Susan/quondame has her nose in a book 2021 - 5

So, very likely my final thread of the year that will see me through the holidays and finish my 73rd year. Mike has recovered pretty well from his knee surgery, Becky is applying for a new job at her company, hoping to change from hourly to salaried. We have a new dog, Gizmo, who is darling but not housebroken. Nutmeg, the French Bulldog, is very happy with her new companion.

I'm reading for pleasure and challenges, trying with limited success to keep up with library holds. I'm happy with the suspend hold and Deliver Later features of the Overdrive wait system, but have run afoul of hold limits and Recommendation limits.

Love the amazing and cool topper photos!
Will have to catch up better on the previous thread!

Edited to say that I too, appreciate the Deliver Later features of the Overdrive wait system. I solved the Hold limits by using the system's Wish List section when I wanted to at holds. Then I ease the title into hold when I think I will actually be able to get to it in my cascade!

245) The Song of Achilles



Lovely writing, I'm not convinced by the versions of Patroclus and Achilles Miller presents, my preference being making historical and mythic figures be relatable while fully embodying the values of their time. And besides, after The Silence of the Girls I felt Briesis got short shrift.

Meets November TIOLI Challenge #10: Read a book that can be found at LibraryThing in at least 3 languages

>2 SandyAMcPherson: Wow, that was quick! Welcome!

>3 quondame: Oh dear! I am so sorry I barged in. I'm ashamed of not waiting politely.

Happy new thread, Susan!

Glad to read Nutmeg and Gizmo are going along well, and they both got rid of the flu.

New-thread orisons, Susan. Seeing out the old year in style, I see.

Hi Susan my dear, Happy new thread dear friend.

Happy new thread, Susan.

Happy New Thread, Susan. I loved The Song of Achilles. Have a great week.

Happy new thread, Susan!

>3 quondame: I still need to read that one, which I own and have around here - somewhere.

Have a lovely week!

Happy new one!

>5 SandyAMcPherson: No problem at all.
>6 FAMeulstee: Thanks and for the good wishes too!
>7 richardderus: Well, style is substance, isn't it?
>8 johnsimpson: Thanks, John.
>9 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul.

246) My Name is Lucy Barton



Well, Lucy Barton is no Olive. Both her often referenced attachment to her young daughters and her internalized affections for those she describes interactions with distance me from her.

Meets November TIOLI Challenge #7: Read a book where another book title is also shown on the front cover

Well, tomorrow we're going to see Dune on the Big Screen - Mike has already watched it at home a couple of times and assures me I'll miss a bunch of the English dialog as it's spoken quietly, but the non-English is subtitled so I should be fine with that.

Howdy out there. I've joined you and Richard (probably others too) in putting up one last thread in 2021.

247) Perfect State



What does it mean to achieve when you are really a brain in a bottle and your world is a simulation geared to your satisfaction? The said brains discuss these issues amid a sort of super(man) battle. The whole doesn't jell.

Meets November TIOLI Challenge #11: Read a book by an author whose surname ends in the suffix '-son'

>16 weird_O: Thanks! I'll be by shortly.

>15 quondame: Yep, it was 0.5 Dune minus the attempted in house assassination of Baron Harkonnen which was one of the few details I remembered and I'm sure other peoples favorite bits were subject to pruning. It's true I heard very little of what characters actually said to each other, but I'd bet it had to do with warnings and cautions and was pretty much what would obviously be said in the moment. I doubt there was much punning byplay.

Happy new thread Susan! Sending good wishes for Gizmo's housetraining and settling in.

>18 quondame: If one hasn't read the book, the movie makes very little sense. The visuals are superb. But my YGC hasn't read it and peppered me with questions during and after...his final verdict was, "why the hell should I even care about these people?"

Although he's now got a crush on Jason Momoa, or rather Duncan Idaho.

>19 souloftherose: Thank you. Good wishes accepted, now we need to train ourselves to be up to convincing Gizmo.

>20 richardderus: Well, Leto Atreides was, as Eddard Stark, too stupid to live. YGC has no reason to care beyond the pretty casting, which I admit was considerable, baring Jessica.
The movie was visually interesting if not sufficiently lit, but unconvincing except for the sandworms. The action was totally a boy's game. When Dune was originally published, excuses for hand-to-hand fighting weren't so old hat, but really, I'd just shake up the enemy with anti-grav generators and mush them.
Jason Momoa is delish though from this outing I'd go Oscar Isaac or Josh Brolin.

248) The Only Thing to Fear



Our favorite shapeshifter has all kinds of adventures during a planetary festival including giant robot fights while wearing the form of a 10 year old girl. All in service to the library and interplanetary accord, so that's good.

Meets November TIOLI Challenge #3: Read a book that fits 3 or more challenges from TIOLI October 2021

>20 richardderus: I'm glad I'm not alone in never having read Dune. It was one of those books of the day and so many saying, "What!? You haven't read Dune"?
I was living in Kuwait at the time the book was published and then (back in Canada), I was busy reading Patricia McKillip and Tolkein in my "spare" time.

>23 SandyAMcPherson: I don't think it's a *necessity* to have read Dune but it strikes me as odd to have dodged it since 1965! Never, ever, ever? Hm.

Well...since I'd rather eat ground glass and die of intestinal perforation than experience another syllable of Tolkien, I suppose I shouldn't criticize.

>23 SandyAMcPherson: When it came out Dune really was something interesting and new and it remains a decent adventure story, though I wasn't quite so much a fan as many became. It's been part of the F&FS fabric for a long time now.

>24 richardderus: Edited to respect Susan's wishes (her thread, her rules: no Tolkein bashing). At the time, I adored the Hobbit and its LOTR sequels. That's why the books stayed with me for 50 years!

And I never read any Narnia books until my younger daughter was reading the first one. The allegory to religion went right over my head! I didn't know that until I was looking at reviews on LT. 🙄

Hi Susan, and happy new thread!

>1 quondame: Wonderful miniature, just fabulous. Excellent topper comments, too. Yay for Mike’s recovery from knee surgery and best wishes to Becky in her quest to go from hourly to salaried. Good luck getting Gizmo trained.

… edited to respect Susan's wishes...

>27 karenmarie: Thank you Karen, but please....

>24 richardderus: >26 SandyAMcPherson: >27 karenmarie: That is enough Tolkien trashing. LotR is a great fantasy and made a place for the generations of fantasies that have followed. I feel sad that you don't enjoy it, but you are free to not as much as you like on your own pages.

249) Matrix



A royal bastard is made Prioress at an Abbey mismanaged into poverty and turns it into a rich foundation over the course of half a century. The language is lush and sometimes dreamy and it seems all the bits that would interest me are off stage, the spying, the political connections. The handling of visions is interesting and rather believable in the revelatory suitability of the plans inspired.

BB from @jnwelch

Meets November TIOLI Challenge #7: Read a book where another book title is also shown on the front cover

>28 quondame: Fair enough. I edited >26 SandyAMcPherson:, and will now MYOB on the Tolkien topic, here, anyway.

>29 quondame: Adding that book #249, Matrix, sounds really intriguing. My SK library has no book of that name, only the DVD. Fiddlesticks.

>30 SandyAMcPherson: RD brought up Tolkien just to bash, independent of any LotR etc, discussion which is rather gratuitous and unnecessary as Dune is plenty bashable on its own. You and Karen were simply included to make you aware of where the sore toes are.

I'm not going to protest Tolkien's perfection, and when he and his works are the current subject, opinions needn't be stifled, but he wasn't just then.

>31 quondame: OIC. Thanks for clarifying. OTOH, I waded in with an off-topic comment really, and have to remember to use my own thread for mouthy opinions from the hinterlands!

Happy new thread

>3 quondame: I really need to get that book soon. So many love it so far.

Have a great weekend

>33 figsfromthistle: Thanks Anita!

>22 quondame: My local library does not have any of the books in that series, which is very disappointing. It sounds like one I would enjoy. I will have to look further afield.

Happy weekend, Susan!

>28 quondame: May I say that LotR is still in my top 3 of best books ever read?

>31 quondame: On the other hand I didn't like Dune.

>14 quondame: I rather liked that one, and the companion read as well.

>36 FAMeulstee: Thank you for the affirmation, though it is one preference I don't feel at all alone in.

I've always felt Dune was incredibly silly, but a decent adventure if you're willing to suspend disbelief above that chasm. At least people aren't still panting about Stranger in a Strange Land.

>37 LovingLit: Oh, right. That's why I read it. @richardderus mentioned Anything Is Possible &| Oh William!.

