richardderus's first 2023 thread

It's a wrap on 2022. Welcome to 2023.

For 2022, I upped my goal of posting an average of 4 or 5 book reviews a week on my blog to an annual total of 288. I blew past that...closing in on 390 for the whole of 2022. I think a goal of 350 of all types isn't unreachable for 2023, so that's where I'm starting.

And now that I've gotten >3 richardderus: Burgoineing as a habit, I'm going to make a monthly blog-only post with my that-month's Burgoined books. It will appear the last Sunday of each month.

I've long Pearl Ruled books I'm not enjoying, so post >4 richardderus: will be the Pearl-Rule Tracking post! They'll also appear in the last Sunday of each month gang post.



My Last Thread of 2009 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2010 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2011 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2012 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2013 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2014 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2015 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2016 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2017 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2018 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2019 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2020 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2021 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2022 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.

THIS THREAD'S REVIEW LINKS

007 I Fear My Pain Interests You in post #236.

006 Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm in post #225.

005 Livid slammed, post 169.

004 The Villa entertained, post 151.

003 The New Life enraptured, post 130.

002 Deep River flowed, post 97.

001 Wiijiwaaganag: More Than Brothers educated, post 56.

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

Think about using it yourselves!




2022's BURGOINES are back-linked here.

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

As she says:

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

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



2022's PEARL-RULES are back-linked here.

It's time to get my 2023 house in order. 2022 saw me pass out 77 4.5* or higher reviews of 393 total, or 19%. Quite a good year indeed. I think the most amazing part of my reading year was the consistently good quality of my non-fiction reading, from Already Toast: Caregiving and Burnout in America and Today Hong Kong, Tomorrow the World: what China's Crackdown Reveals about Its Plans to End Freedom Everywhere through to Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism and High-Risk Homosexual. I read with a slack jaw and a wildly beating heart the beautifully unconventional Before All the World, not one single thing about that read has dimmed a notch in my memory's lantern. I became misty and sad and still uplifted when I read Natasha Pulley's gorgeously wrought The Kingdoms, alternate history that has the one and the only truthful and accurate to my own experience portrayal of non-consensual heterosexual sex where the woman is the rapist. It was stunning. It was freeing to read on a page that someone else knew. I am forever in her debt for this alone, and am always eager for more like 2022's The Half Life of Valery K. There's a peak reading year in those reads alone! HOWSOMEVER....

It's my annual six-stars-of-five read!

Kibogo (my book review), a beautiful tale of colonial-era Catholicism meeting, battling, and suffering defeat at the hands of Kibogo, the Rwandan folk-religion's organizing spirit. It was a finalist for the National Book Award for Literature in Translation. It was the most unforgettable book I read in a year chock-a-block with wonderful reading. It explored the many ways colonialism tries to destroy the colonized, insidious personal invasions that are masked by pious mouthings and cold, cruel hearts crossdressing to seem unthreatening. And it still told a fine and exciting tale!

In 2022, I posted 393 reviews here, and 370 on my blog. I don't think I can sustain such a pace at my time in life, but there's no sense setting meager goals is there. In 2023, my goals are:

To post 395 reviews of all sorts here

To post at least120 Burgoines here and on my blog of ARCs or DRCs from before 2022

To review at least 50% female or -presenting authors across genres

To post a review every day during Pride Month and Women in Translation Month

If I've learned nothing else in my *hack*ty-three years, it's to keep the goals from being the focus. It's the achievements I'm after, not the check-box ticking!

I'll be doing my monthly planning in this spot...though my plans all too seldom turn into reality, don't they.

The current plans for January posts of DRCs from NetGalley
The Middle Class Comeback: Women, Millennials, and Technology Leading the Way by Munir Moon
The Treeline: The Last Forest and the Future of Life on Earth by Ben Rawlence
The Bezos Blueprint: Communication Secrets of the World's Greatest Salesman by Carmine Gallo
Being a Dog: Following the Dog Into a World of Smell by Alexandra Horowitz

And from Edelweiss+
Variations on the Body by María Ospina (tr. Heather Cleary)
Decolonizing Wealth, Second Edition : Indigenous Wisdom to Heal Divides and Restore Balance by Edgar Villanueva
The Web of Meaning : Integrating Science and Traditional Wisdom to Find our Place in the Universe by Jeremy Lent
The American Surveillance State : How the U.S. Spies on Dissent by David Hotchkiss Price

Let the shenanigans commence.

Welcome back for another year!

>8 drneutron: Thank you, Doc! And thanks for making the group again!

I've duly dropped a star, and look forward to another year of following your threads.

Happy New Thread! And New Year! I'll make my way over soon.

BTW, not sure if its a me thing or an everyone thing but your topper image isn't showing

You are on it -- Welcome to 2023! Except for the wedding, 2022 was rough so bye, bye. Smooch.

>12 Berly: No sense shilly-shallying. I'm going to do it so might as well do it right now.

>11 mahsdad: ...it isn't...? I'll go look. Welcome, and thanks for letting me know.

>10 ArlieS: Hi Arlie! Welcome.

Popping past to drop a star ready to start another year's reading.

>1 richardderus: its working for me now. A lovely image. :)

Happy new thread, happy new year, and dropping my star, Richard!

Happy new group year, RD. Wishing you a comfortable reading year in 2023.

Happy first thread of 2023, Richard.

Dropping a star here, Richard. Love the topper. Happy new year

It's the two-thread week. I forget between them how strange it is...
***
>19 jessibud2: Hi Shelley! Thanks re: topper.

>18 Familyhistorian: Thank you, Meg.

>17 PaulCranswick: From your keyboard to the goddesses' inbox, PC!

>16 bell7: Hiya Mary! *smooch*

>15 mahsdad: Ah, good good.

>14 Helenliz: Howdy do, Helen. Welcome!

Happy new thread, Richard!

Dropping off a star and festive smooches.

>22 MickyFine: Hi Micky! Thanks for the smooching.

>21 DianaNL: Thank you, Diana!

>20 richardderus: Yep. Twice the threads to monitor, and a lot more than the usual content.

>24 ArlieS: It's only a week. It still feels like a lot!

Morning, BigDaddy! Dropping a star and wishing you happy. *smooch*

>26 Crazymamie: Mamie! How lovely of you to pop in! *smooch*

It's been colder than Melania's side of the bed up here, but it's going to be a tropical 33° today. I'm having the devil of a time finding the sunscreen.

>20 richardderus: It is, isn't it? I got confused with my own threads and posted today's Wordle in 2023... oops! A little chaotic, but as you say, just the one week.

It's actually been cold here, too - felt like an early Christmas gift to me. Currently 26F. *squee* The high today will be 46F, which is just about perfect for me. Unfortunately, next week we are back into the 70s, but I'll take what I can get - I'm very thankful that we got a bit of the cold that is supposed to be Winter.

>29 Crazymamie: I truly do not envy you. I think there's not one thing to recommend living south of Philly. And it's not gonna get cooler any time soon!

>28 bell7: Ha! Yes, I saw that but figured you'd rather just not think about it so said nothing.

I am a virtual saint, no?

>30 richardderus: meh, nothing a little copy and paste doesn't fix. It doesn't help that I post Wordle scores from my phone, easier for me to miss the end of a thread title or skim through things too quickly haha. You are a virtual saint *smooch*

Stopping by after a long absence to wish you the very best this holiday season and a wonderful year of reading in 2023, RD!

>32 lkernagh: Lori! How lovely to see you! I am doing just fine in the holiday derby, thanks, and from your keyboard to Kalliope's inbox about next year's reads.

I do hope you can join us again in 2023. It's not the same without you.

Hi Richard my friend, looking forward to seeing your posts throughout 2023 and i will make sure that i visit here to keep you informed of Hannah and Elliott, if nothing else dear friend.

>34 johnsimpson: Hello John! Happy 2023-to-come, and we'll see each other then.

Roll on 2023. Glad to see you're all organized for this start.
Me, I'm still wondering whether I have the mental energy to actually babysit my own Talk thread seeing as how I'm still in the Land of Undecided.

Starred you for 2023 Richard.

>37 SandDune: Thanks, Rhian! I'll see you around here in a few days.

>36 SandyAMcPherson: It can't hurt to start a thread...no law says you have to keep it up, and who knows? Maybe having one will inspire you to fill it. But equally, there's no rule requiring you to have a thread. It's all what makes you feel positive vibes.

>38 richardderus: I know I can neglect my own thread... but then I tend to feel downcast that it isn't visited, sort of a self-fulfilling consequence, of course.
Mr. SM (hubby for short) suggests that I allocate one morning a week to dwell on LT and not try to post on my starred threads too much. Since I can be so very chatty some days, I'll have to rein myself in!

>39 SandyAMcPherson: An excellent, actionable idea and one that risks nothing except some time.

I like it!

I've seen you around the threads for years and always enjoy your sense of humor -- time to drop a star me thinks. Happy 2023, Richard!

>41 RebaRelishesReading: Greetings, Reba! Welcome to the party. I hope we'll see more of you here in 2023.

Just setting my cushion down RD.

Welcome, Caro, I'll ask Perkins to bring the vol-au-vents by directly.

I'll post one more review on the 2022 thread later today sometime. But it's already counted into the totals, so there's no point shilly-shallying: My 2022 report and 2023 plans and goals is in >5 richardderus: above.

Hiya Richard! Best wishes for a fascinating, *healthy* and readerly new year.
>5 richardderus: I loved this overview. Inspired by your titles and have added a few to my 2023 TBR.

Amazing number of reviews you achieved! ~

The photo at #5 doesn't display for me, though I can work around it by copying it to a new tab. Very interesting pile o' books.

Happy New Year, Richard. Happy New Thread! We are closing out another wonderful year of books and banter and I am looking forward to sharing another with you. I can't believe this will be my 15th year. Crazy, right?

New Year's Eve *smooch* as I drop off my star!

>48 katiekrug: Hi Katie! Happy 2023! *smooch* and thanks for being such a delightful part of this safe, happy corner of the internet.

>47 msf59: Hey Birddude, happy 2023! I'm sure we're all in for some major upsets and shifts, but they'll be more bearable because we've got our little corner of the internet to be kind and grateful in.

Fifteen years! Doesn't that just blow your mind?! Our worlds without LT...the 75ers...just would not look or feel *right* would they? Bird well for 2023.

>46 SandyAMcPherson: Hiya Sandy! Thank you for the kind words. I was a very productive boy in 2022. It's the best feeling for me. I can see it would unnerve or disgruntle others but for me, being busy psychologically is key to being prosocial. The less I feel I can do, the more unhappy and upset I become.

They're all UK editions of different books, and the way the photographer arranged them appeals to my sense of the proper geometry of the world. I love it.

>5 richardderus: Well, Kibogo immediately jumped into my Amazon basket. I wonder how that happened?

I hope you have a wonderful 2023, RD. I am looking forward to seeing your reads and reviews throughout. ((Hugs)) and **smooches**

It's still 2022, as Horrible and Anita and the other Luddites will be certain to remind us, so I posted one final review for the year.

258 The Strangest, published in 2015 by Michael J. Seidlinger, was indeed what it said on the tin. It took me *years* to finally Get It. See post 176.

>50 alcottacre: Thank you, Stasia, and I wish the same for all y'all.

Kibogo needs the luuuv, m'dear, it's not a million-seller and that is just barely not a civil-rights-of-readers crime. I hope you'll get the experience I had with it...that enfolding, involving, exciting new world all there to explore!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year, Richard! I'm dropping off a star but, as I have said on others' threads (and indeed on my own), I have no illusions that I'll be back to my old posting form in 2023. I'll do my best to follow along with no self-imposed pressure to "keep up," and I'm looking forward to more reading recommendations and, of course, various adventures.

And here you go, already affecting my 2023 reading plans. Both of Natasha Pulley's books you describe above, The Kingdoms and The Half Life of Valerie K, sound marvelous. I've not heard of Pulley, so thank you for a new author to check out!

Wishing you all the best in 2023, my friend.

>5 richardderus: I am glad that that one knocked it out of the park. I acquired it not that long ago and have been meaning to read it soon.

I have you starred, Richard. I always enjoy reading your thoughtful and entertaining reviews!

001 Wiijiwaaganag: More Than Brothers by Peter Razor

Rating: 3.75* of five

The Publisher Says: Niizh Eshkanag is a member of the first generation of Anishinaabe children required to attend a U.S. government boarding school—schools infamously intended to “kill the Indian and save the man,” or forcibly assimilate Native students into white culture. At the Yardley Indian Boarding School in northern Minnesota, far from his family, Niizh Eshkanag endures abuse from the school staff and is punished for speaking his native language.

After his family moves him to a school that is marginally better, he meets Roger Poznanski, the principal’s white nephew, who arrives to live with his uncle’s family and attend the school. Though Roger is frightened of his Indian classmates at first, Niizh Eshkanag befriends him, and they come to appreciate and respect one another’s differences. When a younger Anishinaabe student runs away into a winter storm after being beaten by a school employee, Niizh Eshkanag and Roger join forces to rescue him, beginning an adventure that change their lives and the way settlers, immigrants and the Anishinaabe people of the Great Lakes think about each other and their shared future.

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

My Review: There is a lot to be said for reliving one's past...only better. The late Peter Razor (While the Locust Slept, 2002) was a former inmate of the successor institution to the Residential Schools. He had skin in this game and he was not going to sit quiet while the world kept not knowing what really happened to boys like him.

Having written a very powerful memoir (it's Kindleable for under $10!) he turned, as many elders will, to making his past a better place than it actually was. Only difference is, he wrote fiction instead of telling tales. He's aimed the resulting fantasy retelling of the past at young adults, wisely, and was in the process of writing it when he died at 90. His family have completed and edited the book, and retained his use of his native tongue and included for the white people an Ojibwemowin-English glossary at the end of the book. As there is no real issue with understanding most of what is said in either language, I'd say it's a feature more useful for completists who would like to gain a sense of the Ojibwemowin language's bones.

That said, I know many readers find it very difficult to immerse themselves in the story if a not-English language is present. Understand that is where you're headed, then, and decide to come on the trip or not. It is a trip...the two boys, Niizh and Roger, go on a quest to find a younger student who ran away from the school after a beating delivered by a staff member.

The hijinks that ensue aren't belief-stretching, what with white people having collywobbles that this Indian is in company with a white child! shockhorror! and so on and so forth. It's a YA story, aimed that way, so it's no surprise to anyone that the results are all good, the mean people who beat the one child are sad and redeemed of their cruel, cruel ways, that kind of thing.

I did not read this book for its story. I read it for its heart. A man whose early life was truly, tragically scarring wrote a lovely revamp of his experience of the world, extending it to the future with a smile and a tear. "It can be better, it should be this way, not how it was...not ever again," says this story in its very existence. And that being a message I agree with completely, and support entirely, I wanted to read the story from someone whose standing to tell it is impeccable.

What Author Razor did not have was a writer's experience. It's not a knock against him. He had no reason to develop such a talent through practice and skill-learning. And exactly how would he have done that? So it's not a question of "come back when you're more practiced at your craft," it's a fact of life: The story, as told, has little suspense and not a lot of finesse.

Those are not reasons to pick it up. Learning what a Native American of the Anishinaabe people thought of his childhood, and what by extension others should learn from those shared feelings, those are reasons to pick up the book. Hearing, in your mind's ear, the cadences of the not-English language, and learning its broad outlines. Understanding the pain and the injustice inflicted on an official Government policy of "kill the Indian, save the man," and reckoning with the diseased thinking that could come up with such flimsy lies to cover the real purpose of assimilation. These are the reasons to pick up the book, and to gift it to early teenagers whose world-views are even now hardening. We can not afford to perpetuate the divisions that capitalism instils to ensure its profits. The world is in a genuine, verging on existential, crisis and we need each and every mind, eye, and hand operating at peak capacity to avoid horrific disaster.

