, Thomasine claims sanctuary while the angry nuns sing Dies Irae in a face-off with the sheriff's men.

The convent life glows under Frazer's hands. Although it's all but impossible to believe the devouts loved their eight daily services, she makes us believe that they do. Her historical details are fascinating. Of note, her character Joliffe, a traveling actor who solves mysteries, made his appearance in a Frevisse novel and now has his own series.

BLAMELESS, BY GAIL CARRIGER--character, Prof. Lyall

Another note about this werewolf/vampire series: I recently listened to the CD and fell in love again with Prof. Randolph Lyall, the always correctly dressed and greatly put-upon Beta of the London Woolsey Werewolf pack. His huge Alpha, Lord Connall Maccon, gets ridiculously drunk over a personal crisis. (It takes formaldehyde, as werewolves are not affected much by alcohol.) Knowing that the Alpha is incapacitated, a "loner" wolf comes to challenge for the control of the Woolsey pack, and Prof. Lyall must fight in his leader's place. He's much smaller than most weres, but has skill, speed, cunning, and over a century of experience. During the fight the drunken Alpha Maccon arrives and literally tosses Lyall to the sidelines. Lyall hates being untidy, even in wolf form, and he cleans up the blood "surreptitiously licking his ruff like a cat." Wonderful character.

And the series also has the flamboyantly gay vampire Lord Akeldama, who's invented the Pink Slurp drink--blood mixed with champagne. Now you're all set for the next W-V party. Be sure to get the cravat straight.

THE MARRIAGE SPELL, BY MARY JO PUTNEY

PUTNEY marries fantasy and romance in a near-perfect way. In an England where magical skills exist, the wizards are accepted everywhere except in the high aristocracy, where they are despised as "wyrdlings." The ton, however,will use wizard healers sub-rosa.

Jack Langdon, Lord Frayne, is a dashing army captain on leave from the Napoleonic wars. He showed some magical promise as a child, and so was enrolled in Stonebridge,a reverse Hogwarts where students have their magic beaten out them. Twenty years later he is nearly killed in a gruesome fox-hunting accident. He's taken to a local wizard, Abigail Barton, who's secretly admired him for years. He's disgusted with her and wishes to die, but his friends prevail upon him to reconsider and give his permission for the healing. As the price for her healing, she asks him to marry her. During the healing,Jack's magical talents begin to emerge.

She expects him to renege on his promise of marriage, and is willing to release him. But to her surprise he quickly marries her. When he takes her to London society,she's able to defy their scorn. Jack's sister quietly reveals that she is a wizard too, and Jack slowly accepts his own magical powers. By the time they leave London for his blighted manor home, he is ready to use all his power to heal the land. I'm not normally a romance fan, but MARY JO PUTNEY may convert me.

THE MILES VORKOSIGAN SERIES BY LOIS McMASTER BUJOLD

This engaging sci-fi series is my all-time favorite—I've re-read them so much they're tattering. The series focuses on personalities, not on technological marvels. Its scientific framework never overshadows the characters. The first two books feature MILES' parents, CORDELIA NAISMITH VORKOSIGAN and ARAL VORKOSIGAN.

In BARRAYAR CORDELIA has retired from her life as a Beta Colony Survey Captain, expecting a quiet and fertile life as the wife of a retired soldier. Then ARAL's career unexpectedly heats up when he's made Prime Minister. Now he has numerous political enemies. A vicious bioweapon attack by one damages the fetus CORDELIA is carrying. CORDELIA literally fights for MILES' life, and he survives when no one else thought he could or should. He's permanently damaged from the bioweapon, with bones like chalk and a stunted height, 4'9.” In the eyes of his world, he's a freak, looking like a despised mutant.

He survives by intelligence, wit, charm, devious manipulation and sheer force of his personality. He ruthlessly bamboozles others into carrying out his plans. Prevented from a normal military career, he spectacularly succeeds in galactic covert ops. Of course, the occasional failures are spectacular, too.

The only thing missing from the series is another book about CORDELIA. She's such a fabulous character and richly deserves a third book. EKATERIN VORSOSSION, a character introduced in KOMARR, provides some potent female viewpoint, and she may be the one to rein in MILES.

SOULESS, BY GAIL CARRIGER

ALEXIA TARABOTTI, with a deceased Italian father, is too darkly complexioned, forthright, and voluptuous for the VICTORIAN marriage competition. As a "preturnatural," she can turn supernatural being mortal with a touch. She has no soul to save for the afterlife, and conquers this deficit with yards and yards of courage, heart, intellectualism, and a strict regard for the manners of polite society.

She is therefore outraged when a newly made vampire attacks her at a party, violating all forms of social etiquette, with his clothing so terribly disarrayed he hasn't even got a properly tied cravat.

In the scuffle, she kills the vampire, a terrible social embarrassment. The very eligible but scruffy bachelor, LORD CONNAL MACCON, Alpha werewolf of the London Woolsey pack, is sent to investigate and helps her cover up the her gaffe.As more new vampires appear and old ones disappear, everyone holds ALEXIA responsible.

