Mary's (bell7's) Reading Log in 2024 - Thread #6

Hello all, and welcome to my sixth thread of 2024.

Should you have missed any of my previous intros, my name is Mary and I'm a librarian in western Massachusetts. I'm part of a large family (oldest of five), single, and live in my own home.

I like to read fantasy and science fiction, historical fiction, contemporary fiction, a smattering of mystery and romance, nonfiction about books and history and... basically, pretty widely and eclectically. I usually have some form of reading goals for the year, and I've decided that this year I want to intentionally read more globally. I'm going to focus on France and aim to read 12 books by authors from that country, plus 12 more books from other countries that are not the US, UK, or Canada. I'm currently on pace for that, and in the second half of the year, I'd like to focus more intentionally on finding books in translation.

Outside of reading, I enjoy watching sports (football, hockey and tennis in particular), I dogsit as a side hustle, I knit for fun (usually gifts for friends and family), and research genealogy (as very much an amateur, but I'm learning).

Hope you'll make yourself comfortable and chat with me about books and life.

2024 Book Club Reads

One of my work responsibilities is facilitating one of our book discussions. Here's what we're reading in 2024 (we take a break for the summer):

JANUARY - Women Rowing North by Mary Pipher - COMPLETED
FEBRUARY - The Lioness of Boston by Emily Franklin - COMPLETED
MARCH - Brave the Wild River by Melissa L. Sevigny - COMPLETED
APRIL - The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende - COMPLETED
MAY - Rough Sleepers by Tracy Kidder - COMPLETED
SEPTEMBER - The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
OCTOBER - The Paris Daughter by Kristin Harmel
NOVEMBER - The Soloist by Steve Lopez
DECEMBER - The First Ladies by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

Top Reads of 2024 (in order read)

5 stars
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard (reread)
Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie

4.5 stars
The Tower at the Edge of the World by Victoria Goddard
The Anomaly by Herve Le Tellier
The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng
The Postcard by Anne Berest
To Shape a Dragon's Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose
Derring-Do For Beginners by Victoria Goddard
Making It So by Patrick Stewart
Foster by Claire Keegan
Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher
At the Feet of the Sun by Victoria Goddard
How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair
Above Ground by Clint Smith
The Return of Fitzroy Angursell by Victoria Goddard (reread)
Rough Sleepers by Tracy Kidder
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna
Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary (reread)
The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon
The Witch's Heart by Genevieve Gornichec
Red Paint by Sasha LaPointe
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
The Game of Courts by Victoria Goddard
Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
Inciting Joy by Ross Gay

Random things I'm tracking

Bookish articles:
1. Oulipo: Freeing Literature by Tightening Its Rules
2. Great Big List of Beautiful and Useless Words
3. 2024 Pacific Northwest Book Awards
4. 75 Books by Women of Color to Read in 2024
5. Romantasy Books (BookRiot)
6. An interview with Moniquill Blackgoose
7. The Scandalous Legacy of Isabella Stewart Gardner
8. Nonfiction books for SFF fans
9. Tournament of Books 2024 Championship Round
10. Top 10 Most Challenged Books in 2023
11. Thoughts on "Beach Reads" (CNN)
12. The Problem with Comp Titles
13. LibraryJournal's 2024 Stars so Far
14. 15 Books to Read Instead of Hillbilly Elegy (BookRiot)

How to make pretty block quotes (directions from Richard):
{blockquote}TYPE OR PASTE QUOTED TEXT HERE{/blockquote} and replace the curly braces with pointy brackets.

Number of books read since keeping count on LT:
July - Dec 2008 - 65
2009 - 156 (plus over 70 graphic novels and manga volumes)
2010 - 135 (Note: in June, I started working a second part-time job for full-time hours)
2011 - 150
2012 - 108 (Note: accepted a full-time job in February)
2013 - 107
2014 - 126 (plus 8 graphic novels)
2015 - 120 (plus 6 graphic novels)
2016 - 141 (I stopped counting graphic novels separately)
2017 - 114
2018 - 105 (Note: my first full year as Assistant Director)
2019 - 116
2020 - 153
2021 - 138
2022 - 131
2023 - 180
2024 - ???

Global reads in 2024 (author's country of origin):
Australia - Sophie Gonzales
Canada - Victoria Goddard, Premee Mohamed, Nalo Hopkinson, Heather Fawcett
Chile - Isabel Allende
France - Herve Le Tellier, Elisa Shua Dusapin, Annie Ernaux, Anne Berest, Christelle Dabos
India - Salman Rushdie
Ireland - Claire Foster
Malaysia - Tan Twan Eng, Yangsze Choo
New Zealand - Chloe Gong, Tayi Tibble
South Africa - Trevor Noah
UK - W. Somerset Maugham, Patrick Stewart, Jennifer Worth, Sangu Mandanna, Richard Osman

All time (since 2022):


Create Your Own Visited Countries Map

Armenia, Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, Chile, China, France, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Philippines, Portugal, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States

Currently reading
The Barbizon by Paulina Bren
Unbroken: My Fight for Survival, Hope and Justice for Indigenous Women and Girls by Angela Steritt
Seeing the Body: Poems by Rachel Eliza Griffiths

Bible/Devotional Reading
Praying the Names of God by Ann Spangler

DNFs in 2024
1. Althea: The Life of Tennis Champion Althea Gibson by Sally H. Jacobs
2. Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson
3. Leaving Lucy Pear by Anna Solomon
4. How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang
5. Fourteen Days edited by Margaret Atwood

July
78. Moral Man and Immoral Society by Reinhold Niebuhr
77. A Bookshop in Berlin by Francoise Frenkel
76. Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell
75. Inciting Joy by Ross Gay
74. The Guncle Abroad by Steven Rowley
73. Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
72. Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
71. The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman
70. The Game of Courts by Victoria Goddard
69. Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie
68. Knowing God by Name by Mary Kassian

June
67. The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
66. Red Paint by Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe
65. Poūkahangatus by Tayi Tibble
64. Can't Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne
63. The Witch's Heart by Genevieve Gornichec
62. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
61. Beasts of a Little Land by Juhea Kim
60. The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon
59. The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna
58. Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary
57. Amber & Clay by Laura Amy Schlitz
56. Those Who Hold the Fire by Victoria Goddard
55. The Years by Annie Ernaux
54. A Winter's Promise by Christelle Dabos

May
53. The Best Man by Richard Peck
52. The Salt Roads by Nalo Hopkinson
51. Thunder Song: Essays by Sasha taqwšəblu Lapointe
50. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
49. Here We Go Again by Alison Cochrun
48. Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
47. Rough Sleepers by Tracy Kidder
46. The Return of Fitzroy Angursell by Victoria Goddard
45. Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross
44. How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin

April
43. Above Ground by Clint Smith
42. The Memory Librarian by Janelle Monae
41. The Perfect Guy Doesn't Exist by Sophie Gonzales
40. How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair
39. The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo
38. Sharks in the Rivers by Ada Limon
37. The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende
36. At the Feet of the Sun by Victoria Goddard
35. Dominicana by Angie Cruz
34. With Us in the Wilderness by Lauren Chandler

March
33. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
32. Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary
31. And What Can We Offer You Tonight by Premee Mohamed
30. The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard
29. The Romantic Agenda by Claire Kann
28. The Bible
27. Brave the Wild River by Melissa L. Sevigny
26. Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher
25. Ribsy by Beverly Cleary
24. House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas
23. Foster by Claire Keegan
22. Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth
21. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

February
20. Making It So by Patrick Stewart
19. Immortal Longings by Chloe Gong
18. The Lioness of Boston by Emily Franklin
17. The Casuarina Tree by W. Somerset Maugham
16. Hot Comb by Ebony Flowers
15. The Eyes and the Impossible by Dave Eggers
14. Derring-Do for Beginners by Victoria Goddard
13. The People We Keep by Allison Larkin

January
12. To Shape a Dragon's Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose
11. The Postcard by Anne Berest
10. Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros
9. Women Rowing North by Mary Pipher
8. A Girl's Story by Annie Ernaux
7. Big Tree by Brian Selznick
6. The Lost Journals of Sacajewea by Debra Magpie Earling
5. The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng
4. The Pachinko Parlor by Elisa Shua Dusapin
3. In the Company of Gentlemen by Victoria Goddard
2. The Anomaly by Herve Le Tellier
1. The Tower at the Edge of the World by Victoria Goddard

Rough guide to my rating system:
I'm fairly generous with my star ratings - generally a four is a "like" or "would recommend" for me, while a 4.5 stars is a book I would reread. I break it down roughly like this:

1 star - Forced myself to finish it
2 stars - Dislike
2.5 stars - I really don't know if I liked it or not
3 stars - Sort of liked it; or didn't, but admired something about it despite not liking it
3.5 stars - The splitting hairs rating of less than my last 4 star book or better than my last 3
4 stars - I liked it and recommend it, but probably won't reread it except under special circumstances (ie., a book club or series reread)
4.5 stars - Excellent, ultimately a satisfying read, a title I would consider rereading
5 stars - A book that I absolutely loved, would absolutely reread, and just all-around floored me

I see it more in terms of my like or dislike of a book, rather than how good a book is. My hope is that as a reader I convey what I like or what I don't in such a way that you can still tell if you'll like a book, even if I don't. And I hope for my patrons that I can give them good recommendations for books they will like, even if it's not one I would personally choose.

Happy Friday! Having a holiday yesterday meant it felt like Saturday and I had to keep reminding myself that I was going to work today. I'm working 9-5 and planning on stopping at the gym on my way home. Then I have to pack, as I agreed to do an overnight dogsitting tomorrow, but it's for one of my easy clients and should be a chill evening.

Reading: Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett and Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

Listening: finishing up "Gris-Gris" by Doctor John today, and as long as my holds come in I am shifting my attention to the Beatles for a bit

Watching: watching Wimbledon on July 4 is pretty much tradition for me at this point hahaha. I turned it on today, but they're in a rain delay on the outer courts.

Crafting: I meant to pick up my knitting yesterday but then got interested in my books and didn't do any. Since I haven't been super interested in the Christmas stocking for my cousin's son, I'm thinking of starting a pair of socks for myself just to have a short project to break things up a bit.

Happy new thread, Mary.

I'm hoping to watchs ome Wimbledon this weekend. I could have been watching it all week, but I don't like to turn the TV on during the day while TW is working. He doesn't actually care, but it seems wrong to me somehow :)

I really loved Born a Crime, but I listened to it on audio, read by Trevor Noah, and it really enhanced the experience, I think.

Happy new one!

I'm looking forward to a mid-year restart. Started strong in January, but entropy strangled my reading by June. Finished my second novel of July a little bit ago, and will be starting the third later in the day. Murakami looms—a group read of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

But you, Miss Bell, are chugging along, reading and reading, even whilst juggling a plethora of outside-of-work activities. Thumbs up to you.

Happy new thread, Mary! From your previous thread, you've definitely got me interested in Knife.

Happy new thread Mary!

>3 bell7: I am going to have to track down the top reads of yours that I have not read yet!

Happy new thread, Mary! I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Happy new thread, Mary!

Happy new thread, Mary!

>12 katiekrug: I hope you get a chance to watch some Wimbledon this weekend, Katie! I'm glad you had a good experience listening to Born a Crime. I had hoped that the e-audio would be available through my library system, but it's not, and at this rate I wouldn't get the audio until after i finished the book anyway. But I'll keep audio in mind for a reread someday.

>13 figsfromthistle: Thanks, Anita!

>14 weird_O: Indeed, I've been reading steadily all this year, with my normal slight dip in February. I hope you get a fresh restart for the second half of the year, Bill.

>15 curioussquared: Thanks, Natalie! I do hope you like Knife if/when you get to it. And, by the way, I've been reading along in your thread though I haven't commented in awhile. Glad the dogs are all home safe!

>16 quondame: Thanks, Susan!

>17 alcottacre: Well that is high praise, Stasia, and I hope you like them all as much as I did (don't worry, I won't take it personally if you don't - though there is quite a bit where our reading overlaps!)

>18 EllaTim: Thanks, Ella!

>19 atozgrl: Thanks, Irene!

Happy Saturday! I have already been to the dump and dropped off recycling, prepped dough for bread, hung out with my first Little (she's now in college), and now am finally settling down for a bit. Despite a quick overnight dogsitting job, I should have a pretty chill weekend over all, and I have plenty of good books ready to go, Wimbledon to watch, and bread to bake tomorrow afternoon.

Reading: Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett and Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

Listening: "Hard Day's Night" by the Beatles

Watching: just a smidge of Wimbledon today, between rain

Happy newish thread, Mary. x

*smoochiesmoochsmooch*

Happy new thread, Mary, and happy weekend!

