Richardderus 2013 thread 7

I have a category called Orphans, which will still catch all the other reading I do in 2013. Thinking 60 reviews as my target.

My 2013 ORPHANED books ticker:




I want to treat the Short Story collection challenge as a ticker-to-itself thread, thinking 48 reviews as my goal. I'll keep the thread over in the Short Stories forum.

My 2013 SHORT STORY collections ticker:




I'm going to keep a mystery-genre thread over in Crime, Thriller, and Mystery forum, with a goal of 50 reviews. Way way way too many of my reviews this year, in all forums, were mysteries and thrillers, and while I love them, I don't want to get too rut-ified and read only those books while keeping up my self-made review writing census.

My MYSTERY & THRILLER books ticker:




THIS THREAD is the 75 challenge for 2013, which will be non-fiction and non-genre-fiction books published in 2012 and 2013, plus recommendations from other 75ers.

My last thread of 2012.

My 2013 NEW books ticker:




Book 1...thread one.
Books 2 & 3...thread two.
Book 4...thread three.
Book 5...thread five.

Books are reviewed in post:

6. Fight Song: A Novel...#236.

7. Under the Hill: Bomber's Moon...#302.

Whoever Helen Exley is, she's correct!

Good Morning Richard Dear! I must say I love your posts last thread reagarding Valentine's Day. In a city north of where I live they have SAD the day after Valentines day. It is at a bar and SAD stands for (Singles Awareness Day) a ploy to get singles to go out and drink of course. LOL.. I sure hope you and Stella are having a wonderful weekend so far.. :)

*mine* :)

Nice new thread Richard. Hope you are having a good weekend.

Good morning, Padre!

>4 MonicaLynn: Heh...SAD! That's cute. Aimed at straight people, no doubt, making it another heterosexist occasion.

>5 calm: Hi calm!

>6 London_StJ: Crypto! How wonderful to see you! *smooch*

*drive-by smooch*

*ponders whether to continue giving Roni the Silent Treatment*

Naaah *smooch*

"Today is Book Day" No date necessary--around here every day is Book Day.

>10 laytonwoman3rd: My thoughts exactly, Linda3rd.

10. Hear! Hear!

hehe Tiny brain read SAD day as Seasonal Affective Disorder day because around 14th Feb is when it lifts for many people. For a flash second I tried to imagine all the people with SAD coming out of their houses for the first time to socialise, rather like bears out of hibernation.
{edited to fix incorrect word}

>12 PawsforThought: Hi Paws!

>13 tiffin: Heh. I think SAD is a form of hibernation, Tui, a kind of "no thanks I think I'll pass" to wintertime.

You are a sweet curmudgeon! *dances around dispensing smooches*

Hi Richard!

Just marking a small little comfy corner on your wonderful new thread *smile*

Reading nook for this thread.

>15 ronincats: *capers around after Roni*

>16 drachenbraut23: See above...nook is open!

>17 richardderus: Nice!

>19 kidzdoc: I love it for its simplicity.

OH Dibs on the reading nook!!

14. That's not quite what SAD (I only know it as Seasonal Affective Disorder, but I'm sure there are variations on it) is. It obviously varies from person to person how much you are affected by it but it is a fairly serious form of depression. Not usually bad enough to require medication but enough to make people handicapped.

Repeat visitors, look at #3!

Love the reading nook. But look at what I found!

Nice nook.

Awesome cube shelves flower thingy too :)

Ill take one of each- why not?

(and a comma seat too)

>24 ronincats: Cool! I look at that room, though, and think "where on earth could I sit?"

>25 LovingLit: I like that comma thing too, Maude, but to me it looked like an ottoman not a seat! Since once seated on it I would be there until the Grim Reaper came for me, I guess I don't see that appeal.

I have heard the word ottoman before, but we dont use it here. So Im not really sure what it is. Too many legs for a poof, not enough back support for a chair.....too stumpy for a bench.....*furniture name confuddlement*

An ottoman is a tallish foot-resting-place that's as wide and as tall as a chair. Narrower, shorter, smaller ones are called footrests or footstools, depending on geographical location of speaker and spoken-about.

furniture name confuddlement partially resolved

*smooch*

*smooch* because you are fabulous!

*passing by*

I am disinclined to participate in furniture discussions. Don't like the flower thingie, really. Too much dusting ! Hard to find the book I want. Hard to browse.

Onwards, I think I'll go read in a few minutes.

just staking a place for meself... will catch up as soon as I can....

There is a nice wingback chair just out of sight, just for you......

RD- Congrats on the new thread! Is that young man at the top, doing what I think he might be doing? Must be an excellent book!

In love with room in #17!!

>17 richardderus: I'm in love with that cozy nook. Aside from the fussy flower arrangement on the mantle, there is nothing I'd change...

Hello RD! Hope you are well this fine night!

Hello Ricardo! Love the book nook and I'd take the flower thingy, but with different chairs. Smooches!

Sorry Roni but I prefer RD's nook on this occasion - beautifully lit and stylish; I would spend too many minutes entranced by the design of your bookcases.

My Gran and Mother always had an Ottoman or two around the house and it is hollowed out to keep linen and towels etc if I am not mistaken.

Congratulations on your latest splendid thread.

It isn't like you to show an opening pic with a guy bashing off to Dickens! It would seem that he has a grip on Oliver's Twist.

Book table. Put a drink on it and die, at least at my house.

38. Put a drink on it and die

In my house, too.

It's a beautiful thing.

>29 LovingLit: *waistbow* I am pleased to have eddyoomakated your august self.

>30 luvamystery65: Awww! Thanks, Roberta.

>31 maggie1944: Furniture is fascinating to me. It answers some actual or perceived need, so it's a wonderful lens into how people at a time and in a place lived, or wanted to live.

>32 mckait: Hiya sweetness!

>33 msf59: Hope he has plenty of tissues. Leavings, shall we say, in books are most stringently verboten in this milieu.

>34 TinaV95: I know, me too Tina!

>35 Copperskye: Flower arrangements have no place in my world. Dead sex organs do not cause me pleasure.

Finally making it to your new thread now that my internet is working properly again. I'll be in the reading nook if you need me.

>36 Berly: *smoochiesmoochsmooch* Hi Kimmers!

>37 PaulCranswick: DICKens, get it? Heh! Hollowed-out ottomans, what a *stellar* idea!

>39 PawsforThought: Amen, soul sibling.

>43 Crazymamie: ...and the pancakes...?

xoxo

Sound familiar?

Such incredible book porn this morning, I am positively swooning, and then topped off with pancakes. Ow ow ow

Oh, I love popping in here for a good book meme.

rdear, will you share those beautiful pancakes?

hugs

>46 Crazymamie: *gobblegobbleslurpgobblemunchmunch*

Thank you, Mamie dear!

>47 sibylline: *sssshhhh* nobody tell ma belle cousine about the bacon

>48 London_StJ: I'm good for those. *smooch* for dear Crypto

>49 mckait: ...weeelll...since it's you, okay. xo

>46 Crazymamie: More, please!

>51 kidzdoc:

" Leavings, shall we say, in books are most stringently verboten ..." Amen, my friend! I hope your day is going well. It's sunny and cold here.

30mph winds, bright sunshine, and 35F. Pretty great early-spring day, I'd say.

Just stopped by to say hi. Instead, I see >52 richardderus: and am now all *drool*.