>38 quondame: At least people aren't still panting about Stranger in a Strange Land.
Amen, sister. That's one of the first serious SciFi books I ever read (Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 was in there, too and I liked that one). Heinlein's book turned me right off the genre.

I know, I'm doing it again... if I've castigated anyone's most-very-favourite novels, remember it was just my opinion and tastes at the time.

I've good memories of other SciFi titles which I arrived at later on. Does that exonerate me?

Edited because I can't spell properly today. No wonder the touchstones weren't working.

>39 SandyAMcPherson: 1) I started it, on my thread, 2) you agreed. See, no problem at all.

I've been known to express opinions on other's threads, and at least from now on I'll attend to adhere to the guidelines of not bringing my own whipping book, and commenting in line, if not in agreement with, the subject.

Spelling? If it weren't for the auto-correct, this would be totally unreadable. Or maybe it is, in spite of. Ah well.

250) Six of Crows



The impossible caper with 6 diversely talented or informed youths, in 1.25 relationships spread unevenly among the pairs. It drags and repeats and has just enough invention to limp over the finish line, but it really could use a bit of showing to show connections and spice to have any actual heat. A total toss up if I go on to the sequel.

Meets November TIOLI Challenge #4: Read a book that combines the tags crime and LGBT (or QUILTBAG)

>41 quondame: Yay! for #250 books read.
I just went and counted my reading total (84). It's less than other years but I've enjoyed the slower pace.

The Six of Crows title has a familiar ring to it. I think I read it four or five years ago, before I was using LT to keep track of my reading. It's not on my bookshelves, but that doesn't mean anything now that I've reduced my personal book collection to only the ones I want to re-read.

DNF The Lions of Fifth Avenue



I should like this book centered around NYC Central Library in two timelines which has women becoming themselves, book theft, family secrets, but nope. The split pacing and something lacking in the characterizations lost me.

>42 SandyAMcPherson: Thanks.

My daughter is/was watching the show based on the series and was venting about her issues with it. She was given Six of Crows but hasn't felt like reading it. Her friends seem to like the show better than the books, and I can see that working if you have attractive young actors engaging in, what in this book at least, were pretty sketchy relationships.

251) Invisible Sun



This is totally a last act. We know the players, we know the scenes, and we move through the set pieces to get to and ending that seems somehow too easy. As a reward were given a few pages on the Forerunners and their enemies and how the 3 worlds we spend the most time in branched off, first one then the other.

Meets November TIOLI Challenge #3: Read a book that fits 3 or more challenges from TIOLI October 2021

252) Death at Whitewater Church



Really more 3.75.
Largely believable characters involved in a mystery that turns out not to be a murder but that's when the pear shape behind the facade of what seemed normal takes over in the community of at Inishowen.

Thanks for the BB, @richardderus

Meets November TIOLI Challenge #15: Read a book with a connection to The Chieftains, in memory of Paddy Moloney 1938-2021

Big Tolkien fan, loved Dune when it came out and when I reread it throughout the 70s, but have read LOTR for much longer and more times. Stross and I just seem to be on different wavelengths--I can't really get excited about any of his books and I've tried several different ones. Was not impressed by Six of Crows but then I don't really get off on heist plots in general. I do need to catch up on Czernada--have liked what I read by her but still have the first three shapeshifter books unread on my shelves.

>47 ronincats: I like the tone of Czernada's shape shifter books - the resolution of The Clan Chronicles (Czernada's rather than Stross's) left me strongly put off. And A Play of Shadow seemed sparse after A Turn of Light. But that's partly because I thought the cover costumes were beyond absurd and wished she'd felt the same instead of writing them into the story. You do not want the weight of your garment supported from your neck. I happen to know it's a very, very, bad idea.

Our last dachshund Zette died this morning.
My husband Mike wrote her the epitaph:

We lost a member of our family today.
R.I.P. Zetty
She went quietly in her sleep this morning, after a bout with the flu.
My favorite memory of her was when I had been out of town for six months (for work) and came home. She spent around a half hour vigorously saying hello to me.
Zetty was a rescue dog we adopted in 2012.
The Vet thinks she was about 15 years old.
She liked people (for the most part)* and really loved my sister-in-law, Chris Gilbert.
A mostly quiet dog, who always spent 22-23 hours a day sleeping, even when she was young.
On the other hand she was a bit insane and when she was younger our other two dachshunds were terrified of her (she had really sharp teeth and wasn't afraid to use them.)
She was the last of our dachshunds to pass away. Gertie went this last spring and Manny went back in 2020.
Fortunately, we now have Nutmeg and Gizmo, two of the sweetest dogs you could hope to know.



*I was the exception. She hated me.

>49 quondame: Oh I’m sorry to hear that Susan.

>49 quondame: I am so sorry for your loss :(

So sorry this has happened.

Sad. I know that feeling of loss too well. My condolences to you and Mike and the surviving pooches.

>50 SandDune: >51 Narilka: >52 drneutron: >53 weird_O: Thank you for the sympathy. Mike will be missing Zette much more than I - she was more like an uncomfortable in-law than a fond friend. And neither Mike or Becky will miss clean up after her every morning and several times a day.
Until a week ago she was still enjoying her afternoons lying in the sun, her evening cuddles with Mike, and her meals and all she could steal of the other dogs' meals, but this last week was sad.

253) When Two Feathers Fell from the Sky



Really more 4.25.
An engaging tale from early 20th century Nashville centered around the horse diver Two Feathers and the Glendale Park. It is saturated in race awareness and the non-whites live under a burden of alertness to what is permitted while maintaining relationships with whites. Not that the whites don't have their own issues and problems. The twist it takes about a third of the way through pushes it into magical realism which has an effect on the impact of the story.

Thanks for the BB, @msf59

Meets November TIOLI Challenge #13: Read a book by an indigenous author or featuring 1 or more indigenous characters

>46 quondame: I thought I already had that one in the BlackHole, but nope. i have fixed that situation.

>49 quondame: I am so sorry, Susan. It is hard when a pet dies.

>55 quondame: Sounds like you liked that one just a tad more than I did. Thanks for the shared read for TIOLI!

>49 quondame: Sorry to read your last dachshund is gone, Susan, and sorry to read she didn't like you.
Mike wrote a nice epitaph, may she live on for him in fond memories.

>56 alcottacre: You're welcome!

>57 FAMeulstee: Thanks, Anita. The place is emptier without her curled in her wee bed. But the other dogs are a rowdy pair, the little gremlins.

254) Linger



This one is teens and angst and some of that is teen angst, the extreme feelings in the absence adult agency. We are caught up in Grace falling victim to both some aspect of her wolf infection and her parents sudden attempts to resume control of her life. Isabelle gets tangled up with one of the new werewolves who has managed to really snarl his own life. It's just not fun.

Meets November TIOLI Challenge #8: Read a book by an author of a book you finished in the past 3 months (Aug/Sept/Oct 2021)

>49 quondame: Sad Susan.

We have a cat - Jinxy who is extremely loving with everyone in the house; except me. Absolutely terrified of me for some strange reason as I wouldn't say boo to a goose and am anyway slightly allergic to car fur.

>49 quondame: I'm so sorry to hear about Zette

Sorry to hear about the loss of your Zette, Susan. I am so glad to hear you enjoyed When Two Feathers Fell from the Sky. I like it when my warbling pays off.

>61 figsfromthistle: >62 msf59: Thank you Anita and Mark.

>62 msf59: I really loved spending time with (all but one) of those characters in that place. It was a great evocation of a strange but functioning niche of society.

Happy weekend, Susan!

>64 alcottacre: Thanks Stasia. I hope yours is going well.

255) The Heron's Cry



Good characters, well paced and with a good sense of place. There was too large a string of red herrings for my taste and a bit too much involvement with one of the detectives with the witness/suspect pool, but that always ups the drama, so it's the done thing these days. But the people are generally pretty interesting to read about whether we're inside their heads or not.

Thanks for the BB, @richardderus

Meets November TIOLI Challenge #2: Read a book where the title completes the phrase, "I am thankful for..."

I still need to read Cleeves' Shetland Island books before I start another series. *sigh* Could I have some 48 hours days to have more time to read?

Think you missed my comment above Susan.

I want to get cracking with Ann Cleeves soon as I have a few unread on the shelves.

>68 PaulCranswick: It's true I didn't reply. I did read it though. Then when I was writing >63 quondame: I didn't scroll up far enough to catch it. I won't claim such harmlessness as you - I've harbored some pretty hostile thoughts about one dog or another over the years, but strangely not Zette.

