For 1987, we have a track off Robbie Robertson's first solo album after leaving The Band and following a decade of largely producing, collaborating, and doing soundtrack work. It's also one of my "two nickels" in terms of all-time favourite songs that ended up being covered by Rod Stewart exactly four years after they were released.
Newly reviewed surveillance footage from the White House correspondents' dinner shows a Secret Service agent firing multiple shots at a fleeing suspect into a crowded hallway. The video offers no clear visual evidence that the alleged gunman ever fired his weapon. — Read the rest
And we’re back with a new batch of upcoming science fiction, fantasy, and horror young adult novels. I feel like I’ve been repeating myself the last year or so, but guess what, this summer there’s a lot of romantasy coming up. Much to my pleasant surprise, we also have a few science fantasy genre blends too. Horror is on a downswing, and science fiction remains tantalizingly rare. Nevertheless, queer authors are doing some really interesting things with identity. I have 21 new books to add to your TBR.
(Random House Books for Young Readers; May 5, 2026) Kōpaʻa Island Resort is an exclusive wellness getaway for the rich and idle, but for Lehua it’s the place where her twin sister Ohia vanished without a trace. The girls didn’t have a strong relationship, but that doesn’t mean Lehua isn’t going to go looking for her. After a storm strands her on the island, she’s at the mercy of the horrifying colonial history of the land stolen from her ancestors. There is very little in the way of ownvoices Native Hawaiian speculative fiction, so this is a welcome addition.
(Delacorte Press; May 12, 2026) A decade ago, advanced technology became sentient and lashed out in agony and torment. They destroyed themselves in a cataclysmic event known as Autumn. Now, genderqueer teen Cedar has arrived at the hometown of their missing father, Sawblade Lake searching for their last known relative. Something monstrous harasses them on the outskirts of town, something that is connected to Cedar in ways they don’t yet understand.
(Norton Young Readers; June 23, 2026) Every town has a legend about a local cryptid, and in Scarberry, Nebraska, it’s an alien called Old Lucky. Lenny and her boyfriend Evan run a YouTube channel where they investigate paranormal activity. They’re drawn to Claire’s hometown with her claim that aliens landed on her family farm. What they don’t know is Claire faked it to try and attract new customers to the ailing business. But when strange and terrifying things start happening, well, that hoax may not be a hoax after all.
(Union Square & Co.; May 5, 2026) Epilepsy has always been something Lavender has just had to deal with. She’s had every kind of symptom and seizure, but after her mom’s death, her seizures change. Now she’s seeing—hallucinating?—a boy named Eli who also has epilepsy. She could get surgery to resolve the worst of her medical issues, but she fears not only that she won’t wake up the same person she was when she went in but also that she’ll lose her connection to Eli.
(Feiwel & Friends; May 12, 2026) The legendary Breimar Stag appears only every few years when the Scavenge Moon rises. If it is caught before the moon sets, the victor can wish for the death of anyone in the world, but if it escapes then the stag will take the life of one of its hunters. Katrín knows exactly who she wants dead: her employer, a wealthy baron, who has set his abusive sights on her cousin Alma. Her hunt is hampered by unexpected violence and more corpses than she knows what to do with. German folklore isn’t something we have too much of in YA fantasy, so I am very intrigued by this. Also! Katrín is asexual and aromantic!
(Peachtree Teen; May 19, 2026) Shay is an apprentice midwife in the city of Nezjar. Her mother’s addiction to the drug Snow not only caused her death, but passed her forbidden magic to her daughter. Or so Shay thought. Turns out her mother is still alive, but their reunion is a tragic one. Now abandoned and far from home, she seeks safety from the dangers in Ard Al-Ghul with activists working to restore women’s magic to its rightful place. Inspired by “Snow White” and the Moroccan folktale “The Jealous Mother.”
(Affirm Kids; May 12, 2026) This anthology does a queer remix on twelve classic fairy tales. The stories cover a wide range of speculative topics and YA themes, but the connective tissue here is queer joy and being your true self. Given that the government is currently trying to pass a national book ban that targets stories just like these, this collection couldn’t be more timely. Authors: Michael Earp, Alison Evans, Helena Fox, Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner, Will Kostakis, Jes Layton, Gary Lonesborough, Amber McBride, Abdi Nazemian, Maggie Tokuda-Hall, Alexandra Villasante and Lili Wilkinson. Interior and cover art by Kit Fox.
