jjmcgaffey reading in 2019

My fourth year in Club Read - hope I can bring in more conversations in my thread. Last year I actually got some posters, thank you! I do enjoy thread discussions.

I'm Jennifer; I live in Alameda, CA, with two cats. My parents live down the street (about a mile and a half away); one sister in Mountain View, about 45 minutes away, and the other in Reno, about 4 hours' drive away. I'm a Foreign Service brat who grew up moving around the world (more or less literally); it's very strange to me to be living in the same house for the 14th year this year. I cook, garden, stitch, do ceramics (taking a ceramics class, again, from my local senior center), sew, weave, braid, program, fix computers (run a home computer repair business) - and oh yeah, read.

I read mostly genre fiction - primarily science fiction and fantasy, which get grouped together as SF (speculative fiction). Then romances, mysteries, animal books, children's books (which include examples of all the genres...). I also read a lot of non-fiction - biography, sciences, history, words, etc. And craft books and cookbooks, which don't so much get _read_ but do get used and referenced. I don't read horror, and I don't read literary fiction - in both cases, because I don't enjoy being depressed by my reading.

Last year I blew away my goals - books read, which I expected to, and also my discards and BOMBs (Books Off My Bookshelf). So I'm going to up my goals; 200 books read (again, I expect to easily pass that), 60 BOMBs and 60 discards. I'm still working on my boxes of books, so those goals may be easy again...or not. I'm keeping the same rules - one BOMB read for each reread I want to do, and five BOMBs a month; try to match them with discards, but those are more variable. I'm not counting any other kind of book, even books for review (Early Reviewers, Netgalley, etc) - they'll count only if they're over a year old (and I have way too many of those...) and paper (ebooks never count as BOMBs or for discards).

Books Read



Books discarded



BOMBs read

Reading Rules

1 BOMB read for every reread; cannot read in arrears.

At least 5 BOMBs read every month (or read nothing but BOMBs at the beginning of the month until caught up).

# indicates re-read, % indicates borrowed book, @ indicates ebook, * indicates BOMB, ! indicates ER etc, ^ indicates new book

Read January-March

January
1. Leather Crafting Starter Book - @! - by Studio Tac Creative.
2. The Kingdom - @! - by Benoit Feroumont.
3. The Language of Spells - @! - by Garret Weyr.
4. The Ne'er-Do-Well - * - by Rex Beach.
5. Rocket Ship Galileo - # - by Robert Heinlein.
6. The Spirit Ring - @# - by Lois McMasters Bujold.
7. The Ultimate Instant Pot Cookbook - ^ - by Coco Morante.
8. The Missing Ingredient - @^ - by Jenny Linford.
9. Startide Rising - @* - by David Brin.
10. The Bartered Brides - @^ - by Mercedes Lackey.
11. The Curse of Chalion - @# - by Lois McMaster Bujold.
12. Paladin of Souls - @# - by Lois McMaster Bujold.
13. The Hallowed Hunt - @# - by Lois McMaster Bujold.
14. Kilmeny of the Orchard - @* - by L.M. Montgomery.
15. Penric's Demon - @# - by Lois McMaster Bujold.
16. Penric's Shaman - @# - by Lois McMaster Bujold.
17. Trolley to Yesterday - @* - by John Bellairs.

February
18. Rivers of London: Body Work, Issue 1 - @^ - by Ben Aaronovitch.
19. Rivers of London: Cry Fox, Issue 2 - @^ - by Ben Aaronovitch.
20. Rivers of London: Body Work, Issue 2 - @^ - by Ben Aaronovitch.
21. Rivers of London: Body Work, Issue 3 - @^ - by Ben Aaronovitch.
22. Rivers of London: Body Work, Issue 4 - @^ - by Ben Aaronovitch.
23. Rivers of London: Body Work, Issue 5 - @^ - by Ben Aaronovitch.
24. Leadership Lessons - @^ - by M.C.A. Hogarth.
25. Rivers of London Vol 2, Night Witch - @^ - by Ben Aaronovitch.
26. Alice's Adventures Under Ground - * - by Lewis Carroll.
27. Rivers of London Vol 3, Black Mould - @^ - by Ben Aaronovitch.
28. Rivers of London Vol 4, Detective Stories - @^ - by Ben Aaronovitch.
29. Rivers of London Vol 5, Cry Fox - @^ - by Ben Aaronovitch.
30. The Hanging Tree - @^ - by Ben Aaronovitch.
31. Bound to Rise - @^ - by Horatio Alger.
32. Risen from the Ranks - @^ - by Horatio Alger.
33. Herbert Carter's Legacy - @^ - by Horatio Alger.
34. In An Absent Dream - @^ - by Seanan McGuire.
35. The Road to Farringale - @^ - by Charlotte E. English.
36. Skellig - @^ - by David Almond.
37. Faerie Fruit - @^ - by Charlotte E. English.
38. Understood Betsy - @^ - by Dorothy Canfield Fisher.
39. A Bone From a Dry Sea - @^ - by Peter Dickinson.
40. Stormfront - @^ - by M.C.A. Hogarth.
41. Getting the Most Out of Life - ^ - by Reader's Digest.
42. Amulet Rampant - @^ - by M.C.A. Hogarth.
43. Only the Open - @^ - by M.C.A. Hogarth.
44. In Extremis - @^ - by M.C.A. Hogarth.
45. From Ruins - @^ - by M.C.A. Hogarth.
46. Beyond the Black Stump - @^ - by Nevil Shute.
47. Book Love - @^ - by Debbie Tung.

March
48. Legacies - @# - by Mercedes Lackey & Rosemary Edghill.
49. Skip-Leveling - @^ - by M.C.A. Hogarth.
50. Kris Longknife's Replacement - @^ - by Mike Shepherd.
51. Kris Longknife's Bloodhound - @^ - by Mike Shepherd.
52. Kris Longknife's Relief - @^ - by Mike Shepherd.
53. Who is Willing - @^ - by M.C.A. Hogarth.
54. The Levin-Gad - @^ - by Diane Duane.
55. Nine Goblins - @^ - by T. Kingfisher.
56. Poor Tom's Ghost - * - by Jane Louise Curry.
57. Tears of the Salamander - * - by Peter Dickinson.
58. Beautiful Joe - @^ - by Marshall Saunders.
59. Webster's Leap - * - by Eileen Dunlop.
60. The Boggart - # - by Susan Cooper.
61. Roughing It - @* - by Mark Twain.
62. The Boggart and the Monster - # - by Susan Cooper.
63. The Hedgewitch Queen - @* - by Lilith Saintcrow.
64. Diggers - @^ - by Terry Pratchett.
65. Wings - @^ - by Terry Pratchett.
66. A Little Princess - @# - by Frances Hodgson Burnett.
67. What Janie Wants - @^ - by Rhenna Morgan.
68. Snowspelled - @^ - by Stephanie Burgis.
69. Heart of Briar - @^ - by Laura Anne Gilman.
70. Kavik the Wolf Dog - ^ - by Walt Morey.

# indicates re-read, % indicates borrowed book, @ indicates ebook, * indicates BOMB, ! indicates ER etc, ^ indicates new book

Read April-June

April
71. A Pocketful of Stars - @^ - by Margaret Ball.
72. Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes - @^ - by Jonathan Auxier.
73. The Bread Book - ^ - by Linda Collister & Anthony Blake.
74. Astrophysics for People in a Hurry - @^ - by Neil DeGrasse Tyson.
75. Andy Grant's Pluck - @^ - by Horatio Alger.
76. Girl on Fire - @^ - by M.C.A. Hogarth.
77. Family - @# - by M.C.A. Hogarth.
78. Healer's Wedding - @^ - by M.C.A. Hogarth.
79. The Lawrence Browne Affair - %^ - by Cat Sebastian.
80. The Ghost in the Gardens - @! - by H.L. Carpenter.
81. Kat, Incorrigible - @^ - by Stephanie Burgis.
82. Fortune's Favors - @^ - by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller.
83. Down & Dirty - @^ - by Rhenna Morgan.
84. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet - @^ - by Becky Chambers.
85. Never After: Thirteen Twists on Familiar Tales - @! - by Marie Brennan.
86. Spellswept - @^ - by Stephanie Burgis.
87. Preserving with Pomona's Pectin - @^ - by Allison Carroll Duffy.
88. Lies Sleeping - @^ - by Ben Aaronovitch.
89. The Summer Queen - @^ - by Elizabeth Chadwick.
90. The Children of Green Knowe - @# - by L.M. Boston.
91. The River at Green Knowe - @# - by L.M. Boston.
92. The Lady - @* - by Anne McCaffrey.
93. Saving the Sheriff - @! - by Kadie Scott.

May
94. February Thaw - @^ - by Tanya Huff.
95. That Ain't Witchcraft - @^ - by Seanan McGuire.
96. Linnea in Monet's Garden - %^ - by Christina Bjork.
97. The Elders are Watching - %^ - by Roy Henry Vickers.
98. The Penderwicks - @^ - by Jeanne Birdsall.
99. The Man Who Would Be Kling - @! - by Adam Roberts.
100. It Takes a Thief - @^ - by Kay Hooper.
101. Points of Departure - @^ - by Patrica Wrede & Pamela Dean.
102. A Closed and Common Orbit - @^ - by Becky Chambers.
103. Kris Longknife's Assassin - @^ - by Mike Shepherd.
104. The Uncommon Reader - @^ - by Alan Bennett.
105. It Takes Two to Tumble - %^ - by Cat Sebastian.
106. Shiftless - @^ - by Aimee Easterling.
107. Pack Princess - @^ - by Aimee Easterling.

June
108. Moonwalking with Einstein - ^ - by Joshua Foer.
109. The Hub: Dangerous Territory - @* - by James Schmitz.
110. Telzey Amberdon - @# - by James Schmitz.
111. The Hawk of the Castle - %^ - by Danna Smith.
112. ...And Then You Die of Dysentery - %^ - by Lauren Reeves.
113. Original Edition of Edited Schmitz Stories - @* - by James Schmitz.
114. The Casual Quilter - ^ - by Robin Strobel.
115. The Cottages on Silver Beach - ^ - by RaeAnne Thayne.
116. Nobody's Victims - @! - by Leslie Fish.
117. The Iron Wyrm Affair - @* - by Lilith Saintcrow.

# indicates re-read, % indicates borrowed book, @ indicates ebook, * indicates BOMB, ! indicates ER etc, ^ indicates new book

Read July-September

July
118. The Monarch of the Glen - @^ - by Neil Gaiman.
119. Two Years Before the Mast - @* - by Richard Henry Dana Jr.
120. Farmer's Crown - @^ - by M.C.A. Hogarth.
121. Claws and Starships - @^ - by M.C.A. Hogarth.
122. Dragonhaven - @# - by Robin McKinley.
123. In the Line of Duty - @^ - by M.C.A. Hogarth.
124. The First Men in the World - * - by Anne Terry White.
125. Sword of the Alliance - @^ - by M.C.A. Hogarth.
126. Joe's Luck - @^ - by Horatio Alger.
127. The Telzey Toy and Other Stories - # - by James H. Schmitz.

August
128. Earwig and the Witch - @^ - by Diana Wynne Jones.
129. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell - @* - by Susanna Clarke.
130. Enchanted Glass - # - by Diana Wynne Jones.
131. Alpha Ascendant - @^ - by Aimee Easterling.
132. The Fire Bird - @^ - by Gene Stratton-Porter.
133. Musicophilia - * - by Oliver Sacks.
134. The Hippo at the End of the Hall - ! - by Helen Cooper.
135. Marilla of Green Gables - @^ - by Sarah McCoy.
136. Michael O'Halloran - @^ - by Gene Stratton-Porter.
137. T'N'T Telzey & Trigger - @# - by James H. Schmitz.
138. Nights of the Round Table and Other Stories of Heroic Fantasy - @^ - by Tanya Huff.
139. Cold-Forged Flame - @^ - by Marie Brennan.
140. Lightning In the Blood - @^ - by Marie Brennan.
141. Today I Am Carey - %^ - by Martin L. Shoemaker.

September
142. The Collectors - @^ - by Jacqueline West.
143. The Grey Seas Under - * - by Farley Mowat.
144. The River's Gift - ^ - by Mercedes Lackey.
145. The Prisoner of Limnos - @^ - by Lois McMaster Bujold.
146. The Orphans of Raspay - @^ - by Lois McMaster Bujold.
147. Nanya of the Butterflies - @^ - by Barbara Hambly.
148. Minor Mage - @^ - by T. Kingfisher.
149. Season's Meaning - @^ - by M.C.A. Hogarth.
150. Dark Lighthouse - @^ - by M.C.A. Hogarth.
151. Nerve - # - by Dick Francis.
152. Knife Children - @^ - by Lois McMaster Bujold.
153. Hazard - @^ - by Barbara Hambly.
154. Degrees of Separation - @^ - by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller.
155. Block Party - @# - by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller.
156. Today I Remember - @%^ - by Martin L. Shoemaker.
157. The Landlady - @^ - by Diane Duane.
158. Eye Spy - @^ - by Mercedes Lackey.
159. The October Man - @^ - by Ben Aaronovitch.
160. Best of British Fantasy 2018 - @! - by Jared Shurin.
161. The Unkindest Tide - @^ - by Seanan McGuire.
162. The Library of Ever - @^ - by Zeno Alexander.
163. One Fell Sweep - @^ - by Ilona Andrews.
164. In Small Things Forgotten - * - by James Deetz.

# indicates re-read, % indicates borrowed book, @ indicates ebook, * indicates BOMB, ! indicates ER etc, ^ indicates new book

Read October-December

October
165. The Tropic of Serpents - @^ - by Marie Brennan.
166. Accepting the Lance - @^ - by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller.
167. Nurk - @^ - by Ursula Vernon.
168. (Sur)real - @^ - by Melissa Haag.
169. Miss Hickory - ^ - by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey.
170. Here Is Your War - * - by Ernie Pyle.
171. Revision 7: DNA - @! - by Terry Persun.
172. The Twisted Ones - @^ - by T. Kingfisher.
173. A Single Shard - @^ - by Linda Sue Park.
174. Fairest in the Land - @^ - by Barbara Hambly.
175. Third Time Lucky - @^ - by Tanya Huff.
176. Jack and Jill - ^ - by Louisa May Alcott.
177. Arcanum 101 - Welcome New Students - @# - by Mercedes Lackey & Rosemary Edghill.
178. The Long List Anthology 2 - @^ - by David Steffen.
179. The Wicked Earls Club - @^ - by Tammy Andresen.
180. The Story Girl - @* - by L.M. Montgomery.
181. Sweep of the Blade - @^ - by Ilona Andrews.

November
182. The Trespassers - @* - by Zilpha Keatley Snyder.
183. One Day on Beetle Rock - ^ - by Sally Carrighar.
184. Elemental Magic - # - by Mercedes Lackey.
185. If You Didn't Bring Jerky, What Did I Just Eat? - @^ - by Bill Heavey.
186. The House of Green Turf - @^ - by Ellis Peters.
187. Mourning Raga - @# - by Ellis Peters.
188. The Grass Widow's Tale - @# - by Ellis Peters.
189. Death and Relaxation - @^ - by Devon Monk.

December

Reserved in case I need it.

Thread open!

Dropping off my star, Jenn!

Hi, Roni and Susan! Good to see you here.

I've just finished off 2018's thread, with appropriate stats (and a last-minute series reread). Ready for the new year!

I had a very nice New Years Day - went over to my parents' house and we ate bubalki (poppy seed sauce over boiled bread balls. Sweet and rich and a New Years Day tradition - Slovak, I believe, from my mother's mother). Played my games (Pokemon Go and Ingress), walked in the park, cleaned my house (vacuumed), finished a sewing project (re-sewed the casing on the laundry bag I just made), cleaned out a box of stuff and got rid of some of it and put the rest in much more useful locations. Read a little bit. Played guitar. Read and posted on LT, and now early to bed.

If what you do on New Years Day you'll do all year, I've got a really good year coming up!

I saw your stats--very impressive!!

First day of ceramics today - I glazed the pie bird I threw last semester, that's all. I think it's too big and chunky, but I'll have to see - compare it to Mom's bird (which is the type specimen, as far as we're concerned). And a new classmate who is a friend from Alameda Backyard Growers. She's in her first semester of class and ended up in the afternoon, Intermediate, class - we'll have to see how that works out. I gave her some hints, but that's kind of scattershot rather than a smooth progression of learning.

Also the third day of a class on Food Business entrepreneurship - I've had a dream for quite a while of making candy and baked goods and selling them. The class is being useful in pricking some bubbles - but I may end up with a business from it after all, we'll see. The problem is that it's twice a week and an hour's drive away - through rush hour traffic. Tuesdays and Thursdays, which are my busy days anyway...ghahh. It makes for a long day.

I'm slowly working on my balcony garden - when I'm home and awake and it's not raining. That's not happening a lot, though I did get two pots scrubbed out in December and last week I started moving plants out of the Earthboxes that haven't yet been scrubbed. Moved a Thai basil inside because it's flowering; see if it will set seed. I harvested all the rest of the basil because the plants were dying in the cold. I want to start some more basil in the Aerogarden and keep them growing inside; again, we'll see if a) I actually get around to doing it before it's basil weather outside and b) if it works (assuming I do it).

I'm still playing guitar, at least a little. I've been playing off and on, mostly off, for years; in November, there was a Habitica challenge to play your instrument every day. I didn't quite manage every day, but I did play quite a bit, and I picked up an app called Justin Guitar for beginning guitar players. In some ways it's way too easy for me - I know (can play, with reasonable ease) 10-12 chords, so his "put one finger here, and one here, and one here - that's an A!" is too basic for me. On the other hand, I'm self-taught, or taught by my sister - so I learned a couple chords and started playing songs. The exercises he has in the app are making my chord changes and my strumming a lot faster and smoother, respectively. Halfway through December, I paid for a year's subscription to the app. My one complaint about it is that the songs he includes are basically all rock and pop - and I simply don't know (have never heard, as far as I know) 90% of them, and the ones I "know" I don't really know the tune, let alone the words. I can sing along to the chorus, sort of. Which makes it kind of hard to play them. He also uses a Guitar Hero style for teaching - and I've never played any of those games, so it looks really weird and pointless to me. I want chords over words, not bubbles that quiver when I'm supposed to play them. So I use his exercises and my own songs.

My sister and I are considering whether we can set up a video conference to play together - or rather, whether we can find a time we're both available to do so (we have a family videoconference every week, so setting that up is no problem). We'll see. Gee, I say that a lot...

So @humoress posted in my last-years thread, and I responded to her - and thought I was posting over here. Copying that post...

(re: Lois McMasters Bujold's fantasy)
Good! I avoided her fantasy for years (because she was an SF writer, darn it!), and it was a waste of my time - the Chalion books and the Sharing Knife and Penric and...are just as good and rich as her SF, with very different angles but very worth reading.

It's actually something I've noticed several times recently - someone who was, in my mind, very firmly on one side suddenly starts writing the other, and it's excellent. Bujold is one; going the other direction, Tanya Huff. Probably Elizabeth Moon did the same thing, but by the time I noticed her she was writing both. Oh, David Weber, too. Some of the reasons why I don't try to separate my fantasy and science fiction...

I've been having a couple null days - I might be sick, but if so there aren't a lot of symptoms aside from sore eyes and a total lack of energy. Yesterday kind of disappeared in a haze. Today was heading the same way, but I got myself in gear a bit and made a quiche (which I've been _intending_ to do since before Christmas) and a new gingerbread recipe, very nice. I didn't go to the ceramics workshop, or to the farmers' market, or to my food business class - that one, I was seriously uncertain if I could drive all the way down there and back up, and decided not to risk it.

I haven't even been reading much, because I'm stalled - I'm supposed to read BOMBs before I can reread all the books that are calling to me (from Nerve as a shared read, to Rocket Ship Galileo, to half a dozen others. I'm reading a BOMB, but it is a really STUPID book - I want to finish it and get rid of it, it's not stupid enough to drop, but Our Hero has a serious case of affluenza and just expects to win every time and he's driving me nuts. It's set at the building of the Panama Canal (not sure if it was a contemporary or recent-historical novel when it was written). The Ne'er-Do-Well by Rex Beach. It's a chunkster, but I should be able to power through it regardless - and I just can't, I'm stalling out after a couple of chapters every time.

So I have decided that this year (as a gift because I beat all my goals last year), I get to use up my paid-for rereads from last year. I had 14 at the end of the year. That makes things a lot better - and I'm going to start Nerve tomorrow.

Books Read
1. Leather Crafting Starter Book @! by Studio Tac Creative. Review - Interesting, though the ARC is missing some patterns. I'll be trying to make some of these projects.
2. The Kingdom @! by Benoit Feroumont. Review - Mildly interesting story full of totally uninteresting, mostly nasty characters. Not looking for another.
3. The Language of Spells @! by Garret Weyr. Review - Very rich, rather odd childrens story - dragons in WWII Europe, with some interesting angles. Enjoyed it - want to see the finished art (I read an ARC, with sketches).
4. The Ne'er-Do-Well * by Rex Beach. Review - Yuck. Clash of affluenzas. Utter slog, but I finished it. Out!
5. Rocket Ship Galileo # by Robert Heinlein. Review - Mildly fun as always. Not a favorite, but not bad. Too many random extra events for my taste, though.

Currently Reading
Nerve by Dick Francis (whose name I apparently can't type - five tries for "francis"!), for a shared read. The Missing Ingredient by Jenny Linford - interesting non-fiction, from last year. Roughing It by Mark Twain - started last year and dropped it, starting again. A bunch of others I've either read the first few pages of and stopped, or have put on my to-read-next list but haven't actually started...so I'll wait until I actually start reading them.

BOMBs
The Ne'er-Do-Well - in several senses of the term.

Discards
The Ne'er-Do-Well. Get out of my life!

New/Reread
Four new, including the BOMB (and three Netgalley books), one reread. Since I did read one BOMB before I finished the reread, I still have 14 rereads paid for.

Yay, I finished it! and then I finished Rocket Ship Galileo in a couple hours (having read almost the first chapter earlier). Boy, that book was a stopper. I'm going for some light stuff for a while.

Made it over!

Happy New Year Jennifer! And happy new thread!



Wishing you and your family the best for 2019.

>14 jjmcgaffey: I did have a dream of making candy and baked goods too. But I can't get candy, chocolate or paste flowers to work - I'm blaming the climate in this country - and I enjoy making my kids' birthday cakes for their parties which both fall at the end of November/ beginning of December and then that about does me in for the next 12 months. And while they're fun, they definitely look home-made; I've been watching the birthday cake professionals on TV and I couldn't match their output.

Welcome, Nina! Thanks!

Yeah, that is part of the problem - I'd have to get my recipes much more firmly under control before I tried to make them to sell. I can make great candy - I just can't make it consistently. Baked goods I'm better at (brownies, cookies - not cakes, or at least not decorated cakes. Good taste, not so much fancy looks), but they're more complicated to sell (shorter shelf life), so I'd rather start with candy. If. It's still definitely if.

I came thisclose to starting up a career doing custom decorated cookies and cakes. I had a food handler's license, took some small business courses, and was pastry cheffing at a local restaurant, selling my own wares to other bakeries, and doing freelance work—and I had encouraging responses from everyone to go for it. But at some point I thought out the trajectory of doing this kind of work full-time (which would have meant a minimum of 60 hours a week)... I had just turned 40 and it seemed to me that was almost the equivalent of deciding to go into pro sports at that age. Plus food service in NYC is crazy competitive... I would have worked like a dog, mostly on my feet, just to get a foothold in the business. (Mind you, I was looking at this as a full-on career to support myself and a ravenous teenage boy, not as a side gig.) So I did a 180 and became an editor and now spend my days sitting on my ass in front of a computer. It's a trade-off, and I miss the physicality of baking, but not that full-body exhaustion! I only do it for love now, not money.

My goodness, I am envious! I have not baked anything for quite a long time, although I used to do a lot of baking, especially at the holidays. I have beautiful large Santa and angel molds, and for a couple of years I made chocolate Santas and angels using them. I also made several kinds of cookies. Yikes!

>20 LadyoftheLodge: I made my own cookie cutters for tiny gingerbread houses - about 3 inches high and about 2 square. I still have the cutters but I haven't made the houses in several years.

>19 lisapeet: Cool! Yes, that's a consideration too...though it's not quite as crazy competitive around here. At least I don't think it is. It would still be a lot of work...

>21 jjmcgaffey: And if you're not trying to structure it as a full-on business with health and liability insurance, etc., you'll probably have more fun with the project. Do take a food handler's course if your city or county offers one. Aside from being informative, having that certificate can save you trouble down the line, and it's a pretty painless process.

>22 lisapeet: Yes. The teacher of the course says we should all take a food service manager's certificate - an 8 hour day of study and a test. Sounds worth it to me, though I haven't looked in to it yet.

Books Read
6. The Spirit Ring @# by Lois McMasters Bujold. Review - Lovely, and memorable - I hadn't read it in over a decade but it was still familiar.
7. The Ultimate Instant Pot Cookbook ^ by Coco Morante. Review - Interesting ideas, I'll have to cook some of these recipes and see how it does.
8. The Missing Ingredient @^ by Jenny Linford. Review - Interesting angle on an old subject - food in terms of time necessary (from caramel - seconds - to cheese - months - to balsamic vinegar - years).
9. Startide Rising @* by David Brin. Review - Meh. Too much scheming. Not terrible, but not a favorite
10. The Bartered Brides @^ by Mercedes Lackey. Review - Not bad - less Lovecraft than the last. I'm amused Alderscroft et al have finally managed to pin the girls down into Elemental Magery… Too Sherlockian, though.

Currently Reading
The Cottages on Silver Beach by RaeAnne Thayne - picked it up from a LFL today and I feel like reading it. Theoretically I'm (still) reading Nerve and Roughing It. I keep dipping in and out of Sin's Doorway by Manly Wade Wellman - but many of the stories in it hover on the edge of horror (and some fall right over) so I can't handle much at one time. Lots more lined up but I'm not actually reading any of them.

