justchris: "I'm not dead yet!"

2018 was not very successful for me, in terms of reading and LT participation. I didn't even hit the halfway mark for 75 books, which is about the worst I've ever done, and I barely engaged with people on LT. Once again, I had firm intentions to take part in group reads, and once again bombed out in every instance. Sigh. And this is such a great group of people. OTOH, I finally cleared out the borrowed books. And have made some progress on new books sitting on my shelves.

I certainly hope to do better in 2019. But it is a year of major transitions, so who knows how it will go.

Books read in 2019:

January

1. Dragon Blood by Patricia Briggs*
2. Dragon Bones by Patricia Briggs*
3. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle(*)
4. A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L'Engle
5. A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L'Engle
6. Many Waters by Madeleine L'Engle
7. An Acceptable Time by Madeleine L'Engle
8. Chanur's Legacy by C. J. Cherryh*

February

9. The Thread That Binds the Bones by Nina Kiriki Hoffman*
10. A Fistful of Sky by Nina Kiriki Hoffman*

March

11. Emergence by C. J. Cherryh
12. A Dying Light in Corduba by Lindsey Davis*
13. Three Hands in the Fountain by Lindsey Davis
14. Two for the Lions by Lindsey Davis

April

15. Quentins by Maeve Binchy
16. Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer NF
17. White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo NF

May

18. Tremontaine by Ellen Kushner et al
19. A People's Future of the United States edited by Victor LaValle and John Joseph Adams
20. Amagansett by Mark Mills
21. Once Upon a Curse
22. Robert B. Parker's Ironhorse by Robert Knott

June

23. Night Broken by Patricia Briggs*
24. Trials by Whiteness edited by Jaymee Goh NF (~P)
25. The Demon Breed by James H. Schmitz*
26. The Word for World Is Forest by Ursula LeGuin
27. The Moonbane Mage by Laurie J. Marks*

July

28. The Wicked + the Divine: The Faust Act by Kieron Gillen et al
29. Ara's Field by Laurie J. Marks*
30. The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner
31. The Moon of Gomrath by Alan Garner
32. Firestorm by Rachel Caine
33. The Owl Service by Alan Garner
34. Elidor by Alan Garner
35. Air Logic by Laurie J. Marks

August

36. Sandman, volume 10: The Wake
37. Delan the Mislaid by Laurie J. Marks*
38. What Maisie Knew by Henry James
39. Making Spaces Safer by Shawna Potter NF
40. The Masqueraders by Georgette Heyer*
41. The Watcher's Mask by Laurie J. Marks*

September

42. Venetia by Georgette Heyer*
43. Hwarhath Stories: Transgressive Tales by Aliens by Eleanor Arnason
44. Rocannon's World by Ursula LeGuin
45. The Arabian Stories translated by Husain Haddawy
46. The Two of Them by Joanna Russ
47. The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer*
48. Not-So Stories edited by David Thomas Moore
49. The Awakening by Kate Chopin
50. The Crystal Ship edited by Robert Silverberg

October-November

51. Black Sheep by Georgette Heyer*
52. Global Dystopias edited by Junot Diaz
53. Inner Work in the Wounded and Creative by David Roomy NF
54. Walking the Clouds: An Anthology of Indigenous Science Fiction edited by Grace L. Dillon
55. To Be a Slave by Julius Lester
56. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
57. Love: A Discovery in Comics by Margeet de Heer
58. Turn the World Inside Out: The Emergence of Nurturance Culture by Nora Samaran NF
59. Meridian by Alice Walker

December

60. Miles in Love by Lois McMaster Bujold*
61. Thrones, Dominations by Doroth Sayers and Jill Paton Walsh

* reread
(*) I know it's a reread, but I don't really remember it
G graphic novel
NF nonfiction
P poetry
~P text contains significant chunks of poetry

Started in 2019
Whispers from the Cotton Tree Root
Chi and Creativity
the body is not an apology
me and white supremacy
do less
The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty
Rebuilding: When Your Relationship Ends
The Future Is Female
Young Miles
Earth at Risk

Started in 2018 but didn't get very far
Art of War
The Art of Plant-Based Cheesemaking
Decolonize Your Diet
The Hero with a Thousand Faces (currently misplaced, or loaned out?)
Modern Tea

Started in 2017 and set awhile (but still possible!)
Strange Matings
the life-changing magic of tidying up
Africa SF

Started before 2017 and set down indefinitely (not hopeless yet!)
The Dead Mountaineer's Inn (another misplaced or loaned out)
The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Writings

The order of finished books may be approximate because I often do not update my records in a timely fashion.

My previous 75 Book Challenge threads:

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

Welcome back! I hope 2019 turns out to be a good year for you!

Stopped by and starred your thread!

>2 drneutron: As always, thank you for the welcome and the good wishes. I expect 2019 to be a very good year.

>3 fuzzi: Thanks!

Happy new thread, and good luck with your reading goals this year!

Happy New Year!

Happy reading in 2019!

Dropping off my star, Chris!

Lovely to have you with us again for 2019! I have Fire Logic on my kindle so will be interested in your thoughts on that series.

Happy New Year, Chris! Here's to a better 2019!

As per usual, my follow up isn't particularly timely. But.

Thank you for the welcome and good wishes, Jennifer, Rachel, Anita, Heather, and Stasia! It's so nice to receive a kind word from so many fabulous people.

>9 souloftherose: Heather, I love, love, love the Elemental Logic books. Right now they're at my bedside as my favorite comfort read to help me fall asleep.

>10 alcottacre: Stasia, I am sure that 2019 will be fabulous. Tremendous changes and transitions for me this year!

>11 justchris: agree on comfort reads "by the bed". I'm rereading Finity's End by CJ Cherryh right now. Someone here on LT described one of her books as a "dense" read, and I agree, in a good way. I'm back in her Alliance universe, immersed with the characters and situations that she describes so well.

CYA!

Happy 2019
A year full of books
A year full of friends
A year full of all your wishes realised

I look forward to keeping up with you, Chris, this year.

>12 fuzzi: That's a Cherryh story I haven't read. I never really got into the Alliance books so much, but lots of her other works. I have the Cyteen omnibus on my TBR pile. And yes, so many of her stories are dense reads. I think Serpent's Reach might be my favorite of all her books.

>13 PaulCranswick: Hi, Paul! So lovely to see you!

Ahem!!! I was here too, Chris (>8 ronincats:)

Better late than never....happy new thread and best wishes for...

>15 ronincats: Hee! Sorry! Can't believe I missed you because I always look for you first, Roni! Thanks for being the most reliable of friends when I am most unreliable.

>16 Berly: Kim, thank you for stopping by and for the good wishes.

>14 justchris: my favorite Cherryh is probably the Chanur series, followed by the Morgaine and the Faded Sun series.

The Rider at the Gate is neglected, shamefully. There's only two books, but I love them both.

I finally read Cyteen, why did I wait?

>18 fuzzi: The Chanur series is definitely my favorite of her series. I enjoyed the Morgaine books, rarely tempted to reread them but liked them enough to keep them. I kinda vaguely remember the Faded Sun series, though I can't even remember if I own them. Never read Rider at the Gate. Will have to look that up. I am keeping up with the Foreigner series and enjoying it. I lost her collection of short stories to water damage before I finished reading it. I had mixed feelings about Cuckoo's Egg when I first read it. It's not a story to warm the cockles of the heart, but I really liked the description of Thorn being tested as a Hatani. I also really like Wave Without a Shore.

I read the first Cyteen book. Didn't immediately realize that it was a larger story. I can't remember now what happened to my copy. Took me awhile to find a complete version. The story was disturbing but interesting enough for me to want to read the whole thing.

I've never read anything by C. J. Cherryh, but I think I used to have a bunch of books on her shelf that I inherited from my grandpa when he passed. They've probably moved on to Half-Price books during a purge now, though. I take it they're worth reading?

>19 justchris: definitely look up Rider at the Gate, and its sequel Cloud's Rider. It's scifi with some scary elements.

I read Cuckoo's Egg years ago, or so I thought, I had a "meh" impression. When I "reread" it a couple years ago I was really impressed, held me to the end.

I fell way behind on the Foreigner series, only read the first three...

Woah, I've never read Wave Without a Shore, guess I need to find a copy!

Addendum: I DO have a copy of WWaS, but it's in an omnibus I'd not finished.

>20 The_Hibernator: I guess it depends on what you like. I think what I like most about the Cherryh books is that she does a great job exploring alien psychology and biology and challenging our too human assumptions about how life works. Plus, she's really heavy into political dramas driven by socioeconomics.

The Chanur series flips the first-contact trope on its head--it's told from the perspective of the hani, a felinoid species modeled on lions--matriarchal clans run by closely related women who go out into space as traders on their clan spaceships, with a single (breeding) male head of clan back on the home planet who is cared for by all the stay-at-home women. The other men are cast out of the clan estate on hitting puberty to live in the outback as best they can for the rest of their lives, unless they manage to depose a male leader of some other clan in a challenge. Men are considered too emotionally unstable to go out into space, or have jobs, or do much of anything beyond perpetuate the species. The series starts with a lone human escaping captivity by the kif (modeled on rats) in a spaceport and seeking refuge in a hani ship in The Pride of Chanur. Event unfold from there over the course of 4 books (trilogy and spin-off)

The Morgaine saga is quasifantasy with a science fiction basis. Morgaine is on a mission to close all of the portals that were built by the qual and allowed them to traverse the entire space/time continuum among their worlds. But this technology caused the downfall of qual civilization, and only by shutting all of them down permanently can the fabric of reality be preserved. The stories are told from the perspective of Vanye, a swordsman who is outlawed and fleeing his enemies when he accidentally activates one of the Gates of Ivrel, releasing Morgaine and becoming her henchman as they travel from world to world using her "sword" Changeling to activate and power down the portals and usually to defeat the local powers-that-be that rely on the power of the portals to maintain their hegemony. Trilogy of fairly small novels and much larger, later follow-up.

