mahsdad's (Jeff) 2022 Thread - Q2

Byenveni nan Trimès De, ak ti kwen mwen an nan mond lan

If you're new, my name is Jeff. I live in Southern California. I'm an avid reader. My wife might say I'm bordering on the obsessive. But then, I think that could apply to a lot of us in this group. I also enjoy photography, movies, hiking and playing games and hanging out with my family. Book-wise, I have a pretty eclectic taste in what I read and I hope to give you not so much reviews but my impressions about what I read.

What you will find here is mostly my rambling, way too many (according to some :) ) Wishlist and TBR pile temptations and a smattering of my photography. I don't really make a plan for what I'm going to read thru out the year. Its mostly what strikes my fancy from the TBR piles.

Past 75 Threads : 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021

Come on in and sit a spell...

2022 Statistics - Q2

A - Audio
ER - Early Review
GN - Graphic Novel
K - Kindle
LL - Life's Library

June
39. All About Me!: My Remarkable Life in Show Business by Mel Brooks (A) :
38. Heretics of Dune by Frank Herbert (A) :
37. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: A Memoir of Life in Death by Jean-Dominique Bauby :
36. A Master of Djinn by P. Djeli Clark (K) :
35. Intercourse : Stories by Robert Olen Butler :
34. God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert (A) :
Favorite : The Diving Bell and the Butterfly


May
33. The Stranger by Albert Camus :
32. A Salad Only the Devil Would Eat : the Joys of Ugly Nature by Charles Hood :
31. Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin (A) :
30. The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami :
29. Master of the Revels: A Return to Neal Stephenson's D.O.D.O. by Nicole Galland (A) :
28. Less by Andrew Sean Greer :
27. Grave Peril by Jim Butcher (A) :
Favorite : A Salad Only the Devil Would Eat


April
26. Music is History by Questlove (K) :
25. The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt (A) :
24. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka :
23. No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy (A) :
22. The Plague by Albert Camus (A) :
21. Severance by Robert Olen Butler :
Favorite : A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian

2022 Statistics - Q1

A - Audio
ER - Early Review
GN - Graphic Novel
K - Kindle
LL - Life's Library

March
20. Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Dana :
19. Juneteenth by Ralph Ellison (A) :
18. Children of Dune by Frank Herbert (A) :
17. City of Secrets by Stewart O'Nan (A) :
16. Blindsight by Peter Watts (A) :
15. The Five Wounds by Kirstin Valdez Quade (K) :
Favorite : City of Secrets


February
14. The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O by Neal Stephenson (A) :
13. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess :
12. The Princess Game by Soman Chainani (K) :
11. Speak by Louisa Hall :
10. Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut (A) :
Favorite : A Clockwork Orange


January
9. The Cold Millions by Jess Walter :
8. The Big Trip Up Yonder by Kurt Vonnegut (A) :
7. Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert (A) :
6. Fool Moon by Jim Butcher (A) :
5. Rosewater by Tade Thompson (LL) :
4. Vacationland: True Stories from Painful Beaches by John Hodgman (A):
3. Gods without Men by Hari Kunzru :
2. Hazel & Gray by Nic Stone :
1. Some Remarks: Essays and Other Writing by Neal Stephenson (A) :
Favorite : The Cold Millions

Audiobook Narrators

Jeff Cummings - Some Remarks

John Hodgman - Vacationland: True Stories from Painful Beaches

James Marsters - Fool Moon, Grave Peril

Simon Vance - Dune Messiah, Children of Dune, God Emperor of Dune, Heretics of Dune

Phil Chenevert - The Big Trip Up Yonder

David Strathairn
Maria Tucci
Bill Irwin
Tony Roberts
Dylan Baker - Welcome to the Monkey House

T. Ryder Smith - Blindsight

Edoardo Ballerini - City of Secrets

Joe Morgan - Juneteenth

James Jenner - The Plague

Tom Stechschulte - No Country For Old Men

Jonathan Haidt - The Righteous Mind:Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion

Too Many to Name - Master of the Revels

Ron Butler - Notes of a Native Son

Mel Brooks - All About Me!

Pulitzer's Read

Ongoing bucket list to read all the Pulitzer winning novels. Santa was very good to me this year on this front, so I got plenty to work with

Bold : On the Shelf
Strikeout : Completed

Total Read - 34
2022 - The Netanyahus
2021 - The Night Watchman
2020 - The Nickel Boys
2019 - The Overstory
2018 - Less
2017 - Underground Railroad
2016 - The Sympathizer
2015 - All the Light We Cannot See
2014 - The Goldfinch
2013 - The Orphan Master's Son
2012 - NO AWARD
- Swamplandia - Nominee
2011 - A Visit from the Goon Squad
2010 - Tinkers
2009 - Olive Kitterridge
2008 - The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
2007 - The Road
2006 - March
2005 - Gilead
2004 - The Known World
2003 - Middlesex
2002 - Empire Falls
2001 - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
2000 - The Interpreter of Maladies
1999 - The Hours
1998 - American Pastoral
1997 - Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer
1996 - Independence Day
1995 - The Stone Diaries
1994 - The Shipping News
1993 - A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain
1992 - A Thousand Acres
- My Father Bleeds History (Maus) (Special Awards & Citations - Letters)
1991 - Rabbit at Rest
1990 - The Mambo Kings
1989 - Breathing Lessons
1988 - Beloved DNF
1987 - A Summons to Memphis
1986 - Lonesome Dove
1985 - Foreign Affairs
1984 - Ironweed
1983 - The Color Purple
1982 - Rabbit is Rich
1981 - A Confederacy of Dunces
1980 - The Executioner's Song
1979 - The Stories of John Cheever
1978 - Elbow Room
1977 - NO AWARD
1976 - Humboldt's Gift
1975 - The Killer Angels
1974 - NO AWARD
1973 - The Optimist's Daughter
1972 - Angle of Repose
1971 - NO AWARD
1970 - The collected Stories of Jean Stafford
1969 - House Made of Dawn : DNF
1968 - The Confessions of Nat Turner
1967 - The Fixer
1966 - The Collected Stories of katherine Anne Porter
1965 - The Keepers of the House
1964 - NO AWARD
1963 - The Reivers
1962 - The Edge of Sadness
1961 - To Kill a Mockingbird
1960 - Advise and Consent
1959 - The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters
1958 - A Death in the Family
1957 - NO AWARD
1956 - Andersonville
1955 - A Fable
1954 - NO AWARD
1953 - The Old Man and the Sea
1952 - The Caine Mutiny
1951 - The Town
1950 - The Way West
1949 - Guard of Honor
1948 - Tales of the South Pacific
1947 - All the King's Men
1946 - NO AWARD
1945 - A Bell
1944 - Journey in the Dark
1943 - Dragon's Teeth
1942 - In This Our Life
1941 - NO AWARD
1940 - The Grapes of Wrath
1928 - The Bridge of San Luis Rey

Hugos Read

Ongoing bucket list to read all the Hugo winning novels.

Bold : On the Shelf
Strikeout : Completed

Total Read - 37

2021 - Network Effect
2020 - A Memory Called Empire - Arkady Martine
2019 - The Calculating Stars
2018 - The Stone Sky
2018 - All Systems Red - Novella
2017 - The Obelisk Gate
2016 - The Fifth Season
2015 - The Three-Body Problem
2014 - Ancillary Justice (DNF)
2013 - Redshirts
2012 - Among Others
2011 - Blackout/All Clear
2010 - The Windup Girl
The City & the City
2009 - The Graveyard Book
2008 - The Yiddish Policemen's Union
2007 - Rainbows End
2006 - Spin
2005 - Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
2004 - Paladin of Souls
2003 - Hominids
2003 - Coraline (novella)
2002 - American Gods
2001 - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
2000 - A Deepness in the Sky
1999 - To Say Nothing of the Dog
1998 - Forever Peace
1997 - Blue Mars
1996 - The Diamond Age
1995 - Mirror Dance
1994 - Green Mars
1993 - A Fire Upon the Deep
Doomsday Book
1992 - Barrayar
1991 - The Vor Game
1990 - Hyperion
1989 - Cyteen
1988 - The Uplift War
1988 - Watchmen - category : Other forms
1987 - Speaker for the Dead
1986 - Ender's Game
1985 - Neuromancer
1985 - The Crystal Spheres - David Brin - Short Story
1984 - Startide Rising
1983 - Foundation's Edge
1982 - Downbelow Station
1981 - The Snow Queen
1980 - The Fountains of Paradise
1979 - Dreamsnake
1978 - Gateway
1977 - Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang
1976 - The Forever War
1975 - The Dispossessed
1974 - Rendezvous with Rama
1973 - The Gods Themselves
1972 - To Your Scattered Bodies Go
1971 - Ringworld
1970 - Left Hand of Darkness
1969 - Stand on Zanzibar
1968 - Lord of Light
1967 - The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
1966 - Dune
This Immortal
1965 - The Wanderer
1964 - Way Station
1963 - The Man in the High Castle
1962 - Stranger in a Strange Land
1961 - A Canticle for Leibowitz
1960 - Starship Troopers
1959 - A Case of Conscience
1958 - The Big Time
1956 - Double Star
1955 - The Forever Machine
1953 - The Demolished Man

Retro Hugos - this are given for years when no award was given (more than 50 years ago). Of those...

1939 - The Sword in the Stone
1951 - Farmer in the Sky
1954 - Fahrenheit 451

National Book Award Winners

2015 - Fortune Smiles
2014 - Redeployment
2001 - The Corrections
1988 - Paris Trout
1985 - White Noise
1983 - The Color Purple - hardback award
1981 - The Stories of John Cheever - paperback award
1980 - The World According to Garp - paperback award
1953 - Invisible Man

Man Booker Books
2002 - Life of Pi
2009 - Wolf Hall - sadly I never finished this, never hooked me.
2015 - A Brief History of Seven Killings
2016 - The Sellout
2017 - Lincoln in the Bardo

The 75'r Chunkster List

1. The Overstory by Richard Powers
2. The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
3. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco READ
4. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
5. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell READ
6. The Witch Elm by Tana French
7. The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood
8. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr READ
9. Little, Big by John Crowley
10. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides READ
11. The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt
12. Possession by A.S. Byatt
13. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel DNF
14. The Queen of the Night by Alexander Chee
15. The Secret History by Donna Tartt
16. The Parisian : A Novel
17. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
18. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
19. The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami READ
20. Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson
21. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie OWNED
22. American Gods by Neil Gaiman READ
23. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay by Michael Chabon READ
24. The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu
25. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen READ
26. Skippy Dies by Paul Murray
27. A Naked Singularity by Sergio de la Pava
28. An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears
29. A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James READ
30. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson READ
31. The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe
32. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
33. Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin READ
34. JR by William Gaddis
35. Almanac of the Dead by Leslie Marmon Silko
36. Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon
37. Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany
38. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett READ
39. The Stand by Stephen King READ
40. Underworld by Don DeLillo
41. The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
42. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
43. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry READ
44. 2666 by Roberto Bolano
45. Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra
46. Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann
47. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
48. Parallel Stories by Peter Nadas
49. Women and Men by Joseph McElroy
50. A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth

Paul's Alternative 20

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
The Far Pavilions by MM Kaye
Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman
Saville by David Storey
To Serve Them All My Days by RF Delderfield
Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres
Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth
Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
Sophie's Choice by William Styron
Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving READ
The Singapore Grip by JG Farrell
Magician by Raymond E Feist
The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
A Chain of Voices by Andre Brink

Bill's Alternative Weird Dozen

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis READ
Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi
Rabbit at Rest by John Updike
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger READ
Cider House Rules by John Irving
The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo
The Book and the Brotherhood by Iris Murdoch
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak READ
August 1914 by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey
Lethal White by Robert Galbraith
The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams READ
11/22/63: A Novel by Stephen King READ
His Dark Materials Omnibus (The Golden Compass; The Subtle Knife; The Amber Spyglass) by Philip Pullman
The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer
Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling READ

2022 So Far Reading Results

Books Read : 20
Number of Authors : 17
Authors of Color : 4
Lady Authors : 3

Scatter Plot

The books I've read so far scattered by when they were published. Its only missing one book, the latest. It was published in 1840, and I didn't want to expand the dates that far. :)

2022 Books of the Month

January : The Cold Millions by Jess Walter
February : A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
March : City of Secrets by Stewart O'Nan



#botm

Happy new thread, Jeff.

Thanks Buddy! Glad you could stop by!

New Book - Audio

The Plague by Albert Camus



...Albert Camus' the Plague is a brilliant and haunting rendering of human perserverance and futility in the face of a relentless terror born of nature.

