richardderus's seventeenth 2024 thread

3rd(?) century Roman Mosaic from Trier

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.
Reviews 118 through 123 are linked back there.
Reviews 124 to 136 are back there.

THIS THREAD'S REVIEWS

137 Origin Story in post #16.
138 All Things Seen and Unseen in post #52.
139 I'm Still Here: A Dog's Purpose Forever in post #53.
140 The Palace of Eros in post #70.
141 The Ideal State: A Model Based on Analysis of Savagery, Feudalism, Capitalism and Beyond in post #75.
142 Stephen King: His Life, Work, and Influences in post #84.
143 Pitch Dark (Mike Bowditch #15) in post #95.144 Dead Man's Wake (Mike Bowditch #14) in post #98.
145 Tell Me Everything (Amgash #5) in post #112.
146 The Blind Devotion of Imogene in post #124.
147 Sky Full of Elephants in post #132.
148 Murder at the Matinee (Bertie Carroll Mysteries, #2) in post #138.
149 A Muzzle for Witches in post #157.
150 What Time the Sexton's Spade Doth Rust (Flavia de Luce #11) in post #179.
151 Straight Acting: The Hidden Queer Lives of William Shakespeare in post #227.
152 Queen Macbeth in post #255.
153 The Man Who Saw Seconds in post #264.
154 Supremacy: AI, ChatGPT, and the Race that Will Change the World on post #276.

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 #046 Calico in post #143.
BURGOINE #047 The Labyrinth House Murders (House Murders #3) in post #144.
BURGOINE #048 The Devil of the Provinces in post #151.
BURGOINE #049 Alcatraz Ghost Story: Roy Gardner's Amazing Train Robberies, Escapes, and Lifelong Love in post #152.
BURGOINE #050 Midnight at Maidenstone Hall in post #181.
BURGOINE #051 The Vanishing of Carolyn Wells in post #187.
BURGOINE #052 Lighthouse Burning (Harlan Winter #1) in post #195.
BURGOINE #053 Head Full of Lies (Harlan Winter #2) in post #197.
BURGOINE #054 Saving Myles in post #202.
BURGOINE #055 The Belgrade Conspiracy: A David Rivers Thriller in post #207.
BURGOINE #056 Truth’s Labyrinth in post #211.
BURGOINE #057 A New Lease on Death (Supernatural Mysteries #1) in post #213.
BURGOINE #058 Countess in post #282.
BURGOINE #059 Katharine, the Wright Sister in post #283.

All previous Pearl Rule reviews linked here.

THIS THREAD'S PEARL RULE REVIEWS:
#023 AFTER THE FLYING SAUCERS CAME: A Global History of the UFO Phenomenon in post #245.
PEARL RULE #024 VILLAINS AND VICTIMS: The Global Drug, Terrorism and Organised Crime Conundrum (6%) in post #247.
PEARL RULE #025 The Lady Vanishes (23%) in post #290.

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.
My August is #WITMonth in Review post is here.

Okay, it's safe to post now.

Happy New Thread, Richard!

Happy New Thread bud :)

Happy New Thread, Richard dear! *smooches*

Happy new thread, Richard! I swung by and left a note on your last thread on Wednesday but I think you missed me *sob* (it's okay, I was just telling you a book I wasn't going to read, so it's not all that exciting anyway).

Friday *smooch*

>8 vancouverdeb: Thank you, Deborah! Have your fall thread-queen tiara:

>9 louisisaloafofbreb: Thanks, Lily!

>10 ronincats: Hiya Roni, thanks a lot! *smooch*

>11 bell7: Apparently I felt miffed...? I don't recall the post, so it's good it wasn't deeply significant. I'm always glad to know when that happens...a reminder to be more careful. *smooch*

137 Origin Story by Jendi Reiter

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: What is the Poison Cure? For Peter Edelman, it's his alter ego in the comic book he's writing, a mysterious anti-hero who seduces and kills child abusers—a storyline that's bringing up his own long-repressed memories. For his co-author Tyler "Tai" Wick, a genderfluid teen artist in the group foster home where Peter is employed, it's the social workers who will deem him fit for adoption if he will suppress his female self, which they consider a split personality from his traumatic years working the streets. And for fashion photographer Julian Selkirk, who's trying to get Peter to say "I love you," it's the Christian faith that offers to help him break intergenerational patterns of alcoholism and violence, but at the cost of rejecting his sexuality.

Against the backdrop of late-1990s New York City sexual politics, these characters strive to redefine home and family in ways that are strong enough to contain their truths. From a Miami comic-book convention to a Christian men's retreat in Georgia, from an elite New Age wellness center to a BDSM dungeon in Manhattan, Origin Story follows their quest to determine the nature of healing and the price we pay for it.

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

My Review: Adult men dealing with maternal sexual abuse is going to stop most of you from picking this up.

Conversion "therapy", kink shaming, and the panoply of misunderstandings and bad takes that was 1990s-era psychotherapy should finish the remainder off.

Too bad. This is a solid love story between two deeply damaged men whose lives are somehow *better* when they're together. I'm really familiar with all the huge issues dealt with in here. I know these struggles. I think they're well-represented even when they're really hard to read.

If you're up for a very high-angst, dark and tough issue read, with a believable (though unsatisfying to me) HFN ending, this will apparate like it's dusted in Floo Powder into your cart. I myownself will never read it again. And I wish the comics stuff (which bored me) had been cut.

I'm really glad I'm seeing my therapist soon.

Happy new one, RD!

>17 katiekrug: Thank you, Katie!

New thread, new book that I won't have the heart to read. I'm grateful that you're here and always, always interesting at the very least. Happy New Thread, Richard! *smooch*

>16 richardderus: You had me at "Comic Book Author"

>19 LizzieD: thanks, Peggy! *smooch*

>20 magicians_nephew: It's very strong stuff, Jim...be aware.

Happy new thread, Richard

>23 ArlieS: Thanks, Arlie!

Happy more-or-less new one, Richard! Hope you have a pleasant weekend.

Well, I completely missed the last part of your previous thread, and you're already on to a new one. Happy new thread, RD!

>25 RebaRelishesReading: Thanks, Reba, it's going to be a weird one...lots of variabilty in the weather forecast.

>26 atozgrl: How do, Irene! It was a short-review festival, none of 'em raves, so not much missed I'd say.

*smooch*

Hiya, RDear, and happy new thread.

>1 richardderus: I love Roman mosaics… that is sooo beautiful and satisfying to look at.

>16 richardderus: Well, of course I’m into MM romances these days, but honestly, you’ve done a great job scaring me off. Paying actual money for a Kindle book is also a disincentive. I’m also less inclined to read HFN unless it’s in a series that ends with HEA. Pass for now, but onto the wish list it goes.

*smooch*

Happy 17th, RD.

>29 karenmarie: Sweetiedarling! I'm sure you'd hate the read. This is the second of twobooks about these men, and so far as I am told by the writer, he won't be going back to them.

It was upsetting to read the course of my own life being told by a stranger. I'd hoped I was more of a unique case!

>30 PaulCranswick: Thanks, PC.

>16 richardderus: I was so touched by the author's solicitousness...after reading my review he reached out to say he'd included healing resources in the back of the published book that weren't in my DRC, then attached them to his email! Kindness and generosity of spirit should be rewarded so I went and bought one.

Happy new thread, Richard!

Hope your weekend is filled with wonderful reads.

>34 figsfromthistle: Thanks, Anita! The first one was good...let's hope it's an omen.

>33 richardderus: Right actions from both of you! I'm warmed by goodness! *smooch*

>36 LizzieD: It warmed me, too, Peggy. He was very kind about it, so unusually for so many "social" interactions in this world.

Sticking my nose in to drop off smooches before this thread zooms off. Wishing you a lovely weekend!

>38 MickyFine: Thank you, Micky! *smooch*

‘Morning, RDear.

>31 richardderus: Yikes – your life being told by a stranger. I wonder if I’d be happier staying boringly-middle-class-white-woman under-the-radar, or being on the writing radar. Probably the former, TBH.

>33 richardderus: As much as on-line stuff can be a nightmare, I’m so glad the author reached out to you after reading your review. Additional healing resources – wow. And you rewarded him in one way that benefited him, too.

*smooch*

>40 karenmarie: Being on the radar, Horrible, is only fun for...well...authors looking for stories I suppose. Being rich does NOT make it easier, and while I've never even flirted with fame, all one needs to do is remain mildly alert to gossip journalism to know that is a truly horrendous life to lead.

Online life is like Heyerian language: heightened. Not good or bad, just...heightened. It can be, as now, very nice.

Saturday orisons, sweetiedarling!

Happy new thread, RD.
>33 richardderus: That's quite lovely.

Benisons for a pleasing weekend, Richard! *smooch*

>33 richardderus: Solicitous and kind indeed RD, as was your response.

>42 Helenliz: Thank you, Helen, it was indeed lovely.

>43 LizzieD: Thanks, Peggy me lurve.

>44 Caroline_McElwee: Hi Caro! Thanks indeed...it seemed to me the appropriate response.

Happy new thread, Richard! ((Hugs)) and **smooches** for today

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Just thought I would drop by to tell you that the forecasted high for tomorrow is 82 degrees.

>48 alcottacre: Thank you most kindly, Stasia! It's football season, aka Hell, so "nice" weekends are a thing of the past until after the fucking Stupid Bowl.

>49 RebaRelishesReading: Whew! dripdrip I hope you have some flannel shirts unpacked to get you through until your sweaters can be cleaned! pantpantdrip

We're warming up, too...going up to 72°!

138 All Things Seen and Unseen by R.J. McDaniel

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: An incisive reflection on identity and wealth, and a refreshing racial queer story of survival

All Things Seen and Unseen follows Alex Nguyen, an isolated, chronically ill university student in her early 20s. After a suicide attempt and subsequent lengthy hospitalization, she finds herself without a job, kicked out of campus housing, unable to afford school, and still struggling in the aftermath of a relationship’s dissolution. Hope comes in the form of a rich high school friend who offers Alex a job housesitting at her family’s empty summer mansion on a gulf island.

Surrounded by dense forest and ocean, in the increasingly oppressive heat of a 2010s summer, Alex must try to survive as an outsider in a remote, insular community; to navigate the awkward, unexpected beginnings of a possible new romance; and to live through the trauma she has repressed to survive, even as the memories — and a series of increasingly unnerving events — threaten to pull her back under the surface.

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

My Review: What a wild ride. I knew, by the end of the read, what it feels like to have paranoid hallucinations, and let me tell you it was 1000% more effective than "spernatural" horror could ever be. Tell me all the mishegas is a demon, I check out; tell me the MC is fresh out of the bin and these weird things are happening, I'm terrified. Plus horror in hot climates works better on 80° (Fahrenheit, obvs)-ought-to-be-illegal me than sweater weather ever could.

Add in homelessness, that scourge of the capitalist world we love for its trinkets and need for its ability to keep us alive at the expense of our future, and my knees are knockin'. All of these elements are central to this story. Alex is genuinely unsure what's in her head and what's not. When, ten years ago, I had a stint in the bin, my roommates were schizophrenic...can you even imagine hearing voices, having hallucinations so real you respond to them like they're there? I don't think you can unless you've seen it, and you will never, ever again think of mental illness as a dodge, a lie, a clever ruse to work the system.

So I'm pretty much the perfect reader for this horror story. Where's that fifth star?

I loved Alex's unapologetic, unexplained queerness a lot. She's just...queer. Nothing's made of it; it just is. This does come with a price. Alex is also not connected to reality in part due to trauma that, again, just is. This makes some of Alex's behaviors feel unmoored to the (negligible) plot. That isn't a problem per se but does leave things, eg relating to Alex's ethnic identity, up in the air that could usefully have been expanded on. It's a quibble; I was drawn along by the sheer richness with which Author McDaniel wove the tapestry of Alex's experience of her world.

This is a horror novel for people who do not read horror novels. It's also truly the best novel I've read about the actual experience of mental illness, of fracturing in the mind, about how the world can simply weigh too much to be borne.

139 I'm Still Here: A Dog's Purpose Forever by Cathryn Michon (illus. Seth Taylor)

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: This richly illustrated book reveals a comforting narrative told from the point of view of a loving angel dog, who wants you to know, “I’m still here . . . But I’m also there where all the animals run free, with no pain, waiting for you, watching for you, loving you, and guiding you.”

Losing one’s dog is one of the most difficult experiences we go through and it’s hard to find solace. However, the profound, four-legged narrator of I’m Still Here has nothing but good news for humans. The free verse is equally rhapsodic about the eternal nature of our souls and the amazing sound of crinkly wrappers that means cheese is about to be sliced. This very good dog proclaims that love never dies, that we will meet again, and that if you ever doubted that humans are magnificent creatures, look no further than the humble ball.

There is nothing to fear, because it is this dog’s purpose to pull you (like a bad dog who doesn’t know how to do “leash”) toward joy, and to remind you to relish all the naps and treats life has to offer.

Author Cathryn Michon co-wrote the blockbuster hit film A Dog’s Purpose. Elegant, full-color watercolor paintings by award-winning artist Seth Taylor make this sumptuous volume the perfect gesture of compassion for anyone who has ever said goodbye to a dog (or person) gone too soon, because it’s always too soon. It turns out that the best way to honor those we’ve loved and lost is to be here now, until we meet again.

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

My Review: Not my usual fare. I'm pretty hard-hearted abou grief and grieving, compared to most, because I feel so much of the stuff most people resonate with is mawkish and embarrassing.

Except when it comes to our poochies.

Much emotional investment in many dogs, oceans of tears when I lose them, and a beautifully warm glow that no human's ever induced in me, made this a must-read. It was sentimental, the illustrations gorgeous, and the package came through as beautiful and luxurious even on my tablet. That's good design.

So heartfelt!

Embodying joy.

Good boy!

She's got the right idea!

Precious little pup...makes you want to schmoozle those teeny little ears, no?

I think anyone who's ever loved and lost would love this poultice for that ache.

'Morning, Rdear. Happy Sunday to you.

>52 richardderus: Part of me says Sure! Another part of me says Nope! I think Nope's winning.

*smooch*

>54 karenmarie: hmmm
That's a tough one...I think it's a mood-based thing. The writing was very good, the plot was thin to vanishing...the MC was a complete basket case...maybe, on balance, "nope" is the wisest course unless it comes onto KU at some point.

Sunday orisons, smoochling!

You know me well. I've added it to my wish list, with your name tagged and the new, hot-off-the-presses tag, 'wait for KU'. My wish list is under my username @kairfa.

I wasn't ignoring the you-know-what one, because as you can tell by the time stamps, we simultaneously posted. However, I'll pass. My grief for Inara is ongoing, hitting me particularly hard this a.m. when I halfway expected her to come to the kitchen 'asking' for wet food. Sigh.

>56 karenmarie: *smooch*

It's there if/when it could help. Isn't that the glory of the book? They're just...there. Even if you lose one, there's almost always a way to get it back.

>50 richardderus: +1 from another person who regards playing football as little more than a way to get a concussion, and watching football as an incomprehensible preoccupation.

My local "new" stadium, well positioned to create traffic tie-ups and other inconveniences for me, is named for a company who obviously thinks this is good advertising for them. I doubt I'll ever buy any of their products again. At least I live outside the radius that paid extra taxes to build the damn thing; the main bad effects were on my workplace not my home.

>58 ArlieS: Among my many grumps about gridiron football, apart from it chewing up young men's bodies (disproportionately Black ones at that) is the way it socializes its costs while privatizing its profits tax-unencumbered. Repugnant.

>53 richardderus: You sold me, without a second’s hesitation, on I’m still Here: A Dog’s Purpose Forever. Thanks!

Karen O

>60 klobrien2: *smooch*

I adore dogs and really miss having one but Hubby's right, we really can't have one now. So I pet everyone I meet and am thinking about getting a T-shirt with the message "Life Goals: pet all the dogs, read all the books". Never happen but a worthy goal imo.

It's 2 p.m. and 77 degrees outside. I really lovely day.

>62 RebaRelishesReading: For y'all, 77° must feel like "get out the punkins Maude" weather. I'm right comfy at 70°. Barring a sudden, unpleasant ramp-up of the hurricane season, I think NY's done it's usual trick or making Labor Day the actual end of summer.

Probably way too far in to say happy *new* thread, but I'll say it anyhow.

The dog book looks lovely but not sure I can do it. I will keep it in mind for the right time, though, thanks.

>52 richardderus: sounds good to me!

>53 richardderus: this one too!!! If it were about cats (:O).
Sorry. That was potentially provocative ;)

>64 jessibud2: It's new to you, Shelley, so it works. It's a brand new book, due out on Tuesday, so no rush.

>65 LovingLit: If there isn't a version with...them...in its sights yet, there will be soon. Count on it.

I will not, however, be seeking out/reviewing it.

*shudder*

>12 richardderus: Oh that is the perfect tiara, Richard! I will love wearing it! I don't think anyone will look at me twice.

>68 vancouverdeb: ...during a Royal Visit, permaybehaps...but it is just gorgeous, isn't it? The acorns and oak leaves, the beautiful shapes of the tracery are all perfectly balanced. I saw it and knew it would be September's crown.

140 The Palace of Eros by Caro De Robertis

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Young, headstrong Psyche has captured the eyes of every suitor in town and far beyond with her tempestuous beauty, which has made her irresistible as a woman yet undesirable as a wife. Secretly, she longs for a life away from the expectations and demands of men. When her father realizes that the future of his family and town will be forever cursed unless he appeases an enraged Aphrodite, he follows the orders of the Oracle, tying Psyche to a rock to be ravaged by a monstrous husband. And yet a monster never arrives.

When Eros, nonbinary deity of desire, sees Psyche, she cannot fulfill her promise to her mother Aphrodite to destroy the mortal young woman. Instead, Eros devises a plan to sweep Psyche away to an idyllic palace, hidden from the prying eyes of Aphrodite, Zeus, and the outside world. There, against the dire dictates of Olympus, Eros and Psyche fall in love. Each night, Eros visits Psyche under the cover of impenetrable darkness, where they both experience untold passion and love. But each morning, Eros flies away before light comes to break the spell of the palace that keeps them safe.

