karenmarie, addictively turning pages, chapter 6

Welcome to my sixth thread of 2018. Thank you to all my visitors!

Being retired is the cat’s pajamas, the bee’s knees, the eel’s hips, the monkey’s eyebrows. I do not miss working at all.

I read, am a charter member of the Redbud and Beyond Book Club, now in its 21st year, am Treasurer for our local Friends of the Library (henceforth abbreviated FoL), and manage our home, finances and etc. as my husband heads off to work Monday – Friday. Being an introvert (you’d never guess it from these pages!) I need and cherish the alone time to recharge my batteries.

I have been married to Bill for almost 27 years and am mother to Jenna, now 24, living about 3 hours away and starting a 2-year business administration program at Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington. We have two kitties, 18-year old Kitty William and 10-year old Inara Starbuck. We live in our own little corner of paradise on 8 acres in central North Carolina USA.

The picture I’ve chosen for this thread is of my paternal grandmother Nellie and her brother Karl, when he was about 8 and she about 5, making it circa 1887. They lived in a very small town in Nebraska.




My goal is to read 105 books in 2018, 5 more than I read in 2017. I missed my pages read goal of 34,000 pages by 525 pages, so will keep the same pages goal.







And, in honor of Sue Grafton, I am going to re-read all her Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Series books this year. Alas, there will never be a Z. I’ve read A-J so far this year. I'm going to take a bit of a breather as J was a bit disappointing this time around. Not awful, just not as good as any of the previous 9.




A few quotes about libraries that mean a lot to me:

Libraries are reservoirs of strength, grace and wit, reminders of order, calm and continuity, lakes of mental energy, neither warm nor cold, light nor dark. The pleasure they give is steady, unorgastic, reliable, deep and long-lasting. In any library in the world, I am at home, unselfconscious, still and absorbed. Germaine Greer

I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book. – When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library. Jane Austen

I like libraries. It makes me feel comfortable and secure to have walls of words, beautiful and wise, all around me. I always feel better when I can see that there is something to hold back the shadows. Roger Zelazny

And finally, very few books are worth slogging through when the inspiration to read them has gone. I abandon books with glee.

My theme for 2018, addictively turning pages, comes from an image on Mark’s thread first thread of 2018. In this case, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Books read

1. Every Dead Thing by John Connolly 12/27/17 1/6/18 *** 467 pages trade paperback
2. Kinsey and Me by Sue Grafton 1/6/18 1/9/18 **** 283 pages hardcover
3. The Country Girls by Edna O'Brien 1/1/18 1/10/18 *** 1/2 175 pages trade paperback
4. You're All Just Jealous of My Jetpack by Tom Gauld 1/1/18 1/15/18 **** 160 pages hardcover
5. Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolff 1/6/18 1/17/18 *** 1/2 328 pages hardcover, Kindle
6. No Middle Name by Lee Child 1/17/18 1/19/18 **** 418 pages hardcover
**abandoned after 90 pages** Brain Food by Lisa Mosconi 1/9/18 326 pages trade paperback ER Book
7. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 12/3/17 1/22/18 **** audiobook, 19 hours
8. The Hounds of Spring by Lucy Andrews Cummin 1/23/18 1/23/18 ****1/2 160 pages trade paperback
9. A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman 1/20/18 1/26/18 **** 337 pages trade paperback
10. The Far Side Gallery 5 by Gary Larson 1/24/18 1/27/18 159 pages trade paperback 1995
11. A is for Alibi by Sue Grafton 1/26/18 1/30/18 ***1/2 209 pages hardcover
12. Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens 1/1/17 1/31/18 **** 780 pages plus 9 pages introduction
13. A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley 2/1/18 2/5/18 ****1/2 367 pages trade paperback
**abandoned after 32 pages Why Buddhism is True by Robert Wright 2/1/18 266 pages hardcover
14. B is for Burglar by Sue Grafton 2/5/18 2/6/18 **** 186 pages hardcover
15. C is for Corpse by Sue Grafton 2/7/18 2/8/18 **** 181 pages hardcover
16. D is for Deadbeat by Sue Grafton 2/8/18 2/9/18 **** 184 pages hardcover
17. E is for Evidence by Sue Grafton 2/9/18 2/10/18 ***1/2 180 pages hardcover
18. F is for Fugitive by Sue Grafton 2/10/18 2/13/18 ***1/2 182 pages hardcover
19. Dead Wake by Erik Larson 2/14/18 2/19/18 *** 359 pages trade paperback
**abandoned after 56 pages Plainsong by Kent Haruf
20. Obsession in Death by J.D. Robb 2/19/18 2/22/18 **** 404 pages hardcover
21. The Power by Naomi Alderman 2/23/18 3/1/18 *** 382 pages hardcover
22. G is for Gumshoe by Sue Grafton 3/2/18 3/4/18 ***1/2 227 pages hardcover
23. H is for Homicide by Sue Grafton 3/5/18 3/8/18 **** 202 pages hardcover
24. The Godwulf Manuscript by Robert B. Parker 3/10/18 3/12/18 *** 153 pages hardcover
25. God Save the Child by Robert B. Parker 3/12/18 3/14/18 **** 145 pages hardcover
26. Mortal Stakes by Robert B. Parker 3/14/18 3/18/18 **** 157 pages hardcover
27. The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson 2/25/18 3/20/18 ****1/2 396 pages trade paperback
28. I is for Innocent by Sue Grafton 3/14/18 3/22/18 **** 224 pages hardcover
29. God's Kingdom by Howard Frank Mosher 3/22/18 3/26/18 ****1/2 228 pages trade paperback
30. J is for Judgment by Sue Grafton 3/26/18 3/31/18 *** 254 pages hardcover
31. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling 1/22/18 4/2/18 **** audiobook
32. The Shining Girls by Lauren Buekes 4/1/18 4/5/18 **1/2 368 pages hardcover
33. Promised Land by Robert B. Parker 4/5/18 4/6/18 ***1/2 218 pages mass market paperback
**abandoned after 132 pages The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman
34. Euphoria by Lily King 4/6/18 4/10/18 ****1/2 257 pages trade paperback
35. I've Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella 4/10/18 4/12/18 **** 433 pages trade paperback
36. Blue Monday by Nicci French 4/13/18 4/18/18 **** 322 pages trade paperback
37. The Last of the Bighams by J.A. Zeigler 4/18/18 4/21/18 *** 230 pages trade paperback
38. Isaac's Storm by Erik Larson 4/20/18 4/23/18 277 pages trade paperback
39. The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley 04/23/18 04/29/18 *** 318 pages hardcover

Currently Reading:

On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder 3/27/18 128 pages hardcover , Kindle 2017
The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd 4/3/18 13.5 hours audiobook, 2014

Books Added

January - 16

1. SomeGuyInVirginia - True Tales from the Annals of Crime and Rascality by St. Clair McKelway
2. Thrift Shop - Secrets in Death by J.D. Robb
3. BookMooch - Guardian Angels & Spirit Guides by Brad Steiger
4. BookMooch - God's Fires by Patricia Anthony
5. Circle City Books - A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman for Feb Book club
6. Circle City Books - Plainsong by Kent Haruf for March Book club
7. Amazon - Why Buddhism is True by Robert Wright
8. LT ER - The Hounds of Spring by Lucy Andrews Cummin
9. BookMooch - The Silver Swan by Benjamin Black
10. Thrift Shop - The Princess Bride by William Goldman
11. Amazon - A Trail Through Time by Jodi Taylor e-book
12. Amazon - Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff e-book
13. B&N - Persons Unknown by Susie Steiner
14. BookMooch - Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
15. Amazon - Kindred by Octavia Butler e-book
16. Amazon - Not Perfect by Elizabeth LaBan e-book

February - 9

17. Jenn - Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman
18. Scuppernong Books - A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
19. Amazon - The Power by Naomi Alderman
20. Amazon - The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
21. dianekeenoy - My Name is Venus Black by Heather Lloyd
22. Amazon - The Sword in the Stone by T.H. White
23. Friend Sherry - Rebel: My Life Outside the Lines by Nick Nolte
24. Friend Sherry - The Journal of Best Practices by David Finch
25. BookMooch - Isaac's Storm by Erik Larson

March - 10

26. Amazon - The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor
27. Amazon - Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by J.K. Rowling
28. Amazon - Enter Spenser by Robert B. Parker
29. Thrift Shop - I've Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella
30. Amazon - God's Kingdom by Howard Frank Mosher
31. Circle City Books - Eva Luna by Isabel Allende
32. Circle City Books - Promised Land by Robert B. Parker
33. Amazon - On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder - ebook
34. Amazon - The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman - ebook
35 Amazon - True Fiction by Lee Goldberg - ebook

April - 69

36. ER - Gumshoe on the Loose by Rob Leininger
37. The Complete Cartoons of the New Yorker by Mankoff, Robert
38. 20,000 years of world painting by Jaffé, Hans Ludwig C.
39. Legends: The Century's Most Unforgettable Faces by Jordan, Killian
40. Tutankhamun: His Tomb and Its Treasures by Edwards, Iorwerth Eiddon Stephen
41. An Acceptable Time by L'Engle, Madeleine
42. Blanche on the Lam by Neely, Barbara
43. Enjoying Purple Martins More: A Special Publication from Bird Watcher's Digest by Wolinski, Richard A.
44. A Cure for Dreams by Gibbons, Kaye
45. Still Life with Bread Crumbs by Quindlen, Anna
46. The Best of Will Rogers by Sterling, Bryan
47. Theft by Finding: Diaries (1977-2002) by Sedaris, David
48. Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power by Carwardine, Richard
49. Theodore Rex by Morris, Edmund
50. The Hush by Hart, John
51. A Very Private Enterprise by Ironside, Elizabeth
52. Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms,and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories by Winchester, Simon
53. The History of Ancient Egypt by The Great Courses
54. The Story of Human Language by Professor John McWhorter
55. Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932: A Novel by Prose, Francine
56. Lafayette in the Somewhat United States by Vowell, Sarah
57. What Happened by Clinton, Hillary Rodham
58. The Black Death by Ziegler, Philip
59. Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Noah, Trevor
60. Did Lincoln Own Slaves?: And Other Frequently Asked Questions About Abraham Lincoln by Prokopowicz, Gerald J.
61. Sunday Silence by French, Nicci
62. Charles Jessold, Considered as a Murderer: A Novel by Stace, Wesley
63. The Ladies' Man by Lipman, Elinor
64. Jane Austen's Novels: The Art of Clarity by Gard, Roger
65. Recipes & Remedies From The People's Pharmacy by Joe & Terry Graedon
66. Into the Wild by Krakauer, Jon
67. Mrs. Bridge by Connell, Evan S.
68. National Geographic Complete Birds of the World by Geographic, National
69. The Mystery of the Ivory Charm by Keene, Carolyn
70. The Mystery at Lilac Inn by Keene, Carolyn
71. The Sign of the Twisted Candles by Keene, Carolyn
72. The Secret at Shadow Ranch by Keene, Carolyn
73. The Whispering Statue by Keene, Carolyn
74. The Ghost of Blackwood Hall by Keene, Carolyn
75. The Mystery of the Brass Bound Trunk by Keene,Carolyn
76. The Clue in the Old Album by Keene, Carolyn
77. The Clue of the Tapping Heels by Keene, Carolyn
78. The North Carolina Birding Trail: Piedmont Trail Guide by North Carolina Birding Trail
79. Damascus Gate by Stone, Robert
80. Gump & Co. by Groom, Winston
81. The Astronomer: A Novel of Suspense by Goldstone, Lawrence
82. The Last Enemy by Brophy, Grace
83. The Truth According to Us by Barrows, Annie
84. Language & Thought by Chomsky, Noam
85. Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child by Spitz, Bob
86. The Malcontenta by Maitland, Barry
87. Necessary as Blood by Crombie, Deborah
88. Changing Places: A Tale of Two Campuses by Lodge, David
89. The Accomplice by Ironside, Elizabeth
90. The Sheltering Sky by Bowles, Paul
91. The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science by Angier, Natalie
92. Slouching Towards Bethlehem: Essays by Didion, Joan
93. The Underpainter by Urquhart, Jane
94. The Cold Dish by Johnson, Craig
95. Ten Dead Comedians: A Murder Mystery by Van Lente, Fred
96. Shrimp: a Savor the South® cookbook by Pierce, Jay
97. Early Man and the Ocean: A Search for the Beginnings of Navigation and Seaborne Civilizations by Heyerdahl, Thor
98. King Solomon's Mines, She and Allan Quatermain by Haggard, Henry Rider
99. This Is NPR: The First Forty Years by Roberts, Cokie
100. Tartuffe by Moliere, Jean Baptiste Poquelin de
101. Confessions of a Shopaholic by Kinsella, Sophie
102. Iced by Siler, Jenny
103. American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson by Ellis, Joseph J.
104. For the Time Being by Dillard, Annie

Culls

1. Every Dead Thing by John Connolly first of a series I will never continue
2. Brain Food by Lisa Mosconi
3. Why Buddhism is True by Robert Wright - references to The Matrix and powdered sugar donut analogies left me cold
4. Plainsong by Kent Haruf didn't hold my interest
5. The Power by Naomi Alderman daughter expressed an interest and I have no desire to keep it on my shelves for some reason
6. The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes 2.5 stars, not a keeper
7. I've Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella good but not worth using the shelf space to keep
8. Audubon Bird Guide - Eastern Land Birds 1946, outdated
9. The Clue of the Tapping Heels by Carolyn Keene - duplicate, poorer quality
10. The Mystery of the Brass Bound Trunk by Carolyn Keene - duplicate, poorer quality
11. The Mystery at Lilac Inn by Carolyn Keene - duplicate
12. The Secret at Shadow Ranch by Carolyn Keene - duplicate, poorer quality
13. The Underpainter by Jane Urquhart - duplicate
14. Waiting by Ha Jin - 2.5 stars, time to go
15. The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera - time to go
16. Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot by Al Franken

Statistics Through March 31

30 books read
3 books abandoned
8063 pages read
19 audiobook hours
Average pages read per day, YTD = 89
Average pages read per book, YTD = 269

Author
Male 43%
Female 57%

Living 47%
Dead 53%

US Born 77%
Foreign Born 23%

Medium
Hardcover 63%
Trade Pback 30%
Mass Market 0%
Audiobook 3%
e-Book 3%

Source
My Library 97%
Other 3%

Misc
ARC/ER 3%
Re-read 40%
Series 57%

Fiction 90%
NonFiction 10%


Author Birth Country
England 10%
Ireland 7%
Scotland 3%
Sweden 3%
US 77%

Original Year Published
1838 3%
1960 3%
1973 3%
1974 3%
1975 3%
1982 3%
1985 3%
1986 3%
1987 3%
1988 3%
1989 3%
1990 3%
1991 7%
1992 3%
1993 3%
1995 7%
2003 3%
2005 3%
2012 3%
2013 7%
2015 10%
2016 3%
2017 3%
2018 7%

Genre
Cartoons 7%
Fantasy 3%
Fiction 20%
History 7%
Mystery 57%
Politics 3%
Science Fiction 3%

Next message is yours!

Happy new thread, Karen! I love that photo of your paternal grandmother and her brother - so charming.

>1 karenmarie: Love the old photo!

Thanks, Mamie! "Mom" lived with us from when I was about 2 until she passed away in 1964, just before I turned 10. I have so many good memories of her. One of them, surprisingly, is the time she chased me around the house and hit me with a hairbrush until it broke. I was pretty dumb to let her corner me in the living room, when she was in her late 70s at the time. She wasn't strong enough to really hurt me, and I remember just wondering when she'd give up.

Happy new thread!
30 books down in the first quarter! Keep up that pace and you will blow away your goal for the year :)

Thanks, Chelle!

I know.... I thought of that. We'll just have to see how the year goes. Last year it was tough getting to 100 and I read several Very Short Books in November and December to get there.

Happy new one, Karen!

Happy new thread Karen.

>9 karenmarie: - That made me chuckle. My mom sometimes came after me with a dish towel. I mastered the art of sticking out my elbow so it never amounted to much and was a short lived issue. ;-p

Love the topper

>12 katiekrug: Thanks, Katie!

>13 jessibud2: Thanks, Shelley. Dish towel, eh? My mom used to come after us with a fly swatter to our legs. Man, that stung. Got our attention, though. Usually we had the 1950s/early 60s version of Time Out, though - the three of us on chairs until the culprit confessed. I remember lots of hissed conversations and threats. My sister was usually the culprit because she lied about Everything. Mom knew this, but let us be the Bad Guys, I guess.

Happy new thread!

Happy new thread, Karen!

>1 karenmarie: Being subjected to taking a picture was a serious thing in those days! You can see they are both a bit tensed.

Lauren Beukes! *popcorn bowl* Can't wait to see how this goes.

1887! Wow. That picture's from when you were only 34!

Happy New Thread!

Happy new one, Karen!

Happy new one, Karen. Thanks for opening the old famiky album.

>15 drneutron: Thanks, Jim!

>16 FAMeulstee: Thanks, Anita. I’m sure it was. The photo is mounted on a piece of cardboard that says Davidson, 200 East Walnut, Des Moines Iowa. I don’t know if they actually went to Davidson’s in Des Moines, a ‘branch’ office, or a ‘traveling’ shop.

>17 richardderus: Me, too. So far, so good. Still pre-killings. Har-dee-har-har. Only a century off, but kudos for getting the ’53 right. *smooch*

>18 streamsong: Thanks, Janet!

>19 RebaRelishesReading: Thank you, Reba!

>20 Ameise1: Thanks, Barbara, You’re welcome – I’m having fun with this. I remembered that picture, but it was in one of the boxes Jenna brought down from upstairs when she was home for spring break.

Happy New Thread, Karen! I'll be waiting to hear about the Beukes--she has a great imagination but tends a touch too violent for my tastes in what I've read of hers so far.

Happy New Thread, Karen. We have very similar posting numbers this year and I couldn't wish for better company.

Happy new thread, Karen!

Another new thread, Karen? Happy new one. That is a great topper photo.

Nice clean place ya got here. Congrats!

You are reading well, I see. (Sorry Plainsong didn't grab you.) I'm averaging 7 books a month so far, so you are more than a month ahead of me. Hmmm. Maybe I could catch up by reading more of the Christies I bought for my wife.

Ah, but I've chosen to read about the plague next.

Happy New Thread, Karen! I also love the topper. Bless them both - so uncomfortable and SO dressed up!
I'm looking at the Beukes. I have already one of hers unread, so we'll see what we see.