>55 Storeetllr: *hands Mary a chin-cloth* Here ya go, dearie:

Mean, Richard. Just mean. *wipes chin* Those images are making me want to lick the monitor screen.

>45 richardderus: casted? as in "thrown about"? the book was flung perfectly? i declare.

and a very happy bright early spring day to you, RD. we're having one, too, but it's too cold for my pieces parts so i'm enjoying it from within.

58. "Casted" as in had the right actors in it. The cast.

>57 Storeetllr: Revenge for the FB Kindle conversation. Payback's a bear, eh what?

>58 mirrordrum: No, "thrown about" is "cast." The irregular plural is that verb, the regular plural indicates the usage "to create a slate of players who perform a specific work for you" of "to cast."

>59 PawsforThought: Which you said more concisely.

>45 richardderus:: The only book I ever saw perfectly translated to the screen was Brideshead Revisited, in the BBC production with Anthony Andrews and Jeremy Irons. Beautifully filmed, perfectly acted; a joy to behold.
Oh, and long enough, too.

*waves* lest I'm forgotten again.....

61. Oh, I love that mini-series. Anthony Andrews was DIVINE in it. It's been quite a while since I saw it but I still feel a stab of pain in my heart when I think about it.
Oh, Sebastian...

I haven't read the book yet (shame on me).

>59 PawsforThought:, 60 pish, i say, pish! it should be "perfectly cast" or "cast perfectly," not casted. i admit, i'm being stodgy. i have looked it up and find that, whether i like it or not, casted is "gaining ground," esp. in the theatrical sense. however, i reserve the right to take umbrage. or rue or thyme or whatever.

also, i got hung up on a detail which is petty. if i were ever to wish a book were to be made into a movie, then that quotation would be spot on. so i have been both stodgy and petty all in one fell swoop. not bad for one post. betcher glad i dropped in.

64. Absolutely, that is the grammatically correct way.

Man, those pancakes have got some height on them!
Im willing to try....I think the more bulk to a pancake, the more mass to soak up the syrup.
*slurp slurp*

Mmmmmm- Perfectly syruped pancakes ;)

I never could understand the allure of American style pancakes. In my world, pancakes are flat (hence the saying). Oven-made pancakes are thicker, but they're more like puddings.

These are pancakes (2-3 millimeters thick):

Look like crepes to me....

>38 richardderus:: visions of pages getting caught and folded. Ack! As someone who insists on people using bookmarks in her books, not folding them over arms of chairs etc., this gives me the heebie jeebies.

>61 Matke: I saw that adaptation once, as I recall it was fascinating about half the time and plodding about half the time. Which means it adapted the book perfectly!

>62 tloeffler: Oh hello there! eeerrrmmm, ahhh, you!

>63 PawsforThought: If you've seen the mini, the novel is just the mini between paper covers.

>64 mirrordrum: No. That's no more correct than pedantically correcting a sports writer's sentence, "Player X flied out," to read, "Player X flew out." That is simply applying a Procrustean insistence on all usages remaining static, not accepting that words take on new connotations and denotations all the time, and they always have. It's not stodgy of you; it's reactionary!

The petty part, now, we can agree on, quite a lot of the time.

>65 PawsforThought: see above.

>66 LovingLit: I'm an even bigger fan of well-buttered pancakes than well-syruped ones.

>67 PawsforThought: We all enjoy the familiar-to-us presentations of foods.

>67 PawsforThought: oyez, oyez, Paws! and i like irish pancakes with lemon and powdered sugar. mmmmmm. of course, i like the thicker griddle cakes too.

>68 maggie1944: Me too.

>69 tiffin: No way on this wide green earth to please everyone, never has been and never will be.

>72 mirrordrum: They're quite tasty! But they aren't the ONLY WAY a pancake can be made.

wow! pedantic, Procrustean, reactionary, wrong and petty. i'm rackin' 'em up today. i *must* come here more often. keeps what ego i have left from gaining any ground.

>74 mirrordrum: ...and now we can add "facetious" to the pile! You are really rackin' 'em up there, Miss Ellie! Perkins! Perkins! Be sure our dear Miss Ellie's doors are locked, we don't want her flinging herself off any bridges.

*smooch*

These pictures are making my mouth water!

68 & 73. Crêpes are smaller and filled with something or other. Those are just rolled up pancakes. They do look alike, though.

Paws for Thought: I eat crepes all by themselves frequently. Eggs, milk, and flour make a goodly amount of calories, and with a touch of lemon they are very tasty, too.

79. Oh, they're most definitely full of calories. I eat them with jam or ice-cream, which doesn't exactly help things...

Thanks for sharing the pancakes :) yummy!

I am just back from doing some errands and have a pot of sloppy joes cooking for Dan.

How are you today?

82. So, so true.

I applaud the quote on top of your thread! I live for self-learning and independent thinking. Gracious, my whole life has been developed by that principle!

*drops Richard a smooch*

Also, those pictures of crepes are killing me. I need to learn how to make gluten-free crepes. There must be a way!

84. Eris, I think the place I took the pancake pic from was a gluten-free recipe page. There are definitely recipes out there.

Hallo RD!

Hope you're having a good day. I love the idea of fresh homemade buttermilk pancakes with real butter and maple syrup.... yum.

'lo, RD. hope your relative absence doesn't bode ill.

i like buckwheat cakes meself. mmmmhmmmm. not thin ones, either.

Can I put my order in? I would like a #17, 24, 46 .... Not only am I hungry now but I also have a terrible case of nook envy.

>82 richardderus: So true. So true.

Feeling crappy, hit my knee and now it's not only very painful but bleeding (for over 2hrs now).

Skin stretched over acid crystals doesn't scab up quickly, esp. when the crystals start coming out with the blood.

I won't die, but it takes a while to fix, and leaves me pretty testy.

oh, chit! that's gotta frackin' hurt. i'm so sorry. you actually bleed crystals? wow. i looked them up and they're like needles. i'd say you deserve to be very testy indeed.

*smooch* dearest Richard.

#89 - Oh, dear. Oh, my dear, dear Richard. I'm going to be a complete annoying Catholic and pray for you again. Hope you don't mind, love. *hug*

(And even if you did mind, I would still do it anyway. Mwahahahahaha!)

One more thing (just a small item for your consideration): my dad very nearly got the same problem that you have. His legs were starting to swell and collect fluid, and his joints were crapping out on him. The one thing that stopped it was removing gluten from his diet. Maybe you could consider lessening wheat and other of its kind from your diet, and see if it helps you. I don't know for sure though, and I'm not a medical expert. I just know getting off of gluten helped my dad, and I hate the fact that you suffer.

I'll bugger off now. *smooch*

:(

healing mojo>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch! Be careful!

And I absolutely LOVE the sentiment in #82!

Boo hiss! Hate that you have injured your knee! Smoochies for your knee, RD. Big hugs. Hope your knee feels better by the time you're reading this!

Love this!

I wish this bleeding would stop...the trickle of blood dissolves the smaller crystals and they sting, the bigger ones try to make their way out and the whole process is pissin' me off. Gout sucks!!

And here's a pretty song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hvX3lXViXI

>96 richardderus: LOL!!

Richard, trying to skim through and see what kind of weekend-plus you had. I agree completely with your assessment of the adaptation of Brideshead Revisited -- half interesting, half plodding (I fell asleep, I admit) and about spot on.

It appears that the furnace drama at your house has died down and dare I say that spring is just around the corner, bringing you and Stella easier days.

