Norabelle414's Page 10: Reclaim

Rory Pond makes biscuits and watches the snow fall.

(This thread number is in BINARY. It's actually my second thread for this year.)

My number one reading goal for this year is to just put last year behind me without worrying about what went wrong or why it went wrong or all the things that didn't get done or all the ways I didn't live up to my standards/goals for myself. Let's just stay focused on the future and move forward.

March Update: This year is not going great for me, but I'm still looking forward!

Other Goals for 2015:

• Read 20,000 pages
  
• Ignore the number of books I'm reading until the last week of December
  
• Average paper book length of 320 pages or more
  
• Catch up on LTER reading / reviewing
  
• Acquire fewer than 75 books
  
• Just keep reading in general, don't fall into a slump
  
  

Previous Threads:
2014, Act Six
2013, part XI
2012, module eta

Books read in 2015:

Paper books:
- The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu
- Yes Please by Amy Poehler
- Rooms by Lauren Oliver
- Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer
- Mort(e) by Robert Repino
- Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
- Hogfather by Terry Pratchett
- Prudence by Gail Carriger
-

Audiobooks:
- One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories by B. J. Novak
- Wild Rover No More: Being the Last Recorded Account of the Life & Times of Jacky Faber by L.A. Meyer
- Mr. Kiss and Tell by Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham
- How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell
- Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
-

Books acquired in 2015:

January:
1) The Kingmaker's Daughter by Philippa Gregory (free)

February:
2) Dubliners by James Joyce (free)
3) A Feast for Crows by George R. R. Martin (free)
4) A Dance With Dragons by George R. R. Martin (free)
5) TBD (free)

March:
6)

Currently reading:
Mort(e) by Robert Repino
I Am a Cat by Sōseki Natsume
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest

Currently listening to:
A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James
Wild Rover No More: Being the Last Recorded Account of the Life & Times of Jacky Faber (Bloody Jack Adventures) by L. A. Meyer
Mr. Kiss and Tell by Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham

Coming soon:

PAGES READ: 1,319
BOOKS BOUGHT: 0
BOOKS ACQUIRED: 5
BOOKS DEACCESSIONED: 10

DAYS REMAINING: 303
PAGES REMAINING: 18,681
PAGES PER DAY: 61.65

Currently watching:
Game of Thrones, Season 2
Downton Abbey, Season 5 (finished)
Sleepy Hollow, Season 2 (finished)
Parks & Recreation (finished)

Currently knitting:
pastel gloves
red socks
heart-shaped dishcloths

Happy New Thread Nora!

>5 leahbird: Hi Leah! Thanks!

Happy new thread!

How, may I ask, did you manage to get Dubliners, A Feast for Crows AND A Dance with Dragons for FREE? Are they e-books? Because if they are physical books I might die of envy.

One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories by B.J. Novak, narrated by B.J. Novak, Lena Dunham, Jenna Fischer, Mindy Kaling, Julianne Moore, Carey Mulligan, Katy Perry, Jason Schwartzman, Emma Thompson, and Rainn Wilson - audiobook from the library - An extremely impressive collection of short stories. Some of them are only a few sentences long, while others are long and complex and nuanced. There are 64 stories; too many for me to review here individually like I usually do with short story collections.

There wasn't a single story that I disliked here. They are all interesting and innovative and funny, just as I've come to expect from Novak. I'm very familiar with his work writing, directing, and acting in The Office, but this amazing collection of stories is where he really puts his Harvard English degree to work. It's even hard to pick a favorite story because they are so different. I've been sitting here for more than 20 minutes looking through all the titles and thinking about how much I loved each of them. So I'm just going to pick one randomly!

If I had a Nickel: If I had a nickel for every time I spilled a cup of coffee, what would it take to actually make a profit?

The narration of this audiobook is excellent. Novak has a nice voice, but a lot of his stories have women in them or multiple characters having a conversation, and so he brought in several of his very talented friends to help him out. It was a real pleasure to listen to.

If you like weird/funny/insightful short stories, I highly recommend this collection.

>7 PawsforThought: Hi Paws! That is a story I don't really want to get into. The short version is that I got them from my brother who was getting rid of them. There was a 4th book as well but I keep forgetting to post it when I'm at home and can actually see the book.

Happy new thread!

>9 norabelle414: Short versions work just fine! Hope you manage to remember what the 4th book was.

>10 foggidawn: Hi Foggi!

>11 PawsforThought: Well it is sitting on my desk at home with the others, so all I have to do is get my shit together enough to post it while at home :-)

Happy new thread!

Happy new thread, Nora!

I'm impressed you have 3 knitting projects on the go. Are they all gifts or are some for you?

Happy New Thread with an adorable cat topper!

>13 rosylibrarian: Hi Marie! Thanks!

>14 MickyFine: I actually have approx. 1 zillion knitting projects going on at once. I really, really, really like starting knitting projects :-)
The pastel gloves were supposed to be a Christmas present for someone I don't see very often and now it seems weird to give them to her. I will probably keep them as backup for next Christmas. (They're like this one, but a size smaller and the colors are in a different order)

I'm also in the middle of knitting some fingerless mitts which I dropped off the list for no good reason. They were intended to be backups for last Christmas but will now be backups for next Christmas.

The heart-shaped dishcloths were just a quick thing I knitted for my mom for her birthday. I like the pattern (I got it for free on knitpicks.com) but I think it could use a little refinement so I'm going to play around with it.

The red socks are still for my brother for last Christmas. I've been working on them since like October but 1) they are very fine yarn and 2) he has huge feet and 3) they have an actual pattern on the legs instead of just 2+2 rib and 4) I had to frog them and start over because he finally told me that the last pair of socks I knitted him were too big. I work on them for a few minutes every day and they're only about 2 inches long. *sigh*


I recently bought yarn and patterns to make some ankle socks because I thought that would be fun and faster than knitting regular socks. However, the instructions involve me learning 1) magic circle knitting, 2) toe-up sock knitting, and 3) two-at-a-time knitting. All at the same time. I decided to start it at 10pm last night for some reason and it did NOT go well.

>15 thornton37814: Hi Lori! Rory says thanks!

>16 norabelle414: There's nothing like deciding late at night that there's something you absolutely have to do right now (and subsequently staying up half the night). I do it on at least a weekly basis.

So how's Boneshaker going?

>19 drneutron: Very slowly, but I like it!

>16 norabelle414: & >18 PawsforThought: Oh! Me too! Last night it was deciding at 2am that I really needed to use up my Audible credit for the month. I then spent about an hour figuring out what was the best choice by checking things I wanted to listen to against the library's holdings and weighing the purchase over the waitlist option. Once I'd finally picked, I then needed to cancel my account since I had a 3 month deal which is now up. That ended up taking more time than I thought.

Middle of the night decision making is BAD!

Happy New Thread, Nora! I think I'm going to have to break down and buy the Novak short story collection. I usually don't like short stories, but I kinda love him...

>22 scaifea: Hi Amber! I think you would like it. He's very clever.

Hi Nora! I've been spending A LOOOOOT of quality time on Ravelry and on various yarn/crochet/knitting catalogs both in person and online. Not knowing how to read a pattern is holding me at bay so far, and I've narrowed my potential afghan kit purchases to approximately 22. *sigh* I know. But that's my new book-browsing, so so far I've been relatively safe.

In two weeks I'll be hosting what may be the first of many crochet circles! It'll be myself and two librarians I used to work with, one of whom is super advanced and used to teach. Katie and I are relative newbies, so mostly we'll be getting schooled. I've tried several times to do a magic ring/circle and they never quite turn out like they're supposed to. After watching an average of 15 youtube videos on this, you'd think something would stick, but no dice. Oh well. I'd like to do a hat for myself, but it starts with a magic ring, so...yeah. I'm spending all of my crochet time working on my frankenblanket, using up random yarn balls.

Happy new thread, Nora. I'm totally impressed by all you fab knitters, btw. Someday...

Just watched SHIELD. I didn't think it was possible but I love Fitz even more now.

Stopping by the new thread Nora to wave hello and to give Rory a scratch between the ears.

I continue to be in awe at your various knitting projects. You are so talented!

>24 LauraBrook: Hi Laura! Crafting circles are so great! My apartment complex had a stitch club a few years ago which was unfortunately disbanded, but it looks like they might be starting it up again!
>25 beserene: Hi Sarah! I'm not that good of a knitter, I promise.
>26 MickyFine: IKR! I hope Simmons comes around to Fitz' way of thinking because I still ship them but things are not looking great :-(
>27 lkernagh: Hi Lori! Rory says thanks.

Which Once Upon a Time Villain is Your Soulmate?
I got Captain Hook, of course ;-)

>29 norabelle414: I'm sure you'll never guess who I got. ;-)

A slightly belated happy new thread, Nora. xx

>29 norabelle414: - Fun! I got the Evil Queen. ;-)

Woo hoo, I got Captain Hook too! :)

In a not at all shocking twist, I got the Captain known as Hook. ;)

>28 norabelle414: I know. I still ship FitzSimmons too.