The unusual events described in this chronicle occured in 194- at Oran. Everyone agreed that, considering their somewhat extraordinary character, they were out of place there. For its ordinariness is what strikes one first about the town of Oran...

#newbook

New Book

Severance by Robert Olen Butler



The human head remains in a state of consciousness for one and a half minutes after decapitation. In a heightened state of emotion, people speak at a rate of 160 words per minute. Inspired by this, Robert Olen Butler wrote Severance, 62 vignettes, each exactly 240 words in length, that capture the flow of thoughts that go thru a person's mind after their head has been severed.

Mud - a man, beheaded by a saber-toothed cat, circa 40,000 BC. sharp the air with cold that comes so fast, and far we all run, along water turning to rock...

#newbook

Happy new thread!

Happy new thread, Jeff!

Happy April, Jeff. Happy New Thread! I hope those current reads are treating you fine.

>17 FAMeulstee: >18 msf59: Thanks Anita, Mark!

Happy new one! >15 mahsdad: sounds great!

Thanks Jim!

New Book

Severance isn't really a good one to take out into public (:/) and I'm almost done, so I picked another off the shelf, that, by title, seemed currently appropriate.

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka



When an elderly and newly widowed Ukrainian immigrant declares his intention to remarry, his intended turns out to be a voluptuous gold digger from the old country...As the intrigues multiply and secrets spill out, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian takes in love and suffering, family and ethnicity, sibling rivalry and the joys of growing old disgracefully.

Two years after my mother died, my father fell in love with a glamorous blond Ukrainian divorcee. He was eight-four and she was thirty-six.

#newbook

>15 mahsdad: Fascinating....

Happy new thread.

>22 richardderus: It was a very quick read. Only 240 words on each page. It was very interesting. More thoughts later, but it was more like reading poetry, as the premise suggests, not much in the way of a plot. LOL.

>23 mahsdad: I seem to recall that book - tough when all of a book's characters tend to lose their heads! Glad that it wasn't an entire miss for you, Jeff.

>15 mahsdad: Looking forward to what you have to say about this, super interesting!

>21 mahsdad: I enjoyed A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian when I read it, but that was years ago. I’ve read several of Marina Lewycka’s other books, but I don’t think they compare to this one.

>24 PaulCranswick: Hey Paul, Severance was by no means a miss for me. It was just a completely different type of book from what I was used to. It certainly had me going to the internet to see more history of the ones that were real people to get a better background on what actually happened. The only "bad" one that hit my wrong was Jayne Mansfield. I know this is fiction, but its an urban legend that she was decapitated during her accident. Turns out she wasn't, I know nit-picky. :) Looking forward to the flipside of the book (if you recall, it was a dual book), Intercourse.

>25 ursula: Hey Ursula, coming soon.

>26 SandDune: I'm definitely liking it so far (20+ pages in)

Lightning Round

I've gotten behind, here's my thoughts on my recent reads.

17. City of Secrets by Stewart O'Nan 8/10 : (AUDIO). A short novel telling the story of a Jewish refugee in Palistine right after WWII. He is part of an underground resistance cell fighting against the British occupation. He struggles with surviving the war and the increasingly violent "operations" he participates in. This was an interesting story, but I'm jaded, I love O'Nan and will read anything by him.

18. Children of Dune by Frank Herbert 8/10 : (AUDIO). Part 3 of the Dune series. Paul is dead (or is he) and his children are being targeted. More political intrigue on a planet that is changing. Then a story set in a scifi world takes a turn for an even more scifi premise. A good read, on hold for book 4.

19. Juneteenth by Ralph Ellison 7/10 : (AUDIO) The sequel to Invisible Man, published from unfinished manuscripts and notes after his death. He started working on it in 1954, he supposedly lost most of it in a fire in 1967, but that might have been a story to cover a lack of progress. An excellent audio performance by Joe Morgan, but it wasn't quite as impactful, to me, as Invisible Man.

20. Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana, Jr 8/10 : In 1834 Dana left Harvard and signed on to a cargo ship that was leaving for the West Coast. He spent 2 years sailing up and down California between San Francisco and San Diego collecting and processing cow hides and other cargo. Mostly a diary, but a very engaging story of life in our young country, doing a job that is almost unimaginable today. Ironically, for me, Dana is a big name in Southern California and San Pedro, but I'm not sure if he and his shipmates liked our area. A very good read, nonetheless.

Sunday, October 11th. Set sail this morning for the leeward; passed within sight of San Pedro, and, to our great joy, did not come to anchor, but kept directly on to San Diego...

Saturday, February 13th. Were called up at midnight to slip for a violent northeaster; for this miserable hole of San Pedro is thought unsafe in almost every wind. We went off witih a flowing sheet, and hove to under the lee of Catalina Island.

No pencil has ever yet given anything like the true effect of an iceberg.

#review

New Book - AUDIO

No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy



A harrowing story of a war that society is waging on itself, and an enduring meditation on the ties of love and blood and duty that inform lives and shape destinies, No Country for Old Men is a novel of extraordinary resonance and power.

I sent one boy to the gaschamber at Huntsville. One and only one. My arrest and my testimony.
I went up there and visited with him two or three times. Three times.
The last time was the day of his execution.

#newbook

I have two profound book memories as a young kid dealing with WWII. The first is one of my favorite books Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo by Ted Lawson. The true story of Doolittle's raid on Japan in retaliation for Pearl Harbor.

The second is The Man Who Never Was by Ewen Montagu. Its about MI-5's attempt to distract Hitler by making him think an invasion was coming to Greece, when it was really headed for Sicily. It was called Operation Mincemeat and involved letting a corpse with "important" documents wash up on shore for the Germans to find. Loved it.

Netflix is releasing a movie about it in May. It stars Colin Firth and a plethora of other British actors that I'm sure you'll recognize. Definitely on my watch list

https://youtu.be/zwkSyrN0mvY

>1 mahsdad: Happy new thread!!

Thanks Greg!

Originally typed this in at least yesterday, thought I posted it, but its now Friday and I found a stray tab with this text box still open. Whoops. :) Happy Friday!

Foto fantástica sexta-feira

Happy Friday from a parched and baking Southern California. We're having a bit of a heatwave 'round here and I don't like it. It was 90+ (33 for the rest of the world). Right now in my backyard it 86 and 3 (yes I said 3) percent humidity. Yikes. Stupid Santa Anas. Nothing to do but hunker down and wait for the onshore flows. And to add insult to injury (literally), I think I pulled a calf muscle with a leg cramp that woke me up early this morning. Actually felt a pop. 3 hours later its still hurting. Oh the joys of being "vintage" LOL.

Today's image comes from a walk I took down by the harbor last weekend when it was overcast. Notice the ships on the left. The gray one is the USS Iowa, one of the largest battleships ever made, and it is dwarfed by the floating monstrosity that is a modern cruise ship.



Book Update
>2 mahsdad: Q2 Books
>3 mahsdad: Q1 Books
>4 mahsdad: Audiobook Narrators

Reading - A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka. A very cringy (in a good way) family drama. About a third done
Listening - No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy. He's hit or miss for me. Loved The Road, but DNF'd Blood Meridian. Half way

>33 mahsdad: That cruise ship is obscene.

Happy weekend-ahead's reads!

Thanks Buddy!

What's even more obscene, is there's another one only slightly smaller behind them (to the left of the Iowa). They are both Princess Cruise Lines, and to those of us that are a certain age, what does Princess Cruises remind you of? The Love Boat, perhaps.

When the ships undock and make their way out to sea, they blast their horns. Their horns play the Love Boat Theme. Why, people why?!?!

>35 mahsdad: You just solved a mystery for me.

Yesterday, I heard a ship's horn, and then something that still sounded like a ship's horn, but (kind of) musical. And I couldn't quite place what it was playing ... a theme from a movie, maybe? Oddly familiar, but I couldn't come up with it. We looked outside trying to figure out what it was (it's Ramadan so there are also street musicians playing an assortment of instruments sometimes), and saw other neighbors also looking around trying to figure it out.

Of course, it was a cruise ship. There is a brand new cruise ship dock down the hill from our neighborhood, and I'm sure this is the first time we've really heard it. Guess I get to look forward to more of that.

>36 ursula: Ha! Disney also does it, when they used to dock in Pedro, they would play When You Wish Upon a Star thru their horns. I bet there are a lot of others that do it, to emphasis that its THEM that are coming into port. Its all about marketing.

Makes me feel good about living well inland.

>38 weird_O: I'm thrilled to live where it's way too shallow for those behemoths to approach!

Luckily I don't think Disney sails here, haha.

I like hearing the horns on the ferries, it is a comforting sound on foggy days. But now I realize that we were lucky for the past two years while the monstrous mall, etc on the waterfront was being constructed. Now that it's done, the cruise ships arrive. I wonder how often they'll come - guess I'll find out!

Weather is weird. Yesterday at about this time (8:30a) it was 77 and and about 10% humidity at my house (it eventually hit 92 and 3%), and today it’s 64 and 60%

Wordle 294 3/6

🟨🟨🟨🟩⬛
⬛⬛⬛⬛🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

This is probably my best ever. I saw a suggestion for a different set of words than I usually do. I used RATIO, then MENDS. The 3rd was going to be LUCKY which gets you all the vowels in 3. My other set doesn't get you all the vowels until 5

>40 ursula: Forgot to reply, It is very comforting to hear the horns on foggy days, we get them too, lots of cargo ships moving around in my area.

If you read any of the Donna Leon mysteries set in Venice with Guido Brunetti as the hero you will be familiar with Leon's hatred of the cruise ship industry. She says in the books that the cruise ships have turned Venice into a one-day theme park. This has ruined it because all of the things that made Venice a wonderful city have been replaced by kitschy shops that cater to the one-day visitors. It got so bad that Leon, who had lived in Venice for 35 years, in 2018 Leon moved to Basel, Switzerland. I read recently that Venice has now banned cruise ships above certain sizes from entering the Lagoon because the waves created by the ship displacement were damaging the canals and building foundations. There is a famous photograph taken of a cruise ship at the end of a Venetian canal where the ship dwarfs the Campanile at St. Marks. People looking at the photo think it is photoshopped and it's not. The ship really that big!

New Book

Music is History by Questlove



The LA Library is participating in the Big Library Read, and there are unlimited borrows available for this book right now (ebook). I like music, I like history, why not...

Music Is History combines Questlove’s deep musical expertise with his curiosity about history, examining America over the past fifty years. Focusing on the years 1971 to the present, Questlove finds the hidden connections in the American tapes- try, whether investigating how the blaxploitation era reshaped Black identity or considering the way disco took an assembly-line approach to Black genius. And these critical inquiries are complemented by his own memories as a music fan, and the way his appetite for pop culture taught him about America. A history of the last half-century and an intimate conversation with one of music’s most influential and original voices, Music Is History is a singular look at contemporary America.

As long as I can remember, I have been listening to music, and that means I have also been collecting it, categorizing it, buildig bridges between songs I loved from one era and songs I loved from another era, songs from one genre and songs from another. In retrospect, I was practicing a kind of history, through I wouldn't have used that word then, and I'm a little reluctant to use it now.

#newbook

>44 benitastrnad: I can't imagine taking a huge behemoth into such an intimate place like Venice. No thank you. I've only been on 1 cruise, and it was a small adventure cruise to Alaska, only 110 people. Perfect size, gourmet dinners, hiking and kayaking. The insane thing we noticed was that in Juneau where all the big ships dock, all the tourist stores that were there were the exact same stores that we saw in St. Thomas VI, when we were there for our honeymoon. Why go to someplace exotic and then just go to a chain store.

We were in Hawai'i, and found an excellent local fish restaurant that was basically empty when behind the building there was a line to get into Outback Steakhouse. SMH.

>45 mahsdad: Music is History is definitely going on my TBR! Thanks!

Karen O

>45 mahsdad:
That's a BB. Thanks for letting us know about the book. It might be the same kind of thing that Ken Burn's did with his Jazz series on PBS - only this is in book form. I love words, so I added it to my every growing list of things I might read someday.

>46 mahsdad:
I don't get the desire to eat at chain restaurants either. There is nothing so discouraging to me as to go to Omaha and find the same food I would in Tuscaloosa. Who wants that? Thank god for Runza.

>47 klobrien2: >48 benitastrnad: Glad to be able to contribute to our never decreasing mountain of "Want to Read"s. LOL.

>49 benitastrnad: Runza? Never heard of it. Looks pretty good!

