Streamsong (3) Growing Into Summer

I raise a few Appaloosa horses. Here is my only foal of the year at about a week old.



Here he and his mom are out for a stroll in the driveway while roomservice freshens their quarters:



Yup, he's solid with no Appaloosa coloring. Although Mom and Dad were both leopards, there was a 25% chance that he would be solid. I will send in genetic testing to ensure that he is not hiding an Appaloosa gene, but I suspect not.

He can still get Appaloosa registration papers, and I suspect he will be a very nice horse.

Here's a photo of Dad:

I'm Janet. Welcome to my thread!

I've been a member of LT since 2006.

I retired in the fall of 2016 from my career as a technician in an NIH research lab. I'm now enjoying all the things I never had time to do.

I live in the Bitterroot Valley of western Montana along Skalkaho Creek. I'm about half way between Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks - so if you're traveling or vacationing in the area, I'd love to meet you.

What do I read? A bit of everything. I enjoy literary fiction, mysteries and the occasional feel good cozy. I'm slowly working my way through 1001 Books to Read Before You Die (actually 1300 + books since I use the combined version spreadsheet). I'm also working my way around the world in a global reading challenge. About half the books I read are non-fiction.

I have Appaloosa horses and raise a foal or two each year.

Link to last thread of 2019: https://www.librarything.com/topic/313018

I read multiple books at a time and Yes! I am currently reading this many books! My New Year's Resolution is to finish some of these which I started started reading or rereading in 2019 but don't want to set aside entirely.

CURRENTLY READING

- Possession - A. S. Byatt- 1991 - 75'ers group - romance; 1001; ROOT acq'd 2011
- Listening Becoming Wild: How Animal Cultures Raise Families, Create Beauty, and Achieve Peace- Carl Safina LTER - audiobook
- White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America - Nancy Isenberg - 2016 - ROOT

- Lit Seminar: Flights - Olga Tokarczuk - 2007 - Polish author
- Beyond Babylon - Igiaba Scego - lit seminar (Feb), purchased 2020

*****************
The Unfinished Challenge Pile:

- Malina - Ingeborg Bachman - October Lit Seminar; Global Reading - Austria
- We Were Eight Years in Power - Ta-Nehisis Coates - RLBC - Kindle (Reread)
- The Dance: Moving to the Rhythms of Your True Self - Oriah Mountain Dreamer - May RandonCat - Book to do with dancing; ROOT acquired 2008 = 11 ROOT points
- Brotopia- Emily Chang 2018 - PBS/NYT Now Read This Bookclub; acq'd 2019
- The Bedside Book of Bastards - Dorothy Johnson - March 75'ers NF challenge: True Crime - ROOT 2014 = 5 Root points
- Democracy in Chains - Nancy K. MacLean - 2017 - Real Life Book Club - acq'd 2019
- These Truths: A History of the United States - Jill Lepore - 2018 - acquired 2019
- Bird By Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life - Anne Lamott - 1994; ROOT acq'd 2013 = 6 ROOT points

FIRST QUARTER BOOKS READ

January

1. Bitterroot: A Salish Memoir of Transracial Adoptopion - Susan Devan Harness - 2018 - library
2. Only the End of the World Again - Troy Nixey - Neil Gaiman - graphic novel - 2000 - library
3. Blow-Up - Julio Cortázar - 1960 - ROOT 2019 ROOT #1 2019
4. The Stone Sky (The Broken Earth #3) - N. K. Jemisin - 2018 - library
5. The Nickel Boys - Colson Whitehead - 2019 - library
6. Heal Yourself With Sound & Music - Don Campbell - 2006- audiobook - library sale 2019; ROOT #2
7. The Moravian Night - Peter Handke - 2007 -November Literature Seminar; 2019 Nobel Prize - Global Reading: Austrian author/location begins & ends in Serbia; - Kindle (Unfinished Challenge Pile Book); ROOT #3 - 2019
8. The Inspector and Mrs. Jeffries - Emily Brightwell - 1993 - MysteryCat: historical mystery; ROOT #4 - 2008 (Part of omnibus)
9. The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Mohsin Hamid - 2007 - GeoCat "stans' & others; Global Challenge: Pakistan; 1001; ROOT #5 2015
10. Killers of the Flower Moon - David Grann - 2017 - RLBC- Reread - purchased 2020
11. Neither Wolf nor Dog: On Forgotten Roads with an Indian Elder - Kent Nerburn - 1994 - library
12. Grass - Keum Suk Gendry-Kim - 2017 - graphic non-fiction; global reading: South Korea - library

FEBRUARY

13. In The Frame - Dick Francis - 1976 - Group Read - Root #6 acq'd 2019
14. News of the World - Paulette Jiles - 2016 - audiobook - library
15. The Singing Bones: A Novel of the Life and Times of Naturalist Georg Wilhelm Steller - Stephen Spotte 2019 - LTER; ROOT #7- Kindle app
16. Still Waters - Viveca Sten - 2008 - Kindle App - group read - Global Reading - Sweden (translated Swedish) - ROOT #7 acq'd 2018
17. American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment - Shane Bauer - 2018 - PBS/NYT Now Read This- Kindle app - acq'd 2019 ROOT #8
18. Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive - Stephanie Land - 2019 - audiobook - library
19.- A Pilgrimage to Eternity: From Canterbury to Rome in Search of a Faith - Timothy Egan - 2019 - library
20. Children of Blood and Bone - Tomi Adeyemi - 2018 - Fantasy February - ROOT #9 - 2019

MARCH
21. The Company of Cats - Marian Babson - 1999 - Mysterykit - Furry Detectives- ROOT # 10 - acq'd 2008
22. Broken Places, Outer Spaces - Nnedi Okorafor - 2019 - library -
23. Women of Copper Country - Mary Doria Russell - 2019 - library
24. Three Bags Full - Leonie Swann - 2005 - MysteryKit - Furry Detectives - audiobook - library
25. Tracks - Louise Erdrich- 1988 - Group Read - acq'd 2020
26. Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love - Dani Shapiro - 2019 - PBS:Now Read This - library
27. Mermaid in the Mountains - C. M. Arvish - 2018 - outdoor book club- purch 2020
28. Cleaning Sucks: An Unf*ck Your Habitat Guided Journal for Less Mess, Less… Rachel Hoffman - 2020 - audiobook - LTER 2020
29. Whose Body - Dorothy Sayers - 1923 - MysteryCat Golden Age Mystery and March Murder and Mayhem- library

SECOND QUARTER BOOKS

April
30. Salmon Fishing in the Yemen - Paul Torday - 2007 - GeoCat:North Africa; Global Reading: Yemen; ROOT #11 - acq'd 2014
31. Upright Women Wanted - Sarah Gailey - 2020 - LTER audiobook 2020
32. Rough Magic: Riding the World's Loneliest Horse Race by Lara Prior-Palmer - 2019 - 75'ers April Adventure Read - Global Challenge: Mongolia - library -
33.Disappearing Earth - Julia Phillips - 2020 - April PBS Now Read This - Global Reading - Kamchatka - acq'd 2020
34. One Goal: A Coach, A Team and the Game That Brought A Divided - Amy Bass - 2018; 75'ers NF - Refugees and Identity; Global Reading: Somalia; library
35. The Thirty Nine Steps - John Buchan - 1915 - Mysterykit-Espionage; 1001; library
36. The Dutch House - Anne Patchett - 2019 - April RLBC via Zoom; purchased 2020

May
37. The Butterfly Girl - Rene Denfeld - 2019 - library
38. A life on Gorge River : New Zealand's remotest family - Robert Long - 2010 - GoCat New Zealand & Australia' Global Reading: New Zealand; ROOT #12 - acq'd 2017
39. The Ten Thousand Doors of January - Alix E. Harrow - 2019 - library
40. When the Mob Ran Vegas - Steve Fisher - 2005 - 75'ers April NF crime and justice; acq'd 2020
41. The Street - Ann Petry - 1946 - PBS Now Read This; purchased 2020
42. The Wolf at Twilight: An Indian Elder's Journey through a Land of - Kent Nerburn - 2009 - library
43. High Country - Nevada Barr - 2004 - Geocat: Somewhere you want to visit (Yosemite) - ROOT #13 acq'd 2016
44. Talking to Strangers - Malcom Gladwell - 2019 - RLBC - purchased 2020 - Kindle app
45. All Systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells - 2017,- 75'er's Group read - space -Kindle download 2020

June
46. Get Shorty - Elmore Leonard - MysteryCat - made into a movie; 1001; ROOT #15 - acq'd 2017
47. The Hollow Kingdom - Kira Jane Buxton - 2019 - library
48. The Starch Solution - John A. McDougall - 2012 - ROOT #16 2019
49. Nairobi Noir - Peter Kimani - 2020 - acq'd 2020
50. Darwin Comes to Town - Menno Schilthuizen - 2018 - Global Reading: Netherlands (author, partial location); library
51. Artificial Condition: The Murderbot Diaries - 2018 - Martha Wells - GeoCat: Space: The Final Frontier; acq'd 2020
52. Closed Circles - Viveca Sten - 2009 - MysteryKit - police; Global Reading - Sweden; Kindle app - acqd 2020
53. American Spy - Lauren Wilkinson - 2019 - PBS Now Read This; Global Reading - Burkina Faso - acq'd 2020
54. The Overstory: A Study Guide for Book Clubs - Kathryn Cope - 2019 - (89 pages) preparing for RLBC - acq'd 2020

THIRD QUARTER READING

July

55. Hospital Station - James White - 1962 - Acq'd 2020 (Part of Beginning Operations omnibus - 75'ers group read - acq'd 2020
56. Go Tell It on the Mountain - James Baldwin - 1952 - 1001 - library
57. Citizen: An American Lyric - Claudia Rankine - 2014 - July PBS Now Read This - purchased 2020
58. The Orphan Master's Son - Adam Johnson - 2012 - Global Reading: North Korea (location; US author) - library
59. Invasion - Robin Cook - 1997 - MysteryKit - Cross Genre mystery; ROOT #17 acq'd 2008
60. Dandelion Wine - Ray Bradbury - 1957 - 75'ers July Juveniles; ROOT #18 acq'd 2016
61. They Are Already Here: UFO Culture and Why We See Saucers by Sarah Scoles - 2020 - LTER - audiobook - 2020
62. The First Phone Call From Heaven - Mitch Albom - 2014 - library
63. Bel Canto - Ann Patchett - 2001 - GeoCat Latin and South America; ROOT #19 acq'd 2016
64. This House of Sky - Ivan Doig - 1978 - RLBC - Reread - ROOT #20 acq'd 2016
65. Smokescreen - Dick Francis - 1972 - DF group read; Global Reading- location South Africa; library

AUGUST
66. She Came to Slay: The Life and Times of Harriet Tubman -Erica Armstrong Dunbar - 2019 - library
67. The Eye of Zoltar - Jasper Fforde - 2014 - July Juveniles - library
68. Rogue Protocol - Martha Wells - 2018 - library
69. How to Be an Antiracist - Ibram X. Kendi - 2019 - acq'd 2020
70. Clap When You Land - Elizabeth Acevedo - 2020 - Global Reading: Dominican Republic - YA -
71. Guiltless - Viveca Sten - 2010 - Viveca Sten group read; MysteryCat International mystery; Global Reading: Sweden; Kindle 2020 purchase
72. Possession - A. S. Byatt - 1990 - 1001 - 75'er's group read: Romance; - Root #21 - acq'd 2011
73. What Rose Forgot - Nevada Barr - 2019 - library
74. The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek - Kim Michele Richardson - 2019 - Library Brown Bag Book Club - acq'd 2020
75. Beijing Payback - Daniel Nieh - 2019 - PBS Now Read This - Library
76. A Dog Year: Twelve Months, Four Dogs, and Me - Jon Katz - 2002 - library

SEPTEMBER
77. Star Surgeon - James White - 1970 - group read; part of Beginning Operations omnibus purchased 2020
78. The City We Became - N.K. Jemisin - 2020 - library
79. White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America - Nancy Isenberg - 2016; acq'd 2019 = ROOT #22
80. The South Pole Ponies - Theodore K Mason - 1979 - GeoCat Arctic and Antarctic; ROOT #23 acq'd 2017

**** 80 BOOKS COMPLETED IN 2020 ****

YEAR CATALOGED OR ACQUIRED

3 - 2008
1 - 2011
1 - 2014
1 - 2015
4 - 2016
3 - 2017
2 - 2018
7 - 2019
23 - 2020
35 - Library

FORMAT
7 - Audiobook
66 - Print
8 - Kindle App

GENRE

- 45 Fiction (may fit into more than one category)

9 - general fiction
3 - historical fiction
7 - literary fiction
15 - mystery/thriller/crime
2 - short stories
9- SFF/dystopia
4 - SF
1 - supernatural

5 - 1001

1 - novel in verse
1 - graphic novels


- 30 - Non-Fiction (may fit into more than one category)
1 - Alternate Healing
2 - Animals
1 - Biography
3 - black experience
1 - cleaning/organizing
1 - Cooking/Eating/Health Recipes
1 - Global Reading
3 - History
1 - Horses
1 - Literary Criticism
1 - Graphic Non-Fiction
13 - Memoir
5 - Native American
1 - prisons and justice
1 - psychology
1 - Refugees
1 - Science
1 - Sociology
1 - spirituality
1 - Travel
1 - True Crime

AUTHORS

35 - Male Authors
43- Female Authors
1 - Combination of male and female

47 - Authors who are new to me
31 - Authors read before
1 - Combination of authors new and read before

Rereads:
- Killers of the Flower Moon - David Grann - 2017 - RLBC- Reread - purchased 2020
- This House of Sky - Ivan Doig - 1978 - Reread for RLBC; acq'd 2016

Multiple books read in 2019 by same author:
- Viveca Sten - Still Waters; Closed Circles; Guiltless
- Martha Wells - All Systems Red; Artificial Condition: The Murderbot Diaries; Rogue Protocol
___
- Nevada Barr - High Country; What Rose Forgot -
- Dick Francis - In the Frame; Smokescreen;
- N. K. Jemisin - The Stone Sky; The City We Became -
- Kent Nerburn: Neither Wolf nor Dog: On Forgotten Roads with an Indian Elder; The Wolf at Twilight: An Indian Elder's Journey through a Land of
- Viveca Sten - Still Waters; Closed Circles; Guiltless
- Martha Wells - All Systems Red; Artificial Condition: The Murderbot Diaries; Rogue Protocol
- James White - Hospital Station; Star Surgeon

Nationality of Author:

1 - Argentina
1 - Austria
1 - Canada
1 - German
1 - Kenya
1 - Netherlands
1 - New Zealand
1 - South Korea
1 - Pakistani
3 - Sweden
9 - UK
58 - US
2 - US/Nigeria


Birthplace or residence of Author if different from nationality:
Julio Cortázar - Argentine author; born in Belgium; lived in France
Robert Long - New Zealand; born in Australia

Setting of book if different than author's nationality:

1 - Antarctica
1 - Burkino Faso
1 - China
1 - Dominican Republic
1 - Mongolia
1 - North Korea
1 - Russia - Kamchatka Penninsula
1 - South Africa
1- Yemen

Language Book Originally Published in:

70 - English
2 - German
1 - Korean
1 - Spanish
3 - Swedish

Original Publication Date

1 - 1923
1 - 1946
1 - 1952
1 - 1957
1 - 1962
1 - 1967
1 - 1970
1 - 1972
1 - 1976
1 - 1978
1 - 1979
1 - 1988
2 - 1990
1 - 1993
1 - 1994
1 - 1997
1 - 1999
1 - 2000
1 - 2001
1 - 2002
1 - 2004
2 - 2005
1 - 2006
3 - 2007
1 - 2008
2 - 2009
2 - 2010
2 - 2012
3 - 2014
2 - 2016
3 - 2017
9 - 2018
21 - 2019
6 - 2020

The Global Challenge: Read five books from each of the 193 UN members plus a few additional areas. (Ongoing project over **Many** years!)

Thread here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/188308

COUNTRIES VISITED IN 2020


visited 18 states (8%)
Create your own visited map of The World

ALL COUNTRIES VISITED


visited 93 states (41.3%)
Create your own visited map of The World

As always, I'd like to think that I should focus on books that are currently sitting unread on Planet TBR. I keep hauling books home faster than I can read them and the piles keep growing larger.

These numbers include the library books that I have at home.

As of 7/1/2020: 520 books on MT TBR
As of 5/1/2020: 516 books on MT TBR
As of 4/1/2020: 522 books on MT TBR
As of 3/1/2020: 523 books on MT TBR
As of 02/02/2020: 517 books on MT TBR
As of 01/01/2020: 520 books on MT TBR

As of 01/01/2019: 510 books on physical Mt TBR
As of 01/01/2018: 510 books on physical Mt TBR
As of 01/01/2017: 481 books on physical Mt TBR
As of 01/01/2016: 459 books on physical Mt TBR

The other half of whittling down Planet TBR is acquiring fewer books and making a real effort to read the ones I buy in a timely (open to interpretation) fashion.

38 Books Acquired 2020
✔ - 11 - Read
- 1 - Reading/ in progress
- 16 - TBR

✔ 1. Killers of the Flower Moon - David Grann - 2017 - RLBC- Reread - purchased 2020
**Reading** 2. Beyond Babylon - Igiaba Scego - lit seminar
✔3. Nairobi Noir - Peter Kimani - LTER - 1/30/2020
✔ 4. Mermaid in the Mountains - C.M. Arvish - 2018 - 2/2020 RCKN Bookclub
✔5. Tracks - Louise Erdrich - 1988 - freebie - Bit Pub Lib 2/8/2020
6. Proof - Dick Francis - 1985 - freebie - Bit Pub Lib 2/12/2020
7. The Pilgrim's Progress- John Bunyan - Harvard Classics - gorgeous binding! - freebie - Bit Pub Lib 2/12/2020
8. A Wilderness Original: The Life of Bob Marshall - James Glover - Bit Pub Lib 2/14/2020
✔ 9. Cleaning Sucks: An Unf*ck Your Habitat Guided Journal for Less Mess, Less - Rachel Hoffman - LTER audiobook 2/17/2020
**Reading**10. Flights - Olga Tokarczuk - 2007 - lit seminar - Nobel laureate - Ammy 02/18/2020
✔11. When the Mob Ran Vegas - Steve Fischer - 2005 - from Jim 2/2020
✔12. The Dutch House: A Novel - Ann Patchett - 2019 - RLBC 3/05/2020
✔13. Upright Women Wanted - Sarah Gailey - 2020 - LTER audiobook 2020
✔14. Disappearing Earth - Julia Phillips - 2020 - April PBS Now Read This -
✔15. The Street - Ann Petry - May PBS Now This
✔16. All Systems Red - Martha Wells - Kindle - 5/02/2020
17. Girl Woman Other - Bernardine Evaristo - passed along by friend - 5/5
✔18. How To Talk to Strangers - Malcolm Gladwell - Kindle App; RLBC
✔19. Study Guide for Book Clubs The Overstory - Kathryn Cope
✔20. American Spy - Lauren Wilkinson - PBS Now Read This
✔21. Closed Circles - Viveca Sten - Kindle 99 cents
22. Guiltless - Viveca Stenn - Kindle 99 cents
23. Strong Poison - Dorothy L. Sayers - Kindle special
✔ 24. They Are Already Here: UFO Culture and Why We See Saucers by Sarah Scoles - 2020 - LTER - audiobook - 06/07/2020
**Listening**25. Becoming Wild: How Animal Cultures Raise Families, Create Beauty, and Achieve Peace - Carl Safina - 2020 - LTER - audiobook
26. Beginning Operations: A Sector General Omnibus: Hospital Station, Star Surgeon,… - James White - 2001 - group read - Ammy 06/07/2020 ✔Hospital Station
✔27. Artificial Conditions - Martha Wells - 2018 - 6/10/2020
✔28. How to be an Antiracist - Ibram X. Kendi - Chapter One 6/24/2020
29. The Overstory - Richard Powers - 2018 - Chapter One 6/24/2020
✔30. Citizen: An American Lyric - Claudine Rankine - PBS Now Read This - 6/24/2020
31. The Choice: Embrace the Possible - Edith Eger 6/24/2020
32. Elephant Speak - Roger Henneous - 2020 LTER - digital 7/4/2020
33. A RECIPE FOR DAPHNE by Nektaria Anastasiadou - 2020 LTER - digital (Turkey) 7/13/2020
34. Be Joyful - Warren W. Wiersbe - Phillipians NT Bible Study - 2008 - August 2020
35. Miracle Country: A Memoir - Kendra Atleework - 2020 - audiobook - LTER - Aug 2020
36. Tonight You’re Dead (Sandhamn Murders Book 4) - Viveca Sten - Kindle - August 2020
37. In the Heat of the Moment (Sandhamn Murders Book 5) - Viveca Sten - Kindle - August 2020
38. The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek - Kim Michele Richardson - RLBC - Aug 2020

Monthly Reading Plans

RLBC:
Lit Seminar
Finish a book started in 2019
Mysterykit:
Geocat:
Nonfiction:
***Nonfiction 75'ers challenge
-----and/or
***Nonfiction Cat -
PBS Now Read This
LTER
75'ers group read

May Challenges

Still need to finish:
✔The Butterfly Girl
✔A Life on Gorge River
The Starch Solution
✔When the Mob Ran Vegas

Library Books Due Back:
✔Ten Thousand Doors of January
Hollow Kingdom -

- RLBC: Talking to Strangers -Malcolm Gladwell - kindle app
- Mysterykit: Made into film: Get Shorty
- Geocat: anyplace you'd like to visit: High Country - Nevada Barr - Yosemite
✔ PBS Now Read This: The Street - Ann Petry -
***Reading***- LTER Nairobi Noir - Peter Kimani
- 75'ers group read: May Martians & Spaceships: All Systems Red - Martha Wells - Kindle
✔- Nonfiction 75'ers challenge: Comfort Read The Wolf at Twilight library
- Nonfiction Cat - Science: Darwin in the City - due back

Roots/Acq'd 2020/Library 1/2/3
Female author/Male author 3/3
Fic/NF: 3/3
1001:0
Countries:
--1 - New Zealand

Publication Dates:
1 - 1946
1 - 2005
1 - 2009
1 - 2010
2 - 2019

JUNE Challenges

Still need to finish:
The Starch Solution
- Nonfiction Cat - Science: Darwin in the City - due back
✔- May - Mysterykit: Made into film: Get Shorty

Library Books Due Back:
***Reading***Hollow Kingdom -

- RLBC: The Overstory - (Read previously)
- Mysterykit: Police Procedural
- Geocat: Space
- Nonfiction Cat - Human Science/Society:
- 75'ers group read: Justice
- 75'ers NF - Written by a journalist
PBS Now Read This: American Spy: A Novel - Lauren Wilkinson - ordered
***Reading***- LTER Nairobi Noir - Peter Kimani

Roots/Acq'd 2020/Library 1/0/0
Female author/Male author 0/1
Fic/NF: 1/0
1001:1
Countries:

Publication Dates:

1990

Here are my RL book club choices for 2020:

January: (Reread for me) Killers of the Flower Moon: the Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI - David Grann
February: The Rent Collector - Cameron Wright-
March:
April: The Dutch House - Anne Patchett
May:Talking to Strangers - Malcolm Gladwell -
June: (Reread for me) The Overstory - Richard Powers
July: (Reread for me) This House of Sky - Ivan Doig
August: The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek - Kim MIchele Richardson
September: The Bitterroots - C J Box - Woot! Our library director did the photograph that makes up the mountain landscape on the cover! I may try to some of the earlier volumes in this popular mystery series before reading this one.
: Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia ... - Rachel Maddow
October: Olive Again - Elizabeth Strout (I'll read Olive Kitteridge before reading this. And Yay! I have a copy on MT TBR :)
November: Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World - Anand Giridharadas

That's me! The slightly off center ice angel

That's it - I will BB soonish.