Wordle 561 4/6

⬜🟨⬜🟩⬜
⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
First one of 2023 and I think, their disclaimers aside, the owners are selecting certain words for certain days just to be cheeky. AEONS, MIRTH, CHINE, WHINE

Finally making my rounds. I got so busy with the 12-hour cross-stitch event and its kitty interruptions that I forgot to do Wordle yesterday. I suppose worse things have happened.

>57 richardderus: I also got it in four. What was your guess #3? (Curious if it was the same one I had or SHINE.)

Happy new year! *smooch*

Happy New Year, Richard. I enjoy following your thread although keeping up is a challenge! All the best to you in 2023.

Happy new year, Richard!

Happy New Year, Richard. It is a bit foggy out there but mild. Meeting up with some birding buddies, to clock in our first birds of the year. Enjoy your day.

>59 bell7: Oops! I forgot to spoiler-tag the words.

I used CHINE, as in "crêpe de", and it took...then I thought "uh-oh this is gonna be guessy-guessy so let's go for the one at the OTHER end" and it worked!

>63 richardderus: Oooh, interesting. I had used CHIME earlier in my guessing, so the C was out... I had THINE next, and then there weren't many other options of letters-that-go-before H left so I got it.

>62 msf59: Thanks, Birddude! It's sunshiney and almost 60° this morning. After a foggy, drizzly day yesterday I was ready for it. Looks like you lot are in for another nasty winter storm early next week. Sorry....

>61 DianaNL: Thank you, Diana, the same back!

>60 lauralkeet: Thanks, Laura! Remember that "keeping up" is a fantasy. Just dip in and out, when you're here, you're here and that's entirely good enough.

>59 bell7: See above

>58 thornton37814: YOU CAN CROSS-STITCH FOR TWELVE HOURS?!? You, madam, are a machine and I would not want to arm-wrestle you! Wow. That's kinda scary, but quite impressive.

'Morning, Rdear. Happy New Year. Happy Sunday.

*happy dance* for another year of hanging out with you.

Took me 5 today on Wordle, congrats on your 4. Harrumph. Alphabet soup. I'm whine-ing about it.

*smooch* from your own Madame TVT Horrible

Morning, BigDaddy! I will join Karen in her happy dance - I also love hanging out with you. *smooch*

>67 Crazymamie: Happy dances all round! Thank goodness they're virtual, since I have three left feet on the dance floor. I am assured that this is physically impossible but the assurances grow muted when I, um, demonstrate.

>66 karenmarie: It was a total guessy-guessy day, I could see that based on where things weren't, so it was a pleasure to outwit myself and get the solution in 4 instead of 6!

Happy that you're here to be hung out with, Horrible, and that you're taking the health part of the scare as a call to action. Enjoy your soccer (?) and company! *smooch*

Wanted to stop by and wish you a healthy, prosperous, book-laden, love filled 2023, dear fellow.

>69 PaulCranswick: Thank you most kindly, PC, and all the same returned for you and the other Cranswicks!

Happy New Year and happy new thread Richard!

>71 humouress: Thank you, Nina! I'll see you round the threads. *smooch*

Happy 2023 to you Richard. Hope it's healthy, happy and lots of fun.

>73 RebaRelishesReading: Thanks Reba, each of those sounds like a great thing on its own but all of 'em would be excellent.

Wishing you a Happy New Year, and some mighty fine reading in 2023 RD.

Worth examining carefully wherever you live.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/dec/31/2023-in-books-highlights-for-the-y...

>75 Caroline_McElwee: Thank you, Caro, the same wishes heartily returned.

Hi Richard, it's January 1. How am I already behind on your thread? What hope is there for me to keep up if I'm already behind on the first day of the year?😳

At any rate, I've added Kibogo to my many possibilities for next year. Archipelago is almost as reliable as NYRB. Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, Richard! May it be all you hope for!

>56 richardderus: Adding that one to the BlackHole. Thanks for the recommendation, RD!

>80 alcottacre: Hi Stasia! I think you'll appreciate the story. Be patient with language...nothing isn't translated, you won't be lost because you're not catching something.

*smooch*

>79 Storeetllr: Good heavens, Mary, what a wish! Be prepared, then, since Ivana's going to rise from her ashes and drag 45 straight into Hell with Roger Ailes, Mitch McConnell, all the Murdochs, and the Supreme Court behind her.

*happy sigh*

>78 brenzi: You're here, Bonnie, so that's enough...and this thread's a week old! Of course you're behind, so's everyone else!

*smooch*

>81 richardderus: re >79 Storeetllr: Here's to that!

Happy New Year, Richard! *smooch*

>83 ronincats: Thanks, Roni, you too! *smooch*

>82 Storeetllr: :-*

I've broken through to this here "other side," but I have not secured office space here. It'll take me a few days to get that squared away. I'll check in from time to time, see what you are up to. Oh I know I know: Wordling daily, posting book reviews daily, passing out kind words.

How could anyone pass by your thread? I can't.

>85 weird_O: LOL

MANY pass by, some with wrinkled noses and others with blank indifferent stares.

But I'm glad you don't!
***
Didn't even make it 24 full hours before we lost the first author. Belovèd of many 75ers, Edith Pearlman has died. She was the author of Binocular Vision: New and Selected Stories, which introduced her to many of us. She was 86.

>87 Berly:

Yes!!! : )

Happy New Year RD!

>33 richardderus: - No, I do not have a thread set up in the 75 Group this year. I am slowly coming back into LTland after a break so I am limiting myself to just one talk thread over on the 2023 Category Challenge group here.

Happy new year Richard! Dropping a star and bracing for book bullets.

 I wish you happiness, health and contentment. Happpy reading *smooch*

‘Morning, RDear. Happy Monday to you.

>68 richardderus: Today Wordle took me 5, but I’m not complaining at all. I’m continuing to work on my health stuff because I have always said that old is someone in their 90s, and I want to be old when it’s time to leave this incarnation. Nov. 2021 was definitely a wake-up call and call to action. I enjoyed the soccer, company prep, company, cleanup-not-so-much, and happy exhaustion after.

I’ve already finished one book for 2023 and will actually have to start a *real* book – The Book of Disappearance for my book club meeting on the 8th.

*smooch*

Happy New Year of Reading!

>94 Kristelh: Thank you, Kristel, the same to you!

>93 karenmarie: Happy Monday, Horrible. I hope you're right about "old" being in the 90s, but "They" might move the goalposts into the hundreds...awful thought. I'm pretty sure your book club' not reading Lemony Snicket, though I suppose it's not impossible...but I feel sure the touchstone's wrong.

Nothing about your KU books is unreal, just your internalized book-snobbery tells you so. Fight that demon!

I'll check in on Wordle after I get my licks in. I think your Sunday's social day sounds great! *smooch*

>92 Ameise1: Hi Barbara! It's lovely to see you here!

>91 swynn: Hi Steve! I'm very glad that you, at least, are still book-bulletable...so many seem to be developing literary Kevlar.

>90 lkernagh: Hi Lori, I've been by to visit. Happy 2023's reading!

>89 Berly: *smooch*

002 Deep River by Karl Marlantes

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Karl Marlantes's debut novel Matterhorn has been hailed as a modern classic of war literature. In his new novel, Deep River, Marlantes turns to another mode of storytelling—the family epic—to craft a stunningly expansive narrative of human suffering, courage, and reinvention.

In the early 1900s, as the oppression of Russia's imperial rule takes its toll on Finland, the three Koski siblings—Ilmari, Matti, and the politicized young Aino—are forced to flee to the United States. Not far from the majestic Columbia River, the siblings settle among other Finns in a logging community in southern Washington, where the first harvesting of the colossal old-growth forests begets rapid development, and radical labor movements begin to catch fire.

The brothers face the excitement and danger of pioneering this frontier wilderness—climbing and felling trees one-hundred meters high—while Aino, foremost of the book's many strong, independent women, devotes herself to organizing the industry's first unions. As the Koski siblings strive to rebuild lives and families in an America in flux, they also try to hold fast to the traditions of a home they left behind.

Layered with fascinating historical detail, this is a novel that breathes deeply of the sun-dappled forest and bears witness to the stump-ridden fields the loggers, and the first waves of modernity, leave behind. At its heart, Deep River is an ambitious and timely exploration of the place of the individual, and of the immigrant, in an America still in the process of defining its own identity.

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

My Review: Remember when I warbled my fool lungs out about how awful, painful, and enraging Matterhorn was, and then gave it my annual 6-stars-of-five nod? And told y'all to move quick and get the book? No?! What do you mean, "no"?! You don't commit all my reviews to memory?! Ingrates....

The wattage of warbling is lower this time, but then again I'm ten years older. Everything is lower. (I hate you, Gravity.) What is not lower is Karl Marlantes' level of writing:

Then, like a seaborne Sisyphus, the ship clawed to the top of the next towering wave, as the sailors fought gravity and slippery decks to maintain their balance and their lives.
–and–
With those you love, you accept that there are only two ways you will not get hurt when you lose them. You stop loving them or you die first.

It's to your taste, or it's not; but it is not describable as bad. I've heard the "purple prose" calumny tossed lightly about in reference to Marlantes's work; I am not on board with this. What might seem purple to some readers is, in my way of looking at it, period-appropriate formality. And the lush sensory world is a feature, not a bug, to me...in historical fiction it adds a layer of depth to the world I spend time and effort creating in my reading eye.

What is, I fear, describable as "bad" is Author Marlantes's gender politics. Women, I am here to tell you, do not think about their breasts unless a man is ogling them, or they've chosen that man's attention to attract. (I listen when women talk instead of staring at their boobs. Try it sometime! Fascinating what women know.) I fear that the author's cishet maleness rears its head here. Fly over it (my solution, since I care nothing about boobs) or pass on by. Similarly I Rose Above a character's christian beliefs. Mostly because she's an actual, not a religious, christian. Icky, but endurable since she's not all gawd and church and suchlike bullshit.

So all that dealt with, let me say that I think the lushness and enfolding sensual reality of the work is worth the things I don't find to my personal taste. I won't say I'll give it all the stars, I've mentioned places that take away from that level of enjoyment, but the story of the Koskis leaving oppressed-by-colonialism Finland to become the colonial despoilers of the Pacific Northwest's glorious rainforests struck me as very interesting and quite moving.

Their fates are, as one can intuit from early on, set in the Old Country. Who you are, at your core, is set early in life. All the Koskis are Finns to the bone. What they do, as immigrants ever have, is try on the identity of "American" over their Finnishness. This is a process that I've always found deeply, profoundly moving. To leave the place that formed you because it has no room for you is painful. But the fact is that when Home doesn't want you, it ain't home anymore.

There is no part of this read that I was not able to enjoy. Realizing I am not a woman, I offer the caution above; and I am old, so many anti-colonial younger persons aren't going to resonate as I did to the theme of discovering the identity "American" and trying it on for size. A few of the queer young folk (especially my trans friends) might find the enforced emigration from Home familiar.

Wordle 562 3/6

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All the other vowels being used up, it had to be that one and only one...so it was easy! AEONS, MURKY, SKIRT

>98 richardderus: I also got it in three today!

Dodging the Marlantes book bullet, as I don't think that one's for me, as lovely as his writing sounds.

Morning, BigDaddy! What Mary said about the Marlantes book, but I loved reading your review.

>100 Crazymamie: Hiya Mamie, good decision re: Marlantes. I think you'd roll your eyes hard enough to see your brain.

Thank you for the kind words!

>99 bell7: ^^^what I said to her, doubled, redoubled, and vulnerable (in Bridgespeak).

It is amazing how extremely useful it is to have the vowels clearly identified. It's saved me extra steps any number of times.

Other than its sexist presumption that bookworms are female, THIS

>102 richardderus: Wouldn't that be fun!!

>102 richardderus:. Definitely.

And because I was curious about the source, I went looking for Three Under the Rain. Looks like the illustrator is a woman, so I’ll give her a pass on drawing from her perspective. 😜

>104 mahsdad: You're more generous than she is. Much use of "mansplaining" that sexist and frankly self-parodying term.

>103 Berly: It so, so would.

>102 richardderus: I am close to some of those sans the hairstyle and the dress. Budget not exactly unlimited but a goodly portion of household GDP given over to support the publishing industry! Library established. Not bad for reading time. Only want to speak to certain authors anyway.

Good job, RD, passing 100 posts already.

>106 PaulCranswick: It's an enviable state, isn't it? Except for the budget (and the hair and dress) I'm in the same place...only I use Twitter and Facebleeeccch to talk to authors. (The ones I want to, anyway.)

It's honestly not how I pictured it would be but here we are.

I also Wordled in 3 today. Why are some words so much more satisfying than others?

The Marlantes is intriguing...

>108 katiekrug: Caveat lector for sexism, it is interesting!

I dunno, but they really, really are. Seems perverse but I guess it's kind of inevitable that our emotional responses to words are well-wired parts of our worldview.

You move fast for an old dude. Also, you cheat by starting before the gun goes off. I won't keep up this year any better than I ever do, I suppose, but here's me, draggin' along behind anyway. Cheers! And Good Reading in the New Year.

>110 laytonwoman3rd: LOL

The gun goes off when the Doc pulls the trigger sez I. Mind you don't scuff the driveway as you drag along, Linda3rd.

>102 richardderus: Cute, and strangely, I have no problem with the assumption that a bookworm is female. I think I have the right side of the cartoon covered. Even have a ladder of sorts in my personal library although it isn't a nifty one attached to the shelves as pictured there.

>112 Familyhistorian: Those ladders unnerve me a little...Belle whizzing around on the one in the Beast's library gave me vertigo!

Good heavens, Meg, I can barely bring myself to believe you aren't outraged! heh

>102 richardderus: Yes please :)

Hiya, RDear, and happy Tuesday to you.

>93 karenmarie: I got Wordle in 3 today. Makes me happy. Ha. I’ll continue to fight the internalized book-snobbery demon. I’ve finished one and am 66% through another.

>97 richardderus: I did read your review and did acquire the book, adding it to my catalog on 12/28/2010. Haven’t read it yet, of course… And the cishet maleness regarding breasts and a character’s christian beliefs already have me shying away from this one.

(I hate you, Gravity.) Ugh. Ain’t that the truth.

>102 richardderus: Being able to speak with my favorite authors, living or dead, would be wonderful.

*smooch*

Morning, Richard. Great review of Deep River. I loved the book, as well and I think his Vietnam books are fantastic too. My year is singing along, with plenty of birding and reading. Demon Copperhead has been wonderful, with echoes of a hillbilly Shuggie Bain.

Wordle 563 3/6

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Interesting how, when there's 6 letters all commonly used in the rubbish bin, the answer emerges as though through fog. AEONS, MIRTH, ANTIC

>117 richardderus: I also got it in three, and was kind of surprised I was right.

>118 bell7: Oh yay, Mary! It was the one word I could think of that fit, but I've been surprised before, so was prepared to cudgel something else out of my neuron.

>116 msf59: Thanks, Mark. It's a good read indeed. I think your comp of Demon to Shuggie says a lot! I didn't enjoy the missionaries-in-the-Congo read at all, but this might tempt me someday.

>115 karenmarie: The ability to reach people has never been more democratized than in the world of social media. Just sayin'

I'm not at all sure that Deep River is worth your eyeblinks, Horrible. It's as big as, but not more important than, The Federalist Papers, and what sense is there, on a hot-getting-hotter day, in plunging into a pool of tepid water? Little refreshment, almost all of which comes from getting out. Deaccession, sez I.

