richardderus's tenth thread of 2019

1949 Plymouth Special DeLuxe woody wagon
Ooo baby baby!!

I'm bowing to reality. My new goal is to write 150 reviews for my blog, meaning real reviews not impressions or squibs. At this point it doesn't look like I'll make it. My ancillary goal remains to create some sort of post about the Pearl-Ruled books explaining why I am abandoning ship; I'll set an arbitrary count of 100 of those since goodness knows I abandon a lot of books.







My 2018 Reviews Are Here:
Reviews 1-25 are linked there.

Reviews 26-31 are linked here.

Reviews 32-39 are linked there.

Reviews 40-54 are linked over here.

Reviews 55-70 are linked over here.

Reviews 71-101 (I misnumbered) are linked over here.

Reviews 102-110 are linked over here.

Reviews 111 - 123 are reviewed over here.

Reviews 124-127 are there.

2019's Reviews Are Here:
Reviews 1-4 are here.

My first Pearl-Ruled notice and two reviews are found here.

Reviews 7-15 plus some Pearl Rules are in this thread.

Reviews 15-19 and a Pearl Rule are here.

Reviews 20 & 21 are are here.

Reviews 22-32 are back there.

Reviews 33-38, Pearl Rules 6 & 7, and a random review are all back yonder.

Reviews 39-50 and Pearl Rule 8 got left behind.

Reviews 51-57 sont derriere.

This thread's reviews are:
Pearl Rule 9 was John Crow's Devil by Jamaican star author Marlon James, whose first book this was, in post 27.

58 Old Baggage gets a good rating despite being a wee teensy bit manipulative in post 42.

Pearl Rule 10 was Lotharingia, abandoned on p76; see post 49.

59 There Were Also Strangers: a novel was an okay story but an exciting read because of how I came to read it, post 54.

Pearl Rule 11 was the oh-so-worthy but damn-near-lethally stodgy Out of the Shadows: Reimaining Gay Men's Lives, post 74.

60 Lot: Stories is damned near perfect, post 116.

61 The Dispatcher will amuse and edify you, in about equal measures (depending on your mood of course) in post 133.

62 My Sister, the Serial Killer might not belong on the Booker longlist but it does belong on your TBR, in post 146.

63 Kiss Kiss wasn't a peak read for me in post 167.

64 Miss Blaine's Prefect and the Golden Samovar was amusing, I liked the time travel aspect, in post 206.

65 Death in the Dark Walk wasn't perfect but I'll still read the next one, in post 235.

66 Black Light: Stories will not disappoint those disinclined to quail before the dark recesses of modern life, in post 243.

Via Bookish, here's a list of challenges to #KillYourTBR (note that I've modified a few entries to make them possible for me to meet):

1. A book you bought for the cover
Any Old Diamonds

2. A book by an author you’ve met
The Front Runner

3. A book you’re embarrassed you haven’t read yet


4. A book that is under 220 pages
The King's Evil

5. A book that came out the year you were born


6. A book whose title uses alliteration
When Saigon Surrendered

7. A book in your best friend’s favorite genre


8. A book from an independent publisher
What About This: Collected Poems of Frank Stanford, Copper Canyon Press

9. A book you borrowed from the library
The Reluctant Widow

10. A book featuring a fictional language


11. A novel that includes a recipe (Bonus points for making the recipe)


12. A book won in a raffle/giveaway
With Walt Whitman, Himself

13. A book about going on a quest
The Burning Page

14. A book set in a city you’ve visited


15. A book with a dust jacket


16. A book by two or more authors


17. A book that is over 1000 pages


18. A book that’s been out for less than a month
Black Light: Stories

19. A book with a name in the title
The Other Boleyn Girl

20. A book from a genre you want to read more of
The Murders of Molly Southbourne

21. A book written by a Native American author
Heart Berries

22. A book with an asexual character
Convenience Store Woman

23. A book you were given as a gift
The Art of Dying

24. A book translated from Spanish


25. An award-winning graphic novel
Tom's Midnight Garden Graphic Novel

26. A book featuring a false confession


27. A book you meant to read in 2018
West

28. A book featuring a memorable companion animal
The Demon Breed

29. A book set in South America


30. A book with a cover you kind of hate (but a story you love)
Glass

31. A book by an author you’ve never heard of before
Coming Through: Three Novellas

32. A book of short stories
Lot: Stories

33. A book featuring a nonbinary protagonist


34. A book you’ve been waiting for forever


35. A book about intersectional feminism


36. A book with a place in the title
Our Man in Havana

37. A book bought at/from a physical bookstore
Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World

38. A book by an author you’re thankful for
The Patience of the Spider by Andrea Camilleri (RIP)

39. A book with gorgeous descriptions


40. A book signed by the author


41. A book set in Africa
The Making of the African Queen

42. A book about mental health
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine

43. A book written by an immigrant


44. A retelling


45. A book about incarceration


46. A book recommended by an author


47. A book with a person of color on the cover
My Sister, the Serial Killer

48. A book by an author who uses a pen name


49. A book whose title includes a verb
Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd

50. A book recommended by a librarian


51. A book being adapted in 2019


52. A book you found in a Little Free Library

Car Porn!! Me wants photos of delectable, carbon-contributing, dinosaurs of steel!

Oh, by the way, nice shiny, new thread ~ betcha it'll reach 200 posts before September.

>4 SandyAMcPherson: Just for you, Sandy:

Oooo, Richard's gotta Woodie. :)

Love the Woodie wagon.
Happy new thread, RD and I trust that you'll have a splendid weekend.

>6 mahsdad: *snerk* Oh, you.

>7 PaulCranswick: It's a beautiful piece of joinery, isn't it? I'm up for an acceptable weekend, no ambitions towards splendidity here. I'm still adjusting to life without instant access to Rob!

>5 richardderus:

Thank you! ~ ~doing the happy dance

and at Top, such a pristine woodie station wagon. Is that a factory colour?

Happy new thread!

>9 SandyAMcPherson: The color, Malibu Brown, was a factory color for Plymouth that one year only (apparently). I like it! But I'm not a big fan of brown cars usually. They look so much more exciting in vibrant colors.

>10 figsfromthistle: Thank you, Anita!

Happy new thread and yet another WOW for a topper!

My word, that is a gorgeous vehicle!!!

Happy new thread, Richard!

Happy new thread, RichardDear!

>1 richardderus: I looked at images of other 1949 Plymouth Special Deluxe station wagons, and prefer the brown on this one - the other colors contrasting with the wood don't appeal to me. You picked the most beautiful one, IMO.

I hope your weekend is acceptable, with perhaps a moment or two of splendidity.

*smooch*

>12 jessibud2: Thanks, Shelley! It's a doozy, ain't it.

>13 kidzdoc: Grazie mille, gentile Signor il Dottor.

>14 karenmarie: Thank you, Horrible! I usually go for red or green cars, but the wood with the bright colors smacked my eyes like it did yours.

Weekend's been just peachy!

Happy new one, Rdear. Here a lovely vintage Peugeot we saw in Montbéliard. Wishing you a lovely Sunday.

>16 Ameise1: Hi Barbara! Thank you for that lovely 406! Such pretty cars, Peugeots.

Happy new thread, Richard dear!

>1 richardderus: Usually I am not a fan of brown cars, but in combination with the wood it looks good.

Happy New Thread, Richard! >1 richardderus:: ooo la la! What a beauty.

Only one accessory missing from that beauty---

>18 FAMeulstee: Thank you, Anita! I agree, brown isn't usually a favorite color for cars, but this time...well, it's all about the car in front of us and this time, brown works.

>19 jnwelch: Hey there Joe. A beauty indeed! And to think that generations of surf-rats destroyed these woodys for board transport.

>20 laytonwoman3rd: ...speaking of board transport...although that canoe is flat gorgeous, too, I must admit.

Love all the vintage. Plus, at 21 comments so far, it's safe for lurker me to dip a toe in without feeling overwhelmed. I look forward to hearing all the Pearl Rules. I am fascinated by our difference in reading styles because I very rarely abandon a book, and often it ends up being more about logistics than disgust (like losing a book, or having to return it to the library, or whatever).

Happy New Thread! A vehicle >1 richardderus: that looks almost like it could be a hazelnut buttercream French pastry!

'Morning, RD!

I hope your Monday is a good'un.

*smooch* from Madame TVT Horrible

>22 justchris: Hello Chris, I'm pleased you've delurked to say hi. Logistical reasons for giving up on a read like the ones you mention will usually result in me giving the read a second chance. I seldom, after Pearl-Ruling a book, look back in; it has happened, and there have been times I liked a book on the second attempt, but it's very uncommon.

>23 quondame: Great description, Susan, it does look like hazelnut buttercream and now I want some dobostorte.

Happy Monday!

>24 karenmarie: Hey Horrible, it's a beautiful day indeed. Low 80s, sunshine, breeze...the definition of the nice summer day. *smooch*

Happy New Thread, Richard. Love the woody toppers!

PEARL RULE 9 (p74)
John Crow's Devil by Marlon James

Rating: 3* of five

I realized I need to leave the read behind here:

"Shhh. Don't work your head about it too much. The Lord has forgiven me and as His faithful servant, I have forgiven Pastor Bligh. You know where he is?"
"Yes, Apostle."
"Send him a message for me. Tell him that Apostle York says that he can come back."

And here we go round the houses again. I liked the dialect that Author James uses in the story to delineate what everyone knows, versus what is being narrated:

The plate was empty and refilled in minutes.
"Mind you choke," she said.
The Widow appeared to smile but then she pushed her chair back into the dark before the {Rum} Pastor could confirm it. She ate nothing herself. Dinner was a noisy clutter of mouth sounds. Lips and gums slapping food with spit and teeth slicing, tearing, and chomping the whole thing down to paste, followed by the glorious gulp of a swallow.
He was the only one doing the eating, so she must have been doing the watching. Women loved to watch men eat, he thought. It was the last blast of primal energy that the hunter-gatherer had left to show.
***
"Jeezus Christ! Him have fits!" said a man beside Bligh as he fell.
"Rahtid," said another.
"Unu fling this spoon in him mouth quick!" shouted the young bartender. "Bout him want bottle! You know say is a whole o Johnny Walker him go fi drink?"
"Him still a fits?"
"Is the Devil in him. Me read that in tha Bible," said the man nearest to Bligh, holding onto the spoon he had shoved in the Pastor's mouth.

It's a technique used to make the story move and still retain the tang of Otherness this supernatural tale imparts. That's very effective, and to my mental ears very euphonious. I'm just not that deeply drawn in to the story. Rum Pastor Bligh's besetting sin is drink. I get it. Because I'm told explicitly why earlier in the story, I wasn't that interested in following his trajectory; because the very beginning is The End, I know where we're heading; and in the end, I just didn't feel like the view was worth the travail.

Such a shame I didn't read this when it came out. I'd've liked it much better at forty-five than at sixty.

>26 msf59: Thanks, Mark! I'm off to the library to exchange two books for three new ones. Always a good time, that!

Happy new thread!

>1 richardderus: Now THERE is a vehicle with personaility! Happy new thread, Richard!

>29 ChelleBearss: Thank you, Chelle!

>30 ronincats: Hi Roni! That's a great way to put it...the ride's got side.

Heavens...I need to find y'all's threads, haven't seen either of them in a while.

I'm in!

Nice summation of Convenience Store Woman. I enjoyed the book until almost the ending when Furukura talks about heat treating feed, which seemed insectile when I never felt that way about her. She always seemed human to me, and infinitely more likable than Shiraha. She couldn't have been alien-like because the people she worked with in the store didn't shun her. A for effort. I read it as a redemption story because in the end she found love.

It reminds me, now, of Under the Skin by Michael Faber. I read that last year and while it wasn't my thing, in fact I thought it was appalling, I also thought of it as a redemption story.

>32 SomeGuyInVirginia: How intriguing...redemption...I think Sriracha wanted redemption and was eager to use Lieutenant Uhura to reach for it, but she was simply too alien, too Other, in her inner being to recognize redemption. She was aping the actions and responses of everyone, from the trainers to the "friends" from beginning to end. That's why the ending is the specific thing that it is, IMO.

I saw the film of Under the Skin and immediately bought the book. Which languishes here unread...I can see it from my present perch...but it's got to get into the rotation soon.

Happy new thread! Nice woodie. 😀

‘Morning, RichardDear!

Yup, insomnia. First sip of coffee, though, and the prospect of a couple of hours of reading before running errands this am.

>27 richardderus: Yikes and double yikes. I didn’t realize this was the author of Black Leopard Red Wolf until I clicked on your thoughtful author touchstone. I almost always absolutely abhor dialog like this. Mouth sounds? Really?

Happy new thread, Richard!

