Susan(quondame) Reads 2023-2

Not my library. But if I could...

The cast, a cranky old woman, 74, her somewhat younger grouchy husband Mike and her sometimes touchy 30 year old daughter who live in a West Los Angeles house on the edge of some very good neighborhoods with two dogs, the absolutely perfect French Bulldog Nutmeg and the wannabe dubious Pug Gizmo.

In addition to the above listed attributes (see dragon, it's spot on) I like to play with fiber, my current activity is related to the obscure practice of sprang which produces fabric with no weft and lots of horizontal stretch but almost no vertical give.

My 2023 Project, yes I haven't entirely forgotten it!

5 years ago I collected from a FaceBook group a list of favorite women F&SF authors. In addition up until 2018 I was maintaining a much longer list of women F&SF authors, many of whom I had only encountered on other peoples' lists or in advertisements. The first has 224 entries and I haven't counted the latter, but many, many more.
It is time to bring them up to date.

If you have favorite women F&SF authors who started publishing since 2015, let me know. I see a lot, but by no means most of what gets published in that field.

I include trans-women and individuals who present as women, though I'm sure I've make some mistakes and welcome corrections based on an individual author's statements.

Project Updates:

230114
I have done updates on my lists, moving the 2017-2022 new authors read to Excel, updating the general list with the information, and collecting more data, in particular from 28 female authors who rule sci-fi and fantasy of whom over half I've read and so are already on the list, so not too many from there.

The general list is a word document which contains close to 1000 names, most of which are still in 1st name(s), last name format, which makes alphabetizing impossible, so that's one major effort, name order flipping. I'm up to "G", having just completed "E" and "F".

What will be harder, I think, will be converting the footnotes which typically look like %^4MoD (name comes from my reading or list, story in Four Moons of Darkover) to + ^{FH91 IJT SFMW BF} (The Book Smuggler - Women SF Authors by Andrea K Höst, The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror 1991, Where have all the Women Gone, Sci-Fi Mistressworks and Black Feathers read in 2017.

230115
So I'm through "I" of which I only had Eva Ibbotson, so it was mostly "G" and "H".

230121
A few days ago Tor came out with 30 SFF Titles to Look Forward to in 2023 which actually lists 60 titles - supposedly 30 that Tor readers would be anticipating and 30 that might be new to them. These are all coming out before July 2023. Of the authors named 26 were women I did not immediately recognize, 1 specified tran, and it turned out that 24 of the 26 were not on my list of "Women SF Writer List" which I've stuffed with names for years now. 24!
Of the two that were on the list, one I had not recognized as a woman from the name though I had read 3 books by her and even remembered them to some extent. The other I'd never read and only seen on 2015 version of the Reddit list Women in Fantasy.

I have converted J-K, and now have the huge hill of L-M facing me.

230122
I'm into the Ms. And have added some more authors from the twins pages. Gosh, women keep writing F&SF! (I'm in the middle of Rebel of the Sands and had to add Alwyn Hamilton. So how did I even know to check it out if I'd never heard of her?

230125
I've done the Ss and I think the Ts, so I'm getting close to building the spread sheet. I have done a preliminary consultation with Becky who at least knows what pivot table means and has wrangled largish Excel databases - I mean mine will be less than 2000 authors with maybe two dozen source tables to start. She didn't have an immediate answer for footnotes in Excel, but I'm sure that something will serve.

230128
All the names on the list are now in Last, First format, I can now create a name list which can be automatically alphabetized - I know there must be ones out of order, so loading them all into a table will take care of that chore.

230401
Just this

85) Foxglove King



The story is well enough told to carry the reader and interesting enough not to manhandle her, but the writing and world building are shoddy and ill-informed more than is acceptable in anything beyond a first novel, which this is not. A fantasy world in which all gods but one have died and that one absent though the corpse of his most recently killed wife leaks a death miasma which empowers those who have barely escaped death themselves and Lore, a young woman of mysterious antecedents who gets caught up in a royal power struggle. Very YA, with two hunky damaged guys bracketing our girl.

Meets March TIOLI Challenge #2: Read a book with trees or flowers on the cover or with the name of a tree or flower in the title or author's name

>1 quondame: Love the dragonesque vibe. I identify completely.
The library that soars into the ceiling, not so much. I'd never be able to browse the 'shelves' at midnight when I can't sleep and need a "good read". Heh.

I was glad to see a link to sprang. I'd never heard of this until you mentioned it on your first thread. Looks complicated, but then I am so not a knitter.

>3 quondame: Wow! You have priortized something that I want to organize (though differently to yours except yes, in Excel). I keep putting it off because... well there's always a book nagging in my mind to read and then there's some art quilt hangings to finish. Too many projects lie neglected in a closet I am hesitant to open!

I hope I'm not intruding too early to visit.

Happy new thread, Susan.

Your project lists made me realize just how little Sci-fi/Fantasy I have actually read.

Happy new one!

Happy new one, Susan!

Happy new thread!

>1 quondame: By those parameters, I am also a dragon. That library looks fascinating, but as others have noted, it would be difficult to browse.

Seems that I also identity as a dragon! Happy new thread 😊

Hi Susan, and happy new thread!

Skippety-skipped through the last of your previous thread.

>1 quondame: We’re almost identical, although I’ll be 70 this year – somewhat younger grouchy husband and sometimes touchy almost 30 year old daughter. We don’t live on the edge of VGNs, though, and have 3 absolutely perfect kitties instead of one absolutely perfect dog and one dubious dog.

>2 quondame: I'm not usually a SF or Fantasy reader, but I just surprised myself that of the 2123 books on my shelves with status of 'read', 82 are either SF or fantasy. I would have expected fewer.

Happy new one, Susan!

>5 SandyAMcPherson: Hi Sandy & welcome! You were absolutely not too early.

>6 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul!
I was thinking about my bent toward F&SF and part of it is because I can care about the people and their agonies without having to feel any responsibility for the world in which they exist and which may cause their agonies. Oh, and they aren't usually about middle and upper middle class gits who are just not getting much from life or poor lowlives who are prevented from getting much from life.

I know you seem to care quite a bit about what's going on in this world, even in the U.S. where you can't really do anything about it. I just set up a few automatic monthly donations to liberal political and justice causes and let myself off the hook from daily angst.

>7 figsfromthistle: Welcome Anita!

>8 Crazymamie: Thanks Mamie!

>9 foggidawn: Indeed Foggi, there seem to be a fair infestation of dragons on mount LT, see >5 SandyAMcPherson: >10 curioussquared:

>10 curioussquared: Thanks Natalie! Yes, we dragons are legion!

>11 karenmarie: Hi Karen! I'm keeping my knees and heart! You've done a lot better with keeping your weight within bounds though, for which, no doubt, your knees and heart thank you.

Of course what I said to Paul above about F&SF is true, but it is also true that I like it cause it's what I like and gives me what I expect to get from reading pretty reliably, which is to remove me from this world.

>12 drneutron: Welcome Jim!

86) Anansi Boys



Upon his father's death Fat Charlie Nancy learns he has a brother and following the seemingly nonsensical advice of an old friend of his parents asks a spider to tell his brother to get in touch. And the brother, Spider does. And Fat Charlie's life gets very much more interesting than he likes.

Re-read for April TIOLI Challenge #9: Read a book with a word/phrase first used in the year you were born in the title, author's name, text, or tag (Dim Sum - I had to choose it!)

Happy New thread, Susan!

>15 vancouverdeb: Thank you Deborah!

Happy new thread, Susan!

>1 quondame: Me too, that library, if I could :-)

>14 quondame: I loved listening to this one -- the narrator did a fantastic job with the Caribbean accents.

Hi Susan my dear, Happy New Thread dear friend.

>17 FAMeulstee: Hi Anita! It is a bit idiosyncratic, but does show book love!

>18 curioussquared: Hi Natalie! I thought most of it would be in a English or American accents for Charlie and Spider, with the Caribbean coming in only at the end.

>19 johnsimpson: Hi John, good to see you drop by!

87) The Iron Princess



Barbara Hambly has done a lot better than this book. A fairly shallow built world, with orders of sorcerers working for an exploitive empire and a heroine whose family history inexplicably parallels that of Elizabeth I. One of the sorcerous orders is doing something quite like the Verrakaien mages in Elizabeth Moon's Oath of Fealty and there are chthonic monsters so you know you're reading a dark fantasy. Well it's not that dark, but there sure is nothing light about it other than content. This might have been passable as a first novel, but falls very short as the 70th or even 80th something novel.

Meets April TIOLI Challenge #12: APRIL SHOWERS rolling challenge

>20 quondame: Honestly, I listened to it almost 10 years ago so the plot is mostly gone from my brain. I remember the Caribbean accent throughout, but I could be very wrong!

Today was a busy day, well for me. I had the first session of the sprang lace class and learned how to make bigger holes among all the small holes of the net-like background - where we want them! I had to get the warp set up last night and collect all the class materials, which is different that the first of the first series, because we were sent the frame already set up.
I set up a second warp for practice after the class and want to do a spare for more work. The yarn I used for work during class was a bit too thick, worsted weight rather than what looked like sock yarn that the instructor used, so I couldn't do as many repeats in the same length.

Then Mike needed a ride to the car dealer to pick up the Prius V, in for repairs and later I ventured out again to pick up an order at the bakery.

It's been 3 weeks I've been living with low level headaches after my migraine, and it really saps my energy when it comes to attending to what's going on here online. I read through two, three dozen threads a day but don't seem to engage often enough to reply. Well the headaches are getting less intense slowly, so maybe I'll get past it.

Oh, and I forgot to mention the stiff neck on the left side. Probably from doing unusual stuff sitting - like sprang.

>23 quondame: Sorry to read about the continuing headaches, Susan. I hope they are completely gone soon.
I try to read all threads, lurking most of the time. Only occasional replies, mostly the usual new thread wishes and 75 congratulations, and when I feel I have someting to add.

>24 FAMeulstee: Thanks Anita, I'm pretty sure they are slowly winding down - maybe sinus related. That's similar to how I go through threads as there are a number of topics like videos and sports that I can't contribute to.

88) Cutting for Stone



A lengthy love letter to surgery and surgeons and the practice of medicine in general, a story of faith and an unusually constituted family each of whose peculiarities is a rung of its plot ladder. A great affection is also shown for Ethiopia. The narrator protagonist takes over the novel after a third of the way through and has the vices of his virtues as a storyteller.

A BB from kaida46 it not only
Meets April TIOLI Challenge #12: APRIL SHOWERS rolling challenge
but also PaulCranswick's Africa Novel Challenge

Hi Susan.

>23 quondame: I’m sorry to read about the weeks of low-level headaches. Blech. With my sleeping downstairs on the queen-sized sleeper sofa bed since March 10th, I’ve developed a crick in my neck on the right side and a tight trapezius. Can’t return to chiropractic without the surgeon’s office approving, which they say I can talk to the surgeon about when I meet with him on the 19th for my 6-week appointment. Sigh.

Sprang away, though. Sounds way too complex for this mind...

Happy new thread, Susan. I haven't read Anasi Boys, but I am a Gaiman fan. One of these days...

>27 karenmarie: Thanks Karen. The issue with sprang that is so different from knitting or crochet is that you have to lay out all the fiber on a loom like the warp for weaving and then adjust the size of the "frame" as you work and the interlinked threads pull in the work. The basic work is super simple, but the fancy stuff and finishing do make for real complications.

>28 BLBera: Hi Beth, and thank you!

>26 quondame: Somewhat unsurprisingly I have that one on my list to read this month too, Susan and your review gives me hopes for it.

On a different note, Yasmyne will go to the UK this evening (Sunday).

Have a lovely weekend.

>30 PaulCranswick: I hope Yasmyne finds her footing in the UK and Hani finds a way feel positive with what Yasmyne feels to be her necessities. When children come out with positive proof that they are their own creations it really stresses out the rigid places in the family structure.

89) The Case of the Late Pig



Albert Campion should know that more is going on than the apparent but this is a tale of bungling as much as anything as he sees the newly killed body of a man whose funeral he attended months before.

It's been decades since I read any Margery Allingham so I was not at all familiar with Campion or Lugg, nor was I particularly charmed by them.

Read for April TIOLI Challenge #7: Read a book that shares at least one word with the first listed title

>31 quondame: That is a wise comment, Susan. I am sure that she will find the right road for her to journey upon.

>33 PaulCranswick: Well I'm glad to hear Hani and Yasmyne parted amicably. I agree that getting over rifts at this time is most important to the future of your family, and besides family strife can be such an endless waste of energy absolutely required elsewhere.

I had a pleasant afternoon at a friend's Easter party, a pre COVID tradition that has been much missed, and even though I already socialized once this year I had a pretty decent time and had a lovely chat with a woman who's attended the same parties I do for decades without us ever speaking to each other as I recall.

90) The Bandit Queens



The dark humor makes this account of a group of village women in India who share a microloan and deal with problematic men with a certain creative finality a mostly enjoyable read. It does drag a bit and goes over some points repetitively and the men are pretty thoroughly good (rare) or bad while the women are much more interestingly depicted. I really enjoyed the irascible, forthright Geeta and the duplicitous Farrah.

BB from BLBera

Meets April TIOLI Challenge #10: Read a book by a female author with a female protagonist

91) The Do-Over



High school Junior Emily has found the perfect boyfriend in Josh and has decided to tell him she loves him on Valentine's day, but first the day gets off track when she rear ends her chemistry lab partner on the way to school and later sees Josh kissing his gorgeous ex-girlfriend. And then Valentine's day keeps repeating and nothing she can do changes these or other disasters in what was a pretty good life. So she decides she can do whatever she wants with no consequences and things get interesting. More of 3.25, but quibbles.