*smooch*

>118 bell7: Same here :0)

>120 humouress: ...thus extending your streak, yay!

Morning, BigDaddy!

>102 richardderus: Love this!

>122 Crazymamie: Ain't that grand? I'm glad to see you, smoochling.

>97 richardderus: Not a BB for me but I was very amused with the critique you levelled re cishet. Very apt. Also, great truths in your insight about leaving home. The author appears to have brought this facet forward and for that insight alone, I am intrigued with this story (despite the boobs-a-lot approach to women).

I learned with difficulty and some sense of loss, that when one leaves, you can never go back. You don't fit into that milieu anymore.
Home stays unchanged in your mind; but in reality, the place and the people change just as the returning person changes. Returning frequently might make the changes less evident or perhaps less emotionally difficult, but it isn't THE home of one's memory. Maybe that's what is meant by 'growing up'? In truth, one's personality has changed more than they might understand.

>97 richardderus: Definitely adding that one to the BlackHole as I loved Marlantes Matterhorn when I read it a few years ago. Thank you for the review and recommendation, RD.

>102 richardderus: Oh, yeah. Suits my bookish dreams to a T.

((Hugs)) and **smooches** for today, dearest RD.

>117 richardderus: Well, I, of course, had to try attic and took 5 to get it.

>125 alcottacre: Oh excellent, Stasia! I'm pretty sure you'll enjoy this outing because it's so very textured and layered, with people in conflict who genuinely feel anguish about it.

Heh. We're all in the cartoon, I expect, who live in this menagerie.

>124 SandyAMcPherson: Well, Sandy, like women I find the cishet male fixation on boobs tiring at best and utterly boring at worst when the boob-bearer in question is speaking to you and your eyes are riveted to 'em.

I concur with your thoughts on home...I wonder why it is this discovery can't be communicated BEFORE it's urgent for people to know?! We change all our lives, willy-nilly, and we forget that this is a) true of others and 2) necessary to actually bring into relationship conversations.

SIGH

>1 richardderus: Happy New Reading Year!

>128 ocgreg34: Thank you, Greg, the same wish heartily returned to you!

003 The New Life by Tom Crewe

Real Rating: 4.75* of five

The Publisher Says: A brilliant and captivating debut, in the tradition of Alan Hollinghurst and Colm Tóibín, about two marriages, two forbidden love affairs, and the passionate search for social and sexual freedom in late 19th-century London.

In this powerful, visceral novel about love, sex, and the struggle for a better world, two men collaborate on a book in defense of homosexuality, then a crime—risking their old lives in the process.

In the summer of 1894, John Addington and Henry Ellis begin writing a book arguing that what they call “inversion,” or homosexuality, is a natural, harmless variation of human sexuality. Though they have never met, John and Henry both live in London with their wives, Catherine and Edith, and in each marriage there is a third party: John has a lover, a working class man named Frank, and Edith spends almost as much time with her friend Angelica as she does with Henry. John and Catherine have three grown daughters and a long, settled marriage, over the course of which Catherine has tried to accept her husband’s sexuality and her own role in life; Henry and Edith’s marriage is intended to be a revolution in itself, an intellectual partnership that dismantles the traditional understanding of what matrimony means.

Shortly before the book is to be published, Oscar Wilde is arrested. John and Henry must decide whether to go on, risking social ostracism and imprisonment, or to give up the project for their own safety and the safety of the people they love. Is this the right moment to advance their cause? Is publishing bravery or foolishness? And what price is too high to pay for a new way of living?

A richly detailed, insightful, and dramatic debut novel, The New Life is an unforgettable portrait of two men, a city, and a generation discovering the nature and limits of personal freedom as the 20th century comes into view.

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

My Review: First, read this:

How to define extremity? The greatest extremity? Lust, not as quickened heartbeat or dizzy possibility, but as lagging sickness, a lethargy. Lust as slow poisoning. Lust as a winter coat worn in summer, never to be taken off. Lust as a net, cast wide, flashing silver, impossible to pull in. Lust as a thousand twitching, tightening strings, sensitive to every breeze. Lust as a stinking, secret itch. Lust carried leadenly in the day, dragged to bed. Lust at four in the morning, spent chokingly into a nightshirt. Lust as a liquid mess, dragged into your beard, drying into tendrils, the smell trapped in your nostrils.

In that passage from the very beginning of the book you are clear what this book's greatest strengths...specificity and sensory evocation...are, and what its weakness is: prolixity. (One fewer. Just...one fewer.)

But as a novel, on every story-based measure of characterization, action, world-building (late Victorian London is, in fact, as alien from our world as any spaceship), this first effort from Author Crewe is a wild success. As a salvo notifying us of the arrival of a new vessel, it's head-and-shoulders above most of what I've read in the past few years.

A fictionalization of two real people, who in this book do not meet but do collaborate on an extremely provocative and daring text...Sexual Inversion was its title...that dealt frankly and openly with the shocking idea that homosexual desire is not a perversion but an inversion, an opposite force, to the common-or-garden heterosexual variety of desire. In our rather less interesting realm of blah reality, the two never even corresponded that anyone is aware of. It's to be assumed each had heard of the other, being rather well-known people, but there is not a scintilla of a fact in this story's imagining of the literary work that John and Henry get committed to paper.

Poignantly, Henry Ellis isn't what we'd call gay, but a urophilic heterosexual; it wouldn't send him to jail, like sex with men would John Addington, but it would get him talked about and ostracized. The points of connection between the characters are real, and in Henry's case stem from a sincerely held belief that no one should be shamed for consensual sexual desires. In the 1890s. In LONDON, stuffiest and second-most perverted (Paris, of course, was first) of international brothels. We haven't come to terms with that radical idea yet and it's the third decade of the twenty-first century!

Henry and John's book is cursed, in a sense; it's coming to light at exactly the moment the world's spotlight of attention is glaring on Oscar Wilde's trial for "gross indecency," that most cishet male of crimes. (I mean, the Boer War was grossly indecent, the Native Genocide in the US was grossly indecent, but fucking a man who wants you to do it?) They're all the way through writing it and there's even a publisher willing to publish it. But is this the responsible thing for a family man (John) to do at this juncture? His daughters will likely suffer for the daring act. His wife will most certainly suffer more, and she is one whose suffering has been extraordinarily difficult because, of necessity, it's done in private and John is a scion of privilege as all men are. He isn't unsympathetic to her suffering through their marriage; he feels quite guilty about it; but it does not feel real to him because he is in no way aware of what a woman—any woman at all—confronts and endures by virtue of her sex. Blind, oblivious to his world of mind-bending luxury, he is gobsmacked when his wife demands that he consider her suffering as suffering, even saying to him that she is a receptacle "fitted to receive your waste." That statement, like the concept it arises from, is utterly devastating from any angle you look at it.

So too the Ellises are in some peril if the book comes out. Edith Ellis is a lesbian, and a campaigner for women's rights. Henry is a species of fraud, an expert on sex without a dog in the fight, so to speak, by dint of his virgin's estate. Still, knowledge does not need to be practical or no one would study particle physics. Their, um, unconventional set-up is so by design and not, like the Addingtons' ménage, a jerry-rigged response to reality's exigencies.

The famous Wilde trial, despite its centrality to the events of the novel, appears nowhere on the pages. I was surprised to note this as I finished the read. I'd expected some of it to appear and none except its fact as an occurrence ever did. This, after a moment's contemplation, made me very happy. We're fictionalizing the past any time we read about it, but I think Author Crewe's choice to leave this huge and celebrated event as, more or less, background noise was spot on. This kind of focus, of disciplined intentional limiting of field, isn't common in beginners. It was a delight to find it here.

I did mention that prolixity issue. The novel's about sexuality, and in a time of even greater repression than we are in at present. The sexual events are within the bounds of modern acceptability standards for a novel. They aren't in any unusual configurations for twenty-first century readers of even the most superficial sophistication. They aren't prurient, as in looking on from a remove and deriving judgmental or pleasurable titillation from the acts. But they, like so many things in the novel, are just that three-word clause, that one-too-manyeth ellipsis, too long. As one routinely tutted at for being wordy, I totally empathize. I did find myself thinking, "okay, enough now," more often than I expected to in a book professionally edited.

But, and this is important!, none of that made me feel frustrated or took me away from my focus on the story unfolding. It is a very good story. It speaks, through voices long dead, of the world of today as it was in its borning moments. It is a fine and worthy addition to your To Be Reads if you are at all interested in Victorian sexuality, the price of honesty within relationships, and the incalculable costs in unhappiness and suffering of enforcing conformity.

Early good morning to you, RD, as I see that you’ve already posted a review this morning. I’ll scroll down to it in a bit.

>119 richardderus: Yes, I have resolved to finish The Federalist Papers this year, and, with 44 to go, am starting this morning on #43. Thank you for the additional nudge I needed to bring it back off the shelf.

>130 richardderus: Hmm. Specificity and sensory evocation vs. prolixity. At a bare minimum, it’s on my wish list, and it’s currently in my Amazon shopping cart, waiting for the application of my Amazon Rewards Visa Signature Card Points, probably Friday. Enticing and brilliant review. It is a fine and worthy addition to your To Be Reads if you are at all interested in Victorian sexuality, the price of honesty within relationships, and the incalculable costs in unhappiness and suffering of enforcing conformity. Not so much, very much, also very much. Two out of three.

*smooch* from your own Horrible

>130 richardderus: Excellent review. Had to look up some vocab, but (not a surprise), probs won't add The New Life to my TBR list. However, I really admire your ability to pull in my interest when you review so widely beyond my life's experiences.

Such reviews are hugely effective in broadening one's perspective and creating acceptance in the broader society, yes? I am always astonished when I realize what a constrained world the 1800's was in otherwise supposedly enlightened cultures, yet North American tolerance of the LGBTQ+ communities (for example) is still not very widespread. I have the impression that the 'acceptable' societal norms of 1890's London still persists widely in Eurocentric cultures.

>132 SandyAMcPherson: Honestly, Sandy, I think this read would not be enjoyable to you. Close to non-fiction but with an itchy little unsnipped tag of things that just could not possibly be true (like Symonds being dead when the whole story takes place, which is why Addington must needs be adduced).

Well, since 6.15am I've had almost 180 people read (at least navigate to it by clicking on the tinyurl.com link) the review, or parts of it, so I'm deeply hopeful that the points will dent some hitherto smooth brows. I don't expect conversion experiences daily but someone looking up vocabulary and thinking about stuff they hadn't much bothered with before is more than enough of a result to me.

Make no mistake! We are way ahead of where the Great Awakening to the Fun of Intolerance and Hatred left us in the 1830s and 1840s. But it dragged the world so far down the wrongest possible path that we're still sticks-in-the-mud by Rake-ish standards from 250 years ago.

>131 karenmarie: Hey Horrible! I was indeed up early. I'll be nappin' away this afternoon.

I'm glad your Federalist Papers is getting back into gear. They're fascinating and very, very important to know the workings of in order to tut with justice and reason at the manifold ways the politicos are falling short in their reasoning for in/action.

*smooch* for saying such nice things. I'd say you're probably overlooking Victoria's long shadow on today's intimate landscapes...but I predict you will enjoy this read. So much purposeful anguishing! Deep-rooted and hard to resolve conflicts! Sincere and abiding love coupled with blind, selfish ignorance!

Good stuff.

I've begun a slow and careful reading of The January 6th Report: The Report of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, published by Skyhorse and with an introduction by Darren Beattie. Having just read that, I need to put the book down and go read Cow Goes Moo and The Fuffy Bundy Wabbix Gets Losted.

I chose The Other Side's take because 1) need to know what they're saying and b) getting too entrenched in one's own Rightness is lethal to good thinking. But it does indeed stink in here!

>133 richardderus: Inquiring minds want to know, what else can I say!
Also, how do you assess "...almost 180 people read (at least navigate to it)..." ?
I was one of those clicks, but can't figure out how those are recorded on LT. Edward Snowden could probably tell but such stuff is completely bewildering to me.

Wordle 564 4/6

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It helps to make a COMPLETE mess of it because then it snaps into focus. AEONS, MURKY, READY, LAYER

No time! No time! I have to go, but I haven't said much beyond HNY '23, and I've been here. I'll come back and take a BB hit or 2. Thank you very much.

*smooch*

>137 LizzieD: HIPEGGYbyePeggy *smooch*

>135 SandyAMcPherson: I don't think you were one of those clicks because you read the review here, not on my blog.
https://tinyurl.com/rszyeww3 is the link to my blog's post with this review. Because it goes through TinyURL.com, I get a report of how many people have used the link to access my specific page for that review...now it's 203. That link is in all my social-media posts about the review, one an hour on Twitter for today and a couple during the day on Facebleeeccch and so on.
So they track how their link performs for me, and I check a couple times a day to see which times have spikes...helps me figure out how to get more people to notice me!

>130 richardderus: It is a very good story. Then I would say he got the most important part right. Adding that one to the BlackHole.

Happy Wednesday, RD. ((Hugs)) and **smooches** for today.

Morning, BigDaddy! Excellent review. Hoping Wednesday is kind to you. *Smooch*

>130 richardderus: Got me with that one too. Into the Swamp with it!

>141 swynn: Hi Steve! I hope that you enjoy the read when its turn comes at the top of the pile.

>140 Crazymamie: Thank you, sweetiedarling. It's been no better than is its statutory minimum goodness, but the days when even that feels like up remind me to be smilingly grateful that I ain't homeless, hungry, and living in Texas.

>139 alcottacre: ...ummm...wellllll...I'll just say it would behoove you not to rush around trying to source the book and be prepared to break the habit of a lifetime and abandon ship rather than try to power through things that are too uncomfortable. Life has plenty enough for the Stasias this year all lined up, no sense adding on to it.

I've got you starred now, Richard. Happy reading in 2023!

>143 Copperskye: Hi there, Joanne! I'm glad to be found.

>136 richardderus: Oh gosh, I read READY as "reedy" not "reddy" and was about to be shocked that it was an acceptable word. I think it's time I grab my book and toddle off to bed, 'cause my brain's apparently done for the night.

>136 richardderus: oooh, nice!

Happy new year and new thread! At least I made it before you were on your second already!

I was *forced* to go back to work early today...even though my boss was meant to be away the first 2 weeks of Jan. But, once I had got there and started, I was actually quite into it :)

>130 richardderus: Exquisite review, with exemplary quotes, excellent summary and enticing vocabulary. : )

'Morning, RDear, and happy Thursday to you.

The siren call of coffee lured me downstairs at 5 a.m. A bit of LT, a bit of reading, a bit of puttering, then off to visit the orthopedic surgeon this afternoon. I'm hoping that the result of the visit will be approving and scheduling knee replacement surgery. In addition to the culmination of a year's worth of being on a drug that precludes elective surgeries and amazing amounts of knee and calf pain, I'll have an hour and a half to listen to The Ink Black Heart, 6th in the Cormoran Strike series. It's a doozy.

*smooch*

Oh my, I drop my star and you are already on message 149!

Happy new year, Richard, and happy reading too.

Sweet Thursday, Richard. More winter type weather here, the next couple of days. I will be staying off the trails and getting some Jackson time in, along with as much reading as I can.

004 The Villa by Rachel Hawkins

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: The bestselling author of The Wife Upstairs returns with a brilliant new gothic suspense set at an Italian villa with a dark history.

As kids, Emily and Chess were inseparable. But by their 30s, their bond has been strained by the demands of their adult lives. So when Chess suggests a girls trip to Italy, Emily jumps at the chance to reconnect with her best friend.

