2wonderY wonders how many

I've never done a count, and I'm just idly curious.

So, using Power Edit, I took a closer look at all the 500 or so items I added to my LT shelves in 2015. Some were books acquired but not read yet, a few were films and lots were Wishlist books that I'm curious enough to list, but haven't examined them. A dozen or so were reference books, not read in their entirety or titles I gave up on but still wanted to catalog so I can remember that I tried them.

I counted up 138 books read, but a handful were children's books or reference books. Of those, 114 were borrowed from the library, so I'm not making much progress reading my own books. 48 were audio books, which seems low because I spend at least 8 hours in the car per week and often more. I'm like an addict, making sure I don't run out of something to listen to. Some audio books were so entertaining that I then read the book in print so as to get favorite quotes and revisit a good time, and also to enjoy any illustrations. I didn't double count those books.

I discovered a few excellent modern writers of fantasy, Kate Griffin tops the list, but I eagerly look forward to more Ben Aaronovich titles too. I've also spent a bit of time with Patricia Briggs and I'm getting near the end of the Dresden Files on audio. My top fiction books this year were probably Stray Souls and The Martian. I think R.C. Bray is the perfect narrator for the second book. I count 67 fiction titles. I've neglected reading my tattered but still lovely turn of the century novels for the most part, though I did read some C. N. Williamson and Florence Barclay with great relish.

One short story author I fell in love with this year is Tim Gautreaux. I encourage everyone to sample him in Welding with Children.

So 60 some non-fiction books. I've been on a kick reading about World War 2, with Countrymen and The Boys in the Boat stars of that category. There are several biographies and memoirs and a lot of science books. I'm reading mostly on soil, permaculture, orcharding, and food in general. I really like anything Michael Pollan has written, and I use him as a springboard to other authors. Sharon Astyk has a lot of good thoughts on community sustainability. I've also been reading some on current socio-economic issues.

I was going to start my year by actually finishing Absence of Mind by Marilynne Robinson, but I see I can't renew it. Someone else is waiting for the only copy in the Ohio system. Rats! I love the way she expresses thoughts that I've been having about today's intellectual arguments. She has a good trained mind and is a fluid writer.

So, okay, perhaps I'll begin with Farmacology.

I spent day one watching the first season of The Agents of SHIELD. Just now discovering the Marvel Universe.

Jan 2, I spent all day absorbed in Patricia Briggs’ Iron Kissed. 1 I love how her characters have full and mundane lives beyond the fantasy plots. Mercy always frets over the monetary costs of the super human destruction that she seems to attract. Each of the shapeshifters and vampires carry baggage and interests from before their change. This time, Ben, one of Adam’s pack, discerns Mercy’s distress and faces off with Adam to make sure he understands as well. It’s a tense moment, and possibly the best in the book. Her relationship with Samuel is finally clarified.

Jan 3 I’ve got more than 30 items from the Ohio library system at any given time. Some that I’m determined to read get renewed multiple times. This is the time of year to work through that backlog. I’m sending several non-fiction back tomorrow without having read the entire thing, but I will have absorbed enough to make a meaningful review of the material.

Timber Press sends me regular emails about their titles, and I have a weakness for botany and gardening. (My degree is in Agriculture, Crops and Soils) These are generally beautifully composed books.

Planting in a Post-Wild World 2 seems almost insulting, when I come to think of it. I wonder who their intended audience is. The authors are a landscape architect and a landscape designer. Ah, it just hit me. If they were writing for colleagues, they would be preaching to the choir, as the material is nothing radical. They are obviously not targeting homeowners, as most of the examples are commercial in nature or else require a lot more money and manpower than is typically available to the DIYer. Besides the concepts are basic, but the detail offered is very technical. I think this book must be meant as a textbook, no matter how the publisher is marketing it. The cover says that Thomas Rainer is a teacher. If that means college prof, he’s writing for his students. Now it makes all kinds of sense.

I’m also looking through Lawn Gone! 3 It considers what else you can do with your own little patch of ground besides compete with Mr. Jones for the most emerald green perfect lawn. In reality, the author doesn’t advocate making the lawn entirely disappear, unless you happen to live in a zone where the resources needed to keep it going are outsized. It’s a pretty balanced discussion of all sorts of options. Hardscaping, buildings, ponds, perennials, and grasses that don’t need mowing – even discussing the pros and cons of artificial lawns. It’s meant to get the reader out of a thinking rut and being creative about low maintenance yarding. She has regional experts make a few recommendations specific to each part of the US. I’ll be looking for autumn sage (Salvia greggii) for my yard.

Under My Hat 4 is an anthology of witch stories. I borrowed it so as to read the Harry Dresden story, B is for Bigfoot. And that should have been that. But you know I can’t resist…
Some of the stories are entertaining; others are a waste of time. I was about ready to call it quits when I got to Isobelle Carmody’s The Stone Witch. A strong interesting lead in, a memorable character, and wit! Lovely! No, wait, there’s more! Pathos… and wisdom. Isobelle, where have you been all my life? And then a good strong finish with Margo Lanagan’s Crow and Caper, Caper and Crow. It is spare but also lovely.

Jan 4. Someone on LT mentioned A Primate’s Memoir, and I was curious. I’ve dipped in several times, first from page 1 and then randomly. The material is almost always entertaining, but I couldn’t seem to stick with it, and I finally realized why. The font size is smaller than normal and the pages are densely packed. My aging eyes just can’t handle that much strain. So I’m going to gently toss this one back, not counting it as read. My bet is that professor Sapolsky’s lectures are highly valued by his students. His years in baboon territory were quite adventurous. That editorial decision is unfortunate.

In the fall, I started listening to an audio course by Professor Sapolsky, but after listening to the introduction and first chapter, I didn't really like where he was heading. I can't even remember now what it was I objected to. I completely understand your frustration with tiny, dense print. It may save space, but it loses readers.

>3 2wonderY: Lawn Gone! interests me. I have a patio home with a tiny amount of grass. I keep thinking it would be better to just get rid of it with something else.

Hi guys! Glad to have some company.

>4 SylviaC: Was Sapolsky self absorbed? That seemed to be a possible fault.

>5 BonnieJune54: This book might be helpful, but it doesn't rise to a must-read status. Many of the ideas are available elsewhere.

I do want to make mention of one of the movies I watched - a Dog Named Christmas is a Hallmark film based on the book by Greg Kincaid. It's a classic Hallmark film, very heartwarming. I was particularly taken by the young actor, Noel Fisher. He played a young man who is developmentally delayed and he was so convincing that I thought they might have found someone with real handicaps to play this character. He was brilliant. I read a bit about him, and his comments about playing a gay character elsewhere made me respect him even more.

"I don't look at Mickey as a gay character. I look at him as a person, who happens to be gay. I think it's weird how we, as a society, try to put the LGBTQ community in a box, when in fact, they're just people. They have the same complexities as you and me. That's how I look at Mickey, as a complex person."

I'll have to notice him elsewhere now.

>6 2wonderY: I think there was potential for self-absorption, which would have contributed to my loss of interest, but it was more to do with something about his theory that bothered me. The course was called Being Human: Life Lessons from the Frontiers of Science, and he started out with his baboons, but I can't recall the specific point that I didn't like. I might give it another try sometime, because it could just have been my mood at the time.

I Work at a Public Library 5 by Gina Sheridan

One or two stories per page, just small dialogs between librarians and patrons. Crazy good reminiscences; particularly the last chapter on patron gratitude. Makes me long to be back at the circulation desk. I want to be a sparkle librarian again.

Edible Landscaping 6 by Rosalind Creasy 2010

This book takes on too much material, and is less successful than it could have been. Since it went out of its way to be comprehensive, it would have benefitted by being split in two. Volume 1 should have been the general education and design essentials. Volume 2 should have been the edible plants directory itself. There is plenty to learn here, but the crowding makes it harder to keep clarity. I’m convinced I want to add peach, pear and mulberry trees and try growing wheat and alpine strawberries. Some good info on everbearing varieties. A good index of sources at the back.

Green Urbanism Down Under 7 by Timothy Beatley and Peter Newman

My notes are elsewhere, so I'll edit later. But I found this book to be extremely heartening. Society as a whole there, seems to be much more serious than USA about climate change remediations, alternative energy sources, species protection, peak oil preparation. This was an excellent synopsis.

In audio, I've listened to When Books Went to War 8 by Molly Guptill Manning. This recounts the US effort to put reading material into the hands of their servicemen in WW2, and what the effect was on morale and the war in general. Five stars.

Also, Beware the Power of the Dark Side! 9 by Tom Angleberger. It's a faithful re-telling of movie 3 6, but supposedly for the younger people. He adds his own sly humor and some insight into the interior thoughts of some characters.

Struggled through the relatively short book, Fifteen Dogs 10 by André Alexis. I'm certainly in a minority for not liking it. There were some interesting philosophical questions raised, but I think Alexis came to poor conclusions. Few of the characters were at all engaging and the writing was pedestrian. So, thought provoking, but he short changes both species.

Alexis claims the story is an apalogue. Description from Wikipedia: a brief fable or allegorical story with pointed or exaggerated details, meant to serve as a pleasant vehicle for a moral doctrine or to convey a useful lesson without stating it explicitly. Unlike a fable, the moral is more important than the narrative details. As with the parable, the apologue is a tool of rhetorical argument used to convince or persuade....the lessons taught by the apologue seldom reach beyond prudential morality (keep yourself safe, find ease where you can, plan for the future, don't misbehave or you'll eventually be caught and punished)

Interesting list. That's exactly what motivates his characters. I think it's sad.

