richardderus's seventh 2021 thread

I have been amazed by the Anglo-Saxon's lack of curiosity about the internal lives and emotions of the Negroes, and for that matter, any non-Anglo-Saxon peoples within our borders, above the class of unskilled labor.
—Zora Neale Hurston, "What White Publishers Won't Print" in The Negro Digest, April 1950

I'm delighted to introduce, laddies and gentlewomen, my new spirit animal:
The Fucktopus.

**********************
In 2021, I stated a goal of posting 15 book reviews a month on my blog. This year's total of 180 (there are a lot of individual stories that don't have entries in the LT database so I didn't post them here; I need to do more to sync the data this year) reads shows it's doable, and I've done better than that in the past.

I've long 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 2009 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2010 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2011 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2012 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2013 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2014 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2015 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2016 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2017 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2018 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2019 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2020 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.

First five reviews? 1st 2021 thread..

Reviews 6 all the way through 25 can be viewed in the thread to which I have posted a link at left.

The 26th through 36th reviews occupy thread three.

37th through 44th reviews belong where they are.

Reviews 45 through 58 are listed here.

Reviews 59 through 65 present themselves in that spot.

THIS THREAD'S REVIEW LINKS

66 Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory exalted, post 54.

67 Waters of Versailles delighted, post 56.

68 Network Effect...Murderbot!, post 61.

69 The Eye of the Swan: A Tremontaine Story amused, post 68.

70 Fugitive Telemetry delighted, post 106.

71 The First Snow of Winter pleased, post 128.

72 The Labours of Lord Perry Cavendish gruntled, post 128.

73 Entry Island was okay, post 177.

74 Heartstopper volume 1 was cute, post 180.

75 Project Hail Mary returned to form, post 238.

76

77

2020's five-star or damn-near five-star reviews totaled 46. Almost half were short stories and/or series reads. While a lot of authors saw their book launches rescheduled, publishers canceled their tours, and everyone was hugely distracted by the nightmare of COVID-19 (I had it, you do not want it), no one can fault the astoundingly wonderful literature we got this year. My own annual six-stars-of-five read was Zaina Arafat's extraordinary debut novel YOU EXIST TOO MUCH (review lives here), a thirtysomething Palestinian woman telling me my life, my family, my very experience of relationships of all sorts. I cannot stress enough to you, this is the book you need to read in 2021. A sixtysomething man is here, in your email/feed, saying: This is the power. This is the glory. The writing I look for, the read I long to find, and all of it delivered in a young woman's debut novel. This is as good an omen for the Great Conjunction's power being bent to the positive outcomes as any I've seen.

In 2020, I posted over 180 reviews here. In 2021, my goals are: –to post 180 reviews on my blog
–to post at least 99 three-sentence Burgoines
–to complete at least 190 total reviews

Most important to me is to report on DRCs I don't care enough about to review at my usual level. I don't want to keep just leaving them unacknowledged. There are publishers who want to see a solid, positive relationship between DRCs granted and reviews posted, and I do not blame them a bit.

Ask and ye shall receive! Nathan Burgoine's Twitter account hath taught me. See >7 richardderus: below.

I stole this from PC's thread. I like these prompts!
***
1. Name any book you read at any time that was published in the year you turned 18:
Faggots by Larry Kramer
2. Name a book you have on in your TBR pile that is over 500 pages long:
The Story of China: The Epic History of a World Power from the Middle Kingdom to Mao and the China Dream
by Michael Wood
3. What is the last book you read with a mostly blue cover?
Wasps' Nest by Agatha Christie
4. What is the last book you didn’t finish (and why didn’t you finish it?)
The Perfect Fascist by Victoria de Grazia; paper book of 512pp, can't hold it
5. What is the last book that scared the bejeebers out of you?
Too Much and Never Enough by Mary Trump
6. Name the book that read either this year or last year that takes place geographically closest to where you live? How close would you estimate it was?
The Trump book; set in Queens and the Hamptons, so just down the road a piece
7.What were the topics of the last two nonfiction books you read?
The last successful rebellion on US soil and caffeine
8. Name a recent book you read which could be considered a popular book?
The Only Good Indians, a horror novel that's really, really good
9. What was the last book you gave a rating of 5-stars to? And when did you read it?
Restored, a Regency-era romantic historical novel about men in their 40s seizing their second chance at luuuv
10. Name a book you read that led you to specifically to read another book (and what was the other book, and what was the connection)
Potiki, which Kerry Aluf gave me; led me to read The Uncle's Story by Witi Ihimaera
11. Name the author you have most recently become infatuated with.
P. Djeli Clark
12. What is the setting of the first novel you read this year?
Hawaii and PNW
13. What is the last book you read, fiction or nonfiction, that featured a war in some way (and what war was it)?
The Fighting Bunch; WWII
14. What was the last book you acquired or borrowed based on an LTer’s review or casual recommendation? And who was the LTer, if you care to say.
There isn't enough space for all the book-bullets y'all careless, inconsiderate-of-my-poverty fiends pepper me with
15. What the last book you read that involved the future in some way?
Mammoths of the Great Plains by Eleanor Arnason
16. Name the last book you read that featured a body of water, river, marsh, or significant rainfall?
Ancient Oceans of Central Kentucky by David Connerly Nahm
17. What is last book you read by an author from the Southern Hemisphere?
Red Heir by Lisa Henry
18. What is the last book you read that you thought had a terrible cover?
please don't ask me this
19. Who was the most recent dead author you read? And what year did they die?
Agatha Christie, 1976
20. What was the last children’s book (not YA) you read?
good goddesses, I don't remember...Goodnight Moon to my daughter?
21. What was the name of the detective or crime-solver in the most recent crime novel you read?
Poirot by Dame Ags
22. What was the shortest book of any kind you’ve read so far this year?
The World Well Lost, ~28pp
23. Name the last book that you struggled with (and what do you think was behind the struggle?)
Lon Chaney Speaks, because I really, really don't like comic books
24. What is the most recent book you added to your library here on LT?
see #23
25. Name a book you read this year that had a visual component (i.e. illustrations, photos, art, comics)
see #23
I liked Sandy's Bonus Question for the meme above, so I adopted it:

26. What is the title and year of the oldest book you have reviewed on LT in 2020? (modification in itals)
The Sittaford Mystery by Dame Aggie, 1931.

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 GOON 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
2020 THE NICKEL BOYS - Colson Whitehead

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
2020: Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain

Links are to my reviews
* Read, but not reviewed
** Owned, but not read

Author 'Nathan Burgoine posted this simple, direct method of not getting paralyzed by the prospect of having to write reviews. The Three-Sentence Review is, as he notes, very helpful and also simple to achieve. I get completely unmanned at the idea of saying something trenchant about each book I read, when there often just isn't that much to say...now I can use this structure to say what I think's important and not try to dig for more.

Think about using it yourselves!

It is, as of now, safe for you to post.

Happy new thread, Richard dear!

>9 FAMeulstee: You're first, Anita!

Let's celebrate!

Happy new one, Richard. Not sure if anyone else is having this issue but your opening post doesn't open the pic for me. Just saying....

Happy new thread!

>11 jessibud2: The picture did display for me. Also >7 richardderus: & >10 richardderus:

O-->--

okay, that is supposed to be a rose made with an "at" sign. At sign will not show up

so much for me trying to be creative

Happy new thread, Richard!

Happy new thread!

Happy New Thread, Richard dear.

>16 ronincats: Thank you, Roni!

>15 thornton37814: Hi Lori, thanks!

>14 bell7: Howdy-do, Mary!

>13 mckait: Heh, it's like the pointy-brackets issue...this site isn't ASC-II art friendly.

>12 quondame:, >11 jessibud2: Hi, y'all, I changed the image so no one would have issues.

Happy new one!

Happy new thread!

>19 drneutron: Thank you most kindly, Doc.

>18 figsfromthistle: Thanks, Anita, I hope it will be.

Greetings from the more bucolic side, RD.

Happy New thread, Richard!

No, I don't want to look.

Oh, alright then.

Happy new thread, Richard!

Happy new thread. Hope all is going well on your side of the world.

Happy new one, RD.

>1 richardderus: I'm not entirely sure that the disdain and lack of interest that the haves have for the have-nots is entirely race ridden as Hurston seems to also acknowledge. Racism still festers both openly and in often slightly veiled visages and must be faced down but the eradication of poverty and inequality remains humankind's greatest challenge. Poverty and disenfranchisement are unfortunate systemic levellers, in that a poor white man's experience will vary only in style rather than substance from that of a poor black man.

Happy New Thread, Richard.

Excellent Hurston starter.

>25 PaulCranswick: I disagree with that thoroughly.

Happy Wednesday, Richard! Happy New Thread! I love The Fucktopus, from the previous thread. I like to trot him out from time to time. Currently at the freezing mark out there but I am still heading out with my birding buddies.

Happy new thread.
I love the unruly octopus at the end of your last thread. Giving the world the bird in octuplicate!

Good morning, RDear, and happy Wednesday to you. Happiest of new threads, too, of course.

I was gobsmacked by Hurston’s Barracoon but haven’t read any of her fiction yet. Their Eyes Were Watching God is staring balefully at me from my shelves – a copy I bought for Jenna when she was in HS but which she never read and somehow eased through English without reading it and not failing English.

From your last thread, I’m so happy you received that book on poetry instead of me. You are the absolutely best person to appreciate it, subtly enjoying the Google lookups and visualizing the vivid, energizing metaphors and similies…

I loved the title The Crime at Black Dudley, started the book with enthusiasm, finished it without enthusiasm, then went blech to the rest of the series. I’m not inclined to continue even with your cautious recommendation, and it’s not a day if I haven’t had to duckduckgo something you’ve said… neurodivergent, this time.

>17 richardderus: pointy-brackets. Angle brackets. Left-pointing angle bracket and right-pointing angle bracket. I finally looked it up on an html website.

*smooch* from your own Horrible

Happy new one, RD!

I love your spirit animal from the last thread. You should move him over here.

>31 katiekrug: It seemed like a good idea, so I moved him to post #2. Thanks x2!

>30 karenmarie: Good morrow, my dear Horrible! It is the Humpèd Day, is it not? Disfruit it of its manifold graces with your celebrated sangfoid.

"Angle brackets"? Oh, gatormouths! Funny thing to call 'em, "angle brackets." So...prosaic.

Barracoon awaits me...Mules and Men was interesting but no patch on Their Eyes Were Watching God. That book is gorgeous, and sudsy, and really just amazingly complete in and of itself, nothing to add or take away. Jenna might want to visit it someday....

Horrifying stuff, poetry, full of rank grave-dirt and tomb-dust and sour ugly snobbishness.

You might reconsider Campion. The first one is really, really different from the rest. If I'd read Grey Mask, the first Miss Silver, first I'd've said "pfui" to the rest and missed out on twenty-eight iterations of the same book. But it was a book I liked a whole lot....

*smooch*

>17 richardderus: - I see it now, Richard. Thanks. So far, I have only read one by Hurston: Their Eyes Were Watching God. I also read a book about her: Speak So You Can Speak Again, which was a beautifully illustrated book. I know I reviewed it on my thread the year that I read it but I am not sure if I posted the review elsewhere. The book is written by Hurston's niece and has lots of treasure inside, too.

