richardderus's fifteenth 2025 thread

'Tis the nesting season...this looks like a good place to greet it.

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.
197 to 223 back there.

THIS THREAD'S REVIEWS
224 The Portrait in post #44.
225 French Rhapsody in post #45.
226 SYMPATHY TOWER TOKYO in post #47.
227 The lights of Pointe-Noire : a memoir in post #75.
228 Black Moses : a novel in post #76.
229 Dealing with the dead in post #89.
230 Whiteout in post #92.
231 Death at the sanatorium in post #93.
232 The mysterious case of the missing crime writer in post #94.
233 Bad Indians Book Club : reading at the edge of a thousand worlds in post #119.
234 You weren't meant to be human in post #121.
235 Compound Fracture in post #126.
236 WE WERE THE UNIVERSE in post #133.
237 The loneliness of Sonia and Sunny : a novel in post #156.
238 One of us : a novel in post #162.
239 Exquisite things in post #183.
240 Anointed : the extraordinary effects of social status in a winner-take-most world in post #186.
241 The serial killer guide to San Francisco : a novel in post #196.
242 A Tour to Die For: A Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco Mystery (The Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco Mysteries, 2) in post #198.
243 A murderous business in post #200.
244 Rilke in Paris in post #233.
245 Impostures in post #245.
246 The sugar kremlin in post #276.
247 Day of the oprichnik in post #277.
248 Finlay Donovan is killing it in post #280.
249 Finlay Donovan Knocks 'Em Dead: A Novel in post #288.
250 Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun: A Novel in post #291.
251 Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice (Finlay Donovan, #4) in post #295.
252 Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave: A Novel (The Finlay Donovan Series, 5) in post #298.

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:
#023 What we can know : a novel (28%) in post #251.
#024 To the Moon and Back (58%) in post #254.
#025 The Story That Wouldn't Die (Jolene Garcia Mysteries #2) {15%} in post #255.
#026 The Art of a Lie (52%) in post #258.
#027 UNVEILED: Inside Iran's #WomanLifeFreedom Revolt (41%) in post #259.

All previous Burgoine reviews linked here.

THIS THREAD:
#069 Glorious People in post #144.
#070 The Mystery of the Crooked Man in post #145.
#071 Roundabout of Death in post #245.
#072 Glitter in the Dark in post #246.
#073 A Killer Wedding in post #249.
#074 The Sisterhood (A Lady Emily Mystery) in post #250.

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.
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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.

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.
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#WITMonth explainer is here.
#WITMonth wrap-up is here.
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#1 over here.
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#2 through #23 over there.
#24 to #32 is #over there.

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GBBO THOUGHTS
Season 15's comments linked here.
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Season 1 thoughts are here.
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GBBO Season 16!
Episode 1: cake week is here.
Episode 2: Biscuits (cookies in proper American) here.
Episode 3: Bread week here.
Episode 4: Back To School here.
Episode 5: Chocolate

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.
SEPTEMBER 2025 here.

You've been patient...your reward is permission to post now.

Happy new one, Rdear. *smooch*

>9 Ameise1: Morning, Barbara! Thank you!

A suitably modest diamond tiara for you to have, something casual, the sort of thing appropriate to your lifestyle.

‘Morning, RDear. Happy Thursday and happy new thread to you.

From your last thread. Opera-ized The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay blows my mind. It almost sounds like too much – spectacular visuals, towering sets, proscenium-filling projections… I'm still amazed that my sister got the book for me before I joined LT. She rarely picks out books for me that I'll actually read. I read that one, though.

>1 richardderus: Perfect, but I’d really like a list of the books, please. I can only read a few of the titles. This shouldn't surprise you. Lists of books make me happy.

>5 richardderus: 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. Keep up the good work of confounding the conformists! (I’m one of them, but would never criticize your right to use LT the way you want to within TOS).

*smooch*

Happy new thread Richard!

Happy new one, Richard. That topper looks inviting but once settled, I think I'd have a hard time getting up!

>10 richardderus: 🤩 thanks so much, Rdear. It's beautiful.

>11 karenmarie: Conformity ≠ me, as you're aware. It upsets people who think they are Right, and therein one of my life's great pleasures!

I can not even fathom how the Met will pull this off...it's a HUGE task. I really hope they film the performance...I'll pay to see that one fer sher. I really wonder what the score will bring, I'm trying to imagine the recitavo, I can't...I mean, really, if they pull this off I will be amazed. *smooch*

>12 humouress: Thank you, Nina!

>13 jessibud2: Thanks, Shelley, and I agree...I'd need the fire department to come pick me up, but it sure looks right.

>14 Ameise1: Sport it about with your accustomed panache, dear lady.

Greg Herren's been a social-media follow for me since there was social media. Today his blog post is about, what else?, that POS Charlie Kirk. Here's why I still love reading his stuff after twenty years:

...If you want to mourn him, that's fine. I never tell anyone what they can think or feel--but I one thing I have never, and will never, tolerate people trying to climb on some kind of moral high horse about this and trying to scold/shame people about how to feel and react. You're not my mother, thank you very much, and if you're perfectly okay with someone saying queer people should be stoned to death, I know you aren't safe for me. You'll vote against my rights and dignity, and you'll turn your head when the military police come for us. You're just a good little German, and I don't fucking need to know your dirty, unwashed wide flat {redacted} ass.

He wanted me, and others like me, to be put to death. That is who you're telling me I should be empathetic and kind about? Were Black people supposed to grieve Bull Connor? Robert E. Lee?

And in the 1950s you would have claimed a black child whistled at you and never admitted culpability for his murder. That's who you are.

And so very interesting that your panties are in a moist wad over Charlie Kirk but you're okay with the school shooting yesterday? Is the air so thin up there on your high-horse that you're not getting enough oxygen to your brain?

I could've typed that, only I'm not as angry at the people who he got that messaging from, as no one I know is so foolish as to say such nonsense to me, or near enough that I've been able to see it anyway.

Murder squads are a terrible way to run a country, look at Ireland in the 1970s or Rwanda in the 1990s or...or...or....

I hope no one else dies for the simple reason some ammo sexual thinks they're Wrong. Vain hope, I guess, but I hope it still.

Happy new thread, Richard.

>20 ArlieS: Thank you most kindly, Arlie.

>19 richardderus: This quote is very well written.

I happened to first hear about this murder from a blogger complaining that various right wing social media posters were blaming the assassination on the entire left wing. I'd never heard of Charlie Kirk, and wikipedia's only Charlie Kirk was a British footballer, AFAICT, which left me very confused till I found the AP article.

Now that I've heard of him, I'm disinclined to mourn him, but I will mourn the pattern of political and other violence.

I'll let some god or other decide whether any of the victims deserved to die. Humans are far too biased - and this emphatically includes humans who claim to speak for gods. And in any case, we all wind up dead eventually.

But having violence as a comparatively good solution - to anything - harms us all. And yes, that includes governments as well as individuals committing the violence.

Only thread 15? You are slipping, lol. ((Hugs)) and **smooches**

>19 richardderus: >22 ArlieS: I am not in favor of violence either, to Charlie Kirk (I had never heard of him either) or anyone else, but what I fear is that he is going to be held up as a martyr for "the cause." We already have problems in this country, we do not need any more divisiveness.

>22 ArlieS: But having violence as a comparatively good solution - to anything - harms us all. And yes, that includes governments as well as individuals committing the violence.

100% agreement. It is a tragic precedent to set.

>23 alcottacre: He is not mournable by me, but murdering him because he was a creep? Not on!

Thanks for coming by, Stasia.

>1 richardderus: Looks like the perfect spot!

Happy new thread, Richard!

>26 figsfromthistle: Thank you, Anita!

Happy New Thread, Richard , as I await the dentist!

>28 vancouverdeb: Greetings, Deborah, and I hope you're there for something boring and routine and painless.

Salutations on your fifteenth RD.

>1 richardderus: That looks like most corners of my home!

>30 PaulCranswick: Thank you, PC! I'm pretty sure that'll look like the reading nook in your tomb, too, after All if it works, why change it?

>31 richardderus: Hahaha but hopefully I won't have to furnish it just yet, dear fellow.

>32 PaulCranswick: No time like the present for pre-need planning....:-P~~~

>33 richardderus: Well I do have the books mostly so I should probably prepare a list of which ones I will want to take with me. How many will we get in the crypt d'you think.

>34 PaulCranswick: Were I you, I'd make sure your rock-cut tomb had at least one room for the books (the 500 that's been on your TBR the longest), one for the remains, and one for Hanni to bake in. And in a hot, dry place, too.

Happy New Thread!

>35 richardderus: Will bear it in mind dear fellow.

Away for a day, I come back to find a new thread for you with 37 posts already! Happy new one, my WBL. I look forward to it!

(I'm sorry when any 30-something person is shot and killed. I didn't know C. Kirk either, but he sounds grim. What is making me less willing to be part of the dialogue or lower the heat or whatever the phrase is this time is the fact that the people on the other side are treating this as the only political attack - except for the attack against the entity - or killing in the US ever.)

Happy new thread, RD!

>22 ArlieS: >23 alcottacre: I had never heard of Charlie Kirk either, so I had to look him up yesterday, and a Wikipedia article about him did come up for me. It was flagged with a note saying that the article was being heavily edited due to his recent death, but it was there.

>38 LizzieD: I am also reluctant to make any comments at this time, as it seems too sensitive right now. My DH said he needed to stay off Facebook for a few days; apparently there are too many divisive comments coming across. I haven't looked at Facebook myself in so long that I can't remember the last time I was on there.

>36 SilverWolf28: Thank you, Silver!

>37 PaulCranswick: Always happy to help, Tut...errrrr PC.

>38 LizzieD: Whatever Kirk was, he did not deserve to die for it.

*baa*

>39 atozgrl: My mind flees from the intrusive thought that this is the 2025 Reichstag fire.

Thanks!

224 The Portrait by Antoine Laurain (tr. Jane Aitken, Emily Boyce)

Author Laurain's firstborn fiction, via the Pushkin Press after their purchase of Gallic Books.

225 French Rhapsody by Antoine Laurain (tr. Jane Aitken, Emily Boyce)

French bestseller Laurain's meditation on Les Jadis, and how much of the world today is the same (only wrinklier).

It's a scary world, always was but I'm more scared now someone put down that dawg...it feels like the Reichstag Fire moment with all these fascists shrieking about martyrdom, assassination, violence etc now that it's one of Them. Taylor Lorenz lays it out well:
https://youtu.be/k__vlLU6gqk?feature=shared

226 SYMPATHY TOWER TOKYO by RIE QUDAN (tr. Jesse Kirkwood)

Summit Books, a tiny little limb of Simon & Schuster, brought this title by Japanese Akutagawa-Prize 2023 winner RIE QUDAN (and translated by Jesse Kirkwood) out this week...it's very timely; so very deep; not very lovable to me, but super-trenchant.

Happy new thread, Richard!

>48 drneutron: Thanks, Doc!

Hiya, RDear. Happy Friday to you.

*smooch*

>50 karenmarie: Morning, Horrible, enjoy the weekend-ahead's reads.

>43 richardderus: I sure as heck hope not! My mind did not go that way.

>46 richardderus: I don't appreciate their shrieking since the ugly talk that seems to have led to political violence started with Trump announcing his campaign in 2015.

>52 atozgrl: Saddening, isn't it Irene?

>53 richardderus: Yes, it is. I don't know how our country has gone so wrong.

Happy sort-of-new thread!!

GBBO BISCUIT WEEK
It's cookie week! "Are you looking forward to bread week (next week)?" "No." IJBOL

