richardderus's sixteenth 2020 thread

The New York Public Library's photomontage on her obituary
If you read her Encyclopedia of Fantasy entry, you'll see why we still talk about Natalie Babbitt. It's short, and light on personal information (but so is her Wikipedia entry, and the IPL bio is only very slightly more informative), but look at the links! Babbitt wrote Tuck Everlasting and, honestly, that's the only thing her career as a writer and illustrator of children's literature is remembered for. It's not the only thing she ever wrote, and certainly her illustrations appeared in other writers' books, but one book stands as her most memorable contribution to 20th-century kidlit.

Author Babbitt's self-provided portrait at ipl.org with her boop-snoot
If you're not familiar with the book or its movies (first or second and far more famous), the links will take you to their descriptions. What I will say is, this story of immortality and its exactions has made generations of kids think more profoundly about what it means to be alive and able to work the magic of living and loving than would ever have bothered to otherwise. Babbitt's three children have great reason to be very proud of their mother's influence for the better on more people than she ever could possibly known in her not-short life (1932–2016!).

The lady with her most iconic illustration...yes, it was hers...in later life for them both
If ever you wonder why we do this, why we talk about our dearly belovèd books, this is it. No one ever knows what read will change whose life, their own or another's. We keep even the odd and misfit books alive, and hope that like the Tucks they will find that needful soul and pour water on it.

In 2020, I wanted to post 10 book reviews a month on my blog. I already read a book every other day, as this year's total of 155 (a lot of individual stories don't have entries in the LT database so I didn't post them here; guess I should do more to sync the data this year) reads shows; so it was doable, and I've done better than that in the past. Regrettably, there's no way I'll even approach that goal now.

I've Pearl Ruled books I'm not enjoying, but making notes on Goodreads & LibraryThing about why I'm abandoning the read has been less successful. I give up. I just don't care about this goal, so out it goes.







My Last Thread of 2018 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there. My Last Thread of 2009 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there. My Last Thread of 2010 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2011 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2012 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2013 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2014 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2015 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2016 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2017 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2019 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.

Reviews 1 through 3 are thataway.

Reviews 4 through 8 reside thitherward.

Reviews 9 through 11 are back here.

Reviews 12 through 20 existen allá.

Reviews 21 through 24? Go here!.

Review 25 in all its lonely splendor is back yonder.

Reviews 26 through 40 are doin' it for themselves.

Reviews 41-46, plus a Pearl Rule can be seen elsewhere.

Reviews 47 through 68 are back there.

Reviews 69 through 76 present themselves for inspection behind.

Reviews 77 through 94 await your pleasure.

Reviews 95 through 103 cannot be found in this thread, but in that one.

Reviews 104 to 115 (inclusive) are more fruitfully sought here than here.

Reviews 116 through 133 await your viewing beyond yon link.

Reviews 134 to 144? Better look back here.

THIS THREAD'S REVIEW LINKS

145 My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry sucked, post 111.

146 A Man Called Ove reeked, post 122.

147 Lord Edgware Dies delighted, post 194.

148 The Dream: A short Story is crap, post 241.

149 Piranesi scintillates and coruscates before one's dazzled eyes, post 296.

150 Elysium, or The World After was a very involving read, post 315.

2019 was a *stellar* reading year! For the first time ever, I had two six-stars-of-five reads: Black Light: Stories, a debut story collection that gave me so much pleasure I read it twice (ever rarer occurrence that), and the wrenching, gutting agony of Heart Berries, a memoir of such honesty and such vulnerability that I was a wreck after I finished it. I went back and forth a dozen times, first Author Parsons was the sixer, then Author Mailhot; neither book could possibly "win" for long because I couldn't get either book out of my mind.

I handed out 34 5- or damn-near-5-star reviews out of 155 reviewed books; that's 22% and that is a LOT. Many, even most of these (10+) were for short stories, for end-of-beloved-series novels, or for story collections. But hold on to something heavy: TWO, yes that's t-w-o dos due deux zwei два were...POETRY COLLECTIONS. Sarah Tolmie's The Art of Dying and the late Frank Stanford's collected poems, What About This: Collected Poems of Frank Stanford. Both were peak reading experiences. Another was cultural monadnock George Takei's graphic memoir They Called Us Enemy, which could not be more important for young people today to absorb.

What a beautiful year it was, to bring so many delights to my door. I hope, greedy thing that I am, that 2020 will repeat this performance. For all of us, really...honest! I didn't just add that on the end of this summing-up to make it sound less solipsistic.

In 2020, I wanted to post 10 book reviews a month on my blog. As of 1 September, I haven't posted nearly enough to make the year-long goal! There are a few mitigating factors (a mild COVID-19 infection is one), but I don't think the deficit's recoverable. Even so, I still read a story every other day, as 2019's total of 155 (a lot of individual stories don't have entries in the LT database so I didn't post them here; guess I should do more to sync the data this year) reads shows; so it's doable, and I've done better than that in the past.

