richardderus's sixth 2022 thread

the Mediterranean stone pine, the tree under which Attis died (see below)
ALL TEXT AND IMAGES FROM WIKIPEDIA
The Ides of each month were sacred to Jupiter, the Romans' supreme deity. The Flamen Dialis, Jupiter's high priest, led the "Ides sheep" (ovis Idulis) in procession along the Via Sacra to the arx, where it was sacrificed.

In addition to the monthly sacrifice, the Ides of March was also the occasion of the Feast of Anna Perenna, a goddess of the year (Latin annus) whose festival originally concluded the ceremonies of the new year. The day was enthusiastically celebrated among the common people with picnics, drinking, and revelry. One source from late antiquity also places the Mamuralia on the Ides of March. This observance, which has aspects of scapegoat or ancient Greek pharmakos ritual, involved beating an old man dressed in animal skins and perhaps driving him from the city. The ritual may have been a new year festival representing the expulsion of the old year.

Attis himself...the halo-ish crown, the whole womanly eunuch aspect...hm
In the later Imperial period, the Ides began a "holy week" of festivals celebrating Cybele and Attis, being the day Canna intrat ("The Reed enters"), when Attis was born and found among the reeds of a Phrygian river. He was discovered by shepherds or the goddess Cybele, who was also known as the Magna Mater ("Great Mother") (narratives differ). A week later, on 22 March, the solemn commemoration of Arbor intrat ("The Tree enters") commemorated the death of Attis under a pine tree. A college of priests, the dendrophoroi ("tree bearers") annually cut down a tree,14 hung from it an image of Attis, and carried it to the temple of the Magna Mater with lamentations. The day was formalized as part of the official Roman calendar under Claudius (d. 54 AD). A three-day period of mourning followed, culminating with celebrating the rebirth of Attis on 25 March, the date of the vernal equinox on the Julian calendar.

For 2022, I state my goal of posting an average of 4 or 5 book reviews a week on my blog, for an annual total of 250. This year's total of ~200 (I need to do more to sync the data on my reads between my blog, Goodreads, and here this year for real) posts in 50 weeks of blogging shows it's doable. My *actual* blogged total for 2021 was 229.

I've long Pearl Ruled books I'm not enjoying, but making notes on Goodreads & LibraryThing about why I'm abandoning the read has been less successful. I gave up. I just didn't care about this goal, but I need to learn to because I *re*Pearl-Ruled five books after not remembering picking them up in the first place. What I've decided to do is have post >7 richardderus: be the Pearl-Rule Tracking post!

And now that I've gotten >6 richardderus: Burgoineing as a habit, I'm going to make a monthly blog-only post with my that-month's Burgoined books. It will appear the last Sunday of each month.



My Last Thread of 2009 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2010 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2011 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2012 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2013 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2014 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2015 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2016 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2017 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2018 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2019 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2020 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2021 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.

Reviews one through eight? Seek them thitherward.

Looking for nine through sixteen? Click that link!

Reviews seventeen up to twenty-six? You know what to do.

I know you think reviews twenty-seven to thirty-three are here...well, you're right, they are.

Seekest ye the reviews entitled thirty-four to thirty-eight? They anent just so.

THIS THREAD'S REVIEW LINKS

039 Carolina Built warmed, post 11.

040 The Selfless Act of Breathing pleased, post 12.

041 The Rib King pleased, post 49.

042 The Talented Ribkins gruntled, post 50.

043 The Man Who Lived Underground rocked & rolled, post 74.

044 Sundial unsettled, post 131.

045 No Study Without Struggle: Confronting Settler Colonialism in Higher Education angered, post 136.

046 Dreaming of Rose: A Biographer's Journal sufficed, post 172.

047 Against the Ice: The Classic Arctic Survival Story stunned, post 180.

048

I've decided to use BookRiot's 2022 Read Harder Challenge as a spice-me-up of meeting my reading goals. Since I'll post 225+ reviews (posts aren't the same as reviews posted, as some posts cover as many as four books!) on my blog this year *easily* I think I need to get a little more pushy. 225 reviews posted seems like a cheat as a goal since I'm on track for that now. I'm thinking 250...approximately 10% increase over this year's actual total.

This is the list:

1. Read a biography of an author you admire.


2. Read a book set in a bookstore.


3. Read any book from the Women’s Prize shortlist/longlist/winner list.


4. Read a book in any genre by a POC that’s about joy and not trauma.
   30 Things I Love About Myself FTW!


5. Read an anthology featuring diverse voices.


6. Read a nonfiction YA comic.
   The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks is illustrated and that'll have to do.


7. Read a romance where at least one of the protagonists is over 40.


8. Read a classic written by a POC.


9. Read the book that’s been on your TBR the longest.
   Central Station was awarded to me on NetGalley in 2016!


10. Read a political thriller by a marginalized author (BIPOC, or LGBTQIA+).


11. Read a book with an asexual and/or aromantic main character.


12. Read an entire poetry collection.


13. Read an adventure story by a BIPOC author.
    We Could Be Heroes did the business


14. Read a book whose movie or TV adaptation you’ve seen (but haven’t read the book).
    Against the Ice: The Classic Arctic Survival Story out on Netflix now...saved the book for me, no smallest doubt.


15. Read a new-to-you literary magazine (print or digital).


16. Read a book recommended by a friend with different reading tastes.


17. Read a memoir written by someone who is trans or nonbinary.
    High-Risk Homosexual! What a read.


18. Read a “Best _ Writing of the year” book for a topic and year of your choice.


19. Read a horror novel by a BIPOC author.


20. Read an award-winning book from the year you were born.


21. Read a queer retelling of a classic of the canon, fairytale, folklore, or myth.
    Briarley FTW! I can start 2022 with one task accomplished.


22. Read a history about a period you know little about.


23. Read a book by a disabled author.


24. Pick a challenge from any of the previous years’ challenges to repeat!
    I choose 2018: Read a mystery by a person of color who is also LGBTQ+
    

I liked all of them except the comic and I'm still looking for GNs that don't make me want to scream and barf, so it's a good challenge.

I'm wondering if, in lieu of setting a numerical goal for Burgoines (see >6 richardderus:), I could just agree with myself to use the technique on 3-stars-and-under reads about which I don't much care and count them as reviews here. I've decided that I'll post 'em & collate them in each thread's post #6. Then I'll just blog 'em in gangs, once a month on the last Sunday in the month...I dunno, but I read a lot of books I don't talk about because someone loved it & I loathed it or just didn't care much about it, or I simply have no useful response...it filled time, it failed to offend or delight me. Is that information useful to anyone? Would you care if I did that and gored your reading ox?

I suppose we shall find out.

2021's five-star or damn-near five-star reviews totaled 28, a marked decrease from last year's 46. Fewer authors saw their book launches rescheduled, but publishers still had to cancel many of their tours and events because COVID-19. The inflationary pressure that supply-chain issues are exerting causes a lot of economic drag on the market, though there is as of yet a lot less trouble than I expected getting tree-book copies of things.

My annual six-stars-of-five read is Cove (my book review), a perfect, spare, evocative story of the pain of existing when you genuinely can't process what is happening to you, around you, despite your best and most well-practiced efforts there is just no righting the boat. I cannot stress enough to you, this is the book you need to read in 2022. I can not forget this read. I refer to it in my head, I think about its stark, vividly limned images. I am so deeply glad Author Cynan wrote it. To quote myself from my review: "This is the book I wish The Old Man and the Sea had been, but was not."

In 2020, I posted over 215 reviews here. In 2022, my goals are:

to post 250 reviews on my blog

to post three-sentence Burgoines of books I don't either adore or despise

to complete at least 275 total reviews of all types

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

Ask and ye shall receive! 'Nathan Burgoine's Twitter account hath taught me. See >6 richardderus: below. I just need to keep getting better about *applying* it!

I stole this from PC's thread in 2020. I like these prompts, so I've decided to re-do them every December!
***
1. Name any book you read at any time most recently that was published in the year you turned 18:
The Street Where I Live by Alan Jay Lerner (2010)
2. Name a book you have on in your TBR pile that is over 500 pages long:
American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird
3. What is the last book you read with a mostly blue cover?
St. Mary's and the Great Toilet Roll Crisis by Jodi Taylor
4. What is the last book you didn’t finish (and why didn’t you finish it?)
Kohinoor: The Story of the World’s Most Infamous Diamond by William Dalrymple & Anita Anand because I lost interest
5. What is the last book that scared the bejeebers out of you?
56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard...how easy it is to fail, to do the wrong thing
6. Name the book that read either this year or last year that takes place geographically closest to where you live? How close would you estimate it was?
Horseman: A Tale of Sleepy Hollow by Christina Henry...Sleepy Hollow's about 100mi from here
7.What were the topics of the last two nonfiction books you read?
Queer people's history and the Quaker resistance to slavery
8. Name a recent book you read which could be considered a popular book?
56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard which I managed to get several LTers and tweeple to pick up *buffs nails*
9. What was the last book you gave a rating of 5-stars to? And when did you read it?
Briarley by Aster Glenn Gray, a gay WWII-set retelling of Beauty and the Beast, that I finished this week (and reviewed!)
10. Name a book you read that led you to specifically to read another book (and what was the other book, and what was the connection)
Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy was a #The1976Club read, and was so disappointing that I went on to read The Malacia Tapestry by Brian W. Aldiss to cleanse my reading palate
11. Name the author you have most recently become infatuated with.
Aster Glenn Gray
12. What is the setting of the first novel you read this year?
The Multiverse in Genevieve Cogman's Invisible Library series
13. What is the last book you read, fiction or nonfiction, that featured a war in some way (and what war was it)?
How to Catch a Vet; the Afghanistan War
14. What was the last book you acquired or borrowed based on an LTer’s review or casual recommendation? And who was the LTer, if you care to say.
There isn't enough space for all the book-bullets y'all careless, inconsiderate-of-my-poverty fiends pepper me with (bold added for emphasis)
15. What the last book you read that involved the future in some way?
The Toast of Time is part of The Chronicles of St Mary's by Jodi Taylor, so it involves the future, the past, and the Multiverse
16. Name the last book you read that featured a body of water, river, marsh, or significant rainfall?
Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson
17. What is last book you read by an author from the Southern Hemisphere?
Ife-Iyoku, Tale of Imadeyunuagbon by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki
18. What is the last book you read that you thought had a terrible cover?
Your Honor, it is my intention to assert my Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination to any and all questions pursuing this subject
19. Who was the most recent dead author you read? And what year did they die?
Brian Aldiss, 2017
20. What was the last children’s book (not YA) you read?
good goddesses, I don't remember...Goodnight Moon to my daughter?— STET
21. What was the name of the detective or crime-solver in the most recent crime novel you read?
Officially it's part of the Jack Lennon series, though he barely even appears in it, so The Ghosts of Belfast via Stuart Neville gets the nod.
22. What was the shortest book of any kind you’ve read so far this year?
The World Well Lost, ~28pp
23. Name the last book that you struggled with (and what do you think was behind the struggle?)
see #4. I just...quit caring.
24. What is the most recent book you added to your library here on LT?
see #9
25. Name a book you read this year that had a visual component (i.e. illustrations, photos, art, comics)
Prophet Against Slavery: Benjamin Lay by Marcus Rediker, art by David Lester

I liked Sandy's Bonus Question for the meme above, so I adopted it:

26. What is the title and year of the oldest book you have reviewed on LT in 2021? (modification in itals)
The Sleeping Car Murders by Sébastien Japrisot, 1962.

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

Think about using it yourselves!


MARCH 2022's BURGOINES

6 March Arkhangelsk entertained, post 243.

1 March The Girls on the Shore pleased, post 165.

1 March (calendrically) Lexicon fell short, post 161.

1 March A Tap on the Window got close, post 72.

***

FEBRUARY 2022's BURGOINES (through #12) are here.

***
JANUARY 2022's BURGOINES are here.

This space is dedicated to Nancy Pearl's Rule of 50, or "the Pearl Rule" as I've always called it. I just didn't care about this goal as a separate goal, but I need to learn to because I *re*Pearl-Ruled five books this December just passed after not remembering picking them up in the first place. I realized how close my Half-heimer's is getting to the full-on article. Hence my decision to really track my Pearl Rules!

As she says:

People frequently ask me how many pages they should give a book before they give up on it. In response to that question, I came up with my “rule of fifty,” which is based on the shortness of time and the immensity of the world of books. If you’re fifty years of age or younger, give a book fifty pages before you decide to commit to reading it or give it up. If you’re over fifty, which is when time gets even shorter, subtract your age from 100—the result is the number of pages you should read before making your decision to stay with it or quit.

So this space will be each thread's listing of Pearl-Ruled books. Earlier Pearl-Rule posts will be linked below the current month's crop.

MARCH 2022's PEARL-RULES

1 March (officially) Central Station failed, post 103.

***

FEBRUARY 2022's PEARL-RULES are here.

***
JANUARY 2022's PEARL-RULES are here.

Lest ye be pilloried.

You may resume your ordinary activities now.

Happy new thread, Richard!

>9 bell7: Welcome, Mary! You get the Crown of King Christian V of Denmark to mark your primacy.
(Please note the Danes might not be willing to acknowledge this as a valid title to ownership)

039 Carolina Built by Kianna Alexander

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: This “exuberant celebration of Black women’s joy as well as their achievements” (Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author) novelizes the life of real estate magnate Josephine N. Leary in a previously untold story of passion, perseverance, and building a legacy after emancipation in North Carolina.

Josephine N. Leary is determined to build a life of her own and a future for her family. When she moves to Edenton, North Carolina from the plantation where she was born, she is free, newly married, and ready to follow her dreams.

As the demands of life pull Josephine’s attention away, it becomes increasingly difficult for her to pursue her real estate aspirations. She finds herself immersed in deepening her marriage, mothering her daughters, and being a dutiful daughter and granddaughter. Still, she manages to teach herself to be a businesswoman, to manage her finances, and to make smart investments in the local real estate market. But with each passing year, it grows more and more difficult to focus on building her legacy from the ground up.

“Filled with passion and perseverance, Josephine Leary is frankly a woman that everyone should know” (Sadeqa Johnson, author of Yellow Wife) and her story speaks to the part of us that dares to dream bigger, tear down whatever stands in our way, and build something better for the loved ones we leave behind.

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

My Review: It's always been hard to be a woman. In the US, it's always been hard to be Black. Now put the two disadvantages together...that's what Josephine Leary is up against. She's equal to any task, though; the novel begins in 1870, during the last days of Reconstruction. Having lived her childhood as a slave, Josephine knows that every single act she takes in this life has to have as its aim the increase of freedom and the assurance of security for herself, her husband, and their two daughters, as each addition to her life is made.

Her slaveowner was also her father, and that piece of "good luck" played out in her favor. She was able to buy the barbershop she and her husband ran together from him. And from there forward, it was all Mrs. Leary and all the way up Sweety, her husband, backed her.

Until her success threatened his Manhood.

It's a testament to the author's ability to pace a story that I didn't just quietly close the book and ignore it at that point. I know it happened; I am told it still happens. But it makes for dull reading, the expected flaw in the expected place. But to her credit, Author Alexander dwells on it not...it's not like it's played down but it's not protracted either.

