Avaland and Dukedom in 2024, part I

Hello for another year. We are Lois and Michael, and have been on the Clubs Read since the beginning.

Michael's reading

READING NOW:



Novelties & Souvenirs: Collected Short Fiction by John Crowley
Dialogue with Darkness by Poul Anderson
In The Upper Room and Other Likely Stories by Terry Bisson
Transition by Iain M. Banks

COMPLETED READING:



A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys
Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present by Ruth Ben-Ghiat
Dial H Volume 1: Into You by China Mieville et al.

LOIS'S 1ST QUARTER READS

READING NOW



COMPLETED READING:



A Message From Ukraine (speeches) by Volodymyr Zelensky
Wind, Trees poetry by John Freeman (US)
Best Canadian Poetry 2024 selected by Bardia Sinaee
The Little Book of the Icelanders by Alda Sigmunsddottir (50 mini essays)
The Hive and the Honey: Stories by Paul Yoon
We Inherit What the Fires Left: Poems by William Evans
Still reading two volumes of poetry (and may never stop) by Ukrainian poet Serhiy Zhadan
Wondrous Journeys in Strange Lands by Sonia Nimer (2013, Palestine; Trans. 2021)

>1 dukedom_enough: We are Lois and Michael, and have been on the Clubs Read since the beginning.

And in the beginning were Lois and Michael... Thanks to you, Lois, we have Club Read and Reading Globally, my two favorite LT hangouts.

>4 labfs39: Thanks. And you're welcome:-) That was 2009, so we are finishing the 15th year of
Club Read and beginning the 16th

>4 labfs39: Thanks for organizing Club Read 2024!

I'll be gladly following y'all's reading in 2024.

l>7 chlorine: Thanks,

Wishing you both a Happy New Year.

Thanks, Caro, same to you!

Happy new year! The Ukrainian stories book sounds interesting.

>7 chlorine: >9 Caroline_McElwee: >11 AlisonY:

Happy New Year to everyone!

Happy New Year, both. Looks like more Zhadan for you in 2024, Lois.

Happy new year, Lois and Michael.

>14 LolaWalser: Thanks; from both of us.

>1 dukedom_enough: Happy New Year to y'all! The Ukrainian Voices looks like a good collection to fix a hole in not having a enough translated work from the region.

Happy new year! I really need to get around to John Crowley one of these days.

>13 dchaikin: >14 LolaWalser: >16 stretch: >17 AnnieMod: Hi everyone!

>17 AnnieMod: You do. Engine Summer is fairly short, and one of his best. The novella "Great Work of Time" for something shorter.

>19 dukedom_enough: Ha, I just looking at my shelves at lunch time as I know I have at least 2 by him somewhere and Great Work of Time caught my eye in the Subterranean Press edition. :)

I am pretty sure I had read some of his stories in various anthologies and magazines through the years. I'll see if I can unearth a copy of Engine Summer as well.

Happy New Year, both of yez!

>21 lisapeet: Likewise to you!

Happy new year to you both. Looking forward to tagging along.

>23 rachbxl: Thanks!

Happy New Reading Year to you all!

Sorry, we've been dealing with the SNOW and other stuff (nevermind that both of us tend to alternate between more than one book.... back in the saddle soon!

Belated Happy New Year. We mostly escaped snow here in NYC, but we are expecting a whole lot of rain this afternoon. Continued happy reading in 2024.

>27 rocketjk: Thanks, Happy New Year of Reading from both of us

Seems I forgot to comment on the Wondrous Journeys in Strange Lands by Sonia Nimer (2013, Palestine; Trans. 2021)

I read this fun, enchanting adventure story (with a female heroine!) over the New Year; and nearly in one sitting. It's technically a book for older YA readers. Here is the publisher's synopsis

Sonia Nimr’s award-winning Wondrous Journeys in Strange Lands is a richly imagined feminist-fable-plus-historical-novel that tells an episodic travel narrative, like that of the great 14th century Moroccan traveler Ibn Battuta, through the eyes of a clever and irrepressible young Palestinian woman.

The story begins hundreds of years ago, when our hero—Qamar—is born as an outcast, at the foot of a mountain in Palestine, near her father’s strange, isolated village. Qamar’s mother must solve the mystery of why only boys are born in this odd, conservative village. Then, in 1001 Nights style, this tale moves into another. Qamar’s parents die and a prince with many wives wants to marry her. Qamar takes her favorite book, Wondrous Journeys in Strange Lands, and flees through Gaza, to Egypt, where she is captured, enslaved, and sold to the sister of the mad king in Egypt. After escaping, she flees to study with a polymath in Morocco. But when it’s discovered she’s a girl, she must leave again, disguising herself as a boy pirate to sail the Mediterranean. Through all her fast-paced battles, mysteries, and adventures, Qamar never finds a home, but she does manage to create a family.

It's from a small publisher "Interlink Books" in western Massachusetts who I became acquainted with back in the Belletrista era. Once or twice a year I browse their catalog and buy a book or two as a way of support. Interlink books is, I believe, is distributed by S&S.

>29 avaland: That sounds like a fun read, Lois, and I love the cover.

What We Live For, What We Die For: Selected Poems by Serhiy Zhadan

This is an earlier collection from the previous one I reviewed at the end of 2023. These poems were translated from the Ukrainian in 2019, from poetry written by Zhadan between 2001 and 2015.

