The VIRTUAL Mount TBR Reading Challenge discussion

I'm starting on a lower tier...while I blew past the Goodreads Challenge by a good fifteen books to date, putting me approximately sixty books past Mount TBR, a few of those were purchased books, not borrowed, and not eligible for Mount TBR 2018.

I think I can clock 36 borrows, though, by the end of the year, if only because of the Prime Reading program and my ComiXology Unlimited Subscription.

Hi Steven! Glad to have you join me on a virtual mountain climb! Good luck!

Thanks, Bev. Tally Ho!

Hello, there, Steven! Glad you're doing both challenges this year. I always enjoy your reviews. Good luck!

Jadetyger wrote: "Hello, there, Steven! Glad you're doing both challenges this year. I always enjoy your reviews. Good luck!"

Thank you. It'll be interesting to review the borrowed books this time around.

#1 - There's a Giant Trapdoor Spider Under Your Bed by Edgar Cantero

A tale of kids trying to spook each other at a sleepover. At first it manages to get atmospheric, but then it descends into chaotic silliness. Fortunately it's short enough that it avoids tedium.

Part of the Prime Original Reading collections.

#2 - Batman, Volume 1: I Am Gotham by Tom King, Scott Snyder, David Finch

The first collected volume of this series in the DC Rebirth era, with the opening Rebirth issue itself working to establish a kinder, gentler status quo for Batman. The main story, over six issues, has Batman and his team up against bizarre terrorist attacks, and then throws in the super-powered Gotham and Gotham Girl, giving Batman a mystery to crack...until everything gores awry when mad scientist Hugo Strange manipulates Psycho Pirate into driving various people crazy -- including Gotham and his sister.

Definitely earns points for the more nuanced portrayal of the characters, loses them for the bog standard kicksplode and tying the story into Bane and the Suicide Squad.

Borrowed via ComiXology Unlimited, who just added DC.

#3 - Captain America: American Nightmare by Mark Waid, Kurt Busiek, Barbara Kesel, Adam Kubert et al

The second collection of the series post-Heroes Return. Cap is still trying to figure out his place in things, accompanied by the acerbic Sharon Carter. For the moment that seems to involve battling outbreaks of villainous super-science. There's also two annuals, one teaming up Cap and Iron Man against the threat of super-telepath Mentallo, the other teaming Cap and the real Citizen V against Baron Zemo.

It's readable enough, but nothing all that special, unfortunately.

Borrowed via ComiXology Unlimited.

#4 - Rampage by Harold Schechter

Part of Schechter's Bloodlands series about murder and spree killing in the United States. This entry covers Harold Unruh, considered to be the first of the modern era of spree shooters. A war veteran and closeted homosexual, mental illness gradually took over his life, and his paranoia led to what appears to have been a psychotic break that led him to calmly murder thirteen and wound three others.

Schechter presents the story in a tidy, calm, non-judgmental manner (no speculation that this might have been due to PTSD, for instance), though it could have done, I think, with a few more pages. All the same, it's a compelling read.

#5 - Panic by Harold Schechter

This was a difficult one, the single remaining title in the Bloodlands collection by Harold Schechter. In it, the author addresses the subject of "moral panic", a kind of mob phenomenon that gives rise to such things as the Satanic Panic of the 1970s.

In this instance, his focus is on the latter half of 1937, and several cases involving the rape and murder of young children -- the matter of fact text about these horrific incidents is what made this so hard to read through. His point, though, is that there were few of these cases, but they assumed a prominence over everything else because of the lynch mob mentality that exploded at the time, a press that was ever hungry for sensation, and the usual callow lot (politicians, social scientists, religious types, District Attorneys, etc) trying to create the illusion of a psychosexual epidemic rooted in, your choice, alcohol, movies, that hot and bothersome jazz music, and so on. These moral panics tend to cycle around every twenty years or so. This one was subsumed by the outbreak of war in Europe.

Speaking of which, the most chilling part of the book is the funeral of a young German-American girl. At nine years of age she had been inducted into the American Bund's youth brigade, leading to her bereaved parents, leaving for the funeral, walking along a double row of young girls from that same brigade (the Mädchenschaft) standing solemnly with their arms raised in a Nazi salute.

Of all the Bloodlands books, this definitely has the most impact.

Steven wrote: "#5 - Panic by Harold Schechter

This was a difficult one, the single remaining title in the Bloodlands collection by Harold Schechter. In it, the author addresses the subject of "mo..."