We adopted Zette after we were told she bit her foster care person and the person who was scheduled to adopt her pulled out. For 2 months she was being treated for a broken foreleg that had had to be reset after we first met her and indicated we were interested. Sometime long earlier her spine had been damaged so that she never had a straight back, but that didn't seem to cause her physical difficulties, though whatever she had been through left her bat shit crazy. Hence the other dogs keeping mostly pretty distant. She was not a pack animal.
She nipped all three of us at one time or another, so she couldn't be around any small children, and all adults were warned not to startle her. She never did bite any guests and always acted happy to get attention from new people and special favorites.

>38 quondame: how is it that I haven't hear of Anything Is Possible & Oh William!. Sheesh, I will have to thrown them on the tbr pile ;)

>49 quondame: I’m so sorry, Susan. Condolences to Mike and you.

>44 quondame: I read the Six of Crows duology (the first one for our bookclub and the second because I’m a completist) because one of our bookclub members is a fan of the Grishaverse and I got the impression that it was a separate story. I was a bit startled to see the characters appear in the first episode of the TV series - which is the only one I’ve watched so far. Now I’m wondering if I should read the main series.

>70 LovingLit: Well, there's that fixed. Thanks for stopping by.

>71 humouress: I think I read it because 1) Crow 2) TIOLI challenge, but not necessarily in that order.

256) Woman on the Edge of Time



Though this novel has more company in making some of its points it still has plenty to say about the complicity of the powerful in the seemingly individual tragedies of the disadvantaged. Connie started her life believing in her own future but at every set back she is not supported but blamed and must go on with fewer resources. Whether it is her ability or her position in the context of the future her connection with a future community becomes her last support. I found the justifications and consequences of her final actions to embody more past to modern notions than modern to future ones.

I can blame this on, @richardderus, though I think Connie's final actions were telegraphed and my interpretation of the reports may differ from Richard's.

Meets November TIOLI Challenge #14: Read a book with a title that refers to a woman or women

Susan, congratulations on reading 256 books thus far this year. What an incredible achievement.

>73 quondame: Dodging that BB since I have already read it :)

Dropping by to say hello.
>49 quondame:, I send sympathy on the loss of Zette. Pets are a bit like losing one's child, especially when you've shared a long stretch of years with them. I still miss the pets of my earlier life. We didn't get another dog after we moved to the prairies. Just too unfair with us both working and it is too cold in winter to leave a dog outside all day.

Adding that I should give Oh William! a chance. I didn't cleave to the Olive books at all, though.
I'm still on the hold-request list for The Heron's Cry despite the red herrings. If that bugs me too much, I'll have at least read two of this series. I think she writes a good plot (I four-starred The Long Call).

>76 SandyAMcPherson: Thank you for the condolences. I have mentioned that Zette was more like a really difficult in-law who had taken against me and sucked up to everyone who was not-me.
Zette was a dog, and therefore deserved the best treatment we could give her as do all dogs since we bred them to love us and they don't get a choice. She was well taken care of and was loved, though not like Gertie who knew the art of love sponging as do Nutmeg and Gizmo.
I find the idea of living without dogs very sad, but then I'm not up for much activity and having little clowns running around really helps my mood. Also I can put them out for an hour here and there almost every day.
I carried Gizmo downstairs this morning and that was a mistake. I really shouldn't do much more than hobble to the bathroom before I do my stretches, and carrying an uneven weight is way much more.
I did like the Olive books, well, I liked Olive and her attitudes and resiliency, though the first book mostly just sketched her in from outside.

>74 Whisper1: Thanks.

>75 alcottacre: Heh!

257) Bruno Chief of Police



The small town of St. Denis is a lovely place with the most politic of police chiefs who seems mostly concerned with preemptively avoiding arrests and fines in St. Denis. But then someone is murdered, and he is inundated not only with nastiness from the local past and present, but with the ambitions and ugliness that pervades the national scene. And helpful interesting women.

Read for November TIOLI Challenge #1: Read a book with the word “police” either on the front or the back cover

>79 quondame: I have had that one on my bookshelf for years. But I don't think I ever got around to reading it. Then a big cull happened and, oops.
Just now, I went to the 'Mysteries' shelves and I am annoyed at myself because it's not there.

Your review reminded me that yes, this was probably a dandy read. Fiddlesticks. At least I can borrow it from the library. I'm about due for a winter's worth of a good series. Maybe this will be a lucky one!

>80 SandyAMcPherson: The flow is excellent and the writing lite. There was some nastiness and some ugly history but much easier than almost any mystery I've read in the last 20 years.

258) Ocean Gold : Raising the Santa Cruz Treasure



For 1930s diving geeks, a "manly adventure" in which Latinos are sprigs and the black cook has a politically incorrect walk on, the girl is 1) good for explaining diving to 2) gets leering glances to let us know who the bad guy is 3) is used as a hostage. With all the depth of a movie pitch, this is only for historical interest. Written by my great uncle or I would never have stubbed my toe on it.

Read for November TIOLI Challenge #16: Read a book in which a sunken ship or the recovery of a sunken treasure plays a role

>82 quondame: Laffed my head off at the last line of your review (here, on Talk).
I noticed that you left your lovely toe comment off the book review page.

P.S. Is it simply my browser or computer?
Or are everybody's star images (on the Talk threads, for sure; not the official review pages) greyed-out, broken page icons?

The star gif images were working on my thread this morning...

>83 SandyAMcPherson: The stars are going in and out. I think there may be a server issue and if you don't have the gif image in your buffer it's not showing up. I use Firefox on my Mac and always have issues with one web site or another, especially after an OS or browser update.

I don't think you were around when we had some family and family name related TIOLI challenges, that got me looking at great uncle Ned's books - he really was a remarkable man, a 5'2" Jew who retired as an admiral from the US navy, though he was officially Episcopalian. He was the first to raise a sunken submarine from real depth and he raised piers and helped in the D-day landing with technologies used in dikes.

>82 quondame: Very brave of you to sink a family treasure ;0)

>49 quondame: Sorry to hear about Zetty. Glad you still have two other little ones.

>82 quondame: Exactly!! Hope your toe is ok. ; )

Hi Susan my dear, congrats on reaching 250 books read for the year so far, sending love and hugs dear friend.

>85 humouress: He's been gone near 3 decades, so it's a mite safer & I don't think his grandson is in this group.

>86 Berly: Thank you. The toe at least is not suffering from what I'm reading. They aren't twinkling though.

>87 johnsimpson: Thank you, John. It good to see you out and about on LT.

258) As Bright as Heaven



Well enough written with decent flow, but... the characters are an impressionistic collage which the sparse detailed realistic bits, elbow, profile, selfishness, or yearning, make grotesque rather than believable. A lovely family morning a sad loss moves to Philadelphia just in time for the influenza epidemic to confront them with more loss and strange gains.

Read for November TIOLI Challenge #5: Read a book that helps you complete a 2021 challenge you are working on

259) Land of Big Numbers



Uncomfortable stories of people making or continuing with bad choices in a world that doesn't offer many good ones.

Read for November TIOLI Challenge #6: Read a book with a map / image of a map on the cover

260) Dragon's Blood



In 1982 this would have been obviously a McCaffrey YA follow on with pit fighting instead of thread fighting. The world building makes Hunger Game's look solid and in spite of a spunky resourceful girl giving our hero substantial help it doesn't quite overcome the women default to whores assumption of the ex-prison world setting.

Meets November TIOLI Challenge #9: Read a book with OO in the title or author's name

>89 quondame: Sounds like I enjoyed that one a bit more than you did.

I hope your next reads are better for you, Susan. Happy Sunday!

>92 alcottacre: Yeah, I'm not a believer in "I could only love one person", especially when were talking teenage and earlier. Nor in going to a person and telling them how you feel as a good solution in the absence of a lot of other communication.

Heh, I'm re-reading All Systems Red, so your hope is fulfilled!

260.01) All Systems Red



It only gets better with re-reads.

My #of books checked out from the library is over twice what I can read in the time it will take to return them so I'm not going with my original choice and instead

Re*4-read for November TIOLI Challenge #12: Read a title where an adjective immediately follows a noun

Mike and Becky are off getting tested for Covid. Becky was exposed at work last week. I declined, since, after all, I almost never go out (although I stopped by 1 store yesterday) and always masked. I can easily go a week without leaving the house and if Becky and Mike don't test positive, then I'm unlikely to have picked it up on my own. If one or the other of them is positive, well, we'll see.