The poems in this collection are somewhat longer than those in the new volume, but it didn't deter me. They are a good introduction on the poet and his work. I love this guy's poetry. Period.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"TAKE ONLY WHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT"

Take only what is most important. Take the letters.
Take only what you can carry.
Take the icons and the embroidery, take the silver,
Take the wooden crucifix and the golden replicas.

Take some bread, the vegetables from the garden, then leave.
We will never return again.
We will never see our city again.
Take the letters, all of them, every last piece of bad news.

We will never see our corner store again.
We will never drink from that dry well again.
We will never see familiar faces again.
We are refugees. We’ll run all night.

We will run past fields of sunflowers.
We will run from dogs, rest with cows.
We’ll scoop up water with our bare hands,
sit waiting in camps, annoying the dragons of war.

You will not return, and friends will never come back.
There will be no smoky kitchens, no usual jobs,
There will be no dreamy lights in sleepy towns,
no green valleys, no suburban wastelands.

The sun will be a smudge on the window of a cheap train,
rushing past cholera pits covered with lime.
There will be blood on women’s heels,
tired guards on borderlands covered with snow,

a postman with empty bags shot down,
a priest with a hapless smile hung by his ribs,
the quiet of cemetery, the noise of a command post,
and unedited lists of the dead,

as long that there won’t be enough time
to check them for your own name.

———————————————————

>31 avaland: Amazing poem.

>31 avaland: Wow. Love it.

>32 RidgewayGirl:, >33 labfs39: More to come...

I feel I should re-post the 'review' of /Serhiy Zhadan's newer collection....



This volume of poetry is a fab introduction to the Ukraine poet and all-around renaissance man, Serhiy Zhadan. The English translation of this work is relatively smooth and well done. Here is one of my favorites from the collection:

How Fire Descends: New and Selected Poems (2023 translation)
Serhiy Zhadan (Ukraine)

"Maybe the Most Important Thing"

Maybe the most important thing I’ve see
in my life are the stones in the city from which
trees grow. The granite foundation of Scandinavian capitals,
stability and a landscape full of love.

The dubious joy of being a tree,
the dubious honor of holding the spine straight,
while feeling beneath the deadly cold of your homeland;
standing in the wind teaches restraint
and makes you hold on the hardness like a last hope.

My friends the trees,you have been cast onto stones,
like preaches thrown to the lions,
did you ever regret
you were born here, to this trouble,
never knowing the ease
of Mediterranean shores?

My friends the trees, did you ever complain
about the wind that made you so indestructible?
Did you ever complain about your place,
formed by the winds of your homeland?

We will take everything we can get from life.
We will shout words of thanks to the sunlit skies of our cities.
We will cry with joy
and laugh at the impossibility of changing anything.
We will strengthen our place:
a country cold as stone,
a people warm as trees.

(translated from the Ukranian by Virlana Tracz and Wanda Phipps)

>31 avaland: My RL book club is having a "bring poems" theme for April. This will certainly be one of mine. Thanks!

>36 SassyLassy: Glad I could help! (btw, I've picked up two travel books for Nova Scotia...)

Lois's ballot from today's Democratic Presidential primary here in New Hampshire:

Hopefully everyone in NH knows that Biden's name needs to written in! That was covered in episodes of the PBS NewsHour several times in the past few days.

I'll be very eager to see how Nikki Haley and Dean Phillips fare there after today's election. On one hand I don't want to see another Biden-Trump contest; however, I fear that Biden would lose decisively to Haley.

There are some interesting candidates on that list, especially Paperboy Love Prince and Vermin Supreme. Yikes...

>39 kidzdoc: Biden received 584 votes in Hollis, Dean Philips 132. Paperboy Love Prince had 2 votes. Full Hollis results here. Nikki Haley won solidly in this town, but not statewide.

>38 dukedom_enough: so weird

>41 dchaikin: New Hampshire loves its primary. Apparently the filing fee is low, so we get these random entrants.

>40 dukedom_enough: Thanks, Michael.

>43 kidzdoc: You're the voter in a true swing state; hope things go well there.

A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys

The year is 2083. Judy Wallach-Stevens, while monitoring environmental sensors for the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Network, sees a phosphate surge in the Potomac River. She heads out with her baby and her wife, expecting something routine - only to find an alien spacecraft, landed by the river. Baby Dori does what babies do, and Judy must change a diaper in view of the ship. The alien expedition leader emerges: shaped long and low, with many limbs, eyes on stalks, scaled - and she is feeding her own two babies from her body somewhat as Judy does for Dori. The "Ringers" are most insistent on including children in meetings and negotiations, and Judy has inadvertently passed the aliens' first test for humanity. Other tests will follow.

Much of the future Earth is organized into watershed networks like Judy's, conserving carbon footprints, intensively monitoring every environmental parameter, continuously improving their methods and knowledge of the Earth system. The watersheds are linked by the dandelion network, a social-media system optimized to promote expertise and consensus in online discussions. Despite a year-round hurricane season, too many extinctions, and a billion people dead in disasters, they think they are making progress toward saving the planet.

But the Ringers solved their own, similar problems thousands of years ago by abandoning their planets and building a Dyson swarm around their sun. Of the several planetary civilizations the two Ringer species have detected, the Earth's is the first that has not become extinct before their arrival. To the aliens, the lesson is imperative. Humans must leave Earth, turning it into building material for vast space settlements, starting soon.

The corporations and governments that wrecked Earth's climate are still around, their scope and power much reduced from our time. The corporations' responses to the Ringers' proposal are less Earth-friendly, aimed at restoring their former power, but also more in tune with the Ringers than those of the watersheds. The US Government also gets involved in negotiations, particularly NASA, still pursuing dreams of humans in space - and are those dreams really so bad? Meanwhile, the dandelion network has been hacked, and the best ideas are no longer foregrounded.

