Mahsdad's (Jeff) 2018 Thread - Part 2

Welcome to thread #2 for 2018.

So here's my boilerplate... Hey I'm Jeff. I live in Southern California. I'm an avid reader. My wife might say I'm bordering on the obsessive. But then, I think that could apply to a lot of us in this group. I also enjoy photography, movies, hiking and playing games and hanging out with my family. Book-wise, I have a pretty eclectic taste in what I read and I hope to give you not so much reviews but my impressions about what I read.

What you will find here is mostly my rambling, way too many (according to some :) ) Wishlist and TBR pile temptations and a smattering of my photography. I don't really make a plan for what I'm going to read thru out the year. Its mostly what strikes my fancy from the TBR piles. Like last year, I received many wonderful books from our Christmas Swap and SantaThing, so I think that will provide me with a good list to start with.

This is my 6th year in the group, but my 5th after stepping out of the shadows and started being an active participant.

2013 Reading Thread
2014 Reading Thread
2015 Reading Thread
2016 Reading Thread
2017 Reading Thread

Come on in and sit a spell...

Welcome!

This new thread lines up with a Foto Friday, so this image counts for both. It was taken from my front porch after a rare late winter/early spring rain in Southern California. Thanks for coming by...

2018 Statistics - Q2

A - Audio
ER - Early Review
GN - Graphic Novel

June
41. Yes Please - Amy Poehler (A)
40. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - Alan Moore (GN)
39. Love and First Sight - Josh Sundquist (A)
38. Wizard - John Varley
37. A Maze of Death - Philip K. Dick
36. Lafayette in the Somewhat United States - Sarah Vowell (A)
35. The End of the World Running Club - Adrian Walker
34. How to Talk to Girls at Parties - Neil Gaiman (GN)
33. Death by Black Hole - Neil deGrasse Tyson (A)

May
32. The Things We Don't Do - Andres Neuman
31. Coraline - Neil Gaiman
30. Paper Girls, Vol 4 - Brian Vaughan (GN)
29. The Windup Girl - Paolo Bacigalupi
28. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee (A)
27. March, Vol. 2 - John Lewis (GN)
26. Titan - John Varley
25. Killers of the Flower Moon - David Grann
24. Save Room for Pie - Roy Blount Jr. (A)
Favorite:


April
23. The Odds: A Love Story - Stewart O'Nan
22. A Man Called Ove - Fredrik Backman
21. The Man Who Sold the Moon - Cory Doctorow (podcast)
20. Sputnik Sweetheart - Haruki Murakami
19. One Second After - William Forstchen (A)
18. Black Swan Green - David Mitchell
Favorite:

2018 Statistics - Q1

A - Audio
ER - Early Review
GN - Graphic Novel


March
17. Underground Airlines - Ben H. Winters
16. Searching for John Hughes - Jason Diamond (A)
15. Revelation Space - Alastair Reynolds
Favorite:


February

14. The Relic Master - Christopher Buckley (A)
13. Descender, Vol. 5: Rise of the Robots - Jeff Lemire (GN)
12. The Dead Mountaineer's Inn - Boris Strugatsky (A)
11. Saga, Vol 8 - Brian K Vaughan (GN)
10. The Princess Diarist - Carrie Fisher (A)
Favorite:


January

9. March Vol 1 - John Lewis (GN)
8. The Gods Themselves - Isaac Asimov (A)
7. The Parking Lot Attendant - Nafkote Tamirat (ER)
6. Kill or be Killed Vol. 3 - Ed Brubaker (GN)
5. Civil War - Mark Millar (GN)
4. Wolverine: Old Man Logan - Mark Millar (GN)
3. The Hours - Michael Cunningham
2. Kingsmen: The Secret Service - Mark Millar (GN)
1. Earth Awakens - Orson Scott Card
Favorite:

Audiobook Narrators

Carrie Fisher
• The Princess Diarist (w/ Billie Lourde)

Scott Brick
• The Gods Themselves

Keith Szarabajka
• The Dead Mountaineer's Inn

James Langton
• The Relic Master

Cory Doctorow
• The Man Who Sold the Moon

Roy Blount Jr.
• Save Room for Pie

Sissy Spacek
• To Kill a Mockingbird

Dion Graham
• Death by Black Hole

Sarah Vowell
• Lafayette in the Somewhat United States

Pat Young
• Love and First Sight

Amy Poehler
• Yes Please

Short Stories

I listen to a lot of podcasts, some of them are 'casts about books and short stories. So I don't clutter up my "official" reading list, I'm going put any short stories that I listen to (or read) that aren't part of a larger collection, here in this list.

Evening Primrose - John Callier (A)
When We Went to See the End of the World by Dawnie Morningside, Age 11¼ - Neil Gaiman (A)
July Tale - Neil Gaiman (A)
The Monkey's Paw - WW Jacobs (A)
The Gardener - Rudyard Kipling (A)
Repairing the World - John Chu (A)
Unassigned Territory - Stephanie Powell Watts - Levar Burton Reads
Graham Greene - Percival Everett = Levar Burton Reads
The Great Wide World Over There - Ray Bradbury - Levar Burton Reads
The Man Who Sold the Moon - Cory Doctorow - Craphound podcast
The Truth About Owls - Amal El-Mohtar - Levar Burton Reads
Mrs. Perez - Oscar Casares
The Baboon War - Nnedi Okorafor - Levar Burton Reads

Early Review Books



Rating
- 3
- 17
- 1
- 3
- 1
- 2 (DNF)

TBR - 2
Total Read - 25
Didn't Receive - 2

2013
Top Down - Jim Lehrer -

2014
Upside Down in the Middle of Nowhere - Julie T. Lamana -
Acts of God - Ellen Gilchrist -
Invisible Beasts - Sharona Muir -
Ancillary Justice - Ann Leckie (DNF) -
Dr. Mutter's Marvels - Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz -
The Future for Curious People - Gregory Sherl -
Furious Cool - David Henry -

2015
Get in Trouble - Kelly Link -
He Wanted the Moon - Mimi Baird -
All The Days and Nights - Niven Govinden (Never Received)
Among the Ten Thousand Things - Julia Pierpont -
Tenacity - J.S. Law -
Slade House - David Mitchell -

2016
God of Beer - Garret Keizer -
Dodgers - Bill Beverly -
The Invoice - Jonas Karlsson -
I Am No One - Patrick Flanery -
Souvenirs and Other Stories - Matt Tompkins -
The Sunlight Pilgrims - Jenni Fagan -
The Vegetarian - Han Kang -
Hag-Seed - Margaret Atwood -
Human Acts - Han Kang -
Things We Lost in the Fire - Mariana Enriquez -

2017
New Boy - Tracy Chevalier -
Hiddensee: A Tale of the Once and Future Nutcracker - Gregory Maguire (Never Received)
Strange Weather - Joe Hill -
The Feed - Nick Clark Windo (DNF) -
The Parking Lot Attendant - Nafkote Tamirat -

2018
The Bar Harbor Retirement Home for Famous Writers (And Their Muses) - Terri-Lynne DeFino
Apollo 8: The Mission That Changed Everything - Martin W. Sandler

Pulitzer's Read

Ongoing bucket list to read all the Pulitzer winning novels. Santa was very good to me this year on this front, so I got plenty to work with

