Susan's sanity is a lost cause…Round 3

Nino Orlandi carves marvels.

Happy new thread!

Well, summer has hit Los Angeles with July. As I dropped my husband at the Expo stop the sun was bright in my eyes on a clear blue sky. Bye-bye June gloom, you will be missed.

Hi Susan, happy new thread my dear. Thanks for stopping by my new thread and being visitor number one, hope you had a good weekend and hope you have a good week ahead dear friend.

New thread orisons, Susan, and wishes for a happily busy July. Running around in a tis-was is no fun at all, but your busyness sounds like the good kind.

Sorry about the summer thing, though. Yuck.

Hi Susan, best wishes with the SCA events and getting in some relaxing reading time.
I, too, am looking forward to some photos of the items at the Costume College if there's a chance.

Happy new thread, Susan.

#166) Balthasar's Odyssey



A literal Odyssey from the Levant to London viewing the sights of the apocalypse. A bookseller of Genoese descent is caught up by the madness surrounding The Hundredth Name, a much sought after book that as far a Balthasar knows exists only as forgeries until a kindness to an old man puts it fleetingly in his hands. Mostly unwillingly he intermittently follows the book to London, retrieving it but not what he sought. How much of the dreamy tone is innate to the original or comes for the translation, I can't know, but though there is excitement and sorrows, none feel sharp or immediate in the journal entries that make up the text.

I read this book, really, only because I read it once before and remembered only the minimal of an easterner in London during the great fire, but it nagged me not to know what book it was. I had intended it to fit into July TIOLI Challenge #13 but this book really is dependent on numbers and even numerology so better that it

Meets July TIOLI Challenge #5: Read a book where the first sentence in Chapters 1, 2 or 3 mentions a number

>8 quondame:, I have an Inter-Library Loan request for this one. I think from back in April!
Is it going to be worth the wait, I wonder. It sounded like a quest with an interesting objective.

>9 SandyAMcPherson: It's not a book I'd immediately recommend, but I don't feel I wasted my time. It's a low key historical, the middle-aged man who is the journalist always seems to land on his feet, though not always happily. The 17th century isn't a period I know much about, so I can't judge how well it is portrayed.

Happy new one!

Happy new thread, Susan!

>1 quondame: Lovely

>10 quondame: "the 17th century isn't a period I know much about..."

Me neither. Before my time *grin*
And in our library system, an ILL sometimes ends up "not available" because our system doesn't have agreements with all the possible libraries they could theoretically co-operate. So I might not have an opportunity to read the book after all.

#167) On My Way to Paradise



This tale of violence and morality is too explicit on both counts and now reminds me of the movie Total Recall, not in a good way and with completely different plot elements, equally outrageous. It is so heavily detailed that what is supposed to take place over two weeks could easily have been called 3 months, and yet wastes the detail by the skipping over 2 years. An interesting alien landscape is nonetheless completely forgettable - I read the book when it first came out and none of the culture or landscape of Baker stuck in my memory, though the internal world of the main character held on.

This is the second book that I read just because I had read it before and couldn't remember what book those elements that stuck in my mind came from and it

Meets July TIOLI Challenge #14: Read a book with a title of at least 4 words (subtitles excluded)

>2 drneutron: >4 johnsimpson: >5 richardderus: >6 SandyAMcPherson: >7 PaulCranswick: >11 figsfromthistle: >12 FAMeulstee: Thanks!

#168) The Sword at Sunset



An Arthurian re-telling with the emphasis on recreating post-Roman Britain. It does that, but fails for me in recreating an Arthur I can believe pulled to himself followers of the quality described. Also the little brown people trope really got on my nerves. I may well have read and loved this in the 60s when I was mad for anything Arthurian or medieval, but I don't remember it, though I do remember reading other Sutcliff books. It is possible that it just wasn't in the high school or base libraries.

I checked this out for June TIOLI Challenge #10 Read 2 books on the same topic or add your book to a topic someone else has listed to add to the Arthurian group but it

Meets July TIOLI Challenge #13: Read a book with an author name (first, middle, last) that starts with one of the letters in EDGAR MARTINEZ

>16 quondame: I read it at the Arthurian moment in my reading life and liked it better than Mary Stewart's jesusy version of the story.

Weirdly, the "little brown people" thing was dissonant for me in that unreconstructed time of my life.

>17 richardderus: While my pagan heart never really roots for the Christian battle/victory aspect of the tales, I find it is one way to provide believable cultural center for Arthurian era tales - better than the 'holding back the darkness' which is based on predicting a dark age that is mostly a modern myth. I don't think Romanized Celts could have been that much pleasant to live among than the Germanic invaders, though obviously more literate and with better roads. I'm a bit cantankerous with the whole romanticized Celtic thing across the board, and all the red haired green eyed beauties who have been the sine-qua-non of psychic F&SF all the decades of my life.

>18 quondame: Especially irksome in light of modern genetics informing us that there is no trace of a distinctive "people" identifiable as "the Celts" meaning it was a *culture* that stormed the world's populations. Much like there isn't an American People, but American culture will be remembered by history.

>19 richardderus: stormed?

#169) All My Children Wear Fur Coats



This is a clearly written book mostly about estate planning with a focus on providing for pets when you will not be able to care for them. It also is a paean to pets, a celebration of them and offers advice on euthanizing pets and grieving for dead pets. It is also a bit of an advertisement for the Humane Society of the U.S. and the author's law practice.

I checked this out for another of @Morphidae's challenges June TIOLI #6: Read a book that has a family member in the title (rolling challenge - F/M/O) but am glad it

Meets July TIOLI Challenge #3: Read a book for the CFF Mystery Challenge Challenge

>20 quondame: Invasions-->stormings

#170) Here Is Where: Discovering America's Great Forgotten History



America from the angle of what we (mostly) don't choose to memorialize and where it happened. The good, the bad, the ugly are each given a brief turn or return to the spotlight. Interesting but not terribly compelling, it was amusing that the author could become bored in seconds by a tourist's enthusiasm for old furniture.

Originally checked out for:
May #3: Read a book dedicated to a non-relative
And kept for:
June #12: Read a book you which you have never read and returned unread to the library or gave away unread

Meets July TIOLI Challenge #13: Read a book with an author name (first, middle, last) that starts with one of the letters in EDGAR MARTINEZ

Of the five books I've read this month, 4 were longer than I felt they needed to be, or at least took more of my time to get through than I am happy with. I really do think 3 of them were over drawn out, but it may just be me feeling the pressure of all the challenges!

Happy new thread and best wishes for shorter, better books for your challenges!

Happy new thread, Susan!

>24 quondame: I think your longer than I felt they needed to be sentiment is where I'm stuck with White Mughals, one of my current reads.

I can't decide whether to persevere. Maybe I'm not feeling like reading a lot of historical backstory or something. Summer reading is really different to what I enjoy in the winter. I never noticed that before until I started looking at what I read from ~November to March.

Happy New Thread, Susan!

Your sanity seems to be doing pretty well, all things considered. Round 3 - way to go!

#171) The Four Million



A collection of 25 O. Henry stories, including Gift of the Magi, set almost entirely among those barely surviving in the rooming houses of New York. Certain racist elements are noticeable, and some of the slang has not been broadcast to posterity, but for the most part these short stories reliably deliver the surprise endings for which O. Henry is best known.

Read for July TIOLI Challenge #10: Baker's dozen ROLLING CHALLENGE: Read a book with a number in the title, from 1 - 13

The first sentence of the first story contains 3 numbers between 1-13, inclusive if someone is desperate to complete Challenge #5: Read a book where the first sentence in Chapters 1, 2 or 3 mentions a number AND the first sentence of the second story has a number as well

>24 quondame: Well Susan I never feel that I feel the stress of challenges and then I go on to finish no books at all in July as yet.

Must get out of this reading rut soon.

Hmm. I was a huge Sutcliff fan as a pre-teen/teen -- I particularly loved The Shield Ring and one other Dawn Wind -- must reread this one, I think. I agree there is too much romanticizing but it is also fascinating somehow, to think of the roman culture ebbing, collapsing, fading from the British landscape as both the invading saxons etc. and then the Christian influence came in -- the interplay must have been intense. The best book I've read that tackles all this is Porius by John Cowper Powys -- it is a huge and very demanding book, but I found it un-put-downable and rewarding.

#172) The Blue Hour



A wreath of stories set in the winter of a Colorado community which spreads along a country road between a hamlet with a few villages and Blue Moon Mountain. It starts with the suicide of the vet who has long suffered from schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder, and the death echos out among his family and those close to him and those close to them and to other residents, new and long term of the town. These are depictions of longing and loneliness and love, desire and disappointment and moving on.

I chose the top thread on my Talk tab(that would be @msf59's), went to the member's library, sorted by rating and chose the first book about which I knew nothing.

Read for July TIOLI Challenge #8: Read a book about which you know nothing except the LT rating

>32 quondame: Unique way to get into an unexpected read!

>27 SandyAMcPherson: It's taken me a while to realize that I've been completely blown out of my reading groove by LT - I used to rely heavily on re-reading whole author's or at least long series at a time, which is different in that there is little of the 'what-happens-next' push through the books, and also little of feeling of missing something by less than meticulous attention. Now I'm reading a much larger variety of books, almost all new to me - the two re-reads were due to having forgotten so much that they were very difficult to pin down. So reading is a bit more effortful and feeling a time pressure makes it harder to relax into long books. But over all I think its a plus.

>33 SandyAMcPherson: I tried seeing if there were LT books with really low (1,2,3,...) numbers, and in some cases there are, but that didn't seem to lead anywhere and I couldn't see a way toward sorting the whole LT book db by rating.

>28 jnwelch: Thanks. We can hope!

