#peter dickinson

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Books of the Summer: May-Aug 2024

I'm back baby! These little blurbs at the top are usually where I put my disclaimer that these books are the ones I recommend, but not necessarily my favorites, and that particularly holds true for this summer when I consider a few that didn't make my list below: I read 20-something(!!) of the Hamish Macbeth mystery series, by M.C. Beaton, over June and July, and obviously I liked them because I just. kept going, but I also have several quibbles with them (e.g., twenty books and several years into the series, the main character is still "about 35"). I enjoyed them as something mostly brainless. Then in August, I read and very much enjoyed the Windrose Chronicles, by Barbara Hambly, a particular type of 80s portal fantasy, but in this case although my enjoyment was unalloyed, I feel like they're a rec for very specific circumstances or specific people. Anyway, thought both these series deserved some sort of honorable mention, but my official Books of the Summer are:

May

Giovanni's Room (James Baldwin): This is one of those tragedies where no one could have done anything different because of who they are as people, but even as you know what will happen from the beginning of the book, it's still worth reading to understand how. Also Baldwin is so good at writing. Not a happy book, but worth it.

June

Last Call at the Nightingale (Katharine Schellman): I'm recommending this one because it seems like I've seen (at least a few) people on the lookout for a good mystery set in the 1920s that is (queer) female-centric and not entirely trusting of cops, and this is definitely that. (Also the other book I saw being recced for that kind of thing was Dead Dead Girls, and I read it a little while ago and tbh was unimpressed with the writing.) I also read a few in another series by Schellman this summer, and I generally enjoy her mystery plots and attention to historical detail, while she also always makes sure she has a diverse cast of characters.

The Bellamy Trial (Frances Noyes Hart): A classic mystery (as in, published during the Golden Age), interesting in its trial formatting - the murder has happened, we're hearing everything in the courtroom sort of from the point of view of a pair of newspaper reporters. It's fun the way details are revealed.

July

The Ropemaker (Peter Dickinson): Did you know that Peter Dickinson was married to Robin McKinley? True power couple. I love The Ropemaker, I think I originally found my copy in a used book store with absolutely nothing to go on but the cover (it was years ago), and have read it several times. I particularly like that the main character doesn't have magic (and magic isn't entirely common in the fantasy world, though several other characters can do it), and she starts out feeling reasonably upset and left out, and then starts to realize that her own lack of magic is a particular, specific strength.

August

The Documents in the Case (Dorothy L. Sayers with Robert Eustace): I think I found this book by poking around the "Mysteries" section in a used book store, which is always a good way to find odd anthologies and Detection Club collections. This standalone mystery is, as it suggests, a collection of documents (mostly letters) meant to illuminate a mystery: handily, the son of the murdered man is collecting them and writes a little bit of analysis for us/the official to whom he is sending them, so we eventually get gaps in the story filled in. I particularly like the way that the nature of the medium means that every character is an unreliable narrator to some extent, and it takes a little reading before you can start to figure out who to trust more. I have read this a few times and always forget that it is kind of a chilling little story, in the end, but also really good!

[tomorrowusa]

[T]he decision to invade Ukraine looks set to be remembered as one of the greatest geopolitical blunders of the modern era. It has left Russia shunned and greatly diminished on the world stage, while earning Putin himself a place in infamy alongside history’s greatest criminals. He dreamed of emulating Peter the Great, but he has become Putin the Pariah.

— Peter Dickinson at The Atlantic Council.

People in the future will wonder: WTF was Putin thinking?

Putin's name is becoming a synonym for failure like the Titanic, the Edsel, and New Coke. Though with Putin, it's a matter of irrationally persisting in failure.

[earhartsease]

still completely obsessed, decades after first reading The Dancing Bear by Peter Dickinson (a sort of early 70s ya novel set in Byzantium and a quest along the Danube), with the image of chariot races where the different teams are supported by members of different christian sects - so the crowd is cheering on the greens by yelling in unison SINGLE NATURE SINGLE NATURE because they're monophysites

don't know why that's so compelling for a secular jewish animist and feral buddhist but we've often found ourselves muttering single nature single nature to cheer ourselves on

[basicallyanotherwitchesthing]

Lois Lamplugh & Peter Dickinson - Mandog - BBC Books - 1972

[myriad-rainbows]

"There is no shame to not knowing something—no, not even after the fifth time of asking and being told! There are many things much too hard to learn in one telling, or in five. Even in the beginning. And even the easiest of the easy ones, there are so many easy ones, you will forget some of them sometimes too. You won’t be able to help it."

