richardderus's fourteenth 2025 thread

#WITMonth 2025's goal is writing at least 30 reviews of works translated by, or written by and then translated, women the world around sourced from the DRC aggregators. End of week three report: seven posted, ahead of my goal.

YET ANOTHER irritating twidgee messaged me on Bsky to say I'm diluting the impact of WITMonth by including work translated by women but written by men. My response was "thank you for sharing your judgment with me." Have these people thought this through? You, O Woman Translator, do not count because you worked and slaved and thought and bled into your keyboard on the Wrong Kind of story. You do not get celebrated now." BUT, by their standard a man who translates a woman's writing could. Plus these are folks who explicitly include transfem people under their umbrella.

Someone will be angry no matter what you do so I myownself am going with inclusion of work done by women. If that's wrong, I'll be wrong with a glad heart.

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.
138 to 160 back here.
161 to 196 back there.

THIS THREAD'S REVIEWS
197 / WITMonth #24 The Untouched Crime in post #25.
198 / WITMonth #26 The running flame : a novel in post #60.
199 / WITMonth #27 Soft burial : a novel in post #61.
200 / WITMonth #28 The story of a single woman in post #83.
201 Children of the book : a memoir of reading together in post #84.
202 / WITMonth #29 The story of a single woman in post #108.
203 Surrounded by idiots : the four types of human behavior and how to effectively communicate with each in business (and in life) in post #110.
204 / WITMonth #30 Jaguars' tomb in post #117.
205 / WITMonth #31 The Hidden Island in post #122.
206 Mrs. Christie at the mystery guild library in post #126.
207 The Marigold Cottages murder collective : a mystery in post #131.
208 (#WITMonth #32) Return to Latvia in post #140.
209 Slanting towards the sea in post #141.
210 Solitaire : a novel in post #166.
211 We Never Swim in the Same River Twice (Middle East Literature In Translation) in post #167.
212 The girl in the green dress : a mystery featuring Zelda Fitzgerald in post #168.
213 Their four hearts in post #200.
214 The season : a fan's story in post #201.
215 A planet for rent in post #212.
216 Red dust : a novel in post #213.
217 The Jaguar Mask in post #214.
218 Lamb: A novel in snapshots in post #229.
219 The intelligence explosion : when AI beats humans at everything in post #230.
221 A thousand ways to die : the true cost of violence on Black life in America in post #269.
220 The New Global Possible : Evidence for Hope in the Fight for a Sustainable Future in post #270.
222 The true true story of Raja the Gullible (and his mother) in post #282.
223 Middle spoon in post #284.

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:

#019 I'll Look So Hot in a Coffin: And Other Thoughts I Used to Have About My Body (57%) in post #12.
#020 Garbage Town (45%) in post #15.
#021 Wicked Innocents: Case No. 1 (48%) in post #50.

All previous Burgoine reviews linked here.

THIS THREAD:
#066 Such Sweet Thunder: A Novel in post #21.
#067 (WITMonth 25) The Blue Book of Nebo in post #47.
#068 Ciao, Amore, Ciao in post #48.

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 16, episode 1: cake week is here.

Season 15's comments linked here.
Season 1 thoughts are here.

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2025 #ShortStoryMonth #1 through #5 linked here.
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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 in >1 richardderus: or here.
#WITMonth wrap-up in >130 richardderus: or here.
***
#1 over here.
***
#2 through #23 over there.
#24 (197) The Untouched Crime in post #25.
#25 (Burgoine 67) The Blue Book of Nebo in post #47.
#26 (198) The running flame : a novel in post #60.
#27 (199) Soft burial : a novel in post #61.
#28 (200) The simple art of killing a woman in post #83.
#29 (202) The story of a single woman in post #108.
#30 (204) Jaguars' tomb in post #117.
#31 (205) The Hidden Island in post #122.
#32 (208) Return to Latvia in post #140.

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.
AUGUST 2025 here.

It is now, officially, your turn.

I'll take my turn then, RD, and wish you a very happy new thread, dear fellow.

>9 PaulCranswick: Greetings, PC, and have yourself a Helmet of Happiness. Battled a centaur or two in your day, I reckon.

ooh, just missed! Happy new thread, Richard! *smooch*

PEARL RULE #019

I'll Look So Hot in a Coffin: And Other Thoughts I Used to Have About My Body (57%) by Carla Sosenko

Rating: 2.5* of five

The Publisher Says: An intimate, irreverent memoir about one woman’s experience living with a deformity, and her quest to find freedom and joy in her body.

Carla Sosenko was born with Klippel-Trenaunay Syndrome, a rare vascular disorder that resulted in a mass of flesh on her back, legs of different sizes, a hunched posture, and other idiosyncrasies big and small. She spent years trying to hide, but later experimented with reckless exhibitionism in a masochistic quest to be seen. She couldn't stop worrying about how she measured up; she ruminated on the comments other people felt comfortable making about her body.

In this candid and funny memoir, Carla shares what existing in an unconventional body has meant for her self-image, mental health, relationships, and career. She writes of having liposuction at eight years old and obsessively gaming Weight Watchers points. She probes the way the materialistic, looks-obsessed Long Island town of her childhood influenced her psyche. She wrestles with the rise of Ozempic after years of working to reject diet culture. And she tries to parse whether it is in spite of or because of her physical differences that she is a chatty, outgoing social butterfly who chose a high-profile career in media and is obsessed with fashion. Most of all, Carla explores the ways in which she’s felt alone and without not disabled but different; the recipient of pretty privilege, but also fatphobia; too much, but still never enough. We see what it means when she learns to claim her body—and mind and spirit and life—for exactly what they are: her own.

A clarion call for anyone who has ever felt like an outsider or believed they should take up less space, I'll Look So Hot In a Coffin offers hope, recognition, and a new way to understand ourselves—by celebrating what sets us apart.

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

My Review: A key insight in one's path to healing is that the painful old way was in fact your own choice, and served a genuine need as you perceived it. Carla has that insight a lot, and tells us each time. I got tired of it when the subject was desiring men's attention, wanting their validation, instead of just being horny.

I'm glad I read it because I needed to be reminded how very easy it is to be casually cruel to Othered people. I'm glad I stopped when I realized we were going to fail the Bechdel test on her inner monologue.

The Dial Press asks $14.95 for an ebook.

>11 ronincats: Juuuuuuuust barely, Roni...booby-prize crowns are cute, too:

>10 richardderus: Gratefully received and magnificent even though it looks heavy. Centaur - another nickname for the good lady wife!

PEARL RULE #20

Garbage Town (45%) by Ravi Gupta

Rating: 2* of five

The Publisher Says: The secrets of Fresh Kills were meant to stay buried.

Raj Patel grew up in the shadow of Fresh Kills, the largest landfill the world has ever seen. At sixteen, he’s watched the Staten Island crime family tighten its grip on his town’s lucrative trash business, but he’s kept his distance from their dirty trade—until now.

When Raj and his friends make a chilling discovery deep within the dump, they embark on a search for answers. But they aren’t the only ones looking for the truth, and their pursuers will stop at nothing to guard their secrets. Faced with an impossible choice—protect themselves or expose what they’ve found—Raj and his friends quickly realize there’s no one left to trust. And the deeper they dig, the higher the stakes. Soon, they’re in way over their heads, and the only way out might be through.

In Garbage Town, Ravi Gupta weaves a heart-pounding mystery with the raw intimacy of a coming-of-age tale. Follow Raj and his friends in this late ’90s adventure as they learn that some secrets can’t be unearthed without a price. This might just be the moment that strips them of their innocence—if they can survive.

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

My Review: Weird tonal whiplash...like Scooby Doo, Where Are You? suddenly had a gun battle and Alan M. shot Shaggy. Pick one, this mashup ain't workin' for me.

Then "You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out. (Deuteronomy 28:6)" showed up at 45%...not the first bible verse...so I chose to be blessed going out.

Greenleaf Book Group asks $25.99 for a hardcover, and does not offer an ebook. I suspect you already know what my advice is.

>14 PaulCranswick: I promise faithfully that I am not, even as I type this, opening the FB app on my phone and messaging Hani that you said that.

>13 richardderus: *smooch*smooch*

>17 ronincats: Gladdens me to see you around, dear ol' pal!

>16 richardderus: Hahaha, never mind RD, it will only be the latest minor infraction that I will get scolded for.

>19 PaulCranswick: That's more or less what marriage is, no?

BURGOINE #66

Such Sweet Thunder: A Novel by Vincent O. Carter (foreword by Jesse McCarthy)

Rating: 3.75* of five

The Publisher Says: This must-read rediscovery, published in an elegant and unabridged paperback edition with a new foreword, is a literary masterpiece poised to take its rightful place in the American literary canon.

Such Sweet Thunder immerses readers in the life of a precocious infant, Amerigo Jones, and then tells the story of his first 18 years as he becomes aware of the adult world, from racism and crime to falling in love. All the while, in one of the most moving homages to parents ever to appear in literature, Amerigo is protected by Viola and Rutherford, who are loving and, mostly, even-tempered, but also desperately young — teenagers themselves when Amerigo is born — and poor.

When it was finally published in 2003, 40 years after Carter completed it and 20 years after he died, Critics hailed the novel’s “unflinching condemnation of a society that rejects bright, eager Black children” (The Cleveland Plain Dealer).

This “colossal work of fiction” (The Kansas City Star) and “vibrant portrait of African-American life” (New York Times) is set in an era marred by racial segregation and relentless, daily injustices and yet renders with deep appreciation and artistry a time and place enriched by a widely influential African American culture and a fierce feeling for family and community.

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

My Review: A truly magisterial story of Black life and love, family first and last, all set at the dark historical juncture of the 1930s made still darker by racism. No wonder no one would take this on! It's too honest to make white people feel good and virtuous. It's a weirdly lyrical storytelling voice, one that keeps you reading...it's a really dark story, so that carrot leads when reader fatigue sets in.

I'm not five-starring it because it is much too long...650+ pages...and, like Ellison's Invisible Man, overly recursive. It vitiates the kind of pacing that makes the pages fly by. YMMV, of course, and no matter what, you owe yourself a long look at the available ebook sample before you pass it up. It's possible you'll ring like a freshly struck bell at first read.