>31 sibylline: It is one of the most speculated about eras I know of, and so much has been written about it - the wikipedia page has long lists that leave out as much as they include, really. Porius doesn't look to be something to be picked up lightly. I'm still in a grim mood about Sutcliff's mythical little dark people to consider confronting an even earlier version. I think the latest genetic finds are that the people who became the Celts were pretty much made up of whoever was there when the culture spread along the coasts of western Europe.

#173) The Girl from Paris



Somehow I think the reader really should be able to tell the shape of the story by halfway through the book. Nasty family is not compensated by virtues or interest of main character, who shows, in spite of vaunted independence and intelligence, no real ability to think things through and take meaningful action.

Checked out to meet June TIOLI Challenge #9: Read a book with a title describing 'someone' of/from 'somewhere'

Read for July TIOLI Challenge #16: Read a book with a city, county, province, burrough, etc or country in the title where a member of your family (not you) is vacationing this summer

#174) The Descent of Monsters



Nope, this one isn't up to the two previous books. A Tensor investigator who is supposed to close the case of a major dubious disaster without ruffling any feathers, decides to follow the sole real lead which gets to being involved with Rider of the previous volume, but not sympathetically. Told as a series of reports and journals, which may be the problem. The high body count precedes and initiates the action, but the in story body count is significant.

Meets July TIOLI Challenge #14: Read a book with a title of at least 4 words (subtitles excluded)

#175) Things Fall Apart



The story of a determined man impelled not to repeat the debt accumulation of his father in Nigerian village coming increasingly under the sway of Christianity and western imperialism. The majority of the book is a passage through Ibo life punctuated by the toxic masculinity of the main character, while the finish is his hardships due to his own traditions and the rule of imperialism. Compelling if not in a pleasant way.

Meets July TIOLI Challenge #2: Read a book by an author from or about/set in one of the nations participating in the 2019 Women’s World Cup

#176) Perfect Ten



High school senior Sam has two close friends, Landon who was his boyfriend until two years ago and Meg who is in love with that jerk Michael. He feels the lack of a boyfriend and Wiccan Meg offers to do a spell to help. And in a sweet but heartbreaking way he does get his wish answered but there are complications. It's decently written,not overpoweringly coy, and moves pretty well, though the emotional load might have been better distributed. But mostly, not my thing. Teenagers, yetch. Wise teenagers - or at least significantly wiser teenagers. And yes, there are a couple of w**ks.

Read for July TIOLI Challenge #7: Read a book with at least 1 U.S.A. citizen and 1 French citizen

Originally I thought I'd read Scruples to meet my own challenge, but possibly due to Judith Krantz's recent death all local copies are checked out with a waiting list. So I did a search for YA French Exchange Student, and this one came up.

#177) Pachinko



Patchinko is an intriguing metaphor for life, lots of chance influenced by skill/work. I found this a compelling read, and got through it relatively quickly, the steady somewhat distanced pace and viewpoint allowing breathing room around the intensely felt trials of life as mostly despised outsiders over almost a century. Particularly interesting was the last interaction of the Korean-Japanese and Korean-American with different issues about their identities.

Meets July TIOLI Challenge #4: Read a book that fits one of the squares on the Seattle Adult Summer Reading Book Bingo card

>37 quondame: Was that your first read of Things Fall Apart? It was an amazing experience for me, lo those hundreds of months ago, when I read it first. I still think about how complete the world Achebe created was, and in so few words.

>39 quondame: It was a favorite read of mine last year. Or was it year before last...can't recall, got a DRC and never reviewed it because it was such a raw, real story of people's hatred and evil towards those they have Othered.

>40 richardderus: It's unlikely, but I may have read it long ago. But not in the last 15 years. I don't think I would have forgotten it, but I find that weird trivial things can sometimes be all I remember of very powerful books.

After the complaints about how difficult a read Pachinko was for some I wasn't expecting the prose to just zip me right along and keep me reading later than usual.

>41 quondame: That's what happened to me, too! I was dragged along like my foot was caught in the stirrup of a spooked horse.

#178) Eva's Eye



A steady moving, ends to middle told mystery of two deaths only connected by proximity of the victims on the night of the first death. The coincidences of the plot are the weakness of the book, but the characters have a real texture.

Read for July TIOLI Challenge #15: Read a crime/mystery/thriller by an author you’ve never read before from a country you’ve never visited

#178) A Woman of No Importance



I did not enjoy reading this. I don't like WWII narratives and stories in which women have to prove that they are 10x more competent than anyone else to get half as far are just too damp real. Probably why I read fantasy where the women only have to be 2x better and get further. Still it is an important narrative of the realities of fighting truly horrific enemies and the costs of success and failure. Virginia Hall is a person who channeled her ego and drive entirely to the purpose of freeing Nazi held France while so many of those around her were unable to cope with the requirements of description, focus and literal self-denial.

Read for July TIOLI Challenge #9: Read a book (fiction or non-fiction) centred on someone who really existed, with rolling geographical setting/connection

#179) The Eagle of the Ninth



Well enough for a mid-20th century book for boys and those interested in Roman Britain. A young man's quest north of Hadrian's wall with his slave turned companion. The close relationship between ex-centurion Marcus and the ex-captive/gladiator, slave then freed Esca, is a given with no examination beyond Marcus being an all around good guy, who also happens to enjoy the visits of the 13-15 year old girl Cottia.

Meets July TIOLI Challenge #14: Read a book with a title of at least 4 words (subtitles excluded)

#180) The Debut



I think this book is sort of an in joke for Balzac readers. I am not such a one. There are other literary references, mostly to 19th century authors I have read, but Balzac predominates and the women in his books mentioned multiple times. While the first sentence cleverly states that her life was ruined by literature, there is the burden family situation on a twenty-something that is, well, a bit more culpable.

Read for July TIOLI Challenge #11: Let's play doctor!

#181) Sun Tzu was a Sissy



Bitter and biting, this indictment of corporate life and dealings zig-zags from wry to deadly serious to cheap-shots with examples real and legendary. Published in 2004, proto-45 is more frequently mentioned than Warren Buffet. Full of awful Tzutsy Tzuff, ending on tzissy wistful note.

Read for July TIOLI Challenge #1: Read a book already tagged "business" and/or "entrepreneurship"

#182) Epic



In this YA adventure a group of teens destroy the regime, via the world spanning game EPIC by which it's oligarchs are selected. ++for yet another red haired, green eyed heroine, though in this case she is a boy's player character. More positively involved adults than usual for a YA.

Read for July TIOLI Challenge #12: Read a book with a one word title beginning with a letter of the previous book

Hello Susan. I hope all is well with you.

I'm wondering if you have read Terry Brooks' Shanarra series? I'm thinking of taking the plunge on the first trilogy. I have also enjoyed the Shanarra Chronicles tv series on Netflix. Have you seen it?

>49 brodiew2: I've read all the Shanarra books. They aren't favorites, or even close to favorites except in the pre-Shanarra trilogy Word & Void. I think Terry Brook's single best book is Magic Kingdom for Sale–Sold!. I think the later books are better told than the original trilogy. I watch very little TV, because my hearing sucks and I rarely understand anything with a soundtrack behind it and so I've missed Shanarra Chronicles.

#183) Life of Python



About as dull as a book about Monty Python could be. An intro, 6 biographies up to the early 90s, a bit more information added to the mid portions of the biographies to be the story of Monty Python's Flying Circus BBC show, followed by a rehash of the last portion of the 6 biographies, with photos somewhat randomly placed more where they fit not where referenced. Lots of pictures, not all that well captioned, and a couple of images I never wanted to see again.

Read for July TIOLI Challenge #6: Read a book with a connection to 1969

>51 quondame: Generous in 2 stars, from the sound of it. Full marks for finishing such a dreary-sounding tome.

My fun 1969-related reading this year was Todd Strasser's Summer of '69. It was not without its flaws, but certainly was a trip!

Hi Susan my dear, hope that you are having a good start to the weekend and send love and hugs dear friend.

Hard to imagine one could do a bad book about Monty Python, but I guess it can be done... thanks for taking one for the team - I’m staying away.

>53 johnsimpson: Our cooking guild did a field trip today into Orange County (about 55 slow freeway miles) to try out Lebanese food. Very good, though I've had Kebbeh Makliyeh that I prefer. That's about as far as I've driven myself for quite awhile.

Tomorrow is for resting and reading, feeling guilty that I'm not sewing the fabulous fabric that came Friday, and hopefully I'll be able to finish the books which will come due on Tuesday. What I'll do about the books that come due Thurs-Sun, I don't know because I have my annual Costume College junket that will take me to deepest darkest Woodland Hills (20 slower freeway miles).

>54 drneutron: It's not quite bad until the final section, but it's never up to the material.

Jeez, an author would have to work pretty hard to write a dull book about Monty Python. Too bad.

#184) Endgames



Seemingly the final of the Imager novels, this one, like the previous one centers on the young Rex who like all Modesitt's protagonists is way beyond mature and controlled and has women who also are improbably good for him as support. I liked the Imager world, but its preaching has pretty much lost all novelty.

Meets July TIOLI Challenge #4: Read a book that fits one of the squares on the Seattle Adult Summer Reading Book Bingo card

#185) With the Fire on High



A sprightly paced page-turner about a 17yr old high school senior with a toddler from her first boyfriend, a grandmother who raised her after her mother's death and her father's abandonment and a magic touch with food. The charter school she attends is offering a culinary arts class and taking it may be an extra burden or the doorway to a new future. The toddler is only ill in one chapter and difficulties are raised only to melt away. So not a bad read, but total fantasy.

BB from @jnwelch

Meets July TIOLI Challenge #13: Read a book with an author name (first, middle, last) that starts with one of the letters in EDGAR MARTINEZ

#186) Planetfall



If you liked Wool you'll probably like Planetfall. It is a big secret, big lie story. This is better, certainly in the writing, but how much is a matter of taste. As a person with an increasing hoarding problem, I found it a distinctly uncomfortable read, but it wasn't gratuitous discomfort. I didn't find the characters all that well done, though the grueling experiences of the first person narrator are strongly communicated.

