Susan (quondame) remains bookish in 2022

I'm 51 years more than the last two digits of any year in this century for all but two weeks of the year. I read a fair amount as I am large(ly) sessile and have sloughed off most of my meager responsibilities on my husband, less appreciated than he should be if you ask him, Mike, and my overly appreciated daughter Becky. But that keeps me in good temper which they should appreciate. In addition to those two our house is inhabited by two dogs, Nutmeg and Gizmo, neither of whom cuddle with me near as much as I'd like.

I got off to a slow start this year, getting up shortly before noon and just recently getting though all my starred threads and starring a couple of more. If I have failed to give you a proper New Year's greeting, let me know where to find you!

I'm hoping to be a bit more relaxed this year about the TIOLI challenges, since they are, after all TIOLI and all my taking seems a bit greedy. Also one of my major comforts comes from deep dives into previously read series where no matter how hard the characters find their predicaments, I have hope for them.

Last night Mike roused Becky and I out of our blanket nests and down stairs for a toast in sparkly champagne flutes, and queued up Guy Lombardo's Auld Lang Syne for our edification.

Happy New Year, Susan. I hope 2022 is a good year for you.

>3 BLBera: Thank you! I hope 2022 is better for everyone than 2021 (or 2016-2021 to be more accurate!)

It's Public Domain Day!

You are now free to make free with:

A. A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh, decorations by E. H. Shepard 
Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises
Dorothy Parker, Enough Rope
Langston Hughes, The Weary Blues
T. E. Lawrence, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom
Felix Salten, Bambi, A Life in the Woods
Kahlil Gibran, Sand and Foam
Agatha Christie, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Edna Ferber, Show Boat
William Faulkner, Soldiers’ Pay
Willa Cather, My Mortal Enemy
D. H. Lawrence, The Plumed Serpent
H. L. Mencken, Notes on Democracy

Happy new thread and new year!

This group always helps me to read; welcome back to the group, Susan.

For now I am keeping pace, let's see how soon I fall back into reading mediocrity.

Happy New Year, Susan, and I hope 2022 will be a good one

Happy reading in 2022, Susan!

Welcome back for another reading year, Susan!

Nutmeg and Gizmo! What excellent dog names.

Happy New Year, Susan! Looking forward to following your reading in 2022.

>5 quondame: That's quite a group that went into the P.D. I had not thought to see what would be entering the public domain.

Hi Susan and Happy New Year! I'm dropping off my star, looking forward to following your reading in 2022.

Hi Susan! Happy New Year and happy first thread of 2022.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, Susan!

Happy New Year!

1) Briarheart



An easy read. YA special girl and her companions. A strange sucker from the Sleeping Beauty root, with the main character being the baby princess's older half sister. Rather duller than most of the 1000 kingdoms books, but more like them than other books by Mercedes Lackey. The love of the older sister for the baby is declared over and over, but remains a fact not the feeling core of a story.

Meets January TIOLI Challenge #12: Read a book with a specific woman in its title

Susan, starred and back for more! Wishing you happiness, health and good books!

Happy New Year, Susan - your thread is starred!

Happy New Year and happy new thread!

Happy New Year, Susan!

Thank you >6 figsfromthistle: Anita, >7 PaulCranswick: Paul, >8 AnneDC: Anne, >9 FAMeulstee: Anita, and >10 drneutron: Jim!

>11 London_StJ: I suggested Nutmeg for my daughter's French Bulldog, but Gizmo the Pug(+probably chihuahua) came with her handle. Good to see you here!


They are much better natured than they look!

And thank you to >12 Crazymamie: Mamie and yes, >13 thornton37814: Lori, aren't there some treasures in >5 quondame:!

More thanks to >14 EBT1002: Ellen, >15 karenmarie: Karen, >16 SilverWolf28:, >17 mahsdad: Jeff, >18 Helenoel: Helen, >20 Berly: Kim, >21 CDVicarage: Kerry, and >22 foggidawn: Foggi, and >23 jnwelch: Joe, may you keep the coffee coming!

>19 quondame: Sorry your reading year is not off to a better start, Susan. I hope it improves from here.

Happy New Year!

>19 quondame: Let's hope your next read is better. Like you, one of my books thus far was a YA book which I really could not like at all.

>25 alcottacre: Well it's done now. I pretty much read whatever (though not all collaborations) she publishes, and they are rarely trying, though sometimes dull or trite. Thanks, Stasia.

>26 Whisper1: I am enjoying spending time with the folk in The Undertakers though I'm finding my mind has conflated The Conductors and As Bright as Heaven which also features a funeral home in Philadelphia. I keep wonder why the little orphan baby is staying with a different couple and where the main character's daughter's are. (There isn't an orphan baby and the MC has no children.)

Happy New Year, Susan. Finally dropping a star over here. Love the family topper.

>24 quondame: We're big fans of food names for dogs - a friend just named her French Bulldog "Olive" and she's the cutest.

They look like perfect loves to me!

Hi Susan my dear, i have just dropped my star off dear friend.

>28 msf59: Thanks Mark! It does look like you are in for a chill!

>29 London_StJ: Becky was thinking Cinnamon, but no. They are much livelier dogs than the dachshunds we've had for over 20 years. And Nutmeg is so smart it would be scary if she weren't such a direct little soul.

>30 johnsimpson: Great to see you John. Best wishes for you and Karen's hand!

The tree came down last night. I had to clear boxes of ornaments off to the side to have a place to eat our fried chicken (Honey Kettle is great!) tonight.

Tomorrow Becky is off to Anime/LA and Nutmeg will be on her own for the first night ever. I plan to move all my wedges and pillows and blankets into Becky's room because if we tried to have Nutmeg in the bed with Gizmo I doubt all 4 of us would fit, much less accomplish any sleeping.

2) The Undertakers



It's good just spending time with Hetty and Benjy, she is such a creation and the pair have a charm. But if it wasn't for that this second in the series would drop a star. The action and direction are scatter shot, and even bringing it all together for a flash bang conclusion after a roaring semi-climax doesn't give it the punch of the first in the series.

Meets January TIOLI Challenge #6: Read a book you acquired in December 2021

3) The Colour of Milk



This story has only one possible arc, though the details and mode are telling and worth being flung into the inevitable. It makes Tess of the d'Urbervilles seem hopelessly romantic.

BB from @richardderus

Meets January TIOLI Challenge #16: Tidying Up,,,finish a book you started before the New Year

>32 quondame: You wanted to also sleep?

Hello, Susan. Just passing through, it turns out. But I been here and will revisit from time to time.

>34 Crazymamie: I did rather. Last night wasn't so good for sleep either. Becky's room is much warmer than mine, something about being on the SW side of the house and since our larger bedroom has the thermostat and takes longer to heat up or cool down than her smaller room, hers gets a bit more of each.
And Nutmeg is not a relaxed sleeper, aside from her French Bulldog snore soundtrack. Fortunately, lying across my neck with her face bumping my CPAP mask didn't suit her.

>35 weird_O: Good to see you here.

4) Afterparties



Children of the displaced survivors of multiple horrors growing in a barren landscape that doesn't support their parents' culture narrate hours or weeks of their lives over 3 decades during which the roots they seem to place are sparse and don't sustain. The voice is powerful and clear though the lives are anything but.

BB from @richardderus

Meets January TIOLI Challenge #5: Read a book by an author who is new to you

Hi Susan,
Nice to see your message at the end of my last year's thread, so I'm delurking to see how you are getting along, and what new miniature accessories you've accumulated (tiny sewing machine, perhaps?), not to mention looking for new BBs and authors I never read previously.

Feeling very satisfied about my decision to 'stay in touch' but not feel constrained to babysit my own thread. In case you'd like to see my 2022 reading, I have rewritten my profile to condense the info, and post my reading progress this year with only the most succinct of comments.
This plan has worked out well so far because I'm spending considerably less time trying to stay on top of all the new posts, which was rather frustrating. I know lots of LTers have tons of enjoyment with the Talk threads ~ it had gotten overwhelming for me, though.

>37 quondame: Edited to add that I read Afterparties last year and also rated it 4*. It was a rather sad narrative and didn't end resolved very satisfactorily, but that portrayed real life for these immigrants. So no happy ever afters. I was glad to have read it.

>38 SandyAMcPherson: As I was growing up the trauma passed down from my immigrant great grandparents was occasionally cited as the cause of some troubles in my mother's family. Reading about the huge tidal waves of disruption in the first generation makes me understand better why she thought marrying into a family 10 generations further away from all that might offer stability.
Which was true to some extent, but people are still people and disruption is as basic to our natures as the drive for stability. Plus, nothing gets you away from having to live with yourself.

5) Paladin's Hope



M/M fantasy romance with adventure. The lich-doctor Piper, and Galen, a paladin of a dead god are pulled by the gnole Earstripe into an unofficial investigation of the cause of several dead bodies found in the river and the three head out of the city. They find what they are looking for is quite extraordinary and even if they can survive it they have still more troubles, the least interesting of which are the complications between Piper and Galen, which seem pro forma.

BB from @souloftherose

Meets January TIOLI Challenge #13: Read a book without an article in the title

Happy New Year, Susan. I love your 2022 graphic bookcases!

>41 ronincats: Thanks for stopping by Roni!

Just found your thread. Happy reading in 2022!

Nutmeg and Gizmo are pretty darn cute.

>43 Narilka: Thanks for the 2022 wishes!

>44 EBT1002: Cute is the word.

So Becky has returned from 3 nights away at AnimeLA. We'll see if she brought home any wee visitors. She says everyone she saw was masked, but still, convention.

She had a rocky homecoming though. Nutmeg was not in a happy greeting mood, wanting to continue ball play with Gizmo. Not that greeting is Nutmeg's thing. Some of our dachshunds were into prolonged greetings, even after a bit of time outdoors, but Nutmeg is always focused on what she's doing.

6) The Letter for the King



This is a long drawn out adventure, starting when Tiuri's vigil to become a knight is interrupted and he sets of to deliver a letter to the king of the country across the mountains. He is endangered several times and must show his courage, resolve and integrity at numerous points, impressing both allies and enemies. It’s all a bit much and takes ever so long to get through.

Meets January TIOLI Challenge #18: Read a book of adventure, fiction or non-fiction

7) Bring Out the Banners



It's 1914 and two young women in the women's suffrage movement in London meet each other and a young author working as a reporter who is writing stories about the movement. Short and painless, it serves as an introduction to the many types of women who fought and sometimes were brutalized in the cause.

Well, I checked this out for #11 but it was published too late for that challenge so it's a good thing it
Meets January TIOLI Challenge #7: Read a book by an author whose name has 2 initials or has written at least 22 books

I love the names you have given your dogs, Susan. And they are cute!

>33 quondame: I have seen nothing but good reviews in the group for The Colour of Milk which, sadly, my local library does not have.

>37 quondame: Already in the BlackHole or I would be adding it again.

Have a wonderful week, Susan!

>48 PaulCranswick: Thanks Paul. Of course Gizmo came with her name attached, well sort of, the woman who was fostering her called her Chloe, but the group had her listed as Gizmo. I wanted to name her Cairo, but Mike decided to keep Gizmo. I'll take responsibility for Nutmeg. I was thinking The Nutmeg of Consolation since Becky really needed a new dog after Manny, the jerk dachshund, died.

>49 alcottacre: Thanks! Have a good week yourself, Stasia.

8) Clark the Shark



Light, but it seems a potentially valid approach to dealing with that child in class who is always a bit too much for classmates. In this Clark is helped to find his own way of keeping control while around others and rewarded for both that and for being fully on when it is appropriate. I doubt the approach would have such an immediate effect IRL, but I feel it's worth trying.