Meets April TIOLI Challenge #10: Read a book by a female author with a female protagonist

After working on some fiddly sprang my hands cramped up and when I told Mike he decided that "we" need the hot wax bath for "our" hands and feet - and Becky does too! I'm going to have to clean the junk off my bathroom cabinet, but as it really is junk, it's not going to be too much trouble. He has really fond memories of sneaking into the physical therapy area when he was a night aid at UCLA hospital and warming his hands in one.

In the meantime I put in an application to adopt an older French Bulldog. We'll see if I get considered or can afford her and if she likes me.

>36 quondame: Nice! On both items!! Those hot wax things for hands are soooo nice. Good luck with the Frenchie application :)

>37 Narilka: Thanks Gale! I'm looking forward to the hot wax hand bath. And I do hope to meet the Frenchie, but no response yet today.

DNF Spice Road. An elite warrior does not "clamber into the saddle." She mounts, or leaps, or vaults. That was not the first awkwardly inappropriate word choice or phrasing, just that final straw.

>39 quondame: That would bug me, too.

>35 quondame: The Bandit Queens was a fun read! A bit dark, but enlightening and leavened with humour. Best wishes with the French Bulldog you have applied to adopt. We enjoy our poodle / maltese mix, Poppy.

>40 foggidawn: Yeah. So many young authors seem to have graduated from fan fiction without being deep level fans of the genre their attempting to be professional in.

>41 vancouverdeb: Thanks re: the dog adoption.

I love dark humor which The Bandit Queens employed just about right although character consistency wasn't a strong point except for those men who were consistently latrines on legs.

Happy Wednesday, Susan. Just checking in. I hope the week is humming along for you and that those books are treating you well.

>43 msf59: Thanks for dropping a note Mark. I'm not exactly sailing trough Dead Wake, it not being my usual sort of read, but progress is being made. My anniversary dinner and sprang class & homework are also eating a bit into my reading time.

The hot wax machine arrived and has spent the afternoon slowly melting the wax - I may give it a trial in a couple of hours. The lace patterns have gotten tricksy.

Anansi Boys is definitely my favorite Gaiman. And disappointing about the Hambly book--I had just seen that it had come out and was about to jump on it. Think I'll wait for the library.

>45 ronincats: I think I'd rate his Sandman work more highly and I prefer American Gods.

Well I've had a chance to use the Therabath and it's very nice. The instructions say not to re-use the wax, which makes it more of a scam than cheap printers with expensive ink cartridges, especially if you get the Therabath brand wax at $43 for 6lbs. It does take a longish time to re-heat the wax after dropping the re-used wax back in to quickly do a second hand.

I'm still reading Dead Wake.

>32 quondame: I used to devour the Allingham mysteries back in the 70s & 80s, along with mysteries by Agatha Christie and Ngaio Marsh. I don’t think they’d be as enjoyable today on reread.

Hope you enjoy Dead Wake more than I did. Though I’m a Larsen fan, that one left me cold. In fact, I didn’t finish it.

ETA I’m a big Gaiman fan. My favorites are the Sandman GNs, Neverwhere, and The Graveyard Book, though I enjoyed Anansi Boys too, and actually all the books of his I’ve read.

>47 Storeetllr: I've re-read Ngaio Marsh's books more recently than Alligham's, though not as recently as Sayers or Rex Stout. I've only read a couple of Christie mysteries, so I still have those to look forward to. I also remember Arthur Upfield's Napoleon Bonaparte mysteries - well, not remember exactly, but remember I read them.

I think I might still enjoy the Upfield books, but, then again, it was a different world.

>48 quondame: I like a good traditional whodunnit, Susan, but even I think Marsh, Sayers, Allingham and Christie come over these days as pretty dated.

>46 quondame: I've not read his Sandman books, but much prefer Jane Lindskold's Changer to American Gods as a similar themed book and that probably colored my reaction to the latter.
>47 Storeetllr: I cannot give Gaiman full kudos for The Graveyard Book because he is just retelling episodes from Kipling's Mowgli tales in The Jungle Book.

>50 PaulCranswick: Perhaps we notice just because there are very few novels we reread written in the 20's-50's that so many people revisit as often as the classic mysteries. They aren't any more dated in general - except in that they more often shorthand characters into current stereotypes more than the best of their contemporaries.

92) Dead wake



One of the 3 things I thought I knew about the sinking of the Lusitania turned out to be incorrect. It did not actually cause the U.S.A. to enter The Great War. I was not charmed by this narrative and the mechanics of "she/he wrote" signalling the survivors with 3rd person reports indicating those who didn't became annoying. It was readable but I did not find it absorbing, but I now know more than 3 things about the Lusitania and they are more likely to be accurate.

Read for April TIOLI Challenge #5: The “It’s Unsinkable” Challenge - In remembrance of the sinking of the Titanic in April 1912, read a book about either a specific ocean liner (Titanic, Lusitania, Empress of Ireland, Andrea Doria, for example) or ocean liners in general. NF only, please.

We are going to have such soft hands in this house! We all love the Therabath hot wax bath. The webbing between my thumb and index finger on the left hand is a bit cooked, but not seriously. And using a mouse with the left hand - and typing - so fun!

I'm not loving Horse quite as much as some - it keeps interrupting itself just as I'm getting into the flow. And now a 3rd timeline has been introduced. Each bit is smooth and well done, it's just that I'd like much bigger chunks at a time.

>54 quondame: Hope Horse starts to come together for you. I really enjoyed that one. And have a nice weekend! Sounds like it is off to great start with the hot wax bath.

93) Horse



The subject of Lexington, the 19th century racehorse and Jarret, his enslaved groom is interesting as is the excursion into the mid-20th century NYC art establishment with Martha Jackson who obtains the portrait of Lexington. While I liked modern the characters of Jess and Theo, two individuals who have real passion for their work, I feel the plot chosen for that relationship is so much the Black man dies, white lives to learn trope, that it was more than just a downer, it was a disappointment and had no subtly or nuance worthy of the characters. But oh my, it was topical. In addition, the book failed at being a good read for me because every time I got into a story the flow was chopped off and shifted to one of the other stories. And what was the thinking on that cover? And why no picture of Lexington anywhere in the book?

Meets April TIOLI Challenge #8: Read a book that involves sports

>55 Berly: As you see Kim. It had lots of good content, but the organization and those plot choices were just nope.

Yesterday we went out to see Dungeons & Dragons. Lots of pretty scenery - characters especially, some great jokes. Full of fight and action scenes, the central character played by Chris Pine was very inconsistently written, much of the dialog written as if he's a lying, manipulative rogue, which some actions support, and others as if he's a reluctantly a thief only out to support his daughter. Not that that isn't a real thing, but it's not a fantasy thing.

I'm managing to learn more ways warps can go wrong than creatively tangling string. Maybe that's why they're called warps, or why warped means bent.

Today Mike has gone off to an SCA archery tournament and Becky is hanging out with some friends at their place so the dogs and I are getting some alone time. It's quite here except for Nutmegs gentle snores.

Later today: I had to employ my decide dinner super power this evening as Mike was too tired to think but somewhat restless and getting hungrier by the minute - he's usually good about feeding himself but every now and then he just can't imagine enough options to come up with something he wants and once he asks me it also has to be something I want. He's out picking up a roasted chicken from Zankou.

>56 quondame: Great comments on Horse; I also had issues with the different timelines.

I'm glad you enjoyed The Bandit Queens. I agree that the women were portrayed in much more depth than were the men.

>26 quondame: Hi Susan, I am catching up on some threads after life has become too busy lately. Being one with a former medical career before leaving the work field (but not a surgeon, no thanks) you can see part of the reason I was interested in reading Cutting for Stone. I learned things I never knew about Ethiopia before, and main characters circumstances were pretty unusual.

Hope the warm hand thing helps, they probably say that about the wax to avoid any liability issues, and good luck with your adoption application.

You are running circles around me with over 90 books already, not a big deal for me because we all must go at our own pace, but never the less...kudos for you, happy continued reading.

>58 BLBera: Thanks Beth. They were both interesting books, but The Bandit Queens was a more absorbing read.

>59 kaida46: I did work in a medical lab for a couple of years, but otherwise I'm strictly a consumer, but it was very clear how important medicine and physicians were to the author, and Ethiopia as well.

I'm enjoying the wax bath quite a bit - it can get messy, with wax flakes falling off when I didn't realize they were still on me.

Thanks!

94) Reaper Man



Death gets a functioning life timer and decides to have a life, and the life force released by death doesn't follow the usual paths but somehow enlivens everything. Severe nuisances and an undead wizard are the first symptoms, but something much more dangerous seems to be taking advantage of the untimely life. Meanwhile, Bill Door, previously known as Death, is learning that life is hard to let go.

Re-read for the Discworld: Death Novels Group Read it
Meets April TIOLI Challenge #11: Read a book by an author of whose oeuvre you have already read 23%

For quite a while the keyboard tray I use has had some problems, one of which is that the surface on which my mouse rests has lost all its texture and color variation. So wielding my mouse has become quite idiosyncratic. Today I started using a mouse pad. What I fine invention. It's ever so much better than doing without.

95) Livid (3.75)



A few months returned to Oregon after a tragedy shattered her life Sybil is empaneled on a jury for the trial of a woman who killed her husband, possibly in self defense, but then mutilated the body. Also on the jury is her ex-husband and the similarities and differences in the two failed relationships set up a dissonance that makes this book almost as uncomfortable a read as it is compelling - like a train wreck. One hopes, with out much optimism, for the right survivors.

Meets April TIOLI Challenge #3: Read a book with a one word title

>63 quondame: Interesting. Not sure about that one....

>64 Berly: I definitely will give that one a pass.

So very eerie a story line (based on >63 quondame: comments) ~ when I still lived in Vancouver, a friend of mine (divorced) had jury duty and *her* ex was also on the jury panel.

Reportedly he was a very abusive husband and it was a terrible time for her. Add to that was his focus on provocatively disagreeing with her and some others when the they were deliberating. I don't remember what the trial was about but the judge had to be called in to mediate (chastise?) the evident nastiness this guy was causing.
Train wreck sounds a perfect description. Maybe potential jurors should be screened for these acrimonious relationships?

>63 quondame: Yes, this one sounds too triggering for me, though it also sounds intriguing.

>64 Berly: >65 SandyAMcPherson: >66 Storeetllr: Yeah, I don't recall what "triggered" me to add this to my library holds, because while it is worth while it isn't quite profound and absolutely not any fun.

Sandy that does sound like a complete nightmare jury experience, and while not quite what goes on in the book, it sort of does happen.

Wednesday has been, for me, quite active. The last session of my sprang class 10-12, before which I mounted my sample and set up the warp for today's lesson. Then I was off to the medical center to pick up drugs. Later I stopped by the library and the deli to pickup appropriate supplies from each. Later I will be picking up Becky after her work teaching (franchise owners) at the local Mathnasium. Unless Mike is feeling like picking her up.


So this is a sampler of 3 lace patterns (mirror imaged as sprang always produces a mirror image) 2 from last week's class and one from the first class. The "half" to the right is smaller because packing works differently on the top and bottom - the sampler is rotated from the working orientation - and it takes constant attention and measuring to keep the 2 sections close in size.

HI Susan!

>36 quondame: Ooh to the hot wax bath for hands and feet. And wow. Perhaps a French Bulldog.

>39 quondame: Ugh to “clamber into the saddle.” I abandoned a book for the misuse of the word 'akimbo'.

>53 quondame: I liked Dead Wake much more than you did, but coming away with knowing accurate things about the Lusitania is a win.

>63 quondame: It sounded like my cuppa when somebody mentioned it and I bought it in February, still sounds like my non-romance cuppa. *smile*

>67 quondame: Your work is beautiful!

>68 karenmarie: Hi Karen! There is some sex not without smutty potential, but well....

The hot wax has made its biggest difference to my cuticles. Less hangnail trouble.

>69 Storeetllr: Thank you Mary!

I got a quiver full of quills! And if I can, than anyone who can google can.

>67 quondame: Nice lacework and now you have quills to go with them!! : )

>65 SandyAMcPherson: OK. Hard pass now.

96) Molly of the Mall



So the book is amusing and entertaining and overflowing with references to 19th century novels and novelists, so why didn't I love it? Well it lacks characters. There are names, and a few foibles, a bit of gossip, but even the narrator seems curiously absent except for displays of literary wackiness under academic pressure. She has a best friend Genevieve and when I realized I hadn't one bit of feel for Genevieve or a hint of what drew Genevieve and Molly together, well, I noticed that only her connection with her father had a hint of feeling associated with it and everything else just was a pile of words. Clever words, but lacking any involvement or entanglement. Plus, Molly includes Jane Austen with the romantic writers. And before this decade I wouldn't have know what Fluevogs were.

A BB from MickyFine

Meets April TIOLI Challenge #10: Read a book by a female author with a female protagonist

97) Delicate Edible Birds



20th century life did have trials for women and these stories fling many aspects of that in the reader's face. Oh, ouch. But well composed and well aimed, if bleak and at best bittersweet.

Though there is no sign of it now I can only believe someone else had this entered for me to choose it to
Read for April TIOLI Challenge #4: Read a book that has the word “bird” in the title

I have officially been reading too many non-F&SF books. The realism is bursting my eardrums. And there is more queued up. Even the books I read so I wouldn't have to go though another cycle of library hold were mostly not F&SF! None the ten books due soonest at the library are F&SF. OK, one is the perennial Journey to the West, which I probably won't get to again, but that's not right.

>74 quondame: Somebody need to fix something!! And soon! : )

>75 Berly: Yes, I need to have firm words with the person in charge of that queue.