Runza is a local chain. Runza is the German name for Bierochs. Bierochs and Runza's are the same thing, but us Bohemian's call them Bierochs. (those darn Germans steal all the good Bohemia ideas - including the Reformation and Budwiser.) I grew up on Bierochs/Runzas and love them. I will travel miles out of my way to get Runza's.

The Runza chain is only found in Nebraska, Iowa, and I think there are two stores now in Kansas. They might be in South Dakota as well. They are all over Nebraska. They can be found in any town of any size. There is one in Fairbury and I think it has a population of 5,000. There is one in North Platte and soon to be one in Chadron. To my surprise, when I looked on their web site, there are two Runza's in Colorado. I am shocked! I bet they are both in college towns, as those darn students probably raised cane until they got a Runza close enough to satisfy those cabbage cravings.

I don't brag to people about it - generally - but I ate a Runza in Schipol airport in Amsterdam. They make darn good breakfast eating. My sister was upset that I didn't have a phone I could take a photo of that happy event so that the Runza people could post it to their web site. She was sure it had to a one off in which everybody would be interested. Right?

Runza also has the world's best onion rings. It is the only place I will eat onion rings.

If I ever make it to the mid-west, I'm gonna look for them.

Also, you're Bohemian? How cool. So am I, well 1/4. That's where my paternal Grandmother's family was from.

Small world...

New Book - AUDIO

The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt



My wife read this recently and raved about it. She's brought it up in conversations several times and as a dutiful husband, it pays to listen to her suggestions and read this next (just finished No Country for Old Men)

Why can't our political leaders work together as threats loom and problems mount? Why do people so readily assume the worst about the motives of their fellow citizens? In The Righteous Mind, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt explores the origins of our divisions and points the way forward to mutual understanding. His starting point is moral intuition, the nearly instantaneous perceptions we all have about other people and the things they do. These intuitions feel like self-evident truths, making us righteously certain that those who see things differently are wrong.

#newbook

Chain restaurants?
Not so much for me either. I have stopped taking fast food this year so no MacDonalds, KFC or BurgerKing for me nowadays. I will occasionally go to Chilis or Nandos here but I am selective about what I order.

I much prefer independent restaurants and have my regulars that I have frequented often in KL and where I feel comfortable and assured of good service as this is often nearly as important as the food. Best way is to eat at home I am blessed by being married to a wonderful cook who has imparted her knowledge to Erni such that I am certain to eat well every single day.

I am 3/4 Bohemian. Three of my grandparents were bilingual and all were born here in the U. S. I have one grandparent who was English. English in the sense that she did not speak Czech. Anybody who didn't speak Czech in my hometown was considered to be English. My family is Bohemian and Moravian, but there are some from the eastern part of the country - the Slovak part, as well.

Yeah, we try to avoid chain restaurants in favor of local, independent food. The exception is Chick-fil-A because mrsdrneutron is addicted to their sweet tea. 😀

>56 drneutron:
Yuk!!!!! I can't tolerate sweet tea. Especially down here. It is really tea syrup. I also don't understand the Chick-Fil-A thing. It is friend chicken parts. What is so exceptional about that? Now I could get excited about Jacks. Love their BLT's. Of course, they only have them for about 6 weeks out of a year.

For Southern chain restaurants - I have an addiction to Waffle House. Love their hash browns. However, I rarely eat there as I make some killer hash browns at home so why go out and pay $10.00 for a plate when I can spend have that at home and have a plate that is just as good.

Yeah, its a big no on Sweet Tea for me, but then I love Mountain Dew and Dr. Pepper and they're just sugar water, so I got no reason to criticize. :)

Never been in a Waffle House. I have family in Florida so I've seen 'em. They also have one in Lancaster PA, where my company's head office is. It seems to be the place to go after the bars close to soak up all the alcohol. And that just ain't me anymore. LOL

Happy Monday! With no sweet tea or chain restaurants. ; )

Hey Kim, thanks for stopping by!

Jacks is a local chain that I have only seen here in the South. They do a fantastic Green Tomato BLT - and sell it as a breakfast sandwich! They only have them on the menu at certain times of the year and right now they are ON THE MENU!

I think that Waffle House is the South's best gourmet restaurant. I don't need to say another word about them, except that you should eat in one at least once.

The lock-down's really hurt Waffle House and that is sad as this is one company that is much like Starbuck's in its social programs for employees. They try to pay a good wage even though the work is hard at Waffle House and the hours are long. But it does seem to have a social consciousness that Chick-Fil-A lacks.

>61 benitastrnad: Waffle House - Ha! Alright, I'll trust your judgement. ;)

Oh my...yes, Waffle House is a Must Try.

Pickled green tomato BLTs are also a joy.

Hoto mai ban mamaki Jumma'a

What a difference a week makes. Last week I was baking at 86 and 3% humidity. Today its 68 and 64%. Much more pleasant. On tap for the weekend, finishing my taxes. Nothing like waiting til the last minute. No use giving Uncle Sam a ton of money before I have to, right? :) Hopefully we'll get out and about for a while, maybe to the local brewery. Have a great weekend all! Today's image comes from the California Science Center. We went up there on Sunday to see their new exhibit about Angkor : The Lost Empire of Cambodia. Very cool. While waiting to get in, I, of course, wander around looking for interesting images. And here is one...



Book Update
>2 mahsdad: Q2 Books
>3 mahsdad: Q1 Books
>4 mahsdad: Audiobook Narrators

Reading - A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka. 78% complete
eBook - Music is History by Questlove. Very interesting book. He has me going to Youtube all the time to find the songs and artists he references. 17% complete
Listing - The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt. 33% complete

Oh, that's cool!

This was a very interesting picture.

Very ophiucoid image.

Have a lovely, if taxing (!), weekend, Jeff.

>65 drneutron: >66 benitastrnad: >67 richardderus: Thank you all!

On the one hand, I feel very blessed that I am able to cover it, but on the other hand, man did Uncle Sam and his cousin Gavin take a sizable bite out of my fiscal ass. LOL. At least I waited until the last minute to let 'em do it.

Its a little late now, for this year, but so far I am quite happy with FreeTaxUSA. MUCH cheaper than Turbotax. I recommend trying it.

>69 mahsdad:
Since I am an anti-technology curmudgeon, I did mine in pencil, put a stamp on it, and mailed it last Tuesday. This is the latest I have ever done my taxes. I usually have them done the last week in February. Oh well! Unlike you I still get a refund, but my Alabama refund is paltry. Not even enough for a meal at a nice restaurant. And the nice restaurants here are cheap!

I don't do the online tax thing because the first year I tried it, I got nabbed for $25.00 to get the state income tax form! What I said? Pay to get the form? I think not. I went to the library - got the paper forms, and filled them out. Prior to that I did my taxes the easy way. I called the 800 number, punched in my numbers, the IRS figured my federal tax, and all I had to do was fill out the state form and send it off to Montgomery. Then I had to wait until June for the refund. I don't know why the Feds stopped doing the telephone thing. It was so easy. I could call at midnight and in 10 minutes I was done. Just another instance of when something works well, stop doing it so that you can aggravate people even more.

>70 benitastrnad: Oh to be so lucky as to just call in. That's the way it should be for everyone. Everybody reports everything to the IRS already anyway. Why do you need me to tell you what you already know. LOL.

You think $25 is bad for State (it was only 16.99 for this online service), the hilarious thing was, that if I wanted to pay for the charge by using my refund (not that I was getting one), I could happily do so. It would only cost me an extra $20 to allow them to deduct $16 from my refund? Ummm, what now?

21. Severance by Robert Olen Butler 8/10 : A collection of ultra-short not quite stories, about what goes thru someone's mind during the last minute and a half after their head has been cut off. Each story is 240 words long, as Butler surmises that we would talk at 160 words a minute when under stress, and I think you'd have a little stress after getting your head chopped off. Starting off with imagined people/creatures, like Medusa, St. George's Dragon and the Lady in the Lake, to all the British Kings and Queens, to the French Revolution to the victims of the fundamentalist in modern day Middle East, plus many others intermingled. A very interesting read

22. The Plague by Albert Camus 8/10 : (AUDIO) The story of life in a Algerian seaside town dealing with a plague that swept thru. It was an excellent read and eerily prescient in our day and age. Especially when he describes how the townsfolk ignore all the safeguards that the town leadership is putting in place as being overreaching and taking away peoples freedoms. Where have we heard that before. Highly recommend.

23. No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy 8/10 : (AUDIO) A small town sheriff, a violent murderer and just a guy cross paths after the guy stumbles upon a drug deal gone bad. Very violent, but a pretty good listen

24. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka 9/10 :A messed up family drama where 2 sisters have to put aside their differences to deal with their eccentric elderly father and his gold-digging new wife who came from the old country for a new life to live off the money of her rich husband, who actually isn't rich. Its a funny read about a family you can probably relate to, but certainly wouldn't want to be in. I've had it on my shelf for a couple years, but given how prominent Ukraine has been, I felt it was time to read it.

#review

>72 mahsdad: I thought the movie version of No Country for Old Men was really good too.

>73 drneutron: I keep meaning to watch it. Love the Cohen Bros.

>72 mahsdad: Severance "A very interesting read." I will take your word for it. The idea of even the briefest moment of awareness after decapitation is one of the creepiest things I've ever contemplated.

It was one of the weirder books I've read recently. But I like weird. :) Thanks for stopping by.

hi

Fantastyczny piątek fotograficzny

Hope everyone is well. I'm having fun with our health care industry this week. A couple weeks ago, I pulled something in my leg when I had a cramp in my sleep. A week ago the foot started swelling, so I finally went to the Dr, as it wasn't going away. Well I'm a 55 yr old overweight man who stereotypically hasn't been to the Dr in years, so going in to see someone about my foot triggered all kinds of things that at my age should be taken care of. So I'm going in on Monday for a veneous ultrasound of my foot, I'm tracking my blood pressure daily to see what's going on there (I'm borderline high), and I'm due for a colonoscopy (wee fun). We'll see what else is wrong with me next week when the bloodwork comes back. For the ultrasound, the Dr was checking on a preauthorization from insurance but they couldn't get thru, so I had to do it and it only took 6 calls (pleasant ones I'll admit) between me and insurance and me and DR to get the right codes to get the information that no I do not need preauthorization. Geesh, if that's the song and dance I have to go thru for one little procedure, what does the future hold. :). Okay TMI rant/post over. Hopefully the weekend will bring some nice weather, reading and who knows what else.

Today's image is one of the local fauna around the PV peninsula. Mark should swing by when he's done in AZ to add it to his life list. Enjoy...



Book Update
>2 mahsdad: Q2 Books
>3 mahsdad: Q1 Books
>4 mahsdad: Audiobook Narrators

eBook - Music is History by Questlove. I'm up to to 1988 in Quest's examination of current history thru the lens of popular music. About 52% done
Listening - Grave Peril by Jim Butcher. I finished up The Righteous Mind yesterday right as this one came off my Wait List. From the sublime to the ridiculous.

So I stumbled into a weird little corner of LT today. Our friend Bandito69 up there got me curious. Figured they were a bot, or spam. The only other place they posted was on the Manga and Anime Addicts Group. Its seems its a group of young people who chat about and post proxies to be able to watch Anime and read Manga at schools where the regular sites are blocked. A little sketchy if I do say so myself, but I'm paranoid. The odd thing about them is, that except for the admin, the several accounts I was nebby with, were all relatively new, and had no books cataloged. Why be on LT, if you're not going to keep track of your books

I think someone figured out that a library site wouldn't be blocked by a school, and they can use the Talk features. I bet most schools block Discord and other social media sites on their networks.

Interesting.

>79 mahsdad: Heh. Clever clogs!

>78 mahsdad: A peacock. Oh boy oh joy.

I hope for your sake that the damned thing doesn't decide to move in. They're appallingly messy and very, very noisy.

>80 richardderus: Yeah, mostly they're on the other side of the peninsula from me, but we do occassionally get a mom and her chicks getting away from it all. I was curious, as of last year sometime there ware 181 peafowl living on the peninsula. They were introduced/got away from the richy-riches who lived here a hundred years ago, and they established themselves.

They have a love/hate relationship with the folks around here. You either love 'em or hate 'em.

>79 mahsdad: Interesting indeed. >80 richardderus: Clever, indeed. 'Twould be a shame if this sort of activity got LT blocked from school sites, though.

Jeff, I enjoy reading all your opening lists. I know it takes a lot of time to pull every category together. Congratulations of your accomplishments!

>72 mahsdad: Hello Jeff. I just recently finished The Stranger by Albert Camus and really enjoyed it - was looking for other books by them to add to my list. I'll be adding The Plague and I think Severance - sounds intriguing.