>94 quondame: I do love the Murderbot books. I am planning on reading the next one in the series in December.

>95 quondame: I hope the test results are negative all-around!

>96 alcottacre: Yes, lots of love for Murderbot books. That would make it uncomfortable.

Both tested negative. That's good, if not unexpected.

261) Longshadow



Abigail, adopted daughter of the Lord Sorcier of England and his half-souled wife Theodora, had a season in London but was made wretched by the other young ladies her age, so after 3 of her contemporaries have died untimely she's not moved by sympathy to investigate their deaths, but by desire to help her father and use her skills, when she meets the mysterious Mercy, whose appearance as a laundry woman is one of many deceptions, and when she gets new knowledge of the slaugh the possibilities don't narrow, they widen.

BB from @souloftherose

Meets November TIOLI Challenge #8: Read a book by an author of a book you finished in the past 3 months
It should meet #4: Read a book that combines the tags crime and LGBT (or QUILTBAG), but readers failed to recognized the murders under investigation in a fantasy historical as crimes.

Yay for Martha Wells, Murderbot and negative COVID test!

Hi Susan!

>46 quondame: I thought I posted the other day, but apparently got sidetracked. I loved the first in this series, too, and am looking forward to continuing. I also got the BB from @richardderus,

>49 quondame: I’m so sorry about Zette. Losing a fur kid is always hard. I’m glad you have Nutmeg and Gizmo.

>77 quondame: having little clowns running around really helps my mood. We feel the same way about our kitties.

>95 quondame: Yikes. Sorry they have to go through the testing. >97 quondame: Glad they were negative.

>99 Berly: Thanks Kim!

>100 karenmarie: Lots of thanks, Karen.

Even more good news - I renewed my driver's license online, so not DMV visit this year. I'll have to do Real-ID soon, but not today.

Sunday morning I burned my right hand, the back of the area above the thumb and last knuckles of the index and middle fingers, with boiling water. I immediately ran cold water on them and submerged them as soon as a bowl filled. The area has been covered with hydrocolloid bandages for two days now and, except at a knuckle where a blister popped and I had to add more bandaging, seems to be doing fine.

The world is sure full of rough and sharp bits when your skin gets thin.

262) The Storm of Echoes



This last of the quartet is somewhat less coherent than the previous volume, but when the nearly inexplicably broken world is to be fixed navigating mazes physical, organizational, and mental by acts of will and defiance and tricks of mirrors - that's pretty much the cost.

Meets November TIOLI Challenge #8: Read a book by an author of a book you finished in the past 3 months

A Thanksgiving to Friends (Lighting the Way)

In difficult times
a friend is there to light the way
to lighten the load,
to show the path,
to smooth the road

At the darkest hour
a friend, with a word of truth
points to light
and the encroaching dawn
is in the plainest sight.

Susan, to a friend in books and more this Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving Day my dear

Susan, I am so very grateful for you, my wonderful friend here on LT.

I wish you (and yours) happiness and health on this day of Thanksgiving. And cookies. : )

>103 PaulCranswick: Friends, books, dogs, oh, and good food too! You add so much to the LT experience that it is hard to imagine it without you, Paul.

>104 johnsimpson: Thanks, John, it is always lovely to read about your peregrinations and to get your visits.

>104 johnsimpson: Kim, what a wonderful image. You are such an inspiration.

>98 quondame: Adding that one to the BlackHole. Thanks for the review, Susan.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope you are having a wonderful Thanksgiving day!

>108 figsfromthistle: Thank you. We are still waiting for our dinner - chicken paprikash, duck, lamb dumplings and pierogi, with sides and after pumpkin pie. It's running a bit late.
Last year we did steaks for my brother and his wife since her first husband's family wasn't part of their closed circle, but since Becky went to college we've had Thanksgiving dinner at The Stinking Rose, now sadly closed until all restrictions are over. It is such a tight packed place, with tiny fabric pavilions over the majority of the tables, that cleaning for Covid would be well near impossible and I think it would hemorrhage money if they tried to limit the tables to the current standard. Maybe next year, they do a great pork chop.

Of course this year, with blisters on about 4sq inches of my right hand, though safely covered with waterproof bandage, I really need feel no qualms about doing so little meal prep.

Hi Susan!

>101 quondame: I renewed my driver’s license online this year, too. We don’t have the lines that I remember from living in CA, but especially with COVID this year, I was glad to not have to go in. I need a Real-ID soon, too. It’s always something.

I’m sorry you burned your hand, yikes. I’m glad the burns didn’t get infected. It took 2 weeks for most of my hospital bruises to go away. I still have one on my right forearm that is purple, yellow, and green. Yup, thin skin, literally, for seniors.

>109 quondame: I hope you enjoyed your fabulous-sounding Thanksgiving feast.

>110 karenmarie: Hello Karen! The Real-ID thing is tricky because over the years Mike's transferred so many of the accounts to online billing and statements and the utilities are in his name, which bears no resemblance to my name. Well, we'll manage.

The hand is doing OK, I think. At least it isn't hurting under the bandages, but I've had to do some patchwork and the blistering has turned out to be deeper and more wide spread than I thought. Well 3-5 days of protection are something and most areas are getting more, though that part of my hand looks a bit leprous just now.

It was a real feast, especially the unexpected extra bits filling in the corners. I think I'll have paprikash for lunch...

262) The City Beautiful



The pacing on this is a bit slow and uneven and the plot succumbs to a unnecessarily Dickensian level of connectedness, but the majority of the characters are well designed and activated and the the reader is relentlessly blanketed in the setting, it's shabby walls and overwhelming odors. The author describes it as a fantasy, but it's fantasy elements are of haunting and dark knowings, not the gleams of elfland.

BB from @richardderus

Meets November TIOLI Challenge #12: Read a title where an adjective immediately follows a noun

263) Of Sand and Malice Made



In 3 episodes on a single arc of Çeda has harrowing encounters with a demon like ehrekh. The overly young age of the heroine and the unheralded magics are probably both determined because this is a prequel, but annoyed me. Also girl warrior and underworld of an exotic city are pretty routine these days, though the city and its magic seemed potentially worth re-visiting if I were to be in a reading lull.

Meets November TIOLI Challenge #7: Read a book where another book title is also shown on the front cover

264) Black Water Sister



Unemployed recent Harvard graduate Jess hasn't come out to her parents as she returns with them to Penang where her father will work for his younger brother and she will, well what happens after she starts hearing her departed grandmother's voice and gets embroiled with the local gods is the story. Displacement, family, local gods, old crimes mix inn a non-stop torrent as Jess struggles for herself among all the forces internal and external that form the current in which she is immersed.

Meets November TIOLI Challenge #14: Read a book with a title that refers to a woman or women

265) The Birchbark House



This mostly charming year in the life of a young Ojibwa girl starts off at an awkward pace but smooths out about a quarter of the way in. Some very sad and scary incidents are covered and the resulting grief and mistrust.

Read for November TIOLI Challenge #13: Read a book by an indigenous author or featuring 1 or more indigenous characters

Yesterday Gizmo got chipped. I made an appointment for her to get a rabies shot, but when Mike got to Petco and showed them her papers it turned out she had already had that. I didn't really look, first because they were in Spanish, and second because the adoption group said she needed the rabies vaccine. She also got some other shots, but not the flu shot. We have to keep her quiet for two days. That means we have to separate her from Nutmeg for two days. Nutmeg objects. Gizmo instantly turned into an escape artist, opening gaps in the weighted gate several times in a row so I gave up and just sat with the two of them until Mike returned.

Gizmo and Nutmeg being barred from Thanksgiving dinner:

Aww, look at those little faces...

>117 ronincats: They are that. The wee beggars.

266) Duplex



For soon to be 16 Ryan, his father's leaving and turning the family home into a duplex turns around when Bizzy, the most beautiful girl ever moves in and becomes not only a classmate but a friend, more than a friend. But their life is put in danger by those pursuing her mother for witch craft with is actually a micropower. Ryan has a micro power of protection and Bizzy one of stunning beauty. Of course the only advantage of micropowers is that the storyteller doesn't need a supervillains a challenge, but why Ryan expects to be safe when Bizzy and her mother weren't isn't the sort of logic drop one expects from Card. Neither is the excess of wordage in what would have been better as a sleeker story.

>116 quondame: Ah, poor Gizmo! Poor Nutmeg!

>116 quondame: Sadness! Puppy quarantine.

