Mahsdad's (Jeff) 2021 Thread - Q2

Yeni Dörddəbir və Fantastik Foto Cümə xoş gəlmisiniz

Q2 of 2021 and a full year of the Covid madness. What a wild ride its been.

Welcome, if you're new, my name is Jeff. I live in Southern California. I'm an avid reader. My wife might say I'm bordering on the obsessive. But then, I think that could apply to a lot of us in this group. I also enjoy photography, movies, hiking and playing games and hanging out with my family. Book-wise, I have a pretty eclectic taste in what I read and I hope to give you not so much reviews but my impressions about what I read.

What you will find here is mostly my rambling, way too many (according to some :) ) Wishlist and TBR pile temptations and a smattering of my photography. I don't really make a plan for what I'm going to read thru out the year. Its mostly what strikes my fancy from the TBR piles.

2013 Reading Thread
2014 Reading Thread
2015 Reading Thread
2016 Reading Thread
2017 Reading Thread
2018 Reading Thread
2019 Reading Thread
2020 Reading Thread

Come on in and sit a spell...

2021 Statistics - Q2

A - Audio
ER - Early Review
GN - Graphic Novel
K - Kindle
LL - Life's Library

June
47. The Driftless Area - Tom Drury :
46. The Serpent of Venice - Christopher Moore (A) :
45. Haunting of Tram 015 - P. Djeli Clark (K) :
44. We Are Still Here - Emily Koon :
43. Circe - Madeline Miller :
42. Fool - Christopher Moore (A) :

May
41. Shakespeare for Squirrels - Christopher Moore :
40. A God in Ruins - Kate Atkinson (A) :
39. Sweet Tooth Vol 6: Wild Game - Jeff Lemire (GN) :
38. More Baths Less Talking - Nick Hornby :
37. Sweet Tooth Vol 5: Unnatural Habits - Jeff Lemire (GN) :
36. Sweet Tooth Vol 4: Endangered Species - Jeff Lemire (GN) :
35. John Henry Days - Colson Whited (A) :
34. The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller (LL) :
33. Sweet Tooth Vol 3: Animal Armies - Jeff Lemire (GN) :
32. Sweet Tooth Vol 2: In Captivity - Jeff Lemire (GN) :
31. Inherent Vice - Thomas Pynchon :
Favorite : The Song of Achilles


April
30. Sweet Tooth Vol 1: Out of the Deep Woods - Jeff Lemire (GN) :
29. One Last Thing Before I Go - Jonathan Tropper :
28. Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory - Martha Wells :
27. The Wild Blue - Stephen Ambrose :
26. Lanny - Max Porter (A) :
25. Olive, Again - Elizabeth Strout (A) :
24. How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia - Mohsin Hamid (LL):
Favorite : How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia

2021 Statistics - Q1

A - Audio
ER - Early Review
GN - Graphic Novel
K - Kindle
LL - Life's Library

March
23. Olive Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout (A) :
22. Shopgirl - Steve Martin :
21. Recursion - Blake Crouch :
20. Little Weirds - Jenny Slate (A) :
19. How to Write an Autobiographical Novel - Alexander Chee (LL) :
18. Network Effect - Martha Wells (K) :
17. Leonardo da Vinci - Walter Isaacson (A) :
16. Scott Pilgrim Vol 2 - Bryan Lee O'Malley (GN) :
15. Dark Matter : A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora edited by Sheree Thomas :
Favorite : How to Write an Autobiographical Novel


February
14. The Porpoise - Mark Haddon (A) :
13. Scott Pilgrim Vol 1 - Bryan Lee O'Malley (GN) :
12. Forever Free - Joe Haldeman (A) :
11. Forever Peace - Joe Haldeman (A) :
Favorite : The Porpoise


January
10. The Accidental Time Machine - Joe Haldeman (A) :
9. Forever War - Joe Haldeman (K) :
8. House of M - Brian Michael Bendis (GN) :
7. There, There - Tommy Orange (A) :
6. Ready Player Two - Ernest Cline :
5. Rant - Chuck Palahniuk (A) :
4. Pirate Hunters - Robert Kurson :
3. If It Bleeds - Stephen King (A) :
2. Themes and Variations - David Sedaris (K) :
1. The Day I Died - Lori Rader-Day (ER) :
Favorite : Ready Player Two

Audiobook Narrators

Will Patton,
Stephen Weber,
Danny Burstein - If It Bleeds

Too Many to List - Rant

Darrell Dennis,
Shaun Tylor-Corbett,
Alma Ceurvo,
Kyla Garcia - There, There

Kevin Free - The Accidental Time Machine

George Wilson - Forever Peace

Peter Berkrot - Forever Free

Tim McInnerny - The Porpoise

Alfred Molina - Leonardo da Vinci

Jenny Slate - Little Weirds

Kimberly Farr - Olive Kitteridge, Olive, Again

Annie Aldington, Clare Corbett, David Timson, Jot Davies - Lanny

John Shea - One Last Thing Before I Go

Peter Jay Fernandez - John Henry Days

Alex Jennings - A God in Ruins

Euan Morton - Fool, The Serpent of Venice

Life's Library Book Club

Life’s Library was created by John Green and Rosianna Halse Rojas to celebrate two of their favourite things: good books and good communities. Every 6 weeks or so, they send out a new book. Hopefully, from authors that I've never heard of.

Season 1
1. If You Come Softly- Jacqueline Woodson -
2. A Field Guide to Getting Lost - Rebecca Solnit -
3. We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled - Wendy Pearlman -
4. The House of the Spirits - Isabel Allende -
5. The Yiddish Policemen's Union - Michael Chabon -
6. Stories of Your Life and Others - Ted Chiang -
7. Mountains Beyond Mountains (The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World) - Tracy Kidder -
8. The Summer Book - Tove Jannson -
9. Howl's Moving Castle - Diana Wynne Jones -

Season 2
1. The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler :
2. All Systems Red by Martha Wells :
2a. Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne :
3. Blonde Roots by Bernardine Evaristo :
4. Space Struck by Paige Lewis :
5. Faces in the Crowd by Valeria Luiselli :
6. On Immunity by Eula Biss :
7. Teaching a Stone to Talk by Annie Dillard :
8. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston - Read several years ago. Skipping it this time.
9. How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee :

Season 3
1. How to get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid :
2. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller :
3. Whose Names are Unknown by Sanora Babb

Pulitzer's Read

Ongoing bucket list to read all the Pulitzer winning novels. Santa was very good to me this year on this front, so I got plenty to work with

Bold : On the Shelf
Strikeout : Completed

Total Read - 33
2020 - The Nickel Boys
2019 - The Overstory
2018 - Less
2017 - Underground Railroad
2016 - The Sympathizer
2015 - All the Light We Cannot See
2014 - The Goldfinch
2013 - The Orphan Master's Son
2012 - NO AWARD
- Swamplandia - Nominee
2011 - A Visit from the Goon Squad
2010 - Tinkers
2009 - Olive Kitterridge
2008 - The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
2007 - The Road
2006 - March
2005 - Gilead
2004 - The Known World
2003 - Middlesex
2002 - Empire Falls
2001 - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
2000 - The Interpreter of Maladies
1999 - The Hours
1998 - American Pastoral
1997 - Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer
1996 - Independence Day
1995 - The Stone Diaries
1994 - The Shipping News
1993 - A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain
1992 - A Thousand Acres
- My Father Bleeds History (Maus) (Special Awards & Citations - Letters)
1991 - Rabbit at Rest
1990 - The Mambo Kings
1989 - Breathing Lessons
1988 - Beloved DNF
1987 - A Summons to Memphis
1986 - Lonesome Dove
1985 - Foreign Affairs
1984 - Ironweed
1983 - The Color Purple
1982 - Rabbit is Rich
1981 - A Confederacy of Dunces
1980 - The Executioner's Song
1979 - The Stories of John Cheever
1978 - Elbow Room
1977 - NO AWARD
1976 - Humboldt's Gift
1975 - The Killer Angels
1974 - NO AWARD
1973 - The Optimist's Daughter
1972 - Angle of Repose
1971 - NO AWARD
1970 - The collected Stories of Jean Stafford
1969 - House Made of Dawn : DNF
1968 - The Confessions of Nat Turner
1967 - The Fixer
1966 - The Collected Stories of katherine Anne Porter
1965 - The Keepers of the House
1964 - NO AWARD
1963 - The Reivers
1962 - The Edge of Sadness
1961 - To Kill a Mockingbird
1960 - Advise and Consent
1959 - The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters
1958 - A Death in the Family
1957 - NO AWARD
1956 - Andersonville
1955 - A Fable
1954 - NO AWARD
1953 - The Old Man and the Sea
1952 - The Caine Mutiny
1951 - The Town
1950 - The Way West
1949 - Guard of Honor
1948 - Tales of the South Pacific
1947 - All the King's Men
1946 - NO AWARD
1945 - A Bell
1944 - Journey in the Dark
1943 - Dragon's Teeth
1942 - In This Our Life
1941 - NO AWARD
1940 - The Grapes of Wrath
1928 - The Bridge of San Luis Rey

Hugos Read

Ongoing bucket list to read all the Hugo winning novels.