Bold : On the Shelf
Strikeout : Completed

Total Read - 28

2018 - Less
2017 - Underground Railroad
2016 - The Sympathizer
2015 - All the Light We Cannot See
2014 - The Goldfinch
2013 - The Orphan Master's Son
2012 - NO AWARD
- Swamplandia - Nominee
2011 - A Visit from the Goon Squad
2010 - Tinkers
2009 - Olive Kitterridge
2008 - The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
2007 - The Road
2006 - March
2005 - Gilead
2004 - The Known World
2003 - Middlesex
2002 - Empire Falls
2001 - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
2000 - The Interpreter of Maladies
1999 - The Hours
1998 - American Pastoral
1997 - Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer
1996 - Independence Day
1995 - The Stone Diaries
1994 - The Shipping News
1993 - A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain
1992 - A Thousand Acres
- My Father Bleeds History (Maus) (Special Awards & Citations - Letters)
1991 - Rabbit at Rest
1990 - The Mambo Kings
1989 - Breathing Lessons
1988 - Beloved
1987 - A Summons to Memphis
1986 - Lonesome Dove
1985 - Foreign Affairs
1984 - Ironweed
1983 - The Color Purple
1982 - Rabbit is Rich
1981 - A Confederacy of Dunces
1980 - The Executioner's Song
1979 - The Stories of John Cheever
1978 - Elbow Room
1977 - NO AWARD
1976 - Humboldt's Gift
1975 - The Killer Angels
1974 - NO AWARD
1973 - The Optimist's Daughter
1972 - Angle of Repose
1971 - NO AWARD
1970 - The collected Stories of Jean Stafford
1969 - House Made of Dawn
1968 - The Confessions of Nat Turner
1967 - The Fixer
1966 - The Collected Stories of katherine Anne Porter
1965 - The Keepers of the House
1964 - NO AWARD
1963 - The Reivers
1962 - The Edge of Sadness
1961 - To Kill a Mockingbird
1960 - Advise and Consent
1959 - The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters
1958 - A Death in the Family
1957 - NO AWARD
1956 - Andersonville
1955 - A Fable
1954 - NO AWARD
1953 - The Old Man and the Sea
1952 - The Caine Mutiny
1951 - The Town
1950 - The Way West
1949 - Guard of Honor
1948 - Tales of the South Pacific
1947 - All the King's Men
1946 - NO AWARD
1945 - A Bell
1944 - Journey in the Dark
1943 - Dragon's Teeth
1942 - In This Our Life
1941 - NO AWARD
1940 - The Grapes of Wrath

Hugos Read

Ongoing bucket list to read all the Hugo winning novels.

Bold : On the Shelf
Strikeout : Completed

Total Read - 36

2017 - The Obelisk Gate
2016 - The Fifth Season
2015 - The Three-Body Problem
2014 - Ancillary Justice (DNF)
2013 - Redshirts
2012 - Among Others
2011 - Blackout/All Clear
2010 - The Windup Girl
The City & the City
2009 - The Graveyard Book
2008 - The Yiddish Policemen's Union
2007 - Rainbows End
2006 - Spin
2005 - Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
2004 - Paladin of Souls
2003 - Hominids
2003 - Coraline (novella)
2002 - American Gods
2001 - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
2000 - A Deepness in the Sky
1999 - To Say Nothing of the Dog
1998 - Forever Peace
1997 - Blue Mars
1996 - The Diamond Age
1995 - Mirror Dance
1994 - Green Mars
1993 - A Fire Upon the Deep
Doomsday Book
1992 - Barrayar
1991 - The Vor Game
1990 - Hyperion
1989 - Cyteen
1988 - The Uplift War
1988 - Watchmen - category : Other forms
1987 - Speaker for the Dead
1986 - Ender's Game
1985 - Neuromancer
1985 - The Crystal Spheres - David Brin - Short Story
1984 - Startide Rising
1983 - Foundation's Edge
1982 - Downbelow Station
1981 - The Snow Queen
1980 - The Fountains of Paradise
1979 - Dreamsnake
1978 - Gateway
1977 - Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang
1976 - The Forever War
1975 - The Dispossessed
1974 - Rendezvous with Rama
1973 - The Gods Themselves
1972 - To Your Scattered Bodies Go
1971 - Ringworld
1970 - Left Hand of Darkness
1969 - Stand on Zanzibar
1968 - Lord of Light
1967 - The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
1966 - Dune
This Immortal
1965 - The Wanderer
1964 - Way Station
1963 - The Man in the High Castle
1962 - Stranger in a Strange Land
1961 - A Canticle for Leibowitz
1960 - Starship Troopers
1959 - A Case of Conscience
1958 - The Big Time
1956 - Double Star
1955 - The Forever Machine
1953 - The Demolished Man

Retro Hugos - this are given for years when no award was given (more than 50 years ago). Of those...

1939 - The Sword in the Stone
1951 - Farmer in the Sky
1954 - Fahrenheit 451

National Book Award Winners

2015 - Fortune Smiles
2014 - Redeployment
2001 - The Corrections
1988 - Paris Trout
1983 - The Color Purple - hardback award
1981 - The Stories of John Cheever - paperback award
1980 - The World According to Garp - paperback award
1953 - Invisible Man

Man Booker Books
2002 - Life of Pi
2009 - Wolf Hall - sadly I never finished this, never hooked me.
2016 - The Sellout

2017 Recap

Total Read - 78

The full list is still in my 2017 Thread (see above), but in no particular order, here are my 5 favorites from last year.



Turtles All the Way Down - John Green
My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry - Fredrik Backman
Different Seasons - Stephen King
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven - Sherman Alexie
The Last Night at the Lobster - Stewart O'Nan

Happy new thread!

>1 mahsdad: Lovely photo!

>1 mahsdad: Looks fresh Jeff, amid those fast scudding clouds.

Happy new thread, buddy and wishing you a wonderful weekend.

>11 drneutron: >12 laytonwoman3rd: >13 PaulCranswick: Jim, Linda, Paul. Thanks for swinging by! Much appreciated.

Happy new thread, Jeff.
>1 mahsdad: I like the picture up there, lovely view.

And another happy new thread wish!!

Happy new thread!

Thanks Anita, Kim.

Welcome Figs, but don't think I've "met" you before. Thanks for visiting.

Happy New Thread, Jeff. Lots of good reading in >10 mahsdad:. I read and liked the Green, Alexie and O'Nan ones, and Mark has recommended the Backman.

>1 mahsdad: No wonder I missed Foto Friday, you moved! San Pedro is a nice-lookin' little burg, ain't she?

Hey Joe, 5 is just an arbitrary number, but you gotta draw the line somewhere (or do you). Its always tough deciding on what was the best of the year.

15. Revelation Space - Alastair Reynolds - This was a SantaThing gift from last year. Reynolds wasn't an author I was familiar with, and this was an interesting first look at his work.

Nine hundred thousand years ago, something wiped out the Amarantin. For the human colonists settling on the Amarantin homeworld, Resurgam, its's of little more than academic interest. But Dan Sylveste will stop at nothing to get at the truth. - from the book description

This was a very dense, if somewhat disjointed space yarn. Sylveste is an Archaeologist who is being pursued by the crew of a giant interstellar ship. The crew thinks that Sylveste and his father (who is a construct uploaded to a computer before he died) can cure their Captain of the nanotech virus that affects him and is merging him with the ship itself. He also has an assassin tracking him as well. That's to say nothing of the aliens rumored to have incredible tech riches hidden behind their shrouds of warped space/time.

This book took me so long to read that by the end, I had forgotten how I got there. It has lots of good hard scifi tech, weaponry, mech suits, self-replicating/repairing machine technology. Ultimately it was a good read, just one that I had to work hard for.

It looked like a biology lesson for gods, or a snapshot of the kind of pornography which might be enjoyed by sentient planets

7/10

S: 1/29/17 - 3/10/18 (41 Days)

Happy new thread Jeff.

>18 mahsdad: True, we have not "met" before. I am reading more threads this year and attempting to be more social/active on LT. Hope you don't mind me barging in. Happy reading :)

>24 figsfromthistle: By all means, barge away. That was me about 4 years ago. I joined the group, but I was a silent member. I gradually came out of my shell, and joined it the fun. I'm headed over to star your thread!

Did you all see that LT bought Litsy? Does anyone here use it?

I created an account a while ago, but haven't really used it at all. Might have to go back and check it out.

