richardderus's seventh 2025 thread

My afterlife.

Welcome to Year of the Wood Snake.

Reviews 1, 2, 3 are here.
Reviews 4 through 17 are here.
Reviews 18 to 24 are here.
Reviews 025 up to 033 are here.
Reviews 034 through 044 are back there..
Reviews 045 to 059 are here.

THIS THREAD'S REVIEWS
060 Yes to life : in spite of everything in post #15.
061 Open, Heaven : A Novel in post #70.
062 One Death at a Time in post #90.
063 A line you have traced in post #101.
064 Another fine mess : a novel in post #114.
065 The Rebel Romanov : Julie of Saxe-coburg, the Empress Russia Never Had in post #185.
066 The Mystery of Julia Episcopa: A Novel of Ancient and Modern Rome (The Vatican Chronicles Book 1) in post #231.
067 The Anonymous Scribe: An Unputdownable Historical Mystery (The Vatican Chronicles Book 2) in post #232.
068 Silent Mistresses: A Gripping Vatican Conspiracy Thriller (The Vatican Chronicles Book 3) in post #234.
069 WHEN THE TIDES HELD THE MOON in post #261.
070 The man who wrote the perfect novel : John Williams, Stoner, and the writing life in post #273.
071 Stoner in post #274.
072 Launching LBJ : how a Kennedy insider helped define Johnson's presidency in post #279.

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.
My Last Thread of 2024 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.

All previous Pearl Rule reviews linked here.

THIS THREAD'S PEARL RULE REVIEWS:
#009 Notes from Africa : a musical journey with Youssou N'Dour in post #205.
#010 On trend : the business of forecasting the future (34%) in post #209.

All previous Burgoine reviews linked here.

THIS THREAD:
#022 Women's Hotel in post #195.
#023 Lost in Thought in post #196.
#024 To Catch a Spy in post #200.
#025 The snares : a novel in post #202.
#026 The Imperial Mode of Living: Everyday Life and the Ecological Crisis of Capitalism in post #215.

Seriously...not a great venue for normies here.
My 2024 goals are here, for reference.

2025 GOALS
I wrote an unprecedented 413 reviews in 2024, though certainly not all those books were read in 2024! I'm not counting books read, but reviews written. Decades of pilf from the review aggregators never got a real review written, just some notes on my computer. This year I went back to all my old computers and vacuumed notes onto a data stick. It's my purpose now to write at least a Burgoine review from those notes, post it here and on the DRC aggregator's site, and that will be my annual count.

For those who think I should follow the "books read in 2025" model, that's very interesting, and thank you for sharing your judgment with me. I will, however, be using the site the way I want to not how you think I should.

Numerical goals aren't really the point for me. I've shown I can meet or exceed them often enough now to think they're just unnecessary, and a little show-offy, for me. I will focus my efforts on getting my unwritten-review count down, and on focusing my efforts on reviewing #ReadingIsResistance titles.
☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂
1Q25 was a suckass time to be alive. The Felonious Yam and Muskolini came out swingin' and enshittified a lot of lives. It was a time of terrible stress and serious immiseration, and I myownself could not possibly hate it more.

I wrote eighty-three reviews of all types. Two reads stood out in excellence: Rio Muerto and The Case of Cem. Several were bad, but only one made me angry because it was so effing lazy: Conclave, whose movie actually won an Oscar!!! The apotheosis of blah, bland thinking and writing in both media, and directing of a film.
2Q25
3Q25
4Q25

See >5 richardderus: for 2024 achievements & 2025 goals.
Monthly (and special hashtag events) wrap-up posts are linked below.
JANUARY 2025 here.
FEBRUARY 2025 here.
MARCH 2025 here.

GBBO and other special hashtaggie projects will be linked here.
Season 15's comments linked here.

#PRIDE MONTH #1 I Leave It Up to You in post #129.
#2 Flux in post #134.
#3 Separate Rooms in post #165.
#4 Everything Is Fine Here: A Novel in post #186.
#5 The Fantasies of Future Things in post #220.

Right, I'm done now. Your go.

Happy new one!

>5 richardderus: I think I qualify as not being exactly a normie, RD.

Salutations on your latest thread, dear fellow.

Happy New Thread!

Happy new thread, Richard!

ETA: I forgot to mention how much I love your topper. It's perfect!

AhHA! You may not believe this, but I could have written that cartoon in your topper - except it's St. Peter who says, "You get back down there and read every word of every one of those books you bought, and then we'll talk about your reward." (That's a good reward.)

Rejoice for a new thread! Be healthy and read a lot!!! *smooch*

Happy new thread, Richard. >1 richardderus: I can relate to your afterlife!

060 Yes to life : in spite of everything by Viktor E. Frankl (tr. Joelle Young), intro. Daniel Goleman, afterword Franz Vesely)

Beacon Press brings us the Holocaust survivor's 1946 lecture in English for the first time...words and concepts I'd very much prefer to continued doomscrolling.

>9 figsfromthistle: Morning, Anita! It's Spring, but still early, so have a twiggy crown:

>10 PaulCranswick: Normie? You?! *gales of laughter* No, you're safe from Them here.

>11 SilverWolf28: Thanks, Silver!

>12 atozgrl: I'm glad you agree, I'd be worried about you otherwise, Irene.

>13 LizzieD: "Oh please don't throw me into the briar patch, St. Pete!" says the crafty retired teacher. You'd pull it off, too.

>14 Familyhistorian: Tom Gauld understands what the Afterlife *should* be, indeed.

‘Morning, Fleecy Innocent Lambkin. I’ll allow your delusion to continue…

Happy Friday and new thread, too.

>1 richardderus: Gauld got that one right.

>15 richardderus: They are shorter stems, less fully grown and un-espaliered on his carefully developed walls of philosophy; they're certainly grown on the same rootstock, however. That's how this gem arose to my grateful eyes: "Our perspective on life's events—what we make of them—matters as much or more than what actually befalls us. 'Fate' is what happens to us beyond our control. But we each are responsible for how we relate to those events." Oh my, you silver-tongued devil. Onto the wish list...

*smooch*

Happy new thread, RD!

>15 richardderus: Man, you got me good with Yes to Life! Going off to find a copy…

Happy weekend, Richard!

Karen O

Waving a New Thread How-De-Do

>15 richardderus:- Happy new thread, Richard. I read the original Frankl book eons ago and actually have this one on my shelf, as well. He is indeed an inspiration. Just last week I saw an exhibit at the museum, about Auschwitz. Posted a bit on my thread.

YES TO LIFE!!!! That's the very stuff, and thank you for the affirmation today.

*smooch* to my FIL - unless you'd prefer WBL (Wooly Baa Lamb)

Happy new one, Richard!

>1 richardderus: 😂

>22 karenmarie: Afternoon, sweetiedarling. Happy Friggs' Day, and thanks! I'm very pleased you're positively impressed by >15 richardderus:, it's a very very inspiring read indeed.

>1 richardderus: is so...well...All of us, I guess, but certainly me!

>23 katiekrug: Thank you, Katie!

>24 klobrien2: Oooo I'm so pleased Karen O.! It's a read you'll resonate sympathetically with. Weekend orisons, dear lady!

>25 magicians_nephew: Howdy, Jim!

>26 jessibud2: Hi Shelley, thanks! Auschwitz deniers are the people I have the most trouble not insulting loudly, which does nothing to change their minds.

Get >15 richardderus: off the shelf and refresh yourself in this awful spiritually parched time.

>27 LizzieD: I think WBL is more my speed, no?

*smooch*

>28 drneutron: Thanks, Jim, enjoy the Gauldish joy!

Happy new thread, Richard-the-posting-machine.

Happy new thread, Richard-the-posting-machine.

>36 ArlieS: Hi Arlie! Funny how the threads mount up when I feel like I'm slacking off.

Yeah. Though I really did *not* mean to double post. (The computer was acting up. And I haven't knowingly "upgraded" anything recently.)

>39 ArlieS: I've taken to shutting my laptop All the way off every other day when I go get my dinner. It's had a pronounced positive effect on its performance.

Happy Saturday, Richard. Happy New Thread. I hope you have a nice, pain-free weekend. I am meeting my birding buddies this AM. Things are finally warming up. 'About time, bud.

>15 richardderus: Thank you for that review!!! I read it a couple of years ago and it’s been sitting on my tbreread list for a while now. An incredible book! I‘m considering finally taking the step and visiting some camps this and next year, might start with Dachau in June.

And a belated thank you for the purple Rothko in your last thread. I just skimmed through it, but of course it caught my eye.

‘Morning, RDear! Happy Saturday.

>33 richardderus: You absolutely cannot change their minds. You can’t interact with crazies and expect rational and intelligent conversation and them seeing the light. This also, of course, applies to the chaos demon, his minions, and Muskolini.

*smooch*

Well, it's Saturday. It's rainy and just cold enough to be unpleasant. This is my coping mechanism:

I'll go out later to get some supplies I want to have on hand for the rest of this Jewish holiday weekend.

Stay dry and warm and read only good books. (Like this is every not the best way to spend a winter/spring weekend.)

>41 msf59: Hi Birddude! I hope you're about to see some shock-awe lifer on the bird watch. I'm not likely to enjoy our April showers too much!

>42 Deern: Morning, Nathalie! I'm glad I triggered a good memory of the read of >15 richardderus:. Visiting the camps...well...you're braver than I am! Stay well!

>43 karenmarie: Saturday orisons, Horrible. The only way to survive this awful passage is to make the efforts I know how to make, do it the best I can each time, and accept that it might never make a difference at all. Even if it does, I might never know it...and that has to be the foundation of what I do.

Well, why should now be different?

xo

I made it to a thread while it's relatively new. Smooches for you, as always, and wishes for a break in the rain when you do your outing.

>48 MickyFine: Thanks, Micky...I'm awaiting the predicted lull before I put on shoes.
***

There's never Enough for these people.

Greed ≠ Good.

I love Gauldish humor.

Good noon, Good Richard, you WBL you! *smooch*

(>47 richardderus: Please add to the list the knowledge that you've added another drop of sanity that may eventually become enough of that commodity to make a difference. You may call me Polly-Anna.)

>50 richardderus: I'm surprised you didn't find a way to obscure the third option in the last panel....

How do, RD? I've been mostly absent too long. Thumbs up for that Frankl book.

