richardderus's fifteenth 2024 thread

Translate THIS for #WITMonth!

(A British naval signal flag teaching set from the early 20th century, in fact)

Reviews 001 through 008 are linked here.
Reviews 009 on thru 017 are linked here.
Reviews 018 to 026 are linked there.
Reviews 027 to 033 are linked there.
Reviews 034 through 040 are linked here.
Reviews 041 to 045 are linked here.
Reviews 046 unto 050 are linked here.
Reviews 051 to 059 are linked there.
Reviews 060 up to 064 are linked here.
Reviews 65 up to 78 are linked there.
Reviews 79 through 87 are linked there.
Reviews 088 to 109 are linked there.
Reviews 110 to 112 are linked here.
Reviews 113 up to 117 are linked there.

THIS THREAD'S REVIEWS

118 The Night Will Have Its Say in post #55.
119 Hum in post #74.
120 Heavens on Earth in post #88.
121 They Dream in Gold in post #109.
122 Mothers Don’t in post #124.
123 Medusa of the Roses in post #215.

All my threads in the 75ers linked somewhere here
My Last Thread of 2009 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2010 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2011 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2012 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2013 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2014 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2015 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2016 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2017 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2018 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2019 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2020 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2021 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2022 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2023 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.

All previous Burgoine reviews linked here.

THIS THREAD'S BURGOINE REVIEWS:

BURGOINE #036 A Strange Woman in post #159.
BURGOINE #037 The Performance in post #160.
BURGOINE #038 in post #

All previous Pearl Rule reviews linked here.

THIS THREAD'S PEARL RULE REVIEWS:

PEARL RULE #017

Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York (50%) in post #161.
PEARL RULE #018 (%) in post #

Seriously...not a great venue for normies here.
My 2023 goals are here, for reference.
2024 GOALS
If I reviewed 222 books in 2023, why not go for at least 250 in 2024?

So I will.

All but 36 of 2023's reviews were from NetGalley and Edelweiss+, the DRC aggregators I use to get my biblioholism fixes. That's 16% of the total actually read and reviewed. In 2024, I think that percentage is just fine to maintain, so I'll settle on 41 reads not from those two sources as my soft goal...I don't much care if I hit it exactly, but I do need to leave room to read and review books I've been gifted over the years!

2023's #Booksgiving review blast resulted in my blog views for the month being 177% of November's total. So that worked. I only used Twitter for all of November, then for #Booksgiving, added Bluesky and Tumblr. That worked, too. The sadness of my #PrideMonth limp, flaccid performanceless unblast made me realize that, if I'm going to get a big project done, I need to break it down into steps. This is new for me, and a result of the actual limitations that the strokes have imposed on me. Like no longer being able to read handwriting or decode graphics like Wordle, this acquired dyslexia is a limitation I need to acknowledge. Not to say I won't keep pushing against it...but it's real, and planning needs to be based in reality.
***
End of Q1 thoughts on goals
I've had to drop Tumblr from my review-posting because the owner/president/head jerkoff posted transphobic maunderings, then the trans employees said "y'all CTFD he didn't mean it" which well totally relate to needing the gig, but no. THEN announced Tumblr would sell to AI scrapers everything users have posted there...so that, plus their porn ban, means they get axed from me creating anything there, posting or boosting things there. And they don't care, or notice, but I get to keep my own moral high ground.

I don't see, or feel, any reason to adjust any of my annual goals. I've posted 51 blog posts in 2024, or on track for 200 annual posts; but that does not account for the heavy months of June and #Booksgiving to come, and there are already eleven reviews banked for those two.

End of Q2 thoughts on goals
#PrideMonth ended the quarter better than I'd feared, an average of 287 page views a day on the blog. Twitter did me proud all quarter long representing 68% of referred traffic. My annual goal of 250 blogged reviews is still well within reach. The current 117 is down to June's big push of 27 posts, 26 of them single-title reviews. I've learned that the way to get more eyeballs on a review is to post one at a time even if they're short, and save the gang reviews for the end of the month. Adding up unique views on separate posts on the same day of the week versus ganged reviews showed me 151% more views were made than for the individuals. Message received.

There were a lot of surprises this quarter. I just loved Jonathan Corcoran's memoir, No Son of Mine: A Memoir, which was a relief since I really loved The Rope Swing: Stories and would've hated to say lukewarm things about this one. A disappointing surprise was The Ministry of Time, which sold me on one idea and delivered another that I didn't like nearly so well. A happy surprise was Saint Elspeth, new to me author, found via my BookTuber bud Bryce. Its minor flaws in copyediting did not ruin it for me compare to its reasonably hopeful take on postapocalypse US society.

A book of poems that I decline to name and a free Atwood story were, as expected, unloved. I'm more than ever aware that I have fewer and fewer eyeblinks ahead, so I need to get better at putting down thoughts on Pearl-Ruled books to give myself a sense of completion. I get niggly little guiltfish in my brain if I just drop a book with no resolution by review. I'm reinforced in my certainty that posting reviews is a lot easier if I make a few notes after I finish a read, then come back to make that a review when its day comes to be posted. Since I average five or six books on the go at one time, waiting until I finish a book then writing its review THAT MINUTE is daunting, so often doesn't get done. My blog's "scheduled" page is scary, full of bits and snips and stuff I really, really hope I don't die before I can clean up or delete. Otherwise there'll be months of nasty mean ugly-spirited whinges popping up at seemingly random moments into 2025.

On to Q3 in good spirits, eagerly awaiting #WITMonth in August! (Women In Translation Month, an annual event dreamed up by a woman (!) who was fed up with translators not getting any luuuv.)
Seriously...not a great venue for normies here.
My 2023 goals are here, for reference.
2024 GOALS
If I reviewed 222 books in 2023, why not go for at least 250 in 2024?

So I will.

All but 36 of 2023's reviews were from NetGalley and Edelweiss+, the DRC aggregators I use to get my biblioholism fixes. That's 16% of the total actually read and reviewed. In 2024, I think that percentage is just fine to maintain, so I'll settle on 41 reads not from those two sources as my soft goal...I don't much care if I hit it exactly, but I do need to leave room to read and review books I've been gifted over the years!

2023's #Booksgiving review blast resulted in my blog views for the month being 177% of November's total. So that worked. I only used Twitter for all of November, then for #Booksgiving, added Bluesky and Tumblr. That worked, too. The sadness of my #PrideMonth limp, flaccid performanceless unblast made me realize that, if I'm going to get a big project done, I need to break it down into steps. This is new for me, and a result of the actual limitations that the strokes have imposed on me. Like no longer being able to read handwriting or decode graphics like Wordle, this acquired dyslexia is a limitation I need to acknowledge. Not to say I won't keep pushing against it...but it's real, and planning needs to be based in reality.
***
End of Q1 thoughts on goals
I've had to drop Tumblr from my review-posting because the owner/president/head jerkoff posted transphobic maunderings, then the trans employees said "y'all CTFD he didn't mean it" which well totally relate to needing the gig, but no. THEN announced Tumblr would sell to AI scrapers everything users have posted there...so that, plus their porn ban, means they get axed from me creating anything there, posting or boosting things there. And they don't care, or notice, but I get to keep my own moral high ground.

I don't see, or feel, any reason to adjust any of my annual goals. I've posted 51 blog posts in 2024, or on track for 200 annual posts; but that does not account for the heavy months of June and #Booksgiving to come, and there are already eleven reviews banked for those two.

End of Q2 thoughts on goals
#PrideMonth ended the quarter better than I'd feared, an average of 287 page views a day on the blog. Twitter did me proud all quarter long representing 68% of referred traffic. My annual goal of 250 blogged reviews is still well within reach. The current 117 is down to June's big push of 27 posts, 26 of them single-title reviews. I've learned that the way to get more eyeballs on a review is to post one at a time even if they're short, and save the gang reviews for the end of the month. Adding up unique views on separate posts on the same day of the week versus ganged reviews showed me 151% more views were made than for the individuals. Message received.

There were a lot of surprises this quarter. I just loved Jonathan Corcoran's memoir, No Son of Mine: A Memoir, which was a relief since I really loved The Rope Swing: Stories and would've hated to say lukewarm things about this one. A disappointing surprise was The Ministry of Time, which sold me on one idea and delivered another that I didn't like nearly so well. A happy surprise was Saint Elspeth, new to me author, found via my BookTuber bud Bryce. Its minor flaws in copyediting did not ruin it for me compare to its reasonably hopeful take on postapocalypse US society.

A book of poems that I decline to name and a free Atwood story were, as expected, unloved. I'm more than ever aware that I have fewer and fewer eyeblinks ahead, so I need to get better at putting down thoughts on Pearl-Ruled books to give myself a sense of completion. I get niggly little guiltfish in my brain if I just drop a book with no resolution by review. I'm reinforced in my certainty that posting reviews is a lot easier if I make a few notes after I finish a read, then come back to make that a review when its day comes to be posted. Since I average five or six books on the go at one time, waiting until I finish a book then writing its review THAT MINUTE is daunting, so often doesn't get done. My blog's "scheduled" page is scary, full of bits and snips and stuff I really, really hope I don't die before I can clean up or delete. Otherwise there'll be months of nasty mean ugly-spirited whinges popping up at seemingly random moments into 2025.

On to Q3 in good spirits, eagerly awaiting #WITMonth in August! (Women In Translation Month, an annual event dreamed up by a woman (!) who was fed up with translators not getting any luuuv.)

See >5 richardderus: for 2023 achievements & 2024 goals.
My January 2024 summary is here.
My February 2024 summary is here.
My March 2024 summary is here.
My April 2024 summary is here.
My mid-May 2024 #PrideMonth launch notice is here.
My May 2024 summary is here.
My June 2024 summary is here.
My July 2024 summary is here.
My #August is #WITMonth launch post is here.

Very well, the floor is yours.

...seems appropriate for #WITMonth, doesn't it...

Happy new thread RD.
I *think* you're on a battleship. Noice.

>9 Helenliz: Welcome, Helen! Seems only meet and just to offer you the imperial state crown:

Happy new one!

>11 figsfromthistle: Thanks, Anita!

I had a very interesting conversation with the proprietor of Second Edition Bookstore regarding Joys of Jello cookbooks. I had discovered a whole stack of Pillsbury Bake-off recipe books from early days and I mentioned that I was looking for the first edition of the Joys of Jell-O. She told me that she might know where one was - in her home. Janet (Streamsong) and I described your hot dog Jell-O mold to her and she knew about it! She went behind her desk and a bit later showed us a picture of a green ring mold Jell-O salad with suspended lettuce and TUNA inside the ring! Can you believe that? It was in a low calorie cookbook put out by Time/Life books.

Happy new one, RD! That semifore (?) teaching set is very cool.

Happy new thread, Richard! Looking lovely right from the start.

Karen O.

>13 benitastrnad: OMG!! That is really weird. That gawdawful thing is, no doubt, hard to expunge from one's brain, but WOW is that a weird coincidence. Lettuce and tuna suspended in glop sounds truly heinous.

>14 katiekrug: Semaphore fascinates me, Katie. I get nothing useful from it, but it's really pretty. Happy weekend-ahead's reads!

>15 klobrien2: Hi Karen O.! Happy to see you here. I hope it stays pretty...

>8 richardderus: >13 benitastrnad: I'm finding it a bit scary here. Quick! Review something, Richard, and have a happy time! *smooch*

Salutations on your fifteenth, dear fellow.

Happy new thread, Richard.

>10 richardderus: Why thank you. I'm really not sure I have anything to wear that with. Alternatively it looks perfect for some weight training - just wearing it looks like a work out!

Semaphore is (by my understanding) signalling with flags by a person. You have 2 flags and the positions of the two flags indicate letters. I used to be able to do it, but can now only remember the letters in the first position.

The flag signalling thing doesn't seem to have a specific word that I can recall and auntie google's not helped there either. So maybe it's also semaphore. I grew up by the sea, but never sailed.

>19 LizzieD: Possess your soul in patience, dear lady. Next review is Monday's of The Night Will Have Its Say by Ibrahim al-Koni and ably translated by Nancy Roberts. I promise a happier focus! *smooch*

>20 PaulCranswick: Thanks, PC!

>21 ArlieS: Thank you, Arlie!

>22 Helenliz: I think the person's optional in semaphor, but who knows...it's all obsolescent.

Her Maj trained for weeks to support the two-plus kilo weight of that seriously bloated bling. No word, at least not yet, on Chuck's regimen pre-coronation.

Happy new thread, RDear!

>1 richardderus: I love the teaching set.

