January RandomCat: Ack! I've Been Hit

Ack! I’ve Been Hit - The Ever Dangerous Book Bullets

Howdy Pardners, get ready to saddle up and ride into our first RandomCat Challenge of the year. One of the many perks of being a member of Library Thing is the number of reading recommendations that are constantly being shot our way. We joke about being “hit” by book bullets as we see our wishlist and TBR piles growing bigger every day.

So my challenge for the January RandomCat is for you to mosey over to your shelves and pick a book that was a book bullet for you. You may have received this hit from a fellow LT member or it can be a book bullet you got from a relative or friend.

Please let us know what book you are going to be reading, and if you remember who hit you with this particular BB. Don’t forget to add your reads to the Wiki which can be found HERE

And remember to DUCK when reading this thread!

Most of my TBR consists of book bullets that I have picked up on LT over the years. In January I am planning on reading The Weight of the World by David Joy which was a book bullet from Kay, AKA RidgewayGirl, and When We Were Animals by Joshua Gaylord which I got from Shannon AKA Sturlington.

I'll have to take some time to look at my shelf as a reminder of what I added based on someone else's comments...

Great! This opens up lots of options as I seem to always be in the way of a BB.

And I love your western felines!

I am sure I can find SOMETHING to fit this category! LOL

This might be just the place to put Life after Life by Kate Atkinson. I almost never buy new hardback, I tend to wait until they are released in paperback. But this one I bought after it seemed like everyone on LT had read it and raved about it. I still haven't got round to it. Being hardback it is at the bottom of the physical TBR pile, so it might take some extracting!

I'll wait until someone else has added a book to the wiki to know what to add. Are they listed in order of addition, title order or anything specific?

>6 Helenliz: They are usually alphabetical by title on the wiki.

I have taken so many BBs over the few years I've been on LT that I will be spoilt for choice. None of my planned January ColourCAT or non-fiction challenge books are BBs, though, so I'll have to choose something else. What a hardship :)

I'm riddled with the things!

Planning on reading The Christie Curse which wasn't just a BB but also a SantaThing gift.

I love this topic since it's one of my challenge categories for 2018. So many choices as I've received so many good recommendations. Right now, I'm leaning towards The Gods of Gotham which was a book bullet from Lori (lkernagh).

Yay! I actually have a small stack of books on my desk that are all anxiously waiting bbs :) I'm going to aim to read White Cat by Holly Black (which I already had scheduled for the colorcat anyway--it came from a bb on LT, but I couldn't say from where...) and Sandman Slim, which a really good friend of mine recommended.

I think I'll start Robertson Davies' Cornish Trilogy. I've seen it mentioned by numerous LTers and have the 2nd in the series on my shelf, the library has the others.

Hmm, I think we should give RidgewayGirl (Kay) some sort of sharpshooting award. I'm going to read Darktown, which I'm almost positive was a BB from her 2016 thread.

Having said in >7 Jackie_K: that none of my planned reads for January were BBs, I'm now having my doubts about that! One of them (for the 75ers non-fiction challenge - the theme in Jan is prizewinners) is Nothing to Envy and I can't think how I would have heard of it without taking a BB from someone.

Not that that precludes me from reading another BB of course!

Got mine all picked out - Packing for Mars was hit by a BB from whisper1 in September 2012 - the wound has been festering a long time!

I'm riddled with BBs... I'll start with a recent one: Lincoln in the Bardo

I love this theme, and it should be a fairly easy one for me since probably 75% of what I read is something someone recommended, usually on here or on Facebook. I'm not sure what I'll pick, but I'm leaning towards Caroline: Little House Revisited by Sarah Miller.

I think I'll set aside Quick Curtain, by Alan Melville -- this was a book bullet from @christina_reads and @inge87. I bought my own copy at Blackwell's in Oxford.

Decisions . . . decisions . . . why decide today what you can put off until tomorrow . . . or January? LOL

How excited we all are to start on next year. I'm going to read Black River by S.M. Hulse which came as a bullet from Judy (DQ) back in 2016 and will also work for the Color Cat. Luckily, I've used the comment field when I add a book bullet to keep track of who hit me in case I ever need an alibi for the shooting.

>19 dudes22: - Judy hit me with that BB, too, and I read it last winter and loved it. Made my list of top reads last year.

>20 katiekrug: - That's good to know. I also realized after reading the Mystery Cat thread that I can also read The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen which I also took as a BB from DQ back in 2013. Do you think she might be Annie Oakley reincarnated?

