Mamzel's 2017 WANT Reading

Like others here in the Category Challenge, I am setting up a somewhat more relaxed system this year. The only group I will participate in this year will be the SFF/SFFF-KIT. The bold letters spell out the word WANT (Walk, Awareness, New, TBR).



I will plan on at least one audiobook per month to reflect my continuing efforts to WALK every day.



Each month I plan to read one book from my school library which reflects the different cultures of our student body (Hispanic, LGBTQ, African American, disabled). A for AWARENESS.



Next I will have a place to enter NEW and shiny additions from either my collection or my library's.



And of course, hardly a year goes by when I don't try to pare down my collection of TBRs from my shelves and my Kindle. I will also include books I find from my work library (a public high school).

I look forward to following everyone in this group and will love to follow your reading adventures (as well as families and furfamilies updates).



W -Dawn of Wonder by Jonathan Renshaw
A -
N - This Fight is Our Fight by Elizabeth Warren
T - Beyonders by Brandon Mull

W The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie
A Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
N Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling et al
N Donald Trump: God Forgive America by Pablo Ríos
N The Girl Who Escaped ISIS by Farida Khalaf
T The Devil's Novice by Ellis Peters
T Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin
T Arcadia by Iain Pears
T How Nancy Jackson Married Kate Wilson by Mark Twain

W Watched by Marina Budhos and narrated by Sunil Malhorta
W Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
A Love by Toni Morrison
A The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
N Still Life with Tornado by A.S. King
N Gemini by Sonya Mukherjee
N Extracurricular Activities by Yoon Ha Lee
T Cambodia Noir by Michael Seeley
T A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L'Engle
T Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel
T Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl

W The September Society by Charles Finch
A Women of the Sea: Ten Pirate Stories by Myra Weatherly
A Always Running by Luis J. Rodriguez
N Witches Be Crazy by Logan J. Hunder
N A Corner of White by Jaclyn Moriarty
T American Gods by Neil Gaiman

W Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town by Cory Doctorow
A
N To Be a Machine: Adventures Among Cyborgs, Utopians, Hackers, and the Futurists Solving the Modest Problem of Death by Mark O'Connell
N Poseidon & Cleito by Andrew J. Peters
N Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames
T 172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstad

W Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler
W We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
A Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
A 14 Cows for America by Carmen Agra Deedy
A Inferior by Angela Saini
N
T The Last Wish by Andzej Sapkowski
T Blood of Elves by Andzej Sapkowski
T The Time of Contempt by Andzej Sapkowski

W
A
N
T

Traditionally I have switched over to the new year at the beginning of our winter break which is the 18th this year. In the meantime I will enjoy seeing how everyone else will be planning their threads for 2017!

I love your breakdown and the plan to do a little bit of everything every month!

Great setup! Enjoy those audiobooks and good luck with whittling down the TBR pile!

This is a great setup and I am looking forward to following along. I think many of us have opted to simplify our challenges next year.

I like this too. 2017 will be the year to simplify.

Lovely setup!

That's a great setup - looking forward to it!

This is a really nice idea! I also like your illustrations.

What a great reading plan! Looking forward to seeing what you choose for Awareness.

As one monthly reader to another, I love your setup!

I set very simple categories in 2016 and found that worked better for me. Good luck, your plan looks great!

Sometimes the book you WANT to read is the best one.

Great categories! Love the walk idea!

Looks like you have planned well for 2017. I like that you only have to read 4 books a month to achieve your goal. I look forward to hearing about any good audiobooks you review. I have been listening to audiobooks on my way to and from work this year, once I finish my current one that will be 17 audiobooks for the year for me. Some narrators are just fantastic.

Thanks everyone for your nice comments. I am officially moving to the 2017 group today. I was sick on the 16th, busy like crazy on the 17th, recuperating yesterday, but finally ready to come over today! Today I can post my first officially completed book.



The Devil's Novice by Ellis Peters (1997)

In the middle of September of that year of Our Lord, 1140, two lords of Shropshire manors, one north of the town of Shrewsbury, the other south, sent envoys to the abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul on the same day, desiring the entry of younger sons of their houses to the Order.

One of these novices, Meriet, has devils which haunt him and cause him to wake up screaming at night, to the point that he moved out to the stable to avoid waking the brothers. He is extremely ardent in his desire to join the order but Cadfael feels there may be some reason he is driven to hide as a monk. On a wood gathering trip, Meriet leads his group to an abandoned coalmaker's hut in the forest where they discover a recent fire which nearly completely incinerated a body. Meriet's reaction to the discover tells Cadfael he was correct and he helps the good sheriff, Hugh, discover the body's identity and how it came to such a demise.

I continue to love and work through this series.

This will count as a T since it has been on my Kindle for a while.

Yey for first book of the challenge read! It's a series that's looking at me from my bookshelf - this may be its year for me! ;)

>22 mamzel: That reminds me how much I want to re-read or read for the first time (in order) the Cadfael mysteries. I see people commenting on them from time to time, and I'm reminded how I only read a few back years ago. I'm not sure which ones I read and which I didn't at this point, so I think the best way to approach is to read the series in order.

>23 -Eva-: I hope you will get to them this year. They are so calm and gentle.

>24 thornton37814: That's exactly what I'm doing. It's been so long since I might have read them that they are like new for me. I still picture Sir Derek Jacoby whenever I read one.

Love your categories and the thread is gorgeous!

>26 Sace: Thanks for stopping by!

Looking beautiful!

>28 The_Hibernator: Thanks! :-)

I absolutely love the Cadfael series.

Just stopping in for a visit, love your illustrations.

Love your challenge categories, and how you've got it arranged by month. So smart! And congratulations on finishing your first book! The Cadfael series is on my enormous virtual TBR heap, and since I don't own any of the books in any format, I can keep pushing them off for a later date. I'm thinking they'll eventually surface in the next couple of years, though, and I know I'm going to enjoy them.

Hope you're staying warm this Boxing Day!

>30 luvamystery65: and >32 LauraBrook: I enjoyed an Amazon deal for many of the episodes a couple of years ago. I bought the ones on sale and figured I could easily fill in the missing ones from the public library. This way I can leisurely enjoy them as I want. Reading a series like this is so 21st century!

>31 lsh63: Thank you!

What a great set of cateogries Mamzel! I like the Ellis Peters series too. Look forward to your reading.

>34 markon: Thanks for dropping by. Lots of love for Brother Cadfael! :-)



Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin (2010)

The Rutherford girl had been missing for eight days when Larry Ott returned home and found a monster waiting in his house.

I have been working on this book for a while, it being a kind of waiting room read. I had picked it up at a book sale mainly because of a number of rave revues back a number of years. It has been quietly awaiting me. I am not one for modern fiction much less a drama taking place in the heart of Dixie but I am glad I listened to the LTers who read it before me.

It is a rather slow and gentle read with an undercurrent of bigotry and rage born of poverty. Pretty common fare for novels taking place in the deep South. Silas, nicknamed "32", is a black man who grew up to become a police officer whose main assignment is to direct traffic around the starting and stopping time of shifts at the local plant. He was childhood friends with Larry Ott, a white man who was the son of a bigoted and violent car mechanic. He followed his father to take over the garage.

When the two men were younger, a girl disappeared. Larry thought he had been really lucky that she accepted to go to the movies with him but she really wanted to meet her boyfriend who, she told Larry, was the father of her baby. She was not at the appointed place when he was supposed to take her home and suspicion stayed on him when she never turned up.

Years later another girl turns up dead and eyes turn to him in suspicion. Silas quietly and unofficially investigates the case. Along the way he discovers a connection between him and Larry neither of them knew about.

Not being too long, this was a good book to savor slowly over time. Thanks to those who raved about it. I took a BB that stayed with me for a long time.

This book counts as a "T".

Stopping by to say "hi!" and drop a star.

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter sounds interesting. Not the kind of book I'd seek out, but worth picking up if it fell into my lap.

>35 mamzel: I read Crooked Letter Crooked Letter in 2014 and gave it the same 3 1/2 stars you did.

>36 inge87: Hi, Inge! Starring you back!

>35 mamzel: That sounds like a very interesting read to me (and "not being too long" really appeals to me.) Thanks for the review/description.

Happy New Year, mamzel!

>40 The_Hibernator: and >41 Sace: Best wishes for the new year to you as well!

I'm really looking forward to the new season of Sherlock starting tonight. I rewatched the last season to help build up the excitement.



Arcadia by Iain Pears (2015)

Imagine a landscape.

I have to admit a measure of defeat after reading this book. I took great care in keeping track of the characters and locales but the confusion of present day, imaginary world, and future was too much for me. I completely lost the point of the book.

It started out simply enough with Henry Lytten, author, trying to create a fantasy world in the style of Tolkein. He has a cat who is befriended by Rosie, a fifteen-year old neighbor. Angela Meerson (her chapters are told in first person) keeps a device in Lytten's basement that resembles a trellis. When looking for the cat one day, Rosie discovers the device, sees someone through it and passes into another world called Anterwold. Angela had tried to programmed Tolkein's world in her device but it collapsed. Something about it failed to allow it to grow. But Lytten's world was stable and thrived. Rosie steps into the world, meets a boy named Jay and jumps right back. Being the intelligent and curious girl that she is, she returns and finds that Jay has aged a number of years and is now closer in age to her. She inserts herself into the story line.

Things become (INHO) unnecessarily complicated when people from the future are chasing Angela to get a hold of her device. They want to move all of the creative people in their time somewhere else.