Community is the core of Emrys' story. The dandelion networks, comprising "...algorithms that spoke for the needs of river and tree and air, and gave weight to the values that we strove to preserve in all our problem-solving...", support a view of the individual in society radically different from many that prevail today. Judy wants to operate with constant updates from the network, not with her own decisions - quite differently from SF's standard, heroic, lone protagonists. Beyond the networks, Judy's family and neighborhood, very progressive by today's standards, support her quest to save Earth by directly helping her, and by being a good place to live, where old prejudices have faded - two of the four adults in her household are trans, for example. A crucial plot turn occurs at a Passover seder.

The aliens have their own version of community. They originate from two habitable planets in the same star system - the second species are 9 foot tall, 10 legged furry spiders, sort of, who dwell in trees. A central metaphor for the paired species is their long-ago first contact, when the scaled plains-people reached the planet of the neighboring tree-people: "That's what symbiosis is to us. When we outgrew our worlds, the plains and trees were the next branch for each other - we grasped, and swung, and found our new perch together." It's common for alien families to include persons of both species. Can Judy bring networks, aliens, and Earthly rivals to an understanding that leaves our planet intact?

These are Hal Clement aliens, really. Communication between us and them comes too easily, in service of getting to the ideas part of the story, just as Clement used to do it. The reader must make allowances here. One also misses discussion of the implied, unending, impossible, exponential growth that the aliens' system seems to aim for, which would be an obvious line of argument for Judy and her allies. And there's no mention of the Fermi Paradox, integral to thinking about intelligent life elsewhere.

Emrys has done a great job imagining a climate-stressed future that is not the usual doomscape. Even the corporation minions are not a straight-line extrapolation of today's conservative rich people - for example, their system of personal pronouns is way more complex than that of the watershed networks or anything today. And social media that amplifies facts and sound opinion, not lies? Tell us more. I rarely say this about a book, but this refreshingly optimistic novel could have benefited from being longer. Thinking about it was fun.

Ruthanna Emrys puts acknowledgments at the end for some of her inspirations for this novel. I rate it an extra half star for her friend Malka Older's coining of the term "diaperpunk".

Four and a half stars

>45 dukedom_enough: A fascinating review, Michael. Many intriguing themes. And who can resist diaperpunk?

Fun review. I feel like your review shows how much you enjoyed thinking about it.

>46 labfs39: diaperpunk! lol

>45 dukedom_enough: Enjoyed your review

>44 dukedom_enough: Swing state indeed, Michael. Next month I'll vote in a race for my Pennsylvania House representative, which is a very important one, as the House is currently tied 101-101 between Democrats and Republicans.

>45 dukedom_enough: Fabulous review of A Half-Built Garden.

>45 dukedom_enough: Great review, and >46 labfs39: I laughed at 'diaperpunk' but it seems accurate.

Happy New Year to you both. I'm glad to be reminded of Crowley: I've had a copy of Little, Big sitting on the headboard for a long time. Maybe this will be the year.

I can't wait to go into a bookstore and ask where the diaperpunk section is ;-)

>45 dukedom_enough: I'd read a book tagged diaperpunk. That sounds like an interesting one—great review.

The NH primary is a weird one. Thank you for voting.

>46 labfs39: I predict a growing diaperpunk movement! Well, probably not.

>47 dchaikin: I did.

>48 baswood: Thanks!

>49 kidzdoc: Here's hoping you flip your House blue.

>50 rv1988: Thanks!

>51 Jim53: Crowley's not for everyone, but he's certainly for some of us.

>52 lisapeet: As of right now, this the only book so tagged. And we're happy to vote - least we can do.

William Evans 2021, USA

William Evans is an author, speaker, performer, and instructor known for founding the Writing Wrongs Poetry Slam and cofounding the popular website Black Nerd Problems. He has been a national finalist in multiple poetry slam competitions and was the recipient of both the 2016 Sustainable Arts Foundation Grant and the 2018 Spirit of Columbus Foundation Grant. The Callaloo and Watering Hole fellow is the author of three poetry collections and currently lives with his family in Columbus, Ohio. He is an MFA candidate at Randolph College in Lynchburg, Virginia. (from the publisher)

I very much enjoyed this collection from Evan —intimate, often domestic, beautifully expressed. Here is a relatively short poem as illustration….

GOOD STORM

A good thunderstorm
can still knock some sense
into the night, still pull
the wind from dreams
you didn’t plan on re-
living, still send a child
from her bed as if it
were a hum
under her skin, still carve
enough space between
her mother and I to make
a house a home, still
find a lake of ageless
water under our covers
where she is still the age
she first found this quiet,
and aren’t we just waiting
on the sun to summon
the next shift or thunder
to stop? Whichever
sacrifice comes first.

Beautiful poem.

>54 avaland: I’m feeling the again fresh youthful thoughts stirring

>55 chlorine:, >56 dchaikin: Glad you both liked it.

Best Canadian Poetry 2024
Selected by Bardia Sinaee

This year’s annual anthology of Canadian poetry sports the the work of forty-four poets from all over the country. The works in this 16th annual volume are arranged alphabetically by title (interesting…) and there are ‘contributors’ commentary, biographies and a few other pages.