That does sound like a difficult read--but definitely impactful. Especially in the current climate.

#6 - Between Failures by Jackie Wohlenhaus

I stumbled across this workplace comedy thanks to a post on the Dumbing Of Age site, and fell in love with it immediately — the main character, Thomas, has a lot in common with me, and I’ve known so many people like his co-workers and boss.

It’s a lightweight series, in the main, but it’s nice to read something light and funny.

#7 - The List by Jade Chang

From Amazon's Prime Reading "The Real Thing" collection.

Chang talks here about her reaction to the bit of viral culture going around among the younger and trendier set -- making a list of things one wants in a mate, and then focusing on that, with the idea of attracting the exact model. So, basically a new spin on an old idea -- mashing up visualization and bucket list, in a way.

It's a lightweight piece of writing, easy to get through. Chang reads the audiobook edition herself; she has a pleasant but unmemorable voice.

#8 - The Button by Wednesday Martin

An Amazon Original, available through both Prime Reading and Kindle Unlimited.

An interesting piece about female sexuality and the clitoris, setting the stage as the author discusses her primate research, involving Spider-Monkeys, and goes on thereafter for a walk through the history of science and superstition related to the clitoris.

A little docked for her complaining about the way the word "clitoris" is pronounced in the Stranglers song "Peaches," given that the song is from the viewpoint of a thuggish English misogynist -- mainly because she refers to Stranglers singer/guitarist Hugh Cornwell as Hugh Cornwall. In the audio version she also mispronounces "Malleus Maleficarum".

Minor points. This is a good read.

#9 - At the Bottom of New Lake by Sonya Larson

Part of the Warmer collection from Amazon Originals, available via Prime Reading and Kindle Unlimited.

Part of a collection dealing with the effects of climate change. This particular story is centered on a fourteen year old Chinese American girl. Chuntao is living on the edge of what used to be Cape Cod before the rising sea drowned it. She's rebellious, has discovered that she's a lesbian, and likes to explore the deepening waters. The main conflict of the story is between Chuntao and one of her teachers --two different ages; one remembers the old times, the other grew up in the new.

Larson does a pretty good job of pegging the voices of the teenagers, as well as the hidebound character of Mrs. Fletcher, the teacher. The story itself really doesn't lean in that hard to the climate change theme, however, and it does feel as though that element could be removed without making much difference to the story as a whole.

#10 - The X-Files: Year Zero by Karl Kesel, Vic Malhotra, and others

A rather nicely done X-Files tie-in that tells a parallel story set in the present and in 1946 -- the time that the X-Files actually began. The story hits a good many of the marks, references Twin Peaks and the Blair Witch along the way (the Jersey Pine Barrens make another appearance), and in general has a deal of fun with the slippery nature of the phenomena that the series explored -- at the end we're never sure what the hell Mr. Xero is.

Read via RB Digital, courtesy of my local library.

#11 - Batman in The Brave & the Bold: The Bronze Age Vol. 1 (The Brave and the Bold by Bob Haney, Neal Adams, Ross Andru, and many others

A trade paperback covering approximately half of the Batman: The Brave & The Bold Bronze Age Omnibus. The collection doesn't include the first TB&TB Batman team-ups, as those are classed as being Silver Age. This hefty collection does, however, include a few stories that still have the outright goofiness left over from then, only taking a more serious tack with a change of editors and the arrival of artist Neal Adams -- though Haney's notoriously weird storytelling shines on regardless.

If you can get yourself into the right mindset, these stories are great fun to read, and often good for a laugh. The art restoration is excellent, and the colouring work spot-on.

Read via ComiXology Unlimited.

#12 - SとM 3 by Mio Murao

The third tankobon in an intense Japanese manga series (well, hentai, really, given the subject and story) that started out rather perverse and ratcheted up from there. In a nutshell, a comfortably married salaryman becomes the target of a young woman who intends to destroy him (and his family) utterly. Why? Because he spurned her mother, leading to her birth and her mother's subsequent death. There are, however, unexpected twists, and unintended consequences.

I can't say it's fun, light reading -- it's pretty much edging into horror story territory, plus it's Japanese, so it isn't going to get happier any time soon.

#13 - The Hillside by Jane Smiley

Part of the Warmer collection from Amazon Originals, and borrowed via Prime Reading.