I read the whole thing (510 pages) but for the life of me I can not say what the point was. The app (available free from Apple) was pretty but no help. It was beautifully written but I felt like I had been to the store, bought several hundred dollars worth of food and still didn't have an idea of what to cook for dinner. The ingredients are there but no recipe.

I will count this as a "T".

Looks like some interesting books coming your way, good luck for 2017.

Posting to follow along. :-)

>43 bookwormjules: and >44 LibraryCin: So glad you stopped by. Happy New Year!

Happy new year. I like how you've set up your challenge!

I was one who really liked Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter.

>46 tymfos: Maybe you shot the BB! Thanks.

C'est tres belle, mamzel! Love your new thread. Happy New Year!

>48 VictoriaPL: Merci beaucoups et Bonne Année!

>49 mamzel: That's just about the extent of my Francais, LOL. Even after 4 years in school I cannot compose an entire sentence.

Happy New Year! :D

Finally getting caught up on some threads and stopping to say Happy New Year and looking forward to your reading this year.

>42 mamzel: - I have his book The Instance of the Fingerpost in my TBR and I think I read/heard somewhere that that one has a lot of characters also. That plus its size have kept it on my TBR for the time being.

>52 dudes22: It's a really good book. I borrowed Carrie's (cbl_tn) copy a long time ago. It predates LT for me. I know she absolutely loved it.

I love your challenge set-up! And I love that you kicked off your challenge with a Brother Cadfael mystery! I was making good progress through the series audio until the books disappeared from the public library's Overdrive collection. :-(

I loved An Instance of the Fingerpost. It reads quickly for a large book. It's hard to put down. And there really aren't that many characters. It's parts of the same story from different narrators.

>47 mamzel: Maybe not. There were lots of BBs flying around about that book!

I liked Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter, and I still haven't finished the advance copy of Arcadia I started last year. I liked the writing, but hadn't gotten very far into the story.

>50 VictoriaPL: The shame is mine. My mother was French and I took French up to graduate level and still can barely hold a simple conversation. Like so many things, if you don't practice you lose it.

>51 andreablythe: Thanks. And same to you!

>52 dudes22: and >53 thornton37814: I gave Arcadia a go based on my enjoyment of AIotF. It was a hefty challenging book but I enjoyed it.

>54 cbl_tn: Luckily, I think I can make up the series with help from our library's ILL (I hope). Whatever I can't I'll buck up and buy them. They are worth it!

>55 tymfos: Well, if you don't want credit for it...

>56 markon: CL,CL was not my typical fare but I would not hesitate to recommend it. Good luck with Arcadia.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling et al (2015)

Nineteen years after the Battle of Hogwarts...

I should not have let my expectations lead me to believe that a play could have all the richness and texture of a novel. Especially after 7 volumes of the world of Harry Potter and friends. I enjoyed the story but was left rather flat, kind of like eating a rice cake while remembering chocolate covered eclairs.

It was a fun story of Harry's youngest son and Draco's son, both placed in Slytherin house and becoming friends. They steal the Time Turner and try to go back in time to prevent Cedric Diggory from being killed by Voldemort. Naturally things don't turn out as planned and they return to a drastically altered present. But trying to go back again and fix things is not easy and they have to come up with a way to let their dads know where in time they are to be rescued.

I'll count this as a new book since my daughter loaned me her copy a while ago and I finally got around to reading it.

etaI am counting this for the SFF CAT.

Donald Trump: God Forgive America by Pablo Ríos (2016)

I'm sure there will be no shortage of publications like this but when I read about it I was intrigued since it was a Spanish author and the book was published in France. Curious, I checked on Amazon and discovered it was available for the Kindle.

In each frame we see our new president sitting in his new chair and thinking about what to do. Some of them were very funny and some left me thinking, "Huh?" Maybe it was an in joke.

In any case, it was exciting to be the first person on LT to catalog it!

This will count as an N (new) book.

>35 mamzel: I'll be reading Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter in May as my Edgar Award book. I'm pretty sure I was hit with this BB in the initial round of book reviews many years ago. I'll finally know what all the fuss was about.
>59 mamzel: I haven't seen this one. I'll have to look for it in the book stores. Have you seen Why Trump Deserves Trust, Respect & Admiration? It's a completely blank book. The reviews on Amazon are hysterical.

>I have a blank book too...the title is "What Men Know About Women".

>61 clue: My high school friend's father had one called "Everything I Know About Sex".

You guys crack me up.

>63 mysterymax: And he was my orthodontist!

The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie (2011)

"Too old for this shit," muttered Craw, wincing at the pain in his dodgy knee with every other step.

As an audiobook, this gave me many hours (22.5 to be exact) of pleasure both in my car and on my walks.

Different factions meet in battle over a bunch of strategically placed rocks known as The Heroes. We follow the three days of conflict through the eyes of many of the participants from the lowest foot soldiers to the highest officers. We learn of their motives, fears, plans, and life stories.

Joe Abercrombie gives us his usual flashes of humor like in one chapter where a painfully shy officer speaks up to the daughter of his leader who he has long admired from afar. We hear his spoken words in his squeaky voice and also his unspoken monologue in a regular voice.

Michael Page does a great job giving different voices to all these different characters. I really enjoyed listening to him.

This will count as a W.

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (orig. 1937)

Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men.

When this book was returned by a student it sat for a while at my side. Finally I opened to the first page and I was hooked. There are only two other authors (Harper Lee and Willa Cather) that put together words that make me read them over at a snail's pace to savor their beauty.

Oh to be a pear tree-any tree in bloom! With kissing bees singing of the beginning of the world! She was sixteen. She had glossy leaves and bursting buds and she wanted to struggle with life but it seemed to elude her. Where were the singing bees for her? Nothing on the place nor in her grandma's house answered her. She searched as much of the world as she could from the top of the front steps and then went on down to the front gate and leaned over to gaze up and down the road. Looking, waiting, breathin short with impatience. Waiting from the world to be made.

Looking for a short and delicious read? This is the one. The dialogue is written in dialect which slowed me down but didn't bog me down in the least.

This will count as an A. I'm also glad I read it on MLK's birthday.

>66 mamzel: - Ooooohhhh.... I spy a 5-star read there!

>66 mamzel: This is my next read after I finish what I'm currently reading (hopefully I'll finish today and move on tomorrow).

>66 mamzel: I'd reread this gem last year and agree about the beautiful writing that needs to be savoured slowly!

>66 mamzel: - BB for me!

I thought Their Eyes Were Watching God was great too when I read it in 2015. I noticed you are reading Pawn of Prophecy - I read the series in 2015 on a recommendation from my boss' boss (weird, I know, but it turns out he's a voracious reader and we share some similar tastes). I hope you enjoy it - I found it to be pretty self-contained and reasonably quick series to get through.

>66 mamzel: Completely agree with you about the lush language of Their Eyes Were Watching God! A book to savor.

>66 mamzel: Great review of Their Eyes Were Watching God. This book has now landed very close to the top of my wishlist!

>67 lkernagh: Hopefully there will be more this year!

>68 LibraryCin: I'll read your comments when you're done.

>69 mathgirl40: This was my first read and I know I'll read it again someday.

>70 dudes22: Enjoy!

>71 LisaMorr: I quit it. It wasn't working as an audiobook for me. Maybe I'll try it again as a read.

>72 sturlington: Yup and yum!

I did something on Saturday I haven't done in over a year. I went to the gym. Last year I was going pretty regularly but I quit because I wasn't progressing and I was feeling inferior to the other people in the gym. For some reason, as I was reading the paper and eating breakfast, I felt motivated to go and see if I wanted to return or if I should just cancel my membership. When I first tried the elliptical machine years ago I collapsed off of it after only about 5 minutes. Saturday I was dancing for 15 minutes and feeling great. I guess all that walking has really paid off. I was surprised that there weren't that many people since Saturday mornings are usually packed. I found out later there was a Women's March in my town that I didn't know about. I guess that's where everyone was.

>74 mamzel: I'm about 1/3 of the way in. I'm not sure I can slow myself down, but I'm not enjoying it because of the written out dialect. Hard to follow (especially when I can't seem to slow down). Audio may have been a better option for this one.

(I'm probably in a minority on not enjoying it, though, from other reviews I've seen!)

>75 LibraryCin: I accepted the use of dialect in this book. I'm wondering if an audio version might sound too much like early Hollywood's version - especially the scene with the guys telling the story of the mule. I kind of sounded it aloud in my head to understand it which took extra time.

The Girl Who Escaped ISIS by Farida Khalaf (2016)

My father showed me how to stand. "Put your left foot a touch further forward and bend your legs slightly."

This was a stunning story of a young woman who was sold into slavery to ISIS soldiers. Her family belonged to a group known as Yazidis who were considered devil worshippers by other Islamic groups and thus infidels. When their village was overrun by ISIS the men were immediately taken off and shot. The young unmarried women were carted off in one direction while older women and boys were taken in a different one. Farida found herself taken to a slave market and sold and we read about the brutality and insanity of these radical extremists.

What shines through the story is Farida's strength and determination not to give in to hopelessness. She fights every chance she gets against these men and eventually manages to escape taking five other young captives with her. Where we may have seen Arab women as completely downtrodden and controlled, we learn that there are some who embrace education and prize their religion and families.

I highly recommend this YA memoir.

I am counting this as an "N".

How Nancy Jackson Married Kate Wilson by Mark Twain (2001)

This edition brings together for the first time Mark Twain's stories that feature girls and independent, unmarried young women. (from Preface)

Mark Twain is undisputedly a genius but I did not know what an ardent admirer he was of females. And I don't mean in a lascivious way but he totally admired their intelligence and bravery. He had three daughters he adored. He was not at all afraid of telling stories of transvestites (women who dressed and lived as men).