Before long, Psyche’s nights spent in pleasure turn to days filled with doubts, as she grapples with the cost of secrecy and the complexities of freedom and desire. Restless and spurred by her sisters to reveal Eros’s true nature, she breaks her trust and forces a reckoning that tests them both—and transforms the very heavens.

Told in bold and sparkling prose, The Palace of Eros transports us to a magical world imbued by divine forces as well as everyday realities, where palaces glitter with magic even as ordinary people fight for freedom in a society that fears the unknown.

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

My Review: All the Muses please praise the Divine Madeline...Miller, of The Song of Achilles fame...for igniting the seemingly unquenchable flame of queered/regendered mythology retellings we've been treated to this past decade.

The existence of a flood means, obviously and inevitably, some iterations will not live up to the flood-breaker's level. This book is one that doesn't quite reach heights the very best do. Most of that is down to a tendency of the author to, um, overelaborate:

She came here on some winged creature through the night sky, she is a woman free to roam the sky, a woman with a palace, a woman whose days are hidden from you, a woman who can do outrageous things to another woman’s body, a woman whose power is mountainous, whose strength is vast, whose charm is boundless, you’d never imagined such a woman could be, yet here she is, and far be it from you to anger her when she’s already given you so much, how could you ask for more, when she has chosen you for this adventure for some inscrutable reason you’ll never understand, just as it’s impossible to understand how this adventure can exist or what the scope of it will be, but there it is, the need to clasp it close and not let go because you want this life she’s offered you, want it with every fiber of your being, yet also want to hold on to your own knowing, however tiny it may be compared to hers.

I think that single sentence says more than I ever could.

I am very sure that, absent familiarity with the many versions existing of the underlying myth, this story will still make sense. After you take out you mental machete and whack back some of the vines and shrubs in your path. It is not, in the final analysis, a terribly complicated plot. It's about the nature of desire, and to twenty-first century eyes, the nature of consent.

I was most interested in Author De Robertis' decision to use first-person narration, and a deep access to her thoughts and feelings, for the human/victim of coercive sex Psyche, while according the deity/rapist third person freedom. A force of nature like a deity should, I agree, have an impersonal voice; if any personification of a natural force needs and deserves this distancing, it is the personification of Lust, and subsidiarily, physical Love. There is a reason the Greeks split Love/Aphrodite from Lust/sex Eros. These things are not the same.

I don't entirely understand why, post-#MeToo, one would choose to retell this particular myth without including some examination of the romanticization of coercion that the myth has always represented. Making Eros a non-binary deity, while very much in the spirit of the times, doesn't change what Eros did to Psyche.

A slender reed of a story to hang a novel on, and one that still misses its chances to add value to the ongoing conversation about sexuality and romance. Published about ten years too late to make its best and biggest splash.

‘Morning, RD. Happy Monday to you. A non-working, able to fill it with books and etc. kind of day for us.

>57 richardderus: I love my Kindle, and really enjoy having Kindle Unlimited, but it doesn’t give satisfaction the way my paper books do. I’ve got 11 of them on the desk, some needing to just be put up on the correct shelf, others needing to be cataloged. I need to close the pocket door to the Library again. I love the concentrated book smell after I haven’t been in there for a while.

>58 ArlieS: and >59 richardderus: One of my thoughts when I was pregnant with what turned out to be a girl was that I’d have to fight Bill and his dad and absolutely refuse to let any son of mine play Pop Warner football. It was a battle I was going to have and win. I’ve lost my pash for gridiron football, but love football as the rest of the world calls soccer, as you know.

>62 RebaRelishesReading: Love the sentiment, Reba, but of course would change the word dog to A Different Animal. *smile*

>63 richardderus: There are still 83 days of hurricane season left. September has been by far the worst month in my 33 ½ years here in central NC. Fingers crossed that everything that develops stays harmlessly off any coast.

>70 richardderus: Well, I was personally thinking that MORE mostly-copycat re-tellings of Greek Myths were … Anyway. I guess the queer/regendered retellings are good.

However, I’ll pass. Noncon doesn’t work for me anymore, ever. I never really thought about it before reading MM romances, frankly. I finally got rid of almost every noncon romance in my paper Library after the epiphany and now guess I’ll have to see if I have any on my Kindle. I’m not sure I want to get rid of Bulfinch’s Mythology, though.

*smooch*

>70 richardderus: I'm a sucker for a retelling. but. That sentence I lost the will to live about half way through. So I'm thinking a no from me.

>71 karenmarie: Happy whatever-the-hell-day this is, Horrible. I love tree books, too, but the industrial processes to produce them are very nasty...lots of VOCs produced with the inks and the paper, not to mention the very questionable use of trees for paper pulp when hemp would do the Earth good and let the trees sequester the carbon we need 'em to...I'm just glad you didn't have to slug it out with the Patriarchy in 1991. (My money'd be on you to win, though.)

Noncon is...troubling...but was reality for millennia. I'm all behind gettin' it off the entertainment-reading shelves. The history and social-science and so forth, well, I'm not addin' 'em like Pez from a Scooby-Doo dispenser, but they belong because one can't resist what isn't in one's awareness.

It's the same reason I keep the "holy books" around. They're really useful sources of antigod ammo.

83 days left, but look at this season! It's been much milder than predicted. Delightful change, no? BETTER for once. *smooch*

>72 Helenliz: It wasn't the only one, either, so that sounds to me like a good response to the stimulus.

141 The Ideal State: A Model Based on Analysis of Savagery, Feudalism, Capitalism and Beyond by Tayyib Ahmad Tayyib

Rating: 3* because I fully agree with the politics.

The Publisher Says: Previously published as "The Evil Within Evolution of Social Systems & The Ideal State"

This is a fully revised and expanded edition. Have you not wondered what kind of a country you would want to live in? What policies of its government would guarantee a secure and happy life for you and your children? We need to look at our past history and understand how our previous generations have fared under different social systems. Only then we can decide how a state should be structured and what policies it should adopt to ensure security and well-being of its population. It is important to know what makes a state into an imperial power and drives it to subjugate other states and peoples and exploit them. How could this tendency be avoided?

All civilized states and societies are moving towards more and more socialism and democratic control of their governments, despite temporary setbacks. What do you think lies ahead? States like Norway, Sweden, Denmark and most other European states are referred to as "social democratic states". Their citizens enjoy free education, universal health care and a guaranteed retirement income. China calls its socio-economic system as "Socialism with Chinese Characteristics". Despite being a developing country, it has eliminated extreme poverty and offers free high-school education to all its citizens and subsidized higher education and virtually universal health care. Bernie Sanders pleaded for a "democratic socialism" in the United States in his bid for the presidency of the US, a few years ago.

In this work, you would find a comprehensive analysis of the development of socio-economic and political systems from the age of savagery to feudalism and capitalism. You would find why, and how, capitalism leads to extreme exploitation, imperialism and violence, why it needs to be discarded and why a democratic socialist future for mankind is inevitable. The resulting ideal state should ensure equality of social, economic and political rights for all, without any distinction - racial, national, or gender. It should eliminate all kinds of economic exploitation resulting in development of all individuals to their full potential. Numerous illustrations are included and many political thinkers, economists and political leaders have, indirectly, contributed to this work. Quotations from their works are included on specific issues. Imagine what such an ideal state, or states, would mean for you and for the rest of humanity. Find out how humanity is progressing in that direction now and how this process would accelerate in the future. Let us not give up hope. The future of humanity is bright!

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

My Review: This book is preaching to the choir, in terms of my belief the author is onto something good in his negative assessment of capitalism.

But, for four hundred pages, the prose is a lot like the synopsis above. That is to say, it's not fluid and readable like Yannis Varoufakis and Thomas Piketty (as translated by Arthur Goldhammer, anyway) are. I'm not in good conscience able to recommend the read to laypeople. If you're interested in leftist economics and social policy, come to the altar, but check your expectations at the door.

>75 richardderus: another maybe book bullet, with the "maybe" partly generated from your last paragraph, and partly by the second paragraph of the publisher's blurb. Otherwise it would be a strong yes.

>76 ArlieS: If it was at all well-written I'd be yodeling from the rooftops. It's borderline incoherent. He's got good ideas, though. *sigh*

A very belated happy new thread, Rdear. Sending big waves over the pond. *smooch*

‘Morning, RDear! Happy Tuesday.

>73 richardderus: Noncon in the real world hasn’t gone away, and that doesn’t even include sex trafficking. I’m just trying to do my itty-bitty part in not acquiring books that use it as a plot device.

>75 richardderus: I can’t even get around to finishing The Federalist Papers although I have plans to get it done by the end of the year, so will pass on a book that preaches to the choir pedantically and in a borderline incoherent way. Good premise, though. I need to think about that.

Book fondling and Virlie’s today, with the bonus of sticking around to meet friend Jan for lunch. I’m way too busy this week, but oh well, it’s all good stuff.

*smooch*

Tuesday *smooch* and hope you have some good books lined up.

>78 Ameise1: Thank you most kindly, Barbara! I send a happy *smooch* back to you.

>79 karenmarie: Horrible! *smooch*

I'm glad you'll get some book-fondling time, and always smiling at the Virlie's trips...vicarious good fooding is delightful.

Noncon is a BIG no. I'm wavering on a series of mysteries, reviews tomorrow, where a kid was hinted to be in sexual danger. She wasn't, but it made me squirm. The epiphany isn't reversible.

The Federalist Papers is well-worth reading, if only to see how deeply debased these "originalists" truly are. (I typed "scumbags" three times and kept erasing it because spreading a huge wad of hate is unwise right now.)

>80 bell7: *smoochiesmoochsmooch* My reading is, at least right now, on a solid track thanks.

142 Stephen King: His Life, Work, and Influences by Bev Vincent

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: A thrilling visual companion curated for young adults voraciously reading their way through Stephen King’s colossal corpus of creepy books.

For many young readers, when the last page of Goosebumps is turned, the first chapter of Pet Sematary begins, and a world of terror crafted by Stephen King is revealed. His novels are as fascinating as his life, and in this ultimate illustrated guidebook, young readers explore the cultural phenomenon and legacy of the King of Horror.

From scare-seeking child to impoverished university student to struggling schoolteacher to one of the best-selling—and most recognizable—authors of all time, this engrossing book reveals the evolution and influences of Stephen King’s body of work over his nearly 50-year career, and how the themes of his writing reflect the changing times and events within his life.

With tons of photos, approachable bite-size sections, and gripping details to captivate young readers, the book offers an extensive look into Stephen King’s books, short stories, writings, movies, series, and other adaptations ideal for the young reader to review. Exclusive memorabilia from Stephen King, including personal and professional correspondences, handwritten manuscript pages, book covers, movie stills, and a never-before-seen excerpts from his poems. Personal insights and observations such as real-life settings that inspired King’s writing, the editor who discovered him, his life as a Boston Red Sox fan, and the many awards and honors he has received. Motivating quotes from King from interviews over the decades.

“My childhood was pretty ordinary, except from a very early age I wanted to be scared…there was a radio program at the time called Dimension X, and my mother didn’t want me to listen to that because she felt it was too scary for me, so I would creep out of bed and go to the bedroom door and crack it open. And she loved it, so apparently, I got it from her, but I would listen at the door and then when the program was over, I’d go back to bed and quake.” —Stephen King

Young adults will covet this comprehensive yet accessible reference to their favorite horror author.

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

My Review: Author Vincent's a King superfan, and believe you me, it shows. This compendium of anecdotes and overviews of his career, and the stories he's offered us, is exactly what a young fan will love.

Plenty of not-so-young fans too, I'll wager.

I'm not a Constant Reader, as he addresses his immense and well-earned audience online, more of a dibble-dabbler. I enjoy many of his massive tomes—my own favorite being 11/22/63—because I'm very old and that date means so very much to me. (Rob asked me once why that date was important...ouch.) The manner in which Author Vincent hits the life and career high points will make this a deeply welcome gift to your King-stan teen or tween. (Officially. We won't discuss what you do with it before wrapping it up.)

The design and visuals are very much up to the job, as one would expect from a Quarto Group imprint.


Clear, concise, not too busy to fail in its primary duty of informing as well as keeping one's interest.


I enjoyed the glimpse into King's early methods and processes.


It's safe to say we do not share a taste in companion animals. *shudder*


The stuff of literal nightmares for decades now!


...speaking of which...Tim Curry does Pennywise the best, in my never-remotely humble opinion. Skarsgard's got a different take, not worse not better...but give me Curry every time.

Here are a couple text-only spreads to round out your visual impression of the book. I'll stress that, even on my tablet, the design's readable and very appealing.


Solid design, appealing to a recipient fan, very intentionally a gift book. It's a terrific value at this price!

>73 richardderus:
Hurricane Francine will be making herself felt here in Alabama later this week. I am looking forward to the rain because it is very dry here in central and eastern Alabama, so a nice soaking rain will be welcome. I am also looking forward to a couple of days of wet gloomy weather so that I can get lots of paperwork done regarding my household move. I also have to start gathering documents so being forced inside will be good for me.

>85 benitastrnad: She's a reasonably mild one, Francine, at Category 2, but the rain will be welcome in its risk-of-fire suppression. Let's hope the flooding's minimal.

I hope all the stuff you need is easily found. Move smoothly!

>84 richardderus: Oh wow, sounds terrific 🤩

I do believe you got me with that Stephen King tome, RD. I've conscientiously avoided most of his books. Read Carrie, The Shining, 11/22/63, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. I have Danse Macabre and a fantastical, probably, belief that I read it. But my daughter is a fan and has a bookcase FULL of his books. Perhaps this new book about his life and works (so far) would be a good intro to his oeuvre. Should I opt to read more of his stuff.

>88 weird_O: Everyone tells ms i should read 11/22/63 but Steven King and other "horror" novelists have always gotten a hard pass here. But Time Travel? and the JFK story? Maybe I will stick a toe in that water after all.

>87 Ameise1: It really is, for King fans, Barbara!

>88 weird_O: There's the usual issue, Bill, with very prolific authors: not everything's good. Maybe something like this would give your aim some sharpening. Plus you can get the books from your daughter!

>89 magicians_nephew: It's long, but it needs the space, Jim.

Happy new thread Richard!

>93 humouress: Thank you most kindly! I'm having another very productive week of review-writing. Enjoy Leicester!

143 Pitch Dark (Mike Bowditch #15) by Paul Doiron

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Game Warden Mike Bowditch must chase down a cunning and dangerous fugitive in the North Maine Woods in this nail-biter of a thriller from Edgar Award-nominated author Paul Doiron, Pitch Dark.

Legendary bush pilot Josie Jonson can’t believe her luck when a skilled builder just happens to show up after she purchases land near Prentiss Pond. All Mark Redmond asks in return for building Josie’s dream cabin is that he be left alone to homeschool his 12-year-old daughter, Cady.

For Maine game warden investigator Mike Bowditch, the intensity of Redmond's secretiveness is troubling, especially in light of suspicious criminal activity being reported around the area―including rumors of an armed man offering large sums of money in exchange for the location of Redmond and Cady. Josie, though hesitant to violate the trust of her prized builder, eventually agrees to fly Mike and his father-in-law Charley Stevens to the secluded pond in an attempt to protect Redmond and Cady. But hours after landing, the trip takes a dark turn when they witness a horrific murder and are taken captive themselves.

Freeing himself, Mike is forced to set off through the impenetrable Maine forest towards Canada, alone and unarmed in pursuit of a mysterious fugitive. As he navigates a windblown landscape choked with deadfalls and blocked by swollen streams, he marvels at his enemy’s bush craft. The killer possesses skills surpassing his own, and Bowditch can't tell if he is the cat or the mouse in this dangerous game. Can Mike Bowditch stop his adversary in time to save the life of a young girl, or will he be forced to watch another innocent soul die?

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

My Review: I'm going to address the elephant in the room now: appearances deceive in this set-up. Suspend your reflexive judgments.

Fifteenth in a procedural series I've read four of before this one. I'm glad to say I liked this one, too. I do now recall why I stopped reading them back when: There is not one likable woman except Mike's new wife, Stacey. It calls to my mind the series reads in the vein of Scot Horvath or Jack Reacher.

The set-up of this story, father and daughter living off the grid in the big fat middle of a chunk of Maine that even tracker-dude Bowditch says, "nah, gimme a plane ride," already has my spidey senses a-tingle. Add an armed stranger on the hunt for these two and, well, there's not much left to wonder is there?

Yes there is.

The twists and surprises kept me interested enough that I got snarled at about my reading lamp. I was expecting things thoroughly unpleasant to develop that didn't...whew...and not expecting things to develop that did, which was pleasantly surprising. I'm usually very averse to a child being put in jeopardy for amusement. I ws not really a fan here, but the issues surrounding the jeopardy are such that I felt less like this was a cheap ploy than a timely use of a horrifying reality.

By the end of the read, I was ready for the light to go off and sleep to come. It didn't for a half-hour (that's really long for me, I usually get to sleep in minutes) because I kept replaying some of the scenes in my mind. That is a good story! Keeps me up late, hard to do, then keeps me wakeful thinking about it.

Good work, Author Doiron. Recommended for procedural fans tired of the usual settings and attitudes based on arrogance and/or testosterone poisoning. Bowditch's 'tude is amply backed up, and earned, by his skills and his moral cdnter.

I hope he come looking for me after my kidnapping.

>84 richardderus: I'm not a horror fan so I've been quite selective in my King reading. What i have read I have enjoyed, he has some writing chops, but I'm not planning on completing his catalogue. For the right fan this looks like the perfect gift.

>96 Helenliz: Definitely on your wavelength, Helen. I'm not scared by "supernatural" stuff, I'm revolted by oceans of gore, and honestly that's more of what that genre likes to do, so....

I'd give the book as a gift in a heartbeat, though.

144 Dead Man's Wake (Mike Bowditch #14) by Paul Doiron

Rating: 4.25* of five

The Publisher Says: Game Warden Mike Bowditch's engagement party is interrupted by the discovery of a gruesome double murder in Dead Man's Wake, a new thriller from Edgar Award-winning author Paul Doiron.

On the evening of their engagement party, Maine Game Warden Investigator Mike Bowditch and Stacey Stevens witness what seems to be a hit-and-run speedboat crash on a darkened lake. When they arrive at the scene, their spotlight reveals a gruesome sight: a severed arm beneath the surface. As day breaks, the warden dive team recovers not one but two naked corpses: the dismembered man and the married woman with whom he was having an affair. Mike begins to suspect the swimmers' deaths were not a senseless accident but a coldly calculated murder. Alone among his fellow officers, Mike begins to sense the involvement of a trained professional, smarter and more dangerous than any enemy he has faced. As Mike and Stacey get closer to identifying the killer, their own lives are suddenly put on the line, leading to a confrontation designed to silence them forever.