I'm sitting here listening to Jonatha Brooks' album "The Works"(do you know this piece of artistry? It's truly marvelous), eating popcorn, drinking red wine, and catching up on LT. What better ending to a 3-day weekend that brought 35+ elk, a bald eagle, and more moss than one can imagine?

So sorry to hear about your knee! Boo hiss!

Knee. I missed that.
I am so sleepy I am useless.
I hope you are okay.

67 > Now those look like 'real' pancakes .....

Just checking in, and worrying about your knee and your blood and your crystals. I do so hope things are better today.

Went several weeks without my wireless connection here at home. I see we are on Thread 7...hate to think how many I have missed. Will try harder to stay current.

Everybody around here is gearing up for a big blizzard due in a couple of days. Might be interesting. People are scattered pretty thin on the ground in this part of Nebraska...not quite "every man for himself," but we do mostly have to look out for ourselves in small groups. I have food, a warm bed, a cat, and internet access. I should be fine.

*sending healing mojo*

Dear heart, I am sitting here hoping as much as I can that the g.d. gout has retreated a step or two and that today's condition is more conducive to enjoying life.

Boo boo better today? I HATE hurting myself, it makes me mad.
Hopefully today is a good day for you in all ways and all parts :)

Ugh sorry to hear you hurt yourself! Hope it stopped bleeding and hope you had a good night!

Thanks for the healing wishes, all! I'm still oozing and my knee still hurts a lot. It's terrible for me not to respond personally to y'all, but I will later today I hope. I'm here to make sure your kindness and good wishes aren't ignored!

hugs and love

Richard, back up to the top of your thread.

Which book(s) changed your life?

I'm sorry you are in pain. I wish there were a cure for gout.
Drat!

My neighbor knocked on the door a few days ago asking if I had any prednoisne. He could feel a gout attack coming on and wanted to nip it.

Arggh, gout. My sympathy. More healing wishes to you.

woke up thinking about your knee and the crystals and all the things you're experiencing that don't get told, can't be explained, have to be lived (through). i know pain can totally frack the appetite but just in case, i've brought some enchiladas con queso, arros y frijoles. will schlep over some hummingbird cake if sweet sounds better. often helps my endolphins more than anything. take care, caro mio.

I'm dipping in and out of LT between shrieks of outrage. Our village forgot to pick up trash and recycling on our street today, and they don't seem inclined to come and get it now that they know this. I'm in a foul humor from the pain anyway, but this is puttin' me over the edge in a big way.

Ellie, how perfect! Mexican food sounds scrumptious.

HI RD!
(Im yelling to be heard over your shouting out the window at the non-existent rubbish collectors)

Those enchiladas look like the stuffed pancakes I make...sort of. Make a normal (for NZ, = a flat non-sweetened) pancake, roll up some risotto in it, put them in a dish lined up like sardines, and chuck some diced tomatoes over, smother with grated cheese and bake it!

YUM-O

(((((hugs)))) for annoyances of any variety, but mainly pain and pains in the a$$!

How's the knee, darling Richard? I don't know anything about gout, but the crystals sound mighty painful. (((hugs))) and healing knee whammy!

I don't know about the others, but while you're having this "slight difficulty" I certainly do not need you to acknowledge me personally and individually for posting some good wishes on your thread. You can just say, "hi!" or "thanks" or even, mercy me: "thx" to us all and leave it at that. I'll just add that I wish for this to be over with NOW or sooner! Damn flares.

Yeah... they skipped us twice over the holidays. Bastiches.

No better huh? Sorry... that purely stinks.

hugs

Hi RD- First the gout! And now the garbage? Sounds shitty, my friend. Hope the evening is going better!

Oh Richard, I'm so sorry -- you are having a lousy week so far. Pain, skipped trash pickup... I mean, sheesh! Or perhaps an expression less mild would fit.
Don't worry about responding personally and individually. I'm with Karen -- just take care of yourself and we'll keep checking in on you.
Bourbon and Ginger Ale, perhaps?

Or we could throw a party here to make him feel better. What say ye folks? ;)

oh dear. Is that normal of gout to still be oozing so many hours later?
Sending more healing vibes your way!! *heal*heal*heal*now!*

Richard, I'm thinking about you tonight. Words fail to express how much I wish you did not have to struggle with this terrible illness.

Richard sending you lots of positive healing vibes and {{{huggs}}} your way and I hope that you will feel better soon.
Well, I can understand that if you don't feel well that something like the rubbish problem can freak you out. Could happen to me as well.

I also hope that your oozing stopped now. I don't know enough about gout, but I wonder the same as Chelle is it normal to ooze that long`?

Sorry to hear you are in particular pain and dealing with non-existent trash collectors on top of everything. Why does the universe conspire to send us additional practical problems when we've got too much to deal with already?

Hope things improve for you soon.

Book porn!

>123 richardderus: beautiful, also the chair looks very uncomfortable. That room with a more comfy chair, a wonderful reading lamp *sigh* Any day *smile*

Good morning, RD!

I'm sorry to hear that your gout has reared its ugly head and hope you have relief soonest.

Bad trash guys. We have to take ours to the dump. We recycle steel cans, aluminum cans, paper, milk jugs/soda bottles, glass, and cardboard. Every weekend. Last weekend I finally took my old computer - the one I stopped using in 2007 when I got my first laptop.

I hope that you've at least got a good book or two or five to read...?

*smooches*

RD, I am so angry that the health care hasn't come through for you just yet. I hate it that you are suffering. And suffering for so long it is normal to you. I am cursing loudly and colorfully in my mind at the powers that be that are so slow.

123. Gorgeous!

Love the book porn, Richard.
Sending you LOTS of healing smooches!!!!

>123 richardderus: Oh my, I want to live there. But I agree with Bianca about the chair. I'll bring a more comfortable one.



Hope today's a better one for you.

Realised I hadn't de-lurked in a while, so here I am :) Hope that you are starting to feel better. I was thinking of you today walking to work - beautiful clear blue skies for about the 5th day running, but only about 5 degrees c. Chilly but stunning - figured you and Stella would like that :)

Heh.

Day three of broken skin oozing acid crystals in lymph. This is not, according to the ER, emergent. "You skinned your knee, and you came here?" said the triage nurse.

I apologize for being in a foul foul humor and not hanging around.

Yep, it makes me drool, too (the bookstore, not the ooze).

So sorry about the oozing of acid. :-(

Triage nurse: Unfeeling wench.

"Having abandoned what Franzen called “the depressed literary inner city,” we have pushed out from the suburbs into even more discrete exurbs, our literature as ersatz as the McMansion subdivisions that riddle the landscape, our homes decorated with the inoffensive West Elm trappings of workshop fiction."

And so few see it as a problem. Where is the Erskine Caldwell, the Steinbeck, the Sinclair Lewis of this century? Katherine Boo? Hasn't got the chops. Hitchens? Dead. And neither is a novelist, a storyteller, a vivifier.

Full article: http://www.themillions.com/2013/02/detroit-fiction-escaping-the-suburbs-and-righ...

My answer to the unfeeling bi*** of an ER nurse: Yes, because I've been bleeding nonstop for 3 days. Don't you think that is long enough?

I suspect if it had been *bleeding* instead of oozing blood, she'd have behaved differently. Then again, maybe not.

I wish I was already in the state's Medicaid system. The congressional conservatives are trying to be sure I can't get in there, though. It's all very very depressing.

