The Memory Palace: True Stories of the Past by Nate DiMeo

Well, the bad news is that I'm sick and I've been in bed for days. The good news is that I was able to read a lot and now I feel well enough to sit upright and type, so get ready for some book reviews!

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I've written so many times about the podcast The Memory Palace on this blog. I have called the host, Nate DiMeo, a national treasure, refreshing and energizing, a haunting writer, an unimpeachable writer, silver-tongued, brilliant, and a genius. I'm basically DiMeo's number one fangirl. His podcast is filled with ten- to fifteen-minute episodes about historical footnotes, but somehow he brings those footnotes to life. 

In August, I heard he was going to be releasing a book and I did something I've never done before. I emailed him asking for an advanced reading copy. 

Excerpt from that email:

I write a small bookish blog where I also write about podcasts, how much I hate working out, and the exploits of my dog and cat. I have also referred to you as a genius, a master of storytelling, a national treasure, and silver-tongued on this very same blog. I will buy and read your book and review it on my blog no matter what, but if you're doing any promotion for your book that involves bookish blogs with a small, but loyal contingent of readers, feel free to include me in that promotion. 

Friends, within two hours, Nate DiMeo had emailed me back personally with a link to an ARC. 

The Memory Palace: True Short Stories of the Past by Nate DiMeo was such a treat to read. I loved every second of this book. DiMeo is a brilliant writer - you can really hear his voice in every word, every comma, and every story. He takes footnotes from history and makes them take center stage. I have been listening to the podcast for years (obviously) and reading this was like a greatest hits collage with some new material about DiMeo that contextualizes his interest in long forgotten histories. I loved it and hope we keep hearing form DiMeo for many years to come.

The expected publication date of this book is November 19 and I hope you all buy it or request it from your library the second it is released.  I'll remind you closer to the date. 

5/5 stars

Words I looked up:

imposture (location 1982) - an instance of pretending to be someone else in order to deceive others:

Lines of note: 

I want to conjure that peculiar magic that comes in those rare moments when we understand that the past was real. That our ancestors were real people. (location 88)

I loved reading about DiMeo's thought and writing process. His writing is magical. 

Because it requires this odd act of empathetic imagination through which I try to catch a glimpse of an answer to that most fundamental of questions: What is it like to be someone else? (location 91)

What an interesting motivation. 

In their decades tromping through the low grasses of Wisconsin, they developed an approach to studying animals that is common sense now, but was revolutionary then. It was interdisciplinary. Zoology needed botany, which needed meteorology, which needed limnology, and on and on. They realized you couldn't understand what was happening with the chickens that ate the seeds without understanding the plant that dropped the seeds, or the creatures who burrowed beneath the seeds, or the stream the fed the seeds. They learned that the prairie chicken needed the prairie itself to survive. They discovered that all its creatures - its bugs and its grasses, its birds and its trees and its creeks that froze over - all the countless little things combined somehow to give the species life. They were all connected. (location 650)

This paragraph is such a wonderful example of the importance of interdisciplinary work. I feel like I should blow it up in a poster-size and put it on my office wall. 

Elisha Otis didn't invent the elevator: He invented the brake. the little metal piece that catches the car and stops it from plummeting if the cable stops holding it up. Elisha Otis didn't invent the elevator, but he kind of invented the modern world. (location 988)

I can get behind DiMeo's slight exaggeration of the importance of the elevator brake, but also, maybe he's right?

I found that engaging actively with history - with stories of the past, of lives with beginnings and middles and ends, with periods of strife that felt unending but weren't, or peace or joy that couldn't hold - kept present the most valuable thing I knew: the fact that we are all going to die. (location 3259)

This went to a dark place, didn't it?

True short stories isn't a thing. How do you market that? Plus, the show was never that big. A beloved cult object at best. It was going to be a tough sell, the editors and agents would tell me. (location 3309)

True short stories! That's what this is! And I want more of it. 