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

My Review: Picking this series up after dropping it after Bad Little Falls (book #3), for no particular reason I can recall, I'm glad to say I got the hang of things again right quick.

Mike's in a place I wouldn't necessarily have predicted back then, what with planning to marry Stacey, but there we are. What hasn't changed much is this sarcastic, tangy dude's ability to offend everyone while doing far too good a job to get his smart mouth fired.

Stacey feels like a fairly generic character, if I'm honest, but then again who really cares about the sleuth's love interest? She doesn't simply exist to take up space like Bruno's lady-friends in Martin Walker's Bruno, Chief of Policeseries; she has skills and uses them with Mike's investigation in this story. I remembered her name as Jamie, but either this is a different woman or my memory is wrong.

The plot starts out really strong, again as remembered from Author Doiron's earlier books. The events start weird and grisly early on. A lot of names are thrown at you from the start, which is often the case in series mysteries at this stage of their run. Here I suppose I'm running on the assumption that these characters are as I remember them. If they aren't, well...serves me right for being away more than ten books.

What the reader of series mysteries looks for, as far as I can see, is the sense that ma'at is served, that the Rightness of things is restored when the crime is solved. Murder is a gross insult to the body politic no matter who's killed; yes, even if it's someone who needs killin', responsibility must be apportioned or the precedent it sets is unthinkably dangerous. That's what I felt about this particular murder, TBH. Understandable that someone taking your spouse away from you would piss you off; but then again, why was said spouse in play, exactly? And no one's gonna support the old-fashioned sense that a man's wife is his, as in his property, in the twenty-first century.

Maine's as much of a character as any human was. The atmospherics will either immerse you in the setting (me) or make you a crazy person. Particularly prominent in this outing is information on boating that will quite possibly make some wish for an acute drought to dry up the whole state. Maine's unusually powerful wardens...power of arrest?! really?...make this series a procedural of the sort I enjoy. It's detailed without feeling, to me at least, dense and chewy. It doesn't hurt that I feel Mike's spiny, acerbic nature makes him a kindred spirit. Stacey is detailed enough to give me the slightly uncomfortable feeling she sees herself as "riding herd" on her man. I don't know this; she's developed over eleven books since I met her in book three. If indeed this is the same woman....

You already know I picked up the next one, so my vote is in. Good series.

‘Morning, RDear!

From my thread, I’m glad to see that you’re goading me into getting seven items instead of four. *smile*

>82 richardderus: Book fondling is always a joy. Yesterday was serendipitous – I had recently been thinking about a book I got when I was a teenager – 100 of the World’s Most Beautiful Paintings and mourning that it had gotten lost along the way, but there was a copy yesterday that had quality issues on the spine, so they were going to give it to the thrift shop. It’s now mine. I’m VERY happy.

Hmmm. ‘originalists’. I still think Hamilton, even if he couldn’t keep it in his pants, was the best thing to happen to the newly re-formed United States. Washington, too. Madison and Monroe, not so much, and except for the Louisiana Purchase, Jefferson makes my skin crawl. I need to research John Jay, the third author of The Federalist since I really don’t know anything about him.

I still read books where a survivor of abuse is living their best life.

>84 richardderus: Well, alliterative publisher much? ‘colossal corpus of creepy books.’ Satisfying to say out loud. MY favorite is also 11/22/63. My second favorite is On Writing:A Memoir of the Craft.

>89 magicians_nephew: Make it so, Jim! No horror except of the assassination of JFK kind.

>95 richardderus: and >98 richardderus: Pass. Not hard pass, just … pass.

*smooch*

>99 karenmarie: John Jay is not as high-profile as I think he should be. There's a KU shortie that could launch you into his life:
https://www.amazon.com/John-Jay-Life-Beginning-End-ebook/dp/B0792ZCL63/

I definitely think you're not the audience for the Bowditch books, like at all.

The Quarto Group is prone to that kind of flummery. They're gift/kid/nonce book publishers, so their audience is receptive to that tone. The author is fairly breathless, too. I suppose it's to be expected, given this is a complete fan-service book. Not a bad one, but still prone to the excesses of such books.

YAY for your reacquisition! It means more when things come back to you...like my book on the Bayeux Tapestry, The Bayeux tapestry; the story of the Norman Conquest: 1066 by Norman Denny.

*smooch*

I attended my wine club meeting last night and made a delicious Arugula, Fig, Prosciutto, Walnut and Goat Cheese salad. Then, because I was enjoying my time in the kitchen, I decided to make a Tomato Gallate. I got overly happy with the thyme and that flavor took over the gallate. Both were perfect with the light Italian wines that were the object of the program. It would have been just over-the-top to have some zucchini in something, but another member brought zucchini bites, which made my late summer supper a real delight. The wine part of the program was designed to be a summer program, which September is, normally, here in Tuscaloosa - the Land of Endless Summer. However, Hurricane Francine has kept the temperatures rather moderate. It was only in the upper 80's yesterday.

There will be no cooking today, and I am looking forward to the rain later this afternoon. That should give me enough time to gather my information to reup my TSA PreCheck papers.

Just stopping by to wish you a great Wednesday, Richard. Hope you’re enjoying the perfect weather as much as I am. 😘

>101 benitastrnad: No cooking sounds appropriately self-preservationistic, Benita, so I hope all goes well on all these fronts. Francine doesn't seem to have dona lot of horrible damage, gratefully, so you won't need to worry about delays when you need to vacate Devilbama at least.

>102 Storeetllr: Hasn't it been *glorious*? I'm renewedly happy to be on the shore. I've been polishing up tomorrow's reviews...ended up cutting a mean one down to a few lines because it was so waspish.

*smooch*

Keep on with the thrillers, and I'll be next-best-thing to invulnerable to your book bullets. Nyah! Nyah!

And have a random drive by hug while I'm here, if you appreciate such things.

So many great reads, Richard! Hope this trend continues for you *smooch*

Happy New Thread!

I have not an idea in my head nor a word to say, Richard. Here I am anyway after a long, long day.

Sleep well. I'm off to get it a try! *smooch*

I was also surprised to read that the right think that Kamala's Tiffany earrings were actually feeding her info ! What next ?

Sweet Thursday, Rdear. I hope it will be a good one.
The temperatures have dropped here. Snow is forecast for tomorrow in the mountains. I hope that the roads will be clear of snow on Saturday when we drive into the mountains. 😘

‘Morning, RDear!

Yes, it’s way too early to be up. Sigh.

>100 richardderus: Thank you for the link re John Jay – it’s Kindle Unlimited, so I’ve borrowed it. I just did a tiny bit of research on the Bayeux Tapestry. I didn’t realize it is 20” high by 230’ long. Live and learn.

*smooch*

145 Tell Me Everything (Amgash #5) by Elizabeth Strout

Rating: 3.75* of five

The Publisher Says: From Pulitzer Prize–winning author Elizabeth Strout comes a hopeful, healing novel about new friendships, old loves, and the very human desire to leave a mark on the world.

With her “extraordinary capacity for radical empathy” (The Boston Globe), remarkable insight into the human condition, and silences that contain multitudes, Elizabeth Strout returns to the town of Crosby, Maine, and to her beloved cast of characters—Lucy Barton, Olive Kitteridge, Bob Burgess, and more—as they deal with a shocking crime in their midst, fall in love and yet choose to be apart, and grapple with the question, as Lucy Barton puts it, “What does anyone’s life mean?”

It’s autumn in Maine, and the town lawyer Bob Burgess has become enmeshed in an unfolding murder investigation, defending a lonely, isolated man accused of killing his mother. He has also fallen into a deep and abiding friendship with the acclaimed writer Lucy Barton, who lives down the road in a house by the sea with her ex-husband, William. Together, Lucy and Bob go on walks and talk about their lives, their fears and regrets, and what might have been. Lucy, meanwhile, is finally introduced to the iconic Olive Kitteridge, now living in a retirement community on the edge of town. They spend afternoons together in Olive’s apartment, telling each other stories. Stories about people they have known—“unrecorded lives,” Olive calls them—reanimating them, and, in the process, imbuing their lives with meaning.

Brimming with empathy and pathos, Tell Me Everythingis Elizabeth Strout operating at the height of her powers, illuminating the ways in which our relationships keep us afloat. As Lucy says, “Love comes in so many different forms, but it is always love.”

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

My Review: Well, here we are...next in a series of books about people I care less about than I probably am safe admitting to publicly. Lucy Barton's fans are legion, and they looove her for being her mildly chaotic self. I mean, they've stuck by her despite her ongoing friendship with her truly toxic, lightly pathetic first husband! That would get a flesh-and-blood woman canceled fast.

I myownself admire her for it. Own your mistakes, forgive your abusers, move forward standing on the past and pushing into the future on those rocks.

This outing has Author Strout doing something bold: Lucy meets her *other* famous older-woman character, Olive Kitteridge! The glue is a story about a murder...you can read the synopsis above, I feel no need to yak on about it...and, surprisingly, sparks do not fly. They clash, of course, Olive is after all a nasty bully who I myownself disliked the second I met her, but no snarktastic duels of wits ensue. Pity, that, but in keeping with the world Author Strout's created.

Amgash/Crosby is another fictional universe where characters have multiple chances to shine. This time it's mostly about Lucy's platonic bestie, Bob Burgess. They are each other's confidante, talking over things they don't have anyone else to confide in. His troubles, his life's burdens, are the topic he least discusses as he busily solves others' problems, much like Lucy herself.

I am generally very receptive to this sort of intertwined storytelling technique. I've read, and love, EF Benson's Mapp and Lucia books, the massive Barsetshire series shared by Trollope and Thirkell, and some of Miss Read's Fairacre series. These all have the virtue of following a group of characters more or less closely, with individual books having one or another focused on, albeit not usually exclusively. So that's how I keep coming back to this wellhead. I'm ready to involve myself in the lives of strangers when they all know each other, more or less well.

I don't think the Amgash series makes the grade as a successor to those series, at least in my own affections, because I myownself find the dithering that Lucy does, and the bullying that Olive does, incompatible with a lovely immersive read. Entirely a personal assessment, and not in the least meant to discourage anyone from pursuing these reads; just, well, be aware that Lucy's insightful comments and Olive's shrewd observations come wrapped in definite personalities. Since they're not really the ones I find most congenial, I'm not going to warble my fool lungs out singing their praises.

I will say that, in this book's case, I think you're best off reading it after having read Olive Kitteridge and My Name is Lucy Barton first. They're not strictly speaking necessary to have done so but, well, the way this storyverse goes, it helps to know the ladies you're relying on for context before going in.

If those are under your belt, dive in. I'm such an outlier when it comes to these characters. They irk and annoy me. They also come with such a well-conceived storyverse, one that soothes the need to make fictional friends, one that is part of a web of interrelated characters you don't know yet...much like life is. That more than any other quality is why I read the books. It feels prosocial.

Enjoy! I did.

>111 karenmarie: also technically not a tapestry, but an embroidery. On the bucket list to visit.

*waves* hello RD.

>105 ArlieS: Nyah back, wicked dodge'em queen.

Hugs returned.

>106 figsfromthistle: So far it's been up and down...normal distribution, really. I'm pleased enough with my results. The reviews you're seeing are weeks behind my actual reading though.

*smooch* for a great reading weekend to come, Anita.

>107 SilverWolf28: Thanks, Silver!

>108 LizzieD: Hiya Peggy, glad you came to visit. Not every time needs to be sparkling repartee, I don't wanna work that hard. *smooch* for awaking refreshed from a lovely sleep.

>109 vancouverdeb: Whatever will keep their very base base riled up. I'd love to see someone chuck tons of Xanax into the food and drink of the entire red belt. CTFD crackers.

*smooch*

>110 Ameise1: I hope your travels are safe, Barbara! I'm so jealous of your snow that I feel queasy. I want snow too!!

Anyway, I'll grit my teeth and say "happy weekend" when what I mean is "I hate you inexpressibly for having MY weather."

*smooch*

>112 richardderus: Hmmm, I'm still on the fence about reading this one. I've only read Strout's two Olive Kitteridge books (she's unlikable, but the first book of short stories did such a great job of rounding out her character that I felt like I knew her really well, and I liked the final story so much that it won me over) and I couldn't get into The Burgess Boys at all. I haven't tried Lucy Barton yet, but my patrons seem pretty divided over them and I haven't found the need to pick them up yet. It seems like Tell Me Everything would hit me best if I was familiar with all of the characters before I see how they intersect... thus my conundrum.

Ah, the trials of a reader! At least there are plenty of great reads out there for me to choose from.

Thursday *smooch*

>111 karenmarie: I got up early to watch the SpaceX space walk. We live in a time of miracles and get bogged down in fighting each other over trifles.

The Tapestry (basically the world's longest needlepoint chair cushion cover) is one thing I'm genuinely sad I'll never see in person. I've been fascinated by it since I got that book from my big sister in 1966.

Enjoy the little shortie on Jay. *smooch*

>113 Helenliz: See >121 richardderus: for my description of it.

Howdy!

>120 bell7: Really...don't bother. Unless you decide to read My Name is Lucy Barton first the hill is too steep a climb to get more than a surface appreciation of the story. If I hadn't already read a couple I'd've been really indifferent to the entire proceedings.

Lots of moving parts when one's a serious reader. Mood, reputation, knowledge base all interact in very complex and unpredictable ways.

*smooch*

146 The Blind Devotion of Imogene by David Putnam

Rating: 3* of five

The Publisher Says: In 1973, Imogene Taylor is seventy-five years old, on parole for murder, and works at a store that sells dented canned goods. Twelve years earlier, she went to prison for killing her love-of-her-life-husband, Wayne. She called it an accident. The judge and jury called it murder. Imogene’s parole agent is constantly on her case, looking to send her back to prison.

During her time in prison, Imogene had to vent her angst at someone and sent the sitting Presidents (during the ten years in prison) threatening letters bringing her to the attention of the Secret Service. She does extensive research and writes a novel, Peekaboo POTUS, about the assassination of a US President. She sends the book "over the transom" to one publisher. The publisher, after being unable to contact Imogene, comes looking for her.

The Cigar, an organized crime gangster, walks into Dentco, where Imogene works, and extorts the store for protection money. Pay up or get firebombed. The entire strip center is under this threat.Imogene must dodge an overzealous parole agent while dealing with a dead woman in the neighbor’s garage. She’s on parole for murder, so she can’t report it to the police. No one would believe her. Imogene and Suz think the woman in the box is Suz’s long-estranged mother. Rather than reveal Suz’s father as the probable killer, Imogene convinces Suz to bury her mom under the avocado tree in the backyard. Until Thelma, Suz’s mother, appears after reading the obituary.

It's a race to uncover the real killer as Imogene dodges gangsters, family members, and a publisher on her quest to find the truth.

At the same time, Imogene’s neighbor dies of natural causes and leaves a hoarder’s mess to his daughter, Suzanne. Imogene helps Suz clear out a pyramid of boxes filled with junk in the garage. At the bottom of the pile, they find a box with a dead woman who has been hidden for many years.

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

My Review: This book is a mess! The author, well-known as the creator of the eleven-book-long Bruno Johnson tough-guy cop/sleuth thrillers, ought to know better how to trim and prune repetitive dialogue, description, and general focus inconsistencies.

Also, why was this set in 1973? There was no reason I could discern that it needed to be in, or benefited from, such a setting. Given when this character's alleged murder takes place, for example, I'd think she would shy away from writing a novel about a presidential assassination. Not only was she locked up the year Kennedy was shot, she's writing her novel during the famously Trumpian vengeance-seeking Nixon's reign of terror.

You'd do well to stay off either one's radar.

Stick to the Bruno Johnson series.

Hi Richard - trying (and failing) to catch up here!

>121 richardderus: We saw the Bayeaux Tapestry a couple of years ago and it is so impressive. It's amazing just how long it is.

You snuck a new thread in while I wasn't looking, Richard. Happy newish thread!

>84 richardderus: Not for me, I think. Horror is not really my thing. I did enjoy King's book On Writing though.

>125 SandDune: Hi Rhian, happy to see you, despite vibrating with jealous loathing at your good luck in getting to see The Tapestry.

>126 Familyhistorian: Hi Meg! Thank you most kindly. I'm pretty confident yours is the right decision re: >84 richardderus:, since the bulk of his œuvre is That Genre.

>127 richardderus: Well, you have had nearly 70 years to see it for yourself, you know.

>129 humouress: *sigh* I see the trip has awakened the Supervillainess Within.

Yeah, true, I have, and goodness knows tried to. I was always prevented by something, I assume you-know-who was frowning on me as usual.

>130 richardderus: Mhmm ... mhmmm

147 Sky Full of Elephants by Cebo Campbell

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: In this exquisite speculative novel set in a world where white people no longer exist, college professor Charlie Brunton receives a call from his estranged daughter Sidney, setting off a chain of events as they journey across a truly “post-racial” America in search of answers.

One day, a cataclysmic event occurs: all of the white people in America walk into the nearest body of water. A year later, Charles Brunton is a Black man living in an entirely new world. Having served time in prison for a wrongful conviction, he’s now a professor of electric and solar power systems at Howard University when he receives a call from someone he wasn’t even sure existed: his daughter Sidney, a nineteen-year-old who watched her white mother and step-family drown themselves in the lake behind their house.

Traumatized by the event, and terrified of the outside world, Sidney has spent a year in isolation in Wisconsin. Desperate for help, she turns to the father she never met, a man she has always resented. Sidney and Charlie meet for the first time as they embark on a journey across America headed for Alabama, where Sidney believes she may still have some family left. But neither Sidney or Charlie is prepared for this new world and how they see themselves in it.

When they enter the Kingdom of Alabama, everything Charlie and Sidney thought they knew about themselves, and the world, will be turned upside down. Brimming with heart and humor, Cebo Campbell’s astonishing debut novel is about the power of community and connection, about healing and self-actualization, and a reckoning with what it means to be Black in America, in both their world and ours.

