richardderus's twenty-first 2024 thread

Tom Gauld, ladies and gentlemen.

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.
Reviews 137 to 154 are back here.
Reviews 155 through 171 are in this thread.
Reviews 172 through 192 are there.
Reviews 193 through 205 are here.

THIS THREAD'S REVIEWS

206 Pony Confidential in post #23.
207 The Socialist Manifesto: The Case for Radical Politics in an Era of Extreme Inequality in post #60.
208 A Sorceress Comes to Call in post #167.
209 Sinophagia: A Celebration of Chinese Horror in post #228.
210 Dream City: A Novel in post #232.
211 Shrink: Story of a Fat Girl in post #233.
212 Bald in post #234.
213 So Cold! in post #242.
214 Dad, I Made You a Book in post #253.
215 Mom, I Made You a Book in post #254.
216 Kaiju Unleashed: An Illustrated Guide to the World of Strange Beasts in post #257.
217 Scales & Scoundrels Definitive Edition Book 1: Where Dragons Wander in post #268.
218 Scales & Scoundrels Definitive Edition Book 2: The Festival of Life in post #270.
219 Death Comes For The Toymaker, Volume 1 in post #272.
220 Lebanon Is Burning and Other Dispatches in post #274.
221 The Art of Fantasy: A Visual Sourcebook of All That is Unreal in post #283.
222 Witchcraft: A Graphic History: Stories of wise women, healers and magic in post #284.
223 What the Bees See: A Honeybee's Eye View of the World in post #285.

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:

#070 Taiwan Travelogue in post #42.
#071 Tokyo Swindlers in post #45.
#072 The Peculiar Garden of Harriet Hunt in post #264.

All previous Pearl Rule reviews linked here.

THIS THREAD'S PEARL RULE REVIEWS:
#028 (%)

Seriously...not a great venue for normies here.
My 2023 goals are here, for reference.

End of Q3 thoughts on goals
My Q3 reads started out ~meh~ in July but ramped up to excellence during #WITMonth...Of Saints and Miracles was terrfic, several others were notably good...but my favorite read was Helen Phillips's excellent near-future story of AI-enshittened late-stage surveillance capitalism, Hum. What a chilling story. Very probably predictive. Very, very provocative. One all y'all should read because it's propulsive and thought-provoking in equal measure.

The quarter was very productive in review-writing terms. Counting all three of my categories, Burgoines, Pearl-Rules, and regular reviews, I wrote NINETY-TWO REVIEWS. That makes 254 written of a 2024 goal set of 250! Very, very pleased with myself. My #Booksgiving reviews already written would take me to 125% of my 2024 goal. That doesn't count the #Deathtober ones written, the numerous reads already read and notes made (no count on those because counting them now makes me feel superstitious, like I'll die in the middle of posting them or something), or the books I'm still reading! Amazing what one can accomplish with no other commitments like work or IRL socializing.

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.
My September in review post is here.
My October 2024 in review post is here.
My November 2024 in Review post is here.

Very well. Housekeeping's done, you may come in, and be welcome.

I've decided to put links to my GBBO thoughts posts here.

10: FINAL: Dylan utterly cratered; Christiaan's flavors shot him in the foot; dull, middlin' Georgie won. I'm too pissed to say more.
9: PATISSERIE
8: The 70s
7: Desserts
6: Autumn
5: Pastry
4: Caramel
3: Bread
2: Biscuits
1: Cake

Am I first??!

Happy new one (in spite of that Tom Gauld...)

Happy new thread! I was also delighted by that recent Gauld cartoon. ❤️

>8 richardderus: Winner, winner, wintertime glamour!

>10 MickyFine: Doesn't that just say it all, Micky? *smooch*

Happy New Thread!

Salutations on your latest thread, RD.

>1 richardderus: I can feel similar stirrings on my bedside table where some of the tomes are starting to demonstrate some impatience.

Happy new thread,Richard!

>13 SilverWolf28: Thank you, Silver!

>14 PaulCranswick: Beware the idea of November, PC, I hear the rustling of neglected paper from here....

>15 figsfromthistle: Thanks, Anita!

>17 richardderus: Hahaha, I think the Chapter Collective are massing for a full frontal assault!

>11 richardderus: Is that huge stone an OPAL????? I am totally envious.

>1 richardderus: My whole house is like that. I can live with it.

I look forward to thread #50,000,000,000,000,000 or whatever this one is. Read and post in good health! *smooch*

Happy new one, Richard! Keeping the knives away from the books just in case… 😀

Happy new thread, Richard!

206 Pony Confidential by Christina Lynch

Rating: 3.75* of five

The Publisher Says: In this one-of-a-kind mystery with heart and humor, a hilariously grumpy pony must save the only human he’s ever loved after discovering she stands accused of a murder he knows she didn’t commit.

Pony has been passed from owner to owner for longer than he can remember. Fed up, he busts out and goes on a cross-country mission to reunite with the only little girl he ever loved, Penny, who he was separated from and hasn’t seen in years.

Penny, now an adult, is living an ordinary life when she gets a knock on her door and finds herself in handcuffs, accused of murder and whisked back to the place she grew up. Her only comfort when the past comes back to haunt her are the memories of her precious, rebellious pony.

Hearing of Penny’s fate, Pony knows that Penny is no murderer. So, as smart and devious as he is cute, the pony must use his hard-won knowledge of human weakness and cruelty to try to clear Penny’s name and find the real killer.

This acutely observant feel-good mystery reveals the humanity of animals and beastliness of humans in a rollicking escapade of epic proportions.

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

My Review: You know that Swede who writes about cutesy old people? Of course you do, y'all luuuv him as much as Richard Osman! (Only Osman's old people are cool, unlike that Swede's faux-feisty feebs.) Now imagine that Swede decided to take over Spencer Quinn's Chet and Bernie series.

Yeah. That, and Remarkably Bright Creatures chucked in for good measure. So what's it doing as a regular review, not a Burgoine? "When you like a book, but don't love it, it's a Burgoine," someone is even now saying to their screen.

Penny and fluent English-hearer Pony the pony, separately and together, do some very good mental health work, that's why it's a regular review, and thanks for noticing. Penny's never quite gotten a grip on Life; as a result she is always on the back foot with the people and situations in her life. Being a kindergatren teacher does not make this easier. Being a single mom to a cute kid with a really bad relationship to the father, well...gettin' the drift here? She has a life-altering nightmare hit her square in the chops, and here we come to the first-ever in my reviews spoiler. (Stop laughing! And pointing is rude.)

This para has the spoiler: When Penny was twelve, a terrible, fatal accident occurred and her family has to run away. Pony got left behind, and is still bitter about it. Penny's now being accused of murder, twenty years later, and is hauled off to jail. A mother with a child is hauled off to jail for suspicion of involvement in a twenty-year-old crime.

This is really, really unbelievable to me.

Howsomever, the plot needs driving so drive we shall. Grouchy, misanthropic Pony hears and understands this, decides he's off to save Penny (the one human he's ever loved) and has so many cool adventures...all of 'em opportunities to shine a light onto how truly unfair and sadistically convoluted late-stage capitalism is. I agree with this and find the looneyness of the animal characters' various voices great fun. They banter together, discuss how rotten humans are. They still say home truths about each other that will get past the guard of all but the most cynical. I'll go with it.

I want to note that suicide and depression are more than minor plot points without being foregrounded.

As a puzzle, the villains are very two-dimensional thus easy to spot. I read a lot of mysteries, though, so ma'at leads my eyes (as the Egyptians said) and I figured it out; honestly, that's not the point here. Read this for feel-good cuteness. Read this for affirmation the world *can* be good. Read this, in short, for fun.

I did. It was. Everybody's happy. (Even Pony.)

Happy New Thread, Richard. I love the topper. Made me smile.

>19 PaulCranswick: The Folio Fighters and Colophon Crusaders are on the March...best stock up on edged weapons....

‘Morning, RDear. Happy Monday to you. Happy new thread. #21. Or, #50,000,000,000,000,000 as Peggy said in >20 LizzieD:.

>1 richardderus: Love Tom Gauld, love this one.

>23 richardderus: I have only read and loved 2 of the Swede’s books, and one of them isn’t about cutesy old people, it's Anxious People. His first book started (or cemented) the cutesy old people wave, which unfortunately hasn't let up.

the humanity of animals and beastliness of humans is nicely put, and huge coincidences rarely appeal to me. Reading for fun is almost always the reason for the books I choose. However, I’ll pass on the cutesy pony.

*smooch*

>20 LizzieD: I don't know if it's an opal or a moonstone, but either way it's bloody gorgeous!

Still in double digits, smoochling. It's only #21. "Only" seems like false modesty doesn't it?

>21 drneutron: Thank you, doc! A sensible precaution if you ask me....

>22 bell7: Thanks, Mary, and welcome!

>24 msf59: Tom Gauld is One of Us, isn't he? Really gets the book person humor that we mostly seem to share. Welcome!

>26 karenmarie: Ho there, sweetiedarling! You might like >23 richardderus: but not at full price. I predict it'll pass through your book-fondling station one day soon. Grab it if/when it does. The Swede's stuff appeals to me not at all. Too much like those other international bestsellers, cloyingly sentimental in the same vein as that Midwestern god-n-treacle lady I despise. (Who, apparently, got Martin Scorsese interested in filming one of her books!)

ONLY #21! Y'all cut it out!

Good morning, Only 21. Aren't you glad that you're not?

I read the Swede's first and didn't much care for it, so we're together on that him. I'm curious that *Pony* doesn't appeal at all at the moment. I can't speak for the next moment though.

*smooch*

>32 LizzieD: Morning, me lurve. I'm not entirely surprised >23 richardderus:'s day is not today. You're not in escape mode! The rage will need escaping from soon enough.

*sigh*

*smooch*

Happy new one, Rdear. I wish you a good start into the new week. *smooch*

>34 Ameise1: Thank you, dear lady, and a happy welcoming *smooch*

Happy new thread, Richard.

Happy new one, Richard. Pony Confidential sounds seriously adorable. Not usually my sort of thing (I suspect) but a pony and a girl who love each other -- how can that not be great?

>36 ArlieS: Thanks, Arlie!

>37 RebaRelishesReading: Hi Reba, thanks...and what my world needs now, since I cannot have love sweet love, is something amusing. This was, unquestionably, amusing so job done.

>39 richardderus: Just checked and it's available in Audible...I have new credits coming tomorrow...so will buy it then!!

Befuddled as I am, I recognize and admire your achievement, re: #21. It's nice to be able to join in when I can be posting at #37 in thread #21. LT's cautionary "97 unread 294" is daunting to the likes of me. Have a fabulous week, RD.

ETA: Well, okay. #41, not #37. And so it goes...

BURGOINE #070

Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ 楊双子 (tr. Lin King)
WINNER OF THE 2024 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR TRANSLATED LITERATURE!

Rating: 3.75* of five

The Publisher Says: A bittersweet story of love between two women, nested in an artful exploration of language, history, and power

May 1938. The young novelist Aoyama Chizuko has sailed from her home in Nagasaki, Japan, and arrived in Taiwan. She’s been invited there by the Japanese government ruling the island, though she has no interest in their official banquets or imperialist agenda. Instead, Chizuko longs to experience real island life and to taste as much of its authentic cuisine as her famously monstrous appetite can bear.

Soon a Taiwanese woman―who is younger even than she is, and who shares the characters of her name―is hired as her interpreter and makes her dreams come true. The charming, erudite, meticulous Chizuru arranges Chizuko’s travels all over the Land of the South and also proves to be an exceptional cook. Over scenic train rides and braised pork rice, lively banter and winter melon tea, Chizuko grows infatuated with her companion and intent on drawing her closer. But something causes Chizuru to keep her distance.
It’s only after a heartbreaking separation that Chizuko begins to grasp what the “something” is.

Disguised as a translation of a rediscovered text by a Japanese writer, this novel was a sensation on its first publication in Mandarin Chinese in 2020 and won Taiwan’s highest literary honor, the Golden Tripod Award. Taiwan Travelogue unburies lost colonial histories and deftly reveals how power dynamics inflect our most intimate relationships.

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

My Review: What it says on the tin: travelogue, heartbreakingly period-appropriate lesbian-longing story told in marvelously evocative prose. I can add nothing except to quote literary lion Bruna Dantas Lobato: "There isn't a single sentence in this powerful metafictional journey through food, language, relationships, and translation that doesn't carry the weight of history."

I'm not four-starring it because it felt very mannered in a way I did not enjoy, as a matter of my own literary tastes, in that same way Han Kang's or Paulo Coelho's work feels. Always respectfully translated and worthy stories; something stands in the way of my loving them.

>40 RebaRelishesReading: Perfect! That is a great way to get this story delivered, if you like the narrator.

>41 weird_O: 37, 41, they're all good, and no one need keep score. I sure don't.

Thanks for coming!

BURGOINE #71

Tokyo Swindlers by Ko Shinjo (tr. Charles De Wolf)

Rating: 3.25* of five

The Publisher Says: A contemporary Japanese crime thriller unravels an intricate web of deception and greed, inspired by recent land-fraud scandals.

Takumi, grieving the tragic loss of his family, is drawn into a real-estate swindle masterminded by fabled land scammer Harrison Yamanaka. The target is an unprecedented $70-million property. During his pursuit, Detective Tatsu, upright as ever but nearing retirement, discovers Harrison's strange connection to Takumi's past. As the high-stakes fraud unfolds, the convergence of motives leads to a shocking outcome in this intense game of deception versus truth.

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

My Review: I liked this nasty little exposé of the vilest kind of greed inherent in late-stage capitalism. Netflix thought this was a good story, too. (That's the YouTube trailer.)

I can't get to a fourth star because I have no clue if this is a mystery that's a complete failure, or a handily fictionalized true-crime story so there can be dialogue in place of infodumps. There's drama, but there's no narrative frame to speak of. The "detective" is negligible in word count. The story is, however, as gripping as Of Saints and Miracles.

Stone Bridge Press charges $9.95 for an ebook. Seems like good value, if your expectations are set properly, to me.

>1 richardderus: I love Tom Gauld's stuff! Thanks for sharing, Richard.

Checking in on the new thread, RD. ((Hugs)) and **smooches** and hopes that you have a great week!

>45 richardderus: Happy to oblige, dear lady. I send a *smooch* back to you.

>47 richardderus: Thanks for the smooch, RD. I am going to need a ton of them to get through this week. . .

RD just to let you know, while I was busy sleeping your threads passed 6,000 posts for the year. You are already comfortably beyond your number for the whole of 2023.

>48 alcottacre: Morpheus seems to have lost your address, Stasia...hope she finds it soon.

>49 PaulCranswick: Good gracious! Quite an achievement for my poor little threads, and one to be proud of.

Thank you, PC, for letting me know.

>51 richardderus: Welcome, dear fellow.

Happy New Thread, Richard!

Happy Tuesday, Richard. I should be able to get a little Jackson time in today, if Grandma Sue brings him around. It will hit 60F today but remains damp and cloudy.

‘Morning, RD. Happy Tuesday.

>42 richardderus: Onto the wish list it goes. 3.75 is a respectable rating for a book you didn’t love.

>45 richardderus: Tempting, but I’ll pass.