I must be lucky #14. I will come back and visit when you are all set up. Happy new thread Janet!
Oh you are working on it right now. I just scrolled back up to the top and there were some wonderful pictures of your new addition. He already looks like a very nice horse.

Have you see this? It is a recent rescue of a wild foal from a bog in Alberta. It was amazing to watch. The poor thing!
https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/wild-horse-advocates-rescue-bogged-in-filly-from-cent...

Happy new one!

Happy new thread!

Happy new thread, Janet!

Your foal is lovely, with his long, young legs.
Both mom and dad look stunning with the leopard coloring, but the solid color is also beautiful. Will he get darker when he matures?

>1 streamsong: What a beautiful family up top!

And happy new thread!

>1 streamsong: love, love, love.

Did you see Zenyatta had a filly? Daddy is Candy Ride.

Happy New Thread, Janet! Hooray for the new foal. He is a beauty!

Happy new thread, Janet.

Happy new thread, Janet, and such lovely baby pictures!

Happy new thread, Janet. Your new foal is a cutie. Does he have a name?

>14 mdoris: Hi Mary! Thanks for the complements re the colt.

No, I hadn't seen the story about the filly stuck in the bog. Thanks for sharing. It's amazing what predicaments horses can get themselves into.

>15 figsfromthistle: Thank you, figs!

>16 drneutron: Thank you, Jim!

>17 FAMeulstee: Hi Anita! Thanks for the complements on the foal. Foals are born with their base color sort of a neutral camouflage color and then (usually) darken. His tummy and legs are very light, almost fawn colored so those parts will darken for sure.

>18 Dejah_Thoris: Thank you, Dejah. The stallion isn't mine - he lives in North Dakota. He has several Appaloosa world championships in various events.

>19 fuzzi: Thank you, Lor. I had not seen that about Zenyatta. I will have to check it out.

>20 msf59: >21 PaulCranswick: >22 ronincats: >23 BLBera: Thank you Mark, Paul, Roni, and Beth!

>23 BLBera: No name yet. He'll need both a barn name -I'm thinking of something like Cruise since I love the way he moves - and a registered name which will hopefully incorporate bloodline names. Sire/Dad - Stolen Identity; Dam/Mom - Skipa Changin Breeze by my stallion Truly a Cool Breeze. Feel free to play the name game with me!

Happy new thread, slightly off center ice angel!

Your colt is beautiful. Cruise is an excellent barn name, IMO.

Hi, Janet. I stopped by to say hello and found that you have read a very interesting list of books this year! I may steal a few titles.

And I found horses! Let's see, a name. Stolen Breeze might have already been taken, I suppose. What about Cool Changin Identity? Breezy Identity? I look forward to the best choices.

>26 streamsong: Changin Identity
Stolen Breeze

your foal looks adorable! So surprising that he came out solid.

>27 karenmarie: Hi Karen and thanks! Naming is always a toughie for me.

>28 ffortsa: Hi and welcome! After seeing your posts on the Dick Francis thread, I know I need to stop by your thread, too!

Stolen Breeze is available as a name. :)

>29 fuzzi: Hey Lor! Changin Identity is also available

The name speculations are fun - and I'm afraid to do it on FBbecause if one I really like pops up, it's liable to be 'borrowed' by someone else.

It will be weeks before I have the DNA and photos done so feel free to add more names as they occur to you.

Right now I'm thinking of 'Cruisin Undercover' or 'Cruisin Incognito'.

>30 DFED: Thank you! It's nice to see you and I'm glad you stopped by.

The main Appaloosa gene works in a Mendelian pattern. If I had bred my mare to a homozygous stallion, I would have had Appaloosa color - but 50% of the foals would have been homozygous and they are night blind. So I chose heterozygous to heterozygous, knowing I would have a 25% chance of a solid baby.

I have a routine dentist appointment at 2m today. I was surprised they were open, but have a lot of faith in their practice. And since all of Montana only has 450 cases total, it's probably a pretty safe to go.

Its supposed to be a very rainy week all week, so I will concentrate on indoor chores and (maybe!) getting caught up with more reviews. And hopefully visiting more threads!

And reading of course! I'm almost done with The Street by Ann Petry for the PBS read.

I'm also reading The Wolf at Twilight about the plight of the Lakota. It's a sequel to Neither Wolf nor Dog that I read earlier this year.

And finally, I'm reading a book of short stories that I won through LTER Nairobi Noir.

On deck are All Systems Red for the 75'ers SF challenge (thanks, Roni!) and

How To Talk to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell for the RLBC next week.

>33 streamsong: enjoy your routine appointment...considering our lives the last three months anything "routine" is nice.

I really liked All Systems Red! I've got the next three waiting in the queue.

>31 streamsong: Ohhhhh...I like both 'Cruisin Undercover' or 'Cruisin Incognito' - what fun!

And I hope you love All Systems Red!

>34 fuzzi: That's very true, Lor. Nothing seems routine amymore.
The dentist found a small crack along one filling - so I need to have it sealed next week.

>34 fuzzi: >35 Dejah_Thoris: Everyone seems to be enjoying the murderbots. How could I miss out?

Name games are fun! Keep em coming!

Happy New Thread, Janet!

How great that you have Appaloosas and raise a foal or two every year. I didn't know they could have solid foals. When I was a teen, I rode a friend's Appaloosa a lot in northern Michigan. He was a sweet one, and everyone wanted to ride him.

Forgive me if I've had a mind blank, but how did you like The Ten Thousand Doors of January? I enjoyed that one.

>37 jnwelch: Hi Joe! I'm glad you have fond memories of horses and Appaloosas in particular.

I really enjoyed The Ten Thousand Doors of January. I just haven't done any sort of review on it yet. Soooo far behind. May take a page from others' books and do some lightning round reviews.

*****

The rain has been fierce here the last few days - over an inch several days in a row. I think today is the last forecast rain - but who knows? Crazy weather. My horse pens are swimming in mud and I am struggling to keep the herd warm and dry.

We now have a covid outbreak in my county. There are eight cases and about 30 people in quarantine. Rumor has it they are 'visa-ed' employees brought in to work summer jobs at a very posh gated community. So I guess I'll be continuing at home for a while longer.

35. The Thirty Nine Steps - John Buchan - 1915
– April Mysterykit-Espionage
- 1001
- library
-

Back of Cover: “Richard Hannay, who in classic fashion, becomes a secret agent by accident, initiating an entire genre.

“Hannay, bored with life in London as Europe seethes on the edge of the First World War, is greeted one evening at his door by Franklin Scudder, his upstairs neighbor. Scudder, claiming to be in mortal danger for knowing too much about certain hidden machinations behind the upcoming war, asks for Hannays assistance.

From 1001 Books: “The novel is important in establishing a formula for the spy thriller: car chases, elaborate disguises, and an urgent quest to avert disaster. The dramatic turns of te of the plot rely upon a sense of paranoia. Where every potential ally is also a potential enemy.” p 275

Although this feels like ‘nothing new’ it’s amazing to think it was all new when it was written in 1915.

It’s fun to have read the beginning of a genre.

Hi Janet!

I love Cruizin Incognito.

>39 streamsong: I read The 39 Steps in April of 2009 and rated it 3 stars. It did feel like nothing new, but I did realize that when it was written it was exciting. It’s the same way I felt about The Scarlet Pimpernel. Probably quite exciting when it came out, rather ho-hum to me, jaded as I am. *smile*

We've got 3.5 inches of rain in the last 3 days, and it's raining like a fiend right now. More rain through tomorrow.

Oh no! Re: the Covid-19 outbreak! Talk about someone being clueless! Was this really the time to bring in (probably unscreened) people from outside? Hope they are doing some good contact tracing.

I also like Cruisin Incognito.

Looking forward to seeing what you think of All Systems Red.

Hi Janet.

>1 streamsong: What a beautiful boy.

Good for you, choosing the healthy option, night blindness for a horse doesn't sound good at all.

Like Cruisin Incognito as well.

>40 karenmarie: Hi Karen! Glad you like the name - I think it has a ring to it. I will gethim DNA tested before submitting it; a hidden copy of the LP Appaloosa gene might mean he won't be so 'incognito' in a few years.

It looks like we agree on The 39 Steps. It is fun to think that in 1915 it was all new and fresh. I need to go back to my review to add a sentence or two about the 'casual' anti-Semitism in the novel. The Germans were the big bad guys plotting war, but the Jews seemed to be the hidden figures behind the Germans.

I read The Scarlet Pimpernel in high school while visiting my grandmother one summer. OH MY! I was so in love with the characters and the dash and how could she not see he loved her! I have never reread it or read any of the sequels. I'm afraid the suck monster may have visited it and taken all the glamor away.

We've also had two or three inches of rain - and oh my horse pens are in such sad shape. I've had to keep the kid up in the stall which means it is also a huge mess. The rain seems to be over, so I'll let the two of them out in the driveway while I clean. Neverending. I think the rain is done her for a week or so.

Yesterday afternoon I went to bed and slept all afternoon. Exhausting work. My son keeps gloating what good shape I'll be in.

>41 ronincats: Hi Roni! Thanks for stopping in. Yes the local Covid outbreak is worrying. I'll be hanging close to home this weekend, as of course the workers visited grocery stores and other shops (though they won't say which ones). I think about 30 people are in self-quarantine. Rumors abound. We've had so few cases here that the local authorities - in fact all the state authorities - are pretty inexperieced.

I'll probably start All Systems Red for the week end read-a-thon. It's on my computer Kindle app, which is not very convenient so I'll intersperse it with something else.

The last two I've read, The Street by Ann Petry and The Wolf at Twilight have had very heavy social messages and were rather downers. Murderbots may be just what I need!

>42 EllaTim: Hi Ella! Nightblindness is a definite problem. Breeders of course like the homozygous horses since they will always produce Appaloosa color, but I worry about casual riders such as trail riders not informed of the problem. I have even heard of nightblind horses having trouble with dimly lit indoor arenas in the daytime.

That's a beautiful foal, Janet. Happy weekend.

>46 The_Hibernator: Thanks, Rachel! Happy weekend to you, too!

Would anyone like my copy of this book?



36. The Dutch House – Anne Patchett - 2019
- April RLBC via Zoom
- purchased 2020

“Not only could you see into the Dutch House, you could see straight through it. The house was shortened in the middle, and the deep foyer led directly into what we called the observatory, which had a wall of windows facing the backyard. From the driveway, you could let your eye go up the front steps , across the terrace, through the front doors, across the long marble floor of the foyer, through the observatory, and catch sight of the lilacs waving obliviously in the garden behind the house.” p 10

A budding real estate investor buys a house as a surprise for his wife. It’s an intricate architectural wonder with three stories, carved ceilings, observatory, gardens and a special window seat. All the elegant furniture and even the portraits on the walls are included.

But the developer had badly miscalculated his wife. She hated the house, ultimately leaving her son and daughter to follow her own dream of working with the poor in India.

So begin the twists and turns of the three generations that ultimately live in this house: miscalculations, outright cruelty, negligence, and even some love in unexpected places.

It is a story or relationships; often twisted, and sometimes met with grace – all through the lens of the see-through house.

People often say in reviews that they could not relate to the characters, or that they disliked them. I have always thought that was the point in reading fiction – to see into others’ worlds. However, in this book, I honestly can say I didn’t recognize fragments of myself in any of the characters, and it did make it hard to warm to the book. The ending was surprising – would I have that sort of forgiveness in me?

3.6 stars

Janet, I'm sorry to hear about the Covid-19 outbreak in your county. It just takes one tiny mis-step with the virus for it to explode everywhere. I'm pretending that we're still under stay-at-home orders, haven't scheduled a hair appt although I could, and I'm actually warming to the idea of not getting my nails done even when I feel safe to do so. My hands still look naked without red nail polish, but my nails are healthy and I'm not biting them. It's only taken me 60+ years to stop this habit, even temporarily.

I hope you can get ahead of the stalls again with a letup in the rain.

At this time of the end of Ramadan I want to give thanks for your friendship in this wonderful group, Janet.

Enjoy the long weekend.

>49 karenmarie: Hi Karen! No new Covid cases reported in the county for the last few days. I know there will be a several week window before we can say we are really past it. In the meantime, staying home - what else?

Yes, I need to do something to the stalls to eliminate the wet holes (dirt floors) in the center. Beautiful sunshine today so hopefully horses will be out on the grass which also helps the problem.

>50 PaulCranswick: Thank you, Paul.

I hope to attract a few butterflies and hummingbirds with the hanging basket I bought yesterday. I usually am not partial to red, but something about this basket makes me smile. Petunias, blue verbena and Sanvitalia. Lovely, lovely fragrance.

37. The Butterfly Girl – Rene Denfeld - 2019 – library

In the first book of this series, we were introduced to PI Naomi Cottle, known as the Child Finder due to her specialty of finding missing children.

Naomi remembers fleeing captivity as a small child and leaving a younger sister behind. Beyond that she has no memory of her life before foster care.

In this second novel, she is obsessed with finding what became of her little sister. She follows the slim details she has – the area where she herself was found.

Focusing on Portland, she hopes to find news of her sister among the street people and the street kids. She befriends Celia, a homeless girl Celia whose story is told in alternate chapters. Naomi is also horrified to find evidence of a series of murdered and missing street girls. She can only hope her help does not come too late.

I found this riveting – and all too believable. The subjects of child abduction, sex slavery, and the uncared for street kids are hard to read – and yet come together in this hard to put down book.

>52 streamsong: that might do it, lovely.

>52 streamsong: Gorgeous! I bet you'll get both.

>52 streamsong: Beautiful basket. I can see why you chose it. I just planted a salvia that has black stems and blue flowers that is supposed to be a big magnet for humminbirds. We have so many hummingbirds that we have to fill up the big red flower twice a day. Think they have just fledged.

>53 streamsong: I read the first one and was wondering about this as a series. I'll have to check this one out.

I thought the choice of narrator was odd in The Dutch House; I think it may have worked better to have the sister narrate.

>52 streamsong: Nice! And the fragrance is an extra bonus. Not all petunia's have it, but the ones that do are wonderful.

Hi Janet!

>53 streamsong: I loved The Child Finder and immediately went out and bought The Butterfly Girl but for some reason never got motivated to read it. I've just put it on my 'currently reading' shelf, so we'll see how motivated I am to read anything besides Nero Wolfe, P&P, and Moby Dick.

>54 fuzzi: >55 Dejah_Thoris: >56 mdoris: Thanks on the comps re the basket. I may need to add more nectar-bearers to it - Maybe a trumpet vine?

>56 mdoris: Mary, your salvia sounds lovely. I have hummingbirds around; perhaps I just need to get out my feeder for nectar.

>57 BLBera: Hi Beth - I hope you like The Hummingbird Girl and I hope she goes on with the series. Some ends were tied up with this one, so we will have to see if there is a third.

I've been thinking about your comment of having the sister be the narrator in The Dutch House. You are right that it would be a totally different book! She was so repressed, yet so dysfunctional. It's a very interesting thought! Thanks for sharing.

>58 EllaTim: Hi Ella! Yes, it is discouraging how many roses and petunias no longer have fragrances, isn't it?

So far the deer are leaving my planter alone - it's becoming close to the time they are fawning so they may have moved further out, away from the house.

Yesterday I bought a few more flowers to add to my mailbox planter. I'll try to get them planted today in between raindrops. I always have pansies out there; but this year I had trouble finding them. I bought alyssium and verbena.

>59 karenmarie: I hope you enjoy The Butterfly Girl, Karen. I missed the mountain setting of the first one, but I still enjoyed it.

I currently just started Get Shorty, another of those classic crime novels listed on the 1001 that I have never read.

I'm also reading All Systems Red for the 75'ers group SFF read. Literary fiction.

Yesterday we had a retirement parade for our book club moderator who is retiring from her library job. It was fun and I think she was very pleased. She's been an outstanding moderator and I think everyone of the book club members think of her as a friend.

This was followed by a Zoom BC meeting for Malcolm Gladwell's Talking to Strangers. It had some interesting points about how we perceive people we don't know and why some people *seem* more trustworthy than others. The concensus was that it was a bit disjointed, however and hard to follow his points.

Do you remember when the lockdown was first announced and I bought seeds to have a kitchen garden?



Here is what it looks like now with all the plants gathered into my garden window for the photograph.



Pots of lettuce, cilantro, spinach; you can see the zucchini's yellow blossoms (so far only male flowers - boo hiss); and I rather like the jungle-y look of the pole beans climbing on the edge of the window.

I also added a bottle of hand sanitizer made by a converted distillery - it seems to be the flag bearer of the times. I should have added one of my masks. Oh well.

Don't be distracted by the stray orchid, the mostly hidden green dragon and the pine tree outside the window!

>61 streamsong: Your planters sound lovely! I have quite a few alyssum that have self seeded and blooming right now. Freebies! I love verbena too! i have some perennial verbena pushing up and hope they bloom in the new place I moved them to.

>63 streamsong: Fabulous! I'm impressed with what you've accomplished with a window sill.

And I LOVE the hand sanitizer, lol.

>64 mdoris: Hi Mary! Old fashioned flowers in my planters this year, for sure. I'll have to check your thread to see if you have photos of your verbena and other flower.

Nothing planted yesterday. Instead I went to the chiropracter and then took the rest of the day off, mostly reading to let the adjustments 'set' and 'settle' a bit. It had been February since I had been adjusted - way too long for me, I am afraid.

A dentist appointment and a chiropracter appointment - both vestiges of the 'old normal' for me.

Hi Janet!

>63 streamsong: Sort of an I Spy picture, eh? I found the Green Dragon, the Orchid bloom, the pine tree, and at first thought the hand sanitizer was vodka… thanks for setting me straight. Very nice.

>66 streamsong: I’m glad you got back to your chiropractor yesterday. I only go in emergencies any more, but did go three times last month. No Covid-19, so they/I must have been doing something right.

>65 Dejah_Thoris: Hi Dejah - Actually my veggies were on several window sills, collected and mushed together in my garden window for the photo.

I love the hand sanitizer bottle, too. I haven't opened it. Perhaps if I don't need it, I'll just keep it as a souvenir. :)

Link is up for the Sector General summer group read--check it out!

https://www.librarything.com/topic/320907

>67 karenmarie: Hi Karen - It's good to see you. The distillery retooling their vodka bottles into hand sanitizer strikes me as being so indicative of everyone helping out to do what they can to help and to stay in business. And 1000 mls of hand sanitzer is a lot ... I should be good through the rest of the pandemic. That and my two pounds of yeast should get me through the rest of the pandemic.