Villa Aestas in Orvieto is a high-end holiday home now, but in 1974, it was known as Villa Rosato, and rented for the summer by a notorious rock star, Noel Gordon. In an attempt to reignite his creative spark, Noel invites up-and-coming musician, Pierce Sheldon to join him, as well as Pierce’s girlfriend, Mari, and her stepsister, Lara. But he also sets in motion a chain of events that leads to Mari writing one of the greatest horror novels of all time, Lara composing a platinum album—and ends in Pierce’s brutal murder.

As Emily digs into the villa’s complicated history, she begins to think there might be more to the story of that fateful summer in 1974. That perhaps Pierce’s murder wasn’t just a tale of sex, drugs, and rock & roll gone wrong, but that something more sinister might have occurred—and that there might be clues hidden in the now-iconic works that Mari and Lara left behind.

Yet the closer that Emily gets to the truth, the more tension she feels developing between her and Chess. As secrets from the past come to light, equally dangerous betrayals from the present also emerge—and it begins to look like the villa will claim another victim before the summer ends.

Inspired by Fleetwood Mac, the Manson murders, and the infamous summer Percy and Mary Shelley spent with Lord Byron at a Lake Geneva castle—the birthplace of Frankenstein—The Villa welcomes you into its deadly legacy.

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

My Review: What fun it is to sit, or lie in bed, with a read leaning/sitting/suspended above you by your boytoy at your preferred angle, and just submerge into a story. It must needs be a hefty stew, a thick and savory amalgam of tastes powerful and subtle, to get through the fog of quotidian tedium we're all settling back into in the wintry northern hemisphere. Remember it for August reading, global southerners!

Rachel Hawkins delivers a big, full bowl of it all. The middle-escent quondam besties who, in the present, are surprising themselves when they decide to spend girl-time together at one of those fabulously gorgeous rentable family seats in gloriously scenic Italy. Each woman, trying to gin up something to fulfill a publishing contract, is finding that she just is not feeling the love for anything she's got at that moment. The mystery writer's cozy series is sour for her now that her soon-to-be-ex husband is suing her for a chunk of her future royalties because she, in a moment of candor, told an interviewer that her series' most beloved character was based on him. The self-help writer's having an existential crisis because she's been fleecing desperate people by ladling out craptastic nostrums knowing full well that a trip to the Hallmark card shop would give them the same level of help and insight into their problems.

Oh dear! Silly me, saying what I really think about things again. Strike that! Of course, she's simply seeking something to afford her fresh insights and, well, what better than a friend in the middle of a rancorous divorce? (I don't in all honesty see how that's better but I'm not here to judge.) (Well, only the story I'm being told, not the realities of publishing.)

Em and Chess, in the present day, are going through the middle-escent crisis of "is this it?" and need to make their eyes see past the same-old same-old surfaces. At their gorgeous holiday Villa Aestas, they learn to listen to themselves more carefully as the delicious herbal remedy of being in Italy brings up things neither was ever planning to work through, or even acknowledge...admit. That stew has tough cuts of meat that just about break your jaw muscles to chew....

Their motivation to do that tough work is the fifty-years-gone history of Villa Aestas. Golden-boy rocker, two teenaged girls in love with his fame and poetry, a Svengali older man...all of twenty-six!...who guides the group into a Byron-and-Shelley creative ferment that he uses to elicit full-body responses to the sexual tensions inevitable in this situation. Tell me how any writer of anything at all could resist poking this spiritual sore tooth! And the existence of a memoir-by-novel about it, telling a story so soppily romantic that you just know a teenager wrote it. Should they, and we, trust the story we're told here, the story in front of us? Emily, she of the murder-mystery instincts, doesn't seem to question Mari's published version of the 1974 events until present-day events make her think carefully for once in a long, foggy, unhappy time.

But writers, you know, writers aren't simple little souls ready to take dictation from their imaginary friends the voices. Writers (of murder mysteries, of books about changing your life) need to be ruthless and "kill their darlings." Success can breed jealousy as always, but so can a lifetime of coming up short when comparing yourself to someone else...and poets (as songwriters insist they are) are doubly susceptible to this. Add in a hefty libido and a sense of entitlement and, well....

What Author Hawkins does is not something unexpected. But what she accomplishes by bringing all the strands...the two parties visiting Villa Aestas and the book that Mari, the central voice in 1974's strands, writes...into one bundle is to scrape away the grease she's been applying to the ropes of the plot so they won't rub too hard together and weaken each other. The bare ropes of the meanings and emotions scrape and snarl and burn each other as they are suddenly and forcefully made to change the story's velocity and angle. No tangles, some fraying...I think Mari's book got just a hair (heh) more time in the spotlight than it merited...but supporting structure of the thriller parts of the story suspend their scenery and allow you to scrape your stew-bowl clean without feeling like you need to rush before it all comes crashing down. I heard some creaking from behind the scenes but, crucially, felt that this was not the ropes complaining as they got overworked in moving the parts. It was a quiet invitation from Author Hawkins to consider the thriller you've seen in its intended configuration and perspective.

And question if, just maybe, there had not been a last-minute change of plans, well laid to achieve one result, to achieve instead another result entirely.

This elevated a solid three-and-a-half stars entertainment to a four-star puzzle (despite some eye-rolling but period-appropriate homophobia). Definitely recommended to thriller fans and to the small corps of remaining lovers still thrilling to the wonderful Cary Grant did-he-or-didn't-he films of the 1940s.

>150 msf59: May your Twelfth Night Thursday be merry and bright, Mark. Wintry weather in wintertime is, I'm afraid, the price we pay for the other months having food in 'em. *sigh* I'm not really feelin' the luuuv for this winter. It's good to get in your Jackson time, though.

>149 sirfurboy: Hello Stephen! I'm glad to see you. I'll come look for your thread soon. Happy 2023's reads.

>148 karenmarie: A solid 90 minutes with your book makes the drive well worth it. I'm crossing everything that this will represent your investment of time and pain paying off.

I slept in. I don't much like being up early so I took my chance to luxuriate and, as usual, it paid off. I feel really good today!

*smooch*

>147 Berly: *chuckle* Now go buy it at Powell's. *smooch*

>146 LovingLit: Hi Megan, I'm glad the day didn't make your getting out of bed cause for regret. Routines actually feel good to me, most of the time. I like knowing what I need to do and getting it done as the framework for my days. Not the whole meat of it, preferably, but bones are good.

Happy Friday!

>145 bell7: Hiya Mary! That is deffo a sign that the curtain needs to be rung down on a day. Glad that it came so amusingly instead of annoyingly or troublingly.

*smooch*

Wordle 565 4/6

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I like this word! AEONS, MURKY, SPIKE, SLEEK

Hey, Richard. ' Mornin' to you. I just want to say that I Wordled in none today, keeping my streak alive. Yay! Happy happy.

Read about these in today's Morning Brew newsletter. I'd like both of 'em!

Not the birdhouse you made with your mom: Smart bird feeder Bird Buddy uses a camera and AI to identify the species of birds that perch on it. The company’s co-founder compared it to Pokémon GO…but birds.

Anti-snore pillow: 10Minds unveiled a pillow that detects snoring and then deploys little airbags to turn the sleeper’s head until it’s positioned so they no longer snore. It’s also, of course, hooked up to a smartphone app for on-screen snore analysis.

>155 weird_O: *chuckle* That's a super streak there, Bill, that zero-for-zero one.

Happy to see you anyway, you old apostate.

>156 richardderus: My gosh, who knew?
10Minds smart pillow ~ Mr. SM definitely needs something like that so he can sleep better. Except he's such a Luddite.
I thought this was a good review, for those who are interested in a north-of-the border link.

I'm not sure that it is the same 10Minds product which RD mentions, however. I had trouble finding something related as available in a Canadian context.

>142 richardderus: OK, I will take that advice for a bit. I have plenty of books to read in the meantime (I know that will shock you).

>151 richardderus: Into the BlackHole it goes!

((Hugs)) and **smooches** for today

Just popping in to make sure you are still behaving yourself ;-)

>160 katiekrug: Great goddesses below us! "STILL"?! If I am, somehow or by some definition, "being have" it is purely by accident and oversight on my part!

*smooch*

>159 alcottacre: I'm unceasingly amazed at the level of reading you so steadily do, Stasia. I'm getting much more intentional about *how* I'm reading, and in my case about how I'm selecting books, but there are simply masters of the art whose example is only aspirational and one of 'em is you!

I think you'll really enjoy The Villa when you get to it, but do check it out from the library. It's not that level of keeper.

>158 SandyAMcPherson: I suspect you're looking at the correct company but not the same product. It's something new, a further development of the company's product line, from what I read. I don't know when it will be widely available.

But what a GREAT idea for a pillow!

>130 richardderus: and >151 richardderus: both go on the list RD.

>162 Caroline_McElwee: Excellent news, Caro! I hope you'll get a lot out of the reads...sometimes it's enough to derive some distracting pleasure, after all.
***
Author Cai Emmons reached the end of her journey on the second of January. She was ten days short of her seventy-second birthday.

My review of her novel Livid will go up tomorrow.

I loved this tweet from QI today:

Quite Interesting
@qikipedia
Normal
3%
Word of the day: TENTACULIFEROUS - the state of having tentacles

>163 richardderus: I am not familiar with Cai Emmons's work, and I'm not sure it's for me, but reading her farewell message tore my heart out.

‘Morning, RDear!

>152 richardderus: Alas, no joy with the surgeon for me, but I’m so glad you felt really good yesterday.

*smooch*

Happy Friday Richard!

Morning, BigDaddy! We made it to Friday! *smooch*

005 Livid by Cai Emmons

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: A woman who is suffering from a tragic loss is placed on a jury with her estranged ex-husband.

Sybil White Brown returns from Boston to the small West Coast city where she once lived, hoping to heal after a terrible loss. Summoned to jury duty, she is dismayed to be assigned to the jury of a murder trial alongside her ex-husband with whom she had a rancorous divorce. As the trial progresses, she and her ex tiptoe around each other but eventually become disastrously entangled. Meanwhile, Sybil obsesses about the female defendant, whom she believes is innocent. The situation explodes during jury deliberations when Sybil comes face-to-face with her own unexpressed rage.

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

My Review: If anyone knows the deep contours of female rage, it's Author Cai Emmons...she's received the death sentence that we all dread. Her life will end, and not at some distant and amorphously unknowable date, but quite soon.

The question looms large: How does one assert oneself as a person, a woman, without a speaking voice, without sound waves commandeering attention?

Losing her voice to ALS has not silenced her, she says in LitHub. I'm glad it hasn't...I'm sad it won't get better...I'm deeply empathetic with her character's outrage!

As it happens, Author Emmons reached the end of her journey on the second of January. She was ten days short of her seventy-second birthday. I believe in some kind of afterlife, not one of personal survival or linked to An Eternal Reward or suchlike...but authors, for sure, experience an afterlife as long as their words, ideas, stories are read and thought about by we the living. I myownself will never forget Author Emmons for describing me, through the lens of someone else:

She wasn't old. Indeterminate thirties—everyone seems younger than I am these days—but her skin had been worked over, thickened and textured as if it was used to sealing things out, a skill I recognize.

It is the gift of an observant person to see past surfaces. It is the skill of an author to turn surfaces into substance, to make a whole of a glance and a brushed-past contact into a deep, layered bounce.

When I read in the Acknowledgments that Author Emmons was fired up to write Livid by watching the Supreme Court nomination hearings of Brett Kavanaugh, I was so deeply outraged and infuriated that I put off reading the book. I knew, deep inside the withered and wizened recesses of my whatever-replaced-a-soul, that I would screech in outrage at anything inspired by the travesty of justice and comedy of errors that put the United States of America's Supreme Court in the hands of the scum presently on it. A bit much for me at the time. I put the book aside.

Reading that Author Emmons had died on the second, I felt gripped with the need to learn what she wanted us to know when she chose this inspiration to follow as she herownself began to let go of her grasp on the world. I know there are more books by her coming out this year. I can't say it strongly enough: I think her work is important in subject, appealing in style, and worthy in its spiritual aims. I hope you'll buy them all.

In this story, from its inspiration we can be sure there will be no shortage of enraging subject matter. It's still startling to me that there's a man left alive who has managed to willfully un-know that their condescension and contempt for Womanhood (as opposed to for an individual woman, a different kettle of fish) is a source of volcanic rage and what I'd call a "fond return of contempt." I'd run over the plot for you, but you can read, it's right up there. What I want you to know is how deeply and genuinely Author Emmons explores that fondness I called out.

Sybil, our narrator, seeing Drew, her ex-husband, for the first time since a genuine and deeply painful tragedy ended their marriage, is assailed by the deep and fundamental existence of her anger.

The past will not die. It festers in the body's cells, inflames the tissues, refuses to relinquish its grip. In the face of such intransigence, what can you do but flee?

It is, as Sybil realizes, not possible to extricate her anger from her very being. That realization is central to everything that occurs in this short novel. Drew can't comprehend that Sybil is not going to "move on" or "forgive and forget," both of which nostrums are idiotic and unhelpful as concepts and impossible as goals in my own experience and in Sybil's. What she has done in her lifetime away from Drew and their shared hometown is...heal, scab over the wounds, to give herself a chance at making it through the nights and existing fully in the days of a different life than the one she left behind.

The jury that forms the book's internal audience for Sybil and Drew as the process the real reasons for the end of their relationship is largely faceless and affectless. The two people who count are Sybil and Sybil. Oh, and also Sybil. She is telling the story. She is setting the terms of our relationship with her. She is Responsible. And one gets the distinct impression that this is a unique experience in Sybil's life...think of Marguerite Duras' statement, "I believe there is a miracle in Wanda. Usually, there is a distance between representation and text, subject and action. Here that distance is completely eradicated", quoted about the actress Barbara Loden's one and only directorial outing. In Sybil, Cai Emmons does much the same thing: She utterly erases the barriers between the reader and the character. Not solely by having Sybil narrate the story. The story that Sybil narrates mutates, alters, grows as she tells us more and more of it. By the time the ending comes, heralded by a startling act of redemption, Sybil has finally filled all of her personal space. Sybil has, unlike generations of women, fully and completely claimed all of the mass, all of the depth, all of the breadth of her body, her mind, her heart.

She is, for the first time, her own and her full, self. I was left in complete awe of this feat. Sybil did not, as she began speaking to me, seem as though she would be the kind of character who could, who would dare, to answer this call and stretch her self into the last corners of the mold we call "selfhood." Yet by the end of this compact book, I was standing in Sybil's sole, shining presence. Her rage was too huge to be contained another moment. Her actions, at long last, balanced the delicate and fragile state of inaction and indifference to her self that Sybil was required, as a woman, to assume.

It was deeply and pleasantly surprising as well as subtly and satisfyingly performed in this closely built, quietly molded work of art. I hope you will honor the memory of Cai Emmons in your own way and starting by reading one of her last works strikes me as fitting.

*there are hyperlinks to sources in the blogged version of this review*

>168 Crazymamie: Indeed we have, Mamie, and YAY all over it! *smooch*

>167 figsfromthistle: Happy Friday, Anita, and many happy returns to us all.

>166 karenmarie: Oh dear...I'll come read about it in a bit. I'm so sorry.

*smooch*

>165 laytonwoman3rd: I think you'd find her work interesting, and well-written, but not aimed at you. Her sense of outrage would probably conflict with your sense of proportion, Linda3rd.

Might not be a bad place to start, though, might >169 richardderus:

Livid sounds interesting. Will check the library for it...

>171 katiekrug: I hope your system will have it, but sorta doubt it. It's from Red Hen Press out in LA and I don't think their library sales are sizable.

