richardderus's twelfth 2025 thread

Bastille Day wishes to the GOP, the Federalist Society, and all those useless billionaires!

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.
Reviews 060 to 072 are linked there.
73 to 90 back there.
91 to 100 back here..
101 to 114 back there.
115 to 137 back there.

THIS THREAD'S REVIEWS
138 Death of an ex in post #9.
139 Lightborne : a novel in post #14.
140 Algospeak : how social media is transforming the future of language in post #57.
141 No body no crime : a novel in post #61.
142 Heartcore in post #70.
143 The Immeasurable Heaven in post #74.
144 A flower traveled in my blood : the incredible true story of the grandmothers who fought to find a stolen generation of children in post #79.
145 The Confessions: A Novel in post #111.
146 Florida Palms: A Novel in post #114.
147 Salt bones : a novel in post #133.
148 A daughter's place : a novel in post #144.
149 THE MOTHER CODE: My Story of Love, Loss, and the Myths That Shape Us in post #151.
150 The Old Neighborhood (New Chicago Classics Book 10) in post #148.
151 Mislaid in post #174.
152 Beasts of Carnaval in post #200.
153 The memory hunters in post #201.
154 Women in intelligence : the hidden history of two world wars in post #225.
155 Sea wonders : the octopus, the cuttlefish, and the squid in post #226.
156 Savvy Summers and the sweet potato crimes : a mystery in post #237.
157 So what if I'm a puta : diaries of transness, sex work, desire in post #263.
158 Not your rescue project : migrant sex workers fighting for justice in post #270.
159 Same bed different dreams : a novel in post #282.
160 On earth as it is on television : a novel in post #285.

All my threads in the 75ers linked somewhere here
My Last Thread of 2009 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2010 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2011 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2012 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2013 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2014 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2015 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2016 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2017 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2018 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2019 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2020 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2021 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2022 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2023 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
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:
#016 The Backyard Bird Chronicles (45%) in post #153.
#017 Manomin: Caring for Ecosystems and Each Other (22%) in post #158.

All previous Burgoine reviews linked here.

THIS THREAD:
#051 Hive (Madders of Time Book 1) in post #39.
#052 The Cosmos Keys in post #40.
#053 Don't Tell a Soul in post #45.
#054 Off the Air in post #46.
#055 We Never Swim in the Same River Twice in post #117.

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 was a rollicking success. The first five months of the year saw 139,334 blog views; this month, not over yet, almost matches that total! I was fully satisfied, pleased even, with those first-half totals so this month is mind-blowing to me. For the first half of 2025, my thirteen-year odyssey writing over 3700 reviews and achieving over 1,000,000 blog-views has been satisfying, exciting, and deeply enriching.

The second quarter's most satisfying read was The Surge, Adam Kovac's war story told in laconic warrior-appropriate prose. It exemplifies an experience I do not think soldiers will ever have again as AI and automation turn war into a weirdly impersonal industrial slaughterhouse.
3Q25
4Q25

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

☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂
2025 #ShortStoryMonth #1 through #5 linked here.
☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂
2025 #PrideMonth 1 through 5 are linked here.
PRIDE MONTH #6 is linked here.
PRIDE MONTH 7 through 19 are linked here.
PRIDE MONTH 20 through 31 linked back there.
PRIDE MONTH 32 through 36 linked here.
#PrideMonth wrap-up is here.
☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂
#WITMonth explainer here.
***
#1 (157) So what if I'm a puta : diaries of transness, sex work, desire in post #263.
#2

See >5 richardderus: for 2024 achievements & 2025 goals, and quarterly wrap-ups. Special hashtag events in >6 richardderus:.
Monthly wrap-up posts are linked below.
JANUARY 2025 here.
FEBRUARY 2025 here.
MARCH 2025 here.
APRIL 2025 here.
MAY 2025 here.
JUNE 2025 here.
JULY 2025 here.

Okay. It's safe now.

138 Death of an ex by Delia Pitts

#2 in the Vandy Myrick series of Black woman PI mysteries.

Morning, Richard. Happy New Thread. Boo to the "useless billionaires". I just had a banana and some grapes.

Bree asked me yesterday, if I could help with Jack today so I will head over there after some early AM PB.

Happy new thread!

Happy new one, RD.

Welcome back Richard

139 Lightborne : a novel by Hesse Phillips

Christopher Marlowe's life is proof the best stories are in History.

‘Morning, RD. Happy Monday and happy new thread to you.

>1 richardderus: Happy Bastille Day to you, too. Down the rabbit hole of the guillotine I went, leading to the Halifax Gibbet and Scotland’s Maiden.

>9 richardderus: A BB! I should be able to borrow a copy of the first in the series from my Library this morning unless somebody grabs it between 9 and 9:45 – I’m going in today to help Eliza appraise books donated to the Friends from 10 – noon. We’re backlogged and I know our policy and how to appraise a book.

*smooch*

>10 msf59:
...might weigh you down at pickleball, but I'll bet cash money Jack would love this helmet!

>11 figsfromthistle: Thanks, Anita!

>12 katiekrug: Thankee Miss Katie ma'am.

>13 magicians_nephew: ...back...? I haven't gone anywhere.

Happy new one! (I gave the porpoises a pat on my way by - love them)

>20 RebaRelishesReading: Thanks, Reba. They keep making me smile when I see them so I keep puttin' 'em in, until they don't work anymore.

>15 karenmarie: How'd I miss you? I'm happy you'll be giving Delia Potts your eyeball time. I really like her work so far, with every hope she will only grow more and more skilled.

I know you're looking forward to the appraisal hours. It's a detail-oriented person's joy, it is. I'm sure you'll get to see some fun, odd books.

Guillotines are a feature of revolutionary life I'd like to see return to prominence. Along with the random murders of establishment types.

"Just kidding" appended to throw the AI off.

Happy new one, Richard.

>23 jessibud2: Thanks, Shelley!

Happy new thread, Richard! Hope you had a delightful Bastille Day. What a week: Sunday Bastille Day and Thursday Good Trouble Day. Not sure if I'll get to a march/rally, because I'll be watching my grandson, but I plan to read March 1, 2 and 3 again this week.

Well, you got me with yet another BB with the Marlowe novel. I've always felt his death was a tragedy, but I had no idea how much of one it was.

Have a great week!

Happy New Thread, Richard.

>184 RebaRelishesReading: on your previous thread: I join you in your weirdo- ness in finding mediocre A Visit from The Goon Squad. As we’ve seen with Paul C’s help, 2010 was not a great year for fiction.

Lightborne sounds like a good ‘un. I read somewhere that ace author Stephen Greenblatt also is coming out soon with a book about Marlowe, called Dark Renaissance. Can’t wait.

>25 Storeetllr: Bonne fête nationale, Mary! Let's see if we can't drum up some revolutionary fervor. I hope >14 richardderus: will delight you when you get to it.

>26 jnwelch: No, 2010 didn't impress with its huge pool of goodness in literature. Oh well. 2025's doin' us proud, so forgiving Calliope for an off year is in order, no?

I *really* hope Norton says yes to my request for Dark Reaissance: The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare's Greatest Rival, but they don't like me very much. *fingers crossed*

Wow, you have started off this new thread with some great reads, RD!

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

>29 alcottacre: It was a good start indeed, given most of this month has been ~meh~

*smooch*

Happy new thread, Richard! Almost-Tuesday *smooch*

>31 bell7: Thanks, Mary! Not-quite-Tuesday *smooch* back

Happy new thread, Richard

>33 ArlieS: Thank you, Arlie.

Salutations on your latest, RD. I will probably follow you with a new thread today myownself.

>35 PaulCranswick: They do fill up, don't they? Threadspeed!

Happy new thread, Richard!

>37 atozgrl: Thank you, Irene!

BURGOINE #051
Hive (Madders of Time Book 1) by D. L. Orton

Rating: 2.75* of five

The Publisher Says: What if saving the future meant rewriting the past?

In a dying world overrun by microdrones, humanity's last survivors cling to life inside the Eden-17 biodome. Isabelle Sanborn knows her time is running out, but one desperate plan might give humanity a second chance. With the help of Madders, an enigmatic AI built from the memories of a brilliant physicist, Isabelle sends Diego Nadales—the love of her life—35 years into the past. His mission? To change the course of history and prevent their world's collapse.

When Diego arrives in the vibrant yet fragile Main Timeline, he's forced to confront ghosts of the past, including a younger, ambitious version of Isabelle. As he battles to shape a better future, Diego must navigate a delicate web of relationships and events without destroying the very fabric of time.

Brimming with suspense, heart-pounding action, and a poignant love story that transcends time, Madders of Time - Book One is a breathtaking science fiction adventure. Award-winning author DL Orton weaves a tale that explores sacrifice, resilience, and the timeless power of love.

Fans of The Time Traveler's Wife and Dark Matter will find themselves captivated by this unforgettable journey through parallel worlds and intertwining destinies.

The clock is ticking. Can love survive the collapse of time itself?

Prepare to lose yourself in the first installment of the Madders of Time series—a story that will keep you turning pages and leave you hungry for more.

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

My Review: Blandly competent. Uninspiring. I do not remember one thing about this by-the-numbers picture of dystopia (but I did finish it), which is antithetical to the purpose of the genre. The comps are WILDLY overselling the execution.

If your immediate need is distraction without challenge, here's you a book.

Rocky Mountain Press demands $8.99 for a Kindlebook. I'd be frothing mad if I'd paid that for this.

BURGOINE #52

The Cosmos Keys by Glenn Cooper

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Buried secrets. Ancient technology. A race against time.

Deep beneath the ruins of Turkey’s underground city of Derinkuyu, archaeologist David Birch makes a discovery that defies history—a bronze device covered in Greek inscriptions, its mechanisms impossibly advanced for its time. The artifact shouldn’t exist. And yet, its intricate design suggests a terrifying someone in the distant past understood the future.

Desperate for answers, David seeks out Eleni Lillakis, a brilliant historian of ancient technology. As they decipher the artifact’s origins, they stumble upon an astonishing legend—the Michaní Peproménou, the Destiny Machine. A device so powerful it was hidden from the world, tied to the secrets of the gods, and capable of glimpsing what’s to come.

But they are not the only ones searching. A secretive cabal, willing to kill to keep the machine’s secrets buried, is closing in. From the shadowed ruins of Athens to the tunnels beneath Nottingham, from hidden crypts to modern-day power struggles, David and Eleni must unlock the truth before the machine falls into the wrong hands. Because if the legends are true, the artifact does more than reveal the future. It can change it.

A Must-Read for Fans of Archaeological Mysteries and Ancient Secrets, The Cosmos Keys is an electrifying archaeological thriller that blends real historical mysteries with pulse-pounding suspense. Fans of The Da Vinci Code, Indiana Jones, and Steve Berry will be swept away by this globe-spanning adventure, where mythology, science, and danger collide in a battle for humanity’s fate.

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

My Review: I really see the comps as good guidance in this case...I ;ike Steve Berry and James Rollins as storytellers, so I'm down with this book as well. It delivers on the promises made above, and does so at a spanking pace.

I'm not ready to go to four stars because, even in the genre, this book's sexism is confrontational. I'm no fan of that. Most of y'all don't seem to care too much but for those who do, be warned.