There is another Covid outbreak on the Crow reservation south of Billings. My chiropractor told me many of these positives are contacts without symptoms. Nevertheless, Montana cases continue to slowly grow.

I usually go to my chiropractor about once a month. I'll probably have to go back next week for a followup - most places are much better, but my hip now feels much worse.

>70 streamsong: I've heard that many of the Reservations have been very hard hit - we can't stop this unless everyone is taken care of.

>69 ronincats: Hey, Roni! Oh you temptress! Do I really need another SF series? Mumble mumble. I ordered the first omnibus, Beginning Operations.

Finished the first Murderbot and I've ordered the second. :)

I've also ordered the 2 and 3rd Viveca Sten mysteries which cost 99 cents each for Kindle.

My reading is definitely a bit on the light and fluffy side - but I did order How to be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi from my local indie after seeing it mentioned several times by talking heads these past few days as well as being lauded by Brene Brown.

And I love this mug posted on various threads:

https://www.idealbookshelf.com/collections/cards/products/mug-anti-racism

>71 Dejah_Thoris: That's very true Dejah. Now there is another Montana outbreak of 8-10 cases at one of the jails in the same area near Billings.

And my heart bleeds to read about the nursing home deaths, especially in Florida.

May Challenges

Still need to finish:
✔The Butterfly Girl
✔A Life on Gorge River
The Starch Solution
✔When the Mob Ran Vegas

Library Books Due Back:
✔Ten Thousand Doors of January
Hollow Kingdom -

✔- RLBC: Talking to Strangers -Malcolm Gladwell - kindle app
***Reading*** - Mysterykit: Made into film: Get Shorty
✔- Geocat: anyplace you'd like to visit: High Country - Nevada Barr - Yosemite
✔ PBS Now Read This: The Street - Ann Petry -
***Reading***- LTER Nairobi Noir - Peter Kimani
✔- 75'ers group read: May Martians & Spaceships: All Systems Red - Martha Wells - Kindle
✔- Nonfiction 75'ers challenge: Comfort Read The Wolf at Twilight library
- Nonfiction Cat - Science: Darwin in the City - due back

Roots/Acq'd 2020/Library 2/4/3
Female author/Male author 5/4
Fic/NF: 5/4
1001:0
Countries:
--1 - New Zealand

Publication Dates:
1 - 1946
1 - 2004
1 - 2005
1 - 2009
1 - 2010
1 - 2017
3 - 2019

May
37. The Butterfly Girl - Rene Denfeld - 2019 - library
38. A life on Gorge River : New Zealand's remotest family - Robert Long - 2010 - GoCat New Zealand & Australia' Global Reading: New Zealand; ROOT #12 - acq'd 2017
39. The Ten Thousand Doors of January - Alix E. Harrow - 2019 - library
40. When the Mob Ran Vegas - Steve Fisher - 2005 - 75'ers April NF crime and justice; acq'd 2020
41. The Street - Ann Petry - 1946 - PBS Now Read This; purchased 2020
42. The Wolf at Twilight: An Indian Elder's Journey through a Land of - Kent Nerburn - 2009 - library (5/16)
43. High Country - Nevada Barr - 2004 - Geocat: Somewhere you want to visit (Yosemite) - ROOT #13 acq'd 2016
44. Talking to Strangers - Malcom Gladwell - 2019 - RLBC - purchased 2020 - Kindle app
45. All Systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells - 2017,- 75'er's Group read - space -Kindle download 2020

Best of the month: The Ten Thousand Doors of January - Alix E. Harrow

JUNE Challenges and possibilities

Still need to finish:
✔The Starch Solution - almost done - want to try a recipe or two!
✔ Nonfiction Cat - Science: Darwin in the City - due back at library
✔- May Mysterykit: Made into film: Get Shorty
✔ - LTER Nairobi Noir - Peter Kimani

Other Library Books Due Back:
✔Hollow Kingdom -

- RLBC: The Overstory - (Read previously) Plan to read The Overstory: Study Guide for Book Clubs
✔- Mysterykit: Police Procedural: Closed Circles - Viveca Sten
✔- Geocat: Space: Artificial Condition: The Murderbot Diaries - Mary Wells
- Nonfiction Cat - Human Science/Society: How to Be an Anti Racist
- 75'ers group read: Justice How to Be an Anti Racist
- 75'ers NF - Written by a journalist
✔PBS Now Read This: American Spy: A Novel - Lauren Wilkinson
LTER
Listening - They Are Already Here: UFO Culture and Why We See Saucers by Sarah Scoles - audiobook - 2020
Becoming Wild: How Animal Cultures Raise Families, Create Beauty, and Achieve Peace- Carl Safina LTER - audiobook

Roots/Acq'd 2020/Library 2/5/2
Female author/Male author/Combination 5/3/1
Fic/NF: 6/3
1001:1
Countries:
- Burkino Faso
- Kenya
- Netherlands
- Sweden

Publication Dates:

1990
2009
2012
2 - 2018
3 - 2019
2020

Total books finished: 9

46. Get Shorty - Elmore Leonard - 1001 - ROOT
47. The Hollow Kingdom -Kira Jane Buxton - 2019 - library
48. The Starch Solution - John A. McDougall - 2012 - ROOT 2019
49. Nairobi Noir - Peter Kimani - 2020 - acq'd 2020
50. Darwin Comes to Town - Menno Schilthuizen - 2018 - . Global Reading: Netherlands (author, partial location); library
51. Artificial Condition: The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells - 2018 - Geocat: Space - Kindle 2020
52. Closed Circles - Viveca Sten - 2009 - MysteryKit - police; Global Reading - Sweden; Kindle app - acqd 2020
53. American Spy - Lauren Wilkinson - 2019 - PBS Now Read This; Global Reading - Burkina Faso - acq'd 2020
54. The Overstory: A Study Guide for Book Clubs - Kathryn Cope - 2019 - (89 pages) preparing for RLBC - acq'd 2020

JULY Challenges and possibilities

Still need to finish:

Other Library Books:
The first phone call from heaven - Mitch Albom rec by Linda

- RLBC: This House of Sky - Ivan Doig reread
- Mysterykit: Cross Genre : Invasion - medical mystery w aliens ROOT
- Geocat: Latin and South America, Caribbean: Bel Canto - ROOT
- Nonfiction Cat - Human Science
- 75'ers group reads: Beginning Operations - James White
- - The Orphan Master's Son
- - Viveca Sten
- 75'ers NF -
- PBS Now Read This: Citizen: An American Lyric - Claudia Rankine

LTER
Listening - They Are Already Here: UFO Culture and Why We See Saucers by Sarah Scoles - audiobook - 2020
Becoming Wild: How Animal Cultures Raise Families, Create Beauty, and Achieve Peace- Carl Safina LTER - audiobook

38. A Life on Gorge River: New Zealand’s Remotest Family – Robert Long - 2010
- GeoCat New Zealand & Australia
- Global Reading: New Zealand;
- ROOT #12 - acq'd 2017


From the back of the book: "In 1980, Robert Long, a successful student, world traveler and seeker of truth, decided to take an alternative path in live. He took up residence in a Forest Service Hut at Gorge River, in remote South Westland (New Zealand) – a minimum of two days walk from the nearest road – and from there forged a unique and amazing life amid New Zealand’s last true wilderness.”

Lots of details of Robert Long’s amazing hikes or tramps as he called them – which he often did barefoot through the incredible wilderness areas of New Zealand. More maps would have been helpful for those of us outside the area – and I would have loved some scenery photographs.

I thought the most interesting details were the ones of day to day living. I wish there had been more of these, especially after his marriage and the kids were small. I have seen mention of a book by his wife – perhaps her book has more of the details I crave.

Hi Janet!

>70 streamsong: I’ve got quite a bit of hand sanitizer in both gel and wipes form. Should last me, too. And I’ve only got one pound of yeast on top of the 4 3-packs I bought before the lb. I’ve only used a total or 2 ¼ teaspoons of yeast(1 pack of 12) so far, but that was for brioche hamburger buns Saturday and they are da bomb. Something sweet, next, I think.

I think Native American Reservations are under the radar for most people.

Sorry your hip is worse, and I hope the chiropractor helps.

>77 karenmarie: Hi Karen; Hand sanitizers and yeast! Hooray!

Since buying my two pounds of yeast, I have made naan one time - and I wasn't crazy how it came out. I may have to try your brioche. And I want to do some experimenting with diabetic-friendly flours.

There are seven Indian Reservations in Montana (plus one more tribe, the Little Shell Chippewa Tribe recognized by the state but without a reservation):



The last census said there were approximately 67,000 enrolled Tribal Members.

It might be fun to travel to some of their museums and pow-wows for short trips this summer.

I like your window garden. Your squash is ahead of my zucchini...I couldn't find yellow squash seeds for love or money locally.

I have issues with slugs, which decimate my mailbox Marigolds, so last year I planted Astilbe and Chrysanthemums there instead. They're both blooming right now. I haven't had deer issues, they've been keeping to the woods next door, but I read that they won't eat the Astilbe, which would be great.

I found Lantana plants at the local home/garden store and planted them around my pond area...and the hummingbird(s) have been visiting. I got some decent photos, too. Have you ever tried growing those?

I'm one of those who appreciates my chiropractor. I missed my 6 week adjustment but made it there last Friday morning. Ahh. When I worked as a chiropractic assistant I had adjustments whenever I wanted them. I never got sick, and the 3-4 times a year sinus infections and annual bronchitis went away. Imagine that.

I see you like Murderbot too.

Hi Lor - I'm glad you like the window garden. So far, I'm not getting much to eat from it ... lettuce, cilantro and of course my bean and alfalfa sprouts. But we shall see.

I may have tried astilbe; is that also known as cat mint? - I just bought tickets for the local secret garden tour and there are lots of coupons in their goody bag, so I anticipate doing some more plant shopping.

No, I'm not familiar with Lantana at all. No slug problem here, as we have low rainfall; the deer are bad enough.

Yay for chiropracters!

Murderbot is new for me, but I enjoyed the first one and have ordered the second. I also read the ss linked on Dejah's thread.

weird double post deleted.

My favorite book of May!



39. The Ten Thousand Doors of January – Alix E. Harrow - 2019
– library
-

January had an odd childhood. She is the reddish colored ward of a very wealthy collector of rare and magical-ish objects. Her father is one of his chief collectors, away for years at a time in search of the spectacular. Her mother, she is told, is dead. Eventually, she is told the same about her father.

She has one friend, a delivery boy. Soon they are kept apart altogether except for furtive waves from her mansion’s windows.

But then January discovers the power and magic of words.

And she also discovers there are hidden doors between very, very odd universes and her own. The ancient doors are not quite hidden as legends, fairy tales and myths spring up around them.

Chased by evil and those who want to destroy the doors, January undertakes the quest of finding doors and discovering the truth behind her parents’ stories.

I loved the writing and the world building. And I especially loved the ending which I thought was the most magical part of the whole story.

4.5 stars

>80 streamsong: here is astilbe (not cat mint):


Astilbe plants are also known as false spiraea, false goat's beard, and meadowsweet. There are several species and cultivars within the Astilbe genus, with variety in the flower plumes.

And lantana:

A member of the verbena family, it is native to tropical regions of the Americas and South Africa. Though there are 150 different species, those most widely available to home gardeners are Lantana camara and modern hybrids. Also known as Spanish flag, lantana thrives in hot, dry weather and is tolerant of salt and sandy soil, making it a popular choice for seaside landscapes.

We're expecting thunderstorms and rain through the weekend, so I went outside early this morning before the heat and rain arrived, to pull weeds and do some pruning. I was bending over when I got a stabbing pain in my lower back. Hooray for chiropractors! Mine told me to come on in. I got an adjustment and some muscle work done. Now I'm sitting with an ice pack behind me. Oh well.

>82 streamsong: It's on the way to me from a library in another part of the state. Your enthusiastic review makes me more eager to read it!

>83 fuzzi: Thank you for the clarifications and the beautiful photos.

I can see why the nursery person thought catmint was in the astilbe family. Similar but definitely not it.



I hope your back is feeling better, soon!

Thunderstorms and rain forecast here for the next few days, too - in fact over an inch of rain forecast over the next three days.

We're having a huge amount of rain this spring. That can actually mean a bad forest fire season since the undergrowth is heavy and then dries out later in the summer.

>85 Dejah_Thoris: Hi Dejah! I think believe you'll enjoy it! Happy Reading!

I'm glad my review contributes to your anticipation. Thanks!

I finished Get Shorty - hmm not my favorite read. It seemed to fit in with my Las Vegas trip in February and my reading of When the Mob Ran Vegas which my brother suggested I read in honor of our LV trip. And it's one of the few 1001 Books to Read Before You Die that I've managed this year.

When the Mob Ran Vegas is my next review. It will be very brief. Will I ever get caught up?

I am currently reading one I believe is Mark's fault: The Hollow Kingdom. It's a post apocalyptic scenario where the humans turned into zombies and the pets need rescuing. Very weird, very noir, but I'm enjoying it.

Hi Janet!

We’re finally seeing TP in the grocery stores regularly now although I’ve still got quite a bit from my January Costco run. I sent some to Jenna on Wednesday and she called me Thursday to say she bought some at the grocery store. NOW she has enough for a while.

Fascinating info and map re the Indian Reservations in MT. I just did a bit of checking on Native Americans in NC and it’s complicated. More research!

>79 fuzzi: I’m envious of your adjustments whenever you wanted them, Fuzzi. I’m a firm believer in chiropractic. >84 fuzzi: Sorry about your current back problem.

>82 streamsong: And onto the wish list it goes! My library has a copy, and when they eventually open up I’ll try to get hold of it.

>87 streamsong: I loved The Hollow Kingdom so much that I bought it for Karen for Christmas. I’m not sure if she’s read it yet. I was thinking of choosing it for our book club for this year, but there is quite a bit of violence and some of our members are very and vocally sensitive about it. I’m glad you’re enjoying it.

>88 karenmarie: it was a nice benefit of the job. I don't miss insurance billing.

>1 streamsong: Your foal is beautiful and I really enjoyed reading all about breeding them, color, night blindness, etc.

>53 streamsong: I need another series like...not! But The Butterfly Girl sounds really good.

>72 streamsong: There is a thread for books #2 and 3 in the Viveca Sten mystery. Come join in!

https://www.librarything.com/topic/318236#7174156

>82 streamsong: And another great writeup. You are a dangerous women. ; )

>83 fuzzi: >86 streamsong: Looks at all those beautiful flowers!! I think I am done planting for a while, and now I have to see how they all do.

Stay dry. We have lots of rain this weekend, too. Happy Saturday!!

>88 karenmarie: Hi Karen! So good to see you here!

I'm only noticing a few shortages in the grocery stores here. Lots of TP, but still no disinfecting wipes. No tofu (which I enjoy occasionally - FB has been lamenting a tofu shortage due to something or other Chinese trade problems). No rye flour. No yams or sweet potatoes.

My son and his fiance are vegans. Although I don't imagine I'll give up meat, I'm trying to incorporate more whole grains in my diet and less processed food. I've been having blood sugar issues, so eating with an eye to health is good for me.

Enjoy The Ten Thousand Doors of January. It was a surprise for me - I didn't think I'd like it as well as I did.

I should finish The Hollow Kingdom today. What a strange but compelling book! I'll be very interested to know what Karen thinks when she reads it.

Oddly enough, the nonfiction book I'm reading Darwin Comes to Town, about evolution in cities' microclimates, seems to fit right in with some of the The Hollow Kingdom's themes. I'm thinking this book was a rec from Anita, as the author Menno Schilthuizen is Dutch.

>89 fuzzi: What a nice perk of the job! But I've heard that insurance billing can be a royal pain.

>90 Berly: Hi Kim! Thanks for stopping by. I'm glad you enjoyed the stories and photos of my horse life.

I hope you enjoy both The Child Finder series and The Ten Thousand Doors of January if/when you get to them. It's a terrible problem visiting other people's threads. :) My library is starting to open up and so I will once more be susceptible to all those book bullets. I'm just finishing up the last two library books that I received before they shut down.

I started reading this on my trip to Vegas in February. Not terribly compelling, it took me several months to finish it. Afterwards, I caught the somewhat classic movie "Bugsy" on TV and enjoyed it. I least I knew some of the backstory.



40. When the Mob Ran Vegas – Steve Fisher - 2005
- 75'ers April NF crime and justice
- acq'd 2020

Author Steve Fisher was a collector of Las Vegas Organized Crime objects which he then began selling on eBay. He found that people were most interested in the stories he had to tell about the objects.

This book is the product of his enthusiasm on the subject. It is a somewhat episodic story of the Mob and the early days of Vegas including Bugsy Siegel’s vision of the Las Vegas strip and the Flamingo Hotel.

For someone like me with no knowledge of the era, it was interesting. I enjoyed the many historic black and white photos.

I did not always feel it was easy to follow the story’s timeline. I do believe that a better editor could have made a more cohesive, compelling story.

3 stars

Hi Janet - I hope all is well.

>76 streamsong: This does sound good. I will see if I can find a copy.

>82 streamsong: I'm waiting for this one from the library; I'm glad to see it is worth the wait.

>83 fuzzi: I love the astilbe!

>82 streamsong: Janet, I had the Doors of January checked out from the library before the pandemic erupted. Unfortunately, I ran out of time to read it. Now the hold list is so long that it may be January before I get it again.

We’ve have above-average rainfall this spring, too. I just sowed some wildflower seeds in one of my big pots near the back patio. I hope my results are as satisfying as your window vegetable garden. Such a lovely profusion of green...my favorite color this time of year.

>1 streamsong: How is your new baby doing? Please, some more pictures!

>90 Berly: Kim I meant to say I downloaded Viveca Sten's #2 & #3 books last week. They were 99 cents each on Kindle. I use the Kindle app on my computer which is not very convenient - but hey 99cents is hard to beat.

So I'll be joining soon!

>94 BLBera: Hi Beth! I'd be happy to send you Life on Gorge River if you would like it. PM me your address.

Part of me wants to hide in the wilderness. I've always enjoyed the stories of living remotely.

And Ten Thousand Doors of January is perfect pandemic reading.

>95 Donna828: Hi Donna! I hope you enjoy The Ten Thousand Doors of January when you are able to get a copy.

My library is allowing checkouts, but not requests from other libraries. As we have a very small library, most of the books I am interested in come from elsewhere, so I'll have to wait awhile before scratching the book bullet itches I get from everyone's threads.

TTTDoJ is one that I would buy for my collection when it comes out in paperback.

I'm having fun with my garden window mini garden. Unfortunately, though, some of the pots are growing some sort of mildew or mold on top. They are all from the same sack of potting soil .... or perhaps I am overwatering?

>96 mdoris: Ooooh Mary, thanks for asking! I'll be happy to oblige with more pictures of the colt who is growing like a weed. We are on our third day of rain, so it may be a few days.

Three books in the mail! Hip hip hooray!

Two are LTER audio books: They Are Already Here: UFO Culture and Why We See Saucers.

The second LTER audio is Becoming Wild: How Animal Cultures Raise Families, Create Beauty, and Achieve Peace.

The third book is James White's omnibus Beginning Operations for Roni's summer group read.

I finished The Hollow Kingdom and am on to June's PBS read called American Spy, which is not only about espionage but American imperialism and racism in Africa.

I'm still working on Nairobi Noir, which although it is one of the best of the Akashic Noir books that I have read, I am struggling with reading sobering short stories right now - one right after another is not working for me.

I always feel my list of books read is terribly eclectic ....

This is one of the few serious books I have read this spring. It was the selection for the PBS Now Read This book club in May. Published in 1946, it was the first book written by a black woman author to sell over a million copies.

This is not listed in the 1001 Books; however Richard Wright’s Native Son which is the genre that the NYT compares this to, is listed there. I haven’t read Native Son or anything else by Richard Wright. – perhaps I should, even though they sounds intense. (No Richard Wright available from my library right now, so I ordered a used volume with Native Son and his memoir Black Boy.



41. The Street – Ann Petry - 1946
- May PBS Now Read This
- purchased 2020


This description from the New York Times is too good not to share – far better than what I would have written:

“'She was stuck here on this street, in this dark dirty house...She had a sudden vivid recollection of the tragic, resigned faces of the young girls and the old man she had seen in the spring. No. She would never become like that.'

“ It is New York City, 1944. Leaving a broken marriage, Lutie Johnson and nine-year-old Bub, move to a rundown tenement in 116th Street, where the heavy sour smell of garbage lingers in its dingy airless rooms. Determined to make a proper home for her son, she struggles to earn money, singing in a nightclub. But Lutie is Black, and 'too good-looking to be decent' and slowly she becomes trapped in a vicious network of corruption. This powerful story of the ghetto nightmare of Harlem, by an important exponent of the Richard Wright school of protest fiction, was first published in 1946. 'A work of close documentation and intimate perception...a gripping tale' - New York Times”

1944. Harlem. Lutie is hardworking and talented. She is also trapped: poor, female, black, wanting the best as a single mother for her 9 year old son and wanting to help her alcoholic father …. Lutie struggles to make a decent life for herself and her son, but the ghetto, and the street itself fight back. No happy endings here, although it was a twist I wasn’t expecting.

