The Grimnoir Chronicles, by Larry Corriea, is a noir fantasy trilogy set in 1930s America. In this alternate history, a source of “magic” appears in our world in the late 19th century. At first only a few individuals are able to use this magic. But as time goes on, more and more people are blessed, or cursed depending on your point of view, with the ability to manipulate this power.
This magic is wielded differently by each user, usually according to their personality and temperament. But, in general, the users tend to fall into certain categories: some users can manipulate mass by making objects, including themselves, lighter or heavier. Others can walk through solid objects. Still others can turn invisible, become healers, or teleport short distances.
At first, the timeline stays similar to ours. But when WWI breaks out, the military potential of this new power is realized. Berlin is completely destroyed and made uninhabitable. From there, the misuse of the power grows exponentially, threatening a possible Armagedón.
Eventually, the source of the power is discovered and with it comes a greater danger to the world than the humans, who are playing with a power they don’t understand, is revealed. It’s up to our plucky heroes to find a way to prevent the End Of The World.
The trilogy starts a little slow, but by book two I was fully immersed. Book three I finished in a day!
Excellent series, very entertaining, I highly recommend it!
————————–Interlude————————
————–Neil Gaiman’s personal library——————–
I really enjoy seeing pictures of other people’s personal libraries. It’s an added bonus if that personal library belongs to an author. If that library belongs to an author that I like read, that gives me a serious dopamine hit!
I guess part of my fascination with home libraries is that I can’t help but compare and contrast them with my own. I look at some with envy and longing: if only I had the money and space to create such a space! Other times I am left perplexed at the decision making that went into the design. While I may not love it, somebody obviously does, and that’s all that matters.
But I think a big part of my interest is that I would love to peruse the shelves just to see what makes this person tik. What interests do we have in common? Conversly, what tomes are on their shelves that I probably would never even think to crack open? You can learn quite a lot about people by the books they read.
I recently came across a link to science fiction author Neil Gaiman’s library. As you can see in the photo below, Mr. Gaiman has a lot of books:
If you look closely, you can see he has had to resort to double stacking his books. In other words, he has put tall books towards the back of the shelf, then put short books in front of them.
I will be forthright and admit that I don’t have near that many books on my shelves. Understand, I now own only a fraction of the books I have read in my lifetime. Had I kept all the books that I have ever laid eyes on, I too would have to double stack my shelves. However, there are a couple of reasons why I didn’t keep all my books. One, I have limited space for bookcases. We have books stashed in almost every room in the house. And two, I will be honest and admit that I have read more than my fair share of crap in my lifetime. Books unworthy of space on my limited shelves.
The summer heat may have chased me back indoors for most of August, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been doing some projects out in the garden. It’s funny, but from about mid-July until Labor Day, the very height of the growing season, there really isn’t much for a gardener to do. Oh, there’s mowing the lawn and pulling weeds of course. And if it’s a particularly dry year, perhaps water the border a couple of times. But otherwise, the garden is pretty much on auto-pilot.
After Labor Day, however, things really start to pick up around the Vintage estates. And this year was no exception.
Let’s start with the back yard and see what I have been up to.
Out with the old, in with the new
Every now and then the gardener needs to take stock and see what is working in the garden, and what is not. Once a weakness has been identified, the gardener needs to decide if the problem can be solved, or if it needs to be removed. I decided that there were two sore spots that honestly needed drastic surgery.
A few years ago, I dug out a serviceberry in the birdbath garden that was dying: (This This week in the garden: repairs and renovations). Surprisingly, a few weeks later the tree started sprouting new shoots. Apparently, this poor tree wasn’t giving up the ghost so easily. I let it be and over the past couple of years it had begun massing out.
Until this spring. We had unprecedented rains in the spring (7 inches in one storm alone!), and this shrub began to yellow out, a sure sign of chlorosis (lack of iron). I thought perhaps the rain was smothering the roots and preventing the shrub from accessing iron. So, I fertilized it with an iron supplement and kept an eye on it to see if there was any sign of improvement.
There wasn’t. As you can in the picture below, by late summer the poor thing looked awful (in the photo below, it’s the tall spindly thing with the yellow leaves).
Yellow leaves signify either a lack of iron or a disease. This poor shrub was not long for this world.
So I dug it out.
Sad, but it needed to be done.
And in the process, I discovered the problem. It wasn’t chlorosis or disease: the shrub had practically no root ball at all! I have no idea how it got as big as it did with no established roots.
In its place, I planted a native chokeberry (Aronia) named ‘Lowscape Hedger’. This chokeberry gets 4-5 feet tall and about 2-3 feet wide. It’s a three-season plant: white flowers in spring, dark astringent (hence the name) berries in late summer, and red foliage in fall. Hopefully it does better than the serviceberry.