Last night we tried a different, newish, Italian restaurant. Mike liked his specials, I didn't hate mine. But really, if you are going to serve artichokes it's important to either make sure only the edible parts are in the dish or make sure there is enough light to distinguish between the edible and the in.

This morning was spent at the Broad Museum (that's brōd) with a special early entrance to view The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away by Yayoi Kusama

This is a small room that can hold at most 5 people. Mike and I had it to ourselves for 1 min.

Of course, our group being us, we spent more time across the plaza at Otium chowing down on pastries.


I'm a bit done in from getting up before 7AM, not to mention a bit of wine last night.

I'm currently reading The Draper Touch, a large hardback which I've had checked out from LAPL on and off for well over a year. It starts of with a length exposition of upper crust NY/New England society and Tuxedo Park in particular where that jacket was only ever called a dinner jacket. Dorothy Draper was particularly proud of her descent from Oliver Wolcott, signer of the Declaration of Independence. Recognizing the name Wolcott as my great-grandmother's family name I checked and she, my great-grandmother, is a descendant of Solomon Wolcott, participant in the battle of Bunker Hill, and brother of Oliver Wolcott. So I'm a very very very distant cousin of Dorothy Draper! My grandmother, her contemporary, would have known that for sure.

>76 quondame: Hi Susan. My brain not too whirly ATM, so delurking to run around Talk threads.
That Yayoi Kusama display looks fascinating. I guess she's still into the 'polka-dot' imagery. Was it a silent installation?
Thanks for your comment (on my thread) that the 'benign' is anything but... actually I was glad because for me to have a benign in the diagnosis means no brain tumour.

>77 SandyAMcPherson: I hadn't known before that Yayoi Kusama did light pieces. I'm used to the pictures of her seeming grimly facing down a polka dot world. This display was silent, with the lights changing, a enclosed space about the size of a medium elevator.

98) The Draper Touch



This book has two major flaws - no color when the most impact of Dorothy Draper's interiors is the remarkable liveliness of the colors*, and that what Carleton Varney could truthfully relate about Draper as a person gets old fast. The constant chorus of her coming up with ideas, giving them to employees to implement, and spending more than came in from most projects. That she kept her private life private either limited or was respected by Varney, and besides this is a book about her "Touch." There is a substantial "family history" section so readers can properly appreciate her position as one born into the best society and knowing everyone who mattered.

*The copy I got from LAPL is from 1989, and I understand there is a much more recent edition with color. Also a search for Dorothy Draper yields many colorful results.

Meets April TIOLI Challenge #1: Read a nonfiction book concerning a person about whom you want to learn more. List the reason for choosing your book.

>70 quondame: Sue...What a beautiful room!

>80 Whisper1: It is an amazing experience. Appointments are normally required to see it, so our friends organized a top notch experience for us - and I wasn't expecting anything at all other than a chance to get together.

Hi Susan!

>72 quondame: Ugh. No characters, no involvement, no entanglement. Hard pass. However, I just looked up Fluevogs, and they remind me of a brand of shoes from the early 1970s – maybe only in SoCal. I can’t seem to even find a reference to them out there in the ‘verse. They were called Lovely Uglies, and I had a pair. Bulbous toe boxes, clunky.

>74 quondame: I also get twitchy when I’m not reading favorite genres.

>76 quondame: Wow, just wow, to The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away, and nice family pic. Thanks for sharing. And it’s always cool to find oneself related to someone interesting or famous.

>82 karenmarie: Yeah, some Fluevogs remind me of those super chunky late-60s/70s shoes on acid. They go well with the Gudren Sjōden clothing I like, but I just admire them on others, as I imagine my feet hating me move.

99) Killers of a Certain Age



It's ever so cute and all the twists are right where they should be in the expected direction. If the idea of women assassins appeals this is a fun read and brisk, nor is it long, so there's no chance for the least bit of drag. But it has all the grit of face cream.

Read for April TIOLI Challenge #6: Read a book having something to do with age or aging, name the age group

So a second book (The Bandit Queens) with women killing men (mostly) seasoned with dark humor.

>67 quondame: That is beautiful.

>76 quondame: I love that photo.

>85 BLBera: Thanks! The exhibit photo is from the web page. The one I took is all wiggles.

100) Stolen



At nine Elsa sees the man who has just killed her reindeer and he gestures that he will kill her if she tells. In a life that is difficult partly because she is Sami and and more so because she isn't quite Sami enough - her mother's people left the culture - is made grimmer by the relentless stalking of the community's reindeer by outsiders. The book moves well enough but is pretty much all in one tone and mood. There is some portrayal of community life but that is dampened by Elsa's somewhat self-imposed marginalization. This isn't a book to make Swedes proud of themselves, but portrays them as indifferent to Sami issues where not downright hostile.

Meets April TIOLI Challenge #3: Read a book with a one word title

101) Take a Hint Dani Brown



Two perfect for each other leads are set up with reasons to provide a fairly amusing story rather than just fall into bed and deprive us of a fairly entertaining well paced romance with just a shade too much agonizing about what we know won't matter further down the line.

BB from MickyFine

Meets April TIOLI Challenge #10: Read a book by a female author with a female protagonist

102) Kaikeyi



A prequel to the Ramayana from the point of view of Kailkeyi Rama's (step)mother who had him exiled. Kaikeyi struggles against the strictures of women's lives, both for herself and others, taking every advantage of her natural and magical abilities but finds that she still comes up against limits placed by gods and others' desires and considerable abilities.

Meets April TIOLI Challenge #3: Read a book with a one word title

This provides a fine echo to the themes and culture of The Bandit Queens.

>89 quondame: Beautiful cover, too.

>90 2wonderY: Yep!

We just got back from a Thai restaurant new to us - a few weeks back we picked up food there and the drive was a bit too long for optimal food delivery. Lots of dishes we hadn't tried and all were good and interesting, though the atmosphere is noisy and spartan. Still, we all liked everything we had, and will probably go back once Mike has has recovered from his shoulder surgery early in May. At least he won't be needing knee or hip surgery, as his pain on that side of his body comes from his spine and they are not talking surgical fixes for that.

103) Monte Walsh



A lyrical view of the old west of the cattle drive days, and of the life of Monte Walsh, a good man on a horse. Monte is both a good man, and as good as anyone can be at breaking and riding horses and wants little more than to do whatever work can be done from horseback, preferably with his good friend Chet who enjoys the excitement Monte's streak of inventive mischief delivers to life and takes care of Monte through the consequences. But the west ages, as do Chet and Monte and Chet finds something more in a life in which Monte won't fit. And though we only hear it from his final neighbors he does eventually find a community where his qualities are appreciated. Episodically told, we are never really in Monte's head and sometime only know by it's inclusion that he must be the subject of narrators' tale of cowboy antics.

Absolutely go the the work page for this book and check out the tags!

Meets April TIOLI Challenge #12: APRIL SHOWERS rolling challenge (word in title or author's name)

There's little doubt that Monte Walsh is a classic western, though it's low key playing of what the 1950s TV and movies made big dramatic scenes distances it from the main line I was seeking. Is there a non-revisionist (I'm guessing nostalgic is a built in) classic western that rises above the steely-eyed, iron jawed blather?

104) Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands



It's possible an intended message was that student debt is a modern mechanism for supplying serf labor, but that's one I got, aside from the "men are pigs" - well it's actually "pretty much all the men who interact with us are pigs, the good ones just leave us alone" which is very very sad. A basic but effective drawing style and just the right words get across the barren life of what are work camps, if semi-voluntary ones. I doubt anything other than living separated from family and community life for months on end could really make understanding the impact real. I was asked if I enjoyed the book and could only answer that I don't think it was meant to be enjoyed. Appreciated yes. That.

BB from msf59

Meets April TIOLI Challenge #1: Read a nonfiction book concerning a person about whom you want to learn more. List the reason for choosing your book.

>87 quondame:, >89 quondame: both go on my WL, Susan. Your comments make me want to at least take a look at these.

I think you are right about Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands -- a book to be appreciated, not enjoyed.

>94 BLBera: I hope you enjoy them!

105) Doing Time



Mathew doesn't make his parents happy with his choice to join the Time Police, Luke's father bribes the TP into taking his spoiled troublesome son, and Jane is just looking for a way to survive after running away from her ogre of a grandmother. The Time Police want Mathew's special talents and don't expect much of Luke or Jane except that they'll fail quickly enough not to cause too much damage. When very little goes exactly according to expectations things get interesting if not quite in the St. Mary's over-the-top, under-the-carpet way.

This has been waiting on my Kindle for quite a while so I
Read for May TIOLI Challenge #13: Read a book by a foreign author

105) Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf



It's pretty but not beautiful, understandable but not inspired. When writing a love story to a tree for children, there should be a lot of love.

Read for May TIOLI Challenge #9: Rolling challenge: read a book with a colour of the rainbow in the title or that colour cover

107) The Fur Person



Cute, and a loving portrait of a dear pet with an imagined history, but all cats and dogs and many other non-humans are persons with or without having to have a relationship with one of our sorry lot, so the last paragraphs tanked the book for me. The added bit in this 1978 edition about Nabokov was splendid.

Read for May TIOLI Challenge #6: Read a book whose author has at least 2 of the letters that spell May in their name

108) Three Miles Down



I was somewhat entertained by the story and somewhat entertained by the parts set in a time and place I knew quite well - even an encounter with someone I've met on multiple occasions, but overall this one just didn't have enough to overcome my distaste for the politics of the 1970s. The POV character was well portrayed but what he went trough lacked some visceral quality I required to feel his experiences.

Meets May TIOLI Challenge #12: Read a book with 2 or more words of 5 letters in the title

109) Lois McMaster Bujold: Essays on a Modern Master of Science Fiction and Fantasy



Mostly comprehensible (a couple early essays are reference and jargon heavy academic efforts) discussions of Bujold's works - the most important aspect and usually the most interesting aspect of an author. The bulk cover her Vorkosiverse, but the final two examine the theology of her fantasies and address one of my persistent niggles about the World of the Five Gods.

Meets May TIOLI Challenge #3: The "Read Me a Story" Challenge: Read a biography or autobiography of one of your favorite authors

>89 quondame: I had a similar rating on that one. It was a good read and surprisingly still fresh in my mind.

Hope you have a great weekend!

In other riveting news, I got yet another COVID vaccination this afternoon. My card is full. I'm feeling a bit nauseous but otherwise just fine. We are hoping that a specialty hamburger place is somewhat low on customers this evening due to Cinco de Mayo so that we don't have to fight or listen to a crowd. Becky and I love the food but hate the atmosphere at The Counter.

Well, we had a lot of food at The Counter. No panic attacks were had, though the noise level was almost as intense as we remembered. They have malt to put in the shakes, so I liked that.

>96 quondame: Your touchstone needs fixed.

Engrossing reads recently, or as always.

>101 quondame: We're debating getting another COVID booster, since the free part of them goes away on the 11th. Sigh. Sorry you're feeling a bit nauseous.

>102 2wonderY: Thanks. I remember checking it - but then I may have gone back and edited the post. Some were, some were less so.

>103 karenmarie: I got over it quickly enough to have an abundant meal, so no harm done.

110) Ramona and Her Father



I'm less impressed than the Newberry judges. Ramona father has lost his job and her mother goes full time but still the family budget is tight and family fun is rare. Ramona and her sister badger their dad to quit smoking - worried for his health and to save the expense. Every one remains remarkably even keeled and some fun is had. No lasting devastation.

Read for May TIOLI Challenge #5: Read a book with the word father or daughter in the title, or about a father/daughter relationship

111) An Eye for and Eye



Kate is called back from leave to investigate a grisly murder of a friend of a man directly in her chain of command who she suspects of connections with the case that caused her breakdown and possibly even set the trigger for that breakdown. This is a nasty twisty mystery changing directions and delivers some nasty shocks.

I found this on my Kindle, a 2022 World Book Day
Read for May TIOLI Challenge #2: Read a book with at least 2 title words that begin with vowels

It looks like Furious Heaven is not going to be a quick read, however absorbing it may be. And anyway, tomorrow is going to be kind of busy, taking Mike into the hospital for his shoulder surgery and then getting to the dentist for my 3 times rescheduled teeth cleaning and x-rays. Becky has arranged her schedule so she can pick him up after surgery if I can't be there in time - since she doesn't like driving to new places they did a test run this evening and picked up chicken for dinner. Not trusting Becky and I to feed him properly while his shoulder is healing he prepared curry and rice to get him through the first week.

>106 quondame: Mike is home snoring. He's wasn't coherent enough to report when Becky brought him home. If he gets loud with the snoring I should probably wake him and help him get his CPAP mask on. Even though I was back from the dentist's in time to pick him up myself Becky was determined to do it - she had done the prep, so she was going to do the thing. It's rather strange to watch her care taking her father - she's not a natural and he's not easy to care for.

I'm not happy with the new staff at my dentist's - no one I recognized was there and they wanted to start me on "intensive" teeth cleaning. I can deal with a change in style, that's inevitable, but I balk at a change in substance first thing out of the gate. They may have purchased the practice, but I do not exist as a exploitable revenue stream.

112) Furious Heaven



The fast moving, action packed and intensely personal set of adventures follows Sun and her increased band of companions as they move to the forefront of the Republic of Chaonia military advances against the Phene Empire. We get a sympathetic view from within the Empire as well. If there is survival and success of viewpoint characters beyond any believable limits, well that's a tradition of action adventure.

Meets May TIOLI Challenge #7: Read a book that has a judgemental adjective in the title

Gizmo is so depressed. She's sleeping in the dog bed that's usually in Mike and my bedroom but is currently in the hall just outside our door. She hasn't been allowed access to her person for a full day and doesn't even jump up and try to get in when we open the door anymore. I gave her her daily treat and told her she was a good girl but it was only a second's relief for her.

