richardderus's tenth 2020 thread
This is a continuation of the topic richardderus's ninth 2020 thread.
This topic was continued by richardderus's eleventh 2020 thread.
Talk 75 Books Challenge for 2020
Join LibraryThing to post.
1richardderus
Irene Shubik (1929–2019)
Irene Shubik was a British television producer, responsible for the two best SF-themed anthology fiction series before the modern era: Out of This World, a thirteen-episode run of stories adapted from very high-powered SF lights like Clifford Simak and Philip K. Dick, as well as an original story from the Daddy of the Daleks Terry Nation.
She created and produced a second classic anthology series for BBC2, Out of the Unknown.
Many more delightful shows were adapted from Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, J.G. Ballard and that level of leading writer. The series lasted from 1965 to 1971.
I'll wager you know one show she wrote and produced: The Jewel in the Crown from 1984.
Yet her name isn't one of those that rings bells...can't imagine why, can you?
It was ever thus for women.
2richardderus
In 2020, I wanted to post 10 book reviews a month on my blog. I already read a book every other day, as this year's total of 155 (a lot of individual stories don't have entries in the LT database so I didn't post them here; guess I should do more to sync the data this year) reads shows; so it was doable, and I've done better than that in the past. Regrettably, there's no way I'll even approach that goal now.
I've Pearl Ruled books I'm not enjoying, but making notes on Goodreads & LibraryThing about why I'm abandoning the read has been less successful. I give up. I just don't care about this goal, so out it goes.
My Last Thread of 2018 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2019 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
Reviews 1 through 3 are thataway.
Reviews 4 through 8 reside thitherward.
Reviews 9 through 11 are back here.
Reviews 12 through 20 existen allá.
Reviews 21 through 24? Go here!.
Review 25 in all its lonely splendor is back yonder.
Reviews 26 through 40 are doin' it for themselves.
Reviews 41-46, plus a Pearl Rule can be seen elsewhere.
Reviews 47 through 68 are back there.
THIS THREAD'S REVIEW LINKS
47 The Listener and Other Stories is an ongoing review, post 6 on this thread until I am finished with each story's reviewlet.
69 The Sittaford Mystery was an adequate stand-alone mystery from Dame Agatha's Golden Age, , post 57.
70 Agatha Christie's Marple: The Sittaford Mystery was a farrago, post 57.
71 The Bequest: An Enlightenment Epilogue was a sad pleasure, post 91.
72 A Gazelle Ate My Homework amused and edified, post 103.
73 The Devil in America is a devastating indictment of the state of humanity, post 153.
74 The Brightest Place in the World made a big impact on me, post 161.
75 You Exist Too Much bowled me over, post 186.
76 The Gryphon King's Consort was a good bedtime story, post 246.
I've Pearl Ruled books I'm not enjoying, but making notes on Goodreads & LibraryThing about why I'm abandoning the read has been less successful. I give up. I just don't care about this goal, so out it goes.
My Last Thread of 2018 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2019 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
Reviews 1 through 3 are thataway.
Reviews 4 through 8 reside thitherward.
Reviews 9 through 11 are back here.
Reviews 12 through 20 existen allá.
Reviews 21 through 24? Go here!.
Review 25 in all its lonely splendor is back yonder.
Reviews 26 through 40 are doin' it for themselves.
Reviews 41-46, plus a Pearl Rule can be seen elsewhere.
Reviews 47 through 68 are back there.
THIS THREAD'S REVIEW LINKS
47 The Listener and Other Stories is an ongoing review, post 6 on this thread until I am finished with each story's reviewlet.
69 The Sittaford Mystery was an adequate stand-alone mystery from Dame Agatha's Golden Age, , post 57.
70 Agatha Christie's Marple: The Sittaford Mystery was a farrago, post 57.
71 The Bequest: An Enlightenment Epilogue was a sad pleasure, post 91.
72 A Gazelle Ate My Homework amused and edified, post 103.
73 The Devil in America is a devastating indictment of the state of humanity, post 153.
74 The Brightest Place in the World made a big impact on me, post 161.
75 You Exist Too Much bowled me over, post 186.
76 The Gryphon King's Consort was a good bedtime story, post 246.
3richardderus
2019 was a *stellar* reading year! For the first time ever, I had two six-stars-of-five reads: Black Light: Stories, a debut story collection that gave me so much pleasure I read it twice (ever rarer occurrence that), and the wrenching, gutting agony of Heart Berries, a memoir of such honesty and such vulnerability that I was a wreck after I finished it. I went back and forth a dozen times, first Author Parsons was the sixer, then Author Mailhot; neither book could possibly "win" for long because I couldn't get either book out of my mind.
I handed out 34 5- or damn-near-5-star reviews out of 155 reviewed books; that's 22% and that is a LOT. Many, even most of these (10+) were for short stories, for end-of-beloved-series novels, or for story collections. But hold on to something heavy: TWO, yes that's t-w-o dos due deux zwei два were...POETRY COLLECTIONS. Sarah Tolmie's The Art of Dying and the late Frank Stanford's collected poems, What About This: Collected Poems of Frank Stanford. Both were peak reading experiences. Another was cultural monadnock George Takei's graphic memoir They Called Us Enemy, which could not be more important for young people today to absorb.
What a beautiful year it was, to bring so many delights to my door. I hope, greedy thing that I am, that 2020 will repeat this performance. For all of us, really...honest! I didn't just add that on the end of this summing-up to make it sound less solipsistic.
In 2020, I wanted to post 10 book reviews a month on my blog. As of 15 June, I haven't posted nearly enough to make the year-long goal! There are a few mitigating factors (a mild COVID-19 infection is one), but I don't think the deficit's recoverable. Even so, I still read a story every other day, as 2019's total of 155 (a lot of individual stories don't have entries in the LT database so I didn't post them here; guess I should do more to sync the data this year) reads shows; so it's doable, and I've done better than that in the past.
I have not done better at Pearl Ruling books I'm not enjoying with notes on Goodreads & LibraryThing about why I'm abandoning the read. I think I'm going to bag this one, as I am not interested in performing the task. I don't like a book, I close it and discard it. Enough.
...and that's me done. My reports will continue to be quarterly, the day after the end of the quarter.
2Q20. Forty-five books read this quarter; I started and finished with five-star reads, lucky me! Sharks in the Time of Saviors was a beautifully made Hawai'ian family Bildungsroman. (Can one have a group Bildungsroman? it's not a family saga but a map of the coming-to-consciousness of a family...well, debate as you will, Imma call it that.) A great way to start the new quarter, with a new author's first book that belted the ball out of the park.
The end-of-quarter delight is You Exist Too Much, the fumbling attempts of a queer Palestinian woman to fix the damage done by a borderline-personality-disordered mother and an ineffectual, uninterested father. Like I could relate much? So much of the story felt like me wandering destructively through my 20s and 30s that the next events felt foreseen, if not predictable.
This quarter also brought my dote, Murderbot, in its first-ever full novel appearance. Oh Murderbot *swoon* you're so dreamy
Anyway, Murderbot did not disappoint (as if!) and Author Martha Wells maintains her standing as my go-to AI-story spinner of webs.
Author Kai Ashante Wilson wrote The Devil in America six years ago, but I just got around to reading it. I loved the bitter tang of the story's search for escape from a curse. It's inevitable that the search ended in defeat because curse. I find the curse-breaking triumphalist fiction so very prevalent today savorless and silly and really quite dangerous. But anyway, Author Wilson (A Taste of Honey, The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps) earns my approbation by placing Black queerness at the heart of his fiction. His is a point of view we need to see more of to break free from the curse (!) of Othering in ficiton.
And a different five stars entirely for the coda of a series set in 19th-century London and Scotland, The Bequest: David and Murdo's Epilogue. It's a short piece that ties a neat little bow on the fanny (US sense) of three historical novels featuring lawyer David and aristocrat Murdo as they negotiate the pitfalls of queer love in their world. It's not a recommended-read-now five because it will make no sense whatever if one hasn't read the previous three books. Squeamish straight people should not attempt to summit this mountain, there is significant steamy sex and y'all pretty much lose y'all's shit when gay sex is presented at anything like the frequency or graphicness of straight sex.
Plenty of four-and-a-half star reads and four-star reads.
And the heinous ones. Oh my. The Fear Hunter was severely mistitled. Elise Sax wrote a forgettable and pretty pointless rom-com with a few gestures towards mystery. AWFUL. Penny Serenade barely lifted its dreary stringy mop of dirt-colored hair off that book's place on the basement floor because a film was made of it that was at least pretty to look at. The story was not good reading. I suspect I wasn't in the mood for The Code Book so I won't excoriate it for having AN ENTIRE PAGE OF NUMERALS in a comma-separated-value list. I was recovering from my mild dose of COVID-19 so I'll assume it was me being fussy not the author being a complete putz.
And that, my olds, is a very good quarter's reading.
1Q20. Twenty-six reads done, three posted on my blog, or 10% of the goal I set myself. Bad performance. Really bad.
I re-read the four Murderbot novellas by Martha Wells, and loved them just as much as when I first read them. Because Network Effect is coming in May, YAY!!, it felt like time at last to put down some thoughts about them on my poor, neglected blog. Murderbot is a delightfully antisocial being and I am honestly more impressed by Author Wells's beautiful and deft worldbuilding than I am by the lit'ry stylings of many a crowed-over Next Big Thing.
But this quarter's surprise and joy is reserved for a Smashwords COVID-19 sale find, a freebie I completely accidentally stumbled upon: A Justified State by Iain Kelly, a Scottish television editor about whom I had not heard a peep and from whom I expected not a lot.
He overdelivered on my expectations. This could be a six-stars-of-five read; I have a long way to go, so no decisions yet, but this medium-term futuristic dystopian thriller set in a nightmarish Soylent Green-ish Glasgow is $2.99 and cheap at twice the price. Do your distracted self a favor and get sucked in to Author Kelly's hellish world...ours seems paradisical!
I handed out 34 5- or damn-near-5-star reviews out of 155 reviewed books; that's 22% and that is a LOT. Many, even most of these (10+) were for short stories, for end-of-beloved-series novels, or for story collections. But hold on to something heavy: TWO, yes that's t-w-o dos due deux zwei два were...POETRY COLLECTIONS. Sarah Tolmie's The Art of Dying and the late Frank Stanford's collected poems, What About This: Collected Poems of Frank Stanford. Both were peak reading experiences. Another was cultural monadnock George Takei's graphic memoir They Called Us Enemy, which could not be more important for young people today to absorb.
What a beautiful year it was, to bring so many delights to my door. I hope, greedy thing that I am, that 2020 will repeat this performance. For all of us, really...honest! I didn't just add that on the end of this summing-up to make it sound less solipsistic.
In 2020, I wanted to post 10 book reviews a month on my blog. As of 15 June, I haven't posted nearly enough to make the year-long goal! There are a few mitigating factors (a mild COVID-19 infection is one), but I don't think the deficit's recoverable. Even so, I still read a story every other day, as 2019's total of 155 (a lot of individual stories don't have entries in the LT database so I didn't post them here; guess I should do more to sync the data this year) reads shows; so it's doable, and I've done better than that in the past.
I have not done better at Pearl Ruling books I'm not enjoying with notes on Goodreads & LibraryThing about why I'm abandoning the read. I think I'm going to bag this one, as I am not interested in performing the task. I don't like a book, I close it and discard it. Enough.
...and that's me done. My reports will continue to be quarterly, the day after the end of the quarter.
2Q20. Forty-five books read this quarter; I started and finished with five-star reads, lucky me! Sharks in the Time of Saviors was a beautifully made Hawai'ian family Bildungsroman. (Can one have a group Bildungsroman? it's not a family saga but a map of the coming-to-consciousness of a family...well, debate as you will, Imma call it that.) A great way to start the new quarter, with a new author's first book that belted the ball out of the park.
The end-of-quarter delight is You Exist Too Much, the fumbling attempts of a queer Palestinian woman to fix the damage done by a borderline-personality-disordered mother and an ineffectual, uninterested father. Like I could relate much? So much of the story felt like me wandering destructively through my 20s and 30s that the next events felt foreseen, if not predictable.
This quarter also brought my dote, Murderbot, in its first-ever full novel appearance. Oh Murderbot *swoon* you're so dreamy
Anyway, Murderbot did not disappoint (as if!) and Author Martha Wells maintains her standing as my go-to AI-story spinner of webs.
Author Kai Ashante Wilson wrote The Devil in America six years ago, but I just got around to reading it. I loved the bitter tang of the story's search for escape from a curse. It's inevitable that the search ended in defeat because curse. I find the curse-breaking triumphalist fiction so very prevalent today savorless and silly and really quite dangerous. But anyway, Author Wilson (A Taste of Honey, The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps) earns my approbation by placing Black queerness at the heart of his fiction. His is a point of view we need to see more of to break free from the curse (!) of Othering in ficiton.
And a different five stars entirely for the coda of a series set in 19th-century London and Scotland, The Bequest: David and Murdo's Epilogue. It's a short piece that ties a neat little bow on the fanny (US sense) of three historical novels featuring lawyer David and aristocrat Murdo as they negotiate the pitfalls of queer love in their world. It's not a recommended-read-now five because it will make no sense whatever if one hasn't read the previous three books. Squeamish straight people should not attempt to summit this mountain, there is significant steamy sex and y'all pretty much lose y'all's shit when gay sex is presented at anything like the frequency or graphicness of straight sex.
Plenty of four-and-a-half star reads and four-star reads.
And the heinous ones. Oh my. The Fear Hunter was severely mistitled. Elise Sax wrote a forgettable and pretty pointless rom-com with a few gestures towards mystery. AWFUL. Penny Serenade barely lifted its dreary stringy mop of dirt-colored hair off that book's place on the basement floor because a film was made of it that was at least pretty to look at. The story was not good reading. I suspect I wasn't in the mood for The Code Book so I won't excoriate it for having AN ENTIRE PAGE OF NUMERALS in a comma-separated-value list. I was recovering from my mild dose of COVID-19 so I'll assume it was me being fussy not the author being a complete putz.
And that, my olds, is a very good quarter's reading.
1Q20. Twenty-six reads done, three posted on my blog, or 10% of the goal I set myself. Bad performance. Really bad.
I re-read the four Murderbot novellas by Martha Wells, and loved them just as much as when I first read them. Because Network Effect is coming in May, YAY!!, it felt like time at last to put down some thoughts about them on my poor, neglected blog. Murderbot is a delightfully antisocial being and I am honestly more impressed by Author Wells's beautiful and deft worldbuilding than I am by the lit'ry stylings of many a crowed-over Next Big Thing.
But this quarter's surprise and joy is reserved for a Smashwords COVID-19 sale find, a freebie I completely accidentally stumbled upon: A Justified State by Iain Kelly, a Scottish television editor about whom I had not heard a peep and from whom I expected not a lot.
He overdelivered on my expectations. This could be a six-stars-of-five read; I have a long way to go, so no decisions yet, but this medium-term futuristic dystopian thriller set in a nightmarish Soylent Green-ish Glasgow is $2.99 and cheap at twice the price. Do your distracted self a favor and get sucked in to Author Kelly's hellish world...ours seems paradisical!
4richardderus
I really hadn't considered doing this until recently...tracking my Pulitzer Prize in Fiction winners read, and Booker Prize winners read might actually prove useful to me in planning my reading.
1918 HIS FAMILY - Ernest Poole **
1919 THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS - Booth Tarkington *
1921 THE AGE OF INNOCENCE - Edith Wharton *
1922 ALICE ADAMS - Booth Tarkington **
1923 ONE OF OURS - Willa Cather **
1924 THE ABLE MCLAUGHLINS - Margaret Wilson
1925 SO BIG - Edna Ferber *
1926 ARROWSMITH - Sinclair Lewis (Declined) *
1927 EARLY AUTUMN - Louis Bromfield
1928 THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY - Thornton Wilder *
1929 SCARLET SISTER MARY - Julia Peterkin
1930 LAUGHING BOY - Oliver Lafarge
1931 YEARS OF GRACE - Margaret Ayer Barnes
1932 THE GOOD EARTH - Pearl Buck *
1933 THE STORE - Thomas Sigismund Stribling
1934 LAMB IN HIS BOSOM - Caroline Miller
1935 NOW IN NOVEMBER - Josephine Winslow Johnson
1936 HONEY IN THE HORN - Harold L Davis
1937 GONE WITH THE WIND - Margaret Mitchell *
1938 THE LATE GEORGE APLEY - John Phillips Marquand
1939 THE YEARLING - Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings *
1940 THE GRAPES OF WRATH - John Steinbeck *
1942 IN THIS OUR LIFE - Ellen Glasgow *
1943 DRAGON'S TEETH - Upton Sinclair
1944 JOURNEY IN THE DARK - Martin Flavin
1945 A BELL FOR ADANO - John Hersey *
1947 ALL THE KING'S MEN - Robert Penn Warren *
1948 TALES OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC - James Michener
1949 GUARD OF HONOR - James Gould Cozzens
1950 THE WAY WEST - A.B. Guthrie
1951 THE TOWN - Conrad Richter
1952 THE CAINE MUTINY - Herman Wouk
1953 THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA - Ernest Hemingway *
1955 A FABLE - William Faulkner *
1956 ANDERSONVILLE - McKinlay Kantor *
1958 A DEATH IN THE FAMILY - James Agee *
1959 THE TRAVELS OF JAIMIE McPHEETERS - Robert Lewis Taylor
1960 ADVISE AND CONSENT - Allen Drury *
1961 TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD - Harper Lee *
1962 THE EDGE OF SADNESS - Edwin O'Connor
1963 THE REIVERS - William Faulkner *
1965 THE KEEPERS OF THE HOUSE - Shirley Ann Grau
1966 THE COLLECTED STORIES OF KATHERINE ANNE PORTER - Katherine Anne Porter
1967 THE FIXER - Bernard Malamud
1968 THE CONFESSIONS OF NAT TURNER - William Styron *
1969 HOUSE MADE OF DAWN - N Scott Momaday
1970 THE COLLECTED STORIES OF JEAN STAFFORD - Jean Stafford
1972 ANGLE OF REPOSE - Wallace Stegner *
1973 THE OPTIMIST'S DAUGHTER - Eudora Welty *
1975 THE KILLER ANGELS - Jeff Shaara *
1976 HUMBOLDT'S GIFT - Saul Bellow *
1978 ELBOW ROOM - James Alan McPherson
1979 THE STORIES OF JOHN CHEEVER - John Cheever *
1980 THE EXECUTIONER'S SONG - Norman Mailer *
1981 A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES - John Kennedy Toole *
1982 RABBIT IS RICH - John Updike *
1983 THE COLOR PURPLE - Alice Walker *
1984 IRONWEED - William Kennedy *
1985 FOREIGN AFFAIRS - Alison Lurie
1986 LONESOME DOVE - Larry McMurtry *
1987 A SUMMONS TO MEMPHIS - Peter Taylor
1988 BELOVED - Toni Morrison *
1989 BREATHING LESSONS - Anne Tyler
1990 THE MAMBO KINGS PLAY SONGS OF LOVE - Oscar Hijuelos *
1991 RABBIT AT REST - John Updike *
1992 A THOUSAND ACRES - Jane Smiley *
1993 A GOOD SCENT FROM A STRANGE MOUNTAIN - Robert Olen Butler *
1994 THE SHIPPING NEWS - E Annie Proulx *
1995 THE STONE DIARIES - Carol Shields
1996 INDEPENDENCE DAY - Richard Ford
1997 MARTIN DRESSLER - Steven Millhauser
1998 AMERICAN PASTORAL - Philip Roth
1999 THE HOURS - Michael Cunningham
2000 INTERPRETER OF MALADIES - Jumpha Lahiri
2001 THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY - Michael Chabon
2002 EMPIRE FALLS - Richard Russo
2003 MIDDLESEX - Jeffrey Eugenides *
2004 THE KNOWN WORLD - Edward P. Jones
2005 GILEAD - Marilynne Robinson
2006 MARCH - Geraldine Brooks
2007 THE ROAD - Cormac McCarthy
2008 THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO - Junot Diaz *
2009 OLIVE KITTERIDGE - Elizabeth Strout
2010 TINKERS - Paul Harding
2011 A VISIT FROM THE GOOD SQUAD - Jennifer Egan
2013 ORPHAN MASTER'S SON - Adam Johnson
2014 THE GOLDFINCH - Donna Tartt
2015 ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE - Anthony Doerr **
2016 THE SYMPATHIZER - Viet Thanh Nguyen **
2017 THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD - Colson Whitehead **
2018 LESS - Andrew Sean Greer *
2019 THE OVERSTORY - Richard Powers *
Links are to my reviews
* Read, but not reviewed
** Owned, but not read
Every winner of the Booker Prize since its inception in 1969
1969: P. H. Newby, Something to Answer For
1970: Bernice Rubens, The Elected Member
1970: J. G. Farrell, Troubles ** (awarded in 2010 as the Lost Man Booker Prize) -
1971: V. S. Naipaul, In a Free State
1972: John Berger, G.