Chosen to decrease my TIOLI stress factor it was
Read for January TIOLI Challenge #14: It's a Lark! Read a book with the word "Lark" (or some variation thereof) in the title or subtitle

Last year's selection of Valentine balloons was sad, so I wanted to get ahead of things this year so I went to Party City. It's sadder if possible! Lots of empty shelves and not a single fun figural helium balloon. I was hoping to get a hedgehog and panda this year - one or the other has shown up on the web site from time to time, but I guess the supply chain is waving in the wind.

>27 quondame: Like you, my mind rebels when I am reading a book where part of the story just doesn't make sense. I've added Clark the Shark to my reading pile. I enjoy, and read quite a few illustrated children's books!

>53 Whisper1: If I hadn't read As Bright as Heaven which takes place during the 1918 flu pandemic and overwritten my memory of The Conductors the book wouldn't have confused me, so I can't blame it.

We've all met a Clark or two, if we haven't been Clark, and this is has something real to say about it, and not only to the Clarks at whom it's aimed.

Well, we unpacked Madeline's Old House in Paris. It's huge, but as big as it is, it's not really to scale for the 8" dolls for which it was made. To say nothing of Miss. Clavel, who is about Barbie sized. Mike was really quite sweet about it, in a Mike kind of way, saying "It's really kind of neat" with the "but" almost inferred. He helped unpack it and get all the little packages from the bottom of the wardrobe box in which it had been packed for shipment (payment defaulted) to Japan.

I think once I get my 12 little girls in 2 straight lines all photographed, I'll let 6.25" Hitty have a romp in it as it's really much more her size.

>55 quondame: Sounds cool, Susan.

Have a great rest of your week!

>56 alcottacre: Becky and I were going over what girls featured in books (and tv) from her childhood and while of course we read her Madeline, Eloise, and Pippi Longstocking, all of whom I expect to show up for the two straight lines, we want to feature one of her contemporaries - so far we have Hermione, which is OK if I can find one without JKR getting royalties. We didn't come up with other 6-12 year old girls in books from about 1985 to 2005, much less eponymous ones. We did find Eliza Thornberry, but that was strictly a TV show & movie. And finding a 7"-8" doll to walk with Madeline limits the choices too. From the 2000s there are Binah and Fancy Nancy and probably more that I've never heard of, but once Becky took The Half Blood Prince from Mike to finish it more quickly than our nightly read aloud sessions, I lost track of literature for her age and younger.
I wonder if I should include Edith?

>57 quondame: In my childhood reading, Susan, the girls that stand out most for me would be Anne and George (Georgina) from the Famous Five - probably excruciatingly sexist if read with my 55 year old eyes.

>57 quondame: I'm trying to think of girls in books from that era, but my brain is about as useful as a bowl full of mush this morning. Clementine and Ivy + Bean are a bit later than that. Did Becky read The Baby-Sitters Club? I read that, along with a lot of older stuff -- Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, etc.

>59 foggidawn: Becky wasn't into The Baby-Sitters Club though I knew about the series. I don't recall either of Clementine or Ivy + Bean, I'll check them out.
After signing off last night I thought of you, since you are somewhat involved in the whole children's literature scene. I remembered Princess Smartypants and Dance Tanya as stories I found because of dolls produced in the early 1990's - Madame Alexander had a line called Let's Play Dolls, and some of those were from recent books, though Alice was the star. Those dolls are all 14" and much too large, but very lovely.
I think the American Girl dolls with their books took up a segment of the market for the millennial girls, but the doll market in the 1990s was huge and pretty interesting, with BJDs coming in big and very expensive and all sorts of dolls for adult enthusiasts. I do have a set of AG 6" mini dolls, but they are likely stored in the high reaches of the garage as they were a part of the great 2012 clean up when we considered moving for Mike's work while Becky was in college. That didn't happen, and then SCA paraphernalia took over my doll display space.

>60 quondame: I think you're right about American Girl -- they really cornered that market.

I was born in 1952, as a young girl, I had coloring books, and cut outs of the Lennon Sisters. They were four talented sisters featured on the Laurence Welk Show! There also was a book!

>62 Whisper1: I remember them, but we didn't have a television for more than a few years in the late 50s and were even then only allowed a couple of hours. I think Mickey Mouse Club was a biggie.

I was searching for the book based LPD dolls in the collection and found:

Bravo Tanya, 1992
Celia’s Island Journal, 1992
The Princess and the Moon, 1992, Sophie
Princess Smartypants, 1986
Katie and the Dinosaurs, 1992
Wild Wild Sunflower Child Anna, 1991
Nora’s Stars, 1989
The Rag Coat, 1991, Minna
Emily, 1992, Elli

The dolls were sold between 1992-1994

The illustrations in The Princess and the Moon were particularly lovely, though it seems very hard to find after 30 years.

There was also a very fine Alice in Wonderland collection and some folk tale and song based dolls. The collection changed a great deal each year it was put out and most of the last two years were made in China and I never saw the majority of the items that were in the final catalogs. They were recognizably recycled into the Forever Friends that were sold at Tuesday Morning and vanished.

9) The Short Life and Happy Times of the Shmoo



With a bizarre introduction by Harlan Ellison, this has the 1948 and 1959 Shmoo infestations of the U.S. of A. I was reminded of both what I like and what I didn't like about L'il Abner. And an interesting reminder that while we were in them, they weren't "the good old days." If you don't know shmoos, you should read this.

Read for January TIOLI Challenge #3: Read a book with pictures (photos or illustrations)

>57 quondame: Sounds like quite the project!

>55 quondame: I hope you share pictures of your activities. I recently pulled my dollhouse out for grandbaby, and got caught up in the fun again. Not happy with the awful dolls we settled for before, I started looking at 6” action figures. They are mostly from films and comic books, but they can be posed better.

https://pics.cdn.librarything.com//picsizes/a8/88/a888b73c644a9246369796f7a77415...

https://pics.cdn.librarything.com//picsizes/c7/00/c70066b8ff78c436369716f7a77415...

I want to see your Hitty. I loved that book!

>65 alcottacre: I've been scouring eBay all fall for affordable additions.

>66 2wonderY: I like your action figures! I was thinking of getting a couple to mix into Hitty scenes - she's 6.25" so their props work for her, but maybe not just now.

Here is my first and most favorite Hitty that I got back in the 1990s when I thought I was rich!

And here she is in a scene I put together last year with two similarly sized dolls.

>67 quondame: I love it! I have fond remembrances of Hitty back in the day.

>67 quondame: Beautiful!

And I only buy secondhand, so they’re not so expensive. Comic book stores generally have a random collection.

>68 alcottacre: Thank you! Hitty has many fans and I belong to a group of them that is always encouraging the multiplication of Hittys, her friends, her furnishings, and every sort of accessory. She makes a great travel doll, though I wouldn't take the one photographed. She's way to precious to risk.

>69 2wonderY: Thanks. My husband and daughter still visit their favorite comic book store and get discounts there, so should we come out of the virus miasma I'll check to see what's on offer.

10) Like a Sword Wound



Whew! I'll take a long shower, a longer bath, a spell in the sauna and an icy plunge to wash this one off! Great if you like being drowned in poisonous honey and watch the unlovable men whinge about being unloved by women they raped as children under the guise of marriage. A profoundly misogynistic exercise in creating straw women to absorb the anger generated by the lusts and passions of a bunch of jerks. Oh, and there's Turkish politics, which is it's own cesspit! Very accomplished language, though how anyone survived translating this I can't imagine.

Seriously Wounded by @richardderus* in service of the AACT Challenge
Read for January TIOLI Challenge #9: Read a book written by a Turkish or Turkish born author

*only to realize he hasn't read it!

>71 quondame: Yikes, I'm not sorry that wasn't on my list this month.

>72 PaulCranswick: It may be the only book this month that I read for the Turkish challenge - but then I've already read a couple of Turkish authors so I don't feel I'm slacking.

More doll stuff: I have found a suitable sized Coraline so she may join in the Old House crew and/or hang out with Dorothy and Alice telling tales of weird

Hi Susan. Came to visit and delurk...
Saw your review at #71 and wondered how *you* managed to survived reading it, especially having acknowledged "...how anyone survived translating this I can't imagine".

This morning reading RD's thread, noted your saying enough, regarding the Wyndham and Banerjee series. So I wandered over to read your review and we both commented that Mukherjee didn't catch a sense of place (and time, imho). It is always rather satisfying (to me) when my review isn't so out of sync with the collection of other reviews for a particular book ~ though not sure why I am perhaps a bit disconcerted by being the outlier.

>74 SandyAMcPherson: Well there was this challenge. And I was well into when I determined that while his characters weren't the author, the author wasn't offering anything they weren't.

I'm making progress on Termination Shock. It's very readable, no surprise, and quite absurd, also not surprising.

Today I started auditioning and costuming the players for Two Straight Lines. Wardrobe appears to be short 1 blue coat, but it is now on the way. The glove situation is deplorable and only the smallest fraction of players followed instructions to come with short white gloves, white socks and black Mary Janes. A few snuck extra white socks on their hands to fake out the audition.
It's a lot of work getting 12 tiny girls all dressed alike!

Inquires have found that Matilda, Ramona, and Junie B. Jones are not available to take part in the production, though their fans suggested them.

11) An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed



One batch of Maud stories was really enough, though the South Africa tour was pleasant.

Read for January TIOLI Challenge #8: Read a book set in one of the top seven countries from the United Nations 2021 Happiness Report

Hi Susan!

>76 quondame: What a great crew available for auditions. Brava for getting 12 girls to even consider dressing alike, much less making it happen.

>77 quondame: I’ve started and (temporarily?) put down the first book. We’ll see if I can get back into the right mindset for a murderous senior.

>78 karenmarie: Thanks! I was please to see how close I had come to getting the coats and hats without going over. Most of the Madeline and her 3 friends come with hats but not coats, so there are plenty of those on eBay, but coats are a bit less common, though the set of hat, coat, shoes, socks, and gloves was sold separately so they couldn't be considered rare or even hard to find. Gloves are sparse though in comparison. From observation gloves when included were the first item lost, followed by shoes then socks then underpants.

Today the water heater is being replaced. Like Casandra's my predictions of impending failure were ignored and as I type the water is turned off and the contents of the garage sit on the front entry area so a new one can be installed. I didn't survey the leak damage myself but Mike assured me that a mop-up was all that was required. I've decided to accept that an avoid predicting that the house will slide off the hill. And Mike does get points for getting the replacement in on Martin Luther King day withing 6 hrs. of failure detection.

All's well that ends well.

There were some items lost and damaged but the water heater leek. Our 3 antediluvian card tables (really those things did yeoman service for decades of monthly dance events and handfuls of camping and SCA events) and all of the custom printed (but too big for the latest installation of backstops) archery targets are all trash. Our camping tents and chairs need a good drying out and the current weather is not going to be up for that until Thursday. I hope the cool weather keep the mold minimal.
Most of the items with clear value were on wire shelving 2"-3" above the ground, so that's a plus for being obsessed with wire shelving and packing as much as possible into the space. A small medieval style bench seat may require special care, but as a raffle prize it doesn't dominate my concern levels.

Oh, and the garage has been re-organized so that it looks neater and I will never be able to find anything in it again.

And there is hot water with no worries about the water heater for a decade.

>80 quondame: Ach! My sympathies are with you! My basement flooded last year when the sump pump failed. It’s no fun!

Hi, Susan.

I grew up with pugs, and the photo with Gizmo the chug (chihuahua pug: chug seems easier to say than pu-huahua) brightened my day.

I recommended Clark the Shark to my pre-k teaching daughter, who has some challenging (boisterous) kids this year.

I’m glad the water heater leak damage wasn’t worse. Smart to have that elevated wire shelving. Phew!

>71 quondame: Wow. I have that one on tap to read sometime this year. Maybe I will take the long shower first and the longer bath afterwards!

>81 2wonderY: Oh no. That's a lot more serious. I was amazed at how quickly Mike got scheduled a replacement an tackled the garage clutter that would have impeded its installation.