I wanted to tackle a BB that's also been sitting on my shelves for over a year. The Big Sky was recommended to me by @streamsong about four years ago, so it fits the bill, I think!

I'm planning to read Where the Bodies are Buried, after getting enthusiastic Christopher Brookmyre recommendations from rabbitprincess, AHS-Wolfy, DeltaQueen50 and RidgewayGirl.

This is actually a tough one for me. I have so many books on my tbr (almost 600), and I just don't remember where they all came from. I think these were all BBs, so my options:

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind / William Kamkwamba
The Radium Girls / Kate Moore
Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town / Jon Krakauer

>19 dudes22: I loved Black River, Betty and I sure hope you do as well.

>22 fuzzi: I am currently listening to The Big Sky and really enjoying it. This is a re-read for me as I originally read it many years ago.

>23 mathgirl40: I need to get back to Christopher Brookmyre - it's been too long since I read one of his!

A book bullet I actually have on my shelf, and one my daughter wants me to hurry up and read so she can have it!! We watched the TV series together. Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls (and Everything in Between).

I recently started noting BBs and where they came from. At the last count I've listed 71. That just might make it harder to choose.

>27 VivienneR: I started a category in my library of "Recommended to Me", and put the name of the LT'er who recommended a book in the comments section. That made it so much easier for me to find books in this challenge!

>28 fuzzi: - I did the same thing a couple of years age - mine is called "Recommend & Wishlist". I include books I see from the ER books each month that I might want to read.

>27 VivienneR: I tried that one year and gave up before spring - the list was growing too quickly.

What a fun challenge. I'm looking forward to rooting through my tbr and seeing what bbs live there (a lot).

>29 dudes22: I'm not saying I'm OCD, oh no... ;)

My son is the same way, everything has to be categorized. I told him we're not OCD, we have ATDS: "Attention to Detail Syndrome", ha!

I probably won't get to it in December, after all, so I'll go with a book recommended by Mark, among others, Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan.

>32 lindapanzo: Good choice, Linda. I've been hit by that book bullet by Mark and a few others as well.

>31 fuzzi: Good one! I'm a bit ATDS myself - especially if it involves lists or spreadsheets :)

>30 RidgewayGirl: I've only been entering the BB comments for a month or so. If the entries keep going at this rate mine will go the same way as yours did.

>33 DeltaQueen50: I don't keep track of who recommends what but I know that many of them come from Mark and a few other LTers.

>31 fuzzi: - Speaking of ATDS: I also keep track of where they mentioned it (i.e. person, year, post #) so I can go back and look at what they said that intrigued me about the book.

Judy, the opening post made me laugh - love the cat cowboys! This is a perfect choice for January - I keep a running list of LT recommendations, and I also have Katie's Dirty Dozen to choose from. Not sure yet what I will pick, but it will be fun deciding.

>23 mathgirl40: WOO HOO!!! I really hope you like it :)

Oh, I have more that were recommended to me to choose from, but I was trying to figure out which ones I choose via reading a review or hearing about it somehow. (Obviously, I don't keep track of those, though!)

>38 Crazymamie: I love them too, Mamie, but I have a feeling that the cats weren't too pleased to be dressed up!

Love this theme! I'm going to read The fifth season because my best friend recommended it to me almost a year ago and keeps asking me if I've read it yet.

I've decided to go for a fiction BB - the first in the Thursday Next series, The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde which has been raved about by various folk on another online forum I hang out on. My other reads for January are all non-fiction (I've started my ColourCAT read already, just because I wanted to have an ebook on the go, and thank goodness I did because I hadn't realised it is quite the chunkster. It's telling me I still have 98% of the book and 41 reading hours to go).

>38 Crazymamie: - Dirty Dozen! Dirty Dozen! Dirty Dozen!

>41 DeltaQueen50: I bet not, Judy!

>44 katiekrug: Okay. The Dirty Dozen it is!

>43 Jackie_K: Wow! What is it you're reading?

>46 LibraryCin: It's Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Rebecca West. I checked amazon and the paper book has over 1200 pages! (one of the advantages of the kobo, it doesn't give a total page count - sometimes ignorance is bliss!) I might not have got it if I'd realised how big it was (hooray for ereaders, my wrists are very grateful to not be holding a paper book that thick!).