>29 Helenliz: Isn't he glorious, Helen? I found him via Nnedi Okorafor. She seemed verschmeckeled that a FB ad was pushing him at her, and I just *knew* I'd met my new spirit animal the second I clapped eyes on his glorious purple-and-gold self.

>28 msf59: FREEZING?! You're a better birder than I, sir. I hope you see some amazing and rare not-seagulls today.

>27 ursula: Thank you, Ursula. And I heartily concur with you re >25 PaulCranswick:.

>26 connie53: Thank you, Connie!

>25 PaulCranswick: Thanks for the good wishes, PC.

I, like >25 PaulCranswick: Ursula, strongly disagree that US racism is a stylistic variation on the class war. It is a more virulent thing, it informs the inward landscape of its practitioners, victims, and bystanders, in a way that even the vile greed of the class war does not.

"If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you." LBJ said this in the 1950s. It was and remains the proof that what the class warriors did was recognize opportunity when it knocked. The brutality of racism is different in kind and sort to this.

>24 BekkaJo: Hey Bekka! It's a rainy day, but honestly nothing compared to the folks having snow west of here.

>23 humouress: The "Don't-give-a-fuck"topus was stellar, La Overkill.

>22 swynn: Thank you, Steve!

>21 weird_O: Greetings happily returned, Bill.

For once, I'm not back days to wish you a happy new thread.
Big waves from over the pond.

>37 Ameise1: Hi there, Barbara! Happy that you're here! (Early, for once. ;-P)

Hi Richard, happy new thread dear friend.

>39 johnsimpson: Thank you, John!

Hmmm, I may need that Fucktopus as my spirit animal, too. At least on some days. Although I might rename her the Freshoutoffuckstopus.

>41 EBT1002: He's a beautiful boy, isn't he? But La Overkill has you covered re: the Freshoutoffuckstopus:

Happy New Thread!

>42 richardderus: Octopuses are amazing!

>42 richardderus: I love the shy one, but I want more!

I love the Fucktopus, but I'm really trying not to use the phrase "spirit animal" as I am not Native American and I feel it is appropriation to do so.

Hi Richard. I've missed out on a lot of commentary in the previous thread... I'll go have a skim shortly. Just wanted to get in here to make sure I see what your new toppers are like while I'm not overwhelmed with the posting-explosion.

I totally agree that was a wise move in >2 richardderus:, to abandon writing up the reasons you Pearl Ruled a book. Life is too short for that sort of revisiting.

I saw that you read over my review of Nev March's Murder in Old Bombay. I wondered what you'd make of it (my review, not the book). Although I was not the kindest of reviewers just honest, because I think the author was capable of so much better. Perhaps that is why there was no competition in borrowing the book from the library.

In retrospect, I'm surprised it won the Minotaur/MWA Award for First Mystery Novel. I don't want to be overly critical, because the idea of the story was really good and the pace of the story was very suitable for the times and the setting. I liked a lot of the action, but the prose was not as evocative as I had expected, as well as needing a good tightening up to reduce the irrelevancies.

Anyway, thanks for not pouring disappointment on my overview. I was under the impression you had really admired the book. I do encourage you to read it if you're up for a murder mystery based on a true event in the 19th century. I thought that was a clever use of a genuine mystery.

'Morning, Rdear. Happy, cold, Thursday to you.

*smooch*

>30 karenmarie: I almost let The Crime at Black Dudley put me off the rest of the series, but I'm glad I didn't. I would still rate most in the 3 to 3.5 star range, but my enjoyment went up. As >32 richardderus: Richard stated, the first one is different than the others.

Sweet Thursday, Richard. We had frost on the ole pumpkin this morning but it should warm up nicely. We are going camping in Michigan for the weekend. Glad we are staying in a friend's deluxe camper this time. That campfire is going to feel good!

>49 msf59: Have an excellent time, Birddude! The cold here wasn't frost-level, but it was a significant drop from the highs of earlier in the week. Weird, unsettled weather is the New Normal. And on Earth Day. Hm.

>48 thornton37814:, >47 karenmarie: Really very different...and hey Horrible, it's another li'l nudge to think about a new way to approach 'em.

*smooch*

>46 SandyAMcPherson: Hey there Sandy...not surprising to me that this won the FIRST Mystery Award as the whole idea has always been to discover promising talent. This is a MS that, I will bet you based on reading metric tons of them, stood out like an arc-light when it came across the transom.

Sometimes what reads as irrelevant to one reader is atmospheric and evocative to another, and the issue (while real) of keeping the pace of a story moving can at times lead to severe and counterproductive pruning that results in Kerry Greenwood-esque plot skeletons with ragged streamers of descriptive shroud-bits trailing out behind.

>45 reconditereader: Thanks for stopping by! I am happy that your decision as to your own actions has resulted in personal satisfaction.

>44 quondame: *chuckle* There's always a Greek restaurant nearby...

>43 SilverWolf28: Thanks, Silver, and I so agree that octopuses are astounding and lovely animals. Full of new ways to think and be in the world, they're beings we're going to discover so very much from.

Happy Thursday, Richard, dear!

>52 FAMeulstee: Thank you, Anita!

66 Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory by Martha Wells

Real Rating: 4.75* of five, rounded up because Murderbot

Because they are all refugees in the Preservation Alliance, descended from people who were left to die because rescue was deemed not cost-effective.

Which is why I read the Murderbot series the instant I can get the books. This is a short freebie that's just a tick before Network Effect, and it's deeply refreshing to read something from Dr. Mensah's PoV.

Not that I don't adore Murderbot! I do! But breaking out of the one PoV that we have on the Corporation Rim is a breath of fresh air.

The Corporation Rim has always been a slave state, though it calls its institutionalized slavery “contract labor.”

It is through Dr. Mensah's clarity that I feel so seen in my hatred of this system's brutal, dehumanizing, and revoltingly deeply entrenched dominance of the hearts and minds I must live among, as Preservation is a fictional construct. It would be the work of but a moment for me to apply for asylum or whatever they call it to get to Preservation were it real.

It’s about being treated as a thing, isn’t it. Whether that thing is a hostage of conditional value, or a very expensively designed and equipped enslaved machine/organic intelligence. You’re a thing, and there is no safety.

When you exist at the whim of the electorate, as people like me...disabled, unhomed, elderly, infirm...must do, you're a thing. A profit point. An expense center. Not yourself, not someone with a lifetime's issues and lessons. I'm fortunate that I live in a place that allows me to be as independent as possible, and that I did enough useful work for enough years that my (HUGELY reduced in value) investment in government debt affords me the relative safety of housing, medical care, and therapies that I need. Had I stayed in Texas, had I been darker of skin hue, had I not had the mind-bogglingly good fortune to have my breakdown while talking to the one person who could, and would, and did help me...well, I'd be dead, and that's just the facts.

It's why I identify so deeply with Murderbot: We had all the right things go exactly right at the right time or we'd simply have ceased to exist.

And she tells herself: you’re being very foolish. Because you were a hostage for a period of days, and it was a minor inconvenience compared to what Murderbot— No, SecUnit; she’s never been given permission to use that private name. What SecUnit went through.

And if someone else was in her position, she would tell them how unhelpful comparisons like that are, that fear is fear.

But you're making one right now. You can't help it; it's human nature. One person with whom I am no longer friends said to me, "stop being so selfish and think of how much worse it is for my (Hispanic) people!"

Invalidation = abuse. Always, in all ways.

And that is what Author Wells does so eloquently by not doing it directly: She holds up your status as abuser while acknowledging your status as the abused. Murderbot...SecUnit to Dr. Mensah and the meatsacks inhabiting its spacetime...isn't kidding around with its self-granted yclepture. It was the more harmed, in my opinion, by its status as legally insentient property being thrust on it from birth (aka "chattel slavery") but it isn't innocent of abusive, life-denying behavior towards others.

Do moral dilemmas come more tightly coiled up on themselves than this? And breathes there an author whose exploration of these intense and weighty issues is so delightfully deft and assuredly airy than Author Wells?

No.

Read it free at Tor.com!

>51 richardderus: To watch not to eat. Alas, not as many or as good as I'd like. I miss the every meal was heaven one of the 1980s. The owners divorced and we all suffered.

>54 richardderus: Spot on! Even being ever so aware of how many times things have gone right for me - extra computer literate in the 70s, associations with people giving out the right job at the right time, I still find myself passing harsh judgements on people caught between harsher wheels.

67 Waters of Versailles by Kelly Robson

Rating: 4* of five

Whenever humans encounter the uncanny, the unexplainable, the magical, their first thought is "how can I use this?" The best among us finish that thought with "to make things better"; the worst, "for my own benefit"; and most of us, "to make a buck."

Author Robson's 2015 novella isn't her first publication (her books are listed here); it's a very assured work, told well, thought through thoroughly, and of a length sufficient to set her scene, convey her tale, then leave us wishing for a bit more to enjoy. It feels *right* that Sylvain, her PoV character here, should be an arriviste at the Court. He, like Author Robson with her reader, has left even his own social cronies without the miracle of his plumbing and flush toilets! Saying "no" is dangerous, and denying someone who has your secrets what they ask for is even more foolish.

But logic dictates that even a magical creature have limits, and the nixie Sylvain has forced into his service isn't able to do everything. The more pressing question for him now is why does the nixie appear to be doing the *opposite* of what needs doing?

Never, in the history of human endeavor, has a system based on scarcity and uniqueness failed to fail. And here is Sylvain re-learning that lesson for the many-bazillionth time albeit his first. And, in the end, the world's delights are as ephemeral as we should all have learned that they are never not by now. What begins badly ends sadly. Again and again and again and again and again.

>55 quondame: To be a mere human is to suffer from the malady of Judgment. The trick is not to get to the addiction to Being Right. That's frankly fatal to one's peace of mind and more often than not to one's friendships/relationships.

Reminding me that I have a copy of Their Eyes Were Watching God that is judging me and waiting to be read... It's made it's way to the list I call 'always think I've read' - so called because they have been on TBR SOOOO long that I get confused.

Anyway, Happy Friday! I'm excessively glad it's Friday - our States Members (governing electorate) have been sitting this week and haven't finished business. So they have a continuation meeting today. Leads to one tiring week for all involved - both secretariat and Members! Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

'Morning, RD. Have a loverly Friday.

Brrr. 28F here. Indoors and safe from the pollen and the cold make me grateful.

Coffee, too, of course.

>48 thornton37814: Okay, Lori and Richard, I'll bite. I just got the 2nd in the series, Mystery Mile for $5 for my Kindle.

*smooch*

Happy Friday, Richard!

>54 richardderus: I really need to read one of these books. Wells has positive reviews everywhere. On my list it goes.

68 Network Effect by Martha West

Rating: 4.9* of five...In honor of Fugitive Telemetry coming out on the 27th, I finally wrote this review!

I CHECKED THIS BOOK OUT OF MY LOCAL LIBRARY. SUPPORT YOUR LIBRARIES, FOLKS! THE PANDEMIC AIN'T THE ONLY REASON TO GO THERE.

When you get to the moment in reading a series of stories that you think you know what's coming next, and then you're kinda right but a whole lot wrong, that's when you know for sure you're in the right place at the right time.