Use reliable sources, don't plagiarize, figure out the truth and tell it as best you can. (location 3360)

DiMeo acknowledges later in this paragraph that his process is different than that of historians. Sometimes the truth is unknowable, with varying recorded histories and historians will walk you through all the options, weighing the validity of each source. DiMeo picks a story and tells it. And he tells it beautifully. 

Hat mentions (why hats?):

There is a portrait that people think is of him, a Black man in a white chef's coat, his hair barely contained by his tight white chef's hat. (location 249)

And Anita Corsini sat in the audience in a purple dress and a light straw hat with a white plume. (location 246)

One day they were rebuilding the temple (scaffolding, hard hats, ancient dust catching the light through the windows) and work just stopped... (location 735)

She stands beside a crate, recently pried open by one of three customs officials in tall hats. (location 916)

The genocide and forced removal of Indigenous peoples in the West was in full swing, and the Thanksgiving story, in its reductive, construction-paper, Pilgrim-hat form, was offered up to soothe the discomfort of white Americans. (location 1318)

They arrived in top hats and tails, in pearls and peacock feathers. (location 1881)

Men in high hats and spats and lacquered canes. (location 2120)

At 3 A.M., Robert broke into the captain's quarters and stole his uniform, his pistols, and the broad straw hat he always wore to keep the sun from his eyes. (location 2591)

Smalls dressed in the captain's uniform, hat pulled down low despite the darkness...(location 2594)

But in the captain's hat, pulled low over his face, and with his collar up high...(location 2601)

Her hair pinned up under a hat. (location 2916)

Williams, in the peaked hat and coat familiar from elementary school Thanksgiving pageants...(location 3087)

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Have you ever emailed an author asking for an advanced reading copy? Have you ever had an ARC? 

The Inheritance & Other Stories by Robin Hobb and Megan Lindholm

As a birthday present to myself, I unearthed an old Powell's gift card I had hanging around from the time I dogsat for some friends and I purchased the entire Realm of the Elderlings saga in paperback.  It's obvious to me that a reread will be happening very soon. In the meantime, I decided to read through some of the short stories in the ROTE saga and two of those stories take place in The Inheritance & Other Stories. Hobb and Lindholm are actually the same person, just different pseudonyms for different types of work. She kept it a secret that they were the same person for quite some time.  This collection contains seven short stories by the Lindholm persona and three from Hobb. 

I was just so happy to be dropped into a place where I knew the writing would just immerse me immediately. From a story about aliens arriving on Earth to a killer cat, each one enveloped me in a new world and I trusted there would always be a pay off at the end. Sure, some of these stories were stronger than others, but if you are a ROTE fan, this should definitely cross your path sooner or later. 

4.5/5 stars (I mean, I think it's brilliant, but I don't think the Hobb stories would be something I could recommend to anyone who hasn't read ROTE, so I knocked half a star off for that reason.)

Lines of note:

Beyond my agent and publishers, only two people knew the secret. One was...The other person was Duane Wilkins of University Book Store, Seattle. I'd known Duane for years at that point. He'd been instrumental in helping my career as Megan Lindholm, supporting me with signings and readings as he did many, many fledgling SF and fantasy writers in the Seattle area. One night I received a call from him. He mentioned he hadn't seen me in a while, and we talked about various forthcoming books and what he thought of them. Then he brought up Assassin's Apprentice. It was very gratifying to hear him say nice things about the book I couldn't openly acknowledge as mine. But then he proceeded to say that he could tell it wasn't a first effort by any writer. And that he had noticed some stylistic resemblances. I kept my mouth shut. But then he asked me directly, and there is no lying to old friends. (page xiv)

I thought this was a sweet story and it made me wonder if I'd be able to tell one writer from another based on "stylistic resemblances." I just don't think I'm a careful enough reader and Duane Wilkins is amazing.

That's how it would hit me; I'd be going along, doing a math page or signing out something about someone's sister or folding up my blanket or getting a drink of water, and suddenly I'd notice, all over again, that Lavender wasn't there. It always felt like someone had suddenly grabbed hold of my heart and squeezed it. (page 33)

A perfect encapsulation of grief.

