richardderus's sixteenth 2025 thread

Capitalism sucks.

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.
224 to 252 back there.

THIS THREAD'S REVIEWS
253 8114 in post #12.
254 Curious coffins and riveting rituals : death practices around the world in post #33.
255 Museum of degenerates : portraits of the American grotesque in post #76.
256 Tonight Is Krampus Night! in post #83.
257 Useless etymology : offbeat word origins for curious minds in post #92.
258 WORDS FROM HELL: Unearthing the Darkest Secrets of English Etymology in post #93.
259 The wax child in post #110.
260 A rage to conquer : twelve battles that changed the course of Western history in post #113.
261 Colin gets promoted and dooms the world in post #124.
262 Kalivas! Or, Another Tempest in post #126.
263 Hidden Pieces: A Misty Pines Mystery in post #137.
264 Deadly Tides : Misty Pines Mystery in post #138.
265 Killer Tracks: A Misty Pines Mystery in post #139.
266 Knock off the hat in post #142.
267 A Silent Fury: The El Bordo Mine Fire in post #151.
268 A guardian and a thief in post #153.
269 The fight for free speech : ten cases that define our First Amendment freedoms in post #163.
270 Fuck Neoliberalism : translating resistance in post #164.
271 The zorg a tale of greed and murder that inspired the abolition of slavery in post #179.
272 COBALT RED: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives in post #180.
273 The genius bat : the secret life of the only flying mammal in post #184.
274 The mystery of Henri Pick in post #210.
275 The Paradox Hotel : a novel in post #212.
276 Zone Rougein post #242.
277 Tequila: A Story of Success, Love & Violence in post #243.
278 Death at the door in post #282.

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:
#028

All previous Burgoine reviews linked here.

THIS THREAD:
#075 Atlas of unknowable things in post #247.

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

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

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

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

I wrote eighty-three reviews of all types. Two reads stood out in excellence: Rio Muerto and The Case of Cem. Several were bad, but only one made me angry because it was so effing lazy: Conclave, whose movie actually won an Oscar!!! The apotheosis of blah, bland thinking and writing in both media, and directing of a film.
2Q25 was a rollicking success. The first five months of the year saw 139,334 blog views; this month, not over yet, almost matches that total! I was fully satisfied, pleased even, with those first-half totals so this month is mind-blowing to me. For the first half of 2025, my thirteen-year odyssey writing over 3700 reviews and achieving over 1,000,000 blog-views has been satisfying, exciting, and deeply enriching.

The second quarter's most satisfying read was The Surge, Adam Kovac's war story told in laconic warrior-appropriate prose. It exemplifies an experience I do not think soldiers will ever have again as AI and automation turn war into a weirdly impersonal industrial slaughterhouse.
3Q25 was *astoundingly* productive...one thing positive, the ONLY thing positive, I'll say for the felonious yam and the kakistocracy he trails like wet farts is I get a turbocharge of energy to burn off writing because I hate them all so very, very much,that I wrote ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY-TWO REVIEWS. In 90 (ninety) days.
Holy carp.
That's more than I wrote for my blog in eight (8) of the past thirteen years I've been blogging. If that's not a win, I don't know what is. I'm really lemonadeing them lemons!
The best book of the quarter was, unquestionably, The Remembered Soldier...it's very likely to be the 6*-of-five read for 2025 though this quarter had several very, very good reads that might unseat it if they keep growing in my memory, eg We Were the Universe, Soft Burial, maybe The Gods of New York: Egotists, Idealists, Opportunists, and the Birth of the Modern City, 1986-1990...but none are more likely to unseat my dote than The Rain Heron. Arnott's talent impressed as always. I'm still prepared to be wowed and overwhelmed in Q4, but it'll be tough....
4Q25

GBBO and other special hashtaggie projects will be linked here.

2025 #ShortStoryMonth #1 through #5 linked here.
☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂
2025 #PrideMonth 1 through 5 are linked here.
PRIDE MONTH #6 is linked here.
PRIDE MONTH 7 through 19 are linked here.
PRIDE MONTH 20 through 31 linked back there.
PRIDE MONTH 32 through 36 linked here.
#PrideMonth wrap-up is here.
☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂
#WITMonth explainer is here.
#WITMonth wrap-up is here.
***
#1 over here.
***
#2 through #23 over there.
#24 to #32 is #over there.

☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂☀☁☂
GBBO THOUGHTS
Season 15's comments linked here.
*
Season 1 thoughts are here.
*
GBBO Season 16!
Episode 1: cake week through Episode 4: Back To School here.
Episode 5: Chocolate here.
Episode 6: Pastry here.
Episode 7: Meringue (yuck).

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.

Okay, it's finally your turn.

I'm here!

>9 laytonwoman3rd: Welcome, Linda3rd! I know you're so modest and averse to ostentation that you'd rather not have a frippery such as a crown in all its meaningless vainglory, so I won't embarrass you.

Like fun I won't:

253 8114 by Joshua Hull

#Deathtober begins in earnest. CLASH Books got real close to great in this one.

>11 richardderus: Oh, that's ME! In fact, I can't wear any sort of hat without feeling foolish, let alone a crown. But that is a lovely thing to look at, if totally inappropriate to adorn a human head.

My quarterly wrap-up is in >5 richardderus:.

>13 laytonwoman3rd: I don't know how much it weighs but for a coronation I guess it'd be tolerable. Gives me sweaty ears even thinking about putting it on. That spinel on top is glorious, isn't it?

Happy new thread Richard!

Happy New Thread!

Happy new one, Richard.

Happy new thread!

>16 humouress: Thank you, Nina!

>17 mahsdad: Thanks, Jeff.

>18 RebaRelishesReading: Thank you, Reba!

>19 figsfromthistle: Thanks, Anita.

Happy new thread, Richard! Enjoy your visit with your sister!

Karen O

>24 klobrien2: Thanks, Karen O.! We usually have a really good time together.

Whew! I'm here to wish you happy while the thread is still fresh. Yay! Happy New Thread, WBL!!!!!

>11 richardderus: Spinel? Not ruby? Oh well. It's quite --- ornate and makes my neck hurt.

I wish you a lovely, lovely day tomorrow! *smooch*

Happy new thread, Richard!

Happy New Thread!

Happy new one, Richard!

Happy new thread, Richard! Enjoy your time with your sister!

Salutations on sweet sixteen dear fellow and yes: >1 richardderus: it does suck but we do need to get the alternatives working somewhere so that more people agree with us!

Happy new thread, Richard. Thanks for your recent recommendation of We Are Eating the Earth. I finished it yesterday.

254 Curious coffins and riveting rituals : death practices around the world by YY Liak

Real Rating: 4.75* of five

The Publisher Says: Discover the world’s most fascinating death and funeral traditions in this illustrated modern-day memento mori.

Embark on a whirlwind tour of burial, preservation, and memorial practices and landmarks from across the globe and throughout history, ranging from the customs of our ancestors to contemporary practices. In these vibrantly illustrated pages, you can explore how humans from time immemorial have honored and remembered the dead:

Mummification in ancient Egypt

Post-mortem photography in Victorian England

Open-pyre cremations in India

Ghana’s fantasy coffins

The Japanese ritual of kotsuage (“the gathering of the bones”)

And much more.

Author-illustrator YY Liak tackles the thorny theme of death with a deep compassion for the universal experiences of loss and grief and an intrepid interest in the unique mortuary practices that have arisen across continents, cultures, and millennia. Her colorful, modern illustrations bring to life a whole spectrum of human beliefs about death and dying.

→EXISTENTIAL AND ENDLESSLY ENTERTAINING: Whether you’re casually curious about what happens to our bodies after we die or intimately experienced with death and its attendant customs, appreciating the rituals of others can help you develop and deepen your own.
→MARVELOUSLY MACABRE, TREMENDOUSLY THOUGHTFUL: Dynamic, full-color artwork accompanies informative and intriguing text, rendering everything in energetic detail—from a step-by-step breakdown of the embalming process to detailed diagrams of ancestral altars around the world.
→A GIFT FOR CURIOUS MINDS: This intriguing volume makes an excellent present for sociology lovers and morbidly curious readers.
It’s a perfect fit for anyone who enjoys an accessible, illustrated take on history and anthropology and can also be shared with younger readers to kickstart important discussions about death and dying.

Perfect for:

Science buffs and history lovers

Adults and teens interested in death and funeral traditions

Anyone curious about different cultures' beliefs about death and mortality

Readers seeking resources that demystify and destigmatize death and dying

Fans of popular science and sociology authors like Caitlin Doughty, Mary Roach, and Sue Black

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

My Review: Singaporean author/illustrator Liak presents the wonderful...in its older sense of "extraordinary, marvelous"...world of death and its rituals.

what we'll be reading about

It's a project she is very suited for, as Chinese cultures are very invested with their dead as vital forces in the world of the living. It has the effect of making the people in those cultures much less squeamish and avoidant of the entire idea of death. It's an instructive contrast to Western, particularly industrialized, societies, most especially the US iteration of that strand. Most people I know have never been in the same room as a dead body, still less interacted with it to prepare it for its farewell rituals.




the introductory bits are all in this style...information with a heavy graphic component

There is a great deal to be said for a commonsensical attitude towards death. I'm a materialist. I don't think there's anything after death that resembles the cultural stories we're told about it, though what happens when we die is not yet known to me...there seems to be a long, long braid of story that SOMEthing continues after death. I'm not dead (I don't think) so I can only say that I think being open to my ignorance is the best stance I can come up with. Trouble is others are convinced they DO know what happens after death and that vision is not evidence-supported or experiential.

some of Death's many cultural manifestations

If that were so, why would cultures around the world have so many different certainties, most mutually exclusive, and each so sure theirs was the uniquely correct one?




some of the death-ritual coping mechanisms we've created

We need, as humans, some framework to deal with our intense grief and complicated emotional entanglements with the other humans in our lives. We create these frameworks to manage the devastating reality of absence, the void where a loved one once was. It's terribly painful and rituals ease our pain.



religion-specific death structures meant to offer moral guidance

Death being a very frightening and utterly permanent transition, it makes perfect emotional sense we have religious professionals using it to reinforce their vision of the proper social order. It takes more or less coercive forms, and offers either comfort or guidance...think of ancient Egypt's Books of the Dead...or threats and warnings, like Dante's Inferno.

This lovely book does a fine, non-partisan job of untangling many threads of the fear of death humans harbor. Author and Artist Liak made this lovely object full of fascinating information to give the curious some fun, the intellectual some context they might not have had before, and the collector of beautiful objects a new treasure.

I enjoyed it very much. I was aware of being hustled past some thorny issues but this is neither religious tract nor scholarly article. It was a quarter-star off entirely for being noticeable, not because it wasn't addressed.

>26 LizzieD: If there had ever been a ruby that size, it would've been broken up to maximize profits, but no that ones a spinel. It's gorgeous, no? I want nothing that heavy on *my* head.

If the gummint shutdown doesn't stop her from getting here, Valerie will get here around 3pm. I'm hoping the fallout won't reach that far.

*baa*

>27 bell7: Thank you, Mary.

>28 SilverWolf28: Thanks, Silver!

>29 drneutron: Thank you, Jim...happy on the thread not in the world.

>30 atozgrl: Thanks, Irene, I really hope she gets here....

>31 PaulCranswick: I suspect, PC, we're going to be in the Russia-1993 situation. Collapse followed by nightmare.

I hope I'm wrong.

Happy Wednesday, Richard. Happy New Thread. Great news about your sister's potential visit. Go Cubbies!

>32 alcottacre: I'm so glad, Stasia...trenchant arguments, no? *smooch*

‘Morning, RDear! Happy new thread. Happy Wednesday, too.

>1 richardderus: Ain’t that the truth.

>12 richardderus: By default, I won’t like most of your offerings this month. #Deathtober… I’ll chime in if one appeals.

🤞 for Valerie’s safe arrival.

*smooch*

Valerie Arrival is getting closer, and I'm more than hopeful that she's on time - or even a little ahead - for wonderful hours for you both! *smooch*

I thought it was about time for her visit. Have a great time with her! I had a housequest over the weekend. In my case it was an old childhood companion. We recently got back in touch and I spent a short weekend with her last fall. This fall she came here, becuase she retires on October 1. We both hope that her first Social Security check gets into her bank account on time, but other than that worry, we had a great time.

>42 karenmarie: Morning, Horrible! This month will not be one of your more active add-to-the-TBR ones.

We spent the first day talking up a storm. Had dinner at Peter's Clam House, lobster garlic toast...little pieces of lobster in a velvety Thermidor-style sauce, and a lobster roll for her, bacon cheeseburger for me...I torpedoed the chocolate mousse cake proffered at Peter's for buying lemon bars and seven-layer bars at the grocery to snack on while we talked. We can get mousse cake anywhere and will be eating out again.

Into the shower and off to breakfast at 8. *smooch*

>43 LizzieD: I'm so glad to have her here after her health scare earlier this year. It's never guaranteed we'll have another chance...grateful she grabbed this one!

>44 benitastrnad: It's been so lovely to have her company the last few years of visits! I hope they can continue. Doesn't it feel so cozy to be with someone you've known most of your life?

I'm so glad your time with Valerie has been wonderful. I'm envious of your meal at Peter's Clam House.

I hope today's adventures are wonderful, too.

*smooch*

Yay for your first day! Hope today is a full one and that again, when you get settled tonight, you'll be a full one too. *smooch*

Go. Enjoy yourselves. I hadn't realised Valerie is your sister.

(Leave us ... abandon us and your poor thread ... it's not like anyone comes here anyway ...)
;0)

Happy New thread, Richard. I'm glad you are enjoying your visit from Valerie. The dinner sounds great.

