richardderus's fifteenth 2023 thread

Valerie and me in the restaurant of the Allegria Hotel where she stays during our visits. It's four blocks from my facility and makes AMAZING food. I had to tweet the photo and copy the address from Twitter!

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:
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My Last Thread of 2021 Is Here:
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My Last Thread of 2022 Is Here:
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2023's madness
Reviews 018 through 025 (out of order) linked here.
Reviews through 025 linked here.
Reviews 026 through 033 linked here.
Reviews 034 up to 039 linked here.
Reviews 040 to 045 linked here.
Reviews 046 through 058 linked here..
Reviews 059 through 068 linked here.
Reviews 069 up to 075 are linked here.
Reviews 076 up to 092 are linked here.
Reviews 093 through 098 are linked here.

THIS THREAD'S REVIEWS

099 Incentive for Death: A Novel in post #144.
100 The Owl Cries in post #175.
101 The Golden Yarn: A Mirrorworld Book in post #187.
102 Reckless IV: The Silver Tracks in post #196.
103 Chain-Gang All-Stars in post #228.
104 Day: A Novel in post #278.

All previous Burgoine reviews linked here.

THIS THREAD'S BURGOINE REVIEWS:

#24 Weird Fishes in post #145.
#25 Day Boy in post #147.

All previous Pearl Rule reviews linked here.

THIS THREAD'S PEARL RULE REVIEWS:

PEARL RULE #18

My report on the first quarter of 2023's reading.
August in review is here.
September in review is here.
October in review is here.

Okay, your go.

Happy new thread, Richard! What a terrific pic!

A picture with a friend is a perfect way to start a new thread. Have more fun with Valerie while she is here and enjoy the weather. Change will be acomin'! We will have one more day of warm summer and on Monday it will change to fall.

>7 jessibud2: Welcome, Shelley! Have a Moche-culture crown from present-day Peru for your threadqueenliness:

>8 benitastrnad: Hi Benita...Valerie left yesterday and, in what I would (if credulous) attribute to Divine Intervention, the skies lowered and drizzle appeared for the first time since she arrived. This, after seven weekends in a row of rained-out nastiness!

Hooray for a new thread! Only 10 posts, just right for me to slide in and say HI!

>11 weird_O: Greetings, Bill! I'm delighted to see you here! I hope the offerings will bring you back.

Hope you had a great time with Valerie & happy new thread.

Happy new thread, Richard. Great topper!!

Happy new thread, Richard! Love the pic of you and Valerie!

Have a great week!

Karen O

Happy new thread, Richard dear!

>1 richardderus: Lovely picture of Valerie and you, so nice to see you both happy.

>9 richardderus: That is a beautiful crown!

Happy new thread, Richard. Boo at the sore hands.

See. Here I am again.

>13 Helenliz: We really enjoyed our time together, thanks...it's my pleasure that she chooses to keep coming back, Helen. Her life is so busy it's a great gift indeed.

>14 RebaRelishesReading: Thanks, Reba! The photo captures the feeling of the weekend.

>15 klobrien2: Thanks, Karen O.! *smooch*

>16 FAMeulstee: Thanks, Anita...the crown's a lurvely piece, isn't it. I found it on Archaeology Tumblr.

*smooch*

>17 ArlieS: Boo AND hiss, Arlie. it's been a crummy day...but a good weekend overall.

>18 weird_O: ...and you are...? :-P

Happy Sunday, Richard. Happy New Thread! Love the topper. You look comfy in your jammies. Glad you had a good time with Valerie.

>1 richardderus: What a fantastic photo! Nice to see you smile. Glad you had a nice time with Valerie and a good place to eat. Restaurants can be hit or miss. When you find a good one you have to hang on to it.

Love those pants!

Oh and happy new thread :)

Great topper, RD, and salutations on a new thread, dear fellow.

>1 richardderus: Be careful my friend as you will be losing the curmudgeonly reputation that you probably never deserved in the first place!

What a happy opening to wish happy new thread to. Wonderful pic, Richard!

Delurking to bring you (as Richard would say) new thread orisons.

>1 richardderus: Great photo!

>25 msf59: The penguin jammies make me smile every time I wear them. Such a great trend! Wear your jammies any old time...not like I wasn't anyway, but having it be ordinary makes me happy.

>26 figsfromthistle: Thanks, Anita! Land's End did me proud with the penguins, no? The restaurant in the Allegria is a solid venue because they do LOTS of catering. They stay sharp that way.

*smooch*

>27 PaulCranswick: *GRUMBLE* Everybody gotta stick their oar in somehow no one just leaves it do they no no no can't have that can we

...you were saying...?

>28 Familyhistorian: Hi Meg! Thank you for the good wishes. We had a happy time and I'm glad it shows.

>29 humouress: Hi Nina! Thank you most kindly for the orisons. I'm glad my topper's popular. We're two old people who just happen to have a good time together. This being the New Normal for society, I like modeling it.

*smooch*

>32 richardderus: Nah.......thank goodness.........still the same guy!

Happy Thread the Fifteenth, dear Richard! I hope you have a loverly day inside while the rain is raining down.

>1 richardderus: So glad you figured out the photo thing, because that’s a wonderful photo of you and Valerie. I personally like the short scruff.

You were a menace on my thread this morning – I bought two Kindle books because of your comments about Chambers and Malcolm. It’s all good, though – what’s a mere $5.99 between friends?

*smooch*

What a great way to start a thread! I hope that the rest of the contents are in the same vein although I guess they can't top the topper.

Off to see how Karen spent her $5.99, dammit.

*smooch*

Peggy, LOL, absolutely LOL.

Happy new one, Richard!

Happy Monday, Richard. Hope it's the start of a good week!

>1 richardderus: I hope you had a wonderful visit with your sister, RD!

((Hugs)) and **smooches**

>35 PaulCranswick: I am, as always, myownself:

Valerie's room, this time, had the loveliest view out onto the ocean. We couldn't get one with me in her windowside chair WITH the ocean, but this one pleased us both.

>36 karenmarie: A crummy $5.99 to support two really fine authors' work? *pshaw* It would be entirely different, of course, were it YOU tempting my broke butt to part with *MY* cash, a situation well-established and unassailably factual as intolerable evidence of your incorrigible Horribleness.

>38 karenmarie: It would behoove you, Peggy, to discover these storytellers because they create such lovable and endearingly sweet characters. Really, the only reason I hesitate to shove you off Ammyward is their, um, unrestrained use of sex in the stories. Might not fly so well chez vous.

>39 drneutron: Thanks, Jim!

>40 RebaRelishesReading: Thank you, Reba, it's lookin' good from here...I've got a three-piece bench set coming tomorrow that will triple my storage capacty and I can't wait!

>41 alcottacre: I did indeed, Stasia, and am alredy looking forward to next year. *smooch*

Because of Valerie's visit, I didn't watch #GBBO last week...I'll do a catch-up on that later this week so I can get my pending-review queue down.

Looking good, my friend! Happy new thread!

Glad you had such a nice visit with Valerie!

>49 Storeetllr: Thank you most kindly, Mary! *smooch*

>50 katiekrug: It was, as it always is, a genuine pleasure to see her and just hang together.

>42 richardderus:
I am liking both of the pictures you posted on this thread. It is good to have nice visits with friends. I managed to see one for a short time while I was home (Kansas) this month.

I confess that I didn't even notice that there were penguins on your pants! I had to go back up and enlarge the picture so I could look at them. (Not that the picture was small - I just simply thought you had on some kind of leopard print.)

Happy new thread, Richard! You are looking good in both photos, and I'm glad you and Valerie had such a great time together. Hope today is treating you kindly and the reading is good.

>42 richardderus: Very nice photo. Thanks for sharing. Being yourownself is a very good thing to be.

Good morning, RDear. Happiest of Tuesdays to you.

I'm really enjoying Chambers.

*smooch*

>42 richardderus: Great photo, RD! You look quite composed.

Looks like Halloween will feel like winter here today. Low to mid-30s with a touch of snow. Ugh! Bundle up kids and parents. I will be warm and snug with Juno.

>53 benitastrnad: Ha! Animal prints are a MAJOR no-no around here...the penguins are hale and hearty and doing penguin things all over the jammies exactly as they should be.

If you decide to relocate back to Kansas, will you be gaining or losing a RL friend-base?

>54 bell7: Thank you, Mary, I'm always wary of posting photos online but those were too much fun not to, and AI could easily fake me up anyway so to heck with it. I read not a word yesterday, so I'll be doing October in review without any new data. *sigh* I had to get stuff ready for my new furniture, though.
***
The good news is my upholstered storage benches arrived. I got my delivery promptly at 7.30am as promised. The porter was in and just grabbed the box, started assembling the feet, and all before I was through accepting delivery. Valerie got them for me because I was whining about my sheets sitting on open shelves, and the benchese are perfect for keeping them undusty and next to the bed.

>55 RebaRelishesReading: Thanks, Reba...I really don't have a choice, TBH, because I simply cannot fake being normal. It's actually sorta gruesome when I try. Besides, why bother at this age?!

>56 karenmarie: Morning, Horrible! *smooch* Jo and Sally's books together are really good reads. I'm so glad you're liking them. Jo's historicals are wonderful...I want to fly to Edinburgh and storm the BBC Scotland offices to take hostages until they agree to do a multi-part adaptation of her entire Regency-set Enlightened series...and Sally's Revolutionary War ones are very good as well.

Ha! *I* fattened *YOUR* TBR for once.

>57 msf59: Thanks, Mark! "Composed" is a great word for that photo...I felt composed, and it shows through. It was 45° when I got up to be ready for the furniture guys this morning...quite a change from 60° yesterday. Still, it's Halloween, so it's not before time.

You and Juno enjoy the snuggery. Schmoozle her doggy-ears from me.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY, via Anu Garg's A Word A Day newsletter:
For me, words are a form of action, capable of influencing change. -Ingrid Bengis, writer and teacher (1944-2017)...this is my personal truth spoken by someone I've never heard of before.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, third in line to the Presidency of the United States of America, laddies and gentlewomen, subscribes to this creed:

Mike Johnson’s Wife Takes Down Website That Compared Being Gay To Bestiality, Incest
HuffPost first reported on Kelly Johnson's counseling service that likens LGBTQ+ people to people who have sex with animals and family members.

Fabulous picture of you and Valerie, Richard. Happy Halloween and Happy New Thread. I'm to the dentist in 45 minutes - see you on the other side! :-)

>65 vancouverdeb: Oh yikes, Deb! I hope the fang-grinder is in a less-than-usually-sadistic mood for the sake of your poor mouth.

Thanks re: photeaux...it's nice to be able to share happy things with y'all!

GBBO tonight (Tuesday) was very, very exciting.
GBBO THOUGHTS FOR TWO WEEKS
Last week was the dreaded double-elimination from Tasha's incomplete chocolate week...per established principles from season three, when John Whaite the eventual season winner sliced his finger open requiring stitches, a baker who can't complete the week's challenges due to force majeure is not elimiated, nor does someone else go home that week; the next week is then a double elimination. This was the double elmination week.

Pastry week saw them start with a dozen hot-water crust picnic pies. No one seems to *get* that hot-water crust needs to be THINLY rolled out so it doesn't have a big raw pastry line in the corners! Dana, my least-favorite baker who always chooses greige flavors and executes them well enough to get through, does it again with her dauphinoise potato-filled ones. And mirabile dictu, she chose the very filling that the technical...a pithivier...would require her to make! It was funny watching Paul drop a HUGE hint to her, and seeing her obvious obliviousness to it. Not knowing what a pithivier is, despite making its classic dauphinoise filling, foreshadowed trouble.

Matty makes, but can't pronounce, spanakopita-based pies, which honestly sounds like autosoggy mess to me; the pastry was too thick. My sweet little Saku chooses tuna croquettes to go in her pies which *gag* and, irritatingly for her had the dreaded soggy bottoms. Josh chooses a very traditional English filling of Cumberland sausage meat, which is the dish he serves to his post-match rugby lads (each of whom I now despise, loathe, and detest out of unruly jealousy); Tasha chooses sausage, apples, and sage with a mustard sauce, which is also her Yuletide stuffing mix (I want to go to hers for dinner!) plus adds some nutmeg to her pastry. Dan picks a very spicy lamb keema to fill his pies, manages to make a thin, crispy crust, and then gets the filling too dry; Nicky and Rowan keep the pork-sausage train rolling though they each have truly, truly awful results (Nicky calls hers "a bag of pants" and they very much were...gloopy filling thick pastry and undercooked); only Cristy does a veggie entry with leeks and mushrooms in a creamy sauce, to which I say DROOLdripslobber and Paul gave her a handshake that was richly deserved!