>82 jnwelch: Puggish do have their charms. I hope she likes Clark the Shark. And here's to minimal damage! Our condo had underground parking and the sump pump died once. Never again.

>83 alcottacre: Only if you have a really overwhelming reason to read it. It goes to great lengths to justify its misogyny.

The final piece of the new stand to elevate the TV in the garage to a height at which my short daughter can read the subtitles on the anime which sustain her through long sessions on the elliptical trainer arrived and Mike installed it. It is high! I now understand why he was complaining about the weight of the components. At least the floorboard jenga has been retired.

12) Termination Shock



Neal Stephenson having fun again and inviting us on a romp though climate change amelioration via feral hogs, the Netherlander royals, lots of sulfur and sinister Chinese operatives. Typically it is significantly longer than it needs to be for the amount of fun on offer and as unconvincing as Stephenson often is.

Meets January TIOLI Challenge Rolling Challenge: Read a Book Starting with the letters from "Two Faced" in honor of Janus

Well, that was unpleasant. I was up all night with a UTI and went to Urgent Care this morning. They were very efficient and I was in and out with medications in about an hour, but not how I wanted Friday to go.

>86 quondame: Oh no! How uncomfortable. Hopefully the UTI medications start working right away and by the end of the weekend you will be right as rain :)

>86 quondame: Vitamin A, Susan. It helps to protect all the linings of the body and cold weather drains your reserves.

Hope you are feeling much better today, Susan. x

>86 quondame: Yowch. I hope you are feeling better already.

>87 figsfromthistle: >88 2wonderY: >89 PaulCranswick: >90 ArlieS: Thank you all. I am so much better today. I had a couple of naps and a long sleep and am tolerating the medications well. And knowing AZO is OTC is reassuring.

13) Winter Be My Shield



We spend endless months in the Alaskan like northern winter of Ricalan which has been colonized from the east and is being invaded from the west. The story is well told and moves at a decent pace, but we aren't exposed to anything we haven't been before in fantasy novels of the last 4 decades. The characters, though they have some potential, lack interiority and are more told than shown.

Meets January TIOLI Challenge #1: Read a book in which the title’s first word and last word have the same number of letters

>86 quondame: I am sorry to hear it, Susan. My mother suffers from them fairly frequently and swears by cranberry juice as an helpful tonic for them.

Have a lovely Sunday!

Hi Susan my dear, i hope you are feeling better dear friend and we send love and hugs to you.

>93 alcottacre: >94 johnsimpson: Thank you Stasia and John. I am feeling very much better today. I've drunk the cranberry juice myself, but would never eschew a Dr. visit for this.

14) Bad Actors



Well, bad is relative, and there are unfortunate actions, but when are there not? Ambition can be very dangerous it is true, and it's really bad, but that's the worst.

Meets January TIOLI Challenge #2: Read a book first published in my birth year (1972), your birth year or the last year (2021 or 2022)

15) Bows Against the Barons



A compact boys' adventure novel. A decidedly egalitarian, which is appropriate, story of Robin Hood's last days. No accepting a rightful king for this Robin Hood who would deny there was any such thing. It's kind of sad that the spirit in which this story flourished is pretty much absent the mainstream these days. I didn't find it a compelling read, but I'm not a tween boy with romantic ideals.

Read for January TIOLI Challenge #11: Read a children's book published in the UK/by a UK author before 1980

16) The Orphan of Cemetery Hill



Neither interesting historical facts nor descriptions of how pretty and charming the lead characters are can save a novel from ham handed plotting, wooden characters and every sort of unbelievable, inconsistent behavior. Body snatchers, kidnapping, mediums real and fake, and murder in antebellum Boston decorate an truly stupid romance.

I think I have developed an allergy to this type of cover since I
Read for January TIOLI Challenge #10: Read a book whose cover shows women in period costume facing away

>97 quondame: Phew, I am glad that is not on my shelves.

Should it not be Book 16) rather than Book 10), Susan?

>97 quondame: Well, I think I'll skip that one.

>98 PaulCranswick: Right you are! Thanks.

>99 foggidawn: Right you are.

17) Kidnap on the California Comet



This journey takes too long between stations and has a protagonist who is kept from processing the essentials of the mystery of which he knowingly observed signs because his nose hasn't been rubbed in the details of the mechanics. Did the author intend that the reader figure it out before the boy sleuth? Not adeptly, for sure. A niggling detail is that a secondary character who is introduced with a really annoying habit, never exhibits that habit after that first scene. Oh, and the illustrations didn't match the very clear descriptions of the scenes.

The moral is, never take the first book that comes up at your library to
Read for January TIOLI Challenge #15: Read a book with a "state" in the title (US or other country)

Glad you are feeling better. Now you just need to read some better books again! : )

Hi Susan!

>79 quondame: Ah, hot water heater woes. We replaced two of those suckers last year. Yes to Mike’s getting a replacement on MLK day AND only having a slight mop up, although I read further downthread about some things getting damaged.

>86 quondame: Blech. A UTI. I hope the meds have made it go away by now.

>97 quondame: The book may be terrible, but your review was entertaining. ;) Hope the next one beats the last two!

>102 Berly: Thank you, I am, and yes I do. Some disappointments were completely self inflicted too, which is always discouraging. If it weren't for @richardderus's BBs January would be an oasis-less desert.

>103 karenmarie: The damage required a bit of clean up in which I was not at all involved. Thank you. The meds are quite effective.

>104 London_StJ: Well, that's something salvaged. I'm currently reading a pretty reliable author, but oh I wish she, and so many others, would spend the time to trim the work.

Oh dear, the repairs have become odoriferous. A strong chemical smell is coming up the stairs from the kitchen area where a handyman is patching and painting rodent damage. We have been assured that our small furry visitor has left, but the entries available to it have to be closed and the damages are what's being repaired.

>97 quondame: >104 London_StJ:, I was also highly amused at Susan's review. One-star books are brilliant for bringing out the Snark.

Susan, I looked in "your library" and you have read most if not all the World of the Five Gods up to the 2021 publication. So... asking your opinion ...

The later novellas (not combined in an omnibus edition) are (or were) available in our new-books shop and wondered if it is usual in these series for the shorter stories to appear as combined? (Alas the bookshop staff were unable to find any info).

It would be a nuisance having slim stories all separately bought (and more expensive) because the omnibus collections Penric's Progress and Penric's Travels were a great bargain and it was wonderful reading the 6 stories straight through in two volumes. I totally pigged out in short order and loved the 10 days reading immersion.

The titles I saw uncombined are -
Masquerade in Lodi (2020-10-15) (follows Penric's Fox, in Penric's Progress).
The Orphans of Raspay (2019-07)
The Physicians of Vilnoc (2020-05)
The Assassins of Thasalon (2021-05-10)

I didn't see Knot of Shadows (2021-10-21), but it was too new to expect so soon up here in the hinterlands.

I am not sure if there's a way to look up this 'omnibus' potential here (as in Canada), but might be easier to research in the USA. My computer seems to default to my own country as if we're like the UK and in a "different region" (we aren't). Anyway, just thought I'd consult you. After all, my Bujold BB's came from visiting here in years gone by.

>107 SandyAMcPherson: I purchase the Penrics (any Bujold really, since Barrayar) as the appear, so I'm not much help. I haven't heard anything about a third omnibus and I checked Locus forthcoming books list. My city library does carry all of them, but well, waiting isn't my strong suit.

>108 quondame: waiting isn't my strong suit
... Prompts me to ask myself why am I waiting for an edition that may never materialize? Time I rethought the approach and at least bought something more of Bujold's. Thanks for the idea about Locus, I'll be checking that, too.

>109 SandyAMcPherson: About Locus - they overlook a number of authors - more women than men, when updating the list each month, so while Bujold would be included, others don't appear.

>110 quondame: Good to know. Thanks.

18) Spectrum



It's pleasant spending time in Esen's head and Evan's is fine too. The mix of slapstick and interstellar peril is a bit jarring and I really don't enjoy living through Lesy's antics. It all takes a bit more page space than I felt happy with, but it wasn't, mostly, uncomfortable.

Meets January TIOLI Challenge #17: Read a book which includes at least one list

>112 quondame: I always forget to seek out Czerneda, though I remember I really liked her early work.

Not trying to catch up, Susan, but I just wanted to say "Thank you" for stopping by my thread while I have been sick. I appreciate it.

Have a great weekend!

I'm late getting through the threads today, because, gasp, choke, I went out!

It's been decades since I attended a doll show and I had been planning to go in January 2019, but just didn't get myself together for it, thinking I'd have the rest of the year......

So I work up at 7, went through my usual light exercises and breakfast and collected a few different sized doll shoes for comparisons and off I went - stopping at CostCo for gas as my daughter had left the tank way lower than I'm comfortable with. Then onto Glendale ignoring the Garmin until it agreed with the route I wanted.

The doll show seemed a bit strange to me as - except for everyone wearing masks - nothing was displayed that I could not have seen at a doll show from the 1990s. well except for one small table that featured a Gal Gadot Wonder Woman doll. Still, I was able to find a fat quarter of grey silk tissue taffeta, a pair of shoes to fit my new Fancy Nancy doll, a pair of sunglasses to fit Eliza Thornberry and a 1.5" jointed wooden doll - that came with its own 11mm jointed wooden doll, and all without spending any money I didn't have on me.



On the way back I stopped at the fast food Philippine place and picked up a platter of lumpia. Yum.

>115 quondame: Your comments on fuelling the car made me smile, Susan, as Hani always berates me for letting the car run lower than she likes.

Have a lovely weekend.

>116 PaulCranswick: Always one of the problems when there are share vehicles especially when there is a perceived income differential.

I am very sad. That doesn't mean I'm not responsible for the injury. I know I write more negative comments than positive. I think what I write is about the work and when I disagree I hoped that I didn't insult other readers. I apologize to anyone and everyone I have insulted.
Clearly I've been unaware of how blatantly negative my comments have been, though I can't say I've been entirely unaware that people aren't pleased by them.
I will continue to read threads which interest and inform me, but I will not comment where I have been requested not to.

19) No Gods, No Monsters



Quantum horror. There are monsters, we are monsters, anything is possible and everything happens. The observer sees and narrates but cannot change, the gods can change and we poor monsters are hunted more than we hunt.

Found on New York Times Best F&SF 2021

Meets January TIOLI Challenge #4: Read a book that's on some Best of 2021 list

20) Fancy Nancy



Fancy Nancy is a little girl who knows what she likes and finds a way of sharing with her family. It is lovely to see this little non-conformist get the love, support and encouragement she needs. I was a little disappointed that the climax is due to a stray ribbon, though I know it will not dampen her enthusiasm.

Since it's not good form to own a doll of a character whose story I haven't read it's a bonus that it
Meets January TIOLI Challenge #3: Read a book with pictures (photos or illustrations)

>115 quondame: Sounds like a fun day!

>118 quondame: I am sorry to hear that someone is taking your reviews in a negative manner, Susan. I have not read anything in them that would cause me to think of you negatively - if I do not like a book I am going to say so and would expect you to do so as well.

>119 quondame: I already have that one in the BlackHole. My local library just needs to get a copy!

Have a wonderful week!

>107 SandyAMcPherson: There will be a third Penric omnibus this year or early 2023, according to the author.

>122 kgodey: Kriti ~ thanks so much for that heads up. I was resigned to possibly having to buy a set of novellas. Teriffic news about a compiled omnibus.

Hi Susan. Not much else to say this morning. I have to go out on errands and bleagh! A blizzard is building.

Hi Susan!

>115 quondame: Sounds like a wonderful time, congrats on getting lots of things you wanted/needed!

When Jenna was little, we loved The Wild Thornberrys. Thanks for the reminder.