BOMBs
The Brin is the only one.

Discards
Brin. I have it as an ebook - not sure I'll ever reread, but I definitely don't need to keep the paper copy.

New/Reread
One BOMB, one reread, three new books. So I _still_ have 14 rereads paid for.

I'm reading - or at least starting - books as they come in, which is very odd for me. Both the IP Cookbook and the RaeAnne Thayne I just started got read the same day they came into my life (well, got started being read). I'd been reading The Missing Ingredient for quite a while, since last November - interesting but rather dense non-fiction. A nice mix of gotta, want to, and just for fun.

>24 jjmcgaffey: The Missing Ingredient does sound like a fascinating read, and I've been learning more about the Instant Pot (I got one for Christmas in 2017 and then it sat on a shelf for almost a year before I used it). I'm still at the "must use recipes" stage of things, so I am looking for good cookbooks and the like. So far I am loving the fact that I can go from dry beans to fully edible food in something like 90 minutes, max (as opposed to soaking and waiting and all the rest).

I just got an IP - someone got one as a gift and didn't want it, so they sold it to me for half price along with the book. I have, of course, checked out (or rather, put on hold) half a dozen IP cookbooks from the library - all the ones from people I know and trust have long hold lines on them already, oh well. I haven't used it yet - I only got it last Sunday - but I'm reading cookbooks and trying to decide what to make. Probably yogurt, just to see how it differs from the way I usually make it (heated on the stove, fermented in hot water in a styrofoam cooler - no electricity or other power after the initial heating).

Books Read
11. The Curse of Chalion @# by Lois McMaster Bujold. Review - Lovely as always. Such a rich story…I read part of it on paper when my phone ran out of battery.
12. Paladin of Souls @# by Lois McMaster Bujold. Review - It's amazing how much story is packed into this - Ista's pilgrimage is a story in itself, and it's less than a third of the book. Multiple reread, and I'll read it again.
13. The Hallowed Hunt @# by Lois McMaster Bujold. Review - I think I actually like Ingrey and Ijara better than the Chalion characters - again, very rich story that rewards rereading.
14. Kilmeny of the Orchard @* by L.M. Montgomery. Review - Terribly sweet love story, with utterly wooden characters. Poor Neil.
15. Penric's Demon @# by Lois McMaster Bujold. Review - Lovely as always - I'd somehow never reviewed it before! Fourth or fifth reading, I think.
16. Penric and the Shaman @# by Lois McMaster Bujold. Review - Great story, as always. I wanted to read this right after Hallowed Hunt to see the connections, and they are very nicely depicted.
17. Trolley to Yesterday @* by John Bellairs. Review - Amazingly stupid collection of dei ex machina. That's my last Bellairs.

Currently Reading
Pretty much the same as last time - The Cottage on Silver Beach, Nerve, Roughing It, Sin's Doorway...and adding Alice's Adventures Underground, the original story that became Alice in Wonderland. So far I've read the intro, which is more about the real Alice than about the story.

BOMBs
Two - Kilmeny and Trolley to Yesterday.

Discards
Both BOMBs are out - one is sickly sweet, one is intensely stupid. I read both of them as ebooks, so I'll have to dig out the paper copies, but they're out.

New/Reread
Five rereads, two new (BOMBs). I am using those leftover rereads - good!

I don't think I'll make my BOMBs or discards goal this month, but that's OK - I have time to make it up. I'm pretty close - 4 BOMBs and 4 discards (of 5 and 5). Both BOMBs have been awful, so I'm not inspired to read more - but I will, I'll find something better. Roughing It should be good, so should Alice (both are BOMBs). But I'm glad I've had my rereads - all old favorites.

So far I have made yogurt in the Instant Pot - not bad, though it cooked on to the bottom of the pot more than my usual way. The result was pretty good. And brown rice - which screwed up, but it was my fault. I forgot to turn the valve to Sealing, so it vented for quite a while before I heard it and turned the valve - so it was short of water. The result was tasty, but a lot more chewy than I'm used to, and again it cooked onto the bottom a bit. Not too bad, though.

Today we went to the White Elephant sale - it's the primary fundraiser for the Museum of Oakland, and this is the 60th year (Diamond Jubilee). They take over a huge warehouse and fill it with donations, sorted by type - men's and women's clothes, shoes, sewing, linens, bric-a-brac, art, toys, sports equipment, jewelry, "boutique" which is china and glassware, office supplies, housewares, electronics, music...and of course books. The sorting is all done by volunteers (including my mom). They start sorting in October (donations come in year-round, though there's a surge in January and February), volunteers get to shop first, then there's a preview sale at the end of January (which is paid entry), limited shopping days throughout February which you can get into if you either know a volunteer and get a badge from them, or donate to the sale and get two one-day stickers. Then the first weekend in March it's open shopping - literally thousands of people pour into the warehouse and buy huge amounts of stuff; Sunday everything (that's left) gets much cheaper, including bag sales (of books, among other things). And after Sunday they get rid of everything, and start again for the next year. It's raised literally millions of dollars for the museum, and grown every year - they're looking for a bigger warehouse, but haven't found one yet. Parking is always a pain on the open weekend - it wasn't too wonderful today, which was the first shopping day, but I lucked out and got a spot a block from the door.

I got some sheets (very nice ones), and a Beka Simmer-pot - it's a kind of self-contained double boiler, from Germany. You pour water in the handle, like for an iron, and it controls the heat of cooking so that milk doesn't burn, creamy sauces don't curdle, etc. I'll have to see how well it works. It was cheap enough it was worth trying - true of a lot of stuff at the White Elephant. I didn't get to the book section - we were short on time, and that's an area that takes a while to go through thoroughly.

>27 jjmcgaffey: I don't know that I like any lead male character better than Cazaril, but Ingray has a lovely grittiness that plays so well with the other delightfully difficult characters. Paladin of Souls has just that whiff of Mary Sue, that distances it's virtues for me.

>29 quondame: Huh. She spends so much time being utterly frustrated, trying to figure out what she's _supposed_ to do and what she _wants_ to do - if it's a Mary Sue, it doesn't speak well for Bujold's self-esteem, to my mind.

I first read Curse of Chalion immediately after a Miles binge, and Cazaril has never quite shaken the link. Especially since he spends most of the book in physical pain of one sort or another, and (at least that time) shared enough of Miles' mannerisms that...well, late in the book it mentions that he's six feet tall and it caused momentary cognitive dissonance. On future readings, not so close to a Miles binge, the mannerism match isn't enough to notice - but I still think of him as a Miles (and I admire but dislike Miles). So I like Ingrey best. YMMV.

And despite my piles of 'currently reading', what I picked up late last night (partly as anodyne against Bellairs!) was Ben Aaronovitch's The Hanging Tree. I had stalled out in that series after Foxglove Summer - now I've got two whole novels to devour in quick succession (I also have Lies Sleeping available...though I'd like to finish at least one of my CR books before I go off on that!). Oh, and apparently the graphic novels (which I also have, in e-form (all of these are ebooks)) come between Foxglove Summer and The Hanging Tree, since he mentions I think all of them as events in the recent past in the first few chapters of The Hanging Tree. So I suppose I ought to get to reading those, too...

>30 jjmcgaffey: I'd be interested to hear why you don't like Miles. I must admit that these are not books I read critically :-).

>30 jjmcgaffey: Ista gets onto the road by page 38, which really is pretty quickly. I was more referring to her being given "special divine powers" and an landing a convenient boyfriend. Noticeably older that Ista even when I first read Paladin of Souls I didn't find her very tentative - just not always sure how to deal with the loving prison that had grown around her. I never found Cazaril the least Miles-like, though in one of her few flaws, certain tics of authorial voice are shared. The "Oh" signal of recognition throws me out of Bujold's narrative every single time. Cazaril is introduced feeling he's at the end of his ambitions (poor fool) while Miles is always coiled tight or comatose.

>31 rhian_of_oz: I can imagine anyone who actually met (a) Miles (like person) to understand possible dislike. I love reading about him, and he would liven up a room, but might blow it up too.

>32 quondame: Well, yeah, lots of special powers - which she doesn't want, would like to reject but can't quite manage to do so because if she does everything goes to hell (more or less literally)... Finding her "true love" is rather convenient, I admit. And makes her choices simpler, somewhat. She's still trying to figure out what she wants and what she must do while she's on the pilgrimage - all the way up to the zombie's final sortie, she's struggling. At least, that's how I see her. Caz gets lots of special powers too, and hates them only slightly more than Ista does...

>31 rhian_of_oz: Yes, quondame has it - I enjoy reading about Miles (in small doses), but if I read more than one novel at a time I start feeling as if he were really near me - and that would be awful.

I actually read the series forward (more or less as it came out) up until Mirror Dance...and stalled. Could not convince myself to read any more, could not bear to encounter Miles again. Then Diplomatic Immunity came out and I couldn't resist reading more about the Quaddies (I loved Falling Free)... and...Miles is married?! What, how, read the book before (A Civil Campaign). Which required me to read Komarr, which... I read backward to Mirror Dance, and have been able to read the later books as they came out - but I can't do what I usually do which is reread the whole series as each new book shows up. Miles is just too...too something for me. I like him better after Memory, he's a little less...intense?

My summing up of Miles comes from a quite early scene - in...Warrior's Apprentice, I think. He's snatched the damaged ship and its pilot, and has grabbed the pilot's energy drink. He's literally bouncing off the walls trying to think of the next step - and his brain is more active than his body. Then he collapses; Elena and...the bodyguard (brain fart, can't remember his name, Elena's father) get all worried. Pilot says "I was wondering how long he'd stay that frenetic, that's normal with that drink." Pauses, looks at the other two..."You mean, he's like that _all_the_time_?!" Yeah. Not someone I want to be around much.

>32 quondame: The mannerism I remember is a tight upward jerk (of his head? body?), trying to pretend he's not in extreme pain. It was all physical, they're not (as you say) similar in outlook (aside from a heavy sense of responsibility). And on this reread, I didn't notice the similarities - and noticed that I didn't notice them. It was just the coincidence of having read two, maybe even three Miles books just before I read Curse - but now that the link is made, I can't quite shed it.

January stats
17 books read
7 rereads
10 new books
11 rereads paid for

4926 pages read, average 289.8

4 BOMBs
0 ER books
3 Netgalley books

13 ebooks, 4 paper books

4 discards

9 SF&F
0 animal stories
2 children's
3 non-fiction
1 general fiction
1 romances
1 graphic novels
0 mysteries

10 F, 7 M authors

Definitely using those rereads. Not bad on my goals, though I'm behind a bit (as I said earlier). Usual imbalance towards female authors (though 6 of the 10 are the same person...so it's actually 7 and 7). Pretty good start to the year.

And amusingly enough, I read the exact same number of books this January as I did last January. Reusing my spreadsheet (well, a copy of my spreadsheet - I still have last year's, as well), I didn't need to adjust the monthly section. We'll see if that happens again - probably not.

>32 quondame: and >33 jjmcgaffey: Ah yes, I see what you mean. In one of the books someone (one of the Koudelka girls I think) referred to him as Mad Miles and I can see that he would be exhausting to live with. I certainly feel like he matures as the series progresses - some of that is simply a function of age, and some I think due to the events in Mirror Dance and Memory.

Miles in large doses IS exhausting. Reminds me of when I tried reading a Calvin & Hobbs book instead of just the daily strip. I could just imagine having to help a teacher deal with Calvin in a school room (because that's one of the things I did as a school psychologist).

I had never thought of the similarity, but yeah, it works. Yikes.

Oof. Today was the last day of the food business class - rapid-fire review, followed by certificates (for those who attended at least 8 of the 10 classes), and then a dinner - catered food plus samples from various people. I brought chocolate-dipped toffee balls, but not nearly enough for everyone. Those who got them enjoyed them, though. I dipped them in the bain-marie I just bought - problem: at the medium heat level it says to put it on, there's a constant plume of steam from the entry hole. Which, until I put the fan on, was threatening to drop into the chocolate and ruin it. I'll try it again, at a much lower temperature. The chocolate did melt beautifully and without any threat of burning.

Oof for two reasons - I will no longer have to drive for an hour in rush-hour traffic and half an hour after rush hour, twice a week. The class was interesting, the location was very difficult. And I don't know if I'll actually be able to start a business; the startup costs are likely to be prohibitive (licenses, incorporating, equipment, marketing, getting my stuff into stores/selling at farmers markets (more licenses)...etc etc). But I think I'll hone the recipes anyway. I made the toffee and poured-and-scraped it into the little round ball silicon molds, and it worked beautifully. I'll be using them for toffee and other things for gifts, at least, even if I don't end up selling.

And the other reason is, lots of (yummy) food after I'd eaten a meal already because every other time I've gone to class it was eat before I go or don't eat until 9:30 or 10 pm, which wasn't happening. So oof physically too.

Tuesdays and Thursdays have been a major pain for the last five weeks - and now I'm freeeee!!!

In Ceramics, I've been totally - well, nearly - uninspired, didn't have anything I wanted to make. So I started checking our glaze supplies and figuring out what we _actually_ have vs what's on the list. Showed my results to the teacher and she was delighted, now I'm officially in charge of tracking glazes. The ongoing task (now that we have an accurate list, and test tiles for all the glazes we have - they're in the kiln now) is checking glaze amounts, and combining partial bottles (of which we have _many_). It takes a while - take down all the bottles of a glaze, stir them up, combine any partials, note the final numbers, put them back, get out the next set...But there's already noticeably more room on the shelves, and fewer basically-empty bottles sitting around and being ignored.

And I've started a new Habitica challenge, again playing guitar every day - and this time commenting on Discord, a chat app. I also recorded myself playing a song (Barrett's Privateers) and put it up. It's interesting talking to people on there. Discord seems to be taking over my life - I'm on a PokemonGo server as well (though I don't pay it much attention - not that into the game) and a friend's server as well. Weird.

I go bed now (it's not _quite_ midnight yet) - busy day tomorrow too, Mom and I are going to the White Elephant and to Costco. And I'll be helping them set up their new Google Fi phones - they finally bought designed-for-Fi phones, amusingly enough the same one I have and my sister. Four of the five of us have the exact same phone (Moto x4) - though in very different cases, so we should be able to tell them apart. It's too slim and slippery _not_ to be in a case, to my mind. G'nite.

>38 jjmcgaffey: You sound like a one-person artistic commune. In the SCA pentathlons are for individuals like yourself who strive in many directions.

Yeah. I've not entered many competitions, nor did very well in the ones I've entered (though I did win one...with one other person entering. Hmmph.). I should take one of those "don't be scared of documentation" classes that show up every Collegium.

But yes, I do a little bit of everything instead of focusing on one thing...which is more fun, I think, but doesn't get me noticed (in the SCA or in mundane life - nor much money, in mundane life). No single passion, here. I'm always finding something new to add to my interests - and then getting books about it to work out how to do it. Some things get replaced, or put aside for a while - not books, though.

Books Read
18. Rivers of London: Body Work, Issue 1 @^ by Ben Aaronovitch. Review - Short, but interesting. It's basically a chapter in a fuller story; the depictions aren't quite how I'd visualized people, but it's clear who's who.
19. Rivers of London: Cry Fox, Issue 2 @^ by Ben Aaronovitch. Review - Oops. I was just trying to find if I could read them - found them in Hoopla, but this is very late in the sequence. Read it again when I reach this point again.
20. Rivers of London: Body Work, Issue 2 @^ by Ben Aaronovitch. Review - Same slice of a story; the bit in the back about Richmond was interesting, since I'd lived there. The timeline gets extremely confused near the start.
21. Rivers of London: Body Work, Issue 3 @^ by Ben Aaronovitch. Review - Stuff piling up - but I'd hate to have read these individually. Hard enough all in a row. Hammersmith is interesting (again, because I lived there).
22. Rivers of London: Body Work, Issue 4 @^ by Ben Aaronovitch. Review - Same thing - information adding up in interesting ways. And a (n unpleasant) bit of Nightingale's past.
23. Rivers of London: Body Work, Issue 5 @^ by Ben Aaronovitch. Review - A very...convenient ending - too quick and easy, to my mind. And still, even looking at the whole lot, a very short story.
24. Leadership Lessons @^ by M.C.A. Hogarth. Review - Lovely, though again short. I do like Alysha.
25. Rivers of London Vol 2, Night Witch @^ by Ben Aaronovitch. Review - Started with individual issues, gave up and found the collected book, which was easier to read. Not wonderful - relationships I don't remember form a lot of the basis of the story. Beverly and Maxsim are amusing.
26. Alice's Adventures Under Ground * by Lewis Carroll. Review - Cute, sweet, less than Wonderland - glad I read it, don't care if I ever read it again.
27. Rivers of London Vol 3, Black Mould @^ by Ben Aaronovitch. Review - OK, this one is WEIRD. Not sure why so many got targeted. Again, rather convenient ending (it wasn't being solved any other way!) but nice.
28. Rivers of London Vol 4, Detective Stories @^ by Ben Aaronovitch. Review - Interesting - a collection of (even shorter) bits, from much earlier in Peter's career (one is his first independent case, with Lesley).
29. Rivers of London Vol 5, Cry Fox @^ by Ben Aaronovitch. Review - Not bad, but more interesting for its images than for its story.
30. The Hanging Tree @^ by Ben Aaronovitch. Review - Good book, but the arc of the series is so strong it kind of obscures _this_ story.
31. Bound to Rise @^ by Horatio Alger. Review - Not bad, for an Alger - Harry actually works for most of his "lucky" strokes. Terrible scanning job, though, whole lines are missing (I only know because what's left makes no sense). Ah, newer edition on PG.

Currently Reading
The next Alger about Harry - Risen from the Ranks. Beyond that, the same set of stuff that I haven't gotten (back) to for quite a while. Oh, and a Readers Digest book called Getting the Most Out of Life - which is actually quite interesting. Lots of short (compressed, extracted) essays about outlook and choices and so on.

BOMBs
Alice is the only one.

Discards
Discarded Alice - fun read, but I don't need to read it again. Everything else was ebooks.

New/Reread
All new - no rereads in this lot. So 12 rereads paid for, now.

Reading a lot, though most of them are very short. I had some of the Rivers of London comics in e-versions, but it's a PAIN to read them - I can only do it on my 10" tablet, and even that requires some squinting and use of a magnifier. I found the collected books on Hoopla, and that's a lot better. Oh, I should return them now I've read them... Then I finished the Rivers of London novel and despite saying I'd be moving on to the next right away, I wanted something of an entirely different flavor. Alger is certainly that...

I'm also reading the Readers Digest book - it's funny. There are hundreds, swarms of essays and apps and systems and things about "keeping the streak going" on good habits. I even use some of them. But I was keeping the streak going for its own sake, which meant it felt all right to cheat a little - "well, I didn't play guitar very long today but I did play" or "I played a really long time yesterday so I'm going to skip today". The essay, in rather antique language, finally made the idea behind maintaining the streak make sense to me - it's a matter of building habits, so that it's not a choice to do something but it just happens automatically. And the metaphor they used for the streak was winding a ball of string - if you drop it, it will unroll more than you've rolled up in the last many times. That makes sense, works for me. I'll be working on my streaks in a different mind-frame, now, and they may be more useful. Some of the other essays are also interesting, but that one rang a big bell for me. I'll be keeping it around to reread now and then - I may scan it so I can keep it digitally and dump the book, though. We'll see how much of the book I want to keep.

Wow, I'm wiped. Today my parents had their Ethnic Dining group meetup, with them as hosts this time - so I joined as well. The eth was Tex-Mex, and the food was quite good (I dislike the taste of peppers, so my interest is limited - but these ranged from excellent to edible except I skipped the chile relleno). I made tamales, in my Instant Pot - they weren't hard to make, nor did they take nearly as long as various recipes warned me they would. It's a lot of steps, but nice food - and they freeze well, I'm told, so they're worth making a big batch. I made minis, because we had four main meals! Carnitas, the chiles rellenos, a chicken casserole, and my tamales. I made cheese and veg, because we had so much meat. They leaked a little, but not badly; they reheated well and tasted great. A success, I think. We had flan for dessert and it was fantastic - I love flan, but it's hard to get a good one. I'll have to try that recipe myself. The party was great - 14 people counting Mom, Dad, and me, and the usual lovely conversations. But setting up, the party, and then cleaning up - I was basically on my feet from 4 pm until 9, ow my back. Home (I didn't even bring my stuff home - I took the IP over there to reheat the tamales, and loaned three chairs. Also it's my laundry day... too much to carry, I'll get it all tomorrow), took an aspirin, played guitar briefly, read comics and LT, bed now. G'nite.

Oh - I've read quite a lot, short books. I'll post about them tomorrow or Monday. I'm in the middle of A Bone from a Dry Sea by Peter Dickinson. He does do lovely archaeology stories - this one is split, a modern girl at a dig with her father and a hominid girl several million years earlier. The events don't seem to be directly related, but both stories are interesting. I like basically everything Peter writes, and love quite a few - I think this one is going to be one of the love ones. But it's not a BOMB - I only have it as an ebook, and the same for most if not all of what I've been reading recently. Good books, mostly, but I need to work on BOMBs!

>41 jjmcgaffey: I take it the Aaronovitch's are all e-book comics?

>42 jjmcgaffey: Hmm; Ethnic Dining group meetup. Sounds like a concept I should try, except I doubt I'd ever be organised enough.

>43 humouress: The Hanging Tree is a novel, the rest are comics.

My parents connected with it through AAUW*; they're not the organizers, that's one of the other members. It works with a rotating host - early every year, the people (or couples) claim a month. Then each host chooses an ethnicity, and chooses a menu and recipes for their dinner; each person chooses a recipe, makes it, and brings it to the host's home. Sometimes they go out to a restaurant instead, but most of them are the potluck variety. It's a lot of fun - and usually _huge_ amounts of food, since each person brings enough to feed everyone.

*American Association of University Women

Books Read
32. Risen from the Ranks @^ by Horatio Alger. Review - Not bad, less luck than usual. And the editing isn't bad, either. But not great and no new edition, bah.
33. Herbert Carter's Legacy @^ by Horatio Alger. Review - Not bad for Alger, less random luck (some, not too much) - the big solution is heralded and connected better than most.
34. In An Absent Dream @^ by Seanan McGuire. Review - Lovely as expected. Sad ending - now I want to reread the first one, Lundy was there.
35. The Road to Farringale @^ by Charlotte E. English. Review - Oh, fantastic (in every sense). Love the characters, setting, language. More!
36. Skellig @^ by David Almond. Review - Not a winner, for me. Skellig distracts from the baby and the baby from Skellig - it never quite comes together for me.
37. Faerie Fruit @^ by Charlotte E. English. Review - Neat and weird - more of a fairy tale than Farringale. More solid characters, but fairy tale plot holes - which don't show up until thinking about it afterward.
38. Understood Betsy @^ by Dorothy Canfield Fisher. Review - Oh, lovely! Great little kids story about a girl escaping her neurotic upbringing (very reluctantly, at first!).
39. A Bone From a Dry Sea @^ by Peter Dickinson. Review - Nice and weird. Set in two times, millions of years apart, with somewhat similar events going on (not the events, but the themes, mostly). And the usual excellent Dickinson characterization.
40. Stormfront @^ by M.C.A. Hogarth. Review - Very short story, which would be a neat intro to the Pelted universe. I hope we see the captain and his ship later.
41. Getting the Most Out of Life ^ by Reader's Digest. Review - Self-help essays, in antique language...which worked better for me than modern ones. Several useful bits here.
42. Amulet Rampant @^ by M.C.A. Hogarth. Review - Lovely as expected - Jahir and Lisinthir learn more about themselves and each other, things they didn't expect. The runup to the war progresses. Vasiht'h makes some interesting choices. Nice stuff, want next now please (got it, too!).

Currently Reading
Only the Open, the next in Hogarth's series. I should actually read Nerve before the shared read runs out at the end of the month. I also need to read more BOMBs - need to go back to burrowing in boxes. But it's so much easier to choose another ebook...

BOMBs
Not a one - all but one are ebooks, and the one is new (the Reader's Digest book).

Discards
None.

New/Reread
All new, but no BOMBs, so still 12 rereads paid for.

Reading a lot of books - mostly short, and nearly all ebooks. Some excellent books, and only one I really didn't enjoy, but I do need to focus on BOMBs so I don't get too far behind.

>45 jjmcgaffey: From your list it almost seems like you are reading in an entirely different book universe than I am, although our tastes seem somewhat similar. Enjoy Nerve, like all of Dick Francis's Novels it is a brisk read.

>45 jjmcgaffey: I enjoyed the one book I've read by Charlotte E. English, so it is nice to see other people are reading her as well. I really should read more of her stuff.

>46 quondame: Yes - I've been hit by a few book bullets on your thread, but I don't think I've actually read many/any that you have (recently). I've read all the Dick Francises at least once (most of them several times) and several of Felix's - Nerve is not a particular favorite, but it's a good read like most of his. I just haven't been in the right mood, or something.

>47 shadrach_anki: I'm trying to recall who hit me with a book bullet for her - can't remember, I'll have to skim some of the threads I'm following here and in 75 Book Challenge, it was this month or in late January I think. I'd never heard of her before that, but was pleased to find several of her books in the libraries I have access to - and as I said in my review, now I have a new author to devour all of.

>46 quondame: Heh - I checked. Of what you've read this year, I've read _one_ recently - The Furthest Station (late last year). I have half a dozen others on my (vague) TBR list - Redshirts, All Systems Red, etc - and at least one I've read long ago (The Mouse and the Motorcycle) and wouldn't mind reading again. But yeah, _not_ a lot of overlap!

>48 jjmcgaffey: I know I read and talked about Miss Landon and Aubranael (the only book of hers I have read so far) near the end of January. It would be amusing if it was my thread that introduced you to the author.

>48 jjmcgaffey: Jenn, you can use search to help with that. Do a search on the author's name and then click on Talk in the left hand margin and it will show you all the conversations that she is mentioned in.