>22 ronincats: Hi Roni! Thanks. I’m 90 pages in. It’s good but hasn’t grabbed me yet, although non-spoiler because it’s on the dust jacket – the House is magical and intriguing. So we’ve got magic (spelled properly for Richard’s sensibilities) and time travel.

>23 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul and thanks. I couldn't wish for better company either.

>24 harrygbutler: Thanks, Harry!

>25 Familyhistorian: Yes, I’m flush with visitors and very happy about it. Thanks re “Mom” and Great-Uncle Karl, who I never met, unfortunately. I do have an 8"x 10" of him somewhere sepia-toned, holding his baby daughter Mira.

>26 weird_O: Thanks, Bill. Christies are pretty quick reads, at least for me, so you might catch up. Aren’t those Christies a joy to read physically?

>27 LizzieD: Thanks, Peggy. Yup, poor kidlets. I’m hoping to get some reading time this afternoon. This morning I have to train 3 people on using Square on their cell phones to process credit card transactions at the Book Sale (April 12-14).

I’m charging the readers now, drinking coffee, and cleaning up after Inara Starbuck – she’s thrown up twice, poor darling. She’s our Bold Huntress, so perhaps she ate a critter that disagreed with her.

Happy New Thread, Karen. Love your Grandma Nellie topper! My paternal grandparents, were also from Nebraska. This was where my Dad was born. The eastern part of the state, near Lincoln.

Happy Tuesday, my friend.

Hi Mark! I have no idea where my grandparents met, although probably in Omaha, where my dad was born 14 years after they got married.

Happy new thread, Karen. Love the topper photo.

Thanks, Beth!

Morning, Karen! Hope you have a nice relaxing day today!

Yay! New thread!

Hi, Karen! I hope your Tuesday is going well. There's rain here today, so I expect things to be a bit quieter around the feeders. In my new home office location I'm on the second floor, so I can see the feeders more easily than in my last spot, but from above, so it will be harder to see visitors to the suet in particular, and to ID some. I may need to think about adding a window feeder.

>33 ChelleBearss: Hi Chelle! Busy with training for our book sale - then major excitement (see below).

>34 SomeGuyInVirginia: Hi Larry! Happy dance for sure.

>35 harrygbutler: Hi Harry! Tradeoff on the feeders, for sure. I've debated about a window feeder, but am too lazy. *smile*

Major excitement

I just saw a male Bald Eagle! Louise said there was one lurking around a pond on the way into town, so I've been keeping an eye out for him, unsuccessfully. Today I saw him on the way to the Library for some training meetings I was giving, couldn't stop, but saw him well enough to record on my list.

He was still there 2 hours later, but I hadn't brought the binoculars. Came home, got the binoculars (but forgot the scope - drat), and went back and watched him for about 10 minutes. He was grooming and looking around. Beautiful bird. This isn't my picture, but this is what he was doing - perched in the top branch of a tree looking around and down at the pond.

Lucky you, Karen! I've never seen one with my own in the wild. This is as close as I've got:

https://raptorresource.org/falcon_cams/

That poor mama!!

>36 karenmarie: Hurrah for the bald eagle, Karen! It really is great to see them.

>36 karenmarie: That's exciting! Congrats!

>37 jessibud2: Thanks, Shelley. I do feel lucky. Poor Mama is right. Brrrr!!

>38 harrygbutler: Hi Harry. It was truly exciting. I was whooping and hollering in the car when I first saw him.

>39 ChelleBearss: Thanks, Chelle! Made my day, for sure.

Happy new thread Karen my dear, hope you had a really good Easter and your weather has been good. I am getting back on track with the posting and will make sure to go around the threads more from now on. Sending love and hugs to you all from both of us.

Love the Grandma Nellie picture…and the story about the broken hairbrush. I had a Great-Aunt Nellie whom I vaguely remember. She was a tiny woman. I inherited her rocking chair which is perfect for my grandchildren. I can sit in it but I am not a tiny woman!

It is hard to keep up with you, Karen. You are on your sixth thread, and I just started my second. I'm glad we aren't in a race around here. I am definitely the tortoise of the group.

We are having more and more Bald Eagle sightings around here. I think it was about five years ago that one was perched in the huge cedar tree in our backyard. I didn't have my phone with me so no picture. I do have a picture of the Barred Owl who sat on the deck railing and posed for me a few years ago, though.

I hope you had a good Easter. It was cold here. I am ready for some warm weather so I can sit in my swing and read outside, my favorite place to read…until the heat and humidity settle in. You probably know something about that.

>41 johnsimpson: Hi John! Well, it was a candy holiday as opposed to a religious one, but I did have a great time at book club where we discussed God's Kingdom by Howard Frank Mosher. We didn't realize it was Easter when we set the schedule and two of twelve couldn't make it because of Easter plans, but the rest of us had great time.

Sending love and hugs to you and Karn.

>42 Donna828: Hi Donna. Thanks! That is so nice that you inherited your Great-Aunt Nellie's chair. I have my Grandmother Nellie's rocking chair - I just ran upstairs and took a pic of it. I remember it being in her bedroom at Mom and Dad's house - and when I had one of the rails repaired in the 1980s, the man who did the work said it was birch and probably from the 1910s. It has a cherry stain, original, I'm sure, that my dad said he would always like to know the chair still had. So no stripping down to wood and just clear-finishing.....



That's exciting to have a Bald Eagle on your property, AND Barred Owls.

Like I wrote above, it was a candy holiday, no big deal. Daughter lives 3 hours away and had school the next day so didn't visit, my sister's in California and had a houseful. I'm ready for warm weather, too - I think I'll get Bill help me put the hammock out this weekend. You're right - outside's good 'til the heat and humidity.

Hooray for the bald eagle sighting! Seeing these beautiful birds, never, ever gets old.

Morning, Karen. Happy Wednesday. Woke up to a coating of snow on the grass. Seriously? Plus, it is supposed to be cold and windy all day. Sighs...

Bald eagles aren't uncommon in this area - but not common either, if that makes any sense. I agree with Mark, that it is always special to see them.

I would love to see a barred owl.

Snow and rain forecast here, too, although my very early crocus are starting to bloom.

>44 msf59: 'Morning, Mark! Hooray for sure. I have a hair appointment today and will make sure I take the binoculars AND the scope just in case he's hanging out again.

Snow. Yikes. We're going to have 72F and the possibility of thunderstorms. It's already humid outside. Blech.

>45 streamsong: Hi Janet! I wrote to my friend who lives near Bozeman and she wrote back Didn't know NC had bald eagles ... seeing one is pretty special ... do I get to add that I have one living in the spruce tree by the road? And I see six or seven every day I go to town?

Barred owls live in NC year round (as in quite a bit of the east coast), and there's a part of western MT ditto. Looks like you might be just in their range.

Coffee made, sip taken. I put out a hummingbird feeder today. I should have done so last week but was strangely reluctant to do so, as I've really been enjoying the birds eating the wild bird seed. Now they're limited to sunflower seeds. I'm trying to figure out a way to have all three feeders out and visible.

Morning, Karen! Hope you get to see your awesome bird today with your binoculars!

Morning, Chelle! Thanks. I've just put the binoculars AND the scope in the car.

Morning, Karen! Happy Wednesday. Most exciting about the eagle sighting.

We have rain here, too, and the humidity has arrived.

Happy Wednesday, Karen.

>49 Crazymamie: Hi Mamie and thanks. Alas, the eagle wasn't there today. Maybe tomorrow when I go back into town.

>50 Ameise1: Thank you Barbara! Same to you.

>36 karenmarie: Wow, that is major exitement, Karen!
Beautiful bird!

Happy Newish Thread, Karen! (Makes me wonder whether Newish people celebrate Thatsover - oh, never mind).

>36 karenmarie: So cool! You're a lucky one.

Being retired is the cat’s pajamas, the bee’s knees, the eel’s hips, the monkey’s eyebrows. I do not miss working at all. Love it! We are kindred spirits, my friend. In retirement, I'm having the best time of my life so far.

Must be wonderful to sit and watch such a majestic bird! Good sighting :)

>52 FAMeulstee: Hi Anita! Yes, I was whooping and a'hollering in the car and pounding the steering wheel in excitement.

>53 jnwelch: Hi Joe! I don't have any Newish relatives, but do have an ancestor named Christopher Columbus Patrick - brother of my great-great-grandfather John Milton Patrick. *smile*

Lucky because Louise told me to look - of course I was looking for two weeks before I saw him. Or her.

Yay for Retirement.

>54 LovingLit: Hi Megan! Yup. Just sitting in my car, window down, binoculars out, watching. Thanks.

Hi, Karen! I hope you've been having a good Wednesday.

Retirement is great, isn't it? Congrats on the bald eagle sighting.

>56 harrygbutler: Hi Harry! Haircut, FoL errands, abortive attempt to get my windshield repaired - it has to be replaced instead (fortunately ony a $50/deductible either way so it's just as well they can't repair it), then some very emotional episodes of Buffy, when her mother dies and Dawn tries a resurrection spell).).

Tomorrow will be two training sessions for volunteer credit card processing cashiers for the book sale next week. 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., so an hour to kill in the middle. Just might head on off to the thrift store or Habitat store to look for books.....

>57 Familyhistorian: Hi Meg, it sure is. Totally da bomb. Thanks re Mr./Mrs. Eagle.

Off to continue reading The Shining Girls. It's holding my interest pretty well.

>1 karenmarie: I just realized, you had a paternal grandmother named Nellie. So did I. Nellie's mother carried 14 babies, 12 of whom lived to adulthood. Oh my. Superwoman. Nellie carried 4 babies, all boys, one surviving only a day or two. Family lore is that Nellie polled the neighbors and named her fourth baby Buford Solomon. And folks claimed the name killed him.

Glad to hear that the Beukes is still interesting!
Love your pic of GM Nellie's rocker - and don't dare think of stripping the original stain!!!!!!
WOW! for the eagle!!!! Something really dire would be going on in the environment if we were to see one, I think. We do hear barred owls on our late afternoon walk by the river (see my thread topper) and pileated woodpeckers are our most interesting rarities. We also enjoy watching the Mississippi kites in the summer. If I didn't say, the hummers arrived Sunday right on schedule. DH had our feeders up and ready for them.

>59 weird_O: Hi Bill! Oh my is right. 14 babies, 12 living to adulthood. Buford Solomon is a burdensome name if it's not a family name.

>60 LizzieD: Hi Peggy! Well I've taken to skimming the serial killer chapters, and I have about 70 pages to the end.

I won't strip it, not to worry. It's a comforting sort of rocker.

Bald Eagles might be near the river. Or any pond with sizable fish, perhaps. Although I must say that I've been looking at that pond for almost 20 years driving into town and never seen any raptor there, much less a Bald Eagle. We call it the Kingfisher pond for obvious reasons. I've seen Pileated Woodpeckers out here, rarely, but honestly don't remember seeing or hearing owls. Yay for the hummingirds! I should have set up a hummingbird feeder a week ago. I only put it out yesterday, but it's in a place where I can't easily watch it because I'm enjoying the wild bird seed eaters.

32. The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes
4/1/18 to 4/5/18





From Amazon:

THE GIRL WHO WOULDN'T DIE HUNTS THE KILLER WHO SHOULDN'T EXIST.

The future is not as loud as war, but it is relentless. It has a terrible fury all its own."

Harper Curtis is a killer who stepped out of the past. Kirby Mazrachi is the girl who was never meant to have a future.

Kirby is the last shining girl, one of the bright young women, burning with potential, whose lives Harper is destined to snuff out after he stumbles on a House in Depression-era Chicago that opens on to other times.

At the urging of the House, Harper inserts himself into the lives of the shining girls, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. He's the ultimate hunter, vanishing into another time after each murder, untraceable-until one of his victims survives.

Determined to bring her would-be killer to justice, Kirby joins the Chicago Sun-Times to work with the ex-homicide reporter, Dan Velasquez, who covered her case. Soon Kirby finds herself closing in on the impossible truth . . .

THE SHINING GIRLS is a masterful twist on the serial killer tale: a violent quantum leap featuring a memorable and appealing heroine in pursuit of a deadly criminal.

Why I wanted to read it: I’ve had it on my shelves for almost two years and it seemed like the right time.

Great concept poorly executed. The book was all over the place in time and characters. Harper in 1931, Harper in 1954, Harper in 1993. Kirby in 1974, 1989, 1992, 1993. Various of Harper’s victims in various times. It was confusing and never really seemed to make sense.

The short chapters, by character and date, never allowed for anything more than a shallow approach to each character. The research on the time periods was impeccable, but as Beukes says in the Acknowledgments,

“I had a crack team of researchers digging up information, out of print books, videos, photographs and personal histories on everything from illegal abortion groups to real-life radium dancing girls, the evolution of forensics, ‘30s restaurant reviews and the history of ‘80s toys.”

It felt like a research paper because of the combination of short chapters trying to evoke a time period quickly and stereotypical characters described in stereotypical ways.

Harper is the only really interesting character who is not a stereotype. He is a psychopath, was in WWI, was a bum during 1931 in Chicago, committed violence, took a key, and found the House. The House is never explained. Harper’s drive is never really explained either, except once again in short, sharp bursts of hit-and-run emotion and description. The action is a series of missed opportunities, coincidences, anachronistic clues.

Kirby, although horribly injured and traumatized by Harper, does not become a sympathetic character. She does a lot of research out of sight of us, the readers. She makes important decisions that we hear about after the fact. Beukes doesn't really share Kirby with us in a meaningful way. Dan is a mishmash of burned-out crime beat reporter, sports reporter, Hispanic who throws out Spanish words periodically; a divorced man who has no real focus in his life. All described in trite and shallow ways, never giving us a sense of him.

The whole thing just never coalesced for me.

Kirby never really solves the case. She has a vague premonition of what can be the only explanation, but never clarifies or elucidates it. It is Harper who implodes by coming to visit Kirby at the Sun-Times, misses her, and unintentionally leads her back to the House. She returns with Dan, all Hell breaks loose, and we're left with a tantalizing bit about the House's next caretaker.

Morning, Karen. Sweet Thursday. Sorry, The Shining Girls fizzled out for you. I liked that one but was disappointed in Broken Monsters.

I am going to start to look into, picking up a used spotting scope.

Good morning, Karen! We have a few bald eagles that live nearby, as we have the river and quite a few ponds or small lakes in the immediate vicinity, but we don't actually see them that often, so it is still quite a treat.

Morning, Karen! Sorry you didn't get to see your big bird yesterday. I'll cross my fingers that it will be there for you today.

>63 msf59: I think you deserve a spotting scope, Mark! You are out so much it would be a great way to see our feathered friends.

>64 harrygbutler: Hi Harry! Rarity makes for a special treat.

>65 ChelleBearss: Hi Chelle! I'd love to see him again.

I did see ten white-tailed does in my pasture first thing this morning, a very pleasing sight.

I read the "Nellie" exchanges above without comment but suddenly I feel I must honor my Mom who was also "Nellie". A funny story about her name. She was a twin and her brother wasn't expected. Before they knew he was there she was named "Betty" and doctor did the paperwork but then her brother (9th child and first boy) was born and named after their father "Nelson". She was renamed "Nellie" so they would have "twin names". Somehow the doctor filed the birth certificate with "Betty" on it and no one knew about it until my Mom was in her late 50's and ordered a copy of her birth certificate so she could get a passport. Turned out she'd been using the wrong name her entire life (and continued to do so until her death).

To finish the tribute: she was a most lovely person. She was amazingly kind, caring, generous and good. She's been gone for 23 years and I miss her still.

>36 karenmarie: WOW! What excitement indeed. Your photo of the majestic eagle is wonderful. One of the highlights of our visit to Yellowstone National Park a few years ago was that the road out of the park which took us to our hotel, had a nest of a bald eagle. Evening morning when we left to go into the park, and every evening when we went out to go back to the hotel, we pulled over and watched.

Happy Day To You Karenmarie!

>67 RebaRelishesReading: Hi Reba! Another Nellie sighting. What a wonderful story about your mom.

My great-grandmother Alice named her daughter Nellie after her sister. My great-great-aunt Nellie named her daughter Alice after her sister.

My grandmother disliked the name Nellie, and I always thought her name was Nelle until I started doing the genealogical research about the family.

Your mom sounds wonderful. No wonder you miss her so.

>68 Whisper1: Hi Linda. Not my photo, as I had written above, but that's pretty much what he looked like. How exciting to see a nest and get to observe day in and day out!

I want to see a Golden Eagle when I go to Montana - I'm trying to get things together between my Aunt in northern California and my friend Karen near Bozeman - 3 days with my Aunt and Uncle and a week and a half with Karen. My friend Louise has told me that one of the highlights of her birding life was seeing Golden Eagles in Montana, so that's on my must-do list.

I didn't see the Bald Eagle today on my trips past the pond. Ah well, perhaps another day.

Morning, Karen. Happy Friday. Are you still listening to Talkin' Birds? I really like this podcast and on the latest show, they discussed the downy/hairy woodpecker issue. Very interesting.

Good morning, Karen! I'd be glad of an opportunity to see a golden eagle in the wild, too. Enjoy your Friday!

Morning, Karen! Did the ten white-tailed deer appear today? That would be a lovely sight to wake up to!

>70 msf59: Hi Mark!

I haven't - I have not set up good listening habits at home. I always used my commute to listen to audiobooks/podcasts and now that I don't commute I listen to a lot less a lot more. Thanks for reminding me - perhaps I can listen to it when I open up the voluminous correspondence Blue Cross has inundated me with for Medicare. Sigh.

>71 harrygbutler: Hi Harry! It would be wonderful for sure.

>72 ChelleBearss: Hi Chelle! No deer this morning. But it is mostly blue with whispy white clouds floating lazily along, 41F, and I'm just now going to get my first cup of coffee. A nice start to a Friday.

I'm getting the windshield on my 2012 Ford Escape (pronounced es-CA-pay - *smile*) replaced sometime between 10-12 today. They came out Wednesday and the two chips close together can't be repaired. Thank goodness we have comprehensive! Also, I have some FoL bills to pay.

I finally broke down and called the doctor and set up an appointment for next Tuesday. My right foot has been hurting for almost 3 months now, off and on, but now it's more on than off.

33. Promised Land by Robert B. Parker





From Amazon:

Spenser is good at finding things. But this time he has a client out on Cape Cod who is in over his head. Harvey Shepard has lost his pretty wife -- and a very pretty quarter million bucks in real estate. Now a loan shark is putting on the bite. Spenser finds himself doing a slow burn in the Cape Cod sun. The wife has turned up as a hot suspect in a case of murder one...the in-hock hubby has 24 hours before the mob makes him dead...and suddenly Spenser is in so deep that the only way out is so risky it makes dying look like a sure thing.