>11 bell7: I had to keep reminding myself it was Friday, too. And today I kept thinking it was Sunday. I think tomorrow will probably be back to normal, hopefully.

Happy new one, Mary!

>22 PaulCranswick: thanks, Paul!

>23 richardderus: *smooch* back

>24 AMQS: thanks on both counts, Anne!

>25 The_Hibernator: yeah, those mid-week holidays can really mess with my routine haha. I think I'll have it straight this week, though.

>26 drneutron: thanks, Jim!

72. Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
Why now? I'd been hearing a lot about it lately, and when I saw it at my local library on the new shelf, I picked it up. Started reading it in the last week because it was the next due at the library.

In 1909, Cambridge academic Emily Wilde is staying in Ljosland, studying their Faerie folk for her encyclopaedia and academic papers. She manages to get off on the wrong foot with the villagers, and a fellow academic, Wendell Bambleby (who may be more than he appears) shows up on her doorstep and upends all her plans. But as they begin to work together, Emily finds herself - in the interest of her research, of course - helping the villagers who have been having many people go missing in the last few years.

The book is written as Emily's journal, and it's a delightful read. She attempts to stay very academic and dry, but as time goes on you see she really has a fair amount of intuition for using Faerie stories and, dare I say, emotion and care for people. I loved the world building and the characters, and I'll be reading the sequel soon. 4.5 stars.

>28 bell7: oh hell

*trudges off to Ammy*

73. Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
Why now? A book that I owned and that was a shared read for the TIOLI challenge to read a memoir by a person with a multi-racial identity

Trevor Noah may be known for his comedy and work on the Daily Show now, but when he was born in South Africa during apartheid, it was literally criminal - his mother is Black, Xhosa, and his father, Swiss German - for someone like him to exist. He details what it was like to grow up in South Africa not exactly fitting in anywhere, the childish trouble he would get into, and the relationship he had with his mother, especially, who was hard on him but loved him fiercely.

I've noticed that comedian memoirs seem to run the gamut from the funny (Bossypants) to the more serious (Born Standing Up). This one definitely leans towards the serious, as Trevor talks about racism (sometimes still making references to how groups of people behave or think, which surprised me a little) and the abuses his stepfather visited on him and his mother. But there are also many moments of grace and laughter. The stories aren't entirely in chronological order, but one chapter flows into another in a way that it didn't matter so much, and I could generally figure out where one story fit into the whole. In the end, I felt like I had learned a lot about him and could appreciate where he came from, everything I love in memoirs. 4.5 stars.

>29 richardderus: Yessss... best feedback ever, honestly ;)

Happy Sunday! I've been around, as you can see from the timestamps on my posts, but just "officially" checking in now. I had done an overnight dogsitting job, came back this morning to get the bread ready for its second rise, and went to church where I had toddler nursery today. We just had two kids, funnily enough ones I've known for years because they went to my previous church, too. I asked one of the kids how his dogs were (I had watched them last month), and was told "Good. But Milo died." He then proceeded to tell me that his dad brought the dog back in a box and dug a very big hole, and then I got a play-by-play of the funeral, all very matter-of-fact the way only a 3-year-old can be. I tried very hard not to laugh.

We spent much of the service playing with matchbox cars and the slide that the cars can shoot down. At one point towards the end of the service, the other little boy was holding on to one car, and there was a pile at the bottom of the slide that no one was really using, so I suggested putting the others in a box. "No!" he exclaimed forcefully, explaining those were still his. "Your friend has only one and you have twenty?" I asked him. "No, he has two." As the little boy was very clearly holding just one car, I asked where the other one was. "I have it," he informed me. Had to laugh at the logic of that one. To his credit, when I told him he could just as easily use all the cars in the basket instead of in a pile, he didn't fuss and let me clean them up. (I'm usually all for chaos in free play, by the way, but it was minutes before parents would be coming, and literally no one was using those cars.)

After church, I came home to lunch and baked the bread, which came out delectable, and watched what I could of Wimbledon between rain delays. After tomorrow, I'm going to have to listen to Radio Wimbledon because the main courts aren't part of my ESPN+ deal, but the first week of watching the outer courts is certainly fun.

Tomorrow I am back to a full work week and various plans, so I expect my reading will slow down (the holiday and relatively quiet weekend meant finishing more books than usual).

Reading: Pretty much fully between books, though I am planning on starting The Guncle Abroad tonight and re-starting Moral Man and Immoral Society tomorrow

Listening: Just about finished "Hard Day's Night" and hoping another album or two arrives at work tomorrow

Watching: Wimbledon, and last night I put on part 2 of "OJ: Made in America"

Crafting: I did a few rows of the Christmas stocking today while watching Wimbledon and am hoping to make more progress soon

>28 bell7: Oh, I have this checked out and can certainly use the relief from the seriousness of the two books, and the Pratchett antics of the other....

>33 quondame: Hope it hits the spot for you, Susan!

Happy Monday! It's already been a Monday haha, my brain is not quite all there, and thankfully it's only a five-hour workday. I'm headed to the gym after work, and stopping at my local library to drop off a book and see what jumps out at me from the new shelf. Then I'll blast the AC and do a little food prep before calling it a day.

Reading: The Guncle Abroad, Inciting Joy, and Moral Man and Immoral Society

Listening: radio today as I'm done with "Hard Day's Night"

Watching: put on a little Wimbledon this morning, but I doubt I'll watch anymore tonight since it's hotter in my living room

Crafting: More of the Christmas stocking, but my brain was not in a great place for the color work today

Hi, Mary! I've had an exceptionally busy day, so I'll probably only be able to finish the Introduction of Moral Man and Immoral Society. Tomorrow will be a better day to read, so I should be able to finish Chapter 1 then.

>36 kidzdoc: that sounds good, Darryl. Since I tend to read my Kindle at night before bed, I haven't started yet and will plan on only reading the introduction at most tonight.

Hi Mary, you got me with Emily Wilde. I have had Born a Crime on my list to read forever. I'm pretty sure we have the book around somewhere, but I have really wanted to hear Trevor Noah narrate it, but so far it's only available on Audible, and I am a library patron so... I may just have to read it in print!

>38 AMQS: I hope you enjoy both when you get to them, Anne. I'm sure the audio of Trevor Noah reading it would be excellent - maybe your library system has it on CD?

Listening report:

"Gris-gris" by Dr. John was okay. I didn't like any of the songs enough to add them to the playlist but also didn't have that visceral, immediate "dislike" reaction some things can bring out in me either - it just wasn't to my taste overall. Brett Schewitz liked it better than I did, and his description is spot on.

"Hard Day's Night" by the Beatles. Okay, so here's where I admit that though my dad is a huge fan, the only Beatles album I've listened to from beginning to end before this one was Sergeant Pepper's. I have instead listened to all my dad's favorites from various albums. In this case, his favorites and mine match well - "Hard Day's Night," "Can't Buy Me Love" and "Things We Said Today" were the best songs, imo. However... I've heard them enough that I didn't see the need to add them to my playlist. #263 on the Rolling Stones list, and Brett Schewitz's review offers some context for the album that I didn't know.

My holds for other albums from 1964 haven't come in yet, so when I stopped at my local library to return Emily Wilde, I grabbed a couple more Miles Davis albums that they had to tide me over in the meantime.

>28 bell7: Adding the Heather Fawcett book to the BlackHole. It sounds like something I would enjoy.

>30 bell7: I know that one is already in the BlackHole. I am going to have to bump it up! Thanks for the reminder, Mary.

Have a terrific Tuesday!

Happy newish thread! You got me with the Emily Wilde, Mary.

>41 alcottacre: I hope you enjoy both, Stasia!

>42 Familyhistorian: Thanks, Meg! And yay - hope it's one you enjoy too.

Happy new-ish thread! Glad you enjoyed Emily Wilde!

74. The Guncle Abroad by Steven Rowley
Why now? Because I really enjoyed the first book and wasn't going to wait long before reading the sequel

Five years after the memorable summer that Patrick cared for his niece, Maisie, and nephew, Grant, he's now in Europe and, leading up to his brother's wedding in Italy, asked once again to watch the niblings in Europe for a few weeks. Maisie, at 14, isn't sold on the idea of having a stepmom and begs him to talk to their dad about calling the wedding of. Patrick being Patrick decides he needs to teach Maisie and Grant about love while on a European tour, and along the way try to recapture the magic of how much they looked up to him five years ago.

Patrick's character, as an actor, doesn't care for sequels: "The only time it maybe works--and I mean the only time-- is when there wasn't an ending that was entirely happy, when not everything was tied up in a neat little bow. Otherwise you have to undo someone's happy ending to create more drama for your characters, and no one likes a happy ending undone." And to say that only 30 pages into the book means the author has laid out his work in convincing us that this sequel is indeed worth reading. Happily, it is. It's fun to revisit the characters a few years older. And yes, Patrick broke up with Emory for a very Patrick reason - assuming that Emory as a younger man wouldn't want to stay together for the long haul. I had a delightful time catching up with characters who felt like old friends and seeing their relationships continue to grow and change. A charming read. 4 stars.

>44 foggidawn: Thanks, foggi! I never did put it on the TBR spreadsheet, but I'm reasonably certain your review helped put it on my radar (I *thought* someone at work was talking about it, too, but I haven't been able to figure out who).

>45 bell7: Charming indeed! So glad you liked it, too. *smooch*

Happy Wednesday, Mary. Happy New Thread. Hooray for Born a Crime. Such a terrific memoir. Hooray for The Beatles too. I also highly recommend listening to Rubber Soul and Revolver. Pop music doesn't get much better. I am so glad you are continuing to enjoy Miles Davis. 😎

>47 richardderus: My thoughts echoed yours quite a bit, in fact, as I read over your review. Not *quite* the same sparkle as the original, but how could it, really? It was still delightful.

>48 msf59: Wasn't Born a Crime excellent, Mark? I'm certain there's more Beatles albums to come soon now that I'm reaching the mid-sixties in my listening, and I think both Revolver and Rubber Soul are on the Rolling Stones list. Next up will be "Meet the Beatles", which is waiting for me at the library, and on Saturday I'm driving out a couple hours to a great-aunt's birthday party, so I will have some good listening over the next few days.

Happy Wednesday! I've already been out and about. There's a flea market that occurs a couple of times a year that's an easy day trip, so my parents and I went out to look around and just enjoy the sights. My mom does photography, and she had taken a course some months back in which she was given the option to photograph certain things of a theme, and one of them was "yellow". I told her I thought we should go and look for yellow things. So we did - and to mix it up so we weren't taking pictures of the same things, she decided to take pictures of pink things while I took pictures of yellow things. We had a fun time doing that and then left when we started to get sunburned.

It is HOT out there, y'all, and I'm glad we went early. I'm leaving in about a half hour to go to work, where the AC was not working yesterday so wish me luck that the service call has been answered and the problem fixed, as there's no way my boss would close the library. I'm working 12-8.

I forgot to check in yesterday, but the quick version is I worked and then went to my brothers' softball game. I think they have one more for the year unless they make the playoffs.

Reading: How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang, Inciting Joy by Ross Gay, and Moral Man and Immoral Society by Reinhold Niebuhr

Listening: I forgot to bring the Miles Davis CDs into the car the other day, so radio lately, but today I'll either have Miles Davis or "Meet the Beatles" on

Watching: nothing now that Wimbledon's all on show courts, though I should get to watch the finals

Crafting: nothing yesterday and probably not today either

Hi Mary, I haven't done as well with Moral Man and Immoral Society as I had intended to. I have a hard time reading anything weighty on days that I can't drop off my mother at the local adult daycare center, which gives me several hours of respite and allows me to read without listening to music, which is soothing to her. I was trying to decrease the dose of one of her medications, under the direction of her psychiatrist, but that hasn't gone well at all this week and has added to my difficulty reading (and sleeping). I'll take her to the center tomorrow and Friday, as I have medical appointments both days, so hopefully I can make good progress then.

>51 kidzdoc: That's okay, Darryl, I was going to leave a message on your thread tonight that I started chapter 1 too late last night to make any headway in it, and I was going to try again tonight. But I can wait till tomorrow easily.

I came across LibraryJournal's 2024 Stars so Far, a collection of all the books they've given stars to this year, organized by genre/topic. I had some fun running through the lists and adding to my TBR this morning. Hope y'all do, too!

Good morning and happy Thursday!

I'm working 9-5 today, hoping to go from there to the gym and then do a grocery shopping (which means I'm using at least some of my lunch break to meal plan, wish me luck). I do have some flexibility, in that I can do one or the other tomorrow instead of tonight, should I choose to. But my goal is to have everything done so I can have a quiet Friday night. It's been a busy week at work so I've felt a little behind and scattered. Today's plan is to get as much done on a monthly email about books that I want to schedule to send out on Tuesday.