His sense of wry humor shines through in a couple of these stories as well. I laughed out loud at the story of the "Esquimaux Maiden". His admiration for Joan of Arc is explained in trumpeting praise for her youth and being able to overcome her humble birth to lead France's armies and how she maintained her faith and determination in the face of torture and imprisonment. His story of the orphan girl who joined her uncle, a colonel in the U.S. Cavalry, on an outpost in the western frontier, told of a girl who charmed everyone from the surrounding tribes, to the lowest soldier, to even Buffalo Bill's horse, Soldier Boy and is told by those who loved her. One part is her letter home to Spain that has the breathless run-on sentences expected from a lively 8-year old.

My advice if you find and read this book is to not read the blurbs that come before each story because some include spoilers which ruin the surprise of the story. I highly recommend it.

I will count this as a T.

>78 mamzel: You should check out Twain's novel about Joan of Arc! It's so different from anything else I've read by him, which I find fascinating!

>78 mamzel: Gotta read it!

>78 mamzel: Yes! I will add this to my list.

>79 christina_reads: I certainly will if I come across it.

>80 clue: I hope you'll be able to find it.

>81 luvamystery65: You will not be disappointed! It was a great departure from my heavy fantasy diet of late.

Still Life with Tornado by A.S. King (2016)

Nothing ever really happens.
Or, more accurately, nothing new ever really happens.

So with that depressing opening, I already wondered what the big hoopla about this book was. This dark and sad mood went on through the whole book.

Sixteen-year old Sarah is bright and artistically talented. One day, however, she has an assignment to draw a pear and can't. She simply doesn't know how to begin. She walks out of class and blocks out school and her family. She rides buses and walks the streets and shadows a homeless man. She meets her 10-year old self along the way and begins to remember a family vacation in Mexico. Something must have happened because that was when her (then) 19-year old brother left home and she was forbidden to contact him.

Slowly she begins to recall (as the reader does in alternating chapters) what happened on that trip. She also meets her 23-year old and 40-year old selves but they do not clue her in.

Where the story breaks down for me is that her family also sees her other selves. They even sit down to dinner together. So it moves from being an existential crisis to a fantasy!? Huh?

What she eventually learns is that her father had a violent temper and had been abusing her mother and brother. Her brother broke into the hotel room safe and stole his parents' wedding rings and threw them in the ocean. Dad hit him in the face and kicked him out of the family. The brother came back later in the story and helped Mom recognize the abuse (she was an ER nurse and should have seen it herself) and make Dad move out.

I will count this as an N (new book).

>83 mamzel: I think I'll avoid that one. Thanks for the review mamzel.

>84 VioletBramble: I'll never be a professional reviewer. This book received lots of starred reviews and the author is highly regarded which is why I picked the book up in the first place.

Their Eyes Were Watching God is definitely part of my plan to eventually catch up on my US classics. :)

Watched by Marina Budhos and narrated by Sunil Malhorta (2016)

I'm watched.
There's a streetlight by my parents' store, and I hear the click, a shutter snapping as I turn the corner.

I listened to the audio version of this book and the Bangladeshi accent of the narrator was a natural complement to the story.

Naeem is a high school senior who was born in Bangladesh and later joined his father and stepmother in Queens. He is a little confused, and is drifting through life. Unfortunately, his best friend, Ibrahim, is not the best role model and lands him in trouble by stashing some items in Naeem's backpack. When he is charged with shoplifting he faces landing in jail. Agents offer him an alternative, however. He could keep an ear open in the Mosques and visit some chatrooms and report on any possible suspicious activity and he could stay clear of prison and make some good money as well.

Naeem is forced to take a look at how he is living his life and he doesn't like what he sees. And when the agents ask him to set up Ibrahim he struggles with the problem of turning his friend in. Is Ibrahim really leaning towards fanaticism or is he just being snared by a promise of money and importance? Can Naeem really do this to his friend?

I really grew to like Naeem and his cultural values of family and community. He helps his father and even advises him on a way to make their store more successful. He helps out neighbors and volunteers to mentor youths. He tries to follow his faith more closely. This was quite a timely story as I have no doubt this scenario is being carried out all across the country in this time of suspicion and fear.

I could count this as a N (New) or an A (Awareness) but I will count it as a W (Walk).

Gemini by Sonya Mukherjee (2016)

About four years ago, when I was thirteen and still prone to crying spells, my mother liked to show off her so-called wisdom by telling me that every teenage girl sometimes feels like a freak of nature.

In order to help her daughters have as normal a life as possible, this mother moved her family to a small town in California where Hailey and Clara would have the best chance of being accepted. The girls were conjoined twins. Their parents made the gut-wrenching decision not to have them surgically separated when babies. They were determined (the mother especially) that they would have a better chance at a healthy life this way.

Being a high school senior brings up a host of decisions as to college and life beyond high school. Clara has an opportunity to attend a summer art school which means that Hailey would have to set aside any ideas she had to accommodate her. What would that mean for college for the two of them? Hailey's interests lay more in science, especially astronomy.

The author inserts tidbits about historically famous conjoined twins with one exception I found puzzling. With the twins thinking about the possibility of relationships with boys, there was no mention of Chang and Eng, quite possibly the most famous conjoined twins, who went on to marry sisters and have a total of 22 children between the two of them.

I will count this as an N (new book).

Rain, rain, rain, floods, mudslides, trees falling, rain, rain, rain...
Dark gray skies with only glimpses of blue...
Is it summer yet?

>89 mamzel: We are having quite a bit of rain ourselves, but no flooding that I have heard of. For the past two days it comes in brief monsoon-like intensity and then is gone.

We're expecting another huge storm today with heavy rain and high winds but sunny skies this weekend. TV crews are already standing by in the places most likely to have dramatic scenes of rushing water.

>83 mamzel: I'll take a pass on that one! My brain can't take in that kind of complication.

>89 mamzel: Here we have snow, snow, snow, avalanches, snow... I'm also looking forward to summer.

>78 mamzel: I never heard of this before! Sounds like a must-read.

It's been on my library's shelf forever but no one ever checked it out. I thought I would read it before diverting it to book hell. Now that I know how good it is I can book talk it and maybe get students to give it a try. I hope it's hiding somewhere near you!

>78 mamzel: - That one sounds like so much fun and I love the cover!

Love by Toni Morrison (2003)

The women's legs are spread wide open, so I hum.

This was very different from the Hurston book. It centers around the women in Bill Cosey life. (I kept substituting a "b" for the "e" in my head.) He was a successful owner of a hotel that catered to a black clientele. They included Heed (who married him at the ripe age of 11), Bill's granddaughter, Christine (who used to be Heed's best friend before), and June, who was recently released from "Correctional" and is hired by Heed to be her personal secretary. We also meet daughters and lovers.

I did not give this book the proper attention it deserved and was confused by the ever changing POV and time. This was probably not the best choice for my first book by this author.

I will count this as an "A", Awareness.

>66 mamzel:
I'm pretty sure I read Their Eyes Were Watching God in school at some point. It's one I need to return to, though, since I don't think I read it with proper focus at the time.

>96 mamzel:
Haven't read Love yet, but Morrison's writing can be really complex. I've reread Beloved several times (because I adore it), but I remember not being able to fully absorb it all on the first reading. It took more than one reading for me to fully appreciate it.

>97 andreablythe: I did realize I would probably need to give Love another read sooner or later. I actually started it right away before putting it down.

>98 mamzel:
It's interesting to me that Morrison can create that kind of reaction, as in "that was hard, so I better read it again" instead of "that was hard and I hate it".

>99 andreablythe: Good observation!
Hope you can get some time for TEWWG soon. I think you might appreciate it more after all the reading you have done since you were in high school.

>96 mamzel:, I haven't read her most recent two books, but I've read most everything she wrote earlier. Oddly, for me, she's one of those writers whose longer works are much more complex, and yet also easier to read. Love is one of the few that I didn't much care for--it just didn't have as much impact for me as some of her others--but I love Song of Solomon, and Sula is wonderful.

>98 mamzel:, I wonder if it has something to do with her characterizations? Even when I don't like the stories, her characters always seem so vibrant.

>101 whitewavedarling: I have Beloved, Jazz, and Paradise in my library. I'll give one of them a try soon.

>102 mamzel:, I'd recommend Beloved of those three. Jazz was the one other that sort of left no impression on me, like Love, I have to admit.

>103 whitewavedarling: Thanks!



A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L'Engle (1978)

The big kitchen of the Murry's house was bright and warm, curtains drawn against the dark outside, against the rain driving past the house from the northeast.

I am a little embarrassed to say that this is the first L'Engle book I've read. Boy, does she pack her books with characters and (in this case) history.

The story opens with young Charles Wallace and his older sister Meg and their family sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner. The President telephones and talks to their father about an imminent nuclear strike. Charles Wallace is impelled to go up to the "stargazing rock" where he recites a rune. A unicorn arrives who is able to carry him through "when" and "where" so he is able to try and affect the past thereby changing the present.

The story reminded me a little of Holes, written much later, in that descendants suffer or enjoy the fruits of their ancestors actions.

One line particularly felt quite appropriate for the day. Meg wondered if she would ever again sleep in that secure way, relinquishing consciousness without fear of what might happen during the night.

I am counting this as a T (TBR).

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison (1970)

Quiet as it's kept, there were no marigolds in the fall of 1941.