(Sweet July Books; June 30, 2026) Romantasy, like the rest of publishing, tends to involve mostly white people (and mostly cis, allo, and het people). This anthology centers on BIPOC characters with different intersectional identities, including class and queerness, to explore fantasy and romance from the YA perspective. Within these seventeen stories is a solid mix of fantasy subgenres. Authors: Alexene Farol Follmuth, Angela Montoya, Brent Lambert, Chelsea Padilla, Cheryl Isaacs, Jamar J. Perry, Jennifer Helen, Jill Tew, Kalynn Bayron, Kwame Mbalia, Maggie Tokuda-Hall, Nia Davenport, Nikki T. Grant, Shari B. Pennant, Sophie Li, Vanessa Montalban, and Zoraida Córdova.
(Feiwel & Friends; May 26, 2026) Mexican siblings Lola and Lisandro are conning their way through Hollywood’s Golden Age, with Lola pretending to be a ghost and Lisandro pretending to be a spiritualist who can banish her. Their latest mark is Rockafeller-esque Bixby Fairfax and his glamorous actress girlfriend Blythe Belle. At his extravagant hilltop estate, the teens’ grift takes off. Lisandro catches feelings for Bixby’s son and Lola for a member of the staff, but at the same time the mystery of what really happened to Bixby’s dead daughter is a truth someone will do anything to keep from being revealed.
(Bloomsbury YA; June 2, 2026) Calla is having a rough go. Kicked out by her parents. Can’t afford to go to college. Confessing she might be trans to her girlfriend, Ramona. Said girlfriend expressing reluctance to date a trans person. The two end up at a magical house called Amaranth, an oasis out of time whose occupants are queer kids from all across history. But when their refuge is threatened, the teens face the real and terrifying possibility that they will have to return to the real world.
(Candlewick; June 2, 2026) Paris, 1896. To avenge her sister’s death, Falan, a trapeze artist from India, joins the same competition that killed Lavanya: the Game of Oaths. Every year, 12 teens sign magical contracts binding them to the Enchanteur Jean-Pierre and compete at the pleasure of the wealthy. One wins, the rest die awful deaths. With the help of new allies, Falan will take on Jean-Pierre’s powerful connections and racist intentions. Now, all she has to do is survive.
(Margaret K. McElderry Books; May 26, 2026) Ellinore is famous throughout the land for never having lost a quest. No one knows that she won them not through violence and bravery but conversation and basic problem-solving. And with the help of a chipper dragon. Now she has to do one last quest before she can retire at the ripe old age of seventeen: find the Elder Beast to save her brother from a deadly curse. She’s joined by her brother, a reckless noblewoman, a bard-in-training, and Princet Aven, Ellinoe’s competition and secret crush. A cozy fantasy with a heart of gold.
(Their Will Undone #1 — HarperCollins; June 2, 2026) In the acllahuasi, Nina awaits her future. Her ill younger sister was initially chosen for the annual harvest, but Nina volunteered as tribute. She expects to train to become a servant to a wealthy family, but is instead chosen to become the new bride of the emperor of Amaru. Lieutenant Kasik is sent to collect her, and their journey is beset by dangers. As her hidden magic reveals itself, sinister motives as to why the emperor is interested in a commoner girl come to light. Kasik and Nina may despise each other, but they’re all they have left.
(Song of the Ghost Queen #1 — Page Street YA; June 23, 2026) The Wizard of Oz gets reimagined as a queer portal fantasy. Thia tumbles from her oppressive home in Kansas into a strange new world. After killing a witch, she is joined by three traveling companions to find the Mage King. Only he can send her home, but he is no great and powerful leader. Along the way, Thia learns about her late mother’s rebellious past and falls for the girl without a heart.
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR); June 30, 2026) Risa is cursed. Born on a Bad Day, bad luck follows her around and plaguing her hometown of Barrow in a series of unfortunate events. On her seventeenth birthday, Brunhilda the witch sends Risa on a quest to transport Prince Javi, the least important prince in a long line of princes, to his betrothed. Bad Things follow Risa on her journey and things quickly spiral out of control. Much to her surprise, she also starts to fall for Prince Javi, even if he is a bit of a cad.
(The River She Became #1 — Wednesday Books; June 30, 2026) By day Yaseema is a scholar of ancient artifacts for the Empire. By night she uses magic to find artifacts from her conquered people with the goal of eventually restoring them to their former glory. One of those relics grants her entry to the Fae land across the River where a dangerous item waits. She’s not the only one with eyes on recovering it. Captain Kiyan also wants the artifact for his own purposes, and the two forge a tenuous alliance. Who will betray who first? The cover copy comps this to The Cruel Prince meets The Mummy, and you know what? Sold.