>8 richardderus: A redhead, a crazy redhead, and waves coming to shore. 👍

>13 benitastrnad: Dylan Hollis has a whole bunch of YouTube shorts, most of them originally on Tik Tok, some with ridiculous gelatin recipes. He hates all Jello and gelatin recipes, but he's also got some really good recipes. I heartily recommend his book Baking Yesteryear. He collects cookbooks, too, and his cookbook is divided into decades with vintage goodies. He also includes some stinkers as a separate section, Worst of the Worst. Pickle Cheesecake and Roughage Loaf are two that even sound disgusting.

*smooch*

>27 karenmarie: Pickle cheesecake? Could this be a savory dish, with chèvre, pecorino, cream cheese, or similar? That might not be horrifying the way sugary cheesecake with pickles sounds like it would be.

Oh, and >13 benitastrnad: I totally second Horrible's rec of Dylan's stuff. He's a funny guy, and a very food-literate guide to the past. Not a Max Miller level history guy, but still knowledgable.

*smooch*

Happy new thread, RD!

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

Happy new thread RD!

Happy new one, RD!

Have a happy, RD. I know what would stimulate jollies. You could read something. Never thought of that, did you.

>29 alcottacre: Hi Stasia! *smooch*

>30 humouress: Thanks, Nina!

>31 Storeetllr: Hi Mary! Thanks, smoochling.

>32 weird_O: ...read...? Like, a book? weirdo

Happy new one, Richard. Peddling as hard as I can to keep up.

>37 RebaRelishesReading: You'n'me both, Reba! I just left yours a second ago.

Happy new thread, Richard!

>39 Familyhistorian: Thanks, Meg! Happy Sunday.

‘Morning, RDear. Happy Sunday to you.

>28 richardderus: The things I spend my time on… links, snips and pics, all forwarded to LT just for your delectation. Made this big so you can't miss his comments or the awful ingredients.



Dylan Hollis in Today 7-25-23

Lazy day, reading and feeding the birdies, perhaps napping, puttering.

*smooch*

>41 karenmarie: I love Dylan! I try to watch at least one of his videos every day...great for one's state of mind.

>41 karenmarie: Hilarious! I love to "hear" his voice! I think the comestible doesn't sound as awful as His Sugartonguèdness prefers....

Link's busted, smoochling.

>42 laytonwoman3rd: He's a joy, isn't he Linda3rd. Like your daughter's GBFF at a grim Thanksgiving feast.

Pickle cheesecake!!! I'm hungry and it's early and that is enough to make me...

Sorry about that! Link fixed. *smooch*

>45 RebaRelishesReading: ...make you...?...c'mon! Finish the sentence, Reba!! I'm dyin' over here!!

>46 karenmarie: He is a really good interview, as a YT dive will tell you, articulate, intelligent, and thoughtful. I love his OTT queer-boy acting out even more knowing that. I wonder what he and Randy Rainbow could do together....

Happy new one, Richard! But really? Pickle cheesecake??

Oh, I love the Imperial Crown, Richard! Tough to wear , weight wise though. Pickle cheesecake? I just lost my appetite. Happy New Thread!

>49 drneutron: I'd have to try it, but I can see it being good...most anything *can* be made tasty just so long as you work on flavors.

Welcome!
***

...dad...dad...dad...dad...daaaad!!

>50 vancouverdeb: Now I'm lusting after an oiven to prove all y'all wrong!

*smooch*

'Morning, Rdear. Happy Monday to you.

I have an oven, but don't have the will or the available sodium mgs to make it.

*smooch*

Happy Monday, Richard.

I love pickles and think that the cheesecake might even taste good......you never know ;)

118 The Night Will Have Its Say by Ibrahim al-Koni (tr. Nancy Roberts)

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: The year is 693 and a tense exchange, mediated by an interpreter, takes place between Berber warrior queen al-Kahina and an emissary from the Umayyad General Hassan ibn Nu'man. Her predecessor had been captured and killed by the Umayyad forces some years earlier, but she will go on to defeat Ibn Nu'man's forces.

The Night Will Have Its Say is a retelling of the Muslim wars of conquest in North Africa during the seventh century CE, narrated from the perspective of the conquered peoples. Written in Ibrahim al-Koni's unique and enchanting voice, his lyrical and deeply poetic prose speaks to themes that are intensely timely. Through the wars and conflicts of this distant, turbulent era, he addresses the futility of war, the privilege of an elite few at the expense of the many, the destruction of natural habitats and indigenous cultures, and questions about literal and fundamentalist interpretations of religious texts.

Al-Koni's masterly account of conquest and resistance is both timeless and timely, infused with a sense of disaster and exile—from language, the desert, and homeland.

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

My Review: I'm kind of an outlier among this book's Anglophone readers: I like the formal, "speechifying" tone. This is historical fiction about the incredibly consequential events surrounding the Arab Wars of Conquest, specifically of the Maghreb. This century-long expansion of Islam and political control by Baghdad's rulers formed the fault lines of our present-day world. It felt appropriate to me that the words they spoke on the page were...heightened...not quotidian, not the same ones you'd use to ask your housekeeper why your nan's vase is suddenly chipped.

So, please understand that I'm aware of the formality, the speech-giving style, the focus on the characters as actors on the world's stage, and am okay with and invested in that. The consequentiality of the events in this book very definitely merit it. The author is telling this story from the PoV of the conquered, not the triumphal and celebratory version preferred (see the linked Wikipedia article) by the conquerors. In many ways the story is so very astonishing that it feels a bit like a fantasy epic. This story's The Lord of the Rings, only for real...and y'all lap up that deep-purple prose.

Give this a shot.

About the story itself I am so ignorant that I can point to no departures from History's pages. The North African civilizations were very old indeed. Pharaonic Egypt had diplomatic ties and cultural interchanges with the Libyan cultures millennia ago; the Berbers are, I think, their descendants. Roman, Byzantine, and then Arab Muslim conquests have overlaid rulers and rules and religion on the enduring people. The book's assumption of the conquered ones' voices is delightful to me, who daily bumps against the heterohegemony and religious restrictiveness on my right to exist. To have a woman assering her and her people's right to exist as they are and have always been, against a man sent to chnage them on a basic level, seems like a story you're going to want to read just now. It's not like it's got any modern resonances, is it? A woman standing up for freedom to exist unchanged against an overbearing, bloviating hypocrite of a man?

I'm suddenly seeing an orange haze between me and the screen....

However much I want you to read this story, I feel there's a resistance inside my mostly Anglophone and largely American readers. It's about people you know (most likely) nothing about. It takes the side of the powerless, to induce you to get over that hurdle. It's negatively focused on religion. The main character is a woman asserting herself, to get you over that hurdle. The prose is...well...I said above it's heightened, and really, given the stuff I see y'all reading, I don't think that's a hurdle you need much help getting over in and of itself. I suspect most objections like that are more about resisting the unfamiliarity of the subject matter. I strongly encourage you to get over that hurdle. This story is deeply rooted in an entire ancient civilization's resistance to being restyled and remade to suit the opinions of powerful men with an arsenal of weapons superior to its own and fueled by rage and the lust for Control.

These stakes should resonate with all y'all in the Anglophone world, and I hope inspire you to resist what we see around us from becoming normal.

Again.

Morning, Richard. Happy New Thread. I have to take the camper back to storage this AM and the rest of the day will be of the "chill" kind. Looking forward to the cold front moving in later tonight. I would to get my mitts on The Rope Swing: Stories. Looks like my cuppa.

>53 karenmarie: Morning, Horrible! *smooch*

I don't think you'd like it anyway, smoochling. The textures, the flavor profile, none of it seems likely to get more than a lukewarm "can I spit now?" smile out of you.

>54 figsfromthistle: Monday orisons, Anita! I'm glad to see someone else thinks it *could* be good.

>41 karenmarie: >51 richardderus: YAG! Sugar in the pretzel crust??? Under everything else???!!!!! (I first typed,"pretzel curst." That's probably pretty accurate.) "mosh-pit" ---> That'll send you back in time.

>55 richardderus: You have, however, redeemed yourself if you needed redemption, Richard. I am both ignorant of and fascinated by North Africa in this time, so the I. al-Koni is on order in a used pb, and I'll look forward to it. Thank you!

*smooch*

>59 LizzieD: I'm happy I redeemed myself, me lurve, since this book's one that I think can only increase your perspective on the world's foibles and crotchets. We've been behaving this way for millennia.

There's a hefty amount of sugar in pretzels, since they're made from a yeasted dough. Adding a bit more to the crushed ones ls likely just meant to increase the browning and crunch of the final product. I kinda like the idea of calling a pretzel crust a "mosh pit" TBH since it's equally weird and old-fashioned. "Curst" is how I feel about the uncrushed, uncrusted pretzel. Dreadful things, not sweet, not salty, not anything except hard to chew.

*smooch* for a happy week-ahead's reads.

>55 richardderus: Sadly, not available from my Overdrive libraries. There is one book by the author, The Seven Veils of Seth but from the synopsis it sounds a bit violent for me.

>61 humouress: I can see it not being your jam...given the focus on the fraternal conflicts, might not be mine either. Stinks about it not being Overdriveable! I wonder if the libraries are skittish about it being seen as anti-muslim.

>55 richardderus: Hoopla has that one so I can check it out when I have time to read it - which is definitely not in August, lol. Thanks for the review and recommendation, RD!

((Hugs)) and **smooches** and hopes that you have a marvelous Monday!

>63 alcottacre: Monday orisons, Stasia! *smooch*

>47 richardderus: Ummm ... turn green? (illness, not jealousy)

>65 RebaRelishesReading: That would be the "soured raisin pie" he made from a 1943 cookbook. Sour milk and raisins, urk, and calls for non-specific "spices" to which Dylan says, "what goes well with IBS?"

Yeup.

>66 richardderus: Oh yuck!! sounds awful. I'm not a raisin fan on the best of days and sour milk -- throw it out 😝

Hiya, RDear, and happy Tuesday to you.

>55 richardderus: Since history is written by the winners, this one is intriguing. I just bought a used copy on Amazon, darn you, thank you.

>59 LizzieD: Freudian slip, Peggy. Pretzel curst… Although, a pretzel crust seems to work on sweet pies if you like sweet and salty together. I mostly don’t, but could be persuaded to take a bite of a frozen key lime pie with pretzel crust…

>66 richardderus: Ah, bless Dylan. His asides are always wonderful, frequently dirty.

*smooch*

Good morning! We seem to be around!!!

I do like sweet and salty together but only if that's the intended focus. I do not appreciate sweet in something that is supposed to be savory. That's why I reject Miracle Whip and my DH's preference for honey wheat bread. My tastes may be limited, but I know what I like!

We're getting the first rain with thunder. I soggily wish you a happy day, Richard. *smooch*

>67 RebaRelishesReading: I suspect the fact that the cookbook hailed from 1943 means the recipes were meant to make do/use it up/do without..."don't you know there's a war on?" as my parents would say to each other, then laugh.

>68 karenmarie: I'm so pleased, Horrible, that I have finally after nearly two decades of trying landed a book bullet on you. ::smug:: I think you'll like the story...just work with the style, okay? It won't be your best read ever, but it might be one of your most interesting.

Salted caramel is ubiquitous these days, innit? I'm okay with the contrast most of the time, and will choose the salted caramel option over the chocolate one every time.

Dylan is proof there's something in British subjects's genes that predisposes them to Carry On humor. He makes me snigger, giggle, chortle, and horselaugh for a minute thirty every damn time.

>69 LizzieD: Morning, Peggy me lurve, I'm ever so chuffed you're not using a periscope to see the keyboard. Miracle Whip's a weird one. I prefer mayo, but the use of Miracle Whip or its chemical precursors in bottled dressing is ubiquitous. I do eat those, willy-nilly, so I can't say I just reject the crap. I don't choose it, but will eat it.

Sweet sandwich bread. An abomination. Just eat cake.

blubburbleblub back at'cha, sweetness.

Hello Richard! I didn't know August is #WITmonth but after I read Parable of the Sower, which I started this morning, I'll peruse my shelves for something that fits. I fear most of my books in translation may have ended up in storage for the year.... :-/

119 Hum by Helen Phillips

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: From the National Book Award–longlisted author of The Need comes an extraordinary novel about a wife and mother who—after losing her job to AI—undergoes a procedure that renders her undetectable to surveillance…but at what cost? In a city addled by climate change and populated by intelligent robots called “hums,” May loses her job to artificial intelligence. In a desperate bid to resolve her family’s debt and secure their future for another few months, she becomes a guinea pig in an experiment that alters her face so it cannot be recognized by surveillance.

Seeking some reprieve from her recent hardships and from her family’s addiction to their devices, she splurges on passes that allow them three nights’ respite inside the Botanical Garden: a rare green refuge where forests, streams, and animals flourish. But her insistence that her son, daughter, and husband leave their devices at home proves far more fraught than she anticipated, and the lush beauty of the Botanical Garden is not the balm she hoped it would be. When her children come under threat, May is forced to put her trust in a hum of uncertain motives as she works to restore the life of her family.