Pushkin Press Classics requests $13.99 for an ebook. Well worth the spondulix for the right reader.

Happy new thread! *drops ⭐️ and scuttles off*

>22 Storeetllr: *waves at Mary's chemtrail*

Happy New Thread!

WITMonth #24 / 197 The Untouched Crime by Zijin Chen (tr. Michelle Deeter)

This is a wuxia-inflected, do-it-because-it's-right crime solving story via AmazonCrossing.

Checking in on the new thread, Richard!

((Hugs)) and **smooches** for today and tomorrow - I will be on the road then

>26 alcottacre: I just saw your doins on your thread, Stasia, so I'm au fait with the plans. Safe journey home.

>15 richardderus: Pass on that one

Happy new thread, Richard :)

>27 richardderus: Thanks!

Happy new one, Richard!

Happy new one, RD.

‘Morning, RDear. Happy Friday, happy new thread.

From your last thread. Hmm. An interesting way to think positively about Jean-Luc Persecuted. …pretty misogynistic and deeply appalling on any modern level of consideration for its rank abusive character behavior. isn’t enough reason for me to read any book, actually, but I always love reading your reviews.

You almost got me with The Last Conclave, but at 312 pages in Kindle format, I honestly can’t see myself reading it anytime soon, even if it is Kindle Unlimited.

The Tentacled American that @@mahsdad posted reminded me that my daughters posted this puzzle, mounted and hung in their new apartment:



>12 richardderus: Pass, for a variety of reasons, but I, too, needed to be reminded how very easy it is to be casually cruel to Othered people.

>15 richardderus: I love Publisher hyperbole. I rarely use it to decide if I want to read a book or not, and frequently roll my eyes. heart pounding mystery with the raw intimacy of a coming-of-age tale. Well, not a fan of Bible verses being quoted either, and unless the characters are Jewish, quoting the Jewish Bible doesn’t make large amounts of sense. Your Pearl Rule allows me to pass on this one.

>21 richardderus: New to me word: spondulix. Excitement, but I’m not the right reader.

>25 richardderus: Genre wuxia, new to me, too. I do like the serial-killer-taunting battles of wits. Onto the wish list it goes.

*smooch*

Happy new thread, Richard

New day happiness. Sun shining without dense clouds. Must be this here new thread.

Happy new thread, Richard! Have a great weekend!

Karen O

>28 figsfromthistle: Please, please continue to pass over it.

Thanks, Anita!

>29 alcottacre: *smooch*

>30 drneutron: Thank you, Doc!

>31 katiekrug: Thank you, Katie, I'm glad you came by.

I would have posted earlier but I was busy reading your interesting comments above :>. Happy new one!

>32 karenmarie: OOOO

That's a puzzle?! It's stunning! Somebody go fetch Katie, our resident puzzlerincess, to show that to her!

You can imagine how hard I rolled my eyes at the Bible BS before it in >15 richardderus:, but that one was a dismissive one-liner that wrote itself. I accepted the gift. >21 richardderus: Did you never read PG Wodehouse? His Bertie-n-Jeeves stories made me laugh and educated me on slang's fleeting joys. "Spondulix" needs to be rescued from desuetude, it's too cool for school.

Wuxia's pretty cool too, so I hope >25 richardderus: works for you though at $3.99 it's not tragic if'n it don't.

*smooch*

>33 ArlieS: Thank'ee, Arlie!

>34 weird_O: It's so gorgeous here, it's a truly new day. Summer should only be like this All the time. If there's a reason to erect a new thread, this'll do.

>35 klobrien2: Thank you, dear lady! Happy weekend-ahead's reads!

>40 RebaRelishesReading: ...there were interesting comments...? Who's making interesting comments in my thread and trying to outshine me?!

xo

Happy new one, Richard

WITMonth 25 / Burgoine 67

The Blue Book of Nebo by Manon Steffan Ros

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Prize-winner in three categories of the 2019 Wales Book of the Year Award, The Blue Book of Nebo paints a spellbinding and eerie picture of society’s collapse, and the relationships that persist after everything as we know it disappears.

After nuclear disaster, Rowenna and her young son are among the rare survivors in rural north-west Wales. Left alone in their isolated hillside cottage, after others have died or abandoned the towns and villages, they must learn new skills in order to remain alive. With no electricity or modern technology they must return to the old ways of living off the land, developing new personal resources.

While they become more skilled and stronger, the relationship between mother and son changes in subtle ways, as Dylan must take on adult responsibilities, especially once his baby sister Mona arrives. Despite their close understanding, mother and son have their own secrets, which emerge as in turn they jot down their thoughts and memories in a found notebook. As each reflects on their old life and the events since the disaster which has brought normal, twenty-first century life to an end, The Blue Book of Nebo becomes a collective confidante, representing the future of their people and a new history to live by.

In this prize-winning and best-selling new novel, Manon Steffan Ros not only explores the human capacity to find new strengths when faced with the need to survive, but also the structures and norms of the contemporary world.

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

My Review: Post-apocalyptic stories have been a staple of my reading diet since the early 1970s, when we thought a new Ice Age was looming. *sigh* sounds lovely in fiery 2025, no? This means you'd nest be at the top of your game to hope to impress the old curmudgeon.

Not really happening here. It's a YA for sophisticated high-schoolers who love Greta Thunberg. Well enough executed, but I'm not fourteen anymore; I'd gift it to smart fourteen-year-olds in a heartbeat.

Deep Vellum says "$12.95 please" when you check your ebook out. Worth every penny.

BURGOINE #068

Ciao, Amore, Ciao by Sandro Martini

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: This dual-timeline saga based on true events is “vivid and gripping… A terrific read” (Kirkus Reviews).

When journalist Alex Lago discovers an old photograph in his dying father’s possessions, he slowly unravels a secret stretching back to World War II that could topple a political dynasty.

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

My Review: No one anywhere ever has led a blameless life; but sometimes blame is more powerful, more burdensome, harder to forgive, than others. This is the story of one of those times. It moves between timelines of grieving today to acting yesteryear.

I found the switching between the timelines unmotivated by the action, and the evocation of the wrongs of the past pretty exculpatory for what they were.

Black Rose Writing sells paperbacks for $24.95.

>25 richardderus: Is your disappointment in the prose due to the translation? I’m going to check it out.

>32 karenmarie: Gorgeous puzzle! I’d put it on my wall too.

PEARL RULE #021

Wicked Innocents: Case No. 1 (48%) (The Frontenac Sisters: Supernatural Sleuths & Monster Hunters) by S.H. Livernois

Rating: 2.5* of five

The Publisher Says: A little girl spins a hateful web

On Halloween night, Nelly Huggett's mother chases her through the woods, screaming venom, knife in hand. Gillian isn't a nice woman, but this is different.

She is different, strange, not herself. Nelly's father has been acting odd, too, and her brother...So Nelly does what any other precocious ten-year-old would do-she calls supernatural investigators and sisters Hyla and Lizeth Frontenac, in the hopes they might find out what happened to her family.

But in the Huggett house, perched on the rugged Maine coast, the sisters discover that nothing is what it seems. Not the Huggetts and certainly not Nelly. Is she just spirited? Misunderstood? Or is she a liar, like everyone says? She is a dangerous foe, this little girl, with a devious imagination and a dark secret. A dangerous foe whose deception just might ensnare the sisters forever.

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

My Review: It just stopped mattering to me here:

Lizeth smiled sadly. "Maybe Nelly has a Hyla of her own, a friend who's stood by her through everything."
"That's what I'm hoping."

Halfway through the book and they're still just talking about Nelly without knowledge of her; that is a pacing problem for an investigation-based story for me. Whip it up! So I quit.

Boonies Press wants $15.00 for a trade paperback.

>49 Storeetllr: I think >25 richardderus:'s prose didn't catch fire, and that's often because of translation issues; but it didn't *feel* like a poor job, nothing sloppy-feeling or slapdash about it. Just...not very involving.

Happy Friday, Richard. Happy New Thread. I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

>52 msf59: I thank you, kind sir. I hope I have a wonderful weekend, too.

Realistically I'll settle for the Big Beautiful Obituary coming out as a proxy for wonderful....

Happy new thread, Richard! Hope the weekend reads and weather treat you well. I've been able to drink my coffee in the cool of the morning in my sun room all week and it's been glorious.

>54 bell7: It should only be like this every August! Thanks, Mary, be well and happy.
***

Got the blues? (no creator credited)

Happy new thread, Richard. Thanks for your words of support.

Happy new one, Rdear. I wish you a wonderful weekend. 😎

>56 Familyhistorian: Welcome, Meg, and happy to offer you support.

>57 Ameise1: Thanks, Barbara!

WITMonth #26 / 198

The running flame : a novel by Fang Fang (tr. Michael Berry)

A short novel using the intimate violence of one as a lens for the pain of billions.

WITMonth #27 / 199

Soft burial : a novel by Fang Fang (tr. Michael Berry)

This story is the great sweep of History made personal.

Look at you, churning out all those reviews.

Dropping off smooches and wishes for an excellent weekend.

Happy new thread Richard!

>62 MickyFine: *smooch*

I think the mental-health maintenance of trying to use my hatred and outrage at the 2025ness of it All is a weird backdoor benefit.

>63 humouress: Thank you, Nina!

‘Morning, RDear! Happy Saturday.

>41 richardderus: I’ll have to ask them.

>47 richardderus: I love post-apocalyptic stories, too. Recently it’s been MM versions… Onto the wish list it goes.

>48 richardderus: WWII, pass. Damned with faint praise.

>49 Storeetllr: Waiting to hear back from the daughters, Mary.

>51 richardderus: Pass, of course.

>55 richardderus: Not half bad.

Two more reviews, but I need to do a few things before Arsenal play Leeds.

*smooch*

>55 richardderus: Oooh, that's lovely. It feels soothing and energizing at the same time.

You make Fang Fang's work sound intriguing, but I think I'd need to be in the right frame of mind to fully appreciate it. Any suggestions on which title to start with?

I can't catch up, of course, but I love that cool BLUE in

>55 richardderus: I really like that!!

Have a good weekend

>61 richardderus: Sounds like something I would enjoy (if that's the right word). I'll see if I can find it from the library.

Have a lovely weekend, Richard! It's perfect summer weather here so far today - sunny, in the low 80s, a nice breeze. Would that every summer day be such.