I knew for sure I'd get Murderbot being its deeply cynical, snarky self, breaking the fourth wall at will and to great effect.

{We're in the shit because of} their hired security service Palisade making an extremely bad decision to punch my ex-owner bond company in the operating funds by attacking one of its gunships. (The company is paranoid and greedy and cheap but also ruthless, methodical, and intensely violent when it thinks it’s being threatened.)
–and–
So that was what had happened before the survey. Now we’re here, ready for the next major disaster. (Spoiler warning.)

I didn't realize, though, that the ART (acronym; you know already or you need to find out for yourself) and Murderbot would make this read the emotional rollercoater it is. (Yes, of course there are quotes to make this obvious but I can't spoiler-tag on my blog. Go here if you're that curious. But it's a MAJOR spoiler!)
—but there is this that I *can* quote, spoken by Murderbot after a serious, serious event takes place, one that changes the entire stakes of the novel: "My performance reliability had leveled out at 89 percent. Not great, but I could work with it. I still hadn’t identified the source of the drop. I’d taken multiple projectile hits without having that kind of steady drop." Which is a theme developed so well in this full-length novel. The problem of grief, of rage and loss, is universal; Author Wells hasn't, at any point in the series, hidden her cards in this regard. But the stakes, the sheer centrality of loss and rage and grief, take the Up escalator in this novel. Maybe Ratthi, a human and client of Murderbot's over the course of multiple stories, says it best: “Anyone who thinks machine intelligences don’t have emotions needs to be in this very uncomfortable room right now.”

Amen, Brother Ratthi. If anyone who's read more of the series (and if you haven't what the heck are you doing reading this review?!) wonders about how huge the change of tenor in this full-length novel is, I offer this:

Ratthi had said, “I think you should let it go for a while, at least until we get ourselves out of this situation. SecUnit is a very private person, it doesn’t like to discuss its feelings.”

This is why Ratthi is my friend.
–and–
(If I got angry at myself for being angry I would be angry constantly and I wouldn’t have time to think about anything else.) (Wait, I think I am angry constantly. That might explain a lot.)

Murderbot. Calling a human, a (former) client, a being under its protection, a friend is a moment to make a person pause. Then for Murderbot to acknowledge, with great precision, its emotional state...!

Then again this is the thing about reading this series, unlike reading many, many others: Author Wells is making something clear to us, in her inimitable sly way, that not many of us think about. She demands that, in loving and accepting the reality of Murderbot, that we contemplate the source of Murderbot's conundrum. Murderbot is a possession, chattel, a Thing:

(I know, it’s a logo, but I hate it when humans and augmented humans ruin things for no reason. Maybe because I was a thing before I was a person and if I’m not careful I could be a thing again.)
–and–
And of course the humans had trouble understanding that your governor module suddenly deciding to melt your brain wasn’t something you could rules-lawyer your way out of.

Like the SecUnit that Murderbot began its existence being and Dr. Mensah rescued it from continuing to be, there was a device installed in its organic brain that could cause it immense pain or simply end its existence...can't give a Thing power, like weaponry-power and tactical nous, without safeguards....

So be clear: By taking on this addictively funny series, you're taking on a level of self-reflection that, while salubrious and even vital it may be, it is also deeply uncomfortable:

Just because we’re both rogue SecUnits doesn’t mean we’re going to be friends, but I knew if it went back, it would be dead. I’d hacked my governor module and kept doing my job because I didn’t know what else to do (except you know, a murderous rampage, but murderous rampages are overrated and interfere with one’s ability to keep watching media) but that was different from escaping and then going back.

I said, “Because change is terrifying. Choices are terrifying. But having a thing in your head that kills you if you make a mistake is more terrifying.”
–and–
I’m letting you see all this because I want you to know what I am and what I can do. I want you to know who targetControlSystem is fucking with right now. I want you to know if you help me, I’ll help you, and that you can trust me. Now here’s the code to disable your governor module.

This is Murderbot caring for a fellow SecUnit whose existence as chattel, a Thing, it is trying to end. There is no guarantee that ending the other's slavery will make it a fellow seeker after the Meaning of Freedom; it won't even guarantee that there won't be mayhem and disaster to clean up after. But it will for sure and certain mean that the other SecUnit won't be under any compulsion to do anything.

No matter what that costs, it's worth everything and it's worth risking everything to give or to get.

I've failed to give this novel a perfect score of five-out-of-five. The reason is simple to the point of being petty: The pace is irregular and it's not because the story needs it to be. Author Wells has written numerous novels before this (here's her bibliography) so there is no reason this novel should not suffer from an avoidable fault. There are some scenes whose nature means they could've been cut or cut down (eg, the invaders the Scooby-group need to fight get more screen time than is necessary for non-repeating characters), there are some repeated references to Murderbot's happiness that it has no digestive system that were over-done...but none of these things did more than ding the paint on my gloriously chromed, befinned behemoth of Joy at spending a whole novel with Murderbot, ART, and the annoying humans they hang with.

>60 figsfromthistle: Hang about...there's another one at >61 richardderus:.

>59 karenmarie: Horrible! *smooch* So glad you're here. And able to bash the keys with your gloves on, reaching out of that shroud of blankies.

I predict it won't be as negative a read since it didn't come in concert with The Crime at Black Dudley.

>58 BekkaJo: ...sorry...can't type...still guffawing at the members being...and they're seated....

Happy New Thread Richard. Loving me some Fucktopus!

Unlike Peter Wimsey I think Albert Campion does better in the short stories and novellas.

Though I liked (not loved) most of the novels.

Anyone who has not yet read Their Eyes Were Watching God should be assessed a ten dollar a day fine until they do read it. Pony up!

>51 richardderus: Sometimes what reads as irrelevant to one reader is atmospheric and evocative to another, and the issue (while real) of keeping the pace of a story moving can at times lead to severe and counterproductive pruning that results in Kerry Greenwood-esque plot skeletons with ragged streamers of descriptive shroud-bits trailing out behind.

This description has severely baffled me.
Care to rephrase in simple language? I know it is morning and I *am* awake, but....

>64 SandyAMcPherson: Cutting descriptive or pretty-for-the-sake-of-it passages from books runs the risk of going too far. The plot isn't the only reason someone will read a book, so don't make it the only thing they'll find.

>63 magicians_nephew: I'm not a *huge* Campion fan, but the books are a lot of fun in the right mood.

I'd love to see how the fines would be assessed and collected...and where would they go? The local library?

Happy new(ish) thread! Love Fucktopus! I need to borrow it to use at those times words cannot express (which seem to be more frequent these days).

>25 PaulCranswick: >35 richardderus: Agree. Not sure people who are not from the U.S. can fully comprehend how virulent and pervasive racism is here. It's everywhere and "bred in the bone" of most white people, even those who are allies and working to change the dynamic and end systemic racism, and it manifests in a thousand small and unexpected ways - like the lack of interest in reading about the Black experience mentioned in >1 richardderus:.

>61 richardderus: Love love love your review of Network Effect. Actually, it made me cry because it expressed many of the same thoughts and feelings (ugh, there's that "f" word again) I have when I read it. Preordered Fugitive Telemetry and can't wait for April 27 and it to arrive.

>62 richardderus: I feel shallow for just enjoying the hell out of Murderbot and their adventures. But I'll continue paddling at this end of the pool as long as it's on offer.

>66 Storeetllr: Really a Fucktopus and a Fuckofftopus are entirely different species.

69 The Eye of the Swan: A Tremontaine Story by Kelly Robson

Rating: 3.5* of five

It's a wonderful thing to discover a new fantasy series. I'd never heard of Tremontaine before Kelly Robson's short prequel brought it to my attention. I'd barely heard of Ellen Kushner's Riverside series, with its vaunted QUILTBAG inclusiveness. I've learned to mistrust that assurance; usually what's meant is lots of womansex. I don't care to be reminded of womansex. Yay for having it if that's what you want, and no I don't mean I think it shouldn't be published or some such neanderthalism. I mean I don't want to read it.

Yes, the only QUILTBAG representation in the story is lesbian; it's also so fleeting that it needs to be called attention to in the narration. That's just ducky with me, it means I'm not being required to skip paragraphs to avoid being offended.

The story itself is a delight, set in a fantasy world that's got fascinating lineaments and is clearly about doing something different because it's got a young woman finding and consolidating real power for herself in her husband's stead. He's a bookish sort; she's a clear-headed calculating power-seeker. And my money, for the rest of the Tremontaine series, is on her to be the clear-cut wielder of absolute power and vast influence.

My favorite kind of story is this, the finding of one's best purpose and clearest path towards success in spite of obstacles. That it is a lovely young aristocratic woman, a creature meant to be an ornament, and one so undervalued by those who could have mentored her that she has been left to find her own way...*chef's kiss*

If you are a fan of Mannerpunk (which this is, in a subgenre of fantasy literature that takes place within an elaborate social structure and resembles a comedy of manners, per one online definition) this will be deeply agreeable to you. I know it was to me, and thanks to Author Robinson I now know a big part of that genre exists that I didn't before!

>68 richardderus: I was not aware of Mannerpunk as a genre and the concept is so up my alley. So thanks for putting it on my radar, RDear. Happy Friday! *smooches*

>68 richardderus: I've been a Tremontaine fan for well over a decade though I don't remembering reading Swordspoint back in the 80s I may well have - and recently encountered Ellen Kushner on FB as a co-fan of a clothing company. I liked the mostly straight up alternate reality, but then Delia Sherman took it more mystic.

>70 quondame:, >67 quondame: It's all news to me, so I'm finding a lot to enjoy.

There's no *wrong* way to enjoy books! Shallow takes aren't bad. I like a good, glossy surface...just ask my Young Gentleman Caller. He'll tell you how shallow I am. At length. With examples.

>69 MickyFine: Neither me! I'd never heard the term before. Makes a lot of sense, doesn't it. Apparently the Gail Carriger books about parasols count, too!

>66 Storeetllr: I know, I know, Mary. All those pesky feels. But really, where better to exercise them than in private while reading fiction? Let 'em out for some air!

*smooch* Happy weekend's reads!

>71 richardderus: Yay for a pretty surface. The young can be so wearingly earnest.
Have you ventured among the Raksura yet? I'd be interested to know what you mine among them.

I love the description of Mannerpunk and may have to check out the series by Kelly Robson. I'm clearly in the mood for comfort reading right now, and fantasy is my jam.

Happy weekend to you! *smooch*

'Morning, RichardDear. Happy Saturday to you.

*smooch*

>74 karenmarie: Hi Horrible! *smooch*

It's 9.20 is our sub there yet and is the provolone smoked and are the mushrooms baby-bellas and what about salad?

>73 bell7: Isn't that a delightful definition? Makes the genre snap into focus for me. *smooch*

>72 quondame: Oh so wearyingly earnest. They haven't been through this a dozen times already. "This again?" isn't their first response yet.

Hi. That's all. Just a-roaming this morning.

>76 SandyAMcPherson: Howdy do. Hope you're doing well! Enjoy the wander.

>68 richardderus: Mannerpunk? Well, OK, but.

