jjmcgaffey's reading in 2022

My seventh year in Club Read - looking forward to more discussion on my thread!

I'm Jennifer; I live in Alameda, CA, with one cat (my other cat died recently, I'm looking for a new one but haven't found the right one yet). My parents lived down the street (about a mile and a half away), until my father died last spring (not COVID); my mother is still there. One sister in Mountain View, about 45 minutes away, and the other in Reno, about 4 hours' drive away. I'm a Foreign Service brat who grew up moving around the world (more or less literally); it's still strange to me to be living in the same house for the 17th year this year. I cook, garden, stitch, sew, weave, braid, program, fix computers (run a home computer repair business) - and oh yeah, read.

I read mostly genre fiction - primarily science fiction and fantasy, which get grouped together as SF (speculative fiction). Then romances, mysteries, animal books, children's books (which include examples of all the genres...). I also read a lot of non-fiction - biography, sciences, history, words, etc. And craft books and cookbooks, which don't so much get _read_ but do get used and referenced. I don't read horror, and I don't read literary fiction - in both cases, because I don't enjoy being depressed by my reading.

My goals last year were 200 books read (achieved easily - I actually read 216), 60 BOMBs (Books Off My Bookshelf), and 60 discards. I missed those two goals horribly, achieved less than half. I'm going to drop my goals slightly. 200 books, 50 BOMBs, 50 discards.

I'm keeping the same rules - one BOMB read for each reread I want to do, and four BOMBs a month (try to actually _do_ this this year); try to match them with discards, but those are more variable. I'm not counting any other kind of book, even books for review (Early Reviewers, Netgalley, etc) - they'll count only if they're over a year old (and I have way too many of those...) and paper (ebooks never count as BOMBs or for discards).

Books Read


BOMBs Read


Books Discarded

Reading Rules

1 BOMB read for every reread; cannot read in arrears.

At least 4 BOMBs read every month (or read nothing but BOMBs at the beginning of the month until caught up).

Saved in case I need to insert something.

Oops. I completely forgot about my usual lists up here. So I guess they're all going in here....

# indicates re-read, % indicates borrowed book, @ indicates ebook, * indicates BOMB, ! indicates ER etc, ^ indicates new book
Read January-March

January
1. Tales from the Archives - @^ - by Pip Ballentine & Nathan Lowell.
2. Quarter Share - @* - by Nathan Lowell.
3. When We Were Very Young - @# - by A.A. Milne.
4. The Striding Spire - @^ - by Charlotte E. English.
5. The Decipherment of Linear B - * - by John Chadwick.
6. Innate Magic - @^ - by Shannon Fay.
7. Half Share - @^ - by Nathan Lowell.
8. Full Share - @^ - by Nathan Lowell.
9. Double Share - @^ - by Nathan Lowell.
10. Captain's Share - @^ - by Nathan Lowell.
11. Owner's Share - @^ - by Nathan Lowell.
12. Complete Guitar Care & Maintenance - @^ - by Jonny Blackwood.
13. The Tale of Despereaux - @* - by Kate DiCamillo.
14. Boundaries - @^ - by Mercedes Lackey ed.
15. Miss Fellingham's Rebellion - @^ - by Lynn Messina.
16. Meeting - @^ - by Nina Kiriki Hoffman.
17. The Watch Below - ^ - by James White.
18. Where the Drowned Girls Go - @^ - by Seanan McGuire.
19. The Goblin Emperor - @^ - by Katherine Addison.
20. The Witness for the Dead - @^ - by Katherine Addison.
21. The Silver Bullets of Annie Oakley - @^ - by Mercedes Lackey.
22. Plum Duff - @^ - by Victoria Goddard.
23. Booked for Kidnapping - @^ - by RJ Blain.
24. Fantastic Hope - @^ - by Laurell K. Hamilton & Patricia Briggs.
25. The Angel of the Crows - @^ - by Katherine Addison.
26. To Love and Be Wise - @# - by Josephine Tey.
27. The Daughter of Time - @# - by Josephine Tey.

February
28. When Sorrows Come - @^ - by Seanan McGuire.
29. Black Mercury - @^ - by Charlotte English.
30. The Clockwork Crow - @^ - by Catherine Fisher.
31. The Velvet Fox - @^ - by Catherine Fisher.
32. A Millionaire's Dream - @! - by Bret Wonnacott.
33. Lonely Road - @* - by Nevil Shute.
34. The Madman's Library - @^ - by Edward Brooke-Hitching.
35. House in Hiding - @^ - by Jenny Schwartz.
36. The House That Fought - @^ - by Jenny Schwartz.
37. Polaris - @! - by Beth Bowland.

March
38. Sisters of the Raven - @* - by Barbara Hambly.
39. Shadowed Flame - @# - by RJ Blain.
40. The Time Traveller's Resort and Museum - @! - by David McClain & Felix Eddy.
41. Up in Smoke - @^ - by RJ Blain.
42. To Discover and Preserve - @^ - by M.C.A. Hogarth.
43. Runaway - @^ - by RJ Blain.
44. In Good Company - @^ - by M.C.A. Hogarth.
45. A Most Unusual Duke - @^ - by Susanna Allen.
46. Governor - @^ - by David Weber & Richard Fox.
47. My Dear Jenny - @^ - by Madeline Robins.
48. The Run Around - @^ - by Bernadette Franklin.
49. Madbond - @* - by Nancy Springer.
50. Dues and Don'ts - @^ - by Devon Monk.
51. Silent Stalker - @^ - by RJ Blain.
52. The Midnight Swan - @^ - by Catherine Fisher.

Read April-June

April
53. The Warrior of the Third Veil - @^ - by Victoria Goddard.
54. Spelunking Through Hell - @^ - by Seanan McGuire.
55. Mindbond - @^ - by Nancy Springer.
56. The Minstrel and the Dragon Pup - ^ - by Rosemary Sutcliff.
57. Complete Steel - * - by Catherine Aird.

May
58. Godbond - @^ - by Nancy Springer.
58. Terec and the Wild - @^ - by Victoria Goddard.
59. Portrait of a Wide Seas Islander - @^ - by Victoria Goddard.
60. Spell Bound - @^ - by Sharon Lee.
61. Nettle & Bone - @^ - by T Kingfisher.
62. Nothing But Cowboy - @^ - by Justine Davis.
63. A Texas Christmas Miracle - @^ - by Justine Davis.
64. Once a Cowboy - @^ - by Justine Davis.
65. Cowgirl Tough - @^ - by Justine Davis.
66. Till Human Voices Wake Us - @^ - by Victoria Goddard.
67. In the Realms of Gold - @^ - by Victoria Goddard.
68. Gryphon in Glory - @# - by Andre Norton.
69. Plaidypus - @^ - by RJ Blain.
70. The Redoubtable Pali Avramapul - @^ - by Victoria Goddard.
71. Aurelius (to be called) Magnus - @^ - by Victoria Goddard.
72. All About The Bear - @^ - by Bianca D'Arc.
73. Bad Actors - @^ - by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller.
74. My Luck - @^ - by Mel Todd.
76. Fire Magic & Ice Cream - @! - by Lauren Connolly.
77. Hired Luck - @^ - by Mel Todd.
78. Castle Waiting - # - by Linda Medley.

June
79. The Village Maid - @! - by Jane Buehler.
80. Educated Luck - @^ - by Mel Todd.
81. Captive Wilderness - @^ - by J.E. McDonald.
82. Inherited Luck - @^ - by Mel Todd.
83. Drafted Luck - @^ - by Mel Todd.
84. Code Talker - @^ - by Joseph Bruchac.
85. New Games - @^ - by Mel Todd.
86. No Choice - @^ - by Mel Todd.
87. Home Alone - @^ - by Mel Todd.
88. Commander - @^ - by Mel Todd.
89. Incoming - @^ - by Mel Todd.
90. Decisions - @^ - by Mel Todd.
91. Trust - @^ - by Mel Todd.
92. Castle Waiting Vol 2 - # - by Linda Medley.
93. Smoky the Cowhorse - * - by Will James.
94. Allies - @^ - by Mel Todd.

Read July-September

July
95. Family - @^ - by Mel Todd.
96. Found Father - * - by Justine Davis.
97. Shelf Life - @! - by Rob Gregson.
98. The Sisters of Straygarden Place - @^ - by Hayley Chewins.
99. Cambion's Law - @! - by Erin Fulmer.
100. The Spanish Marriage - @^ - by Madeline Robins.
101. Mouse House - @^ - by Rumer Godden.
102. Legends and Lattes - @^ - by Travis Baldree.
103. No Highway - @^ - by Nevil Shute.
104. Bowman of Crecy - * - by Ronald Welch.

August
105. Newbie Werewolf - @! - by Sue Denver.
106. Mr. Drake and My Lady Silver - @^ - by Charlotte English.
107. No Luck - @^ - by Mel Todd.
108. Joined - @^ - by Mel Todd.
109. Faded Luck - @^ - by Mel Todd.
110. Tangles - @^ - by Seanan McGuire.
111. The Grief of Stones - @^ - by Katherine Addison.
112. What Moves the Dead - @^ - by T Kingfisher.
113. Dirty Deeds 2 - @^ - by RJ Blain, Diane Pharoah Francis, Faith Hunter, Devon Monk.
114. Cosmic Fever - @! - by Eric J. Adams.
115. Luckstones - @^ - by Madeline Robins.
116. The Galaxy and the Ground Within - @^ - by Becky Chambers.
117. Frostgilded - @^ - by Stephanie Burgis.
118. Shattering the Glass Slipper - @^ - by Crystal Sarakas, Rhondi Salsitz.
119. Fair Trade - @^ - by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller.
120. Spellcloaked - @^ - by Stephanie Burgis.
121. The Baby's Christmas Blessing - @! - by Meghann Whistler.

September
122. FireBorn UnPainted - @^ - by M.C.A. Hogarth.
123. Firedancer's Hand - @^ - by M.C.A. Hogarth.
124. A Duke at the Door - @^ - by Susanna Allen.
125. Sunrise - @^ - by Susan May Warren.
126. Silence Fallen - @# - by Patricia Briggs.
127. Soul Taken - @^ - by Patricia Briggs.
128. Caged Fury - @! - by J.E. McDonald.

Read October-December

October
129. Patreon Short Stories Vol 1 - @^ - by RJ Blain.
130. Shattered - @^ - by Mel Todd.
131. At Large and At Small - @^ - by Ann Fadiman.
132. Outcast - * - by Rosemary Sutcliff.
133. Bad Moon On the Rise - @^ - by Annie Bellet.
134. The Mistletoe and the Sword - * - by Anya Seton.
135. Be the Serpent - @^ - by Seanan McGuire.
136. If the Shoe Fits - @^ - by Julie Murphy.
137. By the Book - @^ - by Jasmine Guillory.
138. Into the Broken Lands - @^ - by Tanya Huff.
139. Miss Buncle's Book - @^ - by D.E. Stevenson.

November
140. Landscape of a Marriage - @! - by Gail Ward Olmsted.
141. The Land of Fake Believe - @! - by Laurel Solorzano.
142. Student Nurse - @^ - by Helen Wells.
143. Catherine, Called Birdy - * - by Karen Cushman.
144. Life Flight - @^ - by Lynette Eason.
145. The Linguist and the Emperor - %^ - by Daniel Meyerson.
146. The Ogress and the Orphans - @^ - by Kelly Barnhill.
147. Those Who Hold the Fire - @^ - by Victoria Goddard.
148. The Mental Load - @^ - by Emma.
149. The Seven Brides-to-be of Generalissimo Vlad - @^ - by Victoria Goddard.
150. Traditional Culture Days at Uni - @^ - by Victoria Goddard.
151. Feonie and the Islander Regalia - @^ - by Victoria Goddard.
152. Bonus Scene - End of HOTE - @^ - by Victoria Goddard.
153. Petty Treasons - @# - by Victoria Goddard.
154. The Hands of the Emperor - @# - by Victoria Goddard.
155. Portrait of a Wide Seas Islander - @# - by Victoria Goddard.
156. The Wedding Date - @^ - by Jasmine Guillory.
157. At The Feet of the Sun - @^ - by Victoria Goddard.
158. AFTOTS Bonus Chapters - @^ - by Victoria Goddard.
159. The Shorter Parts of Valor - @^ - by Tanya Huff.

December
160. The Proposal - @^ - by Jasmine Guillory.
161. A Taste of Gold and Iron - @^ - by Alexandra Rowland.
162. Greenglass House - @^ - by Kate Milford.
163. The Golden Enclaves - @^ - by Naomi Novik.
164. The Trials of Morrigan Crow - @^ - by Jessica Townsend.
165. Moon Tamed - @^ - by Audrey Greene.
166. Bibliophile and the Beast - @^ - by Ellis Leigh.
167. Into the West - @^ - by Mercedes Lackey.
168. Slippery Creatures - @^ - by KJ Charles.
169. Small Things Like These - %^ - by Claire Keegan.
170. Queen of the Sea - %^ - by Dylan Meconis.
171. In the Realms of Gold - @# - by Victoria Goddard.
172. Till Human Voices Wake Us - @# - by Victoria Goddard.
173. The Saint of the Bookstore - @^ - by Victoria Goddard.
174. The Return of Fitzroy Angursell - @# - by Victoria Goddard.
175. The Redoubtable Pali Avramapul - @# - by Victoria Goddard.
176. In Mercy, Rain - @^ - by Seanan McGuire.

Happy New Year, Jennifer. Look forward to your thread in 2022 - I always enjoy your little insights on daily life in your corner in the world as well as your reading.

Hi Jennifer. I'm rooting for you bomb inspirations. Happy 2022!

Hi and Happy New Year! Good luck with your reading plans. Dropping off my star for your thread.

I was wondering where your thread was :) Happy new year (yeah, yeah - a bit late) :)

>7 AnnieMod: 'at's OK, it's not like my thread is in the hundreds of posts already (unlike some!).

Thanks, good to see you all!

Books Read
1. Tales from the Archives @^ by Pip Ballentine & Nathan Lowell. Review - Not a winner - neither events nor characters appeal, and the settings are confusing on top of that. Grim and steampunky - I prefer Charles Stross' version.
2. Quarter Share @* by Nathan Lowell. Review - Nice! Very mild story - no antagonist, just life and chances. I enjoyed this a lot, enough to buy the rest of the series. And then I figured out I had it in paper as well, so it's a BOMB.
3. When We Were Very Young @# by A.A. Milne. Review - Familiar, sweet poems...spoiled by some really bad formatting in this ebook. Argh.
4. The Striding Spire @^ by Charlotte E. English. Review - Interesting continuation of the series...things get even _more_ complicated.
5. The Decipherment of Linear B * by John Chadwick. Review - Interesting, if a bit too complex for me - the techniques of codebreaking applied to discovering the meaning of an unknown writing system.
6. Innate Magic @^ by Shannon Fay. Review - Yeah, no. Twisty plots getting twistier, idiot protagonist(s); interesting setting (though not well thought through) and good description and dialog can't rescue this, for me.
7. Half Share @^ by Nathan Lowell. Review - Back to Ish's adventures - there's a lot more sex here, and relationships of many sorts, but still no real conflict; it's much more realistic than that.
8. Full Share @^ by Nathan Lowell. Review - Sex is now _everywhere_, but it's still mostly about the relationships. And Ish shows off, yet again, his grasp of another field useful on the ship...saving the ship in the process, nicely done. Then things get complicated, or more complicated. And just which woman was it he was looking at in the last scene - the one he loves? Hmmm.