Same idea as the Signature bake this week.
Their signature bake was one I'd fail at completely: slice-and-bake loaf cookies...the kind you get at Halloween or Yule with patterns in them as you slice each one off and bake it (see image above the spoiler). It's really hard to sculpt colored dough, get it into the middle of a plain dough and/or shape it, and get it chilled enough not to collapse...THEN slice and baked until perfectly crisp, not soft or squidgy (no one got that last bit perfect)! Very very good challenge. Our leaver this week, Leighton, did Orange Slices of Delight, or orange zest biscuits served with a chocolate ganache dip, which weren't as sloppy-looking as I'd thought they would be. He used the floss-cutting trick so they stayed sharp. Prue said, "what's not to like about chocolate and oranges?" The Technical was to make Chocolate Hobnobs with three different chocolate frostings, all feathered, in two hours. He came tenth of eleven because absolutely everything went wrong...too rgick...too much frosting...I think Jackson Pollock taught him how to feather the frosting. His Showstopper, the Biscuit Time Capsule...make a biscuit box and have five different edible mementos inside it, was a 'Piano Memories' theme...an upright piano made of black-colored well-spced gingerbread (it's what most used, it's sturdy enough and usually has a good strong 'snap' in it...when it holds together...) with five shortbread cookies for mementos. No earthly idea what they were meant to be, as there was poor decoration done...which also tells you why he's gone now.
It was tall, skinny Tom's week! He earned star baker for sure. His 'Hagia Sophia' design was out.stand.ing. and the judges liked the flavor too, mixed Turkish spices in the dough. He made them into sandwich biscuits around lemon curd filling that was beautifully set, per Paul. The Chocolate Hobnobs technical landed at sixth; poor chocolate-to-caramel ratio, ugly "feathering" and not up to snuff. Tom's Showstopper idea, the biscuit box was 'Granny's Cottage' made out of cardamom-flavored "gingerbread" (same recipe, no ginger instead just cardamom) and the five different biscuit mementos inside it were brandy snaps filled with peanut butter for breakfast-cereal bowls, with lemon curd for grandpa's cigars, and chocolate-frosted fish shapes for his fishing love. He earned a handshake because it was meticulous, beautiful, delicious, and he richly deserved star baker AND a handshake.
Jasmine made sailboat patterned Slice & Bake Biscuits that her boyfriend thought looked like the Millennium Falcon, which...fair enough. They were quite attractive and her orange, nutmeg, cinnamon flavors got appreciated. Her Hobnobs technical came a solid fourth mostly because the actual biscuit was chewy, which in an oatmeal-based recipe you really don't want. The Showstopper, 'Our Favourite Scottish Summers' picnic basket of gingerbread...looked amazing...mementos of basic flavored shortbread with decorations of picnic items she'd take on a Scottish picnic and something I thought was a tiara but turned out to be mountains. It looked fine as a package, everything tasted good...Prue said to this medical student, "your future could be in biscuit."
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Iain made his black cat Victor's face in orange-spice Biscuits with a Mince Pie-flavored white chocolate ganache inside the sandwich. They weren't very clearly defined, but the flavors were a hit. His technical finish in fifth was more what I'd call "good enough so you go through" than an endorsement. The Showstopper theme was 'If I Could Turn-table Back Time', just what you'd expect...the biscuit Time Capsule actually spun a biscuit record!
Jessika made toast-shaped ground almond biscuits flavored with black-cherry extract...Prue saw the sculpting process and asked if she might be going light on the Bacon. Shot back Jessika, "you've got to be watching you cholesterol, Prue." I love her. The Bacon and egg designs looked sharp! Her technical finish was a merited seventh, very slapdash-lookin' and poorly executed. Showstoppering on a 'Trails and Tales'-themed isolmalt windowed box (like s10 David's patisserie box!) framed in chocolate/espresso shortbread with lemon biscuit mementos (she made a voodoo dolly of herself! It moved and everything!) filled with peanut praline (dangerous, as Prue is not a peanut fan) and lemon cremeux in that *stunning* time capsule. If she can execute more consistently, her ideas and skill could carry her through.
Lesley's orange-zest Cupcake-Slice Biscuits were filled with chocolate-orange whipped ganache. All Paul's favorite combos all over the tent...almost, see Nadia below...made well, they'd've given her a boost but they really looked lumpy and awkward before and after (under-)baking. Her Hobnobs technical finish of ninth looked like she'd never seen feathering before. The Showstopper choice was 'Happy Memories' with the suitcase/box made of basic gingerbread biscuit with a cool impressed pattern in the sides, and the mementos in the time capsule including the fish made of Viennese whirls for fish and chips (everything else was made of lemon shortbread) all filled/decorated with vanilla buttercream.
Nadia's Slice & Bake was matcha-flavored and -colored avocado shapes with cocoa powder "stones", made Paul (and me) wince as he's no matcha fancier. Even so, the flavor was too bland according to both Paul and Prue. Her technical finish of second was really well-deserved, but her smeary feathering is what cost her first place. The Showstopper theme was the obvious, a sugar cookie Picnic Basket flavored with and frosted in limoncello with macaron mementos shaped like white chocolate and Chantilly cream-filled tomatoes from her Nonna's garden.
Nataliia made her Yorkshire-rose flag in her slices, *beautiful* intense blue with a decent try at the York rose in it but then flopped by having them be plain ol' almond-flavored sugar cookie dough that was a little floppy. The technical got her to third place, which felt generous to me given how very much too much chocolate frosting there was on them. The Showstopper called 'A Slice of Life' was her cake-week dream, I guess; a gingerbread box with a drawer, All shaped into a triangle. Even a sturdy Biscuit like gingerbread couldn't do that in the time she had! It failed. The mementos were all made of macarons, and worked pretty poorly, but this lady's got ambition. Rein her in until she's got the skills down, she'll go places.
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Toby did his cute little dog Bex's face cinnamon-honey cookies sandwiched with peanut praline buttercream and banana cream-cheese frosting. Decent job, tasted muddled per the judges. His technical Hobnobs came first, and deservedly so. Cleanly feathered, proper thicknesses of cookie, caramel, and chocolate frosting...excellent. The Showstopper was a 'Treasure Chest' theme made from a chocolate-orange Biscuit frosted in chocolate-orange ganache, the Time Capsule part was almond-cherry biscuit in various uninteresting shapes. Except for the playing card sandwiched with weepy cherry jam. Oops. He seems to be bumpin' along, like s12 Dave Friday, so maybe he'll do as well as he did just by scraping through...he's a good baker with 2/2 firsts in these first, very tough technicals. Just needs to get away from trying for style instead of focusing on substance, as Paul said.
Aaron made tonka-bean flavored biscuit with malted milk decor of a baby's-face in the biscuits to be dipped (notionally) in milk chocolate on the back; he called them Mini Winnies after a friend's new baby. Winnie went choco-dip-less as most of them weren't set so Alison said, "It is a baby, it could just be an...accident, know what I mean?" Paul's face after she said that was priceless! Lots went wrong, but he was the one who got the right snap texture, and the failed ganache ended up being exactly the right taste if not texture. One truly weirdly deformed cookie resembled very much Noel. We also saw Aaron's boyfriend, so not closeted after all! A technical finish at eighth place was totally fair, the Hobnobs were terribly clumsily frosted and shaped. His Showstopper choice, 'Sugar in Spring' yuzu sugar-cookie box structure, mementos of Earl Grey shortbread for the mementos and gingerbread supporting elements. Nothing in the time capsule was even vaguely recognizable. Timing will sink him next week because bread-baking is so heavily timing dependent.
Pui Man tried to make Year of the Ox loaf biscuits that had a red "oxhead" with yellow eyes, ginger and almond flavored, all of which looked clumsy as hell...she said, as they were cooling, they look like pigs now, and yeah. They did. The Hobnobs she made for the technical were...words fail me...they came last, but should've got her bounced outta there! Now then...we come to her gingerbread-built Showstopper...the 'Jumbo Boat' of a now-gone floating classy restaurant in Hong Kong that was filled with almond shortbread mementos that looked absolutely great. Her four-tiered Time Capsule box was just outstandingly decorated, it was good to eat...but that's the only one this week. Still think she will get past bread week (it's next week), but maybe not by much.

>54 atozgrl: Living through it is never easy.

>55 RebaRelishesReading: Thanks, Reba!

Happy new thread, Richard! After I finish my book club book, I'm ready to dive into the fluffiest of fluffy reading because the world is a dumpster fire.

I won't entirely, as I have a nice stack of books by indigenous folk and another book I want to read as foster parenting prep. But that's pretty much where I am mentally.

Happy new thread, Richard. I hope your new eyes work out to your satisfaction. I still don't know which lens I should chose when my turn comes. I spend a lot of time on screens but still drive.

Happy newish thread Richard :)
Haven't read the GBBO spoilers yet, will do so later today, but now feel like buying some cookies. And I should, it's my 16 year Merano anniversary today! :)
Just glancing through the last posts on your old thread I caught 3 BBs, and that while my reading is almost non-existing and another class is starting this weekend.
Well, maybe I find the audiobooks.
Have a lovely weekend!

>59 bell7: The Firemen of Fahrenheit 451 are out in force...mckait/Kath just lost her younger sister yesterday. She doesn't keep a thread anymore but I'm sure messages of sympathy would be appreciated on her Bsky:
https://bsky.app/profile/mckait.bsky.social

>60 Familyhistorian: Thank you, Meg. The choice for me was simple: reading glasses or walking glasses? I'm one who'd prefer not to have reading be the correction, so that was not even a question for me.

>61 Deern: Thanks, Nathalie! I almost always feel like buying cookies, so I relate. I make a point of being really thorough when watching biscuit/cookie week for that reason. I want to eat Tom's Showstopper in one sitting...you'll see why.

Happy Merano-versary, and may some reading mojo find its way back soon.

>63 richardderus: When they asked me, (about the cataract implant) I chose distance vision as the default and using reading glasses for reading.

Note that your eyes may change in the future (mine did) and changing the reading glasses prescription is easier than re-doing the surgery. (in other words you may end up with reading glasses one of these days, either way).

For most of my life I could read without glasses and I liked that freedom. (always thought of that poor guy in the Twilight Zone Episode who finally has time enough to read but then breaks his glasses.)

But maybe that's right for you, Richard, after all. . Just wanted to offer my 2 cents worth.

'Morning, RDear. Happy Saturday to you.

... I got nothing ...

*smooch*

>65 magicians_nephew: Presbyopia never stops, it's true; and I've got astigmatism so there will always be some sort of lens on my face, but it's more necessary for distances than close work. Which is most All of my existence, honestly.

>66 karenmarie: Morning, sweetiedarling, I'm unsurprised you got nothin' on three hours' sleep! Go rest peacefully, see you tomorrow.

>67 richardderus: I chose distance for my lenses too in my cataract surgery before the pandemic. Then came my isolation with my mom, and I wished with all my heart that I had chosen reading. All my life I took my glasses off to read, and I haven't gotten used to putting them on after however many years it's been. Otoh, I'd have to have reading glasses anyway. As you say, Presbyopia never stops. BUT. I wore contact lenses for years and years, one eye distant/one eye close. Walking out for true, binocular 3-D vision the first time was a glorious revelation! I also have come to realize that at least some of my life-long clumsiness is due to the astigmatism. That's a sort of nice thing to know as is the concept of highly sensitive persons.
TMI..... TMBoringI!
*smooch*

>69 LizzieD: What "concept of highly sensitive persons" are you referring to? I need antecedents here...

I think the issue of clumsiness that's been a lifelong bane to me as well is down to my mother's categorical refusal to get me glasses until I was ten. The only reason she relented then was my teacher threatened her with child protective services if she didn't do it. Stay well Peggy me lurve.

HERE's a quick Psychology Today quiz with a nod to the woman who defined the concept.

I'm sorry about the glasses, Richard. My own eyes deteriorated over a summer. On the last day of 2nd grade all was well. By the first day of 3rd grade I couldn't see the board or individual leaves on trees.

>62 richardderus: Oh I'm sorry to hear that. I don't have BlueSky or I would. If you have an address to PM me, I'll send a card though.

>71 LizzieD: Interesting! Not all the way sure I see how it's different from being someone with mild sensory-processing disorder though. (I scored mild/middlin'.)

Astigmatism is my own main enemy. Makes walking interesting without lenses.

*smooch*

>72 bell7: I'll PM you.

227 The lights of Pointe-Noire : a memoir by Alain Mabanckou (tr. Helen Stevenson)

228 Black Moses : a novel by Alain Mabanckou (Tr. Helen Stevenson)

Hiya, RDear.

My brain is broken today after helping set up fiction and mystery for the book sale, which starts Thursday. Grocery shopping exacerbated it, and after I post here, I'm getting jammies back on and going upstairs to rest and read and possibly to actually nap. One of those might work.

*smooch*

>77 karenmarie: It sounds exhausting, so no wonder you're off to rest up! I'm enjoying another lovely small day by snoozing and getting my Monday reviews done. I'm glad it's going to be a four-review day because the serieseseses are mounting up...they make me feel the guiltiest.

*smooch*

Oh, the serieseseses, Richard! I'm just reading in too many of them, but you make me very grateful that I don't have to review them!

>73 richardderus: As to sensory-processing disorder, I don't know anything about it. I scored within their HSP range on the test you took, but on other tests I've scored much higher. For example, loud noise is one thing that keeps me out of movie theaters. Strong smells are intolerable. I cut tags out of most of my clothes. Little things drive me wild...... Currently, I'm fearing that the next "thing" in Amerispeak is going to be audible gasping for breath when saying more than a couple of sentences. More and more announcers and commentators on both radio and TV are doing it. The newsman Charlie Pellett on Bloomberg is a prime example.
That's not all, but it's more than enough.

*smooch*

On the post-cataract discussion. I chose to have my distance corrected and since surgery wear "progressive lenses" which are plain glass on top for one eye and have a slight correction in the other. My distance vision is good enough that I pass a drivers license test without glasses but I hate having to put-them-on-take-them-off-look-for-them so I just wear them all of the time (and sometimes almost forget that I can see things further away than my finger tips perfectly well without the glasses)

>56 richardderus: I watched the latest GBBO this afternoon, so treated myself afterwards with your recap. Thanks! I really appreciate all the work you put into these reviews.

I always feel a little wiped out after watching this show—such tension and hard work.

Thanks again for the recap!

Karen O

>79 LizzieD: HSP is, I'll betcha, on the spectrum of sensory-processing disorder's mildest end. I think most of humanity hates little rubby-rubby tags which is not at all why manufacturers stopped using them for the most part...it's cheaper to print them inside the garments made by the mile.

I have not noticed the gaspy thing as of now. I suspect it might be invisible to me, since, like, even "like" has vanished from my awareness.

One big reason I'm glad I'm so furious nowadays is that I'm getting so much guilt dealt with by writing reviews based on my notes. I've also realized that the act of making the notes was the reason the reviews didn't get written...in my mind, the notes were a good-enough closure of the act of reading and processing a book. I won't stop doing the note-takey thing because it's a fifty-year-old habit. I've got the writing to bleed off my rage pretty well habit-sealed, so long may it reign.

>80 RebaRelishesReading: I don't think progressives are available through Medicaid, but that solution sounds like the best one ever! I'll be looking into it. Thanks, Reba!

>81 klobrien2: I'm glad you're enjoying them, Karen O.! I enjoy the chance to really dive into the bakers' little psychological foibles, and see if I can second-guess the producers' eville intents, which is both fun and disturbing....

Sunday *smooch*

>45 richardderus:
I share your enthusiasm for Antoine Laurain. I have read three books by him and enjoyed all of them. Like you, I got chuckles, I got angry mutterings, but I never got bored. The ones I have read are not great works of literature, but they are pleasant reading and easy on the mind and heart. Perfect before bedtime reading to end a stressful day in a nice way. I have one more book to read Vintage 1954 and then I will have to hunt through other used bookstores for more available titles, but you can be sure that I will be hunting for them when I need a relaxing restorative.

'Morning, RDear, and happy Monday to you.

Oh, the serieseses! I'm reading two smut serieseses now, one college hockey and one future dystopia. 😊

Oh, and the present from Peggy, Lessons from Cats for Surviving Fascism by Stewart 'Brittlestar' Reynolds.

*smooch*

>85 benitastrnad: With Pushkin Press reissuing them, Benita, there's going to come a flood...one more in January and two others in February.