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

My Review: Well, this was a read and a half. A fantasia, an attempt to view the culture of privilege and prejudice confronted by a man and the mixed-race daughter he never knew he had in the wake of white peoples' mass lemming-like vanishing.

Now, let me bring something up: This is in no way some triumphalist "wouldn't it be cool if all the white people vanished?" racist fantasy. It isn't that kind of facile storytelling, or revenge fantasy. It's a fantasia on the inscrutable ways of the Universe, an unknowable, unfathomably powerful external force that, this time, spared you; but...Amid the reorgaization of society, there's that unease that comes from an unresolved stressor, like the Bomb in the Cold War.

A lot like Le Guin's The Dispossessed, A Morally Ambiguous Utopia, the ideas in this story are heady indeed. The overculture in each of these different stories presupposes the existence of a hegemonic economic system that can only be opposed not reimagined. In Author Campbell's story, the presumption includes the fact that when whiteness and its (largely) unexamined privilege vanish, the enforcement of the hegemonic capitalism dies. Is everything suddenly perfect? No, but it's free from many of the more abusive qualities of capitalism and racism. I myownself am not quite so confident that capitalism would wither so completely or so quickly; it's too effective a tool of control, that most human of needs. Leaving that aside, the Brave New World presented feels...right, just, positive. I say this as someone explicitly excluded from this world. That fact is, I suspect, what led a LOT of whiny little butthurt arrested adolescents to ratings-bomb the book on Goodreads. Such arrant nonsense makes Author Campbell's premise's point for him. It also embarrasses me, an old white man, to be relegated among such angry, hateful, immature people.

The author's imagination, then, can't be faulted. This is his debut novel, so technique is logically enough less well-honed than his idea-generating musculature. I kept saying to my DRC, "Please don't explain so much to me. Trust that the stories you've imagined so richly will, in fact, lead me where you're wanting me to go. Conflicts whose roots and results you carefully elucidate aren't tense enough to keep me eagerly reading." I'm confident this can be attributed to his tyro status. I'm also very eager to read his next work when it comes out.

The ending of the story, while not exactly a release from tension, does flow from the events of the preceding action. It felt...I'm not sure "inevitable" is precisely correct, but it has the leadenness of affect I want to convey.

I've rated the book with four stars because I was brought up short and required to consider the ideas of the story multiple times. Good SF/F does that wonderful job better than any other form of storytelling.

This is good SF. That explains the other half-star.

>131 humouress: :-P

>132 richardderus: The sky on the way to work this morning was not full of elephants but of birds. There were hundreds (and maybe even a couple thousand) right where I exit the main highway onto the "old highway" going to work. I really had never seen so many in one place.

>134 thornton37814: Less unsettling to have unusually large bird-flocks in the sky, as opposed to even one elephant. I wonder if there's a migratory event starting early...?

Checking in on you, RD. ((Hugs)) and **smooches** for today and wishes that you have a fantastic Friday!

>136 alcottacre: Thanks, Stasia! *smooch*

148 Murder at the Matinee (Bertie Carroll Mysteries, #2) by Jamie West

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Following on from the success of Death on the Pier, gay playwright detective Bertie Carroll returns for the second book in this golden-age-style whodunnit series, set in the exciting world of theatreland in 1930s London.

An unexpected phone call from a rival playwright puts Bertie centre stage in another mystery. Can he help unravel the motive behind a mysterious newspaper advert that boldly declares a murder will take place during a show’s third act? There’s only one problem, there is no murder in the third act of the play!

When a victim is discovered and the police are brought in, Bertie and Inspector Hugh Chapman get thrown awkwardly back together as they both work to find the killer.

The spotlight falls on each suspect in turn and, this time, even Bertie is not above suspicion. But can rivalries and differences be put aside to solve this devious murder?

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

My Review: A riff on Dame Agatha's A Murder is Announced, this quozy story of Bertie Carroll coming to the aid of frenemy Alice, with his...well, his policeman Hugh there to do...rather less than in the first book; and then narrowly miss out on taking a starring role in the murder as a suspect so that comes out okay.

The reason that sounds incoherent is that I felt more at sea this time than last. How is it Hugh, clearly being set up as Bertie's Gentleman Caller, recedes more into the background? I wasn't expecting grand passion, it may be set in the theatre world but it's 1930s London so discretion was all. However Hugh and Bertie weren't as bantering-mates-with-subtext this time. That was disappointing. I suspect we'll get more of the bantering, and maybe even that mooted swim from the first book, in the next one.

I was pretty clear on who killed Alice but really didn't know why until the polyphonic ending unfolded. This was more than enough to satisfy my series-mytery reader brain. The first book's adeptness at scene-setting that transported me, this time, to 1930s London (instead of the first book's Brighton) is very much in evidence again. The author is a theatre professional. It's clear he's also willing to do careful research into the past. It is always a pleasure to read the words of someone who presents the world being evoked with such panache and confidence.

Aside from missing more Hugh-time for Bertie and me, I felt the mystery was satisfying my series-story craving enough to get a solid four stars. I probably wouldn't have been as generous if I'd read this book first, so read Death on the Pier (my review linked above) before this. But don't miss out. Bertie and Hugh will wile away a few hours while you're focused on the made-up problems of fictional people.

>135 richardderus: I thought it was really unusual. I wondered the same thing.

>132 richardderus: That sounds exactly like the sort of "what if?" that intrigues me in SFF lately. Duly adding it to the TBR stack.

Happy weekend *smooches*

>139 thornton37814: It's a good test to do, Lori...drive there a few more times at about the same point in the day...see if it happens again.

>140 bell7: Oh yay! I think you'll like it. Such a trenchant premise, and such a good expressive writer.

*smooch*

BURGOINE #046

Calico by Lee Goldberg

Rating: 3* of five

The Publisher Says: From #1 New York Times bestselling author Lee Goldberg, comes an explosive, page-turning investigative thriller - with a mind-blowing twist.

There's a saying in Barstow, California, a decaying city in the scorching Mojave desert . . .

The Interstate here only goes in one direction: Away.

But it's the only place where ex-LAPD detective Beth McDade, after a staggering fall from grace, could get another badge . . . and a shot at redemption.

Over a century ago, and just a few miles further into the bleak landscape, a desperate stranger ended up in Calico, a struggling mining town, also hoping for a second chance.

His fate, all those years ago, and hers today are linked when Beth investigates an old skeleton dug up in a shallow, sandy grave . . . and also tries to identity a vagrant run-over by a distracted motorhome driver during a lightning storm.

Every disturbing clue she finds, every shocking discovery she makes, force Beth to confront her own troubled past—and a past that's not her own—until it all smashes together in a revelation that could change the world.

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

My Review: Entertaining fluff to pass an afternoon. The kind of read that scratches the same "tell me a story but don't make me think too hard" that television has historically specialized in. In fact, this'd make a *great* Movie of the Week, whatever we're calling those now. Netflix Originals? Prime Videos?

Any road, there's a lot less here than meets the eye in substantive themes, but who cares? Read it for the sci-fi-lite elements, the interesting Western US setting (problems and all), and the relatable characters. But seriously, Author Goldberg..."Ben Cartwrright"? SMH

BURGOINE #047 The Labyrinth House Murders (House Murders #3) by Yukito Ayatsuji (tr. Ho-Ling Wong)
Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: THE TWISTY AND INGENIOUS FOURTH INSTALLEMENT IN THE BIZARRE HOUSE MYSTERIES.

The famed mystery writer Miyagaki Yotaro lives a life of seclusion in the remote Labyrinth House. When Yotaro invites four young crime authors to his home for a birthday party, they are honoured to accept. But no sooner have they arrived than they are confronted with a shocking death, then lured into a bizarre, deadly competition…

As the twisted contest gathers pace, murder follows murder. The ingenious sleuth Shimada Kiyoshi investigates, but can he solve the mystery of the house before all those trapped in its labyrinth are dead? And can you guess the solution before he does?

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

My Review: This entry in the ongoing series is billed as the third and the fourth in it (see above synopsis), and as I don't speak Japanese I can't be certain which it actually is. Since the original publication date was in 1988, it ought to be easier than this.

Truly doesn't matter to the reading pleasure of the book, so I suppose the now-normal lie that "this series can be read in any order" is, for once, true. Do take note that this is NOT a fair-play mystery, as there's at least two details crucial to resolving the plot that are not given to you, or even hinted at.

What the read does, however, is to take you through a very well-constructed labyrinth. Playing Theseus is entertaining when the stakes are 1) completing your in-progress novel and b) inheriting cash and copyrights from a very well-known mystery writer. Adjusting expectations this way presents a good day's entertainment.

Pushkin Vertigo brings this out either on 10 October 2024 or 13 May 2025. Either way it's a preorder, so check prices with your chosen retailer.

Weekend smooches and well wishes for only great reads!

Good afternoon, Good Richard! You absolutely got me with *Elephants*, and you would likely have gotten me with *Matinee*, but I already have *Pier* on my Kindle unread. Do you have any idea how full my Kindle is of your recommendations????? Thank you, but really -----

Never mind. *smooch* !!!!!

ETA: Sheesh! They're selling this first novel at full $14.99 price! They must have great hopes for Campbell. I'll have to wait.

>138 richardderus: I wish my local library had that series. You get me with "golden-age-style whodunnit," since I love those books. *sigh*

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

>145 MickyFine: *smooch*

My current reads are fine, but not great; honestly that's good enough.

>146 LizzieD: *egads* $14.99!! Wait. No way would I say that's reasonable. I'd pay $9.99 without a bat of the eyelash but that $5 extra...!

Still, when it comes your way I suspect you'll enjoy it, me lurve.

I'm chuffed your Kindle's replete with my book-bullets. SOMEone listens to me! *smooch*

>147 alcottacre: They're pretty affordable, Stasia...less than $5 on Kindle...maybe it's time....

*smooch*

BURGOINE #048

The Devil of the Provinces by Juan Cárdenas (tr. Lizzie Davis)

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: After a series of failures, a biologist returns to his hometown to live with his grieving mother. But in this gripping crime novel that upends the genre’s conventions, strange events unravel what he thought he knew of his past, his present, and himself.

When a biologist returns home to Colombia after fifteen years abroad, he quickly becomes entangled in the trappings of his past and his increasingly bizarre present: the unsolved murder of his brother, a drug dealer seeking transcendence, a boarding school where students disappear and girls give birth to strange creatures. An encounter with a well-connected acquaintance leads to a job offer in big agriculture, and he’s gradually drawn into a web of conspiracy. Ultimately, he may be destined to remain in the city he’d hoped never to see again. In The Devil of the Provinces, nothing is as it seems.

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

My Review: It feels a bit like cheating to call this a crime novel on first glance. It took the publisher an afterword essay to make a (flimsy) case for it. But on sober reflection lasting months, I came to agree that this IS a crime novel of a specific sort:

The biologist observed that, as with most extravagant paintings, the fabrication of custodiae had flourished during the Counter-Reformation, when the Catholic Church set in motion its major propaganda operation: the colonization of the senses through artwork. Persuasion wasn't enough anymore, subjugation was the aim. The passage from education to spectacle, evangelization to fanaticism. These images were made to trap the eye and flood it with vibration, illusions of movement, space-time dislocation.

The crimes committed, a murdered brother and a drug-dealing bestie (nothing solves the murder, no punishment accrues to the dealer) aside, are the truly vile crimes of misusing language and power to manipulate and control others for fun and profit. The criminals are bothe persons and institutions, as always in the annals of crime.

That's all told in the voice you read above; you'll like it or not, I very much do, but it takes time and a strong willingness to engage with the vocabulary to glean the story's full affect.

Coffee House Press asks $17.95 for one. The library's free. Unless you fell in love with the sample go check it out...but read it. Tendentious meditation on what a true true crime is.

BURGOINE #049

Alcatraz Ghost Story: Roy Gardner's Amazing Train Robberies, Escapes, and Lifelong Love by Brian Stannard



Rating: 3* of five



The Publisher Says: The Incredible True Story of the Most Hunted Man in Pacific Coast History—and the Woman He Loved

Before the 1920s found their roar, a charismatic gambling addict named Roy Gardner dominated news headlines with daring train robberies and escapes from incarceration. Nicknamed "the Smiling Bandit," Gardner spilled no blood—except his own—as he cut a felonious path across the western United States, as the country hobbled through a recession in the aftermath of the First World War.

Once imprisoned for the long term in federal prisons, including Alcatraz, the most notorious prison's second-most-notorious inmate won over some unlikely champions. Both Gardner's wife, Dollie, and a police officer who once arrested him launched extensive campaigns for Gardner's release on the vaudeville circuit, claiming a brain operation would cure his lawless ways. Was Gardner a good man who made bad decisions as the victim of injury and circumstance? Or was his charming personality merely the poker face of a scoundrel?

Richly researched, drawing on contemporary newspaper accounts, Alcatraz Ghost Story explores the life of Roy Gardner in the context of his great love story and the larger backdrop of drug addiction, incarceration, and the racial and labor violence of the 1920s and 1930s.

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

My Review: An uneven true-crime story, one that reminded me of the old film Falling Down. How hard can you push a fundamentally decent man with charm and charisma until he gives violently up on The System?

Add the fillip of never being quite sure which Gardner was the fundamental one, the sales whiz charmer or the criminal manipulator, and you have a catchy book. My rating reflects mostly a dissatisfaction with the choppy pacing...we slow down to discuss historical events that end up being peripheral to the story, eg World War I bond drives, and gloss over things I'd like to hear more about, eg life in/on Alcatraz...rather than the research, or the story being told.

(Also I deeply dislike his One True Love, Dollie...shallow Babbitty broad.)

Skyhorse Publishing is asking $19.99 for a Kindle edition.

>144 richardderus:
I generally like Japanese murder mysteries. They get very twisty. I will have to check this one out - when, or if, it gets to my library.

>153 benitastrnad: Indeed, Benita, the Japanese mysteries I've read are very much in the twistier tradition. I hope >144 richardderus: comes to the library soon!

Murders, mysteries and twisties seem to be filling your days, RD.

Here are some of Malaysia's finest for your delectation:

>155 PaulCranswick: Oh yum! I'd gobble those immediately.

I was on that tear, but today's review is not related. Cheers, PC.

149 A Muzzle for Witches by Dubravka Ugrešić (tr. Ellen Elias-Bursać)

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Winner of the Neustadt International Prize for Literature

As with the rest of her literary career, Dubravka Ugresić's final work, A Muzzle for Witches, is uncategorizable. On its surface, the book is an conversation with the literary critic Merima Omeragić, covering topics such as "Women and the Male Perspective," "The Culture of (Self)Harm," and "The Melancholy of Vanishing."

But the book is more than a simple interview: It's a roadmap of the literary world, exploring the past century and all of its violence and turmoil—especially in Yugoslavia, Ugresić's birth country—and providing a direction for the future of feminist writing.

One of the greatest thinkers of the past hundred years, Ugresić was one-of-a-kind, whose novels and literary essays pushed the bounds of form and content, and A Muzzle for Witches offers the chance to see her at her most raw, and most playful.

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

My Review: "Raw and playful" are not frequently paired in a publisher's synopsis. In this outraged, affronted growl, they're two of the best words for Ugresić's œuvre as a whole, and this distilled, refined-to-purity last work in particular. Her métier was the essay, I've even said before the screed, and this one-sitting book is a great way to get one's eye in to the tenor of her work.

It's quite an achievement to call out, I'd venture to say even to take down, the sexist, fascist Establishment that's controlled...notionally, in her case...the course of both life and career, while being amusing. Mordantly so, but amusing nonetheless. Author Dubravka does this trick regularly. I'm very impressed by this because it means her focus is not on her topic of outrage. The outrage is there, but unlike the literature of grievance that grows so stale so very quickly. Jeremiads are so deeply tedious as anything except a light seasoning on top of one's regular reading.

The title of these collected interviews with a literary critic from Croatia, Merima Omeragić, is a call-out to the (male-dominated) Croatian establishment's characterization of her as a "witch" when her anti-war attitudes got her hounded into exile in 1993. "Muzzle me, you dickheads?" one can hear her thinking in this title. I do not know if she chose it, but it certainly captures her acerbic, flensing-knife wit.

What we, as a literary society, lost on her 2023 death, was an acute observer...better to say "witness" of the Ship of Fools we're riding on. Dubravka Ugrešić saw it from her berth in Second Class, where she was assigned, but never, ever stayed. Her head was the Imperial Suite's sole occupant. She saw right through the oppressive systems designed to reduce her to a compliant drone, a life support system for a uterus.

We need this voice as a society. The women who vote in the 2024 US elections should read this, and other feminists of an earlier generation, because their privileges are not secure when their very rights to bodily autonomy are being rolled back at a great rate of speed.

>148 richardderus: that sounds like a good murder series. I mean, I need a new series like I need a hole in the head, but, you know...
Hope Monday is treating you well.

>158 Helenliz: The Japanese one in >144 richardderus:? It's worth picking up, Helen, with appropriate adjustments to expectations. Don't expect fair play, go to enjoy the puzzle unfolding, and all will be well.

>159 richardderus: sorry. book 148 in post >138 richardderus:.
Getting numbers muddled up, must be the day for checking measurement data against specification - I'm clearly going cross eyed or number blind. Excellent!

>157 richardderus: Excellent review, RD, and a good intro to an author I have yet to get acquainted with, although a copy of her Baba Yaga Laid an Egg is right here at my elbow.

>160 Helenliz: OIC

Yeah, that series is deffo worth pursuing. A bit unsettling to have that kind of day, isn't it.

>161 laytonwoman3rd: Linda3rd! Get on the bus already...you have an actual real book of hers to read, so get after it!

*smooch*

Hi RDear. Happy Monday to you.

>132 richardderus: Borrowed from the Library, I’m looking forward to reading it. It’s nice to have the Librarian reserve a book for you the minute it comes in. I won’t read your review yet.

>143 richardderus: A BB, the audio book’s only $5.34 Prime, unabridged. It should arrive tomorrow.

Too much skipping, but at least I'm visiting.

*smooch*

>164 karenmarie: Happy to see you, Horrible! I'm glad I've smacked you with some good book-bullets. You're supposed to be resting, so skipping is necessary as part of the process returning to health. *smooch*

Good afternoon, Richard. Here we go again: another week, more BBs from RD. I'm off to look in some of my newer anthologies to find a Dubravka Ugrešić essay. Then we'll see!