"Smile inducing color change mugs"
If I had a magic cure I'd pour it in your mug so you'd feel like little mug at the end.

I hope the trash got picked up for you today! If the trash misses a day where I live it usually gets picked up the next day, but I am not sure about NY.

Perhaps you could have oozed a bit on her shoes or scrubs...how can they be so unfeeling or plain not listening? Oh, right. No insurance. I've got a few choice words for them.

For you, I have hugs and kisses and coffee and a book.

>134 maggie1944: hmph- right on.
An ER reception person told my friend that "every kid in town has a vomit bug" and "it was a waste of time"- the next day he was choppered to the Childrens Specialist Starship Hospital in critical condition.
Turns out they dont know everything, but sure know how to make someone feel inconsequential.

((((RD))))

I forgot to mention that the calls I made re: trash pickup did what they should have done, and got the stuff hauled away. We pay some stiff taxes...over $1000 a month...and for that kind of money, I feel like they should hop to when I have a bitch.

So that was good.

It's cold and windy today, and I feel lazy so mostly I've slept today. I'm treating myself to fish and chips delivered for dinner! Yay!

How often does the trash get picked up at your place? (When it's working as it should.)

Three times a week.

3x a week!?
Ours is once a week, but we have huge bins that we can fill up. One recycling, one rubbish and one green waste (food scraps and garden stuff). The green waste is collected weekly, and the recycling/rubbish take week about turns. So I guess it is actually once a fortnight!
It seems to work well though.

142. Jeez. We get trash pickup once every two weeks! And if the bin isn't properly aligned and facing the street, it doesn't get emptied.

Oh, and we don't get recycling/compost/huge things like fridges picked up - we have to take that to the recycling and dumping area ourselves.

Our driveway being 2/3 of a mile long, once it's loaded up in the car to take to the road, it makes more sense to go to the transfer station and pay a lot less..... PLUS they have a wall of books in the
'Re-use Zone' and I do, once in a while, make a major find in there.

I am so sorry about your knee..... have you read about the healing properties of honey?.... we're talking Harvard Medical, not WooWoo U. Google, harvard honey healing. I'm trying it on this place on my thumb that hurts all winter... skin cracks and then WILL NOT heal.... and it is doing better, I think. Who knows.

The funnies on yr. thread are seriously wonderful today.

Honey! Of course. Same thumb problem. Should have thought of honey. I ended up using Bag Balm--farm folk will know whereof I speak.

Small town rural folk of all sorts know Bag Balm, I'm thinking. Love that stuff.

Oh yes, this farm girl knows of Bag Balm - miracle-working stuff!

(Hi, Richard - any better today? Hoping so...)

Fish and chips sound good! I was going to treat myself to cake yesterday at the whole get together thing.. but instead I went with fruit salad and lefte before pizza and cake. Yay me!

For thumb cracks, I use NuSkin. It is the only thing that works for me. To keep it from happening.. Cee told me about a miracle cream... Working Hands. It is wonderful!! I have only just had one instance of cracked skin on my hands all winter. ( right now, actually ) and I use so much of that Purell, I am surprised it hasn't happened more. I swear by that Working Hands! Ammy has it available on Prime.

Good day to ya sir!

Morning Richard, dear. So sorry to hear about your ongoing pain. Sending you healing thoughts and leaving behind a vat of G&T for that hip flask of yours. Wishing for you a day free of idiots.

Morning, Rdear. Hope that the pain is easing off. Don't know how you deal with it, honestly.

*smooch* to you, Honeybun.

I just rolled the "yard waste" down to the curb this morning for its weekly pickup (large bin for food scraps as well as yard detritus). Small rubbish bin, as well, same schedule. It's not recycling week, for which we also have a large rolling bin that gets picked up every other week.

Richard, luv, you can tell we are all trying to figure out some way to cheer you up. We'll even resort to sharing our garbage pickup schedules! If that's not friendship, I don't know what is!

xo

And, oh, in case you have the slightest amount of interest, here are my words about Anna Karenina: http://www.librarything.com/topic/147636#3929283

Don't feel you have to read it, if not interested, skip it. No big whoop!

Laughter IS the best medicine!

I'm so humbled at how much folks take my misery to heart! Yeah, we are spoiled, but the village has ~35,000 people, is quite compact, and so *should* provide luxury levels of service for the money they extort from us for the privilege of being allowed to live on the land we own in the house we built. The state, the county, the township, and the village all get a slice, plus the sales and income taxes levied. So this is what one gets: 3 garbage/recycling pickups a week, a "Mayor's Response Team" to do the stuff the regulars didn't, and an excellent county library system with lots of new books, free ILL, and a director who lets me call her private extension when I'm mad.

One gets what one pays for.

At my house, anyway.

You are very blessed, Richard! I'm happy that you are provided good service, and that there are people to help you out. I know how important that is in New England.

Sometimes I want to go back to New England, and finally get to know the place of my birth. But California has such awesome weather! :D Even if everyone is losing their homes, unemployment is high, gas is climbing, and taxes are going through the roof for everyone. My family is surviving here, though. Can't kill New Englanders.

I really, really like the T-Rex making the bed. Can't imagine garbage pick-up 3x a week, as we barely fill a bag for a once-per-week pick-up what with composting and recycling. Your monthly taxes are what ours are in half a year. $12K a year *gulp*!

Book porn!

LIKE!

oooh. one of the best BPs yet. i'll take one. er, do they come in audio format?

My disease has a name!

>159 Crazymamie: Thanks, Mamie, me too!

>160 mirrordrum: What would the audio be, riffling pages and heavy breathing?

LOL! for your >160 mirrordrum: response!

hon, you are priceless! you make my wrinkles happy.

>162 jnwelch: Heh, thanks

>163 mirrordrum: Oh my heck! What a beautiful smile she has! I hope I can still laugh like that when I'm finally fifty. In, oh let's see, 2188 or so.

For once, it's a dog in the pic not some damn cat!

oh MY! you're outdoing yourself.

Isn't that one slurpsome?

oh yeah!

Imagine ever having all that shelf space so that I didn't have to purge....I would have a dog bed there though so der pup wouldn't have to lie on the hard floor.

#140 um, you pay over a grand in taxes a month?!? Oh dear. That could buy a lot of books!

#158 I love the look of the red chairs but I can't decide if they look like they would be comfy...

HI Richard!! xo

Richard, did you try honey on your knee? I wondered if it worked, if you did.

I love those red chairs! To me, they definitely look comfy.

Hey RD.... Passing through to check on you & give a smooch! How's the pain level in your knee now, love?

Have a great weekend ....... Passing thru on one of my increasingly rare visits the universe is out of whack I tell you !

>158 richardderus: well that looks almost achieveable and very very comfortable. I like!

I also like the T Rex making the bed!! What an exercise in futility! haha, Ill think of that next time I make mine. And ill probably laugh. And then Ill come back and thank you for brightening my day!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxSQUEAMISHNESS WARNINGxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

DO NOT LOOK AT THIS IF YOU'RE AT ALL SQUEAMISH OR EVEN JUST NOT EXPECTING ICKINESS

SERIOUSLY

THIS IS REVOLTING

Y'all have made some lovely and kindly intended suggestions for my knee-oozing problem. I very much appreciate the caring and the intentions. Below are photos of my knees from last year, when they were better than they are now. I hope this will show why the ideas aren't practical, however effective in less severe circumstances they might be.