(Peachtree Teen; May 5, 2026) In this reimagining of “Beauty and the Beast,” two teen girls from opposing forces try to stop a war. Adria is from the Shadowlands where humans evolved into supernatural monsters after their planet was struck by a radioactive asteroid. Kori is from the Daylands, humans who fled underground after the cataclysm and who keep their memories of the Before Times stored in microchip implants. When Kori inadvertently becomes Adria’s prisoner, they uncover a conspiracy that will either unite their people or destroy them.
(Quirk Books; May 5, 2026) In New Ionia, a faux Regency utopia with Big Brother technology, Zada is about to meet her soulmate. An algorithm called Heartsong determines everyone’s soulmate for them, and when Zada is introduced to hers, she feels…nothing. At all. He’s fine but he’s not Daphne, her ex-bestie she can’t stop thinking about. The two young women dive into the history of the surveillance tech that runs their lives and try to forge a path all their own.
(Goldenborn #1 — Scholastic Press; June 2, 2026) With her father in a magically-induced coma, Akoma makes money investigating magic crimes with the San Francisco Police Department. During one such investigation, she discovers a body surrounded by molten gold and ash. A series of crimes in AfricaTown seem to be connected, and Akoma is the key to solving them. The trickster god Anansi offers to heal her father and stop the killer in exchange for her tapping into her ancestral magic. A near-future urban fantasy inspired by Ghanaian folklore.
(Page Street YA; May 12, 2026) The small town of Saltview is surrounded by a swamp where a monster roams. For generations, the adults of Saltview are cursed by this monster and one-by-one they succumb to it. Lili, a loner, joins forces with Caleb, a boy on the verge of turning eighteen and contracting the curse like everyone else. He wants out of town and she wants to kill the monster. Maybe the two of them can finally do what no one else has been able to.
(Nancy Paulsen Books; June 23, 2026) Maris’ life is miserable and empty. School sucks, her homelife is lonely, and her girlfriend is probably going to dump her soon. All she has is the cheer team, and she relishes her role as captain. New student Genevieve is her only competition, and Maris will do anything to remove the threat. Up to and including making a deal with an ancient creature that comes to her in her dreams in the form of a decomposing deer.[end-mark]
After months of triage, fostering, and reuniting pets with families displaced by the Eaton Fire, Pasadena Humane has placed its final evacuee: Artemis, a striking German shepherd who became the last animal still waiting for a home.
By the second week of the fire, the shelter had taken in some 600 pets, Hooker said.
So usually I put "ambient" music on in the background while I'm working, usually from Youtube-- but lately everything has gotten VERY AI-heavy and it can be hard to tell what's actually jazz or what's genAI jazz. So I've been collecting some YT channels that promote human-made music! It's a mix of musicians making their own music and various DJs doing sets. There's a few different genres represented, but it's definitely leaning to easy listening/jazz/funk.
Beats The Alternative (1180 words) by Glinda Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Project Hail Mary (2026) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Eva Stratt Additional Tags: Women In Power, Saving the World, Choices, Bittersweet Summary:
The consensus is, that it would be preferable if they did not die.
Mostly this month, I've been watching ice hockey - I did the other kind of skating this weekend - day-dreaming about train journey's across Canada and watching Chernobyl. (There's a bit in the second episode where they go to a meeting and essentially ask permission to kill three men to save millions. I had a bunch of feelings about that combination of bureaucracy and brutal honesty in that exchange - not something you often see in 'saving the world' scenarios - and apparently I'm processing them via fic about Eva Stratt. I love her, your honour.) My escapism method is interesting I'll say that for it... Choices one might say.
One hour, 59 minutes, and 30 seconds. That’s the winning time for Sunday’s London Marathon winner, Sebastian Sawe, who did something no human had ever done before: run a marathon in an official race in under two hours. In case you were wondering, that is an average pace of 4:33 per mile or 13.16 miles per hour. (For comparison, in 1862, a runner named George Farran set the world record for the mile by running at 4:33.)
And yet, not only did Sawe break the 2-hour barrier for a marathon win, but the second-place runner, Yomif Kejelcha, also broke that barrier with a time of 1:59:41–in his marathon debut. A first-time marathoner managed to run one of the two fastest marathons in history, likely because of who he happened to be running next to.
