Fieldnotes: On Staying Clam & Reading in 2020 ☽ Part II ☾

I finished listening to All These Worlds by Dennis E. Taylor while weeding today. This is Bobiverse, Book 3. Loved it as much as the first two, and found it a very satisfying end to the series. I'm rather surprised that there will apparently be more of them eventually.

I'll go back to listening to The Great Courses offering Food: A Cultural Culinary History by Ken Albala. Which I was enjoying at some point before the lock-down started.

I'm also a third of the way through Network Effect, which is quite good so far. (But then I am a rabid Murderbot fan.)

Happy New Thread!

>2 pgmcc: Thank you! I'll provide the refreshments, but we all need to bring our own books. ;o)

>3 clamairy:
Nice spread. You always put on a great feast.

>4 pgmcc: Thank you. I know what I like...

Happy new thread! Thanks for the feast, that looks perfect for the sunny day in London!

Cheese... *drools*

Oh, I have Network Effect in my bedside TBR pile, sooo looking forward to actually read it!
Good to hear that it's holding up.

I'm pretty sure Network Effect is the best of series so far. I was so torn about finishing it because I needed desperately to know what happened, but I didn't want to leave that world. Well done, Martha Wells. Not sure what I can say about it without spoilers, but some of Murderbot's favorite humans (along with some that aren't favorites) are in peril. In addition to human and (possibly) alien hostiles there are many new feelings to be dealt with. This series it wonderful, and I'm so glad there is finally a full length novel. I suspect there will be more.

I find myself wondering if there should be a Murderbot series with a very androgynous actor in the title role. At the very least one of the second rate streaming channels needs to produce a cheesy but palatable version of Sanctuary Moon! :o)

Well, this is becoming an unfortunate pattern. If I finish a book I absolutely adored I have trouble getting into the book I pick up next. In this case it was Broken Harbor by Tana French. I may try getting back into Why We Sleep.

Happy new thread, Clare. Thank you for welcoming me into the group.

>10 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul. You are most welcome, by the way. We're always happy to have new members here.

>11 clamairy:

When I read your post I immediately thought of Shirley Jackson's work and The Hotel California.

You are most welcome, ... We're always happy to have new members here.

Bwahahahahahahaha...

I am sure Morticia Addams could deliver that line with perfection.

>12 pgmcc: 🎶 You can checkout any time you like, but you can never leave...🎵 🎶

>12 pgmcc: >13 clamairy: There really is a hotel called the Hotel California. It's in Santa Monica. I've been there. We checked out and so far as I know have left (although I'd love to go back).



That was my room. I described it on TripAdvisor as "the epitome of surfer cool".

>14 haydninvienna: Very nice! I hope they didn't force you to drink the pink champagne.

Speaking of which, there's a very nice vineyard about 1000 feet from my house that specializes in dry rosés. I have a bottle of one of their sparkling varieties sitting in my second fridge. I keep forgetting about it.

>8 clamairy: Oh, we definitely need a Sanctuary Moon series!!

I'm saving Network Effect for after the majority of the gardening is done, so I can take a DNBR day for it.

>16 Marissa_Doyle: It has to be the perfect ratio of cheesy to sappy to please me. :o)

Very wise. Dangle that carrot!

>15 clamairy: I have no objection at all to pink champagne, but not on ice, thankyouverymuch.

Ever tried sparkling burgundy? Kingsley Amis described it as “the most vulgar drink known to mankind”, but it’s actually not bad.

>18 haydninvienna: I have not, but now I will be on the look-out for some. Back in the 70s I did have Cold Duck which is champagne mixed with burgundy. The bottled stuff sold in the US was cheap and vile, but my parents occasionally mixed their own with much more palatable results.

>19 clamairy: (puts on Akubra hat): Wikipedia describes it as “uniquely Australian”. It’s labelled “sparkling Shiraz” now, and the cheap and nasty end of the market has disappeared, but a couple of the premium winemakers in Oz are still making it. Jacobs Creek makes one, which should be OK and not too hard to find. There are others at higher price points but they would take some looking for.

A strange sentiment considering that burgundy is generally taken for pinot noir when talking about a specific wine and PN is one of the main grapes champagne is made from (chardonnay is the other). Of course burgundy is a region and does grow other varietals, same with champagne, but people drink sparkling pinor noir all the time and have since the English could bottle it.

>8 clamairy: Oh, I'm glad you enjoyed it!
I plan for Network effect to be my next read, and it's good to have something to look forward to :-)

>12 pgmcc: LOL!!!

On the sparkling side I prefer a dry cava, myself.

>22 Busifer: I hope you enjoy it!

I'm going to have to keep an eye out for cava.

I found the perfect solution to my reading restlessness. I turned off my WiFi so The Years of Rice and Salt and Why We Sleep won't disappear, and I've been jumping back and forth between them like a Jack Russell with his knickers in a twist.

>24 clamairy: *snort* love that image.

I'm glad Network Effect hit the spot for you.

>24 clamairy: Curious to see what you think of The Years of Rice and Salt. I really disliked Aurora, so I'm a little off KSR at the moment.

>27 Karlstar: So far I think parts of it are brilliant, and others are putting me to sleep from boredom. I understand why the reviews here on LT are all over the place.

>27 Karlstar: >28 clamairy: I'm in the middle of my first ever KSR book, (2312), and am having the same reaction. The scattershot infodumps are mostly boring but the plot is pretty interesting. Robinson is clearly an intelligent writer that understands the science underpinning his subjects - and he knows a lot about our solar system. I'm just not convinced that his writing style is for me. I intend to power through to see if the 2nd half improves.

>29 ScoLgo: "The scattershot infodumps are mostly boring but the plot is pretty interesting."
That is a pretty succinct way to put it ;-)

I finished reading all three of the Bobiverse books and loved them! What fun, and so full of science, sociology, and politics. Great stuff. This is a series that I would like to see lots of other Sci/Fi fans reading.

>31 benitastrnad: Me too! I loved it. My only complaint would be the lack of female characters in the first one, but since he's cloning himself it would have been a bit difficult.

>31 benitastrnad: I have never heard of this series and love the concept! Will have to get these very soon!

>9 clamairy: If I finish a book I absolutely adored I have trouble getting into the book I pick up next.

This happens to me all the time, nothing satisfies me for a while. I find rereading the adored book helps ready me to leave that world. Sometimes it works other times I go on a short story binge...

(Taking a note on the Bobiverse books...)

>34 Busifer: I had a good time reading the Bobiverse trilogy. Managed to borrow them all via the Kindle Owner's Lending Library (KOLL). Kindle owners that have access to KOLL might find it worth a look to see if they are still available there.

The books were reminiscent of some Scalzi I have read. Lots of serious stuff going on but plenty of sarcastic humor thrown in to lighten things up. A few similarities to Murderbot too in that regard. All in all, a fun sci-fi romp.

>34 Busifer:, yes, exactly what >35 ScoLgo: said. The humor is very Scalzi-esque, with a liberal doses of Martha Wells.

>35 ScoLgo: >36 clamairy: Ah, sounds like just what I need, at the moment. I'll bump those books up the queue; thanks!

>35 ScoLgo: Thanks for that.

Food: A Cultural Culinary History is another audio offering from The Great Courses which I bought from Audible. I really enjoyed this one, but I don't think I've had any bad experiences* with The Great Courses. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves learning about food.

I'm onto The Mirror & the Light, which is the third in Hilary Mantel's series about Thomas Cromwell. The first in the series, Wolf Hall won the Booker Prize. The series is wonderful, but they have switched the audio book narrator for each book in the series, and I have no idea why. Wolf Hall was narrated by Simon Slater, Bring Up the Bodies was narrated by Simon Vance, and this one is narrated by Ben Miles.

*Except for the Introduction to Latin one that I borrowed through inter-library loan in CT which showed up WITHOUT the textbook that was supposed to accompany the audio discs, rendering them useless as it was referred to constantly.

>39 clamairy: while reading Mirror and the Light , kept hearing Trumps voice every time King henry spoke. Gah!

be curious what you thought of this one.