Ostensibly on the theme of global warming, this is instead a lightweight fantasy with a grim conclusion. Humankind has totally screwed up, and as human numbers have vastly diminished, animal intelligence has vastly increased, and the animals that rule the world now have been weighing whether or not to eliminate the remaining humans.

Unfortunately, the story is too short to really develop any of the themes, so it's pretty much just a character study of the horse protagonist and her relationship with one of the gaggle of humans she oversees.

#14 - Falls the Shadow by Skip Horack

Part of the Warmer collection from Amazon Originals, and borrowed via Prime Reading.

I listened to this in audio, and then had to go and look at the ebook version as i was a bit baffled by some of the narrative. Turns out that it gets very confusing towards the end, as it goes into a partial flash-forward, after doing multiple flashbacks, and present-tense with convolutions.

The problem is that the story doesn't really resolve as a story, but as a brief moment in the protagonist's life, where he's functionally a prop in a rich conservationist's gambit. With more room, the story might well have played out more effectively, but at this length it goes nowhere and does nothing.

#15 - Black Sheep by Rory Scholl

Part of the This Can't Be Happening collection from Amazon Originals, and borrowed via Prime Reading.

A memoir from comedian Scholl, delving into how he was the black sheep of his family, and so formed a tight bond with his grandmother, also a black sheep. Both rather irresponsible types, both alcoholic, both with dreams bigger than their families could conceive. It's an interesting, if ephemeral, memoir.

#16 - The Electricity Fairy by Alex Mar

Part of the Inventions collection from Amazon Originals, and borrowed via Prime Reading.

A short but entertaining biography of dancer Loie Fuller, and her influence on Thomas Edison and Marie Curie. Fuller was able to define dance as an abstract light show with her costumes and performances, and while she's become something of a footnote over the decades, I'd be interested in a deeper dive into her life and world.

#17 - Jump! by Daniel Engber

Part of the Inventions collection from Amazon Originals, and borrowed via Prime Reading.

The stories of two different men -- an American stuntman and a German tailor living in Paris -- who left their mark on the art and science of parachuting. The American, Francis Rodham Law, generally tested systems that worked, albeit sometimes a bit crudely, but the German, Franz Reichelt, proved to be an idiot despite creating a prototype version of what would eventually become a wingsuit.

Short, but fascinating. A hundred-plus years on, and I think very few of us have ever considered the history of parachuting -- it's ubiquitous these days, and rarely used for rescue as it was intended in the years following the Wright Brothers and their momentous flight. Parachutes had been used to some degree with balloons, but, again, mostly for rescue, and occasionally as a novelty.

Well worth a read.

#18 - The Diamond Formula by Alina Simone

Part of the Inventions collection from Amazon Originals, and borrowed via Prime Reading.

A short and partly enjoyable story of a man who claimed to have figured out how to create diamonds, and uses this to set up and fleece the head of De Beers, the huge diamond conglomerate. It's also the story of the rise of the diamond (and precious gems) industry around the world, with all the horrors that it's perpetrated, and eventually the story of the creation of the first human-made diamonds and what De Beers did to preserve their income.

All this in a pretty compact space. The pace is fast, but the text is very clear, and if you need something to read in a short time, this is excellent. Recommended for a follow-up: The Diamond Smugglers by Ian Fleming.

#19 - The Woman in the Strongbox by Maureen O'Hagan

Part of the Missing collection from Amazon Originals, and borrowed via Prime Reading.

The fascinatingly strange story of the woman known as Lori Ruff when she sat in an SUV in her ex-husband's driveway and shot herself. Family members sorting out her home discovered a strongbox full of materials that soon revealed that the woman they'd known as Lori was...a mystery. A mystery that soon brought in a retired Social Security investigator and a legion of amateur sleuths, and a reporter who doggedly kept after the truth for years until, suddenly, the truth cascaded, and who Lori Ruff really was was brought to light.

It's really not a criminal case at all, but the question is...just what *was* going on here. Nobody really knows. 18 year old Kimberley McLean got fedup with life at home, and decided to vanish and start over, first taking the identity of a long dead child, and then legally changing *that* identity. She passed up a sizeable inheritance, and vanished into suburban life, becoming a wife and mother, getting divorced, losing her marbles, and killing herself.

It's an excellent piece of non-fiction, but many questions remain, along with heartbreak and lifelong anguish for the families involved.