BB from @souloftherose

Meets July TIOLI Challenge #12: Read a book with a one word title beginning with a letter of the previous book

>60 quondame: Well, that settles that read's fate. Wool wasn't a favorite of mine, seeing as I Pearl Ruled it. One entry crossed off my TBR list. Yay!

#187) The Stiehl Assassin



Mostly filler. A bit of action, a lot of discussion, ~350pgs to cover less than 200pgs of plot advancement. It's time for Shannara to fall.

#188) The Orphans of Raspay



This was a steadily moving adventure as Penric is captured by pirates when returning from mission he didn't want. He is placed with two captive sisters under 10 and the rest is attempts to stay together and find a way off the island where captives are held before ransoming or sale and get home safely. Not all of his efforts work as well as he would like.
I found this quite good and rather liked Penric worrying about something other than whether Nikys will have him.

Meets July TIOLI Challenge #13: Read a book with an author name (first, middle, last) that starts with one of the letters in EDGAR MARTINEZ

#189) Theft & The Man Who Was Left Behind



Theft - devastating. The Man who was Left Behind - I've had that heart-string wrenched before.

BB from @jnwelch
BB from @richardderus

Meets July TIOLI Challenge #13: Read a book with an author name (first, middle, last) that starts with one of the letters in EDGAR MARTINEZ

>64 quondame: Looks very intriguing, for sure.
Sadly our library system doesn't have that title. Only 3 of Rachel Ingalls' books appear in the catalogue.
A book to hunt up in my second-hand book shop visits.

>64 quondame: Oh goody good good! A book bullet that hit the right spot. Theft was such a damned difficult read. Beautiful writing. Ingalls wasn't prolific but she was high-quality talented.

Happy day of reading!

#190) Eye Spy



Readable mostly quick moving mostly cookie-cutter installment of Valdemar stories, though the central character is not herself a herald. The last few chapters, with the most action, somehow are the ones which drag the most, as Abi goes south on a mission.

Meets July TIOLI Challenge #4: Read a book that fits one of the squares on the Seattle Adult Summer Reading Book Bingo card

#191) The Shape of Water



Interesting characters and setting, good pacing and fluid translation. Lots of literary allusions. I'm not enthusiastic about eating cephalopods, but the descriptions almost make me hungry.

More like being caught in the crossfire of posts on the author's demise.

Meets July TIOLI Challenge #4: Read a book that fits one of the squares on the Seattle Adult Summer Reading Book Bingo card

#192) Convenience Store Woman



Passing for normal isn't easy when you are profoundly not normal. Miss Furukura found that she can fill the role of Convenience store clerk and has done so for 18 years. But she has aged past the point where that camouflages her as the normal she so profoundly is not. Her reactions to the pressures her co-workers, family, and former classmates who have now noticed that she is not following their script. A look at what it means to live in society from the parallax of two individuals, one who can't feel as others do and one who just won't do the work and follow the rules he can see.

BB shot by @richardderus

Meets July TIOLI Challenge #2: Read a book by an author from or about/set in one of the nations participating in the 2019 Women’s World Cup

#193) The Terra-Cotta Dog

An enjoyable excursion through a labyrinthine set of investigations, with murders past and present.

Meets July TIOLI Challenge #4: Read a book that fits one of the squares on the Seattle Adult Summer Reading Book Bingo card

#194) The Snack Thief

Inspector Montalbano himself is displayed more to the reader as he investigates the murder of retired importer, tries to avoid involvement in a death at sea brought to his home port and finds both invading his own life. The food element is very seductive - these books should be read on a full belly or within easy reach of favorite treats.

Meets July TIOLI Challenge #4: Read a book that fits one of the squares on the Seattle Adult Summer Reading Book Bingo card

I'm back from the sensory overload of Costume College. I had to spend a lot of time reading in my room to recover. Poor me.

I went to two talks given by Elizabeth Wayland Barber, who was among the first to seriously research the textile history of Europe and western Asia. I've heard her once before, speaking of the development of woolly sheep and how linen and hemp were spun and woven long before sheep had wool. And came home with 2 more of her books.

>67 quondame: Some very good reads in this bunch! I'm glad you're pleased with Convenience Store Woman, what an unusual book and so very well-made as a story.

Camilleri's gift to us of a gastronome and dogged justice-seeker is getting renewed appreciation! Excellent.

I'm glad you've been enjoying the Montalbano books, Susan. Salvo and the other characters have been boon companions of mine for many years now.

You're right, of course, about how mouth-watering Camilleri makes all the food sound. I'd love to go to Vigata and eat at Enzo a Mare.

Oh, and you were pleased with Convenience Store Woman! I'm with RD in having a soft spot for it.

#195) Restoree



It is a silly marysue with a plucky capable heroine who implausibly is in a position to save the deposed leader and win herself a ringside seat to the restoration of his side and an equally imaginative space victory. Ever so mid-20th, but fun.

I'm not sure if this should be #191-#194, but really I read it when I should have been sleeping, but I don't sleep so good in hotel rooms.

Meets July TIOLI Challenge #12: Read a book with a one word title beginning with a letter of the previous book

>70 richardderus: >71 jnwelch: Thanks for dropping by. Have a good week!

>72 quondame: Yeah, but it's fun. And upbeat. And yes, totally implausible.

I finished The Curse of Chalion ~ Book #70 for me, which IIRC, was a BB from you. Thanks!!
I gave it 4½ ★s ~ on my thread. (I didn't write a book review on the work page yet).

>75 SandyAMcPherson: Always happy to be the infection vector!

#196) Empire Made



Interesting and smooth flowing this dual passage trough India to Nepal is not involving. A young man's inquiries spread over 3 decades for traces of a relative well over one hundred years dead reveals nothing of the inner life of either traveler. But there is an abundance of information about 19th century colonial India, well presented.

Meets July TIOLI Challenge #4: Read a book that fits one of the squares on the Seattle Adult Summer Reading Book Bingo card

>77 quondame: The informational aspect makes me think I'd find it interesting. Thank you for the clarity of the assessment.

#197) Rat Race



This is just as much a page turner as most Dick Francis mysteries, though Matt isn't a main character that has much going for him and the romance lacks enough fuel to make a believable blaze. Also the mystery itself isn't the strongest, more like well, we need something to act as a plot.

Meets July TIOLI Challenge #13: Read a book with an author name (first, middle, last) that starts with one of the letters in EDGAR MARTINEZ

#198) Three Mages and a Margarita



Another title I read over the weekend and only remembered due to going through the kindle to determine what's next.

A mostly light urban fantasy about a human girl with serious temper issues who gets a job at a bar which turns out to be a gathering place for a guild of super-naturals - users of elemental forces, thought readers, psychics. I'm not sure if the kidnap plot made any sense at all, but the action kept moving right along.

BB fired by @Narilka ricochet off @ronincats

Meets July TIOLI Challenge #14: Read a book with a title of at least 4 words (subtitles excluded)

#199) Water Witch



A fast paced silly fantasy of the dominoes all ready to fall sort with the obligatory ignorant lost heir and a crisis ripening and just the right co-incidences to put people right where they need to be just when they need to be there.

Read for August TIOLI Challenge #8: Read a new-to-you book by one of the authors you've listed as a favourite on LT

(I started reading this July 30th and had to put it down because I'd finish it in July having checked it out for an August challenge. It is such an easy read.)

#200) Deep Roots



Rather tame for playing around with a variety of Lovecraft's others. Deliberately paced with little momentum, it might well be a better ride for those who enjoy spending time with critters just because of their associations. I didn't find entities as presented compelling enough to enjoy my journey through the pages.🌈

I'm tempted to see if this qualifies for TIOLI Challenge #12: Read a book with a college or university connection as Miskatonic University is mentioned repeatedly. It may however qualify for some challenge not yet written.

>81 quondame: I love this little read! In fact, since I just finished the 8th and last so far of the Thursday Next series, I think I'll reread this one tonight!!

And it was very good, once again!

My cover, although it unfortunately cracked off during this latest read. Well, it IS 37 years old.

>83 ronincats: >84 ronincats: It's fun, but no comparison to Promised Land which is full bore Marysue!

#201) The Light Beyond the Forest



A rather pedestrian assemblage of the grail quest stories, which differ mostly from the classic Arthurian stories in an extra layer of moralizing. Read lacking any of that fervor which in a 13 year old can seem religious, this is the tale of an autistic fighter and a handful of knights being tantalized, tricked, and goaded by a variety of supernatural pranksters.

Read for August TIOLI Challenge #9: Read a book where the first letter of the first name of the author comes alphabetically before the first letter of the last name

>85 quondame: Yeah, but Promised Land is bigger all the way around!

#201) The Price of Spring



The final book of the Long Price Quartet, or why not to put the power of gods at the disposal of mortals. Some characters make decisions that are less than disastrous, but those are often the least believable of the choices made. By the time I got around to reading this I'd lost the immediacy of my connection to the storytelling in the first three books, so perhaps that's why I kept jumping out of the context - or maybe the story was more annoying and less rewarding than the earlier volumes.

Meets August TIOLI Challenge #14: Read a book by an author whose last name is longer than their first name

#202) Diamond Fire



Planning wedding isn't ever simple and Nevada's and Rogan's attracts all kinds of trouble, mostly family. Catalina takes a lead roll and finds she must use all her abilities, and ones she didn't even know she had.

Read for August TIOLI Challenge #15: Read a book with something hot in the title

>82 quondame: Oh dear, that's saddening. I like Ruthanna's deliberate pacing...no need to rush it when the Elder Gods are involved! I subscribe wholeheartedly to the maxim, "Praise Cthulhu! He hasn't noticed you yet."

Hoping your week-ahead reads are more The Thing.