I've decided to call it quits on two books in the middle, because they are just wasting my time. But I'm taking half credits on each.

Bestest. Ramadan. Ever. has the potential to be cute and entertaining. I've enjoyed other YA books on acculturation. This one stays in the realm of whiney adolescent without ever moving beyond it. Ugh! 10.5

I'd been doing some reading on the culture of the humor industry, so The Humor Code seemed a good candidate. But the authors don't really contribute anything. This book ends up being a silly road trip saga. They get research funds to travel the world and meet the big names, but so what? They pay a phenomenal bar bill to investigate whether alcohol makes things seem funnier. 11

This is the only benefit I've gotten from spending time reading them.

>10 2wonderY: sometimes we just have to say "no more" and lay down a book. I've done it a few times, but usually I feel guilty.

I felt under the weather yesterday (I think it's the lack of regular physical work. Don't advise me to exercise though; I said work, not activity.) and spent a great deal of time in bed. Fortunately, when I wasn't asleep, I had Blitzcat 12 for company. Nice cat! Emotionally distant in some cases, but still a sort of a miracle cat, spreading goodness throughout the countryside on her search for her person. I'll be looking for more titles by this author.

I seem to be reading at a similar rate to last year thus far.

Several of you were talking recently about Charlotte MacLeod's Rest You Merry. 13 Since I graduated from an Agricultural College, and I usually find our tastes are very similar, I thought I would enjoy this one too.

Unusally, this one fell totally flat for me. Oh well.

>13 2wonderY: I hate it when that happens. :(

>13 2wonderY: Oops! Did you like the joke about the librarian saving any Faith Baldwin's out of the books she was sorting for the pretentious boss librarian?

Nope. I confess I started skimming through hoping another part would grab me.

Timber Press publishers send me weekly emails. They've got some beautiful publications, so I usually order titles at least to take a gander.

I didn't read every word of this one either, but certainly enough to construct a meaningful review, so I get to count it.

The Herbal Apothecary: 100 Medicinal Herbs and How to Use Them 14

It has its strengths and weaknesses.

Sending Memory of Water back to the library unfinished. Not even counting this as partially read as I couldn't force myself to continue. There seems to be a certain vein of current science fiction that is impenetrable to me. Had the same experience with Seveneves, Station Eleven and Ancillary Justice.

Also giving up on Seven Keys to Baldpate, by one of the writers of the Charlie Chan series. It's a mystery story that @harrygbutler compared favorably to Meredith Nicholson books. I can see the similarities, but for me there was no charm. The story got way too confusing to follow. Everyone was telling untrue stories, and I found I didn't care about any of them, even the narrator.

I did just finish listening to Crooked Heart 15 by Lissa Evans. I can recommend it. It tells the stories of a few people thrown together during the London Blitz. People who have closed themselves off from meaningful human contact have circumstances rub them raw. Evans prose and characterizations cleverly run in parallel. Keep reading; it's worth the destination. I've got the print book now to find some of the pretty nuggets again. Odd that it's described as a comic novel. I thought of it as a quiet drama.

Interesting. It's books like Station Eleven and Ancillary Justice that are drawing me back into the science fiction fold, after a couple of decades of disinterest. Maybe I should check out Memory of Water.

Yes, and then you can 'splain it all to me. Nah, just kidding. I have so much on my reading plate, it's just easier to bypass a portion.

Yup, it's not like we're about to run out of stuff to read.

I'm busy re-reading and underlining Michael Pollan's Second Nature, so I don't have time for Eleanor Perényi's Green Thoughts just now. Perhaps, if I remember, I'll finish reading it next winter. Perényi is very companionable. I find that she and I agree on many things. She was a professional writer/editor and an amateur gardener, and discovered the wisdom of organic and composting at the beginning of the movement. She has personal opinions of J. I. Rodale and such.

Listing them here as browsed, not read, returning them to the library.

My Daughter He; attempted because I have 6 year old grand who has claimed the opposite gender since age 3. I didn't pull much info from the book this first try.

The Family Cooks. Laurie David and Katie Couric collaborated on the film documentary Fed Up about childhood obesity. This is a nice book to browse. Nice photos, easy directions, not enough bean or meatless meals.

BTW, the film is pretty good. It's weakness was that it didn't go into what constitutes a good diet. The cookbook is a good companion to the film.

A couple more going back mostly unread (I'm doing pretty good here. It's usually agony to return a book unread.)

The Jesus Inquest by Charles Foster. I've read extensively on the topic of whether the Christian core story is true, perhaps most diligently when The Da Vinci Code was so wildly popular. Foster seems to do a fair job of presenting both Yay and Nay arguments and refrains from disclosing his own conclusions. I would like to read this through in a group setting some time.

Gardens of the Arts and Crafts Movement is a picture book, just chock full of photos and old garden plans and paintings. It is Yum. If I didn't have piles of more serious reading to get through, I'd like to sit and savor, perhaps get inspired to sketch a bit. My favorite designers are C.F.A. Voysey and M. H. Baillie Scott.

Here is one of Scott's courts at Snowshill Manor:

Pretty!

So, this thread is turning out to be not only a count of books read, but books examined as well.

I'm not going to count Check These Out, but I am going to recommend it.
Here's my review

Who among us can resist another list of book titles?

This list is quite personal, not particularly balanced or PC, which is nice for a change. It is heavily weighted on the side of current publishing, with 122 titles from the 21st century, 73 from the 20th century and only 6 from before that. I don't mind that at all, as the classics appear on so many other lists. Sheridan is doing a service for other readers by attempting to distill what is exceptional today, from her own reading. She breaks the 201 books out in charming subcategories. Chapter 1 is American't Dream - stories about trying and failing to get ahead in America. Her one page descriptors do their job, making you want to hunt up the books and read.

Quite a good resource for librarians.

I'm logging in Bone Crossed 16 before I've quite finished it. But I was up much of the night with it and I've only got 25 or so more pages. For a trashy novel, it has some veritable core truths. I'm trying to pace myself with the series, because they are so yummy.

Do I count children's picture books? Nah. But I do recommend that everyone find a copy of Ninja Baby and enjoy it. It is delightful!!!

Returning Gardening with Heirloom Seeds to the library today. This is a pleasant book to be leafing through in the middle of winter, trying to imagine what will go into this next year's garden. More emphasis on flowers than I would have expected, but I don't mind meeting some old friends. I'm never efficient enough to order seeds and plants; my acquisitions are always proximity driven, so I probably won't use the information. This was a browse book, so not counting as read.

(down to 27 items on my card!)

Returning How to Read a Book largely unread. Just thought this quote was worth a discussion -

""...we do not agree or disagree with fiction. We either like it or we do not. Our critical judgement in the case of expository books concerns thei truth, whereas in criticizing belles-lettres, as the word itself suggests, we consider chiefly their beauty."

I'm a third of the way into Dispatches from Pluto, and while I find it has great descriptive power and wonderfully wacky tales, I am not engaged enough. Considering moving on.

I'm also doing a Warehouse 13 fest. Really enjoying season 4.

Oh, and my portable DVD player was stolen from my car, so my audio book listening is stalled until I get a replacement.

>29 2wonderY: oh, how awful. I hope your car was not damaged.

Essentially finished Dispatches from Pluto 17 It was sometimes achingly boring or disgusting, but it had it's moments. A eulogy on a musician friend-

"Somebody tracked down his date of birth in the county records, and it was confirmed that James Lewis Carter Ford had made it just past his ninety-second birthday, on a staple diet of fried chicken and Jack Daniel's. The cause of death was having lived a long, full life."
- is near what I aspire to be said of me.

Just a reminder to myself - I've copied out the Depression chapter of The Jungle Effect to pass on to a couple of people. I may want to re-visit the book later, but I'm returning it at this point.

Evie Brooks is Marooned in Manhattan 18 by Sheila Agnew came to my attention on LT; I think I was cleaning the author page, and I thought why not? I thought this novel might be more autobiographic, but not so. It was easy to read through, and the characters were pleasant, but there isn’t much content. C-

Cain and Mabel is an old movie starring Clark Gable, and it’s a dog. The cover shot is Gable and his co-star both wearing dark glasses, so you’d expect something cute. But the entire film is disappointing. The plot, the dialogue, the acting, the musical numbers, the boxing are all bad. No one is interested or interesting. Even the costumes disappoint. And that is saying something for a 50s film. The extended trailer is possibly the most interesting piece, as it is a nascent “Behind the scenes...the making of...”

I was pleased by how quickly I got through Farmacology : what innovative family farming can teach us about health and healing, 19 by the same author as The Jungle Effect. I've heard of others doing the indigenous diet comparisons, but Farmacology breaks new ground. Dr. Miller learns the principles of sustainable agriculture and biodiversity and applies those principles to medical care. Her line of reasoning is fascinating.

Watched Religulous in which Bill Maher trashes religion, but mostly Christianity. It was funny, but it was scandalously slanted in his choice of spokespeople and his editing of interviews. He had no intention of doing a fair inquiry. I can think of so many representatives who could have answered his questions clearly. Poor Bill claimed he couldn't get access - he got thrown out of the Vatican and all he could find was a reverend who blew raspberries. He lost my respect.