>40 cindydavid4: Well, I'll just say there are some similarities and leave it at that. ;o)

catching up on threads

I need to read more of the Murderbot and Bobiverse books. I have liked the ones that I have read.

>15 clamairy: you went for the pink champagne reference, I was wondering if there were mirrors on the ceiling. :)

>42 catzteach: Ha ha, should we ask >14 haydninvienna:?

>43 clamairy: Not in my room anyway, nor in Laura's (it was her 18th birthday trip to Los Angeles).

Connecting the hotel with the song is a bit of a cheat really. I'm pretty sure that the Hotel California has been around longer than the song, but the folklore has it that the actual hotel that Don Henley had in mind was the Beverley Hills Hotel on Sunset Boulevard. The history of the real Hotel California is surprisingly hard to google—naturally, virtually every hit for "Hotel California" relates to the song. But the hotel seems to have been there since 1948, although it wasn't called the Hotel California then. I haven't so far been able to find out when its name changed.

I didn't read Why We Sleep straight through, but hopped around the book quite a bit. And didn't read all of it, but I suspect I made it though at least 80%, so I'm counting it as read.

This is one of those non-fiction books that feels like it's just a bit too much of a good thing. Walker is a capable writer, but he beats several deceased equines too often. I fully realize he's trying to do a good thing by emphasizing how much sleep people are deliberately skipping, all while harming themselves, but I felt overloaded more than enlightened. The chapters on the mechanisms of sleep were better for me.

Also, I have to say, his blaming so many of the ills of modern society on lack of sleep doesn't cut it with me. Humans have a history full of stupidity and chronic illness. I can't believe losing sleep is our biggest issue. (Though I admit it is quite a big issue.) So I took one of his major tips for a better sleep and didn't drink any alcohol for a week to see if my sleep improved. And I started to sleep on average about 40 minutes LESS each night. :o( And according to my FitBit it wasn't much better than my usual.

Anyway, I'm glad I read it, and I did learn quite a few things, and I will steer clear of Rx sleeping pills as much as possible for the rest of my life. (I only took them for the last year of my husband's life because I suspect I would not have slept much at all otherwise.)

I'm already well into The Perilous Gard, which is quite intriguing so far.

I find that alcohol consumption has no effect on my sleep patterns. I'm just as likely to have several wakeful hours without it. Ditto caffeine, although I didn't go off, just reduced it for several days. Maybe I should have done it for a longer period.

>46 Bookmarque: Red wine will keep me up, or cause me to toss and turn more than white wine or gin, unfortunately. I try not to have any caffeine past 1:00 pm. I used to be able to have a cup of tea at 4:00 with no adverse effects, but now I won't risk it. Any blue screen like a phone or tablet will keep me wide awake, though. A bluelight filter only helps a little bit. Using the Paperwhite does not keep me awake. I often doze off reading it in bed.

I stopped drinking coffee after lunch time many years ago, but I still wake up several times through the night. No alcohol—dry country and I can't be bothered to go to the government distribution centre. I started walking in the mornings partly because I found I was waking up around sunrise, and I was annoyed about it until I realised that here and in this season pre-sunrise is the only sane time to go outside. I'm neither a mad dog nor an Englishman.

>48 haydninvienna: But a Coward aficionado, naturally. :-)

>49 -pilgrim-: :-)!

>48 haydninvienna: I was in Riyadh in 2000. I was there with an English colleague. We had a day off and he wanted to go for a walk into the centre of Riyadh at about noon. I prevailed with him that hiring a car with air-conditioning and a driver for a tour might be the better thing to do. Thankfully my argument and the 45C temperature persuaded him that the car and driver was a much better option.

>48 haydninvienna: I once had the dubious pleasure of changing planes in Dubai, which necessitated a short train ride from one terminal to another at around 6 AM. On the way we had a few seconds' benefit of natural unconditioned air. It was 43°C. At 6 AM already.

>51 pgmcc: >52 hfglen: Only 34ºC at 0330 this morning: almost cool.

>52 hfglen: & >53 haydninvienna:
I remember a work visit to London in the late 1990s. For the first day we were in a car most of the day and the thermometer read 36C. We had no air-conditioning.

The following morning I got on a morning flight to return to Dublin and got speaking to the man in the seat next to me. I was telling him about the previous day and the 36C temperature and how uncomfortable it was. He responded by telling me that when he woke up that morning it was 45C where he was. He was on his way back from Saudi and was making his connection to Dublin. Certainly put me in my place. I start to melt when it gets near to 30C.

>54 pgmcc: >53 haydninvienna: >52 hfglen: I don't handle heat well unless there is a large body of water nearby to jump into. I keep hearing that one's blood will thin, but there's only so much thinning blood can do in a given time period.

The hottest temp I've experienced was in Arizona and that was around 106° F (41° C.) While touring a dessert museum I became lightheaded. It was only midmorning, but full sun.

I remember a 123 F in Phoenix while I was visiting my grandmother many years ago now. And a 129 in Palm Springs once when I was there. Coming from Saskatchewan, Canada these were a bit of a shock. We still have our furnace on here because it's been cold and raining for days. I keep telling the wife I'd like to move to Iceland because I'm tired of the weather here. I think she still believes it's colder there.

I had to convert the Celsius to Fahrenheit. The hottest I’ve been in is 110 F. No air conditioning in the house. We just sat around and melted. It was not pleasant.

>45 clamairy: I would love to read a book about sleep that is geared towards kids. My students do not get enough sleep and I’d like to teach them why they need sleep. I might look through this book just to get some of the facts behind sleep.

>56 KTIversen1: Yikes. Well, it's only been a few weeks since I had one of my heaters on. We had a very cool Spring. But I've already switched the units* to the AC setting and had them running in that mode. It gets very humid here at times because I'm on a very narrow strip of land (about two miles wide.)

*I have both an oil burner for heat and hot water and a Mitsubishi mini-split system for heating/cooling/dehumidifying.

>57 catzteach: There must be something targeted towards younger kids.

Argh, that sounds awful. No one had ACs at home when I was young, but we all had above ground pools. We would swim before bedtime at night, and sleep pretty well.

>56 KTIversen1:, >58 clamairy: Still needing a heater some nights here. And sweltering on others. Ah, the vagaries of British weather!

>54 pgmcc: Ah that mustve been the same heat wave we were in,on our second trip to Britain. We are used to those temps back home, but we also had air conditioning. We were dying! And it seemed like restaurants were hoarding ice. We'd ask for ice tea to find 4 little cubes floating on top, and when we asked for more they were agast (our bed and breakfast guy wanted to know what we were doing with all the ice we kept asking for, Um) We thought maybe they lost the recipe for ice? But yeah we were miserable but that didn't stop us from enjoying out trip. Just glad to get back home (yes spoiled american!)

>55 clamairy: Yeah sounds about right. The Desert Botannical Gardens are beautiful but in the summer you don't want to be there much passed 10 am.

I didn't used to mind the heat but as I get older I avoid it when I can.

We get so few really hot (30+) days here in Edmonton that I tend to sit in the shade and just soak the heat into my bones. Sleeping is a problem (no AC) but I figure it gives me something to remember when it's -30C in January :)

>56 KTIversen1: According to https://www.cactushugs.com/hottest-days-palm-springs-history/ the hottest temperature ever in Palm springs was 123 F.

>65 jjwilson61: Perhaps that is the 'official' recorded temp, while >56 KTIversen1: is talking about a localized thermometer reading.

>65 jjwilson61: There is a town in Ireland called Birr. It is reputed to be the coldest place in Ireland, appropriately enough.

A friend of mine always said Birr was the coldest place in Ireland because there was a weather station there. The fact that nowhere else, even nearby, had a colder temperature was because it was not recorded as there were no weather stations in those other places. “Things are as they are reported” - Systemantics.

I experienced 45C in Blois in France but the local weather station was in a different part of town with different aspect, etc... and only registered 41C on that day.

>67 pgmcc: Yup. I have a weather station that was "certified' by Weather Underground at my last address to be accurate. It routinely registers several degrees higher (or lower) than the 'official' temperature for my area. So it goes.