Happy Friday, Richard. Your visit with Valerie sounds wonderful. Is the fun continuing or is the visit over? Either way, have a great weekend.

Have fun with Valerie.

*smooch*

>41 richardderus: Definitely!

I hope you and your sister are having a wonderful visit together!

((Hugs)) and **smooches**

Happy new thread, Richard. Enjoy your time with Valerie!

>48 karenmarie: It's been lovely indeed, Horrible, and will charge me up for months to come. Sadly it will be over about 4. Still, more good eating, and a lot more just being thus chatting together. *smooch*

>49 LizzieD: Thank you, Peggy me lurve. We've thought the days were long and would go on and on, but that would not comport with the laws of physics, so....

*smooch*

>50 humouress: Wow, that is Olympic-class guilt-instilling! I am impressed!

*goes*

>51 vancouverdeb: 'Twas indeed, Deborah, a dinner to remember. I'm so glad and grateful to have her visit!

>52 msf59: Valerie leaves today at about 3 or 4, depending on the traffic report. The airport's about 30min away, but car return, then getting to the terminal, passing security, etc etc, eats an easy two hours.

>53 karenmarie: I'll come tell y'all about it!

>54 alcottacre: It's been a wonderful visit indeed. *smooch*

>55 Familyhistorian: Thanks, Meg!

>58 richardderus: Thank you, thank you. I'm glad I can still impress you.

The plan for today includes Valerie's hotel's breakfast buffet, which we both love, and then a boardwalk stroll to do seaside selfies, followed by munching more diner food at the Laurel. All in all a lovely beach-town Saturday. I'll be sad when she goes but what a great time we've had!

I'm so glad Valerie's visit wasn't interfered with by federal shenanigans. There's nothing like sharing face to face time with someone you love, who "gets" you, shares memories, loves the same food...and a boardwalk stroll to top it off...blessed be.

Sorry your lovely sister-time is coming to an end. So glad you had a nice visit. Hope Valerie's trip home goes smoothly.

*smooch*

We wish that Valerie could stay longer for your sake, but we'll welcome you back here with joy and with eager eyes for whatever you may tell us about all your lovely meals! *smooch* HOORAY for the return of my WBL!!!!!

Glad to hear you've had a great time with Valerie, and hope the rest of the weekend has some lovely reads ahead!

>66 laytonwoman3rd: It's a golden moment before felonious yam's stupid henchscum force us to reckon with just how vile they are. V texted me some photos of that gorgeous Peter's Clam House meal that I'll post here after I figure out the best way to port them here without hassling with upside down and backwards shenanigans.

>67 RebaRelishesReading: It was a lovely visit and as always I'm sad to see her go...but dear gawd I needed that full sleep last night! 8.30p to 7.15a!!

Her arrival was safe and happy, glad to report.

>68 karenmarie: *smoochiesmoochsmooch*

>69 LizzieD: I'd prefer she move here...I think it's time for decent people to abandon Texas en masse and let 'em fail...but the visits are what I can have so I'll accept them joyfully as long as they're still possible. *baaa*

>70 bell7: Read. Wow. Until I read that I hadn't realized that I have either been talking, eating, shopping, or sleeping for four days. Not one word read. I'm sitting here doing the social-media chores and catching up on LT while wondering why I feel so weirdly detached...it's because I haven't read any kind of book in days!

You're an angel for guiding my awareness to it. xo

255 Museum of degenerates : portraits of the American grotesque by Eli Valley

Rating: 4.75* of five

The Publisher Says: Museum of Degenerates invites you to a delirious display of art by one of contemporary America’s most original and incendiary political cartoonists. Eli Valley’s extraordinary work is a scathing indictment of the entire American polity, with a particular focus on the issues of Israel and Judaism at a time when these have moved to the center of public debate and action.

In these pages, Valley tips a homburg to German expressionists such as George Grosz and Otto Dix who featured in “The Exhibition of Degenerate Art,” a 1937 Munich show that sought to ridicule the work of artists critical of Hitler’s fascist regime. In an aesthetic that is strikingly original, Valley also draws on early twentieth-century American Yiddish cartoons and the work of artists who created the helter-skelter exuberance of MAD comics in the 1950s.

Valley’s own art, accompanied here by extensive descriptions of its genesis and context, is a howl of protest against the political, cultural and media elites driving America into an authoritarian abyss. Here is anger, pure and hot, expressed in exquisite detail and, often, disturbingly funny.

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

My Review: "Disturbingly funny" from the synopsis above is spot-on. This editorial artwork is disturbing. It can be funny. It disturbed me to find some of it funny. It was a funny kind of disturbing. I'm sure I can recombine those ideas in more apt ways, but I trust my point is made: Épater la bourgeoisie is the modus operandi of this artist. It feels...unsettling, "funny" or weird and certainly unnatural to laugh at the present moment rendered into highly stylized art.

Funny. Sick-making. A moldy shar-pei corpse with a hatespeech ikon in and on it. Somehow it's still funny. Sorta.


Like a zombie movie. Into the fire with you! These zombies don't want braaaiiinnns but roasted flesh.


On every axis I am appalled and offended...less by the artwork than the accuracy of the commentary. Bibi showed his luuuv to the bankster-in-chief by accepting some Gaza deal that kept the dollars flowing. Never mind how ridiculously ineffective it was at justice, or even fairness.

If the revolution needs a poster, let this be it.

I suspect most of y'all are thoroughly turned off by now, so I'll stop. The thing that Eli Valley does is the thing all editorial cartoonists strive to do: exaggerate the ghastly into absurdity. Shock the viewer into recognizing how demented and distorted the discourse he's skewering is. The text of the artist's thought processes and inspirations will make a reasonable person as mad...in all senses...as he is himself.

I'm positive offense is intended by Eli Valley; I'm positive offensiveness is deployed with purpose, can't say "care" but intent and purpose make up for it. In times of horror, use the horror of the times to motivate the audience to make it stop.

This is not a test. The signal is repeating; the instructions are....

A very belated happy new thread.

>77 ArlieS: Thank you, Arlie!

>75 richardderus: Glad I could contribute in some small way! I only got a little bit of reading time in yesterday, and I'm off to go rectify that myself.

*smooch*

>79 bell7: I'm finishing a re-read of The Wax Child which I'll be reviewing tomorrow. Still whupped from V's visit. *snore*

Good to see the visit was tiring but happy making, Richard.

>81 Familyhistorian: Thank you, Meg! It was another deep sleep night!

256 Tonight Is Krampus Night! by (Kyle Sullivan) (illus. Zoe Persico)

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Better watch out! Something delightfully dreadful lurks in the shadows cast by holiday lights.

From Alpine Austrian and German folklore, Krampusnacht (Krampus Night) is when the Krampus—a horned and hooved Yuletide beast—clomps door-to-door to carry away naughty children in his basket. In this beautifully illustrated ode to old European holiday tradition, a little boy named Felix awaits a visit from the Krampus and a festively frightful cast of characters from folklore, including the Yule Cat, Marley’s Ghost, Mari Lwyd, and Frau Perchta.

Includes a glossary of winter folklore characters.

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

My Review: How German...no unalloyed happiness allowed! you must always feel the hot breath of some kind of Devil or you're at risk of disorderly behavior!...that is Verboten:

...but honestly, to my materialist soul, there's nothing quite so silly-cute as a dude with ram's horns on his head running around being all scary. I get a huge laugh out of it.



The ghosties and the ghoulies are cute, too. I love the daffiness of mis-syncretized myths like this. Imagine believing in christian mythology of love and peace and all that...then scaring your kids into submission with these threats of abduction and damnation. The essence of the christian message is honored more in its breach than its observance, of course, and always has been, but threatening children into anxiety for the rest of their lives in celebration of your savior's birthday?

In what world does that make sense?

The one with this horny fellow, I guess. So I'm not buying the structure of the system, obviously, but I really like the iconography of goat-guy running around on his special night; and the art in this version of the myth is effective at being scary without being nightmare fuel, defanging the worst excesses of he mythmaking Alpine storytellers.


Beautiful, eerie artwork, yet not full of ghastly images; the text has a rhythmic, flowing quality that both lulls and gives shape to a story that's not quite as threatening as, say Brom's version of it for older readers. The familiar kid-world cadence of the text is perfect to read aloud in a soothing or at least not overstimulating voice.

There's a storyline that does present a good message in here, one that uses the myth to good effect. I think it's a lovely object, one I think would please your budding horror fiend without traumatizing them or siblings also being read to.

Plus I think even the lap-reading set would enjoy getting the book off the shelf to do some pattern-matching with the endsheets.


Your grands will enjoy the time you spend half-scaring them with this story.

"I hadn't realized that I have either been talking, eating, shopping, or sleeping for four days. Not one word read."

Wow! That could be some kind of record. I think that confirms that you had a wonderful, immersive time with your sister.

Happy Monday, Richard.

>84 msf59: I feel sure it is some kind of record, and not one I ever expected to set! It is so fun, so relaxing to have V chatting with me, talking over stuff, sharing our horror at what "christian" nationalism is doing to our country. She is far more personally wounded as these people claim they follow her religion; I am just all-purpose appalled.

Monday orisons!

‘Morning, RD, and happy Monday to you.

>74 richardderus: Yup. Let’s get friends and family out of there, although I think we’d have to pry Stasia out.

>75 richardderus: … Not read a book in 4 days. I do hope you’ve caught up with a vengeance.

>76 richardderus: I just looked at some of Valley’s political cartoons, and he makes most political cartoonists look like wusses. Not turned off at all by the cartoons you posted. I don’t think that I want to acquire it, but just looked up more of his cartoons on da internet.

>83 richardderus: Ugh to Krampus in book, movie, merch, and every other form. Nope, nope, nope.

>85 richardderus: My friend Karen is Christian and frequently tells me that Jesus would be appalled. I, like you, are just all-purpose appalled.

*smooch*

>86 karenmarie: You're going to wonder if I've had another stroke: I re-read The Wax Child.

I voluntarily read a book twice.

After not reading for four days. I kinda wonder if we're in an alternate universe, honestly.

I think we're All in the appalled camp, especially now that They are upping the violence in Chicago. It's heading into the shooting part of the civil war now, earlier than I'd expected. How many will die needlessly, how much misery will these scumbags inflict just for their own pathetic, vicious needs for Control.

Hating people feels awful, yet I do. I try purging it in my writing, but then Chicago is invaded by ICEstapo, they start their violence, and I'm off.

Pritzker's right about felonious yam and the 25th. Problem is there's no mechanism to get rid of the rotten-souled supporters....

>87 richardderus: There you go, Richard. Last sentence. The entity is a narcissistic sociopath. That's what he is; he can't help it any more than he can help his height, for instance. It's the rotten-souled supporters that dismay and appall me. I understand that they're terrified of him already, so why is the response to help him become more terrifying? Sorry for the rehash.

Glad you're resting and that you have wonderful new shoes for when you get up and get going! *smooch*

I'm glad that you and Valerie had such a great visit, Richard, and sorry it had to end , for now.

Oh, decided to come back to us, did you?

I'm glad you enjoyed (to put it mildly) your time with Valerie and wishing you many more visits from her.

‘Morning, RDear! Happy Tuesday to you.

I’ll be back – I didn’t get up early enough to post, eat, AND get ready to be at book sort by 9.

*smooch*

257 Useless etymology : offbeat word origins for curious minds by Jess Zafarris

USELESS ETYMOLOGY: Offbeat Word Origins for Curious Minds is out today from Chambers (whoever they are) and let me delightedly crow at you that I read this five-star triviafest in JUNE and still didn't crow at everyone who didn't get one early.

I understand the Vatican is still processing my sainthood application. Excuse me, the metallurgist is calling about my halo design....

258 WORDS FROM HELL: Unearthing the Darkest Secrets of English Etymology

The sulphurous precursor to #257...and it's on sale for $1.99 ebook this month!

>88 LizzieD: Plus, Peggy me lurve, I've got more non-slip slippersocks for days then my tootsies just will not tolerate being confined at All! V is generous, and not prone to taking "oh you really shouldn't I don't NEED those" for an answer. So, six pairs later, I can chuck 'em out when they get a hole.

I am so extraordinarily lucky to have her for so many reasons...we can talk, or not, we can go places without hassle, it's just *peaceful* to be with her and she is able to relax and let go of her own troubles while we hang out.

>89 vancouverdeb: I smile because it happened, Deborah, and look forward to next time. No sense being glum when I've had such a great time!

>90 humouress: Briefly...I'll be off to Svalbard soon to soak up the cold and perv on the Norwegian lads.

>91 karenmarie: Morning, sweetiedarling! I'm amazed you're here at All this close to book-fondling time. It seemed to me I had the shortest night I've ever had last night and I slept an hour later than usual. Is Morpheus on some kind of drug binge? *smooch*

Yes, I am 40+ posts behind. . .again

>92 richardderus: >93 richardderus: I am going to have to track down copies of those!

((Hugs)) and **smooches** for today. I am sorry that Valerie had to leave so soon!

ETA: I went ahead and bought the Kindle edition of the second book you mentioned. Thanks for the heads up regarding it being on sale.

>98 alcottacre: It's worth the price many times over for the fascinating stuff in it, Stasia. I hope you can source Useless Etymology, too.