In her afterword Morrison explains the expression "quiet as it's kept" means "just between us". It opens a story of a young girl who sees having blue eyes as an icon of beauty. She sees them in a doll that is given to her for Christmas, in books given to her in school to read, and she sees blue eyes in the most popular girl in her class. If she just was able to have blue eyes then she could be beautiful and special too. This from a girl whose mother beats her before understanding why her daughter did what she did and whose stepfather raped her and made her pregnant. And from a girl who goes to another man who promises miracles asking for blue eyes. This man uses her for his own selfish motive (not the way the stepfather did) with horrifying results. It seems that there is no way for this young black girl to be able to feel any pride.

Does this quote remind you of anyone? Little Elihue learned everything he needed to know well, particularly the fine art of self-deception. He read greedily but understood selectively, choosing the bits and pieces of other men's ideas that supported whatever predilection he had at the moment.

This was Morrison's first novel, very powerful and eye-opening.

I will count this book as an A for Awareness.

edited to add quoted line

Extracurricular Activities by Yoon Ha Lee (2017)

When Shuos Jedao walked into his temporary quarters on Station Muru 5 and spotted the box, he assumed someone was attempting to assassinate him.

I was searching around for a book to fit in the SFF category of space travel and was not having any luck until I got the tor.com newsletter. They always have a short story at the end and this week's fit the theme.

Jedao is a trained assassin and is given an assignment to free some agents that were being held on the Du Station in the Gwa Reality, one of which Jedao knew from his cadet training days. Action ensues.

The fun but sometimes frustrating part of science fiction, especially in short fiction, is when the author does not explain everything about the world he created, not even indirectly. For instance, characters are seemingly a single lifeform but the story uses plural pronouns when referring to them. Also, the language confusion Jedao encounters on the station is never explained.

Even though, I enjoyed this story for its action and Jedao's constant channeling of his mother.

I will count this as an N (new).

Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson (2014)
The Stormlight Archive #2

Jasnah Kholin pretended to enjoy the party, giving no indication that she intended to have one of the guests killed.

When I visited St. Thomas last summer I left my Kindle with my dad since his was broken. I had to have something to read so I went to the airport gift store and was rather surprised to find this paperback on the shelf to read. When I got home, however, I felt a little burned out by fantasy so I set it on the shelf. Last month I picked it up again to see if I could finish it for the January SFF Cat. Well, as you can see it took me a little longer than expected but I finally did it. Oh, by the way, did I mention that the book is 1310 pages long and almost 2.5 inches thick?

I recently read an interview with Mr. Sanderson that said he had a condition (or dare I call it a super power) that allowed him to concentrate for long periods which allowed him to create such epic works. I can't imagine being able to write such long and involved stories and keep everything straight like he does.

It would be impossible and unfair to try and describe the incredibly different world he has given us save to mention that it is intriguing and carries the reader for the whole time. The plot evolves gradually while we get a total picture of our characters and their amazing landscape.

I will count this as a T (TBR).

By the way, this is the cover art.

>108 mamzel: Wow, that's beautiful!

>109 LibraryCin: It's cool that the artist really seems to have read the book and has a grasp of the story (except for those things that look like planes).

>110 mamzel: Yeah, it always annoying when you look at the cover and figure there's no way the artist read the book! :-)

Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel (1995)

Once on a Wednesday excursion when I was a little girl, my father brought me a beaded wire ball that I loved.

In a previous life I was a deck officer in the merchant marine (commercial shipping). I attended a maritime college and one of the things we learned was how to use a sextant in coordination with a chronometer to obtain our position. The first ship I was on depended on this method but as time went on the reliance switched to electronic methods. When we learned celestial navigation we used the Nautical Almanac and sight reduction tables to manually compute and plot a line of position. When I had earned some money I treated myself to a navigation calculator made by Tamaya, a sweet device with nice large buttons and readout strictly created for this purpose. I know everyone thought I was a nerd but even when I was on a ship with satellite navigation I continued to take sightings with my sextant to wile away the hours on watch.

The nice thing about this book was that it was not padded with histories of navigation dating back to the Stone Age and biographies of every person mentioned or tedious processes to create the parts. Just the facts, ma'am, just the facts. John Harrison was self-taught and learned from scratch how to build clocks and adapt them to the rigors of sea travel where temperature, motion, and humidity can affect their accuracy.

I am counting this book as a T (TBR).

Thumbs-up for your review of Longitude! I must get to it soon. Really liked her The Glass Universe.

>113 rabbitprincess: Thanks!
I'll also add that, like the author, I stood in Greenwich with feet on either side of the Prime Meridian. Pretty cool!

>114 mamzel:
That's a classic photo!! :)

I liked the same thing you did about the book when I read it - it didn't stray far and wide in an effort to fit everything into the story.

>115 -Eva-: It is. (Thanks to Google images.) If I had a picture of myself I have since lost it and it certainly would not have been digital!

>117 mamzel: I was particularly thinking of Simon Winchester, whose books I love but are filled with copious minutia. He has studied geology, I believe, and likes to share his knowledge.

For those of you who are fans of the Iron Druid series by Kevin Hearne, I just learned he is coming out with the first of a trilogy of epic fantasy called A Plague of Giants.

http://www.unboundworlds.com/2017/02/author-kevin-hearne-leading-plague-giants/?...

>118 mamzel:
Oooh, that sounds like it could be really good!

>112 mamzel: - Excellent review of the Sobel book!

>119 -Eva-: I'm really looking forward to it!

>120 lkernagh: Thanks!

Cambodia Noir by Michael Seeley (2016)

Airports kill me.

I picked this up as an ARC freebie because I was curious after seeing many versions of the Noir books and intrigued by Cambodia. Are these anti-tourism books? Because I sure lost any desire to visit it!

Will Keller is a photojournalist on assignment in Phnom Phen. He is hired by a Japanese woman to look for her sister who was an intern for a local newspaper and has not been seen or heard from for a while. Between this job and his regular job he becomes steeped in the underworld of drug cartels and corrupt military. He is tortured, threatened, and chased through the countryside. Along the way we see drug use and underage prostitution, all taking place in a hot and humid environment with severe poverty.

While I am admittedly not part of the target audience for this book, I followed Will through his adventures.

I counted this is as a T (TBR) - gave it to my son!

Dava Sobel is a favorite author of mine. I loved Longitude, Galileo's Daughter and The Planets. Plus, she is the author of an arthritis exercise book that I used to get my hands functioning again 20 years ago. I will read anything she writes.
I also have a photo of my feet on both sides of the Prime Meridian in Greenwich. I'm not sure if I got that from the book - probably - or just because everyone there was taking that photo.

>123 VioletBramble: I will look for that arthritis book. I'm experiencing pain in my thumb joints (I've nicknamed it Librarian's Thumb since it hurts the worst when pulling books from a shelf.)



Lab Girl by Hope Jahren, narrated by Hope Jahren (2016)

People love the ocean.

Hope Jahren worked hard to attain a position that few acknowledged in a field dominated by men. Female scientists are few and far between, especially in a field that involves studies in the wilds. Along the way she picked up a helper named Bill who she tried to employ as much as she could but who still lived in abject poverty most of the time.

Along with learning about her trials, we learn bits about her science - how plants grow - and about her personal life. It was most enlightening to learn about how scientists are responsible for applying for their own grants and building their own labs. Besides the research, they have to budget precious money for supplies, transportation, and help.

This book is a must read for high school and college women who have a glorified picture of life as a scientist.

The book was narrated by the author who did a good job except for her pronunciation of "root".

I counted this book as a W (audiobook).

I'm hoping to finally get to this one in a couple of months for the CATWomen challenge - professional women.

>112 mamzel: What an interesting story about your interest in navigation! I enjoyed Dava Sobel's book but it must have meant more to you.

>123 VioletBramble: I'd no idea Sobel wrote about exercises for arthritis. I'll be sure to check them out.

>125 LittleTaiko: Perfect choice!

>126 VivienneR: It made me a little embarrassed that I hadn't read it much earlier!

Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl (orig. 1959)

This book does not claim to be an account of facts and events but of personal experiences, experiences which millions of prisoners have suffered time and again.

I am trying to read some of the books that are required of our students, maybe even rereading books I read in high school. This one was sitting on my desk so I gave it a go.

Frankl was a psychiatrist who was put in the concentration camps. During and after his ordeal he analyzed himself to try and understand how man can withstand so much horror and continue to survive. The first part of the book is about his experiences and the second half explains his explanation of logotherapy. It was way over my lay head and I glazed over during much of it.
Logotherapy bases its technique called "paradoxical intention" on the twofold fact that fear brings about that which one is afraid of, and that hyper-intention makes impossible what one wishes.

Nonetheless, I was glad to finally read this and marvel at how resilient man can be under the most terrible of circumstances.

I counted this as a T (TBR - from the library's shelf)

11 books in a short month! Wheeeee!

>129 mamzel: Wow, I'm really impressed! That's more than I've read all year so far, and I'm pretty proud of myself! :)

>130 Jackie_K: I had lots of free time at work. It's not always so. 9 of them were work related.

Witches Be Crazy by Logan J. Hunder (2015)

Dying flames chewed hungrily on the remaining morsels of a once mighty city.

After marching and trudging through the last huge fantasy, this was a breath of fresh air. Full of action and fighting, yes, but also full of interesting characters and humor. A blacksmith turned innkeep with a penchant for throwing patrons out of the second floor window volunteers to be the village's representative to try and win the hand of the country's princess after her father's mysterious death. Along the way to the capital he is joined by a bard who can't be killed and a pair of sisters with a taste for adventure. He falls in with pirates in search of a rare treasure and many others.