>33 2wonderY: the only thing that I've seen Bill Maher say that was positive about Christianity was that Christians aren't cutting off people's heads. It might not be "PC", but that's Bill Maher!

Listened to two audio books, randomly chosen because I had nothing in line, but both strongly referenced Vietnam. Both are bildungsromane.

Shooting the Moon 20 by Frances O'Roark Dowell is the story of two army brats who were raised to glorify military action by their Colonel father. The older enlists and is deployed to Vietnam and sends photographic film rolls to his younger sister, who learns the art of film processing and printing. It's a beautiful story arc.

There were a couple of jarring references that seemed anachronistic, so I called my sister and invited her to travel with me in the Wayback Machine to the early 70s.

The pre-teen Jaimee wore blue jeans and carried a backpack and wore 'sneakers' and put a seat belt on automatically when getting into a car. From our recollections, blue jeans and backpacks were still considered counter-cultural, though it's possible she would have been permitted to wear 'dungarees,' but not to school. 'Tennies' would have been casual shoe wear, but also not at school. A one-strap bookbag would have been normal. Knapsacks and military surplus backpacks would have been hippie gear.

These were minor glitches though. It was a very thoughtful story and I'll probably look for more by the author.

The other is Listen, Slowly 21 by Thanhha Lai. Mai is second generation Vietnamese-American, and protests obnoxiously often when she is required to accompany her grandmother to Vietnam one summer in order to learn of her grandfather's fate after the war. (Her dad, a doctor, is in-country too, but working at surgical clinics.) The first half is mostly teen whining, but it is well worth getting through, because the second half is exquisite. There is a lot about the language, so the audio book is very important. Narrator Lulu Lam serves the book beautifully. The scenes with grandmother are lovely, particularly describing her faithful love over the decades. I cried at the quiet emotion and the beauty of the prose.

I was in Jr. High in the early 70s. We were finally allowed to wear slacks (girls had to wear skirts in elementary school), and I recall my joy at being allowed to wear a pair of brightly-patterned corduroy pants (hip-huggers with bell-bottoms). Some in our class wore jeans, but they were not common. Jeans were more popular in high school, mid-1970s, but most of us wore those Lee/Levi/Wrangler cords, with a nice shirt...no t-shirts!

I don't recall anyone carrying a backpack for books, we lugged them in our arms. Some of the boys used a rubber strap that held their books together.

By the time my children were in school, late 1980s, they were using backpacks.

Finished listening to Cryoburn 22 I had forgotten the awful ending. It hits much harder in audio. I won't forget the sequence again.

Okay, I've read the bulk of Between Silk and Cyanide 23 with pleasure, but there is so much minute detail that the delight has diminished. I'm sending it back and calling it read after skimming the last quarter of the book.

I finally finished listening to Black Earth 24 and I've ordered a print copy. Snyder's Conclusions were particularly noteworthy. He took his theories about WW2 and then looked around at the world today. Very thought provoking!

I glanced through The Knowledge by Lewis Dartnell. It's not a bad introduction for someone who hasn't been paying attention. But he attempts to cover too much ground in too short a time. His bibliography is too limited as well. I could add so much more to his lists.

Still following your reading...keep up the good work!

Thanks. Good book hunting to you.

>41 2wonderY: thanks, lol.

I'm reading a book by Sally Carrighar, A Husky in the House, and SO enjoying her writing that I am looking to read more of her works...which aren't at the public library...uh oh.

Three audio books knocked out this weekend.

Heir to the Jedi 25. I was on a Star Wars kick last season, which I'm pretty much over, except that this was written by Kevin Hearne, and I love his Iron Druid series. Sadly, his talents aren't large enough in this milieu to craft something that would stand out. Tant pis.

I'm trying some of Kurt Vonnegut materials on audio. God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian 26 is perhaps more short fiction than novel. I was mildly amused, no more.

From Crooked Heart, LT suggested I would like The War that Saved my Life. 27 This is adequately written for a book for adolescents. Think Goodnight, Mr. Tom with a female cast. I found it, well, just adequate.

Finished Lentil Underground 28 and even skimmed through her acknowledgements and notes. Wow! Montana farmers are awesome workers. The group Liz Carlisle documented have put together quite a community of fellow farmers and a business to process and market the seeds, and have been activists educating the Extension Service, lobbying for better programs from USDA, and all while tending up to 2 dozen distinct crops a year for sale and soil building.

I've mostly finished The Big Necessity 29 but I may go back into it. I was frustrated by this book because I was looking more for information on new paradigms for human waste management, on the same lines as Carol Steinfeld's Reusing the Resource, but I got a lot of narrative without the design details I wanted.

It wasn't till I scanned a few other reviews here that I paused and began to appreciate the documentation of the sociology of human waste in various parts of the world. Oh! Yeah. This is a very important aspect of the issue as well.

I've been better about tagging materials '2016' than mentioning them here. I guess I need to occasionally round up the strays.

A film I highly recommend, if you can find it, is Between the Folds, about the newest developments in origami and paper folding. There is astonishing art and also mathematics and physics applications. You meet a very cute genius. (touchstone going to author rather than title)

I've also not taken credit for:

Growing Fruit Trees 30 originally written in French because it's about a new method of pruning pioneered there.

The Complete Book of Potatoes was disappointing. I rummaged through it looking for specific information and didn't find it.

Teach Yourself Beekeeping 31 which I substantially finished.

The Canterbury Sisters 32 Oh! I need to re-order it to listen to the last couple of discs. That's the one that got stolen with my Sony.

Low Carbon Diet: A 30 Day Program to Lose 5000 Pounds--Be Part of the Global Warming Solution! 33 was recommended by a new local environmental concerns group, so I read it but found it way too elementary for me. I've been working on these issues for some time.

Sitting in the hospital I managed to read Uprooted 34 which I found to be a wonderfully complex story without easy solutions. It sweeps you along.

In fits and starts, I listened to The Last Boyfriend 35 second of the Boonsboro trilogy. I like this one better than the first because the brothers by-play is so true to life and entertaining. I was so impressed with the construction details in these books and Ah-ha! it is all taken from Nora Roberts real life. She owns the real Boonsboro Inn.

Oh, and a very informative documentary I watched two weeks ago, Merchants of Doubt.

Sloughing off as sampled, not finished

audio

Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt. Tried it because the film version is coming out, but I found Anne Rice wordy, repetitive, boring and inaccurate, as I did when I read one of her vampire novels, back when my adolescent daughter was enthralled by her.

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater. I like her Raven Cycle, but found this one unengaging. No real meat to the story in the first disc.

Pip Bartlett's Guide to Magical Creatures, also by Maggie Stiefvater and Jackson Pearce. SUPER annoying narrator's voice and a cast of characters that seem stolen from Saturday morning cartoons.

Which drops me back to only one audio book in reserve.

Watched Susan and God last evening and was reminded how much I dislike Joan Crawford. I see the movie is based on a play by Rachel Crothers, and perhaps I could stomach the story better that way, but really, there were almost no characters I'd care to spend time with.

Sometimes it's best to give up on a waste of time book...

After dragging At Day's Close 36 around for a long time, I'm sending it back. I've read other books on this topic and I found this one repetitive and not particularly well laid out. Giving myself credit for sticking with it, within 40 pages of finishing. Sheesh.

Glanced through Urban Farming. Gosh, this is just another gardening primer. I had hoped it would highlight actual urban farms, but, NO. All very general material.

Looked at Cooler Smarter. Valuable background material, but same old same old general recommendations.

Tried to like Both of Me, but the main characters were as lost as I was.

It's been an intense couple of weeks family-wise. When I wasn't visiting the hospital and personal care homes for my dad, I was clearing his home of materials like old appliances, a couch, loads and loads of recyclables and tons of old mail. No internet connections and little energy for reading.

A friend gave me The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and I'm really enjoying it a few pages at a time before sleep.

Did manage to finish The Chalet School at War 37. I love the continuity of characters, and wish I had the couple just before this one. This ended abruptly with a wedding. They certainly pulled the celebration and dress together well in just a couple of days. Also really liked the discussion of the fourth form girls and how Elizabeth and Betty were growing up at different rates, and how Betty might be helped along.

Guernsey Literary... is a favourite of mine. It's a lovely book, and not as fluffy as the title sounds. You should definitely look for The Chalet School in Exile, the one right before ...at War. I consider it the best book in the series. Is it coincidence that you're reading two books with Guernsey connections?

Yep. Pure coinkidence.

Found a replacement Windows 7 laptop and a happy buyer for the nasty Windows 8 replacement. Found a note on reading that I had logged there, probably from February.

In Her Kitchen 38 wasn't as good as I'd hoped, but it had some positives. I left a review.

Watched The Roosevelts: An Intimate History episodes 1-3.
What a wonderful multiple biography of an admirable family. Teddy reminds me distinctly of my late husband. The vice president nailed the description - “Death had to take him sleeping, otherwise there would have been a fight.”

and notes concerning the two books I listed at >44 2wonderY:

The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why it Matters
A gutsy book, but frustratingly lacking in any examination of systems beyond the conventional. Whole chapters are devoted to household biogas systems in rural China and village conversions to indoor plumbing in India without descriptions or diagrams of the hardware and the nuts and bolts itself.
The bibliography also lacks any visionary direction, being all historical surveys. Why present the problems without researching and presenting possibilities.