Reading: How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang, Inciting Joy: Essays by Ross Gay, and Moral Man and Immoral Society by Reinhold Niebuhr

Listening: "Sketches of Spain" by Miles Davis

Watching/Crafting: nothing on both counts, as they generally go together

Happy FriYAY! It's been a very busy week, and I'm ready for the weekend. I was successful in going to both the gym and the grocery store yesterday, which should give me a fairly quiet night tonight and the ability to participate in weekend plans without worry about what's undone.

Today I'm working 9-5, I am bringing gym clothes but it would just be to jump on the treadmill today (it's still far too humid out to even think about exercising outside), and then come home and make dinner. Haven't decided which meal will be tonight's, but I'll probably make mushrooms & polenta (a new-to-me recipe from Dinner in One), a quinoa salad, and a tuna salad to have meals for the weekend and beyond.

Reading/Listening/Watching/Crafting: all the same as yesterday

>55 bell7: Shroom polenta! Y.U.M. Are you atoning for a murder or something? Quinoa is the culinary equivalent of the Catherine wheel. Wouldn't actual food be better when it's already sticky and awful out?

Be kind to yourself! *smooch*

>56 richardderus: eh, quinoa alone is pretty tasteless but there's yummy things in the salad recipes I use to make it have a good flavor, and I like eating them cold a day or two later when I don't feel like cooking. I'm pretty sure the shrooms and polenta will be tonight's dinner, I even splurged and bought oyster mushrooms.

>57 bell7: Have you ever tried pearl millet? Has a very pleasant taste, and the virtues quinoa has of holding up well after cooking. I love the sound of your planned polenta! Oyster mushrooms are a favorite of mine as well. Summer food at its most delicious, good hot or warm or cold.

In case you can still use this re the NYT 100 - should give free access.

The 100 Best Books of the 21st Century https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/books/best-books-21st-century.html?unlo...

>58 richardderus: I haven't, but I may try it for something new (this will be my first time having polenta, too). I actually do like the quinoa in the salads I make. The one I ended up having for dinner last night is Southwest quinoa salad and includes a dressing with lime juice, honey, cumin and chili powder, which gives the quinoa a really nice flavor to mix with pepper, corn and black beans.

Making the polenta alone took nearly an hour and I'm supposed to cut it into squares (I'm kinda looking at the picture askance now wondering if I got the right thing), so I stuck it in the fridge and the mushrooms will most likely be lunch today.

>59 charl08: Oh thank you for that, Charlotte! I will access it at work so I can print it out... I'm old school like that ;)

Happy Saturday, everyone! I have bread dough rising (will bake it tomorrow or Monday, depending) and will put on the Wimbledon ladies' final in about a half hour. Later today is my great aunt's birthday party, and I've got all my genealogy notes and my bathing suit packed to go. I'm also hoping to do a little cooking today before I leave (I'm nothing if not ambitious).

Reading: How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang, Inciting Joy: Essays by Ross Gay and Moral Man and Immoral Society by Reinhold Niebuhr

Listening: today will be a smorgasbord, as the drive to the birthday party will be a couple hours in the car. I have Miles Davis, Beatles, and Bob Dylan all as possibilities, and I'm planning on finishing up his Spanish album today

Watching: Wimbledon ladies' final

Crafting: planning on working on a Christmas stocking while watching said final (it's sort of my own version of Christmas in July haha)

>62 bell7: Happy birthday-partying, Mary! May your dough rise perfectly, and your polenta cubes taste fabulous. We're certainly not hot today, just really, really humid. Off and on showers will keep us there. Ah, summer. *ew*

>62 bell7: Hope the birthday party was a happy one for your great aunt and a productive one for you, Mary!

>63 richardderus: Thanks, Richard! Part two of the bread rising is happening now, with the theory that I'll bake it between church and more family plans haha. The mushrooms & polenta was good, though I'll definitely add more Parmesan and red pepper flakes to season when I reheat the leftovers. Hope the humidity eases up for you!

>64 Familyhistorian: Thanks, Meg! We had a great time getting together, there were a bunch of relatives I hadn't seen in decades, and reconnected with cousins I didn't realize how much we had in common. I was able to share a Civil War pension record and military service records I had, proving that one of our ancestors was at Gettysburg. And folks had brought all sorts of old photographs, many of the family reunions we'd had over the years when I was a child, and a few of my great-grandparents' as kids, and one of my great-great grandparents. My great-aunt said she remembered her grandparents Bell, and that her grandfather would sit on the porch with them and tell them stories. So not a ton of new information, but certainly enough to make me happy :) I ended up staying much later than I'd anticipated, thus my somewhat late start today.

Good morning, all! I was out later than expected yesterday at my great-aunt's birthday party. It was such a great time getting everyone together - and a sobering realization of how old we're getting. My parents' generation all of a sudden is the older one, looking like my great-aunts and uncle used to when we got together. My generation is suddenly the one with all the kids - some of whom are high schoolers! I'm not sure how that happened... I'm still in my mid-twenties, right? Anyway, there were all sorts of cousins there, and I got a couple folks' phone numbers and email addresses to stay connected and share some of the family history I've found over the years. Hopefully folks will share memories and photographs with me, too! One of my dad's cousins has some neat stuff, too, and I think we'll need to try to get together over a long weekend to really go through all our material and collaborate.

Today I have church and in the afternoon my immediate family is getting together at my brother and sister-in-law's for homemade pizza and fun. I'm excited to see my baby niece, it's been a couple of weeks!

Reading: same

Listening: yesterday I finished "Sketches in Spain," and moved on to "Meet the Beatles" and "Bringing It All Back Home" by Bob Dylan. I'll be finishing up with that one today and have a listening report to give :)

Watching: hopefully some Wimbledon today, though I'll have to watch a replay of the match

Crafting: I finished the color work on the stocking yesterday while watching the ladies' final, and might start on the heel today if I have time

The listening report:

"Sketches of Spain" by Miles Davis - picked up on a whim at my local library. It was released as a studio album in 1960 and is not on my current Rolling Stones list, but I have enjoyed what I listened to by Miles Davis and have been trying to track down more of his albums. Davis played trumpet and, I think, flugelhorn on this one. Here's the allmusic review and the Wikipedia page that explains the inspiration for it. I enjoyed listening.

"Meet the Beatles" by the Beatles - I really should've listened to this before "Hard Day's Night," but the latter hold came in first. Once again, the songs I knew, "I Want to Hold Your Hand," "I Saw Her Standing There," "All My Loving," "Till There Was You" were the best. "Don't Bother Me" was one I never heard and it kinda made me laugh in its brusque, "Leave me alone, I'm mourning the end of a relationship" attitude. The Beatles' harmonies are among the best, and it's good, solid pop that's been the soundtrack of my childhood since my dad's a huge fan. Brett Schewitz's review - #197 on the Rolling Stones list.

"Bringing It All Back Home" by Bob Dylan - this one surprised me in that I liked the overall sound AND had a couple of songs I'll add to my playlist - "Subterranean Homesick Blues," "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue." Somehow his voice (which I don't love, as a rule) really fit those songs, and I like the use of the harmonica with the guitar and the rest. Brett Schewitz's review - #181 on the Rolling Stones list.

I didn't watch Wimbledon at all, but I am keen on Kate, the Princess of Wales, so I was glad to see she was out at Wimbledon today. Your bread sounds yummy!

Hi, Mary! I hope that your Sunday was an enjoyable one. I did "finish" Chapter 3 of Moral Man and Immoral Society, but what I began doing yesterday was to get the overall gist of his arguments instead of trying to dissect each sentence word by word, which was so far proven to be far less tedious and more fruitful. I'll plan to start Chapter 4 later today.

The copy of Seeing the Body: Poems by Rachel Eliza Griffiths I requested from the Free Library of Philadelphia is still unavailable; hopefully it will be this week.

I would be more than happy to provide you with recommendations on albums by Miles Davis. Which one have you listened to so far, other than "Sketches of Spain"?

>67 bell7: I would always choose to listen to covers of Dylan's songs, preferably by artists with tuneful light-bringing pipes not toad-croaking leaden ones.

Has the bread come out well?

>68 vancouverdeb: ESPN+ had a lot of coverage of the outer courts, so I saw the most in the first week, which is often more interesting to me anyways to see some of the lower seeds. I was able to watch the women's final, but not the men's (though I wasn't unhappy that Alcaraz had such a commanding win).

>69 kidzdoc: Yeah, even that can be a challenge with some of his long paragraphs and thought processes, but getting the gist of his argument is the best I can hope for. Since I'm reading on my Kindle, I'll highlight certain passages that I think will help me remember the main points of each chapter. But last night I was really struggling, primarily because I'm getting to the age where my eyes' close focus is starting to be a problem, and as of last week when I'm tired, I'm holding my Kindle out and/or changing the font size to see better. Well, the size jumped hugely between two settings, so last night instead of having one paragraph taking up multiple pages, suddenly I wasn't even guaranteed a sentence would be on one "page." It made following the train of thought extremely difficult. I've also been reading some aloud, which seems to help.

Re: Miles Davis, I have listened to
Kind of Blue
Miles Ahead
Sketches of Spain
Get Up With It

and I currently have Miles to Go in my car CD player, I just started it today.

>70 richardderus: Indeed, his voice generally doesn't make for pleasant listening to my ear, though I don't mind a bit of grit in a male tone, such as Eddie Vedder/Pearl Jam covering "Hide Your Love Away" (speaking of covers of songs I've been listening to lately). The bread was one of the best bakes I've done, the top of the crust was crunchy and the middle soft and mild rather than tangy.

Sunday plans adjusted to the heat - we ate lunch before gathering at my brother and SIL's, as it was too hot to even think about being outside baking pizzas and having the baby (and the rest of us) in the sun. My niece was a delight, and I got some big smiles when I blew raspberries on her belly.

Today I worked 9-2 and originally my parents and I had planned on getting together with one of my dad's cousins but her plans changed and she didn't make it. So I ran a few errands including getting some gardening tools at Home Depot, and had some work texts go back and forth figuring out the chiller (not working great, but keeping the library at 73), the roofing (happening again tomorrow, but they're starting at 5 and hoping that they won't be blocking off the entrance when we open tomorrow), and finagling all that so I'm set for tomorrow. Then I stopped at my parents and visited for awhile before heading home to dinner (leftovers of mushrooms & polenta, which did cube for me and tastes even better as leftovers, I think). I was originally planning on going to the gym but have decided I don't feel like it. Which means my next opportunity is Wednesday morning, oh well.

Reading: all the same

Listening: finished up with "Help!" by the Beatles and started "Miles to Go" by Miles Davis

Watching/Crafting: nothing today, though I finished the heel and started on the instep of the stocking while talking to a friend last night

>71 bell7: I discovered a completely unknown to me jazz musician: Patrick Palomo. You might like his lovely, tuneful, very special sound. It's on Ammy's music service as well as on CD.

Yay for a wonderful loaf!

>73 richardderus: I shall add it to my now ever-growing music list ;)

Happy Tuesday!

I didn't check in this morning because I had some trash with food in it (I'd cleaned out the freezer the other day) that was on my porch getting smelly and full of flies, so I went to the dump in the next town over to drop it off before work. Today I'm working 9-5 and going to my brothers' softball game. I've been all productive today working on my annual report, getting the July 29 desk schedule draft done, and checking in with the roofers about the project (they are working on a lower part and need to close off one of the entrances in the mornings). I'm sure after I get back home tonight I'll be pretty much ready to read and go to bed.

Reading: How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang and Moral Man and Immoral Society by Reinhold Niebuhr

Listening: "Miles to Go" by Miles Davis

Watching/Crafting: still nothing

75. Inciting Joy: Essays by Ross Gay
Why now? I really enjoyed The Book of Delights, The Book of More Delights and Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude by the same author, so picked this up when I found it at a library book sale - fits this month's TIOLI challenge to read a book with an emotion in the title

Poet Ross Gay follows up his mini-essays in The Book of Delights with set of 14 longer essays that contemplate joy - not unthinking happiness, but joy mixed with sorrow, joy as resistance, and joy as complicated as the world we live in. He names each of these essays an "incitement" of joy and approaches his various topics with the same sort of tangential and footnote-filled style he uses in his shorter essays and is sure to delight readers of his other work.

I really enjoyed diving into Gay's incitements. He writes like he might have a conversation, starting from one point and ending somewhere else, but somehow still coming back to his points about human connection, gardening, wonder of the world, and grief. His essay about his father's death was heartbreaking, yet there was also much happiness - joy, as full as it can be - to contemplate as well. His work is always thought-provoking, and makes me want to sit down and chat with him about life. 4.5 stars.