>118 quondame: I saw that. *sad face*

I missed that (#118). Also *sad face*.
In reading, I am using the Bruno Courrèges series (Martin Walker) to soothe my pandemic brain with comfort reading. I'm on book 3 now.

>118 quondame:, >124 karenmarie:, >125 SandyAMcPherson: Susan, what they said.

>122 kgodey: No problem, Sandy. Also, The Assassins of Thasalon is a novel, so I wouldn't necessarily expect it to be in an omnibus since only the novellas have been collected so far.

>118 quondame: Sorry, Susan, that you feel sad about it.
I always try to remember each reader, while reading the same book, has a different experience.

>119 quondame: >120 quondame: On a happier note: two 4* reads in a row! :-)

>118 quondame: >121 alcottacre: >124 karenmarie: >125 SandyAMcPherson: >126 Crazymamie: >128 FAMeulstee:
It was very wrong of me to spoil someone's enjoyment of this wonderful group.

I did know there was a problem, I could have asked, even apologized though I really didn't understand which statements of mine where problematical and didn't want to admit being so frigging dense. Instead I pressed and used language in a disagreement that allowed for the worst interpretation.

This group has held such brightness for me and given me a place to express myself about books and introduced me to lots of delightful people having great discussions even if I haven't been able to participate.

That is why I know it was really bad to incite the unpleasantness I did.

I hope to stay around, and will try to employ the three gates that my friend Steve Barnes has been pushing on his Facebook page, is it true, is it kind, is it helpful. On other peoples pages.

21) The Reading List



Loss, loneliness, libraries, books, healing, moving on, facing life. A handful of people find copies of a list of books, introduced only by the words "Just in case you need it:" and they do, in their different ways to face different facets of being alone. Of the books on the list I've only not read The Kite Runner, and now I may have to.

And it's probably the perfect book for the moment even if I only
Read for January TIOLI Challenge #17: Read a book which includes at least one list

>115 quondame: I mentioned picking up a tiny and a tinier doll on Saturday.
The tiniest doll is just visible sitting on top of the box to the right of Hitty holding the tiny doll.


Today started out with a handy man here, there, not quite everywhere, fixing up damage due to our rat visitor, who is unfortunately still cohabiting, though there is no evidence of any family.

Then I went to the library to drop off books and picked some up too - I got 7 with 3 different due dates.

A miniature Hinamatsuri set came in today's mail! The whole thing is less than 3" tall!


As today was Becky's last day in her old position and tomorrow she starts her life as a salaried employee, we celebrated with and Indonesian dinner. Yum.

>130 quondame: Don't be too hard on yourself, Susan.

I have probably made more missteps than most in the group have upset people and apologised; sometimes I have been able to move on but sometimes the clash has gone on.

We are all made differently and take or don't take points differently. For me your very self-analysis makes clear your lack of any ill feeling. I am a lover of fierce debate and though I sometimes strongly disagree with my friends, you included sometimes, I welcome the point of view always and I will not take offence at anything other than an obvious personal attack or a slur on my integrity. We are not unfortunately all the same and it is part of the processes in big groups to adapt to that.

I had one issue a couple of years ago when I called out a popular member of the group for her very openly islam-phobic comments wherein she had said that there was no difference between islam and barbarism. I got zero support from anyone else in the group when I asked her to clarify whether she thought I too was a barbarian and to which she refused to either supply an answer or apologise. She left the group at the end of that year claiming that someone had made her feel unwelcome. I did PM her and explained in very polite terms why my feelings were hurt but that in general terms I could understand some of her concerns and that I always welcomed her presence in the group and still considered her a friend. Until today I have received no reply.

Should I just have ignored her comments and moved on or was I right to pull her up? Looking back I'm not really sure because I do miss her in the group but I thought at the time that her comments went over the line.

That said each person has, I think, the right to regulate the tenor of their threads and we need to keep our sensitivity button switched on sometimes. I shouldn't have addressed her openly in her own thread, I guess, but PM'd her instead in the first instance but my feelings got the better of me.

Hi Susan!

>129 quondame: is it true, is it kind, is it helpful I’ve added those three ‘gates’ to my desk calendar and have written them on an index card to go on my cork board.

>131 quondame: Wow. Tee-nine-see doll. The Hinamatsuri set is beautiful. And best wishes to Becky as she starts her life as a salaried employee!

I love your new-old Hittys.

Your rat reminds me of the time I was removing an old clay sewer stack and a rat jumped out of the hole. He scurried into the impossibly cluttered cellar. But later that day, I found him laid out in the center of the floor. Cat had managed a surgical strike. And knew not to even chew on the nasty thing. He got tuna instead.

>129 quondame: I do hope you do stay around, Susan.
I like is it true, is it kind, is it helpful, and will try to keep it in mind.

>132 PaulCranswick: Thoughtful response, Paul.

>132 PaulCranswick: Alas, though I do feel everything I expressed, I did not express everything I feel. I absolutely feel that we should, on our own threads, feel comfortable. I hope I was not among those who witnessed the attack on you and failed to support you. There is often much said by lacunae which can be overlooked when we only interpret what is there or only see responses to what we post. I hope now to move away from this and to let any waves dampen.

>133 karenmarie: >135 FAMeulstee: I should properly credit Rumi: "Before you speak, let your words pass through three gates."

>133 karenmarie: >134 2wonderY: Thanks, I was so delighted to come across these treasures and even more so when I had the asking price in my purse.

>134 2wonderY: Well, we are disadvantages by our allergy to cats, who would no doubt have protected us from this vermin.

>135 FAMeulstee: Thank you.

>136 quondame: No Susan, I don't recall you being at any time present on that particular person's thread.

>130 quondame: I thoroughly enjoyed that one when I read it and promptly bought a copy for my daughter Beth to enjoy.

>131 quondame: That miniature Hinamatsuri set is awesome! I have no idea how anyone would have the patience to put it together though.

>138 alcottacre: Psst. It's plastic from Re-ment. I have 3 different paper pop-up ones now and one is fabulous!

>131 quondame:, Hi Susan my dear, i love the photo of the doll and the even smaller doll you got at the show on Saturday.

>140 johnsimpson: Hi John, it's good to see you out and about!

22) Watercress



The daughter of immigrants learns her mother's memories of eating watercress during a famine in China.

@foggidawn announced the latest Newbery award winners

Meets February TIOLI Challenge #11: Read a book connected to the Lunar New Year

23) It's Up to You, Abe Lincoln



This biography has two gimmicks. First it is told in the second person addressing Lincoln. Second it sets up each section leading to a "decision" that Lincoln made giving four alternatives. Neither of those is a complete success, and both annoy. Real, fundamental decisions rarely come with four equally clear tracks you can switch to but are more the result of the surveying that was done long before any track was laid.
But there were the frequent quotes from Lincoln and I did learn a number of things about Lincoln and the Civil War I should have attended to before this.

Read for February TIOLI Challenge #2(nonfiction): The Lincoln Challenge: Read a pair of books, one fiction, the other nonfiction, with the word "Lincoln" or "Lincoln's" in the title/subtitle in honor of Abraham Lincoln's birthday this month. Please indicate on the wiki which book is fiction and which is nonfiction.

24) Mr. Lincoln's Way



Mr. Lincoln is the beloved elementary school principal and Eugene is one of the older boys, an angry bully and poor student. By observing Eugene's interest in birds Mr. Lincoln is able to connect to the troubled boy.

Read for February TIOLI Challenge #2(fiction): The Lincoln Challenge: Read a pair of books, one fiction, the other nonfiction, with the word "Lincoln" or "Lincoln's" in the title/subtitle in honor of Abraham Lincoln's birthday this month. Please indicate on the wiki which book is fiction and which is nonfiction.

25) Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy



Maybe being fancy isn't the most important quality in a family dog.

I'm glad my continuing acquaintance with Fancy Nancy
Meets February TIOLI Challenge #1: Read a book in which both the title and the author's name have a qualified set of double letters

There may be a remote chance you haven't been greeted by this -

>143 quondame: I've seen it all over, but it delights me every time. Glad you enjoyed Watercress! (Edit: And thanks for the call-out!)

>142 quondame: Thanks for calling out Foggi's announcement. I forgot to check out the Newbery event.

>144 foggidawn: >145 SandyAMcPherson: You're welcome.

The rat, making its habitual path to the Gatorade (blue), was fatally attracted by peanut butter inauspiciously placed.

Sushi just walked, OK, Mike is carrying it, through the door. Off to lunch!

>158 figsfromthistle: Hahaha! I love that! I’m definitely not in the control group, but I copied and sent it to Rob, who is!

>142 quondame: My local library has a copy of Watercress so I will join you in the read of that one.

>118 quondame: >129 quondame: I'm ... missing quite a bit, I think. Including nuance? But I'll say that I've enjoyed having you pop into my sleepy thread, and welcome you to be as critical as you please. I'm a gin drinker, so I'm used to people telling me how much they hate my favorite thing. ;)

>132 PaulCranswick: Well done.

>148 quondame: I was so happy when I saw that on Twitter today. XKCD is such a joy.

>151 London_StJ: I was delighted to have something to contribute to the Wordle craze. It would never be my scores.

>118 quondame: Best missed. I was blocked.

I have many less common enthusiasms and while I love to share the joy I've accepted the mocking.

>148 quondame: Now I'm embarrassed - what is the Control Group?

>153 PaulCranswick: In studies, one group gets the treatment while an equivalent group does not. The untreated group is the control.

26) The Red-stained Wings



Brisk moving fantasy in an eastern milieu. Though I had mostly forgotten the first book of this series, I had almost no trouble following the action or characters - this time I very much liked the scenes with the raja Himadra, and Gage finds some very interesting company.

I found that I actually made notes:

"Kings don't need reasons. They need excuses. And a tactical advantage."

"So if you wake up a different person one day because of what we now encounter, well. Remember that if you face the pain bravely, it will not make you terrible. Just different."

OK, not profound, but useful.

Just over half way through I realized I knew, not just guessed, something that was going to happen. Yes it was a re-read from August 2020. But a good re-read and it
Meets February TIOLI Challenge #9: Read a book that has the word red in the title or author’s name

And, it reminded me to put Origin of Storms on request for release in May.

>148 quondame: Ha ha! Was able to use this zinger today when my kids started gushing about it.
Thanks!!!!

>156 2wonderY: Glad to be of service!

I ran a few errands this afternoon (dropping off/picking up library books) including ordering my traditional Valentine balloons for Mike and Becky. There is no selection of oversized balloons, especially Valentine balloons, available just now. For Mike I got the very last large heart they had in stock. Becky gets a Minion.

Dropping by to wish you a happy weekend!

>158 figsfromthistle: Thank you! A crunchy carnitas dinner got me off to a good start.

Have a wonderful weekend, Susan!

>160 alcottacre: Thank you!

I really do appreciate the weekend wishes, I really do, but the strain it puts on my cranky wee introvert heart is just short of overwhelming! I'm so used to just popping by with the somewhat (I hope) wry remarks and expecting more to get away unnoticed than to enter rituals of regular greetings. Thank you.

>154 quondame: Thank you. x

>161 quondame: Without wishing to put any strain on your heart, Susan, I'll echo Stasia and wish you a lovely weekend.

>162 PaulCranswick: Doing my best!

27) Blood Price



Fast paced urban fantasy without sexual coyness. For me, the stakes were too high for an initial outing in this genre, in fact I'd prefer if armageddon was never on the table. While the term INCEL predates this book its current meaning didn't settle until well after this was first published and Norman in his rage and violence anticipates INCEL to a tee.

Meets February TIOLI Challenge #14: Read a Canadian work of fiction NOT written by LM Montgomery, Margaret Atwood or Louise Penny

28) Sixty-Eight Rooms



The magic of miniatures and the love they can engender is well handled in this tribute to the Thorne Rooms. The action doesn't have a smooth or deft flow, it is a first novel. The plotting originally didn't work for me, I was hoping perhaps for more fantasy based story telling, but as it developed I was reconciled to its more mundane impact.