I love the infrequent discovery of the core of a book. Perhaps I’ve been oblivious in the past, but in the last two books they have blazed out like the Aurora Borealis. In Black Earth, it was the Conclusions chapter where Snyder takes his theories of the holocaust and turns around and looks at the present day world and holds up his pattern. He dwelt entirely in the 1940s in the rest of the book, so he appeared to be just another history scholar. Instead, he takes on the robes of a prophet. And his arguments are such to make people sit up straight and take notice. At least one hopes so.

I’ve been plowing through The Lentil Underground, not reluctantly, as these progressive farmers are my kind of people. But it was a distant story - organic farmers in the middle of wheat and barley agribusiness country, way out west in Montana.

Liz Carlisle’s ah-ha moment comes at page 241 when she views an old home produced VHS tape. A farmer is caressing a handful of soil. He says “From this life (in the soil) comes all the wealth of the earth. We are merely promoting a system that doesn’t kill this life but can supply us with enough food.” Carlisle goes on to describe how much the farm cooperative community itself relies on the same principles; re-visioning economics, government, the food chain, politics, neighborliness; working tirelessly and selflessly for the good of all. You might think this is the point in the movie where the music swells and the camera pulls back, but it’s not that kind of feel-good. It’s actually an invitation to understand the stakes and perhaps buy into the radical vision. It’s a very american story.

>54 2wonderY: "A gutsy book." Uh huh.

Now that I've got the rhythm of the writing, I tripped through Rivals of the Chalet School 39 easily, and I've borrowed another title from the library.

Enjoyed The Redwall Cookbook. 40 It very much reminded my of Wind in the Willows Country Cookbook. Do the Redwall books have illustrations? The cookbook is fully illustrated by Christopher Denise and contains story materials by Jacques.

Finished the audio The Perfect Hope 41 and it was a nice, gentle listen on the road.

I'm taking another book credit, having read significant chunks of Restoration Agriculture and Rebuilt and another non-fiction that escapes my memory at the moment. 42 (Yes, I know, if I can't recall it, what was the point? eta: it was the first half of Under the Tuscan Sun) Clearing library books, as I am beginning to earn fines.

Watched The Jacksons: An American Dream because I remembered that it had been partially filmed in the little town where I grew up. I recognized the two blocks they used, just around the corner from my parent's house and over on the next block. One scene has one of the older boys walking home one morning and our backyard and garage are visible in the distance. Didn't particularly like the film (mini-series) until Michael was a young adult. Bad hair-dos on the males and inaccurate racial mix (blended high school in the 40s?) were minor irritants. Papa Joe Jackson's temper too much for me to endure.

Was not at all impressed by the first book in a series by Melissa de la Cruz, Blue Bloods. 43 Thankfully it was short and read by Christina Moore.

The Fox and the Star is a lovely piece of art, but it fails as a story. There are several pages I wouldn't mind framing for my wall, but even they got too repetitive.

Watched Iron Man 3. Twice.

>58 2wonderY: Do you like other vampire books?

Yes, some. I began reading the subgenre when I led a youth reading group and then I worked at Borders. I wanted to be able to recommend the good stuff, and it helped my credibility to be able to talk about Vampire Academy (not one I'd suggest to an adult reader) and its ilk.

I like new riffs to the old tales.

I've recently discovered Patricia Briggs. Her characters are not your standard fantasy cardboard cut-outs. One of her vampires is restoring an old VW bus.

I admire almost everything Scott Westerfeld has written. He's not only an excellent story teller, there is lots of substance for young minds to chew on. His books should be classroom standards. His take on the vampire story is interesting in Peeps.

Do you read in this sub-genre?

I haven't read much more than Dracula. Peeps looks interesting with the biology. I enjoyed the ghost story that I just read. It has me thinking that I might try something else supernatural.

Only have a few minutes left on library computer.
Adding titles before I return them - check back later for comments

1944 film Since You Went Away. Wonderful film. It focused narrowly on one family and the events in their lives while the husband/father was serving overseas. But it managed to touch on many small and large issues of the day. A great technique was to have the main characters passing through crowds, such as at a train station or at a large dance, and the microphone catching snatches of conversations from the bit players. And then the situations of the core family itself - money issues (taking in a boarder and having to let the help go); true love (adolescent crush and then the real thing, temptation in the form of a good family friend); loss.
The relationship between family and black servant was awesome. All considered her one of the family.

We never meet Anne’s husband, Tim. But we see plenty of Uncle Tony, his best friend. Tony carries a torch for Anne. Her oldest daughter has a mad crush on Tony. Intimate scenes that could easily have slipped into morally questionable territory are saved by ‘right living.’ That was a time when movie makers felt they should exemplify the best in human nature. When Tony is tempted to go too far, Anne gently pulls him back, asking what he would think of her if she responded. He thinks a moment and then says that he would have to look for another woman to admire and respect.

Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen 44 was a very different book compared to the rest of the Vorkosigan stories. Cordelia is more human, with doubts and foibles, but less interesting to me. I so want to go back and visit her in the first books, but my copies keep getting lost at daughter's house. There were interesting bits, but the story fell flat.

The Nourished Kitchen

What a lovely book! McGruther operates an ideal kitchen. She celebrates local foods and healthy eating. Simple but thoughtful recipes, covering all aspects of food groups, with tips and helpful photos. This is the antithesis of several other cookbooks I’ve examined recently.

She also advocates some very old-fashioned kitchen ideas. She uses the meat bones to make her own broths. She praises lard. Like all the grannies, she finds delicious uses for all the parts. There is a section on offal meats (what I know as organ meats.)

I'm going to take a half credit for the cookbook mentioned above and another half credit for listening to 5 discs of Shadow and Bone 45 I quit when the story took a very cheap dive in character development. Not to write any spoilers here, but a character is denounced by his mother, and the main character believes and changes her entire focus without bothering to ask or investigate. Sorry. Much too shallow for my tastes, both in real life and in fiction. I've got another title by the same author, and I won't give it that long of a trial.

I finally was able to listen to the John Marsters version of Harry Dresden Ghost Story. 46 It was first recorded by a substitute reader. After fans complained, the publisher pulled the first recording, but only issued the replacement in digital form. So, after much hassle, I can now download audio books from the library and my SILs Audible account.

Not having any staying power with print books these last several months.

Lost interest part way through Not the End of the World, but skimmed the remainder 47 in case it improved. Sadly, it didn't. This is a multiple award winning book! What is wrong with me?! It also uses the Noah's Ark story as it's skeleton, something I've enjoyed before in books like Not Wanted on the Voyage. But I found none of these characters engaging in any way. McCaughrean dwelt on oppressive uglinesses, much more so than would have been present in the reality. There were no brave acts, no redemptions, no godly righteousness. Even the landing was ugly.

Discovered that ebooks from the library expire exactly on the same minute it was first borrowed, not at the end of the day. Luckily, it was still available for another download and I finished listening to Foxglove Summer - 48.

The protagonist, Peter Grant, is remarkably well drawn. The detail in his observations is always consistent with his interests. He goes on with history and opinions of every building he comes upon, as his first love was architecture, but he is completely useless at plant identification. Since the setting was out in the country instead of London, this dichotomy was more evident.

I wonder if the author shares the same passions or is able to pull them from elsewhere. I'd be interested to read something by him with a different set of characters. Aaronovitch doesn't share the racial background of Peter Grant, yet has nailed the West African family milieu of Peter's mother and how that has shaped Peter.

Aaronovitch has written in other series, but appears not in other universes of his own making.

Finally re-discovered it in my car piles and finished The Chalet School and the Lintons 49. There were lots of literary references at the end, and I'm kicking myself that I failed to note them before just now putting the book in the slot. I fell in love with Mrs. Linton's doctor right immediately. My only confusion was the positive references to the Ku Klux Klan. Really?

On audio, just listened to We Never Asked for Wings - 50, a complex multicultural family story.

Just a note, that I'm down to carrying 17 library items, though I haven't been able to fully engage any of them all week. And I see that I have 7 items waiting to be picked up.

>67 2wonderY: ouch.

I am TRYING to not read many library books, as I have literally hundreds of unread books on my shelves, but occasionally I get a book bullet...

Finished The Kingdom by the Sea 51 sitting in the hospital with dad. I loved the humanity of the various characters. Ending came as a bad bump though.

Oh, and also finished my listen of Cold Days 52. Sections of sublime poetic writing interspersed with page filling junk. Sigh. My guess is that Butcher has gotten tired of the series.

Sent A Monster Calls back to the library unfinished. Two disks in (5 total) and I wasn't engaged.

Also browsed Mouse Guard: Legends of the Guard, but not taking a credit for it either.

But I will take a credit for the Dresden Files novella Bombshells - 53. It's found in the Dangerous Women anthology.

I brought a couple of slim books with me to Pittsburgh and finally have felt the urge to resume some light reading.
Connie Willis' Inside Job - 54 is probably funnier than I thought. Mencken's contributions were beautifully done.

The other is Richard Peck's The Ghost Belonged to Me - 55. His humor is so gentle, it is right for any time.

My record of books tagged 2016 is about 20 more than I've got listed here, a couple are films, and some I tossed without finishing.

Will try to gather up the ones I've read.

Not yet added to my catalog is Children of the Blitz - 56 which I loved. Lots of notes taken and will share them in the WW2 Tattered thread.

Up to date on the Dresden File series, with Skin Game - 57.