As she struggles to solve this problem, she is helped by applications of tea drinking, the flamboyantly gay vampire LORD AKELDAMA, judicious whacks with her trusty parasol, and the increasingly affectionate LORD MACCON himself. Part urban fantasy, part steampunk, this witty variation on the werewolf/vampire theme comes to us through JANE AUSTEN and SOOKIE STACKHOUSE.

THE PATRIOTIC MURDERS,BY AGATHA CHRISTIE

Even though I've read almost all of Christie's books, I still enjoy a re-read. It's fun to be beguiled again. When Poirot's dentist, Morley, dies, is it murder, or suicide over a fatal complication one of his patients had? It's a time-table story, with all the patients' comings and goings noted. One patient is a bird-brained middle-aged lady. Another is a suspicious-looking Greek. There's a finance minister, a quiet government employee, and a belligerent young man who wants to have it out because the dentist has tried to keep his secretary away from him. And an Irish dentist who's often drunk and may have killed Morley to cover his own mistakes.

A long time ago I read a space yarn about a colony which wouldn't allow classic books because they were thought to be an extinct form of entertainment. Vexed, the purveyors starting shooting partial plots to the colonists, and soon the authorities were getting questions demanding to know whether Odysseus ever made it home, whether Jane Eyre married Rochester, and WHO KILLED ROGER ACKROYD? And if it's possible that you've missed Christie's ACKROYD, find it immediately.

UNSEEN ACADEMICALS, BY TERRY PRATCHETT

I really wanted to like Terry Pratchett's Unseen Academicals, but the humor misses its beats. I don't know whether Pratchett's increasing Alzheimer's is to blame.

Unseen University needs to play a football game or lose the bequest which supplies most of their food budget. Since the wizards have nine meals a day, this is a serious threat. Lord Vetinari chooses this occasion to tame the violent street game, not because it's lethal—that has no downside for him—but because it's started to damage property.

The side plots are more fun. Glenda, the plain-looking cook in UU's Night Kitchen bosses and takes care of her beautiful but dim co-worker, Juliet. Trevor Likely is Juliet's star-crossed admirer. They support opposite football teams, a deadly problem in Ankh-Morpork. A small goblin, Nutt, works in UU as a candle dribbler (no real wizard uses a plain, undribbled new candle), talks like a professor, and has a secret history.

Lord Vetinari shows a previously unknown human side, which really doesn't work. It's fun when he allows Glenda to barge in on him because he has fond memories of her mother's cooking at the Assassin's School. But there are other scenes which aren't believable. This book was only fair

A TREASURY OF DAMON RUNYON, BY DAMON RUNYON

Damon Runyon writes of the Broadway types of the 1930's, of guys and dolls, bookies, bootleggers, double-crossing sweethearts, race touts and more. A sample of his witty writing is "Hold 'Em Yale," where the narrator's friend is looking for a ticket scalper who cheated him. "In fact, the nearest Sam ever comes to a college is once when he is passing through the yard belonging to the Princetons, but Sam is on the fly at the time as a gendarme is after him, so he does not really see much of the college." Runyon is a forgotten genius, and I recommend him highly.

MOVIE, THE HUNGER GAMES. Suzanne Collins

Just read Entertainment Weekly's first look at the GAMES. Jennifer Lawrence plays Katniss Everdeen, and the readers initially protested her choice as being "too pretty, too pale, too blond, too curvy." Haven't any of these people ever heard of hair dye? The director chose her because of her work in Winter's Bone, and EW remarked "Lawrence's role there included taking care of younger siblings when her parents can't, hunting in a forest, and skinning and eating a squirrel--basically an audition tape for the GAMES." Look at the EW cover for her transformation--she's not too pretty or superficial there. The movie comes out in March 2012 and I'll be there.

PERSUASION, BY JANE AUSTEN

I started reading Austen late in life, and am at the re-reading stage now. PERSUASION is not as dramatic as PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, or EMMA, or as memorable as the parody NORTHHANGER ABBEY. PERSUASION slowly unfolds the tale of ANNE ELIOTT, the unloved daughter of a vain and stupid father, who's ignored by him and her older sister, and used by her younger, married, hypochondriac sister. Eight years before the story begins, ANNE's friend Lady Russell persuades her to give up her love for Frederick Wentworth, then a young navy officer, because she thought he couldn't provide for Anne, and so discouraged them.

When the now wealthy Captain Wentworth returns to her village, she looks for any sign that he still cares for her. There are mistaken "attachments" and much unspoken longing until the pair reunite in the last few pages. The narrator reports Anne's thoughts and feelings in third person. This and the lack of dialogue slow the pace.