The hours left to read isn't always that accurate at the beginning of a book, I'm really hoping it will be less than that! It gets more accurate the more you read in each book. The % read is more accurate. I've read another chapter, and it hasn't budged from 2% yet!

>47 Jackie_K: Wow! And I agree about ereaders and the weight, for sure! I do have mine set up for page numbers, but that is an option I could turn off if I wanted to.

>34 VivienneR: hahaha! If someone needs an Excel spreadsheet, they can come to me, I actually enjoy creating them.

>37 dudes22: wow, you beat me on that ATD!

>48 LibraryCin: For some reason the kobo doesn't have the total page numbers as an option - or at least not for the books bought in the kobo store (it does do total page count for non-kobo store books, but not a pages per chapter count). For the kobo store books it just does pages per chapter, so you can't tell at the start how long the entire book is going to be.

>50 Jackie_K: I've got a Kobo. An older one - a Touch.

Oh, wait! I remember noticing that for books I'd bought, as well. I think I finally found some way to change it to get the total number of pages. But then, it's possible I've not read one that I bought for a while. It could be library books I'm thinking of. I'll have to remember to notice with the next one I bought that I will be reading (which will be before the end of this month!).

What a great theme to start the new year! I started noting my BBs three years ago and the list is growing fast. I like to see for how long the books have been on my radar and who sent the BB in the first place. For January I will set The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell aside, which also fits the ColorCAT. It was a BB from majkia back in 2015.

Fun! I'm in! I've been hit by so many book bullets over the years that it's hard to choose just one. I'll sort through my various TBRs and choose one. I'll try to find one that also works for ColourCAT or AlphaKIT.

Love the gunslinger cats, Judy. I'm watching the Netflix series "Godless" so the western theme is a good one (in addition to all the reasons you chose those images for this thread).

Okay, I found the one.

Negroland: A Memoir by Margo Jefferson

I got hit on this one by Darryl (kidzdoc) and it will fit both the M category for the AlphaKIT and my personal challenge to read African American autobiographies in 2018.

I've been "grazed" so many times on LT with the Mapp and Lucia books by E F Benson, that they are on the top of my 2018 pile.

>55 kac522: E.F. Benson's Mapp and Lucia books are favourites of mine! One of these days I'll do a re-read.

I have so many possible choices for this RandomCat I almost don't know where t begin!

Roni has convinced me to join in a group read of Godstalk, so that one should count. I think she's also responsible for me picking up a copy of A Matter of Oaths, so there's another.

We'll see what else January brings.....

My sister loaned me The Fifth Season with a strong recommendation, so I think I'll pick that up for January.

I'm reading Warlock: A Novel by Wilbur Smith. It is the 3rd book in his Egyptian series. My father-in-law owns the whole lot of them and insists they are so good that I have to read them all. He even wanted to give me all of them at once (too much pressure for me) but I insisted one at a time would be fine.

I'm listening to Lincoln in the Bardo, which so many folks here on LT have raved about. It's a little on the weird side, but not in a bad way, so far...

>60 scaifea: The formatting of the book in print is unusual too.

>60 scaifea: & >61 thornton37814: - I read it last year and agree that the print format is unusual. I listened to some of it and loved some of the voices. The little side bits kind of took me out of it a bit though.

>61 thornton37814: >62 LittleTaiko: I found the really long string of quotes from accounts of the Lincoln reception/the night of Willy's death pretty annoying, to be honest, but so far the mode of dialogue is okay with me.

I'm having a paper edition. It must be rather tough to listen I imagine.

>64 sushicat: I don't feel lost or anything (yet, at least) in the audio version, just annoyed at the textual quotes.

>60 scaifea:
I’m listening as well. Some parts are confusing but I can’t deny the research he did. I had to find a print copy to be able to see what “op cit” meant.

>66 raidergirl3: I agree - kudos for the research, but I guess I wish he had just incorporated it into the actual story instead of leaving it as the raw quotes.

I didn't start it for this challenge but I'm reading (and loving) Why Buddhism Is True. It's a double blue book bullet as I was hit by both Joe and Caroline.

>68 EBT1002: I really want to read that one soon, too.

I pulled a book out and then realized this is the "non-fiction" challenge. The book I pulled was fiction. I'll come up with something else.

>70 thornton37814: nonfiction?

Where does it stipulate that?

>71 fuzzi: Ok - I'm so confused. I've got my hands in too many challenges! I can't keep them straight. In that case, I'll read the fiction one I had pulled.