What made me so dad-blamed mad that I screamed at my Kindle (for which I apologize to my roommate, he was sleeping and was utterly terrified as I shouted "NO SHE DID NOT!!" into the dark) came close to the end of the book when there's a fire that deprives Mrs. Leary of her (uninsured, of course, she was a Black woman, who'd write that policy in the 1890s?!) hard-earned gains! But...and this is where I almost cheered but was too shy to wake the grouch up again...she still owned the land. And she chose to rebuild, to build back better.

Unlike certain scumbag politicians with "R"s after their names.

Well, that all sounds very five-starry, doesn't it? But there's a four up there...and I feel generous giving it. The fact is that this is a very dialogue-heavy novel and there's not much vigor in the dialogue. It's not awful but it doesn't lend itself to quoting the quotable quotes. There's not any.

"The only thing that truly frightens me is the idea that I might not take full advantage of the gift of freedom. I refuse to let that happen."

And that is as snappy as it gets. I'm in total agreement with the sentiment. I just wish it had more oomph behind it.

But in the end, this is an historical novel and it's a lot better served by thinking of it as a novelized biography. Josephine Leary very much deserves to be remembered for her indomitable will, her savvy, and her sheer cussèd determination to overcome every obstacle the world shoves in front of her. Reading the story is a good, and a worthy, way to honor the memory of such a remarkable person.

040 The Selfless Act of Breathing by J.J. Bola

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Transcendent Kingdom meets A Man Called Ove in this heartwarming novel about a Congolese-British Londoner who decides to go on one last adventure in the United States, determined to end his life once his savings run out.

As a charismatic teacher living in London, Michael Kabongo strives to alleviate the injustices he sees around him: for the students who long for better lives, in memory of his father’s tragic death, and to end the violent marginalization of Black men around the world.

But after a devastating loss, he decides to embark on an adventure in the land of the free—the United States of America. From Dallas to San Francisco, Michael parties with new friends, engages in fleeting romances, splurges on thrilling escapades, all with the intention of ending his life once all his savings run out.

As he makes surprising new connections and faces old prejudices in odd but exciting new settings, Michael alone must decide if his life is worth living after all...

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

My Review: I tried to commit suicide in 2014. It was a very low point in my life. It was fortunate that my life didn't end because of the disordered thinking...a woman named Julie made a fortuitous call as I was beginning the process and sent the police to intervene...so I am here to write this review. This is also why I wanted to review this book, given the narrator's plan to end his life when his savings were blown. (Side note: Howinahell did he get so far on a lousy $9000?!)

It's not clear to me why the topic of suicide isn't a trigger for reupping the suicidal ideation machine in me. I can read about the deeply depressed and the suicidal in novels and feel so much compassion, so much sympathy...but no desire to emulate them, only to reach out to them and say "this is a permanent solution to a temporary problem." I've gone through a lot of introspective stuff (CBT works!) and think of the idea of death as, well, honestly it's undisturbing to me. Neither attractive nor repulsive, just a fact. And the manner of Michael, our PoV character, making his decision to go blow his money then die rang memory bells. "This final act, then nothingness" probably sounds better to the truly suicidally depressed than more emotionally overwrought ideation does.

Michael addresses us in the parts of the book set in London. He's fully present, he's struggling to do his teaching job well, and he's floundering in grief deeper than even he can tell...grief too deep to be solely about a recent loss. Michael's decision to leave for the US with that paltry $9000 and live until it runs out (he'd be in Delaware Water Gap, New Jersey, not San Francisco!) is narrated in third person, a choice I took to be representative of his dissociation from the life he was abandoning and refusal to invest in the life he was going to exist through in the US. It wasn't a choice I felt did the story any great service. I think it probably just confused most readers. And I'm not all the way sure I am correct in my analysis, there are other possibilities but I can't make one up that makes the least bit of sense to me except the dissociation one.

What elevates this debut novel above the pack it comes out with is the lovely poetical aphoristic phrase making:

We fight to be seen, for the world to know that we are here, only for us to be forgotten, to be invisible once again.

–and–

Have you ever loved, knowing it would end, but giving your whole heart regardless?

–and–

The thing about losing love is makes you feel like you can never love again, like you are not worthy.

–and–

Loneliness is being there for everyone, everyone, in the hope that someone will be there for you. But no one ever is. You are the sun, lighting the world of another, while setting yourself on fire.

–and–

And above all, it is love, that spark of bright light, that dazzling flame, ephemeral or eternal, may it find us, may it be us, the will that carries us forward, the bond that brings us back, from beyond this lonely feeling to healing; the selfless act of breathing.

The author might be making his fiction debut (correction this is the author's second novel, after 2017's No Place to Call Home) but he's an established poet (Elevate and Daughter of the Sun among others) and it's ever so clear that his phrases will sound gorgeous when spoken aloud. That is also, to be frank, the issue that led to me docking a star off the story's subjective rating: It's performative, it's got an eye on its look in the mirror of your regard. It is, in other words, like poetry is to me: phonied up, heightened, exaggerated to make some point that I think you, O Writer, should trust me to get all on my own. If, that is, you've done your part of the job....

What I hope you'll do is sample the book. Put a bit on your Kindle and see if the way the author slings the lingo hits your sweet spot. If so, there's nothing to prevent you from enjoying the book in its entirety. The first chapters are a good index for the voice the entire book has. While I'm here today because suicide didn't turn out to be the best option for me, this is not an apologia for the act or I'd tell you to avoid it. What leads a person to consider suicide: depression, a sense of alienation from the world around them, a loneliness that pervades this world of exclusion and judgment...all this is the subject of Author Bola's work.

This sadness, how it falls upon you, like mist or fog, not there, then sudden and all at once; a greyness, enveloping you, submerged under water. This sadness in your bones, each step heavier than the last raises questions: how much longer is this journey? How much longer can I walk?

This is an elegant distillation of the greyness of depression and the desperation of feeling it's endless because you've got no perspective where this isn't what you see...all of that is very, very real and very salutary for all of those whose world doesn't have it anywhere (all five of you) to get into your brains. It could make your empathy bumps bigger, spread your hugging arms wider, and tune up your "there, there, my friend" to a fresher pitch.

Happy new thread, Richard!

Happy new one, RDear.

*tired smooch* after rehab

Happy new thread. I saw this candelabra in a local store and thought of you.

It would be even better if I could ever work out how to upload a photo from my phone the LT and get it the right way up... ho hum.

Not sure about >12 richardderus:. Never to the point of suicide but grief based depression, that I have a more than passing familiarity with. Might be a touch close to the bone.

>15 Helenliz: I love the Tentacled American candleholder! What a creative use of the natural sinuosity of their locomotion.

The subject gets resolved without suicide occurring. It is, in the end, the author's prose that informs the read's effectiveness.

>14 karenmarie: Thanks, Poopéd Horrible!

>13 humouress: Thanking you most kindly indeed!

Delicious, delightful Wordle result to open the festivities with:
Wordle 249 2/6

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Happy new one, Richard!

You Wordled while I was reading your thread. Congrats on the 2. I did it in 3 today and thought that was good.

Nice. The whole 16 18 posts.

I am reading The Only Good Indians. Just so you know.

>19 weird_O: I hope you're enjoying it, Bill, I was quite enamored of it as you'll recall.

>18 Familyhistorian: Three's excellent, Meg, and two-2s in a row after Twosday is pretty much unprecedented.

Happy new thread, Richard dear!

>1 richardderus: The stone pines are so typical for the Mediterranean landscape. When I think back about our trips to the south of France some years back (oops, that was over ten years ago, time flies!) these pines and the cork oaks come to mind as typical trees of the region.

Wordle congrats to you. I chose the wrong letter. Oh well.

>7 richardderus: I need to Pearl Rule more books :)

>17 richardderus: NICE! I am genuinely happy for you. I got today's, which will be your tomorrow's I guess, in 5. Humph. Five.

Happy new one, RD.

>17 richardderus: Well done I almost got myself in a pickle with that one.

Happy new thread!

>1 richardderus: I quite like the stone pine.

>25 figsfromthistle: They're very handsome trees...I think of them as "Roman pines" because of Respighi, and quite frequently forget they're pines at all.

>24 PaulCranswick: Thank you, PC. It's a shock how easy it is to get 6/6 on something so simple as a one-letter field of choice.

>23 LovingLit: Thanks, Megan! I'm pretty sure I'd be pleased with a 5/6...I still haven't had the dreaded X/6 or the astonishment of 1/6.

Pearl Ruling books is a heavenly gift to give yourself.

>22 LizzieD: I'm sure you're due for another run of 2s, Peggy. *smooch*

>21 FAMeulstee: Ten years! Wowzers. That's recent by my calculations.

They're so lovely to me, that wonderful sun-optimizing parasol shape tells you everything you need to know about the climate they're from.

*smooch*

Happy new one. I've put both books you've reviewed here on my "Look Into" list.

>28 katiekrug: Excellent! Welcome back, Katie.

Happy new one, Richard!

Thanks, RocketDoc!

Happy New Thread, Richard. I like the stone pine topper. I did get out and do a little birding, (cold as shit) but I did get to warm up nicely on an unexpected visit with Jack.

>10 richardderus: Yes but does this mean I get the NFT? (I kid, I kid...)

>11 richardderus: That one sounds interesting, but I wonder if I wouldn't be more interested in a straight-up biography.

>12 richardderus: Nice review! I don't much like reading about depression, though, so I think I'll skip it.

>33 bell7: ...you can try...

I don't think there's enough material for a regular biography, no one at the time considered her to be important or interesting enough! The fate of women throughout history....

I don't know what would get your music playing for that book, honestly, and think a skip is probably a good choice for you.

>32 msf59: Oh, unexpected grandchild time! Yay Birddude! It's supposed to hideosify overnight here, so I'm glad I got my PBJ makings today.

Unable to sleep...nasty painful night. So I Wordled!
Wordle 250 3/6

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Hush up about y'all's missing "U"s, English folk.

>35 richardderus: Saw you were up at an unusual time, Richard dear, sorry for a painful and sleepless night.
Got the Wordle in 4/6 today, and the Dutch Woordle in 3/6.

Hope you will get some sleep to get you through Thursday.

>36 FAMeulstee: Thanks, Anita. I expect I'll get some power naps here and there. *sigh* It doesn't happen very often, so I ought not to complain too much.

Wordle 250 5/6

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Not sure where I'm supposed to be putting the "u" in "that word"

Nowhere..."bloke" is quintessentially an English word, unused in the US, and here's the Times using it! No more whinging about "honor" and "color"!

>37 richardderus: Although you are lucky it is rare, Richard dear, it still is very annoying if sleep doesn't come.
I am also lucky in that aspect, but in those rare occasions I always feel very sorry for myself.

Really? Terribly useful word, I can recommend it. Which I will edit to remove, as a favour to those wishing to play with honour.

Just pulling up a seat before I miss another (or more) thread. I've been lurking and reading a lot as I had a few days annual leave - and the rest of the house had covid. Bang went all my spring cleaning - it's like trying to hold back the tide, to keep the place clean when they are all stuck inside!

>40 FAMeulstee: I really don't enjoy feeling sorry for myself, which is weird. A pity party can be very cathartic! But I get bored with it almost immediately.

I used my irritation with the sleeplessness to proof-read my remaining February blog reviews. I am actually quite chuffed because 1) I found some stuff I didn't think was very good writing so I fixed it up, and b) I'm going to end February with 29 posted reviews there! One per day on average. (I'm going to pretend it's a leap year for this example.)

Yay me!

>42 BekkaJo: Good gracious! The Goddesses clearly prefer your house as a mess. You're Canute of the Channel Isles, clearly. I'm so sorry, Bekka...a houseful of sickies is never a delight. *smooch*

>41 Helenliz: Honorably done indeed.

>39 richardderus: I initially discounted that answer as I thought the NY Times wouldn’t be using that word! But I couldn’t think of anything else that would fit with my letters.

>45 SandDune: I suspect they got rather an earful about "color" that one time. Makes this one make sense in that light, no?

Happy Thursday, Rhian!

>43 richardderus: Well, that is good use of an annoying situation :-)
My silver lining is always knowing I will sleep well the next night, as I have never had it two nights in a row (knock on wood).

>47 FAMeulstee: I can see that being a very good thing indeed, Anita, two nights in a row does sound truly hellish.

041 The Rib King by Ladee Hubbard

Rating: 4* of five...truly on sentimental grounds

A BOOKRIOT BEST BOOK OF 2021!

The Publisher Says: Upstairs, Downstairs meets Parasite: The acclaimed author of The Talented Ribkins deconstructs painful African American stereotypes and offers a fresh and searing critique on race, class, privilege, ambition, exploitation, and the seeds of rage in America in this intricately woven and masterfully executed historical novel, set in the early twentieth century that centers around the black servants of a down-on-its heels upper-class white family.

For fifteen years August Sitwell has worked for the Barclays, a well-to-do white family who plucked him from an orphan asylum and gave him a job. The groundskeeper is part of the household’s all-black staff, along with “Miss Mamie,” the talented cook, pretty new maid Jennie Williams, and three young kitchen apprentices—the latest orphan boys Mr. Barclay has taken in to "civilize" boys like August.

But the Barclays' fortunes have fallen, and their money is almost gone. When a prospective business associate proposes selling Miss Mamie’s delicious rib sauce to local markets under the brand name “The Rib King”—using a caricature of a wildly grinning August wearing a jewel-encrusted crown on the label—Mr. Barclay, desperate for cash, agrees. Yet neither Miss Mamie nor August will see a dime. Humiliated, August grows increasingly distraught, his anger building to a rage that explodes in shocking tragedy.

Elegantly written and exhaustively researched, The Rib King is an unsparing examination of America’s fascination with black iconography and exploitation that redefines African American stereotypes in literature. In this powerful, disturbing, and timely novel, Ladee Hubbard reveals who people actually are, and most importantly, who and what they are not.

I RECEIVED THIS AS A YULE GIFT FROM MY DELIGHTFUL YOUNG GENTLEMAN CALLER. YOU'RE TOO KIND, ROB.

My Review: A book of two halves...Mr. Sitwell, the risen-through-the-ranks butler of the Barclay family, has a fascinating tale to tell about how he becomes The Rib King™ and, in an access of passionate rage, pivots from a man who knows his worth, and protects it at all costs, into a, well, talented person set on revenge for some nasty wrongs. I myownself was quite invested in this story and would give it four stars were it the only one here.

Part two follows Jennie, who was another servant in the Barclay household, as she does what needs doing in New Orleans. She has a daughter and she is the only one who can look out for the young lady's future. This would seem to be well-trodden territory. It is. I don't want you to think there was nothing to say for it, and there are definitely reasons to follow Jennie and her child. But the process was three-star territory for sure.

What made me think and fuss about how to fix this reading experience in my memory is the fact that I read The Talented Ribkins (see below) before I read this book. It led me down the garden path a bit. I was expecting to get more of the reasons and the wherefores of the earlier book's characters. It didn't really fulfill that desire in me.

But the prose flowed over my eyes, the stories felt very *real* in their outlines and very relatable to the world we saw in The Talented Ribkins; so surely four stars, after all? And that, plus the verve of Mr. Sitwell's half of the story, gave me the nudge to go from the more-grounded-in-the-object three-and-a-half up to four stars.

I got four stars'-worth of pleasure from Ladee Hubbard's unique and entertaining characters. I expect most who read my reviews will, too. I do caution y'all to get and read The Talented Ribkins first. They make a better whole-story experience that way, and they're each well worth your eyeblinks.