Beautifully written and, unfortunately, one could imagine a fairly similar scenario today, 75 years later.

>96 mdoris: I was going to ask for more pictures, too!

>101 fuzzi: Will do! I'll try to get some photos of the rest of the crew, too.

One of my challenges is that the camera on my phone is not working well. I was going to buy a new phone - and then the Covid shutdown began. I need to take a trip to Missoula to buy a new phone and get my old stuff transferred.

In the meantime, I have my digital camera.

I went to a very small farmer's market yesterday afternoon at a farming co-op. They had fresh bread, meat, a few spring vegetables and plants. Entry was limited, and you had to stand in line to get in (not as bad as voting in Georgia, though).

I scored some fresh lettuce mix, some Thai basil leaves and for absolutely free, some sour dough starter. I'll be trying the sourdough naan recipe on their website. https://www.theoharacommons.org/post/sourdough-naan

They have a 'lending library' of tools- gardening tools and cooking and harvesting tools - I really need to get a membership their as they support lots of cool events.

And hooray! I did my first library trip yesterday to pick up a book. I'm not sure how much is open as all the staff seemed to be busy and I was shy about asking questions. The stacks are taped off - so they may or may not be open for browsing. But I picked up a book that I had requested that was available there - James Baldwin's Go Tell It on the Mountain. I've decided to read some of the older black classic literature along with the more current stuff I've read the past few years.

Today I was able to request another book from a different library. That's the first time that a request has gone through as the network of 30+ libraries are slowly reopening. It will probably take a very long time to get to me - Austin Channing Brown' s I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness. Listened to a wonderful podcast between Brown and Brene Brown yesterday. It's an hour long but soooo worth it:

https://brenebrown.com/podcast/brene-with-austin-channing-brown-on-im-still-here...

And a third hooray - another book in the mail: Artificial Condition, the second Murderbot book to read for the GeoCat space challenge.

42. The Wolf at Twilight: An Indian Elder’s Journey through a Land of Ghosts and Shadows - Kent Nerburn - 2009
- library


This is the sequel to Neither Wolf nor Dog which I enjoyed earlier this year. Although this second book does refer to some earlier events, it could easily be be read as a stand alone.

Once more author Kent Nerburn is summoned by Dan, an elder in the Lakota tribe.

Dan would like Nerburn to discover what happened to his little sister. Some seventy years previously, she was kidnapped into the Indian School program, and although Dan had tried to go with her, they were separated and moved. The family never heard from her again. Dan is approaching the end of his life and would like to know her fate.

It’s an impossible task, but with some synchronicity/spiritual leading Nerburn finds clues leading to her trail. And as it unfolds, a spiritually lost young man, dubbed by the tribe as ‘Shitty’ also finds his way.

This one is a bit more sentimental than the first. But I guarantee that readers will remember the story of this lost girl – one of so many who disappeared into the Indian School system

>105 streamsong: This sounds good, Janet.

Yes, I would be interested in Life on Gorge River.

I read The Street years ago; it might be time for a reread. I highly recommend both Native Son and Black Boy.

Hi Beth! >105 streamsong: Yes, Native American books and injustices are a bit more immediate to the Montana situation.

In the local protests both here and in Missoula, I'm seeing lots of Black Lives Matter signs, but I don't know I've seen any signs of support for the Native Americans - especially the dozens of missing girls on reservations all over the country.

But besides the Native American books, I'm also trying to read more classic black literature and current black authors, too. I'm glad to know that you recommend both Native Son and Black Boy.

The current PBS Now Read This book club selection is a first novel by a young black author: American Spy, by Lauren Wilkinson. Set in the 80's, her protagonist is a rare black woman FBI agent, borrowed by the CIA to be embedded in Burkino Faso to help bring down the dictator.

43. High Country - Nevada Barr - 2004
- Geocat: Somewhere you want to visit (Yosemite)
- ROOT #13
- acq'd 2016


Anna Pigeon is a federal agent who works undercover, solving deaths and disappearances at National Parks and monuments.

In this book, Anna is inserted as a waitress at Yosemite National Park to investigate the mysterious disappearances of three young Park employees and a well known climber.

Her investigations soon lead her to a drug plane crashed within the Park. But that’s only the beginning of the twists and turns as she sorts out good guys, bad guys and innocent bystanders in the small town atmosphere of those working within Yosemite.

I read this mystery series for the locations. The mysteries are usually good-enough but these books almost always make me want to visit the scenes of the crime. I zip in and out of the Anna Pigeon series in no particular order. They seem to work fine as stand alones.

I'm way behind on the threads so just catching up to your latest one here, Janet. I love the photo of the foal on top. He must be a lot bigger by now, though. Some of our library systems are opening in a restricted way as well, you can't go in but they bring your holds out in a plain brown paper bag - didn't they used to do that with liquor? I'm waiting for my hold on The Ten Thousand Doors of January to come up at that library.

>109 Familyhistorian: Hi Meg! Thanks for the complements on the foal - as soon as the rainy stretch is done, I will try to get more photos.

The weather is wet and cold again today - there is even snow predicted again in the surrounding mountains and mountain passes tonight.

Oh, I love the thought of libraries being like speakeasies! Say the secret word (book please!) and have your book delivered in a paper bag. That image giave me a great smile this morning. It's nice to have the libraries opening again, even though it's a limited way.

I know you'll enjoy Ten Thousand Doors of January when you get it!

I'm not sure who originally posted this conversation with Neil Gaiman speaking to N. K. Jemisin. It's fascinating as they talk about a wide range of apocalyptic, fantasy subjects and authors and end with Jemisin reading a bit of the first book of her new trilogy The City We Became.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnpLSwqcdW4&feature=youtu.be

I'm skipping ahead a bit on reviews in order to post this long overdue LTER review.



49. Nairobi Noir - Peter Kimani - 2020
- LTER 2020
- acq’d 2020


I’m a big fan of Akashic Books’ Noir series. They feature a dozen or so stories about a city or state by authors native to the region. They are a wonderful way to do some armchair traveling and to be introduced to new authors as well as revisiting favorite authors.

This collection is one of my favorites of the series – from Peter Kimani’s Introduction giving a thumbnail sketch of this capital city of Kenya and its fifteen million people, to the diversity of the stories and authors, this volume hits the mark.

My favorite story was The Hermit in the Helmet, a cautionary folk tale by well known author Ngugi Wa Thiong’o; but whom I hadn’t read previously. He is one of several of the authors featured in this edition that I plan to read more of their work.

Overall, a very strong collection. Highly recommended.

Lots of rain and cold in the valley here today, but TG no snow. Here is a photo from a nearby pass this morning.



Way too late in the season for this sort of snow!

I imagine there are unhappy tourists in Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks. (God's answer to the question 'Do you really want to take a vacation during a pandemic?')

>113 streamsong: That picture makes me thank my lucky stars. WOW!!! Glad that there was no snow in your valley.

Janet, Wow! That cold and rain look dangerous. Yellowstone was my best vacation ever.

>1 streamsong: the pony looks so beautiful! And, the mamma looks like she loves her baby!

When Will and I and his cousin and her partner went to Yellowstone, we drove into Montana. Against the mountains were people riding horses. It was like a John Denver song!

Happy Wednesday, Janet. I hope you are doing well. How is the colt? Sorry, to hear about the rain and cold. It is HOT here.

Looks like I should read Kent Nerburn. He looks like a good fit for me.

I imagine there are unhappy tourists in Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks. (God's answer to the question 'Do you really want to take a vacation during a pandemic?')

*snort*
No, no I don't. I took vacation time last week and stayed home most of it, with a one-day trip out to walk some trails, followed by takeout, and another day of buying ice cream to go. We got snow in May, but thankfully no later.

>112 streamsong: Aha! Another Akashic fan! I have aobut 7 of them waiting to be read. I do find the texture of the place and culture in each book remarkable, as you suggested. I'm pretty sure I have Nairobi Noir in the stack.

I heard about the snow warnings up by you, Janet, the other day! Looks like they were justified, but I'm glad you were spared.

>114 mdoris: Hi Mary! I was happy happy happy not to have snow, although my friend who lives in West Yellowstone posted beautiful pictures of the Park with spring snow.

>115 Whisper1: Hi Linda! It's always so good to see you visiting the threads. Thank you for stopping by!

Yes, it is a bit like living in a John Denver song. I'm glad you really enjoyed your trip to Yellowstone. I'd love to drive the Beartooth highway in Yellowstone which I've never done.

Maybe I'll get to do it later this summer, depending how the Covid progresses.

>116 msf59: Hi Mark! The colt is full of energy and growing like a weed. This rainy week has mud everywhere, but he seems to be doing OK with it. I have made islands out of straw for him to stretch out in the sun without getting wet.

A neighbor said their rain gauge showed about two inches. Unbelievable.

Yes, I think you would enjoy Kent Nerburn. Yes, he's a white guy writing about Native issues, but I like his work. I've noticed how many books you have been reading by Native authors. You are really adding to my tbr lists!

>117 bell7: Your staycation sounds lovely, Mary. I need to get out and do some local walking as well as giving myself some treats. Take out and ice cream both sound like great ideas!

I posted that same quote - "I imagine there are unhappy tourists in Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks. (God's answer to the question 'Do you really want to take a vacation during a pandemic?')" on FB and took some flack for it.

How did Pandemic get to mean political?

Do people realize that when they tell others to just stay home so that they can go about their business without masks and social distancing, they are actually limiting the numbers of customers during business re-openings?

Trump's rally tomorrow will definitely be the ultimate public health experiment. I heard him say it's only the Democrats that don't want him to have his rally. Sigh.

>118 ffortsa: Hey Judy - I'm glad to find another Akashic fan! The only one that I haven't read on my TBR stacks is Montana Noir. I need to dig that one out, especially as I know a few of the authors.

It's a bit hard for me to read noir right now - I'm going for lighter and fluffier, I'm afraid.

>119 ronincats: Hi Roni! Yes, I was so glad not to have snow! We sometimes have a flake or two in June, but the kind that sticks and piles up is really rare.

Last night, during my 3am wake up, I finished the second Murderbot novella Artificial Condition: The Murderbot Diaries. I'll definitely go on with the series, but my next foray into SF will be with Roni's James White group read.

In the meantime, I am reading the second Viveca Sten Sandhamn mystery, Closed Circle.

And I'm re-skimming the PBS book read American Spy. I think I missed something. The time jumps are a little confusing - or perhaps I just wasn't paying enough attention.

I'm going to start White Trash: The 400 Year Untold History of Class in America. We'll see if my brain is up to something made of a little sterner stuff.

Book club via Zoom for May 2020



44. Talking to Strangers – Malcolm Gladwell - 2019
- RLBC
- purchased 2020 - Kindle app

Malcolm Gladwell examines why we think people are lying or not. Many people are aware of the various physical tics and ‘tells’ that supposedly indicate a person is lying – but unfortunately, these aren’t always reliable giveaways. Even psychologists trained in observational science are not as accurate as they may lead you to believe.

To make it a bit more complicated, there is also a genetic response that leads us to want to believe what people tell us, and Gladwell examines why this would evolve.

He also looks at several high profile cases where justice went astray. One such case is where Amanda and her boyfriend were accused and convicted of murdering Amanda’s room mate in Italy although there was no physical evidence against the pair.

There are lots of interesting anecdotes and some food for thought, but many of my book club members felt that it was a bit unorganized and hard to follow the central theme of the book.

3.7 stars

>121 streamsong: How did Pandemic get to mean political?

I'm shaking my head in agreement with you, Janet. The recent kerfuffle over AMC theaters saying they wouldn't require masks and then changing their position was just one example of what's become ridiculously polarizing. When they changed the policy to requiring masks, several people commented that they wouldn't go to the movies until they were "free" to not wear a mask. Well, good. We'll all be safer that way.

For the record, I thought your commentary on the snow was funny. People are weird *shrug*

>124 streamsong: This is on my library holds list to read soon-ish, and it sounds interesting. Anecdotal books can be tough for book clubs - we read At Home by Bill Bryson one month, and while we all enjoyed the book, it was really hard to talk about and ended up being more of "which story did you enjoy the most?" than really talking about the book as a whole.

Hi Janet!

My sister and husband are on a temporary shock-his-system-and-get-his-A1C-down vegan diet. I’m sure they’ll start incorporating meat products back in eventually, but she’s quite serious about it right now. I went through what turned out to be a 3-year no-meat phase, but I still included milk products, fish, and eggs. I’m a carnivore at heart, though. I’d like to introduce perhaps 1 meatless meal every week or so and see if I can get Bill to buy into it.

I asked Bill for The Ten Thousand Doors of January for my birthday… I think it’s wrapped on the breakfast table. Fingers crossed!

I’ve added Darwin Comes to Town to my wish list.

>104 streamsong: Congrats on the Library opening. We’re just going to go to curbside pick up on Monday the 22nd. I don’t envision checking anything out any time soon, since my 2000+ tbr list has a little bit of everything.

>108 streamsong: One of these days I’ll start the Anna Pigeon series.

>113 streamsong: (God's answer to the question 'Do you really want to take a vacation during a pandemic?') Yup. I had planned on visiting my sister, my aunt and uncle, AND Karen this year (which would absolutely have included at least one visit with you), and now it’s all ashes. I wouldn't get on a flying petri dish if they gave me a free flight and cash.

>121 streamsong: How did Pandemic get to mean political? I honestly believe Trump deliberately underplayed it so as to be able to come out a hero when it was going to magically disappear. When that didn’t happen, he happily abandoned worrying about it and is now going to create a super spike in Tulsa with his ridiculous rally and the ridiculous people who are going to attend, most of them without masks. Harrumph. If it weren't so serious, I'd say we were the laughingstock of the world. Instead, I'm seeing articles about the world shaking its head at us and saying that we're giving up. So sad.

>123 streamsong: White Trash has been on my shelves for 3 years. I’m not sure my brain is up to the ‘sterner stuff’.

>91 streamsong: You probably saw Darwin Comes to Town on my thread, it was a very good read. I found it on Ella's thread (@EllaTim).
Menno Schilthuizen is Dutch, but the book was first published in English.

>125 bell7: Hi Mary!

I'll continue to wear my mask and use hand sanitizer when I'm shopping. Perhaps only 10% of the people I meet are wearing masks. But, having spent almost 30 years in an infectious research lab, it does not seem burdensome to me.

Montana shut down early and had very few Covid cases - the fewest of all the states, actually. But since our reopening on June 1st, we're creeping up to 20 or 30 new cases a day.

I definitely learned from Talking to Strangers. I'll be interested to see what you think. That's a very interesting point about anecdotal books and book clubs.

>126 karenmarie: Hi Karen! The vegan/complex carb diet seems to have some good results with getting A1C down. I'm playing with it a bit, although it seems scary to lower your BS by having a potato based meal. I have quite a bit of meat in my freezer, so I'll be using it up in small bits. I'm also trying to avoid oil of any kind. I'll be really interested to see how your brother in law does with it.

You have good reading ahead with both The Ten Thousand Doors of January and Darwin Comes to Town.

Nope, no airplanes for me, either. Montana has 20-30 new cases each day which may seem very small, but it's the most we've had since mid-April. I'm even really leery about short overnight trips which was Plan B.

Yesterday I went on a short ranger-led walk at a nearby park. It was a beautiful day and one of my first outings since the shutdown opened. There were only a few of us so we were able to easily distance ourselves and didn't use masks.The talk was about cottonwood ecosystems and creeks - this pretty much describes quite a bit of my property.

I learned several interesting bits - old cottonwoods show where the creeks used to be before the creeks slowly moved their course as young cottonwoods establish along the water.

And beaver pups stay with their family for two years - so a beaver family is made up of this year's pups and last year's pups and the parents. Yup, I have beavers on my property, too, although I don't mention them much as the neighbor is determined to eradicate them. The beavers object to the neighbor's irrigation headgates draining their ponds and are constantly blocking them up.

>127 FAMeulstee: Hi Anita! Thanks for letting me know that Darwin Comes to Town was written in English. I've changed my stats in >6 streamsong: to reflect that. I follow Ella's thread, too. Sometimes it takes several positive reviews for me to request a book, so I may owe thanks to both of you.

I learned so much with Darwin Comes to Town, and I thought it was extremely readable. Review coming soon.

45. All Systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries – Martha Wells - 2017
- 75'er's Group read - space
- Kindle download 2020


Murderbot is a SecUnit – a security unit designed by humans to be mostly enhanced robot with some cloned human bits. It has the sole purpose of defending whatever humans currently have rented its contract. There is an internally implanted governor unit to ensure SecUnits can’t disobey orders.

But Murderbot is different. It has been able to hack and disconnect its governor unit and so, unknown to humans, it has free will. It also has some memories of its past in which it was involved in an incident where many humans were killed – the reason it has given itself the name Murderbot.

On its newest contract, Murderbot finds that even without the governor, it wants to see its human contract holders succeed and avoid injury and death. When hostilities break out on the remote planet they are researching, Murderbot knows that it is their only chance against very tough odds..

Murderbot is a sympathic, self-aware character that downloads reams of human media shows to binge watch when it is bored or stressed. It also has a lovely, snarky sense of humor, and is very shy when humans see it without its armor, especially its opaque helmet which Murderbot enjoys hiding within.

A short, enjoyable novella. I have the sequel in hand, and am looking forward it.

>131 streamsong: I enjoyed that one as well. Nice review.

>132 fuzzi: Hi Lor; Thanks! Have you gone on with the Murderbot series? I've read the second one now and I'm enthusastic about going onward.

I pulled this off Planet TBR for the MysteryCat Challenge - "Made into a Movie'. Not a great choice - it's definitely more of a thriller than a mystery. I'm not sure why this one made it onto the 1001 - but it says this gives an outstanding portrait of the 'vacuity of Hollywood'.

I haven't watched the movie, but will probably give it a try.



46. Get Shorty – Elmore Leonard - 1990-
- MysteryCat - made into a movie - definitely a thriller rather than a mystery
- 1001
- ROOT #15 - acq'd 2017


Chili had been part of organized crime for years. But he’s never going to become a made man- a bit of Puerta Rican ancestry foils his chances. And then his boss is killed, and the new boss holds a grudge against Chili for the bullet scar Chile left across the top of his head.

Chili is sent to Las Vegas to do one more collection job ,but he gambles away the moeny. He’s then sent on to Hollywood to collect money from a small time producer, breaks into the producer’s house in the middle of the night and pitches a movie idea to him – which is actually a real life con that Chili is in on. In return, the producer expounds on his own movie he would like to make: a sort of sentimental revenge movie.

So there we have it. Two movies, organized crime trying to get their money back from Chili, a drug deal gone wrong, a highly placed crime boss with a grudge against Chili, and a beautiful woman known for being the best screamer in horror movies anywhere.

It’s complicated and sometimes funny. I’m glad to be able to say that I have read it, but it’s not really my thing.
3.3 stars

>131 streamsong: Hooray for joining the Murderbot Nation, Janet! It is such a fun series.

>134 streamsong: I am a big Elmore Leonard fan, since the early 80s, so this was another gem. I loved the film version too. The sequel was just okay.

So glad to hear that the colt is doing so well.

Hi Mark! Thanks for stopping in!

I can certainly see why Murderbot is getting the love it is around the threads.

But, sigh. This is the second Elmore Leonard I've read, and, while both have been ok, I think there are better fits out there for me. I rated both Road Dogs and Get Shorty three stars.

Today the new vet is coming out to geld the yearling from last year.

I'm heading out to do some work out there before it gets too hot. We've gone from 40's to 80's in just a few days.

I usually wake up with LT and spend an hour or so on it. Hopefully, I'll be back during the heat of the day to visit a few threads and post my next review.

I'm reading the bookclub notes for The Overstory for the library book club tomorrow.

I'm rereading American Spy - the timeline skipped around so much I became a bit confused.

This article from Tor really stuck me:

The Role Publishing Plays in the Commodification of Black Pain: https://www.tor.com/2020/06/17/the-role-publishing-plays-in-the-commodification-...

And while American Spy is not fantasy, it strikes me as falling into the category of a black writer writing a strong black woman protagonist that is not a 'misery memoir'.

Janet, interesting article link in >138 streamsong:. Thanks for including it!

>139 mdoris: I agree. I do note that the titles mentioned are fantasy, science fiction, and/or YA, which are not genres I generally read, otherwise I would have heard of at least some of them, I hope.

NOO to snow!

I love the Anna Pigeon series as well, Janet. Like you, I love the locations. Is she still writing? It's been a while since I've read one.

I'll be interested in what your book club says about The Overstory.

Hi Janet!

>129 streamsong: I'm now the proud owner of The Ten Thousand Doors of January! I'll probably read another Rex Stout after The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep, then jump right in.

I'm glad the nature walk went well. Fascinating about old cottonwoods and beaver families.

>133 streamsong: I'm allowing myself one Murderbot per month, so I have #2 scheduled for July.

>139 mdoris: I'm glad you liked the link, Mary.