>107 quondame: I hope all is well with Mike after his surgery.

>109 quondame: Poor Gizmo, she doesn't take the absence of her human well...

>110 FAMeulstee: Thank you. Mike is doing well, but he's not a patient patient and is likely to be touchy in any case. Becky is doing well as his on call person.

Indeed, poor Gizmo. She has been so much more settled these last few months, much better behaved though still a major suck-up. I hope she won't backslide.

Thanks Susan, for the resizing advice on my thread. I'll try again tomorrow. I'm exhausted from trying to resize at the moment. I thought I had it figured out. Sorry Gizmo is missing his person so much. I recall about 6 years ago my husband fell on my some logs with our dog Poppy and we ended up at Emergency where we discovered that Dave had two broken ribs and 4 fractured" spiny processes" - some part of your spine. Anyway, Poppy looked so shocked and uneasy when I arrived home from the hospital after being there from 6:30 pm til about 3 am. I think the ER did not initially realize how much pain Dave was in , and then it took both X rays and a CT scan to find Dave's fractures. Then I waited with him until he was admitted and settled in for pain management for a couple of days. Poppy found it very hard, and I was lucky that our dog walker was able to take Poppy for the duration of Dave's hospital stay.

I hope Mike's heals quickly and Gizmo does okay.

>112 vancouverdeb: Gizmo did get some attention from the only real human today. We worry about her because as an adopted pet she has some real insecurities.

Ouch! Dave's accident sounds really nasty - especially as it's not something the ER can recognize instantly as a major source of pain.

Mike has to keep his arm pretty close to immobile while the sewed together muscles heal past the danger of ripping out, so his dog showing enthusiastic affection is straight out.

113) Lessons in Chemistry



I really enjoyed reading this book. Mostly. It's clever and has interesting characters, and some real situations, but with over the top cute bits - Six-thirty - and a solution for the main character that wouldn't be a solution in any real scenario.

Since I've done sweeps so far this year I was spoiled for choice and this certainly
Meets May TIOLI Challenge #10: Read a book that would have fit into a Jan to April TIOLI challenge that you participated in

114) Salmon Fishing in the Yemen



This is a strange and wonderful book with heart and deep wicked humor. Told with a series of memos, diary extracts, parliament records and other "documents" a story of vision and political turbidity, which bizarrely includes an interview, fictitious, by Boris Johnson in which he comes off as educated and alert. I don't think any other real person enters the story.

Read for May TIOLI Challenge #8: Read a book in honor of the fishing opener

So far I've read 3 books I actually owned, if only on Kindle, for challenges this month!

Your last two books sound interesting, Susan. I have Salmon Fishing in the Yemen on my wishlist. Good for you , reading 3 book from your kindle! Best wishes to Mike and you and Gizmo. Quick healing to Mike. Yes, Dave's injuries were a bit of a challenge for the doctor's to discover and yes, painful. Morphine IV for a couple of days in the hospital, as well as the maximum does of Tylenol an inject-able drug similar to Tylenol, Ketoralac. They also added in Benadryl, I'm not sure why. Boy , was Dave ever sleepy when I went into visit him. He was sent home with an RX of morphine, which was great, but he quickly decreased and went off that. A lot of crazy nightmares with the morphine, Dave found. But it did help for a time.

>116 vancouverdeb: Thanks. Mike is feeling somewhat better now and moving around pretty well. He and Gizmo had a couple of periods of shared nap time, so the little critter is more mellow.

Heart of Stone



A fable in which a relict enchantment wants what she wants.

Having forgotten I'd already read a book with a qualifying title I
Read for May TIOLI Challenge #12: Read a book with 2 or more words of 5 letters in the title #4: Read a book with a word in the title naming something that can be broken

115) The Sinister Booksellers of Bath



The booksellers call Susan in to rescue Merlin not realizing that their current challenge will be centered on Susan, though not at all caused by her - well only very indirectly as she is so tasty. Susan's wish for an ordinary life seems farther away as the action is pretty much non-stop from the time she enters the broken down door at the Small Bookshop in Bath.

Even though it's a likely shared read I may move it, but for now it
Meets May TIOLI Challenge #7: Read a book that has a judgemental adjective in the title

116) His Grumpy Childhood Friend .25



Fun and funny this is mostly a foamy latte of a romance. The usual perfect man for our grumpy, introvert Charlotte, whose last boyfriend's scoreboard proposal not only ended the relationship but kept her celibate for five years. Just after her friend suggests practice dating, Charlotte spots her childhood friend Mike at their favorite Cider Bar and well, practice makes perfect.

Read for May TIOLI Challenge #11: Read a book about a group of childhood friends

Blueberries for Sal



Two rather different mothers meet each other's offspring while on a blueberry picking expedition. A sweet story with playful symmetries.

Read for May TIOLI Challenge #1: Read a book with a ten-letter (or more) word in the title, sub-title or author's name

>119 quondame: I didn't realize this was becoming a series. Adding to my wishlist.

>121 quondame: A childhood favorite of mine! I still think "kuplink, kuplank, kuplunk" when the first blueberries hit the bottom of my pail.

>113 quondame: That's hard on the poor dog. Hopefully this stage won't be too long. Can she at least visit with him somewhat, perhaps on a leash controlled by you or Becky? Or would that just seem worse to her?

>122 Narilka: It is a charmer.

>123 foggidawn: I think I like this one better than the first.

>124 ArlieS: Mike and Gizmo have spent a good deal of time together since then. Supervised until she settles down, but she does rather quickly. And he is home a lot more now and for the next few weeks.

117) What the Left Hand was Doing



The limited cleverness of this story of psychokinetic rescue is very eroded by time as it is set in 1983 with missions to Mars and Venus and the possibility of interstellar travel and a wise and deep thinking president and by a complete lack of charm.

Read for May TIOLI Challenge #14: Read a book where the title has a word or phrase you don't want to encounter while walking in the woods

118) By a Silver Thread



In this fun and fast moving read, when her Master disappears, Lola the changeling has only a few of pills that keep her monstrous form at bay. As she seeks to find him before the pills are gone, every one Lola knows is either a tricksy bargaining fay or also under her master's control and something bigger and more catastrophic than her dissolution is in the works though she has no clue as to how deeply involved she is. Which is a problem, because the reader sure guesses before Lola does.

Meets May TIOLI Challenge #4: Read a book with a word in the title naming something that can be broken

I'm glad to read that Gizmo and Mike are getting some good visiting time together. We had a nice time and dinner last night at the Old Spaghetti Factory. As I mentioned, it's been 20 or more year since I've been there last. I had spaghetti and meatballs which was a nice change from chicken breast, which is what we usually eat at home. The best part of course, was a nice visit with my mom, sister, niece and Dave.

The Rainbow Fish



OK, it's pretty. But it's message is highly peculiar - give away what makes you special to make others like you. It's not possible and that's not how group dynamics work.

Read for May TIOLI Challenge #8: Read a book in honor of the fishing opener

119) Untethered Sky



A compact, basic tale of Ester who becomes a ruhker, care taker and controller to a roc, the giant bird that is the only natural predator of the manticore one of which killed her mother and brother. The ruhker corps is a branch of the King's power and thus subject to political whims, which endangers Ester and her comrades. Untethered is a strange adjective to use because so much of the story is about being tethered, the rocs to the rukhers, the ruhkers to their obsession with rocs and manticore hunting and obligations to the king and kingdom. The ecological-economic aspects of predators whose prey is also large predators is not part of the rather sketchy world building.

Read for May TIOLI Challenge #1: Read a book with a ten-letter (or more) word in the title, sub-title or author's name

120) Miss Happiness and Miss Flower



A story of two small older Japanese dolls sent to a family in England with two daughters, a half orphan cousin newly from India and an older brother. Nona, the cousin very much wants to build a suitable house for the two dolls. The older sister and brother are helpful but the younger sister is resentful. I was hoping for the plans were clear diagrams, but no such luck especially trying to translate 1960s English to American. Deal board? But it's true, small dolls have powerful wishes and can move their owners into all sorts of creativity.

BB from CDVicarage

I checked this out because a review stated it had plans for a Japanese doll house. It does sort of, but not in a completely straightforward sense.
Meets May TIOLI Challenge #13: Read a book by a foreign author

OK, I've finished off all the short stuff I have lying around and have to get back to Promises Stronger than Darkness which is super twee with our squabbling but goodhearted inter-species LGBTQ+ gang dash about trying to save the whole darn galaxy. Have I mentioned I have a major thing against plots that require saving the whole darn anything?

>131 quondame: If that was the edition you read you were unlucky. Both my hardback and kindle copies have detailed plans and instructions. If you are interested I could scan those pages for you?

Hi Susan.

>107 quondame: Ugh to ‘intensive’ teeth cleaning and do what you need to do, not become an exploitable revenue stream. I’m going to the dentist today IF the prescription for amoxicillin that they were supposed to call in last week is ready for pickup before I have to leave. I went through hoops to get them the info they need to ALWAYS call in the prescription before an appointment, but only rememebered that I hadn’t gotten a notice from the pharmacy about a prescription Saturday morning. I called right at 8 this morning and she said it could be filled… we’ll see.

>111 quondame: Glad Mike’s doing well and Becky as his on-call person. Our animals do get stressed when things aren’t normal, don’t they?

>114 quondame: I was going to NOT read this review since I’m going to have it for my RL book club when we choose books in June for next year, but your review is encouraging enough. AND, if someone else offers up Lessons in Chemistry, I’ll have Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, which I just bought, as a backup.

>133 CDVicarage: Oh the plans are detailed they just aren't straightforward. What should be simple lists are in paragraphs as are dimensions which should be in a bill of materials sort of list. And what is deal board?

>134 karenmarie: I hope your amoxicillin is ready in a timely manner, rescheduling is nasty.
Gizmo is mostly OK with the new regime. I just hope Mike can start getting more sleep. I put the most comfortable bandages I have over his diced up bits and anywhere the stitches would poke, so we'll see.
They were both good reads and full with incidents not worn smooth by constant inclusion, especially Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

121) Promises Stronger than Darkness



In order to finish this I had to go into don't stop just read the words mode. I knew the group would save the galaxy and their self-respect but really didn't care how.
For those in need of having the galaxy saved by a transgender princess and her squabbling crew of multi-species companions in a ship called the Undisputed Training Bra Disaster, then this series is for you. I prefer my tales of growth on a much smaller scale and would someday hope that the save wasn't at the last minute and in the teeth of total disaster. Also the cutesy isn't my thing.

Meets May TIOLI Challenge #4: Read a book with a word in the title naming something that can be broken

Did I ever order the wrong ramen. The broth was 30% fat and heavily garlicky - and I like garlic, the chashu was 80% fat, the noodles were 3x the general size I'm used to. Good flavor, but this is seriously food for those living with feet of snow all about them and not So. Cal. It turns out the restaurant I though I was ordering from no longer uses Grubhub to deliver. Well, I won't make that choice again.

Becky has been playing the latest Legend of Zelda every free moment since Friday. Nutmeg has been trying to get my attention

And the new Randy Rainbow video has dropped!

>135 quondame: Deal is a kind of pine - 'soft and easy to saw'. I expect it was cheaper and more easily available then.

And I see what you mean about the plans - they were just illustrations to me, I never had any intention of trying to use them!

>138 quondame: Hard to ignore Nutmeg's irrisitable eyes, Susan. And she brought you toys ;-)
So now Gizmo and Nutmeg come both to you for their needed human attention?

>140 CDVicarage: Oh, that's not what I was thinking at all, but I can see how it would be perfect for young hobbyists.

Now that I think of it, trying to use the dimensions from English plans for a Japanese house isn't optimal. I'd prefer to start by scaling the tatami mats and then figure how big the room(s) should be based on a 4.5-9 tatami mat layout.

>141 FAMeulstee: Gizmo now has access to the real human as much as she likes during the day, and she doesn't mind sleeping with Becky and Nutmeg at night, though she does try to hideout under the bed at 11PM, but can't hold out very long at all and is collected easily.

Hi Susan - I have a copy of Miss Happiness and Miss Flower from my childhood; I must have loved it because it made a cut of my books, but I don't remember much about it. My granddaughter did love The Rainbow Fish and Blueberries for Sal.

I thought Lessons for Chemistry was a good entertaining novel with maybe some issues to discuss. I enjoyed it more than I expected to.

Nutmeg is very cute! I'm glad Gizmo is getting all the time he wants with his preferred person. It's been hot here, and I'm not much for heat. We have our two portable air conditioners going full blast. Climate change!

>144 vancouverdeb: Nutmeg is our darling.

I too hate the heat - one reason I moved to and stayed on the westside of LA - and I installed AC before moving in, in spite of everyone saying that it's only needed 2wks a year here. They were never right about the 2wks, but this century it's been much worse of course. And now we have solar, yay, so it's not even that costly.

Added Wednesday 17th: Mostly this is here to capture my thoughts and work, not to tangle yours.

Yesterday was another sprang class, this time about how to fit 2x as long a warp on the same loom. Actually, depending on the type of loom it can be a bit more than 2x. But warping it takes a bit of getting used to:

Just before he put his earplugs in for the night Mike asked me about the class and I mentioned that, since I had not made and had to correct mistakes in warping my loom, I felt I hadn't really learned, because I didn't feel I understood how it worked, it just did. That cracked him up.

It turns out that each vertical is separated from the next at the start line so the verticals can't tangle as they do on the basic set up, at least until the cross overs are sorted during the first pass - and it is still all too easy to skip a thread in back and bring forward the wrong one - and that's with no lace patterning.

But because the threads at the start line - that would be the one with the little knot at the right above the red bead a bit lower to the left - can't jump over each other the bottom line in the picture which is used to keep track of the "shed" isn't really necessary. Well, I didn't think it was and a test showed that to be the case. So that was easy.