I mostly had a smile on my face because of the situations our heroes encounter and the many fantasy tropes. There were even nods to modern TV series. This one gave me a snort.

"Oh my god...They killed Jimmy..."
"Those bastards!" Koey yelled, pacing back and forth.

I counted this as an N (new book - Kindle).

>107 mamzel: I too enjoyed this book and am impressed you'd read the print copy. Nowadays, I can only read huge books like that on my e-reader, as they're too heavy to hold and too daunting to consider. (The e-reader is better at hiding the fact that it'll take me months to finish the book.) Michael Whelan's cover art is great. I especially like his cover for Dragonflight.

>132 mamzel: Witches Be Crazy sounds like a fun read and it has pirates! I am adding it to my wishlist for when I need something on the lighter side.

>133 mathgirl40: I usually enjoy them on my Kindle as well but I didn't have it with me for that flight and the only choices to read in the airport store were the usual collection of Paterson (gag) and the like or this one in paperback (cheaper) and I had recently read the first of the series. I considered it Kismet and suffered holding it open.

>134 DeltaQueen50: It actually garnered several starred reviews (including Library Journal) so I hope you will enjoy it.

A Corner of White by Jaclyn Moriarty (2013)
The Colors of Madeleine (1)

Madeleine Tully turned fourteen yesterday, but today she did not turn anything.

What a treat this book was! Having had my fill of dystopian stories, I was cautious as I slowly dipped my toe in to try it. It was as enjoyable as a warm bath. With bubbles!

Madeleine lives in The World. She attends home school with a group of friends, each subject taught by a different person. Her mother is a little wacky and grows more and more wacky as the days progress. One day she walks past a broken parking meter and notices a piece of paper sticking out of it. It turns out to be a call for help. She decides to write back.

Elliot lives in a parallel world known as Cello. He is bright and talented and his father has been missing for a long time. He wants to find him. He notices an envelope in a broken TV set that is part of a sculpture in his school's playground. He finds the letter written by Madeleine and this starts a most unusual penpal setup.

In Cello, colors attack and different colors attack with different methods and amount of ferocity. Citizens pay attention to an alarm which warns them of these attacks. One of the things Madeleine and Elliot converse about is their version of color. Elliot knows about The World but Madeleine is slow to be convinced of an alternate world and tries to convince Elliot of the science behind colors.

This book was delicious and I recommend it to teens and adults as well.

I am counting this book as an N (new to my library).

I have not been a very political person in the past. I let thse elected go on with the business of running our country without keeping track of them. However, lately I have found myself paying attention to news channels and reading opinion articles in the paper to try and fathom events as they unfold. This morning, in the shower (where most of my brilliant ideas come to me) I had an idea for my own address to Congress. I will not be offended if you do not choose to read it.

***WARNING - FULL-ON SNARK MODE FOLLOWING***

My fellow Americans, I am sharing with you today my plans for progress.

I will paint the outside of my house to keep out weather and pests. The paint there now has been there for over 30 years and has done a miserable job thanks to my predecessor. Moreover, my neighbors will pay for the work for after all, they are the ones who look at the outside.
APPLAUSE

The kitchen and bathroom infrastructure need major overhaul and this will be done. I want to replace the floor, countertops, and cupboard doors. In doing so the meals created there will be much more nutritious and delicious. As for how to pay for it I'll think about that tomorrow - for tomorrow is another day.
APPLAUSE

The landscaping, front and back, has been allowed to forge their own way since there has not been water to spare. With the drought officially over (and I can't take credit for this as much as I would like to) I will create jobs to restore them to previous splendor. No immigrants will be hired for this job even though they may be highly qualified. If I have to watch butt-crack action in my yard let it be good old American butt-crack.
SUSTAINED STANDING OVATION

In education I will continue to emphasise the importance of reading. Twitter, Reddit, Snapchat, Facebook, and Instagram will be the primary source of information for our youths. The dated idea that facts should be checked before published needs to be abolished. Facts should be posted immediately to as many people as possible and then let those truth mongers try and repeal them.
APPLAUSE

There will be no more selling houses in my neighborhood to just anyone. New homeowners must be completely vetted before they move in. No one will be allowed in from the areas that I deem dangerous or undesirable. These regions will be totally arbitrary and absolutely binding.
APPLAUSE

As far as healthcare goes, I am covered so I don't give a fig what happens to others. Let them figure it out on their own. Grow up people!
SUSTAINED STANDING OVATION

These promises I make to you without any forethought to costs or consequences. In the immortal words of Captain Jean Luc Picard, "Make it so."
AUDIENCE OVERCOME WITH RAPTURE

Make it so.

Very good, thanks for sharing.

Excellent speech, Mamzel! You could perhaps add that although Twitter, Reddit, Snapchat, etc. will be the primary source of information, if they dare to post something derogatory toward you or your ideas, you will be the first to point your finger and yell "Fake News"!

Thank you for a much needed laugh!

You should write a book, there's not much to laugh at these days!

Abandoned book!



Ada's Algorithm by James Essinger

Having recently read and enjoyed Longitude which really was about the development of a chronometer and not a survey of life at the time, I thought I would enjoy this book as another scientific adventure. Nope. It served the author that there was much more historical references for Ada and her partner Charles Babbage. The book is great if you want a peek into life at the time. Ada doesn't even meet Charles until Chapter 8.

Bummer.

>137 mamzel: Nice speech. LOL.
Last Wednesday the Secret Service came to the pediatrics unit where I work. We were told someone important would be stopping by on Thursday. Overnight they polished and cleaned the Play Room so that it sparkled. On Thursday morning we were told this someone would be reading to the children. We got really excited because we all know that Michelle Obama likes to visit schools, etc and read to kids. Then Melania Trump showed up. We were so disappointed. She read to the kids for ~10 mins from Oh, The Places You'll Go. (it was Dr Seuss'birthday that day- and national book day). Then she took some photos with patients and staff. The whole visit was less than 20 minutes. She's very skinny in person.
This is the title of the Dava Sobel book: Arthritis, What Exercises Work, Breakthrough Relief for the Rest of Your Life

>106 mamzel:
I've read a couple of Yoon Ha Lee's short stories. This one sounds great, too.

>136 mamzel:
Oooh, great review. Sounds like a great dystopian piece. BB, for sure. Plus, the author's name is Moriarty. :)

>137 mamzel:
That's rather brilliant! lol.

>138 LisaMorr: I had fun with it!

>139 DeltaQueen50: So true!

>140 LittleTaiko: My pleasure!

>141 clue: I doubt I could create that much fun!

>144 andreablythe: Thanks for stopping by and commenting! Unfortunately my inspiration only comes in brief flashes and not a continuous glow.

I had one of "those mornings" this morning. As I got out of my car at work I meant to hit the total unlock and ended up hitting total lock resulting in my keys, phone, and lunch locked in. I tried to call home to wake my son so he could bring me the spare but discovered my home phone wasn't working! Tried to call lovely phone company, went through ridiculous "customer service" (read with dripping disdain) voice tree to find that the office wasn't open yet. Later, I tried again and the voice said repeatedly that I could get a live operator at any time. Repeated "live operator" over and over before finding out there would be a 10 minute wait.

I ended up calling AAA which came in 10 minutes. Luckily I had left the windows cracked. The guy was able to click the trunk release, drop the back seat, and grab my pocket book so I could silence the alarm.

All I can say is that I'm glad these mornings don't happen very often. I will return to my practice of thinking twice before closing the car door to prevent a recurrence. And I am so glad to be a AAA member!

>145 mamzel:
Oh, man. How frustrating! I feel your pain, really. I've locked myself out of the car just that way several times before — once, I even did it while the car was running.

>145 mamzel:
Oh, no. But yey for AAA - I have been saved by them before.

>146 andreablythe: The worst I ever did was lock my infant son in a rental car. In Florida. In the summer. We ended up having to break the window to get in!

>147 -Eva-: I had to get over the desire to take care of it myself since I couldn't get hold of my son. The problem with the phone turned out to be that one of the phones had been knocked off the base. I didn't know that would interfere with service!



Yvain: The Knight of the Lion by M.T. Anderson, illustrated by Andrea Offermann (2017)

Another lucky win from the Early Reviewer's program!

M.T. Anderson takes this story straight from the 12th century version by Chrètien de Troyes. The illustrator did her homework, too, studying period tapestries and stained glass windows for authenticity.

Yvain's story starts with his cousin, Sir Calogrenant returning from a disappointing adventure. He found a magic fountain with directions to pour its water on a stone. When he did this a terrible storm erupted. A knight from a nearby castle raced out to stop the storm by summarily trouncing Sir Calogrenant. In true chivalric fashion, Yvain slipped off to avenge his cousin. He managed to defeat the knight and proceeded to the castle where he fell in love with the widow, Lady Laudine. She in turn had to be convinced that Yvaine would be a good replacement husband since he had, in fact, bested her husband.

The story continues with Yvaine seeking new adventures, getting in Dutch with his wife by not returning when promised. He is devastated by her rejection and goes off to the wilderness to hope for death. It takes a lot of work to regain her approval.

This story illustrates how thin the line is between love and hate and how someone can swing back and forth between them. It also illustrates the chivalric code of loyalty and honoring vows.

I loved this graphic novel. I hope it will lure young readers into the wonderfully magic world of King Arthur and his knights.

I am counting this book as an N (new book).

>148 mamzel:
Yikes! That would be terrifying.

I also got Yvain: The Knight of the Lion through the ER program. Just came in today. I'm glad to hear you think it's a good one. :)

>149 andreablythe: Enjoy!