>66 karenmarie: Isn't >55 richardderus: pretty? It makes no sense not to credit whoever made it.

I'm pretty sure you're going to enjoy your choices, sweetiedarling. I've been marathoning Rocky & Bullwinkle to see if I still enjoy absurdist humor. I'm pretty sure I'm the meat space version of Mr. Peabody. mmmm

Not quite so much but there are some funny puns once in a way.

Enjoy the Leeds match!

>67 bell7: Heya Mary...I think you'd do better to start with The Running Flame because a) shorter 2) intense iii) more relatable. I think Fang Fang's someone we should seek out. She tells a really elegant story.

>68 LizzieD: I agree >55 richardderus: is so lovely it makes "the blues" worth having. *baaa*

>69 RebaRelishesReading: I'm glad! Whoever made it did good, no?

*smooch*

>70 Storeetllr: We're about 6° cooler, per usual, and so beautiful it makes me wish summer was like this more often.

>61 richardderus: is from Columbia University Press so y'all's library might have one. It's a local publisher. It's fascinatingly told and so unfamiliar. *smooch*

>75 richardderus: Believe it or not, neither Nyack's nor NYC's public library has a digital copy of it but LA's does. Go figure. (Nyack might have a physical book but with my arthritic wrists it's hard to read dead-tree books so I'm not even going to check.)

>76 Storeetllr: That appalls but doesn't surprise me. Nyack doesn't have a Chinese population, does it? Queens would likely have a digital copy but why get another card if one you can use has it. I hope you really enjoy it after this effort.

Happy Sunday Richard, I just skipped to the end to check back in and say that the 5 star Octopus book from some July thread has finally arrived and waits to be read. It is unexpectedly small - I might need stronger glasses to read the texts, but the pictures are all lovely!

>78 Deern: Hi Nathalie, I just responded on your thread! Great minds!

I hope you'll enjoy the read even though more powerful readers are inevitable.

‘Morning, RDear, and happy Sunday to you.

>71 richardderus: The puzzle is ZenChalet’s Octopus. Oooh, Rocky & Bullwinkle. Rocket J. Squirrel and Bullwinkle J. Moose. And Mr. Peabody and Sherman and the Way Back Machine. And Boris and Natasha… The Arsenal – Leeds match went well for Arsenal, not so well for Leeds. 5-0 Arsenal.

*smooch*

>80 karenmarie: Zen Chalet? What a great name for a puzzle company! I was a little misty over my lack of connection with Rocky & Bullwinkle. Frostbite Falls, Minnesota and Wossamatta U still made me chuckle; most of the Fractured Fairy Tales, narrated by Edward Everett Horton, deeply closeted queer guy so *ew* on the name, and the RAMPANT misogyny...just ugh. I do still love Mr. Peabody, but I would wouldn't I.

So Arsenal squished poo' widdle Leeds. Are we surprised? I dunno about standings in that sport, so it could be an exhibition game for All I know. I hope your Sundaying won't be energy-expensive. Summer doldrums have hit me so I'm spending it doing nothing.

Happy Monday, Richard. The party was a resounding success and Jack was the perfect front-man. Our weather has made a wonderful turn. Cool nights- mild sunny days. Yeah, baby!

>55 richardderus: I like this. Blue is my favorite color.

WITMonth 28 / 200

The simple art of a killing a woman by Patrícia Melo, (tr. Sophie Lewis)

Stories dealing with the hard topics are a #WITMonth staple...THE SIMPLE ART OF KILLING A WOMAN by PATRÍCIA MELO & translated by Sophie Lewis, via Restless Books is a brutally honest recounting of the reality of femicide in Brazil.

201 Children of the book : a memoir of reading together by Ilana Kurshan

I think I used the read unlike it was intended by its author.

>82 msf59: Morning, Mark! I loved >55 richardderus: enough to try to find the creator's name, to no avail.

I'm really glad Jack's big day was such a good day!

‘Morning, RD, and happy Monday to you.

>81 richardderus: It is a wonderful name for a puzzle company. Intricate wooden puzzles.

You asked for it – Leeds was relegated out of the Premier League at the end of the 2022-2023 season. They earned the right to return for the 2025-2026 season. Paul’s a Leeds United fan. This was Arsenal’s second game of the season. 20 teams, each played twice, so a 38-game season. Leeds has never beaten Arsenal at home, and this was no exception, although 5-0 was brutal. I loved watching US player Brendon Aaronson, though. Because of goal differential, Arsenal are top of the table, although Liverpool plays their second game today. They’d need a 4-point lead over Newcastle to take top of the table away from Arsenal. Back to your regular programming…

>84 richardderus: Nope. Except that it deals with a political/cultural issue instead of personal growth, I immediately thought of Carlos Castaneda’s use of psychoactive plants in the Teachings of Don Juan series.

>84 richardderus: I, too, am antireligion. Good review, I won’t read it. Thanks for taking one for the team.

*smooch*

>86 karenmarie: ...
...
...It *looks* like English...

I'm glad you're giving >84 richardderus: a miss, sweetiedarling, I would not want to be responsible for your cerebrovascular accident.

*smooch*

>84 richardderus:
So much of reading is joining a conversation. Even if you are a solitary reader there is still a conversation going. Marginalia is a perfect way to do this. It is also a great way to keep track of your changing philosophical outlook on life. I was a big marginalia writer in times past. I don't do it anymore because used bookstores wouldn't take the books, and many people don't like getting books with "writing all over them." Of course, one could ask, "If a book causes you to write in the margins, why are you getting rid of it?"

>88 benitastrnad: The most common answer to that would be "space" though I'm a "one-and-done" reader. More often than not I'll finish a book and go to the little free library with it.

Most people do not want books with marginalia...they do not want to know what you thought in their book. Not sure what that says about us as readers.

I've never been a writer of marginalia, but I've found the few books I have with writing in the margins fascinating. Even so, I'm usually too intent on the reading to stop to write my thoughts, and then it's on to the next book. Making comments in eBooks is kind of like writing in the margins of paper books, though, isn't it. (I don't do that either, except very very occasionally. Usually only when there's an error or something stupid that kicks me right out of the book.)

Have a great week, Richard!

>90 Storeetllr: I love the note-taking feature on my Kindle. It makes my life a lot easier.

I wish you the same, dear lady!

I am so far behind on your threads. Dropping a star on this one!

>93 crazy4reading: Monica! I'm happy to see you here, made my week! Sending hugs....

>92 richardderus: There you go! And here I go before I fall completely asleep on the keyboard. *smooch*

‘Morning, RDear. Happy Tuesday to you.

>87 richardderus: Well, the Premier League is a league in England… so English it is.

*smooch*

>92 richardderus: Nailed it!

Happy Tuesday, Richard. Currently 51F...ahhhhhh.

>95 LizzieD: I hope you slept well, Peggy me lurve.

>96 karenmarie: heh

Tuesday well, sweetiedarling.

>97 msf59: Ain't >92 richardderus: grand? I think 51° sounds a wee bit chilly for August...though it's September in a few days, depressingly. I am not ready for 2025 to end. Somehow Old Father Time forgets to consult me on this whole speeding-it-up thing....

>92 richardderus: Love that! It is so very true for me - and I expect a good many readers.

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

>101 alcottacre: Happy to see you getting out and about, Stasia. *smooch*

Hi Richard my friend, a belated Happy New Thread.

Having been absent from LT for a couple of weeks, I'm going to have to do the line in the sand and just jump into your thread from here. However, I did note >92 richardderus:. That is much needed these days.

>103 johnsimpson: Hi there, John, happy to see you here!

>104 atozgrl: Very sensible, Irene, and >92 richardderus: is indeed much needed.

'Morning, RDear. Happy Wednesday to you.

*smooch*

WITMonth #29 / 202

The story of a single woman by Chiyo Uno (tr. Rebecca L. Copeland)

A book written in 1972 & translated for Pushkin Press Classics line by Rebecca Copeland. It's still dividing #WITMonth opinion over fifty years on.

>107 karenmarie: Happy Wednesday, sweetiedarling. It's gorgeous here so of course I'm in a good mood. That, and my soft goal of posting thirty real reviews of #WITMonth books will come true tomorrow morning...the 28th of 31 days. Satisfying.

203 Surrounded by idiots : the four types of human behavior and how to effectively communicate with each in business (and in life) by Thomas Erikson

Is that a title or what?!

Happy Wednesday *smooches*
It's been blissfully cool in the morning (nothing like having my coffee out on the sunroom with the screen open and a blanket wrapped around me) and highs in the high 70s, which is just about as perfect as weather can get. Hope it's just as lovely in your neck of the woods!

>111 bell7: Hi Mary! I'm happy to report it's a gorgeous day here. I'll be *thrilled* if it stays this way.

*smooch*

I think the two of you must be living in Kansas. We are having the same kind of weather. Perfect.

>113 benitastrnad: Wow, the weather goddesses are in a good mood if *Kansas* is having good weather!

>87 richardderus: That's because it *is* English.

>55 richardderus: LIKE.

>77 richardderus: ... but why get another {library} card ... Really? The more the merrier. Of course, this means I have more books out than I can read before they're due but 🤗

>115 humouress: It is, indeed, Englandese. Most English-speakers live in places not England, though.

They charge for those non-resident cards...can get pricy for little advantage in borrowing power. Thursday well, Birddude!

Sweet Thursday, Richard. You landed a solid BB with Jaguars' Tomb. Oh man, so many books, so little...

Getting a little well-needed rain. Also enjoying these much cooler temps. Keep it coming, baby.

>118 msf59: I hope you'll enjoy the read. It's an odd way to make a story but it really works if you get in there with it and wrestle it to the ground. The way she worked around the subject she's really writing about is fascinating!

‘Morning, RD! Happy Thursday to you.

>117 richardderus: It may be a wonderful book. The publisher was pitch perfect in describing it in a very literary convoluted way that has never really appealed to me, even before I started diving the rabbit hole of MM romance.

*smooch*

>120 karenmarie: Morning, Horrible, yeah...no on >117 richardderus: as a read for you, it's likely to strike you as precious. It probably tells you everything you need to know that it's from a university press.

Have the Thursday you deserve, sweetiedarling.