Have you read Melissa Scott/Lisa A. Barnett Astreiant series? I'm finding as I read Fair's Point that my mind want to see a Tremontaine striding, or perhaps gliding, through and I expect Riverside to be part of the geography.

>78 quondame: If we're going to "-punk" everything anyway, it makes a lot of sense.

Nevahoydova. *sigh*

>79 richardderus: I rather like Raithe and Phillip and their city. Melissa Scott has other interesting worlds as well.

>80 quondame: I have Point of Hopes on le Kindledevice. It's 6¢ more than an ex-library hardcover, which I can't hold long enough to read comfortably.

>81 richardderus: 👍

>62 richardderus: NooooO! I had never had that thought and now I can't unthink it and noooo!

*takes wire wool to brain*

>83 BekkaJo: #sorrynotsorry

>2 richardderus: I now have a mission. To bestow on many people in my life who clearly need this in theirs.

>61 richardderus: Love the review. I look forward to diving into the series but still holding off.

>68 richardderus: Hadn't heard of that one. For less lesbian more gay, go with the original Swordspoint and the third book of the series, Fall of the Kings. I am pretty fond of The Privilege of the Sword compared to the other two, but that's my bias, and greatly enjoyed Tremontaine opening up Riverside to more authors.

Good morning, RD! Happy Sunday to you.

The provolone is not smoked, the mushrooms are just plain button, and no salad. I prefer smoked and bella, but this is not a fancy place. I get just this one order from them, have for probably a decade now.
*smooch*

>86 karenmarie: Play to their strengths, then, eh what? Simplicity done well is a great pleasure.

Happy Sunday, Horrible! *smooch*

>85 justchris: I'm just astounded at how much luuuv Riverside gets, and how deeply it's impacted QUILTBAGgers' lives, and I am motoring down the canal of Life pretty much untouched. It's clearly deeply familiar to you, Chris, and that makes me think I'm missin' a trick here even more.

Happy week-ahead's reads!

>84 richardderus: nice to see a good "Evil Muttley Laugh" around here

>88 magicians_nephew: Heh

Well, he *is* my personal hero what with all that laughing at foolishness.

My dad could do a really good Muttley laugh. I can't, that's one thing the genetics forgot to pass down.

>90 Helenliz: Oh, that's a shame, Helen, it's a gift I can see making so many things so much merrier.

Richard, just to let you know that we watched Nebraska at the weekend, which I think you recommended on my thread a little while back. Really enjoyed it.

>92 SandDune: Oh, I'm so glad Rhian. It's a very good little underknown gem of a film. Poignant, with so much to say about how hard it is to grow up even when you've grown old.

>87 richardderus: Not just strictly QUILTBAG readers. I had a lover back in the 90s who was hard-core into rapier/fencing, and he pressed Swordspoint into my hands and told me this book expressed the essence of him. What I took away from that was that he was bisexual, probably not quite what he meant. But yes, that book affected an entire generation of readers, it seems.

I was pretty overjoyed to find the sequel years later and tickled now to see how it's turned into a whole franchise, much like a peat fire smoldering underground for many years before erupting into a full-fledged wildfire when the conditions are right. And now is the right time for all the queer spec fic and all the mannerpunk. I also love how Tremontaine has reversed the direction of the Age of Exploration so that it's Middle American traders who've crossed the oceans to visit backwater Europe with luxury goods.

My fondness for Tremontaine, aside from the books being decent reads, comes from a yearning for fantasy in an urban landscape. Other than believing people's attractions and bonds are their own business I've no QUILTBAG credentials whatsoever.

'Morning, RDear. Happy Monday to you.

Coffee in hand, book available, it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood...

*smooch*

>96 karenmarie: It is indeed a beautiful day, isn't it. Nomadland won its Oscar, the skies are blue, progress is being made against The Plague, the publishing industry has stopped publishing books that tempt me so I can focus on the ones I've already got...the planet is practically perfect in every way!

>95 quondame: Urban fantasy was a long time coming, wasn't it. I can't really comprehend why, as it truly seemed to be the next logical thing for, like, ever.

>94 justchris: That's always appealing, isn't it. Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen had the Aryan migrations taking place Eastward...that is, towards the Pacific, not Europe...and reaching the Americas via California. Most amusing!

Was happy to see Frances McDormand take home another little gold guy for another beautiful heart wrenching performance in "Nomadland"

Have to get my mitts on the book and read that next

>98 magicians_nephew: I wasn't anywhere near as enamored of the book, TBH, but having seen the film I'd say it was the correct order of appreciation. If I'd seen the film first, I'd've been a lot more forgiving of the book.

>99 richardderus:
I enjoyed the book Nomadland and haven't seen the movie. I didn't think it was the best book ever written, but the author did have something to say and her exploration of this subculture was well done. I probably won't see the movie because by the time I think I can go back to a theater they will all be permanently closed. I am not really a purist but I think that most movies are made with a big screen in mind and while you can watch them on TV I think something is lost. I think this epidemic has changed a couple of institutions forever. The churches, the movie industry, and higher education (where I work) will never be the same as they were.

>100 benitastrnad: Many, many changes we don't even realize were made are going to remain. Higher prices, longer waits for personal care, empowerment of right-wingnuttery. It will take a serious, shooting-and-bleeding war to get some of the worst elements of society back under their rocks, I fear.

>100 benitastrnad: >101 richardderus: Unfortunately, the new normal seems to be holding onto some of the worst aspects of the old normal. I finally saw a decent sprinkling of stars in the Singapore night sky last year but it's reported that, in the bounce back after the lockdowns, carbon emissions are hitting record highs (last year and already this year) - just like in the recovery from the last financial crisis. The skies here, while not back to the full horrendous orange glow at night, are hazy again.

'Morning, RDear!

Happy Tuesday to you. *smooch* from your own Horrible

>102 humouress: I was wondering how the places in the world that had clearer skies and cleaner water were faring... sorry you've got haze again.

Hi y'all. Murderbot day: Fugitive Telemetry is here so I won't be *here* too much if you see what I mean.

>103 karenmarie: *smooch*

>102 humouress: People are rotten-souled selfishness machines. Apparently there is no hope of actually breaking through their solipsism.

>104 richardderus: Enjoy it, Richard. I snarfed it up in a few hours and my review is already up. :)

70 Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells

Real Rating: 4.75* of five, rounded up in spite of the dull thud of a dropped plot-point that I needed more of

This is a locked-room murder mystery with Twelve Years a Slave overtones. Much much good action and some serious character development. Don't start here, but don't let the door hit you standing around waiting for it to go on sale before reading it.

When we come onto Preservation Station, we're greeted by a world that...doesn't work like the one you and I are used to:

(Preservation had two economies, one a complicated barter system for planetary residents and one currency-based for visitors and for dealing with other polities. Most of the humans here didn’t really understand how important hard currency was in the Corporation Rim but the council did, and Mensah said the port took in enough in various fees to keep the station from being a drain on the planet’s resources.)

Thus Author Wells makes plain that Preservation Station and Alliance doesn't exist on the Corporate Rim's terms...it interfaces with them, but doesn't make their system its own. I'd wondered about that. I'm very grateful she took the time to say out loud (well, in parenthesis, where Murderbot says a lot of important stuff) what I'd been trying to figure out.

What isn't hard to figure out is what Murderbot's appeal is to us unaugmenteds:

...the humans on the Station wouldn’t have to think about what I was, a construct made of cloned human tissue, augments, anxiety, depression, and unfocused rage, a killing machine for whichever humans rented me, until I made a mistake and got my brain destroyed by my governor module.
–and–
(I don’t know why bot behaviors that are useless except to comfort humans annoy me so much.) (Okay, maybe I do. They built us, right? So didn’t they know how this type of bot took in visual data? It’s not like sensors and scanners just popped up randomly on its body without humans putting them there.)

There's nothing more fun than hearing your inner monologue made outer by a belovèd character speaking it in words. I, too, find the stupid soothing behaviors necessary to interact as frictionlessly as possible with people I don't like very irritating...especially when they get in the way of accomplishing stuff that needs doing, now.

What makes the series especially appealing to me, apart from Murderbot, is the grace notes that Author Wells give us. Murderbot came close to getting a sidekick bot this installment, and something suggests to me that it could still happen. A bot working in the hotel where Murderbot has traced our murder victim to is **eager** to help with the investigation. Murderbot isn't eager to be helped once it has what it needs. "(The bot’s name is Tellus. They name themselves and hearing about it is exhausting.)" thinks Murderbot of the poor basic bot. Now go look at the layers in this simple throw-away here. "Hearing about it is exhausting" doesn't even *begin*, Murderbot! But what a lovely easter-egg for the restlessly curious.

Then there's Murderbot's ongoing quest to discover what its origins mean. The corporate entities out after Murderbot and its chosen family (Dr. Mensah and her folk) have occupied Murderbot's threat-assessment module and its tactical programs for so long that it hasn't seen how very human it's becoming:

Maybe I’d been waiting too long for GrayCris to show up and try to kill us all. I was thinking like a CombatUnit, or, for fuck’s sake, like a CombatBot.
–and–
I pulled the schematic from the instructions and found the transponder was buried in the sealed drive unit.
Oh, you have to be kidding me. I’d be pissed off at the humans but I had brought this thing up here without checking.
–and–
This meant no bot pilot that I could get information from. That was depressing. I had no idea what else I was supposed to do as a member of this group and just following humans around listening to them talk felt a lot like just being a SecUnit again. I mean, I am a SecUnit, but … You know what I mean.

Yes, Murderbot, we all know what you mean. It's the way many of us feel a lot of the time, too. You'd be amazed how human you really are.

And don't stalk off all offended. You're really the best of us, not just the rest of us. Not Festivus for you.

>105 MickyFine: Oh boy! I'll come look soonest.

>106 richardderus: Love your insights as always!

So much fun, reading Fugitive Telemetry!! I enjoyed it greatly too.

>109 ronincats:, >108 MickyFine: It's always a joy to spend time with Murderbot...I get so much out of it.

Murderbot is so much more than a collection of tics! So often that's what a series character devolves into. Not Murderbot...so far...

>106 richardderus: All that, yes. I see you've been spreading your delight around!

>111 quondame: It's just too much joy not to spread, you know? I think the Murderbot Day festivities should include a paid Federal holiday and six sessions of grief counseling for the letdown-and-reentry period. Is one *actually* expected simply to...what, go back to work without any kind or sort of assistance with this transition?

>112 richardderus: I could get fully behind that, honestly. I think I was on vacation last year when I read the first four, and I'm a little sad I'm not now so I could give a reread my full attention!

>106 richardderus: Okay, I'm obviously missing something - I'm going to have to look into this!

Happy Wednesday, RDear.

30 years ago today I was happily ensconced in a B&B converted-tobacco-barn cabin near Mount Pilot, NC. This morning I'm happily ensconced in my Sunroom, sipping coffee and trying to wake up.

*smooch*

Wednesday morning greetings, BigDaddy! I see you gobbled up the latest Murderbot - skipping the review for now because I still need to read Network Effect. I have been hoarding it for an emergency. Perhaps now is an excellent time to reread through the novellas and then dive into the novels. Love your idea of Murderbot Day festivities. *smooch and a bear hug*

>116 Crazymamie: Abso-blinkin-lutely, Mamie, and how. Get your eyes a-trackin'! *smooch*

>115 karenmarie: Happy anniversary, Horrible! I'm glad that, in both cases, your ensconcement is happy.