Why I wanted to read it: Fourth in the Spenser series and I really wanted to meet Hawk.

If you look at this as a lesson in mid-1970s feminism, you will see a pretty powerful book. Pam Shepard runs away from a cloying, suffocating marriage and into a group of militant feminists who, according to Spenser, are theoreticians and have nothing much to do with life. I met the type in the mid-1970s in LA. Suze (I won’t call her you-know-who because that tends to inflame certain of our members) and Spenser are trying to work out a meaningful relationship with the twin pressures of expectations (internal and external) and intellectual honesty. To a lesser degree and but a pale shadow, this reminds me of the intellectual battles between Harriet Vane and Peter Wimsey.

It’s a bumpy road, filled with violence and housewives, machismo and the question of why we do the things we do. Oh no, you say! Nature vs. nurture. Yup. There’s a constant lecture going on here about roles and expectations and love, all the while we’re up to our eyeballs in bank robberies, murder, gun running, and betrayal.

Heady stuff. Spenser ruminates over lusting after a client while deliberately deciding to not to ‘cheat’ on Suze because even if she never found out about, he would be untrustworthy.

Fun stuff, too, as on one hand Spenser cooks a wonderful meal, is called a gourmet cook, and remarks that if a woman had made the meal she would be called a housewife.

Hawk makes his first appearance in the series, full of sartorial elegance and slipping back and forth between Proper English and jive-talkin’. He is on the wrong side of the law but he and Spenser have a history and respect for one another.

On the down side, there were too many descriptions of the horrific fashions of the 1970s, and while using it to put down users of it, still, seeing the “n” word shocked my nervous system. On the up side, I liked this book a lot and could overlook quite a bit in pursuit of a nice romp.

>62 karenmarie: I mentally assigned it 1 star after the fourth unexplained, unmotivated-by-character-or-plot, jump made by Kirby. Just no.

>74 karenmarie: Sssss was beginning her final descent into Hadean horrifyingness in this book.

>62 karenmarie: I started her Broken Monsters but had to jet it. I thought it was just me, since her press is all outstanding.

Ermagerd, the Bald Eagle sighting is a doozie. There's supposed to be one where Dad lives, but I've never seen it.

Hallo, RD!

Great minds re Kirby. I was being very generous with 2.5 stars.

Spenser is still in love with her. I like Spenser, so don't have any negative feelings about Sssss yet.

Saw my first hummingbird of the spring just now!

Morning, Karen. Happy Saturday. Hooray for the first hummingbird of the year. I know they have been spotted downstate but with our continuing cold temps, I am sure they will take their time, coming up.

Hi Mark! I just looked at the 2018 Ruby-Throated Hummingbird Migration Map and the people who've recorded their sightings is consistent with what you say. Here's the map. I love maps, and I love watching the migration move north on this one: 2018 Hummingbird Migration. This link is always the current year.

>36 karenmarie: Aren't bald eagles exciting! We see them fairly often but my major siting was last week when one was in the middle of the room pulling at road kill and then flapped up over the top of my car to head to a tree. Huge birds.

>78 karenmarie: And yay on your hummingbird! Thanks for the tip on the migration map. I posted my siting and received a lovely message from them about their work. I was almost the furthest north.

Great birds! I hope they make up for some of the not-so-great books.

>81 witchyrichy: Hi Karen! They are. I saw him perching on the tree near the Kingfisher Pond again this morning on my way in to continue help set up for the book sale, which runs from Thursday - Saturday.

I haven' seen him up close, so haven't experienced the wingspan of 6-7.5 feet. You're so lucky to have seen him up close.

You're welcome re the hummingbird map. Congrats on your siting.

>82 ffortsa: Hi Judy! They are excellent birds - it just occurred to me that I've seen the smallest and largest within the space of a week. Hoo Rah!

Yesterday I was given a great gift by my friend Rhoda on the book sort team. I saw some old blue-cover Nancy Drews in the oldies section and mentioned that I wanted to zoom over there first thing Thursday morning when the sale begins, and snag 'em. Rhoda just said "take them", I demurred, and she took them, put them in a bag, put my name on it, and then gave it to me when I left for the day. Here they are:

The Secret of Shadow Ranch
The Mystery of the Ivory Charm
The Clue of the Tapping Heels
The Mystery of the Brass Bound Trunk
The Ghost of Blackwood Hall
The Whispering Statue
The Clue in the Old Album
The Sign of the Twisted Candles
The Mystery at Lilac Inn

For volunteering, I picked, one for each volunteer day (the Ironsides in anticipation of my volunteer work tomorrow and Wednesday):

Atlantic by Simon Winchester
A Very Private Enterprise by Elizabeth Ironside
Death in the Garden by Elizabeth Ironside
The Hush by John Hart - early reader' edition

And, finally, my ER book from the March batch arrived - probably the earliest ever received after winning:

Gumshoe on the Loose by Rob Leininger

A surfeit of books before the sale even begins!

Hi, Karen! Hurrah for the hummingbird, and for another eagle sighting!

You're doing well with the book sale already. We went to a flea market over the weekend, but there were few books. I've got a few on order, but that's not quite the same as finding them "in the wild."

A hummer just for you.



Good deal on the Nancy Drew books. Too bad you didn't get a copy of The Mysterious Stain on the Bedspread. (Touchstone isn't working.)

Hi, Karen.

The Lauren Beukes book I really liked was Zoo City. I want to try Moxyland some time.

Nice Nancy Drew snag. I read of ton of them with our daughter, and for some reason, my favorite was The Secret of Shadow Ranch. I want to go back and read it some time to see whether I can figure out why. I used to sneak in Chicago Bulls basketball players and other silly stuff into the Nancy Drew I was reading to her, but she always caught me.

I'm glad you enjoyed Promised Land. I had a really good time with that series, even with Suze (ha!). My wife is a major Hawk fan.

>84 harrygbutler: Hi Harry! Yes, although I haven’t been home much the last couple of days, I have seen some wonderful birds. Right now I’ve got a herd of cowbirds chowing down on the wild bird seed.

>85 weird_O: Thank you, Bill! They are quite wonderful, aren’t they?

I think The Mysterious Stain on the Bedspread. (Touchstone still isn't working) was snagged by another volunteer….. sigh.

>86 jnwelch: Hi Joe! I think I’m done with Buekes for a while, don’t have any others on my shelves and I haven’t seen any while doing book sale prep so far.

That sounds like a lot of fun, sneaking things into the books. Good for her for always catching you!

I read Nancy Drew when I was 10 and 11. I graduated to Perry Mason soon before I turned 12 and haven’t read Nancy Drew since then.

So far Hawk hasn’t done much for me. Yes he’s a blast from Spenser’s past, has a strange unwritten code with him, and Susan and he don’t hate each other, but there is no hint in that book that he even returns, much less becomes a major player. Ah well, I guess I’ll keep reading to find out. *smile*

Hi Karen. I read every single one of the Nancy Drew (yellow covers) when I was growing up. Loved 'em. I have found and purchased about 3 of them in recent years, from used book stores.

Hi, Karen. Finally trying to make the rounds, or at least a few of them, before I retire for the evening.

Thanks for the Hummingbird Migration map. They are making their way into Illinois. Smiles...

>83 karenmarie: Oh, the blue covers! That's what I read, ages ago. And like you, >87 karenmarie:, I went straight from them to Perry Mason. So many YA titles missed in that transition!

>88 jessibud2: Hi Shelley! I read quite a few of the yellow cover ones - and have some of them on my shelves, too. They cost $1.25 when I was buying them - that was 2 1/2 weeks allowance!

>89 msf59: Hi Mark! Thanks for the visit and you're welcome for the map. It's interesting, isn't it? They'll be visiting soon.

>90 ffortsa: Our neighbor had some of the blue cover ones when I was growing up, but I bought the yellow cover ones. Looks like I have 17 on my shelves - some blue cover, some yellow cover, and I think some of the ones I got yesterday are duplicates.

Lots going on here as usual, Karen!
Oh! Nancy Drew! I have a couple of 1930s copies from my mom and one Dana Girls. I loved her and then went on to Agatha Christie. I didn't have any YA stuff available at the time, not here anyway.



Otherwise, that's an impressive library haul - well worth a bit of volunteer time!
I'll skip that Beukes unless a copy falls in my lap. I do have Zoo City, but it will have to wait too.
I've been meaning to say that I believe God Save the Child is my favorite Spenser. I like Paul! ------- or maybe I did say it and just don't remember.
Enjoy the hummers and other wildlife!

Hi Peggy!

It was very nice of Rhoda, I agree. I'm not sure I can make time before the sale to see which are duplicates, but I can before the next sale and donate 'em back.

I don't remember if you said your favorite Spenser is God Save the Child, but it is a very good one, especially with the family dysfunction and hope at the end for them. I really liked Promised Land for its discussion of feminism, good and bad.

Today will be picking up FoL mail at the PO if there is any, then about 4 hours finishing up the fiction and mystery sections for the book sale. At 1:15 I'm going to my GP to see about 'fixing' my feet, one chronic problem and one acute problem.

Morning, Karen! I also read the Nancy Drew books as I was growing up and then went straight into Perry Mason. And Agatha Christie. Mine were the yellow covers, and I didn't own them, I borrowed them.

I also liked Susan in the first several books, but it was all downhill from there for Susan and I.

Hi Mamie! I don't remember when I read my first Agatha Christie. I've read nearly all the Agatha Christies and Perry Masons. I also liked ESG's Donald Lam/Bertha Cool series. I'm not sure if I'd like it if I re-read it, so best let sleeping dogs lie.

I wonder when I'll start disliking Susan? Enquiring minds and all that!

Good morning, Karen! I read a lot of Hardy Boys (both brown covers and later blue-spine picture covers), which I started on when I was 7 or 8. I've only read one or two Nancy Drew books. Somewhere here in the house I have all 58 (I think) in that version of the Hardy Boys series, as well as the complete Tom Swift, Jr., and Tom Corbett, Space Cadet, series; I had one or two of the former and just one of the latter (Danger in Deep Space) when I was a kid. There are a few strays from other series kicking around, too. I should probably try to work them into my reading at some point.

The aunt for whom I was named always sent me a book for my birthday. "Honey Bunch" when I was really little and then "Nancy Drew" when I got older. Only birthday presents I can still remember and I remember them with a smile!

'Morning, Harry! I read a few Hardy Boys. I'm impressed that you have the entire series. I never read Tom Swift or Tom Corbett, alas. I think we should both work our old series back into our reading - me some of the Nancy Drews, you some of the Hardy Boys or the Toms!

>97 RebaRelishesReading: Hi Reba! How lovely that your Aunt always sent you books. Happy memories for you, for sure.

34. Euphoria by Lily King
4/6/18 to 4/10/18





From Amazon:

From New England Book Award winner Lily King comes a breathtaking novel about three young anthropologists of the ‘30’s caught in a passionate love triangle that threatens their bonds, their careers, and, ultimately, their lives.

English anthropologist Andrew Bankson has been alone in the field for several years, studying the Kiona river tribe in the Territory of New Guinea. Haunted by the memory of his brothers’ deaths and increasingly frustrated and isolated by his research, Bankson is on the verge of suicide when a chance encounter with colleagues, the controversial Nell Stone and her wry and mercurial Australian husband Fen, pulls him back from the brink. Nell and Fen have just fled the bloodthirsty Mumbanyo and, in spite of Nell’s poor health, are hungry for a new discovery. When Bankson finds them a new tribe nearby, the artistic, female-dominated Tam, he ignites an intellectual and romantic firestorm between the three of them that burns out of anyone’s control.

Set between two World Wars and inspired by events in the life of revolutionary anthropologist Margaret Mead, Euphoria is an enthralling story of passion, possession, exploration, and sacrifice from accomplished author Lily King.

Why I wanted to read it: Anthropology, romance, early 20th century: all things that interest me. This is a fictionalized account of Margaret Mead, her second husband Reo Fortune, and her third husband Gregory Bateson, caught in a love triangle. In this novel they are Nell, Fen, and Bankson.

The book has three points of view, but surprisingly none are Fen’s. One is Nell’s diary, and the other two are first person narration by Nell and Bankson.

We see Fen through Nell’s and Bankson’s eyes as a man caught in the unenviable role of always being second fiddle to his wife, who doesn’t approach the study of the aboriginal tribes in the methodological yet emotional discipline his wife does and feels threatened by it, and who eventually makes decisions that cause pain, banishment, and more.

Bankson is a passionate anthropologist yet after meeting Nell sees his approach as cold and rigid; he becomes a better anthropologist for having met her.

Nell is driven and clearly the best scientist of the three, combining detailed note taking, detailed emotion taking, and true involvement in the groups she studies.

The book is vivid in describing village life, hardships, and frequently presenting the conundrum of the fact that once you study something it immediately changes and cannot be completely understood by the very nature of its being observed.

There are also observations about colonialism and racial superiority and an interesting Grid of personality types with the four points of the compass as descriptives: North, East, South, West.

The emotional triangle unleashed once Nell meets Bankson is beautifully written. There are tantalizing bits from Nell, more obvious and immediate feeling from Bankson, and awarness, jealousy, and cruelty from Fen.

This is an educational book, an emotional book, and a very satisfying book.

Morning, Karen. Happy Wednesday. I have the day off, so I will be taking full advantage of the warmer temps by going on a bird walk. Lots of activity at my feeders, so things are looking up.

Good review of Euphoria. I loved that book as well and would like to do a reread.

>98 karenmarie: Good morning, Karen! I only read one of the Tom Corbett's when I was a kid, and at most just a few of the Tom Swift, Jr. I also had, and still have, one book in the fairly short Bret King series, The Mystery of Ghost Canyon. I've gotten the second one in that series, and a few other similar books, in recent years, but they've mostly languished on the shelf. Maybe I'll give one a go later this month.

>100 msf59: Hi Mark, and thank you. Yay for your day off and bird walk. I can see one Cardinal, one Titmouse, and there was a Bluejay visiting a second ago.

If the Bald Eagle is at Kingfisher Pond I'll have time to see him/her today. I must go get the cash for the cashboxes for the book sale and deliver it around 4 p.m.

>101 harrygbutler: Hi Harry! It's always fun to pull something off the shelves. I have a goal of reading 42 books acquired before 1/1/18. It's harder than it might seem, for me at least, since the shiny new ones that come in during the year lure me in.

I wasn't able to mention it the other day, but one of our local indies, Quail Ridge Books, sent out an e-mail telling people that David Sedaris will be speaking and signing his due-out-in-May Calypso in August. I called in, ordered the book (paying retail, but in a good cause), and was one of the first 200 to do so. I'll be able to hear his talk and then get the book signed. I'm thrilled. He's a local boy (Raleigh).

Morning, Karen! You got me with Euphoria - thumb from me if you posted that. Adding it to The List!

Hi Karen!
>99 karenmarie: Good review! I'll have a look-around to see if I can find it. Good for the Reading around the world challenge, but it seems a very interesting one anyway.

Have fun with your Nancy Drew books. I've read lots of those series books for kids, but Nancy Drew was not around here. Books by Enid Blyton, and she did have adventurous girls in them.

>102 karenmarie: Nice! I mean getting to hear David Sedaris, getting your book signed.

>103 Crazymamie: Hi Mamie! I just posted my review. Thank you in advance.

>104 EllaTim: Hi Ella! Thank you re my review. The Nancy Drews are a reminder of one of my favorite times of childhood, on top of being fun mysteries.

I'm very excited about the David Sedaris event. I bought Theft By Finding a while back and should probably read it before August.

I just checked on Sedaris only has one appearance in DC, and it's first come first served. There is no way I'd be able to get in the door, he's kind of a god around here.

Hi Larry! That's too bad. I've heard him on NPR but never seen him in person.

He's our local god and has a soft spot for Quail Ridge, apparently. Sarah, my book club friend who works there, said he'll stay as long as it takes to sign books.

Several copies of Euphoria at PBS, and one of them is coming to me. To you, a thumb!
Wow about David Sedaris!!!!!

Good morning, Karen! I haven't done that sort of ROOT challenge, as I grab books rather willy-nilly, and I reread, so though new arrivals have their appeal, there are always quite a few books off the shelves in the mix, too.

I saw one of our local bald eagles flying around yesterday. I was stopped at a stop light, though, so I couldn't try for a photo.

Hi Karen, the stranger returns. Hopefully this is the last time that I make a comment like that and that I am now back on track visiting the threads on a more timely basis. Thank you for visiting my thread my dear, it has been a very strange year for me, I had a good start and then illness and other things have slowed me down on the writing front but my reading has held up well.

I hope all is well with you and Bill and I have loved reading your thread even if I have not contributed much. We are both fine (fingers crossed) and send love and hugs to you both dear friend.

>108 LizzieD: Hi Peggy! I do hope you like Euphoria. Thank you.

>109 harrygbutler: Hi Harry! Good description - grab books willy-nilly and re-read. I do that too, but not as much as the shiny new (to me) ones.

That is very exciting about seeing a bald eagle flying yesterday. Just seeing them is enough - photos would be icing on a pretty wonderful cake.

>110 johnsimpson: Hallo John! I know you've been through a lot this year and can only say that I'm on your side and on Karen's side and send you both love and hugs.

Bill and I are hanging in there. I apparently have a stress reaction in my right ankle probably caused by a stress fracture but it doesn't show up on the x-ray. I have been referred to the orthopedics department at my doctor's complex and they will call soon to set up a time for me to continue the process. In the meantime, ibuprophen, a compression sock, and occasional grimaces. Sigh. Tonight we finished watching season 1 of Broadchurch and it's some of the finest TV I've ever seen. We both had tears in our eyes during the last 15 minutes or so of the last episode.

The first day of the book sale went well - roughly $12,600 in sales. I also bought 2 bags of books but am too whupped tonight to brag on them. I will say, though, that I snagged the audiobook of Theft by Finding by David Sedaris and the audiobook of the second of the Edmund Morris Theodore Roosevelt trilogy, Theodore Rex among other wonderful finds.

Off to get some sleep. Tomorrow I don't have to be there until 8:30 so can sleep in a bit.

Sorry about the ankle! Save some books for us. We'll see you tomorrow around 3. I really, really hope. *grin*

Good luck with the book sale, Karen. Sounds like sales are doing well and you are doing well contributing to them!