>34 drneutron: Thanks, Jim! (on both counts)

>35 karenmarie: "Mouth sounds" is so graphic to me, Horrible...but my issue is, I just don't want to go where the story inevitably will go. Flipping ahead to the ending, which is the beginning, I wasn't sorry that my decision was what it was.

Happy day to you, dear lady.

>36 bell7: Hi Mary! Happy to see you here.

Happy new thread, Darling. I was going to post something but will confine it to a p.m.

Judicious Pearl Ruling is a true blessing. Why read something that, really, you don’t want to?

Much love to you.

>38 Matke: I'm not sure how the completion obsession gets its roots into a person's psyche, but I absolutely love the freedom to stop doing something that I've got.

*smooch*

Happy new thread, Richard!

Thank you, Nina!

58 Old Baggage by Lissa Evans

Real Rating: 4.25* of five

More than four, just not quite up to a whole half-star up. For all that I liked the read, it was very sentimental and a bit heart-stringy.

No one who lives, fully lives, their life escapes without regrets and anger and bad feelings trailing behind them like farts. But the best, the luckiest, of us find that the trip forward is much less bitter and lonely when we offer real apologies for the hurts and harms we've done. Unthinking unkindnesses, impatient snappings, all can be mitigated with a simple and sincere "I am sorry." It doesn't fix anything, but it makes the damage feel cushioned.

Mattie Simpkin does a lot of damage. But she is truly, genuinely sorry for it, says so, and accepts the consequences. Her sadness comes from the times that her energy led her to thoughtless action and devastating damage that can't be forgiven. She is sad a lot.

Miss Florrie Lee isn't like that. She's a quieter sort, one whose means of expression are indirect and understated. She does what she can to prevent Mattie's awkward, barging ways from causing too much pain—out of concern for others, you understand, never for herself. Until one memorable moment it *is* for herself.

What happens isn't really the point; the story is about people whose love for each other is the breath of life for them. And how much that costs. And who, in the end, must pay for it. That is the sum total of living life, after all, counting costs and weighing benefits and, in the end, accepting the evidence of honest and trustworthy scales as The Truth.

I hope you'll enjoy the read, and I do very much wish that you'll read it.

>42 richardderus: A briiliantly nuanced review.
Also, up-thumbed and a bb.

>43 SandyAMcPherson: Thank you most kindly, Sandy! All of those are delightful and welcome compliments.

I've copied this meme from Lucy's thread—it's from BookBub, according to her.

1. The persons who helped me fall in love with reading were:

My father read aloud Dr. Seuss; my mother read aloud in her wonderfully Southern accent; my sister Winter never said, "that's too old for you," but let me have whatever she was reading.

2. One book I love to give as a gift is:

Montana 1948. I used to keep three or four on hand, now I send Kindlebooks to The Deserving.

3. If I could write like one author it would be . . .

Georgette Heyer's campy intellectualism as applied to queer Space Opera Regency tales.

4. One book I think deserves more attention is . . .

ONE?! Just ONE?! Hm...The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold. Go read it. You'll either see why or see that I'm not the droid you're looking for.

5. The friend(s) I always turn to for reading recommendations is/are. . .

every last one of my 75er friends has book-bulleted me once or twice or three...four...fifty times.

6. If I’m not enjoying a book, I . . .

Pearl Rule that bad boy and move along speedily.

7. One book that absolutely shocked me was:

Infinite Jest. Seriously?! This is supposed to be litrachure? Tedious, precocious boy shouts "looka me looka meeeeee" for over 1,000 pages and y'all denigrate Mrs. Dalloway for being tedious?

8. My favorite place to read is:

ANYWHERE, EVERYWHERE—what Lucy said

9. If I could read only one book for the rest of my life it’d be:

I'm gonna cheat and say that, since I frequently hear the knock on Heyer that her books are all the same, I'll read her books as my one.

10. The books I’m currently reading are:

*snort* Grab a chair, this'll take a while. Y'know what? Past 50 books, let's just say "numerous" and let it go at that.

There is a miniseries of Circe coming soon (2020 sometime) from HBOMax. I notice no one's talking about The Song of Achilles...why ever could that be.

Oh. My. I read Montana 1948 on your recommendation and it remains one the highlights of my reading life. A beautiful, beautiful book.

And I recently added Circe to the machine. Must read it soon.

>47 Matke: It's a hugely important book to me, so I'm pleased it was...and remains...for you as well. Such a gem of writing...so unflinching in its gaze. I love it as much now as I did then!

*smooch*

PEARL RULE 10 (p76)

Lotharingia: A Personal History of Europe's Lost Country by Simon Winder

Rating: 2.5* of five

"The Cistercians" did it.

...it was always part of Cistercian practice to battle with the commitment to a near-inhuman level of asceticism and to sometimes fail. But these great institutions were for centuries the motor for Europe's spiritual, cultural and economic hopes, places of pilgrimage, guardians of the past and guarantors of the future. Even the most sybaritic lay magnate understood that mere castles, towns and palaces were minor spin-offs. Indeed, it could be that the once-haughty crusading rulers of Berg would be thrilled to know that they have wound up abused as mere platforms for a Christmas crib.

A lot of that's context-free for y'all, but the lack of series commas (called Oxford commas among the Anglophilic) in this incredibly rapid-fire sequence is what tipped me over the edge. (I, with context, found the Berg reference inelegantly phrased.) It is not an affectation to put a comma after a dependent clause or a list item. It is a means of explaining a thought or delineating items on a list as discrete. "Cultural and economic" sound like one thing, one parcel of meaning; they are not meant to. "...cultural, and economic..." makes the two items separate, understood as different concepts in a list of several.

Anyway. Five hundred or so pages without series commas in a non-fictional work of dense information content would reduce me to a gibbering heap of misery and headaches. So no more. Dammit all, I was really, really interested in this book! The topic is very interesting to me. But I am not going to flinch twenty-three thousand times while this affront to clarity is perpetrated before my appalled eyes.

I may copy that meme Richard. And since I generally follow your lead on books and take your suggestions to heart even if some of them end up falling by the wayside because, well, too many books. Of course I loved Montana 1948 but I'm not sure if it was on your recommendation or the recommendation of someone who took the recommendation of someone else from someone else here on LT. You know what I mean.

>49 richardderus: I'm guessing you weren't a happy bunny?

Good morning, RDear!

>45 richardderus: I bought Montana 1948 on your recommendation but haven't read it yet.... I know, I know.

>49 richardderus: I finally 'grokked' Oxford commas (didn't know they were called that) and other punctuation in 10th grade, courtesy of my Shorthand I teacher. Until then I was a little lost lamb, punctuation-wise. I don't always use them correctly now, but I do more than don't. (If there are comma errors in this paragraph, you can blame it on only 3 sips of coffee!)

I hope you have a good day.

*smooch*

>50 brenzi: Hey Bonnie! I think you should copy it. I like that kind of meme, it says more about the person than so many others. I'll wander by to see what your answers are later.

>51 humouress: Um...no.


>52 karenmarie: Three sips! You're remarkably articulate for being that undercaffeinated.

I'm not interested in punctuation in posts, or emails, or letters. When you're putting writing out there as a paid professional, or a professional wannabe (eg, blog posts and self-pubbed books), then the full might of the Grammar Police is unleashed and the maximum sentence of scorn and opprobrium is levied. You're asking a more-than-casual audience to parse what the hell you're attempting to get across in your poorly punctuated maunderings. That is just flat unacceptable. Nix! Nyet! Nein!

59 There Were Also Strangers: a novel by Borden Deal

Rating: 3.25* of five

Not quite a half-star above three...a bit on the mannered side for my taste.

Borden Deal was one of those "famous if you know who they are" figures that literature specializes in producing (eg, David Foster Wallace, JT LeRoy). He was a humidly Southern kind of storyteller, making a lot of psychosexual hay while the sun of Public Disapproval still shone; his career was a lot slower, and a lot heavier on "erotica," after the Swingin' Sixties got started.

This is his last novel before hard drinkin' and smokin' killed him at 62, in 1985. It's probably good that he died before he heard what folks were saying. Teeny-weeny New Horizon Press of Far Hills, New Jersey, brought it out...that should say something to you, since the 1950s and 1960s saw his books under Doubleday and Scribner colophons. His moment had passed; the Broadway play based on his novel The Insolent Breed and the film based on Dunbar's Cove were decades past by then. There was no way this little Gothic novel about narrator-Borden, poor sharecropper's son, coming of bisexual age in the Great Depression, would've made the grade at Doubleday!

It's not a bad book. It's got the kind of heightened language that was out of fashion in the 1980s, putting Deep Thoughts in Countrified expressions in the mouth of a 13-year-old. Much about the story would've made it a bestseller in 1965, what with narrator-Borden developing a serious crush on Charles, while all-but ignoring Frances the living breathing girl on his doorstep. The faux-country "ain't"s and so on would've gone down a treat then, as well. But in 1985 that was not the first stare of regionalism and, mid-AIDS crisis, narrator-Borden's nascent bisexuality wasn't enough to épater les bourgeois anymore.

The Gothic image of the house turned inwards, the dark and spooky doings inside, the mighty-are-fallen family that Charles comes from...standard. Michael McDowell does it better in his atmospheric horror novels of roughly the same vintage (eg, The Flood, Cold Moon Over Babylon). The ending, which I will not spoil, involves a purification rite that's not in the least bit overused. /irony

The novel's short and the read's quick. My county's library system lost its only copy of this marvy, but entirely on their own recognizance sourced a copy for me to read via ILL from Mississippi! Of course, I imagine a native son's books are thick on the ground there, so it's not like it was a hardship for the lenders, but still...!! I'm always amazed and delighted when people go out of their way to fulfill patrons' idle whims in reading material as part of the service, unheralded, unasked, and I'm sure largely unnoticed and unappreciated.

I noticed. I'm most appreciative. I wish the read had been more exciting.

>53 richardderus: THAT kid...I grew up with that kid. She was related to me. I still keep a safe distance between us when she gets riled up.

>54 richardderus: Magnificent, beautifully phrased review. You should be proud of this one, Dear Boy.

Duly thumbed.

I liked Song of Achilles I just liked Circe better

>55 laytonwoman3rd: Heh...she was related to me as well. *sigh*

>56 Matke: Thank you, Gail, that's a lovely compliment.

>57 magicians_nephew: Chacun a son gout, Jim.

Hi, Richard.

I love your reading all of Heyer's books as your "one" book, and:

3. If I could write like one author it would be . . .

Georgette Heyer's campy intellectualism as applied to queer Space Opera Regency tales. I'd read that!

Hard to argue with your take on Infinite Jest. There were moments of brilliance, I thought. His obstinate infatuation with footnotes baffles me. It's like being infatuated with dryer lint.

>59 jnwelch: There were moments of brilliance I missed those flashes, I fear, or interpreted them as flashbulbs going off in my face. The foot-noteyness was part of the pseudointellectualism of the thing..."see? SEE?! I'm so smart I can make footnotes funny!!"...and, well, I lost patience with clever-clever crap after Ulysses.

Re: #3, I aspire to write such a tale before I die. And that's one more reason I'll likely live forever.

Sweet Thursday, Rdear.

>42 richardderus: Nice review. Have you read Crooked Heart. My library would have an ebook copy.

Good morning, RichardDear, and happy Thursday to you.

>61 Ameise1: Hi Barbara, thanks for stopping by. I haven't read Crooked Heart but it looks really good! Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

Have a delightful Thursnight ahead.

>62 karenmarie: Hiya Horrible! *smoooch*

>42 richardderus: I think I want to read that one.

>53 richardderus: how did you get that footage of me and my home-made haircut circa 1981!!!? And now, looking at it, I can see where Little Lenny gets his, *ahem*, enthusiastic "fwustwated" face from!!!

'Morning, RD!

...

That's all I've got after only one sip of coffee.

*smooch*

>64 LovingLit: By all means, do! It's a lovely read. There is a sequel-in-time, prequel-in-publishing, Crooked Heart, that I've got winging its way to me. I hope I'll love it half as much.

Heh! That little lovely is a widespread meme for outrage, and my personal favorite of them all.

>65 karenmarie: I am *gobsmacked* that you found that much to say after one sip of coffee. Well, that much that's printable to say, anyway.

*smooch*

I read 1948, too. Agree, very good. Curious about Circe...

You know, baby, I'd like to see a government program that brought Queer Eye into everyone's life and fixed it.

>67 mckait: Hey Kath, yep I remember your response to Montana 1948 and Marie Little Soldier.

>68 SomeGuyInVirginia: *snerk* Tan would *pass*out* on meeting me....

Morning, RD. My wife and daughter are infatuated with the new Queer Eye and the Fab Five. I instead have been watching the dour, slow-moving Hinterland. Don't mess with me and try to get me not-grumpy, all right?

