New York O God The Books

Well.

My wallet has two hernias but I'm not sorry.

Let's review. 

Bought at the Mysterious Bookshop we have two Crime Classics from E.C.R. Lorac, aka Edith Rivett, a novelist I highly recommend to anyone interested in crime fiction. I've read them both, which given that I got home Monday should show you how highly I rate them. Especial recommendation to Bookhounds of London Directors, as the London she writes of is wartime London. That's a little out of the usual Bookhounds timeline but not by much, which makes it good source material. Plus, there's a wealth of historical data here, because Rivett lived through it and knows wherof she speaks. Also Deadly Isle: A Golden Age Mystery Map. Because I'm not a heartless monster. I see the same publisher does maps for Los Angeles, Agatha Christie's England, and the Hardboiled Apple. Hmmmm ...  

Bought at the Strand we have Boys from Brazil, The Borrowed and The Midnight Washerwoman and other tales of Lower Brittany. Boys should need no introduction. The Borrowed is a series of tales about a detective nicknamed the Eye of Heaven, who makes things hot for Hong Kong criminals. Midnight Washerwoman by Francois-Marie Luzel is the kind of thing I go to the Strand for; their Mythology section often has treasures like these hiding away.

Bought at Barnes & Noble on 14th - highly recommend this big box store, it has damn near everything including a well-stocked selection of Criterion blu-ray discs - I got a Thomas Ligotti and an intriguing reprint of an old horror novel, the Auctioneer. I haven't dipped my toes into either pond just yet but am looking forward to it.

Bought at Tannens - everyone who visits NYC should go to the oldest magic shop in the Western hemisphere - we have Steinmeyer's book on the old illusion Pepper's Ghost, and an encyclopedia of cigarette tricks. Because if you're going to write about period things you need to have an understanding of how these things work, and while cigarette tricks are a bit old these days, they were all the rage in the 1920s. 

Bought at the Argosy, and anyone who has any interest in the written word needs to pay the Argosy at least one visit in their lifetime. Its collection is a must-see. Oddly, the first time I tried to visit I couldn't get in because they were filming a Goosebumps film. So, if you should see it on the small or big screen sometime soonish, well, that's why. The Tim Powers needs no explanation. The Toy Boats book is very relevant to something I'm working on. I think I read it before, in a library; now I have a copy. The other two are creaky real-life crime collections. As I've said before, if you want to work within a historical period, you need to know what they were thinking even if what they were thinking is ludicrous.

Bought at Forbidden Planet. Also bought at Forbidden Planet, a Shaw Brothers collection and a blu-ray of the old 80s horror, House. Again, I'm not a heartless monster. 

Bought at the Compleat Strategist. It was a tough decision between this and Old West Cthulhu, but I'm not sorry. I haven't had a chance to more than skim the first few pages. I'll have more to say about this later. 

Shows I would recommend to any lover of the stage:

Stalker! No lie, my plane landed at 4 and I was in my seat by 7. This mentalist act is an absolute joy to behold.  Brynolf & Ljung are masters of the craft and by God do they let you know it. I was up on stage with them getting utterly foozled and I don't regret a second of it. The concluding performance (I hate to call it trick) is an absolute brain-buster and I shan't spoil, but I kinda wish I had been the target ...

Twenty Sided Tavern! This was my Tuesday joy. I've seen similar setups at improv before but this is something in a class of its own. I don't know if you've ever seen anything like it? Twenty gives you an improv D&D session in one evening, where our heroes - a plump Holy Turkey, a Wild West Dead Man Walking and a Wizard with a Switchblade (lover of fresh kidneys) - took on a chaos mist that threatened to destroy the weave. I like to laugh. I had plenty of chances that night.

 

The staging was very effective. That back wall? One big screen. Once the action started that screen showed everything from landscapes to hit points. When the audience intervened with their own choices, the screen showed the result. Pro tip: if you go, try to get seats close to the front row. You won't regret it!

That's it for this week! Next week: ahhh, why spoil? ;)