THIS IS REALLY REALLY NOT PRETTY!! NO COMPLAINTS THAT YOU WEREN'T WARNED!
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Right knee.



Left knee, the one that's now had more crystals wear through the skin from the underside, and is oozing blood, lymph, and dissolving acid crystals. This process is painful (!) but worse it has destroyed, through abrasion, the skin that could make cells to heal up the gap. It now needs medical attention or there will be, sooner or later, an infection.

okay, and you're saying you whacked that sucker? oh chit! wtf kind of tx do you get for that kind of extreme situation? topical? systemic? both? my dear, if only we could find you a doctor with a magic wand. or something. i am so very sorry.

Well, lucky me I am a nurse and used to things like that. Nevertheless, great idea to warn folks about what to expect Richard. So, if these pics are from last year and your knee was much better there, then you knee must be absolutely horrific now. I do hope that your knee will improve soon to a level of being acceptable, Richard.
Yes, I agree with >177 mirrordrum: would be so great to have a doctor with a magic wand to ease all you problems a bit.

However, I agree with you on >154 richardderus: Laughter IS the best medicine, even if it doesn't cure you, it can help to cope better with the situation you are in. I hope you are feeling better soon. :) *A hug and a smooch* Richard!

#176 *gakk shudder*

Why didn't I pay attention to the warning??? Big very gentle hugs.

Oh, Richard. My heart breaks for you. Hugs and blessings.

Scrolled very quickly past the icky piccies...but I sympathize anyway. Just putting in my two cents on the honey issue---it apparently does have antibiotic and healing properties, but it must be raw honey...not the processed kind.

I am sorry, hunney. (oops, unintended word play).

Really, I do feel badly with you! It is so f'ning unfair that we do not have a country doctor who would come over after he sees all his other pts and give you some relieving remedies! Whatever they might be. I hesitate to try to guess what you should do as I know when I'm having a RA issue I hate it when ignorant people presume to tell me what I "should" do; but then I have the curmudgeon characteristic in my elderly personality, too.

I will hope that you have some good reading at hand which can capture your attention and hold it for long periods of time! And I hope said reading material is of excellent quality! Happy Reading, dear heart.

Richard, that must have hurt like the blazes when you hit your knee. No, I can see how putting honey on that would be just about the last thing you'd like to try. What a debilitating thing to have to deal with. So very sorry.

BTW, I'd like to have the Book Porn room in #158, please. The red chairs are just too beautiful!

Good gravy.

*Many soft hugs, a few smooches, and a couple of jokes to help you through*

Ouch! Chili cheese fries on us, suffering one.

More great book porn. And that chair looks comfortable.

Oh ow ow ow. Loads of sympathy to you.

Poor RD! Hugs and smooches from your own Horrible.

Checking in on you Richard. I am so sorry about your knee. That you know that laughter is what can keep you surviving and thriving makes me admire you all the more. *smooches*

"The Dribbling Vomit" sounds pretty damned unappealing, doesn't it?

Duck! I'm a Flying Ashtray! Probably one of those heavy glass ones!

Screaming Sunset - that sounds worth trying, actually.

Porn Star's Vomit. I'll pass.

Hobbit Vomit checking in here. Another one to pass on, I think...

An interesting amount of September birthdays here -- my drink's the Hobbit Vomit

Dribbling Toupe that is just disgusting! I hope my toupe is not dribbling from your vomit RD.

ETA: fixed a typo :)

Well apparently I'm a Screaming Orgasm . :)

I like Jim's the best! A friend of mine is Sweaty Orgasm, and I think she's the other best.

Deadman's liver here .......

Unicorn's Cum? I think that would have some sort of cream liquour in it - I'll pass thanks!

(Alternatively - with my full name, Dribbling Cum does not sound any more appealing!)

I don't think the memester who created this thought it through. Or I could simply be naive and he/she had a grudge. But some of the months...!

Flaming Cum .... um, that sounds like a symptom of something that requires immediate medical attention. *yuck, yuck, double and triple yuck * The pictures of your knee don't gross me out as much as that little meme!

RD- I am so sorry about your knees! No wonder you are in agony. Please get this attended to. We want you around here for at least another 20 years or so.
Didn't you read and enjoy Locke Lamora? I'm at the halfway point. What a fun book! The creative profanity is a real hoot! Of course 700 pages is just to long, IMHO!

This one has to be less distasteful than the cocktails one!



White Tablet, menace of the cyberworld!

I am White Door, a mysterious opportunity perhaps, or an exit?

Blue Book! HA!

NOT a Dribbling Ash Tray, no way. But my super villain name is Fuschia iMac!

Sorry to hear your knee continues to effervesce--may it receive appropriate treatment and cease to offend immediately! *smooch*

WHIte armchair that's me!

Janet just let Casey in from his nightly trip into the front yard to pee. i heard her muttering, "you're turning into nuthin' but a red neck dawg. possum up a mulberry tree! what a cliche. next thing you know we'll have a rusted-out car in the yard and you'll be tied to it with a rope."

eta to add a bit i omitted.

Grayed Frayed Formerly White Turtleneck Toffee Coffee Dark Chocolate Bar

Black Buddha

Checking in to say you are loved and that I wish there was a magic cure for gout.

Richard, that picture isn't nasty. What that gout is doing to you is nasty and I want to banish it from this earth (or, at minimum, from your body)

Well Richard following your cocktail test I am sweet and sour vomit. Ah well, it seems the wife was right all along.
Book porn continues to excel; knees continue to concern. No advice to offer I'm afraid other than find a good doc.

Beware the notorious Black Pillow!

Green Polka-Dot Cat Food. Here I come to save the day....

Heather Grey Chair? Sounds more like a porn name!

Those knees are gout? Poor you. Hope you get better soon.

Hmmmm Blue Boy might require some lifestlye changes on my part!

(I also, at first glance, totally misread the last word of the first line of that image...)

Flowered Book!

And what Linda said. I too, wish there was a magical cure..

hugs

Multi-coloured Cum or Grey Couch? Um I suck at both those memes! Sigh

Hope your ooziness has subsided dearest!

>206 maggie1944: I'll go with White Door, the Mysterious Opportunity Stealer. (Villain, remember?)

>207 avidmom: Blue Book! Like the car-value people. Villainy is appropriate there.

>208 ronincats: UGH! Fuchsia iMac works for me as a villain name, since I'm not an Apple-picker. I'll inform my knee of its instructions, and hope it listens to you.

>209 tututhefirst: The Dreaded White Armchair! The Inducement to the Sin of Bouncing on Mamaw's cushions!

>210 mirrordrum: LOLOL I'll order one (!) rusted-out car on Amazon Prime to be delivered to you Wednesday, just to complete that hilarious picture!

>211 sibylline: That has to be the most effete villain name in all of history. The chocolate bar, OTOH, sounds amazing. Was it?

>212 tiffin: That intrigues me on so many levels...was there a black Buddha, one wonders? Why is there a Buddha next to Tui's computer? And so on....

>213 Whisper1: Linda! *smooch* Should your magical researches divine a cure, don't hesitate to whammy me right on up as your guinea pig. Grwing a set of gills or having chicken feet would be a small price to pay.

>214 ty1997: Thanks, Tom, that is a lovely thing to say. And should your mojo result in same, I will be your grateful admirer and servant.

>215 PaulCranswick: YUCK! That meme isn't as much fun as I'd hoped. Docs there are, insurance there aren't yet.