National Book Festival news:
It hasn't been announced yet, but my sources tell me the National Book Festival is going to be in the Convention Center again this year, on September 5th.

Well, I'm not a fan of the Convention Center, but the long weekend does make for a much easier weekend trip.

Hmmmm. Looking forward to the announcement and especially the author list!

>37 drneutron: The announcement has been made! http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2015/15-042.html

Authors announced so far are Daniel Alarcón, Kwame Alexander, Annette Gordon-Reed, Walter Isaacson, Ha Jin, David McCullough, Naomi Shihab Nye, Marilynne Robinson and Jane Smiley. Typically the rest of the authors are announced in April and May.

Although new programming is promised for 2015, the festival will continue to offer its popular pavilions dedicated to Children, Teens, Contemporary Life, History & Biography, Fiction & Mystery, Graphic Novels, Picture Books, Science, Poetry & Prose and the Culinary Arts.

Life updates:
I started getting a little of my motivation back yesterday! The weather was warm and sunny yesterday, and I ate lunch outside. And then I walked around a bit after work, and then I went to the movies and saw The DUFF, which was delightfully entertaining. The Washington Post gave it ZERO stars (out of 4), which is the most ridiculous thing ever. They gave 50 Shades of Grey TWO stars, and The Boy Next Door got 1.5 stars. What is wrong with these people?? I'm still kind of mad about that. Rotten Tomatoes gives it 64% (critic)/76% (audience), which is exactly what I would give it. It's not particularly original or unpredictable, but if you want to see high-schoolers being high-schoolers, Allison Janney being Allison Janney (hilarious perfection), Ken Jeong being Ken Jeong (weird funny), Mae Whitman being Mae Whitman (remarkably genuine and relatable) and Robbie Amell with his shirt off a LOT, I highly recommend it as two hours of entertainment.

And then after I got back from the movies, I cleaned my apartment (a little). I didn't get to bed as early as I should have, but at least I was cleaning instead of just watching TV.

And I have more stuff planned for all this week! Tonight I'm taking myself to the movies to see What We Do in the Shadows. Tomorrow I have a meeting at the zoo. Thursday I have a meeting of my two-person-long-distance-book-club, which is currently reading Going Bovine by Libba Bray. Friday I'm having dinner at my mom's house because my aunt is randomly in town for no reason. Saturday I'm volunteering at the zoo in the afternoon. Sunday I'm going to the Baltimore Aquarium for my friend's birthday. And then next Thursday I'm going to Florida for several days. Phew! I always feel like I either have nothing to do or way too much to do. I'd rather have way too much to do, for now, since that tends to motivate me to get things done vs. sitting around watching TV all day.

>39 norabelle414: Hmph. You said you didn't take my motivation, yet suddenly, suspiciously, you find yours somewhere. Coincidence? I think not.

I'm glad you're getting your groove back. :)

>40 foggidawn: it was short-lived! It's all gone now, I promise.

Yay, Florida!

Sir Terry Pratchett died today.

>44 norabelle414: :(

>44 norabelle414: What an awful disease. So sad.

It is very sad. I had read an article a while back that he had appointed his daughter Rhianna to continue writing Discworld books as she saw fit and I think that it's a very beautiful gift and responsibility he has passed on to her.

>47 leahbird: I read about that too.

To cheer us all up a bit, the next Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place book, The Unmapped Sea, is due out April 21!

>49 leahbird: However, I'm grumpy that Jon Klassen couldn't even illustrate the cover. Mismatching, gah!

Anyway, I keep meaning to read the fourth one.

>50 _Zoe_: Yes, I'm pretending not to notice the new cover design. I do quite like it but I hate when they change things midseries.

ETA: Looks like there are paperbacks out that feature this same cover artist so you could get a matching set. So long a Katherine Kellgren keeps reading them, I'm satisfied.

>49 leahbird: hooray!

>50 _Zoe_: gah! I hate that, too.

Wild Rover No More: Being the Last Recorded Account of the Life & Times of Jacky Faber by L.A. Meyer, narrated by Katherine Kellgren - audiobook from the library - In Jacky's final adventure, she is once again on the run from someone or other. This time, she's been framed for treason by her nemesis Harry Flashby. Jacky goes adventuring once again, first working as a Mary Poppins-esque nanny and then hiding in plain sight as a circus performer. But Jacky's luck can't continue on forever and eventually she must face her final judgement.

While not a fantastic ending, it is very fitting to Jacky's story. Many of Jacky's friends show up (even if some are a bit shoe-horned) and everyone gets closure, including Jacky and Jaimy (finally!). All endings are bittersweet, but this one is especially so. L.A. Meyer intended to continue writing about other events & characters in Jacky's world, but he passed away shortly before this final book in the series was published.

>53 norabelle414: Skipping as I've only read the first book. But looks like you liked it so yay!

Mort(e) by Robert Repino - Sebastian is the normalest of housecats. Until the day when the Queen of the ants decides it is time for the animals to rise up and overthrow their human oppressors. She releases a hormone into the water supply which causes all animals to walk upright, grow to human size, and develop functional hands. Sebastian changes his name to Mort(e) and fights in the animal special forces, eventually being regarded by all as a war hero. The revolution and human genocide move along quite nicely until the animals start developing a mysterious disease called EMSAH. The disease causes the animals to act erratically, question the revolution, and even commit suicide. Mort(e) must discover what EMSAH is and how to stop it, before succumbing himself.

While certainly an imaginative story, Mort(e) did not really resonate with me. It's hard to put my finger on why. There seemed to be too much world-building crammed into this single book, but the plot was not thrilling. The characters were well thought out and intriguing though, and the writing was good. If the author wrote another book in the same world I would probably read it. If the concept interests you then you may be able to get something out of it that I did not.

Catching up on replies and some notes. Sorry I've been lax!

>49 leahbird: Yay, lots of good books coming out soon! Prudence and The Voyage of the Basilisk come out this month too!
>50 _Zoe_: The fourth one is excellent. I listen to them as audiobooks, but I hate it when a series switches narrators, so I feel your pain :-)
>54 MickyFine: It's not my favorite in the series, but it's a fitting end. And we fans are extremely lucky that we got a true ending to Jacky's story.

_____________________________________________

Mort(e) was last month's io9.com Book Club pick. I would put it in the "dud" pile, just because the bar for io9 books is really, really high. This month's book is A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab, which looks very excellent. However, my library only got it last week, and I'm #9 on the waitlist for 3 copies. I have this problem very 3 months or so, because io9 always picks really new books.

_____________________________________________

A few thoughts on the Bloody Jack Adventures series as a whole (no spoilers):

I enjoyed reading about Jacky's adventures a lot, as an adult. However, I think I would have some qualms about recommending the series to actual middle school- or high school-age kids. Jacky is a product of her time and most of the things she does are very much appropriate to the time period. However, books don't exist in a vacuum, and on a modern level I have a problem with
1) Jacky's focus on virginity and "saving herself" while flirting sexually and getting naked with lots of boys & men (I could write a whole essay on it)
2) Jacky abstaining from hard liquor because it makes her do stupid things and puts her in danger, but still partaking in copious amounts of wine and beer, seemingly without effect.
3) Jacky's penchant for drugging people with opium and wine (and strange mushrooms), with no repercussions.

I don't believe in censorship (especially due to age-appropriateness) and I would not ever try to prevent or discourage a kid from reading the series. However, I don't think I would feel comfortable specifically recommending it to them. Thankfully, I am not often asked to recommend books to kids. I have recommended the series to one kid but he lives in a reader-less (and kind of anti-feminist) household and anything that keeps him reading is good by me.

_____________________________________________

On Thursday I'm leaving for five days in Florida! What books should I bring with me??

>56 norabelle414: Interesting points about our girl Jacky. I pretty much agree -- I might recommend the series to a high schooler, but probably not to a middle schooler. Too bad, since the first book is great for that age. I recommend the series (and particularly the audiobooks) to adults fairly often.

As to what to bring to Florida, have you read Seraphina yet? I'm caught up in the sequel Shadow Scale at the moment, so how much I want to get back to reading it is pretty much the only thing on my mind right now. ETA: the audiobook of Seraphina (and, presumably, Shadow Scale) is also pretty fantastic.

Bring Prudence! I'll be bringing my copy, assuming it actually arrives today as promised.

>57 foggidawn: Seraphina has been on my wishlist for a long time, and I almost bought it at B&N last week! But then I didn't. I should have.

>58 _Zoe_: I will definitely bring Prudence if it arrives by Thursday morning! I don't have high hopes though.