>137 mamzel: Congratulations on your excellent address to congress! You could be the next president!

>143 VioletBramble: After taking a BB from you, I borrowed Dava Sobel's book: Arthritis, What Exercises Work, Breakthrough Relief for the Rest of Your Life from the library and found it to be excellent. A copy of my own has been ordered already! Thanks for that.

>151 VivienneR: Thanks! But NO thanks!

>152 VivienneR: I have arthritis in one knee (high school injury) and both thumbs. My knee is much better after losing weight and walking more. The more I walk the more I lose - the more I lose the more I walk!

>136 mamzel: - It was as enjoyable as a warm bath. With bubbles! Sounds perfect!

>154 lkernagh: I usually don't like gifs but this one seemed appropriate -

From Ashes into Light by Gudrun Mouw (2016)

No opening line because I read an ARC version.

I was rather disturbed by this book. Let me say that I generally read YA books with the intent of recommending it or discussing it with students. As I read this I couldn't see myself recommending it to anyone. I found it confusing and I thought the settings were possibly gratuitous.

Three characters (listed in the order presented in the book) - Ruth (1938 Austria - Kristallnacht - Dachau), Elfriede (born in 1942 of soldier father, vapid mother, victim of incest when older), and Saqapaya (member of Chumash tribe in coastal California during Spanish conquest)

A fourth "character" is a phoenix who pops up as an omniscient observer of the three. Also, the story is prefaced by a quote referring to reincarnation.

The book switches back and forth between the characters, although one dies and drops out. (I'll give you one guess who). The characters get occasional flashes of each other.

One problem I had was that I could not really understand the point of the story. Reincarnation? The horrors of war? Overcoming adversity? The other was the choice of settings. That the third character existed on a different continent and hundreds of years earlier seemed to really clash with the two 20th century European girls. There was a real disconnect for me.

I hate to sound flip and dismissive of the trauma suffered by the characters but it really felt like the author just tried to use the worst possible situations to spice up the story.

I will count this as an N (new book).

>156 mamzel: I could not finish this one. I gave up on it.

>157 VictoriaPL: Whew! It wasn't just me then. I try not to read any reviews before I read an ER.

New trailer for American Gods series coming out on Starz -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3awG5wEE7LU
I can so picture Ian McShane as Mr. Wednesday!

>159 mamzel:
I'm both wary and excited about the American Gods series.

Suzieqoregon posted this Tweet on her thread on the 75ers group and we are having so much fun with it. My favorite was the first line of A Cat in the Hat.



For instance:
The sun did not shine, it was too wet to play, so we sat in the house all that cold, cold wet day. And then the murders began.

The students here are flying around pulling books and finding much hilarity.

>161 mamzel:
OMG, that's hilarious.

Love it! I'm going to try that on the next book I read.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman (orig. 2001)

Shadow had done three years in prison.

I thought this book was brilliantly conceived. The idea is that many gods came to America with all the waves of immigrants. Interest in them waned as modern obsessions became more prevalent. Odin, as portrayed by a one-eyed man named Mr. Wednesday, hires Shadow to accompany him across the country to recruit as many of these gods and mythological beings as he could to join in a final battle against the new gods of Technology, Drugs, etc.

After rereading the final battle scenes, I can't wait to see them on the TV screen! April 30 on Starz if anyone is interested.

I am counting this as a T (TBR - it's been on my Kindle forever).

I listened to American Gods a few years ago but it remains very fresh in my mind. It was truly an awesome read.

>165 DeltaQueen50: Awesome indeed!



Women of the Sea: Ten Pirate Stories by Myra Weatherly (2006)

Alfhild, daughter of the Viking king Siward, is the first woman pirate to appear in the pages of history.

I'm conflicted by the topic of this book. On the one hand I am always thrilled when members of my gender are able to take leadership roles and match their male counterparts. On the other hand, I am devastated that women engage in such brutal and violent activity. Was it not enough to steal but did they have to slay other hard working people in the end?

This book was written for a younger school-aged audience so there was not a lot of extraneous meat in the stories. Paintings and block cuts from the respective periods enhanced the biographies and there was even one photograph of the last known female pirate, Lai Choi San.

I read this as an A for Women's History Month.

Always Running by Luis J. Rodriguez (1993)

This memory begins with flight.

This is a no holds barred, no punches pulled story of life growing up in the barrios of Los Angeles with all of the drugs, alcoholism, violence, rapes, etc. one associates with gangs. It is probably the most popular book in my library.

The following chapter lays out in black and white how and why disenfranchised youth turn to drugs and violence.

If you came from the Hills, you were labeled from the start. I'd walk into the counselor's office for whatever reason and looks of disdain greeted me - one meant for a criminal, alien, to be feared. Already a thug. It was harder to defy this expectation than just accept it and fall into the trappings. It was a jacket I could try to take off, but they kept putting it back on. The first hint of trouble and the preconceptions proved true. So why not be proud? Why not be an outlaw? Why not make it our own?

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in how and why so many youths fall into this destructive pattern. And how difficult it is to get out!

I read this as an A (awareness).

The September Society by Charles Finch (book 2008, audio 2011))
Charles Lenox Mystery (2)

The first murders were committed nineteen years before the second, on a dry and unremarkable day along the Sutlej Frontier in Punjab.

The first book of the series, A Beautiful Blue Death, reminded me of the Wooster and Jeeves books, with a rich and otherwise idle young man and his butler get pulled into intrigues. This book has less of the butler and more of his friend, Dr. McConnell. It was recently discovered that his wife is expecting a baby so there were many cute conversations about possible names. Charles spends most of the book screwing up his courage to ask his long time friend and neighbor, Lady Jane Grey, for her hand in marriage.

Charles Lenox is asked by a distraught mother to help find her missing son, George Payson. Searching his room, Charles finds many baffling clues, including a dead cat, dead by poisoning and stabbing, on top of a note. It turns out that two boys are missing and a club made up of retired military is somehow involved.

The September Society is a secretive club of retired military men who served together in the Punjab. Why they are so secretive is a fascinating glimpse into the British occupation of the region.

I listened to the audio version of this book, ably narrated by James Langton, who had the right balance of British accent.

I am counting this as a W (audiobook) in March since most of it was listened to during that month.

My new 'listen' is a relatively early book by Cory Doctorow called Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town. I have loved his YA books which always refer to some aspect of the cyberworld (Internet privacy, piracy, online gaming, etc.). I don't know yet what will fit into this story but the main character is utterly geeky. He has a database which catalogs every item he owns (not just books ;-)). His father is a mountain, his mother a washing machine, and three brothers are Russian nesting dolls! One of the cool things about the author is that most, if not all, of his books are available online for free.

In other news - I have been totally hooked on the recently released game, Mass Effect 4 - Andromeda. I think it influenced me to start a recently received book, To Be a Machine: Adventures Among Cyborgs, Utopians, Hackers, and the Futurists Solving the Modest Problem of Death. Similarities between the two include Cyborgs (biotics), hackers, and AI.

Hello mamzel! I hope your day is going well. High fantasy has never been my forte, but the cover art on the first Stormlight book was really intriguing and made me wanting to get in on the ground level of a new series. Alas, it was not meant to be. The book is a monstrous tome and the first in series that is supposed to go on forever.

You have an excellent thread going here. I love the diversity of fiction and nonfiction and even the diversity within those sections. From Sanderson to Ian Pears to Longitude to Watched, there is a lot to look into here.

>164 mamzel: I've been considering American Gods and Good Omens for some time, but can never bring myself to pull the trigger. Glad you enjoyed it.

>170 brodiew2: I agree with you on the Sanderson series. Prolific is a term meant for him. I first read it on a summer vacation when I didn't want to think too hard about the book or worry about what next to read. I had purchased Words of Radiance in an airport store. I seem to have an aversion to most mainstream titles and was thrilled to see this one bucking the tide of best sellers.

A lot of the reading I do is from my library so I like to read diversely so as to be able to recommend diversely. I hope something piques your interest!

>170 brodiew2: This one's for you!



To Be a Machine: Adventures Among Cyborgs, Utopians, Hackers, and the Futurists Solving the Modest Problem of Death by Mark O'Connell (2017)

All stories begin in our endings: we invent them because we die.

I am presently playing a game on my computer called Mass Effect 4: Andromeda, which features characters who are AIs and others who have bionic implants to enhance their abilities and give them completely un-human powers. When we received this book I decided it was a sign that I should read it.

Transhumanism is defined by O'Connell as "a movement predicated on the conviction that we can and should use technology to control the future evolution of our species"(2). In this book we learn about various endeavors to enhance/lengthen human life by artificial means. The first method is cryonics where a person pays $80,000 to be decapitated after death and his head frozen in liquid nitrogen, or pay $200,000 for the entire body, with the expectation that someday science will be advanced enough to thaw him out and return him to life to carry on with whatever extraordinarily worthwhile things he was doing.

In another chapter we learn about grinders who implant things in their bodies for dubious reasons. They usually have to do this to themselves since licensed surgeons refuse. We also meet people who are working on ways to download the human brain to another form. They are starting with simple programming of robots to accomplish simple tasks and learning that the brain is way more complex than our ability to program can imitate.

Beware, however, that this is an author who is present in every chapter. We are never unsure of his scepticism and remote amusement. I can easily imagine that the inside of his cheek was raw from biting it to keep from laughing in the face of the interviewee.

eta - Nowhere does anyone talk about the problems that would be faced if humans continued to live past a given number of years, problems that we are now seriously facing with the world population what it is.

I am counting this as an N (new book in my library).