It took me a while to get to your new thread, Richard. Happy new one! Great review of Old Baggage in >42 richardderus:.

>70 jnwelch: Heh. With ya on the de-grumpification efforts today. I'm tired, achy, and unwilling to do anything at all today including stay conscious. TV shows and dinner is the limit of my engagement with the world.

>71 Familyhistorian: Hi Meg! Happy to see you here. Thanks for the kind comments. It's a terrifically involving read.

I was going to wish you a happy SUnday, RD, but I see you are tired and achy so I will just send good wishes that you feel better tout de suite.

I have Old Baggage to read - it's in the small pile of books I have not packed up which means I may actually get to it soonish...

xo

Pearl Ruled 11 (p59)

Out of the Shadows: Reimagining Gay Men's Lives by Walt Odets

Rating: 3* of five, all for the author's clear and evident passion for the fight

The first chapter, "Are Gay Men Homosexuals?", wants to delve deep into an old, old argument about identity and self-definition that, quite frankly, is beyond my capabilities just now. My dear Young Gentleman Caller, recently departed this sandy spot on Earth, asked me to read it so I did...the first chapter...and I'm just not down for a discussion of what makes me like all the other QUILTBAG people in the world. Am I, in fact, like a lesbian or a trans person?

We're all human, we're all one race, and no thank you on the storms of outrage that reductive formulation brings from all ends of every spectrum of identity. I resign, you're right, make it so Number One, whatever it takes to make you shut your pie hole and let me process my personal discontent with the nature of change.

I'll re-engage with this cogent argument for a rethought gay identity when I'm ready to think deeply again.

>74 richardderus: You scared me for a second there; but you mean your specific sandy spot, right?

>75 humouress: Oh my, yes indeed Nina, I meant that Rob moved out of Long Beach not shuffled off this mortal coil. He's ensconced in a new career in Brooklyn. Not one I'd choose, but he's where it's all happenin' and that's good. We chatted earlier today and that was a giant mood-lightener for me. He's gone, but he hasn't forgotten or dismissed me yet. Still says "I love you" and lemme tell ya I can tolerate most things 45's Murruhkuh can throw at me with a smile provided he keeps telling me that!

Yes. Yes, I am.

I wanted so much to find a "like" button, but I'll just have to use my words: I like that gif! Happy weekend!

Karen O.

>78 klobrien2: Thank you most kindly, Karen! I think that one is a perennial goer around these parts, isn't it.

>76 richardderus: Glad to read you spoke with YGC, Richard dear, so you got your phone to work.

>74 richardderus: >77 richardderus: Keep it at "we are all human book geeks here"?

>80 FAMeulstee: Thank you, Anita, but the phone situation is not yet solved. I'm mildly despairing! Still, my land line works.

Hi Richard! I hope things are going well (despite your phone situation).

Here's an octopus bowl to cheer you up--not something of mine, I fear!

>82 The_Hibernator: Hello Rachel! In general, I'm pretty well gruntled and kempt.

>83 ronincats: Isn't that a stunning piece! I'd love to have a space to display such a beauty.

>77 richardderus: Me too! YAH!!

Morning, Richard. Back to the grind, after a fun-filled weekend. I did not get much reading in but I will get back on track.

'Morning, RD!

I hope you're not so tired and achy today. I hope your phone issues get resolved quickly. I'm glad to hear YGC called you and said "I love you".

>74 richardderus: Labels are occasionally good and more frequently bad. Use 'em when they're helpful, discard them when they narrow options and focus unwanted attention.

I'm a few sips into the morning java. Jenna's still asleep, Bill's already heading to the salt mine, where I'll be heading in 45 minutes.

30 minutes of reading time! Yay! *smooch*

Happy Pre-Tuesday, buddy. Joining those wishing you a better day for feeling rested and not-achy.

>77 richardderus: "Like"

Spent last week doing research for a client. Spent the weekend visiting with living relatives. I got less reading done over the weekend. I've got a couple things on the agenda besides cooking supper for my sister-in-law and brother. Not really sure what I'll cook yet but I need to decide soon so I can get the meat thawed in time if I use something from her freezer. I've got a few other odds and ends types things on today's list, but I hope to get some reading done. I'd like to finish this book, but I'm not sure I can stay with it as long at a time as needed. I probably should grab another book and alternate.

>85 msf59: Heh, I'm deeply surprised that you'd relate in a positive way to that meme. Deeply.

Grind well, Mark.

>86 karenmarie: Hey Horrible! I'm not anywhere near as achy today, thanks. I'm still sleepy at odd moments, though. Being as it doesn't affect my productive life to whiz through my day then crash for a half hour, I'm rollin' with it.

Work well today. Will Jenna be staying for a while?

>87 jnwelch: Hey Joe, happy Baja Tuesday to you as well. Funny thing, you "like"ing that pro-book meme. Never woulda figgered you'uns for that. *smothered chuckles*

now there's a happy reverie...Smothered Chuckles...aaahhh

>88 thornton37814: Hi Lori! It sounds like a perfect productive summer's day is in your future. I hope you're living it now with deep contentment.

Moving day is fixed for the morrow, RD.

>77 richardderus: Me too.

>77 richardderus: Yes, you are!!! Hope your phone situation gets fixed ASAP. Smooches.

You know, I sometimes wonder if people abandoning smart tech, including computers, isn't the industry's Black Swan.

Happy Tuesday, RD!

The fall semester starts on August 16th, so my guess is that Jenna might stay for another week then head back to get her ducks in a row for school. She might visit a friend who lives just another 1 1/4 hours down the road from us while she's here, but that may or may not happen. Lots of Yahtzee and Time Team in our future, starting today after I spend 2 hours sorting book donations for the FoL.

>91 PaulCranswick: At last! I'm so pleased for you.

>92 Berly: Heh, me 'n' ever'body else here. I'm expecting help soon.

>93 SomeGuyInVirginia: I'm pretty sure the singularity has already happened. We're not climbing out of this rat-hole.

>94 karenmarie: Happy days! I'm pleased the lassie spends so much fun-time with y'all.

It's true that, back in the day, I never knew anyone who tossed their tee-bee remote control. It's also true that that remote didn't report usage stats to Skynet. All I can come up with at the moment is that I've never known a linear projection that was worth a damn in the long run.

Every month I get a 'Review your past month' from Google and they tell me every place I've been. I know it's a positive spin on 'this is a very large part of the data we've collected on you, and we're presenting it in what we hope is a pleasing way so that you can't complain that you didn't know the extent of our reach into your life and, hopefully, you don't denounce us to the Inquisition for heresy. Do no evil!'

>96 SomeGuyInVirginia: If the linear projection is humanity's future, I'll content myself with observing that Malthus is finally going to be proven correct, though it's water not food we'll all die without; and da Vinci's observation that mankind will choke on "his" own latrines is stunningly prescient.

Morning, Richard. Happy Wednesday. I hope you are doing well this week. I am chugging along, ticking off the work days. It has been warm here, but still tolerable. I am really enjoying God Save Texas. He is a terrific writer and I am learning plenty.

'Morning RD!

Malthus and da Vinci - yikes. That on top of drumpf. At book sorting yesterday I handed a book supportive of drumpf over to the History/Biography/Memoir/Nonfiction expert, telling him I didn't support the idiot but unfortunately thought that folks would want to buy it. This was done quietly. About 10 minutes later he came over to where I was standing next to a very nice, if misguided, Extremely Christian woman who hates political talk (because she voted for the idiot). Jim wasn't talking to her, he was talking to me, but I was aware of her in the background as he railed on about the crazy man's stupidities/inaccuracies and etc. from the day before. She immediately left and later sent an e-mail out saying, in part, Our President is our President like it or not. And you will not hear me build up or tear down this one - it makes me sad that intellectual adults feel a need to do so...

I'm going to reply to her e-mail but not copy the group as did in her original message.

In the meantime, off to the salt mines! *smooch*

>99 karenmarie: - Pity that an *intellectual* adult such as herself can't see the idiot for what he truly is: a man lacking not only intellect, but just about everything else a true leader ought to possess (morals, ethics, compassion, a heart, a little dignity, common sense ...…)

>99 karenmarie: I'd be very interested in knowing if this woman gave equivalent support to President Obama if she heard someone criticizing him.

>98 msf59: It's a great one-volume intro to Texas's enormous, outsized history and its impact on the US of today.

Have a lovely day today!

>99 karenmarie:, >100 jessibud2:, >101 laytonwoman3rd: *snort* Ask the dear little thing about Kenya. Her true, racist colors will come out a-flyin'.

*smooch*

I'm trying to suss out a weak spot in the trajectory of the internet of things. As long as beeg business and beeg tech want to know what we do behind closed doors, we're doomed. But I just don't see a Total Transparency event horizon. And, in this instance, I take great comfort in the thing all large collections of information have in common- libraries burn.

Disney ruined life for me.

>103 SomeGuyInVirginia: In this case, the library will simply be unreadable after a while as technologies morph. BUT the advent of quantum computing will solve the tidal-wave-of-data problem that's always plagued surveillance states. We're long past the point we could've built in firewalls because the app that tazers the chicken into laying the hot'n'fresh egg for your omelette in the eighth minute of your shower is just the coolest thing ever so Madison and Tyler must must must have it on their iCrap.

Just picked up a library hold today: Old Baggage. I think this was a bb from your previous thread, yes?

Anyway, 30 pages in and it is really good. Thanks!

Good evening from me, where it is lie-by-the-fire-and-have-a-beer o'clock (I love that time, don't you?)
Chin chin.
Night night.

>105 SandyAMcPherson: Ha! Well, good. I expect you'll enjoy the read, it's well-made and quite a bit of good entertaining fun.

>106 LovingLit: Oh, that's the best o'clock there is indeed. I'll heft my coffee mug NZward in appreciative anticipation of my reaching the same.

So, my 13th Thingaversary is the 13th of this month. My dear Rob, of blessed memories (NO he's not dead! he moved, remember?), gave me permission to buy 14 books if I didn't spend more than $x (an amount surprisingly generous but not triple-figured or anything obscene like that). The gelt:
Unamerica--recommended by Gabino Iglesias
Mammoths of the Great Plains--ELeanor Arnason. Nuff sed.
Judges--the Camilleri loss is fresh, I crave more!
Empire Games: A Tale of the Merchant Princes Universe--I loved Charles Stross's Merchant Princes worldwalker series because it's the Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum physics made real, and that's my jam. And jelly. And preserves.
Those four are paper books.
Moab is My Washpot--srsly, who could resist Stephen Fry for $2?
The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs--because I'm basically a ten-year-old with wrinkles
In Other News--thriller about a gay kid caught in a media-marvel rape case, how he survives and copes. (Not a touchstone as LT apparently doesn't believe in giving me exact matches for the title I enter is necessary.)
Herbs, Spices, & Flavourings--albeit misspelled in an absurd way, Tom Stobart's classic reference on what we use to make our meatntatties taste different was a happy find for $2!
Wrede on Writing--delightful book, a happy re-Wrede. #sorrynotsorry
Year's Best Fantasy 2--Rob wanted to read this so I got it. As a householder, he gets access to it like it was his. I love that facet of Ammydom!
Stories from the Plague Years--another collection of fantasy stories for Rob & I to share...sensing a theme here...like maybe I want to reinforce our bond...yep, guilty.
A Visitor's Guide to Jane Austen's England--given my Horrible case of Heyerosity, could I resist this for a lousy $1? No! I could not! Nor, Dear Reader, did I feign an attempt to do so.
City of Ghosts--Schwab's London colors series is amazing, so why not?
Zodiac--the great Neal Stephenson didn't *only* produce kitten-squishers.
and that's the haul!
Since today's email brought a tasty morsel my way, and I had a bit of my budgie left, I got:
The Good Lord Bird--for $2, I might re-read this magisterial work.

That is very generous of Rob, Richard dear.
I don't think I ever managed to get all my thingaversary books 5 days in advance ;-)

Congrats on #13, RD! given my Horrible case of Heyerosity...

*preens*

*smoochies*

>109 FAMeulstee: It was generous, and very much appreciated. I wasn't about to let this golden opportunity languish for mere calendrical accuracy.

>110 karenmarie: Happy day, Yahtzeemom. Has Jenna beaten you some more?

Happy Thingaversary!

>112 figsfromthistle: Thank you, Anita! It amazes me it's been 13 years.

Great Haul Richard! Somewhere on my shelves i have a delightful little tome called What Jane Austin Ate and Charles Dickens Knew.

If you ever wondered what a "Tantalus" or a "Gasogene" was this is the book for you.

Or if you have a Bishop, a Duke and a Knight Banneret at your next dinner party this book will help you in how to address them and in what order to seat them.

Happy Thingaversay and many more!

Happy Thingaversary, buddy. That's a most excellent book haul.