Lascaux Media asks $5.99 for a Kindlebook. Reasonable value for money.

Happy New Thread, Richard! You got me with Lightborne as you likely knew you would. Otoh, I've had A Dead Man in Deptford on the shelf forever without ever doing more than reading a page with a promise. What's your take on that one?

*smooch* for the day!

Happy new thread Richard. Your review of the Delia Pitts mystery caught my attention. I now have the first book in the series on hold at the library.

>41 LizzieD: Oh YAY!! Yeah, I was hoping you'd find >14 richardderus: irresistible. I think you'll enjoy it.

I think Anthony Burgess had a great idea and fumbled the execution. I read it in the 1990s so I recall less than I'd like to admit I do, but I'm firmly of the opinion that Marlowe was what modern eyes see as gay but that flattens the nuance of his lifelong love of men in its full rebellious context (and honestly, Thomas Walsingham?? like pinning a "kill me now" sign on your chest). It's really a quibble when compared to the erasure of those who insist on "straight until proven guilty" but, when you're being guided by a Sherpa, you don't easily settle for a trip up a hillock.

*smooch*

>42 Familyhistorian: Oh good, Meg. I expect that series has the best chance of anything I've read this month of catching your interest. Maybe its atmospheric telling will get you smiling!

Thanks.

BURGOINE #053

Don't Tell a Soul (5fingers #1) by Joshua Raven

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Rachel Race’s world shatters when she awakens in agony, mysteriously missing a finger. Fleeing her troubled home, she stumbles into a web of darkness and ancient evil lurking in the seaside city of Griffton.

As Rachel grapples with her trauma, she finds an unexpected ally in Lake Emerson, a charming skater and trainee journalist who becomes entwined in her harrowing journey.

Pursued by hooded figures and haunted by a vengeful spirit called Samyaza, Rachel is forced into a series of perilous assignments. Her quest for answers leads her to uncover dark secrets about Watchers, demons, and the Nephilim, all while navigating the dangerous underworld of Griffton.

With the enigmatic Caleb Noble, a mystical traveler, guiding her from afar, Rachel confronts terrifying challenges that test her courage and resolve. Amidst the chaos, she discovers a hidden strength and the flickers of first love.

Don’t Tell a Soul is a gripping tale of mystery, magic, and survival. Rachel must navigate a world where every secret carries a price, and every decision could be her last. As the stakes escalate, she learns that some destinies are forged in the darkest places.

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

My Review: I have a soft spot for stories involving Nephilim since discovering T. Frohock. I *looove* those gay-male centered stories! (Because I bought them with my very own United States dollars, I won't be reviewing them here per customary usage.) Turns out there's *some* halo(!) effect, but not that much. This is a very solid story with straight people being straight which is not where my interests lie.

So, decent, well executed, and not for me.

Red Ink Publishing Ltd says "$5.99 please" at checkout. If you can stand to give Bezoselzebub more money, it's solid value.

BURGOINE #054

Off the Air (Jolene Garcia Mysteries #1) by Christina Estes

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Equal parts thought-provoking and entertaining, Emmy Award winning reporter Christina Estes introduces Jolene Garcia in her Tony Hillerman Prize winning debut, Off the Air.

Jolene Garcia is a local TV reporter in Phoenix, Arizona, splitting her time between covering general assignments―anything from a monsoon storm to a newborn giraffe at the zoo―and special projects. Stories that take more time to research and produce. Stories that Jolene wants to tell.

When word gets out about a death at a radio station, Jolene and other journalists swarm the scene, intent on reporting the facts first. The body is soon identified as Larry Lemmon, a controversial talk show host, who died under suspicious circumstances. Jolene conducted his final interview, giving her and her station an advantage. But not for long.

As the story heats up, so does the competition. Jolene is determined to solve this murder. It’s an investigation that could make or break her career―if it doesn't break her first.

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

My Review: Well-executed debut mystery. I thought Jolene was equal parts believably tenacious and amusingly self-aware about it. I found the credit-denying ways of journalism as infuriating as it's possible to get. I was entirely convinced that it's the author's lived experience.

I just can't get to four stars because the dead a-hole needed killin'...that's a problem, it undercuts Jolene's determination to resolve the murder when she should just file a "local celebrity dies, presumably by violence" squib and let it go. When you can't care if the victim's dead, you lose stem in the read...which I did several times.

Minotaur Books requires a transfer of $14.99 from you to them for your legal access to an ebook. I'd go to the library, but go I certainly would.

I don't know who needs to hear this today. It is true.

If "blandly competent" isn't damning with faint praise, I don't know what is.

>47 richardderus: Agreed!

Hello there, Richard. LOL >5 richardderus:. My mom says if you can't be a good influence, you can at least be a horrible warning.

>48 bell7: It was the nicest thing I could think of to say...not an especially good read, if I'm honest.

I'm not surprised you agree, somehow. Not gasping and clutching my pearls.

>49 AMQS: I think your mom and I would get along fine, Anne. She's right.

Cheered you visited!

Happy New Thread, Richard! Hot day here today. Sigh!

‘Morning, RDear! Yikes, I didn’t get back here yesterday, and there are now 37 new messages. Here I go…

>22 richardderus: I was able to snag the hardcover copy of Trouble in Queenstown.

I enjoyed the Monday appraising with Eliza. I was planning on working with her yesterday at book sort, too, but the internet was down for all county buildings, which includes the Library. So, just regular book sorting. I found 3 for myself, details on my thread.

>39 richardderus: I couldn’t even get past the first paragraph of what the publisher says, so hard pass.

>40 richardderus: Another hard pass.

>45 richardderus: Nope to a book’s start with a missing finger.

>47 richardderus: Preaching to the choir.

*smooch*

>52 vancouverdeb: Thanks, Deborah, it's the season...doesn't mean we like it, though....

>53 karenmarie: Morning, Horrible! You're an ever-increasingly sinuous target here lately...growing lithe in your escapes from my book-bullets, fiend incarnate, do you not know that my every waking thought always comes back to "how flat can I make the Hengveld pilf bag?" It is fundamental to my identity.

>47 richardderus: is one of those things I see people take exception to and think, "well you've just been outed as a deplorable."

I'll coddiwomple thitherward momentarily to see what you found.

Happy Wednesday, Richard. Hope the week has been smooth and the pain levels are somewhat manageable. All good here. Living a mostly single life these days, not counting Juno of course. Looking forward to a cold front blowing through later tonight.

>47 richardderus: Amen!

140 Algospeak : how social media is transforming the future of language by Adam Aleksic

Adam Aleksic..."@etymology_nerd" is at his most informative in this Knopf book.

>56 msf59: Hi Mark! Happy Wednesday back. I'm glad you've got Juno to keep your gynergy reservoir topped up while Sue's doing so much for her needy aunt. And Jack. And work.

I get tired writing it down....

>39 richardderus: Sounds like one that I can safely pass on. I am getting pickier as I get older and now find that I read very few books that do not merit 4 or more stars :)

>40 richardderus: >45 richardderus: >46 richardderus: Passing on those too. . .

>57 richardderus: That one, on the other hand, is going into the BlackHole. Thanks for that recommendation, Richard!

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

>59 alcottacre: I'm glad you lit on >57 richardderus: to shove into the BlackHole. It's a useful reminder to us oldsters to CTFD while remaining vigilant.

Wednesday *smooch*

141 No body no crime : a novel by Tess Sharpe

An interesting exploration of the old saw's veracity via MCD Books.

>57 richardderus: I *just* saw some info about this at work the other day and added it to my TBR list. Sounds like fun!

>57 richardderus: I wonder whether I'd be able to comprehend this book, or whether the examples would be completely outside my experience, and quite possibly a matter of changing from A (that I don't use) to B (that I've never heard of). Or put another way, would I find it any less comprehensible if the changing language discussed was one I don't speak, that isn't even in the same linguistic groups as any of those I do speak.

I used to be a language sponge, intuiting meaning and adding to my vocabulary on even a slight exposure. Now I occasionally make bemused posts that amount to "has this word really reversed its meaning in common usage" or "wtf? they've dropped a perfectly good word and replaced it with nonsense complete with (to me) bad connotations". (An example of the latter, not recent enough to count, would be companies that "service" their customers, rather than serving them. Yes, I really want to be seen as livestock in need of impregnation, doesn't everyone? (sic).)

Sadly, I figure this book would tend to upset me - I'm way too easy to upset these days. So dodging the book bullet.

I'd be happier with examples, definitions, and explanations, minus anything about the fate of the world (TM), or the alleged evilness of certain usages.

p.s. What does "uptalking" mean? "sigma" male?

And can you give 3 examples of the use of "-core", along with their meanings, and a suggested rule for what it means. (A less recent example would be the prefix e-, which probably once stood for "electronic", and now means something in the general area of high tech, digital tech, and computers. Thus e-waste for any rubbish related to computers - either stuff needing special disposal due to batteries, ICs etc., or simply reams of paper printouts.)

Edit to add: is "uptalking" related to the transitive "talk up", with a similar meaning to the presumably now forgotten "tout"?

>62 bell7: I think it's a really good and valuable read. I hope you agree after you get to read it.

>63 ArlieS: Uptalking is the verbal tic of ending all sentences the same way you would a question. "Tout" or "talk up" are unrelated concepts.
"-core" requires illustration so I have to come back to you when I'm on the computer not the phone.

>57 richardderus: It's on my wish list too. Honestly, Richard, you are making me overspend my book budget all the time these days. Either we will have to learn to eat cellulose, or the house will sink under the weight of the unread books, taking us with it. (It's not hoarding though!)
I just bought a used copy of Lightborne, delighted that it is old enough and popular enough for there to be reasonably priced pbs. The D.Pitts had to go on the wish list too. You do realize that it's only mid-month, don't you?

Oh well. You are my WBL. *smooch*

>66 LizzieD: Greetings, Peggy me lurve. I think you're going to get a lot of value for your used-book money with >14 richardderus: so I will accept no burden of guilt for its purchase. Look at how many books you'd hate I've warned you off of! The others, well...mea culpa, but there is no firm purpose of amendment like the catechism demands. *baa*

>47 richardderus: I always need to hear it RD, but doubt my landlord agrees.

>68 Caroline_McElwee: Well then the old Bette Midler joke applies: "fuck 'em if they can't take a joke."

142 Heartcore by Štěpánka Jislová (tr. Martha Kuhlman)

Štěpánka Jislová's graphic...in both senses...memoir of coming to terms with her life, via Graphic Mundi, and translated from Czech by Martha Kuhlman.

Sweet Thursday, Richard. 74F today! Need I say more. Swoons a bit...

>71 msf59: I am not in the least bit jealous stabs Birddude's best pickleball-serving elbow on voodoo dolly that it's 74° there and 89° here! curses local birding spots to keep only sparrows and vultures around Why no! Not even slightly! adds a 500% surcharge to All future camping fees for being cool

‘Morning, RDear! Happy Thursday to you.

>55 richardderus: I live to avoid BBs and am glad my sinuous and lithe escapes keep you on your toes.

>57 richardderus: … and two messages later you’ve snagged me. Hardcover due on Sunday, drat you.

>61 richardderus: You got me again, but this one’s on Kindle Unlimited, so I downloaded it.