Sawe’s pace was helpful to Kejelcha, and Kejelcha’s pace was helpful to Sawe’s. Both are highly skilled runners, and together, they pushed each other to success. The concept is simple: If we know someone else can do something, then we can too.
It’s why I purposely seek out ambitious and skilled friends, and you should too.
Imagine a world where political servants actually served us, and whose decisions were backed by the will of the people, rather than their greed. If it sounds like fantasy, you may want to check out author Brenda W. Clough’s newest novel, Off the Screen. Follow along in her Big Idea, and remember to vote!
BRENDA W. CLOUGH:
I began Off the Screen more than twenty years ago. There’s a couple major drivers of the work, but the big one is the reboot of American democracy. It’s set in 2160, and at that point I felt that the United States could have refurbished its systems somewhat.
But, in those golden 2000s, I abandoned the work because I couldn’t imagine why we would need to tinker with the system of American governance. Everything was fine, the economy was good, Bill Clinton was president and running things reasonably well. I couldn’t figure out any way to get from here to there. And so I closed the ms.
Well! Hah! When I found the manuscript on a thumb drive in 2025, it was obvious why we had a crying need for a reboot! The problem was plain to see: the serious disconnect between the people and the rulers. We, down here, need stuff done, and we can’t get Congress to do it. The Founding Fathers designed the system to be a representative democracy – we elect our two senators and one congressperson, and they go to Washington and do our will. But it’s not working. We need a fix.
This is not a new idea. Many, many political commentators today are saying this. Every time Heather Cox Richardson talks about what we can do in this moment, she calls for new ideas, new thoughts. Oh honey. You are calling my name!
So for this novel I redesigned America. Congress, that useless buffer, is now drastically pruned back. They are our servants, remember. We pay them to do stuff for us, the same way you pay the guy to mow your lawn or fix your car. We do not pay them to fly in private airplanes and feather their nests with insider trading.
In Off the Screen, the citizens vote. All of us, every American every single day, has to vote. A neat system called DiDem, Digital Democracy, is tied to your online life. What do you do when you get up in the morning? Slug down a cup of coffee perhaps, and pick up your cell phone or open your laptop? In this book, when you swipe your cell open, the first thing that comes up is your ballot for the day. You have to do this before you get to open your email, or text your daughter, or check in with the office – it’s the starter screen of every American, and so it gets done.
Every morning you vote on a simple five issues, so the process takes perhaps a couple minutes. You spend longer finding the creamer to put into your coffee, so this is endurable. Each question is a yes/no vote, a KISS feature (Keep It Simple Stupid) that keeps it down to five taps on the screen. Then you’re free for the rest of the day to download porn or work on your bitcoin, anything. But daily voting in this novel is a requisite for citizenship.
These five questions are necessarily rather crude. Shall we invest in the repair of the Pennsylvania Turnpike? Should we impose economic sanctions upon Boeing? What about invading the Seychelle Islands? Yes or no, make a decision. Once the American people decide, it’s Congress’s job to do it: find the money for the turnpike, declare war against the Seychelles. And then, if that war means we need a bigger Army and maybe a draft, it can go back to DiDem again for more decision making. Do we increase taxes for that bigger army? Do we institute a draft? Yes or no? If we demand the impossible – yes, I want the Seychelles bombed back to the Stone Age, but no I don’t want to pay for it – Congress comes back with another vote: since we won’t pay for this war, do we sue for peace?
And not all questions are important enough to submit to the entire population of the United States of America. If you live in Arizona you may not care about the Penn Turnpike. So, every American votes every day on five questions. But we don’t all see the same five questions. A color-coded system of ranking gets minor questions decided by a smaller segment of the voters. If that first set of voters decides it’s important, it goes up to be voted on by a larger number. So at the end of the day, that decision to invade the Seychelles may get approved by an actual numerical majority of Americans, but it has to pass through a number of lesser votes to get there.
What DiDem gets you is the levers of power in the hands of the people. Congress is demoted to servants, the waiters at the restaurant who take your order and then set the hamburger in front of you. This is delicious to contemplate, isn’t it?