042 The Talented Ribkins by Ladee Hubbard

Rating: 4* of five...but barely...when it should've been five

The Publisher Says: At seventy-two, Johnny Ribkins shouldn’t have such problems: He’s got one week to come up with the money he stole from his mobster boss or it’s curtains.

What may or may not be useful to Johnny as he flees is that he comes from an African-American family that has been gifted with super powers that are a bit, well, odd. Okay, very odd. For example, Johnny's father could see colors no one else could see. His brother could scale perfectly flat walls. His cousin belches fire. And Johnny himself can make precise maps of any space you name, whether he's been there or not.

In the old days, the Ribkins family tried to apply their gifts to the civil rights effort, calling themselves The Justice Committee. But when their, eh, superpowers proved insufficient, the group fell apart. Out of frustration Johnny and his brother used their talents to stage a series of burglaries, each more daring than the last.

Fast forward a couple decades and Johnny’s on a race against the clock to dig up loot he's stashed all over Florida. His brother is gone, but he has an unexpected sidekick: his brother's daughter, Eloise, who has a special superpower of her own.

Inspired by W. E. B. Du Bois’s famous essay “The Talented Tenth” and fuelled by Ladee Hubbard’s marvelously original imagination, The Talented Ribkins is a big-hearted debut novel about race, class, politics, and the unique gifts that, while they may cause some problems from time to time, bind a family together.

A big-hearted novel about a family with special gifts who sometimes stumble in their efforts to succeed in life, The Talented Ribkins draws on such novels as Toni Morrison’s Sula and Colson Whitehead's The Intuitionist to weave themes of race, class, and politics into a wonderfully accomplished and engaging novel.

THIS WAS A YULE GIFT TO ME FROM MY DELIGHTFUL YOUNG GENTLEMAN CALLER. YOU ROCK, ROB!

My Review: First, read this:

“Johnny Ribkins, there was a time when you could've been anything you wanted to be, a doctor, lawyer or an Indian chief...instead all you are is a damn shame.”
–and–
"It’s not your job to try and compensate other people’s lack of vision. You’ve got enough to do just trying to be true to your own."

I'm not sure what you like in terms of first novels. I hope you're willing to run around on your usual genres with a superhero-adjacent tale of the, um, strange descendents of the yahoo who lost the rights to The Rib King™—the miracle delicious barbecue sauce of all time. Johnny Ribkins is the dishonest remaining scion of the line that's made its business to get in on that amazing concoction, rightfully theirs.

But Johnny and his line were, if not superpowered, at the least gifted in some peculiar ways other mortals aren't. He, for example, can map places. And they don't have to be real yet. His maps enable him to, when his time aiding "the Justice Committee" during the 1960s Civil Rights struggle (and sinful wicked shame on our country for allowing it to be dismantled while we watch), use his unique talent to hide in undiscoverable places the money he just knows he will need in the future. (Don't expect to go too deep into how and why that should be...it's not a huge piece of this book.)

Now that he's got the need for his funds, he and his teenaged niece (with a really, really cool "talent" that utterly eludes me, personally) travel from pillar to post together literally digging the future out of the muck and dirt of the past, while he shares with his brother's daughter all the stuff he wishes he'd said, the people he knew and their effects on him and the world, with the family's latest and last survivor.

So, that four star rating up there? That's all about the Ribkins not really getting into it, about the told-not-lived nature of a reflection and road novel. It isn't bad, it's got lovely sentences that say a lot about what it means to be Othered among others, and how very sad it is to leave so few things other people care about behind for them to enjoy.

But as a first novel being the same as a first at-bat, it swings for the fences and gets an RBI though not a home run. That's still a hell of an achievement.

>50 richardderus: It goes on the list RD. Thanks.

>51 Caroline_McElwee: Oh, how delightful, Caro. I really hope you'll get a good kick of fun from its ruminations on why what matters matters.

Good morning, RD. I was also up at a stupid hour, though mostly spent the time doom-scrolling through Twitter. Good on you for being productive :)

>53 katiekrug: I'm surprised you're speaking to me...I didn't think about spoiler-tagging the Britishness thing. Oh well. I don't remember where-all I said it.

*prepares to be reviled*

>49 richardderus: >50 richardderus: Sadly both not available in my language, Richard dear, so not added to any TBR list.
But I love the way you thank YGC Rob for these books.

>54 richardderus: - I didn't mean to be that cranky about it. Twitter also didn't help with the non-spoiler spoilers :)

At ease. No reviling here. xx

Morning, Richard. Sorry to hear about the pain and sleep issues. I hope you have a better day and night. Congrats on the 29 reviews! You are on a roll, sir.

Sorry about your sleeplessness but glad it led to some productivity, and I hope you get a doze in today!

Morning,Richard! Oh my, lack of sleep and pain is not very fun.

Hope your day goes well.

Y'all! For #BlackHistoryMonth why not try an excellent novel of racism, the death penalty, and personal honor in the post-WWII South? My blogged #BookReview: https://tinyurl.com/23tt89c3
THE MERCY SEAT, recommended on the book page by both me and Katie (who book-bulleted me with it in the first place) is $1.99 on Kindle today only: https://smile.amazon.com/Mercy-Seat-Elizabeth-H-Winthrop-ebook/dp/B075VDHC8X/

>60 richardderus: - Co-sign!

>59 figsfromthistle: Morning, Anita! So far so good day-wise...I'm not going to drink coffee in hopes of wooing Morpheus.

That's the plan, anyway.

>58 bell7: Thanks, Mary, it's so weird for me that I kinda just don't got a plan...which is not ordinary.

>57 msf59: Thanks Mark! I'm glad the roll got rolling because there is a large amount of reviewing I'd like to do. It really does turn out to be true that, once you start, it's so much easier to keep going.

>56 katiekrug: *whew* I'm glad I'm not the only vector. It really can't be this hard for others to remember to spoilerize hints but since I'm indifferent to the topic it takes more for me to think it through.

*smooch*

>55 FAMeulstee: He likes it when I do that, too, since it's so clearly aimed at people who know *me* and he worries more about them than ones he knows. I keep telling him to come and play in the world here but he reminds me of how much time it takes in *my* day versus how difficult it is for him to schedule pee breaks.

Wordle 250 3/6

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Good morning, Richard dear! *smooch*

>63 ronincats: Hey there, Miss Roni ma'am! Good work on the Wordle.

*smooch*

>42 BekkaJo: I hope your other household members are recovered or recovering, and you didn't/don't catch it yourself.

Hiya, RDear! Happy Thursday to you, even if it started way too early.

>49 richardderus: and >50 richardderus: Pass, but only because I have 2,339 books tagged ‘tbr’ on my shelves, 15 books tagged ‘abandoned’ that I haven’t removed yet with the thought that I might eventually re-start and finish them, and 54 books tagged started. 133 books on a wish list from just last year, too. We've got a real, live, in person book sale planned for April 1 - April 2, and I've already reminded the head of the book sale team that after getting my credit card processing and cash processing volunteers in place, I'm going to stand in line and be a customer, as was agreed to when I joined the Board.

*smooch* from your once-again tired-but-pleased-by-rehab Horrible

>66 karenmarie: Hey Horrible! Happy Thursday.

I don't think either book would do much for you, TBH, they're not bad but they're not showroom-floor perfect and with stats like yours...well, we'll be waitin' for you-knee-corms to recommend.

*smooch*

>65 ArlieS: :-)

Happy New Thread!

>68 SilverWolf28: Thank you, Silver!

>39 richardderus: I whinged about the word for Wordle anyway. You'd think the Times people were Canadian the way they swing between British and American uses of the English language.

>70 Familyhistorian: "Now Meg," he chided, "mustn't dishonour your country's middle-grounding!"

Meg reminded me of this read and I got it from the library to refresh myself. I know this will make some of y'all twitch, but I've already done my February statisticking so I'm calling this "the first official Burgoine Review of March 2022."
***
Burgoine #13
A Tap on the Window by Linwood Barclay

Rating: 3* of five

The Publisher Says: When Cal Weaver stops at a red light on a rainy night while driving home, he ignores the bedraggled-looking teenage girl trying to hitch a ride - even when she starts tapping on his window. But as soon as he realises she's one of his son's classmates, he knows he can't really leave her, alone, on the street.

But nothing prepares him for the consequences of trying to help her out. The next morning he's gone from Good Samaritan to Murder Suspect, and with one girl dead and another missing, he's suddenly at the centre of a deadly puzzle that reaches right to the heart of the town - from its bullying police force to its strangely furtive mayor - and finally to one family's shocking secret.

LIBRARY CHECK-OUT. USE THE LIBRARY, FOLKS! OUR PATRONAGE IS THEIR LIFE'S BLOOD.

My Review: Not a bad read, though there's a serious TSTL issue running through the whole read...from the get-go, the teen girl who's murdered has no cellphone in the Teens? the ex-cop falls for a clear bait-and-switch? there's no instant suspicion about this particular guy's probable targeting due to what's happened to him (loss of his son to drug addiction)? The issues will either slam the cover on your read before p25/5%, or you'll think "okay, we're getting into a deeper North-by-Northwestesque entrapment plot" and have you settling the read-medium into your lap and moving on.

I'm in Camp 2.

This is very interesting from the standpoint of a reader whose interests are in psychological undercurrents and deeper reasons for evidently complex relationship problems. A family that has addiction ripping at its vitals is under stress constantly...but also causes stress far outside its immediate circle. The metaphysical gravity that Love represents is merely a feather pointing at the dark matter made up of Anger. The source of Anger in a family is always basal...but its influence is invisibly, inexorably warping the movement of every single thing the family resides among.

There's never a good answer to the question "Why?" Please believe me, the way Author Barclay reveals (most of) the "Why" we'd be just as happy not knowing. Paradoxically, there's just enough that doesn't quite add up to leave you, the reader, thinking, "...but...wait...what about...ah, heck with it." This is not my preferred ending to a thriller. It's a genre where, no matter how morally grey the situation and resolution are, Justice needs to prevail even if the law gets or remains broken (often again). So, not quite the read I signed up to experience.

>72 richardderus: Excellent review, though not a book for me.

043 The Man Who Lived Underground by Richard Wright

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: A major literary event: an explosive, previously unpublished novel from the 1940s by the legendary author of Native Son and Black Boy.

Fred Daniels, a black man, is picked up randomly by the police after a brutal murder in a Chicago neighborhood and taken to the local precinct where he is tortured until he confesses to a crime he didn't commit. After signing a confession, he escapes—or is permitted to escape—from the precinct and takes up residence in the sewers below the streets of Chicago.

This is the simple, horrible premise of Richard Wright's scorching novel, The Man Who Lived Underground, a masterpiece written in the same period as his landmark books Native Son (1940) and Black Boy (1945) that he was unable to publish in his lifetime. Only small parts of it have appeared in print, and in a significantly redacted form it would eventually be included in the short story collection Eight Men (1961). Now, for the first time, by special arrangement with the author’s estate, the full text of the work that meant more to Wright than any other (“I have never written anything in my life that stemmed more from sheer inspiration”) is published in the form that he intended, complete with his companion essay, “Memories of My Grandmother.” Malcolm Wright, the author’s grandson, contributes an afterword.

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

My Review: Richard Wright was one of the twentieth century's crop of Great American Storytellers, a writer whose entire life of creation was a gift to a country that did not deserve his passionate voice calling into the face of its indifference that we can be better, do better, and must in order to survive.

People my age were required to read Native Son in high school English, and I am so very glad we were. I wouldn't have picked up the book any other way. It needed to be shoved on me. And wonder of wonders, the Austin (Texas) Independent School District of the early 1970s did. It was a tough thing to let myself believe, that people simply but sincerely hated for no better reason than someone was a different skin color than they were. I assumed all those yahoos were just performing their snotty, hateful idiocy like they did their fake homophobia; it seemed to me that racism against Black and Hispanic students was the same. Anything to look cool, after all, and these were teenagers whose ideas of Cool were neither self-reflective nor rebellious enough to have progressed from the 1950s their own parents were stuck in.

Then we read the equally astounding true-crime (I call racism a crime and am not likely to stop doing so) Black Like Me, an account of a white man passing as Black in the Jim Crow South. It too was gut-wrenching, but was different in kind than the novel Native Son. A factual report...well, I am quite sure that my own racism got hard, hard knocks that year. (I am fully aware that I'm complicit in racist society, that in no way am I "not a racist" just because I support Black political candidates and so on.) It's a pity we couldn't have read this jaw-dropping, intense, visceral evocation of the Other as refiner and perfecter of his Othering. It is the apotheosis of Otherness and Othering that this intense story tells its readers.

Anyone who's paid me any attention knows that I can be run off from continuing a read by child abuse, by use of the n-word, by cruelty to animals...the list goes on...and not a few unfriendlies are smirking in anticipation of taxing me with this book's abusive, rage-filled, n-word-bombing ethos...how can I give this five stars and still abandon ship with content warnings in other, arguably less offensive cases? Because Richard Wright never does a single thing to make the awfulness of PoV character Fred Daniels's world sensational. The author isn't kidding around, bedizening a story with nastiness to provoke a response. He is telling a story about how Othering a man will, over time, after many small and large blows and much deliberate infliction of every kind of pain, turn him in to the thing that he was not, did not want to be, and could not bear to know that he now was.

It worked, in its honesty and its clarity of purpose. I left the sewer Fred lived in without regret, without revulsion, and with the most horrified, profound acceptance of Fred as he was abused and neglected into being. Acceptance of his re-creation, transformation.

In the inexcusably hate-filled twenty-first century, we are fighting the battle that Fred lost all over again. There are wins...the conviction of Ahmaud Arbery's murderers...there are defeats, the gerrymandering cases standing out to me as disasters to Black people...but the trend is towards, as it ever was, the endless and pointless perpetuation of hate based on stupidity among the haters and truculence among the hated.

Books like this are strong medicine against both ends of the spectrum. Fred, a victim, sees what the System does to people, and ultimately still surrenders to it. Not to fight against the dehumanizing and brutalizing actions and inactions of the system that allows Fred to exist in the literal sewers is to acquiesce in the process of creating more Freds...and that is a moral wrong and a societal tragedy. Author Wright doesn't allow his readers the luxury of redemption. This book remained unpublished for seventy years because it is the most hopeless document of degradation's triumph I've ever read. White people of the 1940s would've been offended by the clear-eyed assertion of police violence as it happened...nowadays that illusion is gone...but they wouldn't have wanted to read about a good man surrendering his humanity regardless of that knee-jerk response. The accusing fingers pointing back at them as they called out Author Wright for his bleak treatment of Fred (theirs was the system he succumbed to, after all) were simply too on-the-nose.

There is an extended essay included with the novel entitled “Memories of My Grandmother” that enables our appalled eyes to see where so much of the story we've just read originated. The fact that Christian religion played such a big role in Wright's formation into a man capable of the kind of wordsmithing he does isn't a big surprise. I'm very grateful that the author's daughter required the essay to be published within the book containing the novel...it's a long piece and, even if you're on the fence about reading the novel, I hope you'll consider procuring it to read the essay alone. It is a marvelous explication of how each generation forms the next, for good and ill.