I looked them up: An Astronomer in Love and Red Is My Heart in February; The Readers' Room in January. More Laurain will follow but I haven't looked at Pushkin's releases beyond then.

>86 karenmarie: You're reading a future dystopia. You must really like the author! I'm impressed. What a cute title! You know Tom Gauld's new book, Physics for Cats, is out. Another cute title!

I myownself will not be reading them, you what is I'm sure your pearl-clutching shock.

Happy fall Monday! *smooch*

229 Dealing with the dead by Alain Mabanckou (Tr. Helen Stevenson)

The New Press publishes the latest Novel by ALAIN MABANCKOU & translated by Helen Stevenson tomorrow. It's a return to Pointe-Noire in fantasyland form...tackling political violence, history's lies, and cultural stasis.

The future dystopia is a tetralogy, Dark Water by Xanthe Walter.

A future BB, darn it. I just pre-ordered it for my bonus daughter.

*smooch*

>90 karenmarie: Mabanckou FTW! I hope she enjoys it...very short for what it covers, so it ought to fit into her demanding academic calendar. xo

230 Whiteout by Ragnar Jónasson (tr. Quentin Bates)

Ages ago, Caro/cameling warbled about this, and I got a DRC from Orenda Books on her say-so. I wasn't thrilled. I understand now that I did not *get* Ragnar's project: making a storyverse. Changed everything.

231 Death at the sanatorium by Ragnar Jónasson (tr. Victoria Cribb)

The Criminologist Helgi Reykdal three-book (so far) series continues under the ægis of Minotaur Books, the Macmillan USA mystery imprint.

232 The mysterious case of the missing crime writer by Ragnar Jónasson (tr. Victoria Cribb)

The Criminologist Helgi Reykdal three-book (so far) series continues under the ægis of Minotaur Books, the Macmillan USA mystery imprint. This third one came out last week.

BBs flying, WBL, and I am trying not to forget any of them. I did look up *Dealing*. The Kindle will sell for $1.25 less than the hardcover, which is a 212 page book. They'll have to give me a deal on it. *sigh* also *smooch*

>95 LizzieD: It's a great length for novella November, Peggy me lurve....

*smooch*

>89 richardderus: BB for the Mabanckou

>89 richardderus: BB for Dealing with the Dead for me too. Thanks for the “heads up.”

Karen O

>97 mahsdad: Yay! Enjoy the read, Jeff!

>99 richardderus: Considering the fact that I show 200+ in my physical TBR pile and 850+ in the WL, it might be a while until I get to it.

but collecting books, whether they be physical or virtual on a WL is a completely different hobby than reading them, and I'm afflicted with both, so I'm happy to add this to the list.

🤣

>94 richardderus: I’m looking forward to reading this one, Richard, and appreciate your reviews of the series. Your thoughts have been a refresher course for me. My favorite is his Hidden Iceland series. Helgi has grown on me, but I really like Hulda….

>100 mahsdad: Reading books I already own is a hair-shirt of discipline I've been very poor at enforcing on myself. As I can see the endcard on the movie of my life quite plainly now, I'm doing what I can to acquire the skill.

>101 Copperskye: Helgi's whole Bergthora thing is workin' my nerve something fierce. Hulda's got so much potential she can't culturally actualize that it gets maddening. But both of them are well-enough drawn that I like to spend time with them.

>103 richardderus: I almost forgot about her.

>102 richardderus: I hear ya. Good luck with that. LOL.

>87 richardderus:
Thank you! Those are both BB's. Glad to hear that Laurain is getting some love. The books are great fun and they take me away.

>89 richardderus:
OK. You got me again. That is three BB's in one day. How many can I take?

>89 richardderus: I may have to add this one to the TBR list.

Tuesday *smooch* and hope all's well with you.

>104 Copperskye: I'm so recently through the reads she's still squatting like an evil troll in my head.

>105 mahsdad: I'm givin' it a whirl. So far so good.

>106 benitastrnad:, >107 benitastrnad: Biblio-bren gun achievement unlocked!

>108 bell7: Well worth a check-out, Mary, maybe not a purchase unless it's on sale.

‘Morning, RDear. Happy Tuesday.

>91 richardderus: I wasn’t clear – it’s Physics for Cats that I’m ordering for bonus daughter.

*smooch*

>113 karenmarie: Oh! That makes a lot of sense. I know she's family since she's a Gauldian.

Tuesday orisons, sweetiedarling. I'm spending my day figuring out Wednesday's reviews. *sigh* Nothing thrilled me. Good, not great...am I just getting really, really, really picky as I get still older?

Here's a theory, WBL. I'd like to get pickier and pickier and pickier about books and more and more and more accepting of people as I age. I can't see any appreciable difference in my attitude to either at the moment. I will, however, be happy to age more and see what happens. *smooch*

I'm a big fan of Ragnar Jonasson, Richard. I have The mysterious case of the missing crime writer on hold at the library, though I think there are quite a few people ahead of me. Thanks for the great review. I am even more eager for the book now.

>115 LizzieD: "Accepting of people" is nebulous enough to worry me as a goal. "Tolerant" is about as far as I strive. I can condemn quietly with that figleaf over my moosh.

*baa*

>116 vancouverdeb: Hi Deborah! Thanks for the kind words. I'm glad to hear your library is getting the book, a little wait's a small enough tax to pay in a world where we get most things instantly. I hope you enjoy the read with its nods to Dame Agatha.

233 Bad Indians Book Club : reading at the edge of a thousand worlds by Patty Krawec

Broadleaf Books brought this taking-back control of the narrative this week. It never went down easier.

>119 richardderus: I have Becoming Kin out from the library now and will have to prioritize it over the next month or so (fortunately the library I got it from has unlimited renewals, so if I get distracted by life-in-general I have plenty of time to read it).

234 You weren't meant to be human by Andrew Joseph White

Broadleaf Books brought this taking-back control of the narrative by Patty Krawec this week. It never went down easier!

‘Morning, RDear! Happy Wednesday to you.

Getting really, really picky is not a bad thing.

>115 LizzieD: Getting picker and picker about books and more and more accepting of people are admirable goals. It’s really hard to be more and more accepting of people right now when half or more of the US population support the chaos demon, his minions, and the gang of psychos.

>119 richardderus: Almost a BB, but just BB’d the Audible version of her first book, Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future, narrated by the author.

>121 richardderus: Good review, but I just can’t do horror, especially about worms and flies.

*smooch*

>120 bell7: I hope it's a good read, Mary, and look forward to hearing about it. *smooch*

>122 karenmarie: Another vote for Becoming Kin, well well well...I'm only tangentially book-bulleting you but I'll take it.

I'm always an advocate for evolving your standards as you learn more...even when it's hard to do. Especially when it's hard to do. I'm busily trying to battle the desire to shout at people who think it's their right to annoy me into signing up for some horror show surveillance device.

DO NOT EVEN PICK UP >121 richardderus:!! It would not be a happy experience and wouldn't benefit you in any way something less horror-y wouldn't do better. I'm never one to push horror at anyone not acclimated to it. Come to think of it, I can't recall you ever mentioning a horror read of yours even once. Was there one?

Stay well and safe, sweetiedarling.

Thanks for the Ragnar Jonasson reviews, Richard. I've read a lot of his books but none of those. Looks like I'll have to hunt them down.

235 Compound Fracture by Andrew Joseph White

Peachtree Teen brought out this YA novel demonstrating to teens, trans or not, that accepting the gulf between what is and what could be is optional.

>125 Familyhistorian: I'm glad to have these to my credit, Meg. I think it would be a safe bet to get the library involved, the last two are so recent. Whiteout might be tougher as it's from 2017, but worth a whirl.

'Morning, RDear! Happy Thursday to you.

I'll be leaving for the book sale in 30 minutes or so.

*smooch*

>128 karenmarie: Have a lovely time, Horrible! I'm only *slightly* jealous...my body rebels even conceptualizing the energy drain.

>117 richardderus: >122 karenmarie: If I were not such a judgmental little twit, I wouldn't have to have acceptance as a possible goal. Tolerance and courtesy are about the best I can muster at this point. I guess my point is that most people try to do the best they can through the light that they have. I do. I don't have any idea what light anybody else uses to see things..... I trust you to read between lines and interpret what I don't seem to be able to say. (I remember a professor whom I didn't like very much, but who said this that I have always remembered: "If you can say everything you mean, you don't mean much.")

*smooch*

>130 LizzieD: "If you can say everything you mean, you don't mean much." Genius. Up there with "if that's all you want in a man, you're selling yourself short." One of the times I actually respected my mother, that.

The facility keeps urging me to socialize...I snapped and told the social worker, "with whom, the feebs or the simps or the MAGAts?" I hope that knocked that idea out of his head. Best I can offer them is my absence.

‘Morning, RDear! Happy Friday to you.

>129 richardderus: Thank you. Yesterday was less draining than I was expecting it to be. I did a bit of shopping first thing, but the darned dealers were as obnoxious as ever, especially around the Oldies and Classics section. I ended up with 10 books for me, 5 for Karen/her cousin. The rest of the time was in the children’s room.

>130 LizzieD: Love the quote from your professor, Peggy.

>131 richardderus: Ooh, RD! You tell him. feebs or the simps or the MAGAts.

Today’s half-price day at the sale, and I’ll be in the children’s room all day. Not a bad thing at all. A bit of shopping when things are calm, of course.

*smooch*

236 WE WERE THE UNIVERSE by KIMBERLY KING PARSONS

Alfred A. Knopf published this finalist for a Lammy at the 37th Lambda Literary Awards (for Bisexual Fiction). Winners announced 4 October 2025. #Booksky
https://expendablemudge.blogspot.com/2025/09/we-were-universe-fist-novel-and-sec...

>132 karenmarie: Thanks, Horrible, I'm only able to endure so much "jollying" and I think I'm at my lifetime limit. Are you not stockpiling kids' books? One never knows....

I'm sure the dealers are eager, in your catchment the chances of a prize fish escaping notice are high. After all they have client wishlists and suchlike data that can guide them to profitable finds in odd corners.

Enjoy the day, what people-watching you can do! *smooch*

Happy Friday, Richard. No time to catch up but I do love that topper. We are off again for the weekend. I hope you are doing fine.

Oh yeah- I will start Bird School soon, thanks to you. It sure sounds good.

Happy almost-weekend *smooch*, Richard. Hope all's as well as it can be in your neck of the woods.

>135 msf59: Wonderfully nesty, isn't it? Enjoy the book, there was an excerpt about tawny owls from it in my LitHub newsletter this morning. Gorgeous!

>136 bell7: Thank you, Mary, it's been quite a year this week. I'll hope for a boring weekend for us all. *smooch*

>89 richardderus: You got me with this one, Richard! Having liked Lincoln in the Bardo, I expect I'll like Dealing With the Dead too. I couldn't get an audio version, though, so I can't guarantee I'll read it anytime soon, as I'm having some unpleasant visual issues. I'll try, though.

>121 richardderus: You also sort of got me with this one. At least I'm going to give it a shot, though I think I'll wait until October, which is the month I like to save for horror stories like this. Also like Dealing With the Dead. Oh, wait. October's less than two weeks away. Yikes! Where did September go?

GBBO THOUGHTS
It's the Paul Hollywood crueltyfest! Bread week! Lots of big asks, and some surprising results.
Farewell Pui Man! It was a terrible week for you, from the surprising-to-me Signature (Savory, visually tarted-up Monkey Bread), which for her was themed 'Festival Basin (?)' using the Chinese veg called "morning glory" (means the same as "afternoon delight" in the US, which made everyone snigger) inside Chinese five-spice milk bread balls also filled with red-bean curd and "Asian pesto" (cilantro and ginger). Sounds utterly delish, looked pretty cool too. To me anyway. Prue opened the bidding with a complaint about the lack of a glaze to pop the balls. They both said the dough had too little salt, too little flavor overall. So then the Technical (12 Glazed Ring Doughnuts, all regular sugar glazed, half also strawberry iced) 10th and last despite her stating she makes them All the time. The results were underproved and overfried and uneven sizes...damning results, the opposite of s3 James whose frequent making of donuts led him to dominate in that season's challenge. That consarned five-hour Showstopper (Celebratory 3-Tiered Sweet Bread, think korovais like the s9 Showstopper that won Rahul star baker and helped send Antony home) she had the terrible-to-me idea to make 'Coconut Cocktail Wedding' (sounds too tanning-lotion to me already) with glacé cherries *gag* in a coconut paste rolled in a coconut milk bread. The decor was bread roses, which Prue quite fairly praised though I thought the powdered-sugar and coconut dandruff scratched over the whole mess looked icky. Paul said the baking was quite good and the flavors and textures surprised him pleasantly. She might've stayed after that, but the final nail was being dead-last two of the three technicals...and next-to-last the other one

Jasmine, this week's Star Baker, made her Signature 'Mediterranean Mezze' with her baked 'nduja and chorizo breadballs filled with olives (a bit too light on those, both judges agreed) and rosemary for half, 'nduja and basil for half, which...no smallest doubt...is a big reason she got Star Baker. The heavily seeded look of the outside started Paul as well as Prue out offering praise, though they weren't all compliments. That it was creative, still traditional, and presented in a completely unexpected way was certain. She came 1st in technical because there was no fault to find with the proving, the frying, or the decorating of her donuts. Her Showstopper was seasonal, as so many were but this one was a Swedish 'Midsummer Flower Crown': plaited sweet cardamom dough filled with cinnamon-cardamom butter and beautifully, delicately adorned with delicate and lovely icing fleurs. The judges found no fault with anything. We also learned why she's bald: allopathic alopecia, starting at 12, can you even imagine how hard that was?
*
Aaron (who wore a ridiculous-looking do rag and some Arsenio Hall wide trousers that were embarrassing, where was his boyfriend when he was packing??) aptly titled his Signature 'Not For Everyone' monkey bread...chili, fennel and onion bread with marmite in the dough AND in the required glaze too, rolled around gruyère with nigella seeds and chives, and for a powerful boost to the "don't-kiss-me" bouquet, there's an onion dipping sauce served with it! Annoyingly it was truly unrisen out of the oven. He decorated the unmolded balls with parmesan chips in cupped shapes. A bit unfortunate then that the thing was so underproved and underbaked, though they both praised the flavors. His donut technical finish in 3rd utterly puzzled me. They looked *perfect* and were exactly the right rise and frying combo...Showstopper described as 'Flowers in Paradise' for his late friends Alicia and Fidel in the form of four tiers of couronne, which you should go look at! A potent symbol of life, given its origins as French Yule food. Aaron decorated it with lots of very lovely flowers, as well as a very light rose icing and filled his couronnes with pistachio marzipan, apricots, lemon zest, and sour cherries. Another effort that, in another week, would've netted him star baker. Because it was so deeply meaningful, and so beautiful, he got a round of applause walking back to his bench from all the bakers.