>116 quondame: They'll do that. Jasper can shimmy through the skinniest gap when he wants to but if you ask him to go through a gate or a door he's apparently the fattest dog in the world and you have to open it to its maximum extent and stand well to the side.

>121 Berly: Nutmeg was sad puppy, then Gizmo, then Nutmeg. I tried to navigate eBay with Gizmo on my lap for over and hour. But it's all finished now, and they played happily once they were reunited.

>122 humouress: Mike was sure he'd fixed the gate, and not a minute later we watched as Gizmo push, twisted, jumped and pried until she wiggled her noodle body through a gap. The two dogs have opposite body feels - Nutmeg is a solid heavy straightforward force. Gizmo feels like you picked up a bundle of furry spider legs that might easily drop apart.

>123 quondame: Some dogs are escape artists, Susan, and Gizmo is one of them.
I love your description how Gizmo's body feels :-)

Wow, Susan. I was sure I stopped by before this to comment!

Loved the doggy stories.
So, you have experience I guess, with these >123 quondame: furry spider legs ? (gives a Yukky shudder).

My public announcement service, right here on your very own thread!

Since you indicated interest for the Christmas Vanilla Pecan Ovals recipe ☛☛☛
I posted the recipe on my "wall" (under my profile) in case you'd like my infamous Quad-F cookie to make for the seasonal snacking... (Fun-Fast-Finished-Fattening)!

On my wall, so keeping it out of the Talk threads. I prefer not to clutter up my book talk with recipes. Not that I mind if other LT-ers like to post recipes on their threads.

>124 FAMeulstee: >125 SandyAMcPherson: I know spider seems strange, but all three of us have the same impression when she lies on us. A collection of warm long stiff legs. When we hold her she turns into soft noodles with stiff legs that seem about to disconnect. Weird, but endearing. Nutmeg is, well, a giant only slightly yielding nutmeg, the legs don't come into it at all unless you get the force of her raspy paws, seemingly from nowhere.

Were French Bulldogs purposely bred to be living Teddy Bears? The resemblance is to close for coincidence.

266.01) The Tinderbox



The radical feminist lesbian reworking of Anderson's story The Tinder Box. A fanciful tract, but a tract, no getting away from it.

By happy coincidence this tale which was just uploaded at Tor.com yesterday
Meets December TIOLI Challenge #16: Read a book with at least three numbers in the first paragraph

267) Driving the Deep



Fergus Ferguson goes way deep, under the ice of Saturn's moon Enceladus, in an attempt to rescue his friends, the Shipmakers of Pluto who disappeared after they sent him of to deal with his backstory on Earth. This rescue caper moves at a brisk pace, rolling up some whoppingly convenient coincidences as it bounces against the climax. Entertaining and it balances its heavily oppressive main setting deftly.

Meets December TIOLI Challenge #6: Read a book with an alliterative title

Reading is going slowly in The Actual Star. It was not written to be an easy read.

2 weeks out after burning my hand, the healing has gone well, and just now I've only left one finger bandaged to give it a couple of extra days before letting it hang out in the open. Peeling isn't very pretty and there are red spots, but I've gotten through with no open sores and almost full use of the hand the whole time, so good enough.

Added: I got a message via the FI collar that Gizmo had left home. It turned out that she and Nutmeg had broken through the back gate into the steep sloped area, also fenced, behind our flat yard. Gizmo was able to get back through the hole in the gate, but Mike had to help Nutmeg return. He's gone to get materials to make repairs.

Today we have an infestation of workmen installing the structures for adding the batteries to our solar power system. Tomorrow we should be connected, but that will require an interruption in our power, so that we will have fewer such interruptions. Still, I don't relish being pushed offline, even if it does give me more reading or errands time.

268) The Actual Star



A 1012 Mayan historical/magical, a 2012 Mayan magical realism, and a 3012 pseudo Mayan failing utopia magical, are interleaved and connected by reincarnations centering on the Hero Twins. The author isn't Mayan or indigenous American. Strange, fanciful, and concerned much more with the other world Xibalba than anything, other than sexual, most modern fantasy novels address. It is a warm stew of a novel that fascinates but isn't best at tidy resolution.

BB from @richardderus

Meets December TIOLI Challenge #3: Read a book with a celestial body in the title or on the cover

>129 quondame: Yay for solar power!! Good for you!

>130 quondame: Looks like one I might like - will see if the library has it.

>131 2wonderY: A the joys of home improvement. They will be back tomorrow as one of the batteries is offline and our AC (not currently needed as it happens) isn't properly routed to work off the batteries or at all. This company does not seem to have done a single thing correctly the first time, and sometimes not the second. Perhaps the are just growing too fast for their training or perhaps those in charge are just total dingbats.

>132 drneutron: I found it interesting that a book about people obsessed with things I don't consider "real" can still be absorbing.

269) Ambush or Adore



A spy must remain unseen. To be loved you must be seen. A wistful romance between a man who wants an ordinary peaceful life but has lost his hart to a woman with a need to wander devoted to a profession that allows her to do so.

Meets December TIOLI Challenge #4: Rolling Challenge: Read the first or the last (aka most recent) book in a series

>133 quondame: We're just looking into getting solar power and have had quite a few site visits to look at our roof (grooves). They've all talked about solar panels and an inverter to convert DC to AC but no one has said anything about batteries. Would that be to store energy for sunless hours? Mind you, I'm not sure we'd have much excess, especially with two teens (well, one almost-teen) who don't seem to have heard of the concept of being environmentally conscious.

>135 humouress: You don't need batteries to benefit, but you won't have power at night in a blackout if you don't have them. Also, here they are required in order to run without being connected to the power system, because they include the system to convert what the panels provide to what we use. Before today, or maybe tomorrow, all the electricity our panels produced went into the power grid and we got drew what we needed of nice clean conditioned power.

We still get charged a monthly fee for the privilege of being connected to the power grid. Maybe some of our excess power will pay for that, but given the rigged system, I don't see that happening.

269.01) The Angel of Khan el-Khalili



The atmosphere is interesting, the confessional that is the core of the narrative is retroactively if not initially inevitable. Angels and truth are both dangerous. A truth eating angel should somehow be even more horrifying.

Meets December TIOLI Challenge #11 Read a book with an unrealistic-styled illustration on the cover

>128 quondame: Glad to hear that the hand is healing well. I hope it continues to improve, Susan.

>138 alcottacre: Thanks.

At this point I don't think anyone would notice anything unusual. I can see that skin over three of my proximal phalanges and a bit of the back of my hand is slightly red and thin, but even though the burn was bigger and worse than I first thought it has healed to this point rather quickly.

>136 quondame: Oh, I see. Based on our bills, we'll have to top up from the grid anyway, so our batteries wouldn't get used. Whatever we don't use (if at all) will automatically go into the grid (at a lower price than we buy it for, of course). If there's a blackout, we'll be as stranded as the rest of the country.

It did actually happen once, a few years ago. The thing that puzzled me was that even with the streetlights out and no moon, there was enough ambient light for me to find my way around the house looking for a torch that worked.

>140 humouress: We stated that we planned to get an electric car, so we were "allowed" more panels & batteries than if not. I'm not sure if when we'll do that - maybe if we sell/give one of our cars to Becky when she moves out. As long as we both keep our licenses.

We had a 36+ hour blackout not too long ago and blackouts have become much more common. If we didn't have our camping solar set up with panels and battery, we couldn't have run our CPAPs. I want to continue global warming with as good a chance of AC as I can manage.

270) Peace



The baroque pearl at the center of this fanciful collage of story jewels is an unexceptional middle class life in the Midwest of early to middle 20th century USA. There are ghost stories and corner of the eye love stories, fragments of remembered stories, old Irish stories, and even likely forged necromancy accounts. We encompassed in rooms of all the recalled residences and workplaces of Den Weer and move freely but without a safety thread though them.

Read for December TIOLI Challenge # 10: Since this is the month of “Peace, good will toward men” read a book with either PEACE or GOOD in the title or subtitle.

270.01) Far Sector (2019-) #1



A Green Lantern story in which the GL, stationed on a strange non-planet inhabited by 3 humanoid types who have suppressed their emotions after being goaded to near destruction by an alien race. Investigating the first murder in 500 years, she has yet to use any GL powers.

270.02) Eight Winter Nights: A Family Hanukkah Book



Bleh verse, trite expressions. No drunk adults.

Read for December TIOLI Challenge #2: - Read a book involving a holiday which contains a number in the title

>143 quondame: Winter nights without liquor makes for a completely unbelievable tale!