Bold : On the Shelf
Strikeout : Completed

Total Read - 36

2020 - A Memory Called Empire - Arkady Martine
2019 - The Calculating Stars
2018 - The Stone Sky
2018 - All Systems Red - Novella
2017 - The Obelisk Gate
2016 - The Fifth Season
2015 - The Three-Body Problem
2014 - Ancillary Justice (DNF)
2013 - Redshirts
2012 - Among Others
2011 - Blackout/All Clear
2010 - The Windup Girl
The City & the City
2009 - The Graveyard Book
2008 - The Yiddish Policemen's Union
2007 - Rainbows End
2006 - Spin
2005 - Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
2004 - Paladin of Souls
2003 - Hominids
2003 - Coraline (novella)
2002 - American Gods
2001 - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
2000 - A Deepness in the Sky
1999 - To Say Nothing of the Dog
1998 - Forever Peace
1997 - Blue Mars
1996 - The Diamond Age
1995 - Mirror Dance
1994 - Green Mars
1993 - A Fire Upon the Deep
Doomsday Book
1992 - Barrayar
1991 - The Vor Game
1990 - Hyperion
1989 - Cyteen
1988 - The Uplift War
1988 - Watchmen - category : Other forms
1987 - Speaker for the Dead
1986 - Ender's Game
1985 - Neuromancer
1985 - The Crystal Spheres - David Brin - Short Story
1984 - Startide Rising
1983 - Foundation's Edge
1982 - Downbelow Station
1981 - The Snow Queen
1980 - The Fountains of Paradise
1979 - Dreamsnake
1978 - Gateway
1977 - Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang
1976 - The Forever War
1975 - The Dispossessed
1974 - Rendezvous with Rama
1973 - The Gods Themselves
1972 - To Your Scattered Bodies Go
1971 - Ringworld
1970 - Left Hand of Darkness
1969 - Stand on Zanzibar
1968 - Lord of Light
1967 - The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
1966 - Dune
This Immortal
1965 - The Wanderer
1964 - Way Station
1963 - The Man in the High Castle
1962 - Stranger in a Strange Land
1961 - A Canticle for Leibowitz
1960 - Starship Troopers
1959 - A Case of Conscience
1958 - The Big Time
1956 - Double Star
1955 - The Forever Machine
1953 - The Demolished Man

Retro Hugos - this are given for years when no award was given (more than 50 years ago). Of those...

1939 - The Sword in the Stone
1951 - Farmer in the Sky
1954 - Fahrenheit 451

National Book Award Winners

2015 - Fortune Smiles
2014 - Redeployment
2001 - The Corrections
1988 - Paris Trout
1985 - White Noise - Don Delillo
1983 - The Color Purple - hardback award
1981 - The Stories of John Cheever - paperback award
1980 - The World According to Garp - paperback award
1953 - Invisible Man

Man Booker Books
2002 - Life of Pi
2009 - Wolf Hall - sadly I never finished this, never hooked me.
2015 - A Brief History of Seven Killings
2016 - The Sellout
2017 - Lincoln in the Bardo

The 75'r Chunkster List

1. The Overstory by Richard Powers
2. The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
3. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco READ
4. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
5. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell READ
6. The Witch Elm by Tana French
7. The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood
8. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr READ
9. Little, Big by John Crowley
10. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides READ
11. The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt
12. Possession by A.S. Byatt
13. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel DNF
14. The Queen of the Night by Alexander Chee
15. The Secret History by Donna Tartt
16. The Parisian : A Novel
17. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
18. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
19. The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami READ
20. Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson
21. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie OWNED
22. American Gods by Neil Gaiman READ
23. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay by Michael Chabon READ
24. The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu
25. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen READ
26. Skippy Dies by Paul Murray
27. A Naked Singularity by Sergio de la Pava
28. An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears
29. A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James READ
30. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson READ
31. The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe
32. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
33. Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin READ
34. JR by William Gaddis
35. Almanac of the Dead by Leslie Marmon Silko
36. Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon
37. Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany
38. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett READ
39. The Stand by Stephen King READ
40. Underworld by Don DeLillo
41. The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
42. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
43. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry READ
44. 2666 by Roberto Bolano
45. Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra
46. Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann
47. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
48. Parallel Stories by Peter Nadas
49. Women and Men by Joseph McElroy
50. A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth

Paul's Alternative 20

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
The Far Pavilions by MM Kaye
Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman
Saville by David Storey
To Serve Them All My Days by RF Delderfield
Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres
Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth
Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
Sophie's Choice by William Styron
Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving READ
The Singapore Grip by JG Farrell
Magician by Raymond E Feist
The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
A Chain of Voices by Andre Brink

Bill's Alternative Weird Dozen

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis READ
Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi
Rabbit at Rest by John Updike
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger READ
Cider House Rules by John Irving
The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo
The Book and the Brotherhood by Iris Murdoch
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak READ
August 1914 by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey
Lethal White by Robert Galbraith
The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams READ
11/22/63: A Novel by Stephen King READ
His Dark Materials Omnibus (The Golden Compass; The Subtle Knife; The Amber Spyglass) by Philip Pullman
The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer
Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling READ

2021 So Far

Books Read : 23
Number of Authors : 19

Happy new thread, Jeff. Lovely topper! Is that an orchid?

>1 mahsdad: Nice orchid! And happy new thread orisons.

>11 jessibud2: Thanks Shelley, yeah it is. No clue what type, but I know, at least, its an orchid. :)

>12 richardderus: Thanks RD!

Happy new thread!

Nice weather we're having, isn't it?

Absolutely. I love this time of year when its sunny during the day and it still gets down into the 60s at night. We don't have A/C so come September it can get a little toasty. :)

Happy new thread! That is a pretty orchid.

Happy new thread, Jeff!

Happy April, Jeff. Happy New Thread. Glad you finally got to Olive Kitteridge but a measly 4 stars? Grins...I am a huge fan of that book and it's follow-up.

>18 FAMeulstee: Thanks Anita

>19 msf59: Hey Mark, sorry my Pirates beat your Cubs yesterday. I'm not a big baseball fan, but I'm always a PGH fan. :)

As far as Olive goes, hey anything 4 and above is a great read for me. Still enjoyed it a lot. The disjointed nature of the various stories confused me at first, perhaps it was the audio. I moved on to Olive, Again right after. Only a little bit in, enjoying it too.

Happy New Thread! That's a beautiful orchid.

Happy new one, Jeff.

Great minds think alike. Just gave the same sentiment on your thread. 🤘

I started a new thread on Friday so no Foto Friday post, but I forgot to actually do my book update that I "KNOW" you all are waiting with baited breath for. My humble apologies. So here's a substitute Snapshot Saturday...



Book Update
>2 mahsdad: Q1 reads
>3 mahsdad: Q2 reads

Reading - How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid. This is the first book of the new season of the Life's Library Book Club. Its a story of a man in an unnamed Asian country (probably Pakistan) told in 2nd person in the style of a self-help book. Very interesting
Listening - Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout
Kindle - The Wild Blue by Stephen Ambrose. The WWII history of the B-24, mostly about George McGovern and his crew

Gerberas! Oooo.

Happy weekend's reads.

>25 richardderus: :) I know, such an interesting color

We actually went out in public yesterday. Feeling very bold with one shot of Moderna onboard. :)

LACMA (LA County Museum of Art) is open again for visits. New covid protocols, advanced tickets, temperature check, limited # of people (that was the biggest plus). They're doing a lot of construction so a lot of the galleries are gone/closed but it was nice being able to see what we could see.

The main exhibition was a really interesting pop-artist from Japan named Yoshitomo Nara.

But from the collections, there was an interesting piece that would interest the folks here.

Its the Library of Unborrowed Books. The artist goes to a library (in this cased LAPL) and asks for a selection of books they have that have NEVER been borrowed. Borrows them for a period of time and puts them on display. Such an interesting idea.

>27 mahsdad: - What an interesting idea. Were there any titles you recognized?

I didn't look at everything, but no not really, a lot of reference and foreign language books.

From just zooming in on one of them, I see, a German to Chinese handbook, several versions of Russian on Your Own, Writing the Natural Way, War Slang (which actually sounds interesting).

:)

>29 mahsdad: Re: War Slang, Pity the haven't Kindled it, seems like a natural for that platform. So much easier to update!

>30 richardderus: Absolutely. :)

>27 mahsdad: Oh, that's a neat idea, but it also kind of makes me sad...

I always feel weirdly proud when I get a spam comment. I mean how the heck did you find my thread. 🤣

>32 scaifea: I know Amber, books should be read. Though since most of them were research books, you wonder if they were used in the library itself and never actually checked out.

>35 mahsdad:
Most books in an academic library are never checked out. I read somewhere that the average for academic books is 1 time in 100 years.

>35 mahsdad: Oh, that's true! Okay, I feel a bit better now - as long as they get love somehow. Ha!

>36 benitastrnad: That makes sense.

>37 scaifea: Yeah, every book deserves some love sometime. Except for Ancillary Justice, bury that in a hole. JK! I just said that to get a rise out of the plethora of people here that loved that book. I just didn't like it. :p

Not takin’ the bait... 😀

>38 mahsdad: Rise gotten. I love having my mind messed with via pronoun disruption.

>39 drneutron: LOL

>40 quondame: Interesting, nothing against the book at all, I just didn't connect with it. I was just joking, NOT looking for a fight in the least. :)

For messing with genders and such, I always look to Left Hand of Darkness by Le Guin. Read it a couple times, loved it.

>41 mahsdad: I do like Left Hand of Darkness, but think the criticisms of it that aver that the non gendered state as portrayed really is masculine have tracks. Leckie is doing something rather different, stating that gender needn't matter and shifting the norm away from male as a way of keeping it front and center.

>38 mahsdad:
I loved the Ancillary Justice series. The best book of the three was book Two - Ancillary Sword. I didn't even notice that the pronouns were messed with until about 100 pages into the first book. If you like the Bob books - you will like Ancillary Justice - both of them are about collective intelligence machines.