I admit it took several read-throughs to warm up to this anthology (I was familiar with less than five of the poets and the non-poetry material was distracting. But on the third read-through everything opened up. I’ll will be looking for next year’s anthology (and perhaps some previous volumes)

——————————————-
Erin McGregor

A Eulogy

spring before the lilacs
but after the cherry
blossoms
C in the hospital and I am writing
a eulogy, I write it

in my head, while I sleep,
in the shower,
while I eat. I write it
through my windshield at red

lights. it shadows my eyes, notices
small things. look, it says:
a hawk on a sign post.
the sun is diffuse

all the way to the hospital the impending
moment
buzzes and burrs
like a wasp trapped.

his hand reaches, his grip still
strong he is open, a Madonna lily.
oh,he says, oh,
over and over. surprised.

and all the words
gathered so carefully, these
impotent, conceited
things
evaporate like breath.

--from The Antigonish Review

NOTE: I apparently only quoted a part of the poem; here is it in total!

>54 avaland: I like it Lois. New to me poet.

>58 avaland: Moving. Beautiful. And another poet new to me.

The Little Book of the Icelanders by Alda Sigmundsdottir
"50 miniature essays on the quirks and foibles of the Icelandic People" (2024 ed)

I went to Iceland in 2010 without knowing all the quirky stuff in this little book. But then, I was far more interested in the country's geology and architecture at the time.

This is an amusing little book...yes, 50 miniature essays on the quirky habits of the locals. It does explain the various issues around names or in #24 "Iceland, Where Traffic Laws are Guidelines". #31 Beware the Wrath of the Shower Police OR #38 "House Proud".

After reading this I got out the disc of photos taken in 2010 and watched it again and know I would like to go again!

>58 avaland: ” But on the third read-through” - you were persistent. I love the poem you posted

>60 avaland: interesting. Not everyone takes to Iceland, well not everyone from winterless Houston… I’ve never been.

>60 avaland: - One of the places I'd really like to visit.

>59 Caroline_McElwee: I posted the rest of the poem (seems I may have been interrupted and didn't finish!)

>61 dchaikin: I understand!

>62 dudes22: GO! I'd go in a heartbeat. It helps if you like fish and lamb ....

>63 avaland: - Love them both! Maybe next winter. I'm obsessed with seeing the aurora borealis at some point. It's just I don't like the cold (ha, ha).

>63 avaland: "Best Time to Visit Iceland 2023/2024 | Intrepid Travel US
The best time to visit Iceland is between September and March to see the Northern Lights, or between June and August for summer activities".

We usually avoid the hot seasons wherever we go somewhere.

The Wonder of Small Things Poems lf Peace & Renewal, edited by James Crews.

A decent anthology with work by familiar poets (dead or alive) and many new-to-me poets. Still, the book (and cover) didn't do much for me..but it could be something YOU might like it...
(*OK, it also bugged me that the editor included at least three of his own poems)

*Maybe I'm spending too much time in Ukraine...

>66 avaland: if he adds more than one of his own poems, they better be good.

Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present by Ruth Ben-Ghiat

Benito Mussolini, Francisco Franco, Augusto Pinochet, Viktor Orbán - there have been too many authoritarian strongmen in the past century, ruling their countries for a few years or many, grabbing as much of their nations' wealth as they can, leaving no room for people's hopes or needs. Ben-Ghiat, a professor of history and Italian studies at New York University, has summarized the stories of seventeen of these men (always men), from Mussolini to those still with us now, including Putin and Trump. Communist rulers are not included here, for reasons not explained.

The book's chapters follow the arc of a strongman's career, alternating between the stories of her subjects. In the first of three main sections, the great man ascends to rule. Getting to Power came via Facist Takeovers in the early 20th Century, more commonly Military Coups later on, and today we have New Authoritarian Ascents - elections now often bring the new ruler to power. Control of the news media helps here.

Once in place the authoritarian employs his Tools of Rule to stay, per the second main section. In A Greater Nation the populace must be told that the greatness of their nation requires a return to a golden past, via the strongman, making America - or Italy, or Russia - great again. Colonies are wanted here. Lest people miss the point, Propaganda is essential to remind them of what they should think. Mussolini had radio; Trump has Twitter. The strongman's fitness for rule is underlined by showing his Virility. He boasts of his prowess with women; his bare-chested body is displayed for the crowd's admiration if that will work - Putin, also Mussolini before him. The strongman usually wants to enjoy his virility, regardless of anyone's consent. Here, Donald Trump could never (or never yet?) equal Mussolini and Muammar Gaddfi, both of whom had entire government departments supplying them with women, and warning the women to stay silent about what happened. Corruption is a must, to pay off underlings and cronies - and enrich the strongman himself, of course. This happens even as promises to eradicate already-existing corruption are given. Mussolini literally said he would drain the swamp, meaning the Pontine Marshes near Rome. The actual prosperity of the country is nothing next to the authoritarian's wants.

The last part of this second section concerns Violence. To me, this sickening chapter feels like the heart of the book. The corrupt state cannot exist without brutality against anyone who fights back. Ben-Ghiat outlines the torture and murder visited upon Pinochet's opponents, then goes on to the other nations of her story, ending with the Trump regime's ICE and CBP. Don't read this chapter unless you're ready for stories almost too terrible to bear.

The third main section is Losing Power. Resistance is always a possibility, if at the cost of the resisters' lives. Resistance may be by speech, or by bombs or guns aimed at the strongman. Finally, Endings come eventually to all, if only a peaceful death in old age, as was Franco's lot. Mussolini and Hitler died just one day apart, by murder and suicide. That many strongman stories end unhappily for the strongman is little consolation for the damage they do.