60 Lot: Stories by Bryan Washington

Rating: 4.8* of five

The Publisher Says: Stories of a young man finding his place among family and community in Houston, from a powerful, emerging American voice.

In the city of Houston - a sprawling, diverse microcosm of America - the son of a black mother and a Latino father is coming of age. He's working at his family's restaurant, weathering his brother's blows, resenting his older sister's absence. And discovering he likes boys.

This boy and his family experience the tumult of living in the margins, the heartbreak of ghosts, and the braveries of the human heart. The stories of others living and thriving and dying across Houston's myriad neighborhoods are woven throughout to reveal a young woman's affair detonating across an apartment complex, a rag-tag baseball team, a group of young hustlers, the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, a local drug dealer who takes a Guatemalan teen under his wing, and a reluctant chupacabra.

Bryan Washington's brilliant, viscerally drawn world leaps off the page with energy, wit, and the infinite longing of people searching for home. With soulful insight into what makes a community, a family, and a life, Lot is about love in all its unsparing and unsteady forms.

My Review: This is not, appearances to the contratry, autobiographical. It's art, inspired by lived life, and Author Washington isn't its only model. He knew the models better than privileged and pampered Reader Person can. But there's a smoothness and facility that's the hallmark of the born writer, the one who wouldn't fit in no matter what or where or how they grew up. He didn't live in Alief, or maybe he did exist in that space but he was always apart and different and queer...but mostly he was born to be a writer. As always, I will employ the Bryce Method and go story by story with my visceral impressions only lightly toned down and/or tarted up.

Lockwood is a quick hit of what it means to be down and out, illegal, and queer. Also black and queer.

Once, I asked Roberto if he liked it in Texas. He looked at me forever. Called it another place with a name.
Could be worse, I said. You could be back home.
Home's wherever you are at the time, said Roberto.
You're just talking. That doesn't even mean anything.
It would, he said, if you knew you didn't have one.

I live in the same world as these boys and might as well be Arcturian. Yep. This one's a winner. Anything that can tell you that you don't know one single goddamned thing about the city, the state, the country that spawned you? That's a voice you need to listen to.

Alief gives the ragged and rowdy account of the end of several lives, two cheating bastards and a fool of a husband, with the full force and majesty of the Neighborhood behind it. Mistakes, obliviousness, the eternal unchanging voraciousness for Story that makes gossip so damned toxic yet irresistible, addictive. Like...well...reading, if we're all honest, dipping into the universes we weren't invited to inhabit. In this universe we're visiting, the Greek chorus of the folks living there is used to best effect as it dissects not predicts. A good choice, Author Washington.

610 North, 610 West locates us in Houston's geometry, using it as a quick way to orient us to the emotional poles of little man narrator's life. Ma isn't what Pa wants; he finds something he does want; life goes on, the myriad casualties spread in Houston's circular blast radius. Javi the vicious brother starts out ans stays shitty, abusive, homophobic; Jan the eldest sister vanishes, as so many without moorings but with ambitions do. Who's left? The gay little brother! Shocking! he murmured, clutching his pearls. Ma and her queer son. How did that ever happen.

Shepherd follows one young half-Jamaican to his summer of love, his Jamaican whore-cousin (the soursop woman!)'s summer of rest and recovery from multiple tragedies, his sister's sexed-up summer of post-college freshman-year freedom; lots of firsts, not a lot of happiness. Unlike the lower-class family's stories, the parents are window dressing. The boy doesn't become a man, but he knows he's going to and it isn't a comfortable thought. His cruelty to a kind woman is a harbinger of bad things to come, I fear.

Wayside a whole eight pages of horror. "Rick was...the most light-skinned out of all of us, and he carried himself like all of kindness in a bottle." We get down to the double horror of: When we made it to the body, my brother snatched my hand. He made me touch Rick's face. He told me this was what happened to fags.
And that, mijos, is the worst and nastiest thing ever felt, thought, said. Our little man narrator doesn't report this with a flinch, just a numb and vacant, deadened, dead-end voice.

Bayou brings us the chupacabra, myth made flesh, that can't or won't save two of life's losers. Boys with names like TeDarus and Mixcoatl don't even inherit the meek's mite of World. They call out for attention, demand to be seen, heard, but when they get it they don't know what to do with it. Mix, poor thing, is gay in a world that needs someone to hate for being Other so he's it. TeDarus is a space-taker. Nothing can save them from oblivion. Nothing is going to change or get better. Like the chupacabra they found, they slip away and there's no proof they were ever here.

Lot is the heart of the book, the heart of the family. Everything comes to a head, breaks, spills its rage-pus down the sides of the boil that these wretched people fester inside. Javi the hater, Jan the jilter, father, mother...all just don't want to see any of the cesspit's contents they're grinding the youngest's face into. RUN I want to scream, take money for the sex, escape however you can! And I know I'm shoutin' down the well. He's not even going to inherit the cesspit.

South Congress has poor Guatemalan illegal Raúl hooked into small-time street-drug sellin' Avery; it's a sad if common tale of someone who was never going to do more than just get by getting by in a place that hates him for being, won't forgive him for existing. Then how that, finally, in the end, blows into smithereens is a shock because I wasn't expecting Author Washington to leave Raúl with an opportunity that he's smart enough to seize but dreads succumbing to. Pungent and packed.

Navigation is such a freakin' hopeless mess of a life story getting *worse* FFS as Nameless the Narrator rejects two...two!...separate chances to get his shit in order, maybe get above water by a flippin' nostril, but NOOOOOO

Javi would be proud. /sarcasm

Peggy Park is like the Biblical begats in Chronicles, only this time it's baseball in the ghetto. Bored me. Hard to do with baseball stories, but yeah.

Fannin is the last will and testament of Jan, the jilting sister, who saw her father in a bad way one last time but did nothing. I didn't like her before, now I really despise her. The world she's made is built on, not a lie exactly, a hollow place...an excavation of the root-ball her life sprang from. People like that? I don't envy them one single possession.

Waugh teaches us the lesson that Love's got shit to do with reality but will fuck you up worse than anything else. Poke loves Rod but betrays him by leaving him at Rod's lowest point; all to be with Emil the middle-aged refugee from a place that no longer exists (I'm guessing Lebanon based on his age and backstory). He loves Poke, but can't ever figure in to his picture Poke's love of his calling, the streets. Rod? No one sees it, no one says "oh yeah, that guy" and no one, when he goes looking, can tell Poke anything.

There's no closure to be had on betrayal.

Elgin is the beauty of failure, the glory of losing, the passionate need to fuck up again. Nicolás. The name that means People's Victory. He alone of all his people...Javi, dead in the ground; Mam booked out to Louisiana; Pa? *shrug*; Jan the arriviste, dreams drowned by Harvey...stayed in his place, stayed long after he lost the will to make a life; he won the loser's lottery by existing, just that, as his life spun out of reach. Sex with one-nighters does nothing to fill you up no matter how big a dick he has. Then what? Go to the sea, sit in the water, leave a sad and lonely and worthy man in your bed and....

What's left is existing before exiting. All there is.

Those two-tenths of a point off perfect are for the tedium of Peggy Park and the last-minute narrator naming. Best left, or used throughout, as this feels contrived to me.

>114 magicians_nephew: Thanks, Jim...that kind of history-we-never-learn book is meat and drink to me, owner of Making a Living in the Middle Ages.

>115 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe! Thirteen years. Time doth flit...oh sh*t.

>111 richardderus: Yes, darn it. She got two Yahtzees to my one and beat me by the amount of that Yahtzee plus about 22 more points. I was despondent, but then we went out to dinner, and then I was happy.

>118 karenmarie: I was despondent, but then we went out to dinner, and then I was happy.

Huh. I wonder why. *snerk*

>108 richardderus: Happy Thingaversary! The happiness has already arrived, sounds like.

>116 richardderus: And speaking of arrivals, Lot just arrived today on interlibrary loan, so I'll read that soon if the Summer Book Slump ever breaks.

Happy Thingaversary! Nice haul; I'm envious.

>104 richardderus: I do love my iCrap!

>108 richardderus: Nice book haul up there!

>116 richardderus: Great review of Lot: Stories. I will have to get my greedy mitts on this one.

Happy Friday, Richard. 2 more work days. I can do it. BTW- You would have a good time with Recursion. Just sayin'...

Good morning, RD! Happy Friday to you.

*smooch* from your own Horrible

Happy Friday, Richard! And happy Thingaversary - looks like an excellent haul, and all the better for some amazing $2 deals.

Happy almost Thingaversary!

OK, so what's a "Thingaversary"? I must have missed out on the original appearance of this word?

Nice haul and happy (early) Thingaversary!

Looks like another stunning day - probably all the more so by the beach :)

>120 swynn: Hi Steve, thanks for the good wishes. Yep, the happy is multiplexed by the books being gifts from Rob, who found out about the tradition while I was nattering and ordered the gift card while we were on the phone! Such a romantic gesture.

You see that I am not likely to discourage you from grabbing Lot: Stories as your slump-breaker.

>121 humouress: Thank you, Nina, it is a lovely haul indeed.

>122 SomeGuyInVirginia: Oh Larry...*swooping disappointment voice*

>123 msf59: I've got my hold on Recursion at the ready, Mark. Now for the 44 people ahead of me to suffer massive attacks of reader's remorse and cancel their holds.

>124 karenmarie: Hiya Horrible, it's been a pretty darn good day!

>125 bell7: I'm always thrilled to get my hands on the $2 specials from the daily come-ons. Those bibliopushers should be prosecuted! (Then released to sin again, can't do without their products. Can. Not.)

>126 ChelleBearss: Thank you, Chelle! It's been a long, long haul to get through the past 13 years, and LT gets a lot of the credit for me not collapsing under the weight of my own negativity.

>127 SandyAMcPherson: Oh my. Well. A Thingaversary is the date on which you joined LibraryThing. In this group, possibly elsewhere on the site but I don't know about that, we celebrate our Thingaversary by purchasing books...as many books as the years we've been here, plus one for next year. So we have an excuse to indulge our biblioholism and support the literary community and preen about how long we've been in the family.

All good, positive things, I'm sure you'll agree.

>128 katiekrug: After the thunderboomers last night, it's another gorgeous, sunwashed day! *happy sigh*

Last day of your first week back...bet that's a happy feeling! *smooch*

>129 richardderus: I've danced with the devil all my life!

I kid you not, I heard it on the Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me podcast this morning (Anthony Anderson guest), so you know it's true - Siri wakes when you say 'Hey, Siri' AND...when it hears the sound of a zipper.

61 The Dispatcher by John Scalzi

This was a Kindleborrow from my friend Roni. Thanks, ol' buddy ol' pal!

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: One day, not long from now, it becomes almost impossible to murder anyone—999 times out of a thousand, anyone who is intentionally killed comes back. How? We don’t know. But it changes everything: war, crime, daily life.

Tony Valdez is a Dispatcher—a licensed, bonded professional whose job is to humanely dispatch those whose circumstances put them in death’s crosshairs, so they can have a second chance to avoid the reaper. But when a fellow Dispatcher and former friend is apparently kidnapped, Tony learns that there are some things that are worse than death, and that some people are ready to do almost anything to avenge what they see as a wrong.

It’s a race against time for Valdez to find his friend before it’s too late…before not even a Dispatcher can save him.

My Review: There is nothing quite so satisfying as an idea that exactly fits into its chosen format. Subterranean Press, genre-publishing monadnock for almost a quarter century, will make novellas available in hardcover, will collect the stories of genre-famous writers that ordinary houses wouldn't deign to notice (eg, Elizabeth Bear , whose collected short work is coming soon), will do all this with style and elegance and attention to quality unrivaled in modern publishing. This novella is no exception. Its limited edition, illustrated by Vincent Chong, whose work you should *definitely* go look at, is sold out; its trade edition is sold out; the ebook is available, and it's got the lovely illustrations scaled for your ereader's screen.

It ain't the Real Thing, but it's darn good.

Scalzi's story here is uniquely his, the way only he could re-fashion the story of unexplained resurrection. The dead coming back...but only if they died by misadventure (a politer way of saying "got murdered)...has no obvious explanation. Scalzi doesn't supply one. Arguments about why the murdered or otherwise killed before their body's natural death are endless. And the return itself becomes bureaucratized at the behest of insurance companies and governments. Of course. This is humanity we're talking about.

But in that larger, sadder framework, Author Scalzi's made stories of what the ordinary people caught in extraordinary circumstances will do. Must do. Crave the miracle? It's yours...but!

Why's there always a "but"? Dunno...but the "but" here is there are loopholes and limitations like there always are in bureaucracies. Why these should apply on a quantum level will keep religions in business and still reduce the murder rate by a large fraction. If someone is determined to murder someone else, there's always a way. It's a horrible way, but it works, and if you hate someone enough to murder them, its awfulness won't bother you.