I'm thrilled by four days' visit given her many, many, many commitments. This is a rare chance for her to slow down and for me to rev up! *smooch*

Finalists for the 2025 National Book Awards are posted now:
https://www.nationalbook.org/2025-national-book-awards-finalists-announced/

I'll post the important ones below.
2025 Finalists for Translated Literature:
Solvej Balle, On the Calculation of Volume (Book III)
Translated from the Danish by Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell
New Directions Publishing

Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, We Are Green and Trembling
Translated from the Spanish by Robin Myers
New Directions Publishing

Anjet Daanje, The Remembered Soldier deserves the win for being so astonishingly capable of rendering the awful reality of amnesia without becoming either maudlin or obscurantist.
Translated from the Dutch by David McKay, a man with golden synapses tuned so finely there cannot be a space between him and the author's intent.
New Vessel Press has taste that really marches very closely with mine.

Hamid Ismailov, We Computers: A Ghazal Novel
Translated from the Uzbek by Shelley Fairweather-Vega
Yale University Press said no to my DRC request despite my praise for this writing team's earlier efforts with Gaia Queen of the Ants *pppbbbttthhh*

Neige Sinno, Sad Tiger a deeply deserving winner about something you can't deny any longer is more widespread than normies want to think about.
Translated from the French by Natasha Lehrer, a translator of great facility and sensitivity.
Seven Stories Press gets kudos for taking it on!
***
2025 Finalists for Fiction:
Rabih Alameddine, The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) is such a joy of a read, so intimately honest and so bluntly open about how a queer son sees his family, that of course they'll pass it over for some boring bland heteronormative pap.
Grove Press / Grove Atlantic

Megha Majumdar, A Guardian and a Thief
Knopf / Penguin Random House

Karen Russell, The Antidote...given how much I disliked it, this is probably a shoo-in for the award. *gag*
Knopf / Penguin Random House

Ethan Rutherford, North Sun: Or, the Voyage of the Whaleship Esther
A Strange Object / Deep Vellum Publishing

Bryan Washington, Palaver
Farrar, Straus and Giroux / Macmillan Publishers
***
2025 Finalists for Nonfiction:
Omar El Akkad, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
Knopf / Penguin Random House

Julia Ioffe, Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy
Ecco / HarperCollins Publishers

Yiyun Li, Things in Nature Merely Grow
Farrar, Straus and Giroux / Macmillan Publishers

Claudia Rowe, Wards of the State: The Long Shadow of American Foster Care
Abrams Press / Abrams

Jordan Thomas, When It All Burns: Fighting Fire in a Transformed World
Riverhead Books / Penguin Random House
***
There are other unimportant categories you can look up at the link above.

Many thanks for your NBA lists, Richard! I also took advantage of the Kindle deal on Words from Hell, said deal having a time limit, they say. The newer book can wait.

Your relationship with Valerie sounds wonderful for both of you! I'm happy just reading about it! *smooch*

I am quite behind on threads but I am glad that you had a great visit with Valerie!

>101 LizzieD: But of course, Peggy me lurve. I think they're usually more attuned to my tastes than most of the other big awards.

V's a sweetheart, and so much smarter than I am it's scary. I have emotional receptivity her spectrum-self doesn't always have but that's why we work out well together.

>102 figsfromthistle: Thanks, Anita! xo

F*CK ICE!! That seems to be the chant these days and we are really feeling it in Chi-town. They were patrolling one of the western suburbs yesterday, (near where I grew up) and they are acting like complete thugs! Gestapo on our streets!

Otherwise- Good morning, Richard.

The titles on the National Book list are all new to me, other than the Russell, which made you gag. I am a fan of her short fiction.

>100 richardderus: Kristel posted the list on her thread too, where I initially saw it. Unfortunately I can get hold of very few from my local library. I am skipping the Poetry category. . .

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

Peggy/LizzieD posted this meme on her thread:
"I just found this meme on a thread of mine from 2014. I sort of liked it then, and I might try it now. Certainly, I have nothing else to do!!!!!" I'll come back and do this All day long as other commitments allow.
You're writing a paragraph:

1. A title that includes a color. Use the first sentence.
2 A title that includes an animal. Use the second sentence on page 50.
3. A title that includes a first name. Use the third sentence on page 100.
4. A title that includes a place. Use the fourth sentence on page 150.
5. A title that includes a weather event. Use the next-to-last sentence on page 200.
6. A title that includes a plant. Use the final sentence in the book.

>105 msf59: FUCK ICE!! I think this should be our standard greeting now. No grawlixing for me, though.

I'm enraged and appalled at this. I can only shout alongside you: FUCK THE ICE-STAPO!!!

Happy Wednesday.

>106 alcottacre: ...oh yeah, they have one of those...unimportant and uninteresting things have awards, too, I guess.

Libraries won't be prioritizing lists like that absent strong demand. I don't see you alone getting them to buy the whole list but I'm positive you can get one, maybe two, from it.

*smooch*

259 The wax child by Olga Ravn

New Directions brings us this chilling and brutal Danish example of misogyny and its consequences...a near-perfect read, ideal for #Deathtober!

‘Morning, RDear, and happy Wednesday to you. Sorry I didn’t get back yesterday.

>97 richardderus: I made it to book fondling with time to spare and had a wonderful 3 ½ hours – book sort, post-sale meeting, Virlie’s.

>105 msf59: My goodness, Mark. ICE in the western ‘burbs.

>108 richardderus: Well. Grawlix. A new-to-me word for something I always see. Thank you.

>110 richardderus: Nope, but that shouldn’t surprise you.

*smooch*

>111 karenmarie: Morning, Horrible! Wednesday dawns wet and sticky...headaches abound...it's just a bleeeccchhhy kind of day.

I loved acquiring grawlix from Author Jess! She was gracious enough to retweet my reviews so of course I now think she is eligible for goddesshood.

No on >110 richardderus:? You'll be utterly repelled by >113 richardderus:.

*smooch*

260 A rage to conquer : twelve battles that changed the course of Western history by Michael Walsh

Yuck.

Hi Richard, dear friend, a belated Happy New Thread.

>114 johnsimpson: Hi John! I'm glad to see you here, and I've never turned down a good wish in my life. They're never late.

Belated Happy New Thread! None of the BBs you hit me with (a couple of GNs and the books ones about etymology) are available from the library - neither digital nor brick-and-mortar. I guess I'll just have to put them on my TBR list and try again later.

Glad you had a good time with your sister! Siblings are so important. I hope she decides to move out of TX and close to you. I think it would be good for both of you!

>108 richardderus: >105 msf59: Yes, fuck ICE. My sister and most of her family still live in Chicago, and they say it's ICE that's terrorizing the entire city and suburbs too. And fuck Drumpf too.

>92 richardderus: Why yes, I will be adding that to my TBR list, please and thank you.

>93 richardderus: And that one.

By the way, I think you mentioned to me that Tom Gauld had a new book coming out? I had a sudden email from the local independent bookstore that I had a book ready to pick up and had totally forgotten I pre-ordered it some months ago, so that was a very fun surprise. I picked it up this morning and I will enjoy looking it over soon.

*smooch*

I have The True True Story of Raja the Gullible ( and his Mother) out from the library right now , Richard. I know you really enjoyed it , so I might just get to reading it. I cant' find the touch stone right now, but you know the book I mean, Richard. Ah, lost an " h' from Raja and I have the touchstone. Fussy, fussy, LT.

>116 Storeetllr: I'm sorry they're hard to source, but hope they are worth the search, Mary. I always enjoy my time with V, she's a better person than I am so I need to do more to live up to her standards. ...then felonious yam does something else....

*smooch*

>117 bell7: Oh excellent, Physics for Cats ought to delight and entertain. I *know* Jess ZaFarris will! Those were such great ways to browse one's tedious Tuesday away.

*smooch*

>118 vancouverdeb: I am always bumfuzzled at which letter-drop-offs the database decides to take exception to, as it does not always make sense to me. Good that you got there anyway. I hope it amuses and touches you as it did me!

Yours in solidarity against machine capriciousness

‘Morning, RDear! Happy Thursday to you.

>112 richardderus: I woke up with a headache yesterday, too. Tylenol helped it to go away, as did coffee.

Nope to books about witches and sorcery and etc. Not that I don’t like them, just that not now.

>113 richardderus: Not repelled, because it’s history. Too bad that this particular book is, as you say, tendentious and opinionated.

>117 bell7: I pre-ordered Physics for Cats for my daughter-in-law, who’s now teaching in Washington State. She has her Master’s in Cosmology. Bio daughter said that after she reads it she’ll put it in her office at the college. Yes, it’s true. My bio daughter actually followed her wife to WA instead of staying here in NC with me. What a world, what a world…

Oh, and RD, you’ll be happy to know that you lead the way in my LT wish list account @@kairfa with 160 out of the 456 books cataloged. Wish list books only, of course, kept separate from my cataloged books here. I guess I’m like people who don’t let different foods touch each other on their plate.

*smooch*

>122 karenmarie: A mere 35%...and I should be happy...less than three-quarters and I am an abject failure as a menace to your wallet....

I'm not as statistically minded as I once was and I was never a good accountant, so I track less, and different, data. I've become slovenly about my actually-necessary data management, which is another big part of my attempts to whittle down the unreads. Burning off rage and hatred in my writings is primary, but by going through the wads of notes I'm doing the classic "I'll control this since I can't control reality" dodge.

Is there a greater gift to smart people than the joy of Gauldish humor? Almost makes up for no more Larsen or Watterson humor.

*smooch*

261 Colin gets promoted and dooms the world by Mark Waddell

Via Ace Books, this is a sneaky, mean-spirited piss-take of a story, and all the more fun for it.

Laszlo Krasznahorkhai (I don't care enough to keep fiddling with the touchstone) won the Nobel for literature. I did not get on with Satantango and have zero interest in exploring further anything by or about him.

As a way to celebrate books I *want* to read, The Slip by Lucas Schaefer is the WINNER OF THE 2025 KIRKUS PRIZE for Fiction!

262 Kalivas! Or, Another Tempest by Nick Mamatas

>124 richardderus: Sounds like a great Spooktober read, but I'm on the wait list at the library so will have to wait till November to read it. This happens so often (I so often learn about great horror books which aren't available to read till after October that I'm thinking of continuing my horror reading through the end of the year. TBH, I'd prefer horror to holiday reads anyway.)

>127 Storeetllr: I hope you can source it in time for Halloween, or given The Nightmare Before Christmas' eternal appeal, your lead-up to Yule. I think that is the one big thing Chuckles the Dick got right: 'Tis the season to read about the ghosties and ghoulies!

I'm here and I'm off to dress for my monthly study club meeting. I like the women in the group, and occasionally somebody will give a really good program. The dessert is always yummy.
I'm not reading for scared yet, but I do more and more respect and appreciate The Remembered Soldier. Thank you! *smooch*

>108 richardderus: This is why we love you. No bullshitting around. There are multitudes of brown people here afraid to step outdoors, regardless if they are here legally or not. That is abhorrent!!

I'm thinking we'll skip the World Cup next year. Or maybe go to Canada or Mexico instead.

>129 LizzieD: I'm glad you came by, Peggy me lurve, and am only slightly concerned that the verb "to enjoy" never made an appearance regarding Remembered Soldier.

Enjoy dessertification.

>130 msf59: I am not universally appreciated for my absence of interest in keeping quiet, which makes being congratulated for it all the sweeter. Thanks.

>131 humouress: Were I you, I'd do that very thing.

Catching up here again. I'm so glad you had a wonderful visit with Valerie and that she took care of your footwear. She sounds like a special person. I wish she could live closer to you.

As I am not much for horror, I don't expect you'll get me with any book bullets this month. >113 richardderus: being historical is more along the lines I prefer, but that particular book does not appeal at all, with that take on war and other human ugliness. No doubt I'll pay for it during your annual gift book reviewing, when I'll take multiple hits.

>135 atozgrl: Thanks, Irene! V's very special, as a person, and certainly as a family member who acts like one...and a good one, at that.

Well, much as I'm eager to riddle your wallet with book-shaped holes in #Booksgiving's festival, you *might* like the small-town PNW mysteries I've got comin' up....

263 Hidden Pieces: A Misty Pines Mystery by Mary Keliikoa

264 Deadly Tides : Misty Pines Mystery by Mary Keliikoa

265 Killer Tracks: A Misty Pines Mystery by Mary Keliikoa

‘Morning, RD! Happy Friday to you.

>131 humouress: Oh my, Nina. I didn’t extrapolate from newly-minted fascist government here in the US to people boycotting the World Cup completely or giving their tourist $$ to Canada or Mexico. I’d definitely do the same as you are thinking.

According to duck.ai (eye roll, but it’s useful and I confirmed it on the FIFA website), the 2026 FIFA World Cup will be hosted in several U.S. cities, including Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Kansas City, Miami, New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia, San Francisco/Bay Area, and Seattle. Let’s see – Atlanta, Boston, Los Angeles,New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia, San Francisco/Bay Area, and Seattle will come under attack by ICE and illegally deployed National Guards, with local sheriff departments and cops joining in.

>138 richardderus: Sigh. Ya got me. Kindle version for 99¢. Don’t gloat too much. Second and third ones depending on this one.

*smooch*

>140 karenmarie: I very carefully omitted to mention that price-point, Horrible, expecting that you'd be tempted to look it up...I honestly think this is a read you will not be sorry to leave Les Bois behind for a few hours to savor. You might not want #2 or #3 but this one's representative of the series.

Next up is a gay-themed historical mystery dear to my heart, but destined by authorial demise to remain a singleton.

*smooch*

266 Knock off the hat by Richard Stevenson

Vale Richard Stevenson, 1938-2022. Lambda Literary Award-winner, cranky old survivor, role model for aspiring curmudgeons.

Much belated happy new thread, Richard! I bought the earlier entomology book on your say so and will see if I can get the other through the library.