>51 LizzieD: Good after, PollyannaPeggy me lurve. We never know which drop is the one that changes even one experience/mind. We're always best advised to keep droppin' because of that. The world will never change the way one wants it to the moment one wishes for it, but that is always true and always was.

>53 weird_O: Greetings, Bill! Happy to see you whenever you care to visit.

Happy new thread, Richard! I can relate to the comic in >1 richardderus: and also enjoy Gauld's humor in >50 richardderus:.

>42 Deern:, >46 richardderus:- I visited the Dauchau camp during the year I lived in Germany. I remember it being a very cold and rainy day when we visited which felt 100% appropriate. I knew I would never get back there and I felt an obligation to make that visit once. I have done my duty.

>56 bell7: Hi Mary, thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying the doses of Gauldish humor.

>57 jessibud2: It's a duty not to forget so I agree. I'm not sure going there will ever be possible to me, given my health.

>44 richardderus: Perfect, Richard! Sunday *smooch*

I'm a bit late to the party. Happy new one Rdear. What a perfect topper, love it.
I wish you a lovely Sunday. *smooch*

Happy new thread Richard.

>1 richardderus: >50 richardderus: Gauld is obviously one of us.

>60 vancouverdeb: Ain't that a great image, Deborah? I'm shocked it's the first time I've ever seen it. *smooch*

>61 Ameise1: Sunday orisons, Barbara! Happy to see you here no matter when.

Sunday *smooch*

>62 humouress: I'm morally sure he's one of us, as in a 75er, though he might not know it yet. Thanks!

'Morning, RDear! Happy Sunday to you.

Low-level guilt for not finishing The Good Lord Bird in time for book club today, but only low level.

We had a power failure and thus were on generator for 5.5 hours last night. So spoiled...

*smooch*

>66 karenmarie: Lucky that you had the generator to fall back on. I'm very glad you felt guilt...it means you're still socially engaged, unlike me.

*smooch*

>67 richardderus: Hmmmm. I must not know what social engagement means.

Best of the day to you, WBL (you can tell me when you get tired of this; I doubt that I will)! *smooch*

>68 LizzieD: Wooly-Baa-Lamb responds with a bleat.
***

I desire, on a daily basis, to revoke some peoples' gravity rights. Starting at the top.

061 Open, Heaven : A Novel by Seán Hewitt

This is poet Seán Hewitt's debut coming-of-age novel, sad and beautiful as they are at their best, out tomorrow from Knopf:

Happy Monday, Richard. Back to my mini-grind. Another mild but windy day here. The Sue/ Jackson reunion went well but as usual it took Jack awhile to warm up but then he was off and running.

>71 msf59: Heya Birddude. It's a good thing that Jackson keeps himself a little apart, waiting to see what's what. He's not likely to be lured away by strangers, is he. Have a solid miniweek!

>15 richardderus: Adding that one to the BlackHole. I have read Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning - it has been years though - and did not realize that he had written anything else. Thank you for the review and recommendation, Richard.

>50 richardderus: I love Gauldish humor. As do I!

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

>73 alcottacre: I think it's one of the best books ever when one's looking for moral guidance, and only moreso when his attackers are factored into the equation.

Thanks, Stasia! *smooch*

‘Morning, RDear. Happy Monday to you.

>70 richardderus: I’m currently reading a smut-version of the gay teenagers in love trope, although it’s stepbrothers, one of my most favored tropes. I love finding out how the families react. There is some lyrical writing by Ellis James in what I'm reading, too, but it's much more plot driven, obviously.

Scary, you smiling and vowing to read more poetry, even though you got over it. And, finally, Things that hurt, that warped me in the moment, that felt like having my skin ripped off and salted vinegar poured on the wounds, are visible now in a gentler light, more importantly a context that makes them Meaningful Developments towards adulthood. Excellent – and applies to this cis het female, too.

*smooch*

>75 karenmarie: Hi Horrible! I'm sure you'd like >70 richardderus: but you're not going to want to buy full-price. Library borrow is best, until sale prices arrive. If I'm correct, that ought to be soon because they'll want to push him onto the bestseller list. I'm crossing my crossables for it to be sure.

*smooch*

>70 richardderus: Lovely writing from you too, WBL. As Karen says, the experience is universal whatever the orientation - at least for the lucky ones of us.

*smooch*

>77 LizzieD: I hope so, anyway...but it's all in service of making others aware of the book's main gift–its beautiful words wrapping up those familiar thoughts.

Luck is really down to what we do with what we're given. Good luck is the ability to utilize the crap the universe flings down on our heads. We're lucky because we figured that out.

Spring's springing.

Poppies (1886) by John Singer Sargent
Glorious, no?

>79 richardderus: Very nice!

>69 richardderus: Ha! *snork* I should hang that poster up in my office ;) Somehow I think HR wouldn't approve.

Hope you have a wonderful Tuesday

>80 figsfromthistle: Thanks, Anita! I hope your Tuesday is a good'un too. I'm always amazed at Sargent's use of color. No matter what he's painting, his color palette is breathtaking.

Yeah, a poster of >69 richardderus: would cause HR no little alarm, and result in at least one training day. It is the world we live in.

‘Morning, RDear! Happy Tuesday to you.

>79 richardderus: Absolutely gorgeous.

Off to fondle books and eat at Virlie's in a bit.

*smooch*

Happy New Thread, WBL!

>1 richardderus:. What good news about our unread books. And I’ll hope to have my library card continue working like his.

We’re out to sea in Twist, nearing cable fix time.

Do you have a favorite poet? Or is that like asking if you have a favorite kind of garbage. I think mine continues to be old man Yeats, who wins over the prisoners in How to Read a Book. You spoke knowingly of Monica wood a ways back. Do you have one of hers you’d recommend?

Good review of Yes to Life. I read Man’s search for Meaning so many eons ago that I don’t remember much. I’m impressed that you do. That quote,
“‘Fate' is what happens to us beyond our control. But we each are responsible for how we relate to those events” struck me as Buddhist; we can learn to do better at how we relate to those events. Yes, like others, I’m tempted to read it.

Have a good week, compadre.

>82 karenmarie: Morning, Horrible! I'm not convinced it's actually Tuesday. It feels like 1930 out there. Have a good book-fondling session and, as always, a yummy time at Virlie's.

>83 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe. I hope you'll pick up some good tips from Frankl. He's a major underutilized resource in mental-health maintenance. Buddhist or not, good thinking is always a plus to good living.

Reading Monica Wood...start with Ernie's Ark, the story collection. Then Any Bitter Thing and/or My Only Story...each novel is very good indeed. She doesn't tell sloppy stories. Happy week-ahead's reads!

>79 richardderus: Lush! Lush! Lush! Four minutes to noon, so Good Morning, my WBL. Enjoy the rest of your day.

(I'm looking at Books of Jacob as though I need another 900+ page book. I'm sure that I need one, but I'm not sure that it's this one. Any advice?)

>86 LizzieD: Baaa! *smooch*

My advice is: "Don't." Instead read Primeval and Other Times, as it's 1/3 the length, translated by a better translator, about a magical village with SF tinges, and far, far cooler.

Thank you, Richard. I won't do *Prime* mostly because it's way over $10 used on Amazon, and *Jacob* is on Kindle for $6. I won't get it either though because I just realized that O. Tokarczuk wrote *Drive/Bones*, which was lately a daily deal that I put on my Kindle for a pittance. THAT is what I'll read (first). *smooch*

>88 LizzieD: Tokarczuk's book is a strange fish but oddly compelling (I'm talking about the shorter one), Peggy.

Have to agree with you, RD, on the benefits of reading Frankl.

062 One Death at a Time by Abbi Waxman

ONE DEATH AT A TIME is fun and often enough funny...about alcoholism, fame, and growing up, so nothing too ambitious. Berkeley Books and bestseller Waxman lead you and leave you breathless on a chase to answer entertaining questions.

Happy Wednesday, Richard. I hope your week is going well. I caught a similar bug that Sue had but I am hoping for a much shorter version. I have Jack tomorrow, after all. 🤞🤞

>88 LizzieD: Oh good, the Bones book will make an adequate intro because it, too, is translated by Antonia What's-it. *smooch*

>89 PaulCranswick: Bones of the Dead is indeed weird and verges on wonderful. Frankl's example, if nothing else, is well-worth emulating!

>91 msf59: ICKPTUI on that crud! I really hope you'll get over it faster than poor Sue. That was a siege. I'll cross my crossables for a good resolution fast.

>90 richardderus: I had missed that Waxman has a new one coming out, and I like what I've read by her before. Putting a hold on this one.

Wednesday *smooch*

>95 bell7: Oh yay, Mary! I haven't read her other work but, if this is typical, would definitely say yes if they offer another. Wednesday *smooch*

‘Morning, RD. Happy Wednesday to you.

>84 richardderus: I fondled books, acquired a good'un and ate brekkie – two eggs OM w/hashed browns, and, weirdly, unsweet tea. I wasn’t in the mood for hot tea and I never drink Virlie’s coffee – tastes like hot colored water to me. I brought home a piece of coconut cake, which I split into two servings, both for myself and both eaten yesterday.

>90 richardderus: Sounds like fun except for the alcohol bits, given that my mother, Bill’s mother, and Bill’s father were all alcoholics… I can't even read smut about alcoholics/recovering/dry alcoholics.

*smooch*

>97 karenmarie: Morning, sweetiedarling. DO NOT READ >90 richardderus:. It would just do your head in for no gain whatever.

Glad you had a good fondle! I'll look at what you got later on. I'd love to be able to have some poached eggs. It's been ages.

*smooch*

Why can't my computer look like this? A wireless keyboard and a separate screen all done in marquetry.

I've liked every Waxman I've read. This newest sounds like a bit of a departure from her usual stuff, but I'll give it a whirl at some point...

063 A line you have traced by Roisin Dunnett

A lesbian-led Cloud Atlas riposte, only done truly well unlike the model...

>100 katiekrug: It's got a lot of witty banter so there's fun to be had, Katie.

>101 richardderus: FINE I'll add that one... *sighs in ginormous TBR list*

My latest read, despite its five stars from me, is decidedly NOT for you, btw. Perhaps the next one will be. Thursday *smooch*

>103 bell7: *baaawww* There there, patpat It won't hurt much, it's just a bundle of pages...plus it's really fun to read! Them and All! Look, I gave it 4* with Them in it! Be awe-struck that this happened.