*smooch*

>52 PaulCranswick: :-)

>53 vancouverdeb: Thanks, Deborah! Glad you're here.

>54 msf59: SIXTY! Warm for November, no? Being by the ocean, this is about the norm but there in the middle of the country, that seems toasty.

Enjoy your Jackson time, Gramps.

>55 karenmarie: Morning, sweetiedarling, I'm pleased >42 richardderus: made it and >45 richardderus: didn't. I dislike >45 richardderus: more the further I get from the read. Honestly I'll leave my rating out of a desire to see Stone Bridge Press and its all-Japan All the time focus get some attention.

Tuesday orisons.

207 The Socialist Manifesto: The Case for Radical Politics in an Era of Extreme Inequality by Bhaskar Sunkara

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: A "razor-sharp" introduction to this political and economic ideology makes a galvanizing argument for modern socialism (Naomi Klein)—and explains how its core tenets could effect positive change in America and worldwide.

In The Socialist Manifesto, Bhaskar Sunkara explores socialism's history since the mid-1800s and presents a realistic vision for its future. With the stunning popularity of Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Americans are embracing the class politics of socialism. But what, exactly, is socialism? And what would a socialist system in America look like?

The editor of Jacobin magazine, Sunkara shows that socialism, though often seen primarily as an economic system, in fact offers the means to fight all forms of oppression, including racism and sexism. The ultimate goal is not Soviet-style planning, but to win rights to healthcare, education, and housing, and to create new democratic institutions in workplaces and communities. A primer on socialism for the 21st century, this is a book for anyone seeking an end to the vast inequities of our age.

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

My Review: William M. Tweed said this about the way the US does politics:

I don't care who does the electing, so long as I get to do the nominating. As quoted in Understanding American Government (2003) by Susan Welch, p. 224

No good came from trying to talk sense into the Democratic Party; their loss on 5 November 2024 was catastrophic. It was not the resounding mandate the Nerd Reich and its tech scum boosters portray it as. The margin was not huge, but the impact will be *immense*, far-reaching, and vastly immiserating for millions.

It did not need to happen, even in the teeth of forty years of the carefully disguised radical coup orchestrated by the wealthy and powerful against the rest of us. The way to beat the radicals is not to appease or identify with them; it is to present an alternative to them.

This will never happen in the two-party system.

I wanted this not to be true, but this idiotic result has driven the last nail in the coffin of my faith in humanity, my trust in the US institutions of politics, and my desire to support the least-worst politicians in hopes they'll do some of the Right Thing. They won't.

Now what?

Now this, and before someone says "But socialism!" or even stupider "that's Communist!" I'll remind all y'all that the monster you've been Pavlovianly conditioned to fear and hate is totalitarianism relabeled to scare you away from realizing the socialist demands the owners hate were already met...to a degree...and they're the exact things your newly elected scum were put in place to destroy. When the way you live gets worse, do not open your yap. You either voted for, or decided not to vote against, this exact result.

It is your fault.

Now let's figure out what we can begin to do to make a few gains. Start by reading Bhaskar Sunkara's clear, cogent, carefully reasoned manifesto. If you're still reeling from the evidence of how immensely successful the scumbags' propaganda, misinformation, and misdirection were, here's a shred of hope to cling to. Here's a possibility that you already know works...you who receive "benefits" aka your own tax money returned to you (not some gift as the radical right wants you to believe) better than anyone...so lean into it.

Don't feel like you can do anything, don't want to think about it, are just too drained to give it your attention? That's their system for making you passive at work. If you won't do the work, spend your money to support those who will, and that shit-sure ain't the Democrats.

Support a real change for the better. Read this book to learn what that can mean.

NB Links to definitions and sources are in the blogged review

>33 richardderus: I'm definitely not in escape mode, Richard. After all, my main book of the moment is a rereread of Queen Lucia!

>42 richardderus: I was interested enough to read a bit of the sample on Ammy, but I'm thinking not now.

Find something good in Tuesday! *smooch*

>61 LizzieD: "Something good" is very very elusive, Peggy me lurve. Enjoy the hightum life!

Happy Tuesday, Richard!

Karen O

>63 klobrien2: Hi Karen O.!

>60 richardderus: Richard, this is a terrific review. Any shred of hope I will take. Thank you.

>65 AMQS: Thanks, Anne, we all need to take some and multiply it as best we can.

“They want you to feel powerless and surrender and let them trample everything and you are not going to let them. You are not giving up, and neither am I. The fact that we cannot save everything does not mean we cannot save anything and everything we can save is worth saving.”
—Rebecca Solnit

‘Morning, RichardDear! Happy mid-week to you.

>60 richardderus: I’m conflicted about this one, my sweet. It was published 5 years ago. Did you notice anything that dated it? If not, then I’ll probably get it.

There was still a huge amount of depression at book sort yesterday about what’s coming in January. There is only one person who votes Republican come hell or high water, and he stays noticeably silent when we rant and rave. His wive votes Democrat, and politics do not get discussed in their house.

*smooch*

>68 karenmarie: Wednesday orisons, sweetiedarling...>60 richardderus: is in a new printing, and therey's nothing current-eventsy that isn't the same as now, though there's really very little about the news that ever changes except the zip codes. I totally get the sheer appalling awfulness of what's to come being depressing, but read >67 richardderus: when you need a stiffener.

*smooch*

>50 richardderus: Well, I did manage to get a whole 3 hours and 48 minutes of sleep last night :)

>51 richardderus: Congratulations, RD!

>60 richardderus: Thanks for the review and recommendation of that one, Richard. I am going to see if I can track down a copy. It is outside my normal reading but a book that I think I need to read.

((Hugs)) and **smooches** and hopes that you have a wonderful Wednesday!

>60 richardderus: On my list to read, but not just right now. I’m still too upset over what happened Nov 5. String theory is easier to comprehend.

Happy new 🧵!

>70 alcottacre: I'm glad >60 richardderus: made it onto your list! I'm glad for *some* sleep though little. It is awful! I'm mid-gout flare so not sleeping well either. I guess god decided I needed to be in solidarity with you.
*smooch*

>71 Storeetllr: It might surprise you how comforting a forward-facing read is, when this moment makes exactly ZERO SENSE. Read >67 richardderus: for a stiffener, Mary.

Thank-you *smooch*

>73 richardderus: I love Rebecca Solnit and agree with what she said. I’m just not there yet.

>74 Storeetllr: *smooch*

I think, hope, need to believe that we're gearing up for January, Richard. I applaud Biden for doing as much as he can before he leaves office. As I've said before, I'm also grateful that I don't have to applaud every single thing he does.

I'm sorry to hear about the flare-up. I'll extend another hope that you can put this fire out quickly. *smooch*

>76 LizzieD: I hope we all are...I have to figure out how to get a reserve computer before the tariffs go up. Maybe I can talk myself into asking Valerie if there's a sale somewhere. I had such a spasm of guilt even typing that....

I've doubled up my meds, it ought to be down by the weekend, along with my digestion.

Excellent review, Richard. Among the gems above I particularly liked:

"The way to beat the radicals is not to appease or identify with them; it is to present an alternative to them." Scandinavian socialism please rather than Fascism.

>78 RebaRelishesReading: Perzackly, Reba, and no further oxygen to that crass criminal.

>31 richardderus: Happy 21st RD! Is that a significant birthday in the States like it is here? Actually, I am not sure it is *as* significant here now as it was in the past, as 18 is the legal 'adulting' age these days (can marry, go to war, buy alcohol etc).
Either way, as would have been said in many a 21st speech: I wish you the key to the door and a whole lot more!

>80 LovingLit: Thanks, Megan! The 21st is back to being legal drinking age here, but everything else moved to 18.

I'm happy to be at the 44th anniversary of that milestone myownself. I probably will only suffer under the Nerd Reich's bootheel with the bejesus brigades' feet in the boot for a while. It will feel long but be comparatively short.

Sweet Thursday, Richard. We have SNOW! Bound to happen sooner or later. Just an inch or so on grassy services. Of course it is also 30F at the moment. That recent 60F was just a tease. Bird feeders are hopping.

‘Morning, RDear. Happy Thursday to you.

>69 richardderus: Yes, Solnit says it well. I do my small bit with the Friends of the Library, which may have to become a bigger bit the next four years.

Today’s Jenna and Hwan’s wedding. They were on the subway the last time she texted me.

*smooch*

>82 msf59: Thursday orisons, Mark! Snow is an enviable thing to have. It's dank here today, so I strongly hope for some rain as we had none in October. Your feeders are going to be more active, as winter's coming, right?

>72 richardderus: I hope the 'gout-chies' are gone soon, RD, so you can get some rest. I managed almost 5 hours last night.

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

>83 karenmarie: Morning, Horrible. I'm amused at texting from the subway...but it's no novelty to me having lived there for decades. I do love the subway. So useful and carbon-friendly and just easy compared to traffic.

>85 alcottacre: It's certainly less painful today, Stasia, but sleep was patchy. It's the right side, the one I sleep on, so I was on my back most of the night. Sweaty AND snorey. Ick.

Be well and happy today.

Taiwan Travelogue (>42 richardderus:) is the WINNER OF THE 2024 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR TRANSLATED LITERATURE!

Good for *TT*! I'm also glad for James and look forward to it in the new year.

I'm glad to hear that your foot is less painful but sorry for disturbed sleep. Unlike Stasia, I am a confirmed sleep-lover.

Another lovely day today after dreary yesterday. Tomorrow will be even cooler. Maybe it's finally autumn.

*smooch*

>89 LizzieD: Sleep is lurvely innit. I'm in deficit for a couple days, and it really feels gross today.

*smooch*

Happy belated new thread, Richard! Sheesh! I have a busy week and not much time to visit threads here, and you start a new thread and it's all the way up to 90 posts before I can drop by. It feels like >20 LizzieD: was right, and you're up to #50,000,000,000,000,000.

>1 richardderus: I love the Gauld! The stack in my own bedroom is starting to look like that. I think I'm going to have to participate in fewer LT challenges next year, and do more reads from my own lonely books.

>60 richardderus: Much as I feel like turning into an ostrich right now, maybe I need to read that one. I saw a clip of Bernie Sanders a couple of days ago, I think he was on a podcast (and it may not have been a recent interview, I'm not sure), but he was saying that the country is no longer a democracy, it has become an oligarchy. I think he is right.

>91 atozgrl: ONLY 21 all y'all, only 21.

I think >60 richardderus: will alleviate, not exacerbate, anxiety, Irene. We need to realize this awful place does NOT need to be the final destination. (Even though it feels to me like the film franchise has come to life.)

That Gauld speaks me into my own ears.

>81 richardderus: I thought of having a 21st times two party when I turned 42 (a few years back now) but then I found out that a notorious murderer here in NZ did that, and I lost the urge...

>92 richardderus: *snigger*
*chortle*

>93 LovingLit: Yuk it up, whippersnapper, yuk it up...your turn will come. *snort*

>92 richardderus: I'm not familiar with that particular series, and I'm not sure I want to watch them. Wikipedia called it a horror franchise, and I pretty much avoid those kinds of movies these days.

>95 atozgrl: I'm very sure you do NOT want to watch them, Irene. If I could unwatch the one I saw I would. *shudder*

Friday orisons!

‘Morning, RDear. Happy Friday.

>86 richardderus: Jenna loved everything about NYC, and now describes herself as a married country bumpkin. I’m glad Hwan’s a seasoned city girl.

>87 richardderus: Sucks when you can’t sleep in your preferred position.

No horror flicks for me. And if I could unwatch The Exorcist and The Matrix I would.

*smooch*

I'm trying to think what I would unwatch if I could, Richard and Karen. I don't really watch anything much in the movie line except my old favorites that I have accumulated on DVD. To introduce a complete downer, I'm haunted by a picture of 2 little African brothers sitting inside the circle of a big tire, their home; also by clips of Ukraine and Gaza.
My class of high school juniors once discussed things that they had seen too soon and wished they could unsee. I don't much think that discussion kept them from putting themselves into new situations that they couldn't handle, but it was a rude awakening for me.
Quick! Say something that gives us hope for the future! *JENNA and HWAN* Love and Kindness in unexpected places! Generosity and caring!

*smooch* for your day with apologies for sadness and best wishes for your easier Friday, Richard!

>87 richardderus: Yeah, I am having to sleep on my back these days too. Ick again.

Gentle ((Hugs)) and **smooches** for today and hopes that you have a gout-free weekend

>97 karenmarie: THE MATRIX? Why ever? I empathize with the desire to unsee (gorram AI changed it to be wrong) the terrible acting in THE EXORCIST, but what was wrong with Matrix Keanu? *hubba hubba*

I'm sure they'll end up somewhere non-rural. However, all depends on career offers at their age. NYC is, as I know you know, the hub around which the Universe turns and all of life lived away from it is a pointless frivolous shadow.

But you know that, no need to belabor it. *smooch*

>98 LizzieD: Sadness and pain are ever our lot, Peggy, running away from that reality only works briefly if at all.

Hope is self-generated, but I take my dose from the fact that it's been this bad before and will be worse in the future, so time to laugh at that patently phony gawd who "loves and cares for" her worshippers/chosen ones/etc.

>99 alcottacre: Ick!! I had a truly horrible night. Maybe tonight I'll get lucky and pass out...?

Bill and I first started watching The Matrix when it was first released on DVD in September of 1999. I couldn't stand, and basically STILL can't stand, what I call blue cheese - medical weirdness. When I saw the pod scene, I left and told Bill I never wanted to see it at all.

Fast forward to early 2010s, when I made the mistake of asking Bill what he wanted to watch for his birthday without putting a caveat on it. Well, he chose The Matrix. I fumed through it, averted my eyes when I needed to, and told him I'd never EVER EVER watch it again, regardless of what he wanted. I honestly still don't know what the plot was or the resolution. Don't care.

JenHwan's plan is to go wherever Hwan is offered a university-level professorship in the US after she gets her PhD at the end of next year. She wants to teach, not be in research. Rural? City? Blue state? Red state? Don't know.

*smooch*

edited to add Sorry about your truly horrible night.

Hey, big daddy.

>67 richardderus:. ❤️. If that won’t inspire us, I don’t know what will.

I was tempted by your review of Taiwan Travelogue, but I don’t think I’d like “mannered” any more than you did.

I’m loving Murakami’s new novel, after being seriously let down by his last collection of short stories. It’s exhilarating to have him return to form with his entrancing weirdness.

I hope all is as well as can be, and that you’re setting up for a good weekend and Thanksgiving.

Congrats on >6000 posts. Awesome.

GBBO THOUGHTS—PATISSERIE

This semifinal saw Gill go, unsurprisingly...blah, safe, unimaginative home cook can't do patisserie? My pearls, my pearls. Though, to be scrupulously fair, her sausage breakfast pastries with added fennel and a Bramley apple goop are the ones I'd've eaten the whole batch of. The brûleéed banana AND banana custard, banana custard!, ones were...like all her bakes...dull and unexciting to look at; all the pastry was underproved. The technical, an opera cake (fiddly damned things and usually the actual joconde cake's dry and there's a lot of chocolate so YUCK) was a well-earned second place finish. Her execution was shop-sellable, if her flavors and decorations were just a hint off. The fruit-shaped entremets for her showstopper were strawberry-mint mousse on lemon shortbread car keys (the story bored me so I forgot it) surrounding a basket made from buttercream. Everything looked...okay...but the flavors and textures probably let her down in their simplicity. Entremets are extremely effete, raffiné little things that no one in North Yorkshire would dare to serve, or learn to make. She was clearly relieved to go, and really gracious in her goodbyes.