>60 norabelle414: Oh, I have no idea how these things work. Did you order from Amazon? I thought pre-orders were supposed to arrive on the release date.

Of course, last time I attempted to pre-order a book it was from B&N, and it never arrived at all.

>61 _Zoe_: I pre-ordered from an independent bookstore. They usually ship on the release date.

>62 norabelle414: Oh, that makes sense. You're a better person than I am :)

>62 norabelle414: & >63 _Zoe_: Yeah, I was about to say that mine came today, but you're a better person than me as well because I ordered from Amazon. ;) To make things even, I won't be starting it until I finish listening to Waistcoats & Weaponry, so you'll probably still read it before me.

I took fluffy romance novels with me when I went to Florida. If you want a fast, fun read try Texts from Jane Eyre (not a romance novel).

>65 MickyFine: Does A Storm of Swords count as a romance novel? ;-)

>66 norabelle414: I completely don't remember what happens in that book, but you should bring it anyway.

>67 _Zoe_: I'm pretty sure somebody dies.

>66 norabelle414: I have read no George R.R. Knight (nor have I watched Game of Thrones) but if it's the one with the red wedding, I'll say sure. ;)

If a romance novel was titled "A Storm of Swords" I'm pretty sure it would have to involve a massive and frantic gay male orgy. Or else.

Just thought I'd share that the last book Terry Pratchett finished (an supposedly will be published this year) is a Tiffany Aching book!

http://io9.com/theres-one-more-terry-pratchett-book-still-to-come-1691712209

*Hugs* I miss when you were more active on the site, Nora, although maybe I shouldn't be talking since I haven't been posting much myself. Either way, I hope you are doing alright. :)

>72 Ape: I'm here! I have not yet fully recovered from my trip to Florida. It was very different from what I thought it would be, in a good way.

Yay! You're back! I missed you! I need to stop using exclamation points!

>74 MickyFine: Please! Don't! Stop!

Happy Easter, Nora. xx

>76 PaulCranswick: Thanks Paul!!

Nora, Polyvore has a collection just for you:

http://www.polyvore.com/tea_party_cute_infusers/collection?id=4356109

>78 PawsforThought: Cute! I really like that "I ♥ HUGS" mug too!

Though, the "Copenhagen tea egg" looks like a stretched-out testicle. Maybe they should have chosen a different color.

>79 norabelle414: Hahahaha! It does! I hadn't notised until you mentioned it. I checked the website, and it IS available in other colours.
I was mostly interested in the octeapus one, but annoyed that the website that sells it doesn't show the whole thing (just that picture) so can't tell what the infusion-part looks like.

I really hope my testicles don't look like that in a few decades...

>81 Ape: Full of tea leaves?

Yes. And holey.

Those are interesting thoughts on the Bloody Jack books. I agree with your thoughts on censorship - but it's one thing to recommend a book to a middle schooler and another thing to tell them not to read it. Sounds like that's how you feel, too. :)

I should get the audiobooks and listen to them.

>84 The_Hibernator: Hi Rachel! They are really lovely audiobooks.

>56 norabelle414: Somehow I missed this post but >84 The_Hibernator: made me go back to find it. As to your second point of contention, the beer and wine makes sense historically because it was safer to drink alcohol than water that could be contaminated. Even small children were given weak wine and beer.

>86 leahbird: Yes, there is the historical context of drinking wine and beer instead of water. However, Jacky specifically says she will stop drinking liquor because it makes her do stupid things. She then alludes to getting drunk from beer and wine frequently but never seems concerned about that making her do stupid things. Also when she drinks wine she mentions drinking Madeira, which is a fortified wine so it has liquor added to it.

All true. Jacky is certainly a bit of a hypocrite. ;)

Happy birthday, Nora!

>89 bell7: Thanks Mary!!

Happy Birthday Nora! Hope it's full of books!

>91 leahbird: Thanks Leah! I have gotten two books for my birthday so far, and one very very special book which I promise I will talk about soon!

"...and one very very special book which I promise I will talk about soon!"

Oooooh, mysterious!

Happy Birthday!!

Yay, Happy Birthday!

>93 katiekrug: Thanks Katie!
>94 rosylibrarian: Thanks Marie!

Happy Birthday!

And thanks Micky for providing a present to all of us.

Happy birthday!

*Birthday hugs*

>96 MickyFine: My favorite Canadian! And also Ryan Gosling!
>97 PawsforThought: Thanks Paws!
>98 drneutron: Thanks Jim!
>99 Ape: Thanks Stephen!

Happy birthday! And I'm really curious about this special secret book.

>101 _Zoe_: Thanks Zoe! I have this weekend free so hopefully I can use it to update my catalog and do the book justice.

Yay, free weekend!

Happy belated birthday!

Thanks Rachel!!

Nora! Orphan Black is back! Have you watched it yet?

Happy Birthday, Nora! (Sorry I'm a week late!) Hope you and Rory had a nice day. :)

>106 MickyFine: Yes and it was awesome but HOLD THAT THOUGHT BECAUSE ROB THOMAS JUST TWEETED AT ME: https://twitter.com/RobThomas/status/590706843766390784

>107 LauraBrook: Thanks Laura! Late birthday wishes just prolong the celebration :-) I had a very busy week but now I'm able to relax and Rory appreciates it!

>108 norabelle414: Very cool Nora!

>108 norabelle414: Super excellent. Have you watch iZombie yet? Is that even out?

>108 norabelle414: Ok, so first off, totally AWESOME that Rob Thomas tweeted at you.

Second, I was so pleased that my favourite ship on Orphan Black has already made it's appearance. For the record, the ship is Helena and food. Best ship ever.

>111 MickyFine: HAHAHAHA! Was that opening scene not the best thing ever?!?

TV updates! For lack of anything else to talk about.

Arrow: Aahhhhhhhhhhh! Olicity!!!! And Roy leaving forever! And poor, adorable, heartbroken Ray! And Thea dying but not really! Aahhhhhhhhh! So many feels in these last episodes of the season.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: These past few episodes have been on the slow side, with most "reveals" just characters realizing what the audience already knows. But there is hope for Fitzsimmons!!!!! And you know that the show is going to get turned upside down AGAIN when Age of Ultron comes out a week from today, just like it did with The Winter Soldier.

iZombie: A great show, as expected! Rose McIver is fantastic, as are all of the supporting characters. Rob Thomas didn't lie; it really *is* like Veronica Mars but with zombies. There is near-perfect pacing between the mystery of the week and the overarching plot. It's darkly funny. So far there has not been a lot of zombie-action, so don't automatically give this show a pass just because you don't like zombies.

The Flash: So much happening in one season! It's still a really excellent show despite the main annoyance of keeping Barry's identity secret from Iris for no good reason but hopefully that will be rectified soon. I love the contrast of the brightness and humor of The Flash with the dark brooding of Arrow. Even when the characters cross over between shows they get happier/sadder. Like Laurel ACTUALLY SMILING when talking to Cisco on The Flash! Smiling!!!!!

Community: Every episode this season has been good, and super weird and out there (just how the fans like it!) but I don't think the show is as groundbreaking as it was originally and there's not much that can be done about that. It's nice that this season is all about fan-service, though, and bringing back old favorite characters.

Younger: An okay TVLand show where a 40-something divorcee pretends to be 25 so she can get an entry-level job. I like it because I can seriously relate to the 40-something being surrounded by 20-somethings and very confused. Which is sad. Also, I forgot that Hilary Duff can act! Though it's not a difficult role.

Weird Loners: Not a good show. But I love Becki Newton!

Jane the Virgin: Still going strong in crazy telenovela style. I might get bored of it eventually.

Turn: I don't ever understand what's going on in this show, but I like watching it. And Ksenia Solo is on it now!!

Gotham: Seems to alternate kinda-bad episodes and kinda-good episodes. It's not a perfect show, but I don't understand all the hate it gets. Especially after Barbara and Gordon broke up. Because Barbara is the worst.

March Family Letters (Youtube series retelling Little Women): I'm 2-ish episodes behind, but the show is starting to find its stride and get more nuanced and enjoyable.

The Returned (U.S.): I'll probably get bored of this at some point, but for now I'm watching because the acting is on point.

Veep: I binge-watched the first seasons last month. This show is so accurate it's not even funny (okay, it's super funny). Every character manages to be likeable and unlikeable at the same time. And the comedic talent is astounding.

Once Upon a Time: So glad this show is back to itself after that horrible Frozen storyline. This half-season is getting so meta! I love it. Last week's episode about Cruella de Vil was particularly delightful. I love that they made her a bit sympathetic but didn't try to convince you that she's a good person gone wrong or something. She's just plain evil! The actress who plays Cruella and the actor who plays The Author are friends in real life and they got together and live-tweeted the show and it was adorable.

Mad Men: We're in the home stretch! Every time a character walks off-screen I'm like "well, we're never going to see them again!" Things are going pretty slow considering there are only 4 episodes left.