Unfortunately DiDem also means that a lot of stupidity occurs. The international proverb, in this novel, is that Americans cannot agree on which way is up. I think we acknowledge today that people are by and large dumb as stumps. We make idiotic electoral choices that are swayed by crashingly disastrous criteria like fame, race, gender, sexual orientation, wealth, or fingernail color. For heaven’s sake, the Brits voted for Brexit! Even a perfected democracy does not free us from humanity’s innate flaws. Bad political decisions continue to be made in the world of Off the Screen, and I drop my hero Edwin Barbarossa into their chippers.
But he mostly ignores it, because he’s busy with the other Big Idea in this book. Live theater has been slain by AI. Actors exist mainly to be scraped for voices, pretty faces, and luscious boobs. And then someone decides to create the first live original stage musical in a generation. Eddie’s going to write the lyrics and score.
Which means that I had to write the book and lyrics, because they’re in ongoing development through the entire novel. To acquire the rights to quote Sondheim or Oscar Hammerstein would be impossible. Believe it or not, sometimes it’s just easier to write a musical yourself.
And, because the canons of theater demand it, everything comes to a head on opening night: the show, Eddie’s fate, DiDem’s survival. This is the biggest book I have ever written, and if it had appeared in 2000 it would have been magnificently prophetic. But just as well it didn’t. We need it today.
What is the “mummy movie”? If you consider the characteristics of other monster films, their essence easily comes to mind—a vampire movie is about a bloodsucker intent on seducing victims to join the undead; a werewolf movie is about a troubled shapeshifter preying on a rural community; a zombie movie features unnamed hordes ravaging the living. There are fewer mummy movies, which is part of why it’s more difficult to conjure what exactly they are, but they are also, arguably, the least cinematic of the major monsters. They moan, they shuffle, they’re wrapped up in rags. Oooh, I’m so scared?
Through the history of the mummy movie, patterns do emerge, always drawn back to the figure’s Egyptian origins, often exoticized accordingly. With the recent release of Lee Cronin’s The Mummy, which traffics in some of these tropes while ultimately barely registering as a proper mummy movie, and the announcement of Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz returning for The Mummy 4, it seems time to reflect back on the meanings of the mummy across time, and perhaps more interestingly, across regional interpretation. After all, as André Bazin argued in his legendary essay about the ontology of the photographic image, the cinema itself is akin to mummification, as it carries with it the knowledge of death, and the instinct to ward it off: “the preservation of life by a representation of life.”
The earliest examples of mummy movies, arriving early in the twentieth century, are instructive. It’s at this time that a cultural frenzy was occurring over Egyptology in North America and Europe, as major tombs, particularly that of King Tut (finally discovered in 1922), were being sought, found, excavated, and marketed on a global scale. These early shorts, including two both titled The Egyptian Mummy (one a lost film from 1913, the other a Vitagraph Studios short from 1914), told simple comedic tales of corpses run amok, though these were fakes, played by characters trying to get one over on a mad scientist.
Mercy, the Mummy Mumbled (1918) was inspired by these shorts, but further complicated them. Made by an all-Black cast and crew, in this version, the scientist, searching for a mummy to experiment on, tells his daughter’s suitor that he can marry her if his reanimation experiment works (sure, why not). The suitor decides to fake it, acquires a sarcophagus, and hires a shoe shiner to be the mummy. Meanwhile, “Egyptian Emissaries who are searching for the mummy of the Royal Rambunctions stolen years previous by American souvenir hunters” also see the scientist’s ad, and are likewise after the supposed mummy for repatriation. This early inclusion of characters (albeit dressed in era-inappropriate attire) searching for their national heritage, adds a fascinating wrinkle, even if it’s played for humor. The film, it should be noted, was produced by a white-owned company, was largely aimed at white audiences, and other films by the company feature far more racist caricatures than this one. It also may be the first example of a mummy movie with an unravelling gag.
Credit: Universal Studios
The next logical point in the mummy film’s trajectory would be, of course, Boris Karloff’s portrayal in Universal’s The Mummy (1932), which would set the tone for the subgenre to come—curses, archeological expeditions, ancient scrolls, elaborate makeup. Indeed, for most of the film, Karloff is heavily made up as an Egyptian man, only briefly appearing in the mummified rags you might imagine (indeed, Lee Cronin’s new mummy film is only the latest in a long tradition of ostensible “mummy movies” that barely seem interested in mummies at all; more on that in a moment).