Written in taut, urgent prose, Hum is a work of speculative fiction that unflinchingly explores marriage, motherhood, and selfhood in a world compromised by global warming and dizzying technological advancement, a world of both dystopian and utopian possibilities. As New York Times bestselling author Jeff VanderMeer says, “Helen Phillips, in typical bravura fashion, has found a way to make visible uncomfortable truths about our present by interrogating the near-future.”

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

My Review: SciFi from a woman's PoV by an actual woman is not as rare a thing as it once was. Even women SF writers of the comparatively recent past wrote a boy's or man's PoV as often as not. Now this ignoring of The Future (as seen by women in it) is passé. We still don't see a ton of mothers as PoV characters, though.

May is such a PoV character, and she resonates powerfully with me. Her steely determination to provide for her family is the bedrock of the story. The worldbuilding is subtle, as one would expect from an author working in the (very) near future. Probably my single favorite touch of worldbuilding is one I think is largely invisible to most: May, our main charater, is married to Jem; their children are Sy and Lu.

Even their names are minimized. That most human of sounds, our names, is clipped down to the minimum of syllables, squeezing these beings into a narrower, and narrowing, bandwidth. One better suited, not coincidentally, to the vocal apparatus of the "hums" of the title.

Ah, the hums...the titular beings who represent the next (?) generation of the smartphones now falling out of favor among the young (to me) user base. If, as I suspect, their increasing disenchantment with these devices is being quietly steered, I suspect the course they're being steered ON is the one Author Phillips is showing us in this story.

The worst nightmare of a parent is to lose their children. Especially very young ones whose understanding of the World around them is unformed. Why else did the Satanic Panic/Stranger Danger epidemic get rolling? Losing a child to death by disease is less and less common...thank all those useless gods for that...but accidents, and malicious actions like addictions, malefactors who prey on the innocent are still there to obsess the fretful. Now add AI to that mix, and Author Phillips is on a winner to speak to this seething mass market. She does not do this cynically. Her brushes against the eerieness of the surveillance capitalism around us border on entry into the Uncanny Valley. Her own previous writing has been used without permission or compensation to train the generative AI we're being told will take over. I myownself think, however, that Sabine Hossenfelder's got the right handle on the reality of the eventual results. Author Phillips is wise to point to the ways this borning system is likely to fail Humanity, to the humans who still have time to change course.

Hum traverses nightmarish loss, dystopian social catastrophe, and failures of a deeply human sort in this tale. I wish I could pooh-pooh its premise, or its conclusions, but I can't. I think all y'all who read my reviews will know what you need to know about my opinion of the read by the fact that a) I published a review on a Tuesday, 2) I was apprived for this DRC on 2 August and am reviewing it four days later, and iii) have not said, and do not intend to say, one critical word about its conception or execution.

Many of y'all do not like anything SFnal or speculative. I encourage those folk most especially to get this from the library and read it.

You're going to live it soon enough.
NB there are links to sources and definitions in the blogged review

>74 richardderus: Definitely going to have to look for that one!

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

>73 EBT1002: Hi Ellen! I feel confident you'll really like Parable. I wonder if, when you identify which #WITMonth title you're interested in reading, your poor, innocent library couldn't be strongarmed into procuring it for you...?

>74 richardderus: You got me with a nice BB for Hum! Thanks!

Karen O

>75 alcottacre: I expect it'll be on your library shelves soon, Stasia...her publisher's Knopf, so their marketing power will push a NBA-nominated author onto more shelves than not.

*smooch*

>77 klobrien2: Excellent news, Karen O.!

*smooch*

>74 richardderus: Took the bullet. You are welcome.

>80 weird_O: IJBOL

>55 richardderus: Looks like that one is more of a scholarly work, Richard. World Cat has it mostly available in university libraries.

Happy new thread, Richard!

>18 richardderus: I love that picture!

>41 karenmarie: That gave me a good laugh!

>69 LizzieD: I'm with you on the bread, Peggy. I bought Arnold's bread once years ago, it might have been their "thins", and when I made a sandwich and bit into it, yuck! The bread tasted sweet, which is not what I want with a sandwich. I've never gone near Arnold's again.

>82 Familyhistorian: It's more because the subject isn't hugely resonant with the hoi polloi, plus the publisher being a university press...it's not a critical edition or anything misery-inducing like that, Meg.

>83 atozgrl: Thanks, Irene! I'm glad you like >18 richardderus: and that you're on the side of Truth and Jusice on sweet sammy bread's appalling anti-life qualities.

*smooch*

>1 richardderus: Happy new thread!

>86 ocgreg34: Thank you, Greg!

120 Heavens on Earth by Carmen Boullosa (tr. Shelby Vincent)

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Three narrators from different historical eras engage in preserving history in Heavens on Earth. As her narrators sense each other and interact through time and space, Boullosa challenges the primacy of recorded history and asserts literature and language's power to transcend the barriers of time and space in vivid, urgent prose.

Carmen Boullosa is one of Mexico's leading novelists, poets, and playwrights. Her most recent novel The Great Theft (Deep Vellum, 2014) was shortlisted for the PEN Translation Prize, nominated for the International Dublin Literary Award, and won Typographical Era's Translation Award. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, and Mexico City, Mexico.

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

My Review: Deeply, deeply examines our modern-US obsession with The Past. Every excursion into The Past requires acts of translation. You and I, reading and writing on our devices, pushing our words into strangers' faces as a matter of course (possibly detrimentally to discourse) can't know what anyone in The Past really meant to say. We can see the words. We can, but mostly won't bother to, study the time and thus learn some cultural facts that help us get a hint. But, like the radical fascist folk who assert their politicosocial ideas as representing those of the US "founders," we're translating words, not recovering facts. Author Boullosa uses multiple narrators in multiple timelines to examine the role of History and Tradition as anchors, as dead weights, and as foundations. What even is The Past, a key question for each narrator. The same events look hugely different to people with different perspectives.

I am usually a bit iffy on this narrative technique. In this case, I lapped it up because Estela in the present, Learo in the future, and Don Hernando in the past each explore this story's central thesis, the nature of narrative in shaping culture, without resorting to speeches. No one says, "if they/we had only known" or the equivalent. They tell us, their readers, the reality they live in as seen from their differing levels of privilege granted to each one's identity. Fair warning, there is frank...but uncelebrated...homophobia, colorism, and racism. They are facts of the past and present. The future, well...we won't know for a while, will we?

The narrative conceit is of a manuscript written in Latin when the Conquest was within living memory. Its author's a gay man in Holy Orders; not so shocking an idea for the time. It falls into the hands of a present-day scholar, Estela, who translates it (into Spanish). She is living in the failing Western country, Mexico. She annotates the manuscript with an academic eye on the roots of the present-day struggles in the clueless past, intending to make it public. Somehow the manuscript reaches Learo living in a wildly posthuman, post-scarcity future where The Past is not discussed, not heeded, not mined for clues or used as either guide or horrible warning. Learo's narrative is, unsurprisingly, polyphonic with Don Hernando's account of how the Conquest violently and cruelly mangled the memories and the bodies of the dwellers in "New Spain," an utterly invented and brutally enforced culture. As is always the case in examples of conquest, the ordinary person is required to graft a new identity onto their lifelong one, an intimate violation of self that begets more and more violence.

It is a stunning psychic violence that pollutes every facet of the future.

Yet without an honest reckoning with it, the present is unmoored, is prone to equal, congruent violence. The future that creates is...chilling. I'll say, for fear of spoilers, what Author Boullosa says: this novel explores "the prohibition of memory that will take us to the abolition of language, the repercussions of which the reader will witness."

"Repercussions" might be the best-translated word Shelby Vincent chose.

This novel, in its translation from Spanish to English, offers a far more trenchant riposte to foolhardy US politicosocial "essentialism" than a dozen more "factual" analyses could. A story does something an analysis can't: Personalizes the reverberations of actions taken or not taken, of salvations offered and denied. How we read this novel, in English, is already a thing apart from how it was written in Spanish. Its echoes of Anglophone sensation Cloud Atlas will be seen by the myriads of y'all who read (and mostly loved) that timeweaving narrative. More recently we had the multiversal Everything Everywhere All at Once pursuing the layering of causality in its own specially fraught way. The topic is a delightfully rich one, offering many opportunities to contemplate the story, its message, its execution, and its presentation in an enhanced framework. The effort of following the story through its curlicues and oddly bent pathways is richly repaid.

What effort you make at translation is always a life-altering thing. Reader be aware. You will leave a different soul than the one you entered as.

‘Morning, RDear! Happy Wednesday to you.

>69 LizzieD: Ah, the great mayonnaise vs. Miracle Whip debate. We always used MW at home. I keep both here at the house now for a variety of reasons. A dear friend of mine who died from Covid in 2021 HAD TO HAVE Dukes Mayonnaise, but I really don't have a preference. Surprisingly, one of my MiLs, the one who was born in and lived most of her life in Chapel Hill NC, only used Miracle Whip.

>71 richardderus: Yup, first BB, darn you. *smirk*

>72 richardderus: I do not like salted caramel, salted chocolate, salted sweets as a rule.

>74 richardderus: Hmmm about Hum, but ultimately pass. This shouldn’t surprise you. Excellent review, though.

>88 richardderus: In my shopping cart, haven’t pressed Proceed to Checkout yet. I think I’ll leave it there for a bit, but enticing review of a book I have, at a bare minimum, added to my wish list.

*smooch*

Happy Wednesday, Richard. I think we cross-posted up there yesterday. I had a fine day playing PB and spending time with Jack. You landed a solid BB with Hum. It sure sounds like my cuppa. We have a great stretch of weather coming.

Wow I am so far behind on reviews - especially when comparing to your 120 of them!

>88 richardderus: So it turns out I got very interested in polyphonic narratives. Looks like an interesting book, thanks. (or... um.. curses! :) )

>89 karenmarie: Click "Proceed" smoochling. You need to read this one...of course you need to read >74 richardderus: as well, but pocking battles is the path to Victory, no?

Duke's isn't All That, now that I've spent $20 on one tub of it to try. Fine, okay, not great. I've never tried salted chocolate. I don't like the stuff as you know, but maybe that would make it more endurable.

My aim is true!

>90 msf59: We must have, Birddude, sorry about that. I'm glad your grandson time was as much fun as possible! I think Hum could introduce you to a new writer you will be interested to follow. She's got stuff to say and says it well.

>91 sirfurboy: I think thanks will win over curses, Stephen, after you get into the read...Boullosa has a very particular story to tell, so it works well as a universal one. That is always fun to watch a writer work to achieve.

Glad to see you put and about, good sir! Stay well, and remember my life is waaaaay less busy than yours so my review output shows it.

>88 richardderus:
Well, Heavens on Earth is a book bullet. I loved Cloud Atlas and that time bending you referred to. I am also interested in the way we approach history and how things are often lost in translation. Great review.

>95 benitastrnad: Great news, Benita! I'm confident you will like the read. Thank you most kindly for saying nice things.

>74 richardderus: I have to stop to research that one, but I'll be back to read the rest later.

Meanwhile, a still-not-swimming *smooch* for your Wednesday!

>97 LizzieD: *smoochiesmoochsmooch*

It's soggy here...nothing like y'all's rain but plenty enough to leave the air sodden. *ick*

>85 richardderus: Sorry, must share an opposing opinion -- there is no sandwich finer imho than ham with mayo on a Hawaiian dinner roll -- definitely a sweet bread but the combo with the saltiness of ham is wonderful (imo)

Mark's comment on playing pickleball extracted the several posts about pickle cheesecake from whatever is left of my memory cells. Is there a connection? Win at pickleball and receive a pickle cheesecake. Whether you want it or not.

There must be a better connection. Points awarded for creativity.

>99 RebaRelishesReading: Interesting alternative view!

weirdo...probably likes pineapple on her pizza

>100 weird_O: I suspect the quantum fluctuations of your brain-electricity decided to do some tunnelling, Bill. Went a very interesting, though weird, place!

>101 richardderus: Please don't compare me to that guy!!! (but I do like pineapple on my pizza)

>103 RebaRelishesReading: *ew* Really, Reba! Objecting to my (unintentional) evocation of 34/45 I get, but admitting in public to liking pineapple on pizza...! On top of (!) admitting you like sweet bread for sandwiches...!

You do live on the edge, madame. ::side-eye::

>83 atozgrl: All bread made in Singapore seems to have sugar in it. Very weird when you make a smoked salmon wholemeal sandwich.

I confess, apparently Canadians invented the pineapple on pizza thing. I can eat it, but likely I would pick the pineapple off the pizza. I like salt on chocolate! I don't salt it, but you can buy salted chocolate caramels, salted chocolate. Oh, don't make me drool. Peanut butter and chocolate. A slice of heaven.