>83 Whisper1: Hi Linda. Thanks. The hard part was several years ago when I first did them, now it’s just cut-paste and hoping the touchstone function can handle a long post all at once. 😜

>84 WhiteRaven.17: Hi Kro, thanks for visiting. Glad to be able to expand your WL.

Turn about is fair play. I’ll be adding the Stranger to mine. 😁

ETA. I actually have it. Now it’s just to find it.

Tell me you hate Santa Ana’s without telling me you hate Santa Ana’s….

Humidity yesterday was a pleasant 65 percent. Tonight it’s 20 and falling

>86 mahsdad: I expect to be inside and air conditioned for the next two days.

No A/C down here so, sweat and bear it for me. LOL.

65% ... so low?

I remember going running in the morning in Italy when it was 80F and 85% humidity. Fun!

Istanbul is also super humid. Right now it's 63%, which is not bad.

New Book

Less by Andrew Sean Greer



Who says you can't run away from your problems? You are a failed novelist about to turn fifty. A wedding invitation arrives in the mail: your boyfriend of the past nine years is engaged to someone else. You can't say yes - it would be too awkward. And your can't say no - it would look like defeat. On your desk are invitations to half-baked literary events around the world. Question: How do you arrange to skip town? Answer: You accept them all.

From where I sit, the story of Arthur Less is not so bad. Look at him: seated primly on the hotel lobby's plush round sofa, blue suit and white shirt, legs knee-crossed so that one polished loafer hangs free of its heel.

#newbook

>89 ursula: How did I miss you Ursula. Looks like we posted about the same time.

Humidity is always relative to the temp. When the temp is in the mid-70s and its 65 humidity not too bad, especially with an ocean breeze. But I grew up in Pittsburgh, had spent many an hour very sticky with 80/80, and no chance of rain. :) But too dry is bad too. Especially out here, that's fire weather.

Right now its 83/21 in the back yard. Sposed to cool off tomorrow.

Hoping you can stand the heat!

What a difference a day makes. 24 hrs later it’s 71/53. Much better. 😁

>93 mahsdad: It's still warmer than I expected, but it was definitely >71 mahsdad:° up here at 11AM.

>94 quondame: Nice seabreeze keeping things cooler out here on the edge. :)

For all...
If you are insane like me and are addicted to TikTok, you have to follow an account called longlukearnold. His page is called First Page Pajama Party. He reads the first page and only the first page of selected works. Today is 1984

26. Music is History by Questlove 8/10 : This was a free library read that I stumbled across in Libby. This is an interesting take on the history of the country and pop culture and music. Quest starts in 1971 and gives a short essay about what was going on at that time and how a particular musician, piece of music or trend is being affected and affecting what was going on. He is almost a savant with his musical knowledge, it had me going to Youtube several times to play the piece that he was talking about. He interspersed it with his experiences and playlists that match up to the various chapters. A really enjoyable read.

At the beginning of each chapter, he gives a quick overview of what was going on at the time. Just these were interesting to read and refresh my memories. Here's 1994

South Africa holds its first truly democratic, multiracial elections; Nelson Mandela wins and becomes President. Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman are murdered. OJ Simpson, a prime suspect in themurder of his ex-wife, leads police on a slow-speed chase in a white Ford Bronco driven by Simpson's friend AC Cowlings. The Northridge Earthquake strikes. Jeff Bezos founds Amazon. Baseball players strike. Aristide returns to Haiti after democracy is restored. Ronald Reagan discloses that he has Alzheimer's disease. The Chunnel opens, connecting England and France. The world's first Internet radio broadcast goes out from WXYC, the student station of the University of North Carolina.

Some other quotes:

History can be studied intentionally or experienced accidentally

If history doesn't pass through to the people who occupy the highest offices, there's bound to be trouble. A nation of ignorance holds us all back.

Disco is one of those magical words that conjures up an entire world: a mirror ball hanging from the ceiling, a dance floor lit up from underneath, women in big shoes, men in flared pants and big collars. It’s specifically generic. When it appears in a movie, in a TV show, the rules are clear, and if you execute it properly, no one will misunderstand where and when you’re directing their attention—an American city, most likely one with a sizable gay and Black population, late 1970s. What rises in their minds is less a setting than a sticker.

This is a bright line, really, between two ways of thinking about history, and specifically the history that’s happening all around you. Should you shut your eyes to the most painful parts? Should you narrow your gaze only to what concerns you and those close to you? Or should you open your eyes wide, take it all in, and then seek out pleasure, comfort, and joy despite what you have just taken in? Should you decide that things don’t matter or should you practice mind over matter?

Real history has plots, but it doesn’t always have Plot.

#review

>96 mahsdad: Music is History sounds great—I’ll hope to read it sooner rather than later! Have you seen “Summer of Soul,” which Questlove was so instrumental in getting made? That’s on my viewing list, for sure.

Have a great weekend!

Karen O

>97 klobrien2: Hi Karen. Glad to contribute to the height of your Mt. TBR.

I absolutely watched Summer of Soul, it was fantastic. In fact, I have to watch it again, because I was a bad boy and watched it without my wife. LOL.

>96 mahsdad: Ouch! Dang it. The list gets longer. :-)

>99 weird_O: Sorry Bill, its a never ending list. I saw a meme, that was a picture of the ghost librarian at the beginning of Ghostbusters, that said, when I die I want to come back as a ghost so I can continue reading from my TBR. LOL.

You might say something like Saint Peter don't ya call me, 'cause I can't go, I sold my soul to the TBR.

Kiʻi Kūlana Pōʻalima

Happy Friday everyone. Hard to believe that we're almost into May. Today's look into my world, is another medical update. Went to have the DVT ultrasound on my foot, results were negative. No clot so that's good, just some random swelling, I probably stepped on it wrong and pulled another muscle or something. Who knows, I'm old. But the visit did prompt me to get the physical that I haven't had in years. BP high, Sugar almost too high, Cholesterol too high. The usual suspects for an overweight middle aged white guy who is a computer desk jockey and main hobby and reason for living is sitting in a chair reading words on a page. LOL. We're working on the BP with some drugs and the sugar and weight by cutting down on the carbs (AHHHH No, is life worth living without bread). Oh well, at least I'm still above ground. Its book donation weekend at the library (they only do it once a month now), so hopefully we'll clear some out (especially my SIL's new age health books that we inherited), and not come home with too many more. :)

Today's image is from last weekend. There is an artist's conclave at the old Fort MacArthur base (they use the old buildings as studio space), and they had an open studio day, where you could go and wander around and see everyone's work. This is a stitched panorama looking out over Angel's Gate Park and the Korean Friendship Bell taken in front of one of the studios. Great inspirational views for the artists, if I do say so myself.



Book Update
>2 mahsdad: Q2 Books
>3 mahsdad: Q1 Books
>4 mahsdad: Audiobook Narrators

Reading: Less by Andrew Sean Greer. About 25% done
Listening: Grave Peril by Jim Butcher. Book 3 of the Dresden Files Series. Good thriller fun, with the magical/horror twist. Just over 50%

>102 mahsdad: So satisfying...sea views. Panoramas are just the best at capturing the nature of the horizon, aren't they...that bounded view of a much, much larger space somehow does it all.

Oh, nice panorama. I love the times I head to Kennedy Space Center for meetings, because the beach there is fabulous - just wide open horizons.

Happy Friday, Jeff. I love the Fort MacArthur image. Glad you got to the doctor's and are trying to get some health issues under control. Good luck, my friend.

>102 mahsdad: I've been to the Bell, but had no clue about the artists' conclave.

>103 richardderus: >104 drneutron: >105 msf59: Thanks for the photo love guys! If you're not using your phone, or your camera doesn't have a panorama mod, my tips are... Take many pictures and overlap a lot (their digital and they're free). This one was 11 pictures. If you can, keep the same exposure for all of the (my "big" camera has an exposure lock button). And hold your camera vertically. My final tip is use Microsoft's Image Composite Editor. Its free and its the best stitcher I've found. Very rarely do I have issues were you can see where each image starts, or have weird artifacts.

>105 msf59: Thanks Mark for the health encouragement. It was definitely time to get my "house" in order

>106 quondame: Yeah, there's a bunch of different stuff back behind Angel's gate. The artists, the Marine Traffic Center (think Air Traffic Control, but for boats), the Fort MacArthur museum, the marine mammal and waterfowl rescue centers and a couple high schools (yes 2). :)

Mariko Aoki phenomenon

Anyone heard of this before. Someone on TikTok was talking about it.

Its the urge to have to (if I can be indelicate), drop the kids off at the pool, when walk around a book store. Its been "a thing" since the 80's and they can confirm that it happens to some people, but don't know why. Very weird.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariko_Aoki_phenomenon

>45 mahsdad: I added this to my must-read list. I finished "Mo' Meta Blues" last year and really liked it. In fact, I enlarged my music collection thanks to Questlove's book.

>108 mahsdad: For those who read on the can, the explanation might be simple.

>110 quondame: 😂🤣

>109 ocgreg34: Hey Greg, I missed replying to you last night. I'll have to look for Mo' Meta Blues. I enjoyed his writing, will look for more.

It so feels like Friday today. Or maybe its just wishful thinking

>113 mahsdad: ...Friday the 13th...

Now you're even further into the future. That's NEXT week. In which I will be happily sitting in a beachside (well beach close) condo doing nothing but reading and watching the world go by. Laura and I are getting away to Avila Beach (north of Santa Barbara) to celebrate our 25th, only 2 years late. FU Covid. LOL.

عکس فوق العاده جمعه

Happy First Friday in May, it looks like its going to be a nice pleasant weekend out here on the Coast. Looking forward to our little get-away next weekend (so might just have an abbreviated post next Friday) to Avila Beach as I mentioned yesterday. Laura has a craftshow tomorrow, so I'll be on my own, but I'm sure I'll be able to find some ways to waste the day away. :)

Today I'm giving you several images to enjoy. Last weekend we went to the local Botanic Gardens. They have a new Butterfly enclosure where they are cultivating both native and exotic specimens. Here are a few..

Birdwing

Blue Morpho (blue's on the tops, couldn't get a shot)

California Sister

not sure


Book Update
>2 mahsdad: Q2 books
>3 mahsdad: Q1 books
>4 mahsdad: Audiobook Narrators

Reading - Less by Andrew Sean Greer. Ultimate running away from your problems story. Enjoying it quite a bit. Just shy of 2/3's done
Listing - Master of Revels by Nicole Galland. The sequel to Neal Stephenson's The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O, of which she was a co-writer. About 25% complete

Glad the foot is mostly okay and now that you have the bad news on health you can work to fix it. Or not! Bread is hard to give up.

Thanks for the photo stitching lesson. I don't do panoramic very often, but good to know.

I love Botanical gardens and Less! Happy Friday.

Hi Kim, yeah the whole medical thing wasn't anything I wasn't expecting, too sedentary over the last couple years, and at my age, its harder to win back any fitness I might have lost.

Panoramas, a lot of phones and modern pocket cameras (I have a panasonic that does) have built in panorama modes so don't have to do it manually so much, but its sometimes fun to do with the "big" camera.

>116 mahsdad: Pretty flutterbyes! That generic one at the bottom could be literally anything, but the California sister is unusual and lovely.

Avila Beach! Isn't that where the oil spill was in ~1998? Wear a gas mask....

>116 mahsdad: Those are fascinating.

>120 quondame:. Thanks!

>119 richardderus: You can go just about anywhere on the coast and there probably was an oil spill at some point. Especially up in that neck of the woods. I hadn't heard of the Avila Beach one, but looked and it was actually a spill on land that flowed down a gully, off a cliff and into the Pacific.

Here's some other biggies of recent years...

Santa Barbara - 1969, 2015
San Francisco - 1971, 2007
Huntington Beach - 1990, 2021

Happy Friday, Jeff. Love the butterfly pics. Is Cloud Cuckoo Land on your radar? If not, I think this would be just your cuppa.

>122 msf59: Hey Buddy, I was literally just going to come over to your thread and say Hey (I still will). Thanks.

Yes, Cloud Cuckoo Land is definitely on my radar, with all the praise going on around LT these days. I'll have to bump it up the list.

I just happened to go to the local Craft Market (its right beside the brewery where I intended to have lunch), where my closest used book dealer is, and find that it was her last day. She lives several hours away and keeping up the stock down here was not economically viable. So I got a few going away presents for myself

Glory Lane by Alan Dean Foster. I think I read this as a youth, but should be good scifi fun to reread
Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis "Loved" The Jungle, gonna give this a try, eventually
Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner Need more to fill out the Pulitzer ranks
Damien the Leper by John Farrow No idea. Its a biography and it caught my eye

I suppose these will count towards my Thingaversary in a couple weeks. Its my 15th (Holy Crap, how did that happen?!)

