Suggested readings from 2012

It's been an interesting year for the novel. I haven't read as much this year as I normally do, as I've been spending more time reading unpublished manuscripts, but what I have read has been astounding.

Despite the fears that Amazon will somehow wrestle control of the fiction market, the best is still coming out from the big six (well, five, another interesting thing that happened). If Amazon wants to continue competing for the mediocre market, so be it. They have plenty of competition. I won't mention names, because I have several friends who do business with these companies.

And so here's a short list of my favorite novels for the year. Though most were released this year, some may have been released later in the previous year. It's an unapologetic list. I don't pretend to read everything out there..

EDGE OF DARK WATER by Joe Lansdale

HOPE: A TRAGEDY by Shalom Auslander

OSAMA by Lavie Tidhar

SOME KIND OF FAIRY TALE by Graham Joyce

THE UNINVITED GUESTS by Sadie Jones

Back in the late 80s and early 90s, Joe Lansdale came across as a Texas-fried Robert Bloch. I didn't mind, I enjoy Bloch, and it was nice to see someone from Texas getting some props. Had I been making a list of my years favorites, Joe's novels might have made it only once or twice before. But know this he's always a contender. He can write, and EDGE is one of his best pieces up there with THE BARRENS, FREEZER BURN, and SUNSET AND SAWDUST.

I'd never read Auslander before, HOPE came as a recommendation. Someone said I'd enjoy it, so I took to reading it. I don't know how to describe HOPE, other than it reminds me of a modern, humorous version of Franz Kafka. It's a dark, foreboding world, how we choose to live in it is our choice.

OSAMA is easily my favorite read of this year. I was stunned by the descriptions and the visuals. The novel does require the reader to invest some intellect, so if you're not prepared for that put it away for another day. I wanted to call this an alternate history, but that wouldn't be quite right. Osama bin Laden: Vigilante is a series of pulp novels (think Mack Bolan) written my Mike Longshott in which Osama carries out attacks in various parts of the world. It's a mindbender. Read it.

Graham Joyce has been writing some of my favorite novels since I can remember. The thing is, he does what I don't expect him to do: he keeps getting better. I would go further than to just recommend FAIRY TALE, I would suggest you read anything he's written. The metaphysical FAIRY TALE is an astounding work, a story about telling stories. That alone is a bold move by any writer, but in the capable hands of Joyce, it's a joy to behold.

I like to laugh and Sadie Jones helped me do just that. UNINVITED is an inviting mixture of Chesterton and Christie, with some Coward thrown in for good measure. The book is well plotted and if you love your British comedies, you will definitely enjoy this book. 

the dawning of a new age and missed opportunities

I was sad today. I listened to all the doomsday talk, heard and read everyone discussing the end of the world. And when it didn't happen, everyone laughed, and cried “another foul.” People are still talking about it deep into the day.

While everyone chatted away they seemed to forget one thing: the Mayans never predicted the end of the world, they predicted the beginning of a new age.

So while everyone waited for our cities to crumble and our lands to burn, something magnificent happened that many of you missed.

Last night, I stood outside in the cold mesmerized by three lights that formed a triangle. I thought it was a plane at first because they would blink, and it was so far away it almost looked like it was moving. But upon further examination it turned out it wasn't moving at all. They were just three lights in the sky, configured to make a triangle. At times it turned into two lights or one, or a giant single flare. This morning I discovered that I was looking at Venus, and considering the planetary alignment of last night, I realized it was joined by Mercury and Saturn. They appeared to dance with one another, sometimes as a threesome, sometimes as a duet, and sometimes solo, but always fascinating

Today, when K'in (the Sun) was high and bright in the sky, I bet you cursed it for being too shiny. That is, if you payed any attention at all. The world didn't end, so it was just another day. What you probably didn't realize is that we were seeing the eclipse of the center of Sak Bih (the Milky Way). So here we were standing around millions of brand new stars, a huge cluster of dust, and the biggest black hole in our galaxy (Sagittarius A) burning behind our own K'in. You won't see that again for another 26,000 years.

Try to enjoy the new age for what it is, not for what they tell you it will be or what you wish it could be. Every age has mankind evolving into something greater, be a part of that.

None of the ages begin in turmoil, but they do end in turmoil. The Mayans never predicted how the ages would end, but if we look to their neighbors, the Aztecs were more specific. They predicted the fourth sun would end in flooding. It just so happens that every culture in ancient history has a flood myth and there is fossil record to prove that a worldwide flood happened over 5000 years ago. So the fourth sun did end in flooding. However the fifth sunt began with the rise of Egyptian kings, and the unification of Egypt and the first inklings of civilization in Crete. We stepped it up from from nomadic tribal communities and hunter/gatherer types to unified civilizations. We evolved.

Even now you see the global community become more socially conscious. People are attempting to take more control of their lives, and wrest that control from the few that consider themselves elite. We see it all over the world. We are evolving once again.

But if you want doomsday, I will say this. The Aztecs also predicted that the fifth sun would end in earthquakes. So I want you to consider what happened in the last 5 years of the fifth age. Understand I'm only including earthquakes where the loss of life was at least 100. It does not make other earthquakes less important, but rather I don't have that kind of time to spend on the USGS website.

Date Place Casualties

12 May 2008 Sichuan, China >69,197

28 October 2008 NW Pakistan >215

6 April 2009 Abruzzo, Italy 294

29 September 2009 Samoa 189

30 September 2009 Sumatra 1115

12 January 2010 Port-au-Prince, Haiti >230,000

27 February 2010 Maule, Chile 523

13 April 2010 Yushu, China 2698

25 October 2010 Sumatra 435

21 February 2011 Canterbury, NZ 181

11 March 2011 Northern Japan 15,870

24 March 2011 Shan, Burma 150

18 September 2011 Sikkim, India 111

23 October 2011 Van, Turkey 604

6 February 2012 Negros, Philippines 113

11 August 2012 Tabriz, Iraq 306

These are just the most devastating (in terms of human life) earthquakes. To include all the other and to include financial damages would be staggering. If you still want doomsday, it came and it went, and you did nothing about. You sat around stockpiling weapons and food and water, while people all over the world were dying and starving from the doomsday device of this age. We're not going out with a bang, we're leaving with a whimper, and the sooner you realize that, the sooner you might get off your ass and help some true survivors.

If you still want your doomsday, be still, be patient. Earlier this year they found irradiated particles in the Texas air. They were able to trace the radiation back to the Japanese earthquake from a year before. The destruction this earthquake caused has yet to be fully determined, but it's already seeped into our oceans, eventually it will make its way to us.

In the meantime, stop and think for a minute. This is a wondrous time. Enjoy it.  And just in case you missed the eclipse of the center of the galaxy....