>51 ronincats: Even easier - I looked at Conversations for Miss Landon and Aubranael - and yes, looks like you were the bullet-er, @shadrach_anki! It's only mentioned four times - one by someone I don't follow, last year, two by you (your own thread and What are you reading?), and here (so, um, three by you...). I did pick that book up too, but not until just now - I was waiting for it for a while (though I got the second book in the series right away). Heh. I'll have to note that in the book tags - I do try to list where I heard of a book, but lost track of this one. Partly because I didn't have the book that you actually talked about...

Books Read
43. Only the Open @^ by M.C.A. Hogarth. Review - It becomes very difficult to separate the books, at this point - one story, multiple threads, accelerating plot(s). It's all magnificent but I'm not sure what happened in which - particularly as I couldn't stop reading long enough to review after each book. Jahir and Vasiht'h captured, here, and some of the consequences (I think). And finding the Emperor.
44. In Extremis @^ by M.C.A. Hogarth. Review - Threads continue - Sediryl with the pirates, Lisinthir with the Emperor, Jahir in the palace. Major revelations about the Chatcaava, too.
45. From Ruins @^ by M.C.A. Hogarth. Review - Wow. All the threads run together, at last - at top speed and with amazing effects. An ending worthy of this series. More!

Currently Reading
Beyond the Black Stump by Nevil Shute - as, I'm hoping, a change of pace from Hogarth's Princes Game series. I have some more Hogarths, though not related to that story, but I couldn't possibly read them now. And I've got to get to Nerve! And all the rest that are sitting there with bookmarks in them...

BOMBs
Nope.

Discards
Definitely nope. These are so good - if I find paper copies, I'll get those as well.

New/Reread
All new, so no change in count - 12 rereads paid for.

Wow. I really like Hogarth's work. I love the Mindhealer series, though it's fluff compared to this - no, not fluff, but much happier. That was the first series of hers I read. This one is a _lot_ darker and even richer, has the characters from Mindhealer in it without ruining them - they're not different characters, and they're not floating over the story in Princes Game - they're taking part, and learning more about themselves, but even at the end of Princes Game they're still themselves. Broader, deeper, knowing more about themselves, having suffered on a lot of levels - but still themselves, not warped by being part of this darker story. It's...amazing, and a fantastic read. And there's more - a new duology that comes right after Princes Game, and some other stories I haven't read (or gotten) yet, in this universe (not sure if they intersect - I was hoping Alysha would show up in the war, but she didn't). Also a bunch of other stories in different universes. One of the nice things about discovering a new author after they're reasonably established. Now I need to hook my family on her...which will be a bit difficult, as I'm reading her from the LA library in ebook. Well, I'll recommend - maybe they can buy from Amazon, she's on there.

Hmm, speaking of finding a new author, Charlotte English would be a nice change of pace, too. But I really need to read more BOMBs! One so far this month, which is ridiculous.

>53 jjmcgaffey: I'm relatively late to Nevil Shute and I've really liked what I've read to date so I'm looking forward to your review.

Yes, I'd read a very few of his and found the worst of them still quite interesting. I've now collected a bunch of his shorter novels and am reading those off and on, and again, very interesting stuff. He's a genre-wanderer - most of his stuff is more-or-less slice of life ("literary" fiction?) but every so often he goes wandering off into SF, tucked neatly into his ordinary tales...or used as a frame for them. Since SF is my genre of choice, I find those stories the most interesting. On the Beach is one - perfectly normal slice-of-life stories...except the lives are people surviving, for now, after total nuclear war, and more or less waiting to die when the radiation gets to them. And dealing with things in the meantime. Fascinating (and I didn't find it particularly depressing, though many do). Or another I read last year - very detailed and rather depressing story of a deathbed in the Outback...that turns into a flash-forward "memory" of the descendants of the dying man, a generation or two in the future. Equally detailed, personal and political and economic structures. In the Wet, that was.

This one is just slice-of-life - young man from the Pacific Northwest goes to outback Australia, meets a lovely girl and falls in love; she's partly in love with him and largely in love with the image she has of America, from magazines and movies. The differences in attitudes - what's a big deal and what simply isn't - is nicely done. And of course the Outback descriptions are neat. Lovely ending, too - rounds things off beautifully. I don't think this one will be strongly memorable (as many of his are), but it was definitely worth reading.

Impressive to see how you brave several volumes of Horatio Alger. I only read Ragged Dick, or street life in New York with the boot-blacks in the Norton edition, after which I sold off an omnibus edition of five more (short) novels which I had picked up at a second-hand bookstore. I think every serious reader should at least read one book by Alger.

Many works of Nevil Shute were brought out in new paperback editions by Vintage books a few years ago. I discovered Shute through LibraryThing.

I actually enjoy Alger, in small doses - three books in a row is surprising, I usually enjoy one and drag through to the end of a second (but when I've just finished one I want to read another - potato chips). I picked up a huge number off Amazon (for free) and more from Project Gutenberg (though as I mentioned in my reviews, the editing ranges from tolerable to crappy). I used to work with Distributed Proofreaders - a site that did proofreading for PG, as piecework (an individual would work on one page; popular books you might get page 1 and then page 10 and then page 22... It was fun, but time-consuming, and I dropped out. I should go back there, assuming it still exists - there's a lot of work to do yet!

Yes, I got a few of those Vintage editions, when I started collecting his books again - the first one I read was Round the Bend, many many years ago (I think I was 13). I should reread that. Then I found a copy of Trustee From the Toolroom at a B&B we were staying in on a trip, loved it, was reminded that this guy can really write, and started collecting more (and reading. But more collecting. Which is why I have so many boxes of books...).

>57 jjmcgaffey: Distributed Proofreaders still exists and as of a couple of months ago my logon still worked, although I haven't actually done any of it for years.

You and me both.

>57 jjmcgaffey: I read Ragged Dick when I was in library school, for a YA seminar class. That is as far as I have gotten with Alger. Cannot say I disliked it, and I still own the copy.

I believe I've read Ragged Dick twice, and the (or one of the) sequels. It's definitely one of his better books. But all of them are good, except most of them are cut to _exactly_ the same pattern (and at least once he did a slight rewrite, changing the hero's name and a few of his circumstances but leaving most of the story intact, and published it under a different title. Weird). So reading more than one in a row is not a good idea - but each one is enjoyable and I want more...I really should learn to just read one. And then I hit a good vein, and as this last time read three in a row and enjoy them all...oh well. We'll see how long it takes me to want to read another.

Books Read
46. Beyond the Black Stump @^ by Nevil Shute. Review - Nice little story - young man goes to Australia and falls in love, brings the girl back to America and they find out how different they are. _Before_ they marry, fortunately.
47. Book Love @^ by Debbie Tung. Review - Cute, fluffy, fun to read once - book of cartoons about being a booklover.
48. Legacies @# by Mercedes Lackey & Rosemary Edghill. Review - Hmph. I thought I was reading it for the first time, I'd read it before (admittedly years ago) and completely forgotten.
49. Skip-Leveling @^ by M.C.A. Hogarth. Review - Meh office romance; F/F is the only thing that raises it above dull.
50. Kris Longknife's Replacement @^ by Mike Shepherd. Review - Side stories - Admiral Santiago on and off Alwa after Kris left.
51. Kris Longknife's Bloodhound @^ by Mike Shepherd. Review - Side story again - some of what happened while Kris waited for judgement, in (I think) Emissary.
52. Kris Longknife's Relief @^ by Mike Shepherd. Review - More about Admiral Santiago and the various aliens. OK, not exciting.
53. Who is Willing @^ by M.C.A. Hogarth. Review - Oh, great story. I do love Alysha, and here she shows why…
54. The Levin-Gad @^ by Diane Duane. Review - Yay, more Doors! Great story in itself, too.
55. Nine Goblins @^ by T. Kingfisher. Review - Very Ursula - loved it, I want to see more of them.
56. Poor Tom's Ghost * by Jane Louise Curry. Review - Great story! Ghosts/time travel, from modern(ish) to Shakespearean time. Great characters.

Currently Reading
Roughing It, by Mark Twain. It's almost pretty good. The first part is annoying, when he's doing the heavy exaggeration thing. Then he hits Carson City and the exaggerations drop off...mostly because real life was weird enough! It is interesting, both for the events and because I've stayed in that area...but it is a _huge_ book. So I sneaked off and read a few others in the middle (the last three on my list, plus this next). Tears of the Salamander, by Peter Dickinson. Weird and lovely and fascinating. I'm greatly enjoying it, unsurprisingly - it is a Dickinson.

BOMBs
Just Poor Tom's Ghost (and Tears of the Salamander, but I haven't finished that yet).

Discards
None yet. Most of these are ebooks; I'll be discarding Roughing It (which I'm reading as an ebook, but have in paper as well) unless it pulls something amazing out. But the two BOMBs are both keepers.

New/Reread
All but one are new - I thought Legacies was new too, but found I'd read and reviewed it years ago... Back up to 13 rereads paid for.

So I read a bunch of ebooks which were new but not BOMBs, and finally dragged myself by the scruff of the neck over to Roughing It (as an ebook, but an eBOMB since I also have it in paper). And I am enjoying it, more or less, but lordy it's huge. So I read a couple other ebooks in between (both on the same day, when I felt I couldn't stand Twain for one more minute). Then today I was shifting book boxes (because I dropped something behind them) and opened one up and pulled out half a dozen short books - and read one and three-quarters of another, nice advance on BOMBs! Though not discards. Need to keep this up, I'm way behind.

I really should post books as I finish them, rather than waiting until I have a batch. But I probably won't.

Books Read
57. Tears of the Salamander * by Peter Dickinson. Review - Lovely story - pretty standard framework, but Dickinson-style characters and plot in that frame.
58. Beautiful Joe @^ by Marshall Saunders. Review - Ugh. Preachy, sickly-sweet and sentimental - and self-contradictory on top of all that.
59. Webster's Leap * by Eileen Dunlop. Review - Cute little kids' story - interesting time travel, silly explanation for same.
60. The Boggart # by Susan Cooper. Review - Well-written fluff; the Boggart is interesting, the story as a whole is pretty bland.
61. Roughing It @* by Mark Twain. Review - Fascinating bits - but it took a lot of mining to dig them out of this chunkster.
62. The Boggart and the Monster # by Susan Cooper. Review - More well-written fluff; the side characters are more interesting than the plot.
63. The Hedgewitch Queen @* by Lilith Saintcrow. Review - Very rich, very complex, almost excellent story - but the heroine is convinced of her own worthlessness and whiny about it. I still want to read the sequel...once.

Currently Reading
Started Heart of Briar by Laura Anne Gilman - but so far it's reminding me too strongly of The Hedgewitch Queen and all her relationship hassles. So I switched to Diggers, by Terry Pratchett - which is all people arguing with each other and some people having ulterior motives! I can see that the Hedgewitch Queen is going to infect my reading brain for quite a while yet. I need to do a nice, light, familiar, pleasant reread...but nothing's coming to mind, so I'll soldier on.

BOMBs
Four - Salamander, Webster's, Roughing It, and The Hedgewitch Queen. Hit my goal for the month, so I'm only a month behind...

Discards
Five - not the same as the BOMBs! The Hedgewitch Queen, Roughing It and Webster's are out, as are the two Boggart books. I have Roughing It and The Hedgewitch Queen as ebooks; I might possibly want to reread those. Same as BOMBs - hit my goal for this month, so I'm only a month behind.

New/Reread
The two Boggarts are rereads, though I didn't remember the story at all (it was a minimum of 12 years ago I read them, but I still usually recognize bits...). The other five are new. 15 rereads paid for - I've paid back those of the 14 I started with that I used up.

Some progress made on my goals. I'm still behind, but at least there's motion. I need to go into the boxes some more - it's much simpler to read BOMBs when they're sitting around looking at me.

So in the last couple weeks, I've finally gotten somewhere with my garden - four of my five Earthboxes are cleaned out now, and two of them have peas and spinach growing. I replanted the peas that didn't come up, or died at an inch tall; we'll see how fast they catch up with the first planting. I've also planted carrots in a round pot (that also has a parsley plant in it), and planted...four kinds of basil, peanuts, cumin, oregano, four kinds of poppies, cilantro/coriander, dill...I think some other things but I'm blanking. Those are all seeds, outside in the Earthboxes (which also need room for tomatoes!). Also scattered seed for more New Zealand spinach, since I pulled out the rather straggly vines I had from last year and there were only a couple sprouts. They're slow to germinate, so I may end up with a very crowded pot, but that's all right.

And last week I finally got my Aerogardens going - planted 20-some varieties of tomato and four varieties of basil. The Aerogardens are very quick for germination - not so good for growing larger plants, I may keep some of the basil indoors but everything else is going out. Most of the tomatoes are going to the Earth Day festival, to be sold by my gardening group; I'm growing 10 tomatoes, Mom's growing I think 8. Some overlap in varieties, but mostly different (I like cherry tomatoes, Mom prefers larger ones, for instance). I planted at least double what Mom and I want - if we both wanted a tomato variety, I planted at least four cells with that variety, and two seeds each in case of non-germination. So what we don't take will go to Earth Day in just under a month. But so far, everything that's sprouted has sprouted two plants in a cell, so I'll have to thin them...oh well.

I still have one Earthbox that needs cleaning out; the problem is that it has several sorrel plants in it. I got them from a friend, they're growing well...and I've discovered I really don't like sorrel, it's a sour, lemony green and I dislike sour flavors. I'm going to keep one plant, and shift it into a smaller pot, but I have to dig out the sorrels and find people who want them. I think I'll be bringing them to Earth Day too - but they need to get into the small pots well before that so that a) they look pretty well established there and b) I can clean out the Earthbox before it's time to plant tomatoes in it! Maybe this week. Some of the sorrels are flowering, too - not the ones I intend to keep, the French sorrel, but the garden sorrel. It looks like it's bolting, but I'm _pretty_ sure it won't die when it flowers. I could be wrong, but I don't think so. It has large woody roots, which is what my friend gave me, and it happily came back from a chunk of root. It's generally a perennial. But I keep looking at those long flower-stalks and my gut says it's bolting...

Blueberries are ripening - and I need to get a net over the bushes, I lost the first crop this year to...birds, probably. Garlic is growing healthily. Mint, nasturtiums, and parsley are mixed up in the small pots (note, the "small" pots are 12-15". They're only small in comparison to the 1.5'x3' Earthboxes...). I have healthy saffron leaves growing up around the blueberries, but still (in the...fifth year since planting?) no sign of flowers. I do grow a lot of stuff on my balcony...

Ah well, your thumbs are a lot greener than mine. Half my problem, though, is trying to grow things that I'm used to from England. I'm not even growing from seed - if I see it in the garden centre, I assume it can survive here but it's not necessarily true. The basil did really well for a while, and I got my younger son interested in picking the leaves for pizzas and pastas, but then it disappeared. The same for the mints. So I'm trying again, with fewer varieties; let's see how they grow.

Basil is very tender - it will happily grow at certain temperatures, and rapidly die off if it's either too hot or too cold. Or too dry or too wet...picky plant (at least, most of the standard, large-leaf varieties I've tried). I've actually grown most of it by buying the plants from Trader Joe's and transplanting them into bigger pots; I often get multiple bushes out of that...and again, sometimes I get one straggly plant and a lot of dead stalks. I'm trying the from seed thing _again_ because I got some neat varieties and would like to try them; we'll see how they grow. They are sprouting nicely, though.

I'm currently growing a generic basil brand name Buzzy; Royal Thai; cinnamon basil; Genovese basil; and...no, I guess that's all I'm growing inside. Outside I planted (but have no sprouts of yet) sweet basil, Spicy Globe basil, Cameo container basil, and Emily basil (which is also supposed to do well in containers). I've grown Emily before and I think I even managed to harvest some leaves; the rest I've attempted but not succeeded at before.

Just about all the seeds have sprouted, which means that I have to check it morning and evening and pick which one (of the two seeds I planted in each cell) to kill, once both of them are up and I can figure out which one looks stronger. Previous years I've gotten a lot of failed cells and most of them only one seed sprouting per cell; I don't know what I did differently, but I want to do it some more so I don't have to bother with the second seed.

*sigh* Ah; is that the problem with basil?

Your crop sounds delicious! Good luck with them. Do you have to kill off the second sprout? Could you at least transplant it to another cell?

Entertained by your Roughing It commentary. Twain could be brutal when he pushed that humor over the top. Wish you well with your garden. Fresh blueberries sound good.

>67 humouress: The Aerogarden uses solid little sphagnum moss sponges for starting. I can't get one seedling out and leave the other - I'd be more likely to break both of them trying. So yeah, it's kill one sprout or leave both of them growing and choking each other. If I'd trusted the seeds and the Aerogarden, I could have planted one seed - I'll do that next time (and we'll see if they sprout then!).

>68 dchaikin: Yeah. I like a lot of Twain, but sometimes his humor sits poorly.

Books Read
64. Diggers @^ by Terry Pratchett. Review - Cute but with some deeper thoughts in it. A little hard to take after Hedgewitch Queen - too much arguing.
65. Wings @^ by Terry Pratchett. Review - More depth, though it's still cute little nomes. But they have to think more broadly in this one. Glad I read these.
66. A Little Princess @# by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Review - Ah, a lovely bit of comfort reading - the usual tears welling up at the end.
67. What Janie Wants @^ by Rhenna Morgan. Review - Rather explicit, but (as usual with Morgan) very rich, complex characters. Nice.
68. Snowspelled @^ by Stephanie Burgis. Review - Nice! Great world - fascinating history. Interesting characters, nice twists on standard tropes - more!
69. Heart of Briar @^ by Laura Anne Gilman. Review - Very good writing but I found it rather annoying - wimpy protagonist. Going to read the second one, though.
70. Kavik the Wolf Dog ^ by Walt Morey. Review - Awww, lovely story. Wolf-dog finds the boy he loves - then finds him again, the hard way. Good writing, too. Cliche, but nice.

Currently Reading
See first April post.

BOMBs
Not a one.

Discards
Kavik, I guess - I doubt I'll want to reread and I suspect I could find it if I did want to. All the rest are ebooks.

New/Reread
All new. 14 rereads paid for.

Ah, love A Little Princess! and also enjoyed Snowspelled.

March stats
23 books read
3 rereads
20 new books
14 rereads paid for

4952 pages read, average 215.3

5 BOMBs - hit my goal for the month
0 ER books
0 Netgalley books

16 ebooks, 7 paper books

6 discards - passed my goal for the month

10 SF&F
2 animal stories
8 children's
1 non-fiction
2 romances

13 F, 9 M authors

Rather average month. Hit my goals (for the first time this year), decent number of male authors, nothing exciting.

Books Read
71. A Pocketful of Stars @^ by Margaret Ball. Review - Amazing new magic system...too much of the story is the relationships (does he/she really like me?), and too much of the adventure is really really obvious. But interesting characters and world, I want to see more.
72. Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes @^ by Jonathan Auxier. Review - OK children's book, fairy tale style and too thin for me.

Currently Reading
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil DeGrasse Tyson - alternately a bit too dense and a bit too fluffy. But still interesting. Not currently reading anything else, I want to finish this so I can go back to some fiction on my phone.

BOMBs
Nope, both ebooks.

Discards
Nope again.

New/Reread
Both new, so still 14 rereads paid for. Need to get in gear with BOMBs!

Hmmm, that's a Ball I haven't read, but your touchstone is wrong.

Oh, honestly. I've edited it three times...I think it's right (again) now. It's a new book, 2018.

>71 ronincats: Yes, that's exactly my feelings. A Little Princess is going to continue to be a favorite forever...we'll see if Snowspelled and its sequels (and prequels) hold up, but it was sure fun to read.

>75 jjmcgaffey: Yes, it links to Ball's book now. That's interesting, a new Ball? I'll have to check it out.

Ooh. You made me go check - it's a series of 6 (short) books, issued in quick succession. The first, this one, came out April 2018; the 6th came out January 15, 2019. I just entered them into my catalog, as wishlist books. I don't see any of them in any of my libraries, I got this one on Amazon (presumably on a good sale). Hmm, apparently for free! It's .99 now, the rest are $3.99 each. I will get the next one, and probably all of them, but not sure when.

Books Read
73. The Bread Book ^ by Linda Collister & Anthony Blake. Review - Several interesting recipes (fry bread! Baps!). I'll have to try them to see if her style works for me, she has a very firm style. But they look good.
74. Astrophysics for People in a Hurry @^ by Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Review - Eh. Too dense in spots, too fluffy in others. Mildly interesting is the best I can say.
75. Andy Grant's Pluck @^ by Horatio Alger. Review - Very standard Alger formula, perhaps more thrown together than usual. Not bad, not a favorite.

Currently Reading
Kat, Incorrigible by Stephanie Burgis. Not nearly as much fun as Snowspelled - this one really is a Regency with magic, and sort of a YA as well (the protagonist is 12). The cover made it look cute and funny, the story is seriously dragging - too convoluted and unhappy (so far) for me. I will finish it, we'll see if I read any more in the series. But I interrupted it to read Andy Grant's Pluck, which was at least light and fast; and then I started Girl on Fire by M.C.A. Hogarth which is not unexpectedly lovely. Convoluted, yes, but generally happy. There's going to be a big blowup soon, but right now I'm enjoying it tremendously.

BOMBs
Not a one. I just got The Bread Book, at the White Elephant sale last month (and finally got around to entering it and the others I bought then).

Discards
Nope. I want to try some recipes out of The Bread Book, and if they're good I'll copy them into Evernote and probably get rid of the book then. But not yet.

New/Reread
All new.

I'm not doing a lot of reading right now, because I've been hit by a truly nasty...upper respiratory infection. I can't tell if it's a cold or the flu...or allergies. Whatever it is, I'm producing huge amounts of mucus, coughing like a barking dog, and collapsing at frequent intervals - though that last _could_ be because of the antihistamines I'm taking. Sudafed (pseudoephedrine) during the day - I can't take it after about 4 pm or I don't get to sleep that night - and Zyrtec and Benadryl in the hopes it really is allergies. But I think not, it's gone down into my chest (which allergies generally don't, I'm told). So I'm going to discontinue those tomorrow. And aspirin for the aches - which is why it might be the flu. And it's also affecting my stomach, ugh.

Because of this URI, I'm not working the election on Tuesday (dammit). I was going to be in a new and very close polling place - actually where I've been assigned to vote for years. I've actually voted there once or twice, but usually do VBM or early voting since I'm working most elections. And two of my team are friends of mine, people I know from outside of elections. But I'll still be infectious on Tuesday, probably, not to mention not being up for a 15-hour day.

I'm also not going to a volunteer appreciation day party with my gardening group on Sunday - same reason, I don't want to infect everybody. Dangit, I was looking forward to this.

I did, however, go over to my parents and celebrate Mom's 80th birthday. I baked the cake (Chocolate Clementine cake, our usual); my youngest sister made Chicken Kiev, and we did a video hangout with my middle sister. It was fun, though I did collapse half-way through the videocall - zoned out in my chair, and after we hung up and Dee left, lay down on my parents' bed and slept for an hour. Then I was up for a little more, came home, and I'm going to bed very shortly. Hopefully I haven't infected my family with this...

Sounds like what I had about two weeks ago. Hope you feel better. Interesting but too bad about Astrophysics for People in a Hurry.

I found you! I kept track of you over on Roni's thread and I noticed that you hadn't been posting there, so I asked. She told me you have a thread over here. I tracked you down and found you! Yeah! I now have it starred and you will see me from time-to-time.

>45 jjmcgaffey:
A Bone From a Dry Sea by Peter Dickinson. When this book first came out my supervisor at the time wanted some "easy" books to read over Christmas break. I handed her a couple and this one was one of them. She loved it! She totally got into the time switching. She still talks about this book sometimes. I still haven't read it, but I look at it every-so-often and think I should pull it and read it. But it just never screams at me very loudly.

By-the-way, Dickinson was married to Robin McKinley.

>83 benitastrnad: Hi, Benita! (that's what you've got for your real name on your profile, so...) Glad you found me! It does get a bit complicated at the beginning of the year, tracking down who you want to see...

It's a quick and easy read, and interesting. Not my favorite Dickinson, but worth reading - and it won't take long, I suspect, when you finally feel like picking it up.

I knew that - I follow Robin's blog (which is very intermittent these days, for many reasons, including Peter's death). I got to know Peter pretty "well" (internet well) through that, and that's part of why I've read so many of his books. Before that I'd read Weathermonger and that series, and possibly nothing else.

>81 dchaikin: Yeah, this is hanging on way too long. I am _much_ better...which means I have almost half a day of activity in me, per day. Still stuffed up and coughing, too. Bleah.

I did, over the last four days, manage to put a waterproof coating (spar urethane) on a seedling table I made...four years ago? Maybe only three, in a class. So I can actually use it this year (have to, I put the plastic shelves I have been using outside to put planters on). Last night, late, I potted up the first set of seedlings - they're not on the seedling table yet, I'll assemble it today. They've been growing in the Aerogarden, and outgrowing it - really needed to be potted up a few days ago, but it's done now. More potting up to do soon - well, here, have some pictures:

First Aerogarden - this is the one that's been potted up since (all but one plant, the little one at bottom left - needs some more growing first)

Second Aerogarden, with the seed-starting insert (lots of plants, but they don't grow as fast as with the normal pods). These are the ones that need to be potted up today.

Most of these are going to the Earth Day sale for Alameda Backyard Growers; Mom and I between us grow about 15-18 tomatoes a year, I've sprouted 50 (plus 5 basils). So they need to get into cups (I use plastic 18-ounce cups for mini-pots, with holes stabbed in the bottom - cheaper than ones made for plants) and get outside so they're hardened off by the 20th.