>38 mahsdad: I've seen praise for that series floating around the group, but I'm just...not interested? *shrug* If it comes up on one of my award lists I'll give it a go, but I'm not expecting to like it at all.

>44 scaifea: Yep, so many other books to read. With about 700+ books currently in my TBR and WL, I think I'm set for two lifetimes. :)

>45 mahsdad: Ha! Same!!

Maybe I've taken my progress tracking a bit too far. But it satisfies my inner statistician. ;p

Does that indicate that you have a spread sheet tracking your library check outs? I have a text version of that and only enter the ones I've read (and a few of the unfinished ones) into the downloded Excel spread sheet. My Excel-fu is feeble and the template I downloaded doesn't consider Chile a valid country or like dates before 190?.

Hey, Jeff. I liked Ancillary Justice but also felt like it was a bit of a chore to through in spots, so I didn't have any urge to continue the series.

>48 quondame: Hey Susan, I do have a spreadsheet that I got from a Bookriot post several years ago and made it my own. I use it to track my books read for the year, plus all the other places I'm tracking. It has several tabs with results and charts. I added the Current Book tab on a lark.

The Due date you're seeing on the "Listened" book is just a calculation: the start date + 21 days. This is the borrow length from Libby. I don't really track library books other than that. Right now, I'm only really using the library for audiobooks. I have plenty of other paper and ebooks to keep me busy, not to borrow more.

Here's my 2021 spreadsheet (google sheets), feel free to make a copy if you would like.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mEGnwFl4IwWavbJZyyKbnQS_WtjnHSh9q-DP2aVP...

>49 msf59: I think you're either in or out with AJ. I do have a different Leckie book on the shelf that I have to get to eventually; Provenance. I think I got it from RD, but I can't for the life of me remember.

Just got finished watching a Book Talk with Jenny Lawson and Neil Gaiman for Jenny's new book Broken (in the best possible way).

It was excellent, we laughed, we cried. She read a story about when her house tried to kill itself.
As she said, apparently you have to empty the container for your whole house vacuum cleaner. Hilarious.

Haven't received the book yet, but its supporting an independent bookstore (Literati in Ann Arbor).

Can't wait to get the book.

>50 mahsdad: Mine looks pretty much the same with more fields, Illustrator, Publisher, Translated, and in slightly different order, but I bet they come from a common ancestor sheet. Now I have to learn how to add values to a drop down menu and change X fields to have numerical values.

>52 quondame: The drop-down values, that's the one thing I haven't figured out on mine either. Oh well, it was free so I can't complain. :)

فانتازىيىلىك رەسىم جۈمە

Hi all, hope all are doing well. Things are starting to open up around here, but I think we'll still bide our time and wait to eat in a restaurant or go to the movies until more of us are vaccinated. We have to wait until the end of the month to get our second shot. Weather's staying mild and pleasant, but we could always do with some more rain. But then its California and rain is generally not on the agenda, especially now that we're out of "winter".

Today's image comes from my visit to the botanic gardens, a couple weeks ago. They have some sculptures on loan from LACMA that they have spread out around the garden. This one is just the pole supporting one, that you can get to only by crawling thru some plants and bushes. I think these little handprints of a successful "hooligan" are just adorable. :) Happy weekend all!



Book Update
>2 mahsdad: Q2 Books
>3 mahsdad: Q1 Books

Reading - Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon. I finished the Hamid last night and haven't started anything new yet. I looked around my shelves and thought I'd give this a try. I haven't had a good track record with Pynchon, but that was just my many attempts to read Gravity's Rainbow, maybe this will be different. :)
Listening - Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout. After finishing Kitteridge, I jumped right into the sequel. I'm enjoying it quite a bit.
Kindle - The Wild Blue by Stephen Ambrose
Graphic Novel - I'm not really tracking them, but I've been reading the Invincible series by Robert Kirkman, in advance of watching the TV series on Amazon.

>54 mahsdad: Ha! Art is where *people* leave it, eh what?

Happy weekend's reads.

>53 mahsdad: I found a video which explains it. Select a cell in the column you want to change, select Data and select data validation (I have a Mac so data verification was not a drop down as in the video but ~2/3 of the way across the top tool bar) then somehow insert your new value or change the rule and select a new field type, and I select the "Apply the changes to all other...." hoping it doesn't change all the List columns.

>55 richardderus: Absolutely. ;)

>56 quondame: Very cool Susan. I'll have to check it out

Happy Friday, Jeff! And hooray for Olive, Again! Strout really delivered again, with this one.

ETA- Did you see that Murakami has a new collection out? Just sayin'...

>58 msf59: Murakami - I did. Just read a review about it in last Sunday's LA Times, and I hope the reviewer is wrong, as she pretty much panned it. I'm generally review-proof, especially with authors I like so I'm sure I'll read this eventually, along with a plethora of other of his books that I haven't gotten to yet.

Happy Friday to you too!

Has anyone watched the Q documentary on HBO? I knew the Q fanatics were bat-shit crazy before, but to see the behind the scenes makes them even more so. Its scary how much these people are able to swallow.

To kick off the 2nd chapter of Inherent Vice, Pynchon gives us, perhaps, the longest sentence I think I've ever read...

Doc took the freeway out. The Eastbound lanes teemed with VW buses in jittering paisleys, primer-coated street hemis, woodies of authentic Dearborn pine, TV-star-piloted Porsches, Cadillacs carrying dentists to extramarital trysts, windowless vans with lurid teen dramas in progress inside, pickups with mattresses full of country cousins from the San Joaquin, all wheeling along together down into these great horizonless fields of housing, under the power transmission lines, everybody's radios lasing on the same couple of AM stations, under a sky like watered milk, and the white bombardment of a sun smogged into only a smear of probability, out in whose light you began to wonder if anything you'd call psychedelic could ever happen, or if --bummer!-- all this time it had really been going on up north.

>61 mahsdad: Ha! I almost like that. It's a superPynchon self-parody sentence, isn't it.

>62 richardderus: How did I not reply, my bad.

This is the first Pynchon I've really read, I don't count my last attempt at GR 20+ years ago. So I don't have too much experience with his writing style, but I'm 80 pages into this neo-noir crime thriller that is a little bit cliched, but a fun read. I always like when authors write about an area that I'm familiar with and get it wrong or right. Its set in LA, and while there are scenes in Santa Monica and Hollywood, classic areas, its fun to see him venture down the Harbor Fwy to my neck of the woods. :)

Its just like when I see movie scenes set in Pedro and I point at the screen and yell "Hey, I know where that is". Or more likely, "That's not right". My favorite is the movie Gone in 60 Seconds. Nick Cage is racing the cops going up the Vincent Thomas bridge from Long Beach/Terminal Island into San Pedro. There's a wreck and the police have him trapped. He guns it, races around traffic and jumps over the wreck thanks to a conveniently placed flatbed tow truck. He lands, somehow going the opposite direction going back from SP into Terminal Island. :)

https://youtu.be/uH51wYU9Tr4

>63 mahsdad: I had a chat with Tim Powers about his SM-LA routing in Alternate Routes - he lives east of DT & I live west so are areas of expertise are different, and he explained that he wanted to stick with the more frequently mentioned on ramps. In Forced Perspectives he had way more traveling than would be possible except in early lock down traffic. My favorite LA fantasy is still The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump because that's the ethnic face of the LA that I inhabit.

>64 quondame: Very cool. I read The Anubis Gate several years ago, Alternate Routes sounds very interesting. As does the Turtledove, I always like his stuff

Too funny about wanting to use frequently mentioned ramps. Two things on that subject.

I'm from back East (Pittsburgh), and freeway exits (at least on the interstate) are always referred to by the exit number, that's either sequential, or an indication of how far you are from a border. My exit growing up was exit #73, which was 73 miles from the southern border of PA and WV. In CA, exits are always referred to by the street name you're getting on or off. Ex. get off the 110 at Slauson Ave. But that is actually exit #18B, but I'd never know that if I didn't look it up.

And speaking of Slauson, ANYTIME I think or say Slauson, I always say "When you get to the Slauson cutoff, stop, get out and cut off your Slauson". Thank you Johnny Carson. :)

https://youtu.be/twqa9AppfeE

>65 mahsdad: I know our usage is unusual, though I've lived here almost ever since freeways it's just the way for me. There are now exit numbers displayed and I like tracking them, but haven't heard them come up in directions yet. But then nobody but the Garmin is giving directions any more.

>66 quondame: Oh I'm totally on board with it too. I've lived here for 32 years, longer than Pittsburgh. The other CA weirdness that just sound wrong if I say it with any other roads, is "The" 405 or "The" 101. I'd never say that for an interstate anywhere else. LOL.

Garmin isn't the only one. Apple and Google will both talk to you, if you turn on the audio.

23. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout : 8/10
25. Olive, Again : 8/10

Listened to these both on audio. I probably would never have read these, save for my bucket list of reading all the Pulitzers. Kitteridge won the Pulitzer in 2009. I really enjoyed reading these. Its the story of the curmudgeonly Olive Kitteridge, her life and the lives of those around her. Taken together they are a very poignant story of a women in her later years. She's such a strong woman and it was very interesting seeing how she copes with the twilight of her life. Highly recommend.

24. How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid : 9/10

This book came to be by way of the Life's Library Book Club, and like most of the others, it was a book and author that I wasn't familar with and so glad I am now. It was an interesting literary device, the story of the main character's life is told in 2nd person as a "self-help" book on how to get rich in Asia. While never explicitely said, it seems like it is Pakistan and each chapter takes on a different section of his life. From his childhood, to his work life as he builds his water business in a corrupt environment, to his waning years. Very excellent read, enjoyed it a lot.