I thought I should try to read more classic black authors and works, so with the library opening back up, I now have several in my TBR pile.

But there are so many contemporary black writers right now, too, telling their stories. I have a few of those in Planet TBR, now, too.

I've read and enjoyed several of the black fantasy writers. And several of the ya POC authors.

But something about the June PBS book, American Spy has made me aware that there is another gap in my reading - contemporary stories by African American (also probably Native American and LatinX and oh so many others).

Catching up with you ( I am 50 or so posts behind)

>124 streamsong: I was wondering about that one. I have Outliers and the tipping point on my TBR shelf. I should get to it soon.

Happy weekending!

>140 ffortsa: Hi Judy! Are there books you would recommend that would fall into the catagory that are not YA, fantasy, or SF?

>141 BLBera: Hi Beth -

No snow - but it's supposed to be another very wet few days here with an inch of rain again spread over tomorrow and Monday.

I had no idea if Nevada Barr was still writing so I had to sleuth it out. She published a stand alone book in 2019 called What Rose Forgot. The latest Anna Pigeon was published in 2016 and set in Arcadia National Park.

There were only a few people at the Zoom discussion of the Overstory. One person said it was her favorite book of all time. Two had listened to the audio and felt that that was very confusing.

We had a fairly interesting discussion about the connectedness of all things. I had just read a study guide to refresh my memory after reading it last year - I wish I had reread it.

>142 karenmarie: Hi Karen! Enjoy The Ten Thousand Doors of January! I'll be interested to see what you have to say about it.

I definitely need to go on more short hikes and walks. Being outside in the woods is so special to me. Working outdoors on the place is good, although exhausting. It's definitely not the same as being out and soaking in nature.

Montana Covid cases are increasing and we now have community spread in Ravalli County where I live, Missoula County to the north and other counties. So, I'll be avoiding group-ish things once more. I guess that means more reading. The walking and trail walking can fit right into that.

>143 fuzzi: Sounds like a good plan, Lor!

I found this interview on YouTube with Murderbot author Martha Wells. I'm always interested in the author's writing processes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llu2nQI1USI

>145 figsfromthistle: Good to see you! I'm way behind on threads, too, but I need to stop by your thread and see how you and yours are getting along.

I've read The Tipping Point, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking and David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants by Malcolm Gladwell. He always has some interesting food for thought.

47. The Hollow Kingdom – Kira Jane Buxton - 2019
– library


This is one of the more bizarre Apocalyptic novels that I have read.

When a virus turns the human population into zombies (searching, searching, always searching) , the animals remain. This is told from the POV of a formerly pet crow named Shit Turd or ST for short. ST loved belonging to Big Jim; ST was proud of his mofo speech and mofo adopted ways and looked down on his wild brethern.

After the apocalypse, ST was able to liberate himself, as well as Big Jim’s bloodhound Dennis into the new world.

There are pets trapped inside of homes that need to be rescued; there are ravenous carnivorous animals escaped from the Seattle zoo. There is also a mysterious terror that is evolving quickly and may yet kill everything in its path.

ST has never paid much attention to the networks that connect living things. He finds that not only do the local murder of wild crows speak through a network, other birds and animals and sea creatures also have their own networks. Even the trees are connected and seem to have definite opinions about which way ST should go.

ST is snarky, irreverent, can curse a blue streak, and is surprisingly loyal. If crows could read, I think they’d like ST.

I did.

Glad you like it! I did too.

Hey Jim! Thanks for stopping by!

It was a fun read, wasn't it?

JULY Challenges and possibilities

Still need to finish:
Reading- White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America - Nancy Isenberg

Library Books:
✔Go Tell It on the Mountain - James Baldwin
✔The first phone call from heaven - Mitch Albom rec by Linda

✔ - RLBC: This House of Sky - Ivan Doig reread
✔ - Mysterykit: Cross Genre : Invasion - medical mystery w aliens ROOT
✔Geocat: Latin and South America, Caribbean: Bel Canto - ROOT
- Nonfiction Cat - Human Science - Island of the Color Blind
- 75'ers group reads: ✔Beginning Operations - James White
- -✔ The Orphan Master's Son
- - ✔ Viveca Sten - Closed Circles -
- 75'ers NF -
✔ - PBS Now Read This: Citizen: An American Lyric - Claudia Rankine
✔ - July Juveniles: Dandelion Wine Ray Bradbury - 1957 - ROOT (acq'd 2016)
**Reading** - Dick Francis Read: Smokescreen

LTER
✔- They Are Already Here: UFO Culture and Why We See Saucers by Sarah Scoles - audiobook - 2020
ListeningBecoming Wild: How Animal Cultures Raise Families, Create Beauty, and Achieve Peace- Carl Safina LTER - audiobook

Books Completed - 11
55. Hospital Station - James White - 1962 - Acq'd 2020 (Part of Beginning Operations omnibus - 75'ers group read - acq'd 2020
56. Go Tell It on the Mountain - James Baldwin - 1952 - 1001 - library
57. Citizen: An American Lyric - Claudia Rankine - 2014 - July PBS Now Read This - purchased 2020
58. The Orphan Master's Son - Adam Johnson - 2012 - Global Reading: North Korea (location; US author) - library
59. Invasion - Robin Cook - 1997 - MysteryKit - Cross Genre mystery; ROOT #17 acq'd 2008
60. Dandelion Wine - Ray Bradbury - 1957 - 75'ers July Juveniles; ROOT 2016
61. They Are Already Here: UFO Culture and Why We See Saucers by Sarah Scoles - 2020 - LTER - audiobook - 2020
62. The First Phone Call From Heaven - Mitch Albom - 2014 - library
63. Bel Canto - Ann Patchett - 2001 - GeoCat Latin and South America; ROOT #19 acq'd 2016
64. This House of Sky - Ivan Doig - 1978 - RLBC - Reread - ROOT #20 - 2016
65. Smokescreen - Dick Francis - 1972 - DF group read; Global Reading- location South Africa; library

Roots/Acq'd 2020/Library: 4/2/5
Female author/Male author/Combination 3/8/0
Fic/NF: 9/2
1001:1
Rereads: 1
Countries: North Korea (location)
South Africa (location)

Publication Dates:

1 - 1952
1 - 1957
1 - 1962
1 - 1972
1 - 1978
1 - 1997
1 - 2001
1 - 2012
2 - 2014
1 - 2020

**********************************
AUGUST Challenges and possibilities

Still need to finish:
Reading- White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America - Nancy Isenberg
Reading- How to Be An AntiRacist -

Library Books:

- RLBC:
- Mysterykit: International Authors Viveca Sten - ; Colin Cotterill
- Geocat: South east Asia - Colin Cotterill
- Nonfiction Cat -
- 75'ers group reads: James White
- - ✔ Viveca Sten -
- 75'ers NF -
- PBS Now Read This:

LTER
ListeningBecoming Wild: How Animal Cultures Raise Families, Create Beauty, and Achieve Peace- Carl Safina LTER - audiobook

Books Completed -

Roots/Acq'd 2020/Library:
Female author/Male author/Combination
Fic/NF:
1001:
Countries:

Publication Dates:

>146 streamsong: I wish I could say I have an in-depth knowledge of contemporary Black writers, but it's not the case. Colson Whitehead, and Marlon James, of course. Walter Mosley. Toni Morrison. I could probably dig up a few more if I really researched my book lists. It's very troubling to me that I don't have more books from the non-dead-white-male or even non-dead-white-female part of the population - even from the not-English-language population. (I've been looking at Charl08's thread and despairing.)

I think the list of books in the article points specifically to those that young readers might enjoy for the story as much as the protagonists. The authors I cited above are definitely not for children (maybe a couple of Morrison's?).

>153 ffortsa: Hi Judy; Thanks for your reply. I've read some by three of the four authors you've mentioned - Marlon James has never quite sounded like my cup of tea.

I think I'm looking for plot-driven black fiction. The discussion around the PBS Now Read This book American Spy made me wonder about similar authors.

I realize that it's such a broad question, that it's almost insulting. (Rather akin to asking about plot driven books by women writers).

I've enjoyed several of the black fantasy and YA authors mentioned in the article, although neither fantasy nor YA are my go-to choices. Yay for LT stretching my reading.

In the meantime, I've started the PBS selection for July, Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine and I have several more classics by black authors home from the library.

Hi, Janet.

Oh, I'm so glad you liked The Ten Thousand Doors of January and Hollow Kingdom. Me, too.

The Murderbot books are so good! Her newest, Network Effect, is the first novel (not novella), and ranks right up there with all the others. Just a great series.

>155 jnwelch: Hi Joe! Some great books - some great reading!

I'll get caught up with Murderbot, but like Lor said in >143 fuzzi: I think I'll read about one a month. It's hard for me to binge read a series.

I also get sidetracked with everything else I want to read.

As July starts, I'm currently reading 4 Books: A ROOT, an LTER, and two I purchased this year.

The first is Hospital Station for Roni's group James White read. I purchased a three book omnibus. It's unusual for me to read SF, but I knew I liked medical stories, and I do like these stories so far. It's hard to believe they were written in 1957!

I'm also reading White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America. Wasn't this one of the books rec'd after Trump won in 2016? Anyway, it's been on Planet TBR for a while and I finally feel like reading something more serious again.

Thirdly, I'm reading Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine for the PBS July read. Essays and poetry about being black in America. I think I will highly recommend this one!

Finally I'm listening to an LTER book that I chose on a whim and won - They Are Already Here: UFO Culture and Why We See Saucers - by Sarah Scoles . It rather fits in with the James White read :)

I should make progress in this one, because I am screwing up my courage and going to Missoula for a quick Costco run.

>157 streamsong: I purchased a copy of Hospital Station based upon everyone's raving reviews, and will read it during July...I hope. I'm currently enjoying The Blue Sword and will start my other July reads once it's completed.

I've heard good things around LT about The Hollow Kingdom. I will give it a try.

I got the book. Thanks!

>158 fuzzi: I'm enjoying Hospital Station, Lor. I'm on the last story - they are a bit like a mystery, trying to figure out what is happening with completely non-humanoid species. So far I have no clues as to what may be going on with this e-t. I bought an omnibus with the first three titles, so I'll probably read one a month.

When I'm reading an omnibus, I count each title included as a separate book. I know others count only the omnibus, but it works for me.

>159 BLBera: I think you'll like The Hollow Kingdom, Beth. I'll be curious to see what you think of it, since I know you like apocalyptic stories. For me, it was a very novel interpretation.

I sent out three packages the day that I mailed that, Beth. One was priority to my son in Berkeley - it took two weeks to get there and he finally picked it up from his local PO instead of having it delivered. (OK, I made an error in the address - glad he was able to sort it out with the tracking number).

I'm glad yours has arrived - no word yet on the third.

I've finally received The Orphan Master's Son from the library, so I'll be starting that as soon as I finish Hospital Station.

JUNE Roundup

Total number of books on physical Planet TBR
(These numbers include the library books that I have at home)

As of 7/1/2020: 520 books on MT TBR
As of 5/1/2020: 516 books on MT TBR
As of 4/1/2020: 522 books on MT TBR
As of 3/1/2020: 523 books on MT TBR
As of 02/02/2020: 517 books on MT TBR
As of 01/01/2020: 520 books on MT TBR

- RLBC: The Overstory - (Read previously) Plan to read ✔ The Overstory: Study Guide for Book Clubs
✔- Mysterykit: Police Procedural: Closed Circles - Viveca Sten
✔- Geocat: Space: Artificial Condition: The Murderbot Diaries - Mary Wells
- Nonfiction Cat - Human Science/Society: How to Be an Anti Racist
- 75'ers group read: Justice How to Be an Anti Racist
- 75'ers NF - Written by a journalist
✔PBS Now Read This: American Spy: A Novel - Lauren Wilkinson
LTER
Listening - They Are Already Here: UFO Culture and Why We See Saucers by Sarah Scoles - audiobook - 2020
Becoming Wild: How Animal Cultures Raise Families, Create Beauty, and Achieve Peace- Carl Safina LTER - audiobook

Total books finished: 9; 6 reviews to do

46. Get Shorty - Elmore Leonard - 1001 - ROOT
47. The Hollow Kingdom -Kira Jane Buxton - 2019 - library
48. The Starch Solution - John A. McDougall - 2012 - ROOT 2019
49. Nairobi Noir - Peter Kimani - 2020 - acq'd 2020
50. Darwin Comes to Town - Menno Schilthuizen - 2018 - . Global Reading: Netherlands (author, partial location); library
51. Artificial Condition: The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells - 2018 - Geocat: Space - Kindle 2020
52. Closed Circles - Viveca Sten - 2009 - MysteryKit - police; Global Reading - Sweden; Kindle app - acqd 2020
53. American Spy - Lauren Wilkinson - 2019 - PBS Now Read This; Global Reading - Burkina Faso - acq'd 2020
54. The Overstory: A Study Guide for Book Clubs - Kathryn Cope - 2019 - (89 pages) preparing for RLBC - acq'd 2020

Roots/Acq'd 2020/Library 2/5/2
Female author/Male author/Combination 5/3/1
Fic/NF: 6/3
1001:1
Countries:
- Burkino Faso
- Kenya
- Netherlands
- Sweden

Publication Dates:

1990
2009
2012
2 - 2018
3 - 2019
2020

In this difficult year with an unprecedented pandemic and where the ills of the past intrude sadly upon the present there must still be room for positivity. Be rightly proud of your country. To all my American friends, enjoy your 4th of July weekend.

Thank you, Paul for your lovely, uplifting message.

Right now things seem overwhelming. Can't say I agree with many of Trump's pronouncements over the 4th. :(

This book was given to me by my son and his fiancé who both love this plan.

I'm withholding a rating on this one. It definitely made me more aware of eating less processed foods. I don't think I'm quite convinced to jump in as a full time vegan.



48. The Starch Solution – John A McDougall - 2012
- ROOT #16 - acq'd 2019

This style of eating is completely vegan (no eggs or dairy) with the emphasis on whole grains, complex carbohydrates and no added oils - plant or otherwise. A typical plate would be half complex starch or grains and half veggies or fruit.

This is supposed to help with many of the lifestyle problems that plague Americans – obesity, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, as well as be a help in losing weight and increasing energy levels.

The physician author asserts that complex carboyhydrate foods in unprocessed forms, may increase blood sugars in the short time frame, but then actually produce lower blood sugars over the long time frame. Potatoes, with a relatively high GI (Glycemic Index) are an example of this.

Some of the FB followers shock start this plan by eating only potatoes for 30 days to get their bodies ‘weaned away’ from cravings and to get faster benefits.

Intriguing -

Hi Janet!

I’m sorry to hear there’s an increase of cases in Montana in general, and specifically Ravalli County. Gallatin County’s pretty awful, too. Chatham County NC, my county, is bad, too, and I haven’t done much more than I was doing in March. I did buy bird seed a while back, picked up my taxes, and handed off Treasurer duties to Pete, all wearing a mask. It’s too bad that there was a taste of freedom, and now more locking down.

>149 streamsong: I’m so glad you loved Hollow Kingdom. I’d like to re-read it one of these days.

Hi Karen - good to see you! Yes, Montana's cases are on the upswing.

I did screw up my courage and drove to Missoula to go to Costco last week. This was my first Costco trip since February and pre pandemic!

Everybody wore masks - if you wanted to shop you had to have a mask; the clerks all wore masks. I felt much more comfortable shopping there than in the small Hamilton stores with only only about 10% of people wearing masks. Several people (including me) also wore gloves.

Even though there are many more Covid cases in Missoula than Hamilton, I'll return to Costco again.

I wonder if people have thought about the idea that when they tell others to 'just stay home' if they are uncomfortable around unmasked people, they are actually contributing to a slow down of the economy re-opening. What do you guess? My guess is that maybe a quarter or a third of people are older, or have underlying health conditions, or are pregnant. By telling all these people to stay home, what does that do a business's bottom line?

The Hollow Kingdom was fun. Will you recommend it to your bookclub?

I galloped through Go Tell it On the Mountain this weekend. I had watched I Am Not Your Negro on PBS several weeks ago and decided to read more classics by Baldwin and other black authors ... and more contemporary black authors ... and more social criticism by black authors.

I also finished my first time through Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine about being black in America for the PBS Now Read This bookclub. Since it's a mixture of essays and poetry, I know I'll be rereading it at least once more. I always need to soak in poetry a bit. I 'm looking forward to the discussion on FB.

It's been an interesting three months in the PBS bookclub. May's selection was The Street, a lesser known classic work by a black woman author from the 1940's.

June was American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson, a first novel by a contemporary black author.

And now July's pick, Citizen: An American Lyric about being black in America.

Currently reading:



Excellent so far!

and continuing on with:

This one was recommended by both Anita FAMeulstee and EllaTim. The author is a Dutch scientist, but as Anita pointed out uppage the book was written in English. My thanks to both for the wonderful recs.



50. Darwin Comes to Town – Menno Schilthuizen – 2018
- Global Reading: Netherlands (author, partial location)
- library
-

From the description of the book:

“With human populations growing, we’re having an increasing impact on global ecosystems, and nowhere do these impacts overlap as much as they do in cities. The urban environment is about as extreme as it gets, and the wild animals and plants that live side-by-side with us need to adapt to a whole suite of challenging conditions: they must manage in the city’s hotter climate (the “urban heat island”); they need to be able to live either in the semidesert of the tall, rocky, and cavernous structures we call buildings or in the pocket-like oases of city parks (which pose their own dangers, including smog and free-ranging dogs and cats); traffic causes continuous noise, a mist of fine dust particles, and barriers to movement for any animal that cannot fly or burrow; food sources are mainly human-derived. And yet, as Schilthuizen shows, the wildlife sharing these spaces with us is not just surviving, but evolving ways of thriving.”

This is a fascinating account of evolution happening in cities – evolution that is not happening at the rate of slow eons of geological time, but at a quicker almost break neck speed, pushed by man’s ever changing innovations. Bird wings subtly change shape to be able to escape upward more quickly, moths must adapt to the brighter LED lights, blackbirds sing at a higher pitch in order to be heard over traffic noises.

Each chapter recounts a different species adapting to human cities throughout the world. The anecdotes are great, and the writing lively – definitely not a dry, scientific tome on evolution.

Perfect light (non-political!) non-fiction.

>169 streamsong: Glad you enjoyed it, Janet.

There's something very annoying about saying that people should just stay home. Here the pubs have opened up, before their reopening their were some people saying that people over 60 should just not be allowed in, for their own safety. This proposal received a lot of criticism. But it does remind me of the comments you are talking about, just exclude people who are afraid, or elderly, or and so on.

>169 streamsong: Always nice when someone likes a recommended book, Janet.

>170 EllaTim: Hi Ella! I did enjoy it. I think there are others here on LT who will enjoy it, too. It's an aspect of being a nature lover that I had never considered before.

I live in a very Republican state. Wearing a mask is seen as a political statement instead of a health concern.

When I run into people from the research lab where I worked for almost thirty years, EVERY ONE is wearing a mask. I have not seen one non-masked former coworker. Funny how actually working with infectious organisms makes you follow the scientific recommendations. That colorized electron micrograph of the Corvid particle with the red spikes was taken at the lab I worked - although in a different division.

Pubs and restaurants are one thing - they are easy enough to avoid and it's hard to imagine how wearing a mask would be possible. But more essential businesses like grocery stores are hard to avoid.

>171 FAMeulstee: Hi Anita! It is a great feeling to share good books! I love my LT friends and their recs.

Oh dear. After almost two weeks of waiting, my lawn mower repairman said he could make it out this afternoon .... BUT ... he has been in contact with someone with Covid and it will be a few days before his test results are back.
I cancelled. The horses will just have to continue as lawnmowers for a while longer.

>173 streamsong: Very wise to be safe Janet and very good that your horses can do the grass cutting job in the meantime.

>174 mdoris: That's what I thought, Mary. The horses are happy to do their part, although the results aren't the neatest.

I haven't read much science fiction, but seem to be making an exception this year. Murderbot is great! Fun, light fiction to take you away from the pandemic and politics.

51. Artificial Condition: The Murderbot Diaries (#2) – Martha Wells – 2018
- GeoCat: Space: The Final Frontier
- acq'd 2020


Murderbot is a SecUnit – a security unit designed by humans to be mostly enhanced robot and sophisticated computer with some cloned human bits. But although physically it seems to be more machine than human, it’s actually a sympathetic, self-aware character that downloads reams of human media shows to binge watch when it is bored or stressed. It also has a lovely, snarky sense of humor, and is very shy when humans see it without its armor.

In this second novella, Murderbot, now a free agent, slips away from the humans it is living with, to see if it can find out the truth about its past and the dozens of humans it vaguely remembers killing.

Along the way it meets up with a lovely sentient space ship. Knowing that the spaceship is also probably bored, Murderbot asks the ship to let it sneak aboard in exchange for access to Murderbot’s wide collection of videos. He discovers the ship to be much more than a being with whom to binge watch his favorite shows.

Although Murderbot is able to discover much about its past, it leaves one with more questions about sentience and machines having more humanity than humans.

>175 streamsong: It's sheep that do the good job, which is why ranchers were so opposed to sheep farming in the U.S. western regions where grazing is so important. Decades ago, I believe there were sheep in Central Park to do the same job, hence the area named 'Sheep Meadow'.