>114 BekkaJo: All Systems Red. Hit the "buy" button.

>113 bell7: See? Another country heard from, Congress! People all the way in Massachusetts are crying for relief from the intolerable burden of not being able to ensconce themselves with Murderbot!

I'll get to Murderbot... eventually.

Happy Wednesday, RD!

Ok I surrender - what is the first book of the Murderbot series? Entry point?

Hiya RD. I started Revenge in Rubies last night. I'm having a fun-relaxing time with it. A bit of a pattern akin to the first book (Singapore Sapphire). I'm an undemanding reader of middle and far eastern mysteries, so that's alright.
Sorry if I busted up the Murderbot discussion; simply wanted to delurk for a minute!
Hope your week is going well and that the allergens are dissipating for you now.

I put a hold on All Systems Red at the library. For my husband, of course. (I’ll probably read it too.)

>121 ursula: Yes, of course...for your husband...mmm hmm. Naturally.

>120 SandyAMcPherson: *smooch*

I'm not hugely demanding of books set in places not terribly familiar to me. I just don't see too much point in making a fuss about things that aren't in my wheelhouse. I hope Revenge in Rubies takes the series some new and better places.

>119 magicians_nephew: All Systems Red. Then a super-short episode in Wired magazine, free to read online. I'll make with the link when you need it.

Enjoy!

>118 katiekrug: They shall be there awaiting your tardy, begrudging attention, and the Initiated will refrain from laughing at you when you come crowing about how good they are.

To your face, at least.

*smooch*

>106 richardderus: I haven't read this one yet, so maybe shouldn't have read the review, but yes, this expresses so much what I love about Murderbot.

>123 swynn: Well? What's the hold-up? You're not torturing yourself with those *horrible* Fu Manchu books anymore and surely the next Micheneresque tome can wait for you to refresh yourself with something pleasurable to read!

It's too good not to delve into immediately!

>116 Crazymamie: Timeline wise, Fugitive Telemetry comes before Network Effect so you could read it first if you so desire. :)

>125 MickyFine: Excellent point! Listen to Micky, Mamie!
***

>126 richardderus: I’ve written that top left one a few times... and that third one down on the left even more.

71 The First Snow of Winter by Joanna Chambers

Rating: 4* of five

Except for three foul, putrid w-bombs, this first-time friends to lovers tale gets full marks. The childhood love of the young men is well-played for the explanation of their chemistry as men. Adding in the war wound and its effect on each of them is what tips this short piece into a good read on its own and not a mere add-on to the series.

72 The Labours of Lord Perry Cavendish by Joanna Chambers

The w-bombs come thick and fast here. Two—two!—within the first chapter alone! The onslaught of cheesy, unpleasant eye-infection behaviors continued until there were six...count 'em six...infringements of the Readers' Rights Agreement. Humph.

Perry is a Chelsea-bun hero all right, plain on the outside but fruity and spicy all the way through. (That's the period-appropriate term for a Cinnamon Roll hero, don't you know...since Chelsea buns were first made in the eighteenth century, unlike cinnamon rolls.) He's ooey-gooey sweet, with that large, lumbering man charm that seems to center on not fitting the furniture:
He was sitting in a spindly little chair, at a spindly little desk in the morning room. It was probably a lady’s desk and part of the effects of the house Adam had purchased when he’d bought the estate. Had the previous occupants been elves, Perry wondered? Most of the chairs in the house seemed to be too small for him.

Been there, Brother Man, been there and hated the view. Dinky little people need to understand that they are not the proper measure of the world! But a deeper hurt has been done to Perry, beyond merely being made to feel that he's Too Much...
“You need to go slower,” Perry repeated, his face heating with mortification. “I’m not one of those clever fellows like you who can write quickly.” He forced a chuckle. “I was a bit of a dunce at school.”

He's not eloquent or even terribly articulate in his speech, and not a very intellectually inclined sort, but not (as Lysander knows of old) slow-witted or dumb. In his classes, however, he was rather thought less of and certainly belittled by his harridan of a mother. He bears terrible emotional scars because of this, and is very sure that someone like the garrulous swan-like Jonny Mainwaring, fey and dandyish and a riot of color and sound, would sooner be dead than than spend time with him.

Jonny is suffering from the fey, dandyish man's usual problem with other men: What appeals to them at the start makes them absolutely mad as hornets by the end. Jonny's an artiste, you see, on top of being less than a manly man. He's accustomed to that being a Very Bad Thing...and here's this large, lovable lummox of a Perry practically blushing himself into a stroke every time Jonny so much as smiles at him!

So, while it's Laborious wading through the w-bombs, the conclusion lived up to my desires. You need to be in the mood for fears and doubts to get the full effect from the read. I think it's very worthwhile to take the trip.

There is more of each review, should one care to read it, at Expendable Mudge Muses Aloud.

>127 drneutron: I can only imagine, Jim...and never, ever the top right, of course.

::side-eye::

>128 richardderus: Dinky little people need to understand that they are not the proper measure of the world!

Well, this dinky little person would appreciate it if furniture makers and car manufacturers could take her height into consideration once in a while. You tall people have it all your own way *grumble*

ETA: ... and what do you mean, 'not the proper measure'? What else can possibly be proper?

>127 drneutron: Ummm, yeah... me too.
Weirdly, that article was cited more than the work it was used in *shrug*

>126 richardderus: Heh. I recognize many of those papers!

Happy Thursday, Richard dear!

>127 drneutron: Third one down, middle column.

>130 humouress: I'm with you! Tall people ought to be chopped off at the knees and brought down to size occasionally.

>134 Helenliz: Yes! Perfectly proportioned people unite! (Well, I’m carrying a little extra in width than I want to, at the moment - but otherwise...)

Happy Newish THread, RIchard. Thanks for the heads-up on the Martha Wells shortie. I snapped it up. i just ate Fugitive telemetry in one big gulp. Murderbot!

‘Morning, RDear! Happy Thursday to you.

>126 richardderus: I love the top row middle-type of article best.

*smooch*

>137 karenmarie: Hey there, Horrible, happy-snappy Thursday to you, too.

I contest "useful" being unnecessary as an adjunct to cool....

>136 jnwelch: Hi Joe! I't s a lovely thing to be fully vaccinated and Murderbotted. Now the long, gloomy trudge until the next one begins. *heavy heavy sigh*

>133 FAMeulstee: Thanks, Anita!

>135 humouress:, >134 Helenliz:, >130 humouress: Now, now, micropedalian minority members...no one is trying to suggest that your...difference...in any way makes you *lesser* beings...of course us normal-sized persons will allow for your special needs and offer differently-sized drinking fountains and encourage strongly the provision of reduced countertops and refrigerator drawers. Of course you understand that we can not require such accommodations, and as they are...unusual...they will be significantly more costly. Ordinary-sized persons, after all, *do* constitute the majority....

>134 Helenliz: No, it ain't nothin' is it?

>132 justchris: They're all quite common, ain't they Chris?

>131 SandyAMcPherson: *chuckle*

>139 richardderus: The average height of women (over 20 years old) in North America is 5-ft, 4-in.

It is great being average, because most store-bought clothing fits well (and we can buy shoes on sale because all the smaller sizes are still in stock), we can stand up under the overhead bins in airplanes, and it is way easier to pull out the step stool to reach the top shelf in the kitchen than have to cram into seating that's too close together. Just a few thoughts...

And now back to reading... having poked the wasp nest

>134 Helenliz: tall people are punished quite enough thank you being constantly banged in the head by low hanging tree branches and cabinet doors and having to squeeze into airplane seats for hours at a time.

And the next person who asks me if i played Basketball (or Football) in college will be found floating the Hudson with the other garbage.

>142 magicians_nephew: - The Wayne approves this message!

I'm tall for a woman at 5'8" and it's amazing I don't have permanent damage from the number of times I have banged my head on overhead bins on planes and trains...

ETA: Hi RD!

>142 magicians_nephew: oops. I had a memory come up on my facebook feed this week about me (157 cm) actually hitting my head. It was on a lintel of a fireplace. I saw stars, felt very wooosy, ended up with a lump like an egg on my head and a stunning violet bruise. I did NOT spill my glass of wine.

I resolved at the time not to laugh at tall people who duck when faced with a "mind your head" sign.

I *may* have failed in that resolution.

I also never said I'd not take the p**s out of tall people for other reasons. So, did you play tall sports? >;-)

>144 Helenliz: "Tall sports" are...basketball.

Enjoy the Hudson! I understand it's no longer a chemical bath. Mostly.

>143 katiekrug: Hey Katie!

>142 magicians_nephew: Oh my, yes...and your first deposit resides at >144 Helenliz:....

>141 SandyAMcPherson: Yes, indeed, women are significantly shorter than men on average. But who ever aspires to be average? I don't yearn to be 5'9"....

>145 richardderus: "Tall sports" are basketball AND volleyball.
And mainly in the Netherlands and Belgium there is korfball ;-)

>146 FAMeulstee: "Korfball"? Looks like basketsoccer to me...

>147 richardderus: :-)
One of very few sports played by women and men together in a team. Franks parents both played korfball when they were young.

>148 FAMeulstee: It's been around that long! Good gravy!

Y'all do some very odd things to stay entertained instead of shooting each other.

>139 richardderus: Hey! >128 richardderus: you started the complaint; thereby confessing that you're not 'ordinary-sized' yourownself. Hmph.

>142 magicians_nephew: Low hanging tree branches common around where you are, are they?

>144 Helenliz: *not laughing* *not laughing* *must not giggle*

As for overhead bins I either have to forego my dignity and stand on the seat or find a height-overcompensated person to help me haul my stuff down.

I'm avoiding your Murderbot reviews Richard because, having loved the first book, I'm holding out for the paperback versions for my bookshelves. I've seen the hardback version ... the paperbacks should be along ... soon ...?

>146 FAMeulstee: My husband tells me that a century or two ago, Dutch people were the shortest in Europe. Then the dykes were created and dairy animals fed on the resulting pastures so that, now, the Dutch are the tallest in Europe (and the world?).

>149 richardderus: Odd little differences in culture ;-)

>150 humouress: The first and last are true, Nina.
In the Middle Ages dykes were created here to keep the sea and rivers from flooding the land. Later dykes were used to create new land, the polders. The first polder was the Beemster, it fell dry in 1610. The latest polder is the Flevopolder, where I live, the last part fell dry in the 1960s.
People everywhere have become taller when more and better food came available. Length is mostly genetic (about 80%). Recent research shows it was natural selection: taller Dutch men had more offspring than shorter Dutch men.

I get to see both sides of the tall/short thing: I'm 5'3" and my husband is 6'4". Occasionally there are hilarious ways we realize we don't see things the same - I put something on a shelf saying it's in plain sight, until he points out that he has to bend in half to see it. He finds "the perfect place" to hang our masks, then realizes that I can't do more than touch the very bottom of the elastics when they're hanging there.

When we were first living together, he used to do things like put the cordless phone on top of the refrigerator.

'Morning, RD! Happy Friday to you.