1973: J. G. Farrell, The Siege of Krishnapur
1974: Nadine Gordimer, The Conservationist ... and Stanley Middleton, Holiday
1975: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Heat and Dust
1976: David Storey, Saville
1977: Paul Scott, Staying On
1978: Iris Murdoch, The Sea, The Sea *
1979: Penelope Fitzgerald, Offshore
1980: William Golding, Rites of Passage
1981: Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children *
1982: Thomas Keneally, Schindler's Ark
1983: J. M. Coetzee, Life & Times of Michael K
1984: Anita Brookner, Hotel du Lac *
1985: Keri Hulme, The Bone People **
1986: Kingsley Amis, The Old Devils
1987: Penelope Lively, Moon Tiger *
1988: Peter Carey, Oscar and Lucinda *
1989: Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day *
1990: A. S. Byatt, Possession: A Romance *
1991: Ben Okri, The Famished Road
1992: Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient * ... and Barry Unsworth, Sacred Hunger
1993: Roddy Doyle, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
1994: James Kelman, How late it was, how late
1995: Pat Barker, The Ghost Road *
1996: Graham Swift, Last Orders
1997: Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things
1998: Ian McEwan, Amsterdam
1999: J. M. Coetzee, Disgrace
2000: Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin *
2001: Peter Carey, True History of the Kelly Gang *
2002: Yann Martel, Life of Pi
2003: DBC Pierre, Vernon God Little **
2004: Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty *
2005: John Banville, The Sea
2006: Kiran Desai, The Inheritance of Loss
2007: Anne Enright, The Gathering
2008: Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger
2009: Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall
2010: Howard Jacobson, The Finkler Question *
2011: Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending **
2012: Hilary Mantel, Bring Up the Bodies
2013: Eleanor Catton, The Luminaries
2014: Richard Flanagan, The Narrow Road to the Deep North
2015: Marlon James, A Brief History of Seven Killings *
2016: Paul Beatty, The Sellout
2017: George Saunders, Lincoln in the Bardo *
2018: Anna Burns, Milkman
2019: Margaret Atwood, The Testaments, and Bernardine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other
Links are to my reviews
* Read, but not reviewed
** Owned, but not read
1918 HIS FAMILY - Ernest Poole **
1919 THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS - Booth Tarkington *
1921 THE AGE OF INNOCENCE - Edith Wharton *
1922 ALICE ADAMS - Booth Tarkington **
1923 ONE OF OURS - Willa Cather **
1924 THE ABLE MCLAUGHLINS - Margaret Wilson
1925 SO BIG - Edna Ferber *
1926 ARROWSMITH - Sinclair Lewis (Declined) *
1927 EARLY AUTUMN - Louis Bromfield
1928 THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY - Thornton Wilder *
1929 SCARLET SISTER MARY - Julia Peterkin
1930 LAUGHING BOY - Oliver Lafarge
1931 YEARS OF GRACE - Margaret Ayer Barnes
1932 THE GOOD EARTH - Pearl Buck *
1933 THE STORE - Thomas Sigismund Stribling
1934 LAMB IN HIS BOSOM - Caroline Miller
1935 NOW IN NOVEMBER - Josephine Winslow Johnson
1936 HONEY IN THE HORN - Harold L Davis
1937 GONE WITH THE WIND - Margaret Mitchell *
1938 THE LATE GEORGE APLEY - John Phillips Marquand
1939 THE YEARLING - Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings *
1940 THE GRAPES OF WRATH - John Steinbeck *
1942 IN THIS OUR LIFE - Ellen Glasgow *
1943 DRAGON'S TEETH - Upton Sinclair
1944 JOURNEY IN THE DARK - Martin Flavin
1945 A BELL FOR ADANO - John Hersey *
1947 ALL THE KING'S MEN - Robert Penn Warren *
1948 TALES OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC - James Michener
1949 GUARD OF HONOR - James Gould Cozzens
1950 THE WAY WEST - A.B. Guthrie
1951 THE TOWN - Conrad Richter
1952 THE CAINE MUTINY - Herman Wouk
1953 THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA - Ernest Hemingway *
1955 A FABLE - William Faulkner *
1956 ANDERSONVILLE - McKinlay Kantor *
1958 A DEATH IN THE FAMILY - James Agee *
1959 THE TRAVELS OF JAIMIE McPHEETERS - Robert Lewis Taylor
1960 ADVISE AND CONSENT - Allen Drury *
1961 TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD - Harper Lee *
1962 THE EDGE OF SADNESS - Edwin O'Connor
1963 THE REIVERS - William Faulkner *
1965 THE KEEPERS OF THE HOUSE - Shirley Ann Grau
1966 THE COLLECTED STORIES OF KATHERINE ANNE PORTER - Katherine Anne Porter
1967 THE FIXER - Bernard Malamud
1968 THE CONFESSIONS OF NAT TURNER - William Styron *
1969 HOUSE MADE OF DAWN - N Scott Momaday
1970 THE COLLECTED STORIES OF JEAN STAFFORD - Jean Stafford
1972 ANGLE OF REPOSE - Wallace Stegner *
1973 THE OPTIMIST'S DAUGHTER - Eudora Welty *
1975 THE KILLER ANGELS - Jeff Shaara *
1976 HUMBOLDT'S GIFT - Saul Bellow *
1978 ELBOW ROOM - James Alan McPherson
1979 THE STORIES OF JOHN CHEEVER - John Cheever *
1980 THE EXECUTIONER'S SONG - Norman Mailer *
1981 A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES - John Kennedy Toole *
1982 RABBIT IS RICH - John Updike *
1983 THE COLOR PURPLE - Alice Walker *
1984 IRONWEED - William Kennedy *
1985 FOREIGN AFFAIRS - Alison Lurie
1986 LONESOME DOVE - Larry McMurtry *
1987 A SUMMONS TO MEMPHIS - Peter Taylor
1988 BELOVED - Toni Morrison *
1989 BREATHING LESSONS - Anne Tyler
1990 THE MAMBO KINGS PLAY SONGS OF LOVE - Oscar Hijuelos *
1991 RABBIT AT REST - John Updike *
1992 A THOUSAND ACRES - Jane Smiley *
1993 A GOOD SCENT FROM A STRANGE MOUNTAIN - Robert Olen Butler *
1994 THE SHIPPING NEWS - E Annie Proulx *
1995 THE STONE DIARIES - Carol Shields
1996 INDEPENDENCE DAY - Richard Ford
1997 MARTIN DRESSLER - Steven Millhauser
1998 AMERICAN PASTORAL - Philip Roth
1999 THE HOURS - Michael Cunningham
2000 INTERPRETER OF MALADIES - Jumpha Lahiri
2001 THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY - Michael Chabon
2002 EMPIRE FALLS - Richard Russo
2003 MIDDLESEX - Jeffrey Eugenides *
2004 THE KNOWN WORLD - Edward P. Jones
2005 GILEAD - Marilynne Robinson
2006 MARCH - Geraldine Brooks
2007 THE ROAD - Cormac McCarthy
2008 THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO - Junot Diaz *
2009 OLIVE KITTERIDGE - Elizabeth Strout
2010 TINKERS - Paul Harding
2011 A VISIT FROM THE GOOD SQUAD - Jennifer Egan
2013 ORPHAN MASTER'S SON - Adam Johnson
2014 THE GOLDFINCH - Donna Tartt
2015 ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE - Anthony Doerr **
2016 THE SYMPATHIZER - Viet Thanh Nguyen **
2017 THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD - Colson Whitehead **
2018 LESS - Andrew Sean Greer *
2019 THE OVERSTORY - Richard Powers *
Links are to my reviews
* Read, but not reviewed
** Owned, but not read
Every winner of the Booker Prize since its inception in 1969
1969: P. H. Newby, Something to Answer For
1970: Bernice Rubens, The Elected Member
1970: J. G. Farrell, Troubles ** (awarded in 2010 as the Lost Man Booker Prize) -
1971: V. S. Naipaul, In a Free State
1972: John Berger, G.
1973: J. G. Farrell, The Siege of Krishnapur
1974: Nadine Gordimer, The Conservationist ... and Stanley Middleton, Holiday
1975: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Heat and Dust
1976: David Storey, Saville
1977: Paul Scott, Staying On
1978: Iris Murdoch, The Sea, The Sea *
1979: Penelope Fitzgerald, Offshore
1980: William Golding, Rites of Passage
1981: Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children *
1982: Thomas Keneally, Schindler's Ark
1983: J. M. Coetzee, Life & Times of Michael K
1984: Anita Brookner, Hotel du Lac *
1985: Keri Hulme, The Bone People **
1986: Kingsley Amis, The Old Devils
1987: Penelope Lively, Moon Tiger *
1988: Peter Carey, Oscar and Lucinda *
1989: Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day *
1990: A. S. Byatt, Possession: A Romance *
1991: Ben Okri, The Famished Road
1992: Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient * ... and Barry Unsworth, Sacred Hunger
1993: Roddy Doyle, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
1994: James Kelman, How late it was, how late
1995: Pat Barker, The Ghost Road *
1996: Graham Swift, Last Orders
1997: Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things
1998: Ian McEwan, Amsterdam
1999: J. M. Coetzee, Disgrace
2000: Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin *
2001: Peter Carey, True History of the Kelly Gang *
2002: Yann Martel, Life of Pi
2003: DBC Pierre, Vernon God Little **
2004: Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty *
2005: John Banville, The Sea
2006: Kiran Desai, The Inheritance of Loss
2007: Anne Enright, The Gathering
2008: Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger
2009: Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall
2010: Howard Jacobson, The Finkler Question *
2011: Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending **
2012: Hilary Mantel, Bring Up the Bodies
2013: Eleanor Catton, The Luminaries
2014: Richard Flanagan, The Narrow Road to the Deep North
2015: Marlon James, A Brief History of Seven Killings *
2016: Paul Beatty, The Sellout
2017: George Saunders, Lincoln in the Bardo *
2018: Anna Burns, Milkman
2019: Margaret Atwood, The Testaments, and Bernardine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other
Links are to my reviews
* Read, but not reviewed
** Owned, but not read
5richardderus
Shamelessly stolen from Gail, who snagged it from Kimmers.
This is a sort of game/challenge from Pop Sugar. They claim the average reader will have read only 6 of these.
I’m about done with this iteration where they don't explain why the complete works of Shakespeare doesn't include Hamlet? And why please is the Chronicles of Narnia not inclusive of The Lion? So. I fixed it. There's no Shakespeare or Conan Doyle because I'm not typin' all those titles. Series books are done by title for the whole series. I took out "The Bible - The Torah" because they aren't the same thing, and what about the Koran, and what if some weirdo's read all three? Feel free to use theirs, or my improved one, as suits you.
My total is 110/120, plus two half-thumbs.
NEW AND REVISED
This is a sort of game/challenge from Pop Sugar. They claim the average reader will have read only 6 of these.
I’m about done with this iteration where they don't explain why the complete works of Shakespeare doesn't include Hamlet? And why please is the Chronicles of Narnia not inclusive of The Lion? So. I fixed it. There's no Shakespeare or Conan Doyle because I'm not typin' all those titles. Series books are done by title for the whole series. I took out "The Bible - The Torah" because they aren't the same thing, and what about the Koran, and what if some weirdo's read all three? Feel free to use theirs, or my improved one, as suits you.
My total is 110/120, plus two half-thumbs.
NEW AND REVISED
- The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams 👍
- The Restaurant at the End of the Universe - Douglas Adams 👍
- Life, the Universe and Everything - Douglas Adams 👍
- So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish - Douglas Adams 👍
- Mostly Harmless - Douglas Adams 👍
- Watership Down - Richard Adams 👍
- The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
- Little Women - Louisa May Alcott 👍
- The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood 👍
- Emma - Jane Austen 👍
- Persuasion - Jane Austen 👍
- Pride and Prejudice- Jane Austen 👍
- Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen 👍
- The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks 👍
- The Enchanted Wood - Enid Blyton
- The Magic Faraway Tree - Enid Blyton 👍
- The Folk of the Faraway Tree - Enid Blyton
- Up the Faraway Tree - Enid Blyton
- Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte 👍
- Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte 👍
- Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson 👍
- The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett 👍
- Possession - A.S. Byatt 👍
- The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins 👍
- The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown 👍
- Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll 👍
- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 👍
- Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad 👍
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl 👍
- The Paradiso - Dante 👍
- The Purgatorio - Dante 👍
- The Inferno - Dante 👍
- Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres 👍
- Bleak House - Charles Dickens 👍
- A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens 👍
- David Copperfield - Charles Dickens 👍
- Great Expectations - Charles Dickens 👍
- Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
- A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens 👍
- Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky 👍
- The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas 👍
- The Three Musketeers - Aleandre Dumas 👍
- Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier 👍
- Middlemarch - George Eliot 👍
- Birdsong - Sebastian Faulkner 👍
- Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding 👍
- The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald 👍
- Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert 👍
- Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel García Márquez 👍
- One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel García Márquez 👍
- Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons 👍
- Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden 👍
- Lord of the Flies - William Golding 👍
- The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame 👍
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime - Mark Haddon 👍
- Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
- Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy 👍
- Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy 👍
- Catch-22 - Joseph Heller 👍
- Dune - Frank Herbert 👍
- The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini 👍
- Brave New World - Aldous Huxley 👍
- A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving 👍
- The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro 👍
- Ulysses - James Joyce 👍
- On The Road - Jack Kerouac 👍
- To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee 👍
- The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis 👍
- Prince Caspian - C.S. Lewis 👍
- The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - C.S. Lewis 👍
- The Silver Chair - C.S. Lewis 👍
- The Horse and His Boy - C.S. Lewis 👍
- The Magician's Nephew - C.S. Lewis 👍
- The Last Battle - C.S. Lewis 👍
- Atonement - Ian McEwan 👍
- Life of Pi - Yann Martel 👍
- Moby-Dick - Herman Melville 👍
- Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne 👍
- A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry 👍
- Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell 👍
- Anne of Green Gables - Lucy Maud Montgomery 👍
- Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell 👍
- Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov 👍
- The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger 👍
- Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell 👍
- Animal Farm - George Orwell 👍
- The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials #1) - Philip Pullman 👍
- The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials #2) - Philip Pullman 👍
- The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials #3) - Philip Pullman 👍
- Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone - J.K. Rowling 👍
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - J.K. Rowling 👍
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J.K. Rowling 👍
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - J.K. Rowling 👍
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - J.K. Rowling 👍
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J.K. Rowling 👍
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling 👍
- The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafón 👍
- Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie 👍
- The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 👍
- Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger 👍
- Gaudy Night - Dorothy Sayers 👍
- The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold 👍
- A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth 👍
- A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
- Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck 👍
- Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck 👍
- Dracula - Bram Stoker 👍
- The Secret History - Donna Tartt 👍
- Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray 👍
- The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien 👍
- The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - J.R.R. Tolkien 👍
- The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - J.R.R. Tolkien 👍
- The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King - J.R.R. Tolkien 👍
- Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy 👍
- War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy 1/2👍
- A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole 👍
- The Color Purple - Alice Walker 👍
- Charlotte's Web - E.B. White 👍
- Germinal - Emile Zola 👍
6richardderus
47 The Listener and Other Stories by Helen Hudson
Rating: 4.5* of five
I love discovering new-to-me writers. When my mother died in 1999, she had in her downsized library a large selection of midcentury writers whose oeuvres are largely forgotten today...Sloan Wilson, John P. Marquand, Harry Golden...many of which I've managed to retain over my own peregrinations.
Three of Miss Helen Hudson's books, this one, Tell the Time to None, and Meyer, Meyer, were there as well. There they sat ignored by me for literal decades. I paid them no mind but liked the Sixties aesthetic of their jackets. Then I was at a lovely, long-gone bookstore in Austin, Texas, browsing the bizarre and eclectic collection of modern, current, and antiquitous books its truly weird owner had accreted. There was a short-story anthology called New Voices, '64...and since a forty-year-old selection of "new voices" is bound to be fascinating, it came home with me.
Helen Hudson's story, A Bottle of Sherry to Dr. Polk, was in that anthology. I read it with complete pleasure, a real sense of knowing this main character and the support staff making her life possible, and the acerbic nature of the lady's humor (I speak both of author and character):
My very own soul-mother, is Mrs. Pritchard. I love that and I love her and I realized that thank goodness I had the whole collection to read! I was chuffed. I was also mid-upheaval in my life, and the project of reading and reviewing the collection fell by the wayside. I added the book to my online catalogs in 2011 and found again the quote above, and another below, from Dr. Polk; what a delight! More personal-life upheavals followed in fairly short order; the read-n-review project got shelved (heh) again.
I follow a blog called Neglected Books and have since goodness-knows. I've found many a forgotten tome to enjoy, notably the now-well-known classic Missouri novel The Moonflower Vine that the blog helped rehabilitate. I have a list of amazing authors I'd thought of mentioning to Blogger Brad Bigelow over time, but never did for a huge variety of reasons. Well, I did it this year, and the author was Helen Hudson.
I'll explain more on my blog because space here's limited; I'll post a link when I'm done.
The Listener couldn't be more 1967 (the year The Virginia Quarterly first published it) with its free association and celebration of analysis. Dr. Toye's enormous ears and absence of personality make him the caricature analyst, silent and open to the shrieks and moans of the needy. Then in comes a man with a seriously unexamined life; a man with hidden desires and a wife who bores him out of his mind; and Dr. Toye listens him into an early grave. The long dark night of Dr. Toye's soul has begun.
Born too soon, our Dr. Toye. He should be among us now. 4.5 stars
Sunday Mourning reveals the deep fissures in lives struck by tragedy. An undertaker, an unhappy profession to be sure, grows accustomed to death; but the living left in its wake are a fresh, painful disappointment every day. This isn't a story so much as a beautiful observation of three people in extremis.
No one is less prepared for death than a parent is for their child's. Author Hudson had no illusions about how pain destroys identity. She was able to reassure us that there is still restoration and rebuilding after its ravages. 3.5 stars
The Strange Testament of Michael Cassidy examines the weird, frictionless life of a casually anti-Semitic, racist Catholic whose Jewish neighbors he has never failed to serve in his grocery store. He detests and despises Maureen, his crass and hateful wife though he shares her prejudices in his quiet way. This being the 1960s, though, Cassidy is caught in an ugly war between tradition and modernity that we called "urban renewal" or "slum clearance" then; today its successor is the less obviously offensive "gentrification." Ghastly Maureen will go to her ghastly sister in Kansas; Cassidy will not. He remains in the old homeplace. Where will he live?
His quiet-man act at last rewarded with silence! Until, one day, the past comes calling with its one unshirkable responsibility. 4 stars
The Hungry Eye belongs, in a roundabout way, to Michèle, a Jewish refugee from Nazi Paris. Her life is blighted by the unfashionable size of her, at a time and in a place where "petite" was de rigueur and "mignon" was not just a modifier for expensive filet. She has lived the most useless imaginable life; she does nothing, causes nothing, cares for nothing but herself. This is the most New Yorkery story I've read by Author Hudson, and still it manages to be truly bitterly angry about the waste and uselessness of "the ladies who lunch." In the end, what I found silly and what displeased me was the silent chorus, the personified self-image that takes up the story's space the way Michèle takes up her bijou little apartment. A disappointed 3.5 stars, all for the off-kilter eroticism of sexless voyeuristic intentions.
Send a Patrol Car to Spartanburg isn't even a little bit subtle in its accusation of cruelty by neglect in a racist society. Mattie Burns isn't in control of anything about her life, she works for the Lovings (get it?) and when I say "works" I mean it literally. Scrub, polish, well let Author Hudson tell you:
But Mattie can't just quit, there's brother Clifford's pills to buy and administer, there's her own home to clean, there's the whole world waiting on an old black woman to bend her back and get after it. Zora Neale Hurston said, in Their Eyes Were Watching God, "De nigger woman is de mule uh de world." Mattie would agree, I will just bet. 4 stars because it appeared in Mademoiselle magazine in 1966 and how Author Hudson managed to storm that bastion of privilege with this angry story beggars my paltry imagination.
Hermes' Beard chronicles the Greek adventures of Arleene and Gerald, American (of course) tourists (of course) whose entire lives are summed up in the one moment when Arleene (!) says to herself, "Gerald was right about everything." And how horrible it was that he dared to be right about everything since the trip was her idea. And how much she detests his big, American size and his German-speaking communication with the locals (remembering this is a mere 20 years after the Nazi occupation of Greece) and, well, him. All of him. She even resents the fact that he dared to be right about the Hermes of Praxiteles being less impressive than the archaic statue, Hermes Kriophoros, whose beard we have all seen in our art history course texts.
In short, the sheer unadulterated bliss of marriage. Whiny meets overbearing, neither side "wins" because it's a draw as to who's the more awful wretch. 4 stars
A Bottle of Sherry to Dr. Polk details the last moments of independence that a starchy matriarch, Mrs. George Pritchard (Emma), as she prepares...is prepared...to move into a nursing home since her advancing dementia will no longer allow her to be constantly supervised. She hasn't lost her self yet, though one can sense its inevitability:
Her long-time day nurse receives the confidence with stoic, understated unhappiness; an older man with rather too much experience dealing with dementia-suffering souls, I was deeply and sadly affected by the story, by the sense that it gave me of Author Hudson's intimate knowledge of her material. I give it 5 stars
After Cortés goes there with the anti-Catholic rhetoric:
Mexico's long-famous tradition of anticlericalism, and its openly syncretic species of Catholicism, make Father Charles Cheney feel anonymous enough to wear a flowered shirt and khakis in place of the collar and rigmarole he trudges through his East Bronx life in. While approaching Chichén Itzá he meets Carla, a tourist from LA and one of the California types that's so effin' irritating you want to slap them goodbye before they plummet over a handy cliff: the "free spirit" who makes no plan, reserves no room, brings only what money they have and then sponges and mooches and wheedles their way around wherever it is they land. To be fair, these people are from everywhere, but the American entitlement of the Carlas of California is extra grating. Father Cheney does his damnedest (!) to unscrape his unwanted acquaintance, wishing all manner of uncharitable things on the Mormon missionaries and the rich Texans who stay in his hotel. He even devises a subterfuge to avoid them all: He will get up at five-thirty to see the ruins and be on his way back to Mexico City before they drag themselves out of bed! But Gawd, in her merciless pitiless cruelty, will not have any such pleasure doled out to her priest. Oh no indeed. 4 stars for the glorious gall-and-wormwood ending.
The Tenant expresses the tragedy of one who is simply not meant for this world.
People like Mr. Markham, who married the lazy but competent Mrs. Markham despite the fact that she was not pretty or witty or anything except devoted and grateful that he noticed her, aren't really of the Earth still less any specific location on it. That was Mrs. Markham's job. Her life changed when their money ran out. He wasn't fit for anything practical so she went to get food for the table. He drifted. He took jobs and left or lost them in no time at all. He wore holes in his shoes trying to make the world give him a space, and still he couldn't.
It's a very sad tale, but one I'll bet you any money there's a face attached to in your mind's eye already. Most of us know a Markham, a man or woman who simply...can't. This one, Author Hudson conjured a caring and devoted mate for and that makes the inevitable end so much more poignant. 4 stars
The Road to Kingswood stars an old-country woman, elderly, with "feet like hooves" in her sensible black oxfords meant for walking, walking, walking, trying to sell greeting cards to people who did not want or need to greet anyone with a cheap preprinted card. Mrs. Harrington, soignée widow of Hank, dreads this apparition appearing on her doorstep. As soon as she opens the door to get rid of her, the worst of her nightmares comes true. The slightly sweaty old thing squats at her kitchen table, demanding a glass of water then a ride to the bus stop...and at every turn, Mrs. Harrington (née Butt, of Myrtle Avenue, Flatbush) fails every test of common decency and courtesy. She wants the untidy creature out of her nine-room home with its two-hundred-year-old furniture! Why should she drive the always-walking woman to the bus stop when she got here by herself?