The Lizzie Borden Chronicles: Okay, but not very original. Though Christina Ricci is a delight as always.

The Last Man on Earth: I don't even know what to say about this show. It's banal but fascinating, and then every two episodes the whole dynamic changes. It is walking a fine line of gender stereotypes, but I always hope maybe the next plot twist will fix that.

Call the Midwife: I didn't miss Jenny or Chummy or Cynthia at first, but now it's been a half-season and they haven't done anything with the new nurses and now I do miss them. Especially Chummy.

Wolf Hall: Much more enjoyable than trying to read Wolf Hall. Which I still haven't finished.

Tatau: A new show that comes on after Orphan Black about New Zealand and tattoos and psychotropic drugs? The pilot didn't interest me much but it's too soon to say.

Orphan Black!!!!!: So glad it's back! The season premier gave fans everything they wanted, i.e. Helena being insane but loveable, and clones pretending be other clones! Plus possibly evil Delphine poking Rachel in the location formerly known as her eyeball. With regard to the Castor clones, I think the show could do more to make them look different. I understand it's harder to do interesting things with short hair, but they could at least put some glasses on one of them or something? I feel like they're not even trying.

Bitten: My biggest problem with last season was that this show was all dudes except the main character and two women defined by their relationship to the dudes. But that has been rectified by the addition of a whole coven full of female witches! YAY!

Grimm: Recent episodes have been problematic. Two of the last 4 episodes did not deal well with gender and sexuality, and last week's episode did not deal well with Native American issues. I was originally excited when Juliette became a Hexenbiest, because I think that could add a very interesting dynamic to her character, but she's being all whiny about it and just straight up CHEATED on Nick, so now I'm annoyed. Get your shit together, Grimm! You're better than this!

The Messengers: A new show on the CW about angels or something. I'm very tired of shows about angels. The pilot was good, though. It spent some time getting to know each character before the angel business started, which is very promising.

Lost Girl: The start of the final season! This was a weird episode, with a noticeable lack of familiar characters, but I'll accept that to give Kenzi the send-off she deserves. But now get back to the regular show stuff! Also, Lauren is still the worst.

*Phew*

Book updates:

I'm currently reading Hogfather. I'm reading every single day, at least 20 pages, but I just can't focus on more than that. It's really unfortunate and makes me horribly sad.

I currently have out from the library:
The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu
A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
The Mechanical by Ian Tregillis

and I have my very own brand new copies of
Prudence by Gail Carriger
Voyage of the Basilisk by Marie Brennan

They all look excellent, but the chances I'm actually going to read them are slim.

I'm so far behind on OUAT, and haven't watched the new Orphan Black yet, either. Community theatre is messing with my leisure time.

Dang! I forgot that Age of Ultron is going to mess with SHIELD and while I have every intention of watching the new Avengers flick, I was going to put it off a couple weeks to let crowds die down a bit.

>115 foggidawn: OUAT has gotten REALLY good again, so I recommend catching up on that one first when you have some time :-)

>116 MickyFine: Well, there will only be two episodes of MAOS left after Age of Ultron comes out. So if you waited a couple weeks to watch the movie and the subsequent episodes you wouldn't be too far behind.

>117 norabelle414: True but I stream SHIELD from CTV (its Canadian network) and I can only watch episodes for a week after they air. :S

Soooooooo many shows!! I'd definitely get lost with so many plots going on at once. My sister is pushing me hard to get started on Orphan Black, and Game of Thrones. I keep telling her I'll get to them soon...and then I go play video games instead. :(

>119 Ape: You should definitely watch Orphan Black. I bet anything you'll have a massive crush on Cosima.

>120 MickyFine:

>119 Ape: I'll add my voice to the throng of WATCH ORPHAN BLACKers! It's the best. And Cosima is awesome. And Helena. And Sarah. And even Allison. AND TONY. And Felix!

Just watch the show.

Orphan Black Alison and Donnie as drug dealers is perhaps the most hysterical thing this how has ever done. And they had Helena sing "Sugar Sugar"

Allison's rational for why the should do the above spoiler is even better! I love her twisted brain. Did you see the little behind the scenes interview with Tatiana about Allison? She said that she's the most disturbed of them all because she really believes that, as long as she's squeaky clean on the outside, she can be as dirty as she wants on the inside. It was great!

>125 norabelle414: "Now they're never going to give us any mangoes."

>125 norabelle414: *hearts*

Clear out your SIM cards and get your headphones ready, folks, because next week is the beginning of Audiobook SYNC!! For those not familiar, Audiobook SYNC is a program (for teenagers, but whatever) that lets you download two free audiobooks every week for the whole summer. They pair a Young Adult title with a related Classic or required-reading-type title. As in previous years, I plan to post what the titles are and express my excitement every week. (Technically, you can look up what all the titles will be right now, but that takes all the fun out of it!!)

I'm especially excited this year because due to technical difficulties last fall, I lost all of my previously downloaded audiobooks. I have a clean slate!

ETA: also, this year's program has been expanded from 13 weeks (26 audiobooks) to 14 weeks (28 audiobooks)! Yay!

oh, this sounds like a great program! Looking forward to your revealing the titles as we go.

>128 norabelle414: Sounds like a great thing, indeed! What does one have to do to get hold of the audiobooks? Just sign up with your e-mail adress or is there anything else?
I did check the list and found quite a few I'd be interested in.

>128 norabelle414: I am always so glad when you post about it because I always forget to check them through the summer.

>130 PawsforThought: When the books become available (Thursday mornings, EDT) you can go to the website and download them. They ask for your first name and email address but only so they can count how many unique users they get. The audiobooks are Overdrive mp3 files so you can open them on any computer/device that has Overdrive. The audiobooks are available to download for a full week (until the next pair become available) but after you download them the files are yours to listen to forever.
You can sign up for the mailing list on the homepage and they will email you ever week when new books are available, or you can check in here where I'll be posting about them.

>131 rosylibrarian: Yay! Posting here helps me remember to download them, too.

>132 norabelle414: Oh, I don't have Overdrive. Oh, well.

>133 PawsforThought: It's free and easy to install! There is a link on the audiobooksync website. it works on computers and pretty much all tablets and smartphones.

I'm another who appreciates the reminder. :-)

Happy weekend Nora! Yay for Audiobook SYNC!

Sounds like a great program! Can't wait to see what books you get!

This week on Audiobooksync.com !!!! :

The theme is GOTHIC -

YA - Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, read by Kevin T. Collins and Eve Bianco (U.S., Canada, Philippines)
Classic - Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, read by Anna Massey (U.S., Philippines)

The YA title, some of you may recall, is one of the very few books I have ever abandoned in disgust. I liked the concept but there were a lot of factual errors that were too much for me to overlook. I have never read Rebecca before and I love listening to classic audiobooks so I am very excited for it.

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General notes:
I'm including the countries of availability with my listings, since I know several of you are not in the U.S.
The redesigned site is much more mobile-friendly, but it no longer has a blurb about why the books are paired together so I end up having to dig down into the blog anyway. Ah well.

BIG BIG pass on the first week's selection. Ick.

>138 norabelle414: Rebecca is one of my all time favorite books. It's gorgeous and chilling.

The other book is one of those rare instances where I liked the movie better than the book... and I didn't love the movie.

Nora, do you recall any past specific wait time between an audiobook of The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place going on the market and it being available on NOD? The ebook is available there already and it's driving me to distraction that the audiobook isn't up yet. It went on sale the same day the ebook did so the discrepancy seems weird.

>140 rosylibrarian: The movie was entertaining. And I bet listening to the audiobook is better than reading the book. But that's not saying a lot.

>141 leahbird: I don't know about the Navy site specifically, but you can go to the main Overdrive site (www.overdrive.com) to search for books and see where they are available. The Unmapped Sea audiobook does not come up on Overdrive at all, just the ebook.

Let us rejoice: SHIELD, OUAT, and, most importantly, Agent Carter were all renewed. *Kermit flail*

AGENT CARTER!!!! I'm so glad for actual confirmation that it will come back. It was sooo awesome.

On a related noted, it was awesome seeing James D'Arcy in Agent Carter as the sweet and innocent Jarvis and then turning around and seeing him as the decidedly different Lee Ashworth in Broadchurch season 2. I am a serious fan now.

>143 MickyFine: And Galavant! Did not see that one coming. The Mockingbird-centered Agents of SHIELD spin-off has been put on hold, but I'm hoping they'll turn it into a summer show next summer.

>144 leahbird: James D'Arcy in both of those roles seriously messes with my head.

>145 norabelle414: I just love that he was so good in two amazing shows that are so different. He's versatile and not afraid. And he's pleasant to look at. ;)

>145 norabelle414: Galavant got renewed? I had forgotten about it... maybe season 2 will be better.