Ben-Ghiat supplies footnotes and an extensive bibliography.

The book shows that these stories are all, drearily, horribly, the same story. Strongmen all use the same playbook, differing only in the amount of damage they do. If only every citizen in every country could learn this lesson in time.

Four and a half stars

>68 dukedom_enough: Saw this book in possibly the NYRB, and thought it sounded interesting. It's good to read your positive review of it, and mention of footnotes and bibliography. Will have to look for this.

>68 dukedom_enough: Great review, Michael, and it sounds like an important book. I'm not sure I'm up for it in this election year, however. Will keep it on the back burner.

>68 dukedom_enough: interesting. Were the descriptions as you expected, or were you surprised by some major aspects?

>69 SassyLassy: >70 labfs39: At this point there are probably more books on this subject, written just since 2015, than anyone will ever have time for. For some reason. So you're excused.

>71 dchaikin: I more or less knew the general outline. We've all had a master class in authoritarianism these recent years. But endless details I had not known.

>68 dukedom_enough:

What, no Hitler? Does it say anything about that omission (if omission it is)? As for the absence of Communist "strongmen", it could reflect a choice to deal with right-wing ideology (but no Hitler?), although there are deeper taxonomic concerns too. Communist countries, including the USSR after Stalin, were managed by committees, and someone like, say, Brezhnev or any number of long forgotten party members in Eastern Europe were "strong" only as avatars of the party. No bodybuilder posing for those guys. Which is why people still know who was Mussolini, but would struggle to name a single "strongman" from Czechoslovakia, Poland, Bulgaria, DDR... Even Stalin doesn't fit that list of descriptors completely (self-enrichment? whatever one can say about him, he wasn't in it for the moolah; virile displays? ehhh...)

By the way... you might like Kurt Weill's satire of the strongman in "Der Kuhhandel" (Shady Dealing):

Der Kuhhandel

Here it's the very first song, sung by the character of "President Mendez" ETA: ah, found the libretto

Schockschwernot! Verdammt nochmal! Ich bin Gottstod! Ein General! Wer nicht pariert, wird füsiliert, weil der Soldat den Staat regiert! 's geht wie geschmiert wenn man diktiert mit Stock und Stahl!
Kein Recht je schwächt den starken Mann weil er stets Recht behalten kann.

Ich bin der starke Mann, der was er will auch kann, darum ist jeder Mann in meinem Bann. etc.

Hell's bells! and again damnation! 'Sdeath, I'm a general! Anyone who doesn't knuckle under will be shot, because a soldier rules the State! Everything runs like clockwork when one dictates with stick and steel! No right ever weakens the strong man, because he can always be proved right.

I'm the strong man who can do what he wants to do, so every man is under my thumb. etc.

>73 LolaWalser: Hitler is in there too, but I didn't want to name all 17 she covers, and I think part of her point is that you don't have to be Hitler to still be very bad.

>74 LolaWalser: Thanks. You could probably form a chorus of dictators, with all the examples we have.

I think a bare chested Brezhnev would be too much to bear >73 LolaWalser:
Probably a book that many of us might read through gritted teeth. I don't think I will go there. Thanks for the review.

>75 dukedom_enough:

I think part of her point is that you don't have to be Hitler to still be very bad.

Yes, Reagan and Thatcher readily come to mind--main engineers of our ongoing apocalypse.

Incidentally, is Perón included?

>76 baswood:

Worse than Putin? :) Meet you at the brain bleach bar!

>73 LolaWalser: >75 dukedom_enough: Then there was the Great Helmsman swimming the Yangtze to add to the chorus line.

>76 baswood: Dismissing that image completely

>76 baswood: That's why I said "if that will work". See (or maybe, don't see) the "ripped Trump" images where the illustrator give him a Superman body.

>77 LolaWalser: No Peron. Interesting, seeing that Ben-Ghiat speaks Spanish and covers Pinochet and Franco; don't know why not.

>78 SassyLassy: Maybe we should ask Trump to swim the Potomac?

Ben_Ghiat's "protagonists"are:

Idi Amin
Mohamed Siad Barre
Silvio Berlusconi
Jair Bolsonaro
Rodrigo Duterte
Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Francisco Franco
Muammar Gaddafi
Adolf Hitler
Saddam Hussein
Narendra Modi
Benito Mussolini
Viktor Orban
Augusto Pinochet
Vladimir Putin
Mobutu Sese Seko
Donald J. Trump

Much more coverage of some than others of these.

>79 dukedom_enough:

No Peron. Interesting, seeing that Ben-Ghiat speaks Spanish and covers Pinochet and Franco; don't know why not.

From the context I think we can conclude that she doesn't consider him right-wing. Perón is indeed a case to confound simple classification, which is why I asked. The essence of a populist, but his supporters (and his policies) were divided between the right and the left.

Lois (avaland) asked me to post a message for her. Yesterday Michael (dukedom) had a stroke, but his prognosis seems good. His ability to move his left side is mostly restored, although he remains in intensive care. Please join me in sending your thoughts and prayers to them both.

>82 labfs39: Oh I am so sorry to hear that! All my thoughts are with you Michael and Lois.

I am so sorry to hear this. I wish you (both) all the best for a speedy and thorough recovery!

Adding in my wishes for a quick and smooth recovery.

Wish you both well

Hope Michael is tip-top soon and love to you both.

Oh no! Wishing you fast and complete recovery.

Thinking of you both!