I had taken the job in November, hired on in preparation for the Christmas rush, suckered in by the hope that after the New Year began I would become full-time and get better wages. It was February, and I was still getting less than thirty hours a week and only four dollars an hour. Every time I thought about it, I could feel rodents gnawing at the bottom of my heart. There is a sick despair to needing money so desperately that you can't quit the job that doesn't pay you enough to live on, the job that gives you just enough irregular hours to make job hunting for something better next to impossible. (page 63)

I feel this deeply in my heart. I am sure a lot of people living paycheck to paycheck feel it deeply, as well.

That evening I did a number of useful and necessary things...and dribbling bleach on the landing outside my apartment in the hopes it would keep the neighbor's cat away. (page 68-69)

My cat is obsessed with bleach. She is utterly uninterested in catnip, but if you clean a counter or floor with it, she will be rolling around in it in ecstasy. Putting bleach on a landing probably attracts cats, rather than repelling them. (It's not clear why some cats like bleach. There's a hypothesis that the chlorine smells a bit like cat pee and they sense that, but that's just a guess.)

American Hippo by Sarah Gailey

American Hippo by Sarah Gailey is a collection of all of Gailey's novellas and short stories that make up the River of Teeth world. 

Before I get started, let me just give you a little background. Years ago, I listened to a Longform podcast with Jon Mooallem and he started talking about his article for The Atavist called "American Hippopotamus" and I was absolutely fascinated by it. For a few months, this story was my main small talk talking point. It's a long piece (but worth it!), but if I had to summarize it, I'd just say that in the early 1900s in the United States, the country was suffering a meat shortage. A proposal was put forth to Congress to solve this shortage by using the swamps of the southern US, particularly in Louisiana, to ranch hippos for meat. Hippos! In the United States! This proposal did not go through (sadly? obviously?) and all that's left of this bonkers idea is this Atavist article and my undying obsession with it.

Gailey was inspired by this article to write American Hippo, imagining an alternate world in which the legislation was signed into law and hippos were brought to Louisiana to be ranched. She created a world in which there are cowboy hippo ranchers and people love their hippos the way we love our dogs and horses. Of course, there are unexpected consequences when some hippos are accidentally released into open water and feral hippos become a danger to those who need to use the waterways in the United States. After all, hippos are territorial and aggressive and considered very dangerous.  This novel is about a group of thieves, con artists, and criminals who come together to do a caper an operation to solve this feral hippo issue.

Readers, this was a true delight for me. It's all about our relationships with non-human creatures, found (human) family, and was just a swashbuckling delight. The book includes characters of color, characters from a wide variety of the gender spectrum, and was the gayest cowboy book I've ever read. One Goodreads review read "Came for the hippos. Stayed for the queers." If you like to read narratives about complicated people who do care about each other and their pets, this might be for you. If you like to read about alternative histories with ridiculous premises, this might be for you.

It was most definitely for me.

Line of note:

"I think that's what love is - it's not about forgiving or forgetting right away. It's about deciding to give someone a chance to earn your forgiveness, eventually." (page 249)

5/5 stars

On the Day I Died: Stories from the Grave by Candace Fleming

 I was, once again, at loose ends. My podcast queue was nearing to nothing* and On the Day I Died: Stories from the Grave by Candace Fleming was available to listen to as an audiobook immediately, so I snagged it.  Last week was grey, cloudy, and misty and this book fit the mood.  I'm not listing out the audiobook narrators because the book is read as an audio drama, so there are about a dozen narrators.

In this book, Mike is driving too fast along an empty road when he encounters a ghost. He follows her trail to a cemetery where he meets ten teenaged ghosts, each of whom has a story to tell.  All of the stories are set in the Chicagoland area, many stories tie to historical events and people, like the 1893 Chicago's World Fair, Al Capone, and the local sanitarium. 