>143 quondame: It was the 'No drunk adults' you objected to? ;0)

>144 PaulCranswick: >145 humouress: Have you experienced winter gatherings with multiple families and no drunk adults? Not the Christmas or Hanukkah ones I've been to. My mother learned to feed people quickly and let the wine seep in around the food, which moderated the outcome considerably, and the general good will lasted into the night, but my husbands cousin's parties all had 2.5hrs of standing about drinking before food was served and everybody evaporated as soon as the meal was over. Probably the same amount of booze per person, but very different feelings.

>146 quondame: I would describe them as "mellow" rather than "sozzled".

>147 PaulCranswick: Mellow is a good target for party guests. Once my uncle was no longer a feature of holiday festivities, it was often achieved. Although less often than other, less fraught, social evenings.

I think various tensions associated with the winter holidays tends to cramp the mellow rather than the season's purported joys contributing to it.

Only in real life.

With the coming of colder weather I got out a strange knit garment, half poncho half sweater that had spent spring, summer and a good chunk of fall in it's original plastic bag. This piece is supposed to convert between a full body sweater with short sleeves or a cropped body sweater with long sleeves depending on which snaps are connected. This may work for the rail thin models, but on me any tug or pull reduced it to a flat cross shape hanging haphazardly from my neck.

So I dug out a trusty bodkin and a bit of heavy yarn and lace stitched the underarms and a few inches of body, leaving the yarn gaping between the sides.

It was a damp day today so I flung on my trusty old leather jacket and braved the bank and Trader Joe's, returning home in real need of a restroom. Buttons I had not even suspected on the inside of the jacket caught themselves on the threads at the side seems, fastening me into a weird tangle of jacket and sweater and vary anxious to be out of it. I will need to do something about those aggressive buttons quite soon.

>149 quondame: What a word picture!! **giggle**

>142 quondame: Adding that one to the BlackHole. Thanks for the review and recommendation, Susan.

>149 quondame: Buttons I had not even suspected on the inside of the jacket caught themselves on the threads at the side seems, fastening me into a weird tangle of jacket and sweater and vary anxious to be out of it.

That sounds exactly like something that would happen to me.

Have a wonderful weekend, Susan!

>149 quondame: *sigh* I can empathise. Not that I've been in that exact situation ... but things happen.

>150 2wonderY: >151 alcottacre: >152 humouress: Thank you for the sympathy. Indeed things happen.

>149 quondame: That sounds really stressful. It isn't funny to me, because about 35 or more years ago, I had a similar clothing entrapment.
Remember when those quilt-comforter things came on the market with snap fasteners, so you could "wear" the comforter? These were the big deal Christmas gift idea that particular year. It was kind of like wearing a sleeping bag with arms. I know it sounds hilarious now, but I got trapped in one.

I was so comfy on the sofa, reading a book. In the bag-thing. On a very cold winter day when we lived in a single-window pane type of house near the sea that was always cold in a southeast wind. Of course nobody else was at home.

I was definitely well-immersed in whatever book it was when I realized something was burning. And indeed. Smoke emanated from the kitchen and I couldn't get out of the damn bag thing.
Panic does weird things to your mind and releasing jammed on snaps were fully beyond me. I crawled like a slug to the kitchen and pulled a smoking hot pot off the burner. Then I took a chef's knife to that utterly useless 'wear a comforter'. We will reserve my right to *not* report what my family thought of this solution.

>154 SandyAMcPherson: Oh dear. I can too easily imagine that.

I do tend to stay at the kitchen table if anything is cooking, because I do forget, and water or worse boil to nothing and pans are never the same. And the family's remarks are not kind.

>155 quondame: And the family's remarks are not kind.
I think there was equal dismay between burnt stew (no dinner) and ruined item. You'll be interested to hear that when (just moments ago) I recounted this story to the hubs, asking if he remembered (glutton for punishment was it?), all he said was, "Yeah you wrecked the seasoning on that cast iron pot". I think he's still miffed! We still have the pot, too and I think perhaps it recovered better than he has.

>156 SandyAMcPherson: The seasoning of cast iron is a serious matter. Fortunately YouTube has our back. Family memory is the worst.

271) The God of Lost Words



So much of this seems like running around in circles until we spin out and fall into the pocket. Some of that is interesting and some of it is frustrating, but it doesn't add up to as good a story as the ending required. Which is something of a crime in a book about stories.

I really do have to let this one off my Kindle, it's been due for days, so it
Meets December TIOLI Challenge #8: Read a book that you have borrowed in the last 12 months (and really ought to return!)

Becky made shrimp and pasta for dinner tonight from The Stinking Rose Restaurant Cookbook, very tasty.

One of my eBay purchases was garnished with a glittery ribbon and I had to spend a half hour cleaning what Becky calls fairy herpes off the table. Soon it will be time to tinsel the tree. Not as bad as glitter, but still. We have put a dog fence around the tree - Nutmeg and Gizmo are much more interactive than the dachshunds ever were.

I want to do a St. Valentine's Day massacre on the 19th century again. I'm struggling through The Woman They Could Not Silence. I have to skim over some parts or I would mash my Kindle to bits.

Well, today was a bit of an adventure. I had to return an Amazon order which took me to the UPS store so I sent off the Santa gift as well rather than wait in line at USPS. Then, after a short stop back at home I ventured out to pick up local eBay purchase. It wasn't really a so much a private local seller as a shipping company that got stuck with a 24"x24"x48" wardrobe box and was trying to get someone to take it off their hands.

So it was at a shipping company warehouse in a light industrial area and no one was answering the bells at the doors at either end of the big building and the front area declined all knowledge. Eventually a guy offered to ask around inside and let me sit in a tiny area surrounded by hazard signs and warnings against cell phones.

It took about 25min total for me to find an entrance, a person to find a person and that person to get the box to my Prius C, which yes could take it if I moved the chairs out of the way. It's now in the garage. I may get around to unpacking it tomorrow or so and hope it really does contain a doll house and six dolls with lots of furnishings. Mike expressed disgust, but really it was quite mild, considering. I have a project in mind and hope to sell off most of the items when it's done, but yeah, I've got lots of intentions.

>158 quondame: Sounds like one I can safely skip! I hope your next read is better for you, Susan.

Have a great week - and a less adventurous one than today turned out to be.

Ooh. Dollhouse! Do you play with miniatures? I got back to it with grandbaby.

>161 alcottacre: Thanks. The series had ups and downs, and this was more the latter.

Today wasn't hard or anything, just quite a change for me.

>162 2wonderY: I sort of horde miniature tools - mostly not classic 1:12 scale, but my core are early 20th century items I was told were mostly lagniappe with other purchases.

This particular dollhouse is larger, for 8" Madeline dolls. I'm trying to get a display of 12 little girls in 2 straight lines with Miss Clavel watching over them. This lot had Miss Clavel, 2 Madelines, Chloe, Danielle, and Nicole, which I have seen go for more than I paid for them and the old house in Paris with furnishings. Together with the ones I already have, and a Eloise and Betsy or so, once I gather up the remaining blue coats and yellow hats I'll be good to go. Pepito will just have to go drag for the day.

>163 quondame: I hope you share some pictures!

>164 2wonderY: I do plan to take some. That's the goal. I hope I can reduce the packaging considerably. It was originally intended for Japan and I expect there will be considerable internal packaging to deal with.

I just checked, it was originally offered at around $200 a month ago and then $140 when my bid lost to someone who couldn't do local pick up. Then it went through another $140 cycle after I convinced myself I could live without it. Then it showed up for $100 and I bid again and no one else did.

272) The Woman They Could Not Silence



A somewhat over dramatized and angled telling of the life of Elizabeth Packard, an inspiring woman who not only worked her way out of an arbitrary commitment to an insane asylum with the director who was not only willing to believe any woman insane on the word of her husband but gaslighted them into believing he was on their side, but campaigned successfully to have the laws changed so it would not happen to her again or to other married women. I had to read lightly over the sections detailing the brutalities of her commitment and the later treatment and defaming by her husband and the asylum director since I could not take a time machine and massacre 90% of 19th century men.

I don't entirely buy Moore's character analysis, since I have known unstoppable women who share many of the same abilities as Elizabeth and have used them effectively, but she does highlight the charisma and engaging with the situation she is in to do what she can to improve things for others at every turn which I have observed in those women.

BB from @thornton37814

Meets December TIOLI Challenge #13: Read a book about a combination of the mental health and legal systems

>166 quondame: I have seen a number of these types of stories before where ladies have been interred into asylums on the word of their husbands. It seems extraordinary that such things could have happened but they obviously did and not uncommonly so.