Discovered a lovely new series, starting with His Majesty's Dragon - 58.

My sister gave me a light read for end of the day, The Cat Who Played Post Office - 59. It was okay, but I'm not engaged with the characters or the mystery.

Also listened to Silver Borne - 60, another good installment of the Mercy Thompson series.

Never took credit for finishing The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - 61, which I enjoyed greatly. It felt so real and the characters were great.

Oops, also need to count Penric's Demon - 62, which I can't add this morning because LT is having overload issues.

I love the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I've read it three or four times, and every time I reread, I think what a good book it is. It looks fluffy, but has a surprisingly solid core.

The Prince of Venice Beach - 63 was a quick and surprisingly absorbing read. I'm not sure what it was that appealed to me.

I've started another Jim Butcher fantasy, Furies of Calderon, but I am not engaged. The characters do not grab me.

Several YA audio books tried and tossed. I'm an addict - I need to have a steady supply of audios piled in the front seat of the car.

My library card is as low as it's ever gotten - 10 physical items and 2 audio downloads. I'm holding onto one book because it got juice spilled in it and I'm waiting for the replacement I purchased to arrive. Two nonfiction, three fiction and the rest are reference materials. Ha!

>74 2wonderY: Aw! I was hoping you would like Furies of Calderon. I like Amara and Kitai. Heh. If could be that I really enjoyed listening to the whole story rather than reading it.

Last week, I read the first three books in the His Fair Assassin series. The premise is a little contrived; but I found the stories interesting. First is Grave Mercy.

I tried once more to listen to Furies before returning it. I've got Butcher's other series start, The Aeronaut's Windlass downloaded now. I've ordered Grave Mercy to try as well. Thanks!

Let's see, I'm not very good at keeping a record.

I listened to The Magnificent 12: The Call - 64 by Michael Grant; and while I finished it, I won't be continuing the series; it's purely juvenile. I listened mostly because I didn't have anything else on the road. I'm working on correcting that, with classics loaded on my phone from the library.

The second Temeraire novel, Throne of Jade - 65 was just as absorbing as the first.

I'm nearly done listening to Magic Bites - 66 and I've got the second ordered, but OH MY GOSH is it gruesome. Blood soaked all the way through. I find I can manage listening to this better than reading it. I think my memory absorbs images more intently through the eye rather than the ear. So I'll give the second one a chance, as the characters are interesting.

I thought I had already read Singer's The Golem - 67, but I ordered it to be sure. It's one of the 501 Must-Read Books, and I'm beginning to track those.

I've been picking up Smoke Gets in Your Eyes - 68 off and on for a month and I'm mostly done with it. I've read several other non-fictions about our way of death, and thought this would add to my knowledge. It does, but not desirably so. Some of the descriptions could be borrowed by Ilona Andrews. Not for the squeamish reader.

The Quick Guide to Wild Edible Plants - 69 looks like something from the 1980s, but it was published in 2013. It's a waste of paper. You couldn't survive from the advice in this book.

I borrowed The Bees in Your Backyard - 70 a second time to try to identify the rascals who stung me last week. Still don't know, but I did examine the materials much more closely. There is a cool photo table of look-alike bees/flies/wasps.

Ah! Two more I read but didn't enjoy:

Beauty by Sarah Pinborough - 71. Pinborough turns out to be a horror genre writer, and her re-telling of the Perrault/Grimm tale was a bit creepy, but mostly just poorly done. The ending was odd, leaving lots of room for sequels; which I will ignore. I won't be reading any of her several other interpretations either.

I got through most of Lilac Girls - 72, a WW2 story interweaving three characters, one from New York, one from Poland and another from Germany. The book has had some acclaim, but I found it rang a bit hollow and false. Parts were undoubtedly based on fact, but the fictionalization seemed a cheap way to capitalize on such a subject. The story deserved a better chronicler.

>76 2wonderY: I'm pleased you recommended the audiobooks for the Temeraire (my god, I can actually spell it without thinking now) series. I'm on Victory of Eagles. I'm trying to pace myself; but I find it very difficult to do so.

notes on Cold Days:

The theme of self-determination has been coming to the forefront in the Harry Dresden books. He’d rather be dead than subject to Mab’s control. In this story, the conviction wells up in Chapter 32, in his interlude with Mother Winter and her sister Mother Summer, beings exponentially more powerful than Mab and Titania. Though he freely admits that there are many battles he is sure to lose, “But I could defy absolutely anyone.” It is his free will that becomes his most essential power. He stands up to both mothers and insists on the adult right to choose his own path.

The Price of Thirst - 73:

Mostly a survey of European colonialist powers (France in particular) commodifying water in the third world. While making their private fortunes, they have not proven the benefits or even profitability of the model in any part of the world. Water scarcity encourages unrest. Variously defined as a “human right” or an “economic good,” it makes a great difference in how it must be handled.
Finishes with scattered examples of privatized water in the US.

Tiny World Terrariums - 74:

Perhaps the most useful little manual I’ve seen in how to put a terrarium together, practical and simple. And such cute little scenes.

Disposable People - 75:

Showcases conditions in particular industries in five countries. Most are industries that the US consumer has no links to – prostitution in Thailand, general slavery in Mauritania, brick making in Pakistan, sharecropping in India. The only industry a consumer can be involved in is sugarcane growing and harvesting in Brazil. The last chapter does discuss what can be done, but it’s mostly political work. Things you can do to stop slavery – amounts to joining an organization (the author’s) and sending money. www.freetheslaves.net

Terrariums, hmm?

Book-bullet...

>81 fuzzi: I was thinking the same...

I’ve been ploughing through a ton of fantasy, and I wanted to discard Grave Mercy -76 early on, but I’m glad I finished it. The lesson about death that Ismae learned was a valuable one, and a balm for my soul in this year of death. The setting is medieval Brittany; and I wonder how the book’s timeline and characters correspond with history.

Tried to post this yesterday, but it wouldn't stick. So I'll be editing it to bring it up to date:

Instead of going to KY, as I’d like, I’m spending the long weekend repairing my toilet. In between trips to the hardware store and cussing, I’m catching up on a lot of reading and napping. (The toilet is no longer leaking onto the floor, but now I can’t get the tank to fill!)

Depending on my mood, I have several fiction and a couple of non-fiction books going.

I found one Temple Bailey title in the library system and thought to read it before it gets culled. The Dim Lantern - 77 has several laudable young people struggling with finances and the after effects of WW1, and learning to make wise decisions of the heart. I read half the book before taking a break. It’s been a long while since I’ve read my tattereds.

I’ve been dawdling through Heroine Complex - 78, picking up other fantasies because I keep misplacing it. It’s usually packed in my bag. It’s silly, almost too silly, but it does stand out from some of the others. The superheroine and her assistant both have attitude. Oops, got to an X-rated scene. I did finish it last night. It has main characters of Asian descent and an LGBT character.

Another fantasy I’ve begun is Ink and Bone - 1/2, the first of The Great Library series. I’m getting it confused with the audio fantasy The Aeronaut’s Windlass. They both have a cluster of students with swords. Well, perhaps not literally, but it seems they are interchangeable. (see also Grave Matters.) I've decided to abandon this book, as I'm not at all engaged with any of the characters and the author just seems to be making them all jump through plot hoops.

In non-fiction, a second foraging book is Southeast Foraging - 79. It is considerably better put together than the other, but again, most of the entries won’t fill the belly. I found these two while searching for a new book on the Pawpaw - 80, by Andrew Moore. I’m not at all interested in the social culture surrounding this fruit, so I’ll skim, looking for any new science and cultivation info. Taking half a credit on it. One new fact - Bringing the tree out from the woods understory should allow it to fruit more abundantly.

A book I’m very pleased to find is The Hidden Half of Nature. Except for Michael Pollan, I get tired of having to wade through authors’ personal stories when they are presenting factual materials. Come on people! Your road to knowledge is just not that entertaining. Not that these particular authors are excessive, but geez! I’ve found two chapters so far that give me new material understanding about soil ecosystems, so I am happy. This is the knowledge I craved in the 1970s. The biological component of soils was not taught yet, though the research was beginning. (My degree was in Crops & Soils.)

I’ve treated myself to a couple of purchases to salve my irritation with the weekend. Friday, I bought a Porter Cable palm sander. I have a painted cabinet at the cabin that needs awful angel stencils removed. Today I stopped at a favorite antique/junk store and found 12 more silverplate dessert forks. They’re pristine, and only 50 cents each. Niece’s wedding is coming up.

>84 2wonderY: I get tired of having to wade through authors’ personal stories when they are presenting factual materials. Come on people! Your road to knowledge is just not that entertaining.

I've run into a few ER books like that...I just want to yell "Get ON with it!".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1YmS_VDvMY

I gave up on The Aeronaut’s Windlass at disk 10; it was too painful. Come on, Mr. Butcher, giant arachnids! I have the same complaints as with Ink and Bone and Butcher’s other new series The Furies of Calderon. And fated too, for that matter, though the protagonist cast is smaller. I don’t care one whit about these characters.

Aeronauts comes nearest in this pile, but perhaps Butcher’s talent is in introducing one character at a time for the reader to bond with. I could see myself learning to care about Captain Grimm and Benedict and Beatrice, if only he would spend time singly with them and not make me feel he is just running them through the plot.
I think I’ll go back to the Dresden File beginnings and pay attention to how he made me care about Harry and then Murphy.