>70 richardderus: Even though I paused because it’s translated from the Czech and I’m half Czech-American on my mother’s side, I passed because it’s the rare GN that makes it onto my shelves.

Book report: Snagged, Kindle Unlimited, passed.



*smooch*

143 The Immeasurable Heaven by Caspar Geon

Caspar Geon's literary dose of DMT delivered by Solaris Books:

>73 karenmarie: You'll enjoy >57 richardderus: when it gets there, he gloated unattractively. >61 richardderus: is a little iffier, but KU is the perfect solution. >70 richardderus: isn't one I'd urgent you to reconsider about; >74 richardderus: is just not in your wheelhouse.

Have a *smoochiesmoochsmooch* day, Hobbes!

It's been a while since I passed out in the heat. That was unpleasant. Luckily no harm done except to my nerves.

>61 richardderus: Adding that one to the BlackHole. Thanks for the review and recommendation, RD!

>74 richardderus: That one too. Thanks again (I think!)

>76 richardderus: Yikes! I am glad no appreciable harm was done and that your knees recover!

((Hugs)) and **smooches**

>51 richardderus: I'm very sure you would!

144 A flower traveled in my blood : the incredible true story of the grandmothers who fought to find a stolen generation of children by Haley Cohen Gilliland

>77 alcottacre: It was one of those moments I haven't had since I left Texas. I'm very grateful it was not worse, or longer-lasting. Climate change is real!

Enjoy >61 richardderus: and >74 richardderus:! *smooch*

>78 AMQS: :-)

‘Morning, RDear! Happy Friday to you.

>74 richardderus: Impressive review, gonna pass. Shouldn’t surprise you.

>79 richardderus: I am not sure that I can handle reading that one right now, but I am putting it in the BlackHole nonetheless.

((Hugs)) and **smooches** for today, RD, and hopes that you have a fantastic Friday!

>82 karenmarie: mmm
Friday orisons, Horrible.

>83 alcottacre: Happy Friday, Stasia! *smooch*

>79 richardderus: I will read this, but it may take me even longer than you because I'm already filled with rage and heartbreak over what is happening in this country - with the full approval of at least a third of the people, many of them first generation themselves. I can't go out in public without wondering which of the people I see on the street or in the shops or driving down the road are inwardly cheering this on. It makes me nauseous every damn minute of the day.

I hope you have a great weekend, Richard!

>86 Storeetllr: I hope you do, too, Mary!

I'm right there with you, but am more upset with this tendency to just let it happen without public opposition to it. *sigh*

I'm taking the weekend off writing because my hands really hurt. Since I was in the middle of three reviews for the weekend it's maddening!

Sorry to read about your painful hands, Richard. Try to enjoy the weekend. Like you, I don't enjoy the heat. *Smooch*

>88 vancouverdeb: Summer...it stinks. But here it is so enduring with grace needs to be the goal.

I'm not even in the same hemisphere as the goal.

'Morning, RDear! Happy Saturday to you.

I called friend Karen in Montana a while ago to tell her that I got Manatee Stamps (major excitement), and she told me that the idiot in chief is suing The WSJ. I was particularly pleased that my subsequent duckduckgo search of 'idiot in chief suing WSJ' brought up all the articles.

*smooch*

"curses local birding spots to keep only sparrows and vultures around Why no! Not even slightly! adds a 500% surcharge to All future camping fees for being cool".

^You can always get me to smile, even when I am nursing a bit of a hangover this morning. Out with Sean, the SIL, last night for some live music, beer, bourbon and cigars. Paying for it today but damn, it was worth it.

A flower traveled in my blood sounds fantastic. Onto the obese TBR it goes.

>89 richardderus: Amen!!

>91 karenmarie: It's not going to end well for the WSJ, but you know what? This fever will break. The scum will lose. It will hurt but it will happen. I hope I live to see it so I can gloat.

>92 msf59: I'm glad you're chuckling...it will make the trap springing shut that much more shocking. *eville chortle*

>79 richardderus: will about do you in, Grandpa...imagine Jack being one of these kids....

I hope your hangover's better now. I remember those as awful.

This is chilling:
https://thiswillhold.substack.com/p/she-won-they-didnt-just-change-the

>63 ArlieS: #Cottagecore:



#kawaiicore:

That's all I can stomach. The suffix "-core" is a way of indicating a commercialization, a cynically aware labelling of an aesthetic awareness or taste that is or has been decided or marginalized.

It is largely used to identify female-coded aesthetics. I can't really confidently say it's intentionally misogynistic. It could be the owning of misogyny to take out the sting; like using "queer" in the QUILTBAG spectrum has become. (I myownself prefer "queer" to "gay"/"lesbian" because it's explicitly not reinforcing "Their" fetishized assertion of a binary.)

>95 richardderus: I'm chilled. Frozen.

>97 weird_O: No joke, Bill, it really scares me how far "They" seem willing to go to get their evil way.

>98 richardderus: I'm not joking, Richard. I did read on Facebook (maybe three weeks ago) a post that summarized the description you linked too, but it didn't have the detail and the only name named was Musk's. Presumably this machination will enable all the Republicans in congress and the Senate to stay in office after the mid-terms.

>99 weird_O: This is what happens when the radical right are not humiliated into silence and taxed into poverty for two generations. Someday you should look into the "businessmen's coup" of 1934. We should be building statues to Smedley Darlington Butler.

>95 richardderus: Scary stuff but it explains a lot.

Hope your hands are recovering nicely, Richard.

>101 Familyhistorian: Thank you, Meg. I'm glad to say a bit of time off is having a positive effect.

It's a really unnerving realization that these are the reasons for Felonious Yam's confidence in 2024.

I’m wondering why they think their evilized AI won’t turn against them at some point?

I read about the open preparations for manipulating the 2026 elections and I never trusted ballot machines and am happy we still vote on paper which is then counted and recounted by groups from all parties. But this beats everything, I thought it might be planned for the future, not an action of the past!

>103 Deern: No tool isn't also a weapon. I think they're counting on the encoded evil in their bloody algorithms to keep the tool from doing an about-face to wield its power *at* them instead of for them.

Bad bet, IMO. "They" started this process in Florida, 2000, so they've got 25 years of practice in how to lie, cover up, and normalize the whole evil enterprise.

Happy Sunday, Richard. We both got to hang out with Jack yesterday. Sue has sure missed him. Light rain at the moment, so no PB for me. I am sure I will find something else to do...

I hope you are having a good weekend.

'Morning, RDear. Happy Sunday to you.

It's gorgeous here but misleading because it's already 80F/85% humidity, with a high of 96F. Indoors is best.

*smooch*

>105 msf59: Too bad about the pickleball, and the birding...Jack's already been there...guess you'll have to do something else.

Say! I have an idea for you to try: Maybe go to a "bookstore"...hard word to wrap your head around, but stay with me here...and get a "book" to "read"! Weird idea, I know, but I assure you it's a lot of fun.

>106 karenmarie: "Gorgeous" and 80° do not appear in the same etymology, still less sentence, Horrible. We're a good deal cooler but it's sloppily raining on everything, bad for the tourism-dependent businesses but fine by me. I'm not required to go outside. I've got my garlic-eggplant leftovers for my lunch so am pretty well set. I do not expect to be in a cheery frame of mind until after the Civil War is over, though I'm not a bit sure I'll live to see that.

*smooch*

>95 richardderus: This explains a lot. My sisters and I talked right after the "election" (between bouts of crying) and all three of us said the same thing: that the election had to have been stolen. I was surprised that the Dems didn't kick up a fuss, you know, demand recounts and investigations, but lately I've been thinking that Drumpf's incessant cries of "Stolen" in 2020 were more a way to make it hard for Dems to accuse him of stealing 2024 than anything else.

>57 richardderus: I'm in the middle of Algospeak. The ebook wasn't available for awhile, so I chose the audio, read by the author. Bad idea. I'm learning a lot, and hearing about all the linguistic changes is fascinating, but listening to Aleksic's turbocharged narration is rough. (Yes, I slowed the playback speed to 90% and may slow it down a little more, but his delivery is still harsh to these old ears.) Not to say I'm not getting a lot out of the book. I am. Just that I wish I'd waited for the ebook instead. Once I started listening though, I couldn't stop. So, that should tell you something. (Algospeak is reminiscent of Because Internet, another book about how the 'net is changing language that I listened to a couple years ago.) Anyway, thanks for the recommendation.

>109 Storeetllr: I don't like listening to him, either; I'd recommend reading it but you're past the point where it's feasible to switch sounds like. I'm not surprised you're really learning a lot. here's a lot to be learned!

It makes sense now, knowing this, why he's so ready to insult and demean his "base" and why he said in November he didn't care if the "base" voted or not...he's in there until the civil war unseats him.

*sigh*

145 The Confessions: A Novel by Paul Bradley Carr

Atria Books brings us a lens for Reality's more upsetting lumps by a Silicon Valley escapee.

‘Morning, RDear!

I hope your garlic-infused eggplant pleased you yesterday.

>109 Storeetllr: Mary - I’ve finally learned to listen to the audio sample after a disastrous purchase of the audio Foster by Claire Keegan for last year’s book club. Her Irish accent is so thick I had to first ‘translate’ to English I could understand, then continue. I kept saying 'What?' and so quickly abandoned it.

>111 richardderus: Hmmm. Onto the wish list it goes.

edited to add *smooch*

>112 karenmarie: Morning, Horrible, my eggplant meal was delightful. Fried pork dumplings and an eggroll on Saturday, all the eggplant and plain fried rice on Sunday, all make for a happy me.

I've discovered, as my aging ears grow less acute, that headphones for Aussie/Kiwi/Brummy accents are the best way around the "say WHAT now" issue.

>111 richardderus: ought to intrigue you, but I don't think a full-price purchase is in order...a library check-out seems better suited.

*smooch*

146 Florida Palms: A Novel by Joe Pan

From a poet's pen comes this tale of Florida's tryin-to-get-by guys after The Crash of 2008.

From Hypergraphia: On Prolific Writers and the Persistent Need to Produce:
Ed Simon Considers the Habits and Processes of a Group of Critically and Commercially Acclaimed Authors (found here https://lithub.com/hypergraphia-on-prolific-writers-and-the-persistent-need-to-p...

...when {Joyce Carol} Oates was asked by Robert Phillips of The Paris Review if she was guilty of “producing too much,” and how her output could be squared with the sometimes-imperfect circumstances for writing itself, she answered that “One must be pitiless about this matter of ‘mood.’ In a sense, the writing will create the mood. If art is, as I believe it to be, a genuinely transcendental function—a means by which we rise out of the limited, parochial states of mind—then it should not matter very much what states of mind or emotion we are in.”

What I think those who have hypergraphia share is a prioritization of the process over the product, of the experience of writing as much as its conclusion. For us, writing is a means of being. As regards the hypsographic, for us “writing” is always more verb than noun. In our strange era of artificial intelligence, with “writing” now rendered by the press of a button, the hypergraph’s lonely position can seem all the more counterintuitive, but thus all the more human as well.

Maybe now the question of "you can't really do all THAT" can be put to rest.

Way late to the party, but Happy New Thread!