Sorry to hear about the stress fracture in your ankle, Karen. That has to be painful . I loved Nancy Drew as girl and moved on from there to ??? Agatha Christie and I'm not sure what all. I had my share of fun chuckling over Harlequin romances in junior high school days. I had a group of friends and we'd loan our Harlequin Romances around and enjoy a good laugh reading out ridiculous passages to each other. Mind you, I'm sure we hoped for some sort of fellow to gallop in on a White Horse and get married - sort of ;-)

Morning, Karen. Happy Friday. I went to my monthly bird club meeting last night. I only go once in a great while but this time they had a warbler ID class, which I really NEEDED to attend. The warblers are beginning to migrate through the Midwest and I wanted to brush up.

Oh! Sorry, about the ankle. How is it feeling?

>115 msf59: I recently picked up a book on birds in our state. Although I recognize a lot of the more common ones, I'm hoping to be able to identify a few more. I'm thinking I want to put a bird house and food somewhere my cats can see it. I think they'd enjoy bird watching. Since they stay inside, they won't harm the birds.

Good morning, all!

Detailed replies later today or more probably tomorrow. Thank you for visiting my thread!

Esh, I'm sorry about the stress fracture! I'll be in Williamsburg next weekend and will keep a lookout for the bald eagle. Dad has a phobia about Friday the 13th, so I'm not going down tonight.

Good morning, Karen! I hope the sale goes well again today, and I look forward to hearing about your haul. Good luck with the stress fracture!

Morning, Karen! Happy Friday! SO sorry to hear about your foot.

Agree that Broadchurch is most excellent - Rae and I loved both of the first two seasons. We still need to get to season three.

Oh ouch on the foot! I hope the library sale (which sounds amazing) doesn't cause you to have more pain.

I'm also a Broadchurch fan. Wait till you get to season two! I thought it was brillliant.

I'm currently watching Midsommer Murders - have season five ordered through the library.

What can you do for a stress fracture? I broke a toe running to class and all they could do was tape it up. After a few days I ripped the tape off and just dealt with it, but that was a toe and not an ankle.

I simply cannot believe you bought the Theft by Finding audiobook. At a LIE-BERRY SALE! That, my friend, is a major score! I've preordered Calypso, and Stephen King's latest...I can't think of the title but it's got a The Upside Down cover.

Stress fracture? Stress fracture? So are you getting screws? Bolts and nuts? Gussets? How about an * Iron Boot * ? Come on, come on, come on... Jes' walk it off.

Me? I got a stress fracture of the brain.

Oh! And the plague. The bubonic plague.

But other than THAT, the weather's fine.

Sorry about the ankle, Karen. I can hear it now --- "STAY OFF OF IT!"

Yikes to ankle ailments. And irritation, to be sure!

Hi Karen, sorry to hear about your stress fracture of the ankle and hope that you can get treatment soon my dear. I see that you are enjoying Broadchurch as did large numbers of viewers over here.

I love hearing about your book sale and over $12.5k seems to me to be a good sale and I chuckled that you got two bags of books, that sounds like my kind of haul dear friend.

Sending love and hugs from both of us.

Sorry to see about your ankle! Hope you are able to stay off it this weekend!

I think I missed all the excitement re your ankle and book haul. Yikes and yay, respectively!

Hope you can (figuratively) kick back and relax this weekend!

Another quick note - thank you all for visiting! I hope to get back into the swing of things here on LT tomorrow.

We've taken in a total of $16K. Today we'll be lucky to break $1K because it is $5/bag day, so this sale will be a bit down from others. Factor in expenses, which I don't have totals on yet, and perhaps we'll use today's $1K to offset them for a net of $16K. Not bad at all, just a tad lower than other sales. The leftover books will be divided 4 ways evenly across categories and taken to the 3 PTA Thrift shops in the county (which give all their profits to the public schools) and the Habitat for Humanity in Pittsboro, our fair town.

My foot hurts but not horribly, and I got a call from Orthopedics for me to call and set up an appointment with them. I'll be able to do that Monday.

I saw the Bald Eagle flying the other day, and saw him perching last night. The male Cowbirds seem to be preening and trying to entice the female Cowbirds to make baby Cowbirds.....

Morning, Karen. Happy Saturday. Cold and rainy here. Sighs...

Glad your book sale is coming along and your foot is only moderately sore. Hope it keeps improving.

I saw my first brown-headed cowbird at my feeder yesterday, along with 3 females.

Yah, for the bald eagle!

Good morning! I loved the conversation about Nancy Drew and the rest. I was reminded of Cherry Ames, the student nurse. She was part of my reading as a pre-teen. I loved Nancy Drew, read every one, but never really moved to the others. My mother passed along a carton of the old Drews and I passed them along to a friend's daughter.

And, of course, the birds! On lovely days like this, we leave the door to the back porch open so the feeders are easily viewable. And at least some of my day will be spent sitting on that porch reading.

Happy Saturday!

Working those library book sales is exhausting. Being in charge would make me crazy! I hope you had a sit-down job, Karen, so you could get off that bad ankle. Our book sale is coming up in two weeks. Can’t wait. I am on the reserve list for workers. I’m rarely needed, though, as we have so many dedicated volunteers. I’ve put many hours in over the years and am happy to let the younger people take over.

>112 nittnut: Hi Jenn! It was absolutely lovely seeing you and your daughter yesterday. I was afraid there wouldn’t be enough books that would appeal to you, but you definitely racked up – 3 boxes, I believe? Poor M, hanging around in the parking lot while you and I did what we did at Scuppernong Books in Greensboro – yak and yak and yak about books. So much fun!

>113 Familyhistorian: Thanks, Meg. Things went well and I’m so glad it’s over! After I answer a few posts here I’m going to get my 5 bags of books out and gloat and list them.

>114 vancouverdeb: Thanks, Deborah – sometimes it’s painful, sometimes not. Very strange. Yay for mysteries.

You absolutely crack me up – my friend Lori and I read Barbara Cartlands and always looked for where the hero first kissed the heroine and “drew her soul from between her lips.” It was always a highlight of our reading….. Hmm. My husband could have galloped in on a White Horse…. Horses are a big deal to him, were a big deal to his mother, and I still have her old riding habit and assorted helmets and other riding paraphernalia around the house…..

>115 msf59: Hi Mark! Yay for Warbler ID class. Ankle is okay right now, but it will get a big rough later this evening and certainly tomorrow morning.

>116 thornton37814: Hi Lori!

>118 SomeGuyInVirginia: Thanks Larry. We seem to have an LT Bald Eagle Club here! I hope you and Parker D. Cat have a wonderful time with your dad. Will Parker want to come home?

>119 harrygbutler: The sale went well, Harry. Glad it’s done. Stress fracture is ibuprophen-and-compression-bandage-managed right now…. I saw the Bald Eagle on the way home this afternoon but didn’t have the heart to stop. I was anxious to get home, for sure.

>120 Crazymamie: Thanks, Mamie! Yup, I’m not happy about my foot, but also strangely glad because now I can try to get all my feet problems solved and perhaps start walking for exercise sometime this year.

We watched the Broadchurch S2 E1 last night. Bill said that he didn’t assume it would just pick right up where it left off as far as the storyline went, even though it was probably about 4 months after S1 ended (my guess, don’t know if that’s right or wrong, but it’s based on Beth Latimer’s pregnancy.. We’ll most likely watch the whole thing through the end of Season 3.

>121 streamsong: Hi Janet! I had a total of 41 hours since last Sunday dedicated to the pre-sale or sale itself. Not all of it was on my feet by any means, but just being there, and walking back and forth, and dealing with people has given this introvert the heebie-jeebies. Glad to be home, for sure.

Yup, Broadchurch. Like I wrote above, we watched S2 E1 last night. We watched through Season 19 of Midsomer Murders. Loved it.

>122 SomeGuyInVirginia: Don’t know what they can do for a stress fracture. Boot? Tape? Nothing? When my dad broke his toe when I was about 10, they didn’t even tape it.

Yup, huge score with Theft By Finding. I came in through the front door like all other customers after getting in line with my friend Louise. I didn’t run, didn’t panic, but made straight for the audiobooks and scored several good ones, list to follow. I was stunned with Theft By Finding. I haven’t even read the 3rd Bill Hodges End of Watch yet, and bought that when it first came out. Sigh.

>123 weird_O: Well, Bill, probably not screws, nuts, bolts, or gussets. No Iron Boot. Does 3 months of it hurting count? Stress fracture of the brain and plague. Huh. Minor stuff. Think off the first, antibiotic off the second! Easy peasy. *smile*

The weather’s too good out here – it’s one of the major theories of why not as many people came to the book sale as in previous years. There was also a major festival close by today.

>124 LizzieD: Hi Peggy! I’m sure that’s most of what I’ll hear – and since the book sale is over, can do!

Jenn and I are determined to have a meet up with you in the Pitt soon….. just sayin’. *smile*

>125 LovingLit: Hi Megan! Yes. And I can’t even remember any event that caused it.

>126 johnsimpson: Thank you, John! Monday I’ll call the Orthopedics department and see when they can get me in.

Oh yes, we’re thoroughly enjoying Broadchurch. Excellent series.

Update: $17.5K in sales and I ended up with 5 bags total. Sending love and hugs back to the both of you!

>127 ChelleBearss: Thanks, Chelle! I can be off it pretty much the rest of today (unless we go out to dinner and food shopping) and tomorrow (unless we go out to lunch and the aforementioned food shopping). Ice, which I normally HATE, sounds good right about now.

>130 msf59: Yay for cowbords, Mark. Well. Not yay, really, but yay for a new bird for your list. They eat all my wild bird seed.

>131 witchyrichy: Hi Karen! I never got into Cherry Ames, unfortunately. Great to hear that another generation of girls gets to read Nancy Drew.

I’m feeling guilty because I didn’t put out one of the feeders this morning. Too late now, of course. Tomorrow for sure. Reading and watching birds on your porch sounds lovely.

>132 Donna828: Hi Donna! They are exhausting. I was up and down, sitting and cashiering some and sitting in the book sort room away from people, too, introvert that I am. We have tons of volunteers, too. We need to get some younger volunteers – most of the book sort team is older than my almost-65!

So I’m going to make a list of my haul… back tomorrow morning. All of your ears must be burning because I mentioned LT with love so much at the book sale!

Great hauls for you and FOL, Karen! I can't wait to see specifics, and I do with my visit to Pitts could have coincided with Jenn's and the sale. Oh well.
>131 witchyrichy: Big YAY for Cherry Ames! I thought I hadn't read much YA stuff in those years, but I gobbled up the CAs and would have been a nurse if only I could have borne being a nurse! (I shudder to think of it.)

Insomnia. Blech. However, here's my total haul, including volunteer books and books for Jenna.

Total books acquired before and during the Book Sale. 90 plus 7 magazines. Total Spent: $108.

Books for Volunteering
A Very Private Enterprise by Elizabeth Ironside
Death in the Garden by Elizabeth Ironside
The Hush by John Hart
Atlantic by Simon Winchester
The Secret of Shadow Ranch by Carolyn Keene
The Mystery of the Ivory Charm by Carolyn Keene
The Clue of the Tapping Heels by Carolyn Keene
The Mystery of the Brass Bound Trunk by Carolyn Keene
The Ghost of Blackwood Hall by Carolyn Keene
The Whispering Statue by Carolyn Keene
The Clue in the Old Album by Carolyn Keene
The Sign of the Twisted Candles by Carolyn Keene
The Mystery at Lilac Inn by Carolyn Keene

Thursday Haul
Audiobooks:
Theft By Finding by David Sedaris
Barrel Fever by David Sedaris
Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power by Richard J. Carwardine
Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris

Hard Covers:
The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker – this includes two CDs and all 68,647 cartoons published by 2004
Complete Birds of the World by National Geographic
Did Lincoln Own Slaves and Other Frequently Asked Questions about Abraham Lincoln by Gerald J. Prokopowicz
Born A Crime by Trevor Noah
The Black Death by Philip Ziegler
What Happened by Hillary Rodham Clinton
Lafayette in the Somewhat United States by Sarah Vowell

Paperbacks:
The Malcontenta by Barry Maitland
Changing Places by David Lodge
The North Carolina Birding Trail: Piedmont Trail Guide by State of North Carolina
Necessary as Blood by Deborah Crombie
Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion
The Canon by Natalie Angier
The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles
The Accomplice by Elizabeth Ironside
Ten Dead Comedians by Fred Van Lente
The Cold Dish by Craig Johnson – volunteer book
The Underpainter by Jane Urquhart – volunteer book

Friday Haul
Audiobooks:
The Story of Human Language by John McWhorter

Movies:
Blade Runner: The Director’s Cut
Black Swan

Hardcovers:
20,000 Years of World Painting edited by Hans L.C. Jaffe
Tutankhamun: His Tomb and Treasures by I.E.S. Edwards
Life Legends: The Century’s Most Unforgettable Faces edited by Killian Jordan
The Best of Will Rogers by Bryan Sterling
Blanche on the Lam by Barbara Neely

Paperbacks:
Still Life With Bread Crumbs by Anna Quindlen
Enjoying Purple Martins More by Richard A. Wolinski

Saturday Haul
Audiobooks:
The History of Ancient Egypt by Professor Bob Brier

Movie:
Minority Report

Hardcovers:
Omnibus: King Solomon’s Mines, She, Allan Quatermain by H. Rider Haggard
This is NPR: The First Forty Years
A Cure for Dreams by Kaye Gibbons First Edition, Signed
No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting by Anne L. Macdonald – gift for a friend
Early Man and the Ocean by Thor Heyerdahl
Shrimp by Jay Pierce
For the Time Being by Annie Dillard
Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child by Bob Spitz
Language and Thought by Noam Chomsky
The Truth According to Us by Anne Barrows
The Whites by Richard Price writing as Harry Brandt
The Last Enemy by Grace Brophy
The Astronomer by Lawrence Goldstone
Gump & Co. by Winston Groom
Damascus Gate by Robert Stone
Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932 by Francine Prose

Paperbacks:
American Sphinx by Joseph J. Ellis
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
Mrs. Bridge by Evan S. Connell
The Ladies’ Man by Elinor Lipman
Charles Jessold, Considered as a Murderer by Wesley Stace
Jane Austen’s Novels by Roger Gard
Sunday Silence by Nicci French
Recipes & Remedies from The People’s Pharmacy by Joe and Terry Graedon
Iced by Jenny Siler
Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella
Tartuffe by Moliere, translated by Richard Wilbur

Magazines:
7 Cook’s Illustrated

Books for Jenna:
Tao Te Ching by Lao Tsu, new translation by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English
Something Under the Bed is Drooling by Bill Watterson
The Indispensible Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson
The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book by Bill Watterson
Sea and Foam by Kahlil Gibran - touchstone not working
Princess Jellyfish by Ahiho Higashimura
Look Away! A History of the Confederate States of America by William C. Davis
The Art Book published by Phaidon
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Feng Shui by Stephen Skinner
Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven by Fannie Flagg
Treasures of Tutankhamun edited by Katharine Stoddert Gilbert
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Chicken Breasts by Diane Rozas

>134 LizzieD: Once I listed the books, Peggy, I realized what a great haul it truly is. I admit to being able to look over the fiction and mysteries during setup, but excepting the Nancy Drews, the books in other categories were all just by looking during the sale.

Our fall sale is September 27-29.

Hi Karen,
Wow, that's quite a haul! As the LTers say, it's positively Cranswickian!
Of your Thursday haul, I have to say that Jane Urquhart's The Underpainter was one I really loved. I have liked most of the books by her that I have read.

In your Friday and Saturday hauls, I own but haven't read, a few of those titles, and will admit that I just recently started and abandoned the one by Annie Barrows. It's a chunkster and I just couldn't get into it at all. The characters and story just didn't grab me.

I LOVE Watterston so yay for those catches for Jenna and the Guernsey one was a good one.

I don't think I've ever brought that number of books into my house in one shot. Good thing, too. I would truly not have anywhere to put them!

Hi Shelley!

The Underpainter was recommended by one of the book sort team members, so into the bag it went. I have quite a few Calvin and Hobbes, daughter loves them, so bought her copies.

This is my biggest haul ever. Last fall was pretty good at 47, but 87 books is the new gold standard for me.

I'm not sure where I'll put these - I might review what's in the Sunroom and/or Library to see what I'll never read and won't feel bad about culling. Not today, though. Today I have to work on FoL Treasurer stuff and prepare for the Board meeting tomorrow.

Hi Karen! It was good to see you! You saved us plenty of books, even though your haul was epic Lol. We did get 3 boxes. I am now trying to figure out where they will go. Later today, if I have time, I'll list my haul over on my page. It was good talking to you. I believe Miss M contributed plenty to the conversation. We will have her on LT one of these days.

Morning, Karen. Happy Sunday. I hope you get take a nap later today. Great book haul, my friend. That should keep you busy for awhile.

We just started the 2nd season of Broadchurch. Good show.

Wow, that's a lot of books, and it's a lot of really good books. I love Calvin & Hobbes, it's my favorite cartoon ever and up there with Wodehouse and Twain for me in humor. Nice job!

Wacky. I read about Ten Dead Comedians on a blog dedicated to obscure and out of print mysteries and bought a copy about a week ago (Pretty Sinister Books). Great minds! I'm a yooge fan of shockers with high body counts.

Whew! So many books. I am happy for you. I hope you are enjoying a day of rest as you bask over your haul.

Morning, Karen! Whoa to that haul!! Well done.

Nice haul and outstanding work with the library sale.

You've earned a day of rest with books, Broadchurch and your foot up.

The yearly AAUW sale is in Missoula this weekend. I like the cause as it goes towards scholarships for women, and you all know about used book sale crack. But I so wanted to get the TBR stack down below 500 books this year. :)

>140 nittnut: I was thrilled to see you and Miss M and so glad that you found some good’uns. I really enjoyed our conversation too – all three of us. I hope you had a good time after you left the book sale.

>141 msf59: Hi Mark! Whew. I just finished 6 hours of check writing, deposit prep, book sale profit analysis, and preliminary prep for tomorrow’s board meeting. I Am Done. Time for a bit of late lunch, possibly some Broadchurch since Bill’s been all alone all day. Feet up, ice on my right one perhaps. We watched S2 E2 and E3 last night. These are very emotional and demanding episodes.

And the books are sitting here on the card table, just waiting to get cataloged. Later this week…..

>142 SomeGuyInVirginia: Hi Larry! Yup. I’m very happy with my books. Thanks.