Hoping Michael recovers soon. A big shock for you both. Best wishes.

Wishing you both the best. Hope Michael recovers soon.

Thank you from both of us. ❤️

>92 avaland: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Thinking of you both, Lois & Michael.

Thanks dianeham and lauralkeet. He is doing better. When I left at 6 pm he was getting his first real meal.

l

>82 labfs39: Adding my best wishes. I am glad that his prognosis sounds good. I wish for complete healing!

Sorry to hear this, I hope that you are holding up well Lois - glad that he is doing better.

I'm glad to hear that Michael is recovering. My thoughts are with both of you.

So sorry to hear about this. I'm glad to hear Michael is on the mend. Thinking of you both as you deal with this.

>96 WelshBookworm:, >97 wandering_star:, >98 RidgewayGirl:>, 99> Thanks, I think the Mojo is working.

best wishes Michael

>100 avaland: Then we'll keep sending it. Best wishes for Michael's continued recovery.

Thanks for all the well wishes. It is pretty damn amazing what can be done these days. He is off ICU and in a regular room (and he just told me he was going on a walk (I assume with a nurse) . He has some of his portable music so he has his jazz. I believe they might sent him tomorrow.

All my adult kiddos happen to live in the area currently and they have been great help.

so sorry to hear this! and wow, great that they might send him home tomorrwo! best wishes for a speedy recovery!

Adding to the chorus of well wishes, and here's hoping for a strong and speedy recovery!

>38 dukedom_enough: oh my god, I thought that was just happening here in Az! His name doesnt have to be written in, but its at the bottom of the list, practically under the fold.

I'm so glad Michael is out of the ICU and will be home soon. Fantastic recovery! Say hello for me.

Thanks, I think the Mojo is working.

>82 labfs39:, >103 avaland: I'm just seeing this. Glad to see such a positive trajectory so quickly, and adding my wishes for a full recovery.

My prayers are with both of you. Please let us know how we can help.

I was sorry to hear about the stroke. It seems like things are going well. Sending healing thoughts your way.

Just saw the message, I am so glad that things are going well, and so quickly! All the best to both of you.

It's good to hear that Michael has his jazz and you both have your kids there for support. Lois, take care of yourself, too.

Thanks everyone! M has read all of your well wishes and thanks you. He might go home tomorrow…

>114 avaland: Fingers crossed!

So happy things are going well. And relieved you have some support. Take care M!

Michael will be home soon, after he gets his heart monitor. Our son-in-law (one of them) will be bringing him. Thanks again for all the mojo!

How old is Michael?

You can tell me none of my business.

I'm so glad Michael's recovery is going so well.

>118 dianeham:, 119 Born in '51

Thanks all. He will be home this evening. I'll let him speak for himself tomorrow...

>121 avaland: a year younger than me.

Wishing Michael a good recovery!

Thank you all for your well-wishes and concern. Lois was reading them to me in the hospital and they meant a great deal. Librarything people are the best! All the mojo a person could want.

The stroke was in the pons section of my brainstem, affecting my left side and also the fluency of my speech. I was perfectly articulate, I thought, but had to pronounce words one syllable at a time, with badly slurring pronunciation. That tPA is good stuff - but it can also kill you, so I had nurses doing neuro checks every half hour throughout the night. Not much sleep that first night. Stroke was at 1 pm; by evening I had use of my limbs and speech was much improved. On day 2, Sunday, I had numerous episodes where my debilities came back - discouraging and scary, but apparently normal. My left hand would go from normal to completely limp in just 30 seconds, then come back after 30 minutes or so. The last such episode was Monday morning.

The rest of the stay was to ensure the episodes were not returning, and to start on physical therapy, to rearrange my meds, and that sort of thing. Two days in ICU, two in a general room. My roommate there snored and talked in his sleep, so I'm still pretty tired just due to lack of sleep.

My mother had a series of strokes in the 1980s and 1990s, from which she eventually died, so I was quite aware of how much worse this could have been, and feel more relieved than I can tell you to be sitting on the sofa in our house.

>124 dukedom_enough: great news - so glad.

>124 dukedom_enough: It's so good to hear from you, Michael. Take care not to overdo, and call if you need me to run over with some Amato's!

>124 dukedom_enough: I'm very glad to hear it's not nearly as bad as it could have been. Good luck with PT! I'm holding you both in the light.

I’m glad you’re back at home and feeling better! Best wishes for the recovery.

Welcome home Michael. You've made an amazing recovery and I hope you continue feeling better and better.

So glad the ordeal's over! Wishing you the best of health.

Glad you’re recovering, Michael.

Glad to hear you're home. Hope you can get some good sleep now.

>124 dukedom_enough: So good to hear from you! There's nothing like being home to help with recovery and rest. May all be uneventful going forward.

Great news. Speedy recovery.

>124 dukedom_enough: Best wishes for your recovery!

Glad to see you've gotten back home. Hope your PT goes well. Pete sends you best wishes too.

I'm glad you're home, and headed for full recovery I hope. I know from personal experience that you get NO sleep in the hospital--why do they need to take blood at 3 am? Get lots of rest, and good luck with PT.

Thanks everyone! He's napping now and will probably come online sometime this afternoon. He's doing fairly well. Family dropped off supplies.

I hope recovery continues smoothly and as easily as it ever goes.

>124 dukedom_enough: Thank you for your description of your ordeal, Michael! I'm glad that it wasn't as bad as it could have been, and hopefully your ordeal will remind people how critical it is to be seen in an ED ASAP if you have any signs suggestive of a stroke, so that tPA or other anticoagulants can be quickly administered.