Ink and Bone also has an ensemble cast of students who are run through their paces and they get added and dropped for plot interest, but I’m not even interested enough to keep their names straight. They work for the Alexandrian Library, which has a legal lock on all written materials, and has turned into The Dark Lord entity. Sadly, half way through the book, the dangers and goals are still not clear.

fated is the first in a series. Alex Verus can see the futures, so that when he pays attention, he can avoid fatal mistakes. But he too is just jumping through plot hoops, with the additional weakness that he can call up magical tools that are just too convenient. There is no character development at all.

I miss my angsty and tortured Harry Dresden.

I've been struggling through another reading of The Light Fantastic - 81. It starts out beautifully, but the adventures of Rincewind and Twofeather are some of the weakest stories in the Discworld. I will dispose of my copy now, so that I won't be tempted again.

On audio, I'm near done with a short book read by Simon Vance. Hero on a Bicycle - 82 is a recently published book, but supposedly, the author heard the original true story shortly after the war in Florence, Italy. I'm not particularly impressed by the effort.

Ooh, breezed through Black Powder War - 83. It seemed short. Some of the logistics of the story didn't make much sense - why did they have to camel caravan? Love the introduction of the feral dragons.

>87 2wonderY: re: camel caravan -- food for Temeraire and carry water for everyone. They were crossing the Gobi at the worst time of the year (if I remember correctly). It's more than 3,300 miles from the Eastern coast of China (near modern day Tianjin) to the Eastern shore of the Caspian Sea. It's another 1,300 miles from there to Istanbul. If I remember, they decided grain and dried meat wouldn't work for that distance since they needed to carry the water, too. Have you looked at the Temeraire Wiki (http://naominovik.com/wiki/Black_Powder_War) and seen the map of there route? I'm fascinated by this wiki. I just wish it was still being actively updated with content.

Vampires. I thought The Radleys would be a comedy. A family of vampires try to live as normal humans, abstaining from human blood. Instead, it is seriously angsty and frankly nasty. The author's argument is that denying one's natural drives is not a good thing. Yuck!

I read and enjoyed most of the short stories in Dark and Stormy Knights - 84.

Exploring a new urban fantasy series set in London, I've begun London Falling, but I may not finish. I get it that all of the primary characters don't like or trust each of the others. Neither do I yet. It's possible that this tension will be used well later on, but....

Okay, Rincewind redeems himself and the rambling story at the end of The Light Fantastic. My copy of the book has some choice advertisement at the back for the rest of the books then written in the disc-er-verse. (Yeah, I know that's not what it's called.)

Finished listening to Listen Liberal - 85, read by the author. I've got the print book and will probably sift through it a bit too. He's got a valid sounding theory there of why the Democratic Party has been such a failure at dealing with the structural elements that sustain income inequality.

>90 2wonderY: aha! Now I've got my October Non-fiction challenge read, thanks!

I highly recommend Trump: the Art of the Deal for an interesting look at the man 30 years ago. It doesn't matter who you vote for, the book is really interesting.

I'll think about it...

A book I scanned for interest, and red a few chapters yesterday, but not taking credit -
The Wisdom of the Shire

It was mildly interesting.

Blue Diablo – 86 is, I’m sorry to say, a bit on the boring side. It’s supposed to be a rock’em-sock’em fantasy thriller, but Aguirre just doesn’t have the pacing and suspense down pat yet. Her heroine’s emotional see-sawing got tedious as well. There are ways to keep it entertaining, but again the author misses the trick. Fortunately, her characters are on the right side of interesting and nice enough. Aguirre is adept at making them rounded enough to seem possibly real. Another failing of the book is that it felt padded.

I'm caught up in the marvelously told story of A Town Like Alice - 87, read by Neil Hunt. I have no excuse for not having read this before. Friends have been suggesting it for decades.

>94 2wonderY: I just finished reading that. I loved it. I watched a tour of Joe's part of the world on YouTube including water coming out of a bore.

>94 2wonderY: That's one of my favourite books. I can't count how many times I've read it over the years.

I think I might have been expecting something along the lines of The Thorn Birds, which I read when it first was published in the 70s. I liked that, but it was over the top drama and exhausting, and I'd never read it again, thank you.

>97 2wonderY: You don't get much over the top drama from Nevil Shute. The characters may be literally facing the end of life on earth, but they still keep stiff upper lips!

I've never even been tempted to read The Thorn Birds.

I know that now. They are MY kind of people.

>97 2wonderY: I read The Thorn Birds and loved it, but I've never reread it.

Now, Shogun is another matter. I can't tell you how many times I've reread it. It sucks me back in, every time...

Swedish curmudgeon is a tiny niche genre. I thoroughly enjoyed my dose for this year, listening to A Man Called Ove - 88. As the author says, "He's a good person, he's just not very nice all the time."

I just spent A Month in the Country – 89 with J. L. Coles. I expected more from a prize winning novel. I suppose the key word must be “evocative” as there is so little described only hinted at. Is that art? I don’t think so. Well, perhaps it should win that prize they give for telling a story in as few words as possible. I’ve found more lyrical phrasing and more masterful description from writers considered hacks. Yah, there’s a story here, but it’s an unsatisfactory one. It left me irritated with what it didn’t explore.

Quiting Rosemary and Rue - 90 two thirds of the way through, but taking full credit. The main character is still so negative and repetitive this far into the book that it is wearing grooves in my head.

I've got lots of good material to turn to.

Had a truly enjoyable time with D. E, Stevenson's Green Money-91. The best word I can find to describe her characters is 'full-bodied.' George interests himself in all sorts of people; even taking the time to significantly cheer up his young neighbor, Dan, by picking her up from school and helping to plan a tea party for her. We spend nine chapters with George and his lovely mother, Paddy, before we are even introduced to Elma. The tasks Paddy and neighbor Cathy take on in their households, and George's hand-on care of his horses, make us admire them and enjoy their company. These are people who are well-off enough to be idle, like Cathy's mother; but they are too vital to do so.
Elma was a disappointment. I had hoped that she would develop more character, and the love denouement was too brisk and flat. But the company was fine.

I'm just about finished with Temeraire 4 Empire of Ivory - 92. I'm slightly bothered by inconsistencies of plot devices, such as can the dragons see well enough at night to fly or not. How did they know it was a mushroom they were looking for? Perhaps I'd catch these details more solidly if I were reading the print books. I do love Simon Vance's rendition though.

I'll probably finish listening to Eric Weiner's The Geography of Bliss - 93, but it's making me grumpy. Mixed in with a little bit of value, Weiner is crude and illogical at times. I've got the print book and may end skimming just to say I've read it.

However, I'm LOVIN' Elephant Company - 94. I've had this from the library for a couple of months and finally decided to just read it piecemeal, so I opened at random. Billy Williams reminds me a lot of my deceased husband, and his romance and marriage with Susan Rowland, whom he happens to meet in the Burmese jungle, evoke my own wonderful memories. But beyond that, the author really understands Williams and his connection with the native people, his dogs, and especially his elephants. The man is formed from his proximity to the elephants and his love and admiration of them. Exceedingly well written. On a par with The Boys in the Boat.

PS: The human/elephant relations in the book remind me a great deal of Naomi Novik's Temeraire stories.

Just checking in, getting caught up with my starred threads. :)

Listened to Storm Front - 95, trying to figure out what Butcher did right in Harry Dresden that he forgot to use in the Codex Alera and the steampunk Cinder Spires series.
Storm Front dumps you right into the mature working brain of Harry. It is first person narrative on acid; and plenty happens quickly. But there is also a bit of detail that makes the reader understand Harry's morality (good-guy-ness). He is exasperated by Murphy, but not resentful. He is careful of other people's wellbeing.

I don't remember much of Furies of Calderon, but the protagonist is a pup, unformed as yet.

The Aeronaut's Windlass gives a first person perspective on several characters, but it switches viewpoint to tell different bits of the story. Gwendolyn and Bridget are annoying in different ways, though they both have certain strengths too. However, they have a long way to maturity yet. Captain Grimm is the one character that intrigued me (well, the ruler of Albion too) and I'd have been happier to stay with him through the book. And it seemed to me that the plot was forced rather than rolling out inevitably. I dunno, I was sampling a lot of new fantasy series that month and they mostly blended in my head.

I'm mostly done with River Marked - 96 on audio and Hogfather - 97 in print. Hogfather is a laff-a-minute book. Practically every line is quotable. Reminds me of my friends back in the 70s who had the Cheech & Chong comedy albums memorized.

Audio book listen is M is for Magic - 98, read by the author, Neil Gaimon. It's short stories and I loved about half of them and was bored by the rest.

Seconds - 99 is a graphic novel. I think I saw the blurb for it on the Unshelved email. It was just okay. I'm not attracted to the genre at all. This one incorporated film techniques and punctuation to visually enhance the story. It used "..." to convey a brief time pause. Thankfully, there was no violence to speak of, no gore. The set detail was impressive; architecture, food variety and crowd scenes all had a nice amount of veracity.

I liked Seconds for the most part. The drawing was wonderfully atmospheric, and the friendship between the women was well done. Katie wasn't very likeable at first, but I came to sympathize with her. I wasn't impressed at all with the romance part, though. That would have been better left out.

Another fantasy short story anthology, Dark and Stormy Knights - 100.

The very weak first book in a series by a well known author The Summoning - 101; but I found it dull and hard to swallow, especially the last half of the book.

