Reading Report June/July 2025
Read Robert Bloch’s “Hungarian Rhapsody.” A jawdrop moment midway through involving gold coins. Didn’t see the ending coming (but should have!)
Started reading some James Schmitz with “The Second Night Of Summer” from “The Best Of James H. Schmitz.” Space opera with impressive character work from the author. Also started his story “Novice.”
Celebrated Julian Hawthorne’s June 22nd birthday by reading a chapter in his novella “Kildhurm’s Oak.”
Read “Please Mind the Poltergeist” by Tehnuka in “We’re Here; The Best Queer Speculative Fiction of 2023.”
Can’t believe I started Louisa May Alcott’s “Little Women.” Never read it before. May not finish; it’s over 555 pages!! Old fashioned of course and a bit sweet and sentimental but a cut above a lot of the Nineteenth-Century YA stuff I’ve read.
Read Wallace Wood’s 1966 Christmas Comic strip “Bucky Ruckus and the Christmas Caper.” I’d read it in Grade School in the newspaper and it still holds up. Funny for adults and kids. Woods is best remembered for his work in MAD Magazine.
Started reading John Maddox Roberts’ Ancient Roman mystery novel “Saturnalia.” A fun adventure for his sleuth Decius Caecilius Metellus the Younger who also features in the short-story “Beware The Snake,” which I read on June 25, the late author’s birthday.
Read Carrie Vaughn’s “It’s Still the Same Old Story.” A Forever Knight-style tale set in Denver. Fun and sweetly sad. This and Roberts’ snake story are from anthology “Down these Strange Streets.” Edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois.
Of course I read the monthly story by E. H. Timms (a poem this time!) and the weekly serial by J. Scott Coatsworth as well as Kaje Harper’s weekly story which has been a serial for the last few weeks too! All these regular reads are great fun!
And I’ll brag on myself here; I re-read my story “Incorporation Of Danny Zero” which was published in LiveRealPress’ anthology “Five Seconds Of Power.”
Here’s some links
For Scott https://www.jscottcoatsworth.com/category/features/serial/
And for Kaje [LINK] https://www.facebook.com/groups/208207893795147
And for me https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/230567505-five-seconds-of-power
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