BURGOINE #055

We Never Swim in the Same River Twice by Hassouna Mosbahi (tr. William Maynard Hutchins)

Rating: 3.75* of five

The Publisher Says: During Tunisia’s Arab Spring and its tilt toward Islamism, we meet three friends: Saleem, who is about to turn fifty and whose once-blissful marriage teeters on the edge as his mental health deteriorates; Aziz, a homely retired postal clerk who finds solace in literature and international cinema; and Omran, a well-traveled writer and public intellectual navigating a complex relationship with a young Franco-Tunisian woman who lives in Paris. As these men forge an unlikely friendship over drinks at a coastal bar in Bizerte and during walks on the beach, they grapple with the political extremism that dominates Tunisia’s social and political life at the time. Repelled by Islamist rhetoric and the brand of masculinity it represents, the three friends recall their lives and question their relationship to their nation.

We Never Swim in the Same River Twice offers an alternative narrative of the Arab Spring, one that challenges Western media’s depiction of a “blessed revolution,” and gives readers an intimate and elegiac portrait of a recent period in Tunisian history.

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

My Review: I've been at a loss; this book did not irresistibly draw me in, but it's much better than most books I read. It's not to my taste. Its message very much is. Then I read World Literature Today's review of it, by M.D. Allen, of whom I've never heard before: (link: https://worldliteraturetoday.org/2025/july/we-never-swim-same-river-twice-hassou...

...{visiting} a newly independent Algeria makes {the author's stand-in} consider that the Islamist establishment there also now misrepresents the protracted and bloody war that has just ended as having been fought not against colonial rule but in favor of “fatwas advocating violence, and a culture of hatred and loathing.”

Mosbahi’s high reputation as a novelist will not be hurt by this very readable work, which gives a vivid if not especially pleasant picture of post–Arab Spring Tunisia; nor will anyone but the most intransigent of his political opponents deny his moral courage.

This is a message I can not help but support, said however, aimed wherever, in whichever language of culture. Moral courage IN PUBLIC is more important now than it has ever been in my lifetime, though I stipulate that it is not and has never been unimportant.

>116 drneutron: Thank you, kind sir. Always a pleasure!

((Hugs)) and **smooches** and hopes that your hands are feeling better by now

'Morning, RDear. Happpy Tuesday to you.

>119 alcottacre: What Stasia said.

Book sort and Virlie's today. Playing with Jenna's, now my, IKEA bookcases, filling them with the 7 UHaul book-sized boxes of my books that are in the downstairs hall just waiting to be opened and the books shelved. *happy dance*

BB's and even wish list entries avoided. Whew.

Additional *smooch* to the >119 alcottacre: What Stasia said *smooch*

>119 alcottacre: *smooch*

I'm feeling less owwie, thanks, so I report success.

>120 karenmarie: Morning, sweetiedarling. I'm *ever*so*pleased* you're avoiding my carefully considered, painstakingly crafted, reviews. Just...delighted. Nay, thrilled.

>100 richardderus: I do recall reading of Smedley and his role in quashing J. P. Morgan's elves. We need his descendents right now.

I'm so behind, Richard, and I was reading faithfully until I got to >74 richardderus: and had to streak over to Amazon, find it for $6.99, and load it onto my Kindle. Doggone new books when I want so many old ones! BUT. This is exactly the current scifi take that thrills me to the marrow. Thanks, WBL!

I'm off to be fitted for hearing aids in a bit, and I will take the Kindle and start the book in the waiting room. (Never mind Lightborne that arrived yesterday.)

>122 richardderus: Love EW! Wish I could "resolve it as art"!

>123 weird_O: If only he had some...he was a really upright, honorable murderous lunatic.

Sorry, war criminal.

Oops, "Army officer."

>124 LizzieD: Miss Eu is one of my favorites. I love how pithy she is, though I'm less impressed with her plotting skills at greater word counts. The Ponder Heart's the best not-short-story she wrote.

I love that the ebook's only $6.99! Enjoy. And may these hearing aids work perfectly. *smooch*

>14 richardderus: So Kit Marlowe finds his way into the Someday Swamp. It sure ain't his first swamp.

>57 richardderus: This is something I worry about a lot, and I hadn't heard of this one. I'll seek it out.

>74 richardderus: Immeasurable Heaven sounds fun.

>79 richardderus: I've seen reviews of that, and wondered whether I'm up to reading it. Also wondering whether I'm up to not reading it. Fuck the fuckers.

>127 swynn: "Swamp Thing" Marlowe's doubtless pleased to've landed in your swamp at last, Steve. I hope >57 richardderus: elucidates things fer yinz when you read it.

>74 richardderus: is indeed fun, and well worth some shelf/Kindle space. >79 richardderus: will, I feel sure, break something inside you, but it's something that needs breaking. Fuck 'em All.

We enjoyed another nice day here in Chicagoland. HEAT warnings for the next two days. Ugh!

I just saw another positive blurb about Florida Palms and you expanded on it. Sounds like something I would like.

>129 msf59: Well, heat and summer are twins, evil ones but twins.

I hope it *will* turn out to be something you like.

>102 richardderus: Makes one wonder how to undo the fallout.

>131 Familyhistorian: I really do not know that it can be done.

147 Salt bones : a novel by Jennifer Givhan

The Mulholland Books imprint brings a modern retelling of the Demeter & Persephone on the Mexicali border.

>121 richardderus: I am glad to hear that you are feeling at least some better, Richard.

((Hugs)) and **smooches** for today. Have a wonderful Wednesday, RD!

>134 alcottacre: Stasia! *smooch* for visiting

‘Morning, RDear! Happy Wednesday to you.

>122 richardderus: I’m not avoiding your reviews, I’m avoiding adding to my wish list or taking BBs. However, I am looking at my copy of Algospeak and I downloaded No Body, No Crime. *smirk*

>133 richardderus: Swing and a miss. No on so many levels, but as always, a perspicacious review. I am familiar with the Salton Sea since I had a boyfriend from Brawley and we almost always went the Salton Sea route to get there instead of the I-8 from San Diego. I can hardly think of a single part of the country more depressing than the Salton Sea.

*smooch*

>136 karenmarie: ...that's two...

No, seriously sweetiedarling I'm most pleased when you read the reviews. It's lovely to be validated.

BRAWLEY!! Yikes. Please reassure me you didn't go to the Rodeo...that would dent your credibility as an anti-MAGAt. And oh my goddesses yes, the Salton Sea is soulkillingly stupefyingly depressing. The Imperial Valley ain't a ton o' chuckles. whole and entire.

I was surprised this morning when I unplugged my phone and discovered a voicemail message. Turned out to be from the cowardly, Senator Marshall from Kansas. Yesterday he did a half hour phone-in Town Hall meeting and gave his constituents a half hour warning that he was going to do it. Marshall has been getting lots of flack lately from his irate constituents regarding his recent kowtowing to "he who would be king" and his cowardly lack of contact with his constituents. The state and local newspapers are ragging on both of the Kansas Senators regarding their lack of communication with Kansans since the blowup in little "ol Oakley about cutting federal jobs, USAID, and veterans' benefits. Since then, neither Senator has had any meetings with the Kansas press or with their constituents. Somehow that tells me that our Kansas senators have forgotten that their constituents are in Kansas not in the White House.

Since I got the message about the phone-in Town Hall about 14 hours after the meeting, I didn't attend.

>137 richardderus:
It wasn't even a ton o'chuckles for the folks in East of Eden either.

>138 benitastrnad: A half-hour ahead! Nothing says "I know I'm in the right not just on it" like scheduling public meetings by text. ::eyeroll::

>139 benitastrnad: Indeed. There's nothing like agriculture to bring out the kind, loving, nurturing side of humankind.

>133 richardderus: Well, how odd. Here is your review today, and today I watched "Human Footprint" on PBS. This episode included a lot of information about the Colorado River, and part of that covered the Imperial Valley and the Salton Sea. From what they showed, I see why you say the Salton Sea is depressing.

>142 atozgrl: Hi Irene, yes...the Salton Sea, the one time I was there in the early 80s, is...shuddersome.

Funny thing about the show. Coincidences are so weird.

148 A daughter's place : a novel by Martha Bátiz

The House of Anansi Press published A DAUGHTER'S PLACE, historical fiction that gives voices for the voiceless women in Cervantes' orbit at last...but what they talk about...!

Sweet Thursday, Richard. You made the right call with Pan: A Novel. I think you would have hated it. I just might have DNFed it, if it wasn't an e-galley. Your book-dar is in good operating condition.

>144 richardderus: Hmmmm... sounds potentially interesting, but keeping in mind my soon-to-decrease reading time, I'm not convinced I want to spend it among characters thinking/talking about men quite so much as you describe. I got annoyed when my friends did it as a teenager, and I'm not as forgiving in my middle age, either.

Thursday *smooch* anyway, and hope you're staying cool. A heat wave will be kicking in here today, and I'm planning on leaving my AC on while I'm gone so that I can cook dinner tonight without fainting.

>144 richardderus: I am always on the lookout for good historical fiction and that one sounds like it fits the bill. I will have to see if I can locate a copy. Thanks for the review and recommendation!

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

>145 msf59: It just vibed that way, Mark, so I think you're the victim here. I'm pretty confident in my judgments, being old and well-worn-in. I hope you recover....

>146 bell7: I've been outside, taken in my UV for the day, accomplished the minor chores I needed to, and can report that not one single second was spent thinking about >144 richardderus:. Still less the next review coming up.

My a/c is joyously cranking out coolth. I love Mr. Lennox/Carrier despite his death.

>147 alcottacre: I think a lot about the read will hit you in the sweet spot, Stasia, the dialogue's a bit heavy but you will find it evocative of the mood she wants you to feel.

*smooch*

149 THE MOTHER CODE: My Story of Love, Loss, and the Myths That Shape Us by Ruthie Ackerman

What it says, just including the one you don't look at: Privilege. NOT recommended.

Hiya, RDear! Happy Thursday to you.

>137 richardderus: I dated Michael from 1974 to 1977 and not once did we go to a Rodeo. In fact, up until now, I did not realize Brawley had a Rodeo. Started in 1957, so it was there while I was visiting with Michael. Lots of agriculture and cattle there. All I remember are the heat and dust and sneaking around at night to spend time in a Very Catholic Household. His mother Clara was a frighteningly religious woman.

>145 msf59: Down the rabbit hole of Isabella and by proxy Cervantes himself. Stunning review, 5*. Catalina, Cervantes' wife, was a really nasty, pious, pinched bag of judgment, blame, and nastiness. Hmm. I can think of one woman that sentence describes, who was in my life peripherally and is, thank goodness, unalive. In addition to those tasty characteristics, she used tears to get what she wanted. Ugh. Failing the Bechdel test wouldn’t bother me. I prefer period accuracy rather than placing modern sensibilities on historical characters.

*smooch*

PEARL RULE #016

The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan

Rating: 3* of five

The Publisher Says: A gorgeous, witty account of birding, nature, and the beauty around us that hides in plain sight.

Tracking the natural beauty that surrounds us, The Backyard Bird Chronicles maps the passage of time through daily entries, thoughtful questions, and beautiful original sketches. With boundless charm and wit, author Amy Tan charts her foray into birding and the natural wonders of the world.