I haven't used it, but am considering checking it out. Sounds like an interesting thing.

Well, if anyone does join, my user id is mahsdad.

*sigh* Okay, okay, Litsyward I trudge.

I'm with you RD, I'm not sure how much I'll use it. Maybe to post quotes I like. I always just write them down so I remember them when I do my "reviews". Maybe I'll just post them there.

What would be sweet, is if they can somehow incorporate the groups into it. If there was a "private" group thread there, that would be neat to have a more real-time like chat for us 75-ers.

But I want to support LT in their endevours to make sure they stick around. So I'm going to try to use Litsy.

I'm not even sure what to do there...went through their tutorial and was left thinking, "...and?"

So I did a post. I did a Quote. You have to do all posts to a book, and it "suggests" 'that you add a picture.

Hopefully, one of the LT things they could add is just using the book image, instead of having to take a picture, just to post the book cover.

What *I* want them to add is an option to post our review directly from LT like it does for FB and Twitter.

Exactly! I just put that very thing in the Talk thread. That makes perfect sense.

Also, if you add a book in Litsey, have it add to your LT collection

Yep! I would be guaranteed to use them both.

>28 mahsdad: Followed you. I kept my LT username Oberon.

>31 richardderus: Richard, do you have a different user name? Couldn't find you.

>36 Oberon: I followed you.

Happy Foto Friday Folks!

If you follow me on the MSSM (Main Stream Social Media - ie, Facebook and Instagram), you've seen this already, but I wanted to share it here as well. It was just one of those serendipitous situations where a cool image presented itself.

What is it? Its the hydro-beads that are inside of an ice-pack. Laura went to use it and found that the pack broke a seal and she poured them out on a plate. Took this with my phone with the flash on. I think its pretty cool.

Hi, Jeff. You've advanced to thread two. Good for you.

>38 mahsdad: Are hydro-beads in any way related to microbeads that have been used in stuff like toothpaste and aroused environmental concerns.

Related to that, or maybe not, I read this morning that the mid-Pacific swirling trash accumulation is now larger than Alaska. Could Trump and all his supporter/defenders be exiled there?

Thread #2, yeah, I'll get there eventually :)

Not exactly the microbeads that are the bain of our existence. In our household, we are well aware of the trash gyres that out there. (My wife is a docent at a local aquarium where ecology plays a big part. They are probably plastic, but they are similar to the kids toy where the beads soak up water and become large gel-like balls. They're probably about an 1/8" in diameter.

I would be more than happy to see our current "leaders" exiled to trash island.

>38 mahsdad: WOW. Beautiful and weird.

45 for Gyreleader. Kinda like Gauleiter only with fewer subjects.

Happy Friday, Jeff. Happy, Belated New Thread! I hope those current reads are treating you well. I have been having a helluva good month.

Congrats on the new one, Jeff.

>38 mahsdad: Cool!!

I tried to look at the Litsy app, but my phone reset and I lost my password so I will have to go back and try again later when I have more patience. ; )

Happy Foto Friday folks. Spending time with the family in Florida, and haven't been near my PC in a while. Here's a variation of the image I posted yesterday on Litsy. Its a sunflower in my SIL's yard.

Hope you all are having a great weekend. Happy Easter, if you're inclined to celebrate the day.

>44 mahsdad: Wow!
Sunflowers bloom early in Florida!

Thanks Anita!

Vacation Book update...

Finished : Black Swan Green - Really enjoyed this, more later
Started : Sputnik Sweetheart
Still Listening - One Second After

Added to Mt TBR
The Odds: A Love Story- Stewart O'Nan
A Maze of Death - Philip K. Dick
Seven Wonders - Adam Christopher

Michael bought:
The Three-Body Problem - Cixin Liu
Von Bek - Michael Moorcock

Borrowed from my BIL:
A Curious Mind - Brian Grazer
The Undoing Project - Michael Lewis

Nice sunflower! Enjoy A Maze of Death.

Thanks buddy!

I've used Litsy for a while (as laytonwoman3rd). I like it OK for what it is (an app, not a site), but I'm hoping being associated with LT will bring a few more useful features to it, as others have suggested.

A couple bookish TED talks to share today.

First is one I know I've shared before and one that I've watched many times. Its Chip Kidd's talk about book cover design (he did 1Q84 among many others), it is very good. https://youtu.be/cC0KxNeLp1E

The other is by Alvin Irby and is about how to inpsire every child to be a life long reader. https://youtu.be/ERSZb2wHFDw

Enjoy...

How to turn a book about intellectual censorship into an action film. I'm cautiously optimistic. Granted I don't have HBO and probably won't see it.

Here's the full trailer for Fahrenheit 451 - https://youtu.be/UEhsFEgsI5U

Happy Foto Friday Folks.

Today's image is one I'm sure I've shared before, but this is the first Friday of April and this is April's entry in this years calendar. Its an Anemone that was in a discovery tank at a local aquarium. I took this about 7 years ago. Hope you all have a great weekend.

I love this photo! It makes me feel all ocean-y.

Fahrenheit 451 is a book I read shivering and weeping as a 12-year-old biblioholic. The 1966 film was one that my mother and I watched together, shuddering. Cyril Cusack, the Captain, is *terrifying* mostly because I now know he was one of the people on the cast most likely to be his character in real life (opposed abortion, was pretty right-wing in his attitudes in general).

I think I need to read it again, and watch the original movie again. I think everyone should. I didn't know that about Cusak, very interesting.

Nice pic! That one's pretty amazing.

16. Searching for John Hughes - Jason Diamond (AUDIO) - I listened to this on audio. Jason grew up in the 80's from a broken home in Chicago and connects with the characters and settings of classic John Hughes movies (Sixteen Candles, Breakfast Club, etc). A situation I can relate too (NOT the broken home, but the love of the Hughes-a-verse).

He decides that its his goal to meet his idol and write his biography, despite the fact that he doesn't know how to write a biography and has no prospects of meeting Hughes or any of the actors in the films. This book, instead, becomes Diamond's memoirs of the attempt. It is strangely compelling and a good read (or listen, as it was in my case)

7/10

S: 2/27/17 - 3/12/18 (14 Days)

Saw an interesting book on NPR that I added to the WL..

Heads of the Colored People by Nafissa Thompson-Spires

https://www.npr.org/2018/04/10/601184986/heads-of-the-colored-people-takes-on-th...

America has had its first black baseball player, its first black astronaut, its first black president — but after the firsts, the world is still full of onlies. Sometimes the only-ness is existential — like the only black student in a private school. Sometimes it's incidental — the only black woman in an hour-long yoga class.

It can be a hard role to fill, says author Nafissa Thompson-Spires, "because you are sort of a representative of what people see as black, by virtue of them not having had much exposure to it, there are all these additional pressures on top of the standard pressures of being black in a white world."

Book Riot's post about the upcoming movie telling the story of Mary Shelley. I'm not usually one for period dramas, but this could be interesting.

http://bookriot.com/2018/04/13/watch-the-chilling-mary-shelley-trailer-starring-...

Happy Foto Friday Folks. Hope you all had a Fantastic week. Here's to a great weekend. Chief among my prospective activities will be to go see Ready Player One. I guess my son has finally left the proverbial nest, cause last weekend instead of wanting to see the movie with his Dad (who introduced the book to him in the first place), he went to see it with his friends. Oh well, its all good. :)

Today's image was taking at the Ringling Museum in Sarasota over spring break. I am usually known for my odd angles of things, but I liked the straightness of this. Enjoy...

>59 mahsdad: I saw Ready Player One with my son last week who I also introduced to the book. I am currently re-reading the book. The movie is fairly different but I still enjoyed it a lot. Will be interested to hear what you think.

Nice pic!