The pithivier technical challenge should've been Dana's moment to shine,seeing as she'd made the filling for her signature picnic pies; and yet the best she could muster was second to Dan's gorgeous, perfectly textured entry; most of the others didn't cook the potatoes dauphinoise enough, and all of them flubbed something on the rough-puff pastry case, though Honorius the Baking God knows that as true GBBO nerds they hadda have watched the season 3 final and saw the signature pithiviers the three gents made for examples, right? Anyway, the worst happened for Nicky (dead last, disastrous pastry, no domed shape) and Rowan, who managed fourth despite really not presenting his pie properly. Cristy decided to leave most of her dauphineoise out, being unaware that the dome is a big part of the pie's form, and came fifth. Tasha scraped third with undercooked potatoes, which problem she shared with all the other lower-ranked bakers. A surprising number didn't do their rough-puff pasry properly and made what amounts to short crusts instead of laminating the heck out of them which, TBH, is shocking in the FOURTEENTH SEASON.

Showstoppers were three sweet pies made to a design theme. Rowan and Nicky went home because they made truly awful-looking (Rowan) and -tasting (Nicky) pies with bad crusts and just *awful* fillings. Cristy won star baker on the back of three very well-executed pies with attractive presentation and flavors that succeeded, especially the frangipane with raspberries IN it, not as a jam under it. Tasha's lovely-sounding whiskey/pecan pie was, like her other two, unfinished looking but good tasting, and very original (I've never thought of putting blueberries IN my pastry!). Dan got his textures wrong, as did Dana; she also really made a terrible, overly-sour apple, blackcrurrant, and mulled wine pie. Matty's mixed bag of results had only one resounding success: rhubarb and custard pie. Saku's pies looked good, but her fruit fillings were not quite right. Josh hit the sweet (!) spot on all fronts, but the earlier not-great performances meant no star baker.

TO BE CONTINUED when Netflix releases the episode that REALLY excited me on Friday!

‘Morning, RD! Happy Wednesday to you.

>61 richardderus: Fortunately, Kindle Unlimited makes for $0.00 cost most of the time. So far I haven’t dipped into the MM historical romance sub-genre. I love(d) MF historical romance, but for some reason reading about present-tense MM relationships works better for me. I figured out a while back that it’s because homosexuality for men wasn’t decriminalized until 1967 in England and Wales (other parts of the UK later, Republic of Ireland 1993), so I honestly have a hard time knowing that the end result of historical MM romances still means the closet. *shrug* I have more than enough to keep me busy with contemporary MM romances.

>64 richardderus: I watched Colbert’s monologue about Johnson and his wife – he was snarky, which I love, and commented about 2 Johnsons…

*smooch*

>68 karenmarie: Colbert's monologue was indeed lovely as a snarky takedown of these smarmy scumbags.

Historicals are not usually realistic in that they posit the couples existing in some sort of quiet placid space devoid of hostility and rage. So do contemporaries, and let me just assure you the present-day world is not a placid quiet space devoid of hostility and rage directed at QUILTBAG people of every stripe. The stories are fantasies, not reflections of the way things are, no matter the time period they're set in. This is Experience speaking. Goodness knows they're fun to enjoy on that level!

Gay sex wasn't fully decriminalized in the UK until 2009. It's still illegal in much of the US though the local laws would be very, very hard to enforce given the Federal right to marry would be difficult to separate from conjugal rights (a concept I find very troubling in general). But the laws still exist....

Happy All Saints' Day, smoochling.

Hiya RD. I stalled out most of October and confess I am simply skipping to the bottom of this newish thread.
The topper photo was lovely and isn't it great to discover restaurant food that qualifies as 'amazing'? Even better, walking distance (I think) from where you live.

>70 SandyAMcPherson: Hi Sandy! I totally get the skipping, it's just too much to get through with all the threads at times.

The Allegria's restaurant is HUGELY beyond my means as a venue to eat at any time. It would cost an entire month's disposable income for me to eat one meal there. I treat myself to one diner meal every quarter, and I have to save a little here and there in each of those three months to afford even that. At least, unlike most who live below the poverty line, all my income is my own to spend how I like...no healthcare or rent or daily food expenses need to come out of it. Still won't stretch to nice meals out, but, well, cry me a river as the saying goes.

STAT from Morning Brew's daily newsletter...
Books: Everyone’s got them. That is, except 9% of Americans. A survey from YouGov found that almost 1 in 10 Americans does not own a single physical book. On the other hand, 3% of Americans own more than 1,000 books, a group we assume is mostly made up of kooky college professors and Rory Gilmore wannabes{and me}. And while nearly a third of Americans don’t organize their bookshelves at all, those who do are most likely to sort by genre (22%). Only 10% sort by author, and even fewer (3%) arrange by color.

>72 richardderus: those who do are most likely to sort by genre (22%). Only 10% sort by author, and even fewer (3%) arrange by color.

I put mine on the shelves in the order in which I read them.

((Hugs)) and **smooches** for today, RD!

>73 alcottacre: *smooch* back, Stasia! Spend your Wednesday splendidly.

>72 richardderus: I am not and have never been a college professor nor do I even know who Rory Gilmore might be. So I guess I'm you ;-)

I sort by topic first, size second (some subjects only), then author surname, except for certain topics where the author is often "anon", which are sorted by the common English name of the work.

I won't say I sort by genres; those bookstore-oriented categories don't match my organization, except that I do have fiction as one of my "topics". (You can find all my "topics" if you can see my LibraryThing collections.)

Happy Wednesday, RD. Trying to shake off a bit of a cold, so hanging indoors with the books and Juno. A breezy, 39F out there, so I am not missing it.

>64 richardderus: Disgusting and scary. Shudders...

>75 ArlieS: You're much more like me than Rory Gilmore, I do assure you. We're both more like the college professors than we are like that TV girl (term used advisedly). Organizing my book collection is, from decades of experience, an exercise in futility. Entropy takes over the second half of the shelves are halfway done.

Gawd likes me to be in a mess. She sets it up that way every time I try to impose order on my world.

>76 msf59: U.G.H. on the cold. Getting it gone needs to be your focus for sure. It's been a lovely fall day here, so I am enjoying the time I'm spending with my book Best Supporting Actor. Third in a series I particularly like.

OCTOBER 2023 IN REVIEW

Despite a week lost to visiting with Valerie, I got twelve books read and reviewed. I really, really liked Menewood by Nicola Griffith, as I find Hild as an older person more compelling to read about than her as child prodigy from Hild, all those years ago. The fact-based story is a good one. Also very enjoyable was Where Demons Hide by Douglas Skelton, which series featuring indomitable Rebecca Connolly and her orbiting antagonists and sidekicks is well worth y'all's eyeblinks and treasure. The best, most affecting read was Brigadistes: Lives for Liberty, about the real people from all over the world who believed in anti-fascism enough to give up their comfy lives to fight against the forces of international fascism in 1937 Catalonia. When the US civil war hots up again, I hope we attract the same caliber of resistance fighters. The Children's Bach was a worthwhile read; I don't think I was as edified by it as I was by Brigadistes.

My Deathtober idea went okay, seven reviews of the twelve fit the category so I feel like it's worth trying again in 2024. November's always Booksgiving, as I tell y'all about the books I've liked best for you to gif yourselves and/or others in emulation of Iceland's Yule Book flood. I'll start that, comme d'habitude, on Black Friday (the 24th this year) with my goal being four books reviewed each week until Yule itself.

>72 richardderus:
I have my books shelved by size. It allowed me to put more books on shelves and leave fewer of them in boxes. Within size, I put fiction books first and then nonfiction.

>58 richardderus:
I have friends all over the world. I have a friend-base in most places I go. I am one of those people who rarely lets go of an address for people I like, and I keep track of people for years and years and years after they have stopped communicating with me.

Even so, I miss people I know and like. When I am in Kansas I miss my Alabama friends. When in Alabama I miss my family. It is hard to have friends because it takes some effort to keep in touch with them. I send out many many Christmas letters each year so that I can touch base with friends at least once a year. Mailing Christmas letters is expensive, but I figure that friends are worth $.65 per year. (I looked for the cent sign on my keyboard and doggone it! There isn't one. Really?

>79 richardderus: Sounds like a fantastic October over all, Richard. Looking forward to your Booksgiving recs and hope you had a fabulous Wednesday. *smooch*

>81 benitastrnad: Hi Benita.
How's this? ¢ or even, ₵.

You could copy from here, or look under the currency symbols, in the emoji list. Look on the EDIT menu at the top of most browsers (it's part of the drop-down choices).

>72 richardderus: and company going forwards.
I am fascinated in the choices people have mentioned here about shelving their books. When I visit bookish homes, I love looking at the idiosyncratic arrangements and it's always surprising how good a conversation point that a discussion becomes.

>80 benitastrnad: Whatever maximizes your shelfspace is a Good Thing. I remain verschmeckeled by color organization, but they ain't my books, so....

>81 benitastrnad: Our friend Sandy >83 SandyAMcPherson: had an idea I never once thought of for the cent sign. I use HTML: 65 & cent ; without the spaces is 65¢

I agree about keeping in touch. It's a challenge even in email/social media days! But it is worthwhile.

>83 SandyAMcPherson: Never occurred to me...see >85 richardderus: for my solution. Thanks for opening up new possibilities, smoochling.

The ideas of how/why/whether to organize one's books are endlessly interesting to me. What surprises me is how heated others get over someone else's choices for their own shelves. It's not like that clutter lady and her acolytes "suggesting" "as an idea" that one should keep ~25 books! THAT was infuriating.

Sweet Thursday, Richard. We creep back up into the 50s today, with some sunshine. That should feel good and I will take Juno on an extra long walk.

Glad you had a good reading month in October and hooray for Bookgiving!!

>82 bell7: Thanks, Mary! I got some of Best Supporting Actor read, and had a good dinner of chicken cacciatore, so it was pretty solid as Wednesdays go. I'm a bit put out that I only got twelve books reviewed. I had planned sixteen, but a whole week spent doing actual RL stuff with a living breathing person takes time. It was, however, so much fun that I can't seriously complain about my lost productivity.

>87 msf59: 50s must feel positively springlike after that snap of chill. We're about the same as you, sunshine galore but chilly, and it's heavenly! Juno is going to be spoiled from the extra doggydaddy time.

It's going to be a heavy Booksgiving...some cool illustrated books incoming...stay tuned.

>79 richardderus: 12 books in a week with a visitor!!! Wow!! I am most impressed.

>90 RebaRelishesReading: Oh no no no, Reba! Valerie was here for a week, so I finished twelve books in OCTOBER...all 24 days that had no visitor in them. Been AGES since reading 12 books in a week was possible.

*smooch*

I got no reading done at my mother's house, so I sympathize with the lack of reading while Valerie visited, Richard. I just counted and I managed to read 13 books in October, which surprised me no end.

((Hugs)) and **smooches,** RD!

>92 alcottacre: That's excellent, Stasia, if nowhere near your usual six-a-day habit. Eyestalks eleven through seventeen must be feeling desperately bored by now.

*smooch*

>93 richardderus: All of my eyestalks have been taking a break, RD. I think I tuckered them out with all the traveling. I slept another 11 hours or so last night after 15 hours sleep the night before. Sincerely hoping it is not CFS! I never have time for it but now is a particularly bad time.

>86 richardderus: I have great love for those short cuts in the emoji & symbols list, though I am not a big Emoji fan.
I do like the handy symbols in the menu, without having to hunt through wingdings and various symbol fonts.

re book organization conversation, I've never run into a problem with how someone manages their own books... except once:
I was thoroughly disgusted with MK's suggestion (in her very first book, anyway) of removing the covers from books as a space-saving tidy up.

Happy Friday, Richard dear!

>42 richardderus: Yourownself looks good to me! Thanks for sharing.

‘Morning, RDear, and happy Friday to you. Yesterday morning was hectic and I forgot to post!

>69 richardderus: Of course you know that I'm choir-adjacent regarding hostility and rage directed at QUILTBAG people, and have been I was about 19 when I first met two men at Pepperdine who were openly bi-sexual then realized they were really gay, then met a woman who thought she was straight then realized she was gay. I've got family members who are gay and dear friends who are gay. Some are out, some are in the closet. I've met people who think gay people simply need conversion therapy, people who think gay people are going to hell, people who think a person's sexuality is their private business, and people who flaunt their sexuality, straight or gay. I'm sad, mad, and infuriated that there are people in this world who choose to be hostile and act against a person because of their sexuality.

On a less emotional note, All Saints’ Day was my great-niece’s first birthday. Melody Anne… a rather old fashioned name for a sweet little red-headed girl.

>72 richardderus: And while nearly a third of Americans don’t organize their bookshelves at all, those who do are most likely to sort by genre (22%). Only 10% sort by author, and even fewer (3%) arrange by color. Hmm. I use location tags and sort books by size, typically on any shelf they’ll fit on. Most unread books are downstairs in the Library and Sunroom and upstairs in the Media Room, and most read books are in the Parlour and Retreat. Reference books are all over, as are cookbooks. I've got five UHaul boxes of books in the Sunroom, looking for permanent homes on my shelves.

>86 richardderus: I would never presume to judge how someone organizes their books.

>95 SandyAMcPherson: …removing the covers from books as a space-saving tidy up. Words fail me.