Currently Reading
Nothing at the moment...I'm trying to ration myself on the Nathan Lowells, there's only six books in the series (so far!). Oh, I'm reading Boundaries, the latest Valdemar anthology.

BOMBs
Two! One was accidental - I hadn't remembered I had a paper copy of Quarter Share. The other, Linear B, was intentional - I was hoping to finish it last year, didn't happen.

Discards
Both BOMBs, though I'm going to have to dig Quarter Share out of a box.

New/Reread
Seven of the eight are new; the Milne poems are a reread (many times). One reread paid for.

So I've been reading quite a lot, in this new year, and more or less keeping track of same... Some good reading, and some bad. But getting them read is a good thing, anyway.

Not a bad start to the year.

I loved When We Were Very Young. I read it to my son ages ago - 2010 (he turned four that year).

Great start to your reading year!

What does reading discards mean?

One of the points of reading BOMBs (Books Off My Bookshelf, books I've owned, in paper, for more than a year but have never read) is to get _rid_ of some of my books. I'm also willing to get rid of not-BOMBs if I decide either that I'll never read them again or that I want them in ebook only (I have quite a few both ways, but find myself reading the e-versions primarily).

So it's not reading discards, it's discarding books - they go to thrift shops, or to my library when they start taking donations again, or to family or friends - but they're _out_ of my house! I own 5000+ physical books, and I don't have room for them...they're in boxes, which make things difficult. I need to cull, and discard the ones I don't need/want any more.

>13 jjmcgaffey: I need to do the very same; divesting just feels wrong, but I need to embrace it. I cannot shelve even the majority, and books in boxes might as well not exist. Instead we have a lot of piles and ranks of books on the floor and most horizontal surfaces. Still, I promised my husband I would do some discarding.

>14 sallypursell: Good luck and be gentle. I heavily weeded my library when we moved, and regret getting rid of some of my books. I ended up buying them back as used copies, although some I had are out of print, so they cost me a bit more to acquire. I got a goodly haul at a used book sale in October.

...which is why I won't discard (mostly) until I've freshly read the book. A lot of the time that causes me to get the ebook, then I'm willing to shed the paper version; as often, I've read it and I don't particularly want to reread, so out it goes. I only keep the good ones that don't exist in e-version. But getting rid of one I haven't read yet or haven't read recently... I did once, I tried four different books by one author and discovered I couldn't stand her work any more (though I'd enjoyed it before). I then got rid of everything I had by her, some 20 books. But that was a couple years ago and I haven't done it again.

Of course I don't have a deadline. Which makes it both easier and more difficult - I don't have to read them by a particular time (and couldn't, if I had to)...but I don't have to read them by a particular time so all too often I _don't_ read them, I go for new books or old favorites. Which is why it's a goal and I spend time every year moaning about how I'm not hitting my goal - but some get read and get discarded.

I went through a lot of my boxes and inventoried them on LT. Theoretically, I know where my boxed books are and can dig out the particular box where X book is...but I only finished SF and general fiction, never got around to non-fiction, and have bought/obtained a lot of books since. So it's more theoretical than actual. But I can locate _many_ of my books, it helps.

I've been considering switching my books around - moving the ones I want to keep on paper into boxes, and putting my BOMBs up on the shelves for easier access. But...it would be a major job to do and to keep LT updated...I don't know. Not happening yet.

Books Read
9. Double Share @^ by Nathan Lowell. Review - Finally an officer - the whole Academy is skipped over. But he ends up on a bad ship, with a bad captain, and has to solve it...and does, of course. Active sexual harassment and rape (offscreen). And a very bad marriage.
10. Captain's Share @^ by Nathan Lowell. Review - Having solved his last ship's problems, he now gets another problem ship to fix - but at least this time he's the captain.
11. Owner's Share @^ by Nathan Lowell. Review - Again, having solved problems, he gets handed new problems - this one is _complicated_, with plots intersecting on their heads. More interesting characters. And one too convenient death - he's not allowed to have a solid relationship that lasts.
12. Complete Guitar Care & Maintenance @^ by Jonny Blackwood. Review - A few useful bits, but this is very focused on electric or electric-acoustic guitars and mine are pure acoustics.
13. The Tale of Despereaux @* by Kate DiCamillo. Review - There's a good story here, but the writing is a bit cutesy for me (frequent appeals to "Reader", particularly. And author insertions). Glad I read it but I don't think I'll ever reread.
14. Boundaries @^ by Mercedes Lackey ed. Review - The usual mix - mostly good ones this time, only one really confusing.

Currently Reading
Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire - next in the Wayward Children series, and so far rather grim. We'll see. Also Miss Fellingham's Rebellion, a Regency; we'll see if it's worth reading.

BOMBs
Despereaux - read an e-version, but I have it in paper as well.

Discards
The paper Despereaux is out. Not sure I'll ever read the e-version again, but at least it's easier to store and to find...

New/Reread
All new. 2 rereads paid for.

I'm trying to resist a lot of rereads calling me...need to build up some BOMBs first. One more, good.

The Nathan Lowell novels sound intriguing.

They're weird in a lot of ways. They are, however, addictive! I was trying to space them out and completely failed, I had to read the next one.

Apparently there are two other series in this universe (plus a short, A Light in the Dark). I'll be looking for them. They're not in libraries, though, which makes them a little more difficult for me.

So...last week my sister informed us that her husband had tested positive for COVID (home test). She moved out, to a friend's mother-in-law apartment, at his request; she tested negative then.

Today she tested positive. No symptoms, but she'll have to quarantine longer - but her husband also tested still positive, so she's moving back home (much to her relief). They get an official medical test on the 19th; hopefully that will show negative and they'll be released.

It's not a major thing - they both work from home, they often have food sent in...just can't have friends over for a while, have to stick to video conferences. But it's still not a good thing.

It's been three weeks+ since we saw him (they both came up for Christmas) and more than two weeks since we saw her (she came up to pick up some stuff a bit later). So none of us should have been within the infectious time. But we'll test, especially if we show any symptoms.

I have a cold - stuffy nose and sore throat - but no fever. If I could find a test I'd do it, just in case, but there aren't any around right now - we ordered some earlier but no sign of them yet.

Bleah. Things get so _complicated_.

>20 jjmcgaffey: Unfortunately fever is not as common a symptom with omicron, especially with vaccinated people, sore throat, however, is. According to the Zoe Covid Symptom Study in the UK, the top five symptoms with omicron are runny nose, headache, fatigue, sneezing, and sore throat. Fortunately symptoms tend to be mild in the vaccinated. I hope everyone in your family feels well soon.

>17 jjmcgaffey: I adore solar sails, and books or stories about their officers and sailors. So evocative!

I'm sorry about the Covid in the family. Good luck to them.

>20 jjmcgaffey: Wish you well. It's very frustrating, all the not knowing and not having access to testing stuff.

I read through the Nathan Lowell books last year--yes, quite addictive non-challenging reads! Hoping everyone gets well soon.

Books Read
15. Miss Fellingham's Rebellion @^ by Lynn Messina. Review - Mildly interesting Regency romance...but not the one with that title, the book I got was the fourth in the series that starts with Rebellion. Amusing. I do want to read the series, I think.
16. Meeting @^ by Nina Kiriki Hoffman. Review - Not bad, but very much a middle book - nothing gets resolved.
17. The Watch Below ^ by James White. Review - Weird and good - requires major suspension of disbelief, but some rich characters.
18. Where the Drowned Girls Go @^ by Seanan McGuire. Review - Interesting story but it ends up where it began. Just to introduce new characters, maybe?
19. The Goblin Emperor @^ by Katherine Addison. Review - Oh. Wow. That is _amazing_. Magnificent story, more please.
20. The Witness for the Dead @^ by Katherine Addison. Review - Not a sequel to Goblin Emperor - same world, different protagonist. More of a murder mystery than anything else, though there's a lot of complications. Good, next please.
21. The Silver Bullets of Annie Oakley @^ by Mercedes Lackey. Review - Interesting addition to the Elemental Masters series - I prefer Frieda's stories, though. This makes me want to know what was real and what's just in the story.

Currently Reading
A Millionaire's Dream by Bret Wonnacott (or maybe it has another name now). ER book, not a winner - he's trying to write Terhune or Kjelgaard or even Alger, but...maybe trying to be literary? In any case, he spends pages and pages wallowing in characters' physical and emotional misery. Ugh. Nothing else at the moment.

BOMBs
None in this lot.

Discards
The Watch Below - good to read once, I don't think I want to keep it. Picked it up from a Little Free Library, I think I'll return it there.

New/Reread
All new. Two rereads paid for.

Not bad - I've been reading a lot, and I've managed three BOMBs so far this month. One more and I'll be on track for the month. Lots of good books, many of which just came out recently...

Phew. Finally managed to read through the December/January bulge in thread posts! I'm not usually this far behind (I don't think) but it's been a busy month with this and that.

I mean, of course, that I have managed to read up to current all the threads I've starred - I think I got everyone I usually follow, and the usual few newcomers as well. There are a lot more threads that I just...don't. If you tried to read all of LT, you wouldn't have time for anything else (let alone reading books!).

>25 jjmcgaffey: Oh, I read The Goblin Emperor back in 2014, and I remember quite enjoying it. I didn't realize she'd written more in that world! Time to see if my local library has them....

>25 jjmcgaffey: The Goblin Emperor was one of the unexpected good surprises in the year it came out indeed :) I need to get around to the other book in the same universe.

>28 AnnieMod: we read that in our rl book group, we all loved it. I know there is anther bookbut i haven't read it yet

>25 jjmcgaffey: I've just been seeing people rave about The Goblin Emperor on a different book chat. Seems like the book-buying (or book-selling?) Fates are trying to tell me something!

Just popping in, Jennifer, to see what you are reading :-)

I've been reading a lot, tracking somewhat (thank goodness my ebook reader tracks when I start books...), and actually reviewing pretty well. I just haven't been updating my spreadsheet, and therefore not posting. Soon, I hope.

I've had two days recently with no water - major leak in my condo complex a couple days ago, and they had to shut off water to all the buildings to get it fixed. Then they thought they were done, but when the guys showed up to pour the concrete the area was full of water _again_, today. Hopefully they got it this time. It is _very_ disconcerting not to have water - and I grew up in places where water did not come out of faucets (at least, not usably). I know how to brush my teeth, and wash my hands, and even take a sponge bath out of a bottle - but that's not what my habits are these days, and I kept turning on the faucet before I'd remember there wasn't anything there. And thinking Oh, I could...no I couldn't, I need water for that. But I could...nope, not that either. That's one reason I'm current on my reviews - since I couldn't bake or this or that.

>32 jjmcgaffey: So sorry about your water. I’m always surprised how dependent I am on electricity when it goes. But we were without water for a 12 hour stretch once - and that was a horror.

>32 jjmcgaffey: I hope your water gets turned back on today. I would be in trouble if that happened to me here in Maine as I have hot water heat. When I lived in Florida, we were without water for about a week after Hurricane Michael. The military brought in water, but it could be hard to distribute effectively. I certainly gained an appreciation for places in the world where water is not readily available after queueing up it.

>32 jjmcgaffey: I am sorry to hear about your water issue. That is disconcerting. I feel the same way about electricity going off. This happened a few weeks ago on one of the coldest nights of the year. It was out for 6 hours. At least we had the gas fireplace turned on to warm things up.

Both days the water came back on in the evening - I was able to do a bunch of my chores before I went to bed. I was just surprised at how ingrained my habits were. I've got electric baseboard and forced air heat, so that wasn't a problem (and it gets uncomfortably, but not dangerously, cold around here anyway).

Yeah, no electricity is equally disconcerting - though there it's all the things I'd do on the computer (online) that I have to keep reminding myself aren't possible. Since I have a laptop, I'd be able to do stuff just on the computer - but there's so little that doesn't have an online component these days...

Its really disconcerting living here in the desert seeing how much development has happened just in the last five years. We donot have a finite supply of water, but the powers that be seem to think otherwise. After all, its so cheap. We have two cities that are doing a fairly good job of conserving water. Elsewhere nothing. We will probably get to the point when it will be rationed; given recent history we know how that will go over,

Yeah, _that's_ a whole different subject...We try to conserve water, but every time there's a little rain the controls get released. If they'd just keep the one about "don't water the sidewalk, or water in the rain", we'd save water _and_ things would be considerably better for those of us who like to walk! It's been on, off, on, off again...I think it's still currently on in my city/county, but Marin has removed it again...sigh.

Books Read
22. Plum Duff @^ by Victoria Goddard. Review - Settling down from the last few books - and establishing the timeline against the other books in this world.
23. Booked for Kidnapping @^ by RJ Blain. Review - It would have been a great novella - rather stretched as a book (and unreliable narrator).
24. Fantastic Hope @^ by Laurell K. Hamilton & Patricia Briggs. Review - Some good stories, some OK - the best is also the worst, Briggs' story is unreliable _author_ - she lies to us. Hmph.
25. The Angel of the Crows @^ by Katherine Addison. Review - I hate Sherlock Holmes, and Jack the Ripper bores me...and this story sucked me straight in. Wow.
26. To Love and Be Wise @# by Josephine Tey. Review - I remembered what but not why - and having found out, I don't much care. Huh, loved it the first time…
27. The Daughter of Time @# by Josephine Tey. Review - Wonderful as always - problem is, I almost have it memorized, so it's much too quick a read.

Currently Reading
See February's post

BOMBs
None.

Discards
None - all ebooks, though I have the Teys in paper as well.

New/Reread
Two rereads (the Teys), the rest new. Which leaves me at no rereads paid for.