17. Underground Airlines - Ben H. Winters - Alternate Histories are where one small change that leads to a very different world, than the one we are used to. In this case the (not so) small change is that Lincoln is martyred prior to the start of the Civil War and the country comes together to find a solution to the North and South's differences. That solution - to allow slavery to continue but only in the "Hard Four" states (Lousiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Carolina).

Fast-forward to today where modern technology and business techniques has only enhanced the efficiency of the southern garment industry and its "Persons bound to Labor" workforce. Its a world of Michael Jackson and movie stars and a US Marshall's service that is tasked with capturing escaped PB's (slaves isn't term that's used anymore). A weird dichotomy.

Victor is a former PB and bounty hunter who works for the Marshals and his latest case is to capture a fugitive somewhere in Indianapolis where the Underground Airline (yeah that might be a little too on the nose) is attempting to get him out of the country. Or are they. All is not as it seems and this thriller keeps you guessing who the actual bad guys are. Its a very interesting read and I liked being challenged in wanting to like Victor who represents and supports a society that is so different than the one we live in. As the story progresses, Victor starts to question his place in this world. Recommend.

All around me, all inside me, was a feeling of unease, of incipience. A murky sky, holding the possibility but not the promise of rain.

I bore silent witness, thinking, There is no army of abolition. This is what the world has for heroes. Ordinary men, squabbling and prideful. Hassling each other, doing their best, busing the world free. And men like me, behind fake papers and clear-glass spectacles, keeping it chained.

There had been a movie called Los Emprendedores, actually, and I happened to ahve seen it - it came out during my Chicago years, and I snuck into a theater on Halsted St. and watched it twice in a row. Edward James Olmos as a pirate jefe, Denzel Washington as the stoic peeb. James Woods, maybe, someone like that, as the noble but conflicted Coast Guard captain running them down. There's a famous scene at the end, the two exiles leaping overboard, choosing to face the sharks.

8/10

S: 3/10/17 - 3/23/18 (14 Days)

I've been wanting to read this one. Great review, makes me want to go get it.

2018 Pulitzers announced.

Novel - Less by Andrew Sean Greer : never heard of it, but I will, of course, pick it up eventually
Biography - Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder - Caroline Fraser : I don't normally track the NF or biography categories, but this sounds interesting.

On a different note...

Book Riot's Annotated podcast is really good. I listened to 3 different random ones. One about Mary Shelly (did she come up with the Sci-Fi genre?), How to hack the NYT Best Sellers list and the Dictionary Wars (the story of Merriam Webster's 3rd edition). Pretty cool stuff.

Happy Foto Friday Folks. Hope you all had a great week, and a greater weekend.

On the book front, I finished A Man Called Ove, very good, more later. I'm getting really behind on book recaps, gotta catch up this weekend.

Started reading Stewart O'Nan's The Odds

Today's image is of some interesting looking flowers I took at the Ringling Museum in Sarasota. Enjoy...

I love me some flower photos! I just took a bunch yesterday. : )

Whoopee, I got my Easter badge... Its not too difficult to amuse me.

http://www.librarything.com/profile/mahsdad/stats/badges

Getting too far behind in my book "reviews", not that I really review anything :) So its time for the lightning round...

18. Black Swan Green - David Mitchell : a year in the life of a boy in a small village in central England during the 80's, bullies, first love, family squabbles and the Falklands War. Enjoyed this quite a bit. Very "English" in the language that took me a bit to muddle thru, but not too bad.

A cow of an awkward pause mooed.
Art fabricated of the inarticulate is beauty

19. One Second After - William R. Forstchen : A very believable post apocalyptic novel about what happens to a rural North Carolina town when a massive EMP hits the US and takes out all electronics. Sci-fi, or perhaps wishful thinking for "preppers" to be sure. Not too bad. (AUDIO)

20. Sputnik Sweetheart - Haruki Murakami : The unnamed narrator is in love (unrequitedly) with a girl who is in love (unrequitedly) with another woman. When she disappears, he drops everything to go find out what happened. Weird and touching in all the ways of Murakami's stuff. Another win.

When she spied Sumire's father, Miu was speechless. Sumire could hear the intake of breath. Like the sound of a velvet curtain being drawn aside on a peaceful morning to let in the sunlight to wake someone very special to you.

If I listened very carefully, somewhere far far away I could hear the cats lapping up my brain. Three lithe cats, surrounding my broken head, slurping up the mush gray soup within. The tips of their red, rough tongues licked the soft folds of my mind. And with each lick of their tongues, my mind - like a shimmer of hot air - flickered and faded away.

21. The Man Who Sold the Moon - Cory Doctorow : A novella that he published on his podcast (craphoud.com). Its the story about a group of makers/Burning Man aficionados, who develop a way to remotely build prefab living structures on the moon. (AUDIO)

Happy Sunday, Jeff. Hope all is well in your world. Good review of Underground Airlines. I am a big fan of that one too. I like how he came out of The Last Policeman trilogy and came up with something so fresh and solid.

I hope to read a couple of Murakami titles this year and Sputnik Sweetheart is one of them. Hooray for Ove and Black Swan Green!

22. A Man Called Ove - Fredrick Backman : Ove is the curmudgeon's curmudgeon. All he wants to do is get on with his life when his new neighbors and the local feral cat conspire against him. My 2nd Backman, and its another win for me. Not quite as magical as My Grandmother... and a little slower to grab me, but once it did, it didn't let go. At least I was at home when the obligatory ugly cry happened.

"Persian, not Arabia. I'm from Iran - you know, where they speak Farsi?" She explains. "Farcical? That's the least you could say" Ove agrees. her laughter catches him off guard. As if it's carbonated and someone has poured it too fast and it's bubbling over in all directions.

23. The Odds : A Love Story - Steward O'Nan : A husband and wife at the end of their marriage, in financial straights and dealing with infidelity. The husband takes his wife on one last trip to relive their honeymoon in Niagra Falls. One that he hopes will solve all their problems. This was a short powerful little novel. Sometimes it was painful to read, "watching" a marriage fall apart in betryal and mistrust, but despite this, I enjoyed this bittersweet tale.

>72 msf59: Underground Airlines was the first of his books that I've read. It sounds like I need to put the Last Policeman's Trilogy on the list as well.

Read The Last Policeman trilogy! It's terrific. Underground Airlines starts from a PoD I'm utterly unconvinced by but I liked it too.

Nice reviews that I'm ignoring.

Hey RD. PoD (that's a new one for me, but I figured it out :) ). I agree, its a major leap to think that that left turn that caused the world of UA to exist would actually happen. But once you get beyond that, it is an interesting exploration to the consequences. And in the multi-verse all things are possible.

2nd recommendation for Last Policeman, then its a definite wish list addition.

And I don't have any problem with you liking but ignoring my book babbling. I do it quite a bit as well. Too many books!

The secret horror scenario of all of us bibliophiles as partially come to pass for me.

I've noticed a blurry-ness in one of my eyes for a while, that I thought was just that I needed a new prescription for glasses. But alas, no, I have a cataract. Its amazing how your brain compensates, cause I'm pretty much blind in that eye and I never really noticed. Or probably more to the point, decided NOT to notice.

Off to a consultation for surgical options this week.

>78 mahsdad: Oh yuck. I hope the consultation goes well.

I too am cataracted in the left eye but it's so small that it still moves around.

Its my left eye as well. I think, since the brain just compensates, it never really affected my reading and I never noticed. But over the weekend I went for a regular eye exam and I totally failed the peripheral vision test (where they look for blind spots) in the left and they couldn't correct the vision to anything better than 20/40.

At least I got to a half century before I actually had to go to a Doctor for a legitimate reason (other than a cold).

I'm not too worried, except for the deductible and plan minimums. That scares me. :)

Oh, I'm glad you enjoyed Sputnik Sweetheart, Jeff. One of my (many) favorites of his. A Man Called Ove got me, too.

So to recap...

Joe - thanks for stopping by. I forget who clued me into Murikama first, but he hasn't disappointed. A Wild Sheep Chase was my first.