But my hope that it would eliminate the very tricky bit about getting rid of the extra twist at one end, caused because the first crossing always has to go to one end or the other and would cause sloppy loops at that end when the line is removed, was not fulfilled. Big double loop on one side.

The instructor showed us a very complicated way of adding colored thread to mark each of the first rows as we made them and then essentially sewing a new line through the original top loops and below the twists on the bottom loops. Very very ugly and she had 4 colors of thread all in a pretty small area.

On my test sample I noticed that the extra twist was really obvious, so I took one of the pick-up sticks I was using as row spacers and threaded it through the loops alternating from start line on the top and just below the twist at the bottom. No colored thread and worked a treat! The yarn just went naturally over the pick-up stick after I went through the start knot until I came to the end knot and those were pretty easy.

I'm curious to see what would happen if the loops were not made by a continuous thread but were discreet, so I ordered some 17" rubber bands to use as warp just to see how it falls apart when I take it off the loom. I'm too lazy just to tie 2 dozen loops of string and have all those knots to line up or deal with.

122) A Tale for the Time Being



Basically a two timeline book with a teenage journal writer in 2001 Tokyo and her reader on a remote western Canadian island. Both are removed from places they thrived in and having difficulty moving ahead. The book takes a long time to really get going but somewhere about 2/3 of the way through it gets strangely and wonderfully entangling.

Since it got on my holds list because I was hoping for a shared read for February's Challenge #13 it
Meets Challenge #10: Read a book that would have fit into a Jan to April TIOLI challenge that you participated in

122) Derring-Do for Beginners



Damian Raskae and Jullanar Thistlethwaite, young people of two very different worlds, one within and one outside the Empire of Astandalas, are both considered unlikely to do well by their family, and each has to some extent internalized that. When they get together they will start to make a better assessment of themselves and when Fitzroy (no surname yet) literally falls on them they find themselves ready for adventure, at least on a small scale. This novel strolls steadily through its events, spending the time getting to know these two proto members of the Red Company. Of course once Fitzroy appears the pace becomes frenzied.

Somehow I missed it coming out last month, but like just about every book it
Meets Challenge #10: Read a book that would have fit into a Jan to April TIOLI challenge that you participated in

>96 quondame: Hi Susan. Interesting reads here. I am tempted by the Jodie Taylor (Doing Time) but I haven't read very far into the The Chronicles of St Mary's series. So I ill keep this on a "for later" list.

>99 quondame: Curious what persistent niggles you have about the World of the Five Gods.
I have Penric's Labors waiting at the library. I have to finish the latest St. Cyr mystery before checking out a Bujold.

It was nice to see you visited my thread while I was immersed in grandparenting an extremely lively 8-year-old! He was living his dream driving tractors and front-end loaders at a friend's farm.

Edited to add that, >114 quondame:, this book was very amusing. I thought the plot was intriguingly set-up, despite its scientifically implausible basis.
From friends in Scotland, I understood how disastrously the salmon fishery in the country was being handled: a political football suffering from underfunding.

Glad to hear that Mike is home from surgery and that Gizmo is reconciled. I love that name for a dog!

>149 SandyAMcPherson: World of the Five Gods, in particular the first two, portray the Roknari pretty much as bogey men and the the Quadrene faith as a clear heresy. The essay of >99 quondame: point out that Bujold was reversing the history of the Iberian peninsula so instead of an intolerant Catholic church coming to power over the more tolerant Islamic regime, the Quintarian acceptance of the out of season displaces the rigidity of the Quadrenes. Which is sort of OK, but still pretty black and white, doesn't address the whys of the Quadrene faith where historically even the smallest of differences of religious differences based on theology are fraught with politics, economics, culture differences and personal feuds.

Then there is the business of explaining the "curse" as some of the Father's power (how when the Gods only act though humans?) given the Golden General and still working against Chalion after his death. So the Father was in someway acting against the Quintarians indicating some lack of harmony among deities.

All that is dropped by going to earlier time periods for subsequent stories, and I love The Hallowed Hunt and the Penric stories, but there is so much that could be mined from the whole Quintarian/Quadrene business too.

I'd love explorations where because the people do not think in terms of nuclear family and or do not live in a climate of 4 seasons there are a different number of Gods and their designations/rolls are different. What would be heretical if individuals from cultures with different deities met? Or even backing up, was there some great upset with gods and demons that explains if not justifies the Quintarian/Quadrene split?

Bujold has explained many times that she writes only as much backstory as her current story requires and limits expansions of her universes to what is needed for the next book, so given her goal in (more pointedly than I noticed on multiple re-read) reversing what happened with the Reconquista, my quibble, while not evaporated, has been soothed.

Who wouldn't want to drive tractors! At least a time or two! I do envy all the grandparents here, but realized that I'm extremely lucky even to be a parent (at 44) and spoiled my daughter as often as possible as if she were a grandchild, though thankfully not to her detriment.

About >114 quondame: of course you are referencing Salmon Fishing in Yemen, though I'm not sure about the science in Lessons in Chemistry either and both books were amusing.

Thanks re: Mike and Gizmo. The name was assigned by the adoption agency but Mike loved it and it suits her.

>150 quondame: Great overview of this niggle though I confess I got lost (not your faulty writing, simply my ignorance of what Quintarian/Quadrene religious implications are all about).
I love how Bujold handles backstory in a series of novels. She's very adroit at providing the minimum for clarifying her current story.

I figure if people want to leap into the series without any background, they have to expect to be confused and should know how much character development they've missed, no?

Funny coincidence that #114 was both the post number _and_ the book number I was referencing. So yes it was the Yemen story.

I abandoned Lessons in Chemistry. I found the premise irritated me and the grad school atmosphere in a lab off-putting. Likely I wasn't in the mood for this story at the time.

I might give it another try when I feel that the challenge of coping with late winter isn't making me grouchy.

We got out of the house to see Guardians of the Galaxy III this afternoon, so I haven't had much time to read. I'm tagging along behind all those who did The Three Musketeers and now D'Artagnan is retracing his route toward London collecting the 3Ms.

Susan, perhaps you could advise me:
I'd like to read The Three Musketeers, but have not found a classic translation of the original tale, despite asking the reference librarian for help in determining an edition that remains unabridged or has not been modernized to a ridiculous extent.

To give you some backstory, I don't remember ever reading The Three Musketeers. I may have read it in my early teens because my parents owned a great many classics including editions from their youth.
My mother especially was significant in introducing me to her favourites which is how I came to read The Scarlet Pimpernel at quite a young age. I loved the story (which probably didn't sink in historically-speaking, until years later after many re-reads).
I have an old edition copy still (though not my mother's fragile edition that was losing pages).

>153 SandyAMcPherson: This translation by Lawrence Ellsworth is complete whereas the ones in the 19th and early 20th century either cleaned it up or tried to give the dialog in some archaic feel - or both. Ellsworth's goal is to produce a version that is accurate to the popular and playful spirit of the originals. He does say that both Richard Pevear and Will Hobson have produced fine recent translations. I read it as a teen - if not my father's boyhood Edwardian one then his father's Victorian one. I still have a few lesser known Dumas romances in an old teal and gold binding.
I did like the classic illustrations included in the Ellsworth, but from web searches for Maurice Leloir learned that not all were included, so I've put in a library request for a hardback that may have more.

123) The Three Musketeers



This new translations (2018) of the classic provides a humorous fast moving telling, though except for the multiple demonstrations of their, when not otherwise required for the plot, exemplary fighting skills, I found the virtues of the characters entirely show rather than tell. The titular 3 drink, eat, fritter and gamble away any funds that enter their hands - or their friends' hands - and treat woman as sources of funds or outlets of momentary exuberance. D'Artagnan seems a bit more judicious as to funds on his own, but his behavior to Kitty and even Milady is that of a complete cad. Ah, well, it is full of swash and buckle and derring-do.

This has been a shared read this month and it
Meets Challenge #6: Read a book whose author has at least 2 of the letters that spell May in their name

>154 quondame: So my library has several 'Three Musketeers in various editions but nothing saying translated by Lawrence Ellsworth.

The only one that comes as translated by Ellsworth is Twenty Years After.

I couldn't identify an appropriate ISBN on the work page for your edition. So maybe if you have that available, you could post it? I don't feel I can rely on the main branch (where the reference librarians are located).

>156 SandyAMcPherson: I checked on Amazon and I can only verify the Ellsworth translation on Kindle which does not supply an ISBN. In the back of the book the ISBN is 9781681776149. The publisher is Pegasus Books Ltd. I found it at my library by searching for Lawrence Ellsworth, not by title.

OK, so today I had some morning.
Not to say that I usually wake up in the afternoon, but it can take me 40min to an hour to get stretched and moving and another hour to get through enough coffee and breakfast not to want to pulverize anything in my path, so I'm usually not online before noon or 1PM.
So as I got through my self selected Internet actions in a fairly timely manner - though not before noon at all mind - I made gingerbread. Yum.

>157 quondame: Thanks for your help, Susan.
I found a fascinating translation and publishing history website. Ellsworh has been listed with a page on his translation work; plus there's a link to his personal website (haven't gone there yet... rabbit hole).

I will move this discussion off your thread as I'm the one geeking out on this swashbuckling story and seeing (as I thought) that it was sanitized for a 'boys' story and the actual Dumas dialogue and sexuality is (as they say), bowdlerizing an original version.

>155 quondame: I have almost done with it too, Susan. It is great entertainment but I wouldn't really want to have them as exemplars in a civics class.

>159 SandyAMcPherson: Well, The Three Musketeers is a recent shared read for the guys - Jim, Joe, & Mark. I spent many years being a swashbuckler fan - Stevenson, Scott, Shellabarger, Sabatini, oh and Mary Johnston and Howard Pyle to deviate from the "S"s. I still love adventure, but I doubt I'd be anywhere near as happy with the old classics as I was.

I really didn't find The Three Musketeers very racy. Beyond it being clear when sex had occurred behind the closed doors and Portos' entirely mercenary attachment to a married lady it was quite tame.

>160 PaulCranswick: Too right, Paul. What staid types we've become now that there are non-alcoholic safe beverages with which we can satisfy our thirst!

124) Clary Sage



We are with Hal, very much the Duke of Feathering Pool as he makes the momentous decision to attend Marrowlea instead of Tara. If like others in his family he had predictably gone to Tara he would not have met Jemis and though he is neither Greenwing nor Dart, that series would be quite different without Hal.

Yay! Yet another Victoria Goddard release this year! This very month!

It would be hard to find a book that fails to
Meets Challenge #10: Read a book that would have fit into a Jan to April TIOLI challenge that you participated in

I considered The Three Musketeerswhile reading about here on your thread, Susan, but once I saw the page count, I was scared off!

Mmm, gingerbread. I haven't made that in some time, though I did make gingerbread men (rather blobby ones) back at Christmas time.

>163 vancouverdeb: Deb, IIUC, the book includes a great many endnotes and text devoted to historical facts. So perhaps the actual story page count is considerably less.
I'm on the hunt for either an affordable used copy or a paperback. I'm am not spending $90+ for the hardcover when I simply want to read a classic adventure story!

>163 vancouverdeb: >165 SandyAMcPherson: The Three Musketeers is long, no getting around that, though yes, the version I read is about 6-8% notes and does have illustrations.

>164 foggidawn: I keep boxes of mix on hand so it's a matter of heating up the oven and stirring until the temp is right. My favorite cakes are gingerbread, spice, and carrot, though I'll share chocolate of any variety after a restaurant dinner.

Mike had the stitches out today though it looks like another 3 months before his arm heals enough to be of general use. Apparently the original attachment that form at the repair sites aren't functional muscle but sort of bridges that muscle can form along. But he should be driving by July, so I won't need to chauffeur him then.

The gingerbread is all gone. I did have some help, but not much.

>159 SandyAMcPherson: I have three copies because I can’t decide which translation suits me best. Whenever I dip in, I usually have at least two open at the same time.

>168 2wonderY: Woah! That's dedication. I've made a request at the Used books place where I have a trade credit. It's amazing what turns up there. I've been lucky so many times, though I've had to be patint.

>168 2wonderY: >169 SandyAMcPherson: I just remembered that there is a second set of multi-volume Dumas that may have made it from my grandfather's house to mine so maybe I do have an antique copy of 3M in the house. Must look. Sometime. Maybe.

125) Men at Arms



The Night Watch is not exactly embracing affirmative action and Vines has only a few days left before marriage to Sybil and retirement from the Guards, when a missing dragon and an explosion at the Assassins Guild has Vimes upsetting the establishment. Sometimes what seems like and ending isn't anymore than what seems like a beginning brings everything crashing down. Gaspode has his own roll to play.

I may be missing out on a shared read for #4 but I've already read three that fit there so this one
Meets Challenge #2: Read a book with at least 2 title words that begin with vowels

What I'm really doing is taking breaks from Palace Walk which is entirely populated by characters I'd jump into the Nile to avoid spending time with.

126) The Firework-Maker's Daughter



(re-read) This one gets a whole star extra because of the illustrations by S. Saelig Gallagher. If the 3 non-southeast Asian characters hadn't appeared as big nosed closeset-eyed as the rest of the men than I'd feel guilty at the my delight in the illustrations. They are full of a whimsical joy which, alas, is not intrinsic to the text, which isn't bad but tries too hard.

Read for Challenge #5: Read a book with the word father or daughter in the title, or about a father/daughter relationship

Still avoiding Palace Walk.