Dylan doing the odds of staying-v-going as the show opened was endearing. I was not impressed by his Gill-or-Georgie-esque cinnamon coated, and hazelnut crème pât filled, croissants. Unambitious choice; but he thought the challenge was an hour and a half shorter than it actually was, so he was really quite sensibly maximizing his effort. He needed to prove the pastry longer, but the cinnamon flavor was a hit, but his hazelnut tasted ~meh~ and he piped it into too-warm pastries. *squidge* Honestly his win in the opera-cake technical was probably what saved him. Given the...sparse...directions (make this, make that, assemble), I was worried about his kiss-me curl getting bounced for just not having the knowledge to execute the recherche elements at only 20. He got every flavor right and his assembly was outstanding, looked just like a shop-bought one! The fruit-shaped entremets he made were avocado-mousse stuffed with a caramel-dipped choux bun filled with lime/dark chocolate ganache, and oranges on a cointreau-soaked genoise with a whipped orange/white choc ganache, all presented in a nougatine basket. P&P loved the look of the fruits...they were convincing...and found the flavors beautifully complementary.

Georgie threw a massive wobble, so unless she got it all out of her system this week, she's not winnin' the whole shootin' match. Her coffee-plus-hazelnut creamy stuff, or "dalgona" (apparently it's a kind of soft honeycomb?) pinwheels, though...the chocolate "pain suisse" gave me agita just thinking about it. How was this different from pain au chocolat? which, ew...but full marks for understanding the brief as she made the pinwheels with cross-laminated dough! I've only ever seen that in really snazzy bakeries where one pinwheel costs $10. Sadly her exotic pastry was not proved properly so was squidgy in the middle. Her fourth-place opera cake was a disaster from giddy-up to whoa. She knew it. She was sure she was going home. It was shoddy, and her flavors missed the mark more than Christiaan's did, so it was basically a poncy chocolate layer cake. The fruit-shaped entremets showstopper was, she and I were positive, pro-forma before her ticket back to Cymru was stamped. Those were blackberry mousse filled with blackberry confit on Welsh whiskey-soaked chocolate cake (which ones could turn around my dislike of chocolate, they sound so good); the limoncello mousse/lime curd ones on pistachio shortbread MUST GET INTO MY MOOSH NOW! I think it was the elegant centerpiece basket and the very distinctive mix of textures that put her ahead of Gill, as her efforts showed better awareness of the ever-so ever-so nature of an entremet.

Christiaan's shirt irritated me quite unreasonably. I don't like him anyway, but I also think his flavors are *always* weird for the sake of it (I hope he's in the final as a makeweight in Dylan's crushing victory). Case-in-point: the saffron/rhubarb Danish pastries (which P&P thought were tasty), paired with za'atar and gruyère whirls (which Prue liked; points on both for good proving and baking). Punkin then says it was growing up gay that made him like "different" (he used air quotes so I can too, shut up) things...I grew up queer as a $3 bill among Texan religious nuts, Miss Molly, so quieten down with your weird-for-weird's-sake joke flavors. And, insult added to my injured feelings, he's the gorram star baker. I think that was a gimme...his third-place opera cake was, um, slapdash-lookin' but properly flavored...since it was utterly obvious that Gill or Georgie was going home. Of course his fruit-shaped entremets were appalling: Italian bergamots! (Real fruits, from Bergamo. The source of bergamot flavor in Earl Grey tea.) Pistachio dacquoise (nummy) topped with bergamot mousse and a basil sludge...I mean gelée; then one shaped like an apple with tart apple compôte and cointreau mousse under a lemon biscuit tree that he piped lemon-flavored meringue leaves onto. There was no hint of critique, still less criticism, in the judging.

Final next week!

>103 karenmarie: There you go! Practical people, and I totally understand Hwan's desire to teach not endlessly grub after funding for make-work as a researcher. They'll make it.

Hm. I don't share that particular crotchet, of course, as I liked the film just fine. I'm sorry you had to experience as much of it as you did.

I'm getting repaid for all my smug self-satisfaction about sleeping as soon as my head hits the pillow, aren't I? Isn't that how gawd works? Giving you what will offend and appall and hurt you the most when she doesn't feel the luuuv enough?

>104 jnwelch: Hey there, Joe! Solnit's words are, for me and thee, a balm and a beacon.

Thanks re: posts and stuff. I'll be hiding for Turkey Day, per my preference. I'm getting my Black Friday Amazonning done early as I expect this to be the last sale before idiot rapist grifter's tariffs increase the cost of living. *sigh*

>102 richardderus: I wish you luck with that, RD!

>108 alcottacre: *smooch*

The two primary lights for me, in this discontent, are Heather Cox Richardson and Rebecca Solnit.

>110 weird_O: Awomen, Bill. Need that hard-charging gynergy.

Sorry to read about your gout flare up, Richard. I hope you are soon feeling much better!

Happy weekend Rdear.
I hope that the gout flare-up is healing and that you will soon be pain-free. *smooches*

Re: the whippersnapper comment. *aw shucks* thanks :)

>100 richardderus: I have never seen the Matrix, but agree with the Keanu assessment.

Also, >67 richardderus: >107 richardderus: Solnit is 756 kinds of awesome. I am still savouring her The Faraway Nearby.

((Hugs)) and **smooches** for today, RD, and hoping this post finds you still fast asleep. . .

'Morning, RDear.

I hope the gout problem is receding and you've gotten some good sleep.

I got 4 hours, and know that there's a nap in my future today.

*smooch*

>112 vancouverdeb: Me too, Deborah, me too...today's incremental improvement is, well, incremental. All such are welcome but I'd really like it to CTFD now, please and thank you.

>113 Ameise1: Thank you most kindly, Barbara! *smooch*

>114 LovingLit: *smooch*

I'm sure it's sensible to savor Solnit, but I just can't. I inhale her prose as soon as she enters my Kindle. I can't not.

>115 alcottacre: Nope. But thanks for the well-wishes. *smooch*

>116 karenmarie: We got about the same hourage. I spent a good while getting my Bluesky account stocked up with reviews of books whose publishers have made the move from X.com. The ones who haven't, unless the author and/or translator have, don't get posted.

*smooch*

WORDLE ADDICTS!! I hope many of you are as repulsed by the NYT's late and half-hearted shift away from 45 and his ilk as I am...and it's being undone now. Moving away from the enablers purview to reduce their engagement/eyeball count is a good signal to send. It just got easier! The Guardian started its Wordle equivalent: Wordiply, site link here:
https://www.wordiply.com/
Consider shifting your monetizable interaction to a place more ethical and supporting better morals than the bloody NYT.

>121 richardderus: Who are you on Bluesky Richard? I’ve just joined.

Happy weekend! Or, as I’ve learned to say in Spanish, ¡Feliz fin de semana! Is it as cold, damp, and gloomy at the shore as it is in Nyack?

>122 richardderus: I’m always up for a new puzzle. As for the NYT, I play Wordle for free. If they ever try to make me subscribe to play, I’ll be out of there toot sweet. 😎

>123 SandDune: Oh! Are you on Bluesky too? I’m MaryKontrary there. Let me know your handle please so I can follow you!

They’re doing a really fun book challenge:

“Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.
#BookSky
💙📚
#Books
#BookChallenge”

(Lots of interesting choices.)

>125 Storeetllr: I’m just @rhiancapener. Not very original. I’m doing the 20 book thing too.

>126 SandDune: I’ll follow you! Be right there.

>123 SandDune: I'm
https://bsky.app/profile/expendablemudge.bsky.social

>124 Storeetllr: It's super-windy so no gloom, just c-o-l-d! *smooch*

>125 Storeetllr: I've followed you. I'm busily moving review come-ons for publishers/authors who've left the muskrat.

HAppy weekend, Richard!

I hope the gout attack is behind you. Happy reading!

>131 figsfromthistle: Thanks, Anita! It's receding at least.

Morning, Richard. Another gout attack? Aw, that sucks. I hope it is very short-lived. I am dealing with a cold, (the culprit could be Jackson, but of course I forgive him) so I am laying low today. Books & football.

>133 msf59: oops

Morning, Mark! I'm grouchy about the gorram gout but the meds, for which All please bless the goddesses, are working to knock it back a little more each day. Get rid of that cold soonest by whatever means works best for your body! Turkey Day with a cold = *shudder*

Enjoy our winter weather now that you're not in it daily.

Hiya, RDear. Happy Sunday to you.

>121 richardderus: Another rabbit hole. I just checked out Bluesky, found a new word to describe me and books caught fleetingly in the feed, and now added to my thread and all future threads. Librocubicularist: a person who reads in bed. I won’t join Bluesky since I can barely keep my head above water here on LT, but I’m really happy with the perfect word to describe me.

>122 richardderus: Wordiply is similar but not the same… I’ll stick with playing Wordle for free since I put my NYT account on hold and will most likely cancel it early next year. $25/month for Wordle and to avoid the news isn’t worth it just to keep Wordle stats.

>132 richardderus: Glad the gout attack is receding. Gout-be-gone!

*smooch*

Happy Sunday, Richard! Glad to see the meds are doing their work, and hope that continues.

Tomorrow morning this #Booksgiving post goes up on my blog. I put the whole thing here because its important to me that all y'all see it.
+++


As we slide into another Turkey Day, I'm supposed to feel thankful for things by US custom. 2024 hasn't showered me with news or events or trends I feel at all accepting of, still less thankful for, and has taken away from me some comforting illusions about how resistant to manipulation, and how vigilant against lies and incitements of base urges, people are. Apparently all y'all gotta learn the hardest way there is to believe Them when They tell you what the plan is.



Apparently 2024 is going to be a year where, in my struggle to find some hope if not happiness, it's going to be in pursuing a program based around #ReadingIsResistance...again. So I'm grateful for the beauty and the abundance and the variety of experience that lives in the books we have such a smorgasbord of available to us. (If we vigilantly protect our right to access it, of course.) The year had so many top-flight reads for me, in so many categories, that I didn't think I'd be able to squeeze them all into the few weeks between Turkey Day and Yule.



Jólabókaflóðið is, this year, a more important holiday tradition to start than usual. I'm very distressed at how little books mean to modern kids. The best way I know to make books meaningful to these impressionable minds is to show them your own interest in the art of reading. Share books with kids every way you can. Buy them for your own kids and grands and niblings. Don't have the means, or the kids? Donate what you can afford to Dolly Parton's Imagination Library! In this era of crowdfunding, I really shouldn't need to explain the multiplicative effect of small donations.



The Icelandic tradition began as a response to privation, as Lauren Oster wrote in Smithsonian Magazine:

The Jólabókaflóð traces back to Iceland’s transformation in World War II. In 1944, Iceland was a newly independent nation with a beleaguered wartime economy and 15,000 occupying Allied troops. {Per Heiðar Ingi Svansson,the president of the Icelandic Publishers Association:} “Because of the bad economy and depression, there were quotas or very strict restrictions on many things you could import...that limited very much the selection of commodity goods that you could choose as Christmas gifts. But paper was one of the few commodities not rationed during the war—so paper was imported to produce books that were written and then printed in Iceland.” That fortuitous supply—and an infusion of occupation-related money—dovetailed beautifully with Icelanders’ literary leanings.

Their tradition of reading together on long winter nights without any other entertainment is, of course, very much not the media landscape we in the West now inhabit. There's no denying, however, that the looming economic threats presented by the incoming administration's stated goal of raising tariffs on consumer goods bids fair to make books a vastly more appealing and affordable gift for all your giftees, of all ages.



I'll focus #Booksgiving, as has been my habit, on books as gifts in the first part of the lead-up to Yule. I hope the books I'm excited about will excite you, too, and suggest themselves as gifts for your circle of loved ones.

As the delivery times begin to bite, though, I'll shift to those things you can gift yourself as supplies to hoard against what my old friend Stasia contends is the imminent "Worldwide Book Famine" that looms over every librocubicularist's nightmares. My very first suggestion, and my 2024 pick for the six-stars-of-five peak reading experience, can't be anything other than the unforgettable, thrilling GLORIOUS EXPLOITS by the Irish debut novelist FERDIA LENNON. He took the absolutely grim fate of defeated Athenian soldiers in the quarries of Syracuse, infused it with hope and a kind of energy not usually found in Classical stories retold, and made it fresh thereby. I have thought about this story, in its oddly fitting Irish intonations, as the year has unfolded very, very much against my preferences and needs. I felt ever-greater kinship with these beleaguered, even doomed men as they sought respite from their hopeless circumstances. Even among the victors their belief in the power of creative storytelling to alleviate misery and offer what comfort there can be in the darkest of times found resonances.

There is always hope for our shared humanity to come through, and come together.


Still missing my dear, departed Dutch friend Anita.

This #Booksgiving, then, is unusually relevant to the need we as readers should all feel to make a positive difference in our world. The best way, bar none, to do this is to model values that are crucial to the mental health of the world: tolerance, kindness, communication, and acceptance. I'll say to the inevitable complainer that tolerance does NOT include the intolerant in its circumference. This is called the paradox of tolerance, and it is a refutation in fact of "both-sides"ism. During this Holiday-rich season, you're going to face someone (quite possibly someone you love) who will trot out this long-disproven fallacy with the triumphant air of one who has struck a killer blow. This is the moment where #ReadingIsResistance shows its worth. Read up in advance; the list of books I've reviewed includes stuff from the technocratic through the popularized to the expanded listicle, all replete with rejoinders to that entrenched bunkerized ignorance.



This #Booksgiving review blast being a standing tradition on my blog, I'll suggest that you browse your way through past reviews, looking at the books I've included under the tag since 2017. The list is self-updating, and can be accessed here.



An author book reading in December at Gunnarshús, the home of the Writers’ Union of Iceland.

In a world of Lady Bracknells, strive instead to be Cecily Cardew.

>135 karenmarie: Hi Horrible, I'm ever so pleased you've found your identity at last. I've already mentioned my response to your avoidance of BlueSky on your thread. Good plan! The idea of supporting the NYT with my attention disgusts me now, but I've still got the post-stroke dyslexia that makes my participation in Wordle nigh-on impossible anyway.

Gout could go quicker and I'd be happier, but going is the directionality I want to support.

*smooch*

>136 bell7: Sunday orisons, Mary! *smooch*

>137 richardderus: Glorious Exploits is my favourite book of the year so far as well. It really is glorious!

>140 SandDune: One for the ages, Rhian, because the coincidence of message and messenger could not be more fortuitous.

Sunday orisons!

So, my Sunday went from tired to wired when Tananarive Due responded to my review of The Reformatory with a repost and a hearteyes emoji on Bluesky. Very happy she liked it. Even happier that three hundred of her best friends went to read it!

>137 richardderus: Thank you, Richard. Well said.

I hope the gout continues to release you from her clutches.

>142 richardderus: Congratulations!

'Morning, RDear!