Eye - yep going to have to come out. Well only the lens. Modern technology is wonderful. They'll replace it with an implant that can actually correct my vision. My doctor said that they usually correct for distance and I said, I don't mind wearing glasses to drive, make sure that I keep my good close vision to not mess up my reading.

Book Update:
Audio - Save Room for Pie - Roy Blount Jr. Read by him, a delightful collection of stories and poetry on the subject of food.
Primary Book - Killers of the Flower Moon (thanks Mark) - really enjoying this story about a part of our history I knew nothing about
Alternate Book - Titan : Book 1 of John Varley's classic Gaea trilogy. This is comfort food for me, and I just picked it up again just cause I needed a book that was easy to carry on my walk to the store (yes I read as I walk, :p )

And finally, its Foto Friday! Now that I'm posting them on Litsy and IG, its more pressure to perform. :) This one is a phone image from our trip to Florida over spring break. Another from the Ringling Museum. Enjoy your weekend everyone. Hope it's' spring-like in your neck of the woods.

Recap addendum - Book recommendation

In today's vlogbrother's video Hank Green (who has his own book coming out in the fall - An Absolutely Remarkable Thing) recommended a book called Space Opera by Catherynne Valente. He said (and I paraphrase): Finally someone had the guts to not just understand the genius of Douglas Adams but maybe move beyond.

From Amazon:

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy meets Eurovision in an over-the-top galactic science fiction spectacle from best-selling author Catherynne Valente where sentient races compete for glory in a universe-wide musical contest - where the stakes are as high as the fate of planet Earth.

A century ago, the Sentience Wars tore the galaxy apart and nearly ended the entire concept of intelligent space-faring life. In the aftermath, a curious tradition was invented - something to cheer up everyone who was left and bring the shattered worlds together in the spirit of peace, unity, and understanding.

Once every cycle, the civilizations gather for the Metagalactic Grand Prix - part gladiatorial contest, part beauty pageant, part concert extravaganza, and part continuation of the wars of the past. Instead of competing in orbital combat, the powerful species that survived face off in a competition of song, dance, or whatever can be physically performed in an intergalactic talent show. The stakes are high for this new game, and everyone is forced to compete.

This year, though, humankind has discovered the enormous universe. And while they expected to discover a grand drama of diplomacy, gunships, wormholes, and stoic councils of aliens, they have instead found glitter, lipstick, and electric guitars. Mankind will not get to fight for its destiny - they must sing.

A band of human musicians, dancers, and roadies have been chosen to represent Earth on the greatest stage in the galaxy. And the fate of their species lies in their ability to rock.

I'm game...

Foto for Friday creeps me out. Bigly.

Space Opera is Cat Valente ergo autobuy.

Happy weekend. It's sticky as a postman's tongue out here.

:)

I'm not familiar with Valente,but it sounds like I should seek her out

Postman's Tongue, maybe we should talk to Mark about that. Lol

OMG!!!

Radiance
Deathless
The Fairyland sequence, first The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
and and and and *pantpantpant*

Circumnavigated, now that I've heard of. Not on the list, but that is easily remedied.

Added several new books to the WL from an April Top 10 list from Paste.com (no idea how I found it, probably from any number of book/reading sites I liked on FB)

Circe by Madeline Miller : I've seen a lot of buzz about this one here and on Litsy.
Macbeth by Jo Nesbo : The next one in the the Hogarth Shakespeare series is out. I've read 2 others and I want to continue for the set. In this on Macbeth is the head of a SWAT team in a drug-ridden industrial town in the 70's.
The Trauma Cleaner by Sarah Krasnostein : The memoir of a woman who's business is cleaning up after traumas. I have an unnatural attraction to stories like this.
Heads of the Colored People: Stories by Nafissa Thompson-Spires : Heard about this on NPR. Collection exploring black identity in contemporary settings.

I was curious, so I went and found the list for the Hogarth Shakespeare Series...

The Gap of Time - Jeanette Winterson : The Winter's Tale
Shylock is My Name - Howard Jacobson : The Merchant of Venice
Vinegar Girl - Anne Tyler : Taming of the Shrew
Hag-Seed - Margaret Atwood : The Tempest (read)
New Boy - Tracy Chevalier : Othello (read)
Dunbar - Edward St. Aubyn : King Lear
Macbeth - Jo Nesbo : Macbeth

April recap >3 mahsdad:

6 books read (2 on audio).

It was a very close call for best of the month, Sputnik Sweetheart was a very close 2nd, but I gotta give it to A Man Called Ove

Not on my list, but I've been reading a bunch of comics, the Deadpool and Cable series, in "honor" of the Deadpool 2 moving coming out this month.

Happy Foto Friday Folks!

Took this image the other day coming back from a walk around my neighborhood.



Currently reading...

Killers of the Flower Moon
Wizard
Save Room for Pie

Nice one!

Thanks Jim!

>91 mahsdad: LIKE!

Happy Friday, Jeff. I am so glad you are enjoying Killers of the Flower Moon. It is a helluva book!

>89 mahsdad: I have only read Hag-Seed, from the Hogarth Shakespeare Series and really enjoyed it. I would like to read more and the Nesbo has been getting glowing reviews.

I loved Hag-Seed and I liked New Boy. I just love the idea of the series, need to read them all

>95 mahsdad: Would be a good series to get through for the completists among us!

Have a great Sunday, Jeff.

>96 PaulCranswick: Thanks for coming by Paul! It may not be a hoppin' thread, but I welcome all visitors. ;)

I'm starting a new thing. At least a new thing on my thread. I started it on Litsy, and I need to share it here.

#firstsentence. Whenever I start a new book, I'm just going to post the first sentence of it on my thread. For better or worse.

The inaugural is The Windup Girl - "No! I don't wan't the mangosteen"

Good morning, Jeff! I hope all is well with you.

Lovely photos through out the thread. >52 mahsdad: is beatiful.

>62 mahsdad: excellent review of Underground Airlines. I've seen others over time, but its high time I took the plunge.

Hey Brodie, thanks for stopping by and for your kind words of my stuff. I appreciate it.

Also glad that I can give a nudge to pick up a good book.

Forgot to mention, that over the weekend I was alone on Saturday and without the adult supervision of my wife, I went to the book store and the beer store.

At the former, I got...

A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James - I've had this on the WL for at least 3 years.
End of the World Running Club by Adrian Walker - I like dystopian fiction and I like running. This seems like a good merging of the two.

(At least I limited my take to only 2. And, as I just remembered, my Thingaversary is coming up in a couple weeks. I'll count these towards my "mandatory" splurge)

At later, I got...

Knee Deep Brewing - Simtra. A really hoppy Triple IPA
Drake Brewing - Hopocalypse. An absolute favorite that is a must buy whenever I can find it
Stone Brewing - Virtuale IPA. I'm a big fan of Stone. This a new one to me, but I have to give it a try.

Needless to say, I am a fan of the glorious Hop! :)

I was looking for a new audiobook and the Los Angeles library had this at the head of their website for the Great American Read. Its a classic, and the fact that its read by Sissy Spacek isn't too shabby.

#firstsentence - To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow

And has a bonus because it describes us all...

Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved reading. One does not love breathing

24. Save Room for Pie - Roy Blount Jr. - (AUDIO) Borrowed this from the library via Libby (as an aside, this is my new favorite audio book app. Very easy to use, like the interface). The subtitle of this book is "Food Songs and Chewy Ruminations". Its a collection of his poetry, essays and his lifelong experiences with food. From is opinions about bourbon, to his and his son's experiences with piranha in South America, to his praise of Pimento Cheese and a bizarre story about the possum fanciers group where he was a judge at a possum show. He also sprinkles in some of the stories he presented in the "Bluff the Listener" segement on NPR's "Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me", where he is a frequent panelist.