The Ealdwood saga features Arafel, the last of the elves who could not bear to leave her home in the mortal world with the others and remains alone in Ealdwood, getting involved on occasion in the affairs of men. It's very much a sweet little Celt-infused fantasy duology (The Dreamstone, TheTree of Swords and Jewels).

And her current tremendously huge series, starting with Foreigner, features Bren Cameron, the paidhi of the atevi court. The first book opens with a human colony ship going terribly off-course and seeking any sort of habitable world in desperation. They find the world of the atevi, a humanoid species at about steam locomotive level of technology. First contact goes well, and the human settle and start working with the atevi. They seem to have so much in common and achieve mutual understanding, but it turns out there are profound biologically determined differences that result in the War of the Landing 200 years before Bren Cameron is born.

The humans lose and are required to turn over all of their technology and scientific knowledge at a controlled pace that doesn't disrupt the atevi economy or destabilize their society. In exchange, the humans are ceded a large island for their colony (maybe the size of Iceland? Australia? I don't know. Large enough to sustain some millions of humans and have ski slopes). And never shall the two groups of people ever interact directly again, except for the person of the paidhi, the appointed intermediary whose job is to act as intermediary, interpreter, arbiter of the pace of technological release. Bren is the only human who is legally permitted to live on the mainland, among the atevi.

This culture is loosely modeled on medieval Chinese or maybe Japanese imperial court. All life forms on the planet are biologically driven to form associations and feel group identity and motivations, no such thing as rugged individualism. The atevi feel the drive to form associations but do not form individual, independent relationships outside or in opposition to that larger group identity. No word for love but instead man'chi. No Romeo and Juliet but more Hamlet, or maybe King Lear. The ruler of the atevi Western Association is the aiji Tabini.

The series is arranged loosely in trilogies that form story arcs, with overlaps that connect each set as the series progresses from Bren being a minor court functionary living in the apartment of appropriate for someone not so high in the bureaucracy to becoming the Lord of the Heavens, endowed with his own coastal estate, and an apartment adjacent to the aiji's on the most exclusive and secure floor of the capitol building.

I like the suspense and the drama and the ongoing action and the interesting ideas and especially the worldbuilding in Cherryh's books. I don't like the sometimes endless exposition and the pages and pages of the viewpoint character maundering on with their angsty internal monologue and self-doubts or whatever. That habit has gotten worse over time, and you can see it by the size of the novels over time. It's like some sort of prose inflation.

>21 fuzzi: I will add those 2 books to my search list and keep my eyes open.

Wave Without a Shore explores first contact, philosophy carried to a ridiculous extreme, and artistic vision. It feels much more like a thought experiment about who defines reality carried to its logical conclusion by extrapolating to its further point of realization. I used to have it in novel form, but I gifted it to a professor in graduate school. I now have it as part of the omnibus Alternate Realities. I haven't yet read the omnibus--I am unfamiliar with the other 2 stories included in it. So I was happy to replace the novel with this.

I'm a big Cherryh fan, been reading her since the mid-70s when she was first published. Read the Morgaine series, the Faded Sun series (but have discarded both of those series since), her stand-alones, and then her Union/Alliance books. Her Chanur books are also my favorites and I reread them regularly. I have not read her consistently since the mid-80s. I've kept up with the Union/Alliance books. I have a number of the Fortress books and of her widely popular Foreigner series but have not started either of them. I will one of these days. The sheer number and size are somewhat daunting.

>22 justchris: nice descriptions, thank you. I love her characters, and their development, and the political machinations within each book. Whew.

>23 ronincats: I read the Fortress books last year...and as all Cherryh's, once you first get past the slow start, you find yourself on a roller coaster ride. Loved, loved, LOVED the Fortress books, though I usually prefer Cherryh's scifi over her fantasy.

I think I've reread most of her works, as very few of them don't appeal to me. Hestia was just okay.

Here's a list of my reviews of her books:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?author=cherryhcj

>23 ronincats: I never got around to the Fortress books. Yeah, the Foreigner series is pretty daunting to dive into at this point. I was fortunate that I happened upon it soon after it started and have managed to keep up with it, so it's easy to keep going. And I definitely reread them, or at least my favorites among them. I used to reread the Chanur books a lot, but it's been awhile.

>24 fuzzi: Never even heard of Hestia!

In the past, I've gone through completist phases and picked up all the Cherryh series that I had read up to that point, which is why I have things like the Faded Sun trilogy. But I guess I wasn't really completist, because I didn't also pick up the books I had never read too. Or maybe the phase was too short-lived. Either way, still plenty of her back catalog that I've never gotten around to. And there are so many exciting new authors and subgenres out there, so I probably never will.

My reading has been rather limited for several years now. First, I had so many books on my shelves that I hadn't gotten around to reading. I made a pledge to myself to stop getting books from the library until I made a dent in my own TBR collections. I wouldn't say that was particularly successful because mostly my reading overall just declined. But then work became pretty overwhelming. I was working most weekends and gradually falling further behind.

The thing is, I am a bit addicted to reading. I have a tendency to start a new book, get engrossed, and stay up all night until I finish it. Somehow I don't function very well without sleep. It's less of a problem when I reread a book that I already know and especially a problem with a new novel. So I stopped reading new stories and got trapped in reruns, which was fine for awhile but really got old. So then I stocked up on short story anthologies, figuring it would be easier to stop between stories. Sometimes that worked; sometimes it didn't. But at least I was introduced to lots of authors that are new to me. I still got lots of anthologies stacked up to read. I've kinda stalled out on Whispers from the Cotton Tree Root, but I sped through Hidden Youth. So I can never tell how a particular anthology is going to go for me.

At the end of last year, I finally started dabbling (or do I mean dallying?) with new novels. And it went okay. I was able to delay my gratification over a few days instead of 24 hours or less. And I mostly was going to sleep within my usual parameters with an occasional disappointing exception. Thus I have continued on into this year.

So last year A Wrinkle in Time came out in the cinemas. There was a lot of buzz about it. Looked like an interesting movie. I never got around to watching it. But I did attend Wiscon for the first time. And one of the vendors had the boxed set of The Time Quintet by Madeline L'Engle, so I bought it. And there it sat on my shelf for the last 8 months. Well, I read the whole series over the course of the last few weeks. And again it went pretty well. Of course, it helped that I have more available time. Changes at work mean my workload is now manageable, and thus I largely have my weekends back. Plus, various holidays and a sick day. Lots of opportunity to rest.

I know I read A Wrinkle in Time when I was a kid. I distinctly remember doing so. I don't know that I read any of the other books. Yet I didn't remember a single thing about the books. I didn't remember the characters, or the plot, or what the wrinkle or tessering was, none of it. I would have thought this was one that would have really resonated with me. I should have been able to identify strongly with Meg. I too wore thick glasses, was smart, good at math, had hair that didn't cooperate, and sometimes had social difficulties at school. Plus, I was a bit of a science nerd, so I should have remembered the researcher parents and the veneer of science-speak in the story. I certainly enjoyed or at least remembered plenty of other YA SF/fantasy stories (Star Ka'at, anyone?).

I don't understand why I just didn't connect with this one. Maybe because our protagonist Meg was part of a loving family with married parents, even if the main plot driver is that her father has been missing for the last year and presumed to have abandoned his family for some mistress somewhere, while my parents divorced when I was young. Maybe because Meg and her brothers got along well, and she was especially close to the youngest, Charles Wallace, whereas my brother and I started fighting post-divorce and grew increasingly apart. Maybe because the lived in an idyllic country house, and I so did not but wanted to. Maybe because Meg was angry at the gossip about her family and defiant toward authority figures as a result, such as the principal, whereas I don't think I was ever sent to the principal's office for discipline and tended to lie low at conflict rather than become belligerent. Maybe because she didn't hesitate to get into fights with other kids, whereas I shrank from physical violence. Maybe because Meg and Calvin found each other through divine intervention, and I never felt like I achieved that connection of "finally, I am not alone anymore, someone I can talk to!" Or maybe because most of the characters are self-aware enough to understand their context and how it shapes them and others' perceptions of them, and I just never had that kind of insight, much less the language to articulate it. So maybe I just couldn't connect to her personality and her circumstances? Or maybe because the scientific premises were just a little too far beyond me at the age I first read it. Dunno.

But as an adult, I did enjoy the book: the characters, the plot, the message, the concept of tessering, phrases like "sit around frivoling," all of it. Starting the whole thing off with "It was a dark and stormy night" is very tongue-in-cheek and hilarious. The family pet is a nod to Shakespeare. Charles Wallace is an extraordinary child prodigy that the rest of the family takes in stride. The parents give their children space to grow into who they are, not who others expect them to be--what a fantastic thing to model for young readers! Mrs Whatsit, Mrs Who and Mrs Which are a hoot, and far more interesting and fun and active as messengers than the ghosts in A Christmas Carol. The dialogue among all of the characters is great, including Mrs Who's ongoing literary quotations. I especially appreciate that the quotes are multilingual, rather than being strictly from English authors--thus modeling the inherent value of multiple languages and cultures. The Happy Medium must be one of the worst puns ever, and brilliant for this story. The image of Mrs Wallace cooking dinner over a Bunsen burner is amusing. And the description of her science experiment involving mysterious blue liquid moving through chemistry glassware is the stage prop of every mad scientist bad movie everywhere, again entertaining. So mother is apparently some sort of chemist? And missing father is a physicist who has worked in New Mexico (Los Alamos??), Cape Canaveral, and is involved in top-secret research. Could it involve an unusal form of space travel, the alert reader wonders, after seeing these hints. Plus, as a now somewhat dated story, I was charmed by some of the contemporary touches that no longer ring true, such as the parents writing letters to each other every day until the letters from father stopped coming.