*smooch* from your own Horrible

>94 alcottacre: I really hope it's not a flare-up, either, Stasia. Let's keep a positive thought on that one. *smooch*

>95 SandyAMcPherson: It's just not something I think to do on my computer...the phone makes it easy, and the tablet's basically just a smaller computer...for whatever reason, I'm not very likely to go off and look for emojis or symbols when I know HTML.

How does removing a book cover save space?

>96 FAMeulstee: Thank you, Anita! *smooch*

>97 karenmarie: Morning, Horrible! *smooch*

What people get up to in the privacy of their intimate relationships isn't any of my business, unless I'm invited to participate. THEN my opinion matters, if only to them and me. I genuinely do not Get the need to control others' behaviors...I'm appalled by religious observance, think it's groupthink and a slippery slope to the hell of fascism and has been since its invention but I don't advocate for closing all the churches and temples of the world BECAUSE IT AIN'T MY BUSINESS.

Age bestowed on me the ultimate perspective check: Is this something I need to fix enough to spend my one "wild and precious life"'s energy on?

Nope.

Good luck rehoming the orphan books on shelves. Somehow that task is never completed....

((Hugs)) and **smooches** for today and hope's for a Fantastic Friday!

Dropping off almost weekend smooches!

Happy Friday, RD. Just hanging at home with Jack. Getting some reading in too, as we take turns with him. Haven't ventured out yet...

Black Butterflies has been excellent.

GBBO THOUGHTS for the current weeksLast week's thoughts
I really liked this episode because my least-favorite baker, Dana, left! ALL THE YAY!!

Actually, though...it shoulda been Matty. He, poor lamb, made underproved hot cross buns for botanical week that had very little botanical about them as the main flavor was rum. Why use so little ginger and fruit in a HOT CROSS BUN in BOTANICAL WEEK?! MattyMattyMatty! On his technical he got the weirdest, blotchy-looking cake with sad litle decorative bits plonked on top (his shocked, wrinkled face when he ate one of his lemon peels before the judging said it all!) *tsk* Then came Dan's fig-topped Greek spiced buns. oookaaayyy—weird but they worked well enough. His technical was, sadly, overiced and underthymed.

Tasha's lovely mulled-wine spice buns looked, and evidently tasted, very good. Darn good thing too, because her technical...lemon-thyme drizzle cake...was a disaster. Overbaked, flavors not in balance, decoration of candied lemon peel and thyme leaves looked clumsy, icing blobbed on...just not A Performance as one expects from Tasha. Dana's buns had no spice in the dough, and only a hint of it in the filling. I know cardamom, her chosen spice, has bit her in the backside before, but choose a different one then! She used pistachios and, predictably, rose petals, which the judges *could* taste but weren't mad for. Then the technical, which she had trouble getting out of the tin, had very little flavor...how do you get little flavor from lemon and thyme? but she did...and the texture was all wrong. Cristy came top in technical because she did literally everything right...the look, the taste, the texture...and her maple, pecan, and cinnamon buns looked great, tasted good, and got Prue's ultimate compliment: She wanted to eat the entire bun. Josh's buns weren't quite great to eat (!) but looked wonderful with their spiral whirl of icing, and he was second in the technical. Saku's Swedish cardamom buns were, like Henry's ones in 2019, criticized for not being uniform...big deal, thought I...but her cake was truly clumsy all around.

The showstopper. Oh my heck. A floral dessert, with floral flavors in the bake, and in whatever design elements they use. *ickshudder* That sounds grisly to me. I suppose they were expecting to trap more of the bakers into using rose, which the judges ALWAYS hate, bu it was only Dana (who got rinsed for her rose flavor in the buns being the only one they could taste) walked into the buzzsaw. To be fair, she made the LOVELIEST flower-decorated sugarwork box as part of her dessert presentation, but the rose and hibiscus flavors were largely absent and the execution of the dessert part stank. You can not present a dry cake that had to be refrigerated to keep your jelly elements, overfruited and underflowered as they were, from melting, on showstopper day. Tasha's pretty joconde-collared hibiscus and elderflower (gag) dessert got high praise from the judges for flavor (Prue called it a triumph, Paul praised the flavor profile), and she was one of four to use elderflower...Matty used it with blackberries to poor effect and very ugly-looking execution, Dan to contumely for using so much it was perfumey {he also used meadowsweet he'd foraged which of course tasted like grass against the sweetness of elderflower!}, and Cristy...oh, poor lambkin. Her whole showstopper was a pig's ear and it could not be saved. Josh, Saku, and Tasha all used hibiscus, Josh to acclaim and the accolade of star baker, because it looked and tasted great with its injected-jelly elderflower floral topper, its rhubarb compote and raspberry mousse, and the beautiful charlotte russe presentation with ladyfingers around the outside...Saku made a gorgeous jelly-art topper, too, but went so light on the floral flavors that all the judges could taste was the ginger in her baked base. Lucky for her, unlike Dana, she got all her textures right.

Matty, with his ~meh~ buns and his AWFUL-looking showstopper that didn't have good textures or flavors, didn't go because he outperformed Dana on the technical. But given how gawdaful his blackberry gloop was, I'd've given him the heave-ho. Dana's everything was wrong, but the ambition and skill of that sugarwork box...!! Cristy's luck in coming top in technical really saved her as she was in the doom-spiral that Michael fell into the week he left in 2019. She'll be in the final, I'll bet.

On to Dessert week next week!

>102 alcottacre: Hi Stasia! *smooch* I spent a good chunk of it putting together my GBBO thoughts in >105 richardderus:. What a week that was!

>103 MickyFine: We'll call it good, Micky, the weekend starts when I start it for me because no work schedule dictates my time. *smooch*

>104 msf59: Great news about Black Butterflies, Mark. I'm looking forward to reading it here soon. Enjoy your Jack-time and the weekend ahead's reads.

>91 richardderus: Ah -- I can relax now.

>97 karenmarie:
I am so glad that somebody else has books in moving boxes. I have those as well. Under all of the beds in the house.

>109 RebaRelishesReading: I can only imagine the transports of jealousy you were working up to, thinking that SOMEHOW there was someone who could read twelve books in a week that weren't 48pp illustrated kiddiebooks!

*smooch*

>110 benitastrnad: Make the boxes into milk crates and thass me!

Happy Friday *smooch*
Twelve books reviewed in a month sounds positively excellent to me, but I get being slightly put out at not quite making your goal. May November surpass its goal instead! (No pressure, just good wishes)

Good night, Richard. I am here, but my situation confounds me. In the morning when I have as much brain power as I'm going to have all day, I have no time. At night, like now, I have time but no brain at all. Anyway, your presence is reassuring. I like the pictures too! *smooch* for the weekend!

Hi Richard! All's well regarding the dentist visit. Back in January for a crown. I confess I don't organize my books , but weirdly I know where most of them are. Sometimes I have to search a bit, but I have a mental picture of where most of my books are , despite 3 bookshelves, and many tall piles of books hither and thither throughout our townhouse.

Happy Weekend Reading. *smooch*

>111 richardderus: You got it!!

>113 bell7: I'm very grateful for the good wishes, Mary! I'd like to get ahead of my curve, but honestly feel really lucky that I am as productive as I am given January's joys.

*smooch*

>114 LizzieD: Peggy! *smooch* I'm so glad you could muster the nous to visit after quite a full day. Caretaking is hugely draining, with the happiest heart; it's effortful. Brainpower sapping. Tiring. So, don't think it's a referendum on how happy you are to visit when you just...can't. I really get it. *smooch*

>115 vancouverdeb: Oh good, Deb. A visit to the fang-grinder ought to be as pleasant as it's possible to be so I'm glad for you that it was in this case.

I think that counts as organization: Knowing where to put your hands on a particular book is The Goal. It might not look the same as most other people's methods for achieving that result, but so what? Read hearty! *smooch*

>116 RebaRelishesReading: *chuckle*

Happy Saturday, Richard. Of course, we enjoyed our time with Jack but he does leave a path of destruction, in every room he visits. Me and Juno keep things very orderly.

Back to the mid-50s today with some sun, so I have no problem with that. Enjoy your day.

>121 msf59: Thanks, Mark. Yeah, toddlers are tiny little entropy engines, aren't they? We're blanketed under clouds but not rain, at least not so far, so I'm callin' it good. Poor apple farmers have had eight rainy weekends and the crop's ruined. Today's the kind of day that's perfect to go apple picking, so I hope some adventurous souls do.

You and Juno enjoy your freshly-tidied cave together.

>110 benitastrnad: Ours are stacked in the basement. Or to be accurate, 50% of Mr. SM's books are in the xerox paper boxes he scrounged from a printer's discard bin.
I'm scared to count the number but I think its' around 22. He frequently declares he culling ones to donate so maybe there's less than 20 now.

Hello, RDear, and happy Saturday to you.

>110 benitastrnad: Crazy book person definition – someone with one more box/milk crate/stack of unshelved books than Richard/I/You have.

*smooch*

>124 karenmarie:
The only place I don't feel crazy is here on LT. I am going to have to move in the next year and my friends keep telling me to pair down what I have. It makes me scream with frustration because I don't want to pair things down. I just want to sit and read what I want to when I want to do so.

>123 SandyAMcPherson: I'm guessing your uncertainty about Mr. McP's box-books status is a key factor in your ongoing happiness, and seeking concrete details won't increase your joy.

>124 karenmarie: Awomen, Horrible. Awomen. *smooch*

>125 benitastrnad: Well-meaning advice that's useless, like the declutter lady's 25 books or bust suggestion.

I wanted to come by and thank you for your recommendation of The Book of Paradise by Itzik Manger. I loved it!

((Hugs)) and **smooches**

>129 alcottacre: All the YAY! I thought it was proof we, as a reading culture, don't read enough Yiddish translations.

*smooch*

Cory Doctorow writes very intelligently about "enshittification":
https://doctorow.medium.com/big-techs-attention-rents-fe97ba3fad90
The amount of money this simple, old scam makes fo tech firms is jaw-dropping.

‘Morning, RD! Happy Sunday to you.

>125 benitastrnad: I hope you are ignoring your friends, Benita. Tell them to stop telling you to pare down. Are these people who do not have a lot of books?

Sigh. I've been on hold for 19 minutes now with the pharmacy. Thank goodness I've got them on speakerphone and can continue here and continue drinking coffee.

*smooch*

>132 karenmarie: re: >125 benitastrnad: what Horrible said.

NINETEEN MINUTES!! Good heavens. That's very annoying. I hope you're going to be, um, a Karen about it. (Sorry, I couldn't resist)

Happy Sunday, Richard! Hope you’re enjoying the brisk weather.

Getting geared up to cast my early vote and then make a Trader Joe’s run. That will be my entire Sunday as my joints are already screaming. (They don’t care much for the cold.)

Happy Sunday, Richard! You'll be proud of me, I have no plans but football watching and reading (yeah, and dog walking...) for the rest of the day.

>134 Storeetllr: Excellent use of your Sunday, Mary. I've mailed back my absentee ballot so I got the privilege used; I'm nt going to TJ'd but only because I can't get there...I'd kill for a loaf of black pumpernickel. (But only if it was my drunk of a roommate.) Rest your ouchies. *smooch*

>135 bell7: Hip hip hooray! Keep this sluggardly pace up, Mary, it will do you a world of good! *smooch*

>132 karenmarie:
yes. These are people who don't have lots of books and few hobbies. I sew, knit, cook, and read so I have lots of stuff. the person who pushes me the most to get rid of the books is also the one who thinks I should only have one Bundt cake pan. I was advised by her to get rid of the ones I haven't used in the last year. I have five Bundt pans and have used all five of them at least once in the last year.

>125 benitastrnad: >132 karenmarie: >138 benitastrnad: I'm planning a big book purge sometime in the next few months. I need to "right size" my genealogy collection. I know I have tons of books that should be easy to purge. I just need to figure out what I'm going to do with them. I'm thinking of putting them in a society's book sale so I don't need to mess with mailing things if I were to sell them myself. I wouldn't recover what I have invested in them anyway, so a genealogical society might as well get the benefit.

>138 benitastrnad: I can't imagine having an opinon about how many bundt pans someone has, unless that person is asking me to store some for them. I might ask, "do you use them all?" if I felt particularly curious and ill-mannered. But a short, sharp "what's it to you?" ought to stop this absurd personal invasion.

'Morning, Richard! Happy Monday to you.

>133 richardderus: I disconnected the call after 47 minutes. I think my call got lost in a black hole somehow.

>138 benitastrnad: Why do people need to nag other people about their possessions? No. Just no.

>139 thornton37814: Hi Lori. Our Library has a strong genealogy section AND 2 dedicated computers with county-paid Ancestry subscriptions. We also have at least 2 volunteers I know of who will schedule time with people who want to research local ancestors. If you lived in my county, I'd ask you to donate the books to our Library.

*smooch*

>139 thornton37814: Which comes from a desire to lighten your load of things no longer useful to you...internal, not imposed by someone else or foisted on you by some decluttering maniac. A society book sale? great idea! Would the society do it online?