>125 mahsdad: So you've only got twelve to go to fulfill your Thingaversary obligation!

>126 richardderus: Yeah don't remind me. LOL. Maybe this year, I'll actually do it.

New Book

The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami



In the tales that make up The Elephant Vanishes, the imaginative genius that has made Haruki Murakami an international superstar is on full display.

I'm in the kitchen cooking spaghetti when the woman calls. Another moment until the spaghetti is done; there I am, whistling the prelude to Rossini's La Gazza Ladra along with the FM radio. Perfect spaghetti-cooking music.

#newbook

>128 mahsdad: The Elephant Vanishes is going on my list, buddy! (“The Out-of-Towners”; Jack Lemmon taking down names of people who have annoyed him; wonderful movie!)

Anyway, thanks for the lead!

Karen O

You're welcome (and thanks for the reminder about Out-of-Towners).

If/when you do get to it and you're a Murakami fan, don't get confused by the first story. Its called The Wind-Up Bird and Tuesday's Women. It would later become the first chapter of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. When I first started, I immediately thought, hey wait a minute, have I read this before? Wikipedia to the rescue...

צילום פנטסטי ביום שישי

Greetings from the lovely Avila Beach California. Laura and I are on a little get away to celebrate our 27th. Got up here last night, and went on a hike today where we encountered an angry OWG (old white guy), who went from asking us about the baby formula crisis to calling us Marxists all in the span of about 1 minute all at a yell. Love being yelled at by a stranger...Do Your Research. Oh and part of the beach we walked along happened to be a nude beach. Again, only OWGs, but surprisingly fit OWGs. Avert your eyes! :) Today's image, is NOT of that beach, but the pier in town. Enjoy...



Book Update
>2 mahsdad: Q2 Books
>3 mahsdad: Q1 Books
>4 mahsdad: Audiobook Narrators

Reading - The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami. A nice collection so far of interesting and od stories. Just about halfway done
Listening - The Master of Revels by Nicole Galland. Her return to Neal Stephenson's D.O.D.O time traveling world. Pretty good. About 75% done.

>131 mahsdad:
OWG's are everywhere. I have been surrounded by OWG for most of the week. I would hate to think that I would find them when I went on a get-away! I think the secret to avoiding them is not to talk to anybody. But that doesn't even work much of the time.

>131 mahsdad: Enjoy your stay, Jeff, and happy anniversary.
Angry OWG are all around, just like angry middle aged one's. I avoid them as much as possible.
The beach looks lovely in the late evening light.

>131 mahsdad: Happy 27th to you both!

I see a naked Old White Guy (who isn't me) with slightly repulsive regularity. I'll pass. The pier's much more attractive.

Happy Anniversary, you kids. I have to say, dealing with OWGs on a rant doesn't sound like a "get-away" to me, so I hope there are other, better moments ahead for you. Full disclosure: Am very close to celebrating a 50th wedding anniversary with one who is technically an OWG, which I guess makes me an OWL. But we never accost people on the beach or elsewhere with opinions, so there's that.

>132 benitastrnad: Our encounter was exactly that, we didn't even saying anything, except to answer one question (our mistake) and as soon as we mentioned pandemic...Katy Bar the Door..

>133 FAMeulstee: Thanks Anita.

>134 richardderus: Thanks RD! Yeah, somethings are just not meant to be seen. LOL.

>135 laytonwoman3rd: Thanks Linda. We rallied and have had some good adventures yesterday and today. Sadly we have to leave tomorrow, but we're going to stop in Santa Barbara on the way back down to get some more in. Congrats yourself on the almost 50, that's great.

I think there is a definite difference between those of us that are old, white and a guy, or a lady, and a true OWG, or OWL. Those are a breed unto themselves. :)

Went to Phoenix Books in San Luis Obispo today during our reconnoitering, a lovely used book store. Put another dent in my Thingaversary tally.

The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories by Mark Twain
Plainsong by Kent Haruf
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan

And one for Laura, that I'm still going to count cause I paid for it. LOL.

Alone Together: Why We expect More from Technology and Less From Each Other by Sherry Turkle

That's 5 more, so I'm at 9. Only 7 more to go.....

The Bauby makes my entire being break into a cold sweat. I hope you like the rest...*delicate lip-curl*

>138 richardderus: Yeah lock-in syndrome would be a definite non-starter for me. John Scalzi has a book called Lock In, with the premise is that a virus causes the victims to go into a locked in coma. Eventually they figure out how to connect their minds robot avatars and a new industry is born.

Totally forgot about BOTM for April...

2022 Books of the Month

January : The Cold Millions by Jess Walter
February : A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
March : City of Secrets by Stewart O'Nan
April : A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian by Marina Lewycka





#botm

As a middle aged white guy, Jeff, I am here not to pontificate but to say hi - thanks for the view of the pier and the constant friendship in this wonderful group.

Hey Paul, like I said to Linda, we (and I'm right there with ya), may be old, and white, but we ain't OWG. Thanks for swinging by. I thank you for your friendship too. I hope at some point long before we shuffle off this mortal coil we can meet in meat-space. :)

5 to go for my 15th Thingaversary

Went to the Santa Barabara Botantic Gardens on our way home. Picked up

A Salad Only the Devil Would Eat : The Joys of Ugly Nature by Charles Hood. Hilarous (if the first one is any indication) nature essays
To Speak for the Trees: My Life's Journey from Ancient Celtic Wisdom to a Healing Vision of the Forest by Diana Beresford-Kroeger.

See that's the difference between me and Laura. I get the the funny essays, and she gets a thoughtful treatise on the forest. Its why we work so well together.

New Book

A Salad Only The Devil Would Eat: The Joys of Ugly Nature by Charles Hood



In these wry and explosively funny essays, nature obsessive Charles Hoot reveals his abiding affection for the overlooked and undervalued parts of the natural world. Like a Bill Bryson of the Mojave exurbs, Hood takes us on a joyride through the obscure, finding wilderness in Hollywood palms, the airports of Alaska, and the empty lots of Palmdale.

Once upon a time I lived at the beach, and not just any beach, but one of the good ones, Newport Beach in Orange County. A hashtag search delivers 2.3 million Instagram hits; if you stand at the end of Newport's wood-planked pier on winter mornings, Catalina Island looks close enough to touch.
I was not there the day a masked booby showed up, but I have seen a sea turtle, a bloom of moon jellies, and a stout man paddling a paddleboard completely naked.

#newbook

>143 mahsdad:
Funny - I just ordered a copy of To Speak For the Trees. It won't be here for another week, but I am looking forward to reading it.

>145 benitastrnad: TBH I am looking forward to reading it too. Eventually. :) Mt TBR is a little tall at the moment

New Book (audio)

Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin



A bit of serendipity with this new audiobook. Daryll (kidzdoc) had posted on FB about his collection of James Baldwin, and I asked for suggestions, as I've never read anything by him and wanted a good place to start. Jump to a couple hours later, I finished my current audio and started looking for something new and this popped up. Looking forward to it.

Written during the 1940s and early 1950s, when Baldwin was only in this twenties, the essays collected in Notes of a Native Son capture a view of black life and black thought at the dawn of the civil rights movement and as the movement slowly gained strength through the words of one of the most captivating essayists and foremost intellectuals of that era.

In Uncle Tom's Cabin, that cornerstone of American social protest fiction, St. Clare, the kindly master, remarks to his coldly disapproving Yankee cousin Miss Ophelia, that, ,so far as he is able to tell, the blacks have been turned over to the devil for the benefit of the whites in this world - however, he adds thoughtfully, it may turn out in the next.

#newbook

New Book

The Stranger by Albert Camus



Since it was first published in English, in 1946, Albert Camus's first novel, The stranger, has had a profound impact on millions of American readers. Through this story of an ordinary man who unwittingly gets drawn into a senseless murder on a sundrenched Algerian beach, Camus explored what he termed "the nakedness of man faced with the absurd."

Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don't know. I got a telegram from the home: "Mother deceased. Funeral tomorrow. Faithfully yours."
That doesn't mean anything. Maybe it was yesterday.

#newbook

Happy 27th Wedding Anniversary and Happy 15 Thingaversary!! That's a lot to celebrate. : )

>149 Berly: Thanks Kim!

>150 richardderus: Bud Ice? ewwww shudder. Life's too short to drink bad beer. :) Maybe I don't have enough caffeine yet, but not sure the context. If its cause you're waiting on a post, hold your horses mister, its only 8 o'clock, not coherent yet.

د جمعې په ورځ په زړه پورې عکس

But I better do it now, or I'll forget. LOL. One benefit of taking some PTO last week (and Monday), means a short week after. Yippee. Not too much to report, not sure what's on the agenda. But sometimes that makes for the best weekends. Today's images comes from an art exhibit that we saw in San Luis Obispo last weekend. An artist named Faig Ahmed from Azerbaijan makes fantastic traditional oriental rugs, with a twist. These are two great examples and are woven rugs, not pictures or sculptures. He does the designs and has skilled weavers make them using traditional techniques. I love them.



This one, looks 3d, but is completely flat...


Book Update
>2 mahsdad: Q2 Books
>3 mahsdad: Q1 Books
>4 mahsdad: Audiobook Narrators

Reading - A Salad Only the Devil Would Eat by Charles Hood
Reading - The Stranger by Albert Camus
Listening - Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin

Shoot, the images aren't working. Will edit again when I have them fixed

ETA, they should be working now...

>152 mahsdad: Oh WOW! Those're so so cool!

Yeah, I was quoting the beer ads with their menacing penguins' "doooby dooooby dooooo" but deffo not encouraging you to suffer the agony of drinking the stuff. *shudder*

>153 richardderus: Beer - back when I was young, stupid and poor and marketing tricks worked, I did sometimes succumb to the "allure" of Ice and Dry beers. When they tried to convince us that it tasted better.

And as far as Ahmed goes, there's more to view on his website. Such a fascinating art niche... https://faigahmed.com/

I love needlework of all kinds and that transfers to textile art. It fascinates me. These works of art are very intriguing. It is fascinating to think about the ways a flat surface can be transformed through the manipulation of thread and the aid of needles or other tools.

>102 mahsdad: Wow! What a lovely image.

>152 mahsdad: Wow! What is the pooled portion on the horizontal surface and 'dripping' from the carpet? Also fiber or a combination?

>155 benitastrnad: Absolutely
>156 Whisper1: Thanks Linda!
>157 quondame: All fabric, and near as I can figure all one piece, tho it would be easy enough to have them be separate. Here's some others I saw there...

Wow! Great handicraft artwork! I read a fabulous book many years ago about the art of making such carpets. I will come back and let you know if I can pull the title or author's name out of my brain... The Blood of something, I think.

Found it! It's called The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirezvani. I listened to it on audio and it was read by an actress who has a Persian accent, adding a layer of authenticity that I could never have got reading it on my own in hard copy.

>159 jessibud2: Hi Shelley, thanks for stopping by.

-----------------

So I see a new trailer come across my YT feed. A Netflix movie called Spiderhead, starring Chris Hemsworth and Miles Teller. I'm intrigued, I watch it, and it is very weird and bizarre and I definitely want to watch it. "Based on a short story by George Saunders" flashes across the screen. Really!? Now I'm really interested. I watch it again and notice that one of the characters is reading a book. I pause and its Saunder's Tenth of December which I have on the shelf (from Bill @ Christmas several years ago), and its the book that has the story in it. Very circular.

Check it out. It looks good to me. And now I have to push Tenth up to the top of Mt. TBR (not that that's a bad thing)

https://youtu.be/BfsNfFoA0J0

>160 mahsdad: Looks like mental rape (not to mention actual rape) to me.

>5 mahsdad: I finished "The Keepers of the House" by Shirley Ann Grau a few weeks ago (1965 Pulitzer winner). A very slow burn with what I thought was a fantastic revenge twist at the end--I thoroughly enjoyed it and think you might as well.

>161 quondame: Fair enough Susan. Definitely not a pleasant night at the movies, but interesting (at least to my weird sensibilities) nonetheless

>162 ocgreg34: Thanks for the recommendation Greg. Since its a Pulitzer, I do have it on the WL, but I do like hearing that it still holds up. Sometimes the winners from so long ago don't always ring true to modern ears, or eyes

>162 ocgreg34: & >163 mahsdad:
I also have Keepers of the House on TBR list. Grau was from Alabama and was one of only a few authors to win a Pulitizer Prize for Fiction. This book was not popular in Alabama but since I haven't read it I am not sure why. Grau married and moved to New Orleans where she spent the rest of her life. She just died a few years ago and when I heard her obituary on our local radio station I looked to see what she had written. That's when that title went on my TBR list.