That’s totally bizarre about us both getting a copy of it within a week of each other without having discussed it. I like the occasional shocker with high body counts, just not as often as you. Happy Sunday to you, Parker, and your Dad.

>143 Donna828: I’m just getting around to resting, Donna, having finished all the Friends stuff I’m willing to do today. I’ll have to get up early tomorrow to finish preparing for the Board meeting. And yes, way too many books….. *smile*

>144 Crazymamie: Thanks, Mamie. I did go overboard, but only spent $108 total, including the books for Jenna.

>145 streamsong: Thanks, Janet. I got thanked quite a bit yesterday, which is always nice even though not required. I’m going to go make a greek salad and sit down and watch Broadchurch with Bill.

I admire your goal of trying to get below 500 this year. I’m now upwards of 1900 TBRs. Sigh. It’s a sickness. BAD – book acquisition disorder (I think that’s Stasia's (alcottacre) term for it.)

Off I go!

Hi, Karen!

87 books...well done! The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker is quite the staggering set. I confess to scarcely making use of my copy; I'm still hoping to acquire a dictionary stand where I can just leave it open and browse a page or two a day.

That is a staggering haul, Karen. I can't wait until you tell us about each of them. (Well, I know that's not possible, but at least one or two?)

>147 harrygbutler: Hi Harry. Thank you. It is hefty and heavy. A dictionary stand is a good idea - I have one in the Parlour currently needing a book.

>148 ffortsa: Sure is, Judy. Here are my thoughts on some of them:

A Very Private Enterprise by Elizabeth Ironside – author recommended by book sale friend Rhoda
Death in the Garden by Elizabeth Ironside – author recommended by book sale friend Rhoda
The Accomplice by Elizabeth Ironside – author recommended by book sale friend Rhoda
Atlantic by Simon Winchester – I love his books and have already read Pacific, so why not Atlantic?
Theft By Finding by David Sedaris – I bought the hardcover of this a while back but would rather listen to Sedaris read it
Barrel Fever by David Sedaris – I have the book on my shelves but would rather listen to Sedaris read it
Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris – second in Morris’ Trilogy. I bought an audiobook of this at an earlier sale but disc 8 was missing. I thought I could acquire disc 8 through the publisher but they said no, so am glad to have it.
The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker – this includes two CDs and all 68,647 cartoons published by 2004
Complete Birds of the World by National Geographic - EllaTim and FAMeulstee talk about birds in the Netherlands some, so thought I'd get a book.
Did Lincoln Own Slaves and Other Frequently Asked Questions about Abraham Lincoln by Gerald J. Prokopowicz – sounds intriguing - I assume not, but you just never know
Born A Crime by Trevor Noah – I own and listened to the audiobook but thought that for $3 it would be nice to have it in hardcover
The Black Death by Philip Ziegler – I am fascinated with this subject
What Happened by Hillary Rodham Clinton – on my wish list
Lafayette in the Somewhat United States by Sarah Vowell – Sarah Vowell’s history is accessible and she brings a personal flavor to the subject
The Malcontenta by Barry Maitland – another author recommended by Rhoda
Changing Places by David Lodge – I think I liked the cover
The North Carolina Birding Trail: Piedmont Trail Guide by State of North Carolina – I want to expand my birding activities
Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion – I’ve never read this one
The Canon by Natalie Angier – science by a good author
The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles – I wanted to read it a while back and had gotten rid of my copy. We’ll see.
Ten Dead Comedians by Fred Van Lente – Great title, and it turns out that SGiV bought it a week ago!
The Cold Dish by Craig Johnson – volunteer book – first in the Longmire series
The Underpainter by Jane Urquhart – volunteer book – recommended by Rhoda. I didn’t want to hurt her feelings by rejecting it since it was only $1, but I do have the ARC in my catalog, which I will now get rid of.
The Story of Human Language by John McWhorter – MAJOR score. I listened to this exact set when I borrowed it from the Library and was thrilled that they’ve removed it from their catalog and I could buy it. I think I was talking with Mamie about it recently, wanting to listen to it again.
Blade Runner: The Director’s Cut – I’m fascinated by this movie.
Black Swan – I’ve never seen it and want to.
20,000 Years of World Painting edited by Hans L.C. Jaffe – huge hardcover. Just the thing to browse periodically.
Tutankhamun: His Tomb and Treasures by I.E.S. Edwards – another favorite subject.
Life Legends: The Century’s Most Unforgettable Faces edited by Killian Jordan – photos. What else can I say?
The Best of Will Rogers by Bryan Sterling – time to get familiar with his stuff.
Blanche on the Lam by Barbara Neely – recommended by Rhoda.
Still Life With Bread Crumbs by Anna Quindlen – the title cracks me up.
Enjoying Purple Martins More by Richard A. Wolinski – Having a Purple Martin colony would be fun.
The History of Ancient Egypt by Professor Bob Brier – a risk, depending on how interesting the Professor is.
This is NPR: The First Forty Years – this one has an unopened CD of select broadcasts.
A Cure for Dreams by Kaye Gibbons First Edition, Signed – can’t resist signed first editions. I don’t have many, but I like the idea of having them.
No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting by Anne L. Macdonald – gift for a friend
Shrimp by Jay Pierce – just skimming there were a couple of interesting sounding recipes.
Damascus Gate by Robert Stone – I like the heft of the book and the dust jacket.
Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932 by Francine Prose – I love the title
American Sphinx by Joseph J. Ellis – one of my favorite authors
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer – I didn’t have this one
Mrs. Bridge by Evan s. Connell – there’s been some buzz about it so thought what the heck
The Ladies’ Man by Elinor Lipman – another recommendation by Rhoda
Charles Jessold, Considered as a Murderer by Wesley Stace – I like the title
Jane Austen’s Novels by Roger Gard – Jane Austen fan here
Sunday Silence by Nicci French – I really want to like this series so am being optimistic
Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella – fluff. Fun fluff.
Tartuffe by Moliere, translated by Richard Wilbur – recently saw a wonderfully strange version and wanted to read the original.

I once tried a Sarah Vowell book on audio but her voice was so irritating, that I returned it to the library before finishing the first disc. Let me know if it's any good. I should probably give it a try in hard copy. I also have that Anna Quindlen book but haven't read it yet. She is an author I love.

Hi Karen, good work, the sale and the book haul!

In two weeks it will be King's Day here in Amsterdam, I will be able to buy lots of cheap books, or sell some, we haven't decided what we're going to do yet.

I was interested to see Thor Heyerdahl in your collection. A lot was written about him and his adventures crossing the oceans on a raft of papyrus, but it was all long ago, and I would like to know what people think now of his theories.

Wishing you the best with that ankle.

>149 karenmarie: Oh, how generous! I really meant that as you read them, you would post something about them. This is truly gravy.

>150 jessibud2: Sarah Vowel's voice irritates me too. I've heard a number of podcasts in which she is featured, and it's difficult for me to sit(or walk) through them.

I agree completely about Vowel's voice. I listened to her Lafayette in the Somewhat United States and could barely stand it. I believe I commented to Audible that she should do herself a favor and never read another book. I know I will never try to listen to another book with her voice on it.

That was definitely a Cranswickian haul!

>152 ffortsa:, >153 RebaRelishesReading: - Thanks. I am glad it isn't just me, feeling this way about Vowell's voice. Frankly, I feel the same way about Margaret Atwood's voice. Just saying...

>150 jessibud2: I can barely stand to listen to women read audiobooks. Having said that, I’m listening to The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd, with two women reading Sarah and Handful. I'm really enjoying it. I have read four of Vowell’s books and after I got over the shock of her mixing history and her personal stories, came to like her very much. Thanks for the warning – no Vowell on audiobooks! I picked the Quindlen book purely because of the title.

>151 EllaTim: Hi Ella! Thank you on both counts. I have never wanted to read Kon-Tiki for some strange reason, but this one intrigued me.

I hope you have lovely book adventures on King’s Day – buying, selling, or both!

Thank you re my ankle. It’s been mostly calm today – it helps that I’ve hardly been on it at all.

>152 ffortsa: Well, Judy, I got that one wrong, but I had fun explaining why I bought certain books and am glad it’s truly gravy.

Another NO to Vowell voice.

>153 RebaRelishesReading: Ditto for Reba! Hi Reba!

>154 thornton37814: Hi Lori! I’m proud to be considered up there in the rarefied atmosphere of a Crankswickian Haul!

>155 jessibud2: Never listened to Atwood – I do truly hate almost every single women reader I’ve ever listened to. I think I like this one, The Invention of Wings, because the story is told from the point of view of women only. If Sarah does speak her father’s or brother Thomas’s words, she doesn’t drop her voice in an artificial way to try to sound like a man, or at least not enough for me to notice and stop listening.

One more episode of Season 2 of Broadchurch. Exhausting, amazingly fine acting and story.

We’ve gotten about 1.5 inches of rain since about 5 p.m. Still raining. Does anybody else have a kitty who loves to go out in the rain and come in soaking wet? Inara’s done that three times this evening, the last time SO wet that I finally got a towel out and dried her. She loved it, but will probably come back in wet in a while.

Oh, my stars, as my grandmas would have said, that is more than a Cranswicken haul! But at that price, why not? I thought I got lucky at the library the other day when I spotted By Gaslight by Steven Price at the library for $1.00. The stores are still selling it in paperback for $25.00. It's about 720 pages, so when I'll get to it, I'm not sure. But I have wanted to read it. I'm PVRing Call the Midwife, so I'll be off to watch that shortly.

>156 karenmarie: - Oh, the audio of Invention of Wings was one of the most outstanding audios I've listened to. I loved that book, and by googling afterwards, I found out that it was based on real people and real events. And the actress that read the part of Sarah Grimke on the audio, is the same actress who narrated another book by Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees, which I also thought was excellent. I have to say, I haven't loved all of her books but I really loved these 2.

That's quite a book haul! I am hoping to make it to our library book sale this fall. It's been many years since I've been able to go but it's on a weekend that I work and the girls will be at their grandparents so I should be able to pop over on the Friday after work :)

Hope your foot is feeling better!

Good morning, Karen! Have you been washed away? The rain has been pretty steady here, too, with some thunder to annoy the dog. Our cats are indoor cats, and the dog only goes out when she must in this, as it is too chilly for her.

>155 jessibud2: I've never heard Atwood's voice so can't comment there. I listen to women readers all the time (more often than men actually) and enjoy them a lot...except Vowel.

>157 vancouverdeb: Hi Deborah! I’d feel guilty except... books. I will try to do a bit of culling so that I can keep every book visible – not double stacked. There’s still some space in the Library. Every single book deal is wonderful - hurray for By Gaslight!

>158 jessibud2: Thanks for the info, Shelley – I didn’t realize it was based on real people/events. I’m glad to hear that other people like this audio too.

>159 ChelleBearss: Hi Chelle! I hope you can get to your book sale, too. There are very few things more exciting for a bibliophile than to be able to look through stacks of books for the taking.

My foot is bothering me some, but I did call Orthopedics this morning and have an appointment on the 26th at 10:15. In the meantime, ibuprophen, ice, not being on it. With the book sale done, I’ll be able to be off it much more.

>160 harrygbutler: Not quite, Harry, but we did get over an inch last night before I went to bed and some rain overnight. Thunder used to terrify my in-laws dogs. They are so pitiful – shaking and whining.

Inara DID go back out last night and came in AGAIN soaking wet. She must have appreciated my toweling off efforts, because this morning there was a dead mouse outside the bedroom door. Bless her little heart. Sigh.

Back from the FoL board meeting and taking about $7600 in cash and checks to be deposited. I’m done with Friends for a while. I have to prepare a final Book Sale Report and send it off to our President and the Book Sale Team leader, but now it’s time for a late breakfast and some reading.

re: listening to women reading. I have some standouts, but I always try to match the reader and the material when I can make a choice. Right now, I'm listening to 'At the Existentialist Cafe', read by a woman with a strikingly upperclass British accent, but it works wonderfully for the very knotty subject of the existential philosophers and their philosophies - which varied a good deal.

That's quite the book haul, Karen. You deserve it after all your hard work. I hope that they are able to do something to fix your ankle on the 26th.

WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW!
You get the idea.
Your friend Rhoda is a gem. She's recommended some great ones for you!
AND your FoL did a great business! Congratulations!
Glad you escaped the worst of the bad weather; we did too.
I'm drooling over the New Yorker Cartoons and the Language audio. Good for you!

Morning, Karen. I have had The Invention of Wings saved on audio, for ages. Glad you are enjoying it. I hope we can watch one or 2 eps of Broadchurch this week. We are also on season 2.

>163 ffortsa: Do you listen to a lot of audiobooks, Judy? It does sound like the reader's the perfect match for the material.

>164 Familyhistorian: Thanks, Meg. This morning my ankle really hurts for some reason and I just put the compression bandage back on.

>165 LizzieD: Yes, that's exactly how I felt when I was pulling things out of the bags, Peggy. I couldn't remember all I had bought and it was great fun.

The language audio and David Sedaris' Theft by Finding are my two biggest scores, but all make me happy.

It's amazing to go from 82F on Saturday to 34F right now only going to 65F.

>166 msf59: Hi Mark! It's nice to be able to tell YOU that a book's good, it's usually the other way around. You should try to fit it into the rotation soon. I'm only halfway done, but it's got me in its grip. Today I'll be on the road for about 90 minutes so should get through a big chunk of it.

We finished season 2 and are now on season 3. We're binge watchers. After Bill gets his evening news fix, alone since I HATE TV news, we watch 2 or 3 episodes of whatever. Occasionally there are sporting or other events, or I'm just TV'd out, but that's our usual evening routine.

I have to go out to our accountant's today and write three checks. One for the feds, one for the State, and one for the tax prep. Once that's done, I have no major obligations except good ones the rest of the week. Lunch tomorrow with Louise, deep tissue massage Friday, local theater on Sunday with Louise.

Karen, I thought of another audiobook that I adored, read by 2 women whose narrations were outstanding. It's by Tracy Chevalier and it's called Remarkable Creatures, and like the one you are currently listening to, is based on real people and real events, which, like the Kidd one, I only learned from googling after finishing the audiobook. I would love to see it as a film, starring those 2 actresses but that probably will never happen. It was mesmerizing and it's an amazing story

Good morning, Karen! We've had the same bouncing around weather. Yesterday it was quite cool in the morning but seemed fine around midday; by the evening, however, the chill had returned. Springtime!

>168 jessibud2: Hi Shelley! I have the physical book on my shelves, and Rhoda loaned it to me a while back. It didn't raise a flag when I brought her copy home, but then I realized that I have it. I want to read it this year, along with about a bazillion others.

As much as I like our Library, it does not have a good audiobook selection, so I rely on the twice-yearly book sales. I now have enough listening material for quite a while!

>169 harrygbutler: Hi Harry! Yup. Springtime temps are all over the place. We had a frost warning last night but it didn't get quite that cold.

Morning, Karen! I really love Juliet Stevenson as a narrator - she is fabulous and can handle the male voices.

Hi Mamie!

It's funny, I don't know a single audiobook reader by name except for Jim Dale (and by extension Stephen Fry for the UK editions). I know Juliet Stevenson from the absolutely wonderful movie Truly, Madly, Deeply, which also starred one of my favorite actors, Alan Rickman.

Taxes paid. Tax prep paid for. Done. *shudder* Time to eat junk food and read.

I love it when your haul is so large you have to divide it up into which day the haul took place! Go you!

>83 karenmarie: What a great book haul! The mention of Nancy Drew books brought back so many wonderful memories. How I enjoyed these simple tales of adventure.

>99 karenmarie: Euphoria really is a great book. It was a difficult for me to write a review. You did an excellent job at explaining all the various nuances of this tale. I confess that I know so little of Margaret Meade. This book sparked my interest and thus I did some google searching about her. What a woman...way ahead of her time.

>173 LovingLit: Thanks, Megan. Largest haul ever, more volunteer books because I spent more time helping set up. I just kept seeing things I wanted over the course of 26 hours. Each bag was from a different day, so easy to keep separate. Also, touchstones don't work too well if too many are in one message. Thanks! Of course now I won't buy any more books until the fall book sale..... NOT. At the bare minimum I need Shine Shine Shine by Lydia Netzer for August book club and Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor for October book club. But I will try to resist random instant-gratification purchases.

>174 Whisper1: Thanks, Linda. I loved Nancy Drew. I must admit I haven't read any in a very long time and am a bit conflicted about reading them again because I might see them as less than I did as a 10-year old. But I love looking at them and remembering how much I loved them.

Thank you re my review. I've never officially studied Meade. Perhaps this will be the start.

Earlier today I wrote the following on my ROOTs challenge thread:

Anthropology has its pitfalls by the very nature of seeing a culture through one's own culture. This point was brought home rather forcefully for me 1973-ish. One of my sociology professors gave us an "anonymous" paper to read and try to figure out where in the world this group lived. It stumped us all. I kept my mimeographed copy for decades, but don't know where it is now. However, here it is online. It was originally published in 1956. Body Ritual Among the Nacirema. *smile*

Morning, Karen. Happy Wednesday. It has been a few years, but I remember enjoying Shine Shine Shine and I also liked Reservoir 13, which I read last year. Good, diverse picks.

'Morning, Mark! Thanks. Whew. I feel like I've been poleaxed. I just had my first sips of coffee - woke up at 8:50 in a daze, a friend called, and only now have I sat down and started imbibing the elixir of life.

Good to hear positive noise about those two books. We're reading Prayers for the Stolen for our May book club meeting, and I'm strangely reluctant to start it.

I'm reading, and enjoying this time (started and abandoned it last year) Blue Monday by Nicci French. Timing is important, isn't it?

Good morning, Karen! A sunny day here, so maybe I'll get a little gardening done later — if so, it will probably just be planting the next batch of radishes, which I'm using as placeholders in gaps in the strawberry bed.

Morning, Karen!

>178 harrygbutler: Hi Harry and good morning to you, too. Have fun gardening.

>179 Crazymamie: Hi Mamie!

>175 karenmarie: Sneaky.

>167 karenmarie: I usually listen to more podcasts than narrated books, but I do enjoy when a book is well matched with a narrator. Right now the book on existentialist philosophy is my only listening, and I've got two books going on my Kindle, and the usual heap of dead-tree books scattered around waiting.

>172 karenmarie: Sigh. Wasn't that a great movie!

>175 karenmarie: An yes, the Nacirema tribe. Very strange.

>181 SomeGuyInVirginia: I think so too!

Hi, Karen!

Just waving hello. *wave*

Good morning, Karen! Not a lot of action at our feeders, but I did see the nuthatch yesterday.