Books Read
76. Girl on Fire @^ by M.C.A. Hogarth. Review - Fantastic - Sediryl as a girl, how she got to be the woman she is in later books.
77. Family @# by M.C.A. Hogarth. Review - Had to reread, to meet Sediryl again now that I know more about her.
78. Healer's Wedding @^ by M.C.A. Hogarth. Review - And lovely - I'm glad I read Girl on Fire first, but this is the culmination of the Princes' Game series...and threads together quite a few of the Pelted series, at that.
79. The Lawrence Browne Affair %^ by Cat Sebastian. Review - Enjoyable, but I doubt I'll reread. Regency M/M has different challenges than hetero.
80. The Ghost in the Gardens @! by H.L. Carpenter. Review - Yuck. Random odd events do not add up to a story.
81. Kat, Incorrigible @^ by Stephanie Burgis. Review - OK story, I didn't like Kat - too many wrong choices that came out well (author on her side).
82. Fortune's Favors @^ by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller. Review - The usual rich stories…
83. Down & Dirty @^ by Rhenna Morgan. Review - Good but not as good as the first few in the series. Not as kinky as I was expecting, either.
84. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet @^ by Becky Chambers. Review - I've been ignoring this for years - silly me. Lovely story - not world-saving, just relationships, and culture and personality clashes. Between various aliens and humans, admittedly.
85. Never After: Thirteen Twists on Familiar Tales @! by Marie Brennan. Review - Interesting to read, but nothing much to it - and these very short stories don't have the richness of her novels.
86. Spellswept @^ by Stephanie Burgis. Review - Lovely! I knew what would happen (having read Snowspelled) - but not how, or why. And I really like knowing more of Amy. I may like her better than Cassandra…
87. Preserving with Pomona's Pectin @^ by Allison Carroll Duffy. Review - Good recipes, good information, really annoying format.

Currently Reading
The Summer Queen by Elizabeth Chadwick - a historical-fiction style bio of Eleanor of Aquitaine. I know her pretty well, though mostly from later in her life when she was married to Henry II...and this is _incredibly_ boring. Teen angst, and then when Eleanor grew up enough that she was dealing with political angst and marriage problems her younger sister Petronella (who I'd never heard of before) came in to provide more teen angst, with political problems stemming therefrom. That's as far as I've gotten...less than a quarter of the way through the book. I know some of what will happen, and I really wish it would - I'm so tired of her managing Louis and dealing with this and that and bah. I gave up and had to read something better, which is why I read Spellswept and the preserving book, and started Lies Sleeping by Ben Aaronovitch. Much better. I will go back to it, but not immediately. Also reading another library book, It Takes Two to Tumble by Cat Sebastian - another gay historical romance. I do like her characters.

BOMBs
Nope. Two ER books, though.

Discards
Nope. The only paper one is a library book.

New/Reread
Family is the only reread - 11 new books. So 13 rereads paid for.

Some very good books, and a few very poor ones. I've spent several days with this cold just sitting and reading or playing games. It's finally faded - I'm still coughing occasionally and sniffling now and then, but I'm no longer knocked out. Aside from, for some reason, staying up waaaaay too late the last couple nights which means short sleep even though I changed the alarm to later (4 and 5 am means that if I get up in the morning at all it's short sleep). I'm going to _try_ to sleep at the proper time tonight.

I cooked an amazing batch of Indian style cauliflower, chickpea, potato, and pea curry. It is really good, but I should have added a little more heat. It is perfect for lunch at work, but if I were eating it at home or in a restaurant I would want a little more zip. But not too much more.

I thought you might be interested in this review of my latest read this month.

My comfort area is food and cooking. I just finished reading Seventh Daughter: My Culinary Journey from Beijing to San Francisco by famous Chinese restaurateur Cecilia Chiang. I happened to be watching the PBS channel titled "Create TV" (this is a PBS channel that airs old episodes of shows produced for, and distributed by, PBS) and they showed one episode of a 6 part series done for San Francisco PBS about Cecilia Chiang. It was fascinating watching her cook and work with other famous Chefs of the Bay Area. At the time this show was produced she was in her late 80's. She is now 98 and still living in the San Francisco area. Her son, Philip Chiang, is a co-founder of the restaurant chain P. F. Chang's.

This book is part memoir and part cookbook. Chiang has a co-author, and the this co-author has selected and written the story of Chiang's life. These memoirs are interspersed with recipes from Chiang's famous Mandarin Resturant. This format works very well. The recipes are interesting, but what I was really interested in was the story of this woman's life. The memoir reads like a novel. It almost reads like a Lisa See novel come to life. This is not an objective look at history or culture. It is the story of one woman's life and her point-of-view about how events affected her and her family. It is also the immigrant story of a filthy rich Asian who comes to America and makes good. I am not saying that Chiang didn't work hard and that she doesn't deserve her fame and success. I am saying that she came to the U. S. not intending to immigrate - but she did, eventually. Not intending to open a business - but she did. Not intending to life apart from her husband and raising her children in the U. S. - but she did. I am saying that she is not your typical immigrant. She came to the U. S. with all the advantages and made good use of them by finding something that she loved doing and making it a success.

This is a relatively rare book. I had to place an Inter-Library Loan request for it. I had thought of purchasing it, but it is priced at $60.00 on Amazon and used copies of it are still in the $25.00 range, so I decided to see what it was before I made a purchase. I won't be adding this one to my list of books that I own, but I did enjoy reading it. This book will be on my best of the year list, because so far it has been the best memoir I have read this year. I highly recommend it if you like culinary reading. Even if you have to do an ILL request to get it.

Books Read
88. Lies Sleeping @^ by Ben Aaronovitch. Review - Nice roundup of events - the current arc is more or less finished, I'm interested to see what happens next.
89. The Summer Queen @^ by Elizabeth Chadwick. Review - Very detailed story/biography/historical fiction that just didn't work for me. Pity, I like Eleanor.
90. The Children of Green Knowe @# by L.M. Boston. Review - Lovely as always, glad I have it as an ebook now. I _may_ discard my paper copy, need to dig it out and look at illustrations etc.
91. The River at Green Knowe @# by L.M. Boston. Review - Enjoyable, though not up to the first book. Again, now I have it as an ebook I may discard the paper copy. I have these two as an omnibus ebook.
92. The Lady @* by Anne McCaffrey. Review - Oh, lovely - I'd never read this before and it's really worth reading. No SF at all, it's very reality-based. Horse story/YA coming-of-age/romance(s) (not YA)… Lots of story here.
93. Saving the Sheriff @! by Kadie Scott. Review - It's a fine romance, which is to say enjoyable to read, once. Nothing to draw me in to a reread.

Currently Reading
February Thaw by Tanya Huff - a random(ish) collection of short stories, all of which are great (so far, anyway). I do like Huff. Lots of books still hanging fire...oh, I need to finish It Takes Two to Tumble, that's a library book due back this week. I'm about 2/3rd through. It's fine, but I'm not finding it hard to put down and then forget about...which may be partly because I'm running wildly in all directions right now, but I finished Lies Sleeping in one day.

BOMBs
I read a BOMB! The Lady. I need to read _lots_ more BOMBs, soon...

Discards
I think I'll discard the paper copy of The Lady, and possibly the paper copies of the two Green Knowe books - I need to look at them first, to check if they're illustrated with things I want to keep. But I am way behind with both BOMBs and discards - need to go digging in my boxes, soon!

New/Reread
The Green Knowe books were rereads, the other four were new to me. 12 rereads paid for, at this point. Again, I'm way behind on BOMBs, sigh.

I've gotten a lot done one way and another - Earth Day, got all my stuff out of storage, did some major cleaning up and discarding stuff from my house, etc etc. While dealing with this cold (I'm _still_ sniffling and coughing now and then - though I think by this point it's allergies rather than a continuation of the cold). The madness that is May for me starts tomorrow, too (setup for the library book sale), so things aren't slowing down. But I really really need to concentrate on BOMBs and discards, I'm so far behind...

April stats
23 books read
3 rereads
20 new books
12 rereads paid for

5846 pages read, average 254.2

1 BOMBs
3 ER books
0 Netgalley books

21 ebooks, 2 paper books

1 discards

9 SF&F
1 animal stories
5 children's
3 non-fiction
2 general fiction
3 romances
0 graphic novels
0 mysteries

18 F, 6 M authors (with one book with one of each)

An average-ish month. I really brought up the pages-read and pages-per-book with the last few in April...514 pages of Summer Queen helped.

Earth Day was...well, a lot of fun, but my tomatoes weren't really a success. It wasn't their fault - part of the problem was that I left them in the Aerogarden too long, so they were very long and lanky, and tended to get tangled with the other plants around them. I broke three or four stems at the dirt as I was loading them out to deliver them to the festival. Then it was an extremely windy day (a popup in front of us ripped away at the seams on two sides of the roof, for instance), and those same long stems meant that they were being yanked around by the wind - a lot more broken stems, and several seriously bent ones. Which wouldn't be a serious problem, since you're supposed to bury tomatoes way deep, but getting them from the festival to where they needed to be planted was unnecessarily complicated. I rescued a couple broken stems by burying them as quickly as I could, just in the cups they were in; two survivors, at least five dead. Fortunately one of the survivors was the rarest one (Mountain Magic - it's a hybrid so I can't save seeds, but it's a wonderful tomato) and the only dead one I really cared about was Sungold (two plants died). I got an open-pollinated tomato called Honeydrop which is supposed to be like Sungold - I need to grow both of those so I can see how similar they are under my circumstances. And today I found a Sungold plant at the supermarket, so I'm all set.

I really need to get around to _planting_ my tomatoes, and giving Mom hers so she can plant them! They're still sitting on my balcony in cups, and growing longer by the minutes. But busy days...soon, I hope.

In early March, I put a bunch of stuff into storage, to get some temporary free space. The plan was to cull what was left in the house, make lots of room, then bring the storage stuff back and work on culling that. And it worked, kind of. I didn't get around to culling until late April, pretty much last week and the week before - but I culled a heck of a lot of stuff, and donated it various places. Good stuff (clothes, bric-a-brac, kitchen appliances, etc) but I don't need it and can get rid of it. I didn't donate any books, those will go to the library after the sale this coming weekend. So last week, at the end of April, I went to get my storage stuff...and found that the freight elevator, the only one, was _still_ out of order (it had been out in mid-April, the last time I checked...but I thought they'd have fixed it by the end of the month!). I had to get my stuff out or pay for another month (and since it's May, I wouldn't even be able to make much progress on cleaning up...)...so I carried all my boxes and totes down a flight of steps. The heaviest were seven longboxes of comics (which I really want to sell...except I want some of the stories. Not all, but some). I had five carloads of stuff - oof. At least at this end, I have a dolly and a working elevator, but oh lord I was stiff. I'm still recovering, a week later. I bent my right knee backward with the last load, and it's intermittently doing it again - I have to be very careful how I step. And I swear I had a knee brace, but I can't find it - not in with braces, not in with medical stuff. I'll find it just about the time my knee gets better...grrr. Reasons why I need to get rid of stuff!

Then - May. This coming weekend, first weekend in May, is the library booksale; I help with setup (and get to shop early) on Friday, mostly skip Saturday (there's a group walk in the morning, then a community yard sale and one run by the Alameda History Museum - both are likely to be excellent). Sunday after church there's a Cinco de Mayo celebration (which means Mexican food, yum) at the church, then the booksale - and Sunday is bag/box day, which is _dangerous_. I will try not to add too many books to my count...

Second weekend in May is relatively light. It's the Park Street Fair, which always has interesting stuff to look at, eat, and occasionally buy (besides food). Also a friend of my parents' is coming in; he was a great friend of theirs some 20 years ago, they've kept up correspondence but he hasn't actually visited them here yet. So Friday we're going into SF for touristy stuff and a concert, Saturday/Sunday will be the street fair, various trips and events over the next week and he's leaving, I think, the next Wednesday.

Thursday the 16th I go to San Mateo and help set up Maker Faire. Also Friday - setup and spend time at the faire. Saturday my parents, my sister and I will be spending a good deal of the day at the Faire - for the first time in years, because I'm finally off my HOA board. Our annual meeting is always that Saturday, and as a Board member I couldn't skip it - but now I can! I'm also going back Sunday, and working the last shift; it's always fun seeing behind the scenes. And if you're there at the end you often get stuff they don't want to store - tshirts and books and the like.

On the following Monday I really really hope I am _not_ doing jury duty. I haven't actually had to go in for years, but there's always the wondering if this time I'll be assigned a trial...

The next Thursday, the 23rd, I go back to San Mateo and help set up Baycon. That starts Friday and goes through the following Monday; I'll be sharing a room with my parents, and my sister and her husband will be there. I don't think either of her boys will be making it down this time...actually, maybe we'll get Sean. Don't know, we'll see. I'm doing my fingerloop braiding workshop, and this year, for the first time, I'm doing a Fingerloop 201 as well. So one of the things I need to squeeze in in the (rare) gaps of free time this month is working out what braids I'll teach for that class - it's meant for people who have done the basic class, and want to move on. I also want to have cards with the directions for a braid printed on each, so that people can try it outside of class - so I need to boil down the directions and then actually print the cards.

And during this time, Mom and I are taking the ceramics class again; I'm being particularly uninspired this session, though I've made some nice things. I want to throw a yarn bowl, but I don't have the energy to start, for instance. The teacher is showing us a series of surface embellishment techniques this session - we did mashima first (it's sort of inlay - liquid, colored clay laid into grooves on a piece, then scraped until it's a flat surface with colored lines in it - I have a nice little pot with green cattails on three sides), then slip trailing (same colored liquid clay dripped and spotted on the surface of the clay, to make raised embellishments - I skipped that) and today we did majolica (colors that are not glazes (underglaze) painted on top of unfired glaze. It can be very nice, but mine tend to be a bit vague - I don't have the control to outline the images. We'll see how that comes out. I painted a little hanging pot). Two or three other techniques this session - except that I'm going to miss most of the classes (on Thursdays) for various setups. Oh well.

Oh, and Dad is doing an experimental cancer treatment - they're draining T-cells out of him, sending them off to somewhere in the middle of the country where they get "trained" to attack his cancer, then they send the T-cells back and put them back into him. The putting back happens every other Thursday, so Mom's missing every other ceramics class to drive him down to the hospital where they're doing it. But the treatment seems to be doing him good - he's got more energy and more movement - so yay.

Ghahh. May is lots of fun and _lots_ of work. And I need to get to bed - busyness starts tomorrow, early.

>87 jjmcgaffey: That's a McCaffrey I haven't read! Good luck with the BOMBs!

>89 jjmcgaffey: Book moving isn't the fun part! I hope your knee is back working right already! It does sound like you will be totally busy for weeks ahead!

Wow, you have a lot going on! Best of luck to your dad.

Thanks, both of you! My knee is still being wonky, so I got a new brace today - a better one, with hinges, that's specifically designed to prevent hyperextension (which is what my knee is doing). Hopefully this will hold it in place until it settles back down. The old one hasn't shown up yet - I expect it momentarily.

Today was book sale setup - I got 8 books, though two of them (the two most expensive, at that) were at the request of others. A Game of Thrones coloring book for my sister Dee, and a Folio Society book on the Dead Sea Scrolls for Dad. I haven't entered my books, yet - probably not until after the weekend - but I got two songbooks (60s folk, both), a cookbook, two SF books (one of which I've read, but didn't own - The Dubious Hills by Pamela Dean) and a book of origami. Nice spread.

It's an odd McCaffrey, being totally not fantasy or SF or anything like that. But still enjoyable - she can write relationships, in any genre.

Early to bed tonight, for a long fun day tomorrow - walking (in my brace, at least I'll start that way), yard saling, etc.

Since the semester is over I decided it was time to get some plants into the ground. I put in three miniature tomatoes, 2 parsley, 3 basil, and a whole bunch of screening coleus plants. I think that will be the end of my spring planting’s this year.

Well, maybe a begonia or two, but that’s it!

I'm in the brief pause between the insanity of Maker Faire and the insanity of Baycon - I spent Thursday, Friday afternoon, and Sunday afternoon working at the Faire and Saturday all day and Sunday morning/early afternoon attending (Saturday with my family, Sunday alone). I've done over 10,000 steps every day - and over 12 most days. Ow, my legs. This coming Thursday I head out to help with Baycon setup - and it'll be more of the same.

The other thing about this period is that everything but the essentials and the events falls by the wayside. I have a computer I'm working on for a friend - haven't touched it in two weeks. I haven't used _my_ computer (and therefore haven't been on LT) for the past week and a half, though I do read emails on my phone. I'm fed, washed, and minimally slept; the cats are fed and the litterbox cleaned. And I would have watered the balcony but because it's been pouring rain the last three days (yes, over Maker Faire...argh) I haven't had to. Aside from that, I haven't done anything...I have stacks of books around my desk, waiting for me to enter them, as well as work things (the friend's computer and a webpage for another client), I haven't cleaned house let alone emptied any more totes...and I'm exhausted, so a day like today when I actually have some time (in between two client visits) I'm mostly zoning out. However, I managed to aim it LT's way, so I'm caught up on threads.

>93 benitastrnad: Miniature tomatoes? Cherry tomatoes, you mean, or something like Tiny Tom that's designed for containers? I grow mostly cherries, because that's what I enjoy eating most. What varieties?

Right now I'm eating snow peas off the vine (oops, I need to get out there and pick some more, it's been three days and there will be dozens); some of my tomatoes have flowers, some are not yet in the dirt. I had to empty one container that was real work - I planted sorrel in it (before I realized I don't really like sorrel) and it utterly took over the container. It's a sub-irrigated pot ("self-watering"), and the roots of the sorrel grew through the mesh that the dirt sits on and mostly filled up the water reservoir. Prying those plants out of there was a _horrible_ task. I put them into smallish pots and will be taking them to my gardening group this evening; someone else can grow them. I did keep one plant, but I'm going to concentrate on keeping it cropped. I'm also going to grow it in a SmartPot - we'll see if that stuff about air pruning is true, there were a lot of sorrel roots running along the walls of the container too. That container is the only one that hasn't yet been scrubbed and refilled; two tomatoes belong in there, and they're still sitting in little cups. But they were late sown, so they're not totally potbound yet. I'm hoping I can get the container ready and repot the tomatoes before Baycon...may or may not happen.

The peas also have powdery mildew, as they do basically every year; I've found that a dilute solution of milk seems to control it, but I have to spray it regularly (again, went by the wayside in the last few days). I need to keep them sprayed so that they don't transfer the mildew to the tomatoes I've planted in the same containers.

Another thing that I haven't been keeping up on is tracking my reading - I have been tracking it, in just notes in Google Keep. I haven't transferred that info to my Book Stats spreadsheet or to LT. But I don't think I missed any books, so that's good.

OK, go eat and do something towards house maintenance.

Glad you've resurfaced, if only briefly, Jenn. If you want to join us in the James H. Schmitz discussions in June, find us here. And Nile Etland is definitely female. Have fun at Baycon and try not to work too hard.

>94 jjmcgaffey: Phew! Lots going on.

>95 ronincats: Ah, I figured it out - I was mixing The Demon Breed up with A Plague of Demons by Keith Laumer. Aside from the name, very little in common (including a male protagonist for Laumer's book). I'm not sure I've ever read The Demon Breed - I think my mixing it up is of long duration! I may join you, though I'm really bad about reading books that I'm "supposed" to read...

I can't find the place (places?) I made my error about Nile. So I can't explain there. Talk moves so fast...

BTW, I own the book - along with a good many other Schmitzes, most of which I've read. I just had to dig it out of the pile of boxes to check.

>97 jjmcgaffey: That makes more sense, as you aren't usually wrong about things like that. I strongly recommend reading Demon Breed in June even it does seem like something you should read, both because it's SHORT and because I think if you like Schmitz at all, you will love this one! And you already OWN it!

(It was on drneutron's thread.)

>98 ronincats: It's sitting on my desk. Of course, so are Forfeit and Nerve from the Dick Francis read...I haven't gotten Reflex down yet, but I own (and have read) that as well. As per the discussion on scafiea's thread - I'm definitely under that tent! Even if it's something I _want_ to do.

Thanks for the pointer - and he'd moved on to the next thread by the time I was looking, so your Schmitz bookshelf wasn't there... I did comment there (in the new thread) my correction.

Books Read
94. February Thaw @^ by Tanya Huff. Review - Neat and weird - random assortment of Huff shorts.
95. That Ain't Witchcraft @^ by Seanan McGuire. Review - Nice! Annie's arc more or less concludes, with some major shakeups to the way the world has been for a very long time...Nice additional novella, Alex and Shelby, and Sarah, yay!
96. Linnea in Monet's Garden %^ by Christina Bjork. Review - Cute little story with pictures; my parents gave it to me to drop off at a LFL and I couldn't let it pass without reading. Not my interest, though.
97. The Elders are Watching %^ by Roy Henry Vickers. Review - A less interesting kid's picture book - respect nature, a good but trite theme. The other book for the LFL.
98. The Penderwicks @^ by Jeanne Birdsall. Review - Cute; if I'd encountered it younger, it might have become a favorite. I do want to read the rest.
99. The Man Who Would Be Kling @! by Adam Roberts. Review - Nope. Punny, Kiplingish, fan in-jokes and all - it just didn't work for me. And no real ending.
100. It Takes a Thief @^ by Kay Hooper. Review - Not bad romance - the usual Hagen themes of lies and secrets, though he's not directly involved. Dane and Jenny. Very hot and heavy, though it didn't draw me in much.
101. Points of Departure @^ by Patrica Wrede & Pamela Dean. Review - Mildly interesting - I haven't read much Liavek, and these have too much plotting for my taste.
102. A Closed and Common Orbit @^ by Becky Chambers. Review - Excellent! Rich characters, fascinating philosophical questions (with serious consequences). Next please.
103. Kris Longknife's Assassin @^ by Mike Shepherd. Review - Good story, really poor editing.
104. The Uncommon Reader @^ by Alan Bennett. Review - Fun, weird story. I wonder what the Queen would have thought of it.
105. It Takes Two to Tumble %^ by Cat Sebastian. Review - Nothing much wrong with it, just not very interesting. Too repetitive in their angst.
106. Shiftless @^ by Aimee Easterling. Review - Interesting version of werewolves, very interesting characters. Briggs-ish.
107. Pack Princess @^ by Aimee Easterling. Review - Still interesting werewolves, but the protagonist is getting a bit too whiny.

Currently Reading
See June post

BOMBs
Not one, the whole month.

Discards
Nope - the only three that weren't ebooks were borrowed.

New/Reread
All new books, so still 12 rereads paid for.

May stats
14 books read
0 rereads
14 new books
12 rereads paid for

2978 pages read, average 212.7

0 BOMBs
1 ER books
0 Netgalley books

11 ebooks, 3 paper books

0 discards

8 SF&F
0 animal stories
3 children's
0 non-fiction
1 general fiction
2 romances
0 graphic novels
0 mysteries

10 F, 4 M authors

Not a lot of books read - well, it is my busy month. Not a single BOMB, nor discard. One ER book, that's something, even if it was a very short one. Not a bright star in my reading record, this month.

Books Read
108. Moonwalking with Einstein ^ by Joshua Foer. Review - Some interesting bits, in the philosophy of memory; a lot of mechanics of current memory competition methods.
109. The Hub: Dangerous Territory @* by James Schmitz. Review - Excellent set of short stories, plus Demon Breed - the latter is why it's a BOMB.

Currently Reading
I'm not actually reading anything at the moment - have a lot waiting in the wings, though. The third one in the Wolf Rampant series, Alpha Ascendant - I'd like to finish the series, I don't think I'll reread unless this book is amazing. The three Dick Francis books for the shared read - which I was supposed to be reading all along, but haven't opened (they're on my desk!). Maybe some of the others that have been hanging fire for a while - one from January this year (The Cottages on Silver Beach, one from March 2017! (Seven Daughters and Seven Sons), various in between those. I really need to read BOMBs, though.

BOMBs
Yes, sort of - I don't have a book of The Hub, but I do have one of The Demon Breed which is contained within it.

Discards
The Demon Breed, I think - since I have the e-copy. And Moonwalking, I'm glad I read it but I don't think I'll ever reread.

New/Reread
Both new, at least mostly. I'd read one (of 10) stories in The Hub. So now 13 rereads paid for.

Good start to the new month. Keep it up, Jenn!

I am beginning to recover from May (nice that there was almost a week in May after Baycon, for that recovery!). I'm caught up on quite a few things, though there's still some waiting for me - I've entered the stacks of books, but not yet the box of them from the library sale. Fixed my friend's computer, did some cleaning up around the house, helped my parents with a bunch of stuff (fortunately they were at Baycon with me, so they've been just as slow recovering). I have scrubbed the Earthbox but not yet refilled it, so the tomatoes are still sitting in cups. The peas seem to have mostly quit - there's only a couple pods, a couple flowers, and the pods I'm leaving up to make seeds on them. I'll pull the vines as soon as those pods start to dry. The tomatoes (that are properly planted) are sturdy, and a few have flowers already. I scattered poppy seed in the front of one container - actually, in two containers. One has two or three sprouts of poppies; the other has an utter forest, that's trying to eat the tomatoes and basil that's also planted there. Sheesh! I should probably thin them, but I haven't mustered the energy.

I tried to take my cats for shots on Sunday, but I couldn't catch them in time to make the clinic. I'll try again the next time the clinic comes around, in mid-June.

I finished one book I've been reading for a month, and got caught up in Schmitz and read The Hub in four days. Nice! I'd like to read more Schmitz...but I think I've read everything else by him that I have paper books of, so there would be no BOMBs. I'll save it for our trip in July, and concentrate on BOMBs for a while.

>97 jjmcgaffey: >98 ronincats: I first read The Demon Breed as a serial in Analog in about 1968. Not great literature but it has otters! Sort of anyway. And a really kickass female protagonist.

>104 haydninvienna: Have you seen the Schmitz group read? https://www.librarything.com/topic/307199 The Demon Breed is what most people are starting with.

BTW, after making that plan to save Schmitz for our July vacation, I just glanced at my e-edition of Original Edition of edited Schmitz Stories and read the first story, then of course I had to go read the same story in the edited version, and it's the second one in Telzey Amberdon so I read the first one first (which is also strongly edited - I have that in paper, in the original version, and the switch from watching a tape to watching a screen always amuses me) and then started Undercurrents (the story I read the original version of and wanted to compare). But I have to go accomplish stuff today so I haven't gotten very far. Haven't seen many changes yet, though.