Of course, evidence remains scarce that Egyptians ever believed at all in mummification having any connection to reanimation, as it was a sacred practice for protecting souls into the afterlife. Nevertheless, Universal Studios’ now-iconic version, kicked off here with Karloff before following up in The Mummy’s Hand (1940), The Mummy’s Tomb (1942),The Mummy’s Ghost and Curse (both 1944), and, later, Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955), would come to define the West’s public imagining of mummies and, to an extent, Egyptian history and culture. While entertaining, these films contributed to an Orientalist and colonialist lens on the region—all of which, again, rest largely on the hoopla around the supposed “curse” on King Tut’s tomb.
At this point, though, things get more interesting, not only through new interpretations in Hollywood and in Europe, but particularly as other global cultures made use of the mummy figure and, oftentimes, how it fit into their regional myths and histories. Mexican cinema is a primary example: Many luchador films, including those featuring folk hero El Santo, would feature mummies, often alongside other monster characters. Mummies here tend to have some connection to demonic power, and are generally foils for the wrestling star to easily dispatch (Santo and Blue Demon Against the Monsters, from 1970, is one to seek out). Other films, perhaps most notably the Aztec Mummy trilogy (1957-8), more directly tie mummy tropes to Aztec aesthetics and history, in part, reportedly, to avoid copyright infringement considering how heavily screenwriter Alfredo Salazar pulled from Universal’s version. These mummies, though, more closely resembled the Mummies of Guanajuato, naturally mummified bodies that were a popular tourist attraction.
The best of the trilogy is the third entry, The Robot vs. The Aztec Mummy, which, as it happens, is less interested in either robots or mummies than it is in telling a Frankenstein’s monster-like story of “reanimating” a human-robot. In any case, the mummy does show up, looking uncomfortably like Leatherface. The Aztec-Egyptian assemblage does result in inaccurate portrayals of hieroglyphics (Aztecs used pictographs), and Incas actually practiced mummification, not the Aztecs. Even so, the madcap nonsense is ideal viewing while under certain medicinal influences.
Credit: Cinematografica Calderon
Brazil also distributed a number of unique mummy films, including O Segredo da Múmia (The Secret of the Mummy, 1982). The story is similar to the original mummy shorts, as a scientist seeking the elixir of life uncovers an ancient tomb in Egypt, awakening a mummy who happens to be a love-spurned killer. It is, well, rather campy, a practically-softcore, erotically-charged take of anarchic comedy—in Brazil, a subgenre called pornochanchada—that barely holds together. Here, there is less attention paid to localisation, and more to the absurd pastiche of genres, styles, and iconography.
The UK reimagined the mummy through Hammer Films’ less “romantic” interpretation, first in The Mummy (1959), as Christopher Lee played the bandaged monster as a more action-oriented rampager, ultimately offering a more exciting and imposing version, even if it somehow has a more uncomfortable colonial sheen to it than the 1932 version. The next two Hammer mummy films are barely worth mentioning, but their final effort, Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb (1971), is a somewhat intriguing take, even as the mummy as such is sidelined in favor of dark occult happenings and outrageous vulgarisms.
Egypt itself, one of the most successful film industries in the Arab world, has almost entirely ignored the mummy in its cinema. A slight exception would be The Night of Counting the Years (1969), also released as The Mummy, a neo-realist masterpiece which explicitly deals with the moment right before British colonial rule in the country. Taking place in 1881, and based on a true story about the sacking of ancient tombs and the selling of mummies and other relics on the black market, it confronts the value of heritage and tradition, and the threat of the past from outside and from within. As it becomes increasingly mythical, the stolen mummies come to reflect a much broader and thornier meaning of history itself being robbed of its reality.
In recent decades, then, the mummy film has taken on a decidedly populist and, in some cases, postmodern status. There is the franchise with Brendan Fraser (1999, 2001, 2008), massively popular films, simultaneously irresistible as popcorn entertainment and troubling in their obvious and ill-considered Orientalism. That the franchise is making a comeback now, perhaps spurred by the ongoing Fraser renaissance, suggests that its continued relevance goes beyond nostalgia, that there’s something about its swashbuckling, adventurous formula that audiences are again demanding. Then, there was Tom Cruise’s attempt to reboot The Mummy (2017) and kickstart the Universal “Dark Universe,” which was canceled following the film’s failure. If anything, it’s probably best remembered by many today because of the trailer released for the film with the wrong audio track, a video which routinely gets re-shared on social media.