We are all refugees from our childhoods. And so we turn, among other things, to stories. To write a story, to read a story, is to be a refugee from the state of refugees. Writers and readers seek a solution to the problem that time passes, that those who have gone are gone and those who will go, which is to say every one of us, will go. For there was a moment when anything was possible. And there will be a moment when nothing is possible. But in between we can create.

*review*

Not sure if I knew this. Colson Whitehead's Underground Railroad is coming to Prime as a mini-series in May. Here's the trailer...

https://youtu.be/_Pq5Usc_JDA

>69 mahsdad: How that will work is a subject of great fascination to me. I can't see how they'll keep the eerie atmosphere going for a whole series, and without it, will it be worth watching?

I tend to agree, its just going to be literal and "thrilling". I'll probably at least give it a try.

Argazki Ostiral Fantastikoa

Hey friendly friends! Its that time again. Yippee, its the weekend. This weekend, Laura and I are going out to Palm Springs to spend the weekend helping my MIL clean things up around her house and try to convince her to let go of some of the horde she's collected over the years. Good karma points. Probably won't have as much time to read, but I'll sneak things in when I can.

I took today's image on our Easter Sunday visit to LACMA, its a close up of a piece of art by Yoshitomo Ara, a very interesting pop artist. His main subject is large paintings of cartoonish children and animals.



This isn't the full image, but an example of his work...

Book Update
>2 mahsdad: Q2 Books
>3 mahsdad: Q1 Books

Reading - Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon
Listening - Lanny by Max Porter. The author of Grief is the Thing with Feathers, a very odd story/poem that I loved (read about 5 years ago). This one is proving to be just as odd as well, in a good way. Its the story of a little boy Lanny, the people around him and the "monster/spirit" (not sure yet) that seems to live of their fears and anxieties.
eBook - The Wild Blue by Stephen Ambrose

>72 mahsdad: *shriek*

*flees screaming*

My work here is done. 😜

>72 mahsdad: An interesting take on Anime imagery - all the emotion added with color.

Happy Friday, Jeff. Hooray for an adaptation of The Underground Railroad! How is Inherent Vice? I enjoyed the film but never read the book or Pynchon, as a matter of fact.

>75 quondame: And they are very big (about 7 x 9'). Interesting stuff.

>76 msf59: Hey Mark, thanks for stopping by. Vice is pretty good. Its a quirkly noir crime story. I haven't seen the movie, I think, however, it was the movie that brought it to my mind. Its pretty good, I'm enjoying it. Its the first of Pynchon that I've actually read with a pretty good chance of finishing it. (Gravity's Rainbow being the other, but I don't think I've gotten past page 30 in the multiple times I've tried :) )

Dropped by to see what you've been up to this month. You've got some good reads going.

>78 weird_O: Hey Bill, thanks for stopping by. Was out in Palm Springs for the weekend, and I didn't take my laptop. I like to read LT on my phone and tablet but I hate posting on them, so I didn't respond until now.

I'm a much better typist when I have an actual keyboard. :)

26. Lanny by Max Porter : 8/10

Audio. This is Porter's 2nd book, and while not the affecting powerhouse that Grief is the Thing with Feathers was, it is still a vary interesting, weird but engaging book. Its about a quirky kid who's straight-laced parents just don't quite get him. Its also about a strange spirit/ghost/creature (Dead Papa Toothwort), who seems to feed off of the random thoughts of the people living in the town. Their world's collide when the boy goes missing. A short book, the audio narrated by several different people from several different angles. Like Grief, there are parts of this that border on poetry. A good read.

27. Wild Blue by Stephen Ambrose : 8/10

This is the history of the B-24 crews that flew out of Italy and did strategic bombing over Germany, and its occupied countries at the end of WWII (1944-45). The main focus is on George McGovern (yes that George McGovern). He was a pilot during the war. In Ambrose's typical fashion, he tells the story of the war and gives the historical context thru the eyes and experiences of the people who lived it. I always like his stuff.

*review*

ETA fixed book #s

>68 mahsdad: I just happened upon How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia on the $1 cart at the used bookstore. I could still feel that BB you fired at me, and I'd read Hamid's more recent book, Exit West, so naturally I invested a buck. (Wiki says Hamid lives in Lahore, Pakistan; FWIW.)

>80 mahsdad: I read Wild Blue. I was impressed to learn that the B-24 was a demon aircraft, very difficult to pilot. And to think that an awful lot of the pilots were barely out of their teens. Maybe it was a benefit that these kids, not having piloted any aircraft before enlisting, didn't know that most planes didn't share the lamentable characteristics of the B-24.

Hey Bill, heck for a buck, even a graze is worth it. This was the first of his that I read so I have nothing to compare to, but I hope you enjoy it.

Youth and WWII, Yeah, I'm am constantly amazed by how young they were. I think McGovern was 22 and he was the Pilot/commander of a crew. If you were over 25 you were the Old Man. Geesh. The other thing that I found interesting, was that you didn't necessarily fly the same plane all the time. They might have been different planes with different nose paint designs and such, the crews typically called the plane they were flying by their own name. Every plane McGovern flew was Dakota Queen.

تصوراتی ، بہترین تصویر جمعہ

Hey yinz! Glad that we made it to another Friday, I'm looking forward to a nice weekend. Last weekend was pretty much a working weekend, helping my MIL let go of some of her stuff. I know its tough to let go, but its just stuff, and at her age (86), it hindering her ability to live her best life. Seeing what she's dealing and what we had to deal with after my SIL passed, has made us more aware of the amount of stuff we've accumulated.

In fact right now, we're going thru a process of culling our CD collection. If you're interested, look at my Virtual Free Music collection. If you want anything, let me know.

Today's image comes from my local coastal artillery base. During WWII, they built a couple batteries that had 16'' guns that could shoot shells over 25 miles. After the war, the guns were removed but the concrete remains. This picture is just an electrical box on the outside, but I love shadows and angles and I think its cool.



Book Update
>2 mahsdad: Q2 Books
>3 mahsdad: Q1 Books

Reading - Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon
Listening - One Last Thing Before I Go by Jonathan Tropper.

For reference, here's a picture of the battery itself...

The opening is at least 20' high, I'd guess.

>80 mahsdad: Oh, how I loathed Lanny. Just truly detested it.

>83 mahsdad: COOL!!

>84 mahsdad: ...w o w...

Happy weekend's reads!

>85 richardderus: Yeah, I read your review when I added it to GR. I really liked his first one Grief, which I have the DTE of. I listened to Lanny and its definitely not as good as Grief, perhaps it worked better in audio.

What's even more wild is these batteries (there are 2), over look the "new" technology that came in after WWII during the cold war, the lower site is an abandoned Nike missile base that "protected" us from the godless heathen commies during the Cold War. Here's looking down on it.



ETA to change the post references, cause they were obviously wrong. :)

The next book in the Life's Library Bookclub arrived.

Its The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller.

Since I already have Circe on the shelf, I know what my next 2 reads are going to be, after I finish Inherent Vice in a couple days.

Was just poking around in the Zeitgeist and noticed that I passed 5,000 posts. Lifetime that is. :) Certainly a small accomplishment around here, but a nice round number, nonetheless.

>87 mahsdad: *bounces* You are in for such a treat with those two - I'm excited for you!

Thanks Amber! Looking forward to it.

2nd shot on board. Yippee. Its only been an hour or so. We'll see how I feel tonight and tomorrow.

Other than arm pain, I didn't have any ill effects to the first one.

Go Team Moderna. :)

>87 mahsdad: what >89 scaifea: said, less the bouncing.

>91 mahsdad: Yay!!

>92 richardderus: Not even a virtual bounce?

>92 richardderus: >93 quondame: Ha! Virtual bouncing, not necessary. :)

Status update vax day 2. Got a bit of a headache, a low grade fever and the body aches that tells me my immune system is working overtime at the moment. Small price to pay.

Фантастычная фота пятніца

Last Friday in April, how the heck did that happen, we can't be 4 months into 2021 already, can we? As you can see from my previous posts, Laura and I got our 2nd shots. If nothing else it gives us peace of mind. We'll still practice social distancing and wear a mask. I just got a new one that is the most comfortable one I've had so far. I'll probably wear one for the forseeable future. The fact that the flu was almost non-existent this year lends credence to the success of our efforts. Nothing much on the agenda this weekend. Hopefully will finish the Pynchon and move on to my Miller duets.

Today's image comes from my favorite pasttime when we go to the garden store... taking pictures. Laura, bought pots and plants as is her wont. Enjoy...



Book Update
>2 mahsdad: Q2 Books
>3 mahsdad: Q1 Books

Reading - Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon
Listening - John Henry Days by Colson Whitehead : One of his early works, about a freelance journalist sent to WV to cover a festival celebrating the release of a new John Henry stamp
Graphic Novel - Sweet Tooth Vol 1: Out of the Deep Woods by Jeff Lemire. Robert Downey Jr. and his wife are producing a Netflix series based on this GN series about a post apocalyptic world following the "adventures" of a young boy who happens to be a human/deer hybrid (apparently it was a thing at the end of the world). I wanted to read the GN first. Pretty interesting so far.

Here's a bonus image, that if you follow me on instagram, you've already seen. Went to a brewery, and we, of course brought our books..

>95 mahsdad: Gorgeous water lily!

>96 mahsdad: Now THAT is a perfect image. An image of perfection. A slice of heaven.

Thanks buddy.

I only took a couple of the book, but I could have taken pictures all day shifting the glasses to change the shadow

>96 mahsdad: Oh! Nice.