Maybe Brooklyn-Queens? Possibly?

>172 richardderus: - Neither my local nor the NYPL Overdrive collections have it, sadly.

I don't have access to Brooklyn's system.

>173 katiekrug: *sigh* I can't say I'm in any way surprised. But I do feel saddened. I think you'd really, really enjoy this one!

Waiting patiently for your Wordle results. Happy Friday!

*smooch*

>1 richardderus: Coming by to say hello and Happy New Year!

>161 richardderus: My local library has The Villa, so I appreciate that bit of advice. I thought that I was being "more intentional" in my reading, what with all my challenges. . .

>169 richardderus: Adding that one to the BlackHole too. I am sorry to hear of Emmons death, but unfortunately my local library has none of her works.

Have a fantastic Friday, RD. ((Hugs)) and **smooches** for today

Wordle 566 4/6

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Good one! AEONS, MIRTH, FELIX, BELIE Amusing way to get there.

>177 alcottacre: I'm not at all surprised that no Emmons is in your system. Outside Oregon, but more specifically Eugene, I doubt anyone's got a library copy of her work. I'd never heard of her before Red Hen Press offered me the DRC. It's a darn shame, too.

>176 leperdbunny: Thank you, Tamara! I hope to see more of you this year.

>175 bell7: *smooch* >178 richardderus: will satisfy your cravings.

>169 richardderus: Five-star review RD.
I'm not sure my rage could be contained if I read that book in my current state of mind. I'm still seething over Karen Marie's treatment by that unspeakably arrogant physician.
I sure can be riled up too easily these days. But author Cai Emmons is now on my radar.

Edited to say, perhaps you'll rejoice to see our PL has a couple of Emmons books. Have you read either of these titles?

>179 richardderus: - Both the NYPL and my local library system had some of Emmons' books, just not Livid :(

>181 katiekrug:, >180 SandyAMcPherson: Oh, that is deeply happy-making! Thank you both for reassuring me that she isn't simply a voice whose echoes are fading fast. I feel a great deal better.

>181 katiekrug: That's likely down to Red Hen Press being rinkydink. Kate Gale (the publisher) is a difficult person to work with, but I strongly approve of her taste.

>180 SandyAMcPherson: Neither has crossed my path, Sandy, but she is firmly on the radar now. I'll read His Mother's Son when I can source it...off to see what Nassau County has in the Emmons line.

You'll be even less surprised to hear that our county library system has nothing by Emmons at all.
hmm.
Tempted by her after that review though. Although this does feel a bit like my reading of the obituaries in the paper - what a shame I only find out about the majority of these very interesting/brilliant/dreadful people after they've died.

>169 richardderus: That's an amazing review! Sounds like I should keep that one in mind.

>184 RebaRelishesReading: Thanks, Reba, it's a book to conjure with indeed. I think it's beyond sad that her career was only starting when ALS took her voice then her life.

>183 Helenliz: *gasp* No! *shockhorror*

Totally expected, Helen, since the US hasn't caught onto her and she's no Rachel Ingalls who lived in the UK far longer than she ever did in the US.

>169 richardderus: I’ve recommended the library buy a copy of Livid. We will see.

>186 Storeetllr: *fingercross*

Some book porn for you, my dear.

>188 ronincats: Oooooooooo

Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous, Roni!

‘Morning, Rdear. Happy Saturday to you.

>169 richardderus: Well damn. BB, bought, due at the house a week from today.

>179 richardderus: Our local Library has Emmons’s Unleashed. If I like Livid – although is like the appropriate word? - I’ll check out Unleashed.

*smooch* from your own Horrible

Wordle 567 4/6

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I deserved this...no coffee so I didn't pay proper attention to which letter went where. *sigh* AEONS, MIRTH, MELON, LEMON

Happy Saturday, Richard. We enjoyed our Jackson time the past 2 days. He never fails to bring smiles and laughs. Not much planned for the weekend. Probably lots of reading and football tomorrow. Enjoy your weekend.

>190 karenmarie: Hi Horrible...still undercaffeinated so I'm sure the Emmons news is better than I think it is...jeesh, I know I'm an addict but this level of foggy, foggy dew is unusual...waitwaitwait who opened the blinds? No wonder it seems foggy.

Anyway. Onward through the fog. *smooch*

Morning, BigDaddy! Sorry to hear that you Saturday is not behaving. I have given it the side-eye, and I hope that helps.

>188 ronincats: Yes, please.

>194 Crazymamie: Hi Mamie. It's being Monday and We Are Not Amused. Oh well. This too shall pass...like a kidney stone.

>192 msf59: Good heavens, Mark, I didn't see you! I'm quite sure that Jackson is the star of the show for y'all as the months go by...it's such fun to watch them as they grow and learn!

>193 richardderus: My experience so far is that it's just that kind of day :(

>196 RebaRelishesReading: Oh dear...oh drat. I am very sorry, Reba. I hate these sorts of days a whole lot. Wishing a better end than the beginning was for you.

>179 richardderus: Yes, it is a darn shame.

>188 ronincats: OK, I just love that room.

((Hugs)) and **smooches** for you, RD. I hope your Saturday improves. I got Kibogo in today, but no idea when I am going to get to it.

>197 richardderus: and I you, Richard :)

>199 RebaRelishesReading: :-)

>198 alcottacre: Isn't that room gorgeous?! I'm terribly, disfiguringly envious of Roni for having that *perfect* reading nook in her home!

*sulphrous jealous mutterings*

Oooo! I'm so eager for you to experience Kibogo. Author Scholastique writes beautifully, of course, but also about subjects that are supremely interesting.

Your reviews are dangerous, Richard. You've tempted me with The New Life and The Villa. Not sure about Livid, though. It might hit too close to home. Love the reading nook!

>201 Familyhistorian: I sort-of expect you'd find Livid deeply angering, Meg. But, here's the rub, it's still worth your time.

I'm glad that you approve of that glorious room. Wow.

>188 ronincats: Nice!

Livid looks like one to seek out, RD.

Have a great Sunday, dear fellow.

‘Morning, RD. Happy Sunday to you.

>191 richardderus: Sorry about the 4 by not paying attention to the non-first-letter M. I did something similar today, but won’t spoiler it. Took me 5.

>195 richardderus: *shudder* Kidney stones. I’ve had two. One in 2012 and one in 2015. My first tastes of morphine at the ER, second tastes last fall with my heart attack. I sure do see how people can become addicted to drugs.

*smooch*

Happy Sunday, Richard. Not much planned for the day- books and football. As expected, I loved Demon Copperhead. Not sure if that is enough to spark you into reading it but I hope you think it over. I know you didn't enjoy your first experience with Kingsolver.

Good Sunday morning, Richard! I'm back to my regular busy-ness, but looking forward to a good day of work and football. High of 40 today, and a bright sunshiney day. Hope today behaves itself better than yesterday. *smooch*

Sun-struck Sunday *smooch*

Sunday "funday" maybe not so much.

Ow.

Oh, Richard. OUCH. So sorry you are dealing with that.

Gentle hugs, Rdear. I hope you feel better soon. 😘

>208 richardderus: Oh! Ow! Sending very gentle healing vibes. Gentle because that looks painful to the touch, even touches by vibes.

>208 richardderus:, RD, that looks nasty, hope you heal fast.

Yikes on the foot injury! Hope it heals quickly.

>208 richardderus: Ouchie!! Better stay off it and do some more reading to take your mind off it. (I'm playing it off lightly but I am sure it is very painful.) Heal quickly!! Smooches.

So sorry the gout is acting up today. Sending a *smooch* to distract you.

>208 richardderus: Ow ow ow ow ow! Sending speedy healing vibes your way!

Ow! Hope that resolves quickly.
Bizarrely, that photo (and, indeed most pictures posted on LT threads) doesn't show up on my home laptop and does on the work one. I must have some setting tightened down on home unit.

>208 richardderus: That looks painful! Hope it clears up quickly.

>208 richardderus: I hope the foot heals quickly...but not so quickly that you can't milk it for extra reading time! :)

That looks extremely painful, Richard. Ugh! I hope it is feeling better today. 🙏

'Morning, RDear!

>208 richardderus: Ugh. Ouch. I hope it heals quickly and that you have good pain meds.

*smooch*

I hope you are healing semi-quickly and feeling better today!

Happy 2023, Richard (Despite the ouchie on your footie, oy!)
Hope 2023 brings you health and happiness!

>208 richardderus: Ow, ow, ow. Makes my broken toes not hurt nearly as badly in comparison.

Gentle ((Hugs)) and **smooches** for today

006 Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm by Laura Warrell

Rating: 2.5* of five

The Publisher Says: It’s 2013, and Circus Palmer, a forty-year-old Boston-based trumpet player and old-school ladies’ man, lives for his music and refuses to be tied down. Before a gig in Miami, he learns that the woman who is secretly closest to his heart, the free-spirited drummer Maggie, is pregnant by him. Instead of facing the necessary conversation, Circus flees, setting off a chain of interlocking revelations from the various women in his life. Most notable among them is his teenage daughter, Koko, who idolizes him and is awakening to her own sexuality even as her mentally fragile mother struggles to overcome her long-failed marriage and rejection by Circus.

Delivering a lush orchestration of diverse female voices, Warrell spins a provocative, soulful, and gripping story of passion and risk, fathers and daughters, wives and single women, and, finally, hope and reconciliation, in answer to the age-old question: how do we find belonging when love is unrequited?

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

My Review: It depresses me to say this, but this book was...despite truly, deeply impressive writing...

The girl may have been the end for him.

That the wind shifted and sent a chill across her freshly cleaned skin so that she sensed her own solitude in a way that no longer frightened her as she walked bare and unhindered toward what was new.

...lovely and fully sensory-universe-planted but, and this is the crux of the matter for me, it's about a man.

A group of women have different relationships with one man.

Ground-breaking stuff, no? Never read anything like it before! Except about half the Western canon. Women circle Circus, whose name suggested to me clownishness that I found ample evidence for. They *keep* circling Circus no matter what. And, folks, if there ever was a man whose actions and inactions invalidated his Manhood Card℠, it's Circus. He never met a responsibility he didn't shirk.

But his Art! is usually the rallying cry I hear. His art my lily-white one. He's a bog-standard self-absorbed arrested adolescent, probably a libertarian and a religious nut although those are my own interpolations, with a good line of patter and some skills in sexual gratification.

He is, bluntly, the kind of person I look down on and the kind of character I am deeply sickened to see recrudescing on best-of lists and getting all sorts of happy talk said about it. He's a serial cheater, an emotional abuser, and an unworthy object of our cultural attention because his brothers are teeming like maggots on a shit-pile, exuding their spurious shine that so many seem to see as attractive when it's actually the slime they secrete to slip out of any kind or sort of commitment that inconveniences, annoys, or bores them.

Yuck.

>225 richardderus: Too bad such worthy writing had such an unworthy subject!

>225 richardderus: So, no then. *smooch*

>225 richardderus: hmpf. That's too bad, that I've was getting a lot of accolades and I was curious. Firmly off the TBR list now, though.

Sorry about your foot and hope you get some relief soon 🙁

>228 bell7: Hi Mary...the foot's still painful, it's not healing quickly, and I can't wait for it to get skin over that hole.

Avoid Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm like it gots the cooties.

>227 Crazymamie: No.

Not even for free.

>226 ronincats: Oh, that so frequently happens, Roni..."this writing is so much better than the story" is so depressingly common that I just don't say it anymore.

>229 richardderus: Got it.

>224 alcottacre: Broken-bone pain's different entirely than acute damage. I don't want either one, thenkewveddymahch.

>223 ChelleBearss: Hi Chelle! I'm very glad to see you around and about. "Good health" is the wish that never goes out of style.

>222 katiekrug: Not terribly sure about any healing progress, but I'm very gratefully accepting the relief from the burning pain that came from the nurse using MediHoney.

*smooch*

>221 karenmarie: Hi Horrible! I always have The Very Best pain meds on board at all times. If I'm complaining of pain, people Pay Attention.

>220 msf59: It's really, really painful and thankfully not as bad now that the nurse switched the medication meant to help it heal over. *whew*

>219 sirfurboy: Ha! Your priorities are in the right place, Stephen. When feeling this level of bad, though, it's not like I can focus on anything more complex than Cow Goes Moo.

Not riveting stuff at *cough*ty-three.

>218 SandDune: I wish I could be the Monty Python and the Holy Grail black knight and insist it's just a scratch, but OOOOWWWW.

>217 Helenliz: ...let me guess...your home computer's an Apple...

>216 figsfromthistle: Thank you, Anita. It's letting up bit by bit. The worst part wa the stinging-wasp sensation and that's truly minimized thanks to MediHoney.

>215 ronincats: *smooch*

>214 Berly: I shall do the very best that I can do to give it time off because it's in the one place that gets the most use when walking.

>213 thornton37814: Thank you, Lori, I really really hope it will.

>212 Kristelh: Thanks, Kristel, I'm very much on your wavelength here. *fast-healing whammy*

>211 Storeetllr: That lovely part of MediHoney's effects is the lessening of touch sensitivity! *smooch*

>210 Ameise1: Thank you, Barbara! *smooch*

>209 Crazymamie: I can only hope it won't be for much longer. *sigh* aging ain't for sissies.

So the newest thing I've heard about today is MediHoney, a very interesting and effective wound care product. It's got Leptospermum pollen in it, an Australian plant that appears to be one of the few things on the entire continent not laser-focused on killing you.

007 I Fear My Pain Interests You by Stephanie LaCava

Rating: 2.5* of five

The Publisher Says: A punky, raw novel of millenial disaffection, trauma and 1960s cinema

Margot is the child of renowned musicians and the product of a particularly punky upbringing. Burnt-out from the burden of expectation and the bad end of the worst relationship yet, she leaves New York and heads to to the Pacific Northwest. She's seeking to escape both the eyes of the world and the echoing voice of that last bad man. But a chance encounter with a dubious doctor in a graveyard, and the discovery of a dozen old film reels, opens the door to a study of both the peculiarities of her body and the absurdities of her famous family.

A genre-bending, atmospheric and emotionally honest account of a young woman's investigation into her past and the complex reactions of her body.

At once an analysis of the abandoned 1968 Cannes Film Festival and a literary take on cinema du corp, Stephanie LaCava's new novel is an audaciously sexy and moving exploration of culture and connections, bodies and breakdowns.

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

My Review: ...and now for something marginally different...

Screwed-up child of famous parents is failing at Life because Trauma and she's got these awful habits that substitute for character and her whole head...this is a récit, not really a novel because the whole point is that we don't leave the lady's head and are reminded of it...is stuffed with shards of images and sounds and they all sort of coalesce into an image of...

...I have no way to finish that sentence. I didn't get an image from Margot's chaotic maunderings.

Yet again there are men at the center of her trauma. Men: Don't have relationships with women. It doesn't go anywhere good. You'll end up blamed for something and quite possibly sued.

That's my main take-away from this mishegas. There's no way for me to pluck a piece of the text out for your perusal because they all rely on each other, in a cumulative-effect way, for their power. I will say that, as little as I enjoyed the story I was quite interested in the way the author assembled the shards into an effective mosaic. Brightness, shadows, saturated colors; a vague grey smog of dissociation surrounding it, getting between the bright moments, eclipsing some of them. It's an interesting effect.

But the problem is it's telling me an oft-told tale of poor-little-rich-girl and I'm just not interested. Handed a life of family connections and a modicum of talent? Use 'em or reject 'em, but wallowing along in the gutter next to the highway and under the sidewalk is a choice for people like Margot. So I don't see the point of empathizing with her. "Make a different choice" is the callous, dismissive response Margot elicits from me.