>90 richardderus: I'm perfectly fine with almost any pace if I'm enjoying the company, and I did enjoy Winter Tide more than I expected. I just couldn't get that interested in the struggle to wean Freddy from the Outer Ones - it seemed way artificial that there was one and only one candidate who had just happened to have just fallen under their influence, and the idea that anything could calm the paranoia of security agencies is more unbelievable than the Elder Gods.

#203) Once and Future



I know there have been space opera versions of King Arthur, and I remember one that is at least mildly homosexual/poly, and am sure there are others, but this combination of all out gender is irrelevant, Arthur is Ari a 17 year old girl marrying Gwen, queen of the planet Lionel takes both threads, chops them up and sort of throws them on the page without much attention to transitions. That there is less thought to world building than Hunger Games, which admittedly is true to many Arthurian retellings, what with the endless supply of quest bearing maidens and unknown castles popping up in every tale, is unfortunate since some sort of anchor would have kept this assemblage from disintegrating as it was read. 🌈

Meets August TIOLI Challenge #7: Read a book by a woman whose gender is not evident

>91 quondame: LOL re:spoiler; point taken!

So happy that all your book covers are showing! I don't think the LT powers-that-be explained this change at all -- or else I missed it?

Hooray for a new Penric.

And yes, somewhere up there you mention that there is a ridiculous amount of literature set in the "dark" period of British history -- and in particular that Porius would be a huge commitment. All true. I feel grateful I found Powys, his books can be strange and difficult as you read them, but the imagery and some underlying rightness comes through and stays put, at least for me, changing my view. In Porius -- set in two generations after the Romans leave, the eponymous main character, Porius, is trying to decide whether he can leave, take a trip to Byzantium which has become the center of civilization. The plot is, in fact, weirdly similar to that Jimmy Stewart movie! "Can I get away or does my family and community need me?"

>88 quondame: I loved the whole of the LPQuartet -- there was something unusual about the world-building and character development, loved that main character, can't pinpoint now what I thought, hm. Maybe I put it in a review. Golly, I hope so since I can't remember anything for long anymore!

>94 sibylline: I've taken to changing the book covers for each book I read to one local to LT. Sometimes I have to Grab the Amazon one from the web if no one else did before me. Sometimes I even have to scan and upload them.

I don't know why I didn't read >88 quondame:/#201 when I went through the other LPQuartet books a year ago except that the 3rd was rather high concept for me.

>95 quondame: I am quite a stickler for making sure that, when I catalogue a book, I include the cover I actually own.

>96 PaulCranswick: Most of the books I read come from the library, but when I was cataloging the collection I did scan a great many covers. I try to go with the cover I've read, but on some e-books, I'll go with what appeals.

#204) The City in the Middle of the Night



A heavy tale of life in three cities on a tidally locked planet, a repressive state that enforces and artificial day-night cycle, a free for all gangster run city where you are free to do what you want when you want but you can starve or be killed anytime too. The third is a vision of the unknown dark side buried city of the natives. The world was well textured in detail, but not believably balanced from a long view. The central relationship is obsessive/abusive, so no joy there, but the emotions are well portrayed and the characters largely believable. It could have stood to have a good chunk edited out of the middle.🌈

Meets August TIOLI Challenge #3: Read a book where one of the title words begins with the letter “C”

>69 quondame: You've made my day, Susan! I just put The Dancing Goddesses on my Kindle, knowing nothing at all about Elizabeth Wayland Barber, and now you say that she's well worth reading! I'll maybe move this one up the slopes of Mt. Bookpile. I'm also tempted by that textile book, and I know even less about that than about dance.
You remind me that I need to get to book 3 of *Long Price*. I have so much that's wonderful unread.
And I don't know exactly why, but Rat Race remains my very favorite D. Francis. What can I say?

>99 LizzieD: She signed my copy of The Dancing Goddesses after bullying me into buying the hardback over the paperback. I think it was one of her author copies she was trying to disperse - there were no book sellers at the event, though her liaison had stocked up from Amazon. Women's work is so good - some parts are dated, as in the old thinking that the Celts came from the east which has now been reversed to the culture arising along the Atlantic coast and moving east, but it is still a fabulous work on what to look for and the importance of noticing what isn't showing up in archeology.

>98 quondame: Looks like an interesting one!

#205) This is How You Lose the Time War



This book has something, but it's not for me. In all the time hopping there was no sense of connection to place or period of flavor of such. A epistolary love story whose means I found more intriguing than it's content. Though both Red and Blue are 'she', and it's a love story, I don't really think it rates a 🌈, other than the authors' intent to eschew the traditional 'he' as a fashion statement.

Meets August TIOLI Challenge #1: Read a book whose author's first and last names start with a vowel and end with a consonant

#206) Alpha and Omega



A lackluster could be end of days novel. The ark of the covenant is discovered and it floats 3" off the ground and the first person to touch it drops dead. God is back, the god of the old testament, apparently, and no one is happy about it for long. Much of the book is a few more or less ordinary people who are trying to adjust to and digest what it means to them to live under God's eye. They don't seem to make much progress.

Meets August TIOLI Challenge #2: Read a book that begins with who, what, where, when, how

#207) The Silver Branch



The adventures of two young roman Britons in the legions of the short term emperor Catausius. The narrative skips over all the year and a half as a sort of underground movement to spend it's time on highlights of meetings and battles, the actual sole purpose of which seems to be to get the eagle from its previous storage place to the basilica at Calleva/Silchester.

Meets August TIOLI Challenge #9: Read a book where the first letter of the first name of the author comes alphabetically before the first letter of the last name

>103 quondame: Um.

How sad that such a really good idea didn't get the treatment it deserved.

Happier reads ahead.

>105 richardderus: Well, at least there are authors who have done better with the idea of men vs active gods, including Turtledove himself in Between the Rivers. Bujold of course manages all the emotions with a delightful humor. But I can't imagine being anything but appalled with any deity arising from the eastern Mediterranean.

#208) The Lantern Bearers



This last of the 3 books of The Eagle of the Ninth Chronicles, it slightly overlaps Sword at Sunset, though there are a couple of discontinuities, the foremost being Aquila's family ring in the first 3 being Ambrosius's gift to Artos while Aquila is still living. For me this is much the best book, not being the buddy road trip of the first two, or the opaque ruler of the last, Aquila is a damaged man who with only a little help over a long period of time is able to win something of worth for and within himself and to finally share that.

Meets August TIOLI Challenge #9: Read a book where the first letter of the first name of the author comes alphabetically before the first letter of the last name

Hi Susan, congrats on hitting 200 books read for the year and a third of the year left to reach even bigger targets my dear. We are back from our holiday and the reading was poor despite the number of books we took with us, I have started to give a flavour of our holiday and will continue it over the next couple of days whilst catching up with all the threads and hundreds of posts I have missed.

Hope you are having a good weekend and I will visit again when I have caught up with everything my dear.

#209) Elysium Fire



I really enjoyed this SF mystery/space opera, but not so much the backstory portions. In the former the action moved well, the irritations were of the current really annoying type, the characters made sense in their rolls and actions. Because I haven't read any of the earlier books in the story I felt a lack of appreciation for the hyperpig character. The final wrap up felt way too tidy for me. The backstory could have been condensed a good deal if not mostly omitted, but did give depth to the villain.

BB from @avatiakh

Meets August TIOLI Challenge #4: Read a book for the August CFF Mystery Challenge Challenge

#210) The Ascent to Godhood



Told second person as a bar story this is the testimony of Lady Min, peasant, dancing girl, lady in waiting to/assassin for/administrator under the just deceased Protector. A journey through the highest levels of low behavior in the court with an interesting codicil.

Meets August TIOLI Challenge #9: Read a book where the first letter of the first name of the author comes alphabetically before the first letter of the last name

>108 johnsimpson: Thanks John. Sound like a good holiday if there was enough you enjoyed doing on so you didn't have to fall back on reading.

#211) Fall



883 pages. Word processing has a lot to answer for. This is not one story but several. Dodge's last morning. An SF story of copying and rebooting minds, Dodge's being the first, in the cloud as spearheaded by his niece Sophia and his friend, and executor Corvallis which includes a sort of post-data-apocalyptic road trip through Ameristan. Then there is the creation story and the story of the fall, semi-inverted and interleaved with the original SF narrative. Then we get to watch as new Adam and Eve meet a charming worm and have to face the consequences. Then, with a few "meatspace" interludes we are off on a classic Quest with the repulsively charming Corvallis/Corvus.
Don't worry about spoilers up there, there's lots of other stuff. But while it is as easy to read and smoothly paced as almost all of Neal Stephenson's writing, it is facile surface stuff. Really, the adversaries are kind of six-of-one blah blah. Hierarchies are really all that's on offer. Who would pay to be a beedle? Who wouldn't have their estate sue if they were instantiated as one?
Also, the orientation is so completely US & Western Europe in spite of Corvallis's Asian ancestry and Zulu&Sophia's Eritrean origins. Not even a nod to Russian, Chinese, Middle Eastern, or Southeast Asian money, which would very likely not have gone into Dodge's after world, but it's as if these whole parts of the world are not worth mentioning.

Meets August TIOLI Challenge #5: Read a book in which the author acknowledges another writer in the dedication, foreword, afterword

Now that I finished Fall I have to rush it back to the library along with all the others are due today. I'll be back!

>112 quondame: Word processing has a lot to answer for.

Great line, Susan.

>114 richardderus: what Richard said that >112 quondame: said...

Indeed.

#212) The House of Hades



This is as charming as a journey through Tartarus, even the parts that aren't literally so. A danger bested every few chapters, lessons learned, truths revealed, costs paid. Supper high body count, but all monsters, even the good monsters. Only read if you are a real fan.