>100 jjmcgaffey: I bought Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers last month and am looking forward to reading it. I'm trying to read some of my older books first.

I want to get to the Bob books this month. I doubt that will happen, but ...

I've actually finished Telzey Amberdon but haven't gotten around to reviewing it yet so I can't post. Tomorrow we're going to the SF Free Folk Fest - a day of folk music and dance and lessons and and and... The worst problem there is picking which session to go to - there's multiple things going on each hour, and at several points there's two or three I really want to go to. Phooey. We've (my parents and I) gone previously, but not for several years.

I also just finally planted my last two tomatoes; ten plants in now, though one is just sitting there sulking. Not dying, not completely, but not growing either. And that was one of the new varieties, Basque Bumblebee cherry tomato, so I really want it to grow. I piled up some more dirt around it, maybe that will help.

I'm still playing guitar - through May, it was a quick session of chord changes late at night at most, but I did play every day. So far in June I'm doing much better than that - actually playing songs. Today I managed to play through Irish Rover without looking at the music! I doubt I'll retain it for long unless I keep playing it every night, and I suspect I'll get thoroughly sick of it in time, but still - I actually memorized the chords for a song!

>106 rhian_of_oz: Have you read the other two? I tried A Closed and Common Orbit first and was turned off; starting from the beginning of the series made it much better. I have Spaceborn Few but haven't started it yet - I've had it longer than I've had ...Angry Planet, actually.

>107 benitastrnad: I haven't gotten into those books yet - I've seen others talking about them but haven't gotten hooked yet. I probably will read the first one, at least, at some point.

>108 jjmcgaffey: Yes I've read the other two. I would read them in order anyway, but I read Angry Planet when it first came out and became a fan.

So. Hot. It hit 95F or so today (actually, my thermometer in the late afternoon sun right now shows 101.5!). And this is a place that doesn't get a lot of hot weather, so almost no houses have central air conditioning - only a few have window units, at that. I have a fan in my window and was seriously considering buying another to set up by the balcony door. But it should be cooler tomorrow and back down to the high 60s-low 70s by Wednesday, so I'm just surviving.

Yesterday, Sunday, was nearly as bad; we hid out in my parents' house most of the day, they don't have A/C either but they have more windows and more fans (and windows on the _back_ of the house too, for much better air flow!). And Saturday was nearly as hot - and that day we spent in San Francisco (yes, it was in the high 80s in San Francisco, and not a cloud or a fog to be seen), going to the San Francisco Free Folk Fest. It was hot, particularly in the mostly-closed-off classrooms - but the music was fantastic and we sang and listened and had a huge amount of fun. And then came home and ate ice cream.

This heat wave is painful, but short, so not too bad. I have gone shopping partly to get into air conditioning, but haven't yet even considered going to a movie for that purpose.

It was that hot here too today in the inland valleys and set all kinds of records there. Luckily, with the air so dry it has cooled down quickly and is 71F right now, so sleeping should be good.

Still 87 after sunset. Yeah, I bet the valleys were roasting!

The forecast is for 111 tomorrow around here. Not that’s e are not used to these temperatures here but we had such a gorgeous May that I was still in denial that summer is actually here. I still hope it will go under 100 for a few more days but the way it looks, next time that happens will be in October. Thankfully nights are still in the middle and high 70s so it is nice but they are also climbing.

Stay cool out there.

Oof. Another roasting day, and apparently more of the same tomorrow - the usual on-shore winds aren't blowing and we're getting winds from the inland valleys which are usually 20-30 degrees warmer than the coast. 90F at my house, well after sunset.

Despite that, good day - went to ceramics and painted a little box I did, hung out at my parents', then we went to a talk at the library about railroads in Alameda - a major factor in the physical and economic development of the city. Very interesting.

Now gonna eat icecream and relax for a bit, then take a cool shower before bed. It helped yesterday.

The weather here has been odd - like yours. It was HOT in April and early May. Then it cooled off and we had spring in late May. Wednesday and Thursday (June 12 & 13) the nighttime temperatures were in the high 50's. That is very cool for this time of year. It was beautiful weather and so comfortable in the evenings. Today it is typical summer weather - lower 90's.

I baked yesterday. Made oatmeal date cookies and Molasses Ginger cookies. It got so hot in my kitchen (two west facing windows) that I had to chill the oatmeal cookies dough in order to form it into balls. Of course, I had the oven on, so I could bake the other cookies. Even so the cookies turned out well.

>114 jjmcgaffey: Sadly, our weather system seems to be going the opposite direction these past few years. Northern Ireland has never been well known for great weather, but with the exception of last year our summers have become totally abysmal.

We had one half decent week at Easter (mid 60s - in NI that means get your swimwear on!), but the whole of June has been terrible: cold and rainy (not even reaching mid 50s). It's so depressing. We have these fantastic long evenings (it doesn't get dark until around 11pm at this time of year), but the weather's been too miserable to enjoy them properly. Shall we swap, just for a little while? ;)

>116 AlisonY: I wonder if the Gulf Stream is getting messed up with all the changes? That's the only reason the British Isles don't normally get heaps of snow in winter - but it does make it pretty damp (in my limited experience, and from reading). Hopefully things will smooth out for you this year!

It has gotten better here - after a couple days of plunging temps (highs in the 50s, brr - huge drop!) it's settled back down yesterday and today to the usual highs in the high 60s-low 70s, lows in the high 50s. We went to a talk on statistics ("How to be More Uncertain"), and Dad commented that, on average, the temperature over the last week was in the 70s...but only on average.

>115 benitastrnad: I haven't been baking much - collecting recipes, oh yes, but not actually doing much in the kitchen. That'll have to change this week, I've promised brownies and caprese skewers for a church party. Brownies are easy; I'm going to (try to) actually make the mozzarella for the caprese skewers - small mozzarella balls, cherry tomatoes, and basil leaves on bamboo skewers. Fun to eat, and it will be cool if I can make the cheese...also it will get me off my rear and actually making cheese! If the mozzarella is a complete failure, I can always buy mozzarella balls, but only if.

Today I'm planning to go in to the city and pick up a book. I don't usually get physical books from my extended libraries because it's such a pain to pick them up and return them...and I completely forgot about interlibrary loan. Hmmm. Well, I've already got this one on hold, so I'll go get it - besides, it's a nice library to visit (San Francisco Main Library). I'm trying to get all my chores out of the way (unlike my usual wait until late evening to do them) so I have the rest of the day free. Plus a small indulgence of LT, and entering a book (just one, I bought it yesterday at a yard sale).

I've also actually finished two books - an ER e-book and one that's been on my Currently Reading list since January. I usually like Raeanne Thayne but this one just didn't catch me - too much misunderstanding trope, I think. Done, anyway. I'll update my book stats and post here...tonight, I hope, or tomorrow.

>117 jjmcgaffey: you're right. For the past few weeks there has been some big swirling mass of stormy weather sitting in the Atlantic which is stopping lovely high pressure from the Gulf Stream getting to us. Last year, when we'd had our first good summer for ten years, we'd had a very long, hard winter. This year there were hardly any mornings with frost on the ground, and it seems to be that when the winter is mild we get very wet, indifferent summers.

Glad to hear your weather up near SF has cooled down a bit. I've only been to that part of the coast once around 15 years ago. I really loved it - San Francisco has a very different vibe to it.

I'm having a lazy day - got up late and am reading LT instead of - oh, eating breakfast, for instance. I am making yogurt, though, in my Instant Pot. Several projects for today, but nothing on a schedule. And tomorrow is my parents' 55th wedding anniversary - we're going out to dinner, with my sister who's in the area (my sister in Reno can't make it, of course/pity).

One of my projects is to get my various reading tracking methods synchronized and up to date - LT reading dates (and reviews), dates and quick reviews in Google Keep, and my Book Stats spreadsheet. The last helps me post, so if I can get all of them cleaned up (one or another is the quick way to track when I've started/finished a book - but I haven't cross-filled in quite a while) I'll post here.

Books Read
110. Telzey Amberdon @# by James Schmitz. Review - Good as always - I thought I knew all these stories, but while I'd read all of them I didn't remember the later ones nearly as well as the first couple.
111. The Hawk of the Castle %^ by Danna Smith. Review - Excellent children's picture book - the text is interesting and enjoyable, the pictures are great particularly if you're interested in the period. Lovely details.
112. ...And Then You Die of Dysentery %^ by Lauren Reeves. Review - ...um, sort of an adult picture book? Bits of text over 8-bit style drawings, pretending that The Oregon Trail gives good suggestions for living your real life. I never was hooked on the game - it might be better for someone who was.
113. Original Edition of Edited Schmitz Stories @# by James Schmitz. Review - Half and half, reread and new. I read the Telzey stories and immediately read the Flint-edited version in Telzey Amberdon; the last few stories I haven't read before, nor have I yet read the edited versions. Soon.
114. The Casual Quilter ^ by Robin Strobel. Review - Great instructions for cutting and piecing several quilt tops (a craft I haven't done and didn't really want to start, but…). Little to no instructions for actually building the quilt, though.
115. The Cottages on Silver Beach ^ by RaeAnne Thayne. Review - A very meh romance. Rich characters, but the major trope is that they (despite being childhood friends) don't know anything about each other and are acting on assumptions - and lying to themselves and everyone else about their feelings. Yawn. Took me forever to read.
116. Nobody's Victims @! by Leslie Fish. Review - A very Leslie book (I know her songs - same problems). Excellent use of language, rich characters, heavy libertarian/anarchist bent to the plots.
117. The Iron Wyrm Affair @* by Lilith Saintcrow. Review - Excellent! I do like Saintcrow, but she's hard on her characters - here she doesn't break them (too much). Setting is fascinating, plot and characters are excellent, next please.

Currently Reading
Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana Jr - a BOMB, and so far (I've just started) interesting. Not actually reading anything else, though the Dick Francis books are hovering.

BOMBs
The Iron Wyrm Affair (one, at least!). 17 16 behind for the year.

Discards
Telzey lets me discard two books that are made up of the stories in that ebook - The Universe Against Her and The Lion Game. Discarding the Cottages. And I can discard the paper copy of Iron Wyrm, since I have the ebook. Four discards! I actually passed my goal for this month...of course, I'm still 12 11 behind for the half-year, which ends in 10 days...

New/Reread
Telzey Amberdon and half of the Original Editions are rereads; all the rest are new.

Some small progress on BOMBs and discards. And I _finally_ finished those silly Cottages! I've been reading that since January. A very good month so far, keep working on BOMBs (and discards).

Ah, corrections! I discovered I had a paper copy of Legacy, which is in Original Editions - so now I'm counting it as new and a BOMB (and a discard). Numbers going up. And I'm back up to 14 rereads paid for, too.

So on Friday my parents and I went to the Alameda County Fair; fun as usual, and (for a change) pretty good weather. Hot but not roasting - we've had roasting (101F) and freezing (50F - at noon) the last few years (June in Northern California is...a little random). I bought a massage pillow (just a pillow with a pressure-activated vibration unit in it - feels good) and a chill collar (cloth tube with water-retaining gel in it; it dries to little crystals, but soak the collar for a few minutes and it plumps up. Wrap it around your neck and evaporation keeps you a heck of a lot cooler than without it). I have one, in green, but I've wanted a second a few times. Got a dark blue.

And Mom found out that she could bring back her frying pan that she bought there and they'd replace it. It still works OK - ceramic inside and it's wonderfully non-stick - but the outside and the bottom are _filthy_ and won't scrub off. We tried (at the seller's suggestion) boiling a dryer sheet in it and scrubbing with that, and scrubbing with baking soda - both helped, but it's still a mess. So she and I are going back next Wednesday to bring that and check out a few other things (can't remember what, at the moment...). And on the way I'm going to stop at a _great_ shoe repair place, the Cobblers in Hayward, and drop off two (of my three) pairs of Birkenstocks to get resoled. The rubber is getting thin enough the leather is about to touch the ground at the outside of the ball of the foot - and I walked through the leather on my original pair, don't want to lose these.

Then there's the Fourth of July next next Thursday; Alameda has the longest parade in the US (3.3 miles, plus line-up and going somewhere once it's over...), with lots of people walking (driving, biking, etc) and just as many watching. This year I'm just going to watch, with my parents. I've walked it before, with my gardening group, but...

the real reason I'm not walking this year is that on the 5th, we leave for my parents' timeshare in Nevada. So the next week and a half are full of packing and figuring out what to bring and what we want to do and when we'll do it and do we need to schedule it/get tickets/coordinate with others... And while I've walked the parade before, and biked it several times, I always spend the next several days moaning and limping, and a 4-5 hour drive is not really congruent with that feeling. Though hanging out in the hot tubs at the timeshare (it's an old hot springs - Mark Twain wrote about it, apparently) would be good for that...

And I need to find someone to feed my cats for the last two days of our week up there - I have a friend who normally does it but she's leaving on the Wednesday we're away and we won't be back until late Friday.

Oh, what I got done today - I finally connected with the luthier I met at the Free Folk Fest, brought my guitar to him and got it seriously upgraded. From a (broken) plastic saddle (where the strings go over just below the soundhole) to a new bone one, plus a bone nut (at the top of the neck), a strap button at the bottom of the neck instead of tying the strap to the end of the neck, and new strings. So it currently won't hold tune for the length of a song...I keep tuning it up and retuning it. It'll take a week or two. I plan to bring the guitar with me to the timeshare, because I'm playing it (just a little) every day. For the last month-and-a-bit I've been playing my steel-string - which is fine, it's a good guitar, but my index finger nail is utterly shot from strumming on steel strings. Trying out various picks. The luthier (the Thin Man is his nickname, and the name of his former shop) recommended a type of pick that sits over the nail and functions like one, but he was out of them. I'll get some when he reorders.

Various and sundry stuff. I'm still reading Two Years Before the Mast - interesting, especially since he's currently working along the California coast, but I know just enough about sailing tall ships to know that I have _no_ idea what he's talking about when he goes technical on sails and rigging. My eyes just slide over that stuff - stay-sails and stuns'ls and dropping the topgallants and ... no idea. Also reading Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks - interesting, particularly now when I'm getting more into playing music (I've always sung, but playing has been far more variable).

My garden is growing nicely on the balcony - most of the tomatoes have flowers, all except the Basque Bumblebee cherry tomato that broke its neck when I planted it and sat there and sulked for a month. It's finally starting to grow, but the other tomato in that pot has a month's head start (it's a Sungold) and is trying to sprawl all over the Bumblebee - I keep pushing it back and catching branches in the net it's (supposed to be) growing on, so the Bumblebee can get some sun. The Oriental Poppies are also blooming - I scattered seed along the edges of two pots, one grew one or maybe two poppies (one of the plants no longer looks like a poppy, but I'm not sure what it is - I also seeded a lot of different types of herbs in that area). The other pot, just about every seed sprouted and that edge is a solid jungle of poppies. They're trying to eat the basil that's planted on the other side of the pot - the tomatoes are tall enough to escape, and the marigold is simply refusing to be suppressed, but the basil is looking a bit puny. So far, all the poppies that have bloomed (three) have been pale purple. Actually, not sure about that - the first one to bloom did it with its head under the edge of the railing and I never saw it until the petals had dropped. But I'm mostly growing them for the seeds, so that's OK - it made its pod. There's a lot more buds up, but nothing open at the moment.

Oh - and in fact the mozzarella was a flat failure. I'm not sure where the problem was - part of it may have been that I didn't have time to finish it in the morning, so I refrigerated the curds, then came home and heated them for stretching in the evening. It apparently works somehow - there are places you can buy mozzarella curds in supermarkets/delis and take them home and stretch them yourself - but when I heated my curds they just fell apart. I made a sort of ricotta. But it also may have been the type of milk I used (standard pasteurized homogenized) - there were warnings about the curds going ricotta - or it might have worked if I'd heated the curds in water or whey on the stovetop rather than microwaving them. Oh well. The ricotta is quite tasty - I ate some on waffles this morning - I bought mozzarella balls for the caprese skewers and they worked fine, and I'll try making it again soon.

And I'm up way too late. G'nite.

>122 jjmcgaffey: I've always wanted to try my hand at mozzarella-making. Not sure why, since there's extraordinarily good handmade mozzarella a ten-minute drive from where I live, and the local Whole Foods actually sources great local mozz. I think it's more the science-experiment aspect that sounds fun. But, sadly, I don't have the time for any of the crafty stuff I want to try right now, so I live vicariously through the crafts of others. Interested to hear how it goes if/when you try again. From what I've heard the water temperature is key. But I have to say I like the idea of "going ricotta" as a cheese version of "going rogue."

June stats
10 books read
1 rereads
9 new books
14 rereads paid for

3016 pages read, average 301.6

3 BOMBs
1 ER books
0 Netgalley books

5 ebooks, 5 paper books

7 discards - passed my goal for the month

5 SF&F
0 animal stories
1 children's
2 non-fiction
0 general fiction
1 romances
1 graphic novels
0 mysteries

6 F, 4 M authors

Wow, um, kind of a crappy month. Some of the books were reasonably large, but even by the standards of pages read I only beat May (my busiest month) and only by less than 40 pages. I did, finally, manage to read a few BOMBs and get a decent number of discards for the month - but I'm still way behind on both goals. Part of it is that I finished my last book on the 18th, and since then have been reading a large and a largish book; I'm nowhere near done with either one. Two Years Before the Mast and Oliver Sacks's Musicophilia are the two books.

I plan to take a bunch of (smallish, lightish) BOMBs with me on our trip to Nevada, read and discard them there. So hopefully in July I can make better progress on my goals. We'll see. I'm also indulging in a bunch of new ebooks, several of them novellas...but those are likely to go very fast (because they're great!), so I may be able to get some BOMBs done around them.

Half-year stats
117 books read
14 rereads
103 new books
14 rereads paid for so far

26971 pages read, average per book 230.5, average per month 4495.2

14 BOMBs so far this year, 16 short of my half-year goal
5 ER books
3 Netgalley books

94 ebooks, 23 paper books

19 discards so far this year, 11 short of my half-year goal

51 SF&F
3 animal stories
26 children's
10 non-fiction
5 general fiction
9 romances
13 graphic novels
0 mysteries

68 F, 49 M authors

Overall so far - as noted above, very poor progress on my BOMBs and discards goals. ER and Netgalley books not bad, though I still have a large backlog in both. BOMBs vs rereads vs the rereads rolled over from last year are...rather amusing; I rolled over 14 rereads, have reread 14 books, and have read 14 BOMBs, so it's no net change. Lots of ebooks, which is part of why my BOMBs are so far behind. Pretty good on male authors, though still nearly a third more female ones. Pretty good spread on genres, too, though I haven't read any mysteries yet (pick some for BOMBs, they should be good light reads).

OK - need to get cracking on my goals, it's better to be well ahead going in to the holidays. Which are still months away, but months have already passed...

Still only beginning to pack - I've pulled out the clothes I'll need (mostly - had to wear some of them, before laundry was done!), but I haven't even started thinking about crafts, or books (especially the BOMBs), or prepping my computer to go, or...seventeen million things still to be done. I did, however, take my two pairs of Birkenstocks that were wearing very thin on the soles down to be resoled, and I'll collect them tomorrow (pricey, but much cheaper than buying new - and the leather is already broken in to my feet). Need to scan the covers of a bunch of books, and enter a few (as well as scanning them). Need to download ebooks I've bought or otherwise obtained, and get them into calibre. Need to rip CDs so I can listen to that music and decide if I like it. And just by the way - do some jobs for clients (as usual, when I had little to do last week I didn't get a single call; this week I've had three already, one of which I put off until after we get back). And bake for the Fourth, and prep food for the trip (I make sourdough waffles every year on the trip, so I need to set up the ingredients - serious mise en place). And and. Next year we should go a little later, this jamming the trip together with the Fourth makes things very difficult.

Many more poppies have bloomed; the first lot (4-5) were all pale purple, and I never had more than one blooming at a time (they only last about a day). Then a deep red one, with large purple spots inside, bloomed - and today I had three red poppies at once! Very nice. I need to put a bit of string on the stems, so I save some of their seed for replanting. I like them a lot better than the purples. I'm going to save lots and lots of seed, but most of it will be for cooking; I'll put some aside for planting, but a small fraction of the total.

I have several small projects to do - finish (by sewing up the toes) a pair of slipper-socks, hem a pair of jeans, stuff like that. I haven't had any free time to actually _do_ them in the last two weeks. Not true, I've had free time, and I've spent it reading or playing games. But I really needed the mental break from juggling a dozen to-dos...

Well, I'll have a bit more time on the trip. Whether it's worth carrying all these projects up to work on them is a separate question.

Still chugging through Two Years - it's very interesting, but loooooong. I'm just about halfway through. I won't be taking Musicophilia along - it's a hardback, too much to carry. I'm finishing packing tonight and still need to dig up some BOMBs to bring. But I just need to pull out an appropriate box or two - kids and mysteries and maybe some SF.

I got eight! red poppies at once yesterday. They really are lovely.

Went to get my Real ID today - my driver's license expires this month. And discovered, very late last night, that I do not in fact have a certified birth certificate - one fancy embossed and sealed one from the hospital (doesn't count) and one copy (I swear it's a mimeograph, not a xerox) with no seal from the city. Blast. So I ordered the proper document last night, but still went in this morning because my license will probably expire before I get it, so I got a temporary one. Bleah.

Baking and packing today; baking for the various Fourth of July parties (parade, then at my parents' condo), plus some for the trip. And packing - oh, and I need...and that...oh right! we decided to bring the other...geesh. Stuff. Too much stuff. Get back to work, Jenn.

>110 jjmcgaffey: Sounds like fun!

>122 jjmcgaffey: So does all of that. I must try making mozzarella too. You know ... some day ...

Made two kinds of cookies - butterscotch, which are OK - kind of bland and a little gummy. Next time I'll put in toffee bits. And Almond Clouds, which are _fantastic_. Very very simple recipe, if you can find almond paste - almond paste, sugar, a touch of salt, a couple egg whites, some almond extract (which I think I'll skip next time - I think they'd be almondy enough by themselves). Mix, scoop, bake, yum. Thin crunchy shell over soft, chewy center - like a macaron, but more so. However, the only almond paste I could find was...well, it was a tube of 7 ounces, for rather a lot of money, and the ingredients started with high fructose corn syrup and went on for quite a while. I got the recipe from King Arthur Flour, who are trying to sell Love N Bake almond paste; it sounds much better, but I didn't have time to order it between when I saw the recipe and when I needed the cookies. So my solution was to make my own almond paste, which is incredibly simple - blanched almonds, sugar, a little water, grind in a food processor. The recipe I actually used added a bit of honey and some almond extract (again, I think it's overkill), and boiled the sugar, honey, and water together and poured it in hot. Worked fine, I think I'll try some simpler ones as well.

https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/almond-cloud-cookies-recipe

https://nourishingjoy.com/how-to-make-almond-paste/ (hmm, this is actually quite unlike most of the recipes - powdered sugar and an egg white, in most. I like this better, I think).

>124 jjmcgaffey: I took a light reading BOMB along on a trip to Hawaii, and left it in the Little Free Library on Waikiki Beach. Made me happy to think of it being there and hopefully someone else enjoying a fun beach read.

>130 LadyoftheLodge: That's what I want to do...but it's Monday night and I haven't read any of my BOMBs, except a couple chapters of Two Years... and I can't leave that (ebook). Still days to go, but days have passed... I've been doing a lot of driving back and forth to Reno, went up Saturday to collect my sister and ended up spending most of the day at her house as she finished up packing. Sunday we went to church and puttered away most of the day - my mom and sister and I played word games on my computer. Then I drove my dad up today for a physical therapy evaluation (my sister's PT, who is excellent), and again spent most of the day hanging around (I went and charged the car, and did some light shopping). Tomorrow...not sure what we'll be doing, besides dinner at a really good restaurant. Wednesday we take my sister home, take Dad to the PT again for a session, and Mom and I will go thrift shopping up there; then my brother-in-law will feed us, I expect it will be fantastic (it usually is). Thursday I'm not sure what - oh, maybe thrift shopping down here. And Friday we head home. A lot of driving.

My sister and I have been playing guitar in the evening - fun to play together. She's a lot better than I am - better ear, and better skills though she's out of practice and I've been playing a lot recently. It's useful to play together, too, she's upgrading my skills - helping me push myself a bit.

But reading hasn't been happening much. Sigh.

>131 jjmcgaffey: Lots of family time. Wonderful! I've been getting a bit of that lately, too; my sister was here for a bit and now my mum is. My dad will be turning up in a week or two as well.

I feel like I'm reading your diary as I lurk around your thread! Enjoying your posts - I love getting little snapshots of other people's lives, especially when they live in different countries to me. It's so interesting (or am I just nosy...?).

I have had a bad week with my tomato plants. I only planted three this year and they were all doing fine. Last Friday I noticed that the one on the end of the bed closest to the driveway was looking limp. It got worse and worse. It either has a bad case of Tomato Wilt or it got a dose of Roundup. While I was on vacation the lawn care people came and applied Roundup to the driveway and carport to kill the weeds. I am not sure what happened but of course the affected plant is the one that had the most tomatoes on it, and it was my only yellow pear tomato. I should be happy as I still have my yellow and red cherry tomato plants and they are still healthy. They are both farther away from the driveway, so I am hoping that they will remain healthy so that I can have salad tomatoes for the rest of the summer.

>134 benitastrnad: Oh, ugh. I hope the other two survive, but Yellow Pears are so tasty... I kind of hope it is Roundup, since the wilts are all so contagious.

>133 AlisonY: Excellent! That's the sort of thing I like to evoke. It's what I enjoy in other people's threads, so I'm trying to do it here as well.

>132 humouress: Nice! My sister goes back home tomorrow - we're going up with her, and eating at her house, then back down here. We didn't get to the quilting (she used to, I'm failing to resist), but we did play guitar several times.