>141 karenmarie: It definitely got lost. Weird, no? It does happen but I've no concept about how that might work.

People need to control others. They need to Be Right. It's the eternal black hole of will to power, that leads nowhere at all. Anyway, it's Monday, so I'm not specially cheery. *smooch*

099 Incentive for Death: A Novel by James Spoonhour

Rating: 3.75* of five

The Publisher Says: They all sold their life insurance policies to the same company—and now they’ re all dead. Mac and Oliver are on the case.

On a beautiful spring morning in Washington, D.C., a high-profile attorney is found dead in his office. McDermott “Mac” Burke and Oliver Shaw, homicide investigators for the Metropolitan Police Department, are called to investigate. There appear to be no signs of foul play, but there is also no obvious sign of a natural cause of death.

The detectives are perplexed until the medical examiner notices a tiny pin prick on the lawyer’s neck and theorizes that the man was injected with succinylcholine—aka “sux”—which is a common horse tranquilizer that dissipates quickly in the body.

As Mac and Oliver begin to look further, they discover that the lawyer had sold his life insurance policy to a large viatical company. Then, they realize that more deaths under mysterious circumstances have occurred among those who’ve sold their policies to the same company.

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

My Review: Lots of coincidences, lots of conveniently available people able and willing on no notice at all to answer the detectives' questions, and the men investigating the crimes (that might not be crimes) never follow a blind alley or take a wrong turn for long. No one in their chain of command ever questions how they got the information they have, taking their word for whatever they're saying without pushback or demands for sources.

Mac is divorced from Maggie. She lives with him still. She also breaks rules (sort of, that is if as she's hinted at being employed by A Gummint Intelligence Agency she sure as heck does) to help him out. Everyone loves these guys! They're so lovable, hell, I'd marry 'em both!

That's really the sum total of my grumbling. Oh, and the fact that they rehash basically the entire case to date whenever they talk to someone new. What works for me is their inability to set aside the essential unfairness of the viatical "services" industry, which I learned about in the 1980s during the AIDS epidemic. Lots of gay men had the kind of jobs that come with life insurance, and were definitely not going to live very long; a large number of them sold their life insurance collection rights to investors for 50% of face value so as to be able to live with some shreds of dignity until they died.

Capitalism rots.

So anyway, the detectives don't think hurrying the inevitable in order to maximize your profits is acceptable investment management, and set about proving that's what some unkind souls have done. That they succeed is inherent in the genre. The way they go about achieving that success is the fun part. I enjoyed their antics, for the most part, and will definitely read the next one in the series. Oceanview, a relatively new player on the series-mystery publishing scene, is doing a lot of books like this one...not Big Names, unconventional plots and detectives, settings one doesn't necessarily expect for the kind of mystery being told. This one, set in Washington, DC, for example...it's not race-based "urban" or rankly political, it's an interesting business crime. I am all for this publishing house keeping up the good work they're doing with worthwhile new authors like (retired? lawyer) James Spoonhour.

BURGOINE #24

Weird Fishes by Rae Mariz

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: AN UNDERWATER TALE OF FRIENDSHIP AGAINST MONSTROUS ODDS

When Ceph, a squid-like scientist, discovers proof of the ocean’s slowing currents, she makes the dangerous ascent from her deep-sea civilization to the uncharted surface above. Out of her depths and helpless in her symbiotic mech suit, Ceph relies on Iliokai, a seal-folk storyteller, who sings the state of the sea and has seen evidence of clogged currents as she surfs the time gyres throughout the lonely blue. Navigating the perils of their damaged ocean environment, and seemingly insurmountable cultural differences, Ceph and Iliokai realize that the activities of terrestrial beings are slowing the spiralling currents of time. On a journey that connects future and past, the surface and the deep, the unlikely friends struggle to solve a problem so big it needs a leviathan solution.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU. ***CW: rape***

My Review: I know a lot of folks are, um, squeamish about couples that aren't one-man/one-woman. Y'all gonna bust somethin' when it comes to intimate interspecies relations....

But my gosh! The worldbuilding in this novella would support a billion-page nonillionology for each of these cultures. And still the read manages to be truly satisfying. That is a major achievement. The consequences of human action starts the plot on its course; the circle of life gets closed in the end, but in a way I warned you about above.

I am delighted to say that every step leading up to the ending's unpleasantness contains no such activity. I can't say you're likely to be prepared for it with foreshadowing or desensitization. I can say it's stark and shocking when it happens, unambiguous in its cost, and fully part of the narrative arc.

And my goddesses did I hate it.

There's nothing like consequences to offer a lesson about what the author wants to say. I'm glad Author Mariz said it. But I still hated it.

Pat Bagley speaks my truth.

BURGOINE #25

Day Boy by Trent Jamieson

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: A lyrical, tender story about role models and growing into manhood that reimagines the elements of the vampire myth in a wholly original way . . . while never breathing a word about vampires.

They worship the Sun: the only god as cruel as they are.

The Masters, dreadful and severe, rule the Red City and the lands far beyond it. By night, they politic and feast, drinking from townsfolk resigned to their fates. By day, the Masters must rely on their human servants, their Day Boys, to fulfill their every need and carry out their will.

Mark is a Day Boy, practically raised by his Master, Dain. It’s grueling, often dangerous work, but Mark neither knows nor wants any other life. And, if a Day Boy proves himself worthy, the nightmarish, all-seeing Council of Teeth may choose to offer him a rare gift: the opportunity to forsake his humanity for monstrous power and near-immortality, like the Masters transformed before him.

But in the crackling heat of the Red City, widespread discontent among his fellow humans threatens to fracture Mark's allegiances. As manhood draws near, so too does the end of Mark's tenure as a Day Boy, and he cannot stay suspended between the worlds of man and Master for much longer.

With brilliantly evocative, hypnotic prose, Trent Jamieson crafts a fang-sharp and surprisingly tender coming-of-age story about a headstrong boy—and the monster who taught him to be a man.

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

My Review: Erewhon does very, very interesting SF stories, like this wonderfully realized take on vampirism. The story of Mark, the Master/vampire's Day Boy coming of age in a system that is grotesquely unfair, is handled with care and with respect for his genuine struggle to come to terms with his privilege. As this is a struggle many, if not most of us with levels of privilege similar to Mark's have yet to engage with/in, the story isn't a Young Adult one. In my opinion, anyway.

I'd like to call y'all's attention to the descriptive prose. It is very well-handled. It doesn't overwhelm the momentum of the story, and it doesn't veer into for-its-own-sake lyricality. I'd excerpt some or you but the fact is it's best appreciated in its context...anything I call out won't have the impact I'm describing to you. Author Jamieson is one heckuva prose stylist and that alone's a reason for fans of the vampire genre, the post-apocalyptic genre, and social-comment fiction to read it.

<146 Amen to that! Except - even unlovely people deserve a future.

Good morning, Richard. I'm off to the dentist for cleaning, and I devoutly hope that that's the end of it until May! Rejoice that you're not going. *smooch*

>148 LizzieD: My rejoicing is unbounded! I'm thrilled and delighted that I am not in your position. *smooch*

>143 richardderus:
I agree about the need for people to control others. I often think that several of my friends can't control what is going on in their lives, but if they could control what you do that would make life easier for them. So they try their hardest to control you.

The need to be right is a main theme in most organized religions. If I go to a church with 1,000 other people we can't all be wrong. It is validation by numbers. My comeback to that has been that 80 million people voted for Adolf Hitler in 1932 and so they couldn't be wrong. They also continued to follow him right down the path to hell until April of 1945. They couldn't all be wrong.

One of the most important books I read in 2022 was The End: Defiance and Destruction of Hitler's Germany, 1944-1945 by Ian Kershaw. I am so glad that Kershaw wrote this book as it answered some important questions for me. I have problems understanding validation by numbers and the fact that an entire nation was willing to follow required so deep thinking on my part. I am independent by nature and have spent my entire life as a single person who does what her finances allow her to do when she wants to do them. I know I have trouble understanding the psychology of following and being part of the crowd. I understand it much better when we are talking about junior high and high school kids, but the need to stand in a crowd with others when you are an adult just makes me cringe inside. Large crowds of people who are all in agreement make me nervous, whether it be in church, a rock concert, or a Walmart parking lot. I much prefer the peace and quiet of my books and bundt pans and small groups of friends.

>140 richardderus:
yes. I have used all of the Bundt cake pans at least once in the last year. I bake lots of Bundt cakes. I am sort of the Bundt cake person around my small town in Kansas. Some people do those silly insipid cupcakes. I do Bundt cakes.

I like to cook, so I have lots of spices, equipment, and a very well stocked liqueur cabinet. All of which I use for cooking. If you need a tablespoon of Sambuca, Cassis, Grand Mariner, Peach Schnapps, I have it. I use it up in very small quantities at a time, so over the years I have accumulated a great deal of the stuff that comes in fancy bottles.

I even have the first Crockpot I ever owned. It is in that burnt orange color and the crock part of the pot isn't removable - but it still works, and I still use it. Not getting rid of that either.

On-the-other-hand, I don't own a couch, rugs, or big screen TV. I do have a dictionary stand with the foot thick dictionary. (Both came from the University Surplus Sale and I got the dictionary for $.50 and the stand for $1.00.)

It comes down to my priorities - and they are different from the norm.

>150 benitastrnad: Fundamentally, we are not joiners. Fandoms, churches, sodalities...none of the above, thanks. I'm not even a good political-party member. I will belt up about people, but that's the extent of my own willingness to go along to get along.

>151 benitastrnad: We share priorities.

>125 benitastrnad: Ah yes the "down size" advice. 😝 We ignored it when we moved 3 years ago (how in heaven is it that long ago already?!?) and bought a bigger house, new furniture to fill the empty spaces and kept every single thing that has importance to me including many, many boxes of books (and 4 new book shelves to replace built-ins we left behind). Do what makes YOU happy, Benita!!

>144 richardderus:, >145 richardderus:, >147 richardderus: WHEW! escaped there

>146 richardderus: Indeed, Indeed.

>153 RebaRelishesReading: So many truly terrible chunks of advice get doled out, no?

>154 RebaRelishesReading: Clearly I need to get out the manual for my Rebascope that's on the Book-AK47. Dodging three in a row?! My honor as a bibliosniper's on the line!

*smooch*

>155 richardderus: ((Richard))

>130 richardderus: Very true!

>146 richardderus: I very much agree with that sentiment.

>147 richardderus: That one sounds interesting. I will have to see if I can locate a copy. Thanks for the review, RD.

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

>156 RebaRelishesReading: :-)

>157 alcottacre: *smooches* Stasia!

>146 richardderus: SPOT-ON!!

Hey, RD! I hope your week is off to a dandy start! Another gorgeous fall day here.

>146 richardderus: Yes! * smooch* Happy reading this week ahead.

>160 msf59: Morning, Mark! I'm pleased with my week's launch velocity. I spent a goodish bit of yesterday ironing out my meds with the doc, asking for changes to dosages. Time consuming but productive and the sheer novelty of having an MD here who really listens is invigorating.

Good week-ahead's reads, Birddude.

>161 vancouverdeb: Thanks, Deb. That cartoon says it all, no? Solutions not sides.

I'm so over defeatism...yet it has a strong set of roots and is not giving up easily.

*smooch*

‘Morning, RichardDear. Happy Tuesday to you.

>143 richardderus: I hope its not being Monday has restored a bit of cheer to you.

>144 richardderus: Well, another new word for me – viatical. Live and learn. Pass, but only because I have so many unread crime fiction books on my shelves. 518, to be exact.

>145 richardderus: Not my cuppa, but I’m sure you already knew that.

>146 richardderus: It’s one of those polarizing concepts for many people, that one can be sympathetic to the Palestinians AND the Israelis. I took a page out of Vanessa Redgrave’s playbook in 1977 and haven’t put it down yet.

*smooch*

>164 karenmarie: Morning, Horrible. New Sunday being over is a Good Thing indeed, though mine was productive. I hope you enjoy the fleshpots of Virlie's later.

What happened to the Jews from 1938 to 1945 is the collective responsibility of the world to redress. It does NOT justify this one-sided persecution of the State of Israel against the Palestinians. Their rage against each other is an artifact of England's colonial empire's artificial dominion over a territory it had no right to control. Now what do we do with this shitshow that won't cause more and more and more problems ad infnitum?

If god existed, she'd come tell us. She doesn't exist so it's up to a venal quorum of scumbags to fix it.

Armageddon Ho!

>162 richardderus: Yay for a doctor who actually listens to you! That is priceless.

Hugs and **smooches** for today.

>1 richardderus: Happy new thread! (although a little belated...)

>166 alcottacre: It's completely priceless indeed, Stasia! *smooch*

>167 ocgreg34: Good wishes are never too late, Greg, they hit just right whenever offered. I appreciate it. Spend a happy week's reading.