I have to be careful in future when Hani makes the remark that she thinks that I am crazy!

>167 PaulCranswick: As horrendous as it was for Elizabeth P. who was energetic woman with a disciplined intelligence, self confidence and a real passion to help others, imagine how it has been for women full of doubts and or lacking in healthy energy.

My mother was committed at least twice, and advised me to avoid going crazy as it resulted in a complete lack of control over your circumstances and involved a lot of excruciating boredom. So I've muddled through. I visited a friend a few times at a local facility and it seemed absolutely critical to avoid such places.

The Christmas tree is decorated. I put the tinsel on at the insistence of Mike and Becky who seem to completely have forgotten that I used to insist on it until a few years ago with what Gertie and Manny would get up to with it. Well, we'll see what Gizmo and Nutmeg make of it.

Today's storm made great soup weather. What wasn't great is that the restaurant only provided 2 bowls of ramen, not the 3 we ordered. Becky kindly shared her spicy miso and I applied for a refund.

Later last night, Becky and I decided hot chocolate was in order. When Becky couldn't find the packets in the usual place Mike was invoked and not only dug out the Costco sized box from the pantry, he started heating the milk. There was some discussion of mugs and who got which one. I made of with the biggie and popped to chocolate covered mint flavored marshmallows on top. In all the excitement! I forgot that we had pressurized cream cans in the fridge and missed my chance for that enhancement. Well, we have a big box of hot chocolate packets and know where it is.

>170 quondame: In that case, Susan, I think you'd better repeat the experience and remember the cream this time.

>171 humouress: 😆Somehow that thought had entered my mind!

273) Forever



Sam and Cole work to save the wolves against a press of time initiated by Shelby killing and leaving the body of a young girl. Grace has trouble retaining human form when she can achieve it so Sam is still held to be responsible for her disappearance. But Cole has a plan, and Isabelle will help. The timeline is accelerated for extra drama and as a way of getting certain problems cleaned up, which I found excessively manipulative.

Meets December TIOLI Challenge #15: Read a book whose first sentence has seven words or fewer

Gustav Klimt. Complete Paintings

Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 17.2 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.5 x 3 x 18 inches
There are fold outs. It is a coffee table had it only some fold out legs.
It is also my birthday present.

274) Iron Widow



OK, 3.75 would be more accurate, but this book takes no prisoners.

Who has more right to anger than a bound-foot young woman pressured into a military concubinage which killed the sister who was her only loving family member so that there will be money for her brother's bride price and education. This book cannibalizes YA tropes and ties us in the entrails. Zetian is surnamed Wu appropriately enough for a woman who lets nothing stand long between her and her goals and understands convention as a shackle not a support.

Meets December TIOLI Challenge #4: Rolling Challenge: Read the first or the last (aka most recent) book in a series

From Every Storm A Rainbow



The storm remains a distant cloud bank and two of the main potential sources of disaster are eliminated off screen as it were, so this is mild even by Liaden™️ short fiction warm fuzziness standards. Everything seems to work for Sinit, cause ya know, she's a good kid.

>174 quondame: That is beautiful, Susan, I love Klimt.
And happy birthday!

>174 quondame: I have such a book, but it's no where near the trim size you cite. The cover is "the same" but of course it's reduced. I just looked at Amazon and I found at Taschen has three editions. You have the top of the line edition, I have the bottom of the line. There have to be differences beyond trim size, because there's a difference of page length also: 676...604...664. The edition you have must be spectacular.

Hi Susan!

>159 quondame: fairy herpes Love it. Nasty, awful stuff.

>165 quondame: Patience is a virtue, as is the perseverance it took to actually pick it up in >160 quondame:. Congrats.

>166 quondame: since I could not take a time machine and massacre 90% of 19th century men. Only 90%? *smile*

>174 quondame: What a beautiful book. Happy Birthday! Yesterday? Today? Another day?

>177 FAMeulstee: Isn't it just!

>178 weird_O: I just noticed that my big discussion on Taschen's multiplicity of sizes vanished into the threadosphere. Well, I have one book in at least 4 forms.

>179 karenmarie: It's so good to see you out and about!

Well it would take a few to get us to the 20th century and beyond. Not that we deserved to, but hey I've had some fun.

>174 quondame: Nice! And happy birthday, Susan.

275) Night Shapes



Set in the very earliest 20th century Congo, this white man at home among Africans tale is almost worse because it is trying not to be racist af while still basically racist af - after all it was written for a market of white men. There are dinosaurs, hidden valleys, a python that takes our hero as a pet, a witch doctor that conjures a storm, but the most outrageous piece of fantasy is that a man would be expelled from the US for an affair with a 14yr old girl, and have to live his life as a king in the Congo. Yes, there is the compulsory red haired green eyed beauty for our hero.

This was on my husband's paper back shelf and since it turns out I'd already read Nightwoods I pulled this to
Read for December TIOLI Challenge #7: Read a book with "Night," "Long," or "Dark" in the title

Since it's first sentence is "The Sun" it would work for Challenge #15, but I can't recommend it.

276) Neil Gaiman's Snow, Glass, Apples



A vampire Snow White haunts these darkly erotic pages and is a bane on all.

Read for December TIOLI Challenge #17: Read a book whose story takes place in a COLD setting

277) At Night All Blood is Black



A young African soldier in the WWI trench bound army of France stays by his childhood friend dying of a gut wound on the battlefield. We are in his mind, sharing his memories until it dissolves. It is a rough ride.

Read for December TIOLI Challenge #14: Read a bloody book

>183 quondame: Adding both of those to the BlackHole. Thanks for the recommendations, Susan.

278) Bruno and the Carol Singers



Bruno gets a chance to spread Christmas goodness a little farther than usual, and of course it all works out. With Christmas goose and Gigi being the trusted judge of character.

Read for December TIOLI Challenge #5: Read a book where the author’s last name could be used as a first name

Becky got the job she went through all those interviews for! She'll be starting in January. Now she'll be able to save even more to move out. She will be training franchise holders for Mathnasium, where she started out part time as a tutor and went back to after the accounting jobs she had didn't work out as franchise support staff. She loves the company and had recommended a couple of friends for the positions they have there.

I'm about to start wrapping presents if I can clear the paper off the table which Becky put up for me and Mike dumped all the paper on....

Or maybe I'll read a bit.

I'll be making the Christmas pesto a bit later.

Congrats to Becky on her new job!!! Will she be working at home or in an office or a combination of the two?

And good luck with the presents

or reading.

Is Christmas pesto different than non-Christmas pesto?

>187 karenmarie: Thank you! Becky will be doing a combination. Maybe I can encourage her to buy her own car.

Well there are still presents needing to be wrapped and less table space since we moved everything off the dinning room table to the work table to eat a celebratory dinner.

I did just return from the very busy Italian deli with supplies that will be a challenge to fit into the fridge with all the Indian left overs. I guess I'll just have to have mushroom matar and tandoori for lunch.

I make the pesto without the cheese for assembly later so when I put it on the pasta it spreads very evenly then the cheese goes in. But otherwise no, just that I rarely make it except for Christmas.

I'm getting to the end of Love Medicine which is not the easiest trek, but worth it.

>186 quondame: Congratulations to Becky!

>187 karenmarie: I am hoping to get to Love Medicine in the new year. I got a whole stack of new Erdrich books in recently and want to get them read!

>188 quondame: Thank you! She's a lot less stressed than she's been for the last month, with the interviews, presentations, and worst of all, waiting.

279) Love Medicine



While generally trekking across the plain we keep descending into canyons internal to the characters and emerge facing in unpredictable but always changed directions. Two lines of descent are tangled as are the two races as these people too real to be mere characters love and compete and drink and generally when they live it is on little but their inner strengths and determination to be useful to themselves and others.

Meets December TIOLI Challenge #12 Read a book where someone on the cover (front or back) is wearing or holding glasses

Or in other words: Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!

>174 quondame: Is the 19th your birthday too Susan? Happy Birthday!

My older son's birthday is 19th December and today (23rd) of course (because, of course) is my younger son's birthday.

>186 quondame: Congratulations Becky!

>192 SandDune: Thank you! Merry Christmas to you too, and Happy New Year!

>193 humouress: The 18th. Exactly 1 week before Christmas. Growing up I had one friend with a Christmas day birthday and another with a New Years day birthday, so we did a lot of commiserating.

I have a friend who was a twin born on the 19th and hated the one Christmas+birthday present for "the twins."