*smooches*

>143 ronincats: Hiya Roni! Glad to see you here! I'm sure Jess Zafarris will give you value for dollar-ninety-nine spent; I hope the library will get the newer one for you, so you can get a good solid fix of etymological fun.

*smooch*

>136 richardderus: Well, I'm not a big mystery reader either. But they aren't off-putting to me like horror unless they're violent. I just don't go out of my way looking for them. On the other hand, I am tempted by the etymology books.

ETA: And I just ordered a copy of All Things Oz from Thriftbooks yesterday. That's a BB you got me with a while back.

Yep, I happily forked over 99¢ for a good mystery, so I'll eventually end up in Misty Pines with thanks. I'm pretty sure I'll be happier there than in Three Pines.

I do enjoy *Remembered Soldier*, my WBL, but I get tired of saying the word which can mean so many different things.

*smooch* for your Friday and another for your weekend! *smooch*

>145 atozgrl: I'm so glad...Oz does not deserve to be remembered solely for its movie. Enjoy it when you get it, Irene.

Mysteries were once "murder mysteries" to mark them out from the blackmail, espionage, and other criminality pre-Golden Age sleuths solved. Just so happens the reading public voted with its wallets and mystery now = murder. Not always sure I like that but I got no vote.

Thrillers are now the home of anything not murder-only, so no one gets confused and buys a book they're guaranteed not to want.

>146 LizzieD: Misty Pines is not Three Pines by a long chalk, Peggy me lurve.Keliikoa is competent with flashes of excellence but Lousy Louise the Soul-Ripper starts at Keliikoa's best and ascends...until she eviscerates you. I just can't with her.

"Enjoy" is a pretty dulled-down knife, isn't it. "Joy" is a thing I seldom experience these days, but IIRC it's the superlative of "orgasmic." "Enjoy" is now a pallid, all-purpose-flour kind of a thing, I guess. Words do drift, though, so now we need new ones. Boo hoo!

Happy Saturday, Richard. Big day for the Freeburgs and we are blessed with some nice early fall weather too, which is really important since most of this pre-wedding party will be outdoors. We will have a portable fire pit for later, if needed. Wish us luck!!

‘Morning, RDear! Happy Saturday to you.

>142 richardderus: This book didn’t really appeal to me, but the first in the Donald Strachey series did, AND it’s Kindle Unlimited.

>147 richardderus: I solved the problem of determining how to categorize a mystery by tagging all mysteries, thrillers, and suspense as ‘crime fiction’.

*smooch*

267 A Silent Fury: The El Bordo Mine Fire by Yuri Herrera (tr. Lisa Dillman)

Maybe better a novel. Still good, outrageous, and worthy...but....

>149 msf59: Happy Saturday, Mark, and enjoy this lovely time and day!

268 A guardian and a thief by Megha Majumdar

FINALIST FOR THE 2025 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD (the winner announced 19 November 2025). I gave it almost all 5 stars because it's a cli-fi story about real people.

>150 karenmarie: Morning, sweetiedarling! Ice Blues will, I predict, keep you interested. I like the simplicity of your solution for cataloging, it's an exemplary use of terse and succinct reduction to the common origin.

I'm on the bubble about a couple reviews I've got going for Monday so I'm having to re-read bits of them. Slows me down but if I'm about to exile a book to the gang reviews post I need to feel confident I'm doing it fairly. *smooch*

>153 richardderus: - I'm excited to read this one, as I loved A Burning!

Happy weekend, RD.

>155 katiekrug: Happy weekend! I'm so glad you said that about A Burning. I've got it Kindled but somehow never thought to read it.
***
ZOMG

NO GBBO RECAPS!! Katie's visit reminded me...oh heck fire, rotten awful luck, I'll have to rewatch both chocolate and pastry weeks. Pity poo' widdle me.

>153 richardderus: Must get my hands on a copy of that one...I thought A Burning held the promise of much more wonderful writing from this author. And now I'm amazed that I've read something you haven't, RD...excluding stuff you wouldn't touch with gloves on, of course.

>157 laytonwoman3rd: ...you read c-a-t breeding manuals...? I would never have thought that of you, Linda3rd...poetry I'd shudder at but not be shocked by.

You have put *G&T* firmly on my wish list, my WBL. Thank you!

Meanwhile, don't stress yourself too much with rereading to review and getting lost in pastry and chocolate(!!!!)(poor WBL). *smooch*

>159 LizzieD: ...I admit...I thought "where'd Peggy get a gin and tonic from?"

It took longer than I'll ever cop to for me to figure it out, he blushed.

*baaa*

There. There, my WBL. I've begun to wonder seriously whether I might not be somewhere on the Spectrum. I confess to being too lazy to use a post reference or type out the whole title of a book.

>161 LizzieD: I totally get it. *smooch*

269 The fight for free speech : ten cases that define our First Amendment freedoms by Ian Rosenberg

NYU Press' four year old book, yet it could be about century-old norms...we've slid that fast down the authoritarian hill.

270 Fuck Neoliberalism : translating resistance written, edited by Simon Springer

I know, I know, but ignore the "worty dirds" to focus on what needs resisting!

Morning, Richard. The party went very well. The special couple seemed to have a wonderful time and that was our objective. Yah!

I LOVED A Burning, so I am glad to see you rave about her latest A Guardian and a Thief. Sweet!

>165 msf59: I'm really happy for them, Mark, they've made a quart of lemonade outta that lemon they started their lives with.

I've *got* to crack A Burning since I own the damn thing...I really enjoyed A Guardian and a Thief enough to make her a must-read. I hope your library can get one for you soon. It will, I hope and expect, give you those "great-read" chills. Sunday orisons!

‘Morning, RDear! Happy Sunday to you.

>151 richardderus: My sense of outrage over corporate malfeasance started in my late teens and coalesced when I read about Karen Silkwood. My outrage and disgust are centered around the current regime.

>153 richardderus:, >163 richardderus:, >164 richardderus: Enticing reviews, but I’ll pass.

*smooch*

Dropping off weekend smooches with a side of a pie (it's Canadian Thanksgiving after all).

Saw this and thought of you RD.

>167 karenmarie: There's no shortage of outrage fodder, Horrible. We are in a world where the least and the lowest have risen to the top, leading some to think they're cream instead of the reeking, foul scum they are.

Tomorrow ain't lookin' good for my aim at your wallet either....

*smooch*

>168 MickyFine: OOO OOO OOO

Don't much care what it's filled with...no chocolate, of course...I am very happy to get pie! Savory, sweet, non-chocolate pies last only briefly chez moi.

xo

>169 Caroline_McElwee: How fascinating, Caro, is it ceramic or is it wood or what...? Cool-lookin' no matter what, thanks!

>172 richardderus: I think a ceramic RD. glad u enjoyed.

>173 Caroline_McElwee: I very much did!

>169 Caroline_McElwee: WOW!

Hi, Richard! WOW! to you too on general principles. *smooch*

>175 LizzieD: I'm so pleased I merit a "WOW!" from you, Peggy me lurve! *smooch*

'Morning, RDear! Happy Monday! Happy half a box of cookies for brekkie day.

*smooch*

>177 karenmarie: *oink* Happy (dank, eccchhhy) Monday, he crumb-sprayed. *grunt*

*smooch*

271 The zorg a tale of greed and murder that inspired the abolition of slavery by Siddharth Kara

SIDDHARTH KARA'S THE ZORG: A Tale of Greed and Murder That Inspired the Abolition of Slavery comes out tomorrow via St. Martin's Press.

272 COBALT RED: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives by Siddharth Kara

St. Martin's Press published Siddharth Kara's excoriating COBALT RED: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives.

Today's gift from the internet was an interview with "I-thought-he-was-dead" Vincent Virga, author of the midblowingly happy-ending having Gaywyck. A Gothic novel that he plugged on and on trying to sell after Susan Howatch's virulently queerbashing Cashelmara crapped all over us, it was the first all-gay Gothic novel at All, and one of the few novels of the day I know of that has a happy ending for its queers.

In the interview he says one of his guiding principles is articulated by Martha Graham, "Do the work as it is meant to be done, or go home!"

I hadn't heard this until now but it describes how I feel about my own practice.

Good morning, Richard! I'll add to MG's thought, "If you can't do the work as it's meant to be done, stop and find work that you can do!" (That's for everybody promoted a step beyond level of competence.)

I don't know that I can bear either of the Karas; I saw The Zorg hyped elsewhere just in the past few days. Gaywyck, though, sounds like a present possibility!

*smooch* for the day

>182 LizzieD: Oh Gaywyck will gladden your heart, Peggy, though I think the sequels are pretty dire. I'd still love to see the series on streaming because y'all got Bridgerton....

*smooch*

273 The genius bat : the secret life of the only flying mammal by Yossi Yovel

One of the most fascinating creatures gets its literary due from Yossi Yovel via St. Martin's Press.

.....

>185 richardderus: ....

>153 richardderus: I also really enjoyed A Burning , so I will keep an eye out for A guardian and a thief by Megha Majumdar . Thanks for the great review and the heads up.

Morning, Richard. Good Reads is offering a giveaway copy of A Guardian and a Thief but I haven't won one of those damn things in years. I post a shit-ton of reviews over there too. How about throwing me a bone now and then?

The Zorg sounds pretty damn good too, as does The Genius Bat. How you find time to read all these, is pretty impressive.

>190 msf59: You forget: Disabled and mostly bed-bound, I'm not doing anything else very much. And I'm not reviewing the books as I read them. I get better, more honest reviews after time passes and I reread my notes. Occasionally I hit a read that, after rereading the notes, I have to go back through to see if I really think what I said in the notes. sometimes, no; often yes, and also....

I don't really read like normal people do, and never have, hopping around between books. It bewilders most linear people but it keeps me from getting bored. I haven't entered a GR giveaway in years because whatever algorithm they use never landed on me. It's also why I use the review-copy aggregators so much.

Tuesday orisons! It's dank here, so I'm extra happy to be an indoor dog today.

‘Morning, RDear! Happy Tuesday to you.

>179 richardderus: I’ll pass because I just can’t deal.

>180 richardderus: Yes, here we sit. I’ll pass for the same reason as in >179 richardderus:.

>184 richardderus: Tempting. Added to my wish list.

>185 richardderus: Sigh.

*smooch*

>192 karenmarie: The Genius Bat appealed to me as a bat-supporter but do heed the advisory that Israeli cultural norms show up.

Tuesday's damp, cool, and I'm a bit achy, but it's replenishing much-needed water. I wish there was a more even-handed way to do it but whatever gets it into the ground is good.

*smooch*

>191 richardderus: What's a review-copy aggregator then?

How on earth do you keep track of what you're reading? I can usually only manage one at a time (though once or twice I might have had three on the go, due to circumstances) and even then if something is similar I might conflate them.

>193 richardderus: Not quite sure how Israeli cultural norms apply to bats, but whatever.

>194 humouress: A website (edelweiss.plus and NetGalley.com) that collects DRCs and provides review space accessible by trade resale or library buyers for multiple publishers is a review-copy aggregator. Makes it easier for publishers to get their books seen by reviewers, bloggers, store and library buyers, etc which was never easy but as outlets shrink in number gets only harder.

Notes made in templates...being organized...having a lot of time to do this without feeling pushed, rushed, torn...stuff, in other words, I'm lucky and privileged to be able to pursue. I doubt anyone with more external demands on them than I have (next to none) could do it.

They apply to his attitude, not to his research.

>195 richardderus: Ah, my WBL, we are the ones lucky and privileged to have the results of your pursuit. You make a real, very welcome difference in our lives.

As you know, I also read a lot of books at once. I may miss nuances when I don't get back to a book in a timely manner, but I don't see that as being any different from people who watch several continuing drama series on TV without confusing them. I should definitely read more popularized explanations of how our brains work!

*smooch*

>196 LizzieD: Thank you, dear Peggy. I'm happy something good comes out of my efforts. It's always a relief to be able to write, not to mention read, but they're never again going to be taken for granted because I wondered how I was going to get reading back after the strokes.

Popular TV dramas played a big part in it...I don't remember who, but someone told me to practice face recognition by watching a show new to me, and keep track of how hard it was to follow. I just lit on one on my Netflix recommendations...couldn't read the title but it had a cute boy in the thumbnail...called Lockwood & Co., decent but a one season effort to adapt a comic book series so nothing about it was familiar.

I got back my drama muscles pretty fast after some initial confusion. Reading got easier, too, after stretching those muscles.

>197 richardderus: Fascinating into re your recovery. I had no idea something like that could help.

>198 RebaRelishesReading: Me neither, Reba, and don't I wish I could remember who the heck said it to me! It certainly worked. No matter who it was I hope someone besides me will get some good out of it.

>184 richardderus: This is already on my TBR list, as I have had a bat make it into the house of every place I've lived after moving out of my parents' house. (Which reminds me, I did get the fascia fixed and could consider putting in a bat box this spring...)

I typically have 3 books going at once, including a paper book for work and an e-book for before bed. More than that, and I'm having trouble keeping track of it all, fewer and I'm in danger of getting bored.

GBBO THOUGHTS
Week five...chocolate week...for once, possibly the first time, it took place in a reasonable temperature! No hideous heat! (Like 85° is hideous...but this is England after all...maybe they should do chocolate week in Inverness every year?)
As is reasonable and customary, I'll go by who got bounced, who bounced higher, then high-to-low scores as the judges saw fit to record.