GBBO THOUGHTS
THERE IS NO POINT TO THIS, THIS TEDIOUS TRUDGE TO THE GRAVE WE CALL LIFE NOW THAT SAKU IS GONE whatever shall I do and be now that she is a mere civilian again

Glad Dan's Thai Green Curry crèmes brulée won him star baker.

>162 richardderus: Nice to have a doctor listen for a change, Richard. It would be good if he stayed your doctor for a while.

>162 richardderus: Happy mid week, Richard!

I am glad that this MD actually listens. Definitely one to hold on to.

‘Morning, RD. Happy mid-work-week to you.

>162 richardderus: I neglected to comment on your good MD visit. Imagine! One who listens to you. What a concept.

At book sort yesterday I acquired 6 mass market paperbacks and The Book of Mormon – since I collect religious books and bibles, figured I’d grab this one, too. I also was told by one of the women there to take home Insight Guides: Hawaii 2014 for inspiration and perhaps a trip next year.

>165 richardderus: a venal quorum of scumbags Sad but oh, so true.

*smooch* from your own Horrible

Happy Wednesday *smooches*

100 The Owl Cries by Hye-Young Pyun (tr. Sora Kim-Russell)

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: From the Shirley Jackson Award–winning author of The Hole, a slow-burning thriller with a touch of horror and the uncanny

A disappearance. A missing brother. A lawyer asking questions. And a vast forest in the mountains—the western woods—where the trees huddle close together emanating a crushing darkness and a chill dampness fills the air. The ranger, In-su Park, who lives nearby with his family, is a recovering alcoholic. He claims no knowledge of the man who disappeared, even though the missing man had worked as the ranger just before him. In the little village down the mountain, the shopkeepers will do the same and deny they ever saw or knew the man, though they’re less convincing; and his former supervisor at the Forestry Research Center, Professor Jin, dismisses his importance. But when an accident and a death derail the investigation and someone attempts to break into his office, In-su Park finds himself conducting his own inquiry into the goings-on deep in the heart of the western woods—spurred by the mysterious words he discovers on a piece of paper beneath his desk: “In the forest the owl cries.”

The Owl Cries is a treat for fans of Stephen King, David Lynch, and the nightmare dystopias of Franz Kafka.

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

My Review: You’ll all remember that I am a fan of Pyun’s earlier novels. Her fiction is, I think, perfectly described as “anxiety fiction.” Like the oft-cited comparison to Kafka, her characters don’t seem to know what the hell’s going on, much like the reader…for a while, anyway. We, of course, catch on before our main character Ranger Park does that there are wheels within wheels among the people of the village, in fact everywhere surrounding the strange world of the forest he's the ranger of.

What makes this read satisfying to me is the claustrophobic, contained world that Ranger Park thinks he's found refuge within turning into a stage for some of the most venal, terrible, conscienceless people to conduct the parts of their affairs that do not stand up to close scrutiny. Pyun's opinion of those we've ceded control of the world to matches mine: Poor.

I'm less inclined to forgive the book's, um, magisterial pace. If you're centering your story on the disappearance of a person, the previous Ranger to Park, and that person's relative comes to seek them and/or their fate out, pay attention to the means by which the people looking into it do this. That means, for me, allow me to be there for the asking and answering of relevant questions. What people say is one thing, what they do is often very different. Let me in on that journey or the book becomes, as this one does, an excercise in atmospherics.

It's a superior exercise therein...the forest is such a beautifully evoked entity, almost Kinglike in its mute menace...but again, nothing happens that makes it other than a lovely evocative setting. King would've had some dread spirit or creature do something. In this book, it's build-up without release. It becomes very easy to feel stalled in the read, as the investigation into the disappeared brother does nothing for long stretches of time.

What is often a beautiful read is not a satisfying story. The ending resolves enough fates and reveals enough "why"s to count as an actual ending. The main issue is the way it's done in presenting the conclusions. This makes the journey up to that time feel...hollow...because it's an unearned climax. I've read lovely image after lovely image upon interesting observation, yet there's nothing in all of it that contained the information I needed to get there with the author. This violates thriller ethics, and removes any hint of mystery novel from what is, in the end, a lovely literary exploration of surfaces not matching interiors, of how hard the terrible people in charge work to prevent us fro noticing how terrible they truly are.

That read appeals to me, so I liked the book fine. Your mileage may vary, of course.

>171 Familyhistorian: It would be indeed, Meg. That is outside my control because the facility hires the medical contractors. I'm gonna make sure I make myself as agreeable to him as I can!

>172 figsfromthistle: It's absolutely the case, Anita, so I'm praying he decides to stay.

>173 karenmarie: It's not common anywhere, here in assisted-living Medicaid facilities least of all.

Heavens. I never once considered there'd be SIX VOLUMES of the thing. Horrors! I'd maybe say stay away from any part of Hawaii that got burned...a 2014 guide's not gonna help much with that.

Yeah, it's not pleasant to acknowledge this is the case, but the preponderance of the evidence is clear. *smooch* for a day of denial!

>174 bell7: Hiya Mary! *smooch*

Coming in late for a quick good night, Richard. What a great thing to find a doctor who will spend enough time with you to listen and respond! I hope that the new regimen suits you well and that the doc is so pleased with his current practice that he stays for a long time!!!

*smooch*

Happy Thursday, Richard dear!

Yay for a doctor who listens, I hope he will stay.

>180 LizzieD: Thanks, Peggy! It's a dream, good people more often than not get tired of the extra challenges poor communication and unbelievably archaic information management cause. I hope he doesn't succumb.

Thursday *smooch*

>181 FAMeulstee: I hope so too, Anita! Thursday *smooch*

Sweet Thursday, Richard. It looks like I have a full Jackson Day ahead of me. It looks to be a beautiful day, so I plan on getting him outside a bit.

I don't think I will make it to the PO before we leave tomorrow, so if you don't mind waiting another week, I will get Black Butterflies out when I get back.

>184 msf59: Have a terrific Jackson day, and get on outside if it's pretty! I'm under grey skies and rain is on the cards for later.

Next week is perfectly fine, no rush at all. I've got a few* reads to finish before I totally run out of books.

*several thousand

'Morning, RDear. Happy Thursday to you.

>175 richardderus: Anxiety fiction. Hmmm. I will pass, although in easier times I would have probably bitten.

*smooch*

101 The Golden Yarn: A Mirrorworld Book

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Jacob Reckless continues to travel the portal in his father's abandoned study. His name has continued to be famous on the other side of the mirror, as a finder of enchanted items and buried secrets. His family and friends, from his brother, Will to the shape-shifting vixen, Fox, are on a collision course as the two worlds become connected. Who is driving these two worlds together and why is he always a step ahead?

This new force isn’t limiting its influence to just Jacob’s efforts – it has broadened the horizon within MirrorWorld. Jacob, Will and Fox travel east and into the Russian folklore, to the land of the Baba Yaga, pursued by a new type of being that knows our world all to well.

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

My Review: Jacob Reckless, our series protagonist, comes face-to-face with the hardest of adult problems in this entry into the ongoing series of fantasy Young Adult novels: "Why were love and death such close neighbours."

It's always bothered me that love poetry and love songs so frequently conflate love and death. This story, in which Jacob meets his vanished father after more than a decade of aging and growing and becoming his the man who can be a father as well as his brother Will's savior, very much focuses on this seeming dichotomy. Jacob must do what a lot of sonse must do: Come at last to understand the nature of love for a parent when the parent isn't who one wished them to be. Love and death...always sides of a coin, sometimes without much thickness between them so one side's pattern shows on the other side.

How much love costs is another thing Jacob must face in this book. He travels to a farther eastern part of Mirrorworld where we meet Slavic folklorians like rusalkas and, of course, Baba Yaga. Can not pass up a chance to call out the world-building that Funke treats us to in this series...we've had fae and (gar)goyls and sorcerous beings galore, now we get flying carpets and golems! There is so much lovely writing in the translation that evokes the differences in all the peoples of Mirrorworld that it's worth the price of admission just to be brought on Jacob's journey. Notably, as this is marketed as a young adult title, the publisher's treated us again to some lovely, evocative illustrations; again, worth the price of admission to get them before your admiring eyes.

More than all the fantasy novels aimed at adults that I've read, this series (to date) has done the most to convince me that there is a glorious amount of Story that's best told by means of fantasy tropes. There's nothing important that I don't care for in this German translation (misspellings à la anglais irk me, but not enough to knock points off for...especially from a British publishing house).

Why I'm only at four and a half stars not the full five is simply that the adversary in this tale pops up and has no reason to that I could follow. It's not awful; it's just that we've got such a fabulous set-up for this title in this quote: "The Golden Yarn...or the inseverable bond, as it is also called. As inseverable as the threads of fate," which gets vitiated by the up-popping adversary. "The threads of fate" are unquestionably the most relevant organizing pinciples here. Then, Author Funke, ensnare *everyone* in them from the get-go.

Really, there's nothing more to this than my nagging sense of "fair play" brought over from the series-mystery reading world. What works works so well that I want to be fair about your possible complaints. In dealing with Jacob's latest foray into Mirrorworld and confronting deeply ugly realities of his father, and brother, having flaws, Author Funke never once drops the thread that binds families of all sorts together.

Minor whinges be damned. The series works, and keeps working.

Fantastic review, Richard. I read the first book in the series many years ago when it first came out, and really should go back, reread, and catch up.

>175 richardderus: Passing on that one. One thing I do not need is "anxiety fiction."

>187 richardderus: Looks like a series that I need to check into. Thanks, RD!

((Hugs)) and **smooches**

>186 karenmarie: I dont think youd like these books much at any time, Horrible. They're not propelled by anything other than their own prose, and that kind of read has historically displeased you.

Have a lovely Thursday afternoon. *smooch*

>188 bell7: The series is very good indeed, Mary, and I'd think for a fantasy reader they'd be catnip. I am, as you know, a dilettante in this field. I never know if it's a good thing or a bad thing when I like a fantasy series...kiss of death, or proof of concept? Nobody knows the Secrets of the biblio-Ancients, do they?

>189 alcottacre: YAY for Funke-ing out, and good call on Pyun's work. *smooch* for a lovely rump of Thursday.

>192 richardderus: Thanks, Richard. I have the Funke series on order now :)

Hiya, RDear. Happy Friday to you.

>187 richardderus: Wow. 4.5 stars. You warned me on my thread that I’d pass, and you were right. However, I’m glad you have found an author/series you really like. I rarely read YA any more even though I have lots of children’s books on my shelves.

>190 richardderus: …that kind of read has historically displeased you. I bet you have a mental file cabinet (or, keeping up with technology, a mental folder on a device) of your nearest and dearests reading preferences, including mine. It’s surprisingly reassuring to know that I’m SEEN reading-wise. Yesterday afternoon was fun – reading, napping, dinner prep. Sometimes I ask Jenna to help me, but baked potatoes and air fryer chicken were within my energy range last night, so I was happy to call her down just a few minutes before it was ready.

*smooch*

Happy Friday, Richard. I enjoyed a long day with Jack yesterday. I did not read a lick but it was worth it. We leave for OR early afternoon. It is going to be an emotional, whirlwind weekend but also in the comfort of family, which will help. Have a good weekend.

102 Reckless IV: The Silver Tracks by Cornelia Funke (tr. Oliver Latsch

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: The fourth adventure through the Mirror leads to the Far East, where Jacob and Fox finally track down Will, who is travelling with rival hunter Nerron. In spite of his misgivings, Jacob agrees to go with them to the Island of the Foxes, in quest of another magical Mirror.

But their search quickly leads them into more peril, and as Jacob seeks security for himself and Fox, he is reminded of a disturbing promise he once made that now threatens everything.

Full of fairy tales and legends, old friends and new enemies, The Silver Tracks is the long-awaited fourth volume in the thrilling Reckless series.

The thrilling fourth instalment in Cornelia Funke's internationally bestselling Reckless series.

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

My Review: We've learned a lot about Mirrorworld's different parts, right? Wrong! We're still in the ongoing-discovery phase of the series here, in book four, where we're heading to Mirrorworld's version of Japan called (unsurprisingly) Nihon. Our book three antagonist is back with a vengeance, and Will...Jacob's brother (about whom there is quite a surprising hidden fact) and the object of many a quest on Jacob's part...now needs to find him in order to make the curse that's turning his belovèd into wood release its hold. Naturally the antagonist is the only one who can accomplish this as he's the one who created Will's beloved.

No matter how much of the plot I tell you, it won't make one bit of difference. You're reading this review, so are in the mood for fall fantasy reading, so you would do well to get this series (though start with #1 or be *terminally* confused!) of YA dark fantasy novels.

Now, the opinions part. This book's very, very complicated and made more than necessarily so by the technique of using multiple narrative PoVs for even the most minor of characters. This can work beautifully if the reader's in full binge mode; readers like me, who take months to read long, complicated fantasy books, really don't see the benefit of it. I'm reasonably sure that Jacob is the best dark-fantasy protagonist who grows into adulthood in any series I've read, bar none.