Nadia called her Signature plain ol' Italian monkey bread with 'nduja creme made with mascarpone (swoon), purée of sundried tomato (ugh) and black olive (yum!) with self-foraged wild garlic pesto; sadly underproved, so it was a bit close-textured as well as it sorta collapsed on demolding. She got Jessika's blame (see below). The donut technical finish was 2nd because she was juuust barely pipped in presentation. Her Showstopper, called 'Gâteaux De Marriage De Rêve' (dream wedding cake) was a brioche dough filled with white chocolate crème patissière, and a raspberry coulis atop crème mousseline, and decorated with like a zillion hand-piped buttercream flowers. Paul and Prue righly praised it for its stunning appearance. Any other week, this much expert work would've earned her star baker.

Tom made a Signature pretentiously yclept 'French Dègustation' (note accent-grave used wrongly by the showrunners, should be acute "Dégustation") filling his balls with croque monsieur and onion soup and steak au poivre flavors...again, sounds scrummy but super-high liquidity, which he combated with reduction and cornstarch. Paul liked the look, he had no unmolding woes, and Prue waxed nostalgic over the croque monsieur flavor; the criticism was the dough was a bit heavy per Paul. Tom's donut technical finish in 5th was largely down to not proving the dough enough; but worse was slathering too much glaze on them was key. The Showstopper was a hommage à leur mari, whose favorite season is fall. He made a orange-pecan-cinnamon-bun tower, could you just plotz from this?! with orange cream-cheese frosting and beautiful sculpted chocolate doodads of the season. They complimented him up one side and down the other.
*
Toby's Signature was porcini-flavored dough balls topped by parmesan cheese (NOT the dry stuff we get here! the real stuff!) around traditional pesto for half and sundried tomato paste (marginally less ugh than the little mummy's testicles themselves) for half. His idea of using grated parmesan to line the mold made for a really cool-lookin' surface, like a parmesan chip only bigger and rounder with well-different-looking balls adding to the presentation points. Prue liked his porcini dough; Paul wasn't complimentary on the proving being short or the pesto being a bit too light, hard to find. In the donut technical, he finished 4th because they were barely glazed at all...the consistency had it All slide off, though he fried 'em and proved 'em well. He made a Showstopper punningly called 'The Bread That Stolle Christmas'...stacked stollen with all kinds of Yule cuteness spotted over it. Presented itself with a wee bit of a lean...and that was down to being underbaked. Prue said it was a pity because it was the best tasting stollen she's had.

Jessika's Signature leans in to 'Picnic Season' with caramelized onions, figs, and walnuts rolled in with blue cheese, honestly sound deVOON to me but Paul noted the sheer volume of liquid from that combo of ingredients, and it didn't bite her in the butt despite some collapsing during unmolding! Instead Paul praised her for the way the balls fell apart; and the flavors were also differing textures. Her donut technical finish in 7th spot was a gift. The Showstopper she made was on the theme 'Rain, Dance, Celebration' and had cooked apricot conserve and orange crème patissière inside pumpkin-shaped loaves she proved inside string ties to set the shape during proving. The outside decor was sculpted figures and rain clouds honoring her time spent in Uganda...like cake week's sculpted lake that earned her praise, only a mountain. The figures were a bit clumsy, as Prue noted, but the bake and loaf-shapes were lovely. Sadly her milk-bread was a bit bland.

Lesley made a Signature exactly as dull and predictable as the lady herself: Stilton, Pearl, and walnuts. Paul likes all those flavors, but who the hell doesn't?! They've been served as a trio since God's big sister hadda slam some lunch in front of him to shut his mouth. The balls were so very seeded that Paul said it looked like the bottom of a birdcage, in a joking not insulting way; I thought it looked like it would be Good For Me. They complimented her baking but Paul wanted more Stilton. The donut technical finish in 9th was down to bad frying...tasted greasy, all different sizes...and just looking poor. Her Showstopper is simply described as a korovai (see description at the top of the page) with rum-soaked (but well-drained) raisins, blood orange zest, and cinnamon, decorated in...wait for it...daisies. Tediously predictable. Prue rightly complimented her on the actual bake, and the presentation came in for praise.
*
Iain's Signature was themed to be an 'Irish Cheese Board', the individual balls filled with different cheese and then roasted pears (with blue cheese and fennel, obvs), apples and caramelized onions (drool), blackberries combined with a brie-like cheese and rosemary (!!! never once thought of that, am now obsessed to try it) that had a lovely, seeded surface and all hung together yet showed the different balls clearly separate on the demolding. Prue praised his flavors and Paul called it SUPERB! I'm so pleased for him! Then the donut technical 6th-place finish...it came down to glaze consistency and shaping imperfections. The Showstopper was called 'It's A Samhain-derful Time Of Year', and features a toffee-apple glaze with dead-dough decorations atop an autumn-spices sweet bread dough (underproved AND underbaked) with apple-cinnamon compote filling. If only the glaze had formed the expected toffee-apple shell...it made the presentation matte instead of shiny and nothing stuck where it should've.

Nataliia's Signature 'Family Table' played on monkey bread's association with morning food, including bacon and onions and biiig honkin' cheese balls that reflected the biggest issue with it...it was a tear-and-share more than a monkey bread. Her baking came in for appearance compliments but was a bit doughy, oversized, and oversweet. The donut technical 8th place finish was, honestly, higher than I'd've given her because they were just poorly shaped and decorated. The Showstopper she made was described as 'Three Generations Korovai'...since it's literally called "Ukrainian wedding bread" it sounds like another Message Bake from her homeland. Orange, cinnamon, and rum flavors in her grandmother's own recipe...as Paul said, "how can I have a go at your grandmother?" clever, clever! Shut him up early (but for a swipe about the too-short proving time). Prue made note of her clumsy decorations, fairly, and an overall lack of finesse.
If you see any misspellings, please tell me. My eyes are crossed.

>139 Storeetllr: I think >121 richardderus: is one I'd recommend passing on, Mary...the body horror would not appeal. >89 richardderus: is, I think, more likely not to cause revulsion. ALL visual issues are unpleasant! I hope you're back to normal soon!

Where'd 1999 go?

‘Morning, RDear! Happy Saturday to you.

I haven’t found a single children’s book I want, but need to re-catalog ~100-150 of the children’s books we have here at the house.

My introvert had a rough time yesterday. I had to speak with people. I had to answer questions from people. I had to stay in a room with adults and children. My introverted self was not happy, but I did not run screaming to my car before 5 p.m.

>139 Storeetllr: I loved Lincoln in the Bardo, Mary, but looked back at >89 richardderus: and will still pass.

*smooch*

>142 karenmarie: I'm impressed! I know it was a struggle so I'm even more impressed.

I seem to have a Saunders allergy. I do not like his writing for some reason. If I could pinpoint it I'd feel better...it doesn't seem to be resistance to the all-conquering tsunami of public opinion like it is with Colleen Hoover or Sally Rooney, competent writers and decent storytellers with nothing much distinctive about them. Saunders makes me feel...unclean, compromised, less-than, after I read one of his books. Like Rowling used to. But the stories are really, really, really good.

I've learned the hard way to listen to that little niggly bastard in my brain.

BURGOINE #069

Glorious People by Sasha Salzmann (tr. Imogen Taylor)

Rating: 3.25* of five

The Publisher Says: A remarkable story exploring the disintegration of the Soviet Union, told through mothers & daughters and stretching from the 1970s to the near present

Loaded with “vibrancy and humour”, Glorious People is a vivid depiction of how the collapse of the Soviet Union reverberated through the lives of ordinary people taking place across several generations of 2 families (TLS).

As a child, Lena longs to pick hazelnuts in the woods with her grandmother. Instead, she is raised to be a good sent to Pioneer summer camps where she's taught to worship Lenin and sing songs in praise of the glorious Soviet Union. But perestroika is coming. Lena's corner of the USSR is now Ukraine, and corruption and patronage are the only ways to get by—to secure a place at university, an apartment, treatment for a sick baby.

For Tatjana, the shock of the new means the 1st McDonald's in the Soviet Union and certified foreign whisky, but no food in the shops; it means terrible choices about how to love. Eventually both women must decide whether to stay or to emigrate, but the trauma they carry is handed down to their daughters, who struggle to make sense of their own identities.

Engrossing, rich in detail and unforgettable characters, this is a captivating love letter to mothers and daughters from one of Europe’s most powerful voices in political fiction.

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

My Review: I liked it fine. It seems to have ruffled some feathers that present themselves as Ukrainian, though for the life of me I can not see why. It makes more sense to me that the upset Cyrillic-users were Russians out to discredit this personal-level tale of political upheaval's emotional costs to emigrants.

Lena and Tatjana the emigrants, and their German-immigrant daughters Edita and Nina, are wrapped in the titanic, existential upheavals of Soviet imperial dissolution. The text is not focused enough for me to more than broadly sympathize with any one of them, though the topic, and its effects, is well-delineated. A book I admired more than enjoyed.

Pushkin Press asks for $13.99 for an ebook. Maybe borrow one.

BURGOINE #070

The Mystery of the Crooked Man by Tom Spencer

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: A distinctive murder mystery with an unforgettably spiky protagonist, for fans of The Twyford Code, Magpie Murders and Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Meet Agatha Dorn, cantankerous archivist, grammar pedant, gin afficionado and murder mystery addict. When she discovers a lost manuscript by Gladden Green, the Empress of Golden Age detective fiction, Agatha's life takes an unexpected twist. She becomes an overnight sensation, basking in the limelight of literary stardom.

But Agatha's newfound fame takes a nosedive when the 'rediscovered' novel is exposed as a hoax. And when her ex-lover turns up dead, with a scrap of the manuscript by her side, Agatha suspects foul play.

Cancelled, ostracised and severely ticked off, Agatha turns detective to uncover the sinister truth that connects the murder and the fraudulent manuscript. But can she stay sober long enough to catch the murderer, or will Agatha become a whodunit herself?

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

My Review: Agatha...get it?...is a solidly drawn amateur sleuth, investigating an entertaining bibliomystery motivated by sheer cussèdness and rancor against dishonesty. My kinda gal! I relate to her bluntness and grouchy affect against people she's got reason to believe aren't doing the right thing.

There are easter-eggs for Dame Agatha mystery lovers to spot, if they're in the mood. No knowledge of the œuvre in question? Nothing will make no sense without that specialist knowledge. A very pleasant afternoon spent chuckling and smiling through the twisty bits.

Pushkin Vertigo would like $11.99 for an ebook, and cheap at the price.

The old saying about letting things go and go and go - until they come for me has happened. I am a retired university professor who spent 25 years as the children's and YA librarian. In that capacity I guided students towards different types of literature. I purchased as much diverse literature as I could find, and was happy when publishers began to widen their publication lists. I coordinated with other college professors who taught children's and YA literature. I hope that I helped to influence a generation of student teachers who brought diverse literature into their classrooms and helped students figure about about themselves. All, I can say tonight, is that I am glad that I am almost 2 years into my retirement. I am safe. My pension is safe. But I am so worried for those teaching these classes now and for our K-12 students. What is happening sickens me. I believe that David Brooks is correct. He said Friday night that we are already well into an authoritarian government and we aren't fighting back. I dispair.

>127 richardderus: I put Whiteout on hold at one of my libraries and The Mystery of the Crooked Man on hold at another. The Spencer is a popular one as I'm number 16 in line.

Happy Sunday, (((Richard)))
Going through your bread week comments. I‘d love to watch that episode!

That Star Baker’s showstopper bread sounds like a dream, I love cardamom and cinnamon. I‘ll spend 10 days in Germany‘s north where the baking is much influenced by the Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries, so the breads are sweeter and richer and there’s a traditional kind of mix between a cinnamon roll and a croissant called Franzbroetchen. And the crispy cinnamon waffles… I’ll have to walk a LOT to work that off.

‘nduja: never tasted it, as I was a vegetarian already when I first saw it, but the locals here go crazy when they see it on a pizzeria menu.

I really dislike stollen, and as a Christmas food in my family it has been substituted long ago by a good (expensive) artisan panettone. I still prefer plain Pandoro without any fillings. Both are too complicated to bake in a TV show I guess, with several long proving times.

>146 benitastrnad: Now is the moment for Literature to assist you the way it has me, Benita...in Dune there was the Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear, reminding the reciter the proper response to the emotion. We now need to expand it against despair:

I must not {despair}.
{Despair} is the mind-killer.
{Despair} is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my {despair}.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the {despair} has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

The benefit of the litany is it focuses attention on the emotion and leaves the mind able to examine causes of the emotion, of feelings as distinct from causes.

Despair is a huge part of my daily battles. Lots of reasons it's a valid response these days but it's never useful.

>147 Familyhistorian: I'm not surprised, Meg, the way the Osman and Backman style's sweeping all before it. Hope they work for you!

>148 Deern: Sunday orisons, Nathalie! I love that combination of flavors, too. It was also just beautifully decorated. Get your steps in while you're up north!

Yeah, while GBBO is very much an editing show, those really long proves have seldom resulted in success when the show's tried 'em out because speeding up yeast just ain't gonna work. Pandoro or panettone are fine, no strong preference in my case.