Dangerous Minds - 102 is a teacher's memoirs. I found her awesome and still believable. We need more of her.

And I'm going to rave about the audio book I'm listening to now. Everyone Brave is Forgiven -103. Deft characterizations, sparkling word craft and restrained yet compelling exposition. One of the techniques I very much admire is how the author uses flashback memories to expose the storyline, but more immediately to help us experience the disconnect Alistair feels coming back to London from the battlefield.

Scanned this sufficiently to say it's read - A history of the Women Marines, 1946-1977 - 104. It was disappointing, being a formal history commissioned by the Marine Corp, and only touched on official highlights, lacking any of the personal bits. Lots of photos of perky women, though. One chapter is devoted to the wearing apparel, including a uniform evening gown. Yuck! I've got Stremlow's other book and hoping for better things there.

Ah! I see I haven't counted The Wheels of Time - 105 yet. I think I read it last year too, but I acquired my own copy this year.

Where the Locals Go - 106 is a luscious compendium of sights and food in all parts of the world.

I’m spending the weekend plowing through library books and looking for places to put the books I just bought.
The Landscaping Revolution - 107 is too basic for me. It does emphasize natives and substituting plantings for lawns, but I already know that stuff. The only good nugget I take away is Ilex decidua or Possumhaw for its winter berry load. And needing both male and female specimens. I’m in the middle of Garden Revolution, and it offers more material for thought than this one.

Let Them Eat Dirt- 108 is less science based than Missing Microbes, and the main item I take away is the newest data on introducing foods to babies. Apparently, delaying introduction does not reduce allergies; in fact it may be contributing to them. Oh, yeah, and a new procedure after C-section births – expose the newborn to mom’s vaginal flora. It seems to help, though not entirely mitigate the altered body flora of the baby.

The Summer I Saved the World in 65 Days - 109 is a wonderful teen book. A 13 year old sets a goal to do one anonymous good deed every day. They are small items in her neighborhood, home and school. But they prove just how important those tiny deeds can be.

Anatomy of Steampunk - 110 is a large format book chock full of fashions, photos and some how-to projects. Similarly to re-enactment players, there are clothing designers that cater just to the steampunk aficionado; at Cons, festivals and other happenings, as well as theater and film. I found chapter 2 (Stage Crafting) most interesting, as it features musical groups and local theater troupes. I’d be interested to watch these performances. Belladonna Belleville, Airship Isabella, The Uprising of the Gin Rebellion, The League of S.T.E.A.M., Marquis of Vaudeville, The Extraordinary Contraptions, Painless Parker, MHS Hysteria, The Red Fork Empire, Airship Archon. Other design groups of interest are Disabled Life Media and Costume Mercenary. Some of the models/enactors are beautiful on film.

I've got some notes on my laptop which I'll add here this evening. I made real progress on library books this weekend.

A quick pre-teen book, probably suggested from Unshelved is Dying to Meet You - 111. Cute, but insignificant.

I had started London Falling - 112 a month or so ago and put it down after the first chapter. It was difficult to follow and all I got from it was that the main characters despised each other. But I hoped to give it another chance. I started again from the beginning and the second go made more sense to me plot-wise. Cornell is not particularly strong on characterization, but I found them acceptable enough and striving enough to appreciate the thriller story. I've got multiple urban fantasy series going in London now, and this is the second police procedural. I will continue reading.

Just checking in, wanted to let you know. :)

Not having success with laptop and LT at the moment. (see last week's note.)

This weekend I alternated cleaning my closets, watching films and reading.

I finished Spider-Man: The Darkest Hours - 113, finding an enjoyable Jim Butcher again. Angsty main character, but funny as all get out.

And one of my favorites for the year - The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet - 114. A lot of readers have made the connection with Firefly; and meeting the first character, Kizzy, as the ship's mech tech, automatically makes one think of Kaylee Frye, lookin' good in grease. And Ashby is an unassuming captain who might be, but isn't a stand-in for Malcolm Reynolds. The fact that the novel is based on an ensemble cast is also an appealing throwback to the TV series. And I'm thinking that Chambers has taken inspiration, but her strengths are her own.

Thanks to several of you for sending this book bullet my way!

The film worth talking about is a new Alan Bennett, The Lady in the Van. This is billed as a true story. And all I can say is God bless those English!

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is a nice book, isn't it? I read it back in the spring, but some of my favourite bits still keep popping into my head at odd moments.

Sylvia, which is your favorite character?

Dr. Chef. He charmed me as soon as he appeared in the book, and then tugged at my heartstrings when he told his story. Who's your favourite?

Dr. Chef! I would love to hang out in his kitchen/garden. He's such a soothing presence. I think his mutterings would be charming. I don't know if I'd like the mek, but I'd try it.

>114 2wonderY: I saw "The Lady in the Van". I can't say that I enjoyed it but it was certainly interesting. You could see how her life's journey led her there. Everyone's decisions made at least some sense.

>119 BonnieJune54: I didn't like how they portrayed that defining moment. First it was just audio, then later in the movie you see the action. But then someone just explains it away with a wave of the hand.

Read The Rumpelstiltskin Problem - 115. It was a fairly quick read, being variations of the story, trying to make sense of one that is frankly pretty stupid once it's dissected.

Two Percent Solutions for the Planet - 116 has a multitude of short presentations about how agriculture can switch to sustainable models in order to sequester that 2% of Carbon needed to prevent climate change. Begins with grass-fed beef and winds its way through each of the facets of the new green revolution. My exposure to this material is already extensive; but it was good to get a few simplified explications on things like a Yeoman's plow and a roller-crimper, with photos. Farm Hack and PhyloChip technologies are exciting. I came away with the need to be more conscious of windrow establishment on my own property.

>120 2wonderY: I looked up "windrow" but only saw definitions about raking hay into a long row. Care to elaborate what you are referring to? :)

I might have meant hedgerow. There's a natural growth of junk trees like sumac and locust at the bottom of my meadow. Beyond that is one of the blackberry patches. I now want to be more deliberate about the types of shrubbery on this border. Something more compact and full of berries.

>122 2wonderY: a row of fruit-bearing bushes? Sounds good.

Rivers of London: Body Work - 117 was a short, but unsatisfying read. I don't particularly like graphic novels, but occasionally I bump into a good one. This isn't one of those. If I hadn't read and loved the novels in the series, I would have very little clue as to the context of characters and situations. It's Peter Grant's running commentary which makes the books so appealing, and of course, that is completely missing here. All we get is comic book stock close-ups of faces that don't match the characters in my head. Oh, and the female police are wearing princess flats - not a practical shoe for running after suspects, eh?

Apparently, the story is typically broken up into smaller parts and bound in 30 or so pages of material. Geez! I'd never have kept an interest up in that case. The story is so basic anyway. The 129 page version I got from the library is pretty much bare minimum story.

Timber Press often publishes books with lush, flashy covers. The New American Landscape – 118 is very understated, but the contents are good and solid. We’re offered 11 essays with a reasonable amount of material detail to introduce each subject. The author names that jump out for me are Rick Darke, Eric Toensmeier and Douglas Tallamy. I only scanned the chapter on waterwise gardens because my location doesn’t suffer a lack of water; but it appears to have some good thoughts. The soil health chapter seemed weak to me, offering biology rather than advice. John Greelee’s essay on meadow gardening was good, up until he recommended repeated treatments with glysophate. Uh, NO! Darke’s essay on natives vs. exotics was thoughtful, and Tallamy’s chapter on how to encourage wildlife (mostly insects and birds) and why you should was excellent. His photos of vast yards consisting of mowed grass and little else were compelling. I picked up a couple more authors to check out. The summary chapter, by Toby Hemenway, is written compellingly, arguing that we are missing so many aspects of goodness if we neglect to model our work after nature.

The chapter notes are generous and point to articles, books and websites. One could wish for a flashier cover so that this particular material is more widely read.

>125 2wonderY: sounds like an interesting read. :)

>126 fuzzi: I'll bet you'd like it, Lor.

I finished Reluctant Millionaire - 119, but it was disappointing. Didn't at all live up to the promise on it's first page.

I listened to Victory of Eagles - 120 and Going Postal - 121 in the car this weekend. Parts of Going Postal were weirdly in sync with this season's headlines.

Oh, and I did a re-listen to The Martian - 122.

>127 2wonderY: cranking them out, are ya?

I'll put The New American Landscape on my TBR...argh.

Wildlife Spectacles - 123 is a new title by Timber Press. It's not the sort of book I can sit down and read through. The lure is the photos, most of them by the author, and then you stop and read the material around it to gather more information. It's a beautiful book and Dinets is extremely engaging. There are lots of tiny nature facts to learn here. But I kept feeling that video documentary is really how this material should be presented.

>128 fuzzi: Yep. Trying to catch up and also reduce my library books pile.

Running Out of Water - 124 addresses a serious issue, and does present a few excellent municipal solutions. But I think the authors were trying to be non-judgmental, and sadly fail to explore the political issues of for-profit water systems and water rights. They do skim these issues, but the avoidance of value judgments is clear for where they stop the discussion.

I saw three gaping holes in the presentation.
1. The chapter on agricultural water use focuses on increasingly high tech solutions to continue growing corn and soybean monocultures in parts of the country that are plainly not suited for them. There was not even a whisper of the possibility of switching to more adaptive crops and soil management practices that would allow sustainable agriculture.