What Author Wright isn't, in the writing of this story, is subtle. The metaphors defining it simply aren't debatable: Whites own the sunshine and consign the Blacks to the literal sewers to eke out whatever existences they can. A Black man who's innocent of any crime is shoved into the sewer with the rest of the leavings because he's never had a place in the sunshine that was truly his. As he copes increasingly poorly with the sewers, he's not allowed to leave them; he's run away from the white police, deprived them of their fun of torturing and eventually killing him, so they say "stay there and die."

The author doesn't, then, offer Redemption to either side. It's a very uncharitable and un-Christian thing to withhold. But he's got a reason, does Author Wright: "Chickens come home to roost, don’t they?" his daughter quotes him as saying.

They very much do. The perch they roost on is, in this rare and exquisitely painful read, your complicit soul.

>73 bell7: Happy Friday, Mary! Thanks...the story's probably not particularly appealing to you, I suspect. I'm not a huge fan of Barclay, I think because I don't care much for his way of dealing with his endings.

I hope you'll look at >74 richardderus: though!

Wordle 251 4/6

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Not awful...not great...felt a bit dim for not seeing it on round three, though.

>74 richardderus: that one sounds like a powerful, if depressing, read but worth a library borrow for sure.

>75 richardderus: I had no letters right in my first two guesses and it's only because I used up a lot of letters guessing that I managed to get it in six.

Hiya, RDear! Happy Friday to you.

>72 richardderus: and >74 richardderus: Well damn. Both have made it onto my wish list. And, amazingly, both are available in my county’s Library system. I’ve submitted requests to have them transferred to my branch for pickup and should get an email early next week that they’re available.

>76 richardderus: I got it in 4, too.

*smooch*

>72 richardderus: Hmmm. That one does not sound to great. I'll pass on it even though I have enjoyed other reads by this author.

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday, Richard. Great review of The Man Who Lived Underground. I loved the novel, as well and look forward to a reread of it. We got a few more inches of fresh snow. Sighs...You get a better night sleep?

>80 msf59: It's a terrific, in all the senses of the word, read...I don't think I could re-read it, though, knowing what was coming!

I slept, so I think it's a win. It was sure as heck a relief! Happy no-new-snow weekend.

>79 figsfromthistle: It wasn't at all great, Anita, and not a read I'd recommend. Save your Barclaying for better Barclays!

>78 karenmarie: Happy weekend ahead, Horrible! I'm glad I got you with the Wright...have you read others by Linwood Barclay? If not, maybe don't hold this one as the norm in the event you're not too keen on it.

I wasn't altogether unprepared for the solution but was sure it was something it proved not to be.

>77 bell7: It was my third guess TIMES that somehow lit the bulb over my head.

I very definitely agree that it's a worthy library borrow! Such an amazing book.

I need to read some Richard Wright.

That's all. Hugs!

>82 BekkaJo: That's true, you do need to. *smooch*

Good weekend ahead!

>74 richardderus: I will have to keep an eye out for that RD. Wonderful review.

Your reading is flying along at the moment.

>84 PaulCranswick: Oh my heck, PC, that's one to get shipped to you via SpaceX rocket! You'll really love it!
***
My publicity contact at Macmillan USA is a bird fancier and cockatiel mom. I got a dinosaur book from her today: The Last Days of the Dinosaurs: An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of Our World by Riley Black which is cool enough by itself but came just after I watched & emailed her a link to a young Dutch woman's YouTube video about her sister's major, major discovery regarding the extinction event...which is in Riley's book!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvR6uJNQnmA

>85 richardderus:. Good video (at least the first couple minutes so far). I love her comment that she didn't want to study history because it was it was too short for her.

>86 mahsdad: The amount of explication that Pink-haired Person goes into regarding the multiple lines of evidence evaluated to reach their game-changing conclusion makes it really,really clear that a mere millennium would keep her engaged for a minute or two at most.

>74 richardderus: Must. Read.

>88 swynn: Must indeed! Speedily to acquire, soon to absorb!

>88 swynn: >74 richardderus: Me too, and Native Son, it was one I was always aware of/seen, but it was never required reading for me

>90 mahsdad: Well, no time like the present! There's a lot to learn from Author Wright.

Happy New Thread Dear Richard.

>92 johnsimpson: Thank you, John!

>74 richardderus: "The perch they roost on is, in this rare and exquisitely painful read, your complicit soul."

Sadly, I haven't a clue what I could do about any of it.

Some tell me I could stop using words like "slave," "master," and even "agora". That would protect some quantity of people from being reminded of bad things (TM). I could also change names of schools, get rid of statues, and a variety of other symbolic gestures.

I'm unclear how that will result in fewer black men in prison, fewer black women dying in childbirth, and of other preventable conditions. Or for that matter how it will result in even a reduction of the rate of police beating confessions out of innocent people.

Alternatively, I can confess my racism every second sentence. I don't think confessing their innate sinfulness ever resulted in a single Christian behaving more like their supposed role model (Jesus). I suspect that the current fad of confessing one's innate racism routinely and persistently will result in the confessors feeling they've "done their bit", and going happily back to their jobs propping up the overall system.

I frankly don't see much in the way of calls for support in practical, unsexy measures. And there's no way to disentangle oneself from providing support to the Powers That Be, simply by existing - whether as worker, investor, or consumer, there's some privileged entity profiting from your actions, who's also profiting from and perpetuating the oppressive status quo.

I can manage to avoid active acts of commission, mostly. I can't avoid believing some of the popular common sense falsehoods in my environment. And I can't avoid exchange relationships with complict individuals and corporations - boycotting the worst of them, or whose with the most well known offenses, may or may not do anything to encourage anyone to improve, even slightly.

Maybe there are underpublicized practical measures, not interesting to clickbait journalists, and lacking funds for advertising that would in any case probably not penetrate the walls I've erected against advertisers in general.

Essays touting the virtues of democracy claim it's possible to find and support decent candidates, or even become such a candidate oneself. Currently I know of two people who I *might* trust in any political office, and both are career civil servants working in public health. Neither are citizens of the same country as me.

The only real alternative to complicity I'm offered is bloody revolution. I don't think that would work either - they mostly just replace one set of oppressors with another, whatever the ideals expressed - and the costs in suffering and death tend to be horrendous.

So yep, I'm complicit and I know it, and so is everyone else.

Except youthful protestors and revolutionaries; they tend to be unware of their own complicity. Also, sometimes, a bit less complicit than average.

>94 ArlieS: Lots of us don't get that far into the acknowledgment of our complicity, so bravo for that.

Happy weekend, Richard! *Smooch*

Happy Saturday, Richard. Off to do a chilly bird walk, with a group and then camper hunting. There will be beer involved at some point too. Enjoy your day, my friend.

'Morning, RD! Happy Saturday to you. Some friends of Bill's are coming over at lunchtime - we're getting our regular takeout and they'll bring their own food. My only concessions are that I got the dining room ready to eat in and bought a 6-pack of Heineken, as per Bill's suggestion. I don't have anything in common with them and wish I was waving good-bye to them. Harrumph.

Wordle 252 4/6

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Interesting word today!
***
>98 karenmarie: Spousal duties, m'dear. Spousal duties. *smooch* for a smoother Saturday!

>97 msf59: Ooohhh, more camper-shopping, I hope that means more comfort when out in the wilds pursing the birds.

>96 bell7: Thanks, Mary, you too! *smooch*

Morning, BigDaddy! I am late to your newest thread, and I am off to catch up with you but thought I would snag a seat first. *smooch*

>100 Crazymamie: Welcome, Mamie me lurve. Happy to see you! *smooch*

Hopefully you're using posts >2 richardderus:, >6 richardderus:, and >7 richardderus: on each thread to find reviews. It makes life so much easier, and generally plops one down amid whatever discussion there was of the book.

Most excellent reviewing, as always! I already had The Mercy Seat and The Man Who Lived Underground on The List from a previous year, but I have added The Talented Ribkins, so thanks for that!

PEARL RULED @ 61%

Central Station by Lavie Tidhar TBR'd in 2016! NetGalley win, too!

Real Rating: 2.5* of five, rounded up because it's not poorly written, it's just that I don't care at all

I'm still unable to articulate the source of my dissatisfaction with Central Station. I don't understand why it isn't working for me, but I'm Pearl-Ruling it at the end of Achimwene and Carmel's story.

I do not wish to continue reading, so I am not going to make myself.

>102 Crazymamie: *smooch* It's lovely of you to say so. Enjoy Mother Hubbard's delicious Ribkins!

Dammit anyway.

>105 richardderus: - Remember Fukuyama's 'The End of History'? It was all the rage when I was doing my degree in international relations in the late 1990s. Seems quaint now.

>106 katiekrug: I got a huge chuckle out of it when it came out. The End of History my lily-white one! Humans ain't gonna stop bein' greedy fucks any time soon. Ah, the arrogance of Those Who Know...it's always fun to watch the answers turn out to be wrong.

Until it comes time to pay the bill, that is.

Wordle 253 5/6

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Surprising how many words fit that pattern!

>108 richardderus: I had almost the same:

Wordle 253 5/6

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Happy Sunday, Richard dear!

>108 richardderus: Oooh, interesting. My pattern came out completely different, and I got it in four because there were only so many places a, t, and h could go at that point and still make a word. Happy Sunday *smooches*

With 4 letters after 2 words, there really wasn't a lot else it could be.
Wordle 253 3/6

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Happy Sunday, Richard. I am hanging at home this AM, to take care of some chores. I also hope to get a chunk of reading in. We begin to warm up today and it should be a very nice week ahead. Yah!

>105 richardderus: LIKE!!

Wordle 253 4/6

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*smooch*

>113 katiekrug: Once one gets the last sequence of three, there's really just guessing the answer ahead. I was mildly surprised at which of the options they chose.

>112 msf59: Oh, a warm-up has to be very welcome indeed Mark. It's March, so let's get to roarin' eh?

I loved that cartoon's sadness. It captures that spirit of dispiritedness that fits so many of us so well.

>54 richardderus: Consider yourself reviled.

>105 richardderus: ... and it just got even closer.

>108 richardderus: Wordle 253 2/6

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(couldn't resist)

>111 Helenliz: No indeed! That was great good luck Helen.

>110 bell7: It's the truth, given that English is one of the few languages to use the last two as a dipthong.

Seeing the patterns is a big part of my fun playing this game.

>109 FAMeulstee: 3, 4, and 5 are identical, running through the options until the answer leaps out.

‘Morning, RDear, and happy Sunday to you.

>103 richardderus: Too many books, too little time.

>105 richardderus: I keep reading news headlines with disbelief. It's sad that Putin isn’t pushing up daisies, along with his US buddy the ‘Traffic Cone of Treason’, as per Stephen Colbert.

>108 richardderus: Wordle 253 4/6

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*smooch* from your own Horrible

>117 karenmarie: "traffic cone of treason" is an excellent line. True, too.

*smooch*

>115 humouress: Evil. Sinful, wicked, evil Satan Anne.

*sigh* The risk of a hot war is insignificant, really, but there's gonna be another lousy cold one for a generation over this stupid b.s.

Oi! Language.

Is it "traffic cone of treason" annoys you?

No, it's calling me names. Supervillainesses have feelings, you know. *hiccough*

>121 humouress: *giggle*

Well! I say.

Somehow, having lost my nomination to the Supervillainesses Group is not quite the consolation it should be when my Wordles are looking pretty consistently like today's.

Wordle 253 6/6

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 By the time I got here, I had eliminated all the possible consonant blends but the correct one. For some reason I thought I had eliminated the 2nd letter. I'm not sure how I look and look and don't see what's there - a condition not likely to improve with time.

>124 LizzieD: I have one suggestion that's helped me get perspective in these games: Write the second line down as hangman, used correct but wrong place letters above the hanged man.

There's some sort of connection between hand, eye, and paper that kick-starts my brain. Can't hurt, can it?

>123 humouress: Do tell! *giggle*

Saturday smooches!! Stay warm!

>126 Berly: Thank you for the retrospective smooches, Berly-boo! Sunday *smooch* back

LOL. Oops. Make that Sunday Smooches!! There. Now you have a two-fer.

>118 richardderus:
You got that one right! It is a new Cold War. All because another megalomaniac managed to get into power by deceiving millions. The problem is that it will be easier to deceive millions because there is no longer a strong free press anywhere. I do have to say that I am thankful for the coverage provided by CNN and some of the other major news outlets who have kept reporters on the battleground. We should all be thankful for these front line reporters. (I say this while going to dig out my copy of Women Who Wrote the War. I really need to get this one read and then read You Don't Belong Here: How Three Women Rewrote the Story of War.

>129 benitastrnad: Yes the war reporters are a dedicated bunch and we are thankful for them.

044 Sundial by Catriona Ward

Rating: I settled on four; YMMV

The Publisher Says: You can't escape what's in your blood...

All Rob wanted was a normal life. She almost got it, too: a husband, two kids, a nice house in the suburbs. But Rob fears for her oldest daughter, Callie, who collects tiny bones and whispers to imaginary friends. Rob sees a darkness in Callie, one that reminds her too much of the family she left behind.

She decides to take Callie back to her childhood home, to Sundial, deep in the Mojave Desert. And there she will have to make a terrible choice.

Callie is worried about her mother. Rob has begun to look at her strangely, and speaks of past secrets. And Callie fears that only one of them will leave Sundial alive…

The mother and daughter embark on a dark, desert journey to the past in the hopes of redeeming their future.

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

My Review: Y'all remember how I said I wasn't a member of the Cult of the Mother? Rob, the mother at the center of the pitch-black exploration of the Dark Heart of Motherhood, isn't a big fan of it either. And she, stupid asshole that she is, had a second baby with a man she dislikes despite the fact she doesn't like the one she already has.

So why the ever-lovin' hell did I keep reading the book? And what's that star rating up there all about? I can (sort of) explain....

I hate fewer tropes more than the Noble Woman Who Keeps Her Family Together™. This is that story. And I hate that about it. I'm not interested in reading about the vileness of animal experimentation. This is that story, too. I really, really do not like to read Exceptional Child narratives. I don't really need to say it again, do I? But once you open this story up, you're In It For The Duration. Believe me when I tell you, you're not going to come out the other side the same as you went in. Rob is really a bad, bad mother in that she became one at all, ever, after what her childhood was like. It's inevitable that very bad things would follow this woman around like roast-beef-and-brussels-sprouts farts. And yet her narrative voice never does the inexcusable and becomes whiny. She gets closest to it when she discovers that her best friend isn't. But even then, very early on, her tone is "goddammit! not a-fucking-gain!" instead of "how could this happen to meeeeee?" which last is the norm for most women's fiction/domestic thrillers I've perused.

It's what occurs to bring the matter to her attention that needs to be praised: Her youngest child contracts chicken pox. There is only one plausible way that could have occurred. And that, as the saying goes, is that. What matters as we go forward is what Rob is going to do about the stuff she learns: fix it. Every weird, unbelievably wacked out thing Rob does throughout this weird, wacked out story is aimed at fixing the problems she's got in her face right this minute. And it takes her less time to figure out what she has to do to have the best chance to fix it than you'd think, looking at the page count.

Not a one for deep self-reflection, our Rob. Had she been so equipped, there would've been no marriage and no children in her life. And believe you me, there should NOT HAVE BEEN.

So why were there a marriage and children in her life? Because...there are debts that one repays whether in this or another life, there are things that are absolutely yours and yours alone to atone for and to offer up to the evil life-force that this world was created to sustain. And that is where Rob and Callie are as this story begins its uphill climb against the gravity of reality.