Credit: Vitagraph Films
The best (post)modern take may just be Bubba Ho-tep, Don Coscarelli’s (of Phantasm fame) ridiculous story of a still-alive Elvis Presley teaming up with a dyed-black JFK to battle an ancient, cowboy boot-wearing mummy terrorizing their nursing home by feeding on the souls of its residents through their anuses. It’s both puerile and juvenile, but very funny, and it somehow manages to appropriate the mummy for a moving treatment of aging and what it means to be facing death and confronting your “legacy,” or what you might leave behind. As Elvis asks at one point, “In the end… does anything really matter?”
Perhaps here is the core of the mummy film, whether in 1918 or today: Death is always coming for you, and there’s nothing you can do about it—but maybe being preserved on film is one way to overcome it. That feeling will never go out of style.[end-mark]
Jana Goes Wild by Farah Heron is $2.99! This is Heron’s latest and was recommended on Hide Your Wallet. I remember Sarah being curious about the setting. Have any of you read this one?
The highly acclaimed author of Accidentally Engaged delivers a delightful rom-com of one woman trying to shed her perfect image at a destination wedding with hilarious — and moving — results, perfect for fans of Abby Jimenez and Jasmine Guillory .
Jana Suleiman has never really fit in—everyone always sees her as too aloof, too cool, too perfect. The one time she stepped out of her comfort zone she ended up with a broken heart and a baby on the way. Aaaand lesson learned . Now she’s a bridesmaid for a destination wedding in Serengeti National Park, and almost everyone she knows will be there. Her five-year-old daughter. Her mom. Her friends. Even her potential new boss. And of course (because who doesn’t love surprises!) her gorgeous-but-not-to-be-trusted ex.
Fortunately, Anil Malek is a great dad, even if Jana hasn’t quite forgiven him for lying to her all those years ago. Determined to show he has no effect on her whatsoever, she and the bridesmaids concoct a go-wild list to get Jana through the week. Sing karaoke? Sure. Perform their high school dance routine in front of strangers? Okay. But the more she lets down her guard, the less protection she has against her attraction to Anil. And Jana soon realizes it’s one thing to walk on the wild side . . . and quite another to fall for her ex all over again.
Heresy by Melissa Lenhardt is $1.99! This released in 2018 and I mentioned it in Hide Your Wallet. I was definitely interested in the promise of badass women outlaws.
They were the first and only all-female gang in the American West. Though the newspapers refuse to give them credit, their exploits don’t go unnoticed. Now, they’ve got a rival male gang on their trail and an old score to settle.
Margaret Parker and Hattie LaCour never intended to turn outlaw.
After being run off their ranch by a greedy cattleman, their family is left destitute. As women alone they have few choices: marriage, lying on their backs for money, or holding a gun. For Margaret and Hattie the choice is simple. With their small makeshift family, the gang pulls off a series of heists across the West.
Though the newspapers refuse to give the female gang credit, their exploits don’t go unnoticed. Pinkertons are on their trail, a rival male gang is determined to destroy them, and secrets among the group threaten to tear them apart. Now, Margaret and Hattie must find a way to protect their family, finish one last job, and avoid the hangman’s noose.
Forever My Duke by Olivia Drake is $1.99! This is part of the Unlikely Duchesses series, and one of my favorite tropes in historical romance is the brash American heiress. I mentioned this in a previous Hide Your Wallet because the description promised a lot of banter. Did you read it?
“I find Miss Fanshawe to be quite charming—for an American.”—The Prince Regent
Hadrian Ames, the Duke of Clayton, needs a bride. He even has the perfect one picked out. That is, until he meets the lovely, free-spirited Natalie Fanshawe. She’s the opposite of what a man of his high rank should desire in a wife—an outspoken American who has never even set foot in a London ballroom.
But Natalie doesn’t have time to be swept off her feet by a handsome duke who must be a spoiled scoundrel like every other British lord. And she couldn’t care less about Hadrian’s title. After all, it’s not as if he actually worked to attain his wealth and status. He surely can’t understand what it’s like to be a busy woman, planning to open a school while trying to reunite a six-year-old orphan with his English relatives. Nevertheless, Hadrian launches his campaign to win her heart. Can the utterly delightful American beauty ever find a way to love him…despite his being a duke?
A Market of Dreams and Destiny by Trip Galey is $1.99! This is a queer fantasy romance set in 19th century London. If you like books by Freya Marske and Maiga Doocy, you may like this one.
Enter the bazaar of the bizarre—where fate and fortunes are for sale just beneath Covent Garden—in this high-stakes historical fantasy debut set in 19th-century London, perfect for fans of Neverwhere and The Night Circus.