In 2016, Amy Tan grew overwhelmed by the state of the Hatred and misinformation became a daily presence on social media, and the country felt more divisive than ever. In search of peace, Tan turned toward the natural world just beyond her window and, specifically, the birds visiting her yard. But what began as an attempt to find solace turned into something far greater—an opportunity to savor quiet moments during a volatile time, connect to nature in a meaningful way, and imagine the intricate lives of the birds she admired.

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

My Review: Right reader, wrong book? Right book, wronng time? Dunno. I'm surfeited on the buffet of bon-bons, the smorgasbord of sweetmeats, the pomander of perfumed paragraphs in this book.

Maybe having the Felonious Yam and his diktat-signing autopen back in power makes this feel more like irresposible escapism than it would have had the recent election not gone the way it did.

Knopf needs $14.99 to send to their corporate masters in Germany. Passionate birders and Tan-stans are going to whatever I say.

>144 richardderus: It goes on the wish list, but I'm happy to say that I don't feel the need to get it right this minute! Do we now call this a surface wound?

Enjoy your cool, WBL. Today will be manageable, but we're working toward murder again over the weekend. *sigh*

*smooch*

No 14 / No. 10 (Yellows and Greens), 1953, a Rothko that really explains the nature of what these images are meant to do: show color, light, and form as interdependent evocations of intent and emotion.

>152 karenmarie: Hiya sweetiedarling. I'll bet Michael was as revolted as I am by the whole enterprise since he never so much as mentioned it to you.

Catalina's nastiness was deeply off-putting to me...I hope I conveyed that, though your absence of a stabby/hatchet-wieldy emoji suggests it might not have met with your approval. There HAD to be things women talked about that weren't men even in 1590s Spain. It's impossible for there not to have been.

*smooch*

>154 LizzieD: hmmm

Maybe "surface wound" is le mot juste. Well spotted Peggy me lurve!

It's going to be worst tomorrow here...high heat index. I will not be moving more than a few feet from the a/c. *ew*

PEARL RULE #017

Manomin: Caring for Ecosystems and Each Other (22%) edited by Brittany Luby, Margaret Lehman, Andrea Bradford, Samantha Mehltretter, and Jane Mariotti

Rating: 2.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Reclaiming crops and culture on Turtle Island

Manomin, more commonly known by its English misnomer “wild rice,” is the only cereal grain native to Turtle Island (North America). Long central to Indigenous societies and diets, this complex carbohydrate is seen by the Anishinaabeg as a gift from Creator, a “spirit berry” that has allowed the Nation to flourish for generations.

Caring for Ecosystems and Each Other offers a community-engaged analysis of the under-studied grain, weaving together the voices of scholars, chefs, harvesters, engineers, poets, and artists to share the plant’s many lessons about the living relationships between all forms of creation.

Grounded in Indigenous methodologies and rendered in full colour, Manomin reveals and examines our interconnectedness through a variety of disciplines—history, food studies, ethnobotany, ecology—and forms of expression, including recipes, stories, and photos.

A powerful contribution to conversations on Indigenous food security and food sovereignty, the collection explores historic uses of Manomin, contemporary challenges to Indigenous aquaculture, and future possibilities for restoring the sacred crop as a staple.

In our time of ecological crisis, Manomin teaches us how to live well in the world, sustaining our relations with each other, our food, and our waterways.

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

My Review: "The only cereal grain native to Turtle Island (North America)"? Heard of teosinte? Or is Mexico too far south for you?

I'm not the right reader for this, so two-and-a-half stars in case it's genius not just sloppy, and I'm too old-white-man to see it.

University of Manitoba Press wants $29.95 for any edition.

Naropinosa on Tumblr does these wonderful takes on great-master art and salacious gay photography.

>143 richardderus: Salton Sea is depressing and disappearing last I heard.

>160 RebaRelishesReading: Almost totally gone, from what I understand. I really don't think it's that great a loss. When you lived in San Diego, did you go there for any reason?

>159 richardderus: Wow...gay porn is now acceptable on LT?

>162 NtSmiLnUFoolz: - A bare male chest is hardly "porn" 😂

>151 richardderus: Welp, that's going *off* the TBR list then. I'd seen a brief description of it but don't need to read about a highly specific & privileged way of becoming a mother.

>153 richardderus: This one's still on the list, but I'm waiting for the right time if it ever arrives.

>155 richardderus: That's quite peaceful and intriguing to my eye.

>163 katiekrug: It ISN'T?! Oh damn.

>164 bell7: Concur, Mary, none of these are urgent to get to.

I'm really irked that this rich woman's privilege is untouchable by criticism because she's A Woman.

>155 richardderus: Another favorite saved! The thing about that one is that if it were hung upside down, it would be a clear picture of sky with setting sun and sea.

150 The Old Neighborhood (New Chicago Classics Book 10) by Bill Hillmann

Tortoise Books gets the author a second bite of the apple for a story I neglected in 2014.

>167 LizzieD: Morning, Peggy me lurve, I'm pleased that one was as happy-making for you as it was for me. I like the seascape/sunset idea! *baa*

‘Morning, RDear! Happy Friday.

>153 richardderus: Duly noted, will avoid.

>155 richardderus: This is the first Rothko you’ve posted where I can actually see what you’re writing about. Yay me. I just did a bit of rabbit-holing, and prefer his non-color-field paintings, and especially love Baptismal Scene.

>156 richardderus: Michael hated Brawley and never returned to live there after he left for college, We were much more into hippie-sorts-of-things anyway. Now, of course, I enjoy the occasional MM romance with cowboys.

Things women possibly talked about in 1590s Spain that weren’t men: religion, pregnancy/childbirth/children, and a few enterprising souls probably chafed at not being able to be artists, writers, philosophers/public figures.

>158 richardderus: No matter how many times I’ve tried over the decades, I simply do not like wild rice. *shrug*

>159 richardderus: I’ve never heard of him – no surprise – but I just saw more of his work and am impressed and occasionally disturbed.

*smooch*

>170 karenmarie: I'm glad >155 richardderus: spoke to you even a little bit.

Baptismal Scene isn't a personal favorite of mine. It's an above-average abstract but my dress is not blown up. Where yours isn't by the color field works I'm so fond of...keeps life interesting, no?

I'm no fancier of wild rice either. I will eat it, unlike brown rice which, apart from yams, cobbed corn, and chocolate, is one of the things I simply refuse to eat. I'll even eat chocolate in things, but never AS the thing, and will always choose the free-of-it option if one's available.

Naropinosa is a really interesting artist. I'm glad you thought enough of it to go looking. *smooch*

>161 richardderus: Never "to" there but near by a few times on the way to someplace else.

>172 RebaRelishesReading: That's enough to give you the gestalt. Really really really depressing.

151 Mislaid by Nell Zink

Ten years ago, it was long listed for the National Book Award.

TERRIFIC Texas-like thunderstorm yesterday! It was wonderful, washing the world's dirty hair leaving us refreshed. Today won't be nasty. The World™ will be, but it won't be locally atmospherically ghastly just basically summer. A relief not to get smacked from too many angles at once.

As always, I'm late to the party, even though 14 July is a very important day for me, as Thomas and I got married on that day (exactly 200 years after the storming of the Bastille). Thomas said at the time that if we got married, it had to be on a date he could remember. Sigh.
After a “brooding” start to summer at the end of June/beginning of July, I am now enjoying what I consider to be pleasant summer temperatures of 22-25C with a little rain every day. That's just how I like it.
I wish you a wonderful weekend. *smooch*

>176 Ameise1: Heh, and you married him anyway? True Love, obviously. Of course it also means you can wear guillotine earrings if you need to send him A Message.

It's 27C here today. I'm trying to be polite about it...after out thunderations last night, we're only cloudy today but that is pleasant enough to keep me from spoiling milk with my nasty-face bad mood.

Stay well and happy, dear lady.

>177 richardderus: 😂😂😂 I hadn't even thought of guillotine earrings, but I haven't worn earrings for years.

27C is still okay, but it's uncomfortably humid when there are thunderstorms. Keep your chin up.

‘Morning, RDear. Happy Saturday to you.

>174 richardderus: I read the publisher’s description and decided to acquire it, then read your review and decided not to. Thanks for taking one for the team.

I’ve got a busy late morning because I need to run a few errands before the temps get to the high of 98F/heat index as high as 114F. Aaargh.

*smooch*

>178 Ameise1: Sounds like a purchase needs to be made...

:-P

Being next to the North Atlantic, the thunderstorms don't really add noticeably to the humidity. That's mostly before the storm, when it's truly horribly sticky and gross.

>179 karenmarie: Morning, sweetiedarling. Those temps are obscene!

It's just not a book I love, >175 richardderus:, so I'm torn. I don't think it's a bad book. It's just not for me, now...I'd never recommend it to you but it might not hit you as negatively...maybe you could try the Kindle sample?

Stay cool! *smooch*

>173 richardderus: I'm not a desert person AT ALL!! I spent a year of grad school in Phoenix and learned I don't even like cities in the desert let alone a barren stretch of sand. I'm definitely a water and trees kind of person.

>182 RebaRelishesReading: Soul sibling! If there's not a tree, a body of water, or snow, I'm out.

>183 richardderus: Yes, I like (a little bit of) snow too -- forgot to mention that. (a rainy day by the fire is always nice too)

*sigh* We could use a bit of snow here or rain or cloud cover or anything that diminishes the heat and humidity. IT already thinks we're Florida: 102° predicted for this afternoon with a heat index of 115°. I can stay in, but poor anybody who has to work outside, poor little animals, poor plants.
*smooch* anyway, WBL.

>184 RebaRelishesReading: ...a lovely hope for our future...

>185 LizzieD: Hey there Peggy! You really really need the help, fer sher. If we're honest, the privilege we have as elders is this exactly: not dealing with it. I suppose it should shame me to say I'm reveling in my privilege.

Weekend *smooch*
I'm enjoying the slightly cooler weather while I can; it's supposed to get hot again Monday-Tuesday...

>187 bell7: *ew* I'm not happy it's summer, of course, but why does it need to last so long?! I'll go do my residual errand tomorrow to escape that horror. *smooch*

>183 richardderus: Plenty of trees, bodies of water and even a bit of snow sometimes here, Richard. (Although we really don't appreciate the snow.) Hope the rest of the weekend treats you right.

>189 Familyhistorian: Y'all have one of the planet's more agreeable climates, Meg. Seattle's stonking great volcano and that immense subduction zone 50mi offshore scare me more than the appeal lures me....

'Morning, RDear! Happy Sunday to you.

>181 richardderus: Well, color me surprised. I did go to Amazon to read the Kindle sample, saw that it was included for $0.00 with my Audible subscription, listened to a bit of that to make sure I wouldn’t gag over narrator Cassandra Campbell’s voice, and so acquired it. I was charmed by the first paragraph and then loved the idea of the Bunny Burger. We'll see if I actually like it.

>190 richardderus: No, no! Erase from my memory since JenWan are moving to within 25 miles of Seattle.

Of course, friend Karen near Bozeman, Montana and another friend Karen in Cody, Wyoming are pretty much on top of the Yellowstone Caldera…

*smooch*

Dropping off smooches and hoping today is on the cooler side for you.