Good morning, everyone!

I go in to work 12-8, so I'm hoping to go to the gym this morning and cook a salmon (if not completely make the salad it goes in...the fish really must be cooked today). Not exactly sure what work will entail beyond desk time and volunteers. I'm in really good shape for the annual report I need to turn in. There's only a few more questions I need answers for, and I'm waiting on other folks (one co-worker and companies that have our usage stats) to get the numbers to me before I can make it official. And since it's not due 'til August 16 and my boss is on vacation at the end of the month, there's no need for me to rush it, either. So I'll probably focus most of my time on smaller projects I don't always get to like refreshing book lists and handouts, organizing my emails (including reading through the folder I dump all the "book-related" emails), that kind of thing.

Reading: How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang and Moral Man and Immoral Society by Reinhold Niebuhr

Listening: "Miles to Go" by Miles Davis (many songs feature Charlie Parker's All Stars), which is very enjoyable listening

>76 bell7: Congrats on 75, Mary! Looks like it was a good one to meet your goal with :)

>78 curioussquared: Thanks, Natalie! I thought so too :)

DNF #4: How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang
It started off fine. I like enemies-to-lovers, and they have a pretty big hurdle to get over - Grant Shepard was the boy driving the car when Helen Zhang's sister, Michelle, committed suicide by jumping in front of it when Grant and Helen were both in high school. Now some 13 years later, they're working together in a writer's room because Helen's books are being made into a show. But then it went into a trope I don't love, where instead of, um, talking through their shared trauma they find themselves attracted to each other despite themselves and decide to be "with benefits" except one (or both) of them find themselves falling in love. They started annoying me, I didn't necessarily want to pick up the book when I wasn't reading it (and that's saying a lot considering the other "currently reading" titles I have), so I quit at page 284.

It's Thursday - the plan today is work 9-5, and this evening I'm calling one of my sisters to set up travel plans for August. Depending on how long the call goes, I may do a grocery shopping tonight too. Again today, I have nothing pressing at work, so I'm hoping to do much of what I did yesterday and focus on books & collection development (and reading through a bunch of bookish emails that I've dumped into a folder and barely looked at all month).

Reading: Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell and Moral Man and Immoral Society by Reinhold Niebuhr - haven't decided what paper book to pick up next, but I'll have to pick soon to have something to read on break at work

Listening: "Miles to Go" continues - I'll probably add the whole album to my playlist, as every time I notice something I like and look up at the track, it's a different number than I noticed the last time

No watching/crafting - it's too hot to hang out in my living room, so I've been reading in my bedroom with the AC on

Sweet Thursday, Mary. I just received a copy of Homage to Catalonia. I hope I can bookhorn it in, in the coming weeks. Hooray for Bringing It All Back Home! I am in the "D"s in my music collection, so I will be listening to Dylan soon. I own a heck of a lot of his music.

>82 msf59: Hiya, Mark! I think Homage to Catalonia will be a fairly quick read, as it's not a very long one. I've realized that all but one of the books I had planned to read this month are nonfiction so depending on how finishing the books I'm currently reading shakes out, I may find myself looking for something different so I'm not reading 3 nonfiction titles at once! I'll be listening to more Dylan soonish, as "Highway 61" is also on the list.

Good morning! I woke up annoyed that I didn't know where something was, and spent much of my morning organizing things to try to find it (I didn't, which usually means it'll turn up when I'm looking for something else). But now there are fewer papers on my dining room table and I'll probably clean off/move my desk if it's still annoying me when I get home today.

I'm working 9-5 and from there will be going to calling hours for a former co-worker who died suddenly. The weekend should be fairly quiet, and I'm looking forward to the downtime.

Reading: Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell, Moral Man and Immoral Society by Reinhold Niebuhr and Fourteen Days by the Author's Guild

Listening: I wrapped up "Miles to Go" (which I really liked but sadly could not find on Spotify), and started "B.B. King Live at the Regal"

Good morning, Mary! I finished chapter 5 in Moral Man and Immoral Society last night, and I plan to read chapter 6 today. I did finish The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store on Thursday, so I'll return it and pick up Seeing the Body: Poems from the library a little later today.

I was curious about "Miles to Go," as I had never heard of that album. As it turns out it was a compilation of some of his early work from the late 1940s and early 1950s that was published in the UK in 1999. This link appears to show which song are on that compilation, and which album they came from:

https://www.discogs.com/release/544177-Miles-Davis-Miles-To-Go

Miles formed several notable groups, and listening to them in chronological order is one way to track his evolution as an artist. His first great quintet played in the mid 1950s, and it's best known for the albums "Cookin,'" "Relaxin'," "Steamin'," and "Workin'," my favorite of the four. The albums also feature a young and often uncertain John Coltrane, and it's interesting to listen to his growth as well.

ETA: This is "It Never Entered My Mind" from "Workin' with the Miles Davis Quintet." Interestingly Trane only plays in the last second or two of the song:

https://youtu.be/-Np8PJDGq_A?si=kGUwlNsj8d_w8bOP

>84 bell7: Saturday orisons, Mary! *smooch*

>85 kidzdoc: Oh that's great, Darryl, I'll make sure to read chapter 6 today and I'll probably start on Seeing the Body: Poems tomorrow. It sounds like we have a pretty similar reading style for poetry and I bet we'll manage to stay on a similar track even if we don't compare notes throughout - feel free to, I just want to make sure we're not focused so much on reading in tandem that we're not enjoying it at our own paces.

Thanks for the info on Miles Davis (and "Miles to Go," no wonder I couldn't find it on Spotify). I think you're right that listening in chronological order would make a lot of sense to see his development as an artist, and will most likely make that my next project after the Rolling Stone 500. My early tries were based on what was available at the library I was visiting (either where I work or where I live) rather than any kind of method. It was quite a jump from "Kind of Blue" to "Get Up With It" which were my first two listens.

Wow, "It Never Entered My Mind" is such a beautiful song. Thank you for sharing the link to it! Both the piano and the trumpet are especially lovely, and it was interesting to know that was John Coltrane coming in at the end.

>86 richardderus: Thanks, Richard! I spent the morning being productive, but you'll be happy to know I'm almost ready to settle in for the day and relax.

Happy weekend! Yesterday went by quickly. I'd forgotten my phone at home and ended up leaving work about a half hour early to pick it up and then head over to a memorial service. Someone that used to work for the library and then continued to work for the town passed away suddenly - I didn't know most of the people there other than the library contingent, but it was someone I'd known for over 20 years and was far too young to pass away. After that, I came home and made dinner, then cleaned and organized some more (I'm sure it won't surprise y'all to learn part of how I deal with stress and grief is to clean and organize)? While I was going through things on my desk, I discovered a funeral card I'd saved of another co-worker who died in 2010. When I went to put that funeral card and the one from today in my journal, lo and behold, I found the items I'd been looking for in the morning stuck in the notebook underneath said journal.

Anyway... today I spent the morning getting another ball of dough ready to bake into bread tomorrow. (Did you know my great-grandmother baked bread every day? She had 11 kids so it was probably a necessity... I looked it up, and she probably had a cake of yeast she'd have in the fridge, nothing like the quick yeast you can buy in the store, or possibly sourdough starter like I use.) I cooked another quinoa salad that'll be tonight's dinner (this one with tomatoes and spinach and red wine vinegar, yum, though the avocadoes weren't quite ripe enough to add yet). And I used my brand-new pruning saw to cut down a small shrub or tree-like weed I didn't want growing in the middle of my yard and blocking my view of the bird feeder. Speaking of, the birds have been happily at it all day and I've seen various finches, sparrows and catbirds all enjoying the sunflower seeds.

The rest of the day should be fairly low key, I'm watching some animals and plan on reading and maybe even watching something.

Reading: Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell, Moral Man and Immoral Society by Reinhold Niebuhr, and Fourteen Days by various authors (edited by Margaret Atwood)

Listening: "B. B. King Live at the Regal"

Watching: TBD, maybe the third part of the OJ Simpson documentary on ESPN+

Crafting: I picked up the stocking today! I'm working on the foot now, so I'm nearly at the end of the knitting and "just" have the duplicate stitch, weaving in of ends, and other finishing to complete.

Good morning, Mary! I woke up just after 5 am, and as a result I did finish chapter 6 in Moral Man and Immoral Society after all. I doubt that I'll do much reading today, though, as I'll spend a good chunk of the day in the kitchen (spinach, roasted red pepper and feta omelette for breakfast, ratatouille and quinoa for weekday lunches, and probably shirazi salad as a weekday side to go with fish, chicken or tofu). If I do any reading it will likely be James by Percival Everett after dinner.

>90 kidzdoc: We are keeping pace then - I finished chapter 6 last night. My project of the day is going to be mowing, so I'll focus on other reading too. Your cooking sounds delicious!

Happy Sunday, all! I'm on my way out the door for church. I had an overnight dogsitting job last night, came home today and have started my bread on its second rise. When I get home, it'll be time for lunch and then to bake the bread, and later in the afternoon/early evening I'm hoping to mow (it's been far too hot the last couple of weeks, and the yard needs it now).

Reading/Listening: same

Watching: I watched parts 3 and 4 of the "OJ: Made in America" documentary

Crafting: I'll probably pick up the stocking while the bread is baking

>65 bell7: Nice to have family interested in family history, Mary. Have you visited Gettysburg since your ancestor fought there? I have copies of the muster rolls and such for a relative who joined up in Illinois and fought at Shiloh. He received a pension too but my understanding is that only those that were wounded and impaired in some way received pensions.

How'd the bread turn out? Have a fun week-ahead's reads.

>93 Familyhistorian: Yes, it was pretty cool to be able to trade tidbits and have a lot of interest. I visited Gettysburg as a child, but definitely want to go back and see the memorial that's to my ancestor's regiment - the 40th NY Infantry. Of the five ancestors on my dad's side that were in the Civil War, 3 received pensions. One did not because he deserted, and the other was denied an invalid pension because the doctors ultimately decided he could still do his job (carpentry) with the injury (he cut his foot with an adze, which incidentally meant he missed Gettysburg because he was in hospital while his regiment was there.

I hadn't heard that about eligibility, so I looked it up and according to the Family Search Wiki, it depends on the year of the act for Union pension records:

"Act of July 14, 1862 - Started the General Law pension system for Civil War veterans who had sustained war-related disabilities.Pensions became available to widows, children under 16 years of age, and dependent relatives of soldiers who died in military service from war related injuries.

Act of January 25,1872 - The veteran or his dependents permitted to collect a lump sum payment based on the date of death or discharge from the service. This payment was in addition to the monthly pension payment.

Act of 1890 - The pension based only on veteran's age and time of service.

Act of February 6, 1907 - Pension approved based on a veteran's age and length of service."

So whether or not your family member received a pension probably depends a little bit on when he applied (or when he passed away). In my case, I think the one they determined could still work passed away prior to the later acts. Two others proved a disability (one of which was "piles"), and then there were follow up applications - I think for increases? - with each new act. Do you have the pension record for your Illinois ancestor? If you have the application number and certificate number, I may be able to look it up next time I go to NARA.

>94 richardderus: Thank you, Richard. The bread was an excellent bake once again, though if I were being incredibly picky I might state that the crust was not *quite* as delectably crunchy as the last time. Honestly, it's a great simple sourdough bread recipe that, while it comes out better some weeks than others, is really pretty fail-proof.

Happy Monday!

I worked 9-2 today, stopped to get a key for a new dogsitting client (friends of mine but first time I've done it), and then came home to finish my mowing.

Ah, my mowing... yesterday, after baking the bread, I waited a bit and decided to tackle the lawn. It started okay, though my mower was having a tough time with some of the long grass, and then I got some white smoke and the engine died. I added some oil and tried again... nope. Meanwhile, one of my neighbors saw me working away and came over on his rider and started on my backyard. I Google "why does my lawn mower have white smoke" and realized that I had done the exact opposite of what I should have done when I added oil...I'd overfilled it. Like, a lot. I cleaned out the air filter as best I could, then drained most of the oil (thank you random people on YouTube for uploading videos on how to change your lawn mower oil). It still wouldn't start... and meantime, my neighbor had done what he could with his rider and went home. But he's offered tons of times to help out anytime I need... so I brought the mower over and asked for help. He and his brother (my other neighbor) bought me a new air filter 'cause it was completely done, and then I was good to go. But by this time, I had weeded a bunch and was done with yard work, so I put it off 'till today. So, I have learned the hard way not to overfill my oil, but also learned how to drain it.

There was still some stop and go with the lawn mower today, but it was primarily because the grass was so long that it was damp underneath and gummed up the blades. But I have finished it and shouldn't have to deal with it for a couple of weeks.

