Reynard is to Northern European folktales as Raven is to Alaska. Trickster, joker and deceiver. The stories reached English in watered-down form, like the Grimm Brothers Fox stories. Here’s a Reyanrd the Fox1 story from WC’s ancestral stomping grounds, Holland, that gives you a flavor of Reynard as the stories were told about him in…
Long time readers of this blog know that WC is an unabashed fan of the late Sir Terry Pratchett. Sir Terry, who died March 12, 2015, was WC’s favorite author, a wonderful person as well as a terrific writer. Sir Terry did not write linearly. He would typically have as many as three books under…
One of WC’s neighbors has this signpost in his front yard. Yes, he is a librarian. What a terrific summer reading list. Identification of the various destinations is left as an exercise to the reader. All of the books referenced – well, maybe not the Rick Riordan novels – are worth your time.
WC has reviewed and praised David James Duncan’s writing, and especially his first book, The River Why, several times. If Duncan wrote more, he’d be on WC’s list of very favorite authors. So when Duncan came to Boise for a reading, you can bet WC was in attendance. Duncan did not disappoint. Duncan treated the 200-plus…
The weather sucks, WC is struggling with a head cold and it’s the same old same old among the yard birds. So WC has been doing a lot of reading. Much of it has turned out to be pretty good. Here’s a quick overview of recent, decent stuff. Michael Lewis famously write Moneyball, which somehow got…
One of WC’s favorite authors, Ursula K. Le Guin, recently wrote a letter to the Oregonian objecting to the characterization of President Trumpster’s “alternatie facts” as science fiction. In her own inimitable style, she describes the difference. WC sets out her letter in full. A recent letter in The Oregonian compares a politician’s claim to tell “alternative facts”…
Before we all take ourselves too seriously, let’s make a brief digression into Jasper Fforde’s Well of Lost Plots, where we find this gem. “Good. Item seven. The had had and that that problem. Lady Cavendish, weren’t you working on this?’ Lady Cavendish stood up and gathered her thoughts. ‘Indeed. The uses of had had and that that have to be strictly controlled; they…
