Reading Report May/June, 2024 from Jeff Baker

For Arthur Conan Doyle’s May 22^nd birthday, I head his “The Mystery Of Sasassa Valley.” One of Doyle’s first published stories (from 1879!) and still fun!

Also read Doyle’s Brigadier Gerard story “How The Brigadier Rode To Minsk.”

Read a chapter of ‘Nathan Burgoine’s “Triad Magic.”

Got Stephen King’s new collection “You Like It Darker.” Read “Willie the Weirdo,” a short tale which is one of King’s “go for the gross-out” stories. But the last line has a revelation that ties everything together.

Went out-of-town on family business and a vacation. Actually drove from Kansas through Albuquerque, NM (where I had family decades ago!) and Flagstaff, AZ (Beautiful!) and on to San Francisco, CA and Livermore CA where I stayed with friends and really didn’t do a lot of reading for a couple of weeks, except an in-progress graphic novel (which I will talk about when I can!) and a story by M. D. Neu (“Thanksgiving Pie”)in the anthology “Queer Cheer,” which I bought at Sacramento Pride and he autographed to me!

Went to “City Lights Bookstore” in SF and got the City Lights Pocket Poets Anthology which I’ve been skimming through. (The editor was Lawrence Ferlinghetti, how cool is that?)

Also been reading J. Scott Coatsworth’s weekly serial “Down The River.” And I finally met Scott at Sac Pride and he autographed a few books for me!

Speaking of online reading, I’ve been doing my usual read of Kaje Harper’s fine weekly stories on her Facebook page. Not to be missed. (Links to Scott’s and Kaje’s pages below.)

Got a fun picture book in Niles, CA “S Is For San Francisco.” Pictures and text are perfectly done. Written by Maria Kernahan, and illustrated by Michael Schafbuch.

Read some of Scotty Bowers’ memoir “Full Service” about his days working at a gas station in Hollywood and, uh, servicing Hollywood celebrities. (It took me a bit to catch the double meaning of the title!) The most memorable bit is when he describes living through the horrors of WWII in the Pacific and swearing if he got home he was going to enjoy himself.

And I have more books to read, including one I’m going to write up for a column!

—–jeff baker, Wichita, KS June 20^th, 2024

LINKS

J. Scott Coatsworth’s “Down The River” https://www.jscottcoatsworth.com/category/features/serial/

Kaje’s Conversation Corner https://www.facebook.com/groups/208207893795147