>137 richardderus: I've heard of Jólabókaflóð, probably from one of your threads, actually, and didn't realize the tradition is only as recent as 1944. Live and learn.

>141 richardderus: Congrats on the Tananarive Due reposted and heartseyes emoji'd it.

*smooch*

>143 atozgrl: Thank you, Irene. I'm glad the gout is receding, and THRILLED Author Due liked my review that much.

>144 karenmarie: I expect its recency...within Old Stuff's lifetime...is a surprise to most who learn about it in the US. I hope it keeps building steam. I think the scum that's risen to the top might accidentally have set in motion an accelerator for it: ignoring H5N1 flu, thus setting up another plague, raising tariffs, thus making 2025's Yule too costly for much other than books to be gifted, people forced indoors again just to survive...oh yay, book sales are up.

I'm very pleased about the hearteyes! *smooch*

Congrats on the recent author kudos, and the receding of the recent pain. You're heading in the right direction.

>137 richardderus: There is always hope for our shared humanity to come through, and come together. Yes, there is! I am trying to remind myself about this a lot these days.

>142 richardderus: Congratulations, RD!

I am glad to hear that the gout pain is abating somewhat and hope that the trend continues.

((Hugs)) and **smooches**

>147 jessibud2: Indeed I feel I am, Shelley. May that be the trend that continues.

>148 alcottacre: Thanks, Stasia! Keep reminding yourself of it...I need doses almost hourly.

May the plus trend continue. *smooch*

Whew, for the passing of the gout! I'm glad it's on its way.

OF COURSE, author Due loved your review! Congratulations anyway!!!

I don't know whether I've said, but in the latest and more detailed Ancestry analysis of my DNA, I found 2% Icelandic from my daddy. That's obviously where our reading chops originated *grin* although they could have come from either side of his family. I have clear memories of Grandmother churning butter in a gallon jug with a book open in her lap and later holding a book like other women hold baby dolls when she was in her dotage. His paternal grandfather was a great reader and Latin scholar, not common for these parts. Anyway, Jólabókaflóð was born the same year I was.

Good Monday to you! *smooch*

My stuff arrived in Kansas on Saturday. There was a big party of Strnad's waiting to help unload it - much to the consternation of the truckdriver. Job was done in 2 1/2 hours and now all my books are sitting in the carport waiting for me to get the bookcases in order in the house and move them in. However, my first priority is to find the wardrobe boxes with my coats and the one with my comforter for the bed. It got cold here last night!

(there might just be a little surprise on my thread for you, a treat for your eyes. Just saying....;-)

>151 LizzieD: You're a rare one, Peggy, born in Roosevelt's third term. Old Stuff's rarer still, born in his fourth term that ended so very early in April '45. "Booksgiving" is my attempt to anglicize the darn thing. Much as I like eth and thorn, and think we oughta use 'em, most people look at "ð" and wig out. Like it's harder than "th"? And that needs explanation: "as in 'other' or 'this'", where "ð" does that in one go. "þ" is easier than "'th' as in 'south'"...it's even in the characters' names!

But English does noþing ðe easy way, eh what? Your bookishness being genetic makes all the sense in the world.

Thanks re: La DDue liking my words. It really does make my day! *smooch*

>152 benitastrnad: That was a great way to get it DONE dusted and Over! I know your books are pining for you, so get them shelves a-stackin'!

>153 jessibud2: ...better not be a c-a-t is all's I got to say...

>156 richardderus: - :-)

>7 richardderus: Happy new thread!

>157 jessibud2: :-*

>158 ocgreg34: Thank you kindly, Greg!

‘Morning, RDear. Happy Tuesday to you.

>146 richardderus: Terrible reasons for accelerating the reading of books, right? However, yay for book sales being up.

Busy day ahead for moi, time to go sort books and then eat at Virlie's.

*smooch*

>161 karenmarie: Have a lovely time book-fondling then Virlie'sing, sweetiedarling. I'm out into the dank to do one errand and then back to the batcave to glower out at the world as it burns like the hellscape it's turning into.

My, I'm grouchy today.

>162 richardderus: I hope your grouchiness today is not caused by the return of the awful gout pain!

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

>163 alcottacre: It never left, so it can't return. I'm grouchy because all this *flails* and no laundry, too.

*smoochlet* cause it's all's I got.

*SMOOCH*

If you have an extra *smoochlet* around, I'll take it.

>165 LizzieD: Hi Peggy. *smoochlet* duly proffered

208 A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher (aka Ursula Vernon)

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: A dark retelling of the Brothers Grimm's "Goose Girl", rife with secrets, murder, and forbidden magic

Cordelia knows her mother is unusual. Their house doesn’t have any doors between rooms, and her mother doesn't allow Cordelia to have a single friend—unless you count Falada, her mother's beautiful white horse. The only time Cordelia feels truly free is on her daily rides with him. But more than simple eccentricity sets her mother apart. Other mothers don’t force their daughters to be silent and motionless for hours, sometimes days, on end. Other mothers aren’t sorcerers.

After a suspicious death in their small town, Cordelia’s mother insists they leave in the middle of the night, riding away on Falada’s sturdy back, leaving behind all Cordelia has ever known. They arrive at the remote country manor of a wealthy older man, the Squire, and his unwed sister, Hester. Cordelia’s mother intends to lure the Squire into marriage, and Cordelia knows this can only be bad news for the bumbling gentleman and his kind, intelligent sister.

Hester sees the way Cordelia shrinks away from her mother, how the young girl sits eerily still at dinner every night. Hester knows that to save her brother from bewitchment and to rescue the terrified Cordelia, she will have to face down a wicked witch of the worst kind.

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

My Review: Dark it is. A dark retelling of a fairy tale I myownself think is entirely too dark anyway. A deeply unhappy story that centers on the evil deeds and wicked heart of Evangeline (Wikipedia will tell you the roots of this name) as a sorceress, "one who influences fate or fortune," in its original meaning; the sense is always pejorative. It certainly needs to be in this case, as Evangeline (I don't trust y'all to go look it up: the mother's name Evangeline is a diminutive of Latin "evangelium" ("gospel", itself from Greek Ευαγγέλιο "gospel", meaning "good news"...the christian gospels, in other words, those horrifying fonts of millennia of misogyny and detrimental social control, applied to an appalling, cruel, controlling mother) is following the Grimm plot closely in her actions.

I don't know what to think of the inspiration of the story. I'm positive Author Vernon (real name) did not know the results of the 2024 US election as a matter of fact before this book came out in that August. I am a bit chilled by its timeliness, a story of an evil old sorcerous person manipulating a good, innocent girl to her detriment. I wish I was writing this in a spirit of "how did she know we'd defeat the evil old sorcerous party" instead of "if only we'd defeated the evil old sorcerous party" but here we are.

It felt to me, all the way through the read, as though I was being Entertained, that the trademark Vernon wittiness was deployed not organic to the story. It isn't a story where wit, comedy, humor in general, sit naturally. I was abused by a mother much like Evangeline: cold, manipulative, withholding, but always hiding behind a good god-fearing front. For me the read was a return to the times of my life where my anxiety issues were installed. It's a testament to how very effective Author Vernon's skill at storytelling is that I finished and rated the read almost five stars! It's a deeply anxious story, a mother who is not a nurturer or a caregiver in the good sense but rather one who gives her child victim cares that will last a lifetime of therapy. (Why has no fantasy novelist given their MC a therapist?)

My anxiety attacks aside, the story is true to its source material in its claustrophobia, its sense of physical as well as emotional deprivation of freedom. Cordelia's enforced motionlessness probably triggered more awful memories for me than anything else, and made me long for my Falada: The 1968 Bonneville belonging to my mother that I used to escape the misery of my "life" with her. I'm glad I don't have to re-read the book!

It sounds like I should be zero-stars-do-not-recommending it, doesn't it? So look at those almost-five stars and ask what the hell happened here.

Stories are the way people make sense of Life with the big "L" so they are good at their job when experiencing them is a powerful, bone-rattling experience. I think you can see this read rattled me! It shook my angry absorption in the horrendous return to 2016 into a new shape. It reminded me, by evoking feelings from the childhood I endured, that all things end. That even after they end, the consequences carry on...for good or ill, as we ourownselves choose to use them. That even in the midst of misery, someone we do not expect it of is aware of our problems and willing to help.

Rays of hope like this story represents are never more welcome than they are right now.

‘Morning, RD. Happier Wednesday than Tuesday.

>162 richardderus: Grouchy by 9 a.m. yesterday. I’m sorry. Book fondling and Virlie’sing went well. So did some of the prep for Thursday.

>167 richardderus: Pass, although your rating of 4.5 gave me pause. However, darkness and anxiety-inducing will keep me from reading it.

*smooch*

Morning, Richard. Sorry to hear about your continuing discomfort. Hopefully it abates somewhat, to give you a breather. No wonder you are grouchy.

>167 richardderus: Adding that one to the BlackHole. I have enjoyed several of Kingfisher's books.

((Hugs)) and **smooches** for today and hoping the gout and the grouchiness are in abeyance

>168 karenmarie: Good afternoon, sweetiedarling. I'm annoyed but not from gout pain, so yay-minus...?

You'd hate the story, Grimm's Fairy Tales would not do you proud. Enjoy your Turkey Day party!

>169 msf59: Thanks, Mark, I'm much better gout-wise today. It's such a relief! Still grouchy just in a different mode. People are awful.

>170 alcottacre: I bet you'll enjoy it, then. It's very Kingfisher-y. Still grouchy, less gouty.

xo

Since you're grouchy I think I'll just try to slip away unnoticed....

>174 RebaRelishesReading: HEY YOU!! STOP RIGHT THERE!!

Come collect your *smooch* then you can flee.

>167 richardderus:
You got me with a BB on that one. I loved the one book I have read by T. Kingfisher (Wizards Guide to Defensive Baking) and I love dark retellings of fairytales, so this one should suit me just fine.

I have started to get some of the pieces for my desk in the new office. Things will come together and I am starting to get more comfortable. Unfortunately, with all the hubbub of last week, I caught some kind of virus from the little kidok's who were underfoot (but also great at fetching and carrying things) and so am not feeling at the top of my game today. I plan to stay in for some R&R (reading and resting) for the next two days.

>176 benitastrnad: That is the plan most excellent, HastingsBenita! (Poirot story to CTFD, sorry) Viruses must burn themselves out before you feel better so best just to say "hell with it" open a book and ignore the phone a day or so. I've got my carrot cake and my bamboo disposable forks and napkins. The world can do without me a day.

This >167 richardderus: is a LOT darker than DEFENSIVE BAKING is, but it isn't grimdark or genre horror. Very much told in Kingfisherese, that wryly amused tone that rubs my ankles like a friendly c-a-t.

Happy newish thread, Richard. You got me with the Kingfisher review. Not too happy about the proposed tariff on this side of the border either. A quote from one news story was that it is "a shot across the bow". On a happier note you might like a pic that I posted on my thread.

>178 Familyhistorian: Heh...I was just there, and yeah, it's a good'un.

Enjoy the Kingfisher, when its turn arrives. The tariffs are, in a word, idiotic and titanically chaotic. In other words, exactly what shadow-president Putin wants.

>179 richardderus: They are a hard sell on either side of the border except for the chosen few.

‘Morning, RDear. Happy Thanksgiving? I’m uncertain that wishing you a day that focuses on food that will be inedible and with your current stage of annoyance makes sense, but I hope you can derive pleasure from something, anything.

>171 richardderus: Fairy tales were important to me when Jenna was little, but not so much now. Re-telling of re-told fairy tales, regardless of how clever or PC or timely, just doesn’t do it for me. The only one I think of a lot is the Little Match Girl since it made such a huge impression on me when I was little. Thinking of her a lot these days, given what's to come.

You do know me so well regarding what will or will not get BBd, although I derive pleasure from occasionally surprising you.

>172 richardderus: Yay for being better gout-wise. Sorry about the continuing grouchiness. I’m trying so hard to be upbeat regardless of … things … and today’s going to be fun with my daughters and friends.

>178 Familyhistorian: Ugh to the coming tariffs and all other calamitous and dangerous things the chaos demon is going to unleash on us. Shadow-president Putin… another thing to consciously worry about. It was only in the back of my mind, now it’s in the forefront.

But… daughters. Friends. Food. Happy chaos.

*smooch* dear one

Lao Lianben (Philippines, 1948) Night Light

While following up on >153 jessibud2:'s beautiful posted art from the late Pacita Abad, I visited her website and encountered Cultural Cache Online, a YouTube channel about art in and from the Philippines. That rabbit hole led me to a very recent post about an artwork by Lao Lianben, Aura 4. That rabbit hole sent me on another one to look for his work. The one above was my delight discovery. I like all of the ones I browsed on artnet: https://www.artnet.com/artists/lao-lianben/?type=paintings but that one was more than usually pleasing to my eye.

The day began well, badly needed rain outside, a carrot cake to eat, neuroscientist David Eagleman's YouTube channel explaining why the hell we dream (had a doozy last night), Sinophagia keeping me glued to the Kindle...nice start to a day.

>180 Familyhistorian: AKA "billionaires and xenophobes"

>181 karenmarie: *smooch* back, sweetiedarling. I started today as best I could, see >182 richardderus: so all is not depression despair and all-devouring misery.

34/45 and his henchrats are set to unleash hell. The xian gawd is laughing her vicious ass off, no doubt, busily stabbing the US voodoo dolly with hot needles. The Native Americans should, by all rights, be laughing their collective butts off, if only they weren't going to suffer along with the colonizers.

Schadenfreude without much "freude" maybe.

Maybe I need to read some more Chinese Horror stories....

>182 richardderus: I'm doubly glad to see you feeling better, Richard. Pain is - well, it's a pain. Everything else on top of it is more than insult. I hope your main meal of the day is something to be thankful for. I'm about to do my last bit of chopping and combining, so I'll be able to enjoy our feast for two without a backache.

There will be leftovers.

That's my thought about schadenfreude for all of us.

*smooch!

>182 richardderus:- Hi Richard. I am on my way to visit friends for the weekend so will follow *your* rabbit holes when I get home and can do so on my laptop. I don't generally follow links on my phone. Thanks, though - I think!

>175 richardderus: 😘

>1 richardderus: LOL. Love your topper. Surround yourself with good people and stay on LT and hoping the gout behaves better. Happy Thanksgiving my friend. Smooch.

Wishing you all the best and being very thankful that I know you and can read your witty posts and learn much from you!

I am so thankful for LT and for all that I have come to know here.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Karen O

>189 klobrien2: I was going to try and say something original dear fellow but then Karen did so so nicely that I will merely echo what see posted.

Thank you for being my friend, RD.

Ditto to what Karen and Paul said. I had so much catching up to do on your thread that it's already the next day, but a belated Happy Thanksgiving in any case. I hope you had a good one, and a wish for good food, though I know you don't always get that.

Have a great Friday!

‘Morning, RDear. Happy Friday to you.

>183 richardderus: Rabbit holes are fun to go down. Art, dreams, reading, and carrot cake are not to be sneezed at, are they?

>184 richardderus: Alas, schaden without the freude will be a constant starting next January.

Leftovers day here in central NC. I’m trying to decide whether to have a turkey sandwich or pie for breakfast.