*smooch*

((Hugs)) and **smooches** for today, RD. I hope you have a marvelous Monday!

>166 LizzieD: *chuckle* (only in the non-Dick sense) I think you might find a new writer to enjoy, there, Peggy me lurve. *smooch*

>167 alcottacre: Thank you, smoochling, I hope you do as well.

Happy New Thread, Richard. Slowly making the rounds around here. A mighty task. I hope you are doing well. I like slipping back into my usual routine, especially with the books. Only finished one print book in over 2 weeks.

>170 msf59: Given what you were doing in those two weeks, Mark, I am completely unsurprised. I'm a little surprised you got in any reading at all. Enjoy your return to normal service!

'Morning, RDear. Happy Tuesday to you.

*smooch*

I always try to get here in the morning. Our early walk gets later and later so that it still feels like morning to me.
Anyway, I wish you a good day, Richard, whatever time it is! *smooch*

I just wanted to stop in and say thanks for doing the "Books in Translation" reviews last month. It gave me lots to think about.

>172 karenmarie: Hiya, Horrible! Tuesday happys to you, too.

>173 LizzieD: "Morning" for me starts by 7.15 so noon's my "afternoon." Time is, as Einstein taught us, all relative. That bothers the rigid. I myownself revel in it! *smooch*

>174 benitastrnad: Excellent news, Benita! I'm delighted that it made an impression. >157 richardderus: is a translation, too, and the publisher just got in touch to ask me if I'd mind their use of it in a social media push. (spoiler: I said yes)

Yes, the Booker Shortlist is disappointing , Richard. Oh well. I'm just going to read whatever grabs me for a while and then read a couple from the short list later. I plan to read James and Stoneyard Devotional. Sometimes just reading for fun is a good thing. * smooch*

150 What Time the Sexton's Spade Doth Rust (Flavia de Luce #11) by Alan Bradley

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Flavia de Luce has taken on the mentorship of her odious moon-faced cousin Undine, who has come to live at Buckshaw following the death of her mother. Undine’s main talent, aside from cultivating disgusting habits, seems to be raising Flavia’s hackles, although in her best moments she shows potential for trespassing, trickery, and other assorted mayhem.

When Major Greyleigh, a local recluse and former hangman, is found dead after a breakfast of poisonous mushrooms, suspicion falls on the de Luce family’s longtime cook, Mrs. Mullet. After all, wasn’t it she who’d picked the mushrooms, cooked the omelet, and served it to Greyleigh moments before his death? “I have to admit,” says Flavia, an expert in the chemical nature of poisons, “that I’d been praying to God for a jolly good old-fashioned mushroom poisoning. Not that I wanted anyone to die, but why give a girl a gift such as mine without giving her the opportunity to use it?”

But Flavia knows the beloved Mrs. Mullet is innocent. Together with Dogger, estate gardener and partner-in-crime, and the obnoxious Undine, Flavia sets out to find the real killer and clear Mrs. Mullet’s good name. Little does she know that following the case’s twists and turns will lead her to a most surprising discovery—one with the power to upend her entire life.

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

My Review: Re-entering the fantasy world that is Buckshaw under the sole, legal rule of Flavia de Luce was...shocking, really. I know it's been four, maybe five years since I read the last one, but howinahell did I suspend disbelief for nine, or was it ten?, books with a kid behaving like an adult? And getting away with it?! No one, not one soul, seems to think "someone ought to be responsible for this kid's social development" and that makes me really unhappy.

So the hill of disbelief needed reclimbing. It was a trudge.

I was, about a third of the way in, ready to give up and Pearl-Rule this bad boy. I didn't because my memories of pleasures past were strong. Sort of literary ex-sex. I'd mostly forgotten the dramatis personae, so it took a while to get my eye back in on Undine...insufferable brat...Dogger, Mrs. Mullet, and Daffy, the last of Flavia's siblings still at Buckshaw.

The characters urging Flavia to get bratty, tantrum-prone Undine some kind of counseling are feeding into the idea that Flavia is, somehow or other, functionally an adult. As a smart kid myself...I read the Encyclopedia Brittanica for fun between the ages of nine and twelve...I'm here to say Flavia's smarts are believable but her emotional maturity, as far as it goes, is not. Her quite justified resentment of her older sisters, unengaged in her development apart from the expected sibling ugliness, shows the limitations of a fantasy of liberated childhood. It makes Flavia come across as far too adult for her not to pursue the earlier nastiness against now-married Feely and soon-to-depart Daffy, university bound bookworm and seemingly uninterested last sister.

So...Undine. She's a cousin, also orphaned, whose antics affect Flavia as her own antics affected Feely and Daffy in earlier books. She's the embodiment of the Parents' Curse: "May you have a child exactly like you, only moreso." Undine makes her value to Flavia obvious by getting and giving to her a very relevant clue to solving the puzzle set in this book. Mrs. Mullet...the suspect needing Flavia's help this time...that one's a very, very deep pool, and much more than has met the eye heretofore. But let's go outside the fantasy realm for a moment, what kind of awful effects does leaving what I'd honestly describe as a badly damaged by neglect kid in charge of one of the same create? Undine (every time I type her name I get frissons of Undine Spragg, from Wharton's The Custom of the Country and her ghastly, entitled 'tude that ends so very badly) needs, much like Flavia did, custodianship, not the gentle and lovely guidance (as opposed to rules and standards) of servants like Dogger and Mrs. Mullet. Really, though, that's the practical adult speaking, not the series reader.

Observant souls, all three of y'all, will note I said "did" above. That's due to my response to the Big Honkin' Twist near the end. No, I won't spoil it, but suffice it to say this really changes everything. I honestly had to talk myself down off the Pearl-Rule ledge again when I got there.

So how came I to give the book four whole stars? It sounds like I'm ready to rip it a new one, doesn't it? I might have. It was a close thing a couple times. I've said in lots of different places that I don't do a lot of re-reading. I have so many books that I will die with a lot unread. This was not always the case. When I was being "raised" by a neglectful, when she wasn't abusive mother, I read and re-read uncounted times Dodie Smith's 1956 novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians. Not the Disney-fied version, I hasten to add. That bowdlerized abomination is an affront to the rescue fantasy so brilliantly penned by the delightful Smith. This series is a forceful evocation of my own tween years, managing a world I wasn't prepared for without support and while dealing with absent or actively unhelpful siblings. I'm sucked in by this extraordinarily gifted kid's clever management of her world, doing so well that no one thinks a thing of enabling it further. I wasn't so good at it, this being reality...but it's a fun way to revise my life in my entertainment.

Don't start with this one, but if you left the series and forgot why you started it, jump in. You really didn't miss much in between, and this one's fun...from the proper series-reader perspective. Take off the rational grown-up hat.

>178 vancouverdeb: You're perfectly correct and I am glad you'll be doing exactly that with those two. It's a really bad idea to include the US as part of the Booker's remit, and that won't be changing. Greed is disfiguring.

Happier reads ahead, dear Deborah! *smooch*

BURGOINE #050

Midnight at Maidenstone Hall by Alison Clare

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: In the spring of 1919, a young man assumes the alias of Marsden Fisher and travels to Maidenstone Hall, the Yorkshire country residence of the Earl and Countess of Scarborough, to tutor their daughter Alice. Searching for the truth about the death of his lover, Alice’s late brother Simon, Marsden arrives to find that nothing is as he expected it to be. The house has been half destroyed by fire, the family’s financial ruin is imminent, and only a small core of frightened but loyal servants remain to serve them.

Alice and her twin sister Beatrice are feuding so terribly that they cannot be in the same room together. It is clear the family is hiding a terrible secret and the lies surrounding Simon’s death convince Marsden to fear for his own safety. The longer he stays at Maidenstone, the more he fears the family will discover his true identity and his relationship with Simon, but Marsden cannot leave until he discovers the about Simon, and the terrible screams that echo through the Hall at midnight.

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

My Review: Very fun queering of the gothic-novel tradition. The atmospherics of the story are deft, absolutely in the gothic tradition, and marred by some typos that are, I hope, corrected by now. The aftermath of the Great War is underused by gothic storytellers as yet. May that change after this.

Recommended, despite queer themes, for all audiences in search of a creepy read for #Deathtober.

Level Best Books asks $5.99 for a Kindle edition.

Duly adding >157 richardderus: to the TBR list, with no promises at all when I'll get to it. Congrats on the publisher's notice and use of your review, too.

No real opinion on the Booker shortlist as a whole, as I've only read James. Though I do rather agree that having American authors in the mix mean that other worthy authors don't get enough notice.

Happy Wednesday *smooch*

‘Morning, RDear, and happy Wednesday to you.

>179 richardderus: I either started and abandoned or never started this series. Your review is very good, though, and I especially like As a smart kid myself...I read the Encyclopedia Brittanica for fun between the ages of nine and twelve... We didn’t have EB, but we had a pretty good dictionary. My sister and I played a game where she’d say two numbers – the first being the page number, the second being the word number. I’d then read the word or the definition, depending on what mood we were in, and she’d try to guess the word or define the word. Or, I’d say the two numbers… It was a great way to expand our vocabularies.

Your reviews always have so many elements! Opinion, personal history, explanation of stars, just plain fun stuff.

Still not persuaded to read the series, but you’ve probably enticed any one of a number of folks.

*smooch*

A very good morning, Richard! Like Karen, I've never entered the de Luce world, but I have at least a couple of the early ones with thanks to Stasia, so I might someday.

I read the Encyclopedia Brittanica for fun between the ages of nine and twelve --- there you go. That points out two differences between you and me. I read *World Book* for fun in those same years - not as economically privileged or as smart as you. The third that you illustrate makes me again eternally grateful for two loving parents.

*smooch* and *smooch* and *smooch*

Your birthday today????

HAPPY, HAPPIER, HAPPIEST of Birthdays, dear Richard!!!! Celebrate! We celebrate you! And with you!

>185 LizzieD: I'll start here...no indeed, my barfday has safely passed. It was this week, though. I emphatically do not celebrate it because I was always so deeply disappointed when I got crappy gifts like socks, underpants, etc. Now I'm content if a few people remember to say HBD on Facebook.

*smooch* for the happy-making thoughts and prayers...since I know you mean 'em.

BURGOINE #051

The Vanishing of Carolyn Wells by Rebecca Rego Barry

Rating: 4.25* of five

The Publisher Says: The Vanishing of Carolyn Wells is the first biography of one of the “lost ladies” of detective fiction who wrote more than eighty mysteries and hundreds of other works between the 1890s and the 1940s.

Carolyn Wells (1862–1942) excelled at writing country house and locked-room mysteries for a decade before Agatha Christie entered the scene. In the 1920s, when she was churning out three or more books annually, she was dubbed “about the biggest thing in mystery novels in the US.”

On top of that, Wells wielded her pen in just about every literary genre, producing several immensely popular children’s books and young adult novels; beloved anthologies; and countless stories, prose, and poetry for magazines such as Thrilling Detective, Life, The Saturday Evening Post, Harper’s , and The New Yorker. All told, Wells wrote over 180 books. Some were adapted into silent films, and some became bestsellers. Yet a hundred years later, she has been all but erased from literary history. Why? How?

This investigation takes us on a journey to Rahway, New Jersey, where Wells was born and is buried; to New York City’s Upper West Side, where she spent her final twenty-five years; to the Library of Congress, where Carolyn’s world-class collection of rare books now resides; and to many other public and private collections where exciting discoveries unfolded.

Part biography and part sleuthing narrative, The Vanishing of Carolyn Wells recovers the life and work of a brilliant writer who was considered one of the funniest, most talented women of her time.

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

My Review: Think of women writers from 1850 to 1950. Pull up some names from your memory hole. Virginia Woolf? Willa Cather? Maybe Agatha Christie? Not Anna Katherine Green, or Carolyn Wells, despite those women's sales eclipsing all the others combined at their peak. Not highbrow enough for scholars to study nowadays. A damned shame.

Resembling the masterful HAD SHE BUT KNOWN: A Biography of Mary Roberts Rinehart, this rescue of a (deliberately?) forgotten woman bestseller from the past is definitely one for your shelves be they physical or digital, if you have the slightest interest in the development of the mystery genre by and for women.

Post Hill Press charges $14.99 for a Kindle book (non-affiliate Amazon link), and well worth it in my opinion.

>183 karenmarie: Sounds like a fun game.

We did have the Britannica, but I never tried to read it cover-to-cover.

>184 LizzieD: I'm deeply grateful that my trajectory has been down, not up, because I got a lot of the benefits of privilege when they were most useful to my development. I question my level of intelligence...most of what I have I honed while benefiting from my lucky economic class at birth.

Had I had loving, even sane, parents, well...who knows?

>183 karenmarie: Morning, sweetiedarling. I'm glad you're enjoying my manner of writing my reviews. There have been Others here, and elsewhere, who do not like the way I do it and have expressed themselves thoroughly disagreeably on the topic. I will not name name so no Visitation from On High come to castigate me...besides, they know who I'm talking about without being publicly shamed again.

Skip Flavia, regret it not, and get thee to a wordery. (my sister Lynne and her friends played Fictionary, pick a word from the Unabridged and everyone write down a fake definition. The person picking always reads them out and includes somewhere the real one. Voting for which one sounds realest got points for the writer.)

>182 bell7: Thanks, Mary! I think you'll like Dubravka when it's her turn on top.

Enjoy James, too!

*smooch*

>187 richardderus: It's the perfect browser's book, Arlie. Pick a volume, flip it open, read whatever you land on...keeping notes became habitual about then. It helped reduce repetitions.

>186 richardderus: It's your birthday? And you don't celebrate it? HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! 🥳🎂🎈🎁 Imagine parades, flag-waving, sky writing .... I can only say I'm sorry I missed the actual day ;0X

>179 richardderus: I never read either the dictionary or an encyclopaedia cover to cover but I'd occasionally flip one open and read the definitions on that page. For some reason that's a guaranteed way to bring out the weirdest ones.

>190 richardderus: That game (Fictionary) gets played from time to time on one of CBC's podcasts - one I used to listen to from time to time when I still had a commute. They have some other name for the game though.

BURGOINE #052

Lighthouse Burning (Harlan Winter #1) by Jordan Farmer

Rating: 3.25* of five

The Publisher Says: In a small Appalachian town, an amateur detective unearths a dark conspiracy and his own haunted past, in a chilling novel about sacrifice, art, and revenge.

Med school dropout Harlan Winter returns to his impoverished West Virginia hometown, where the law is scarce, arsonists are turning everything to ash, and his family’s turbulent history lingers. All he wants is to keep the peace in a community cowering from The Lighthouse, a local cult preying on people’s fears. Harlan’s own fears, too, when he’s hired to play detective and find a young couple gone missing.

The vanished artist and his girlfriend have left behind a series of paintings that enrage The Lighthouse’s Pastor Logan, who believes art can have divine power. It’s not easy to believe for a rational man like Harlan. And impossible to ignore when his investigation is haunted by visions of the dead lurking in the shadows of his own violent past.

Revelations about the disappearances are being unearthed. The Lighthouse’s grip on the community is tightening. And Harlan fears he’s losing control. As the threats against his town, his sanity, and his life begin to mount, Harlan doesn’t know which is more what’s real, or what’s in his mind.

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

My Review: This chilling story is very much a genre-blender between amateur-sleuth mystery, small-town gothic, and violent revenge thriller. The magical overtones are both obtrusive (for the resistant) and underdeveloped (for the congregation). I'm down with anti-church stories, though, so I was flipping pages.

It's easier to forgive underdevelopedness than obtrusiveness, so non-horror unsupernaturalizers are warned off. The rest of us need reasonably good #Deathtober reads. Here's one.

Thomas & Mercer say it's worth $4.99...I'd say less, but it's decent enough I wouldn't be mad if I'd spent that.

>194 ArlieS: I wonder how long that game has been around. As long as dictionaries, I suppose. My sister banned me from playing because I wrote funny definitions and people always voted for them...like defining "orpiment" as "the sound of a nest of baby octopuses burping in unison." I got 14 points!

BURGOINE #053

Head Full of Lies (Harlan Winter #2) by Jordan Farmer

Rating: 3* of five

The Publisher Says: The southbound trail of a stolen spell book becomes a nightmare road trip in a propulsive novel about the unrelenting power of evil by the author of Lighthouse Burning.

Harlan Winter has returned to his corner of Appalachia, where his fiery history with a depraved cult has made him a legend. All Harlan wants is to run his occult bookshop and get on with his life—if only his unsettling visions would let him. But when a fellow devotee of the dark arts moves to Coopersville and Harlan’s coveted grimoire is stolen, he’s pulled into a world deadlier than the one that already scarred his soul.

The foolish thieves are two local teenagers hightailing it out of Appalachia in a stolen car and heading south to Florida where a buyer for the coveted grimoire is waiting. They have no idea what evil lies on the road ahead. But Harlan does. Blood has already been spilled. He’s following them mile by mile on a mission to save them before it’s too late. Because once their prized possession is in the wrong hands, there will be hell to pay.

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

My Review: Second time around...do NOT skip #1 or lots won't make sense. The stupid kids who come for Harlan's precioussss were under relatable, saddening pressure. What happens is a lot like the violence tinged with supernatural shenanigans from before, only being #2, they turned up the volume.

It was a mistake to pound 'em down one after the other. Don't do that and you'll like the results better. Same advisories as for #1: "It's easier to forgive underdevelopedness than obtrusiveness, so non-horror unsupernaturalizers are warned off. The rest of us need reasonably good #Deathtober reads. Here's one."

Thomas & Mercer only want $2.49 for this one, which is exactly my idea of the right price.

>196 richardderus: “Orpiment”—I love this! 💕

Happy Wednesday, Richard!

Karen O

>193 humouress: I missed you first time through! It was indeed my personal new year. I'm not big on it, so like I said in >186 richardderus: I make no fuss. I'm glad to have the good wishes! They're really more important.

I think your dictionary-browsing method is the perfect way to let chance entertain you. It usually does a better job than I manage to do for myself. *smooch*

>198 klobrien2: Wednesday orpiments, Karen O.!

>182 bell7: I do rather agree that having American authors in the mix mean that other worthy authors don't get enough notice.

I completely agree with that. I do not understand why the Booker Prize is recognizing so many American authors.