#20 - S and M Vol. 4 by Mio Murao

Borrowed from ComiXology Unlimited.

The fourth in this series suddenly veers off from the potential horror story as Saya's increasingly convoluted scheme to destroy Mr. Toda ropes in Hayakawa, a professional Host, to seduce Toda's wife, Sawako, and convinces Tsuboi to act out her impulses even more, with, unfortunately, goofy results that take the force out of what's supposed to be deadly serious events (Tsuboi imprisoning Toda in her apartment, bound and gagged in a cage.)

#21 - The Illegal: The Hunt for a Russian Spy in Post-War London by Gordon Corera

Borrowed from Amazon Prime Reading.

A concise but detailed account of one of the other notorious spy cases coming out of late 1950s/early 1960s Britain. It tells the story of how the belated discovery of the venal, mean Harry Houghton led not only to the discovery of Houghton's later partner in espionage, Bunty Gee, but the exposure of Houghton's handler, professional deep cover agent Konon Molody (the "Illegal" of the title.)

Fascinating stuff indeed.

#22 - The Third Man by Mani Sheriar

Part of the This Can't Be Happening collection from Amazon Originals, and borrowed via Prime Reading.

The story of Mani Sheriar's path to adoption of a second child, after multiple miscarriages and fertility issues, and the possible birth father who suddenly showed up. n interesting, and at times suspenseful tale, but in the end it's about hope, even with an inconclusive fate for the third man of the title.

#23 - We'll continue your training in the archives tonight Vol.1 by Poteri Saeki

Borrowed from Kindle Unlimited.

Hallmark bondage rape fantasy, Japanese hentai style. Not a series I'll be finishing.

#24 - Catching Murphy by Wilson Ring

Borrowed via Kindle Unlimited, part of the Amazon Originals series, Missing.

A heart-tugging and heart-warming story of an AP journalist who gets drawn into the effort to catch a lost dog who fled an accident scene outside Waterbury, Vermont. It’s quite astonishing how many people put in time and money in the effort, over a two year period, and it certainly gives me a little hope for humanity.

#25 - Boyfriends of Dorothy by Wednesday Martin

Borrowed via Kindle Unlimited, part of the Amazon Originals series The Real Thing.

A cute and interesting memoir of a young woman inadvertently gaining gay best friends and transforming herself as a result.

#26 - The Boys Omnibus, Volume One by Garth Ennis and Darrick Robertson

Borrowed from ComiXology.

Extremely violent and hypersexual, the series was kicked out of DC imprint Wildstorm and landed at Dynamite, where it’s since gone well (and garnered an Amazon Prime adaptation.) The premise is simple: superheroes are a corporate product and often get out of hand. Former Royal Marine Billy Butcher leads a covert team sponsored by the CIA that is tasked to control or eliminate them.

The story really is about Hugh “Wee Hughie” Campbell, though, and what happens to him after his girlfriend is killed in a superhero incident. Secondarily it’s the journey of Annie January, aka Starlight, a highly Christian heroine whose induction into the Seven, the world’s best known superteam sees her used and abused. Both she and Hughie will go through hell before the end.

There’s some interesting points being made in the series, but the way Ennis resorts to stupid and juvenile stuff does knock it down a few pegs.

#27 - The Boys, Volume 3: Good For The Soul by Garth Ennis, Darrick Robertson

Slowly, the truth of things is being revealed to Hughie, who deepens his relationship with Annie January and learns about the horrible history of Vought-American and what their plans are. He also learns that dead Supes don’t completely die, and ends up having to take out the zombified Blarney Cock.

There a lot of quiet stretches throughout the book, but the exaggerated violence and sex surfaces periodically.

#28 - The amazing adventures of Jules - Volume 1 - The Future Imperfect (Épatante aventure de Jules by Emile Bravo

Borrowed from ComiXology.

I’d like to say that this is a charming French SF comedy, but it’s mainly just a breezy, goofy French SF comedy with a Tribble knock-off thrown in (and a planet full of really silly Greys.) The starship Startorch Is designed as a gigantic flashlight, which amused me.

First of a series.

#29 - Chasing Heisenberg: The Race for the Atom Bomb by Michael Joseloff

Borrowed via Prime Reading.