127) Little Plum



When the large house next door is renovated and the Tiffany Jones move in, Belinda, who has made friends of nearly everyone is upset that she is unwelcome by Miss Tiffany Jones who runs the household and Gem the girl just her age. When Belinda spies a small Japanese doll sitting neglected on Gem's windowsill, she takes action. We get to learn even more about Japanese customs, including Hinamatsuri, the Girl's Day doll festival.

Like Miss Happiness and Miss Flower it was a BB from CDVicarage

Meets Challenge #9: Rolling challenge: read a book with a colour of the rainbow in the title or that colour cover

Still avoiding Palace Walk.

HI Susan!

Thanks for sharing the newest Randy Rainbow video.

Yum to gingerbread.

Glad to hear Mike’s on the road to recovery and yay for mostly-you gingerbread consumption.

>174 karenmarie: Hi Karen. You're quite welcome. Randy Rainbow's send-ups are about the only positives to come from the existence of the gang of psychos.

128) Palace Walk



If you want to read about a family made entirely of people whom you are given no reason to like or even find interesting, this is your book. You may learn something about Egypt in the years 1918 and 1919, but even that is presented through a family only one member of whom is interested in anything outside themselves or their household and that one is never followed into his political activities.

Meets Challenge #13: Read a book by a foreign author

129) Hard Time



The further adventures of Mathew, Luke, and Jane, trainee team 236 of the Time Police, in which they may not survive everything continuing to go wrong.

Meets Challenge #6: Read a book whose author has at least 2 of the letters that spell May in their name

Another attempt to avoid Palace Walk.

130) The First Eagle .75



A compact mystery with a deceptively deliberate pace in which the retired Joe Leaphorn agrees to search for a missing woman who disappeared the day and place where Lieutenant Jim Chee found a poacher over the dead body of one of his officers. In a fairly short span both are able to resolve not only their cases but aspects of their private lives.

Re-read for Challenge #12: Read a book with 2 or more words of exactly 5 letters in the title

>176 quondame: I love your comments on Palace Walk, Susan! :-) I'll be certain to skip that read. I'm amazed you powered through it.

>178 vancouverdeb: Thanks. I really wasn't expecting something so content free - and annoying. Not a single thing to pull me into the later volumes, it did take powering through. Perhaps it took courage to say something so uncomplimentary, but courage isn't enough to lift it from daring to decent.

131) Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes: The Official Biography



A very easy to read and follow heartfelt biography - well it's never easy to read about the failing and death of a beloved author, but otherwise. Terry Pratchett's early life is covered well enough to give a sense of his roots and very early engagement in writing and F&SF. The real concentration is first on his working life with not quite cursory coverage of his marriage and copious "hippy" pastimes of his twenties. Once he embarks on the Discworld books it's very much a working biography, but the impression is very strongly that working was very much what Terry Pratchett was willing to share and his private life is to be left private.
Oh, and the footnotes are not documentation but asides and do slow reading considerably. Not that that's a problem and if you're only going through the book once, read them.

Read for Challenge #3: The "Read Me a Story" Challenge: Read a biography or autobiography of one of your favorite authors

>177 quondame: I wasn't enthralled with this Hillerman story. Not sure how much you enjoyed it, or whether you've read more of his Leaphorn-Chee books.

I've been culling my originally "complete" collection because I aim to trade the ones I know I wouldn't re-read. This one and The Blessing Way have both gone the way of our Used Books shop for trade credit.

In both these traded stories, which I read long after reading Hillerman's later novels, I felt he hadn't yet developed his 'Navajo groove'. There didn't seem much connection to the actual 'Blessing Way' cure, which made the title seem misleading. 'First Eagle' didn't seem a fresh or intriguing story. Probably the details of the search for bubonic plague vectors was overly detailed and ultimately off-putting. I like best Hillerman's evocative stories of the American South West and the native traditions.

>181 SandyAMcPherson: I originally read the Leaphorn and Chee books more or less in order quite some time ago - there were still new ones coming out. I do love how the SW desert setting often feels quite real - I grew up in the Mojave high desert - and the presentation of the Navajo way of relating to its beauty.

What I enjoyed about The First Eagle is the interaction of the local factors - how Leaphorn gets his information via queries about witches, the specificity of the prairie dog burrows and eagle hunting grounds with the high tech research and national political ambitions that lead toward convicting the wrong man. All of which is echoed in the disintegration of Chee's relationship with the counter echo of Leaphorn's. And I do just enjoy time with those two detectives.

It was the first Leaphorn book which disappointed me for having so little of him in it.

>182 quondame: Those are good insights on The First Eagle, thanks.
My very first Hillerman was Thief of Time followed by Sacred Clowns.

I had them as first edition paperbacks, listed in my ancient (handwritten) reading log before I switched to Excel (I didn't own a personal computer until 1992). This observation is by way of saying how I know my early reading history. I lost that aspect of reading books by date when I switched to the spreadsheet.

I kind of wish I'd reverted to the handwritten reading diary because there's something undefinable about the joy of reading when I look at my oldest records. My taste has certainly changed!

And I have digressed here rather extensively ... oops.

>183 SandyAMcPherson: It's possible that you read Hillerman's books before I did. My memory is bad and has never been good for anything other than facts I've read and that got blown away the first time I smoked ate pot (possibly in 1969 but I may have put that off until the 70s).

My handwriting has always been a disaster, but a low impact one as I never was much of a record keeper. Only after I brought the same book home for the 3rd time did I start keeping records - 2007, so the vacancy in the records is competing for size with Stasia's TBR black hole.

132) Blood Brothers



A grim examination of the lives of minors under the foundling system of post WWI Germany. A group of young men live hand to mouth in Berlin turning to pick-pocketing from those barely better off than they are for a short burst of relative prosperity until the police find them. Two who balked at the pick-pocketing do find a way to live without preying on others but are still caught back into the brutal foster and prison system. A pointed and message driven text that was probably fatal for its author.

Whether the translation was accurate I can't say, but this English version has very good flow and makes the material perhaps too easily borne.

Read for Challenge #11: Read a book about a group of childhood friends

133) Project Hail Mayr



Saving the world one flashback at a time - with the flashbacks being new information for the main character due to amnesia as well as to the reader. It is a bit twee, I mean really, the one surviving crew of The Hail Mary project is named Grace? A good alien encounter story and and interesting take on two very differently capable individuals working well together.

Meets Challenge #14: Read a book where the title has a word or phrase you don't want to encounter while walking in the woods

134) Indigo: In Search of the Color That Seduced the World



A picaresque narrative of the author, a woman of half African American descent raised by white New Englanders, as she goes through western African countries on a Fulbright scholarship supporting her indulgently mystical exploration and acquisition of indigo textiles. There is information, though whether it can be trusted after encountering multiple egregious errors in the introduction is in doubt. Still the evocation of the magic of indigo's color resonates, if not the absolute embrace of blue as having meaning in itself.

Meets Challenge #9: Rolling challenge: read a book with a colour of the rainbow in the title or that colour cover

>185 quondame: Thanks for reading Blood Brothers with me, Susan.
The only indication in my Dutch translation it was not a recent book, was the use of some words not common used these days.

>188 FAMeulstee: You're welcome, it was a worthwhile if not pleasant book.

135) Rose/House



This reads like a multi-viewpoint dream narrative. Late in the 22nd century (23rd?) at the high edge of the desert community of China Lake is the Rose House, an AI that will only admit one person and her for only 1 week per year according to the builder's will. But Rose House has reported a dead body inside so the local police and the only person allowed in go to investigate. One of them leaves, but I'm not sure what's been discovered. You may have better luck.

I spent my first 19 years in China Lake, and the area is in my bones. But really, the town is Ridgecrest.

Meets June TIOLI Challenge #1: Read a book of fiction in which there is a printed (spelled out) odd number in the narrative of the first page.

136) Her Windowed Eyes, Her Chambered Heart



Going into the house of a known expert in the creation of mechanical automatons to extract her son seems like a really bad idea, and well yes, Pinkerton agents Artemus West and Elspeth Sorehs do have some scary encounters.

I did not intend to read about two bitch houses back to back, but well these things happen.

Read for June TIOLI Challenge #2: Read a book whose title includes at least three words beginning with the same letter

137) Saving Time .25



Some progress is made closing in on Mr. P, and team 236 manages to preform, if not to spec at least to goals. Family interactions on all sides if not always up close and personal. A bit of repeating of familiar tropes but that seems to go with the series.

Read to clear the way to About Time which has all the vowels about as compactly as possible it
Meets June TIOLI Challenge #3: Read the “Next in a Series” book – can be any number in an series you are currently reading except number one

138) Soul Music .25



The best part of this outing on Discworld is Susan Sto Helit, who wants to tackle the world with logic but being the granddaughter by adoption of Death get pulled into that role when Death goes off to find forgetfulness. A bard comes to Ankh Morepork and meets the instrument that will catapult him to more prominence than is healthy for him or the space time continuum. We also get Wizards being silly or just wizards, with Librarian not getting near enough pages. Mostly it's all quite silly and not a favorite, but it will do.

Read as part of the Discworld: Death Novels Group Read it
Meets June TIOLI Challenge #12: Read a book with a title starting with "S"
which is handy since I didn't, as I thought, actually have a copy of Scarlet which I had entered, in hand and the wait list on that one is long.

139) A Coup of Tea



A well paced competently written runaway princess story in a fairly interesting world, and if the obstacles are overcome without a huge seeming effort, at least they arose primarily from human greed and prejudice rather than any of the magical elements lying about so handily, which is a great plus.

BB from LizzieD

Meets June TIOLI Challenge #6: Read a book by an author new to you

140) Walk Two Moons



Two 13 year old girls who dealing with their mothers' absence, this story is told by one, Sal, on a trip with her grandparents to her mother's last location. It is a story about loss and stories and learning about one's own life by examining others' lives. There is a low key slightly mocking humor and while the story was well enough put together I found some discordant notes.

Read for June TIOLI Challenge #4: Read a book with a synonym for "travel" on the cover

I'm going to have to start a second book - The Ghost Map is not what I want to read when I'm eating and except when I'm sharing a meal, I like to have a book with me at table.

Amazon blues:
After the announcement that A Second Chance was on sale for $0.99 I went to Amazon where the Buy Now button was clear. Well, even though I thought I already owned it and the other early books I checked Just One Damned thing After Another and there too the Buy Now button was displayed. So I "Bought Now" using up $0.99 of my promo credit. Then over to A Second Chance and used up $0.51 promo credit and $0.48 charge to my CC. So I went to my Kindle to see that I had 2 copies of each book. OK, I couldn't return Just One Damned Thing... but I could A Second Chance. Only Amazon took back BOTH copies, leaving me with none.
Eventually, and if you have dealt with the swamps of Amazon customer support you know that eventually, I was explaining what happened to José, who asked me to repurchase A Second Chance and refunded that purchase, but couldn't restore my promo credit. This took a lot of back and forth and order #s etc and José was replaced by S. to whom I explained again A) the basics of what was wrong, B) that this was absurdly taking more than $1.50 of their time, and C) 3 separate things that had gone wrong in the transactions. S. gave me a $5.00 credit.

OK.

The credit has shown up as a gift card.

But....

My copy of A Second Chance again disappeared from my Kindle.

So if I buy it for the 4th time I will have $4.01 credit, which I admit is better than the $1.50 I started with, but Sheeesh!

So, what did you choose for your table companion? : )

>194 quondame: Um, I was too busy venting above (>194 quondame:). I went to check Chronicles of St. Mary's and found A Second Chance missing for the 2nd time.
Maybe I'll give Skin of the Sea a second chance. It's an unusual set up - African mermaids helping the souls deceased slaves discarded at sea to the proper afterlife - but it was pretty lackluster for me.

Bummer. What a hassle! : /

>194 quondame: I was cross when the whispersync link to most of my St Mary's books disappeared - not that I often used it, but it should be there. It seems to be connected to Jodi's change of publisher. The early books are still in my Amazon library but, as you have noticed, don't show up with 'You purchased this book on...' The later books, with the current publisher, do. It seems odd as many writers change publishers from time to time. I always down load my ebooks - from any supplier - to my calibre library, so I check that to be sure I haven't already got a book. It's not an issue for Jodi Taylor's books as she is the only author whose books I buy on publication day.

>197 Berly: Yep.

>198 CDVicarage: It's Bujold I bought on day 1, and would again if she'd decide to do another story. But even a writer should be granted the grace of retirement. Fortunately there is now Victoria Goddard with whom I was not quite on a current purchase schedule but plan on following more closely.
I may have had more St. Mary's books once, or I may have read library copies once the library started carrying them.
For sure I'll check now, but at least I was able to use the credit to mostly pay for another volume of St. Mary's.

141) The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic



A somewhat gross dive into mid-19th century London's SOHO district where Cholera spread rapidly around the Broad Street pump. One researcher, the self-made but eminent pioneering anesthesiologist, Dr. Snow, was already following water as the vector for the disease, while an Anglican neighborhood priest was collecting information for his own report. The narrative takes a while to get to how these two came to work together and how while the findings that the water from the pump was the vector was not widely accepted or lauded at the time it was the first real step away from the intuitive miasma theory and came into its own well before the end of the century.

The London Labour and the London Poor, which comes up several times in this book, fascinated Terry Pratchett (>180 quondame:) and inspired Dodger.

BB from lauralkeet

Meets June TIOLI Challenge #17: Read a book with a title or subtitle that mentions a place that is not set in the country where you reside

142) Skin of the Sea



The story and characters work, but the telling isn't compact or paced well to showcase the rich West African setting and lore to the best advantage. The choice to do a retelling of The Little Mermaid works well as an anchor for the mythic elements of the story, but has the unfortunate baggage of teenage longing between the mermaid and the young man she rescues.