OUAT finale Oh. My. Goodness. This finale was a serious emotional wringer. They killed Hook and turned Emma dark all in one episode? I can't handle all of these feels. I'm positive next season will be awesome but September is way too far away. Ugh! Finale season is so dangerous!

Ack! Do you even know how far behind I am on OUAT? So far behind. And no hope of catching up for another two weeks, when the show I'm in closes and I get my leisure time back. So, alas, I will just have to let the spoiler text mock me for now. :-(

>148 MickyFine: OUAT really picked itself up and dusted itself off this half-season. I was SO impressed.

>149 foggidawn: Look on the bright side - since the season is over you literally can't get any more behind ;-) And you have Micky and I to vet the season for you and inform you that it's delightful.

>150 norabelle414: Agreed.

>150 norabelle414: There's the bright side!

SHIELD Son of a… I was going along thinking everything would be not too awful for a finale. And then the weird black stuff FREAKING ATE SIMMONS!!! After we FINALLY got a hint that FitzSimmons would actually happen. SERIOUSLY WHEDONS??? SERIOUSLY????

>153 MickyFine: I used my grown up voice to yell "Fuck you, Shield! I hate you!" at my TV. It was the most coherent and mature thing I could muster at the moment. Nothing better has come to me since.

This week on Audiobooksync.com :

The theme is Charles Dickens -

YA - Dodger by Terry Pratchett, read by Stephen Briggs (not available in UK or British Commonwealth (except Canada))
Classic - Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, read by Anton Lesser (available everywhere)

I'm excited for both this week! Yay! I like Dickens and I looooove Terry Pratchett, and I've never read either of these before.

I was very excited by the Pratchett, which I scored, but all the ones they've posted so far have been readily available to borrow elsewhere. Just a bit surprised by that.

TV Updates: Season finale edition!

The Americans s3 finale: Continues to be one of the best shows on TV. So subtle and intriguing. Bonus that it's based on real events, and is undoubtedly the best portrayal of Washington DC currently on TV (albeit 30 years ago....). A bit of a cliffhanger this episode, but the show had already been renewed by that point so it's okay.

Arrow s3 finale: Kind of anti-climactic after several intense, game-changing episodes in a row. Do they really expect us to believe that Oliver and Felicity are gone for good? We're not that dumb. Didn't we just do this like 8 episodes ago when Oliver "died"? They'll be back. There was just an interview last week with the showrunners in which they said that season 4 of Arrow is going to have a "lighter tone". I'm not sure I agree with that. Let The Flash be lighter and leave Arrow in the dark. It's a good contrast. I know that The Flash is the best-performing show ever on the CW, but that doesn't mean they should change all the other shows to be more like it.

Call the Midwife s4 finale: All the actual midwifery this episode ended happily (mostly, but I'll get there in a second) so the dramatic focus was on the midwives and nurses. We learned a bit more about what makes Trixie who she is as she finally reached out for help. Patsy finally managed to trust her girlfriend and set the stage for a happy life - only to have it ripped away from her. Patsy's romantic tragedy felt a bit too much like Jenny's for my taste. I'm not thrilled. Barbara is still boring (which is funny because I'm so used to seeing Charlotte Richie play characters who are completely insane) and Patsy is still kind of boring - Trixie, Sister Mary Cynthia, Chummy, and Shelagh are still the interesting characters. Dr. Turner's plot was being very dramatic with the reveal of thalidomide, so hopefully next season will deal with the consequences of that prescription.

Gotham s1 finale: Kind of meh, except that Barbara makes a much better crazy person than love interest and I will miss Fish Mooney's scenery-chewing and crazy hair and I'm excited for Bruce to become more batman-y.

Grimm s4 finale: After some mediocre episodes in the middle of the season, the finale really pulled out all the stops. In a rare act of competence & genius, the gang sets up Kenneth for Jack the Ripper's crimes (and others). Competence due in no small part to Wu, Trubel, and Adalind, my new Dream Team. Juliette is HOPEFULLY dead (I'm tired of her), Nick's mom is dead, Diana is coming into her powers (and also growing extra fast?), and Meisner is back! Plot-lines left open/cliffhangers: Who was Trubel talking to on the phone? Agent Chavez? Who is the King now that the old king and Kenneth are dead? Is Agent Chavez' secret organization good or bad?

Henry Danger s1 finale: This is only the second Nickelodeon show I've ever watched, but I really enjoyed it. It's really very funny, and the lite-science-fiction is done very well.

Jane the Virgin s1 finale: I assume I will at some point get soap-opera-fatigue from such an over-the-top show, but so far, so good. The diversity it brings to TV is so refreshing, and all the actors are delightful. Most of the plot lines from the first season are wrapped up, and then there is one big twist at the end to bring us into next season. It's a formula that works very very well.

The Last Man on Earth s1 finale: A weird-ass show that is strangely addicting. It's very simple on the surface but is really very well thought out. So many of the episodes ended with twists that the season finale was not particularly special.

Mad Men s7/SERIES finale: I'm still feeling all the feels, guys! I loved the finale but I need a little more time to process.

Agents of SHIELD s2 finale: This show is such a long-game and I find that delightful. I like the show way more than the Marvel movies, to be honest. The tie-ins with The Avengers: Age of Ultron were disappointing, but this season finale was not. No one is who you thought they were, and everyone is who you always knew them to be. This season has been a smoky haze of mistrust, unclear loyalties and secret organizations within secret organizations, but the Skyes have cleared (GET IT?!?). FitzSimmons is served up to us on a silver platter, and then ripped from our grasping hands. Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Once again, Fitz and his adorable sweaters need a hug. From me. And the set-up for next season is perfection.

Daredevil s1 finale: This Netflix show was the best it could be considering my loathing for the "release a whole season at once on a Friday" model. I am completely unfamiliar with the source material, but I enjoyed the acting and the dark, gritty tone which successfully set it apart from the other Marvel franchises.

New Girl s4 finale: A squee-worthy end to a ho-hum season. Schmidt spent the last few episodes fawning over Fawn, who is the female version of who Schmidt was pretending to be in the early episodes of the series. But we know he's not really like that. And so the series comes full circle when Schmidt proposes to Ceecee in the exact way he told her he was going to marry her the first time they met *sigh*. I am sorry to see Damon Wayans Jr. leave, but it was getting really awkward to have 5 people living in what is established as a 4-bedroom apartment. And I love him with Sally from Being Human Meaghan Rath. I really loved the way the writers acknowledged how difficult it is to continue to see someone you used to be in love with, but did not actually have Jess and Nick relapse. Also, Winston + Furguson 4 ever.

More later......

This week on Audiobooksync.com :

The theme is voices of Harlem in the 1930s and 1940s -

YA - X: a Novel by Ilyasah Shabazz and Kekla Magoon, read by Dion Graham (available everywhere)
Classic - Here in Harlem: Poems in Many Voices by Walter Dean Myers, read by 13 narrators (available in the US, Philipines, UK and the British Commonwealth)

The first is a fictionalized account of the childhood of Malcolm X (the first co-author is his daughter) with historical notes. Sounds compelling, and the audiobook has won a few awards. The Classic is a collection of poems about Harlem from different perspectives. Poetry doesn't really do it for me but I will download it and keep it around just in case.

I went to see Far from the Madding Crowd last night and it was lovely and wonderful and everyone should go see it.

That is all.

>159 norabelle414: The trailer for it looked gorgeous and I'll definitely watch it at some point but I want to read the book first. You know, the common plight of the reader. :P

>160 MickyFine: Hurry up! Here's some encouragement:

>161 norabelle414: I'm not sure if either of the theatres are showing it (yup, we've got two whole movie theatres in town :P).

Books I've read/listened to recently that I probably won't ever get around to reviewing: (in reverse order)

Prudence by Gail Carriger - loved it! Can't wait for more.

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott - audiobook read by Justine Eyre - meh. The beginning is great but by the end I was very ready for it to be over.

How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell - audiobook read by David Tennant - Terrible. Cliched and heavy-handed, and the ONLY woman/girl in the whole story is the MC's mother. Ugh. Not even David Tennant's lovely voice could redeem it, because the audio quality was very bad.

Hogfather by Terry Pratchett - not my favorite Pratchett, but still. It's Pratchett.

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest - loved it! Can't wait to read more.

Mr. Kiss and Tell by Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham - audiobook read by Rebecca Lowman - Rebecca Lowman is NOT Kristin Bell. But she's still good. The story was pretty good. Lots of tie-in with other characters from previous plots which is always the cool thing about Veronica Mars. I'm so tired of Logan though. Go away, Logan!