WITMonth #31 /205

The Hidden Island by Abraham Jiménez Enoa (tr. Lily Meyer)

Ig Publishing brings us this essay collection by an exiled Cuban journalist and translated fluidly from Cuban Spanish into perfectly pitched English.

Keep these reviews coming!

In the past I was much more in tune with the regular library resources for reviews, but since I am now retired, I don't have the time to keep up with the review sources, don't have access to some of the review sources, and it isn't my job anymore so I don't take the time to track down the resources. That means that you are making it easy for me to keep up with what is happening. Especially in those harder to find areas of published materials. So, that means I find these reviews very helpful. They make me feel like I am still informed while helping me add to the gargantuan TBR pile.

I am especially glad that you are doing these translated books. I am fearful that since DEI is now being actively discouraged (I can't seem to find the right term for what is really going on - censored might be a better term) this kind of literature will not be published in the future. When that becomes true, how will anybody find these books? So keep it up. It is not only enlightening and important - it is an act of defiance.

>123 benitastrnad: It is not only enlightening and important - it is an act of defiance.

That's very kind of you to say, Benita! I believe with All my moral fibers that #ReadingIsResistance. We're not going to be allowed to access knowledge freely, or as freely as we're able to now, if the scum that's risen to the top has any say in the matter. I don't think I'm out changing minds or something, but I do think there is value in talking about these kinds of books. Discussions would be better but I've stopped thinking that was possible, so at least hearing about the way others think is better than a cone of silence surrounding a cloak of invisibility.

Hiya, RDear. Happy Friday.

>121 richardderus: Heh. University presses do publish rather precious books. I had an epiphany a while back about reading literary fiction and literature. I've pretty much stopped. Even before my current plunge into MM romance, I got really tired of it. Two of the three books for my book club's new year, starting in June, are lit-ra-chur, and I couldn't finish them. I also abandoned Klara and the Sun, speculative fiction. I'm 0 for 3.

>122 richardderus: I’m just waiting for the same thing to happen here in Amurrika. Or, rather, it is happening by people making decisions to NOT provoke the current regime and will become more overt the longer we’re under crazy idiot in chief’s power.

*smooch*

206 Mrs. Christie at the mystery guild library by Amanda Chapman

This is the Mrs. Christie series #1, a new cozy-mystery series from an established cozy writer. It's replete with a literary ghost-sleuth via Berkley Prime Crime, no doubt familiar to serious mysterians.

>125 karenmarie: Friday, Friday! Happy to see you here, smoochling. Re: >122 richardderus: study up on ICEstapo. Taylor Lorenz on YT will chill you. We're there, and have been there since Shrub Bush bungled 9/11.

They're All scum, they know their dystopia is unpopular but they want it no matter what because they are scum, and there is no legal way to stop them.

>116 richardderus: 🧐

Oh, didn't realise there's a charge.

>128 humouress: ...said the Singaporean Anglophone...

This is Murruhkuh. There's a charge for everything. No exceptions or rebates or allowances, you pay for what you get.

AUGUST 2025 was a very satisfying #WITMonth! My goal was writing at least 30 reviews of works translated by, or written by and then translated, from women the world around sourced from the DRC aggregators.

End of celebration report: thirty-two (32) posted, two ahead of my goal. As is always true, searching the tag "#WITMonth" on the blog, by clicking it at the bottom of this entry or by entering the text in the search box, will give you all the entries so tagged. You can also click right here.

There were standout reads, of course; fewer than I would've preferred, but including a strong contender for my 2025 six-stars-of-five accolade is The Remembered Soldier, a Dutch Great-War story of identity, of need and longing and love you can't imagine life without, all so precisely, sharply even, wrapped in that wooliest of media: Memory. There is nothing in any of that warbling of joy to detract from the amazing non-fiction work (So What) If I'm a Puta that tells the own-voices stories of transfem sex workers in Brazil. Transfem folk are at the highest risk imaginable for femicide. It's a tough, bleak read, but it left me fully aware of how easy it is for transphobic...people...to do their ugly, hateful work without knowing a fraction of the cost others must pay for it.

I'm delighted that August is going out on the happy note of a lovely stretch of just-right days with sun, breeze, not-hot not-cold temperatures, not-too-humid (I live on the beach, humid gonna happen) air. It's like it was before climate change really began biting us.

So, September is #NationalTranslationMonth, which I'll be leaning into for my reviewing. I'll include women's translations as new ones pop up, hashtagging with both #NationalTranslationMonth and #WITMonth to be sure they're discoverable from every abgle. It won't be as focused a push, but will definitely be noticeable. No goals set so I'm not pressuring myself to accomplish something; I'll just be taking extra note of a book's origins.

And with that, I'll wish global-northerners a happy incoming fall and global-southerners the same for spring! Excellent reading mojo for all, of course.

207 The Marigold Cottages murder collective : a mystery by Jo Nichols

It was okay.

>128 humouress: >129 richardderus: The charges for non-resident cards is because residents are already paying taxes that support the library. Non-residents aren't, so they need to pay a fee to help support the services they are using. Public libraries don't get a whole lot of support from taxes most of the time, so they need the extra income. But of course this largely depends on local policies. I can get a library card at some of the counties that surround my own without having to pay a fee. It's all dependent on where you live and what the local policies are.

I suppose I'll be forever pigeonholed as a grouch by this: Today. 29 August, is on Wikipedia's main page as "Feast of the Beheading of John the Baptist (Catholicism, Anglicanism)". I whizzed past that inattentively until my lizard brain sent up a query to the Head Office wondering why there was a "Feast of the Bleedin' John the Baptist (Catholicism, Anglicanism)" on the US site. I spent an amused few minutes trying to figure out why the catholics were so stroppy about John the Baptist, and the anglicans so pissy as to make it about *that* guy before just going on back to the page to see what the kerfuffle was about.

Kinda boring, the real answer, but I got some snorts and giggles out of it.

>47 richardderus: dangit. A book bullet. And I only just got here!
The Blue Book of Nebo by Manon Steffan Ros.

I saw a good film at the International Film Fest here this month, set in Japan, a groups of High School friends adjust to a society increasingly under surveillance, and as a part of that, less tolerant of non-Japanese. Very good, very dystopia. (Called 'Happyend'.)

>61 richardderus: BB for me!

Happy long weekend, Richard!

Congratulations on passing 4,000 posts on your threads this year, RD.

>133 richardderus: Was #4,000

>134 LovingLit: Hi Megan! I'm glad I could give you a *good* idea for a change, instead of a warning.

Happyend sounds bleak, but really necessary. How I wish it wasn't a topic we really needed to talk about. The way of the world, I guess, is to ignore stuff until it's a crisis. *sigh*

>135 figsfromthistle: A good choice, Anita, one that's got real storytelling chops and a very interesting historical basis. Enjoy it when you get to it.

>136 PaulCranswick: Perfect one to reach the milestone on, eh? Thanks, PC!

#WITMonth #32 / 208

Return to Latvia by Marina Jarre (tr. Ann Goldstein)

209 Slanting towards the sea by Lidija Hilje

Happy Saturday, Richard. Birding this morning with my buddies. This cool stretch has sparked an early migration. Come on warblers. Attending a wedding later today. It will be a fun weekend. Have a great one, my friend.

>141 richardderus: I've got an ARC for this one, too, so I'll be reading it sometime in the future, hopefully while it's still 2025.

>142 msf59: Happy birding Saturday, Birddude. I hope y'all get in some Lifers. A wedding...well, some people do have some hope for the future I guess.

>143 bell7: It was a fun read, Mary, so I hope you'll enjoy it. Saturday well!

>117 richardderus: Trust has the same sort of structure three sections each a different voice each commenting on and correcting the preconceptions established by the previous speaker.

My Book Group really liked it, I did too

>146 magicians_nephew: I read the Kindle sample; felt uninterested in continuing so I never bothered. Funny how things hit one person just right, another just wrong.

I can't possibly catch up, Richard. I do want to speak though, lest you think that your wooliness is going unnoticed. Not so!
Do what you do and enjoy it! *smooch*

>148 LizzieD: I'd do what I enjoy doing only I don't want to die in prison. ICEstapo is always watching, right?

I'm glad to say I had a better Saturday than usual with Old Stuff out the whole morning so I take my pleasures where I find them. *baa*

>140 richardderus: Getting the book, of course, thank you! Again, too many thoughts for a post.

>150 Deern: I don'y know that "enjoy" is the right word for it, but it's an important read. Why we keep repeating our errors...Reading is the key, so no wonder "They" attack literacy and libraries and university education.

‘Morning, RichardDear. Happy Sunday to you.

>126 richardderus: Hmmm. I’ve got 1256 books tagged ‘crime fiction’, and there are possibly other cozies in addition to the books by the Queen of Cozies herself, but offhand none come to mind except the Thursday Murder Club sleuths, the one cozy Backman book I can think of offhand, Anxious People, and my collection of old Nancy Drews. Dead Agatha Christie is a very strange concept to me. I’ll pass but am almost tempted by your review.

>127 richardderus: They're All scum, they know their dystopia is unpopular but they want it no matter what because they are scum, and there is no legal way to stop them.

If you look at the US after WWII and discount the racial prejudice and misogyny, continued abuse of the Native American population, and etc., you’ll see the fantasy world that I, white but female, second class citizen of the US but of a higher class than all PoC, unconsciously bought into as being what the US was historically, was currently, and would be ad infinitum.

It was a fantasy, pure and simple. It was a blip in the pulse of the world. The controlling, prejudiced, avaricious, and falsely religious people in power are getting their groove back. I don’t know where it will end. There have been improvements, witness my daughter and her wife being able to be legally married and foreign national DiL being hired into a full professorship on a tenure track; however, those of us who expected the good things to continue for us Baby Boomers, the good fight to continue, and the good things to finally get to all populations and demographics living here in the US, are going to be sorely disappointed. I’m 72 and have no clue as to what it will be like here in 25+ years when I hope to shuffle off this mortal coil.

>130 richardderus: Congrats on 32! Your perseverance and fantastic reviews are greatly appreciated.

*smooch*

Happy Sunday, Richard. Getting ready to start Dusk: A Novel. I am really looking forward to this one, all thanks to you.