>72 thornton37814: whew! I'm relieved. I'd picked one that is fiction, and was scrambling to find a nonfiction if necessary.

>73 fuzzi: I'm glad I didn't need to go find a nonfiction book. I began reading the fiction book I'd chosen, but I've had a headache. It was too painful to read. I woke up and felt better. I decided to try to go through a few threads although I probably won't get through all of them until later this evening and may not get through them all then. I will resume reading after I tire of clicking threads.

I had some extra time between appointments today so stopped at the library and picked up Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen which I took as a BB back in 2014 from Judy (DeltaQueen). It will also fill a Bingo block for me.

>69 scaifea: We'll see if I can hit you with a BBB for Why Buddhism is True, Amber. It will just turn up your motivation!

>76 EBT1002: Too late, I'm afraid - it's already on the wishlist!

I just finished Strawberry Yellow for this challenge. I took a book bullet from Carrie who loaned me the book, but I didn't love the book as much as she did, perhaps because I had not read earlier installments.

Just finished White Cat, which was recommended to me by one of my close non-LT friends. It was wonderful. If you like con stories or humorous magical suspense or fantasy or urban fantasy or cats or... well, yeah. Full review written, but I loved it too much not to glow over it. What a read to the start the year out with! (And it was a triple-cat, too: RandomCat, SFFFKit, and ColorCat!)

>72 thornton37814: Lori, you made me giggle and wince, as I too, have taken on so many challenges that I am getting them mixed up! Hopefully we'll get straightened out before too long.

My daughter has been bugging me to read Loki, Agent of Asgard, for like forever, so I'm going to read it for this challenge.

>80 DeltaQueen50: LOL - I even messed up the heading in my notebook for which challenge it was when I was recording them.

Starting The Fold by Peter Clines, which I originally wishlisted as a BB, though I forget who from now.

Finished Talking as Fast as I Can by Lauren Graham.

Actress Lauren Graham writes just the way she talks in Gilmore Girls, fast with snark. My oldest daughter and I watched this show together and it brought back some fond memories, but if you are not a fan of GG or Parenthood don't bother.

COMPLETED The Fold by Peter Clines.

My review:

Leland "Mike" Erikson, a very high IQ person with an eidetic memory, is asked by a friend from the US Dept of Defence to go and see how a top secret instantaneous transport project is getting on. Although the portal works, it is not in fact teleportation or dimensional folding but something much more dangerous.

A thoroughly enjoyable tongue-in-cheek rollicking SF adventure.

Thank you to whoever shot me.

I'll be reading The Clothes They Stood Up In which was a book bullet from someone on LT. I searched LT to find where I first read about it and couldn't find the exact shooter. But I did find it in a thread by mstrust that I know I read-so she's going to get the credit. So glad to start off with an easy challenge-it would be hard to find a book that's not a book bullet hit.

I'll be reading my sister's keeper I was shot by one of my teacher last year! :)

I'm reading Snowblind by Ragnar Jónasson, which was recommended by @Dejah_Thoris, @Crazymamie, and @rabbitprincess. Thanks to all of you for the book bullet!

>86 HighViolet: Although I haven't read that one, I've enjoyed everything I've read by Alan Bennett. The Lady in the Van was a favourite and made a good movie too.

>85 Robertgreaves: "Thank you to whoever shot me." I love that. It calms me to know that I'm not the only one who forgets who hit me with a book bullet. I sometimes add "rec by xxx" to the comments field of the book in my wish list but not always.

I have finished my recommended read Warlock:A Novel book 3 in the Egyptian series by Wilbur Smith, lent to me by my father-in-law. I will freely admit to skim reading large sections of the book. It seriously needed more editing, it was long and excessively descriptive IMO. Now I have to decide if I tell my father-in-law that I don't want to read any more of them, or just persist. I probably have a few weeks up my sleeve before I see him again and make a decision.

>90 EBT1002: I started adding "recommended to me by..." in the comments a few years ago, and even added a category for recommendations.

I've finished the first book I am hoping to read for this Cat, When We Were Animals by Joshua Gaylord was original, unsettling and imaginative. My thanks to Sturlington for this book bullet.

If I remember to do it, I put a tag line in that says "So and So's Fault." IF being the key word.

I've now finished The Eyre Affair and really enjoyed it - 4 stars.

I've read the first two books in the Agatha Raisin mystery series. A friend loves this series and has been wanting me to try them for years. Both are 3.5 stars.