Good morning, Karen. Prayers for the Stolen looks quite intense. I can see why you're reluctant to start reading. I'll be interested to hear what you have to say about it, though.

After the group read of ...and the Earth Did Not Devour Him, I've learned that I have read almost no American Latino literature.

>181 SomeGuyInVirginia: Absolutely, Larry! It’s very clever.

>182 ffortsa: Hi Judy! I mostly read dead-tree books. I like the feel and touch of them.

Truly, Madly, Deeply is funny and devastating. And the Nacirema are absolutely bizarre.

>183 Familyhistorian: Hi Meg!

>184 nittnut: Hi Jenn! *waves back*

>185 harrygbutler: Hi Harry. I just put the wild bird seed feeder out and I’ve only got a couple of cowbirds, a couple of cardinals, and one blue jay right now. The male cowbirds are preening for the females.

I haven’t recorded a nuthatch, but I think I’ve seen them and not figured out what they are. Can’t count them for my life list, though.

>186 streamsong: Hi Janet! I need to start reading it pretty soon because our meeting is May 6. Sigh.

It takes a lot to get me out of my US-UK/Canada/Australia comfort zone. I don’t do it often. I’m sure you’ll make a plan to expand your horizons.

...
There was an entire herd of cows in my pastures this morning. I took 2 pictures, texted them to the mother of the man who owns them, and said that they need to fix their problem because next time I’m calling the county.

Now it’s time to visit a few threads and then catalog more books. More coffee, too.

Morning, Karen. Sweet Thursday. Our warm-up is finally on it's way. Yah! It should be close to 60, over the weekend. We NEED color in our lives.

Sorry, about the cows. What a hassle.

Morning, Karen! Ugh to the cows returning - you have been more than patient with them.

Morning, Karen! Sorry hear you are still overrun with cows! Perhaps texting the owner a picture of a BBQ would help? :-p

>188 msf59: 'Morning Mark! I just posted on your thread. Yay for the Owlets!

>189 Crazymamie: Hi Mamie! I counted 30. I can still see them in my back pastures. Terry hasn't responded to my texts yet. I have been more than patient - perhaps squishy.

>190 ChelleBearss: 'Morning, Chelle! Ha. That would get her attention for sure.

36. Blue Monday by Nicci French
4/13/18 to 4/18/18





From Amazon:

The stunning first book in a new series of psychological thrillers introducing an unforgettable London psychotherapist Frieda Klein is a solitary, incisive psychotherapist who spends her sleepless nights walking along the ancient rivers that have been forced underground in modern London. She believes that the world is a messy, uncontrollable place, but what we can control is what is inside our heads. This attitude is reflected in her own life, which is an austere one of refuge, personal integrity, and order.

The abduction of five-year-old Matthew Farraday provokes a national outcry and a desperate police hunt. And when his face is splashed over the newspapers, Frieda cannot ignore the coincidence: one of her patients has been having dreams in which he has a hunger for a child. A red-haired child he can describe in perfect detail, a child the spitting image of Matthew. She finds herself in the center of the investigation, serving as the reluctant sidekick of the chief inspector.

Drawing readers into a haunting world in which the terrors of the mind have spilled over into real life, Blue Monday introduces a compelling protagonist and a chilling mystery that will appeal to readers of dark crime fiction and fans of In Treatment and The Killing.

Why I wanted to read it: A friend recommended this last fall. I started it and put it down. It seemed time to try again. I was immediately drawn in the second time around.

This book is written by Nicci French, the husband-and-wife team of Nicci Gerrard and Sean French. It is seamless and well paced, easily flowing among a rather large cast of characters.

It is a rich and dark and intelligently written. The anguish of parents whose children are abducted and how it impacts their lives is thoughtfully portrayed. Frieda’s deliberate coolness and logic and her avoidance of messy emotions and involvement are a bit of a shock. It took me a bit to warm up to her. Her logic and aloofness stand her in good stead as she realizes that one of her patients may hold the key to finding Matthew. She comes up against a tough DI, whose increasing obsession with the case leaves him flailing around in procedure. Frieda offers a different take and eventually he sees the value of her insights and actions.

However, Frieda is not perfect. Her involvement of her old mentor Reuben leads to a bad decision on his part that Frieda will feel guilty about for the rest of her life. She isn’t always observant, and breaks rules for the first time ever, which shocks her as much as it does us.

She revels in her isolation and aloneness. There is one glimmer of a breaching of her emotions as she befriends and is enriched by Josef, a carpenter, who falls through the ceiling of her office one day as he's working on an upstairs apartment. He's different from anybody she's ever met before and she is fascinated by his warmth and openness. There's no romance here, by the way, just a widening of Frieda's small circle. Frieda is romantically involved with someone else in this book, not related to the case at all. She makes an important decision about this relationship, but it is peripheral to the case.

To even say much about the plot will be a spoiler, but the endings are as shocking and satisfying as one could hope for. I do say endings because much more than just one thing is going on in Blue Monday.

>192 karenmarie: - I picked this one up on my Kindle a year or so ago... Really must get to it! Sounds excellent.

Hi Katie! I hope you do. I'm on the lookout for Tuesday's Gone.

WooHoo! I wasn't the friend, was I? Yet I've been warbling about Frieda this whole (!) year and am trying to save *Saturday* to postpone the time when I have no more to read. In fact, The Day of the Dead is scheduled for publication in July. I'm afraid I'll be ready for it.

Hi Peggy! I don't know if you were the first to mention it to me or my friend Rhoda was the first - either way I was getting it in stereo and am so glad I was able to get into it the second time around.

I have a copy of Sunday Silence - an uncorrected proof - that I would be glad to loan to you. That way you could read Dark Saturday, pace yourself a bit, then read Sunday Silence just before The Day of the Dead comes out. If you want it, just let me know when to mail it to you.

Hi, Karen! House finches and house sparrows galore around the feeders this morning, so nothing so impressive as your indigo buntings.

Have a fine Friday!

Morning, Karen! Happy Friday!

Happy Friday, Karen!

Isn't Broadchurch great? We've become major Olivia Colman and David Tennant fans - his Dr. Who was my favorite, and he's a terrific villain in Jessica Jones. Did you see The Night Manager? Olivia Colman is great in that one, too, with Tom Hiddleston.

Impressive book hauls. I hope the first Longmire suits you when you get to it. Great series.

Happy Friday! We had a freeze warning last night which is, quite simply, ooga booga nuts. How did you guys make out?

Hey, bird-lovers! I'm visiting some relatives in Florida, and woke up to birdsong this morning. I have no idea what kinds of birds, but it was a treat nevertheless.

I had started posting replies yesterday, got interrupted, and just now realized I hadn't actually posted. Sorry, dear ones!

>197 harrygbutler: Hi Harry! I did have a fine Friday, thank you. Glad you had lots of feeder activity. The Buntings were gravy – I love seeing everybody who comes to the feeders, including the Cowbirds.

>198 Crazymamie: Thanks, Mamie!

>199 jnwelch: We finished Broadchurch up two nights ago. It was quite wonderful. The ending made sense, and although I wish it had gone on longer, see the wisdom in ending it when they did, gracefully, logically, and mostly in a satisfactory way. Olivia Colman was new to me. I didn’t realize that she was in Murder on the Orient Express. David Tennant is my favorite Doctor.

Thanks re the book haul. They’re all cataloged, shoehorned into shelves in the Library (that’s an exaggeration – there was enough room on various shelves to fit them in without cramming), and waiting to be read. I am just finishing up a very strange book, The Last of the Bighams by J.A. Zeigler, and after that will be starting Isaac’s Storm and probably the Longmire, The Cold Dish.

>200 SomeGuyInVirginia: Thanks, Larry! It was a beautiful spring day, pollen notwithstanding. We had a freeze warning too and Bill said it was 29F when he got up. By the time I got up it was 36F. It’s 35F now. I never plant my vegetable garden before the last week of April because of potential freezes.

>201 ffortsa: Hi Judy! How lovely to wake up to birdsong. I can’t identify most birds by their calls either, and just enjoy listening to them, too. I hope your Florida trip is wonderful.

Morning, Karen. Happy Saturday. Beautiful here yesterday. Cloudy today but at least it will stay in the mid-50s, with more warmth and sunshine on the way tomorrow.

Glad you enjoyed Broadchurch. I hope we can get back to it soon.

HI Mark! Thanks. We have beautiful Carolina blue skies, 45F. A normal Saturday for us, errands, hanging out. I hope you can get back to Broadchurch too. It's a stunner.

37. The Last of the Bighams by J.A. Zeigler
4/18/18 to 4/21/18





From Amazon:

The tale of the Pamplico family's murders and the death penalty trails of the one-handed Edmund Bigham dominated newspapers in South Carolina through the 1920s. The trials drew carnival like crowds of curious citizens eager to hear the tale of horror. A prosecution witness died on the stand and the skull of his mother was introduced as evidence against him But Edmund Bigham, accused of killing his brother, sister, mother and two adopted nephews, escaped the death penalty to live out his life as "The Last of the Bighams."

This first biography about the notorious Bigham family of Florence County was written by J. A. Zeigler, then editor of the Florence Morning News and Review. At the time of the trial, Zeigler covered every facet of the murder trail as a news reporter. He wrote not only the accounts of the six-year court proceedings, but the evil traditions of the Bigham family as well. This book was first published in 1927.

Why I wanted to read it: Our friend Carl had mentioned it to me years ago and all of a sudden he gave it to my husband on loan for me to read. I thought it would be a friendly gesture to actually read it.

The story told is of a venal, evil, and wicked family, the Bighams, who lived in the small town of Pamplico, SC. The author writes about the criminal doings, murders by, and murders done to, various family members. The author begins the book with the trial of the last of the Bigham’s grandfather Leonard, accused of killing a “negro servant” named William Jackson. The verdict, against all evidence, was NOT GUILTY.

Leonard’s son Smiley, according to the book, killed his father with cyanide of potassium dissolved into his evening glass of milk in order to get his inheritance sooner than later.

Thus passed the “first of the Bighams,” the victim of his own cunning, leaving his son an inheritance of hate, but what was more to Smiley’s liking, the major portion of a vast estate.

Smiley was accused of murdering a neighbor who enraged him when he begged that Smiley take a third bale of cotton after Smiley said he’d only take two. He planned a murder, told a story, and was found guilty of justifiable homicide. There is the implication that his wife poisoned him.

And we at last come to one of Smiley's three sons, Edmund, “the last of the Bighams,” and the three trials, various other murders, and attempted land fraud, insurance fraud, and postal fraud.

From 1921 until 1927 Edmund was on trial for the murder of his brother Smiley Jr. There were 5 murders that day, but they only tried Edmund on the murder of his brother. The others murdered were his mother, his sister, and two adoptive sons of his sister. He was found guilty of his brother’s murder in all three cases, but the Supreme Court of South Carolina struck down the first two trials on various procedural problems. The third trial also found him guilty, but the prosecution and defense reached the stunning compromise of having Edmund admit his guilt and be recommended to the mercy of the court, which would result in life imprisonment instead of the electric chair. This was granted. Mentioned in the Introduction, Edmund was paroled in 1960 and lived until 1962.

The prose is stilted in the way of the times, but also lurid, filled with suppositions, accusations not backed up with evidence, implications of ghosts and insanity. The chapter headings are lurid, too. “Death Its Own Avenger Breeds”, a phrase used continually throughout the book, “Another Mysterious Murder”, “Bigham Hoodoo Apparently Working”.

The prose also reflects the racist times, with occasional use of the “N word” and other frequent use of negative stereotypical words to describe black people.

I found it fascinating in a sick way. Zeigler was clearly on the side of the prosecution, based on his knowledge of the Bigham family or his journalistic zeal, perhaps both. Other, peripheral, murders are mentioned. We hear Zeigler’s assertion that Edmund put his hand under the rails in order to collect $5000 insurance money. Another sister, Ruth, is murdered, by the third brother, Cleveland, who incited a friend to think she was a ghost walking along the shore line. Deeds are stolen, signatures forged, fake confessions introduced to the court, attempts to smuggle chloroform and ipecac to Edmund to help a jailbreak. Lots of stupidity in addition to wickedness and evil.

This book is reflective of its times with all the prejudices, displays of power, racism, sexism, and use of violence without expectation of punishment. I’m not sure I liked it, but I am glad I read it.

Good afternoon, Karen! I hope your weekend is going well so far. We visited the local Habitat ReStore today in the hope of finding something attractive and suitable for use as a printer stand for our newest printer, which was left stranded when I moved my home office. We didn't succeed, but did bring home a few books, so certainly worth the visit. :-) Soon we'll be off to the annual Pennsylvania Dutch dinner at a volunteer fire department in a village along the Delaware River north of us.

Hi Harry! Well, if you can't find a printer stand, at least there were books! I hope you enjoy your dinner. I'm making white chili for tonight's dinner. I've just started poaching the chicken, will start cooking the soup about 3:30.

Your FoL haul came close to causing me to end with extreme prejudice my decades-long association with you. Instead, I have decided to up my game vis-a-vis voodoo doll technology. *evil Muttley laugh*

I too loved Euphoria. Four stars and a big warble.

Blue Monday lurketh on my Kindle.

The Last of the Bighams sounds perfectly HORRIBLE and I will avoid it like it gots the cooties.

*smooch*

Ouch! Damned pins.

De-lurkify Blue Monday soonest.

Do avoid it. Although, if you had an original hardcover in very good condition from 1927, you could list it for $1,995 on Abebooks.....

We're expecting between 1 3/4" and 3 1/2" inches of rain between this evening and tomorrow evening.

Tonight is the Friends of the Library Annual Meeting. I will most likely be elected to serve another year as Treasurer.

Isaac's Storm is fascinating, another winner from Erik Larson.

*LOVED* Isaac's Storm!! LOVED IT. One of the lesser reasons I left Austin was the juniper bushes so abundant in the hills. They're called cedar trees there but the goddamned things made my life unlivable...to the point of hospitalization more than once...with their pollination habits. And they are all there due to that one hurricane.

Have a happy Monday, Madam Treasurer, and don't risk the low-water crossings in that kind of rain.

*smooch*

Good morning, Karen! That's a good bit of rain on the way! It reminds me that I need to make sure our rain barrels are ready to take advantage of the spring showers here.

>211 richardderus: 'Morning, RD! I haven't heard anything in Isaac's Storm about flora before/during/after the storm, but I still have 46 pages to go.

I'll be very careful about wading or driving through moving water, you can be sure.

Madame Treasurer will probably only serve one more year. I'm feeling constrained - couldn't have spent 5 weeks in CA last year, as an example, without stressing it - and am planning a June visit to my aunt and uncle in CA and friend Karen in Montana and only feel good about making it two weeks or so total.

*smooch* back!

>212 harrygbutler: Hi Harry. Rain barrels. You are very organized. Out here if it rains, great, if it doesn't, except for the vegetable garden, the plants are on their own.

Morning, Karen. Seeing some bird activity, early on, always a hopeful sign.

Have a good Monday.

>210 karenmarie: - I had a feeling you'd love Isaac's Storm. Larson is such a good writer! If you are still in the mood for more of his writing, after this one, try Thunderstruck. Same quality and I find I always learn something fascinating in his books.

>210 karenmarie: Holy cow! That's a lot of rain! What sort of problems could that cause for you? I can't remember if you are close to anything like a creek...

I'll have to be on the lookout for Isaac's Storm or other Erik Larson books. I've read The Devil in the White City, but for some reason never returned to him.

>214 msf59: Hi Mark! Yay for bird activity. Today's been good so far. There has already been some rain.

>215 jessibud2: Hi Shelley! He is a wonderfully good writer, drawing me in immediately. I don't have any other unread books by Larson on my shelves. I'll have to keep an eye out. However, with so many books just acquired at the Friends of the Library book sale, I really can't justify any right now.

>216 streamsong: Hi Janet! More than I expected. It's not raining right now, but still overcast. We do have a creek that runs through our property, but it's well below the house. The worst flooding I've seen here in 20 years, when the creek went out of the banks for 50 feet on either side, only got the creek to within about 70 feet of the house. It would have to have risen about 20 vertical feet to lap at the bottom of the front porch steps. I'm not worried about this. The worst thing will be that the drain in the driveway will get crowded with debris and overflow the sides of one of our flower beds. There's nothing meaningful planted in it right now, so it will just meaning shoveling out mud, crush and run (rocks), and a few leftover fall leaves. Thanks for asking...

I hope you can find it. It was wonderful. Since I live in a hurricane area, the info about hurricanes and forecasting were particularly interesting to me.

38. Isaac’s Storm by Erik Larson
4/21/18 to 4/23/18





From Amazon:

September 8, 1900, began innocently in the seaside town of Galveston, Texas. Even Isaac Cline, resident meteorologist for the U.S. Weather Bureau failed to grasp the true meaning of the strange deep-sea swells and peculiar winds that greeted the city that morning. Mere hours later, Galveston found itself submerged in a monster hurricane that completely destroyed the town and killed over six thousand people in what remains the greatest natural disaster in American history--and Isaac Cline found himself the victim of a devastating personal tragedy.

Using Cline's own telegrams, letters, and reports, the testimony of scores of survivors, and our latest understanding of the science of hurricanes, Erik Larson builds a chronicle of one man's heroic struggle and fatal miscalculation in the face of a storm of unimaginable magnitude. Riveting, powerful, and unbearably suspenseful, Isaac's Storm is the story of what can happen when human arrogance meets the great uncontrollable force of nature.

Why I wanted to read it: Erik Larson has proven himself to me as a fine writer of historical events and it just seemed like the right time.

The books I’ve read by Larson have all had one thing in common. They go into excruciating detail about two opposing or even independent forces and then let you feel the tension and ride the building wave (in this case almost literally) to the catastrophe or conclusion.

Here we learn about the nascent science of weather forecasting and the understanding of cyclones and how the US Weather Service sacrificed timely and non-US-generated hurricane predictions in the name of politics and control to prevent hurricane warnings to be declared locally in Galveston and information about the hurricane to be misinterpreted and ignored in disseminating weather forecasts along the Gulf Coast, the Atlantic Seaboard, and even into the Midwest and Northeast after the storm left Galveston. The US Weather Bureau was quite content to forecast what it expected the weather to be, rather than what was actually occurring.

Cuba had an amazing hurricane prediction structure based on observations and evidence that wasn’t necessarily quantifiable and forecast that the hurricane that came through there on September 3-5 was headed straight towards Texas. But the US was ignoring Cuban weather information, not sharing US weather information, and nobody in the US thought that a storm generated in the West Indies could come ashore in the Gulf. It was pride and hubris and ignorance.