I'll close my eyes as I read your thread.

...wait...

‘Morning, RDear! Happy Thursday to you.

>99 richardderus: Couldn’t find a keyboard with marquetry, but how about this steampunk one?



>101 richardderus: I was already thinking to add this to the wish list because of the you-know-what names and rare time when the ppf gag is retreaded with queer text, when you wrote this: Turns out adding lesbians, just like in life, fixes most things. That sealed the deal, because of course I’ve got my own dear lesbian daughter and her wife.

*smooch*

This is how you Lose the Time War was such a terrific book.

>105 karenmarie: Cute keyboard!

I think >101 richardderus: will give you an entrée to the world of time-travel and SF novels. Plus, of course, better information about the young women of your life.

Tomorrow's review's more likely to amuse and entertain on its face...or so I think. *smooch*

>106 magicians_nephew: That's the consensus opinion, for sure.

A Rothko from 1950 that speaks to me in this "managing angry responses to outrage" passage in time.

I have always found Rothko interesting although I don't pretend/claim to understand him at all. Perhaps you can add to my understanding. >109 richardderus: looks like an expression of anger to me...would love to have you expand on how it helps you manage (I understand completely the anger/outrage ... just read the Times and I'm full of it right now.

>101 richardderus: On the list it goes, and even if it didn't sound intriguing from your review, I'd add it, just because of CATS. There I said it, go purell your eyes from even reading the word. LOL.

>110 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, for me the outrage-chrome yellow that grades and changes from more to less intense as it goes upwards, and as it surrounds the intense deep blue I associate with centering and calmness, fails to penetrate the centered area. It's contained by a darkening blue/black transition area that reads to me as the blue erupting into the angry yellow. It's pushing aside the loud passionate color and creating a very very dark irregular edge to keep them separate.

That's my vision of it anyway.

>111 mahsdad: *ew*ew*ew* UNCLEAN UNCLEAN UNCLEAN my eyes are polluted!

064 Another fine mess : a novel by Lindy Ryan

This is the Bless Your Heart series, book 2, and is the kind of fun supernatural urban fantasy storytelling I miss seeing more of:

'Morning, RDear! Happy Friday to you.

>114 richardderus: Fun and gore are in my wheelhouse. I added it to my wish list, but then thought to check my Library and Lo! Behold! It's at another branch and I requested it. It should be transferred and on the shelf for me when I go to book sort next Tuesday. We loved Buffy The Vampire Slayer. We passed on True Blood, but I loved and adored the Sookie Stackhouse series. I also liked the Anita Blake: Vampire Slayer series until I didn't.

*smooch*

>115 karenmarie: Morning, Horrible! I'm glad you're gettin' on board with >114 richardderus:. Maybe ask about #1 (Bless Your Heart), too. I'd like to know what happened that these two ladies are the only survivors....

Whyever pass on True Blood? It was some very good storytelling. Plus naked Skarsgard. Most, most scenic. Ryan Kwanten wasn't hard on the eyes, either. I'm spending my reading weekend on Pride Month books, and my reviewing weekend on some Burgoines I liked but that *just* failed to get their own dedicated blog pages. Twelve years I've been at it! 1700+ pages, more than 2000 reviews. I really ought to index them. The idea makes me want to watch YouTube, though. Utterly intimidating.

*sigh* Stay well, sweetiedarling, and enjoy the respite that is spring.

>114 richardderus: I have a request in for the first Lindy Ryan—the Bless Your Heart. Looks like fun!

Wishing you a lovely weekend!

Karen O

Love >1 richardderus: >50 richardderus: Gauld too RD.

And the poppies >29 richardderus:

Happy holidays.

>117 klobrien2: Oh cool, Karen O.! I'll look forward to reading your thoughts about it.

Weekend orisons, my dear lady.

>118 Caroline_McElwee: Happy Friday, Caro. I'm sure Gauldishness is inbred in bookish Brits. *envious sigh* At least I get to see his stuff in The Guardian regularly.

Those poppies are some of my favorite florals. I'm not the biggest fancier of florals but those by Sargent are often exceptions to my indifference because he portrays them in a way that heels kinetically active to my eye.

>90 richardderus: I have had The Bookish Life of Nina Hill in the BlackHole for a while now. I really need to get it read! Adding that one to the BlackHole too. Thanks for the review and recommendation, Richard.

>99 richardderus: I would like to know the same!

>101 richardderus: Adding that one to the BlackHole too.

>114 richardderus: That one sounds fun! I will have to track down book number 1 first though. . .

>101 richardderus: Absolutely got me! Onto the wish list it goes. The other two can wait, but I'll have an eye out. Believe me, I know "Bless your heart," inside and out.

>109 richardderus: I confess that I find that one scary. That intense blue and yellow are too much for me. *smooch* for the day anyway.

>121 alcottacre: Friday orisons, Stasia...you're on track to set some sort of Hawking-defying record on your TBR singularity!

If we can get the tech bros to see how much money and goodwill their machines could generate, maybe. Prolly not, tho.

>122 LizzieD: I'd guess you do know "Bless your heart" as well as it's possible to know it, Peggy. My lifetime-plus of hearing it guarantees you'll know the "...and your horse, too" from the "try not to be so stupid" and the "were you raised in a sty?" versions.

That one's super ultra vivid. That's why I love it, but I can totally see not feelin' the connection to it. *smooch*

>114 richardderus: - You lost me at "supernatural urban fantasy" :) But I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Springtime greetings! Going to be in the 80s tomorrow?!?!? Ptooey.

>125 katiekrug: 80s?!? What a difference 40mi makes! Our predicted high is 67° and that's only a wee bit warm...maybe 5° over usual.

I'm a little sad you're not adventuring into Lindy's camp at least once. She's got really good banter and the supernaturalism is not bog-standard rote repeats. Still, waste no eyeblinks in opposition to your spirit's demands.

I'll join your ptooeying at the 80s and petition the weather goddess for you to receive a reprieve. She can send the extra 20° collect to the white house.

>123 richardderus: Yeah, probably not. *sigh*

>127 alcottacre: *sigh*
xo

PRIDE MONTH #1

I Leave It Up to You by Jinwoo Chong

Don't read it while you're hungry! There's so much to like, admire, and enjoy in this sophomore effort at #QUILTBAG noveling. Excellent #PrideMonth investment.

>124 richardderus: Oh yeah, except here it's "....and the horse you rode in on."

‘Morning, RDear! Happy Saturday to you.

>116 richardderus: To answer your question about passing on True Blood, having read as many of the books as had come out when the series started, I was excited to start season 1. However, as occasionally happens with me, the actors who portrayed certain characters did not align with my imagining of them. Specifically, Stephen Moyer as Bill and Alexander Skarsgård as Eric Northman just didn’t cut it for me. Even naked Skarsgård. The respite that is spring is not respiting here. Right now it's ugly early summer. Yesterday was 79F and today is supposed to be 84F. Blech.

>129 richardderus: Interesting premise, Korean-Americans, and queerness. Added to the wish list.

*smooch*

>130 LizzieD: That's the phrase I was looking for and not finding, Peggy! The filing elf failed in her job. Her dismissal will be swift and her end condign.

>131 karenmarie: Really? Interesting! I'm in the camp that saw Eric as Skarsgard before the casting was announced. Stephen Moyer would never have made my casting couchcall either, though he did a creditable job with the role. Did he go on to do other things? I never cared to find out.

No further respites? That stinks! It'll get to 70-something here by the sea, up more than 5° from yesterday's forecast so about 10° above usual and customary mid-April temps. Blech.

Onward. It's only the world coming to an end, nothing to get upset about.

PRIDE MONTH #2

Flux by Jinwoo Chong

It's a hard-to-believe-it's-a-debut novel about identity, grief, and Otherness from Melville House, those adventurous souls seeking boundaries to push...like the author:

I'll hope that Amazon puts this one up as a Kindle deal, Richard. Meanwhile, I've put it on the old wish list! Cheers for your weekend and a *smooch*

>112 richardderus: Thanks Richard. That was very interesting and thought-provoking. I wish I could go to a Rothko exhibit with you.

Weekend smooches!

>135 LizzieD: Greetings, Peggy! I hope the publisher does put it on sale soon...if his second book gets goin' gangbusters, they might maybe would. Not seein' it yet...there's always hope, though.

Youthen up that wish list, miss lady ma'am, and we'll get you some new books for weak and shaking with ague TBR.

>136 RebaRelishesReading: I'm glad it was intersting, Reba. We should aim for a trip to the du Mesnil Museum's Rothko chapel. Except it's in Houston *shudder* and there's not enough money to get me to Houston.

>137 MickyFine: Micky! *smoochiesmoochsmooch*

>58 richardderus:, >59 richardderus: Well, I booked a ticket for a book presentation on June 17th in Munich, so I‘m planning the 18th or 19th for Dachau. It will be a strange week with the other more joyful things I‘m planning, a bit of an awareness journey.

The book presentation is for a new collection of Ralf Koenig‘s gaycomix and then there‘s the Munich comic book fair where he‘ll be present as well. Hoping to get some of his older books. It‘s all during pride month, so there might also be some manifestations. Btw the week after that there will be the first pride parade in catholicissimo South Tyrol. and I‘m planning to be there.

>101 richardderus: I quite liked Cloud Atlas, though it took me a while getting through it. I had way more fun with The Bone Clocks and the Halloween special I forgot the name of (have been thinking of the last chapter of TBC a lot lately, that dystopean future I’d always dismissed has come a lot closer). I‘ll get the sample of A Line You Have Traced, it sounds great!

>112 richardderus: Thank you :)

>129 richardderus: another BB!
>134 richardderus: hm, maybe another one?

Happy Sunday! :)

>141 Deern: You're going to have a weekend of serious emotional overload, it sounds like, though you certainly have prepared yourself for it. I hadn't heard "catholicissimo" before but talk about a perfect description! I hope the whole trip is crowned with success, Nathalie.

Being no fan of any of the David Mitchell books I've read, I'm just never going to *get* his work. Ralf König, though, he makes me laugh. "Greek Lessons" is hilarious! He is also a good role model, being exactly my age.

I'm pleased you got riddled with book-bullets this visit since they were very good books.