January stats
27 books read
3 rereads
24 new books
0 rereads paid for

7717 pages read, average 285.8

3 BOMBs
0 ER books
0 Netgalley books

25 ebooks, 2 paper books

4 discards - hit my goal for the month

20 SF&F
0 animal stories
2 children's
2 non-fiction
0 general fiction
1 romances
0 graphic novels
2 mysteries

17 F, 11 M authors

Books Read
28. When Sorrows Come @^ by Seanan McGuire. Review - Toby finally gets married, accompanied (surprising no-one) by various disasters. Lovely. Great relationships, building, rebuilding and reinforcing.
29. Black Mercury @^ by Charlotte English. Review - Ugh. Dumb "hero", mildly interesting world doesn't make up for him.
30. The Clockwork Crow @^ by Catherine Fisher. Review - Cute kids' story, with plot holes - interesting variant on "faerie stole the child". The Crow is annoying but still interesting.
31. The Velvet Fox @^ by Catherine Fisher. Review - Again, cute kids' story - more plot holes. Nice to see the Crow again. The Fae object to having lost the first time…
32. A Millionaire's Dream @! by Bret Wonnacott. Review - Ugh. It would have been a good kid-and-dog story if the author hadn't been determined to wallow in their miseries…
33. Lonely Road @* by Nevil Shute. Review - Good writing (it's a Shute, after all), depressing story. And very nasty (though deserved) revenge at the end.
34. The Madman's Library @^ by Edward Brooke-Hitching. Review - Interesting assortment of book oddities - biggest, smallest, human leather, etc.
35. House in Hiding @^ by Jenny Schwartz. Review - Good story, good continuation of events. Very unpleasant (for the characters) cliff-hanger ending - glad I had the next book already.
36. The House That Fought @^ by Jenny Schwartz. Review - Nice tying-off of loose ends; some very complex plots exposed and dealt with. And good relationship management. Fun, want more by her.
37. Polaris @! by Beth Bowland. Review - I can't read this - been trying since 2016. It might be an interesting story but I can't get past the wooden writing.

Currently Reading
Sisters of the Raven by Barbara Hambly - still at the slog stage, she's a little too good at describing nasty situations. Her books usually end up great, but I slog at the beginning of each one. Also, in paper, The Path Between the Seas by David McCullough - very detailed about a subject I knew only in passing. Interesting, but dense - I'm reading very slowly.

BOMBs
Lonely Road by Shute.

Discards
Lonely Road, as soon as I dig it out of a box. If I should want to reread I'll have the e-version.

New/Reread
One BOMB, and all new - so one reread paid for, now.

Managed to review two ER books - even though my reviews basically say "I can't read this". I'm way behind on ER reviews, and with the new system I better work on them more...

Not bad, though I'm behind on BOMBs already. Doing OK (not great, but OK) on discards. Also there are too many good new books coming out...

OK! I got all my books to date entered, reviewed, and listed in Book Stats (my spreadsheet) and here (whew). Hopefully I'll stay more caught up from now on.

Last week was rather busy - Mom's going in for cataract surgery tomorrow, so I've been driving her to several preliminary appointments (eye tests, COVID test). And taking advantage of it to take care of some medical stuff for me - I just got my first shingles shot, last Friday. Very sore arm Friday and Saturday, and some dizziness and fever on Saturday (not unexpected side effects) - by Sunday I was fine, though. Second shot in a couple months.

I'm starting seeds for myself and Mom, and for two gardening groups' plant sales in a couple months. Today I set up the Aerogardens; tomorrow (after Mom's surgery) I'll plant the seeds. Need to get to bed early today because the surgery is early and I'm driving her in, so I don't have time to do it tonight.

Also last week I put nets over the front of my balcony; it seems to have dissuaded the squirrel, for the moment. But I think I have to replant all my peas, there's not a sprout to be seen and I suspect he ate them all. Bah. Annoying critter. I'm also going to get some chili oil and put it on the edge of my balcony at the floor level - I don't dare put it on the railing, I lean on that sometimes. Or maybe I will, I'll see how it goes. I need him not to come in and eat my plants!

Nothing much else going on. Goodnight, all!

>42 jjmcgaffey: You have been busy. You read so much, I kind of assumed that's all you did! Lol. I had to remind myself where you lived, as we are so far from planting anything that the thought seemed otherworldly. We have 18" of hard frozen snow/ice here in Maine and it's -6 F. Ah, but California...

Have a good week.

Yes. Early planting season is wonderful...but there's also the fact that there's never not a weed season! Not so bad for me now, gardening in pots, but when I had a community garden plot...winter was for pulling weeds, and if I skipped a month (because cold! (40F or so) and wet! and icky)...I'd spend the next month dealing with six-foot mallows and radishes and various wild/weed plants.

I lived in Virginia for quite a while, and there was a winter there...it took some adjustment when I came here.

You remind me I haven’t done my seed order yet!

I've got my seeds and now need to sit down and make my newspaper pots, fill them, and poke the little seeds into their new homes. That's my goal for today... I always forget how much time garden stuff takes, even though it's fun time and well spent.

>46 lisapeet: I cannot wait to get my flowers planted this year. I look forward to new containers and planting, since last year we were moving to our new house and did not do any flowers at all.

Also can't wait to get sowing my seeds this year. Last year was the first time I've really gone all out on annuals in my borders and it worked really well, so I'm excited about doing some more this year. My greenhouse isn't heated so I can't easily get seeds going until April or May, but they're all bought in readiness.

>48 AlisonY: Oooh, but you have a greenhouse! That's neat. I do mine up in my attic, which has small windows and skylights but enough to get some daylight sun on the seedlings as long as the cats don't knock them over.

>49 lisapeet: Lisa it's really useful once the frosts disappear as I can get loads of plants going, but with my cold greenhouse my garden's always a couple of months behind where it would be at if I just bought everything from the garden centre. But sure where's the fun in that? I'll start my seedlings off in my house as otherwise it would take ages to get up to temperature in the greenhouse to get germination going.

And besides, if you start your own seeds you can grow unusual varieties that the nurseries (garden centres) don't carry. I'm always trying new varieties of tomatoes...which makes things difficult when I have too many favorites...

My winter garden is doing very well - if I'd planted it (in the Aerogarden, indoors) in November or December when I first thought of it, I'd have had tomatoes for quite a while. It actually got planted in mid-January, and I have many small green tomatoes at this point. Both the tomatoes I'm growing are "semi-determinate", so I'm likely to get a huge load at one time...we'll see. Beaverlodge Slicer on the left, Dora Heartbreaker on the right; a pesto (standard sweet) basil on the right front, and another (possibly Fino Verde, a small-leaf) basil just getting started on the left front. Two seedlings died there, and I finally pulled out the soil plug and put in a new one, which is working a lot better - but it's way behind. The center two spots were supposed to be spinach, but neither sprouted at all, so I just capped them.

>51 jjmcgaffey: Ah, the joys of growing from seed in decent weather. Enjoy!

The magic of aeroponics - the Aerogarden is a largely self-contained growing place, with a water reservoir (in the black bucket at the bottom) and LED growing lights at the top. It's got a pump to stir the water around and oxygenate it. Seeds, or cuttings, go into soil plugs (they're actually some kind of moss - I know the name on alternate Sundays) and into the plastic cone containers you can see set into the bottom bucket. With the water and fertilizer kept supplied, and the lights coming on automatically for about 16 hours a day, things grow quite enthusiastically. I've been using them mostly for seed starting rather than for growing in full - thus the winter garden is new thing to me. I've got three more Aerogardens - two this size and one larger - and they've all got seeds starting in them.

This year I learned, what I hadn't noticed before, that tomato seeds germinate and grow a lot faster than most others. The tomatoes are ready for potting up, the basils have _just_ gotten second leaves (most of them), the parsleys are still two-leafed, and the one and only pansy that sprouted is still a tiny two-leaf. Some of what I'm growing is for Mom and me to grow on our porches; some (most of the basils, parsleys and pansies) are for a plant sale at the end of April. They'll be ready to pot up before then, but not a lot before...

Both of these were started the same day, mid-February (the 17th, I think).


Seedlings ready for potting up, mostly tomatoes


Seedlings just getting started, basils right and parsley left

The plant sale donations are finally out of the house - it took me another week to pot up those tomato seedlings I said were ready to be potted up in my last post. The stuff Mom and I will grow are hardening off at Mom's house - I don't dare put them out on my porch, the b***y squirrel is still coming by. I put hardware cloth (metal mesh) against most of the bottom of the railing, but I mis-measured and there's a couple foot gap at one end; I cut more mesh, but haven't fastened it down. And then I need to fasten the net to the mesh so he can't slip between them...and then we'll see if he bites through the net (it's just thin plastic). In which case I'll have to put up more hardware cloth, up to the ceiling, and that will be a _pain_. But I gotta grow!

I've been reading quite a lot, and tracking sort of, but I need to update my spreadsheet and then post here. Preferably before April...we'll see.

Ha ha...before April. Yeah right. I've updated my tracking several times, but never gotten around to the last few steps... sometime soon, maybe.

So. What I've been doing: today was the ABG plant sale, and I am wiped. I was on my feet for basically all the time between 8:30 am (when I walked the two blocks from my house, carrying a stool) until 1:50 pm when I got back home after the sale closed at 1:30. I came back carrying my stool, two plant trays, and two plants on the trays (I'd used the trays for my starts - I'll use them again next year, I'm sure). Also, it was hot! The forecast said 63, which is distinctly cool, so I wore a fleece vest and brought a jacket - never put on the jacket and shed the vest before noon. I have no idea what the actual temperature was, but standing and walking in the sun it was _hot_.

So I came home and ate a bowl of ice cream (yum, also quick energy). Then I finally got around to cutting the much taller hardware cloth I got when the squirrel (rat, possum? Most of the damage seems to be done at night) demonstrated its ability to sneak inside despite a second layer of hardware cloth. This one is taller than the railing (rather than half the height) and I intend to put it up vertical with the inner edge of the railing, and zip-tie it down. So the beastie can't get in (beyond the first 4 inches or so of my balcony), but the stuff is removable at need (the stapled-on stuff was very hard to fasten and will be at least as hard to remove). I'm leaving the smaller hardware cloth there, so it'll have the struggle to get in and then it won't be able to go anywhere...hopefully it will become discouraged at last.

I've only cut the right length (a bit more than I actually need...I hope), haven't installed it - Mom will help me with it next week. I also learned the hard way why you should wear gloves, with leather palms, while dealing with hardware cloth - it came in a tight roll held together by wire, when I released the wire it spun loose and when I grabbed the top to slow it down it ate my palms. I have little nicks and scrapes all over the palms of my hands and fingers - ow. It'll make playing guitar fun for a while...

Yesterday was Mom's condo's yard sale - actually, Thursday too, that was setup. I helped. Friday I went and helped and shopped - but I got there too late to buy the guitar I'd had my eye on from Thursday. Should have bought it then... but I didn't research it until Thursday night.

It's not that I need a guitar, though! I currently have four... a classical nylon-string acoustic I've had for decades (I can't remember where I got Pirate (I name my guitars, doesn't everyone?)), a 3/4 size nylon my sister gave me when she decided her son (now in his 20s) was never going to play it (that's Dove), a steel-string I bought a couple years ago and play very very seldom because my fingers aren't up to steel strings - catch-22, I need to play to strengthen my calluses so I can play... That one is Wash (Washbourne, the brand of the guitar). And one I bought...almost three weeks ago now, a Traveler guitar. It's amazing - it's _tiny_. Full-length neck, but no head - the place where guitars keep their tuners, usually. This one the strings are tuned inside the solid body. It's an electric-acoustic, which means I'm learning about amps and speakers and all that stuff I've never had to think about before... The body is smaller than a tennis racket, slightly bigger than a ping-pong racket. There's a wire extension, removable, that mimics the bottom curve of a guitar. With the extension removed it fits into a teensy case, which will easily go into my suitcase; with the extension installed it's a small but perfectly playable guitar. Playing without an amp, I can hear myself in a quiet place and it's got a nice tone. I have a pocket amp that plugs into it, and a couple different speakers that I can plug into the amp - if I want to play with other people or in a noisy place, I'll need that (so as I said, I'm working on figuring out the amp and its settings).

I need to do that because next week my mom and I are going to Washington DC, via train. We'll be spending almost five days on the train - SF Bay Area to Chicago to DC - then staying with friends in the area, then flying home. Visiting friends, going to the Smithsonian, eating at some interesting restaurants - we used to live in the area, and it will be nice to see it again. But even my 3/4 size guitar was not going to be packable for the trip - maybe if we were training both ways, but flying back Dove would not work. And I wasn't going to go two weeks without playing at all. So the new guitar solves that nicely. It hasn't told me its name yet - something about Vikings, maybe (travel, axe...). I'll figure it out.

So of course the other thing I'm doing these days is packing, and prepping my house for being left. A friend will be coming in to take care of my cat, and my plants - but she's neither a cat person nor a gardener, so I have to have things set up to be as easy as possible. And figuring out what I'll need for the trip is being _fun_... DC has had, in each of the last two weeks, a couple days with highs in the 40s and a couple days with highs in the 80s. Sheesh! I can't bring my entire wardrobe... And prepping my computer to do stuff that I don't seem to have time for at home...like, you know, reviewing and posting on LT...

It'll be a fun trip. But (as usual, for me) the prep is being a pain - I keep thinking of something else I want to do or take along, and then I look at my suitcases and decide no, or some smaller portion, or...I better get back to it, actually. I think I will be asleep pretty soon, and there's some stuff I need to get done tonight.

My guitar:



You can see the tuners, inside the body - but this doesn't give a good idea of the size.

Ah, here we go - on the Amazon page, look at the last image (which shows it against a normal guitar case) and the video at the end, which shows someone playing one.
https://www.amazon.com/Traveler-Guitar-Acoustic-Electric-ULA-ABNS/dp/B07K7LM3WB?...

You have been busy! Love the travel guitar. Have fun in DC!

Home again home again...I came home yesterday, did a few chores, attempted to placate my cat, and fell on my nose. I'm still a little slow today...gotta get to the store and get the perishables that I managed to remove from my kitchen before the trip (milk and bananas, mostly. Probably other fruit, too). And finish unpacking.

The trip was great fun - train from Emeryville (next to Oakland) CA, to Chicago; change trains and to DC. Both were just a little late but not enough to cause any problems. And if you're training anywhere, or watching someone's trip, in the US or Canada, take a look at https://asm.transitdocs.com/ . Click on a train (the colored/numbered dots on the map) to see where it's been, where it's going, and how late it is/will be at each stop. Fascinating!

We got a room, which is...not large. One sofa that turned into a bed (like a futon - pull it out flat), one chair opposite, along the window, and a pull-down top bunk that was a little wider than a cot but not much. The bottom bed was approximately a twin. Mom got that, of course, and I was on the top bunk. The advantage of a room over a roomette is that there is a (tiny) toilet and shower (one room, more or less sealed off...) and a sink. Also, having a sleeping car ticket gave us free meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) in the dining car - the food varied from OK to quite good - and access to Amtrak lounges in the stations (very helpful for leaving suitcases behind to explore a bit; also snacks, coffee and tea, showers if you needed it, etc). We managed to fit in, though the carry-ons plus a few bags made it a bit crowded - but nice to have things available. And much much larger than any space on a commercial flight, of course.

The travel guitar worked perfectly, on the train and at our hosts. Loud enough for me to hear, with amp and speaker easily loud enough for others, packed beautifully (though I should have done some checking - I discovered after we were on our way that it does _not_, quite, fit in my suitcase. So it had to be my personal item on the flight back (no problem on the train) - which worked, pretty well) and felt like a guitar. In fact, the only problem is that my standard acoustic guitar feels huge and sounds tremendously loud now!