>152 karenmarie: Thank you re: 32, Horrible. I'm so deeply happy reading is such a great information-stuffer. I think it helps me stay as sane as I possibly can when everything seems to be bleeping instead of the blipping I bought into with everyone else in the 1960s.

I'm really glad for progress made and hoped there would be more. As it is the pro-birthers in Texas are really going after the most fundamental of all human rights: Bodily autonomy. It is deeply upsetting.

If >126 richardderus: is in KU, maybe then...?

*smooch*

>153 msf59: I hope it works for you, Birddude. I think he's specially good at non-human PoVs...up there with Henry Hoke.

Sunday well!

Dropping off your weekly dose of smooches and well wishes for more excellent reads.

Hey, buddy. I don’t think I got back to you about Jason Mott. I’m sorry that he didn’t work well for you. He grabbed me and held me fast, and after finishing People Like Us I segued immediately to his NBA winner, Hell of a Book. I’m liking HOAB even more than PLU. It’s smoother, and might annoy you less.

>156 MickyFine: Thanks, Micky, we're mid-slide into fall so it's excellent reading weather. It might cause me to feel more charitable about the reads I'm not thrilled by, who knows?

*smooch*

>157 jnwelch: Hi Joe! Happy to see you. I'm glad you're enjoying Mott's work. I'll leave it to your tender mercies and eloquence to talk up. I'm working my way through literal thousands of DRCs I've already got so it's damn near impossible to convince me to add something new.

AUGUST 2025 IN REVIEW

Y'all. I wrote SEVENTY reviews in August. 69+1. 32 for #WITMonth (see >130 richardderus:) and 38 not for it.

I am amazed because that is a lot of writing. Bleeding off my nasty, horrifyingly cruel dreams for the fate of the MAGAts and their puppeteers (lotsa tumbrils and Scottish maidens and Iron Lady time involved) into reading and writing is clearly working wonders for my blog, and for my sanity (not that I've ever had much), and for my guilty hangdog face when I go ask for a fresh new DRC when I've got thousands already. Mostly, anyway.

The very best thing I've read this year was this August's The Remembered Soldier...so gorgeous, so moving...I'll be shocked but delighted if I read something better...and the absolute *worst* for August was Garbage Town, apt title. The big, bitter disappointment of Pan still stings. I really wanted it to be what the hype said. It was not. On to September!

>1 richardderus: People are idiots.

>160 richardderus: That IS a lot of writing! It also means a lot of reading. I'm glad you are able to subvert your rage into something enjoyable and worthwhile. And, you know, tumbrils and Scottish maidens and Iron Lady.... There are worse ways to distract oneself. My reading concentration has been for sh*t but I'm now starting The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois (~800 pages, what am I thinking???) and hoping it is good enough to keep me from blood-pressure-raising rants. Sigh.

>152 karenmarie: I really related to this.

Keep hanging in there, RD. It's what we can do.

>161 EBT1002: Aren't they just. It's the old, old leftist purity test problem that the reactionaries have used against us since forever.
"Oh, Secretary Kennedy? Your new home awaits."

Us old folk need to stay alive so we can help 'em rebuild. Health and long life, ol' pal.

>160 richardderus: 70 reviews in one month? Impressive!

Wishing you a wonderful September, and many excellent reads!

>163 atozgrl: Thank you, Irene! Even *I* feel impressed by that total. I really don't expect to touch that height again in September.

My GR friend Sarah-Hope sent me this message today:

Just thinking about those "Just because you can't do everything doesn't mean you should do nothing. Your small actions matter." kinds of campaigns.

How's this—

If even fake "Parmesan" can make something better. So can you!

Shall I get t-shirts printed?

I love this idea. Think a shirt would appeal to folks?

210 Solitaire : a novel by Hassouna Mosbahi (tr. William M. Hutchins)

211 We Never Swim in the Same River Twice (Middle East Literature In Translation) by Hassouna Mosbahi (tr. William Maynard Hutchins)

212 The girl in the green dress : a mystery featuring Zelda Fitzgerald by Mariah Fredericks

Need a puzzle to while away our first week of customary fall? THE GIRL IN THE GREEN DRESS by MARIAH FREDERICKS via Minotaur Books. It's a well-fictionalized historical murder case.

‘Morning, RDear. Happy Monday to you.

>154 richardderus: Bodily autonomy has rarely applied to women, ever. You know ... men ... and misguided women who've drunk the Kool-Aid. Misguided evangelical fervor here in the US has, unfortunately, gotten bold again. Very deeply upsetting.

>126 richardderus: is currently $14.99 + tax. I wonder what books are put on KU and why. There’s probably been a book written about that subject, probably not available as KU.

>160 richardderus: Seventy. Extended congratulations.

>166 richardderus: *mumble*ty-five. Yup.

>168 richardderus: As a genre, historical fiction with real people populating the pages may have at one point interested me, but not anymore, alas. I have, however, just acquired the Kindle version of SS Van Dine’s The Benson Murder Case based on the murder. BB-adjacent.

*smooch*

"If even fake "Parmesan" can make something better. So can you!" Oh, I'd wear that T-shirt. You bet.

Congratulations on the not-fake accomplishment of 70 reviews in a month. Cannot even imagine.

>149 richardderus: Glad you're able to find some time to time :)

>169 karenmarie: Now you should watch the 1929 film of The Benson Case, Horrible. It's pre-Code so actually interesting. Kindle Unlimited is a royalty-cutting device, akin to what they're doing with this unlimited-audio deal instead of cash or credits usage. It's nowhere near as vile and evil, since the publishers hadn't yet decided Ammy was not the enemy then.

Needing to channel my anger does *great* things to my productivity, apparently...a thing I'd love to go back and tell my 16yo self.

Stay well, smoochling!

>170 laytonwoman3rd: I'm glad I got that many done in one month even once in my life, Linda3rd. That is a wad of writing, which would be impossible for a younger/employed/not-disabled person to come close to. It doesn't hurt that writing is my great love, after reading.

I'll tell S-H! Maybe she can do a fundraising drive with it; her wife's an artist so might make an illo....

>171 RebaRelishesReading: I remind myself daily there are reasons to be positive every single day if you look for 'em.

Of course I want to slap some sense into myself when I issue that reminder on bad days....

>174 richardderus: lol. Indeed.

HOly MOLY, Richard! 70 reviews!!!???????!!!!!!!!! I knew I wasn't keeping up, but - 70!

I take a long time to come to conclusions and have only just now put together the irony of the enemy's position on bodily integrity for the masses.
Anything to do with gender or birth deprives one of the individual ability to decide what happens to that personal body - a decision that harms nobody if the same right is granted to everybody else.

To vaccinate or not carries apparently the highest priority in an individual's ability to decide what happens not only to one's own body but the body of one's children. The potential for harm to other people is great and expanding.

Nobody says they have to make sense. I hope that did. *smooch*

>175 RebaRelishesReading: Always the way, no?

>176 LizzieD: Nobody says they have to make sense. I hope that did. *smooch*

I think it shows several things, All of which are bad for their opinion of themselves: 1) there cannot be a god, or she would smack them down so hard there wouldn't be a greasy spot left, for using her name that way; b) the "liberty" they screech about is theirs and only theirs, therefore is the control they resent being applied against themselves.

Classic fascism, theocracy, whatever other words one wants to apply to high-control hypocrites.

Thanks! I was quite startled when I did the sums.

Congrats on 70 reviews in the month! Certainly an accomplishment to celebrate.

>179 bell7: I thank you, madame, and join you in your surprise. It's a lot of writing.

By my awkward reckoning, RD, I believe that congratulations are in order for 4x75 already.

>160 richardderus: Congratulations!

>140 richardderus: Have you read the book 25876618::Distant Fathers by Marina Jarre? My library only has this book by her.

Happy Tuesday, Rdear. *smooch*

>181 PaulCranswick: Thanks, PC. I'm really glad I *can* channel my outrage instead of being paralyzed by it as in the past.

>182 humouress: Thank you, Nina!

>183 Ameise1: Hi Barbara, nope...>140 richardderus: was my first Jarre. I can't offer any insights. Sorry for that. I myownself would get it because the reading experience was that good. *smooch*

>186 richardderus: Thank you very much, Rdear. I have now added it to my never-ending 🫣 library wish list.

>187 Ameise1: I've brought my DRC of it up to the front of the queue because it's National Translation Month here...I can fit it into my goal-reading AND do you a solid. Maybe next Monday I'll have a review.

>188 richardderus: *smooch*

Friday the fifth Netflix brings us season 16 of the Great British Bake Off (#GBBO) so I'll be doing reaction posts on Saturdays most likely. The links will appear in >7 richardderus: directly under the banana dolphins playing with the grape bubbles.

I'm so excited!

Happy September, Richard and hooray for cooler temps. I am LOVING Dusk: A Novel. Arnott is such a good fit for me. I also have Limberlost lined up. All thanks to you!

>191 msf59: Yay! I think you'd enjoy Flames as well, when you're done with either of these books.

September orisons.

Flames is on the list too. You know I will do my best to pay it forward too...😜

Wow! 70 reviews in August, Richard. It that a record ? *Smooch* for a happy Wednesday.

>194 vancouverdeb: It's the only time I've got *near* that many reviews written! It's amazing to me. I reread some of them a bit anxiously, thinking they had be ghastly, but not many were bad to my surprise. No more than the usual number.

So August 2025 is a milestone month, and a good one. (I'm ignoring the nasty ones saying the reviews were AI slop.)

>190 richardderus:

>196 humouress: Nothing that a good VPN and a healthy disrespect for corporations won't fix, Nina.

>197 richardderus: *sigh* I'll see if my son can set it up for me.

>198 humouress: You really should. You might do better to use channel4.com than Netflix, sor account-setting-up purposes what with you UK relatives and all.

213 Their four hearts by Vladimir Sorokin (tr. Max Lawton)

Intense, appalling, urgent, amazing.

214 The season : a fan's story by Helen Garner

THE SEASON: A Fan's Story is a beautiful gift given by a grandmother out of love for her growing-up grandson...one he will open and re-open many times.