BB from @AMQS

Meets February TIOLI Challenge #7: Read a book with a number in the title

America Reborn is taking its time. 3/26 so far. On to his awfulness, Henry Ford.

This morning I was up and out early (pre 8:00AM is very early for me) and had to contend with distracting light conditions, school bound hoards, and a 10+ minute wait for the train barrier to lift. As I was at the front there was no turning back for me, but many u-turned their way out. And some of the items I wanted from CVS weren't in stock, again. But I did get my coffee beans and a large latte which was mostly foam.
I'm awaiting an avalanche of packages scheduled to arrive today, minus one, the most critical one of course, that was cancelled to I ordered a substitute which is currently to be delivered tomorrow.

Last night's dinner was problematical for a couple of reasons. Becky and I were feeling very low energy and in need of a pick up. We were having trouble coming up with dinner options we both wanted. Finally I remembered I'd been craving Gyro, and though I wasn't quite up to craving it, both Becky and I were OK with it and Mike just wanted French fries anyway. But my current go-to Gyro place wasn't taking phone order. I found a pita place just a bit further away and we put together an order. I noticed that the driver was getting close to the restaurant and went downstairs to get the table read. And waited. And waited. I went back upstairs and the driver had disappeared from the status window. Then I got a message that dinner would be delayed 20-30 minutes. It came 40 minutes later, and I think it spent all that time waiting under the lights. At least Becky likes old soggy fries and I wasn't having any. Mike complained.

My dinner, though not at all hot, was tasty. But it was not what I call Gyro. Becky, unusually eagle-eyed, pointed out that all the pita wraps at that restaurant were called Gyro. I think not. There is no such thing a falafel Gyro. In southern California 90% of Gyro is ground skewer broiled beef/lamb mix, commercially produced and distributed quite widely. The better places turn the thin slices from the vertical skewer a few times on the griddle before serving it. It can be quite addictive even if it really isn't as "good" as shawarma and other broiled and grilled meats.

But the worst bit was that Mike was adamant that what I called shawarma was what everybody meant when they said Gyro. I asked pointedly that I was pretty well informed about food I liked and that I didn't appreciate being told I was wrong. I think he did a further web search or two and hasn't said anything since.

So, problematical dinner, not at all as low key and comforting as I needed. Well, one survives and the lamb plate was tasty.

He's back!

29) Where The Mountain Meets The Moon



Minli, the only child of a poor family in a poor village, undertakes a journey to better their lives based upon stories told by her father. The stories are featured as insets and are charming in themselves and how they build on Minli's hero's journey, which is fairly straight forward, but the unusual counterpoint is the changes her parents experience when they fail to catch up with her after they find she's gone. Ya gotta love the goldfish with ambitions! And the illustrations!

BB from @benitastrnad

Meets February TIOLI Challenge #11: Read a book connected to the Lunar New Year

Hi Susan.
I saw this comment over on Amber's thread.
I looked up "discursive" because I wasn't sure what that meant: moving from topic to topic without order, according to the Oxford online dictionary. I guess I don't know what to make of that.
I wasn't enjoying having a thread and it was a chore to attend to it last year. This year, I wanted to visit when I had the mental energy. Now it doesn't matter how much time passes and I don't post anywhere. Mainly these days, I like acknowledging BB's and talking about book reviews; sometimes I get drawn into telling anecdotes.
So I'm "staying" in that sense. I probably won't start a thread while life presents difficulties and upheavals. These are trying times. Strangely taking more time to lurk around and not necessarily post, I've discovered more titles to try out than I did most of last year.

30) The Haunting of Dr. Claudius Winterson



If you haven't helped prevent deaths, you should be very sure you really could not have done anything.

This is free online.

Meets February TIOLI Challenge #13: Read a book that is at least the 4th book you have read by that author

>170 SandyAMcPherson: Oh sorry. I got brain burn. I think I never bothered to nail what that word means. At my age. Arrgh! I meant that you were engaging in a number of interesting discussions.
I can see why having a thread can seem like an obligation, but at least I've never seen anyone seriously scolded for not providing replies, and have seen plenty of warm welcome backs. Of course I was being selfish since there are restrictions as to where I can post and I was hoping I could if the discussion was on a thread of yours.

I went and edited my post, so it comes closer to what I meant.

31) Of Dragons, Feasts and Murders



Thuan, a Vietnamese river dragon brings his fallen angel husband Asmodeus to his aunt, the Empress's under Seine palace for the Tet festival. All is not well, in fact Thuan's family is in grave danger of massacre and Asmodeus doesn't see why Thuan should involve himself to prevent that. It's fun to spend a little time in yet another corrupt court.

Doubly
Meets February TIOLI Challenge #11: Read a book connected to the Lunar New Year because it's setting is the Lunar New Year's celebration.

Here you are! *waves*

>167 quondame: My ignorance is even more to the fore, Susan, because I have never heard of "gyro". It is not a name used over here anyhow.

>168 quondame: That made me smile! A lot of toes getting trodden on with those four doing the tango!

>175 PaulCranswick: Mediterranean and South East Asian taste profiles are quite different, and neither a thing like English. I think Gyro is the Greek name, pronounced Hērōs with a hissy H and breathy r. Or guy-rō when being dismissive. It is being displaced by various versions of Souvlaki on the local foodscape. Also good, but not the same.

>167 quondame: >175 PaulCranswick: current go-to Gyro placeI think in the U.K. gyros aren’t such a thing. Where I live we seem to have every of restaurant under the sun, but not Greek. I don’t think we’ve ever had a Greek restaurant or take-away.

>176 quondame: Couldn't disagree with any of that, Susan. I have been lucky in my life to live in the UK (I still think 'real' British food can be really tasty), Gibraltar, Egypt and South East Asia and I have travelled reasonably extensively. It probably isn't the only reason but it has given me a real appreciation for food all over the world and I don't really have an absolute favourite other than what my mood dictates.

Kuala Lumpur is a haven/heaven for foodies and I remember hosting Rhian, her husband and son to a Vietnamese meal in KL when they visited and I seem to recall we demolished quite a bit of food between the two families and enjoyed most of it.

All this talk of gyros is making me miss the little Greek restaurant that was a couple blocks away from where I used to work.

>177 SandDune: >179 foggidawn: As I was growing up there were two eastern Mediterranean restaurants that we went to on a few occasions - Haromar's in Los Angeles and Omar Khayyam in San Francisco. They were special treats and the food enchanted me. I learned to roll grape leaves scavenged from our sad desert vines around lamb an pine nut filling to serve with shish kabob and tabbouleh. In fact that became the first dinner I could make on my own.
Neither of those establishments, probably founded by refugees from the violence of and following The Great War, lasted past my college graduation, and replacements of their stature have been few and ephemeral, but falafel and gyros hole-in-the-walls have become plentiful since then.

>178 PaulCranswick: With few exceptions, all my food explorations have been local, but I've had some benefit of guides who had grown up within one or another of the food traditions. I've had excellent Chinese style food in England and the best ever Indian meal in Victoria B.C. And once, Greek food in Greece that was to die for. A second meal on that peninsula took that literally, alas.
Oh, an my mother was a dab hand at roast beef and Yorkshire puddings and other large roasted joints, so I have a little familiarity with the magic of heat salt pepper and just the right herb that is part of good British food. And I still dream of my first English breakfasts that kept 19 year old me fueled for a full day of tourist activity.

32) Folklorn



The trauma of being other piled on the trauma of immigration is leavened by the wonder of physics and folktales, language and connection. We follow Elsa from days in Antarctica to days in Sweden to months in Glendale, and those months are long and dark, muggy with unresolved feeling and family. This heavy ground is not got over lightly and almost bogs the novel down, but the release is intensely felt and the return to Sweden feels like spring.

Meets February TIOLI Challenge #6 : Read a book where the main character(s) is/are in a biracial relationship

Hi Susan. I'm feeling better a week from the surgery. I'm taking time to visit threads. I notice that you had hot water heater problems. ugh. Fortunately, when we noted that our neighbors were replacing their hot water heaters approximately the same time, we decided to be proactive and get a new one installed.

Now that the house is totally my responsibility, I try to keep on top of these items, realizing I could feel overwhelmed by all of it.

I know to change the furnace filter every month. I forgot it last month with preparations for surgery, and when I pulled it out, it was VERY dirty. I went to Home Depot, bought the high end filter and replaced it.

I will need a new roof in a few years. I notice most in the neighborhood have replaced their roofs. Right now, I don't have the income to do that, but will hope to do this in a few years. There are no leaks, so I think I can wait. These well-built units are now 26 years old. And, things are showing wear and tear. Overall, it was a great investment, and prices have doubled from when purchased.

Moving on to non-household items, I enjoy your love of dolls. I collect two specific dolls, both are no longer in production

Sasha dolls and Julie Good Kruger dolls.

The sasha dolls have increased to no longer being able to afford them now that there is only my income source.
The Julie Good Kruger dolls, I collect because I simply love them!
https://www.google.com/search?q=jULIE+GOOD+KRUGER+DOLLS+images&tbm=isch&...;

https://www.google.com/search?source=univ&tbm=isch&q=www+sasha+morgentha...

>182 Whisper1: I do have one Sasha, and a few outfits, but put away for years. I'm currently madly in love, as is a bit obvious, with the Fancy Nancy dolls. They are so over-the-top unabashed girly, which is not me, but, well, is. A new one arrived last night and I immediately re-arraigned the outfits to suit me. So darling.

The Julie Good Kruger Dolls are way to realistic for me, so emotionally expressive, and also on the larger side. Very artistically sculpted and impeccably turned out, which I must admire if not acquire. I only accidentally have one over 21" doll and very few at that size. Mostly 15"/10"/8" with Hitty and a few even smaller. Not to mention, as we are polite company I hope, all the Barbie and other Mattel dolls.

Two days in a row I've gone out just to shop for total non-essential stuff, craft and doll prop stuff. So far my primary search targets have eluded my wanderings through 99¢/Anwalt Lumber/Daisun/Kinokuniya. I'm looking for small picture frames that I might make look like 1:9 scale windows and small jewel toned bits of stretchy fabric - like scrunchies - to turn into tiny leotards.

But I did find acrylic paints, a mini-kimono, a tin for Mike to use for Gizmo treats and dozens of other impulse purchases.

Dropping by to wish you a great weekend.

>185 PaulCranswick: Thank you Paul. I hope yours has been going well.

33) The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels



This had the potential to be a 3/5 nonsense romp of the steampunk sort with Lady pirates in flying houses and mansions, who hold nothing higher than complete lack of scruples and utter good address. But it's mucked up with sappy coy lust for more than the forgivable amount of pages. And there were already more pages than the character/plot/nonsense could support.

I started it because it was due the next day - it's now a couple of days past due and I should have jumped ship(abandoned house?) a chapter in as it doesn't even meet any challenge I know of!

It's official, both dogs hate balloons. Every Valentine's Day I get Mylar balloons for Mike and Becky. I try to put them in place so they see them when they wake up. The dogs weren't having any of it and started barking when I got to the top of the stairs, waking Mike and Becky. When I put Mike's bouquet in the bedroom Gizmo jumped from the bed and went under the bed from side to side multiple times, barking each time she emerged. So both bouquets ended up in Mike's office while we all got back to sleep.

Later, once the balloons were in the bedrooms, the dogs would bark at them from the top of the stairs, run down stairs tussling and barking, run up stairs, bark at the balloons, rinse and repeat. Gizmo and Nutmeg have spent a good part of the morning outside.

I did manage to get 13/17 of 2022 Valentine Treasure Hunt before looking for hints. Now I've got 'em all. I'd even read the answer to #8 which had me stumped more than all the rest. Yes, my memory is that bad!