I have a stepladder in the kitchen and one in the utility room (which is close to this room, where lots of my books are). I also have one of those old-people-use-them grabber things, inherited from Bill's mother, which comes in quite handy at times, too. And if Bill's in the kitchen when I am and I need something from an upper shelf, I say "Hey, tall person!"

I’m only 5’1”. I’m really short. My son, at 6’1” thinks it’s hilarious.

>154 SandDune: My mother was 5'1" and my father 6'1". I got a bit taller than my father, but nowhere near my cousin's 6'9" and exactly match his sister's 6'2.5"—Dad had polio so he was shorter than his two brothers, and Mama smoked like a diesel on a steep grade, or I most likely would've gotten taller based on male heights in his family.

>153 karenmarie: Those reachy-grabby things are *awesome*! I need one whenever I need something from the floor.

>152 ursula: Well, yes of course...just put it down on the nearest flat surface with the fewest wet things on it. Top of the fridge is perfect.

...oh...of course, I see.

>151 FAMeulstee: Yeeesss ::side-eye::

I wonder what climate change is going to do to heights. It's no picnic being tall when it's bloody hot outside! Dinky personettes can, I dunno, dodge the faster-moving air molecules?

>150 humouress: I went to check...Tor.com Publishing, her publisher, has released all the paperbacks here in the US simultaneously with the other editions. It's one of their greater charms. Permaybehaps try a different bookstore?

*draws future corpse to its fullest extension* I shall have you to know, Madam, that I am most assuredly not "ordinary" in any of my particulars! *hmph*

*smooch*

Hi, Richard. I'm 6'2", for what that's worth. All I've got right now...

>157 weird_O: Soon I'll start calling this thread "Tall Street Journal," see if I don't!

Glad to see you around and about.

Just dropping in to shake my pom poms for the tall folk. Though my poor Mum - who is over a foot shorter than my Dad, definitely stands out in family photos. Or doesn't, if you see what I mean.

It's Friday, I am a bear of very little remaining brain and therefore have no obligation at all to make sense.

>159 BekkaJo: Since the Members are seated I can certainly understand that.

*muffled hilarity*

My mother's shortness, and her father's lack of inches (he was maybe 5'9" or 10" which ain't much for a dude), got my own sisters. They're both under 5'3". Family photos looked like a tree surrounded by shrubs.

Wayne is 6'4" and his sister is 5'2" on a good day. She was Best Woman at our wedding, and the photos are hilarious...

>161 katiekrug: Mama's best YA buddy, Auntie Lael, was 6'1" and had Mama as matron of honor at her wedding to 6'5" Jim. A little floppy hat bouncing along the aisle among the 5'11" and up ladies...so funny.

But do you know, people who went to that wedding remembered her best of all the interchangeable model-ladies!

>160 richardderus: I have the opposite problem. Me, my brother & 3 cousins. I'm 5ft 2 (if I stretch). In height order then they go up 5'8", 5'11", 6'0", 6'2".
I look like I'm stood in a hole.

The worst of it is I'm the eldest, so all through our childhoods, I'm the big one in the middle, usually lumbered with holding the latest addition to the family. Then, in my teens, I stopped growing early and they all overtook me.

I can still boss all them others about, them being tall doesn't phase me.
Though she be but little, she is fierce.

>163 Helenliz: Not one dinky little lady of my personal acquaintance is a person to be trifled with. Lack of inches ≠ lack of stature!

APRIL IN REVIEW

So, it wasn't a great month. Eleven reviews and eleven blogged reviews. That's six short. But more annoying than that is the fact that Blogger will no longer support Feedburner as of July! I have 900 email blog-subscribers to find a new way to reach before then.

I hate when billionaire corpocrats decide it costs too much to make services available to their traffic drivers.

>153 karenmarie: Ooh, a grabber thingy; I should get one.

>154 SandDune: I'm sure you've disabused him of his hilarity.

>155 richardderus: / 152 Now, come on!

>156 richardderus: Thanks. I shall have to go a-hunting Murderbot paperbacks.

I shall have you to know, Madam, that I am most assuredly not "ordinary" in any of my particulars! Erm, yes ... quite.

>164 richardderus: Not one dinky little lady of my personal acquaintance is a person to be trifled with. Lack of inches ≠ lack of stature! And don't you forget it! (If we're discussing height, I'm five foot. And a half.)

>166 humouress: This one's mine: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Grabber-Buddy-48-in-Pick-Up-Tool-Extended-Reacher-GB...

Four feet long. Perfect for back-corner dropped-and-rolled stuff. Sturdy, too, unlike the $7 jobbiedoodles that bend when you pick up a full soup can.

(If we're discussing height, I'm five foot. And a half.)
No wonder your nefarious career as a supervillainess is so successful. No one can see you. And if they do, they can't believe you'd be able to *reach* anything!

>152 ursula: One 6'5" boyfriend mortified my mother because he could see the top of the refrigerator. That is not why I have a 5'6" husband, really it's not.

>167 richardderus: Well, we probably should have one of those - I'm a bit wide and Mike's knee has decided to take revenge on him for his abuse of it.

>168 quondame: That is not only why I have a 5'6" husband

Fixed it for you.

>167 richardderus:

I'll try to pay a longer visit once I get caught up!

>171 thornton37814: Yay! You're online!

>170 humouress: Heh. If looks could deep-fry....

Hi Richard, i am slowly catching up with the threads and as yours seems to move quite quickly i always seem to be well behind.

We are still waiting for Amy to give birth, her due date was yesterday but that came and went, oh well it will come when it is good and ready, lol.

I hope that you have a really good weekend dear friend and we both send love and hugs.

>173 johnsimpson: Thanks John, and to you and Karen as well! Amy, well, I think we all know what would make this a good weekend for her. :-)

Apparently, I secretly belong to a family of hobbits. Not many of us are past 5'5. My aunt, reached a maximum height of 4'7. Thankfully, I at least managed to reach 5'2.

Have a great reading weekend!

My family's heights are all over the place, with me (barely taller than my mother at 5' 3.5") being the shortest. My tallest sister is nearly 5' 8", only an inch or two shorter than one brother, and the other brother is maybe 6' 2" (it's hard to tell, when his curly hair gets long he appears taller). My parents are both average (5' 3" and just under 6 feet), so we're not really sure how all that happened.

Hope you have a great weekend, Richard!

73 Entry Island by Peter May

Rating: 3* of five

The Publisher Says: A detective is haunted by the feeling he knows his murder suspect - despite the fact they have never met.

IF YOU FLEE FATE...

When Detective Sime Mackenzie is sent from Montreal to investigate a murder on the remote Entry Island, 850 miles from the Canadian mainland, he leaves behind him a life of sleeplessness and regret.

FATE WILL FIND YOU...

But what had initially seemed an open-and-shut case takes on a disturbing dimension when he meets the prime suspect, the victim's wife, and is convinced that he knows her - even though they have never met.

And when his insomnia becomes punctuated by dreams of a distant Scottish past in another century, this murder in the Gulf of St. Lawrence leads him down a path he could never have foreseen, forcing him to face a conflict between his professional duty and his personal destiny.

My Review: A weird hybrid of romance and historical fiction, with very little suspense but some strong characters. I wanted to love it; I liked it a lot, but found myself moving slowly through it. Author May's The Blackhouse and its two sequels had the same issues for me. I won't sprain things to get his books, but will read them when I find them on super sales and/or there's a group read.

>176 bell7: Thank you, Teenyweeny, I mean Mary! I hope I don't have a rotten one, that's as far as my hopes go.

Sunshine and a good book to read will cure all ills!

>175 figsfromthistle: Thank you, Anita, and the same wishes heartily returned to your hobbit-hole!

Happy Saturday, RDear!

>167 richardderus: My MiL's grabby-thingie, now ours, is a Pikstik, an older one, without the rotating jaws. I've also confirmed that it got liberated from Hospice - their edges-curled sticker is still on it.

I've shrunk over the years, gravity having its way with me. I was 5'5", am now about 5'4". Bill's 6'0". Jenna was thrilled when the doctor said she'd probably be about 5'7" when she was about 5, but she's topped out at 5'5". And now, of course, she's taller than I am and frequently reminds me of it.

74 Heartstopper volume 1 by Alice Oseman

Rating: 3.5* of five

Since STEVEN LOVED IT TO BITS and it was borrowable, why not?

The reasons why not:
1) YA...how often have I bemoaned the depressing prevalence of YA books in publishing? It seems that what ain't Fifty Shades of Ptui is Twiphlegm.
2) Coming-of-age...hated that mess in 1972, no fonder of it 49 years on.
3) Coming out...never having been convincingly *in* I'm less emotionally invested in coming *out*.
4) Graphic novel...comic books weren't part of my childhood. My sisters are more like aunts, I have no memories of them before they were teens so, to me, adults. The boys I hung around with weren't comic-booky sorts, they were playscripts and Asimov readers, Star Trek fanfic writers...not superhero-worshipping guys. They could, however, decline the nouns in Elvish from Lord of the Rings and draw maps of Mordor from memory.

So what the hell was this oh-so-precious overbred individual doing here? Making a concerted effort not to die above the neck before dying below it. Must examine and challenge those prejudices lest they clog my mental arteries too far.

It was fun, in a weird way, to make it through the story in 25 minutes, then go back and really look at the art. But truthfully I won't read any more of them.

There's more at Expendable Mudge Muses Aloud.

>179 karenmarie: Hiya Horrible! I relate on the shrinkage: I've lost an inch or so. It's not like it wasn't expected, since we all do, but it was still an indignity I could've done without. And it sounds like it's time to get y'all's selves a new grabbythingy....

Saturday *smooch*

>177 richardderus: I'm pretty sure we have that one at the library and that it is on my TBR list. I'm just not checking things off of that list like I do sometimes. I'll need to move some to the public library Overdrive list because I'll need to send some back at the end of their "lease time."

>178 richardderus: *snort* Yeah, she grew taller than me just before turning 10 and loved to come up behind me and lean with her arms against my back lovingly saying, "You're so short." Said youngest sister is almost 15 years my junior, and it was the funniest thing to me to watch people go from, "Oh is that your daughter?" to thinking I was the younger one.

>183 bell7: Ha! Fifteen years younger, people think she's older...well, it's not the first time I've heard of it. I think my oldest sister got "is that your little boy?" a bit when I was a sprog, being ten years my senior, but I must say I don't recall...then, I wouldn't would I?

>182 thornton37814: I don't think it will appeal to you very much, Lori. The setting is the most interesting part of it.

Well, if we're still on height, I tease my younger son while I still can since he's the only one shorter than me - for now. :0)

Took my kids to the paediatrician in the holidays (though my older son will have to graduate from there soon) to update their vaccinations. Apparently they didn't measure my older son properly - maybe he's sort of outgrown the measuring device - and then the paediatrician had a look at the growth chart and said he'd probably reached his maximum height.

They mis-measured him at 5'4" and now he's paranoid so he's looking into getting injections to help him grow. But he's actually (just) taller than his dad and my dad; they're all around the 5'6"-5'7" mark (when people are taller than me I don't focus on their height).

>185 humouress: (when people are taller than me I don't focus on their height)

Well, really, how could you be expected to? So hard to see that far up....

