Announcing Summer Reading 2024!

"We have an idea for your summer reading theme!" Ahmed and Kilbronson say, nearly tripping over each other in their attempt to get to me first.  I look up from my Murdle game with what I can only describe as mild apprehension.

"You do."

They nod enthusiastically, and Ahmed spreads his hands, palms out, like he's drawing a rainbow: "Americana!"

"Americana?"

"Yes!" adds Kilbronson.  "Specifically the wild, untamed Americana!  The open plains!"

"Cowboys!"

"Teddy Roosevelt!"

"Bigfoot!"

"Little House on the Prairie!"

I close my laptop with a sigh.  I'm not going to finish my Murdle anytime soon.  "Well, it certainly sounds like you put a lot of thought into this," I say, slowly.  "And I'll be honest, I've been wanting to read more about Teddy Roosevelt..."

They nod in tandem.  Their smiles could not have been broader.

"Well, okay then," I say.  "Let's do it.  We have just over a month.  Let's get some books!"

Happy Father's Day

As I always do, on Father's Day I think of the wonderful fathers in my life.  My grandfather (who passed away in 2022), my godfather, and of course my father.  And in a special way, I always remember my dear, dear, blogging grandfather, who used to share words of wisdom and comments on this blog, back in its heyday.  I miss you, O.F., and I hope that you're happier where you are now. 

Under the Pyramids (H.P. Lovecraft)

The other day, my assistants asked me if I had ready anything by H.P. Lovecraft before.  And I admitted that I had not.  So, Kilbronson and Ahmed laid this title on my desk--a literary mashup of Lovecraft and Harry Houdini--as in the famous magician, Harry Houdini.  How could I not get excited about that?

Um...

Under the Pyramids by H.P. Lovecraft has two distinctions to its name...first, this is my first foray into Lovecraft territory.  And second, I really hated this story.  I won't lie to you, dear readers.  This was not a good story.

Spoilers Ahead:

I mean, it started off pretty good.  Harry Houdini himself goes on vacation in Egypt, tries to stay incognito and ends up accidentally attracting too much attention when he tries to "show up" a lesser magician.  

The real meat and potatoes, however, occurs when Houdini acts as the "second" in a fight on a pyramid between his guide and another man--and learns that the whole thing was a setup to get him alone in the desert in the middle of the night so that he could be bound and gagged and tossed into a hole in the pyramid.  Apparently, the Egyptians felt that Houdini's tricks were somehow insulting to the ancient magic of their country.

I found Lovecraft's writing to be ridiculously edgy, and everything was like "oh no!  The world is a terrifying dark place full of great elder gods that existed before time and don't even care because we're so pathetically insignificant."  Bleah.  Count me unimpressed.  It wasn't scary, it was just weird, and not in a good way.

I'll be honest and say that I probably won't be reading anymore Lovecraft after this.  If you think I should give him another go, however, please feel free to comment your favorite stories and change my mind.

Lost in a Pyramid or the Mummy's Curse (Louisa May Alcott)

In order to help me find more books to fill my shelves, I hired two assistants--an Arabic Egyptian named Ahmed and a Londoner named Kilbronson.  Together, we hope to track down as many classic mummy stories as we can.  

Within a day, they had already brought me a goodish pile, and this one was towards the top of the list.  It's a little-known gem by Louisa May Alcott (you know, of Little Women fame?).  Now, I'll start this review my admitting that I'm not in love with this book cover.  But, that's the cover that Goodreads used, so that's the one that I'm going to use, too.

So, let's talk about this mummy chiller.  Finally, we have a mummy that's not completely sweet and charming!  Ironically, though, the mummy doesn't do too much on her own.  Of course, as always, there are spoilers ahead, so read at your own risk.

In this story, a man gives his girlfriend some seeds, telling her that he cannot share their origin, because that story is too terrible to recount.  She pushes back slightly and the man folds like a cheap suit and tells her everything.

And everything, in this context, is a story about he and his friend made a bunch of stupid decisions, got lost in a pyramid, and burned a mummy in order to create a smoke signal for their rescuers to follow.  Apparently, the mummy they burned was buried with a small box of seeds close to her breast, and of course, there's not only a curse on the seeds, there's a curse on her, too--because she's a sorceress.