>216 gennyt: Smotherer of Good, Suffocator of Righteousness! Oh, that's perfectly lovely for an Anglican vicar by day, comic-book villain by night.

>217 MerryMary: Whimsical is the only word for that one...definitely whimsical, M'Lou.

>218 cammykitty: Ummm, it kinda-sorta does, in fact. Yeah, the knees are not pretty, and the hands, and the elbows, and the feet and ankles, and the hip joints...anywhere there's a tendon.

>219 BekkaJo: It does sound like there's a shift in emphasis inherent in the name. (tsk--and you a mum and all!)

>220 mckait: "The Flowered Book! She will invade your room, cover it in chintz, and replace your porn with inspirational fiction!" *shudder*

Thanks, luvvie, I want it to stop now cause I'm 'bout sick of it.

>221 ChelleBearss: Erccchhh, Chelle, you really got rooked in both of the memes! Ooziness persists, but a lot of rest yesterday and today = less pain.

The Abbey Book Shop, Paris. I love everything about this.

I'm glad to hear that you're feeling better today, Richard. Those photos gave me a vivid impression of what you're going through.

Great photo of the Abbey Bookshop! Someone in this group or in Club Read likes this place, and it's easy to see why.

Health insurance bureauacracy sucks!

Wishing you a restful painfree book filled day.

>227 kidzdoc: I'd love it too, if I could get to it! Yes, the visuals explain a lot that words can't.

>228 markon: Thanks...and vibrating with delight over the window seat!

>228 markon: That's IT. That's the book porn I've been looking for!!!! I want it and I want it NOW!

#224 Oh dear, I'm not really cut out to be a super-villain. Pillow to me only suggested sleep, not suffocation. I'll have to practice my evil villainous thoughts... Mwa-ha-ha-ha!

>230 avidmom: Oh dear, we've conspired to create a book-porn addict....

>231 gennyt: Read the old testament. Or anything written by Paul. Plenty plenty ideas in there for evildoing, cruelty, and viciousness.

Agreed.

>233 richardderus: True. SO very true!

Just dropping off some healing mojo and my best thoughts for you, dear. Hope your weekend is off to a good start.

Next time I am in Paris (I'm hoping, hoping) I must go see this book shop. So attractive .... how can one carry books home transatlantic?

Hoping the discomfort has decreased; and wishing a solution is approaching...rapidly!

Review: 6 of seventy-five

Title: FIGHT SONG: A Novel

Author: JOSHUA MOHR

Rating: 3.75* of five

The Book Description: When his bicycle is intentionally run off the road by a neighbor's SUV, something snaps in Bob Coffen. Modern suburban life has been getting him down and this is the last straw. To avoid following in his own father’s missteps, Bob is suddenly desperate to reconnect with his wife and his distant, distracted children. And he's looking for any guidance he can get.

Bob Coffen soon learns that the wisest words come from the most unexpected places, from characters that are always more than what they appear to be: a magician/marriage counselor, a fast-food drive-thru attendant/phone-sex operator, and a janitor/guitarist of a French KISS cover band. Can these disparate voices inspire Bob to fight for his family? To fight for his place in the world?

A call-to-arms for those who have ever felt beaten down by life, Fight Song is a quest for happiness in a world in which we are increasingly losing control. It is the exciting new novel by one of the most surprising and original writers of his generation.

My Review: Have you ever wondered what would've happened if Updike and Cheever had mated while watching a Rock-and-Doris comedy on an acid trip, produced a son, and infused him with García Márquez's sense of the absurd? No? Don't bother, his name's Joshua Mohr and he'll table-dance for you at the bargain price of $16 (less if you don't mind doing business with soulless dream-killing conglomerates).

I hated Rabbit Angstrom because I felt too close to being him. I envied Falconer because I wanted to be more like him. Bob Coffen, in this book? I'd've pantsed him at every opportunity. Treated him as his noxiously virile, annoyingly macho neighbor Schumann treats him. Can't help it, doughy indeterminate blobs make me itchy under the balls and I need to victimize them. I'm a guy, sue me.

So why would I read a book told from his PoV, and give it more than a single grudging star? Well, back up there at the top of my review, I mentioned García Márquez. There's magic in here that I can't resist, there's an absurd brio to Bob's cluelessness and amorphousness, that calls to a corner of my sense of humor. It's the same corner where my ill-tempered glee at the plights of the characters in The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie lives. In fact, this is much like a Buñuel script made for HBO. Softer edges, more marshmallowy feel-goodness, but just as many quirked eyebrows and cut eyes. Bjorn the illusionist/marriage counselor is proof enough of that, but add in Bjorn's penchant for, well, punitive mesmerism (poor Schumann!) and his multiply unfaithful pansexual wife....

Okay, all that sounds like a rave. Why not four stars? Because I detest Bob's bologna-on-Wonder-bread acceptance of his grim ball-busting wife's Rightness and her power to determine what it is he should be. I am no supporter of heterosexual marriage, not a shock to regular readers. It's a giant mistake to pin your hopes for happiness on a being of a different species from your own. But to supinely accept her authority, as he does from beginning to end, goes against every single fiber in my being, whether in fiction or in fact. There goes a half-star. Another half-star for the workplace scenes, which I found tedious in the extreme and so far as I could tell made no difference to the plot. The last quarter comes off because the ending, while amusing, while magical, did nothing to resolve the basic conflict of Bob versus "Robert," the created, foisted-on-him identities from work or wife.

Those are my issues, then, one strictly personal and two rooted in the author's choices within the text. But on balance, unless there is some gigantic rock of resistance in you to the underdog-finds-happiness story, this telling of it will repay your eyeblinks.

Shudder, huh?

Updike and Cheever? Well no.. never. Updike.. not a chatty chap, Did he mate with anyone?

I think this book would cause you to bleed from the ears. Do not even attempt to handle it, for fear of transdermal blood infection.

>223 richardderus: my sweet, cancel your amazon prime order. we live in east TN in the cheap seats. it would be coals to Newcastle, truly and truly. but how too kind the thought. goof.

gazing at the pendulum on the clock as i ponder "punitive mesmerism." i'm getting sleeee p

It is the time of my accubation.

nighty night then, Accubating Richard.

a Buñuel script made for HBO That's almost enough to make me put Fight Song on my WL. That he does what his wife tells him, that adds a star IMHO. Work scenes? Drop two or three stars - I'm allergic to the corporate world. Which still leaves it with a pretty good rating. I'll have to think about it.

>239 mirrordrum: Night night Ellie!

quick quick who has an embarrassing idea to plant in Ellie's head like maybe she forgets Janice's name or something

>241 cammykitty: I do recommend the book. I really did like it.

Paris...When It Sizzles is a 1964 movie starring Audrey Hepburn and William Holden. It's really funny, in a very surreal way.

I hope you have a good Sunday, Richard!

I was dizzied by trying to follow your rating of Fight Song. They actually listen to me at the local library, so I may sneakily recommend they buy this one...... by way of saying, I slowed down and read attentively and enjoyed it very much.

Morning RD- Did you see my msg in #204, in regards to Locke Lamora? Good review of Fight Song. Sounds like a winner.

I didn't see it, no...I did not end up liking The Lies of Locke Lamora, and Pearl Ruled it. Rubbed me the wrong way, I'm afraid.

I thought you were a fan...never mind. LOL. I really like it's sense of humor. Very creative uses of profanity.