Chipping in on climate I always find places that go all in on the AC to be the worst when it is hot outside. Switching between 45 deg outside and a sweet cool 18 deg inside is a sure recipe for either freezing to death or burning up. Experienced this most consistently in Lousiana and southern California in mid-August, on job trips. Worse heat in southern Spain isn't half as bad once I get used to it, even though it's the dry kind of heat (not my fave).

It always takes a while to acclimatize to any temperature and climate, but once I've adapted to the warmth I've been known to put on an extra sweater when temps go below 30 deg C... while normally I'd think such a temp sweltering ;-)

But to me half the problem with heat, or cold, is that if you're used to one you have the wrong gear and behaviour for the other.
Climate reflects on different kinds of architecture, different clothes, and different routines. And the use of AC just mixes that up; one never gets used to the one or the other but has to constantly change.
That said, used in moderation I think AC good. It's the prevailing and frankly insane popsicle setting that drives me crazy!

There was a TV programme on last week about Bondi Beach. The beach was full of people having fun but they all started to pack up and leave when it got cold as the temperature plummeted to 25C from almost double that. On that same day we had been celebrating that the day was roasting and that we had reached 23C.

That's the kind of reaction I'm talking about. I put on jeans and a long-sleeve tee when temps dropped to 29 C in Cordoba, Spain. Meanwhile, last summer we didn't mow our lawn in almost two weeks, because it was too hot to move. At 31 deg C...

>69 Busifer: I have run into this exact scenario at my work. Normally I telecommute from a home office for a company that is ~2,000 kilometers away so I can keep the temperature in my work space anywhere I like. However, the last time I visited HQ I had to wear a hoodie while going in to work, (in July!), because the AC was cranking away & keeping the offices at ~7°C, (~44°F). I felt especially bad for our receptionist as she was literally wearing a poofy winter coat inside the building - while outside it was ~35°C, (~95°F). Ridiculous!

>69 Busifer: Oh don't - get me started drive me crazy that I have to carry a sweater around to go into office buildings or stores, esp the big ones. It starts in May, when its not really needed yet, and goes through Oct when its finally cooling off outside. Just crazy

'even though it's the dry kind of heat' people always say that to us, and we respond "so is a blast furnace" (

I’m usually wearing a sweater year-round, at least at work, although my office isn’t really that bad. Certainly not as extreme as what some of you are describing! I think my office is probably comfortable for the average person, although I’m not sure the exact temperature it’s kept at. Maybe around 70 F (21 C) or a little warmer? If I’m just sitting around, which I usually am while I'm at work since I work on the computer, anything below 77 F (25 C) feels cold to me without an extra layer. After all this working from home, by the time I have to go back into the office I’ll probably freeze just because I’m used to being comfortable while I work here at home.

At home during the summer I keep it at 77 F (25 C) during the day. If I’m sitting around reading, then I’m usually under a blanket even at that temp, not necessarily because I’m cold but just because it feels cozy. Plus the cat is more likely to sit on my lap if my lap is under a blanket. I bump the air conditioner it down to 75 F (24 C) at night because I can’t sleep unless I’m under at least one blanket and then I get too hot.

In the winter I “suffer” by keeping it at a mere 75 F (24 C) during the day, and at that point a blanket is mandatory if I’m sitting around reading. If I’m at the computer, I often have my space heater blowing on me which inevitably results in a cat in my lap. Unless he’s already sitting on top of the bathroom door to get close to the heat vent up on the ceiling. At night, I bump the heat down even further to 70 F (21 C) to avoid wasting money on heat that I probably won’t appreciate anyway under my mountain of blankets.

Being a woman of a certain age *cough* in the Winter I turn the heat down to 60° F (15.6° C) at night, and often open a window in my bedroom just a crack. I have a duel control electric blanket and I keep the dog's side turned on all night because she's sleeping on top of it.

If it's warmish out but I'm comfortable I often have the AC on in the bedroom for the dog. She's 10 and the heat bothers her a lot more than it used to. We went from chilly to hot this Spring in the space of two weeks. I have the luxury of switching from jeans and warm jacket to shorts and a tank top. My dog does not have that option.

I understand why stores with food are keep ridiculously cold, but not why any other store needs to be.

>75 clamairy: understand why stores with food are keep ridiculously cold, but not why any other store needs to be.

My theory? its to sell us coats and warm clothing in august. If we are cold, we will think we need them, which is just silly coz we do know what the temp currently is outside. And oh yeah - they also stop selling shorts and tshirts. Why on earth would we need them.....

>73 cindydavid4: "dry heat". May I suggest an experiment that may give an experience of the difference? In this country it is possible to drive from Tugela Mouth (about 29° 20'S) on the east coast, facing the warm Mozambique current, to Port Nolloth (about 29° 20'S), facing the cold Benguela current, in 2 to 3 days -- it's roughly 1800 km depending on the route. If you do this in January-February, the heat of summer here, you will find Tugela Mouth to be unpleasantly hot and humid, in the low 30s C. The land then gets steadily drier as you go westwards; you will not feel any hotter (provided you drink plenty of fluids and wear a shady hat), but you will find the daily maximum climbing to the mid-40s C, especially in the last 300 km or so (Bushmanland and Namaqualand), until in the last 10 km you reach the influence of the cold Atlantic fogs. I'm sure @haydninvienna could report similar experiences from Oz and Qatar.

>77 hfglen: could report similar experiences: unfortunately not. In Oz it's not possible to drive directly across the interior (you could start from Ballina at 28º 50′ south and proceed more or less westwards but after about 1800 km or so of very hot driving you run out of road somewhere about Birdsville, and no matter what you do there is no way of going further west than the north-south highway between Adelaide and Darwin, unless you go right around the coast*) and I can't think of any other way of getting the same temperature changes. Qatar is simply too small, and while there is some change in temperature from seaside to the interior, the middle bits are still pretty close to the sea and the sea is only the Gulf anyway, not an ocean, so no currents. On late summer afternoons here it's possible to get temperatures over 40 combined with very high humidity, and that is seriously unpleasant.

The nearest approach I can think of in summer in Oz would be to drive from the suburbs of Canberra to the top of Mt Kosciusko, which could be done in 3 hours or so. Canberra in February would be mid-30s or higher, and the top of Mt Kosciusko is 7300 feet up (so 6,000 or so feet higher than Canberra) and might be 10 or 15 degrees colder. There's a motor road as far as Thredbo (a major ski resort in winter), and from there it's about a 10-kilometre walk (10 km long and 860 m up).

*The great circle distance between the eastern and western extreme points of the Australian continent is over 4,000 kilometres, and most of the western third has no internal roads of any consequence. It's literally a long time between drinks there.

>77 hfglen: & >78 haydninvienna:

While we do not get temperatures in the 40s we can achieve the same effect in Ireland by just staying in one place. The temperature on Friday was 27C and on Saturday it was 11C. We just stand around for a while and atmospheric conditions change. We are a bit like Scotland; as Billy Connolly once said about the weather in Scotland: "If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes; it will change."

>79 pgmcc: Mark Twain said the same about New England weather. :)

>79 pgmcc: The Nordic countries are much the same. I've gone from 11C to 32C and vice versa over the course of a day. It's what we call "summer" ;-)

Perhaps our planet menopausal. It would explain so many things.

>82 clamairy:. That would explain a lot.

>82 clamairy: >83 pgmcc: It sure would...

I came to this thread with trepidation because it had blown up to 40 messages since the last time I dropped in. I was afraid something had happened to our clammy. Now I see it's the weather. :D

>85 MrsLee: Clammy weather.

>87 clamairy: Your kind of people.

watch out for that carpenter and his buddy the walrus

>89 cindydavid4: My kind of people:

>90 haydninvienna: I wish I was better at shucking oysters. :o/ They are one of my favorite things to eat. (Especially raw.)

>88 pgmcc: Yes! & >89 cindydavid4: I will be wary.

I'm going to hold off rating this one for a bit while I mull it over. I enjoyed 99% of it immensely, and would give it 4 stars without hesitation were it not for a brief two page incidence of what appeared to be religious proselytizing. I plan to go back and reread that bit again in hopes that I got it wrong. Being something around 97% Irish/Scottish/English/Welsh I might be overly sensitive to anything that implies my Druid forebears deserved to be vanquished by superior Christians. Or, worse, that the Druid path was inferior. If the author had stuck to the narrative of the Fey preying on all humans I would have been fine with it. As I said, I plan to go back and reread the bit that unsettled me.