>201 richardderus: Here I come skipping and skimming, Richard. I've read only The Spare Room, but I thought it was beyond excellent! I will recommend it to my dear college friend whose love for her baseball-loving grandson has carried her through the overdose death of her son, her husband's Altzheimer's and death, her daughter's marriage to and divorce from a heroin addict, her brothers' dementia, the death of the brother in her guardianship. Good grief. I'll copy your review for her, if I may, and let her decide whether she wants to take on this much honesty.

*smooch*

>202 LizzieD: Good gracious me! That was quite the recitation of tragedy. You may copy and share my reviews at will, dear lady. *smooch*

Hiya, RDear.

...

*smooch*

>204 karenmarie: Yoo-hoo!

Sweet Thursday, Richard. Enjoying these much cooler temps. Currently 47F. I have kid duty, early AM and then heading out to Bree's to hang with Jack for a couple of hours, before taking him to school. It will be a good day.

'Morning, RDear. Happy Thursday to you.

>201 richardderus: A little rush of desolation. It doesn't matter if I'm not there. No one needs me. I'm not essential after all. I'm only a witness. It's one of the sporadic bursts of reality that grandparents have to bear. You're making a serious mistake if you start to think you're near the centre. You're on the periphery. You're a servant. A hanger-on. And soon you'll be dead.

Take out the bit about grandparents, and it’s what I’m starting to feel more and more these days.

But, on the upside, it's a gorgeous day, starting to make 'fall' noises. Books to read, friends to have lunch with, and etc.

*smooch*

I am going to have to read all of your reviews when I have time, Richard, but congratulations on the 70 in August!

((Hug)) and **smooches** for today. . .

>206 msf59: Thursday orisons, Birddude! 47°! I am sooo jealous, it's 70° here. At least it will only go to 73° so that's something. Enjoy the hang time with your ever-growing bud.

>207 karenmarie: Good on fall, boo-hiss on the mortality reflections. Given the things you do, you're hardly useless, though maybe these irrelevancy woes could talk you into doing some political work?

Helen Garner, 83, is a great example of using the need to feel proactive to do something good. *smooch*

>208 alcottacre: Amazing month, Stasia, and one I still wonder about the sheer productivity of. I've got notes for many books that have not (yet?) unlocked the word-tap but at least have a chance to, so I'm not short of raw material.

215 A planet for rent by Yoss (tr. David L. Frye)

A PLANET FOR RENT is a bitterly personal takedown of capitalist tourism as plague by a Cuban SF monadnock.

216 Red dust : a novel by Yoss (tr. David L. Frye)

RED DUST is an angle on the same concerns as A Planet for Rent, except it's law'n'order/security-focused.

217 The Jaguar Mask by Michael J DeLuca

A beautiful tale via Stelliform Press of working with people not like you to accomplish things that need doing.

Hello there, Richard, and hope you have a lovely day!

Karen O

Just popping in to say that I started reading The Remembered Soldier last night. Wow, the first chapter was so good. I immediately felt so much empathy for Noon. I learned about the book from a mention you made on Mark's thread. So, thanks!

>214 richardderus: Hi Karen O.! Happy to see you here. I'm having a lovely fall, and today's another winner in the series.

>216 labfs39: I'm so pleased, Lisa! It is a book I enjoyed from giddy-up to whoa. I hope you feel the same way. Please come let me know!

Onto the wish list go the two Yoss books with thanks. I am lost in fantasy, but I am also itching to get back to *RSoldier*, which involves more than entertainment. Oh --- I did sent my friend your review last night, but I haven't heard from her. That's another one I want to read, having read the sample on Ammy.
To quote Stasia: "Thoughtful Thursday" to you! *smooch*

>219 LizzieD: Thursday orisons, my dear, and I'm really glad you're getting some good ideas from the reviews. I hope one day soon Yoss will make you chuckle as much as they did me.

Will definitely revisit your WiT thread when I have more time RD.

August was probably the lowest reading I've done, with only 2 books for the month, ouch. Looking forward to improving on that this month, if not getting back into my usual stride yet. Book boxing will continue for a couple more months if at a slower pace.

>221 Caroline_McElwee: It'll be here, Caro. The beauty of having lists in posts with links is just exactly that.

Happy Thursday *smooches*, Richard!

Congrats on 70 reviews in August, Richard. Looks like you're off to another great start for September.

Happy Friday, Richard. Both "Red Dust" & The Jaguar Mask sound like winners. Your job is done, sir.

>225 Familyhistorian: Thanks, Meg! I'm really chuffed I got so much done.

>226 msf59: I hope you local library has one of 'em, Mark, the reads are good but the price...!

218 Lamb: A novel in snapshots by Troy Ford

219 The intelligence explosion : when AI beats humans at everything by James Barrat

‘Morning, RDear. Happy Friday.

>210 richardderus: Nice try… I’m not at all interested in doing any more politically than keeping my head down and possibly throwing a bit of money at Roy Cooper for his 2026 Senate Campaign.

>212 richardderus: and >213 richardderus: A resounding Nope can be heard from my home here in central NC. No surprise, right?

>214 richardderus: Oooh, werejaguar. Love the cover, but will pass.

>229 richardderus: Poignant review, gave me quite a bit to think about re my first romantic love, hetero though it was.

>230 richardderus: Nope. It does not call out to me at all.

Whew. BBs and even wish list books avoided.

*smooch*

>231 karenmarie: *mournful wail* ...butbutbut Horrible! How can you invalidate me so cruelly?! I depend on the dopamine infusion of flattening your wallet while fattening your TBR! My mental health is poised on the knife edge!

(But yeah, skip >230 richardderus: if you don't need a sleep aid.) *smooch*

I learned a hideous new-to-me word a while back: "simping," participle of the verb "to simp"; this horrifying collection of sounds means, "to have a crush so bad you become pestiferously ingratiating to the object."

I tell you this so no one alerts the paramedics to come take me to the goofy garage (again) when I say that "I am totally simping for Oliver Clozeoff." This will, in due course, make sense.

>233 richardderus: - I'm going to take a wild guess and say Oliver must be a contestant on the new season of GBBO :)

>234 katiekrug: ...not quite...yes, but in a curious way, no....

Hmm, I'm intrigued...

>230 richardderus: I still keep a few brain cells engaged in reading and trying to keep up with the never ending flood of new writing about AI. (Spoiler alert: most of it ain't that new)

I think it was Noam Chomsky who said "We're about five years away from a really good general artificial intelligence - and we always will be."

Works for me.

You missed me up in >223 bell7: but it was hard to see before the spammer and was only smooches that I can deliver again.

*smooches* for a wonderful weekend

>236 katiekrug: ::sphinx face::

>237 magicians_nephew: It's not AI for one thing, it's all LLMs and they can't by definition be generative. Recombinative, maybe. It's a hideously expensive and environmentally destructive bubble.

>238 bell7: I'm sorry, Mary! The spammer pissed me off so much I had to go flag the profile and, well...I goofed. *smooch* back for your own best weekend!

‘Morning, RDear. Happy Saturday to you.

>232 richardderus: You are so full of it. However, flattening my wallet and fattening my TBR are clever.

>233 richardderus: New to me word, too, don’t recall simping in the last 40 or more years. Oliver Clozeoff?

*smooch*

Dropping off weekend smooches. Hope there's some fun reads in your stack.

>242 karenmarie: Morning, Sweetiedarling, it's finally Saturday and I'm rolling out my GBBO thoughts. You'll have to read those to see who I'm referring to. "Simping" smacked into my windshield like a fat moth just before COVID. HIDEOUS word but...in this case...the right one for the job.

>239 richardderus: - Okay, now I know. But how can you simp for something you only got a very brief glimpse of?!?!

>243 MickyFine: *smoochiesmoochsmooch* I've got a good'un going, maybe it'll make it to a review this month.

>245 katiekrug: That's all it takes...plus the rest-of-the-time package is plenty good enough!

((Hugs)) and **smooches** for today, RD! I hope all is well with you and that you have a wonderful weekend!

>248 alcottacre: Thanks, Stasia, back at'cha!