A Wrinkle in Time is basically a fantasy story in a science fiction sort of setting. And like all classic fantasy stories, it involves a quest. Meg, Charles Wallace and their newly met friend Calvin must rescue the missing Dr Murray from wherever he has gone. Mrs Whatsit, Mrs Who and Mrs Which (yet another pun, perhaps) are their guides and even cross over into fairy godmother territory with gifts and warnings to help them on their journey. It's also something of a coming-of-age story, or at least a growing up some more story as Meg realizes that her parents can't make everything better, that finding her father doesn't suddenly fix everything, that the 2 most important adults in her life don't know everything and have their own limitations. This story is also very much a Christian allegory, though not overbearingly so. One brief passage directly tells us the religious context by sharing a hymn in praise of God being sung by celestial beings on another world that they pass through on their way to the rescue, and later on Aunt Beast references His work. It's all actually kinda medieval, with the music of the spheres, divine order, and all that. But mostly conveyed through subtext and messaging. Mind you, I agree with the messaging about the importance of being your authentic self, that conformity and authoritarianism are dangerous and soul-destroying, that the surface of things often tell us very little about their essence, and that ultimately love is a powerful force that can heal and keeps us interconnected.

I very much enjoyed A Wrinkle in Time, and I enjoyed the later books, but not quite so much. The religion became much more overt and therefore tiresome to me. And the messages also became much less subtle. I didn't quite get a headache being banged on the head with the moral of each story, but still. The later books didn't hold the same charm for me.

It's getting late, so I'll have to review the other books another day.

>26 justchris: I loved A Wrinkle in Time as a child and still do as an adult. I just re-read it a couple of weeks ago. Lik you, I enjoyed the later books but not nearly as much as the initial book.

Great deal for CJ Cherryh's Downbelow Station:

https://www.amazon.com/Downbelow-Station-Company-Wars-Book-ebook/dp/B00HFXK6KE?_...

>28 fuzzi: Thanks for the heads up, fuzzi. I have not quite graduated to e-books. I've borrowed other people's Kindles for brief periods for the sake of expedience. I do hope to set up my tablet for e-reading this year, but first I need to get the new OS installed. Been unsuccessful so far.

However, all this talk of Chanur made me a little bit homesick, so I reread Chanur's Legacy. Still enjoy it.

>29 justchris: I have an UNREAD Cherryh in my TBR stack for this week, Wave Without a Shore.

>30 fuzzi: Yay! Let me know what you think of it when you're done.

>31 justchris: I liked it...a bit...

Wave Without a Shore by CJ Cherryh

Wow. Just wow. In this short novel Cherryh does what she usually does in her stories, creates a world, and culture, both alien and familiar...but this time it's on a scale that even she rarely attains. With virtually no fighting or other actions so common in SciFi, she hurls the reader along in this story of an artist who went too far and threatened a society conditioned to be blind to reality. Superb.

>32 fuzzi: Glad you liked it. It's quite the thought experiment of existentialist philosophical principles about the nature of reality (and art) carried to ridiculous logical extremes. The premise of the story is explicit in the planet name Freedom and capitol city Kierkegaard. Frankly, this story is the closest I ever got to a philosophy class. Plus, another great story of first contact. What's not to love?

Heh. I just checked to see if you had uploaded your succinct review to the book page and discovered my own forgotten review from 2010.

>34 justchris: ha! Most of my reviews are succinct. I once had an Early Reviewer review that wouldn't register as a review since it was less than 30 words.

I find Cherryh's drifts into philosophy interesting and challenging as I've not had much exposure to it. I've read some Francis Schaeffer which I understood, and some which I struggled with, mainly because I didn't have previous exposure to the basic philosophy ideas.

Have you read The Faded Sun triology? Parts of Wave Without a Shore reminded me of the Mri.

>35 fuzzi: I admire succinct, especially since I tend toward verbose. Have you ever tried writing microstories?

Sounds like you've got more background in philosophy than me. But I liked how she chose to explore it in Wave Without a Shore. Plus, the title just tickles me because it's just so evocative, much like the koan about a tree falling in the forest.

I read The Faded Sun trilogy years ago but don't remember it well. I did pick up the omnibus version after the fact but haven't gotten around to rereading it. I do like the way Cherryh really develops alien psychology and explores concepts of personhood as distinct from humanity--there's not just one way to be a person/sentient species, and they're not just faux humans. I really like the way Eleanor Arnason explores such themes too.

Tomorrow I start a four-week intro to storytelling class. I'm pretty excited. We'll see how it goes.

>37 justchris: Sounds fun! I hope you enjoy it.

Happy Wednesday, Chris!

>38 alcottacre: Thanks! And Happy Wednesday to you too.

>36 justchris: nope. I wrote stories as a child, not done any in a long time.

I have virtually no background in philosophy. A friend recommended Schaeffer because he does such a fantastic job of interweaving philosophy and Christian doctrines. His book A Christian Manifesto is incredible, predicting what this world would be like back from the early 1980s. I was blown away with it...and you do NOT have to be religious or a Christian to read it!

One of the things I loved about Wave Without a Shore is how all the usual "SciFi" elements were not present, only a brief passing mention of space travel, no fantastic technology. The aliens are all but invisible to the human population, who will NOT accept the presence of another humanoid race on the planet.

>37 justchris: have fun!

>38 alcottacre: and >40 fuzzi: Home after the first night of intro to storytelling. Arrgh. It was simultaneously fun, or at least interesting, and very hard for me. The teacher had us go round with personal introductions providing a little background. And of the 10 of us, most indicated a family history of storytelling, experience participating in story slams or something similar, already a writer, attended various workshops, etc.

Then there's me. Family history of trauma and silences. Didn't grow up with stories. Want to be a writer but not actually writing. Tried storytelling in forensics in high school and turns out I couldn't bootstrap myself into becoming a storyteller all by myself. Thirty years later and here I am finally trying again. Hoping just to find a way to start with nothing and come up with something. And that's definitely what I demonstrated tonight. She had various prompts that we were to use to lead us to personal anecdotes, which we could then start to turn into stories next week and beyond. And I just blanked out at every single prompt and struggled really hard to come up with something, anything. I was on the verge of tears more than once. I'm sure all this means it'll be good for me.

Well, I had already asked a friend of mine who is an excellent storyteller if she would teach me. So I called her up as soon as I got home. And she talked me through my moment of crisis. She's done that before. Plus, I'll get to see her this weekend. So I got a few days to think about the prompts we were sent home with, and figuring out if I can find my own path forward rather than continually tripping trying to follow other people's paths.

Neal Gaiman has been touting his online storytelling class on Facebook recently, Chris. Maybe another resource?

Decided to drop in. Best of wishes on trying out storytelling. It sounds challenging. Stick with it. I’m too shy to ever try to do storytelling in front of a group. I’ll just stick to story-reading. :)

I loved A Wrinkle in Time, all three times I have read it. The rest of the series? Not so much and for the same reasons you listed.

I am glad your work has changed again, allowing you back your weekends and holidays. More time for reading is definitely good. Have fun with the storytelling class!

>42 ronincats: Thanks for the suggestion, Roni. I'll look into it. But I'm not on FB so hopefully his storytelling class is through another platform.

>43 SqueakyChu: I hear you on the shyness. I had lots of practice to get over my fear of being "on stage" after years as a TA, presenting my research, facilitating an antiracism workshop semiannually, and other public speaking experiences to the point that I feel pretty comfortable in front of an audience. But sharing personal stories? Revealing myself? Trying to find something I want to say using my experiences as the medium? So many blocks. It's so hard. Thanks for stopping by!

>44 Berly: Yeah, I think A Wrinkle in Time is a keeper for me, but not the rest. I think I'll probably get rid of the boxed set and find a stand-alone edition of the first story. More time for reading has been so nice. I feel in some ways like I am rediscovering myself after too many years away.

How exciting about the storytelling! That is something I've thought about doing, mainly because I love to share stories and anecdotes with people.

I hope you do well and enjoy it.

Good luck with the storytelling, Chris. It sounds like the first class was a challenge for you, so things can only get better from there, right?

>46 fuzzi: and >47 alcottacre: Thanks for the good wishes. It's definitely moving outside my comfort zone but something I've wanted to do for a long time. That is definitely a good way to look at it, Stasia.

>45 justchris: Well, here's the link, but it costs!
https://www.masterclass.com/classes/neil-gaiman-teaches-the-art-of-storytelling?...

>49 ronincats: Thanks for the link. Actually, it seems kinda reasonable considering the pricing schemes for writing workshops of various sorts.

I am actually more ambivalent about the Neil Gaiman part. He's really not all that, despite my many friends who are enthusiastic friends (including my ex) and having his blurb talk about creating memorable characters, etc. I enjoyed his stories that I have read, but I also find most of the characters pretty meh and a lot of it pretty standard tropes. But OTOH the thought of having access to recordings of Margaret Atwood talking about writing...

Or maybe I should get off my ass and read the many books on writing that I've accumulated, sitting on my shelves:
Writing Down the Bones
Unless It Moves the Human Heart
Take Off Your Pants
Writing the Other
On Writing Well
Writers on Writing
The Writing Life
The Compact Reader

Any new reads?

>51 fuzzi: thanks for checking in, fuzzi! I just reread a couple of Nina Kiriki Hoffman's books that I really enjoy: The Thread That Binds the Bones and Fistful of Sky.

I went to South Dakota after an extremely hectic week. Then got sick. Now another hectic week. And of course, every time I travel, I fall behind on LT.

Oooh, as you well know, I love Hoffman's books and those are my two favorites!! Hope you are feeling better now, Chris.

>53 ronincats: Thanks for stopping by too, Roni. Yep, the worst of my cold is over. I've traveled out of town 3 times this winter and gotten sick each time afterward.

I like every one of the Hoffman books I've read. It's hard to pick a favorite. The Silent Strength of Stones was the first one I read, and I was blown away within just a few pages. I gave away my copy of Fall of Light and haven't managed to replace it yet. I also like Stir of Bones. I got a copy of A Red Heart of Memories but haven't read it yet.

edited to fix touchstone

That's a good one too.