The gods disapprove of selfishness. The road to the burial ground awaits us all, but when and how are the unknowns. 4 stars
Strange Fare goes in a hack for the last, long ride with a stranger. A cabbie becomes Charon; a man whose Earthly days are done hails him and begs to be taken home.
How funny it is when someone you don't know needs more than you can imagine giving. 3.5 stars
An Appointment with Armstrong joins a used-up, useless old academic, a relic of a day gone forever, as he is once again about to be ritually humiliated in his quest for the final accolade once bestowed upon Professors: tenure. He is summoned to his department head's office for an eleven-thirty meeting, and of course readies himself to go promptly. He moves through his solitary home, once shared with a woman he never saw fade out of her prime in deepening despair and disappointment.
Author Hudson knew that woman, I'm sure, and knew the husband whose failure to launch was more caustic to her than to him. Her life ended in a heap of leftover shreds; his potters along as it always has, as he always was and so is today. The ice between them wasn't visible to him and was lethal to her. The meeting with Armstrong, we know from the moment the subject is broached, will never happen and nothing will change until the day this dry, pointless man's largely unused heart stops. 4 stars for the savagery of Author Hudson's hatred sheathed in such an elegant way.
Thy Servant is another one of Author Hudson's angry screeds against the religious among us for their terrible, two-faced judgmental ways. Suzie is coming to be housekeeper for Mr. and Mrs.Gillespie and their SEVEN daughters (but they aren't Catholic!), just until her husband's hitch in the Army is over. Suzie is a perfect fit for the family, omnicompetent, overdriven to achieve, and as the oldest of thirteen (Catholic) chidren accustomed to enforcing discipline.
Except...what do you know...her perfection is, while not an act, just the opening act of an emotional Grand Guignol that is Single White Female meets Hazel. The story is utterly chilling. It's devastating in its judgements of the Gillespies as layabouts and Suzie as Torquemada in Mother Teresa's weeds. This is the most even-handed hatchet job that's been done outside of a murder scene. And the best part is there is no one except a seven-year-old child who witnesses the entire unwinding of these grave-cloths. We're not treated to overheated emotional scenes, we're given the simple and unadorned facts the way a kid sees the world and then, mirabile dictu, the kid survives the crash without so much as a scrape!
Fine farewell to Author Hudson's world. È finita la commedia per ora.
Rating: 4.5* of five
I love discovering new-to-me writers. When my mother died in 1999, she had in her downsized library a large selection of midcentury writers whose oeuvres are largely forgotten today...Sloan Wilson, John P. Marquand, Harry Golden...many of which I've managed to retain over my own peregrinations.
Three of Miss Helen Hudson's books, this one, Tell the Time to None, and Meyer, Meyer, were there as well. There they sat ignored by me for literal decades. I paid them no mind but liked the Sixties aesthetic of their jackets. Then I was at a lovely, long-gone bookstore in Austin, Texas, browsing the bizarre and eclectic collection of modern, current, and antiquitous books its truly weird owner had accreted. There was a short-story anthology called New Voices, '64...and since a forty-year-old selection of "new voices" is bound to be fascinating, it came home with me.
Helen Hudson's story, A Bottle of Sherry to Dr. Polk, was in that anthology. I read it with complete pleasure, a real sense of knowing this main character and the support staff making her life possible, and the acerbic nature of the lady's humor (I speak both of author and character):
“...And where's Margaret Pier? I know she's not dead, even if she's almost as old as I am and twice as stubborn."
"She said she'd never set foot inside this house again. Not after what you said the last time."
"Did I say something dreadful?"
"You said blind Republicanism like hers was an inherited social disease, like syphilis. You said it. I heard you myself.”
My very own soul-mother, is Mrs. Pritchard. I love that and I love her and I realized that thank goodness I had the whole collection to read! I was chuffed. I was also mid-upheaval in my life, and the project of reading and reviewing the collection fell by the wayside. I added the book to my online catalogs in 2011 and found again the quote above, and another below, from Dr. Polk; what a delight! More personal-life upheavals followed in fairly short order; the read-n-review project got shelved (heh) again.
I follow a blog called Neglected Books and have since goodness-knows. I've found many a forgotten tome to enjoy, notably the now-well-known classic Missouri novel The Moonflower Vine that the blog helped rehabilitate. I have a list of amazing authors I'd thought of mentioning to Blogger Brad Bigelow over time, but never did for a huge variety of reasons. Well, I did it this year, and the author was Helen Hudson.
I'll explain more on my blog because space here's limited; I'll post a link when I'm done.
The Listener couldn't be more 1967 (the year The Virginia Quarterly first published it) with its free association and celebration of analysis. Dr. Toye's enormous ears and absence of personality make him the caricature analyst, silent and open to the shrieks and moans of the needy. Then in comes a man with a seriously unexamined life; a man with hidden desires and a wife who bores him out of his mind; and Dr. Toye listens him into an early grave. The long dark night of Dr. Toye's soul has begun.
He spent his life in his house, downstairs during the day and upstairs at night, and never went out to lunch. For the truth was that he was happy only in his office, sitting upright behind his desk with a body stretched out on his couch and a voice talking just to him.
Born too soon, our Dr. Toye. He should be among us now. 4.5 stars
Sunday Mourning reveals the deep fissures in lives struck by tragedy. An undertaker, an unhappy profession to be sure, grows accustomed to death; but the living left in its wake are a fresh, painful disappointment every day. This isn't a story so much as a beautiful observation of three people in extremis.
Mr. Hawley, the undertaker, was a big man with a tweed jacket and seat in the New Hampshire legislature.
–and–
She was a small scrawny woman with a round little mouth shaped to hold a straw, as though she took life in tiny sips.
No one is less prepared for death than a parent is for their child's. Author Hudson had no illusions about how pain destroys identity. She was able to reassure us that there is still restoration and rebuilding after its ravages. 3.5 stars
The Strange Testament of Michael Cassidy examines the weird, frictionless life of a casually anti-Semitic, racist Catholic whose Jewish neighbors he has never failed to serve in his grocery store. He detests and despises Maureen, his crass and hateful wife though he shares her prejudices in his quiet way. This being the 1960s, though, Cassidy is caught in an ugly war between tradition and modernity that we called "urban renewal" or "slum clearance" then; today its successor is the less obviously offensive "gentrification." Ghastly Maureen will go to her ghastly sister in Kansas; Cassidy will not. He remains in the old homeplace. Where will he live?
...he discovered the temple, though he did not realize, at first, what it was, merely a huge old building empty and silent, surrounded by gaps, and left to rot in the rain. He found a side door unlocked as if for him, a sanctuary of silence for a man whose head was a drum for the world to beat.
His quiet-man act at last rewarded with silence! Until, one day, the past comes calling with its one unshirkable responsibility. 4 stars
The Hungry Eye belongs, in a roundabout way, to Michèle, a Jewish refugee from Nazi Paris. Her life is blighted by the unfashionable size of her, at a time and in a place where "petite" was de rigueur and "mignon" was not just a modifier for expensive filet. She has lived the most useless imaginable life; she does nothing, causes nothing, cares for nothing but herself. This is the most New Yorkery story I've read by Author Hudson, and still it manages to be truly bitterly angry about the waste and uselessness of "the ladies who lunch." In the end, what I found silly and what displeased me was the silent chorus, the personified self-image that takes up the story's space the way Michèle takes up her bijou little apartment. A disappointed 3.5 stars, all for the off-kilter eroticism of sexless voyeuristic intentions.
Send a Patrol Car to Spartanburg isn't even a little bit subtle in its accusation of cruelty by neglect in a racist society. Mattie Burns isn't in control of anything about her life, she works for the Lovings (get it?) and when I say "works" I mean it literally. Scrub, polish, well let Author Hudson tell you:
{Mattie} had worked for the Lovings for years, ever since their first child and their first move. They had lived on the third floor of a narrow, surly little frame house that pinched and squeezed at every turn, its windows fixed intently on the slums creeping up slowly two and a half blocks away. Mattie had carried the garbage can up and down three flights of stairs and piled most of the furniture out the back door when guests came. The Lovings paid her the standard minimum wage, even though "domestics" were not included in the law, and she scrubbed and swept and waxed and polished and hung out the wash, sitting on the toilet seat and leaning out the third-floor window, which, her friends warmed her, was dangerous for a woman with her "pressure."
But Mattie can't just quit, there's brother Clifford's pills to buy and administer, there's her own home to clean, there's the whole world waiting on an old black woman to bend her back and get after it. Zora Neale Hurston said, in Their Eyes Were Watching God, "De nigger woman is de mule uh de world." Mattie would agree, I will just bet. 4 stars because it appeared in Mademoiselle magazine in 1966 and how Author Hudson managed to storm that bastion of privilege with this angry story beggars my paltry imagination.
Hermes' Beard chronicles the Greek adventures of Arleene and Gerald, American (of course) tourists (of course) whose entire lives are summed up in the one moment when Arleene (!) says to herself, "Gerald was right about everything." And how horrible it was that he dared to be right about everything since the trip was her idea. And how much she detests his big, American size and his German-speaking communication with the locals (remembering this is a mere 20 years after the Nazi occupation of Greece) and, well, him. All of him. She even resents the fact that he dared to be right about the Hermes of Praxiteles being less impressive than the archaic statue, Hermes Kriophoros, whose beard we have all seen in our art history course texts.
In short, the sheer unadulterated bliss of marriage. Whiny meets overbearing, neither side "wins" because it's a draw as to who's the more awful wretch. 4 stars
A Bottle of Sherry to Dr. Polk details the last moments of independence that a starchy matriarch, Mrs. George Pritchard (Emma), as she prepares...is prepared...to move into a nursing home since her advancing dementia will no longer allow her to be constantly supervised. She hasn't lost her self yet, though one can sense its inevitability:
“Frankie," she said softly, "do you know what my idea of heaven is? A place where the windows are always clean, and the people I want can always come to dinner.”
Her long-time day nurse receives the confidence with stoic, understated unhappiness; an older man with rather too much experience dealing with dementia-suffering souls, I was deeply and sadly affected by the story, by the sense that it gave me of Author Hudson's intimate knowledge of her material. I give it 5 stars
After Cortés goes there with the anti-Catholic rhetoric:
...the humiliation of his spirit was the worst of all. He felt no Father to this slovenly, loose-lipped flock. It pained him to force his mind to meet theirs, to reduce the intricacy and beauty and mystery of Catholic dogma to the simple act and the blunt command, like limiting Hamlet to its plot. He read late at night, and since there was no one with whom to share his thoughts, he took them to Mexico each summer. There the mating of mind and eye helped to carry him through the next winter.
Mexico's long-famous tradition of anticlericalism, and its openly syncretic species of Catholicism, make Father Charles Cheney feel anonymous enough to wear a flowered shirt and khakis in place of the collar and rigmarole he trudges through his East Bronx life in. While approaching Chichén Itzá he meets Carla, a tourist from LA and one of the California types that's so effin' irritating you want to slap them goodbye before they plummet over a handy cliff: the "free spirit" who makes no plan, reserves no room, brings only what money they have and then sponges and mooches and wheedles their way around wherever it is they land. To be fair, these people are from everywhere, but the American entitlement of the Carlas of California is extra grating. Father Cheney does his damnedest (!) to unscrape his unwanted acquaintance, wishing all manner of uncharitable things on the Mormon missionaries and the rich Texans who stay in his hotel. He even devises a subterfuge to avoid them all: He will get up at five-thirty to see the ruins and be on his way back to Mexico City before they drag themselves out of bed! But Gawd, in her merciless pitiless cruelty, will not have any such pleasure doled out to her priest. Oh no indeed. 4 stars for the glorious gall-and-wormwood ending.
The Tenant expresses the tragedy of one who is simply not meant for this world.
After it happened, the neighbors all said they'd always known there was something queer about Mr. Markham...{b}ut at the time, Mr. Markham was merely a pale, thin man in a gray suit and a narrow tie who lived in the attic with his wife; he was a good-looking man, though his face seemed, somehow, more like a slightly smudged copy than the real thing. ... They never learned where he was from. They only knew that he did not seem to belong here. He had the terrible courtesy of the permanent guest.
People like Mr. Markham, who married the lazy but competent Mrs. Markham despite the fact that she was not pretty or witty or anything except devoted and grateful that he noticed her, aren't really of the Earth still less any specific location on it. That was Mrs. Markham's job. Her life changed when their money ran out. He wasn't fit for anything practical so she went to get food for the table. He drifted. He took jobs and left or lost them in no time at all. He wore holes in his shoes trying to make the world give him a space, and still he couldn't.
It's a very sad tale, but one I'll bet you any money there's a face attached to in your mind's eye already. Most of us know a Markham, a man or woman who simply...can't. This one, Author Hudson conjured a caring and devoted mate for and that makes the inevitable end so much more poignant. 4 stars
The Road to Kingswood stars an old-country woman, elderly, with "feet like hooves" in her sensible black oxfords meant for walking, walking, walking, trying to sell greeting cards to people who did not want or need to greet anyone with a cheap preprinted card. Mrs. Harrington, soignée widow of Hank, dreads this apparition appearing on her doorstep. As soon as she opens the door to get rid of her, the worst of her nightmares comes true. The slightly sweaty old thing squats at her kitchen table, demanding a glass of water then a ride to the bus stop...and at every turn, Mrs. Harrington (née Butt, of Myrtle Avenue, Flatbush) fails every test of common decency and courtesy. She wants the untidy creature out of her nine-room home with its two-hundred-year-old furniture! Why should she drive the always-walking woman to the bus stop when she got here by herself?
The gods disapprove of selfishness. The road to the burial ground awaits us all, but when and how are the unknowns. 4 stars
Strange Fare goes in a hack for the last, long ride with a stranger. A cabbie becomes Charon; a man whose Earthly days are done hails him and begs to be taken home.
How funny it is when someone you don't know needs more than you can imagine giving. 3.5 stars
An Appointment with Armstrong joins a used-up, useless old academic, a relic of a day gone forever, as he is once again about to be ritually humiliated in his quest for the final accolade once bestowed upon Professors: tenure. He is summoned to his department head's office for an eleven-thirty meeting, and of course readies himself to go promptly. He moves through his solitary home, once shared with a woman he never saw fade out of her prime in deepening despair and disappointment.
It seemed ages now since Louise had died, leaving him all alone with the empty years flapping about him. But it was only last fall when Death had crept round and round the house like a starved cat. Nursing Louise, he had known it was there, though he kept the doors closed and the shades drawn against it. Louise had known too, and accepted it, even welcomed it after the long years of illness. She stopped noting the days or the hours; forgot to remind him to leave the laundry out on Thursdays or pay the cleaning woman on Fridays or get her medicine. She merely lay quietly with her eyes closed in the darkened room under the mound of blankets, as though she could no longer wait and had made her own grave and settled herself in it.
Author Hudson knew that woman, I'm sure, and knew the husband whose failure to launch was more caustic to her than to him. Her life ended in a heap of leftover shreds; his potters along as it always has, as he always was and so is today. The ice between them wasn't visible to him and was lethal to her. The meeting with Armstrong, we know from the moment the subject is broached, will never happen and nothing will change until the day this dry, pointless man's largely unused heart stops. 4 stars for the savagery of Author Hudson's hatred sheathed in such an elegant way.
Thy Servant is another one of Author Hudson's angry screeds against the religious among us for their terrible, two-faced judgmental ways. Suzie is coming to be housekeeper for Mr. and Mrs.Gillespie and their SEVEN daughters (but they aren't Catholic!), just until her husband's hitch in the Army is over. Suzie is a perfect fit for the family, omnicompetent, overdriven to achieve, and as the oldest of thirteen (Catholic) chidren accustomed to enforcing discipline.
Except...what do you know...her perfection is, while not an act, just the opening act of an emotional Grand Guignol that is Single White Female meets Hazel. The story is utterly chilling. It's devastating in its judgements of the Gillespies as layabouts and Suzie as Torquemada in Mother Teresa's weeds. This is the most even-handed hatchet job that's been done outside of a murder scene. And the best part is there is no one except a seven-year-old child who witnesses the entire unwinding of these grave-cloths. We're not treated to overheated emotional scenes, we're given the simple and unadorned facts the way a kid sees the world and then, mirabile dictu, the kid survives the crash without so much as a scrape!
Fine farewell to Author Hudson's world. È finita la commedia per ora.
7richardderus
You may approach His Majesty the Queen.
8weird_O
How do. I'm here, but there's stuff—interesting stuff I'm sure—that's missing.
Maybe I should try tomorrow morning.
Ta ta
Maybe I should try tomorrow morning.
Ta ta
10figsfromthistle
Happy new one!
11SomeGuyInVirginia
Your Majesty! (Deep low-waisted bow, hat brushing the ground.)
13PaulCranswick
Glad to see that I am not too late at court.
Happy new one, RD.
Happy new one, RD.
14LovingLit
>1 richardderus: On that sign I read" Out of the Lockdwn". Talk about having covid on the brain!
>6 richardderus: I follow a blog called Neglected Books
This sounds like a great blog, I shall check it out forthwith. I have a *thing* about the latest books being put up for our bookclub reads. There must be a million books out there that are: (a) easier and cheaper to get my hands on, (b) just as good as today's latest amazing read, and (c) not to be discarded just cos they're old! :)
>6 richardderus: I follow a blog called Neglected Books
This sounds like a great blog, I shall check it out forthwith. I have a *thing* about the latest books being put up for our bookclub reads. There must be a million books out there that are: (a) easier and cheaper to get my hands on, (b) just as good as today's latest amazing read, and (c) not to be discarded just cos they're old! :)
16richardderus
>9 quondame: You may rise, milady. Our most gracious thanks for your good wishes.
>10 figsfromthistle: Thank you, Anita!
>11 SomeGuyInVirginia: Sir Larry, our Court Favorite! The delight that your lascivious japery doth bring is welcome.
>10 figsfromthistle: Thank you, Anita!
>11 SomeGuyInVirginia: Sir Larry, our Court Favorite! The delight that your lascivious japery doth bring is welcome.
17richardderus
>12 msf59: Thanks, Mark. The Hudson's an oldie but goody, much like the lady herself. She was born the year my mother was, 1920, but died in 2014. Because she never smoked.
>13 PaulCranswick: Cranswickulus. Your attendance at our court does us Asiatic hono(u)r.
>14 LovingLit: Heh, I did too! Oh well, current events are bound to take precedence over antiquity in our brains.
Oh, do go look at the site! I suspect, though, that many of its delights are going to be VERY difficult for a Kiwi to acquire.
>13 PaulCranswick: Cranswickulus. Your attendance at our court does us Asiatic hono(u)r.
>14 LovingLit: Heh, I did too! Oh well, current events are bound to take precedence over antiquity in our brains.
Oh, do go look at the site! I suspect, though, that many of its delights are going to be VERY difficult for a Kiwi to acquire.
18SandyAMcPherson
Hi Richard. Interesting topper.
And yeah, you nailed that one: It was ever thus for women.
>14 LovingLit: I also think this was a great blog-link (https://neglectedbooks.com).
Like Megan, I have a *bad-mood* (in fact a very big irk) with the latest books being spouted off as if there's nothing written decades ago that's worth reading and reviewing. Not here on LT, thank goodness. But when I have literary conversations (or answer the "Did you read {name of very recently published book}?" question), I'm treated too often to amazement that I would be interested in such old literature. I am truly *not* making this up.
>17 richardderus: Hah! I caught that ~ hono(u)r. Very considerate.
And yeah, you nailed that one: It was ever thus for women.
>14 LovingLit: I also think this was a great blog-link (https://neglectedbooks.com).
Like Megan, I have a *bad-mood* (in fact a very big irk) with the latest books being spouted off as if there's nothing written decades ago that's worth reading and reviewing. Not here on LT, thank goodness. But when I have literary conversations (or answer the "Did you read {name of very recently published book}?" question), I'm treated too often to amazement that I would be interested in such old literature. I am truly *not* making this up.
>17 richardderus: Hah! I caught that ~ hono(u)r. Very considerate.
19alcottacre
Checking in on the new thread, RD. ((Hugs)) and *smooches*
Thanks for the recommendation of the Helen Hudson book!
Thanks for the recommendation of the Helen Hudson book!
20Matke
Happy new thread, Richard.
As you know, I’m an inveterate back-lister, so any old tomes you bring to our attention are appreciated.
As you know, I’m an inveterate back-lister, so any old tomes you bring to our attention are appreciated.
22richardderus
>18 SandyAMcPherson: Thanks, Sandy, and the truth of my observation is depressing but relevant to this moment.
I'm plenty guilty of pursuing the latest shiny pretty thing, but to me that covers all the shiny pretty things I've never heard of before. After all, a novel published in 1820 is new to me if I've never heard of it before. The only thing thins doesn't work for is poetry, which is all always guilty of the crime of obfuscatory sesquipedalian obscurantism whether written yesterday or in 2000BCE.
>19 alcottacre: *smooch* Happy you saw it!
>20 Matke: Miss Hudson is a reading project. I believe I now have all her published writing in my possession, except an anthology she edited.
>21 bell7: *smooch* Thanks, Mary!
I'm plenty guilty of pursuing the latest shiny pretty thing, but to me that covers all the shiny pretty things I've never heard of before. After all, a novel published in 1820 is new to me if I've never heard of it before. The only thing thins doesn't work for is poetry, which is all always guilty of the crime of obfuscatory sesquipedalian obscurantism whether written yesterday or in 2000BCE.
>19 alcottacre: *smooch* Happy you saw it!
>20 Matke: Miss Hudson is a reading project. I believe I now have all her published writing in my possession, except an anthology she edited.
>21 bell7: *smooch* Thanks, Mary!
23laytonwoman3rd
>18 SandyAMcPherson: OMG, what a rabbit hole you've opened up there! I'd love to get my hands on a few of those neglected books.
25richardderus
>23 laytonwoman3rd: And the links section of neglectedbooks.com? O. M. G. The American Scholar lists from 1934 and 1970 damn near fried my synapses. So much forgotten writing!