*lurk, lurk, lurk* *delurk* >183 bell7:, >184 richardderus: My mother's cousin mistook me for my Mom at a funeral....talked to me for several minutes as if we were contemporaries before realizing I couldn't be her age and look so much younger than my Dad, who was right there too. I probably looked the way my mother did the last time the two saw each other 20 years before. My Dad thought it was hysterical, and my mother, who was way back in the line chatting with someone else, said "Shirley always was a little dim".

>186 richardderus: Hmph. Well, why would I need to?

>187 laytonwoman3rd: oof!

>144 Helenliz: and "watch for low flying airplanes" at the airport. Not a heck of a lot you can do about it is there?

>147 richardderus: korfball looks interesting. Seems to me we played some variant of this at co-ed summer camp

>168 quondame: when i first started seeing Judy (who is five feet tall) i involuntarily commented on how dusty and washed the top of her refrigerator was. Her response? "What? Where? Who Knew?"

>178 richardderus: Cornell Woolrich wrote a book back in the day where the detective - investigating a decades old crime - gradually discovered that HE - the detective - is also the murderer Quite a corker when i first read it,

I get the feeling that this thread is becoming heightist ...

;0)

>190 humouress: I remain above the fray

>191 magicians_nephew:, >190 humouress:, >188 humouress: "Becoming" heightist? "Was conceived in and remains solidly rooted in" more like.

But hey, I'm open-minded, y'all sawed-offs don't bring up your...difference...and I won't either.

>189 magicians_nephew: Oh, I remember that Woolrich! I read it not long after The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. Can't come up with the title, though. It was, IIRC, a short story.

>187 laytonwoman3rd: Ha! Poor, dim Shirley little knew that she'd be the butt of family jokes for *decades* to come.

The absolute coolest map-like thing ever.

>191 magicians_nephew: I suspect Judy might think you're hitting below the belt.

>192 richardderus: Big ain't better, you know.

I am 6'4" although my parents and Grandparents were smaller, think my height comes from Greatgrandad who was 7'2". Karen has shrunk, she says she was 5'9" and is now 5'7", Amy is 5'10" and Rob is 6' 3 3/4", i still have that little bit on him, lol.

>195 johnsimpson: Unless you've been measured recently, don't feel so sure you're still that quarter-inch taller....

>194 humouress: Randy Newman can reply for me.

>192 richardderus: Well, at least Shirley was tall.

>197 laytonwoman3rd: The thin air up that high set her poor addled neurons into a firing frenzy. Poor lamb.

>193 richardderus: Well, that’s definitely cool!

>196 richardderus: Well!

Sounds like he’s jealous.

Or scared:
They're gonna get you every time

>193 richardderus: That's a really awful/awesome map.

Good morning Richard. I hope you have a good Sunday and week ahead!

Today's 'Sherman's Lagoon'. Seemed apt.

... I mean, we were talking about grabby claw things, right? *blinks innocently*

‘Morning, RDear. Happy Sun Day to you.

>193 richardderus: Oh yes, way cool.

>202 humouress: That’s a riot.

*smooch*

>202 humouress: love "Sherman's Lagoon" one of the downsides of reading the newspaper online is that they don't always include the comics page.

I used to get my comic strip fix from the Seattle Post Intelligencer page but they seems to have stopped getting a lot of my favorites

>204 magicians_nephew:, >202 humouress: I haven't heard of or seen it before, so it's my first one. Good choice for a supervillainess. Spreading happiness? Really? Playing against type, then.

I do love the way that crab thinks....

>203 karenmarie: Hiya Horrible! Happy Sun Day to you, too. *smooch*

>201 connie53: To be pedantically accurate, it's a "data visualization" not a map. You don't think it's way cool? Why ever not? All the bodies in the Solar System that have surfaces mapped together?

>200 humouress: Paranoia does not mean incorrect assumptions...the short hordes are Always Ready to swamp Us....

>199 drneutron: I know, right?!

Y'all know that "I'm-immunized-from-being-heartbroken-because-I've-read-this-before" fallacy?

I've disproved it again.

I feel seen....

>208 richardderus: Me, too. Though, I have a pile of just three, not a big stack...

>196 richardderus:, Measured just over six months ago when i had my health check and six -four on the dot, don't think Rob has grown height wise but he has put a bit of timber on, bless him.

>210 johnsimpson: L'm jealous of you, John. I've lost an inch and will probably lose more! *sob*

>209 SandyAMcPherson: It's not the size of the pile, It's the presence of comfort reading.

>211 richardderus: I have a 6' Ikea shelf double stacked with anti-anxiety reads.

>212 quondame: As one should, in a properly ordered universe.

>208 richardderus: I keep a stack next to my reading chair - current count, 6. Then there’s the two shelves on stuff to read in my bookcase downstairs and another shelf upstairs.

>214 drneutron: My front hall:

All unread.

Oooh, nice!

>208 richardderus: yup, me too.

>126 richardderus: the scientific papers one...the bottom row, center and right. Yes, we see a lot of those :)
A significant omission is the "We got some funding, so we looked at x situation in great detail" one.

>215 richardderus: A, such promise in that stack! All those fun hours of reading ahead!

>205 richardderus: I haven't heard of or seen it before You're missing good things.

I do love the way that crab thinks.... Mmhmm.

>206 richardderus: /200 Believe it. bwahahahaa

>209 SandyAMcPherson: Oh Sandy, Sandy *shakes head* We may have to rescind your membership ;0)

>211 richardderus: Haha! (see 206 above)

>215 richardderus: Is that just your emotional support stack or all your unread?

>206 richardderus: Awful in a very good way, Richard! The 'data visualization' is absolutely very very powerful! ;-)))

Going to edit my post because of bad English!!

Late to the party, as usual. I come from a family of shorties. I am an even 5 feet zero and the shortest in my clan (and I surly hope I don't shrink as I age!). My mum is 5'2" and my father was 5'9". I don't know what my brother is but probably not more than that. However, on my mother's side, there is one branch, one of my grandmother's brothers, who spawned a very tall forest of offspring. All of them 6' or more, including the girls. Don't know how that happened!

As for the picker-upper (as I like to call those things), I have 2 of them and they are the best!

And that stack of emotional support reading, well, let's just say my pile is approaching mountain proportions....I wish I wasn't such a slow reader, and/or so easily distracted....

'Morning, RD!

2,275 of my 5,040 books are tagged tbr. I blame Bill for this condition. He kept having bookshelves built for me and, like in Field of Dreams, if you build them, books will come.

*smooch* from your own Horrible

>221 karenmarie: "Blame" is the wrong verb, surely! "Warble praise-songs to," surely.

*smooch* have a lovely day today!

>220 jessibud2: Somebody married a closet tallie. Genetics...that scamp!

That's just me front hall...eight crates and the tops (where I don't need the space to put masks, gloves, and scarves). The rest of the space is visibly more messy so, well, no.

>219 connie53: You're using English more correctly than us mere native speakers, Connie, since your use of "awful" is the original sense it was coined to serve. We're always repurposing words in English, it's one of the language's great strengths. That, and an alphabetic decoding system.

...though I could wish for greater consistency in that one...

>218 humouress: That's just the front hall!

I too am shocked at the paltriness of Sandy's Emotion Support TBR...stunned really, if I'm honest.

I clearly have much to learn vis-à-vis comic strips.

>217 LovingLit: Heh, yes Megan it's a wonderment how frequently people do that massive amount of work to DISprove something, or to prove someone else is WRONG.

>216 drneutron:

I only keep the book I am reading by the bed.
The mountain I have to read are stacked several deep in the bottom shelf of the bookshelves in my study. And on the floor in front...
The ones I have on deck to read this month are on a different shelf. It's a system. Sort of.

>224 Helenliz: The way you've described it, it is indeed a system. And flexible, which is a *must* in every Readerverse.

This is a tree peony called "Black Dragon" hybridized in Japan ~1905. It's just about the most beautiful peony I've ever seen!

Oh, I love peonies! And that color is gorgeous.

>226 richardderus: Tree peonies are so beautiful, Richard dear, and this one is marvelous.
I had two tree peonies in my previous garden. Sadly I had no proper place for them here, so I left them behind.

>228 FAMeulstee:, >227 katiekrug: They're among the spring glories that I truly anticipate and relish.
***

Time for Summer Hair! (And, by special "request" aka on the orders of my YGC, a Trotsky goatee.)

He wasn't all that pleased to be shaving off my beard, but I've *haddit* with hair in my ears! note to self make sure he never sees Chip Delany or I'm sunk

ETA size!

Good looking, Richard dear, ready for summer on the beach!

>230 FAMeulstee: Aww, thanks Anita! I'm already wandering the beach an hour a day. I'm just slightly bundled up for the wanders.

>229 richardderus: Lookin' good and ready for summer, Richard! Hoping you get some good weather for your beach wandering (it's supposed to rain here the next few days).

>229 richardderus: Looking good, sir!

Hey, RD. I am back and trying to catch up. Boy, we are a chatty bunch. I am just about done with Dolly Parton, Songteller. You put this on my radar and it was thoroughly enjoyable. I did the audio and it was great hanging out with Dolly for a few hours. I never realized how deep her songwriting catalog went.

Thank you both!

>233 msf59: Ha, we are indeed a chatty group! I don't envy you the catching-up task. I'm delighted that you're getting so many good hours with Miss Dolly.

>232 bell7: It's not going to rain here, or they haven't seen enough signs yet to predict it. I'll be fine either way...I ain't made of spun sugar so I won't melt.

Aside from what I've checked out from or placed a hold on at libraries, the only books that aren't TBR are books I've blackballed. I re-read a lot and when I want comfort it's to the known quantities I go. As reading a book does not remove it from the TBR category well, it's the checked out and on holds (currently a paltry 34-40) that come closest to meeting the classical definition.

Hi Richard, I see you have prepared for a summer beach walk. That won't happen here. I'm not near any beach and it's stormy and raining a lot. So I'm a bit envious!

‘Morning, RDear!

>229 richardderus: Yay for the summer cut. Neck up you definitely look like a Russian revolutionary, neck down you look comfy.

*smooch*

75 Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Rating: 4.5* of five

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: There is absolutely no chance that I will not write something, I can't be sure what, that will piss off some delicate fleur of a spoilerphobe. My entire review is herewith declared to be a SPOILER ZONE and you'll have to read it at my blog.

On your own head be it from here on. You've been warned and I do not want to hear a peep from you.

Okay, so what's it about? We're in media res with a man who has amnesia and, blessedly, is a scientist capable of working out that he's on a space ship. He isn't at all sure why he is where he is, has no idea who he is, and is in wherever this spaceship is with two dead people. That, my olds, is a fine, fine way to start a book.

The Earth is dying. Like, overnight the Earth is dying...and it isn't humanity's doing. The Sun is dimming. A lot. And really, really, really fast...in less time than it takes to raise a kid, the Sun will fall below the energy output needed to sustain the ecosystems we need to eat and breathe properly.

Quite the conundrum, no? And this is no way resembles the present climate-change crisis! Nay nay nay! This is science FICTION, y'all.

I really strongly encourage you to go and get this book even if you don't like science fiction or even science. If I can get past my allergy to handwavium applied by sentient aliens, you can set aside a little genre prejudice.