Happy Sunday, Richard. I just read a snippet in my NYT email about how America is growing more religious, (about 70 % believe in a higher power) and that people are returning to church but I am sure not seeing it or feeling it. I do find it interesting that people are looking for comfort somewhere but turning to something that is only dressed up in christian clothing is sad and disturbing to me. My right-wing evangelical side of the family keep drifting further and further away. They probably think I am far too gone to bother with. The Heathen Lib-tard Warbler!

>134 richardderus: This one sounds great. Checks a few of my boxes. On to the list it goes.

>143 msf59: I do not believe what the Times is saying. More religious? Ha. Religious people are appalled by the Felonious Yam and his administration of fascists. Then again, I explicitly exclude evangelicals from "religious people" and place them in the "mentally ill and dangerously stupid" category.

Enjoy >134 richardderus: when you get to it. I liked it, and am glad I read it.

It is puzzling and frustrating, Richard and their devotion to him has only deepened. I can't help thinking of what Jesus would make of all this.

‘Morning, RDear! Happy Sunday to you. For me, it’s Happy Candy Day. There are skittles, and Peeps (although they’re raw, not cured), and even chocolate or butterscotch chips.

>133 richardderus: No respite today, high of 86F. Third highest temp day on record for this area, apparently.

Onward indeed. The world is possibly coming to an end, although reading that Harvard pushed back AND they have a $54 billion endowment which makes the $2 billion in federal funding irrelevant, makes me happy. The push back helps other institutions although few of them have that amazing financial cushion.

>135 LizzieD: I’ve put this one into my Amazon shopping cart but haven’t pulled the plug.

*smooch*

>146 karenmarie: I have to ask, what are 'Peeps'? As far as I'm aware they're the noises baby birds make or people who come to visit you and I'm guessing that they're neither of these in your case.

>145 msf59: I have a deepening suspicion that these devoted MAGAts are the "crisis actors" the right wing looneys screamed about. Kind of like claques in the theater world. Too much is going wrong that affects these very people for me to buy the fact they're not compensated for performing strident support for what's hurting them and their families.

>146 karenmarie: *shudder* more for you, Horrible.

Awful weather indeed. It's 20° cooler here but it usually is so nothing new there. The planet's changes were clearly foreseen decades ago, but the thing that is dying is our civilization. The planet will change...again...but keep on keepin' on. We won't be around to see it, and our descendants will be hard pressed to feed themselves, still less do the kind of damage we've done. There's the good stuff happening, but there's lots we simply can't change anymore.

Oh well. We're not necessary for Things to Go On.

I don't think >134 richardderus: would do much for you, sweetiedarling.

>147 humouress: Read it and weep: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peeps

>145 msf59: Who was it who said

"When people get lost
they start building a cross"

>150 richardderus: Um ... thanks. Yum?

>151 magicians_nephew: Someone smart. It's easy to pin everything on religion.

>152 humouress: "Yum"? "Gag" or "retch" certainly, but "yum"? Nay nay nay!

Richard, I confess that I'm with you on the Peeps (sorry, Karen). I also resisted Cadbury eggs this year although I may yield if Aldi still has them the next time I visit. Otoh, I bought 2 little boxes of Moser-Roth chocolate truffle eggs.

Hereabouts, some lifelong friends worship 45/7 and claim Christ. They love the drama. *sob*

Hope you have things to enjoy today, my WBL.

>147 humouress: I had never heard of Peeps until I moved to the South, and one year someone was saying they liked Peeps, which was apparently a questionable thing. I sure never saw them in the Midwest. >150 richardderus: I'm surprised they've been around that long. I have occasionally had one but it didn't do much for me.

>155 LizzieD: I had a Cadbury egg one time and thought it was awful. Never again. That commercial they've been running where the kid is supposed to choose between the Cadbury egg and the Reese's egg (where she picks both) would be easy for me.

>155 LizzieD: Greetings, Peggy me lurve. Worshiping a human being...any human being...is so utterly antithetical to any xian teaching that I feel embarrassed for those deluded dupes. Their awakening will hurt something fierce and I am a bad enough person to relish the idea and to hope I get to witness it.

I bought one (1) Reese's peanut-butter egg. I like those. The peanut butter hides the nasty gaggy flavor of chocolate. and the rich, voluptuous mouthfeel stays unharmed. It was rapturous!

Tomorrow's review is a five-starrer. I loved the book. Who knows, maybe I'll bleat loud enough to get your attention two days in a row! First time for everything....

>156 atozgrl: It would take me .00025 attoseconds to choose between 'em, too. I'm not a chocolate eater and that cream goop does nothing to hide the taste I don't care for. Peeps aren't on my list because I detest marshmallow anything...a blaring dissonant blatt of SWEET with no nuance or respite.

I'm more than a little jealous that you'd never heard of peeps until adulthood, Irene. I regard it as another black mark against y'all's gawd that she strewed my path with so much revoltingness among sweets when I was innocent and curious. *shakes fist at the heavens*

>139 richardderus: I hear you!! (ditto re marshmallows)

>159 RebaRelishesReading: It's a gorgeous place, the Du Mesnil, but...Houston.

I'm glad we're of one mind re: marshmallows *shudder*

I used to love marshmallows - broiled on a stick over a campfire; bonus points if the outside ignited. They were also good used in my favorite no fail fudge recipe - though if you don't like chocolate, you wouldn't like that. But in their normally, blandly sweet form - I gag imagining eating them.

>161 ArlieS: I got really really really sick eating a s'more when I was six. It only took one and I was unswallowing for an hour and was miserable for the entire next day. Neither chocolate (never a favorite unless it was mint or peanut-butter infused, acceptable then) nor marshmallows as a taste survived the event.

Peeps, no thanks . I am not sure if I have ever eaten one. I am more of chocolate person than a candy person - in fact, very few candy sort of things that I like.

PRIDE MONTH #3
Separate Rooms by Pier Vittorio Tondelli (tr. Simon Pleasance)

Zando's translation of a classic Italian novel of grief and loss in the AIDS plague's early years, originally published in 1989.

Just a wave RD.

>165 richardderus: 5 stars, Italian author, Italian and German characters, this one calls me. Will be prioritized!

>163 vancouverdeb: Chocolate isn't candy...? hmm

I like hard candies just fine, just don't think to buy them. I prefer sugar delivered in baked goods, heavily larded (!) with fat.

>166 Caroline_McElwee: Cheers, Caro!

>167 Deern: I'd say you should read it in Italian, Nathalie. I know this is a very good translation but...well...it's still a copy.

‘Morning, RDear, and happy Monday to you.

>149 richardderus: We’re definitely past the stage of recovery of some/many things. We’re not necessary for Things To Go On, but I like thinking that my daughters will have a world with some quality in it after I’ve shuffled off this mortal coil AND that humans survive and thrive, regardless of how much it’s changed from what we had.

Apropos of disaster, here’s what I post on my threads in my first message:

From the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Doomsday Clock. This information was published on January 29th when the clock was set to 89 seconds before midnight, apocalypse. 89 seconds is the shortest time to apocalypse since the clock was created in 1945. Rather than try to quote parts or even the whole thing, I’m going to provide the link for those with the stomach to read it: Doomsday Clock 2025

>149 richardderus:, >150 richardderus:, >152 humouress: and >155 LizzieD: Okay, so they’re an acquired taste. Like Brie. *shudder*

>157 richardderus: I’m surprised that you bought a Reese’s PB Egg. I used to like them, but now really don’t want to waste my calories on them.

>161 ArlieS: The fudge recipe I use, from Mike Roy, has marshmallow crème in it. It definitely is no fail.

>165 richardderus: Stunning review, ripped open feelings and memories for you. Not today, but eventually, so it’s on the wish list.

*smooch*

Morning, Richard. Have a wonderful Monday. I am off to do my daily duties. The kids make me smile. That is a good thing, right?

>151 magicians_nephew: Very fitting, Jim.

>171 karenmarie: I'm so pleased you liked my review, Horrible! It might not be much fun for you to read. It's super-interior in its storytelling.

OOOO Brie...yumyumyum now you're talkin'! Especially baked in puff pastry and served with strong chutney! *dripdrool*

I like Reeseycups and their relatives fine, but only for that textural contrast that so perfectly mirrors the taste contrast between the chocolate and peanut butter.

Fudge...with...marshmallow...*shriek*

>172 msf59: Morning, Birddude! I'm glad to say it's a beauty here. Doing your duties still pleasantly grounding for you? I hope the kids keeping you smiling is a permanent thing.

I was brought up on Cadbury's Creme Eggs although I'm not sure I could eat one now. (Well I probably could, but I wouldn't go out and buy one.) But I'd never really come across toasted marshmallows until we had a trip to Canada one year and found some Canadians toasting marshmallows on a campfire, and they were kind enough to share. But we don't have Peeps here.

>175 SandDune: No Peeps! Like, not at all? Not even at Easter?! My namesake's uncle said it well...England really is a demi-Paradise.

>176 richardderus: But lots and lots of chocolate eggs!

>177 SandDune: I don't like 'em but they aren't an existential evil like Peeps and other marshmallow products are. And climate change is going to make chocolate unaffordable in less than a decade, so the problem will solve itself!

Hope you had a wonderful weekend, Richard. I have to admit i have not tried a peeps before. They look cute though.

>168 richardderus: Well, I think of chocolate and candy as two different things, RD. Candy is peeps, hard candy, pixie dust, Skittles, lollipops etc. I can see your point though. In Canada we would say " chocolate bars" , whereas I think in the US you would say Candy Bars. Maybe that is why we perceive them differently. The nasty gaggy taste of chocolate, Richard! Say it isn't so!

Hi RD! Happy Tuesday to you.

>173 richardderus: How about this – if we ever get marooned on a desert island together, you can have ALL the brie and I get all the chocolate. And Mike Roy fudge. The mouth feel of Brie… I can’t even go there. Ugh.

*smooch*

>179 figsfromthistle: Thank you, Anita! I'm not going to say it was wonderful, but it didn't stink.

Peeps *shudder* are marshmallow dyed neon shades. The reason to try them is, I suppose, the same reason Voltaire went to that orgy...and the result should be the same: "Once, a philosopher; twice, a pervert."

>180 vancouverdeb: I just do not like chocolate. It's got a taste that reminds me of the taste in my mouth I get before I unswallow. Once I figured that out I was really uninterested in eating it.