>24 katiekrug: Thank you most kindly, Miss Katie. It surely is sunstruck out there...and end of the week it'll get hotter, so get outside and soak up the perfection.
>24 katiekrug: Thank you most kindly, Miss Katie. It surely is sunstruck out there...and end of the week it'll get hotter, so get outside and soak up the perfection.
27richardderus
>26 drneutron: Thanks, Dennis E. Taylor! I mean, Doc!
28Storeetllr
Happy new thread, Your Majesty!
29richardderus
>28 Storeetllr: Ah, the Duchess Kip. Greetings, Your Grace.
30karenmarie
Happy new thread, RD!
>5 richardderus: Up to 55. Keep up the good work!
*smooch* from Madame TVT Horrible
>5 richardderus: Up to 55. Keep up the good work!
*smooch* from Madame TVT Horrible
32lkernagh
Happy new thread, Richard! I am very impressed with your ambitious goal to post 10 book reviews a month on your blog.
>5 richardderus: - Well, I have only read 42 of the books on your new and revised list. Not bad considering I haven't read any of the books that fall into series, like Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter.
>5 richardderus: - Well, I have only read 42 of the books on your new and revised list. Not bad considering I haven't read any of the books that fall into series, like Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter.
33richardderus
>32 lkernagh: It's a series-heavy list, and still...42 ain't peanuts.
I was very impressed with it as well, though it's in utter and complete disarray now. *sigh*
I was very impressed with it as well, though it's in utter and complete disarray now. *sigh*
34SandyAMcPherson
>23 laytonwoman3rd: We have to thank Richard for setting out *that* rabbit hole, not me.
It was mentioned back at #6 (I follow a blog called Neglected Books and have since goodness-knows.).
I'm still wallowing around there... not many titles I recognise though. I must have read very narrowly back in the day.
It was mentioned back at #6 (I follow a blog called Neglected Books and have since goodness-knows.).
I'm still wallowing around there... not many titles I recognise though. I must have read very narrowly back in the day.
36richardderus
>34 SandyAMcPherson: And now you need to know about http://forgotten-classics.blogspot.com/
*evil cackle*
>35 ronincats: Thank you, Roni!
*evil cackle*
>35 ronincats: Thank you, Roni!
37laytonwoman3rd
>34 SandyAMcPherson: Ah, that's what I get for skimming...well there's enough credit (or blame) to share between the two of you. I suppose most of those books will be hard to find, but naturally, I'll be hunting.
40richardderus
>39 humouress: *smooch*
41karenmarie
Lazy Tuesday morning to you, RD. It's raining, only going to a high of 66F today. Coffee in hand, a few LT threads to catch up on, then some solid reading is the plan.
*smooch*
*smooch*
42richardderus
>41 karenmarie: We're doing sunshine again today, but I'm braced for hotter rainier week-ending weather. Read hearty, Horrible!
43msf59
Happy Tuesday, Richard. Glad you got a kick out of the dicsissel. Cool, little birds. I hope your week is off to a swell start. Another lovely one here today and I am off tomorrow. Yah!
44richardderus
>43 msf59: Heh, I do get quite a chuckle out of that one's name. Yay for Humpday off! Let me guess...Books Birds Beer is the agenda.
45Berly
>5 richardderus: I love that you stole from me once removed!! And that you have improve the list. Of course. LOL
>36 richardderus: And I, in turn, will be checking out the Forgotten Classics list.
Happy New Thread! Happy Tuesday! Smooch.
>36 richardderus: And I, in turn, will be checking out the Forgotten Classics list.
Happy New Thread! Happy Tuesday! Smooch.
46richardderus
>45 Berly: Hey there Berly-boo! *smooch*
I am so pleased that you'refalling into the tiger pit exploring the Forgotten Classics site! But goodness me, don't forget about neglectedbooks.com, so many lovely lovely finds on there...fifty-seven titles added to my list, and over thirty either Kindled or tree-booked.
oops
Forgot I was trying to lure you in for a minute
I am so pleased that you're
oops
Forgot I was trying to lure you in for a minute
47karenmarie
Good morning, RD!
I'm not really awake yet, but coffee's slowly doing the trick. Happy Humpday to you with many glorious reads ahead.
I'm not really awake yet, but coffee's slowly doing the trick. Happy Humpday to you with many glorious reads ahead.
49richardderus
>47 karenmarie: I'm awake at last, but it took two pots to do the trick. And Rebecca Solnit's analysis of the revolution is challenging my desire to stay that way...I'd rather go to sleep and wake up in the good timeline...but she's trenchant as always, and supported in her thesis by a solid academic scientist's decade-old prediction.
>48 SandyAMcPherson: Thank you, Milady Sandy, for noticing!
Re: 36...you will, my girl, you will, as the Divine Sarah said of a tyro actress's boast about not having stage fright...
>48 SandyAMcPherson: Thank you, Milady Sandy, for noticing!
Re: 36...you will, my girl, you will, as the Divine Sarah said of a tyro actress's boast about not having stage fright...
50johnsimpson
Hi Richard, dear friend, happy new thread mate.
51richardderus
Greetings John. and thanks!
52alcottacre
((Hugs)) and *smooches*, RD!
If you have not read Writer's Choice: A Library of Rediscoveries before, I would recommend that one to you. There are a books in a variety of subjects recommended and I have discovered some terrific reads through this source, including books by Bessie Head and Conrad Aiken.
If you have not read Writer's Choice: A Library of Rediscoveries before, I would recommend that one to you. There are a books in a variety of subjects recommended and I have discovered some terrific reads through this source, including books by Bessie Head and Conrad Aiken.
53richardderus
>52 alcottacre: Thanks, Stasia, I'm sure there was some brilliant thing in that oddly-shaped space down below the smooches, but it's sadly disappeared. I'm so disappointed.
*smooch*
*smooch*
55Familyhistorian
Happy new one, Richard. I see you are up to your old tricks, your majesty, luring in with those links to impossible to find tomes.
56richardderus
>54 humouress: Heh.
>55 Familyhistorian: Meg! You have peeped my Grand Design: Keep y'all so busy looking for things impossible to procure that I finally have a chance to catch up! (But for goodness sake don't call them tricks or my Young Gentleman Caller will get suspicious...)
>55 Familyhistorian: Meg! You have peeped my Grand Design: Keep y'all so busy looking for things impossible to procure that I finally have a chance to catch up! (But for goodness sake don't call them tricks or my Young Gentleman Caller will get suspicious...)
57richardderus
69 The Sittaford Mystery by Agatha Christie
Rating: 3* of five
A classic-era mystery by one of the world’s most praised and revered mystery writers. First published in 1931, it was a stand-alone tale (no Poirot and his little grey cells! No Marple and her knitting!) of crimes thought buried rising up from their unmarked graves to feed, zombie-like, on the perpetrators in the present day. Sadly, the whole world they inhabit gets to suffer along with the perpetrators; after all, crime doesn’t pay so much as it pays back. The setting of a snowbound country house with bored wealthy guests is chilly enough. When the pieces of the criminal puzzle start coming apart (or together, depending on your perspective), the emotional chills go from the fridge to the freezer.
What an awful place to live in England is...If it isn't snowing or raining or blowing it's misty. And if the sun does shine it's so cold that you can't feel your fingers or toes.
By the time you’ve finished this modest-in-scope (288 pages) novel, you’re unlikely to feel your fingers for a few hours. Though in this case it will be from gripping the darn thing so tight in sheer desperation to see why anyone would kill the victim, shifting to a desperate need to know what took someone so long to kill the bastard. $9.99 for the Kindle edition, or free from your OverDrive-participating library.
70 Agatha Christie's Marple: The Sittaford Mystery
Rating: 3* of five
How in the goddesses' names do they get this story of the Wages of Sin Punished out of a pretty straightforward criminally greedy plot to snag money not one's own, and send its roots back to the Empire's hotter corners (an archaeological dig in Egypt), I do not know. This novel never featured Marple at all. They bookhorned her in to make weight, since the old girl appeared in only twelve books. (And twenty or so stories, but apparently those were largely deemed inadequate for adaptation.)
Since old Marple has to be given a reason to be there, her nephew Raymond West was blown through the keyhole as a resident neighbor of Capt. Trevelyan's. (He's the dead guy.) In the blizzard that occurs as the starting gun (!) for the plot, it's really incumbent upon Trevelyan to do the decent thing and invite Marple to shelter with him while the storm rages.
An amusing aside: Inspector Narracott, the policeman in charge of the investigation, has morphed into "Constable Narracott"! But the horror of Marpling a pretty average Christie novel isn't the worst sin the producers committed. It was the idiotic way a lesbian subplot gets plopped onto the proceedings from out of nowhere and to no good purpose. It feels like they were so bored, or became so befuddled, while Frankensteining the murder back together that they added this to make things more fun for themselves.
Timothy Dalton plays Captain Trevelyan, so it's worth watching for that alone. But really, in the cosmic scheme of things, is it necessary to search out so meager a pleasure when there are so many much more satisfying stories being told?
Rating: 3* of five
A classic-era mystery by one of the world’s most praised and revered mystery writers. First published in 1931, it was a stand-alone tale (no Poirot and his little grey cells! No Marple and her knitting!) of crimes thought buried rising up from their unmarked graves to feed, zombie-like, on the perpetrators in the present day. Sadly, the whole world they inhabit gets to suffer along with the perpetrators; after all, crime doesn’t pay so much as it pays back. The setting of a snowbound country house with bored wealthy guests is chilly enough. When the pieces of the criminal puzzle start coming apart (or together, depending on your perspective), the emotional chills go from the fridge to the freezer.
What an awful place to live in England is...If it isn't snowing or raining or blowing it's misty. And if the sun does shine it's so cold that you can't feel your fingers or toes.
By the time you’ve finished this modest-in-scope (288 pages) novel, you’re unlikely to feel your fingers for a few hours. Though in this case it will be from gripping the darn thing so tight in sheer desperation to see why anyone would kill the victim, shifting to a desperate need to know what took someone so long to kill the bastard. $9.99 for the Kindle edition, or free from your OverDrive-participating library.
70 Agatha Christie's Marple: The Sittaford Mystery
Rating: 3* of five
How in the goddesses' names do they get this story of the Wages of Sin Punished out of a pretty straightforward criminally greedy plot to snag money not one's own, and send its roots back to the Empire's hotter corners (an archaeological dig in Egypt), I do not know. This novel never featured Marple at all. They bookhorned her in to make weight, since the old girl appeared in only twelve books. (And twenty or so stories, but apparently those were largely deemed inadequate for adaptation.)
Since old Marple has to be given a reason to be there, her nephew Raymond West was blown through the keyhole as a resident neighbor of Capt. Trevelyan's. (He's the dead guy.) In the blizzard that occurs as the starting gun (!) for the plot, it's really incumbent upon Trevelyan to do the decent thing and invite Marple to shelter with him while the storm rages.
An amusing aside: Inspector Narracott, the policeman in charge of the investigation, has morphed into "Constable Narracott"! But the horror of Marpling a pretty average Christie novel isn't the worst sin the producers committed. It was the idiotic way a lesbian subplot gets plopped onto the proceedings from out of nowhere and to no good purpose. It feels like they were so bored, or became so befuddled, while Frankensteining the murder back together that they added this to make things more fun for themselves.
Timothy Dalton plays Captain Trevelyan, so it's worth watching for that alone. But really, in the cosmic scheme of things, is it necessary to search out so meager a pleasure when there are so many much more satisfying stories being told?
58karenmarie
‘Morning, RD! I hope your Thursday is a good one.
>49 richardderus: Thanks for the links. Not fun reading at all.
>57 richardderus: Ah. Murder at Hazelmoor. Why are books published with different titles in the UK and the US?
>49 richardderus: Thanks for the links. Not fun reading at all.
>57 richardderus: Ah. Murder at Hazelmoor. Why are books published with different titles in the UK and the US?
59msf59
Sweet Thursday, Richard. Back to Dame Christie, eh? Lots of sunshine and summer heat here today. Enjoy your day.
60richardderus
>58 karenmarie: Sometimes it's down to things that don't make sense between cultures, but this time it's just weird.
Not fun, no, but necessary to keep one's finger on the pulse of what's coming down the road.
>59 msf59: Heya Birddude, I had some trouble getting to sleep last night and the Christies are really good at being juuust interesting enough to keep me from fretting about it. The filmed versions are pretty good, more often than not, but wowee toledo was this a crock! Pretty, though.
Not fun, no, but necessary to keep one's finger on the pulse of what's coming down the road.
>59 msf59: Heya Birddude, I had some trouble getting to sleep last night and the Christies are really good at being juuust interesting enough to keep me from fretting about it. The filmed versions are pretty good, more often than not, but wowee toledo was this a crock! Pretty, though.
61Matke
>57 richardderus: Ah. One of my favorites, not especially because of the mystery (although I found the solution/method rather neat), but because of that wonderful winter atmosphere. For some reason I love stories that take place in the wintertime. I loved In the Ghost Country and Into Thin Air, nonfiction works that feature abysmal cold.
Probably just looking for relief from The Endless Summer that is known as Florida.
Have a pain-free Thursday.
Probably just looking for relief from The Endless Summer that is known as Florida.
Have a pain-free Thursday.
62richardderus
>61 Matke: Thanks, Gail! If the second coming of the christ occurs, I'll give you a shout.
63jessibud2
Hey Richard. I have been awol. Is there a prize for being last to wish you a happy not-new-anymore thread?
64richardderus
>63 jessibud2: Hmmm...let me see...permaybehaps the coveted "I will not ignore or excoriate you" Award?
*smooch*
*smooch*
65karenmarie
'Morning, RDear! I hope you have a wonderful Friday. I want to report that the Instant Pot Sun-Dried Tomato Chicken Thighs recipe you gave to me on my thread worked out beautifully. From walking into the kitchen until we sat down, one full hour elapsed. I served it with angel hair pasta but didn't EVOO it. I was happily surprised at the amount of gravy produced - guess since it doesn't 'cook down' all the chicken broth and cream are just there.
*smooch* from your own Horrible
*smooch* from your own Horrible
66richardderus
>65 karenmarie: Ooo, that's good news! It's fast, easy, and delicious. You're right...the seal keeps moisture in its place, so you don't lose any; but the sauté function lets you reduce the liquids at need.
The darn thing is almost the perfect appliance!
The darn thing is almost the perfect appliance!
67jessibud2
>64 richardderus: - Does it sparkle? I could use a little sparkle about now...
70msf59
Morning, Richard. Happy Saturday! Hot & muggy here today so I hope the work day flies. Enjoy your day.
71richardderus
>69 ronincats: *smooch*
>70 msf59: Ugh on the hot and muggy, but best energies to the workday wings. I think it's weird how little I want to go out in the soup today, I didn't even think about my summer early walk...just not up for the sludge of fog.
So! Weekend ho for you, eh Birddude? Sunday trip somewhere nice, or crouching next to the a/c vent?
>70 msf59: Ugh on the hot and muggy, but best energies to the workday wings. I think it's weird how little I want to go out in the soup today, I didn't even think about my summer early walk...just not up for the sludge of fog.
So! Weekend ho for you, eh Birddude? Sunday trip somewhere nice, or crouching next to the a/c vent?
72bell7
Happy Saturday *smooches* and hope you're able to get some relief from the heat. It's currently 76 here, but we have a high of 88, so I will shortly by shutting all the windows and curtains and turning fans on (for some reason our AC is not working) while I hole up with a book. I sweated through my coffee this morning (I won't drink it iced).
73richardderus
>72 bell7: Iced coffee is a decidedly inferior way to consume my drug of choice, I agree, but in a pinch...like an un-air-conditioned 88° day...I'll pop some sugar, some milk, and a few cubes into the mug and grimace my way through.
Thankfully I am not faced (today) with that choice! I'm sorry for the misfunctional a/c! But support whole-heartedly your plan for the day. *smooch*
Thankfully I am not faced (today) with that choice! I'm sorry for the misfunctional a/c! But support whole-heartedly your plan for the day. *smooch*
74karenmarie
'Afternoon, RD! Smart to not want to go out in the soup. It’s nasty here, today, too. I haven’t even poked my nose out and probably won’t.
>66 richardderus: Bill bought an official Instant Pot Glass Lid for me so I can also use the IP as a slow cooker. I’ve also seen an official IP Air Fryer Lid to turn it into an air fryer, too. One step at a time for me, though.
>73 richardderus: The best iced coffee I ever had was in Athens, Greece. Sweet, flavorful, and I still remember it after 41 years.
I like hot coffee black no sugar, iced coffee sugared, hot tea with sugar but unsweet iced tea. I know, totally weird.
*smooch*
>66 richardderus: Bill bought an official Instant Pot Glass Lid for me so I can also use the IP as a slow cooker. I’ve also seen an official IP Air Fryer Lid to turn it into an air fryer, too. One step at a time for me, though.
>73 richardderus: The best iced coffee I ever had was in Athens, Greece. Sweet, flavorful, and I still remember it after 41 years.
I like hot coffee black no sugar, iced coffee sugared, hot tea with sugar but unsweet iced tea. I know, totally weird.
*smooch*
75richardderus
>74 karenmarie: Yes, take it slow with the fancy add-ons. Get to the point where the basic pressure-cooker function is second nature before the woo-woo air-fryer experimentation!
Hot black plain = yes! I love it that way but have had to bow to medicine-gut's procrustean demands...milk or gas. Painful smelly gas. All day all night. So, 50% milk 50% coffee. You'd be *amazed* how much milk I get through!
There is no acceptable way to imbibe boiled Chinese garden garbage. Just sayin'
*smooch*
Hot black plain = yes! I love it that way but have had to bow to medicine-gut's procrustean demands...milk or gas. Painful smelly gas. All day all night. So, 50% milk 50% coffee. You'd be *amazed* how much milk I get through!
There is no acceptable way to imbibe boiled Chinese garden garbage. Just sayin'
*smooch*
76figsfromthistle
Happy summer solstice!
>73 richardderus: I really like iced coffee. I put in coffee, ice cream and a little whipping cream on top :) Great way to cool down! It ends up looking a little like this:
>73 richardderus: I really like iced coffee. I put in coffee, ice cream and a little whipping cream on top :) Great way to cool down! It ends up looking a little like this:
78PaulCranswick
>75 richardderus: Never did Chinese garden waste taste this good:
But on balance I still prefer Erni's delightful arabica.
But on balance I still prefer Erni's delightful arabica.
79richardderus
>76 figsfromthistle: Thank you, Anita, and the same wishes heartily returned.
That's very chichi-foofoo for a cuppa joe...whip cream'n'ever'thing!
>77 quondame: I'm confused, Susan...you'll put Bailey's in Kahlua? ::verschmeckeled::
>78 PaulCranswick: "Good" is very much a matter of opinion in that stuff's regard. I'm just not a tea drinker. Hot, cold, tepid, it's not the thing I want to smell when I awake of a morning or while I'm conscious or when I drift off to dreamland.
I'll join you in that arabica, though.
That's very chichi-foofoo for a cuppa joe...whip cream'n'ever'thing!
>77 quondame: I'm confused, Susan...you'll put Bailey's in Kahlua? ::verschmeckeled::
>78 PaulCranswick: "Good" is very much a matter of opinion in that stuff's regard. I'm just not a tea drinker. Hot, cold, tepid, it's not the thing I want to smell when I awake of a morning or while I'm conscious or when I drift off to dreamland.
I'll join you in that arabica, though.
80karenmarie
Happy Sunday, RD! I hope your day is a good'un.
I'm sorry you have to choose between milk and gas. I'd choose milk, too. However, I've always pretty much had a cast-iron stomach, and even the dread cooked onions, my bane for over 30 years (except for onion rings) seems to have abated. A liver-and-onions experiment a month ago didn't produce even the idea of digestive challenges.
imbibe boiled Chinese garden garbage C'mon, tell us what you really think.
Lazy day with Mr. Bill. Cards and candy for Father' Day, will cook him one of his favorite dinners tonight - salmon croquettes, skillet pilaf, and canned corn. Easy peasy.
I'm sorry you have to choose between milk and gas. I'd choose milk, too. However, I've always pretty much had a cast-iron stomach, and even the dread cooked onions, my bane for over 30 years (except for onion rings) seems to have abated. A liver-and-onions experiment a month ago didn't produce even the idea of digestive challenges.
imbibe boiled Chinese garden garbage C'mon, tell us what you really think.
Lazy day with Mr. Bill. Cards and candy for Father' Day, will cook him one of his favorite dinners tonight - salmon croquettes, skillet pilaf, and canned corn. Easy peasy.
81richardderus
>80 karenmarie: Hey Horrible! Yeah, I've just *got* to overcome this crippling reticence, don't I. *chuckle*
Many many years of rough-on-the-body gout meds mean I must be extra careful. I'm so jealous of your liver-and-onions meal, it's one of the meats I really can't eat except once in a great while or the gout goes bananas. Like other weird things I enjoy, eg eggplant and lamb, it's best to forego the momentary delight.
I've had a lovely Zoom session, a text message, and a hilarious-but-naughty card for father's day, so I'm all set too. That meal sounds about perfect for summer cooking, since start-to-finish it's about 45min and no oven time. Thoughty of him to be so easy to please.
Don't eat his candy. *smooch*
Many many years of rough-on-the-body gout meds mean I must be extra careful. I'm so jealous of your liver-and-onions meal, it's one of the meats I really can't eat except once in a great while or the gout goes bananas. Like other weird things I enjoy, eg eggplant and lamb, it's best to forego the momentary delight.
I've had a lovely Zoom session, a text message, and a hilarious-but-naughty card for father's day, so I'm all set too. That meal sounds about perfect for summer cooking, since start-to-finish it's about 45min and no oven time. Thoughty of him to be so easy to please.
Don't eat his candy. *smooch*
83richardderus
>82 Matke: Thank you, Gail, I'm set for the day after laughing my head off with my dearly belovèds.
Spend a splendid Sunday yourownself!
Spend a splendid Sunday yourownself!
84PaulCranswick
Happy Father's Day, RD.
This is for you dear fellow. My favourite
This is for you dear fellow. My favourite
85richardderus
>84 PaulCranswick: OOOOO
I can smell it from here! How glorious, PC, and thank you! I return the sentiments, but not the coffee.