I've already started The Starless Sea and it's quite good so far.

very interested what you have to say about it, for that book looks up my alley

Starless Sea is next after We are Legion

>90 haydninvienna: I can still recite that, as well as Jabborwocky any time I hear a reference. I don't do it as much as I used to because I had become rather a nuisance, but just repeated them to myself and am very pleased

>94 cindydavid4: Do you lapse into reciting them at parties? :o)

yes depending on how much I have had to drink and my relationship with the host....I don't go to many parties these days

>96 cindydavid4: Same. Even before the lock down...

>97 clamairy: hee me too

>92 clamairy:
It has been a long time since I read Perilous Gard and I only recall that I liked the book. I liked it enough to encourage students to read it and we talked about the meaning of the word "Gard." I should read Sherwood Ring Pope's other well known book.

>92 clamairy: I haven't read that one, and am frankly unlikely to, but that thing were just a short passage threatens to invalidate an otherwise enjoyable reading experience - that happens to me, too, sometimes.
When I went back to double-check if I had overreacted I often found it to be the opposite: that with this or that passage as a key suddenly the whole work lent itself to reinterpretation... and not in a way that I felt to be favourable, most times.
I hope this will fare better!

>94 cindydavid4: "You are old, Father William" is the one I do.

>92 clamairy: Both The perilous Gard and The starless sea are on my TBR pile. I will not look at your spoiler yet, but now I need to move both books nearer the top of the stack!

My son found this baby Diamondback Terrapin on the beach when he was visiting last weekend. We think it had recently hatched as the shell was barely an inch in diameter. I moved to her/him from the open bay to a more protected area with a lot of beach grass for cover. That face, though...

That's a really cute turtle. I hope it has a long and happy (for turtle definitions of happy) life.

>104 tardis: I believe if it survives babyhood the life span is 30 - 40 years. Not too shabby. They don't get very large though, so they are preyed upon for life. Their most dangerous enemy is humans. We hit them with cars, boats, lawnmowers, and we destroy their habitat. :o(

Awwwww.

>103 clamairy: Oh wow, so cute! I'm glad you were able to get him to a safer place.

>103 clamairy: What a cutie! Thanks for helping it out.

What >106 Bookmarque: said.

Adorable! I'm glad you were able to help it.

>103 clamairy: Sweet!

>103 clamairy: Very cute!

>103 clamairy: what a cutie! Thanks for helping the little guy out.

Thanks, all. I do understand why some people do the selfish thing and bring them home, even though it ends badly for the turtles. Those sweet little faces are so hard to resist.

>103 clamairy: Oh, that is a gorgeous little acquaintance that you made there!

Happy whatever holiday you're celebrating! I'm going to a family social distancing 4th BBQ, with a total of 10 people. (Compared to last year's 40 something.) More food for me. ;o)

I'm just about done with The Starless Sea. I have company visiting, so not much reading is happening. I'm also thoroughly enjoying listening to Surviving Autocracy as recommended by @Meredy in her thread. (Though I am using expletives while doing so.)

Here's a shot from one of my evening walks earlier this week.

>116 clamairy: Beautiful picture. Really atmospheric.

Enjoy your BBQ.

Love the picture!

Ooh lovely sunset!

>116 clamairy: Beautiful. Now you need the theme from Local Hero as background music.

>19 clamairy: Cold Duck? Now there's a blast from the past...And great photo in #116.

Lovely sunset, fantastic photo!

>116 clamairy: Yikes, I’m sure many people would enjoy a 40-person family gathering, but that sounds like torture to me, pandemic or no. 10 would be more tolerable.

I look forward to reading what you thought of The Starless Sea. My only read from that author was The Night Circus and it wasn’t a favorite although I thought it did show some promise.

That picture is beautiful!

Oh I loved Night Circus, mustve read it a dozen times. Disappointed with Starless Sea; her writing is superb but the story feels more convulted than I prefer right now.

>124 cindydavid4: I felt the same about both books.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Starless Sea, despite (or possibly due to) it being intensely surreal. It's almost like a very descriptive outline for a video-game, because there are a ton of distractions & side-quest type stories within the narrative. It's got elements of a fever dream. In that respect it reminds me a bit of Lincoln in the Bardo, only I like this book a bit more.



I jumped into a children's books The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo because I had trouble getting into anything else that I tried starting after the Morgenstern.

Err, the covers were huge when I posted the normal librarything jpg links. I had to add dimensions to shrink them. Hope this is a temporary glitch.

I'm currently reading The Kingdom of Copper and listening to Surviving Autocracy, both of which I'm enjoying.

>126 clamairy: Your description of The Starless Sea makes it sound pretty appealing too! I guess it’s officially on my radar now, but only at the very edges. :)

>127 YouKneeK: I think you'll enjoy it. There are several romances, but they are anything but standard. Hopefully Amazon will have it as a daily deal before you're ready. (That's what I'm hoping for The Empire of Gold.)

>128 clamairy: That would be convenient!

>126 clamairy: I was not a fan of The Starless Sea. I felt it didn’t really have a clear plot. I also felt like I missed something and I should’ve liked it more.

I love Edward Tulane! I read it to my class in the spring time.

>130 catzteach: I saw your review. I'm sorry you didn't enjoy it. It was very unusual, but it worked for me.

I would have loved Edward Tulane if I were a child. Did the kids get anxious? He does go through some awful stuff. I did enjoy it, but I could see exactly where it was going.

>131 clamairy: I could see older kids, maybe 10 or so able to handle the difficult parts but think you have to know your kids. Not sure I would have cared for it or gotten the very subtle meaning I got as an aduls, but thats just me. And like you I could see where it was going, and didn't mind a bit!

I loved The Night Circus, and I'm looking forward to The Starless Sea. The lack of plot didn't bother me, nor did the romance content (such as it was). Funny now I come to think about it—I've spent my reading time over the last couple of days reading Miss Snark, the Literary Agent's blog, and I think that The Night Circus would have been a very difficult sell on the basis of a query letter; Wikipedia says it was rejected by more than 30 literary agents.

>133 haydninvienna: I hope you enjoy it as much I (and @Sakerfalcon & @Darth-Heather) did. It definitely requires time to digest and process while reading.

>133 haydninvienna: not surprised! glad she persevered! Its amazing. I read it two times when I got it, brought it to a fantasy book group and everyone loved it (some even wore red scarves)

In fact I was so frustrated by starless sea I decided to read it again. Oh my, wonderful discriptions, I could see every part of the circus, hear it taste it,,, Heck when she describes the food, my mouth actually watered! I do think the multiple plot lines in SS puts me off, but those dont usually bother me! I'll try agin I promise

Without going into too much (or really any) detail Surviving Autocracy covers many incidents & occurrences in the last several years that have scared me witless or made me excessively angry. Despite this I feel there was quite a bit of hopefulness in the last chapter or two. I will definitely be on the lookout for more her books. I wish more non-fiction was as clearly written and as concise as this book is.

Many thanks to @Meredy for suggesting this one. I was lucky enough to snag the audio file from OverDrive, and it's rather short so I whipped through rather quickly while gardening and cleaning. I have to make more of a habit of borrowing audiobooks using Libby (the OverDrive app.) My only issue is that sometimes you're given 3 weeks and sometimes you're only given 2 depending on how new the book is and how many people are waiting for it.

>132 cindydavid4: I don’t read it to every class. This year’s would’ve really liked it, but I wasn’t about to read it without being able to discuss it in person. Last year’s class was too immature to understand it and it would’ve scared a few of them.

>133 haydninvienna: If you like Miss Snark, you might also enjoy Evil Editor (http://evileditor.blogspot.com/ ... though I'm not sure he's blogging anymore--he and Miss Snark were about the same vintage.)

ETA: yes, he is. I need to start rereading him

totally understand! and yah that needs to be done in person

it does help knowing the kids in your class well!