Nice pic of the glasses and book, but the beer! Tell us about the beer!

>99 weird_O: Thanks Bill!

>100 drneutron: My bad Doc, Here you go... We had a couple different IPA's from our local place called Brouwerij West. One is called Bounce, and the other is called Picnic Lightning

Oh, those look great, and quite a good pic too!

Thanks Jim!

Happy Monday. Day Three post Moderna shot two update.

All good now for me. Friday was the worst day. Typical arm pain, but worst symptom for me was a general malaise and headache. I just didn't feel right for Friday and most of Saturday. Laura was pretty much the same, but she also seem to pick up with the CDC (when I searched) is calling Covid arm. She got an itchy rash/redness around the site of the injection. Annoying, but not too bad.

Book-wise, I finished Inherent Vice, more on that later. And started The Song of Achilles. I'm liking it quite a bit, I think it will be a quick read.

>104 mahsdad: Tomm and I both had that headachey, completely exhausted 'afterglow' too. Gone after a day and a half or so, and very much worth it!

the completely exhausted afterglow. That's a perfect image.

Its also, now the name of my Depeche Mode cover band. ;p

I just don't understand how the selection/view algorithms at GoodReads work. I occassionally post my reviews and seldom get any likes or comments from anyone other than my friends that are here too. But a couple weeks ago Mark recommended I read The Unamericans and I changed the status to "Want to Read", and I've had 4 different strangers like my status update. Why? :)

>106 mahsdad: *snork!* Oh, that's a perfect name!

>107 mahsdad: I've noticed a big uptick in GR likes from complete strangers. No idea why, but I am suspicious.

>108 scaifea: I'm glad its not just me, both getting the stranger likes and being suspicious.

Фантастична фотоп'ятниця

Hey all, nothing much to report on this fine Friday. All the ill effects of last week's vaccine were over by Saturday afternoon, so all good there. Enjoying a very mild Spring over here on the Left Coast (knock wood).

Today's image is another one from our visit to the garden center a couple weeks ago. Enjoy...



Book Update
>2 mahsdad: Q2 Books
>3 mahsdad: Q1 Books

Reading - The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. Really enjoying this one. Almost half way thru.
Listening - John Henry Days by Colson Whitehead. An early work by Whitehead. I am enjoying his prose, but I think the narrative is a little disjointed TBH. This is definitely a solid like.
GR - Sweet Tooth Vol 3: Animal Armies by Jeff Lemire. A very weird premise but good read.

>110 mahsdad: The Song of Achilles is a good 'un, Jeff. I liked The Silence of the Girls even more to be honest.

Goodreads likes from friends who have friends show your liked content in their....

Lemme see here...

So, I like your review of Cow Goes Moo. That means GR's algorithm shows my "like" of your review to some fraction of the 2853 people I'm "friends" with; it also shows that "like" to some fraction of the 1602 people who "follow" me. The more people see my "like" of your review, the more people know it exists and might "like" it in their turn.

If, by algorithmic chance, the fraction of people my "like" gets shown to have very few friends, and have very recently followed or friended me, they are that much more likely to see and respond to the like.

Does that make anything clearer?

>111 PaulCranswick: Cool, I'll have to add that to my WL take me more down the classics rabbit hole that will eventually make me read the originals. :)

>112 richardderus: Clear as mud. :p And for the reviews I agree with you, and I do get the occasional rando who likes my reviews. And I know I'm a commodity in the datamine that is modern internet discourse, so its to be expected. But I just didn't understand the avalanche (and by avalanche I mean 4, which is a lot for me) of random people who liked my "Want to Read" status update for a book. I never really go out of my way to see the status updates for a particular book.

I guess I'm an outlier on the spectrum of those who use GR for what its intended for.

All good. Hope you have a great weekend.

>111 PaulCranswick: Just looked at my WL. and I added it (The Silence of the Girls), at your suggestion, 2 years ago. Too funny.

One of my more useful tags I've started to use lately is "Suggested by ...", so I know who to thank (or blame) later when I eventually get and read the book.

Happy Friday, Jeff. Love the bee photo. I also loved Lemire's Sweet Tooth series. And lastly I am really enjoying The Jungle. The narrative style really caught me by surprise.

ETA- Recommendation: Avoid First Person Singular. A real stinker by Murakami. Just sayin'...

>115 msf59: Thanks Mark. I'm glad you're liking The Jungle, its been so long ago I can't remember much about it, other than the premise. I might have to read it again.

As far as the Murakami goes, that's unfortunate. I have so many of his earlier work to read, so I think I'll pass on this one.

>116 mahsdad:
I think I read somewhere that this book was short stories that he couldn't fit into some of this other books. There might have been a reason why they were left out of the earlier books.😉

>117 benitastrnad: Interesting. Perhaps a contractually obligation book. Pull stuff off the shelf, voila, instant book.

I just acquired a Murakami I hadn't heard of: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage. Published in 2014. Bought it at the first library book sale I've attended since December 2019.

>119 weird_O: That's one I haven't read yet, heard of it, but haven't read. I've read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, A Wild Sheep Chase, The Strange Library and Sputnik Sweetheart. All very odd, but interesting reads.

Congrats on making it to a library sale. :)

Podcast recommendation...

The Ezra Klein Show - I hadn't heard of him before, but he's listed under the New York Times Opinion group in Apple Podcasts.

3/30 - Ted Chiang - an interesting discussion, of not just his books, but why he fears capitalism and not AIs. One book recommendation that came out of it for me, was On Fragile Waves by E. Lily Yu. According to the description its "The haunting story of a family of dreamers and tale-tellers looking for home in an unwelcoming world. This exquisite and unusual magic realist debut, told in intensely lyrical prose by an award winning author, traces one girl’s migration from war to peace, loss to loss, home to home. .." (He also recommended George Saunders CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, which I loved and A Visit from the Good Squad, which he thought was loosely linked enough to be called a collection)

2/19 - The aforementioned George Saunders

I don't know if I'll keep this guy in my regular rotation, but I'll keep a look out for interesting authors.

>114 mahsdad: Hahaha I do hope that I will get thanks rather than blame for that one eventually, buddy!

>122 PaulCranswick: I think chances are very good that if I pick up a book you recommend or praise, I will enjoy it

চমত্কার ছবি শুক্রবার

Hey Friendly Friends! Here's to another good weekend. We are finally "fully" vaccinated, or at least past the 2 week mark that means our new chip is firmly installed and up and running. We might actually go out to dinner at a real restaurant. We have been taking a few baby steps in visiting the local brewery because its outdoors, we went again Weds night, tho it was almost too cold (heaven forbide, knock wood, turn around 3 times and spit, I'll be wishing for the chillyness in about 2 months. :) ) On the new book front, a couple weeks ago, we "attended" a talk with Elizabeth Warren and Amber Tamblyn to talk about Warren's new memoir, Persist and it just arrived this week. I'm not too into political type books, but this could prove interesting (TBH, we went to it for Laura).

Today's image comes from the othernight's grunion run we went to at Cabrillo Beach. If nothing else, it got us out of the house pass 10 o'clock that that rarely happens anymore. Its not of a grunion, its of a interesting building that had a real spooky vibe in the night.



Book Update
>2 mahsdad: Q2 Books
>3 mahsdad: Q1 Books

Reading - The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. This is an excellent read, I'll finish it this weekend. Its a story that I only new from a cursory pop-historical perspective, and I'm sure there's lots of poetic license involved in the tale, but its taken some twists and turns I wasn't expected. I should probably read the source at sometime.
Listening - John Henry Days by Colson Whitehead
GN - Sweet Tooth Vol 4: Endangered Species by Jeff Lemire

And what, may you ask, is a Grunion Run?

A grunion is a sardine sized fish in Southern California. Its breeding habits are such that after the New or Full Moon in the spring and summer, hordes of them ride the high tides up onto a sandy beach. The ladies dig into the sand to lay their eggs and the guys swirl around them to fertilize said eggs. About two weeks later during the next high tide, the babies hatch and make their way back to the sea. This mating habit is called a Run.

The local aquarium do events were people can come watch the debauchery. We got a little bit of a talk about their history and got to hatch some eggs on our own. Some sand in a jar, seawater and some agitation (shaking up the glass, cause the eggs to hatch. Voila, baby fish.



Its a little hard to see, but there are some tiny little fish in there.

Then we went out to the beach to wait for their arrival, and eventually they did. Along with the Night Herons who were looking for a snack. :)

>124 mahsdad: That's a beautiful night-time study of the emotional uses of geometry!

Grunion runs! Been decades since I last saw one. I'm actually just as pleased as pleased can be that they're still happening.

>126 richardderus: Thanks RD!

Yep still happening. The amazing thing, I came to learn is that they don't really know too much about the grunion's lifecycle except for this aspect. They don't know where they go after mating. The aquarist, was telling us that they don't see many in the trawls when they pick up schools of sardines and such.

So I finished Song of Achilles, Loved it. And as a palette cleanser before I start on Circe, I thought I would read Nick Hornby's collection called More Baths Less Talking

Its a collection of articles from Believer magazine where he talks about the books he's read in the month. Boy is he a 75'er. He would fit right in in this group. In each article he lists the books he's purchased during the month and the books he's read. And, like us, the two lists don't necessarily overlap. Here's a couple snippets to give you an idea of tone. I'm enjoying this collection...

(In talking about the Mass Observation Project that occurred in England from the 30's to the 60's where people kept diaries of their daily lives, he talks about a guy who kept track of his masturbation opportunities) "I delayed masturbation until another para-nude appeared seen frontways, with drapery depending between the exposed breasts." The day after Hiroshima sees Henry returning to a public lavatory in the northeast "to see if I could masturbate over the mural inscriptions." Say what you like about the internet, but for a certain class of underemployed mail, life has become warmer, and more hygienic.

