Bookish Thoughts

I've been meaning to read The Changeling  since I first heard about it. And I'm so glad I finally got around to it. I hesitated because the premise seemed genuinely upsetting - a woman kills her baby and then disappears, leaving her husband wondering what the hell happened and trying to track her down in an increasingly magical New York City. Probably not the sort of book you should read when you've just had a kid, or when you're pregnant again. But I clung to the hint in the title and decided to take the plunge. And I'm so glad I did. I've read a lot of books over the years that claim to be similar to American Gods , but this is the one that comes closest to hitting that mark for me. It is very much about America and how the tales we tell shape our lives, how we do and don't repeat the mistakes of our forefathers, how we don't always interrogate our traditions when maybe we should, how this country has been shaped entirely by immigration. Like that bo...

The Ballad of Black Tom  was Tor.com's free download back in October. I'd been hearing good things about Victor LaValle for years ( The Changeling  is currently sitting on my shelf waiting to be read), and besides, who can say no to free? So I downloaded it. But it took me a while to get around to reading it. The thing is, this novella is a direct response to one of HP Lovecraft's stories: "The Horror at Red Hook". And I really meant to read that one first. It's available for free on line and I even have a copy in a collection of Lovecraft's work at home. But I never quite got around to it. It's widely considered the most overtly racist piece of work by a horrifically racist author. And who wants to read a story with an endorsement like that? I ended up skimming this article about the original story and then dove in to LaValle's response. I really ought to have actually read Lovecraft's original story first. The Ballad of Black Tom  is suc...