When you start out a read as addictively written as this one is, you accept that there are things you won't like as much as others in it. Because something is marketed as horror, you know you're going to have to accept a certain level of gore, for example. The question is will you be too squicked to take the gore as it's intended, or will it just lie there on the book's floor waiting for the cleaning crew to make it all go away? This book seriously skated on the edge of calling the crime-scene cleaners as we got more and more into the scenes in the desert. I wasn't at all sure continuing was a good idea at multiple junctures.

I persevered, and despite the feeling that there could've been less of some gory moments, the fact is that the gore here is handled with deft assurance, and is applied to the plot with a care that one senses even as it deepens about one's ankles. The moments when the plot takes the path of least resistance, ie "it's the man's fault," there is in fact something more to it than that. There is a dark, echoing justice in the world the book creates, a seriously ugly but still urgent weighing of karmic scales that must happen to give this ending, any ending really, a hope of satisfying the reader.

The latent genetic flaw, or the generational trauma inheritance, or the epigenetic expression of ancestral agonies that come to the fore in the read are utterly predictable from the moment we meet Rob. But there's the small matter of how Author Catriona Ward writes to explain why one is compelled to keep reading on. It is this fact that caused me to power through very, very, very upsetting events that would normally have caused me to shut the book for good.

I don't think too terribly many of my regular readers are in it for horror reads. If that's you, skip this review. But horror people should, if they have not already, make this author welcome on their shelves. She's a good sentence-by-sentence writer, and while I'm not the most familiar with horror plotting, this story's absence of supernatural falderol accentuates the truth that I appreciate horror stories making plain: Humanity is made up of vile, irredeemable scum who, even when they say they're doing something for "the greater good" or whatever, are actually just looking for ways to excuse their inner cruel bastard coming out.

Funny I'm reading King Richard the new book about the Watergate case and was struck by the absence of a conservative voice in the media. There were right wing papers in the Midwest but no real strong national voice. It's an interesting thought experiment to wonder what Fox News would have done during the Watergate era - probably fiercely defended Nixon and his men and certainly thrown dust in the eyes of many.

>130 PaulCranswick:, >129 benitastrnad: It never ceases to amaze and impress me that there are people who run *to* trouble and strife and then talk about it!
***
Wordle 254 3/6

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Interesting choice, Wordle.

>133 richardderus: I also got it in three, but had a different pattern to get there.

>134 bell7: It's an interesting word for them to choose just at this point.

>132 magicians_nephew: It was Watergate that brought us the scourge of talk radio...the smart people hated Nixon, the stupid people had no voice, and so there was no way to make the Voice of the Common Woman heard.

That has worked out so well, hasn't it.

045 No Study Without Struggle: Confronting Settler Colonialism in Higher Education by Leigh Patel

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Examines how student protest against structural inequalities on campus pushes academic institutions to reckon with their legacy built on slavery and stolen Indigenous lands

Using campus social justice movements as an entry point, Leigh Patel shows how the struggles in higher education often directly challenged the tension between narratives of education as a pathway to improvement and the structural reality of settler colonialism that creates and protects wealth for a select few.

Through original research and interviews with activists and organizers from Black Lives Matter, The Black Panther party, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the Combahee River Collective, and the Young Lords, Patel argues that the struggle on campuses reflect a starting point for higher education to confront settler strategies. She reveals how blurring the histories of slavery and Indigenous removal only traps us in history and perpetuates race, class, and gender inequalities.

By acknowledging and challenging settler colonialism, Patel outlines the importance of understanding the relationship between the struggle and study and how this understanding is vital for societal improvement.

I RECEIVED THIS DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Universities are under siege from as many angles as there are. Activists have campaigned, more or less successfully, for disinvestment from socially irresponsible industries. They've made the possession of a racially insensitive mascot a lightning rod for criticism. These news stories are commonplace enough to be readily Google-able, and to have a selection of attitudes and viewpoints from which to choose.

I'd also recommend taking a few minutes to read Author Patel's Q&A on The Beacon Broadside's website for a trenchant, quotable précis of her thoughts on this difficult to dismiss subject. It is a clear statement of her purposes in writing this book.

What makes this a worthwhile read is that it requires the reader to re-evaluate every university activity. There comes first identifying then admitting prospects "worthy" of the opportunity, with the "right kind" of work ethic both within their schools and outside them. Next the institution busies itself with identifying, designing, and inculcating the capitalist dogmas that will serve the needs of the ownership class. And finally, the cruelest step: indenturing students with mountains of debt to that ownership class for the privilege of enjoying the experience, which serves to prevent the offensive-to-them class and ethnic mixing. The fear being that, unburdened by economic chains, their students will inevitably rise above their starting points and cause their owners' control to be diluted. Reading Author Patel's work will, I'm sure, give the students and their parents the perspective to see through a definitively different lens. What makes that a good idea is that many will experience a sudden and usually pretty painful awakening. Those who are screaming about "critical race theory" are calling this propaganda spreading, brainwashing, or just plain indoctrination. As always, examine the accuser's accusations for cues as to the real source of their rage: the examination Author Patel demands we her readers undertake will cause some number of us to reject our present indoctrination as the unfair, exclusionary artifact of an exploitive ownership class's control paradigm.

Since I've already had a pitcher of that Kool-Aid, this wasn't fresh stuff for me.

What I needed to learn about was Author Patel's encouragement of the University's students to interrogate everything they are being offered through the awareness of settler colonialism's existence, reach, and signals of control. Her book is a call to arm yourself, youthful learners, with skepticism and information, not simply and passively accept the way things are without understanding how they got that way and who wants them to stay that way.

What lowers my rating to four of five stars is my sense that the message, while complete and well-thought-through, isn't presented in such a way as to lead to action. In the world of young persons it's my experience that theory is best left to emerge from actions at the maxiumum possible number of times. I'd've been much more stirred and delighted had I seen some non-theoretical analysis..."when one sees this, then that is the likeliest cause; now, do this or that to draw attention to it with the aim of changing it." After all, Author Patel spoke to many whose lives of resistance and struggle included forging action agendas. Why not bring this facet, underpinning the work as it does, to the fore?

But never mind all that Monday-morning quarterbacking. The book that is here, that is available from the estimable Beacon Press, will offer you much. If your child is leaving for college soon, I want to push you towards the read with some extra fervor. If your child is in school now, please send them one. There is no bad or wrong time to give someone not yet ossified into a brittle psychic shape the chisels and files and rasps to add refinement and enhancement to their awareness.

‘Morning, RDear! Happiest of Mondays to you.

>131 richardderus: Anybody taking a child to the Mojave Desert needs their head examined. Really, now. Major pass. I can’t get past the desert bit.

>133 richardderus: Congrats on getting it in 3. It took me 4 today.

>136 richardderus: Excellent review of a book I’ll pass on.

*smooch* from your relieved Horrible - I avoided two BB's this morning.

Morning, Richard. I hope the week is off to a good start for you. It will be close to 50F today, so I am going to do a solo walk before heading to Costco. Books in the PM.

>138 msf59: Hiya Birddude! Indeed it did start out well, since Catriona Ward liked my review in >131 richardderus:! Even retweeted it...very nice way to start my Monday.

Which book gets the Monday nod?

>137 karenmarie: Oh yes indeed, Horrible, well dodged. Neither of those are books you need to dig into. The Ward book would make you angry on so many levels.

Good dodging indeed! And your four was where I'd've been Wordle-wise had I not got the "O" in the proper place.

FEBRUARY IN REVIEW

I wrote twenty-nine reviews for thirty books read (plus two I shoved into March because I'd already done the stats). I enjoyed the majority of my Black History Month reading, most especially Destroyer of Light and Sorrowland in SFF and The Man Who Lived Underground in normal fiction. The most unusual tale that kept me reading past my bedtime was Howard Zinn's Southern Diary: Sit-Ins, Civil Rights, and Black Women's Student Activism. History is never what it looked like to the people there, then, and this contextualized source document brought that to life vividly.

Pleasant surprises in the Horror reading derby, too! I don't enjoy stupid jump-scare horror. Psychological eeriness works for me, and there were good stories there: Echo by Thomas Olde Heuvelt was particularly ensorcelling.

Today Hong Kong, Tomorrow the World: what China's Crackdown Reveals about Its Plans to End Freedom Everywhere was the standout of the month because it was so extremely important to know as we descend into a new cycle of stupid, badly-thought-through war.

>136 richardderus: I don't have the emotional spoons to read something like this. I commend those of you who do.

>131 richardderus: Dang, that's one for me.

>136 richardderus: And that's one I need right now. I already have some thoughts in that direction, without much of a framework to hang them on.

>131 richardderus: I read the review but will most definitely NOT read the book!!

Wordle 254 4/6

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>140 richardderus: Your year has got off to a very sound reading start RD.

>144 Caroline_McElwee: That it has, Caroline, and isn't slowing down! I love the way that feels.

>143 ronincats: ...as the Goddesses know you certainly should not! *smooch*

Good Wordle-ing!

>142 swynn: That framework, Kind Sir, is *invaluable* and assists in cleaning up the overstuffed supply closet of opinions we all have.

I'd say you'll really enjoy Sundial. It's very, very suspenseful.

>141 ArlieS: It's not necessary to run counter to your own tides, Arlie. There's no new ground being broken here, there's little enough for someone in our age bracket to do, so don't even trip.

>135 richardderus: It does make you wonder when and how they make their choices, doesn't it?

Wow, I lose track of your thread for a couple of days and *WHAM!* I'm 125 or so posts behind. Well, I'll just have to take my time and try to get through it when I don't have a babysitting gig in 10 minutes. (I know, I'm being silly. I LOVE being a granny-nanny.)

>147 Storeetllr: Good gracious, yes. Be here when here is where you want to be. Otherwise start from where you land, or go look at >2 richardderus:, >6 richardderus:, and >7 richardderus: to see what titles I've reviewed.

>146 bell7: I really do...it seems so on-the-nose sometimes. It's probably random, though, there would be no reason to get all mired down in the business of choosing!

Okay, the last day of February clearly decided I'd been a good boy, and gave me two nice parting gifts: over 400 blog-views, a wee bit more than double the usual; and JJ Bola, author of The Selfless Act of Breathing, publicly and privately thanked me for my review of his book.

Started with Catriona Ward, ended with Bola, double the views; pretty good day indeed.

Happy beginning of the week!

>140 richardderus: You had quite the reading month! I made a note to get my hands on Today Hong Kong, Tomorrow The World. It does look to be an informative and important read.

>150 figsfromthistle: It certainly is that, but also a top-quality read on top of it.

Happy March's reads, Anita!

>149 richardderus: That is a great way to end the month, Richard dear.

>152 FAMeulstee: It is indeed, Anita. Now let's see if there's more good to come.
***
Wordle 255 4/6

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This one was both weird and satisfying.

>139 richardderus: Ooh, Catriona Ward is a cutie too. I also like the outfit.

Morning, Richard. Another mid-50s day, so you know I will be out and about. Are you back to getting some solid sleep?

Hope March lives up to the promise shown by the end of February.
Wordled in 4 today.
Wordle 255 4/6

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G'morning RD. True confessions ~ I am not even going to try and catch up here. Way behind on even the previous thread!
I posted a bit of commentary on Lucy's thread (at #180), so I shamelessly send you there to read my update. I suspect that's a misuse of a Talk thread but at least you'll know I'm still in the land of the living and reading.
Looking after my inner psyche has paid off ~ I can't personally change a psychopath's behaviour ~ whether it is a fringe group's ill-informed, bullying protest in Canada or a megalomaniac in a foreign country.

>156 SandyAMcPherson: Draw a line, move on...it's not worth making yourself into a pretzel to "catch up" when the point of a break is to break something!

I've read your post, upgethumbèd your ER review, and *smooch* for being able to caretake yourself into 18 reads in 28 days!

>155 Helenliz: I'll be grateful if March simply does not suck. The problem with highs is they're inevitably followed by lows.

I really, really want to know what your choice #3 was on Wordle, given the final answer.

>154 msf59: Morning, Mark, and happy birding today...I'm not in the least dissatisfied with the weather for once, though it's certainly not pretty being clammy and chilly.

I'm very, very pleased that Author Ward liked my review, and that JJ Bola was pleased as well. It does make a person feel validated.

Hiya, RDear, and happy Tuesday to you.

>140 richardderus: Impressive, and I got a few BBs out of it.

>153 richardderus: I agree with weird and satisfying. It took a bit of playing around in a spreadsheet for me to figure it out, though. And of course I was forgetting about the sneakiness of using a letter twice.

>157 richardderus: I had food on my mind, for a change: puree

Hola, Richard. Intriguing review of The Selfless Act of Breathing. Love those excerpts. I suspect the performative poetry aspect would be less of a detriment for me, for obvious reasons. Adding it to the WL.

Burgoine #14

Lexicon by Max Barry

Rating: 3.9* of five

The Publisher Says: At an exclusive school somewhere outside of Arlington, Virginia, students aren't taught history, geography, or mathematics—at least not in the usual ways. Instead, they are taught to persuade. Here the art of coercion has been raised to a science. Students harness the hidden power of language to manipulate the mind and learn to break down individuals by psychographic markers in order to take control of their thoughts. The very best will graduate as "poets", adept wielders of language who belong to a nameless organization that is as influential as it is secretive.

Whip-smart orphan Emily Ruff is making a living running a three-card Monte game on the streets of San Francisco when she attracts the attention of the organization's recruiters. She is flown across the country for the school's strange and rigorous entrance exams, where, once admitted, she will be taught the fundamentals of persuasion by Bronte, Eliot, and Lowell—who have adopted the names of famous poets to conceal their true identities. For in the organization, nothing is more dangerous than revealing who you are: Poets must never expose their feelings lest they be manipulated. Emily becomes the school's most talented prodigy until she makes a catastrophic mistake: She falls in love.

Meanwhile, a seemingly innocent man named Wil Jamieson is brutally ambushed by two strange men in an airport bathroom. Although he has no recollection of anything they claim he's done, it turns out Wil is the key to a secret war between rival factions of poets and is quickly caught in their increasingly deadly crossfire. Pursued relentlessly by people with powers he can barely comprehend and protected by the very man who first attacked him, Wil discovers that everything he thought he knew about his past was fiction. In order to survive, must journey to the toxically decimated town of Broken Hill, Australia, to discover who he is and why an entire town was blown off the map.

As the two narratives converge, the shocking work of the poets is fully revealed, the body count rises, and the world crashes toward a Tower of Babel event which would leave all language meaningless. A brilliant thriller that connects very modern questions of privacy, identity, and the rising obsession of data collection to centuries-old ideas about the power of language and coercion, Lexicon is Max Barry's most ambitious and spellbinding novel yet.

I'M PRETTY SURE THIS WAS A LIBRARY BORROW, BUT WON'T SWEAR TO IT.

My Review: My Goodreads friend, Aussie Angela, recommended this read to me, and thus reminded me that I've let it slip for seven years. I was shocked by that.

So my original notes on the book are, in their entirety, "FUCKING HELL I'M SCOOPED"

Author Barry did as good a job as a straight person could with this multilayered exploration of the nature of human desire. After all, he has no reason to consider the either the subversiveness or the innate subversion of sexual needs. It did make me impatient, since it's so obvious to me that the whole book is wasted on heterosexual sex that most common, uncontroversial, and frankly hugely overexposed topic of vanishingly small challenge or interest. I mean, how hard is it for a woman to pull? Find a horny straight man, you can get sex out of him with fairly little effort.