I've just finished Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen which I took as a BB from Judy (DeltaQueen50) way back in 2014.

>97 dudes22: Did you enjoy it? I read it in December and I think I rated it 3.5 stars (good). I am planning to continue the series, at least for now.

>98 LibraryCin: - I did. I give most series a general 3.5 so this got that rating also. You can skip over to my thread for other comments.

I have a questions. Would Audible's Daily Deals count as BB?

As an Audible member, every day I have access to a reduced price book. The sales is only good till midnight and I've gotten $20+ for between $1-5.

I must admit, this is the main way my audio book shelf had grown so out of control over the last year. (I currently have over 1,000 hours of "unread" audio books waiting for me, 900 of which was purchased last year, after I became an Audible member).

It that's not in the spirit of the challenge, that's okay. I'm sure I can come up with something. I just might have to get another book ;)

>100 dreamweaver529: Dreamweaver, if you've been hit by the Daily Deals then yes, they would count. I know I've been hit with a few of those Daily Deals myself! There are no hard and fast rules to the Cat Challenges, they are meant to be interpreted by each member for themselves. :)

Well, in that case, I will count The Leavers. I get most of my book recs from podcasts. This one was recommended on several over the past year. I liked it but didn't love it. I will say the story is sticking with me so that is a good sign. Sometimes I have to live with a book a few weeks after I finish it before I know if it really mattered to me.

I picked up Baking with Kafka by Tom Gauld from the library, which I finished in an evening (short comic strips about literary topics). I'm pretty sure I got hit with it by Joe W. and Mark F. It's filled with stuff like this:



I still plan to read Queen Lucia which has hit me a bunch of times, most recently from Liz (lyzard).

>103 kac522: I love Tom Gauld! I have Baking with Kafka on request at the library too.

I am counting A Closed and Common Orbit as a BB. I know I read the first one because of someone making me aware of it and I read the second because I wanted to keep going with the series. Something out of the ordinary for me as I do not like series. I suspect I am done now.

February RandomCAT is up: http://www.librarything.com/topic/283187

The North Water by Ian McGuire has been recommended by many, but I took note of the first person to hit me with this book bullet. Thanks to Tanya-dogearedcopy, as this book really gripped me.

Food Confidential by Nicole Faires was a BB from this group a couple of years ago (sorry can't remember who read and reviewed it). Read for one of my other categories, but I just remembered where I heard of it in the first place, so adding it here too. Very interesting book, largely according with my own views on the need to (where possible) buy (and grow) fresh and local, and the impact of the corporatisation of food security.

I finished Steven Price's By gaslight and I think I was hit by RidgewayGirl for this. This is a book that needs concentration, and my lasting impression is of darkness all around, especially with London covered in soot.

>107 DeltaQueen50: You're entirely welcome! I only wish there were more books like this to recommend!

>109 MissWatson: That depends. Did you like it?

Needing something lighter in among all the Tournament of Books reading, I began The Egg and I by Betty MacDonald last night. I know that I requested the book from the library based on someone's review here. My copy is so old, it still has a check-out card in the front. The last person to have used the manual check-out had the name "Locust Hill." I have so many questions.

>111 RidgewayGirl: Surely Locust Hill must find her/his way into your next novel...

I read The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee, which was a BB from mamzel.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind / William Kamkwamba
4 stars

William Kamkwamba grew up in an African country, Malawi. His family were farmers and relied on the land and weather to be able to eat. When a famine hit the country and many people starved, William’s family made it through, but there was no money to send William to school. He so desperately wanted to go to school and learn. Instead, he went to the library and took out science books, from which he taught himself. He managed to build a windmill to provide his family home with electricity and had ideas for more things he wanted to build to make life better/easier.

This started off really slow for me, and I wasn’t hopeful at first. But, about ¼ of the way through (when the famine hit), it really picked up for me, and just seemed to get better and better. The parts that weren’t as interesting to me was when he talked about the superstitions and magic and the hold they sometimes have over the Malawian people. I’m not sure why those parts lost my interest, but they did. Overall, though, I was excited with William when he showed off his windmill to all the people gathered, and was happy for all his successes after.

>111 RidgewayGirl: I got a little impatient at the end to find out exactly what had happened and I was a little disappointed that he got it out of the way so quickly, so my rating may have been unjust. But I liked it and I still find myself thinking about it. I can imagine re-reading it at some point, and that is rare these days.