Nadia departs in a sad miasma of fucking up. The Signature challenge was to make 6 Chocolate Mousse Cups in two and a half hours...produce highly decorated chocolate cups filled with chocolate mousse with a baked element somewhere. Hers was 'Summer Strawberry' Delight Mousse Cups that included tempered white-chocolate cups, a layer of pistachio-white chocolate crême, a layer of Viennese biscuit crumbs and a white-chocolate dipped Viennese biscuit decorating the top (clever minx! Viennese biscuits crumble when you stare at 'em too long so she wastes no extra time coming up with a decoration!) then all topped with a white-chocolate/strawberry mousse. Her problems got launched as she started fiddling, a fatal flaw. Stick to the plan! Only subtract when you must, and never add or time will vanish. They looked messy, so she got dinged for that; her mousse was a strawberry fool, so she got dinged for that; Prue said it all: "I think everything is just too soft." Ow. The Technical was set by Paul, that demon baker! They had to bake in two and a half hours a white chocolate tart, featuring a buttery shortcrust pastry, and a silky smooth set white chocolate ganache, for which they selected their own ingredients from a huge heaping tableful of blind alleys and with no recipe to guide their choices. She finished last...usually the kiss of death. It was this time, too, poor pastry, clumsy everything and her blackberry fillings weren't good. The Showstopper was a four and a half hour one, to make their own Chocolate Fondue Display, including a highly decorated chocolate centerpiece with an edible dipping pot to hold their chocolate sauce. Nadia's theme was 'Ladies Day' Chocolate Fondue which meant tempered chocolate high heels (only one survived) filled with hazelnut/tiramisu dipping sauce atop a shoebox made of savoiardi biscuits layered with white- and milk-chocolate and almond ganaches, surmounted by a tempered dark-chocolate hat. Nothing worked, it was a catastrophic failure, and on top of last in Technical and no better than midpack on Signature....
Aaron won Star Baker! I'm so pleased for him! Maybe he'll get to the final yet.... his Signature was 'Caramel Tiramoussiato' Mousse Cups, layers of chocolate mousse and coffee-soaked savoy biscuit and caramel topping inside tempered chocolate espresso cups that were capped by white-chocolate molded lids...so cute!...served with pretty almond sablé biscuits shaped like teeny croissants. Prue opened the judging by cooing, "so sweet!" but none of that prevented them both noting that his mousse wasn't properly set. The Technical finish of 3rd was because his thyme-infused white chocolate tart, while in a good pastry shell, was mingy with the filling. His Showstopper fondue theme was a 'Pianola Grande' Chocolate Fondue. The piano sculpture was lovely. Tempered chocolate made into a grand piano! With the lid open in concert position! ::gobsmacked:: It held a cherry chocolate fondue dip, and he made orange-chocolate sablé biscuits shaped like violins as well as five-spice/brazil-nut Florentines to get dipped. Pru loved the florentines.
***
Jasmine, barring some hideous disaster à la Jürgen from s12, will be in the final, callin' it now. Her Signature was Chocolate Praline Mousse Cups with a set hazelnut-chocolate mousse inside tempered chocolate dome shapes that had cores of milk-chocolate/hazelnut butter chilled until just firm. She finished them with a leaf-shaped hazelnut tuile biscuit on top of a hazelnut caramel. (Have you got her overall theme yet?) Came judging time, the only fault they found was the mousse had softened too much. Technical finish in 2nd was really just down to picky flaws the judges went lookin' for, like puttin' an inch of dark-choc ganache on top of her white-chocolate tart in a perfectly crispy crust. I mean, what's a brief for if not to ignore? Her Showstopper was a 'Chocolate Tree' Chocolate Fondue that was really beautifully sculpted, an amaretto-chocolate dip in the tasty biscuit cups holding the tree sculpture up, and little financiers filled half with a raspberry and half with a piece of poached pear, so she finished "high." And got a handshake!
Tom also rode the judge-favored tiramisu train with 'Tiramousoooo' Chocolate Mousse Cups that had coffee-soaked biscotti in the white-chocolate tempered cups he;d barely stained with the dark chocolate, and a normal chocolate mousse topped by a white-chocolate and marsala mousse to fancy it up. Paul offered a handshake...it was that delicious, that well-made (pâtisseries shop worthy!). His Technical 4th-place finish is what did him out of Star Baker; blackberry and basil crême didn't work, and detracted from his very good pastry and elegant presentation. The Showstopper he created was an 'Ocean Scene' Chocolate Fondue which...my dear! Poseidon must've been kvelling over that lighthouse sculpture with the Tentacled American attacking it inside its painted ocean-scene tempered-chocolate collar (we All know how east those are to get to work) holding a sea of white-chocolate/pistachio dipping fondue with a hint of cardamom to dip chocolate profiteroles and lemon madeleines (not humpy enough per Prue). Had he done better on preparation of the bits to dip and a step higher on the Technical, he'd've been Star Baker...but it was lovely.
***
Iain started with 'Kriek Craic' Mousse Cups, making his mousse with both whipped cream and egg whites with gelatine (a chiboust, in other words) inside handsome molded dark-chocolate Belgian beer goblets. His Black-Forest gâteau ::eyeroll:: flavors started with a cherry-flavored Witbier that's apparently very popular there *shudder* made into a gel for topping the mousse and going under a Chantilly froth (served on the side because timing's his big issue). The Gruesome Twosome were quite complimentary about flavors (duh) and the adorbs goblets. His Technical finish in 7th was, obvs, next-to-last because the puir wee laddie broke his (not-well-made) crust getting it onto the display stand. The Showstopper, 'Glenariff Park' Chocolate Fondue, saw him into plain ol' Safe finish with a nice tree sculpture atop a cliff ("straight out of Lord of the Rings" said Paul) with biscuit stairs up the side. Nice...not excellent to me.
Lesley's never been anywhere but safe because she's blandly competent. The 'Tiramisu' Mousse Cups were in dark tempered chocolate cups with mascarpone cream under chocolate mousse with coffee liqueur and topped with walnut praline and a sponge-style biscuit for baked element, basically a bastard madeleine (sorry M. Proust) them all topped with a whipped white chocolate ganache AND a slice of caramelized banana. Bit try-hard, don't you know. Judging was more about how little actual mousse there was in that wall of ingredients than anything else. Her Technical finish in 1st was truly well-earned. The lemon-thyme curdle she added to the ganache was excellent (Prue said it was a key-lime pie, which...fair) and her crust was too. That Showstopper, 'Death by Chocolate' Chocolate Fondue, was Safe because it was safe-looking, nice sculptural idea executed uninterestingly..."simple, but effective" per Paul. She clutters up our screens another week.
Nataliia made a Signature called 'Granny’s Garden' Mousse Cups, shades of s14 Josh Smalley and his smarmy Granny-luuuv... filled with a summer-berry Ukrainian jam-cum-compote in cute white-chocolate mugs filled with dark-chocolate mousse layered with amaretto joconde sponge as well as compote, and decorated with swishes of chocolate-chocolate on the sides and cute little handles. The flavors: Da! The setting of the mousse: Nyet! Her Technical got her 6th for a too-thick crust under pistachio-lemon curd, passion-fruit mousse, and her white chocolate ganache was made with cream cheese, as well. (I want to try that to frost a carrot cake.) The Showstopper was 'Last Day of Pompeii' Chocolate Fondue and I think it saved her. The construction of Mt Vesuvius was greatly the lava/fondue dipping sauce was white chocolate and raspberry; it poured well, it looked good, it was all edible, from choux buns filled with the curd to the black cocoa powder cake with mango-passion fruit curd.
***
Toby is our lone "Low" rated baker, like Iain was last week. His Signature Chocolate Orange Mousse Cups are shaped like oranges, the tempered chocolate covered in orange color, filled with a chocolate-orange mousse, an orange gel, and an orange-liqueur soaked Earl Grey flavored genoise. That sounds sooo good! Sadly he made the tempered shapes too tick first time through, then (predictably) too thin for presentation. Very sad for him. Paul said his flavors were excellent; Prue, known for being picky about tea-flavored sponges being too blah, praised his (liqueur-soaked) genoîse. In Technical he was 5th for a whipped white-chocolate ganache with a lime and passion fruit curd inside a rubbery, overworked pastry shell decorated with poorly-tempered milk chocolate doodads. The Showstopper he made was themed 'Campsite Delight' Chocolate Fondue because he realized he needed the finished display to be 30cm/a foot tall. Stop a dark-chocolate camping stove, a chocolate genoîse stand atop which sits a tempered white-chocolate colored grey cooking pot filled with his amaretto-pistachio fondue dip for homemade graham crackers (whereinahell'd he find graham flour in England?! It's hard enough here!), marshmallow logs, and churros...none finished to a high standard. He reflected that the showstopper made him feel a little bit out of his depth...I hope he channels s11 Dave Friday and uses that feeling to rev up his game for next week.
Please tell me where I (or the gorram-reaver jumped-up spell checker!!) misspelled anything. I'm cross-eyed!

>200 bell7: It's always a balancing act. You've got the balance!

I'm gonna say this is your hint that bats are your spirit animal. Good one to have, can find its way any time of day, always eats well...lucky you. (Mine's a hornet.) Put in that bat house!

>196 LizzieD: Peggy is right, we do get a lot out of your reading and reviewing, and we are the ones privileged to take advantage of it.

I mostly don't like reading multiple books at once, unless one of them is something like a collection of articles/essays/etc. or some kind of coffee table type book. For most things, I want to concentrate on the story I'm reading or nonfiction topic in my current book. In general it's too distracting for me to try to concentrate on more than one at a time.

>202 richardderus: You're very kind, Irene, thanks! I'm the opposite in my concentration only improves if I can take things in chunks, with no real continuity between genres.

>188 vancouverdeb: I think you missed me up there, Richard. I'm also impressed by how you and others can read more than one book at a time. I am currently reading / listening to a book, and I thought I could read another book at the same time, - one non - fiction and the other fiction, but not so , so far. A simple, linear mind here.

"I don't really read like normal people do, and never have, hopping around between books." That is amazing you can do that. I rarely have 2 print books going, not counting GNs or poetry. What are "review-copy aggregators"?

>205 vancouverdeb: I did indeed, I'm sorry for that. Linear works better for most stuff, for most people, and keeping it simple's a skill I envy! I'm just not wired like that for some things, like reading. Dunno why.

>206 msf59: Most people don't, I'm the weird one out! Netgalley's one of them, where we get our DRCs.

‘Morning, RDear! Happy Wednesday.

>193 richardderus: I always think of bats as Mr. Bat, which is what Bill and Jenna called the bats they saw when she was little, or as Stellaluna.

*smooch*

274 The mystery of Henri Pick by David Foenkinos (tr. Sam Taylor)

Catch up on *fun* #Deathtober reads. Starting with this story by French popular writer DAVID FOENKINOS & translated by Sam Taylor via Pushkin Press. There's a 2019 film, too, on Prime Video.

>209 karenmarie: Morning, sweetiedarling. Mr. Bat sounds better than Mr. Beast to me. I hope we'll All unite behind bat-caring structural changes as climate change makes a more skeeterful world.

Stay well, smoochling.

275 The Paradox Hotel : a novel by Rob Hart

"The Warehouse" scribe ROB HART via Ballantine Books, brought us a rollicking good time-travel story. It's a really fun way to spend a day.

>113 richardderus: Ouch! Pass for me.

Happy mid week, Richard!

>197 richardderus:
Lockwood & Co was a young adult (I would say middle grades reading level) series written by Jonathan Stroud. The series is in the steampunk/urban fantasy genre. It was fairly popular back in the day when I was a librarian and kept my eye on how often something was checked out. By middle grades I mean grades 5 -8. Our Children's Literature specialist thought they were well done and encouraged student teachers in those grade levels to use them. Since they were set in London and written by a British author there were some translation difficulties.

I read multiple books at the same time. Usually about 3. One recorded book, and then I have one I carry around with me. That one is usually some kind of smaller print format mystery that is easy to pick up and put down, but sometimes essays. I have a book I keep on the dining room table where I eat. I have one in the living room and one in the bedroom. I don't have much of a problem keeping up with the plotlines, unless it is a series and it has been a couple of years since I read the previous book in the series. When that happens, I usually lose some of the plotline to the intervening years.

>213 figsfromthistle: An excellent, mood-preserving decision, Anita. I think this author's attitude is entirely present enough in the world without giving him more attention than we already have.

>214 benitastrnad: Interesting! I assume they were illustrated in some way? I myownself think the UKness of a lot of word choices is a good thing for US kids to encounter, ponder, and question. If the series is still going, I'll look it up, thanks.

>215 benitastrnad: I'm guessing a lot more do this without reflecting much on it, by listening to one book while reading...at different times...a text book either on a screen or not.

Anyone who can follow several TV shows well enough to get by on their plots can do it with books as well. Most people think reading is hard, so they treat it (mostly without reflection) as though it is. I'm not the best at keeping up with TV stories because I get bored unless there are naked men (ETA or food!) on screen when I find my attention...engaged. All too seldom does that happen.

>212 richardderus: Oh! Hey! I scored an audio from the library! I didn't think I would.

I sometimes read more than one book at a time, usually when none of the books have quite hooked me, so I end up going back and forth. I used to read more than one book at a time when I was able to read actual physical books. Then I'd have a couple of them open plus an audiobook. Now thanks to my wonky eyes it's mostly only audiobooks I juggle.

Old Stuff fell multiple times during his drunk last night. It wears on me. A very kind woman hunted him up this morning and said, "My sister who helped you up on the street yesterday wanted me to come check on you, be sure you're okay," while he stood there gracelessly and stared at her standing in the doorway.

Then, getting dressed this morning, my last-night's laundry return was in my proper bag but was not, not a single item, a piece of my clothing. So no clean pants for me; no clean shirts or trousers, pillowcases, towels...I don't remember what was in that load but it's gone forever now. I'm inconvenienced and annoyed, but whoever got the bag with mine is, based on the condition of the rags inside the load I got, in serious trouble.