He and Fox are becoming parents and discovering the deep, dark secret of being a parent that no one ever tells young people (the child you make together is superglued to your souls, both of you, from the instant it is part of your lives and makes every decision you make more complicated) in the roughest possible way. The stakes in this series entry do not get higher. The number of characters we're following is sizable, deeply intertwined, and morally malleable. Everyone learns they can do things they never considered they would when motivated powerfully enough. The adversary in the story, Spieler, suddenly apeared in the last book and is front and center throughout the action in this book. He did not grow on me the more I saw of him. A horrible person indeed, responsible for Jacob's father's unforgivable behavior. Responsible for entrapping Jacob's brother, Will. Generally an all-arounder in the cruel, abusive, manipulative villain sweepstakes.

*happy sigh*

Perfect for dark fantasy series use. I confess, however, that I'd've liked to see how he got so enmeshed with the Reckless clan as a whole earlier in the series...unless I just passed right by the hints that were dropped about how Will and Jacob's mother lit this particular fuse. The ways in which John Reckless, father of this brotherly dyad, comes off in a different light as the past is slowly revealed, is especially well-done.

I was more put off by the welter of voices as the read progressed. I am not in any way trying to unsell you on the reads! You should know in advance what's coming your way...be prepared when this read comes up to the top of your TBR that concentration is needed to get the full gestalt of the story's locations and narratives. There are many interesting voices: samurai, a centaur, a nine-tailed fox (Japan being an island of fox spirits), some ghosts, a child-eating witch, shapeshifters and even some old friends from the earlier stories.

In addition to Japan and its folklorians, we have our first gay character in Hideo. Based on auguries I'd expect some more time will be spent with him in the future book five. Which isn't out yet. Nor is it even announced by Pushkin Press...this bodes ill for my sanity.

>193 alcottacre: More YAY! *smooch*

I really don't expect to hear that you dislike them. They hit so many of your readerly sweet spots: Genuine hero; very well-defined stakes; no OTT caricatures among the characters; involving, complex world-building. Now, if you respond to Latsch's translation skills....

>194 karenmarie: Friday orisons, Horrible. Of course I pay attention to y'all's tastes and triggers! I like being able to steet you clear of shoals I already know bother and offend you, and toward the happier shores of stories that will speak to you. Isn't that sort of the point of bookish social media?

Dinner sounds lovely indeed. Strange to say, that was my dinner last night as well, except the chicken was breaded before being baked. A solid, filling meal with healthy stuff that's pretty pleasant to eat. (We had green beans as well, so I was well-served throughout.)

*smooch*

>195 msf59: I hope the journey's healing will be the memory you take from it, Mark, so you can truly wish your sister a farewell. Jack helped a lot, of course. Get home safe.

GRUDGING, ABBREVIATED GBBO THOUGHTS
The only thing to add to my wail of misery in >170 richardderus: is: Dan failed up into star baker; his crème caramels had the best flavor profile and his showstopper didn't suck. Absolutely everyone failed horrifically at the steamed-pudding technical...and I mean everyone, there was not one apart from one or two of Tasha's that was even edible.This is down to the producers giving them 90 minutes to get them baked. The pouring syrups on most were solid, or burnt; the pouring custards were heinous; this was not the producers' doing, this was an abject failure from each baker (bar Josh, whose custard looked good enough).

Meringue bombes for showstopper. Let's see how many ways these six can screw up fiddly, overcomplicated, meringue-based desserts!

Carnage.

An awful show to watch as the bakers all thumped hard on each stair as they got dragged down the staircase by a cold fist graabing them by their pride.

>197 richardderus: I really don't expect to hear that you dislike them. That is good to know, especially since I ordered 4 of them in one fell swoop!

Have a fantastic Friday, RD! ((Hugs)) and **smooches**

>187 richardderus:
I see that Golden Yarn is a Cornelia Funke book. For that reason, it is no surprise to me that you like it. She does not baby YA's or sugar coat anything. Her first books were really well received, but librarians and schools have stayed away from the Mirrorworld books because parents tend to not like them. For most librarians in schools they would fall into that "might be controversial" category, so to avoid that problem, just don't purchase them.

The ALA really likes Funke's work and many of her books consistently are on ALA Best Books lists. I have read many of them and loved the Inkheart series, but I always had trouble getting school kids to read them. Funke writes mostly for Tweens (children 12 - 15) what I consider to be middle school age. Grades 5 - 8 or 9 and her books are demanding of kids that age. The themes are difficult, as you point out, and the grammar, vocabulary, theme resolution, are all outside of the norm founds in books for this age of kid. I am not saying that Tween readers won't get much out of these books, but I am saying the series demands a willingness to explore nontraditional fantasy and that is unfamiliar territory to most Middle Schoolers. They have to be willing to go with Funke on the journey of exploring stories into that ground. I guess that pacing of the story might be the problem, but the reward of being sucked into that world is great.

Middle Schoolers did read the books liked them. Thief Lord was one that went over well, but I had to keep pep talking the books to keep kids reading them. Those that did finish one of her books thought it was well worth the effort to keep reading.

P.S. I also had the same trouble with the Septimus Heap books.

>202 alcottacre: No sense going by halves on a series...the worst that happens, some Little Free Library user gets a lovely set of partly read books.

>203 benitastrnad: I suspect I failed to review the Inkheart book, then...I was taking the Steerforth publicist on trust that I *would* like these after the debacle of Inkheart. What finally got my stiff-arm unlocked was that these were translated by someone else. And, may I just warble a bit here, Oliver Latsch has made this reading experience so much more agreeable than the earlier one.

The ALA and I agree that these are very much superior to most other YA work because the stories are more shades-of-grey than most other stuff made for the US market, a thing I endorse in general and for teens with the greatest firmness. I will say that I'd want a 14-year-old's parents to say okay to MirrorWorld in general; a 15- or 16-year-old would get the book in this series without hesitation. Definitely high-school books not middle school as library purchases IMO. Inkworld, and Thief Lord, are more what I'd put in middle school without hesitation.

Skipped through pretty fast to make sure all was well. Some good books for you and an MD who "listens" to the patient. Invaluable.

In skimming your bookish chatter, Thief Lord seems like a YA read I'd like to check out.

Thanks for comments on my thread, too. Prompted me to get out of the house for awhile and enjoy some autumn colours while the weather was fairly mild. I needed to clear my mind for choosing some good reading, probs off the TBR pile, this weekend.

>204 richardderus: I think my daughter Beth would like them, even if I do not, so there is always that :)

>206 SandyAMcPherson: Hiya Sandy! Im grateful for Dr. W, the listener, and I hope you like Thief Lord if it reaches the top of your list any time soon. Benita is a knowledgable guide with top-drawer taste...you won't go wrong.

>207 alcottacre: Oh my heck, yes! Yuletide giving sorted...oh, and I have visited as discussed. *smooch*

'Morning, RDear, happy Saturday to you.

*smooch* from your own Horrible

>210 karenmarie: Horrible! *smooch* for a pleasant Saturday's ramblings (after the sad duty of the funeral).

Happy Saturday from me too, Richard! Ours is starting chilly, damp, and gray. We could use chilly, rainy, and gray. Hope your staying in if you must or your going out if you can makes a pleasant day. *smooch*

>212 LizzieD: Hey there Peggy! It's positively dazzling outside, bright and breezy and in the 50s. I'm not going out in it because my dratted foot decided to be all bloody today and that's not made better by long walks; this is the *perfect* day for a long walk. Well, it's still gorgeous. Hoping you'll get your much-needed rain for the spring's burst of bloom. *smooch*

Happy Sunday, Richard. How lovely, dazzling and bright outside in your area. We've a had a number of grey , rainy days, but I've been lucky, having either light rain or drizzle and today , it stopped raining for my walk! I'm glad you have an MD that actually listens. I used to have a great MD, but he retired about 5 years ago. The fellow that replaced him is okay, but I think you best know your own diagnosis with this new fellow. Not so bright, in my estimation. But as long as you the patient know what you want/need, he's okay.

Bright and breezy sounds fine, Richard. Too bad you weren't able to get out and about. Our weather frequently baffles the weather apps so at any sign of sun it's best to make our way outdoors and take advantage.

>1 richardderus: >42 richardderus: Great photos RD. Glad you had a good time.

>46 richardderus: Really, haven't these people got more important things to do than have an 'opinion' about folks private, consenting, lives?

My favourite Strictly dance this week: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5Iadzi4Y5Q

>146 richardderus: Yes. And >165 richardderus: Yes.

>214 vancouverdeb: Hi Deb! Thanks re: the Listener...the one before him was an ambulatory prescription pad. Never a calming experience, is it. I'm going to enjoy another sparkling early-winter day! *smooch*

>215 Familyhistorian: The grimness of taking blood thinners is that even little tiny nicks can go mad, gush blood, and scare everyone (except me, I know what's happening). Better this than a greatly increased risk of another stroke. Inconvenient and unpleasant vs potentially crippling or fatal...hmm...I think that math does itself.

Being near the ocean is always good for a surprise or two where weather is concerned. Part of my pleasure in living here, TBH.

*smooch*

>217 richardderus: "...an ambulatory prescription pad", good grief!!

>216 Caroline_McElwee: They danced so beautifully! Thanks for sharing that.

The world is AMAZING, Caro. I, like so many, forget how much better things are by getting lost in the real problems we seem not to want to solve. Imagine a same-sex couple dancing on Strictly in 2013...NO! Imagine knowing, in 1943, that MILLIONS of people were being murdered for their religion...and sitting on that knowledge for potential future advantage. That simply couldn't happen today. The knowledge is out there in real time, like Bosnia and Rwanda...didn't stop the bastards but it sure slowed 'em down. If I'd had this stroke in 2003, I'd be a LOT worse off than I am.

So much is going right. So much is better than ever. I want not to forget that for long.

*smooch*

>219 SandyAMcPherson: ...well, can you think of something better? ;-P

My favorite season cometh in.

Hiya, RD! Happy Sunday to you.

Back safe and sound late yesterday afternoon, still drinking coffee and puttering around here on LT.

>213 richardderus: and >218 richardderus: Blood thinners aren’t much fun. Sorry your foot sabotaged a fine day’s walk. I hope it’s under control today.

*smooch*

>223 karenmarie: Happy-Sunday *smooch*

Foot's the same, annoyingly. I shall survive my adversity, however.
***
Having a hard time writing my review of Chain-Gang All-Stars, which is up for a National Book Award on Thursday. I can't quite find a way to convey my deeply conflicted response to it...ah well, I shall cogitate more.

Ricardo!! Hello there and many smoothie smooches! Yes, I am actually here -- don't have a heart attack!! Well, you should be relatively safe since you are on blood thinners. LOL. But seriously, I am sorry about the side effects. After 3 DVTs I have been on it for years. Pain in the #@*, but better than going without. Sending healing thoughts to your foot!

>225 Berly: Berly-boo! How fares the war on the Western Front? The blood thinner's side effects are mildly annoying and inconvenient, at worst, I'll take a bloody sandal over a stroke any time. Luckily I haven't had a blow, or other trauma, to set off worse problems. Thank GOODNESS. My foot's just got to get over it. *sigh* Takes a while.

Glad to see you around and about, sweetiedarling.

Hi RDear. Happy Monday.

Hang in there re your foot AND the review that's hard to wrangle.

I've got a busy day scheduled, alas, but once I get home at the end of it I'll be more than pleased.

*smooch*

103 Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana-Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Rating: 4.95* of five

FINALIST FOR THE 2023 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD IN FICTION!

The Publisher Says: Two top women gladiators fight for their freedom within a depraved private prison system not so far-removed from America's own.

Loretta Thurwar and Hamara "Hurricane Staxxx" Stacker are the stars of Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly-popular, highly-controversial, profit-raising program in America's increasingly dominant private prison industry. It's the return of the gladiators and prisoners are competing for the ultimate prize: their freedom.

In CAPE, prisoners travel as Links in Chain-Gangs, competing in death-matches for packed arenas with righteous protestors at the gates. Thurwar and Staxxx, both teammates and lovers, are the fan favorites. And if all goes well, Thurwar will be free in just a few matches, a fact she carries as heavily as her lethal hammer. As she prepares to leave her fellow Links, she considers how she might help preserve their humanity, in defiance of these so-called games, but CAPE's corporate owners will stop at nothing to protect their status quo and the obstacles they lay in Thurwar's path have devastating consequences.

Moving from the Links in the field to the protestors to the CAPE employees and beyond, Chain-Gang All-Stars is a kaleidoscopic, excoriating look at the American prison system's unholy alliance of systemic racism, unchecked capitalism, and mass incarceration, and a clear-eyed reckoning with what freedom in this country really means.

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

My Review: Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, or C.A.P.E., doesn't feel satirical. It feels nauseatingly predictive. This first novel, by the author of the excellent story collection Black Friday (my all-but five star review at the link), is a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction in presented in less than a week's time.

The horrors of imprisonment aren't new. Neither is it news that African-Americans are disproportionately affected by those horrors. The horrible prevalence of carceral solutions to minor infractions started their rise with the ludicrous "War on Drugs" that was utterly ineffective at its stated goal, but gigantically successful at creating inmates for an increasingly corporatized and profit-driven prison system.