Interesting dichotomy between candy and chocolate, Deborah. I don't know that it's ever occurred to me, it's all just candy to me. Too sweet, too flat, not very interesting.

>181 karenmarie: I get it, Horrible, I think it's always going to be polarizing to serve people finely-rotted milk. I look at marshmallow the same way you do Brie: Who thought *that* was a good idea?

Yep, chocolate will not cause a rupture between us because I'll give it all to you. I'd like a Reeseyscup once or twice, but other than that, no. I used to know what white "chocolate" was but have forgotten, and never cared much for it either. Its best trick is not getting in the way of other flavors, while lending them some fatty goodness. Someone on GBBO introduced me to the concept of browned white chocolate, and it's pretty damn good.

Tuesday orisons, sweetiedarling!

065 The Rebel Romanov : Julie of Saxe-coburg, the Empress Russia Never Had by Helen Rappaport

Rating: 4* of five

A story not *quite* as advertised by its title, but an enjoyable read.

PRIDE MONTH #4

Everything Is Fine Here: A Novel by Iryn Tushabe is House of Anansi Press's latest Queer-canon entry published today. A debut novel of coming-of-age and coming out in queer-hostile Uganda, it can be hard to read.

>129 richardderus: I will have to check that one out. Thanks for the review and recommendation, Richard, although I have to say that I have never even heard of The Bear.

>134 richardderus: I can get hold of that one through Hoopla. Yay!

>165 richardderus: I know that my local library will never have that one, but I can always hope.

>185 richardderus: >186 richardderus: Adding both of those to the BlackHole. Your thread is increasingly dangerous to me!

((Hugs)) and **smooches** and hopes that you have a terrific Tuesday!

ETA: Well, I went to add the Helen Rappaport book to the BlackHole and discovered it was already there. I really must get my hands on a copy.

As you would probably suspect, Richard, I can't read the Tondelli right now, maybe ever. The other two are a bit less compelling, but I'll have all 3 in the back of my mind.

I love chocolate, but I could (and probably will have to) give it up before I could do without coffee.

You spoke of the unswallowing and chocolate having some of the same taste. I'm with those who prefer not to eat Hershey's chocolate because they process their milk in a way that creates butyric acid.... or at least they used to do that. I am a constant shopper at Aldi where Belgium and other European chocolate is on offer. I am also a lover of Brie though, when I can get it; I don't buy it for my DH's sake.

*smooch* over here too for your day, WBL.

>178 richardderus: Aw! One more thing for me to mourn. I love chocolate.

Of course my body no longer agrees, and there may be some connection with chocolate consumption and my GERD, not to mention a definite connection between sugar consumption and pre-diabetes, so it's already rationed for me.

>186 richardderus: I don't get it either, but it's definitely a thing - people disown their children all the time, or try so hard to get them to conform that the child runs away - either literally or by suicide.

I've a friend who suggests that her mother wanted dolls to play with, not children, and was upset whenever they didn't do whatever she found convenient. That's separate from must-act-effeminate (if female bodied); must marry (heterosexually) and breed, and other supposedly moral requirements.

Looking at it another way, I know some number of parents with (adult) children whose ability to care for themselves is significantly impaired, e.g. by inability (so far at least) to hold a job, let alone get advanced educational credentials. They are unhappy that their child is not managing adult functioning - not primarily out of resentment, but out of fear for that child's future, especially after the parents are dead.

In a "traditional" (sic) culture, not performing correct gender roles, religious conformity, etc. etc. is just as hazardous to those children's future.

Both sets of parents face the temptation to try too hard to "fix" their children, for their own future good. And some autistics manages to pretend to be normal enough to make a living, just as some queers manage to survive firmly installed in the closet. If only your child could be one of them .... maybe if you pushed just a little bit harder, even threatened to disown them.... after all, you don't generally share their internal experience - and if you do, well, *you* managed to conform sufficiently to have children yourself.

The whole thing's a tragedy, made much worse when the parents are enough behind the times not to realize that whatever type of conformity isn't necessary for anyone to survive, or even to thrive. And maybe it wasn't even necessary when their own parents imposed the same behavioral model on them.

>187 alcottacre: *eville chortle* Finally...I get a true bead on Stasia's TBR stack! My compact with Satan bears fruit. ...or was I the fruit...the details are hazy at this distance in time...

xo

>188 LizzieD: Peggy, much as you've shared, I can honestly say reading >165 richardderus: isn't going to do much for you. Beautiful as it is, there are so many other beautiful stories that await you for this one to be necessary to read. You already know it's a sad truth that grief must be borne in the heart and the world does very very little to help the grieving soul. Go get some life-affirming loveliness, leave this one aside.

Oh! Butyric acid...I get it. But the flavor in my mouth from Callebaut is the same as from Hershey's. So, I guess it's conditioning?

>189 ArlieS: Mourn, or grab what Horrible doesn't get to first?

>190 ArlieS: Fixing people is an invidious illusion of control. Parents can and should guide their kids to the thoughts and beliefs they want the kids to espouse and internalize. That's the job. If the kid makes different choices, well...you accept what you can and politely ignore the rest. Rejecting your child for being an addict, a murderer, or a Republican makes some kind of awful sense to me. Over being their authentic sexual self does not.

But I'm not, as has been pointed out to me often in the past 65 years, normal.

BURGOINE #022

Women's Hotel by Daniel M. Lavery

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: From the New York Times bestselling author and advice columnist, a poignant and funny debut novel about the residents of a women’s hotel in 1960s New York City.

The Beidermeier might be several rungs lower on the ladder than the real-life Barbizon, but its residents manage to occupy one another nonetheless. There’s Katherine, the first-floor manager, lightly cynical and more than lightly suggestible. There’s Lucianne, a workshy party girl caught between the love of comfort and an instinctive bridling at convention, Kitty the sponger, Ruth the failed hairdresser, and Pauline the typesetter. And there’s Stephen, the daytime elevator operator and part-time Cooper Union student.

The residents give up breakfast, juggle competing jobs at rival presses, abandon their children, get laid off from the telephone company, attempt to retrain as stenographers, all with the shared awareness that their days as an institution are numbered, and they’d better make the most of it while it lasts.

As trenchant as the novels of Dawn Powell and Rona Jaffe and as immersive as The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Lessons in Chemistry, Women’s Hotel is a modern classic—and it is very, very funny.

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

My Review: Comparing this pleasant entertainment to the extraordinary, outstanding The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel let alone the Olympian heights of Dawn Powell's New York novels verges on lèse-majesté. I was very entertained, never made to think, and left with little impression of the characters after the read. The olden-days New Yorkness was dusted on lightly, but agreeably.

Splendid for use as a line-standing or repair-waiting read because you'll pick it right back up the minute you crack it open.

Offered for $12.99 as an ebook by HarperVia, I'm of the "use your library" school on this one.

BURGOINE #023

Lost in Thought by Deborah Serra

Rating: 3* of five

The Publisher Says: "Not everything is meant to know, Ilana. Some things need their mystery to survive."

Ilana has an enviable job at the opera house, a committed relationship, and a cozy Greenwich Village apartment, but the questions inside of her are growing insistent. Is it due to her scientist boyfriend's research on how people make their decisions, or is she suffering suppressed grief from the death of her adoptive mother? She becomes curious about who she would be if she'd grown up in her birth home. Is she truly who she thinks she is? Has she ever freely chosen anything at all? When Ilana learns that her birth mom owns a pub upstate, well, what harm could there be in furtively dropping by for a drink? To see, just to see. What begins as curiosity about her choices evolves into a traumatic shift in her world. She loses control of her life. And then, chaos.

Lost in Thought is a novel about unconscious decision-making and the illusion of free will.

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

My Review: Philosophical maunderings wrapped around a handy plot the author found lying around. Neither the plot nor the maunderings did much for me. Then again, they wouldn't...I've been in therapy of some sort since before the author was walking on her own.

Quite a few people will light up like streetlights at dusk when they cotton on to the larger point she's making. James Redfield made boatloads of cash on the same highway, and with far less accomplished prose. I hope Author Serra does, too.

Happy Wednesday, Richard. Raining here so I will be playing PB indoors. I took today off work, so I will be running out to get the camper, afterwards. Lots of prep work before I head out early tomorrow afternoon. The weather looks nice for the weekend. I hope your week is going well.

Mark Rothko, No. 6 (Yellow, White, Blue Over Yellow on Gray)
Since it has a title (of sorts) it's from before 1960. This colorfield work makes me *feel* the way Easter candy makes sugarholics feel.

>197 msf59: It's another beautiful day, Birddude. I'm excited for you, gettin' on the road again! Have fun. I'm still using my ever-increasing supply of outrage and terror to fuel productive review-writing...this coming Sunday is my gang review of stuff I wasn't crazy about. Lots to do there.

BURGOINE #024

To Catch a Spy by Mark Oneill

Rating: 3* of five

The Publisher Says: "A worthy sequel to the classic." — Harlan Coben

Estate approved sequel to the novel To Catch a Thief by David Dodge and 1955 Academy Award-winning film by Alfred Hitchcock
It's been a year since John Robie, notorious Riviera jewel thief, proved his innocence by catching a copycat burglar. And it's been a year since John has seen Francie Stevens, the adventurous socialite who not only saw through his disguise, but helped him catch the copycat. Now Francie is returning to the Riviera for its first-ever Fashion Week as a model for a top French designer, and John plans on rekindling their romance. But there's a problem. While helping a friend, John chases down a mysterious courier, whose ruthless associates now want John dead. To make matters worse, when Francie arrives, she has a boyfriend in tow, and tells John that she wants nothing to do with him.

John has to figure out why he's a hunted man, and why Francie is acting suspiciously. Digging deeper, he discovers a spy ring with evil intent. As John works unofficially to gather evidence, a question begins to haunt him—could Francie Stevens be a spy? With his enemies closing in, John turns to his cat burglar skills to try to save his life and expose the traitors. To survive, he has to catch the spies before they catch—and kill—a retired thief!

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

My Review: Remember To Catch a Thief? It was based on a novel I haven't read so I can't comment on. This novel is a take on the same basic plot, and tries its best to make the same cool, smooth, stylish impression.

It's good to aim high. You're not likely to get too terribly close to the target. This book passed some time pleasantly. It's not up to Alfred Hitchock's film's sheer lush gorgeousness. But what is?