(Talking about a Muriel Spark novella he read) And, if you look at the Books Bought and Books Read columns this month, you will see, dear youthful writer, that short books make sound economic and artistic sense. If Spark had written a doorstopper of a novel, I probably wouldn't have bought it; if I'd bought it, I wouldn't have gotten around to picking it up; if I'd picked it up, I wouldn't have finished it; if I'd finished it, I'd have chalked her off my to-do list, and my relationship with Muriel Spark would be over. As it is, she's all I read at the moment and the income of her estate is swelling by the day.

>128 mahsdad: That Muriel Spark riff sort of sounds like lots here got hooked by Martha Wells' novella....

>129 quondame: I thought the same thing!

>128 mahsdad: Ages ago I read The Polysyllabic Spree, the first in that series of books, and loved it. I’ve been meaning to get hold of the follow-ups ever since. Have you read any others in this series?

>131 SandDune: Hey Rhian, this is my first of his Believer columns. I just happened to see it at my used book purveyor and it caught my eye. Funny that it appears to be the last one in the series, at least from what I'm seeing in LT. I am really enjoying it. I'll have to look for the others as well.

I've read a couple of the obvious novels; High Fidelity, About a Boy and Long Way Down ;)

Colson Whitehead's Underground Railroad TV show is now available on Prime. Has anyone watched it yet? Shall I be the guinea pig?

>133 mahsdad: We tried the first episode but I found it too brutal. I know - it was brutal - but I find watching brutal things much more difficult than reading them.

>133 mahsdad: Rob didn't make it far into the first episode with me. We left it at "possibly revisit another time."

Happy, um, Friday.

Gotcha.

And yeah, I know its Friday. Wonder of wonders, I actually have work to do. FF will be delayed to after lunch. My humble apologies.

Juma güni ajaýyp surat

Its that time again. Hooray! This weekend will be another "working" weekend out in Palm Springs helping out my MIL get organized. A never ending task. So I might not get as much reading in, but I'll do as much as I can. Hope everyone is safe and healthy. We continue to enjoy a pleasant spring full of May Grey, that will lead to June Gloom. Sounds creepy, but in the desert of Southern California, its a good thing.

More flowers for you from Armstrong's Garden Center. Enjoy...


Book Update
>2 mahsdad: Q2 Books
>3 mahsdad: Q1 Books
>5 mahsdad: Life's Library Books

Reading - More Baths Less Talking by Nick Hornby. Excellent collection of essays about his reading life.
Listening - A God In Ruins by Kate Atkinson. Sequel to Life After Life. Its been a number of years since I read the first one, so this took me a little bit to get hooked, but its working quite well
GN - Sweet Tooth Vol 5 Unnatural Habits by Jeff Lemire

Happy Friday, Jeff. I LOVED A God in Ruins! Fantastic book. Looking forward to your thoughts on The Underground Railroad series. Remember, it is to be savored not binged. You will see that immediately.

>137 mahsdad: the language chosen for the header here and especially in >1 mahsdad: made me look up what they were since they caught my eye with similarities to Turkish. Turkmen just shares how to say Friday but I have previously heard that Azeri is very similar to Turkish and looking at that made it obvious. Is there any rhyme or reason to how you’re choosing the language each week?

(Pretty flowers, too.)

>138 msf59: Happy Friday to you too. I'll be sure to let you know about UR, when I start it.

>139 ursula: Hey Ursula. You are the first one, I think, to ask me about my little Easter Egg of a Friday Greeting. I'm honored.

When I started posting Friday pictures a couple years ago, I used to say Fantastic Foto Friday folks, because I liked the alliteration. I was kind of hit or miss with doing it. Last year I wanted to be better and more consistent. To mix thing up, I think I said "Gott Sei Danke Es Ist Fritag", which is pretty much the only thing I know how to say in German. I then started going to Google Translate and randomly picking a language and translating "Fantastic Photo Friday" (had to lose the alliteration). It was a nice change of pace and gave me some incentive to do it.

This year I started at the beginning and the end of the list of languages Google had listed. I'm keeping track so I don't forget, but I purposely didn't say what each week was, to see who noticed. Week 1 was Afrikaans then Week 2 was Zulu, and so on. Its fun to see how the non-roman alphabetic character sets display in the browser.

>140 mahsdad: I had been wondering about the headers - just assumed you were fluent in multiple languages! Cool idea.

>140 mahsdad: Ah okay! That explains why when I scrolled back through your last thread I caught sight of a couple of different Arabic varieties and some Amharic. :)

>141 Oberon: Thanks Erik

>142 ursula: Wow, I am glad that I could provide some interesting content to someone who could actual recognize my content. I am embarrassed for the average American (of which I am firmly ensconced) who is only capable of reading/writing/speaking ONE language. I am in awe of folks like yourself.

>140 mahsdad: I enjoyed seeing the Welsh you had one time. And it is interesting seeing the different scripts as well.

Hey Rhian, glad to oblige. :)

>143 mahsdad: I mean, I am not far off. I can read/listen to Italian reasonably well, speak less well. I am a low intermediate in Russian, which is quickly disappearing from my mind because I've had to start learning Turkish. So realistically I only speak 1.5 languages, I'd say.

But I do enjoy the concept of languages and I can recognize a lot of languages from sight or sound. I remember being at a monument in Brussels with my daughter and explaining how she could tell what language each of the inscriptions was in. And it makes me laugh now to remember that she was stumped by Turkish but I said you could always tell it was Turkish by seeing ş and ğ. I didn't know at the time that I'd ever have reason to know more than that about Turkish!

Well more power to you Ursula!

Lightning Round - Its been a hot minute since I updated with my "reviews". Some will naught but... Hey I read this. :)

28. Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory by Martha Wells : 8/10
Anything by Ms Wells is worth the time. This was a little short short without Murderbot, but with Ayda's point of view

29. One Last Thing Before I Go by Jonathan Tropper (AUDIO) : 8/10
An absentee father/divorcee is struggling with life in a batchelor apartment, trying to deal with his teenage daughter and the impending marriage of his ex-wife (not to him). I thought it was going to be a mansplaining/dude-bro type of story, but it took a turn and became an interesting heartfelt story.

31. Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon : 8/10
An LA Noir story set in the early 70's. Its funny, weird, drug fueled thriller. Its a bit disjointed at times and perhaps a few too many characters. The main villain's kept changing in my mind. It was fun to read descriptions of the places I knew, especially in my town; San Pedro.

Don't get me wrong, I love surf music, I'm from its native land, I still have al these old beat-up singles,...,but you're right, some of the worst blues work ever recorded will be showing up on the karmic rap sheets of surf-sax players.

A long line of half-dollars went disappearing down a chute of yellowing plastic, the milling around the edges of the coins acting like gear teeth, causing each of the dozens of shining John F. Kennedy heads to rotate slowly as they jittered away down the shallow incline, to be gobbled one after another into the indifferent maw of Lass Vegas.

34. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller : 9/10
I got this for the Life's Library Book club and I enjoyed this quite a bit. Its an adaptation of the Illiad. This time told from the point of view of Patroclus. It tells the story of his life with Achilles, and their participation in the Trojan War as the Greeks and their allies try to get Helen back from the Trojans. To be honest, I've never read the Illiad so I have no way to tell where poetic license was used in force, but it was an excellent read.

37. John Henry Days by Colson Whitehead (AUDIO) : 7/10
This is Whitehead's 2nd novel, 15 years before his Pulitzer winning Underground Railroad. John Henry is a legendary figure in American folklore. A small down in WV is having a festival to celebrate him and the release of a postage stamp with his image. A free lance journalist is sent to cover the event. To me, the book is a little disjointed, as it jumps between the journalist and different characters and stories in the past that all have some sort of connection to the Henry story, no matter how small. An early work that shows the coming prowess of Whitehead.

38. More Baths Less Talking by Nick Hornby : 9/10
A short collection of a year or so of his articles about his reading life in Believer magazine. Each month, he would report on what books he bought and read during that time. Sounds like a few people I know around here. I'm going to have to spend some time adding some new books to the WL. There are plenty of quotes I could share from this gem (including his love of Dickens - sorry RD), but I'll end with this...

(Some advice on writing that did him no good in his formative years) "Write a minimum of 15 drafts" "A good book takes five years to produce" "Learn Ulysses off by heart" "Read your book out loud to your cat"... Walk into a bookshop and you will see work by writers who produce a book every 3 months, writers who don't own a TV, writers with five children, writers who produce a book every 25 years, writers who never write sober, writers who have at least one eye on the film rights, writers who never think about money, writers who, in your opinion, can't write at all. It doesn't matter. They got the work done and there they are up on the shelves. They may not stay there forever: readers, now and way off in the future, make that decision.

*review*

Way to get caught on your reviews!! As usual, I am loving your photography. Nice job on the multiple language headers. ; ) Happy Monday!

Thanks Kim!

Fantastičan foto petak

Just jumping on real quick in between meetings on a Friday morning. Its times like these when I start to have Lottery fantasies. Not that I actually play the lottery, I'm a realist, I know its just throwing my money away, but its fun to think about what I'd do with $150m :) Last week we went out to Palm Springs again, to help my MIL with stuff. This time we actually went out to dinner. Except for a smattering of lunches, this is the first time we sat down in a restaurant in almost a year. Amazing.

Today's image is of the new bridge between Long Beach and Terminal Island going towards home in San Pedro. Enjoy...