I can smell it from here! How glorious, PC, and thank you! I return the sentiments, but not the coffee.
86quondame
>79 richardderus: As simple as cream in coffee. I drink a pot black every morning except when, back in the GoDs when I would go to Peet's to pick up my bean ration and credit the free cuppa to a latte. In the way back before I was converted to Peet's I'd pick up a pair of triple vente lattes at Starbuck's of a Sunday morning with a chocolate cherry cream cheese muffin. That was so far back I had a paycheck to cover the extravagance and the added wardrobe to cover me after eating it.
I hope your Sunday has had its comforts and amusements.
I hope your Sunday has had its comforts and amusements.
87richardderus
>86 quondame: ...I...but...isn't that risky? Like diabetic coma-level risky? *delicate shiver*
My Sunday had plenty of laughs, thank goodness, and a lovely warm feeling of being wanted. Hard to get better than that.
My Sunday had plenty of laughs, thank goodness, and a lovely warm feeling of being wanted. Hard to get better than that.
88bell7
Hmmm, I put enough milk in my coffee to lighten it, but that's about it (I used to put sugar, but earlier this year I managed to wean myself off it). One mug in the morning, and I'm usually done. I don't like it iced, but I *do* like coffee ice cream, so good luck figuring out that particular mix of food preferences.
Happy Sunday to you, Richard, and glad you were able to get in a Zoom session and the rest :)
Happy Sunday to you, Richard, and glad you were able to get in a Zoom session and the rest :)
89richardderus
>88 bell7: Thanks, Mary, it's been a pleasant day all the way around.
Makes sense to me, your not liking sugary coffee but appreciating coffee ice cream. ::side-eye::
Makes sense to me, your not liking sugary coffee but appreciating coffee ice cream. ::side-eye::
90ronincats
I can't drink coffee black any more because of the acid, but I've been drinking it for some years with a tablespoon of evaporated milk which is richer than whole milk but not as fatty as half-and-half. I do like it iced as well, with a little bit more of the milk in it.
91richardderus
71 The Bequest: An Enlightenment Epilogue by Joanna Chambers
Rating: 5* of five
I'll be honest...I toyed with a single star rating for this because Author Chambers said of David and Murdo: "...if I was going to give them one last story..."
I nearly unswallowed at the awful betrayal I felt at the cold, emotionless, efficient disembowelling I was undergoing at the hands of someone I've come to enjoy and admire as an artist, a talespinner, and an all-around Good Egg.
No more David and Murdo?!? WHAT IS THE POINT OF THIS, THIS DREARY TRUDGE TO THE GRAVE?!?
*ahem*
So, well, you see that I didn't succumb to my more Marquess-esque impulses. I thoroughly approve of the Laverock scenes, the lovely domestic intimacy paired with the men's still-fresh joy in each others' many charms and quirks. Yes, I know that fifteen years on they'll crab at each other for the things they swoon at today; it's inevitable; but it seems to me that these are friends and companions who had the unfathomable good fortune to fall in love, to discover the unique delight of sexual intimacy with someone who matters to you, who has keys to the doors you didn't put in and don't want to think about too often.
Murdo needs something only David has ever offered him: Compassion. His wretch of a father used Murdo in his schemes to get and hold power, no thought for how Murdo would feel about it. David needs something Murdo and only Murdo possesses: Devotion. Unlike a certain scumbag from David's past, Murdo will not present himself as apart from, above, David. Even when situationally he is required to introduce David as his "man of business," it is genuinely against his own wishes and out of respect for David's damaged trust in the goodwill of the world. Lord Murdoch doesn't need it; David Lauriston, risen to a station far below Murdo's, always will. And Murdo understands, behaves in the way that will serve his man's needs first.
If that is not true love, I do not know what is.
So this last *sob* story in the men's love story concerns the commonest crisis to enter any son's life: His father's death. And the fallout of a parent's death is always complex. Murdo's father has left him, the second son and the greatest disappointment of his life, a bequest. It changes everything and that is all I can say without the Spoiler Stasi descending upon me with their tazers and truncheons at the ready. It is very much worth signing up for Author Chambers's newsletter to procure, though honestly don't get near unless you've read the entire series.
I have to clutch at a straw here: There's a very good story waiting in Avesbury and Reid's, erm, well, encounter. And I can see no reasonable excuse for Author Chambers to avoid putting David and Murdo in that story.
No. Reason. At. All.
Rating: 5* of five
I'll be honest...I toyed with a single star rating for this because Author Chambers said of David and Murdo: "...if I was going to give them one last story..."
I nearly unswallowed at the awful betrayal I felt at the cold, emotionless, efficient disembowelling I was undergoing at the hands of someone I've come to enjoy and admire as an artist, a talespinner, and an all-around Good Egg.
No more David and Murdo?!? WHAT IS THE POINT OF THIS, THIS DREARY TRUDGE TO THE GRAVE?!?
*ahem*
So, well, you see that I didn't succumb to my more Marquess-esque impulses. I thoroughly approve of the Laverock scenes, the lovely domestic intimacy paired with the men's still-fresh joy in each others' many charms and quirks. Yes, I know that fifteen years on they'll crab at each other for the things they swoon at today; it's inevitable; but it seems to me that these are friends and companions who had the unfathomable good fortune to fall in love, to discover the unique delight of sexual intimacy with someone who matters to you, who has keys to the doors you didn't put in and don't want to think about too often.
Murdo needs something only David has ever offered him: Compassion. His wretch of a father used Murdo in his schemes to get and hold power, no thought for how Murdo would feel about it. David needs something Murdo and only Murdo possesses: Devotion. Unlike a certain scumbag from David's past, Murdo will not present himself as apart from, above, David. Even when situationally he is required to introduce David as his "man of business," it is genuinely against his own wishes and out of respect for David's damaged trust in the goodwill of the world. Lord Murdoch doesn't need it; David Lauriston, risen to a station far below Murdo's, always will. And Murdo understands, behaves in the way that will serve his man's needs first.
If that is not true love, I do not know what is.
So this last *sob* story in the men's love story concerns the commonest crisis to enter any son's life: His father's death. And the fallout of a parent's death is always complex. Murdo's father has left him, the second son and the greatest disappointment of his life, a bequest. It changes everything and that is all I can say without the Spoiler Stasi descending upon me with their tazers and truncheons at the ready. It is very much worth signing up for Author Chambers's newsletter to procure, though honestly don't get near unless you've read the entire series.
I have to clutch at a straw here: There's a very good story waiting in Avesbury and Reid's, erm, well, encounter. And I can see no reasonable excuse for Author Chambers to avoid putting David and Murdo in that story.
No. Reason. At. All.
92richardderus
>90 ronincats: That's a great compromise, Roni! Very efficient and also satisfying.
93humouress
>92 richardderus: While Richard is feeling benevolent I shall risk the wrath of the coffee gods and confess I have to have both milk and sugar in my coffee. And if I pick up a take away coffee while I’m out and about, it’s usually a frappé (with chocolate chips - but no synthetic cream on top). The climate here is just too hot (and I’m probably twice the width I was when I first came to Singapore but don’t tell Richard because he tends to make nasty comments).
94msf59
Morning, Richard. I hope you had a good Sunday. I did not go on a bird ramble yesterday. Took care of some things here, including some reading and then celebrated Dad's Day with my BIL & FIL.
95richardderus
>93 humouress: It's not *my* coffee, so pollute it how you want. Please don't try to serve it to me, though, as it will go to waste sitting untouched and waste makes me a crazy person.
frappé with chocolate chips *retch* that's horrifying
And I shall have you to know that discussing a person's avoirdupois is strictly forbidden in this ambit. Body-shaming is a slippery slope from teasing to hurtful, and there's entirely enough deliberate and cruel hurting in this world already!
>94 msf59: I did, thanks Mark, and I'm surprised no birding got done on Father's Day! Or maybe I'm not, since it was a crummy day weather-wise. But a quiet celebration with family makes up for that moa sighting I heard tell of in Kankakee River State Park.
frappé with chocolate chips *retch* that's horrifying
And I shall have you to know that discussing a person's avoirdupois is strictly forbidden in this ambit. Body-shaming is a slippery slope from teasing to hurtful, and there's entirely enough deliberate and cruel hurting in this world already!
>94 msf59: I did, thanks Mark, and I'm surprised no birding got done on Father's Day! Or maybe I'm not, since it was a crummy day weather-wise. But a quiet celebration with family makes up for that moa sighting I heard tell of in Kankakee River State Park.
96karenmarie
Good morning, RD, and a very happy Monday to you.
I've got a two-muscle-relaxants-before-bed-last-night grogginess going on, but have to be chipper by 11 to take friend Louise grocery shopping. She just can't manage the cart and cane anymore. Coffee is helping.
I've got a two-muscle-relaxants-before-bed-last-night grogginess going on, but have to be chipper by 11 to take friend Louise grocery shopping. She just can't manage the cart and cane anymore. Coffee is helping.
97richardderus
>96 karenmarie: Thanks, Horrible! So far it hasn't thrown any paving stones at me, so that's a win.
Good on ya for helping Louise out on a Monday morning. I'd've rescheduled her to Wednesday because Monday shopping is ew.
*smooch* for being such a good egg
Good on ya for helping Louise out on a Monday morning. I'd've rescheduled her to Wednesday because Monday shopping is ew.
*smooch* for being such a good egg
98Storeetllr
Hi, Richard! So, another hot and muggy day filled with mosquitoes, which is keeping me inside except a quick foray into the back yard to water the garden and fill the bird feeders. Yesterday, we had a father's day bbq and ate out on the deck, and I ended up with four or five bites. Grrrr. I swear, I'm going to the drug store for some Off before I do that again.
If I confess I drink my morning joe with milk and sugar - actually, a café latte vente - will you ban me from your thread?
If I confess I drink my morning joe with milk and sugar - actually, a café latte vente - will you ban me from your thread?
99richardderus
>98 Storeetllr: Good heavens, no! Just don't serve it to me and expect anything other than stony silence. You glug down whatever foul hellbrew you're in the mood for!
I can vouch for lemongrass and rosemary being very effective. Lemongrass also grows really well in pots for decks. Plus Off!, of course, because one solution is never enough.
I can vouch for lemongrass and rosemary being very effective. Lemongrass also grows really well in pots for decks. Plus Off!, of course, because one solution is never enough.
100Storeetllr
This year has been a bit of a miss as far as garden organization goes. I usually have rosemary, lavender, and lemon balm, plus citronella scented geraniums, but, with the quarantine, I haven't been able to get to any gardening centers to do my usual shopping, and I didn't think to buy the seed for those plants early enough. Next year.
Foul hellbrew. Hahahaha. Goes well with the kale, though, huh?
Foul hellbrew. Hahahaha. Goes well with the kale, though, huh?
101richardderus
>100 Storeetllr: *shudder* KALE *retch* doesn't go well with anything, not even bile. It is the foulest vegetative matter on the planet, not excepting manchineel, which literally kills you and is therefore more merciful than *cringe* KALE.
102thornton37814
>99 richardderus: There should be no mosquitoes around my garden!
103richardderus
72 A Gazelle Ate My Homework by Habib Fanny
Rating: 4* of five
There are some people who defy the odds. There are a few more people who defy categorization. There are ever more people who defy Authority. (Thank goodness for that, especially at this moment in history.)
But there are not that many who do all three, in a foreign language, while a teenager, in a broken family and without a peer group's support. In fact, here he is: Habib Fanny (pronounced fahNEE), M.D.
A unicorn or a phoenix or both...a person of rare and astounding strength, depths of talent for caring and knack for survival turbocharged by burning in the crucible of adolescence while learning a new culture, and now he is using all his accumulated knowledge and wisdom to help suffering people recover from their ills and ailments.
The rest of my review can be found on my blog: https://tinyurl.com/y8pw8nxx
Rating: 4* of five
There are some people who defy the odds. There are a few more people who defy categorization. There are ever more people who defy Authority. (Thank goodness for that, especially at this moment in history.)
But there are not that many who do all three, in a foreign language, while a teenager, in a broken family and without a peer group's support. In fact, here he is: Habib Fanny (pronounced fahNEE), M.D.
A unicorn or a phoenix or both...a person of rare and astounding strength, depths of talent for caring and knack for survival turbocharged by burning in the crucible of adolescence while learning a new culture, and now he is using all his accumulated knowledge and wisdom to help suffering people recover from their ills and ailments.
The rest of my review can be found on my blog: https://tinyurl.com/y8pw8nxx
104jessibud2
>103 richardderus: - Sounds like such a good read. I actively seek out memoirs or bios such as these, seeking inspiration in times where there seems to be precious little of that out there. I guess it really is out there, though, if one seeks hard enough. Great review, Richard. Maybe my library will have this.
105richardderus
>102 thornton37814: The general tenor of the remark leads me to believe that this is not the case...boo hiss! A bat house is a marvelous addition to the plantings in aid of mosquito reduction.
Happy de-skeetering, Lori.
>104 jessibud2: I surely hope so, Shelley, because it will buoy your spirits for sure.
Happy de-skeetering, Lori.
>104 jessibud2: I surely hope so, Shelley, because it will buoy your spirits for sure.
106humouress
>95 richardderus: I take it my thread falls outside the ambit then? 🧐
>99 richardderus: I’ve tried almost all of those in my garden (except catnip and lemon thyme) for their own sakes but anything with mossie-repellent properties will always find a home with me. Unfortunately the climate did for all of them though I might still have a couple of allium straggling along.
>99 richardderus: I’ve tried almost all of those in my garden (except catnip and lemon thyme) for their own sakes but anything with mossie-repellent properties will always find a home with me. Unfortunately the climate did for all of them though I might still have a couple of allium straggling along.
107LovingLit
>17 richardderus: I did look at the book blog, they were a little older than I had expected, but my rationale remains. One of my years favourite reads (back whenever-ago) was a book published in 1950-somthing. A real surprise. (It was called The Horsemen, I think.)
>99 richardderus: and the plus side with lemongrass is that you can make a smashing tea, and a delicious Thai meal!
>99 richardderus: and the plus side with lemongrass is that you can make a smashing tea, and a delicious Thai meal!
108thornton37814
>105 richardderus: I don't know that I've ever been bit by a "skeeter" in the garden. Of course, I don't spend a lot of time outside when they might be more active. I'm usually with the cats then.
109karenmarie
'Morning, RD!
>105 richardderus: We had a bat house at our previous house but never put one up here. Bill would take Jenna outside at twilight and they'd hang out in the hammock together looking for Mr. Bat.
>105 richardderus: We had a bat house at our previous house but never put one up here. Bill would take Jenna outside at twilight and they'd hang out in the hammock together looking for Mr. Bat.
110msf59
Ooh, I have not been to Kankakee State Park,but I have heard very good things.
Morning, RD. Gorgeous day in Chicagoland. Zero humidity, some sunshine and a refreshing breeze. Team that up, with a couple of good reads and it is shaping up to be a fine work day.
Morning, RD. Gorgeous day in Chicagoland. Zero humidity, some sunshine and a refreshing breeze. Team that up, with a couple of good reads and it is shaping up to be a fine work day.
111richardderus
>106 humouress: Your thread, precious angel Overkill, is by definition outside my control. :-P
Rosemary dies in the tropics?! I thought the only thing that could kill it is bush-hogging its home range. Wow, that climate!
>107 LovingLit: That one's from 1967. It's a pretty fine li'l book, though.
I love lemongrass in chicken broth, too. And in steamed rice. And in banana pudding. It's a scrummy gift from the Mekong all the way round.
>108 thornton37814: NO?! Good lawsy me, I'm jealous. The little beasts adore me. They form clouds as soon as their mommy-senses detect me contemplating going outdoors because I apparently have the perfect blood to feed the eggs.
I hate 'em.
>109 karenmarie: Another bat house seems in order as our warming climate will make the damned skeeters ever more numerous.
*smooch*
>110 msf59: Hey Birddude! I'm glad the crap weather has let up. And it sounds to me like there's a new park to visit in your future.
Read hearty!
Rosemary dies in the tropics?! I thought the only thing that could kill it is bush-hogging its home range. Wow, that climate!
>107 LovingLit: That one's from 1967. It's a pretty fine li'l book, though.
I love lemongrass in chicken broth, too. And in steamed rice. And in banana pudding. It's a scrummy gift from the Mekong all the way round.
>108 thornton37814: NO?! Good lawsy me, I'm jealous. The little beasts adore me. They form clouds as soon as their mommy-senses detect me contemplating going outdoors because I apparently have the perfect blood to feed the eggs.
I hate 'em.
>109 karenmarie: Another bat house seems in order as our warming climate will make the damned skeeters ever more numerous.
*smooch*
>110 msf59: Hey Birddude! I'm glad the crap weather has let up. And it sounds to me like there's a new park to visit in your future.
Read hearty!
113richardderus
>112 katiekrug: There's an anemic breeze, but it's pretty soupy out there and I say "no thanks" so it's me and the a/c today.
114Matke
Re: Mosquito repelling plants: I had a rosemary in Alabackward. I stuck it in the ground by the corner of the front porch; full sun most of the day. Only the most ruthless pruning kept it from growing into an enormous shrub. Maybe I could put one on the porch here, just for the scent and a bit of shade on the window. Hmmm...My lavender, however, sadly gave up the ghost after about a year. I do keep catnip and wheat grass pots on the porch.
Although my porch is fully screened with no rips or tears I have been plagued by invasions of cottony cushion scale and finally conquered it with watered down alcohol, a tiny bit of dish soap, and something else...time to make a new batch, so I guess I’ll have to look up the recipe again.
A marvelous Monday afternoon and evening to you, Sir.
Although my porch is fully screened with no rips or tears I have been plagued by invasions of cottony cushion scale and finally conquered it with watered down alcohol, a tiny bit of dish soap, and something else...time to make a new batch, so I guess I’ll have to look up the recipe again.
A marvelous Monday afternoon and evening to you, Sir.
115richardderus
If you know me at all, you know that I like short stories. Like, a lot. So what's more fitting than a review of the five stories on this year's Caine Prize for African Writing?
Some of the very best writing I've read this year. I loved Chikodili Emelumadu's nominated story, "What to do when your child brings home a Mami Wata", because it reminded me so much of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell in 250,000 fewer words. But they're all excellent, and I hope you'll go look at my appreciations of them.
Some of the very best writing I've read this year. I loved Chikodili Emelumadu's nominated story, "What to do when your child brings home a Mami Wata", because it reminded me so much of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell in 250,000 fewer words. But they're all excellent, and I hope you'll go look at my appreciations of them.
116richardderus
>114 Matke: I love rosemary for its smell and its multiple uses, so I'd encourage you to get one...if you can, do what I did in Austin and get one clipped into a Christmas tree shape! It makes it much easier to keep it trimmed, and supplies endless amounts of sweet-smelling sachet stuffing as well as my own favorite chicken herb.
Lavender in Flahdah? Oh nay nay nay! Way too humid. Root rot city, so I'm more surprised it lasted a whole year.
Old Stepmother Nature laughs at your puny screens....
*smooch*
Lavender in Flahdah? Oh nay nay nay! Way too humid. Root rot city, so I'm more surprised it lasted a whole year.
Old Stepmother Nature laughs at your puny screens....
*smooch*
117mahsdad
>105 richardderus: >108 thornton37814: Hey RD, so sad that the weather and bugs are getting you down. Personally, in my neck of the woods, I'm revelling in June gloom in LA, and the High-60s/Low-70s around here. I know it can't last and 80/90s are on the way. No A/C, just surround myself with fans.
You and Lori's skeeter talk gave me a visceral childhood memory of the classic song (sung to If you're Happy and you know it)... There's a skeeter on my peter, whack it off, there's a skeeter on my peter whack it off. etc. :)
You and Lori's skeeter talk gave me a visceral childhood memory of the classic song (sung to If you're Happy and you know it)... There's a skeeter on my peter, whack it off, there's a skeeter on my peter whack it off. etc. :)
118quondame
>117 mahsdad: I'm a major June gloom fan myself, but it's a bit bright up here 5+miles inland. Still it hasn't rewarmed to previous highs, so that's good. Though it will. Wasn't it a couple of summers ago June gloom lasted into August?
119mahsdad
>118 quondame: My house faces pretty much directly East so I love haze in the morning to keep the blasting sun out of my eyelids. Susan, I'm not sure I knew, or if I did my addled brain has forgotten, whereabouts are you? 5 miles inland could be a lot of different places. :)
120quondame
>119 mahsdad: The 5 miles is pretty much straight along the 10 freeway. I'm on the east ridge of the first hill east of the 405.
121mahsdad
>120 quondame: Very cool. Nice to know there's some LT'er's relatively close
122karenmarie
'Morning, RDear. Happy Wednesday to you.
*smooch* from your own Horrible
*smooch* from your own Horrible
123richardderus
>117 mahsdad: Oh well, it's just the world being the world. I'm only living in it.
In northern Cali, where I spent my infancy/toddlerhood/kindergarten years, it was August in SFO that was gloomy and cold and really quite awful.
>118 quondame:, >119 mahsdad:, >120 quondame:, >121 mahsdad: Inland five miles is often not at all like the shore. I live literally steps away from the beach, and when I walk 5 blocks inland to the store, the temp rises at least 3° and as much as 5°. When I lived in Hempstead (about 4mi), it was *always* 5-7° warmer in every season.
>122 karenmarie: *smooch* Happy Humpday! I hope it's just *corking* fun!
In northern Cali, where I spent my infancy/toddlerhood/kindergarten years, it was August in SFO that was gloomy and cold and really quite awful.
>118 quondame:, >119 mahsdad:, >120 quondame:, >121 mahsdad: Inland five miles is often not at all like the shore. I live literally steps away from the beach, and when I walk 5 blocks inland to the store, the temp rises at least 3° and as much as 5°. When I lived in Hempstead (about 4mi), it was *always* 5-7° warmer in every season.
>122 karenmarie: *smooch* Happy Humpday! I hope it's just *corking* fun!
124katiekrug
Good noon to you, RD!
Do you have Hulu? The Wayne and I are enjoying 'Taste the Nation' with Padma Lakshmi - we binge 4 episodes last night (they are only 30 minutes...).
Do you have Hulu? The Wayne and I are enjoying 'Taste the Nation' with Padma Lakshmi - we binge 4 episodes last night (they are only 30 minutes...).
125humouress
>111 richardderus: Mmhmm.
