Morbid Romantic

Book Review & Personal Blog

I know, I know, I let these things lag by a few days. But fortunately, it is a holiday and nothing came in the mail, so I am not technically rolling over a week.

The State in Early Modern France by James B. Collins (Bought from Amazon)
A new edition of James Collins’s acclaimed synthesis that challenged longstanding views of the origins of modern states and absolute monarchy through an analysis of early modern Europe’s most important continental state. Incorporating recent scholarship on the French state and his own research, James Collins has revised the text throughout. He examines recent debates on ‘absolutism’; presents a fresh interpretation of the Fronde and of French society in the eighteenth century; includes additional material on French colonies and overseas trade; and ties recent theoretical work into a new chapter on Louis XIV. He argues that the monarchical state came into being around 1630, matured between 1690 and 1730 and, in a new final chapter, shows that the period May 1787 to June 1789 was an interregnum, with the end of the Ancien Régime coming not in 1789 but with the dissolution of the Assembly of Notables on 25 May 1787.

The Rise and Fall of the Garvey Movement in the Urban South, 1918-1942 by Claudrena N. Harold (Bought from Amazon)
The Rise and Fall of the Garvey Movement in the Urban South provides the first detailed examination of the Universal Negro Improvement Association’s rise, maturation, and eventual decline in the urban South between 1918 and 1942. It examines the ways in which Southern black workers fused locally-based traditions, ideologies, and strategies of resistance with the Pan-African agenda of the UNIA to create a dynamic and multifaceted movement. A testament to the multidimensionality of black political subjectivity, Southern Garveyites fashioned a politics reflective of their international, regional, and local attachments. Moving beyond the usual focus on New York and the charismatic personality of Marcus Garvey, this book situates black workers at the center of its analysis and aims to provide a much-needed grassroots perspective on the Garvey movement. More than simply providing a regional history of one of the most important Pan-African movements of the twentieth century, The Rise and Fall of the Garvey Movement in the Urban South demonstrates the ways in which racial, class, and spatial dynamics resulted in complex, and at times competing articulations of black nationalism.

Breathers by S.G. Browne (Bought from Barnes & Noble)
Andy’s life is a mess. A newly risen zombie, he’s forced to live in his parents’ basement, attend Undead Anonymous meetings just to get out of the house, and endure abuse of all kinds from the living. To make matters worse, he can’t even talk, though that’s because his mouth was sewn shut prior to being embalmed. Things begin to look up when Andy meets Rita, a gorgeous zombie who slashed her own wrists and throat; nebbish, vegetarian Tom, whose arm was stolen by a pack of drunken frat boys; and Ray, an undead renegade who introduces the gang to the wonders of eating “breathers.” Some die-hard horror aficionados may find this take on zombies too full of shtick (e.g., the running joke that falls flat by its second appearance), but Browne confidently balances a love story with ample amounts of gore and gags that should win over fans of George Romero (Night of the Living Dead et seq.) and fans of Shaun of the Dead, too. A welcome deviation in zombie lit.

Caesar by Colleen McCullough (Paperbackswap)
The story of Caesar’s Gallic Wars (roughly 5851 b.c.) and return to Rome warfare, followed fictively and, in the main, meticulously, from Caesar’s Commentaries. Again, the portraits are memorable–from Brutus (here, a money-mad “wet fish” with acne) to Cleopatra (scrawny, ugly, calmly plotting fratricide)–and the politicking is showy, sly, witty, and often deadly. At the close of Caesar’s Women (1996), McCullough’s fourth massive staging of the power wrests and wrestlings of mighty men of ancient Rome, Julius Caesar, a true colossus of skill and brilliance, had left for “Further Gaul.” Now, while mopping up the revolts in his detested Britannia of “blue-painted relics,” he receives word from Pompey the Great, First Man in Rome and husband of Caesar’s lovely daughter Julia, that Julia and his mother are dead. Grief drains him, but oddly he grows in strength, proceeding to un-Romanized Gaul, pacifying tribe after tribe, and eventually defeating Vercingetorix, an ambitious but inexperienced leader out to unite Gaul, who would not accept Caesar’s offer of Rome’s “light rein” in a “shrinking world.” While Caesar with his beloved legions win Gaul with extraordinary tactics and hardship, his foes in Rome have swung Pompey–once a Golden Boy, now tarnished with fatuous conceit and lack of political savvy–to their cause, which is, simply, to destroy Caesar. Although scrupulous in his observance of law, Caesar crosses the Rubicon to become Rome’s aggressor. (McCullough appropriately uses Plutarch’s account of his utterance: “Let the dice fly high!” instead of the gloomy “The die is cast.”) While temporarily Dictator, afterward, Caesar pursues Pompey’s armies until the Great One’s sad end. In the wings for Book Six: the gorgeous Mark Antony, slinky Octavius, and Cleopatra. Rewarding but rugged terrain for the casual reader. Armchair generals, though, should love this–perhaps with De bello Gallico at the ready. Maps, glossary, and photos of sculptured portraits of the time.

The Betrayal/The Secret/The Burning (The Fear Street Saga 1-3) by R.L. Stine (Paperbackswap)
The Betrayal: Nora knows the secrets behind the horrifying things happening on Fear Street and reveals the dark legacy that marked the start of the terror three hundred years earlier, when a young girl was burned at the stake. The Secret: Tormented by a curse that has plagued them for generations, the Fier family changes its name to Fear, hoping to escape the horrible secret. The Burning: Daniel and Nora, two young lovers from feuding families, must use their forbidden love to stop the awesome evil that stalks Nora and her family. A collector’s edition of a special Fear Street trilogy features a see-through vellum and foil dual stepback cover that comes complete with a fold-out color poster of the Fear Family Tree that describes the Fear Street history.

Malice by Chris Wooding (Won in a contest)
“TALL JAKE, TAKE ME AWAY…” Everyone’s heard the rumors. Call on Tall Jake and he’ll take you to Malice, a world that exists inside a terrifying comic book. A place most kids never leave. Seth and Kady think it’s all a silly myth. But then their friend disappears, and suddenly the rumors don’t seem so silly anymore… Part thriller, part ground-breaking graphic novel … get into this story, and you may never get out!

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