A further "but" involves the revolting kind of human being who will pay to see men slaughter each other. Anyone who's read or seen Altered Carbon will recognize the Meth's entertainment of causing, watching, lusting after sleeve-death. This resurrection, of the actual personal body of the slain (albeit a certain number of hours younger than it was at the time of death), precludes Morgan's convenient stack-death or Neo-Catholic prohibition on being spun back up. It means the resurrected knows who killed them. It means the resurrected can identify a murderer. Unsurprisingly this drops the manslaughter rate. Can't charge someone with a crime, though, since the victim isn't dead. Assault maybe...but!

Then there are people whose bodies are slowly betraying them, who need surgeries and/or treatments that might cause death. Imagine how that's going to affect the surgeons. Insurance companies meddle enough in the quest to avoid paying out on their policies. Now there are Dispatchers (why the capital D, for goodness's sake?) whose sole job it is to finish killing a dying patient so they'll wake up in a pre-trauma state of health, no worse for the surgery that killed them. This is where we meet Tony. He Dispatches an old man who didn't survive heart surgery. He faces down an angry surgeon and a hospital staff pissed at him but without recourse because the money says this is what has to happen.

And *then* it gets weird.

Tony's friend and fellow Dispatcher Jimmy is missing. There's nary a lead in this disappearance; well, there's a hint that Jimmy might've been involved in some morally dark grey/legally light grey Dispatchings. Things that Tony was also involved in once upon a time. In fact, Jimmy got his start in the grey areas with Tony. Who better to help the Chicago Police Department investigate?

Tony's recruited, much against his will, to assist the police with their inquiries. Jimmy's wife spews hate and venom all over Tony for those problems from the past, and even threatens to run him down if she can since he'll just wake up naked in his own bed. The cop looks calmly on, resumes questioning, and the thread that Jimmy's wife accidentally picks out of the cloth of her marriage is the one that ultimately leads to the solution of a terrible, vile crime, the restoration of the scales of justice, and the end of the first episode.

Say what now? You see, the eight chapters in here constitute an excellent two-hour pilot script for a TV series I'd watch the hell out of. I like Tony, his policelady partner-in-crime, and the Chicago they inhabit. It's the kind of light entertainment that leads to much deeper thought and discussion if one's so inclined. How does the quantum field know someone's murdered? How would gawd justify allowing some to die, like by stupid accidents and illness, but allow the murdered to return, to get a second chance? What kind of crap laws will make it onto the books to ensure the rich stay rich and the banksters get their vig?

Pick it up, FX! Buy it now, TBS! This could, in modestly competent hands, be a water-cooler series. The nudity precludes Fox, The CW, CBS, NBC, or ABC from taking it on, but it's basic-cable ready. It's not quite highbrow enough for Prime or Netflix, and I want nothing good to happen to Disney+ because if y'all think Amazon's evil go do some research on the Reedy Creek MUD in Orlando. Dig a little into Anas Abdin's plagiarism claims over Star Trek: Discovery. These scumbags...

Well, never mind, I'm gonna leave it here with a rousing exhortation to go get you a copy of this delightful short read. Then let's all holler until someone in LaLaLand hears and obeys the injunction to film, film, film!

>132 SomeGuyInVirginia: Why am I not surprised? (on either astonishing revelation)

>133 richardderus: I've been checking in all week for this, and it doesn't disappoint! So glad you enjoyed it.

That sounds like a fun Scalzi. Sold!

>135 ronincats: Oh good! I'm so glad. And I'm really happy I got to read the book, it's a fun little thing.

>136 jnwelch: Yay! Read on, Joe.

I can't say My Sister, the Serial Killer is bad, or even just not that good...but it's not a Booker-level book. It does little that is new, but lots that is deft. David Mogo, Godhunter does much more linguistic and stylistic innovation that could lead Nigerian literature in an exciting and intriguing new direction. But the Braithwaite book is a pleasure to read, and I hope y'all will read it. A review should forthcome sometime today...I hope, anyway.
ETA, from p169:

"...we are hardwired to protect and remain loyal to the people we love. Besides, no one is innocent in this world. Why, go up to your maternity ward! All those smiling parents and their newborns? Murderers and victims. Every one of them. 'The most loving parents and relatives commit murder with smiles on their faces. They force us to destroy the person we really are: a subtle kind of murder.'"
"That's quite..." I can't complete the sentence. The words trouble me.
"It's a quote by Jim Morrison. I cannot lay claim to such wisdom."

>134 richardderus: Come, I will play you the song of my pepuls.

>139 SomeGuyInVirginia: The unzipping of zippers has been the "Zippidy Doo Dah" of my life, as well.

>133 richardderus: So you liked it then?

But only 4 stars?

>141 humouress: Four is a darn good rating. Most stuff I read is clawing at three! I don't review a lot of ~meh~ junk.

A propos the recent hanging death:
“Here richly, with ridiculous display,
The Politician's corpse was laid away.
While all of his acquaintance sneered and slanged
I wept: for I had longed to see him hanged.”
Hilaire Belloc

>143 richardderus: - Well put.

I don't buy into conspiracy theories that he was murdered - the only conspiracy I see at work here is that somehow he was *allowed* to kill himself.

>144 katiekrug: Hence the lifted suicide watch. It suited a number of wealthy and powerful people for him to be eternally silent.

Though honestly I hope he screwed 'em all and left a huge cache of incriminating stuff with someone, complete with instructions on how and when to deploy it.

62 My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Rating: 4.25* of five

The Publisher Says: My Sister, the Serial Killer is a blackly comic novel about how blood is thicker - and more difficult to get out of the carpet - than water...

When Korede's dinner is interrupted one night by a distress call from her sister, Ayoola, she knows what's expected of her: bleach, rubber gloves, nerves of steel and a strong stomach. This'll be the third boyfriend Ayoola's dispatched in, quote, self-defence and the third mess that her lethal little sibling has left Korede to clear away. She should probably go to the police for the good of the menfolk of Nigeria, but she loves her sister and, as they say, family always comes first. Until, that is, Ayoola starts dating the doctor where Korede works as a nurse. Korede's long been in love with him, and isn't prepared to see him wind up with a knife in his back: but to save one would mean sacrificing the other...

My Review:

It takes a lot longer to dispose of a body than to dispose of a soul, especially if you don't want to leave any evidence of foul play.

And just like *that* I'm totally hooked. Second book this month set in Lagos; and second informed by a special Nigerian magical realism. (The other is David Mogo, Godhunter. Excellent as well.) This is a light entertainment, a shiny pretty costume jewelry story that sets your readerly mood in its most attractive and colorful light. It's fun. It's got the Double Indemnityesque delight of a love triangle detonated by jealousy, the In Cold Bloodness of a crime spree done for the sheer hell of it, and that utterly madcap Thelma and Louisely sanitized violence and death.

Yes, sanitized. Korede reports, doesn't narrate, the aftermath of Ayoola's kills. She keeps the details sparse enough to inform but not nauseate. Korede stands between us and Ayoola the serial killer. (Thank goodness. I don't think I could've read a whole novel from Ayoola's PoV!) So we're safe, we're not going to the places Korede has seen, we needn't do what Korede does.

Besides, it's what Korede doesn't do...what in the end she chooses to allow to occur...that defines her as a moral actor. I disagree with her choice, and I would've liked a chance to convince her to change her mind. With a two-by-four to the knees if necessary. But Korede, as written, really couldn't have made a different choice, so here we are. Overall, the story's pluses...new-to-me setting, cultural differences that kept me on my Google-fu, and an authorial style I found engaging...got me to a shade over four stars. It wasn't hard to get there.

>146 richardderus: That one was already in the Someday Swamp, to which I've now added David Mogo too.

Great reviews of Lot: Stories and My Sister, the Serial Killer, Richard. I've added the Washington to my wish list, and I'll read the Braithwaite later this month or in September. Thumbs for both reviews (it seems that hardly anyone does that anymore).

>147 swynn: I don't expect either will let you down, though David Mogo, Godhunter is superior in stylistic terms.

>148 kidzdoc: Not that many people ever applied thumbs, in my experience, but whatevs...here you are making up for them! I hope you'll enjoy the reads, Darryl.

>146 richardderus: Great review. While it's a bit harsh, the Dr. made the wrong choice of sisters so Korede's choice was a made a smidgen more easy.

>150 quondame: Thanks! And re: spoiler, I pretty much agree with you. Ayoola was right; he's just like all the others, more interested in the wrapping paper than the gift.

Looks like you had a very happy Thingaversary, Richard. That's quite a haul made even more special by Rob's involvement in acquiring it.

>146 richardderus: That’s one that I've been thinking about reading, although the book bullet doesn’t belong to any LTer but to the BBC World Service interview with the author.

>152 Familyhistorian: It's a real pleasure to have the reads. It's deeply and enduringly happiness-making that he (upon finding out about this custom) decided to be so generous as to make it possible for me to follow it!

Happy Sunday, Meg.

>153 humouress: I'll have to go listen to the archived copy. I have an idea of what she will sound like and I'm curious to know how close I am to the truth.

Do read the book, it's a fun way to spend a few precious eyeblinks.

Excellent short review of My Sister, the Serial Killer, Richard. What an oddball and pleasant surprise this one was for me this year.

>155 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe! The full version is live on my blog.

Happy Sunday!

I've just put a hold on the audiobook version of My Sister. Can't wait to get it.

>157 SomeGuyInVirginia: Ooohhh, I really wanna hear (!) what you think of the reader!

Thumbs distributed

>159 Matke: Visitrix thanksed

>146 richardderus: Excellent review! On the purchase list it goes :)

Gonna have to get the Braithewait!

I think I'll skip the serial killer book! I think I'm more in the mood for a "cereal killer" book.

>161 figsfromthistle: Thanks, Anita! I hope you'll enjoy the read as much as I did.

>162 drneutron: Your local Overdrive will have it, I'm sure, and it's really worth the trouble of sourcing in your little rathole of a village. *snerk* (all Maryland is Ballmer, right?)

>163 thornton37814: "The Binge Baker strikes again! Rows and rows of wheat stalks tremble as she scoops and scoops the powedered remains of their ancestors to slake her mad lust for bread and cake and cookies!!"--billboard facing North Dakota wheatfields

>164 richardderus: LOL I was envisioning titles such as "Death by Frosted Flakes" in which Tony the Tiger mauled someone saying "It's Great!" Death by Fruit Loops in which the person was attacked by a Toucan. Death by Trix in which a silly rabbit plays a role. etc.

>165 thornton37814: Ha! that works, too.

63 Kiss Kiss by Roald Dahl

Rating: 2.75* of five

A cruel and demanding husband, or so his first wife Patricia Neal would have us know; a creepy old party, as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory amply demonstrated, with a great deal of disdain for Jewishness and gluttony and greed in general. His adult fiction is largely out of print in the US, and he was never really quite The Thing here as he was in Britain. I suppose his light sneers at us, so evident in his attitude towards the US's involvement in the Second World War, prevented his eventual literary rise from gaining the same boost as it did among the countrymen who saw, heard, absorbed his flying prowess and spying nous.

I decided to read this collection for some reason or another (maybe it was the 1960 Edgar-winning story, "The Landlady"?), I can't honestly recall why now. I know that I began to regret my decision as early as "William and Mary," the second story, wherein this is from the text of a letter written by Dahl as coming from beyond the grave of a man to his newly-widowed wife of thirty years:

"He is a magnificent neurosurgeon, one of the finest, and recently he has been kind enough to let me study the results of some of his work, especially the varying effects of prefrontal lobotomies upon different types of psychopath."

And then he goes on to give orders like "don't get a TV" and "disconnect the phone because I don't need it anymore"! How appalling. Sixty years ago, when this collection was published, that wasn't, whole and entire, a horrendous thing to say? I'd say it was, but I was a babe in arms at the time and have no direct knowledge of the way it would sound to the era's denizens. I suspect it wouldn't have raised an eyebrow on either of my parents, but they were right wingnuts and often didn't hear things that made, and make, my skin crawl.

And with this mordant but unamusing set of eleven weirdly unappealing tales, Dahl leaves my readerly ken for. fucking. ever. No more. No! I refuse. I liked three of the eleven stories enough to be glad that I'd read them, and recognized one story from my long-ago high-school read of it in an anthology I had to buy for school, but that's just not enough for me to want to know more about what went on in Roald Dahl's head.

Happy Monday, RD!

>143 richardderus: Deftly put. I haven’t read much about it, but it had already started threatening powerful folks, so ‘letting’ him commit suicide was predictable.

>146 richardderus: Excellent review! I would have stood next to you with a two-by-four of my own to convince Korede to make that different choice.

>167 richardderus: No books on my shelves by Dahl, so no books to have to think about culling. Easy peasy.