‘Lowscape Hedger’ chokeberry. Because it sets a very bitter berries, birds avoid eating them until in late winter, when all other food sources have been devoured.
Elsewhere in the backyard
In the photo below, you can see a ‘Peking’ cotoneaster. This shrub can get up to 10-12 feet tall and wide. Some people plant several of them in a row, then trim them back annually to form a hedge. I keep mine pruned back because I don’t want it to overwhelm the border.
Over the summer I came to the realization that I am not thrilled with this plant. The truth is it’s pretty boring. When it blooms in spring, its flowers are so tiny you practically have to use a magnifying glass to see them. In good years it might set some black berries in late summer that last for a very short time, as the birds seem to love them. Its only real attraction is that it does have dramatic fall color: it turns vivid shades of orange and yellow. That’s a lot of real estate for a plant that only has a week or two of interest.
During the rest of the growing season, however, it’s basically just a green shapeless blob. I have mocked lilacs in the past because they too eat up a lot of space for a plant that only blooms for maybe a couple of weeks. Lilacs don’t even have good fall color, so it also is a one-season wonder. But lilacs at least have good shape and texture during the rest of the year. You can look at a lilac in August and say, “that there is a handsome plant!”. The ‘Peking’ cotoneaster is the Steve Buscemi of shrubs.
That blob that ate the garden border
So I dug it out.
This didn’t have to be done, but in the long run it was for the best.
In its place I have planted another chokeberry. This one’s called ‘Snowfire’. It also is a dwarf shrub, one that gets to about 4 feet high and wide. It’s supposed to be absolutely covered with white blossoms in spring (hence the name), with lots of berries in late summer and outstanding fall color. Another three season of interest plant.
Aronia ‘Snowfire” will hopefully add three seasons of interest to this part of the border.
Now to the front yard
I have been asked by a couple people how is the front yard is doing. Overall, it’s doing pretty good. Plants haven’t grown much since when we planted them, but that’s to be expected. They’re busy getting established. The important thing is that they survived the fiery furnace of July and August, and that is no mean feat. That was my biggest concern about planting so late in June.
There are a couple of flies in the ointment, however, and I’ll cover those before I get to the positives.
In the photo below, you can see one of the two ‘Lena” brooms we planted. As you can tell, it’s not looking so good. In fact, both of them look pretty much dead. I have no idea what the problem is: too much water? not enough water? too much sun? not enough sun? Not knowing the problem is a source of frustration for me. Everything around them is doing just fine. And I had to special order these damn things from a nursery in Oklahoma. Not cheap.
But looks can be deceiving. These plants are mostly dead, but not all dead. There is a trick for seeing if a plant is living or deceased. Lightly scratch the outer bark along a stem with thumbnail: if the tissue underneath the bark is green, it’s still alive. If it is brown, well, it is all dead. Then all you can do is go through its clothing and look for loose change.
I did such a test on these brooms, and the lower portions of the plants are still green under the bark, which means they are technically still alive. The question is, will they make it through the winter?
Is it mostly dead, or all dead? Only time will tell.
If they don’t, I will not replace them with more brooms since I will have no idea what might have killed them. If they’re that finicky, they have no place in a low-water/low-maintenance landscape. I’ll replace them with ‘Ruby Ribbons Panicum virgatum ‘RR1’ RUBY RIBBONS – Plant Finder.
G&*$!%#n f%^*$!g RABBITS!
A different scourge has afflicted some of the plants in the front yard and, in this case, I know exactly what the problem is: fricking rabbits. You can see in the photo below where they have been pawing through the mulch looking for something to devour.
Where’s a hawk or coyote when you need one?
The plant that these furry pests seem to like the most is ‘Turkish’ veronica, also known as speedwell. A low growing plant, veronicas produce a plethora of tiny little flowers in late spring. They make great groundcovers. Plant enough of them in one spot, and when they bloom it can for a short time look like a tiny pond has appeared in the landscape.
I planted 27 of these things, and I have no idea how many survived the ravenous rabbits. I told a neighbor that when you plant rabbit food, rabbits are going to eat it. Apparently, I set out an all you can eat salad bar for these damn rodents.
It’s very hard to show a negative, but in the picture below you can see where a Turkish speedwell isn’t where one should be.
An expanse of nothingness.
Here are a few speedwells the rabbits have overlooked. This what they are supposed to look like.
At least a few speedwells survived the ravenous rabbits.
On a more postive note
Ok, that’s enough of what’s gone wrong. Let shift our focus now to what has gone right.
As I said earlier, most of the plants survived the hottest part of the summer. This is a big win. Ordinarily I don’t like to plant in early summer because then I have to baby whatever I’ve planted through very harsh conditions. Far better to plant in spring or autumn when the temperatures are more conducive to healthy plant life. However, since we finished the waterwise overhaul in June, we kind of had no choice but to plant in early summer.