>54 justchris: FYI: the touchstone for Fall of Light doesn't go to a Hoffman book.

If you want to order online, there are plenty of copies of that book available through bookfinder.com, starting about $4.00 USD.

>56 fuzzi: thanks for the heads up, fuzzi. Fixed! And thanks for pointing me to bookfinder.

>57 justchris: you might not thank me for my recommendation once your credit card gets maxed... ;)

>58 fuzzi: Well, that's why I tend to take the slow route of regular visits to thrift stores and used bookstores. It may take longer (a lot longer!) but I encounter much less temptation. The persistence does often pay off eventually.

>22 justchris: I think what I like most about the Cherryh books is that she does a great job exploring alien psychology and biology and challenging our too human assumptions about how life works. Plus, she's really heavy into political dramas driven by socioeconomics.

That actually sounds very interesting. Just the kind of thing I am interested in.

>60 The_Hibernator: And not the kind of thing that I am interested in. I read Downbelow Station last week and really have no intention of continuing with the series because of the political, socioeconomic nature of the book. On the other hand, I do want to try her Chanur books.

I hope you are feeling better, Chris!

>60 The_Hibernator: Happy to hear from a kindred spirit.

>61 alcottacre: And yet, I totally hear you on Downbelow Station, Stasia. I think that's the one Cherryh novel I could not finish. I don't remember if I ever went back and tried again. I really vastly prefer her books that are chock full of aliens. It compensates for the endless pages of angst and exposition.

I did read Downbelow Station and it nearly killed me!! So many POVs and such a downer as everything falls apart. I didn't see how she could ever put it back together...but she is the Master!

>63 ronincats: I am glad you found it rewarding in the end. Sometimes I am able to slog through and then get hooked. That's what happened with Jonathon Strange & Mr Norrell.

I slogged through that latter book and never did really get hooked, I fear.

>65 ronincats: It was the footnotes that got me in the end. I am also a big fan of epistolary novels.

>61 alcottacre: the Chanur books are my favorites.

My storytelling class is going well. Next week is the final day when we each get up and tell our stories. I need to put some work into it to figure out exactly which points to focus on and practice getting it down to 5 minutes. I hope to record my performance in class. We'll see how it goes.

Heh. I met with the designer today as I am trying to finalize choices for floors, counters, etc for the new condo. She was very dismayed about the number of books in my apartment and wanted to know how much I am planning on taking with me when I move. Have I thought about relying on the library and keeping only 10 novels at a time in the house? She went into a whole long spiel about decluttering before I cut her off. And revisited it at least once while we were discussing flooring materials.

So I went to a bookstore after another visit to check out the appliance floor models and got myself another novel.

Buying another book... that’ll teach her! 😀

>69 justchris: Good for you, Chris! I'm not sure this designer is muy simpatico con tio.

>69 justchris: Clearly the woman has no clue how important books are! 10. Ha! I laugh in her general direction.

>70 drneutron: Yep. It sure will. It certainly made me feel better.

>71 ronincats: Well, it is certainly an interesting experience. We'll see how it goes with the follow up tomorrow, assuming I can get my hands on the laminate samples for the kitchen. She frowned on my cork floor suggestion in the bedroom but agreed with my choice for the main room and didn't try to argue me out of the tile for the bathroom. But she's not wrong that I probably shouldn't go for an excess of bold patterns and colors if I want my home to be a contemplative refuge.

>72 Berly: Right? She started talking about 10 books, and then when I was done with them I could sell them and get 10 more. Ha ha ha! I don't think she understands how books work. They're friends, not acquaintances in passing.

>69 justchris: get another designer...

>69 justchris: Obviously she's not a reader. That's quite rude of her really, she's supposed to be helping you with colour and material choices not lifestyle choices.

>74 fuzzi: Well, probably not. I'll see how the follow-up goes today. And if it doesn't work, then I'll just have to wing it on my own. Each time I've consulted a professional stylist or whatever, it has ended up reassuring me that my sense of color and style doesn't totally suck.

>75 fairywings: Obviously not a reader. I actually hired her as a feng shui consultant, which is all about energy flow. So it makes a certain amount of sense that she would be concerned about clutter, which is all about stagnant energy. Not surprisingly, 2 of the 3 feng shui consultants I found in the area also offer decluttering services. And she brought up the whole finding joy in your possessions things during the initial phone call, but she was talking about "long before Marie Kondo" who didn't invent the concept dontcha know. She sounded a little miffed about the whole Konmari method fad right now. However, it was definitely rude to bring it up after I told her to stop already. And part of it was because I told her my goal was to create a more contemplative and creative space in my new home. So to her mind, that means simplify, simplify. I had to point out that I had said "contemplative" not "simple" because my life is not simple. She tried to equate those as the same thing. They are not.

If nothing else, the experience is entertaining to see how she challenges me and who ends up convincing the other person more. And I like having someone to bounce ideas off of, especially when it's creative stuff like colors and designs. She is bringing her opinions from a specific theoretical framework, which I also find valuable. And I am waiting to see if she gives me anything related to paint colors today. She deferred on that, and that's really what I would like input on. So we'll see how it goes. Today could be the last time.

I so want you to talk her into buying a stack of books. Like she leaves your house and goes out to purchase 30 Agatha Christies ;-D.

>77 mstrust: Heh. We didn't talk books today. That would be pretty funny.

We came to an agreement about the colors and materials for floors, counters, etc. And at the end, she apologize for shaming me last week. Not that I felt shamed. But it was clearly a friction point, and she apologized. So all good.

>78 justchris: That was nice of her to apologize, glad to hear you got your colours and materials sorted too.

So...Where did you go? You've left me hanging. What color, what materials? I want to know!!

And have you read any books? Ask her the most FengShui way to organize your books. : )

>80 Berly: Sorry about that. Opted for bamboo floor in bedroom and main room, stained a color called spice. The bathroom and furnace room have ceramic tiles called mink. The furnace room has square tiles set in a grid, and the bathroom has rectangular tiles in staggered rows. The kitchen and bathroom cabinets have the storm finish. The laminate countertops are the green soapstone pattern. I'm holding off on the recycled glass countertops because they have to be a remodel after moving in, and I am going to wait until I find another job and am financially settled before proceeding with those. But currently. the chosen pattern is Asheville.

I've just come home from a weeklong trip. I passed through the DC Union Station. There's a charity used bookstore there called Carpe Librum. They currently have some quite antique SF books among their selection. I was quite surprised.

I brought too many books (and the wrong kind) on my trip and came home with even more...

(edited to fix html)

Book list! Book list!!

Well, the books I brought with me for the trip were
The Body Is Not an Apology (this is the only one I read while traveling)
Rebuilding: When Your Relationship Ends
Chi Running
Chi and Creativity
The Easiest Way To Learn the Tarot

The books I bought during the trip:
They Came Before Columbus
Official Guide to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
Sweet Home Cafe Cookbook
(all from the museum store)

and

The Future Is Female!
(from the Politics and Prose independent bookstore)

I bought a Wallace and Gromit DVD from Carpe Librum. It's one I've never seen, so I am pretty excited.

I've decided to make an effort to find local independent bookstores to visit when I am traveling. However, I vastly prefer used bookstores as I find the collections more interesting. I really struggled to find something I wanted to buy at Politics and Prose. Well, that's not quite true. I immediately latched onto the Totoro pop-up cards for a friend and the art deco cards for myself. I had a hard time finding a new book to buy as I am still resisting the larger trade paperbacks given that most of my fiction collection is mmpb.

I know what you mean about all the tpb format books. If I read something I really like from the library, I don't buy it until it hits mmpb format. Loved the old days when the genre wasn't big money and everything came out in mmpb from the get-go! Most of my shelves are spaced for mmpbs. Fortunately, I give away a lot of books these days after I finish them.

It's really more the format/size than the extra expense, even.

>84 ronincats: Yes, the trade paperbacks are creeping in because just enough books never come out in mmpb format so I end up with the larger format. Plus, I've been steadily accumulating anthologies that are either tpb or hardcovers. And yeah, it's the inconvenience of oddly/variable sized collection more than expense.

But I do find the miscellany available in used bookstores far more interesting than all the latest in various categories. Like that jackpot of classic SF at Carpe Librum--including several Ace double titles printed in the 1950s. Even though none of them were titles I wanted to buy. I was tempted by the classic hardcover of Dark of the Moon, but I already have various duplicates of that.

>83 justchris: I, too, look for bookstores while traveling. The decent used ones are few and far between.

But OH JOY! The local thrift stores often have a decent selection of used books at bargain prices.

>86 fuzzi: Thanks for the validation and agreement.

I am currently staying with my niece and nephew while their folks are out of town. This is the city where I went to high school, and I haven't stayed here in quite a long while. So yesterday I had lunch and reconnected with a friend I hadn't seen in a few years. Then we went shopping, including the used bookstore that I used to visit regularly as a teenager.

I picked up a Maeve Binchy book (Quentins) and A Potion for a Widow by Caroline Roe, which was on my search list. Stayed up too late finishing Quentins. It was charming, and a nice follow-up to Scarlet Feather. I enjoyed revisiting some of the characters from the latter, but the former is not a keeper for me.

I am jonesing for the next Lindsey Davis novel after Two for the Lions, but I don't have it. No joy in the stores yet.

I've been bad...the Run For the Roses is coming up, fast, and so I bought two NEW books online, biographies of a couple of my favorite Kentucky winners: Genuine Risk and Sunday Silence:

Genuine Risk
Sunday Silence: Racing's Hard Luck Hero

So much for getting RID of books!

>88 justchris: Hope you find it!

Have a wonderful Sunday. It is great to see you more active around the threads this year.

>89 fuzzi: Yes, I have the same problem. But I do need to make some hard choices this year because I don't want to pay a couple months' storage fees for stuff I ultimately let go.