Hi RDear. Happy Wednesday to you.

>185 richardderus: Huh. Sounds good from the description although I am not interested, even with your 4*. However, as you put it, there are quite a few flaws with the book, the person, and the backdrop of history she’s presented in.

>186 richardderus: Just the first paragraph of The Publisher Says makes it a hard pass for me. I have enough to worry about with my daughters probably not being able to return to Korea for decades, much a book about queer women in Uganda.

>193 richardderus: Wait a minute… the island has now opened up to our 75ers? ALL 75ers? I have to share my chocolate? My red grapes? My pepperjack cheese? My homemade German Chocolate Cake? And etc.? Even with people I dearly love, that’s a shock and I may have to be a bit selfish.

>195 richardderus: …little impression of the characters after the read. And there you have it. Hard pass. I can barely remember some of the men I’m currently reading vis-à-vis smut.

>196 richardderus: Just reading the description made me say ‘I sooo don’t care…’

>200 richardderus: All I can think is that the estate must be wanting some money. Pass.

I’ve successfully avoid wish list AND BBs, so consider this a winning day for me book-wise.

*smooch*

BURGOINE #025

The snares : a novel by Rav Grewal-Kök

Rating: 2.5* of five

The Publisher Says: A Punjabi American lawyer at a mysterious new federal intelligence agency fights to keep his career, marriage, and morality intact in this gripping post-9/11 drama from a thrilling new voice.

“Are you happy where you are? Toiling in the trenches of the Justice Department?”

In the waning months of George W. Bush’s presidency, Neel Chima, a former Naval officer and federal prosecutor, is recruited to join a new federal intelligence agency—one with greater-than-usual powers and fewer-than-usual restrictions. Neel soon finds himself intimately involved in the surveillance of domestic terrorism suspects and the selection of foreigners for drone assassination—men who often look just like his Sikh family members. As both his ambitions and moral qualms mount, he is drawn further and further away from his wife and two young daughters. When he makes a critical mistake at work, he is left vulnerable to shadowy figures in the intelligence world who seek to use him in their own, still more radical counterterrorism missions. If he agrees, the world of power will open up even wider to him. If he doesn’t . . .

Is Neel an insider or an outsider? The hunter or the hunted? An idealist or a mercenary? What truths, and whose lives, is he willing to sacrifice? The novel plunges readers into the human turmoil behind the faceless operations—the torture, secret assassinations, and drone strikes—of the American security state, creating an eye-opening meditation on morality, violence, and the price of a human soul.

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

My Review: Like reading the diary of someone you didn't know, feel sure must be dead now, but are pretty sure you wouldn't like. Watching this bad-tempered goon make an endless series of truly foolish decisions was painful.

The storytelling was a mess. I can't really say much that isn't carping and whining about this read, except that it tells a well-known historical event from a perspective it had never occurred to me I should think about.

Random House thinks $13.99 is a goer for their ebook. I disagree. Use the library if you feel drawn to the read.

>201 karenmarie: uh oh I sense a Lord-of-the-Flies scenario evolving

You were exceptionally agile today in dodging book-bullets! I am positive >202 richardderus: will be a hard pass for you as well. It's the EOM gang-review blast, though, so it was largely inevitable you wouldn't find too terribly many irresistibles among them. Some Pearl-Rules comin' up and those...well...forget 'em.

*smooch*

>185 richardderus: - I've read 2 other titles by Rappaport and she is a writer I enjoy. She does her homework and can tell a story well. Thanks for the heads-up on this one.

PEARL RULE #009

Notes from Africa : a musical journey with Youssou N'Dour by Jenny Cathcart

Rating: 3* of five

The Publisher Says: Notes from Africa traces the rise of popular music on the continent—beginning in the 1980s when the term ‘world music’ was coined as a marketing label and African musicians, notably Youssou N’Dour and his contemporaries, began to appear on the international stage. This book explains the musical styles that developed from the 1960s, when many African countries gained their independence. It covers developments in music and society in Senegal, in West Africa and around the continent during the post-independence years and right up to the present day.

Jenny Cathcart, drawing on her personal experience in Senegal and her work alongside Youssou N’Dour, offers stories and portraits of daily life in Africa. The results are fresh insights into contemporary culture, religion and politics—as well as future collaborations and developments not only on the continent but in the African diaspora too.

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

My Review: I admit defeat. I've tried and failed to finish this book for years. I care deeply about the history of West Africa, and moreso the "world music" that came from there, from the 1960s onward. But I can not get past Cathcart's breathless celebratory celebrity-loving tone. I was starting chapter 12...again...when a list of photographer Iain McKell's subjects stopped me cold...again.

It's the problem I've had every time I try to get into the book. I hit walls of names I don't care about, I strike descriptions of fashionable things I never knew existed. It's a thing that, on film as it was when this was released as a documentary, I would've seen, subliminally noted, and never thought about again. I'm sad about it but Tempus is Fugiting ever faster.

Unbound Digital lists the trade paper edition for $16.95. I'm not cool enough to care.

>204 jessibud2: Cheers, Shelley! Glad I could scout for you.

>191 richardderus: Ha!

>195 richardderus: Definitely one for which I will use my local library or Hoopla if either one of them even has it.

Only getting hit by BBs once today, lol. ((Hugs)) and **smooches** for today, RD!

>207 alcottacre: How do, Stasia. One measly stinkin' BB is a short trip to Miseryland for me. *snivel* I type my fingers to the bone and you waltz past All the goodies I produce like they're brummagem gauds on a pushcart! *chinwobble* Do you honestly think All this just...happens? No work or effort or thinking about how to deplete your wallet like the uranium in the Army's bullets?!

I'm not loved! *flounce*

PEARL RULE #010

On trend : the business of forecasting the future (34%) by Devon Powers

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Trends have become a commodity—an element of culture in their own right and the very currency of our cultural life. Consumer culture relies on a new class of professionals who explain trends, predict trends, and in profound ways even manufacture trends.

On Trend delves into one of the most powerful forces in global consumer culture. From forecasting to cool hunting to design thinking, the work done by trend professionals influences how we live, work, play, shop, and learn.

Devon Powers' provocative insights open up how the business of the future kindles exciting opportunity even as its practices raise questions about an economy increasingly built on nonstop disruption and innovation. Merging industry history with vivid portraits of today's trend visionaries, Powers reveals how trends took over, what it means for cultural change, and the price all of us pay to see—and live—the future.

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

My Review: As I began chapter four for the second time, I realized that I do not need this book's in-depth analysis and its erudite information sourcing. I'm an old man blogging about books to a few hundred loyal souls. I've done it for thirteen years and counting. I'm not likely to become "cool" at this late stage of the game.

Footnoted to a fare-thee-well and clearly in conversation with major figures in the marketing sphere, this is a framework for thinking through one's placement and one's purpose in marketing...whatver. I recommend it for seekers after that information. I vouch for its clarity of purpose and felicity of prose.

University of Illinois Press, one of the best academic outfits going, $9.99 for an ebook. If you're in need of a text to refine your ideas about how and why to make marketing choices, that's cheap!

>205 richardderus: I LOATHE lists in books. Most of the time they are the indulgence of a lazy writer. That's what I think.

>190 ArlieS: >194 richardderus: As though I know what I'm talking about..... The best advice I've ever seen to a father who wanted to change his son is this, and I can't remember who gave it. (Richard will know. Arlie too, most likely.) You change and become gay yourself. You can show him how easy it is *(and express your acceptance of him right now) at the same time. *(Added by Peggy)

>193 richardderus: >201 karenmarie: I thought the point of the island was that there would be enough to go around..... Hmmm. I came back to find the location of this marvelous place!

>195 richardderus: Could be wrong, but I think that this one was a Kindle deal not long ago. I hovered over it and resisted. I have quite a few (!) unread at this point.

>198 richardderus: I absolutely see this one! Thank you, WBL! If you "favorite," it shows up on a pale yellow field. Wow!

*smooch*

>198 richardderus: I'm currently reading a book by Hannelore Cayre in which Rothko's paintings play an important role for the protagonist.
Happy Wednesday. *smooch*

>210 LizzieD: Peggy! *smooch* I always saw the island more as the place we'd end up if The Raft of the Medusa was the alternative...and I will *not* stand between Horrible and the barrel of chocolate no way, no how!

I don't know who popularized that little thought experiment-cum-honesty test. It works and makes its point. Acceptance is probably more than most of those sorts have to offer. For most gay people silent tolerance is the best there'll be.

>195 richardderus: isn't worth stressing over. If it shows up for $1.99 or so, it'll be fine; if not *shrug*

>198 richardderus: just sings, doesn't it?

*Baaa*

>211 Ameise1: Oh, that's interesting! I'll be looking out for your thoughts, Barbara. Wednesday *smooch*

>213 richardderus: 🥳💖😘

BURGOINE #026

The Imperial Mode of Living: Everyday Life and the Ecological Crisis of Capitalism by Ulrich Brand & Markus Wissen

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Our Unsustainable Life: Why We Can't Have Everything We Want

With the concept of the Imperial Mode of Living, Brand and Wissen highlight the fact that capitalism implies uneven development as well as a constant and accelerating universalisation of a Western mode of production and living. The logic of liberal markets since the 19th Century, and especially since World War II, has been inscribed into everyday practices that are usually unconsciously reproduced. The authors show that they are a main driver of the ecological crisis and economic and political instability.

The Imperial Mode of Living implies that people's everyday practices, including individual and societal orientations, as well as identities, rely heavily on the unlimited appropriation of resources; a disproportionate claim on global and local ecosystems and sinks; and cheap labour from elsewhere. This availability of commodities is largely organised through the world market, backed by military force and/or the asymmetric relations of forces as they have been inscribed in international institutions. Moreover, the Imperial Mode of Living implies asymmetrical social relations along class, gender and race within the respective countries. Here too, it is driven by the capitalist accumulation imperative, growth-oriented state policies and status consumption. The concrete production conditions of commodities are rendered invisible in the places where the commodities are consumed. The imperialist world order is normalized through the mode of production and living.

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

My Review: Not a rigorous academic text, with in-line citations and dense argumentative paragraph-length sentences. I feel sure most of y'all just blew out held breaths of dread. It's not like an eat-your-spinach read. It's not soothing, either; it pulls nary a punch. It's written by committed leftists for those not far off their own beam.