>138 Marissa_Doyle: I remember seeing Evil Editor mentioned but forgot to bookmark it. Getting on that right now, and thanks for the link.

Just tapped into Evil Editor myself, @Marissa_Doyle. I can't imagine how I missed that blog!

Sorry I have only been around sporadically. My pup got very ill and I ended up bringing her to the emergency 24/7 vet last Sunday morning. After a few rough days she's recovering nicely, but I have to remember she's a senior and keep closer tabs on what she's getting into on the beach and on the lawn.

I'm about 60% through The Kingdom of Copper and still enjoying it very much. It's taking me longer than I expected because life keeps intruding.

>142 clamairy: I'm glad your dog is recovering!

>142 clamairy: Glad to hear your dog will be OK.

>143 YouKneeK: & >144 Narilka: Thanks. I was afraid I was going to lose her. They treated her at the emergency clinic but didn't treat her for dehydration, and so I had to take her back to my vet the next day for IV liquids and x-rays. My cat had a double ear infection (bacterial) two days before, so it was a stressful few days. Especially with the specter of Covid19 lingering. I had to stay in my car with every visit, and communicate by phone only. :(

Phew! Glad the pooch is on the mend.

Glad to hear the good news about your pup, and your kitty. I hope you get a long respite from any more woes.

>126 clamairy: Glad you enjoyed The starless sea! Your comparison to a video game is perfect considering Zachary's field of study (and I wouldn't be surprised if Morgenstern was hoping people would make the connection).

Glad your pup and kitty are doing better. But how stressful!

Glad to hear both are getting better! It is a tough time to be a sick pet.

I finished Kingdom of Copper last night. I had trouble butting it down once I hit the last third of the book. I enjoyed this one even more than the first, so I am looking forward to the third book. I will buy the digital copy when it finally goes on sale, but for now I'll be borrowing it through OverDrive. The wait time is a few weeks, so I'll have time to read a few other things. I don't have time for any commentary right now, but I hope to be able to say a few more things about this onetomorrow.

I've already started a A Burning, which I saw recommended somewhere. (I think it was one of those 'Books you should read this Summer' lists. LOL)

>150 clamairy: Were you able to keep the various forms/types/clans of daevas straight?

>151 Karlstar: I was! But I will admit I'm still pretty murky on why they hate each other so much. It all seems based on battles from centuries past. (But then I guess many areas of the real world still fight their battles based on ancient grievances.)

>147 Sakerfalcon:, >148 catzteach: & >149 Karlstar: Thank you!

>152 clamairy:
But I will admit I'm still pretty murky on why they hate each other so much. It all seems based on battles from centuries past. (But then I guess many areas of the real world still fight their battles based on ancient grievances.)

The things I found outstanding about the whole trilogy were how it describes what happens in a divided community and captured what it feels like to live in such a situation. It was when reading The City of Brass I found myself reliving the Troubles of Northern Ireland. Being a native of Belfast I knew real life incidents for all the non-magical events that happened in the book: people being attacked (myself included), even killed (friends), simply for being from a different side of the community; politicians turning a blind-eye to things being done in their name and in support of their own ambitions; cross-divide relationships with one or both parties being attacked/killed for the relationship; attacks on communities where whole streets were destroyed; mass-intimidation to force hundreds of people out of their homes to clear people of the wrong sort from living in an area (now known as ethnic cleansing); targetted assassinations; bombings; attacks on peaceful protesters; abuse of power by ruling bodies; exclusion from employment because one was from the wrong community; deprivation of housing; etc... Many of these things were perpetrated by both sides. There were always politicians on both sides who would keep the pot boiling to ensure people did not forget what happened in the past.

With The City of Brass being in a context that was totally removed from the landscape of prejudice I grew up in, I was able to see how the book applies to every divided community in the world. Everything in it could apply to Northern Ireland, The Balkans, The Middle East, South Africa, Zimbabwe, India/Pakistan, etc...

I do not condone violence or inter-community strife, but I can understand how it is fomented by people seeking power and how it distorts people's outlook on life and creates an environment were atrocities occur.

The following spoiler applies to The City of Brass so will not spoil anything in the later books.
There was an incident where I thought Dara's hatred for Ali flared up unexpectedly and I thought it was a bit too irrational. This was when Dara came back unexpectedly having departed with the Emir on a journey. Ali also displayed hatred for Dara. It only came to me later that Dara was very old. He lived through the events that caused much of the inter community hatred. This was personal to him and fresh in his memory. Ali was not only a member of the royal family that inflicted suffering on Dara and his family, but he was also part of the elite guard trained to protect his family dynasty. Ali would have been steeped in the legends of the past and his training would have been based on the hatred for the enemies of his family.

The reason I love this trilogy is not simply that it is a great story, but that I found it very personal, at many levels.

>153 pgmcc: I'm not surprised you are saying any of this. I was jotting down notes while I was reading the other night, and the two place names among the other scribbles are Jerusalem and Northern Ireland. Those two places have both ancient & very current enmities, and are rife with power players that benefit from those enmities.

I'm sorry you suffered though similar troubles, but I'm glad you survived and can share your insight. As a non-believer I am still shocked and horrified by the ease with with humans will kill for religious beliefs. I'm not naive enough to think that is the only reason, and realize full well if people put their beliefs aside there would still be plenty of others who would still find other reasons to kill. We see more than enough of that already: borders, tribalism, skin color, political affiliations and even gender preferences. :o(

>154 clamairy:
At the bottom of every “religious” war is politics. Religion is used as a tool by politicians. Northern Ireland was portrayed as a religious conflict but it was simply politics with the people on both sides happening to be of different Christian faiths. If people truly followed their religious teachings there would be very few religious wars. Christianity and Islam teach peace. If Christians in Northern Ireland were following Christian teaching then the politicians could not have stirred up religious hatred. History shows that the politicians used religious differences to keep control and to create an enemy that they could use to unite the people they wanted on their side.

>154 clamairy: >155 pgmcc: Thoroughly agree with both of you. It’s even
more obvious here, where politics and religion are just different ways of conceptualising the same dispute. Most countries in this region are either outright theocracies or at least “church” and “state” are joined at the hip. And of course it’s volatile: there were the Arab Spring protests ten years ago which mostly came to nothing, and there is the continuing economic warfare in the Gulf. Shia Islam on one side of the Gulf, several shadings of Sunni Islam on the other.

>155 pgmcc: >156 haydninvienna: I have read several reports over the last few years that said that as bad as things are worldwide they had actually improved. Because we get more news from just about every place on the globe we think things have gone to hell, but indeed armed conflict no longed seemed to be the first recourse among nations.

Here's one such article: https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2016/07/16/486200808/amid-rise-in-worldwi...

I just hope that trend continues, and the past few decades haven't been an anomaly. I'd prefer to read about bloody conflicts in books like Chakraborty's and not my newspapers.

>156 haydninvienna: Looking back on the Arab Spring just breaks my heart. In many countries things are just as bad if not worse than they were before.

>157 clamairy: In 2012 we went on a short holiday in Egypt and on an overnight tour to Mt Sinai (we three were the only guests on the tour, since it was off-season) I asked the tour guide (an Egyptian with a tertiary degree and liberal inclinations) about how he thought the Morsi government was likely to play out. He didn't see any future for it, for various reasons, mostly economic. The next year came the counter-revolution, and the government now is apparently even more repressive than the Mubarak regime. That guide was a Muslim, but his driver was a Coptic Christian, and they got along with each other just fine. I hope they are still OK.

There are certainly good arguments that things are nowhere near as bad as they seem— I have a small shelf of books that give some reasons. But of course there's more money and more influence in selling the bad stuff. "If it bleeds, it leads".

I mentioned some of the books on that small shelf once before. Just to repeat myself, they were:
It's Better Than It Looks by Greg Easterbrook
The Angels of Our Better Nature and Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker
Winning the War on War by Joshua Goldstein
The Great Escape by Angus Deaton
Factfulness by Hans Rosling
and one that I haven't actually read yet:
Empty Planet: The Shock of Global Population Decline by Daryl Bricker and John Ibbitson.