I love sausages, so always try the new ones I find. I like merguez, f/ex,the lamb sausage from Algeria that's spicy and so piquant in so many sausage use cases like stews. Veggie I ain't. Until I'm forced into it, anyway....

xo

‘Morning, RDear! Happy Sunday to you.

>143 richardderus: Thank you. Peopling was … well. Today is a no peopling day. I’ve only read Lincoln in the Bardo but have two collections of his short stories, as yet and perhaps forever unread.

Yes, listen to that little niggly bastard!!

>144 richardderus: Pass.

>145 richardderus: As much as the easter-eggs for Dame Agatha fans intrigue me, reading about an unforgettably spiky protagonist doesn’t. Pass #2.

>149 richardderus: Intriguing. I think I’m mostly happily muddling along, using smut and other book-related tasks to offset the personal, family, and world things that would otherwise overwhelm me. Yay books!

*smooch*

>152 karenmarie: Morning, Horrible! No-peopling days are a blessing. Aren't we lucky we can actually have them? (Never enough of them for my liking, but still, they happen.)

Yay books indeed. I do not want to imagine a life without them in the abundance I have them. Stimulation addiction they probably perpetuate; information hunger they both stoke and satiate; but their absence causes withdrawal too horrifying to contemplate.

Sunday splendidly, sweetiedarling.

>141 richardderus: Ok, I will take your advice and pass on it. I do like horror, but maybe not when it cuts so close to reality as reality is today in the U.S.

>142 karenmarie: I’ll let you know how much I enjoyed it after I’ve read it, Karen.

>154 Storeetllr: I really think you won't regret that one, Mary, whereas reading it might've twinged too much.

Sunday *smooch*

237 The loneliness of Sonia and Sunny : a novel by Kiran Desai

The Hogarth Press, one of Penguin Random House's imprints, did this to me. I was up until 3am with Author Desai! I expect it'll be a Booker Finalist on Tuesday.

Wow! 4¾ stars for *Sonia & Sunny*! I've had my eye on it, but I absolutely MUST read *Remembered Soldier* before I tackle anything else that epic! Thanks for the review too!!!

(We share some wariness or worse about Saunders. I'm not sure I've read anything but *Bardo*, but I found his writing too standard journalistic for my taste. If it was intentional, I'll maybe get back to him.)

I wish you a good night leading into a good week, WBL! *smooch*

Morning, Richard. We are back. Quick turn around because we head back out on Thursday for the next camping adventure. Looking forward to things slowing down a bit. I am really enjoying Bird School but I bet that doesn't surprise you at all.

>157 LizzieD: It was a good read indeed, Peggy, although a long one. I hope you'll enjoy Remembered first, though. I'd encourage you to try a sample of Sonia and Sunny but I can't imagine you'd DISlike Author Kiran's prose so it wouldn't help much....

*baa*

>158 msf59: *clutching my pearls* ...you...like...a book I recommended, about birding and its joys...??

Stunned. So y'all're off again? I'll coddiwomple thitherward to see where to.

‘Morning, RDear. Happy Monday to you.

>156 richardderus: Impressive review and rating. However, I’ll pass, for a variety of reasons. You tried, you definitely tried to hook me. I wiggled away…

A quiet day at home is planned. I’m happy.

*smooch*

238 One of us : a novel by Dan Chaon

This solid well-crafted not-too-gory horror vibes read by DAN CHAON via Henry Holt & Co., got my enthusiastic endorsement.

>161 karenmarie: Quiet days! Such a treasure! I hope it goes well for you. I guess I'll need to sharpen my aim.

*smooch*

>1 richardderus: That chair! I keep looking at it, attracted to it. Looks like it could either be the best reading chair in the whole wide world, or a chiropractor's dream of enough new appointments to get that yacht at last.

The stack of books? I have no concerns whatsoever with that.

>164 DebiCates: If I owned that chair I'd put it on an 18in tall bookshelf cube for paperbacks.

Everybody, this is Debi, a Goodreads advance scout figuring out if LT will work for after GR implodes from Bezoselzebub's minions' neglect.

>165 richardderus: ...Bezoselzebub's minions' neglect

Indeed! Love that phrase. I'm stealing it.

Lazy billionaires just love the enshittification process. And ugly weddings and super icky gold leafing of everything.

>166 DebiCates: I'm about to be really snobbish: People without taste but with money show their class origins more clearly than any other trait they have. I'll also argue that billionaires are not lazy, they're psychologically disturbed, hoarders, driven to accumulate beyond reason. If the thing works there's no reason to charge more for it, get more people to buy it; if it's new! improved!! they can.

Greed is disgusting to me.

Ooh, I am a fan of Dan Chaon. I will be looking for One of us : a novel. Sounds great.

>167 richardderus: It is disgusting. I loathe how much of it we encounter in our daily lives.

Oh yeah, and Good Morning! ha

>168 msf59: You will like this one, Birddude. I really enjoyed it because Chaon's a really good writer.

>169 DebiCates: Oh...right...morning, Debi!

It's literally everywhere. It's the basis of capitalism.

‘Morning, RDear. Happy Tuesday to you.

>162 richardderus: Pass. At another time in my life, perhaps. The clips from Freaks have many recognizable folks in them.

>164 DebiCates: and >165 richardderus: Hi Debi. Welcome back. I’ve tried Goodreads over the years, but it simply does not work for the way my brain works. LT has, ever since the first day I visited and joined.

*smooch*, RD

>172 karenmarie: Morning, Horrible! I'm not sorry you'll skip Chaon, there's goins-on you might not oughta be lookin' at. "Uncle" Charlie ain't no My Three Sons clone.

*smooch*

ETA more fucking AI corrections!!

>172 karenmarie: I’ve tried Goodreads over the years, but it simply does not work for the way my brain works. LT has, ever since the first day I visited and joined.

I can understand that, different brains. I often struggle here in LT, mostly with navigational design. But when it comes to options and interesting things here to do, discover, and tweak to your heart's content, there's no comparison. Although I may find GR easier, it has fewer features. Much fewer.

LT also seems more committed to its future (and its past by way of respecting its members.) I'm not sure at all what the future plans are for GR, except to continue as a gateway to Amazon book buying, a "feature" I do not partake of.

>174 DebiCates: "LT also seems more committed to its future (and its past by way of respecting its members.) I'm not sure at all what the future plans are for GR, except to continue as a gateway to Amazon book buying, a "feature" I do not partake of."

Which is why I wish they's meet in the middle...a GR level of acceptance and ease with the 'tude of LT's PTB. You cannot fault Tim for articulating and pursuing a specific vision of how a community should work. It does work, and well in almost all axes. Where it does not it isn't down to failure of system or structure but of execution by flawed humans.

>175 richardderus: Pesky flawed humans. ha

>176 DebiCates: No joke.
***
David Pakman has a very interesting show on the 2024 election:
https://youtu.be/1nus5JA3Vh4?feature=shared

>177 richardderus: Well well well.

Every accusation is a confession.

>178 DebiCates: It really is no surprise at all, is it. Appalling, revolting, terrifying...not a bit surprising.

Now what?

>179 richardderus: Life under totalitarianism or a revolution.
What else is there?

By the way, I'm extremely distraught about it. They've taken the last shred of hope. It does make one thing better, at least it redeems my feelings about my fellow Americans. Not so many idiots as I thought.

>180 DebiCates: Not clue one...nor, it seems, does anyone in power seem to have a clue.

>181 DebiCates: There is something very good to be said for feeling more hopeful about the citizenry. It feels less like shouting down a well to hear your own echo, because there *are* others thinking these thoughts.

239 Exquisite things by Abdi Nazemian

EXQUISITE THINGS, time-travel immortality and True Love your thing? Here 'tis via HarperCollins.

@richardderus Thinking of you....

I have possibly stumbled on a solution. Well, a partial, nonpolitical, temporary, only personal solution. I saw on the Youtube channel The Bulwark where they have a new sponsor, so very fitting, a sponsor that sells CBD gummies*. I'm thinking about ordering a case. Make that 10 cases, enough to give out to a few idiots in my life too.

*Consult a healthcare professional, as they can interact with other medications and are not regulated by the FDA.

>184 DebiCates: The Bulwark's a trusted source for me as well. Cannabinoids were never my go-to mood altering drugs as I do not enjoy feeling stupid AND unhappy AND hangry, and back when they had to smoked, vomiting my guts out. So the gummies have an insurmountable hill of no to surmount for me.

They start selling microdoses of banisteriopsis, I'll be ready to consider it.

240 Anointed : the extraordinary effects of social status in a winner-take-most world by Toby Stuart

>185 richardderus: Ok, no gummies for you. How about this for you, my dear...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1tjh_ZO_tY

Feel better watching it? I did.

>186 richardderus: So when will "they" develop a cure for status seeking?

>187 DebiCates: It really boosted my mood, Debi. Thanks!

>188 ArlieS: Long after we're dead. Also, it won't work for long; viz., religion.

((Hugs)) and **smooches** for today, RD. I am catching up on threads very slowly. . .

Great reviews of The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny Richard. I was so lucky to find the book at the library last Sunday and I am enjoying it so far. I'm not sure what I will read from the Short List next . Maybe the less that popular The Rest of Our Lives since I have a hold on it at the library . I started Flesh and Flashlight and they were not to my taste, but maybe I go back to one of them ?

Thursday *smooch* , RD.

>191 alcottacre: Hi Stasia! Welcome. Start over where you are, is always my advice. *smooch*

>192 vancouverdeb: I'm glad you enjoyed it, Deborah! I really enjoyed the read. I tried Flesh and was actively repelled, I read some of Audition and thought, "Booker-worthy? Really?", and can't even fake being interested in Flashlight or The Rest of Our Lives. So that's me done...the Miller book, I forgot, sounds like The Ice Storm and I ain't goin' there again.

I guess all my Booker eggs are in Author Desai's basket, hoping they're safe there.

*smooch*

Hiya, RDear! Happy Thursday to you.

>173 richardderus: I dislike AI corrections on my texts, too!

>174 DebiCates: I definitely buy books from Amazon in addition to subscribing to Kindle Unlimited and Audible, but don’t link from LT. I go to my Amazon account and proceed from there. Amazon owns 40% of LT, but Amazon owns pretty much 40% of everything, so I just shrug it off.

>183 richardderus: I loved Addie LaRue, giving it 4.5 stars in 2021. I’ll pass on this one, though.

>186 richardderus: If it was available via Kindle Unlimited I’d add it to my Library to read the first chapter, but mostly this book leaves me unmoved. Inequality has been the driving force of human nature since the first people had things to fight over.

*smooch*

>195 karenmarie: I hope the world someday grows out of status obsession, but I don't expect to live to see it. There is little chance of human nature improving on the lifetime scale, so I just hope for better people than I am to run things while I'm alive.

As if.

The jumped-up autocorrect we insist on calling AI even though it isn't has made so very much more work for me, and I resent each and every correction its brainless stupidity and intentional stupidification I have to go back and edit out. It will not stop capitalizing "All" in every motherfuckin' thing I type. Then won't correct obvious typos like "teh". It's enshittification...which it autocorrected to All caps and I had to undo (I've given up on all, clearly)...for us to train their fucking useless "AI" for free.

To the tumbrils with them all.

Thursday *smooch*

241 The serial killer guide to San Francisco : a novel by Michelle Chouinard

242 A Tour to Die For: A Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco Mystery (The Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco Mysteries, 2) by Michelle Chouinard

>196 richardderus: My oldest grandson, a middle child, at around the technologically genius age of 11, changed his mother's phone to auto-correct his name to "my favorite child."

How that's done? I haven't a clue. But I enjoyed his mother's texts even more after that. Chuckling each time I saw "my favorite child."

243 A murderous business by Cathy Pegau

>199 DebiCates: I wish to high heaven he was MY grandchild I'd put him to work customizing my autocorrect! (Kinda worrying, though...what else is he getting up to?)

>201 richardderus: Yeah, he's the kind of kid that would put a little surprise in there for ya. Better to ask someone younger than 11, before they get clever and still just want to be helpful.

I told my daughter back in the olden days of 2005, when she was a teen, that one day I would no longer be asking HER for technological help but instead I would ask one of her kids because SHE would no longer be the one in the know. We had a good laugh about it, called it thereafter the "Robot is burning my toast" issue because I envisioned I'd be calling her kids to say, "AltDash, could you come by and fix my robot when you have a chance? It's burning my toast."

We've both lived to see that day.

>200 richardderus: I gotta admire your precise rating system! Even half stars aren't enough for your discerning system. Me, everything I rate seems to be a 3 or 5. I usually don't finish a 1 or 2, so it's the 4 that I sometimes go out on a limb and rate with. When I'm feeling adventurous.

>195 karenmarie: Amazon does not own 40% of LT. See https://www.librarything.com/topic/159269#4296173

>204 amanda4242: THANK YOU Amanda for sharing that link. I know I've seen the 40% everywhere, but then in one place (can't remember where) I saw Tim dispute that. I'm saving that link this time.

YAY! An Amazon-free zone!

Edited: Yay! An Amazon-influence-free zone!

>202 DebiCates: Imagine what the *great*-grands are gonna be like...will we even know how to talk to them? Will we need to? It's a shiver some new world.

>203 DebiCates: I used 0.125/star until people laughing at me got through...there *is* such a thing as too precise to be useful in communication. I still use them in my notes.

>205 DebiCates:, >204 amanda4242: Amanda saved me looking in my links! Thanks, Amanda! Debi, will you post that on All our GR group's threads? We really need to allay that fear among the potential converts.

>206 richardderus: I hear ya. And this world gives me shivers, what with the old mushy orange brain running things straight into hell.

>207 richardderus: Oh Richard, you are a doll. I'm laughing but laughing WITH you, okay? I would love to see those notes, they must have the secrets to the 0.125 star system. Probably over my head, though.

>208 richardderus: Will do this evening. Great idea!

>208 richardderus: I favorited that post and look at it occasionally to remind myself there are still people who aren't looking to sell out to Amazon.

