Tag: Robin McLean

May 2025 Books and Reading Notes
May was a pretty good month for both reading and acquiring reading material. A brief illness over the Memorial Day weekend allowed me more quiet time, and I took advantage of it by binge-reading the excellent Kraken Rider Z books. This was the first time I binge-read a series in at least a decade. Highly recommended.

Acquisitions
1. Jim Harrison, The Theory and Practice of Rivers (Copper Canyon Press) [2025.05.06] – Purchased from the publisher.
2. Frank O’Hara, Lunch Poems (City Lights Books) [2025.05.07] – Purchased from The Book Nook and Java Shop in Montague, Michigan
3. Jack Hirschman, Front Lines: Selected Poems (City Lights Books) [2025.05.07] – Purchased from The Book Nook and Java Shop in Montague, Michigan
4. Naomi Klein, Doppelganger [2025.05.09] – Purchased from Books and Mortar in Grand Rapids, Michigan
5. Soliloquey #2 [2025.05.13] – Purchased from the author at a Grand River Poetry Collective meeting.
6. Dan Davies, The Unaccountability Machine: Why Big Systems Make Terrible Decisions and How the World Lost Its Mind (The University of Chicago Press) [2025.05.19] – Purchased from the publisher after reading about it in a comment on a Naked Capitalism post.
7. Metal Hurlant #1 [2025.05.20] – From a Kickstarter campaign run by the publisher.
8. SJ Kim, This Part is Silent – A Life Between Cultures (And Other Stories) [2025.05.23] – Received from the publisher.
9. Heavy Metal #001 [2025.05.27]
Reading List

Books
1. Robin McLean, Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing [2025.05.08]
2. Frank O’Hara, Lunch Poems [2025.05.13]
3. Soliloquy #2 [2025.05.19]
4. Dyrk Ashton and David Estes, Kraken Rider Z [2025.05.24]
5. Dyrk Ashton and David Estes, Kraken Rider Z: Thunder Kraken [2025.05.26]
6. Jack Hirschman, Front Lines: Selected Poems [2025.05.31]
Short Prose
1. Kameron Hurley, “When the Stars Fell” (Patreon post) [2025.05.01]
2. Jim C. Hines, “Launch Day Milkshakes” (Patreon post) [2025.05.01]
3. Kameron Hurley, “The Wake” (Patreon post) [2025.05.01]
4. Kameron Hurley, “The Sea of Ruin” (Patreon post) [2025.05.01]
5. Robin McLean, “Get ’em Young, treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing”, Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing [2025.05.02]
6. Robin McLean, “True Carnivores”, Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing [2025.05.02]
7. Robin McLean, “Big Black Man”, Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing [2025.05.02]
8. Robin McLean, “Judas Cradle”, Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing [2025.05.03]
9. Robin McLean, “Cat”, Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing [2025.05.03]
10. Robin McLean, “House Full of Feasting”, Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing [2025.05.04]
11. Robin McLean, “Cliff Ordeal”, Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing [2025.05.06]
12. Robin McLean, “Alpha”, Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing [2025.05.08]
13. Jim C. Hines, “The Haunting of Jig’s Ear” (Patreon post) [2025.05.19]
14. Frey Lylark, “Changeling” (Patreon post by Apex Book Company) [2025.05.20]
2025-06-01
Weekly Round-up, May 3, 2025
[The Sixth Street Dam in Grand Rapids, Michigan, viewed from the east bank, just south of the dam.]

This past week was the first in several months in which I worked less than 45 hours. But I had many other tasks outside of work, which kept me quite busy. I have the next week off from work, and have no plans, other than the plan to not plan anything for the week.

Reading

I am slowly reading through Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing, a collection of short stories by Robin McLean. They’re pretty good.

Writing

Nothing to report on this front.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Aliens, Language
Setting: Border Town
Genre: Solarpunk

Listening

Billy Idol‘s “The Dead Next Door,” from his superb 1983 album Rebel Yell. I have had a snippet of an earworm stuck in my head for a few days, and while it is not this song, “The Dead Next Door” came up while I was searching.

Interesting Links
- “A Gutted Education Department’s New Agenda: Roll Back Civil Rights Cases, Target Transgender Students” (Jennifer Smith Richards and Jodi S. Cohen, ProPublica) – Because MAGA is a hate group which views education as a threat, and views anyone who isn’t a straight white man as less than human.
- “China Leapfrogging the U.S. in Tech Innovation” (Yves Smith, Naked Capitalism)
2025-05-03
April 2025 Books and Reading Notes
April was a good month for acquiring books from independent publishers.

April was an okay month for reading. My work-life balance was, yet again, significantly tipped toward the work side of things, which took from me much of my reading time, and left me unable to focus for what little time remained.

I suspect in the coming months I will be acquiring fewer books, due to supply-chain disruption and the inevitable recession and increased inflation.

Acquisitions
1. Our Dust Earth (Air and Nothingness Press) [2025.04.07] – Acquired through a Kickstarter campaign run by Air and Nothingness Press
2. Gerald Murnane, Barley Patch (And Other Stories) [2025.04.14] – The latest arrival from my subscription to And Other Stories.
3. Kateřina Čupová (Julie Nováková, translator), R.U.R.: The Karel Čapek Classic (Rosarium Publishing) [2025.04.14] – Reward for a Kickstarter campaign run by the always-excellent Rosarium Publishing
4. Lesley Connor and Jason Sizemore (editors), Robotic Ambitions (Apex Book Company) [2024.04.21]
Reading List

Books
1. China Miéville, The City and the City [2025.04.13]
2. Richard Brautigan, Trout Fishing in America [2025.04.17]
3. Richard Brautigan, The Pill versus the Springhill Mine Disaster [2025.04.20]
4. Richard Brautigan, In Watermelon Sugar [2025.04.23]
Short Prose
1. Robin McLean, “But for Herr Hitler”, Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing [2025.04.24]
2. Robin McLean, “Pterodactyl”, Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing [2025.04.25]
2025-05-01