This novel's a shout of outrage, a howl of fury and grief, a klaxon of warning about this facet of the dehumanizing and victimizing of people of color by the racist system of "justice" in place in the US. It's equally effective as an anti-capitalist bellow of rage at the unchecked quest for profit above all other goals that is doing so much to actively destroy the planet's biosphere...that we all live in...with its greed.

We start our visit to a barely-fictionalized present-day US with a violent scene of battle brought to us by the CAPE (Criminal Action Penal Entertainment) program. Take a moment, please, to view this acronym. Look at the cultural tie-backs; the superhero comic-book culture polluting my screens for a decade now gets a brickbat right away, as does the Orwellian alphabet soup so prevalent in modern governmental bowls of gruel served to the needy (SNAP, WIC, AFDC and the like). This is Author Adjei-Brenyah's most well-honed talent: In Friday Black, he invented the slang term "shoelookers" for socially awkward teens unable or unwilling to meet their peers' or anyone else's gaze. This is a writer with an excellent ear serving a flensing-knife of an eye. Nothing in this read has any less sharp a perception or a usage case behind it. That is probably the most discomfiting thing about the novel: As I admired his wordsmithery, I realize the point of the red-hot blade he was forging was aimed squarely at me. Old white man, privileged and pampered by a system designed to coddle and comfort me. Well. That's me told.

So it is...and most of y'all, too. You won't necessarily like this part of your reading experience, if my own is any guide; I don't think it should, in your minds, present an excuse for you not to make the effort to read it. If the world has justice in its sharing-out of cultural kudos, this novel will win the National Book Award for Fiction in a few days' time. The reason I want it to is that it shouts the quiet part out loud in a cultural landscape of politely, passively sleepwalking into a new authoritarian era of unspeakable, horrifying intentions. The people trying to gain control of the world aren't troubling to hide their intentions, either, except to say blandly homogenized inoffensive acronymic things...or exactly what Author Adjei-Brenyah is warning us about so very effectively in Chain-Gang All-Stars.

If I'm honest, that is also a problem with the read. It is a warning. A story that, while I believe in its worldbuilding, is still meant to tell me something uncomfortable about my world. Historically, awards aren't always willing to put their celebratory wreaths on creative projects that poke people hard in their painful spots. I very much don't want that to be the case for Chain-Gang All-Stars, but it could easily lose the public lauding that the National Book Award for Fiction represents just based on what juries often refer to as "controversial ideas." I want all y'all to go get the book and engage with it on the intellectual level; the carrot to that perceived stick is a story that could easily be a superb action flick, unremittingly violent and all with genuinely elevated stakes...no one could ever fight for their literal life and have it be mellow. Reading the story on that level is exciting, as it is when you read the Reacher books that fly off the shelves. That's not my reading sweet spot. I look at it, frankly, as the cheese wrapped around the pill that you need to get down the dog's throat.

If I'm committed to that metaphor, I will say it's a bit like using Roquefort for the purpose. Rich, creamy, power-packed flavorsome stuff. Rare and expensive (in lost illusions). Hard to find the real, genuinely, ethically sourced stuff.

Here it is.

>227 karenmarie: Monday, Monday...hoping your busyness isn't the wear-me-down kind, just this once. I'd rather be worn out than down!

Foot is still bleeding. Still keeping it elevated to prevent too much surface-staining blood loss. *sigh* I finally wrangled my review, above, but am less than thrilled with the results. Hard to say what would've made it more impactful without being hateful. *another sigh*

Enjoy the day, Horrible! *smooch*

>228 richardderus: Done and well-done, I'd say. Good for you, Richard. Now you can move on even if what you've appropriated from the book won't. I can't read it now. I have Deacon King Kong waiting for me, and I can't read that now either even though I know I enjoy McBride.

>216 Caroline_McElwee: Caroline, that is gorgeous! The Argentine Tango is my very favorite, and I've seldom seen it done so masterfully.

Oh, Richard, I'm sorry about the foot. My DH has been on coumadin forever. Hooray for broccoli!

*smooch* for the day and the week!

>230 LizzieD: Thanks, Peggy...both foot and review. I'm pretty sure there's nothing more I could've done about the review. It is what it is. The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store was a good read, too, but I'd say don't do the read right now, anyway.

Spend a good week ahead, smoochling.

I've had Chain-Gang All-Stars for several months now and just couldn't get myself excited about reading it (it came from a "first editions club" I was subscribing to from a book store in Marin County) but your 4.95 and fine review have made me determined to give it a higher place in the stack.

>232 RebaRelishesReading: Thank you, Reba, that's a lovely compliment. I think thid review gave me more angst than it needed to...it still feels clumsy to me, but it's nor for lack of pondering how not to make it so. As long as it's getting others to think more about the book....

>228 richardderus: This definitely on the want list. I read Friday Black back when it came out, enjoyed his writing quite a bit.

Like you said, I'm sure this won't be an enjoyable read, but definitely an important one. Thanks for your thoughts on it.

>234 mahsdad: I hope you enjoy the read when its turn comes, Jeff...it's a well-written story. Just...tendentious.

>228 richardderus:
I think it is a good review. I have known about this book and have it in the gargantuan TBR list, but I have been putting off reading it. Probably because I know what my reaction to it will be.

I had many of the same things to say about Hunger Games when it came out. I read it and was horrified. I read dystopian novels but that one, and Handmaids Tale, along with a few others (like Fahrenheit 451), hit too close to home. The possibilities of it, or a version like it, is just to real.

That said - thanks for the review. It is a good review.

At one of my real life Book Discussion group meetings yesterday we had a sidebar discussion about how books effect our emotional lives. We read In the Garden of Beasts and one person said that they quit about 1/2 way through the book because the content was getting so dark that it was effecting them in real life. I noted that even the author of that book said that the research he did for the book effected him.

I often have that happen to me as I read books. I become emotionally involved. Books move me to think, say, and do things outside a nice comfortable zone of living. That is the importance of books and of authors writing those books that make us feel uncomfortable. I am glad that some of these authors continue with their research and writing, and that some of these books get published. Without them, humanity might loose more of their decency and consciousness.

>228 richardderus: Glad to hear that's such a good one. I probably won't get to it soon, but when I'm in the mood for a challenging story, I will keep it in mind.

Happy New Sunday *smooch*

>209 richardderus: Thank you so much, RD. Your thoughts are always welcome. *smooch*

>228 richardderus: I looked for that one at BAM when I was there yesterday and they did not have a copy. I will have to look further afield. Thanks for the review, Richard.

((Hugs)) and **smooches**

>236 benitastrnad: Thank you most kindly, Benita. The problem with dystopias is that some people seem to take the message the wrong way!

>237 benitastrnad: The way each of us uses reading is always going to be different. There is value in knowing what turns someone off, since it's going to be the very thing that turns someone else on. That's the reason I wrire negative reviews...if you don't have a bead on what doesn't work for me, how can you know what to think about my opinions?

Some people do act as though any opinon with which they don't agree is Heresy, but they too should know that this won't fly chez moi so I am to be avoided.

>238 bell7: It's very good indeed, Mary, and will...when you get to it...likely impress as well as discomfit you.

New-Sunday *smooch* back!

>239 alcottacre: I'd guess it'll be there if Chain-Gang All-Stars wins the National Book Award! Until then, not (at least where you are).

*smooch*

>243 richardderus: Yeah, I went to BAM thinking that they would have all of the books on the National Book Awards lists, both fiction and nonfiction. I was lucky to have found 2.

>217 richardderus: "an ambulatory prescription pad" ....I enjoy how you describe your truths. It made me chuckle.

>222 richardderus: Absolutely beautiful photo. I did not know that winter is your favourite season. I would have thought that you wouldn't get along with the cold.

Hope your foot is on the mend.

HAppy Tuesday

‘Morning, RDear!

>228 richardderus: Excellent review of a book I don’t think I can read any time soon, if ever… nauseatingly predictive and It is a warning. A story that, while I believe in its worldbuilding, is still meant to tell me something uncomfortable about my world.

Separate but related, 45 is edging closer and closer to outright fascism. I posted on my page, from the NYT of 11-11-23.

*smooch*

>244 alcottacre: Hey, they had two! That's three more than I'd've predicted.

>245 figsfromthistle: It's honest, if not kindhearted. Much like me.

The photo's gorgeous! Winter's the best because it's, on the whole, calmer and it's change of weather that's hardest on me.

Foot's made it past the gushing stage with a tight bandage and gauze. Thank goodness...no more sudden squelching of the sandal, which is disconcerting and scares others witless. *smooch*

>246 karenmarie: Closer to being open about his fascism, ceratinly...the rats comment is appalling as are most of the things he says.

Don't read Chain-Gang All-Stars. It won't do you a lick of good and will cause deep unhappiness.

Morning, Richard. I am back home. Off to Kids Kab shortly. Not much planned for the rest of the day- mostly book & Juno time. Hope you are doing well.

>250 msf59: Welcome home, Birddude. The trip was, I hope, healing for all y'all.

Enjoy the lovely, planless plans for the day. I'm back on my foot without being tentative about it, so all's well there.

>247 richardderus: LOL, RD. Yeah, I snagged those two and they were both nonfiction, King: A Life by Jonathan Eig and When Crack Was King by Donovan X. Ramsey. I also picked up a book by Kurt Vonnegut for my sci fi reading. Kerry is giving me the books for Christmas :)

((Hugs)) and **smooches**

>252 alcottacre: Kerry clearly wants to live to enjoy retirement, I see.

Vonnegut! That should be entertaining. *smooch*

>253 richardderus: Yes, he is looking forward to his retirement :) The Vonnegut that I picked up is The Sirens of Titan. Have you read that one? My experience with Vonnegut is limited - I think I have only read 2 of his titles at this point.

>254 alcottacre: Yep...it's just not the same reading experience as it was in the 1970s. I dunno if I'd like it if I read it for the first time in the 21st century.

Happy Tuesday, RD. Sorry to read about your foot. I hope it heals soon.

>228 richardderus: Well, you got me with this one (great review!), but I think it will take me awhile to get to it, and not only because there’s a wait to get it from the library. It’s hard to focus on difficult subjects when you’re in physical pain, as I’m sure you are all too well aware.

*smooches*

>256 Storeetllr: Thanks, Mary! You're very kind to say so.

Pain's a bastard to deal with for sure. I'm always very sympathetic when someone's pain levels are spiking. *smooch* for a quick restoration of better days.

I've been awol. Hope your foot is on the mend and its troubles go awol asap.

>258 jessibud2: Hi Shelley, I'm glad to see you here. The foot won't heal. The problem is permanent and the meds make it worse, but can't be done without. So it's all about management... I've gotten good at that. Just some days are worse than others.

Hi RichardDear, and happy Wednesday to you.

>259 richardderus: I'm sorry your foot won't heal and that it's all about pain management. Like you need to manage that pain on top of the gout pain.

*smooch* from your own Horrible

104 Day: A Novel by Michael Cunningham

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: As the world changes around them, a family weathers the storms of growing up, growing older, falling in and out of love, losing the things that are most precious—and learning to go on—from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Hours

April 5, 2019 : In a cozy brownstone in Brooklyn, the veneer of domestic bliss is beginning to crack. Dan and Isabel, troubled husband and wife, are both a little bit in love with Isabel’s younger brother, Robbie. Robbie, wayward soul of the family, who still lives in the attic loft; Robbie, who, trying to get over his most recent boyfriend, has created a glamorous avatar online; Robbie, who now has to move out of the house—and whose departure threatens to break the family apart. Meanwhile Nathan, age ten, is taking his first uncertain steps toward independence, while Violet, five, does her best not to notice the growing rift between her parents.

April 5, 2020: As the world goes into lockdown, the brownstone is feeling more like a prison. Violet is terrified of leaving the windows open, obsessed with keeping her family safe, while Nathan attempts to skirt her rules. Isabel and Dan communicate mostly in veiled jabs and frustrated sighs. And beloved Robbie is stranded in Iceland, alone in a mountain cabin with nothing but his thoughts—and his secret Instagram life—for company.

April 5, 2021: Emerging from the worst of the crisis, the family reckons with a new, very different reality—with what they’ve learned, what they’ve lost, and how they might go on.

From the brilliant mind of Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Cunningham, Day is a searing, exquisitely crafted meditation on love and loss and the struggles and limitations of family life—how to live together and apart.

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

My Review: A novel about liminal spaces, a story about transitions, endings, startings-out, and ultimately survival. So, status quo ante for Author Cunningham. As one expects from him, the prose is just beautiful, the characters appealing, the story, while slow paced, one that compels the reader's attention.

The fact of the matter is that novels about the COVID pandemic...a distinct class from pandemic novels, which can be set at any time...are going to need a certain timelessness to be anything other than nonce books. Cunningham's track record suggests that he's well-aware of his task (The Hours was an epidemic novel on several levels and has survived the epidemics it was set during). How better to address this than to focus on the family?