>187 richardderus: Adding that one to the BlackHole. Thank you for the review and recommendation, RD!

A belated "Happy Birthday" from me as well as ((hugs)) and **smooches** for today. I hope you have a wonderful Wednesday!

BURGOINE #054

Saving Myles by Carl Vonderau

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: When the FBI can’t help, an unassuming banker takes matters into his own hands to bring his son home

Wade, a respected banker in La Jolla, CA, and his estranged wife, Fiona, make the unbearable decision to send their teenage son, Myles, away to an expensive treatment center after a streak of harmful behavior. After a year of treatment, Myles comes home, seemingly rehabilitated. But soon, he sneaks off to Tijuana to buy drugs—and is kidnapped.

When the ransom call comes, Fiona is frantic and accepts help from Andre, the Quebecois whose charity Fiona runs. Wade is wary of Andre’s reputation and the bank he owns, but seeing no other way to secure a kidnap negotiator or the ransom, he swallows his doubts to get his son home.

In order to get the ransom money, Wade makes a deal with Andre—he’ll work for Andre’s bank in exchange for the cash. But as Wade races to rescue Myles before his kidnappers lose their patience, he realizes he’s wrapped up in more crime than just a kidnapping—he’s now indebted to a cartel.

Perfect for fans of Harlan Coben and Lisa Scottoline.

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

My Review: Kid-in-jeopardy thriller, with Dad chasing after his kidnapped teen son for a change. Usual useless woman trope found too often in male-oriented thrillers: his ex-wife involves a villain so obvious he should twirl his mustachios, which—shock twist!—makes everything harder for Dad to fix.

I want to belt the idiot kid upside his head for being such a shit. The writing's good, the pacing's propulsive, the publisher's comps are spot-on.

Oceanview Publishing asks $9.49 for a Kindle edition. Go to the library, says I.

>194 ArlieS: Here it used to be called Call my Bluff and was on in the 70s. The BBC are currently replaying old episodes and they're just a fab watch. The fashion and the level of assumed knowledge all very different.

I once "ran out of things to read" and so started reading the dictionary. I was found asleep somewhere in D.

>186 richardderus: I don't do my birthday either. It happens, no need to make a fuss about it. I usually go to work and just don't tell anyone. hbd.

>201 alcottacre: Oh yippee doodles! I'm so glad I winged you with >187 richardderus:!

The Booker needs publishers to get sales bumps to keep the floodgates open, and the quiet "sponsorships" flowing in. The US has a very profitable market that needs their lustre. (not intentional misspelling to point up hoe British the whole enterprise is.) Ergo, what we're seeing. No one can ever convince me there was nothing written by a Black Brit that was not as good as James. So the most parsimonious explanation is they're getting money. Indirectly I'm sure, but money is coming in that previously was not.

*smooch*

>203 Helenliz: I think I ran across Call My Bluff on YouTube! It was funny, IIRC, but I like QI better.

It's sweet of people to offer congratulations and well-wishes. Objects aren't necessary though can be, if well-judged, fun. I always prefer to get the gift of someone's time.

Speaking of which, the author of >187 richardderus: sent me a friend request on Goodreads!

>200 richardderus: “I wrote funny definitions and people always voted for them...like defining "orpiment" as "the sound of a nest of baby octopuses burping in unison." I got 14 points!”

I’m reading a book about octopuses right now (Secrets of the Octopus by Sy Montgomery) so your definition just hit me as especially funny.

Have you come across the aforementioned? It is so gorgeous and so interesting! It’s kind of a companion to the TV series that was recently aired.

Good rest-of-the-week to you!

Karen O

BURGOINE #055

The Belgrade Conspiracy: A David Rivers Thriller (Shadow Strike #6) by Jason Kasper

Rating: 3* of five

The Publisher Says: **FROM FORMER GREEN BERET AND USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR JASON KASPER**

A lethal shipment of military hardware. An international terrorist group on a mission of mass destruction. One man stands to forever change the course of history…unless David Rivers can stop him.

David Rivers is an expert in the art of violence. Together with his team of CIA operatives, he's executed dozens of covert assassinations―but this mission might turn out to be his deadliest yet. One man stands behind the transfer of high-level military hardware to an international terrorist syndicate.

The CIA has uncovered his identity: Yuri Sidorov, a Russian arms dealer with state protection. With the arms deal only days away, David and the team are faced with an impossible to get close enough to take out their target, they must first win his trust. David and the team infiltrate a black market arms network in Serbia, negotiating a web of secret police and mafia hitmen. Each wrong turn may prove fatal, but they're determined to succeed at any cost. But Sidorov is still alive for a reason, and when the team uncovers dark forces at work in the Balkans and America, they realize that killing him is the least of their worries. By the time they learn the truth, it's too late…and now they're the ones being hunted.

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

My Review: I knew when I asked for this read it was #6 in a series, but let's be honest. It's a military thriller. The characters are fairly interchangeable in the genre, they're archetypes: Tech genius, spycraft maven, violent guy...nobody really needs to know much except the outlines to follow along. It's stakes and pacing that matter in this genre.

Still true. If your idea of fun is taking a fast-paced ride through some unfamiliar world locations, here's you a violent, nationalistic read. Guilty pleasure, for me at least, and not a series I'll be pursuing.

Severn River Publishing wants $6.99 for a Kindlebook. Me, I'll wait for a sale, or get it from KU (if I ever join it).

Just to let you know, RD, that your last review was the 5,000th post to your threads this year, dear fellow. Way to go!

>206 klobrien2: Thanks, Karen O.! I got a tree book of Author Sy's lovely ode to my dotes, the Tentacled Americans, from Roni years ago. What a joy of a read!

I should mention that there were only 19 points available in that round. It was that fact that set Lynne off.

*smooch*

>208 PaulCranswick: Good gravy, PC! I'm gobsmacked there're that many. Wow, thanks for the update.

BURGOINE #056

Truth’s Labyrinth by Jørgen Steines (tr. Sinéad Quirke Køngerskov)

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: The year is 1943; World War II rages on.

Major Johann Richter of the German military intelligence service, Abwehr, is tasked with a case of great importance for the war effort. Several incidents point to a traitor among the top Nazis, and Johann starts investigating generals, field marshals and party leaders.

As the investigation progresses, Johann witnesses the extensive atrocities of the regime—atrocities that ordinary German people know little about. His loyalty to the Third Reich is severely tested, and an unexpected chain of events places him and his family in grave danger.

As Johann finally comes close to revealing the traitor, he is faced with a difficult choice that could radically change the course of the war...

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

My Review: This isn't heralded as such, but it really counts as "alternate history", as the author's endnote says it's a "counterfactual." It's also a very intense, soul-searching tale of family's daily relations under an evil, totalitarian system.

What makes this read better than average is the fact that we're in the world of Fatherland and The Man in the High Castle, among the groudlings under the Nazi Party's control. A perspective check for the triumphalist Allied viewpoint, here we're given a...not sympathetic exactly, but more human-centered narrative from Danish Author Steines.

Matador want $6.99 for a Kindle book. Those interested in alternative history should not hesitate.

Hi RDear. Happy Thursday.

>186 richardderus: so deeply disappointed when I got crappy gifts like socks, underpants, etc. My worst birthday was when I was 11 and my grandmother sent me a record. I just knew it was a Beatles album, but it was Connie Stevens. I still have it, but I remember hot tears and my mother being sympathetic while also making sure I wrote a thank you.

>190 richardderus: Fictionary sounds fun.

>202 richardderus: I skipped some reviews, but paused at this one. It sounds good, and I am a Harlan Coben fan. Too much going on to even consider doing more than adding it to the wish list.

*smooch*

BURGOINE #057

A New Lease on Death (Supernatural Mysteries #1) by Olivia Blacke

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: In this darkly funny supernatural mystery about an unlikely crime-solving duo that launches a commercial, unique, and genre-blending series, death is only the beginning.

Ruby Young's new Boston apartment comes with all the usual perks. Windows facing the brick wall of the next-door building. Heat that barely works. A malfunctioning buzzer. Noisy neighbors. A dead body on the sidewalk outside. And of course, a ghost.

Since Cordelia Graves died in her apartment a few months ago, she's kept up her residency, despite being bored out of her (non-tangible) skull and frustrated by her new roommate. When her across-the-hall neighbor, Jake Macintyre, is shot and killed in an apparent mugging gone wrong outside their building, Cordelia is convinced there’s more to it and is determined to bring his killer to justice.

Unfortunately, Cordelia, being dead herself, can't solve the mystery alone. She has to enlist the help of the obnoxiously perky, living tenant of her apartment. Ruby is twenty, annoying, and has never met a houseplant she couldn't kill. But she also can do everything Cordelia can't, from interviewing suspects to researching Jake on the library computers that go up in a puff of smoke if Cordelia gets too close. The roommates form an unlikely friendship as they get closer to the truth about Jake's death…and maybe other dangerous secrets as well.

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

My Review: Entertaining buddy comedy featuring a ghost, her living subtenant, and a lot of very hinky people doing crappy things to each other. I got a lot of good fun from Cordelia, the ghost, being...well, let's say herself. Trying to figure out her afterlife was a major hassle when she hadn't even figured out her life! Ruby interested me less, seeming sort-of clueless and naïve.

A lovely cozy series I'll follow as it unfolds. This is a solid series-starter and one that repays you for reading it with fun and laughter.

Minotaur Books brings this out on 29 October 2024. Preorder now for some smiles in your #Deathtober.

>213 richardderus: ...and with that, my Saturday gang-post of mysteries for the approaching #Deathtober blogging burst is complete! I'm pretty sure I got them all on the page...hope so because that is a lot of stuff off my Google docs. Now to go clean up Sinday's page.

>204 richardderus: I should have realized that money was at the bottom of it. *sigh*

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

>211 richardderus: Do enjoy WWII alt-history. Have you ever read the Harry Turtledove World War books. he gets characters right. But he does write LOOOOOONG!

>212 karenmarie: Hi Horrible! That would be a deep disappointment at eleven. I'd still prefer a Beatles album to Connie Stevens! Dictionary was indeed fun...except for my deeply annoyed sister.

The good part of keeping lists is they don't accidentally lose entries...add it to one, and let it float to the top when the time is right. *smooch*

>215 alcottacre: I know, right?! *sigh*

>216 magicians_nephew: I don't do that series because aliens. Just...no. I like his War That Came Early series, though. I'm not the biggest fan of US Civil War stuff, but did like the Lincoln-as-socialist character in his series about it. Agreed about the prolixity, no doubt.

>186 richardderus: and >203 Helenliz: Richard and Helen, as long as you don't mind other people being glad you're around and celebrating for you, we're very good.
My saddest story about birthday disappointment was for my life-long friend who lived down the street from my grandmama. When he turned 6, Mama got little plastic cowboy and Indian action figures for me to give him. Edward could not have been more excited. Later that day his formidable mother marched him back to return the gift because he had told us that it would be his birthday, and that was like hinting for a gift. Edward looked at her and said, "But Mama, I'm little." That still breaks my heart, and now that I think of it, explains additionally why you remind me of him.

>196 richardderus: "Orpiment" isn't about baby octopi???? I can't tell you how disappointed I am.

Digression, of course. I very occasionally introduced the week's 10 new vocabulary words to my English classes with a variant of the game. Best practices says that you shouldn't give vocabulary lists, but since my students didn't read, I thought I'd be remiss not to try. Of course, with that game, what they remembered were the funny guesses.
The main way I encouraged them to learn the words was by giving a point on any quiz to the first person in each class who could bring me an example of a current word used correctly and tell me what the speaker or writer meant by it. Naturally, only the best students, who didn't need the points, bothered to take advantage of the offer.
All of them did come back from the SAT saying, "Oh, Ms. McLizzle, a lot of the vocabulary words were on the test!"
" --- so you knew them and got them right?"
"No. I didn't remember what they meant, but I knew we had had them."
Thus ended my teaching career.

BB for *New Lease*, which will also be $14.99 for Kindle when it is released. Never mind. I'll be alert for it some other time.

*smooch* (And about time!)

r>220 LizzieD: ...idiot mother...was she a religious nut, or just one of those Honor-poisoned idiots the South grows like kudzu?

Octopods figure not at all in the use, history, or meaning of "orpiment." Depressing thing, reality, eh what? Your use of "best practices" recalls my own smacking against the stone walls of orthodoxy. I am just not a rule-follower by nature...what works, works, and ought to be used. Your kids remembered more than they were expected to by the failure model they were set up for.

I hope >213 richardderus: swims across your bow someday soon.

>221 richardderus: I should have included the fact that the mother was a Colonial Dame, Richard - hot stuff in some circles around here, especially in 1950.

Yep, I looked up "orpiment." It's not even a very appealing color. I always felt bad for my Scorpio mother whose birthstone was a yellow topaz about that shade (at least in her own ring) instead of my wonderful Libra opal.

>222 LizzieD: *I* got sapphire, so nyahnyahnyah! My next sister up has peridot, poor thing.

Hi Richard, a very belated Happy New Thread dear friend.

>224 johnsimpson: Hello old pal! Happy to see you, and please remember me to Karen.

I'm glad you enjoyed What Time the Sexton's Spade Doth Rust , Richard. You read so amazingly fast it's hard to keep up. * smooch*

151 Straight Acting: The Hidden Queer Lives of William Shakespeare by Will Tosh

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: A dazzling portrait of Shakespeare as a young artist, revealing how his rich and complex queer life informed the plays and poems we treasure today

“Was Shakespeare gay?” For years the question has sent experts and fans into a tailspin of confusion. But as scholar Will Tosh argues, this debate misses the sex, intimacy, and identity in Elizabethan England were infinitely more complex—and queer—than we have been taught.

In this incisive biography, Tosh reveals William Shakespeare as a queer artist who drew on his society’s nuanced understanding of gender and sexuality to create some of English literature’s richest works. During Shakespeare’s time, same-sex desire was repressed and punished by the Church and state, but it was also articulated and sustained by institutions across England. Moving through the queer spaces of Shakespeare’s life—his Stratford schoolroom, smoky London taverns and playhouses, the royal court—Tosh shows how strongly Shakespeare’s early work was influenced by the queer culture of the time, much of it totally integrated into mainstream society. He also uncovers the surprising reason why Shakespeare veered away from his early work’s gender-bending homoeroticism.

Offering a subversive sketch of Elizabethan England, Straight Acting uncovers Shakespeare as one of history’s great queer artists and completely reshapes the way we understand the Bard’s life and times.

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

My Review: Whaaat?! You mean there's credible evidence that heteronormative readings of the Bard aren't the whole picture?! Well, I never! Next you'll tell me that William Rufus and Richard Lion-Heart *were* big ol' 'mos!

Folks...men brought Juliet, Portia, Lady Macbeth, Desdemona, et alii to life. Not because they were second best choices, or because this is boarding school and that's all there is, but because they brought these female roles vibrantly and intensely, convincingly and alluringly, to life. Actors were out in drag, making people believe, and lust for, the females Shakespeare knew as he was writing them would be played by males. He most likely had an image of who he wanted for each role. He was a man of the theatre, a playwright and actor, it would be weird if he had not.

That means...wait for it...he knew what made a man beautiful, and chose ones he knew could evoke the many, complicated responses his characters do from an audience. Including lust.

Time to stop the disingenuous "there was no such thing as gayness in Shakespeare's time! And look at all those sodomy laws! No homo, bro!" True, the entire QUILTBAG spectrum was not conceptualized then.

Because there was no need. Not like y'all heteronormative people think. There was no need in the culture to label things that didn't affect you, weren't relevant to your life. The Church was the self-appointed bedroom behavior regulator; sex lives of strangers was their job to judge and police, not some random dude on the street. This was the time of "don't make me notice you and I won't be forced to call in the law." That law, civil or religious, was Draconian. The denouncements of sodomites from the pulpit, in that god-ridden age, was as good as the Police Gazette in eighteenth and nineteenth century England was at getting the word out on who was a sodomite. But given how many men and women get up to a spot of sodomy (about 46% per good ol' Alfred Kinsey in his as-yet-unmatched surveys) we can feel sure it was the loudest, loosest, and least able (or willing) to pass by being quiet who make up the extensive case evidence in court archives the world over.

Shakespeare, operating in a world I'd call a straight guy's paradise aka the theatre, wouldn't have been much attended to as to his personal life. Married with children, no reason would've been found...unlike with Marlowe, who was aggressively Other in a time where conformity was more rigidly enforced on the surface than it is even now. His obscene plays, though no patch on PG-13 films today, his louche life of spying and, there's credible evidence to suggest, bonking the boys, all while knowingly on the radar of the Queen's secret police, was the index case for how to get yourself in bad trouble. There's a cautionary tale in Deptford. No such tale exists in our hero's life. He was rather shockingly absent from public records. He never appeared before a judge, he wasn't going to make waves...that family in Stratford needed supporting, even though he wasn't going to be there in the flesh. After all, even Will's "rival poet" Richard Barnfield, known to be author of a very explicitly homoerotic poem that he was later, when under fire from Authority for its naughtiness, glad enough to disavow, had asked for it by being indiscreet. Examples of consequences make it easy to justify internally toeing the line.

Using the technique of writing short fictional vignettes at the beginning of each chapter that set the scene for the reader will turn some off hard. I appreciated it because it wasn't presented as facts of Shakespeare's life. Still, as noted, we can't know if any of the things in those vignettes are realities Shakespeare would've experienced. As with all people long dead, we will never be possessed of certainty about his nature, his feelings, his thoughts and prayers.

This fact does not stop the heteronormies from saying, "see? see? he couldn't have been queer!"; as always, ignoring the giant flaw in their reasoning: Absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence.

Was he, wasn't he, will we ever know ye , Will?

Nope. And that's okay. It's got to be. There can never be a fully known person of his five-hundred-years-gone era. The evidence for his bisexuality and attraction to other men is all over his work. But it can never be proof, either to the heteronormies or the queering crowd.

Enjoy this excavation of sex, sexual identity, and societal accommodation of gender and sexual minorities in Shakespeare's time, and then think your own thoughts about him. He certainly won't care.

>226 vancouverdeb: Heh...I do indeed read at a fair old clip, but most important of all is I live in a situation where I can either watch TV or read. Walking's a chore because of pain; my YGC lives 100mi away; not many people here are interested in or interesting to me. Motive meets opportunity!