Currently reading:
The Night Watch by Sarah Waters
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
The Mechanical by Ian Tregillis

Currently listening to:
A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

This week on Audiobooksync.com :

The theme is Enchantment and Empathic Emotion -

YA - The Ring and the Crown by Melissa de la Cruz, read by Jennifer Ikeda (available in the US and the Philippines)
Classic - Sea Hearts (also known as The Brides of Rollrock Island) by Margo Lanagan, read by Eloise Oxer and Paul English (available in the US, Australia and New Zealand)

This week is right up my alley! The YA book is an Arthurian historical fantasy. Yes! The "classic" (in this case not actually classic but "literary") is a retelling of the Scottish myth of the selkies. Also yes! Excellent week all around.

Yay for reading lots of books!

I'm glad to hear that Prudence is good. I'll get to it someday.

Wow, was that a big reading surge or were you just behind on posting?

>166 Ape: Very behind on posting. I was holding out to write full reviews of each but that might not ever happen.

Oh, what a relief that someone else really doesn't like How to Train Your Dragon! Charlie and I started reading it together, and it's the only book we've not finished. The movies - which seem to be nothing like the book - are *much* better (and there are strong ladies in the movies, too)!

>168 scaifea: Good to know about the movies! Thanks Amber :-)

I thought you'd like to know I picked up Grantchester from the library today. :)

>170 MickyFine: Woohoo!

And I finished it in 2 days. :)

In exciting news, the first half of season 1 of Outlander is "in transit." Hopefully I'll get it for the weekend.

>172 MickyFine: :-D

Note to self, I need to find out when my cable company's next "Free Starz preview weekend" is so I can watch the second half of Outlander.

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I'm going on a business trip to Pensacola, FL. Next week. Super exciting (not really). Trying to decide what books to bring.

This week on Audiobooksync.com :

The theme is Letters between worlds -

YA - A Corner of White: Book 1 of the Colors of Madeleine by Jaclyn Moriarty Read by Fiona Hardingham, Andrew Eiden, Kate Reinders, Peter McGowan (available everywhere)
Classic - Dracula by Bram Stoker Read by David Horovitch, Jamie Parker, Joseph Kloska, Alison Pettitt, Clare Corbett, John Foley, David Thorpe (available everywhere)

The first book is about two teenagers who live in different worlds (our world, and a fantasy world) but are able to communicate with letters. Sounds interesting enough. Dracula is one of those classics that I have somehow never managed to read all the way through. I think I'd prefer to read it in paper vs. audiobook, but I'll still keep the audiobook around just in case. Another good week!

For my work trip I think I'm going to bring the following:

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie (library, half-finished)
The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu (library, hopefully ready to be picked up tomorrow)
The Night Watch by Sarah Waters (mine, half-finished)
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (mine)
City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare (borrowed)

That should be enough for a 3.5 day trip, right?

>175 norabelle414: I think you'll be set. :P

I was finishing the fourth season of Fringe last night and Elsa, Zelena, and the Sorcerer's Apprentice from OUAT were all in episodes (not all at the same time). It was a little weird.

I can't remember if I told you to watch the YouTube series New Adventures of Peter and Wendy but season 2 starts next week and they just announced that Hook is being played by Percy Daggs III. Squee!

>177 MickyFine: You did tell me, and I forgot. *sigh* Making note of it now. Hopefully better note.

You're gonna need more books.

>179 katiekrug: The City of Heavenly Fire and The Grace of Kings are both really fat!

The answer is always more books.

PS: The Wayne is hanging out in DC and Old Town without me and I'm sad.

>181 katiekrug: I'm sad too!

Trying to decide what books to bring.

The correct answer is: ALL THE BOOKS.

Orphan Black 3x08I really loved the fact that Scott has a cat. Quite a bit. And Helena was so adorable this week. When she's not terrifyingly murderous, she's my favourite clone.

>184 MickyFine: a cat with asthma, of course. Because it's Scott. Helena trying to steal Allison's clothes and husband was hilarious. And I loved seeing more of Kristal!

Have you been paying attention to some kind of TV festival going on in Austin? I've seen it on Twitter a lot. There was a Gilmore Girls reunion, and apparently there was a Dawson's Creek pilot read-through with Mae Witman as Dawson and Donnie from Orphan Black as Joey's sister????

I saw posts about ATX on Twitter and Tumblr. Looks like it was fun. Here's hoping stuff will show up on YouTube.

Dropping by to say that I've piggybacked on your comments for The Three-Body Problem.

I've just finished the book (and found it terrific) but found it very difficult to summarize without going too far down one plot thread or another or revealing too much. After several false starts, I thought I'd see how other readers have approached it, found your summary, and thought it spot-on. So I just linked to it and said, "Me too."

Thanks!

>187 swynn: What a compliment, Steve! Thank you. I'm glad to find another fan of the book. I think the second book in the series should be released in English soon!

I made significant dents in Ancillary Justice, The Night Watch, and The Grace of Kings on my work trip, but not as much as I would have liked. I had no time to read during the actual trip but was able to get a few hours in on planes and in airports.

I have another work trip coming up next week, Tuesday - Thursday. It's just in Patuxent River, MD so we will be driving instead of flying. I plan to bring:

Ancillary Justice (if I don't finish it before then)
The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu
Uprooted by Naomi Novik (ready to be picked up from the library)

but I doubt I'll get much reading done.

This week on Audiobooksync.com :

The theme is Mother Nature -

YA - The Living by Matt De La Pena Read by Henry Leyva (available everywhere)
Classic - The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger Read by Richard M. Davidson (available everywhere)

Two duds for me this week. The first book is about a teenager working on a cruise ship when a massive earthquake causes him to get stranded on a deserted island. The Classic is narrative non-fiction about a ship lost in a legendary storm. Neither sounds terrible, but weather-related disasters are not my thing.

So I finished the first half of Outlander (and then acquired the second half). I think Sam Heughan might be my newest imaginary boyfriend. Sorry Wilson Bethel.

I have a terrible cold so I laid low all this weekend. Some reading got done and lots of TV. I finished Ancillary Justice, finally. It only took me 10 months. It was good but I did not like it as much as everyone was telling me I would.

I watched the following shows:
iZombie (season finale): awesome!!
Sense8 (whole season 1): also awesome!! Very intense show and I liked it a lot.
Wilfred (whole season 4: This show is so weird and messed up but for some reason it speaks to me. A very fitting series finale.
Halt and Catch Fire: The first two episodes of this season were pretty slow but episode 3 picked up a bit.
Texas Rising: An okay miniseries about Texas history, on the History Channel. I would be more enthusiastic considering the delightful campy-ness of it (Brendan Fraser with braids! Chad Michael Murray with sideburns and a top hat! Faraday from Lost with a cheesy accent!) but two hours once a week is just too much! Why couldn't they air it as 10 one-hour-long episodes instead?
Orphan Black: Awesome episode! Will fangirl elaborate more later.
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell: I feel like I've been waiting my whole life for this (actually only a decade) and the first episode did not disappoint!!
Defiance: Not great, but no worse than last season IMO
Dark Matter: Major "meh"
Stitchers: Yuck.

Boo for colds. Maybe this will help?

Ok. I watched the whole first season of The New Adventures of Peter and Wendy today. And all the hiatus videos. Season Two coming up soon.

>192 norabelle414: Defiance: Not great, but no worse than last season IMO

Yeah, I wrote on FB that I thought they might have ruined the show with this new episode but then I remembered that last season was pretty stupid and I still tuned in... So I apparently have no room to talk. At least not yet.

>195 leahbird: I like the characters and dialogue enough that it would take a lot to get me to stop watching, but I don't think it'll ever be close to as good as season one again. Also, I miss Tommy. A lot.

_______________________________

>194 norabelle414: All caught up on The New Adventures of Peter and Wendy. Thanks Micky.

I agree. I really loved the first season and was so excited for the potential the show had. But I'm so tired of stories about "the chosen one" and hated what they did with Irisa. I miss Tommy too. And now I miss more people. :(

>196 norabelle414: Yay! I'm glad you liked it. :)

>197 leahbird: Yeah the season premiere was a blood-bath, but not really in an interesting way. More like some actors wanted out of their contracts.

>198 MickyFine: :-D
What next?

>199 norabelle414: I am actually really out of touch with YouTube now. I barely watch Vlogbrothers anymore and I used to watch every episode faithfully.

I've been watching Fringe on Netflix (I'm almost finished) and that's been really good (although I withold that verdict for the last season until I finish it).

>200 MickyFine: Fringe is definitely on my long-list.
I'm thinking of starting Hannibal next. The general concept (i.e. the movies) never thrilled me but I've heard the show is really good.

Fringe is AWESOME. Except the last season is weird. Which is really saying something because Fringe is weird.

>201 norabelle414: Hannibal is way too creepy/scary for me. But one of my friends at work really loves it. Good luck with it. After Fringe is over, I'm moving on to Daredevil.

>203 MickyFine: Daredevil was really good too. So much good tv watching going on!