*smooch*

>146 richardderus: Nice review, Richard, and glad to see you enjoyed it. I didn't think Korede could've done any differently either, but oh, I wished she would! It made the end really chilling, written the way it was, after a fairly light reading experience, so I felt almost culpable as a reader following & liking Korede.

>167 richardderus: Whelp, that looks like one to skip. Sorry it was a clunker but glad to avoid it now. I've only ever read some of Dahl's children's books and have no desire to read anything he's written for adults.

>168 karenmarie: Thanks, Horrible! The books are direct contrasts...one a multiple prize-winning profitable-careered nasty old white man writing about nasty old white men, and a young African woman whose career is pretty much established by being on this extremely prestigious award's longlist. I'll give preference to her work every time on my own shelves, in my own head.

The "Hillary killed him" conspiracy theory is the funniest thing I've ever heard.

>169 bell7: Hi Mary! Yep, avoid all adult Dahl. Yech. (And before some Gotcha! Ganger swoops in to leave a sniffy comment, yes I've read Switch Bitch and no I didn't like it either.)

It's a wonderful thing to be made to care deeply for fictional people by a talented young novelist with many more stories to come. I just LOVE knowing that she will produce more Art before I assume room temperature!

Reading With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo. Page 17:

And something special does happen when I'm cooking. It's like I can imagine a dish in my head & just know that if I tweak this or mess with that, if I give it my special brand of sazón, I'll have made a dish that never existed before. Angelica thinks it's because we live in the hood, so we never have exactly the right ingredients—we gotta innovate, baby. My aunt Sarah says it's in our blood, an innate need to tell a story through food. 'Buela says it's definitely a blessing, magic. That my food doesn't just taste good, it is good—straight up bottled goodness that warms you and makes you feel better about your life. I think I just know that this herb with that veggie with that meat plus a dash of eso ahí will work.

And that if everything else goes wrong, a little squeeze of lime & a bottle of hot sauce ain't never hurt anybody.

Emoni rocks. I am in luuuv with her and I wanna come to hers for dinner.

Hi Richard, a belated happy new thread dear friend. We had a great holiday and it refreshed both of us but now I am back going through all the threads and the hundreds of posts to try and catch up with what has gone on whilst we were away. Sending love and hugs from both of us dear friend.

>172 johnsimpson: Hello John! I'm so glad your vacay went well. You and Karen looked like you were having a ball.

Sending hugs back!

Ooooh, so glad to see you're enjoying With the Fire on High so far! If you like this one, will you be persuaded to give The Poet X a shot? Inquiring minds and all that... *smooch*

>174 bell7: ...me...

...read a novel...

...told in poetry...

...about a teenaged girl...


I strongly suspect the heavens will open, flights of angels will descend astride wingèd platypuses, and there will be much rejoicing throughout the land, before that occurs.

>174 bell7: >175 richardderus: He seems keen. Just look at that enthusiastic reaction.

Happy 13th Thingaversary, Richard dear!

Morning, Richard. Good review of My Sister. It looks like many of us, had the same reaction. I would be very surprised if it made the Short-List.

Back to work today, after a nice off day, (added a lifer but was hoping for one or two more). A short work week, though, since I am playing hooky this weekend. Just don't tell anyone. Grins...

'Morning, RD!

>175 richardderus: Yup. Poetry is best taken in teensy doses that rhyme, except for E.E. Cummings.

>176 humouress: *snort*

>177 FAMeulstee: Thank you, Anita! It's The Day Itself. One fateful bus-ride, thirteen years ago....

>178 msf59: Hi Mark! Thank you re: review. It really isn't likely to make the shortlist.

Trudge well today, but good news re: your lifer.

>179 karenmarie: Hey there, Horrible, I'm pleased that we are of one mind about this.

Except e.e. cummings.

I'm with Mary on With the Fire on High - I'm mighty glad you're enjoying it. Hmm, what could be causing that reaction to the idea of reading The Poet X? I think you must have had a traumatic experience with poetry while young. Maybe being forced to eat corn on the cob while a parent recited Tennyson?

>181 jnwelch: Now that you mention it....

from Miss Blaine's Prefect and the Golden Samovar, p 24:

I wandered back into the birghtness of the salon and saw at the far end of the room my second samovar of the evening, vaster than the first, big enough to hold boiling water for the largest tea party I could host. It was golden, the pinnacle of the craftsman's art. It had whorls, it had curlicues, it had scallops, it had convolutions, it had involutions, it had dimples, it had excrescences, it had gibbosity, it had indentations, it had crenellations—it was utterly spectacular. And most magnificent of all was the design of the spigot. It was shaped like a ferocious eagle, its wings outstretched, its beak—I was about to run my fingers down it when I backed off. Its beak was razor sharp. I couldn't help tutting. It was an accident waiting to happen. I would have to remember this was an era before health and safety, and treat the samovar with extreme caution.

This is a fun, funny moment, albeit a wee bit clunking. But consider this: The author's first novel, and it's placed in the YA category.

All is now well, isn't it? The slightly OTT enumerative excess and the smidgin-overstated Caution About Beauty now fall perfectly into place. At least they did for me, as this was where I began to take this amusing little bagatelle seriously.

Congratulations on the books and the lovely giftedness of them.

Your blog review of this made me take it from the library, now I have to get to it.

Happy Thingaversary, Richard!!

>175 richardderus: Of course, that's the reaction you had to the suggestion that you would be reading a book of poetry, and we all know what happened there.

>175 richardderus: Is it evil of me to hope that someone convinces you to try it anyway, just for the wingéd platypuses?

>184 mckait: Thank you, sweetiedarling!

>185 mckait: Which book? LT doesn't automatically populate the post number that one is replying to. Annoyingly.

>186 ronincats: Thanks, Roni! Heh. I read TWO WHOLE BOOKS! Which is, I suspect, why we're in 45's Murruhkuh...the universe vanished and was replaced by something even weirder, a la Douglas Adams.

>187 swynn: Yes.

Um, My Sister is a Serial Killer

I requested it and there blasted thing showed up in hours. I am not ready :P

>190 mckait: Heh! They just *knew* you couldn't wait, even though you thought you could.

I hope you'll like it. It's got lots of letters with diacriticals all over (eg kẹtẹkẹtẹ) so be forewarned.

>175 richardderus: Hahahahaha A+ gif and hyperbole usage, sir.

I seem to remember you recommending a) poetry and b) a play to me before, so while I won't hold my breath, let's just say if I see any winged platypi, I'll come running over your thread to see what's up ;)

Happy 13th Thingaversary (there should be a badge for that along with Fiver and Tenner, no?), and may you have at least 13 more.

>192 bell7: Oh my heck! NEXT YEAR the first "15" badges get distributed!! That's just amazing.

Between you and Steve, I'm tempted to go get the thing just so we can see some wingèd platypuses.

Couldn't agree with you more about My Sister the Serial Killer being a real dose of light entertainment Richard. Enjoyable all the same but certainly not Booker worthy. I totally forgot to celebrate my Thingaversary this year. Oh well I seem to have found plenty of books to read anyway.

>194 brenzi: I don't think anyone really expects MY SISTER to get onto the shortlist, even. But what I wonder is why they put it on any of the lists?!

Happy Thingaversary!

>196 quondame: Thank you, Susan, can't really believe it's been 13 years!

>183 richardderus:
I hope you enjoy Miss Blaine’s Prefect more than I did. It started out well, but lost its luster. But that samovar - got to get me one of them.!

>198 benitastrnad: I'm afraid that's about where I am. The Big Reveal about Sasha being the little brother hasn't happened yet but good lord a little effort to hide it would've been nice.

Good morning, RD! First two sips of coffee down. The day can continue.

*smooch* from your own Horrible

Happy Thingaversary, Richard. I have been awol from your thread for awhile but I see you have celebrated in style!

Happy Thingaversary!

>200 karenmarie: The day has my permission to roll out as well. My second pot is doing its holy work.

*smooch*

>201 jessibud2: I was gifted with the funds to do it right, so it would've been churlish not to. Don't you agree? Happy Wednesday readings, Shelley!

>202 katiekrug: Thanks, Katie, have a lovely if sticky day.

Hey, RD! Finally posted some of my bird photos from Monday, including the adorable Piping Plover chicks. Shorebirds are easier to photograph, for me, unless they are too far away.

Congrats, on your copy of Recursion coming in.

>204 msf59: I was a little disappointed in the BUTTERFLY landing on the cop's face or wherever it was. Heavy heavy heavy handed. Other than that kind of quibble, I'm unsurprised to say I'll enjoy this as a Crouch novel.

64 Miss Blaine's Prefect and the Golden Samovar by Olga Wojtas

Rating: 3.8* of five

Shona McMonagle, whose life as a librarian is spent attempting to expunge The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie from the world's...okay, from Scotland's...make that Edinburgh's shelves for its heinous, unforgivable insults to her Revered Preceptress Marcia Blaine of the Marcia Blaine School for Girls. You will not be surprised to know that Miss Blaine, though more than 274 years old, accepts this tribute to herself and her educational precepts, her centuries-old vow to make all her girls the crème de la crème in all their fields of endeavor, by inviting (in a more commanding than inviting way) Miss McMonagle to undertake a delicate mission for her. That mission will involve time travel to Tsarist St. Petersburg at some point between the Decembrist Revolution of 1825 and the emancipation of the serfs in 1861. (Running joke that gets forgotten a lot. You'll see.)

What can one say to a 274-year-old that hasn't been said many times? Shona accepts the brief and, hey prestwick...I mean presto!...after some thoroughly unpleasant pains she awakes in a peculiarly unsurprised and complaisant version of the capital of paranoid, isolationist, status-obsessed Imperial Russia, where she is Princess Shona Fergusovna. Or so she decides, being rather forced to take a title as her own despite her egalitarian and feminist principles. She does not, however, go so far as to pooh-pooh her Russian home from home's accoutrements:

I wandered back into the brightness of the salon and saw at the far end of the room my second samovar of the evening, vaster than the first, big enough to hold boiling water for the largest tea party I could host. It was golden, the pinnacle of the craftsman's art. It had whorls, it had curlicues, it had scallops, it had convolutions, it had involutions, it had dimples, it had excrescences, it had gibbosity, it had indentations, it had crenellations—it was utterly spectacular. And most magnificent of all was the design of the spigot. It was shaped like a ferocious eagle, its wings outstretched, its beak—I was about to run my fingers down it when I backed off. Its beak was razor sharp. I couldn't help tutting. It was an accident waiting to happen. I would have to remember this was an era before health and safety, and treat the samovar with extreme caution.

Charming litany. I quite like Princess Fergusovna. I also like her complete willingness to lust ever so discreetly after handsome young buck Sasha, whose beauty she first appreciates from beneath a sofa:

The young man's voice was light and attractive, the sort that you could listen to for hours on the radio. I wondered whether he had a face for radio as well.

He most assuredly does NOT have a face for radio, in that he is the protégé (pronounced by Shona, then all those who hear her, in the manner français, this reliably sends the Russians into fits of giggles for slightly obvious reasons) of a dreadful, lustful, stout, snobbish, evil-hearted countess. Her designs on his corpus delectable are strictly dishonorable, as are those of every other woman in St. Petersburg:

"I shall be waiting for you tomorrow afternoon," {a randy old widow} was saying.
"And I shall be counting the minutes until then," Sasha replied.
He was such a sweet guy. When he married Lidia, she would have to be careful that he didn't exhaust himself doing good works, and left some time for her.

You see, Miss Blaine wants Shona to infiltrate society's upper echelons to make sure beautiful, naive heiress Lidia gets her proper mate in this life. So Miss Blaine, through means undisclosed, gives Shona a house, a serf, and a lot of money. No one in St. Petersburg questions this apparition, it seems, accepting her story of being a Scottish peeress without question. And Shona, for her part, is a late-middle-aged matronly sort with peerless language and ninja skills, preternaturally acute hearing, and not one shred of common sense. Who cares who Lidia marries, especially a twenty-first-century feminist? Why go to all this trouble for someone who simply isn't that interesting, except that there needs to be a plot? And Shona's highly lusty crush on Sasha means she sees him as the proper mate for delectable little Lidia (who couldn't possible care less about him) in spite of a zillion unsubtle clues that she's got that wrong. (When she does get the right man for Lidia all set up, it's pretty much anticlimactic.)

But the journey's the thing, not the destination, right? I found trotting alongside Shona as she falls flat on her assumptions, picks herself up and carries on assuming (despite her new-found fondness for the aperçu "Never assume, it makes an ass of (yo)u and me" about which ::facepalm::) everything is about value of face as well as face value, to be a chuckle.