Isaac Cline suffered the loss of his wife, home and all his possessions, but personally escaped permanent destruction of his reputation. He always second-guessed decisions he made on that Friday and Saturday. He also quite possibly made some of them because of the long-running feud with his younger brother Joseph, who also worked at the Weather Bureau in Galveston.

We tend to err in the opposite way now, especially after Hurricane Katrina, with worst-case predictions, runs on bottled water, bread, milk, batteries, and etc. for storms that turn north sooner or later or fizzle out completely. People don’t like it, but imagine being in your home in Galveston in 1900 and seeing the weather prediction of fair skies with brisk winds turn into a torrential downpour, flooding, explosions of glass as houses collapsed, the pulling of homes off their foundations, debris, bodies, winds over 100 miles per hour, and terror beyond what most of us could imagine. There were walls of debris miles long, bodies everywhere and no communications within Galveston, much less to the outside world.

This is a fascinating book and I absolutely loved it.

I see it's been 10 days since last I was here. Anything happening?

That stress fracture in my brain has me really messed up.

Have a cat gif. You're welcome.

Hi Bill! Not much. Birds, books, rain, stress fracture. Poor you, stress fracture of the brain.

Love the cat gif. He's way cool.

Oh, wait. My 27th wedding anniversary is on Friday. I guess that counts as happening.

*smile*

Where oh where is my copy of Isaac's Storm? I picked it up every single time I was looking for something else until I DID something with it. Damn it.
Hi, Karen. Happy Anniversary to come! I look forward to hearing the menu!

Good review of Isaac’s Storm, Karen. I loved it, as well. My very first Larson. I still have a "keeper" copy.

Good morning, Karen! Nothing particularly unusual at our feeders at the moment, but it seems the mockingbirds are back; I heard and saw one yesterday. I do believe the last of the juncos has headed off, but we had a pair of white-throated sparrows around for at least a couple days over the weekend.

>221 LizzieD: I hope you can find your copy soon, Peggy! Thanks re our anniversary. Bill's making Angus Barn noises, so we'll probably go out Friday on our anniversary. He's going to take half a day off work so we'll be able to head on over for an early-ish meal.

>222 msf59: Thanks, Mark! My third Larson, but as good as the first two.

>223 harrygbutler: Hi Harry! We have mockingbirds here, too. No juncos here either. Right now I only see two male Cardinals. Of course I haven't put out the wild bird seed feeder yet because I had a busy morning getting ready for a Friends of the Library meeting and just got home about 15 minutes ago.

Time to fill and put out the wild bird seed feeder and fill the feeders in the back. A bird mom's work is never done.....

>211 richardderus: We're getting all that rain! I was supposed to head to the Outer Banks today but wasn't feeling all that great and didn't want to risk flooding as I headed up Route 12 through Duck. Spent the day resting and reading Turtles All the Way Down.

>218 karenmarie: Isaac's Storm sounds great! We visited Galveston and toured the museum that told the story of the hurricane. I've added it to my TBR list.

Hi Karen! We're getting a lot of rain, too. Now our power's out. Thank goodness for the generator. Estimated time back up is 9 p.m.

I really want to read Turtles All the Way Down. I should have bought it when I saw it at Costco a while back.

That museum must have been fascinating. I can't imagine ever going to Galveston, but if I ever do, I'll make sure I go there!

I had four different pairs of house finches at the feeders this afternoon, pushing off the smaller goldfinches. I have to get the smaller sock of niger seed repaired and out for the latter.

Morning, Karen! Happy Wednesday. Hooray for the finches.

>227 ronincats: I have been seeing a house finch couple, stop by the feeders, but not many goldfinch. I wonder if they are busy building a nest?

>227 ronincats: Hi Roni! Poor Goldfinches. I'm glad you're taking good care of them.

>228 msf59: Hi Mark! I have seen some house finches in the last several days in addition to both male and female Goldfinches.

It's still overcast and we're supposed to get some showers and thunderstorms again today. We've had over 2 inches since Monday night.

Morning, Karen! Glad to see you enjoyed Blue Monday as I have had that one in my sights for a bit!

Hi Chelle! 'Morning to you, too.

The second time was a charm and I recommend Blue Monday wholeheartedly.

Catching up, a lot has happened here, Karen!
Yay! for bookhauls, :-( for too many cows (I hope they are gone now) and did you have that appointment for your ankle last Monday or is it next week?

Hi Karen my dear, I am getting back around the threads and hope to be a more regular visitor from now on. I am so far behind that I am using this as my starting point and will keep up from now on.

Hope you are all well and are having a good week so far, I am hoping that all my aches and pains have eased and all other troubles are over with. Sending love and hugs to you both from both of us dear friend.

>232 FAMeulstee: Hi Anita! I'm very excited about all my books, for sure. So far the cows have not returned. I threatened the owners with a call to the county. I don't know if that's changed what they're doing or if I'll see cows again. If so, I will absolutely call the county.

I saw my GP on April 10th. X-rays were taken. I have an appointment with an orthopedic specialist tomorrow morning. I've printed out the x-ray findings from the practice's website and looked up all the strange medical terms. I'll be prepared with questions and comments for sure!

>233 johnsimpson: Hi John! I'd love to see you visit more frequently but certainly understand when things just aren't right for lots of social chattiness. I hope your aches and pains ease, too, and that things get smooth soon for you and Karen. I'll be visiting your thread soon. Sending love and hugs to you both!

Hi Karen! We had a gorgeous day today. Of course, my tidy, well weeded front walkway is covered in River Birch detritus after all the rain, but at least the allergies are slightly less awful after the rain.
I hope it's good news from the orthopedist.

Hi Jenn!

Yay for a well-weeded, if detritus-covered walkway. We've got overcast skies this morning, but no rain. I think we ended up getting about 2.5 inches.

Coffee, LT and a bit of reading before my 10:15 appointment.

Thanks - I'm a bit nervous, to tell the truth. I dissected the findings from the x-ray yesterday afternoon - they were online for me - and once I deconstructed the doctor-ese, there's a lot about bone spurs and sclerosis. Sigh.

Good morning, Karen! I hope all goes well with the specialist visit.

Sunny around here, but likely a quiet day for me.

Hi Harry! Thanks. Other than the specialist and a few errands, it's a quiet day for me, too.

Tomorrow is our wedding anniversary - 27th on the 27th! Bill's taking the day off, a combination of getting a recall on his car done and to celebrate our anniversary. I have a feeling we'll go to Harper's for lunch. We're going to go to Angus Barn next Saturday, Cinco De Mayo, for our official anniversary splurge.

>238 karenmarie: Nice! Happy Anniversary! Our 20th is coming up in a couple weeks.

Morning, Karen! I'll be keeping you in my thoughts today as you get the news from your doctor. Hoping there is something they can do for the pain.

27th on the 27th sounds like something to celebrate - congratulations! Craig and I will be celebrating 28 years in October. Doesn't seem possible.

>239 harrygbutler: Thanks, Harry! Early congrats to you, too.

>240 Crazymamie: Thanks, Mamie! I figure they will tell me one of three things: there's nothing that can be done except ice/pain killers/maybe a boot until the stress reaction heals; orthotics/ugly old person shoes; surgery. I'm also going to ask them about my left foot since they will probably find just about the same things there except for the stress reaction - bone spurs, etc.

Congrats on almost 28 years!

Back from the doctor, running errands, and running MORE errands.

The specialist said that I have flat feet/fallen arches. That seems to be the most of the problem according to her. I can't do anything about the bone spurs in the short term, and she discounted some of the other things on the findings and x-ray. She's given me wedge inserts to help re-balance how I walk so that I strengthen and use the outside of my ankle more. I must say that I've been using them for 3 hours and the pain has lessened. She's recommended me for PT and for an evaluation for orthotics. She also said I should consider getting a "rocking bottom shoe" to lessen how much my ankles are being used when I walk.

I don't know exactly what I was looking for, but it will have to do for now. We'll see how things go in the next couple of weeks. If I can hold off on PT and orthotics until June 1, I will be on Medicare and things will be less expensive.

Edited to add - I forgot that she gave a prescription for a major opiod - tramadol. I just read up on it and yikes! I don't even know if I want to take any. Here's the kicker - 20 pills for $1.66. I kid you not.

I just watched a Male Rose-Breasted Grosbeak eat sunflower seeds at my back feeder for about 5 minutes. He was absolutely gorgeous. They are migrating now, so I'm lucky to have seen him. Louise alerted me that one was hanging around.

Not my picture, but this is what he looked like.

>242 karenmarie: - Karen, so good to hear that you won't be needing surgery. I have always had flat arches and as a kid, had to wear ugly Oxford clunkers as shoes with arch supports in them. I hated them. Once I began to teach, and my benefits covered orthotics, I got those and they most certainly do make a difference. I have to tell you, the rocking bottom shoes take some getting used to. I bought a pair of running shoes with those soles and wore them exclusively in school. Once I got used to them, I would swear by them but maybe wear them at home for awhile, in case you trip. You don't want to be falling when you are out and about. The flip flops I wear in the house all the time (as slippers) are also rocking bottom ones and flat shoes just feel weird to me, now.

And yes, June isn't that far off. No need to rush.

Hi Shelley! I am glad there are things to try before surgery, even if surgery would work for the problems I seem to have, and thank you for sharing your story. Makes me a bit more encouraged than I was when I wrote that earlier this afternoon.

Of course, seeing the Rose-Breasted Grosbeak was a thrill, too.

WOW for that r-b gb! I've never seen one. Wow! A comment on juncos reminded me that they are our snow birds; they do show up when it snows, and I've never seen them any other time.
Well, I'm sorry about the old lady shoes. I know them well. I am glad that you're not facing surgery. I do love some Medicare!
Happy Anniversary tomorrow if I don't make it back. Encourage those Angus Barn noises.

>243 karenmarie: What a lovely bird, black and red are always so striking.

If tramadol is the same as Ultram, you don't need to be afraid of it. It's not anywhere near as strong as Percocet or the others, and 20 pills won't be habit forming. Mom took those as back up meds for years after her botched back surgery.

Insomnia. Boo.

Good morning, Karen, and happy anniversary to you and Bill. I hope the recommended course of treatment helps.

Congratulations on the rose-breasted grosbeak! We've been fortunate to see them in the past; they are beautiful birds.

>246 LizzieD: Hi Peggy! I felt Wow! too. Bill calls juncos snow birds too. Last year I saw one in March. From the map on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's website, looks like there all over the US then migrate up to Canada to breed.

I have a strange thing about shoes - right now all I wear are New Balance black running shoes. I don't like white or color or glitter or patent leather or anything except black shoes. We'll see if I can get anything that's better for my feet that is just black and not clunky. The Carly Simon song "You're So Vain" is running through my head right now.

Angus Barn is a reality, he's made the reservation. Pre-Yum.

My mother wore the butt-ugliest brown fake patent leather shoes, bless her, but they were comfortable. My sister and I still joke about them.

>247 SomeGuyInVirginia: Hi Larry! He was so dramatic looking.

Tramadol is the same as Ultram, so whew! I made the mistake of reading all the literature that came with the prescription and some online because I've never heard of it before. You know - the bits about mixing with alcohol and other drugs and, oh yeah, DYING. For some reason this time it scared me. I also take a muscle relaxant at night because I clench my teeth, so looks like one or the other for a while.

Sorry about your insomnia, Larry. It used to panic me when I was working because I knew I'd be whupped at work. At least you'll have the weekend to catch up!

Botched back surgery. *shudder* I'm so sorry. I have some back issues occasionally, and can only imagine bad enough for surgery and then to have it go wrong.

>248 harrygbutler: Good morning, Harry, and thank you!

Thanks re the treatment. I need to put my shoes with the wedge inserts on - actually I need to get off LT, get dressed, and follow Bill to drop off his car and then eat breakfast out.

Thanks re the Rose-Breasted Grosbeak. Made my afternoon for sure.

Oh yeah, if you drink on tramadol it can kill you, ditto muscle relaxers. Booze dangerously amplifies the sedative effect on the central nervous system. When I had morphine for my pinched nerve I didn't even use mouthwash, but that was overkill.

Mom was the toughest woman I've ever known, def a Steel Magnolia. The only time I ever saw her cry was when some doctor would take her off prednisone. It's a steroid and most people only take it for 10 days, but Mom took it for 25 years. It has terrible side effects, but it's the only thing that allowed Mom to be able to walk and function. Some newbie clown doc would take her off and two weeks later she'd be bound up tight, unable to walk or lift her arms and in terrible pain. The doc would be horrified and put her back on. Frankly, if he didn't, I would have bought her the drug on the black market.

As you can see, I'm compensating for being tired by being hyper.

>243 karenmarie: We had one of those at our feeder a few days ago, and you are right that they are absolutely gorgeous. I am scaring myself just a bit with my bird knowledge - I am blaming Mark with several of you (yes, I'm looking at you, Karen!) as co- conspirators.

Hoping your anniversary is full of fabulous! And also hoping that the non-surgery foot stuff provides you the relief you need.

>250 SomeGuyInVirginia: Hi Larry! Sorry you're tired and hyper. Bet you can't wait 'til you can be home relaxing.

Hmmm. Looks like muscle relaxant and possibly a glass of wine OR one tramadol in a 24-hour period. Honestly, the pain's not bad enough to justify an opiod - my kidney stones justified morphine and oxycodone - but this pain, even when I had shooting pains after setup for the book sale, wouldn't justify it. I guess I'll just keep it on hand in the event of a kidney stone.

I sure would love to have met your mom. She sounds a bit like Bill's Great-Aunt Eloise and to a lesser extent his mother. Steel Magnolias indeed.

I had my own experience with a newbie clown doc - a woman - when I went to my doctor for a sinus infection. Couldn't see him, so saw Dr. C., who refused to give me antibiotics. I never went to my doctor unless I KNEW it was a sinus infection. 25 or more years of sinus infections and I certainly knew when one was starting up. I don't remember how it ended, whether I had to go back and see my doctor or they just sent in a prescription over the phone, but I told their office manager that I would NEVER see Dr. C again, EVER, and why. I have a strong animus against her.

>251 Crazymamie: Hi Mamie! I'll willingly shoulder some of the blame. I'm still a newbie birder, but I must report that I just saw the female Rose-Breasted Grosbeak on my wild bird seed feeder. Here's what the females look like, again, not my picture.



Thanks re my foot/ankle. The wedge inserts still seem to be helping. I did take some ibuprophen about 3 hours ago, which is also helping, I'm sure. I'll call the orthotics folks on Monday. I'll wait for the PT folks to call me.

Thanks re our anniversary - so far we've taken Bill's car to the dealer to get a recall fix performed and went to a great little place in the middle of nowhere for breakfast. Sometime later today we'll go back and pick up Bill's car.

Bill's present to me (us) was his Christmas Bonus converted into our Anniversary present - the aforementioned (expensive) Angus Barn dinner and having our neighbor Larry help me pick and plant large blocking hollies or evergreens. Our new neighbors have finished building on the only unbuilt lot in our 15-lot cul-de-sac community, and we can see their house and incredibly-busy-looking fencing from our living room. Grrrr. Not their fault, but grrrr.

Karen! Hiya hi. Good luck with the foot fixes; hope they give you relief.

We see gosbeaks every year, it seems. Not often, but they do seem to be around. About three days ago, we saw a Northern Oriole outside the bedroom window. Beautiful bird. We've seen orioles very occasionally; once every three or four years.

We had another nocturnal visit from a small bear, out looking for an easy snack. The feeder hangs on a porch post literally three feet from the door. It's been hit a couple of times already this year, and we're complacent about bringing it in at night. So this time, it got kinda twisted. It's a very simple cylinder of wire mesh topped with a plastic lid (which is still outside). I think we need to order a replacement.

>242 karenmarie: Glad you don't need surgery, Karen, and that the inserts already seem to help.
Tramadol isn't major in my opinion, I know it works for some but it never had any effect on real pain for me.

>243 karenmarie: Beautiful bird!
>252 karenmarie: The female is less striking, more like perfect camouflage. She would be hard to see when she is on her nest.

>253 weird_O: Hi Bill! Thanks re my foot. Feet, actually, but the right is the one with the pains right now.

How exciting to see an Oriole! We apparently get Baltimore Orioles as they migrate east and north, but Orchard Orioles are here during breeding season. I’ve never seen one of either.

Yipes. A bear 3 feet from your door. And yes, you definitely need to order a replacement. I was irritated with the raccoon stealing my wild bird seed, but that's nothing to your bear. I think the closest black bear sighting has been about 5 miles from here.

>254 FAMeulstee: Hi Anita! I guess I need to calm down about tramadol. Thanks for your opinion.

The Grosbeaks have made me very happy the last two days. The female came back around a while ago and I studied her with the binoculars.

...

I found a document I created on 5-28-1991, one month and one day after our wedding. It’s 7 pages and just describes things as I remembered them, starting 3 days before our wedding and mentioning our honeymoon a little bit, not much. I wrote it for my sister, who for a variety of stupid reasons didn’t come to my wedding. I don’t think I’ve ever shown it to Bill. I’ve converted it to Word, put ‘written 5-28-1991’ at the bottom, and put page numbers on it. After he reads it I think I’ll put it in my desk calendar for 1991.

Happy wedding anniversary, Karen and Bill!

Thank you, Anita! Bill read my wedding document and loved it. It's in my 1991 desk calendar now.

Happy anniversary, Karen!

>253 weird_O: - Um, Bill... maybe you should just give in and take the darn thing in at night. Just saying....

Hooray for the Rose-Breasted Grosbeak! I have seen them here but not at our feeders. Boo, to the mangled bird feeder. Yikes! Glad no one was hurt.

I decided to put up my hummingbird feeder today. What the heck, right?

Happy anniversary, Karen!

>192 karenmarie: Happy Weekend Karen! And, Happy Anniversary!

I searched my LT record of books I own, and found Blue Friday was acquired last year. I will search the books throughout the house to find it. When I retire, I've decided to systematically go through all my books, purge those that appealed to me when I bought them, but realizing they might no longer are interested, I'll give them away. And, I vow to note where each book is so that I can easily find it.

This should keep me busy for a long, long while.

>258 jessibud2: Thanks, Shelley!

>259 msf59: Hi Mark! Hooray for sure. I've only seen them at my feeders.

I can't imagine a bear-mangled feeder 3 feet from the door. Just can't. And thanks re my anniversary.

>260 Whisper1: Hi Linda and thank you!