Some support for the argument of Bricker's book is in this open-access article published in The Lancet, from which I quote one paragraph:

Our reference forecast of the global population in 2100 was lower than the Wittgenstein Centre forecast and much lower than the UNPD forecast. Our findings suggest that, because of progress in female educational attainment and access to contraception contributing to declining fertility rates, continued global population growth through the century is no longer the most likely trajectory for the world's population. By contrast, world population might peak just after mid-century and substantially decline by 2100. The difference in population forecasts between our reference scenario and the UNPD forecasts is a third due to faster declines in sub-Saharan African fertility and two thirds due to the lower level of TFR expected in populations with fertility lower than the replacement level, especially China and India. Our findings show that some countries with fertility lower than replacement level, such as the USA, Australia, and Canada, will probably maintain their working-age populations through net immigration. Our forecasts for a shrinking global population have positive implications for the environment, climate change, and food production, but possible negative implications for labour forces, economic growth, and social support systems in parts of the world with the greatest fertility declines.

>153 pgmcc: The Troubles affected me only indirectly (a few times that my school was emergency closed due to bomb notifications, the underground closed when I was trying to make my way to new job). But I was dating a boy whose family had had to leave Belfast, and we were very aware of how impossible our relationship would have been over there, and have some awareness of Northern Ireland beyond the news reports. And I am very aware that "Catholic" and "Protestant" were simply labels for the ethnic groups involved, and that the hatred was stirred up from ancient grievances, without any connection to the religion involved.

But I have watched the same pattern more recently in Ukraine. The roots lie in the events of the 1930s. But people whose families had been killing each other in the previous generation were living peacefully with each other until unscrupulous politicians played upon past issues. I have friends in various parts of Ukraine. A decade ago, no one was talking about the past. Now it is unavoidable.

I suspect that the reason that you love the book is part of the reason why it did not have the same appeal for me: it is extremely well written, but the patterns of human behaviour are all too familiar (and the fact that the characters are not human does not alter that).

>158 haydninvienna: I hope the Egyptians you met are okay, too.

Most of the articles I found yesterday referenced The Angels of Our Better Nature, which I've read about but have not read myself. Do you recommend this one, or one of the others?

I for one am enthusiastic about human population decline. We are a plague upon the planet.

>159 -pilgrim-: "I suspect that the reason that you love the book is part of the reason why it did not have the same appeal for me: it is extremely well written, but the patterns of human behaviour are all too familiar (and thus fact that the characters are not human does not alter that)."

Yes, this makes perfect sense. I've been avoiding books about The Holocaust for about three or four years now, even the fictional ones. Eventually I hope I'm be able to read them again, but not yet.

>161 clamairy: I AM reading about such things, both non-fiction and fiction (see the excellent The Seventh Cross) . I did not really need a reminder in my fantasy reading as well.

I have lost a lot of online friends over the past decade, as the situation in their countries deteriorated. When I first knew them, they were talking about their jobs, their studies, computer games, movies and music. To see their posts switch to discussing access to clean water, food supplies, which streets were safe, and whether there had been bombing in their neighbouthood that night was a sobering experience. Internet access for them became sporadic, as electricity became an intermittent luxury. Then communication stopped completely. Some reappeared online; most have not.

Some came from countries with authoritarian governments that might be considered less than ideal. But they were stable enough that people were leading ordinary lives. To see those countries disintegrate factionally into outright war is horrifying.

I find it hard to believe that the world is getting better.

>159 -pilgrim-: But I have watched the same pattern more recently in Ukraine. The roots lie in the events of the 1930s. But people whose families had been killing each other in the previous generation were living preferable with each other until unscrupulous politicians played upon past issues. I have friends in various parts of Ukraine. A decade ago, no one was talking about the past. Now it is unavoidable.

Same thing with the Balkans and the Middle East....no one really remembers how it started, but they cant seem to stop it.

That being said, given my family history I have a few bones to pick with the massacres the Ukrainian (and others) forces were involved in during WWII. I get the feeling, but don't see a reason for any action now. Which is why Im glad they are talking about it, if doing so helps them take action to ensure this never happens again. Tho Im not optimistic about that

>163 cindydavid4: We are skating perilously close to breaching the "no politics" rule here. They is why I have not discussed the politics of specific conflicts.

np, just saw your IM and will respond :)

I bailed on A Burning. Best of the year list or not it wasn't working for me. Too many unlikable characters, and too much poverty, police brutality & corruption for me right now. Maybe some other time. (But after reading the reviews on here I think not.)

I've gone back to The Hero and the Crown which I only got a few pages into the last time I started. Loving it.

Finally managed to finish The Hero and the Crown, and while I enjoyed it I also felt it wasn't quite as good as The Blue Sword. I would have thrown an extra half of a star at this one if the ending hadn't seemed to drag just a bit.

I always find Robin McKinley's books make good comfort reading. I think I too prefer The blue sword though both tend to hit the spot when I reread them.

>168 Sakerfalcon: I understand why. Even though I hadn't read it before it seemed familiar, but in a good way.

I've started Gideon the Ninth at my daughter's prodding. I bought the kindle version when it was on sale a while back* after several people in here praised it. And I nudged her to read it this week while she was visiting. Which she did. And all the while she was reading it she kept saying "You have to read this!" So far it's a lot of fun despite being about necromancers in space.

* I believe it's on sale right now for $2.99.

>169 clamairy: I’ve been wanting to read Gideon the Ninth. Glad to hear it’s good.
*pops over to the library website to request it*

>169 clamairy: I enjoyed Gideon the Ninth a lot when I read it earlier this year. It's not like anything else I've read!

Just want to say that I enjoyed the discussion on Chakraborty's Daevabad books. Not much to add, but I think it's a common trait among those who like the series very much that we in some way or another identify with those who have to live with such a divisive and destructive conflict. The discussion on good intentions and hurtful deeds, the various strategies that people applies to survive, the inherited hatred, the vengefulness... I hope those themes will carry though in the Netflix adaption of the story. I fear it will be all pointy-eared romance.

I finished Gideon the Ninth the other day, but haven't had time to come in and chat about it. It's a wild ride, that's for sure. It's funny & grim at the same time. Gideon herself is such a breath of fresh air. I'll be getting to the sequel eventually, but definitely NOT right away. I need to recover first.

For a little change of pace I started Voices from Chernobyl and yikes. I suspect I'll be happy to get to back to reading about djinn slaughtering each other.

>173 clamairy: I'm just about to start Harrow the Ninth! I thought I'd better read it soon before I forget what happened in Gideon.

I thought Voices from Chernobyl was very good but obviously a difficult read. I'd put it up there with Murakami's Underground as the best reportage/oral history I've read.

>174 Sakerfalcon: My daughter read Harrow the Ninth and enjoyed it. She said it's got a completely different tone than Gideon did. (Which makes sense since the first one was told from her POV.) I'm very curious to know what you think of it.

>173 clamairy: & >174 Sakerfalcon:

I am looking the other way in relation to Gideon The Ninth. If I do not see the book bullet it will not hit me.

>176 pgmcc: I think you can safely take a pass on this one for now, though I suspect you would enjoy it.

Voices from Chernobyl hit me quite hard, and I suspect it has much to do with the similarities between how the then Soviet Union reacted & responded to this accident and how our own government and citizens have responded to our current pandemic. So many of the people in the book talk about how they didn't believe the radiation was bad for them and their families because they couldn't see it. There were plenty of scientists trying to sound the alarm who were drowned-out by people in power who didn't see the point in alarming the populace. I did watch the HBO miniseries Chernobyl back in January at my son's prompting. I had avoided it because I thought it would be too depressing. His reaction was something along the lines of "Well, yes... of course it is depressing. You should still watch it." LOL

I've already started Midnight in Chernobyl, because I feel like I need even more detail about how this happened, not just what happened after the reactor exploded.

>178 clamairy: I too went from reading Alexievich's book to a fuller account of the disaster, in my case Chernobyl by Serhii Plokhy. I thought the miniseries was outstanding, really well done. And yes, comparisons rose in my mind with the way that the Chinese government suppressed the seriousness of the virus early on and tried to silence doctors who gave warnings about it (Spoiler quotes for possible political content which I'm happy to delete if requested.)