Tim said something similar again just last year, in case there are questions that things have changed since the 2013 thread: https://www.librarything.com/topic/365518#8675339

>213 norabelle414: Good to know!

>200 richardderus: I'm not a big reader of detective novels but this one sounds like a winner. Another vacation read?

>197 richardderus: 5 stars?

>209 DebiCates: *mournful nodding and sighing*

>210 DebiCates: It's simple...the list of words I hate are valued at 0.125* off for the first through third occurrences, four or more 0.5...then c-a-ts get 1* off for being there in the story, 0.125* off per occurrence for being mentioned more than once; the w-verb (w-i-n-k) same scale; beyond niggles and quibbles there aren't more petty deductions.

Y'know, like everybody else analyzes their reads. Right?

>211 DebiCates:, >212 amanda4242: +1

>213 norabelle414:, >214 amanda4242: I did not know about that! Thanks, Nora!

>215 RebaRelishesReading: A good vacation read, Reba! Pretty relaxingly predictable without being boring about it.

>216 humouress: ? Nope. 3.75 rounded to four.

>218 richardderus: hahaha I seeeee. Bet I could do that. I'm making my personal list right now. My ratings might just be using all the numbers and fractions from here on out.

W-verb....w-verb....hm, no, don't know that one. Womanizing? Wombat hunting? Wankering?

>208 richardderus:. Done! See if you approve. (Read through to the end for a chuckle.) https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/23234608-background-things-of-librarything

>223 DebiCates: "w-i-n-k" didn't clue you in, dear? :-P

>224 DebiCates: I approve!

>225 richardderus: 223 DebiCates: "w-i-n-k" didn't clue you in, dear? :-P

I'm going to be red-faced when I wake up in the middle of the night tonight and shout "Dolores!" Not there yet.

>200 richardderus: That one sounds really good to me. I will have to see if I can get my hands on a copy. Thanks for the review and recommendation, Richard.

((Hugs)) and **smooches**

>222 richardderus: I've recounted. Your posted review still shows 5 stars.

>143 richardderus: Lincoln in the Bardo was a DNF for me, but I will give his non-fiction a go RD.

>227 alcottacre: I hope you enjoy it, Stasia! *smooch*

>228 humouress: I visited the review and finally saw it...thank you for telling me! I've lopped off that poser of a fifth star.

>229 Caroline_McElwee: I don't remember him writing non-fiction. It seems I've got a block.

244 Rilke in Paris by Maurice Betz (tr. William Stone

245 Impostures by Ḥarīrī (tr. Michael Cooperson)

>231 richardderus: You're welcome. I was confused as to how you gave it 5 stars with the issues you had with it until I went back to the top and saw a different rating.

‘Morning, RDear! Happy Friday to you.

>197 richardderus: and >198 richardderus: Sounds like a series I should like, but for some reason doesn’t really appeal. I like books with serial killers in them, as either hunted or hunter, but have other books to satisfy that itch.

>200 richardderus: Wonderful review, as always. As much as I’ve railed against the white male power structure, I’ve never seen the word heteropatriarchy. O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! I will, however, pass, because historical crime fiction, as a rule, doesn’t appeal.

>204 amanda4242: Got it. Sorry. Online sources seem to have the % wrong and I should have kept my nose out of it.

>233 richardderus: and >234 richardderus: To use your word in a different context, I’m frazzled by the Amazon% of LT thing, which I should not have brought up, and haven’t given these reviews the attention they deserve.

*smooch*

>235 humouress: I should say so! Utterly unlike me to kvetch like that at a 5* book. Thanks for noticing, it's a help indeed.

>236 karenmarie: Amazon has little interest in correcting what, to them, is a rounding error, and Tim and Co. are all up to the wall just running this place and most likely don't think it's a priority to go after lazy reporting. So the inaccuracy perpetuates.

"Heteropatriarchy" is a gift to those who want to be precise in their apportionment of blame. >200 richardderus: is a good read but not one I'll urgent you to get...if you notice it on KU and feel so inclined I don't think it will disappoint you but I doubt you'll run around in circle crowing joyously no matter what. *pause for that mental image to settle in*

Enjoy this fall Friday, sweetiedarling.

>238 richardderus: "Heteropatriarchy" is a gift to those who want to be precise in their apportionment of blame

Indeed! And yes, I for one will take that gift.

OH Richard, I miss so much when I'm not here, and I haven't been here in a long, long time. I'm behind everywhere else in my life too, so there it is.

Heteropatriarchy! What a very precise and useful word! Thank you! *smooch*

>239 DebiCates: You should only use in good health!

>240 LizzieD: I genuinely is to me, so I'm glad you see it too, Peggy me lurve.

Things tend to move around here, but there's no test, no one's taking attendance, so feel free to draw lines under chats you've missed. Post >2 richardderus: always has the titles and links to reviews, so can be scanned for piqued interest. No sense lumbering yourself with "duties" in what's meant to be a fun and playful space. *smooch*

>233 richardderus: For those who like poetry. I am still not one of you. I am still not one of them either, but man, you make that book sound so good!

>234 richardderus: Adding that one to the BlackHole too.

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

>92 richardderus: I've rated that one 4 stars, too.

I wish you a lovely weekend.

BURGOINE 071 Roundabout of Death by Faysal Khartash (tr. Max Weiss)

Rating: 3.75* of five

The Publisher Says: "Potent ... intimate, humorous and compelling ... One of the best Syrian novelists of his generation and one of the most exciting writers to emerge from the region since the Arab Spring."— The Times Literary Supplement

Set in Aleppo in 2012, when everyday life was metronomically punctuated by bombing, Roundabout of Death offers powerful witness to the violence that obliterated the ancient city's rich layers of history, its neighborhoods, and medieval and Ottoman landmarks. The novel is told from the perspective of an ordinary man, a schoolteacher of Arabic for whom even daily errands become life-threatening tasks.

He experiences the wide-scale destruction wrought upon the monumental Syrian metropolis as it became the stage for a vicious struggle between warring powers. Death hovers ever closer while the teacher roams Aleppo’s streets and byways, minutely observing the perils of urban life in an uncanny twist on Baudelaire's flâneur.

The novel, a literary edifice erected as an unflinching response to the erasure of a once great city, speaks eloquently of the fragmentation of human existence and the calamities of war.

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

My Review: Like life as we are told in multiple stories both fiction and nonfictionlived in war zones, this is a collection of vignettes and impressions that impress themselves on the narrator. He is a Syrian teacher of Arabic, the man on the Clapham omnibus, and at the mercy of the violence then ravaging now-destroyed Aleppo in 2012. Simple daily acts carry huge time penalties and require significant personal risk of harm, let alone crossing the many internal control points to find his kidnapped brother.

A moving story, sure to appeal to vibes-reading souls who urgently desire peace; for all that I think this 2017 book might be "of its time" not necessarily ours.

BURGOINE #072 Glitter in the Dark by Olesya Lyuzna

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: The search for a kidnapped singer in Prohibition-era New York leads an intrepid reporter from Harlem speakeasies to the dazzling world of the theater, all while grappling with her warring passions.

Ambitious advice columnist Ginny Dugan knows she’s capable of more than solving other people’s beauty problems, but her boss at Photoplay magazine thinks she's only fit for fluff pieces. When she witnesses the kidnapping of a famous singer at Harlem’s hottest speakeasy, nobody takes her seriously, but Ginny knows what she saw—and what she saw haunts her.

Guilt-ridden over her failure to stop the kidnappers and hard-pressed for cash to finally move out of her uptight showgirl sister’s apartment, Ginny resolves to chase down the truth that will clear her conscience and maybe win her a promotion in the process. When private detective Jack Crawford starts interfering with her case, Ginny ropes him into a reluctant partnership but soon finds herself drawn to the kind heart she glimpses beneath his brooding exterior. Equally as alluring is Gloria Gardner, the star dancer of the Ziegfeld Follies who treats life like one unending party. Yet as Ginny delves deeper into the criminal underworld, the sinister plot she uncovers seems to lead right back to the theater.

Then a brutal murder strikes someone close to her, and Ginny realizes the stakes are higher than she ever imagined. This glamorous world has a deadly edge, and Ginny must shatter her every illusion to catch the shadowy killer before they strike again.

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

My Review: The speakeasies, the sex, the showgirls, the secrets! Harlem during Prohibition never looked more glam. If you can see it through the proliferation of subplots, minor characters foregrounded, and lush overdone descriptions.

Enjoyable for all that, and sure to please my fellow series mystery lovers. (If this ain't a book one, never saw one more wasted.)

Mysterious Press requires you to surrender $17.95 (any edition) before legal possession is transferred to you.

>243 alcottacre: I'm glad to see you, Stasia! I hope you get to one of them, probably >233 richardderus: since it's been out for years now, soonish. *smooch*

>244 Ameise1: It just feels like a four-star story, doesn't it? I can often think of why someone would rate a book I'm not loving at five stars but this one just *is* a four-star read.

Merry weekend, Barbara!

BURGOINE #073 A Killer Wedding by Joan O'Leary

Rating: 3.25* of five

The Publisher Says: Wildly witty and wickedly fun, A Killer Wedding is a juicy debut whodunit about toxic family dynamics hidden beneath the surface of billionaire-level wealth that reads like The Devil Wears Prada protagonist played a game of Clue at a White Lotus Hotel.

Christine can’t believe her luck. The iconic Gloria Beaufort, founder of the billion-dollar beauty empire Glo, has personally chosen her to cover her grandson’s wedding for Bespoke, the cult fashion magazine that every A-list bride dreams of being featured in. A career-making scoop and a free trip to a castle turned five-star hotel on the Emerald Isle? It feels too good to be true…

Because it is.

Gloria is found dead on the very first morning of the celebratory weekend, and her entire family wants to keep her death a secret and for the wedding to march on. When Gloria’s heirs issue a chilling warning to Christine to keep things quiet, she can’t help but wonder if one of them is guilty. There’s the son who’s hiding a damaging lawsuit; the resentful daughter-in-law; the grandson who’s had a few too many run-ins with the law; the ambitious granddaughter who’s hiding more than one secret; and Gloria’s favorite grandchild, the too-good-to-be-true groom. As Christine navigates a world where glamour masks grimy secrets and everyone she meets is a suspect, she realizes that among this glitzy elite, nothing is as it seems.

Set against the dazzling backdrop of ultimate luxury and an endless reveal of surprises, A Killer Wedding is a fast-paced, humorous mystery that proves you’ll never forget your wedding day…especially if it starts with a murder.

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

My Review: I know we're supposed to love stories about how ghastly the superrich are, while still covetously drooling over their overpriced tat. I'm over it. A debut novel that spends about 40% of the page count modishly snarking while obsequiously documenting a culture I only want to know about if there's naked guys parading for my pervy pleasure.

Plenty of humor I wasn't that impressed by, lots of stylish...stuff...lovingly described, and who the hell care if that harridan was murdered because the wonder is it took so long.

William Morrow would like $14.99, please, but you must supply the Hermès Kindle cover.

BURGOINE #074 The Sisterhood (A Lady Emily Mystery #19) by Tasha Alexander

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Lady Emily investigates the murder of a glamorous debutante in the latest irresistible mystery of Tasha Alexander’s New York Times bestselling series.

London, 1907: When the Season's most accomplished and elegant debutante, Victoria Goldsborough, collapses and dies at her engagement ball, the great and good of London Society prepare to mourn the tragic loss of an upstanding young woman. But all is not what it seems, and after a toxic beverage is revealed to be the cause of death, the king himself instructs Lady Emily and her husband Colin Hargreaves to unearth the truth.

Who would want to harm one of the most popular women of the year? Is it her fiancé with whom she had an unusually brief courtship; a rival for his affections bitter at being cast aside; her best friend who is almost certainly hiding a secret from Colin and Emily; a disappointed suitor with a hidden gambling habit; or a notorious jewel thief who has taken a priceless tiara from the Goldsborough home? When a second debutante succumbs to poison, the race is on to find a ruthless killer.

Emily and Colin’s investigation leads to a centuries old tomb in the center of London with a mysterious link to another death dating back to Roman times and the violent reign of Boudica, ancient Britain's fearsome warrior queen. As the stakes rise and the clock ticks down, Emily must find the killer before they strike again.

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

My Review: Boudicca's reign and Edward VII's intersect in this truly unexpected story of society murder set alongside the murder of a society. Not in the least what I was expecting. Enjoyable but pretty slight in its conceit. These timelines do not seamlessly converge nor can I picture a way to make that happen.

Jaded, seen-it-all historical mystery readers should pick up Author Alexander's gauntlet. I might e missing a big...something.

Minotaur Books craves the boon of $14.99 from you for a night in its company.

PEARL RULE #023

What we can know : a novel (28%) by Ian McEwan

Rating: 2.5* of five

The Publisher Says: 2014: A great poem is read aloud and never heard again. For generations, people speculate about its message, but no copy has yet been found.

2119: The lowlands of the UK have been submerged by rising seas. Those who survive are haunted by the richness of the world that has been lost.

Tom Metcalfe, an academic at the University of the South Downs, part of Britain’s remaining island archipelagos, pores over the archives of that distant era, captivated by the freedoms and possibilities of human life at its zenith. When he stumbles across a clue that may lead to the lost poem, a story is revealed of entangled loves and a crime that destroy his assumptions about people he thought he knew intimately well.

What We Can Know is a masterpiece, a fictional tour de force that reclaims the present from our sense of looming catastrophe, and imagines a future world where all is not quite lost.

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

My Review: Cli-fi and poetry and postapocalyptic archipelagos where England was and Ian McEwan, taken all together, were simply too many things I don't much like for me to get over my indifference. I got to, "Even if Vivien never read her birthday present, never even untied the scroll, everything I've learned about her suggests that she did not destroy the poem."

That's me done here. More of this guy's maunderings and I might scream louder than I already have. YMMV.

Alfred A. Knopf wants $14.99 for an ebook. You do you.