PERSUASION is not so much a love story as it is a social commentary. Poor but high ranking, haughty aristocrats, wealthy, low ranking gentry, houses, carriages, parties, happy marriages versus unhappy ones, all come under the Austen microscope. She paints her society with unerring detail. A very rewarding book.

HOW RIGHT YOU ARE JEEVES, BY P.G.WODEHOUSE

I've returned briefly to PGW for a sugary read. The imbecilic but filthy rich Bertie Wooster constantly gets into hot water and needs his valet Jeeves, of the large brain, to get him out. This offering presents Bobbie Wickham, a redhead dynamo who's gotten Wooster into scrapes before, Aunt Dahlia, Bertie's "good" aunt, Reginald "Kipper" Herring, Bertie and Kipper's old headmaster, Aubrey Upjohn, broken engagements, a libel suit, and much fun. The plot of a PGW novel scampers along brightly with G-rated froth.

Bertie is relaxing at home when Bobbie's mother calls crying. There's an announcement in the London Times that Bertie is engaged to her daughter. First time that Bertie's heard of it, because she said no to him before. But it's a ploy to make her mother more accepting of her real fiance, Kipper. He doesn't know it's a ploy, sends her a scathing letter, which crosses in the mail, and before you know it, Kipper is engaged to someone else. Then Kipper, in his position as editor at a small literary magazine, savagely criticizes an article sent in by Aubrey Upjohn. Unfortunately, Bobbie has heated up the review even more, by repeating the lads' claim that the Sunday sausages were made of pigs which had died of glanders, botts, and tuberculosis. Hence the libel suit. Only Jeeves can sort all this out.

THE HUNGER GAMES, BY SUZANNE COLLINS

My God. I just finished THE HUNGER GAMES, and I am completely in awe of this writer. I thought it was another youth phenomenon like the TWILIGHT series, but it's so much more complex. Katniss Everdeen would eat Bella for breakfast, if the rules of the GAMES didn't prevent cannibalism. She's a fantastic heroine, strong, so often frightened but fighting not to show it, hungry all the time, an Olympic-level archer whose battle skills are the only things which will keep her alive.

Astonishing book, amazing writing.
It's what SURVIVOR would be if contestants were really eliminated--and all of them were children. COLLINS understands our sick morbid fascination with reality TV, and writes it large in letters thirty feet tall and dripping with blood. The games...
I sneaked ahead to read a blurb on the second book CATCHING FIRE, and the reviewer said that it ratcheted up the tension from the first. And the first one was a tiny little rubber-band wrist-slap? It's a fight to the death! A mandatory nationwide TV spectacle fought by teens! I can't wait for the sequel and it scares me silly to imagine it.

LAW AND THE MULTIVERSE, JAMES DAILY AND RYAN DAVIDSON

READ THIS BLOG! Lawyers James Daily and Ryan Davidson, who were interviewed on NPR's All Things Considered today, have created the blog "LAW AND THE MULTIVERSE: Superheroes, supervillains, and the law" to discuss what kind of laws might govern a superpower multiverse. For example, would BATMAN be liable under child abuse laws for endangering ROBIN? No, because both BATMAN and ROBIN are highly trained and experienced, and BATMAN prevents ROBIN from working in really dangerous situations. Does he have to pay ROBIN? No, because he doesn't take payment himself.

And in SMALLVILLE, CLARK gets into trouble when he throws a baddo onto the top of a sheriff's cruiser. He's sentenced to community service. Now the jerk wants to sue CLARK's family for damages. CLARK uses his X-ray vision to see that the "victim" takes off his brace--he's faking it. How they they get that information to the court? In SMALLVILLE this is an important plot point, but Daily and Davidson parse that concern. It is very difficult to fake injuries, they claim, because a person who complains of injury has to be examined by a competent medical examiner.

There are posts on Superhero estate settlement, and whether Superman's heat vision is protected by the Second Amendment, and how "finders-keepers" laws might work for those who get their superpowers from an object (Green Lantern and others.) Very fun.

HOW I KILLED PLUTO AND WHY IT DESERVED IT, NON-FICTION, BY MIKE BROWN

Astronomer Mike Brown's novel is awe-inspiring and very funny. His research took him years to complete, and not all of it could be automated. He had to use a jeweler's loupe to study star maps, just like the astronomers a century ago. He finally found a world larger than Pluto, in the Kuiper belt, which is way out beyond Pluto's orbit, and called it Xena. Then he discovered that there may be several hundred objects of Pluto's size out there and decided that they couldn't all be planets.

What's baffling to me is exactly why Pluto and Xena had it coming. Brown and other astronomers simply objected to a solar system which contained too many planets. They decreed that "planet" means "one of a small number of large important things in our solar system." This does not make sense to me, and I'm unclear how the definition will be used in the new star systems we'll discover.

Many pages of the book record the sleep-deprived Brown's obsessive notations on his newborn daughter Lilah. It's been argued that if a female astronomer emoted so much about her baby, her professional reputation would suffer. Double standard, even if the Lilah posts are cute.