—from the short story "Water Horse", in Water: Tales of Elemental Spirits by Robin McKinley & Peter Dickinson

[thedoctorwhocompanion]

What We Watched: Mandog

Starting off a new series of features about productions contemporary to Classic #DoctorWho: What We Watched -- Mandog

A new arrival turns up at a comprehensive school, provoking too many questions and not enough answers. Two friends from the school are intrigued and are determined to solve the mystery. They secretly follow the individual to an old scrapyard (“What a mess!” they say.) There, they encounter a sinister and hostile stranger who tells them they are uninvited and unwelcome and must leave – only to…

[90staylor]

meet the members of the tortured poets department.

our chairman, taylor swift.

peter pan, clara bow, stevie nicks, our collegues from the down the hall; the dead poets, daisy jones, post malone, martha from who's afraid of virginia woolf, florence, amy march and jo march, cassandra, patti smith and dylan thomas, barbie, emily dickinson, bella baxter.

[jomarchswritingjacket]

that moment when you’re so desperate for spring again that you dive headfirst back into your cottagecore phase

[daisyswift3]

BC SHE’S CASSANDRA AND PETER AND THIS IS HER SHOW—THE ERAS TOUR. These are like her alter egos or personas. These flash on the screen while she sings “I can show you lies” as if to say that she hides behind the names of fictional characters (like James) to tell her truth. Something something triangle of desire, something something tell all the truth but tell it slant

(x)

[why-is-it-always-autumn]

It's so funny the random stuff that just sticks in your head forever

When I was in 6th grade I read a book where the main character wakes up in the hospital in the body of a chimpanzee and, realizing that her balance is going to be wildly off, decides to get out of bed by sort of rolling onto the floor and standing from there instead of relying on just her feet.

This was one minor moment in like chapter two of a book I read over a decade ago, and I think about it approximately every time I need to get off the couch

[atomic-chronoscaph]

Ocean’s 11 (1960)

[scarystickers]

2019 was really THE year

Avengers endgame, Midsommar, Joker, Parasite, Knives out, Cats, Little Women, The Lighthouse, The Lion King live action, Us, Aladdin live action, Frozen 2, Lego movie 2, The Addams Family, Shazam, Detective Pikachu, Five Feet Apart , all came to theatres.

The Umbrella Academy, Euphoria, Good Omens, Why Women Kill, What We Do In The Shadows, Dickinson, Sex Education, The Mandalorian, The Boys, Pen 15 and Trinkets all premiered.

Then you got music which is still just as crazy cause you got Bad Guy, Truth Hurts, 7 Rings, Thank u next album, Sucker, Old Town Road, Love album, Señorita, Sweet But Psycho, Watermelon Sugar, K-12 and more

Pop culture too was obviously still crazy since you have the instagram egg, horrifying first sonic image, first image of a black hole, snapchats baby filter that still haunts, end of game of thrones, big bang theory ends, end of katy perry and taylor swift feud, ownership of spider-man, Greta Thunberg, storming area 51, Steven Universe and probably more i’m forgetting

I don’t know if we’ll ever get another year go as hard as 2019 unfortunately

[tomorrowusa]

Calling for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine is essentially saying it is okay for Russia to take over chunks of Ukraine by force. The only fair and lasting peace is one where Russia goes home and stays there. That is when you can have a genuine ceasefire. 

Most advocates of a compromise peace argue that a complete Ukrainian victory is simply not realistic and insist that even a bad peace is better than more war. While often vague on details, they typically hint at some kind of land-for-peace deal that would involve Ukraine giving up part of its sovereign territory and condemning millions of Ukrainian civilians to permanent Russian occupation in exchange for an end to hostilities.

Such wishful thinking conveniently underestimates the extent of Vladimir Putin’s imperial ambitions while ignoring the grave implications for international security of anything less that a decisive Russian defeat in Ukraine. If Moscow is rewarded for the invasion of Ukraine with territorial gains, the world will become a far more dangerous place.

Fortunately, Putin was stopped before his shit army could subjugate the bulk of Ukraine. But consider what would have happened if Putin's plan had succeeded.