>175 clamairy: Harrow is totally different, and quite confusing as we seem to be thrown into a very different situation whose relation to events in the earlier book is not easy to discern. It is good so far though, 100 pages in.

>179 Sakerfalcon: Still not looking.

>180 pgmcc: Very wise.

>178 clamairy: The good old "it can't be wrong if we're doing it, we're the good people; it's only when evil people do it that it becomes bad".
A bottomless pit of disregard for our fellow humans, imho, with dire consequences.

I'm staying away from Chernobyl-related things for the time. It had such an impact on my immediate surroundings when it happened, with restrictions in what we could eat, and so on. As a result a lot of my compatriots now travel to the area, as disaster tourists.
Total lack of taste, imho. I'm distancing myself from that.
Also, there's a limit to what I can take in and stay sane...

>179 Sakerfalcon: Yes, Voices from Chernobyl just whetted my appetite for more info. I did have to set Midnight in Chernobyl aside for now so I could read I'll be Gone in the Dark. After watching the HBO miniseries about the author's relentless search for the Golden State Killer I really needed to read her book, which was published posthumously.

>182 Busifer: I'm sure it had some serious impacts on your life for a while. Just out of curiosity, did everyone take the danger seriously at the time, or where there naysayers? As far as visiting the area goes, you couldn't pay me enough.

Many thanks to @jillmwo for recommending Mythos by Stephen Frye. This was good fun, and though I was familiar with quite a few of the tales some were completely new to me. Even the ones I was familiar with were told in a new way that made them much more accessible, and, at times, quite humorous. I listened to the Audible version read by the author which certainly added to my enjoyment.

>183 clamairy: It was taken very seriously. There was a lot of talk about cesium and how we should not eat especially animals high up in the food chain: wild boar, reindeer, deer, moose... but also fish, berries, and so on. And there was some monitoring of people in areas that suffered the most.

To be very clear, Sweden is relatively far from Chernobyl. But the winds came our way, and some areas had serious amounts of fallout coning in on the rains.

It also affected puclic debate and the views on safety and nuclear energy, for a long time afterwards.

>185 Busifer: I remembered that is was the Scandinavian countries that first alerted the world to the danger because they were detecting such high radioactivity. I strongly suspect the rest of the world might not have learned about this accident for decades if other nations hadn't noticed it.

It most certainly affected views in the US. There was a nuclear station built about 25 miles East of here back in the mid 70s & mid 80s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoreham_Nuclear_Power_Plant It never came online, thankfully. Because of Chernobyl & Three Mile Island the locals realized they could never evacuate the population in the event of an accident. Long Island is basically what its name describes, just long thin glorified sandbar. With a whole lot of people* on it. I'm out in the sticks, with very low population density. There would have been nowhere to go unless one owned a seaworthy boat.

*About 8,000,000 at last count.

>186 clamairy: The Harrisburg accident, as it is commonly referred to in the Nordics, had a huge impact on the public debate here, too, even if the actual impact was low, compared to Chernobyl. There was also lots of discussion about the Ignalina power station, in Lithuania: not that anything happened but it's location meant that a Chernobyl-like situation would lead to the need to mass-evacuate the entirety of the Nordic countries. As Lithuania gained independence a lot of pressure was put on them, from the EU, to cease operation of the plant. It was decommissioned about 10 years ago, I think.
None of that would had happened had it not been for Chernobyl and Harrisburg/Three Mile Island.

The price was rather steep, though, looking at present-day Chernobyl (the area, not the actual station).

>178 clamairy: I put Voices from Chernobyl on my wishlist for the future. I think I'd like reading it though not right now.

>184 clamairy: Thanks for the review. I'd been curious about that one. Seems I might have a second wishlist item :)

>188 Narilka: On the plus side Voices from Chernobyl is mercifully short. (Which was why it left me hungry for a more typical nonfiction take of the events.) Enjoy the Frye book!

>178 clamairy: I'm interested to see what you thought of Midnight in Chernobyl, it will likely have a lot more detail than Fallout: Disasters, Lies, and the Legacy of the Nuclear Age, just wondering if enough to make it worth also reading.

>190 Karlstar: I will let you know.

Right now I'm still wading through I'll Be Gone in the Dark and marveling at how much inter-jurisdictional squabbling, jockeying for control of the information, and small city BS interfered with this case being investigated thoroughly at the time it was happening. I like to think we've come a long way, but I suspect we haven't progressed as much as we should have.

Finished Fifth Season and obelisk gate and now ready to jump into stone sky What amazing journey, I haven't read Jemisin before but I plan to read more of her work. she's an incredible writer!

>192 cindydavid4: She is! Curious to hear how you feel about the 3rd book.

I tried to read one hundred thousand kingdoms for a book group and really struggled with it, tho I could see it was well written, I think I was confused by her style and by the plot. Think I may need to try that one again and see if I can get a better handle on that one

>194 cindydavid4: I haven't read that one, but it's got a decent rating in here. Not as high as the Broken Earth books, though.

It was her first book, which I didn't realize. I saw the reviews here, yeah, very good rating. I'll try again

I have been trying to finish up lots of the series I have started while I was "working at home." I didn't realize how many fantasy series I had started but had not finished. I finished up the Binti books early on during the lockdown days. Then I moved on to reading the last of the David Downing Station books. I finally finished Lies of Locke Lamora. I had an old mass market paperback of it, and that darn book took me an entire month to finish. I just couldn't get into it. Then the last third of the book took off and away I went. In the end, I added the rest of the series to my TBR list. I don't know if I will get to them in the future, but I thought the first book redeemed itself in the end and so I added the series to my ever growing list.

I then listened to the recorded version of Dry by Neal Schusterman and even though the plot of the book was very timely, this one was poorly written and not worth the time it took to listen to it. Fortunately, I was doing little driving so I only had to listen to it in short bursts of time.

I then listened to the recorded version of Jim Butcher's steampunk novel Aeronaut's Windlass and had a really good time with that one. I can't wait for the sequel to come out. There can't be anything bad about a book that has powerful women characters and cats all in the same book!

Then it was on to Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas. This finished the Throne of Glass series and this book should have ended about half way through the book. The last half was pure drudgery while the first half was so exciting. I was disappointed as I thought it was going to be a bang-up finish. Oh well.

Then I read a short novel Empress of Salt and Fortune which I loved. This is part of the Tor.com project I am working on this year. I want to read all of the short novels published by them. Empress was great fun and full of very interesting characters. I loved it. In many ways it reminded me of Guy Gavriel Kay's series set in the Tang Dynasty of China. I gave this one a top rating for the year. It is not part of a series, but it should be.

Then I read Darkdawn by Jay Kristoff. This was the final book in the Nevernight Chronicles and it was action packed and romantic at the same time. Another good fantasy book by this author. This is the way to end a series!

>197 benitastrnad: Go you! I'm so envious of you finishing off those series. Though it looks like you started at least one new one while you were at it.

>197 benitastrnad: I loved Kays early books and that one was a fav of mine Whats amazing is that most of the events actually happened. For a more realistic take, read Court of the Lionone of my all time fave reads.

>193 clamairy: I am liking the last book, well into it. Its amazing, rare to have a trilogy read so smoothly which is probably why she won the Hugo for each one!

I didn't realize what a great writer Michelle McNamara was. The parts of I'll Be gone in the Dark she finished before her death are as reminiscent of In Cold Blood*. The fact that it covers such dark and sometimes graphically violent subject matter** made it a bit hard to read at times. (Especially at bedtime.) I only wish she'd lived to see the Golden State Killer, as she named him, get arrested, charged and convicted of his crimes. The books flaws are due only to the unfinished nature of the work, and that the choice was made to include transcripts of conversations in place of narrative. So I gave this 4 stars instead of 5.

*Rumor has it that Harper Lee actually penned quite a bit of Capote's book.

**Many people close to her, including her husband, believe her obsession with this case brought about her early death. I would not be surprised.