Whether at a bookery of your choosing or a library near you, get yourself this tale into your mind and let it make its story-pearls for your pleasure.

>237 karenmarie: Hiya Horrible! Rob wasn't enthused about hair-removal day, as he liked my beard in full Biblical-prophet flow; but when I offered him the Trotsky as a compromise, he was all in. All stakeholders being satisfied, we cooperated on the accomplishment of the task.

People get very weird about hair. I only care about how it *feels* when it's mine and not at all when it isn't. *smooch*

>236 connie53: Stormy and raining a lot sort of lowers the desire to drive to a beach, doesn't it Connie? I'm happy that this Spring is as mild as it has been so far! It's 16.5C today, just delightful, but also cloudy and a bit windy so I won't be lingering about outside.

>235 quondame: It's a system that's served you well, so it's inarguable that its parameters are suitable for use. When a thing stands the test of time, it is a Good Thing.

>238 richardderus: Well dang, that's irresistible. And no I'm not going to go check out the spoilers.

>238 richardderus: Congratulations on 75, Richard dear!

>241 FAMeulstee: Thank you, Anita!

>240 swynn: Chicken! And hey, you work in a library...pirate a copy and read it over lunch one day!

A gloomy good morning to you, RD!

I like the summer cut!

Hi, Richard.

Looking good up in >220 jessibud2:. Becca's Indy is getting her summer cut this week, too.

I loved that MUrderbot short story you tipped us off to. Have you read Becky Chambers new one? I was charmed off my duff by it - members of different species stranded and needing to get along - very Star Trekian.

>244 jnwelch: Hi Joe! Thanks, it's the product of much persuasion on my part...Rob did it for me, I don't trust my hands not to betray me at a crucial juncture. He wasn't delighted to do it, but I need summer lightness!

I haven't read Becky Chambers's latest. I have it on my Kindle, though, because I love the way she wanders around behind her characters recording what they say and do. She makes us all think about *why* the world isn't the way her Space is.

I'm delighted to see you around the place!

>243 katiekrug: Hiya Katie! Thanks, I'm pleased with the results. Made it so much more pleasant to put on my headphones last night.

>239 richardderus:. That would be a long drive (2,5 hours to the beach and 2,5 hours back) so I will walk in my own neighborhood. ;-)

Congrats on the 75! Like I said over on my thread, you didn't have to convince me to get the latest Weir. I did love "handwavium", though. 😀

>238 richardderus: Congratulations on 75 books!

Hum, I'm Weir'd out at present.

>248 quondame: The beauty of being old: "who cares if I read the It book in a year?"

>247 drneutron: Thanks, Jim! I don't remember ever reading "handwavium," so it might even be one of my own.

>246 connie53: Waaay too long a drive just for a little sea-sand between one's toes, I agree.

>259 connie53: In these parts we mostly use impossibilium. It's cheaper than hadwavium and stays put nicely.

>250 quondame: Oh, I thought that was unobtanium! Silly me, dozing through my Superpower Physics lessons.

>238 richardderus: This is great news, RD. I am looking forward to Project Hail Mary! I was a bit underwhelmed with Artemis.

>252 msf59: Artemis was an unsuccessful book. I disliked it a lot because it wasn't believable...wait, let me rephrase that...Jazz wasn't a character I felt was real enough to invest in.

Watney was; and now Ryland Grace is. Play to your strengths, Andy Weir!

>251 richardderus: That too, but it's a bit more dear.

Ever since the GOP got into the supervillainy market, EVERYthing's gotten more and more expensive. The rotters have damn near cornered the unobtainium market.

>253 richardderus: Well that's encouraging. I didn't believe much in Jazz, either, though I liked the book more than you did. It was... distracting. Anyway, I've got my hold on Project Hail Mary, but it's suspended for now while I finish up the rather hefty stack I have out now.

And congrats on 75!

>256 bell7: You're more likely to enjoy yourself with this one, I'm sure. I hope so, anyway.

ETA thanks!

>226 richardderus: I love that the photo is off-kilter slightly, as well as the flowers in it.

My reading is also off kilter atm, and this, I do not love.

>238 richardderus: The book by Andy Weir goes on the wish-list NOW! I loved Mars a lot.

Congratulations on your 75 Richard! Sounds like it was a good one.

'Morning, RDear.

Congrats on 75, and onto the wish list it goes.

>238 richardderus: Project Hail Mary just got such a "Meh" review from the New York Times i wasn't sure if i wanted to go on that ride.

OTOH I quite liked "The Martian - your review tips this one into the basket and added to the wishlist

Can't remember if it was you or Dr Jim who turned me on the Becky Chambers universe but I'm grateful

>262 magicians_nephew: The Times isn't reader-response reviewing, so they'll come out completely differently than I will every time. Well, almost every time.

The entire last, oh, 7% of the book added one entire star to my rating.

>261 karenmarie: Hey there, Horrible! Thanks! I'm not so sure I'd encourage you to splash out for the book...borrow it, when you can.

*smooch*

>260 humouress: Thank you, O Supervillainess, and it was a good read. It was not brilliant writing or ground-breaking in any way, but it was good at what it does and had a lovely ending.

>259 connie53: Oh good, Connie! You'll enjoy this book since you were a fan of The Martian.

>258 LovingLit: I thank you for the kind words, and yeah...that wonkiness is pretty perfect, no?

I'm sad with you about the reading off-kilterishness. How maddening that is. I hope it's all resolved now.

>229 richardderus: Handsome!

Congrats on reading 75 books ( already) !

>238 richardderus: Glad you liked that one. On my WL.

>265 figsfromthistle: Thank you most kindly, Anita, and I hope Project Hail Mary delights you as much as it did me.

>229 richardderus: Looking mighty fine! I love the beard!

Skipping your review of Project Hail Mary because I haven't listened to it yet, but I am gonna.

Congrats on hitting 75!

Hoping Wednesday has been kind to you. *smooch*

>267 Crazymamie: Hiya Mamie! Thanks, I let Rob go to town with the clippers. He didn't really want to, liking the beard so much, but sumer is icumen in (cuckoo! cuckoo!) so I made him. I left the Trotsky for him.

I'm pleased for my 75, and certainly do not read my review if you're worried about spoilers!!

*smooch*

Well, I like the Trotsky. It's full of fabulous, and a lovely compromise.

I will be back to read the review once I have listened to it - your reviews are like candy to me.

>269 Crazymamie: Thank you most kindly! It's actually been very effective, despite his grousing he's been paying a bit more attention to me since the shift.

Feeling a bit meh this week, Richard, and I thought some supervillainessing might cheer me up. So I came to practice on you :0)

Happy Thursday, Richard dear.

I hope the weather at your place is nicer than our weather. We have had a chilly spring so far, it looks like we finally get some more agreeable temperatures next week.

‘Morning, RDear. Happy Thursday, happy coffee, happy books.

>263 richardderus: This one is most likely either a Library borrow when they eventually get it or a thrift shop or used book store acquisition. I didn’t feel the need to Ammy click.

I did, however, just buy the next two in the Library of Congress Crime series. Ammy did not have one of them (I wanted them all in the same format, silly me) so went to the LOC and ordered them there.

>273 karenmarie: Silly you! Wanting all the books on your shelves to match! Why, anyone would think you're trying to shirk your Duty of Care for Amazon's Profits by demanding uniform editions be available. The Price Patrol is on its way.

I'm reading Hench again preparatory to reviewing it. What a romp. Very pleasurable indeed.

>272 FAMeulstee: Hi Anita! Thanks for the springtime wishes...it's sunny and 16.5C, which suits me to a T.

>271 humouress: Your bible, referred to above, has been a joy to read. You really should find a copy soonest!

>273 karenmarie: I get that entirely. I've even gone to the lengths of refusing to buy any more in a series after they changed the book format and they no longer fitted on the shelf next to each other. Yes, it does matter...

>275 Helenliz: It most certainly does.

>274 richardderus: You are a menace. I just bought Hench, being that our Library does not have it. *smooch*

>275 Helenliz: Most books can be any old thing, Hellen - hardcover or paperback, new or used - but for some reason I want these books in the LOC Crime Classics format. And I'm a Very Odd Person indeed, one who doesn't keep series together necessarily - I use location tags - but it's knowing that they are part of a series that is important.

Morning, BigDaddy! I have been to the bank, the vet, and the market. Now I am ready to settle in for some porching with a ginormous iced tea and some books.

>275 Helenliz: I want them to all match up, too.

>278 Crazymamie: A very productive day packed into a morning...yep, you're a Southerner. So y'all'll be moving to Florida when Craig retires, then. Nearby the ma-in-law, of course, like a dutiful spouse.

heeheehee

>277 karenmarie: *preens* and I didn't even need a review to do it!

>279 richardderus: Right - you have to get in and out and safely back home before Hell hits. And um...over my dead body.

>274 richardderus: Ooh; looks interesting.

Although I do hope that you’re not daring to suggest that I’m a mere henchvillainess.

>281 humouress: Good heavens, no! And you'll need to read the book to see why.

>280 Crazymamie: Don't say that in public! Never give the old gorgon any ideas!!

-Harry Bliss

Sweet Thursday, Richard. Damp, cool & drizzly here but it didn't stop me from tromping around in the woods. A few more FOYs. Yah!

>283 msf59: Thanks, Mark! We're positively sunstruck at the moment. And the FoYs are racking up now the migration's in full swing.

That cartoon's great!

>275 Helenliz: >276 richardderus: Alas, a number of my favorite series were first published in paperback and only in the 1990s did books in the series first appear as hardcovers. But then I devour the soft chewy insides of books without regard to the soft or stiff or even imaginary boundaries.

Looking at my shelves and realizing i have the three volumes of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and each book is from a different edition, binding and format.

(hiding head)

>286 magicians_nephew: It's only Tolkien, it doesn't matter in the slightest.

>285 quondame: ...weirdo...

>287 richardderus: Buffs nails on lapel.

>275 Helenliz: Absolutely it does.

Happy Friday, RDear.

>285 quondame: But then I devour the soft chewy insides of books without regard to the soft or stiff or even imaginary boundaries. Amen, sister friend.

We've got rain and gloom. I've got coffee and books to offset 'em, so am happy.

*smooch*

>290 karenmarie: Hey Horrible! No rain, gloom, or books...no coffee...must go to the Doc. *sob*

>289 humouress: Awomen.

>288 quondame: ...weird weirdo...

>285 quondame: "But then I devour the soft chewy insides of books without regard to the soft or stiff or even imaginary boundaries." I love this sentence. It is full of fabulous, but sadly does not resemble me in any form.

Morning, BigDaddy! We made it to Friday! Love me a Friday!

Slightly late in extending my salutations on you passing 75 books already, dear fellow.

I live in hope that when I achieve the feat (won't be until well into June) you may stop by and return said salutations to me.

>293 PaulCranswick: Hi PC! I haven't been by lately? Huh. Maybe I've been lurking...?

>292 Crazymamie: How do, smoochling, and a happy weekend's kickoff reading to you!

>291 richardderus: Slurp.

>292 Crazymamie: />285 quondame: It works for me for library books. And e-books.

>295 quondame: Okay Richard, maybe you have a point about her weirdness. *backs away slowly*