Excellent goal for when you retire. Slow and steady wins the race - reviewing, purging as needed, noting location for what you keep. It will keep you busy for a while, but you'll fall in love with your books again - the ones you do keep!

...
We've had a good anniversary day. We went out to dinner at Virlie's - a local hangout. They have grilled food on Friday nights. It's interesting - there's the regular kitchen for everything EXCEPT the grilled steaks, salmon, chicken and pork chops, and the grill kitchen out back that's only open on Fridays. We walked past the grill kitchen on our way in the back door. Virlie's is noisy, mostly locals, fun, and the food is wonderful. Unsweet tea, salad, steak, and onion rings. Plus free cake to celebrate since "we're such good customers". Homemade chocolate cake with homemade icing. We split a piece. I also came home with half my steak and some of the onion rings for a meal tomorrow.

We're watching Hinterland, another police procedural, this one set in Wales. It's very good, different from Broadchurch and Midsomer Murders.

Happy Anniversary, Karen! I can't advise re tramadol. Only our 16 lb dog has taken tramadol, to my knowledge. It was prescribed to her after she had her" dental" and had to have one tooth pulled. She seemed pretty drowsy for the first day , but that I think that was more due to the general anesthetic that she had.

Hi Deborah! Thank you. We had a very nice day.

Tramadol for a dog. Well. I wonder how many 'human' drugs are also used for animals? My kitty Imsai was prescribed a human thyroid medicine but I could never get it in her.

Good morning, Karen! I'm sorry about your foot woes. I have flat feet and had special inserts made when I was a teenager due to some pain from running. I hated them and never wore them, so I expect I'll be developing problems as time goes on...

Hi Katie!

Sorry for your flat feet, too. The Orthopedic Specialist had me stand up, barefoot on a pad on the floor, and said "Wow! I think you have the flattest feet I've ever seen!" Not something to be thrilled about, for sure. These wedge inserts are helping.

>263 karenmarie: - One of my cats is on thyroid pills but I don't think they are human ones. She is easy to pill, thank goodness. That said, my other cat is taking glucosamine, the human version. I simply open a capsule and sprinkle the powder into her food. She is the one who eats anything, so I knew this would not be a problem. :-)

Afternoon, Karen! Your anniversary sounds like it was a good one. Hard to go wrong with chocolate cake.

Rae and I really like Hinterland.

>267 Crazymamie: More Hinterland luuuv.

*smooch* for my favoritest horrible book-enchantress and her much-married hubsbnd

>266 jessibud2: Lucky you. The cats I have now are pretty easy to pill, but not Imsai. Glucosamine for a kitty. Wow.

>267 Crazymamie: Hi Mamie! It was good. Homemade chocolate cake, too, not a mix. The frosting wasn't a mix either. I can tell - I only make scratch cakes and frosting. Their white bean and ham soup was scratch, too - Bill had it - Kane makes most of the soups and he was rather proud of that one. Yay Hinterland. Very emotional and intense and good.

>268 richardderus: Yay RD! Awww, *smooch* back. When I first read your comment I thought much-harried husband, but then saw the m instead of an h. I'll tell Bill he's got a smooch from you. Goodness knows I talk about all my LT friends a lot and he knows you almost by osmosis.

Back from lunch, errands, and picking up Bill's car from getting the recall fix done. He's had problems with the transmission acting rough almost since he has owned the vehicle (2013). Ford could never get his car to fail when at the dealership, but all Focuses for 2012 and 2013 were given warranties that extended the original 30000 warranty to 100000. We took it to the Siler City Ford dealership because a huge conglomerate bought our local Pittsboro Ford and put them out of business. At Siler City they were able to 'see' the problem and are going to replace the transmission under warranty. We got in just under the bell - Bill has 97000 miles on it.

Relaxing, books. Louise saw 3 male Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks this morning and called all excited.

Happy anniversary! I love it when things work!

A vet gave Parker a prescription for Xanax to take before visits. I got it filled but never have given him any. I changed vets, got one who's more patient with rescue animals. When the pharmacist asked how old Parker was I told him a year and a half, then made him make a note that Parker was my cat and not my toddler so I wouldn't get on some kind of ATF list.

Much love, kiddo, it's a beautiful day here.

>263 karenmarie: Most 'human' drugs are first tested on other mammals... Many work for all kind of animals, including humans ;-)

Between our three dogs ( we've had one at a time ) , they have taken a number of " human drugs" We were told to give pepcid AC to our first dog, who suffered with vomiting problems. That seemed to help. Our other two dogs have both either come from the SPCA and Poppy is a " rescue dog" , so both have suffered with quite a bit of anxiety. At the vet's , they have a brand of antidepressant/ anti anxiety medication called Colmicalm. https://www.caninejournal.com/clomipramine-for-dogs/ It's really a ' dog version " of a human tricyclic. I was not keen on it, so we tried a more " modern " anxiety drug, Paxil for our dogs. I took the RX from the vet over to our " human pharmacy " were Poppy is know as Poppy Lastname " canine. " I think quite a few human drugs are prescribed for dogs/cats , but there are definitely some drugs that dogs/cats can't metabolize like humans can.

>270 SomeGuyInVirginia: Thanks, Larry! I do, too. I didn't know Parker was a rescue. And good about making sure they didn't cart you away for abusing a toddler.

Much love back. Today was gorgeous, wasn't it?

>271 FAMeulstee: You're right, Anita - I sorta forgot that.

>272 vancouverdeb: Hi Deborah! I didn't realize how much drug prescribing for animals in addition to antibiotics. Of course we're now giving Kitty William and Inara Starbuck an anti-inflammatory twice a week for arthritis/old age and they are both perkier because of it.

>255 karenmarie: I found a document I created on 5-28-1991, one month and one day after our wedding
What a lovely keepsake! I was just thinking, today actually, that I might read all my personal diaries (all from 20+ years ago) and burn them :)

Morning, Karen. Happy Sunday. Hope you are enjoying the weekend. I am getting ready to head out to my final bird walk of the past 3 days. Hope to drum up something interesting. Had an impressive day yesterday.

>274 LovingLit: Hi Megan! Diaries. I never kept a 'diary' per se, but have 34 years worth of desk diaries. Mostly they note any special events or parties I attended. Some early ones have number of hours worked per day and mileage when I was consulting.

Read and burn?

>275 msf59: Hi Mark! Thank you, and I am. I just had the first sip of coffee - always the best. Have fun on your bird walk and good luck on 'something interesting'.

Good morning, Karen! I hope you've been having a good weekend.

I got out to a guided bird walk yesterday at the wildflower preserve where we are members, and among the birds seen was a rose-breasted grosbeak, at a feeder at the visitor center.

Savor the Sundayness of the day. *smooch*

Happy anniversary Karen! I'm a bit late, have been at the allotment a couple of days, no wifi access there.

I love those rose-breasted grosbeaks, both male and female!

>277 harrygbutler: Thanks, Harry. It has been a 3-day weekend with our Anniversary on Friday and Bill off that day from work. Yay for the Rose-Breasted Grosbeak. They are stunning, aren't they?

>278 richardderus: Sundayness means Neese's Hot Sausage and toast for breakfast, coffee, reading, and etc. Tomorrow I have plans to clean the porch railings of seed shells and bird foot prints and poop. *smooch* back, RD!

>279 EllaTim: Hi Ella! Thank you. Spring allotment activities sound wonderful.

..
There are some male and female Goldfinches here right now, along with a Tufted Titmouse and various Cardinals and Cowbirds.

39. The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley
04/23/18 to 04/29/18





From Amazon:

1883. Thaniel Steepleton returns home to his tiny London apartment to find a gold pocket watch on his pillow. Six months later, the mysterious timepiece saves his life, drawing him away from a blast that destroys Scotland Yard. At last, he goes in search of its maker, Keita Mori, a kind, lonely immigrant from Japan. Although Mori seems harmless, a chain of unexplainable events soon suggests he must be hiding something. When Grace Carrow, an Oxford physicist, unwittingly interferes, Thaniel is torn between opposing loyalties.

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street is a sweeping, atmospheric narrative that takes the reader on an unexpected journey through Victorian London, Japan as its civil war crumbles long-standing traditions, and beyond. Blending historical events with dazzling flights of fancy, it opens doors to a strange and magical past.

Why I wanted to read it: It was supposed to be our May book club discussion book, but the chooser changed to another book. This one made it to top of stack, so to speak.

To my knowledge, this is the first novel I’ve read after having heard the term steampunk. It is a combination of Victorian England and Japan and futuristic mechanical things that buzz and crawl and fly.

Frankly, by the end I wasn’t quite sure of what had happened, but that is part of the point of the book, I think. Keita Mori is an enigma and I was never quite sure of what he remembered, let happen, or caused to happen. By the time he is through with Thaniel and Grace, I wondered how much of their lives he truly had influenced and when.

There is an amazing mix of history, fantasy, alternate realities, and switches between countries and dates. I found it a tad hard to keep track of.

I also had a preconceived notion of how it might end which was absolutely and totally wrong, and there are also tantalizing glimmers into Thaniel and Grace’s futures.

I was glad to read it and actually surprised to learn after finishing it that so far it is a standalone novel. I wouldn’t mind a book about more of Grace’s adventures. Pulley has written a second book, not a sequel, published in 2017, The Bedlam Stacks.

>276 karenmarie: Don't throw those desk diaries away, those things are precious! They're a picture of your life. You should consider passing them on to your grandkids.

Hi Larry! They have pride of place in the Library, one whole shelf to themselves. I'll save 'em for Miss J and her descendants. 1985-2017 here, a couple of them tucked in the far left of the shelf, 2018 in the Sunroom, aka my home office.

Coolio. Will you invite us to the baby shower, and can you make some of the goodies you do for the book club? Can you tell that I'm starving? I'm also too lazy to get up and throw something in the microwave.

I had a splitting migraine this am, a real eye popper, but am floating on a lovely chemical cloud now. Better living through chemistry!

I will invite you to the baby shower and I will feed you healthy, tasty foods and luscious homemade desserts. Just don't hold your breath - she isn't dating at this time. Of course that doesn't necessarily mean anything - I had made a pact with myself that if I wasn't dating or engaged by the age of 38 I'd just go ahead and have a child anyway. Fortunately by then Bill and I were engaged and I had our lovely Miss J when I was 40.

Yes, if you're thinking of the food I make for book club you must have it on your mind. Feed yourself! It will probably help you feel better.

Sorry about the migraine. I'm glad you're on a lovely chemical cloud. Better living through chemistry, absolutely! I've always thought that white-knuckling it through pain was ridiculous - why not take advantage of the excellent drugs?

I still haven't needed or taken the tramadol though. By gum, these silly little wedge inserts are da bomb!

Good morning, Karen! Yes, the grosbeak males have a striking color combination.

I restocked the tube feeders before work this morning. I'm not expecting anything particularly unusual, but who knows?

Hi Harry! I restocked the wild bird seed feeder and the large sunflower seed feeder yesterday. I'm going through bird food at prodigious rates and am also out of suet right now.

I'd love 'unusual', but am perfectly contented with the usual. I love watching them flirt and jockey for position on the feeders and fly to and from the crepe myrtle across the pastures.

Louise, my friend and neighbor is the true birder, though - the other day she told me she'd seen 52 different birds so far in 2018. This is without doing anything more than sitting at her huge kitchen window and watching her deck and back fields and walking her dogs up and down our cul-de-sac. She inspires me, for sure.

>285 karenmarie: I understand perfectly the feeling that the clock is ticking at 38 for having babies. But luckily I'm right on top of that, lol. Hope you're doing well on this Monday morning.

Always preferred copper appliances myownself. *smooch*

>288 The_Hibernator: Glad you're on top of it, Rachel! I'm very happy for you, all around.

>289 richardderus: *smooch* back, RD! Beautiful French Press and accessories. So how does making a pot of coffee with a French Press actually work? How long would it actually take to boil the water and brew the coffee? So you make this big pot of coffee. Okay. How does it stay warm? Do you put it in a thermos or just drink quickly or what? Do you use less coffee to get the same strength? Enquiring minds and all that! Nothing I can think of makes it better than my Bunn 44900 BUNN BX Velocity Brew 10-Cup Coffee Brewer.



...
I saw three male Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks out the window earlier this morning - one on the sunflower feeder, one on the wild bird seed feeder, and one in the Crepe Myrtle. I was on the phone with my cousin who works at American Airlines, trying to figure out airfares/standby/etc and couldn't stop for a picture. One of the males is back again....

Generally, it takes the amount of time to boil water as it always does; then the pouring into the pot is ~5sec; the steeping portion is ~5min (I like strong coffee); the drinking goes fast enough chez moi that the heat isn't a problem. I know others use a heat diffuser on their burners set to low-and-slow to keep the pot warm. I myownself have a stainless steel model and its double-walled construction is gloriously efficient at keeping things warm. Especially since I wash the pot immediately before I use it so it's always just had hot water cycled through.

Stopping by to say hello and express a little jealousy over the grosbeaks! I was excited to have two indigo buntings at my feeder yesterday morning but we see them pretty regularly around the farm. I checked to be sure they WERE buntings because they might have been blue grosbeaks but they just weren't big enough!

And, glad to hear the inserts are working. I have been struggling with back pain for the past year or so and it gets bad enough that I limp sometimes. But, I got stuck in the train station in DC last month and ended up in a shoe store that advertised "healthy" shoes. The wonderful women who ran the place had me stand on their machine and sold me a pair of orthotics and a pretty awesome pair of shoes made by Jambu. I was skeptical but the inserts really seem to help. They recommended not walking barefoot around the house (boo!) and I also have gotten rid of a couple pair of old shoes whose soles are worn in the wrong places. I still struggle over the uneven parts of the farm but when I'm at an event, life is much better.

>291 richardderus: Ah, the mechanics explained! I didn't realize there were stainless steel models. Just looked on Amazon and voila! There they are. Thank you, RD. You da man.

When I took a thermos of coffee to work, I used to boil a tiny bit of water and put it in the thermos while the coffee was brewing so that the thermos would be hot already when the coffee went in, keeping it hot longer. Great minds, you and I.

Morning, Karen! A while back you were singing the praises of your coffee grinder - could you tell me which kind you have again?

>292 witchyrichy: Hi Karen! I was in awe over them, for sure. And I couldn't take a pic because I was on a call.

Two Indigo Buntings! Yay.

Thanks re the inserts. I'm glad your inserts are helping. What a great idea, going into a "healthy" shoe store while you were stuck anyway. So did the orthotics solve back problems or foot problems or both?

I've started wearing shoes even in the house, boo too. I just called the Orthotics place I was referred to, which has Thursday hours 10 minutes from my house (yay), and they had an opening at 11 this Thursday. Our insurance doesn't cover them, but oh well, looks like they'll be $266. And probably new shoes, too. But if they help me walk better, then it's good. I only wear one brand/model of shoes now - I have two pair I use interchangeably -so I can see using the shoes/wedge inserts I have now around the house and the official orthotics/shoes when I'm out. Or something like that. *smile*

Big waves from over the pond.

Hi Barbara! Big waves back!

>236 karenmarie: Ugh. Not the best news from the doctor-ese I guess.

>243 karenmarie: Bird Envy!!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

How are the feet going? sounds like you have some good therapies going.

Well --- I'm happy that you are on the track of orthotics that will make your life better. I'm in a good place right now after a lot of sciatic pain for the first few months of the year. I didn't do anything; the pain just went away on its own. I had made up my mind that if this was the new normal, I was going to live through it. I'm glad that's been delayed.
I'm suffering grosbeak envy right along with Jenn.
I also use a French press for coffee, but I have a cheap-o: one good cup in the morning, so heat is not a problem. Then I switch to tea.
Your diary collection is impressive! No child here, so it's just as well that there's no diary accumulation either except for the 6th grade one, which is pretty funny.

Sorry to read about your health issues. I don't wear fancy shoes since years but feel very comfortable with my ones and my back and feet don't hurt.
Happy Tuesday, Karen.

Morning, Karen. Happy Tuesday. This is my long work week, but with the warmer weather arriving, along with the migrating birds, I really do not mind. Smiles...

Good morning, Karen. I hope you have a pleasant Tuesday.

I doubt we're anywhere near 52 species seen from our house and yard, but I do confess we don't really try to ID the gulls that fly overhead.

>298 nittnut: Hi Jenn! Thanks re our anniversary.

I guess I wanted immediate relief, aka magic. If I wear shoes anytime I’m not asleep I’m getting a lot of relief. I called the orthotics place yesterday and they had an opening this Thursday. It’s 10 minutes from home, so I’m jazzed. My insurance doesn’t cover them and I’ve been told Medicare doesn’t by several folks, so it’s cash out of pocket, I’m afraid. Oh well, it’s all in a good cause.

I just saw one male Ruby-Breasted Grosbeak and watched him eating sunflower seeds. Now I’ve got Cardinals and Cowbirds.

>299 LizzieD: Thanks, Peggy! I’m sorry you had sciatic pain – I only had it once, when I was pregnant, and my leg would collapse on me if I wasn’t careful. Terrible deep down nerve pain.

Ah one cup in the French Press. I make 32 oz of coffee each morning. I see some fine Stainless Steel French Presses on Amazon, but so far I’m still into instant gratification (well, about 3 minutes total, anyway).

I never kept a ‘diary’ of feelings to be embarrassed by later. I did write some poetry when I was in high school and put it in a folder. I showed it to Jenna one time, and still get reminded of various embarrassing subjects and phrases. I also wrote a speech in high school about “Teenagers of Today”, which makes me writhe when I look at it. I used the word Hence, and now Jenna and I have a running joke about it.

>300 Ameise1: Hi Barbara. You’re being practical, which is what I’m being. I just need to do foot-savvy practical. Glad your feet and back don’t hurt.

>301 msf59: ‘Morning, Mark! Warm weather, migrating birds, dazzlingly-white legs and shorts. Did you blind anybody yesterday? *smile*

>302 harrygbutler: Thanks, Harry. I’ve got a book sale recap meeting, the Post Office, early voting, and a quick trip to the grocery store. Then home.

Louise has been birding for over 60 years. Her knowledge and keenness impress me. You should have heard her the other day when she called to say that she’d seen THREE male Ruby-Throated Grosbeaks. She was as excited as any teenager with a new cell phone.

I’ve got a total of 44 different birds here in NC, 5 when I was at Mom’s house last year in California. My list started in March of last year. I’ll never be able to keep up with Louise, but that’s okay.

Going to make a new thread – give it a few minutes then come and join me!