As to the grisly societal implications of Author Barry's tome, they're pretty old hat since The Hidden Persuaders on the socially acceptable end of the spectrum and Paul Linebarger's extremely chilling Psychological Warfare (it amazes me that this is allowed to be reprinted) at the scary, scary end.

But the phrases he makes are simply marvelous. Putting them into the Goodreads Quotes database from my old commonplace book was an exercise in fun nostalgic "oh, if only".

>160 jnwelch: Hi Joe! Happy to see you out and about. Yes, I suspect the poet-poetry parts wouldn't make you wince or cringe as they so often did/do me. He writes some beautiful lines!

>159 Helenliz: OIC! How wonderful, and a new Wordleword for me. I'd simply never thought of that end of the lexicon before.

>159 Helenliz: I was so sure it was that as well Helen. It was my first loss since I started with my 5 word strategy. I use the same five words everyday, that use all but 1 letter. Today was very tricky

Morning, BigDaddy!

>157 richardderus: "I'll be grateful if March simply does not suck." This made me laugh - no worries about setting the bar too high. I get what you're saying, though - you had a most excellent February. *smooch*

Burgoine #15

The Girls on the Shore by Ann Cleeves (in I>spite of being told to...hmmmph)

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: It was winter. Cold and clear, a different sort of day for this coast where the westerly winds usually blew rain and cloud.

Detective Inspector Matthew Venn is standing by his kitchen window when he first spots them. Two young girls, facing away from him, seemingly staring towards something in the distance. They are holding hands, and they are alone.

Though not a natural with children, Matthew knows he must find out why the girls are here, on a school day, unsupervised. And so he meets Olivia and Imogen, a pair of sisters whose secrets Matthew must uncover if he hopes to get them home.

Freebie for Prime Readers!

My Review: Not all crimes are murders!

Expecting the worst is part of reading mysteries. Sometimes it doesn't look like you expect it to. When life deals out more low cards than aces, you need to be clever and resourceful to get ahead of cascading system failure.

But what about when you're not? That's what Matthew Venn does best. He knows how to play that hand. In this snippet, a piece that couldn't quite nucleate a whole novel, Matthew calls Jen to hold his metaphorical hand while he does a search for a missing mother along his beach. What happens is a whole lot more than you expect.

Definitely recommended for fans of Cleeves and her low-key manner of moving a story along.

>165 richardderus: - Will you share the title? :)

>157 richardderus: I got it in four; my third word was ‘purse’.

>166 katiekrug: :0) I think he’s keeping it for himself.

>164 Crazymamie: Hi Mamie! *smooch* for coming by. Happy March.

>163 mahsdad: Oh heck, Jeff, I hope you'll get it in three tomorrow!

>167 humouress: Oh, that would truly make it obvious, no?

>166 katiekrug: No! I will not!!

Today's Wordle had me stumped for a while.
Wordle 255 5/6

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But it's the beginning of March, so there is that to contend with. Like you Richard, my hopes are that March simply does not suck!

>170 Familyhistorian: It was a tough one, Meg. I don't quite get how that word's included in their five-letter list when "slave" isn't.

Just...let March not suck, Goddesses. That's all. Just not-sucky March, please and thank you.

046 Dreaming of Rose: A Biographer’s Journal by Sarah LeFanu

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: The companion to Sarah LeFanu's biography of Dame Rose Macaulay.

Dreaming of Rose: A Biographer’s Journal is a fascinating account of a biographical quest and of a personal journey. While working on her biography of the writer and traveller Rose Macaulay, Sarah LeFanu kept a journal that charts the details of that quest: the people she met, the places she visited, and her strange dreamworld encounters with the very subject of her biographical pursuit.

Research trips to Varazze in Italy to look for Rose’s childhood, and to Trabzon in Turkey to find traces of The Towers of Trebizond, were remarkably intuitive ventures that found treasures in unexpected places.

Dreaming of Rose is also a memoir of a woman juggling the demands of teaching, research and writing while patching together a living. LeFanu’s work on Rose was squeezed in between many other commitments and responsibilities: she wrote for the BBC and taught creative writing and English literature. Suffused with the tensions and dramas of everyday life, and the necessity for intellectual integrity, this is an important memoir of women and writing.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Do you watch the end-credits of films? Are you by nature (or nurture, can't be sure which) a completist? Is the world a maze of maddening omissions and lacunae that you *know* were worth including but simply got...left behind?

My friend, do I have a reading experience for you!

I'll begin my praise for this book with things that will cause Some Eyebrows to rise like theatre (note: misspelling intentional) curtains: 1) I am a man; 2) I am an American; and 3) I am utterly ignorant of Rose Macaulay as anything except the author of Towers of Trebizond and its utterly mesmerizing, loathsome Father Chantry-Pigg, that personification of Religion in all its malevolent, seductive self-righteousness. There was, I am now aware, a LOT more to Rose Macaulay than I ever knew.

And the weird part is that I never knew that I never knew this entire life existed. Macaulay doesn't get a lot of public mention, though goodness knows it seems she should. Author LeFanu wrote an entire biography of Macaulay (non-affiliate Kindle link), for heavens' sake! And how I wish I'd read it first....

What makes me say that about a read I'm rating four stars, you could reasonably ask. Well, it's this simple: While this is not a book about Rose Macaulay, it *is* about the author's quest for her life and doings. The fact is that Author LeFanu went down several rabbit-holes in her quest to comprehend the life of a very, in fact a notoriously, private person. Had I had a sense of Macaulay's trajectory (beyond reading a single, late work of fiction by her) I would've had a frame of reference to put the anecdotes into. The challenges of LeFanu's quest would've felt more immediate to me had I had the recent experience of learning Macaulay's life's details.

I liked the read a lot. I wanted to know what the heck was going on to cause Author LeFanu to have these specific collywobbles, so I would've benefited from reading her biography of the writer...and that is something I shall now do. I will, as I've only recently read this fascinating companion to the main book, have an even richer experience of the read.

I urge the read on anyone who thinks the conundrum of living life and making art has one correct answer.

Good Wednesday morning, Richard!

I think, like you, I'd want to read a straightforward biography of Rose Macaulay first, but the idea of a book that describes the research process as well is intriguing.

>172 richardderus: well.... That's a gaping hole in my reading right there. The review has me looking up Macauley's books, to read some before making my way through biography and then this. So I think your work here is done.

Hiya, RD. Happy Wednesday to you.

>161 richardderus: I’ve had this one on my shelves for 6 years. I wonder when I’m going to get to it?

*smooch*

Morning, Richard. Happy Wednesday. Our nice weather stretch continues, so I will be heading out soon. Good review of Lexicon. I remember enjoying that book, as well.

>176 msf59: Happy Humpday, Mark! I hope you're getting in all the bird-watching you can enjoy.

Lexicon was soooo close to excellence.

>175 karenmarie: I, too, wonder this. I have, in fact, been known to sit bolt upright at 2.54am demanding of Morpheus, "has that Vile Temptress cracked the spine of Lexicon yet?!"

So far, no. *sad headshake*

>174 Helenliz: *supervillain chuckle*

>173 bell7: Hi Mary! I think you'll really enjoy it, all the way around. Hopefully you'll get to it soon.

Morning, BigDaddy!

>174 Helenliz: What Helen said. The book you reviewed sounds fascinating - nicely done!

Hiya, Mamie! I'm glad you're tempted by it.
***
Wordle 256 3/6

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Well, there's no slightest doubt about this word's relevance.

047 Against the Ice: The Classic Arctic Survival Story by Ejnar Mikkelsen (tr. Maurice Michael)

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: The harrowing, amazing, and often amusing personal account of two mismatched Arctic explorers who banded together to keep themselves sane on an historic expedition gone horribly wrong

Ejnar Mikkelsen was devoted to Arctic exploration. In 1910 he decided to search for the diaries of the ill-fated Mylius-Erichsen expedition, which had set out to prove that Robert Peary’s outline of the East Greenland coast was a myth, erroneous and presumably self-serving. Iver Iversen was a mechanic who joined Mikkelsen in Iceland when the expedition’s boat needed repair.

Several months later, Mikkelsen and Iversen embarked on an incredible journey during which they would suffer every imaginable Arctic travail: implacable cold, scurvy, starvation, frostbite, snow blindness, plunges into icy seawater, impossible sledding conditions, Vitamin A poisoning, debilitated dogs, apocalyptic storms, gaping crevasses, and assorted mortifications of the flesh. Mikkelsen’s diary was even eaten by a bear.

Three years of this, coupled with seemingly no hope of rescue, would drive most crazy, yet the two retained both their sanity as well as their humor.

Indeed, what may have saved them was their refusal to become as desolate as their surroundings…

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who co-adapted the book into a screenplay, provides a new foreword to this brand-new edition of the classic exploration memoir, which was one of The Explorer’s Club’s 100 Best Books of the 20th Century.

Originally published as Two Against the Ice: A Classic Arctic Survival Story and a Remarkable Account of Companionship in the Face of Adversity. Translated from the Danish by Maurice Michael.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: It was the Postscript that did me in.

Ejnar, a man I'd come to see as a massively egotistical narcissist and manipulative user by now, became an old, old man out of his time and out of his element. Writing in the 1950s about the world he had thought inviolable forty years before, he sounded like I feel in this hideous, distorted Hellscape of a 21st century, hag-ridden by preachers and haters and assorted other lowlife scum empowered by their lack of opposition to usher in Armageddon seemingly at will. His awe at a 12,000-horsepower diesel motor that powered US forces (whose presence as saviors there must have rankled at least a bit, given the impetus for his entire ordeal in 1910) to victory over the Nazi regime's outpost in Greenland, was unbearably poignant to me.

This world has never stood still. It is hard for me to remember that punch-card tabulating machines were the dernier cri, unimaginably advanced tech, to Mikkelsen. He died in 1971, so he lived to see Humankind step on a different world. A man whose life was almost lost because his technology was not up to the job of taking him to a very harsh and hostile environment here on Earth watched people walk on a place that makes Greenland look like the Riviera.

Wow.

But what made this read come alive for me, what caused the whole exercise in storytelling to be extraordinarily enhanced, was the extraordinarily beautiful and accurate adaptation. I don't like Mikkelsen any more than I did...he plays Iver's heartstrings like a virtuoso violinist...but he, as Coster-Waldau embodies him, truly reciprocates the devotion and affection Iver offers to him. That he found this in the text, that he saw the truth of their mutuality and interdependence was enough for me to overlook the sheer absurd heteronormative gloss of the thing. Days in the film version are numbered, and the count becomes astonishing...Day 793 is memorable...and a deeply affecting and effective way to offer the experience as the supreme ordeal that it truly was.

Maurice Michael, the translator whose work was largely unsung for generations, rendered Mikkelsen's prose so beautifully that there were moments I sat still and just...was...in the moments depicted. No, quoting them out of context won't do a damn thing because there's just no way to being their most important advantage...interrelationship...with them.



These photos are in the book, and are astounding to me...that they survived, that they made themselves records like this, what a miracle that must've seemed to the men of the 19th century! And I, stuck to my bed by disability, can not only reproduce the photos with a few clicks of a computer's mouse. These are the two men themselves...the resemblance of Coster-Waldau to Mikkelsen is remarkable.



The film, the story of it, is also very interesting, and I encourage you to look into it. More important to me than that is to say that I, who absolutely abhor animal cruelty in my reading, was deeply upset by the treatment of the dogs in this tale...not because it was cruel, but because it was necessary and because the men were quite upset by it on more than one level. This is not a straightforward triumphalist tale of Conquering The Elements. This is the reckoning of a life lived on his own terms delivered by the man who grew and changed, who resulted from the brutalizing battle to survive that would've killed anyone not as powerfully self-motivated and indomitably self-willed as Mikkelsen was.

Truth be told, it's just the fact that had such good luck in his filmic avatar that rescued him from my "that whole postcard thing is a stupid, bad smokescreen" judgment of his manipulative and overbearing character. Had I not been made to see the vulnerable side of him, I'd've stuck with "what a relic of a bad time" and missed the subtle and worthwhile nuances.

>180 richardderus: That is a most excellent review! A direct hit as I cannot resist anything arctic - it's a weakness made worse by my current location. Onto The List it goes!

>181 Crazymamie: Excellent! I winged a moving target!

And don't overlook the film, too. It's a very, surprisingly in fact, wonderful adaptation.

>180 richardderus: Mr SandDune is very keen on polar exploration books - I’ll mention this one to him.

>183 SandDune: Oh, it might be familiar to him already as Two Against the Ice...but I'll expect that he will glow with pleasure if it is, so permaybehaps you'll give it (or the film) a flyer?

>180 richardderus: BB for me. I have a few arctic stories on my shelves but this one looks to be an excellent one.

Hope you had a great Wednesday!

>185 figsfromthistle: Thanks, Anita! And while I'm glad I book-bulleted you, I think you're well-advised to check out the Netflix film. So beautiful!

>180 richardderus: An A++ review, RD. I almost want to read it... but nope. It's a harrowing story and even though I've never added it to "my library", the book sits on the Hubs Arctic Exploration bookshelf along with some other classics. The hubs has read it, of course.

He says it's even more gruelling and deeply enthralling than Touching The Void. This is an astounding story of suvival in a mountaineering accident. I read this one some 20 years ago and was completely blown away ~ another book I never added to my LT catalogue. I wonder if you know it?

>186 richardderus: Thanks for the tip about the film. Unfortunately, I don't have a Netflix subscription.

>188 figsfromthistle: Believe you me, that's the easy bit. Your local library might have one, and the film is (I think) headed to the library-centered streamer Kanopy this year.

>187 SandyAMcPherson: I've never read Touching the Void...a bit more than I wanted to do after reading Alive! in the 80s.

I thank you for the kind words about my review of Against the Ice. If, one day, it calls to you, don't shush it up. Go take it down and ask it to remind you to put it down for breathers.

>172 richardderus: Ouch, stop throwing books Richard. Hit again, sounds right up my street.

Happy Thursday, Richard dear, a bit late because today I really needed to finish a book. That is done, so now I can roam the threads, without a little voice nagging me to read ;-)

>191 FAMeulstee: Hi Anita! I'm glad to see you on a guilt-free visit for once. *smooch*

>190 Caroline_McElwee: ...but not >180 richardderus:, Caroline?

Wordle 257 4/6

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Hm. On the nose, this one.

Hi RDear. Happy Thursday to you.

>177 richardderus: I’m impressed that you wake up on my behalf. Thank you. 😁

>180 richardderus: Fascinating. I love nonfiction like this and have added it to my wish list.

>194 karenmarie: ...typical...no sense of guilt, of direct personal responsibility, for my interrupted sleep...I believe you must've given La Overkill her supervillainess lessons!

It's a deeply felt description of parlous conditions. Very much a real, first-hand account done right.

*smooch*

Too long since I've poked my nose in here. *smooches*

>196 MickyFine: Hi Micky! *smooch*

>192 richardderus: Very tempting too, but I've got a lot of what I call 'ice' books on the shelves to read RD.

>198 Caroline_McElwee: *muffled sob*

...I...I under...stand...it's just a puny little five-star review...no, no need to worry about me flinging myself off the bridge....