Stayed with old friends (as in, they used to babysit me...) in Arlington VA. Spent two days, separated by a day to rest, in the Smithsonian - we saw (parts of) the Castle, Natural History, and American Indian (including eating there, as recommended by two different people) on the first day, then American History and Arts & Industries the second day. A&I was the whole Smithsonian museum early on - not sure if it was built at the same time as the Castle or shortly thereafter. They've just reopened it for special exhibits - this one was Futures (four wings, with Futures Past, Futures that Inspire, Futures that Work, and Futures that Unite. Everything from souvenirs of World Fairs to a Hyperloop train car to a machine for making insulin at home to an egg-coffin that grows a tree out the top. Fascinating stuff, as always. Air & Space was closed, unfortunately, and we didn't get to the other Air & Space out in...Maryland, I think. Udvar-Hazy Center...no, it's in Virginia, but not close in. Pity, but we had very full days...

Also we needed some days when we _didn't_ spend all day on our feet. Smithsonian is _not_ an easy visit - even if you stuck to one museum (which I'm not sure I ever have), they're all huge and with fascinating things around every corner. We didn't see all of any museum - deliberately skipped bits, and just gave up on some. But we saw plenty.

Lots of talking around the table, memories from when we lived in Arlington. Visits from our hosts' family - they have 8 children, five of whom are still local, and there's at least one great-grandchild around. Lots of family. I went and hid out in my room for a while on Sunday (Mothers Day...a good many of the family came by, what a surprise).

Played for them one night (Tim plays, but this time he only sang). Watched a streaming concert with them - John McCutcheon, who I knew of as a guitar virtuoso but somehow had missed that he also writes songs, most of them rather amazing. Christmas in the Trenches is one of his. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJi41RWaTCs And now I need to look up a lot more of his songs...

Another night we had our usual family video chat. Which means we missed three - we usually meet Thursdays and Sundays, but one Thursday we were on the train (no wifi at all), one Sunday we had just arrived in DC and were flat long before hangout time, and the next Thursday we were out at dinner (at an amazing place in Alexandria VA, Kismet Modern Indian. Yum). So just the one Sunday hangout, with our hosts dropping in now and then (physically, I mean, not into the video. They'd come and sit and talk a bit and then move on).

I brought the right number of clothes, and a decent spread - I wore linen shirts the first three days and heavy cotton and flannel the last week. I still brought too much stuff - things I never used at all, that were quite heavy and/or bulky...but I had hopes! Never got around to drawing anything (brought a sketchpad and a book, and some pencils), never (clearly) got around to reviewing books on LT so I could post...I did do quite a bit of knitting, finished one slippersock (the second of a pair) and started a new pair.

And I came home to nothing being eaten on the porch - looks like the hardware cloth we set up (got to that just before we left) worked. Whew! But the broken-necked tomato I planted after the sale got broken some more, not sure how - I've buried its stem again, and we'll see if it survives (either end. The root end looks quite sturdy but has no leaves...not sure if that will come up with anything or not).

Many things to do around the house - fit myself back into my life, plus the projects I didn't get to before. And maybe possibly even reviewing some books (I read quite a lot, too, especially on the plane home) so I can post them here...

Welcome home! Glad your trip went well.

Good to hear from you and I love the review of your trip! Trains are so much fun.

Sounds like a great trip.

>58 jjmcgaffey: Fell on your nose?

Welcome back! It was fun to read about your train trip. That sounds like something I need to try.

>62 dianeham: Collapsed into bed, I mean. Not literal.

Yeah, it was a fun trip on many levels.

That sounds like a great trip. We always talk about doing a long train ride someday—we're east coast, so the fantasy is the one that goes up to Canada, with the observation deck.

My parents did that - DC to ... somewhere, bus to Montreal, train to Vancouver. This was in 2001. They loved it. Oh - they did the one that goes _across_ Canada.

As long as you don't schedule yourself at all tightly, I think the train is great. Just don't schedule something for the day or the day after you're supposed to arrive. This trip we were only two hours late into Chicago, 20 minutes late into DC - but the trip we took from the Bay Area to Seattle we were over 24 hours late (washouts and freight trains). If you're on time you have more time to relax, if you're late you didn't miss anything if you don't schedule stuff for when you expect to arrive.

So I've been very tired since we got back from the trip. Then increasing aches and pains, and increasing stuffy nose and coughing. Finally tested today - and it's negative. Whew! I likely caught a cold or the flu from the trip, but not COVID.

Which is good. This week is kind of insane... Tuesday Mom and I went to the farmers market (which suddenly has lots of stuff we like - I got plums, Mom got apricots, we both got berries and veg) and then went to give blood. Today we went to Costco. Tomorrow we're going to a friend's potluck(ish) birthday party - she gave us recipes or suggestions and we're all bringing the food. Friday...I don't think I have anything scheduled Friday, how odd. Cleaning house and assembling laundry, though. Saturday morning there's an outdoors show, which should be good - the history of the area it's showing in (the now-defunct Air Force Base at the west end of the island), with singing and dancing and etc. The one they did for the beach near me a couple years ago was excellent. Saturday evening we've got a potluck (same kind of ish) dinner, featuring Korean food, at a friend's house (outside - the birthday party is also outside). And Sunday...Sunday I think we get to collapse. After church, of course.

And last week and this I have made real progress on the stack/heap/pile of books that I bought or otherwise obtained but hadn't entered into LT, over the last several...months? Years? I think the bottom of the pile is at least a year old. But I'm more than halfway through it. Enter the books, scan the covers, sort them into non-fiction, SF, and fiction that isn't SF...the next step is putting them into the boxes (sorted by genre and author) so I can find them when I want to read them. Or possibly...I am again thinking about boxing up the books on my shelves, that I like and want to keep (but am not rereading - or am rereading electronically), and putting my BOMBs on the shelves so I have a fighting chance of actually pulling them down and reading them. It would be a task... but so would integrating the newly-entered books, and it would make things easier later. I may. We'll see.

Oh! I forgot. Immediately following the birthday party I go to the dentist and get a damaged filling cleaned up and re-filled. Isn't that fun? So part of Friday will be recuperating from that.

>67 jjmcgaffey:
I have to put my books in boxes. I label the boxes and then when I enter the book into LT I put the name of the box, and the room I have put the box in, into the private comments portion of the LT entry. That way I know which box to start looking in and I don't have to look through every box. I also put a sticky note on the top of each stack inside the box so I can find the book without having to look through the entire contents of the box. I am getting too old to do much crawling around under my spare beds, so this makes it much easier for me. It makes me happy to see that somebody else has the same kind of storage method. Or something close to the same.

I've got the boxes labeled with numbers (SF Box 1 through...I think 20, Fic 1 through 16 or so, Non-fic...I haven't finished sorting those out). Then I have a list on my computer for what is in which boxes, for Fic and Non-fic (childrens books are in BB_Fic_12 and _13, romance is in BB_Fic_04 through _08...). That's what I haven't completed for non-fic, sorting the cookbooks from the geography from the music books from...And within genre/subject, they're sorted by author.

I have them tagged on LT, as well. Keeping that updated is quite a task in itself (when I do haul out a book). I know where the boxes are - they're in stacks under my (loft) bed - so I don't tag or otherwise mark location directly. But it's still a task to go dig them out, and I do have a lot of shelves (which are full of books now). If I swap the ones I know I want out with the ones I don't know yet, I'll have a much better chance of reading and therefore making a decision on the BOMBs. It's a good idea but a lot of work, so it may or may not happen.

>69 jjmcgaffey: I love those file transfer boxes for book storage! My new shelves are already overflowing so there are boxes on the floor! I do not want them in the storage unit, as I like to have them around me, even if they are in boxes.

So. On Friday, I was exposed to COVID - a client told me she was testing but when I arrived she didn't say, and I forgot to ask, that she had tested positive. I was only there a short time (took the computer home), but... So I'm quarantining for five days. This is annoying - I usually spend the weekend and Tuesdays with my mom, helping her with stuff - but she's 83 and, yeah, no. Healthy and vaccinated and we're not taking that chance.

So I'm at home, and can't go out doing stuff...so I'm getting things done at home. Added some more books - and actually got around to finishing updating my Book Stats database. So I can post! I did quick reviews for most of the books, just a couple lines - some of them I've forgotten the story already, phooey. Even though I liked it. But there's something in the reviews for every one - and now I'll list them here. Big posting(s)...

Books Read
38. Sisters of the Raven @* by Barbara Hambly. Review - She's really good at making things horrible before they get (a little) better. Good story, hard to read.
39. Shadowed Flame @# by RJ Blain. Review - I still love this the best of the Witch & Wolf stories - it was my first, and my first Blain for that matter.
40. The Time Traveller's Resort and Museum @! by David McClain & Felix Eddy. Review - Too weird for me. The timeline twists, the passive protagonists, and the hidden motives and manipulations...not for me. Well-written, though, some will like it.
41. Up in Smoke @^ by RJ Blain. Review - Not as good as the first book, but usual Blain fun. Some very interesting developments.
42. To Discover and Preserve @^ by M.C.A. Hogarth. Review - A bunch of short stories - I'd read most of the Alysha ones, though it's nice to have them together; the ones about the D-Pers are fascinating. Worth reading, even when half of them were familiar already.
43. Runaway @^ by RJ Blain. Review - Pretty standard Royal States story - amusing that the royals are beginning to figure out how this works (which means a lot less opposition from above).
44. In Good Company @^ by M.C.A. Hogarth. Review - Alysha's story continues - rich, as usual. Reviewing too late, I've forgotten the details but I know I loved it.
45. A Most Unusual Duke @^ by Susanna Allen. Review - Cute. A little frustrating, with him refusing to consider reality, but a mildly interesting world (Regency shifters) and some good characters.
46. Governor @^ by David Weber & Richard Fox. Review - This read like a late Honor book - a _lot_ of politics, a lot of manipulation and plots, said plots being thwarted by people being decent...also the usual listing of every missile vector in every battle, yawn. It claims to be in the Fury universe but while the tech matches the polities do _not_.
47. My Dear Jenny @^ by Madeline Robins. Review - Cute romance, interesting characters and fun situations (where "fun" means "trapped in an inn by measles, with a villain and his victim"). Enjoyable.
48. The Run Around @^ by Bernadette Franklin. Review - A big, complicated story without a lot of underpinnings. I'm glad she got away, but she spent too long getting away from the wrong people. And Juliette took a hand, of course. Fun read, not a favorite.
49. Madbond @* by Nancy Springer. Review - Weird setting, very much a Hal-and-Alan story (though the Alan character was a _bit_ more spiritual here). Not great, not terrible.
50. Dues and Don'ts @^ by Devon Monk. Review - It's an OK story but as a prequel I have problems - by the first book they both seem to have forgotten what happened here (and they shouldn't have).
51. Silent Stalker @^ by RJ Blain. Review - Nice. I enjoy the Lowrance Vampires - it's a complex society with a lot of interesting facets. The kid, for instance. And Pepper gets her mind blown a couple times…
52. The Midnight Swan @^ by Catherine Fisher. Review - Not sorry I read it, but I don't think I'll bother with any more in this series. Things run on wheels a little too much - coincidence and chance shake out just the right way to make the story "interesting".

Currently Reading
See current month's post (several down the line!)

BOMBs
Sisters of the Raven, and Madbond.

Discards
Both of the BOMBs - I have them as ebooks if I want to reread (probably not).

New/Reread
Shadowed Flame is a reread, the rest are new. Two rereads still paid for.

Oops, this should have come before the last...

February stats
10 books read
0 rereads
10 new books
1 rereads paid for

2423 pages read, average 242.3

1 BOMBs
2 ER books
0 Netgalley books

9 ebooks, 0 paper books

1 discards

5 SF&F
0 animal stories
1 children's
0 non-fiction
2 general fiction
0 romances
0 graphic novels
0 mysteries

7 F, 3 M authors

March stats
15 books read
1 rereads
14 new books
2 rereads paid for

4718 pages read, average 314.5

2 BOMBs
1 ER books
0 Netgalley books

15 ebooks, 0 paper books

0 discards

12 SF&F
0 animal stories
1 children's
0 non-fiction
0 general fiction
2 romances
0 graphic novels
0 mysteries

13 F, 3 M authors

Books Read
53. The Warrior of the Third Veil @^ by Victoria Goddard. Review - It's a very strange society - and here we learn more about internal culture clash (city vs desert). Nice to see what Pali and Sardeet are up to later.
54. Spelunking Through Hell @^ by Seanan McGuire. Review - Seanan says in the intro that this is the book she meant to write, and the whole Incryptid series is just leading up to it… Alice has been manipulated by those she thought were allies, but Price-Healy luck reveals part of the trick and she works out the rest with appropriate help. The misunderstandings in the pocket dimension are amusing and completely appropriate. And happy-ish ending...which isn't an ending, thank goodness.
55. Mindbond @^ by Nancy Springer. Review - Things get even stranger. Now the two of them (three of them) are dredging up connections from the ancient past...and they're facing the Sea Witch more directly. It gets a bit too layered - there are secrets behind secrets behind…
56. The Minstrel and the Dragon Pup ^ by Rosemary Sutcliff. Review - Oh, this is cute. Nice story, very nice illustrations, happy ending.
57. Complete Steel * by Catherine Aird. Review - A relatively early Sloan and Crosby story - as usual, the characters that show up only for this story are oddly and vividly drawn. Sloan and Crosby aren't quite as cardboard as they get later, though Happy Harry and the rest of the police are. Good story with some interesting weird angles, but not worth rereading.

Currently Reading
See current.

BOMBs
Complete Steel/The Stately Home Murder.

Discards
The BOMB. I don't have it as an ebook, but I doubt I'll bother to reread.

New/Reread
All new - I didn't read much this month! Three rereads paid for.