Anyway, let’s see how things have fared.
Below you can see the bright purple blooms of ‘October Skies’ aster, and behind them is the reddish/pink flowers of ‘Sonoran Sunset’ agastache. Looking quite autumnal I must say. Speaking of behinds, you can also see Bailey’s behind in amongst the flowers as she sniffs out the bunnies.
Asters, agastache, Russian sage and the slanting rays of late afternoon give off an autumnal vibe.
In the next photo, you can see that the ornamental grasses and ‘Red Texas” yucca are doing fine. In the foreground, you can see where I planted a Colorado native called Chocolate flower. These tough plants usually bloom in late spring, but one of them decided to put on a late season show.
Tough as nails prairie native Chocolate flower amongst the grasses and yuccas.
Next, we come to plants I put in the ground in early September. A native to the Rocky Mountain region as well, New Mexico prairie sage sports sky-blue flowers in late summer and early fall. And I mean Colorado sky blue, not that pale hue that easterners laughingly call sky blue. Obviously, they haven’t been in the ground long enough to bloom yet, but they should look great next year.
Bailey still stalking the bunnies.
Elsewhere in the yarden
I’ll close out with a couple of photos from elsewhere in the Vintage yarden. Below you see the white bloom of a Japanese anemone. I think the official name is anemone ‘Honorine Jorbert”. I’m pretty thrilled about this, because these anemones haven’t bloomed for us in a couple of years. Good to know that they still can.
Behind the anemone you can see Hosta leaves peeking out. This poor Hosta has had a rough go of it since I first planted it. I never could seem to find the right place where it could thrive. A couple of years ago I put it here in the border right in front of the living room window. It seems to like its new home. This is the biggest it has ever gotten. I don’t know if this is as big as it gets, or if it will continue to grow larger in the seasons to come. Just the fact it is thriving is good enough for me.
Japanense anemone and Hosta doing fine for a change.
Finally, because it is autumn, here is a photo of a mum in one of our whiskey barrel planters. You can’t go wrong with a mum or two to brighten up the late season landscape.
“Well, there’s so much to read, and I’m so far behind.”
Wallace Stegner, Crossing to Safety
Today I want to share with you my autumn reading list. It’s funny, but while I was writing this post, I realized that I have only done one summer reading list. Meanwhile, I’ve done several autumn reading lists. I guess that’s because summer is a season of activity, with little time for introspection. Gardening, road trips, bicycling, lounging in the hammock. You know. Stuff.
Autumn, on the other hand, is a season perfectly conducive for reading. The weather is turning cooler, the nights are growing longer, and the fireplace in the library is singing its siren song. I think there is a nostalgia factor as well. While I hated going back to school in September, there were a couple of positive things of note about the new school year. I could check books out from the school library once again, and the first of the Scholastic Book catalogs were handed out sometime in September or October.
Life doesn’t come with a syllabus.
As an aside, should you ever google the terms “book lists” or “reading lists”, you will get a ton of results that with titles like “30 books you must read this autumn” or “25 books you need to read this summer”. Since I started blogging, I’ve learned that words like must, need, and have are called “power” words. Writers use power words to increase clicks to their posts. In other words, clickbait.
I would never presume to tell anybody what they should read. I post these reading lists to show what books I plan on reading. Perhaps a reader might look at my list and think to themselves that some of these books sound interesting to them. Conversely, perhaps somebody might look at my list, and offer suggestions of similar books that might be of interest to me.
I used to look at lists, such as “50 books every man should read” and think to myself that maybe I should read those books to make myself more informed individual. Eventually, I realized that mentality is bullshit. I’m not in school anymore, and life doesn’t come with a syllabus. We should read what we want to read. Screw what other people think. Reading should be for our enjoyment.
Speaking of enjoyment, let’s quit talking and get to the books!
In no particular order…
Tower of Silence – Book 4 Saga of the Forgotten Warriorby Larry Correia
The Saga of the Forgotten Warrior follows Ashok Vadal, a man who was forged by magic into a perfect instrument for enforcing the edicts of the ruling class. And the ruling class is fomenting a civil war amongst themselves. A man with no empathy, Ashok has been scapegoated by one of the vying factions and is now a wanted criminal. In Ashok’s world, men rule the land while demons are masters of the oceans. While the nations of men prepare for a final showdown, the demons of the deep have plans of their own for mankind. Meanwhile, Ashok grapples with the knowledge that everything he stood for was a lie, while at the same time trying to save his people from the approaching doom.