I'm a little off-color today - short sleep, got up early and made waffles (as planned - they're sourdough, with an overnight sponge, so I have to make them the morning after I start the sponge), then fell asleep for two hours in the middle of the day. Got up and felt somewhat better, then we went out to a restaurant - absolutely delicious food but way too much, I was soooo stuffed! I don't usually overeat, but I wasn't hungry (for whatever reason) but the food was too good not to eat. Came home, played guitar, and I decided to catch up online. Arrrgh, need to walk - not much, a couple hundred steps to hit my goal today. G'nite.

So far the other two tomato plants are hanging in there and are still producing tomatoes, so I think it was the Roundup.

I had lawn people come on Monday and clean up some trees that were growing to close to the foundation. The one in the front of the house I asked them to dig the stump out because I am tired of having to get it cut down every three years. They did and now I have a small hole to fill in. But that is OK with me.

>136 benitastrnad: Good! Yeah, I'm glad I don't have to worry about trees - even though I'd love some ground to plant in. Advantages/disadvantages of living in a condo.

My Yellow Pear has just produced its first two little green tomatoes. I have lots of green tomatoes of various varieties - not so much as a blush yet on any of them - and all of my tomatoes (even the one that broke its neck at planting) have flowers at least. Jolly was the first to produce tomatoes; we'll see who wins the race to harvest. Sungold is being ridiculous, flinging itself all over the space (it's sharing with the Basque Bumblebee, that broke its neck and was very very slow to grow, and I keep having to tuck Sungold back out of the way so BB doesn't get entirely shaded out) and has lots of tomatoes on it - and they don't have to grow as big as Jolly (which are salad tomatoes; I generally don't bother with beefsteaks, we don't get enough sun here to make them worth growing).

Got back from Nevada last Friday; finished unpacking today (well, almost - haven't unpacked the craft bag yet). Various and assorted stuff keeping me busy, nothing very interesting.

>137 jjmcgaffey: I enjoy your posts immensely. As someone else stated, I like getting a glimpse into the "everydayness" of other people's lives.

Books Read
118. The Monarch of the Glen @^ by Neil Gaiman. Review - Rather weird story - I haven't read American Gods yet, but now I want to even more.
119. Two Years Before the Mast @* by Richard Henry Dana Jr. Review - Many interesting bits, but overall too long and too technical (ship and sail bits until my eyes glazed over). Liked the descriptions of the California coast, in 1835 and 1859. Very different.
120. Farmer's Crown @^ by M.C.A. Hogarth. Review - Wow. Very very rich story, even for Hogarth - I was reading through tears several times, and laughing other times.
121. Claws and Starships @^ by M.C.A. Hogarth. Review - Assorted short stories, different angles on the Pelted. Enjoyable, but not as memorable as the novels.
122. Dragonhaven @# by Robin McKinley. Review - Apparently I did read this before, but I didn't remember it. Fascinating story, odd voice.
123. In the Line of Duty @^ by M.C.A. Hogarth. Review - Nice little story - mostly about Alysha's obsession with saving people.
124. The First Men in the World * by Anne Terry White. Review - Not as fun as Prehistoric America, but good - especially the parts about people discovering things and arguing for them.
125. Sword of the Alliance @^ by M.C.A. Hogarth. Review - Very good story with lots of annoying bits (too much politics, mostly).
126. Joe's Luck @^ by Horatio Alger. Review - Standard Alger, set in San Francisco for a change.
127. The Telzey Toy and Other Stories # by James H. Schmitz. Review - Fun stories; I almost remembered some of them (from previous reads).
128. Earwig and the Witch @^ by Diana Wynne Jones. Review - Cute little story; Earwig should have been nasty but she wasn't.
129. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell @* by Susanna Clarke. Review - Long, dense, interesting, worth reading once.
130. Enchanted Glass # by Diana Wynne Jones. Review - Lovely as always - nice tangled story. I wish there was a sequel.

Currently Reading
Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks. Interesting, like most of his. Bletchley Park Brainteasers, my birthday gift from my parents. And Jane Austen's England, borrowed from my sister (need to finish it before the end of the month, so I can give it back).

BOMBs
Two Years Before the Mast, The First Men in the World, and Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. Two chunksters (both read as ebooks) and one slim paperback.

Discards
The two chunksters are out, I think - though I need to check if my copy of Two Years... has the pictures (maps and ship's rigging diagram) and if so scan and add them to my ebook. Not getting rid of First Men, because it doesn't exist as an ecopy as far as I can tell.

New/Reread
Three rereads, the rest new; and, amusingly, three BOMBs. So my paid-for rereads count (still!) remains at 14 (rolled over from last year!).

Still very short on BOMBs and discards. Need to read some _small_ BOMBs! This post overlaps July and August, because I didn't feel like splitting them. The last three books (including one BOMB and one discard...) were finished in August.

July stats
10 books read
2 rereads
8 new books
14 rereads paid for

2358 pages read, average 235.8

2 BOMBs
0 ER books
0 Netgalley books

8 ebooks, 2 paper books

2 discards

7 SF&F
0 animal stories
1 children's
2 non-fiction
0 general fiction
0 romances
0 graphic novels
0 mysteries

6 F, 4 M authors

A rather short and dull month (in terms of stats - some very good books in there); mostly SF, mostly new books, mostly ebooks. Gotta get working on my goals!

I feel like I've been running a Red Queen's Race the last month or so - constantly doing, but not really getting anywhere. Two big, and enjoyable, projects going on right now - one has a deadline, one doesn't.

The one without a deadline is, my parents gave me a Synology NAS (network attached storage) for my birthday (it was on my wishlist); I need to set it up. Then I'll have a) good solid backup and b) my own personal cloud where I won't have to fit into Dropbox's (or others) limits - as many devices as I want, as much space as I want (and get disks for). I have a NAS, but unlike the Synology it doesn't do well as a personal cloud (actually, it can theoretically be set up that way - but I've jumped through all the hoops and gotten nowhere, so bah) and it keeps shutting down instead of backing up my comps. So once I get the Synology set up, I will be very happy. But I haven't found the time or focus to actually do it yet.

The one with a deadline is, this Sunday is the Alameda Mini Maker Faire and I'm exhibiting, on fingerloop braiding. I've taught this class many times in assorted venues - from SCA events to SF cons to my local bead store - but I need to set up some eye-catching displays for the Faire. I've thought about what I want to put up, but haven't actually started writing words let alone finding pictures. Plus making braiding kits and samples. And it's this Sunday! I have to be ready by Saturday, so I can go to sleep early.

So instead, I updated Book Stats tonight. Oh well. I'm still glad I did it, even if it was constructive procrastination. But tomorrow I need to create at least the first draft of my posters.

The Sunday after the Faire, we're going up to Lake Tahoe, to my parents' other timeshare. That will also be enjoyable, as usual - including seeing The Taming of the Shrew in an open-air theater on the edge of the lake. This trip, unlike other years, will be two weeks (just short) - we'll go from this timeshare to a new one nearby. I think that this will not be a winner, but we're trying it. Which means I had to arrange things for my cats and plants - the person who normally feeds the cats will also need to deal with the litterbox this year (one week is barely tolerable, two is _not_). She's willing, so yay, but complications.

I'm still playing guitar every day - not for very long, but every day. This Habitica challenge has been very good for me. I've memorized (as in, can play without looking at chords) two songs, and almost a third; and I'm working on learning a fourth song before I start on the chords for it (the other three are old familiar friends). Irish Rover, Little Boxes, Inch by Inch, and the new one is Second-hand Songs. All lovely, and it will be fun to be able to play them. The guitar hangouts with my sister haven't worked too well - we did one, in which we found that our own guitars drowned out the person playing through video in both directions, and then we missed three for sickness and busyness and stuff. We'll work it out, eventually.

>138 LadyoftheLodge: Good! Here's a new dollop of my everydayness...

I'm enjoying the tomatoes.

I am utterly wiped. Today was the Maker Faire and I didn't get to see _any_ of it. It started at 10, ended at 4, and from about 10:30 until nearly 4 I had braiders - from one or two up to more than I had chairs for - working on fingerloop braids (and I turned some away, with instruction cards, at quarter to 4). I have said "One loop on each finger, one color on each hand" seventeen million times today (about 60, I think, actually) and am extremely hoarse despite eating risotto and panna cotta for dinner (my parents took me out to a restaurant - very tasty, but rather heavy).

It was a blast, I'm already looking forward to next year. And considering how to amend my posters - and planning to print stuff up _much_ sooner. And it's 9:30 pm and I'm going to bed, g'nite.

Still recovering from Maker Faire, I think - I've missed my Fitbit goals twice this week already. Monday I barely moved; Tuesday I was quite active, but Wednesday (which was supposed to be a very active day, getting stuff done to prep for our trip to Tahoe on Sunday) I did very little. I did get my new NAS (birthday gift) set up, though I'm still working on the details - on actually making the connections I want it for. Aside from that, my big triumph of the day was washing dishes. And making yogurt...I think. I forgot to turn on the Instant Pot to ferment it, so it cooled off, so I gave it a shot of heat (slow cooker mode, for 5 minutes) and meant to check it after an hour...four hours later, I remembered and opened it up and found it had separated a lot (lots of whey sitting on top). I put it in the strainer anyway - today I find out if I made yogurt or cheese...or sour milk, or what.

I am feeling a bit more active today, we'll see how I get along. Of course I have two days worth of work to do in one day - and two clients today. Friday I have another client, in the city, which will take a good chunk of the day (and start early). Saturday will be laundry and final packing (and Mass), Sunday morning we're out of here.

It's a two-week trip this time, which is new - two different timeshares. It will be interesting. South Lake Tahoe for our usual one, then the new one in Incline Village up at the north end of the lake.

I think I keep repeating myself, but I don't feel like scrolling back and seeing if I said it was a two-week trip already...ah well, everydayness. These things are what's occupying my brain today.

So it's been kind of a whirlwind, packing for the trip and then the trip itself. I never even turned on my computer in South Lake Tahoe - partly because I'm in the living room (sofabed) and didn't have much time or space to myself. Now we're up in North Lake Tahoe, in Incline Village, and it turns out the place we're staying is set up with a "big" unit and a "small" one. The "big" unit - which isn't physically bigger, but has a full kitchen (rather than just a microwave) and a jacuzzi tub, and a bigger bedroom (because it has no hall taking part of the space) is up stairs, so that's where I am. Mom could just about haul herself up, Dad really couldn't, not the multiple times a day they'd need to. So they have the lower space, and that's where we eat and hang out mostly; and I have the upper space to myself (my sister couldn't come this time, we wore her out in South Lake Tahoe. Next year she'll just come here, she'll enjoy it a lot more). South Lake Tahoe is (where we are) a very busy commercial space - we're just west of Stateline, the division between Nevada and California. Just east of that line are the big casinos; just west (across the street from us) is Heavenly Village, the shopping area that belongs to the Heavenly Ski Resort. Cars, trucks, motorbikes, people, pubs and bars, loud music...stores of all sorts, including a Raleys supermarket within walking distance... It's not bad, but it's not quiet or calm. The timeshare is an old motel (50s? The sign is that style - lots of bulbs and neon). It's decently comfortable, and has an active and friendly crew running it - people on the front desk until late, and 90% of the time when you ask for something it immediately appears. And breakfast, and activities, and so on.

The North Lake Tahoe place is...well, it's bigger. The "front desk" is a video camera; we can contact people either by phone from the unit or by phone from the little box office that's the "front desk". There's stuff missing from the unit (we had a total of four hangers in the entire place, for instance), there's stuff missing we're supposed to get (beach passes - and they don't supply beach towels)...and every request must be made over and over and... Eventually it gets done; by the time we leave on Friday morning, we may have gotten everything we were supposed to have all along. But it's annoying. They do give beach passes to some rather nice beaches - Mom and I went swimming at one, Dad watched and then he had to run off to Reno for a PT appointment (and he didn't feel like swimming anyway). Whoo that water was cold! Interesting little beach, nice park attached, but brr. I adjusted after a while, though, but I didn't swim underwater as I usually do. The water was clear enough I could have, but there might be a problem with that.

When my sister was with us in SLT, she noted that she couldn't stomach the water there (she's fragile, in some aspects) and suspected that my and Dad's allergy attacks might be related. We got bottled water from the store...and my hives and stuffiness began to go down. I'm still allergic to sunscreen as well...huh, maybe not. I was feeling OK on antihistamines, went swimming and got a new attack (this was a couple years ago) - maybe it wasn't the sunscreen but the water of the pool that attacked me. Hmmm. Well, an even better reason not to swim underwater - not to put my head under water - in the lake. We've now picked up some Brita pitchers in thrift shops (three pitchers in two stores) and some new filters, and while I don't much like the taste I'm still not getting the allergic reaction. Which is a great improvement - Zyrtec makes me sleepy and Benadryl (I had to take both, for a while, to suppress the symptoms enough to function) makes me sleepier. I'm still taking the Zyrtec but I may stop tomorrow and see how I react.

So the plan is - this place also has spaces that are more like Stardust (the SLT place) - one floor, with a bedroom and a sofabed. It will still have c***py Wifi, but we're going to stay there next year and see. Because the North Shore of Lake Tahoe is much calmer, more soothing, full of trees instead of stores...it still has thrift shops and gift shops and lots of excellent restaurants, but it's much much quieter and more enjoyable as relaxation than Stardust. So we'll see how well I can tolerate having no space to myself for two weeks - it may not work, but we'll see.

We've eaten at four places up here and all four have been excellent. Lupita's Mexican Restaurant - excellent Mexican food; Rosie's Cafe, in Tahoe City on the other side of the lake, for breakfast - mostly because Dad discovered they served Swedish pancakes with lingonberries (he's addicted to them). La Fondue, an all-fondue restaurant - we had cheese fondue with bread and fruit for an appetizer, then a broth fondue with meat and veg (they also have oil) for dinner, then chocolate fondue with fruit and pound cake and mini marshmallows (I ate one, yuck. All sweet, no flavor, even with the lovely dark chocolate on it). It was supposed to be a Fondue Experience for Two - the three of us were completely stuffed afterward. And we just came back from the Clay Oven - it seems to be a restaurant that was serving Chinese and Vietnamese food, then was taken over by Indians (one told us he came from the Punjab - he spoke English well, the other person really didn't) and now serves Indian food as well. Not many dishes - not many of our favorites - but we found things to order, and ordered too much (as is traditional in an Indian restaurant) and they were excellent. The naan was the best I've had in years, and we eat Indian or Afghan (that's actually what we're looking for - but north Indian is pretty close) on a regular basis. And Thai tea goes surprisingly well with Indian food - very like masala chai (spiced tea, with milk), but cold. Different spices, but it's a flavor I love - that's basically what I get when I get bubble tea (boba).

Rolled home and I collapsed on my sofa and found the energy to read and post on LT. I have been reading - I'll post that next - though I'm still being bad about BOMBs. I've finally started one, though - one of the lot I took to the first timeshare, and carried to Stardust and never opened...finally getting to it up here.

I make yogurt on my trips - I've got a setup that works very well, in small units. I find my gut is a lot happier when I give it my yogurt - commercial is OK, mine is better. I've been making my own yogurt for years, but it took some ingenuity to arrange a travel setup. An old half-gallon Igloo jug for a fermenter - it exactly holds a quart Mason jar. Heat and cool the milk in the Mason jar (on the stove or in the microwave - the stove is better because it's slower, but at Walley's last time I broke a mason jar because it got too hot at the bottom and shattered, and wasted all the milk. Microwave makes a slightly funny texture to the yogurt but it doesn't break the jars - and it's quicker). I bring along a little of the last batch of yogurt, inoculate the milk once it's cooled (and indulge by bringing along my Chef Alarm digital thermometer - it's the only one I've ever found that will set off an alarm when the temperature of an item _drops_ below the set range, as well as when it climbs above. Simple, but utterly necessary for yogurt (and very helpful for candy, too). Put the inoculated milk into the Igloo jug and leave it for three hours (it takes about 4 at home, but apparently altitude affects this - we're over a mile up, and yogurt sets faster). Drain the yogurt in a Donvier Wave strainer designed for yogurt - it will just barely hold a quart of undrained yogurt. Let it drain overnight and I get two cups of Greek yogurt in the morning (two days worth). I make two quarts at home, but that requires bigger tools - a Eurocuisine strainer, and either a styrofoam cooler or an Instant Pot for the hold-and-ferment tool. The Igloo jug is perfect for one quart at a time, and travels well. It's ancient, and its gasket is dying - I'm trying to figure out a replacement (no, Igloo doesn't sell one - and their new equivalent jugs don't have insulated tops. Very annoying). Sugru, maybe, or some kind of silicone goop for making gaskets (though I'd like to be able to remove it and I'm not sure the goop will let me), or something.

I have, at Stardust and here, gotten some mending done that was sitting waiting on my sewing table for literally months. Mostly hemming linen pants so I can wear them without wearing out the hems - a necessity up here, and in Alameda recently (it's been a very hot year). And darning a torn laundry bag, and etc - nothing big, but it's nice to have it done! And so on. Some fiddling with my NAS - I set it up for internet access, fun. Playing guitar, by myself and with my sister while she was with us. Thrift shopping, some neat stuff (a new(to me) pair of linen pants, some books). Walking, lying about with a book...lovely vacation. We go home on Friday morning...and then I'll be running like mad doing all the stuff that hasn't been done (much) for two weeks (laundry, cleaning, cats, plants...), plus helping all my clients who called while I was out of town. There's nothing like being unavailable to get people's computers to go wonky and have them call me... It will be an interesting time.

Books Read
131. Alpha Ascendant @^ by Aimee Easterling. Review - Eh. Convenient plot holes. Tying up threads. There's more to the series, I think, but I'm not interested.
132. The Fire Bird @^ by Gene Stratton-Porter. Review - Ew. Stupid format with a nasty story to tell.
133. Musicophilia * by Oliver Sacks. Review - Interesting, like most Sacks books. Nice angles on music as therapy for both physical and mental problems.
134. The Hippo at the End of the Hall ! by Helen Cooper. Review - Cute YA. I found it somewhat annoying in parts, but a child of the right age would probably love it.
135. Marilla of Green Gables @^ by Sarah McCoy. Review - Great story! Very much in Anne's style, as far as I recall, and a good story as well as fleshing out Marilla and Matthew's backstory.
136. Michael O'Halloran @^ by Gene Stratton-Porter. Review - Stratton-Porter writes an Alger book. Cute to the point of sickening, but enjoyable once at least.
137. T'N'T Telzey & Trigger @# by James H. Schmitz. Review - Good stories - some I'd recently read in The Telzey Toy, some new to me. Counted as reread.
138. Nights of the Round Table and Other Stories of Heroic Fantasy @^ by Tanya Huff. Review - Collection of stories - some old favorites, some new to me (and several new favorites). Counted as new.
139. Cold-Forged Flame @^ by Marie Brennan. Review - Weird and great. Fascinating story, characters, concepts. I'm glad there's a sequel.

Currently Reading
Grey Seas Under by Farley Mowat - very interesting, so far. Still reading Today I Am Carey (and I need to finish it, that's a library book). And I have Lightning in the Blood by Marie Brennan cued up, the sequel to Cold-Forged Flame. Some others I'm theoretically reading, but these are the actual current ones. One BOMB, at least.

BOMBs
Only Musicophilia.

Discards
Musicophilia (fun, but I doubt I'll reread) and The Hippo at the End of the Hall (not much to my taste). Also The Fire Bird, but it's an ebook so it doesn't count.

New/Reread
Two half-rereads - T'N'T and Nights of the Round Table. Both are story collections, both contain some stories I'm familiar with and some I've never read before. So I counted one as a reread and one as new - and all the rest are new. And I _still_ have 14 rereads paid for! This is getting really silly.

Some rather blah books, but also some really good ones. Still way behind on BOMBs and discards. I'd misnumbered the last lot somehow, they're correct now.

I had lunch with a friend at her place a couple of weeks ago. She makes her own yoghurt, too. Apparently in Singapore, you can just leave it out on the table for half a day without having to worry about temperature fluctuations, so I'm thinking of trying it as a project for my older son. He's taking 'Food & Nutrition' and he loves yoghurt.

Maybe there's a commercially available travel yoghurt maker? It sounds as though it would be worth the investment for you.

There are several commercial yogurt makers, but all the ones I've seen are either plug-in (which doesn't always work - usually, but not always) and/or extremely bulky. I just got a Yogotherm, for instance, which is almost perfect - inner container, outer heat-holder, self-contained once you've heated the milk - but it's twice the size of my old Igloo jug and the way we pack for these trips, that matters. The car is always jammed full - with _just_ enough room for three people tucked around the edges (well, back seat tucked around the edges, front seats a little short in the leg). There are also the kind that have little jars - which would be a pain because I like Greek yogurt and want to drain it after it's made and before it's put into its storage containers, besides being plug-in. I have a Dash yogurt maker too - that was the one that really got me started - which is more or less the size of the Igloo but it's plug-in. And so on. I keep collecting new possibilities and trying them out - for a while I was making the yogurt in a Yeti cup, which is the smallest arrangement I've found - but then I had to pour the milk back and forth from the mason jar or other container-for-heating-in, and it tended to spill and/or burn me in the pouring.

Maybe I'll find a perfect one, eventually. But I suspect I'll be experimenting forever. This arrangement works very well, and will work even better if I can replace the gasket.

And yes - if you can trust the temperature to stay at over 100F for three to twelve hours (length depending on how tangy you like your yogurt - I like mine very mild), you can ferment by just putting the inoculated milk on the counter. I've never been in a place where I trusted that to happen - not to mention, when I am in hot places, I'm usually going to great lengths to cool the living spaces off.

Had to think of you when I saw this article!

https://www.myrecipes.com/how-to/make-oven-yogurt?cid=424541&did=424541-2019...

>150 ronincats: Heh. I've never done it that way - and I find comments like "you’ll need at least eight hours to know whether you’ve done it right" rather puzzling. I've never yet made yogurt that took that long to set. But yeah - making yogurt is amazingly easy, though it does take time.

One reason I make it myself is that I like really thick, creamy yogurt. I've found exactly two commercial yogurts that have the consistency I like, and one isn't available in this area any more and the other is extremely expensive - $4 for a little 5-ounce cup. So I bought a cup of the latter, ate most of it, and used a spoonful for my own yogurt - and now I can have that thick, rich texture any time I feel like it. And if I manage to kill my starter (usually by waiting so long to make a new batch that it grows mold), I just go buy another very expensive cup of yogurt and start over (I've had to do that once since I started using this, a couple of times earlier when I was just using Trader Joe's). St. Benoit is my starter.

We're home, after a long day of driving - I did some unpacking (mostly food) and a lot of cleaning up. Unfortunately, it seems that one of my cats has decided she doesn't like her litter box. I don't know if it's because of something the cat-sitter did or she can't climb in or what, but she's going on the floor nearby rather than in the box. I'll have to retrain her - and she's the one that has been magnificent about using the box no matter what. Hopefully now that I've cleaned it out and tidied up, she'll go back to using it.

I also harvested a huge lot of tomatoes - I forgot to tell my cat-sitter that some of my tomatoes aren't red, so she picked the red ones and left the yellow and orange ones to ripen (I suspect). About 4 cups of Sungold, and another 4 cups of assorted (Honeydrop, Mountain Magic, one big Sioux (or possibly Spike), a bunch of Yellow Pear, a couple Vieux Flamme). She picked, and ate most of, the Jolly and Mountain Magic - I told her to, I didn't want fruit rotting on the vine. I have not-quite-ripe fruit on the Dr. Carolyn and Basque Bumblebee - as well as all of the above, the harvest is nowhere near done. My balcony is doing a good imitation of a jungle, even after I pulled off a lot of yellow or dead branches.

Washed the cats' dishes, played guitar, read LT...and now to bed.

>151 jjmcgaffey: Cat-sitting with tomato benefits. :0)

It's nice to be able to give her something - she won't take money, and I haven't found something I can bake for her (she's gluten-free, and the stuff I can make doesn't appeal). She's a friend from church, and lives in the same complex I do, so it's not a huge burden - but it is a burden, and I wish I could find a good gift in return for her time and effort. Glad she liked the tomatoes.

Books Read
140. Lightning In the Blood @^ by Marie Brennan. Review - Good, if short. More please.
141. Today I Am Carey %^ by Martin L. Shoemaker. Review - Excellent - emergent AI, fascinating ideas, but it's the characters that make it so rich.

Currently Reading
See post with September reading

BOMBs
Nope.

Discards
Nope. One ebook, one library book.

New/Reread
Both new. Still (!) 14 rereads paid for.

August stats
14 books read
2 rereads
12 new books
14 rereads paid for

4458 pages read, average 318.4

2 BOMBs - I am _so_ far behind...
1 ER books
0 Netgalley books

11 ebooks, 3 paper books

2 discards - nearly as far behind here.

8 SF&F
0 animal stories
2 children's
1 non-fiction
2 general fiction
0 romances
0 graphic novels
0 mysteries

11 F, 3 M authors

Nothing exciting this month - some good and some bad books, but still just reading along. And not reading enough BOMBs!

Books Read
142. The Collectors @^ by Jacqueline West. Review - Interesting YA - neat concepts, the usual annoyance of stretching the plot by having no one actually talk to one another. I do want to read the sequel, though.

Currently Reading
The Immortal Storm by Sam Moskowitz; a history (as of 1954) of SF fandom. It's mildly interesting, his prejudices show up a lot, and it's horribly formatted - straight scan, it doesn't even look like they bothered to spell check it (lots of scannos that aren't words) let alone clean up the formatting - page headers and numbers scattered throughout the text. If I could get a decent scan of it, I'd do the editing myself just so it would be readable. It is, therefore, rather a slog - but I do want to read it. Also reading Grey Seas Under by Farley Mowat - very interesting, but it seems to be mostly a record of hugely bad decisions (delays in sending out a deep-sea salvage tug, or sending it out so that it struggles mightily and doesn't get anything, or political and economic bad choices, or...). Some good results, some triumphs, but most of the story seems focused on the bad choices. It is an interesting new angle on the Great Depression and the beginning (so far) of WWII - from the point of view of the Canadian Maritimes, not one I'd encountered before.