Of course the PTB did not want to hear about it, they take no responsibility for anything like this in any way. I stood in front of the manager responsible for the laundry and physically blocked him from walking away from me, put the bag in his hands and said, "does that bra look like it will fit me? How about these itty-bitty socks? Yes, it's my writing on the bag; no they're not my clothes, and now I've got no clean pants so I guess I go commando until you fix it."

He was really unhappy but so bloody what. Do your job.

>219 Storeetllr: It makes sense, Mary, that you'd sometimes have issues connecting with a story if the reader just isn't doing it for you. I'm very glad you got the audio of >212 richardderus: so fast!

Stay warm and dry, dear lady.

>220 richardderus: Oh, ffs. That shouldn't happen, and how annoying to lose your stuff, but the attitude of the manager is infuriating. I'm glad you held firm, and I hope they recompense you for your clothes and linens that they lost.

>220 richardderus: Hoping you get your clothes back safe, sound and clean.

>223 humouress:, >222 Storeetllr: No, those items (whatever they were, I don't honestly remember) are gone forever.

No one in this place ever takes accountability because it will cost money...they lost a mug Roni sent me, and basically said. "so? it probably wasn't worth much. And we have no obligation to you."

If that's what happens with a *verified*USPS*delivery what's the odds they'll take responsibility for old clothes? I'm only inconvenienced on a practical level but more just appalled that these people could not possibly care less about us as anything but profit centers or potential liabilities.

Capitalism sucks.

>224 richardderus: Ah.

Sadness.

>225 humouress: The natural result of living in end-stage capitalism is, I grow more and more convinced, sadness. Or maybe that's just getting old.

GBBO THOUGHTS
Episode 6: Pastry
The sixth episode is Pastry Week. For the Signature challenge, the bakers were given two and a half hours to produce a savory pastry (of their choice) plait with a savory filling in the savory pastry. For the Technical challenge, set by Paul, the bakers were asked to bake in two and a half hours a gala pie (pork pie, hard-boiled egg, hot-water crust pastry) with piccalilli (also called mustard pickle; in the US mostly marketed as "hot dog relish"). Paul said that, for the recipe to work, the bakers needed to be neat and precise. For the Showstopper challenge, the bakers were given four hours to make their own visually stunning sculpted tart.
Nataliia's Signature was called 'Kyiv in a Crust' Savoury Plait. It was based on a Ukrainian national dish you might've heard of called "Chicken kiev." So it was filled with chicken, bacon, garlic butter, a few spears of asparagus. Prue and Paul each said it sounded good, Prue even commenting it sounded like an improvement on the original. The trouble began when Paul cut it and the dam burst...underbaked...the piece he tried to serve Prue fell apart on the way to her plate. Too much butter and not enough baking time meant we got the soggy bottom trotted out. Her Technical finish in 5th was surprising but fair...she decorated well enough...but no vent holes left the bottom really really soggy. The "showstopper she made was called 'Swan Sculpted Tart' that looked great! but... That's how she got Eliminated this week. A pistachio-praline ganache on a raspberry filling with crême diplomat on top; nothing wrong there, both liked it. Prue felt it was too raspberry-forward so overwhelmingly sweet; Paul and Prue criticized the crust for being thick *and* overworked. In Pastry Week.
Jasmine got Star Baker! Her Signature was called 'Aunt Pom's Sausage Roll' Savory Plait made like her Auntie's pantry-clearing sausage roll. Starting with pork sausage in rough-puff pastry, she added leeks, apples, thyme, and smoked paprika then coated the meaty part in breadcrumbs to soak up moisture! The little genius. (Are you drooling as much as I am?) Prue didn't want to stop eating it; Paul said it was very neat (it was) and had well-balanced flavors. The Technical 1st place finish was down to her assembly skills...no unforced errors here. Then came her Showstopper, called 'The Orchard' Sculpted Tart, a lovely open-work sculpted tree with chocolate crumbly dirt under it atop a chocolate frangipane tart that had poached pears running through it. Paul said it looked like it could be from a pâtisserie, and happen I agree, but because the filling was so rich it needed a layer of curd or crême to make it perfect. She deserved the win.
***
Lesley was rated High...alone among the bakers...by the judges this week. Blow me down and call me Shorty. Her Signature, 'Dad's Favorite' Savory Plait, started with caramelized onion, mushrooms, and sausage meat inside rough-puff adding dried cranberries for a *zing* then amplified that by putting a gooseberry compote in the middle of the meat! It's All based on Paul Hollywood's cookbook recipe but with her own touches. He praised everything about it only wishing the pastry was a bit *thicker* if you can imagine! Prue singled out the gooseberry compote layer as a bit of genius because it lifted the flavors. In Technical she finished 3rd because, despite being neat and well-enough baked, she gave the filling no vent-hole so it blew up a big gap inside the lid above the filling. Then the Showstopper, predictably called 'Mabel's Bumblebee' Sculpted Tart, was the usual too-much decor that looked slapped together to me. Prue thought the cookies decorated with bees were cute, and Paul praised its 3D qualities, which...fair, and the pecan pie filling with a honey glaze (I need a dentist now) got Prue to say it was amazingly not TOO sweet.
***
Iain starts the Safe bakers...the Signature was called 'Irish Stew-sage Roll' Savory Plait with no meat, but with tofu, as well as potatoes and broccoli, and wasn't Paul's face a picture. He 3/4 seriously walked away to express his disdain. The plait was rough-puff and shaped like a Claddagh ring. Came the moment...Paul said it was an uneven bake, a good design, and a really dull filling. Better than the roasting I thought Iain would get! Alison, subversively, praised him to the skies. Technical finish in 2nd was down to the way he crimped and decorated the pie, one side okay the others a hot mess. The Showstopper was a 'Giant's Causeway' Sculpted Tart looked, again, very Lord of the Rings-y. Pecan and walnut tart with whisky Chantilly cream in blue on top, unfortunately had too much booze for Prue(!!) and Paul said it looked great but he couldn't taste anything but booze.
Toby made a 'Sivell Place' Savory Plait as his Signature...in full-puff pastry no less! Filled with chicken, bacon, leeks, and cheddar cheese in crême fraiche; Paul told him outright that he could not make full-puff successfully in the time, so of course arrived ready to cavil...too few layers...but also praise, a strong color. Came with a compliment from Prue, too, on the taste of his filling (Paul thought it would get boring fast). In Technical a 4th-place finish was not right to my eyes...is salty-tasting pork pie a crime?!...and the pastry wasn't thicker than expected in hot-water-crust land. Oh well. The Showstopper was a 'Rollercoast-tart' Sculpted Tart that didn't rollercoast. (He thought they had 4.5hrs not just 4; assembly was rushed.) Burnt honey custard in an "exceptional" shortcrust pastry (per Paul) with a blackberry reduction, and topped by mascarpone Chantilly cream. *sluuurp* Both praised him for how neat the sculpture was despite it not being stable, and Prue added that All the flavors and the textures were excellent.
Tom being only Safe this week! Wow! His Signature was 'Hong Kong Sausage Roll' Savory Plait that had bright-red rough-puff pastry from adding coloring and a touch of chili oil. His pork sausage had crispy chili flakes and a fermented soy sauce to be sure it was truly Asian in flavor profile. Then to whack you even harder, he sculpted it to look like a severed dragon's tail. (Bit try-hard, old man.) His plaiting resulted in a tear, which you *know* was dinged against him. It was Paul's criticism, going after the too-moist filling (tasted good, though) making his not-great pastry too wet. No soggy bottom talk for once. In a disaster Technical he was 6th...next to last, because it was messy looking and he failed to vent the filling...floods of liquid. His Showstopper, 'Risalamande' Sculpted Tart, was a shortbread game atop red-tinted shortcrust pastry tart filled with the fancy Danish almond-studded (puffed) ricey puds made with Chantilly cream, sugar, and vanilla on a cherry compote. They thought it looked and tasted lovely, and Paul found the whole almond in his slice that meant he "won the game" whatever that meant.
***
Aaron, for the first time, trails the pack with the sole Low rating! A 'Jamaican Beef Patty' Savory Plait as his Signature was filled with beef seasoned with allspice and Jamaican curry powder, scotch bonnets (!!), and served alongside a pineapple-scotch bonnet jam in rough-puff pastry. I thought Alison was going to propose to him. They both complimented his pastry and plaiting, and flavors (!!); it was only dinged for being a bit underbaked. Each of them claimed pieces for their lunch, in fact! It started to come unstuck in the Technical—he was 7th...dead last... and for good reason. "Neat and precise," Paul said. Nope. At least his was judged first, so no waiting for the sentence to be passed. His Showstopper was a 'No One Gnomes' Sculpted Tart that, unfortunately, kept having sculpted gnomes break. It was not a beautiful sight. A jasmine (extract) custard tart with ginger and a peach gel on top forming the lake the gnome was crossing failed on flavors as no one ever seems to learn that the judges hate fake flavors! Paul said it wasn't unpleasant (there's something you don't want to hear in a competition), but he couldn't taste the ginger at All. Ginger. Could not taste. ::gobsmacked::
Again, any gorram-reaver spell checker crap I missed cleaning up, please tell me!

>217 richardderus:
They are chapter books. No illustrations. The ALA says that children's books are for ages birth to 14. That is roughly birth to 8th grade. Young Adult books are for ages 12 - 18. That is grades 7-12. This is based on content and vocabulary. However, ALA lets the publishers decide how to classify children's and YA books. That means that publishers put them wherever they think they will sell the best. Hence, you get Sarah J. Maas Court of Thorns and Roses series books published as YA novels when they should have been published and sold as adult novels because of the sexual content. No high school library is going to have those on their shelves in this day and age. Or if they do, they will be circulated only with parental permission.

To be fair to the publishers, I doubt that series would have been the hit it is if they had been sold as adult novels. They would have simpily gotten lost in the romantasy crowd.

So sorry about the laundry snafu, Richard, and the managerial f-u that followed. Institutional living gives me the shivers...

Maybe this will compensate, in honor of Pastry Week...not my creation, and I don't know what exactly is under that pastry (blueberries? cherries? concord grapes?)...so we'll just call this Octopie

>229 laytonwoman3rd: Mmm? That has Cthulhu vibes.

>227 richardderus: Still haven’t managed to get my GBBO. My local techie (ie younger son) isn’t cooperating. So I binged a few episodes of last year’s last weekend since I caught the first few episodes when they originally aired in the UK when I was there but missed the last ones because I wasn’t in Singapore when they finally aired them here.

What a day Richard. Old stuff drunk and the mess up with your laundry. And you'll never get any of the back. So wrong. Beyond frustrating. Sorry, Richard.

>220 richardderus: WTF?? This really sucks, RD. I hope they can track your stuff down, although it sounds like they don't give a crap. What a hassle.

‘Morning, RDear! Happy Thursday to you.

>220 richardderus: I’m so sorry you didn’t get your laundry back. Glad that you confronted the manager and vented your spleen. I hope he got a disturbing visual of you going commando.

When Louise had her husband Harold in a memory unit the last year of his life, his clothes got co-opted by other patients, stolen by staff, put in wrong laundry bags. She refused to buy him WalMart stuff, so it was all good quality and brand items that were missing.

>224 richardderus: Silly me, but although I personally am not religious (spiritual yes, but not religious), I hold those who profess faith to the standards of their faith. Profit over moral and ethical actions is repugnant.

>226 richardderus: End-stage capitalism. Sad, and true.

I hope your lemon/ginger tisane helped and that you’re feeling better today. I’m off to my GP’s office in an hour re the sore throat. Temp back at 99F this a.m. Sigh.

*smooch*

>228 benitastrnad: Morning, Benita! I'm pretty sure the reason the series failed on Netflix is they tried to do it without enough publicity, since the books are still doing okay. Romantasy is a juggernaut and lesser doses of it are failing to win the huge audiences that "the market" (the greedy fucks in suits who demand their vig, in other words) expects.

>229 laytonwoman3rd: Thanks, Linda3rd! I myownself see black olives under that spiffy Tentacled American....

>230 humouress: Does, doesn't it? Given *gestures* Things, that's not at all an unlikely resemblance. We're being prepared for the Elder Gods' return.

Cut off his allowance until you're caught up with GBBO, then. Money has a way of motivating stroppy teens.

>231 vancouverdeb: He's drunk minimum twice a week, whenever the shopper bus goes to the liquor store. More often if I don't find the bottles he hides and pour 'em out. It's the complete absence of a sense that they, who choose the provider, should exert any control over the said provider to smarten up their service that makes me angry. It's All on me, the least able to afford it, to cope with the provider (once again, not chosen by me) doing shit wrong. I get mildewed laundry constantly, because they don't dry it All the way to save money, then fold it wet and, despite the itching this causes me, there's bugger-all I can do about it.

>232 msf59: They can't track it down among the 200+ loads of laundry sent from here twice a week, but even assuming they could, they wouldn't. After all, it was in my laundry bag...so goddesses only know who got my actual laundry.

>233 karenmarie: Thanks, Horrible. Profits over people is repugnant and pervasive in this world of greed's apotheosis. Ethics be damned, morals not even a memory.

My tisane intake has kept my throat mostly clear and my schnozz largely controllable. I'd prefer not to have the gorram-reaver cold but, well, hundreds of people whose air I breathe in close quarters...and I'll still take it over your 99°! It's chilly here, upper 40s on the way to 58°, and that suits me fine thenkewveddymahch. I'll go flap my arms southwestward, see if any coolth can be persuaded down your way. *smooch*

>236 richardderus: Hmm ...

>240 humouress: Precisely.