The Harp and the Eagleby Susanna Ural Bruce
I don’t know much about this book. I’m not sure, but I think I got it from my father. Being of full Irish descent, my dad was quite interested in Irish-American history. (I hate using hyphenated American anything. We’re all Americans. However, for brevity, I am using it here). I have read many books on the American Civil War, but never one that deals with one specific ethnic group. And the Irish who served during the Civil War were an interesting lot. While most Irish immigrants fought on the Union side, they were actually sympathetic to the Democratic (the party) view on slavery and the war. And it was the Irish who spearheaded many of the violent protests against the draft in the North.
The Olympian Affair – Book 2 of the Cinder Spires by Jim Butcher
Way back in September of 2015, Jim Butcher, author of the Dresden Novels, released a strange little book called The Aeronauts Windlass (Amazon.com: The Aeronaut’s Windlass). Part fantasy, part steam punk, the book followed the adventures of Captain Grim, commander and merchant/privateer of a powered airship on a planet where humans don’t belong. Humans live their entire lives in “spires”, or tall mountain structures, because the lands “beneath the clouds” are too hostile for them. A cold war exists between the various spires, with a hot war brewing in the future. Meanwhile, an ancient malevolent force, vanished for millennia, is returning. And the “magic users” of this world, who can see the approaching threats, are all literally insane.
After an eight-year hiatus, Jim Butcher will release book 2 of the series in November. I have no idea what happened in Butcher’s life (I’ve heard that he is going through a second divorce), but about ten years ago his writing went on a multi-year sabbatical, and he has struggled to get back into his writing groove ever since. He used to be able to crank out novels in 12-18 months. Now it takes years. I’m going to have to glance over the Aeronaut’s Windlass to reacquaint myself with the characters and plot, just so I will know what is going on The Olympian Affair.
A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of Americaby Stacy Schiff
I recently finished Stacy Schiff’sThe Revolutionary: Samuel Adams (review coming soon!) and found it both an interesting and, more importantly, enjoyable read. So, I’ve decided to crack open her biography of Benjamin Franklin. I’ve read a couple of Franklin biographies, including his autobiography, and find him to be a fascinating individual. What piqued my interest about this particular bio is that it deals specifically with Franklin’s role as an ambassador to France for the fledging United States. With no diplomatic experience whatsoever, Franklin was able to convince an absolute monarchy to back a newly formed democracy against the most powerful nation in Europe. It certainly helped his cause that the French, from commoners to nobles, were completely enchanted by the roughhewn genius from the New World.
The Art of the Personal Essay: An Anthology from the Classical Era to the Presentby Phillip Lopate
If you dig deep into the memory banks of your mind, you might remember how we were taught in school that there were four types of essays: argumentative, expository, narrative and descriptive (author’s note: I had to look those up on the interwebz. I couldn’t remember them to save my life!). These types of essays could be considered “formal”. Phillip Lopate has put together a collection of “informal essays” whose content spans centuries and from around the globe. An informal essay is whatever might be on the author’s mind. Unlike formal essays, there are no specific rules or requirements on how topics are presented.
As an example, most of my blog posts are informal essays.
Let me state that is a very weighty tome. Instead of trying to read the whole thing, I’m going to pick out, oh, let’s say 10 since it’s a nice round number, that sound interesting. (Tip o’ the hat to Dave S. for the recommendation).
The Legend of Sleepy Hollowby Washington Irving
Since autumn is the season of ghosts, witches, jack-o-lanterns and things that extort candy in the night in exchange for not egging your house, I figure this is a perfect time to re-read Washington Irving’sThe Legend of Sleepy Hollow. A mystery that will never be solved: did poor Ichabod Crane run off in shame after being punked by a rival suitor for the daughter of the richest man in Sleepy Hollow? Or did the Headless Hessian really take Ichabod’s soul on that dark night on that deserted road? Only the reader can say for sure!
Bonus book
Whose Body?by Dorothy L. Sayers
Mysteries are not my favorite genre, but I do like me a good whodunnit every now and then. I’ve followed the exploits of many of the greatest detectives in print: Sherlock Holmes, Hercules Poirot and Encyclopedia Brown to name a few.
But I am finicky about my mysteries. I’ve really enjoyed Craig Johnson’sLongmireseries over the years, but his last couple of novels have been weird. So, I’ve decided to go back to the classics. Dorothy Sayers was a contemporary of Agatha Christie, but I have never read her before. Her books follow one Lord Peter Wimsey as he solves crimes in England during the years following WWI. In this first book of the series, Lord Wimsey, a rare book collector and a war vet suffering from what today would be known as PTSD, endeavors to solve the mystery of a dead man found naked in a bathtub, wearing nothing but a pince-nez. Sounds intriguing.
So,what’s on your autumn reading list? Science fiction, history, maybe a mystery? Perhaps a gothic horror fitting for the season?