Though it supposedly focuses on Werner Heisenberg, assigned by the Axis as one of their two drivers in developing an atomic bomb for Germany, this also looks at Enrico Fermi, Robert Oppenheimer, and others. Initially, it was the British, convinced they were in a race, who began the research into developing a working atomic pile and building a bomb, but it was based on German and Swedish successes in splitting the Uranium atom.

As it turns out, the Germans not only didn’t succeed in developing an atomic weapon, they didn’t even succeed in developing a prototype reactor. The US, meanwhile, growing ever more paranoid about how far along Germany was, crash-developed a working plutonium bomb...and then only used it it, perhaps needlessly, on Japan.

It’s a fascinating piece of military and scientific history, if horrifying in its consequences.

#30 - Infinity Wars by Gerry Duggan, et al

Borrowed from Kindle Unlimited.

Another run through of the Infinity Stones shenanigans as Gamora kills Thanos, recovers the Stones, re-merges her soul, and causes all hell to break loose. Meanwhile, Loki believes he’s been manipulated from behind the scenes, and convinces an Asgardian librarian to help him. He finds a lot more than expected.

Unfortunately, while the story is epic and cosmic, it’s also dull.

#31 - Baltimore, Vol. 1: The Plague Ships by Mike Mignola, Christopher Golden, and Ben Stenbeck

Borrowed from ComiXology Unlimited

The beginning of the tragic and violent tale of Lord Henry Baltimore, vampire hunter. The setting is an alternate early 20th Century, where World War I was ended by a fast-moving plague, and the emergence of vampires and zombies...all of which might be due to Baltimore himself.

Baltimore is on the hunt for the chief vampire, Henguist, who murdered Baltimore’s family in revenge for Baltimore wounding him in the trenches — vampires had, by this time, become carrion eaters.

It’s an intriguing series, disconnected from the Hellboy/BPRD universe, but some may find it a little slow-moving.

#32 - Baltimore, Vol. 2: The Curse Bells by Mike Mignola, Christopher Golden, Ben Stenbeck

Lord Henry Baltimore continues his pursuit of the vampire Haigus, cleansing the European countryside of vampires as he goes. He meets an American journalist, Hodges, and is pointed towards a nunnery set on a point overlooking a town. It’s there that he finds — and loses — Haigus, and deals with a would-be magician who has some oddly familiar tics....

Baltimore is also being pursued by a French Inquisitor, a subplot that serves no real purpose beyond padding thus far.

#33 - Booze, Bullets & Broads by Bruce Scivally

A straightforward look at the genesis and aftermath of Dean Martin’s four “Matt Helm” films, though Scivally doesn’t get into super-detailed production stories. He does, however, interestingly lay out the way that aspects of the films are interwoven with aspects of the production of the James Bond films.

Borrowed from Kindle Unlimited.

#34 - The Remedy by Adam Haslett

Borrowed from Kindle Unlimited. Part of the Dark Corners series.

A young man from a wealthy family suffers from full-body pain, and hears of an expensive treatment program that might work for him, so he signs on. It’s not what he expects, but it seems to work.

Well written, but the ending is predictable and nihilistic. It ends up being a bad knockoff of a Black Mirror episode.

#35 - The Pusher by Ed McBain

Borrowed via Kindle Unlimited.

The third of the original trilogy of 87th Precinct novels — which turned into a sextet by the time Evan Hunter finished writing this entry, and into 55 books by the end — finds patrolman Dick Genaro discovering a dead junkie in a frozen basement room, seemingly dead of an overdose. Except, of course, it’s not...and the truth of the murder reveals that the poison has spread into the heat of the 87th, as Lieutenant Pete Byrnes, the precinct commander, discovers that his son has been turned.

It’s often powerful stuff, and the characters are real and flawed. The ultimate bad guy is one of the scariest ever in these novels, and sensitive readers may want to skip this, or at least jump a few pages, because of the sheer horror of the murder of a young prostitute.

#36 - Baltimore, Vol. 3: A Passing Stranger and Other Stories by Mike Mignola, Christopher Golden, and others

A collection of shorter tales of Lord Henry Baltimore, and stops on the way of his journey to find ancient vampire Haigus, the creature that killed his family. The most intriguing entry is “The Play,” which centers on a mysterious production of The Masque of the Red Death, revealing that not all of the old powers rising are completely evil. Least interesting is “The Inquisitor.”

Borrowed from ComiXology Unlimited.

...on to the next mountain, then.

Great job!

Bev wrote: "Great job!

"

Thanks! Did the next one along, too.