*smooch*

>185 LizzieD: Hi Peggy! I threw the facility's meal away...I don't like turkey and won't eat their heated-up lunchmeat in colorless gelatinous goo no matter what; I detest yams; why bother eating their hard peas? I had half a carrot cake instead. I hope y'all's feast for two hit the spot.

Today's a lovely sunshiney day and Halloween temps, so I'm in a good mood. I got a year's supply of Brita filters as a surprise giftie, so I'm even cheerier.

*smooch*

>186 jessibud2: Enjoy them when you are able to safely follow the links, Shelley. There's some beautiful art to see.

>187 RebaRelishesReading: :-*

>188 Berly: *smooch* and thanks for visiting, Berly-boo!

>189 klobrien2: Morning, Karen O.! Lovely sentiments, thank you most kindly and I Heartily return 'em. *smooch*

>190 PaulCranswick: TYVM, PC! I appreciate all the years of work you've put into the group, all the focus you've put onto being supportive and kind. It's been a pleasure!

>191 atozgrl: Morning, Irene! I'm so glad we've become friends here. The food was, as expected, awful, but I had plan B ready so I was pleased. Friday orisons, dear lady.

>192 karenmarie: Ooo, pie of course! And dressing, and and and...well, it's always fun to have the good stuff already on tap. *smooch*

See >8 richardderus: for my GBBO thoughts.

Ah, Richard. I wish it were possible for all of us to share parts of our feasts with you so that you could save your carrot cake for dessert. Anyway, I'm delighted that you had it!
We finally have fall today and are expecting winter next week. Enjoy the crisp! *smooch*

>202 LizzieD: Thank you, Peggy me lurve. I'm completely thrilled I got the carrot cake! I expected the rest to be revolting, it always is, so I wasn't let down, and was happy with my planned replacement...but I'd still happily snarf down some good ol' dressing! *smooch*

>137 richardderus: What a delightful post! I need to go back up and explore your links now!!

New BlueSky friends - I will find you there!!

I hope your gout is gone and you are feeling better...

>199 richardderus: Thank you, RD, I'm glad we've become friends too! I'm sorry most of the food was so terrible, but glad you had some good carrot cake. As Peggy said, I wish we could have shared some of our food with you, though I guess you would not have cared for the turkey.

And Friday orisons returned to you too! *smooch*

>204 Copperskye: I'm "ExpendableMudge" on BlueSky.

Thanks for the well-wishes, Joanne! I'm not out of the woods on the gout but am still better than early in the week. Have fun wandering in the links.

>205 atozgrl: Turkey's always stringy even when it isn't dry. I don't like stringy stuff. Or dry stuff. I'm not entirely sure what it is that causes me such discomfort. Maybe it just bugs me how much time I must spend with floss after eating dry or stringy foods.

'Morning, RDear.

Ah, turkey = dry and stringy.

We had leftovers last night, successfully microwaved in the possessed wall oven/microwave.

Yay for carrot cake.

*smooch*

Happy weekend! 😘

>208 karenmarie: Yay for carrot cake indeed, sweetiedarling. The possessed appliance must've taken pity on your hunger. It still needs to be dispossessed, though. Whimsical electrically-powered things are prone to being very evil on inopportune occasions.

Saturday orisons.

>209 Storeetllr: Thank you, Mary!

Cold morning here, Richard. I wish you a warm but not stuffy day with something lovely to read! *smooch*

>206 richardderus: And I am joannezz

Happy Saturday!

>212 LizzieD: It's really decided to lean into October weather here...high about 45°/7C, but bright and beautiful. I'll take it with a grin, and still wish it'd come two months ago.

Stay well, smoochling.

>213 Copperskye: I followed you back, Joanne. xo

Happy weekend, Richard! Sorry the food was not great, but glad you had backup plans. My family has all gone home and we are individually recovering from the two straight days of togetherness haha.

Happy weekend to you, Richard. I loved your booksgiving/Jólabókaflóð post. I can assure you I am doing everything I can to help the young people become book lovers, but I admit it is a challenge.

Happy Sunday, Richard. Just checking in. Glad to hear you are doing better. We are locked into some frigid weather but at least we are snow-free. May that continue. NY sure got slammed.

>216 bell7: I'm glad to see you, Mary! The food's never great, occasionally it gets within hailing distance of okay. Your recovery rate should be accelerated by the beautiful weather, no? In any event, I hope you're okay after that huge disruption of your life. *smooch*

>217 AMQS: Thank you, Anne! I'm so happy to know there ARE still school librarians some places. It's always been a challenge to get kids into reading...it's harder now because the competition's so intense, but the challenge is as it ever was. Spend a happy weekend!

>218 msf59: I got all kinds of wind, and it got cold, but that was it here, I'm glad to report. I hope snow falls gently when it does, and turns Chicagoland into a beautiful Xmas card landscape so you can watch it calmly from your man cave, book in hand.

‘Morning, RD! Happy Sunday.

>210 richardderus: The possessed appliance worked last night for ‘another Thanksgiving Dinner that couldn’t be beat’, and the clock is still on this a.m. WTF? I’m calling Jenn-Aire tomorrow.

I’ll work on month-end statistics and hope to give you some BBs in my lightning round. 😏

NOVEMBER IN REVIEW

Twenty-two reviews written. I'm very pleased I didn't abandon any books this month. My favorite read of the month was Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory, Yaroslav Barsukov's expanded story of a dimension-splitting structure in the grip of an insane despot. It's timely, it's innovatively structured on a craft level, it's tendentious in the proper ways. I also really resonated to The Villain's Dance, Congolese fiction from a Francophone exile living in Vienna. This title's reality makes me all the more delighted with the world...an African man escapes chaos, builds a new life around his talent for writing stories about that chaos which inform and elucidate for us in the US, as translated and subsequently published by independent sources, what it means to be powerless yet always striving to control whatever possibilities come your way. Meaningful reads, successful stories well-told.

#Booksgiving's first reviews are up, all ideas for gifts to give, not ones for the reader just yet. Gout's slowed me way down, with a very painful week or so behind me. I hope I can speed up soon! My annual goal of 300 reviews written is in the rear-view mirror. Thank goodness for quick notes! Some come from old computers. Some come from weirdly labeled files. All are very useful in getting myself out from under the guilt grinch's control...how many times can one accept a title and then just not feel moved to say anything about it and expect to keep them coming in? I do not wish to find out what that limit is.

Bluesky is another ray of bookish hope in a world about to darken very significantly. Engagement is high but my own numbers are still growing...change has costs...so my blog's total views are 30% of October's this month. Sad that it comes at #Booksgiving but there we are.

On to Yule!

>222 karenmarie: You truly are Horrible, aren't you sweetiedarling. Vile temptress. Ghastly golem of greed-induction.

*hmmf*

>8 richardderus: Skimming through belatedly. Thank you immensely for the links to your GBBO thoughts. I finally rewatched episode 1, now that we finally have it in Asia (though I did get to watch it before you when I was in the UK). I am glad that no one was sent home in the first week. I think they should make that a standard practice; anyone can have a bad day.

>225 humouress: I'm actually glad to have it all linked in one place for myself, too; still, I did it in the first event so you could bookmark the post and refer to it as the episodes appear in Darkest Singapore. Re: spoiler, DO NOT READ UNTIL WEEK 2'S WATCHED. Not every season can we expect a baker to have the apparent anxiety issues that Jeff did. It was only that unique circumstance that made it possible. Otherwise double eliminations would be routine.

'Morning, RDear! Happy Monday.

>224 richardderus: Yup, and proud of it. No smooch from you, but I'm magnanimous in my victory so will give you one.

*smooch*

209 Sinophagia: A Celebration of Chinese Horror by Xueting Christine Ni

Rating: 4.75* of five

The Publisher Says: An anthology of unsettling tales from contemporary China, translated into English for the very first time.

Fourteen dazzling horror stories delve deep into the psyche of modern China in this new anthology curated by acclaimed writer and essayist Xueting C. Ni, editor and translator of the British Fantasy Award-winning Sinopticon.

From the menacing vision of a red umbrella, to the ominous atmosphere of the Laughing Mountain; from the waking dream of virtual working to the sinister games of the locked room… this is a fascinating insight into the spine-chilling voices working within China today—a long way from the traditional expectations of hopping vampires and hanging ghosts.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE AUTHOR. THANK YOU.

My Review: These fourteen tales of eerie events, unnerving occurrences, and dreadful doings all work as a unit to dispel the expectations of Western readers that there is one Chinese way to "do" horror. We're accustomed to thinking of China in monolithic terms, as a single unitary entity with a single (incomprehensible) culture and language.

So here comes Xueting Christine Ni, one-person wrecking crew, to show us in the monolithic, culturally incurious West, what we're slowly coming to realize: There's a lot of great storytelling in the rest of the world, and it's hella fun to discover what creeps other folks out...and how often it creeps us out too. Which leads me to one of the oddest modern phenomena ever to make me snort: The content warning. These are horror stories. If you are not triggered by them all, at some level, they are not doing their collective job! I am not including them because, well, horror. The translator/editor is kinder than I am and includes a story-by-story list of them.

As is the custom of this country here (aka my blog), we'll go story-by-story with a note and rating, then a summation, or the Bryce Method as it's better known around here.

The Girl in the Rain by Hong Niangzi has the most eerie vibe...anything that smacks of perception manipulation gives me serious shuddering horrors.

As a way to start the collection, it's got a serious punch. It gets 4.5*.

The Waking Dream by Fan Zhou moves the perception manipulation up a notch, and uses it to fuel the more-expected among Western readers bodily pains and restraints. Is any of this real? Or is there a deep disturbance in the psyche? Is the disturbance in the psyche causing victimhood, or perpetration?

A combination I wasn't expecting, and that didn't really land in either direction, so 4*

Immortal Beauty by Chu Xidao is remorselessly, grindingly physical...abuse is horrifying, though not horror in my personal taste. I felt this was more a report of awful events than a story.

Least successful to me. 3*

Those Who Walk at Night, Walk With Ghosts by She Cong Ge adds bugs to the psychoterror, and does so in a way I was genuinely dreading. The disability angle caused my horripilation to become visible from across the room.

Affecting, upsetting, dark, and just plain nasty. 4*

The Yin Yang Pot by Chuan Ge was more or less a take on "The Girl in the Rain"'s themes...I was still very, very unsettled by the physical restraint aspect, as I always will be, but the perception manipulation in this story was what Did. Me. In.

I want to rate it "zero stars, do not recommend", so that means it did a 4.5* job of creeping me out.

The Shanxiao by Goodnight, Xiaoqing gets my CW because animals are abused. Do what you want to adults, but never harm an animal.

Two stars, because there's some very memorable, lurid non-animal-harm imagery.

Have You Heard of Ancient Glory? by Zhou Dedong did its level best to make my axniety circuits fry. Adding to perception manipulation the scourges of addiction, deliberate and intentional triggering of CPTSD, and mental illness issues galore, gave me a jolt that caused me to put the book down for a week. But I could not stop thinking about it during that week. Read the story again, and *click* on came the light: I am in this same headspace—but I can leave it!

That is a giant success. It's the story I'd call the most successful at what horror fiction does. 5*

Records of Xiang Xi by Nanpai Sanshu was unpleasant on every axis: Animal abuse, use of slurs and a kind of contemptuous belittling attitude, a sense of horrifyingly real entitlement, that repulsed me without the cathartic benefit of other stories. A grudging 2*

The Ghost Wedding by Yimei Tangguo did all of that, and more...but did not project the nauseating sense of entitlement, of an absolute right to inflict these horrors, which in my mind made this story (while unpleasant to me) less inexcusable and intolerable.

Evil exists. We must look at it to poultice away some of its toxic power and its appalling fascination. 3* because it was absolutely no fun at all to read, but does something I value.

Night Climb by Chi Hui felt like a Crimean vacation after a Moscow blizzard! Atmospheric and eerie, dread in place of horror, and a slammin' command of imagery.

Never so glad to give something I finished in shivers 4* in my life.

Forbidden Rooms by Zhou Haohui places too much of its harms on children. It doesn't do so gratuitously, and this isn't The Focus like in earlier stories, but...well...ew. I was interested, not repelled, by the slurs used in this story...honestly, human inventiveness is marvelous even when used for scumbaggery. Because this story's ending is what it is, I felt able to get to 4*

Tian'nang by Su Min trads the territories above, and really stomps the floorboards with it...felt like a tale meant to push you outside its narrative to compel you to look, really look, at what you're reading as an entertainment, not merely a story.

I could totally be projecting with this and it has no bearing whatever to the author's intent. But that's how I found it, and it worked well on that level. 3.5*

Huangcun by Cai Jun leans into the slur-use...for my taste, this is just plain ol' abuse meant to disgust. This, plus a hafty dose of graphic violence, could've led to a poor rating. The trick, when selling horror stories to an ambivalent consumer like me, is to bring the goods...this does...but to offer a level of reflection on, or assessment of, the goods in a differently slanted frame.

It's down to the prose in this story. In less adept hands, this would've sent me on my way for good. As it is, 4*

The Death of Nala by Gu Shi is the last story, and would've been no matter what because the animal harm was just too much for me. 3*

All in all the seasoned horror-reader will get the desired chills and thrills from these stories, and from some unexpected directions. I'm always sure that my horror reading is bog-standard until I get a horror title to read! I'm a complete wuss...animals and kids should be left alone. You can talk hauntings and demons all nigh, won't bother me a whit because I don't care, but hurt a creature that can't fight back and I am very angry.

So why did I rate this collection so highly? Because I learned a lot about what scares the Sinophone world. Because I am, like most in that world, stirred into fear and rage by the same sorts of things.

Because Xueting Ni has annotated this collection, you can go learn a lot if you like. If you don't care to do that, you can get your scary-story needs (whatever they may be) met here unbothered. I think it's a fine emotional investment.

>227 karenmarie: Your sadistic victory over my wallet is thus celebrated. *hmmf*

Monday orisons.

>228 richardderus: Yikes! I think I can skip this one quite easily. Chicken! Yellow-belly! Etc.

Hope you enjoyed breakfast and are taking care of whatever else this day brings, Richard. Hope it's something good and interesting! *smooch*

>230 LizzieD: Hi Peggy! I suspect you'll like the next one a lot more than Sinophagia...that's waaay past your tolerances for awfulness. Midcentury modern-esque novels by and about men might not Do It For You, but they won't cause screaming meemies either.

Mostly just trying not to give in to the temptation to choke Old Stuff with the cord of his motherfuckin' TV. I hate that goddamned noise more than words can express.

210 Dream City: A Novel by Douglas Unger

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: In this unconventional tale of Las Vegas during the two delirious boom decades before the bust of the Great Recession, failed actor “C. D.” Reinhart, who has launched a new career in hotel marketing, is gradually losing his moral and existential compass. Working on The Strip during an era when Sin City’s population growth was outpacing any other place in America, C. D. climbs the industry ladder while modeling himself after a Pyramid Resorts top executive, Lance Sheperd. C. D.’s professional choices lead him down a tumultuous road, as Sheperd, a complex and, at times, visionary figure, pilots his ventures through the tangled wheeling and dealing of finance and corporate politics straight into catastrophe.

