Saturday, July 05, 2025

Ali and Ramazan

Ali and Ramazan by Perihan Mağden

Perihan Mağden is a Turkish writer born in 1960 in Istanbul. Her latest novel Ali and Ramazan was published in 2010 in Turkish and has been available in English since 2012. tells the story of two teenager gay boys, one shy and withdrawn, the other outgoing and popular, who are drawn to each other, forming an intense friendship in a male-dominated, materialistic, and oppressive situation. when they turn 18, they're released onto Istanbul's mean streets. Life is difficult for them, and all they have is their intense devotion to each other.

Wednesday, June 25, 2025

The Lost King of Oz by Ruth Plumly Thompson

The Lost King of Oz by Ruth Plumly Thompson
The Lost King of Oz (1925) is the nineteenth in the series of Oz books created by L. Frank Baum and his successors, and the fifth written by Ruth Plumly Thompson. It was Illustrated by John R. Neill.
Old Mombi, formerly the Wicked Witch of the North, is now stripped of all her magic and working as a cook in the land of Kimbaloo. One day she comes across Pajuka, the former prime minister of Oz, transformed by Mombi into a goose years before. She sets out with Pajuka and a boy named Snip to find Pastoria, the former king of Oz, whom she also enchanted in the past.
I read the Project Gutenberg edition of The Lost King of Oz to celebrate the 100th anniversary of its publication in 1925.

Saturday, May 17, 2025

Martin's Father

Martin's Father by Margrit Eichler
Martin's Father is a 1971 childrens book published by Lollipop Power in Chapel Hill, NC. They were a feminist collective that published books to counteract sex-stereotyped behavior and role-models. The author, Margrit Eichler, was a professor in the Sociology Department at the University of Toronto; her research areas included non-sexist research methods, new reproductive technologies, contemporary families, and related issues. She wrote and published extensively on these subjects, as well as authored the children’s book, Martin's Father, while she was working on her PhD at Duke University.
The book portrays a typical day in the life of a single parent father and his son Martin. The father cooks breakfast, they play, do laundry together, go for a walk in the park, feed pigeons, and eat lunch. In the evening his father bathes Martin, puts him to bed, and plays him a song. Martin believes he has the best father in the world.
This book was very popular with my children when they were young and is still a powerful memory for them as adults. It is a simple yet powerful statement about single parent father families.

Monday, May 12, 2025

Tear Soup: A Recipe for Healing After Loss

Tear Soup: A Recipe for Healing After Loss by Pat Schwiebert and Chuck DeKlyen
Tear Soup is a large format illustrated children's book that is well suited to reading aloud and, despite its childrens format, is suitable for all ages. It is a guidebook in story form for dealing with grief. Illustrated with color drawings by Taylor Bills, it tells the story of how Grandy deals with a crippling loss by making tear soup from the tears she has cried. As she makes the soup, she flavors it with memories and the caring thoughts of friends and relatives, mapping out ways to deal with grief on every page. After the story ends, there is a list of "Cooking Tips" and two pages of Real Life resources for "Where to find help."

Thursday, April 17, 2025

The Messenger Boy Murders

The Messenger Boy Murders by Perihan Mağden
Returning home from his travels, Stravrogin is asked by the local book store owner to investigate a disturbing string of messenger boy murders that has recently plagued the city. As he unwillingly takes up the case of the mysterious deaths, he is met at every turn with unusual people and circumstances. It is like an adult fairy tale where the rules of life are gently suspended and you are immersed in a strangely mysterious, yet logically consistent, place and time. I was enthralled and look forward to reading more by Perihan Mağden.

Saturday, April 05, 2025

Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians

Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson

On his 13th birthday Alcatraz Smedry received his inheritance, a bag of sand sent to him by the father he has never seen. He thought the sand was a strange joke until the evil Librarians came to steal it.
We all know that Librarians are nice people who recommend good books, but in this book meant for young children, that’s just what they want you to think! In this book they’re actually dangerous. In this book they are a cult of evil librarians keeping people from the truth and secretly ruling the world. They control what gets read, what gets seen, and what gets learned, and because of that they have power over everyone. In the world the author has created most governments don't even know that they're being manipulated by these evil librarians. Alcatraz was fooled like everyone else until his Grandpa Smedry shows up and talks Alcatraz to go with him to the main public library to retrieve the stolen bag of special sand before the librarians can melt the sand down and turn it into a glass lens of power. I don't like that the author portrays librarians as evil, deceitful, and cruel to young children who probably will come in contact with this book in their local public library. These days librarians are being attacked by small minded adults who do not want any views but their own to be available to the public, but to turn that story around and blame librarians for preventing freedom of information rather than championing it seems sinister. Do a little mental exercise and change the librarians in the story to priests and ministers, and imagine what kind of reaction this book would get.

Monday, March 24, 2025

Cheshire Crossing

Cheshire Crossing by Andy Weir
Cheshire Crossing takes characters from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, and Peter Pan, and follows Alice Liddell, Dorothy Gale, and Wendy Darling after they are united at "Cheshire Crossing" by the mysterious Dr. Ernest Rutherford and Miss Mary Poppins. Originally writen and illustrated by Andy Weir from 2006 to 2008 as a four issue fanzine, it was later released as a graphic novel, illustrated by Sarah Andersen, from Ten Speed Press in 2019.
Dr. Rutherford believes that the girls can travel to other worlds and wants to study how they do it. The girls end up travelling to and between their three destination worlds, along with good and evil characters of these worlds as well, stirring up troubles as they go. Things can get confusing but they always remain fun and all ends up well.
Andy Weir is best known for his science fiction novel The Martian and his short story "The Egg". This is a much more playful early work.
The original 4 issue series is available free online.

Tuesday, January 07, 2025

The Hotel Dick

The Hotel Dick by Axel Brand
The Hotel Dick is the first of a series of four detective novels that follows the exploits of Lieutenant Joe Sonntag of the Milwaukee Police Department and are set in the late 1940s. The novel starts off when a hotel detective named J. Axel Brand is shot in the hotel brbershop while getting his morning shave. The only witness to the crime is the barber who swears that the movie actor Spencer Tracy is the shooter. A quick check with Tracy's studio reveals that he has an alibi and could not be the murderer, leaving Sonntag to puzzle over the eyewitness account as they begin questioning anyone who might have had a reason to dislike the hotel dick.
Full of atmospheric references to Milwaukee in the late Forties supplied by the author who grew up there, this is a puzzling mystery and a good introduction to this series.
Axel Brand is a pseudonym for Richard Shaw Wheeler (1935 – 2019) who is known for his award winning novels set in the American West.