Given where we are in the US it's a deeply helpful way to crystallize the "why"s of the creeping sense many of us have, or are getting, that wrongness in political action is not even close to the whole story. It's only possible to prepare for what you're aware of.

Verso Books, in keeping with their principles, asks you to chip in $9.99 for an ebook. If you're new to the idea that capitalism ≡ imperialism, this will catch you up.

>215 richardderus: That looks like something I would be interested in.

>216 SandDune: I strongly encourage you to get one, Rhian, and gift one to Jacob.

>217 richardderus: I don't need to gift anything to Jacob. Loads of our books just miraculously move themselves in his direction all on their own .....

>218 SandDune: Ah! The eternal phenomenon of property teleportation! Pervasive across cultures, I see.

PRIDE MONTH #5

The Fantasies of Future Things by Doug Jones is a lovely story of discovering your true self via Simon & Schuster. I hate that the 1996 Olympics as a setting makes this historical fiction.

>220 richardderus: - I'll keep my eye out for this one. As always, a great review!

>221 katiekrug: Why, thank you, Katie! I think this story's unpretentious intensity will appeal to you. Such excellent sentences!

‘Morning, RDear! Happy Thursday to you.

>205 richardderus: The description by the publisher almost put me to sleep, and I’ve already had one cup of coffee.

>209 richardderus: I'm an old man blogging about books to a few hundred loyal souls. I'm glad I’m one of those loyal souls, although I read them here and not on your blog.

>212 richardderus: Glad you’ve got the volume/quantity of chocolate required accurate. I’ll also give you barrels of your preferred treats. If you like salted caramel, then I'll give you shiploads.

>215 richardderus: My eyeblinks are saved. I already know enough about their premises to not want to use them in pursuit of confirmation of the sinking ship we’re on here on planet earth.

>220 richardderus: I must just be cranky this morning, because this one should appeal to me and doesn’t. I have added it to my wish list simply because I probably should.

*smooch* from your own Horrible

>223 karenmarie: You might be a tad on the crankier side...for excellent reason!...this morning, Horrible, but your instincts are sound. I don't know how hard I'd push you towards >220 richardderus:, TBH, as I think its Earnestness might pall on you sooner rather than later. More of an airy wave in its direction than a hearty shove.

Thursday *smooch*

>220 richardderus: That sounds powerful, Richard!! I really don't need to add to Mt. TBR but I loved your last sentence and I'm sold.

>225 RebaRelishesReading: I'm so pleased to know you're willing to go there, Reba. Enjoy the trip, and make sure you've got tissues to hand.

‘Morning, RDear! Happy Friday to you.

>224 richardderus: I love it that you know me so well.

*smooch*

I have been enjoying the Rothko's you've been posting this year RD. I must get over to Tate Modern sometime and look at the ones they have again.

>227 karenmarie: Morning, Horrible! All's I do is read your reviews and pay attention to what you say. Is that so weird?

Friday orisons! *smooch*

>228 Caroline_McElwee: Hi Caro! I'm glad you're enjoying the Rothko appreciation I've been posting. I really resonate with his work. It's great to get others to look at him, and color-field artwork, afresh.

066 The Mystery of Julia Episcopa: A Novel of Ancient and Modern Rome (The Vatican Chronicles Book 1) by John I. Rigoli & Diane Cummings

067 The Anonymous Scribe: An Unputdownable Historical Mystery (The Vatican Chronicles Book 2) by John I. Rigoli & Diane Cummings

Good morning, Richard! You certainly have me with at least the first of the Vatican Chronicles. I see that I can afford it for Kindle, but I'll wait while I try to finish another thing or two. I wish you a happy Friday leading into a fine weekend! *smooch*

068 Silent Mistresses: A Gripping Vatican Conspiracy Thriller (The Vatican Chronicles Book 3) by John I. Rigoli Diane Cummings & Lisa Cerasoli

>233 LizzieD: Morning, Peggy me lurve...it's on Kindle Unlimited, if that helps. My Friday is positively sunstruck. The downside is it will touch 70°. Ickptui!

Happy weekend-ahead's reads. *smooch*

>208 richardderus: Uh huh. I will flounce right back at you: I am too old to read books that are Pearl Ruled or given less than 4 stars (for the most part) these days. *Flounce*

>220 richardderus: Man, do I feel old. Adding that one to the BlackHole in spite of that though.

>231 richardderus: Adding that one to the BlackHole too.

>236 alcottacre: Wow, if YOU feel old, just imagine how I feel! >220 richardderus: is worth it, though. I think >231 richardderus: is a good fit for you. Fascinating!

>231 richardderus: “Julia Episcopa” looks pretty interesting. I think we can say you hit me with a BB. Thanks!

Have a great weekend!

Karen O

>238 klobrien2: Absolutely corking! Nothing could be more ooja-cum-spiff! (Sorry, I was reading some Wodehouse when I decided to check in here. He's infectious.) Enjoy >231 richardderus: when its turn at the top of the pile comes.

Weekend orisons, dear lady.

It pays to remember this when speaking to THEM.

Just de lurking to say hi and wish you a splendid weekend!

It's weekend smooches time. Wishing you sunshine, cool breezes, and good books.

‘Morning, RDear! Happy Saturday.

>231 richardderus: I wonder if I'll ever get tired of Vatican-skulduggery stories. I hope not. Archaeology plus ancient history equaling a black eye for one of the greatest forces for evil ever devised by man...christianity as a whole is what I mean...in a present hag-ridden by its rotting zombie corpse never palls. Tell us what you really think. I have borrowed it via Kindle Unlimited.

>240 richardderus: He got that one right. Thanks for posting.

I'm glad to have only escaped with one BB - and glad that it is Kindle Unlimited.

*smooch*

>241 figsfromthistle: Hi Anita! Glad to see you here!

>242 MickyFine: Weekend *smooch* right back, Micky!

>243 karenmarie: One measly little book-bullet *sob*

Well, to be fair to myself, it's the only one of the three I'd ever read All the way through left to my own devices.

What, I should learn to pull punches at my age? Why ever? That Walz quote is why I'm so sad he's not the veep right now.

Good morning, Richard! I remind you again that you can have St. Agatha's Breast) used for less than $10, and it might be worth that to you just for the over-the-top craziness.

Enjoy your Saturday, WBL! *smooch*

Grrrr. Where is my message? I'm reminding you again that you can get a used copy of St. Agatha's Breast for less than $10. It might be worth it to you for the over-the-top hag-ridden craziness.

*smooch*, WBL

>240 richardderus: Amen!!

>247 LizzieD: Morning, Peggy! I wish I could still hold tree books. Alas, that's just no longer possible. I'd get that one toot-sweet, fer sher.

*smooch*

>249 RebaRelishesReading: Amen indeed, Reba. *wistful sigh*

Saturday *smooch*

>252 bell7: Heavens! I didn't expect to see you today, given your busy-ness. *smooch*

‘Morning, RD! Happy SunDay. It’s sunny here, a nice spring day.

>246 richardderus: You shouldn’t pull your punches. I admire that in you. I, on the other hand, am still rather co-dependent and want people to like me. I hate being needy that way. Also, for me, honesty may need to be held back in order to protect a person I care for. I can be really, really nasty, and if I want to maintain a good relationship with someone, sometimes it's just better to keep mum.

>250 richardderus: I have some extremely heavy tree books. I can read them in my Library if I’m sitting on the sofa. Friend Karen in Montana was complaining last night that she started rereading the 5th Harry Potter and she can’t lie in bed with it anymore like she used to.

*smooch* from your own Horrible

>254 karenmarie: Heh. If you could see the posts I erase...biting one's tongue is the minimum standard. It's also, however, necessary to speak up when a huge injustice (by your lights) is occurring. People don't like me, or my opinions, and of course that's entirely okay because I have the same privilege.

Being willing to lose connections for necessary truthtelling is different from saying whatever poisonous unkind thoughts best left unsaid. To many people, accustomed to having their opinions accepted as gospel...or, ironically, ignored or devalued...disagreement feels like a gross insult.

This is when "respect" or "unfair" or "who asked you?" or "that's not what x means" enter the chat. Can't/don't want to engage with what's being said? Silence the speaker with powerful disapproval-words that simply can't be argued with because they are Right.

"Right" is the ugliest addiction in humanity's raft of really ugly addictions.

I cosign them all.

...here I go again...

>256 richardderus: Yes please!

‘Morning, RichardDear. Happy Monday to you.

>256 richardderus: 100% agree.

*smooch*

Morning, Richard. Back to my mini-grind. I only have 5 weeks of work left. Looking forward to being off, especially since they are giving me a bigger route for the last of it. I hope you are doing swell, my friend.

>256 richardderus: I'm with you!

069 WHEN THE TIDES HELD THE MOON by Venessa Vida Kelley

Erewhon Books publishes my first merman/human romance! It'll be out tomorrow. It got 4.5*/5 from me here:

>259 karenmarie: Morning, Horrible, happy Moon's Day to you, too. I'm sure almost All bookish sorts will 100% agree with >256 richardderus:. It's just perverse for corporations to either ignore or use our orderliness to make us buy more.

>260 msf59: Morning, Birddude! Oh great, they're using your competence against you! How very unusual for a capitalist enterprise.

>261 richardderus: Ooh definitely putting a hold on that one, thank you!

>264 norabelle414: Oh hooray! I'm so glad I could get someone interested in this really lovely story. Thanks, Nora!

I'm testing to see if I can post images, since the ones in >261 richardderus: are not showing up.

>256 richardderus: YAY! I would add that the pronunciation guide should be helpful. The only objectionable example I can think of right now is "bow" in the pronunciation help. That can be pronounced two ways. Maybe I'm supposed to get a hint from spelling, but I often don't.

>237 richardderus: Yep!

>266 richardderus: It may be an experiment, that posting, but I agree with it too.

I saw on fb last night a short list of Victorian or earlier phrases that should be returned to active use. It couldn't be "shared" but I should have copied it. The one I remember is "bitching the pot," which means "pouring the tea." I realize it's one you wouldn't ever use. Anyway, *smooch*

>267 LizzieD: I think glossaries and pronunciation guides are unfashionable because they cause much enmity when they cross the Atlantic. Brits, bloody-minded colonialists they are to a body, demand they reflect their own manifestly inferior and obfuscatory usages, pronunciations, and prejudices and, for a wonder, find US editions of their books that include glossaries of their most obscure, bizarre slang objectionable.