276 Zone Rouge by Michael Jerome Plunkett

The Unnamed Press (yes, that's their name these past ten-plus years) brought this sisyphus-meets-All Quiet on the Western Front tale of a real place and a terrible, ongoing problem.

277 Tequila: A Story of Success, Love & Violence by Tim Reuben

A self-published novel that's a better story than a novel; but compelling stories make for enjoyable reads.

Oh dear, WBL. Yesterday sounds like a true nightmare with kicks in the teeth. I don't know what to be sorrier about - your laundry or your cold or the general tattiness of the staff at your place of residence. If you put notices up on bulletin boards in case somebody actually wanted her laundry back, would anybody read them?

>197 richardderus: I come over here and read every day but have to run off before I respond. I applaud the idea of your practicing and building yourself up after the strokes with TV. It worked!!!!! You also supplied a possible explanation of one point in my mama's extreme aging that puzzled me. Over her last couple of years, she lost the ability to track what she read or to follow the plots on TV shows. She enjoyed watching the same sitcoms (Andy Griffith, Ray Romano) over and over, so I was grateful for MeTV! Otoh, she also enjoyed watching *Downton Abbey* episodes. I never understood that. She couldn't crack the English accents, so she often didn't know what was going on, but she had watched the whole thing several times as our PBS station reran the series, so she recognized the faces. Maybe.

I'm off to inquire about Paradox Hotel. Sounds like it may have been built right on my alley.

I wish you a MUCH better day today! *smooch*

>224 richardderus:, etc. Gad!! How awful!!! It stinks that you have to deal with this!!!

>220 richardderus: What a terrible situation, Richard. I hate to hear that you have to deal with all of that. Awful roommate, awful laundry service. I sure wish there was something they could do about the missing laundry. They should at minimum recompense you for the lost items.

>239 richardderus: I think Karen was referring to her fever returning. It's going to be 70F here today, not 99.

BURGOINE #075

Atlas of unknowable things by McCormick Templeman

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Perfect for fans of The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, with a modern gothic twist.

High in the Rocky Mountains on a secluded campus, sits Hildegard College, a celebrated institution known for its scientific innovation and its sprawling, botanical gardens. Historian Robin Quain has been awarded a residency to examine Hildegard’s impressive collection of ancient manuscripts, but she has a secret. She’s actually on the hunt for an artifact—one she must find before her former best friend turned professional rival gets his hands on it first.

But Hildegard has secrets of its own. Strange sounds echo across the alpine lake, lights flicker through the pines, and the faculty seem more like Jazz-age glitterati than academics. And then there’s the professor who holds the key to Robin’s research. She vanished suddenly last spring. What exactly did she do at the college, and why does no one want to talk about her?

As Robin searches for answers, an unknown source sends her a series of cryptic messages that makes her question whether she’s the one doing the hunting, or whether someone is hunting her. Drawing on historical, botanical, and occult research, and steeped in the gothic tradition, Atlas of Unknowable Things considers what it means to search for meaning in the scientific, only to come face to face with the sublime.

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

My Review: First, read this:

I began to understand. I had stepped through a veil of sorts. Hildegard wasn’t like other places. There were rules here I didn’t understand. There were puzzles and clues and mysteries, and even though I felt an almost immediate and palpable sense of danger, some part of me was excited. I’d spent my entire life waiting for something to feel real, to feel important. I’d always wanted to feel at the center of something truly grand. And though I couldn’t say definitively that what was happening to me was necessarily grand, at least it was something.

This is why the book only gets three and a half stars. Everything Robin, our PoV character, says here is exactly what I was thinking.

From beginning to end. That, my olds, is not great in a gothic story that's trading on dark academia vibes. If I'm *still* not clear on why I, or anyone else, follows her or allows her the access to the things she just...waltzes in and takes stuff...she has no right to, it'll take a lot more than a parade of only vaguely connected references meant to ground me. I'm afraid I never got invested enough to care.

St. Martin's Press (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link) asks $14.99 for the ebook. Read a sample first.

>245 RebaRelishesReading: Thanks, Reba, I'm glad to have the support for my feeling awful. It means it's not in my head alone!

>246 atozgrl: Oh. That makes a lot more sense, thanks Irene. I've lived with this reeking addict for longer than anyone except my mother. I like living with someone not at all, and never have.

‘Morning, RDear! I hope today finds you feeling better.

>242 richardderus: I’m surprised that I’ve never heard of Zone Rouge. I won’t read this novel, but will continue to educate myself about the real Zone Rouge.

>243 richardderus: Pass, but reluctantly.

>247 richardderus: I read The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle in 2020 and gave it 3.5 stars. It’s always interesting to contemplate what I want to read more of vs. what I consider derivative and not worth, as you put it, the eyeblinks. I’ll pass on this one.

>249 richardderus: Ah, I should have said “my temperature of 99F", sorry for the confusion. Wow. Not a good record to have, years spent living with the reeking addict.

*smooch*

>250 karenmarie: Morning, sweetiedarling. I'm sure you're right not to read >242 richardderus: because it's very outside your taste parameters, but the real Zone Rouge is *fascinating* and really repays some research time.

>247 richardderus: was competent. If I can damn something with faint praise, that's what I'll do, because "dark academia" and "gothic" are labels to conjure with therefore excuse so many simple failures of logic.

I've been forced by the greed of the capitalist system to essentially marry and care for a person I despise. It's a lot like what women had to go through in days gone by (so I want to believe) and it stinks as much as he does.

>244 LizzieD: I think you missed me, Richard. Actually, you could skip the unsolicited advice. As I tell Karen and Stasia, if I can think of it, I'm sure they have already done so. I just make myself feel as though I'm participating and supporting. Same to you!

I did get *P.Hotel* but will have to leave *Zone R* alone for now. *smooch* for the weekend!

>252 LizzieD: I did indeed, Peggy me lurve. I'm pleading cold misery for that. Participation and support really help when I'm as physically and emotionally worn to a frazzle.

I think you might resonate to Zone Rouge but I won't shove it at you. Enjoy Paradox Hotel when you get to it. *smooch*

Peace and rest, friend and WBL!

>220 richardderus: Wow! Sounds like a lot on annoying crap that really shouldn't happen. I am sorry you have to deal with "old stuff". Too bad you can't get him evicted.

I hope that you will receive some kind of compensation from the laundry mix up so you can replace the clothes you lost.

GBBO THOUGHTS

Episode 7: Meringue (I hate meringue and feel crappy so this'll be a short one)
The seventh episode is Meringue Week (UGH). For the Signature challenge, the bakers were given two hours to produce 12 Mini Meringue Pies with a Meringue topping (no one used Prue's preferred baked method just blowtorched their meringue). For the Technical challenge, set by Paul, the bakers were asked to bake some perfectly risen raspberry soufflés in a staggered start and finish time, that baker-scaring bully! For the Showstopper challenge, the bakers were given four and a half hours to make their own beautifully decorated "Vacherin Glacé" with a Meringue shell and ice cream (or as most people call it baked alaska *shudder*). Seasoned viewers will instantly flash back ten seasons to Bingate.
Lesley finally bounced! I am so pleased. No more tedious, predictable flavors and just-good-enough execution. Her Signature was Lemon & Raspberry Meringue Pies that A Technical finish dead-last...6th...wasn't great because she understood nothing about soufflés. I think most people don't really know more than her. Then the Showstopper, 'Wedding Cake' Vacherin Glacé, came unstuck as her swiss meringue ingredien proportions were backwards and thus had to be remade with too little time to do it properly. She was Eliminated because, every challenge, her meringue skills were terrible. They really liked the flavors! But it's meringue week.
Toby, god bless him!, won Star Baker because he really performed in every challenge. The Signature, 'Apple Lattice' Meringue Pies, were creative, mixing it up with apple-pie filling in pâthe brisé crust, topped with walnut praline, then piped meringue blowtorched on All the little pies. It looked excellent, it tasted good. His Technical finish in 3rd was adequate. The Showstopper found him riffing on piña colada flavors with a 'Mango Tree' Vacherin Glacé...lots of meringue sculptural work covering a mango sorbet, coconut ice cream and macerated mangos with a salted caramel whipped cream. Paul loved it and commented it would only be better if they ate it up to their nipples in a hot tub. 0.o
***
Jasmine was our sole "High" rated baker this week. Her Raspberry & Passion Fruit Meringue Pies Signature The 4th in Technical was merited but really, who in today's world *makes* soufflé? If you want it, go to a restaurant. Her Showstopper 'Scallop Shell' Vacherin Glacé was meringue scallop shells coated inside with white chocolate (clever puss, no sogging up!) filled with pistachio, straciatella, and strawberry icecreams and earned coos of delight. Her top scallop shell cracked badly, yet got little mention.
***
Aaron, once more, was Safe. His Signature 'Almost Mont Blanc' Meringue Pies were cute ellipses filled with chestnut crême and blackcurrant compote. They went over a storm. A Technical finish in 2nd should've made him "High" but, well....The elegant Showstopper, 'Kitsune Sundae' Vacherin Glacé was a beautiful all-white fantasia of the legendary nine-tailed fox that looked glorious! They noted *his* cracked meringues...not Jasmine's...and found the sorbets too tart.
Tom clearly did the same research as Iain. His Signature was Rhubarb & Strawberry Meringue Pies that had the single least successful meringue in the Signature, slickysticky globs that caused Prue to shudder and try to avoid eating. Even the years people served her British baked beans, which she hates, I've never seen her try not to eat at least a little...so why was Tom only Safe, not Low? His Technical finish in 5th was at least as bad as Lesley's....The Showstopper, 'Family Forage' Vacherin Glacé, was shaped like a mushroom and honestly the espresso italian meringue mushroom head looked excellent, though the rest was pretty...mid. Banana cake, banana ice cream, and cinnamon ice cream. Nothing mind blowing but none of it fought with itself, and the blowtorched espresso meringue even won Prue's praise.
***
Iain landed "Low" again...I didn't really get why Tom wasn't down there with him. The Signature of 'Lucky Rhubarb' Meringue Pies were made on his analysis that, pver 15 seasons, no one who's used rhubarb in a bake has ever gone home. His 1st in Technical came after he was in the scariest position: The first baker up! Harking back to s5 Iain, also from Belfast, his Showstopper was 'Bingate Redemption' Vacherin Glacé made with Iain Watters' flavors (dark chocolate ice cream, black sesame praline, espresso sorbet) and served in a meringue sculpture of a bin! Sadly, Paul did not like any of it, and played up to the gag by addressing Iain Watters with a "sorry mate, don't like it."
The quarterfinals are Dessert week's horrors.

>254 LizzieD: I'm tryin'...I did watch GBBO. Best I could manage...I found Wayne and told him I just can't, and he offered to escort me downstairs as I apparently look like Death eating a cracker. I'm off to nap more.

>255 figsfromthistle: I so completely agree, Anita. I'm not getting anything, so I'm not expecting it, and Old Stuff's here to stay for the same reason I am: NY State tenancy law. *sigh*

Glad I revisited and found >164 richardderus: RD.

>259 Caroline_McElwee: It's a big discovery, Caro. Enjoy it!

I sympathize with you about the lauundry problems. We had the same problem with my mother's laundry when she was in an elder care facility. Everytime she came home her things would be gone from her laundry bag. My cousins finally started doing their mother's laundry themselves because missing laundry was a problem. In my case, each time when mom came home we would have to purchase new clothes for her becauase hers had disappeared. We had all of her laundry clearly marked with sewn in labels in some cases, but it didn't help. All I had to say was thank goodness for Land's End sales. Good stuff for on the cheap and free delivery.

‘Morning, RDear. Happy Saturday to you.

>258 richardderus: ☹

*smooch*

Dropping off weekend smooches and hoping you're feeling more the thing.

>261 benitastrnad: There's no way laundry will ever be perfect. I'm lucky in that I've stocked up on shirts and underpants. V gave me two new hoodies that've vanished along with a pair of trousers. It really doesn't impact me anything like as much as most here. Doesn't make it okay, but it gives me perspective to tut at the larger picture of management's irresponsibility instead of just my personal loss.

>262 karenmarie: *smooch*

>263 MickyFine: Fever's down, I'm coughing less, but I still feel like crap. *smooch*

Sorry you're sick, RD. A lot of it around, it seems.

Not to beat a dead horse, as you've indicated your lost laundry is also a lost cause...but where my MIL resides, every item is individually marked, as well as being turned over in a bag marked with her name and room #. Some items inevitably still go astray, but not en masse. *Sigh* Some aspects of living just plain suck, eh?

I'm glad for signs of improvement, my WBL. If you can continue (?) to get some rest, I'll hope that you're feeling better by the end of the day so that you can get some decent sleep tonight. I would want good hot soup, so I hope you get some or whatever it is that will be a comfort.

Take care! *smooch*

>264 richardderus: Two brand-new hoodies from your sister gone!!! That's extra painful I would think.

Sorry you're still ailing. Hope it goes away soon.

>267 laytonwoman3rd: Greed and carelessness, for example, Linda3rd. When my bag comes back filled with someone else's laundry, it's clearly not anyone here doing something untoward. That's most likely to happen at the laundry facility because no one here has any reason to monkey around with my stuff. Not to mention where'd they get the bra and the socks?

>268 LizzieD: *smooch*

I'm waiting for my eyes to stop protruding from my skull and dripping on everything. I've reached the point I just don't care about food, usually a sign I'm recovering soon.

>269 RebaRelishesReading: I realized that yesterday. It made me feel so much worse! *grrr*

Feel better soon. Gentle hugs from over the pond *smooch*

Happy Sunday, Richard. It rained through the night and our temps will be dropping into a more seasonal feel. We enjoyed some lovely warmth the past 2 days. Looking forward to curling up with the books until football starts.