>152 mahsdad: & >158 mahsdad: Wow! Looks like something after Erni has finished running the vacuum cleaner across it!

>142 mahsdad: Indeed we must meet up in the flesh one fine day in the not-distant future.

>164 benitastrnad: I speculate that one reason that the book wasn't popular in Alabama at the time has to do with the interracial relationship at the center of the story. Grau provides an interesting take on that and its consequences.

>162 ocgreg34: I just put “The Keepers of the House” on my TBR. Thanks!

Karen O

Added another one to the Thingaversary list...

Changing Planes by Ursula K. Le Guin

Now actually, Laura picked it out, but I'm of course going to read it, eventually.

While I didn't actually buy anything else, I added 4 more to the WL.

How was I not aware that Michael Chabon is writing a The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay series? (for Netflix I believe). Need to do a reread of that.

An as an aside, a book meme I noted sometime ago that I thought was profound..

reading a book surreal asf i jus be staring at marked slices of tree for hours hallucinating vividly

Sounds about right.

>167 klobrien2: My work here is done. :)

>170 ocgreg34: Absolutely! LOL

With the announcement of the Nebula Awards, I thought I would add one more big long list to keep track of, so here's the list of past Nebula Winners. I'll add it to my boilerplate posts at the start of Q3 in July.

Nebulas Read

Bold - On the Shelf
Strike - Finished

2022 - A Master of Djinn
2021 - Network Effect
2020 - A Song for a New Day
2019 - The Calculating Stars
2018 - The Stone Sky
2017 - All the Birds in the Sky
2016 - Uprooted
2015 - Annihilation
2014 - Ancillary Justice DNF
2013 - 2312
2012 - Among Others
2011 - Blackout/All Clear
2010 - The Windup Girl
2009 - Powers
2008 - The Yiddish Policemen's Union
2007 - Seeker
2006 - Camouflage
2005 - Paladin of Souls
2004 - The Speed of Dark
2003 - American Gods
2002 - The Quantum Rose
2001 - Darwin's Radio
2000 - Parable of the Talents
1999 - Forever Peace
1998 - The Moon and the Sun
1997 - Slow River
1996 - The Terminal Experiment
1995 - Moving Mars
1994 - Red Mars
1993 - Doomsday Book
1992 - Stations of the Tide
1991 - Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea
1990 - The Healer's War
1989 - Falling Free
1988 - The Falling Woman
1987 - Speaker for the Dead
1986 - Ender's Game
1985 - Neuromancer
1984 - Startide Rising
1983 - No Enemy But Time
1982 - The Claw of the Conciliator
1981 - Timescape
1980 - The Fountains of Paradise
1979 - Dreamsnake
1978 - Gateway
1977 - Man Plus
1976 - The Forever War
1975 - The Dispossessed
1974 - Rendezvous with Rama
1973 - The Gods Themselves
1972 - A Time of Changes
1971 - Ringworld
1970 - The Left Hand of Darkness
1969 - Rite of Passage
1968 - The Einstein Intersection
1967 - Babel-17
1966 - Dune

While we're on the subject of Djinns (over on RD's page), Here's another literary movie trailer for you.

Three Thousand Years of Longing is a movie coming out this summer. By George Miller (Mad Max), starring Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba. https://youtu.be/TWGvntl9itE

Its based on the short story The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye by A.S. Byatt

We went to see Neil Gaiman last night at the Ace Hotel Theater in LA. Before we left, we were like... Look at use doing adult things in public. The Ace Theater is an old movie house that was built in the late 20's. It was a fun event. He read some new stuff, some old stuff and answered questions that people submitted. Only downside, was that it started about 40 minutes late because the venue was still processing people thru the book sale table. Heck if you're there to see Neil Gaiman, don't you already own, or have read all his books (it wasn't a signing).

He read...
Chivalry - about an old widow who finds the Holy Grail in an Oxfam shop
Professor Bananas - an unpublished bedtime story about mad-science concoctions made of random ingredients whose side effects vary with how many cherries you include
Neil's tribute poem to Neal Adams and his work on the Batman comic
July - from a collection of short stories called a Calendar of Tales. From Twitter prompts he wrote different stories. July's was; What is the most unusual thing you have ever seen in July?. Answer. A man mourning the end of his marriage, builds an igloo made out of books in the yard. Its a horror story
What You Need to be Warm - a poem composed of twitter responses
Mushroom Hunters - a poem
The Day the Saucers Came - what if the apocalpyse came and you couldn't be bothered
Click-Clack the RattleBag - a spooky story to tell the narrator's girlfriend's kid brother

New Book - Audio

God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert



More than three thousand years have passed since the first events recorded in Frank Herbert' s Dune. Only one link survives with those tumultuous times: the grotesque figure of Leto Atreides, son of the prophet Paul Muad'Dib, and now the virtually immortal God Emperor of Dune.

It not only is my pleasure to announce to you this morning our discovery of this marvelous storehouse containing, among other things, a monumental collection of manuscripts inscribed on ridulian crystal paper, but I also take pride in giving you our arguments for the authenticity of our discoveries, to tell you why we believe we have uncovered the original journals of Leto II, the God Emperor

New Book - eBook

A Master of Djinn by P. Djeli Clark



A 2021 NEIBA Book Award Finalist! Nebula, Locus, and Alex Award-winner P. Djèlí Clark goes full-length for the first time in his dazzling debut novel Cairo, 1912: Though Fatma el-Sha'arawi is the youngest woman working for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities, she's certainly not a rookie, especially after preventing the destruction of the universe last summer. So when someone murders a secret brotherhood dedicated to one of the most famous men in history, al-Jahiz, Agent Fatma is called onto the case. Al-Jahiz transformed the world forty years ago when he opened up the veil between the magical and mundane realms, before vanishing into the unknown. This murderer claims to be al-Jahiz, returned to condemn the modern age for its social oppressions.

Archibald James Portendorf disliked stairs. With their ludicrous lengths, ever leading up, as if in some jest. There were times, he thought, he could even hear them snickering.

#newbook

28. Less by Andrew Sean Greer 8/10 : Another one for the Pulitzer bucket list. In order to get away and avoid his boyfriend's wedding, Arthur Less, an author and boyfriend of another very famous author accepts several junkets and goes on a round the world journey to eventually and barely find himself. A pretty good story, not necessarily in my literary wheelhouse, but as with must award winning novels, it provided some tasty tidbits. IMO, its worth your time.

In his suit he was painfully think with a concave chest, and, while lacking youth's verve, Freddy had all of youth's passions; one could sit back with a bag of popcorn and watch the romances and comedies of his mind projected onto his face, and the lenses of his tortoiseshell glasses swirled with his thoughts like the iridescent membranes of soap bubbles.

Arthur thinks he means at the resort, but he follows Carlos's gaze, and his heart stops. There, just ahead of them, so age spotted and dusty it seems at first to be a cartload of white rubber made from local trees, until they lift up, the ears, like the unfolding of feathers or membranes for flight, and it is unmistakably an elephant, ,sauntering down the street with a bushel of green bamboo in its trunk, ,tail lashing, turning now to stare, with its small unfathomable eyes, at those who are staring at it - Less recognizes the stare - as if to say: I'm not so strange as you

29. The Master of Revels: A Return to Neal Stephenson's D.O.D.O by Nicole Galland 7/10 : (AUDIO). The title pretty much says it all. Stephenson's co-author in the DODO book, writes the sequel. Written again in an epistolary style that tells the further adventures of the time traveling historians trying to thwart the plans of an evil witch. Roman times and a mysterious mosaic and William Shakespeare figure prominently. Not too bad

30. The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami 8/10 : A collection of stories that are quirky, weird and delightful. Murakami might not be everyone's cuppa, but he continues to be one of my favorites. The opening story is what will become the first chapter of The Windup Bird Chronicles, one is about a woman going to Germany to buy her husband some Lederhosen. A young couple storm a McDonalds to satisfy their hunger and recreate an episode from the man's misspent youth. Another about a vast factory that makes elephants. If you're a fan, you should read.

What is it? Why can't everyone just leave me in peace? Not 10 minutes later, the telephone rings again, but this time I don't pick up. Fifteen rings and it stops. I let it die, and all gravity is displaced by a profound silence. The stone-chill silence of boulders frozen deep into a glacier fifty thousand years ago. Fifteen rings of the telephone have utterly transformed the quality of the air around me.

After which a vast and empty silence, warmthless as overbleached underwear, was all that remained.

Cause had effect by the tail and is about to swallow it whole.

31. Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin 9/10 : (AUDIO). Read by Ron Butler. A collection of 10 essays that Baldwin wrote over the years, very autobiographical, giving his thoughts and feelings about his life and experiences in the pre-Civil Rights era in the world. My first exposure to his writings and I am duly impressed. Gives me a vivid picture of a world that I can only imagine. Well worth the time.

#review

Love the artwork!! Especially the last one in >158 mahsdad:

>169 mahsdad: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay series? Written by Michael Chabon? Loved the book. I'm in!!

>172 mahsdad: Dang. I think I have only read 6 of those. Although I have a few on the TBR shelves...

>174 mahsdad: You saw Neil Gaiman?!?!? Sooooo jealous!

Wow, your thread is just full of cool stuff. : )

Hi Kim, Thanks for stopping by, I appreciate the visit.

Awards lists - yeah, you think that you've read alot and then you look at the lists and think... long way to go. :)

Chabon - I'll read/watch just about anything he does

Gaiman - yeah, this is actually our second time seeing him talk, he's another one that I'll read/watch just about anything by him. New Good Omens session coming out hopefully soon (I think they're done filming), and they're doing a Sandman series as well

शानदार फोटो शुक्रवार

Yippee its Friday again. Not only is it Friday, but its Friday on a holiday weekend, and for us sad sacks who still have to work for a living that's a good thing. The nice thing at my company is that we close the "office" 2 hours early on the eve of a holiday. Looking forward to sitting at my desk chair to my deck chair a lot earlier. :) Today's image comes from our recent trip to Avila Beach. As I'm sure the Bird Dude will confirm, its a nice Snowy Egret.



Book Update
>2 mahsdad: Q2 Books
>3 mahsdad: Q1 Books
>4 mahsdad: Audiobook Narrator

Reading - The Stranger by Albert Camus
Listening - God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert. Book 4 of the series I could never get past book 1 as a kid. I'm not sure if I would enjoy this in a DTE, but the audio is working pretty well. When I'm done with this maybe I'll try the Foundation series, another classic Scifi, that I never got past book 1 on.
eBook - A Master of Djinn by Djeli Clark. After RD's suggestion of a kindle sale on this recent Nebula win, I bought it. And then the need for a digital read arose (going to a place that didn't lend itself to carrying a book, but still need a book nonetheless) and started it

>179 mahsdad: woooooow

Y'know, for a working stiff, you got a really sharp eye for composition.

THANK YOU! If there's one thing artistically that I think I do well, its composition. Either when I'm following the rules (Thirds, like this image), or completely breaking them consciously.

I try not to crop too much after the fact, but now that I look at this one there might be a little too much empty space to the left. Might have to experiment. I'll post another version later.

>181 mahsdad: No, no...don't touch it! I like the slightly off-balance feel of it this way.

>181 mahsdad: I concur with >181 mahsdad:'s sentiments because it feels to me more like el birbo is about to move or has just lighted or..., but the point of experimenting is seeing if it works so I'll be curious to see what happens.

The beauty of digital. Just make a copy and try something and see what happens...

Original - No crop


Option 1 - (crop to 5x7 dimension) cropped out some of the sky on the right and pulled in the sky on the left. Bird at the "correct" rule of third spot.


Option 2 : (5x7) right side against the metal, sized the left and shifted around to put the bird in the spot


Its always a judgement call, but I think I like Option 1

Of the crops, I like #1 best; of the images, the original works best for me still.

Very interesting, though, to see behind the scenes. Digital workspace is just astonishingly enabling.

Okay, now you got me going. I'm going to do them again, same general ideas, but I'm going to crop to an 8x10. Our standard sizes for enlarging, aren't equivalent and it will come out different

5x7 vs 8x10 vs11x17

On second thought I'm going to start completely over. I don't think I constrained the first crops to 5x7. I'll do them and the 8x10. I know, more information than you require, but an interesting exercise nonetheless

5x7 Option 1


5x7 Option 2

The main difference between 5x7 and 8x10 seems to be that 8x10 is more square, so more space on top

8x10 Option 1


8x10 Option 2


ETA - posted the wrong picture for option 2

>179 mahsdad: Great picture. Is winged and menacing the avian equivalent of armed and dangerous?