April stats
5 books read
0 rereads
5 new books
3 rereads paid for

921 pages read, average 184.2

1 BOMBs
0 ER books
0 Netgalley books

3 ebooks, 2 paper books

1 discards

3 SF&F
0 animal stories
0 children's
0 non-fiction
0 general fiction
0 romances
1 graphic novels
1 mysteries

5 F, 0 M authors

Books Read
58. Godbond @^ by Nancy Springer. Review - And...all the complications and implications and secrets pile in on the characters' heads all at once. Lots of losses, a few gains, and (allowing for said losses) a happy ending, sort of. A very strange story, overall (the trilogy).
58. Terec and the Wild @^ by Victoria Goddard. Review - A short story explaining what happened to Conju's friend Terec, from his point of view. He's heading north, where the Empire's magic doesn't hold and his wild magic won't be so suppressed and bound...odd things happen along the way, but he ends up reaching his goal and disappears from our ken. Until the next book, anyway. Not a lot to it but, as with most of these side stories, it illuminates a character we didn't know much about.
59. Portrait of a Wide Seas Islander @^ by Victoria Goddard. Review - Oh, lovely. This is Kip's uncle coming to see him - from his point of view. I need to reread Hands of the Emperor (these scenes, at least), to see what Kip thought was going on vs what Buru Tovo thought. A fascinating person and a very enjoyable story.
60. Spell Bound @^ by Sharon Lee. Review - One story I had already read, about Felsic becoming "real"; one I hadn't, about Kael and how he came to be who he is. I knew it was trauma but this is amazing. Not exactly an enjoyable read, but definitely worth it.
61. Nettle & Bone @^ by T Kingfisher. Review - They keep trying to market her stuff as horror and it's just not. It's not happy little kid's stories either...but fairy tales weren't, back when. Serious physical and mental/emotional abuse, but the story is about fixing it (one way or another…). Some nice tricks, but mostly it's just her doing what needs doing. I like the bonedog.
62. Nothing But Cowboy @^ by Justine Davis. Review - Like most Justine Davis stories - a rich romance, with fully-developed characters. Nice to be back in Last Stand, though the Raffertys are less central to the town. Syd and Keller are both great people, and reasonably untrusting of the other - I like the way it works out. _Not_ just lust, there's a lot more between them.
63. A Texas Christmas Miracle @^ by Justine Davis. Review - Second story of the Raffertys - two traumatized people make a connection over a traumatized dog, and it ends happily (of course). The usual Davis rich characters; nice to see what's going on with the rest of the family.
64. Once a Cowboy @^ by Justine Davis. Review - Next Rafferty brother down - he's the solitary one (well, not as much as the traumatized one, but…). Forced connection(s) bear fruit, and he works through some of the family trauma. Again, we get to see the whole family from a new angle.
65. Cowgirl Tough @^ by Justine Davis. Review - Last Rafferty story - the youngest brother has an established nemesis (she's been mentioned multiple times throughout the series); now we get to see who and why and what...and he (they) find out that they have more in common than they think. It does have the trope where one is seriously injured - but not the sudden realization of love triggered by the injury. It's not that simple…
66. Till Human Voices Wake Us @^ by Victoria Goddard. Review - Oh. I had not realized that Ysthar was Earth. Fascinating! The "real world" and the Border-crossing magic and a whole tangle of other races and a fierce competition that...doesn't end the way it's supposed to. And that's not the end of the story, it's only a sub-climax...Rich and weird and this will definitely reward rereading.
67. In the Realms of Gold @^ by Victoria Goddard. Review - Short stories elucidating the backgrounds of some of the characters that show up in Till Human Voices Wake Us. None of them are particularly wonderful, but overall they definitely add. I'd say read the novel first, but it might be interesting to do it the other way…
68. Gryphon in Glory @# by Andre Norton. Review - A many times reread. The least interesting of the series - she chases him, he runs away except he doesn't want to...Big interference from powerful magic users, which makes very little difference. The first and last stories in this trilogy are better.
69. Plaidypus @^ by RJ Blain. Review - It's a fun RJ Blain read...but the characters are very subordinated to the series arc. I'd rather have seen Nadine and Mathieu run with their first plan, the viral video. Once the CDC shows up, there's lots of shenanigans but she's kind of a cipher, and Leonard never gets to be anything else. Fun, but not a favorite.
70. The Redoubtable Pali Avramapul @^ by Victoria Goddard. Review - Oh my. Pali is amazing - I'm so glad we get to see what _she_ thought of her meetings with the Emperor and with Kip. The timeline is thoroughly tangled, which explains some puzzles in other books. There are quite a few scenes that we've already seen, from a different angle - and every one adds to the story immensely. Now I have to reread (parts of) Hands of the Emperor and The Return of Fitzroy Angursell…
71. Aurelius (to be called) Magnus @^ by Victoria Goddard. Review - A short and interesting story - the 49th Emperor, as a young man. Wars and magic and...I hope we get to see more about this, Aurelius is fascinating.
72. All About The Bear @^ by Bianca D'Arc. Review - I don't know. This is a short piece, so that may be part of the problem - but while it's well-written, and the characters looked like they would be interesting if they were fleshed out a bit, it went way too quickly to "fated mates". And the excerpt of the next book went there almost immediately. I guess I'll try the next one and see.
73. Bad Actors @^ by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller. Review - Well-written (of course, it's a Lee & Miller), interesting situations, but I was _not_ in the mood for this. As the title says (and the intro), these are characters who are - at best, morally dubious. It's painful reading about the way they try to, and sometimes succeed in, manipulating the system and the situation to benefit them. I like the Korval stories better - the protagonists are all trying to make things better, one way or another...
74. My Luck @^ by Mel Todd. Review - Oh. My. I've had this a while, and hadn't gotten around to reading it - too bad for me. Amazing world, great characters, fascinating situation (it even explains, finally, why she doesn't want to be tested...it fits the way she thinks). I immediately went and got the next book. I think I have a new author to binge on…

Currently Reading
I need to read Fire Magic & Ice Cream - it's an ER book with a review due soon. I have, and really want to read, the next Twisted Luck. And I need to read BOMBs! I'm sort of stalled out on Sea-Hawk - Sabatini is not an easy read (very old-fashioned language, and I'm not up to it at the moment). Also It's Elemental - there's good info in there, but the mode she's chosen is so not me. Chemistry as chick-lit...

BOMBs
None yet.

Discards
None yet.

New/Reread
One reread (Gryphon in Glory), so two rereads paid for.

I'm doing kind of terribly on BOMBs and discards - at this point I'm less than halfway where I ought to be. Something I need to work on.

I'm also thinking that I should use this several days of nothing else to focus on projects - so that switching of boxes may yet happen. It didn't so far - but I did get Book Stats done (after nearly three months!), so that's good. We'll see. I still need to enter a bunch of books I've bought or otherwise obtained but haven't yet entered into LT, so that comes first. Then I need to sort those books into the boxes - or onto the shelves, if I go that way.

Yay! Up to date! Try to keep it that way, Jenn...

>72 jjmcgaffey: Barbara Hambly is one of my fav fantasy authors long ago, her time of the dark series is still memorable. But the reviews of don't look good. is sister of the raven as good as her earlier work? Saw she has a new Benjamin January book Id like to see.

I think so? As I said in my reviews, she likes to pile impossible, terrible situations on her characters before there's the first sign of a way through. That was definitely true in The Time of the Dark, in The Witches of Wenshar, in...everything I've read of hers. Rich characters dealing with horrible situations. In Sisters of the Raven, part of the horrible situation is sexism and spouse/child abuse...maybe that bothers people more than people getting eaten by dark monsters.

I've never read the Benjamin January books; I have to be in a particular mood to enjoy Hambly so I don't read hers fast, and I've never had one of that series available when I was in a Hambly mood.

>79 jjmcgaffey: In Sisters of the Raven, part of the horrible situation is sexism and spouse/child abuse...maybe that bothers people more than people getting eaten by dark monsters.

Yah know I think you are right. I have lots of trouble when childen are in danger, but in fantasy, Im ok. (NK Jemisins last one was a case in point) and of course in the time of the dark. Oh I Loved Witches; I think that is the first time I read a fantasy with strong woman character

Have you read the short stories? There's a lot more with Sun-Wolf and Starhawk (as well as her other books). I got several from the library as ebooks; I don't know if your library(s) has them, of course.

https://www.barbarahambly.com/Available%20Titles%20URLS.html

>81 jjmcgaffey: Congrats on getting caught up! I love that feeling. Hope you remain Covid-free.

Yep, tested negative (whew!). Catching up on all my chores and errands now. Also keeping up to date...

Books Read
75. Fire Magic & Ice Cream @! by Lauren Connolly. Review - Oh, _nice_. Interesting world, well-drawn and complex characters. The romance was a bit too insta-lust for me, but they found a lot of better reasons to connect as well.
76. Hired Luck @^ by Mel Todd. Review - Very good story. I can't call it fun - it is about trying to stop a serial killer, and that's only part of the problems she's dealing with - but a lovely tale. Next, please!
77. Castle Waiting # by Linda Medley. Review - My...eighth reread, I think. As wonderful as always (though I didn't mean to read it! Just picked it up and couldn't put it down…)

Currently Reading
See latest reading post

BOMBs
None, sigh.

Discards
None.

New/Reread
One reread, so only one paid for now - need BOMBs!

May stats
21 books read
2 rereads
19 new books
1 rereads paid for

5150 pages read, average 245.2

0 BOMBs
1 ER books
0 Netgalley books

20 ebooks, 1 paper books

0 discards

14 SF&F
0 animal stories
0 children's
0 non-fiction
0 general fiction
6 romances
1 graphic novels
0 mysteries

21 F, 1 M authors

A lot of reading, no BOMBs, one ER book (which was excellent!). And a new series/author I'm hooked on - trying to make myself read other things in between the Twisted Luck books (there's only 5 out so far, I need to stretch it a little!).

Books Read
79. The Village Maid @! by Jane Buehler. Review - This might be a really good book (the writing was well done) but I could not handle the universally nasty and/or stupid characters. Read the first quarter or third, read the end, I'm done.
80. Educated Luck @^ by Mel Todd. Review - So the second book introduced (more) complications into Cori's life. This one plays out some of them...and introduces more. Of course. Little things like someone's trying to kill her, more important things like new teachers…I give up. I need to just read this series through (but there's only two more books out so far!).

(oops, just realized I messed up the numbers somewhere back there. One extra - the numbers here are correct)

Currently Reading
I am trying to resist starting Inherited Luck, and to pick a BOMB instead. Also reading A Shifter's Curse; mildly interesting urban fantasy, so far.

BOMBs
Nope.

Discards
Nope.

New/Reread
Both new, but no BOMBs so still one reread paid for.

I've read some more but haven't updated my database...behind in posting again. I'll get to it.

But right now I'm at Baycon, the science fiction convention I'd attended (and volunteered (gofered) for and presented at) for years (a decade or so) before the pandemic. This is their first year back, at a different time than usual (it's normally on Memorial Day weekend, but that wasn't happening this year), and I think it will be as fun as usual.

I'm gofering; spent yesterday helping set up, today the same and then attending some panels etc. Yesterday some people arrived, mostly staffers and so on, including my sister and her husband who are presenting (she's an author, he writes gaming books and has since that was a thing). And us (Mom and me).

I think I'm doing a braiding class tomorrow (fingerloop braiding). I've been doing that for years at Baycon, too - but I didn't actually get it onto the schedule (for obvious reasons, this year has been a bit of a scramble. Plus we didn't decide to attend until last month). But the DIY room runner says she has room and is happy for me to do it, and she'll put it up on the whiteboard at the entrance and we'll see who (if anyone) shows up. I'll braid myself a lanyard today and see if I can reel anyone in that way.

It will be interesting to see if the incidence of con crud (the standard illness-after-con caused by the mixing of various cold/flu viruses brought in by travelers, usually affecting many but not all attendees) is reduced this year by the strict masking rules. And hopefully there will be no actual COVID infections; we'll see. Other cons have had minor problems, including people who discovered they were infected while they were at the con (but who were probably infected before that); I don't think any con I'm aware of has had an actual outbreak (as in, multiple people infected at the con by someone who arrived infected). So - practice for living with this thing.

>87 jjmcgaffey: I'm back a week from the American Library Association Annual conference, where there were more than 13,000 in-person attendees and exhibitors. There are definitely reports of people coming home with Covid, though in the tens rather than the hundreds. The conference center had mandatory masking, though not in eating/drinking areas (or if you were just hanging out eating or drinking, which happened all over), and there were plenty of people taking maskless selfies, etc. Folks are are annoyed at ALA for not being more transparent about cases (they had an email account set up for people to self-report), but I don't really see it changing anything either way. A lot of people are enthusiastic about finally being able to get together, network, see friends.

Yes. It was wonderful seeing everyone again - some people I've been in touch with through various video get-togethers, but IRL is just better. I did do my braiding class and got good participation despite only getting it on the schedule after the con started; next year try to do better. I'm definitely coming next year. This year was a little awkward because it's on Fourth of July weekend including the actual 4th (Memorial Day is less of a big deal for us/our town). Next year it's Fourth of July again - but since the 4th is a Tuesday, the con ends on Monday (as it does this year) and we can go home and see/join in the parade and do parties and so on.

The con ended at 4 pm today; I spent the time from 4 until 7 schlepping stuff out, helping with breakdown. Then when everything was out, everyone gathered for the Dead Dog party (I have no idea why it's called that, it's common to a lot of SF cons - con afterparty is Dead Dog. Possibly because everyone is utterly exhausted?). Congratulations, awards, eating all the stuff left over from the con, charity auction, giveaways...I quit after a while and came back to my room and didn't quite fall asleep, but seriously zoned out. I will be going to bed early tonight (it's 10 pm. I think I'm going to shower, because I'm sticky with old sweat, but after that bed).

>88 lisapeet:
I was at ALA and thought that they were very strict with the COVID protocols. Of course, I live in Alabama where there is absolutely no restrictions anymore. I was fortunate that I remembered to put masks in my luggage as I was not thinking I would need them. From the time I got out of my car at the airport parking lot I wore my mask. I wore it while in Washington, D.C. all the time. In programs, in the exhibit hall, everywhere - except when eating. My hotel had a big sign on the front door about masking helping yourself and others. The people working at the hotel had masks on all the time. Even the cab drivers were required to wear masks. It was very different than it is here. I wore it at all times on all the planes I was on. So far I have had no ill effects from the trip - other than irritation about the canceled flights that made me stay an extra day in the airport.

I am being so bad about keeping up my thread...I'm reading a lot, tracking it...sorta, not reviewing much (on LT, I have notes offline), and not posting at all. However!

I am about (tomorrow) to head up to Tahoe with my mom, and my sister will join us the next day. I _may_ have more free time there...if I don't waste it with games. I'll try to get in gear. I will have to bring any BOMBs I want to read, or read eBOMBs, though. (eBOMBs=books I own in paper and have not read, and also have an e-copy - which is much easier to access).

I'm about half-packed, which is quite a bit behind where I should be. But I'll manage. Today I'm doing laundry (at Mom's) and doing a job for a client, then home and finish packing, and bed _early_. Which I have not managed all this week...work on it! I need to be up early tomorrow to get everything together (I'll put some stuff in the car tonight, though), especially the cold food (stuff that needs to be refrigerated until the last minute). Then I'll come over to Mom's, load my stuff in her car, load her stuff and we go. We usually get away about noon, but we need to beat that if we want to go to our preferred restaurant at the place where we'll recharge (Mom has a Bolt too - 45 minutes recharge is a nice lunch stop). The place is 1:55 away, and the restaurant closes at 2. So...We'll make it. Or eat at a different place, but Nancy's Cafe is very nice.

One problem with packing is that the weather keeps shifting up there - it's either the same temperature as down here (jeans, t-shirt, cotton overshirt) or 5-10 degrees (F) warmer (cotton or linen slacks, linen overshirt, maybe tshirt maybe just a sports bra)...Oh, bah. I'll take slacks and a mix of light cotton and linen shirts, one heavier shirt in case of going outside at night (there is a meteor shower while we're there), and a fleece vest just in case. And more t-shirts (probably) than I'll wear. It's a calculation - later in the year there's no question, linen all the way. This is not why I'm not done packing, but it's part of it.