>177 ffortsa: That is so very true, Judy!

Letting animals graze on National Forest Land is still a big issue. There are areas that allow cattle (causing complaints by hikers). Sheep are not allowed, but many people believe they should be as they are much more efficient in taking down the brush and other undergrowth. During forest fires, it's the burning undergrowth that catches the big trees on fire. With the brush cleaned out a bit, fewer trees burn.

I've started reading Dandelion Wine for the 75'er's July Juveniles read. I am reveling in it. It consists of short essays/stories about a remarkable 14 year old's idyllic summer in 1928. His grandparents made dandelion wine each summer, to be doled in small glasses during the cold and illnesses of bleak Januaries. That's exactly what these stories feel like to me - glowing bright bits in a tumultuous summer.

This is especially welcome as the other main book I'm reading, The Orphan Master's Son is becoming ever more dark and bleak. I may have to abandon that one.

Hi Janet!

>166 streamsong: There is no winning position right now vis-à-vis the economy and public health. Promoting the economy endangers peoples’ lives, promoting public health by having people stay at home damages the economy.

As a country, we’re used to being able to figure things out and make them happen, and part of the frustration is not being able to have our cake and eat it too right now.

I won’t recommend The Hollow Kingdom because at least 3 of 12 of the women in our group wouldn’t be able to handle the violence. There’s so much sly humor and so many important themes that I’d like for each of them to read it, but it just wouldn’t happen, alas.

>172 streamsong: I still go out to the grocery store. I had to have 2 RL meetings with Friends of the Library folks this week, but we socially distanced and wore masks. I don’t go out much, therefore, but since our Governor required masks on June 26th, I haven’t seen any unmasked folks in the grocery store. I did see a guy walking towards the grocery store when I was getting ready to leave and hope he had one in his pocket…

>173 streamsong: Sad but wise.

>179 streamsong: I abandoned The Orphan Master’s Son in 2013. As you say, dark and bleak.

>180 karenmarie: Hi Karen! Thanks for stopping in.

I think the middle ground for reopening consists of following the guidelines: wearing masks, hand sanitizer and social distancing. We can't shut down altogether, but we can't just ignore the situation either.

Unfortunately, here in Republican Montana, people are more worried that wearing a mask abridges their constitutional rights and feel that Covid is an overblown political issue, rather than a health crisis issue.

My brother the doctor lives in Tempe. His wife is a nurse. The stories coming out of Maricopa County hospitals, where the numbers have overwhelmed the system are staggering.

I'm still picking away at The Orphan Master's Son. There's certainly no joy in reading it - not good pandemic reading when I am feeling rather depressed as it is. It was supposed to a group read, but I think only one person has finished it.

There is a group read happening with this series. I was able to buy the first three in this series for .99 each, so I will be reading at least one more of them.



52. Closed Circles – Viveca Sten – 2009
- MysteryKit – police investigation
- 75'er's group read
– Kindle app 2020

This is the second of the Sandham murder series set on the Sandham islands off the coast of Sweden.

It’s the height of summer tourist season. As expensive racing yachts jockey for the best position at the race’s start, suddenly the captain of one of the most expensive yachts falls to the deck of his yacht just as the starters ‘pistol sounds. It’s murder, of course, but who would want to kill the Chairman of the Royal Swedish Yacht Club?

Once again policeman Thomas Andreasson and his partner, Margit take on the investigation, while Thomas’s longtime friend Nora, sleuths in some rather fishy financial records.

Many good twists and turns.

I am disappointed that Nora is still enduring her poor marriage, but I know that the end of a marriage is not as easy as one might imagine.

I was surprised that there is a plot summary of the entire first novel with all its spoilers within the first few chapters. As this second novel is a continuation of the characters’ personal dramas, I suppose it had to be done. But you won’t want to read this one if you plan on reading the first in the series.

>179 streamsong: I loved Dandelion Wine! It's ages ago that I read it, I loved Bradbury's writing.

Oh The Orphan Master's Son sounds like something to avoid.

I wore a mask in the tram yesterday, in public transport it's obligatory. Uncomfortable and too warm, and I had the strange feeling that we were not supposed to talk to other passengers. But it is safer, and that is more important at the moment.

>82 streamsong: Bill bought The Ten Thousand Doors of January for me for my birthday, and I just finished and reviewed it. Thank you for inspiring me to get and read it.

Dandelion Wine, too, Ella.

Hooray for how that first pair of summer tennis shoes could make you feel (I suspect kids are missing that today as sneakers are ubiquitious).

About weeds in the lawn and gardening :" ..they bend you over and turn you away from all the people and the town for a little while and sweat you and get you down where you remember you got a nose again.And when you're all to yourself tht way, you're really yourself for a little while; you get to thinking things through, alone. Gardening is the handiest excuse for being a philosopher. Nobody guesses, nobody accuses, nobody knows, but there you are. Plato in the peonies, Socrates force growing his own hemlock. " ETA: Dandelion Wine p 51

I finished The Orphan Master's Son last night, and you are right - it's something to avoid. There were no redeeming moments at the end. I was so depressed I had to bake myself a batch of brownies (dense chocolate cookie bars). So this morning my blood sugar is up a touch and the rest of the brownies will be cut up into suitabley small portions and frozen.

I'm glad you feel safe enough to ride public transportation. We have none at all here in the small towns, although some of the larger Montana towns have buses.

>184 karenmarie: I'm glad you enjoyed The Ten Thousand Door of January, Karen. I loved, loved, loved the final lines. I wonder if there will be a sequel?

And here's a nice surprise. This is the third year that I've had hummingbirds nest outside my front window on a plant hook. Do they rearrange the old nest a bit each year and put in new nest materials? The online sites say they don't reuse nests, but my hummers haven't read the research.

I did not see them last year, but since I spent the summer injured and mostly on the couch, I may have just missed them.

>187 streamsong: ooh! I'm jealous.

Where did you get that quote about weeding? Weeding is therapeutic, as is washing dishes.

>185 streamsong: I love that quote. I do quite a lot of that therapeutic activity, very relaxing, though my back does not agree;-)

The book must have been really bad, that you needed to bake some brownies to get over it, I'm sorry!

>187 streamsong: Wonderful surprise. How big would you estimate this nest to be?

>188 fuzzi: Hey Lor! Seeing the little hummers is a definite blessing.

The quote is from Dandelion Wine p 51 in my book. I think this is one you'd really enjoy reading. It's composed of little essay-like short stories. Definitely a smiler for me.

It's wonderful how small physical tasks can disengage the mind and be very relaxing.

>189 EllaTim: Hi Ella! Yes, I have one of those backs, too. Luckily, I have soooo many different kinds of chores to do, that I can do something for a very short period of time - 30 minutes or so - and then do something that works different muscles. Nothing is ever quite completed :) but everyday there is progress and I can deal with the mild stiffness the next day.

There is way too much torture, cruelty and misery in The Orphan Master's Son. My advice would be to make a wonderful chocolate treat for yourself and skip the book.

I'm glad you like the nest. The round white holder is about an inch across. I'm not sure the right side of the nest is anything more than the remnants of previous years' nests.

>185 streamsong: What a lovely way to take the bad taste of a book out of your mouth! Brownies! I’ll keep it in mind.

>186 streamsong: According to the second-to-last question in the Interview section of The Ten Thousand Doors of January:

Without giving too much away, could you tell us what you’re working on next?

I’m working on another standalone historical novel based on a three-word pitch: suffragettes, but witches. It’s set in an alternate American history where there’s no such thing as witches, but there used to be. And will be again.

You can already preorder it on Amazon. It’s called The Once and Future Witches and will be released on October 13, 2020.

>187 streamsong: Glad the hummers don’t read… yay for the new batch nesting outside your front window. I've seen quite a few hummers at the feeder today.

>191 karenmarie: Hi Karen! It's always good to see you.

I can't remember ever having to bake something sweet after finishing a book - it's a first. Maybe that's a new rating - OMG I needed to bake brownies afterwards!

I finished the book too late at night to call a friend or take a walk. The cats were indifferent to my distress, but they are always interested in kitchen projects ..

But I am very proud of myself that the brownies are (still) in the freezer and my blood sugar is back to where it should be.

Thank you so much for the info on The Once and Future Witches. I'll look forward to it!

Yay for hummingbirds! I love seeing them. Such an impossible bird and so beautiful!

Hooray for hummingbirds, Janet.

I read Dandelion Wine years ago and remember loving it so much, I kept a tattered old mass market pb copy. Maybe it's time for a reread.

>193 BLBera: Hummingbirds are so much a part of summer, aren't they?

Yes, I think Dandelion Wine could be reread almost every summer as a reminder of being aware of life and the good things.

...like hummingbirds ....

Last night I finished Invasion by Robin Cook for the MysteryKit Cross-Genre July theme. It was quick and light and a bit dated , having been written in 1997. It's been a long time since I've read one by Robin Cook. I picked this one up at the library $1/bag of books in 2008. ROOT # 17 for the year; and the third one I've read that I acquired in 2008.

I then started the first few chapters of How to Be an Anti-Racist. Wow. Very slow reading since I am re-reading almost every paragraph. But it's not un-hopeful! - we can do this, although it won't be easy.

For anyone reading HTBAA-R, I would also highly recommend Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine which is the PBS Now Read This selection for the month. It's very short - essays, poems, reflections, that can be read in a matter of hours, but absolutely wonderfully clarifying.

This was the June PBS Now Read This book club selection and was also on President Obama's summer reading list.



53. American Spy - Lauren Wilkinson - 2019
- PBS Now Read This
- Global Reading - Burkina Faso
- acq'd 2020

Marie grew up in the Civil Rights unrest in the 60’s. As a black girl, she was astounded to see her father’s best friend, whom she knew worked for the FBI, on a TV news segment working undercover in the Black Panthers. She later learned the disastrous results.

Nevertheless, she and her sister knew they wanted to be spies from a very young age. Even after her sister’s death, Marie joined the FBI. There, despite her brains and achievements, she was overlooked because she was both black and a woman.

When she was offered a chance to do a job for the CIA to become close to Burkina Faso’s Communist leader, Thomas Sankara, she jumped at the chance. Although the US was masterminding a coup against him because he was Communist, she admired the leader for making life better for the poor in his country. The more she worked with him, the more she found she admired the man.

But the deeper she became involved in America’s Cold War politics in Africa, the more apparent it became that the shadowy group she was working with were not whom they said they were.

This is written as a letter to her six year old sons. The times jump back and forth rather randomly over thirty years. After I finished the book, I reread it to be sure I had understood the time sequences and because I thought I had missed something that would help explain the cliffhanger ending.

It’s an intriguing story, written in a fresh setting whose history I didn’t know. It’s the first book by a new author, and while I found the format confusing at times, it will be interesting to see what she produces next.

3.7 stars

Never had hummingbirds growing up in Kansas (although we saw them when we went to visit our cousins in Littleton), but we definitely enjoy them in our salvia and sage here every day, Janet.

Hi Janet.

>149 streamsong: what a great review of The Hollow Kingdom. I have been on the fence about this one. If I de die to read outside of my comfort zone, this will be my first choice! Your “if crows could read” statement was wonderful.

>179 streamsong: Dandelion Wine was such an uplifting little book. I’ll keep it handy for a quick reread if I start getting depressed. So far my mood has been stable, especially if I don’t think too much about how long this pandemic can go on.

We now have a mask-wearing ordinance in Springfield, MO. I haven’t gotten out much but do wear a mask. I’ll feel more comfortable with everyone complying.

>197 ronincats: Hi Roni! Yay for hummingbirds!

On the other hand, did you have lightning bugs while you were growing up? I had never seen them until visiting my in-laws in Kansas.

>198 Donna828:! Hi Donna - The book is a bit odd, so I'm sure its' not for everyone. But thank you for liking my review.

Here in Montana, we have a mask-wearing ordinance again proclaimed by the governor as of the 15th. However, the local sheriff's office has sent out a notice that they will not do anything about non-compliance. They will respond to altercations, though.

That said, when I went to pick up a perscription on Thursday, more than 90% of the people in the store were wearing masks. Definite progress!

Hi Janet!

I must have seen lightning bugs when we went to visit my grandma in Iowa when I was little, but the first I really paid attention to them was when I moved here to NC in 1991. I'm always excited when I see the first one of the season, and love watching them glow their way up in the air as the night progresses.

We've had a mask-wearing ordinance since June 26th. I bet there are a lot of folks in Montana, just like NC, who say their rights are being trampled on but who also boast about being for 'Law and Order'. IMO, you really can't pick which laws you obey and still say that.

Yay for the progress. It's been better here in NC, unfortunately as the result of the # of cases and deaths getting higher.

>200 karenmarie: Hi Karen! It's so much fun to hear what others took for granted while growing up, isn't it?

I didn't see lightning bugs until I was in my 20's.

I remember how fascinated my mil was with logging trucks on the roads the first time she came to visit us in Montana.

Yes, yay for progress with people wearing masks. Yup, we have a lot of of the type of people you describe so perfectly "who say their rights are being trampled on".

I'm reading a few pages each day in White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America. I had no idea how fiercely independent the history of NC was/is!

Reading this week as of Monday 7/20:

The last of the June book reviews. At 89 pages, this is enough of a read that I decided to count it a book.

I purchased this because I had previously read the Overstory a year ago, and while I didn’t want to reread it, I needed to have my mind refreshed before my book club talked about it (via Zoom).

Our July selection, Ivan Doig's This House of Sky is also a reread. But at least it's short enough that I can reread very quickly.



54. Study Guide for Book Clubs: The Overstory – Kathryn Cope - 2019
- (89 pages)
- preparing for RLBC
- acq'd 2020

I purchased this because I had previously read the Overstory a year ago, and while I didn’t want to reread it, I needed to have my mind refreshed before my book club talked about the Overstory.

This really delved deeply into the connections between characters- much as the hidden connections between the roots of various trees.

Another interesting theme pointed out by the author was the use of recurring religious verbiage. She believed that this was done to give the novel an epic feeling.

This is probably deeper dive than a book club would want to do, but it was interesting. I may reread the Overstory eventually, and I will keep this volume handy.

Hi Janet!

>201 streamsong: NC had the Regulator Rebellion just before the Revolutionary War, about 40 miles from where I live now. Lots of rebellion in the mountains, and eventually lots of liquor running during Prohibition, which has evolved into NASCAR, believe it or not. The county I live in, Chatham, was founded in 1771, so lots of history here, too.

Now I need to read White Trash. I just brought it to the Sunroom from the Library. In sight, in mind. Perhaps after I finish Mary Trump's Too Much and Never Enough, which I just started.

Janet, now I'll add Dandelion Wine to my recommended list.

I've been running the hose every evening on my container gardens, and of course I find myself snatching weeds with my left hand while I hold the hose with my right...

Hi Janet: Yes, Citizen is a wonderful book. I think Rankine has a new one coming out soon.

>199 streamsong: Oh yes, we indeed had (and have) lightning bugs in Kansas! We kids loved them--are there any kids who haven't?

>204 karenmarie: Hi Karen! I'm slowly reading a bit each day in White Trash. There are opening chapters on various of the original states and their founders' various visions. You probably already know everything they said about your state. For me it was new. :)

It's a bit slow for me. I'm trying to read a few more Serious books, but I swear I have Covid brain and only want to read quick and easy right now.

>205 fuzzi: Hi Lor! You probably saw my comments on the Juvenile thread. I loved the first part of Dandelion Wine, but thought some of the later chapters were rather dark. It was a bit of a mixed bag for me.

>206 BLBera: Hi Beth! Hooray for Citizen: An American Lyric. I'll look forward to the next by Claudia Rankin. Thanks for mentioning it.

>207 ronincats: Hi Roni! This rather elderly child loved seeing lightning bugs for the first time in my 20's (and every time since). I had actually seen them one time in a jar in a science class, but they didn't have the magic the wild ones do.

Today is overcast with wind and lightning storms predicted for this afternoon. Hopefully there will be showers, too, to minimize any fires started by lightning strikes.

So I need to get out and get the morning chores done.

This afternoon will be a few quick errands in town (PO, library, grocery), some badly needed indoor cleaning, maybe write a review or two and of course, reading!

I swear I have my camera in my pocket and try for colt pics several times a day - but I haven't had any luck so far. I'm picky about horse photos I post online!

Hi, Janet.

Oh, Dandelion Wine is one of my favorite books ever. I'm so glad you're enjoying it. It turned me around in school, in a good way, when I was a kid and a teacher assigned it.

I also had a good time with American Spy, and like you, I'm looking forward to seeing what she does next.

>210 jnwelch: Hi Joe! That's a great story about Dandelion Wine. How old were you when you read it?

****

This morning I am heading off to the farmer's market. I hope to find green peppers and fresh tomatoes (although a bit early for both of those here in Montana) and maybe some strawberries (a bit late for everything but the everbearing kind.

I am sneaking out without feeding the horses until I come back. There will be a chorus of protests as I drive by but I'll be back within the hour.

The cats however are well fed, paws washed and curled up for morning after-brekkie naps. The elderly cat, especially, is quite insistent that she be fed before I even have both eyes open.

I finished Bel Canto last night. Although not the happiest of endings, I did think that the ending was bearable. I had started it in 2017 and put it aside, anticipating Bad Things Happening. I'm glad for the GeoCat nudge to read a book set in Central or South America this month. I think it's my favorite by Ann Patchett that I've read to date.

Hooray! Finally into the July reviews! This is for Roni’s summer group read of James White's Sector General books. I bought the omnibus of the first three books called Beginning Operations and this is the first book therein.


55.Hospital Station – James White - 1962
- Acq'd 2020 (First book of Beginning Operations omnibus)
- 75'ers group read
- acq'd 2020
-

Sector General is an immense hospital space station that treats aliens of all species. Many of the patients, as well as the doctors are completely non-humanoid, requiring environments of differing g forces and gasses to breathe as well as challenging nutritional requirements and non-human behavior. These first five stories center around a young human newcomer to the station, Dr Conroy.

Each of the aliens’ disorders are a medical mystery, as doctors tease out the illness and required treatments from the distinctly non-human but normal behavior.

For me it was refreshing to read SF without intergalactic war. According to Wikipedia, author James White abhorred violence (perhaps due to his upbringing in Northern Ireland) and chose to write these amazing stories about cooperation between very differing outlooks.

I look forward to continuing this series.

I had a great trip to the Farmers Market on Saturday. I bought exquisite vine-ripened tomatoes, a few slightly battered green peppers (the only ones left), summer squash, a cup of fresh raspberries, a wonderful little fruit tart, and micro greens.

The seller of micro-greens was new to me, but it's the first market I've been to this year. He had containers just a few inches deep and the greens were about 3 inches tall, really healthy and beautiful. He cut them as they were ordered so they couldn't be fresher. I bought a sampler pack with sunflowers, broccoli, wheatgrass, radishes (can't remember what else) although I know I passed on the wasabi greens which he said were much spicier. He packaged them all up with a nasturtium blossom on top.:)

I think I'm going to try to grow some of these. They will be a change from my sprouts since they are at a slightly different point in their life cycle- several inches tall and no roots. I wish I had photographs!

Reading this week of 7/27/2020

For the real life library book club via zoom on Thursday (a reread for me):



A mystery to lighten things up:



and continuing on with three excellent books:

This is part of my resolve to get back to some more serious books, along with the lighter stuff that is getting me through the Pandemic isolation. It’s also part of my resolve to read more by African Americans: classics as well as modern fiction and the sometimes hard-to-read non-fiction about the African American experience. I chose to read this after watching I am Not Your Negro on PBS.



56. Go Tell It on the Mountain – James Baldwin - 1952
- 1001 Books to Read Before You Die
– library


It's the morning of John’s 14th birthday inb1930’s Harlem. His stepfather, Gabriel, is a Pentecostal preacher who has not reached a position of authority in the church. He’s a stern man, and overly strict with John.

John is a Believing member of the church, attending all the services and spending hours doing necessary cleaning chores that few other volunteer to do. But John has not yet been saved – members of this church believe that to be saved, one must be touched by the Holy Spirit. This is usually accompanied by an often manic, but trance like state.

Slowly the backstories of the people surrounding John are revealed. His stepfather, mother and aunt have all had troubled pasts, with secrets kept from the Christian flock.

While we are told the backstories, we can only assume that the child John does not know any but perhaps the barest details. At the climax, on the evening of John’s birthday a significant event happens on the evening of John’s birthday; other events are foreshadowed. We see glimmers of the man John will be.

In this novel, religion is something to aspire to, but what is attained does not seem Christ-like. It is sometimes a comfort, but at other times used as a judgement and a weapon against others. Falls from grace seem to have hardened hearts rather than teaching mercy for the human condition. But for all its failings, the church is an anchor for the black community, many who migrated from the southern states looking for a different life.

1001 Books calls this a ‘semi-autobiographical’ novel.

Skipping ahead to post an Early Reviewer book:



61. They Are Already Here: UFO Culture and Why We See Saucers – Sarah Scoles - 2020
- LTER
- audiobook (CD's)
– 2020
2.8 stars

Author Sarah Scoles delves into the UFO phenomena, giving some historical background and interviewing well known and not-so-well-known UFO-ologists.