‘Morning, RDear! Happy Saturday to you.

The burgoined and the pearl ruled: Noted. >251 richardderus: has the rising seas and isolated archipelagoes that I’m happier reading about in the Dark Water tetralogy by Xanthe Walter. It includes naked guys…

*smooch*

>252 karenmarie: MUCH more my speed, then. Naked men improve the shining hour no matter what. Or so I find. And >251 richardderus: ended up being a "whyinahell'd I say yes to THIS? I haven't liked anything he's written!" moment. Saturday orisons, sweetiedarling!

PEARL RULE #024

To the Moon and Back (58%) by Eliana Ramage

Rating: 2.75* of five

The Publisher Says: One young woman’s relentless quest to become the first Cherokee astronaut will irrevocably alter the fates of the people she loves most in this tour de force of a debut about ambition, belonging, and family.

My mother took my sister and me, and she drove through the night to a place she felt a claim to, a place on earth she thought we might be safe. I stopped asking questions. I picked little glass pieces from my sister’s hair. I watched the moon.

Steph Harper is on the run. When she was six, her mother, Hannah, fled an abusive husband—with Steph and her younger sister, Kayla, in tow—to Cherokee Nation, where she hoped they might finally belong. In response, Steph sets her sights as far away from Oklahoma as she can get, vowing that she will let nothing get in the way of pursuing the rigorous physical and academic training she knows she will need to be accepted by NASA, and ultimately, to go to the moon.

Spanning three decades and several continents, To the Moon and Back encompasses Steph’s turbulent journey, along with the multifaceted and intertwined lives of the three women closest to her sister Kayla, an artist who goes on to become an Indigenous social media influencer, and whose determination to appear good takes her life to unexpected places; Steph’s college girlfriend Della Owens, who strives to reclaim her identity as an adult after being removed from her Cherokee family through a challenge to the Indian Child Welfare Act; and Hannah, Steph and Kayla’s mother, who has held up her family’s tribal history as a beacon of inspiration to her children, all the while keeping her own past a secret.

In Steph’s certainty that only her ambition can save her, she will stretch her bonds with each of these women to the point of breaking, at once betraying their love and generosity, and forcing them to reconsider their own deepest desires in her shadow. Told through an intricately woven tapestry of narrative, To the Moon and Back is an astounding and expansive novel of mothers and daughters, love and sacrifice, alienation and heartbreak, terror and wonder. At its core, it is the story of the extraordinary lengths to which one woman will go to find space for herself.

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

My Review: To say I abandoned this read is to do the read a disservice. It was a decent coming-of-age novel by the time I quit at the beginning of chapter sixteen. I got no frisson from it.

I really wanted to love it, but did not. You might resonate to it where I did not.

Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster requires a payment of $14.99 for the ebook. Others will like it more than I did.

PEARL RULE #025

The Story That Wouldn't Die (Jolene Garcia Mysteries #2) {15%} by Christina Estes

Rating: 2.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Emmy Award-winning reporter Christina Estes uses her twenty-year career for inspiration for her mysteries. In The Story That Wouldn’t Die, Jolene Garcia refuses to stop investigating, but someone is determined to kill the story—and maybe her—for good.

Phoenix, Arizona TV reporter Jolene Garcia is fresh off winning her first Emmy and committed to covering stories that matter to her community. But Jolene’s managers want stories that grab immediate attention and generate clicks, not ones that take time to develop.

When a beloved small business owner dies in a car crash, Jolene isn’t convinced it was an accident. He’d been raising questions about who keeps getting lucrative deals at city hall—questions that powerful people don’t want answered. The deeper Jolene digs, the more suspicious things she uncovers.

Exposing greed, ambition, and deception could become the biggest story of Jolene’s career. Her bosses tell her to drop it. But there’s a story here, and Jolene’s going to find it.

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

My Review: I started reading this DRC in April. I gave up last night when I realized I read this sentence: "It will be interesting to hear what Kris Kruger has to say about the guy who quit working for him, started his own business, and then complained about Kris getting lucrative city contracts," a second time...I restarted the read...and was utterly convinced that no, it very much would not.

I rated her first novel, Off the Air, 3.5* and noted I was not invested in the victim's death because he needed killin'...and lo, here we are again.

Minotaur Books needs $14.99 to relinquish their monopoly on the file. Libraries are free to use.

Thanks for taking the bullet on the above :). Hope you have a good day.

>256 RebaRelishesReading: Thanks, Reba, I feel sometimes like I deserve a public-service badge for reading the not-great to deeply dull ones. The bad ones can be fun, in a terribly nasty, mean-spirited way. Saturday orisons!

PEARL RULE #026

The Art of a Lie (52%) by Laura Shepherd-Robinson

Rating: 3* of five, because it's me not the book

The Publisher Says: In 18th-century England, a widowed confectioner is drawn into a web of love, betrayal, and intrigue and a battle of wits in this masterful historical novel from the author of the USA TODAY bestseller The Square of Sevens.

Following the murder of her husband in what looks like a violent street robbery, Hannah Cole is struggling to keep her head above water. Her confectionary shop on Piccadilly is barely turning a profit, her suppliers conspiring to put her out of business because they don’t like women in trade. Henry Fielding, the famous author-turned-magistrate, is threatening to confiscate the money in her husband’s bank account because he believes it might have been illicitly acquired. And even those who claim to be Hannah’s friends have darker intent.

Only William Devereux seems different. A friend of her late husband, Devereux helps Hannah unravel some of the mysteries surrounding his death. He also tells her about an Italian delicacy called iced cream, an innovation she is convinced will transform the fortunes of her shop. But their friendship opens Hannah to speculation and gossip and draws Henry Fielding’s attention her way, locking her into a battle of wits more devastating than anything she can imagine.

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

My Review: I feel caddish abandoning this read. The Punchbowl and Pineapple deserves better from me than abandonment at 52%; yet I had to face facts: I like the idea of the read but am unenthusiastic about the execution. At the beginning of Part III, I faced up to the fact I was slogging along hoping I could finish.



My Goodreads friend who convinced me by example to keep going will most likely unfriend me now. She *loooved* the story. I, sadly, did not.

Atria Books requests and requires $14.99 for your access to the file. Read a sample first.

PEARL RULED #027

UNVEILED: Inside Iran's #WomanLifeFreedom Revolt (41%) by JONATHAN HAROUNOFF

Rating: 3* of five

The Publisher Says: In September 2022, twenty-two-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman Mahsa Jina Amini is killed by Iran's morality police in Tehran for allegedly wearing her hijab too loosely. Outrage triggers nationwide protests. Women rip off their headscarves, setting them afire. Others cut their hair in open defiance. Key industries are brought to a standstill, and once-revered banners of the country's Supreme Leader are incinerated. It's the greatest challenge to the Islamic Republic of Iran in its forty-six-year history-not coming from a foreign adversary but from their own freedom-seeking women. Women and girls, perhaps for the first time in the history of the modern Middle East, take center stage in a nationwide uprising, clamoring for a freer Iran and chanting the now-viral battle cry of: "Woman, Life, Freedom."

Award-winning British-Iranian journalist Jonathan Harounoff, now serving as Israel's international spokesperson to the United Nations, demystifies the context leading up to these historic protests inside Iran and abroad and examines the potential future ramifications. With much of the global spotlight focused on the Islamic Republic's dangerous foreign policy agenda, Unveiled: Inside Iran's #WomanLifeFreedom Revolt pays tribute to the people of Iran who have paid the ultimate price for freedom.

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

My Review: Important reminder that progress does not contain guarantees of permanence. It is journalistic prose, neither bad nor good, but serviceable. I gave up when we went back to cell phone footage being dismissed by the regime as fake. I'm not saying anything is untrue, I'm just not enjoying the read stylistically so it feels like I'm taking a beating for no reward.

Leftists scared by modern trends, who believe women are adults with actual rights to bodily autonomy, should look into it.

Black Rose Writing requires $18.95 for a paperback.

GBBO THOUGHTS

Episode four was "Back-to-School" week, the first one ever. In it, the bakers were asked to make treats that apparently were/are served in UK schools or at fêtes as prizes or as treats. Let's dig in!
As usual I'll discuss the bakers in order by how the judges ranked them on the challenges. I'll start with our bounced bonny wee lass, Jessika. Boo and hiss all over those rotten-souled creeps for doing this when either Iain or Lesley really *deserved* to go, and Nadia should've. But here we are. Firstly the Signature was Flapjacks, a kind of cross between granola bars and seven-layer bars. Jessika's were called 'Red Wine Rendezvous' Flapjacks because she made a red-wine reduction to replace the *shudder* golden syrup (imagine black-strap molasses and light Karo had a bastard child, that's close enough) in the flapjacks, then topped with a red wine-poached-pear, stem ginger, and dark chocolate ganache decorated with stem-ends of the pears like dunce caps, which sounds deVOON but the judges found them too gooey, probably from the pears since they're notoriously we fruits to work with.
The Technical was to bake in two hours a batch of School Cakes (twelve portions in a sheet cake), all parts to be made from scratch...and with no electric appliances! The things to be made were vanilla sponge, white glacé icing (fondant, in other words...ew!), and covered in handmade-from-scratch sprinkles, with a jug of lumpless pouring custard (crème anglaise) to go with it. She finished a richly merited 7th because the cake was poorly portioned, the custard was split, and nothing looked like she'd taken any care with it.
The Showstopper was four and a half hours given to make a Summer Fête School Display containing one large bake, and two batches of twelve small bakes. Jessika made a 'Prehistoric Pantry' Summer Fête Stall featuring a stout cake and caramel book that had a triceratops-head sculpture coming out,made of modeling chocolate; marshmallow-raspberry jam-filled dinosaur footprint biscuits; and chocolate dino eggs filled with chai-spice ganache. She picked the wrong cake, stout cake takes forever to bake and forever to cool...and you can. not. decorate. warm. cake. Bye darling.

Jasmine, Star Baker for the second week running...shades of s5 Richard or s7 Rahul, who went three times in a row apiece so watch this space...is on track to become a Finalist or she'll upset a lot of prediction agencies. Her Raspberry, Chocolate and Hazelnut Flapjacks were aiming for a softer, less crunchy texture with freeze-dried raspberries, oats (of course), and hazelnuts topped with chocolate ganache and some tempered chocolate for crunch. The judges praised the chewy texture, the good flavors, and her really charming decoration of raspberry bits and a whole hazelnut encased in a caramel spike. Her 1st-place Technical was truly flawless. The 'My Favourite Games' Summer Fête Stall showstopper was another "hook-a-duck" decorated cake, this one orange, lemon, and elderflower, shaped as both pond and collar frosted with different buttercreams; rosemary pretzels shaped like quoits; and a raspberry jam filled biscuit hopscotch game. Paul said it was style *with* substance; Prue tasted the extracts in her cake too much.
*
Toby visits the High table for the first time! made 'Carrot Patch' Flapjacks, made with a carrot-cake recipe that had oats in place of flour, and yes Toby I will marry you. There were raisins, walnuts, dates, orange zest with an orange cream-cheese frosting. I'd like that to be our wedding cake please. The judges felt he'd over-cinnamoned his slices, but praised the presentation and texture. His 4th-place finish in the Technical was down to a sunken bake on the cake and an overvanilla'd custard. Finishing with a 'Schooldays' Summer Fête Stall of a lemon-blueberry cake filled with lemon-blueberry cream cheese decorated as a "hook-a-duck" game with a messy fondant collar surrounding a lake of frosting; choux-bun tennis balls topped with the dreaded craquelin filled with strawberry (whipped) cream; and parmesan biscuits (cookie/cracker hybrids) filled with chicken paté and ricotta. Everything got praise except the fondant collar.

Tom, not surprisingly, finished as always in the High judges' opinion box. The Signature was Apple Crumble Flapjacks were super-duper fancy...he made white-chocolate apple-shaped molds to fill a round flapjack with apple purée and, outside that, a set custard, meaning to decorate what were s9 Patisserie Week's domed tartlets for the arriviste class with apple-y twigs 'n'stuff, but had no time. They looked pretty rough, honestly. That didn't stop the judges loving the apple-crumble flavor profile! His 6th-place finish in Technical was the nail in his vaguest hope of being Star Baker. He earned it, though, uneven rise of cake, terrible decoration, but decent custard was why he wasn't down with Nadia. Then the 'Cocknowle' Summer Fête Stall started out with another "hook-a-duck" game (!!), this one red velvet cake filled with cream cheese frosting and a buttercream pool shaped collar; petri-dish vanilla crème brulées with weird bacteria-stain decor; and a coconut shy with coconut mousse-filled chocolate coconut shapes filled further with genoîse soaked in rum. Paul liked his science-fair trick of pouring purple smoke CO2 ice to make it pop visually.
*
Aaron is, also not surprisingly, still Safe after last week's High finish. His 'Lat Snacks' Flapjacks had all sorts in, pumpkin seeds, oats, an Earl Grey ganache in fancy-schmancy tube shapes on top, and his famous lemon jam on top of there for some citrusy bite. The judges were both very complimentary, Paul even calling it a triumph! That's a word you always want to hear. His 2nd-place finish in the Technical was down to beautifully risen cake, pretty sprinkles, and a just-slightly inferior custard. The Showstopper was a 'Four Hour Relay: Bake Edition' Summer Fête Stall meant he was the only baker who did not use a cake centerpiece, opting for a *massive* macaron shaped like a stopwatch, layered with orange-flavored caramel, and hazelnut mousse; peach-cream filled cricket ball biscuits; and iced buns filled with mango and passion fruit curd shaped like tennis balls. Sports days were his school fête, clearly. It wasn't well executed but his flavors got praise.