>137 arubabookwoman: I can answer that question. Morning labs are typically drawn in the middle of the night so that by the time the attending physicians — including myself, when I worked as a pediatric hospitalist until two years ago — could review the results before we started morning rounds. I usually looked at labs between 7-8 am, but surgeons and intensivists would often do so 2-3 hours earlier. I didn't like it when I was the one being awakened at 4 am to get poked, but I understood why it was necessary.

ETA: It wasn't uncommon that the result of morning labs dictated the order in which I saw patients. A child with worrisome labs gets put at the top of the list, as does one with reassuring labs who might be ready for discharge that morning. Other stable kids who weren't ready for discharge that day and had reassuring labs were bumped farther down the list.

I can't think of many worse places to get rest than a hospital room. One thing I particularly hated when I was a patient was the tendency of night nurses and ancillary staff to turn on the brightest of overhead lights at 4 am, and ask in the loudest voice possible, "GOOD MORNING!! HOW ARE YOU FEELING TODAY?! I'M HERE TO GET YOUR VITAL SIGNS, IS THAT OKAY?!"

What percentage of hospitalized patients truly need to have their blood pressures checked at midnight or 4 am?! I almost never looked at midnight or 4 am vital signs when I was rounding. It was bad enough when an adult was the one being awakened, as they could usually go back to sleep within minutes, but far worse when a baby or toddler was awakened and needed to be soothed for a long period of time. I would frequently ask the nurses to skip 4 am vitals on my patients, even though some of the younger RNs would actually push back on my seemingly reasonable request. 🙄

>140 kidzdoc: When I had my daughter the nurses checked our vitals every four hours, but staggered, so that we were being woken every two. They were surprised when I asked if they couldn't take both our vitals at the same time every 4 hours.

>140 kidzdoc:
Thanks for your informed perspective. My view has been that hospitals are not for getting well, they are for keeping you alive until you're stabilized so you can get well at home. Two somewhat dissimilar aims.

Since the anticoagulant could've started me bleeding at any point, I appreciated all the monitoring. They left in every IV they had started before the tPA dose, because they didn't want to start any new ones. At one point someone showed up from the lab wanting to do a regular blood draw. I referred him to the nurse, whose job it was to draw through the IV. He then went away.

Must be very tricky, to ensure everyone in the hospital is on the same page for patients who each have finely detailed requirements for care. Tough job you have.

>141 labfs39:
Especially bad seeing that a new mom is not going to get more sleep when she goes home with the baby.

>142 dukedom_enough: And nowadays I worry about what I might catch while at the hospital, especially in the ER.

>143 labfs39:
I was worrying about all those unmasked people but didn't have the energy to do anything. Could at least have masked myself.

>144 dukedom_enough: Let's all just agree to stay healthy and out of the hospital :-)

>145 labfs39: Are you trying to put me out of business?!

>146 kidzdoc: Never fear, kids are impossible to keep healthy and hale ;-)

We are still here... but are occupied by the coming and going of health professionals and family
members (we note that the nymph ticks have hatched, but no sign of the the bear yet.

I've been reading a bit of poetry (Jane Kenyon, Michael Crummey...)

Michael has read a graphic novel (review coming). We both tried to get my son-in-law to read Russian author Viktor Pelevin (we foisted Empire V on him....we will see what happens....

>148 avaland: I'm worried what our unprecedentedly mild winter is going to do to the already overwhelming tick population. Although I think I read fewer moose died this year due to ticks.

I'm glad you and Michael are getting a little reading in despite the commotion. Thinking of you!

I'm very glad to hear that Michael is home and doing better. That sounds like quite the ordeal. Hospitals are never any fun.

>148 avaland: >149 labfs39: Hoping all the nymphs here have drowned. It's possible my garden will soon be sprouting kelp!

Keep up the Michael Crummey - don't know Jane Kenyon.

Will be interested to hear what happens with Empire V.

Good to see you posting. Hope you both manage to find some quiet time.

>151 SassyLassy: Hoping all the nymphs here have drowned.

That's a thought. Boy have we gotten a lot of rain. And wind. My daughter and I went into Portland on Sunday and roads were closed due to flooding. Others were in sad shape because the edges were eroded away.

Sounds like your mud season is in full swing! Good luck with the health professionals and getting back to whatever normal is for you.

>151 SassyLassy: Jane Kenyon was a notable New Hampshire poet. A favorite of mine, although I haven't read her for quite a while. She died in her late 40s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Kenyon

I"ve been away from LT for a few weeks. I'm really glad to read that Michael has had a strong and quick recovery. All my warm wishes to both of you for everything to be OK in your lives.

I only read The sacred book of the Werewolf by Pelevin and did not care much for it.

Funny story: I was given this book by a friend who found it on a bench in Paris. This happened when I was going away to spend a year in Moscow. I learned a bit of Russian when I was there so after a while I decided to tackle the book. I had no idea what it was about and from the cover I thought it was a children's story. I started to read _very slowly_ and at some point the main character says something about every other trade agent being a pedophile or something similar. I thought that was weird for a children's book, then later I learned that she was some kind of prostitute and finally concluded that it was definitely not a children's book. :)
(the moral is of course to not judge a book by its cover, but when the book is written in a language you don't understand that's more easily said than done)

>155 chlorine: It's definitely not a children's book. Good for you for learning Russian.