As the story progresses, C. D. comes to understand how his personal losses and the losses of his cohort of hard driving executives on the make—especially the tragic life of his work partner, Greta Olsson, the only woman to break through into their male dominated world—are a result of the make-believe environment he has helped to create, a world where representation replaces reality. Hoping to piece together his faltering marriage and family relationships, C. D. must find a new path as he struggles to hold onto his dreams.

In this fictionalized version of the city of glittering lights, author Douglas Unger pits the ideologies of marketing and consumerism in the casino economy of America against the erosion of individual and humane values that success in that world demands. Unger reveals the hard truth that Las Vegas, a blue-collar town considered by many to be “the most honest city,” can be a temple for self-deceptions, emblematic of a service economy that knows the price of everything and too often the value of little else. Dream City becomes both a love song and an elegy for Las Vegas that sets it apart from any other literary novel previously written about this global entertainment attraction that in so many ways represents postmodern America. Sooner or later, the challenge that faces everyone is to discover what matters most, and to learn how to bet on the better angels of our natures.

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

My Review: Deserts frighten me. I live in a beach town for a reason. My trips to Las Vegas weren't numerous, but are very memorable—for good and ill. Here's a story, then, that's set in a place I do not love or admire, featuring a man in Act Three of his life having failed at his other lives, and failing again.

Paging Updike and Cheever, your territory's being encroached.

And most effectively. Author Unger is working in a long tradition of male-centered stories, prioritizing an idea of success that capitalism likes to valorize and that relegates anything other than work to peripheral significance...only to flip the script and show the hollowness and lack of fulfillment and connection inherent in this cultutally approved rat race.

Critiques are most effective when they come from within. This detailed, almost obsessive, chronicling of one man's descent from the pinnacle he dreamed of reaching into the real-world uses of the talents he never had the luck to exploit to their fullest, is inside the house. The astonishing world of wealth is detailed, excess by excess, without a trace of overt judgment. Like the eternal anticapitalist novel Babbitt, it uses a steady unblinking gaze to do what polemics fail to do: Indict the system that rewards conformist capitulation with material comforts. The problem with this reward system is, and always has been, it is conditional. It can all be taken away from the recipient at any time, either through anonymous "market forces" or malevolent, targeted manipulations of law and economics.

In personalizing the details of one man, in one city, as he rises and falls, Author Unger joins the crew of midcentury modern men in quietly unpicking the system's built-in failures. He uses the main man's wife as a sort of moral Cassandra, constantly questioning—while continuing to enjoy—the fruits of his enviable rise from the ashes of ruined ambition. It's here that I lost a star. Women as Moral Centers, however compromised, irk the snot out of me. Like she condescended to hitch herself to this sad, lost little boy (who's given her a life of comfort) to Guide and Sustain him...gross. She's complicit, she's also culpable for not doing it her damnself. The trope of the little woman who stays home is really the relams of fantasy in this day and time. It's unusual enough that it's now fodder for highly-rated prurient TV shows about the wealthiest capitalists in the hypercapitalist world we exist in.

Why I recommend it to you is simple: Updike, Cheever, Sloan Wilson, and company are dreadfully old-fashioned. Their row still needs hoeing in the world we live in. Author Unger is uniquely placed to tell this generation about its golden calfs. Seen in this light even the repugnant gender politics are a sharp critique of the aspirations that Las Vegas, glittering gambling capital, represents.

Castles built in the air always fall. Gravity, it pays every one of us to foreground in our awareness, is a law that can not be repealed. Flouting it temporarily carries costs that accrue terrible interest surcharges.

Author Unger, without beating you up, reminds you of this.

211 Shrink: Story of a Fat Girl by Rachel M. Thomas

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: Derided by her high-school peers for being overweight, Rachel finally found a sense of purpose and belonging in a promising career as an EMT—that is, until her body got in the way.

Shrink is a work of graphic medicine that depicts the emotional and physical realities of inhabiting a large body in a world that is constantly warning about the medical and social dangers of being “too fat.” This smart and candid book challenges the idea that weight loss is the only path for a fat person and encourages the reader to question the prevailing cultural and medical discourse about fat bodies.

Seamlessly weaving the most current research on the fatness debate with her own experiences of living in a fat body, Thomas lays bare society’s obsession with size and advocates for each of us to push back on body weight bias and determine what’s right for our own health and well-being, both physical and mental.

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

My Review: I spent a lot of my life "fat" and had to endure much verbal abuse for it.






The struggles in this graphic memoir were all too familiar to me, and I do not mean the ones about dieting.

I mean the comments...whether well-intentioned or just meant to be slyly insulting in that un-call-out-able way so many passive-aggressive or simply unpleasant people enjoy so much...that freely pepper even the simplest conversations. I mean the looks of horror or disgust aimed one's way by strangers. I mean the earnest, ill-informed "advice" about eating from medical professionals, or goddesses please protect us from such malevolence, dietitians *shudder* with their irrelevant portion-control mantra.

I mean the perpetrators of The Whale. I mean you, every time you've said something off-handedly about how big a celebrity has gotten, and what a shame it is because they were so hot before. Or how funny it was that time Courteney Cox put on a fat suit to be young, fat, unattractive Monica on Friends.

Stop it. If you need a reason (other than not being a jerk), read Rachel's story. She lived it, and came out of the experience with a fine education, a clear eye, and an academic career about social issues like this. If a young giftee of yours, especially but not exclusively a girl of a vulnerable age, is struggling with weight as a social issue, this is a good resource to offer; not a gift, unless specifically requested, though.

Even if it's just a sensitization exercise for you, or another person in your young soul's ambit, it's a very worthwhile gift to share with them.

212 Bald by Tereza Čechová (illus. Štěpánka Jislová; tr. Martha Kuhlman with the author)

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: Tereza never thought she would go bald before her boyfriend did. She couldn’t imagine being unable to sweep her hair up in a ponytail or to style it in other ways. But when she lost all her hair in just a couple of months due to alopecia, her perspective on relationships and work—and above all, herself—radically changed.

Navigating the particular trauma of female hair loss, Tereza comes to terms with her new reality with humor and self-reflection in this prize-winning graphic memoir featuring eye-catching art by Štěpánka Jislová.

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

My Review: Generations ago, I knew a young woman from Puerto Rico who, during the year we were acquainted, steadily lost her hair to alopecia. It was the first time I'd every heard of the condition. As the weeks went by, I'd stop in the bodega and chat while buying the little thises and thatses one always needs but aren't important enough to trek to the biffer, cheaper store to get...plus it was a chance to catch up on the happenings.






Mostly to get an earful from my young friend about how the people in the neighborhood were horrible to her, accusing her of having ringworm, mange, and...given the time, this made some sense...AIDS. Those were mean and awful things to say. They made her angry.

What hurt her was her family calling her "pelón"..."hairy guy"...and laughing about it. I was appalled, but felt unable to do anything but be blandly comforting of tone, and listen to her. In the end, she bought a wig and got a new job, and we lost contact.

I will never, ever stop regretting I didn't say to her then what I say on a daily basis to my male-pattern baldness: "It's just hair."

It's only a big emotional deal because people around you make it one. Tereza takes us on a very, very pink-tinted trip with her as she learns the realities of hair loss from alopecia, which are interesring to me; what will mostly interest others, I suspect, is the shocking amount of emphasis placed by others on women's hair.

Want to radicalize your young feminist? Hand over this startling deep meditation on how effectively women are indoctrinated into their value being that of face. And hair. No ruse is more effective than drilling into a young woman that her role is to be beautiful, and woe betide her if she falls short. The stupidity of this offends me, but it should infuriate all of us.

I am 50+ posts behind, RD, and not even trying to catch up. I just wanted to swing by to give you ((hugs)) and **smooches**

‘Morning, RDear. Happy Tuesday.

>228 richardderus: Short stories and horror aren’t two of my favs, but I’ve added this to my wish list. You’re definitely a menace, in the best of ways.

*229 *smirk*

>232 richardderus: Your fear of deserts is more than my dislike of them, although I don’t mind driving through them or seeing photos of fun things in them. The only thing I like about Lost Wages is the Sin City series by Tricia Owens. Excellent review as always, pass as is frequent.

>233 richardderus: Having fought my weight for ~56 years and feeling the cultural and personal shame that’s gone with it, I’ll pass yet acknowledge that quite a few folks need to read it. My kidlet still wears clothes she was wearing 13 years ago in high school, and Hwan is short and slender.

>234 richardderus: Hwan has frequently shaved her head completely and the first picture I saw of her was with her head shaved. Now she’s got it longish, but the sides and back are buzzed. Not a medical issue. My sister and MiL lost their hair during cancer treatments and proudly wore wigs and/or scarves, but it wasn’t permanent, so not a medical issue either. You’re right about the societal ‘value’ of women’s hair.

*smooch*

>235 alcottacre: Hi Stasia. I shall endeavor not to feel rejected and ignored and unvalued by your eminently sensible, if also paradoxically insensitive, decision to prioritize convenience over kindness.

*strangled sob*

>236 karenmarie: Horrible dearest, you're as always a hugely athletic book-bullet-dodger, though an immense live-fire zone of same. hmm

The point of reading those graphic memoirs is really past for either of us. If we're unhealthily invested in looks at our ages, something more than a memoir will be needed to jolt us awake. We're more the gifters of these than the giftees.

*smooch*

Great reviews of >233 richardderus:, >234 richardderus:. I know 3 people who have alopecia, one of whom is a man and I have only ever known him bald (over 40 years now). One of his sisters has it as well but she wears a wig. Another friend lost her hair after surgery for tonsils back in her early 20s and it never grew back. I am not sure if this is truly alopecia or some other allergic reaction to the anesthesia but she too, wears a wig.

Both these books are important and I am glad that you have brought them to our attention. I will see if my library gets them.

>233 richardderus: I probably won’t get to this anytime soon, but it resonates with me for any number of reasons. Body image issues are rampant. My granddaughter, for example, has been raised by her mom to be accepting of herself (and others) and to know she’s loved just the way she is. Her mom doesn’t allow the word “fat” to be used nor does she talk about losing weight. One day out of nowhere she said she was fat. Where the hell did that come from? She’s only in kindergarten. Also, not that it matters, she’s skinny as a rail.

Good morning, Good Richard. You make good arguments for kindness and rationality. Therefore, I wish you a kind, rational day, giving and receiving both! *smooch*

213 So Cold! by John Coy (illus. Chris Park)

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: Embrace the cold with this engaging children's book about a father and son who practice science experiments using household objects outside on a snowy day!

When the temperature drops far below freezing, many people plan to stay warm and cozy inside. But when it’s “so cold” that everyday things behave in unusual ways, it is worth the effort to get outside and play! In this vibrantly illustrated children's story, a boy and his father dress in layer after layer before braving the cold, and the youngster declares: “Call me Freezeman!”

Together the two experiment: What happens when boiling water is flung into the air? Or when maple syrup is poured on clean snow? The night before they left a banana outside: now it’s frozen solid. Can they can use it like a hammer? A helium balloon that floats inside the house changes dramatically in the freezing air.

These and other discoveries await explorers bold enough to venture out on a bright and chilly day. Back inside at the end of the day, no wonder Freezeman declares: “so cold is so fun!” This playful narrative by John Coy celebrates curiosity and exploration, while Chris Park’s brilliant artwork illuminates a winter landscape that is anything but bleak. An author’s note explains the science behind the various experiments, leaving just one question: with all these amazing activities to undertake with your favorite adult when it’s “so cold,” why would anyone prefer to stay inside?

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

My Review: Cold! Glorious cold! Delicious, delightful absence of humidity, sweat, blasting battering sunshine that inescapably sears your skin in a human version of the Maillard Reaction. I'm pink like a pig, it's true, but I don't want to be treated like articulated chops! Heat rots, literally; cold preserves. You don't go to the stove to get last week's groceries...unless you're a fly larva, anyway.

So when your kidlet, nibling, or grand shows signs of hibernation to escape winter's gorgeous gift of escape from the horror that is heat, present them with this adorable little exploration of the reason for, and fun of, the cold.

>239 jessibud2: Hi Shelley! Given how many sufferers from alopecia there actually are, it seems to me beyond time for us to discuss it openly. This book helps that along, so I hope your library gets it.

I know I don't need to belabor the point, so *smooch* for a happy week-ahead's reads.

>240 Storeetllr: Your grand hears it on TV, in class, among her friends...it's inescapable. We stew in this messaging because its invalidation and reductiveness suit the PTB.

Keep fighting! *smooch*

>237 richardderus: Uh huh. *Drama queen* Lol

>241 LizzieD: That's a lovely wish, Peggy me lurve. I would fall over in a heap if it happened.

Stay well and happy (I won't say "delusional" because my Mama bring me up good)!

>245 alcottacre: Who, moi?

>234 richardderus: I'm so glad my female indoctrination didn't take. When I lost my hair to cancer, I discovered how good I looked completely bald. I also look pretty darn good with a buzz cut. My only concern was potential flak for not properly performing my assigned gender role.

As it happens I don't get social flak, partly because gendered appearance requirements have changed a lot in my life time, and partly because I can always play the C card, in the rare case where that explanation doesn't occur to the person who sees me.

As it happens, the C card is legitimate. Since chemotherapy, my hair refuses to grow much beyond a couple of inches, and at that length I closely resemble a mop.

But most importantly, I'm quite happy with my buzzed head. Gender role requirements be hanged!

>248 ArlieS: Some of us are resistant to conditioning. It's not always a blessing, but the older I get the more of one I feel it is. Chemo ransacks the body's resources, so it makes sense to people why you'd have no long luxuriant tresses...but of course they still feel entitled to an "explanation" and that does chap my cheeks a bit.

And I'm vibrating with jealous loathing that you have enough hair for it to form a mop. I get sunburned scalp if I don't wear headgear. *hmmf*

>234 richardderus: Definitely an issue that needs to be discussed. In the (rightly) outraged reaction to Will Smith's slap at the Oscars, Chris Rock's insensitive joke at Jada Pinkett Smith's expense seemed to be completely overlooked. It really bothered me.

Now, I do think that there's rather too much policing of comedians these days in the name of political correctness, but that joke was hurtful to a specific person. Chris Rock was wrong too.

>250 atozgrl: There was no part of that fracas that *was* right. And there's a lot of policing that does not need doing nowadays because there was so much policing that need doing and was not done in the past. We need the pendulum to swing, but it's at a very annoying moment just now.

>247 richardderus: LOL!

214 Dad, I Made You a Book by Miriam Hathaway (illus. Asahi Nagata)

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: There is no better way to brighten Dad's day than heartwarming words from their little one. Help a child tell their dad just how great he is with this fun fill-in-the-blanks book. Kids can open the pages to draw pictures, make lists, and check off boxes as they express their love for their papa. When complete, Dad will have a one-of-a-kind keepsake that captures their child's personality, creativity, and love.

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

My Review: I think this little keepsake is completely adorable. I have some reservations about teaching kids to write and/or draw in books, but honestly they're going to anyway so lean in on this one occasion. It's also very nice that the way it's presented means it could be used by queer parents, too...no presumption of an opposite-sex spouse.





Seems likely to me that SOMEone out there will use this as a jab at the ex, but that's on you, not the author and illustrator. Cheap'n'cheerful way to give Dad an ongoing hug from the six- or seven-year-old who will be a surly teen one day soon...and guaranteed it'll come long before you're ready...so stock him up on the good memories now.