Yet I read the whole book....

Housekeeping post: Having been so very miserable for long enough to thoroughly break my streak, I'm giving up on Wordle. I don't feel well, though better, and hope to keep getting healthier. So, since The Streak was my primary motivator, I give. I still can't focus well enough for puzzles and, well....

I'll just start life anew when I get out of this space, not even making a stab at "catching up" as that pretty much obviates the central pleasure of social media.

Absolutely take care of yourself, dear Richard. I wish you better very soon.

Gentle {{hugs}}, Richard. Do whatever you need to do for YOU. You know we will all be here for whenever the yuck passes and you head out of the fog again.

Do take care, Richard!

{{{{{Richard}}}}}

Smoochie, smooch.

>237 richardderus: Sensible decision. It'll still be there later, if you want to return to it. Hope you're back up & running soon.

>232 richardderus: ...let me guess...your home computer's an Apple... Nope. both running Windows. I'm not a Apple devotee. I think it is how the security settings are tied down - only thing is, I have no idea which ones!

Happy reading in 2023, Richard dear!

>208 richardderus: Looks painful :'(

>237 richardderus: I didn't Wordle either for some weeks. I hope to start again soon, but first I want to catch up with my friends here.

‘Morning, RDear. I hope you’re doing better today.

>225 richardderus: I recently looked at the description of a different book with a male character named Circus and Just Couldn’t Do It. I simply cannot read a book about a character named Circus.

>235 richardderus: Thanks for the info on MediHoney. I’m glad it’s helping you.

>236 richardderus: Pass. Even just the description sounds like navel-gazing to me.

>237 richardderus: I completely understand you giving up on Wordle if you don’t get enough joy out of it to offset not being able to focus.

*smooch* from your own Horrible

Morning, BigDaddy! Please know that I am thinking about you. Feel better, my friend. *smooch and a bear hug*

>208 richardderus: OMG so sorry Richard. That looks so painful.

>225 richardderus: Well, that sounds like one I can happily miss!

>231 richardderus: Yeah, I do not want either. Unfortunately for us, we seem to be stuck with our respective issues. However, my toes are (slowly) healing.

>236 richardderus: Wow, two clunkers in a row? Not a good way to get the reading year off to a start. I certainly hope things improve from here on out.

>237 richardderus: Getting healthier is a great plan, RD, and I really wish you luck with it. I am trying to do the same. Head over to the Here's To Our Health thread, if you like and join in with likeminded people.

((Hugs)) and **smooches** for today

So sorry about your foot but glad you got some relief anyway. Hope it heals soon!

>225 richardderus: Well, here’s one novel I’ll avoid like the plague. Because I agree with your assessment that the character’s character flaws make this unappetizing at best. Good review.

>236 richardderus: Another nope for me, though I enjoyed your review of this one too.

>237 richardderus: That’s how I run my life these days too. Just doing my best. Just take very good care of yourself, whatever that means for you. {{{hugs}}}

>237 richardderus: I hope things improve for you soon, Richard.

Deluking >237 richardderus: Adding sympathy for how life is treating you. These are tough events and especially the foot ailment.
Book reviews were good insights about poor reading and very informative for me. Thanks and take care.

Thinking of you...

>208 richardderus: Oh my ouch indeed. Hope it is on the mend RD.

I too, am thinking of you and hope you're soon mended.

Hiya, RDear.

*smooch*

It's getting a bit better from a wound-care perspective, in that there's no discharge of the oh-gross kind, but it really, really hurts as these crystals fight their way out of the opening.

I was so miserable yesterday I didn't even check in here?! Yikes. Well, y'all's kind well-wishes have lifted my spirits and I'm grateful for them.

Ouch, ouch, ouch so sorry to hear you're still in so much pain and hope it heals swiftly.

>257 richardderus: That looks like it hurts like hell! I hope It gets better pronto.

oh wow, that looks super sore. Hope you have some good pain meds!

Richard, I'm sorry. I can't imagine how much that hurts. I'm relieved to hear of any improvement. *smooch* for sure

I'm glad to hear it's getting better from some perspective. It looks terribly painful and I'm so sorry you're having to deal with it.

It looks bad, Richard. I hope that means that it's healing. Good to see that you are a tad less miserable today.

>259 Helenliz: What Helen said. You poor, poor baby. *smooch*

One of the things no one tells you about pain so bad the Fentanyl won't block it is how wearying it is. I go for little "lights-outs" for 15min/30min just to keep myself from cratering.

Once upon a time, I used to think, reading Victorian novels, "howinahell does someone die from gout? We (my family) would all be dead!" Well, I've learned a lot in twenty years of surgically remediated severe tophaceous gout. A world without antibiotics...or living in one of the US's "Red States" where I'd have no access to them because greed...*I* would be dead in a couple weeks. The infection was revvin' up and the Keflex arrived in time to knock it back; I get daily wound care in my own space; the New York system realizes it's better to spend this money than much, much more trying to end the crisis that would come.

More than I can say would be done in your "low-tax" dens of iniquity.
***
Thank you, ladies, for your so-kind visits. I've had two lights-outs composing it, so I'm going down for a real nap now. I've read, and greatly appreciate, your kindness and commiseration.

>265 richardderus: It is wonderful to "see" you here for a moment. Thank you for taking time and energy to post. Blessings for a good nap 💖

>208 richardderus: Ow! That looks painful.

>243 Helenliz: The best "security" makes the device unusable by its owner. If it's powered off in a triple-locked lead box, the security weenies are as happy as they'll ever get. Failing that, they'll settle for 17-factor authentication, mandatory password changes every 10 seconds, and forced upgrades twice a day with a mix of security fixes and utterly undocumented user interface changes.

>265 richardderus: That whole experience sounds really awful. I'm glad you live somewhere comparatively sane for the United States, at least.

I very much hope things improve, soon. And the one thing to be said about the exhaustion that comes with constant pain is that at least being asleep may provide some relief.

‘Morning, RDear. Happy (?) Thursday to you.

>265 richardderus: That’s the problem with chronic pain that can’t be managed with pain meds – how effing exhausting it is. Here I am up at 5:58, getting no more than 2 hours sleep before waking up with knee/calf pain. Fortunately the end of THIS pain is in sight, then with knee replacement surgery pain, then, devoutly to be hoped, pain free.

I hope those nasty crystals leave sooner than soon. Yes, it’s sobering to realize how lucky we are to have the pain and other meds and medical interventions we have that save lives. Jenna and I both would have died 100 years ago in childbirth, no question. And getting addicted to alcohol or laudanum or opium for pain relief – also very easy to understand.

*smooch* from your own Horrible

I hope your Thursday will be better than the days before, Richard dear.
*smooches*

Hoping Thursday brings improvement.

Sweet Thursday, Richard or should that be Bittersweet Thursday? So sorry to hear that you are in so much pain. If Fentanyl ain't cutting it? WTH? I am sure you have gone through these stretches before. I hope this comes to a "close" soon. 🤞

Hoping Thursday is kind to you, BigDaddy. *smooch*

Very gentle ((hugs)) and **smooches** for you today, RD

>265 richardderus: Everything you wrote here about health care in NY vs. low-tax red states is spot on. And I can personally attest to the exhaustion of chronic pain. I am sleeping 9-11 hours a day, and have very little energy for anything.

>270 karenmarie: You and I have to compare notes. I’m seeing an orthopedic surgeon on 1/23 to see about knee and hip replacement. Not excited about going through surgeries and the pain plus rehab that goes with it, but I don’t want to live like this anymore.

Hi everyone! I'm surprised at how dragged-out and awful I'm still feeling. Better, yes; well, far from.

I apologize for infrequent attendance but it truly causes me little joy to do it this way. I fear it's where my energy levels are now, so I say again, I've read and enjoyed them all but I ain't got the beans to respond individually. *smooches* for all who'd like one

*tiptoes in* *gives big smooch* *tiptoes back out*

Glad with any sign of you here, Richard dear.

>277 richardderus: You concentrate your energies on getting yourself back on form. Glad there's an improvement, may it ramp up exponentially.

'Morning, RDear!

>277 richardderus: Keep getting better. We'll keep your thread warm for you.

*smooch* from your own Horrible

Hoping you're back to your old self soon!

Good morning, Richard. I wish that every day could see you making quantum gains, but I'm grateful for steady improvement and wish you patience and a lot less pain and whatever else you need to be wished.
*smooch*

Happy Friday, Richard! Thinking of you and wishing you well. Hoping you're feeling better with each passing day. *smooch*

Well, another too-warm January day. Better again with pain, happy to say. My foot looked a fright! But it hurts less than it did yesterday.

Thank all y'all again for the kindness and supportiveness. Weak from the fight against infection, and sore from the familiar enemy's latest outburst, I still want to totter about trying to involve myself. But really, mostly, can't. *sigh*

>285 richardderus: No worries. We'll be here when you are ready, and in the meantime, we will keep your thread warm.

Pain really wears one down, doesn't it? So hoping yours will end soon.

Good to see that there is improvement, Richard. It's hard but sometimes best to lay low and give your body time to heal.

Oh yay! Much, much less scary AND painful.

I wonder if anyone else would post medical porn...would they be banned?

Hi Richard! I am glad that the pain has lessened a bit. I hope you are able to heal fast! It must hurt a lot to walk.... (( speedy healing vibes))

Hey Richard, that's one scary >289 richardderus: photo.
I came by to check up on you, during my Friday rounds.
And I see we're all keeping the 🔥🔥🔥 's going, so it's warm here.

Finally making it over here to catch up. So sorry you're having such a rough time. Sending feel better smooches.

*smooch*

Good morning, Richard. I'm hoping that you had a good night and that you're even better this morning than 289 shows.
I'm still wrestling with the morning's Wordle. I'll be glad when/if you decide you can get back to it.
*smooch*

'Morning, Rdear.

I'm so sorry you're still weak and sore, and although I zoomed past the pics 'cuz I'm squeamish in addition to having Arachnophobia.

Sending healing thoughts.

*smooch* from your own Horrible

>296 karenmarie: That was a wise decision, Horrible.

Healing thoughts gratefully winnowed from the winds. I'm hoping for faster, though is slow like this is what it takes to get me all the way home without an infection, I'll hobble slowly.

>295 LizzieD: Punch ever upwards, Peggy! He puzzle *will* yield.

>294 ronincats: *smooch*

>293 MickyFine: Appreciated, Micky, it takes how long my body needs and I get no points for asking for more.

>292 SandyAMcPherson: A warm place to come to is a welcome thing. Thanks, Sandy.

>291 figsfromthistle: I just don't walk far,or any more often than I can help. The pain reminds me loud and clear.

I wandered in to say that, much as the improvement in my condition heartens me and y'all comfort makes it better, I still ain't got what it takes for a new thread yet. I've read parts of a book. Finished nothing, of the ones on the go. It takes focus and that is completely missing.

>298 richardderus: Glad you're starting to feel better, but certainly keep resting up 'til that focus and motivation come back - heaven knows, your body's been working hard to recover. *smooch*

>298 richardderus: (hug)

Happy Sunday, Richard. Glad to hear you are feeling better but the new thread can wait. Hope the day brings you more comfort.

Morning, Richard! Happy Sunday to you. Hoping that the healing is proceeding and that you are feeling better with each new day. *Smooch*

'Morning, RDear. Happy Sunday.

Rest, peruse threads stealthily and your cell phone/tablet/whatever, don't do anything homework-ish, heal.

*smooch*

Yay, Richard! You're feeling well enough to speak more here and maybe visit a thread or so. That's very good. Keep it up! In fact, what Karen said.

*smooch*

I've been checking in here every day, to see how you are doing, but I have nothing but sorrow about this disabling affliction. I know you're gritting your teeth and doing things your experience with this have proven beneficial (if only modestly). I just hope the other side is close and you get through to that side stat. I miss your posts—commentary, advice, snark, good humor, and support for one and all. Back at you, friend.

Still too scary for me. Sorry you are still suffering. Yes, your energy is focusing on fixing the bod, not surprising you don't have much left over RD, keep repairing.

Dropping by to add my own version of healing words, RD. I don't know what sort of medicament is efficacious in treating and better banishing your affliction but I hope you find it dear fellow.

Hoping Monday ushers in a better week.

*smooch*

I hope you are continuing to heal and feel better!

Thinking of you, Richard, and wishing you better. *smooch*

Hope you are doing much better, Richard.

Horrible, horrible day...pain in my gut, that gross sweaty-but-cold "crisis point" and I really don't know when it's going to be over.

Ick!

I'm so sorry, Richard. I hate to hear that. Thinking of you and hoping the worst will be over soon and you'll be on your way to pain free again.

>313 richardderus: Worrying about you, dear fellow. Keep your chin up as much as you can and hopefully this absolute horridness will be transitory.

>208 richardderus: I hope that you're feeling better!!

Sorry to see you are still not well. Wishing you a speedy recovery!

I am glad you are feeling marginally better, but that picture is still scary! Sending smooches. Lots of them.

>313 richardderus: Sorry to read this, Richard dear, sending healing vibes and hoping the worst will be over soon.

Echoing all the well wishes here, Richard. Gentle {{hugs}}

Hello Richard. Just checking in to see how you are getting along.....sorry that the healing is going slowly.

Saying hello and best wishes for healing *smooch*

Hey, RD. Like the rest of your concerned guests, just popping in to see an update and hoping for the best.

I was hoping for better news when I came over here to visit, but alas.

Sending healing thoughts.

*smooch* from your own Horrible

>313 richardderus: 😒

I hope today is better than yesterday!

What Katie said. Missing you terribly. *smooch*

>313 richardderus: Oh!! That sounds awful! Glad there's some progress but hope it all resolves soon!!

Hope you are no longer suffering with your gut RD. Enough is enough.

Sorry for all the woes, Richard. Whatever needs to happen to make them go away, I hope it happens soon.

Sending healing vibes!

*smooch*

Hey, compadre. How's the pain? How's the healing?

You've been dealt such a tough one with those darn crystals. i hope the reading has helped some.

I just read a good one by the author of the Heartstopper books, Alice Osman, called Loveless. The downside from your POV is it's a YA; the upside is it's another sensitive, insighful look at teeenagers (starting university) sorting out the roles in their lives of friendship, romance and sex.

Have you tried the new "Last of Us" tv show? It's well-made and well-cast, but we're undecided on whether it's worth continuing. A little slow in the first set-up episode.

I enjoyed your excellent and fun review of The Villa. Did you send it to Adriana? I think she'd get a kick out of it.

Hugs from afar, and hopes that today is better than yesterday, and tomorrow is better than today.

*smooch* Wish it could take the pain away.

Was just reading a chapter on the unwanted 6th sense of pain in An Immense World and I thought of you. Had to pop over and see how you are doing. No update from you yet. Dang it. So, I know you are seriously suffering. Feverently hoping you feel better soon. Hugs and smooches.

Doing my bit here to keep the ol' thread warm... ❤️‍🔥
>332 karenmarie: Karen did a better job of that, but she's very special, no?

Thursday *smooches*

So sorry that your misery is lasting way too long.

Morning, Richard! Came to share my Thursday with you so that you would know I am thinking of you and wishing you well. *smooch*

Thinking of you. Miss you. {{{big but gentle hug}}

>341 Storeetllr: What Mary said. My hugs proffered too dear fellow along with healing vibes.

Hi Richard! I know! I'm finally making the rounds 19 days into January. Better late than never, right?

Hope you start feeling better soon!

RD. We love you! We miss you! We're worried about you!

Hugs and *smooches* from your own Horrible

Hello friends...

I came to give you an update on Richard. I know you are all concerned.... so here goes.