Sweet Thursday, RD! Great review of Against the Ice: The Classic Arctic Survival Story. I also love reading these NF adventure stories and I especially enjoy them on audio. I hope it is available.

Jackson day tomorrow! Yah!!

>200 msf59: Thanks, Mark, hoping for Fine-as-froghair Friday, too.

Have a great time with Jackson...oh wait...of course you will!

Just dropping in a wave :)

Morning and welcome to Friday. It's starting off well, let's hope it continues.
Wordle 258 3/6

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Keep on keeping on. My thought for the day.

Hi RDear. Happy Friday to you.

>195 richardderus: Guilty of no sense of guilt, I’m afraid. I am sorry for your wakefulness, of course. I wish I could claim responsibility for giving @humouress her her supervillainess lessons, but alas, no go on that one either. You’re batting 0 for 2 on that post. *smile*

I got today's Wordle in 3. Just sayin'...

*smooch*

Wordle 258 6/6

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This was not an easy one for me, for some reason.
***
>203 Helenliz: It was for you! That's wonderful!

>202 BekkaJo: *waves back at Bekka*

>205 karenmarie: ...revolting Wordle-meister...*hmmph*

*smooch*

>204 weird_O: It is a useful and profound formulation of a truth into a truism.

>199 richardderus: Handkerchief...

>206 richardderus: - I didn't do much better. I never do on vowel-heavy words

Wordle 258 5/6

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>209 katiekrug: Once I knew what the first letter was, I thought for sure it'd be easy since there aren't *that* many words in English starting there. I was clearly wrong. Irritating word! I'm going to stop using it just to spite the damned thing.

>208 Caroline_McElwee: *chuckle* Y'all English are as cold-hearted as everyone else on the planet says you are, I see.

Okay, Wordlers! The Guardian did the Worldle thing a wee bit differently:

Each of the following words appears either in the middle of or at the end of the name of a country. For example, ACED is in Macedonia. What are the countries?

1. DIVE
2. DONE
3. GLAD
4. HAIL
5. HELL
6. LAYS
7. NAME
8. OVEN
9. RUNE
10. SCAR
11. SWAN
12. TENS
13. WAND

Answers are under the spoiler tag.
1. Maldives, 2. Indonesia, 3. Bangladesh, 4. Thailand, 5. Seychelles, 6. Malaysia, 7. Suriname, 8. Slovenia, 9. Brunei, 10. Madagascar, 11. Botswana, 12. Lichtenstein, 13. Rwanda.

I didn't get #9.

>211 richardderus: Excellent. I will get my thinking cap on.

I got lucky on wordle, with the first 2 words having given me the first 3 letters, I wasn't left with a lot of choices

>212 Helenliz: I had the first letter from the start! It should've been a doddle, and it wasn't.

I don't feel humbled, I feel hard done by and most angrily annoyed.

The puzzle was a lot of fun. I hope you'll come and tell me how it went.

SUPER ULTRA BARGAIN ALERT
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Hey, RD. Happy Friday, That’s an excellent review of Against the Ice. I’ve read my share of Arctic books, and I keep wondering “why?” Not why do I read them, but why did the explorers put themselves through such agony. I guess it’s for the challenge, maybe keen curiosity. But it seems like such a nutso choice.

>215 jnwelch: Hi Joe! Yep...I think that, as well, especially when they lose bits and pieces off their actual bodies to the cold. Mikkelsen had the frankly stupid to me reason of "national pride" on top of the "that guy's lying and I'll prove it" testosterone-poisoned attitude.

But it was *riveting* to read it. And it's also very pretty to watch...Coster-Waldau looks a lot like him so it was a little ways into the Uncanny Valley once or twice.

>205 karenmarie: Any time you need pointers ...
;0)

>211 richardderus: That wasn't easy, I found 8 on my own, and then clicked the spoiler for #3, #5, #9, #11 and #12. #8 should have been LOVE!

Happy Sunday, Richard dear!

>218 FAMeulstee: Heh, that would've worked but maybe *too* well.

I'm impressed that you found that many...doing the same exercise in Dutch would've been very tough for me.

>217 humouress: ...oh no...

Well. This is a turn-up.
Wordle 259 2/6

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Very fun!

>220 richardderus: You know, some people don't call other people horrible names when they do well at Wordle. You're not one of those. (Neither am I, don't worry. I'm not letting my standards slip.)

>221 humouress: Somehow I'm not surprised. It was a rare treat to get The Flash of Green!

Hiya, RDear. Happy Saturday to you.

>214 richardderus: Okay, downloaded.

>217 humouress: Thank you, Nina. Is there a supervillainess called Asserto-Woman? Those are the powers I need sometimes.

>220 richardderus: Harrumph. Congratulations, I guess. It took me 4.

*smooch* from your own Madame TVT Horrible

>223 karenmarie: Oh, I won't rub it in (further) because both you and Nina had the awful luck of forgetting you'd got one of the letters. That just scalds me!

"Asserto-Woman" would be the ArchSuperVillainess! You know how men *luuuuuv* being corrected.

*smooch*

>211 richardderus: I was surprisingly good at that. Got them all but #7 took me ages when it ought to have been one of the easier ones.

Have a great weekend dear fellow.

>223 karenmarie: We can arrange that.

And we have the perfect testing ground ;0)

>226 humouress: *eeeekkkk*

>225 PaulCranswick: Thanks, PC, it's been a corker so far. I hope it stays on course.

#7 is probably hard because pronunciation affects how one sees the words. The differences are so marked between those two!

>227 richardderus: No, RD, I think it it was because I followed literally and was looking for it in the middle of countries rather than at the end

>228 PaulCranswick: at the end of the name is right there, clean yer glasses!

>228 PaulCranswick: I know; as my boss celebrates a birthday her worse half is the one feeling older.

>214 richardderus: Got it with thanks!
>220 richardderus: Was happy to get it in 4. Congrats to you!
>211 richardderus: NO! I don't have time for this!! I have to learn Italian!!! SHOOT!!!!

>231 LizzieD: Oh good, Peggy, happy I could put you in the way of a good read for so cheap.

Thanks! I was bemused, but delighted, to have the green flash.

G'wan g'wan it's just a few minutes away from the cares and woes...*evil laughter*

Happy weekend *smooches*

Hi, Richard! Happy Saturday! Congrats on your Wordle "got it in 2" score today. I thought I did astonishingly well to get it in 3.

>234 Storeetllr: Three's great! That's when you know skill enters into it...two's just a bolt of good luck (but still fun).

>233 bell7: *smooch*

Morning Richard!

Now it's my time to brag-I thought I would let you know that I got wordle in two tries today.....just saying ;)

>236 figsfromthistle: I got it in 2 today also.

‘Morning, RichardDear, and happy Sunday to you.

It's going to be a disgusting 82F here today. No, no, and no. Chances for snow are diminishing quickly. Just one more snow, preferably 2-4" of powder. There, I've put my order in.

>226 humouress: Oh yes, we do have the perfect testing ground, Nina, but I must say that most of the men I hang around with here on LT don’t require being asserted against very often, if at all. Of course, there’s the one member who ghosted me in February of 2020 after I was continuing a PM. I deleted the PM and blocked him – classic passive aggressive behavior that could have used Asserto-Woman.

Happy Sunday, Richard. Our first over-nighter with Jack was a sucess, (but babies can be exhausting. How do those Moms due it 24/7?). He is napping now and Bree will scoop him up later. Blustery and overcast here today, so it will be a good day to hunker down with the books. Read very little yesterday.

I hope you having a good weekend.

Ahem.
Wordle 260 3/6

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It was a good, solid five minutes of pattern-checking and then *wham* I knew what it was and was correct. My most-enjoyed way of getting the answer. (Next to sheer good luck, or "2".)

>239 msf59: Oh! You mean being older and needing sleep the way the baby does gets in the way of enjoying baby-care time? I swaNEE!

>238 karenmarie: ...February 2020...?

82°! Omigawd. I am so so glad I don't live in the South anymore. That kind of heat makes me miserable.

>237 thornton37814:, >236 figsfromthistle: Yay! That's really good going...I was *determined* it would be a three day for me, so I spent the pondering time instead of just guessing like I usually do.

Burgoine #16

ARKHANGELSK by ELIZABETH BONESTEEL

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Head peace officer Anya Savelova believed her people, living on a hostile planet in the ice-bound city of Novayarkha, were the last of humanity.

Until the day she learned they weren't.

When a starship from an Earth thought long dead appears in orbit over her world, Anya imagines an explosion of possible futures, offering her people the freedom to transcend the limiting environment of the planet they'd thought was their last refuge. In the starship's crew, Anya finds creativity, diversity, innovation-all things the colony has had to inhibit to survive.

Seeing her world through the eyes of the starship crew makes Anya look closer at her city's inconsistencies, oddities she's always been told to ignore. But the harder she pushes at the pieces that don't fit, the more her government perceives the strangers as a threat. There are secrets in Novayarkha, hiding in plain sight, that the strangers can't possibly understand-and Anya's drive to uncover them risks shredding the fragile web holding together everything she's ever known and loved.

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

My Review: Modestly enjoyable; the author's not aiming for brain-bending novelty, and so delivers solid, competent storytelling.

The most interesting thing is the set-up: one group of colonists leave Earth in what they imagine are its last throes only to discover, as they consolidate their hold on a new world, that the planet and the people survived. These groups are under some significant stresses. What matters is how they decide to cohabit the iceball they're going to be sharing. And then there are the wild ones who don't want to be told what to do...what to do about them now that things are even more complicated?

Briskly told, basically familiar enough in its execution, the pages turn and the planet that Earth's disease of H. sapiens has spread to sets about killing some infectious issues, I mean colonists. There are excerpts from "founding documents" and archives of Earth history. That works well to add depth and color to Author Bonesteel's tale.

I spent pleasant, if only modestly thrilling, hours learning about the Novayarkha being born as three poles of conflict settle in for a future together. Sci-fi readers will enjoy it, women who like stories about the ethical dilemmas women in power consider existential threats and decide to skate close to the winds of Decency to survive.

>242 richardderus: No idea what that means *slinks off, hands in pockets, whistling innocently*

>244 humouress:

>180 richardderus: no sooner do I arrive here, Richard, than I am immediately bludgeoned with a fantastic review of one genre that I can never resist....that of the terrifying Arctic disaster books. I've read many but this one sounds like I shouldn't resist. Against the Ice: The Classic Arctic Survival Story is now on the list.

>242 richardderus: That seems disturbingly familiar somehow.

>247 Familyhistorian: >242 richardderus: Yes. I have Mt. TBR for that very reason

‘Morning, RDear. Happy Monday to you.

>242 richardderus: Yup. Me all over. My tbr is currently at 2,336.

>243 richardderus: Pass, although in theory I should like it. Can’t figure out how to pronounce the title either.

*smooch*

Although I stumble over the tsundoku piles all over the house, I will feel no guilt. I can't read them if I don't have them, and I'm an ambitious old lady.

I'd probably like Arkhangelsk were its sisters not already in those above-mentioned piles. Anyway, filed for future acquisition.

Good morning! I've wordled in 4; could have been 3. Oh well.

>250 LizzieD: Morning, Peggy. I got it in three but it was a half-hour of cogitating between two and three that did it!
Wordle 261 3/6

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>249 karenmarie: Hard to deny that tsundoku, given how strong it runs among us. I found that illustration pleasing because, for once, there's not one of...them...in it.

*smooch*

>248 SandyAMcPherson:, >247 Familyhistorian: *bows*

>246 brenzi: *happy dance* I winged Bonnie! That wily book-bulleteer finally got hit!

"I’m not a mother, and for me, an element of the horror came from just imagining how overwhelming the pressure must be to provide a whole upbringing for a tiny living human being."
This right there is why I keep insisting y'all read this book.
Quote from: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/feb/26/catriona-ward-when-done-right-horr...

Happy Monday, RD. I was at the dentist. A crown needed. I am bummed. But I did snag a state first right afterwards. A lesser goldfinch. I think I have only seen them in Oregon. Birders have been swarming to this location. It may be the first Illinois sighting of this species.

Hey RD, Happy Monday, just swinging by to sat Hi!

>253 msf59: Ouch, I have innate fear of the dentist and that gives me the shivers. Congrats on the LGF. That's wild that you haven't seen them out there. Never knew what their range was, but they are a frequent visitor in our neighborhood.

>251 richardderus: I started from a different place but ended up with the same result.
Wordle 261 3/6

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>251 richardderus: >255 Familyhistorian: I had the same, in a different way
Wordle 261 3/6

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>242 richardderus: Given my proclivities, you may be amazed to learn that I first encountered this word only in 2022.

>257 ArlieS: Not at all. Unless one hangs around people like us, there's no reason to have encountered it. I don't remember exactly when I first heard it but it wasn't all that long ago.

>256 FAMeulstee:, >255 Familyhistorian: Three's a good result indeed!

>254 mahsdad: Hey there, Jeff! Mark got lucky indeed with his...whatever that bird is.

>253 msf59: Mark! *tsk* Calling the poor thing "lesser" isn't terribly polite, now is it? Shame!

Just dropping by to drop of ((hugs)) and **smooches**, RD, before you start another thread for me to fall behind on.

BTW - I actually managed to start and finish a book on my Kindle while I was gone. You should be so proud, lol. I have 2 more going on there as well.

>259 alcottacre: Hi Stasia! I'm deee-lighted that you're finally moving on the Kindle. I know from experience how tough it is to make the transition, but don't let it discourage you.

*smooch*

I hit a 3 yesterday, then struggled to a 6 today. Ho hum.

‘Morning, RDear, and happy Tuesday to you.

>251 richardderus: I never even noticed that there weren’t any of …them in that illustration. *smile*

>261 Helenliz: I ‘nailed’ it in 6 today, too. Harrumph.

*smooch*

>262 karenmarie: one of those "too many options" days.

Wordle 262 5/6

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Well, it was a change of course for the word-trend. I went negative, chose SLEET before getting SWEET.

>263 Helenliz:, >262 karenmarie:, >261 Helenliz: See above.

>262 karenmarie: I wouldn't expect that to be the first thing you notice, Horrible, you're a fan but not a fanatic.

Tuesday *smooch*

>260 richardderus: I am not moving on the Kindle. I am using it in emergency circumstances :)

((Hugs)) and **smooches**

>264 richardderus: I also got it in five tries guessing "spent" and "smelt" before coming up with it.

>267 bell7: For a word so simple, it took a lot of us a lot of brain-power to find it!

*smooch*

>266 alcottacre: Okay. You go right on with the emergency reading. I think it will worm its way into your good graces.

My annual seasonal sleepies are here early, and made a lot worse by the fact that I need to come off my thyroid meds until we figure out why I'm losing weight I'm not trying to lose. Occam's razor says it's most likely that the thyroid's getting too much go-juice. I'm still sleepy, though.

Which is the biggest reason I'm only spottily around here. No energy.

>269 richardderus: Stopping with thyroid meds is hefty, Richard dear, and still sleepy combined with no energy is not a good sign imho. Are you slowly going down with the thyroid meds?

*smooches*

At least your brain comes up with free movies while you sleep. Hope the thyroid med adjustment helps.

>264 richardderus: It was too nice a word given current trends. That's my theory about why it was hard to find.
Wordle 262 5/6

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Good luck getting the thyroid meds sorted out.

>272 Familyhistorian: You aren't kidding! I was surprised that it was chosen by their apparently all-knowing algorithm.