I meant to quit with the previous volume and would have except that this

Meets August TIOLI Challenge #11: MOB!! Read a book following the Man Over Board-rescue-manoeuvre in the first sentence

Good for you for reading Stephenson's Fall, Susan. "Word processing has a lot to answer for". Like Richard and Sandy, I love that line. Since his early ones, Stephenson has been churning out whoppers, one after the other. The last one I read was Reamde - I enjoyed his writing, but oh my goodness, someone turn loose an editor on this guy's work.

>117 jnwelch: I always enjoy reading Stephenson, and always get annoyed by the holes he blithely ignores, and in the case of Fall, those are larger than the text itself, but in this book his treatment of the afterlife is so parochial, derivative, and uninventive as to make the enclave of The Diamond Age seem vastly more original.

Has anyone else noticed/commented on the popup behavior of Touchstones? Mouse over one!

>119 quondame:, I saw that the other night!

I think it's way cool ~ maybe evidence of the new redesign. I'm luuuuving that ❣️ feature.

#213) Scribes & Scholars



This is a textbook aimed at graduate level classics scholars who can read Latin and make their way through Greek. My 3 years of high school Latin and 3 weeks of Greek tutorials aren't up to making any sense of the many passages in those languages, but that does not mean that most of the content of book was lost on me, just the fun details.
About 1/2 of the volume is about the various ways the Greek and Latin texts circulating at the end of the western Roman Empire were preserved to modern times. This is more about a series of sieves than about great disasters, though the two of the latter that are highlighted are the Eastern Roman Iconoclasts and the sacking of Constantinople in 1204. Not the loss of the library of Alexandria, which is passed over as exaggerated. Sieve #1 was the transfer from papyrus scroll to parchment codex, during a time when scholarship was at a lull, and materials were increasingly hard to get or afford. Sieve #2 was the transfer from unical to one of the much more readable minuscule scripts. The #0 sieve is that of fashion, which was pretty much a constant from the first written texts.
It is also the history of western textual criticism which arose from the near impossibility of getting a non-corrupted copy of any text and the strategies to fix one's own copy which pretty much started as soon as the first copy was made.
The tone is serious with a couple of capital snarks -
pg 94 "men were found who rose above the rather constipated limits of much Carolingian thought and literature"
pg 104 "This is largely a moral rag-bag of the type one meets frequently in the Middle Ages."
Classical scholarship since the Renaissance and an essay on textural criticism are about 1/4 and notes, index, and plates, gray and unattractive, the rest.
I do wish the term Byzantine would cease to be used for the Eastern Roman Empire. It's not how they thought of themselves.

Read for August TIOLI Challenge #6: Read a book with an inside part of the body in the title

#214) Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows



Set mostly in London's Southall area this story does include erotic tales, romance, mystery, the conflicts of generations raised with different expectations, the oppressive weight of community and family expectations. Because it backs up my notion, held since I was 13 that our grandmothers have had more time to learn about sex than we have, so our expecting them to be shocked - or their acting shocked - at just about anything has got to be mostly absurd. It moves well, and the characters are close to interesting, but it never quite jelled for me. London just didn't feel very real in spite of all the shop names.

Meets August TIOLI Challenge #17: Read a book published by a two word publishing house

#215) Desert Memories



A journey through the northern desert of Chile and through the past which like the desert hides and reveals and is implacable. Poetic and philosophical, the joys of companionship are contrasted constantly by the loneliness of the desert in which we meet and must rely upon only ourselves.

Read for August TIOLI Challenge #13: Read a book set in a country you've never read about before

>122 quondame: My father's mother said, "you're one of those gays, aren't you honey?" when I was 15. I was blankly shocked and silent...she said, "men been using the same holes for the same things always, you think a woman with five kids doesn't know from what?" then patted my arm and said "just don't listen to the preachers and you'll be fine."

Same as it ever was....

>124 richardderus: I do hope that helped.

#216) Bad Blood



Much of this book is the measured retelling of the employment horror stories as waves of recruits to Theranos were ground up in a corporate culture of bullying, and lies and spat out bound by non-disclosure agreements. Not pleasant. Once the founder Elizabeth Holmes is introduced as a driven young undergraduate, she is removed to the rolls of vicious upholder of her own myth and economic seducer of elderly male supporters. It must have been the combination of promising something that is so desirable, seeming to be a silicon valley first female, so attractively packaged, and tying the self interest of powerful men to her cause with charm and stock options. That the powerful men were in their 90s and out of their field of expertise is probably what allowed this nightmare to survive at least 4 or 5 times as long as it should have.

Read for August TIOLI Challenge #16: Read a book with at least two of these tags: "politics", "economics", "environment", "healthcare", "philosophy", "science"

#217) Beauty



A very gentle retelling of B&B with the drama reduced to a minimum and the characters all as nice as they can be, which focuses on the interior journey of Beauty. I could have used a bit of neighborly nastiness or some other conflict beyond desire to be with lovely family vs desire to stay with new beau.
The Disney version seemed to pluck Beauty's bookish nature from this iteration of the heroine, while maximizing the trouble of many of the previous versions.

BB from @foggidawn

Meets August TIOLI Challenge #14: Read a book by an author whose last name is longer than their first name

#218) Ricky Ricotta's Mighty Robot



I sort of Iron Giant with mice and without any atmosphere or context. Young bullied mouse boy finds best friend in villain's refusenik robot and they defend each other. Some clever flip graphic for the final fight.

I needed Rick Riordan's House of Hades for the trickier #11: MOB challenge so I found this to

Read for August TIOLI Challenge #10: Read a book where the name Rick or Ricky is either in the title, the author's name, or the name of a main character

#219) Montana 1948



This is not quite a reveal story, as the gruesome darkness isn't so much in the crimes as in the denial of the crimes and the devastation of a family ground by implacable forces that are inadmissible in public. While the reverse is the case this story had strong echos in my mind with a favorite story written 10 years later concerning a father and a very different pair of brothers, Riding Shotgun, and I think I would have felt more impact from it if I had in fact read it in the 90s.

BB from @richardderus

Meets August TIOLI Challenge #12: Read a book with a college or university connection

#220) Magic Gifts



Pretty typical and easy to move through, but it throws in a huge problem that is just left for a future book.

Mentioned by @Narilka - I've been reading the series, so would have found it soon in any case.

Meets August TIOLI Challenge #14: Read a book by an author whose last name is longer than their first name

>128 quondame: I'm glad you liked it as well as you did.

>130 richardderus: I did appreciate the emotional load, but enjoy, not so much. The language was amazing. Poisonous favoritism, with manipulative charm topping, is a hard dish to savor, sterling though the platter be.

#221) Wild Country



An absorbing, enjoyable read with all the positive features of the series, attractive characters, fun and frightening interactions, and the conflict brought by the willful determination not to understand the precariousness of the humans in the Other's world. The central, though by no means only featured, character is Jena, who sex has kept her from placement in law enforcement of less damaged settlements, who is an ordinary human learning to interact with Others in an environment they control. I couldn't believe the rapid and allowed buildup of outlaws, the extent to which Yuri accepts Jena both before and after the climax, and the forewarned vulnerability of the Bennett Others. Also that Scythe was only good for one full meal. but understand those were all parts of the cost and feel goods, which in fact felt good.

This was exactly the sort of guilty pleasure read I needed after the assaults against my comfort read requirements made by this month's challenges.

Meets August TIOLI Challenge #9: Read a book where the first letter of the first name of the author comes alphabetically before the first letter of the last name

#222) Fasting and Feasting: The Life of Visionary Food Writer Patience Gray



Adam Federman has made Patience Gray's relentlessly unconventional life and work in to a remarkably readable narrative in spite of having to repeat the chorus a lot. She is drawn sympathetically though not completely comprehensibly and the pretty certain knowledge that she would brutally snub one doesn't obscure the strong desire to bask in the intense heat of her favor. The book is probably longer than it needs to be and still almost 25% notes at the end. Her life and work are of interest, but after her 60s most of the lessons are repeats and lists with a few new names.

My experience of this book was heavily filtered by my mother's life, kind of a negative image of Patience Gray's. While PG felt stifled by the "stodgy pudding of English life" her family aspired to, my mom, a year younger than PG, sought out conventional security with as fierce a determination. PG started to live to her fullest when she found a companion who would participate in leaving the fold, whereas mom stuck as long as possible to a conventional role and didn't survive even a step away. Both valued food enough to make it a huge part of their identity and wanted to live away from the city. The shapes are similar but the black and white reversed.

BB from @benitastrnad

Meets August TIOLI Challenge #14: Read a book by an author whose last name is longer than their first name

>131 quondame: re: spoiler, I understand and even agree; my love was seeing MYSELF on that page so beautifully portrayed. I was the favored child, and that's not a lot less toxic than the opposite.

>133 quondame: A fascinating contrast to view the story from.

>134 richardderus: re >131 quondame: Lots of toxicity to go around in families. (this isn't really a book spoiler but ...weird)We had a most favored of one parent being least favored of the other. I learned a lot, watching from below that firing line, but not enough to come away clean

#223) The Voice of the Violin



Inspector Montalbano drives through some difficult territory to learn unpleasant things but finds he knows enough to recognize the good stuff. His appetite seems to be suffering somewhat.

#224) Excursion to Tindari



Inspector Montalbano appetite is dangerously flagging - meals are skipped or delayed. Or lost, understandably. Camilleri's Sicily does sound like the embodiment of interesting times, and the scenery does sound like an amazing contrast of modern skuz next to fragrant wilds.

Meet August TIOLI Challenge #14: Read a book by an author whose last name is longer than their first name

I'm really enjoying reading a vp character that isn't a paragon. Salvo Montalbano's temper, snark, avoidances, appetites, and manipulations come off as so much more grounded than most detectives and almost all F&SF leads.

#225) The Phoenix and the Mirror



Medieval steampunk, before there was such a thing. Way too much time on technical jargon (it's called magic, but really this is an SF story from a medieval viewpoint). And falling in love with an image? Really of it time too. Well enough written but almost all plot and emotion is overwhelmed with details.