GBBO THOUGHTS Season 16 starts! I'll introduce the bakers below, not in alpha order, but as they kinda-sorta ranked overall. (Or by disaster bake that tickled me.)
*Fiendish* technical aside, it was an ordinary cake week. I'll go right into the first challenge because no one knows who anyone is yet and give my impressions as I go:
The signature was a swiss roll, flavors and so on personal choices but with at least two different fillings; the challenge was creating a landscape in decor paste and getting the design out whole after baking and unrolling it. Of course, the usual no-cracks, tight-swirl, lovely presentation standards applied. No one tried to put three fillings in, thank St. Honorius. Nataliia, Ukrainian immigrant with a very noticeable stammer, made a truly stunning Ukrainian folk flower design decoration for her sponge, wrapped around mango-passion fruit jam...sluuurp...with cream-cheese "frosting"-like cream. Prue commented that the design looked as though it had been embroidered. It really did...a lovely-looking swiss roll.
Tom, tall lanky Scottish queer (sort of like s5's Iain Watters and s10's Tom Hetherington blended with s3 winner John Whaite) made a tartan design that, apart from a nuclear-accident green sponge, was stunning to look at, rolled around mascarpone cream and blueberry compote...proof to me that keeping it simple is always the best plan for flavors if your execution of decoration must be spot-on. The judges loved it.
Jessika, my sweetie-smoochling, is a drag king called "Oliver Clozeoff", and *hubba hubba* do I wanna roll her swiss!, made a flavor combo I never once thought of before but now want to try: coconut sponge and grapefruit curd with a white-chocolate and black-pepper ganache. Yum! The design was a bouquet of flowers held in her own hand...pretty and well-executed. They felt the design was too ishy-colored, the curd wasn't thick enough, and thus the textures were off.
Iain, an Irish transmasc guy, did the most amazing swiss-roll decor of Queens University Belfast that used coconut chiffon filled with cherry jam and *shudder* marshmallow, which I learned is based on a thing called "fifteens", a cross between seven-layer bars and granola bars made by toothless poor people, looked gorgeous but made Prue worry it would be too sweet (no duh!), though apparently the jam was tart enough and she survived, molars and pancreas intact.
Aaron, tall mixed-race or Amharic closet case, made a design of honeycomb-with-bees in honor of his little sister's love of the bee, rolled around a lemon-curd cream with a blueberry/elderflower jam (sounds repulsive to me...like soap-on-a-rope and Oil-of-Olay mixed together), with a white chocolate decorative overlay Prue (rightly) said made it look worse when it was very impressive as it was. They were complimentary. I'd've spat it out.
Pui Man, Hong Kong-born sweetly bland soul who designs wedding dresses, made matcha (ick) buttercream (!!) to roll with lemon curd (yum! but really enough's enough) and sliced fresh strawberries inside a truly lovely floral design roll of which Paul remarked "if Prue was a swiss roll, it'd be that one." Honestly it was spot-on; it wasn't surprising that their only criticism was it was overfilled (really, really was, all bulgy and gross-green-snot lookin').
Lesley, one of those folk I think of as spear-carriers or supernumeraries, basically ambulatory set-dressing, also made lemon curd. Of course she did. Paired with blueberry jam. Stunningly original. Her design was her toddler granddaughter's favorite flower, daisies. It was all exactly as tedious as it sounds. It was a squashed-up pleasant enough family dinner dessert but decidedly not GBBO material.
Nadia, so dull I actually forgot about her until I was rewatching the show to finish this up (oh dear, I smell a Georgie {the s15 winner for some reason I will never comprehend}), decorated her swiss roll with pretty cherries outside, cherry jam with kirsch inside an almond-essence/extract sponge and almond-extract cream. Mmmm. Too bad her sponge was underbaked and claggy and thus split. Ruined what was otherwise a totally unmemorable bake.
Jasmine, another one of the ~meh~ ones, stands out because she is unexplainedly completely bald, made...surprise!...lemon curd (because literally the whole planet knows these judges like it) rolled with lemon mascarpone and freez-dried raspberries inside a lemon-raspberry sponge with lemon-slice shaped decor paste in it...Paul thought it was peaches. I think that's enough about that.
Toby, cute token straight boy with either no mirror or no vanity whatsoever (not to mention a besotted or blind girlfriend), made a rhubarb-and-custard swiss roll with a totally unmemorable pattern. Rhubarb jam and elderflower (ick) crème diplomat (pastry cream with whipped cream and a small amount of gelatin added, he flopped because his batter AND his crème were lumpy so he had to mix the batter more...just run it though a sieve! one good fold after that and you'd've still had bubbles!...and remake the crème (see tip above) so it was tough. Assembling a swiss roll with a too-hot filling simply will never work. It didn't this time, either.
Leighton, very tall older queer Welsh guy (like s3 Brendan on HGH minus the baking nous), made an Italian-lemon curdle rolled with Chantilly cream (sweet whipped cream with a hint of vanilla) rolled in a gaudy pink sponge decorated with...surprise!...lemons, made the stress-related screwups that SOMEone always makes of leaving out a key ingredient. His: flour. There are flourless cakes in the world but they ain't gonna roll. He did go back and sift it in. Unsurprisingly it did not turn out too well. Tough sponge, but Prue liked the design and colors, and his flavors got appreciated.
Hassan, frumpy dumpy middlin' blah boy with more mileage than shine coupled with the most irritating nasal whine I've ever heard, had a complete 'mare of a time. I'll just say that from the chocolate cake to the milk-chocolate plus coffee ganache and caramel he rolled into it sounded revolting...and looked like it "was dropped out of a tree" per Hollywood. I do not usually think his unkind remarks are warranted, but this time I think he went easy on the baker. It was poorly planned, horribly badly executed, and it will come as no surprise that they hated it.
*
The technical was absolutely the cruelest, most diabolically calculated to sort the good'uns from the ~meh~ ones, ever! The bakers had to taste a fondant fancy (you remember those Swiss Colony boxes people you didn't know would send your parents in the 60s? Those revolting "petit-fours" from those boxes are teensy, mingy versions of a fondant fancy, disgusting things) provided them, determine what the parts were, how to make them, the flavors in each part, and reproduce it (NOT interpret it!) exactly in two hours and fifteen minutes, after a five-minute span to taste and prod and disassemble the one perfect example provided. Then they took it away! AND the ingredients were all hidden while they were examining the one sample they got! Can you even! Your first week on international television, your first bloody technical (the bane of every baker), and you have to choose only a few from the ingredients you're given...lots of sneaky traps laid there lemme tell ya...decide how to make the components and create the same finish WITH NO RECIPE, NO LIST OF INGREDIENTS, NOTHING TO HELP. Paul Hollywood's a fiend.
Toby totally saved himself by coming first. He wisely made a very basic 1-1-1-1 sponge with equal parts flour/egg/sugar/butter; he got his flavors right; he
Jessika's second-place fondant fancies were unmemorable better than most. Presentation, taste, all up to snuff.
Nataliia in third did everything pretty much right, just not too well.
Aaron was blandly competent.
Lesley was probably below Aaron because her pouring-fondant icing was terrible, looking like Jackson Pollock's studio floor. She also used ground almonds in her sponge, Paul said...but the rise looked good.
Leighton thought the raspberry fondant tasted like cherry. He used cherry extract. He used ground almonds in his sponge. He, in other words, screwed his pooch every way you could. Nice assembly saved him.
Nadia had never made the things before (what sane person would, bar a court order or a murder weapon held to their head?)and she overcooked the sponge so her finish was pretty decent to finish where she did. Unmemorable, like her.
Iain did fine, nothing great nothing *too* disastrous (taking your cake out too early and losing an entire fondant fancy isn't as bad as it gets), until the buttercream...supposed to be almond extract flavored...when he came to the conclusion he should use honey essence! ?!
Jasmine was, poor lamb, proved right in her dread that this would be the technical by finishing ninth. And deservedly so. Awful looking things she knocked up, with the almonds in the sponge meaning they were dense AND flat, coated in what looked to me like Calamine lotion instead of cherry fondant.
Hassan used the ground almonds, ignored the fact his batter was split, and generally slopped his way to tenth-of-twelve.
Pui Man came so far down because she used ROSE flavor! They were almond-raspberry flavor! It didn't help that she used the ground almonds in her sponge. Her fondant icing was a truly unpleasant raw-sausage color, she didn't crumb-coat the cake...few did...so they looked, as she herself noted, "disgusting." I would not have eaten one even to be polite.
Tom used ground almonds, not extract, in his sponge, which means the cake was fluff-free not fluffy. He hammered the sponge, mucked up the fondant, and did as poorly as he did well in the signature. Deserved to be last.
*
The showstopper was that perennial festival of the theater of cruelty known as "the cake sculpture" (or humiliation-fetishists' dream), this time needed to be a landscape that was significant to the baker. All it really needed to be a true dungeon was the judges dressed in leather and chains. They had four lousy hours to do this in. I expected disaster after horror heaped on failure. Not so much!
Nataliia interpreted the landscape of Ukraine with a big red candy heart in Kiev's place. It was made from chocolate-rum cake with a layer of cherry jam. It looked okay. Naturally she won star baker. I didn't think she deserved it...really it shoulda been Iain's (see below)...but it was plausible.
Iain had the absolute most astonishing recovery from (self-inflicted) disaster I have ever seen in all the years I've watched GBBO. Better than s2 Rob not losing it when he dropped his cake on the floor while frosting it! Iain did not chill his chocolate-stout cake before assembling it and carving it into his landscape, so it slid like Kilauea lava all over the place...and he kept his head, he wrapped the bits in an acetate collar, and bunged it into the ?freezer? to set, then carved...ya know whatever it was I don't know but he.did.it. He deserved a bread-lion level special commendation for not chucking it in, giving them a sloppy mess (well, it kinda was but no worse than others' sloppy messes), and bowing out. This dude's One To Watch.
Aaron used coconut concentrate in his buttercream frosting that's going atop coconut sponge filled with the buttercream and a miso caramel, making up his Barcelona park scene. It was blandly competent. He's blandly competent. Barring a huge fuckup, he'll make it to whatever week, chocolate or caramel or desserts...whichever structural torture they choose this year.
Jasmine made a very, very successful blackberry and pistachio cake for either side of a cardamom-flavored one, all filled with pistachio-blackberry mousse, decorated to represent her Scottish homeland. I'll put her down for leaving in pastry week.
Jessika melted my evil Grinchly heart by using apples grown by the elderly lady she cared for prior to the lady's death to make a happy birthday memory from an African trip. They had a sticky-toffee sauce on vanilla mascarpone filling between layers of spiced apple cake, which honestly makes my tongue tingle.
Leighton used the wrong sponge, a Victoria sandwich, or failed to scale his (huge!) South-Wales landscape cake down to account for the effect of gravity. Anyway, it looked...okay...but did not meet the expected sculptured-cake brief, or the structural or taste standards. Gone by week three/bread week?
Lesley's dad liked to paint along with Bob Ross. That scans. Her cake chocolate sponge soaked in kirsch with black-forest buttercream and cherry jam, because the whole world knows that's Paul's favorite cake; it was a tree stump with a Bob Ross landscape. If I'd read this woman in a novel I'd've sent the author a stiff note about stereotyping being very lazy. She could make it to whatever the theme week is this year, but I wouldn't be beyond that.
Nadia created a Mauritius-vacation landscape out of coconut/lime cake soaked in coconut liqueur, layered with lime curd, and a set-gelatine sea atop it all. It looked slick...the gelatine, that is...and was not a great success. I hope she goes before Patisserie week because I can see that being carnage.
Pui Man made the Lion Rock from her Hong Kong childhood out of coffee-and-walnut sponge, with coffee liqueur buttercream frosting inside. It looked okay, and the judges liked it fine. I give her even odds of getting past bread week.
Toby made something that required a set-gelatine element, which is basically asking St. Honorius to cause a structural collapse. (Remember heterochroous Dan in s10? That tropical island that failed?) The saint obliged, but Toby smartly confined the failure point to an edge so survived to bake another week with his not-great landscape of someplace English, made from a browned-butter sponge (YUMMM!), a white-choc sponge, and filled with strawberry/praline jam (swoon).
Tom created his Danish granny's Icelandic farm from his childhood summer vacations out of chocolate sponge, layered opera-cake style with whipped dark-choc/orange ganache, and whipped white choc ganache. I thought it was clumsy looking. They liked the chocolateness.
Hassan, who left first, made a punpkin-spice cake to represent a Lapanese bamboo forest landscape (??) that was filled with pecan praline frosting and weirdly I'm completely decorated. It looked kinda like a Magritte landscape done for the "all-paintings-$50 art" show. Farewell.