I won't stand too close to you if you're a mosquito magnet then; they're too likely to migrate over to me (higher sugar content).
I won't stand too close to you if you're a mosquito magnet then; they're too likely to migrate over to me (higher sugar content).
126richardderus
>124 katiekrug: Hey Katie, I'm Hululess again (ran out of freebie time) but I'll put it on my endless "I need accomplishment" watchlist. (Cooking/baking give me a real sense of accomplishment, so watching them is vicarious accomplishment...? Satisfying, anyway.)
>125 humouress: Assuming anyone ever travels again, that is.
*sigh*
>125 humouress: Assuming anyone ever travels again, that is.
*sigh*
127quondame
>126 richardderus: Yes, it is often several degrees cooler when I get to Santa Monica to pick up library books or Italian deli delights, but even several hills inland the gloom is still strong, though less likely to be a sustained traffic hazard. Going over the pass to the north, the temperature often rises 10℉ or more. I think our hill, being the highest point for quite a few miles east in a direct line catches a bit more of the cool than is available 30'-40' lower. To the south there are other hills and of course north a ways is nothing but.
128richardderus
>127 quondame: It's a weird and wonderful thing to have mountains, foothills, valleys, and plains smack up against the ocean!
*smooch*
*smooch*
129humouress
It's a weird and wonderful thing to have mountains, foothills, valleys, and plains - in Singapore they flattened the hills to fill in the swamps, apparently.
130richardderus
>129 humouress: Can you even imagine the city with them intact?! It wouldn't work too well.
131karenmarie
Happy Thursday, RD! I hope you're having a good one.
I'm really discombobulated this week although I've been checking things off the list. All I want to do is read...
I'm really discombobulated this week although I've been checking things off the list. All I want to do is read...
132Oberon
>103 richardderus: Great review Richard. Thanks for pointing that one out to me.
133humouress
>130 richardderus: It’s like trying to imagine Manhattan not battened down by tarmac and concrete. Old maps show that it was farmland in the days of the Dutch. The mind boggles.
134richardderus
>131 karenmarie: Thanks, Horrible, let's hope it gets better.
>132 Oberon: So glad you found it! I hope you'll enjoy reading it if/when you have the chance.
>133 humouress: Where the Library is now? Several million gallons of water in The Reservoir.
*boggleboggle*
>132 Oberon: So glad you found it! I hope you'll enjoy reading it if/when you have the chance.
>133 humouress: Where the Library is now? Several million gallons of water in The Reservoir.
*boggleboggle*
135msf59
Sweet Thursday, RD! ^This is my resident female hummingbird. I am hoping to get a snapshot of her boyfriend though, so I can show off that glorious ruby-throat. He is wily, though.
I had a fine day off. All 3 Bs keeping me satisfied.
136richardderus
>135 msf59: Yeah, she is sorta the Studebaker Scotsman of the bird world...but maybe she'll lure in the Golden Hawk after all!
I'm glad the 3Bs kept you from running the streets!
I'm glad the 3Bs kept you from running the streets!
137weird_O
>130 richardderus: >133 humouress: Correct me if I'm mistaken, but doesn't San Francisco have a hill or two? I can vouch for a number of Pennsylvania cities and towns blessed with hills and valleys: Pittsburgh. Reading. Allentown, Bethlehem, and Easton. Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. Can't imagine these cities on flat terrain.
138quondame
>137 weird_O: It's not the hills, it's the swamp. And since NJ stole all PA's coast, ocean isn't any option.
139karenmarie
Good morning, RD, and happy Friday to you!
140richardderus
>137 weird_O:, >138 quondame: It's the Tar Pits, surely.
>139 karenmarie: Hey Horrible! birthday *smooches*
>139 karenmarie: Hey Horrible! birthday *smooches*
141karenmarie
Thank you, RD. *smooches* back'atcha.
142lkernagh
>99 richardderus: - This is very useful! I am hoping the other half will be finished with his use of our limited outdoor space (a balcony) so that I can get my plants going again. Thankfully, we have a rather long growing season here. The only thing I have not grown before is garlic (or catnip - no need for it).
Wishing you a wonderful weekend, RD.
Wishing you a wonderful weekend, RD.
143quondame
>140 richardderus: Oh yes, we have our swamp too! Mostly, but for the tar pits and immediate surrounds, drained & paved, but the slow descent from downtown along Olympic is quite visible, bottoming at La Cienaga Blvd, and the gradually rising toward west LA. The wetlands also, north of LAX and south of Venice, have been covered with an incrustation of multiple story apartment buildings of no distinction whatsoever, leaving just a sliver between the ocean and it's inevitable post-apocalyptic shoals.
144richardderus
>141 karenmarie: :-)
>142 lkernagh: Thank you, Lori, and I wish you the same. I hope it's a wonderful few days of good reading and perfect weather.
>143 quondame: My father's parents lived on Moore Avenue in Venice until the late 1980s. I went there often enough to remember the "apartment buildings of no distinction whatsoever" making the whole family fulminate against the developers...and they were all developers!
>142 lkernagh: Thank you, Lori, and I wish you the same. I hope it's a wonderful few days of good reading and perfect weather.
>143 quondame: My father's parents lived on Moore Avenue in Venice until the late 1980s. I went there often enough to remember the "apartment buildings of no distinction whatsoever" making the whole family fulminate against the developers...and they were all developers!
145quondame
>144 richardderus: Wait, what, the ones I'm thinking of in Playa Vista are less than 20yrs old. Not that the lack of distinction is new, cause it's pretty well encrusted the entire south land where it's anywhere close to level, and scaled the heights on landfill. The new ones are far from the ugliest we've achieved, but I like to imagine them submerged to the upper stories inhabited by gondola wielding waifs.
147richardderus
>145 quondame: I can't tell these ones from those ones. They all look like functional yuppie hutches.
>146 bell7: Thanks, Mary! May all your wishes come true.
>146 bell7: Thanks, Mary! May all your wishes come true.
149richardderus
>148 quondame: Actively ugly. I agree with their rearrangement of "Capri". Which, if we're paying attention, actually *means* "Goats."
150karenmarie
'Morning, RD!
I grew up in suburbia - tract housing in Hawthorne CA. I never even knew anybody who lived in an apartment until about 1965, and I remember being shocked at someone who didn't live in a house.
I grew up in suburbia - tract housing in Hawthorne CA. I never even knew anybody who lived in an apartment until about 1965, and I remember being shocked at someone who didn't live in a house.
151richardderus
>150 karenmarie: I first lived in an apartment in 1969, and thought it was the bee's knees. So much easier to find playmates! So happily free of yard work! Bliss.
And here I am in the epicenter of apartment-dwelling, not by accident.
And here I am in the epicenter of apartment-dwelling, not by accident.
152quondame
>150 karenmarie: On the military base where I grew up, there were plenty of houses, but also barracks which were across from the shopping area and along the main street there were series of courts of small 1 story apartments. One of the women who would occasionally baby sit us had one of those small spaces. Housing was strictly by job&family size, so if you were single with a decent income it was very tempting to live off base, but very economical to live on base. That all ended a decade or so after I left, at least for the civilians.
>151 richardderus: We have lawn guys. I've always liked living in a house, but in the big city, where it is every so rare that someone thinks they know who you are.
>151 richardderus: We have lawn guys. I've always liked living in a house, but in the big city, where it is every so rare that someone thinks they know who you are.
153richardderus
73 The Devil in America by Kai Ashante Wilson
Rating: 5* of five
Never again...this time
Or next time...maybe the one after that.
But no, there's always a next time and never a never again. We don't learn because it wouldn't be near as much fun if we couldn't kill an anymore.
So Humanity goes on its violent, vile way, down and down.
The whole review is here: https://tinyurl.com/ycgpdmpf
Rating: 5* of five
Never again...this time
Or next time...maybe the one after that.
But no, there's always a next time and never a never again. We don't learn because it wouldn't be near as much fun if we couldn't kill an anymore.
So Humanity goes on its violent, vile way, down and down.
The whole review is here: https://tinyurl.com/ycgpdmpf
154SandyAMcPherson
Just dropping by to see that you are okay. And to let you know I'm *trying* to at least skim the swiftly-filling threads.
Doing a lot of reading ~ I have fallen into the St. Cyr rabbit hole!
Doing a lot of reading ~ I have fallen into the St. Cyr rabbit hole!
155richardderus
>154 SandyAMcPherson: I'm still roamin' the streets, so lock your (grand)sons up. *smooch*
Yay for Sebastian! I'm not always happy with what she chooses to talk about but no denying she can write.
Yay for Sebastian! I'm not always happy with what she chooses to talk about but no denying she can write.
156figsfromthistle
Happy Sunday, Richard!
I remember living in a dumpy apartment when I first moved out. I also thought it was the best place in the world. Funny how we see things differently in our youth.
I remember living in a dumpy apartment when I first moved out. I also thought it was the best place in the world. Funny how we see things differently in our youth.
157richardderus
From The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google by Scott Galloway:
You GO, Brother Scott!
What’s clear is that we need business leaders who envision, and enact, a future with more jobs—not billionaires who want the government to fund, with taxes they avoid, social programs for people to sit on their couches and watch Netflix all day. Jeff, show some real fucking vision. (p59)
You GO, Brother Scott!
158richardderus
>156 figsfromthistle: Hi Anita! Dumpy but mine>fancy but not. This scales as our relative affluence increases.
Happy Sunday!
Happy Sunday!
159humouress
>151 richardderus: My dad's like you and has had a yen for living in an apartment for years now, which I always thought was weird. He'd come to Singapore and start talking about moving into an apartment. Well, a year or so ago, my parents moved into an apartment. (Meanwhile, I've been in my house for more than ten years.) So we should both be happy. But then, my dad's a 'grass is greener on the other side' kind of guy; let's see how long it lasts.
160richardderus
>159 humouress: What I can't understand is why anyone with a job wants a house. Speaking from lots of experience, houses are full-time jobs. Yard work. Maintenance work. Disaster prevention and/or relief. Feeding inhabitants. Decor, painting, upgrading infrastructure.
There's a reason people who had houses also had housekeepers back in the day; yet another kind of scut-work loaded on Mom when appliances "did the work" for her. ::eyeroll::
There's a reason people who had houses also had housekeepers back in the day; yet another kind of scut-work loaded on Mom when appliances "did the work" for her. ::eyeroll::
161richardderus
74 The Brightest Place in the World by David Philip Mullins
Rating: 4.5* of five
The Publisher Says: Inspired by true events, The Brightest Place in the World traces the lives of four characters haunted by an industrial disaster. On an ordinary sunny morning in 2012, a series of explosions level a chemical plant on the outskirts of Las Vegas. The shock waves are felt as far away as Fremont Street. Homes and businesses suffer broken windows and caved-in roofs. Hundreds are injured, and eight employees of the plant are unaccounted for, presumed dead.
One of the missing is maintenance technician Andrew Huntley, a husband and father who is an orbital force in the novel as those who loved him grapple with his loss. Andrew’s best friend, Russell Martin—an anxiety-plagued bartender who calms his nerves with a steady inflow of weed—misses him more than he might a brother. Meanwhile Emma, Russell’s wife—a blackjack dealer at a downtown casino—tries to keep her years-long affair with Andrew hidden. Simon Addison, a manager at the plant who could have saved Andrew’s life, is afflicted by daily remorse, combined with a debilitating knowledge of his own cowardice. And then there’s Maddie, Andrew’s only child, a model high-school student whose response to the tragedy is to experiment with shoplifting and other deviant behavior.
Against the sordid backdrop of Las Vegas—and inspired by the PEPCON disaster of May 4, 1988—this engaging novel is a story of grief and regret, disloyalty and atonement, infatuation and love.
THE PUBLISHER PROVIDED ME WITH A DRC AT MY REQUEST. THANK YOU.
My Review: When disaster occurs, sudden and unexpected and yet limited in scope, all those caught in its extent are changed. Almost all of us has had this experience. As one ages, it's a given that it's occurred more than once...and it never, ever gets easier or routinized. The emotional toll is different each time, and there are certain practical responses that kick in with habituation (eg, people always gotta eat, so bring a casserole). But the effect is always profound, transformative, and painful. (I've spoken to many people who've had happy calamities, eg childbirth, express surprise at how much it hurts to alter one's life, habits, friend-circle.)
One fine day, Las Vegas, Nevada, is the epicenter of a small seismic event. There are seismometers that record the Richter-scale measurement (for us oldsters; younger folk will call it the moment magnitude measurement abbreviated Mw); but it takes a novelist to record the magnitude of the moments after the event. Author David Philip Mullins, associate professor of English at Omaha's Jesuit institution Creighton University, took that on and has done a fine job of showing how a deadly explosion cracks much more than land and buildings.
Too long to post here, so see the rest at my blog.
Rating: 4.5* of five
The Publisher Says: Inspired by true events, The Brightest Place in the World traces the lives of four characters haunted by an industrial disaster. On an ordinary sunny morning in 2012, a series of explosions level a chemical plant on the outskirts of Las Vegas. The shock waves are felt as far away as Fremont Street. Homes and businesses suffer broken windows and caved-in roofs. Hundreds are injured, and eight employees of the plant are unaccounted for, presumed dead.
One of the missing is maintenance technician Andrew Huntley, a husband and father who is an orbital force in the novel as those who loved him grapple with his loss. Andrew’s best friend, Russell Martin—an anxiety-plagued bartender who calms his nerves with a steady inflow of weed—misses him more than he might a brother. Meanwhile Emma, Russell’s wife—a blackjack dealer at a downtown casino—tries to keep her years-long affair with Andrew hidden. Simon Addison, a manager at the plant who could have saved Andrew’s life, is afflicted by daily remorse, combined with a debilitating knowledge of his own cowardice. And then there’s Maddie, Andrew’s only child, a model high-school student whose response to the tragedy is to experiment with shoplifting and other deviant behavior.
Against the sordid backdrop of Las Vegas—and inspired by the PEPCON disaster of May 4, 1988—this engaging novel is a story of grief and regret, disloyalty and atonement, infatuation and love.
THE PUBLISHER PROVIDED ME WITH A DRC AT MY REQUEST. THANK YOU.
My Review: When disaster occurs, sudden and unexpected and yet limited in scope, all those caught in its extent are changed. Almost all of us has had this experience. As one ages, it's a given that it's occurred more than once...and it never, ever gets easier or routinized. The emotional toll is different each time, and there are certain practical responses that kick in with habituation (eg, people always gotta eat, so bring a casserole). But the effect is always profound, transformative, and painful. (I've spoken to many people who've had happy calamities, eg childbirth, express surprise at how much it hurts to alter one's life, habits, friend-circle.)
One fine day, Las Vegas, Nevada, is the epicenter of a small seismic event. There are seismometers that record the Richter-scale measurement (for us oldsters; younger folk will call it the moment magnitude measurement abbreviated Mw); but it takes a novelist to record the magnitude of the moments after the event. Author David Philip Mullins, associate professor of English at Omaha's Jesuit institution Creighton University, took that on and has done a fine job of showing how a deadly explosion cracks much more than land and buildings.
Too long to post here, so see the rest at my blog.
162quondame
>160 richardderus: Houses in truly temperate climates aren't quite such a burden unless you want them to be. Although I seldom venture out, my comfy chair sits beside the French doors to my backyard and my wee dog wanders in and out. Life is good except Thursday AM with noisy gardeners. In apartments there are upstairs neighbors with lead feet and dogs that are all toenails.
163drneutron
>160 richardderus: Well, I actually enjoy a bit of yard work, plus my house is on three acres where we get lots of peace and quiet and space. I’ve often thought, though, that if something were to happen to mrsdrneutron, I’d move into DC somewhere in an apartment for a change of pace.
164richardderus
>162 quondame: I always live on the top floor, or in a townhouse to prevent such nightmares.
>163 drneutron: Three acres is the place to be
in the car livin' is the life for me
lawn mowers makin' stripes so wide
Keep Ol' Georgetown just gimme that exurban life
>163 drneutron: Three acres is the place to be
in the car livin' is the life for me
lawn mowers makin' stripes so wide
Keep Ol' Georgetown just gimme that exurban life
166jnwelch
Hey, brother.
Thanks for the info on Irene Shubik and Out of this World and Out of the Unknown. I knew nada about all three. I'm not sure how many of the episodes survived - have you ever watched any of them?
I'm enjoying very much Blanche on the Lam. Thanks for the tip!
Thanks for the info on Irene Shubik and Out of this World and Out of the Unknown. I knew nada about all three. I'm not sure how many of the episodes survived - have you ever watched any of them?
I'm enjoying very much Blanche on the Lam. Thanks for the tip!
167msf59
>161 richardderus: Great review of The Brightest Place! I have added to my list.
Happy Sunday, Richard. I hope you had a good weekend. Back to the grind tomorrow but it will be a short work week.
Happy Sunday, Richard. I hope you had a good weekend. Back to the grind tomorrow but it will be a short work week.
168humouress
>160 richardderus: Inhabitants in my house are old enough to feed themselves (but not, apparently, to clean up afterwards). I need some outdoors or I feel trapped.
169richardderus
>167 msf59: Thanks, Mark! It's a really involving story.
Have a great short week ahead.
>168 humouress: I think the beach suits my outdoors needs and as for cleaning up, the heavy stuff like floors and scrubbing the shower and laundry are done for me.
It makes my inability to perform the tasks so much less confining.
Have a great short week ahead.
>168 humouress: I think the beach suits my outdoors needs and as for cleaning up, the heavy stuff like floors and scrubbing the shower and laundry are done for me.
It makes my inability to perform the tasks so much less confining.
170karenmarie
‘Morning, RD, and happy Monday to you.
>157 richardderus: I am happy to see so many companies boycotting FB and other social media players. $$ is the only thing that may get their attention.
The biggest thing preventing me from downsizing is that I'd need enough space for probably 80% of my almost 5000 books - I really need to cull some of the romances I'll never re-read and cull some books I've simply outgrown and that Jenna will never want. Sigh.
Housework and yardwork are like getting your nails done - as soon as it/they look perfect, the countdown begins on things growing, things breaking, things needing to get done again. It is always something, and both Bill and I are now a combination of lazy and less capable than when we were younger. But we haven't decided to pull the plug yet.
>157 richardderus: I am happy to see so many companies boycotting FB and other social media players. $$ is the only thing that may get their attention.
The biggest thing preventing me from downsizing is that I'd need enough space for probably 80% of my almost 5000 books - I really need to cull some of the romances I'll never re-read and cull some books I've simply outgrown and that Jenna will never want. Sigh.
Housework and yardwork are like getting your nails done - as soon as it/they look perfect, the countdown begins on things growing, things breaking, things needing to get done again. It is always something, and both Bill and I are now a combination of lazy and less capable than when we were younger. But we haven't decided to pull the plug yet.
171richardderus
>170 karenmarie: I got there in my 40s, so it's clearly an individual mandate.
The problem with the biggies boycotting FB is that they represent a minuscule 6% of the ad revenue. The bulk of it is from small advertisers...people with a book to sell, f/ex. They look virtuous...Zuck doesn't even shift in his chair.
I don't support breaking up the company, but regulating it tightly and taxing it heavily. Don't want a lot of little zuckers running around like roaches when you turn on the light. Better to have one big, nasty, evil, soulless target that's always visible.
The problem with the biggies boycotting FB is that they represent a minuscule 6% of the ad revenue. The bulk of it is from small advertisers...people with a book to sell, f/ex. They look virtuous...Zuck doesn't even shift in his chair.
I don't support breaking up the company, but regulating it tightly and taxing it heavily. Don't want a lot of little zuckers running around like roaches when you turn on the light. Better to have one big, nasty, evil, soulless target that's always visible.
172jessibud2
>164 richardderus: - ROFLMAO! I can hear you singing, Richard!
173katiekrug
>160 richardderus: - Having a house during lockdown made me appreciate having a house :) Lots of space for us to get alone time when necessary, and to occupy ourselves with various things the other isn't particularly interested in. I was very glad not to still be in the rented duplex, sharing a wall with another family.
Happy new week!
Happy new week!
174richardderus
>166 jnwelch: How did I miss you up there, Joe?! I'm so sorry!
I've watched a few of the SF anthology episodes via, umm, well let's leave it as I have indeed watched a few and they're the usual 1960s British TV SF. Long on acting short on budget. I quite simply adored "Liar!" which is about a robot whose positronic AI renders him able to read human beings' thoughts. He therefore interprets the First Law of Robotics (about not harming or allowing people to come to harm), shall we say, uniquely: he won't do or say anything, or allow anything to be done or said, to hurt their feelings!
Hijinks, need I say, ensue; as a result he is entrusted to a human psychiatrist for therapy.
Deep. Good. It's based on an Asimov story of the same title.
>172 jessibud2: Blessèdly you can't really, Shelley, because it's not a pleasant sound. My throat's clogged up always these days.
>173 katiekrug: Noise-canceling headphones FTW!
*smooch*
I've watched a few of the SF anthology episodes via, umm, well let's leave it as I have indeed watched a few and they're the usual 1960s British TV SF. Long on acting short on budget. I quite simply adored "Liar!" which is about a robot whose positronic AI renders him able to read human beings' thoughts. He therefore interprets the First Law of Robotics (about not harming or allowing people to come to harm), shall we say, uniquely: he won't do or say anything, or allow anything to be done or said, to hurt their feelings!
Hijinks, need I say, ensue; as a result he is entrusted to a human psychiatrist for therapy.
Deep. Good. It's based on an Asimov story of the same title.
>172 jessibud2: Blessèdly you can't really, Shelley, because it's not a pleasant sound. My throat's clogged up always these days.
>173 katiekrug: Noise-canceling headphones FTW!
*smooch*
175magicians_nephew
>133 humouress: Large chunks of Manhattan Island were farmland into the 1880's.
Have a look at Time And Again if you haven't already
Have a look at Time And Again if you haven't already
176BekkaJo
Just a check in, hope the hands aren't too bad, I'm too behind to catch up properly, *smoochies*
177karenmarie
'Morning, RD, and happy Tuesday to you.
Today is my last day as FoL Treasurer, yay. Of course tomorrow is my first day as FoL President and I don' tknow what I was thinking of when I said I'd do it for a year. Pandemic President. Sigh.
