The Song Behind Today’s Review Title

In June of 1978 CBS Records released a studio double album called Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of the War of the Worlds. I don’t recall hearing anything about this album before seeing it on the rack at the music store in the local mall one day. I can’t tell you for sure what year that would have been, but I seem to recall it was fall. Probably it was 1978. Anyway, I bought it, took it home and put Side One on the stereo turntable that evening.

From the first sound — the spoken words of introduction from narrator Richard Burton — I was hooked. This is, simply, one of the coolest concept albums ever. The mix of spoken word narration and music that combines guitar, synthesizer and orchestral instruments carry the story along. As I recall the album came with a booklet of artwork that added to the overall impact.

Now, I know I also picked a song from a concept album for last week’s title too. I promise I did not pick two concept albums in a row on purpose. I will say though, that this week’s album is not as well-known as the Pink Floyd album of last week. If you’ve never heard this album, carve out a couple of hours on a lazy day and pull it up on your favorite musical streaming service. It is a masterpiece. (The album as a YouTube playlist is here.)

The song Forever Autumn is the fifth track. With music by Jeff Wayne and lyrics by Gary Osborne and Paul Vigrass, it is sung by Justin Hayword of the Moody Blues (who will be forever known as “the voice” of Nights in White Satin). The song is about lost love, and how life has changed because the singer’s lover is no longer here. That mourning of someone absent is a direct call to one of today’s books. It doesn’t hurt that the line occurs in the midst of a retelling of a classic science fiction tale. And that tale is full of anxious moments for its protagonists.

Okay so maybe that last line was a stretch to try to connect to today’s second book. Regardless, Forever Autumn is a great song, and you can hear it in all its War of the Worlds glory on this YouTube. Or you could listen to Justin Hayward, in a 2023 performance, tell the story behind the song and then sing it on this YouTube.

Absence is an ambitious novel by Andrew Dana Hudson. The premise? People, sometimes by themselves, sometimes in “clusters”, simply disappear. One minute they are there, then, with a popping sound, they are gone. People pop. They are no longer there. No one can explain it. No one knows what happens to those who have popped, where they go, and whether they are living or dead. They just disappear.

This has been going on for several years now, and the world has found ways to cope with the anxiety and lack of knowing that this phenomenon has engendered. For one thing, the government has formed the Bureau of Depopulation Affairs to track the disappearances and to make sure that folks are not trying to commit fraud or murder under the guise of a false pop. It’s at the Bureau that our protagonist, Harvey Ellis, works as a kind of investigator.

One day his boss calls him in and asks him to take a trip to rural Kansas to investigate a woman who claims to have returned after having popped. So far, no one has ever been known to have returned. No one even knows if “returning” is possible.

What follows is a combination of a police procedural, a vision of societal breakdown, a meditation on religion and belief, and a rumination on our mortality and the fragility of life. It’s very well done, with each new scene and event building on the ones before in a slow but satisfying revelation. There is some repetitiveness, and the book went a bit too long to reach its clever conclusion. But those are quibbles that didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the book.

This is a science fiction story that is more fiction than science. For my tastes that would not normally be a positive statement. But in this case, it works beautifully. As I read, I started picturing its events as part of a TV miniseries, and my mind went to the adaptation of Emily St John Mandel’s Station Eleven. All of which is to say that I think Absence is a fine American novel. Read it for a window into a dystopian future, and a reflection back to our own lives.

RATING: Four and a Half Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐🌠

OVERALL COMMENTS: A debut sci-fi that is more fiction than science and is in fact a fine American novel. Read it for a window into a dystopian future, and a reflection back to our own lives.

WHERE I GOT MY COPY: I received an advance reviewer’s copy of the ebook through NetGalley, and courtesy of the publisher Soho Press. The book is available to the public starting today, May 5, 2026.

Addicted to Anxiety is a self-help book by a UK-based author. The book comes from the author’s own experience as a psychotherapist to posit that anxiety is best overcome if it’s treated like an addiction. That is an interesting premise. The author freely admits that anxiety addiction is not an official diagnosis. But treating anxiety like an addiction, based on his experience and clinical evidence, is effective.

The book is divided into three parts. In Section One you meet your anxious self and learn why anxiety is (or can be treated like) an addiction. Section Two covers steps to break the anxiety addiction, and Section Three offers advice on reclaiming your less anxious life, and words of hope and the future.

If you or someone in your life suffer from anxiety this book offers help. The reader will gain a better understanding of what causes over-anxiousness, and be armed with tools to address their anxiety addiction.

RATING: Three Stars ⭐⭐⭐

OVERALL COMMENTS: A self-help book for those suffering from anxiety. It offers practical steps to break the anxiety addiction and reclaim your life.

WHERE I GOT MY COPY: I received an advance reviewer’s copy of the ebook through NetGalley, and courtesy of the publisher St Martin’s Press. The book is available to the public starting today, May 5, 2026.

The other books on my nightstand over the last week:

ONE BOOK I’M CURRENTLY READING

WHAT’S NEXT

Next week I’ll review American Rambler by Isaac Fitzgerald. It’s the story of the author’s year-long walk from Massachusetts to Indiana, in the footsteps of Johnny Appleseed.