Books to Read While the Algae Grows in Your Fur, October 2015

Attention conservation notice: I have no taste.

Anne M. Pillsworth, Fathomless

Mind candy, sequel to Summoned (which I seem not to have blogged about), being the further education of a Lovecraftian sorcerer. Pillsworth tries very hard to maintain faithfulness to the canon, but with a sensibility which is a just a bit less freaked by its own attraction to the not-like-me than Lovecraft was. It's clearly aimed at younger readers, but I'm not sure how many of them will have read enough eighty-year-old stories to appreciate it.

Mur Laffery, The Shambling Guide to New York City and Ghost Train to New Orleans

Mind candy: the adventurous life of a travel-book editor, who discovers that the big city is, in fact, full of monsters — and she is, arguably, one of them.

Shirley Jackson, We Have Always Lived in the Castle

I remember this being a favorite book as a teenager, but I'd not read it for decades. It turns out I'd forgotten the last half or so, and it blew me away, again.

Oscar Kempthorne, Design and Analysis of Experiments

Very old-school, but very clear, experimental design; Kempthorne is extremely sound on the role of randomization, and what it does and does not let one estimate. Reading this now, it's amazing just how little one could actually calculate back then, outside of additive-and-Gaussian models, and so how much of the formal machinery was really about simplifying calculations. (Look at the gyrations he goes through to avoid having to explicitly invert matrices when getting least-squares estimates.)

Jeffrey E. Barlough, The House in the High Wood: A Story of Old Talbotshire

Mind candy, of a very odd sort; only semi-recommended. On the surface, it's a dark historical fantasy set in rural 19th century England, complete with scenes of village life and a haunted mansion. The deeper in one goes, the more elements appear which are bizarre even for such a book — elements which are never explained. My best guess — n cnenyyry jbeyq jubfr uhzna vaunovgnagf ner qrfpraq sebz crbcyr jub pnzr sebz Ivpgbevna Oevgnva naq uryq ba gb gubfr zberf gb n evqvphybhf rkgrag (qryvorengr geniryref? fangpurq ol fbzr zlfgrevbhf sbepr? zreryl ivpgvzf bs enaqbz vagreqvzrafvbany jrveqarff?), cyhf n ybg bs ceruvfgbevp navznyf rkgvapg va bhe jbeyq, oebhtug bire ol gur fnzr cebprff — turns out to be not what the author had in mind, though not that far off either. This setting, I have to say, did nothing for me, but I can see how many would like it (*), and Barlough certainly has real skills as a novelist.

*: Bgure crbcyr zvtug fcrphyngr ba gur nccrny bs na vzntvanel jbeyq jurer gur fbyr yvtug bs pvivyvmngvba vf na Nzrevpna jrfg pbnfg vf ragveryl vaunovgrq ol JNFCf, jub qvqa'g rira unir gb rkgrezvangr nal angvirf gb trg gur ynaq, ohg jung qb V xabj nobhg Oneybhtu'f zbgvirf, be gur sne zber inevbhf barf bs uvf snaf? Jung V pna fnl pbasvqragyl gung, nf n jbex bs fcrphyngvir svpgvba, gur jbeyq-ohvyqvat vf ynhtunoyl jrnx. Gung na nygreangr irefvba bs bhe jbeyq jurer gur Vpr Ntrf arire raqrq, jurer gurer vf ab thacbjqre, naq jurer gur Nzrevpnf jrer havaunovgrq orsber Rhebcrnaf cynagrq frggyre pbybavrf, jbhyq unir n Oevgnva, zhpu yrff bar jubfr phygher va 1839 jnf whfg yvxr jung vg jnf urer, fubjf n gbgny snvyher bs uvfgbevpny frafr. Guvf vf bayl zngpurq ol gur vqrn gung n praghel naq n unys yngre, nsgre n tybony raivebazragny pngnfgebcur vapyhqvat, nzbat bgure guvatf, gur gbgny qvfehcgvba bs nyy ybat-qvfgnapr genqr, gung phygher jbhyq erznva pbzcyrgryl hapunatrq. (Naq vg qbrfa'g rira frrz gb or gung gurl bayl guvax gurl'ir cerfreirq guvatf hapunatrq.) Jbeyq-ohvyqvat vf, bs pbhefr, abg gur bayl iveghr sbe fcrphyngvir svpgvba --- zhpu gur fnzr pevgvpvfzf nccyl, zhgngvf zhgnaqvf, gb Anbzv Abivx'f vzzrafryl sha Ancbyrbavp frn qentba fgbevrf --- ohg urer vg xrcg wneevat zr.

I say this as someone who likes the idea of