Thanks! Somehow there is a much more relaxed atmosphere in the house now!

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>195 johnsimpson: Thank you and Merry Christmas to you and Karen and all the family!

Now this is a holiday tradition I could see adopting!

The veal, eggnog, brandy, and soft drinks have been purchased. The presents have been wrapped.

The pie crusts are over-nighting in the fridge. Since Mike went to a lot of stores in search of mincemeat, extra crust was made for tarts.

I still haven't done the pesto though I have roasted the pine nuts. Twice. Well two batches, the first of which has proved that the new oven is much hotter at the same setting than the old one.

Tomorrow we have tickets for Spiderman.

Some cleaning will have to happen. It's not the fun part.

>194 quondame: Our boys are quite spoiled and get a present each for their birthdays and for Christmas. Or, usually, more than one. In fact most of the time we lose track of what we’ve got for who for when and they end up getting even more.

Enjoy ‘Spiderman’. We watched it on the 19th.

Hi Susan!

Sounds like the plans are coming along nicely, even if it took two batches of pine nuts...

May all your surprises be good ones this Holiday season.

Have a lovely holiday, Susan.

>199 humouress: There were many delightful moments in Spiderman. I felt at least one scene could have been half as long and some shorter or omitted, but well, meaning and it could be my bladder speaking. Also they cheated the after credit bits.

Thank You Richard, Karen, Roni, Jeff, and Paul!

The pies are out of the oven to cool, so the bare minimum is now covered.

Have a wonderful holiday, Susan. I hope to bookhorn in Love Medicine early next year. Glad to see you enjoyed it.

>206 msf59: Thank you Mark! I hope your day was cheerful and full of comforts.

I may have made an error in trying my new foamer with eggnog and splashing in a bit of brandy. I still have fettuccine al pesto and breaded veal to cook with sauce and maybe some spinach. I'd also better get back to the kitchen before my sister-in-law feels abandoned to the mincemeat tarts.

A very Happy Christmas to you, Susan!

>208 HanGerg: Thank you Hannah!

280) The Scavenger Door



Well, Fergus is wearing on me a bit. Admittedly he has caught the unfortunate end of most of the sticks tossed at him, but he really does seem to like people and that doesn't usually go with ticking them off all the time. Isla got on my nerves from the get go. Fergus deserves better. Lots of following Fergus while he goes through the mandatory quest dance to save the world as he unlocks, zaps, and deals with his beezes.

Meets December TIOLI Challenge #15: Read a book whose first sentence has seven words or fewer

>197 quondame: LOL



These were our family ornaments this year and, despite COVID, a merry time was had by all. I hope the same is true for your holiday and here's to next year!!

>211 Berly: Those are fun, I was admiring them earlier on another thread.

Christmas came off rather well, though I got very exhausted. My brother Eric and his wife Chris helped, and though that drove Becky a bit crazy due to the kitchen crowding, it really did help. Well there was the clean up incident where Eric didn't notice the pesto container in the sink and so we won't be having pesto unless I make a new batch and those Mediterranean pine nuts are expensive. Also an untucked chair provided Gizmo with a path to the table so we lost some pumpkin pie and possibly some other side dishes shouldn't be kept.

But Becky helped with deep frying the veal until it wasn't new anymore and the extra kitchen company drove her away, the scheme of covering the pesto pasta while it waited over the water that it had boiled in kept it warm and we managed to get some spinach cooked (Becky again) so our plates had some color.

Everyone seemed to like their presents this year, though Becky was much more into the Stranger Things set and less the special Tarot deck I thought she'd really appreciate. It will be some time that the stand at table will occupy the living room while she assembles the strange tree house. Nor did I get the Edward Gorey pop-up book I wanted, but it's not very available and then rather on the expensive side. I do have a new bedside lamp - with remote control! - and a milk foaming tool which works a treat.

Phew! I can see why you are tired. ; )

>213 quondame: Glad to hear that your Christmas was a success, Susan!

281) The Potter's Field



This one barely squeaked above a for me which is a pure crime for Andrea Camilleri in this self referential work.

It's a tired discouraged Inspector Montalbano whose meals are only briefly described if at all, and whose pleasures are complicated with guilt or calculation so not my favorite side of him, and there isn't anything in this tale that improves his world, only complicates it.

This was next in my sequence of Mantalbanos, but I nevertheless
Read for December TIOLI Challenge #18: Read a book from a 'What should you borrow?'-list

Hi Susan, Thanks for dropping by. As always I enjoy your comments and book reviews. Best wishes for a healthy, bookish year to come.

>217 SandyAMcPherson: Welcome to the inter-holiday lull. I hope you're happily lulling about too!

OK, I went out in the rain to check out more books. This of course involved showering and dressing. I feel I deserve to kick back with some brandied eggnog. But then I'd probably be too incapacitated to read, so maybe not. I'm seeing if I can get through the last Expanse book in time to leave a day or two to tackle TIOLI #1.

>210 quondame: >216 quondame: are both #280, Susan.

>219 FAMeulstee: Thanks for dropping by and keeping me sequential!

I'm making decent progress on Leviathan Falls, which is a very smooth read, but boy are the characters acting like idiots. I have a feeling it's mostly busy work and the solutions going to pop outta the hat or somewhere less savory. It's not really very interesting business. This isn't purely as painful to me as Persepolis Rising, but I've still almost 30% to go.

Nutmeg and Gizmo have recovered from their holiday exhaustion - people to play with, for hours! interesting smells! food falling from the table! with a vengeance for which I was not prepared after two very quiet days. A pen was gutted and spread on the hall carpet and a lip gloss container was deglossed and dismembered. This was after they fought over me well before I was prepared to be awake and Nutmeg pushed me off the bed shortly after they had settled down from that. When I returned from the bathroom she was cuddled up Mike, snoring in his (earplugged) ear.

Dogs, huh? Jasper, too, had a field day when we had guests over for Christmas dinner. One of our guests doesn't get to see her daughter's dog as much as usual for the time being and spoiled Jasper shamelessly. He even got fed from the table, which I usually discourage as he's large enough to nick food just by getting his front paws up on the table. (Though my BiL is here at the moment and their family dog is a Bernese; he can get food off the table without having to jump at all.)

I would like to wish you and your family the very best of the season and good health and happiness for 2022.

>222 humouress: Yep, dogs. Gotta love 'em. But not feed them at the table. Big no.

Thank you! All the best of the season to you and yours.

Thursday is Becky's birthday, making our holiday season that much denser (mine was a week before Christmas). We will be stuffing ourselves at Ruth's Chris's Steak House, as is our custom, but not at our usual location which has closed. My brother has invited himself to treat us as partial reparations for the lost pesto sauce, or maybe he likes our company or is bored stiff because not much business in going on over the holiday?

282) Leviathan Falls



Very readable, the title gives away what's on the agenda. The Rocinante and its diminished crew are sought by Tanaka because they have Duarte's daughter which is the majority of the action, but not all that meaningful other than establishing Tanaka's character, which was pretty clear after two paragraphs. It's full of fan service and not really a whole lot else.

Meets December TIOLI Challenge #9: Read a book with 500 pages or more

Today is Becky's birthday and it seems it's all about games and gaming or adjacent. Mike got her Nintendo gift cards and in addition to the Climate Change Cards Against Humanities that I purchased new for her I passed on my D&D die, my D&D figures and a tarot deck from the late 1970s that I found too honest for my preferences. For Christmas she got the rather astounding Fyodor Pavlov Tarot.

Belated Happy Birthday to Becky!

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Happy birthday (yesterday) to Becky (yours) and Jessica (mine)!!

>226 karenmarie: Thank you!

>227 johnsimpson: Thank you, John! I hope your new year goes more smoothly for you and Karen than it seems to be at present!

>228 Berly: Thanks! Best to you and Jessica!

283) The Comfort Book



Uncertainty is built into the universe. The only certainty is change. You are enough. If you don't feel you are enough that can change. If you do feel you are enough, enjoy the now.

This is a surprisingly palatable to me "self-help" book as I interpret its message as accept yourself as you are and enjoy what's around you.

Haig goes on a bit about nature alleviating rather than causing stress, but it's a pretty de-natured nature he's describing, walking his dog in the predator free outdoors.

Read for December TIOLI Challenge #1: Read a nonfiction book by an author who wrote a book of fiction that you have read in the past

Forget your stresses and strains
As the old year wanes;
All that now remains
Is to bring you good cheer
With wine, liquor or beer
And wish you a special new year.

Happy New Year, Susan.

Happy birthday to Becky!