>105 humouress: Almost all bread has sugar in it. Starts the yeast faster...but too much makes it dessert not sandwich trenchers. Salmon on sweet bread sounds decidedly not yummy to me.

>106 vancouverdeb: I do enjoy peanut butter and chocolate on occasion. The Reese's cup is deVOON three times a year, maybe, more than that it cloys on me.

Canuckistan must wear its shame. Imagine the effrontery of making a fruity pizza, that macho Italian street food!

...why don't I like it, exactly...?

121 They Dream in Gold by Mai Sennaar

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: A “luminous” (Tara Conklin) literary debut following two dreamers, one intercultural family, and the diasporic pursuit of home.

When Bonnie and Mansour meet in New York in 1968―his piercing gaze in a downtown jazz club threatening to carry her away―their connection is undeniable. Both from fractured homes, with childhoods spent crossing the Atlantic, they quickly find peace with each other. And as Mansour’s soaring Senegalese melodies continue to break new ground, keeping time with the sound of revolution and taking him and Bonnie from Paris to Rio and Switzerland, it seems as though happiness might finally be around the corner for them both.

Then Mansour goes missing. His Spanish tour was only meant to last three weeks, but three months later, he and his band have not returned. In his absence, Bonnie reckons with her memories of him, and comes to understand that the hopes of so many women―her mother and grandmother; his mother, aunt, childhood friend―rest on her perseverance. Stirred by the life growing inside her, Bonnie puts a plan in action to find him.

Spanning two decades and moving through the hotbeds of the African diaspora, They Dream in Gold is an epic yet intimate exploration of the migrant hunger for belonging and a powerful, intergenerational testament to our shared humanity, for lovers of Tara Stringfellow’s Memphis and Abi Daré’s The Girl with the Louding Voice.

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

My Review: Buckle up...this is a complicated read. Long at over four hundred pages, complex in its interrelated cast of characters, difficult to summarize as a result. Senegal, Paris, New York...the Twenties, the Sixties...familys seen in passing, a family being formed...this novel's a web.

It's a debut novel for the storyteller and close to a debut for the publisher. Sarah Jessica Parker's SJP Lit is part of a company called Zando Projects. SJP Lit's mission statement is:

Sarah Jessica Parker’s SJP Lit publishes sweeping, expansive, thought-provoking, and discussion-driven stories that are inclusive of international and underrepresented voices. SJP Lit books capture the contemporary imagination and reflect a wide range of ideas and experiences.

So someone famous decided not to start a book club, or an imprint in the Corporate World, but a company publishing books she curates and pays for and edits for us to see what she wants to read and offers us as worth it to read, too. As I would expect from Parker's résumé, the story told here is very much focused on character development. Bonnie and Mansour are not, despite what you could reasonably expect from the synopsis, the only or even the best developed characters. Because the story does not conform to linear time's slightly tedious constraints, we get the family polyphonics as well as the dynamics. This is a fancy way for me to say, if you're expecting a straightforward family saga, you're going to be left wanting. If you really want a book you can inhabit, one that feels more like a series (I mean this in the good way!) than a standalone, here's a great summertime immersion.

The way we move from time to time, from place to place, demands of the reader a level of participation, of code-switching, that might be off-putting for some. I think you'll twig quite quickly to the cues that indicate we're going to shift, though they are not the same from one instance to the next. What I like about that is the mood of the read never stagnates, a danger that family sagas can fall into readily. After a time many of them feel like trauma porn, or a weird triumphalism celebrating a character's Strength, Nobility, and Fortitude. Yeeeccchhh

Author Mai Sennaar doesn't succumb to that too-easy, too-incredible stuff. Her women are beset by worries and doubts. They wonder if things are worth it if they hurt this much, demand this much of them. They stumble, fall, and fail. But they never stay down for good.

It is a distinction, not a difference, but it is a consequential one that speaks to the author's intent. She is not going for the facile road to storytelling success. That is clear from the start. For this old white man, that made the read all the more interesting and involving. Some of that could be down to the slightly more...distant...way the narration is deployed, it gets an overview feeling across. Back to that polyphony of PoVs. This is a natural outgrowth of it. I found it enhanced my reading experience, in part because it enabled Author Sennaar to put me more firmly into the time and place the different strands of her story-web flow through.

I found I was disgruntled by one big, star-losing thing: Like Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm (whose author flatteringly blurbed this book), every one of these women is circling a man. The story's center is a man (absent though he be). Is it that hard to make these women interrelate around themselves and each other?

A crotchet of mine. The Bechdel test still matters to me because the queer equivalent is abysmal still...gay characters feature more than ever, less than reality says is fair. So, no fifth star for you, debut novel. Author Sennaar is deeply talented and should be supported, make no mistake.

Maybe she's got more to say, soon. Let's show we're listening.

‘Morning, RDear. Happy Thursday to you. We’re hunkered down, generator on, with TS Debby making an appearance some time today. She’s still in SC.

>109 richardderus: SJP Lit sounds interesting, and excellent review.

Amazingly, I’ve never heard of the Bechdel test and will now, of course, test every non-MM-romance read with two or more women with it.

*smooch*

>110 karenmarie: Howdy, Horrible...glad you liked the review, and I encourage you to visit SJP Lit's website. Four books in, their list is impressive. This book was published by Virago in the UK, and The Guardian reviewed it flatteringly.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/article/2024/jul/28/they-dream-in-gold-by-mai-...

...never? wow. I'm glad you got that piece of pop culture into your head. It's very instructive....

>109 richardderus: Good morning, Richard. Your BB hit me squarely even though Bechdel matters to me too. I doubt that I'll be as sensitive to it as you are, so when I finally get/get to the book, it may earn another star or half from me.

We're fine and should stay that was today. You do the same! *smooch*

>104 richardderus: lol

>112 LizzieD: Hi there Peggy! I'm glad to say the worst thing I'm facing today is a sticky bleeeccchhhy atmosphere of humidity. I need not interact with it apart from fetching my meals to be eaten in my a/c-chilled room. Stay safe, dear one. *smooch*

>113 RebaRelishesReading: :-P

In my not so humble opinion, the absolute best of salty sweets is salty licorice. Of course I love licorice in any form - though not the red fake licorice too common in America - so I might be a wee bit biased.

I'm also fond of savory dishes that include sweet elements, which appear to be common in the Middle East. e.g. apricots being included in meat dishes.

OTOH, "Hawaiian pizza" is kind of meh. I'll eat it, but it's not my first or second choice.

>116 ArlieS: I've only tried "real" licorice once, the kind with aluminum chlorhydrate or whatever on it, once.

That was enough.

I like sweet/sour/savory combinations in many configurations. Pork and apricots, beef and citrus, chicken and...well, doesn't much matter, pile it on so I can ignore how little I enjoy chicken. I'll eat most things if I'm hungry enough, except silage (corn on the cob) because NO, though I avoid some things so as not to irritate the conditions I operate within.

If it's somehow made incumbent on me to eat pineapple on pizza, I'll do it, but I'd exhaust every means to avoid it first.

>117 richardderus: I don't think licorice needs aluminum chlorhydrate to be "real". I'll happily eat it in its unsalted form. But "strawberry" licorice is an abomination.

I hear you about the need to avoid some foods to avoid irritating the conditions you operate within. Though I imagine you may well have to do even more of that than I do.

You got me with They Dream in Gold, Richard. My library has it on order and I'm 9th on the hold list.

>118 ArlieS: I don't think I've ever had strawberry licorice...you mean those skinny red shoelace-looking things? Never eaten one.

It's a minefield, fueling this body I drive around.

>119 Familyhistorian: Oh yay! I hope it leads you along pleasant paths, Meg.

Wow, what a winning string of reviews you have on this thread, my dear! I have added The Night Will Have its Say to my wishlist.

>122 ronincats: I'm so glad you got the goods, Roni. I think this month's been very good reading. Thank goodness! Enjoy The Night Will Have Its Say when its turn comes.

*smooch*

122 Mothers Don’t by Katixa Agirre (tr. Katie Whittemore)

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: A mother kills her twins. Another woman, the narrator of this story, is about to give birth. She is a writer, and she realizes that she knows the woman who committed the infanticide. An obsession is born. She takes an extended leave, not for child-rearing, but to write. To research and write about the hidden truth behind the crime.

Mothers don't write. Mothers give life. How could a woman be capable of neglecting her children? How could she kill them? Is motherhood a prison? Complete with elements of a traditional thriller, this a groundbreaking novel in which the chronicle and the essay converge. Katixa Agirre reflects on the relationship between motherhood and creativity, in dialogue with writers such as Sylvia Plath and Doris Lessing. Mothers Don't plumbs the depths of childhood and the lack of protection children face before the law. The result is a disturbing, original novel in which the author does not offer answers, but plants contradictions and discoveries.

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

My Review: Seeing Motherhood, that uncriticizable cult, as a prison exclusively populated by and designed for women, is very culturally risky. Think I'm exaggerating? Call Motherhood a "sacred cow" in public.

Crowds will gather. Trouble will brew. The speaker will be set upon from every point of the cultural compass. Like saying "religion is evil, a force for the worst people to do the most intentional damage to the greatest number of others" it results in much, much shouting about it from those alleging they most value the freedom to express ideas freely. Feminists will decry the insult perceived in comparing a woman to an animal, a Hindu will shout about colonialist appropriation of a cultural symbol, a mother will complain she is misunderstood....

I know this from experience.

That reality told me Author Agirre was on to a winner in this journalistic investigative thriller of a wealthy woman's "inexplicable" infanticide. I'm going to have to contextualize all of that: by definition, all things pertaining to mothers and motherhood are domestic; a story that centers a journalist investigating a crime in front of us is journalistic; a story involving the uncovering of the "why" of a violent crime no one wants investigated is a thriller. That exactly none of these things are present in their essential forms makes this literary fiction; that the center of the story is absolutely, essentially, irreducibly about femaleness's exclusive biological function, unshared and unshareable with men makes it feminist.

The entanglements do not stop there. This is a web, and it is meant to be. Meanings are massively interwoven: Do these women have a relationship, or is it a case of scraping a connection? Does our journo using an extended leave, not to care for her own child but to write about the infanticide as it travels through the legal system, suggest her fascination might be rooted in some envy? Her old connection is an artist, married to a wealthy man, possessed of an au pair...her own Swedish man isn't wealthy but she has resources many would envy just by giving birth there. Her story is of a difficult birth, a lot of time away from her child, permaybehaps escaping the overwhelming, extinguishing identity Mother, instead of drowning her child in a bathtub.

The story, in pop culture and true crime, is as old as the state of Motherhood. Sometimes it's just too much. Some people aren't interested in doing this lifelong job. Some aren't suited to it. And the less we talk about it, the more women fall into a life they do not want to lead because they had no external guidance to consequences, alternatives, solutions. Tragedies come when people, all of us, refuse to talk through the realities of life. That leaves us all at the mercy of myths. Myths arise to address needs; myths also get crafted, honed to serve as weapons. One thing is certain: The Cult of Mother is incredibly old and powerfully supported, and only a brave soul says, "No."

These kinds of stories tell us about a tragedy arising from the myth remaining unchallenged. That ought to be enough to send all y'all scurrying out to get a copy. I hope it will. For me, this was an above-average reading experience that didn't quite reach the pinnacles I always hope for a read to reach. As a translation of a translation, I wonder if that might be it. Translator Whittemore does a creditable job but I'm...unthrilled. Pleased. Contented. Unthrilled, though, and I am absolutely the audience for this tale. My own mother should never have had me, or any other child, because I can tell you her laziness was the only reason she never killed me. It was easier not to vaccinate me and to ignore my physical problems.

Not kidding. Being female does not mean a person is automatically suited to motherhood.

So, well, do I recommend the read? Yes. It is stylistically interesting, it tells a story I think many will find very involving and will invest their energy into while receiving ample rewards.

It will entertain, it will inform, it will offer rewards. The sale price, had I paid it, would feel very well worth the investment.

>88 richardderus: You got me with that BB, Richard. Thanks (I think).

>109 richardderus: I am still thinking on that one.

>124 richardderus: Being female does not mean a person is automatically suited to motherhood. Boy, isn't that the truth? I salute the women who make the sensible decision not to have children because they know that they are not suited to being mothers.

((Hugs)) and **smooches** for today and hopes that you have a wonderful weekend!

>125 alcottacre: If you pick one, Stasia, pick >88 richardderus: and borrow >109 richardderus: from the library. I can promise that >124 richardderus: will never be in a library, and it's on sale 40% off via the publisher's website. That makes it about $9.60 in paperback.

>116 ArlieS: >117 richardderus: Looks like I'm late to another food discussion. I'm pretty much with Arlie when it comes to Hawaiian pizza. It's OK, but not the first (or second or third) thing I'd go for.