*smooch* from your own Horrible
Today is my last day as FoL Treasurer, yay. Of course tomorrow is my first day as FoL President and I don' tknow what I was thinking of when I said I'd do it for a year. Pandemic President. Sigh.
*smooch* from your own Horrible
178richardderus
>176 BekkaJo: Hi Bekka! Thanks for the smoochies.
>177 karenmarie: I wondered about that, but it's your best way of staying in touch with the Cause so it's worth it.
>177 karenmarie: I wondered about that, but it's your best way of staying in touch with the Cause so it's worth it.
180richardderus
>179 katiekrug: Hiya Katie! End of Q2 achievement: unlocked. The world hasn't exploded even though it's ended. Let's call it a win, shall we?
181katiekrug
>180 richardderus: - We shall! And this morning I finished my 75th book of the year, right at the halfway mark. This pandemic is great for my reading :-P
182richardderus
>181 katiekrug: I did too! I finished You Exist Too Much this morning at 3! It's a good read, as I've told you before, and it even sticks the ending. Amazing, that.
183msf59
Happy Tuesday, Richard. I hope your week is off to a fine start. HOT as hell, in Chicagoland!
185richardderus
>183 msf59: It'll do, thanks for asking. I need to find a dentist who accepts Medicaid patients before a crisis erupts. But the books doin' just fine by me.
>184 katiekrug: A nice cava?
>184 katiekrug: A nice cava?
186richardderus
75 You Exist Too Much by Zaina Arafat
Rating: 5* of five
I'll come back with the review after it's out on my blog tomorrow. But in a word: WOW
***
So, okay. Book review of YOU EXIST TOO MUCH is up on my blog. It's too long to fit here. Suffice to say that a 30-something bisexual Palestinian-American woman tells me my life in beautiful, painfully honest sentences. I read this book twice and that is (as y'all're aware) an increasingly rare occurrence for me, at my age and with my TBR approaching mid-four figures. The reason I decided that I needed a second trip through the book was simple: I was so completely shattered by the honest and vulnerable story Author Arafat tells, a story that could with only minor tweaks be my own, that I didn't trust my opinion-forming ability. I was too close, too in the moment, to feel remotely analytical.
I was powerfully moved by this read. I identified with this young woman's pathology and her ancestry, although I'm not ethnically Arab or Palestinian or anything else the US looks down on. I totally understand misgendering and omitting details about one's significant others. Being situationally out, being "reserved" (the polite self-lie for "closeted"), being unable to see past the mountain of unworthy feelings that we stand under, behind, below.
I want y'all to read it. Like, a lot.
Rating: 5* of five
I'll come back with the review after it's out on my blog tomorrow. But in a word: WOW
***
So, okay. Book review of YOU EXIST TOO MUCH is up on my blog. It's too long to fit here. Suffice to say that a 30-something bisexual Palestinian-American woman tells me my life in beautiful, painfully honest sentences. I read this book twice and that is (as y'all're aware) an increasingly rare occurrence for me, at my age and with my TBR approaching mid-four figures. The reason I decided that I needed a second trip through the book was simple: I was so completely shattered by the honest and vulnerable story Author Arafat tells, a story that could with only minor tweaks be my own, that I didn't trust my opinion-forming ability. I was too close, too in the moment, to feel remotely analytical.
I was powerfully moved by this read. I identified with this young woman's pathology and her ancestry, although I'm not ethnically Arab or Palestinian or anything else the US looks down on. I totally understand misgendering and omitting details about one's significant others. Being situationally out, being "reserved" (the polite self-lie for "closeted"), being unable to see past the mountain of unworthy feelings that we stand under, behind, below.
I want y'all to read it. Like, a lot.
187figsfromthistle
Congrats on reading 75 books!!
188richardderus
>187 figsfromthistle: Thank you, Anita!
190FAMeulstee
Congratulations on reaching 75 with a 5* read, Richard!
192PaulCranswick
Also chiming in with congratulations RD in reaching 75 books with half a year left.
194SilverWolf28
Congrats on reaching 75!!
195richardderus
Thanks, all! It will be a less-than-I-hoped for year, but at least my reading has been of consistent good quality.
Susan, Anita, Lori, PC, Shelley, and person I don't know are all very kind to stop in and offer congratulations.
Susan, Anita, Lori, PC, Shelley, and person I don't know are all very kind to stop in and offer congratulations.
196ronincats
Yay, Richard! Congrats on 75. I don't know SilverWolf either but s/he has been participating in the Sector General reads so has been around this month!
197humouress
>186 richardderus: >181 katiekrug: Congratulations on 75!
>169 richardderus: Beach? Now you're just showing off.
>175 magicians_nephew: Thanks for the tip; I'll have a look. I like looking at 'before and after' pictures.
>169 richardderus: Beach? Now you're just showing off.
>175 magicians_nephew: Thanks for the tip; I'll have a look. I like looking at 'before and after' pictures.
198richardderus
>196 ronincats: Thanks, Roni! I should stop by the group read, I guess.
>197 humouress: Moi? Joué l'arriviste? Mais non!
*le smooch*
>197 humouress: Moi? Joué l'arriviste? Mais non!
*le smooch*
200humouress
>198 richardderus: Ooh la la! *le blush*
201richardderus
>199 quondame: It's *stunning* but I don't imagine anyone would particularly want to eat it. All that fondant...
>200 humouress: Heh.
>200 humouress: Heh.
202Matke
Just checking in after a few days off. Congratulations on reaching 75!
I hope the third quarter of this eternal year turns out to be better than the first two. For all of us. My state seems to be exploding with the virus. However, onward we go.
A sweet Wednesday to you, Richard.
I hope the third quarter of this eternal year turns out to be better than the first two. For all of us. My state seems to be exploding with the virus. However, onward we go.
A sweet Wednesday to you, Richard.
203karenmarie
'Morning, RD! I hope you are doing okay this morning, having read about your last-night teeth pain on my thread this a.m. *smooches*
>199 quondame: I thought the same about the fondant, RD - evil nasty stuff, even homemade. I took cake decorating when Jenna was a mere infink, loved it, made beautiful cakes, but hated the 2 lessons on fondant and hated working with it.
>199 quondame: I thought the same about the fondant, RD - evil nasty stuff, even homemade. I took cake decorating when Jenna was a mere infink, loved it, made beautiful cakes, but hated the 2 lessons on fondant and hated working with it.
204jnwelch
Happy Hump Day, Richard.
>174 richardderus: I can't believe you realized you'd missed me. With the posts flying, I just thought "oh well". "Liar" sounds really good. I may try to find the Asimov story.
I'm nearing the end of Blanche on the Lam.I hope she nails that bastard Everett. What a great character she is.
Are you a William Gibson, the sci-fi-er, fan? I've got every one of his, and just started the new one, Agency.
>174 richardderus: I can't believe you realized you'd missed me. With the posts flying, I just thought "oh well". "Liar" sounds really good. I may try to find the Asimov story.
I'm nearing the end of Blanche on the Lam.
Are you a William Gibson, the sci-fi-er, fan? I've got every one of his, and just started the new one, Agency.
205richardderus
2Q20. Forty-five books read this quarter; I started and finished with five-star reads, lucky me! Sharks in the Time of Saviors was a beautifully made Hawai'ian family Bildungsroman. (Can one have a group Bildungsroman? it's not a family saga but a map of the coming-to-consciousness of a family...well, debate as you will, Imma call it that.) A great way to start the new quarter, with a new author's first book that belted the ball out of the park.
The end-of-quarter delight is You Exist Too Much, the fumbling attempts of a queer Palestinian woman to fix the damage done by a borderline-personality-disordered mother and an ineffectual, uninterested father. Like I could relate much? So much of the story felt like me wandering destructively through my 20s and 30s that the next events felt foreseen, if not predictable.
This quarter also brought my dote, Murderbot, in its first-ever full novel appearance. Oh Murderbot *swoon* you're so dreamy
Anyway, Murderbot did not disappoint (as if!) and Author Martha Wells maintains her standing as my go-to AI-story spinner of webs.
Author Kai Ashante Wilson wrote The Devil in America six years ago, but I just got around to reading it. I loved the bitter tang of the story's search for escape from a curse. It's inevitable that the search ended in defeat because curse. I find the curse-breaking triumphalist fiction so very prevalent today savorless and silly and really quite dangerous. But anyway, Author Wilson (A Taste of Honey, The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps) earns my approbation by placing Black queerness at the heart of his fiction. His is a point of view we need to see more of to break free from the curse (!) of Othering in ficiton.
And a different five stars entirely for the coda of a series set in 19th-century London and Scotland, The Bequest: David and Murdo's Epilogue. It's a short piece that ties a neat little bow on the fanny (US sense) of three historical novels featuring lawyer David and aristocrat Murdo as they negotiate the pitfalls of queer love in their world. It's not a recommended-read-now five because it will make no sense whatever if one hasn't read the previous three books. Squeamish straight people should not attempt to summit this mountain, there is significant steamy sex and y'all pretty much lose y'all's shit when gay sex is presented at anything like the frequency or graphicness of straight sex.
Plenty of four-and-a-half star reads and four-star reads.
And the heinous ones. Oh my. The Fear Hunter was severely mistitled. Elise Sax wrote a forgettable and pretty pointless rom-com with a few gestures towards mystery. AWFUL. Penny Serenade barely lifted its dreary stringy mop of dirt-colored hair off that book's place on the basement floor because a film was made of it that was at least pretty to look at. The story was not good reading. I suspect I wasn't in the mood for The Code Book so I won't excoriate it for having AN ENTIRE PAGE OF NUMERALS in a comma-separated-value list. I was recovering from my mild dose of COVID-19 so I'll assume it was me being fussy not the author being a complete putz.
And that, my olds, is a very good quarter's reading.
The end-of-quarter delight is You Exist Too Much, the fumbling attempts of a queer Palestinian woman to fix the damage done by a borderline-personality-disordered mother and an ineffectual, uninterested father. Like I could relate much? So much of the story felt like me wandering destructively through my 20s and 30s that the next events felt foreseen, if not predictable.
This quarter also brought my dote, Murderbot, in its first-ever full novel appearance. Oh Murderbot *swoon* you're so dreamy
Anyway, Murderbot did not disappoint (as if!) and Author Martha Wells maintains her standing as my go-to AI-story spinner of webs.
Author Kai Ashante Wilson wrote The Devil in America six years ago, but I just got around to reading it. I loved the bitter tang of the story's search for escape from a curse. It's inevitable that the search ended in defeat because curse. I find the curse-breaking triumphalist fiction so very prevalent today savorless and silly and really quite dangerous. But anyway, Author Wilson (A Taste of Honey, The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps) earns my approbation by placing Black queerness at the heart of his fiction. His is a point of view we need to see more of to break free from the curse (!) of Othering in ficiton.
And a different five stars entirely for the coda of a series set in 19th-century London and Scotland, The Bequest: David and Murdo's Epilogue. It's a short piece that ties a neat little bow on the fanny (US sense) of three historical novels featuring lawyer David and aristocrat Murdo as they negotiate the pitfalls of queer love in their world. It's not a recommended-read-now five because it will make no sense whatever if one hasn't read the previous three books. Squeamish straight people should not attempt to summit this mountain, there is significant steamy sex and y'all pretty much lose y'all's shit when gay sex is presented at anything like the frequency or graphicness of straight sex.
Plenty of four-and-a-half star reads and four-star reads.
And the heinous ones. Oh my. The Fear Hunter was severely mistitled. Elise Sax wrote a forgettable and pretty pointless rom-com with a few gestures towards mystery. AWFUL. Penny Serenade barely lifted its dreary stringy mop of dirt-colored hair off that book's place on the basement floor because a film was made of it that was at least pretty to look at. The story was not good reading. I suspect I wasn't in the mood for The Code Book so I won't excoriate it for having AN ENTIRE PAGE OF NUMERALS in a comma-separated-value list. I was recovering from my mild dose of COVID-19 so I'll assume it was me being fussy not the author being a complete putz.
And that, my olds, is a very good quarter's reading.
206richardderus
>202 Matke: Thank you, Gail! I'm happy that Q2 was so good for reading, but basically it feels like we should be entering Warren's presidential re-election year by now.
A Wednesday to remember to you as well, my dear lady.
>203 karenmarie: Hey Horrible. Fondant is The Devil's Own, indeed, and should be peeled off your slice of cake for discarding. When I saw Nadiya Hussein making perfect fondant from melted marshmallows and powdered sugar, I remembered why I hate it.
Dentists are reluctant to treat ppl w/o a recent COVID-19 test so I had one this morning. About a week and I'll have current results, or if the pain goes from OW to *sobwailmoan* I'll go to the ER. I can still chew (carefully) but brushing is complicated.
>204 jnwelch: Joseph! As though I would slight you. Never happen.
Re spoiler, YES
I'm not hugely Gibsonian, no, but I have always said his were the books I expected to live in...sadly, it's turned out to be Altered Carbon.
A Wednesday to remember to you as well, my dear lady.
>203 karenmarie: Hey Horrible. Fondant is The Devil's Own, indeed, and should be peeled off your slice of cake for discarding. When I saw Nadiya Hussein making perfect fondant from melted marshmallows and powdered sugar, I remembered why I hate it.
Dentists are reluctant to treat ppl w/o a recent COVID-19 test so I had one this morning. About a week and I'll have current results, or if the pain goes from OW to *sobwailmoan* I'll go to the ER. I can still chew (carefully) but brushing is complicated.
>204 jnwelch: Joseph! As though I would slight you. Never happen.
Re spoiler, YES
I'm not hugely Gibsonian, no, but I have always said his were the books I expected to live in...sadly, it's turned out to be Altered Carbon.
207richardderus
>202 Matke: Thank you, Gail! Why, please, isn't this President Warren's re-election year? It feels like 2028....
>203 karenmarie: Hey Horrible. Fondant is The Devil's Own, isn't it. I peel it off my cake slice and discreetly toss it on the host's carpeting. If you're going to poison my pancreas with this vile glop, you can clean it up.
>204 jnwelch: Joseph! As if I'd overlook you. *snort* I so agree re: spoiler.
I'm not big on Gibson, but I always said I expected to live in his world. Too bad it turned out to be Altered Carbon instead.
>203 karenmarie: Hey Horrible. Fondant is The Devil's Own, isn't it. I peel it off my cake slice and discreetly toss it on the host's carpeting. If you're going to poison my pancreas with this vile glop, you can clean it up.
>204 jnwelch: Joseph! As if I'd overlook you. *snort* I so agree re: spoiler.
I'm not big on Gibson, but I always said I expected to live in his world. Too bad it turned out to be Altered Carbon instead.
208richardderus
Happy Canada Day 2020 to my near northern neighbors!
209jessibud2
>208 richardderus: - Why, thanks, kind sir. It will be a rather subdued one, I am guessing. A virtual birthday of sorts....
210richardderus
>209 jessibud2: I expect most, if not all, mass celebrations will be subdued this year. Macy's is going lite on the Fourth's fireworks and I haven't heard a peep about Bastille Day hoopla. The Queen's Birthday wasn't particularly exuberant this year, either.
We do what we can in perilous times.
We do what we can in perilous times.
211figsfromthistle
Thanks, Richard. It will be different since all fireworks were cancelled. I am hiding indoors as it is 33 today and feels like 40 degrees .
212richardderus
>211 figsfromthistle: We just had a cloudburst and it's 30C plus 333% humidity (halfway to hell). I totally understand the isolationism!
213jessibud2
>212 richardderus: - I envy you the cloudburst. We have some clouds but not enough to hide the sun for more than a few minutes and not dark enough to contain anything useful. Blech.
214weird_O
You be going gangbusters, RD. Thumbs up for notching 75 reads in half a year. (I've notched somewhat more than half 75 in my half-year. With only 4 books read in June, it was my worst reading-month since January 2018!)
Had my own dental issue over the weekend. Hurt, hurt. But made it through to a 4 p.m. appointment yesterday. Root canal; started yesterday. To be completed in a couple of weeks. I've always been at least very wary of dentists. Oh, the horror.
New month now. Leaving all that whining behind. Goddammit!
Had my own dental issue over the weekend. Hurt, hurt. But made it through to a 4 p.m. appointment yesterday. Root canal; started yesterday. To be completed in a couple of weeks. I've always been at least very wary of dentists. Oh, the horror.
New month now. Leaving all that whining behind. Goddammit!
215richardderus
>213 jessibud2: It's one of many, I'm afraid, we're getting bands of showers and sun. It means that we're gettin' HEEE OOO MID weather!
>214 weird_O: Thanks, Bill! It's been a good year for my reading and I've taken full advantage of it. I hate the hell out of dentist visits, the experience is just completely unpleasant. The dentist isn't to blame, it's just the nature of the beast.
Ugh.
>214 weird_O: Thanks, Bill! It's been a good year for my reading and I've taken full advantage of it. I hate the hell out of dentist visits, the experience is just completely unpleasant. The dentist isn't to blame, it's just the nature of the beast.
Ugh.
216quondame
>203 karenmarie: Mais non! Real, cured fondant is where good sucrose finds heaven, a liquid smooth as silk, that flows over petit four to preserve the delicate genoise until tea time. Flavored and made solid, dipped in chocolate with only the shape of the swirl hinting at the interior, it is the heart of those ultimate holiday delights, chocolates!
It is a great sin that those evil buckets of plasticized menace claim the same name!
It is a great sin that those evil buckets of plasticized menace claim the same name!
217richardderus
>216 quondame: *shudder*
*urp*
*pale watery belchlike noise*
NO fondant is good. The runny stuff is diarrhea versus constipation.
*urp*
*pale watery belchlike noise*
NO fondant is good. The runny stuff is diarrhea versus constipation.
218SandyAMcPherson
>208 richardderus: Oh hi... you man "European Colonisation Day" right?
What used to be called "Dominion Day" until the BNA was repealed by T1. (We soldier on under T2, who doesn't walk the talk for women's rights and has *not* addressed racism in his Québécois riding).
Sorry... was I being grumpy? It wasn't aimed you! I think the coronavirus plus the racism denial is rotting my better self.
What used to be called "Dominion Day" until the BNA was repealed by T1. (We soldier on under T2, who doesn't walk the talk for women's rights and has *not* addressed racism in his Québécois riding).
Sorry... was I being grumpy? It wasn't aimed you! I think the coronavirus plus the racism denial is rotting my better self.
219richardderus
>218 SandyAMcPherson: No reason not to be grouchy with all the world's ills. Goodness knows I'm there myownself. What the hell, I figure, let the rage and outrage wash in because soon enough it will wash out and leave behind grimier versions of the present or shinier newer futures. Either way I can't stop the tides.
Have a *hug* for a cheerier outlook on tomorrow.
Have a *hug* for a cheerier outlook on tomorrow.
221quondame
>217 richardderus: You never liked chocolate creams? Brandied cherries? Any of those soft centered delights in the Whitman's Sampler or its classy cousins? You never lifted a tiny aromatic morsel of cake with a smooth but slightly crunchy coat to your mouth with great expectations of delight. How sad. My mum made the stuff from scratch, scraping the molten sugar to the center of the marble slab until it formed a a snowy mound and then stored it away in the pantry until it cured to the liquid silk stage.
222richardderus
>220 SandyAMcPherson: *baaawww* Thanks, Sandy!
>221 quondame: Nope. I don't like chocolate. I'm not a sweet-eater really. I like my sweets like I like my men: Fruity and nutty and the darker the better.
Fondant fulfils none of those criteria. Ever. It's just a blaring siren of SUUUGAAARRR and that is so not my jam.
>221 quondame: Nope. I don't like chocolate. I'm not a sweet-eater really. I like my sweets like I like my men: Fruity and nutty and the darker the better.
Fondant fulfils none of those criteria. Ever. It's just a blaring siren of SUUUGAAARRR and that is so not my jam.
223bell7
Congrats on 75 books read, and nice recap of your reading quarter! Hope you're well and the weather is nice where you are. We went from scalding heat to rain/thunderstorm every day. Today was nice, but I just heard a crash of thunder so may have a storm after all?
224richardderus
>223 bell7: Thanks, Mary! it's been hot, sticky, and stormy interspersed with hot, sticky, and sunny today. Tomorrow's supposed to be just plain ol' hot'n'sticky. Ah, summer. How I luuuv it. Not.
226richardderus
>225 drneutron: Hey, no lates around here, just when you get to the party. Thanks!
227karenmarie
‘Morning RD!
>206 richardderus: Waiting a week for a Covid-19 test result sure seems slow. I’m glad that the ER is available if the pain becomes unbearable before the results are in. Any chance of using cloves or clove oil for the pain?
>216 quondame: You definitely have a way with words, Susan, and I do love petit fours.
>219 richardderus: …let the rage and outrage wash in because soon enough it will wash out and leave behind grimier versions of the present or shinier newer futures. Either way I can't stop the tides. It’s a tsunami this time, and I hope that Confederate everything and oppressive everything and systemic racism are what’s washed out. Oh, and DJT and every GOP candidate up for election/relection in November of course.
>206 richardderus: Waiting a week for a Covid-19 test result sure seems slow. I’m glad that the ER is available if the pain becomes unbearable before the results are in. Any chance of using cloves or clove oil for the pain?
>216 quondame: You definitely have a way with words, Susan, and I do love petit fours.
>219 richardderus: …let the rage and outrage wash in because soon enough it will wash out and leave behind grimier versions of the present or shinier newer futures. Either way I can't stop the tides. It’s a tsunami this time, and I hope that Confederate everything and oppressive everything and systemic racism are what’s washed out. Oh, and DJT and every GOP candidate up for election/relection in November of course.
228richardderus
Two tidbits to start my Thursday off right: Zaina Arafat dropped a comment on my Facebook post about You Exist Too Much:
and my review of The Listener and Other Stories went live today on my blog. I seem to be on a quest to rescue forgotten writers. It's been fun so far.
Zaina Arafat
thank you for this lovely review, Richard, it means a lot to me that you felt seen by the book and could relate.
and my review of The Listener and Other Stories went live today on my blog. I seem to be on a quest to rescue forgotten writers. It's been fun so far.
229richardderus
>227 karenmarie: Slow is a polite way to say it. They'll probably assign a value to my test based on statistics not results. I have no faith in this testing regime, or the regime in general.
Y'all may have all the fondant fancies that were destined for me. *delicate shudder*
I am all on board with these horrors being swept entirely away, and will set my face towards that sunrise. Spend a lovely Thursday!