>191 karenmarie: Morning, Horrible...no one west of the Rockies is going to survive the Cascadia fault's big shrug. The volcano going off is, well, we're none of us likely to do well after that, and Yellowstone blowing will kill billions so who wants to survive that?

We, or me anyway, will all die when Gran Canaria goes BOOM and sheds a million cubic meters of Earth into the narrow Atlantic. The tsunamis will tower over a kilometer. There's a huge fault off Long Island that farted in 1883 and shook Brooklyn up...it washed away a hunk of my little barrier island, too. No one's safe, ever was, or ever will be, is what I'm saying so fingers in ears and "lalalalala can't heeeaaarrr yooouuu" is as effective as ever.

Enjoy Nell's book. I hope you love it! *smooch*

>192 MickyFine: Micky dear! Happy you're here. I'm back in the a/c after a trip to procure gorilla glue and indulge myself in a new-to-me brand of coffee ice cream (it was okay, not $8-a-pint worth, but nice enough),so I am quite content to watch as the world goes full-tilt-boogie into that handbasket. *smooch*

I must have missed Friday's thunderstorm, but I wish I hadn't. I do love a good loud lightning-infused thunderstorm.

Have a great rest of the weekend! Tomorrow's supposed to be hot again.

>195 Storeetllr: I don't think it made it that far up, Mary. It was a squall from the sea.

U.G.H. on the heat! At least I got the one thing I *had* to have in already. I'm staying by the a/c!

It would be nice to live where an A/C wasn't a necessity but rather one of those appliances that you use once-in-awhile. Perhaps Winnipeg? I keep saying that Winnipeg is looking better and better ever since November 2024. I watched old reruns of Ken Burn's Vietnam and I don't understand how hordes of people who got the vote in 1971 could have voted for the Orange Asshat? Thank goodness there is Ovidia Yu's Su Lin Mysteries to keep me entertained enough to forget about him. (I am reading book 8 in that series) Maybe I'll get lucky and he will stay in the land of his mother forever.

>197 benitastrnad: They don't want him there. Have you seen the protest signs they've been carrying?

>197 benitastrnad: I read some of those mysteries. They were pleasant enough, though I think I lost steam about #3.

Winnipeg? Doesn't the summer get unpleasantly hot on the Plains? Still...Carney>>>what we've got.

>197 benitastrnad:, >198 atozgrl: They keep me alive, they do.

152 Beasts of Carnaval: A Caribbean Historical Fantasy Tale of Mystery and Magic at El Carnaval De Bestias by Rosalia Rodrigo

MIRA Books published this debut Caribbean-set Taíno mythology-centered fantasy novel.

153 The memory hunters by Mia Tsai

Erewhon Books publishes Mia Tsai's first fantasy novel in The Consecrated series of anti-colonialist sapphic tales.

Happy Monday, Richard. Thanks for visiting my thread while I was gallivanting around in the Hawkeye State. Actually, I have a special fondness for small town life. I would trade it in a heartbeat for city life. I even got some birding in. I hope you are enjoying some healthy days.

>202 msf59: Monday orisons, fellow Antique American. I like the middle ground: Long Beach is under 40.000 in population but has zero rural vibes. Best of all possibles to me. "Enjoy" the week ahead, in this heat.

>200 richardderus: Ooh Beasts of Carnaval sounds great! I love the cover too.

>204 norabelle414: Excellent news, Nora. I like the cover, and can reassure you it accurately reflects the contents!

'Morning, RDear! Happy Monday to you.

As you predicted on my thread, neither review induces me to acquire the book. BBs and wish list books avoided on a Monday, yay.

Dentist for 6-month checkup, get cash for Jenna's birthday card, otherwise at home reading and puttering.

96F sounds tolerable, but the 110F heat index will make today quite unpleasant out here. Looks pretty warm for you today, what with being on the coast and all - 87F.

*smooch*

>206 karenmarie: I was pretty sure of my prediction, though I switched out one review. Wednesday's gonna be a wash for you, too: Ed Park isn't in your interest group, or even zip code.

Yes *sob* it's effing August so I gotta suck it up since it's effing summer *ptooptoo* and the tourists need a reason to come get cool in the North Atlantic. I'm eville because I keep hoping we'll have an Amity Island event....

*smooch*

Well, Richard, I would find the two women's fantasies appealing, but I. Just. Can't. at the moment. Prices will come down!

Stay cool. *smooch*

>208 LizzieD: Peggy me lurve, wait for a $2.99 sale on either. You won't lose a thing. They're enjoyable, but not world-altering.

Hmm, I don't' know about Winnipeg, though I was born there and have quite a bit of family there. It can get quite hot in the summer and I think you'd want A/C. And brr cold in the winter. But house prices are good. It's a nice city, but I would worry about crime in some areas.

>210 vancouverdeb: To be honest, Deborah, I always want to have a/c, even if it's not in use. I'm really suspicious of the weather goddesses. They have wicked senses of humor from what I can see. And central heat is far better than the other methods.

I am not even trying to catch up, RD, but wanted to drop off ((hugs)) and **smooches** for today

>212 alcottacre: Morning, Stasia, happy to see you here. Tuesday *smooch*

‘Morning, RD! Happy Tuesday.

>207 richardderus: I’m just happy to have avoided wish list books or BBs. No GWS bloodbaths, please.

>211 richardderus: My mom dad, in SoCal, didn’t get AC until many years after I moved out.

*smooch*

>214 karenmarie: I grew up without it in NorCal. I remember one really hot day being wretched and unable to sleep. Apart from that, though, nothing stuck in my head until moving to Texas and a/c everywhere the way Gawd intended. Doing without seems unthinkable now.

A few really bloody gobblings? Just to throw a scare into 'em?

No? ::pout::

Ann Patchett takes down stupid op-ed written by David Brooks declaring literary fiction is dead:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPrH7kqGKCY
How arrogant this all is. Because "literary fiction" is, as a definition, pretty bloody elitist. Whining that "the literary fiction world is weak now" just shows how *awful* your definition of strong is, sir. He cites as examples truly dreadful human beings whose work, I'll admit, I've read and enjoyed...but they as people were vile, misogynistic homophobic (ironically citing two queer authors as strong creators, but both Capote and Vidal were NOT role models) drunkards without a single shred of honor among them.

"I don't like modern books" is the burden of this refrain. Then don't read them, there are literally tens of thousands of "classics" you haven't read. Translations of "strong" GrecoRoman slave-owning woman-hating men ought to be regressive enough for you; but oh wait, all those manly men fucked boys (literal boys, it was part of a man's sexual privilege) and girls so now what, Mr. Brooks? Mentioning context is too woke for him (unless it's context he agrees with).

But no matter what, books come out because people read them, and that ought to be grounds for warbles of delight. I'm trying hard not to add to the decrying of work *I* don't care for as "inferior" or lesser; it's got craft flaws, or it's just not something I like, or it's aimed at people who aren't me. There are times when my huge reading-list does equip me to say "this just isn't good." But guess what? I think a long time before I pull rank like that. I wish Mr. Brooks had done as much.

>216 richardderus: Every time David Brooks puts fingers to keyboard I have to prepare myself for eyeroll-related injuries

>217 norabelle414: So very agreed. I expanded and sourced >216 richardderus: on my blog if anyone's interested.
https://expendablemudge.blogspot.com/2025/07/aint-it-awful-round-91988498295-and...

*smooch* Richard!

I'm making an early night of it after a late morning.

‘Morning, RDear. Happy Wednesday to you.

>215 richardderus: There were always ~10 days each summer where it was Very Humid. We just sucked it up with those. When I bought my house in 1987, there was only a wall unit in the ‘master’ bedroom, and I admit that there were some days when I came home, got into shorts and a T, and stood in front of it as it blasted cold air ‘til I had cooled off.

No to the bloody gobblings. Nary a one.

>216 richardderus: I gave up on David Brooks a long time ago, although for a while I was seduced into thinking that a Republican had opinions that mattered.

>217 norabelle414: I absolutely agree.

*smooch*

>219 LizzieD: I hope it was peaceful, mine was awful. See below.

>216 richardderus: I love and agree with your thoughts on this. I will have to circle back and read the Patchett piece. I am not sure anyone else is more qualified to respond.

Happy Wednesday, Richard. 74F tomorrow. Can't wait...😎

>220 karenmarie: Happy Wednesday, sweetiedarling. It's A Necessity to my spoiled old manness. I spent years in South, South Texas, and the *idea* of no a/c...!

Nope. No one among Them is like the old Rockefeller Repulsivecans, and hasn't been since the 1979 Iran Revolution. Can't prove a causal relationship yet, not enough time has passed for legal culpability to be mitigated.

Not even one horrific savaging without loss of more than one or two limbs? Meanie.
***
I was dog-sick last night. Hours of misery in the bathroom. It's unthinkable to imagine being that kind of ill in this miserable weather without a/c, the way it was in days of yore. I think ill older people died of heat stress as often as disease. I'm now waging a battle against my roommate's consent given to the Orwellian surveillance of "his heart and lung function" by a machine installed over his bed. I've sent the poor installation tech away to come back in an hour. By which time I'll have complained enough to management to prevent its installation.

>222 msf59: It'll be 86° here. I hate you. (Until Saturday, anyway, when it'll get cooler.)

Re: >216 richardderus: the Patchett is a YouTube video, about ten minutes long.

154 Women in intelligence : the hidden history of two world wars by Helen Fry

WOMEN IN INTELLIGENCE: The Hidden History of Two World Wars is a solid history of how women have always contributed everything they have...receiving little or no credit in return. Yale University Press brought it out in 2023.

155 Sea wonders : the octopus, the cuttlefish, and the squid by Marco Colombo & Francesco Tomasinelli (illus. Giulia De Amicis)

Rating: 4.75* of five

The Publisher Says: Explore the world of extraordinary marine creatures in this beautifully illustrated guide to thirty species of octopuses, cuttlefish, and squids.

In Sea Wonders, discover the remarkable characteristics of cephalopods, enigmatic sea creatures with arms directly attached to their heads, who are masters of survival and transformation. Thirty species are collected in this fascinating guidebook, detailing their most surprising habits and abilities:

Enterprising, resourceful, and intelligent, they know how to solve problems and can use objects as tools.

They are notorious for escaping from aquaria.

They can recognize people and can even feel dislike for some!

Some species, such as the orchid cuttlefish, are among the most colorful organisms in the oceans

Others, like the blue-ringed octopus, are famous for their lethal bite.

Some of the world’s largest invertebrates are cephalopods—including giant squids the size of a bus—about which very little research exists to this day.

The first half of the book contains fifty gorgeously detailed and realistic illustrations and delves into the species' main characteristics and the secrets of their underwater world. The second half features specimen cards with scientific information and fun facts for easy reference.

REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES: Cephalopods are fascinating creatures increasingly understood as intelligent, sophisticated, and resourceful animals. Their unexpected cognitive capacities encourage us to reflect on how we relate to the natural world, making it clear that it is not only mammals and birds who deserve our empathy.

THOROUGHLY RESEARCHED SCIENTIFIC FACTS: Various species of octopuses, squids, and cuttlefish are explored in these pages, with in-depth information on habitats and habits as well as fun facts.