However, have you never had pineapple dessert pizza? It's fantastic!

>126 richardderus: Thanks for the advice, RD. Unfortunately my local library does not have They Dream in Gold. I can get Heavens on Earth through Hoopla. I appreciate the heads up on Mother's Don't but I am not buying books currently - at least not until I am back from my trip at the end of the month :)

>125 alcottacre: That's me. I knew I wasn't cut out for motherhood and skipped it.

‘Morning, RDear. Happy Friday.

>124 richardderus: Outstanding review. You have made it personal and universal. My first thought on reading the first sentence of what the publisher says was the horrific reminder of Susan Smith murdering her two sons. I'm saddened to see that she's eligible for parole in November. This book is tempting, but ultimately I don’t think I could handle it.

Once I started thinking about motherhood in my early 20s, I realized that motherhood is not for every woman. My perspective was from a choice point of view – if a woman did not want to have children she shouldn’t be required to. If a couple didn’t want children, cultural expectations should not inform their decision for their lives. Now, of course, I see other reasons.

Having said that, I always wanted to be a mother and have a child, which I was fortunate enough to bring to fruition when I was 40.

*smooch*

>127 atozgrl: I've never heard of a dessert pizza at all, let alone one with pineapple. Absent detailed information about them, my immediate response is like my response to "salads" with Jell-O and/or CoolWhip and/or canned pie filling:

No.

>128 alcottacre: *smooch*

Just wait...you'll see >88 richardderus: on one or another of your sources soon.

>129 atozgrl: Wisdom, thy name is Irene.

>130 karenmarie: You sure as heck didn't get stampeded into a sentence, Horrible sweetiedarling, you thought, decided, and chose...exactly as we should assist all women in doing. I do NOT recommend this read for you at all, in any way shape or form. If it is given to you, donate it to the library.

My initial versions of the review went into Susan Smith, and Michael Cunningham's The Hours, and some other awful things. It was too screed-y, and also hit wrong coming from a man. Focusing wider but with greater specificity was a challenge for me. I'm ever so pleased you like the result, I worked hard to get there.

*smooch*

>120 richardderus: Yeah, those red shoelaces. They also come in plugs and thick twisty sticks, like real licorice.

>124 richardderus: I suspect this book would push *all* my buttons, having been assigned the mother/sex toy/servant identity at birth. NOT accepting the BB.

>135 ArlieS: I'll take your word for it.

>136 ArlieS: No need to...you already know what you need to know. Why suffer for the acquisition of information you possess?

>131 richardderus: There's a pizza chain in our area that makes dessert pizzas, although all the ones in the Raleigh vicinity seem to have closed now. They made all kinds of dessert pizzas, IIRC that included blueberry, apple, and strawberry, but the best ones were pineapple, and cherry. Delicious! If you like normal fruit pies, you'll like the fruit pizza pies.

>117 richardderus: Dear me oh my, Richard. I'm beginning to worry about you. Unless you've only had corn on the cob boiled to mush (which happens all too often outside of corn growing country) I simply can't imagine not loving a freshly harvested (same day) ear cooked (3 minutes exactly in boiling water) and slathered with salted butter. And, that, Richard, I learned from my Hoosier ancestors :)

You're quite right about "salads" containing jiggly, artificially colored odd substances.

Desert pizza is very popular here in Kansas. They are made with a pie crust or shortbread crust and have a cream cheese layer (sometimes ricotta is used). There is a layer of fresh fruit and this is usually covered with a cream cheese sauce of some kind. They are very good and oftentimes served for brunch.

I am slicing up zucchini and yellow summer squash to make a small batch of refrigerator pickles today. It is a very cool day here in Kansas. The temperature is now up to a whopping 70 degrees. This morning it was 60 degrees when I woke up and tomorrow morning it will be in the high 40's. We went from 101 to 75 in the space of 12 hours.

Happy Friday *smooch*

You got me with Hum, Heavens on Earth, and They Dream in Gold.

>139 atozgrl: I'll have to take your word for it because there's no local purveyor of suchlike...items. Our local Italian-American community would likely rise up to expunge the creators from the Earth. They get stroppy on the regular so I can't picture this going unchallenged.

>140 RebaRelishesReading: Jiggly foods...not for me.

Silage, no matter how fresh, is not fit for human consumption. *gag* To waste butter on it is nigh on sacrilege! The hogs are hungry, so I won't take their fodder from 'em.

*smooch*

>141 benitastrnad: mmmmmm piggles me lurves them piggles

Oh! That's just a flat pie! That sounds perfectly fine by me. You certainly have a dramatic swoop in temps there. I feel sure that's not *so* unusual, since it happened to me in North Platte, Nebraska, in the 1970s.

>145 richardderus:
You lived in North Platte? The home of the worlds largest railroad switching yards? How exciting.

>142 bell7: ...whaaaat?! Not >124 richardderus:, too? *sob*

Honestly, Mary, it feels like a great win to have smacked your TBR so hard, despite your ignoring the review closest to and the dearest to my heart.

No. Really.

I'll be fine. Eventually. *smooch*

>146 benitastrnad: No, no! My father and stepmother and I drove across the US to visit family for summer, and ended up two nights there. Went to sleep sweltering woke up shivering. Weird place, The Plains.

Several pizza places around here (and we all know New Jersey has the best pizza!) do dessert pizzas - it's actually pizza dough/crust with various toppings - strawberries and chocolate, Nutella, caramel, marscapone, etc. Good stuff!

>149 katiekrug: BLASPHEMY

So near the mecca of true pizza, and the second-class suburb Philly, producing this...this...stuff

Stunning to learn this is so near my homeland.

...Nutella sounds good, actually....

>141 benitastrnad: Interesting! The dessert pizzas made here did not use any cream cheese. I believe it was regular pizza crust (though I might be wrong) with fruit on it, and the sauce was basically what you'd have in a fruit pie.

>145 richardderus: A flat pie. That's about the right way to describe it.

>149 katiekrug: Now that you mention it, I believe they sometimes had chocolate too. But not chocolate with fruit, just chocolate.

>151 atozgrl: It's the pizza crust that flummoxes me. I can't put that together, in my mind, with chocolate, or fruit, or chocolate and fruit...the textures just won't mesh somehow.

>147 richardderus: *Raises eyebrows at protest* Somehow I don't think it would surprise you when I say I don't do well with books where children are harmed, so no, I'll pass on that one :)

For the record, I like pineapple and pizza but they don't belong together.

>153 bell7: ...wait...you don't hate children, after all the times you've...run kindercare, visited your niblings, knitted stuff for people's babies...I mean, if that isn't overcompensation, what is?

Well I never! Excellent choice re the pizza wars. I ate, to prove I would, a green goddess/crabmeat/pickled artichoke heart pizza back in 1992 on a visit to Cali. I've never been back. The two could be linked.

Ah, the thread that never budges because no-one visits it.

Let's see, where did I get lost?...

Licorice - don't like the taste of aniseed.

Dessert pizza - over here, they produce the standard roti pratas (plain, egg, stuffed with meat) and now also a version with cheese and another with chocolate. Interesting as a diversion.

>125 alcottacre: >129 atozgrl: >130 karenmarie: I agree. I don't understand Hollywood's insistence that a woman needs to bear children to 'be complete'.

>155 humouress: It's part and parcel of the creation of a Myth of Womanhood. The way to control people most closely is to make a Myth...Women like homemaking, not science; queers like sex, not relationships; Blacks are bad at intellectual things, prefefr hedonism...and reinforce it in every decision about what stories to represent, what entertainment to offer, how taxes are assessed and collected, the kinds of businesses financed etc etc. Mohamed Yunus (now heading Bangladesh) gets no cultural support in the US because he crafted a new Myth: We all do better together. That scares the bejabbers out of the fascists because it works, so concentrates people on their power over their own circumstances.

What you don't like, don't talk about.

Happy Saturday, Richard. We are enjoying a lovely stretch of weather and it looks like it will continue through next week. Yah! We are celebrating Jack's birthday today with the family. His birthday isn't until the 22nd but this works best for the family. I hope you are doing well.

>157 msf59: Heya! Happy weekend! I hope the festivities are fun, the eats are eaten with gusto, and the beer flows like water.

I'm just plain thrilled that the sun's out. No more drizzle, rain, or wind...though we didn't get much of it, the duration was longer-feeling than it in fact was.

BURGOINE #036

A Strange Woman by Leylâ Erbil (tr. Nermin Menemencioğlu & Amy Marie Spangler)

Rating: 3* of five

The Publisher Says: In English at last: the first novel by the first Turkish woman to ever be nominated for the Nobel. A Strange Woman is the story of Nermin, a young woman and aspiring poet growing up in Istanbul. Nermin frequents coffeehouses and underground readings, determined to immerse herself in the creative, anarchist youth culture of Turkey’s capital; however, she is regularly thwarted by her complicated relationship to her parents, members of the old guard who are wary of Nermin’s turn toward secularism.

In four parts, A Strange Woman narrates the past and present of a Turkish family through the viewpoints of the main characters involved. This rebellious, avant-garde novel tackles sexuality, the unconscious, and psychoanalysis, all through the lens of modernizing 20th-century Turkey. Deep Vellum brings this long-awaited translation of the debut novel by a trailblazing feminist voice to US readers.

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

My Review: "At last" indeed! This fifty-three-year-old tale is, I suppose, a feminist classic in Turkey...if it's still available there, considering how horrifically the current fascist government has wrenched Turkey to the political wrong that we call "the right" in English. Imagine! The horror of a young woman seeking new ideas, and even *gasp* s-e-x!!

The problem is its an oft-told tale of a woman declaring independence from a rigid, repressive, patriarchal culture. Not fresh ,or new, or even very interesting. It's a damned good idea to get it into the hands of 2024's young US women to motivate them to vote against this country's version of the Turkish regime. This view into the struggles of the past could blast 'em awake. I'm already there, been there a while, so found this not very exciting.

BURGOINE #037

The Performance by Claudia Petrucci (tr. Anne Milano Appel)

Rating: 3* of five

The Publisher Says: The story of a love triangle played out through mutual manipulation

Giorgia was a talented actress before she abandoned her stage career and fell in love with Filippo. She settles into a life of quiet compromise—until one day she bumps into her old theater director, Mauro, who fans the acting flame back to life. But setting a restless soul on fire can be dangerous if she loses sight of the boundary between reality and fiction—and Giorgia collapses, ending up in a clinic. Filippo and Mauro find themselves both accomplices and adversaries, seduced by a dangerous game to heal and win back Giorgia: by writing the script for her perfect life. In this dazzling debut, Petrucci explores the ambiguous borders between love, possession, and control in clear, magnetic prose.

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

My Review: The prose is great! I felt unable to tear myself away. I badly wanted to, because this is a super-squick story of two men conspiring to gaslight a woman who fell apart because she put men and their demands on her before her duty of self-care. This story always bewilders me...why would you do that?

Still more confusingly, the gaslighting is positive, intended to give her back a constructive, capable sense of herself. But it's coming from the men. They're *saving* her.

Not a story I want to amplfy. World Editions wants $18.99 for any edition, Amazon wants $14.99. A bargain for the prose; the story...you decide.

PEARL RULE #017

Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York (50%) by Lucy Sante

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: Luc Sante's Low Life is a portrait of America's greatest city, the riotous and anarchic breeding ground of modernity. This is not the familiar saga of mansions, avenues, and robber barons, but the messy, turbulent, often murderous story of the city's slums; the teeming streets—scene of innumerable cons and crimes whose cramped and overcrowded housing is still a prominent feature of the cityscape.

Low Life voyages through Manhattan from four different directions. Part One examines the actual topography of Manhattan from 1840 to 1919; Part Two, the era's opportunities for vice and entertainment—theaters and saloons, opium and cocaine dens, gambling and prostitution; Part Three investigates the forces of law and order which did and didn't work to contain the illegalities; Part Four counterposes the city's tides of revolt and idealism against the city as it actually was.



Low Life provides an arresting and entertaining view of what New York was actually like in its salad days. But it's more than simpy a book about New York. It's one of the most provocative books about urban life ever written—an evocation of the mythology of the quintessential modern metropolis, which has much to say not only about New York's past but about the present and future of all cities.

I HAVE OWNED THIS BOOK FOR DECADES.

My Review: Yeah, this is a re-read; this is also a five-star Pearl-Rule read. It's here because Author Sante is now Lucy, not Luc. I wanted to re-read it with Lucy's transition in my mind, as a test of my hypothesis that the transition was not some giant, wrenching shift in the author's identity.

Job done.