Book Update
>2 mahsdad: Q2 Books
>3 mahsdad: Q1 Books

Reading - Shakespeare for Squirrels by Christopher Morse. A hilarious take on A Midsummer Night's Dream mashed with a detective murder mystery, starring Pocket, a fool and his fairy friends and a half donkey/half man. Shades of Monty Python and Terry Pratchett
Listening - A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson

A bonus image of a new beer I saw in the store. Didn't get it, but loved the name.

>152 mahsdad: Heh. Great graphics.

>151 mahsdad: Great graphics! The flare that defines the edges that are the support cables...just delightful.

Happy Friday, Jeff. Love the lightning round, the foto and the Broken Skull IPA.

>151 mahsdad: Great photo, as always, Jeff!

I need to get round to Shakespeare for Squirrels. I'm pretty sure it's the only Moore that I haven't read yet.

>153 richardderus: >154 msf59: Thanks guys!

>155 scaifea: Thanks Amber. Shakespeare is only my 3rd of Moore's work. I didn't realize that it was a sequel until I started to read it. I haven't read Fool yet. It didn't really detract, its a really fun book.

If you see the word Migraine, how do you pronounce it?

MY-grain, or MEE-grain?

I say MY-grain. But, I'm listening to A God in Ruins and the narrator (Alex Jennings, who is British) says MEE-grain. Is that just an affectation of his, or is that how you say it if you're not American? Curious mind wants to know.

>157 mahsdad: - I think it's the British pronunciation. In North America, I believe it's common to say MY-grain.

>157 mahsdad: what >158 jessibud2: said

>158 jessibud2: >159 richardderus: I should have figured. Thanks for the confirmation!

May Recap

With 1 more day left in the month, I seriously doubt I'll finish anymore, so here's the recap for the month

>2 mahsdad: Q2 Books
>3 mahsdad: Q1 Books

11 books read - Best month so far

DTE - 4
Graphic Novel - 5
Audio - 2

Best of the Month - Song of Achilles 2nd month in a row that the book selection from the Life's Library Book club comes out on top. Continues to be a worthy investment.

Year to Date
Books Read - 41
Total Pages - 6,556 (44 pg per day, 252 pages per book)
Total Audio Hours - 6 Days, 20 Hours, 20 Minutes (20 minutes per day)
Projected # books for the year - 98

When you clean out the junk drawer that is your nightstand and find a remnant of a past trip. Now a new bookmark to add to the collection.

>162 mahsdad: That was from a trip long ago, Jeff. The German Mark was replaced by the Euro in 2002, so it must be from before that time.
And I see Circe, it is on my list after reading The Song of Achilles.

Hey Anita,

It certainly was a long ago trip, probably 1992. I was doing a software install in Munich. Spent 2 months there.

I'm enjoying Circe so far. Its funny how despite how diverse we all are in our reading lives, sometimes the lines converge and a lot of us end up reading the same things at the same time. :)

Marks! Wow. I had a 100,000-lire note for years after my first trip to Milan in the 1980s. It was so pretty!

Happy weekend's reads.

Yeah, foreign (to me) currency is so much more interesting visually than ol' Uncle Sam's greenbacks.

FF coming at ya...

Harika Fotoğraf Cuma

Today's greeting is for Ursula ;) Hope everybody's doing well. The weather here continues to be nice and pleasantly mild. I'll take it for as long as we can... knock wood. Tomorrow Laura's getting back to doing craft shows, where she can sell her wares. I'll be going along for moral support and pack animal duty. :)

Here's some of her stuff...



And if you're curious, her web site is : https://threepinehill.weebly.com/

Book Update
>2 mahsdad: Q2 Books
>3 mahsdad: Q1 Books

Reading - Circe by Madeline Miller
Listening - Fool by Christopher Moore. Since I read the 3rd one in the series (Shakespeare for Squirrels), I thought I would go back and read the others.

>167 mahsdad: - Lovely work. I did click on the link to her website but I did not see a link to the Book section she mentions.... ;-)

Happy Friday, Jeff. Was The God of Ruins a good fit for audio? Just curious. I recently finished Interior Chinatown. Keep this gem in mind.

Did you see that Sweet Tooth is premiering on Netfllx? My only concern is they decided to do it live action and changed Jeppard to a black guy. I LOVED that character.

>168 jessibud2: Ha you caught me Shelley. We always talked about that but never quite executed on it. Might have to pick it up. :)

>169 msf59: It did work pretty well on audio. To be honest, it didn't grab me at first, maybe I was expecting more of the magical realism stuff of the first one, but especially when describing his WWII experiences, I enjoyed it quite a bit.

I did see the Netflix show, in that trailer was what lead me to it in the first place. I loved Jeppard too, and I like that actor so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. I'm wondering if they change the tone of the show. The kid is a little more kid like that in the books, it will be interesting to see.

Do you think they'll ever bring Saga to the screen (big or small)? That would be a very interesting show.

>167 mahsdad: Teşekkür ederim! ;)

Hope you had a lovely time at the craft fair.

Most welcome.

It was a very nice day. Plus she was able to make her entrance fees back plus some. Always nice for sprouting small business.

Someone on the discord server for the Life's Library Book club, made a astute comment about their TBR, and another very talented artist in the group, drew it out. Thought I'd share here...



Credit goes to alys.creative on IG

Nice!

Thanks Doc!

A tiny bit of book acquisitions to report

Whose Names are Unknown by Sanora Babb. latest book for Life's Library book club. Babb worked for the FSA during the Great Depression and interviewed the people living in the tent cities in the Southwest seeking farm work. Her notes were given to John Steinbeck, who used them them when writing The Grapes of Wrath. When she wrote her book, it was not published as it was "too close" to Wrath, which had just came out. It was finally published in 2004, right before her death at age 98. I'm looking forward to reading it.

While Laura was at her show, I went out on my own and of course, made it to a B&N. I was restrained and only got two...

Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton - A sentient crow has to figure out why the world is coming to an end. A blurb quote says its The Secret Life of Pets meets The Walking Dead. Had it on the WL for a while, can't remember who suggested it
Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrick Backman - there's always room for more Backman.

ETA - fix touchstone to proper book

>175 mahsdad: I read Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton a while back and found it worth the time - I'm pretty sure it was a LT BB, probably from jnwelch.

Stupid touchstones. You’re right Susan. It’s the Buxton version. Lol

>175 mahsdad: Mark and I came across it at an ALA exhibit a couple of years ago, I think. I do remember absolutely loving it. I think there’s a sequel in the works.

>178 drneutron: Cool, even more reason to read it, with good recommendations from you. :)

>173 mahsdad: I LOVE this! It says it all.

Hey, Jeff. I am enjoying The Fortress of Solitude but it does not read as smoothly as say, Kavalier & Clay, which it reminds me of. Did you start The Underground Railroad series yet?

>175 mahsdad: LOVED Hollow Kingdom! I've read it a few times now. I heard about it here on LT--probably jnwelch or msf59. And Britt-Marie was great as well. I do like Fredrick Backman. Just read Anxious People.

Karen O.

>180 msf59: About the image, it certainly does. I need that on a shirt. :). I much preferred Kavalier, but then I'm a rabid Chabon fan.

>181 klobrien2: Hi Karen, Haven't read Anxious People yet. Britt will be my 4th of the novels (also read his essay collection about fatherhood). Ove, Grandmother, and Beartown. The essay book is The Things My Son Needs to Know About the World

Fantastichna snimka petŭk

Looking forward to the weekend, started a new job task that's been keeping me hopping. We are starting to get into warmer weather, hopefully we'll be able to get out and take advantage of it. A while ago I shared an image of the bridge into Long Beach, last Saturday, I got a much better one. Especially nice, seeings how I was driving at the time. :)



Book Update
>2 mahsdad: Q2 Books
>3 mahsdad: Q1 Books

Reading - Circe by Madeline Miller. A much different story than Achilles, but I'm enjoying it a lot.
Reading - We Are Still Here by Emily Koon. A collection of odd short stories that I got from our favorite retired Postman. Thanks Mark!
Listening - Serpent of Venice by Christopher Moore. Might as well finish out the trilogy
eBook - Pump Six and Other Stories by Paolo Bacigalupi. Every once in a while you're somewhere without a book, and you're never that fare from a Kindle app. :)

Beautiful shot of the bridge!

Agreed re: the Kindle app. It's ubiquitous.

Thanks RD.

I still don't like reading on my phone (iPad is okay), but it will do in a pinch.

Happy Friday, Jeff. I finished The Fortress of Solitude. I am glad I finally read it but it would have been much better a 150-200 pages shorter. It felt tiresome and ungainly at times. Maybe you will finally inspire me to read Pump Six and Other Stories. I have had it on my TBR list for years.

BTW- I LOVED Hollow Kingdom. Great choice.

>186 msf59: Fortress - I've always had a theory that as an author gains notoriety, their editors find it more and more difficult to get them to cut things out. Look at Stephen King and Neal Stephenson, they consistently write doorstop books (excellent books, but heavy nonetheless). LOL.

I've had Pump 6 for many years as well. I think I've started the first story at least 2 or 3 times and never finishing. Finally did, it was pretty good.

All the more reason to push it up the list. I've got a couple books in front if it, but it will definitely be soon.

>183 mahsdad: Beautiful picture, Jeff!
I am also reading Circe after The Song of Achilles, and enjoying my read :-)

>152 mahsdad: LOL!!
>162 mahsdad: Cool new/old bookmark.
>164 mahsdad: Another Circe fan here.
>167 mahsdad: Didn't know there was a third in the series--have to add it to the WL!

Happy Sunday!