215 Mom, I Made You a Book by Miriam Hathaway (tr. Asahi Nagata)

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: Mom makes every day special! Help a child tell her everything they love about her with the playful prompts in this fill-in-the-blanks book. Kids can open the pages and enjoy an afternoon of imagination—drawing pictures, selecting checkboxes, and making lists—all while celebrating everything they love about their mama. When complete, Mom will have a heartwarming keepsake that captures their little one's personality and appreciation.

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

My Review: An idea to put before your husband, wives. Or grandparents, give to your grand's mother...with the appropriate hand-holding, of course.





My, let's start the kids on gender stereotypes early, shall we? Its saving grace...making up a bit for the pinkness of it...for me was the playfulness of the idea. Let the kid say it with a little prompting. And, as above, entirely appropriate for queer couples or single moms.
note above

‘Morning, RDear. Happy Wednesday to you.

>238 richardderus: Being a hugely athletic book-bullet-dodger is the only way I’m naturally athletic. *smile*

>240 Storeetllr: Mary, I’m very sorry to hear that your granddaughter applied the word ‘fat’ to herself at the age of five.

>242 richardderus: Hmmm. My nephew/niece/great-niece live in the mountains and have already had snow. She’s only 2, though, so I just put it in my “Saved For Later” place in Amazon. Maybe for her birthday next year.

>253 richardderus:, >254 richardderus: Successful dodging.

*smooch*

>255 karenmarie: Wednesday orisons, sweetiedarling. Figures you'd choose *this* way to be an Olympic-class athlete....

I'm glad >242 richardderus: at least made it into the book-graze point...it's such an adorable little thing. I think you're spot-on with the timing. I hope you'll get the little something they'll really resonate with!

It's TRAGIC that Mary's grand is already entrapped in this craptastic paradigm.

216 Kaiju Unleashed: An Illustrated Guide to the World of Strange Beasts by Shawn Pryor

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Kaiju Unleashed offers a general introduction to the exciting film genre, serves as a guidebook to its film highlights, and celebrates its practitioners, trends, and stories.

Celebrate the world of movie monsters and beasts with Kaiju Unleashed, a complete reference guide to strange creatures in film and how they came to be.

Kaiju (Japanese for “strange creature”) is a film genre that emerged in Japan in the early ’50s. The movies center on giant monsters battling humans, machines, or other beasts. First popular in the ’50s and ’60s, this film category has stomped its way back into mainstream culture.

This comprehensive guide features:

A foreword by Jason Barr, author of The Kaiju Film and The Kaiju Connection

A thorough discussion of monster movies (Gamera; Rodan; Destroy All Monsters)

Insight into how kaiju has impacted international films (Ant-Man; Attack of the 50-Foot Woman; Jurassic Park)

Stunning movie posters and film stills, plus fan-made tributes to some of the kaiju classics (Godzilla; King Kong; Mothra; Pacific Rim)

If you are a kaiju fan or are interested in kaiju’s cultural influence worldwide, this display-worthy volume provides the perfect general introduction to the genre, reference to its film highlights, and celebration of its practitioners, trends, and stories.

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

My Review: Whatever you think of this film genre, you should at least admit it's got serious cultural staying power...seventy years and counting...and think of the millions of fans it's spawned who've gone on to make very successful careers out of this born-of-anxiety monster-laden universe in many fields. The author goes into manga, anime, and of course film, practitioners of all sorts of kaiju storytelling.

This heavy-on-the-graphics volume goes into the highlights of how, when, and to a limited extent, why the genre got its hooks into pop culture. The text is not the whole point; the illustrations and graphics are not the whole point; the gestalt is superior to any of its constituent elements.






It's never going to be obvious to non-fans (to which group I belong) why this genre appeals enough to be an organizing principle for one's life. It also doesn't matter a whit. Even if you can't reliably tell the difference between Godzilla and Rodan, you probably have someone close who can, does, and has dreams in kaiju-ese. Nibling, grand, or sibling...perish forbid, spouse...they'll love this celebratory festival of behind-the-scenes stories and images, faces to put with names the fan's heard before, and technical effects illustrations.




Never forget all the King Kong-verse films! They're kaiju, too.

You'll get really big points from your otaku giftee with this celebratory recounting of the development and impact of their doted-on genre. I predict a quiet hour or two as the flipping and dipping and kvelling start when the wrappings fall. Exactly the spirit of Jólabókaflóð/Booksgiving.

>256 richardderus: It is! And that my lovely HS student nearly ruined her health and eventually saw a therapist because she wasn't slender and that an acquaintance's daughter eventually starved herself to death. On the other hand, I blame parents and schools (well, specifically my school - more in a minute) for the epidemic of obesity that puts teens' health in danger now and down the road. I will simply say that looking through my senior HS yearbook, I see one girl - ONE - who was a little overweight. You can even see in our 80th birthday picture that while most of us have thickened waistlines, only a few are really overweight.
My high school put soft drink machines on every hall in order to get televisions in every classroom and a studio. We also watched a news broadcast with commercials for said soft drinks every morning. The final argument was, "A child with a drink bottle in hand will not go to sleep in class." It's a horror and a crying shame.

That's no place to leave you, Richard. Have a good day anyway! *smooch*

>258 LizzieD: Deals with the devil on both counts, Peggy. It's always a bad idea to do what a corporation wants you to do. It is NEVER EVER EVER in *your* best interest.

Amazing to think how much my mother's right-of-Birch politics influenced me. While I lived with her, I emulated them; after my Great Awakening in 1980, I steadily moved leftwards and am now on the verge of joining the Red Brigades and making bombs. The Nerd Reich and its constituent Aynholes are perfect recruiters for leftist causes if we can grab a megaphone from 'em.

>257 richardderus: Ooh, the Kaiju book looks like so much fun!

Karen O

>260 klobrien2: It really was, Karen O.! It's got plenty of history with its pretty pictures.
***

I'm so pissed at myself! I moved all my odd note files onto external storage from my different computers...and lost the goddamned 64 gig thing!!

It's got to be somewhere here, but idiot boy got a black one so whatever shadow it's within, it's effectively invisible. Lesson learned, always pay the extra buck or two and get the brightest, most obnoxious color they got.

MADDENING.

>261 richardderus: Oh, OUCH. I feel your pain. I aways get the drives with a loop on one end, and attach a pipe cleaner to them...makes it SO much harder to lose 'em. Hope it turns up.

>262 laytonwoman3rd: It can't hurt to try that, Linda3rd. If I ever find it I will try that. *grr*

BURGOINE #072

The Peculiar Garden of Harriet Hunt by Chelsea Iversen

Rating: 3* of five

The Publisher Says: A lush, enchanting story of a woman who must use the magic of the fantastical plants that adorn her crumbling estate in Victorian London to thwart the dark plots of the men around her...

Harriet Hunt is completely alone. Her father disappeared months ago, leaving her to wander the halls of Sunnyside house, dwelling on a past she'd rather keep buried. She doesn't often venture beyond her front gate, instead relishing the feel of dirt under her fingernails and of soft moss beneath her feet. Consequently, she's been deemed a little too peculiar for popular Victorian society. This solitary life suits her fine, though – because, in her garden, magic awaits.

Harriet's garden is special. It's a wild place full of twisting ivy, vibrant plums, and a quiet power that buzzes like bees. Caring for this place, and keeping it from running rampant through the streets of her London suburb, is Harriet's purpose.

When suspicion for her father's disappearance falls on her, she marries a seemingly charming man, the first to see past her peculiarities, in order to protect herself. It's soon clear, however, that her new husband might be worse than her father and that she's integral to a dark plot created by the men around her. To free herself and discover the truth, she must learn to channel the power of her strange, magical garden.

At once enchantingly mesmerizing and fiercely feminist, perfect for fans of The Magician's Daughter and The Once and Future Witches, the vibrant world-building and sinister undertones of The Peculiar Garden of Harriet Hunt make for the perfect modern fairytale about women taking control of their lives—with a little help from the magic within them.

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

My Review: The men around her startle me. They noticed this floating wraith of a girl (term used advisedly) at all. She wanders lonely as a cloud around her unhappy home until, at the bitter end of this slogging tale, she has blinding revelatory things occur to her.

Women not in charge of their own lives aren't a lot of fun to read about, however period-appropriate this reality might be. When events finally goad her into action, she *still* drifts! Pretty sentences do not make up for a vacuous passive heroine (Victorian sense heavily implied) to this old man reader. YMMV, and you might see this book's feminism, so three stars.

>261 richardderus: I hope you find it soon, RD!

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

>265 alcottacre: Thank you, smoochling!

Thursday smooches, Richard! I posted an update on my thread as far as Dave goes, and our new adopted puppy, Muffin ( she / her ) on my thread.

217 Scales & Scoundrels Definitive Edition Book 1: Where Dragons Wander by Sebastian Girner (illus. Galaad; letterer Jeff Powell)

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: This gorgeous, multicultural fantasy adventure follows treasure hunter, Luvander, as she searches for gold and glory. As she dives into an epic journey along with a young prince, his stern bodyguard, and a plucky young dwarf, our heroes will discover a secret that will bring light to a world encroached upon by an ancient darkness.

This is the story of a girl who liked to wander...

It's hard to make an honest living in a land brimming with magic and mystery, and treasure hunter Luvander is tired of being a penniless adventurer. Ever in search of gold and glory, she sets off for a fabled dungeon "the Dragon's Maw", an ancient labyrinth, at the bottom of which slumber endless wealth...or certain doom!

A loner by trade, Luvander is forced to team up with a team of scraggly adventurers, each hoping to find a treasure of their own in the forbidden tomb. There is Prince Aki, of the Scarlet Sands Empire, anxious for first taste of adventure yet blind to the consequences. His royal Shadow and bodyguard, Koro, whose very honor hangs in the balance of her prince's success. And Dorma Iron, a stocky young dwarf whose journey will take her deeper into the darkness than she ever wished to tread.

For these scruffy heroes, what starts out as a road to riches becomes the first step on an epic journey to destiny, for Luvander holds a secret in her heart that will shatter the chains of fate, and bring light to a world encroached upon by an ancient darkness.

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

My Review: Classic, high-fantasy story gender-flipped. It's still heteronormative, but a female who rescues a prince, and has a deep, dark Secret Identity...that's a mild breeze of fresh air in a genre I'm not wild about.

It has all the necessary Dungeons & Dragons elements for your gamer giftee, it's got artwork I sat and looked at even after I was done reading the simple story, and it sends a message I think we need a lot more of: males can be weak, and can need help and protection, without being worthless; females can be powerful protectors with hidden depths and leadership qualities. All of this wrapped in a pretty decently nuanced plot, with actual above-average character building that unfolds as the story progresses, made this a four-star read. It is, you'll note, the first of two books. Start here, and if gifting, definitely give both at the same time.

the dramatis personae

the action begins

drama!

specialness revealed

tension mounts

what's next?
I think this is a fair sampling of the illustration style. It takes you through the register changes in its use of overarching color pallette. It's got enough detail in the character design to make the faces legible to younger (11 and older, not my idea of suitable for the early chapter-book set) readers. It does not stint on action, nor ignore dialogue.

It's a solid series that I'm glad found a new home for ongoing adventures.

>267 vancouverdeb: Hiya Deborah! I'll go take a look here directly, but a new poopy suggests it's not all bad news.

218 Scales & Scoundrels Definitive Edition Book 2: The Festival of Life by Sebastian Girner (illus. Galaad; letterer Jeff Powell)

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Treasure hunter turned cursed Dragon princess, Luvander, has sworn to uncover a way to break the chains that bind her true form, even as she is hunted by the relentless Houndmaster. As the search for her true self takes ever more dangerous twists and turns, Luvander must reckon that no one, not even eternal dragons, can remain untouched by the ravages of power.

This is the story of a girl who liked to wander...

Following a tense standoff with her elders, Luvander sets off to find a way to break the chains of her cursed fate.

Undeterred by danger, she travels to the frozen northern wastes of the Spine of Winter, to a reclusive monastery whose monks guard a secret entrance to the Dragon Dream, the shared plane of consciousness of all Urden, living or long passed.
What she finds there will set her on a journey beyond where any mortals, and few dragons have tread, to uncover an ancient secret from the darkest corners of history. Continuing the epic journey of the cursed dragon princess and her fellow scoundrels in a world bent on undoing itself.

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

My Review: A change of publishers from the original was made so the same team could round off the main action of the story. It does exactly that.






It's a notable feature of the continuation that several side characters get deepened backstory. This really reads like a very well-run D&D campaign; the action genuinely makes a difference to story.

Any of your young woman giftees would probably resonate to this.

Sweet Thursday, Richard. Did I actually see several GNs being reviewed up there? Is everything okay, my friend? I also see a few 5 star reviews. That doesn't sound like my favorite curmudgeon. 😀

If anything, it looks like you are having a good time with the books. Enjoy. We are dealing with some frigid temps. Glad I am not delivering mail in it any more.

219 Death Comes For The Toymaker, Volume 1 by Dakota Brown (Illus. Ryan Cody)

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Death comes for us all. But for Gil the Toymaker, the visit is an eternal tragedy!

Every year the holiday gift giver visits children all over the world on a special night, but Gil’s immortality comes at a cost. Forced to do the work of Death, carrying a list of ready-to-harvest souls alongside his naughty and nice lists, Gil gives toys AND takes souls all in one night! But as the Toymaker reflects on the relationship he’s had with Death for several millennia, an associate reveals a scheme that may just put an end to Death’s contract (and, perhaps, Death himself!)

An epic twist on the traditional Christmas legend from writer Dakota Brown and artist Ryan Cody, for fans of original tales featuring familiar characters from mythology & folklore like Neil Gaiman’s American Gods or Bill Willingham’s Fables!

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

My Review: It's #Booksgiving, so I man up and look through publishers' options for gifting to the comics fans on all y'all's lists. I usually enjoy it about as much as dentistry...and I am *mortally*afraid* of the dentist...but am occasionally pleasantly surprised. Those are the ones y'all hear about.

Like this really interesting take on the Spirit of Giving that my mother sold me on after I figured out that Santa was Dad in a weird suit in 1965. It takes the idea of personified Death, which is one of the few things in the Pratchettverse I really like a lot, and applies it to the idea of ritualized gift-giving.

total Hogfather vibes, no?

I'm not sure I really *got* the art, in that it seemed to me to be more somber than really called for in the story itself.


There's something...elemental...that I resonated with in these panels, however, so in the end I landed on a solid, happy four-and-a-half stars for a story that gives new heft to a deeply commercial holiday.

Have a teen giftee who's got an anti-capitalist 'tude? A seriously Goth kid not into the whole "ho-ho-ho" and "holly-jolly christmas" b.s.? Here's them a story that agrees with their world-view. It might also excite them to get curious about ancient myths and legends, which can only be a good thing. It's one I would buy for myself, and only misses five stars because it feels like it left off but didn't end.

That being a feature not a bug in sequential-art storytelling, I record it purely as an explanation not a cavil.

>271 msf59: That you did, and more to come! See below.