FOREWORD BY OSCAR-WINNING FILMMAKER: Craig Foster, producer of the 2020 Academy Award–winning documentary My Octopus Teacher is a naturalist, ocean explorer, and author of Underwater Wild: My Octopus Teacher's Extraordinary World.

Perfect for:

Anyone with an interest in marine creatures and the undersea world

Birthday, housewarming, or seasonal gift for nature lovers

Oceanography and marine biology students, teachers, and professionals

Fans of animal and nature books like Amphibious Soul, Oceanology: The Secrets of the Sea Revealed, and The Soul of an Octopus

Marco Colombo (co-author) is an environmental guide, scuba diving master, TV scientific consultant, and wildlife and underwater photographer. His photographs and articles have appeared in National Geographic, BBC Wildlife, Nat'Images, and elsewhere. Colombo has won multiple categories in the Natural History Museum, London’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. He is the author of more than ten books about biodiversity and conservation issues, a frequent speaker, and a university instructor.
Francesco Tomasinelli (co-author) is a freelance biologist, science communicator, and photographer. As a photojournalist, he has joined several scientific expeditions in the Tropics and has documented various conservation programs in Italy and abroad. Tomasinelli has written more than three hundred magazine articles and fifteen books on natural sciences, served as an animal expert for Italian television, worked as an instructor for various learning institutions, including Università di Genova, Pavia, dell’Insubria, and Politecnico di Milano, and created a number of scientific exhibitions.
Giulia De Amicis (illustrator) is a designer and illustrator who presents complex information through infographics, data visualization, cartography, and illustration. She focuses on projects related to environmental issues, marine conservation, animal welfare, human rights, and human geography for clients including newspapers, research institutes, NGOs, and the educational sector. De Amicis has illustrated several picture books for National Geographic Kids and other publishers. She works and lives in Brighton, UK.

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

My Review: My affection for Tentacled Americans is well-known enough not to need restating here and now. You can imagine my excitement when this beauty, about my dotes, written and illustrated by real scientists, endorse by the My Octopus Teacher guy, came onto my radar.

I'll say that I love the way we're taught about the life and the habitat of each species covered. It's lovely to have such evocative illustrations to enjoy as well. There's a corking "further reading" section, and as this is a popular science book intended to bring the cephalopods to our homes and thoughts, I wasn't distressed by the lack of inline citations.

The Table of Contents should act as a pretty fair guide to the purpose and organization of the book:

The first text/illustration spread for aesthetic evaluation.


Interior spreads, showing the text/illustration interrelationships found throughout the book.




I'm really impressed that there was as much detail as exists in the text. As mentioned, it's not intended as more than an overview to present the amazing beings in quick, absorbable way. What a beautiful set of illustrations! They're not precisely correlated with the introductory text but close enough to make them handy references.

All in all a lovely (self-)gift for the fancier of these remarkable creatures. It's also a great gift item for the younger person considering the world's ocean as a subject of study. Older middle-grade students will be challenged, scientists not involved, but the amateur of any age will love it.






The species-by-species section's all organized this way.

Too cool to leave out! Enjoy them all.

>199 richardderus:
I think I started reading the Su Lin series by Ovidia Yu because both you and Suzanne recommended them. I like them for a couple of reasons.
1. They grow. By that I mean that in many ways they would qualify as historical fiction. They start in 1936 and the last one I read it is now 1947. The Crown Colony of Singapore has gone through lots of changes in those 11 years, as have the main characters. There is lots of cultural content in these books as well as historical content. There is also biological content (each of the books is named for some kind of native flora.) The historical facts are baked into the story and so the reader isn't hit over the head with facts, but there is no doubt that terrible things are in the background. For instance, one of the main characters has a brother who has disappeared during the war and the parents are deeply affected by this. Bigotry and prejudice are also baked into the stories. Malay vs. Chinese, Chinese vs. Japanese, and of course all of them despised by a good chunk of the British. Singapore is on the cusp of independence and most of the characters are not sure how they feel about that - for one reason or another.
2. They aren't terribly descriptively bloody. Yes, there is a murder mystery, but the excessive descriptions of human suffering are not overwhelming to the more sensitive reader.

I think that overall these murder mysteries strike a good balance between being all shoot 'em up bang bang over-the-top violence and straight cozy mysteries. They contain a healthy dose of education and cultural information as well. They are not everybody's cup of tea and for more sophisticated readers they might be like eating cotton candy, but they are good entertainment and fairly well written. They are not going to be classics, but when you need something to read while sitting in the doctors office for 2 and a half hours, they work. They also make me dream of being able to visit Singapore someday and have a Singapore Sling on the porch of the Raffles Hotel, or whatever passes for the Raffles these days.

>227 benitastrnad: The Yu series was appealing to me for most all those reasons, as well, and your fidelity to them means you're getting a lot out of those reads. That's the best indicator the author's onto something good.

I think the knowledge in the stories is one of their biggest draws. They don't seem to me like future classics, no, but they're as good or better than most of what publishing serves up.

>223 richardderus: Did your complaining work?

>226 richardderus: Wow, What a detailed, information-packed review! I need to read this book. Thanks!

Karen O

>229 RebaRelishesReading: It hasn't been installed...yet...but I'm not convinced they're not planning to do an end run and install it while I'm in the boss's office or something like that. It's in keeping with their attitude. "Our money before your...anything."

>230 klobrien2: Thank you most kindly, Karen O.! I suspect it'll hit your art/information sweet spot.

Richard, I'm sorry you're having to deal with being ill and having unnecessary, disrupting machinery in your living space. I hope you're 100% better by morning in the first case and wish you all look in the second.

>226 richardderus: That is an amazing book, and I'm really happy that you have a copy and that I don't. *smooch*

Wednesday *smooch* and hope you're feeling better soon.

>216 richardderus: I watched Ann Patchetts' reply video that you linked . Great job that she did. Literary fiction dead! I read quite a bit of literary fiction as I like to follow prize lists. Ah, sorry to read about how sick you have been, Richard.

‘Morning, RDear! I hope today isn’t crappy. Heck. I even hope that there is at least one thing that brings you joy, satisfaction, or happiness. Oh, and happy Thursday.

>233 LizzieD: No horrific savaging at all, although I did kill and flush a wasp down the toilet. I do not want them in the house.

I’m so sorry you were dog-sick two nights ago. Would the machine for OS be lit at night or beep or otherwise give noise pollution?

>225 richardderus: Good subject, it sounds like there is too much to have to take on faith for me to want this nonfiction book.

>226 richardderus: I’ve put a copy in my Save for Later on Amazon. So, between No Thanks and a direct BB arriving from Amazon.

*smooch*

156 Savvy Summers and the sweet potato crimes : a mystery by Sandra Jackson-Opoku

Minotaur Books starts a Chicagoland series that's gonna fatten me up, fast!

"It'll be 86° here. I hate you." 😀 Your time will come. We may be able to turn off the A/C. That has not been possible for weeks.

I hope you have a better day. Sweet Thursday!

>233 LizzieD: Thank you, Peggy...I'm better today, no longer dragged out from the illness. You don't fancy learning about those marvelous Tentacled Americans? more fool you...they're the ones gonna replace us once we finish screwing the planet enough we can't live on it anymore. Be a vyfcrdde bbbblllrrll (honored forebear) to Cuttlefishkind! *smooch*

>234 bell7: Thank you, Mary, I'm recovered. I'm pretty sure I'll stay that way, since I suspect it was me angering my departed gall bladder that led to it.

>235 vancouverdeb: Brooks is such a singularity of pomposity and proof that Old White Men need to step out of power. Ten years ago preferably, now is second best. Patchett's response was so gentle in its mockery.

>236 karenmarie: Merry Thursday, Horrible. I'm pleased >226 richardderus: is going to end up on your shelves. I'm Morally Certain it will.

I think I annoyed my long-gone gall bladder and she came back to punish me...I ate potato chips without checking what kind of fats were in them. If it'd been a virus I'd still be sick. I don't worry so much about noise and lights don't keep me awake. I've got the noise-canceling headphones and YouTube tinnitus stuff.

The installer just came back and tried again. I sent him away again, to his irritation, and he required I speak to their rep...I do not intend for this to happen, so I'll talk to whoever they want to prevent it. It's a satisfaction to me that every time I resist it costs them money.

>237 richardderus: It's still annoying, but it's healthy and that is worth a lot more to me than sick AND annoying.

Testing.

Quotes of the Day from your thread:

>49 AMQS:. “My mom says if you can't be a good influence, you can at least be a horrible warning.”

>217 norabelle414:. “Every time David Brooks puts fingers to keyboard I have to prepare myself for eyeroll-related injuries”

>226 richardderus:. What a review! Library, here I come.

Brother Richard, you had something you wanted me to come by and see today?

I’m glad you’re feeling recovered. My poor wife for digestive reason has to watch carefully what she eats, too - particularly fried foods and sugar. My sympathy. I’m supposed to watch my sugar intake, but a daily pill makes it easy to cheat on that.

I wish you good reading. Sweet Thursday!

>244 timspalding: Receiving.

We should all watch what we eat. I certainly do. I watch it go from prep to plate to inside with anticipation and a great deal of pleasure most of the time.

By the time we finish off ourselves and the health of the planet, will the cephalopods want it? *smooch* right back

>245 jnwelch: roflmao. Thanks for excerpting these.

...but a daily pill ...

Metformin? I'm on a low dose of that stuff and now I can have a (small) sweet once a day without upsetting my blood sugar. (I'm officially pre-diabetic.)

>248 ArlieS:. I should have said pill plus injection. I do take Metformin daily, but I also inject Mounjaro (similar to Ozempic) once a week. It makes my numbers happy, and the doctor happy with my numbers.

I was pre-diabetic, but didn’t do enough good stuff, and now I’m Type II Diabetic.

I’m glad you enjoyed the quotes.😀

>245 jnwelch: Avoiding fats is easier than sugars, Joe, since companies routinely talk about fats to appease the diet industry, whereas there's sugar hidden in the squads of ingredients that already contain it.

Look at >237 richardderus:, Joe, it was a really enjoyable mystery read and very Chicago in its execution. I hope >226 richardderus: does right by you, too.

>247 LizzieD: It will mostly be water by then, me lurve, so I'm guessing they'll be delighted.

I'm so stuffed from my grilled-cheese sammy lunch (with green salad and soup) that I can't form a smile or emit laugh...I had two...*oink*

>248 ArlieS: He really picked the cream o' the crop, for sure.

>249 jnwelch: We live in a time of wonders, Joe, Mounjaro et alii chief among them.

>252 richardderus:. Yes, my happiness with modern medicine abounds, Richard. I had just about resigned myself to lousy, painful legs when the orthopedist came up with meloxicam and OTC Voltaren for my osteoarthritis. They worked! Just when I think the jalopy is finally breaking down, they find a way to keep it running. That Mounjaro is an amazement.

>250 richardderus: Savvy Summers is now at the top of my soon-to-read. Thanks - you’re right, that sure sounds like my sweet potato cup of tea.

My library system apparently doesn’t have Sea Wonders, the nudniks. Say what the what? So I need to find another way. Jeesh.