BOMBs
None. Grey Seas Under is one, though, so I'll have one soon.

Discards
None.

New/Reread
One new book. Still 14 rereads paid for. This would be funny if it wasn't because I'm not reading enough BOMBs...

>154 jjmcgaffey: Today I Am Carey is being added to my wishlist. I read the preview online and I want it *now*!

>157 rhian_of_oz: Yes, you do. Magnificent book. I got it from the library - don't own it _yet_, but I will!

>158 jjmcgaffey: It's not due for release in Australia until March! I'm going to consider whether I order it online or wait.

>156 jjmcgaffey: I recall a long-ago review of some fandom memoir, and I think it was The Immortal Storm, in which the reviewer wryly noted that the book made fannish events seem as though they had been the world's most significant goings-on in the decade of the 1940s.

>160 dukedom_enough: Probably, yeah - I recall one mention of the draft, nothing else (though, actually, I'm still in the late 30s, mostly - he jumps back and forth). Also fannish events seem to consist entirely of feuds, plots, rivalries, and arguments - and publishing magazines (or "magazines") that last between 2 and 6 issues. He does a _lot_ of name-dropping, a few of which I recognize. And there was "the first and last Negro" involved in fandom...aside from the one at this con, and the ones who were members of these later clubs (his mention, in the same paragraph, but I guess he liked the "first and last" line too much to allow facts to mess it up). And not a woman in sight. It is an amazing document, which I'm slogging through with great pain. I am going to finish it, and then I will not ever ever ever read it again.

>159 rhian_of_oz: Argh! Well, it won't get any worse for waiting. From what I understand, ordering online to Australia is big money, for shipping. And it doesn't seem to exist in e-form yet, either.

>161 jjmcgaffey: Not recommended, then.

>159 rhian_of_oz: >161 jjmcgaffey: I've recently discovered that shipping to Singapore has become either prohibitively expensive or non-existent, even in cases where I've had stuff delivered to me here before. I now have to get it shipped to my parents in Australia before they come over or co-ordinate with my husband's schedule when he goes overseas on work. So much for e-commerce (not that I was ever a big internet shopper).

>161 jjmcgaffey: Book Depository has free shipping to Australia so I could get it for only slightly more than the price I would pay when it is released here. But I prefer to support local bookstores and usually only order online when I absolutely can't get something here. As you say, it will still be worth reading in six months and it's on my list so I won't forget it.

>162 humouress: No, really not. It is _interesting_, but more as a reflection of the author than as a record of anything I care about (I'm a fan, though he probably wouldn't think so - why, I've never written a fanzine in my life!). I thought I'd be learning about what fans were doing back then and the culture they were establishing...and maybe I am, but if so it's a culture I'm utterly uninterested in. I like the inclusive, making, thinking, discussing, singing and making songs parts of fandom, and Moskowitz seems entirely uninterested in those. Honestly, the section I'm reading now is all about "jockeying for power", and all I can think is "power? what power? Rule over clubs of 6-11 people?" Sheesh.

It's gotten so bad I've temporarily half-quit - I'm going to read a bunch of good short stuff interspersed with slogging through another bit of The Immortal Storm (what does that name refer to? Haven't run into anything related yet). I have two Penric stories I haven't read yet! and Knife Children, and a bunch of other short ones. And when I've run out of those, I've got a bunch of new great novels - The Unkindest Tide, and the latest Mercy Thompson, and I may actually get to the rest of Lady Trent (I've only read the first so far)... I'm also reading, a bit, paper BOMBs - it's a lot slower than the ebooks because I don't always have them with me. But I just finished Grey Seas Under - too much politics and bad decisions, but a rich read nonetheless. And a BOMB! and discard. Keep chugging.

>163 rhian_of_oz: I keep forgetting about Book Depository - well, partly because they keep not having the (mostly peculiar) books I want. At this point, for most books, I want the e-copy not a physical one. So only books that don't have an e-copy, or that have some particular benefit to being in paper, are interesting - and the last several times I've searched for one of those books BD hasn't had it. I should check it anyway, particularly when there's something that's out of print.

>164 jjmcgaffey: Ah, Penric. I'm hoping that eventually she'll release those stories in print, so I can complete my Chalion collection on my shelves.

I suppose I really ought to switch to e-books but I can't keep track of the few I do have, even though I've catalogued them on LT. I came across one last night that I think I've missed, for example.

>164 jjmcgaffey: In the 70s and 80s I socialized among a large, rather political, Los Angeles SF fan community centered around LASFS. Competition to run conventions was real there and connections to the TV and movie worlds certainly currency. More women for sure than the 40s, but still so old boy that when I pointed out that their choices for guest of honor included no women they stared at me blankly, and this was after Vonda McIntyre won the Hugo.

>165 humouress: I just might buy them in paper, if it's a single collection - not if it's lots of little books, though. But I've gotten to the point where I can't find books I know I own in paper, but I can find my ebooks. I use calibre, which lets me put books bought/obtained anywhere into one collection, one library. As long as I remember to put it into calibre as soon as I buy it, I can find it. The fact that it has an export that can be imported directly into LT (needs some fiddling afterward, but the major work is automatic) is icing on the cake.

>166 quondame: I can see competition to run cons - though here and now, the competition _not_ to run cons is almost as strong (it's a lot of work!). If that was what he was talking about - or even competition to run fanzines - I could see it. But apparently, as he writes it, it was purely about being "in charge" or having the best/only club in an area. Which is pure competition - not competition for anything, just competition - and that makes zero sense to me. I don't know if it's Moscowitz's weird viewpoint, pure fact, or somewhere in between, but it's not a mindset I can enter into. And as I said, they don't seem to _do_ anything - no conventions, so far, in fact he just described a group getting together to watch a movie and it was "the first purely social get-together of science fiction fandom". I don't believe that - bet there were like-minded fans just hanging out together from approximately the second day fandom existed - but he claims that all previous meetings had business aspects. I dunno. Not a world I'd be interested in being part of. He also constantly talks about clubs falling apart through apathy of the members - given all the clubs do is fight with other clubs or fight within themselves, I'm not surprised.

I'm hoping (not too hopeful, but hoping) he'll talk about filk at some point. Though that may have arisen, as a thing with a name, after this book was written (vague memories of it rising in the 70s, a decade+ past the publication of The Immortal Storm). Ah well.

Yeah, on a lot of levels women are still fighting for a foothold in fandom - and non-whites even more so (any and all groups that aren't Northern European-derived). And in some ways that's really old news, a solved problem. It's funny how the two can co-exist (I'm remembering a mention by...Bujold? Huff? Someone - some reasonably well-known female SF author - was commenting on an article in a solid SF publication, within the last few years, asking "where are the women? Why don't women have any involvement with SF?" Really hard to know how to answer that question - something like "open your eyes", maybe?).

>167 jjmcgaffey: Los Angeles has had LASFS since 1934 which probably kept splinter groups here minimal. I think filking has deeper roots than the 70s, since it seemed a basic of fan life then. But since I've been requested not to sing more than once, it's one of the areas I haven't explored.

About 10 years ago yet another of the 10/100 best F&SF lists came out with only a couple of women and since then I've maintained an ever increasing list of women writers in the the field(s).

So much of the current invisibility of women writers is driven by vocal 20-30 year old men being blind to books written by women and going ga-ga after the latest brick of a book by a guy. It's not that women can't get just as fannish as men, but I think more of us just tend to pick up the next book and continue reading rather than making a fetish of the new boy wonder.

>168 quondame: That's another division - between "readers" and "fans". Both sides will proudly declare that they are the true adherents of science fiction/fantasy... I lean toward the reader side, though I have a home con that I go to regularly and have been to several others (5 Worldcons so far!). But I spend my cons volunteering, mostly, and attending panels - I don't get into the politics nor on the staff if I can help it.

I read an absolutely wonderful book a few years ago, Alma Alexander's AbductiCon. It started out with the usual con-runner bickering, and I realized, as I read it, just how "usual" that was...and how much I disliked it. But it was an ER book so I soldiered on - and it took an abrupt left turn and headed for the stars (somewhat literally). I've picked up several other books by her and found them less than interesting - she's a good writer, but I don't enjoy most of her concepts - but AbductiCon is fantastic. I may reread that... (bookarang, on myself!).

I do agree on the men being louder on the subject of "Good Books!". Pity boys are so strictly steered away from books by/about women - it does often affect their ability to read the full arc.

>165 humouress:, >167 jjmcgaffey:
Ask and ye shall receive; the Penric stories are getting a print release from Baen. The first collection is entitled Penric's Progress, and it will contain Penric's Demon, Penric and the Shaman, and Penric's Fox. The scheduled release date is 7 January 2020.

A second collection, titled Penric's Travels is scheduled for release in May or thereabouts, and will contain Penric's Mission, Mira's Last Dance, and The Prisoner of Limnos.

And now that I've shared that information, I really need to actually go and read the Penric stories....

I just dove into The Prisoner of Limnos, and immediately turned to The Orphans of Raspay. Wow these are good stories... The descriptions are so vivid I could smell the salt air and hear the seagulls mewing (and exploding). Penric is a lot less tentative, though some of the ways he takes things... Two great stories.

Books Read
143. The Grey Seas Under * by Farley Mowat. Review - A complicated story of a salvage tug and her various crews and missions. Plus the politics and (mostly stupid) decisions that affect them. Well worth reading, once at least.
144. The River's Gift ^ by Mercedes Lackey. Review - Cute, a bit shallow (well, it is a fairy tale variant). Enjoyable, once.
145. The Prisoner of Limnos @^ by Lois McMaster Bujold. Review - Lovely rich Penric story. Neat new characters, nice advancement of Penric's arc.
146. The Orphans of Raspay @^ by Lois McMaster Bujold. Review - Nice. More religious than most - the gods are meddling even more directly than usual (or at least, Penric thinks they are).
147. Nanya of the Butterflies @^ by Barbara Hambly. Review - Somewhat fluffy story - I suspected the perpetrator as soon as they were mentioned. Nice twists, though, and nice to see Sunwolf and Starhawk again.
148. Minor Mage @^ by T. Kingfisher. Review - I agree, this is a children's story. Rich and dark, but it's about a boy finding what he can do, on many levels.
149. Season's Meaning @^ by M.C.A. Hogarth. Review - Minor, but good - Alysha puts herself in harm's way to protect others, what else is new.
150. Dark Lighthouse @^ by M.C.A. Hogarth. Review - Frustrating - great setup, and then it just stops. Hopefully Hancock will show up again sometime.
151. Nerve # by Dick Francis. Review - Good, complex mystery; interesting, complex romance. A pretty standard Francis, not a favorite but good.
152. Knife Children @^ by Lois McMaster Bujold. Review - No Dag and Fawn - this is Barr, learning that he's no longer the "young patroller". Great story, both on the surface and deeper. More, please!
153. Hazard @^ by Barbara Hambly. Review - Simple story, but it lets us learn more about Sunwolf, and why he's so eager to learn more magic. Good.
154. Degrees of Separation @^ by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller. Review - Fascinating - particularly since it was written backward, after Block Party established these characters. Though there's a lot missing from their story - hope we'll get more detail later.
155. Block Party @# by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller. Review - I've read this a couple times, but I enjoy it every time - another bit of Surebleak meeting outsiders, Liaden (mostly). Also some very interesting history of Surebleak, back to Company days.
156. Today I Remember @%^ by Martin L. Shoemaker. Review - Good, but disconcerting - where does this fit into Carey's story? Lots more info about Luke, but confusing.
157. The Landlady @^ by Diane Duane. Review - Absolutely gorgeous. Segnbora takes up her Head of House duties - and some amazing things spring from it. Also lots of fun - great characters and great stories-within-the-story.
158. Eye Spy @^ by Mercedes Lackey. Review - An excellent book - as absorbing as the early Valdemars (and as the recent ones have not been). I really like Abi. But just when did the Karsites turn to demonology? And the political snark distracts from this story.
159. The October Man @^ by Ben Aaronovitch. Review - Interesting - Winter is very Peter-Grant-ish, the Director is somewhat Nightingale-ish. I hope Sommer does better than Leslie. The mystery is weird and neatly handled; police procedures are not too different, though they've got more active magic handlers than the Brits do (the emergency squad, in particular - not mages, but they deal with magic).
160. Best of British Fantasy 2018 @! by Jared Shurin. Review - Um. A few interesting stories, a lot of confusing ones (what the heck is going on here? was the most constant feeling), only a few I really didn't like. Not a winner, for me, though.

Currently Reading
Um...Oh, I started The Unkindest Tide. I'm just reading along, mostly new, mostly ebooks. I need more BOMBs!

BOMBs
One, Grey Seas Under.

Discards
...none, really. I may get rid of Grey Seas Under, I may get rid of The River's Gift...I may get rid of Nerve, once I have the ebook of it (not yet). But none of them are immediate discards.

New/Reread
Two rereads - Block Party and Nerve. Which means I'm actually down to only 13 rereads paid for.

Reading a _lot_, mostly short stuff and ebooks. It's to take the taste of The Immortal Storm out of my mind. I'm going to put that aside for a while and concentrate on paper BOMBs as best I can.

I did the Pirate Hunt - and for the first time ever, I got all the clues without needing help from other LTers! I got 12 of them last night, all but one in straight LT searches; this morning I hunted for the remaining 6 and with some Googling got all but one. Utterly stuck on that one (the babysitter one, #11) - I'd found what should have been the answer, and visited the page over and over, but no banner...and then I refreshed the Hunt page and I'd gotten all the chests!

I did read the Talk page and all the spoilers, while I was struggling with #11, but I'd already found all the answers. I usually get the majority on my own and then need help with the last few, I've never managed all of them on my own before. And this wasn't simple - some books/authors/series/subjects/etc I knew, some I'd never heard of, some I'd heard of vaguely but had no idea what the actual answer was.

Fun, as always!

>167 jjmcgaffey: >168 quondame:
You both probably know this, but LTer iansales reviews older SF books by women at his SF Mistressworks site. Good corrective for anyone who thinks women in SF are either recent or nonexistent.

>174 dukedom_enough: I have a possible memory of that site. Thanks.

>174 dukedom_enough: Nope, didn't know it - thanks!

Whoof. A) I'm roasting - temps in the 80s and 90s, and lows in the 70s make it hard to sleep at night.

B) I'm drowning in fruit! I stumbled over a little quince bush while yard saling a couple weeks ago, left a note for the owner and she emailed me and said I could have them. So there's a bag of quince in my fridge (that needs to be cooked, soon!). Then I did a pick with Project Pick, with my gardening group - there's a lot of fruit trees in my city that don't get picked for one reason or another (frequently, the owners are too old to go climbing ladders and such). So we offer our services, pick the trees as much as we can manage, leave some fruit for the owner, take some for ourselves, and the majority goes to the city Food Bank. It was all apples - so now I have 17 pounds of apples, also in my fridge. Two lots of Golden Delicious (which I find rather bland) and one of Gravenstein. And some Fuji I traded Gravensteins to my mom for (a friend gave her some), and one I don't know what it is - somewhat flattened, like a tall doughnut peach. So I need to make applesauce and apple cake and maybe apple butter and I don't know what all. I was just collecting the culls - the ones that were slightly damaged, so the Food Bank wouldn't want them - and it got to be a lot. And then to top it off, someone posted on Nextdoor (local social network) that she had an overloaded fig tree and come get them. So I did - probably 3-4 pounds. I picked _most_ of the ripe fruit off the tree, but there were as many almost ripe ones as I took, and more still green and hard. Figs ripen in quick succession - they're very annoying to pick because you have to keep doing it. I'm going to make fig jam, and possibly Fig Newton-type cookies - and go back probably Thursday to pick more for myself and Mom.

My fridge is overcrowded anyway, and now it's stuffed full with fruit. What a terrible problem to have (yum). But I do need to get to them quickly, so they don't go bad.

I love figs! And I like to make fig preserves. The figs have lots of natural pectin in them so they jell easily. Boy is that fig preserve good on things like Brie!

OK...maybe I'll try it that way next time (would you give me a sketch of how you do it?). I made fig jam with Pomona's Pectin and a whole two tablespoons of sugar today - and I didn't use half my figs, so I've got to make more stuff with them. Yes, I love fig jam on cheese - yum!

That's about all I got done today, aside from watering my balcony. The tomatoes are actually slowing down - well, some of them. Dr Carolyn got started late and is still covered in green and shading-to-yellow fruit. But Sungold and Honeydrop only have a few left. Jolly is still chugging along - one of the first to ripen, and the last to give up. I wish it wasn't a hybrid but it's an amazing variety. A few Mountain Magics, I actually have a couple nearly ripe Basque Bumblebees - but the ripest disappeared, so I harvested some that were just beginning to turn yellow. So they're ripening on my counter. And Sioux also had the ripest one disappear; today I found another, starting to blush, on the ground so I brought it in.

Hot day again - so I spent it inside and working at the stove. Ah well. Next I'm going to the Handicrafts Club at my local library (besides being fun, it's air conditioned!) and immediately after that I'm collecting Dad and we're going to Lark in the Evening, a folk-singing get-together. Mom can't go, she has choir rehearsal.

Tomorrow morning I go pick a few more figs, for Mom. Then at noon she and I are going to a quilt and needlework festival - it's always fun to look at the stuff, and I'll try not to buy too much.

Friday is more dealing with fruit - need to finish the figs and quinces, and at least start the apples! And I need to do some baking (see the next two days).

Saturday is Dad's birthday, but my sister can't make it so we'll have a little party. I'm hoping we (or at least I) can go to the Harvest Festival put on by Ploughshares Nursery - it's a non-profit aimed at helping homeless people get back into the mainstream. Also it's a very good nursery, and farm, and etc.

Sunday we have church, followed by the St. Lorenzo Ruiz festival (the first Philippine saint). There will be yummy food. After that my sister appears and we have Dad's birthday party, for which I'm baking the cake. Also I need to find something for a gift...finish the bag I started for him, maybe.

So besides events and dealing with fruit, I need to make something and bake two things, in the next four/five days. Fun!

>179 jjmcgaffey:
I think I used the old Ball canning recipe book for the fig preserves. I didn't cook down the figs, because I wanted larger pieces of the fruit in the preserves. I think I mashed them with a potato masher.

So last week was roasting - highs in the high 80s, lows in the mid-70s. This week - since Friday - the highs have been mid- or low-60s, and the lows are in the 50s. Brrr!

Today I had to get up at omg-o'clock (and all you morning people can just shush - I had to be up at 5:30, 2-3 hours before I usually am) to go to the DMV and get my RealID. I had an appointment, but it was for 11 am next Saturday, and I didn't want to waste a Saturday. I discovered (from a post on NextDoor) that if you go really early in the day, it's quick. Which it was - I got there at a couple minutes past 7, and was done and walking out at a couple minutes past 8. I had to stand in three different lines and sit and wait for a window in the middle, but because it was multiple lines each one was short and quick. Worked well.

I'd expected to be there for several hours, and planned to hang out in the area until an appointment with a client nearby at 1 pm - but four hours was ridiculous so I came home. Did some chores. Went to my client, and from there to the Red Cross to donate blood - it's been almost a year since I did it, I had a persistent cold at the beginning of the year and when I'd recovered from that I'd just gotten out of the habit. So hopefully I'll get back into the swing of things now.

I finished a pair of slippersocks for me at the DMV, and started a new pair for the Angel Tree at the Red Cross. Going well.

I also just finally finished In Small Things Forgotten - unusually for me, I found the details rather dull but his sweeping conclusions quite interesting. Mom says it was probably someone's PhD dissertation - that style. It's about historical archaeology, specifically in East Coast US; there's a lot about how what can be determined with historical (written) evidence can bolster or contradict physical (dug-up) evidence, and how awareness of those contradictions can be useful in pre-historic archaeology as well. Specifically, most of the book was a sketch of how American culture changed from the 17th to the 19th century, as evidenced by...dishes, houses, gravestones, music... various evidence. Then it ended with a dig of a small African-American settlement, which looked (from surviving pictures, and historical evidence) very like all the other settlements of the time - but the dig came up with some serious differences (size and style of houses, locations of hearths, food waste - bones and the like). His sweeping conclusion was something along the lines of "just because you're within an area of a culture, don't assume that everything there reflects that one culture".

I keep hearing echoes of Motel of the Mysteries - which is a comedy book, but has some real insights as well. If archaeologists can't figure out what something was used for, it gets designated a ritual object...for instance.

Anyway - interesting. I think I'm going to copy that paragraph and use it (slightly modified) for my review.

Books Read
161. The Unkindest Tide @^ by Seanan McGuire. Review - Unsurprisingly good. The Selkies thread comes to a head. The novella is Raj, very good.
162. The Library of Ever @^ by Zeno Alexander. Review - Cute kids' fairy-tale style story - I love the librarian theme, though.
163. One Fell Sweep @^ by Ilona Andrews. Review - Rich, as weird as most of them, and some major tangles worked out. And Dina gets some family!
164. In Small Things Forgotten * by James Deetz. Review - Mildly interesting subject, dry style, interesting and solidly supported conclusion.

Currently Reading
Smoky the Cowhorse by Will James - I'm having a hard time getting into it, the whole thing is written in...well, if it were dialog I'd call it dialect. Apparently it's how James talks, but geesh. Also The Tropic of Serpents by Marie Brennan - I really want to like it, but there's way too much politics and maneuvering and too little about dragons. Though they're about to go on an expedition (somewhat politically motivated, but...) so maybe it will improve. And Shades of Gray by Kay Hooper - an action-adventure romance, but again way too much manipulation and lies (though they keep admitting that they're lies, so...no, doesn't make it better). I need to read something more straightforward to help deal with this lot - that's what I hoped Smoky would do, but it's not working. I'll find something.

BOMBs
An actual BOMB! In Small Things Forgotten. The rest are ebooks, and new (in my library) at that.

Discards
In Small Things Forgotten. Glad I read it, don't want to read it again.

New/Reread
All new, one BOMB - so I'm back to 14 rereads paid for!

Arrrrgh. I must read BOMBs! I'm getting into the holiday season, when I don't have much time for reading. Need to read a whole bunch _this_month_! (by which I mean October, of course)

September stats
23 books read
2 rereads
21 new books
14 rereads paid for

4079 pages read, average 177.3

2 BOMBs
1 ER books
0 Netgalley books

19 ebooks, 4 paper books

2 discards

19 SF&F
0 animal stories
1 children's
2 non-fiction
0 general fiction
0 romances
0 graphic novels
1 mysteries

16 F, 9 M authors

I've read a third of the BOMBs I meant to (20 of 60), and only a bit better than that on discards (25 of 60). Lots of books read, certainly, but my other goals are falling by the wayside. Get into those boxes and read some more BOMBs! Good reading, though - quite a few good books this month (and a few not so good).

Utterly exhausted. Thursday Mom and I were cashiers at her condo's yard sale - it's a community sale, people donate all year and then volunteers put on the sale. Nothing - except a few of the larger furniture pieces - are priced, so cashier meant not just taking money but pricing stuff, and bargaining with buyers. Long, hot, complicated, exhausting day. Fun, but hard work.

Friday I did very little, except I did collect my laundry and took it to my parents to do - I usually do it Saturday, but...

Saturday (today) we were exhibiting at EV Alley. It's the Classic Car Show, and this year for (I believe) the first time, they had a section of electric cars. Since my parents are an all-electric household, they were delighted to show off their Chevy Bolt EV and Mitsubishi i-Miev. But we knew we'd need breaks, so all three of us went. Also I took a carload of ewaste to a dropoff, just before the show. So another long, hot day, talking to dozens of people and saying more or less the same things over and over. We came home at 4 pm and all three fell asleep on their couch - I got up and came home (leaving the last of my laundry there - I'll pick it up Sunday) because I had to water my plants before the sun set. Did my chores - water the balcony, do litterbox, play guitar, rearrange the living room so I could actually sit down on my new chair...

Hmm, I didn't mention that. I have had a lovely leather couch, a double recliner, for several years - it was my parents', they passed it on to me. But a) the leather was splitting in a couple places and b) the yard sale (at my parents' condo) had an absolutely gorgeous chair, loveseat, and footstool set. It's a Morris chair - exposed wood, in Mission style, with thick cushy dark green cushions. The chair has pegs on the back of the arms, so you can adjust the angle of the back - a very manual recliner. The sofa doesn't recline, but it's the same design. So I got that, got it delivered, took apart the recliner sofa, and pretty much filled up my living room with the new furniture on their sides and the old one taken apart into bits. I could squeeze by, but it wasn't easy. Tonight, (despite the exhausted bit), I got around to rearranging things so that the chair, at least, is set up. The sofa is still on its side because I need to rearrange some other things (I have a large low coffee table, which I intend to put between the chair and the sofa. But right now it's piled high with stuff. So more work to do).

And I really really want someone to want the recliner - it's a very good quality sofa (Berkline), and the mechanisms are in perfect condition. Someone should take it and get it reupholstered, in leather or something else, and have this great sofa for the cost of that job. But no one wants a sofa they can't use immediately...sigh. I'll keep trying, for a while anyway.

But now I can sit in my new chair - very comfortable. I have had a pleasant evening reading and doing stuff online...and now it's 1030 and I'm going to bed. I don't usually go to bed until midnight, but my eyes won't stay open...snooore.

Sweet dreams, Jenn!

Well, that was fun - I was playing guitar (I practice every day - usually every night), and suddenly things were rattling and shaking. Nice little 4.7 earthquake, about 17 miles from here. Nothing major - nothing even fell over, here - but it's always a bit exciting...