Clothes, food (we prefer to eat in, mostly), things-to-do (computer, crafts, stuff to read that I probably won't want to bring back). Games. I do have a long list for packing - need to go through it and see what I haven't collected yet, then get it all into my suitcase. Doing laundry today will help - not that I need stuff that's being washed. But it'll be done and I won't have a double load when we get back next week. OK! Back to work.

love Tahoe! dont stress, you are going to a lovely place to relax I hope? regardless, hope you have fun!

Enjoy your getaway!

Yes, it's always fun up here - Mom has three timeshares, so we come up three times a year. I got packed (of course, it always happens eventually), what I didn't get was to sleep Thursday night. I worked on packing and was just about done, and realized it was 7:30 am and time to get ready to go. Ghahh. It worked, though, and we're here and safe and sound in Tahoe, and have collected my sister as well. We had a nice walk on the Tahoe East Shore Trail - it's a newish, paved trail along the side of the lake (not right at the shore, though, except in spots, which we didn't get to). And we played some games together - Wordament goes very fast with three pairs of eyes finding the patterns. Getting late, I need to do a little more walking and then to bed. Thanks for the good wishes!

Keep us posted on your Tahoe adventures. You are lucky to have the timeshares. I was only there once for an overnight and thought it was an amazing place.

A good friend of mine just told me she is moving to the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe and I have been feeling sad at the prospect of not being able to see her so much. Perhaps I should think on the bright side with the possibility of visits!

Several lovely busy days - somewhat marred by my mom having cricked her neck the first night and it will not go away. Massage and various painkiller creams are helping, and she's still doing stuff, but not as active as she would be otherwise.

Still - Sunday was quiet, but I did go explore the walking path from the visitor's center down to the recreation center (which was closed at the time - it was dusk, probably about 7:30 pm). I saw bats flying, and a gorgeous just-past-half moon. Nice walk, though not one my sister can do (she's in a...well, it's called a Lifeglider. Sort of like an upright walker that she's strapped into, so she doesn't have to hunch over but she doesn't fall - but she can't do stairs at all nor soft ground, and this path has both at the upper end. We may try it going up from the bottom, which is paved but still goes through tall trees.

Monday we went down to Tahoe City (west shore of the lake) and went to a lovely thrift shop and then to an ice cream shop. Back up to Incline Village (north-east shore) and got to another thrift shop just before it closed, then to Lupita's, an _excellent_ Mexican restaurant. Very good food and lots of it. I got...molo de ajo? Something like that. Fish in garlic sauce - a filet swimming in rich, delicious, creamy sauce. And refritos with garlic were surprisingly delicious - I like both, but had never thought of combining them. I came home with half a quesadilla and all the leftover sauce - I'll eat that tonight or tomorrow. My sister had a burrito (de banado, I think it was - which I suspect is the Spanish/Mexican equivalent of "kitchen sink". A bit of everything...), and Mom had bistec de ranchero - she was craving meat. They both came home with about half their meals.

Today we've spent at home; Mom and I went into the hot tub this morning, which was nice. Also we got our reservations for 2024 (already had them for 2023) - it's a good idea to request early, especially as there's only a couple units here we can use (because most of them have stairs, either inside or outside or both). Other than that...I've spent the day catching up with my online stuff, including LT. Nice quiet day.

>98 labfs39: Sounds quite idyllic to me...

It's always fun. This morning we (as usual) had sourdough waffles - I bring the makings and a small waffle iron up, and we get a yummy breakfast. This is the newest timeshare - we've only been here once before, and it was in a different type of room - so we're still figuring out how things work both in the room and where interesting things to do are around here. But I think we've covered most of the fun stuff pretty well.

>97 jjmcgaffey: which I suspect is the Spanish/Mexican equivalent of "kitchen sink".

Ah, yes it could be called that. i don't care for them personally, prefer tacos and fajitas and tamales.

I remember having the hottest taco I ever had in Nevada, not sure what was in it but my mouth was burning for a while! still delish.

Sounds like a wonderful relaxing trip!

No, they had lots of burritos of various sorts, this one was Burrito bañado with all the parts. Not what I would want, but it suited my sister. Ah, looking it up - it's bañado (bathed) because it was covered in sauce instead of being a handheld meal.

I don't go for hot much - I can eat much hotter curries than I can chili or Mexican food, not sure what the difference is, but I still don't enjoy hot for its own sake as many people seem to.

So my sister is back home, and we only forgot one of her things - we'll get it back to her when we come up again in a couple weeks. We're mostly packed, and have eaten most of our food - there won't be huge lots to come home or be discarded (better than most years!).

Annoyingly, internet went out for several hours this evening, and I nearly missed the Hugo vote - it always sneaks up on me, but this internet blockage was an extra twist. It came back before midnight and I got my votes in, but I had to skip some award sections because I hadn't written down my decisions and didn't have time to re-investigate. Ah well, I got the important ones (the writing ones) done.

And now to bed. Up early tomorrow so we can get home in decent time. G'nite.

And...today we're off to the second timeshare. South Lake Tahoe this time. Packing and so on was a little easier because it's the second time...but it's so soon after the last (and the final one is even quicker after this, end of this month). I hope we manage to spread it out more next year. Gotta go!

Enjoy! Is your sister meeting you again?

Yep, she came up and we did a bunch of stuff - so busy I was barely on the computer. But we're being chased off a day early by smoke (sigh). No AC here, and it gets really hot even with fans on if the windows aren't open. Still, we did some nice thrift shopping, and Mar and I played guitar together, with my other sister on video singing (and Mom singing here). We ate some _delicious_ meals - Mediterranean, Thai, and tonight it was Indian. Overall, a fun trip.

OK! I am actually going to put some books in here! I was stalled out by a series I read in June (Mel Todd's shifters and aliens series) that I read so fast I didn't stop to review. So I still don't have reviews - but I'm going to put them up anyway because I can't stand not listing my books any longer. The longer I waited the bigger the task got...so now I've done it all (I think...I don't think I missed any).

Books Read in June
81. Captive Wilderness @^ by J.E. McDonald. Review - Serious insta-lust (for in-universe reasons), and fated mates, and extremely explicit sex - and it's still a great story, and one I want to see more of. Impressive.
82. Inherited Luck @^ by Mel Todd. Review - Read, loved, forgot to review...because I couldn't stop reading the series long enough to review what was in each book. So I haven't reviewed any of these, and don't feel like rereading right now.
83. Drafted Luck @^ by Mel Todd. Review - No review yet.
84. Code Talker @^ by Joseph Bruchac. Review - Weird angle, interesting story - a boy first in Indian school (where they tried to beat the Indian out of him), and then he became a Code Talker and it follows his adventures in WWII. Good but not great.
85. New Games @^ by Mel Todd. Review - No review yet. Football player joins the group.
86. No Choice @^ by Mel Todd. Review - No review yet.
87. Home Alone @^ by Mel Todd. Review - No review yet. What happened to the kids when the adults were kidnapped.
88. Commander @^ by Mel Todd. Review - No review yet.
89. Incoming @^ by Mel Todd. Review - No review yet.
90. Decisions @^ by Mel Todd. Review - No review yet.
91. Trust @^ by Mel Todd. Review - No review yet.
92. Castle Waiting Vol 2 # by Linda Medley. Review - Lovely as always.
93. Smoky the Cowhorse * by Will James. Review - Eh. Black Beauty set in the West. Horse is treasured, horse is overused, horse is found, happy ending. And the dialect is _annoying_.
94. Allies @^ by Mel Todd. Review - No review yet.

Currently Reading
...see later

BOMBs
Smoky - which I started...good lord, three years ago. September 2019. I finished it! And now I can get rid of it!

Discards
Smoky!

New/Reread
One reread, Castle Waiting Vol 2 (I was moving things around and picked it up and couldn't put it down...). The rest are new. So one reread paid for.

June stats
16 books read
1 rereads
15 new books
1 rereads paid for

4584 pages read, average 286.5

1 BOMBs
1 ER books
0 Netgalley books

14 ebooks, 2 paper books

1 discards

12 SF&F
1 animal stories
0 children's
0 non-fiction
1 general fiction
1 romances
1 graphic novels
0 mysteries

12 F, 2 M authors

Books Read
95. Family @^ by Mel Todd. Review - Nice solution to a lot of problems - which brings new problems, of course. End of the books but not the story. Hope we see more of this, someday…
96. Found Father * by Justine Davis. Review - Eh. Idiotic protagonists, a bit too much lust for my taste. Good writing but not a good story, for me. Not as good as I expect from Justine Davis - it is an early one of hers, of course.
97. Shelf Life @! by Rob Gregson. Review - Eh. Total confusion - it does come out to (several) happy endings, but I have no idea _why_. Interesting but it didn't really work for me.
98. The Sisters of Straygarden Place @^ by Hayley Chewins. Review - Sweet, eventually, but seriously weird.
99. Cambion's Law @! by Erin Fulmer. Review - Well-written, but not a winner for me - her series of wrong and wronger choices in the middle were unbearable. It ends OK, but not for me.
100. The Spanish Marriage @^ by Madeline Robins. Review - Good enough to overcome being a misunderstandings story (I hate that trope). Rich and fun, even when I was annoyed at it.
101. Mouse House @^ by Rumer Godden. Review - Cute story - not much to it, but cute. And the mice act like mice, unlike most such stories.
102. Legends and Lattes @^ by Travis Baldree. Review - Wow, fantastic! Great characters, great setting, great story. This is a first book? More, please!
103. No Highway @^ by Nevil Shute. Review - Complicated story - half a technical story about airplane safety, half a romance, with large chunks of politics. Which sounds awful, but it's fascinating as are most Shutes.
104. Bowman of Crecy * by Ronald Welch. Review - Very good, about a period I don't know much about. Well-written and great characters and plot. I want more Ronald Welch!

Currently Reading
Later

BOMBs
2, Found Father and Bowman of Crecy.

Discards
Found Father. I'd discard Bowman too, if I could find an e-copy - but I don't have one at the moment, so hanging on to it.

New/Reread
All new. Three rereads paid for.

July stats
10 books read
0 rereads
10 new books
3 rereads paid for

2413 pages read, average 241.3

2 BOMBs
2 ER books
0 Netgalley books

8 ebooks, 2 paper books

1 discards

4 SF&F
0 animal stories
2 children's
0 non-fiction
2 general fiction
2 romances
0 graphic novels
0 mysteries

6 F, 4 M authors

Oops, this comes before July. Oh well.

Half-year stats
94 books read
7 rereads
87 new books
1 rereads paid for so far

25513 pages read, average per book 271.4, average per month 4252.2

8 BOMBs so far this year, 17 short of my half-year goal
5 ER books
0 Netgalley books

86 ebooks, 7 paper books

7 discards so far this year, 18 short of my half-year goal

66 SF&F
1 animal stories
4 children's
2 non-fiction
3 general fiction
10 romances
3 graphic novels
3 mysteries

75 F, 20 M authors

Books Read
105. Newbie Werewolf @! by Sue Denver. Review - Well-written, but the universe and her story have some serious logic holes (turn back from wolf by eating meat? Not in any story I ever saw…). Doesn't work for me.
106. Mr. Drake and My Lady Silver @^ by Charlotte English. Review - Great story with a slightly disappointing ending - it reaches a climax and then turns into a sketch of the rest of the story. Still want to read more.
107. No Luck @^ by Mel Todd. Review - Interesting, from Charles' POV.
108. Joined @^ by Mel Todd. Review - Oh, beautiful. Lovely lot of surprises for everyone.
109. Faded Luck @^ by Mel Todd. Review - Lots of interesting developments for Cori and family...kids! And the effects of pregnancy on magic...and how to deal with the usual flood of threats under those circumstances.
110. Tangles @^ by Seanan McGuire. Review - Tree-walker and mage, interacting in ways neither expected. Odd and interesting story, I'd like to read more of this (is it the same multiverse Rose is wandering in? Or completely separate?).
111. The Grief of Stones @^ by Katherine Addison. Review - Another great story in this series - various murder and other mysteries, but it's the relationships that really drive the story.
112. What Moves the Dead @^ by T Kingfisher. Review - Wow. I have to go read The Fall of the House of Usher now. But I suspect Ursula's story is better…
113. Dirty Deeds 2 @^ by RJ Blain, Diana Pharaoh Francis, Faith Hunter, Devon Monk. Review - Several good and great stories. At least one new series to look for (new to me, I mean).
114. Cosmic Fever @! by Eric J. Adams. Review - Ew, no. Unreadable, for me.
115. Luckstones @^ by Madeline Robins. Review - Interesting, if a trifle vague. Female empowerment in a fantasy world. Not my favorites of hers.
116. The Galaxy and the Ground Within @^ by Becky Chambers. Review - Fun! In the same universe, but only marginally related, to Small Angry Planet. Very different people trapped together, and having to deal with their differences...and samenesses.
117. Frostgilded @^ by Stephanie Burgis. Review - Cute, sweet story. Probably better as a cap to the series, rather than (as I read it) a standalone more than a year after I finished the last book.
118. Shattering the Glass Slipper @^ by Crystal Sarakas, Rhondi Salsitz. Review - A whole bunch of really good stories, with fairy tale over- (or under-)tones.
119. Fair Trade @^ by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller. Review - The next in Jethri's series - he's advancing, and so is the plan to integrate Terran and Liaden trade. I need to read these all together, I know I missed stuff that would have been clear if I remembered what had happened in the last book.
120. Spellcloaked @^ by Stephanie Burgis. Review - Short but rich - a very good ending(ish) to Honoria's story
121. The Baby's Christmas Blessing @! by Meghann Whistler. Review - Cute, not great but good. Good characterization and interesting situations, though I wanted to shake the characters several times (not unusual in romances…).

Currently Reading
Still later.

BOMBs
None.

Discards
None - some that would have been but they're ebooks.

New/Reread
All new, too. Still three rereads paid for.

>106 jjmcgaffey: “I was moving things around and picked it up and couldn't put it down...”