>192 norabelle414: For some stupid reason my DVR likes to magically not record shows and I've been too distracted to catch it in time to fix it usually so I've only seen the first 3 episodes of iZombie. I'm really hoping it comes back in reruns or on Netflix quickly because I was already hooked.

Other shows the DVR has decided I don't really need to watch: this past season of Call the Midwife and Last Man on Earth. It never even tried to record Call the Midwife and it just stopped recording Last Man on Earth about halfway through the season. Apparently it's programming guide errors and not something wrong with the box itself but the programming guide errors are coming from DirecTv too so you'd think they would fix the problem.

>202 leahbird: I like weird!
>203 MickyFine: Daredevil is so good! Very violent though.
>204 leahbird: iZombie just started airing reruns. Episode 1 aired last week. Episode 2 airs this Friday. etc.
I don't have a DVR so I'm pretty motivated to watch shows within a couple weeks of airing, on demand or online or on a Roku app.
I don't blame your DVR for getting confused by Last Man on Earth though. Fox really could not decide if they wanted to air one or two episodes per week.

>205 norabelle414: I just watched all of Outlander. I feel like I can handle violence. Or at least I'm very used to peering around fingers when things get too much. :P

Psst.

Yallfest line up is out: http://www.yallfest.org/

>206 MickyFine: I wasn't warning you away! It's artfully done and contributes to the plot.

>207 rosylibrarian: I knowwwwww. Gail Carriger! I have my eye on it but I don't want to promise anything after last year's disappointment.

I'm pretty determined to go this year but I've been determined to go to things the last 2 years and life keeps getting in the way.

>207 rosylibrarian: I've already used up all my vacation this year (and have half of next year's booked too). But have extra fun for me if you go.

>208 norabelle414: Good to know. I have 4 episodes of Fringe left and then I'll get into it and return with a verdict. You know, after I stop rewatching Outlander. I'm having issues with that last one. :P

>208 norabelle414: >209 leahbird: Do it! Charleston! Books! Great food!

>210 MickyFine: I will... but you should call in sick. ;)

Absolutely zero reading got done on my work trip. Bah.

This week on Audiobooksync.com :

The theme is young women in World War II (you know where this is going) -

YA - Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein Read by Sasha Pick (available everywhere)
Classic - Anne Frank Remembered: The Story of the Woman Who Helped to Hide the Frank Family by Miep Gies and Alison Leslie Gold Read by Barbara Rosenblat (available everywhere)

The first is the sequel to Code Name Verity, which as you all know is an amazing book. The second is the memoir of the woman who arranged the hiding place for Anne Frank's family, and found Anne's diary. I'm thrilled about Rose Under Fire; less so about the memoir but I might keep it as a backup.

>213 norabelle414: Cough. Elizabeth Wein is coming to YALLFest. Cough. Okay, I'm done now. Really. Maybe.

>214 rosylibrarian: I knowwwww. How is the public transportation system these days? If I came down by myself without a car could I get around a bit? If I stayed downtown?

If you stayed downtown you'd get around fine without any transportation whatsoever. It wouldn't even be too hot for walking. Otherwise, pedicabs are usually running well into the evening and decently priced last I checked.

>215 norabelle414: >216 leahbird: Yep, Leah nailed it. I can always get you downtown from the airport too.

I was going to recommend the Not So Hostel as I did last year, but it's probably a bit far from the event locations to walk back alone in the dark. Then I remembered they have The Annex location, which is about 5 blocks closer to the events! It's all single rooms so around $80 instead of $30 but it's still a lot better than the $200+ of the downtown hotels I was going to recommend for their proximity.

http://notsohostel.com/annex/

If I go, it's most likely where I'd stay since all my friends have moved to the burbs. ;)

It turns out YALLFest is the same weekend as my big yearly work conference. So, nevermind :-(

That's a serious bummer! They should reschedule your conference for you. Don't they know book festivals are much more important?

>220 leahbird: I know, right? At least my conference is in Boston this year so I'll get to go to a ton of bookstores.

__________________________________

I read a bunch of The Grace of Kings this weekend - just over 100 pages. But, that's out of a 600+ page book so there's still a long way to go. It's an excellent epic; like Game of Thrones but based on the Chinese Han Dynasty instead of the British War of the Roses. The writing and pacing are phenomenal and I really felt like I could read it for hours without losing interest.

The reason I got so much reading done this weekend (and caught up on a lot of TV....and played a lot of video games) was that on Saturday I was supposed to go by myself and meet a bunch of new people in a new place. It was a picnic and I went to the store and bought food and spent all morning making tons of finger sandwiches..... and then when I was supposed to leave I freaked out and didn't go. Whoops. Anybody want some sandwiches?

Sunday was Father's Day and my brother drove our dad and I out to a winery where we did a wine tasting and hung out in the sun. Then we went to my brother's apartment and he made us dinner. My brother and I got along REALLY well and my dad seemed to like the presents I got him (at least, he didn't tell me he didn't like them like he usually does.) So my weekend was half awful and half wonderful.

I'm done with work travel for awhile, thank goodness. I'm ready for everything to slow down.

TV Updates in reverse order:

Halt and Catch Fire: Just like last season, after a few just-okay episodes, the fourth episode of this season is AMAZING. I can't wait for Cameron to confront Joe, though. I want to know what happened to them!!

Poldark: A new British drama on PBS. This is all you need to know:


Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell: Still completely perfect in every way. *sigh*

Orphan Black: I think this show has given me plot-twist-fatigue. I still love it, but even Doctor-Mrs. Duncan still being alive just made me think "oh. cool" because the plot twists are so expected. What I was NOT expecting, however, was Donnie retrieving Jesse of Jesse's Towing for Helena. So sweet!

Dark Matter: Eh. Not terrible. I have a hard time telling the characters apart.

Killjoys: Cute! I love Aaron Ashmore.

Defiance: Slightly better than last week?

Girl Meets World: Angela is back! Does anyone care about this show besides people nostalgic for Boy Meets World? Probably not. I loved the way they addressed the Shawn & Angela issue. Did not like Angela's hair.

Aquarius: I wasn't expecting to like this as much as I do. I guess I'm just a sucker for period shows and Grey Damon. The acting is excellent all around, especially the girls hanging out with Manson.

Between: A Canadian show about a town where everyone 22-and-older dies of a plague and the kids are left to fend for themselves. It has some interesting moments but mostly doesn't do it for me. I want to know more about the plague and less about the petty disagreements of some teenagers without supervisors.

The Astronaut Wives Club: Not bad for a network show. Hopefully it doesn't descend into soap operatics.

My old boss/friend informs me that The Dairy Godmother is mentioned in The President's Shadow, the latest from Brad Meltzer. Just FYI :)

Amazon only has the "Look Inside" view of the Kindle version so I couldn't search the book for the reference...

>223 katiekrug: Cool! I have two friends who read his books (one of whom has been in one of his books before) so I will give them a heads-up :-)

Oh boy, I've been there before with the freaking out at the last minute and not going somewhere. My sympathies. On the plus side though, sandwiches.

>225 scaifea: Thanks, Amber. It's been a very long time since I've done something like that so I'm not feeling too bad about it. Plus since I didn't know anyone I was meeting up with, no one noticed that I wasn't there.
I made the mistake of making cucumber sandwiches first (out of 4 kinds of sandwiches), and so ALL of the sandwiches smell vaguely of cucumber. Not the worst thing ever, but not ideal.

I don't freak out about social situations but I convince myself that I don't really want to go or that it's too much hassle and talk myself out of going to things. When I make myself go, I typically have a great time but I also really enjoy sitting on the couch with a book.

I used to go out constantly, almost every night, but I still never met anyone new and therefore the main reason that I would go out now, to meet romantic interests, is not enough enticement to get me out most of the time. Which means I'm a hermit. I'm certainly not meeting dates in the baby boutique!

>227 leahbird: I could have written that entire post. Every word (except the working in a baby boutique).

I have the added issue of living in such a small (and boring) town that anyone I was going to meet when going out, I would have already met by now. Or, they're FAR to young for me, seeing as most of the "crowd" is made up of people in their late teens or very early twenties.
Yeah, hermit.

Have you seen that the Tearling sequel is out, The Invasion of the Tearling? More importantly, have you seen that Katherine Kellgren is NOT the reader?!?!

I'm devastated!

>229 leahbird: I had not seen that about Katherine Kellgren. Bummer!

I have a (complicated, rambling, pointless) question for my favorite librarians:

If a book is due back to the library on Saturday, 27 June, that effectively means it's due some point before the first staff person gets to the library on Sunday, right? (let's say 6am) And if the library is closed on Sundays, then the book is due before 6am on Monday.

