@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @@@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@ Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society Club Notice - 9/4/87 -- Vol. 6, No. 10 MEETINGS UPCOMING: Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are on Wednesdays at noon. LZ meetings are in LZ 3A-206; MT meetings are in the cafeteria. _D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C 09/16 LZ: THE UPLIFT WAR by David Brin (Future Histories) 09/23 MT: The Vampire in SF (Lee, Matheson, Saberhagen, Sturgeon, Wilson) HO Chair: John Jetzt HO 1E-525 834-1563 mtuxo!jetzt LZ Chair: Rob Mitchell LZ 1B-306 576-6106 mtuxo!jrrt MT Chair: Mark Leeper MT 3E-433 957-5619 mtgzz!leeper HO Librarian: Tim Schroeder HO 3M-420 949-5866 homxb!tps LZ Librarian: Lance Larsen LZ 3L-312 576-6142 lzfme!lfl MT Librarian: Bruce Szablak MT 4C-418 957-5868 mtgzz!bds Factotum: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 957-2070 mtgzy!ecl All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted. 1. I have been requested to point out that not only do Middletown people seem uninterested in discussing books without a sandwich in their hands, they seem to be unwilling to put any effort into reading books either. Our intrepid librarian Bruce Szablak sits day after day in the club library in MT 4C-418 and nobody comes to visit the library. Poor Bruce gets paler day by day (he had a deep tan and dark hair when he took the job of librarian). And why? Is it that the library has little to offer? No, the great fantasy works of all times line the drawers. Books full of adventure, ideas, SEX, action, prediction, and God knows what else. Come, save Bruce from fading to nothing and dying of ennui. READ SOMETHING! Jeez! Mark Leeper MT 3E-433 957-5619 ...mtgzz!leeper THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST by Anne Tyler Berkeley, 1986(1985c), ISBN 0-425-09291-7, $4.50. A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1987 Evelyn C. Leeper When I returned from Readercon this year, I had a huge reading list of all the suggestions made by people there. Oddly, enough, though I'm sure this book was mentioned, it was on that list. Then I found myself with some time to kill in a friend's bathroom, and this book was there.... The characters are certainly interesting: Mason, a man who writes travel books for people who hate to travel, telling them where they can get decaffinated coffee in Paris and what restaurants in Tokyo have Sweet 'n' Low, his sister Rose who has even more of a penchant for organizing things than he does, and Muriel, the free-spirited dog trainer who suddenly comes into Mason's life. What makes it hard to write this review is that the characters are so like me and people that I know. One character, for example, is described as having a kitchen so alphabetized that you would find the any poison next to the allspice. Well, I don't alphabetize to that extent, but I must admit that I _d_o alphabetize my spice rack. (Well, how else could anyone find anything? I mean, all those little jars look alike.) Muriel is exactly the opposite. Living a life of refined chaos, she buys her clothing in thrift stores and makes a living at about a half dozen jobs, including dog training and errand running. Her son Alexander is just about the age that Mason's son Ethan would have been, and Mason is attracted to him as much as to Muriel. But he still yearns for the comfortable and ordered life that he had before all this happened. This book is not so much about what happens, but about how people react to what happens. The disorderliness of the universe is contrasted with Mason's desire for a plan for everything. His life is changed by chance happenings, accidental meetings, odd turnings. The ending is not pat, not neat, but it is realistic. Few recent books that I have read can equal this as a study in character. And for people who think of themselves as organized, this book is a must.