This was a really fun "read", that, while you can get it in book form, its much better if you get it in audio form. Half the charm of this book is listening to Blount's "down home" Southern drawl.

8/10

S: 4/15/18 - 5/5/18 (11 Days)

Trailer for a documentary about Ursula K. Leguin, called The Worlds of Ursula K. Leguin. Want to see this.

https://youtu.be/AqH3nqXqlgs

Hey All!

Quote of the night from The Windup Girl

Hock Seng makes himself smile in return, thinking that she does not know how little anyone cares to separate the wheat from the chaff, when all anyone wants to do is burn a field

Here's a lovely video essay about the Art of Sci-Fi books

https://youtu.be/M7Qm_UJML54

Happy Friday, Jeff. I just started The Parking Lot Attendant and I am really enjoying it. You were correct, in predicting that it was my cuppa.

Hooray for getting to The Windup Girl. I am a big fan of that one too.

Very cool that you like Parking Lot, I'm glad.

Yeah, not sure why I hesitated so long (I've had it a year or so) to get to Windup Girl. Its really dense, but very interesting and different take. I like the idea of biopunk, it is even more prescient almost 10 years later.

Fantastic Foto Friday Folks....

If you follow me on IG, FB or Litsey, I've seen this, but I was in San Antonio this week and when in San Antonio you have to go see this. My immediate thought was "Hey, lets go see the basement" (Bonus points if you know what I'm talking about :) )



Book Update

Reading : The Windup Girl (100 pages or so to go)
Listening : To Kill a Mockingbird - Almost finished

Purchased : While at the airport with too much time to waste, of course I'm going to buy something. The Sex Lives of Cannibals by Maarten Troost. The title, of course, grabbed me, but then the blurbs on the back cinched it. "The laugh-out-loud true story of a harrowing and hilarious two year odyssey in the distant South Pacific island nation of Kiribati, possibly the Worst Place on Earth"

While at the book store I added the following to the WL

The Invisible Life of Ivan Isaenko - Scott Stambach
Wind, Sand and Stars - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Sheltering Sky - Paul Bowles

>109 mahsdad: Ewwwww.....Pee Wee Herman.

>109 mahsdad:, >110 laytonwoman3rd: 😂

>110 laytonwoman3rd: >111 drneutron: Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner. :)

25. Killers of the Flower Moon - David Grann - This is an excellent piece of of narrative non-fiction that is subtitled; The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI. I might plant my tongue firmly in cheek and call it Law and Order: Frontier Justice.

In the late 19th century, the Osage Nation was forced from their traditional lands on the plains to a reservation on the rocky ground of Northern Oklahoma. In the early 20th century, oil was discovered under this inhospitable land, and as the owners of the mineral rights, the people of the Osage Nation became the richest people per capita in the World.

Then in the 1920's, during what the Osage call the Reign of Terror, people start being murdered. Local law enforcement is ineffectual and the leader (a young J. Edgar Hoover) of what will become the FBI sends a former Texas Ranger to solve the case.

Its an incredible story of conspiracies, bigotry and jealousy. It had twists and turns and villains that even Hollywood's best screenwriters wouldn't come up with. Its a black mark on our history and one that I didn't even know existed. Its a worthwhile and important read.

9/10

S: 4/22/18 - 5/6/18 (15 Days)

Heads up, volume 4 of Paper Girls, Vol 4 is available on Hoopla. like with Saga or Kill or Be Killed, I probably should go back and read them all over again, so I can remember what the heck is going on.

This one continues with the time travel weirdness. Good stuff.

Great review of Killer Moon, Jeff. Thumb! Such a terrific book. NNF, at its best.

I have never been to San Antonio. It is on the list.

I need to get back to the Paper Girls. I think I read the first 2.

>113 mahsdad: Good review of Killers of the Flower Moon. I thought that was an important well-done book. It's always a great experience to read good narrative fiction on a subject almost entirely unknown to me.

26. Titan - John Varley - This is book 1 of Varley's Gaea trilogy and it was nominated for both the Nebula and Hugo awards when it was published, but sadly didn't win (Dreamsnake by Vonda McIntyre won them both). This series is like comfort food for me and I've read it multiple times over the years.

It tells the story of a NASA mission to Saturn's moons uncovers an alien artifact that turns out to be a sentient torus habitat, that once they are brought inside (and not through the front door), they find an old world populated with lots of genetically odd flora and fauna, including gigantic living blimps, centaurs and flying creatures called angels. The crew find themselves altered/adapted to this new world in a way that allows them to interact with the inhabitants, an interesting twist on how to get around the fact that alien species wouldn't automatically speak English. (I'm looking at you Star Trek :) )

Its really an origin story and a road "movie" where the commander of the NASA ship (Rocky) makes it her mission to reach the hub of the world where she believes the god/maker/controller should live and find out what's going on. I really like the "world" that Varley creates, one that seems locked in plausible science and far fetched fantasy combined.

10/10

S: 4/25/18 - 5/6/18 (12 Days)

>115 msf59: >116 laytonwoman3rd: Thanks Mark, Linda!

NNF is such a great way to access our history. Much better than just memorizing facts and dates like we did when we took history class.

For any Amazon Prime members who stumble over here. The original BBC The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series is streaming now.

Its just so much nostalgic fun. :)

I have been absent here for far too long!! Sorry about that. Great mini book reviews.

Going to an Ursala LeGuin tribute later in June -- She lived in Portland. Hope you are enjoying The Windup Girl!

Happy weekend. : )

Hey Kim thanks for stopping by. I did enjoy Windup Girl, it was dense, different and interesting. I'll post my thoughts soon, I'm still about 5 books behind my list at the top of the thread.

Happy Foto Friday Folks.

Today's image (with all apologies to the feline adverse, I'm looking at you RD), here's my youngest. She gives such great feet fotos. :)

Hope you all have a great weekend (and for the American's, a great Memorial Day)

>122 mahsdad: Oohhhh...little pink paw pads!

Forgot to do a Friday Book Update

Finished The Windup Girl and To Kill a Mockingbird

Reading : The Things We Don't Do by Andres Neuman : Short stories, some VERY short. Enjoying a lot, so far. Thanks Mark
Listening : Death by Black Hole by Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Essays and articles by the master. Only downside, is that he doesn't do the narration.

>122 mahsdad: Sweetness! love that picture.

and >105 mahsdad:, love that quote. I will have to read Wind Up Girl

>125 banjo123: :)

>122 mahsdad: Love it!

Happy Monday Evening Friendly Folks! I trust you all had an enjoyable weekend!

Instead of celebrating Memorial Day by going to the beach or a park and cooking hot dogs, we went to Pasadena to binge on book buying. Went to a great hamburger joint called The Counter (a choose your own adventure type of burger, you make whatever you want) and then walked over to Vroman's Bookstore, our favorite destination in Pasadena.

Our swag included...

Michael:
Tropic of Serpents by Marie Brennan
The Sky is Yours by Chandler Klang Smith
Abaddon's Gate by James Corey (book 3 of the Expanse series)

Laura:
World Without End by Ken Follett
The Complete Arrow Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
California: A History by Kevin Starr
Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny

Me:
Borne by Jeff VanderMeer
Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler (Hogarth Shakespeare)
The Association of Small Bombs by Karan Mahajan

A very good day!

I forgot to add, I also got a bookish enamel pin, to add to my collection...

Happy Memorial Day, Jeff. Love the holiday book haul up there. I enjoyed Borne & The Association of Small Bombs. I have still not read the Tyler, but it is on the list.

And thanks again, for The Parking Lot Attendant. It was a very nice surprise. Young, black authors, especially women, have really been kicking butt lately.

>129 mahsdad: I like that pin.

>130 msf59: Some day I'll actually be able to read or buy a book that you haven't already read, or at least have it on your list. :)

I'm glad you liked Parking Lot, it was a very nice surprise. And talking about surprises, I just finished The Things We Don't Do. Wow, that was a good, but quirky collection. Loved it.