>271 jnwelch: This is true, I don't diminish that pleasure.

>270 FAMeulstee: It was, as is usual for US healthcare for the poor, poorly thought out and executed without any slightest concern for my comfort.

I hope you're able to get the weight loss and thyroid meds sorted, Richard. Sounds most awful.

I sympathize with your annual sleepies, though I get mine in the winter and am starting to come out of it with daylight savings time on the horizon.

>268 richardderus: I think it will worm its way into your good graces.

Not holding my breath on that one!

>269 richardderus: I can relate to the sleepies, RD, as the COVID and my CFS have been doing me in lately. I hope that the thyroid issues are resolved for you soon!

((Hugs)) and **smooches**

>273 richardderus: So sorry, Richard dear, your heathcare isn't good.
Was you blood tested to confirm this hypothesis? Probably not, if I read well in between the lines :-(

‘Morning, RDear, and happy Wednesday to you.

>269 richardderus: I’m sorry about the thyroid meds/weight loss woes.

extra *smooches* today

>277 karenmarie: Luckily for me there's an endpoint, a new homeostasis; it's just *getting*there* is unpleasant.

Today I feel markedly better than I did yesterday, for example, and it's as dismal a day as any I can think of! (Rain, 40°)

Thanks for the extra *smooch*

>276 FAMeulstee: *laughs Americanly* You answered your own question, Anita. I sigh, I really do. *smooch*

>275 alcottacre: Heh. You just wait, 'Enerey 'Iggins, You just wait!

*smooch*

>274 bell7: It's usually the Great Stupid Change that triggers my sleepies. It's not 1920, let's drop the damned time change already!

*smooch*

>269 richardderus: Don't they have tests for that. IIRC, my doctor does blood tests that measure thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) - if I'm producing too little of that, it means my body thinks I have too much thyroid hormone, and need less. (Of course that does assume your medical issue there is similar to mine, which it might not be.)

Unintended weight loss seems very worrisome to me. But my aunt had that symptom and was misdiagnosed as depressed, when in fact she was developing cancer. For all I know, that was very unusual; but the "availability heuristic" makes me worry. (And FWIW, when *I* had unintended weight loss 20 years ago, it was successfully handled with SRIs, time off work, and a more congenial job. But mine came with digestive issues.)

>273 richardderus: *hugs* and sympathy. What a country.

>279 richardderus: re thyroid tests - I see. How incredibly idiotic.

>280 ArlieS: It's all just so depressing...but no, cancer isn't likely to be the culprit, thank goodness.

I'll be fine, I know, but it's irritating to need to go and beg and/or demand the simple, commonsensical basics.

>281 richardderus: Glad the big "C" isn't likely the cause.

Happy Thursday, Richard dear!

Hugs - glad you are feeling perkier, long may it continue.

Wordle 264 4/6

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Not too shabby, not that great.

>284 BekkaJo: Thank you, Bekka!

>283 FAMeulstee: Thursday orisons, Anita. Smooch

>282 thornton37814: It is a relief...the most recent bloodwork in January (and was that a struggle to get done!) checked for those specifics.

Happy Thursday!

I hope that you are able to get your Thyroid levels back to normal soon and find the right medication dose.

Sweet Thursday, Richard. I missed the news about you not feeling well. I hope they have got this under control and you are feeling better. Fingers crossed. We have 3 very cold days ahead and then a very nice warm-up coming.

'Morning, RDear!

Just getting started on my coffee, watching birds on the feeders. I'll be having lunch with the Branch Librarian today - she and I have become friends and I always enjoy our conversations. I'm still not eating out in restaurants so will bring takeout, most likely a grilled chicken salad for me.

*smooch*

>289 karenmarie: Hey there, Horrible. Enjoy your lunch out with the Branch Librarian...it's such a treat to see someone new and different, isn't it? *smooch*

>288 msf59: It's been pretty low-key, Mark, nothing dramatic and so it's not likely to make waves. I felt better yesterday and the same as yesterday this morning, so permaybehaps my system is rebounding a bit.

>287 figsfromthistle: Hi Anita! Let's hope, right? Since I'm still doing better than I was on Tuesday here on Thursday, I'm hopeful.

Hope today is seeing you improve, RD! ((Hugs)) and **smooches**

Congrats on the Wordle two and done! Sorry about the thyroid mess. You know I empathize. : ( Smooches.

>290 richardderus: Glad to hear you are feeling a bit better RD.

>293 Caroline_McElwee: Thank you, Caroline, I'm pleased to say I'm feeling ordinary today.

>292 Berly: I do indeed, my dear, I do. I wish we could just resign our burdens of health!

>291 alcottacre: *smooch* Thanks, m'dear!

>285 richardderus: Better than my result, Richard.
Wordle 264 5/6

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I ended up with multiple tries on the letters 3 and 4.

>295 Familyhistorian: It's all in service of The Streak, Meg, and that remains unbroken. I am content with that for now.

>285 richardderus: Totally different pattern, but I got it in four as well.

Glad to hear today is a better day!

>297 bell7: Thanks, Mary! I'm pleased it's been a better day as well. *smooch*

>131 richardderus: I don't think too terribly many of my regular readers are in it for horror reads. If that's you, skip this review.
Well, I didn't skip the review, but I did get a sense of the horror!

I get more 5s than 3s these days in Wordle, but mostly 4s. Paul Cranswick (that dastardly man) has put me on to Quordle now, and he's lucky I am under the weather, as I have been Quordling today. It could be the virus (not novel corona, according to my home test kit) but it is really messing with my head trying to do 4 words at once! Nevertheless, I got the following in a practice round!

>299 LovingLit: Hiya Megan! I'm so freaked out...there's this big blank space there!

Re: >131 richardderus: I think you're one who will really enjoy it. Her utterly chilling voice would really speak to you.

>300 richardderus: whoa, what? No text at all?

Wordle in 4, Quordle in 3, 5, 7, 8.
And it is Friday, the world could be worse.
Hope you're on the road to feeling better RD.

My very first X/6! Statistically it had to happen....
Wordle 265 X/6

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Too many choices. Bad luck, but 40 is a decent streak.

>303 richardderus: You and me both today, Richard dear.

>304 FAMeulstee: Just too many choices, not enough guesses, eh what?

>302 Helenliz: Hi Helen! I'm feeling a great deal better, thanks.

I lost Wordle for the first time today. A streak of 40 isn't awful, though.

>301 LovingLit: Huh! Weird, isn't it. *smooch*

Hiya, RD, and happy Friday to you.

>303 richardderus: It took me 6 today, too. Sadly, I chose latch on try 5, but thank goodness I chose watch instead of catch on try 6. They are tricky with using letters twice sometimes.

Happy Friday, RD. I hope you continue to improve! ((Hugs)) and **smooches**

>305 richardderus: Comisery:

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Yeah, too many options: even if they'd given you the last 4 letters, you'd only have an 86% chance of winning.

>303 richardderus: I got Wordle today but Worldle confused me totally. They cheated as the answer was somewhere that isn’t even a proper country!

>309 SandDune: Yep; I could see what part of the world it was in but ignored that option because I didn’t know it was a country. I thought it was my mistake but I’m quite happy to agree with you :0)

I spent ages hunting around that part of the world on the map (I give myself 3 goes and then go hunting).

>309 SandDune: - Yes! I was defeated by their "cleverness". GRRR.

Morning, RD! Sorry about Wordle, but as you say, 40 is an excellent streak! Enjoy this beautiful day.

>311 katiekrug: Hiya Katie! It's a stunner, isn't it. Bright and warm-enough and just about perfect! I'm content to start afresh. It's my first-ever scrub so I'm ready for tomorrow.

>311 katiekrug:, >310 humouress:, >309 SandDune: This Worldle of which you to speaking are, is what it?

>309 SandDune: The choices defeated me....

>308 swynn: Perzackly. Ah well, luck was not on our sides today. New streak starts tomorrow.

>307 alcottacre: Thank you, Stasia! *smooch*

>306 karenmarie: The possibilities were overwhelmingly numerous. And, as Steve says, even starting with the last four letters, you only have a reasonable chance of getting the correct answer with six tries!

*smooch*

>312 richardderus: - https://worldle.teuteuf.fr/

It gives you an outline of a country or I guess a territory (today's was weird), and you have 6 guesses to get it. After each wrong guess, it provides directional and distance clues to help you get it right. Some days it's stupidly easy but others are a challenge. I fail at it much more often than at Wordle.

>314 katiekrug: ¿Qué? Lo siento, señora, pero no me entiende.

*flees eville addictive puzzle-vibe*

>315 richardderus: - You can only play once a day like Wordle, so what's another few minutes out of your day?

>312 richardderus: Worldle is guessing the country at https://worldle.teuteuf.fr/
But today we are complaining because it wasn't a country.

>317 FAMeulstee:, >316 katiekrug: ...but it even says "territory" and Guernsey is a territory...

>318 richardderus: - Right you are. I never read the text on the site :)

>319 katiekrug: There are other issues with that site, but not lack of information!
***
Remember how hard I shoved y'all to get on board the djinn-train when A Master of Djinn came out? Well...now it's a FINALIST FOR THE 57th ANNUAL NEBULA AWARD—BEST NOVEL! Winners will be announced 21 May 2022 at the Online Nebula Conference awards ceremony.

Hey RD. Ooo, I forgot about A Master of Djinn. I read The Haunting of Tram Car 015 and really enjoyed it. This one's going on the list

>321 mahsdad: Enjoy it, Jeff! I hope it wins the Nebula.

>303 richardderus: Commiserations, Richard. 40 is a good round number for a streak. My maximum streak is 20 (also a good round number so I'd better watch it.)

>320 richardderus: Oh yay! That was one of my favorites of 2021.

Sorry about the Wordle - I lucked out and got it in four, but I know that was pure luck because of all the possibilities.

'Morning, RDear. Snow and sleet, eh? We had thunderstorms last night and now a cold front's come through. It will be 19F tonight, and I'm looking at our currently-flowering stuff with nostalgia, as it will probably be blackened tomorrow.

*smooch*

Weekend drive-by smoochings!

-Red-winged Blackbird

Happy Saturday, Richard. I hope you are feeling even better today. I am wrapping up Winesburg, Ohio. I will end up liking it quite a bit and I recognize the influence it had on many other writers.

Wordle 266 5/6

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I wish I'd been correct with guess #4 TOPAZ because I like that word better.

Current streak: 1.

>327 msf59: Thanks Birddude, it's an ugly mess of a day outside so I won't venture out. It does, I'm afraid, make me feel achy.

Beautiful shot of the blackbird!

>326 MickyFine: *smooch*

>325 karenmarie: Oh dear, Horrible, I really hope they make it through the night!

Lovely reading weather, though...snuggle up with a book, get really stuck into it. *smooch*

>324 bell7: It makes me happy to see it on the Nebula list, too, Mary. I think his imagination probably exceeded his craft a bit, though, so winning's not that likely. *smooch*

>323 Familyhistorian: I'm content with this streak as my first, and hoping I can make the next one at least twice as long.

Hey, finished Sorrowland on the plane back from Montana yesterday. Wow, Solomon is a writer of note! Loved both of their books that I've read.

>330 drneutron: I'm really glad that you're enjoying Author Solomon's work, Jim. I think they're a very talented creative with strong craft chops, a combination that is rarer than I would like.

Hope your thyroid issues are continuing to wane. I no longer have a working thyroid, so I have to take synthetic thyroid every day, and twice a year get tested and every so often must have the dosage recalibrated. Your unintended weight loss is worrying. I hope they figure out why it's happening. (My first thought was perhaps it's the food they're serving you, but then thought that could be taken as a bit flippant so decided not to say it. Then I decided it's a real possibility so why not?)

Wordle yesterday almost defeated me too. There were just too many possibilities. I did get it in 6, but, like >306 karenmarie:, only because I chose the w over the c. A streak of 40 isn't too shabby. So far I've gotten the word on the daily, but I failed twice on the archive. (Yes, I know I said I wasn't going to do the archived Wordle puzzles, but - Addiction is a terrible thing.)

>314 katiekrug: 🎵I'm not looking. 🎶 No, I'm not. 🎶 Backing away slowly. 🎶🎶 Lalalalala 🎵🎶

>332 Storeetllr: Thanks, Mary...I'm actually 2lb over my last-month's weight, so I think the issue's been identified and resolved; I'm feeling significantly better now than I was during the initial adjustment, so that's very happy-making.

The probability of something that hasn't changed, like my diet, causing significant change isn't likely; the medication, unchanged, has the probability of making changes in my body because that's what the medication is supposed to do, after all.

I was pleased to be starting a new strak with a 5/6 today!

*smooch*

>33 bell7: I am very happy to hear that the issue is now a non-issue, RD. I know that thyroid issues can be tricky, so I hope it stays fixed.

((Hugs)) and **smooches** for a happy Saturday, RD!

>314 katiekrug: I am perhaps the only person on LT who does not play Wordle, but that one looks fun. I might need to give it a try.

Hi Richard. In my skim-through, it sounds like your thyroid issues are resolving, or getting addressed helpfully, yes?

>333 richardderus: One thing about being late to the party is that I get to see a good resolution only a few minutes after being worried. Stay in good health, Richard. You are precious.
>330 drneutron: Although I can't bring myself to call Rivers Soloman "they," I need to take a good luck at Sorrowland. Thanks to Jim for reminding me.
>320 richardderus: Wow! I liked the beginning of A Master of Djinn but thought I had to read something else at the time. Thanks for the reminder, and I'm off to look at the rest of the Nebula list.
*smooch*

>335 EBT1002: No, not the only one who doesn't play Wordle. But I do spend an inordinate amount of time playing Text Twist 2.

Hey look! I wrote something else. *smooch*

Hiya, RD, and happy Sunday to you.

*smooch* from your own Horrible

>305 richardderus: Broke my streak as well with this one! Glad you are feeling better. *smooch*

Wordle 267 5/6

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I wish I had....

I was trying to get this thread through to the Ides of March...the 15th...but there's no way I can stand its rendering time any longer. Later today, then.
***
>340 ronincats: Hi Roni! A streak will always end, but that word breaking it just really ruined my mood.

>339 karenmarie: Hey Horrible! A happy-Sunday *smooch* back.

>338 AuntieClio:, >337 AuntieClio: *attempts to wrap brain around Wordle-resistance*
*cascading failure in 3...2...1*
Happy to see you writing! *smooch*

>336 LizzieD: *baaawww* Thank you, Peggy, I appreciate being appreciated.

Singular-they is the older form of use...just a reminder...

Enjoy A Master of Djinn, and the rest of the Nebula list that you can get to. As it's the writers themselves doing the honoring, I think it should be a pleasurable experience.

>335 EBT1002: The initial withdrawal from synthroid is over; now, at baseline, we'll see what happens next. I'm already gaining weight, and I badly needed to, so that's good. Let's see how my moods and emotions respond...the *instant* I start feeling the old, bad stuff, back to the doc I go.

*smooch*

>334 alcottacre: Hi Stasia! *smooch*

>341 richardderus: Haha, I thought that exact same thing when I got it (in 4). (Perhaps I had more of it than you today.)

Glad to know things look like things are resolved on the health front!

>344 Storeetllr: Hi Mary! Let's say they're resolvI>ing and now we'll have to see if it's for better or worse.

Happy sparkling Sunday!

My new thread is up!