>90 PaulCranswick: Thank you for stopping by, Paul! Yes, I am happy to be hanging in there on LT. I always enjoy this space but then get overwhelmed by life.

>91 justchris: You and me both!

>92 PaulCranswick: Heh, once again, lost track of my own thread. Glad you're still hanging in there, Paul.

I have survived April! My 2 weeknight activities are done as of tonight. I am trying really hard to avoid signing up for more commitments and responsibilities and to leave more time open for relaxing (reading!) and dealing with my own stuff.

My landlord has found a tenant to replace me, so I'll definitely be moving out in August. But my new condo won't be ready until October. So now I need to find short-term housing for the gap and start downsizing to minimize the amount in storage I end up paying for. I suppose I might downsize some books, but I've already culled once. OTOH, I keep buying books! If I'm committed to no more bookcases, then I need to work harder on clearing some space so everything fits.

>93 justchris: "cull"??? Argh.

I "rehome" my books...

>94 fuzzi: Fair point. I shall adjust my language to reflect the emotional connection. I consulted a feng shui consultant earlier this year who proceeded to proselytize downsizing, including the memorable question, "Have you ever considered having only 10 books and relying on the public library?"

What I thought: I don't think you understand that books are my friends. Have you considered only having 10 friends and then replacing them when they became tiring?

I finished reading Braiding Sweetgrass and White Fragility. Both were fantastic, and I would consider them both essential reading that I have already been recommending to various people.

Braiding Sweetgrass is by Robin Wall Kimmerer, who also wrote Gathering Moss, which I have not yet managed to acquire and read, though I love mosses and would love to have a moss garden. A friend told me that Robin Wall Kimmerer is being considered a modern-day Emerson. I can see why.

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientifc Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants is organized into five sections: planting, tending, picking, braiding, and burning sweetgrass, each representing a different aspect of the ritual relationship with this culturally significant species. The book opens with the creation story of Skywoman and exlains the traditional meaning of sweetgrass for many indigenous Americans (Kimmerer is a member of the Citizen Potowotami Nation). This essay is followed by many others, each illuminating the inter-relationship among ecology, traditional practices, cultural teachings, American history, and personal and family experiences. Kimmerer is an ecology professor and compares and connects her Western scientific training with her traditional ecological knowledge. This book is also a call for societal transformation to undo the damage to community (in every sense of the word) from unchecked capitalism and technological "progress" at great human and ecological cost.

The writing was very personal and personable, both accessible and engaging. And after finishing it, I had an epiphany. I live in the land where Aldo Leopold is revered, and his A Sand County Almanac introducing his land ethic is celebrated. Of course, it is exactly the same philosophy that is central to many indigenous cultures as exemplified in this book, but of course once it's been repackaged and introduced as an original concept by a white man, well then, whole different story. I guess that makes Aldo Leopold the Elvis of environmental writing. My understanding is that similarly, the founding of the democracy of the United States of America was cribbed pretty heavily from the model of the Haudenosee Confederacy, but somehow we don't acknowledge the Native American source for the great American political experiment.

This book doesn't dwell on any of that. Instead it introduces us to many key species in American ecosystems, including pecans, strawberries, asters, goldenrods, maples, witch hazel, water lilies, black ash, lichens, and of course sweetgrass, plus key species of Indian agriculture, especially the famous three sisters of corn, beans, and squash. Each essay shares something ecological and then uses it as a metaphor to explore social, historical, cultural, economic aspects of life. The book also shares various aspects of indigenous ethics.

I think what struck me most was comparing the Skywoman creation myth to the Garden of Eden creation myth. "Can they, can we all, understand the Skywoman story not as an artifact from the past but as instructions for the future? Can a nation of immigrants once again follow her example to become native, to make a home?" versus "Look at the legacy of poor Eve's exile from Eden: the land shows the bruises of an abusive relationship. It's not just the land that is broken, but more importantly, our relationship to land." That's really something to think about--how our stories both show and shape our perceptions and values and priorities.

I'm fresh off catching up on Paul's thread and have come to say that I'm elated that I'm not the only person on LT who could not abide Canticle for Leibowitz. I've never been able to finish it, and after 5 tries, I doubt that I'll pick it up again at my advanced age.
I'm sorry for your possible downsizing of books. Even if I have a number of piles, we still have room for them, and I'm not seriously considering getting rid of anything beyond old mystery series that I don't love.

>95 justchris: I like your thoughts, books are my friends, too. I have considered the option of living in an RV after I retire, but what gives me pause is not being able to have my aquariums, my little gardens, OR MY BOOKS.

Regarding the story of Adam and Eve, I've a slightly different take on it: the relationship between humans and their Creator is damaged, as is the land. After humans personally request a repair of the relationship, the land will also be healed. See 2 Chronicles 7:14 😊

>97 LizzieD: Yeah, it took a while to get through the whole thing. And I still don't understand why people love that story. Maybe if I hadn't heard how famous it was and how brilliant a story I wouldn't have been so disappointed. Sure, it was an interesting premise, but meh. And all of the religious themes just went right over my head. It was the same for A Case of Conscience. I clearly wasn't the right audience for these explorations of religious ideas. And I really didn't like the religious toward the end of A Canticle for Leibowitz telling the woman and child who were suffering terribly from radiation damage that they had a duty to live and suffer rather than taking the offered euthanasia because life is a gift that must be lived regardless of its quality.

>98 fuzzi: Yeah, I have similar thoughts and qualms about tiny houses. I can see that interpretation of the Christian creation story too. Your interpretation certainly makes sense as a believer, as opposed to the outside perspective quoted from the book.

I haven't hosted a series or an author for a while. I'd like to do so this summer, during a month when the most interested folk have the time to do at least the targeted book, which is only 200 pp. long. I'd like to expose as many people as possible to the works of James H. Schmitz, a science fiction author who wrote from the late '40s through the 1970s. He is best known for The Witches of Karres, but imho has written much better works. Here is my bookshelf.


Many of his works, especially his shorter ones, were very hard to find for quite a while, but in 2000 and 2001, Baen published almost all of his oeuvre in a collection of 6 books, seen to the right of the shelf above. The book I would like to feature is Demon Breed, also found in the Baen collection The Hub: Dangerous Territory. Schmitz is known for his kick-ass female protagonists long before they became the current ubiquitous status quo in his stories about Telzey Amberdon, Trigger Argee, and the hero of Demon Breed, Nile Etland.

See my thread for more info if interested!

>100 ronincats: Look at that! I reached 100!

Thanks for the invite! I am definitely interested. I didn't know Schmitz had written all those stories. Never heard of Legacy or Eternal Frontier before. OTOH, The Demon Breed is one of my favorite SF books for all the fun biology/ecology. And of course, The Witches of Karres remains a favorite for sheer entertainment value. I always have the sound of The Leewit piping "Might!" from the top of a pile of boxes in my head when challenged in some ridiculous way.

Once Upon a Curse is an anthology of 17 short stories by women published in 2016 by Fiddlehead Press, a very small press??, or possibly an author self-publishing under a press name? It's not clear. There is a website with the name of this press and no actual content. And there's a page on Smashwords, "the world's largest distributor of indie ebooks" that links to Anthea Lawson's site. Lawson is a romance author, and Fiddlehead Press appears to publish mostly urban fantasy romance and some historical romances. This anthology lists no editor and has no introductory material about the collection of stories, but it definitely falls into the fantasy romance category. Every one of these tales centers on a fairly standard straight romance trope with the exception of the final story 2 stories, and "The Grim Brother," which are also the only 3 narrated from a male perspective. So it may be a collective effort at self-promotion. Each story ends with a brief blurb about the author, the author's website, and in many cases, notes that the story features characters or settings in their existing oeuvre.

Most are a spin on some traditional fairy tale but not all of them. Devon Monk opens with "Yarrow, Sturdy and Bright," a retelling of the Pied Piper. "Fae Horse" by Anthea Sharp draws on Celtic folklore and persecution of witches in Ireland. "Faescorned" by Jenna Elizabeth Johnson and "The Morrigan" by Phaedra Weldon are two very different takes on a Celtic goddess, the former from her perspective coping with an immortal curse confronted with mortal love, the latter a fresh take on leprechauns and shillelaghs. Christina Pope bases "The Queen of Frost and Darkness" in Russian folklore. I thought "Bones" by Yasmine Galenorn would be a spin on the Persephone myth, but it's more like a tangent. C. Gockel's "Magic After Midnight" is a modern urban fantasy that is a humorous take on our ever-popular pointy-toothed friends and blended families. "Dance with the Devil" is a ballerina's hellish bargain by Donna Augustine. Annie Bellet shares an African tale in "No Gift of Words." Audrey Faye's "The Grim Brother" is an interesting take on Hansel and Gretel. "Drawn to the Brink" by Tara Maya was the most original and unrelated to any traditional lore and also the most immersive in terms of dropping the reader right in and having to figure out what was going on over the course of the story as various terms became clear. "The Variance Court" by Alexia Purdy also seems very original rather than connected to a specific legend, unless it be to the lost princess trope popularized after the Russian Revolution. Unfortunately, to me, it also read like a first work with lots of room to improve. "Still Red" by Sabrina Locke was a very dark interpretation of Little Red Riding Hood indeed. Jennifer Blackstream wrote "The Final Straw" based on Rumpelstilsken but involving a djinn or male sylph, demon possession, vampires, and very much part of Blackstream's larger body of work. Three stories adapted some version of Cinderella. Julia Crane's "Alice" feels like a mash-up of Alice in Wonderland and Cinderella. "Hunter's Heart" by Christine Pope is more like Rosencratz and Guildenstern Are Dead applied to fairy tale instead of Shakespeare. And Alethia Kontiss used it as a springboard into an original story based on general concepts of unicorns, demons, balance, and innocent princess.