As far as the pin goes, I had to stop myself, I could have purchased at least 2 or 3 more. I'll save 'em for Christmas and get something extra for whomever my 75'er secret santa is. I did it last year, starting a new tradition (in addition to the books)

Won the ER book The Bar Harbor Retirement Home for Famous Writers (And Their Muses) by Terri-Lynne DeFino, which may be the book with the longest title I've ever owned. ;)

Its my first win since November (Won Nafkote Tamirat's The Parking Lot Attendant)and my first request since December (Lost Christopher Moore's Noir), there's been slim pickin's of late.

I'll add it to the stack when/if I get it.

>132 mahsdad: The title was certainly interesting. Hope the book is equally so.

>133 thornton37814: Yeah I hope so too, Lori. Given my track record with ER picks, it has a really good chance of being a worthwhile read.

Started reading The End of the World Running Club. Quite tense and scary in the opening chapters. Very believable "end of the world" premise.

Opening sentence(s) : "Beliefs are strange. Things of certainty about things uncertain."

28. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee - (AUDIO) What more can be said about this classic of American literature? Its just a gem (pun intended) of a read. Sure it has some racial and sexual tones that cause it to keep getting banned by some "PC" school boards, but its for that reason, especially that its a must read for just about everyone.

I hadn't read this in a long while and my mental image was (and always will be) Gregory Peck as Atticus, I was pleasently surprised that there was more to the story that my memory of the movie allowed.

This was an audio "read" and it was presented with great success by Sissy Spacek. Highly recommend.

10/10

S: 5/8/18 - 5/19/18 (12 Days)

I didn't realize we had such overlap in graphic novel reading, Jeff. I'm a big of the Saga series by Brian K. Vaughan, I just finished Paper Girls Vol. 4 and enjoyed it, and I'm reading the second volume of the Brubaker and Phillips' Kill or Be Killed right now. All mentioned by you in one sentence in >114 mahsdad:!

Great minds think alike. I think it was folks like you and Mark that put me onto these types of GN's in the first place. That and Hoopla on the iPad for ease of access.

Happy Foto Friday Folks! Hope you all have a enjoyable bookish weekend.

Today's image is an oldy, but a goody. I took this in 2010 in a local park. Its just a daisy (I think) but one that grows in weird shapes. Enjoy...



Book Update
Reading : The End of the World Running Club by Adrian Walker
Listening : Death by Black Hole by Neil deGrasse Tyson
Extra Going for a walk book : Demon by John Varley

Jeff your photo of the clouds is incredible. You are quite talented.

I've never seen a daisy up close like the one posted immediately above. I have a close friend who is, like you, an accomplished photographer. A few years ago four of us spent over a week in Yellowstone National Park. The photos Martha took were exquisite. For Christmas, she presented a large coffee table book of the meories we shared that wonderful time.

Thanks Linda! Yellowstone is on my bucket list. Someday, I'll get there. So nice that your friend was able to make you a coffee table book.

I've dabbled in getting books printed, modern technology makes them pretty easy to get made.

Finished up 3 different things this morning.

>2 mahsdad: Death by Black Hole on audio, and How to Talk to Girls at Parties on Hoopla (graphic novel.

Also listened to another interesting selection on Levar Burton's podcast >5 mahsdad: Mrs. Perez by Oscar Casares.

Happy Foto Friday on Saturday.

Been fresh out of "really" good images lately, but I will share one of my view Friday afternoon. It was when I was flying home from a week in Oakland. Homeward bound is always a great view. :)



Book Update
Finished : The End of the World Running Club by Adrian Walk. Not too bad. Pretty much as the title says.

Reading : Haven't started yet, but I think I'll move to A Maze of Death by PKD
Audio : Lafayette in the Somewhat United States by Sarah Vowell
Extra going for a walk book : Wizard by John Varley. Still reading.

Oh, here's another that will be of those hop-minded folks around here.

Here's the tap list at a brewery I went to a couple times in Oakland this week. :)

>143 mahsdad: Completely agree: homeward bound is good :-)
>144 mahsdad: My husband liked to taste different beers, so I know a few names... I recognise Hefeweizen, Dubbel, Pils and Pale Ale.

>136 mahsdad: I loved this audio version too! Spacek kicks butt!

>144 mahsdad: Now, this looks like my kind of place, Jeff. That Solo Dulces sounds great. I think I hit 6 breweries over the weekend. It was heavenly...

>146 msf59: :)

To All, my cousin just reminded me of a corollary to the Pearl Rule. Its the King Rule and it overrides or at least must be taken into account when considering the Pearl Rule.

Any Stephen King book stands a chance of being damn near unreadable for the first 1/3 to half of the book. BUT, if you hang in there, you are assured an amazing kick-ass ride from that point to the end.

Sure there's exceptions to every rule, but that one pretty much works a lot of the time. :)

Happy Foto Friday Folks!

Since the doc said no vigorous exercise for a bit, that means no running, so I went for a walk and that meant time to see a great looking sky and take the time to take a picture of it. Enjoy....



Book Update
Reading - The Maze of Death - PKD. Pretty darn weird, in a good way
Audio - >4 mahsdad: Just Finished. Lafayette in the Somewhat United States - Sarah Vowell. Excellent tale of the American Revolution from the standpoint of Lafayette.
Audio - going to start. Love and First Sight - Josh Sundquist
WAB (walking around book) - Wizard - John Varley

Here's one for for Hop Head friends...

A QUAD IPA that was 14.5% ABV. For something so strong, it was really tasty.

Started reading The Association of Small Bombs by Karan Mahajan

I can't remember where I heard about the book (I didn't tag the source), but it was on my WL, and I saw it on the discount rack at the book store, so I bought it. Its so nice when you get a book that you don't really know what its about or who the author is and it grabs you from word one. The opening paragraph just has some chewy imagery that bodes well for the rest of the book.

The bombing, for which Mr. and Mrs. Khurana were not present, was a flat, percussive event that began under the bonnet of a parked white Maruti 800, though of course that detail about the car, could only be confirmed later. A good bombing begins everywhere at once.
A crowed market also begins everywhere at once, and Lajpat Nagar exemplified this type of tumult. A formless swamp of shacks, it bubbled here and there with faces and rolling cats and sloping beggars. It probably held four seasons at once in its gigantic span, all of them hot. When you got from one end of the market to the other, the wooden carts with their shiny aluminum wheels had so rearranged themselves that the market you were in was technically no longer the market you had entered: A Heisenbergian nightmare of motion and ambiguity. So the truth of the matter is that no one really saw the parked car till it came apart in a dizzying flock of shards.

BTW, the touchstones, aren't working (at least as I'm typing this, they'll probably start working later)

I loved Small Bombs! Hope you do too.

And also, the audio of to kill a mockingbird was terrific!

>147 mahsdad: Funny, I find King, just the reverse. I think most of his books start strong, at least past the halfway point and then things can begin to get bloated. Not always but often enough. I can't think of a King book that I could not get into, in the early going. I will think on it more.

>149 mahsdad: Man, this looks TASTY...and STRONG! Have you had any of their other beers, Jeff? I like their name.

>151 banjo123: Hi Rhonda, so far so good with Small Bombs.

>152 msf59: I guess different strokes with King. I'm kind of in the middle between you and my cousin. But there's no doubt that he builds a tension and interest in story that is hard to resist and usually makes it a late night finish (can't put the damn thing down)

As far as Knee Deep Brewery is concerned, I've had a few of their stuff. My favorite is Simtra, which is a Triple IPA, and I just got another one of theirs called Breaking Bud, which is a play on words with both the Breaking Bad TV show and with Hops that are a close cousin to Marijuana (aka Bud). Haven't had that one yet. :)

Hi Jeff--loving all your photos, as usual. The daisies are really messed up, but very cool! I don't need the King rule, as I pretty much love his books beginning to end. I missed why you are laid up, but I am on the injured reserve list, too. I start PT on Tuesday -- hip issue and no TKD until August. Bummer.