Richard had a stroke Tuesday night/ Wednesday morning. He is in the hospital and being taken care of. Talking on the phone is difficult for him right now. It is exhausting and difficult for him. He is very tired.

His speech has been affected but is already improving a bit.
He has weakness on one side and has already started PT.

Right at this moment, he isn't able to text or type.
His phone is out of charge but his friend Valerie sent him a charger, so that will help.

I waited to get his permission to post here, and I came right here to let you all know as soon as I had it.

I am going to ask you to do something for Richard. I think he would love to have a card or two from us, to remind him that he isn't alone. No one can be with him at the hospital, but we can still reach out.

Please feel free to message me here or text me if you have questions, and I will keep you as updated as I can as he works on getting better. He will get better.

Contact info . . .

Mount Sinai South Nassau
One Healthy Way
Oceanside, NY 11572
D-2 East Room 2023

Oh, Kath, thanks so much for letting us know. That is devastating, but I am so happy to read that there has already been some improvement. Thank you so much for giving us a way to reach out to him.

Richard thinking of you. Sending you love and healing mojo from all of us here at the Pecan Paradisio. *smooch*

>345 mckait: Thank you so much for the update, Kath, I was worried about Richard.

Richard dear, sending good and healing thoughts across the ocean.
very gentle (((hugs)))

>345 mckait: Thank you for letting us know.
Wishing RD all the best.

Thank you Kath. I was afraid there was something seriously wrong when Richard didn't post for days. I'll put a card in the mail today.

Richard, we love and miss you! Hang in there! ((Hugs)) and **smooches**

>345 mckait: - Thanks for letting us know, Kath. And thank you for the address - I'll send him a note today.

RD - thinking of you and sending you strength!

>345 mckait: Thank you so much for the update, Kath. We had a feeling something was up. Wishing for a quick recovery for our dear friend. These LT vibes are strong.

Oh no! So sorry to hear this. I will send a card (although how long it takes to get there is another matter).

We’re all thinking of you and sending you strength and wellness vibes! We miss you so much!

Karen O

Thinking of you, Richard, and hope you'll be back with us soon. You are definitely missed.

Thank you, Kath, for letting us know. It was worrying, not seeing him on here for so long. I’ll get a card to him right away.

You are all wonderful friends! I will make sure he knows that you are all thinking of him

>357 mckait:
Thank you for the information. Like so many others I wondered where he was and was beginning to worry. Thank you for the address as well.

Thank you so much for updating all of us, Kath - we miss your presence here too!

Healing vibes to you dear fellow and I am certain that you are fully aware that your friends far and wide (in my case both) hold you in our thoughts, our prayers and our hearts.

Thanks, Kath! I'll be able to get a card out in tomorrow's post. Tell RD how much he's loved and how sorry I am to hear about this.

Oh, Richard. what a lousy thing to happen! Since it's so, I believe in your ability to beat it. Lean on the support you have from so many who care about you, and be your valiant self.

Thank you, Kath. We'll all be checking for updates and sending notes and cards.

I was just told that at some point he will be headed for rehab, no idea when. I will do my best to get more info on that tonight. I will keep you all posted.

Well, Ricardo, you certainly know how to get a person's attention. Know that I love you, that I always have, vand that I'm playing along step by step. I will keep in touch, dear friend.

Kindest of all blessing wishes - Larry

>345 mckait: Shit! I'm so sorry, and wishing him a swift and complete recovery.

>362 mckait: Good news! Now I’m wondering whether my card will reach him in time if it goes out tomorrow morning. I’m only 50 or so miles away from him, in NY.

Thanks for the update, Kath. Thoughts and prayers for you, RD. Get lots of rest so the brain can heal.

>347 FAMeulstee: Thank you for the update Kath. Post from the UK to US is taking over a month, but when contact becomes easier for Richard, please send healing vibes from me, Caro

Will the hospital forward his mail to the rehab center? If it will, I'll go ahead and mail now.

Oh no! Will get something in the mail ASAP!

Oh man. What rotten luck. Get better soon and kick some butt at PT!

>362 mckait: Thanks for keeping us updated. Let Richard know we're all sending wishes for a fast recovery.

>368 ronincats: I'm waiting for the nurse to call back now and hopefully answer that question. I will post as soon as I hear,

Thanks, Kath!

Okay. The very lovely nurse called back. The move will take some time. All sorts of things need to come together. So anything sent from US today or tomorrow should get there no problem. And probably after.

I will keep on it daily and update here. He is doing well today she said.

>374 mckait: Thank you Kath, I thought to call the place myself and give them a shock (as you probably remember) with my strange accent, but I am mindful of disturbing them so it is probably better for you to handle the communications!
Would it be in order to send RD anything other than a card as obviously postage is not really feasible from here to New York? Would a book reach him if I were to have it delivered?

Oh no! So sorry to read this. Thank you Kath for keeping us updated.
Please post when he has a new location and I'll pop something in the mail then. I don't think it would make it there in time from Canada.

Feel better soon, Richard!!

Dear friend, know that my soul is twinned with yours.

>375 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul! I think if you would like to send a book he would love it. I do think it would be best to wait until he is in rehab because deliveries these days can be unpredictable.

I sure hope that he is able to read all of these posts soon...

>374 mckait: Thank you for keeping us up to date. So glad to hear he is doing well.

>375 PaulCranswick: Good idea about the book. I'll have to check out his Wishlist.

>379 mckait: I hope RD can read all this outpouring of care and sympathy.
I, too, would like to send something like a book and certainly a card, with the usual silly stuff I've sent or PM'ed him in the past.

Since I live in Canada, perhaps I should wait until the rehab move is completed (?), assuming you can pop back here to update us, Kath. Thanks so much for all that you are doing. 💖

>381 SandyAMcPherson: Hi Sandy. Yes! I think waiting is best. I don't think he will be in hospital for too long, but rehab, I expect several weeks. I will get you all the info as soon as I have a room number for him there.

Doing this for Richard is a pleasure. I'm glad I can help everyone keep up with him. I know that this outpouring of affection will mean the world to him.

>382 mckait: Yes I will wait too.

Oh no!! Although I appreciate the update Kath, I am so devastated to hear this.

Dearest Ricardo, you know how much I love you and I am sending all sorts of good mojo and smooches your way. I hope recovery goes well and we can enjoy your most intelligent snark here very soon. {{{{{{HUGS}}}}}}}

I too, am stunned to read this news but thank you for your updates. I will also wait for his move to be sure anything I send will reach him and not get lost in the shuffle.

Stay strong, my friend. *Smooches*

>378 mckait: Thanks Kath. Let me know when and where and I'll send the dear fellow something.

>374 mckait: Thank you so much for keeping us up to date Kath. Glad Richard is progressing well. Its a long journey I know, from one of my friends here (UK).

Richard, sending you healing thoughts and best wishes for rehab.

Thanks for keeping us all updated, Kath.

Thanks Kath for the news about Richard, wishing him the very best with the Rehab and we both send special healing Yorkshire love and hugs.

Hi all....

Just a quick update. Not much to say other than Richard's speech is still improving slowly but surely. He is still very tired. I know he is missing all of you here, he is all alone up there, and seeing notes from his friends will do him good.

I will post the minute I find out that he is being moved.

So glad to see that there’s some improvement. Wishing him all the best.

Thank you, Kath! I checked several times today for an update and will go to bed now relieved that Richard is improving. Slow is 100% better than none!

Good to see there is some improvement. Thanks for keeping us updated, Kath.

Thanks, Kath!

Like Peggy, I'm relieved that he's improving.

>390 mckait: Thank you for keeping us updated!

Sending healing thoughts to our RD!

Hello everyone

I spoke with RD this morning and he sounds so good! His speech is much improved today. I was very happy to hear him. His appetite is good, better than it had been and that means that he has fuel for healing, right?

Last night his nurse said that his foot is being treated and all of the reports are pretty good. He is still tired a lot but he sounds stronger to me. So, all good news.

Thank you so much for that update, Kath! So great to read that his speech is improved and his appetite is good. Hoping his foot responds quickly to the treatment.

Richard, all of us here at the Pecan Paradisio are thinking about you and sending you our love. Missing you ever so much.

Great news, Kath! Thank you!!!!

Keep it up, Richard!

Great update. Thanks Kath. Waving at RD.

Improved speech and appetite are so encouraging. It's good to think of him getting daily care and attention, and to have Kath on the case, so his caregivers know he has support. May it all be for the best in the long run!

>396 mckait: Great update! Tell him to keep on keeping on as it sounds like he's on a good track.

Thanks for the update Kath. Glad to know that his speech is improving and that they are taking care of that darned foot. I sent a card and I hope it gets to him.

Wishing you all the best Richard!!

>396 mckait: This is very good news. Thanks so much for keeping us posted, Kath.

Thanks for the update Kath

Good news that the old curmudgeon is on the road to recovery. He is missed.

You are a gem Kath.

Thanks for the update, Kath, all good news.

Really glad to see this latest update!

>396 mckait: As everyone says "Fabulous news!"
Perhaps you can tell RD that I'm doing the happy dance!

Great news all around, Kath. Can't wait to get him back!

That's great! I'm really glad to hear it!

Nothing new to report, status quo

Oh, and he has received some mail and is delighted. Thank you y’all

Give him a *smooch* from Horrible

And another from Berly-Boo (and no one else gets to call me that!! LOL)

Glad to hear the good news. Card is on the way.

Thank you, Kath, for keeping us updated.

Thursday greetings, Richard dear, and *smooches*

I am just now seeing this news. Thank you for the updates, Kath.

Richard, heal well, my friend. You are sorely missed.

I checked in yesterday but apparently before Kath posted. Thank you for coming back every day, Kath.

Take care of yourself, Richard! *smooch*

Not too much to add dear fellow except oodles of more healing vibes.

Kath, let me know where I can send a book to him - I know he must be pining for 'poultry'!

>390 mckait: I sent him a card this past Monday and really hope he gets it before he is transferred to rehab.

>396 mckait: Hooray for good news!!

Thank you so much for all the updates, Kath.

Hang in there, RD! We are all pulling for you!! ((Hugs)) and **smooches**

>396 mckait:: Kath, once more into the fray. You've been so good in the past and here you are again, keeping us informed and being a conduit to Richard. Thanks so much!

Will they be holding his bed at the Long Beach place? A Christmas parcel got delayed; I've just been informed that it has been shipped to him but I'm concerned if he has been moved that he might not get it.

All the oms and white beams on full blast for Richard.

Thinking about you, RDear, and thank you Kath for your continued efforts on his behalf.

Thanks all...

rd is doing well today, he sounds really good in fact... and...Today is transfer day!!

As soon as I have his info, I will let you know..

>423 mckait: Very good news!

That is a great start to my weekend. Thanks Kath!

Fingers crossed for a smooth transfer and continued improvement!

Missing you, RD!

>423 mckait: Excellent! Thank, Kath!

Wishing you all the best healing vibes, Richard!!

Very good! Very good! = The BEST! That's Richard.

Thanks for excellent news, Kath.

>423 mckait: Great news, Kath. Thanks for keeping us updated.

>423 mckait: Excellent! Thanks for the good news, Kath!

Just waving at RD and hope you are continuing your journey back to rude health. I wonder how we ended up with that phrase.

>423 mckait: Kath, thanks so much for that update. We were going to post something today, but I will wait for the new address. Can you PM me if you don't post it here?

Richard, I am so happy things are conturing to improve. Thinking of you and sending you our love, dear one.

He must be doing better if they are going to transfer him to rehab. Thanks for keeping us updated, Kath.

Good news, glad to hear the update.

Thanks, Kath, I hope the transfer went well.

Thinking of you, Richard dear, and missing you much.

Gosh, Richard! I hadn't come by while we were away because your thread moves so fast and you go and do this. Sorry to hear you've been under the weather but encouraged to hear you're making a reasonably rapid recovery. Looking forward to seeing you about the threads again soon. Best wishes for a full recovery soonest, from your favourite villainess.

>423 mckait: Much thanks for keeping us all updated.

South Shore Rehabilitation & Nursing Center
275 West Merrick Road, Freeport, NY 11520,

room # 112

Here you go!

Thanks, Kath. Are they holding his room for him at the old place, do you know? There is a parcel on the way to him there.

Good to hear things are going so well with you Richard! Keep it up!
Hope your mail catches up with you.

>438 tiffin: yes. He shouldn’t have any issues with that

>437 mckait: Thanks!
Do you know if he is up to reading if I send a book or something?

Thanks, Kath. *hug*

All good news here and I've noted the new address.
Hope all was smooth for the move.

I haven't much caught up with all your posts, but >298 richardderus: and the image of your foot (*yikes*) tells me that you are under the weather still.

Poo on that, I say.

New threads can wait, and you may yet get an LT record for longest thread! Thank goodness the thread police aren't around any more ;)

>437 mckait: Thank you Kath!

Status quo today ... getting a few settling-in kinks worked out.

Glad to hear Richard is improving and moving to rehab!

I've lurked, but it's time to say I'm here and missing Richard and looking forward to hearing better and better news until the man himself comes back.

Sent something out for the patient and it will either make him smile or wince.

Yay for getting into the rehab facility! I hope he is out again post haste.

Once again, thanks Kath for keeping us posted.

Hi all!

The news I have is good. The rehab place is full steam ahead with his therapies and he is doing well and moving forward. He's working hard so he can get home asap.

He has already received a gift or two and is grateful for them, and the notes and cards.. so thank you for continuing to remember him. I am hoping he can get his hands on his computer soon and will at least read as soon as he can, and if I know Richard, he will post the first minute he can. He is a busy man right now though, since rehab has put him to work, so patience is still the rule of the day.

Paul, I'm sure it will make him smile, but wincing might follow, lol.

That's great to hear, thanks, Kath!

Kath, thanks so much for that update - so good to hear.

Richard, we are holding you in our hearts and wishing you well. All of us here at the Pecan Paradisio send our love and healing mojo. I am so sorry you are having to go through this but so thankful that you are continuing to improve. *smooch and a bear hug*

Great news, Kath, thanks. My card went into the mail as soon as you posted the address.

We're keeping your thread warm, Richard, but want you back soon, so you can take back the reins.

>451 mckait: Great news! I'm sure Richard is putting his heart and soul into getting better.

Glad to hear! A little something is in the mail for him, and a card will be on the way by snail mail from Ontario so who knows how long that will take to arrive!!

Take care of yourself, RD!

Great news, Kath. Thanks again.

Hard work is what is needed for successful PT outcome so YOU GO SIR RICHARD!!!

Get well soon, Richard.



While we're waiting, we'll just ... nom ... have shome cake. Carry on (slurp) ... don't mind me ...

Glad the good news continues. Thanks for the update Kath.

Thanks for all of the updates. I am glad Richard is doing well.

Chin up, dear friend! No slacking on PT. You are greatly missed.

>451 mckait: patience is still the rule of the day.

Better him than me, Kath, as I have not got any :)

Come on, RD, you can do it! Come back to us soon!!

((Hugs)) and **smooches**

Good news!

Kath - I'm glad to read that RD is settled in at Rehab in a good way and that they've got him doing all the work necessary to get home as soon as possible. Thank you for all you've done to keep us posted and all the behind-the-scenes work you're doing to help him.

You're loved, RDear, and we miss you.

Honestly, I think he will be able to check in soon. I'm trying to get his computer to him and have hit a few obstacles. Hoping to get something done today.

>465 mckait: Good luck with getting his computer to rehab.

>465 mckait: What a wonderful support you are, Kath. I love how upbeat you face the inevitable trials and tribulations. So pleased to know RD has you in his corner.