As per usual in such anthologies, a range of writing and storytelling styles is presented. Some I liked, some not so much. I enjoyed the stories by Monk, Weldon, Gockel, Bellet, and Maya the most. I thought Galenorn, Faye, Locke and Crane captured abusive dynamics and dysfunction very well. I found the Kontiss and Blackstream stories charmingly well done. The story by Augustine had an amusing moment but otherwise, meh. The stories by Sharp, Johnson, and Pope were well done to varying degrees, and I appreciated the writing, but the stories were not so much to my taste, which is perfectly fine.

This book is not a keeper. I'll be passing it along. But I might look up more from Tara Maya and Annie Bellet. If nothing else, this exposed me to more authors. Christina Pope was the only whose name I recognized, and I'd never read anything by her before.

Just catching up here. That's awkward that you have to find a place to hang out between the current lodging and October when your condo is finished. Ugh. Good luck! And don't listen to that feng shui consultant--clearly s/he doesn't understand the peace and comfort having piles of books brings. Yeesh.

A People's Future of the United States: Speculative Fiction from 25 Extraordinary Writers is edited by Victor LaValle and John Joseph Adams and published this year. It is an extremely topical collection of short stories inspired by Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, as alluded to in the title. The anthology begins with a moving personal introduction by LaValle about his father's bigotry and the frightening implications of Donald Trump's election and the inspiration for this collection. According to the call for submissions shared in the introduction: "We are seeking stories that explore new forms of freedom, love, and justice: narratives that release us from the chokehold of the history and mythology of the past...and writing that gives us new futures to believe in." These stories largely explore resistance in dystopic futures along trajectories of deepening oppression and division already occuring today.

The collection opens with "The Bookstore at the End of America" by Charlie Jane Anders, recent Guest of Honor at WisCon 43, centered on a transnational bookstore between California and the theocracy of the remaining America, catering to populations on both side of the border as military tensions rise during a water dispute. Lizz Huerta's "The Wall" is an interesting extrapolation of the border wall and American militarism and demand for drugs in contrast to a reborn Mexican indigenous brujeria. Daniel H. Wilson's story, "A History of Barbed Wire," is a tragedy, as a Cherokee officer investigates a potential breach of the reservation wall that keeps desperate white people out and discovers a child's body apparently drowned in a flash flood. Seanan McGuire explores how legislating tolerance doesn't end bigotry in "Harmony" as a married couple (both women) is returning from a California vacation to their poster perfect gated community in Beaverton, Oregon, when they find a ghost town for sale. Those are the stories about borders.

"Our Aim Is Not to Die" by A. Merc Rustad features an autistic nonbinary person trying to survive in a fascist, surveillance state that continuously monitors people via social media and personal devices. "It Was Saturday Night, I Guess That Makes It Alright" documents the experience of a blue collar gay man hiding and hooking up in the shadows in a grim future of privatized police, citizen militias, government censorship of popular culture to control the population, plus some odd sexual interdimensional travel. "What Maya Found There" is Daniel Jose Older's exploration of the dangers of genetic bioengineering research and how it can be misused and weaponized by despots. G. Willow Wilson, the other Guest of Honor at WisCon 43 contributes "ROME" that is an explicit allusion to the fall of empire as community college students in Seattle take a mandatory online test to determine their futures as they worry about an approaching fire in their zone unprotected by privatized fire services--a literal life or death conundrum. "The Sun in Exile" by Catherynne M. Valente is the apocryphal story of a presumably African despot's response to climate change making life in his country intolerable. Themes of totalitarianism and empire feature in these stories.

"Read After Burning" by Maria Dahvana Headley is a magical post-apocalyptic fever dream reminiscent of A Canticle for Leibowitz about a secret underground society of librarians preserving and enriching knowledge via personal tattoos. Malika Older's story, "Disruption and Continuity" is in the form of a future textbook excerpt, including footnotes. Charles Yu shares a range of future newspaper stories that intersperse the narrative of a robot attacking people as the inevitable consequence of its responsivness to its owner's racism in "Good News, Bad News." Kai Cheng Thom's story "What You Sow" was a little hard to follow at first, as it describes humanity afflicted with the Undreaming and eventually becoming the zombie-like Sleepless, addicted to the Ichor of Celestials, who appear as various monstrous humans drawn from mythology in what appears to be an allegory of both drug addiction and trans people. These stories are the most futuristic and far out there.

It's 2076 and Gabby Rivera's "O.1," is the story of the first human pregnancy and birth since the IMBALANCE sentient bacteria killed 40% of the human population: all the white, straight cis folks infected with white-supremacist greed. "Attachment Disorder" by Tananarive Due is set in 2062 and posits a plague that wiped out much of the human population and intermittent pogroms against the immune carriers who were resettled on a reservation after being released from their government internment. "By His Bootstraps" is a bitingly satirical story by Ashok K. Banker of Operation Clean Sweep using a genetically engineered MAGA virus by the Trump Adminsitration to create an alternate human destiny, while Omar El Akkad's protagonist in "Riverbed" visits the new Riverbed Attestation Center outside Billings, Montana, to commemorate the Muslim internment camp created to hold scapegoated Americans during the economic collapse and social turmoil caused by climate change and sea level rise. Lesley Nneka Arimah describes black resistance, from self-arming to a new underground railroad, as the United States regresses toward reenslaving black people beginning with the repeal of the Civil Rights Act in 2019, and looming further losses of rights in 2022 in "The Referendum." "Give Me Cornbread or Give Me Death" is N. K. Jemisin's brilliant story of black and brown survival in the face of ongoing genocidal attentions by whites reminiscent of The Hunger Games, but with bioengineered attacks directed out to the districts instead of into the arena. These are the stories of apocalypse and genocide and internments.

Violet Allen describes gay and lesbian reeducation centers via computer simulation and virtual reality in "The Synapses Will Free Us From Ourselves." Tobias S. Buckell tells the story of a hacker in "The Blindfold" who makes a living altering the randomly generated digital appearance of defendants in U.S. trials that are created by computer algorithms to equitably distribute the impact of bias in the criminal justice system during trials handled via virtual reality, while Hugh Howey shows how a bigot relies on computer algorithms and automated technology while simultaneously deriding the role of same in transforming society in "No Algorithms in the World." Jamie Ford's "Esperanto" is another dive into virtual reality covering the wounds of reality and differing perspectives on both beauty and ugliness. These are about cyberworlds.

Justina Ireland imagines corner drug deals replaced by black market contraception in "Calendar Girls" under a police state that outlaws family planning from condoms to abortions. "Now Wait for This Week" closes the collection with Bonnie, the narrator's roommate in this story, reliving her birthday week as a mash-up of Groundhog Day and Dr Strange as an indirect meditation of gendered sexual violence, and the aftermath of rape and how it can affect a community. These stories explore themes of controlling women and gender violence.

As per usual with anthologies, loved some stories, didn't resonate with other stories. The anthology covers the broad spectrum of marginalized, terrorized, and oppressed communities in the United States, and a wide range of ongoing social issues reflecting our history, current political woes and so-called culture wars: sexuality, gender identity, race, religion, reproduction, freedom, education, survival, technology, immigration, climate change, war, and more. Most of them, unsurprisingly, were pretty depressing. I found the stories by McGuire, Rivera, Banker and Jemisin to be the most hopeful and entertaining and probably my favorites, with those by Anders, Rustad, Huerta, Due, El Akkad, Arimah, Buckell, Wilson, and Yu very well done and also in a style that I greatly appreciated. All of the stories were well written; the rest I just didn't quite connect with. I suspect to keep this volume, but I expect some (many?) of these stories won't age well at all. That is to be expected when it is a direct reaction to the current political climate and recent/ongoing events.

Robert B. Parker's Ironhorse was an entertaining western novel about a train robbery gone awry. It features U. S. Marshal Virgil Cole and his deputy sidekick Everett Hitch, who narrates the story. Apparently, this is part of a series featuring these two characters, as indicated by their past history with the villains. It's an entertaining, fast-paced story with plenty of action. However, unlike L'Amour stories, there is no obligatory fistfight, and the gun battles are kept to a minimum as Cole and Hitch rely on superior strategy, tactics and the threat of violence more than actual brutality. The map on the inside covers of the book comes in handy to follow the action over the course of the story. The laconic dialogue between our heroes is pure gold. The author has done his homework about train technology of the era. The story is named for the old locomotive that Virgil and Everett use to get ahead of the villains who are holding two girls for ransom. Could one of them be a potential romantic interest? But do our heroes valiantly ride off into the sunset after saving the day? I enjoyed the story but won't be keeping the book.

>105 justchris: glad to hear you enjoyed the book. Parker only wrote four Cole and Hitch westerns before he died, so as with Ironhorse, other writers are being used. I loved the four that Parker did write, and kept my copies for rereads.

>106 fuzzi: Thanks for your impression of this series, fuzzi. The main reason I'm not keeping the book is that it's a hardcover, and I prefer mmpbs for my fiction collection. I am only slowly and painfully adding tpbs to my collection. The hardcover fiction tends to be omnibus editions. Plus, I don't want to collect a whole new series, even if it's limited to 5 books. I have a handful of most favorite westerns but long ago liquidated many of the others.

Heh. I just derailed my evening hunting down 14 rainbows.

This is to do a quick synopsis of the Time Quintet by L'Engle.

Book 1, A Wrinkle in Time, published in 1962: Meg Murry, who has been lost a year, seeks her father under the guidance of her brilliant 5-year-old brother Charles Wallace and Mrs Whatsit, Mrs Who, and Mrs Which, with the able assistance of her classmate Calvin O'Toole. The title refers to the art of tessering to travel instantaneously around the universe (as in tesseract), and each chapter is named for a major character or item being itnroduced.

Book 2, A Wind in the Door, published in 1973: Meg's quest a year later is to save Charles Wallace's life by traveling to the sub-organelle level of the farandolae inside her brother's mitochondria, accompanied once again by Calvin and her dreaded school principal Mr Jenkins, guided by the cherubim Proginoskes and opposing the Echthroi that are destroying the space/time continuum at both large and microscopic scales. The title comes from a line in L'Morte d'Arthur and is also the name of the closing chapter of the book and a metaphor for that momentary crux between creation and destruction, love and annihilation, salvation and the end of everything. Similar to the first book, each chapter title references a significant person or event.