I am with you on The Lies of Locke Lamora, it rubbed me wrong, too. I also think I'll take a pass on Fight Song; I think I need to find some happy/dappy science fiction or fantasy after I finish The Magus. Too much reality is not good for a girl !!!

Way behind -

Flying Orgasm for the cocktail name and Blue Books for the villain name. Amusing.

Hello RD! Hope your Sunday is full of accubation.

I accubated (verb tense?) this morning finishing up Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell.

maggie - sounds like it's time for a Douglas Adams reread for you. ;)

Also way behind!

Multi-colored Sunset aka Black Sofabed here. Hmm, I think I'll accubate for a bit on the black sofabed, which is actually white, after I make myself another cup of coffee, for which I fervently thank whoever DID think of making those beans into a beverage.

Hope you're feeling better today, Richard.

Great review, Richard .. as always. But I'm on fence on this one .. I don't know if I want to add this to my obese wish list ... maybe I'll just park it by the wayside for a wee think.

Well, I'd be settling in with my new favorite cocktail, a Rancid Toupe, but I'm cracking up too much to get out the ingredients! My consolation is that if my villain name is Blue Lamp, I'm unlikely to get much attention from the police blotters.

Your knees look horrid, Richard and I feel even more strongly that I can't believe that nurse wouldn't attend to you. I was expecting the next pic in the series to be an image of the creature that erupted from your knee! Ergh.

The Abbey Bookshop in Paris is perhaps one of my favorite images. Ever. I want to go there. Now.

Hi Richard! So sorry you are having such trouble with your knee. I want to find the nurse that blew you off and kick her in the shin!

By the way my super villain name is Blue Iron.....perhaps the Monopoly token should be my icon!

Caught up. Now I'm breathless. Accubation time?

>248 msf59: The amusement wore thin for me, and I just never got back into it after that. Too bad, too. I like the world he set the story in.

>249 maggie1944: Heh. Too much reality makes Jane a sad lassie!

>250 karenmarie: *smooch* for good ol' Horrible.

>251 cammykitty: What a good idea!!

>252 Storeetllr: Thanks, Mary, not worse therefore counting it as better.

>253 cameling: I don't think Fight Song will make your day any brighter, Caro, so my advice is skip it.

>254 EBT1002: Ooo yum yum yummy, let's ALL have a Rancid Toupe! *gag* Yes, they're scary aren't they? And they're not acute, but chronic, which is the ER's job to care for. Idiots.

>255 Cobscook: HA! Love the idea of the Monopoly token on a revenge tour!

>256 jadebird: Hi Ren! Accubation Central grants permission.

>205 richardderus: Royal Blue Orangutan Book.
Hm, I dont feel that I am particularly villainous with that name but it takes all kinds of villains to make the world go around! lol

I get the feeling a lot of LT villains will be called "______ book".

Ha, quite probably they will.

Hello dear,

Einstein's Cum / Blue Planner just checking in before the week starts.... hope you are feeling at least mildly better, Richard. *smooch*

Thanks Laura! Not so much better as more accustomed to it. No one is going to call me spry. I *am* getting around, though. *smooch*

#264 Profound truth there.

Perfect reading seat! Perfect!

Hope Monday goes well for you.

Good morning to you rdear...

Delurking to say Hello and hopefully your pain has subsided some. Love the book porn. Hope all is well.. Smooches to you and Stella!

Unicorn's slop tray for the coctail and orange book for the villain :) As usual fantastic bookporn.
I am sorry to hear that you are still having a fair amount of trouble and hope that you will be back on a more tolerable level of pain soon.

Good Morning, Richard! Hoping today is the start of a really good week for you.

Well for the cocktail I would not drink a Sweaty Cum and as for the villain I don't think Richard would like a Burgundy Cat.

Hope that you are getting better Richard and I wish you as pain free a day as possible.

>265 laytonwoman3rd: Ain't it just!

>266 maggie1944: I agree, Karen44, it's sooooo inviting.

>267 mckait: *smooch*

>268 MonicaLynn: Hi Monica! *smooch* Stella sends slurps. We're warm and contented.

>269 drachenbraut23: Blech! I don't like the cocktail name at all. I'm doing okay today, I guess.

>270 Crazymamie: Hi pookiesnookiewoo! Thanks, I hope so too.

>271 calm: EEEWWW!! Totally with you, calm. It's been a reasonably good day!

Just catching up a bit...
My super villain name is Blue Chair.
My cocktail name is Multicolored Tastebuds.

Love the book port in #158.

Sorry to hear about your gout flare up. :( Wish I could wave a magic want & make the pain go away.

And the quote from #264... Soooo true!

>236 richardderus: I love the sound of this book! I shall seek it out.

And that window seat up there, not the most recent one, but the one just up a bit, has given me an idea. I now hereby declare that I have a (long term, money dependent) plan to remove the large window from my dining room/hallway (its complicated) and have it set out a bit, and add a cushioned area and wall bits and call it my new window seat! hoorah! A new house plan!

*drive-by smooches*

So is it working right yet???

Good Morning Richard - just delurking to say that I hope you're feeling better today and that I love, love, love #264.

Another fan of #264 here. Could accubate there right now with a book.

I unfortunately had the same reaction to The Lies of Locke Lamora, and Pearl Ruled it. I know its fans are legion, but it just didn't grab me.

>274 bell7: Hi Mary! *smooch* Glad to see you. I love that quote, too. So apt.

>275 LovingLit: Oh good Maudie! I think you'll like the absurdity of the book.

>276 ronincats: Roni! *slings smooches back at departing Roni*

>277 mckait: I haven't tried it today. I should, but I'm too lazy.

>278 plt: Hi there Peg, glad to see you, and thanks for the well-wishes. So far so good.

>279 jnwelch: Well Joe, you'll have plenty of company in your accubation. MIght not go down so well with the MBH.

Funny how things simply Do It for a person, or just really don't. I'm always intrigued by the wide variation of response to a book, a movie, a song. We're so common and yet each has a spin on the world not precisely like anyone else's.

#164 Darn that one had me fumbling for the like button again. *Cross pond smooches*

Hi RD!
My littlest is running about chanting "bump-a doo, bump-a-doo". It is something I felt you needed to know this morning :)
bye for now!

>280 richardderus: Caught the smooches! I dislocated my trick knee yesterday for the first time in years, so am also having knee problems, but absolutely nothing compared to yours! Hope this is a better day.

>282 BekkaJo: *smooch* right back! I really really want a like button here. I'd hack in and code it myself if I a) knew how to hack sites and 2) knew how to code.

>283 LovingLit: Bump-a-doo, there, Maudie! *smooch*

>284 ronincats: Ohhhhh owwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww oh oh yikes ooowww I am so so sorry to hear it!! Horrible thing, knee pain.

Horrible thing, knee pain.
Stooopid pain, can kiss my tuchus.

(I just wanted to use that work tuchus - since I only learned it the other day and I love it so)

Bump-a-doo.

Stoooopid pain, indeed! I slipped going down stairs a few minutes ago, and lemme tell ya what that was a truly suckass experience!

oh noes, hope you didn't injure yourself anymore in your slipping and falling!

Minor contusions. Nothing lethal. *smooch* for dear Chelle for checking in

>287 richardderus: no more reading while descending stairs for you, my lad! mind the apple and pears!

with you, no contusion is likely to be minor. we have photographic evidence. take care of yourself, please.