Meets August TIOLI Challenge #5: Read a book in which the author acknowledges another writer in the dedication, foreword, afterword

He's first acknowledgement is to James Blish, but also, disturbingly, Walter Breen shows up in list of thank yous.

#226) The Smelll of the Night



Inspector Montalbano gets some good meals in and only goes slightly off his feed. Really he should have no difficultly figuring out how to dispose of a body (I mean a sweater) successfully! Livia must see something in him but while I enjoy reading about him, his fits, starts, and tempers are major off putting in someone in close relationship. I'll have to see if the relationship is given more credibility in future volumes.

Meets August TIOLI Challenge #14: Read a book by an author whose last name is longer than their first name

Congratulations on reaching 3 x 75, Susan!

DNF Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future



Opening the book for a second time, I found parts of stories tickling my memory, but into the third story I decided that if that's all I remembered, why continue. I probably checked this out because it contains a story by a favorite author that I was pursuing but now I can't remember which.

Congrats on reaching 75 books ( x3)

Congrats Susan on reaching 3x75 books my dear.

Wow! Your three-peat! Cool job, Susan.

>135 quondame: Excursion to Tindari. Enticing review!

I'm ready for this novel as my next read and I'll ignore my other TBRs stacked on the bedside table (although I am loving my current novel, Perfect Happiness, by Penelope Lively).

I need something to fill that yearning for a detective mystery. My next Elly Griffiths and the first Kate Ellis novel in the Wesley Peterson series are still just requests and not shipped on my library hold list. Summer reading times, I guess.

Oh yes! And the 3x75 goal surpassed. Impressive!

3 x 75! Congratulations, Susan.

3 x 75 = terrific! Way to go, Susan!

>138 FAMeulstee: >140 figsfromthistle: >141 johnsimpson: >142 richardderus: >144 SandyAMcPherson: >145 karenmarie: >146 jnwelch: Thank you! It's good to see you here!

#227) The Blue Sword



I probably would have given this young woman with something extra saves everyone she cares about from vast evils a higher rating if I had read it when it first came out. It does stand out from the background still, and avoids some of the worst excesses of that sub-genre of fantasy, but hill people are not usually horse people as well while inhuman enemies aren't my favorite fantasy opposition.

Meets August TIOLI Challenge #7: Read a book by a woman whose gender is not evident

>148 quondame: Now that you mention it... The BS is a bit of a trope, isn't it?

I like that you were candid about this novel's failings. I've always tended to gush about it.
However, I'll always see it through the rose-tinted glasses of my foray into my post-Tolkien fantasy reading in the early '80's, so it's one of my few 5-star reads.

I loved the background to BS and totally bought into the Hill people, Angharad's discovery of her ancestry and basically, her coming-of-age journey.

I agree that the inhuman enemy is less than satisfying. In many ways, that piece doesn't coalesce properly with the other aspects of the narrative.

In the past 3 or 4 years I've read more fantasies than in the previous 20, and now have a different perspective on what I personally admire, and what I won't tolerate (and will happily DNF).

Will you read The Hero and the Crown? I would look forward to your succinct commentary!

#228) Lent



Powerful, compelling, intermittently absorbing, this fantasy, based on the last 6 years life of Savonarola, is a meditation on hell and salvation. I found myself impatient with that the first two sections, though everything in them is necessary to the final, shorter sections. The world Jo Walton builds is emotionally convincing, though my mind utterly rejects the notion of hell. Even though Savonarola's hell isn't quite that of the revival preacher. That a passion for justice should require a passion for punishment is abhorrent to me. Even a hell that is defined by the absence of all good seems contradiction in a scheme that postulates an all knowing all powerful deity.

Meets August TIOLI Challenge #7: Read a book by a woman whose gender is not evident

#229) Elysium



The blurb says this is ambitious. It doesn't say whether it achieves those ambitions, and I'd say it doesn't, just circles around them, forgiven by conceit from actually saying anything but Adrian misses Antoine. The computer bits would have sucked in the 70s. 🌈

Meets August TIOLI Challenge #17: Read a book published by a two word publishing house

#230) The Missing of Clairdelune



A solid middle book, interesting and with real developments and surprises as well as the required expected tropes. The world deepens and becomes more compelling as do the characters.

Called to mind rather than a BB by @foggidawn

Meets August TIOLI Challenge #9: Read a book where the first letter of the first name of the author comes alphabetically before the first letter of the last name

#231) The Last Wish



What is a witcher - a fighter mage devoted to protecting people by killing monsters to do when there are fewer and fewer monsters and people are starting to want to keep the ones that are left? A series of stories which romps through the tatters of a number of familiar tales, loosely connected by a framework of recollections during recuperation from the first tale. Not without charm or wit, but both best appreciated by someone more saturated with testosterone than I. There is an occasional awkwardness in the translation and inconsistencies in Geralt killing some folk needlessly - if not unprovoked - yet insisting that he doesn't kill for money. Convenience or whim, yes, money no?

In spite of the cover there are no dragons, in the book.

Meets August TIOLI Challenge #14: Read a book by an author whose last name is longer than their first name

>151 quondame: *ow*ow*ow* book bulleted.

Oooooo a new Alastair Reynolds! And Inspector Dreyfus too! happiness!

#232) The Mage-Fire War



This one hits all the L.E. Modesitt tropes and qualities, with strong forward momentum, huge body count, super-superpowered boy next door and nice supporting ladies. Given a town to administer our mages aren't expecting to have to fight off armies for a sort of inverted Seven Samurai plot in that it's the uninvited incomers who choose to fight. It went down easily without going anywhere new at all.

Meets August TIOLI Challenge #15: Read a book with something hot in the title

OK, I have completed all the books that were due before Aug 31. Of course I renewed some of them so as not to have to go out in Friday traffic, but the rules were met and no fines will need to be paid!

>152 quondame: Ooooh, BB!
Is this a very dystopian novel?

I never read A Winter's Promise, because I wasn't sure if it would be one of those tropes that I don't enjoy. But I think the author writes well, based on the excerpts that I've read. Fortunately, your reviews are usually quite explicit on the topic of tropes (whether they're laboured and twee, or fun/interesting).

>157 SandyAMcPherson: Yes and no on the dystopian - the culture of the upper class is as poisonous as imaginable and there is a certain after the disaster aspects which I think is coming more into focus in this second book, but the books have a different feel to them than I expect from what I throw into the dystop bin.

>158 quondame: Thanks for the additional clarity. I think these titles will work their way up my TBR plans this fall.

#232) American Hippo



Alt-history with hippos. A classic caper story through the wilds of Louisiana to eliminate feral hippos from the Harriett, a swap lake on the Mississippi. The main characters are mostly pretty interesting, except for the villain who is pretty just all the bad. I'd read River of Teeth before, and it remains the best of this collection, but the rest is entertaining enough.🌈

Meets August TIOLI Challenge #14: Read a book by an author whose last name is longer than their first name

#234) The Redemption of Galen Pike



Short sharp stories, with nasty twisty bits, and so so human.🌈

Meets August TIOLI Challenge #9: Read a book where the first letter of the first name of the author comes alphabetically before the first letter of the last name

#235) Frontier Wolf



If this book had been published in the 1950s there would have been some excuse for just another boy's story of a young man's mistake and redemption through service in the Roman Auxiliaries, but by 1980 Sutcliff should have been a bit caught up with and adventure literature that did include women and more than just the subtlest wisps of homoeroticism. Nothing wrong with the story itself beyond cascading co-incidence, but she'd done it before, before it had become her cliché.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #12: Read a book with at least two different kinds of animals on the cover

#236) Jazz



Amazing. How a story is told makes all the difference.

Read fo September TIOLI Challenge #1: Read a book by Toni Morrison or a book which has at least one three-letter combination of BEL, ELO, LOV, OVE, or VED in the title.

#237) Break In



This is classic Dick Francis. A tough, resourceful, smart young man dealing with troubles besetting his twin sister and her husband because of his father, finding his way through unfamiliar territory with determined clear sightedness, and impressing the right women in the best way.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #6: The Decade Challenge - read a booked linked to a specific decade

#238) Long Way Down



Powerful, revealing, dispiriting, with only the idea of hope.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #13: Read a book with a size related word in the title

>160 quondame: Yay! I liked Gailey's world, though honestly there were a lot of holes in it; I just felt the sheer gonzo joie de vivre was enough to allow me to paper over the cracks.

>161 quondame: I am *so*relieved* you liked this collection because it's already winging its way to me.

>163 quondame: #238 see comment immediately above.

Happy reading week ahead!

>164 richardderus: re >161 quondame:, Um like isn't the word. Appreciate maybe? like sauce that isn't quite too hot to cover the flavor, but is really too hot not to wince contemplating the next bite.

Hi Susan!

>163 quondame: I like your succinct summary of Break In. I just finished it two days ago. I'd read it a long time ago but couldn't remember a single thing about it and enjoyed it thoroughly. I haven't read Bolt for some reason, but will wait 'til November to savor the anticipated pleasure.

>166 karenmarie: If I try to describe specifics I don't know where to stop, so I try to keep to what impressed me without revealing much.

Good to see you here! I hope Dorian doesn't create too much havoc for you and of course others. I enjoyed A Suitable Boy, but then I could just settle in and devote most of a week to it. I like books that immerse me in a totally different culture and let me get to know some people there.

#239) Throne of Glass



A complete and total lack of originality, a giant garbage omelet of more fantasy tropes than fit in a trilogy with characters arbitrarily attracted or attached and behaving with no consistency, made acceptable for teens by substituting kissing for sex while spilling blood in as obviously a contrived a set up as I've ever encountered.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #10: Read a book where the title starts with one of the letters of "Having fun with TIOLI"

#240) Old Baggage



A human story set in the aftermath of the British suffragette movement. After breaking down barred doors one finds more barred doors and life goes on.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge 15 : Read a book with a (predominantly) jasper-coloured cover.