Halfway through Part Three, the law'n'order bit that I always get boiling mad reading, I figured out that Lucy, as a person new to my conscious awareness, changed nothing in my idea of Author Sante as a prose stylist or a storyteller. I immersed myself into Author Sante's deep dive into my beloved home city without any slightest thought of how the story would be different had it been written by Lucy, not Luc...they're both Author Sante, albeit I'm sure age has wrought its usual changes on the idea factory within. That would be true no matter whose writing one is looking at.

Why transphobes think transitioning ruins anything at all says bad things about them, and only them.

FSG asks $12.99 for a Kindle version. This is a must-read for all Manhattanphiles, anyone interested in the evolution of cities, and any aspiring hipsters.

I have erected an adamantine wall between myself and the BBs flying today and yesterday. Meanwhile, I am cuddling my newly arrived and well-marked used copy of The Night Will Have Its Say, which I can't start yet but look forward to with thanks to you!

Childless by choice, I quickly learned how to ignore censure. I think I've said (probably 3 or 4 times around here) that my response to boors who ask more than once, "WHY don't you have children?" is that we both believe that children should receive family names. Our firstborn son would have been "Spurgeon Sturgeon Mac," and we just couldn't risk doing that to a child.

*smooch* for your Saturday!

>161 richardderus: That book has been on my TBR shelves for EVAH. And I read and thoroughly enjoyed Sante's Nineteen Reservoirs not terribly long ago. But to clarify for me (my brain's on half power today, so forgive me)...you Pearl-ruled it, and yet you loved it?

Low Life sounds worth a look-see 🙂

Happy weekend!

>162 LizzieD: roflmao

>162 LizzieD: There's a wicked-bad moniker fer yinz, Peggy. Wow, and woe!

Boorish behavior is startlingly common (in all its senses). Motherhood, as a topic, brings it out in people. Depressing to me how mucj time we need to spend educating people in how not to offend others, innit?

Saturday *smooch*

>163 laytonwoman3rd: It's not the first (or even second) read for me. I quit reading when I got to the part I knew would raise my blood pressure to a dangerous degree...hence the Pearl-Rule.

I'm pretty sure that'll bewilder a lot of other folk too, Linda3rd.

>164 katiekrug: OMIGAWD

Go! Go now! Get one anywhere you can! It never occurred to me you wouldn't've read it before. Really. Go procure one!!

>165 ArlieS: No kiddin'!

>129 atozgrl: Wise decision to my mind, Irene, because motherhood is a full-time occupation and you really cannot go into it halfheartedly.

>130 karenmarie: I always wanted to be a mother too, Karen, and was lucky enough to get a 'ready-made' family as well as have my two.

>155 humouress: Oh, I agree. Hollywood manages to construe everything, so no surprise there.

>161 richardderus: Adding that one to the BlackHole. I just read a book recently where Luc Sante wrote the introduction :)

>170 alcottacre: I hope you'll enjoy its charming, chatty nature, Stasia...and think about adding I Heard Her Call My Name, too.

>171 richardderus: I checked both my local library and Hoopla. Neither of them has either book unfortunately. I discovered that I read Low Life already (I checked - it was 2011), but I do not remember it at all so I obviously need to reread it!

((Hugs)) and **smooches**

>149 katiekrug: Okay, Katie, I’m definitely going to have to check this out next time I’m in NJ. Do you have a favorite place?

>174 richardderus: :)

>172 alcottacre: It's really heavy on New York-ness, Stasia, so it could simply be you're not that enthralled about it...but a re-read can't hurt you. Too bad about her memoir not being available. I'll see if my Kindlebook is lendable.

>173 Storeetllr: *gasp* Mary, are you okay?! Do you need to see the doc about medicine side effects?

I will, if you're going to go through with it, be very interested to hear what you think of the...stuff.

>175 RebaRelishesReading: French editorial cartoon off Tumblr. Made me guffaw.

>177 richardderus: I know, right? Well, I’ve always been a bit of a dare-devil rebel. I’ll definitely let you know.

Happy weekend cheer! 😘

>179 Storeetllr: *smooch*

I don't think I ever thought having kids was part and parcel of womanhood. I knew I wanted a couple of kids from very young- I can't remember what age , since I don't know when I thought that first. But Dave's sister and close friend both told me that they didn't want children when they were in the twenties. Both of them had to see a psychiatrist to confirm what they already knew, so as to get their tubes tied. That's both weird and cruel , I think. Sunday *smooch*

>181 vancouverdeb: ...they had to have Authority decide their desires for their own bodies were valid...

That is stunningly awful. I get it when we're talking about gender reassignment. The costs and issues of health are life-long, be sure this is a commitment. But a reversible, truly effective birth control method, one that in today's world does not even require surgery to accomplish...

Clearly it's about Control.

I'm always pleased when authors notice my reviews of their books. Dinaw Mengestu and Carmen Boullosa have retweeted my review links this weekend. It's a lovely feeling, knowing they've read the reviews and chosen to share them.

ETA:

My eighteenth Thingaversary is Tuesday! AND my eleven-year-old blog's fifteen hundredth post is up now. Milestones accumulate despite my sad little thread's absence of visitors.

>181 vancouverdeb: & >182 richardderus: That is simply awful.

>183 richardderus: Whilst that is pretty cool.

Have a great Sunday, dear fellow.

>184 PaulCranswick: Thanks, PC, on both counts!

>185 richardderus: Welcome RD.

By the way I am one of 25 other participants to this your latest thread in terms of posting which is not shabby at all. Just sayin'.

>186 PaulCranswick: I appreciate the attempt to downplay the sad, echoing state of my threads, PC, but we both know that no one pays me the slightest attention. I could post pro-45 memes and no one would notice. *woe*

(except of course me and I'd have to amputate my fingers and poke out my eyes)

>188 richardderus: Hahaha RD. I still think you'll overhaul me in the number of posts by the end of the year.

I can say without any fear of contradiction that your thread will always be on my essential visiting spots in the group. Period.

>189 PaulCranswick: Thank you most kindly, PC. Rhat's a lovely compliment.

‘Morning RDear!

>140 RebaRelishesReading: Iowa family, too, Reba, although when I was little and we visited ~1960 or so, I seem to remember that they cooked the corn in milk, having lots of dairy cows at the time. Last time we visited in 2010, the freshly-picked corn was cooked in water. Slathered in salted butter is the way to go, 100% agree.

>150 richardderus: I’m one of the few people in the world who doesn’t like Nutella – can’t abide the stuff. I love chocolate and I love hazelnuts, but combined just makes me shudder.

>156 richardderus: You’re absolutely right, of course. Mohamed Yunus (now heading Bangladesh) gets no cultural support in the US because he crafted a new Myth: We all do better together. That scares the bejabbers out of the fascists because it works, so concentrates people on their power over their own circumstances. Fascism is cyclical, unfortunately, and dangerously close to fruition at the national level here in the US with the former idiot-in-chief regaining power. *sigh*

>159 richardderus: Your last paragraph rings my chimes, too. Already there, been there for a long time, a read I wouldn’t consider as a wake-up call at all.

>160 richardderus: I rarely acquire books any more where the female protagonist is a pawn between two men.

Back to >109 richardderus: and >110 karenmarie: – the Bechdel test. I had a nice glass of red wine yesterday with our meal, and somehow got to the Bechdel test but couldn’t remember what it was called. Hwan immediately popped up with it. And now, going down a rabbit hole, I just bought The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For.

>161 richardderus: Perhaps if I was re-reading the book that amazed me when I read it as a barely-teenager, How the Other Half Lives by Jacob Riis, I might consider reading this one in tandem. In fact, I just made a reminder to myself in my copy of the Riis book, the original one I’ve had since the late 1960s.

>174 richardderus: Nice and right.

>183 richardderus: Impressive and congrats on your 18th Thingaversary.

>187 richardderus: Just checked out this and other Harris-Walz decals. I’m not a stuff-on-my-car person, so will pass, but if I were, I’d get it in a heartbeat. (I don’t even put the current official-get-to-use-the-county-dump decal on my car – Bill and I both have them on pieces of clear plastic we pull out when we go to the dump.)

*smooch*

>191 karenmarie: Hi Horrible! Sunday orisons.

Re: >150 richardderus: I wonder why that should be the case...I, the weirdo who finds chocolate unpleasant, will eat an entire jar of Nutella in a day. hmmm

Re: >156 richardderus: the Grameen Bank and microlending in general are always presented as poverty's last desperate alternatives to starvation. The media outlets that discuss economics are few, and focus on things that reinforce the system as it is, while standing in front of solutions to the immiseration of The Lower Classes without remarking on them.

Re: >159 richardderus:, >160 richardderus:, >174 richardderus:, >187 richardderus: *smooch*

Re: >161 richardderus: Oooh, hadn't thought of that book in decades! I'll have to Gutenberg it.

Re: >183 richardderus: Thank you, sweetiedarling. I'm chuffed they noticed, and that people keep noticing my reviews. It's been most of two decades I've been at this!

>173 Storeetllr: - I like Ah' Pizz in Montclair - they have a Nutella and strawberry one.

This might be of interest:
https://www.northjersey.com/story/entertainment/dining/2018/03/13/best-dessert-p...

Oh dear, how did I end up here, in this completely un-trafficked thread? A total accident, I'm sure. How can I get out of here? Click my heels three times and *smooch*

>193 katiekrug: Nutella buttercream with strawberries wrapped inside hazelnut swiss roll is deVOON.

>194 ronincats: Goodness, ma'am, you did make a booboo indeed. Why ever would you want to wander around this empty, echoing thread?

*smooch*

"I could post pro-45 memes" BUT YOU WON'T....RIGHT?????? 'Cause that would make the Baby Jesus cry, and the world stop turning, and I don't know what-all. And we WOULD notice it, Mr. Cellophane.

>182 richardderus: It's also pretty much standard. In my lifetime, a woman's fertility was so precious - to her doctors - that she could be in constant or severe monthly pain due to misbehaving reproductive organs, and the doctors would routinely refuse to perform surgery that was the only known way of effectively addressing that pain until she either reached a certain age or successfully produced several children.

I don't know if that's still true, but I imagine that such practices will be mandated by law and justified by "right to life" if certain misogynistic bigots get their way.

>188 richardderus: Well, I do own a shirt that both sides of the US political chasm seem to agree with, while blaming the other for the problem. I think you may have been the person who pointed me to the site where I bought it, which appeared to be marketing it to right wingers.

>197 laytonwoman3rd: I could do a lot of horrible things, Linda3rd, including that, but I'm not willing to incur that level of karmic debt. I'd spend millennia reincarnating as sentien slime mold or something to atone for it. *shudder*

>198 ArlieS: As a means of controlling how far women are able to rise economically and in authority structures, enforcing her giving birth is unrivaled. Appalling. Disgusting.

Deeply cynical.

>199 ArlieS: ...did I...? What's the shirt say?

>202 richardderus: It's got a Venn diagram naming three books, with an arrow pointing to the intersection of all 3, labelled "you are here". One of them is Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. I'd have to get out of my chair and look at the shirt to name the other two, but they are classics in a similar vein - censorship and tyranny.

Edited to add: The other two books are Brave New World and 1984

>203 ArlieS: Oh yeah! I'm pretty sure that was indeed me who brought it here to LT. Yeah, it was marketed to the red-meat right wingnuts during the COVID lockdowns because they freedumb got took from 'em. ::eyeroll::

I really dislike that branch of the dudebro shrub.

>183 richardderus: Congrats, Richard!

>183 richardderus: Congratulations on the shared reviews, and on your Thingaversary!

>174 richardderus: I love it!

‘Morning, RDear! Happiest of Mondays to you.

>192 richardderus: in response to my >161 richardderus: – I always forget about Project Gutenberg. The Riis book is definitely on PG.

*smooch*

Happy Thingaversary and congrats on the authors' recognition of your reviews. That always feels extra-special, doesn't it?

*smooch*

Happy Thingaversary, Richard! 18 years? Wowza! You were there from the very beginning. Hooray for your blog too. Wonderful milestones indeed.

>187 richardderus: I LOVE IT!!

>205 figsfromthistle: Thank you, Anita!

>206 atozgrl: Thanks, Irene!

Isn't >174 richardderus: priceless?

>207 karenmarie: So are millions of other books published from 1926 back. It pays to check their list always before spending actual money on something that's being republished by Amazon to grab more money for Bezoslebub's next yacht.

>208 bell7: Thanks, Mary! It's lovely indeed when they notice a review, because most are very careful about what they interact with on social media.

>209 msf59: I missed 2005 entirely, but close enough at this point to count.

Lovely-Monday orisons, Birddude.