>465 mckait: You are a great friend.

Thanks everyone.. I have a heads-up for you...
He's in the same rehab but they just moved his room to 112...
So same address, new room I changed it in the original message too , in case soemone stops reading there.

He is doing well.. PT is a little hard for him right now due to continuing foot pain, but he is still making progress.

South Shore Rehabilitation & Nursing Center
275 West Merrick Road, Freeport, NY 11520
Room 112

Everyone needs a Kath in their corner.

>469 mckait: you're doing a great job. Wish him well for us and thank you, again, for the updates.

>469 mckait: - I mailed a card last week. Is there a way to alert the Centre that mail might be going to the previous room so that it can be redirected to his new room?

Again, many thanks, Kath.

>470 tiffin: ^^^ What Tui said !

>470 tiffin: I love that Tui! So true also, Kath is a gem.

>472 jessibud2: I'm in the same boat - just mailed a card from all of us yesterday.

Kath, thanks so much for the update. Much appreciated, as is everything that you are doing for Richard.

Richard, we love and miss you bunches. Please get well quickly. *smooch*

>472 jessibud2: >475 Crazymamie:. Me Three! I just send something that's due to arrive later this week. I'm sure they get this all the time, as long as they have his name, I'm sure they'll route it appropriately.

I will keep on top of the cards and packages. I'll contact the nurse's station tomorrow to follow up. If you let me know when a package is delivered, I will do my best to stay on top of that. just let me know if there is anything you are concerned about .. I never expected him to be moved . . . ugh

And thank you for the kind words, my friends xo

>477 mckait: Wasn't he in 2-something? Maybe that was on the 2nd floor and with his foot issues, they wanted to move him to the ground floor.

>477 mckait: Kath, my package was delivered this afternoon, let me know if you're talking to him and he didn't get it

Kath--Thanks again for doing such a great job keeping us in the loop and for being in Richard's corner. Did they indicate how much longer he will be there in rehab? Cannot wait for his computer to get to him so he can catch up here and feel the love! : )

Hi Ricardo!! Smooch!

>480 mahsdad: I came here to let you know that he did receive your gift. Some things I sent also followed him to his new room, so it looks like they have it sorted out.

>481 Berly: No news on that. The foot issue that he posted about is working against him a bit but he is making progress despite that. The computer . . . and some other things are either in a black hole or the trunk of a tired mans's car. I'm losing my sense of humor over it.

>483 mckait: Sorry to read things are messing with your sense of humor, Kath. I hope it sorst out soon.
Glad to read about Richard's progress.

Keep up the good work, Richard dear!

Humor restored . . . the box that I was losing it over finally arrived from where he lives. It was in the wind all week. He now has some items he needed.. so yay!

He's doing great ~ he really is. He's working hard on his own after PT and getting stronger every day

>485 mckait: Great news, Kath. You also please take some time for yourself and a well earned rest. xx

"He's working hard on his own" That does not surprise me at all. Your hard work is surely appreciated; where would Richard be without such a friend?

Arggh. I’m a latecomer to Richard’s stroke news. So sorry to hear that happened. Thank you for the encouraging updates, Kath. I’m sure he knows his rehab is a small step by small step process that will take a while, and i imagine what was hardest for me will be for him: doing exactly what those in charge tell him to do.😅. They know what they’re doing, and following instructions pays off.

Do we send cards and packages to his pre-stroke address?

>485 mckait: Such great news (on both counts). Thanks again Kath for keeping us updated. Will get my card in flight Monday.

>489 Caroline_McElwee: Address for where RD is here Joe >469 mckait:

South Shore Rehabilitation & Nursing Center
275 West Merrick Road, Freeport, NY 11520
Room 112

That is where he is right now.

Thank you again all...you all take care, too

>488 jnwelch: So none of this, then:

Did anyone call Rob?

Just today learning about Richard's stroke. Damn. I'll send a card tomorrow.

Glad to hear your recovery is going well, Richard! Keep up the good work!

>485 mckait: Thanks for keeping us all posted, Kath!

So

Richard is doing fine. A wee bit of an annoyance.. he has tested positive for covid. I know right? Only mild cold-like symptoms. Otherwise, his recovery continues to be steady.

He has received cards and gifts and if I missed sending his thanks to anyone, I'm sorry..my mistake alone. He appreciates everything.

It never rains but it pours, eh? Hoping the symptoms remain mild. Thanks for letting us know, Kath.

Hang in there, Richard. We are wishing you well and home again. *smooch*

Indeed thank you for the updates, Kath. Give Richard our best. Hope his Covid is a mild as mine was.

Oh kick the man while he's down. Blasted Covid.

>496 mckait: It never rains but it pours. Get well RD.

>496 mckait: Yowch! But so typical - when one's already under the weather, other illnesses find it easier to take hold. I'm glad his symptoms are mild; hurrah for being up to date on covid shots.

Oh man. That's more than enough.

Do well, Richard. Drink a lot of fluids and take care of yourself.

The tone of the place is definitely lacking without you around, Richard. Keep up the good work so you can get out of there soonest.

Hi all...I'm now doing another round of recovering, this time from COVID. Feeling pretty punk, I must say, but given our population an outbreak was pretty inevitable. It's like having a nasty cold.Thank goodness I got boosted...some haven't been and got into trouble.I am so grateful to all y'all for the supportive kind messages and the practical kind and generous practical support. My focus is on getting my left hand and arm to work again. Lucky me after multiple strokes I'm speech clear (unless I'm tired), able to read and type if very slowly. I'm also rewatching GBBO on my computer.

But I'm here to say that y'all's kindness towards a sudden catastrophe sufferer prove again that book people are the best kind of people.

Dear Richard it is good to see you posting on your thread. What a rotten luck to have gotten COVID on top of everything. Chin up and keep focusing on getting better!

*SMOOCHES*

Hello dear Ricardo!!! SO great to hear from you directly. Hang in there (blast the dang Covid!!). Glad that your speech and reading are still working relatively well. Miss you here tons. Another card is on the way. SMOOCHES galore!

YES!!!! Rejoice and be glad! Richard is back and making progress. You are the man!

>504 richardderus: ((Hugs)) - great big ones! - and **smooches** for hearing from you directly, RD. I hope you recover from the stupid COVID quickly!!

>504 richardderus: There you are! I'm glad you're on the road to recovery. I'm sorry you got covid on top of everything - but you know what they say: no rest for the wicked ;0)

>504 richardderus: Lovely to see you posting, Richard! Sincere best wishes that the Covid crud soon passes and your stroke recovery continues to go well. Rest up and feel the love.

Damn dude, good to "see" you back. Well at least its only your left hand that's not listening to you. Hell who needs their left hand, says the Sinister man, who pretty much does everything with his left hand and would be lost without it. LOL. Hang in there buddy!

So glad to see you posting. Recover well.

>504 richardderus: So happy to see a message from you, Richard dear!
Get well soon *smooch*

Love you to bits Kath, but I must admit it is great to hear from the man himself and sounding so chipper.

Keep up the good work RD and no short cuts - take things nice and steady as we want your return to be for a very long time!

Darling RD!

I’m so glad that you were able to post last night – with your left arm/hand out of commission I can imagine that it took a bit out of you.

Yay for COVID boosters, so sorry you have it and mild symptoms. Yay for GBBO.

(((hugs))) and the usual *smooch* from your own Horrible

Welcome back Richard! It's so nice to hear from you again. I'm glad your COVID case is mild. Best wishes for continued recovery!

Wonderful to hear directly from you, RD! All good wishes as you continue to recover.

Richard! So glad to see you posting again. Hope that COVID retreats soon and you continue to improve at rehab. Hooray for GBBO in the meantime!

Happy, glorious, Friday, Richard. So good to see you back and posting. We sure have missed you. Take it slow and easy and we are praying for a full recovery. ❤️

It's so full of fabulous to see you posting, Richard! Hooray for speech clear. Wishing for you a smooth recovery. Hang in there and know that all of us here at the Pecan Paradisio are wishing you well. *smooch and a bear hug*

>503 Familyhistorian: thank you, Meg. I'm not the same wiyhout my regular doses of LT, so I'm very much eager to get back as much use of the non-dominant side as possible as soon as possible.

>502 LizzieD: Exactly the treatment for me...like having a really bad cold was back in the day with added infectious-disease prevention protocols.

Richard, welcome HOME! You know LT is truly your home and nothing could be better than seeing a post from you here. Keep up the good work and if ever there was proof that boosters work, it's now, that *a nasty cold* is the worst of covid's effect on you. Hope the unboosted can take a lesson here from you!

Looking forward to your steady return to *before*, when Wordle streaks and reviews (not to mention new threads) will once again be a regular feature of the 75ers here.

Smooch!

>507 Berly: I'm an amazement to the rehab's experts, Berly-Boo, because I got speech back almost immediately and have worked diligently to clarify the sounds I'm making. Even sister Valerie who's been listening to me for decades has said I'm steadily sounding more and more like myself. COVID was probably inevitable as I've been in two busy medical facilities while in a weakened state.

So I eat everything I can, like this morning's biscuit and eggs and sausage to keep my body fueled to do his job of healing.

Pah to covid, though glad it is of the milder version.

So good to see you about again RD, you are missed. Keep up with your PT and I have no doubt you will be skipping in no time. OK, I can't skip, so I don't really expect you to, beyond those fingers across the keyboard.

>508 LizzieD: Hiya Peggy! I'm so glad I've been using my Fire tablet to read for the last two weeks because I'm reaccustomed to following lines for meaning. Typing's still slow but I'm doing great for someone a month out from several strokes. All it takes now is work to build on amazing good luck. Work I can do. Luck is a random gift.

>510 humouress: Here I , as you say, am.And here I remain.(Happily for me.) I am at the impatient stage of recovery but daily remind myself I can balance and walk and talk and type in under two months. Pretty great, in reality, for a stroke's recovery curve.

>504 richardderus: Yay~hurrah~yay!
So wonderful to greet you personally this morning, Richard. So delighted you are able to read our greetings and able to give us your own news as energy allows.
{{RD}}

(edited to add that I wasn't "on" LT last night, so this is new happenings for me to read.)

>511 Copperskye: I feel the love constantly, Joanne all the love people have sent in cards and gifts and kindness and interest. I'm beyond the luckiest person I know's just deserts!

>512 mahsdad: Thanks, Jeff! Of course my first choice is not to have had this experience at all but the second is to have it on the side I did. (Not recommending the experience or asking for more, to be clear with the gods.) The same stroke would've been a catastrophe for you, so avoid it! Get that BP checked. get the exercise snd reduce the odds every way you can. You can't be replaced!

The world is righting itself! Richard's back! Man, have we missed you.

>514 FAMeulstee: Hi Anita! I'm so excited to realize I can be a bit more active here, albeit a lot more slowly than before.I'm delighted at every fresh contact with my pals here! *smooch*

>515 PaulCranswick: Thanks PC, I'm ready to be back in life for myself, too. I'm lucky to have Kath's huge and unwavering support for so long. Far above and beyond anything I could expect and my gratitude is immense. But I'm back and plan to consolidate my ability to benefit from our far-flung network as much as I can.

>534 richardderus: Such a boost to pull up LT this morning and see the latest post on this thread attributed to @richardderus --and then to read all your positive news, Richard. Motivation is the key to successful rehab, whatever the issue, and you've obviously been blessed with lots of it. Keep on keepin' on.

>516 karenmarie: Hi Horrible, he oinked. the TJ's triple ginger biscuits are such delights with the ice creams and puddings we get here...adding crunch and deliciousness I can't describe adequately except with an oink of gratitude! One-armed posting is tiring indeed but worth it because I'm that much closer to being my normal self. Be careful out there even vaccinated this rotten plagueis no fun.....*smooch*

So happy to see you back on-line and perhaps feeling a bit better.

Okay, I'm warning you now. If you swing by my thread, jump down to the bottom and scroll up carefully to avoid looking at my previous 2 FF posts. Or can your constitution handle seeing pictures of my cat. LOL.

Welcome back! How nice to see you posting, Richard. Sorry about the Covid but glad indeed that you were fully boosted. Keep on keeping on and you'll be your own self soon.

SO good to “hear” you’re back! You can see how much we have missed you and have been thinking of you! Happy, happy Friday!

Karen O

Good to see you back posting and close to as feisty as usual, Richard. Keep up the good work and kick that COVID to the curb!

>537 Kristelh: I'm recovering from COVID too, now, so I'm not sure I'm better just doubly bored!

>538 mahsdad: I might wait a bit then. I don't need my sense of the rightness and goodness of the world shaken that hard just now. O appreciate the warning.

>541 Familyhistorian: It's my major focus Meg. without COVID I'd be in the gym now.

>544 richardderus:, I'm sorry that covid is slowing up your rehab work and it's no fun to be bored. Is it still hard to read?

>540 klobrien2: Thanks, Karen O. I'm always warmed by the group's kindness and only mpre so when I'm the one being cared for and about.

So so so glad to see my favourite curmudgeon back and posting and to hear that recovery is going well. Sending the biggest of smooches and hugs. *MWAH*

>547 MickyFine: Hello there Micky! Your Canadian cold made quite a splash while my brain was vapor-locked and I kept wishing you'd summon it home. Happily we're up to seasonable chill now so I'm next to a breeze cracked window. I hope to be able to get home to Long Beach in time to get in some spring boardwalk walks If the COVID will shuffle on maybe I will...that's my plan anyway. *smooch*

I am ridiculously happy that you're back!!!

>549 SomeGuyInVirginia: Thanks most awfully Larry!

>545 Kristelh: I'm still trying to build back to speed but decoding can come as a challenge at some points so I'm not pushing myself too hard.

Good to see you Richard! Take lots of rest while your are doing your rehabilitation therapy.

*sigh* It's been so peaceful and quiet around here and now your thread is rocketing away as per normal ...

Amazing recovery; I didn't realise it was several strokes (though I had seen it was more than one). Keep up the ... er ... good work.

Your favourite Supervillainess

Richard, it’s so great to see you back posting. Here’s hoping that your recovery continues as quickly as possible.

*smooch* and glad the TJ's ginger biscuits are a hit.

Happy Saturday morning to you, dear one! It is very happy making to see you here. Very. *smooch*

>529 SandyAMcPherson: Dropping my best wishes again (since your thread exploded, wanted you to know the SM contingent was supporting you all the way). Your thread is sure blasting off, so great that you can type a few replies. Kath is such a wonderful resource and kept us updated thank goodness.

Sorry the Arctic front made it down to NYC. We've basked in some amazingly warm weather (off and on) this month. And ☀️ sunshine ☀️.

>529 SandyAMcPherson: Hi Sandy I'm sorry I missed your post yesterday, but the whole thread's overwhelming my limited processing. I'm still amazed I'm on here a month after multiple strokes.

It's cold today but the room's very very warm, gets a lot of morning light, and a cracked window makes it pleasant....if I wrap the window side in my fleecy shawl-blanky.

>357 mckait: The sunshine'e s so nice, but clear skies are always coldest as I know you're well aware. so double-edged pleasure for sure.

Kath's been an angel, helping me through this ordeal in so many ways. There isn't a word yet for someone who does so much without asking for a single thing except "true friend."
' I've got many of them here, lucky old man that I am.

>532 drneutron: My return continues, kind sir...every day I get a little bit more back.Quite a process but it's working so far!

Happy Saturday, you old curmudgeon! So glad to see you posting. Sure, hoping for a full recovery, my friend. Cold here at the moment but lots of sunshine. We are in store for a nice warm-up. I can't complain.

>535 laytonwoman3rd: Thanks, Linda3rd. You're exactly right...I'm motivated!