Book 3, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, published in 1978: Charles Wallace, now 15 years old, journeys through time on the back of the unicorn Gaudior while staying in place near the family home, seeking an alternate future/past when the world is on the cusp of nuclear war thanks to the dictator of the fictional South American country of Vespugia, hinging on a Welsh invocation from the distant past shared by Meg's mother-in-law, now that she is married to Calvin. Each chapter title is a line from the invocation, and much like Quantum Leap, Charles Wallace inhabits the body of a person from each time period, starting with the People of the Wind during the stone age and moving forward.

Book 4, Many Waters, published in 1986: twins Sandy and Dennys Murry fatefully doodle with their father's computer (programmed for tessering) after school one day and find themselves transported to an unknown desert, where they see phantasmal unicorns, encounter domesticated miniature mammoths, and are taken in by the patriarch Noah's family in the oasis where people mingle with seraphim and nephilim and a time of change is coming. The story title says it all.

Book 5, An Acceptable Time, published in 1989: Polly O'Keefe, the daughter of Meg and Calvin, goes to stay with her grandparents, the famous Drs Murry, and finds herself and her wealthyfriend Zachary transported back to the stone age caught between the People of the Wind and the People Across the Lake during a time of drought and warring beliefs about sacrifice and love and how to bring the rain back. This is the only book with unnamed chapters. And I read it several months ago so that I cannot remember the allusion in the title.

Missing you around here.

Hope all is well and that you're having a tremendous weekend.

I'm moving out of my apartment in about 10 days, and today is the first day I've really started packing. Actually, I started with my Arabic books and my antiracism/activism books a couple days ago. Today, I've picked out a selection of books on tai chi, qigong, meditation, writing, sewing, and bead embroidery to tide me over in my short-term housing and planned activities there. Plus, I've gathered all of the fiction books I've started but not finished or not even started, and an assortment of very familiar comfort reads. I originally had this vision of carefully sorting through all the books, cataloging them as I packed, and so on. Not so much.

I also have made an effort in the last couple weeks to make progress on the unread fiction so I can clear some of it out. So I'll try to toss off a few quick write-ups...

>110 PaulCranswick: Thank you for the encouragement, Paul. It is always appreciated.

>111 justchris: We are both moving then. My own moving has been problematic to say the least so I hope that yours goes far smoother.

I picked up Firestorm because I do love portrayals of wildfires. So I thought I'd give Rachel Caine another try after deciding that I am not the intended audience for her writing after reading Ill Wind. But once again, discovered I just don't like her style. I was ready to quit after a half dozen pages but did manage to skim read through the whole thing so that I could see how it ended.

The Weather Warden series features Joanne Baldwin, introduced in Ill Wind. Weather Wardens are a secret magical enforcement agency tasked with preventing the natural disasters that would otherwise engulf humanity in tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires, you name it. They achieve this with the assistance of the powerful Djinn (think genies in bottles) at their command. Firestorm is book 5 in the series, and a lot has happened to Joanne since she first fled with a Demon Mark eating at her from the inside in Ill Wind. She , acquired a djinn lover, was thrown out of the Weather Wardens, died, became a djinn, came back to life, had a mystical pregnancy and gave birth to an adult Djinn daughter.

As far as I can tell, every book ends with a cliff hanger, and each story is a nonstop action adventure involving snarky dialogue, fast cars driven over long distances, an obsession with clothes and fashion, everyone distrusting Joanne who is the only person who can save the day, various people trying to kill and/or fuck Joanne, and detailed descriptions of weather phenomena. That last one is really the only thing that I find interesting. The rest of it I can tolerate in small doses but don't enjoy as a steady diet. I mean, Joanne is just too sexy for this world with her designer shoes and tight T-shirts and her obsession with muscle cars. Blah blah. And I don't find the detailed sex scenes titillating. She's just so badass and stereotypical as an action hero who happens to be female. Meh. And this particular installment comes with a heaping helping of Joanne hyperventilating over suddenly being a mother of a smartass young adult, and what does it mean to her, and how does she do this, and on and on. The series started with Joanne racing against time to find an impossible solution to the looming end aof her life. Book 5 is Joanne racing against time to find an impossible solution to the end of all human life. Progress, I guess?

Like I said, not to my taste. But I can see why this series has its fans. The writing is fine in terms of technical competence. I just don't happen to enjoy her prose, her dialogue, her characterizations, and so on. That's okay. There are other readers who will love the writing, and lots of other books for me to enjoy out there.

I found a boxed set of 4 children's stories written by Alan Garner. These are bog standard classic British fantasies derived from folklore of the British Isles. What I find most interesting is that these stories each end quite abruptly at the climax showing that the initial problem that spurred the story has been addressed. No resolution, no wrap up, just mission accomplished, drop curtain.

The Weirdstone of Brisingamen was published in 1960 and features siblings Colin and Susan who have just arrived at the village of Alderley Edge in Cheshire, due south of Manchester, for an extended stay while their parents are out of the country. They immediately explore the woods of The Edge, a hilly area that includes abandoned mines and quarries just outside the village, and fall headlong into adventure involving the morthbrood (witches) headed by the Morrigan, svarts or svart-alfar (goblins) headed by Arthog and Slinkveal, the dwarves Fenodytree and Durathror and their fearsome swords Widowmaker and Dyrnwyn, the wizard Cadellin Silverbrow, Angharad Goldenhand (the Lady of the Lake) and various others. Everyone is seeking Firefrost, the weirdstone that powers the enchantment that keeps a king of yore with 149 of his valorous knights, all accompanied by pure white steeds all asleep until the final battle when they are needed. Cadellin is their eternal guardian and rescues the children from evil creatures, thus introducing High Magic into their existence as they seek to understand why the children are in danger. It's a blend of high fantasy, Celtic gods, and Arthurian legend by other names.

The Moon of Gomrath was published in 1963. Colin, Susan, Cadellin and the Morrigan are the only characters carried over from the first story as this book introduces a new cast inspired by a different set of legends. Colin and Susan are despondent that they've heard nothing from the wizard Cadellin since evil was vanquished and Firefrost returned. Susan seeks solitude and tranquility at the quarry pond. As she's ready to leave, she encounters a beautiful black pony that nudges her for a ride then jumps off the cliff and into the dark water (sounds like a kelpie!). Meanwhile, the dwarf Uthecar Hornskin reports that the Morrigan is not dead and must surely want revenge on the children for her earlier defeat. This time, the evil hordes are not the svart-alfar but the bodachs (bogeymen or bugbears) and palug-cats (giant cats). Once again, the the children are catapulted into danger and mystery, but this time they encounter Old Magic, via the hilltop balefires and the Wild Hunt. They also meet the lios-alfar (elves) who are helpful but only to a point and at a cost. Other legends that turn up are the Black Dog as the harbinger of death and the triple goddess manifested in 3 different women representing different life stages and cycles of the moon.

Elidor was published in 1965 and features four siblings, Roland the youngest, Helen, David, and Nicholas the oldest. They're sightseeing in Manchester and find themselves in an abandoned neighborhood that's being demolished. One by one, they go into the shell of a church and disappear. Thus begins this story of parallel worlds and intertwined fates. Malebron is king of Elidor, which has been overtaken by darkness and evil, its 4 Treasures lost. The 4 children are the only hope of recovering the Treasures and pushing back the darkness, and he uses the wrecked church as a portal to bring the children to Elidor to help him. Roland, the youngest, is the most powerful and the most willing to believe. Maybe the most powerful because he has the most belief and imagination because he still holds the most sense of wonder of childhood. The Treasures are a sword, a spear, a chalice, and a keystone. Their purpose is never explained because they are never really used in the story. They are simply the focus of interest by both heroes and villains, much like the weirdstone in the first book.

The Owl Service was published in 1967 and is set in Wales. Alison and Roger are teenage step-siblings whose parents have remarried to create this blended family. They are vacationing with their parents at the family summer cottage. Gwyn is the teenage son of the housekeeper who has never before lived in this home valley of his mother though he grew up with all the stories and history of the place. The three of them alternately work together and are at odds as strange things start happening. Alison hears an insistent and ever louder scratching in the attic over her room, but investigation reveals only dishes with a beautiful floral pattern that creates a hidden owl motif that Alison compulsively traces onto paper and so it begins. The three become the magical focus of a cyclical resurgence of the tragic love triangle of the Welsh legend of Blodeuwedd. The key part of the legend is that Blodeuwedd was a woman created from flowers to become a bride and then transformed into an owl after attempting with her lover to murder her husband. When her magical essence returns to this secluded valley, will she manifest with the gentleness of flowers or the predatory nature of owls, and what toll will it take on the residents and descendants of that fateful place/tale?

>115 justchris: The Owl Service is on many best of lists and Alan Garner is one of the lost treasures of English storytelling.

>116 PaulCranswick: Of the 4 stories, The Owl Service was the one I was initially drawn to. It also had a little more depth with a little bit of class consciousness and complexity of characters in the story. It also ended with the most unresolved questions. I did like it the best, though I understood it the least.

Good wishes for the move, Chris. I liked the first Weather Warden book by Caine, but the series got old really fast after that. I do like the Garners. I first read them in my 20s.

I have a plan to read Red Shift this year by Garner and hope that it will meet the standard given it by most of the reviewers I've seen.

>118 ronincats: and >119 PaulCranswick: Huh. I somehow didn't realize I didn't answer you lovely folks. Sorry about that.

>118 ronincats: The week of moving was pretty hellish, mostly because I am old, not as bendy, and have too much stuff. Took way too long to pack everything, and I was very sore the day after the movers picked up everything. They did a great job, and the cleaners did a great job. I am so glad I didn't have to deal with the furniture or the post-move cleanup/inspection.