I'm always trying to spread my reading wings and also offer perspectives to fans of the genre an outsider's view of their delight. It's rocky at times, but see >272 richardderus: for an example of what success looks like to me.

220 Lebanon Is Burning and Other Dispatches by various creators (listed below)

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: Voices from the Middle East on the fight for self-determination.

Essential reading for understanding current events through authoritative Middle East voices from the front lines.
Much of the present discourse about the pro-democracy Arab uprisings of 2011 paints a bleak picture of their defeat. But the truth is more complicated, and moments of struggle and inspiration still recur despite the overwhelming odds against the movements’ success.

This collection of short comics documents the political and social unrest in the Middle East during the 2010s in such places as Lebanon, Egypt, Yemen, Palestine, Sudan, and Bahrain. A collaboration between writer and journalist Yazan Al-Saadi and a lineup of stellar cartoonists from the region—including:

Tracy Chahwan,

Ganzeer,

Ghadi Ghosn,

Omar Khouri,

Sirène Moukheiber,

Hicham Rahma,

Enas Satir

This graphic reportage serves as a witness to an era of counterrevolutionary resurgence in which entrenched powers clashed with the people’s struggle for self-determination.

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

My Review: Precisely what I myownself needed to "get" the reasons the world is on fire again in what we in the US call the Middle East.






It's all in the gestalt between art, ideas, and words. The entire experience illuminated my frustrated sense of "what the hell happened to set this horror into motion again?"

Cheery little bagatelle it is not. A great way to offer your older teen or twentysomething giftee a handle on why the world is ablaze with rage...again...it very much is.

What a good guide you are, Richard! You make me want to hunt up a young person of the right age and give them these books. Since my gifts-to-strangers money is already out there, I guess I won't, but thank you.

*smooch*

>275 LizzieD: Thank you most kindly, Peggy me lurve! I'm doing my bit for the economy by promoting books, and for the gift-givers by giving ideas they might not've seen every-damn-where. As well as thinking of the harder-to-suss giftee, this is why I'm having fun at all in the busy season. Looks like I'll get through tomorrow with this thread, then start another...I'm moving up the age scale from here on in.

Good morning, Richard. You have had a terrific streak with a lot of 5 star reads! >233 richardderus: looks amazing and necessary. One I would recommend to middle grade readers is Starfish, which is a novel in verse. It is amazingly impactful. I ugly-cried throughout the book. What that poor girl experiences from the mouths of both strangers and loved ones is heartbreaking, and according to the author, she has personally heard every one of them. My students love this book.

WOW! That's a wide variety of good reads with some excellent reviews. Some of your reviews were a surprise to me (all those graphic novels). I know you have been expanding your recommendations, but that is a whole bunch of graphic novels to absorb in one sitting. You said you are OK but, with that many graphic novels on the thread - I wonder?

I also enjoyed the children's book reviews. I am glad to see a few of those as well. I firmly believe that people should give children more books for Christmas presents.

>277 AMQS: Morning, Anne! I'm really glad you're enjoying the change of pace. I guess I should look up Starfish, he sulked, despite this being my thread and you having the gall to come book-bullet me in my own space. *hmmf*

I'm pulling the best of my reads at this point in order to make them useful as gifting guides. Most people even here among the bookish aren't going to have time and access to root out some of the stuff I get. It pays to be "unemployed" and a blogger!

>278 benitastrnad: We're on the same page about kids getting books as gifts, Benita. I'm happy to sift through the offerings I get for some good ones...I still love Skeletitos and recommend it often...and this is prime time for gifting. I'll do what I can to raise awareness of some of the not-blockbustery stuff to spread the word wider.

The graphic novels are multiple-problem solving reviews. It has never taken me more than an hour to read one; I have oodles available on my review-copy resource; and I **LOST MY DAMN REVIEW NOTES** on the stupid storage drive. I get reviewing cred on Edelweiss; I get ideas for good gifts from good publishers; and I spend time in a Storytelling world I otherwise would keep ignoring.

Made of win. And more tomorrow, too!

Hiya, RDear! This morning was way too busy, but I’m home now, with a new dose of tramadol, and gonna visit a couple of threads before I go upstairs to read and doze.

>255 karenmarie: I’ve gotten the gold in BB dodging.

>257 richardderus: and etc. Not my jam, love the pics.

*smooch*

>281 karenmarie: I see that you're after the platinum in book-bullet dodging, too, wending your unbothered way through six reviews. *hmmf*

I'm delighted the Mohs surgery was so uneventful! *smooch*

221 The Art of Fantasy: A Visual Sourcebook of All That is Unreal by S. Elizabeth

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: The Art of Fantasy is an inspiring curation of art for fans of myth, magic and the unreal – from gallery greats (the Surrealists and Symbolists) to artists working in the margins today.

This beautiful, fully illustrated book presents a compendium of artworks throughout history which have been inspired by myth, fantasy and the unreal.

Artists have explored imaginary worlds and fantastical creatures for centuries, expressing the unreal and impossible, the mystical and mythical, via the medium of paint.

But what draws them to the imaginary, the uncharted and the unknown? Is it merely an escape from reality? Or are they seeking a greater understanding of the human experience, or perhaps the very meaning of life itself? With myriad styles and methods of expression, what links artists through the ages? And how have these visual flights of fancy and imagination changed over the course of time?

The Art of Fantasy is a visual sourcebook of all that is fantastical – from fine art to illustration, and from surrealists and symbolists to the creatives working in undefined territories. While the artists in our history books (Blake, Goya, Dali, Magritte, Ernst) first brought fantasy art to the galleries, it was the twentieth century artists who brought it to the masses. It is in this book that, for the first time, they are united and equally weighted, presenting a mesmerising and thoughtful curation of the best fantasy artwork out there.

This is an inspiring collection for fans of myth, magic, fantasy and art history.

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

My Review: I grew up around art, and artists. The first Christmas gift I remember the moment of getting is one I'd seen in the bookstore (they were mostly in department stores in those days, this one was in Saks Fifth Avenue), loved and wanted very badly: The Bayeux tapestry: the story of the Norman Conquest, 1066 by Norman Denny.


I was, as this shows, an odd kid. My favorite kids' books were Dr. Seuss's deeply surreal weirdnesses. My father and I absolutely loved reading those together. Our house was decorated with original art, and my mother's bestie for almost my entire life was an artist whose work still adorns my walls.

In short, I'm exactly the buyer, if only tangentially the reader/viewer, this book has in its crosshairs. I knew the artists and most of the artworks in here. I got the point of it immediately on reading the first few paragraphs. It's a very good introductory compendium for the oddball world of surreal and fantasy art and artists. I'm also inclined to give this book as a gift to someone of, say, thirteen or so on up, who loves fantasy books, who draws a lot, and/or who is just discovering the immensity of our visual culture.





The best thing about this beautiful object as a gift is it elucidates the visual and intellectual culture of "fantasy" as a creative worldview without going all art-history blather. It's a book that reads like the good conversation one can have with an older loved one on a subject dear to their own heart.

As a gift, I think it is about perfect. As a self-gift, it *is* perfect, worth your treasure in trade for its beauty and wisdom.

222 Witchcraft: A Graphic History: Stories of wise women, healers and magic by Lindsay Squire

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: Discover the enchanting character and story of Biddy Early, the first known witch in herstory as she guides us on a magickal journey.

'Every witch uses her magic differently. I use mine to heal people, while others ...'
'What do the others do!? Are there many different types of witches!?'
'Oh yes! Many ...'

Join Lindsay, a young and curious 19th-century lady, as she meets Biddy Early, the famous 'wise woman of County Clare', and learns all about the magickal arts—from which plants can be used to make healing poultices and potions, to how people dealt with the social and political stigma of practicing witchcraft.

Biddy Early, who lived from 1798–1874 in Ireland, was by no means the first-ever witch, but she was the first to appear on the historical record. Before her, fears and superstitions surrounding practitioners of 'the nameless art' were too strong. It is said that Biddy took an apprenticeship with the 'good folk', sidhe or faeries, when she was very young, and it was from them that she learned her skill as a healer.

Never one to accept monetary payment for the help she offered, Biddy would often swap home-brewed alcohol for her services, which in turn, made her ramshackle cottage in Feakle a hub for the local community. When her little corner of the county drew the attention of the Catholic Church and the local authorities, things became very difficult for this unusual woman…

Encompassing self-empowerment, feminism, dealing with stigma, and eco-spirituality, as well as plant magic, traditions, and green wisdom, Witchcraft: A Graphic History is a fresh take on an endlessly fascinating subject.



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

My Review: I cannot imagine anyone reading one of my reviews really needs telling that magic is a way of understanding the world. It is appealing to younger folk because the evidence all around them shows up the manifest, and manifold, failures of their elders' way of comprehending the world.

The appeal of witchcraft to young women is, in my view, down to its offer of a power unshared by the majority (that works overtime to lock them out of possessing and using more conventional forms of power). As the parlous state of affairs in the modern world needs new and different viewpoints and uniquely nature-centered ideas to escape the dual traps of materialism and capitalism, this book suggests itself as a wonderful corrective.





I'm quite enamoured of the art. YMMV on that score, but I hope anyone reading this is already on board with the truth that seeing one's self and one's identity in the mirror of the past is deeply healing and invaluably enriching and validating.

As a #Booksgiving gift, I hope you'll agree that this is a worthy goal. As an object to possess, a book to put on the coffee table, this is a statement of your belief in, and faith offered to, a way of understanding the world through a woman's eyes. Positive gynergy emanates from this book in a glorious nimbus.

Trade some treasure and some time for this peace-spreading book.

223 What the Bees See: A Honeybee's Eye View of the World by Craig P. Burrows

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: Discover the magical world of the honeybee with this deluxe book, featuring 70 stunning images shot with ultraviolet technology.

A comprehensive look into the amazing science of bees, this book collects mesmerizing ultraviolet-induced visible fluorescence (UVIVF) photography of flowers and nature and offers fascinating research that explores every aspect of our relationship with honeybees. Learn about the history of beekeeping, current environmental impacts affecting bees, and the rise of bee products in medical and wellness spaces. As you travel through the world of bees, you'll discover a diverse range of flora showcased in a whole new light through the ultraviolet spectrum, from orchids and anemones to manuka and cactus blossoms. A gorgeous gift for environmentalists and photography fans alike, this in-depth book invites us to reimagine the world from a bee's point of view and better understand its importance to the future of all life on earth.

PHENOMENAL NATURE IMAGERY: Craig P. Burrows has been specializing in UVIVF photography for nearly a decade, and this book includes 70 incredible photos taken using this innovative technique. Burrow's luminescent images capture the magic of nature and showcase flowers glowing in otherworldly blues and teals, simulating how bees and other pollinators become attracted to the plants.

GET THE BUZZ ABOUT BEES: In addition to the incredible UV photography, this book features engaging illustrations and infographics, archival and historical images, and original interviews with over forty of the world’s leading experts on bees and bee products. Organized into three distinct sections on bee ecosystems, bee products and cultivation, and modern medical and wellness advances tied to bees, this in-depth book illuminates the extraordinary role the honeybee has played throughout history and will answer questions you didn’t even know you had.

SUSTAINABILITY GIFT BOOK: This deluxe photobook is a great gift for nature lovers, bee and beekeeping enthusiasts, and anyone who cares about environmental conservation and preservation. Add it to the shelf with books like the National Geographic Photo Ark series by Joel Sartore and DK's The Bee Book.

Perfect for:

Bee, insect, and bug enthusiasts

Nature lovers and environmental activists

Flower and nature photography lovers

People interested in learning about bee products used in medicine, wellness, and skincare

People interested in UVIVF technology and innovative photography techniques

Fans of nature documentaries like David Attenborough’s Life In Color series

Fans of Craig P. Burrows's research and photography

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

My Review: This is an absolutely amazing subject. We know we don't experience a lot of the world as it is, most wavelengths of light are invisible to us. The modern world has offered us so many ways to simulate the experience of perceiving the things we're missing that it's become almost routine to see some new image previously unimaginable.

The entire scientific world is agog, for example, over the infrared discoveries the James Webb Space Telescope is making with every data release. Miracles of discovery are taking place in astrophysics, in astronomy, that were inconceivable (that word means exactly what I think it means) a decade ago.

Now it's the Earthbound world's turn.










The author is a horticulturist, an artist, and a photographer who marries all his passions with a scientist's viewpoint. He's been published in National Geographic, so we know he's at the top of his field. His horticultural training, melded to his photographic career, led to the idea of this book.

I've selected some design-heavy pages to go with his absolutely stunning (to me, anyway) photos that marry UV perception to our ordinary perception. I hope it gives you an idea of just what a visual feast this book is. Stunning in the best possible way—I was a bit dizzy from looking at the blends of perception the author and publisher created and presented here.

The text is very much what I expected. The author speaks knowledgeably about the honeybee, its life and its function in nature. He carefully grounds the reader in the reality of the creature's ways and means before waxing lyrical about its very different perception that we call vision.

It is not a kids' book. It's what I'd encourage you to give to your budding biologist, your green-the-world young person, or the shutterbug giftee...the physicist, the gardener, the environmentalist...anyone who loves beautiful books....

It is a lovely thing to have on your coffee table, if you've been extra-good and Santa needs to reward you, too.

>285 richardderus: - I have heard about this one! And I hope my library will get a copy (I will request it!). It looks and sounds stunning! Great review, thanks!

‘Morning, RDear. Happy Friday to you.

More dodging of the BBs you’re throwing out there furiously.

>284 richardderus: I appreciate your explanation of the appeal of witchcraft to young women. It sounds true.

>285 richardderus: I’m pretty sure you gave me this BB. It’s been on my shelves since July, just waiting for the right nonfiction time.

*smooch*

>286 jessibud2: It is as stunning as my peek into it suggests, Shelley, and it's also very educational. The prose doesn't scintillate but it makes the images more meaningful to read why he chose to do this astonishing thing.

*smooch* and thank you!

>287 karenmarie: *sigh* Well, can't moan too hard when at least one of 'em landed on your shelves. *heavier sigh*

It's only logical to me that women came up with their own power structure, one exclusive to themselves. I'm pretty sure you're all in cahoots against men, so setting up a structure to use and to pass on plans for the Revolution makes sense.

Hurry it up, y'all.

*smooch*

The new thread is up!
https://www.librarything.com/topic/366293

>285 richardderus: I second this one, it is a beautiful book, with interesting information about bees. @klobrien2 was the one who turned me on to this book. I hope some more folks follow your recommendation.

>287 karenmarie: I might have been responsible for your BB, Karen. I read and reviewed the book in July.

>291 atozgrl: I'm sure, then, either you or Karen O. inspired me to get the book from Chronicle! TYVM to both!

>249 richardderus: Aww. Male pattern baldness, I presume?

>258 LizzieD: Grr. And a child having a sugar crash from the soft drink won't absorb any more in class than if they are falling asleep.

>259 richardderus: This, unfortunately!

I was looking for Richard’s thread and somehow ended up on someone’s obsession with graphic novels and other illustrated books! Like Tommy Cruise, I can’t handle the truth, and I’m heading over to Richard’s new thread asap.

>294 jnwelch: *chuckle* Little Tommy's no patch on a GNophile seeing a deep-dyed detractor praising the stories told in that format. Welcome to the weird new world!