2. The chapter on the bottled water industry wants to condemn the practice, but waffles heavily, even quoting Nestlé's chairman admiringly for his perception on the value of water.

3. The task of cleaning water for consumption is the whole thrust of the book. But industrial contaminants are hardly mentioned. There is lots of material on sewage reclamation and San Francisco's restaurant grease to biodiesel program, but the plastics, wood and oil industries, to mention just a few major polluters, are not addressed at all.

Oh, and alternatives to flush toilets should have been a topic as well.

Taking a full credit for the picture book A Country Wedding - 125 in combination with having read 3/4s of Rosemary and Rue before deciding it was too repetitive and tossed it.

A couple I’ve been picking at, finally finished:

Now You See It… – 126 is a YA fantasy. I kept expecting it to improve; but it didn’t.

Food Forensics – 127 is by self-identified Health Ranger, Mike Adams. I am grateful for his work and persistence. When he couldn’t find a laboratory to run the contamination tests he wanted, he established one himself. The book is so discouraging though. One is tempted to stop eating altogether. One bright fact he offers – exercise and sweating helps the body remove heavy metals. I was pleased to discover that the text ends 2/3rds of the way through, and the rest is tables and source notes. Quite impressive. He analyzes groceries, fast food items, supplements, pet foods, cosmetics, tattoo inks, etc.

@SylviaC wrote that Adventures in Human Being might be her favorite read of the year, so of course I had to order it from the library. I can see the attraction. The stories and the physiological details are quite absorbing. It is also surprisingly literate; Francis knows his classics. But I am returning it to the library today only half-read. I've gotta cut somewhere. I'll take a half credit and perhaps read the rest next year.

I want to recommend the Animal Planet series Project Grizzly (not touchstoning yet.) I watched a good portion of it yesterday at my brother's house. Bear rescuer, Jeff Watson, attempts to re-wild a pair of young grizzlies, trying to safely replicate what a mama bear would do, teaching survival skills and pushing the young'uns to begin relying on themselves. What a great story!

I'm nearly done listening to The Spellman Files - 128 and I'm glad to have discovered this author. Characters you love to spend time with, flawed though they are.

I'm glad you enjoyed what you read of it. We can each only read so much, and have to let some of them go.

Somehow I'd never heard of Ruth Stout before this. I've come to the same conclusions she has about gardening, and even started just adding my kitchen organics straight into the garden instead of trying to be a good compost piler, which I never have mastered. (I'm too lazy)

So I read How to Have a Green Thumb Without an Aching Back - 129 and Gardening Without Work - 130. She still had some points for me to learn.

I Told You I Was Sick - 131 claims to be a collection of epithets that have been vetted for veracity, but there are lots that don't meet that criteria. Still, an amusing read.

Getting Started in Permaculture - 132 has approximately 50 DIY projects, most not very exciting. I will try to grow my peas inside a circle of wire fencing this next year though. Why do permaculturists love their diagrams and drawings so much?

I spent most of the weekend reading Breath of Earth - 133. It wasn't a great book, but it kept my attention for some reason. It's fantasy in an alternative San Francisco, where Teddy Roosevelt never ran for president, though he has been appointed an Ambassador. Women's rights and a transgender character are important features.

I finally watched the film, Hogfather, and really enjoyed it. It's beautifully done, though the tooth fairy's castle could do with a re-decoration.

I also watched Bread and Tulips, an Italian film about finding your joy. You get to see parts of Venice up close and personal. Sigh. And the female characters (and less noticeably the males too) had small wardrobes, wearing the same dress frequently. Rosalba wore a bright blue and flowered kimono around the house that I own as well. It's a smashingly beautiful item.

>135 2wonderY: my mother did that, just dug her potato peelings, etc. into her garden. We had volunteers all over the place, but it worked. :)

Composting shouldn't be a lot of work, just make a pile and let nature take its course. Confession: when my three pond goldfish died this year, instead of putting them in the trash, they all went into my flower garden.

I've become curious about the rest of Roberto Innocenti's work, so I ordered Rose Blanche - 134. The subject is the holocaust, but I was not impressed at all with this work. It seems sterile and missing quite a lot.

The Ultimate Guide to Natural Farming and Sustainable Living - 135 is much too general a book to have any practical use. It is an introductory book, but it doesn't explain much. It tries to cover too many topics and thus only mentions concepts without digging any deeper.

I wanted to be able to intelligently CK The Tales of Beedle the Bard - 136, as various members have cataloged it differently. It was a quick short read, though I might scan the stories again, so that they stick better in my memory. They claim to take a different tack than traditional Muggle folktales.

Finished Miranda - 137, by Grace Livingston Hill in just a couple of days. Very good. I just still felt sad for the Whitney younger children. Oops, I didn't realize this is the third in a trilogy.

Science for Sale - 138 is a very narrowly focused self-defense by a microbiologist who worked for the EPA and built solid cases for several medical practice changes, and was always attacked by industry reps who hated to see changes. Lots of court transcripts.

After reading the books, I thoroughly enjoyed watching the films The Color of Magic (starring Sean Astin as Twopenny) and Going Postal. The latter was the best production.

Joining my collection of water and waste books is Holy Shit - 139. Logsdon gives a chapter to each type of manure as well as more general issues. Good for gardeners. Only the last two chapters deal with human waste, and there isn't a wealth of information on that. Will look for another title referenced - The Toilet Papers.

I'm in the midst of Miss Buncle's Book - 140.

Also my audio read is This Changes Everything - 141 and is a very important book. I'll be reviewing it in print soon as well.

>140 2wonderY: you and I are at the same count for books read in 2016!

Merry Christmas.

Hope you all had a blessed Christmas. I did. Daughter #1 went to church with me yesterday, and the readings really struck her. Yay! Daughter #2's gift to me was a Syrian refugee donation in my name. The perfect Christmas gift, in my opinion.

I hadn't intended to stay last night again, but the day was too full of good company, good food, et cetera, that I couldn't move that far. I finished the one book I had brought, so I had to scan daughter's shelves and settled on an old favorite, Snow Treasure. -142

Because I enjoyed Gene Logsdon's book on manure, I ordered another title from the library. Logsdon has written quite a lot of various small farm specialty books over the decades. So I tried Successful Berry Growing, which was published way back in 1974. I skipped the chapter on grapes and skimmed other chapters, and read the Blackberries chapter. He discusses varieties in some detail and cultivation as well, neither subtopic has much bearing on my land, but he points out their desire to take over the world. His yield estimates are astonishing. Some of his early practices already sound like permaculture, placing your pig installation amidst mast producing trees and adding mulberries into the mix, for instance.

>142 2wonderY: sounds like you had a good Christmas, I am glad. Hugs.

Thank you dear. I'm planning on spending this weekend media saturated on my couch, sipping blackberry cordial.

I found that I had dropped a title back in January - started in December, finished in 2016, but not counted in either year yet. Black Earth - 143is an extremely important book on the WW2 holocaust. The final section makes us look up and notice some of the trends in the world today.

Going back to listen to all the Harry Dresden audios, I discovered that I had never read Fool Moon - 144 at all. Marsters isn't in top form here, or perhaps the editing wasn't up to snuff.

Of course I love The Librarian films, and was pleased to learn there is a TV series. I just read a book tie-in, The Librarians and the Lost Lamp - 145 and I wasn't impressed. Exceptionally mediocre.

In film, I thought I'd check out a few oldies with Dan Blocker in the cast. Come Blow Your Horn is pretty bad, but it was nice to see his face. He get's to punch Frank Sinatra in the face.

National Geographic did a segment on American Transgender that I found well done and thought provoking.

Also watched Cowspiracy (twice, to make sure I was following it correctly) and scanned two books that cover the same material. They have some of their facts correct, but their entire argument is that world meat production is the number one carbon emitter, with no comparisons to the heavy industries and mining that are actually doing the most to despoil the planet. They don't actually say so, but the writers and producers are militant vegans, coming at the topic from a new angle.

Sorted through a lot of library items getting the pile back to a manageable level.

I probably won't finish Sapiens, as I'm finding it a much too ambitious project for the author. He is interpreting ethnobiology as an uber-Darwinist.

I read the short and acclaimed Grief is the Thing with Feathers - 146 and found it a bit hollow. The last page says the author lives with his wife and children. Is that supposed to be funny or just inadvertently ironic? This work appeared to me to be an attempt at clever, rather than empathic. Death of a spouse and it's aftermath is not something to be played with.

Possibly the most important book I've read recently is Naomi Klein's This Changes Everything . I bought a copy so that I can refer to it in more detail. ETA I had already counted it once.

I finally buckled down and re-read and finished Missing Microbes - 147 and I'm so glad I did. This is a familiar theme nowadays, the fact that we may be entering a post-antibiotic time. But Blaser gives us lots of useful information. He makes a tentative connection from loss of bacterial diversity to some chronic diseases.

I haven't decided where to begin my 2017 thread yet. I'll let you know.

And HAPPY NEW YEAR! I'm glad 2016 is over. It was not a good year for me and mine.

>148 2wonderY: Missing Microbes sounds like a great commute listen for me!

p.s. I'm not sure 2016 was a good year for anyone (or almost).

Since I did read the half I'm counting in December, I'll post it here.

Enjoyed the childhood stories in Let's Pretend This Never Happened, but I lost interest when she started with her grown-up years.

My 2017 reading will be found HERE.