Y'all may have all the fondant fancies that were destined for me. *delicate shudder*
I am all on board with these horrors being swept entirely away, and will set my face towards that sunrise. Spend a lovely Thursday!
230humouress
>212 richardderus: Welcome to Singapore.
>222 richardderus: You don't like chocolates? Or sugar? I don't know if I should be associating with you.
On the other hand ... got any good chocolate you're not eating. I could help you with that.
>222 richardderus: You don't like chocolates? Or sugar? I don't know if I should be associating with you.
On the other hand ... got any good chocolate you're not eating. I could help you with that.
231richardderus
>230 humouress: Oh, I'm not against *sugar* in my food, I just prefer unrefined fructose to refined sucrose is all. And you may have any chocolate destined for me that you can intercept. Go claim a cacao tree for me & yours the resulting foodstuffs.
I do so loathe humidity!
I do so loathe humidity!
232SilverWolf28
>195 richardderus: >196 ronincats: Hi! You can call me Silver or SilverWolf. I just joined LT in April and I'm still a bit shy. I read quite a few threads, but don't post much. When I do post it's mostly in the TIOLI challenge.
233richardderus
>232 SilverWolf28: Welcome, and enjoy the weird and wonderful world we're in.
234SilverWolf28
Thanks! It's really fun here.
235richardderus
>234 SilverWolf28: It surely is, and amazingly, it stays that way almost all the time.
236thornton37814
I'm slow to the party congratulating you on hitting 75! Seems like COVID-19 has been good for your reading numbers. I think I'm to the point where I can resume my usual reading. The difference is that I won't have as much listening time because I am not traveling as much. However, I may go for a drive next week and perhaps one the week after that. I just need a change of scenery for a few hours. I've got a couple routes planned if they don't restrict things again. If they do, I think I can come up with a couple of alternate routes that stay in state.
237richardderus
>236 thornton37814: Thank you, Lori! Once I was past the post-disease slump, I got back down to business, and had two truly exceptional reads in the quarter. I'm glad I don't have to go anywhere, honestly; I sure hope you're driving somewhere pretty to take in the best things about summer.
Good reading ahead!
Good reading ahead!
238msf59
Morning, Richard. Happy Friday! Hooray for a three day weekend. Getting ready to head out to the Arboretum, with my birding buddies. 92F today, so I am sure I will be wrapping it up early. Looks the the afternoons will be reserved for the books.
Congrats on hitting #75!! I just turned that particular corner myself.
Congrats on hitting #75!! I just turned that particular corner myself.
239karenmarie
'Morning, RD! I hope you're doing okay this morning. I'm already halfway through my first mug of coffee and we have no plans except to stay in and stay cool.
240richardderus
>238 msf59: Thanks, Mark...and at 92° aren't the birds taking it easy as well? Hard to watch 'em if they're all hiding from the heat.
Happy weekending. Read hearty!
>239 karenmarie: It's a bit soupy out there, but at some point I need to go get some more bread. *shudder* So. Effin. Sticky.
Slurp slowly, the coffee savored is the coffee most delightful
Where is this sudden Poirotness coming from?!
Happy weekending. Read hearty!
>239 karenmarie: It's a bit soupy out there, but at some point I need to go get some more bread. *shudder* So. Effin. Sticky.
Slurp slowly, the coffee savored is the coffee most delightful
Where is this sudden Poirotness coming from?!
241Matke
Good morning, Richard!
You know, I’ve recovered the idea that fruit is much more satisfying in every than candy. Nothing can beat a perfectly ripe peach. Or perfectly cooked winter squash with plenty of butter.
Have as pleasant a weekend as possible, with minimal tooth pain/discomfort.
You know, I’ve recovered the idea that fruit is much more satisfying in every than candy. Nothing can beat a perfectly ripe peach. Or perfectly cooked winter squash with plenty of butter.
Have as pleasant a weekend as possible, with minimal tooth pain/discomfort.
242richardderus
>241 Matke: It's amazing, isn't it, how fruit's deep satisfactions can come (back) all of a sudden to a mouth accustomed to the blare of refined sucrose?
Thanks, re: tooth, and there's happy news on that front. The local dentist agreed to see me, where he usually wouldn't because Medicaid. His change of heart came when I explained the tooth was disintegrating. The office will call on Monday to set the actual appointment.
*smooch*
Thanks, re: tooth, and there's happy news on that front. The local dentist agreed to see me, where he usually wouldn't because Medicaid. His change of heart came when I explained the tooth was disintegrating. The office will call on Monday to set the actual appointment.
*smooch*
243quondame
Happy Friday Richard!
This is all chocolate!
You might also like Amaury Guichon's Nautilus.
This is all chocolate!
You might also like Amaury Guichon's Nautilus.
244Berly
Ricardo--Congrats on hitting the magic 75!! And love your review of Arafat's book. Hope you get the tooth fixed soon. Smooches.
>243 quondame: : O
>243 quondame: : O
245richardderus
>243 quondame: That is ASTOUNDING! How long before it started to get blurry and melty and uccchhhy, I wonder.
>244 Berly: Thank you, Berly-boo! And the tooth thing might well be solved soonish, so I'm extra pleased.
>244 Berly: Thank you, Berly-boo! And the tooth thing might well be solved soonish, so I'm extra pleased.
246richardderus
76 The Gryphon King's Consort by Jenn Burke
Rating: 4* of five
Many things are good, a few confusing, but on balance it's a win.
Author Burke, of the Chaos Station SF series, has a lot of leeway with me. I put aside concerns because I trust her judgment. I was let down in one area, so her batting average is around .850. The issue not adequately addressed by the end of the story was the state of bond brothers, their function and meaning in this Urban Fantasy landscape, which doesn't seem to be all that important...a kind of extra-special bestie?...until it is. It becomes hugely important at a fairly early moment but doesn't get adequate explication. Without spoiling the story, I can say I needed more information about how, why, where this institution arose and how it is practiced.
Overall, though, the relationship aspects of this new Mythos ethos are tantalizingly sketched in and made very high stakes early. I will read v2 with eagerness. The sex scenes are not going to keep you awake at night. They're more relationship scenes not passionate fuck sessions. It suits this story and probably this series. Emotions are to the fore, so there's little crude bodily description happening. This again suited my reading needs at the moment, so I wasn't missing detailed anatomical dealings. Be aware, though, that they aren't prevalent in case your need varies from mine!
Enjoyable and involving and very positive. Perfectly suited my mood, and I suspect it will many others' as well.
Rating: 4* of five
Many things are good, a few confusing, but on balance it's a win.
Author Burke, of the Chaos Station SF series, has a lot of leeway with me. I put aside concerns because I trust her judgment. I was let down in one area, so her batting average is around .850. The issue not adequately addressed by the end of the story was the state of bond brothers, their function and meaning in this Urban Fantasy landscape, which doesn't seem to be all that important...a kind of extra-special bestie?...until it is. It becomes hugely important at a fairly early moment but doesn't get adequate explication. Without spoiling the story, I can say I needed more information about how, why, where this institution arose and how it is practiced.
Overall, though, the relationship aspects of this new Mythos ethos are tantalizingly sketched in and made very high stakes early. I will read v2 with eagerness. The sex scenes are not going to keep you awake at night. They're more relationship scenes not passionate fuck sessions. It suits this story and probably this series. Emotions are to the fore, so there's little crude bodily description happening. This again suited my reading needs at the moment, so I wasn't missing detailed anatomical dealings. Be aware, though, that they aren't prevalent in case your need varies from mine!
Enjoyable and involving and very positive. Perfectly suited my mood, and I suspect it will many others' as well.
247karenmarie
'Morning, RDear! Happy Saturday. Glad to hear that the tooth thing might be solved soonish.
>239 karenmarie: Poirotness?
*smooch* from your own Madame TVT Horrible
>239 karenmarie: Poirotness?
*smooch* from your own Madame TVT Horrible
248richardderus
>247 karenmarie: Thanks, Horrible, I'm actually soothed by the simple idea that the problem might have an end in sight. Easier to bear up, at least for me, if there's some kind of end-point in sight.
The Poirotness of the coffee savored...I don't know why those sorts of locutions keep popping out!
The Poirotness of the coffee savored...I don't know why those sorts of locutions keep popping out!
249figsfromthistle
Happy July 4th!
250johnsimpson
Hi Richard, mate, Happy 4th July dear friend.
251Familyhistorian
Congrats on reading 75 and Happy 4th of July, Richard!
254PaulCranswick
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.
256thornton37814
Good morning, Richard! I awakened with a headache, but I'm sure the coffee I'm making in a few minutes will help. I've already taken Tylenol and am giving it a few minutes to begin its work before heading to the Keurig.
257karenmarie
'Morning, RDear.
Happy day after the fireworks.
*smooch*
Happy day after the fireworks.
*smooch*
258richardderus
Thanks for the Fourth wishes, Anita, John, Meg, Gail, Bill, Paul. It was quiet, spent mostly in conversation with Rob about nothing much. If there were fireworks, I didn't hear them.
>255 humouress: Heh. That cephalopod has the right idea, a martini would be lovely right now.
>256 thornton37814: Ew on the headache, Lori, but caffeine usually sorts the stress headaches right out. At least I hope it has before now.
>257 karenmarie: What a relief the fifth is for fireworked up places. None here, at least that I knew of or heard. *smooch*
***
The Mercy Seat is some good storytelling, for those in need of a new read.
>255 humouress: Heh. That cephalopod has the right idea, a martini would be lovely right now.
>256 thornton37814: Ew on the headache, Lori, but caffeine usually sorts the stress headaches right out. At least I hope it has before now.
>257 karenmarie: What a relief the fifth is for fireworked up places. None here, at least that I knew of or heard. *smooch*
***
The Mercy Seat is some good storytelling, for those in need of a new read.
259katiekrug
>258 richardderus: - Glad to hear The Mercy Seat is clicking for you.
260richardderus
>259 katiekrug: It started from the minute I opened it, the tension of the inevitable ending just dragged me along!
262msf59
Morning, Richard. I am glaring down at my 6 day work week too, with our HEAT WAVE still at full throttle. At least, I am on vacation next week though, so there is a rainbow at the end of it. I hope you enjoyed your quiet weekend.
264richardderus
>261 weird_O: Whoa, Bill, you need to slow down on the coffee there my dude...
>262 msf59: Six days and a heat wave. That's unconstitutional! The weekend was perfectly fine, if unexciting. I like unexciting, so it suited me.
Six days in a heatwave! The very idea! Someone needs to get the weather goddess on the line.
>263 bell7: Thank you, Mary, and much of the same to you.
>262 msf59: Six days and a heat wave. That's unconstitutional! The weekend was perfectly fine, if unexciting. I like unexciting, so it suited me.
Six days in a heatwave! The very idea! Someone needs to get the weather goddess on the line.
>263 bell7: Thank you, Mary, and much of the same to you.
265richardderus
So the dentist called at 9am sharp...I like this guy...and I'm in their office, which is within walking distance, a week from today! Yay!! The end is in sight.
267richardderus
>266 katiekrug: Thanks, Katie, it's a relief and a pleasure.
So sticky out there that it's another day in the a/c for me. Ugh!
So sticky out there that it's another day in the a/c for me. Ugh!
268karenmarie
'Morning, RD, and I'm happy to hear that you have a dentist's appointment soonish within walking distance.
*smoochity smooch*
*smoochity smooch*
269richardderus
>268 karenmarie: Thanks, Horrible, it's really not what I was braced for...it's always pleasant to have one's worst fears unmet.
I think. It happens so seldom in 2020.
*smooch*
I think. It happens so seldom in 2020.
*smooch*
270Berly
Hurray for a dentist visit!! And sooner than later. : ) I just went for a check up last week and the office handled safety issues really well. I was also pleased that they didn't find anything needing fixing (this time). Hurray! Smooches.
271richardderus
>270 Berly: There's a wrinkle...I got news today that I test positive for COVID-19 (which isn't really a surprise since I was sick back in March). I don't know exactly what this will mean for dentistry, but nothing good is my guess.
272Berly
>271 richardderus: Antibodies (as in you had it and are over it)?? In which case you should be fine to go. If you have been symptom-free for at least two weeks. I am sure they will still check you for temp when you get there, at least they did for me.
274jessibud2
>270 Berly: - What she said >271 richardderus:. I would guess that if you are truly symptom free and tell them that you were last feeling ill in MARCH, and it took this long for the test results, it's likely you are long over it. Fingers crossed!
275richardderus
>272 Berly:, >274 jessibud2: No, this test was part of the state-mandated full census testing that happened last week. It doesn't matter, really, because if I *am* positive, I want to stay far away and not pass it to others.
>273 ronincats: HA!! Perfect. It is me to the life.
>273 ronincats: HA!! Perfect. It is me to the life.
276quondame
Richard I'm sort of sorry that the prospect of dentistry should seem like an extraordinarily good thing, and that its probable delay seems likely. I love modern dentistry like I love modern plumbing, ubiquitous and rarely a concern. I've gotten 2 yearly checkups all my adult life and was given only slightly lacking care in my earliest years, so I know I'm among a privileged group.
277FAMeulstee
>271 richardderus: Sorry you tested positive for Covid-19, Richard.
Do you have any symptoms left?
I hope this won't delay your dentist appointment.
Do you have any symptoms left?
I hope this won't delay your dentist appointment.
278LovingLit
>264 richardderus: Six days and a heat wave. That's unconstitutional!
LOL
Cancel the heatwave! We are part of cancel culture, aren't we? I demand it! ;)
Re:dentists, its great to have a good'un. I need to revisit that particular professional...
LOL
Cancel the heatwave! We are part of cancel culture, aren't we? I demand it! ;)
Re:dentists, its great to have a good'un. I need to revisit that particular professional...
279richardderus
>276 quondame: I hate all dentistry, ancient to modern. I'm going to have to be careful eating for a while...nothing stringy, nothing hard to chew. This wil be extra fun!
>277 FAMeulstee: Thanks, Anita. I suspect it's a false positive, since I can't find any symptoms of the actual disease. I've already had to cancel the appointment, though. Darn the luck!
>278 LovingLit: If only cancel culture worked on the folks I want to cancel. Like 45. *wistful sigh*
>277 FAMeulstee: Thanks, Anita. I suspect it's a false positive, since I can't find any symptoms of the actual disease. I've already had to cancel the appointment, though. Darn the luck!
>278 LovingLit: If only cancel culture worked on the folks I want to cancel. Like 45. *wistful sigh*
280karenmarie
'Morning, RD, and I'm sorry that you've tested positive and had to cancel your dentist appointment. I'm very glad you don't have symptoms though.
I keep appreciating the fact that I have my sense of smell, even when they are not attractive smells.
*smooch*
I keep appreciating the fact that I have my sense of smell, even when they are not attractive smells.
*smooch*
281msf59
Morning, Richard. Taking a little break with my iPad and sweating, right along. I did pop over to the BBS today and there were a few birds flitting about, but I only lasted a few minutes. Walking around on all that hot concrete is no fun.
282richardderus
>280 karenmarie: I am, too! That sense of smell/taste is crucial to any of Life's pleasures.
Being trapped/treed without the ability to fend for myself is pretty miserable.
>281 msf59: Hot concrete is the argument against city living. Eccchhh! The day will end soon, the day will end soon...the mantra of the gainfully employed...but you get to say "the job will end soon, the job will end soon"!
Being trapped/treed without the ability to fend for myself is pretty miserable.
>281 msf59: Hot concrete is the argument against city living. Eccchhh! The day will end soon, the day will end soon...the mantra of the gainfully employed...but you get to say "the job will end soon, the job will end soon"!
283bell7
Well, dang, Richard. Sorry a positive test has postponed the dentist, but I'm glad for your sake you don't have symptoms. I hope you're able to reschedule soonish and not continue in pain for much longer. I fully expected my July teeth cleaning to be canceled, but the office called recently to postpone it by - wait for it - 20 minutes to give them enough time to clean/prepare between patients.
284richardderus
>283 bell7: Twenty minutes! Wow. That's so sad. What will you do with all that rearranging?!
Heh. They're really thoughtful to call you at all. I wish mine was that simple.
Heh. They're really thoughtful to call you at all. I wish mine was that simple.
285Berly
R--Very sorry that the much needed dental visit has been cancelled. You are not catching many breaks lately. Wishing you lots of LT and Rob time and some great reading for the day. Also, less heat and humidity. Smooch.
286laytonwoman3rd
Sorry about the delay in dental care. I was just reading this article about how it is apparently possible to test positive weeks or months after being sick with Covid-19. Probably, you're NOT infectious now, according to this, but the research is so preliminary...
287lkernagh
Stopping by and joining the others in sympathizing with your Covid-19 test results and the impact it has on your necessary dental work even though you are symptom free. ;-( Good idea to take it easy while waiting.
My end of May dental visit was cancelled (dental office had not re-opened at the time) and I am still waiting for a re-booking. Given that they will be dealing with urgent care as a priority over routine hygiene cleaning (and all clients that had routine work delayed due to Covid-19), I anticipate that it will probably be a month or more before I get a re-booked appointment.
My end of May dental visit was cancelled (dental office had not re-opened at the time) and I am still waiting for a re-booking. Given that they will be dealing with urgent care as a priority over routine hygiene cleaning (and all clients that had routine work delayed due to Covid-19), I anticipate that it will probably be a month or more before I get a re-booked appointment.
288richardderus
>285 Berly: Oh yeah, Berly-boo, it's mostly me and the man whenever he isn't working. I'm a little surprised he's spending this much time with me...makes me very happy that he wants to.
And that humidity thing is, in the one moment of ha-ha-ha I can find, is rendered unimportant! *snicker*
>286 laytonwoman3rd: Hi Linda3rd, it's that very weird thing that led the management to test me again right away in case it's that kind of weirdness. I still feel fine! No fever, no cough, no aching anything...well, what do I expect from a universe run by a malevolent judgmental homophobic gawd? Silly me. No better way to use my time than read, read, read!
>287 lkernagh: Hello Lori, thanks for stopping in to commiserate. I hope to goodness there's no second wave to wreck your plans for a cleaning.
And that humidity thing is, in the one moment of ha-ha-ha I can find, is rendered unimportant! *snicker*
>286 laytonwoman3rd: Hi Linda3rd, it's that very weird thing that led the management to test me again right away in case it's that kind of weirdness. I still feel fine! No fever, no cough, no aching anything...well, what do I expect from a universe run by a malevolent judgmental homophobic gawd? Silly me. No better way to use my time than read, read, read!
>287 lkernagh: Hello Lori, thanks for stopping in to commiserate. I hope to goodness there's no second wave to wreck your plans for a cleaning.
289figsfromthistle
Hi Richard
Sorry to hear that your dentist appointment will be delayed. Also, doubly sorry to hear about the positive covid test. May it go away soon!
Sorry to hear that your dentist appointment will be delayed. Also, doubly sorry to hear about the positive covid test. May it go away soon!
290bell7
>284 richardderus: Yeah, I didn't mind at all of course. I'm using sick time in the a.m. and switched my in-library schedule to 1-5 that day (it's my 9-1 week), so it really barely affected me, and I thought it was nice of them to call too. Sorry yours isn't such a quick fix. Do you go back for a re-test and some point so you can make a new appt?
291Matke
Oh, Richard.
I’m sorry about all of this, every last bit.
Can you be retested/checked for antibodies soon?
These are truly the times that try men’s souls.
I’m sorry about all of this, every last bit.
Can you be retested/checked for antibodies soon?
These are truly the times that try men’s souls.
292karenmarie
'Morning, RDear. Happy Wednesday to you.
Google/duckduckgo 'Cthulu 2020' images for some gallows humor. You might get a chuckle out of it.
*smooch*
Google/duckduckgo 'Cthulu 2020' images for some gallows humor. You might get a chuckle out of it.
*smooch*
293richardderus
Mostly radio silent today, sorry. My YGC is in a bad way so I'm talking it through w him. TTYL
294PaulCranswick
>293 richardderus: Take care dear fellow. Good luck and hugs to both of you.
It is a negative that your positive but I am positive you'll soon be negative.
It is a negative that your positive but I am positive you'll soon be negative.
295msf59
Morning, RD! Sweet Thursday! Yep, still trudging around in this intense heat but at least my books are keeping me company. Animal Spirit: Stories has been really good. Keep this one in mind.
Sorry, to hear about the troubling issues with the YGC. Keep us posted.
Sorry, to hear about the troubling issues with the YGC. Keep us posted.
296karenmarie
Hallo RD. I hope your YGC is doing better today. I'm glad he's got you. I'm glad we've got you!
*smooch*
*smooch*
301mahsdad
^ibid. :) I figured someone had to digress to entirely just one word, that seemed to be the progression.
305PaulCranswick
kai ego
306FAMeulstee
Echoing all above.
307richardderus
*snort* You lot. Hilarious, ya jokers!
So it was a bad passage for my dear young man, his wretched father's death hit him with the worst of all possible hammers: "now he'll never know..."
For so many, it's the love unspoken or the appreciation ungiven; for people like Rob and me, it's the rage unexpressed, the loathing swallowed too many bitter times. I can empathize with him and I can make soothing noises, say "I'm so sad with you," but I can't make that abusive homophobic asshole see the son he tried so many cruel ways to crush flourish.
I was up until 3am with him, when he finally fell asleep, and then my day was trashed because I woke up too late to make coffee without paying a heavy price in sleeplessness; so I slept most of the day away. Feeling pretty chipper now!
Thanks for visiting. I need to make a new thread today. It's 1960's turn, I think, so expect something utterly anodyne.
So it was a bad passage for my dear young man, his wretched father's death hit him with the worst of all possible hammers: "now he'll never know..."
For so many, it's the love unspoken or the appreciation ungiven; for people like Rob and me, it's the rage unexpressed, the loathing swallowed too many bitter times. I can empathize with him and I can make soothing noises, say "I'm so sad with you," but I can't make that abusive homophobic asshole see the son he tried so many cruel ways to crush flourish.
I was up until 3am with him, when he finally fell asleep, and then my day was trashed because I woke up too late to make coffee without paying a heavy price in sleeplessness; so I slept most of the day away. Feeling pretty chipper now!
Thanks for visiting. I need to make a new thread today. It's 1960's turn, I think, so expect something utterly anodyne.
This topic was continued by richardderus's eleventh 2020 thread.