In the average US population, some people believe in visits by extraterrestrials but others are skeptics. Many people (as high as 1 out of 6) have seen unexplained things in the sky. Others want to believe so badly , that they begin to see phenomena. Many believe there is information hidden by the government.

It’s amusing enough to keep my interest, but even if you’re like me and have read only a very small bit on UFO’s, you won’t find much new in this book.

This is the sort of nonfiction audiobook that badly needs a list of chapters or better yet, an index. If you would like to compare something in the audio to something else you have read, you will be quite frustrated finding the sequence you would like to compare. Everything about this book points it toward listening casually once through for entertainment.

Disappointing. 2.8 stars

I've read White Trash, and I'm listening (slowly) to How to Be An AnitRacist. I think Berly may be planning a zoom meeting to discuss the latter. But I've never heard of Becoming Wild, which sounds fascinating. And I've never read Ivan Doig at all. Hm. Best put him on the list.

One of my f2f groups (I think) recently read the Baldwin.

Your trip to the Farmer's Market sounds very pleasant. I am trying to figure out how to set up a little indoor garden. There's lots of sun, but not much space. And my planted scallion grew and then died. Boo.

>217 ffortsa: Hi Judy! Thanks for stopping by!

I put both White Trash and How to be an Antiracist on the back burner while I finished my RLBC read. I'll get back to them soonish. I needed something light and turned to Smokescreen an oldie by Dick Francis but part of a group read.

I'm about half way through HTBAA. Right now, I'm pondering his assertion that capitalism is always built on the back of slavery. I'll pick it up again soon.

The farmers' market was great. I'm especially enjoying the fresh tomatoes which I'm putting on everything right now. Yum.

Most of my window garden developed a white mildewy stuff on the soil surface. Luckily, it didn't spread to my regular house plants. Bad potting soil? Perhaps something on the pebbles that I put in the bottom of the pots for drainage?

I bought a very large package of alfalfa seed for sprouting from Amazon when we were first shut down. I think I'll use some of the seed for an attempt at growing microgreens. The spicy alfalfa is wonderful on avocado toast!

This is the July choice for the PBS Now Read This Book Club. As I said above, I am interested in reading more African American authors in three categores: classics, current fiction and current non-fiction about African American issues. For the last three months the PBS choices have fallen precisely into these categories: May – the classic The Street by Ann Petry; June modern fiction American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson and now July Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine.



57. Citizen: An American Lyric – Claudia Rankine - 2014
- July PBS Now Read This
- purchased 2020


This volume consists of poems, prose poems and essays about being African-American in today’s America. It’s a punch-to-the gut sort of work – the racism, both overt and microagressions from strangers and friends is overwhelming and can take your breath away.

Memorable lines:

“Because white men can't police their imagination black men are dying”

On being stopped by police: “You are not the guy. You are always the guy, because you fit the description and there is only one description. You are always the guy there is only one description.”

“The world is wrong. You can’t put the past behind you. It’s buried in you; it’s turned your flesh into its own cupboard.”

"Before it happened, it had happened and happened. As a black body in the States, your response was necessary if you were to hold on to the fiction that this was an event 'wrongfully ordinary,' therefore a snafu within the ordinary."

First five star read of the year.

We're supposed to have a week of weather with the highs in the 90's-100's. Ugh. Ugh. Double Ugh.

I'll have to rearrange my schedule to get up as it is getting light (shortly after 6am) and try to get some outdoor chores done before it is too hot. I am part cat, and my bones melt when temperatures rise.

We're getting whiffs of forest fire smoke in the mornings and evenings. There are some fires 60 miles to the north, but apparently we are also getting smoke from Northern California that is drifting northward and eastward into Montana.

Today is the library's RLBC via zoom for This House of Sky. Honestly, I am in a mood. It made me very sad, even to the point of shedding a few tears.

Afterwards, I need to go to the grocery store and pick up essentials as well as to the the feed store to pick up a few bales of alfalfa hay for the mare and baby and my stallion. Alfalfa has higher nutrients and more protein than grass.

Hi Janet!

Those are pretty hot temps for Montana. Ugh is right. When I visited Karen (and you) in 2018 the hottest it got was perhaps 80 - most days were in the 65-70 range. I loved it.

BTW, what did you end up naming your new foal in >1 streamsong:? If you posted it, I missed it.

>214 streamsong: You got some very good books going, Janet. I loved the Doig, which reminds me I am overdue, reading something by him. Becoming Wild sounds fun too!

Happy Friday, my friend. I hope all is well in Montana.

>221 karenmarie: Hi Karen - Yup. 90's are very hot for Montana. When I went to the store yesterday afternoon, one temperature sign said it was 98 degrees. Yikes! The problem is that we aren't equipped for the heat, just as other regions aren't equipped to handle snow.

I'm still calling the colt Cruise. I haven't sent in his registration papers yet. I need to work harder getting photographs to send in with his papers.

>222 msf59: Hi Mark! The RLBC had a good discussion over Zoom about This House of Sky. It's an incredibly rich description of homesteading with sheep in the early and mid 20th century. His descriptions are so rich - I teared up in the last 50 pages or so as he described his father's decline with emphysema. It reminded me so much of my father's decline before he passed.

I also need to read more by Doig.

The downside was that the bookclub was at the same time as John Lewis's funeral. Pres. Obama was just beginning to talk when the book club began. I DVR'ed it and will watch maybe later today.

Becoming Wild is amazing. It's my favorite LTER book in a long time. I'm only in the very early part of it, but his descriptions of whale cultures are amazing.

Another attempt at reading a little more seriously and also joining a group read.



58. The Orphan Master’s Son - Adam Johnson - 2012
- Global Reading: North Korea (location; US author)
- Pulitzer Prize winner
– library

Pak Jun Do is not an orphan although he lives in an orphanage. Instead, his father is the administrator, the Orphan Master, for an orphanage in North Korea where orphans are plentiful and are considered of no value. To all eyes, though, Pak is an orphan with only some extra responsibilities, such as choosing which orphans will do jobs that will kill them.

Pak moves up the chain of Korean party responsibility, and as he is out and out of favor he also is in and out of prison. Eventually in the dark of a prison mine, Pak kills a well-known General and takes his place. Dictator Kim Jung Il is amused by the situation and pushes it to the limits as the new ‘General’ takes his place as husband to a famous actress (Kim Jung Il’s paramour) and father to her children.

This is an original and engaging novel. Especially at the beginning, I had trouble putting it down. I feel that I learned a lot of the often puzzling mind of the North Koreans and their leader whom they see as god-like. Author Adam Johnson did extensive research and interviews with North Korean defectors and it seems to ring true.

But as the story went on, the kidnappings, torture, starvation and cruelty of an absolute dictator chipped away at any enjoyment I had..

Interesting story. Would I ever reread it? No, definitely not. Would I recommend it to anyone without a specific interest in North Korea? No. A ‘4’ rating for originality and seeming authenticity. A ‘2’ rating for the cruelty, torture and angst.

Read at your own risk.

JULY Books Completed - 11
55. Hospital Station - James White - 1962 - Acq'd 2020 (Part of Beginning Operations omnibus - 75'ers group read - acq'd 2020
56. Go Tell It on the Mountain - James Baldwin - 1952 - 1001 - library
57. Citizen: An American Lyric - Claudia Rankine - 2014 - July PBS Now Read This - purchased 2020
58. The Orphan Master's Son - Adam Johnson - 2012 - Global Reading: North Korea (location; US author) - library
59. Invasion - Robin Cook - 1997 - MysteryKit - Cross Genre mystery; ROOT #17 acq'd 2008
60. Dandelion Wine - Ray Bradbury - 1957 - 75'ers July Juveniles; ROOT 2016
61. They Are Already Here: UFO Culture and Why We See Saucers by Sarah Scoles - 2020 - LTER - audiobook - 2020
62. The First Phone Call From Heaven - Mitch Albom - 2014 - library
63. Bel Canto - Ann Patchett - 2001 - GeoCat Latin and South America; ROOT #19 acq'd 2016
64. This House of Sky - Ivan Doig - 1978 - RLBC - Reread - ROOT #20 - 2016
65. Smokescreen - Dick Francis - 1972 - DF group read; Global Reading- location South Africa; library

Roots/Acq'd 2020/Library: 4/2/5
Female author/Male author/Combination 3/8/0
Fic/NF: 9/2
1001:1
Rereads: 1
Countries: North Korea (location)
South Africa (location)

Publication Dates:

1 - 1952
1 - 1957
1 - 1962
1 - 1972
1 - 1978
1 - 1997
1 - 2001
1 - 2012
2 - 2014
1 - 2020

As of 8/1/2020: 517 books on MT TBR
As of 7/1/2020: 520 books on MT TBR
As of 5/1/2020: 516 books on MT TBR
As of 4/1/2020: 522 books on MT TBR
As of 3/1/2020: 523 books on MT TBR
As of 02/02/2020: 517 books on MT TBR
As of 01/01/2020: 520 books on MT TBR

BLT (Before Library Thing) I read and enjoyed several of Robin Cook’s medical mysteries/thrillers. I bought this at a library sale in 2008, but hadn’t read it. Since it was tagged both ‘medical mystery’ and ‘aliens’ I chose it for the MysteryCat Cross Genre challenge.

And after 12 years on my Planet TBR, I can now set it loose in the wild.



59. Invasion – Robin Cook - 1997
– MysteryKit: July - Cross Genre mystery
- ROOT #17 acq'd 2008


After a night of shooting stars, strange small impermeable metal discs are found scattered about. If you pick one up, you receive a small sting. This is followed later by mild flu-like symptoms (unless you have a pre-existing medical condition and then you die). When you recover, you seem to be a better version of yourself – interested in fixing the environment, ending wars, and making sure everyone around you also gets stung by a disc.

The small discs are alien spacecraft carrying a virus like particle that activates some of the ‘non-coding’ DNA in the genome of many living organisms. Implanted millions of years ago, this is the first time there is a life form evolved enough to interest the aliens, which are not just determined to take over individuals’ bodies but the whole of earth by opening an interdimensional door.

OK, it’s a bit corny, and being written in 1997, also a bit dated. But I enjoyed it. It’s a decent pandemic read about a pandemic caused not by rogue laboratories but by far advanced life forms. And Yay! Science saves the day ….

Reading this week:

People have been commenting on this one as a favorite of theirs since I started reading this a month or so ago. So if it seems that you've already commented on it, you probably have. I'm just late with reviews.



60. Dandelion Wine – Ray Bradbury - 1957
- 75'ers July Juveniles;
- ROOT #18 acq'd 2016


About weeds in the lawn and gardening : ..they bend you over and turn you away from all the people and the town for a little while and sweat you and get you down where you remember you got a nose again. And when you're all to yourself that way, you're really yourself for a little while; you get to thinking things through, alone. Gardening is the handiest excuse for being a philosopher. Nobody guesses, nobody accuses, nobody knows, but there you are. Plato in the peonies, Socrates force growing his own hemlock. " p 51

Dandelion Wine is an episodic story about a remarkable 14 year old and his slightly younger brother's idyllic summer in 1928.

Each summer their grandparents made dandelion wine to be doled in small glasses during the cold and illnesses of bleak Januaries when times were hard; a bit of summer memories to take you through the darker times. That's exactly what these stories feel like to me - glowing bright bits read during stressful summer of 2020.

Hooray for how that first pair of tennis shoes could make you feel that summer had truly arrived; or the knowledge that you are really, truly alive, or that your elders could be time machines to the past.

Several of the later chapters, though, took rather darker turns. It made me think that that although I would love to share some of the earlier chapters with a child, some of the later chapters, such as the one about women being strangled in the town would be tough going and need to be kept for a slightly older audience.

This one is definitely a keeper.

Hi Janet!

You BB'd me with Dandelion Wine.

Hi Karen! Thanks for stopping by! I think you'll find lots to like in Dandelion Wine.

I’ve been missing my parents fiercely during this time of isolation. So when I read Linda’s (Whisper1) positive review on this book, I thought I’d give it a try. I’ve read Albom before; they are a bit sentimental, and well, uh, heartwarming. Not for everyone, but this one hit the spot at this time.



62. The First Phone Call From Heaven – Mitch Albom - 2014
– library
-

Sully missed his wife’s funeral. He was imprisoned for crashing a Navy plane with a small amount of alcohol in his blood. The plane crash wasn’t his fault; neither was his wife’s death – she was killed in a car crash rushing to the site of the crashed plane. Oddly enough, the air traffic controller was also killed in the same car crash and the control tower recordings were destroyed.

On the day Sully was released from prison, people in his small hometown started receiving telephone calls from heaven. They were definitely the voices of the departed. How could it be anything but a hoax? Yet, the departed answered questions and even let their voices be recorded.

Sully is skeptical and vows to get to the bottom of the mystery.

It’s a complicated plot with a surprise ending.

Sentimental, impossible but oh, if only!

AUGUST Challenges and possibilities

Still need to finish:
✔ - The Eye of Zoltar - Jasper Fforde - July Juveniles
- White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America - Nancy Isenberg - ROOT
✔ - How to Be An Antiracist -

Library Books:
✔ - Rogue Protocol - Martha Wells
✔ - What Rose forgot - Nevada Barr -
✔ - A dog year: twelve months, four dogs, and me
✔Clap When You Land - Elizabeth Acevedo

✔ - RLBC: The Book woman of Troublesome Creek - Kim Michele Richardson
- Mysterykit: International Authors Viveca Sten - ✔Guiltless ; Colin Cotterill - Slash and Burn - ROOT
- Geocat: South east Asia - Colin Cotterill; ✔Beijing payback : a novel - Daniel Nieh
- Nonfiction Cat - History: ✔She Came to Slay; White Trash
- 75'ers group reads: James White - Star Surgeon
✔ - 75'ers group read: August - Romance/Thriller - Possession - A. S. Byatt - ROOT - 1001
✔ - Viveca Sten - Guiltless
- 75'ers NF - Journalism?
✔ - PBS Now Read This: Beijing payback : a novel - Daniel Nieh

LTER
**Listening** - Becoming Wild: How Animal Cultures Raise Families, Create Beauty, and Achieve Peace- Carl Safina LTER - audiobook
- Elephant Speak - Roger Henneous - 2020 LTER - digital 7/4/2020
- A RECIPE FOR DAPHNE by Nektaria Anastasiadou - 2020 LTER - digital (Turkey) 7/13/2020

Books Completed - 11

66. She Came to Slay: The Life and Times of Harriet Tubman -Erica Armstrong Dunbar - 2019 - library
67. The Eye of Zoltar - Jasper Fforde - 2014 - July Juveniles - library
68. Rogue Protocol - Martha Wells - 2018 - library
69. How to Be an Antiracist - Ibram X. Kendi - 2019 - acq'd 2020
70. Clap When You Land - Elizabeth Acevedo - 2020 - library
71. Guiltless - Viveca Sten - 2010 - Viveca Sten group read; MysteryCat International mystery; Global Reading: Sweden; Kindle 2020 purchase
72. Possession - A. S. Byatt - 1990 - 1001 - 75'er's group read: Romance; - Root acq'd 2011
73. What Rose Forgot - Nevada Barr - 2019 - library
74. The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek - Kim Michele Richardson - 2019 - Library Brown Bag Book Club - acq'd 2020
75. Beijing Payback - Daniel Nieh - 2019 - PBS Now Read This - Library
76. A Dog Year: Twelve Months, Four Dogs, and Me - Jon Katz - 2002 - library

Roots/Acq'd 2020/Library: 1/3/7
Female author/Male author/Combination 7/4/0
Fic/NF: 8/3
1001: 1
Countries: China, Dominican Republic, Sweden, UK

Publication Dates:

1 - 1990
1 - 2002
1 - 2010
1 - 2014
1 - 2018
5 - 2019
1 - 2020

>232 streamsong: how did you like the Jon Katz?

>218 streamsong: the white fungus on top of the soil can partly be avoided by using fresh dirt and by watering from the bottom. I used to start my garden plants from seed in the house, and learned that the hard way.

Keep cool!

>233 fuzzi: Hi Lor! I actually haven't read A Dog Year yet although I do have it home from the library and hope to get it read soon. It sounded like a nice change of pace. Did I get the suggestion from you? I didn't write it down ....

Thanks for telling me about the cause of the fungus. It was potting soil new to the pots, but the bag was a large one that has been open for several years. (Costco!) I guess I need to buy a different bag (?). It didn't spread to my already potted house plants, but all my little indoor veggie garden became infected with it. I used the same potting soil for all of it .... and I was watering from the top instead of the bottom ....

>231 streamsong: Good review. Sorry about the isolation and missing your parents.

>233 fuzzi: Watering from the bottom seems like a good tip. Potting soil several years old? You can also use sand, or mix with sand, gives fungus less opportunity.

>234 streamsong: I might have suggested it. I do enjoy reading Jon Katz' books, but they're not cutsey: he's more of a realist when it comes to animal husbandry. If one of his flock is suffering, he will put it out of its misery...although he does have a tender side. Katz also admits his mistakes, his faults, which I find refreshing.

>235 EllaTim: Thanks, Ella re the review and for the good wishes.

Costco is a enormous warehouse store that only sells Very Large packages of groceries and other stuff. So this was probably a 40 pound bag of potting soil - I didn't realize there could be a problem. I may try one small pot with pole beans or zucchini - mix in a little sand with the soil and and be sure to water from the bottom. If that doesn't solve the problem, I'll scatter the rest of it outside and buy a new, much smaller bag.

>236 fuzzi: That sounds like a good read to me, Lor. Living where I live and doing what I do with the horses, I understand the realities. I shed buckets of tears when I lose an animal, but still go on.

Hi Janet - you remind me that I mean to reread Dandelion Wine; I loved that book.

>238 BLBera: Hi Beth! Hope you enjoy your reread of Dandelion Wine.

Before I joined LT, I used to reread books regularly. Now, there are so many wonderful books, all coming fast and furious, that I very seldom reread. The two I've reread this year have been choices by the RLBC.

It does make me wonder if having so many shelves of books in the house is a wise use of space if I'm not rereading very many.

Started in 2017 but thought the abduction scenario was too dark. Thanks to the GeoCat Challenge for giving me the push to try it again.



63. Bel Canto – Ann Patchett - 2001
July GeoCat - Latin and South America
ROOT #19 acq'd 2016

In an unnamed South American country, a very wealthy Japanese industrialist is feted on his birthday. No expense is spared; the world’s most famous opera singer is the entertainment. The guest list is packed with the world’s rich and famous, all wondering if the Japanese will invest in this country. The only person missing is the president of the country – he decided to stay home and watch his nightly soap opera instead.

A group of twenty terrorists/freedom fighters break into the party held at the Vice President’s house and take the two hundred guests hostage. Their plan is to trade the President for their comprades in prison. But the president isn’t there and the terrorists don’t seem to have another plan.

As the days wear on, we not only see the humanity but also come to care about members in both the hostage and the terrorist groups. And they also begin to care about each other as friendship and romance bloom in unexpected places.

Of course, it can’t go on forever. The ending was both better and worse than I expected with an unforeseen, almost jarring, twist in the epilogue.

Although I was surprised that the terrorists didn’t realize the value of their other hostages as political trade, I would highly recommend this book. Humanity, humor, desperation, romance, friendship, despair and healing.

4.5 stars

Ivan Doig is a Montana icon and I've read many, but by no means all, of his books. I listened to this in 2017. I then reread it in July for my RLBC (Real Life Book Club). I changed just a few words from my 2017 review.

I did not realize it, but this copy is one that I took from my mom's apartment after she passed. It has a loving inscription from my brother to my Mom for Mother's Day 1988. It will be going on to him.



64. This House of Sky - Ivan Doig - 1978
- RLBC
- Reread (listened to audio in 2017)
- ROOT #20 acq'd 2016


Ivan Doig's maternal grandparents had never been fond of their daughter marrying the freewheeling ranch hand Charlie Doig. Their frail daughter had fought with a childhood of ailments and they felt that Charlie didn't have much of a future monetarily.

Young love prevailed and the two were married.

Unfortunately, one of young Ivan's first memories at six years old was that of his mother dying from asthma while the family herded sheep in a high mountain pasture.

It was left to Charlie Doig to provide a future for his son from the often meager funds of a sheepman, ranch hand and a single father.

After a failed marriage trying to provide his son with a mother, he eventually approached his widowed mother-in-law, Bessie Ringer, to live with them. Bessie and Charlie had open suspicion and downright dislike between them, but they were united in their love for Ivan, and their commitment to him.

This is a story of growing up in the 40's and 50's on ranches in Montana; where money was scarce, but family feelings were strong.

As always, Doig's prose is beautiful and compelling. Beautiful word-pictures of the Montana landscape, family life and Doig's realization that he was meant to be a writer.

>241 streamsong: you got me with this one. Whew.

On a lighter note, while on vacation I picked up a pony book of sorts that takes place in Montana, The Summer of the Stallion. It's enjoyable.

>242 fuzzi: Hi Lor - Have you read anything by Ivan Doig? I think he may be right up your alley.

I hope you get your vacation photos sorted out soon!