I thought this was a pretty okay book. Like with a lot of short story collections, some stories are stronger than others. There was a super sad story about a child with mental illness who was sent away to live by himself in a cabin in Wisconsin that was all about how mental illness was stigmatized in the past that really struck a chord with me. There was also a story about a girl who was sent to live with an aunt after her mother went to jail and the whole issue of what to do with juveniles who do not have family support seemed really important.

This was a perfectly acceptable read.  If you like short stories, horror, or stories with a Chicago background, this might tickle your fancy.

3.5/5 stars

*I may or may not have complained about this before, but I'm struggling to find podcasts to fill my time. I've recently fallen out of favor with many of my old standbys and now I need more. Unfortunately, I'm really a brat about what I'll listen to, so it's hard to find new shows to listen to.  

Meanwhile, Elsewhere: Science Fiction and Fantasy from Transgender Writers edited by Cat Fitzpatrick and Casey Plett

Meanwhile, Elsewhere: Science Fiction and Fantasy from Transgender Writers edited by Cat Fitzpatrick and Casey Plett is a collection of short stories written by trans writers that centered on trans readers.  I was clearly not its target audience.

The first story was an erotica story in which the sex scenes were graphic, but not sexy. The second story was a zombie story in which a trans woman becomes a zombie and proceeds to rape her way through the living human men she runs into.  And this was only the start of the book. 

I appreciate that the book gave authors a chance to switch around the stereotypes in ordinary tropes of much sci-fi and fantasy.  I appreciate that I'm not the audience for this book.  But most of these stories left me cold and wondering if I could just skip to the end to the next story.

But let me tell you about some of the stories I did like.

"Rent, Don't Sell" by Calvin Gimpelevich tells of the story of a future world in which people can trade "skins" for periods of time. So a fit woman takes on the skin of an overweight woman and works out in the overweight body. After a period of time, the overweight woman is no longer overweight. Of course, there's a lot that can be done with other people's skins besides fitness training. It's a great premise the execution is well done, too.

"Control Shift Down" by Paige Bryony is an interesting look at a dystopian future filled with sex work and addiction.  I found it the most interesting in the story about day to day life in one of these worlds. The main character is desperate to get ahead but the class structures have forced her onto a path she can't get off.  Well conceived and well written.

"Thieves and Lovers" by Emma Addams is another story of sex work, which is a theme that weaves its way into many of the stories in this collection. In a world in which fantasies can be acted out in whatever way you imagine, thanks to technology that allows physical spaces and people to be virtually transformed, it gets harder and harder to find the line between reality and fantasy. 

So, it's a mixed bag, as is any short story collection. I wouldn't not recommend it, but I would say that if a story doesn't grab you within the first page or two, you should definitely skip to the next story.

The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury

In The Illustrated Man, Ray Bradbury creates a framing device that there's man whose body is tattooed by images that each tell a different story, and then proceeds to tell eighteen short stories. The stories themselves aren't linked together, except that they are all set in at some future date, having more or less science fiction tropes and themes.

I thought the collection was hit or miss. Some of the best stories were very good and the rest were too moralistic and/or too boring. In general, Bradbury's ability to set a tone of dread is almost unmatched, as far as I'm concerned (maybe Shirley Jackson can beat him).  It's crazy and mysterious to me how Bradbury is able to describe a scene that is supposedly beautiful or cheery and yet have this undercurrent of wrongness to it. I don't know exactly how he accomplishes this feat, but it's amazing to read.

In the first story, "The Veldt," in the future there's a nursery that allows children to actually create a place of their imagination.  While this sounds like fun and like something I would love to do with my dog (create a fenced in field with beautiful grass and no scat or dead animals in it!), it turns into a real downer when the kids create an African vista and allow the lions to eat the parents.  You KNEW something terrible was going to happen, even though the description of the nursery sort of sounded awesome.

Another story that has really stuck in my mind is "Marionettes, Inc." in which there is a company in the future that can create realistic robot duplicates of people. A man decides he wants to make a duplicate of himself to stay at home with his wife while he takes a break from married life, but it turns out that his wife is already a robot!  It reminded me of the Black Mirror episode "Be Right Back" in the theme that while human-like robots might sound like a good idea, they probably aren't actually.