>156 dukedom_enough: The Russian learning experience was almost 20 years ago and since I have not practiced I have lost almost all of it unfortunately. Still I was glad to be able to communicate at a very basic level with a young Ukranian refugee that my parents and brother hosted in their home a while back.

>157 chlorine: Cool.

Mud Season
By Jane Kenyon

Here in purgatory bare ground
Is visible, except in shady places
where snow prevails.

Still, each day sees
the restoration of another animal:
a sparrow, just now a sleepy wasp;
and, at twilight, the skunk
pokes out of the den,
Anxious for mates and meals…

On the floor of the woodshed
the coldest imaginable ooze,
and soon the first shoots
of asparagus will rise,
the fingers of Lazarus…

Earth’s open wounds—where the plow
gouged the ground last November—
must be smoothed; some sown
with seed, and all forgotten.

Now the nuthatch spurns the suet,
resuming its diet of flies, and the mesh
bag, limp and greasy, might be taken
down.

Beside the porch step
the crocus prepares an exaltation
of purple, but for the moment
Holds its tongue. . . .

(from: Jane Kenyon Collected Poems, 2005)

>159 avaland: Nice poem, and timely!

>159 avaland: Perfect! It's like modern day Frost.

>159 avaland: that is beautiful, and in a couple different ways.

I've been away from LT for a couple of months and am only now reading about your stroke, Michael—so glad to hear you're back home and feeling some better. Early intervention is so key with strokes (my dad had a few small ones), and it sounds like you got good care. Anyway, sorry that my good vibes weren't part of the initial blast, but I'll keep sending 'em. And to you too, Lois.

>163 lisapeet: Thank you!

Dial H Volume 1: Into You by China Mieville (writer), Mateus Santolouco, David Lapham, Riccardo Burchielli (artists), Tanya & Richard Horie (colorists), Steve Wands (letterer), and Brian Bolland (cover artist)

I don't read many graphic novels, but, hey, China Mieville. Nelson Jent is down on his luck, unemployed, overweight, and just had a heart attack before his 30th birthday. He accidentally discovers that dialing H-E-R-O in a certain disused public phone booth (remember phone booths?) will turn him into a superhero. But the transformation is only temporary, the dial won't always work - and Nelson becomes a different superhero each time. Captain Lachrymose, for example, paralyzes criminals with grief by bringing their saddest memories back irresistably. Mieville's fabulous imagination supplies numerous weird, funny, and sometimes disgusting, superpowers. Nelson must confront criminals, a rival dial-driven superhero, and entities from other dimensions as he seeks to understand what's going on.

Th artist team here provides suitably vivid renderings of Mieville's ideas. Lots of pages with story panels interspersed on top of a full-page image, so that the reader must figure out the reading sequence. Dramatic and active, but sometimes a bit of a chore to read.

Note that DC Comics cancelled this series, unfinished, after one more volume.

Three and a half stars

>163 lisapeet: Thanks!

>165 dukedom_enough: Oh, man, that immediately sounds interesting to me, but it may be too frustrating to start if it never got finished. :(

?167 I imagine keeping an eight person team on a project must be expensive. Not like a solo author who can keep writing on a project even without a publisher. Also, DC Comics probably owns the IP, not the creative people.

We are hanging about ...

Lois is reading Adam Robert's nonfiction titled It's the End of the World: But What Are We Really Afraid Of

Michael is finishing up the 2nd volume of Dial H, graphic series by China Mieville.

Dial H Volume 2: Exchange by China Mieville (writer), Alberto Ponticelli, Dan Green, David Lapham, Mateus Santolouco, Carlo Berrocal, Richardo Burchielli, Liam Sharp, Jock, Tula Lotay, Marley Zarcone, Brendan McCarthy, Emma Rios, Emi Lenox, Jeff Lemire, Frazer Irving, Carmen Carnero, Sloane Leong, Kelsey Wroten, Michelle Farran, Annie Wu, Zak Smith (artists), Tanya & Richard Horie, Allen Passalaqua, Eva de la Cruz, Frazer Irving, Annie Wu, Zak Smith (colorists), Steve Wands, Taylor Esposito (letterer), and Brian Bolland (cover artist)

While rereading volume 1 of this China Mieville-written graphic novel, I learned that there was a volume 2. There seem to be many more artists for this book, but the overall look is much the same. Having survived the events of volume 1, Nelson and Roxie continue to seek after the mysteries of the superpower-borrowing dials, and to stay ahead of the mysterious figure who wanders the multiverse shutting the dials down. We see a lot more of the multiverse here, along with a great many new superpowers for our protagonists to acquire, plus a suitably villainous new antagonist. This was the last volume, and the story ends on a satisfying stopping point. Great fun here again to see Mieville's imagination on display. The books might be a good introduction to him for a comics fan who hasn't read his novels or stories, but most Club Read denizens would do best to start with one of the novels - The City and The City would be my suggestion.

Three and a half stars

It's the End of the World: But What Are We Really Afraid Of by
Adam Roberts

This is an interesting and provocative discussion on the end of the world. Very readable and often amusing as the author examines various theories put out over the years in literature, movies...etc. What do you think...zombies?...a bomb?...climate change?

>171 avaland: Nice to hear from you, Lois. So many grim alternatives, good to know it was amusing.

Hi Lisa!
-----------------------
Have been reading Born Into This stories by Adam Thompson. The young author is an Aboriginal from Tasmania. The stories, which I'm enjoying, are about 6-8 pages, published in the US by Two Dollar Radio

Michael is reading random short stories on his Kobo reader