I just prefer the left-hand space because the imbalance "fixes" the bird on the metal...the crops de-emphasize the bird's perching on the metal, just reduces it to a surface not a space it occupies.

>190 quondame: Thanks! That just may be.

>191 richardderus: I agree RD. I'm always moving things of center and playing with negative space.

Just curious why print dimensions enter into the esthetics of the crop. Seems to me that the paper size is irrelevant. Crop the photo for best appearance, then adjust the degree of enlargement to allow the full frame (as cropped) to be displayed on whatever dimension sheet is used.

But then, perhaps I'm missing something.

Hey Bill, Its not so much the esthetics, But what can fit on the physical dimensions of the paper. If I try to print a full size image into an 8x10 or 8.5 x 11 sheet of sheet of paper or any other dimension, the system either going to have to crop or shrink to fit, or it will letterbox it (put whitespace around the sides). Crop you've seen, but the shrink isn't always going to work properly. The Vertical x Height of the image won't necessarily be the same ratio as the paper, so it will have to shrink more in one direction than the other and that will squish the image in a weird way. So you always have to crop. I barely print things anymore so it generally doesn't matter, but if I do want to do an enlargement, I have to think about what size, so I can make sure it looks the way I want it.

Here are two examples of what can't fit on a piece of paper depending on size. I did a screen shot of the cropping without doing the cropping. The dark blue is what needs to go or be squished into the rectangle. (The grey is just the background of my screen shot)

5x7


8x10


I know, more information than you require, but thanks for making me think about these things a little more. And reminding me that I need to print more. I think I'm going to have to bring back the calendar next year.

2022 Books of the Month

January : The Cold Millions by Jess Walter
February : A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
March : City of Secrets by Stewart O'Nan
April : A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian by Marina Lewycka
May: A Salad Only the Devil Would Eat by Charles Hood





#botm

32. A Salad Only the Devil Would Eat: They Joys of Ugly Nature by Charles Hood 10/10 : Bought this on a whim when we went on our little vacation a couple weeks ago, purely on the title and the blurb; "Hood is the love child of Rebecca solnit and Edward Abbey, assuming such a child had been raised in an art colony by demented garden gnomes". A multi-hyphenate artistic guy. He stopped counting bird species when his life list got to 5,000 (get to work Mark :) ) and then he started on mammals and is approaching 1,000. This was laugh-out loud funny with topics mostly set in Southern California, ranging from ; The Lure of the List, his obsession with Nature Journals, the history of Palm Trees in CA and many more. My favorite of the year, even though, the book I read after this, was The Stranger and was also a 5-star read.

It has a bad rap, the Antelope Valley. The Antelope Valley is the place where old sofas crawl to the ends of dirt roads to die. Fame touches the Antelope Valley rarely, though Tom Selleck was part owner of a shopping plaza and came out to cut the ribbon.

To think about the urban jungle is to admit that humans destroy habitat but humans also create habitat, and to discount what I call blended ecologies (part-indigenous, part-cloud cuckoo land) would be like refusing to eat Tex-Mex because it lacks haute cuisine pedigree.

We may ignore water, take it for granted, think we have run out of things to do with it. Yet someday in America our rivers will remember where they came from, where they used to go, what things they still know how to do. Water will come again.

my childhood keeps trying to send me memories, but they all burn up, coming through the atmosphere. When was the first time I went to the natural history museum, the zoo, the pet store, the La Brea Tar Pits? Can't be sure.

#review

>196 mahsdad: Oh, wow, someone who sees some of the same So. Cal. I do! I love the notion of blended ecologies as I live so much among us invasive species.

>197 quondame: Yeah, me too. I'll always be a Pittsburgher, but this is my adoptive home too, and I really identified with his essays.

>198 mahsdad: I didn't see any Wen Spencer in your books listed. She has fun physically abusing Pittsburgh, though you can tell she really loved the city. But giant catfish destroying swaths until they are herded into the stadium is hard on real estate.

>199 quondame: TBH, my fantasy credentials aren't all that great. I've read the classics, but sci-fi was more my speed. I've never heard of her, but after looking at her books, I just might have to invest in some of them. Thanks for the suggestion!

ETA, LAPL has a couple ebook copies. Going to put the first one in the WL queue

>200 mahsdad: Wen Spencer does have the SF title Endless Blue if you'd like to get a fantasy free introduction, but you might like Tinker just fine as the title character is a precocious inventor who has made racing scooters by combining magic and technology.

Okay that makes it even more intriguing.

Suuraa ajaa'ibaa Jimaata

Happy Friday everyone. Not much to report. Its June (yikes), and around here that means morning fog and clouds, so welcome to June Gloom. Laura has a craft show tomorrow, so I'll be on my own for the day. Maybe I'll get motivated to actually do some yard work or something, or maybe I'll just sit on my ass and read like the introverted procrastinator I am. :) Today's image is of a nice looking specimen of some local fauna I saw on my walk the other day. Enjoy.



Book Update
>2 mahsdad: Q2 Books
>3 mahsdad: Q1 Books
>4 mahsdad: Audio Book Narrators

eBook : A Master of Djinn by P. Djeli Clark. 40%
Listening : God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert. 85% Should finish this weekend. TBH, interest is waning in the series for me. This one isn't a fave.
Reading : Intercourse: Stories by Robert Olen Butler. 65% This is the flip side of Severance. This time is what couples are thinking while doing the nasty, or "the dance with no pants". An interesting exercise, not really all that graphic, a lot of times its Butler writing in what he thinks the style of the person was. From Adam/Eve, to Helen/Paris to Shakespeare/Henry Wriothesley to Mata Hari/Jack Johnson to a Rooster/Chicken and we'll finish up with Santa Claus and one of his elves.

>203 mahsdad: Graphically nice! A little masking and it could be your Yule card.

I'm not surprised you're running low on love for the Dune series. A few decades off might rejuvenate its appeal.

Happy hermit-ing!

>203 mahsdad: Nice shot of a bird in a breeze.

>204 richardderus: You are right. A bit of tweaking and it might work. That is, if I sent out Yule cards anymore. LOL.

Dune - I'll probably keep going as a bucket list thing, but I think I'll stop after the next 2, just the ones written by Frank. Not sure if I'll go on to the 8 more that Brian wrote.

I think you're a meanie.

Reading *urp* Dune juvenilia and not preparing any fotos for Friday.

Hold ya horses mister. Working on it.

Had to make the donuts first - https://youtu.be/IYRurPB4WA0

>208 mahsdad: LOL I'd forgotten that ad!

Zoo heev Photo Friday

Apparently, the Hmong don't have a word for Photo OR Friday. Happy Friday yinz! Headed out to Palm Springs tomorrow to check in on the MIL. Its gonna be a hot one. Today's image is from a hike we took a couple weeks ago up in Rustic Canyon off Sunset. Its the home of the Murphy Ranch, or what's left of it. A whole compound was built back in the 30's as a retreat for American Nazis to live out the war and be prepared for Germany's win to have them take over America. Didn't quite work out the way they wanted. Pretty much all that is left is this concrete building that is well used as a pallet for the artistic endeavors of the local youth. That and 500+ stairs you need to climb to get into the canyon to see it.



Book Update
>2 mahsdad: Q2 Books
>3 mahsdad: Q1 Books
>4 mahsdad: Audiobook Narrators

eBook : A Master of Djinn by P. Djeli Clark. Throughly enjoying this. Hopefully will finish this weekend. 88%
Listening : Heretics of Dune by Frank Herbert. Book 5 in the main series. 44%

An extra photo for Mark.

There are 2 baby peafowls in this image...

Just thinking about all those stairs makes my knees scream at the top of their lungs. (Which are also my lungs.)

I found a picture Laura took of us on the way down...

Wow. That’s some stairs, alright…

>214 drneutron: Coming back up was harder. :)

New Book

The Diving Bell and Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby



This will be a quick read, started on Saturday, almost 2/3s done.

In December 1995, Jean-Dominique Bauby, the 43 year old editor of French Elle, suffered a massive stroke that left him completely and permanently paralyzed, a victim of "locked-in syndrome." Where once he had been renowned for his gregariousness and wit, Bauby now found him self imprisoned in an inert body, able to communicate only by blinking his left eye.

Through the frayed curtain at my window, a wan glow announces the break of day. My heels hurt, my head weighs a ton, and something like a giant invisible diving ell holds my whole body prisoner. My room emerges slowly from the gloom.

#newbook

>216 mahsdad: My absolute worst nightmare. I will never, ever so much as touch that book's tree or e-incarnations.

>213 mahsdad: Every single one of my knees is screaming for mercy just looking at that!

>217 richardderus: Absolutely. What's amazing is the mental capacity he had to compose, edit, rewrite his stories (this book is really a collection of stories) in his head and then be able to dictate them out 1 letter at a time using a letter board that he's blinking at. The mind boggles.

>213 mahsdad: At least this path had someone consistent albeit steep steps. There was another much more sketchy path we started down with uneven dirt and timber steps put at odd angles, it got to a point were some of it got washed out and we said nope and turned back. It was way hard on the knees.

New Book

The Loudest Duck: Moving Beyond Diversity While Embracing Differences to Achieve Success at Work by Laura A. Liswood



My company is doing a company-wide book club as part of their diversity initiative. Normally I'm not big on self-help/business books, I am what I am and I don't need someone to tell me how I'm wrong. But in this case, since I'm the resident book nerd in my division, I figured I better step up and join. Plus a free book is a free book.

--------------------------------------

Diversity in the workplace is a wonderful thing, but it also challenges many of today's business leaders. For managers and team-members alike, it can be difficult to navigate in a truly diverse workplace made up of people of different cultures, races, creeds, body types, hobbies, genders, religions, styles, and sexual orientations.

Two women, two Asians, two people with disabilities, and two African Americans; diversity accomplished - or so we once thought. At some point, corporate diversity came to mean the inclusion of at least two of every kind.

#newbook

Recap from the weekend that I forgot to share. It was TOO bloody hot, but okay I realize its the desert, but I think I'm too set in my ocean breeze ways. Not thank you, please.

We filled up the car with stuff from the MIL's house. She's getting really good now at recognizing its all just stuff and now is not the time to fill your house with it. She has stacks of books all over her house (she's worse than me), but they are all non-fiction of one genre or another. When I find some fiction, I always grab them and bring them back. This time I absconded with...

Hollywood : A Novel of America in the 1920's by Gore Vidal
Loving Frank by Nancy Horan

Happy Wednesday, Jeff. Sorry, I haven't popped by in a while. I love the photos of the snowy egret up there and the tutorial. They do show up here now and then but are considered a rarity. Great egrets are our regulars. Also like the peafowl pics. I have never seen the babies.

>220 mahsdad: I've never voluntarily gone to the desert. I hate heat too much. I applaud you for your efforts with the MiL.

Interesting novels! I see why she had them...they're both non-fiction-y enough to appeal to her.

>219 mahsdad: Good gracious! I hope that one's a good read.

It is too hot. I got hammered by the sun at this morning's farmers' market and no green tomatoes to show for it. I did get the thyme though which will become the thyme infused oil in which I fry everything.

>222 richardderus: Yeah, I'm reading it with an open mind. (Duck)

>223 quondame: Luckily, the heat sink hasn't built up too much yet, so its still pretty reasonable out here. But the sun does seem to be much hotter or brighter nowadays. Its June, so the mornings are nice and gloomy.

Just watched a video, where they've discovered 100 Trillion digits of Pi.

Here's a video about it. https://youtu.be/nMqdRu9gGGs

What I find even more interesting is that they tried to find out many consecutive digits of Pi they could find within Pi. It was 14 digits

So I finally broke down and bought a Kindle. A basic one - 8gb with the backlight. We did a Target run tonight and it was on sale from $89 down to $59 plus my Redcard discount. Couldn't pass it up. Happy Father's Day to me. My first book on it will be...

New Book

All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders



I've had it in my library for a while. I think I got it from the Tor eBook Club

An ancient society of witches and a hipster technological startup go to war in order to prevent the world from tearing itself apart. To further complicate things, each of the groups’ most promising followers (Patricia, a brilliant witch and Laurence, an engineering “wunderkind”) may just be in love with each other.

When Patricia was six years old, she found a wounded bird.

#newbook

>225 mahsdad: Good and good. I love my Kindle, and the one before that and the one I got when my daughter upgraded. I get frustrated when I can't wiki from the page on a print book these days.