>169 quondame: Listen: 👏 👏 applause!

A succinct overview that is certainly reflective of the nature of social justice movements, suffragettes being a perfect example.

#240) Rounding the Mark



I don't enjoy having to worry about Inspector Montalbano's health, and the mystery element was too diffuse and dependent on co-incidence to be as convincing as it was heartbreaking.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #7: Read a book where the author's first or last name begins and ends with the same letter

#241) On the Black Hill



The lives and background of twin brothers from the turn of the 20th century and how their lives were shaped or perhaps warped by their intense interdependence and the necessities of their location and history. Hypnotically told, it only jarred in the treatment or lack of treatment of their younger sister who exists only to have left behind a single offspring.

BB fired by @jnwelch

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #14: Read a book with a cover which looks similar to one of my bookmarks

#242) Scruples



A complete wish fulfillment fantasy of the first order. Super rich super beautiful super successful characters have all overcome some difficult early bumps to rise above the firmament and blaze through Beverley Hills. The sex is spaced out and mechanical and fairly crude, the c word is used more than I remembered or is now current. The best part are the little fictional bio-essays of some of the characters which discus aspects of the fashion or movie industries.
It doesn't rate a rainbow because most of the LGBT characters are pretty period stock nasty pieces of work.

Originally placed on hold for July TIOLI Challenge #7: Read a book with at least 1 U.S.A. citizen and 1 French citizen

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #5: Read a book with a striking opening sentence

Hi Susan my dear, hope you are having a good weekend and send love and hugs dear friend.

#243) The Varmint



A 1910 school boy story. Expelled for disruptive mischief Stover arrives at Lawrenceville in spring term thinking he has a handle on things only to make as bad a mess for himself as this goody-two-shoes of a how a boy becomes a man book can propose. How he takes advantage of his scrappy and imaginative (only by the author's designation) nature for the next two years is the center and final portion of the book with way too much football.

Read for September TIOLI Challenge #11: Read a book with a food word embedded in the title

>174 johnsimpson: Thanks John, hope you have a good week with interesting books!

#244) The Concrete Blond



This book is much more about Harry Bosch than the previous two, and those segment are visceral. The range of suspects is somewhat roughly handled.

Read for September TIOLI Challenge #16: Read a book centered around the state/province where you live

Yay for The Black Hill! He’s such a hypnotic writer, isn’t he.

I really enjoyed Break In, too, and it sent me off on a Dick Francis re-read binge (six in a row, I think), although I’m also holding off on Bolt until November.

#245) The Gossamer Mage



A fascinating magic system is breaking down, as detected by a few of it's practitioners. This is much more of a plot driven book than character involved, and the rapidly altering viewpoints continually scattered my connection to the story. It still has much to recommend it, but wasn't an absorbing read.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #2: Read a book with a 2019 copyright

#246) Riders of the Purple Sage



Whew! Mostly a slog. There is a fabulous horse chase, and a fair amount of adventure staples, but the dialogue is brutally awkward and almost all the set up patently absurd. Horses that can go over 50 miles a day! And the horrifying specter of cute little girl Fay, had me gagging with the manipulative exploitation of her and her use in the plot.

Read for September TIOLI Challenge #3: Read a book in a genre you've discovered or re-discovered in the past year

#247) The Mark of the Horse Lord



More on the Celtic than the Roman side of the Romano-British books of Rosmary Sutcliff, this is the best of them that I have read this year, with a strong moving core that pushes pass the co-incidence of appearance that involves Phaedrus with the Dalriadains, to create a cohesive and telling narrative. There is a really great chariot battle scene!

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #10: Read a book where the title starts with one of the letters of "Having fun with TIOLI"

#248) The Long Song



A slave narrative, set in Jamaica on the Amity plantation. 9 year old July is taken from her mother to be the companion of the owner's sister, a newly arrived widow from England. Noone comes out of this novel looking particularly good, in fact there is much more talk of goodness than anything approaching it. But the characters are very real and however fortunately distant the reader's experience, very familiar and recognizable. I am unlikely to be enthusiastic about any slave narrative though.

Read for September TIOLI Challenge #8: Read a book by an author who won or was shortlisted for the Orange Prize but not the actual book that won or was listed for the prize

#249) Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure



OK, this is pornography, as well done as I have encountered it, and much, much more feelingly presented than the crudities of >173 quondame: Scruples. It is a man's fantasy of a very lucky young woman unwittingly, but rarely unwillingly brought from ignorance of both virtue and vice to a complete enjoyment of such relatively tame vice as she encounters. As a man's fancy it is interestingly free of blaming of women for the debaucheries of the men and surprising in giving the young women agency of their own, and delightfully free of the smarmy cloak encompassing sexual description which remains the legacy of the 19th century.

What I found most interesting in the early chapters was the description of ignorance told with the voice of experience. What should be repulsive to a modern person is the youth of the women of pleasure, all under 19, some under 15. What is somewhat puzzling is the limited repertoire of sexual acts, as the author had every chance for a wider exposure to possibilities. What is fantastic is that Fanny and her associates are described with the libidos and restraint of teenage boys.

Read for September TIOLI Challenge #9: Read a book for the September CFF Mystery Challenge Challenge

#250) The Patience of the Spider



Andrea Camilleri seems to be using the relationship between Salvo and Livia primarily to demonstrate the pair's faults - he resorts to dishonesty to assure himself privacy and avoid engagement and she is quarrelsome and doesn't have the appropriate appreciation for his gustatory requirements. The mystery is flawed by the lack of immediacy with which it is handled.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #7: Read a book where the author's first or last name begins and ends with the same letter

#251) The Dispatcher



What is the morality of murder when 999 out of 1000 murder victims return to life almost immediately in the condition they were in 20-30 hr prior to death? This investigation into the disappearance of a dispatcher - a person with literal license to kill, by a police officer and the associate who was called in to handle his most recent dispatch, explores the practical consequences of this reliably repeating miracle.

BB from @richardderus

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #10: Read a book where the title starts with one of the letters of "Having fun with TIOLI"

Hi Susan, congrats on hitting 250 books read my dear, hope you had a good weekend and are having a good start to the week. Sending love and hugs dear friend.

#252) Today I Am Carey



This extremely well written tale of an AI becoming a real person is also an extreme work of emotional manipulation. Carey doesn't stage a planetary revolt or fight interstellar corporate piracy, it was designed with empathetic nets to care for patients with mental issues such as Alzheimer's and becomes the first and at least for the duration of the novel, only, self-aware android. The scale is always internal and mostly within one family. My issue is that like a dog is bred to love humans, Carey is made to care for them and while he is quite charming and clever, he is not a creature of free will. He develops, but only along a single axis.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #10: Read a book where the title starts with one of the letters of "Having fun with TIOLI"

I arrrgh a pirate! But haven't seen my rainbow yet.

#253) The Paper Moon



Aside from a brief lunch scene with Salvo and Elena, the most erotic paragraph of Camilleri's I've yet read, this book doesn't have anything beyond Salvo's difficult personality to recommend it. More closed in than most of the mysteries with Salvo dealing with two women to whom he has strong reactions.

I think I'll take a break from Sicily for a while.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #7: Read a book where the author's first or last name begins and ends with the same letter

#254) The Hero and the Crown



A solid, steadily moving story of an awkward princess who becomes a dragon slaying hero, this story goes from specific to vague and has the texture of dry cake. Read in the 1980s it wouldn't seem so utterly familiar in tone, but I missed my chance at that and this doesn't hold up as well as a number of that decade's other slow developing girl with special talent offerings. It does have some distinctions, but not enough to rate it higher.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #4: Rolling Challenge – Read a book where the first letter of the title starts with one of the letters in the phrase “Harvest Moon”

#255) Bob



Whimsically perfect, a 5 year old's imaginary friend isn't imaginary at all when she is 10 and returns to her grandmother's Australian farm. Finding out what Bob is is complicated that Bob can't remember anything before meeting Livy and Livy forgets Bob when she gets very far from it.

Read for September TIOLI Challenge #14: Read a book with a cover which looks similar to one of my bookmarks

>184 quondame: Four stars! Wow. You really liked it. I'm still bumfuzzled by the fact it's not a TV show already. Talk about a perfect vehicle for discussing privilege.

Have a lovely, Susan, and abandon Sicily to its fate for the moment. Maybe the book will appeal more as distance accumulates between you and the last one.

#256) When Did You Last See Your Father?



Don't mess with St. Mary's. Just don't.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #2: Read a book with a 2019 copyright

>191 richardderus: A protagonist who doesn't squeak with cleanliness is appreciated.

#257) Hope For the Best



Once again, don't mess with St. Mary's. This full length campaign to take down Ronan drags from time to time and the sparkles are fewer and farther apart.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #4: Rolling Challenge – Read a book where the first letter of the title starts with one of the letters in the phrase “Harvest Moon”

My older brother's first wife, Pat, died a couple of days ago. He and I were never friendly and she was happy to adopt all his antipathy. She was admirable in many ways and will be much missed by her children and nieces and nephews, well except my daughter who met her seldom. Although she is not the first sister-in-law to die, my younger brother's second wife, Stacy, had been fighting a losing battle against cancer a couple of years before the wedding and they married to assure he could take the best care of her as her blood relations lived far away and could not deal with her illness. But Pat was someone who has been a part of our family for decades and is for me the first of my generation to die. So I feel the loss, but not grief so much.

#258) Finder



Lively and fast moving and very very eventful, I found this book just a tad too eventful. The protagonist narrator may be a bit too unkinked for his kinked past and not quite credible as is, still the head space is easy to tolerate, and if yes, the loaded gun in Act 2 does get fired at the appropriate time, well that's the rule. The environment is well used and well felt and rather interesting and not terribly familiar. And the humor enhances the story.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #10: Read a book where the title starts with one of the letters of "Having fun with TIOLI"

>195 quondame: I'm sorry for your loss.