And now dinner. I'm getting takeout.

Finally catching up around here, Mary. Nice to see there have been great reads and listens happening and I hope your week is off to a decent start.

>96 bell7: Learning experiences are better in hindsight. You have some good neighbors there.

>97 MickyFine: Nice to see you here, Micky! I was just getting caught up on your thread, and enjoyed reading your reviews and life catchup. You must be so excited for your Scotland trip next year!

>98 quondame: Indeed, though I like to think that I love learning even when it comes with a healthy dose of humility. I do have good neighbors. I don't run into them much, but these neighbors (one brother lives behind me and the other across the street, so sort of my next door neighbor but we actually have different street names) have helped with my lawn and my shoveling. I can only give back by offering them rhubarb and raspberries (and this year tomatoes) from the garden, but I am grateful.

Listening report:

"B. B. King Live at the Regal" - this was fine, and musically I felt like I should have liked it more, but it's really tough to listen to live renditions of songs I'm unfamiliar with. I would, honestly, be interested in listening to earlier studio albums. Brett Shewitz mentions several guitarists who cite him as inspiration, and I was a little surprised not to see Jimi Hendrix named. I didn't hear any songs i needed to add to my playlist, but liked listening through the album pretty well.

"Jason Moran & The Bandwagon" (2002) - I think I got this kind of at random because I heard an interview with Jason Moran on NPR about a totally different album, and just found what I could get at the library. It's another live album and I didn't love the first couple of songs, which were often atonal and included some voice recordings. I guess there's a limit to the experimental jazz I'll listen to? But it's not really fair to judge that on a live album, I think. The album they were discussing was, I believe, "From the Dancehall to the Battlefield" and I did like what I heard from it, so I would try his music again.

>99 bell7: I am very excited for the trip.

Glad to hear you have some great neighbours who helped you out with your mower issues.

>100 bell7: I did pick up Seeing the Body: Poems from the library this morning. After a quick glance I think I''m going to enjoy this collection.

I haven't done any significant reading since yesterday's big announcement, but hopefully I can read James for an hour or two. I did purchase the Kindle version of The Truths We Hold: An American Journey by Kamala Harris, and I'll plan to read it after we finish with Moral Man and Immoral Society.

I only own one album by Jason Moran, titled "Ten," and I like most of the songs on it:

https://youtu.be/c7XpkjGKmYU?si=-R8kFOb2L9H1Wr55

>102 kidzdoc: Oh good, I'm glad you got a hold of a copy of Seeing the Body. I was thinking of dipping into it tonight a bit. We'll see if I get to it, as I'm already pretty tired and don't expect I'll read significantly in Moral Man and Immoral Society tonight either. I might be able to split chapter 7 between today and tomorrow. I finished Homage to Catalonia tonight, started A Bookshop in Berlin (I didn't mean to, but it's very interesting reading 3 books from the '30s back-to-back) and find myself in need of some (preferably lighter) fiction to balance it out.

Thank you for the Jason Moran suggestion! I listened to the song you linked, "RFK in The Land of Apartheid" and liked it better than what was in the live album. I've saved a tab open to the full playlist of the album and will listen through soon.

>101 MickyFine: Thanks, Micky!

Happy Tuesday! I'm out of here shortly, working 9-5 and going straight from there to my brothers' softball games. Today at work we're having a goodbye party for one of our part-timers who got a full-time job elsewhere. I just got the invoice for some conservation and digitization of glass plate negatives in our local history collection, so at least part of my day will be reaching out to the facility that did that to arrange pickup and to the storage facility that houses our other glass plate negatives to put them in off-site storage.

Reading: Moral Man and Immoral Society by Reinhold Niebuhr, Fourteen Days edited by Margaret Atwood (I'm ambivalent about this one and considering a DNF), A Bookshop in Berlin by Francoise Frenkel, and Seeing the Body: Poems by Rachel Eliza Griffiths (those last two both started yesterday)

I finished Homage to Catalonia yesterday and need to review it.

Listening: "Mr. Tambourine Man" by the Byrds - I started yesterday and have been driving around enough yesterday and today that I'll probably finish it up today

Watching: A couple of days ago now, but I finished the five-part documentary "OJ: Made in America", which was very good

Crafting: I haven't picked it up in a bit, but the next step in the stocking is weaving in all the ends, which are a mess currently

>105 bell7: I will be curious to see your thoughts on Homage to Catalonia, Mary!

Have a terrific Tuesday!

>105 bell7: Thank you for the CARE package of magazines, Mary! They arrived exactly as I was recycling the very last of the last package. You're so kind to do this so regularly. Most most grateful to (and for) you! *smooch*

>105 bell7: Wishing you good weather for the game tonight!

>106 alcottacre: Thank you, Stasia! Thoughts coming soon :)

>107 richardderus: You're most welcome, Richard, and hope they added to your TBR as thoroughly as they did mine. *smooch*

>108 MickyFine: Your good wishes worked, Micky! Originally rain was in the forecast, but it held off and was actually the most comfortable weather we'd had in awhile.

76. Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell
Why now? I can completely blame the TIOLI challenges on this one - I had no intention of reading George Orwell after starting-and-abandoning 1984 and having to read Animal Farm in college. But several folks were reading it as one of Anita's favorite reads of the 1920s and 30s, and it was available as an e-book from the library so I decided to read it.

In 1936, George Orwell* went to Spain as a journalist but instead joined the fight against Fascism and Fransisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War.

Orwell's clear and insightful writing about war makes this an excellent read. He describes the trenches, the fights when they had them and the long stretches of boredom in between with such aplomb that it carried me through even when I didn't quite follow all the acronyms. The experience of war versus the stories that get told by journalists is at the crux of the story, too, and Orwell even tells his readers not to solely trust his point of view. I read a later edition that had made some changes apparently at Orwell's request, but I actually would have preferred if "Appendix 1" and "Appendix 2" were back where they were in the original narrative, as Appendix 1 (the original chapter 5) had a lot of information about the various factions (and what all the acronyms meant) that really would have helped me understand what happened in later stories. That quibble aside, it was a compelling read and convinced me to try more of Orwell's nonfiction. 4 stars.

*George Orwell is a pseudonym and his real name is Eric Blair, but as a narrator his name is never given, so in the review I'll be referring to him by the chosen nom de plume.

DNF #5: Fourteen Days edited by Margaret Atwood

I had trouble getting into this one, and when I was reading through the review page trying to decide if I wanted to continue, I saw a major spoiler that made me even less invested. I talked through my thoughts with one of my co-workers today and realized as I was describing it that since I was picking up the two nonfiction books I'm reading over this one, it was time to give up on it.

We'll see how I finish out my reading the end of this month. The rest of the books I have in the TIOLI challenges are nonfiction, which is much more than I tend to read in a given month. I've liked what I've been reading, though, so either I'm going to lean into that for the next week and a half or I'll upend my reading plans entirely and read a bunch of fiction that doesn't fit any TIOLI challenges at all. Still to be determined, I'll be as surprised as anyone.

>110 bell7: I need to get to this one! I've enjoyed the two nonfiction books I've read from Orwell -- Down and Out in Paris and London and The Road to Wigan Pier.

>112 curioussquared: I'll have to keep those in mind, Natalie. I'm definitely interested in trying out a book of his essays.

Happy Wednesday! I was up early this morning and have already had coffee, breakfast, and made a new-to-me recipe from Come Hungry, Green Goddess Pasta Salad, which I will enjoy for lunch today before heading to work 12-8.

Reading: Moral Man and Immoral Society by Reinhold Niebuhr, A Bookshop in Berlin by Francoise Frankel, and Seeing the Body: Poems by Rachel Eliza Griffiths

Listening: "Mr. Tambourine Man" by the Byrds (expecting to wrap this up today)

Watching: nothing

Crafting: I think I'll tackle some of the weaving in of ends in the stocking today
I also brought home a couple of knitting books for stuffed animals and dolls, which I'm really excited about checking out. I may try to make a set of dolls for my niblings this fall and, if I like the patterns, might even splurge and buy the books to have the patterns for even more clothes for each of them.

They have the clothing in a different book than the doll?

>115 The_Hibernator: oh, no when I said "brought home" I was referring to from the library. There's one book for the stuffed animals and clothes and a second book with the dolls and clothes. So if I finish one project and like it well enough, I may buy the books to refer to whenever I want without borrowing them from the library.

I wasn't very clear there 😂

Using the library to vet craft books is the best. My (thus far) limited collection of crochet books were all borrowed from the library first and then deemed of ongoing usefulness/interest and added to my personal collection.

I look forward to hearing about your doll-making adventures (and wishing you luck with those pesky ends).

>117 MickyFine: It is The Best. Also I have a regular patron who finds adorable knitting books, so looking through the holds is how I found both the last craft book I bought and these two.

And thank you! I actually finished the ends (particularly pesky 'cause I'd done most of the stocking's color work intarsia) this morning before work, so now I have the fun finishing to do (sewing it up, duplicate stitching baby's name and birth year, and making the loop to hang it). It'll still take an hour or two, but it's much less tedious.

I had no idea that George Orwell was a pen name, Mary so thanks for that. Sorry you had to DNF Fourteen Days. I don't really know anything about it, but I am not a big fan of Margaret Atwood. I DNF'd Wolf Hall earlier this year. I'm always kind of sorry to give up on a book , but after 350 some pages , it was too detailed and boring for me. I should have DNFd it sooner, in retrospect.

>110 bell7: I found it easy to get lost in all the acronyms but I found it a good read and am glad to see that you did too. I read Animal Farm this month for the BAC so it was interesting to see the contrast between Orwell's fiction and nonfiction.

>119 vancouverdeb: You're welcome, Deborah! Fourteen Days is a "collaborative novel". Douglas Preston wrote the story thread that kind of kept everything together: several people living in a New York apartment during March-April 2020 at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic gather on the rooftop every evening and share stories. And each story is written by a different author, some of whom I'd be more interested in reading than others. Some reviews complained that the stories seemed phoned in or like a writing assignment, and I didn't really get far enough to say (I was on Day 4, p. 64), but I didn't care all that much. I was picking up my nonfiction reads first instead of this one, which is very much not like me. Sorry Wolf Hall didn't work for you. I enjoyed it, but no book is for everyone. Or every time, for that matter. Some books I've DNF'ed have more to do with my mood or how busy life is. But I'm all for stopping books that aren't working and reading what makes you happy!

>120 alcottacre: Yeah, as long as I could keep track of which ones were on his side and which were against, I counted it good and didn't worry too much about which was which. It's the down side of reading a book written so close to the events, isn't it? - he clearly expected us to be familiar with the general outline of events from reading contemporary accounts!

>121 bell7: It's the down side of reading a book written so close to the events, isn't it?

Definitely!

Good morning, all! I'm working 9-5 today. My major project today is driving out east to pick up 15 glass plate negatives that we have had conserved, printed, and digitized. I'm very much looking forward to seeing what we have and what we can describe about the new collection. I'm not so much looking forward to all the driving... The evening should be fairly quiet, other than grocery shopping.

Reading: Moral Man and Immoral Society by Reinhold Niebuhr and Seeing the Body: Poems by Rachel Eliza Griffiths - I'll probably start a new book today, title to be determined

Listening: "Going to a Go-Go" by Smokey Robinson

Watching: nothing lately, but hoping to watch some Olympics over the weekend

Crafting: yesterday I weaved in all the ends, this morning I started sewing up the stocking. Almost finished!

>122 alcottacre: Ah well, now we just have to read a history of the Spanish Civil War ;)

Actually, it made me want to reread Shadow of the Wind and the other books in the quartet, as they were the first that I had read that talked about it.

>124 bell7: I am in for a reread of Shadow of the Wind! I love that book. I have not read the other books in the quartet at all though.

>125 alcottacre: Maybe another to consider for September? I own it, so I can wedge it in whenever works for you.

Listening report:

"Ten" by Jason Moran - Thanks to Darryl for recommending this one! I listened through yesterday morning on YouTube while I weaved in all the ends in my knitting. I enjoyed it quite a bit, and added the following songs to my playlist: "Blue Blocks," "Crepuscule with Nellie," "Gangsterism Over 10 Years" and "To Bob Vatel of Paris".

"Mr. Tambourine Man" by The Byrds - My very first impression listening to this album was that it's a mix of the Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel at their very poppiest, plus a tambourine. I do like the overall sound, including the tambourine, though it was a little same-y (even more so when I listened to the six "bonus tracks", five of which were alternate versions of songs). I added "Don't Doubt Yourself, Babe" to my playlist. I knew the title track was a Bob Dylan cover, but Brett Schewitz's review tells me that four in total were Dylan covers, that the Beatles themselves took some inspiration from The Byrds, and that one of the singers is David Crosby of Crosby, Stills, and Nash. Huh. #287 on the Rolling Stones list, and more influential than I realized.