I finished How to be an Antiracist. Lots to think about with this one. I'm still behind a few reviews, so I have some time to put my thoughts together.

I'm about halfway through Possession: A Novel. I suspect I'm in the heart of the story - a longish chapter with the Victorian lovers' letters to each other. Sneaking a peak ahead, I see the next chapter is a longish Victorian poem. All this Victoriana is a bit slow and heavy right now.

Yesterday, I picked up Elizabeth Acevedo's Clap When You Land from the library. I *so* want to head to my bed and read it. Yesterday I gave blood, so I will have a quiet day today; a day off from heavy chores. Acevedo sounds like a good way to spend it.

I also picked up the PBS August read Beijing Payback and have a notice that N. K. Jemisin' s newest, The City We Became is ready for me to pick up today.

If I turn away from Possession now, I suspect I won't come back to it. Too many glitteries dangling in front of my face.

I've had Possession on my shelves for ages, but haven't started it. Your comments dismay me a bit!

Wow! Some fine books being read over here, Janet. I had forgot how brutal some of The Orphan Master’s Son was but it did not shake my opinion on how excellent this novel was. Good review. On the lighter side, hooray for Dandelion Wine & Bel Canto. I also loved both of those, along with the Doig! You are on a nice roll.

>243 streamsong: hahaha! I added one of his books to my wishlist based upon your recent review.

Oh I loved Clap When You Land and The City We Became. Hope you enjoy both, Janet!

I liked The Orphan Master's Son better than you did, but I also have no desire to revisit it. Dandelion Wine is one of my all-time favorites, it's a perfect summer book.

>245 ffortsa: Hi Judy - Yes, the Victorian prose in Possession is a bit heavy duty. But it's not all written in that style as it follows two modern day academic researchers studying a pair of Victorian poets. I made it through the longish chapter of the newly discovered flowery love letters and the poem - which was more interesting than I thought it would be as it was about an early scientist named Swammerdam. Then I had to look him up on Wikipedia :)

I have the feeling it is a Worthy Book as it won the Booker in 1990 and also is included in the 1001. It's just not calling my name when I set it down.

I had it on Planet TBR since I picked it up in 2011.

>246 msf59: Hi Mark! Yes, I agree that The Orphan Master's Son was original and interesting. I just could not stomach the torture and cruelty, no matter if it reflects real life or not. No to animal torture. Double no to human torture.

It's fun to know that you enjoyed Bel Canto and Dandelion Wine. Both had been living on the Planet of Forgotten Books. I know I need to search out the gems I have listed as unread and purge some of the others.

According to the 'date entered' column in my TBR books collection I have 20 unread books from 2006 when I joined LT.

>247 fuzzi: Which book did you add by Doig, Lor?

>248 bell7: Hi Mary! Hoorray that you loved Clap When You Land and The City We Became. It's nice to know that I have wonderful reading ahead.

Two more have arrived at the library and are ready for me to pick up: New Poets of Native Nations and the graphic novel Boxers. I'll pick them up on Monday. I don't want to stop by the library more than once a week.

It's no wonder Planet TBR doesn't shrink very quickly.

>250 streamsong: This House of Sky 😊

>251 fuzzi: Whoops, sorry I misunderstood. I hope you enjoy it. I also really enjoyed The Last Bus to Wisdom.

Janet - I have realized the same thing, that I don't reread books as often as I used to. Although I do have a reread shelf... I think once I retire, I will be better at sending books on to new homes.

How great that the Doig book had a dedication. And it sounds like a good read.

I loved Bel Canto but it's been a long time; you make me want to reread it -- only see my first line. :)

>241 streamsong: Hi Janet. I LOVED The House of Sky when I read it. HOpe all's good in your world!

>253 BLBera: Hi Beth! Since the library has reopened. I'm once more a bit overwhelmed with library book holds - so rereads and reading off Planet TBR are becoming scarcer.

I don't think I'll make it to all my planned August reads in >232 streamsong:.

>254 mdoris: Hi Mary! House of Sky was Doig's very first book, and I agree that it is special. I like some of his later ones even better.

Things are doing pretty well here in Montana. There are forest fires, but only minimal smoke here in the valley, which is a blessing.

My church is now having outdoor services. I skipped today because I have a bit of a sinus infection from allergies.

Like others, I have signed up for several of the speakers of the Edinburgh Book Festival. https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/events?event_date=2020-08-16

It's fun that this is a free online event and a wonderful chance for me to hear authors not available in the wilds of Montana. I'm looking forward to hearing Hilary Mantell today at 1:30 MDT.

>255 streamsong: sorry about your sinus infection. I've gotten them a lot in the past, so I can sympathize.

Any new baby pictures? (horse)

>257 fuzzi: Thanks, Lor.

Each year I seem to get a bit more allergic to the old, somewhat moldy hay that I clean up with the tractor before the new season's hay arrives. And it it invariably leads to a sinus infection.

In other years, I would use an N-95 mask when I cleaned up the old hay. But this year, as you know, they are reserved for health care workers and hard for the average Jo(sephina) to buy. I do have a couple that I was saving from when forest fire smoke got too bad .... I need to use one with a cloth mask on the outside to keep the worst of the old hay stuff off the N-95 (my preccccccioooooouuuuuusssss) Because who knows what the darn pandemic will do this fall :(

I have a few pics of the colt, but nothing outstanding. I'll add them to the start of my next thread -

I wanted to finish the July reviews on this thread and start the new thread with an August review - aack my computer ate the reviews.

Hi Janet!

>241 streamsong: I have this one on my shelves, just waiting for the right time. I actually have a real life counterpart in Karen – 5th generation Montanan on both sides who’s told me so many tales of her family that I wish I’d met more than just her parents.

>249 streamsong: Planet of Forgotten Books That planet’s in my solar system, too.

I'm being very cautious with disposable masks. I have one N95 mask, a couple of cloth masks, three made by @ffortsa for me, one of which is my favorite mask of all. I'm being cautious with my disposable gloves, generous with my hand sanitizer, and nervous about the fall.

>259 karenmarie: Thanks for stopping in, Karen! I enjoyed meeting your friend Karen a couple years ago. I loved her interest in Montana books and know I would enjoy her family stories.

On the subject of masks: Why in the world hasn't the present administration stepped up and encouraged American production of N95 masks?! Right now they are still pretty much restricted to health care workers. If they were available to the public as they were before the pandemic, it would end the need to have to rely on others' goodwill in wearing masks. It would save lives. Both the wearer of the N95 and the people around them are protected (the exception being the masks with the valves which don't protect others).

It's also going to be a hardship for many people breathing in forest fire smoke without N95's.

I see this as an extreme failure on the part of the pandemic management.

The last of the July reviews!



65. Smokescreen - Dick Francis - 1972
- Dick Francis group read
- Global Reading - location South Africa
- library

Link is an action film star – no situation is too tough for him to handle as we see in the opening chapter where he is chained to the steering wheel of a car and left to die. Whoops – it’s only a movie scene.

He is also a happily married man with kids, including a disabled daughter. Like all Dick Francis heroes, he’s the sort of good man that goes out of his way to help others, so when a dying longtime friend asks him to go to South Africa to check on her mysteriously doing-poorly race horses, he goes.

But almost immediately he encounters near fatal accidents. And as he unravels the puzzle, he is chained to a car’s steering wheel and left to die – a brutal reimagining of the opening movie scene.

I believe that to really understand the plot, one would need to have knowledge of British inheritance tax laws. Although described in the book, I’m still a bit in the fog. I’m also a bit skeptical about how long one could live in a car in the blazing sun, given the recent concerns over toddler and animal deaths in closed cars.

But even a not-my-favorite Dick Francis is a good read. This one also has interesting details about South Africa, including a detailed chapter on hard rock gold mines.

>211 streamsong:, >228 streamsong: I'm so glad Dandelion Wine worked well for you, Janet. I was in 9th grade, with a summer birthday, so I think I must've 14 when it was assigned in my English Class, a little older than Douglas Spaulding. I was bored with school and being a jerk, and that book reminded me about who I really was and what I really loved. The English teacher became my favorite teacher; I wrote papers I felt good about, and I still think of Dandelion Wine whenever I buy new tennis shoes (that's what I called them then; in my new location they're sneakers).

I also loved reading Go Tell it on the Mountain and Citizen later on. From Citizen, I still get chills from “You are not the guy. You are always the guy, because you fit the description and there is only one description. You are always the guy there is only one description.”

You've been doing so much good reading! Bel Canto was a standout for both my wife and me and, like you, we both thought the ending was okay and didn't dim our appreciation for the book.

You've encouraged me on Hospital Station; I signed up for the group read, and then life in the form of grandkids and their parents intervened. I have it, and now I'll look forward to reading it on my own.

>249 streamsong: I like the idea of the Planet of Forgotten Books, Janet. Mine is probably an entire universe!

Oh - I remember that Francis novel! That steering wheel scene really stuck with me (shudder)

>265 DFED: me too! A very vivid scene.

Happy Saturday, Janet. How is everything going at the ranch? How are the books treating you?

Hi Janet!

>261 streamsong: I’ve read that the masks with valves are pretty much useless – Let’s protect our noses and mouths but leave a way for virus particles to come in and go out. Hmmm… what’s wrong with this picture?

>262 streamsong: Excellent review. I enjoyed it for the group read last month.

Hey Janet! I found an Ivan Doig at the used bookstore: The Whistling Season, have you read it?

Janet...you there?

>270 fuzzi: Yup, thanks for checking.

Last week I worked myself into a horizontal position as the winter hay was delivered ... this week my septic tank is feeling unloved. The septic people will be out tomorrow. I probably mentioned that I put major money into it last year so I'm hoping this will be something minor. But do the words 'septic tank' and 'minor' ever occur together?

In addition, I had my diabetic medicine increased about a month ago and it's making me decidedly unwell-ish with a constant side ache and also sleepy forgetful. I have a call into the doc.

Talking about forgetful - I had a sheriff's deputy pound on my door last week after dark to demand why I hadn't responded to my jury notice. I didn't miss the trial - just didn't get the form returned. Sheesh.

Anyone pounding on my door after dark is scary. A cop doing so makes me think something **really** bad has happened.

>263 jnwelch: Hi Joe! Thanks for stopping by.

I just started the second of the Hospital Station books, Star Surgeon. I bought an omnibus with the first three novels in it, so I will try to read the third one in September, too. I'll be interested to see what you think.

You wrote "From Citizen, I still get chills from “You are not the guy. You are always the guy, because you fit the description and there is only one description. You are always the guy there is only one description.”

I don't know if I've mentioned it, but my son's fiance is black. And whenever I read something like the above I think 'This could be for the future for my grandbabies ... and their uncles ... and their in-the-future cousins.'

Everyone of the people stopped, harassed or, God forbid, shot, for living while black is someone's grandbaby.

Chills indeed.

>271 streamsong: You've got entirely too much going on, there, Janet. I hope things start getting calmer for you.

>272 streamsong: Have your son/future DiL set a date yet? I apologize if I missed it somewhere upstream...

>264 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul - Thanks for stopping in! I'm trying to keep the universe of unread books to a smaller number. But it's beyond a planet. Maybe a solar system? I know yours outnumber mine.

It's driving me nuts that I can't find a book that I'd like to read for one of the challenges this month. I need Karenmarie to come organize them for me!

>265 DFED: >266 ffortsa: I'm enjoying the Dick Francis group read. I need to go see which one is up next. I think I've read about half of his work; many of them were Pre-LT when I wasn't keeping track of my reading.

>267 msf59: Hi Mark - I'll have photos of the place on the next thread. I spent part of yesterday uploading photos to my junk drawer to start the new thread.

The books are treating me well. Stats for August:

Books Completed - 11

66. She Came to Slay: The Life and Times of Harriet Tubman -Erica Armstrong Dunbar - 2019 - library
67. The Eye of Zoltar - Jasper Fforde - 2014 - July Juveniles - library
68. Rogue Protocol - Martha Wells - 2018 - library
69. How to Be an Antiracist - Ibram X. Kendi - 2019 - acq'd 2020
70. Clap When You Land - Elizabeth Acevedo - 2020 - library
71. Guiltless - Viveca Sten - 2010 - Viveca Sten group read; MysteryCat International mystery; Global Reading: Sweden; Kindle 2020 purchase
72. Possession - A. S. Byatt - 1990 - 1001 - 75'er's group read: Romance; - Root acq'd 2011
73. What Rose Forgot - Nevada Barr - 2019 - library
74. The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek - Kim Michele Richardson - 2019 - Library Brown Bag Book Club - acq'd 2020
75. Beijing Payback - Daniel Nieh - 2019 - PBS Now Read This - Library
76. A Dog Year: Twelve Months, Four Dogs, and Me - Jon Katz - 2002 - library

Roots/Acq'd 2020/Library: 1/3/7
Female author/Male author/Combination 7/4/0
Fic/NF: 8/3
1001: 1
Countries: China, Dominican Republic, Sweden, UK

Publication Dates:

1 - 1990
1 - 2002
1 - 2010
1 - 2014
1 - 2018
5 - 2019
1 - 2020

September Monthly Reading Plans:

Library Books:
The City We Became
New Poets of Native Nations

RLBC: The Bitterroots - C. J Box - library
James White group Read: Major Operation
Mysterykit: Series: The Bitterroots; Viveca Sten - ; Slash and Burn - Colin Cotterill
ReadingGeocat: Arctic/ Antarctic : South Pole Ponies - ROOT 2017
Nonfiction:
***Nonfiction 75'ers challenge: Science and Technology:
-----and/or
***Nonfiction Cat:- Religion and Philosophy
PBS Now Read This: Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present, and Future of American Labor
- Steven Greenhouse
Dick Francis group Read: The Edge

Finish a book started in 2019

>268 karenmarie: Hi Karen!

The valves on the valve-masks are one way, filtering the air that is inhaled. They protect the wearer like a N-95 mask would. But unlike a traditional N-95 they do not protect other people as the valve does not filter the exhaled air.

The Drumpster seems to think that herd immunity is the way to go. If that is true, things are going to get much worse before they get better. I'm going to try to acquire some N-95's before they disappear off the market again.

I watched both the DNC and the RNC conventions. One of the speakers at the RNC actually used the phrase 'the tyranny of experts'. We could be in for a bumpy ride.

>269 fuzzi: >270 fuzzi: Hi Lor! Yup, I'm here. Just a bit overwhelmed lately. I appreciate you checking in.

The Whistling Season was a good one. I didn't review it, but I gave it 5 stars.

>273 karenmarie: Hi Karen - I've mentioned my son's fiance, but my son is very very private due to the clients he works with and would be happiest without any mention at all.

They had a date set for MLK Day in January 2021, but as the deposits for the venues became due, they decided to cancel their plans due to the Covid uncertainty, have a small wedding with Zoom for the closest and dearest and a reception/party when the virus abates. I'm voting for a destination reception somewhere, but don't know if they're on board with that.

She's a wonderful woman, just finished double Master's degrees. I'm happy and, most importantly, they are very happy.

>275 streamsong: how did you like A Dog Year?

I really liked A Dog Year, Lor. I thought it was very realistic about being a dog owner. That man certainly has more patience than I do - I don't think I could have managed the rescued border collie!

I'd definitely read more of his dog books.

>275 streamsong: Congratulations on reaching 75 in August, Janet!

>271 streamsong: Oof, yeah that would freak me out a bit. I had a jury summons and filled out the card, but was very happy to get a notice that my jury duty was canceled (it would've been Wednesday). That means I'm still eligible for jury duty, but I don't mind overall.

Congrats on reading & surpassing 75!

Our library opened for curbside pick-up pretty early, Janet, which destroyed my efforts at reading from my shelves. So, mixed blessing.

Congrats on reaching 75.

Congratulations on reaching 75, Janet.

>279 streamsong: glad to hear it. I've liked most of Jon Katz' books, but as he writes from his personal experiences, animals sometimes die within the stories. Some readers hate it, but I can deal with it, as he describes his losses in a thoughtful manner. James Herriot's books often made me sad, too, as do the loss of my own beloved pets. It's sad, but part of living, and experiencing life.

Thank you, >280 FAMeulstee: >281 bell7: >282 BLBera: >283 EllaTim: !!

>281 bell7: Mary, I've been on one jury and I thought it was rather interesting, too.

It was a very confusing trial because we didn't find out what was really going on until after it was all over. An out-of-state drug dealer was going to deliver drugs to a dealer in my county. The authorities were tipped off and so there was a sting operation in place. However, the OOS dealer stayed ON in Missoula and was arrested in a parking lot there for selling drugs. The Missoula police had to let him go, so he could be charged with the bigger charges in my county once the sting took place.

But we the jury couldn't know about any of the Missoula stuff. So, an officer or witness would say something and we would be hustled out of the room and then told to disregard what was just said.

It went sort of like this:

Lawyer: "Can you identify this gun?"
Policeman : "Yes, it's the one I found in his car, but was instructed to give back to him".

Whoops - jury hustled out of room, and then told to disregard.

>282 BLBera: I totally understand that, Beth. The library books just keep rolling in, don't they? (Yay!!!)

>284 fuzzi: Yes, I can understand why people don't want to read about the deaths of animals, but the way he handled the deaths of his elderly dogs felt very natural to me.

Torture is something else, though. Torture of people or animals puts an author on my 'do not read' list.

>285 streamsong: Oh wow! That would be completely confusing. I have been called for jury duty many times and was an alternate for a trial once. It went four days and oddly enough was also a drug case, but what made ours confusing was that there were four men charged with the crime, and it could be either:

-one charge if they knew about and were selling the smaller amount of drugs in one place
-a different charge if they knew about and were selling the larger amount of drugs in another place
-a different charge if they knew about and were selling BOTH the drug stashes in both places

-and one guy was also charged with possession

I wasn't part of the deliberations as an alternate, but what they ended up coming down with was the charge for the total amount of drugs for two of the guys who were present when the drug deal and arrest happened, and not guilty for the other two on drug selling, but nailed the guy for possession. The reason it took four days was because each defendant's lawyer had to repeat the same cross-examination of witnesses for his client, so it literally took four times as long and became a bit tedious. Process-wise, it is quite interesting, though.

>286 streamsong: I feel the same way about torture generally. Every once in a while I read a nonfiction book that has some difficult themes, though.

>286 streamsong: >288 The_Hibernator: agreed on torture, though if not described in a graphic manner I might be able to keep reading.

Hi Janet. Just chiming in to say that I'm in the same boat: I just cannot read about intentional cruelty to animals. Oddly, I can just stomach at least some scenes about torture of humans, although my recent read of The Shadow King pushed my limit a bit (people are cruel, in war they are even more cruel). It may be my training and experience as a psychologist, perhaps? I have some developed ability to compartmentalize painful stories involving humans. I cannot accomplish the same separation when an animal is involved.

Re Possession, it definitely took some commitment for me to read the whole thing. The second half made the first half worth it. And I admit that I skipped over some of the poetry and I think I still got a good bit out of the work.

>240 streamsong: Bel Canto is one that languished on my TBR pile for years. When I finally got around to reading it, I loved it (5 stars!).

We are getting serious smoke here today. I hope you and yours are safe and well over there in Montana!

>287 bell7: Hi Mary - That sounds like a very confusing case, too. Having to listen and re-listen to the various defenses does sound very tedious.

>288 The_Hibernator: Hi Rachel. Many hugs for stopping by in this difficult time.

Yes, on difficult themes. No, to torture. Although The Orphan Master's Son was in many ways amazing, because of the brutality and torture, I wouldn't read it again.

But, having said that, the book I just finished for the GeoCat Arctic and Antarctic challenge was The South Pole Ponies about Shackleton's and Scott's attempts to use Manchurian ponies to help them reach the South Pole. Not a pony survived on either expedition. There was a lot of ignorance, but the men did their very best, often rebuilding snow shelters several times each night as the ponies kicked them down, etc. Although the animals clearly suffered, it's a different experience to me than intentional torture.

>289 fuzzi: Sounds like we're in agreement here, Lor.

Hi Janet!

>277 streamsong: Thanks for satisfying my curiosity about your son/DiL. I hope they're doing well. I hope you're doing well, too.

Are you getting any smoke from the fires in WA and OR? Or even CA?

>290 EBT1002: Hi Ellen - It's interesting that your training helps you to compartmentalize painful stories about humans.

You wrote "Re Possession, it definitely took some commitment for me to read the whole thing. The second half made the first half worth it."

I agree with this wholeheartedly! I'm very glad I pushed through. It was an amazing book - especially after I also started skimming through some of the Victorian poetry instead of reading each piece multiple times in an attempt to understand it better.

Yes, on also loving Bel Canto after it languished on the pile for many years.

>292 karenmarie: Hi Karen! We are smoked in here in Montana. Although there are small fires in the state, most of the smoke is from the California and other coastal fires. The jetstream is pushing the smoke north, then east and finally south - right into Montana. So we also have level red - very unhealthy air right now.

ETA: The smoke is not only taking our air quality and light, it's also taking our warmth. The forecast is for the mid-80's today, but with with the heavy smoke, we'll be lucky to be in the mid 60's, which is where the temperature ended up yesterday. Right now, at 11 am it's 56 degrees. Chilly!