123 Medusa of the Roses by Navid Sinaki

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Sex, vengeance, and betrayal in modern day Tehran—Navid Sinaki’s bold and cinematic debut is a queer literary noir following Anjir, a morbid romantic and petty thief whose boyfriend disappears just as they’re planning to leave their hometown for good

Anjir and Zal are childhood best friends turned adults in love. The only problem is they live in Iran, where being openly gay is criminalized, and the government’s apparent acceptance of trans people requires them to surgically transition and pass as cis straight people. When Zal is brutally attacked after being seen with another man in public, despite the betrayal, Anjir becomes even more determined to carry out their longstanding plan for the future: Anjir, who’s always identified with the mythical gender-changing Tiresias, will become a woman, and they’ll move to a new town for a fresh start as husband and wife.

Then Zal vanishes, leaving a cryptic note behind that sets Anjir on a quest to find the other man, hoping he will lead to Zal. Stalking and stealing his way through the streets, clubs, library stacks, hotel rooms, and museum halls of Tehran—where he encounters his troubled mother, addict brother, and the dynamic Leyli, a new friend who is undergoing a transition of her own—Anjir soon realizes that someone is tailing him too. It quickly becomes clear that more violence may be the fastest route to freedom, as Anjir’s morals and gender identity are pushed to new places in the pursuit of love, peace, and self-determination.

Steeped in ancient Persian and Greek myths, and brimming with poetic vulnerability, subversive bite, and noirish grit, Medusa of the Roses is a page-turning wallop of a story from a bright new literary talent.

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

My Review: I think most of us love the honorable thief in fiction. Stories abound over the generations that feature a good person forced to steal by an unjust system, by a pressing external need, or just to redress the wild imbalance of power over one's person. Robin Hood, Locke Lamora, Aladdin, and their literary kin are enshrined in the cultural conversation. Mythology's trickster gods, those agents of chaos, are...witness Loki as embodied by Tom Hiddleston here and now...endlessly popular because no one doesn't love a funny, witty piss-take.

Then there's Jean Genet. DEFINITELY not a comfortably admirable character to most people, a petty thief and prostitute whose actions as a very incompetent thief (he kept getting caught!) earned him the 1940s French version of a three-strikes law conviction. No one ever tried to pretend he was in the Resistance. Who cared what language the jailers spoke? He stole and sold his body because he didn't like the other options...wholly self-motivated, probably a narcissist, but magnetically interesting and embodying anti-establishment Cool.

Now, after years of disuse, we have Anjir from that mold. He and his love Zal must be together. Funds for transitioning to female aren't coming from the government that demands he take this step...which, to be fair, isn't one he resists...so he steals.

Living in theocratic Iran is awful enough for AFAB women.Think how much more horrifying it would be to be an AMAB man-loving man who, deliberately and consistently, acts "like a woman"...has sex with and enters into romanitic partnerships with men. A complete affront to Male Privilege! An assault on God's Will! God put men on top! DON'T BOTTOM!! Or, if you really must, then transition to female.

I totally support trans rights. I am not in any way trans, have no desire to be female, dislike pretty intensely my culture's hideous fun-house mirror idea of "femininity" and would strongly prefer to be dead rather than forced to conform to what I see as a ghastly disfiguring joke of an identity. Yet, if gay men want to live and love their partnered lives, that is what their theocratic government tells them to do.

I live in fear of the US right-wingnuts figuring out their transphobia can be redeployed.

What I enjoyed about my ride through modern Iran was the sense I got of a society on the boil. Stuff is happening in this book, stuff that's out of most people's sight, but is building up pressure and will blow a hole in the status quo. The author has crafted an avatar of selfish anti-social action who represents, just by his existence, Resistance!

Told in beautiful sentences, this story of Love, Passion, and Honesty draws on millennia of models for its men's identities. It is a read I won't soon forget or easily allow to slip under the newer reads to come.

>183 richardderus: Congrats on your 18th Thingaversary! My 18th is coming up on the 16th, so looks like I got here on your heels. Do you remember how you found LT? I’ve tried to remember, but it’s all a blur. I really can’t recall pre-LT. Anyway, cheers to us! 🎉 🥂🍾

>193 katiekrug: Oh, thank you, Katie! Nutella and strawberry pizza!?! Can’t wait to start driving again so I can take myself over to NJ and try it!

>216 Storeetllr: Thank you, Mary! I was riding the bus while reading Poets & Writers magazine's random gossip section, saw the mention of it as a brand new resource for us'ns who lurve the readin', got home and set up my account. I think it took six months for me to start the social side with the What Are You Reading Now? group. Wasn't until 2009 I started up here in the 75ers.

>217 Storeetllr: :-)

>176 richardderus: I have no idea where I got Low Life from so that I could read it 13 years ago - I suspect it was from my local library, which has since deacquisitioned it. I am highly unlikely to just run right out and get a copy though.

>183 richardderus: I had my eighteenth back in May as well, Richard. We are old-timers, aren't we?? Happy Thingaversary!!

((Hugs)) and **smooches** and hopes that you have a marvelous Monday, RD!

>220 alcottacre: Isn't it shocking, Stasia?! We got old somewhere along the line.

Monday *smooch*

To scale

>222 richardderus: I love this! Thanks for the chuckle!

Karen O

>218 richardderus:
I met you first on the What Are You Reading Now? group. I really enjoyed your comments - and still do.

>222 richardderus: Agreed, Richard. As far as productive rights go, I was startled when another good friend of mine, after having 4 children in just under 4 years ( the last was a set of identical twins) went to her doctor to ask to have her tubes tied. He asked her - what if your entire family is wiped out , in say a car accident ? Would you not want to remarry and have more children ? She told him , no, I am done having children, and if that happened, she would consider fostering children or perhaps adoption, but she was done. What a ridiculous scenario for her family doctor to cook up . Anyway, she did get her tubes tied. What about these men getting the snip, a less invasive procedure. I am glad the times, they are a changing, at least in a good way in Canada.

Hiya, RDear. Happy Tuesday.

>215 richardderus: Already took this as a BB from you on Peggy’s thread. Enticing review.

>222 richardderus: Yes. Too many books, too little time.

*smooch*

Happy Tuesday, Rdear. I hope all is well at your place. It's far too hot here, so I spend my time indoors.

Happy 18th Thingaversary Richard!

You're almost 2 years older than me. (Speaking of, my ordered books should be arriving soonish - possibly tomorrow. Excitement!)

>223 klobrien2: I love it, too, Karen O. *smooch*

>224 benitastrnad: Been years since I poked my nose into that group...I hope it's thriving!

You're very sweet to say such a kind thing, Benita, thank you.

>225 vancouverdeb: Getting your vasectomy ought to be the default for men. It's barely ten minutes of your time, and post-procedure care is an icepack for the swelling.

As opposed to abdominal surgery.

>226 karenmarie: *chuckle* I'm still countin' it twice, Horrible.

I'm quite sure Death is a reader, so she won't reap us until our TBRs are at zero. Surely not. Right?

>227 Ameise1: Hi Barbara! I'm so happy to see you.

I too sit indoors because I really hate to sweat. It's also easier to read in here!

*smooch*

>228 humouress: OOO a book haul! Nothing beats a book haul. Since I do my reading on the Kindle, I can book-haul away without needing to find spots for them.

>222 richardderus: OH YEAH!!!!! For various reasons, most of mine are right here in the house. The house doesn't seem quite as big (not that it was ever very big) as it did 53+ years ago when I moved in.

HAPPY THINGAVERSARY to you, dear Richard!!!!! What a wonderful occasion for all of us to celebrate! I am!

I've been here only 15½ years and made (and kept) other friends here before Lucy led me to the 75. I found LT because a friend from the old SciFi Vine invited me. She had an extra free membership because LT had lost her library and gave it to her because she had to re-catalogue everything. She has since left the site, but I've never looked back.

*ThingaSMOOCH*

>235 LizzieD: *Only* 15-1/2 years! Just yesterday, really. It feels like eighteen years ago is a long time but really I can't remember any sense of time passing.

I'd forgotten SFVine. I still miss SFSignal and FFFnet, but things corporatized while I wasn't paying attention. OUCH about losing her library! I'd be hysterical. I've got mine here and on Goodreads for redundancy.

*smooch*

Happy 18th. I'm at 17. I miss SFSignal as well, that and IO9. I can't remember where I first heard about LT, but I had been using a site called Reader2 that was struggling and going away, and I was looking for options. I'm pretty sure I signed up for LT, GR and Shelfari all at the same time.

LT is the only place that holds my WL and TBR, but I have been hedging my bets on my yearly read lists. Usually all in GR (eventually, tho I've be lack there), Storygraph is my new place to post my reads, and I my ongoing B.A.S.S documents that I create each year. It is my nightmare to lose everything.

>237 mahsdad: I signed up for The Storygraph and just never warmed up to it...they sold me hard for services I don't want, and that's a sure way to drive me off.

The DRC providers are keen for me to post on GR, so I do it. Apparently I'm not the only one who just refuses to post on Bums and Nubile's site because it's so balky and badly organized. Ammy rejected so many reviews I gave up.

Thanks for the Thingaversary wishes.

I think the pressure is on for Goodreads because so many people use it. Authors like Goodreads because there are so many reader eyes on it. Same reasoning for the publishers. I use Goodreads to keep track of what I have read, but my entire TBR list and what is in my library is here.

>239 benitastrnad: Ironically, GR is a truly terrible cataloging site. It's fine for current stuff, and excellent at commercially aimed books; it's also HUGELY easier to "discover" books than anyone else. I hate the way its Ammy interface "works" enough that I never, ever use it.

(WHY does LT refuse to show the ISBNs of books on the work page? You have to go to your catalog and hunt. GR has it on the title's main page.)

>222 richardderus: Oh, yes, Richard -- I know that feeling!!

>241 RebaRelishesReading: Awomen. Reba! Happy Tuesday. *smooch*

>240 richardderus: I'm not sure why you say LT doesn't show the ISBNs. If I go to the 'edit your book' page/ tab whatever for a book I have, I can see my ISBN. Mind you, I enter my books by ISBN not by title.

>243 humouress: It's not that it's unfindable, rather that it's not right there on the first page where it should be. Hunting around shouldn't be necessary.

>240 richardderus: "WHY does LT refuse to show the ISBNs of books on the work page?" Isn't it because a given WORK may have multiple ISBNs? YOUR specific copy/edition only has one. James's main page indicates there are 8 associated ISBNs for the work, for example. But when I go to edit my copy of it, there is just the one I entered when I added it to my library.

>162 LizzieD: Our firstborn son would have been "Spurgeon Sturgeon Mac," and we just couldn't risk doing that to a child.
I shouldn't have, but I laughed rowdily to that suggestion!! For the record I think it is an excellent name, but one that would have had to have been kept secret the entirety of the child's schooling years ;)

Hi RD, I have been catching up on this thread and have noted the pizza and fruit pizza conversation, the excellent cartoon (>173 Storeetllr:) and the >155 humouress: >156 richardderus: chat about hollywood and womanhood...on which I add that power hungry narcissists produced a lot of films since forever ago and they found it useful to keep women in their place and in doing to (on film) project the idea that that place is the norm. #megantheangryfeminist

Also, re: Goodreads, whenever I talk about my book website (LT) people always say "oh, Goodreads?" and I am like no waaay man. LT is soooo much better :)

Happy Wednesday, Richard. I got to hang with Jackson for a bit, the last 2 days. Also playing PB and getting my book time in. Life is good. Work starts next week. Summer is flying by.

>222 richardderus: Ain't that the truth!

'Morning, RD. Happy Wednesday to you.

I've told this story any one of a number of times, but I unintentionally purchased Joe Hill's Heart-Shaped Box from BoMC, actually read it, went to Joe Hill's site, where at the time he touted LT and had a link to it. I hadn't heard of it. I came here via the link and had paid for a lifetime membership by the end of the day. I think I'm on Goodreads, but I don't do anything there except to try to figure out where an author was born for my stats. Sometimes the bios on Amazon and GR are different and include that info, and sometimes the link to the author's website includes it when neither A or GR does.

*smooch*

>245 laytonwoman3rd: That is not a very good reason. But the fact is they won't.

>246 LovingLit: Hey there Angry Feminist! That is indeed a chunk of the money they don't want to share.

Greed disgusts me.

Dylan Hollis, the queer cookery TikTokker, made a baked-bean pizza and almost threw up when he ate it. I relate to that. Fruit, beans, none of it belongs on pizza. I myownself don't like tomato sauce on it either... fruit on hot bread ain't my jam. Even toast just gets butter not jam or jelly chez moi.

>247 msf59: Ain't it just! Happy that you got to hang with Jack, it increases your serotonin levels. Enjoy the pickleball later!

>248 karenmarie: How do, Horrible! Interesting that it was Joe Hill that brought you here. He's done us all a solid.

Being a Mainer, I guess he thought he should boost local business. Grand that he has.

Stay cool and dry today. *smooch*

I'm dog-sick...hacking cough, dripping nose, poor sleep...so I won't be aroung until I feel better.