Poseidon & Cleito by Andrew J. Peters (2016)
Book One

The witch's hovel stood on a bald hilltop covered with snow.

I received this book from the Early Reviewers program.

This is the enhanced story of Poseidon and Cleito. One name you are sure to recognize, the other probably not. Donnegen started out as a mammoth hunter from the steppes who leaves his village with some of his buddies, steals a boat, and heads west. He arrives at a new country right in the middle of a political upheaval. The head priest has been murdered. His daughter wants to take his place and sees an opportunity with this handsome young man who arrived in the nick of time. She orders him bathed and dressed and renames him Poseidon, the god of the sea. That does not go over big with the boy king's henchmen who later try to kill them again disguised as a boating accident. Again the young man survives the ocean and the two of them rile up the peasants and overcome the bad guys.

A major unexplained mystery is how there were no communication difficulties between the Northerners and the Westerners.

The book's blurb states, "He became a god. Her story was forgotten." Does that make this a behind-every-powerful-man story then?

It was a pleasant enough read though I doubt I'll continue with the series. It is something to pick up if you want something completely different.

I am counting this as an N (new book).

The Lady of the Lake by Andrzej Sapkowski (2017)
The Witcher, Book 5

The lake was enchanted. There was absolutely no doubt about it.

Full disclosure - I have been reading this series and playing the computer game based on it for so long the characters almost feel like real people, the same way some feel about Harry Potter. This book had more action and gut wrenching emotion than I have felt from a book in a long, long time. I stayed up to the wee hours last night and woke early this morning as I charged through to the end. My fear that this would see the end of the series came from so many characters from the books and the game being visited it felt like a farewell tour.

Geralt is a witcher. He was painfully modified through training and potions when young to be a monster slayer, supposedly devoid of emotion. After one mission he evoked the Challenge of Surprise for payment and demanded the young girl, Ciri, from the emperor Emrhys. He raised Ciri in Kaer Mohen, the hidden fortress home to the School of the Wolf witchers. It was a good thing she gained this training because she became the focus of many different factions to use her inherited power to travel through time and space - Emryhs, the evil sorcerer, the Lodge of Sorceresses to name a few.


screenshot from the game Witcher III

This book begins with Geralt's longtime lover, the sorceress Yennefer being held by a powerful sorcerer as bait to lure Ciri to his castle. Geralt gathers some friends, including an ancient vampire named Regis, and heads off by land. Ciri tries to catch up with Geralt using her power but since she is untrained, she bounces around until she finally joins up with them. Together they face the sorcerer. At the same time, major war is raging and the Lodge of Sorceresses meet to manipulate events to their benefit.

The action went from the present, to flashbacks, to a future where events were being recorded so that this reader was positively spinning. Would the three be able to finally sneak off and enjoy a peaceful life away from all the turmoil? The good news and bad news is that no, not in this book. I have to wait for summer of 2018 to find out what else is in store. The blurb at the end of the book states that Sapkowski is Poland's favorite author. I have no way to judge that but I can say that he is MY favorite Polish author.

I counted this as an N (new) book.

>172 mamzel: As much as it would be nice to be able to live forever (all those books that need reading!), at the same time I don't think it's a good idea. And after reading books such as Being Mortal, I can't help but think that there's not much point in being partially bionically enhanced if the rest of your physical organism suffers from poor quality of life.

The idea of being downloaded to a computer leads me to make frivolous observations:
- If you were downloaded to a computer, you'd be at the mercy of future IT departments, who might delete you to save space.
- What if you were written to a file format or saved on a storage medium that became obsolete? Imagine being stuck on a floppy disk or in, I don't know, Lotus Word Pro format.

>175 rabbitprincess: LOL - Being in the hands of an IT department isn't at all appealing!
It didn't sound to me like it was going to be possible any time soon so I'm not going to worry about it.

Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town by Cory Doctorow (print 2006, audio 2015)

Alan sanded the house on Wales Avenue.

To try and describe this story would give away too much of the surprises in store. It is, in three words; off, the, wall.

In store for the reader - the most bizarre family ever, a quirky naming system, strange neighbors, psychopathic murderer, wings, and neighborhood connectivity ('cause that's one of Cory's things).

Suffice it to say that my walks went very quickly while listening to this story. I highly recommend this to someone looking for a dark and completely different kind of experience.

However, the recording I listened to, ably performed by Bronson Pinchot, was rife with skips and discernible editing. I dinged half a star from my rating because of that.

I am counting this as a W (audiobook).

>177 mamzel: I'll take a BB for that!

>178 LisaMorr: ;-)

A Burden Shared by Jo Walton (2017)

Penny woke on Tuesday morning and cautiously assessed the level of pain.

This was a short story offered by Tor.com in their weekly newsletter. It is about an app (seems there IS an app for everything) that allows the user to take pain from someone else and suffer it in their stead. Penny's daughter, Ann, suffers from a chronic joint disease and the pain is shared between the two women, Ann's husband, and Penny's ex-husband. All have demanding careers and have to carefully schedule their time with the pain. Imagine being able to share your pain with your doctor when he asks, "Where does it hurt?" It kind of reminded me of how friends of mine schedule child care duties to relieve the younger parents of that stress.

>180 mamzel: Thanks for mentioning that this story is available at Tor.com. I'm a big fan of Jo Walton.

>181 mathgirl40: I have only recently paid attention to the offered short stories. They are fabulous!



Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames (2017)
The Band #1

You'd have guessed from the size of his shadow that Clay Cooper was a bigger man than he was.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! What a great introduction to a new author. He uses a clever idea of paralleling mercenary and highway robber gangs to rock bands. The terms follow through the story and never fail to bring a smile.

Clay was perfectly content in his retired life. He was a mercenary in a band called Saga but now worked as a guard and had a comfortable home, beautiful wife, and adorable little daughter. His dreams now featured a quiet little inn to run with his remarkable shield mounted over the bar. Then one day, as he was recounting a story over a pint, an old friend dropped in and begged for his help to bring the band back together one more time. Gabriel's daughter followed in his footsteps and found herself caught in a city in Castia with others under siege by the Horde, thousands of monsters of every size, shape, and danger. What convinced Clay was a comment by his daughter who asked if he would go if it were her. That memory sustained him and gave him courage through the adventure. (Aawwwwww!)

This was a real page turner with amazing new monsters, action, humor, and a cast of characters with wonderful quirks and charm. I can't wait for another episode!

I will count this as an N (new).

>182 mamzel: Sounds just up my street. Onto the wishlist it goes.

>183 AHS-Wolfy: I'm sure you'll love it!

172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstad (2008)

"Gentlemen, it's time," Dr. ___________ said, eyeing the seven men in suits seated around the large conference table.

Ostensibly to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the manned mission to the moon, plans are made for another. It was never revealed what really happened back then and they wanted to find out what actually happened. A picture of the crew showed an extra person and their shadow fell the wrong way. But a space mission is very expensive. How to garner enough excitement to fund it. Why not include three teenagers, chosen by worldwide lottery!

The three unsuspecting teens were Mia (Norwegian), Midori (Japanese), and Antoine (French). They underwent intensive training and were launched. Those events took up the first half of the book.

Upon arrival at the secretly built moonbase, everything seemed OK until the power died for no apparent reason, shutting off communications with Earth and life support. But wait, there is a second moonbase, even more secret. Attempts were made to reach it but failed. Something totally strange is going on.

I don't mind having my credulity stretched for scifi and fantasy, but I do mind if things are totally implausible. That materials and modules were shipped to the moon for not one, but TWO moonbases with the public not noticing was too much. However, I did enjoy the story, and, hey! it was written for teens who were not around for the first moon walk. What would they know?

A fun enough read but not for the more discriminating scifi reader.

I am counting this as a T (off the library's shelf) and for the SSF challenge.

>185 mamzel: Interesting! Thanks for the review!

>186 VictoriaPL: Glad you liked it. I'm afraid my snark came out full blown for this one!

Into the Wild by John Krakauer (1996)

Jim Gallien had driven four miles out of Fairbanks when he spotted the hitchhiker standing in the snow beside the road, thumb raised high, shivering in the gray Alaska dawn.

In yet another attempt to understand this mindset, I tried to slowly and deeply absorb this book. I still don't get why people continue to challenge themselves with nature's most dangerous places. Chris McCandless was young, bright, and enthusiastic about surviving on his own with only what the land had to offer. He spent time on the Colorado River and the Alaska wilderness to try and prove that he could. Alaska was his downfall as he was woefully inadequate to the demands of the area. Even Krakauer's description of his attempt to climb Satan's Thumb, a towering spire caked in ice, failed to explain the need to me. Inches from his own demise, he failed to explain it sufficiently for me.

I put a foot through a snow bridge spanning a slot so deep I couldn't see the bottom of it. A little later I broke through another bridge to my waist; the poles kept me out of the hundred-foot crevasse, but after I extricated myself, I bent double with dry heaves, thinking about what it would be like to be lying in a pile at the bottom of the crevasse, waiting for death to come, with nobody aware of how or where I'd met my end. (p. 139)

I think I give up.

I will count this as an A because this survival/exploration culture is so alien to me.

Portal of a Thousand Worlds by Dave Duncan

I am abandoning this book after reading a third. It was promising but I found it growing confusing (characters given new names) and the plot was not moving fast enough for me.

14 Cows for America by Carmen Agra Deedy (2009)

The remote village waits for a story to be told.

This is a beautiful story of how a man returns to his native village in Kenya and shares with the people the story of 9/11. Moved by the tragedy they decide to give 14 of their cows to the American people. I would love to have an opportunity to read this story to a class and follow up with video of the Maasai people.