Flavia's antics are entertaining enough, though I doubt I'll seek out #12. If Bantam offers it I'll say yes, but...enough now.

Happy Friday, Richard. My busy schedule continues. Joe and I are meeting Mary (bell7) and her family for a Cubs game today. A brewery or 2, afterwards. Of course...

I hope you have a good weekend, my friend. I certainly will.

>229 msf59: I just saw your plans on your thread, have a great time! My weekend won't be exciting but i'll be enjoying it.

I'm sure you saw the news that GBBO/S is back later this month!

Hiya, RDear. Happy Friday to you.

>227 richardderus: A Hit! A Palpable Hit! BB’d. Thank goodness for Amazon card credit, got a hardcover for ‘free’.

*smooch*

>231 katiekrug: I did!! I cannot wait. I watched that Blue Ribbon Baking farrago from giddy-up to whoa because I was so desperate. Yay!!

>232 karenmarie: All the YAY, Horrible. I'm sure you'll be glad you read it.

Happy weekend-ahead's reads, sweetiedarling.

>227 richardderus: A palpable hit for me too. I'm apparently not reading very well today, having accused Stasia of being able to read about 600 pp a day, so you may have covered this in your review of the book. I'll say it anyway because that's how I am.
And look at all those sodomy laws! No homo, bro ??? Excuse me. If a law against it exists, doesn't it follow that the act exists in some noticeable number? (Reference OT diatribes against idol worship)

What about the sonnets? I can't quote numbers at the moment, and I'm not going to look for them, but I don't think some of them can be honestly read any other way. Or - Shakespeare is universal, so a "heteronormative" person can apply them to the personal beloved, but it was clear to me that WS was referencing another man.

Anyway.... on the list it goes. *smooch*

>227 richardderus: I guess I'm dubious. We know so damned little about Shakespeare's life in and out of the theatre. It's tempting to project any thing you want to on that canvas.

Seeing the man through the work is fun, but risky.

Might want to give it a look though just for the glance at theatrical life back in them there days.

>235 LizzieD: I completely agree, Peggy...the ultimate nullification of that kind of argument, eg "don't eat pork, don't have sex for pleasure", are proofs that no one bans things people don't want to do. The other flaw these arguments fall into is "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence." Because Willie Shakes didn't say "love your dong, Dark 'Lady'," doesn't mean he wasn't thinkin' it. We can't prove it...nor can it be disproved. The ol' unfalsifiable hypothesis issue.

Enjoy your read when its turn at the top comes! *smooch*

>236 magicians_nephew: It's a very instructive study of the role of sexuality in the era. I found it instructive.

'Morning, RDear. Happy Saturday to you.

It's hard to read books I 'should' be reading - Huckleberry Finn, The Federalist. Smut, on the other hand...

*smooch*

>239 karenmarie: Well, natch. Smut's easy because how tough is it to process the information that men like fucking, appreciate loving, and need caring for? The Federalist Papers OTOH is a trip into the philosophy of governance, societal organization, and political chicanery...exhausting at the best of times. Huck's not a lot different, really....

*smooch* for a peaceful Saturday of nothing much to do.

That's a fine wish, Richard, so I'll leave it for you: *smooch* for a peaceful Saturday of nothing much to do.

>241 LizzieD: Thanks, Peggy, I'm pretty much there! *smooch*

>239 karenmarie: That made me laugh out loud! I don't read anything I'd exactly call "smut"....but others might, since that's open to interpretation. But the Should Reads do sometimes take a back seat to just-one-more-chapter-of-this-highly-entertaining-thing-that-doesn't-require-much-Braining.

'Morning, RDear! Happy Sunday to you.

>240 richardderus: I did a whole bunch of nothing, which was good. The end of S5 of Line of Duty was a stunner for sure, and we'll probably watch the start of the last season tonight. Arsenal v Man City at 11:30.

Had to tell the book sale team leader that I definitely wouldn't be there, so called his land line. His wife, Ruth, answered, and we had a good chat. She understands what's going on with me, and we agreed that nobody's indispensible. Jenna had volunteered for today six or more weeks ago, and when I reminded her last night about it, she grumbled, but texted this morning to ask if Hwan can go. Of course! I said, and remember you each get a book for volunteering. So two from the Hengeveld contingent, if not the original two.

Couch time watching another soccer match after I finish up here.

*smooch*

PEARL RULE #023 AFTER THE FLYING SAUCERS CAME: A Global History of the UFO Phenomenon by Greg Eghigian

Rating: 3* of five

The Publisher Says: Roswell, 1947. Washington, DC, 1952. Quarouble, 1954. New Hampshire, 1961. Pascagoula, 1973. Petrozavodsk, 1977. Copley Woods, 1983. Explore how sightings of UFOs and aliens seized the world's attention and discover what the fascination with flying saucers and extraterrestrial visitors says about our changing views on science, technology, and the paranormal.

In the summer of 1947, a private pilot flying over the state of Washington saw what he described as several pie pan-shaped aircraft traveling in formation at remarkably high speed. Within days, journalists began referring to the objects as "flying saucers." Over the course of that summer, Americans reported seeing them in the skies overhead. News quickly spread, and within a few years, flying saucers were being spotted across the world. The question on everyone's mind was, what were they? Some new super weapon in the Cold War? Strange weather patterns? Optical illusions? Or perhaps it was all a case of mass hysteria? Some, however, concluded they could only be one spacecrafts built and piloted by extraterrestrials. The age of the unidentified flying object, the UFO, had arrived.

Greg Eghigian tells the story of the world's fascination with UFOs and the prospect that they were the work of visitors from outer space. While accounts of great wonders in the sky date back to antiquity, reports of UFOs took place against the unique backdrop of the Cold War and space age, giving rise to disputed government inquiries, breathtaking news stories, and single-minded sleuths. After the Flying Saucers Came traces how a seemingly isolated incident sparked an international drama involving shady figures, questionable evidence, suspicions of conspiracy, hoaxes, new religions, scandals, unsettling alien encounters, debunkers, and celebrities. It examines how descriptions, theories, and debates about unidentified flying objects and alien abduction changed over time and how they appeared in the United States, Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Russia. And it explores the impact UFOs have had on our understanding of space, science, technology, and ourselves up through the present day.

Replete with stories of the people who have made up the ufology community, the military and defense units that investigate them, the scientists and psychologists who have researched these unexplained encounters, and the many novels, movies, TV shows, and websites that have explored these phenomena, After the Flying Saucers Came speaks to believers and skeptics alike.

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

My Review: I didn't abandon this read, exactly; I went stochastic instead. I hopped around, absorbing the stories I so look down on being carefully and fairly examined as though they might be reality.

The author's intent is not to weigh in on that subject but to examine the global phenomenon of UFOlogy in a sociopolitical context. He is successful. He is even-handed. Scrupulous in reporting not editorializing.

I'm not: I've seen a UFO with a companion (hi Donna!) and, as fascinating as it was, it was well within reality's confines. It was really, really interesting as witness my very clear memory of it rising fifty years later. It wasn't aliens. I've got zero tolerance for this quasi-religious bunch of nutters.

Oxford University Press asks $15.99 for a Kindlebook. I'd check it out of the library myownself; but if your looney old bestie from the gym's fallen into the cult, it could help for you to see some of the likely reasons why.

>243 laytonwoman3rd:, >244 karenmarie: Horrible has a way with her proselytizing for smut, no?

>244 karenmarie: Hey Horrible, I'm very glad you bowed to the reality of the situation and stayed home. Go JennaHwan! Represent! They'll do a lot, and that's a good thing that wouldn't have happened without you.

Line of Duty hasn't made my list...you're a good advocate for it. Enjoy Arsenal's gameplay, even if they lose; I hope they won't, but the picture looks gloomy.

*smooch*

PEARL RULE #024

VILLAINS AND VICTIMS: The Global Drug, Terrorism and Organised Crime Conundrum by Robert Tennant-Ralphs

Rating: 1* of five

The Publisher Says: Drug policies adopted by governments, treatments offered for addiction, pain and mental problems by the medical world combine in a relationship that negatively affects the world’s most vulnerable people. Villains and Victims: The Global Drug, Terrorism and Organised Crime Conundrum exposes how this unchallenged negative symbiosis influences the human seemingly unrelated policies act symbiotically to increase addiction, organised crime, radicalisation, and ultimately terrorism. At first it was an unintended chain, but the evidence suggests much of it is now deliberate. The public needs to be made aware of the harm the policies are causing.

For over a hundred years, the knock-on effect of the world’s ineffective drug laws and drug substitution policies contributed to the deaths of millions of people. Unless the regimes that cause this are changed, governments will continue to misguide us, pharmaceutical firms make huge unethical profits, and doctors will not offer the best treatments for drug addiction and alcoholism. This means millions more men, women, and children will continue to suffer and die from their effects, as well as from terrorist attacks and organised crime.

For example, at the 2022 World Cup in Dubai, Morocco’s football team won the hearts of millions of underdog lovers, but there is other sides to Morocco that are far less loveable.

At the same time as a handful of Moroccan’s were taking pride of place in Dubai, in Brussels and Amsterdam, court cases were taking place that charged several of their countrymen with some the worst crimes of the 21st century. If, as expected, these men on trial are found guilty, they will spend the rest of their lives in prison.

Although each crime was despicable, because the Belgian and Dutch cases are for different crimes, the judges and juries will not be made aware of an important The acts they committeed of deadly terrorism in Brussels in 2016, and the organised crime murder in Amsterdam in 2021, are closely connected. Complex, well-hidden, interrelated reasons are behind them, so, the common factors that frequently lead Moroccans to commit such atocities are unlikely to be realised. As these include this century’s Barcelona, Brussels, Paris, London, Madrid, Marrakesh, Casablanca and 9/11 terrorist attacks, numerous murders by Moroccan mafias in Europe, and 1,659 Moroccans joining ISIS, it is essential to understand this and the reasons. Otherwise, policies will not be put in place to prevent more of the same.

But putting yesteryear’s culprits behind bars would only be a temporary fix. It would not prevent like-minded Moroccans or others with similar hatred committing such crimes in the years ahead.
For every drug addict in every country, it is the root cause that must be addressed before they will stop anti-social behaviour. So, it is the causes and solution that is the focus of Villains and Victims. A Moroccan Drug and Terrorism Conundrum.

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

My Review: Read that book description. That, with some padding, takes this to over 100pp of, politely, heartfelt but poorly sourced outraged shouting. The crisis he points to is real. I suspect he's onto something with the sources of the very real, and growing, problem. The synthesis of his argument does not hang together.

Not recommended.

Morning, Richard. Happy Sunday. I have had a busy couple of days. Of course, the Meet Up came off perfectly. I am looking forward to having a chill one today. Me & Juno, books and football. Just what I need.

>248 msf59: Relax into it, Birddude...you've been quite taxingly busy here lately. I hope the book you picked is a corker! Getting my Pearl-Rule quickies done feels good but not because they were in any way good reads. Still, I'm fully done with 'em now.

Late to the non-party RD. Belated birthday wishes. I love birthdays (even my 60th which was spent alone in lockdown), the alternative to gaining another year is less appealing!

>250 Caroline_McElwee: Indeed it is, Caro. I'm not upset about getting older, just not excited about the process...there's a lot to be said for keeping calm and carrying on.

Welcome!

>227 richardderus: Egzackly!! Well written and appreciated here. Smooches.

>252 Berly: Thanks, smoochling. I'm glad it didn'y sound too "pissy-queeny" to you. Though I must say the person trying to insult me failed, amusing me no end instead.

Good night, Richard. It's early, and for once, I'm here and then off to read. *smooch* for the week ahead!

152 Queen Macbeth by Val McDermid

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Shakespeare fed us the myth of the Macbeths as murderous conspirators. But now Val McDermid drags the truth out of the shadows, exposing the patriarchal prejudices of history. Expect the unexpected . . .

A thousand years ago in an ancient Scottish landscape, a woman is on the run with her three companions—a healer, a weaver and a seer. The men hunting her will kill her—because she is the only one who stands between them and their violent ambition. She is no lady: she is the first queen of Scotland, married to a king called Macbeth.

As the net closes in, we discover a tale of passion, forced marriage, bloody massacre and the harsh realities of medieval Scotland. At the heart of it is one strong, charismatic woman, who survived loss and jeopardy to outwit the endless plotting of a string of ruthless and power-hungry men. Her struggle won her a country. But now it could cost her life.

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

My Review: I'm a man. An old, white one.

I'm sorry to disappoint those who now expect me to whine about "ruining Shakespeare" and "making up feminism ahistorically" and suchlike nonsense, but I myownself think this novella is telling not only a cracking good story, but bringing a long-ignored reality to light. Women, modern, medieval, or ancient, were and are not passive, pointless victims or tiresome termagants. They are, were, and always have been people with agency, possessed of skills and ideas that motivate and support changing their world.

Every story that supports this reality, presents it without a dingy scum of patriarchal judgment of those women for exercising their power, gets my enthusiastic support. Queen Macbeth is no exception.

Riffing on the great stories of history and mythology is currently very much à la mode. The trend picked up steam most recently after The Song of Achilles appeared early in the teens. It was never exactly ignored, after all...John Erskine wrote Arthurian retelling Tristan and Isolde: Restoring Palamede in 1932; Thorne Smith wrote modern satires with horny, drunken Greek Gods until his death in 1934; Tolkien remixed Anglo-Saxon epic poetry to some modest success in the 1950s. The urge to put one's own stamp onto the greatest stories of the culture is never absent. Imagine all the lost Iliads wrought by bards before writing was reinvented! (Side note: why has Jodi Taylor not sent the disaster magnets back to record some of those?) The great plays of Athens's Golden Age retold the myths, too, and that was six hundred years before the common era is reckoned to have begun.

So a Scottish crime writer revisiting Lady Macbeth's truly awful characterization at Shakespeare's hands is unsurprising. Make that Scot an outspoken feminist lesbian and, well, go figure that she would find this retelling irresistible. I wish I'd loved it instead of simply, and inevitably, admiring it. Using her widely lauded storytelling chops to re-center the Bechdel-test failing character as a powerful ruler in her own right is delightful; the way she contextualizes her choice in her Author's note made me almost giddy with anticipation.

Then came reality swinging her mace of office.

Choosing to use Scottish words...well, okay, you're Scottish, the story's Scottish, but the huge majority of the world's readers have never seen, and don't care to see, those words. Climbing the hill with a Glossary is fine; putting said glossary at the end of an ebook is a worse idea than in a tree book. In the ebook, a hyperlink to the entry with that word is possible; links that take you there and back are possible; neither was made. I did not use the glossary once during the read and lost not only fine nuance but faith that I was being considered as a guest in this world. It feels very much like the divisive, arrogant attitude regrettably common...in every sense of the word...in internet discourse about cultural identity: "I don't owe you an explanation of my culture/language/art/thing under discussion!"

Then you do nor care if I, or any "outsider," understand you? Okay. Then you'll mostly get ignored.

Author McDermid and/or publisher(s) just put a hard limit on how many people will slug it out with unhelpfully untranslated Scottishness. The tree book might be a better choice than an ebook for those who can't or won't simply skip past wotds they don't know.

Pity, that; Gruoch as reimagined is a kickass character. Her struggles matter.

>254 LizzieD: Morning, Peggy! Happy to see you here as I start my day, and my week. I hope your read was a good one. *smooch*

Happy belated, Richard. I am another who doesn't like celebrating my own. I rarely tell anyone when my birthday is but, just between you and me, when I was still working, I always booked my birthday off, saying I had *an appointment*, the implication being that it was a doctor's appointment when in truth, it was just an appointment with myself. I just did something I felt like doing that day, going to a museum, or shopping, or simply staying home and reading. My birthday is in winter so outdoor activity was rarely in the plan, weather wimp that I am. That was my present to myself. And I loved that it felt like pulling a fast one on my bosses... ;-)

And I also read the encyclopedia as a kid. But ours was World Book (my mum sold them so we had them in the house, much to my delight)

>255 richardderus: Ya got me. I occasionally read ValMcDs work, sometimes its a hit and others less so. I suspect I might like this one.

>255 richardderus: - I'm not entirely sold on this one. Amazon says it's under 150 pages?

>257 jessibud2: Hi Shelley! I always made appointments with docs on my birthday because it was easiest for me to get all my annuals done on one day, and that day worked best because no one could make some guilt- or duty-based "fuss" if I was out of pocket. My bad birthday "celebrations" started so early there's no point trying to root out the association.

Encyclopedias have great stuff in 'em!

*smooch*

>258 Caroline_McElwee: I think you'll like it, Caro, and it has the virtue of being short.

>259 katiekrug: Yep...barely a full novella, honestly, so it's a better borrow than a buy. But it IS worth a read.

‘Morning, RDear. Happy Monday to you.

>246 richardderus: I’m proud to be an advocate for smut. It’s all thanks to you, of course, since you recommended Love, Hate and Clickbait in June of 2022 and I soon abandoned MF Georgian/Regency romances for MM contemporary romances.

Folks at book sale set up didn’t need to be paying special attention to me when there was serious work to do – setting up the main book sale room with ~15,000 items. The last 3,000 or so, AV, Childrens, and SF/Fantasy, will get set up late on Wednesday for the start of the sale on Thursday.

Laura recommended Line of Duty to me, and Bill and I are stunned by the intricate plots, convoluted character interactions, and surprising twists.

Arsenal wrangled a draw, which is tolerable. They had a win ‘til the very last minute of stoppage time, when Man city scored to get it to 2-2. Arsenal frequently does the same thing – getting a late stoppage time score. We would have been really happy for a draw going into the match, we were getting our hopes up by the 98th minute, though, for a 2-1 win. Sigh.

>247 richardderus: Gaack. Only 1 star. And yet you finished it.

>248 msf59: 4* even though you are properly unhappy that the glossary is at the end of the book without a link from the body of the book to said glossary says a lot about Val McDermid, IMO. I was actually sad that this is fiction – I would have been much more inclined to read it if it was nonfiction.

*smooch*

Heavens, Richard! You were up and posting early!

You totally got me with *Gruach*, but I'll have to wait. You won't have looked, but it comes out tomorrow at $16.99 (!) for the Kindle. Like Caroline, McDermid is hit or miss with me, but even if I'm not as Scottish as I thought, I know I'll be intrigued when I finally get this one.