JULY IN REVIEW

I wrote sixty-two reviews. I found most of the books I reviewed ~meh~ to perfectly fine with one major exception: Algospeak: How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language by Adam Aleksic...informative and entertaining, if mildly annoying in its gee-whiz tone at times. The runner-up was The Private Is Political: Identity and Democracy in the Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Ray Brescia, because I am very very worried about the sleepwalking we-the-people are doing into this Orwellian nightmare. This book, IMO, was a clear and effective take on the issue presented in a way that felt like law-journal papers, so no full-five for you Mr. Brescia.

Fiction was...fine...nothing rocked my world and a few stank. Bad. But, remembering that I'm not counting reads but reviews written in the month here, there were no things I read but haven't reviewed yet that gave me a happy frisson, either. *sigh* I'm making a more concerted effort to review books the week they come out to seduce the publishers into saying yes to more requests. Not yet a huge success, either in effort or reward, but it's an explicit goal.

August is Women In Translation Month (#WITMonth). I'm well into those reviews and, so far, really good to very good indeed...no joyful warble reads there either. YET. I'm lookin' out careful, y'all. Penguin gave me a widget for Pan by Michael Clune which Bre'er Birddude was no fan of, so now I'mma hafta read it for myself. (Never say no to a widget or the publisher gets sniffy about future requests.) *whee*
ETA
My blog finished July with 161,360 views. I am gobsmacked.

>255 jnwelch: Ask 'em to get it, Joe. Most libraries aren't eager to buy those kinds of books without a push. Or the ebook is only $13.99, and you have an ipad; that's how I read it on my Samsung tablet and it looked wonderful.

Savvy will, I warn you, make you hungrier than a freshly woke bear. I want collards so bad I go to bed sobbing. And it's All Her Fault.

August is Women In Translation Month (#WITMonth). I'm well into those reviews and, so far, really good to very good indeed...no joyful warble reads there either. YET. I'm lookin' out careful, y'all. I don't set numerical goals very often, they feel performative for me because I read so very much...old, disabled, not much into TV, and hooked into the DRC ecosystem means I've got enough reading material to last until I'm dead...twice over.

For 2025's #WITMonth, I'll state as my goal to publish a review of a title at least once a day six days a week. Five full weeks in August this year means at least thirty reviews. Since July 2025 was a sixty-two review month, barring a horrible unknown thing preventing me, I ought to get there with room to spare. I encourage everyone who visits me to join the fun to whatever level is attainable to you.

>254 jnwelch: I can testify to the benefits of Voltaren myself, but in my case the problem is de Quervain's Tensynovitis.

>249 jnwelch: I'm somewhat amazed that I haven't crossed the border to type II diabetes myself, but I'm told that once you reach a certain age (I have), crossing that boundary becomes less likely.

My jalopy is definitely breaking down, but so far the medical and behavioural duct tape is still keeping it going.

>257 richardderus: 👍

>259 ArlieS:. Ouch! That’s a new one on me. My wife has problems with artritis in her hands, and is still searching for the best solution.

>259 ArlieS: OOO owwwwwwww

>261 jnwelch: IK,R?!

157 So what if I'm a puta : diaries of transness, sex work, desire by Amara Moira edited and tr. Amanda De Lisio & tr. Bruna Dantas Lobato)

SO WHAT IF I'M A PUTA: Diaries of Transness, Sex Work, Desire, starting #WITMonth with a, umm, bang via The Feminist Press

Happy August, Richard. I think I slipped in under the wire yesterday morning. It will be a Jackson Day. I miss the little tyke.

‘Morning, RDear! Happy Friday to you.

My, my. 27 new messages since I visited yesterday.

>237 richardderus: Amateur-sleuth mysteries (cozies?) aren’t really of interest to me anymore, so on that basis alone I’m going to skip this one. Oh, and let’s not forget the genre I’m currently focused on isn’t mysteries. *smile* I’m glad to see Rob mentioned.

>256 richardderus: Wow. 62 reviews. 161,360 views on your blog. Congrats on both.

>259 ArlieS: My jalopy is definitely breaking down, but so far the medical and behavioural duct tape is still keeping it going. I feel the same way.

>263 richardderus: Onto the wish list it goes. My Library does not have it (yet? I need to check with Rita the Librarian).

*smooch*

>264 msf59: August orisons, Birddude. Have a great Jackson Day today, and enjoy the cool down while we have it. I just got back from CVS and, while walking up Laurelton (a wind tunnel any time), was actually chilly!! *bliss*

I owe you, RD. Tripping through some brick-and-mortar bookstores in the last week or so, I picked up a copy of Algospeak, which somehow seemed familiar. When I got it safely home and cataloged, I discover that you were the reason the book title "somehow seemed familiar." I'm anxiously reading Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin not only because it's a fine bio, but also because Algospeak (and a few other recent acquisitions) are rattling their tin cups against the bars of their cells.

I also viewed the Patchett rebuttal to David Brooks's whiny column about the decline of LitFic (if only in his mind, such as it is). Yes, I searched out Brooks's column and found it pretty thin gruel. No specifics. "Somebody said..." Patchett, on the other hand, was enthusiastic and pithy. And exposed her knowledge of recently published books.

>265 karenmarie: Mornin' sweetiedarling. I'm glad >263 richardderus: made it as far as the wishlist. The topic is one "They" are trying their goddamnedest to sweep behind the "adult" tag (along with Israeli war crimes and news about Ukraine) with this astoundingly brazen censorship drive to "protect the children online."

Parents need to protect their kids, not the gummint. Taylor Lorenz explains in five minutes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFUUy0DKxvk

*smooch*

>267 weird_O: All the YAY, Weird One! They're both important info to have in the modren wurld online. (see >268 richardderus: too)

Brooks is a pusillanimous poltroon, a bloviating gasbag, and a damn fool.

158 Not your rescue project : migrant sex workers fighting for justice by Chanelle Gallant & Elene Lam

NOT YOUR RESCUE PROJECT: Migrant Sex Workers Fighting for Justice is a book via Haymarket Books to confront good (but blind) people with Reality about "rescuers."

Happy Friday, happy 1st of August sending healing vibes your way. *smooch*

>271 Ameise1: Thank you, dear lady, I'm pleased to report All your good wishes came true. *smooch*

Ummmmm...... Grilled cheese, salad, and soup sounds like an ideal lunch that I could eat every day for a long, long time. It's a wonder that they don't offer it as an alternative every day.

Otherwise, too much going on for me here to process. *smooch*, WBL!

>273 LizzieD: Options? Nonsense, Madam, you mistake this for a restaurant! meals are table d'hote, not a la carte. There are religious reasons for this but they're too infuriating for me to want to go into it. *baa*

I'm finally reading "Morning" Brew, an excellent daily bidness newsletter that also has fun puzzles and games (my favorite is Thursday's "Three Headlines and a Lie"). Today it's:
Guess the secret word from the following clues:

1. The word anagrams to a major city.

2. The word ends with a number (spelled out).

3. The word contains a silent “T.”
Hasten (It anagrams to “Athens.”)

Neither of your latest reads are jumping out at me, but I'll be interested in seeing what you review for Women in Translation month for sure. Friday *smooches*

>276 bell7: Sunday...I'm eager to rabbit on about it!

>225 richardderus: A Bb for me. Sounds interesting!
>226 richardderus: Another BB for me! This thread is dangerous!

Happy weekend reading

Well, I am reading a book written by a women , in Icelandic , translated to English. But a man did the translation . Does that count as women in translation, Richard ?

>278 figsfromthistle: Just you wait, 'enery 'iggins, just you wait...happy to see you, Anita! *smooch*

>279 vancouverdeb: Yes indeed, Deborah, written and/or translated by a woman...I seek out both separately all year but try to focus on doubles of written AND translated for August as a personal stretch goal. I'll be reviewing books by men that're translated by women later in the month.

159 Same bed different dreams : a novel by Ed Park

SAME BED DIFFERENT DREAMS, just-barely-too-long alt-Korea novel via Random House.

Happy Saturday, Richard. Wow- both Not your rescue project & Same bed different dreams : a novel sound damn good. Onto the obese TBR they go. Groans from the weight...

>283 msf59: Oh yay! I think the weight of those two will build mental muscle not crush brainbone under it (like the Clune mess did).

160 On earth as it is on television : a novel by Emily Jane

It's a weirdly funny first-contact debut novel via Hyperion Avenue (a tentacle of Disney).

Happy weekend, RDear! Dropping off your weekly ration of smooches.

>285 richardderus: Sounds like a fun sci fi romp.

‘Morning, RDear! Happy Saturday.

>270 richardderus: I’ll pass, but I’m reminded of short hoes, Cesar Chavez, UFW, and the work done by the migrants and their allies in the 1970s.

>282 richardderus: GLOAT, flounder, and Korean war vets. Bill’s Dad was one, but with a Korean daughter, we simply Do Not Mention US boots on the ground and the DMZ. I’ll pass, because floundering is something I’m not thrilled about doing when reading a book. I like challenge within the scope of my reading ego but not floundering.

>285 richardderus: Emily Jane’s books all sound weird and intriguing, but I’m always suspicious of ‘rollicking’. Pass for now, but taken under advisement.

*smooch*

>285 richardderus: Sounds like fun! I was able to snag a copy from my library. Thanks!

>286 MickyFine: *smooch* I'll come look at your update here directly.

It was amusing, and that's all I wanted it to be.

>287 karenmarie: How do, Horrible. I'm not inclined to push >270 richardderus:, >282 richardderus:, or >285 richardderus: at you too forcefully. I liked 'em fine, which isn't a ringing endorsement is it. Next thread starts with the one I don't think you will, but I'd like you to, read.

Saturday *smooch*

>288 Storeetllr: Perfect, Mary! Exactly the outcome I'd hope to get, because you'll like it and not be out any cash.

*smooch*

I am not even going to pretend to catch up, Richard, but wanted to swing by and drop off ((hugs)) and **smooches** and hopes that you have a wonderful weekend

>292 alcottacre: *smooch* for a happy weekend's reading, Stasia!

You got me at the tail end of July with The Memory Hunters. Are you still being successful in stalling the installation?

>294 Familyhistorian: I hope you'll enjoy >201 richardderus:, Meg. So far no sign of renewed efforts to install the damnèd thing, though who knows if they'll give up this readily.

okay, I need to get the octopus book, and in print. Glad I stopped eating them years ago and they can take over the world whenever they like!

>263 richardderus: might also be for me, 5 stars is an argument!

I’m glad you’re feeling better again and hope for cooler temps in your region. Everyone here is complaining about the “icy” July and the cool and rainy start of August, but after the hellishly hot June I’m grateful for each day below 30 Celsius/86 Fahrenheit. Crossing my fingers that the installation won’t be installed.

>296 Deern: All cephalopods fascinate me, they're *SO* smart and so charismatic! 30C is on the cool side when I lived in Texas. I'm dreading the day 30C is normal here.

I'm fine, and that is all I need to stay. I hope you can find >263 richardderus: somewhere. Enjoy it when you do! I'll keep fighting against the surveillance device coming into my room.

Come visit the new thread! https://www.librarything.com/topic/372845

>284 richardderus: "I think the weight of those two will build mental muscle not crush brainbone under it (like the Clune mess did)."
Whew! LOL.

>299 msf59: That Clune thing was a heavy load to lift for no good reason, wasn't it.