Because there is no nation so powerful it cannot be wounded,
nor a people so small they cannot offer mighty comfort.

I will count this as an A (awareness).

>190 mamzel: I love that quote!

>190 mamzel: I love that quote, too!
That sounds like a very interesting story.

>188 mamzel: I really did not get this one, either. Don't feel bad.

>191 christina_reads: and >192 tymfos: I'm glad you like it as much as I do!

>193 VictoriaPL: I think I won't read any more of those modern climbing-the-mountain-because-it's-there stories. I just find them self-serving.



Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler (2011)

I awoke to darkness

Shori wakes up (as you see in the quote) alone, in the dark, both figuratively and literally. She has no memory of who or what she is and how she came to be in a cave covered in burns. All she knows is that she is starving. In short order she smells a deer, runs it down, and starts to devour the raw meat. Wait, what??? She quickly heals, now that she's had nourishment, and she sets off to find answers. She is picked up on the road by a (fortunately) decent man named Wright who instantly falls for her, mysteriously because she does appear to be a young girl. He allows her to drink his blood and finds himself permanently linked to her.

Slowly Shori (as she finds out is her name) learns that she is the sole survivor of her family as the community of men members and a different community of female members were killed by deliberate acts of arson. And now someone is after her.

A great part of this book is world building as we come to learn Shori is from a species known as the Ina, who came from somewhere outside this world. We learn about the relationships between the different Ina families, their symbionts, and their neighboring humans. We learn with Shori who finds that she is basically alone in a foreign and not-too welcoming environment.

I listened to the audio version of this book. The narrator could have been a little less mechanical and rote.

I am counting this book as a W (audiobook).

Portal of a Thousand Worlds by Dave Duncan

I'm putting this book on hold for now. I was distracted by the Warren book I picked up at Costco. I may or not get back to it. I think I may have been close to dropping it anyway.

Some of you may have noticed in the past that I have an addiction to the book series of the Witcher and the video game of the same name. You cannot not imagine my excitement when I learned yesterday that Netflix will produce a series based on the book. MAJOR SQUEEEEEE!!!!
I nominate Alexander Skarsgard to play Geralt!

Stopping by to get caught up. Great batch of reading since I last stopped by.

>173 mamzel: - Great review. I think I liked the story a tad more than you did but other than that, I agree with everything you mention about the book.

>196 mamzel: My brother is totally hooked on The Witcher series and has been passing the books along to me. I haven't started the series yet, but will have to get going as I would like to watch the Netflix program, but would prefer to read a few first.

>198 DeltaQueen50: I was compelled to reread the series. I'm on the third one now! Did your brother play the games, too? Send him my greetings from Oxenfurt!

>199 mamzel: He is gamester but I don't think he has played any of the Witcher games - but don't quote me on that!

>200 DeltaQueen50: If he hasn't already, Witcher 3 is a-ma-zing!

>201 mamzel: I will pass that along. I really need to start that series!

Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong-and the New Research That's Rewriting the Story by Angela Saini (2017)

We live in a special age in human history when superstition, religion, and irrational bias - most of the time, at least - take a back seat to what we know to be universal fact, because science tells us it does. For centuries, scientists have influenced decision makes on important issues including abortion rights, granting women the vote, and how schools educate us. They have shaped how we think about our minds and bodies and our relationships with each other. Science has written to story of us, starting from the dawn of evolution.
Yet when it comes to women, so much of this story is wrong.

So, basically, as in so many areas, men have barred women from participating in scientific research, even about themselves, so we have to accept their findings which are proven herein to be so very wrong.

Ms. Saini takes a variety of long accepted studies, some duplicated over and over, which prove that men are superior to women in strength, intelligence, etc. and shows how they were inherently biased and false.

I found the reading very satisfying.

I am counting this as an A (Awareness).


We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (1962)

My name is Mary Catherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance.

This was a troublesome little story about the bigotry and mean-heartedness of small village people against a family which comprised of Merricat, her sister Constance, and invalid Uncle Julian who lived in a large house on a large estate. Six years before four people, including Merricat's parents, were murdered by sugar laced with arsenic. Julian survived the poisoning, Merricat had been sent to bed without supper missing the desert of sugared berries, and Constance ate her berries without sugar which meant, of course, that she was the culprit. But was she?

Now Constance takes care of the ailing Julian and doesn't venture outside of their estate. Merricat is left to do their shopping in town and facing the taunting and bullying of the villagers.

Stories of mistreatment and bullying generally make me uncomfortable and this story was no exception. The audio version was well done with the child-like voice of the narrator portraying the young Merricat.

I am counting this as a (Walking).

I've also been plowing through a reread of the Witcher series:



The Last Wish, Blood of Elves, and The Time of Contempt by Andrzej Sapkowski

When I reread these stories, I find lots of references in the game to events in the books I had missed before. It's very much like watching a movie based on a book, then reading the book which answers questions you had when you watched the movie. For instance, in the game there is a character named Dikstra, an underworld boss who used to be a spy for one of the kings. In the game he has a nasty brace on his left leg and he makes a comment of how Geralt had caused his injury. Rereading the book I finally got the whole story. He deserved it, of course.

My son tells me that Sapkowski did not approve the story of the game but it sure looks to me that the writers of the game sure honored the books!

Three down, three to go.

I will count these as T (books I already own).

Oh, the last week of school is SOOOOOO much fun!
6,000 textbooks
1,000 Chromebooks
400 library books
Schedule for where and when to turn in the items was published in the school bulletin, printed poster size and hung all over campus, and sent to every student's account (where they get their homework assignments) and twittered (ugh!). The schedule was also emailed to all the teachers. I've been going out to their rooms to renew classroom textbooks they'll be using again next year. On top of everything, Technology decided they needed an inventory of all the teacher laptops. It was another pleasure trying to track those folks down.
I put my foot down this year and refused to accept textbooks in the library since I had to then shlep them down to the textbook room.
I really love when kids actually follow directions. It gives me hope. The ones who didn't were definitely in the minority this year.
I got some help from office staff this year and my son came every day and helped. It made the lines go much faster and restocking the books so much easier.
Tomorrow is the last day and we graduate another year of seniors. Hurrah!
Next week will be quieter. I plan on tackling the cupboards full of classroom novels that have been neglected. They badly need dusting and weeding.

>205 mamzel: That sounds like a lot of work. I had no idea the school librarian was in charge of the school text books. But now that I'm thinking about it, it makes sense.

>206 VioletBramble: I look on it as job security. They might be tempted to close the library but they haven't gotten rid of textbooks yet. Although, they are trying to change over to digital textbooks.

>64 mamzel:
I'm glad you liked American Gods. It's been years since I've read it and I'm leaning toward wanting to do a reread, especially with the show now on TV.

>172 mamzel:
BB with To Be a Machine. Sounds interesting, although I'll have to see if the author's tone annoys me or not.

>180 mamzel:
I enjoy Walton's work and A Burden Shared sounds lovely.

>194 mamzel:
I've got Fledgling at the top of my list. Glad to hear it's a good one.

>203 mamzel:
I'm listing to the audio book of We Have Always Lived in the Castle right now and it's creepy and brilliant. Merricat's voice as a character is so strange and well done.

>205 mamzel: - your post brings back fond memories for me. During my last year of high school I was a page for the English department. When end of school year came along I was excused from my classes that last week so that I could oversee the return of the various English books issued to students that year. Even better, I had the wonderful authority to walk into an English class and request help with the project. I was suddenly "very popular" as everyone wanted to be excused from class, even if it was to help sort and count books. ;-)

Trying to doing some catching up on threads (a neverending task). Took a couple of BBs for Fledgling and Inferior and am reminded that I must read some Shirley Jackson soon!

I was into computer RPGs for quite a while and I believe I have the game Witcher around here somewhere (unopened, oh my!) and whenever I see you talking about it or the books, it nudges me a bit to try it out. I have made a concerted effort to play less and read more, but maybe need to give it a try.

Have you been watching the Tour this year? We've been watching them at night - it's been interesting and predictable all at the same time.

Hey, everyone.
I've been neglectful here. The end of school was crazy and then I took off to spend three weeks visiting my 86 yo dad in St. Thomas. It will take me some time to chronicle my reading and catch up with everyone else.

>208 andreablythe: Sound like we enjoy a lot in common. To Be a Machine was interesting and the author's voice was not annoying. I am a new fan of Octavia Butler. Don't know why I haven't tried her books before. I'll visit your thread to see how you liked WHALitC.

>209 lkernagh: The library usually has TAs who help with textbook stuff too. I really couldn't do the job by myself. The one piece of good news I had this year was that the English Dept. wasn't going to change textbooks. (It was their year for a new adoption.) That would have meany packing up all the old ones and cataloging and barcoding the new ones.

>210 LisaMorr: Is it Witcher III? The graphics and story in this episode were outstanding. Only a nerd like me would go back and go through I and II, vastly inferior in gameplay! There is language and sex (optional) and lots of gore if you're into that. I don't think I'm at any risk to produce RL gore, though.

>211 LittleTaiko: Indeed I am! I missed a couple of the early ones because my dad doesn't watch anything but CNN. I was very happy that Aru wore the yellow for two days. Sad he couldn't keep it longer. Romain Bardet is quite the cutey, isn't he??? It will be interesting to see if Matthews can take the green from Kittle. He's been working really hard for it. On really early days like tomorrow I DVR the race. I'm not getting up at 3:00 for anything!

Soon, my friends, I'll be starting a new thread and catching up with my library and see what's new with you!