"Otis Blue" by Otis Redding - I had not realized that he sang "My Girl" or "Respect" (interesting how a different gender singing it can change the meaning - I am much more familiar with the Aretha Franklin version). I also really liked "Rock Me Baby" (this sent me on a rabbit hole looking up "Wagon Wheel" because I thought the cover by Florida Georgia Line was the original *facepalm*) and "Satisfaction" (very fun hearing that with trumpets). #187 on the Rolling Stones list.

"Going to a Go-Go" by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles - somehow I expected this to be much more upbeat, and while the title track is, much of the rest of the album is soulful love songs. Once I got past the difference between my expectations and reality, I liked it pretty well. And my goodness, the singer's voice is so high on some tracks I thought it was a woman singing at first. "A Fork in the Road" is added to my playlist. Brett Schewitz talks about its historical significance. #412 on the Rolling Stones list.

Bonus listen: "Away We Go-Go" was also on the CD I got from the library, and similarly enjoyable.

I had a long drive this morning to pick up some glass plate negatives to bring back to work, and I nearly ran out of CDs. Thankfully "A Love Supreme" by John Coltrane was ready for me to pick up, so I will not be without music the next couple of days.

Hi, Mary. I love your recent explorations in music. How is Darryl doing? We’re connected on social media, but I haven’t seen or talked to him in quite a while. We used to see him every year in London, but the pandemic threw us all off track. He did come to Chicago once, and we’re talking about getting ourselves to Philly.

I’m not familiar with the poet Rachel Griffiths. Do you recommend her? It’s amazing to me - no matter how many current poets I read, there are still good ones I haven’t read yet. It occurred to me that the same could be said of novelists for me, but I felt that poetry would somehow be more coverable. Oh well, the bright side is I keep discovering good new poets.😀

I was going to ask whether you did music or audiobook for all your driving today. Glad to hear it was enjoyable listening.

And kudos for finishing those ends. I feel like everyone deserves a small party when they complete that part of a project!

>128 jnwelch: Hey Joe, that was a rec from >102 kidzdoc:. I haven't had the pleasure of meeting Darryl in person yet, but hope to get to Philadelphia again, hopefully in the next couple of years. Rachel Eliza Griffiths is a poet and photographer who I learned about in Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder since she and Salman Rushdie are married. I have only read a few poems, but yes, I think you would like her.

>129 MickyFine: It was set up too quickly for me to think about what to listen to for an audiobook, so I went with music! I listened through "Going to a Go-Go" and "Otis Blue" twice through, plus once "Away We Go-Go" on all my driving before arriving at work today. Once I finish the stocking, I'll have to remember to take/post a picture! (I can't on Instagram on the off-chance my cousin sees it before I can mail it out to her).

Happy Friday! Lots of driving all morning, but I'm really excited to see the prints we received and start figuring out the pictures. Looks like most of them are from a family who lived in the town where I work who went on vacation to Block Island in August 1906. A couple of them are duplicates, but there's information on their enclosures that helped me identify who an unknown woman was, so that was exciting. Working 9-5, making dinner, and then perhaps seeing what I can get of the Olympics tonight.

Reading: Moral Man and Immoral Society by Reinhold Niebuhr, Seeing the Body: Poems by Rachel Eliza Griffiths, and Unbroken: My Fight for Hope, Survival, and Justice for Indigenous Women and Girls by Angela Sterritt (apparently I'm really leaning in to the serious nonfiction lately)

Listening: "A Love Supreme" by John Coltrane

Watching: binge-watched a few episodes of Project Runway (Season 16) that I don't remember seeing before last night before bed; not sure what's up tonight, as I think most of the Olympic coverage will be a replay of the opening ceremony, which is kinda meh

Crafting: didn't get the stocking out yesterday, but maybe tonight - next step is duplicate stitch of baby's name and year born on the top

Apparently, the Opening Ceremony won't be the standard stuff in a stadium. They are doing it along the Seine, which I think could be kind of cool. At least it will be something different...

>132 katiekrug: ooh, well that ups my chances of keeping it on 😂 I always try and then get bored... But it's good TV to read to, and just look up when something sounds interesting

Also, Peyton Manning is part of the commentating team for it, so that should be fun :)

>134 katiekrug: TBH that makes it considerably more likely I'll put it on hahaha

Happy weekend-ahead's reads, Mary. *smooch*

Happy Friday, Mary!

Hi, Mary! I finally finished Chapter 7 of Moral Man and Immoral Society earlier this afternoon. I don't have much going on this weekend, so I plan to devote myself to reading it, so that I can finish it by the end of the month; I suspect that Seeing the Body: Poems and James will be amongst the first books I read in August. I received a gently used library copy of The Truths We Hold: An American Journey by Kamala Harris earlier today, which covers her life from birth to shortly after she was elected as the junior U.S. Senator from California, so I'll likely start reading that next week as well.

I should have mentioned that one of my favorite albums by Miles Davis is one that he was actually a sideman on, the 1958 classic "Somethin' Else" by the Julian "Cannonball" Adderley Quintet, which would easily make my favorite 20 jazz albums list, and "Autumn Leaves" is even higher on my list of all time favorite songs.

Autumn Leaves: https://youtu.be/CpB7-8SGlJ0?si=Ph4yQfDByqNuI3kR

Well, free Peacock will not let me access the opening ceremony and I'm not willing to pay for it, so I'm back to watching Project Runway reruns while finishing up the Christmas stocking. Just a little more weaving in ends (this time of the duplicate stitch), making a loop to hang it, and I'm done!

>136 richardderus: Thanks, Richard! *smooch*

>137 curioussquared: Thanks, Natalie!

>138 kidzdoc: I finished chapter 7 today as well, Darryl, as I was too tired last night and really couldn't concentrate on it. I had a harder time than usual following his thought process on this one, for some reason. But I, too, will try to focus some reading time on it over the weekend and finish up early next week. And thanks for the continued jazz recommendations. I'm requesting "Somethin' Else" now to hopefully get from another library next week. "Autumn Leaves" is a beautiful song!

77. A Bookshop in Berlin by Francoise Frenkel
Why now? It was on my TBR list from a BookPage recommendation a couple of years ago, and I read it this month to fit the TIOLI challenge to read a book with a European capital in the title

Francoise Frenkel's memoir, first published in French in 1945, was recently rediscovered and translated into English. In it, she recounts how she started the first French literature bookstore in Berlin, but then had to flee after Kristallnacht. Her bookshop is not destroyed, but because of her Polish Jewish heritage, she knows her life is in danger and she returns to France as a refugee.

The French title of this book translates to "No place to lay one's head", which is a more accurate representation of the contents than the English title. Only chapter 1 really told you about the bookshop, which was Frenkel's dream, and which she ran from 1921 to her leaving in 1938. The rest is about her life in France from 1939 and through the German occupation, showing how her life grows more and more restricted. Though the threat of deportation is always present, her day-to-day life is at times rather boring. And yet, she manages to convey a generally positive attitude and love for French people and literature, despite the way she's treated as a refugee by the government and some of the townspeople. In fact, she's much more forgiving of their human foibles than I would be. Many books have been written about the awful events in World War 2, but it's still powerful to read a memoir about it, especially one written so close to her experiences. 4.5 stars.

Sorry you missed out on the Olympics coverage, Mary.

Up here it's on CBC so I can watch it for free (with ads) on CBC Gem.

>141 MickyFine: Oooh, that's cool! I think NBC actually is a free channel if one has cable or an antenna but I do not... I only use my TV for movies and my laptop for streaming everything else. I'm not too disappointed about missing the opening ceremony, usually I'm sort of meh about the dances and stuff anyway.

Happy weekend! My boss has only been out since Friday and it's already been a doozy, with the AC completely breaking down on Friday and calls with the Town Administrator and chair of the Board of Trustees figuring out if the library should be open yesterday. Wish us luck that the needed part is in stock on Monday! Yesterday morning was spent figuring that out, the afternoon was spent at a cookout for the softball team my brothers are on, and the fans who have been coming out regularly this year. Not a lot of reading time in the end, but this afternoon should be a little quieter. I had nursery at church but have nothing else planned. I'll probably do a little cooking, maybe trying a new recipe.

Reading: Moral Man and Immoral Society by Reinhold Niebuhr, Seeing the Body: Poems by Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Unbroken: My Fight for Hope, Survival, and Justice for Indigenous Women and Girls by Angela Sterritt and The Barbizon by Paulina Bren

Listening: Finishing up "A Love Supreme" by John Coltrane

Watching: binge-watching Project Runway

Crafting: Friday night I finished the duplicate stitch, so the only thing I have left is weaving in those new ends and making the loop to hang it

Hi, Mary! I finished—or, rather, skimmed my way through—chapter 8 of Moral Man and Immoral Society yesterday, and so far I'm halfway through the penultimate chapter 9, which I find more accessible so far. Barring any hiccups I'll finish the book no later than Tuesday.

>144 kidzdoc: I finished chapter 8 earlier today with the intention of getting a start on chapter 9, so sounds like we're on pace. It's been a tough read! I'm going to wish I took notes to write an adequate review. I'm glad to hear chapter 9 is more accessible. My hope is also to finish up about Tuesday.

Hi, Mary. I hope you had a good weekend. Hooray for A Love Supreme. A jazz masterpiece. I am so glad you are continuing to enjoy these jazz giants.

>146 msf59: I really loved "A Love Supreme," Mark, and listened to it well past the usual three listens through I give each new album.

Happy Monday! With all the talk of jazz and great music, I thought you all might enjoy Dorian Hairston's playlist for his poetry collection which includes some of the music I've been listening to and many more that sound intriguing.

Today I would normally work 9-2, we are still without AC but with a high of 72. The part we need is on order and might arrive this week? What a week for me to be in charge! My plan after work was to go to the gym and then cook a new recipe for dinner (I didn't yesterday), but we'll see if that happens.

Reading: same, and I'm hoping to finish up Moral Man and Immoral Society tomorrow

Listening: "Rubber Soul" by the Beatles

Watching: Olympics! (Thanks, Nora!) I had on the Nadal/Djokovic tennis match this morning before work

>148 bell7: 72° without a/c is at least doable, if the library has fans and cross-ventilation...which I devoutly hope it does!

Sending dry-air whammys your way.

Oof. The A/C at the branch where I work was out for one day during our first heat wave in July and I spent some time Googling what temperature was considered unsafe for working (and at which point they'd probably have to close the branch). I was really surprised that it's 30C (86F) - and we did not get that hot (although it was definitely uncomfortably warm). Happily, the A/C has been very well-behaved since then.

Sending best wishes for quick delivery of the necessary part for the repair.

>149 richardderus: Fans, yes. Cross-ventilation, meh... there was not enough of a breeze yesterday to really make the windows open make much of a difference, but we muddled through. I left at 2:30 instead of 2, which all in all isn't so bad.

>150 MickyFine: OSHA has guidelines to keep the temperature 68-76F (20-24C), but it's just a guideline rather than a requirement. It was 75 degrees on the first floor (probably about a degree higher on the mezzanine) yesterday.

The good news is, I received word today from the Town Admin that the part should be in today. Now let's hope that the technician makes it out today AND that this part will actually fix the problem!

Good morning! I was a busy beaver yesterday, going to the gym after work and then cooking dinner (which I'd meant to do Sunday but didn't). I made a new-to-me recipe of a salad with arugula, pearl couscous, tomatoes, leeks, toasted pine nuts and feta. Arugula isn't my favorite green veggie, but its bitterness with the sweetness of the tomato and leeks is a nice contrast. And I needed the gym run, which I'm sure helped with some of the stress from the past few days. It'd been over a week since I had used the resistance training machines so I expected it to be difficult, but I actually had a better workout than what I'd done the last time. One of the employees told me that it's good to have a rest week every few months or so to rest the joints and recover, so that was nice to hear.

Today I'm taking a bit of a lazy morning watching some Olympic tennis now that I've had my breakfast and fed the dog. In a bit, I'll take him for a short walk. I'm scheduled to work 12-8 because we have a program today, so I can be a second person in the library proper while a co-worker is in the programming room. I'm also waiting to hear if the part for our AC has been installed, since now it looks like it should arrive today. At least I can guarantee the day will go by fast.

Reading/Listening/Watching: all the same as yesterday

Crafting: I went through my knitting bag and I don't have everything I need to finish the stocking, so I worked on a scarf last night instead and I'll probably get it out today as well

>152 bell7: Morning, Mary! I'm glad you survived. With fans, I'd guess 75° was tolerable. Cross-ventilation is really only a way to keep the air from getting stale by drawing in the outdoor stuff. Given the season, the main worry in a library would seem to me to be the prolonged effect of unregulated humidity on the books. That sounds like a problem that is imminently solved, so yay!