You might want to look into the gay slang use of "bitch"...but do NOT look at any images!

Catching up here today.

>183 richardderus: >188 LizzieD: I can't stand milk chocolate Hershey's kisses, and that butyric acid must be why. I remember watching "The Food that Built America" on the History channel, the episode about chocolate. Hershey was trying to figure out a way to make chocolate to sell like the Swiss were doing, and multiple attempts failed. Then the food chemist came in with some samples that IIRC fixed one of the problems they were having, but he apologized because they had used sour milk, so the taste was off. But Hershey tried it and liked it, so that was the recipe they stuck with. When I saw that, I said that explains why I don't like their milk chocolate. So that must be the butyric acid you refer to. They did come up with dark chocolate and almond varieties of the Kisses that I can tolerate, but I cannot eat the plain milk chocolate.

My lifetime preference for dark chocolate is, I think, a response to the overly sweet candies, etc., that companies in America tend to make. Give me the dark version any time.

>240 richardderus: Walz is right!

>256 richardderus: Two thumbs up to that one! I don't know how many times I've looked at the back cover for a synopsis, only to run into reviews, often of a completely different book by the same author. Very annoying.

Have a great week, RD!

Oops

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz6dvdwjpj4o

Actually it reminded me of a liine in Harvey feirstein's film 'Torch Song Trilogy: ' Oops, that is not an oops, it's an aaarggrr'.

>269 atozgrl: I'm just not a chocoholic. Don't care if I never have another bite of the stuff.

Ain't his common sense bracing? The >256 richardderus: ideas oughta be law!

Great week wishes heartily returned!

>270 Caroline_McElwee: Oopsie. What a scary moment. I'm pretty sure I woulda had a heart attack!

070 The man who wrote the perfect novel : John Williams, Stoner, and the writing life by Charles J. Shields

This one's super-cheap on Kindle so I FINALLY hunted down my notes to write a real review...and discovered that, fifteen years later, I'd never bothered to review it! Of course I bought it which usually means I won't review books (or why would publishers give them to me free?), but it's salient to my review of this book so I did.

071 Stoner by John Williams

Deservedly called a classic. Bleak, bleak, bleak!

>237 richardderus: How many years older than me are you, RD? I thought we were close in age, lol.

>240 richardderus: Oh, yeah! If it is 'us' against 'them,' it is not freedom for everyone. It took me well into adulthood to learn that.

>256 richardderus: I co-sign your cosigning.

>274 richardderus: Dodging that BB as I have already read it. Granted, it was probably 20+ years ago at this point. . .

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

>275 alcottacre: At least fifteen...you not-quite-fifty springtime blossom, you.

...but you did...so many don't.

Re-reading >274 richardderus: does not strike me as a necessarily good thing, TBH. No need to go down there again.

*smooch*

>256 richardderus:
I totally agree. Especially about the lack of maps. Many of the books I read are less enjoyable simply because there are no maps.

>273 richardderus: Definitely one for me. It's years since I read Stoner too, and I have another of his novels in the tbr mountain too RD.

072 Launching LBJ : how a Kennedy insider helped define Johnson's presidency by Helen O'Donnell

History with a capital "H" history told by a fine man's daughter.

>258 humouress: Fine. Ignore me then.

>269 atozgrl: It may be a personal bias but I prefer European chocolate. I don't tend to come across American chocolate much, anyway, and chocolate made in the Middle East/ Asia/ Australia is too sweet (maybe the higher sugar content increases the melting point?) which tends to catch in the throat and sometimes a bit grainy.

>277 benitastrnad: I need that orienting in the story's space as well, Benita. Even in...especially in...fiction about made-up places.

>278 Caroline_McElwee: really? Which one? I've never read Augustus nor have I ever owned it, but I expect I'd enjoy it. One day, maybe....

>280 humouress: ...hmm...? Oh, Nina! Hi there. When did you happen in? Are chocolates in Asia made with different sweeteners? I understood from Rob's Malaysian friend that lots of candy, the fancier kind, was sweetened with palm sugar. Does that include chocolate?

I loved onde-onde when he made them, but that's a VERY distinctive flavor, and I can't see it substituting well for high-fructose corn syrup.

>282 richardderus: I have Butcher's Crossing as yet unread RD.

>284 Caroline_McElwee: Oh! A...cultural choice...familiarizing one's self with the brutal colonials' myths, I see.

It's not always pretty, but it is very, very interesting. I don't think readers of Stoner ever quite expect the nature of this story's reality.

‘Morning, RD! Happy Tuesday.

>261 richardderus: I’d never heard of Nuyorican, so learned something new this morning. Huh. Merman/human. Haven’t read anything in that subgenre. Maybe?

>279 richardderus: A BB! It will arrive in hardcover, $5 + shipping and tax, on Thursday.

The rest, I’ve avoided, but barely.

*smooch*

>279 richardderus: LBJ I think gets a bad rap in modern history for being the president left holding the bag during the worst parts of the Viet Nam conflict.

Robert Caro and others paint him as a smart, strong complicated and compassionate man.

Ken O'Donnell who thought Johnson was a loud mouth Texas bumpkin changed his mind. Perhaps in time others will too

>286 karenmarie: Mermances are quite The Thing here lately, Horrible, but I don't see them lighting your fire. It's a bit...more than a bit...silly to pretend they exist/ed, and that hurdle plus the improbability of any, umm, anatomical compatibility between people and merfolk might stretch your credulity muscles uncomfortably far.

Enjoy >279 richardderus: when it arrives, I think it will feel as fulfilling to you as it did to me. *smooch*

orders new bibliorifle scope calibrated to Horrible's weak spots

>276 richardderus: Yeah, I wish I could say that I am a "not-quite-fifty springtime blossom," RD.

((Hugs)) and **smooches** for today, old man :)

>287 magicians_nephew: He gets a terrible rap, undeservedly so, but it will stick while right-wing jagoffs control media discourse. In the long arc of history I suspect he will fare well.

I, hailing from the land of his birth, have always seen him through the home stadium's filter. He played to that crowd, therefore brought many along with him who otherwise would've kicked off at the programs he installed. We need another one and I don't see him on the horizon.

>289 alcottacre: *spring-chicken smooch*

>291 richardderus: Thanks, RD. I will take all the smooches I can get these days. . .

Morning, Richard. I took the day off to attend funeral services this AM. I should have the afternoon free. Birding, PB or the books? Decisions, decisions...

Funny, Stoner did not work for me the first time I read it. It felt bleakly flat to me but so many people LOVE this book, including you, that I NEED to give it a second chance.

*ETA- Well, I gave Stoner a strong rating (back in 2012) but I don't remember it leaving a memorable impression. Interesting...

>293 msf59: I'm sad for the death you observed, Stoner won't cheer you up, so permaybehaps don't do it soon. Often our ratings more than five or six years ago...pre-pandemic...bear no resemblance to what we'd think now. It's the reason I found it so hard to decide not to re-read.

>283 richardderus: Palm sugar is used in traditional Malay desserts (kuehs - pronounced 'kway') but there's plenty of sucrose around these parts too. I think it's the quantity of sugar used in chocolate rather than the type that affects the taste. I've just come back from a trip into Malaysia with friends and one of them said she finished off some of her stack of Hari Raya goodies (Snickers in this case) and she had a sore throat from the sugar in them.

Paul would be the expert in onde-onde but I suspect coconut and pandan leaf are involved as well as palm sugar. We drove through a ridiculous amount of date palm plantations which left me wondering whether Malaysia has any primary forest left. Maybe that's why it feels hotter than Singapore (though, admittedly, it's secondary forest/ jungle here).

>290 richardderus: >287 magicians_nephew: Jim's response to Caro's LBJ and mine differ in one significant point. I have read so far that Caro considers him a narcissist/sociopath, whose focus because of his childhood and first teaching experience in South Texas was on relieving the poverty there and throughout the nation. He absolutely had to be number one in whatever he undertook. Like 45/7 he could not fail. He was smart and almost inhumanly patient unlike the other one. More than ten years ago I read through a list of Presidents ranked for their positive contributions to the country. LBJ was their number one.

Anyway, I am attracted by >279 richardderus: as I wait impatiently for Caro to finish number 5.

Tuesday *smooch*

Morning RD. I don't know if I was the catalyst for all the Stoner talk, or just a happy coincidence, but no matter either way.

Finished it the other day, and to quote you... bleak, bleak, bleak, but what a quietly powerful read.

>295 humouress: Oh, there's a load of pandan..."Asian vanilla" as Jackson called it...but its taste is distinctive and botanical. The palm sugar sweetness is slightly caramel-y. I got some after eating those amazing onde-onde and, well, it ain't sucrose-tastin'.

>296 LizzieD: As a *person* he was a shit. As a President, all that shitty stuff could be used to do what he wanted, which was a lot of good.

I don't need or want to like a president. I need to like, with fewest possible reservations, that president's aims. Johnson aimed right for my sweet spot and failed only at containing the toxic conquest mentality the military attracts. Flawed human, failed leader, good President.

>297 mahsdad: I expect you were, Jeff, as you most likely reminded me of the DRC I had about John Williams. In which case, thank you!

Hey, Big Daddy. I’m with Karen Marie - reading about alcohol addiction is something I try to avoid, thanks to a family member dogged by it. Iloved Nina Hill and normally would be up for the new Abbi Waxman, but not if that’s a major component. I’ve learned that any addiction thread, e.g. gambling, has me looking for the exit. Ihave made exceptions; those Ken Bruen mysteries come to mind, but I couldn’t stick with them.

Are you much of a Richard Powers fan? As happened for me with David Mitchell, i started to realize I’ve enjoyed reading every Powers Ive tried, and I may end up reading all of them. Thanks for the Monica Wood tip, btw; she may wind up in that category, too.

Latest thread's up here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/370481

>301 jnwelch: Addiction stories will never be easy to read, though harder for some than others. Knowing your "must-nots" is a big hunk of learning your reading sweet spot, so I try not to shove stuff at people not best served by it. That does mean paying attention to them and their patterns. Lots won't put much effort into that.

I can't think of a Richard Powers story I've read. Where did you start?