Enjoy your reading! *smooch*

153 The Man Who Saw Seconds by Alexander Boldizar

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Preble Jefferson can see five seconds into the future. Otherwise, he lives an ordinary life. But when a confrontation with a cop on a New York City subway goes tragically wrong, those seconds give Preble the chance to dodge a bullet—causing another man to die in his place. Government agencies become aware of Preble's gift, a manhunt ensues, and their ambitions shift from law enforcement to military R&D.

Preble will do whatever it takes to protect his family, but as events spiral out of control, he must weigh the cost of his gift against the loss of his humanity.

A breathless thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last page, The Man Who Saw Seconds explores the nature of time, the brain as a prediction machine, and the tension between the individual and the systems we create. Alexander Boldizar provides an adrenaline-pumping read that will leave you contemplating love, fear and the abyss.

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

My Review: Aptly marketed as a thriller...unusually richly endowed with the more interesting musings on the nature of freedom, the cost of being different, the responsibility to use one's gifts but the acceptance that the gifts have limitations...you get the idea.

The oddest sensation for me as I read this novel was the way it seemed to me to use the form of "thriller novel" to describe the very story he was telling; that is to say, his thrilling idea for a chase story has a core of examining what makes a story thrilling with its use of precognition. Author Boldizar, a Slovak national, knows the apparatus of oppression from the inside. He brings his idea of the abuse of the individual at the hands of government apparatus to the fore here. I myownself see it as a lot more likely that it would be Goldman Sachs or that fuck Zuck's Meta pursuing this dude to use his abilities to make them more money, but we are all as History has made us. (Paraphrasing Judge Dee, from Dee Goong An, feels...weirdly apt in this book's review.)

The other fascinating quality this predictive thriller has is that it plays with a known bit of science that's been studied for a long time: Our brains are pattern-spotting prediction machines. Evolution has made them that way so we can extrapolate from facts...red fruits are sweeter; fruits are red when it's cold; it's going to be cold soon so better get back to those trees before THEY get there...to take actions that help us survive. We've blown past that helpful stage long since. Now we're using that extrapolation /prediction feature to create horrors of exploitive and extractive excesses.

I digress, but only slightly.

What happens as a result of an ill-timed, badly handled cop confrontation is simple: Preble Jefferson lands on the radar of people he's spent his adult life avoiding being noticed by. He's made solid, profitable use of his limited gift of "precognition" (in quotes because it's not actually presented as paranormal in origin so isn't within classic definitions of the term) and now it's time to get exploited. Not if he can help it, he thinks, and the chase is on.

The chase is well constructed, the stakes clear and relatable. I am a fan of thrillers, starting back with The Thirty-Nine Steps, because they utilize the fight-or-flight response to create engagement and investment in their chosen story. Who among us, if pursued, doesn't immediately want to run? And one would think a guy who can see a few seconds into the future would have a huge edge on pursuers. Only of the pursuers don't know about his ability...or its funny little quirk of not working when he gets worked up. So now we're triggering the fight part of the response. Does Our Hero have a fight response? Not really. But threaten a father's belovèd child and see how that goes....

It's a really well-made story that uses the factual human brain predictive skill we see in the elite athletes of the exploitive "sports" industry, only turned up to eleven.

Why only four stars? Because I do not for one second buy that this guy's power would enable him to do the things he's shown doing. It's like my response to superhero stuff (see my joyous warble for the excellent Hench for that): Did you really think this through, Author Boldizar? Do you think this is really what would happen? Starting from the wrong villains (the NSA is a lot less scary than Google/Sundar Pichai or Meta/That Fuck Zuck) I wasn't ever likely to get to a fifth star. I was amused by Our Hero's name, "Jefferson," as evoking that least decent of the Founders gets my quirked eyebrow. (Also the Jeffersonian vision of an agrarian republic repels me.) The funny sidekick Fish the lawyer, evoking my favorite lawyer character Douglas Wambaugh from Picket Fences days, so points added there; and Our Hero being such a solidly loving, involved dad got my approving smiles. Pacing, actual science used albeit unrealistically, guaranteed four stars, but no more could be added.

A four-star entertaining story, with meaty thoughts behind it, is still a big win in my book.

NB links to definitions in blogged review

I am almost 50 posts behind again, RD. *sigh* I seriously need a clone!

((Hugs)) and **smooches** for today and tomorrow. I am going to be out-of-pocket all day Tuesday.

>262 karenmarie: Okay, I've broken my fast...latkes with cottage cheese and applesauce, so can now focus on the rest of my day.

Queen Macbeth couldn't be written as non-fiction in any narrative sense. It'd have to be an inferential part of a study...there's very very little surviving archival material from the era, and later Chronicles are mostly unreliable...especially since they're mainly written by monks who have godly weapons to hone.

I suspect the glossary issue is more about the publisher being cheap, if I'm scruoulousy honest. Nothing's free and they probably don't expect more than ten thousand or so to sell, so it would be "better" to save those shekels to pad the dividend by $0.0001.

A tie's a good result, over a loss. Arsenal keeps you busy! The one-star read was short, so it felt churlish not to finish it despite its many flaws. I expect he's correct, but he doesn't prove his case.

Anyway, *smooch* for a good week to come.

>263 LizzieD: Hi Peggy! I'm not in the least in favor of spending $17 for this read...can y'all's library get it? I don't usually mention pub dates here, but they're on my blog. It's never been brought up to me here, would you like me to mention it for my infrequent forthcoming-title reviews?

>265 alcottacre: ...or you could just have my thread as your landing page for everyday startup...just a thought....

*smooch*

Belated Happy Autumn Equinox wishes, Richard!

Your last couple of book BBs, while they missed the bullseye, were close calls that I might come back to.

>269 Storeetllr: Hi Mary! I'm glad they got close enough to leave book-shrapnel.

Equanotical orisons, dear lady. *smooch*

>267 richardderus: Richard, I don't think you need to give publishing dates unless you want to. I was mostly still being amazed by these last few. I did just spend the big bucks on Playground, but I love Richard Powers.
Our library ---- nobody would read it but me, I'm afraid. I asked them to order a Cormoran Strike once, and somebody else might have read that one. I also asked for Underground Railroad, and I expect that nobody but me read it. A new Nicholas Sparks or James Patterson, now ...... *sigh*

(Go back to Karen's thread for an update.) *smooch*

>270 richardderus: Book shrapnel. 😂😂🤣

>271 LizzieD: Gone, done, seen...TYVM

>272 Storeetllr: "Book-leaves"? :-)

>255 richardderus: OK, got me, hook, line & sinker. Sucker for a retelling at the best of times.
ETA: Library reserve placed. Already.

154 Supremacy: AI, ChatGPT, and the Race that Will Change the World by Parmy Olson

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: In November of 2022, a webpage was posted online with a simple text box. It was an AI chatbot called ChatGPT, and was unlike any app people had used before. It was more human than a customer service agent, more convenient than a Google search. Behind the scenes, battles for control and prestige between the world’s two leading AI firms, OpenAI and DeepMind, who now steers Google's AI efforts, has remained elusive—until now.

In Supremacy, Olson, tech writer at Bloomberg, tells the astonishing story of the battle between these two AI firms, their struggles to use their tech for good, and the hazardous direction they could go as they serve two tech monopolies whose power is unprecedented in history. The story focuses on the continuing rivalry of two key CEOs at the center of it all, who cultivated a religion around their mission to build god-like super intelligent machines: Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, and Demis Hassabis, the CEO of DeepMind.

Supremacy sharply alerts readers to the real threat of artificial intelligence that its top creators are ignoring: the profit-driven spread of flawed and biased technology into industries, education, media and more. With exclusive access to a network of high-ranking sources, Parmy Olson uses her 13 years of experience covering technology to bring to light the exploitation of the greatest invention in human history, and how it will impact us all.

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

My Review: I urge you to read this book. It does not matter what your politics are, It especially does not matter if you care even a scintilla about technology. This is not a book about the way these...people, I must be polite...are making their dream of an AGI happen, it's about the people doing it, the people giving them the money to do it, and how all of those pieces of a complicated puzzle are failing to do a good job for Humanity. It's important to know what is happening, you are already getting "AI-assisted" stuff advertised to you and no smallest advisory, still less a warning, about what that means.

I strongly urge you to read this book. Before the election if possible, but soon no matter what.

Please.

>274 richardderus: Oh yay! I'm glad I got you with that particular one...unlike me and many others who read it, I suspect you'll catch even more resonances since you've got Shakespeare in your DNA. Do let me know if the paper version's glossary is easier to use.

Happy Wednesday, Richard. Good review of The Man Who Saw Seconds. Sounds like a fun thriller. I got a little Jackson time in yesterday. Bree and Sean moved to a new house, a bit farther away, so I may not get to see him quite so often. Lots of rain here yesterday. We needed it. It will be beautiful today. Come on, PB!

>278 msf59: Yay for Jackson time! I'm sure pickleball will come soon enough, and you'll enjoy it even more because of the rain.

Enjoy the time you get with the lad. You'll like The Man Who Saw Seconds when you get to it. Much interesting fun.

Happy Wednesday *smooch*

>280 bell7: *smooch* back

BURGOINE #058

Countess by Suzan Palumbo

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: A queer, Caribbean, anti-colonial sci-fi novella, inspired by the Count of Monte Cristo, in which a betrayed captain seeks revenge on the interplanetary empire that subjugated her people for generations.

Virika Sameroo lives in colonized space under the Æerbot Empire, much like her ancestors before her in the British West Indies. After years of working hard to rise through the ranks of the empire’s merchant marine, she’s finally become first lieutenant on an interstellar cargo vessel.

When her captain dies under suspicious circumstances, Virika is arrested for murder and charged with treason despite her lifelong loyalty to the empire. Her conviction and subsequent imprisonment set her on a path to justice, determined to take down the evil empire that wronged her, all while the fate of her people hangs in the balance.

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

My Review: I wouldn't call it a "romp" but it was a lot of fun to read a lesbian space opera/revenge fantasy with a very prominent anti-colonial slant that does not slacken its pace for a moment. The long, lingering sadomasochistic bit about The Count of Monte Cristo's imprisonment is entirely absent; these things are causally linked. Very enjoyable, Caribbean-inflected setting was probably my very favorite difference from most all the other SFF I've read.

Revolutionary fun! Strongly recommended for young firebrand lesbians! Old white people like me might feel a bit attacked...we are...but, well, is that really a surprise?

ECW Press only wants $4.99 for a Kindlebook. Well worth it!

BURGOINE #059

Katharine, the Wright Sister by Tracey Enerson Wood

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: She helped her brothers soar… but was the flight worth the fall?

It all started with two boys and a bicycle shop. Wilbur and Orville Wright, both unsuited to college and disinclined to leave home, jumped on the popular new fad of bicycle riding and opened a shop in Dayton, Ohio. Repairing and selling soon led to tinkering and building as the brothers offered improved models to their eager customers. Amid their success, a new dream began to take shape. Engineers across the world were puzzling over how to build a powered flying machine—and Wilbur and Orville wanted in on the challenge. But their younger sister, Katharine, knew they couldn't do it without her. The three siblings made a pact: the three of them would solve the problem of human flight.

As her brothers obsessed over blueprints and risked life and limb testing new models on the sand beaches of North Carolina, Katharine became the mastermind behind the scenes of their inventions. She sourced materials, managed communications, and kept Wilbur and Orville focused on their goal—even when it seemed hopeless. And in 1903, the Wright brothers made the first controlled, sustained flight of humankind.

What followed was the kind of fame and fortune the Wrights had never imagined. The siblings traveled the world to demonstrate their invention, trained other pilots, and built new machines that could fly higher and farther. But at the height of their success, tragedy wrenched the Wright family apart… and forced Katharine to make an impossible choice that would haunt her for the rest of her life.

From internationally bestselling author Tracey Enerson Wood, Katharine, the Wright Sister is an unforgettable novel that shines a spotlight on one of the most important and overlooked women in history, and the sacrifices she made so that others might fly.

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

My Review: Author Wood wrote The President's Wife, review linked, and now takes on another woman His-story (get it?) has chosen to ignore. The structure, using all three Wright siblings' voices, conveys the tragedy of the story so much better than an omniscient narrator could.

Historical fiction about overlooked women is almost always tendentious. This book is no exception. I will say that the facts are given prominence, but the act of betrayal by Orville during the story that costs Katharine her due place in the limelight made me so goddamned mad I had ro put the book down for a week. I won't spoil what it was...if I got furious, you should too.

And you readers who like the modern trend of recentering women in our history definitely should read this one. I won't rate it more highly because I'm not fond of the triumphalist tenor of the Kitty Hawk flight in our discourse. This is a corrective only to a part of that story.

Sourcebooks Landmark wants $8.99 for the Kindle version.

>276 richardderus: Good morning, Richard. You have me with *Supremacy*, but I don't want to own it, and I know that my library won't buy it. It goes on the wish list, and I hope it comes to me one way or another before it's obsolescent.

Hump Day! *smooch*

>283 richardderus: You are seriously tempting me sir!!

>285 RebaRelishesReading: EXCELLENT! Succumb, succumb! *smooch*

>284 LizzieD: Hi Peggy, I'm pretty sure they'll put the Kindle edition on sale soon. If I get a notice of it I'll come tell you right away. *smooch*

>276 richardderus: OK. Going off to look for it now. (I’m going to need a stiff drink to get through this, aren’t I.)

>288 Storeetllr: Several, at a guess...it's not edifying, this read. *smooch*

PEARL RULE 25

The Lady Vanishes PEARL RULED @ 23% by Ethel Lina White

Rating: 3* of five

The Publisher Says: The ingenious classic thriller behind Hitchcock's famous film, set on a steam train travelling across 1930s Europe and boasting “intrigue, mystery, and spine-chilling horror” (Saturday Review)

First published as The Wheel Spins in 1936 and adapted for the screen by Alfred Hitchcock in 1938, Ethel Lina White’s The Lady Vanishes established the author as one of the greatest crime writers of the Golden Age.

After a summer holiday in a remote corner of Europe, the glamorous socialite Iris Carr is looking forward to returning to the comforts of home. But having stayed on at the resort after her friends’ departure, Iris now faces the journey home alone. On the train to Trieste, she is pleased to meet a kindly governness, Miss Froy, and strikes up a conversation. Iris warms to her companion, and is alarmed when she wakes from a sleep to find that Miss Froy has suddenly disappeared from the train without a trace. Worse still, she is horrified to discover that none of the other passengers on the train will admit to having ever seen such a woman.

Doubting her sanity and fearing for her life, Iris is determined to find Miss Froy before the train journey is over. Only one of her fellow passengers seems to believe her story. With his help, Iris begins to search the train for clues to the mystery of the vanished lady at the center of this ingenious classic thriller.

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

My Review: I am old enough to have seen this film on Saturday-afternoon TV in my kidhood. I liked it fine. I still like it fine.

It shows its age, though, as much as I show mine. Creaky turns of phrase, deeply offensive-to-21st-century norms stereotypes and assumptions, and the fidelity of Hitchcock's adaptation all conspired against my finishing the read. Still worth your time and cash if you've never read a Golden-Age writer of top caliber, haven't seen the film multiple times, or are deeply curious about how good work turns sour with time through no fault of its own.

Pushkin Vertigo thinks $9.99 is the right price. Not quite so sure, me.

>268 richardderus: Yes, I could do that. . .

>276 richardderus: Adding that one to the BlackHole. Unfortunately neither my local library or Hoopla currently has a copy.

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

>291 alcottacre: Well, you know, you'd have to keep the landing feature updated because despite no one ever visiting me, I do have to start new threads every so often. Like tomorrow.

*smooch*

I just finished reading Waiting for the Barbarians: Essays from the Classics to Pop Culture by Daniel Mendelsohn and enjoyed the time I spent with his opinions. It was clear to me that he is strongest when he is writing about the Classics and how they relate to the modern age, and surprisingly, his essays on Pop Culture were also very good. I didn't think he did as well on his essays on the more modern literary critics, but it could be that I, myownself, is just not that interested in Susan Sontag or Rimbaud. I did find myself surprised that Mendelsohn convinced me that I should look into the work of Theodore Fontane and perhaps read a book or two by him. In general, I am glad that I spent some time reading this collection of essays and now look forward to reading the other essay book I have by him in my collection - Ecstasy and Terror.

Theodor Fontane! Not a well-known figure in modern bookish circles, more in academia. I'd venture a guess that the translations will be the primary druvers of your pleasure in the reads.

Sontag's a taste I acquired fairly early, so I'm not in sync there, but I abhor Rimbaud. *shudder* It seems like the read was inspiring all the same, Benita, so yay for that.

>276 richardderus: I'm a techie. Nothing surprises me about the chat bot "revolution". I'm on a few blogs where some of the technical details appear, and I had enough relevant knowledge to be massively suspicious of the hype even before everyone and their dog reported that the chat bots confabulate routinely. (The word being used is "hallucinate", which they absolutely do not do.) I've also worked for any number of dishonest, selfish tech executives, and "trust" them to have the ethics of a Trump or worse, sometimes along with considerably more talent.

I just deleted an email from my local newspaper, offering me a chat bot which will give answers about the political positions of the two presidential candidates. I'd bet good money that this bot will confabulate all kinds of nonsense. What I should do is write a letter to the editor condemning their use of unreliable technology, certain to produce "fake news," but I'm sick of playing Cassandra. I probably won't even condemn them in my own blog. Why bother? The newsies aren't techies, and routinely misrepresent technical issues.

>295 ArlieS: I'm unsurprised the paper offered you an "AI" prognosticator. It's cheaper and easier than finding and paying a pundit. Not, I suspect, a lot less accurate either.

Whatever will ring the cash register's bells is what will get the chattering classes chattering. Until Bezoselzebub invented Ammy, the World Wide Web was a useless, wierd telephone/telegram hybrid that boffins could use for sciencey stuff. The media goofs don't wanna be flatfooted again. So they'd rather be wrong and ignore predictions that don't come true.

Tech is hard, and harder still to predict (outside stuff that's down to physics). Doesn't keep amateurs from trying.

>276 richardderus: ok, ok- I will add this to my list.

>297 figsfromthistle: All the yay!

New thread: https://www.librarything.com/topic/364524