If you're confused, it's okay.  So was I.  Two friends burn an Egyptian sorceress's mummy in order to create a smoke signal and bring about her wrath is not a usual story that you'd expect to find.  But, here's where it gets crazy.  The girlfriend suggests planting the sorceress's seeds.  In protest, her boyfriend throws them into the fire, only to reveal later that he had saved one of the seeds and had his friend plant it.  And the girlfriend reveals that she did the same thing.

Against all better judgement, friend and girlfriend decide to wear their flowers on their person, and the flower's deadly poison (a mummy's curse?) seeps into their skin and kills them.  Shock and horror abound!

I guess I'd have to admit that I saw the ending coming--after a point.  And while I enjoyed this story, it was too short to really sink my teeth into.  The biggest thing that stood out to me is the continual line of terrible decisions being made by all the characters involved.

Cheers to my assistants for starting things off with a bang.  I'll keep you all posted on the other titles they send my way.

Moby Dick Summer

 

As all my lovely readers know, my theme for summer reading is 100% going to be about mummies.  My summer reading themes, however, are only a portion of my summer reading--and I'll read other books in-between.  One of those "other" books this year is Moby-Dick.

Last year, I tried reading along with the Substack, Moby Dick Summer.  I had a great time, but came in a bit late, so it was a constant game of "catch up" for me.  I really enjoyed the book, though, which is surprising, since I had tried to read it multiple times before and hated it.  In the end, it got me through some very difficult times and I'm very excited to read it again.

I hope you'll join me!

The Mummy's Foot (Théophile Gautier)

Let's set the scene for my summer reading!  As you all know, I'm a librarian, and as a librarian, I naturally have a large personal collection of books to dip into.   But, that being said, I also have to get a lot of my books and sources sourced from somewhere else.  Which is why I have been sending away for story after story.  I'll share my updates here.

First up, we have the story "The Mummy's Foot" by Gautier.  And I'll be honest--I wasn't entirely sure what I was going to get myself into with a story with a name like that. I had a pretty basic idea, having read the description online, but it was certainly a weird, weird story.

Our narrator visits a curio shop to pick up a paperweight, and decides while he's there, to purchase the mummified foot of Princess Hermonthis for just such a purpose. But, when he brings the foot home (after going into excruciating detail about every square inch of it) he is awakened in the middle of the night by the princess herself, searching for the missing limb.

As far as horror stories go, this wasn't really that scary. In fact, if it wasn't so weird, I'd say it was cute. Hermonthis, like Allamistakeo in "Some Words with a Mummy" is delightful, well-spoken, and surprisingly nice. The narrator is a bit dippy, but the story as a whole was pretty amusing.

So far, I'm two mummy stories in, and we've yet to have a real dastardly, dangerous one. I guess that bodes well for the rest of the summer, although I must admit that I'm far from being scared.

Some Words with a Mummy (Edgar Allan Poe)

I'd like to offer a Summer Reading preview with one of the titles that inspired this idea.  I've read this short story by Poe before, but I thought it would be fun for a reread.

Our unnamed narrator is awakened in the middle of the night by a friend of his who wants him to come and see the mummy that he is going to unwrap that night.  As he tells us this story, the narrator admits that he's not sure if it was real or a dream brought on by eating too much Welsh rabbit.  Either way, we know we're in for a wild ride.

I guess it should go without saying, but please bear in mind that there might be some spoilers ahead.  Thanks!

The unwrapping party is a little different than one might expect, since after the bindings are removed, the group notices that this mummy is not prepared in the traditional way.  He appears to have glass eyes, and his internal organs have not been removed.  Someone has the bright idea to shock the corpse with a battery and see what happens.  Well, what happens is that he comes to life!

So, the first thing that makes our mummy, Allamistakeo stand out is that he's not the sort of violent, deadly terror one comes to expect from a fictional mummy.  In fact, apart from one scene where he quite literally kicks someone out the window (surprisingly, no one was hurt), he's pretty docile.

Rather than being upset and confused about being awakened from his eternal slumber, Allamistakeo reveals that he was part of a special sect of Egyptians who are mummified in a special way, in order that they could be revived in the future to share history and other information with future generations.  This leads to a lively discussion between the gathered friends and Allamistakeo about religion, technology, and other things.

To rate this mummy, I'd say that he was charming and not at all scary.  Bonus points for being incredibly strong and smart.  A mummy that I would not mind meeting.

I would like to point out as a final aside, that the narrator's comments about too much grilled cheese and beer (and even the mummy's name, All-a-mistake-o) points to this being a pretty vivid dream.  A delightful story all the way through, and a pleasantly witty one from the master of the macabre.