Below Covent Garden lies the Under Market, where anything and everything has a a lover’s first blush, a month of honesty, five minutes of strength, a wisp of luck and fortune. As a child, Deri was sold to one of the most powerful merchants of the Under Market as a human apprentice. Now, after seventeen years of servitude and stealing his master’s secrets, Deri spots a chance to buy not only his freedom but his place amongst the Under Market’s elite.
A runaway princess escapes to the market, looking to sell her destiny. Deri knows an opportunity when he sees it and makes the bargain of the century. If Deri can sell it on, he’ll be made for life, but if he’s caught with the goods, it will cost him his freedom forever. Now that Deri has met a charming and distractingly handsome young man, and persuaded him that three dates are a suitable price for his advice and guidance, Deri realises he has more to lose than ever.
News of the princess spreads quickly and with the royal enforcers closing in, Deri finds himself the centre of his master’s unwanted attention. He’ll have to pull out all the stops to outmanoeuvre the Master Merchant, save the man he loves, make a name for himself, and possibly change the destiny of London forever.
I'm always tired when I get up, be in 4 am or 8 am, and the question is, will I go back to bed or go birding? This morning I did both; I didn't leave home til 10 o'clock and had a wonderful time. Good to know! Almost at once I heard an Olive-sided Flycatcher, so they've made it into the Canyon. I walked North to the bench hoping to go down Jewel Lake Trail and back up beside the Little Farm, but there was very loud brush clearing in that direction. So after hanging out on the bench for a while I turned back, climbing Laurel Canyon Road as far as last year's Red-breasted Nuthatch nest hole, now blocked, and then down to the bench above the Little Farm. As usual when I don't get to the Lake I was hoping to see a Black Phoebe but could not find one; compensation this time was hearing a Western Tanager. The most exciting observation was a pair of Northern Flickers around a promising hole in a tall, isolated snag. The female appeared to be removing material, and the male seemed to be claiming the territory. I hope I see more activity on subsequent visits. This snag was just behind the snag, now fallen, with the Hairy Woodpecker nest two years ago. ( The list: )
Today the Violet-green Swallows were joined by a few Tree Swallows. I can't distinguish them in flight even with bins, but I can by call, and merlin agrees.:)
I've decided that it should be an annual tradition for me to gather up all my research ducklings for an end-of-year lab celebration. Conveniently, we have a day dedicated to research presentations, so we're going to just use one of the hours for our celebration.
In an ideal world I would have the bandwidth to make the festive drinks and snacks myself. Looking at my calendar for this week, I had to unfortunately conclude that I would need to resign myself to going to a conventional grocery store to obtain premade festive drinks and snacks.
Dear reader, the sticker shock. My usual grocery shopping habits involve purchasing ingredients in bulk from the grocery co-op. The co-op actually works really hard to keep prices down, with an awareness that everybody needs to eat and not everybody is rolling in the dough. Also, bulk raw ingredients and locally-sourced produce are inherently going to be less expensive than anything created and marketed by a middleman.
Somehow I was most amazed by the prices for a bag of chips, easily pushing upwards of $5-6/bag now. All told I still went ahead with my purchase of festive snacks and drinks, but, wow. Guess I'd better not develop a chip-eating habit anytime soon. More than anything, the unevenness of the price hikes fascinates me.
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Right now I'm in the midst of a supply ordering frenzy at work, and a supply ordering frenzy for miscellanea for the rowing club. It's a hectic double-whammy. You might be surprised to learn that rowing our carbon-fiber and fiberglass rowing shells out on a river full of fishing boats and logs results in damage to said vessels. At present it seems the rate of damage is outpacing the rate at which we can carry out repairs, particularly in cases where we have to order specialty replacement parts, sigh.
The ordering frenzy at work is always stressful. I have to sort out which of the various expensive instruments I might possibly be able to afford to replace, then go through whatever rigamarole is involved in getting a quote, sending it to the right person, et cetera et cetera. Right now I'm at the stage of just replacing all the consumables in need of replacement, which I need to do before I will have a sense of what else I can afford.
I'm also going to need to do additional parts management for my Bicycling class fleet, as mentioned previously. For that aspect I don't yet know whether I will be able to pay for things through work, or whether I need to set up a side hustle. The parts aren't going to be insanely expensive, but on the other hand, just on principle I don't really want to join the legion of teachers who pay for supplies out-of-pocket.
Oh, and then there's thinking about what field supplies we might want and need for the summer.
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