>188 FAMeulstee: >189 Berly: Thanks Anita, Kim...

We are definitely going thru a Circe wave around here. LOL.

Kim - its funny with Pocket, I think I actually prefer the last one more than the other two. I'm currently listening to Serpent of Venice

For those of you on the Love, Death & Robots kick, here's a couple of the BTS shorts, about 2 of my favorites

The Drowned Giant - https://youtu.be/eUw_SJET0Qg
Automated Customer Service - https://youtu.be/R9lTsnlJXcw

>190 mahsdad:
Add me to the Circe circle. I just checked it out from the library today. I had to wait in line to get it. There must be lots of people reading it.

Doo be doo be doooooo...

>193 richardderus: Yeah I know, I was just thinking about you. I've been buried under the weight of other people's incompetence all day. Haven't even got out of my chair but once. That's the lot in the life of doing business software customer support. I think things have tapered off and now after a brief bio-break, I'll complete the job I really enjoy. Updating you all... :)

>192 benitastrnad: Its amazing Benita, how many people have been reading Miller recently. They are very good books and deserve to to be read.

>193 richardderus: I just realized it was a YT link. Too funny, but who in their right mind would drink Bud Ice. Life's too short for beer flavored yellow water. :)

สุดยอดภาพถ่ายวันศุกร์ Fan
Oh boy am I glad it's Friday. This is my 2nd week in my new support role and over all its fine and fun, but this week my counterpart, who's been doing it much longer than I, took off sick for the week, so I was thrown to the wolves with no backup. Oh well, its the best way to learn. We got a brief stint of summer weather here on the coast. It got pretty warm inland, but I continue to enjoy nice on shore breezes. Not sure what we're going to do this weekend, but it will definitely involve, drinking, eating, reading and some selection on the streamers. We still have to watch Hamilton on Disney, and I just noticed that Chinatown is on Netflix. Never saw that. Today's image was from a walk I took yesterday. I took some flower shots, but I also noticed the old infrastructure that takes a licking and keeps on ticking. The Bell System hasn't been a thing for almost 40 years.



Book Update
>2 mahsdad: Q2
>3 mahsdad: Q1

Reading - We Are Still Here by Emily Koon. Such an interesting collection of stories. The last story is a choose your own adventure tale about Lizzy Borden. Who thinks of something like that. :)
Listening - Serpent of Venice by Christopher Moore
eBook - Pump 6 and Other Stories by Paolo Bacigalupi. I'm about to finish the Koon, maybe I'll focus on this before starting a new DTE book.

I'm glad it's cooled off a bit for the weekend, but it looks like the ramping up begins for next weekend. I haven't had my nose out of doors early enough to know if we've been deprived of our June gloom. I love it when it lasts the better part of the summer.

>196 mahsdad: if it ain't broke....

>197 quondame: Its only a matter of time before things kick off with a bang, but we're definitely still getting the June Glooms, at least down by me. In fact last night we had a drink on the front deck as the sun went down and it got down right cold. I'll enjoy it while it lasts.

>198 richardderus: You know it.

Happy Father's Day, Jeff.

Thanks Buddy!

I know why, but I continue to be irritated by Amazon not letting you buy Kindle books directly from your Amazon App on the iPhone or iPad. (mostly irritated by Apple because they take a cut of every digital purchase made. :( )

Foto Divendres fantàstic

Its Friday again! Yippee! And its the last Friday in June and of the 2nd quarter. Where the heck did the time go. Today's image is one of the last one's I've taken with my phone. Sadly the camera stopped working. In typical fashion, an upgrade to IOs has broken something in an older phone (I have a 7). Its still working perfectly fine (except for the camera :( ) and I'm kinda used to not having the extra payment on my bill for the installment plan. The frugal side of me and the selfish side of me are currently battling it out over getting a new phone. :)



Book Update
>2 mahsdad: Q2 Books
>3 mahsdad: Q1 Books

Reading - The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green : An excellent series of essays about various things you wouldn't think need reviewed. Like Diet Dr Pepper, The Hall of Presidents and Humanity's Temporal Range, to name but a few. They are generally only about 10 pages long, so I'm reading a couple each night along with another book.
Reading - The Driftless Area by Tom Drury
Listening - Brooklyn by Colm Toibin : Just finished The Serpent of Venice by Moore, last night. So I haven't really started this, but I was scanning thru my WL, looking for audio that the library has available, this was the first thing that came up.

Happy Friday, Jeff. The Driftless Area fell a bit short for me, although I adored The End of Vandalism. I loved Brooklyn. Have a great weekend.

>203 mahsdad: Las margaritas son muy bonitas.

Divest yourself of the half-bit fruit company's absurdly inflated not-as-good-as-you've-been-sold products.

>204 msf59: Driftless - yeah, its pretty good Short book pagewise and large fonts so it should go pretty quickly. "fell a bit short...", I don't know what that says about your opinion of me, since I got the copy from you. LOL! I'll have to check out Vandalism. As far as Brooklyn goes, I was kinda on the fence looking at the overall ratings, but I looked at yours and I trust your judgement more often than not, so I'm sure I'll enjoy it.

>205 richardderus: Yeah, I probably should, but I've invested so much time and money in the apps and such that do work well, I'm sure changing paradigms would be challenging. We are a split household. Laura has a Samsung, and the kid and I have iPhones.

It's CATCH-UP Time...

40. A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson 8/10 : In the same world as Life After Life. This time its the story of Teddy and his life. At first I was a little disappointed that there wasn't any of the magical realism/multi-life stuff. But then I got into his story (especially the WWII stuff) and really enjoyed it.

41. Shakespeare for Squirrels 9/10
42. Fool 7/10
46. The Serpent of Venice 8/10 by Christopher Moore : The Chronicles of Pocket the Fool. (and yes I read them out of order). Squirrels I had a DTE ARC, the other two I listened to on audio. They are very funny mashup of Shakespeare's works with an obnoxious Fool, his apprentice Drool and his monkey Jeff. Squirrel's is Midsummer Night's Dream. Fool is King Lear and Serpent of Venice is (surprise, surprise) the Merchant of Venice and Othello and (I realized in the afterword) Poe's Cask of Amontillado . Fool wasn't my favorite, but they were all hilarious.

From Shakespeare for Squirrels - "How is it that you find yourself lost in the forest of your own familiarity?"
"I followed my love, my handsome Demetrius, into the forest."
"And he was eaten by a bear?"
"No, that's horrible. Why would you say such a thing?"
"He's not here, is he? And there you are, sobbing like you've been dirked in the dick by grief's dark dagger. Ergo. Ursa. Arborem. Therefore, bear in the forest"
"That means 'bear in tree', fool. And there's no sodding bear."

43. Circe by Madeline Miller 8/10 : The story of the daughter of the Titan Helios; Circe. The follow up to Song of Achilles, and is another excellent telling of an ancient classic told from a different perspective. It tells the story of what happens before and after Odysseus comes to her island during the Odyssey. A very interesting take on gods and titans and the characters we know from ancient literature, but don't really know. Excellent read.

44. We Are Still Here by Emily Koon 8/10 : An excellent little collection of very weird short stories and a longer novella. The first story is literally about the people who live in Sears, a weird apocalyptic story where people sort of give up on life and move into Sears. In a Dark Wood, an interesting twist on fairy tale tropes. And the title story that is a very effective ghost story that I wasn't expecting.

From We Are Still Here (story) : When he was a college student he wanted to be a disc jockey, not an insurance adjuster. He wanted to march in a political demonstration that in twenty years people would see as a historical linchpin, bridging an era of inequality with something better. Flo (his car) understood this. Mrs. Johnson (his wife) had wanted to go to Disney World. There was a hotel inside the park with a pool shaped like Mickey Mouse's head you could lay beside and sip cocktails like Raquel Flipping Welch, but she got the Daniel boon Motor Lodge, who's pool was empty due to a fungal contamination"
A woman in a prairie dress was giving a milking demonstration in one of the barns, pulling at a cow's rubbery pink teats while onlookers gaped. "Haven't these people ever seen a teat before?" Mrs Johnson asked the woman beside her. The woman stepped away..."

45. The Haunting of Tram 015 by P. Djeli Clark 8/10 : A short story that was my introduction to a new world that I didn't know I needed to read about. Our fantasy stories are typically based in Western Christian backgrounds. This is a Middle Eastern/Egyptian Muslim, world, where agents from the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities have to investigate the haunting of a tram car. An alternate Earth where magic and Djinns exist and have shifted the power and course of world events. Have to read more in this world.

*review*

>206 mahsdad: *disappointed sigh* Well...in that case...go join woot.com, the Ammy-light get-rid-of-stock division while they're selling out on the half-bit fruit people's phones now.

Ha. I haven't been on Woot in years. Forgot about that site. Didn't know it was owned by Ammy now. But then, who isn't owned by Ammy. :)

>204 msf59: Finished Driftless this afternoon. Not sure I understand it, it took some turns I either didn't expect or missed as I went along. It was still an enjoyable read.

Did you know that they made it into a movie several years ago. Here's the trailer.

https://youtu.be/ZSZmAsBxzL8

You are all caught up (on reviews) and so am I (your thread)!! You've been reading some great books lately. Love the Friday Photo. : )

Hey Kim, Yeah wonder of wonders, I actually posted some "reviews". :) Thanks for stopping by and the photo love.

I was about to post today's FF, when I realized that its July, which means new quarter and a new thread. Going to start building that now...

>16 mahsdad: Isn't it great!

Only a couple miles inland the heat has set in by this time as often as not, really more often than not, but this is one of the few years I've had to feel luckier than the NW.