Maybe the dogs understand how harmful these balloons are to our environment and are just voicing their opinions. Grins...

Happy Valentine's Day!!

>190 msf59: Yeah, old, bad, habits are hard to break! Thanks!

Hey, as long as they are not released outdoors, I am fine with it. I see them stuck in trees all the time.

>192 msf59: No, ours tend to hang out until the big one deflates then they get sliced and rolled up into the garbage. Still, plastic, but at least not loose plastic.

Thanks for mentioning the Valentine Hunt, which hadn't shown up on my thread yet. I've got 10 arrows, plus two where I know the answer but haven't found the right page yet. No hurry--I've got two weeks to finish it...

>169 quondame: This one made me a great fan of Grace Lin--not simply a retelling but taking it on and upward!

Mike and I went out for Valentine's Day and had lovely bistro dinner at a place that was new to us. And we mostly talked about, well, books. We share a lot of favorites and have introduced them to each over 37 years together - and 46 years of acquaintance. He introduced me to Gene Wolfe and I introduced him to Lois McMaster Bujold and Dorothy Dunnett. Of course there were many authors, like Rex Stout and Andre Norton that we both knew well long before we met.

>195 quondame: Maybe because I am no longer a young gun, but your Valentine's Day dinner sounds just like my cup of tea. Mine was spent with an extended video call.

>195 quondame: That sounds lovely.

>196 PaulCranswick: >197 foggidawn: Thank you. It was a pleasant change.



Nutmeg likes sleeping with Gizmo in the dog bed next to my desk - but if Gizmo is there first she will not jump in. Instead, she harasses me until I notice and pick up Gizmo, who is fine with crawling on top of Nutmeg for yet another extended nap. Usually this is happens at most once an afternoon. Today it happened 3 times.

>169 quondame: I think that book is terrific. I am supposed to be reading it this month too - if I can get to it, that is! Glad to see that you enjoyed it, Susan.

>181 quondame: Adding that one to the BlackHole. Thanks for the recommendation!

>198 quondame: Animals! Gotta love 'em.

>198 quondame: They almost look like the yin and yang symbol :-)

>199 alcottacre: Enjoy! Yep, ya gotta!

>200 FAMeulstee: They do.

34) The Absolute Book



Starting off strong, with a tale of murder and revenge it veers left into Sidhe territory with demons, dragons and fallen angels and whirlpools around the tithe to hell. Which tithe has always felt like a heel blister to me and that put me off for a good part of the long center section of the book before turning out to be a major part of the plot's impetus. The mood is fae and the subject and characters are, but the bones are more science fiction. It could have benefited from a more compact telling, but not much more compact.

Meets February TIOLI Challenge #4 : Read a book with an uneven number of words in the title

>188 quondame: Susan, the image you paint of the dogs running up and down the steps chasing the balloons is funny. My Shetland Sheep dog Lilly is very afraid of balloons. Perhaps they have a gene pool which pushes some buttons regarding these round things that float in the air, jus as so many humans hate clowns.

>203 Whisper1: They eventually calmed down and ignored the balloons, which is good because Mike likes them to hang around for months.

Occasionally I've been known to pick a centerpiece balloon that looks likely to deflate within a couple of weeks to shorten the period of balloons rattling in the A/C. This year there was close to 0 choice, so we'll see how long the big purple heart with pink script stay's inflated.

I finally dined on gyros! After whining here and getting into a gyros vs donair discussion >83 alcottacre: MickyFine: - >100 quondame: MickyFine: it was great to just place and order an pick them up! Whatever was I waiting for. Well, Friday is our takeout/delivery night, so there was no resistance, especially since I was willing to go out and fetch the food.

Mike had falafel, he says he's going to go for more vegetarian choices. That sounds like it's a good time to check out all those Israeli vegetable side dishes on The Jewish Food Society page.

Hi Susan!

>167 quondame: My goodness. It sounds like the driver stopped and ate your food, then had to re-order for you. Looks pretty yummy, even if it’s not a true Gyro. I remember thin slices off the vertical skewer when I was in Athens in 1979. In fact, I remember all the wonderful food from that trip – Greece, West Germany, Portugal.

>168 quondame: I love Randy Rainbow’s videos. I didn’t like this one quite as much as others, but it was still entertaining and clever.

>188 quondame: Will there be mylar balloons next Valentine’s Day? *smile*

>193 quondame: We used to let the balloons deflate for weeks and months ‘til they hit the floor, then slice, roll, and put in the trash, too.

>198 quondame: Sweet puppies in the dog bed.

>206 karenmarie: Hi Karen! Good to see you!
Yeah, the weeks to months deflation times can drag on. I usually curtail them, though this year it seems that Party City's frugality with Helium will accelerate that - even the big heart is looking flabby and the 16" ones are almost sad already.

I expect there will be balloons next year, but not delivered in the dead of night.

35) Winter Counts



This novel has a competent beginning and a snappy if improbable climax and end, but dithers throughout the center, marking time against processes outside the control of the main character whose progress with the central issues of the plot is nill during that span while any non-naive reader known more. I felt that the writer not only didn't trust the reader with the guts and bones of the main character, leaving us more with the idea of him, but he didn't fully trust his characters either. Yes. we should know more particulars of why laws under which the reservations are administered suck, and the costs of that, but relevance doesn't guarantee a good read.

Another book I read before it could disappear from my Kindle..

36) The Silver Bullets of Annie Oakley



This re-imagining of Annie Oakley in the fantasy world of Elemental Master's is really short on plot and quite predictable, but it's a decent read and moves at a sprightly pace as Annie and husband Frank are introduced to their potential as elemental magicians and are helped out and help out the Strasbourg lodge while they are in winter quarters of the Wild West show.

It surely
Meets February TIOLI Challenge #13: Read a book that is at least the 4th book you have read by that author

>209 quondame: I hadn't noticed this one coming out; you may consider your book bullet to have scored.

>209 quondame: I was keeping up with the Elemental Masters releases for a time, but I think I've fallen a bit behind now. Looks like there are three I've missed!

>210 ArlieS: >211 curioussquared: Glad to be of service. I almost quit after Wizard of London but none has been that bad since.

Tonight was the annual Academy Award movie viewing. My sister-in-law (the blonde in >1 quondame:) is a member of SAG and gets DVDs of movies up for consideration. I wanted to watch Respect, but as Mike is in charge of the TV we watched Licorice Pizza. I can't recommend it. It's set in the San Fernando Valley portion of Los Angeles, Encino and Sherman Oaks, in the 1970s. I hated the 1970s. Or well I would have if I'd known enough to, and spent more than I wanted to of them in the SF valley. Mike liked it, getting all the references, I found it no fun at all, though the performances were good. It was really pointless.

>213 quondame: I heard a review of Licorice Pizza on NPR the other day - can't say I'm interested... I'm not a fan of the 70s, and though I didn't spend time in the Valley, I never wanted to either.

>214 drneutron: While there are some nice neighborhoods in the valley, that's about the best that can be said of it, and those neighborhoods were by in large the result of white flight from the horrors of racial integration, so there's that. The movie is very white, with a healthy helping of Jewish, though there are bits by two Japanese women and one African American.

37) Servant Mage



There is a reason that the reader is distanced from the characters in this adventure in which a young servant mage, a person bound into service by the Liberationists who a couple of generations earlier ousted the Monarchists, is taken by a small group of Monarchists who require her specific ability to rescue some of their trapped forces. But the result of the distancing is to remove immediacy from the telling. The same adventure could have been told as a better read, but this is a better story than going the default route.

Meets February TIOLI Challenge #3 : Rolling Challenge : Read a book by an author whose surname first letter goes towards the spelling of "ISRAEL"

38) Matilda



Matilda is the wee girl with something extra in a family that hasn't any place for her or good will toward anyone. In finding a library and librarian as a pre-schooler she takes steps into a larger world than her parents will ever know and when she gets to school finds both challenges and ways to help. Her habit of striking back is not at all in the tradition of nice little girls, and we do love her for it.

Matilda is one of a handful of girl protagonists that I haven't found a 6-9" doll or figure for. There are a couple of larger ones, but none off the shelf that would fit into my two straight rows to spice up Madeline's Old House in Paris.

Still, it
Meets February TIOLI Challenge #8: Read a book first published or set in the 1980s

39) Tunnels



Nili, who as the young daughter of a brilliant archeologist was known for discovering a special treasure resumes her now senile father's search for the arc of the covenant without alerting her father's once colleague turned betrayer but everyone involved brings in too many people, old grudges bring on new betrayals and alliances and the possibility of deadly consequences are just a hair trigger away. It's people being people in a real pressure cooker of a situation.

Meets February TIOLI Challenge #4 : Read a book with an uneven number of words in the title

40) Stolen Skies



Though no one who anyone knows the world is immanently endangered by trans-dimensional alien ghosts, a Naval Intelligence director believes it's to his advantage to use Vickery and Castine to communicate with them. Bringing Castine back from England to snare Vickery puts them together just in time for all the knowledge of the UFO/UAP crazies to help them take on the threat in a few hectic days. A fast moving field of infinite improbabilities that reads easily and holds together like a fever dream.

Meets February TIOLI Challenge #17: Read a book with a 2-word title, by an author with 2 names

41) A Snake Falls to Earth



Oli the cottonmouth spirit person in the Reflecting World and Nina is a Lipan girl from South Texas and each are dealing with issues specific to their heritage and location and in each case their connection will lead them to meet and cooperate. A well told tale with intriguingly new twists on familiar elements and for very much the most part likable characters.

Meets February TIOLI Challenge #10: Read a book with an animal in the author's name

>220 quondame: Nice! Glad you liked it.

>221 foggidawn: Thanks for bringing it to my attention!

DNF) Delusions of Grandma



I'm pretty sure I've read this before, but apparently not since 2007 - it was very déjà vu, and even though Fisher repeats herself I don't think she does so to the extant that everything would feel familiar.

It was my initial choice for TIOLI Challenge #10, and I'm glad that I had a great alternative.

42) The Untold Story



If you like answers to questions you may or may not have thought to ask, this is your book. A steady flow of action takes Isabelle and her closest associates on a short spiral and and a rather long strait cast to resolve some real problems the Library has.

Meets February TIOLI Challenge #15: Read a book that does not bring up the first touchstone

OK, I'm doing some selective reading hoping to manage a TIOLI sweep for February, what with wasting days on indifferent and or reads that don't add to my challenge count.

43) Desire the Skies



If you want to be a flight attendant and don't mind a brew of condescension and cutesy, this book will give you basic information about airlines with a goal to aiming yourself at the airlines which will get your career where you want to go.

Read for February TIOLI Challenge #12: Read a book connected with the airline industry

44) Oh, the Places You'll Go



Well, yes, I guess we'll go places if we just keep going.

Read for February TIOLI Challenge #18: Read a book tagged "future"

45) Notes of a Native Son



Throughout Baldwin offers a visceral sense of the rage that vast injustice of American culture has sown in its adamant racism. At times he entertains with his criticisms of Native Son and Carmen Jones. And he enthralls with his description of his arrest and the several days he spent in Paris jails. This is more an ad hoc assembly that a targeted collection, but the messages lack only details of being as accurate today as they were when he first penned them.

I could have completed my re-read of Native Son which has been left on my Kindle since last year, but since I could download this I
Read for February TIOLI Challenge #16: Read a classic by a Black author

46) The Scorpio Races



On the island of Thisby each November 1st the islanders race the perilous capaill uisce, carnivorous horses captured from the surrounding ocean. This year's money is on Sean Kendrick winner of the last three on his mount Cor. Money and family issues drive Kate, known as Puck to enter - the first woman to race. As the race looms closer, the stakes only get higher. I did enjoy my time on the strange island though I didn't relax for a moment of it.