Meets June TIOLI Challenge #8: Read a book that fits one of the categories of the 2023 Seattle Public Library Summer Book Bingo card (Sea Creatures)

Hi Susan

The cover for Rose/House is lovely. I will be adding a lot of your recent reads to my library. For now, I'm adding Skin of the Sea.
The Ghost Map, The Fireworks Daughter

>176 quondame: I laughed out opening when reading your comments regarding this book!

When I first joined this group, I read many YA books. I very much liked, and still do enjoy the works of Sharon Creech. I very much enjoyed Walk Three Moons, and am tempted to read it again.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts of this list of excellent books!

Yet another book that intices me is Indigo: In Search of the Color That Seduced the World

>201 Whisper1: Hi Linda, good to see you out & about. In the case of Indigo, you want to be able to see the color of the images in back. I viewed it on my iPad after I'd finished reading the text on my Kindle.

Hi Susan!

>176 quondame: If you want to read about a family made entirely of people whom you are given no reason to like or even find interesting, this is your book. You make me smile.

>190 quondame: Ooh, I love that title, Her Windowed Eyes Her Chambered Heart. And the author’s name is perfection too. AND, it’s Kindle Unlimited and I’ve just borrowed it. Not my favorite genre, but it’s a short story, and I’m intrigued.

>194 quondame: I have never hesitated to call Amazon CS, and they’ve always been helpful. Of course, it takes forever to actually get to a human being, but still.

>200 quondame: Somebody else here on LT read The Ghost Map recently, causing me to move my copy to a shelf here in my Sunroom. I might actually read it this year.

Not only did I get up late, I had a dentist appointment. And not only was I an hour early to the appointment due to misunderstanding or message relay error, but the dentist was running late. Fortunately the fix was minor, required no anesthetic, and I didn't get a parking ticket for over staying my spot for 1.5 hrs.

It turns out I could have taken Mike to his back appt. at 1:15PM and been in plenty of time to my 3:30 dentist spot, but really I only had to sit and read in one medical office rather than two and Becky took the burden of driving Mike about. He is just past the most sever restrictions on arm movement as of this week. I think he's allowed to use the muscles to move the arm but not any lifting or stress.

>203 karenmarie: Hi Karen! Thanks, a book's never a complete loss if you can get a bit of snark off about it. Cat Rambo is pretty idiosyncratic, not to mention somewhat hard to find. I take her in measured doses.

143) About Time



Even though it's about time to wrap up the whole Mr. P plot line, this book doesn't. The P's are substantially pruned, but still pestiferously plentiful. From the view of Director Hays it is one ghastly day, but as team 236 and 235 divide and merge we follow what seems like a year's worth of gallivanting over some centuries and continents.

Very efficiently
Meets June TIOLI Challenge #15: ALL or Nothing: Read a book whose title contains all of the vowels (A, E, I, O, U) or none of the vowels

144) Rust in the Root



Well told, this very alternate 1937 era tale of a blighted US in which Dynamism is under prohibition except for licensed practitioners, features Laura who is on the edge of destitution in NYC when she is caught up in the Colored Auxiliary of the Arcane Conservation Corps for a single day's orientation before heading out to Ohio to mitigate the worst blight in the country. It turns out that it's the worst blight for very dark reasons and the Colored Auxiliary is more fodder than cure. A bitter tale, but rich and full of fighting hope for marginally better times and circumstances. The solutions being more out of left field than integral to the original team is a significant if not fatal flaw.

BB from bell7

Meets June TIOLI Challenge #10: Read a book for Morphy's favorite subgenres semi-rolling challenge

145) The Fire Opal Mechanism



Jorit, branded as a thief, and Ania a fugitive librarian, flop through time dragged by an sapient opal jeweled clock fleeing the Pressmen. Even for a time travel narrative it's confusing and opaque. Not a bad read, but don't expect clarity in your gems.

Meets June TIOLI Challenge #3: Read the “Next in a Series” book – can be any number in an series you are currently reading except number one

146) Supermarket



This book plods to the middle in a fairly realistic fashion and then takes off with wild improbabilities in plot and established characters before skipping forward a few years to a non-conclusion. The sections where the main character learns about marketing produce and meat are somewhat interesting though the sum of the book leaves significant doubt as to whether what he learns would work in the real world.

BB from SandyAMcPherson

Meets June TIOLI Challenge #18: Read a republished book/work or collection of previously published writings

147) Tsalmoth



Vlad and Cawti's wedding preparations must fit around a dept collection gone so bad it's in multiple dimensions and involves factions and branches of the Jhereg. It's pretty much nonstop and fun, but sad too.

I think I've lost track of too much in Vlad's world, probably even neglected to read some. I always enjoy reading them, bar the niggle or two, but never retain much of what I've read.

Meets June TIOLI Challenge #3: Read the “Next in a Series” book – can be any number in an series you are currently reading except number one

148) A Wicked Bargain



If it weren't for the reluctance of the MC to take on the burden of their powers because of reasons, this would have been a short story. A 16 year old trans Latinx magic wielding pirate whose father made a deal with a devil is rescued by another Latinx pirate ship and haunted by a demon who wants to make a deal with them. Lots of whingy waffling until all the sparks fly and poof! I'm ambiguous about the hatred the MC displays toward their developing chest. Understandable but negativity about female characteristics is well, negative.

Meets June TIOLI Challenge #11: Read a book written by a transgender and/or nonbinary (or any other gender non-conforming identity) author

Hi Susan, Lots of varied titles/stories here.
>208 quondame: I liked Supermarket better than you did (at the time, anyway). It isn't a story that 'stuck' with me so, quite likely, a re-read isn't in the works. I wondered if, when I read it (2017), I was in an entirely different frame of mind. That would perhaps account for my exploring the Japanese business genre.

>211 SandyAMcPherson: If I hadn't stopped close to the middle and then continued after some weeks I might not have noticed the volte-face of the characters and plot. I would have noticed that the conclusion wasn't.

149) This is 35



Meh. We follow Erin, a co-creator of the reality TV show YOLO as she continues on her list of 35 by 35 things to do, but this time as a participant on the show. This includes her wedding, honeymoon and a few other items, but is what's being captured on film what's really happening. Well really who could care and why?

Read for June TIOLI Challenge #7: The “And They Said It Would Not Last” Challenge - Kerry’s and my 35th wedding anniversary is in June, so read a book with the number 35 in either in the title (subtitles allowed!) or the ISBN

150) The Blackmail Marriage



This GN isn't long, but it's still too long.

Read for June TIOLI Challenge #5: Read a book about something a nice person wouldn't do or one indicating such a thing in the title

‘Morning, Susan!

>210 quondame: Not enough coffee consumed to parse trans Latinx magic wielding pirate. *smile*

>213 quondame: Congratulations on reaching 2 x 75, Susan!

Yes! Congrats on hitting 150 books. And it isn’t even halfway through the year.

I agree with your assessment of Ghost Map and found it engrossing when I read it in an other lifetime (when I still lived in SoCal).

I enjoyed PHM more than you did, though I have to agree about the “Hail Mary full of Grace” thing. I read it on the Kindle and listened to the audiobook. I really like the audiobook edition.

>214 karenmarie: What, did I leave off philanthropic before pirate? Yep, it was a bit loaded on.

>215 FAMeulstee: Thanks Anita!

>216 Storeetllr: Thanks Mary. Both were so worth reading, it's just that PHM wasn't all shiny new concepts, but mostly replays well enough done.

I scheduled a sprang class for today and so set my alarm so I'd have plenty of time to breakfast, shower, clear my space, warp my loom (a total of 12 loops so no biggie) and start the noon Zoom session. Well, noon was noon Central, so I barely got dressed, cleared some space and was mostly warped when class started. Fortunately I had enough time to catch up and the class wasn't too much of a stretch.

I did fail a COVID test late last week - I just had to curtail some activities due to a cold which seems almost gone now, most it was a sore throat that was a big nuisance for a day and a minor one for 2.

Sue, I'm sorry to learn you failed a COVID test. Let's hope your sore throat and other nuisances does not stay for long!

Congratulations on reading 150 books! What an accomplishment!!

>219 Whisper1: I'm glad to have failed! A cold is better than COVID!

Thank you, Linda!

>220 quondame: Oh My, I should get to bed. I hastily wrote without putting my brain in gear...Yikes. I am glad you failed. Time for bed.

151) The Tigress of Forli



Caterina Sforza, married at 10 and dead at 46 having outlived 2 additional husbands, was exceptional in many ways and not just for her time and gender. She fought and schemed, survived the Borgia's efforts, and had men vying for her favors into her 40s. She leaves behind a record full of inconsistencies which is not surprising as though she lived by deft political maneuvers where possible, after her second husband's death she reacted with violence remarkable even at the time which nearly destroyed her own power base. Her third marriage gave her the association with the Medici which became, other than her own reputation, her lasting legacy.

BB from Storeetllr

Meets June TIOLI Challenge #1: Read a book of fiction in which there is a printed (spelled out) odd number in the narrative of the first page.

Hi Susan my dear, congrats on 2 X 75 so far this year.

>223 johnsimpson: Thank you, John!

I'm having another go at The Overstory. Of the books I'm likely to get to or get far into before they are due back at the library it's again at the top. I did Supermarket, how hard can this be? Well, I'm already tired of dead trees and people being arrested.....

>225 quondame: I’ll be interested to hear what you think of it, Susan. It’s in my stack too… a gift from my stepdaughter, and I’d probably get some brownie points for finishing it. 😳

>222 quondame: Glad it wasn’t a complete dud, Susan. I read about half before it had to go back to the library. I’ll borrow it again when I’m over this weird mood I’m in where I don’t like anything I’m reading.

>220 quondame: *roflmao* When you said "failed", I read it as the test having indicated that you had> covid.

But I agree with you about preferring a cold to covid.

152) Elfhome



At least my 4th re-read, I just wanted to hang out in alt-Pittsburgh in Elfhome with the good guys.....

New viewpoints are added as Oilcan, Tinker's cousin, discovers the existence of and eventually takes responsibility for a group of young Elves lured to Pittsburgh in hope of creating freely in their chosen fields. They may be artists over 70 years old, but they have fewer clues as to how to get on than a human pre-teen. Then there is the half-oni Tommy who is responsible for his aunts and young cousins all of them victims of exploitation by their, thankfully dead, oni fathers. And we meet more of the Stone Clan, whose difficult reputation seems earned. This story is about what commitment to making a home in a war torn city requires of them.

Meets June TIOLI Challenge #3: Read the “Next in a Series” book – can be any number in an series you are currently reading except number one

>226 PlatinumWarlock: Hi Lavinia, and welcome!

The Overstory has not won me back. I enjoyed the character introductions but once among the activists and their continual routing by the henchmen of our evil empire I just don't feel like more of that. So I diverted to >229 quondame:

>227 Storeetllr: It's well enough written and even though it does do the "she felt" without appropriate conditional modifiers in the absence of letters where she states how she felt.

>228 ArlieS: Yeh, I see how it's ambiguous.

Just catching up!

>186 quondame: I loved that one. I can't wait for Weir to write another.

Congrats on reading 2x75! Nicely done :)

>231 figsfromthistle: I thought Project Hail Mary a bit too tidy and cute, but it was a good read.

Thank you!

153) Harbinger .75



At least my 2th re-read, I couldn't let go alt-Pittsburgh in Elfhome with the good guys.....

Very much a middle of a middle book. We spend a few scattered chapters with the main actors, though the Harbingers are all off stage. Interesting developments, some backstories, and a huge cliffhanger of an ending.
Re-read: It's much better read within days of the other books and stories of the series when every character is fresh and I could tell all the pretty oddball elf females apart - Jewel Tear, Bare Snow, Discord/Stormsong, Thorn Scratch. Being fully aware that Oil Can's kids are all 70 something elves also damps the discomfort level of his scenes.
However, the strategy and tactics that the domana caste elves employ would horrify von Clausewitz and Lao Tzu. But then, the wood elves need to be the winners.

Meet June TIOLIs Challenge #10: Read a book for Morphy's favorite subgenres semi-rolling challenge

154) The Overstory



I did like the character introductions, and the language was powerful, it's just that watching the essential implacable greed of humanity grind the characters between the powers of short sighted self interest and the law isn't any fun.

Well, one more title I can stop renewing.

Meets June TIOLI Challenge #7: The “And They Said It Would Not Last” Challenge - Kerry’s and my 35th wedding anniversary is in June, so read a book with the number 35 in either in the title (subtitles allowed!) or the ISBN

155) Witch King



In this very hard to put down novel we follow the adventures of Kai, a demon serially inhabiting the bodies of deceased humans, in two timelines. In the present he has to rescue himself and his companions from enemies who he may include those he considered allies and in the past aid a hostage prince fight the previously unbeatable Hierarchs and their lackeys who draw power from death and pain and have killed whole populations to power their well.
Kai and his assorted group of long lived companions are fun and quirky if a bit squeaky clean, and gender is treated as a weak guideline.

Meets June TIOLI Challenge #10: Read a book for Morphy's favorite subgenres semi-rolling challenge

Other than finishing Witch King this morning over my late breakfast (a bit later because I had a hard time putting down Witch King last night) I haven't read today - there was my usual FB, email, and eBay activity followed by clean up in anticipation of my brother and his wife visiting. Then LT where I tried not to get totally sucked into the Pride Treasure Hunt (I've only tried 5 and completed 3) and more clean up. Then the visit, dinner, and socializing. I was able to rough finish all the sprang work pieces I made in class so they aren't using up looms, spare rods, double pointed knitting needles, and beads used in making them. I should block them and stow them with the class handouts.
That was almost all done while chatting with our guests, which was a win.

Only now I don't have any excuse for not warping up a new project or two....

I did need hints for one of the pride entries, but that's better than most challenges for me.