If Putin’s initial invasion plan had succeeded and his troops had captured Kyiv in three days as anticipated, he would have deposed the government and installed a puppet regime drawn from Ukraine’s pro-Kremlin political forces. Much of the country would have quickly come under direct Russian military control and would have been subjected to months of mass arrests, summary executions, and forced deportations designed to break all resistance. Working with local collaborators across the country, the Russian occupation authorities would have targeted anyone viewed as a potential threat to the Kremlin.

This pattern of atrocities has been repeated systematically over the past year in every region of Ukraine occupied by Putin’s troops. International investigators have concluded that the crimes taking place in occupied regions are evidence of a “calculated plan” to destroy the Ukrainian nation. “Putin’s plan is to occupy Ukraine, subjugate the Ukrainian population to Russian rule, and destroy Ukrainian identity.

As bad as Russian atrocities in Ukraine have been, the scale of them would have been far greater if Putin's plan had succeeded.

A Putin victory would have had a destabilizing effect beyond Ukraine.

The most immediate consequence would have been additional Russian wars of aggression. Success in Ukraine would have encouraged Putin to continue, with Moldova and Kazakhstan among the most obvious next targets. Sooner or later, the emboldened Russian dictator would test NATO’s commitment to collective security. Would the likes of France and Germany really risk World War III in order to defend Estonia? If Russia is not stopped in Ukraine, that is a question all NATO members will probably have to answer in the not-too-distant future. At this stage, it seems reasonable to assume that Putin is far from convinced.

Nor would Russia be the only threat on the horizon. The fall of Ukraine would undermine the core principles of the global security order and inspire other authoritarian regimes around the world to engage in their own foreign policy adventures. In the wake of a successful Russian invasion of Ukraine, a Chinese assault on Taiwan would become far more likely, while autocrats everywhere would draw the logical conclusions for their own neighborhoods.

A Ukrainian defeat could also have sparked an unprecedented international scramble for nuclear weapons. Even before Putin’s full-scale invasion, the preceding eight years of Russian aggression against Ukraine had already highlighted the folly of the Ukrainian government’s 1994 decision to unilaterally hand over the world’s third-largest nuclear arsenal in exchange for security assurances from Russia, the US, and the UK.

One lesson of this war is that nuclear powers don't get attacked. Ukraine gave up the nuclear weapons it inherited from the Soviet Union in return for security assurances under a six party agreement known as the Budapest Memorandum. The Budapest Memorandum has the effect of an international treaty. Russia's invasion of Ukraine was a blatant violation of the Budapest Memorandum.

An outcome which rewards Russian aggression would encourage countries on the periphery of Russia to develop their own nuclear arsenals. If North Korea is able to build nuclear bombs then wealthier nations like Poland, Japan, and Kazakhstan could do the same. A Ukrainian victory would demonstrate that countries can defend themselves against Russia with conventional weapons.

Nobody wants peace more than the millions of Ukrainians who have seen their lives shattered and their country devastated by Russia’s criminal invasion. It is therefore particularly revealing that there is virtually zero support in today’s Ukraine for a negotiated settlement. Ukrainians are under no illusions over the difficulties of achieving victory. Nevertheless, they also understand the nature of the current Russian regime and recognize that unless Putin is decisively defeated, he will continue to wage war against their country and the wider democratic world.

Luckily, Ukrainians are ready to do the fighting themselves. Last year, their valor prevented the world from plunging into a new dark age of authoritarian aggression. All they ask now is for the international community to remain steadfast in their support and give Ukraine the tools to finish the job.

If you want a genuine and more permanent peace, support Ukraine so it can drive out the war criminal invaders.

Related, from TVP in Poland...

Putin planned to ‘totally cleanse’ Ukraine using mass terror: report

Putin is the one who needs to be “cleansed”.

[earhartsease]

let's hear it for one of the most quietly atmospheric books I ever read as a child that also contributed to the "huh maybe I'm no kind of boy" fund because so many of my favourite books had girl protagonists, and also Emma clearly has a crush on the older Scottish girl with the short hair and those grey grey eyes who's called Finn so yeah

are there saurians in the loch? wait and see

[basicallyanotherwitchesthing]

Peter Dickinson - The Poison Oracle - Wilhelm Goldmann - 1974 (german version)