>199 cindydavid4:
I took a book bullet - well actually two book bullets. I ordered used copies of both of Eleanor Cooney's books.

oh wow, I don't think I know of anyone else who read Court of the Lion, I'll be really interested in what you think of it! I wasn't able to get ahold of her other book, but it sounds like you were able to , so I'll try agaiin

I decided to set Midnight in Chernobyl aside for a bit. I had been reading it for a week when I realized I was still only 4% of the way through the book, with 22+ hours still showing in the 'to read' zone. There is such a thing as too much information. I might go back, (I borrowed it, so... no guilt.) I am well into The Moon is Down and thoroughly enjoying it.

>203 clamairy: I am reading Fracture for our book club but I appear to have reading it forever and am still only 40% through it. :-( I think this is a sign.

As it happens I have booked a couple of days in a hotel by the sea and will miss the book club. I haven't even started the second book that is due for discussion. I may miss the book club for a night.

>203 clamairy: Is this the book in which the male writer knows everything about women's feelings? Book club choices often pose a dilemma. Does one force themselves to finish something they aren't loving for the sake of the discussion? I guess it must be decided on a book by book basis.

Enjoy your visit to the hotel by sea. Post plenty of pics.

>205 clamairy: I will certainly be bringing the camera but the weather will determine the nature of the photographs.

On the very positive side, I have just booked dinner for the Thursday evening in a seafood restaurant that a friend recommended very strongly. His recommendation stipulated, "...it would be dreadful if you were in Mullaghmore and did not visit Ethna's. Even if you do not get in for dinner call in for a scone during the day." My friend is French and very fussy about food. Such a recommendation from him means the food is amazing.

It is located just across the road from the hotel we will be staying in. We will not even need a taxi.

>206 pgmcc: As a former colleague of mine used to say of possible long-lunch places, "conveniently within staggering distance". Let us know how it went please Peter, since it's now Friday.

>207 haydninvienna:
I certainly will, Richard. It is next Thursday night we will be staggering back from the restaurant.

>208 pgmcc: Just had a look at the menu. (Isn't the internet wonderful.) Looks like my sort of place. But no wine list! BYO?

>209 haydninvienna: BYO?

I will have to check that out. No point staggering back to the hotel with a belly full of Chateau Neuf de Tap!

>210 pgmcc: BYO = Bring Your Own.

& if there's an extra B on the end then that's Booze.

If Sligo water is as bad as Dublin water (sorry Peter) it would possibly be a good idea to bring your own water to avoid the risk of being faced with Chateauneuf du Tap. Not that any restaurateur wouldn't be glad to sell you bottled Eau du Tap, of course.

In my country, it's never necessary to add the second B—everybody knows what BYO means. If there were another letter added it would be a G anyway.

>212 haydninvienna:
Where I am from it is BYOB. If you did BYO nobody would know what it was. And it mean bring your own bottle. So you do it even if you are bringing your own pop.

>184 clamairy: I'm glad you enjoyed it.

>206 pgmcc: I love a good scone in the afternoon (also in the morning....) Do report back on the experience!!!

I just finished reading Book 3 in the Queen's Thief series. King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner was a great good read. I don't know how Turner does it, but every one of these books has been tightly plotted and perfectly written. The author set the stage with the first book, and then has kept the action and characterization at top level. These aren't as much fun as the Bob Books were, but these are great reading. I started the 4th book Conspiracy of Kings but I doubt I will get it finished for some time as I have other reading that must take precedent right now.

I also finished Sweet Little Lies by Caz Frear and was disappointed in it. I like to read mysteries and since the Covid Crisis hit I have been consuming them at a fast pace. I was curious about this author and since I had the book on my shelves thought it would be a good time to get it off and read it. It was highly touted by the Richard and Judy Show and won the first book prize for the author by that TV show, however, for me, it fell a bit flat. I found it to be a standard police procedural and had a heroine that I didn't really like. I did finish the book, but by the time I got to the end, I didn't really care anymore and didn't care whodunit. I think this book should have had serious editing. It was about 325 pages and it should have been about 50 pages shorter. The author has another book out in the series (Cat Kinsella) but I am not going to rush out to get it.

I guess one hit and one almost miss isn't bad for a book, but I would have rather had two hits.

>215 benitastrnad: Wow, that Turner series is very highly rated here on LT. Have you thought about starting your own journal thread? I understand if you aren't ready for the commitment. I've been toying with the idea of a generic 'what we're reading' thread just for those who don't want a whole journal to themselves.

I finished off The Moon is Down in a couple of short gulps. I definitively agree with many of the reviews on LT. It's not up to the level of anything else of his that I have ever read, and seemed tailor made for the stage or screen. Still worth the time.

>217 clamairy: A mediocre Steinbeck is still a good reading experience if you're a fan of his writing. At least, that's been my experience as a fan.

I did like it tho agree its not his best, but totally agree with you - still a good read

Yeah... I am not sure what to make of We Have Always Lived in the Castle. I started this once quite a while ago and could not get into it. I got into it without a problem this time, but my feelings about it upon completion are still a bit discombobulated. I'm not sure I would recommend this one to many people. There are many theories online about what is actually occurring in the story, which helped put some of it in perspective.

I've moved on to The Empire of Gold.

(Touchstones are not loading, so I will come back and fix this post later.)

Ross Poldark: A Novel of Cornwall, 1783-1787 was on sale from Audible for a few bucks so I snagged it. I've watched the whole series via Masterpiece on PBS and enjoyed it, though some of the plot twists in the later seasons seemed ridiculous. The acting and production value were both very high. This audio book was quite enjoyable, and as a result I borrowed the second in this series as an audio book from Overdrive to listen to using the Libby app on my phone.

>221 clamairy: My husband has enjoyed all the Poldark novels. Is there someone particularly good doing the reading for Audible?

>222 jillmwo: It's Oliver Hembrough. I don't have any other books from Audible that he's narrated, but this was quite good. Clare Corbett narrates the next book Demelza because I believe it's told from her POV.

>220 clamairy: My sister read We Have Always Lived in the Castle and enjoyed it; she told me all about it and recommended it. I'm planning to read it next month for my Halloween reading.

>224 Majel-Susan: That would be perfectly appropriate timing.

>220 clamairy: I just started Empire of Gold also! I didn't really want to pay full price for it, but the second book left off with such a cliffhanger that I couldn't stand to wait for a bargain. That's how they get ya, I guess.

>226 Darth-Heather: I borrowed the digital copy from OverDrive. I'll buy it if it ever goes on sale. I don't recall seeing too many 3rd in Trilogy books ever going on sale for less than $7.99, but that's still a lot better than $14.99!

>217 clamairy: I love the cover of that Steinbeck.

>228 Sakerfalcon: Yes! The Penguin Classics have great covers. (IMHO)

>220 clamairy:
I enjoyed We Have Always Lived In The Castle. One of the things I enjoyed was that there were so many things going on in the book. It was full of hints at things that could never be real and also dealing with things, like prejudice, that are only too real. I think your state of discombobulation indicates that Jackson achieved her objective.

>228 Sakerfalcon:. I like it too. >229 clamairy: is right about the Penguin Classics having great covers.

>221 clamairy: Having read the books and seen the TV show, would you recommend also reading the books? I've seen the TV series, all but the last half of the last season, we lost access to it before we could finish, now we're waiting for it to appear again.

>221 clamairy:
I have started reading the Poldark novels and have finished three of them. I am sort of stuck now and haven't started Black Moon, but I intend to do so - soon. (at least that is what I keep telling myself.) I have been trying to use the forced stay-at-home time to finish up several different series and trying not to start new ones. That is sort of working to help me clean off some of my shelves. But the problem is there are always other new series popping onto my radar. Series like the City of Brass.

>232 Karlstar: Well, there is virtually little difference between the the series and the book, except for perhaps the eye or hair color of an actor/actress. Listening to it has been better for me, since I already have faces in my brain. LOL I'll let you know if the series strayed from the books as I progress through the books.

>233 benitastrnad: I usually can't go through a series one right after the other. I get sick of a writer's style or the universe I'm in and then need a break. Yup, there are always new ones to start!

I've taken the liberty of starting a journal thread for people who don't have their own, and don't seem to want them. @benitastrnad and @cindydavid4 are the first two I thought of, but there are a few more I'm forgetting.

Here it is: https://www.librarything.com/topic/324304