Books Read
165. The Tropic of Serpents @^ by Marie Brennan. Review - Good story - some annoying bits with politics, excellent naturalist and anthropologist parts though. And the stupid changing of the names of everyplace continues.
166. Accepting the Lance @^ by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller. Review - Another threads book - a good many actual conclusions here, possibly even to the Department. And a few new threads starting up. An excellent read.
167. Nurk @^ by Ursula Vernon. Review - Fun! I like Nurk - he hits the sweet spot of being scared and still going ahead, without being either a whiner or obnoxiously overconfident. Lots of coincidence, but still a fun book. Next please.
168. (Sur)real @^ by Melissa Haag. Review - Eh, not a winner. Partly because it's been so long since I read the last one, but the twist at the end contributed to my disinterest.
169. Miss Hickory ^ by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey. Review - Didn't really work for me, partly because I don't like Miss Hickory.
170. Here Is Your War * by Ernie Pyle. Review - Great worms-eye view of WWII in northern Africa. This one's worth reading and rereading.
171. Revision 7: DNA @! by Terry Persun. Review - Ugh. Possibly it got edited into a decent book, but this isn't one. Clunky puppet characters, despite some interesting concepts.
172. The Twisted Ones @^ by T. Kingfisher. Review - Wow. It's horror...but still readable for me, which is rare. Nasty people, but more kind ones, and the horrors are...almost pitiable. Only almost, though.

Currently Reading
Smoky the Cowhorse by Will James - it's a slog, partly because James writes in very strange English. Otherwise pretty standard cutesy horse story (though I still want to know when Smoky was gelded! It's certainly not mentioned, though branding is...). Jack and Jill by Louisa May Alcott - I haven't gotten very far, but I'm pretty sure I know the way the story will go. A happy ending is just about guaranteed. And One Day on Beetle Rock by Sally Carrighar - this one I'm not at all sure what to expect, since the blurbs all say it's a true naturalist's story of what happens. So far it's pretty sentimental (a buck "recognizing" a squirrel from last year's litter, for instance). We'll see. These are all paper books, and all recent acquisitions so not BOMBs, sigh. I just finished one awful ebook, then raced through a weird but very good one (Revision 7:DNA and The Twisted Ones, respectively) - haven't picked the next ebook yet.

BOMBs
Only one, Here Is Your War.

Discards
Miss Hickory is out. Probably all three of my current reads are discards as well, unless they reveal unsuspected depths.

New/Reread
All new. I am at least resisting rereads, though I'm not managing enough BOMBs. _15_ rereads paid for! We'll see how long that lasts...

Still not enough BOMBs, but I can at least console myself that I'm preventing future BOMBs by reading these books while they're still new in my house.

I was slogging along through multiple books without finishing any of them, then suddenly started to finish them off one-two-three! Pretty good. Some rather uninteresting books in this lot, but also some quite good to excellent ones.

>187 jjmcgaffey: For Accepting the Lance I cheer the end of the department, it was always a dreary bore. I won't read it until after the official publication, but don't mind foreknowledge.

>187 jjmcgaffey: Accepting the Lance is already purchased, just waiting for the publication release date--not until Dec. 3! Jealous!

It's the eARC - oops, I didn't mean to spoiler anyone. Baen sells them in that form. I forget that some of my books are ARCs...it's somewhat harder to tell with an ebook. Though I've reviewed paper ARCs too soon too...

Anyway, knowing that the Department may more or less be dealt with is one thing. How it happened...that's quite a story. Or three, or four...hmmm. These threads books are hard to track even while you're reading them.

Okay, I just went and bought it, and canceled my hardback purchase!

And now it is read! Sheesh, the story lines are getting so complex that I had trouble remembering all the side players and plots going in, but always glad to barge in blindly!

>192 ronincats: Yeah. I agree with you, I needed to (and didn't, so was somewhat confused) read the previous book or two to remember who was who and where and why - especially the Six, that whole thread has been pretty opaque to me for several books now. Which doesn't make it any less enjoyable to read, though!

Books Read
173. A Single Shard @^ by Linda Sue Park. Review - Nice story - slow start, but overall worth reading. Set in ancient Korea, about celadon pottery, and a pleasant children's story on top.
174. Fairest in the Land @^ by Barbara Hambly. Review - Mildly interesting story. Sunwolf's voice seemed off, though - is that enough excuse to reread the trilogy?
175. Third Time Lucky @^ by Tanya Huff. Review - Lovely lot of short stories - I like Madelene (the most powerful wizard in the world). Fun to read.
176. Jack and Jill ^ by Louisa May Alcott. Review - Cute, too preachy. Some very good bits but I doubt I'll reread.

Currently Reading
Smoky, and Beetle Rock, and various other stuff. The Long List Anthology 2, stories nominated for the Hugo that didn't make the ballot. And I need to go dig up some BOMBs (same old song...)

BOMBs
None. One paper, but new to me.

Discards
One - Jack and Jill.

New/Reread
All new books. Still 15 rereads paid for.

A very reading couple of days - despite (or possibly because of) spending this morning setting up books for the library booksale. I only bought 4...

My former supervisor made fun of Smokey the Cowhorse. It won the Newbery Medal the same year that Little House on the Prairie was one of the Newbery Honor books. If there ever was a time that the Newbery committee made a mistake this was it. At least in her opinion. I don’t really have one for this book as I have never read either Smokey or Little House on the Prairie.

I got an incredible bargain this weekend. I went up to Birmingham to get my TSA Precheck paperwork done and on the way home stopped to see what Sur La Table had on their bargain sale racks. Low and behold, there were two 2500 Vitamix blenders marked down from $499 to $399. I did not buy them, but the more I thought about it the more I decided I should purchase one because Who ever sees Vitamix blenders on sale!? I drove back yesterday and purchased one. Then, after a visit to the Yarn Shop, I decided that I should buy the other one for my sister. When I got there the store clerk was nice enough to point out to me that the display model was also marked down and that this last weekend was an extra 30% off. I got the second blender for $270. I am not sure about the math on this purchase but the receipt says that is what was charged to my credit card account - so I’m happy.

I cleaned off part of my counter and set up my blender this afternoon. Now I only have to get my yogurt and make my Smoothie for tomorrow.

Like you, I am happy with my bargain.

>196 benitastrnad: I agree with your former supervisor. Little House on the Prairie is not a fantastic book, but unless Smoky makes a major turnaround Little House is both better written and deeper than the horse book. Admittedly I haven't read Little House in...oh, 40 years? but it was a good read at the time. I don't think Smoky is up to that level.

I commented on your Vitamix elsewhere - but that's a great bargain. It's not the wonder machine their advertising makes it sound like (it's as bad as the Instant Pot hype) but it is a very good blender.

Are you doing any work with clay this fall, Jenn?

Um...sort of. Yes, but I'm being very slow. I have one box that I made last time I was in class (last spring) that I put in to glaze on the last day, picked up when this semester started the beginning of this month. I have another box that's sitting on the drying shelf - next Thursday is the bisque firing, so the week after I'll glaze that. And I have a tray I started last week, but it was still too moist to work on last Thursday; I'll work on that tomorrow. I'm planning to make it a seed drying tray, so multiple wells with flat bits on their walls for writing on, with white glaze in the wells and I'll have to think about what I want on the sides. Also I have two plates I made last spring, that are bisqued and ready for glazing but I have no idea how I want to glaze them, especially as they're pretty well useless to me. Too small and too rough/uneven for actual plate use. There are various outlets for selling stuff, but I don't want to be producing huge amounts of anything (your production is amazing, but not how I want to spend my time!) which makes it difficult to sell anything. I don't know. I like the idea of ceramics, but actually doing it is _hard_.

And the timing makes everything complicated - make something the week of a glaze fire so it's ready for the bisque fire, then get it glazed quickly so it can go into the next glaze fire...miss a week, or even one day, and you're likely looking at two more weeks before you can move on to the next step. And it's only an 11-week class.

Grumble grumble whine. I do like a lot of the things I've made, I just don't have room for random stuff like ceramic boxes! (class project, in two different semesters). Let alone sculptures. And I don't like my plates (either too large or too small, and too uneven either way), and none of my mugs have been truly functional...I have some very nice bowls, and a bunch of tiny plates I use for eggs or teabags (even though they wobble), and a plaque I love. But.

That is a real advantage of working out of a studio, Jenn. There are bisque firings and glaze firings every week--she has 5 kilns and lots of students producing work every week at every level, so I can count on throwing one week, trimming the next, two weeks to get the bisqued piece for glazing, and then the piece is ready a week later. I only spend two hours a week doing this, so I don't really spend that much time on it, although I now do spend a little time at home either doing designs on my plates to prep them for glazing or some hand-built stuff like my ornaments and some little angels you'll see in a week or so. I just love working with the clay, despite the issue of finding something to do with the products.

Yes. I've looked at studios around here, but the cost is so much more than the senior center class that I can't bring myself to do it. It is fun, though, and I love making things that I can really use - just, that's not everything I make. I whine about it, but I'd hate to quit.

Bleah. I got hit with a major cold yesterday - absolutely no energy, partly because it's hard to breathe. Today I'm just as stuffed up, but I've got a lot more energy - I actually made the pumpkin pie I set up to make...two weeks ago? Made the crust and put it in the fridge (and three others in the freezer), and made the filling and put that in jars in the fridge...but I never seemed to have the time when I had energy, and vice versa. Today it worked - parbaked the crust, filled and baked it, and had a piece for dessert. Yum.

Also made a batch of sekanjabin - it's sort of medieval Gatorade, and I find it's great on a sore throat. Sugar syrup and (apple cider) vinegar simmered together, then a flavoring - I used chopped fresh ginger - put in when the pot gets taken off the heat. Let it cool, strain it, and then mix the syrup with water to taste. The syrup keeps forever - I'm just now finishing a batch I did at least two years ago. I only made a quart this time, rather than half a gallon like last time, so I should be making it again in the not too distant future (probably next year, though).

Finished the current book, finally - it's an anthology of Hugo-nominated stories; unfortunately the last one, the novella (I think - longest one in the book) was very much not to my taste. I still don't know what was going on for most of it, and apparently the motivation for some really major actions was purely "love", or lust (hard to tell from this story). Bleah. Pity, because there were some really good stories in there (well, there's an Ursula Vernon story, so of course). The Long List Anthology 2 is the book.

Sorry to hear about the cold, Jenn. With the super-dry air here, it's easy for a virus to find a chink in the armor.

Books Read
177. Arcanum 101 - Welcome New Students @# by Mercedes Lackey & Rosemary Edghill. Review - Still cute. I had read it before - I remembered it very vaguely, though, and not really events.
178. The Long List Anthology 2 @^ by David Steffen. Review - Hmph. Several good stories - but the last and longest is awful.
179. The Story Girl @* by L.M. Montgomery. Review - Cute but not exciting, kids and their imaginations. Male protagonist and first person, odd for Montgomery.
180. Sweep of the Blade @^ by Ilona Andrews. Review - Another great story in this series - Maud instead of Dina, and a lot of fun despite the romantic angst.

Currently Reading
Various stuff hanging fire, nothing actually in train. And I intend to go dig out a bunch of BOMBs tomorrow and focus on getting them read - probably mostly children's books, they're quick (and likely to be discards as well). Maybe some SF, romance, and mystery, but mostly kids.

BOMBs
One, The Story Girl. Read as an ebook, but I own it in paper as well so it counts.

Discards
The Story Girl. Cute story, and I'll keep it as an ebook, but no need to keep a paper copy.

New/Reread
I meant them all to be new, but found out after I finished that I'd read Arcanum 101 before. Hmph. Well, two BOMBs this month, so I'm up to 15 rereads paid for...

October stats
16 books read
1 rereads
15 new books
15 rereads paid for

4268 pages read, average 266.8

2 BOMBs - 22 for the year so far, way behind!
1 ER books
0 Netgalley books

13 ebooks, 3 paper books

3 discards, 28 for the year so far - less than half of my goal.

9 SF&F
0 animal stories
5 children's
1 non-fiction
0 general fiction
1 romances
0 graphic novels
0 mysteries

14 F, 5 M authors

Well, a couple BOMBs. Need more! Also discards, though I'm not as far behind with those. The usual imbalance towards female authors and SF. And...yeah, a very normal month, though light on the reading - mostly because some of this month's books were awful and I couldn't read them very fast. Some were excellent, though.

Still fighting the cold - I'm afraid it's moving down to my chest, which means it'll be around for another week. Bleah. Didn't go to either ceramics workshop or ceramics class this week - both lack of energy and not wanting to infect people. Didn't...well, didn't go much of anywhere this week.

Though today I drove Mom to the hospital to pick up Dad...he fell getting out of bed Wednesday morning, jammed his wrist a little and was annoyed at himself. Went in for his last radiation treatment, they discovered he'd fallen and got all excited about it and kept him in the ER overnight. And then...well, he'd driven to his treatment, but they wouldn't release him unless someone would drive him home...so Mom needed a ride in so they wouldn't have to abandon Dad's car at the hospital. I think it was a tempest in a teapot; the only thing keeping him in the ER would do is guarantee he'd spend the time in bed rather than walking so that his legs would get weaker yet. Bah. But he's home now.

And puttering around, not getting much done - after my burst of energy on Tuesday, I haven't done any more baking (though I did semi-invent a barley pudding - very filling, though bland). And tonight, for some reason, I couldn't get to sleep, so I'm up and posting on LT at 1:45 am...bleah. Go to bed, Jenn.

Sorry to hear about your dad. Hospitals can be so confounding—micromanaging your health when you'd rather they not, and then blowing off what feels important. Are you getting any smoke from the fires this year?

>205 jjmcgaffey: Serious, non-snarky question: Why read them at all if they're awful?

We've had some smoky days - not nearly as bad as previous years, but unpleasant.

Several heterodyning things - there are books that I thought were awful at the beginning that pulled out and became amazing half-way (or later) through. I have finish-itis - I _hate_ not knowing how a book ends. It tends to make those characters live in my brain as I run through possible ending after possible ending - and if it's bad, that makes it worse. And - a lot of the books I call awful have some redeeming characteristic - dull, or dense, or too fluffy, or too sentimental, or badly written, but with some information or a wonderful setting or something I can enjoy. If I finish the book I have that good memory and can ignore the bad parts.

The object is to get rid of books I don't want to own any more (yeah, ok, that doesn't really apply to ebooks, but still). There are books I haven't finished - where I stalled hard enough that I looked at the end and said yeah, that's good enough and dumped them. But very few. I tend to just slog through, and complain about it while doing so, then forget the bad book.

>208 jjmcgaffey: I too tend to slog, grumbling, to the end - but there are some things, for instance noble women dancing around campfires or peasant boys just jaunting off on their own that I take as an indication of completely lazy world engineering and count myself lucky to have escaped. I blame such encounters on intriguing cover art.

There was one medieval romance in which the lady was snatched into the villain's coach...I quit.

And yes, book covers and blurbs are to blame for a lot - it was one Regency romance that I bought and attempted to read three times (the blurb sounded fascinating! pity the book wasn't up to it) that got me to stop deleting books from LT when I got rid of them. Now I sequester them into Discards, but I can keep track of what I got rid of and somewhat why.

ETA - oh yeah, and the hero tracked the coach by asking people about the crest on the door. I have no idea what image the author had of medieval times..."just like Regency only with worse roads", apparently. Sheesh.

>208 jjmcgaffey: Thanks, that's a good and comprehensible answer. I think I'm less of a finishitis-er than I used to be as I have progressively less and less flexible time, but I'm also less random about how I pick books than I used to be. I used to pull something off the shelf because it had a cool cover, or just sounded interesting... and I still do, I guess, but I pre-vet a bit more just because I'm so time constrained. I hope I don't sound like one of those people who brags about how busy I am. I don't necessarily love it, but that's how life is right now so I just gotta go with it.

Anyway, thanks for answering. I always worry that a question like that will sound smart-assy.

I'm glad you expressly stated it wasn't meant snarkily - the bare question does sound that way. But you got me to think a bit about why I do, it may be helpful.

Oddly enough, when I'm utterly busy I'm _more_ likely to grab at random - or to reread, because I know what the good books are there. I feel like time spent looking at books and saying not this one, not this one, ok this one sounds good is pretty well wasted - because (as previously discussed!) the cover matter and the book itself may have very little in common. So grab and read, and if this one isn't good maybe the next one will be. I get pickier when I have free time - which is actually not a good thing, because I don't get through the boxes as easily when I'm being choosy.

I'm always interested in why people read the way they read. There are so many variations.

Books Read
181. The Trespassers @* by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. Review - Eh. Not much happens, and the story is full of assumptions. Not a winner, for me.
182. One Day on Beetle Rock ^ by Sally Carrighar. Review - Cutesy "nature" story - excellent observations spoiled by anthropomorphizing all the critters. Hmph.
183. Elemental Magic # by Mercedes Lackey. Review - Oddly, I recognized the first half of the book and not the second half - though I did apparently read them. Good, not great.

Currently Reading
Nothing - deciding between digging for more BOMBs and reading some of my half-read books. Both good things.

BOMBs
The Trespassers - yay, a BOMB!

Discards
The Trespassers and One Day on Beetle Rock. One BOMB and one new. Not bad - I'm halfway to my goal! (with two months left in the year...yeek).

New/Reread
Two new, one reread - though I didn't remember large chunks of the reread, odd. So I'm currently at 15 rereads paid for - actually surpassing my leftovers, finally.

I've gotten to the stage of sickness where I'm mentally fine and physically inert. Great reading time. Next!

>213 lisapeet: Yes. I'm from a reading family - but we all read so differently!

Books Read
179. The Wicked Earls Club @^ by Tammy Andresen. Review - Stupid premise, awkward setup - yay, I don't have to read this series!
185. If You Didn't Bring Jerky, What Did I Just Eat? @^ by Bill Heavey. Review - Not as silly as the first few essays sound - some very rich thoughts. Also funny, in bits.
186. The House of Green Turf @^ by Ellis Peters. Review - I'd never read this before! It's a very Felse story; good and rich.
187. Mourning Raga @# by Ellis Peters. Review - Sneaky - several chapters of this at the end of the previous book, got me hooked. Many time reread, good as always.
188. The Grass Widow's Tale @# by Ellis Peters. Review - This is what I _intended_ to read after Green Turf - the other Bunty story. Magnificently depressing start, very rich story (and not at all depressing, overall).
189. Death and Relaxation @^ by Devon Monk. Review - I've read the beginning of this several times - this time I finished, and want the next immediately. Neat urban(ish) fantasy.

Currently Reading
Nothing right now - I have two BOMBs set up, Uncommon Carriers by John McPhee and Flu by Gina Kolata (about the 1918 epidemic). Also the next Ordinary Magic book, Devils and Details.

BOMBs
Nothing - all ebooks, and no eBOMBs.

Discards
Nope.

New/Reread
Two rereads, four new. Which means I'm down to 13 rereads paid for...sigh.

One (small) book listed that I actually read at the end of October but forgot about. Numbers updated. Something - some thread on LT, I believe - reminded me of the Felse books, and I discovered that I had an ebook of The House of Green Turf, which I'd never read. I've read all the other ones, several times apiece, but that one I never could find. So of course I read it, and wanted to read the other Bunty story...but at the end of the ebook, they have not just an excerpt but the first several chapters of the next book. I started reading the "excerpt", for the fun of it - and by the time I got to the end of it I was hooked and needed to read the whole story. Which was, of course, their plan...though I already owned the book, it didn't make a new sale. Read Mourning Raga, carefully avoided reading the "excerpt" at the end, read The Grass Widow's Tale which is the other story in which Bunty plays a major part (in this one she's actually the protagonist). Then a random book, which turned out to be quite good - now I'm torn between starting the next one and actually reading some BOMBs. But the BOMBs I found are non-fiction, so I may read both.

I'm still dealing with this stupid cold - not much of it left, but I'm still stuffy and coughing a bit (bah). And on Saturday, a chunk of one of my molars broke off. It didn't reach the nerve, thank goodness - partly because there isn't much tooth left in that tooth, it's mostly filling. Which means that the fix is a crown (bah again). Hopefully they can get me a couple appointments this month or early next, because they shut down over Christmas and the end of the year. If they can't find the time, I won't get my crown until January or so. So far, it's not been much of a problem - some sharp edges, which my dentist smoothed off today when I went in for them to take a look. But having a fragile tooth over the holidays will be annoying at best.

Nothing much exciting happening. Oh, I just started my application to work for the Census - which is way late, I should have applied months ago, but I suspect it won't be a problem. I worked for the 2010 census and it was very interesting (as well as good money).

So what's going on with you?

>217 jjmcgaffey: What work would you do for the census?

Last time I was...argh, I can't remember the name of the position, and I need it for the application! I was in charge of a group of census takers; that is, I didn't (much) go around to houses asking people to fill out the forms but I was managing a group that did so. Assigned them areas to cover, checked the forms they brought back (and sometimes had to send them back to get the forms filled correctly...), delivered the forms to the places where they were entering the data, met with other area managers (that's not the real name of the position, though). Started by training census takers (my team and others), to fill out the forms and check that all the info was there, unfortunately that didn't fully take on some of them. We were a very efficient bunch nonetheless, and ended up doing the sweep-up for some other teams, handling the households that they hadn't managed to get.

I made some good friends during that time - I'm not very good at keeping up with people, but I remember them and get in contact with them (one way or the other - they to me or vice versa) every now and then. And it was very interesting work - the things I found out about my city! Between discovering ethnic groups I'd had no idea about, and learning just how messed up our address system is...Fun.

The first dental appointment happened yesterday, so today I have a rather sore mouth (though not nearly as bad as yesterday). The temporary crowns never fit right, and it's (as usual) irritating my gum. On the other hand, I got some good stuff done yesterday, both before and after the appointment.

In ceramics, I rolled the slab for a tissue box I'm making - we'll see if it works, but I'm very tired of having boxes fall off shelves because they get pushed aside. A ceramic one should be steadier (though more fragile if it does fall - I'll have to be careful). I also started making some plant markers - made two, by different techniques, and we'll see how they dry and fire. One is a solid slab about a finger wide and long, with a hole in the bottom made by pushing in the square end of a chopstick; the other is about the same size, but I made it with two sheets pressed together at the top and outer edges, with two small rolls placed a chopstick apart in the middle to make a square hole for the chopstick. A couple years ago I made plant markers by pushing corks onto plastic chopsticks; it worked perfectly, except that the pen wore off the cork before the end of the season. Hopefully writing in Sharpie on glazed ceramic will last better (and then be removable - that's another question). But I do grow some of the same varieties every year, so if it doesn't come off I'll just have a permanent marker for that.

Went to the appointment, spent two hours in the chair, went home with my jaw aching (the anesthesic had worn off, pretty much - it comes on very fast and goes off very fast, she didn't get any rest time either (my dentist, I mean)), and did some cleaning up and projects and good stuff that had been waiting for me to get around to it for quite a while. Hopefully I can do the same today, and thin down my to-do list.

I've got two jobs today, as well - neither should take long, one is a maintenance visit keeping a couple computers clean and the other is figuring out why a network drive isn't properly connected. He's sure it's part of the computer, I'm sure it's not...this will be interesting.

And every minute I get a chance I'm knitting, because I was reminded the other day that Angel Tree presents are due on December 1st. I usually give two presents, consisting of a (requested) blanket, that I buy, and a pair of slippersocks as a bonus, that I make. And I have only one sock done, of the four that need doing. Chug along fast!

>220 jjmcgaffey: Been there with the dentist and crown thing! I did not feel much like "royalty" afterwards though.

Good luck with knitting. Our Angel Tree at church is due to go up any time. I am debating whether I should start shopping, as I usually pick the same type of tags (baby stuff). If there is something I want to get and there is no tag on the tree, I have been known to make my own tag and donate the item I selected.

>221 LadyoftheLodge: Ours is set up with gifts to individuals - people are asked what they want, and a tag is made for that (Jessica, a 69-year-old woman, would like a blanket or a scarf). I think the ask is a form with things to check off, since the requests are very similar - clothes, toys, and gift cards are frequent.

The knitting progresses, though I didn't do any yesterday - my parents and I took a trip into San Francisco by ferry to meet a friend for lunch in the Ferry Building. Pleasant trip, both ways (we left after and returned before rush hour), great lunch, and the Ferry Building is always interesting. And then I came home and didn't collapse, felt all energetic and heading and got some pretty major cleaning up done. Very nice day - even if I didn't get any knitting done.

So! Should you feel in need of non-fiction book bullets, this Slate list is excellent - https://slate.com/human-interest/2019/11/50-best-nonfiction-books.html

Some books I knew about and hadn't gotten around to getting (The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, The World Without Us), some I'd never heard of but they sound interesting (The Old Ways, One Day), and of course a good many I wasn't interested in and a few I already had. I collected quite a few new books to read (put them on hold as library ebooks, mostly). I'll have to read fast to get them done before new ones come up - but if I don't manage it, they'll be in my history so I can get them again later.

That Slate list is nice. I'm psyched that they led off with In Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder, one of my favorite oddball nonfiction books of the past quarter century (I'm all about the concept of the wunderkammer). A few of those I've had on my shelves for ages, and this gives me a nudge in their direction.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is terrific; highly recommend.

I was pretty impressed with that list too. Only one in the last three years, while several from the later 1990’s! Several I’ve thought about for years, including Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder and Random Family and a few others I actually own. I was surprised I actually read/listened to nine of the 50 books (and gave up on listening to Far From the Tree). Several that I listened to are favorites - like The Warmth of Other Suns. I’ll try to keep this list in mind when I go back to less planned nonfiction.

>224 lisapeet: I'd never heard of the Cabinet of Wonder book, but I've now gotten it from the library; I was surprised to find that I'd never actually obtained a copy of Henrietta Lacks (I knew I hadn't read it, but I thought I'd picked it up somewhere along the way).

>225 dchaikin: Yes - the "in the past 25 years" criteria made the list more interesting to me, too. I have actually not read a single book on the list - I owned a couple (Lab Girl, for one), but all of them were still in the TBR pile. I plan to correct that within the next few months.

Thanks so much for sharing that list link. I had a few on my wish list already, but I've added so many more from it.

You know, this is getting pretty long. I think that (for the first year? Possibly the second) I'm going to continue the thread in a new thread. See you there!