Good morning, Richard. We went to Bree's last night, along with Matt and Hannah. Yep, wedding party plans were discussed and lists were made. Jack provided endless entertainment. It was cool enough to have a fire on their back deck. Jack would fetch us wood when needed. Of course, he had to take his four-wheeler to get it. This kid...

>251 msf59: It's so sweet when kids want to be part of whatever their family's doing, making a space for themselves and being completely adorable! Of course it's fleeting, but it's big fun while it lasts.

Wedding plans! *whew* Those are packed days. Poor Matt, he's a Featured Player to Hannah's starring role, but perish forbid he fluffs* a line...!

*stupid AI correction edit

>250 richardderus: You may have taken the prize for the longest Spoiler Alert ever posted on LT, Richard.

>253 magicians_nephew: I fear the Spoiler Stasi way more than the opprobrium of passers-by, having had a descent of their truncheon-wielding spoiled bratness.

Wow, it's been years since I saw the GBBO, years late and on Italian TV, still with the old jury and when vanilla and raspberries were the main combo. Thankfully, I could switch to the original language. Loved it!
I don't know if the terrible Italian edition still exists where they had to create in too little time monstrous multi-layered cakes which ended unbaked with icing dripping off - the food waste was horrible. And the humor-free jury tried to get the candidates to work against each other, completely against the principle of GBBO. Enjoy, I'll happily read the spoilers!

‘Morning, RD. Happy Sunday.

Lazy day planned, puttering and etc.

*smooch*

>255 Deern: The problem I have with "competition" shows is just that, Nathalie, all the nastiness is manufactured to "engage" people which, oddly, means making them angry. GBBO does that to a very minor degree...eg, some online commenters are really upset that Hassan got the bounce, but that dies down fast because nothing on the show supports it...and it attracts quite an international audience. For cake-baking. In 2025.

In a lot of ways GBBO gives people, um, ideas, and makes flavor-play mainstream, so contributes to carbon-footprint expansions as exotica find markets. It's a fixable issue and IMO the net-positive expansion of palates and food selections goes a long way to offset the increase of existing structural issues.

Read on, my dear lady, I'm not likely to stop unless my body rebels.

>256 karenmarie: 'Tis the season, Horrible, we're starting the cocooning phase of the year here in the global north so follow that natural urge.

No BBs. Our tastes seem to be drifting apart.

>259 ArlieS: ...just wait...All things in motion converge and drift.

>250 richardderus: Wow! Great job distilling the show down into this post. I watched the first episode of GBBO, and (once again) was overwhelmed by how much there was to take in—number of bakers, high level of skills involved—on the first episode??

Thanks for the recap!

Karen O

>261 klobrien2: I'm glad you found it useful, Karen O.!

It's got some rough places, I now notice, so I'll go back and fix it sometime this week.

I get older fast. I would SWEAR that I entered a message here saying that I got a copy of The Book of Witching to read next month. I even remember where the correct Touchstone is. So I didn't post it? Thank you, for the tip, my WBL with a *smooch*.

>263 LizzieD: I'm really glad you're prepared for Spooky Season, Peggy me lurve. I got the message so I am not fussed about when, or how. *smooch*

>257 richardderus: Hani is a devotee of GBBO as you might expect RD. I'm not sure that it is quite up to date here but I do enjoy the format and the general absence of nastiness.

>265 PaulCranswick: Not, it's not usually available here until next year (see >196 humouress:).

>266 humouress:, >265 PaulCranswick: It's part of the greed system operating at peak (in)efficiency.

'Morning, RDear. Happy Monday to you.

I've got another fun day of reading, puttering, and etc. planned. It's gorgeous and definitely more fall-like than summer-like here.

*smooch*

221 A thousand ways to die : the true cost of violence on Black life in America by Trymaine Lee

A St. Martin's Press title by TRYMAINE LEE comes out tomorrow. It's proof the personal is political...again...and got my accolades.

220 The New Global Possible : Evidence for Hope in the Fight for a Sustainable Future by Ani Dasgupta (intro. James A. Harmon)

ANI DASGUPTA is President abd CEO of the World Resources Institute, and a veteran of on-the-ground climate-change war. His book via Disruption Books does factual combat with the soul-sucking sadness of climate change.

>267 richardderus: Monday orisons, Horrible, may the slide into fall continue uninterrupted. I'm not budging out the door...tomorrow's my eye appointment so I'm staying recumbent as much as possible.

*smooch*

Tuesday* smooch* Richard. Enjoy the slide into fall. I hope the eye appointment goes well.

>272 vancouverdeb: Thanks, Deborah, I'm off right now!

Can't say your latest reads are jumping out at me, but glad they were so good for you and entertaining reviews, as always.

Tuesday *smooch* and best wishes for the eye appointment.

'Morning, RDear. Happy Tuesday.

>274 bell7: Mary said it perfectly.

extra *smooch*

>274 bell7: Thanks, Mary! I'm in the lobby waiting for the doctor now.

>275 karenmarie: Tuesday orisons, Horrible. Have a lovely fal day! * smooch*

>270 richardderus: Well, you got me with that one. Onto the huge TBR pile it goes. I could use a dose of optimism right now. It seems like it would fit well with Hope Dies Last: Visionary People Across the World, Fighting to Find Us a Future, which I saw on the coverage of the National Book Festival this weekend.

I hope everything went well with your eye appointment.

>278 atozgrl: Hi Irene! Enjoy >270 richardderus: and the uplift it offers, goodness knows we All need it!

My ophthamology report: Cataracts out in January, starting on the left eye; until then some medicated drops for fry-eye because the doc was concerned about how bad the condition is. He told me recovery will go more smoothly if we address the dry-eye problem now. If the medicated drops don't help, we can go ahead earlier. I'm hoping they work.

I'm glad that you can wait until January and hope to get those dry eyes back to normal. We have thought that dry eyes have some genetic component since Mama's and at least one of her sisters had the condition, and so do I but not badly enough to need prescription drops. Poor Aunt Jean though, had eyes so dry that during a surgery one of the attending nurses was assigned to keep putting drops in.
Fascinating, I know.

We're back from a root canal for my husband - the easiest dental procedure he's ever had, he says. Hooray for that!

(You have a typo in your ophthalmology report that is a keeper: medicated drops for fry-eye, or maybe you were just being funny. Anyway, I love it.) *smooch*

Loved the GBBO report and hope that one of the TV networks I watch will pick up the new season. It's never guaranteed as there is a Canadian version that can be picked up instead.

Best of luck with the cataract surgery, Richard. I know that will be sometime in my future too. Then it will be decision time re opting for distance vision or the same as I have now - able to read without glasses.

222 The true true story of Raja the Gullible (and his mother) by Rabih Alameddine

As usual for RABIH ALAMEDDINE, this is a solid, fun, enjoyable read via Grove Press.

>280 LizzieD: Morning, Peggy me lurve! I'm more on the Aunt-Jean end of fry-eye (never do miss a joke, you!) spectrum. It concerned him more than the cataracts or druzes.

It is a relief to get the plan in place, and the idea of the intraocular lens is...going to take getting used to. I'm heartened by your husband's good experience...stuff has come a long, long way, hasn't it?

223 Middle spoon by Alejandro Varela

An enjoyable novel of throuplehood's pains, problems, and contentments.

>281 Familyhistorian: Morning, Meg! I'm glad you liked my recap/review of GBBO. CBC doesn't geocode GCBO for US consumption, thanks to capitalist greed. There's a GABShow, too, on Roku, but it's no juggernaut here....

I'm opting for the near-vision glasses free, since a solid 80% of my time is in front of a screen. It's all about tradeoffs, and that one's easy.

‘Morning, RDear!

>279 richardderus: I’m glad the opthamology report went well. Eye drops now for more smooth cataract surgeries in January. 🤞 for the eye drops working the way he wants them to.

>282 richardderus: I loved Alameddine’s An Unnecessary Woman, giving it 4.5 stars. This one sounds wonderful, and I’ve added it to my wish list.

>284 richardderus: Intriguing take on polyamory. It’s been added to my wish list, too.

*smooch*

>286 karenmarie: ...well, I'm edging closer to the target at least...

I really hope the drops will work as advertised, the dry-eye is getting unmanageable with normal saline drops...I'm using them six or more times a day. I'd like that to go down to two or three.

*smooch*

You got me with two BB's. I heard the NPR review of True Story of Raja the Gullible on Saturday morning and thought I should check it out. Your review just cinched it. I have a copy of Hakawati somewhere in a box. I should hunt for it and get it read as well.

>288 benitastrnad: Excellent, Benita! I read The Hakawati when it came out and retain no memory of it. An Unnecessary Woman still lives on, of course, and this family-love story will too (I think now...).

>279 richardderus: I hope the drops work for you and that your surgery is as successful as mine was! Good vision is such a gift.

>290 RebaRelishesReading: It surely is, Reba! The operation is, for all my squicky feelings about doing stuff to my eyes, is really routine.

Thanks for the encouragement!

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is going to be opera-ized at the Met.

In this exhilarating new adaptation of Michael Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel, set shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, two Jewish cousins invent an anti-fascist superhero and launch their own comic-book series, hoping to recruit America into the fight against Nazism. Incorporating scintillating electronic elements and a variety of musical styles, composer Mason Bates’s eclectic score moves seamlessly among the three worlds of Gene Scheer’s libretto: Nazi-occupied Prague, the bustling streets of New York City, and the technicolor realm of comic-book fantasy. Bartlett Sher’s production provides spectacular visuals to match, with towering sets and proscenium-filling projections designed by Jenny Melville and Mark Grimmer of 59 Studio. Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts the Opening Night premiere, and baritone Andrzej Filończyk makes his Met debut as the artist Joe Kavalier, who flees Czechoslovakia and arrives at the Brooklyn doorstep of writer Sam Clay, sung by tenor Miles Mykkanen.
***
I would've laughed at you had you told me this would happen.

>292 richardderus: - Yep. My best friend and I are planning to go :)

>293 katiekrug: !!! I really really really want to hear all about it...what music is going to fit with these storylines and those characters?!

>279 richardderus: That is good news dear fellow. I will have fingers and toes crossed that the procedures are wholly successful.