I think I'd read those two stories and "The Other Foot," "The Highway," and "The Long Rain" from this collection and you'd have read the best on offer. If you read the rest, you'd still get that knot in your stomach feeling, but the payoff might not be quite as good in the end.

The Tattooed Potato and Other Clues by Ellen Raskin

Ellen Raskin is best-known in my world as the author of The Westing Game, a children's mystery novel that I have had great fun with in my life.  I'd never heard of The Tattooed Potato and Other Clues, though, so I threw into my library stack on impulse when I saw it at a display at the library. 

It, too, is a fun little book. It presents a series of mysteries with our main character, an enigmatic artist named Dickory Dock. She answers an ad for a part-time job and is soon enveloped in a world of puzzling little quandaries.

It's an interesting book because the themes are pretty dark (theft, assault, etc.) and there's mention of Dickory's hard life living in a tenement with parents who are out of the picture, but it's still a young, young adult novel. The mysteries are sophisticated, but wrap up in nice pretty bows at the end, which I imagine would be quite delightful for a young reader. I did not actually figure out the mystery for one of the stories, so, while we can debate how much of a good solver of mysteries I actually am, I think that it demonstrates that Raskin is taking her readers seriously. 

I don't know if I liked this book as much as I liked The Westing Game, but it sure comes close. I'm going to definitely be picking up a copy of both books for one of my nieces for her Christmas books this year.

Final Chapters: How Famous Authors Died by Jim Bernhard

I almost didn't read Final Chapters: How Famous Authors Died by Jim Bernhard because the Goodreads average was so low (as of right now, it's a 3.46), but I'm so glad I read it.  This book is brilliant. Bernhard writes a short, one- to three-page review of each author's life and then a bit about how the author died, last words, burial, and legacy. The authors are in chronological order, starting with the ancients in the Classical Age all the way to the Moderns.

I thought the structure of the book was fabulous. It's one of those "why didn't I think of that idea?" sort of books. I knew a bit about most of the authors, but there were some, particularly in the Modern Era, who I had never heard of before. Most people die of the usual reasons - heart attacks, pneumonia, cancer, and the like - but there are some standouts that really make the book stick with you. Bernhard's tone, irreverent and snarky, provided much levity to a book that had the possibility of going into a much too dark place.  Overall, I thought it was brilliant.

Some highlights:
"Aeschylus had been warned by an oracle that he would be killed by a house falling on him: accordingly, he spent as much time as possible in the open, far from any edifices that might collapse. He was taking an ostensibly healthful stroll in the fresh sea air when what was said to be an eagle (most likely a vulture) dropped a turtle on his glistening bald head, which the not-so-eagle-eyed bird mistook for a rock." (2-3)

"In 1274, Pope Gregory X summoned [Thomas] Aquinas to take part in a council in Lyon on May 1, and in January he set out from Naples, a distance of some 600 miles, on foot and by donkey. Along the Appian Way, Thomas hit his head on a tree branch and was knocked off the donkey." (24)

"[Percy Bysshe] Shelley died in 1822, a month before he would have turned thirty, when his boat went down in a storm of the coast of Italy." (100)

A lot of the snotty Goodreads reviewers seemed to take umbrage at the selection of authors - not enough people of color, not enough women, etc. - and those may be fair criticisms, but it's not one I share. The western canon of classic texts is mostly made up of white men. This is a result of terrible worldwide effects of slavery, colonization, and sexism, but it is a reality, so the selection of authors seemed reasonable to me. Also, the book was meant to be an amusing (but educational) romp through history, not an encyclopedia of literature through the ages.

For the record, as far as I can tell, the absolute worst death was Evelyn Waugh, who had a heart attack while on the toilet, fell and gashed his head, and died. Did he die from the heart attack? From the bleeding head wound? Who knows? All I know is that I'm going to seriously freak out whenever I use the bathroom from here on out. I mean, how terrible a way to go is that?

Anyway. Read it! It's great!