Yup - the main reason why I can never make any progress with my cataloging. :)

August stats
17 books read
0 rereads
17 new books
3 rereads paid for

4536 pages read, average 266.8

0 BOMBs
3 ER books
0 Netgalley books

17 ebooks, 0 paper books

0 discards

16 SF&F
0 animal stories
0 children's
0 non-fiction
0 general fiction
0 romances
1 graphic novels
0 mysteries

15 F, 3 M authors

Books Read
122. FireBorn UnPainted @^ by M.C.A. Hogarth. Review - The usual excellent story - not as grim as the Princes' Game, not as light as the first few Mindtouch stories. And fascinating, we finally start to figure out where the Faulferenza are coming from…
123. Firedancer's Hand @^ by M.C.A. Hogarth. Review - Ah, the light dawns, and then the slog begins. The titles of these stories are really big spoilers…
124. A Duke at the Door @^ by Susanna Allen. Review - Goodish fluff. Regency shifters, a really nasty villain, several gay characters with different angles.
125. Sunrise @^ by Susan May Warren. Review - The inspy aspect took me by surprise late in the story, but at least it shook the idiot protagonists out of their ruts. Not terrible, but not a favorite.
126. Silence Fallen @# by Patricia Briggs. Review - Love this as always, my favorite Mercy story.
127. Soul Taken @^ by Patricia Briggs. Review - I forgot to review, and a week later could barely remember what happened. It's another Mercy story, as good as usual.
128. Caged Fury @! by J.E. McDonald. Review - I don't like it as much as I did the first in the series, but I still like it better than I expected given the tropes used (insta-lust, fated mates, explicit sex).

Currently Reading
_Still_ later.

BOMBs
Not a one. An ER book, though (Caged Fury).

Discards
Nope. All ebooks, anyway.

New/Reread
One reread (Silence Fallen), the rest new - 2 rereads paid for.

September stats
7 books read
1 rereads
6 new books
2 rereads paid for

2622 pages read, average 374.6

0 BOMBs
1 ER books
0 Netgalley books

7 ebooks, 0 paper books

0 discards

5 SF&F
0 animal stories
0 children's
0 non-fiction
0 general fiction
2 romances
0 graphic novels
0 mysteries

7 F, 0 M authors

Yeesh. Had to go back and fix some numbers - that is the problem with delegating the data to a spreadsheet, one typo can propagate to several places. I think it's right now.

Books Read
129. Patreon Short Stories Vol 1 @^ by RJ Blain. Review - Three stories - longish and good Mag Rom Com, short and odd other shifters story, very short, very weird story about just deserts and tacos.
130. Shattered @^ by Mel Todd. Review - That Day for Cori - the day her brother died, from her viewpoint at the time. Valuable, but not a pleasant story knowing her future.
131. At Large and At Small @^ by Ann Fadiman. Review - I love this style of essay - just discussing something, anything, that strikes the essayist's fancy. I'll be looking for more of hers.
132. Outcast * by Rosemary Sutcliff. Review - Not bad (it is a Sutcliff) but rather predictable. Good, bad, worse, worse yet, sudden coincidence that makes a happy ending (though not the obvious, simplistic happy ending, at least).
133. Bad Moon On the Rise @^ by Annie Bellet. Review - I dislike the protagonist, and find the story nasty and largely unpleasant. But I am interested, and will read at least the next one to see if Kira improves (for me).
134. The Mistletoe and the Sword * by Anya Seton. Review - Interesting. The story is simplistic fluff, but the setting (early Roman Britain) and the twists make it surprisingly rich.

Currently Reading
Be the Serpent by Seanan McGuire - the latest Toby Daye story. With yet _another_ complete rearrangement of what Toby knows (and what all the Fae know, actually). Fun story.

BOMBs
Two! Two BOMBs in one month! Best I've done this year, I think (no, actually, 3 in January and 2 in March as well). Outcast and Mistletoe - both historical fiction set in Roman Britain, for some odd reason.

Discards
Outcast - it's not bad but not interesting enough for a reread, I don't think. I'm hanging on to Mistletoe for now, there doesn't seem to be an e-version.

New/Reread
All new - four rereads paid for, now.

Whew! And up to date. If I get around to it I'll put in those missing reviews in June - if I can remember what I thought, or if I reread (but that would use up my rereads and lots more...so no). But at least the posting is done.

Oh, I saw my post about my winter garden in the Aerogarden. I planted as usual outside (and struggled a great deal with whatever it was that was eating my plants...it finally gave up about a month ago, so I've gotten some stuff). But the tomatoes in the Aerogarden just kept going. One died in August or so, the Beaverlodge Slicer; I just today pulled out the Dora Heartbreaker. It had quite a few green tomatoes, but the stems and leaves were just dying all around them. I _think_ that the roots finally got into the pump and choked it - or possibly the Beaverlodge roots (which I didn't pull out) rotted and contaminated the water. There was a lot of gook to scrub out of the various nooks and crannies of the system. But that was amazing - January to October I had tomatoes. Or at least tomato plants - I think I got my first actual tomatoes in March or April. But that's still quite a run.

And we had our third trip to the Tahoe area (it's actually just over the hill in Carson Valley NV). This is the biggest room - a two-bedroom instead of the one-bedroom we have at the other two places - which means I get my own bedroom instead of sleeping on the sofabed. Nice. My sister shared with me, Mom slept alone in the big room but we all spend most days in that room (more room to sit, the dining table, and the big kitchen - my room has a sofa and a kitchenette, which don't get used much).

There was a lot of up-and-downing to Reno and Carson - partly because the charger we usually use, one town over, died on the second day so we had to go up to Carson to find a charger. Arrived on Friday, collected my sister on Saturday, Sunday we went to a huge craft fair in Genoa, the nearest town. Monday we recovered from that...lots of sun and walking. Tuesday we went up to Reno and saw the immersive Van Gogh exhibit, which was very interesting both in structure (technically) and in subject; I'm not particularly interested in art, but he's got some nice stuff. Not the ones you usually see, there were a lot of other images in the show as well.

Wednesday...don't remember, I don't think we did much. Went to the hot springs, though (the timeshare is David Walley's 1862 Resort, it's been a hot springs resort since then). Thursday, don't remember. Friday we would normally have been heading home...but on Monday we had gone to an Owner Update meeting with the (new) timeshare owners, and discovered that among the benefits of Mom's level of membership was a free three-day visit. So we arranged to extend our trip by the three days. There wasn't room at Walleys, so we moved up to Tahoe Ridge - right up on the top of the mountain, near Heavenly (the ski resort). Friday was moving day. The Ridge was nice - not fantastic, but nice (a one-bedroom, though, and the sofa bed was not great). And the extra days were very nice. Saturday we returned my sister to her home, and went to her community's yard sale - didn't get much, but it was fun. Sunday we went to church in South Lake Tahoe, stopped at a nice coffee shop, came back and had a quiet day and packed. Monday we left for home. A fun trip.

Mom and I are planning a short, overnight trip up to Marin and Sonoma, using the points from her timeshare membership, next week. The primary aim is Dharma Traders, a dye company - dyes and things to dye. We're also planning to visit the Charles M. Schultz Museum, a couple stores (a thrift shop and a fermentation shop for cheese stuff), and some friends who live up there.

We do stay home a lot, but the trips are more interesting to talk about!

Oh, and Mom's "cricked neck" turned out to be a blocked Eustachian tube, probably originally from the flight home from DC, aggravated by the change in altitude going up to Tahoe. Various doctor's treatments since have greatly improved things, but she's still a little fragile about the ears. Hopefully it will clear up soon. The three trips up to Tahoe didn't help...

>112 AnnieMod: Hi, Annie - you sneaked in! Yes, that's a real danger if I'm dealing with a load of books...

And our library is having a book sale this month, for the first time since COVID started. Well, they've had little book sales, but this will be the first one like they used to have, 10,000 books or so. I'll have to be careful, especially on Sunday in the bag sale...

Phew! You did a lot of catchup! So many books, and it looks like you enjoyed most of them. Doesn't help your discard rate, but does make for pleasant reading. Ooh, library book sales...

I'd been tracking pretty much all along, and even reviewing. It was just the last couple steps to getting the reviews and posts onto LT that were missing.

Yeah. I have finally figured out how to stop reading a book I'm really not enjoying. I used to slog through to the end, and it would take forever...now, if I'm finding a book unbearable, I'll often skip to the end and I'm done. Or I want to know how they got there, but it helps me get through to know where it's going (I'm pretty much unspoilable...well, maybe mysteries). So most of the books I read are at least 3 stars (worth reading), and many are 3.5 (worth reading and rereading) or up.

if I'm finding a book unbearable, I'll often skip to the end and I'm done. Or I want to know how they got there, but it helps me get through to know where it's going (I'm pretty much unspoilable...well, maybe mysteries).

Ive done the same thing for years. Either makes me say, ok done, or possilby that I should soldier on. (theres a great line in When Harry met Sally when sally calls billy crystal who is opening a new book and looking at the end. He says oh no, Im just finishing a book..)

>121 jjmcgaffey: and >122 cindydavid4: That is a clever way of DNFing. I think one of the mental blocks I have giving up on a book is I kind of want to know where it goes even I I'm not enjoying it. Getting stuck on my own often dumb arbitrary reading rules is something I want to get over next year. I think this will be useful tip for DNFing and moving onto something much more enjoyable!

Yeah. Very rarely I don't even bother to go to the end - but 99.44% of the time I do want to see where they end up (gives me closure on the book, at least!).

It is always interesting to read how people deal with books that don't seem to work. :)

If I care enough to want to see what happened, I just read the book. Not because I think checking the end is cheating but simply because I've always found the road to the end more interesting than the end (plus in some cases, especially in the speculative genres), the end reads very differently if you know how we got to it. Although I have the very bad ability to be able to open a book on a random page and read a single random paragraph and spoil myself by chance. And yet, I would occasionally do that without thinking and end up in the same mess - not very useful for murder mysteries you read for the first time.

If the book is that bad, I just stop reading it (usually early enough, before I started caring about what happens to someone)... I am getting better at dropping books that just do not work for me (at all or at that particular moment). But I think everyone finds their own way in the minefield of books that just may be not worth reading.

So we had our Marin(ish) trip, which worked perfectly - got to see an old friend, went to Dharma Trading and got dyes and instructions, ate some excellent food (American, for a change - no Mexican or Indian or Thai, as we so often do...), went to the Charles Schulz Museum which is very interesting (an amazing wall showing Lucy and Charlie Brown and the football - all in Peanuts strips. That is, it's one of those mosaic pictures, with night shots (lots of Great Pumpkin strips) making the dark lines of the picture), went to The Beverage People and got some advice that should help with my too-sharp Brie and moldy hard cheese, shopped The Legacy (an amazing craft thrift shop)...saw some lovely landscapes, a small herd of deer, a large flock of turkeys...It was lovely. And exhausting. So we came home Thursday night, and Friday I had a gardening group meeting, then the library book sale started - did the pre-shop, then worked 6-9. Today I need to do laundry at Mom's, and work 1-4 (I think it's 4) at the booksale; tomorrow I do breakdown, starting at 5. Whee! It's quite a weekend.

Oh, I forgot. One non-American meal - a British pub called Toad in the Hole, we got _excellent_ fish and chips and Mom had a London Pride beer (ale?) that was almost as good as Newcastle Brown used to be (not the current mess).

Sounds like an interesting weekend filled with lots of learning experiences. Have fun at the library sale today!

Books Read
135. Be the Serpent @^ by Seanan McGuire. Review - Another rearrangement of what people know to be true...Lovely story, in between the very nasty bits.
136. If the Shoe Fits @^ by Julie Murphy. Review - Fun! Very good fluff.
137. By the Book @^ by Jasmine Guillory. Review - Love it! Great story, great characters - want more by this author.
138. Into the Broken Lands @^ by Tanya Huff. Review - Very nasty battles, very interesting characters in both timelines.
139. Miss Buncle's Book @^ by D.E. Stevenson. Review - Lovely little story! Looking for more by this author.

Currently Reading
...nothing, really. I'm trying to read The Wolf, The Walnut and the Woodsman, but finding it heavy going - mythic language, jumping timelines and I'm not _interested_ in this person, she's boring. Also rereading Dragon Precinct, which I didn't love the first time but liked and wanted more stories, and now I've discovered that he's written several more that I never noticed! So I need to read Dragon so I can read the rest. Oh, I am reading one - Landscape of a Marriage, an ER book. I thought it was an actual history of Frederick Olmsted and his work and marriage...but it's a historical fiction, from the point of view of his wife who barely appears in any writings. It's not bad, but it's really not what I expected.

BOMBs
Nope, all ebooks and new. Some would have counted as BOMBs if they were paper - Miss Buncle's Book, in particular. I'm trying to read some of my older ebooks, too.

Discards
Nope again.

New/Reread
All new - one reread in process, but that'll count later. Still four paid for at this point.

Some good reading, if not progress on my goals. Ah well.

The book sale was fun and exhausting, as expected. Sunday I had to check for jury duty - nope, and nope again Monday. But when I checked Tuesday...I had to go in, today. And the court I'm at is almost an hour's drive away, ghahh. At least it's a reverse commute. I spent all day today there, as they did jury selection and didn't quite finish. I'm not in the selected or even the alternates...yet. We'll see. There have been a lot of people excused, I'm hoping I don't get picked (though the judge says it's likely to be a short trial, less than a week). But I have to go back tomorrow, having neither been selected nor excused. I got some knitting done, at least...I can't read ebooks (no phones allowed); I brought a paper book The Sea Runners, a BOMB, but knitted instead. And I had to cancel an appointment with a client; hopefully I'll be excused early tomorrow and be able to go to her.

>128 jjmcgaffey: I enjoy D.E. Stevenson too. There is a sequel to Miss Buncle's Book, which I liked a smidge less than the original. I also enjoyed the Mrs. Tim books. I didn't care for The Two Mrs. Abbotts as much.

>129 jjmcgaffey: Ugh. Jury waiting.

Did get excused on Thursday morning - they finally settled on a full jury panel, not including me (whew). I've gotten a few things done, but not much, since... I'm all out of whack, not sure why. Currently I'm up way too late! G'night.

Glad you got excused; but I have always wanted to be on a jury. Been called in more than a few times, but my work with the county victim witness program always excused me. I always thought it was an important thing to do as a citizen. but thats just me

Good to hear you liked Miss Buncle. I have that book and one of the sequels Miss Buncle Gets Married on my bedside table to get read sometime soon.

Theoretically, I know jury duty is important and valuable and so on...but it's also a major interruption of one's life (less so for this, but a trial can go on for months). So I'd have been proud to be selected, but I'm relieved not to have been.

Yes - I'm looking for the sequel. It's not a very deep book, but it's a fun read.

October stats
12 books read
0 rereads
12 new books
4 rereads paid for

1295 pages read, average 107.9

2 BOMBs
1 ER books
0 Netgalley books

10 ebooks, 2 paper books

1 discards

5 SF&F
0 animal stories
0 children's
1 non-fiction
4 general fiction
2 romances
0 graphic novels
0 mysteries

11 F, 1 M authors

Got in a couple BOMBs, at least. Not bad.

Books Read
140. Landscape of a Marriage @! by Gail Ward Olmsted. Review - Not a winner - author fiat pretending to be a biography.

Currently Reading
Stalled out on a few books - I think I'm going to try to read a bunch of romances (paper ones), in the hopes of a) getting myself motivated to read something deeper, and b) reading BOMBs! Oh, and I will start Those Who Hold the Fire, a short piece that's a prequel to a book I just bought that comes out near the end of this month, At the Feet of the Sun. I do love Victoria Goddard's stories.