My first visit this week, Susan, so I must say congratulations on 2x75 as I get closer to my own first 75.

Have a lovely weekend.

Happy Sunday, Susan. I am not reading much fantasy these days, but I do like Wells and Witch King does sound good, so I am adding it the obese TBR. I loved The Overstory. Sorry, it didn't work for you as much.

Hi Susan!

>213 quondame: Oops. Forgot to congratulate you on 75 x 2. Congratulations!

>225 quondame: I never wanted to read this book. As I scroll down, I’ll see if you started liking dead trees and arrested people more.

>233 quondame: 3* is not a ringing endorsement for the dead trees and arrested people.

>235 quondame: I only got 4 of the Treasure Hunt and am done. I always do enough to get a badge and any more than the one or two required, if easy, make me happy.

>237 PaulCranswick: Thanks Paul!

>238 msf59: Hi Mark. You do spend a good deal of time out among the trees, so a book about their advocates should be your thing.

>239 karenmarie: Thanks Karen! The Treasure Hunt is a good way to remember details of LT navigation. I did finally get awards, but tag mashes remain more elusive.

Bummer. Hotter Shoes, who make comfortable wide fit shoes in a few interesting colors no longer sells in or to the US.

>241 quondame: That must be annoying for you, I get most of my shoes from Hotter.

>238 msf59: the obese TBR

HAHAHAHA!!! Well said. :)

>242 CDVicarage: Oh it is. I've worn my dark green pair and my burgundy pair almost every day I've worn shoes since I got them. Very few places offer any interesting options in XXW, and my big toe joints really notice when I stuff them in XWs.

OK, the following two books have so much in common. Non-binary, non-human, AIs, species with "hive" consciousness, political maneuvers, space travel. Possibly more. One is really a light romp with high personal stakes, and one is a fabulous coming of person-hood story in many ways. Both have older MCs.

156) Loki's Ring .25



Gita Chithra takes her small crew of space salvager's to rescue the older of the two AI daughters she hosted in her mind while they became people. Important to the plot is a strong political entity denying rights of AI people and prohibiting employing them. This is a reasonably well paced interesting space opera with about the technical credibility of Flash Gordan, I mean, system transits in hours, more like long car trips. Most of the cast is some variety of queer, but there aren't any interesting male characters and a couple of bullies.

Meets June TIOLI Challenge #8: Read a book that fits one of the categories of the 2023 Seattle Public Library Summer Book Bingo card

157) Translation State



Enae, left with the equivalence of a generous remittance, is pressured on a hopeless search for a Presger translator missing 200 years so as to be out of the way of the person who has purchased the old and illustrious family name. Enae takes a different approach than past searchers and finds someone quite unexpected. This is space adventure in a richly imagined milieu with believable personal and political stakes. Also deep weirdness. It is very absorbing and hard to put down.

Meets June TIOLI Challenge #16: Read a book whose title contains words all of different lengths

WOW!!! 157 books already! I admire you! Lately, I went through a period of starting books, then putting them down without finishing. I admire that you can go back and start a book that you put down.

>246 Whisper1: Thanks, Linda. I was glad to see there's been progress on you pain management.

Thanks Susan!

>245 quondame: 157 books, Susan?? Wow!!

Also, both of these books look interesting… I’m particularly intrigued by the topic of “rights of AI people”.

>249 PlatinumWarlock: Translation State is set in the same universe as Ancillary Justice, which I highly recommend, in which AI's are quite important. I think Loki's Ring is in the same universe as Persephone Station, so neither of them is first in the series.

>250 quondame: More for the TBR pile! 😁

>251 PlatinumWarlock: I've more where those came from, but I expect you do too.

Yesterday was a sprang class day, and while I was ready for it, unlike last week, the instructor and her assistant couldn't find the video re-made for the current class and the one they settled on had a set up enough different that following it on the warp we were told to start with became confusing. I did get the basics - how to make a straight line - how to make warp loops disappear from the front - how to move warp loops jump position. The goal is to create purses and hats etc with some of this sort of patterning:

The right is an original from the late Roman Karanis site in norther Egypt and the left the instructor's recreation.

Today wasn't nearly so much fun. I had a morning Doctor's appointment which ran long, took longer to set up referrals, then wait a longish time to get a knee x-ray of a possible bursitis, then wait for a prescription refill of a regular medication that got lost when I last ordered it.

I got home just as Becky and Mike were headed out to a move, Flash I think, after which Becky had to go to urgent care for an ear infection. She is now on oral and topical antibiotics. The dogs almost prevent me giving her ear drops. Nutmeg thinks I'm harming her and Gizmo just wants to stick her non-existent nose in.

I got a bit of reading in. Just a bit.

I was able to sleep in, finally. Both Monday and Tuesday I had to be up and about by 10, and for me that takes something - I usually don't stop reading until after 1AM and often not until after 2PM and do not immediately fall asleep. I'd guess 20-40min is my usual for lying in wait for sleep, where the later the longer - at least so it seems.

I do need to have day soon where I'm up early enough to get to Kaiser's lab for a fasting blood draw without trashing my entire day. That did not happen this morning, but tomorrow is another day.

158) A Girl is a Body of Water .75



Kirabo, raised in her grandfather's household is treasured by grandparents and aunts but the mystery of her missing mother troubles her. Much of the territory of a young woman coming to maturity in paternalistic Africa is not unfamiliar these days, though the cultures of Uganda have specific twists and hazards. Throughout war and even the death of her father a few years after his wife refused to admit Kirabo to their home - very much against custom, she seems only briefly troubled and touched, and is in fact quite unusual in that she is given good schooling and receives much support from many family members to reach 19 without being pressured into marriage. This is the story of a very privileged girl for her culture and time.

Read for the AFRICAN NOVEL CHALLENGE JUNE 2023 - EAST AFRICA it
Meets June TIOLI Challenge #7: The “And They Said It Would Not Last” Challenge - Kerry’s and my 35th wedding anniversary is in June, so read a book with the number 35 in either in the title (subtitles allowed!) or the ISBN

159) Deep Secret



A very readable and after a measured start, absorbing multiple world fantasy. The characters are over all a bit high on the quirk scale, but there are reasons. Some of the scenes at PhatasmaCon are screamingly funny, although there is a mild fat phobia on display.

Read for June TIOLI Challenge #13: Read a book by an author with the same first or family name as a member of the Leeds United Centenary FA Cup Final winning team of 1972

Randy Rainbow strikes again!!!

>256 quondame: Oh, gawd, he is SO FUNNY.

And I just added 3 Sprang Lace books to my collection:

160) The Bone People



A strangely moving ramble through the distraught lives of three New Zealanders, Kerewin, an artist who has lost her art, Joe, a man who lost his wife and infant son and Simon Joe's foster son, the strange speechless boy who nevertheless can be adept at communication. Simon finds the artist's direct and unsentimental acceptance a great draw and she, estranged from her family is in turn drawn to him and Joe. But the relationship is complex and violent in the present and rests on the broken shards of the past including Kerewin's non-sexual identity and history of broken trust.

I would have gone at least a point higher if I'd had any belief in Kerewin's estrangement from her family and if it seemed at all possible that a man who did what Joe did could have had the trust of Simon and could have reformed. Also, the translations for the Maori in my copy weren't always given for the appropriate page and were often not given at all. Paper isn't the best for everything.

Read for June TIOLI Challenge #9: Read a book (F or NF) about the experiences of indigenous/First Nations peoples in the Americas or Australia/NZ

>259 quondame: I enjoyed your review, Susan and it provided a timely reminder that I need to pick that book up again soon.

Have a lovely Sunday.

>260 PaulCranswick: Thanks Paul! Best wishes for a new week!

161) To Have and to Hold



The very definition of a plot driven book with pretty stickers for characters - Captain Ralph Percy, cadet of a cadet branch of a noble family a soldier come to Virginia, Lady Jocelyn Leigh who comes to Virginia disguised as a servant prospective bride fleeing Lord Carnal murderous favorite of King James I to whom she was promised. Escapes, duels, pirate adventures, captivity among the savage Indians, war with the Indians.
Our lovely Captain Ralph is an unapologetic slave owner and always refers to the rightful inhabitants of the land as savages - even the one he likes and respects and believes beating his dependents, always excepting his lady wife, is good for them.

This was assigned reading in Jr. High or High School, when it seemed a fine adventure and so romantic. I read it again as a young adult and retain nothing but the memory that I did indeed revisit it. I'll probably forget it again by this time next month. Oh, and there are no illustrations in the Kindle edition. I do remember loving the illustrations by Howard Pyle.

Read for June TIOLI Challenge #14: Read a book that made the Publishers Weekly best-seller lists any year up to and including 1986

161) Lost Places



Stories that, at least in one case reminded me of both The WIckerman and The Ballad of Beta-2. Strange vibes of the immanence of the uncanny and sometimes the uncan is fully opened.

BB from mahsdad

Meets June TIOLI Challenge #16: Read a book whose title contains words all of different lengths

Although Mike is able to drive now that it's 7 weeks post surgery he asked me to take him in to get cortisone shots in his lower back. This required him to come while I took Becky to her teaching gig in Westwood then off to Beverly Hills and the surgical center. Where, though they had requested he come in early, they were running late. We were gone from the house at least 3 hours.

162) Home: What It Means and Why It Matters



Editorial essays on home and what it means, mostly in the sense of the physical plant of the thing. Which thing is very important but while most of us have strong preferences as to that physical plant, it's the human and animal co-habitants of the chosen space that are the sine qua non. Or for some the garden and other landscape. Gordon also strongly and almost entirely associates privacy with maintaining secrets which is telling in a writer for whom uninterrupted spans within a room of her own could be expected to have great importance.
Well written, but it misses the core.

Read for AMERICAN AUTHORS CHALLENGE--JUNE 2023--MARY GORDON and it

Meets June TIOLI Challenge #6: Read a book by an author new to you

163) Firekeeper's Daughter



Daunis is involved in multiple worlds, her grandmother's white Catholic world where a college building bears her last name, and her father's Ojibwa world where a larger extended family including her half brother, captain of the celebrated high school hockey team, is currently at the peak of the world. As she and her best friend Lily get ready for college it seems the worst problems are Lily's ex-boyfriend's descent into drug addiction, the recent loss of her adored uncle who taught high school science and her grandmother's decline following a stroke. The replacement science teacher is Native American and his hockey playing nephew is the new team member. Daumis' brother gets her to be the new player's local guide to the area and all of the sudden there worse and more immediate problems. This is a briskly moving action story which touches all the places and then some of 21st century explorations of growing up while deeply involved in Native American tribal life, and has interesting characters worth caring about.

BB from bell7

Read for June TIOLI Challenge #9: Read a book (F or NF) about the experiences of indigenous/First Nations peoples in the Americas or Australia/NZ

163) Scarlet



The Scarlet Pimpernel recruits a servant girl from a vampire's household to impersonate Marie Antoinette in an attempt to rescue the remains of France's royal family. Eleanor has modest ambitions of her own, which prior to this adventure existed without questioning the order into which she was born. The primary weakness of this book, other that the vampires are entirely redundant and could be written out without changing the plot more than a hair, is that it's just sort of stupid. The vampires are likely important in future volumes, which the level of this, in itself a faded tribute to SP, does nothing to justify.

Meets June TIOLI Challenge #12: Read a book with a title starting with "S"

Ah, I ran out and did 5 things, but the important 6th thing I did not do. Well, it can wait a day, though it shouldn't.

I tracked down a new source of RJ's Australian Licorice and it is so much better than what replaced it at my previous source and TJs and especially Smart&Final and CVS. So I guess I'll be making regular pilgrimages to Whole Foods, which burns as they no longer have the bulk goods that used to redeem the trip.

Last night, trying to free Nutmeg from her monitoring collar I took a divot out of my right forefinger. I've got it crossgartered with hydrocoloid bandages which limits the range of motion a bit but my help speed healing. I hope it won't interfere with next week's sprang class.

>268 quondame: I wondered what the Bezos management team would change to make Whole Foods more profitable, and just incidentally more similar to every other grocery store, and farther from what existing customers prefer. I guess getting rid of bulk goods would be an example of that. (I haven't shopped at Whole Foods since Bezos/Amazon acquired it.)

>269 ArlieS: I don't know when that change was made. I didn't go to WF for a long time before the Amazon takeover.

Susan, you are reading a lot of books!

I send all good wishes!

Hi Susan! I see that yes, you have two dogs. I agree, having a backyard makes life a lot easier! We had a backyard with our first dog, a Border Terrier. That way, he could head outside in the am and late at night for a bathroom break and run about, but we've been in a townhouse for 22 -23 year, so we just have small " backyard" that Poppy prefers not to use. We do have a dog door, but she will only use it in an urgent situation, so we do get a lot walking in each day.

Wow, you are sure getting a lot of good reading!

>271 Whisper1: Thanks Linda!

>272 vancouverdeb: Yes, but two very different dogs. The first two were male dachshund littermates. These two are both female, one a French Bulldog and the other a pug mix. In between we've had 4 others, all dachshunds.

I don't go out into the yard often, but I sit in my recliner beside the French doors and appreciate it's sheltered green.

Yep, I keep at it!

164) When to Rob a Bank



Amusing bits with a few more than random economic takes and a lot of counter-intuitive "conclusions." It's just that the very most interesting bit all seem cut brutally short. Or maybe they remained interesting because they were as it were, seen in passing.

Read for June TIOLI Challenge #5: Read a book about something a nice person wouldn't do or one indicating such a thing in the title

>234 quondame: Glad you enjoyed The Witch King more than I did.

>245 quondame: I’ve got Translation State on my holds list at the library, and looks like it won’t be too long till it comes up. Good to know you enjoyed it. I love the world of the Imperial Radch.