>273 Ameise1: Thank you, Barbara...Im not sure I'm feeling better yet but I'm at the least not worse. *smooch*

>274 msf59: I think it's settled into fall here, so no warm spikes to report. I'll notice it more if me sinuses drain and me head stops throbbing. Feels like a distant dream, TBH.

'Morning, RDear! Happy Sunday to you.

...

*smooch*

>277 karenmarie: Hungry Sunday, Horrible. Could not face plain unseasoned rice, squash, a cup of salt water with soft nugs of flavorlessness, and a small, sour orange. Chucked it All out. I might order something later.

Just dropping in to let you know I've come across your reviews of Robbie Arnott's works while looking for more Australian fiction...I've now put every one of his novels on my wishlist. Unfortunately I have to skim your threads sometimes as the posts mount up so quickly, and I hadn't glommed on to him before. Sadly, my library system knows him not, and shipping is prohibitive on the few used copies I find available. Still...I won't give up looking now that he's on my radar. Thank you!

>279 laytonwoman3rd: You couldn't have chosen a way to make me feel happier, Linda3rd! Arnott's work makes me happy when people discover it so all the yay!

>251 richardderus: It just seems wrong to me that it is part of your institution's plan to have you share your quarters with an alcoholic. Do they do anything to try and address his habits/problem?

Feel better soon, Richard!

278 Death at the door by Olivia Blacke

Minotaur Books brings out #2 in a series of fun, unserious mysteries.

>281 Familyhistorian: No. They're not possessed of coercive power. They are limited to trying to persuade a dimwitted, stubborn addict to do better for himself. Spoiler: doesn't work.

‘Morning, RDear! Happy Monday to you.

>278 richardderus: Grim. I hope you ordered something yesterday.

>282 richardderus: Pass. Jenna’s Etch-A-Sketch is still upstairs and working, but I won’t twiddle it for this one.

*smooch*

>284 karenmarie: I drank Ensures instead.

>285 richardderus: Oh, ICK! I'm sorry. (GOOD GRIEF! I started this, got a phone call with good news from a college friend, and forgot to sign out!) I wish the food were better because Ensures are dreadful.
Hope anyway that the rest of the day improved for you. *smooch*

'Morning, RD! Happy Tuesday to you. I hope you're feeling better today.

>285 richardderus: Ensure does the job, of course, but I am not enamored.

Book sort and Virlie's, after meeting Trevor at Lowes to pay for the paint and supplies he needs. They aren't making it easy on us anymore - they used to allow the contractor to get things to the register and tell them who's paying for it. A quick call to the account holder, approval, and Bob's your uncle.

*smooch*

>286 LizzieD:, >287 karenmarie: Not better, but ate yesterday's offerings. Seeing the doc today...I suspect I've got pneumonia because no amount of coughing moves anything and I'm exhausted all the time. I have way more sinuses than I was born with and they're all full of phlegm.

I'm now drinking some apple-spice sludge, the lemon-ginger having run out. No great difference but it's a change.

I walked in to the doc, coughed, and suddenly everyone was masked. I've officially got pneumonia...an RX for antibiotics OTW...tomorrow?, a guy coming to chest x-ray me...sometime?, some blood work for next week to be sure I'm healed, and a stern admonition to get to the hospital if the antibiotics don't make me feel a lot better immediately.

I'm so stuffed up I can't hear out of my right ear from it. I'm coughing a lot, drinking apple-spice sludge...Eating little, drinking Ensures because the idea of kosher slop RN is not to be endured. Stay healthy.

Oh dear. I'm sorry, Richard. I hope you're going to get some real help and some real rest! Please let us know before you go back to taking care of yourself. We miss you! *smooch* and *soothing head rub* for my WBL

>288 richardderus: Glad you saw a doctor but sorry you have pneumonia. You pay attention to that warning and hie to the hospital if you don't get better STAT!! (I'm using my most stern mother voice there -- got it?)

>290 LizzieD: Thanks, Peggy me lurve, virtual affection's nice because you can't get pneumonia from your computer. I'd love to get real rest. I feel like one of those styrofoam wig-heads that they show after subjecting the poor things to Marianas-Trench pressures. Humanish (stupid jumped-up spellchecker) but weirdly distorted.

>291 RebaRelishesReading: I swear on my honor...oh wait...whatever, rest assured I ain't gonna do any bureaucratic shillyshallying if I'm not better soon.

Oh, RD, I'm so sorry. Glad you saw the doctor, though, and hope the antibiotics work their magic!

Pneumonia is sinister. I'm glad you're taking note of all the motherly/sisterly/auntie admonitions not to wait too long to take the next step if it's warranted. Maybe chomping on some raw garlic would help...(my dad used to swear that his mother's garlic dill pickles would knock any crud right out of your system, IF you could tolerate them. There was almost as much garlic as cucumber in the jar.)

>293 richardderus: :)

Was that the phone ringing?

Very sorry to hear you have pneumonia, Richard, and hope the meds have you on the mend soon.

Here's hoping the meds, and hopefully some good sleep, will knock this out of you quickly.

I’m so sorry you’re ailing, but there is great hope now that you are getting the antibiotics! Sending you best wishes and ((virtual hugs)) to feel better, soonest!

Karen O

Oh, no, not pneumonia! I hope the medicine has arrived and that it helps you feel better soon. Get some rest and do take care of yourself. Sending (((hugs)))

O dio mio, I'm sorry to hear that you have pneumonia. I really hope that the medication helps quickly. Gentle hugs from over the pond. *smooch*

Oh, no, Richard. Sorry to hear that you have pneumonia. I hope you are feeling better very soon. *smooch*

>294 katiekrug: When I finally get them, they might. When I climb the stairs (can't do elevators with respiratory illness) to see if they've arrived...unless my friend Abigail is working she always calls me...the "systems" here are what you'd expect from a place that's based on doing the minimum.

>295 laytonwoman3rd: It is indeed sinister, Linda3rd. It's got that way of hiding until it jumps at you.

I'd happily eat raw garlic if I had any. Onions, too...fresh out, though.

>296 RebaRelishesReading: :-P

>297 mckait: Dunno...headphones are blocking full-tilt because TV and and and is more than I can endure.

>298 bell7: Thanks, Mary, me too.

>299 jessibud2: Sleep would help the most but is the hardest to get when coughing.

>300 klobrien2: I'll see benefits when the abx get into my body. As of yet they aren't even in the building.

So tired.

>301 atozgrl: It hasn't arrived but I'm hopeful it will help when I finally get it.

>302 Ameise1: Thank you, Barabara!

>303 vancouverdeb: Most grateful, Deborah, I hope like sixty I am, too.

Oh, man!! So sorry to hear you got pneumonia. Just what you friggin' need. I hope you get those meds soon and then busy getting better. 🙏🙏

>314 msf59: Thanks, Mark, me too.

‘Morning, RDear.

>289 richardderus: I’m glad that the pneumonia’s confirmed and you have antibiotics, and I'm so sorry that you have it at all.

Here's to a quick recovery.

*smooch*

>316 karenmarie: ...if only I *had* the abx...I'll trust them to work when I do finally get them. They're still the most amazing lifesaving tools we have. Many, many, many people die of pneumonia because they have no access to them, so I am very lucky to have it, whenever they finally show up.

Wishing you a speedy recovery.

>289 richardderus: Oh no! I am glad you have the proper medication to get you feeling better soon!

DAMN. Those abx aren't there yet????? My dear WBL, I'm ready for you to the head person's office and cough all over him. I'm sure that's too much exertion for no benefit, but that's how I feel about it.

*SMOOCH*

>318 humouress: Thanks, Nina. I wish for that, too.

>319 figsfromthistle: I don't have any medication. It will arrive eventually. feeling better will come in time.

>320 LizzieD: Wouldn't matter. Nothing moves the inertia from "lowest cost" and "least effort"'s intersection.

First abx swallowed now let's All hope it's going to get better starting from here.

>324 richardderus: Thank God it finally arrived!! Here's to a quick restoration to good health!

>325 RebaRelishesReading: Amen!

>325 RebaRelishesReading:, >326 LizzieD: I'm glad they arrived; I'm feeling better except now the cough is really hard and dry. Feels more convulsive and painful, but occurs every hour or so not every glurgrgly minute. Progress? FAST though. And what horrible nightmares! Never waking up from a nightmare is the one horror-movie trope I can. not. watch. (Except as demanded by Reality.)

'Morning, RDear.

I'm glad you finally got the antibiotics. I hope they do their job sooner rather than later.

Ugh to nightmares.

*smooch* from your own Horrible

>328 karenmarie: Horrible! I report absence of death...ability to process ATP regaining frequency and potency...some lifting of cognitive fog.

Endless amounts of Ensure, a cheddar sammie, and more revolting tea than is (strictly speaking) of sufficient misery-inducing awfulness as to be reportable to The Hague.

*cybersmooch*

>327 richardderus: Glad there is some> progress at least!! Hope it continues.

>330 RebaRelishesReading: xo
***
UK TV show Who Do You Think You Are? dropped their first fifteen years of shows on their own YT channel, and since I can't form a complicated thought I'm watching people famous there that I've never heard of finding their ancestral trauma.

It's riveting.

Two pills in and the disease is perceptibly letting go. Miraculous, these antibiotics.

>331 richardderus: Stopping by to send my well wishes. Glad you're on the mend.

Also going to go subscribe to their YT channel. I need mindless stuff to drone on when I'm working. ;)

Well, thank goodness the meds are making a difference! Go, ATP, go! I hope you're making some noticeable, quantum progress by tomorrow! *smooch*

>332 mahsdad: Greetings, Jeff. I hope you get the same level of fun I got over on their YT channel.
>333 LizzieD: Not without hiccups, but progress made.
***
I had a nasty, known side effect from the pill, so it's one forever off the rotation. Tomorrow I'll get a z-pack (azithromycin) but we'll see...no fever no need for more abx.

>331 richardderus: Glad you've had some improvement from the pills but YIKES side effect and now you have to change meds !! :(

>331 richardderus: I'm glad to hear the antibiotics are working their magic so quickly! Sure hope the recovery continues apace.

I didn't know there was a UK version of Who Do You Think You Are? I'll have to go check it out.

What Irene said, RD. Take good care of yourself dear fellow.

'Morning, RDear. I'm glad that the antibiotics are making inroads against the pneumonia.

*smooch*

Happy Friday, Richard. Glad the meds are doing their job. Feeling better overall?

Currently 33F. No outdoor PB for the Warbler!

>335 RebaRelishesReading: I might not need the abx anymore, Reba...no fever left, some coughing at night, utter inability to hear soft sounds = healing and draining of sludge. I'll make the call later today.

>336 atozgrl: It astonished me how extremely quickly I perceived the change once I took the stuff. It's hospital-grade murderjuice of the bacterial world. Impressive that it exists!

>337 PaulCranswick: Thanks, PC, I'm doing the best I can. Considering I'm alive and getting healthier, I'd say my score's a solid 4.0/5.

>338 karenmarie: Astounding how that worked. I'm relieved! Now I'm antsy and bored, so I must be improving rapidly. I need to do my gang-reviews, obvs fewer this month and set up a new thread...so cognitive fog's lifting, I'm callin' it a win All around!
*smooch*

>339 msf59: Morning, Mark...not at 33° I hope, that way illness lies. I'm hugely improved, thanks, feeling the need to do more...health returns on slowly rising tides.

Don't know what abx is, Richard, but whatever it is, I am thrilled that it's doing the job it is intended to do! Continue in that direction, my friend!

>345 jessibud2: Thanks, Shelley! "ABX" is shorthand for "antibiotics" which I adopted from the doc...it saves my hands from typing the whole word a squillion times.

>342 richardderus: 4 out of 5 ain't bad as Meatloaf on meth might have sung.

Aren't you supposed to finish the entire course of antibiotics even if you start feeling better? That's what I've always been told but maybe it's a new kind that doesn't require that?

Glad you're feeling better!

>347 PaulCranswick: *shudder* there's a visual

>348 katiekrug: You're correct, Katie, but the side effect I experienced was sufficiently horrifying the doc issued a discontinue order there and then. I'm way too eager to get rid of this horror to've given myself permission to do this without medical involvement. But it was awful enough that had my doc not been here I'd've taken myself to the hospital to get fixed.

>350 richardderus: - Oh, yikes! Totally understand that. I missed the adverse reaction.

>348 katiekrug: You're supposed to finish the course because if you don't there's a chance that a weakened strain of bacteria might survive unless you blast the whole thing out of the water. If it does, and given the fast reproductive rates of microorganisms, there's a high probability that it will produce an antibiotic-resistant strain - and then humanity will be in trouble.

Since Fleming discovered penicillin doctors have been gaily overprescribing antibiotics and we, as patients, have been overusing or underusing them. I remember when my kids were young I had Neosporin ointment for their cuts but you can't get it now because we (as a race) are - hopefully -learning to be careful.

>351 katiekrug:, >352 humouress: This has gifted us so many tragedies to come. Yeah, I take 'em, and every time I do I'm amazed at their efficacy, but a little uneasy about sowing the wind...

>352 humouress: - Interesting that you can't get Neosporin. It's still available here, including in my first aid kit here in my house...

>352 humouress: Neosporin not available? I have a tube in my bathroom cabinet--it's expiring soon, so I put it on the list to replace it. Just checked on-line. Both CVS and Walgreen's offer multiple forms of it, both Neosporin and store brands.

>355 laytonwoman3rd: Huh; well I couldn't find any here when I wanted to replace it but we hadn't really used it much and my kids (touch wood) have outgrown the need.