I have not done better at Pearl Ruling books I'm not enjoying with notes on Goodreads & LibraryThing about why I'm abandoning the read. I think I'm going to bag this one, as I am not interested in performing the task. I don't like a book, I close it and discard it. Enough.

...and that's me done. My reports will continue to be quarterly, the day after the end of the quarter, as follows:

3Q20. Forty reads completed and reported for the quarter; two five-star novels read (The Long Dry and The Mercy Seat), and I five-starred I Will Judge You by Your Bookshelf because really? How could I not with that title and subject matter?

I re-read two five-star stories, I Stand Here Ironing and The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas. They are both still exemplars of excellent observation and elucidation, domestic and societal by turns, each making its quiet way down into the core of one's ongoing reading experience. I find their echoes in so many "new" or new-to-me voices.

I have two book reviews on submission, so I won't count them as reads until they're either rejected and I put them on my blog, or accepted. I had to abandon a tree-book read, The Perfect Fascist, because in a month I was able to read 47pp of 528pp. I asked for a Kindle file and was informed no such accommodation would be made...not so long ago, before the latest round of gout-crystal formation, I asked and asked for tree books and was offered Kindle files! Crazy times.

Many very good reads, like Dr. Mary Trump's book about her nightmare family, were simply not tippy-tippy-top quality writing or storytelling. I am not about to dis anyone for needing less challenging reading, considering how much of it I hoovered up. But I was stalled in many superior reads because the world today is for stepped-in dog crap, and I was not prepared to do any heavy thinking.

EXCEPT my two five-star novels, one about capital punishment and one about the slow, sad decline of Life into cold lifelessness. I urge you to read those books, read my reviews to see why I think you should, and to support a world where art is possible by voting on 3 November 2020.

2Q20. Forty-five books read this quarter; I started and finished with five-star reads, lucky me! Sharks in the Time of Saviors was a beautifully made Hawai'ian family Bildungsroman. (Can one have a group Bildungsroman? it's not a family saga but a map of the coming-to-consciousness of a family...well, debate as you will, Imma call it that.) A great way to start the new quarter, with a new author's first book that belted the ball out of the park.

The end-of-quarter delight is You Exist Too Much, the fumbling attempts of a queer Palestinian woman to fix the damage done by a borderline-personality-disordered mother and an ineffectual, uninterested father. Like I could relate much? So much of the story felt like me wandering destructively through my 20s and 30s that the next events felt foreseen, if not predictable.

This quarter also brought my dote, Murderbot, in its first-ever full novel appearance. Oh Murderbot *swoon* you're so dreamy

Anyway, Murderbot did not disappoint (as if!) and Author Martha Wells maintains her standing as my go-to AI-story spinner of webs.

Author Kai Ashante Wilson wrote The Devil in America six years ago, but I just got around to reading it. I loved the bitter tang of the story's search for escape from a curse. It's inevitable that the search ended in defeat because curse. I find the curse-breaking triumphalist fiction so very prevalent today savorless and silly and really quite dangerous. But anyway, Author Wilson (A Taste of Honey, The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps) earns my approbation by placing Black queerness at the heart of his fiction. His is a point of view we need to see more of to break free from the curse (!) of Othering in ficiton.

And a different five stars entirely for the coda of a series set in 19th-century London and Scotland, The Bequest: David and Murdo's Epilogue. It's a short piece that ties a neat little bow on the fanny (US sense) of three historical novels featuring lawyer David and aristocrat Murdo as they negotiate the pitfalls of queer love in their world. It's not a recommended-read-now five because it will make no sense whatever if one hasn't read the previous three books. Squeamish straight people should not attempt to summit this mountain, there is significant steamy sex and y'all pretty much lose y'all's shit when gay sex is presented at anything like the frequency or graphicness of straight sex.

Plenty of four-and-a-half star reads and four-star reads.

And the heinous ones. Oh my. The Fear Hunter was severely mistitled. Elise Sax wrote a forgettable and pretty pointless rom-com with a few gestures towards mystery. AWFUL. Penny Serenade barely lifted its dreary stringy mop of dirt-colored hair off that book's place on the basement floor because a film was made of it that was at least pretty to look at. The story was not good reading. I suspect I wasn't in the mood for The Code Book so I won't excoriate it for having AN ENTIRE PAGE OF NUMERALS in a comma-separated-value list. I was recovering from my mild dose of COVID-19 so I'll assume it was me being fussy not the author being a complete putz.

And that, my olds, is a very good quarter's reading.

1Q20. Twenty-six reads done, three posted on my blog, or 10% of the goal I set myself. Bad performance. Really bad.