But I am now settled in my temporary housing, enjoying hanging with my roommates and getting to know another part of town and being so close to fabulous resources. Tomorrow I get to go to the local farmers market again. And now I just realized that my refund for the apartment deposit appears to be overdue. I now have a 40 minute commute by bus instead of 5-10 minutes, so I am doing a lot more reading these days. Yay!

>119 PaulCranswick: Let me know what you think of Red Shift, Paul. It does sound interesting.

I just finished Rocannon's World by LeGuin. Didn't really enjoy it. Didn't quite get the point of it. Won't be keeping it. Quite a contrast to The Word for World Is Forest, which I will keep thinking about for awhile.

I also just finished Hwarhath Stories by Arnason. A very nice follow-up to Ring of Swords, and in many ways more interesting. Well, it's been awhile since I read the novel, and it's now packed away in storage so I can't compare the short story collection to the original work directly at this time. I liked it, definitely a keeper.

Just finished The Two of Them. My first Russ story, though I've read a lot about her writing. Quite depressing and brilliant and limited and dated and timeless all at the same time. I did not enjoy the switch to second person narrative and maybe it happened maybe it didn't at the end. I think I'll keep it and try rereading it at some point to see if different details strike me at a second exposure. The author's anger certainly comes through. And some of the dialogue is very similar to conversations I've had around social justice just recently. So it certainly resonated with me.

How's the settling-in going, did you enjoy the farmers' market?

>122 fuzzi: Thanks for asking! I'm as settled as I am going to be in my transitional housing. The condo closing has now been pushed back at least a week, but I have until the end of October to move out of my storage unit and temporary housing, so I am not worried yet.

I love the farmers' market! Today was rainy, and I dawdled at home so arrived to a sparse set of stalls and few shoppers. But I got to use my shopping cart that moves like a stroller and filled it first with produce and lamb from the farmers' market, then some clothes from the thrift store, and finally groceries before heading back home. Now I've had a nosh and time to figure out what to make for dinner. It's been a pleasant domestic weekend.

I finished The Awakening last night before falling asleep. I have a different version with a different collection of the author's short stories after the novella that I plan to go through next. It's interesting and very different from my usual reads. I think I won't keep either of the books though.

I enjoy our local farmers' market, though it's mainly produce, baked goods, and crafts.

>124 fuzzi: We've got a bit of everything. Mostly produce, of course, but also people selling locally produced condiments (today was some sort of hot sauce, and I have a friend who's been selling shrub as a drink mixer), plenty of dairy goods especially cheeses, handmade soaps, honeys and wax candles, pasture-raised meats (beef, lamb pork, etc), Alaskan salmon shares...

Plus, there's usually a busker. My favorite so far was someone playing all the rock classics from the Beatles to Pearl Jam on a xylophone. And at least one vendor selling hot food ready to serve, but not today.

>125 justchris: sounds like our farmers' market, although the music is usually bluegrass, with an open guitar case for donations towards the homeless shelters in town.

I've never seen anyone sell clothes, though.

>126 fuzzi: Usually, clothes at the market tend more toward accessories: hats, scarves, etc. However, I passed the downtown midweek market a few days ago and saw sweaters. So we even have clothes covered.

Tomorrow, I'll be picking up zucchini and forest mushrooms at the market for my grilled kebabs for dinner.

How's everything going? I enjoyed your summary of the Time Quintet aways back there. I have read the first three, but didn't even know there were more. Would you recommend them?

>128 Berly: Thanks for the kind words and stopping by! Sorry for the delayed reply. This is my first time stopping by LT since my last post. I have a lot to update in terms of my reading list and recent acquisitions.

Life has been very hectic and overwhelming the last few weeks. I bought a condo and have been busy with packing and moving and painting and more. The movers delivered everything from storage today, and I am now living amidst a mountain of boxes instead of camping out in the new space. Plus, I am organizing the condo's Halloween/All Saints party tomorrow night. Plus, I still have a job.

I didn't know there was anything beyond A Wrinkle in Time and A Wind in the Door until I came across the boxed set last year.

If you enjoy the characters, then by all means read the other books in the quintet. But from my perspective, the later books don't have the charm and insight of the first book especially. And I found the increasingly more overt Christian Biblical themes and the rather implausible Welsh/Celtic Druidic and Native American intermingling from pre-history to present day New England rather tiresome. But I did appreciate the rather imaginative interpretations of such things as unicorns and seraphim and nephilim and so on.

So I both enjoyed and didn't enjoy the later books. I don't regret the time spent with these stories, but I am disposing of the boxed set and will find a stand-alone copy of A Wrinkle in Time to keep in my collection. Her exposition of religious themes was infinitely better done than C. S. Lewis's Out of the Silent Planet trilogy, where the first book was captivating and the later books were quite terrible (IMHO).

Hmmmm. Well, I am glad you read them and I appreciate the update but I think they will be passes for me. I will just continue to enjoy my copy of A Wrinkle in Time.

Are you all happily moved in? You've had a month, so I hope so! : )

>130 Berly: Thanks for checking in again, Kim!

I am all moved in, but not all unpacked. The books are unpacked but stuffed higgledy-piggledy on the bookshelves and stacked on the floor nearby. I am about one shelving unit short, thanks to letting go of 2 really ugly metal surplus bookcases. I am trying to use it as an opportunity to downsize to fit into the storage I have, but actually I am buying books faster than ever. Plus, I haven't completely sorted out my kitchen stuff. I was missing one essential box of kitchen equipment until I found it on Sunday in the giant pile of stuff temporarily in my parking spot until I get time to go through it all: a mess of gardening stuff, donations, and outdoor gear of various sorts.

Plus, I just ordered some organizing stuff online. I am waiting for it to arrive before deciding how to distribute stuff in my kitchen cabinets. I have the dishes figured out, but not utensils nor pantry goods.

And I still need to retrieve my bike from my temporary housing. I was going to bike it over to the condo soon after moving, but we got hit by snowstorms surprisingly early. It's all melted away and the roads are clear again, so I am procastinating about doing it this week. Maybe Thursday night.

Lots of booklovers here in cohousing. Shelving has been set up in a couple of hallway nooks and the common lounges. A few books have been added so far. Maybe I'll place my books to be donated there instead of taking them to a used bookstore or little free library.

I haven't kept up with my LT cataloguing. I was thinking of hiring a friend who's looking for odd jobs to spend time going through my books, organizing them on the shelves, and checking them against LT to get everything up to date.

I currently have stacks of recently acquired or read books to add here and haven't gotten around to it in a couple of months. Sigh. I don't understand how other folks here manage to collect and curate all those stats when I struggle to simply list books read.

>131 justchris: I'd organize your books... :D

>132 fuzzi: Ha! You are most kind! Actually, it's a sort of win-win situation--my friend desperately needs money but doesn't want to rely strictly on charity. Plus, she can't really do physically demanding odd jobs like in the past--she had to cut short the painting job for me. But cataloguing seems like it wouldn't be too demanding, even with moving all the books around. And I've wanted to do a systemic comparison of my physical collection to my LT inventory. So this seemed like a great opportunity to help a friend and get a backburner project done. And an opportunity for her to help a friend and get some money.

I've been taking it one room at a time. On Friday, I concentrated on clearing out the accumulation in the bathroom and putting it in working order. Today it's the bedroom. I am going through the LT stack--adding new books, listing read books, etc. Right now, they're all jumbled together.

Finished the latest bedtime reading. Decided I wanted to visit Miles Vorkosigan early in his life. This might be the first time I am rereading The Vor Game since I read it for my personal Hugo challenge all those years ago. Interesting to see Jole mentioned for the first time in passing, though I haven't yet read Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen.

I find it interesting that despite being a perennial fan favorite, Lois McMaster Bujold's books somehow don't appear on bookstore shelves, unlike perennially reissued books by Butcher, Dick, G. R. R. Martin, Tolkein, H. G. Wells, etc. Gosh, I wonder why that is? (Not really.)

Okay, sounds like serious organizational progress is being made here. : ) And I love the idea of enlisting your friend to catalog your books, too. Win-win!! Have fun with The Vor Game.

Bujold did just get named SFWA Grand Master, though.

https://locusmag.com/2019/12/bujold-named-sfwa-grand-master/

>134 justchris: another author who is missing from bookstore shelves is CJ Cherryh. I've had to round out my collection of her works mainly through internet sources.

>137 fuzzi: Yeah, I notice only the most recent of the Foreigner series are available. OTOH, it's good to see they're reissuing some of her early stuff, such as the Faded Sun trilogy.

>136 ronincats: All the more reason for her oeuvre to remain in print and available in bookstores, amirite? Thanks for sharing that news. I hadn't heard.

I just get tired of seeing dead white men's handful of books perpetually available and even beloved reader favorite female authors getting hardly any shelf space.

>135 Berly: Thanks, Kim! I appreciated the stories in Young Miles more on this second read than the first time, I think. It was fun to see Pym's introduction in "Mountains of Mourning" after loving him in A Civil Campaign, and to see Esterhazy get an honorable mention in the same story after the events of the preceding generation in Barrayar.

This weekend, I finally got my corner cabinet arranged and most of my food put away. Now I've got 5 days to kitten-proof the place before chaos on four tiny paws arrives.

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Solstice, some other tradition or none at all, this is what I wish for you!

Thank you for keeping me company in 2019.......onward to 2020.

>139 ronincats: Thank you for the holiday greetings, Roni!

>140 PaulCranswick: Thank you too, Paul.

I've done a better job this year in terms of LT activity. Admittedly, mostly lurking. Thank you both for keeping me connected, however intermittently and tenuously, to the group.

Best wishes to both of you for the New Year!

Best wishes this holiday season!!



Hope to see you in 2020!

>142 Berly: Thank you for the good wishes, Kim! That is a fantastic animation. Will definitely be around in 2020.

: )