Not, however, a major one. This is a first novel and it is clear that the author hasn't quite got her hands around the neck of this clue-dropping thing just yet. She's quick with the witticism, johnny-on-the-spot with the dry double entendre, a dab hand with the mildly amusing misunderstanding and/or malapropism. All are inherent in slamming a bog-standard fiftysomething Scottish lady librarian (how Shona would *hate* that description!) into a culture much more patriarchal than the present Western one, and even though she endows Shona with amazing skills though without any solid explanation for them, the joke of the fish out of water works pretty well. For a while. By the end of the 250-page book I was really, really ready for the story to be wrapped up, and the couples (plural) to embark on their Russian lives, and Shona to get the heck back home. The throwaway bit at the very end about the blue paint made me guffaw, and sent me off away from the read with a much happier frame of mind that I would have been in otherwise.

Will I read the next one, assuming there is one? Maybe. I might. I could be persuaded. I will not, however, be waiting with bated breath for it to arrive. There are other, more deft, whimsical mysteries for me to read while the wait goes on.

Happy Thursday, RichardDear!

I'm not off to the salt mines, today, callooh callay!



Plans, schmans. I shall putter and read.

>207 karenmarie: Thank you, Horrible, back atcha.

My last of my Thingaversary paper books arrived today! I got Judges and Empire Games! So excited. A bit silly of me, really, since I have insert Graham's number here books already in my possession awaiting my attention.

But there one is.

One what, dear? Oh! Gawddamn, 13 years. I can't believe it's been 10 for me. Tempus Fuggedaboutit.

Today Washington, DC joins the rank of Great Cities. I've finally, after years, found a really superior Vietnamese place that delivers. Pho Cong Ly Noodle and Grill in Annandale. I can't tell you how many Chinese dishes I've ordered to be delivered and thought, 'I bet in New York or Sand Francisco they never have to eat anything this crappy!' I am well pleased.

>209 SomeGuyInVirginia: Ten! Goodness gracious me, that's amazing. A long stint to be on one social medium.

GOOD delivery is a goddess-send indeed. That said, I'm not too terribly fussy about how extraordinary food is when someone is making it for me and bringing it to me. It's better than I'll do on my own, limited as my facilities are; but mostly I adore the clean-up: Open trash can, sling bag in, close trash can. THAT is bloody brilliant, that is.

Hallo RD!

Thank goodness I'd already had half a mug of coffee before looking up Graham's number. I'm only cross-eyed, not cross-eyed and twitching.

*smooch*

Drive-by Friday *smooches*

Happy Friday,Richard! Hope you have a fantastic weeekend!

>211 karenmarie: Heh. Yeup, that's not a detail you'll want to try to parse without serious caffeination.

*smooch*

>212 bell7: Hiya, Mary! *smooch*

>213 figsfromthistle: Thank you most kindly, Anita, I do too!

Happy Friday, RD!
My Sister, The Serial Killer sounds interesting!

>215 ChelleBearss: Thanks, Chelle! I hope you'll enjoy the read when you get to it. To my pleasure, Oyinkan Braithwaite liked my review enough to tweet me a thank-you!

Thank you 🤗

— h0n3ydr0p5 (@OyinBraithwaite) August 16, 2019

Looks like I missed wishing you a Happy Thingaversary. Sorry about that. I've been a bit under the weather the last few days. I'd try to check in, but I was just not feeling good and wouldn't make much headway before quitting. I'm still struggling with the remnants but I'm feeling some better this evening. Hope you enjoy your haul.

>217 thornton37814: Oh dear, Lori, I'm so sorry you're not feeling quite the thing just now. I'm bounding about the boardwalk, soaking in the sunshine and reading my preciousssssses like the book-Gollum that I am. I hope you're back up there with me soon.

I'm reveling in my Thingaversary haul!

>218 richardderus: I'm supposed to be at an event in downtown Knoxville tomorrow so I'm hoping I feel up to it in the morning. If I go, I need to make sure I don't overdo it.

>218 richardderus: I hope today's event goes well and that you feel better than you have to.
***
Black Light: Stories is making an impression on me:

When they let me out, I was just as mad as when I went in, only fatter and too lazy to exercise my wrath. Plus, I'd shaved off my eyebrows for no real reason, and what grew back was fine and blond and seemed to endear the world to me. I'd done the work and passed their tests, but my mind was still snarled.

(p32)

'Morning, RD! It's good to hear that I'm bounding about the boardwalk, soaking in the sunshine and reading my preciousssssses like the book-Gollum that I am.

Happy new day, Horrible! I'm a scoche less energetic today, either a nasal allergy or the early warning signs of a cold are weighing on me this morning but so far so good on fightin' it off.

>218 richardderus: Any photos of said bounding? That would be a sight to see ;0)

(Or should I not ask?)

Bounding book-Gollum! Sounds like a most excellent time.

>208 richardderus: Checked out that link to Graham's number...

>223 humouress: Thankfully no, Nina, no photos. Dadbod was smart enough to ask before snapping, so no one will see my unwashed ungroomed goateed face.

>224 jnwelch: I'm thoroughly happy with the boardwalk, Joe, since very little sand gets into my ouchies while I'm sitting on it.

>225 weird_O: I know, right?! YEEKS

Black Light: Stories, "Glow Hunter" (p39):

Bo is always dangling new universes, places she says are hidden in plain sight. I already feel high when she's around—giddy, tingles on my scalp. Once, I let her drag me to a trailer park psychic. A woman in a leotard told me my aura was dingy, that I could pay her extra to hose it off with her mind. I've told Bo I don't want to turn into a fractal elf or watch my hands pool into liquid rainbows. She tells me not to worry, that with mushrooms we'll be us, only better. She calls this my Summer of Yes. "Imagine everything slightly dazzling," she says, "real life with a glow."
***
(p46)
Bo and I weren't exactly friends in school—we were polite. It was Jeff who shoved us together. Bo, this strange girl who made anysmal grades and covered her arms in highlighter filigree. She's wait in the library while Jeff and I did homework, cutting holes in her clothes or vandalizing desks with her bizarre poems. Sometimes the two of them would take a break and go out to her car to get high. I'd study spitefully, prepare to kick Jeff's ass on whatever test. They'd come back stoned and giddy, sticky heat radiating. I'd never smelled sex before. I could have stormed off, but I didn't—I'd sit there wallowing in the hot tang of them, not used to being in such proximity to what I wanted.
***
(p59)
Jeff kissed me once, when we were thirteen. I'd just beaten him at some video game—obliterated his high score—and I thought he was mad until he lunged, openmouthed, and hugged me with his whole body. I memorized the shape of that moment, and then I pulled away. I laughed and laughed. He showed me what I was, without meaning to. He was all fat tongue and dumb want, his dick like a dog in the room, begging for attention.
***
(pp64–65)
I'm working Bo with my hands. This goes on in such a way that I can leave and come back to it. I take breaks, visit my childhood bedroom in my mind, sit in a comfy chair in my dead grandmother's knocked-down house. Helping Bo is a noble and difficult task, like trying to jerk off a beam of light.

I'm liking this collection more and more.

>225 weird_O: - LOL!!! I had never heard of this before (says my non-mathematical brain). I must mention this to my friend, whose son, Graham, is pretty good at math... ;-)

"What's worth happening happens in deep woods. Or so my daughter tells me." That's how Foxes starts. This is an amazing story. The story behind its creation, via Publishers Weekly, is one you should know: https://tinyurl.com/y4mt2u9p

Then go back and read Foxes again.

The marriage that produced the daughter was between the youthful narrator and an older fool, one with a little bit of money and a lot of crass.
(p73)
Whether it's nature or nurture, for people like the fool and me there is a long beat between learning something and knowing it. For us, answers come later, when we're far away from the question, if they come at all.
***
The narrator's drinking problem didn't stop the fool from leaving, and leaving his daughter to our drunken narrator's tender mercies. The teachers and the shrinks all agree that the child's darkness is to be accepted if not encouraged, as she tries to make sense of her new world.
(p81)
In the deepest, darkest woods, the knight cuts out a man's liver and tosses it to a fox. He cuts off two ears. Fox. Fox. He rips out a larnix as a snack for a wolf. Two larnixes!
"I believe is't pronounced larynx," I say gently, refilling my glass.
***
But in the end, what's the poor kid to do? Her daddy's somewhere else and not coming back and mama's not what you'd call all there either.
(p89)
Very soon, he'll be dead in a painful, mundane way—a ruptured this, a burst that—and even more funds will arrive. How noble of him to provide such a hefty inheritance! I'm still working out that last part—right now it's more wish than plausible ending.
***
There's really not much life raft here; no wonder it took 12 years for the author to write it.

Happy Saturday, Richard. I am intrigued by Miss Blaine's Prefect and the Golden Samovar and baffled by Graham's number.

>228 jessibud2: Haw! Even your friend's Graham probably hasn't used Graham's number. Apparently it's useful in exactly one mathematical proof. Like I'd know....

>230 Familyhistorian: Heh, welcome to the latter club; the former is a perfect library borrow.
***
Black Light: Stories, p91

This dumb town is known for two things only: the Buddy Holly statue by the strip mall and the big, big sky. I hate that stupid statue—just seeing it sticks the whiniest songs in your head, makes you think of creepy, old-timey ghosts...The sky is all right, streaked pink and orange, but it's more like a lid than a promise. We're nowhere. If you wanted to leave you'd be driving forever, not toward anything, just away.

>

Black Light: Stories, p 107:
Where I'm from, falling asleep is easy. You can hear your eyelashes swipe the pillow. There's so much nothing pouring in, you drift off listening to your choice.

Glad to see you're enjoying your current read so much! Looking forward to the full review :)

>233 bell7: Hi Mary! Should be tomorrow at the rate I'm cruising along. Really bleak, but very lovely.

65 Death in the Dark Walk by Deryn Lake

Rating: 3.75* of five

NINE instances of the reprehensible, revolting w-bomb. There's a contemptible sodden mess of a Duke portrayed as queer, and that sits badly with me. He is the object of epithetry as offensive as being called "faggot" to the ears of the day: "...a right Miss Molly," as a fellow Peer of the Realm calls him. Really? This book was written in 1995. The author couldn't be bothered not to make one of her suspects a stereotypical limp-wristed useless creature, who (in other offensive news) insists he's not queer and even places a beautiful whore under his "protection" to prove it?

‘I had no wish to wound you. Truth to tell, as Mr Rawlings already knows, I took Elizabeth on to prove to the world that I was a man and not the weak-kneed quean that all believed me to be.’

The Frenchman returned his glance with grudging admiration. ‘It must have cost you dear to say that. I appreciate your courage.'

...said the Real Man to the Faggot...I don't appreciate the author's appalling and insensitive portrayal of the Duke of Midhurst, period-appropriate that it may be.

The story was involving enough, though I knew who the murderer was early on (despite the fact that we next-to-never even *see* the criminal!), and the Use of Capitalization was a wee bit distracting (why are we expected to endure the twee use of "the Apothecary" and "the Blind Beak" for characters who have perfectly usable, uncomplicated names?), but the evocation of a long-dead London in the midst of great change was a true pleasure. Yes, problems exist that diminish my enjoyment of the book; I will still read the second installment, Death at the Beggar's Opera.

One more time on the homophobia, though, and I am out for good.

ETA
I decided to do a fuller review, but not as a separate post, on my blog. Instead, it's on the "Mystery Series" tab: https://tinyurl.com/csdx9n2

Between your cakes over in Joe's cafe and your quotes here and now you are making me drool is SO many different ways

The car at the top of this thread may be my favorite so far.

>235 richardderus: I'm surprised you're willing to read the second installment. The evocation of misty London must indeed have been enjoyable as the bits you reference would have turned me off pretty quickly. Even when a book was written long ago, I have to consciously overlook such denigrations.

>146 richardderus: Great review of My Sister, the Serial Killer.

>236 magicians_nephew: Heh, well Jim, you live in a place where your cake-hunger is only a cafe visit away from satiation! And I want everyone to read Black Light: Stories, so #sorrynotsorry all the way around.

>237 EBT1002: If it's got the same homophobia, believe me, it will not be a happy review. But there is a Certain Something in that time period. I like the idea of moving into the deep country of Islington, for example: Sam, John the Apothecary's bestie since childhood, was separated from John when "{h}is father had long since moved away to the unspoilt rural retreat of Islington"!

Thanks! Oyinkan liked it enough to thank me on Twitter, which really made my day.

>238 richardderus: Hah! These days, the London Borough of Islington is deep central London.

>239 humouress: I know, it make me chuckle a lot! Rural delights of Islington hahaha

And John Lennon lived in the Dakota building on one side of Central Park, so named because it was so far from the city.

ETA: hard to imagine Manhattan as farmland, around the time it belonged to the Dutch (or then abouts).

>241 humouress: Harlem was a dinky little farming town as late as the 1860s! The neighborhood I grew up in in Austin is central...then it was the boonies. Growing cities do this to us all the time.