Read for February TIOLI Challenge #5 : Read a book from the Colorado Blue Spruce Awards Nominee list found on LT

Hi, Susan. I need to get to Notes of a Native Son. That has been on my TBR forever.

Well, Brandon Sanderson has a surprise for his readers!

Hi Susan, Yup I surfaced briefly this afternoon. Or morning... time is elastic around here.
I did have a goofy February though, a mix of reading and crafts.

Tried to start a couple chunkster books and gave up for the moment. Did read a dystopian adventure married to time travel (Arcadia, as you saw on Lucy's thread). And tackled a non-fiction for the Early Reviewer December batch. I have another Martin Walker mystery to start.

The sewing was really a challenge (way beyond my abilities) but a few zoom calls with my best sewist friend got me through the worst hassles. I will never tackle a multi-layered chiffon skirt again. No matter how much pleading I get from the Granddaughter, darling that she is. I now have reams of chiffon offcuts (60"-wide material, so lots of good lengths for the brave). Found a place to donate already.

PS. I am glad Feb is done too, but March is still too wintery ~ if real estate wasn't so crazy-overpriced, I'd be looking for a place on Vancouver Island. Oh wait, there still rampant Covid-infections flourishing.

>230 SandyAMcPherson: Noooo, not chiffon! If I'd never tried to do something in chiffon as a teenager I would have considered myself a fearless sewer. I did bound buttonhole on a wool jacket with pad stitching and everything! But I broke on chiffon. That stuff is hell. Granddaughters do come with certain perils I see. Perhaps my delight in Fancy Nancy should be deeply hidden should one come my way.


I made the mistake of sticking with a long book recommended by someone whose taste in clothing I agreed with. I just couldn't get into it even though it would make me laugh from time to time, the stupidly handled lust was a real reading deterrent.

>231 quondame: You have *no idea* how relieved I am to hear that you, a most accomplished sewist, also has eschewed the chiffon fabrics.
And indeed, Fancy Nancy plus some current fashionistas of the 12-year-old group are very much into these chiffon and tulle outfits (note~I only used tulle to make a crinoline-style petticoat). So unlike me, who was a confirmed pants-wearing (when it wasn't school uniforms) tomboy.

>232 SandyAMcPherson: Sergers can help, but I have been told that starch, glue, clips and relentless basting and necessary for good results with sheer and slippery fabrics. I may have tried many things, but not only have I forgotten much of what I know, I was never quick and organized about sewing projects, mostly watching amazed as some very accomplished friends seemed to churn out wonders. Though the closest friend had to laboriously work out a complete plan before attacking anything new and sometimes came close to collapsing in shock when I'd dismember an older garment and just bind edges for a new structure.

47) Child of Light



Edit out 90% of the yearning and 90% of the agonizing and this would be a decent action YA. Or dip the tone into mocking and it would be a decent spoof of a YA. But as is it's a tedious drawn out waste of any imagination went into it.

Meets March TIOLI Challenge #12: Read a book with a five letter word in the title that you might find in Wordle

Delurking to say hello :)

>202 quondame: Hi Susan. I read this a while back and did not care for it. I generally like Knox's work so was especially disappointed.

BB for me is Ruti Modan's GN, I hadn't noticed this one was finally published though I did shelve it as want to read in October 2020 over on GR.

Reading about all your dolls and miniature crafts I was reminded of a good magical children's book about a girl who got trapped in a snow globe. Title escapes me now, I thought it was by Alex Shearer but no. Will spend next few days trying to find out.

>235 figsfromthistle: Hi there!

>236 avatiakh: I up-rated The Absolute Book because it dealt with one of my particular annoyances, but I was still annoyed for rather longer than the rating indicates. I'll have to try other books by her.

48) The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu



This is a wronged man doing wrong vengeance tale, but sort of in the background of a hypnotic tale of journeying across the desert collecting a group of very unusual people. The body count is high and increases steadily along the way.

BB from @msf59

Meets March TIOLI Challenge #4: It's My Birthday and I'll Cry If I Want To! Challenge - Since I turn 60 on March 14th this year, my challenge is to read a book with the numbers 0314 in the ISBN.

49) The Memory Theater



The Lords and Ladies are all that's worst in humans, power without consequence until a new being has come of age among them and their never ending day is breached by time. Two young ones escape and one Lady is exiled and we follow the paths though the worlds, the young ones falling in with The Memory Theater and the Lady with other strange entities. Both familiar and new this is a story that knows its way and follows it at the right pace.

From the New York Times best F&SF of 2021

Meets March TIOLI Challenge #13: Read a book with something on the cover related to time

Wishing you a splendid weekend, Susan.

>240 PaulCranswick: Thank you, Paul.

50) Tears of the Trufflepig



A surreal run about a blasted and claustrophobic maze situated astride the Texas-Mexican border introduces Bellacosa, an aging widower mourning his lost wife and child around decade earlier, whose pursuit of a MacGuffin of 7900 rig for his patron and a search for his estranged brother, propels him through a course including a dinner of illegally filtered (artificially created) exotic animals, head hunters, viscous underworld figures, and the eponymous critter, totem of a once lost but now returned people. Meals and music and Olmec heads form a recurring chorus.

BB from @msf59

Meets March TIOLI Challenge #15: Read a book where the author's name OR the book title contains all 5 English vowels (a e i o u)

51) The Doll and the Kitten



Mr. Bear takes Edith and Little Bear to a farm and Edith wants to take home each new young animal she encounters.
I worry about Edith's arm. It looks like the kitten had a go at it but it showed damage in earlier books too.

I'm reading a long book and won't have much time tomorrow so I
Read for March TIOLI Challenge #5: Read a book originally published in the 1760s, 1860s or 1960s

Tomorrow I'm going to meet a friend at a doll show. It will be interesting to see how she reacts. It's advertised as mostly Barbie, so it's shouldn't be solid sepia liked the last one seemed. I just want to get an idea of what's being sold and if I can pick up some small clothing items without spending the $5-12 postage for each shoe or sock.
This time I'll remember to get cards from any vendor who carries what I get or might want and make notes on the back. I used to know to do this, but the two cards I have from the last show don't tell me what the vendor sold me or what interested me at their table.

I'm reading A Desolation Called Peace which will take more hours than tomorrow has available. So far it's been worth the time.

Yep, the doll show was colorful. Two hotel ballrooms, moderate sized 2-3 sections rather than the huge 6-8 section ones I'm used to from SF con dealer rooms, bursting with bright pink and other candy hues and much more crowded than the January show.
I'll have to go and unpack and see what I got - apart from a couple of very specific things, eye glasses and a vintage barbie outfit, I let Jennifer go wild in a couple of the 50¢-$3 bins and only vaguely noted what she went for - I do remember a tiny rubik's cube and yet another pair, not really needed, of white Tammy princess heels, but for 50¢ when they are $8-$18 on eBay, well, it was a sharp eyed find and I'd be ungrateful not to take them home.
Alas, when I got home eBay was waiting for me with both Jane Austen and a Pride & Prejudice dolls at prices that seemed reasonable to me.

A trip to the Italian deli was necessary for me to anchor myself after all that excitement. The Godmother deserves its reputation as one of the city's best sandwiches, not so much for the taste, but for the textural complexities and the umami overload.

>245 quondame: Sounds like a fun time. I'd never heard of these doll shows previously...

>245 quondame: Sounds like the doll show was worth the time and energy if Jennifer had a "sharp eyed find." I hope there are more than just the one!

>247 alcottacre: It was mostly an exploratory outing to see what was on offer and get an idea of the prices. I was able to get a selection of doll eyeglasses which tend to cost more in postage than the selling price if they are available at all and are often mislabeled as to what doll they fit. Of course it was great to be with my friend for the morning.

52) A Desolation Called Peace



We rejoin Mahit Dzmare and Three Seagrass, and spend time with the heir Eight Antidote as each and all are involved in the conflict with the enemy beyond the gate from Lsel station and the antagonists within the empire and the station. A save the universe level space opera, at least from the human view of the conflict, which mostly works at involving us in the action and characters. The time spent with Eight Antidote is enjoyable, but the largeness of his role in conclusion shifts the narrative further toward YA than I felt was optimal.

Meets March TIOLI Challenge #16: Read a book where all the letters of the word PEACE in the correct order in any language are in the title and/or author's name

I finished Under the Whispering Door and Mouse Bird Snake Wolf, but but LT Add Book isn't working this afternoon & evening.

53) Under the Whispering Door



I was not convinced by any of the characters in this book. Walter's too abrupt turn around, and the stated but largely undemonstrative competence of Mei and Hugo. In addition I felt large waves of emotional manipulation. The writing and pacing makes for a decent read and quirky gay romance is cool, but that wasn't enough to make this a recommendable read for me.

BB from @souloftherose

Meets March TIOLI Challenge #2: Read a book with at least a 4.00 LT average rating

54) Mouse Bird Snake Wolf



The images and writing are equal portions of the story telling here as 3 young inhabitants fill in lacunae left by lazy gods napping and feasting above them. The mouse, bird, and snake are interesting but the wolf takes a different turn. An ambiguous story to present to young or old readers.

BB from @SandDune

Meets March TIOLI Challenge #11: Read a book where the author's name includes a plant or plant product

>251 quondame: I did not like Under the Whispering Door nearly as much as I enjoyed the first Klune book that I read, The House in the Cerulean Sea, which I loved. I agree with you about Walter and his quick turnaround - it was too fast.

55) The Veiled Throne



Everyone contends with just about everyone else in this installment, and there is a lot of cutting away from painful scenes, sometimes to scenes which will be just as painful but increasingly toward the end, to a major romp of a contest between two restaurants. Lots of betrayal and gadgets that work much better than prototypes should. I'll probably forget most everything before the next brick is baked. Or maybe not since it's dropping this June. Speaking Bones

At almost 1000 pages, you don't want to try to fit this into a tight schedule.

Meets March TIOLI Challenge #1: Read a book with a three-word title, BUT one of the words (in rolling order!) must have six letters

>252 alcottacre: I wasn't a big fan of The House in the Cerulean Sea which seemed way to sweet where some tartness was required.

Pie is in the fridge! A whole French Silk, and the slice of pecan that will be my breakfast. The husband and daughter went out and got it but weren't serving it up and it seemed crude to dig in prior to pie-day.

>253 quondame: I think I will be skipping that one. Three stars for a 1000 page book is just not good enough!

>254 quondame: Sorry to hear that you did not enjoy The House in the Cerulean Sea more, Susan.

>255 quondame: Happy breakfasting!

Mmmmm, pie. Your selections sound amazing.

Hi Susan. My goodness, it’s been almost a month since I visited.

Pie sounds lovely. Your reading is varied, as usual. Your doll acquisitions are fun to read about.

>256 alcottacre: Way too long for the what was covered and spending too long on the fun parts. Which kept it from being a painful read, especially since the body counts were very high, but Liu didn't want to deal with what he had plotted so we only flash on the survivors - and are left feeling that their survival is pure device.

>256 alcottacre: >257 foggidawn: >258 karenmarie: The pecan was great. Alas, my cream had started to turn, though a little tartness didn't hurt. But the rest had to go. Tonight will be the sharing of the French silk celebration!

>258 karenmarie: You've been a bit occupied with certain important matters. I'm glad to see you here. I'm enjoying the dolls. I haven't shown more Fancy Nancy, but she is the one (well there are several now, 3 different types) that I've been playing with when I take a break from reading. She expresses such over the top joy and enthusiasm.

56) Joan is OKAY



Joan is the born in the US daughter of a couple that spent a couple of decades trying to make it in the US before returning to China. She lives a minimalist life as a dedicated ICU physician and everyone except her boss seems to know how she could improve. Covid sort of puts an end to a mandated bereavement leave and she resumes the life she has made for herself. A compact read with good flow, Joan is another of -possibly- on the spectrum characters that has come out of the margins recently, and I found her just too focused to really care about. The othering of the non-white was handled well but offered no new insights.