>114 LibraryCin: Another BB for me! (thank goodness for the wishlist!)

I just finished and enjoyed The Black Tongue by Marko Hautala. This was a Finnish horror that was mentioned by zozette on the ColorCAT thread for this month.

BANG! I've been hit - somebody pass me a beer.

I just finished The Swerve which was a Audible Daily Deal last September. If you like philosophy, and understanding how ideas move though time, this is an interested read. Not my favorite, but enjoyable.

Now, if someone could hit me with a brown Survival/Disaster book, I'll be all set ;)

I have completed The Weight of This World by David Joy which was a book bullet from RidgewayGirl. Thanks Kay, I loved this dark and tragic red-neck noir story!

>118 dreamweaver529: Dark Tide, by Stephen Puleo, about the Boston molasses flood of 1919 ;)

>116 Jackie_K: Hope you like it!

>119 DeltaQueen50: I'm glad you liked it too, although I'm not surprised.

>120 rabbitprincess: Oh, Thanks! That looks interesting.

>120 rabbitprincess: Thanks! I have another one in mind for the brown challenge, but so glad you reminded me of this book thats been on my TBR for a bit! Now can I get through both? I'm hoping so.

>114 LibraryCin:, I really enjoyed this one, too.

My sister gave me a copy of The Fifth Season and really encouraged me to give it a try. I finally got around to reading it, and I'm glad I did! It's epic fantasy, which I don't usually care for, but it doesn't read like a typical epic fantasy. There are three separate stories which all come together eventually, and if you read it, I encourage you to NOT read any reviews or spoilers - I think the book is much more impressive that way. I recommend it highly.

>125 Kristelh: I remember your review (or the fact that you posted and liked it, anyway!). I actually think it may have been (at least in part) why I added it to my tbr! It may have been your review that was my BB! :-)

I've finished my book bullet. Life After Life has a really interesting surmise, I'm just not sure that the author knew how to bring it to a conclusion. Very good, but not 5 stars.

>127 LibraryCin:, I am happy about that ;)

Just realized that the book Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget by Sarah Hepola qualifies for this challenge. It was a book I had heard of, but it wasn't until a former book club friend recommended that I decided to buy it. I even remember where the conversation happened - we ran into each other at Whole Foods and were chatting about books. Because of course that is what you do in a grocery store. :)

Finished The Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing that was a triple hit from @Deltaqueen50, @mathgirl40 and @AlisonY. I'm not sure "enjoyed" is the right word but I know this book will remain in my mind forever. 5★

I decided to go with Appointment In Samarra for this CAT -- it has been on my to-read list for so long I don't know who hit me with the bullet but I suspect it was my father.

The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women / Kate Moore
5 stars

In the early 20th century, radium was touted as being beneficial to one’s health. Clock dials were being painted with radium so they would glow in order to be read in the dark. Young women, mostly in their late teens or early 20s, were working in factories, hand painting the radium on to those dials, and being paid very well to do so. Not only hand painting them, but licking the brushes they used to paint, in order to make a nice sharp tip to be able to paint perfectly. Eventually, many of these women began having health problems, from their teeth falling out to carcinomas in various parts of their bodies. The companies that employed these women continued to insist it wasn’t radium that was the problem.

Wow! Scary stuff! Imagine your jawbone disintegrating and breaking through into your mouth in pieces. These women were still young, wanted to get married and have families. Even worse was when a group of women who worked at a factory in New Jersey successfully sued for their health problems, but the company in Illinois told their employees that the radium the company used in NJ wasn’t to blame – it was something additional they put in theirs that wasn’t used in the Illinois factory… so the “lip, dip, paint” method continued in Illinois.

This book is nonfiction, but read like fiction. It kept me wanting to read, and it was a surprisingly fast read. Even more horrifying, ”lip, dip, paint” was still being used in Illinois in 1978!!!!!!. I guess it’s nonfiction, so I shouldn’t need a spoiler there, but I’m putting it in, anyway.

>133 LibraryCin: I got that book recently, but know that I will have to brace myself before reading it! It sounds horrific, even if it had been fiction - it's unbelievable that it actually happened.

>132 leslie.98: Oh, that's a good one! I hope you enjoy it!

>131 VivienneR: I felt the same way about The Grass is Singing. Glad that the BB worked out for you!

>134 Jackie_K: Initially, you could say they didn't know, but they kept going!!! And denying!!!

I finished Negroland: A Memoir which was a book bullet from Darryl (kidzdoc).