>225 mahsdad: Enjoy your Kindle, Jeff!
I got my Kobo e-reader in 2016. Second best thing in my reading life, finding LT is still number one :-)

>226 quondame: >227 FAMeulstee: My wife rolled her eyes at me a bit, cause its something else to feed my habit, but she loves me. :)

କଳ୍ପନା ଫଟୋ ଶୁକ୍ରବାର

Happy Friday and Happy Father's day to all those sires out there. This weekend we're going to head up to Pasadena to their annual Chalk Festival, to look at a bunch of art that people will be drawing on the sidewalks. But this, of course, also means a visit to Vroman's bookstore, our favorite, not a chain, but still big store, and a visit to the Dawg Haus for some brats and beer. Today's image is just couple little fun guys I saw on my run yesterday



Book Update
>2 mahsdad: Q2 books
>3 mahsdad: Q1 books
>4 mahsdad: Audiobook

Reading - The Loudest Duck by Laura A. Liswood. About what I'd expect out of a business book so far. Its interesting, I'm sure it will give me plenty of food for thought. 15% done
Reading - The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
Listening - Heretics of Dune by Frank Herbert
Kindle - All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders. First book on the actual kindle

And a couple extra images. Last week in Palm Springs we went to the Palm Springs Air Museum, which is an incredible place that houses a bunch of mostly military aircraft from over the ages. These are mostly planes that they restore back to flying conditions. Their newest project was really cool to see... An F-117 Nighthawk, the first stealth fighter

Wow, nice shots of that plane. I'd love to get you into some of the NASA facilities to take pics of rockets and launchpads, but that's pretty tightly held.

Mushrooms and an F-117...I hadn't really thought about the fact that it was a museum piece already. Wow, I'm old. Still looks like sci-fi stuff to me.

Yay for your new Kindle!

>231 drneutron: Boy, I'd love to. I did get to see some cool stuff, back when we used to go to the JPL open houses. Here's some of what was then the MSL, but became Curiosity

2009




2011

>232 richardderus: Totally sci-fi. What was wild and something you never thought about, was if the pilot was taking the plane to another base and they were going to be there for a while, the question is how do you move your stuff. Well, they made a special pilot transfer pod that would go in the bomb bay where he'd put all his gear. Hope you don't push the wrong button along the way. LOL

New Book

All About Me!: My Remarkable Life in Show Business by Mel Brooks



I finished off the Heretics of Dune and was looking for something light, and this was in the available search. He is reading it, and its pretty funny, so far.

At 95, the legendary Mel Brooks continues to set the standards for comedy across television, film and the stage. Now, for the first time, this EGOT winner shares his story in his own words.

#newbook

Happy Father's Day to all us Dads out here.

For Father's Day, we went up to Pasadena to their annual Chalk Art Festival. If you're on IG, find me (mahsdad), for some pictures. But in going to Pasadena, means that we have to goto Vroman's bookstore and spend too much on books we don't need, but must have.

Between the three of us we got...

The Man Who Fell to Earth
This is How You Lose the Time War
The Drowned World
One Last Stop
The Final Girl Support Group
Tell Me an Ending
Black Leopard, Red Wolf
The Priory of the Orange Tree
Lilith's Brood

>236 mahsdad: I've read and enjoyed a couple of those recently (This Is How You Lose the Time War, The Final Girl Support Group), and another is one of my favorites, The Drowned World.

>236 mahsdad: Lovely haul, Jeff! And, wonder of wonders, I went to Insta to see your photos. I forgot that Meta's account base got hacked...and I got on no problem! I'm really amazed. So you get the credit, somehow or other you fixed a multi-year problem!

>237 ursula: I'm sure the Venn diagram of my WL with all you fine folks is going to be quite an overlap, since my WL expanded exponentially when I started reading everyone's recommendations. :)

>238 richardderus: Well I'm glad that my power of suggestion has let you back in to the 'gram.

Geez, how did you get that Shannon book home? Looks like a real backbreaker.

>240 weird_O: Yeah, that's one that Laura chose. Its a fantasy book that has a map, glossary, and cast of characters, and its a doorstop, so it must be good. LOL

>240 weird_O: >241 mahsdad: It's been getting closer to the top of my TBR in the last few weeks - I've heard it recommended several times on F&SF FB groups and on LT too. But it is thick and so it keeps sinking lower when I pull something shorter for a whim or TIOLI.

>242 quondame: Ha, yeah, I too sometimes have a tendency to pick the "quick wins" when I'm selecting my next book, rather than commit to a big book.

>239 mahsdad: Sadly, my aversion to Insta remains when I can go there without the snarling sign-in stuff.

Happy FRIDAY, Jeff.

>244 richardderus: Yeah, both FB and IG are becoming places where I fear to tread anymore. IG is trying to be Tiktok and every other post is a video or a meme or a repost FROM tiktok and every third post is a suggested post or advertisement. I'll still post my occasional pictures, cause that's what I like using IG for. Not going to do video, not going to do Reels. And FB is just as bad with the suggested posts and ads. Oh well.

Friday is on the way buddy! :)

Fantasztikus pénteki fotó
Well its Friday in America and while I typically stay out of posting about politics, I'll just say that I am not a proud American today. I'll just leave you with this and hope it might brighten your day a little bit.



Book Update
>2 mahsdad: Q2 Books
>3 mahsdad: Q1 Books
>4 mahsdad: Audiobook narrators

Reading - The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers - 48%
Work Reading - The Loudest Duck by Laura Liswood - 20%
eBook - All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders - 32%
Listening - All About Me!: My Remarkable Life in Show Business by Mel Brooks - 70%

>246 mahsdad: I am no American, Jeff, but I am also sad today. Your photo sure brightens my day! A Hemerocallis?

You are absolutely correct on the flower ident. It caught my eye on a recent walk, and I wouldn't have had a clue what it was specifically. My iphone does a pretty good job with plant identification now. and that's what it came up with. If not that, I would have gone to Laura to confirm. :)

>246 mahsdad: Lovely flower. Unlovely to be American.

>246 mahsdad: What a lovely colour, Jeff!

The issue today will be that which state you live in is going to have a huge impact on women's rights. America is going to be more divided than ever.

>249 richardderus: Thanks RD.

>250 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul, you are absolutely correct. The MAGAts keep talking about Civil War, I think unfortunately its here, its just going to be a Cold Civil War

>251 mahsdad: The UK is not a Federal nation and I am not really qualified to say whether the decision is good law or not but its impact is certainly going to be divisive. Personally, I am in favour of a woman's right to choose within reasonable limits and I wouldn't want to live in a state where my girls do not have any say over their own bodies in the event of an unwanted pregnancy.

>252 PaulCranswick: 100% agree.

Interesting tidbits from Mel Brooks' movie memoir.

His production company (Brooksfilm) produced The Elephant Man, Francis and My Favorite Year. He wanted to keep his name off of them so people wouldn't think they where a Mel Brooks movie and thus a comedy.

Never knew

Okay, I've seen this an a couple places and I'll give it a go...

Mid-Year Book tag 2022

1. HOW MUCH HAVE YOU READ?

38 books, 4,890 pages read, about 219 hours listened

2. WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN READING?

Mostly fiction (20% non-fiction), and mostly contemporary fiction and scifi

3. Best book you’ve read so far in 2022.

The Cold Millions by Jess Walter

4. Best sequel you’ve read so far in 2022

Grave Peril by Jim Butcher. Haven't read too many sequels this year. Reading the Dune series, and they're just okay, and I read Master of Revels which was the sequel to Neal Stephenson's D.O.D.O book and it too was just okay

5. New release you haven’t read yet, but want to.

The Angel of Rome and Other Stories by Jess Walter

6. Most anticipated release for the second half of the year.

Not sure, don't follow the new releases that closely to say. I know I have a ton of books on the WL

7. Out of Your Comfort Zone read

Notes on a Native Son by James Baldwin. Thanks to kidzdoc for recommending it. Loved it.

8. Biggest surprise

The Stranger by Albert Camus, read this and The Plague this year. Thought these would be "too difficult" to read. Very pleasantly surprised

9. New Favo(u)rite author (debut or new to you)

Charles Hood

10. Underrated gems you’ve discovered recently.

Not sure if I have any so far

11. Rereads this year.

No rereads thus far.

12. Book that made you cry.

Not sure if I have actually cried with a book this year, but The Diving Bell and the Butterfly sure came close

13. Book that made you happy.

A Salad only the Devil Would Eat by Charles Hood. First book in a long time that actually made me laugh out loud. Many books I read are funny or have funny parts and I might chuckle, but this made me laugh.

14. Most beautiful book you’ve bought so far this year (or received).

Don't really buy too many books for beauty, plus I'm usually getting tradepaper backs, but The Drowned World has a really interesting watercolor for a cover


15. Your goals for the rest of the year.

Read as many as I can, hopefully hitting my 75 goal, on target right now. I'm a very serendipitous reader, I choose what the whim tells me.

Hi Jeff!

>102 mahsdad: Well. I’m sorry to read about your high numbers x 3 and hope that they're already coming down.

I was amazed to see your photo of the Korean Friendship Bell. I went to the original dedication in 1976 with then-boyfriend Michael. Happy days. Thanks for the reminder.

And Less is a marvelous book. I adored it.

>124 mahsdad: I am usually quite deliberate in what books I get, because I don’t go shopping at book stores much any more, but I love seeing a book that just catches someone’s eye.

>125 mahsdad: Happy 15th Thingaversary.

>140 mahsdad: I read A Clockwork Orange as an English assignment in college in … 1973?... and didn’t like it quite as much as you did. *smile*

>203 mahsdad: Me, too! Me, too! I’m an introverted procrastinator. Love the local fauna photo.

>225 mahsdad: Kindles are not a bad thing to have – I’ve been reading a lot on mine recently.

>226 quondame: Thank you for the flower. I’m incensed.

>255 mahsdad: I don't re-read, either; and your Ballard cover is indeed lovely.

Have yourself a merry little weekend.

Early Review. I haven't requested a book in almost 3 years, but this month on a whim I requested Nein, Nein, Nein!: One Man's Tale of Depression, Psychic Torment, and a Bus Tour of the Holocaust by Jerry Stahl and lo and behold, I got it. Now I guess I have to read it, when it gets here eventually.

I think this quote got me interested...

"Nein, Nein, Nein! is the unbelievable true story of a guided bus tour to Nazi concentration camps, told as only Jerry Stahl can tell it, with an acid wit as deadly serious as it is hilarious, insane, and weirdly life-affirming. The destinations he describes are real, but who else would dare to take us there? Stahl is fearless, gripping, and most unsparing about his own damned soul. I read everything he writes."
--Eric Bogosian, actor/playwright

I posted this on FB, but I thought I'd share with my bookish family, cause I know you'll get a kick out of this.

So I have a junk email account that I use when something requires an email address. Back in 2020 I signed up for T's mailing list and Biden's as well, just to compare. Both were always asking for money, but exponentially more from 45. Biden stopped after the election and Trump stopped (weirdly ;) ) on January 6th 2021. But then he started up again and I now get at least a dozen grifting emails a day.

Today so far (12pm PDT), its 5 asking for End of Quarter Deadline with 800% impact, a poll about RvW that requires a donation to answer, Last Chance to be in the Trump MVP Club, I've been rewarded with Great MAGA King status (just contribute to confirm), and a 2nd End of Quarter - we'll miss our quota, so here's an 800% impact - give me money now.

Heavy Sigh - how can people fall for this dreck. Anyway, have a happy day!

Just checked and got 2 more since I posted on FB.

Another poll, this time about imigration and whether we would be better of with Trump's leadership. Again, can't submit the "poll" unless I give them money (and its defaulting to $250 and a recurring donation to boot)

And, one from Don Jr. telling me that his Father found one of his favorite photos and knew that he wanted ME to have a copy of it. Just donate $75 or more.

LOL.

>259 mahsdad:, >260 mahsdad: - Make sure he doesn't charge you to unsubscribe...;-)

>176 mahsdad: I didn't think that I was going to enjoy "Less", but it turned out much better than I expected.

>261 jessibud2: Absolutely.

>262 ocgreg34: Hey Greg. Yea, I was pleasantly surprised. TBH, I probably wouldn't have picked it up, except that it one the Pulitzer, but I was happy I did

>260 mahsdad:, >259 mahsdad: ::eyeroll::

>264 richardderus: Yeah, I know. LOL

Fantastisk fotofredag

Quick post, as its going to be a very busy day for me. Its the 1st, on a Friday and the start of a new quarter, which means a new thread. I'll get that started later today. I'll just leave you with my LT pin. Did you get yours? :)

In case you missed it, come on over to my new Q3 thread...