Catch up time!

>167 quondame: I used to try to summarize the plot in my reviews but discovered that Amazon, Goodreads, Kirkus Reviews, and other sources did it better than me. So I usually use Ammie but occasionally branch out then write why I wanted to read it and then whatever comes to mind.

Dorian was a non-starter out here. Daughter came home but it was a small wind and rain event in Wilmington. The Outer Banks got hit badly, though.

>168 quondame: Your description of Throne of Glass filled me with delight. What’s the opposite of a BB? *smile*

>182 quondame: I have read Fanny Hill several times over the years. Excellent review.

>183 quondame: 250. Congratulations.

>190 quondame: Not even a BB – a must-buy-now. It arrives Monday.

>195 quondame: Pat’s passing is noted. Bravo for your younger brother.

>195 quondame: I'm sad with you, Susan. It's rough the first time. It's not necessary to enjoy someone as a person to feel the void their passing leaves.

Richard says it well, Susan. Kudos to you for speaking well of her despite the antipathy.

I love the Montalbano series, and I did think Paper Moon was one of the weaker entries. I'm glad I can report that the newest translated one, The Other End of the Line, is one of his best, IMO. I think Richard said we're due to get two more translations, and that's it, as Camilleri unfortunately passed away recently.

>198 karenmarie: I hope you find Bob as charming as I did!

>200 jnwelch: It was the announcements of his death on In Memoriam that introduced me to Camilleri

#259) Where the Crawdads Sing



The story moves like molasses with long sections set in the Kya's past and brief sections of the investigation of Chase's death, then as Kya's story approaches Chase's death it's like running the rapids. There is the too good to be true Tate, the nasty for no explained reason Chase and a lot of rhapsodizing about nature. And, oh yes, the black couple who take an interest in young Kya and help her do get awfully close to the 'magical negro' trope. Are southern misfit women saved by their love of nature a genre? I rarely read mainline fiction and this is the second I've encountered.

I had this on reserve because my dental technician of almost 30yrs mentioned reading it - she is more an outdoor person than a reader, and then it

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #6: The Decade Challenge - read a book linked to a specific decade

#260) Sorcery of Thorns



This did not work for me. It had a decent spine, but a sort of now stumble over this, then bump into that flow, and all the attractive bits and shards glued in from other more mature fantasies without forming any clear pattern. The use of metallics in the cover is great.

It was a BB and has its fans, but just having a library as a central notion isn't enough to recommend it.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #2: Read a book with a 2019 copyright

>203 quondame: Not with Genevieve Cogman in the hunt. Oh nay nay nay.

>203 quondame:, I've had Sorcery of Thorns on my TBR list for awhile mainly because a friend has been reading Margaret Rogerson voraciously with great praise. And on LT, this author also seems high in popularity.

Except I am derailed lately by other books actually at home, unread... and they do tend to silently "nag" me! I'm still attracted to the author's oeuvre, though..

I wonder if you've read Alphabet of Thorn? Another library theme, but it is reminiscent of the old-fashioned dark, fairy tale trope. Very old-school in its way, but I liked it to the tune of 5 ★s!

>205 SandyAMcPherson: Alphabet of Thorn is very good, if not my favorite of McKillip's series of standalones (she has stated that her goal was to produce a number of single books, hence my calling it a series) and then there is my all time favorite of non-Tolkien fantasy The Forgotten Beasts of Eld. I can sort of see why people might like Sorcery of Thorns, but I kept feeling it was promising and not delivering, using familiar bits so the reader would feel more than what was really presented provided.

#261) Hollow Kingdom



This is different and interesting. A crow hand raised by the MoFo Big Jim is the viewpoint character after a virus zombifies all MoFos (what else can you call the earth destroying parasites) leaving them mindless but their flesh unkillable except maybe by digestion. A MoFo wannabe, the crow embarks journey and search through this post-apocalyptic landscape with only the bloodhound Dennis to learn what has happened and takes on the task of freeing the surviving domestic animals trapped indoors. The emotional focus does some time become sentimental or overblown, but usually maintains a refreshingly wry, well what did you expect, attitude.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #12: Read a book with at least two different kinds of animals on the cover

Oh, I'm glad you liked Hollow Kingdom, Susan. Quite a well done and different kind of read for me.

I love the way you got to it - two different kinds of animals on the cover. :-)

#262) Gunmetal Magic



Gods aren't what they used to be. This can annoy them and cause inconvenience or worse, to the shapeshifters and magical practitioners. Andrea is having enough difficulties with her relationship or lack of it with Raphael and then things get weirder.

It seems unlikely that I would have skipped this 2012 release, but maybe I just didn't note it down - the dragon dress scene was ever so familiar. Of course that means that the rest of it wasn't and somehow I lost track of Andrea & Raphael's status.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #15: Read a book with a jasper-coloured cover

#263) The Wicked King



An amazing second book in a series. Talk about having a tiger by the tail. Moving fast and furiously through a fierce Faerie kingdom Jude may have many talents but not quite enough to sustain her as the power beside the throne.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #10: Read a book where the title starts with one of the letters of "Having fun with TIOLI"

#264) A Key, an Egg, an Unfortunate Remark



The same old magic, but played to a different rhythm. Seattle is the urban setting for this fantasy assembled from parts lying around the library, but ever so interestingly presented as it meanders, somehow sprightly, through that city.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #10: Read a book where the title starts with one of the letters of "Having fun with TIOLI"

TWO four-star reads in a row! Good heavens, Susan, your rep as our group's very own Kirkus is going to suffer a mighty blow.

>212 richardderus: Perhaps I was in a mood to be amused. I doubt I have much of a reputation, but I don't require merit, just that I like a book, the way it moves, it's characters, it's contrivances. Merit is a dangerous goal, heart is better, if bloodier.

#265) To Be Taught, If Fortunate



A message in a "bottle" narrative which describes the voyage of one of a number a publicly funded space explorations. Using a modest palette of notions the encounters on the planetary bodies of a system are wondrous and baleful or both.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #4: Rolling Challenge – Read a book where the first letter of the title starts with one of the letters in the phrase “Harvest Moon”

>214 quondame: Yes!

#266) Accord of Honor



Lots of space battles! All taking place within the asteroid belt and earth orbit. A story for sad puppies indeed, with all the steel jawed action guys doing the right thing even against the irrational laws. Earth is dependent on uranium from Mars for energy, and damage to a space ship that slags parts of the weapons system can be repaired in hours. The writing doesn't suck if you ignore what it says.

This was on my Kindle, I think because it was listed as part of a Ragnarok Saga, and having started it I kept reading it rather than remove the dog from my lap to so I could find something better. Anyway I noticed that I had misinterpreted Challenge #4

Read for September TIOLI Challenge #4: Rolling Challenge – Read a book where the first letter of the title starts with one of the letters in the phrase “Harvest Moon”

>216 quondame: This was on my Kindle, I think because it was listed as part of a Ragnarok Saga, and having started it kept reading rather than remove the dog from my lap to find something better.
I no longer have a dog; it left my Kindle precipitously because no. I hope it was a freebie because if I spent actual United States dollars on it I'mma want 'em back.

>218 richardderus: My new, powered, zero-gravity chair has arrived, or rather it hasn't, but the Relax the Back store sent in a pinch hitter until mine shows up, and now it takes even longer for me to remove the dog(s) and get moving, whether for a fresh book, a drink, or other tedious business.

#267) Ferry Crossing



Almost all of these stories are slice-of-life fragments. Some are extracts from novels and a very few are variations on trickster stories. Overwhelmingly claustrophilia/claustrophobic at once, Goan life and Goans are not made attractive through theses small windows, and in particular those Catholic Goans in administrative positions in Africa are unfavorably lit. If you have read Chinese or Indian stories featuring nasty mother-in-laws, you know the tone of most of the stories in this collection.

Read for September TIOLI Challenge #9: Read a book for the September CFF Mystery Challenge Challenge

>219 quondame: Zero-G seating! Clearly your retailers are in touch with those suppliers whose tech is far in advance of my local boutiques.

>221 richardderus: Marketing, no getting away from it. The chair is pretty comfortable, and it's good I don't need the built in heater this month, because it isn't in the chair I paid for. And to show that my extravagance has some limits, I did not get one of those massage chairs that look to me like upholstered Venus fly-traps.

#268) Grey Mask



Sprightly written total content free non-sense. Miss Silver is a cypher and a convenient if intermittent device, only the villain shows any sign of intelligent life and what is shown doesn't have any logical consistency. And if you don't figure out who the baddy is well before the big reveal you really aren't trying.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #6: The Decade Challenge - read a book linked to a specific decade

#269) Friday Black



Best taken in small doses, these American nightmares leave you trashing in a sweat, and the pain and hope, small that it is, of them are equally terrible.

Not the first place it was mentioned in this group, but this review by @richardderus motivated me to get my hands on a copy.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #10: Read a book where the title starts with one of the letters of "Having fun with TIOLI"

>224 quondame: Sounds like fun!

#270) The Litany of Earth



Back to the beginning of the telling of Aphra Marsh's story, I'm left wondering about her choices.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #10: Read a book where the title starts with one of the letters of "Having fun with TIOLI"

>223 quondame: Such a tedious book.

>224 quondame: Yay! Glad you appreciated the stories, though they are certainly strong meat.

>226 quondame: She's kinda masochistic....

I kept reading it rather than remove the dog from my lap to so I could find something better. I love that! A bit too long for needlepoint or a t-shirt, but otherwise well-qualified.

I'm following your strategy with Friday Black, and reading it in small doses. Potent!

>228 jnwelch: I guess Richard is good for my grammar.