I'm not in the heat dome yet, but am reliably informed it's on the way. Today's sticky but not too hot...I'm hoping the heat passes quickly here by the sea. It usually does. Tomorrow's review's of a book I think you'll like. Stop by and see!

>153 richardderus: Indeed, the humidity is not good for the books. We reached about 50% yesterday, which feels exceptionally humid when we're used to very dry conditions in the building. I've been reading your thread regularly but the last few books have not called out to me. Glad to see you're back to reviewing, though! I will look forward to tomorrow's for sure.

78. Moral Man and Immoral Society by Reinhold Niebuhr
Why now? Darryl (kidzdoc) asked me earlier this year if I had ever read work of theologian and ethicist Reinhold Niebuhr, which I had not, and we decided to read this title in tandem

In ten chapters, Niebuhr argues that “a sharp distinction must be drawn between the moral and social behavior of individuals and social groups, national, racial, and economic.” While individual morality focuses on the heart, on motives, on unselfishness, a social group by necessity finds its highest morality in justice.

This was a very challenging reading experience. Niebuhr is erudite, using large words and long sentences, and was writing and using examples from politics and nations in 1932. I had to both wrap my head around the thrust of his argument, try to understand what he was saying, and only then could I maybe take a stab at deciding if I agreed with him or not. In each chapter, he lays out his argument on the ways in which individual morality never quite matches up perfectly with social morality. Rational resources (chapter 2) and religious - particularly Christian - resources (chapter 3) have more of an effect on the individual. As classes, the privileged and the proletarian are opposed, and while the latter have a more sure ethical stance the former are the ones in political power (chapters 5 and 6). We have seen governments attempt justice through revolution (chapter 7) and political force (chapter 8), but neither seems to quite meet that perfect social morality. Then there are non-violent means of impacting social morality (chapter 9). Finally, he returns to his central thesis in chapter 10, that we need to have different standards of morality for an individual than for social groups: “It would therefore seem better to accept a frank dualism in morals than to attempt a harmony between the two methods which threatens the effectiveness of both. Such a dualism…would make a distinction between the moral judgments applied to the self and to others; and it would distinguish between what we expect of individuals and of groups.”

Niebuhr was really incredibly prescient about some aspects of national morality and the way in which non-majority groups can advocate for justice. Writing before World War 2 and the Civil Rights events in the 1960s, he observed: “A technological civilisation makes stability impossible. It changes the circumstances of life too rapidly to incline any one to a reverent acceptance of an ancestral order. Its rapid developments and its almost daily changes in the physical circumstances of life destroy the physical symbols of stability and therefore make for restlessness, even if these movements were not in a direction which imperil the whole human enterprise.” If that were true in 1932, what would he make of this world 90 years later? I think there’s some danger in his conclusion that we need to have a separate morality for an individual than for groups. Sure, I don’t expect a nation to be unselfish, or an individual politician to give up the rights of the people they advocate for in the name of love. But I do expect a standard of decency, justice, and character. Maybe it’s idealistic of me, but I want to see a complicated system of humans made up of people who really are working towards the good of the whole. That’s not too far off from what Niebuhr is arguing, I think, in his insistence that the morality of a group is in striving towards justice (rather than individual love/unselfishness), but I fear that the natural conclusion of a “separate” rather than complementary morality is that we compromise on things that shouldn’t be in the name of peace and “law and order”.

Niebuhr’s influence was wide, from Martin Luther King, Jr. to John McCain, Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter and others. I’m glad I struggled through the book and gained an appreciation for his ethical thought, but I’m equally glad to leave it behind. 3.5 stars.

>155 bell7: I really appreciate your review! His writings are very important in both my work field (medical research ethics) and volunteer field (animal conservation) but I don't think I'm ever going to read that one myself lol

>126 bell7: September works for me - unless you mean to read the entire series in that one month? If that is the case, we will have to talk, lol.

>140 bell7: You liked that one better than I did, Mary. I only gave it 3.5 stars - I think part of the problem was that my expectations from the book were higher than what the book delivered to me. I am glad to see you enjoyed it so much.

Have a terrific Tuesday!

>155 bell7: A really well-written review, Mary. Sounds like a challenging read and not one I'm likely to tackle, but I'm glad you found it rewarding.

>155 bell7: Niebuhr's erudition is challenging. His conclusions are compelling. I expect I do not need to explain the areas where I find his discussion of individual morality...um...questionable.

This read is one I undertook in the 1980s as a student in a philosophy class. It was a slog, and a slugging match, but one that stays with me decades later.

>155 bell7: Fantastic review of Moral Man and Immoral Society, Mary! Thank you for agreeing to read it alongside me, as I almost certainly would have given up on it if you didn't (as I said on my thread it reminded me of my upper level Philosophy courses, and not in a good way!). I just finished it, and I'll take a few days to collect my thoughts before I write my review of it. I may also touch base at some point with one of my oldest friends, a Lutheran minister who lives nearby, conducted my father's funeral, and also studied Niebuhr extensively, to get her take on him.

>156 norabelle414: Thank you, Nora! I'm not sure I'm ready to tackle another of his books anytime soon, either, but it's interesting to me that his writings are so wide enough to encompass both your work and volunteer fields.

>157 alcottacre: I only meant The Shadow of the Wind in September, Stasia. I don't think I could commit to all four in a month! I was fortunate in reading A Bookshop in Berlin that I realized early on that very little would actual be *about* the bookstore and was able to reset my expectations pretty quickly. I don't usually go quarter stars, but if I'm being picky, I'd probably give it more like a 4.25.

>158 MickyFine: Thanks, Micky! Definitely a challenge to read, and one I wouldn't have tackled if Darryl hadn't mentioned it.

>159 richardderus: I found myself thinking it would be a great read for a college class where I'd have a professor and fellow students to help me think through it. And no, I'm not surprised you'd diverge from his take on individual morality. Even as a Christian I thought his definition of "religion" too Christian and simplistic when it came to that chapter (I was better able to follow it than some of the others, though!).

>160 kidzdoc: Thanks so much, Darryl. I, too, probably would've given up on it without the extra accountability of reading together. It's good to stretch my brain with a read like that from time to time, though. I will very much look forward to your review, and your Lutheran minister friend's take on it, should you discuss it with her. And it's been very interesting reading the comments on your thread about majoring/minoring in Philosophy! It's not something I would've taken on as a college student - I like things that are less subjective and have one answer (which is why I majored in *drum roll please* English in undergrad). But I plan on taking free college classes in retirement and could see myself tackling it then, once I care more about learning itself than the grade.

And now for the report you all were waiting for: the AC part came in, and we are back in business! We did not have to close early, we got our program in, and by the time we left tonight it was 2 degrees cooler than the hottest it got (and believe me, even the first degree made a difference!).

Listening report:

"A Love Supreme" by John Coltrane - I really enjoyed this album, hands down just a pleasure to listen to from beginning to end. It's only three tracks (four parts, according to Wikipedia, which makes sense between the third track sounded to me like two parts), but I listened through it a couple more times than I usually do before returning it to the library. #66 on the Rolling Stone's list - here's Brett Schewitz's review.

"Rubber Soul" by the Beatles - so I'm familiar enough with Beatles songs that I've only been listening to the albums 2 times through and finding it enough. (The other thing I've noticed, incidentally, is that while I like some of the songs, I don't generally find the need to add them to my playlist since they're so ubiquitous I feel like I hear them enough. My dad is probably to blame for this, having played his favorites only over and over again.) This is a really strong album, most of the songs are very well known and the ones that aren't are generally not bad, they're just not as good as the greats. Harrison's "Think For Yourself" was alright. The only one I really didn't like was the last one, "Run for Your Life", which basically sounds like a guy who may commit domestic violence out of jealousy. I surprised myself and added "In My Life" to the playlist (the only other Beatles song on there currently is "I've Just Since a Face", and yes, I will be keeping track to discover my own favorite Beatles songs). #35 on the Rolling Stones list. My new favorite music critic actually goes song by song in this one and I was surprised to see how much we agreed. He also had a lot of info I didn't, which was interesting.

Next up is "Highway 61 Revisited" and then I'm on to 1966.

>162 bell7: Good news. Great news for you and your co-workers!

>164 quondame: Yes! I'll be even happier if it's still working tomorrow (I say, knowing that it's had issues off and on all summer, so I'm leery of saying "it's fixed" because what it really needs is to be replaced).

Hooray for Rubber Soul and the excellent follow-up Revolver. Always hard to choose, which of the 2 are my favorite. Since I am still making it through the "D"s in my music collection, I might spin Highway 61 Revisited. He released a string of landmark albums during that period. Enjoy!

Hey Mark, yeah, Rubber Soul was a good one for sure. I've got Revolver ready to go after Highway 61 Revisited, though I'm not driving as much over the next few days to be able to listen to a lot.

Happy Wednesday! I have a pretty lazy morning, though I will walk the dog in a bit. I will not be finishing any more books this month, so I'll be posting a July in review soon and updating the TIOLI challenges accordingly.

I'm working my normal 12-8 today. There's been something new to deal with every single day, including today already, and I'm really ready to leave this week behind and have my boss back from vacation. The good news is, the AC is continuing to work and has brought down the temperature to a much more ideal 70F. I'm leaving early on Friday for a hair appointment (cut and color, which will be fun, I'm adding purple highlights), I have a quiet-by-my-standards weekend planned, and on Monday after my short day I have a massage appointment.

Reading: Unbroken by Angela Sterritt, The Barbizon by Pauline Bren, and Seeing the Body: Poems by Rachel Eliza Griffiths

Listening: "Highway 61 Revisited" by Bob Dylan

Watching: Olympics, particularly gymnastics and tennis

Crafting: didn't pick up the scarf yesterday, but maybe today

>161 bell7: I really did not think you meant the entire series for September, Mary. Lol. I have penciled Shadow of the Wind in for then, not forgetting that we are also supposed to also read The Warmth of Other Suns then too. And possibly some Victoria Goddard. . .

Have a wonderful Wednesday, Mary!

July in review
78. Moral Man and Immoral Society by Reinhold Niebuhr
77. A Bookshop in Berlin by Francoise Frenkel
76. Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell
75. Inciting Joy by Ross Gay
74. The Guncle Abroad by Steven Rowley
73. Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
72. Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
71. The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman
70. The Game of Courts by Victoria Goddard
69. Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie
68. Knowing God by Name by Mary Kassian

Books read: 11
Did not finish: 2
Rereads: 0
Children's/Teen/Adult: 0/0/11
Fiction/Nonfiction/Plays/Poetry: 4/7/0/0

Because I want to awards:
I can't believe I read the WHOLE thing - Moral Man and Immoral Society
Most fun reads of the month - Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries and The Game of Courts
Translated book of the month - A Bookshop in Berlin

YTD stats -
Pages read: 24,426
Avg pages a day: 114
Books by POC authors: 28 (36.36%)
In translation: 8 (10.4%)
DNF: 5

Thoughts: Somehow July felt like I read less, but it ended up being right at my 2024 average-so-far of 11 books in a month. I did read fewer pages, which brought my average a day down from 118 to 114, but the rest of the percentages I'm tracking are, happily, holding steady. The biggest surprise was how much nonfiction I read this month - 7 in total, including the last four books I read - and it'll carry over a little into August, since I'm still reading two nonfiction and a book of poems. All of that is uncharacteristic of my reading, and I will not be surprised if much of August becomes a little more comfort and fluff reads towards the end to make up for it.

One things I'm really pleased about is how many "shared" reads I had in July, both in TIOLI challenges and reading Knife and Moral Man and Immoral Society with Darryl. Some of these were already on my TBR list and some, like Homage to Catalonia were books I hadn't originally planned on reading at all but was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it.

I'm also pleased with meeting my global reading goals. This month added South Africa and Poland to the countries of origin of authors whose books I've read this year. Authors from the U.S. is holding steady, currently 54%. The largest chunk of non-U.S. reads is represented by Canada (12 books) and then the UK and France (6), followed by Malaysia and New Zealand (2), then Australia, India, Ireland, Poland, South Africa, Chile, and Jamaica (1). I have a couple more translated books currently borrowed from the library, and hope to read at least one this month. I'll also be looking to add to my total of French books to meet that goal as well (A Bookshop in Berlin was translated from French, but the author was originally from Poland). On to August!