Good morning rdear! I hope that it is a wonderful day for you!

>290 mirrordrum: Okay. I promise.

>291 mckait: Thanks, sweetness!

Ricardo!! Okay, let's start with the bad...the knee looks simply awful, but let me say that I think you have amazing good cheer all things considered. Sorry about the stairs, too. : ( Hugs. I love the dirty book mark from up above, not to mention all the usual yummy book porn. Now, I hope you are accubating with a good book! More hugs and a few smooches.

Pick up yer feet, and watch where yer goin'!!! This is advice that has recently been lovingly given to me, and I'm pleased to share.

It's one of the ways I know I'm of middling years, Richard: stairs demand full attention. Most annoying for those of us whose minds are usually elsewhere. Do take care!

I'm simply checking in to see how you are today.

Hugs

Love Linda's helpful advice in >294 laytonwoman3rd:. :-) You deserve an easy day with minimal pain. Not sure who to solicit that from, but I'll try to find some aromatic herbs to burn in your honor.

>293 Berly: Hiya Kimmers! I am indeed accubating with a good book, on Kindle no less. It's a silly and fun and escapist romantic phauntaisee book about elves who kidnap a WWII bomber crew. Review to come.

>294 laytonwoman3rd: Heh, I promise that I shall Linda3rd.

>295 tiffin: Things I once did without so much as a moment's thought now require planning. Ugh. *smooch*

>296 Whisper1: Hi Linda! I'm doing as little as possible today because it's windy and rainy out there and neither Stella nor I likes walking in that. So here we sit eating Milk Bones and Club crackers, reading, and napping.

>297 jnwelch: Smudge me! I'm delighted to be cleansed.

Hi Richard! How's that knee?? *smooch*

Boo! ;)

ETA: Oh no! You and mom fell on the same day! Stop that please. Y'all are giving me a fright. Please take care. Mom is ok.

I'm all agog over elves kidnapping a WWII bomber crew and wait for that review with bated breath!

Review: 7 of seventy-five

Title: Under the Hill: BOMBER'S MOON

Author: ALEX BEECROFT

Rating: 3.6* of five

The Book Description:The faeries at the bottom of the garden are coming back—with an army.

Under the Hill, Part 1

When Ben Chaudhry is attacked in his own home by elves, they disappear as quickly as they came. He reaches for the phone book, but what kind of exterminator gets rid of the Fae? Maybe the Paranormal Defense Agency will ride to his rescue.

Sadly, they turn out to be another rare breed: a bunch of UFO hunters led by Chris Gatrell, who—while distractingly hot—was forcibly retired from the RAF on grounds of insanity.

Shot down in WWII—and shot forward seventy years in time, stranded far from his wartime sweetheart—Chris has been a victim of the elves himself. He fears they could destroy Ben’s life as thoroughly as they destroyed his. Chris is more than willing to protect Ben with his body. He never bargained for his heart getting involved.

Just when they think there’s a chance to build a life together, a ghostly voice from Chris’s past warns that the danger is greater than they can imagine. And it may take more than a team of rank amateurs to keep Ben—and the world—out of the elf queen’s snatching hands…

Product Warnings
Brace yourself for mystery, suspense, sexual tension, elves in space and a nail-biting cliffhanger ending.

My Review: Exactly and precisely as the book description says it is. Now, anyone who has ever interacted with me knows I'm no fan of fantasy, but there is nothing on earth more useless than a hermetically sealed mind so I tried this out. Fantasy plus men having sex with each other *must* be better than the straight kind.

Well, yeah, of course.

But there isn't any serious sex in here, so unwad your panties you breeders. One little scene, nothing even close to explicit. The point of this novel isn't the zeal of the organs for each other, it's the Hero's Journey. And the Hero has a wonderful journey, from WWII to 1995 in a blink, then living through the birth of our 21st-century world, and meeting someone whose own Hero's Journey is crossgrained to his own. Ben is Indian, living in Bakewell, and working in a bank; Chris is as English as spotted dick, living in Bakewell, and fighting the forces of supernatural invasion as he once fought the Luftwaffe. They aren't instantly obviously going to fit together. And that's the fun, romantic part of the story.

But then there's the fantasy bit, complete with German fairies invading and occupying English Elven territory; an ancient prophecy that demands an English bomber crew be brought to the other world; an air force of modern fighters in the elven lands, ready to rain destruction on...well, anyone; and a princess hostage damsel in distress to satisfy the conventions, one whose seductiveness can straighten the crooked path of a lost navigator.

I've read Beecroft's Hearts-of-Oaky smexy romances, and so I knew what to expect from the prose. It's direct, it's unfussy, and it's effective. (It also needs copyediting, but that's not Beecroft's fault, it's Samhain's...I mean, calling someone "died-in-the-wool"? It's DYED and that should have knocked the publisher's eye out!) I had sort-of hoped for the Age of Sail's smut content, since I like that kind of thing, but was steeled for the mildness of the entry by previous reviews.

The issues for me, apart from the copyediting, were focused around the hanging-together-ness of the plot's big points. Why, I wondered, does it not occur to modern-day Ben (20s) to ask why Chris (late 30s) is SO old-fashioned? It's right completely out of the modern day, the way Chris behaves towards Ben, even after Chris comes out to him. How has Chris managed to live almost 20 years in the modern era and not had more of it rub off on him? How on earth does he live, I mean money-wise? They're niggles. But they're niggles about big points.

But, and this is why I rated this book at least a full star above any other with issues that size, this is a thumping good read, with lots of very interesting urban-fantasy takes on old fantasy tropes, and characters whose happiness I actually care about. Yes, yes, teenaged girls are people too, but I don't care about their Special Uniqueness and Awesome Powers even a little bit. I do care about Ben's. And Chris's. And I want them to have a happily ever after.

Because they're man-lovin' men. For once someone is talking to ME. And I like it. Thanks, Mrs. Beecroft, for doing your usual solid job of entertaining me.

You may just have hit me with a book bullet, RD! Bomber's Moon sounds pretty faboo to me. (It also sounds completely bonkers but bonkers and faboo often go together.) It's going on the list.

>302 richardderus: sorry, but you lost me at faeries, elves and time travel- way to go for getting an enjoyable read though!
And a niggle is a niggle is a niggle, I always say. Fairy nuff ;)

Thumb!

German fairies! This sounds verrrry interrrestink (best Arte Shaw voice).

>299 TinaV95: Hiya Tina! Still bleeding, messing up my trouser knees. Oh well, they wash.

>300 luvamystery65: Hi Roberta, glad to see you, and sad about Mom's fall. Boo. *smooch* for all the Robertas.

>301 tiffin: I have obliged, as you've seen.

>303 PawsforThought: Hey Paws, am deeply pleased with myself for book-bulleting you, nyah! But truthfully, I think you would enjoy the book. It's a good, solid, entertaining read.

>304 LovingLit: *smacksmacksmack* That pun, not-so-young lady, was horrible and bad and awful and rotten! You are herewith condemned to a four-month book funk.

>305 mckait: Thanks!

>306 tiffin: ...but not schtooopid, to finish the quote. Try it out, Tui, might be a good pastime read before the snows melt.

Before I move on, I'd like to point out to tiffin that it was Arte Johnson.

Bakewell? Isn't that where Ellie's shop is?

*blink* I think it is! I must tell her about the book.

>310 MerryMary:: of course it was! Brain fart. Merged him with Artie Shaw.