66 Black Light: Stories by Kimberly King Parsons

Rating: 5* of five

Don't start this read if you're not ready to go there. You know the "there" I mean, that there that Gertrude Stein railed against not being there in Oakland, California, circa 1920. Or today, for all I know or care. The there you're going with Author Parsons is the there that we try hard to deal with each in our separate ways, the there that we hate but need. You're not going alone. You might, in fact, prefer solitude on the trip, but by definition, reading is an accompanied silence. Like a playlist of stuff you can't remember liking when you were twenty but comes up when you enter the year you turned twenty into YouTube's maw.

The whole collection's about the messiness of being alive, the passionlessness of the quotidian, purple cabbage Thai dishes that jumble against red beards, hairy armpits. And you know what, no one wins.

There it is. This mess of words and ideas is what's kept Author Parsons busy the past twelve or so years. It's been a good, solid busy, as you can see if the hard stuff is where your reading needs are right now. It's actually more hard for me to imagine her finding the room inside herself to birth two kids! All this life, all these people, you end up feeling like your entire brain is swelling from their bad breath and farts.

As is my wont, I used the time-honored and very efficient Bryce Method to (re)view the stories as they came over at my blog.

Morning, Richard. Trying to make the rounds, after another whirlwind weekend. Back to work today, though, but nice being off for 3 and off again tomorrow. Yah!

Good review of Black Light: Stories. You have really been knocking out the story collections. My kinda guy and this sounds like another winner. I am also reading a collection, The New Order: Stories, which has been pretty solid.

'Morning, RichardDear!

Alarm clock wake up, third sip of coffee, coming out of the fog.

Have a loverly Monday.

>243 richardderus: Nice review! I'm not sure I'll go "there" just yet, but glad it was a winner for you.

Have a great day with lots of coffee!

>244 msf59: Thanks, Mark! I've decided not to have a Short Story Week on #Booksgiving this year, so lots of collections are now showing up as regular-season reviews.

>245 karenmarie: Work hearty, Horrible, and savor that caffeine.

>246 bell7: I don't know that this is a collection I'd recommend that you read, Mary...it's all a one-big-downer kind of read. I don't think there's enough resonance with the collection's sense of its place in the world, which is what transported me, to draw you past the dead-end lives as the things themselves.

Maybe if you're already mad at the world...?

Happy hot Monday morning xx

>248 katiekrug: "Happy" is stretching it. Foggy and sticky and hot. UGH
***
I was extra pleased that Kimberly King Parsons liked my review of Black Light: Stories!

I *loved* reading your take on every story 🖤

— Kimberly King Parsons (@kkingparsons) August 19, 2019

>241 humouress: Time and Again is a lovely little time travel novel that sends the hero back to New York in the 1880's. Sheep grazing in the Sheep Meadow and crops growing in the upper west side.

Plus it's a real good book!

>249 richardderus: So cool!

.>250 magicians_nephew:. Agreed!

>250 magicians_nephew: +1 on that!

>251 jnwelch: Yeah! I was inordinately pleased by her pleasure.

>250 magicians_nephew: - One of my favourite books of all time! I keep wishing Spielberg or Ron Howard would make it into a film, but only someone who has the right soul could do it justice! Did you know there is a sequel, called From Time to Time. I own a copy but have not yet got to it. I think I am afraid to be let down, not that that would necessarily happen but still...

>249 richardderus: - Yay Richard! But it's no surprise, really! :-)

>253 jessibud2: It's one of the books that would best be filmed now, not 40 or more years ago. The tech would make the whole thing better on the eyes.

And yeah, I know I'm over the moon about it but it's really because she's from my part of the world that makes me so pleased I think.

>247 richardderus: That's a totally fair assessment, I think. I'm not sure I can fully explain myself, but basically I enjoy seeing people enjoy the books that are right for them, even if it's not something I would read myself.

>255 bell7: Exactly! Apart from the unnecessary-to-explain acute stabbing sensation that occurs when others read Chuckles the Dick's ponderous contraptions and feign enjoyment, I feel the same way: You like it! YAY!

>255 bell7: That's really lovely.

Well, I'm already sketching out my Christmas. I've got tickets to see John Waters when he's in Virginia and have sworn to Parker that we'll have a tree this year. Not sure how much good it will do since I always job myself out for the two weeks vacation I take at Christmas.

I continue to work my way through the NYT best seller list. I adore crap.

>253 jessibud2: >254 richardderus:. I love Finney and have as copy, but haven't been able to read it after seeing the movie. (Three times.). Christopher Reeve is a household diety in these parts. When I was a kid I wanted to be Good Superman.

>257 SomeGuyInVirginia: - There is already a movie of Time and Again?? How did I miss that? And Christopher Reeve is in it? Oh my...

>257 SomeGuyInVirginia: I love my elderly hardcover of Time and Again! But my dear, your half-heimer's is kickin' in: Time After Time had a movie, not Finney's book.

>258 jessibud2: Sorry to disappoint, Shelley me lurve.

>250 magicians_nephew: I'll look out for Time and Again, thanks.

>259 richardderus: - Hehe. Actually, I am relieved, not disappointed. First of all, it means I haven't missed it and secondly, there is still a chance for someone to do it right! ;-)

>260 humouress: A book very much worth reading. I hope it'll be a good one for you.

>261 jessibud2: Oh good! A fifty-year-old novel about a man stalking a woman through time...well, maybe not in today's climate.

I really disliked Leviathan Wakes the first time I read it; it was on sale for the Kindle recently; since I really, really like the show The Expanse I decided to try the novel again, and so far it's much much much more successful for me this time.

I am very happy about this.

'Morning, RD!

I love both books by Finney. I haven't ever re-read them, but they're happily on my shelves waiting for another turn or to become some of Jenna's favorites.

Happy Tuesday to you.

Hey Horrible! I wonder what books *will* become Jenna's favorites. As I'll be long-gone before the dreadful day dawns that they're her books, I'll never know.

*smooch*

Oh for crying out loud, all these years I've thought the movie Somewhere in Time was based on the book Time and Again!

>266 SomeGuyInVirginia: Surprise! All in a day's work, destroying long-cherished illusions and correcting wetware databases. *smooch*
***
Friday Black: Stories, "The Era", p35:
I walk to the nurse in big steps. Everybody gets their mandatory Good in the mornings with breakfast at school, but they have extra at the nurse's. I go to the nurse because Good makes me feel good. When I have Good, it's easy to be proud and truthful, and ignore the things that cloud my truth, like {his sister}, and being made into an example, or knowing I'll never be perfect.

The nurse...is shaped like an old pear. Her body type is not attractive. She isn't in a union and doesn't have any kids because she's ugly and works as a school nurse. Today her face looks tired plus more tired. ... She steps to me. I stretch my neck out for her and close my eyes. She puts one hand on one side of my neck. Her hand is warm plus strong. She stabs the injector needle in. My head feels the way an orange tastes. I open my eyes and look at her. She waits. I look at her more. She frowns, then gives me another shot. And then I feel the Good.
***
Scary territory. Soma, anyone? Or hell, Adderall as we dispense with glee and vigor to energetic boys now? Medicate the problem away! (Then cue handwringing over the massive addiction crisis. Tedious cycle.)

Samurai Helmet in the shape of an octopus, about 18th century, Japan ~

Happy Wednesday, RD! I was happy to see the Green Herons yesterday but I also saw more than a dozen, Great Egrets too. Always a cool, majestic sighting.

It has cooled off nicely here. Yah!!

Sporcamuss to help you through the mid-week

Morning!

>268 quondame: Hi Susan! That's a magnificent helmet. The octopus would scare Cthulhu!

>269 msf59: Ooo egrets are so elegant, aren't they? Thanks, Mark.

>270 jnwelch: *uncontrollable slobbering* puuufff paaassstrrryyy

You know me well, Joe.

>271 katiekrug: It is, isn't it?
***
Not the easiest of evenings for me as Old Stuff rolled in drunk and angry, two things which could just as well be written as one word when referring to him: drunknangry. It's true that my earphones prevent me from hearing his words but his banging around and rattling his walker and generally stinking up the place with bar-fog and sweat and his eternal aroma of cigarette butts doesn't make me happy at the best of times. Which, given the fact that he has the temerity to keep breathing and muttering and generally taking up room without doing anything positive to make up for it....

We pay for everything somehow. I pay for my shelter with the unpleasant fact that I must have a roommate not of my own choice. But I get to live on the boardwalk in a nice little oceanside town, so there's that big big plus.

>272 richardderus: I am glad you can still see the plus, Richard dear. Any roommate other than Frank would send me right into the vortex.

>272 richardderus: - Richard, what you need is a voodoo doll. I speak from experience: it helps. Mentally, anyhow.

>273 FAMeulstee: My weekly therapist visit makes that perspective available to me, Anita, and that's a thing I value very highly indeed.

>274 jessibud2: I worry that my negativity is so powerful that the darn thing would work, Shelley!

Well, I justify it as a thinking person's punching bag, therapeutically speaking. At least, that's what I tell myself. I am harbouring some heavy-duty negativity, myself, in recent months (my mother's husband) and just when I thought I had nowhere to put all the anger and hatred, voila! I created a voodoo doll. The real back story is that once upon a time, when I was still teaching, my colleague/friend next door, and our 2 educational assistants made one. It was at a particularly low point with the-principal-from-hell. We closed our doors after everyone went home at the end of the day and had our fun. He actually moved to another school the following year. My friend eventually went to teach at another school, too, I retired and the doll ended up with me. Or so I thought. When I went looking for him a few months ago and couldn't find him, I was forced to go look for one. Don't know why but I ended up at the bookstore (!) and found a perfect substitute: a cloth sock monkey bookmark. He is currently within reach, whenever I get some disturbing news or info from Montreal.

And that's my story. I am happy to share a pin or two, just say the word. ;-)

(Bet you didn't know I had such an evil streak....;-)

>270 jnwelch: Oh. What new ancient delight is this? And how have I missed out on it for so long?

>276 jessibud2: (Bet you didn't know I had such an evil streak....;-)
You're a teacher...evil-souled cackling wretches one and all...practicing Black Arts in the hedgerows since time immemorial...
:-P

>277 laytonwoman3rd: Puff pastry filled with pastry cream from Apulia...pretty much the best combination of stuff ever, isn't it?

>278 richardderus: - Whatever works....;-)…...cackle, cackle....

>279 jessibud2: Heh.
***
Old Stuff's drunk again, came rampaging in here banging his walker and cursing a blue streak, soaking wet from the rainstorm. Such a fun thing to have someone I don't like puke his anger in my air.

Charles Urbach's lovely artwork, "Not All Treasure Is Gold," epitomizes how I see Kai from The Invisible Library series by Genevieve Cogman:

>281 richardderus: Oooh, gorgeous image!! Although I think of Kai as more muscular, not so svelte...

>281 richardderus: - I love the light in that art piece!

>281 richardderus: Now that's a hoard worth defending...

Can you rearrange a pillow over his face while he sleeps? So that he's more comfortable?

I won't judge. The last time I was in the National Cathedral I paid $5 to light candles to pray for the painful death of A- T-, a bad person.

'Morning, RD!

I'm sorry that you have to put up with Old Stuff. I like Shelley's idea of a voodoo doll.

>270 jnwelch: *whimper* I have the coffee, just need the Sporcamuss.

I had fun reading I Feel Bad About My Neck - some lovely and snarky essays by the late Ms. Ephron. I stayed up reading way too late.

Sweet Thursday, buddy. Nice to see a Kai-alike up there. I love that Invisible Library series.

>286 karenmarie: Thank you, Horrible, he's a trial...but he's not as bad as the nutball who scratched my arm up or the drunk who bled out from stomach issues or...well, I don't like him but it's not *quite* up there with the others.

>287 jnwelch: I'm so glad! Yep, it's torture to wait for the new one.

Thursday's gonna do juuussst fine.

Oyinkan Braithwaite talks about How to Make Multiple Stabbings Funny! Interesting podcast for the podcastile.

Happy Friday, Richard dear.

Another heatwave over here, not as bad as the last one, but I do hope it is the last of this summer. I wish autumn arrived!

Happy Friday, Richard. It will top out at 75 today, (our magic number) with sunshine. Can you say, blissful? I knew you could...plus, I am really enjoying my current reads. Enjoy your day.

Happy Friday, RichardDear!

*smooch* from your own Horrible

>290 FAMeulstee: Thanks, Anita! It's not going to be hot here today, for a nice change, but it's also rainy and that's not good for business.

>291 msf59: I'm guessing we've had the same chat with the Weather Goddess, Mark, since this is the same as we've got today.

Spend a special one!

>292 karenmarie: Hey there, Horrible, I'm sending a smooch back!

Thread the eleventh is now open!