Meets March TIOLI Challenge #6: Read a book in which a character's name (first or last) is in the title

57) How I Live Now



A compact tale of a displaced US teen's route through a war in England with cousins. She finds home and family only to be scattered across a torn landscape. Well told, but too much a deliberate tear-jerker for my taste.

Read for March TIOLI Challenge #3: Read a book whose plot/story revolves around family relationships

Monsters in Our Midst by Wen Spencer is available at Baen.com

>261 quondame: I think that is the first time you rated a book higher than I did, Susan.
I gave it 3 stars ;-)

Good luck to Becky in her new teaching position. Yuck for gas prices, glad she gets good mileage with the Prius.

>262 quondame: Argh! I have assignments I need to get done! Instead I’m absorbed in this new story. Thanks though!!

>263 FAMeulstee: I can see it getting a lower rating - I liked the voice and the dream/nightmare like mood and the military all around resonated with my youth.

>264 karenmarie: Thanks, she seems to enjoy giving classes, though dealing with franchisees can be very repetitive.

>265 2wonderY: You're welcome. I just checked out You Sexy Thing after visiting your page.

58) Age of Doubt



Salvo in love is not what I signed up for. The mystery isn't terribly interesting, Commissario Montalbano has a bad meal and loses his appetite a couple of times, leaves meals unappreciated. Nope. And a late 50s early 30s attraction is unappealing. Not to mention all the job insanity.

I would have read it this year anyway, but in this case I
Read for March TIOLI Challenge #10: Read a book written by a citizen of one of the 27 member states of the European Union

59) Fatima & the Dream Thief



The illustrations in this table turning story are full of fun detail and idiosyncratic choices. The story is a bit on the thin side for a clever girl narrative.

Read for March TIOLI Challenge 17: Read a book for a themed group read

For me it was a busy day - up early to bid on eBay and go to a local farmers market for my kalamata olives and green tomatoes. Then stop by TJs to get the things I never remember to put on the white board for Mike to get. Plus 2 pints of heavy cream. Then later I went to the two closest libraries before Mike could leave me carless.
This evening I made up one of the King Arthur Scone mixes that is probably past it's use-by date, but they came out just fine if overly sweet for my taste. It was the plain vanilla flavor and I added a bit of lemon juice left over from the veggies I'd heated up earlier.

I'm currently reading Perhaps the Stars. This is going to take a while.

Later that day...

Becky got home earlier than expected so we headed off to the third library - the one only open M-TH - and got dinner. I now have a couple of shorter books that satisfy TIOLI Challenges that I might divert to when Ada Palmer's world gets too heavy. Fortunately I was able to get a Kindle copy because that HB is heavy.

The library has already snatched back One Last Stop and before tomorrow morning will reclaim The Prophets and Hench and may get a couple of more before I can finish Perhaps the Stars, which is long, but more telling, is dense with weirdly expressed detail. Of course I've put the Kindle on airplane mode, since it's due on the 22nd and I may not be finished even then.

>261 quondame: I own that one. I really need to get it read one of these centuries.

>272 alcottacre: In the darkness you maintain are many better and/or more enjoyable volumes.

The person who had the same job as Becky at her company but worked in Westwood 10 minutes from our house, quit due to lack of flexibility for in office days. So this week Becky took over the 6 days/month teaching just up the road from us. Parking is either problematical or non-existent, so I drove her in this morning, well, 11:30, and will pick her up again before too long. I will probably be doing most of the ferrying, but it's only 3 days this week and not again until the 2nd week of next month. Still, not only being up, but fed and dressed before noon hasn't been common for me. I did some shopping and dropped off some library books and exhausted myself. And got a late start on my FB, eBay, and LT time.

60) Perhaps the Stars



As readable and engaging as this book is, it is still way longer than its content requires unless the energetic passionate invention of the author's voice through seemingly endless elaborations is necessary to your fulfillment. The base internal realities of a caring outsider and the worthiness of some humans for the stars, well, they aren't the sells for me that Palmer seems to expect and the length at which they are advanced diluted what I found worth reading.

Meets March TIOLI Challenge #14: Read a book that is part of a tetralogy

61) Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes



Fun little verse forays into fairy tales and rhymes were things veer off in Dahlian directions.

Read for March TIOLI Challenge #8: Read a book by an author whose biography or autobiography you've read

>273 quondame: These days I hate anything that takes me away from my "free" time, so I feel for you, Susan.

>276 alcottacre: I don't really mind the drop off/pick up schedule as it gets me out and mostly cuts into my dither time - FB videos mostly. As I'm out, I hit a library or a store instead of putting it off. So I have more lunch and dinner choices instead of fallbacks.

Today's adventure was going to the Italian deli, dropping off books at the SM library, and picking up a copy of House of Leaves which may spend another unexamined month at my house.

62) A Sting in the Tale



An engaging discussion of bumblebees both ubiquitous and elusive, and the authors involvement with them concentrating on the short haired bumblebee and attempts to restore populations to England. On the way various habits and requirements of bumblebees and the important rolls they play - and the differences between them and honey bees - are visited. As of 2019 and 10 years of effort, some rare bumblebees are less so in the UK, but Bombus subterraneus hadn't been observed repopulating Kent, 7 years after this book was published. (Although Wikipedia reports some success as of 2013.

Read for March TIOLI Challenge #7: Read a book with the word Tale or Tales in the title

Yesterday Mike picked Becky up, so I was able to get a bit more reading in.
This morning I stopped by Smart&Final, a local small version of a warehouse grocery and restaurant supply store and stocked up on chips. Alas they no longer have a creamy Italian with no sweeteners so I've had to toss a couple of experimental bottles.

I really don't know why so many Italian style dressings are sweet these days. I picked up Ken's brand low fat to test next - the one I was looking for was absent, possibly replaced by balsamic, invariably too sweet for me.

63) Things in Jars



This one just didn't involve me. I don't even think Bridie being the red haired green eyed feisty Irish main character, of which I've encountered enough for multiple lifetimes. I just got no real gut feeling for a passing parade of obligatory nastiness on the part of the villains and sufferings on the part of the victims. The ghost seemed just along to keep Bridie company, when a warning or a discovery would have at least indicated that he was more than a pipe dream. And as the only consequence of such pipes as she smokes, he seems rather minor.

Read for March TIOLI Challenge #9 : Read a book which is the third novel by an author first published this century

Today was all quite stay at home for me, which was good since I got up early for the end of an eBay auction I expected to win, but didn't. Other than that it was quiet until dinner selection, that is. Becky came in later than usual, having napped after work and was not in a good mood, then when I had finally made up my own mind, both she and Mike were a bit overboard. Mike made a couple of selections and I filled in the rest of the meal and it turned out quite good. Thai from the place where we most often order.

Mike has had some breathing issues and has started a whole battery of tests. We'll see what shows or doesn't. I'm sort of gnarly because when I reported similar symptoms over the last 8 years I get dismissed with a "loose weight". Well, I'm not dead yet, but I am bummed.

64) The Dark Remains



The writing and the mystery are good. The story flows compactly. If you are a Laidlaw fan then you may enjoy meeting him before. Or at the early stages. But the rogue detective was never my favorite trope and watching him actively undermine his marriage and whinge about it is an unpleasant bore.

Meets March TIOLI Challenge #4: It's My Birthday and I'll Cry If I Want To! Challenge - Since I turn 60 on March 14th this year, my challenge is to read a book with the numbers 0314 in the ISBN.

>278 quondame: Ohh, I completely missed that you made it a shared read. Thank you, Susan.
*off to check the March TIOLI meter* I see you have updated it, thanks again :-)

>283 FAMeulstee: No problem. It was a fun NF read.

65) The Body Scout



Another bio-engineered cyborg filled dystopia, uber-urban NYC centered around body scout Kobo an ex-baseball cyborg, and his foster brother the bio-engineered JJ Zunz long term star of the Mets. Zunz's bion screen death leads Kobo, deeply in debt and newly unemployed, searches for what or who killed Zunz. The revelations are mostly of the expected sort and for a good guy Kobo is not only tainted, but pretty ineffective. The writing moved the plot right along, but the moves were either expected or arbitrary.

A sort of mechanized urban bookend to >242 quondame: Tears of the Trufflepig, but more of a surface level, despite the subterranean episodes, treatment.

Meets March TIOLI Challenge #12: Read a book with a five letter word in the title that you might find in Wordle

>280 quondame: Oh no! I have this on my to be read soon shelf. I will put it on the back burner for a while longer. It looked like it had so much potential!

Have a great week

>278 quondame: Adding that one to the BlackHole. It sounds interesting to me.

>281 quondame: Sorry about Mike's breathing issues. I hope he gets some proper medical advice rather than just being told to lose weight.

>286 figsfromthistle: Thanks! I've read a fair amount of feisty woman making her way in the man's world of Victorian London. This wasn't that fun or different and didn't quite jell for me, without being bad enough to pass on, but I might have if I weren't reading for a TIOLI challenge.

>287 alcottacre: It is good. Mike's getting lots of attention, including expedited tests - he does not have a pulmonary embolism - and in person appointments. But then his Covid weight gain still leaves him a good deal slimmer, though not slim, he's one of the barrel chested guys, than most of the men I know. His shoulders are still rather wider than his waist, and since I sew his tunics I know the difference is significant.

(NMP)
As the tomatoes I got last Wednesday weren't going to be green much longer, Becky and I breaded them up and fried them. Yumm. It took us a bit to get the cooking time right, but boy are they tasty. Salt, pepper and oil can work magic.

>289 quondame: YUM!

>288 quondame: Glad to hear he does not have a pulmonary embolism, Susan. I hope the expedited tests show something.

Ooh, those tomatoes look mighty good, Susan.

>290 thornton37814: Oh, yes. It's good to see you out and about!

>291 alcottacre: He is relieved. Me too. They are settled on asthma for now and he says the inhaler helps.

>292 msf59: I can't exactly speak to those since I grabbed the picture of Wikipedia, but our somewhat thicker ones were delightful. I wasn't quite prepared for how much longer the tomato takes to cook than other things I deep fry - or how much longer the wet tomato holds the heat once cooked. Mouth burns were avoided, but just barely.

Yesterday was my regular dentist appointment and I got through it without them urging me to make an appointment for the removal of #1 tooth (gum issues) or capping #12, though that probably will have to happen later this year. Their building was undergoing major renovation but hadn't been properly covered and Monday's rain had gotten down to their second story office and puddled. I fear mold will follow. But at least they were a bit distracted from the usually lectures and cautions.

66) The Hands of the Emperor



What a pleasurable read! The style and substance aren't a bit showy but the interest and involvement in Cliopher Mdang and his Islander background and his position as foremost civil servant of the realm never wanes. A fantasy without strange lifeforms or huge upheavals - though there has been the past upheaval with which to deal. Gods and mages and the existence, though not visited, of other worlds are the realities of the background. I am in awe of the way in which this almost entirely individual centered book, dealing with the revelation of achievement and character rather than the achieving or the development of character, kept me involved more than any novel in years.

Meets March TIOLI Challenge #2: Read a book with at least a 4.00 LT average rating

>294 quondame: That one's already on my list, but I will have to bump it up a few notches.

>295 foggidawn: I hope you enjoy it!

67) Currency of War



Only occasionally painful. Come on, allow for a bit of adult behavior and maturity of responses for people who've carried big responsibilities. But there's only a systems wide war being waged, so something has to be done for a bit of drama. For the number of events over the months this covers this is a pretty sketchy treatment, but that may be a blessing.

The end of this fourth book of the series cannot be meant to be the end of the series, but it would be merciful if it were.

I intended it for Challenge #14, but it
Meets March TIOLI Challenge #11: Read a book where the author's name includes a plant or plant product