>154 Berly: Hey Kim, thanks for the photo kudos.

Bummer that you're having hip issues. My wife is going thru that now (torn/inflammed/tweaked ligament issues). Very hard place to stretch/exercise/massage. What's TKD?

My issues are purely visual. I had cataract surgery on Monday. Every thing is going well. Didn't know how bad my eyes were until it was fixed.

Finished my WAB. >2 mahsdad: Part 2 of the Gaea Trilogy Wizard by John Varley. #38 for the year.

Happy Foto Friday Folks. Was actually a really busy day work-wise. Which meant long stretches of sitting and staring at the computer screen, but not for any fun reasons. Ah the life of a CPU Jockey.

Today's image is one that I actually took with my "big" camera for a change. Last week we went to the Annenberg Space for Photography, to see an exhibit of works from the Library of Congress. Very Cool. This is one of the buildings outside. Enjoy...



Book Update
Reading - The Association of Small Bombs by Karan Mahajan.
Listening - Yes, Please by Amy Poehler. Read by Amy, plus a bunch of guest stars. Excellent memoir so far, assuming you like Amy Pohler

Finished from last week
Wizard - John Varley
Maze of Death - Philip K. Dick
Lafayette in the Somewhat United States - Sarah Vowell (audio)
Love and First Sight - Josh Sundquist (audio)

Love that photo, Jeff.

Thanks Linda!

I'm WAY behind on book recaps, so its time for the lightning round...

29. Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi : Very different from what I was expecting. A biopunk story set in a post collapse Thailand. Mega biotech companies control the means of food production and thus virtually rule the world. Thailand is trying to protect their natural genetic resources from encroachment. Oh and there is a artificially created girl trying to find her way in world. Very dense, very interesting. 8/10

31. Coraline by Neil Gaiman. Little girl not quite satisfied with her life and her parents, finds her way to the "Other World" and her "Other Mother" and "Other Father". Things aren't always so green on the other side. Gaiman started writing it in 1987 for his daughter Holly. Got sidetracked and started again in 1992 and finished it for his other daughter Maddy. 9/10

32. The Things We Don't Do by Andres Neuman : A large collection (in quantity) of short stories (34), some very short, from an Argentinian author that I wasn't familar with. Very powerful and entertaining prose. 8/10

From "A Mother Ago" - a story about a son (I assume) living thru the last time of his elderly dying mother. "The proximity of death squeezes us in such a way that they might be capable of losing our convictions, of letting them ooze out like a liquid. Is that necessarily a weakness? Perhaps it is a final strength: to arrive somewhere we never expected to arrive. Death multiplies our attention."

From "After Elena" - a story about a man to seeks to find and forgive all his enemies after the death of his beloved Elena. "Lastly, I confess that, despite everything, I still desired Nora (one of his enemies). I desired her with a kind of carnal resentment. Her behaviour outraged me and her presence excited me. There are some people who possess the virtue of making us more luminous, like Elena. And others like Nora, who have the unsettling ability to remind us of how dark we are. In a sense, that is a virtue."

33. Death by Black Hole by Neil deGrasse Tyson - a fablous collection of NdT's writings. I listened to this on audio and was barely hanging on but was continually entertained and enlightened. Only downside, it wasn't read by the author himself. 8/10

35. The End of the World Running Club by Adrian J. Walker. A good but perhaps sterotypical dystopian novel where after a series of cosmic calamities, a man is separated from his family and has to literally run (500+ miles) to catch the boat that will take him to freedom and his family. A good read, definitely a library borrow, maybe a purchase on sale. 7/10

"Clear your mind and things start working out for you," he said. "You can't run five hundred miles just by clearing your mind," I spat. Harvey shrugged. "You can't do it without it either."

Lightning Round - part 2

36. Lafayette in the Somewhat United States by Sarah Vowell. I wish all history textbooks were written by Sarah. This one is ostensibly about the American Revolution from the view point of Lafayette, the young French aristocrat, who defied his family to seek out fame and adventure in the new world. I listened to this on audio and while Sarah read the text, there was a great cast who spoke the thoughts and musings of the founding Fathers; Nick Offerman as Washington (perfect), John Slattery as Lafayette, John Hodgeman as John Adams and Bobby Cannavale as Benjamin Franklin. Recommend! 9/10

What the French took from the Americans was their theory of revolution, not government. Their cutting, not their sewing.

Jacob Ritter was so appalled by the day's patriotic gore that he had an epiphany... It says something about the ugliness of Sept 11, 1777 that this boy woke up a Lutheran and went to bed a Quaker.

37. A Maze of Death by Philip K. Dick. 14 people are sent to a far off colony world on one-way rockets. None of them seem to have anything in common. The communication systems fail, just as their are learning the purpose of the colony. One by one, they begin to mysteriously kill themselves or are killed. It is a very weird story and one right in PKD's wheelhouse. The ending took a couple left, right and U-turns to ultimately land in a place that I could never have expected.

38. Love and First Sight by Josh Sundquist - The debut novel by this motivational speaking and youtube celebrity. Its a YA story of a 16 yr boy, blind at birth, and his first year in a new school. During the year he finds friends, a first love and an opportunity to see for the very first time. Sundquist does a very good job (IMO) of describing how a person who has never seen and who's vision centers of his brain were never used, handles seeing for the first time. As with any good YA/Rom-com story there are plenty of emotional ups and downs and misunderstandings and reconciliations. Pretty good first outing. 8/10

39. Wizard by John Varley. Second book in the Gaea trilogy. Its the hero's journey around the rim of Gaea. Cirocco (the Wizard) and her right-hand Gaby (surviors of the ship that was captured by Gaea in the last book), take a couple newcomers from Earth on a trip around to visit the some of the 12 "demi-gods" that run the world. Very trippy, one of my favorite Sci-Fi series. 10/10

LA Times Arts & Books section was pretty good today (Sunday). Got two BB's out of it.

Any Man by Amber Tamblyn. The story of a female serial rapist. Structurally, it sounds interesting, part novel, part poetry, part twitter stream. Content-wise, sound very creepy.

From the article : ...Like a short one (chapter) written as a transcript of a cable news provocateur show, modeled on "Nancy Grace" where the four commentators callously discuss the rape case of the first victim, named Donald Ellis. I (Tamblyn) gave it to a friend, and one of the things he said was. "This seems a little over the top. I just don't feel this is what somebody would actually say." She bit her tongue, what she didn't tell him was that she had watched over and over an actual "Nancy Grace" segment discussing Jane Doe of the Stanford rape trial, transcribed the episode and flipped the genders. Its the literal verbatim experience, with the gender pronouns reversed.

Blown by Mark Haskell Smith. A disaffected Wall Street trader decides to see a bunch of money and hide it in the Caymans. Think Elmore Leonard meets Carl Hiaasen, with an undercurrent of greed and consequences.

On the list they both go...

Happy Sunday, Jeff. Hooray for the lighting round of reviews! I may need to do the same thing, although I am only 2 or 3 behind. So glad you enjoyed The Windup Girl & Coraline. I am fans of both too. I also want to get to Vowell's latest. I have it on audio and that is the perfect format for her. IMHO.

Ooh, Breaking Bud. I like the sound of that one. I tried a winner yesterday at the beer fest, a New England IPA, called Melon Squeezer. With a name like that, it has to be good, right?

Breaking Bud was pretty good. Actually kinda mellow hoppy-wise. Not nearly as strong as the Quad I had last week. I'm glad you found a good one, but as far as fruity beers, I'm usually cautious. I like any kind of citrus (especially grapefruit), but I'm not sure about melon. I'll look for it though. I'll try anything at least once. :)