The great, consuming monster that is family, made or found, genetic or simply relational.

The Big Lie of postwar culture was that falling in love with someone meant that one should feel fulfilled, completed, and Happy with them as a partner. The divorce rates of the 1960s and 1970s gave that a thorough debunking. What happens in the made family that, in US culture, goes by the apt name "Nuclear" is often, inevitably more akin to fission than fusion. Dan, the husband, is an almost-was musician turned househusband. Isabel, the mother, is frustrated that she never got the life she expected with the husband she wanted. Robbie, the gay uncle, is their relief valve. They rely on him way too much to jell their emotional experiences of life together. He's living in their attic...which metaphor I'll leave unexplored... while he sorts out his own tangled love-life and career. There's also Dan's brother, his brother's platonic babymama, and their child. Dan and Isabel have two kids, and the kids are unaware of how much this life they've all lived together can change.

For a novel that takes place on three days albeit ones separated by one year from each other, this felt from the get-go to me like an overabundance of points of view. Nothing that happened changed my mind. The brother/babymama drama left me wondering how the lummox didn't see this coming, nor were his family members innocent in not discouraging him from being a sperm donor. He wasn't emotionally prepared for fatherhood so shouldn't have consented. There lies my first bleat of irritation. Isabel, during the pandemic, decides to write Violet, her traumatized daughter, a letter detailing her emotional unraveling and the end of her marriage to Dan to the fifteen-years-older Violet. Since Robbie is at that point in Iceland living his online masquerade life as Wolfe (it actually makes sense in the book) she had to express her disillusionment with her life choices to someone. May I just say that, as someone who was waaay overshared with by his parents (to put it mildly), I say without hesitation that this is a truly terrible idea. There is no point at which a child needs to know what led Mom to not wanting to be mom anymore. If they ask, parents are well advised to deflect.

Robbie, the fulcrum of the levers shoving these people ever-farther apart, is a case-study all by himself in how not to be in relationships. He's crafted...with Isabel, his sister...an Instagram persona that is an extrapolation of himself into omnicompetence, an unattainable goal for flesh-and-blood people, and is seducing others into accepting it as real not just the extra-curated version of himself. There's an element of catfishing in this; it's dishonest at the minimum. The fact that Isabel is both a co-conspirator in and, bizarrely, a victim of, this weird catfishing says a lot about the fundamental performative nature of family life. Aren't we all constructing and curating personas within a family, in fact a relationship of any sort? There's an entire sociological concept devoted to this idea.

If this is to be a lasting artwork explaining the COVID pandemic to us and our heirs, it has to get something otherwise unavailable from the pandemic setting. Here's where I falter in my appreciation for Author Cunningham's dramaturgical eye. I got my expected frisson of lovely-language-gasm. I got my soap-opera needs met with the dynamics of the family decohering and then showing signs of coalescing into other forms. But did any of this illuminate the pandemic's unique social upheaval?

On balance, yes but in a curious way no. This family was always going to undergo fission...people who can't, or don't, or won't communicate clearly and honestly with each other will always fail as a system...and that is just accelerated by the pandemic. That the family is made up of generationally appropriately queer-friendly people is just recognizing realities that are the source of the screeching angst of the change-intolerant religious nuts. The parts of the story that I felt illuminated the pandemic were the grace notes of style, using the forms and format of social media, to make the point that life moved on even while reality stopped. I think some people saw this as a bug, but I believe it's a feature. Insta will, goddesses willing, be long dead by the time pandemic babies are old enough to read this novel, but they'll see how deep and unquenchable life's demand for love and conncection really was back in the quaint pre-wearable-quantum devices days of Mom and Dad's youth. They'll see that the familys they live in were new, slightly scary, ideas yet to develop into what they accept as normal. They can get from this read a sense of the liminality of forced change and its many many echoes.

I think this novel will, like The Hours, stand up to the passage of time. Of course, I'll be dead by the time the verdict is rendered. But I feel good about my chances of being right.

>261 richardderus: - Excellent review.

>262 katiekrug: Thank you, Katie! Quite a compliment!

>260 karenmarie: Good Wednesday to you, Goody Horrible. The foot's not changed much. The gout crystals I was trying to dissolve aren't really budging and the bleeding from the thinners is just the complication I didn't want. Still, it's manageable, with lots of hydrogen peroxide baths at least it's not likely to get infected again.

Pain management is a larger issue, more diffuse. *sigh*

Well, I can still read, and write, and talk, and move. That was not a given in January. All good!

Nice review as always. At the beginning I thought "ack, another one I need to add to Mt. TBR", then I though "nope, I don't think so", now I'm just not sure...will think about it more.

>255 richardderus: I am reading it now because it is on the Esquire best 50 sci fi books list - a list which I do not believe is the "best of" or maybe I just am expecting too much from my sci fi?

>259 richardderus: Just some days are worse than others. I hope today is a good one!

>261 richardderus: Adding that one to the BlackHole. Thanks for the review and recommendation!

>265 RebaRelishesReading: On balance, Reba, I think I'd steer you towards the read. Its family dynamics are very much of the modern moment and are quite well-presented in their simple acceptance of complexity. It won't all be comfy. It will keep you reading, I'm confident.

*smooch* and thank you

>266 alcottacre: "Best Sci-Fi" lists always have elderly biases. It's IMPORTANT, and if one likes to *study* scifi it's a must-read, but if what you want is to see what the fuss is about, go to the Year's Best lists that abound on Locus, Tor.com, etc not the Greatest Hoariest Most Lauded Old Books list.

Okay so far.

I hope the read will please and delight! *smooch*

I hope this is a good day for you, Richard, and you are able to get out and about. Chain Gang All Stars sounds like an interesting one.

>267 richardderus: OK I'm sold :) I've put it on my wish - will wait for the soft-cover to be available though

Hope your Wednesday is delightful :)

>269 Familyhistorian: Hi there, Meg! Thanks for the good wishes, my dear lady.

>270 RebaRelishesReading: Oh good! I'll just notch up another book-bulleting in my gallery. Enjoy it next year!

Good review of Day: A Novel! I will add it to my ridiculously bloated TBR. BTW- the book is in the mail.

Happy Wednesday, Richard!

>261 richardderus:
Another good review. and another BB.

Sorry about the gout problem. I know that doesn't help, but courage, my friend. Perseverance (an maybe grandchildren) is what it is all about.

>273 msf59: Thanks, Birddude! I'm pleased my aim was true.

The book is eagerly awaited. Did you see that The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store was named Best Book of the Year by Buns and Nubile?

>274 benitastrnad: Sympathy is always welcome, Benita. No one alive can fix it, so no one gets that extra burden.

I persevere...the grands are all thriving...life's overall Good!

>261 richardderus: Excellent review of Day: A Novel by Michael Cunningham. Thumbed and BB too. On my wishlist. My husband Dave is retiring in March 2024 and I'm quite looking forward to it. I'm far from the neatest person and I hope to put him to work!:-)

>277 vancouverdeb: Yippee! My Debdar worked. Enjoy it when you get to read it.

That is a very ambitious plan you got there for the retirement days. Here's hoping you will be able to get that new pair of hands.

Happy Thursday, Richard dear.

Sorry about the need to manage your foot, I hope it behaves today.

>279 FAMeulstee: I'll be at the doctor's office this morning, so it had darn well better behave!

Thursday orisons, Anita. *smooch*

Sadly, to my mind at least, >228 richardderus: did not win the National Book Award for Fiction. Justin Torres, whose book I have not read, took home the honor. My consolation is that the entire class of 2023 nominees stood up together and supported the following statement being read:

On behalf of the finalists, we oppose the ongoing bombardment of Gaza and call for a humanitarian cease-fire to address the urgent humanitarian needs of Palestinian civilians, particularly children. We oppose antisemitism and anti-Palestinian sentiment and Islamophobia equally, accepting the human dignity of all parties, knowing that further bloodshed does nothing to secure lasting peace in the region.

For this, Author Torres cut his chance-of-a-lifetime shot at having the spotlight to himself very short. Even if you don't ever want to read it, I think y'all should join me in buying Blackouts as a way to support him and his message of humanitarian action.

The other one I cared about DID win, say hallelujah and bring the jubilee! National Book Award winner for Translated Literature came from little-guy indy New Vessel Press: THE WORDS THAT REMAIN by STÊNIO GARDEL & translated by Bruna Dantas Lobato. My 5* review's on the book page.

‘Morning, RD. Happy Thursday to you.

>261 richardderus: I’ve only read one series that I can think of offhand, that included Covid as part of the story arc, and that was the Ruth Galloway series. I appreciated it, and remembering the early times of panic and not knowing what it was or how it spread were brilliantly portrayed. As always, your review knocked it out of the park.

>264 richardderus: Yes, compared with January you’re in really good shape. You were diligent in doing everything they told you to and how they told you to do it, when they told you to do it, and you gave your recovery more than 100% effort.

>281 richardderus: I’m glad the finalists all stood behind that statement. Thanks for posting.

*smooch*

>282 karenmarie: Hiya Horrible! I was very pleased that all the nominees supported the messages for the politicians. The Galloway novels didn't thrill me but the dealing with the plague makes me smile...a great touch.

Doing the work is the key, as you know so well. Just do it! Then it's done.

Sitting in the doctor's office after a pointless visit that resulted in making a later appointment for the actual removal of the problematic cysts. Why twice?

Well, two weeks from now I'll be back here. Later in the day, which I prefer on this occasion.

>281 richardderus: Amen to that, Richard! I will order Blackouts before I log out this morning.

>283 richardderus: Sorry about the pointless visit today, Richard, but hope the visit in 2 weeks to remove the cysts goes well.

((Hugs)) and **smooches**

>284 RebaRelishesReading: Excellent, Reba! Thank you for that.

*smooch*

>285 alcottacre: Pointless visit or no, I've got the appointment I need all confirmed and transportation arranged. I'm callin' it good enough.

Plus it was gorgeous today! About sixty, sunny, breezy...and the doc is on Beach Channel Road, which as the name implies is right there by the water. Her office has a lovely view of the bay. I'd hate to clean up after a hurricane but it looked great today.

*smooch*

>261 richardderus: I'm not quite convinced that Michael Cunningham would be up my alley (I know The Hours was based on Mrs. Dalloway and the latter is definitely not my thing), but an excellent review all the same.

Thursday *smooch*

>288 bell7: Thanks re: review...and you're probably right sbout Cunningham not appealing to you much. I think you'd find his writing more ornamental than is your taste, at the expense of momentum.

Happy Friday *smooch*

Happy Friday, Richard. I did not hear that news about The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store. It is terrific read, so I have no problem with it. I am adding Blackouts & The Words That Remain to the TBR. I really liked Torres short novel We the Animals.

Lots of Jackson time the next few days...Just sayin'.

>290 msf59: I hope your Jackson time's a big mood lifter, as usual...I thought it was good news about McBride's book, plus it's on the TIME Magazine 100 must-reads of 2023, so it's getting good attention.

Enjoy!

Good morning, Richard, and that's a real wish and not a politeness. I hope that the foot is beginning to heal and that soon you can read something less weighty, difficult, and important than your last two! (I hope eventually to get back to a time when I can read something weighty, difficult, and important.)
*smooch*

Hiya, RDear, and happy Friday to you.

>283 richardderus: I’m so sorry that you have to go back for the actual removal of the cysts. Grrrr on your behalf.

I liked how Griffiths dealt with Covid across several novels. I’m trying to think of any of the romances I’ve read recently that have dealt with it … nope, not that I recall. *shrug* Hardly anybody’s been dealing with it in lit-ra-chur, or am I mistaken?

>292 LizzieD: Weighty, difficult, and important. Not in my current wheelhouse, Peggy, except for me still working on The Federalist, still not going to finish it even THIS year.

*smooch* RD!

>292 LizzieD: Thanks, Peggy! It worked...I got two very welcome and unexpected compliments today: The cleaning staff said I'm not a complainer, which coming from any staff member is a huge compliment indeed; my review of The Words That Remain got praised by a Brazilian reviewer very kindly, which was quite welcome. You clearly jumpstarted a Good for this perfectly ordinary-seeming Friday! *smooch*

>261 richardderus: Hmm, don't have this RD. Adding to the list. The Hours is a favourite.

>295 Caroline_McElwee: Is it out in the UK yet? Looks like Fourth Estate will bring it out in early 2024. It'll be worth the wait, Caro.

>296 richardderus: Aaah, patience required... thanks RD. I'm sure I have one of his as yet unread. At the moment though, I'm in the zone for non-fiction.

>297 Caroline_McElwee: I'll come look to see what you've chosen.

Skimming through. I hope your foot's better by now.

>138 benitastrnad: Sounds like my mum. And, gosh, my parents are due next week for a month's stay. The house is a mess as things trickle back from storage ... it's going to be fun.

>146 richardderus: ♥️ (though I don't think I actually know any Israelis or Palestinians TBH)

>151 benitastrnad: I am in awe of your dictionary and dictionary stand.