High Times in Low Parliament. A Self-Help Guide to Successful Governing.

 

                                                             Cool cover, too.

I learned from this book that if I stay stoned and/or drunk all the time, have lots of various superficial romantic encounters, and have a cheeky answer to everything, I, too, could end up in Parliament! Yay!

Wait a minute. I'm American but the above situations haven't landed me in Congress (although it's worked for some Congressional members.)

I guess I'll settle for enjoying a fun book since I won't be in government anytime soon. High Times does mock the EU somewhat, certainly mocks the English (known as Anglish in High Times) but it doesn't pound the reader over the head with politics. Nor does it make an issue of gender. Being gay is ok and nobody worries about it.

If anything, it's a coming-of-age story. Lana, the protagonist, is what, in an old-fashioned term, people used to call a rake. A rake was a young man who had lots of love affairs and very little commitment to jobs or anything else. Lana, of course, is female, but she fits the description of a rake. Her main commitment is too drink and drugs, but friendship with the fairy, Bugbite (the most loveable character in the book) love for an older woman, and the realization that lives are at stake, makes Lana see that reason and maturity have a place in the world.

She's still fun-loving but grows up a little when confronted with government decision makers acting like bickering children.

A short fast read, fun characters, and a self-help book. Wait! Scrub that last idea. Drink and drugs probably won't get you in Parliament, although in this current atmosphere of government, who knows?

I'd like to thank myself for purchasing this book and giving an honest review.

Every story is pretty good. That's rare for an anthology. Review of Close to Midnight

Every story in Close to Midnight is good, some are exceptional. I say this because often in anthologies some of the stories are blah, or cliched, but this book has no disappointing tales. One story made me cough out a big guffaw at the ending--I won't say which because I'm not into hurting writer's feelings--but most were spine-tinglers or sad. Sadness is its own form of horror.

They saved the best for last. I thought the final two stories were the most outstanding in the anthology. Laura Mauro's The Spaceman's Memory Box was so beautifully written that it could have just as easily fit into a 
literary anthology as into a horror anthology. It's both frightening and heartbreaking. 

The last story, Rise Up Together, by Adam L.G. Nevill, was truly horrifying. claustrophobic, and thought provoking. What is that shuffling parade of shadows in the night?

Thank you much to Flame Tree and Netgalley for allowing me to read and review an eARC of Close to Midnight.

The Best Writing Guide? Reading good Writing, There is something to learning from the best.

 

One of the best ways to write well is to read well. There are good writers, excellent writers, and writers who should be canonized as national treasures. Even international treasures. 

Serious, charming, dangerous, funny. Margaret Atwood can squeeze every feeling known to mankind into a short story. In 39 pages she covers the entire bizarre life from childhood to motherhood of a woman who had a witch for a mother.

You want to write good stories? Read good stories. Atwood is a master of the art. Heck, she's not just an international treasure--she's a goddess.

I Promised Writing Tips and Haven't Gotten Around to It. Here's a tip: There are better writing guides than Beautiful Writers.

 There are lots of exclamation points in Beautiful Writers!  Lots and lots!

If your writing style involves having expensive horoscopes charted, visits to gurus, free rent and food from a millionaire friend, and a free cruise from another rich friend, this is a great writing guide. For those of us who dumpster dive to get enough food to live on for the month, and are unlikely to have millionaire friends out here in the middle of nowhere, the book is like an old rerun of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.

There are writing tips from various authors about things like what great mentors they had, but a lot of the writing tips started to look alike. The memoir part seemed so Hollywood that I just couldn't relate.  It's sort of a "throw your ideas out to the Universe and see how the Universe answers' type of how-to. That's okay but it's not for everybody.

Thanks to Netgalley for allowing me to read and review Beautiful Writers!

From the mind of Stephen Graham Jones...and you know what that means.

 I'm glad Stephen Graham Jones is sharing his imagination with us because he's unique when it comes to creativity. The war on prairie dogs takes on bizarre qualities. I objected at first because killing prairie dogs is the reason the black-footed ferret is almost extinct, but these are no ordinary prairie dogs bouncing their little fat bodies across the plains. These are prairie dogs you don't want to take home to Mama. Well, you couldn't take them home to Mama because they're, um, attached.

That's all I'm gonna say.

Now for Something Entirely Different. Review of Self-Portrait with Nothing

 Self-Portrait with Nothing is one of the more creative novels I've read. For the first half of the book, it reads much like a literary novel, then more peculiar people sift into the story, followed by stranger events until the normally insecure protagonists finds that all the bizarre rumors about her birth mother are true. Billionaires, thugs, and carbon copies of her birth mother all want the secrets of Ula Foster's disturbing paintings. Mystery, murder, forensics, and visitors from other universes. The future may hinge on these unnatural portraits.

Thanks to Tor and Netgalley for allowing me to read and review Self-Portrait with Nothing.

The picture came out weird but not as weird as the book.

I've Reviewed 105 Books on Netgalley! That's A Lot of Reading.