Blah Lesley's 'Dan’s Cherry Bakewell' Flapjacks bored me. A shortbread base took too long to cool, meant to be covered in cherry jam *then* the flapjacks baked over that...the badness of these ideas, the boring flavors of bakewell tart, so very original, then on top poorly executed, because you can not decorate warm baked goods. The judges were kinder than she deserved, though Paul said it was a huge mistake to try it and Prue looked a little...unhappy...at the supersweetness. Her Technical finish in 5th surprised me since her sprinkles looked like Liberace's dandruff, her cake was sunken and dense, no portions were the same size, custard lumpy. Fifth? Then the 'Happy Memories of the 70's' Summer Fête Stall featured an illusion cake made to look like a meat pie out of coffee-and-walnut cake with fondant sculpted in a real-looking pie crust; the "meat" filling was brownies, full marks on that illusion!; apple-shaped apple-jam filled shortbread biscuits; and rainbow meringue lemon curd-filled "lollies" (lollipops in Murruhkin). Fair dues, it looked really well-done if not very interesting. The flavors are unoriginal but well-made and it All came in for praise. Dammit anyway.

What happened, Nadia?! Your Cherry and Coconut Flapjacks were inspired by some hazy cocochoco fever-dream...why'd you bung cherry jam in there too? Coconut flapjack with a tempered chocolate topping woulda done better. Then the tempered chocolate on top didn't set...what a disastrously sloppy-looking presentation. The judges pointed out the reason for her woes was she slopped (my word) too much chocolate on so they couldn't set...and overwhelmed the flavor, too. Coming 9th...of nine...in the Technical was a gift. She should've been twelfth. It was awful on every axis possible. Her 'Traditional Bake Sale' Summer Fête Stall was dumb...adding rising donut dough to all the other stuff! Her cake centerpiece is lemon drizzle filled with lemon curd, then topped with a cupcake-shaped strawberry meringue; donuts shaped like burger buns, with brownie burgers inside and a lemon-curd mustard on the side; those ring donuts glazed with strawberry glaze; and books made of vanilla sugar cookies. But WOW what a display it made. Everything was competently done, so no wonder she looked so pleased with herself!

Nataliia made, appropriately for a Ukrainian lass not schooled in the UK 'First Day' Flapjacks...first day in rehab, maybe. They had pecans (yum!), glacé cherries (ugh), and amaretto in the jacks themselves, and it helped nothing for presentation marks that she fumbled them out of the pan so they broke before she could cut or decorate them. Thinking fast, she cut her pieces into sandwich triangles. The judges caught on to the flaws, but put them down to the shape! I call it a win for her, though they felt they were dry and chewy and the chocolate ganache slathered on top hide the breakage overpowered everything. Dodged that bullet, honestly! Her Technical finish of 8th was because she used too much icing...the weight made the slices dense! And the sprinkles were...if Lesley's were Liberace's dandruff, these were Frankenstein's. Then 'Rucksack Memories' Summer Fête Stall was inspired considering she's never been to a school fête in her life. Her cake was citrus-curd filled; she made shortbread pencils to go in the rucksack; and apple shaped chocolate shells filled with apple mousse and apple jam. Lots of Ukrainian sunflowers in her finishing touches. It All looked and tasted very good, per the judges.
*
Puir wee Iain is the lone baker ranked "Low" this week...the second Low finish in a row for him. This stage of the competition that's a really bad sign. Toby's two Lows were the first two weeks when there was more time to recover. His 'Banana Jacks' Flapjacks had a lot of really, really ripe bananas in the flapjack batter, decorated with caramelized banana slices atop slices with walnut paste under a white-chocolate and honey ganache. His transfem girlfriend took samples to her pole dancing class, where they were well received. The judges felt they were slightly too soft, underbaked, and despite his bid for them being reminiscent of banana bread, weren't biting the bait. The 3rd-place Technical finish probably saved him. The judges complained only about the fact his portions weren't in any way the same size. His 'The Auld' Summer Fête Stall had a raspberry-vanilla "funfetti" cake with proper machine-made sprinkles in the batter, carved into an old Mac monitor and keyboard, filled with raspberry jam on vanilla butterccream; lemon pâte de fruits topped with ANOTHER "hook-a-duck"; and shortbreads topped with caramel then chocolate-ganache covered. (Twix bars, in other words.) I fear he's out of his arty depth. Clumsy execution down, I think, to not being able to execute the details. Paul and Prue mentioned the amount of his display that was *not* baked: the pool, the mouse, etc. In a week where /Jessika's cake was baked, he'd've gone home and likely will next week...It's chocolate week! *eville cackling*
I just could not proofread one more thing today. Please, if you notice a typo, let me know.

‘Morning, RDear! Happy Sunday.

>254 richardderus: and >255 richardderus: Ugh.

>257 richardderus: Some of our best book club discussions have been about books where some people loved it and some people hated it. Or, on a couple of memorable occasions, where everybody hated it.

>259 richardderus: progress does not contain guarantees of permanence So meaningful for what’s happening here in Amurrikah.

*smooch*

>261 karenmarie: Morning, Horrible. It's unwise for us to get complacent; there's always an enemy, foreign or domestic as the founders knew, who will do their-God damnedest to immiserate and control everyone not themselves.

It's never not been true at any time in history or in any place in the world, so it's baked in to Humanity. And we forget, when things are good–or good enough–let down our guards and *bam* in comes the doctrine-spouting hatemongering control freak army trying to convince us they're the majority when they never are, never have been, and get rejected every single time normal people have a chance.

SEPTEMBER IN REVIEW
Valerie is coming to visit starting Wednesday, so I'd like not to feel pressure to produce while she's here; thus I'm posting September month in review now. I've already got them all scheduled on my blog, so here it is early.

I wrote fifty reviews for the blog to be posted through Tuesday the 30th. Not a record, but still a number I feel impressed by! Yet another annoying twidgee told me I was using AI to generate my reviews, which...well, of course some stranger would know that, because I use em dashes and words they do not recognize. ::eyeroll:: The amount of hubris it takes to judge someone you don't know, then seek them out to share your judgment with that person, is breathtaking. I'm glad Goodreads still lets me delete people's stupiditygrams and nastygrams.

So, those fifty reviews weren't all good or bad. The closest I came to a real five-star rating was We Were the Universe, first novel by my dote Kimberly King Parsons, whose collection Black Light: Stories was 2019's six-starrer. Very very enjoyable read. On the opposite end of the spectrum came the truly painful Ian McEwan novel What We Can Know, which I abandoned at 28% through because...I am too old, too unimpressed, too desirous of putting in *good* things into my head, for me to be impressed by A Name such as his. Why I said yes to Knopf I just do not know...vanity piqued, not wanting to be left out, I dunno but stop me if I try to do it again. The best he ever scored with me was 3.75* for Lessons, and that was still pretty lukewarm an "endorsement."

I was sorta-kinda aware of #NationalTranslationMonth, because a different irritating twidgee on Bsky told me I was doing #WITMonth wrong by including books by men but translated by women. ::eyeroll again:: I don't think I'll make a habit of focusing on it for a month, but I wrote nine reviews for it in September, good for 18% of my output. Can't say any of 'em were utter raves. I wish Vladimir Sorokin wasn't a necessary read, but he is. He's lived through the process we're living through. It shows.

I soldier on to #Deathtober now, sure as sure can be that reading about people who hate others enough to kill them will soothe my primal-screaming soul.

I hope you have an excellent time with Valerie while she's in town.

*smooches*

>263 richardderus: Are we sure that you're not an AI bot?

Enjoy your spree with Valerie!

>264 MickyFine: Thank you, Micky dear lady.

>265 humouress: If AI bots have bleeding feet from gout crystals breaking through their skin, GOOD!

Thanks, Nina, I look forward to it.

>263 richardderus: Have a lovely time with Valerie, RD.

>268 DebiCates: ...Debi...is this thing on...*taptaptap*

>269 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks, Caro!

>270 richardderus: LOL, yeah it's on. In that deleted message I imagined an all new subgenre of sci fi that would satisfactorily deal with the insane situation we are in 2025...then decided it was probably extremely not nice and shouldn't be blasted out in a public space.

‘Morning, RD! Happy Monday to you. I'm happy that Valerie's going to visit you starting on Wednesday!

>263 richardderus: Congrats on fifty reviews for September. Fantastic accomplishment. I’ve just added both of Kimberly King Parsons’ books to my wish list. Yes, I've added a book of short stories to my wish list and was hard pressed to not actually buy it.

FOMO on the McEwan book… Twidgees need to butt the hell out. They’re everywhere, unfortunately.

*smooch*

>272 DebiCates: Read Vladimir Sorokin, my dear. There is already an answer to your thought in Melpomene's scribblings in the Akashic records. It's happened before and is happening again and will happen as long as humans walk upright.

>273 karenmarie: ...almost...bought...story...collection...WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH KAREN?!? HANG ON, HORRIBLE, WE'RE COMING TO GET YOU!!

Morning, sweetiedarling. I'm eager for her visit. Fifty is a solid performance, but my sheer greed makes it but a drop in the bucket compared to my intake...abetted by publishers whose publicity departments appreciate an easy mark...*sigh* The Parsons books are really fun reads, so I hope you love them when you get to read them.

Twidgees are on hand at every turn. I do not want them. I get them anyway. Does your god have a complaints line? I've got a few....

246 The sugar kremlin by Vladimir Sorokin (tr. Max Lawton), illus. by Yaroslav Schwarzstein

Dalkey Archive Press continues to make Sorokin part of the cultural conversation. It's not the cheeriest part, but it serves our moment better than most of the Anglophone stuff we're getting because he's lived through it before.

247 Day of the oprichnik by Vladimir Sorokin (tr. Jamey Gambrell)

FSG brought this first volume in the duology out in 2011...depressingly timely still.

>274 richardderus: Going to pay special attention to the author as per your recommendation, Richard. Thank you.

Ha, I see you have a fresh review below...excellent, going to read your thoughts there now.

>278 DebiCates: I'd say "good" but it really isn't likely to feel too good...the way he writes is meant to unsettle and disturb you. Read a sample first, or borrow from the library!

248 Finlay Donovan is killing it by Elle Cosimano

The first of the delightful cozy series from Minotaur Books. What fun! I'm launching #Deathtober early so I won't get too pressured while Valerie visits.

>277 richardderus: Yikes!

Okay. I'm sold.

This author--this title or The Sugar Kremlin--is on the must read for 2026. Provided one can still buy books and read them unmolested by 2026, a mere 3 months away. The speed of demolition in 2025 has been astounding.

>281 DebiCates: It has indeed been breathtaking. I'm reeling from the idea that my Social Security might very well not arrive for October.

>279 richardderus: Yeah, I had a strong sense it would be dark as hell. But my threshold for bad shit happening has been oddly increased of late. Wonder how that happened. (Eyeroll). Good advice. I'm hunting for sources now.

(Can I say shit here? I mean, it is the best word for it.)

>282 richardderus: OH Richard. I'm so sorry. Gdamnit. Eat the rich! Start with those foul emeffers in Congress. It makes me angry.

Remember how they ran during the insurrection? I'd like to see them run again.

I just used the contact forms for all 3 of my Texas Congressmen (and they are all in fact men, rich white men) and let them know how I felt about their dereliction of duty to the American people if they can't compromise to get a budget passed and defy gold leafed Trump.

I am super angry. Sorry, Richard.

Tomorrow I'm calling all their offices. It's spitting in the wind, but there's nothing else to do.

>283 DebiCates: You can say whatever the hell you've a mind to here, in this thread, and I'll come after any shit-eating motherfucker who whines at you with my verbal truncheon if the smeghead has the balls to complain.

>284 DebiCates: It's the world my fellow Murruhkinz thought I deserved. I see them clearly; I despise them; and I've released the hounds in terms of proportional responses to *gestures* everything.

>285 DebiCates: All of them, please. Running like the spineless wimps they are.

>286 DebiCates: It is not spitting in the wind quite the way you think it is...calling their local offices is the most effective call, those are the on-the-ground folks whose main job is to collate real-time data on how the constituents who care enough to find them are feeling and thinking. Those're the ones who count the most...just a nudge to the angry to direct it.

249 Finlay Donovan Knocks 'Em Dead: A Novel by Elle Cosimano

Book two of the series...more #Deathtober fun!

>287 richardderus: Richard, I'm going to give you a laugh, at MY expense, because by god we need a laugh and I'm willing to be the sacrificial lamb for it.

I googled Murruhkinz.

Zero results.

Pause.

How can that be....

Oh.

Okay, I figured it out. But I still haven't woke up in the middle of the night shouting Eureka for the w-word....a verb....

Go ahead. Laugh some more.

>289 DebiCates: oh myyyy

really? oh myyyy

250 Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun: A Novel by Elle Cosimano

Third time's the...

>233 richardderus: I think that Rilke's poetry ( at least some of it) you would quite enjoy. Some translations into English are much better than others though so you would have to choose carefully. I have not read Rilke in Paris and will add it to my WL. ETA: Rilke was an Austrian poet.

Good morning, Richard. As announced, we are home. Looking forward to things slowing down for awhile. I had to mostly skim your thread but you did land a BB with Day of the Oprichnik. Damn, that sounds good.

Not getting much reading in, but I hope to turn that around.

'Morning, RD. Happy Tuesday to you.

Trevor's a treasure. We'll keep him. *smile*

Today's book sort, Virlie's, prescription pickup, and getting cash at the bank.

*smooch*

251 Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice (Finlay Donovan, #4) by Elle Cosimano

Fourth in this daffy, screwball, witty series. Don't start here, but I bet you'll get here if you start at #1.

>293 msf59: Tuesday orisons, Birddude! I know how hard it is to get reading done when among people whose company you enjoy. It'll pick back up now you're in familiar surroundings.

Schmoozle Juno's ears from me.

>294 karenmarie: Morning, Horrible! Good news about Trevor. I'll coddiwomple thitherward to get the deets. Enjoy book fondling, I know Virlie's will delight.

*smooch*

252 Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave: A Novel (The Finlay Donovan Series, 5) by Elle Cosimano

A series that's really hit its stride is a pleasure to read.

>263 richardderus: F*ck bastards who appoint themselves as guides to others in doing The Right Thing (TM), as defined either by they themselves or whatever Great Leader (TM) taught them how to behave.

>299 ArlieS: Awomen!