>169 alcottacre: Yes, I'll be reading The Warmth of Other Suns with my book club, so I'll need the balance of fun reads and will very much look forward to Shadow of the Wind and Victoria Goddard! I was assuming the Goddard would probably be novella-length, which would help some with all those planned reads. I didn't think you were serious about all four books either (dry sense of humor is so hard to convey over the Internet...), your "then we'd have to talk" comment made me laugh :)

>168 bell7: Thrilled for your purple highlights! Don't forget to post a picture.

>172 norabelle414: I am planning on asking my hair stylist to take one before I leave! (And it'll still be nice and bright when I go down to DC in a couple weeks)

Purple hairlights! How cool is that!

One of the vanishingly small number of poems I genuinely enjoy is:
“Warning” by Jenny Joseph

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple,
With a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves,
And satin sandals, and say we’ve no money for butter.

I shall sit down on the pavement when I’m tired,
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells,
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.

I shall go out in my slippers in the rain,
And pick flowers in other people’s gardens,
And learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat,
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go,
Or only bread and pickle for a week,
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry,
And pay our rent and not swear in the street,
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised,
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

Jenny Joseph is a poet who said what I was thinking, purple clothes/hairs/cars are de rigueur at my age...though, as she was 29 when she wrote this in 1961, it clearly means the young you can do it, too.

*smooch*

Congrats on surpassing the magic number this month, Mary.

And pleased to hear your AC is behaving better at work!

>174 richardderus: I do like that, Richard! I believe that poem inspired the Red Hat Society, which I think is fantastic. My mother grayed early (almost entirely gray by my age), and I expected to do the same and had always planned to cut my gray hair in a pixie cut and dye the ends purple and other fun colors... and then when I didn't gray much, I thought, well, why wait?

>175 MickyFine: Thanks, Micky! I was satisfied reaching 75 in July. I probably won't reach 150 this year (it's possible, but not likely), but I'm very much on pace for my typical 130ish books in a year. And yes, very glad to have a working AC at work today! It was working all day, which is wonderful!

Congratulations on surpassing 75 books so early in the year, Mary.

>177 vancouverdeb: thanks, Deborah!

So I've been playing but not posting my Wordle for some time. This progression made me laugh because it was sheer dumb luck

Wordle 1,139 3/6

🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

ARISE, POUTY, CHALK

>171 bell7: "then we'd have to talk" comment made me laugh :)

Good! My work here is done then. . .




for the 75!!

>180 alcottacre: Thanks, Stasia!

Happy August, everyone! It's Thursday and it's going to be a hot one with a high of 92. I'm hoping to go to the gym tonight after work.

Reading: Unbroken: My Fight for Survival, Hope and Justice for Indigenous Women and Girls by Angela Sterritt, The Barbizon: The Hotel That Set Women Free by Paulina Bren, and Seeing the Body: Poems by Rachel Eliza Griffiths

Listening: "Highway 61 Revisited" by Bob Dylan

Watching: Olympic coverage

No crafting to report lately

I was tempted by A Bookshop in Berlin until I realised I'd read it already under a different title!

Hope the AC continues to function properly. It is in the rare period here when the office is too warm to be comfortable, so I am envious.
I'm another fan of that Jenny Joseph poem.

>183 charl08: What title did you read it under? I liked the translation of the original French title better, to be honest.

Thanks re: the AC. Yesterday was great, though today and tomorrow will be the real test of the hottest days of the week. Tuesday it got up to 77 before cooling off and that one degree down to 76 make a surprising difference.

>184 bell7: I hope you'll choose some stuff for #WITMonth, Mary, as it'll also beef up your "another country heard from" stats. We're set to get over 80° today, with much wetness of air, so it'll feel like 900C. *ptui*

>183 charl08:, >176 bell7: I'm not surprised her shout of frustration at the restrictions of a life lived in even-more patriarchal times resonates so much with y'all. I'm glad you're able to think "why wait?" so young, Mary! *smooch*

>182 bell7: I enjoyed The Barbizon when I tried it a couple years ago. I hope it's a good read for you!

Hi, Mary! Now that I've finished Moral Man and Immoral Society I can dive into this year's Booker Prize longlist, starting with James by Percival Everett, which is as good as advertised so far. I purchased a gently used hardback library copy of The Truths We Hold: An American Journey by Kamala Harris from Amazon as soon as I learned that Joe Biden would not be running for reelection, figuring that it would be as rare as hen's teeth, especially since only three copies were available. That ended up being a good move, as I paid $13.99 for it; yesterday the cheapest version was going for nearly $210! I started reading it this morning, and I'll also start Seeing the Body: Poems this weekend as well.

Not to influence your listening pleasure, but two of my all time favorite albums made the Rolling Stone 1966 list: "Search for the New Land" by Lee Morgan, and "JuJu" by Wayne Shorter.

>185 richardderus: I currently have one book out of the library that would fit, but I'm not sure if The door by Magda Szabo will really be my thing or not. I'll certainly read your reviews with interest, and will probably just be a few months behind (as usual with my reading!).

>186 MickyFine: Thanks, Micky! It's been interesting, but I have a quibble about the title. It's... not exactly about the hotel? It's a lot more about New York in the time period and women's history, and tangentially a bunch of people mentioned lived there. But I'm trying to recalibrate my expectations a little and sink into the story for what it is. I am learning a lot!

>187 kidzdoc: James is on my list as well, so I'll look forward to your thoughts on it. (I'd like to whittle down my library stack a bit before I request any others.) Nice timing on The Truths We Hold! The current library requests for Harris's book and Vance's Hillbilly Elegy are both quite high for backlist books. I read the latter a few years back with my book club, but I have not yet read The Truths We Hold.

I think we're talking about two different Rolling Stones lists - which one are you referring to? I'm working off the 2023 version of 500 Greatest Albums, and the 1966 ones are "Dictionary of Soul" by Otis Redding, "Wild Is the Wind" by Nina Simone, "Blonde on Blonde" by Bob Dylan, "Revolver" by the Beatles, and "Pet Sounds" by the Beach Boys. But of course I'll add your recs to the "To listen" list I'm keeping on my phone.

TGIF! I'm working a slightly short day today, leaving a couple of hours early to get a hair cut and color. I will do my best to remember to ask my stylist to take a picture when finished. During work, my only real plan is to do turnover with the register and bring it in to Town Hall. I'm on the desk 9-12. So the day will go by fast.

Tonight I need to pick up a few groceries to make dinner and have a couple meals for the weekend. It should be a fairly quiet weekend, some chores, but I'm also thinking of going out to a big yarn store that I haven't visited in awhile and see about getting some (discounted) yarn to make myself a new garment.

Reading/Listening/Watching: all the same, it'll take me a couple of days to finish a book probably

Happy weekend! I am officially Not in Charge at work any longer. I have a fairly quiet day today, a few chores I'd like to get done, like a quick load of laundry and watering my plants. I'm planning on watching a lot of Olympics and doing some yarn shopping for a new project.

I left work early to get my hair done yesterday, and here's the result:



I was a little surprised that in styling it, instead of using my own waves, she straightened and then curled my hair. As a result, it's a little straighter today and I want to give my hair a quick rinse & spray with curl stuff to see what it will look like from day to day. But I'm super happy with the color and looking forward to rocking purple for the next couple of months, at least.

Reading: all same

Watching: currently the women's table tennis gold medal match, soon to switch to the women's tennis gold medal match

Listening: Finishing up "Highway 61 Revisited" by Bob Dylan today

Crafting: As soon as I post this, I'm picking up the scarf I've been working on (more off than on) for months

>190 bell7: LOVE your purple hair! Very flattering indeed.

I really think you'd like Bird Cottage. Used paperbacks are about $5 on Ammy, and worth it even at full Kindle price of $11.99. Such a charming book.

*smooch*

>188 bell7: I may finish James as early as tomorrow, Mary. I would like to finish it before I write my review of Moral Man and Immoral Society, as I’ll need to review the notes I’ve taken and the passages I’ve underlined. After reading your review I suspect that I’ll have a far more pessimistic and cynical view of western societies, and that my comments about Niebuhr will reflect that.

What did you think of Hillbilly Elegy? IIRC I purchased a copy of it, but I haven't read it yet, and at this point I don’t think I will.

Thanks for clarifying the Rolling Stones lists; I was looking at the best albums of 1966, which included “JuJu” by Wayne Shorter and “Search for the New Land” by Lee Morgan. I’m not intimately familiar with any of those albums, so I look forward to your comments about them.

>190 bell7: Your hairdo is absolutely amazing!!

>190 bell7: I love the purple, Mary! I have often told my girls that if I ever got my hair colored, it would be purple :)

Have a super Saturday!

>190 bell7: Oh, cool hair!

>191 richardderus: Thank you for the hair love and the book recommendation, Richard!

>192 kidzdoc: I could see coming away with a bit of a pessimistic view after reading Moral Man and Immoral Society. I'll read your review with interest, and look forward to your thoughts on James as well.

Hillbilly Elegy was... fine, and in retrospect I probably like it less than I did when I read it. At the time, I wrote

I've seen some people either laud this as explaining the white lower class's votes for Trump or denounce it as yet another slur against Appalachia. I think either is a bit unfair and not really addressing what the book is about. This is, at its heart, just one man's story about his family. He makes some sweeping "our" and "us" statements talking about Appalachian culture or mentality but I think his family is just one example of a group that of course is more diverse than just the three generations of family he concentrates on. And I think he has interesting things to say that could be explored more fully in research or other reading - for example, he has one line in which he explains that there was a vote against Section 8 housing in a neighborhood and his argument wasn't that there shouldn't be Section 8 housing but that it should be spread out so that there wouldn't just be one neighborhood where all the poorer people hung out together and never got to see anything but poverty around them. He makes a pretty good personal argument for why it was impossible to imagine life any other way when all the families surrounding you were like you - a case study rather than a more general statement that would have to be backed up by statistics.

I would say my main criticisms now would be he does generalize from his own experiences - and he grew up in Ohio, not Appalachia. One of my co-workers who also read it soon after it came out said he thought it sounded like Vance would eventually run for office, which of course turned out to be completely correct. If I remember correctly (and it's been a few years), he comes across as much more moderate in the book than his statements in latter years. All that to say, I wouldn't blame you if you skipped it.

BookRiot recently reran a list of 15 Books to Read Instead of Hillbilly Elegy, which I'm planning on exploring.

I guess I'll have to check out some more Rolling Stones lists, then! I was talking to my brother R. (who's a musician himself) about my listening the other day, and he was excited about some of the 1967 albums I have upcoming. He offered to lend me the CDs of the albums he had, and suggested a couple others that he was *shocked* didn't make the cut for the top 500. So keep the recommendations coming! If I don't get to them right away, I've got an ongoing list on my phone of recommendations people have given me in the past year or two (and at this rate, I'll have to start a spreadsheet like I did for books, though the "listening" list is currently much shorter than the "to read" list).

>194 quondame: Thank you, Susan! My own curls aren't quite so big, but I'm very happy with the result.

Happy Sunday!

I'm about to head out shortly - I've got toddler nursery at church today - but am hoping to watch either the rest of or the replay of the men's tennis gold medal match after I return. Not much planned for the day otherwise.

>198 bell7: Good heavens! You'll be napping the day away next, Mary. This is a level of activity you could manage with casts on both legs and one arm.

I hope you can stay awake for the Olympics. *smooch*

>190 bell7: Nice hairdo! It turned out well. You've got longer hair than I realized. I hope you got to watch the tennis today.

>199 richardderus: Well, if it makes you feel better (?), I did a little cooking and packed up to go home after dogsitting for a week and a half, then came home and unpacked too ;)

>200 atozgrl: Thanks, Irene! My hair length fluctuates dramatically and it's on the longer end at the moment. Probably sometime next year I'll cut it short.

Happy Monday! I'm back to work and not in charge, working 9-2 and have a list of things I want to go over with my boss. After that, I have an appointment for a massage. I'm hoping to take the afternoon and evening to read, do a few chores around the house, knit, and watch some Olympics.

Reading: The Barbizon by Paulina Bren (I should finish this today), Unbroken: My Fight for Survival, Hope and Justice for Indigenous Women and Girls by Angela Sterritt, and Seeing the Body: Poems by Rachel Eliza Griffiths

Listening: "Dictionary of Soul" by Otis Redding

Watching: Olympics

Crafting: I did the little finishing things on both the Christmas stocking and the scarf, and started a top for myself with yarn I bought over the weekend

Monday orisons, Mary! I'm glad you're out of charge, you could use the destressing.

*smooch*

>190 bell7: Wow it looks great! Your hair is so long!

Have a marvelous Monday, Mary!

>203 richardderus: Indeed, it's nice to be out of charge and home - both will help with the destressing!

>204 norabelle414: Thanks, Nora! It has grown out quite a bit in the last year. I'll probably chop it sometime next year.

>205 alcottacre: Thanks, Stasia, same to you!