Oh dear, feel better soon. 😘💖

Hope you're feeling better soon, Richard! *smooch*

>238 richardderus: Yep. Fastest way to get me to first unsubscribe, and then block a site as a spammer and probable scammer, is to waste my time reminding me about things I've already decided I don't want, or don't consider worth their price.

According to my spam trap, Wish (not a book site) is *still* trying to punish me for ever doing business with them. Our one interaction was early in the covid lockdowns. They are probably the worst recent offender, persisting through unsubscribe requests etc., not merely turning on subscriptions to their latest adware each time it comes out. (*That* title goes to substack, with Google as runner up.)

>239 benitastrnad: I tried out Goodreads and LibraryThing at the same time, but only stuck with LibraryThing. Goodreads had the major flaw that it wouldn't let me catalog anything that was no longer in print, making it inadequate as a cataloging site. It also has a more "modern" (i.e. hard to use, probably also unstable, based on pictographs, and undocumented) user interface. (That was before it was purchased by Amazon, which clinched the "never going back" decision for me.)

Sorry you're under the weather, Richard. Hope it's just a quick cold and not an attack of the modern plague!!

Hiya, RDear!

>250 richardderus: Rabbit hole for the last hour or more. I found the Baked Bean Pizza TikTok and, as always, enjoyed his comments and his reactions.

>252 richardderus: Interesting that it was Joe Hill that brought you here. He's done us all a solid. Flattery will get you everywhere.

>253 richardderus: Noooo. I’m sorry you’re sick and hope you get better sooner than later.

>253 richardderus: Oh, no! I'm sorry you're sick! It sounds just horrible. Try to keep up with your liquids. We'll miss you while you're recuperating!

Smooches (virtual) to you!

Karen O

>74 richardderus: You totally got me with Hum. Great review and it sounds like a great read.

Sorry you're under the weather. I hope the germ fest is very short lived. xo

Feel better soonest, RD!

>253 richardderus: I'm sorry to hear you're feeling so poorly, RD. Get well soon, and take care of yourself in the meantime.

I hope you get to feeling better soon, RD! ((Hugs)) and **smooches** from afar (I do not want to catch whatever it is that you have. . .)

Oh dear. I didn't realize that you are miserable with upper respiratory mess, Richard. I hope it's just a cold that will get out of your system fast! Rest and baby yourself. I wish there were somebody there to bring you soothing things to drink.

*smooch*

>257 ArlieS: I looked at GR at the same time as I did LT too. I found GR hard to navigate and LT the place I could settle right into. I'm grateful every day that I was right, right from the start.

Happy Friday, Richard. Sorry to hear you are not feeling well. I hope you are doing better today. It looks like our rain has moved out, so PB is on tap for this AM. Books and Juno in the PM.

Thanks, all, for the well (and wellness) wishes. I'm not as miserable, but not well yet. Poor sleep again. I hope this means I'm turning the corner.

Cheers, all!

Sorry you're still under the weather, RDear, hope the corner is almost turned.

*smooch*

>267 richardderus: I hope your corner is turned too, RD! ((Hugs)) and **smooches** and wishes that you have a fantastic Friday despite the yuckiness.

Yes indeed, Richard. Get around that corner and then take it easy! *smooch*

>124 richardderus: Your review of Mother's Don't caught my attention so I searched my library for the title. Agirre's book is there but so are a whole list of other potential reads. *sigh*

Hope you feel better soon.

Just a caution, RD. Peek around that corner to be sure it's where you want to go. Before you go 'round the bend. Heh.

PS That weird_o has nothin'. Just a smartass.

Sending healing vibes over the pond.

Another night of poor sleep. The upside is, I'm much much less symptomatic, barely coughing or sneezing. The icky side is it's a very sticky day. *grumble*

Sony's YouTube channel, Crackle, has episodes of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. Some mild chuckles and a lot of squirming as the sexist idiocy flowed. Sixty-year-old topical humor...hm. If Quibi had found B. Dylan Hollis and made him Dick Martin and kept the baking somehow, they'd've had their only hit during COVID. Or so I kind of half-dreamed.

I hope Monday will see me back up to speed. *smooch* for all my visiting well-wishers!

While I was in Kansas I attended a revival meeting. The Democrats of Republic County. Yes. It is a political revival. The Democrat party in Republic County has been dormant for quite some time because of no leadership. My Dad was active in it and when he died the organization died as well. A young 40 something has taken hold and restarted it. I attended the second meeting. There were 45 people there. I thought that was a good strong group considering that there are only 4,677 people living in the county. They plan on meeting monthly until the election and then will see where the organization goes from there.

I was surprised to see several people wearing "'la" t-shirts. I didn't know what they were. (Dark blue with a large apostrophe then la in cursive.) Turns out it is some kind of Kamala Harris thing. But it was nice to see. I purchased a vote for Paul Buskirk for Congress sign for the yard in Kansas. Buskirk is running for the Congressional seat for the humongous 1st district of Kansas. This one district comprises 2/3 of the state and, oh boy, are these districts gerrymandered! (almost as bad as Nebraska or South Dakota in size of districts, as well.) At least Kansas has one Democrat representative.

I may be moving to a red state but at least I am not alone.

>275 benitastrnad: Heartening news, Benita, may it augur brighter, better days ahead for us all.

‘Morning, RDear. Happier Saturday to you!

>274 richardderus: Sorry about the poor sleep, glad for being less symptomatic.

Well. Quibi, who I need to look up. Dick Martin… I’ve been watching bits of Laugh-In on YouTube as they show up in my doom scrolling. And, of course, I love B. Dylan Hollis. I bought Reese's PB Cups yesterday to make Reese's Bread. He made it and loved it. Look it up. I'll definitely add both chocolate chips AND PB chips.

*smooch*

>275 benitastrnad: Glad your local Dems are getting together again. I haven't heard of the 'la thing either -- must investigate

",la" is an aide-memoire for people who don't know how to pronounce Harris' name.

Hope you’re feeling better, Richard.

It's a shame that this thread is soooo unfrequented. I have a busy week at work and end up just 150 posts behind. Such a shame no-one ever visits.
In no particular order:
Happy Thingaversary! I started in GR, but came here and for a while had the pair in parallel. This site seemed to offer more of what I wanted and less overt pushing of the latest thing. The one thing I missed was the year shelf, but I got around that with tags and LT's now got a year in review page.

Sorry you're feeling poorly. Hope it's just a cold and it gets out of there pronto.

I think I could understand something like a pizza crust with sweet dip, but I'm struggling to get my hear around a dessert pizza. I an open minded through and prepared to give it a go. Even if only the once.

I long ago decided motherhood was not on the agenda. I can understand that it suits some people, and that some people are good at it. I know, without trying it, that I would be awful at it. Recently we were at a ringing family fun day and I was minding the child of some of out ringers (it being difficult to ring and hold a squirming toddler!). I was asked if he was my grandson!!!!! Nope, on so many levels!

Loving the author engagement. I like your reviews because they;re never just a rave for or against something, There's why you liked it or why is spoke to you, not just "I loved it, everyone must read it". I don't always want to read it myself, but that's not the aim of the exercise. Although the way you delight in landing book bullets, maybe it is the aim of the exercise!

>222 richardderus: I feel seen. I used to maintain a spreadsheet of to-read books, and abandoned it once it exceeded 5000 titles, it was just too intimidating!

Hope your early afternoon is going well, Richard, that you can stay in and be a LOT more comfortable!!!!!

I'm off to feed the 7 little furries (and sometimes furies) that live with us.

*smooch* for your day and for your shaking that infection!

>279 richardderus: But that looks more like an apostrophe than a comma, being placed too high for a comma, given the placement of the other letters.

p.s. glad you are beginning to feel at least somewhat better.

>279 richardderus: I want that shirt!!

Hope you're feeling a bit better.

>275 benitastrnad: The tee shirt logo for the Harris campaign is

, (comma) la.

Good mnemonic for how to pronounce it too, which some people still seem to have trouble with

>280 Storeetllr: I hope I am, too, Mary. It could just be that nasty ol' gawd lettin' me get my hopes up before causing havoc. She really likes doing that.

>281 Helenliz: Good heavens! A visitrice! *stunned face* I sit here all alone for weeks on end, and suddenly...*sniff* I'm so pleased, thank you.

I'm feeling dry-nosed and calm-throated, so it's really unlikely to have been more than a cold. I really hope that's all it was, anyway.

There are not a lot of reads I am unreserved in my admiration of...Montana 1948, The Song of Achilles, a very few others...most five- and even six-stars-of-five reads have things that niggled, that I could understand others just not being able to surmount. My idea is always to present my fairest assessment of the book's appeal; that is, of course, subjective, and dependent on my tastes and crotchets. I'm not a scholar, I don't write analitically, I'm a reviewer and write critically. Mari SanGiovanni sent me nice message on GR today about my review of Camptown Ladies, so I'm further reinforced that I might not be so bad at this after all.

After 5,000 entries, unless you're on a blockchain, you've gone past the concept of "list." Which French philosopher was it who said, "on balance it is safer to act as if God is real than to risk the downside of assuming he isn't only to discover he is, when you awake in Hell?" I'm going to act as if Death is a Reader, and she will not reap my soul until my TBR is read. Can't hurt....

>282 LizzieD: I ate my dry burger-lunch with my usual indifference and then napped with Carl Sagan's 1977 Royal Institution Xmas Lecvtures in my headphones until he said something about making a crater on the floor and my brain did its weird psychic montage thing and I was hurtling along in my 1968 Bonneville straight at a crater and woke up.

Now that I've got all twenty nails out of the ceiling, I'm here chatting.

>283 ArlieS: It does to me, too, Arlie, but we're not representative of the hoi polloi, now are we. Most people don't really know what an apostrophe is, or represents, or...well, much of anything.

I really enjoyed today's RobWords vlog on punctuation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9Re5otW-v0

>284 RebaRelishesReading: Walmart carries 'em, my dear lady. That's where I snagged the image from.

I am, thanks! *smooch*

I love the “, (comma) la” reminder of how to say her name. Maybe someone should send one of those shirts to Nancy Mace. How people like her get elected is beyond me.

>285 magicians_nephew: I tend to not remember the names of people I dislike. One sister had a boyfriend whose name, whatever it was, got into my database as "Millard." So the MAGAts not remembering ",la" makes sense to me; also shows their hand.

>289 richardderus: And here I thought this country had compulsory education, not just compulsory baby sitting.

>292 richardderus: There's also the pleasure of making fun of people one dislikes by mangling their names. Thus we have "the orange wank maggot", "the muskrat", and similar failures to remember opponents' names (sic) on the other side of the US ideological chasm.

>291 Storeetllr: Most people are ids on legs, Mary. They love seeing people in power who are just like their nasty, unkind, judgmental selves.

*sigh*

>293 ArlieS:

Tacky, but true.

Dinosaurs have feathers? Mermaids have black skin? Genocidal patricides are in love with older men?
YOU'RE RUINING MY CHILDHOOD YOU WOKE SNOWFLAKE CUCK
...don't worry honeybun, it's obviously not over yet, thing's'll change soon.

>296 richardderus: See 295!

Glad you are feeling better, Richard! *smooch *

Today's NY Times morning newsletter:
"Trump has signaled that he wants use the military for domestic law enforcement. It could have implications for civil liberties."
Unfollow/unsubscribe from these happy collaborators with the coup across all platforms.

>297 ArlieS: :-)

>298 vancouverdeb: Thanks, Deborah, my body's continuing to mend though my mind's being battered by stuff that...displeases me, shall we say. Status quo I suppose.

All of this makes me want to go back to bed for the duration.

Have a good Sunday anyway, Richard. I'm glad you're feeling better! *smooch*

>302 LizzieD: The only issue I have with that very sensible solution is "the duration" could exceed my remaining homeostatic time.

It's so weird...no one ever comes to visit, drops a comment, or so much as offers a nod, yet somehow I needed a new thread:
https://www.librarything.com/topic/362730
...so there it is.

>288 richardderus: Ooh, a cat metaphor.

>305 humouress: sssshhhh

not so loud

>306 richardderus: That's okay. No one's here.

That doesn't stop...them...from using their radar ears from hearing and focusing their evil vibes on me!

Me had a quick scoot through...

>74 richardderus: Ouch, BB landed.
>174 richardderus: Love it.
>222 richardderus: Oh yes.
>296 richardderus: Ha.

>27 karenmarie: I have that cookbook! Ive never used it though T^T i want to make those recipes bc i watch him all the time

>309 Caroline_McElwee: Excellent! I winged you from the past!

:-P

>310 louisisaloafofbreb: Couldn't stop myself...I, with no kitchen or access to one, bought one.

>312 richardderus: haha, thats fun, lets hope you can get access to a kitchen