Here is my "review":

Margo Jefferson was born in 1947 to upper middle class African American parents. Living near (and later in) the Hyde Park neighborhood in Chicago, Margo and her sister Denise had access to education, lessons, and social promotion. Her memoir examines the cost associated with living in this segment of society, knowing that her deportment reflected on far more than her family (though certainly that) and that the intersection of race and class provided for a dizzyingly complex social terrain in which to come of age.

Despite a bit of choppiness in the early going, this memoir is poignant and insightful. Jefferson's shifting sense of self in context as the civil rights, feminist, and gay rights movements of the late 1960s and 1970s is particularly evocative. She authentically shares her struggles with belonging, boys, thoughts of suicide, and finding her place as a writer and cultural critic. Definitely recommended.

I picked up Die Giftköchin because my sister recommended the author, Arto Paasilinna, for his black humour. She was right, and I liked it a lot.

I've not yet gotten to the BB I chose earlier, but instead read Penguin the Magpie: the Odd Little Bird Who Saved a Family, which was a recent BB for me. I don't recall where I got hit, or by whom, sorry...

Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town / Jon Krakauer
4 stars

In Missoula, Montana, many of the reported sexual assaults go unprosecuted, even if there seems to be evidence that should take these cases to trial and even when the victim wants to go ahead with charges. Even still, the prosecuting attorney often decides not to press charges. One of the tricky things in Missoula is that it’s such a football town and athletes are revered, so when they are the ones accused, there is a huge backlash. The US Department of Justice also stepped in around 2010ish to find out why rapists weren’t being prosecuted and how it can be made better to help the victims. Krakauer focuses on a few separate cases of celebrated football players being accused of rape, and the various ways this played out in and out of court.

Wow! Pretty scary that it happens so often. I had no idea! I have to admit, though, that because Krakauer went back and forth between cases in parts of his book, I did – a few times – get mixed up on who was who, and which case we were looking at at which times. There is a lot of information and stats that are quite horrifying. As soon as I finished the book, though, I had to go look up Beau Donaldson (a former football player and one of the rapists Krakauer focuses on) to see if I could find out where he is now.

So many of my books are recommendations. Another one was Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz. This book has been recommended by many, but jnwelch (Joe) was the first to bring it to my attention.

The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier was another BB from someone but I've forgotten who. I really should note this down. It's definitely one that deserves to ricochet and hit someone else as well.

I finished Gods of Gotham which was a book bullet from Lori (lkernagh). A bullet I'm glad I took.

>143 Robertgreaves: I'm really glad you liked this one Robert. Kevin lives in Little Rock (I live in northwest Arkansas) and I see him once or twice a year at something or other literary. A couple of years ago I bumped into him, quite literally, in one of my favorite independent bookstores and we had a great book chat. I'm always happy when someone makes favorable comments about his writing, not only does he write well, he seems to be very nice as well.

>145 clue: That is very kewl, clue. It's a book I've been thinking about more as time goes by rather than less. If I'm not careful, I shall start buttonholing strangers and telling them to read it.

SO, for January, I read:

The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher, narrated by Carrie Fisher and Billy Lourd (4 stars), 2018 acquired audiobook - recommended by Mark

Ties by Domenico Starnone (4 stars), library paperback, literary fiction/relationships - recommended by Lynda

God Stalk by P. C. Hodgell (4 stars), 2017 acquired ebook, fantasy - recommended by Roni and read for her GR of it

The Jaguar's Children by John Vaillant (4.5 stars), library hardback, contemporary fiction/illegal immigration - recommended by Katie

Finished one more! Sandman Slim and Richard Kadrey.

As I said in my review, I think this has to be something like what would result of a mafia boss locking Christopher Moore and Stephen King into a room, and demanding they write him a book together. It was kind of pretty awesome, and recommended by a non-LT friend.

I finished The Pericles Commission which was recommended to me a few times, but first by my father. A fictional investigation into a historical murder in ancient Athens (the murder of Ephiates, for those classical scholars out there).

I finished Where the Bodies are Buried by Christopher Brookmyre. I have to thank rabbitprincess, AHS-Wolfy, DeltaQueen50 and RidgewayGirl for the author recommendation. I'm eager to read more of Brookmyre's works now!

Jar City by Arnaldur Indridason filled Bingo square "fits at least 2 KITs/CATs". One of those was a BB from LittleTaiko. I'll be reading more in this Icelandic series!