BOMBs
Nope. ER book, but not a BOMB.

Discards
Nope. Ebook.

New/Reread
One new, so still 4 paid for.

Yesterday was pretty productive - I actually entered all the books I've bought recently, though I still need to scan some. And I made the dough for the molasses cookies I've been craving for weeks. However, while doing the latter I smashed my fingertip (was shaking a glass jar of raw sugar that had gone a bit solid, turned around at just the wrong moment/place and crushed my fingertip between the jar and the corner of the fridge). Ow. It makes it difficult to ten-finger type, among other things...don't think I'll be playing guitar for a while, drat it (left, chording, hand). Didn't cut the skin but I have a glorious bruise.

I'm kind of in the middle of several books. Reading an ER book, The Land of Fake Believe - the kids are idiots, but appropriately so for a 10- and 12-year-old (not thinking things through, mostly. And believing adults). I haven't yet started Those Who Hold the Fire - keeping it for a reward when I get some projects done. And my sister just recommended a movie, Birdy, which is based on Catherine, Called Birdy - which is a BOMB I've had for years. Found it, I'm going to read it and pass it to my mom who was also interested in the book. I started it, a couple chapters, last night. Plus Dragon Precinct and The Wolf, the Walnut and the Woodsman - I'm still stalled, but neither is a large book; I should just power through.

And a bunch of Kickstarter books, and book bundles, and so on just landed - need to collect those, and read them soon. These are all ebooks and I need to follow the links in my emails.


Isn't it a beautiful bruise?

>137 jjmcgaffey: Ouch!

So. November was busyish and while I read (some - very light month for me) I didn't get around to reviewing (much) or posting (at all). Then in early December my sister who moved to Indiana (and her husband) came to stay for a while - she needed to get some doctor visits in while her insurance here was still valid (since it hasn't really kicked in in Indiana yet), she works from home, and she wanted to see us. So that was a lot of fun. My other sister intended to come down early too but between physical ailments (blocked ear preventing flying) and unavailability of drivers didn't make it until the week before Christmas. We had Christmas early to simplify things - our Christmas Day was the 23rd.

And on the 21st Mom was coughing fit to throw a lung, and the rest of us caught it too over the next couple days - not COVID say the tests, probably not flu, possibly RSV, possibly just a foul cold. But it meant a very quiet Christmas, none of us was up to much (mostly, the jigsaw puzzle we were working on didn't get finished). My Indiana sister didn't catch it until later, so she ended up doing most of the cooking (that hadn't been done in advance); fortunately I had finished the pies on the 21st. Nice lot of presents - no books, oddly enough. Well, I have so many my family seldom gets me any because I'm apt to have them already! So not so odd. Family has returned to various homes, Mom's recovering and I'm on the upswing (a couple days behind her). It's supposed to rain torrentially tonight and for the next couple days, which will be nice for the reservoirs. I have been reading - mostly rereading, though, because I'm not up to dealing with a book I don't enjoy. I've been reviewing a bit; I'll try to post before the end of the year.

Oh, and my finger is still not back to normal, so it's likely I cracked the bone a bit. I'll be going to the doctor in the new year, and will see if there's anything she can do about it (some kind of rigid cap/cast?). It's fine for normal use (even typing) but I can't play guitar - can't press the string for more than a couple minutes without producing pain and swelling (even with a gel cap on the finger). So I'm going cold turkey on guitar for a month at least; we'll see how it feels in February (if I can't get that rigid cap). Frustrating, I've been playing guitar every day, for a few minutes at least, for several years now.

Merry Christmas (or other seasonal celebration) and Happy New Year to all!

>139 jjmcgaffey: You've had a lot going on. Our holiday season went much like yours. My mom got covid and my sister, BIL, and nieces had influenza A. Then we all lost power in the storm. So we still haven't exchanged gifts.

Whee! We did manage Christmas, at least, and no power outage (or cold). Yeah, this was not a perfect Christmas for a lot of people.

Glad you all made it out ok. glad to see you back

Thanks, Cindy.

I had a very nice quiet Christmas. I miss the big family gathering, but this year it just wasn't meant to be. I did bake a pear pie that incorporated beets. It was supposed to be blushing pear pie - the beets supply the red color. However, the recipe said to use three small beets and the three smallest beets I could find, turned that pie a dark brilliant red. It tasted good, but the color might have put some people off. I liked it, but my nephew, mother, and sister didn't. I will be eating left-over pie for some time.

Beets are amazingly colorful. Could you taste them, against the pears? That might be a good flavor combo, actually. So next time try one small beet and see if you can turn it pale pink...

I made blueberry, pecan, pumpkin, and four mince tarts for Mom. She loves mincemeat, the rest of us find it...interesting. So this year I didn't make a full pie, just the tarts, and she gets all of them. But the blueberry is gone already, there's not much left of the pumpkin, there's still quite a bit of pecan (it really is heavily sweet. And I should make it with light corn syrup, not dark - it was sweet and strong and no one wanted more than one piece). I'm going to make another pumpkin just for me, once I'm feeling better - I do love it. Mild and tasty and filling and not too sweet.

Spent some time updating my book stats, so I'll post what I've got. I did better in November than I thought, though some of what I read was rereads - from this year, at that. Victoria Goddard is _dangerous_...

Read in November:

141. The Land of Fake Believe @! by Laurel Solorzano. Review - Not bad, not great. I could see a kid (teen/tween) really loving it.
142. Student Nurse @^ by Helen Wells. Review - Fun! Old-fashioned style of writing (unsurprisingly), but it works.
143. Catherine, Called Birdy * by Karen Cushman. Review - Mildly interesting; it might be more captivating if I didn't already know about that era.
144. Life Flight @^ by Lynette Eason. Review - Not bad, not great. Mildly interesting thriller romance - with a few plot holes.
145. The Linguist and the Emperor %^ by Daniel Meyerson. Review - Boring and disappointing - the heroic myths in Napoleon's brain (according to the author). Very little about actually deciphering the stone.
146. The Ogress and the Orphans @^ by Kelly Barnhill. Review - Rather annoying - the style is so complicated I could barely see the (sweet) story through it.
147. Those Who Hold the Fire @^ by Victoria Goddard. Review - Oh, lovely. Very young Kip starting on his path - including starting the problems that will trip him up in Hands of the Emperor.
148. The Mental Load @^ by Emma. Review - Interesting graphical essay book - mostly-political discussions in cartoon form. Interesting and well-done.
149. The Seven Brides-to-be of Generalissimo Vlad @^ by Victoria Goddard. Review - Weird and fun. Pure SF, no magic here, and some _very_ interesting characters. Nice ending.
150. Traditional Culture Days at Uni @^ by Victoria Goddard. Review - Oh, Kip. Really. Very funny if you've read at least HOTE and even funnier if you've read ATFOTS.
151. Feonie and the Islander Regalia @^ by Victoria Goddard. Review - Lovely little story, sidelights on side characters in HOTE.
152. Bonus Scene - End of HOTE @^ by Victoria Goddard. Review - Just a few pages filling out thoughts - I love this.
153. Petty Treasons @# by Victoria Goddard. Review - Love this as always.
154. The Hands of the Emperor @# by Victoria Goddard. Review - Had to read this to prep for At The Feet of the Sun - diving back into this universe(s).
155. Portrait of a Wide Seas Islander @# by Victoria Goddard. Review - I meant to read this where it comes in HOTE, but was swept along - so I read it afterward. I do love the different understandings of what's going on.
156. The Wedding Date @^ by Jasmine Guillory. Review - Cute, mildly interesting. Well-written, and nicely solid characters. I didn't love it (a bit too explicit for my taste) but I enjoyed it.
157. At The Feet of the Sun @^ by Victoria Goddard. Review - Oh. My. Wow. I love Hands of the Emperor; this is an amazing continuation (expansion, enrichment…).
158. AFTOTS Bonus Chapters @^ by Victoria Goddard. Review - I see why she didn't put this in - it's a distraction from the main line - but it's a _lovely_ addition to the story.
159. The Shorter Parts of Valor @^ by Tanya Huff. Review - Bunch of short stories, from before she was a sergeant up to well into her Peacekeeper days. All interesting, none spectacular.

I haven't done real reviews on all of these, but I want to get them up before the end of the year. I may have to reread before I review - oh, how I suffer. Really good books are harder to review...I mean, other than "Wow, this was great!".

November stats
20 books read
3 rereads
17 new books
2 rereads paid for

5129 pages read, average 256.5

1 BOMBs
2 ER books
0 Netgalley books

17 ebooks, 2 paper books

1 discards

10 SF&F
0 animal stories
2 children's
2 non-fiction
0 historical fiction
2 general fiction
3 romances
1 graphic novels
0 mysteries

16 F, 4 M authors

Read so far in December:

160. The Proposal @^ by Jasmine Guillory. Review - I liked this less than the first book - too explicit, and characters being dumb to suit the author. Not bad, not great. I will read the next.
161. A Taste of Gold and Iron @^ by Alexandra Rowland. Review - Wow. This is a _magnificent_ story, more please! (now go read everything else she's written…).
162. Greenglass House @^ by Kate Milford. Review - Nice! It was interesting, I did _not_ catch the twist until just before it came out, it became even more interesting. I need to read the rest of the series.
163. The Golden Enclaves @^ by Naomi Novik. Review - Complete upending of everything we know from the first two books. So where do other mals come from? Ick.
164. The Trials of Morrigan Crow @^ by Jessica Townsend. Review - Nice! There are some silly bits, secrets kept unwisely - but it's not just the kids doing it. Rich and interesting, I want more.
165. Moon Tamed @^ by Audrey Greene. Review - Lovely story and fascinating setting. I hope she writes more here.
166. Bibliophile and the Beast @^ by Ellis Leigh. Review - Almost a good story, way too explicit for my taste.
167. Into the West @^ by Mercedes Lackey. Review - Very good, unsurprisingly - as long as you want more politics and characters than crash-bang adventure.
168. Slippery Creatures @^ by KJ Charles. Review - Almost very good, the characters are ANNOYING. Still want to read the next.
169. Small Things Like These %^ by Claire Keegan. Review - Ugh. Much praised on LT, but it's a _nasty_ situation. The protagonist is doing his best, but - ugh. Depressing.
170. Queen of the Sea %^ by Dylan Meconis. Review - This one's lovely. An...alternate history? sort of story, inspired by something Elizabeth I did as a youngster - more inspired by the feeling behind it than any actual event. Gorgeous story, equally gorgeous art.
171. In the Realms of Gold @# by Victoria Goddard. Review - Lovely as always, short stories about the characters in Human Voices (plus the apple one).
172. Till Human Voices Wake Us @# by Victoria Goddard. Review - This remains very scattered - and their parentage is still not obvious, even now I know it. Lovely story, hard to connect to the rest of the universe(s).
173. The Saint of the Bookstore @^ by Victoria Goddard. Review - Lovely little story - the ripples of the latest Greenwing and Dart adventure continue to expand. I hope we see more of these characters.

I'm still reading a book I'm likely to finish before the end of the year, and I may manage one or two more. So I won't put up my stats for December yet.

And I haven't been updating my tickers this year - and apparently TickerFactory did a reorg at some point and broke mine. I'm not going to bother to recreate them for this year, I'll make them for next year though (and try to remember to use them!)

Books Read: 173 of 200 (so far)
BOMBs Read: 13 of 50 (ugh)
Books Discarded: 10 of 50 (ugh worse).

Not a great year.

>142 cindydavid4: Oh, my, Cherry Ames! My mother owned several of these (along with Sue Barton) and I read them repeatedly as a tween. Didn't become a nurse, but did become an EMT.

>149 jjmcgaffey: Not a great year.

But did you have fun?

>150 labfs39: think you meant >146 jjmcgaffey:, but I did had all those books, wanted to be a nurse too. But signed up as a candy striper and realized it wasnt really for me. Found my career first at the JCC summer camp with preschoolers, and then working with special needs kids in HS. never looked back, but those books were fun

>151 cindydavid4: Yes, sorry, Cindy. It was book #142, not post 142.

hee np

I haven't gone on with the series yet, but I intend to - that was fun, cheerful read.

I read a few really bad books, and a lot of really good ones - not as many as I usually do (I usually top 200 without a problem, won't make that this year), and a few too many of my good books are rereads (some of them from this year - I read a bunch of the Goddards in May and November, and now I'm rereading! So rich, so many things I missed the first (or the last - some of them are multiple rereads already) time through). But overall, yeah, I had fun.

OK, final stats (a few days late).

The last two books (both rereads, sigh):
Books Read

174. The Return of Fitzroy Angursell @# by Victoria Goddard. Review - Lovely as always - connections forming, and being revealed as already formed.
175. The Redoubtable Pali Avramapul @# by Victoria Goddard. Review - Fascinating seeing events from her POV - and the story from RoFA continues.

Currently Reading
Nah, see next year.

BOMBs
Nope.

Discards
Nope.

New/Reread
Both rereads - from earlier this year! Victoria Goddard is _addictive_. Every book tangles with every other, so I keep reading and rereading to catch all the tangles...

December stats
16 books read
4 rereads
12 new books
-2 rereads paid for

5001 pages read, average 312.6

0 BOMBs
0 ER books
0 Netgalley books

14 ebooks, 2 paper books

0 discards

11 SF&F
0 animal stories
0 children's
0 non-fiction
0 historical fiction
0 general fiction
1 romances
3 graphic novels
1 mysteries

15 F, 0 M authors

Oops, finally went over my reread count. Ah well.

Full year stats
175 books read
15 rereads
160 new books
-2 rereads paid for

48094 pages read, average per book 274.8, average per month 4007.8

13 BOMBs this year, 37 short of my goal
13 ER books
0 Netgalley etc books

158 ebooks, 15 paper books

10 discards for the year, 40 short of my goal

117 SF&F
1 animal stories
8 children's
5 non-fiction
0 historical fiction
10 general fiction
21 romances
7 graphic novels
4 mysteries

145 F, 31 M authors

Strictly speaking, I read 171 books - but I read a book 175 times. That's what happens when you reread the same year...

I read a couple historical romances, so those _could_ have counted as historical fiction. But they're more romances than HF, at least in my mind.

Didn't reach any of my goals, oh well. Did have some very good reading. My average of ratings for the year was 3.52 - just over "worth rereading" - and that included quite a few "yuck, why was this published?" books so it clearly also included quite a few excellent and amazing books.

I improved my ER score quite a bit (reviewed books I've had for quite a while!), though there are still some books from the last couple years I haven't read and reviewed yet. I'm concentrating on the latest, since that will last longest.

And that's the end of my year. Now I'm going to go make my 2023 thread, and I'll come put a link here when that's done.

Here's my 2023 thread - see you there!

Hah. And guess what - missed a book. The last book of the year was

176. In Mercy, Rain @^ by Seanan McGuire. Review - Yet another detailed story about Jack (and Jill, a little). OK, but enough is enough.

176 books for the year, with one more SF book in all the totals.