Do the fines work the same way? Let's say each day's fine is $1 (it's not, but it's easier). If the book was due on Friday and I didn't return it I would get charged $1 for not returning the book by 6am Saturday. Then Sunday I get no fines because the library is closed. Then Monday at 6am I get charged another $2 for not returning it before 6am Sunday OR before 6am Monday.

That's how it would theoretically work if there were one branch and it were operated completely by humans. However, some branches in my library system ARE open on Sundays, just not mine. And they all run on the same computer system. So how does the computer differentiate between books returned at a library that is closed on Sundays and those returned at a library that is open on Sundays? Does the computer tell everyone that they do owe money for Sunday even if they don't, or does it tell everyone that they don't owe money for Sunday even if they do? If my local branch were OPEN on Sundays and I had a book due on Saturday, could I return it on Sunday at a different branch that is CLOSED on Sundays and avoid a fine completely?

So....(this is the actual situation)...

I have a book that is due on Saturday, 27 June. The library is closed on the 28th (Sunday). It's also closed on 3 July (holiday), 4 July (holiday), and 5 July (Sunday). If I return the book on 28 July, I get no fine because my branch is closed. If I return the book on 5 July (or before 6am on 6 July) that is effectively the same as returning it on 2 July, so I'll get fined for 5 days, correct? (28, 29, 30, 1, 2)

Yes, this is a lot of effort for less than $2. I would probably know the answers to most of this already if I had turned library books in late more than once in my whole life.

How do librarians actually feel about people turning in books late? Do they care, as long as it's only a few days and I happily and promptly pay all fines? What about if the book has several holds on it?

Yes, I am way over-thinking this. I'm feeling a little neurotic this morning.

>231 norabelle414: I have no idea how your library operates, but in most places, when the circ staff check in the stuff left in the book drop, they adjust the checkin date in the circulation software so the computer registers those things as being returned the previous day, thereby not accruing fines for that day. And of course if they have been closed for a Sunday or a holiday, that gets taken into account. So, I would assume that you are correct about the number of days you would get fined for. As for the question about whether we care, speaking for myself, I am not too bothered about things being returned a bit late, as long as they come back eventually and the patron doesn't give the circulation clerks grief about the fine. Truthfully, we handle so many books in a day, we're unlikely to notice. And in a big city system, I'd assume that there are enough copies of most new or popular books circulating to fill holds that it doesn't matter greatly if there's a little delay on one copy. It might be different in a small or underfunded library, where that copy was the only copy. And I might feel differently if I were on the circ staff and dealt with this stuff every day.

Here is my personal knowledge on fines, keeping in mind that every library is different. Anything returned after closing is considered returned the following day. If a library is closed several days in a row, the item will be considered returned on the first closed day (assuming your library has an exterior drop off box). So yes, your assumptions about fines are correct to the best of my knowledge. Of course, you can always ask library staff at your library. While they will (obviously) encourage you to return stuff on time, there are far worse things that customers do that drive us nuts. We won't hold overdue items against you. Particularly after you pay the fines. ;)

>231 norabelle414: I have nothing to add to this answer-wise, but I just wanted to pipe up and say that I have spent a good deal of mental energy thinking about this same question in the past, so I'm glad you asked it!

>232 foggidawn: Very informative. Thank you!

>233 MickyFine: Talk to people?!?!? No, thanks :-P

>234 lycomayflower: Glad I could help, Laura!

>231 norabelle414: I don't deal with fines at the academic library I work at, and interestingly, military base libraries cannot charge fines, so my two experiences don't help very much in this situation. Personally though, late books don't bother me because I AM SO BAD AT RETURNING BOOKS ON TIME. I always need them just a day or two more, whether they are due in a week or a month. It's some kind of karmic law. I'm just happy when patrons return them. Like Micky said, there are far worse things to worry about. (What I do get upset about is when the patron returns the book in horrible condition and tries to get out of replacing it.)

>236 rosylibrarian: I think we should make that Murphy's Second Law of Libraries - no matter when a book is due or how long you have it checked out for, you will still need 1-3 extra days to finish it.

Interesting about the no fines for base libraries. I'm assuming you do have some kind of restitution if they don't turn in the books ever?

>237 norabelle414: You can't out process from base and your commander is sent a letter after so many weeks of the item not being returned. I'm not sure if all military base libraries operate that way, but Air Force ones do.

And yes, I love Murphy's Second Law of Libraries!

At least your library has a dropbox! I tried to return a book on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, and the library was closed even though the holiday is not that day, and there's no dropbox, and the result is that I returned the book the following weekend (because going during the limited weekday hours is not always possible), and paid a week of fines.

>238 rosylibrarian: That's what I figured. We're working on getting a system like that in place for research protocols - they wouldn't be able to check out unless they've closed out their research or transferred it to someone else.

>239 _Zoe_: No drop box, oh no! My library thankfully does have a drop box, plus another one in the parking lot which I can use if there is a homeless person sleeping in front of the regular drop box.

I do at least have the option of going to another branch somewhere in the city, because a few of them do have drop boxes. But needless to say, that's generally not the most convenient option.

>231 norabelle414: Like foggi said, libraries differ... the two that I've worked for most recently back date what's in the book drop, so if something was due on Friday and was returned Saturday after we closed, when we check it in on Monday morning it's checked in as if it was returned on Saturday, which would be just one day overdue for fines.

Your library may differ, but it seems pretty rough to charge you for the fines if it were sitting in the book drop for two days or what have you. Though we wouldn't necessarily note the date or fines while we're checking in a boatload of stuff from the book drop, we're pretty good about shaving down fines if someone points out we were closed on a day (for example, we are open Sundays October-May, but we were closed on Easter... yet our circ software still had Easter as a due date, so I cleared someone's fines for returning them the following Monday). I believe our software will check another library's book out with a due date reflecting our days open rather than the lending library's.

Sooo... what happened?

And I do like Murphy's Second Law. I have come awfully close or been a day late myself more times than I like to admit.

>242 bell7: Yeah, most of my questions are related to how the computer systems work, and what the computers do when different branches are closed on different days. I would never argue with a fine! (Ok maybe if it was like 10x what I expected it to be....) I'm much more worried about returning the books late than having to pay a dollar or two. I'm secretly sure there's a list behind the desk of people who return popular books late.

I am reading a book which I will definitely NOT finish by the 27th, but I might be able to finish it by the 6th. So I'm trying to decide if I should return it when it's due and check it out again in 3-6 weeks, or keep it and try to finish by the 6th. There are currently 4 holds on 2 copies.

>242 bell7:, >243 norabelle414: And the situation is further complicated by the fact that I have another book from the library which I haven't even started yet and is actually due on the 6th. And that one has 38 holds on 8 copies so it'll be ages before I can get it out again. Should I return the first book so I can read the second? Will I be able to finish the second book by the 6th? The second book has fewer pages total than I have remaining in the first book. Also I'm going on vacation July 9-13 so if I don't return the second book on the 6th then I only have the 7th and 8th to finish & return it or I'll have to wait until I get back from vacation (of course, I'll almost certainly finish it on vacation so that is appealing).

>243 norabelle414: Yeah, my library doesn't have multiple branches. We're in a consortium with multiple libraries, but common human sense trumps computers any day :P (I do know what you mean, though). Librarians don't worry about a patron who keeps a book overdue a week or so and pays the fine graciously. We might have a few internal monologues about the ones who are months late regularly, argue about the fines, and seem surprised when we hold firm about it. So no, most reasonable people would not term you a Bad Patron.

If it helps, librarians do the same thing. It took me two or three tries of having All the Light We Cannot See out before I finally read it, and I did the same thing with Station Eleven (which I'm reading now). I'm probably going to rub up really close to that July 1 due date, and I can't renew it again.

>245 bell7: I checked out Station Eleven so many times and returned it so many times. Then one day the paperback was on sale at Target so I bought it. I still haven't started it.

>246 norabelle414: Buying books is a death knell for me. No time pressure, no reading happening.

That being said, I have something like 190 unread books sitting on my shelf at home...

>247 bell7: Only 190??

>248 norabelle414: Psh, do you know how much worse it would be if I didn't work at a library?

It took me forever to finish Station Eleven, and it was on an extra-short loan period because it was so popular, so I think I ended up paying two weeks of fines. I consoled myself with the thought that this was still less than buying it. But unfortunately that doesn't help all the people who were waiting, so I felt guilty anyway.

This week on Audiobooksync.com :

The theme is the secret life of boys -

YA - Monster by Walter Dean Myers Read by Full Cast Dramatization (Not available in UK or British Commonwealth (except Canada))
Classic - Lord of the Flies by William Golding Read by William Golding (Not available in UK or British Commonwealth (except Canada))

Two books I've read before, and don't feel the need to read again. Lord of the Flies is about a bunch of boys who get stranded on a deserted island and go crazy. Monster is about a 16-year-old on trial for murder, who isn't sure if he's guilty or not. If you haven't read them, enjoy!