I re-read the four Murderbot novellas by Martha Wells, and loved them just as much as when I first read them. Because Network Effect is coming in May, YAY!!, it felt like time at last to put down some thoughts about them on my poor, neglected blog. Murderbot is a delightfully antisocial being and I am honestly more impressed by Author Wells's beautiful and deft worldbuilding than I am by the lit'ry stylings of many a crowed-over Next Big Thing.

But this quarter's surprise and joy is reserved for a Smashwords COVID-19 sale find, a freebie I completely accidentally stumbled upon: A Justified State by Iain Kelly, a Scottish television editor about whom I had not heard a peep and from whom I expected not a lot.

He overdelivered on my expectations. This could be a six-stars-of-five read; I have a long way to go, so no decisions yet, but this medium-term futuristic dystopian thriller set in a nightmarish Soylent Green-ish Glasgow is $2.99 and cheap at twice the price. Do your distracted self a favor and get sucked in to Author Kelly's hellish world...ours seems paradisical!

I really hadn't considered doing this until recently...tracking my Pulitzer Prize in Fiction winners read, and Booker Prize winners read might actually prove useful to me in planning my reading.

1918 HIS FAMILY - Ernest Poole **
1919 THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS - Booth Tarkington *
1921 THE AGE OF INNOCENCE - Edith Wharton *
1922 ALICE ADAMS - Booth Tarkington **
1923 ONE OF OURS - Willa Cather **
1924 THE ABLE MCLAUGHLINS - Margaret Wilson
1925 SO BIG - Edna Ferber *
1926 ARROWSMITH - Sinclair Lewis (Declined) *
1927 EARLY AUTUMN - Louis Bromfield
1928 THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY - Thornton Wilder *
1929 SCARLET SISTER MARY - Julia Peterkin
1930 LAUGHING BOY - Oliver Lafarge
1931 YEARS OF GRACE - Margaret Ayer Barnes
1932 THE GOOD EARTH - Pearl Buck *
1933 THE STORE - Thomas Sigismund Stribling
1934 LAMB IN HIS BOSOM - Caroline Miller
1935 NOW IN NOVEMBER - Josephine Winslow Johnson
1936 HONEY IN THE HORN - Harold L Davis
1937 GONE WITH THE WIND - Margaret Mitchell *
1938 THE LATE GEORGE APLEY - John Phillips Marquand
1939 THE YEARLING - Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings *
1940 THE GRAPES OF WRATH - John Steinbeck *
1942 IN THIS OUR LIFE - Ellen Glasgow *
1943 DRAGON'S TEETH - Upton Sinclair
1944 JOURNEY IN THE DARK - Martin Flavin
1945 A BELL FOR ADANO - John Hersey *
1947 ALL THE KING'S MEN - Robert Penn Warren *
1948 TALES OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC - James Michener
1949 GUARD OF HONOR - James Gould Cozzens
1950 THE WAY WEST - A.B. Guthrie
1951 THE TOWN - Conrad Richter
1952 THE CAINE MUTINY - Herman Wouk
1953 THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA - Ernest Hemingway *
1955 A FABLE - William Faulkner *
1956 ANDERSONVILLE - McKinlay Kantor *
1958 A DEATH IN THE FAMILY - James Agee *
1959 THE TRAVELS OF JAIMIE McPHEETERS - Robert Lewis Taylor
1960 ADVISE AND CONSENT - Allen Drury *
1961 TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD - Harper Lee *
1962 THE EDGE OF SADNESS - Edwin O'Connor
1963 THE REIVERS - William Faulkner *
1965 THE KEEPERS OF THE HOUSE - Shirley Ann Grau
1966 THE COLLECTED STORIES OF KATHERINE ANNE PORTER - Katherine Anne Porter
1967 THE FIXER - Bernard Malamud
1968 THE CONFESSIONS OF NAT TURNER - William Styron *
1969 HOUSE MADE OF DAWN - N Scott Momaday
1970 THE COLLECTED STORIES OF JEAN STAFFORD - Jean Stafford
1972 ANGLE OF REPOSE - Wallace Stegner *
1973 THE OPTIMIST'S DAUGHTER - Eudora Welty *
1975 THE KILLER ANGELS - Jeff Shaara *
1976 HUMBOLDT'S GIFT - Saul Bellow *
1978 ELBOW ROOM - James Alan McPherson
1979 THE STORIES OF JOHN CHEEVER - John Cheever *
1980 THE EXECUTIONER'S SONG - Norman Mailer *
1981 A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES - John Kennedy Toole *
1982 RABBIT IS RICH - John Updike *
1983 THE COLOR PURPLE - Alice Walker *
1984 IRONWEED - William Kennedy *
1985 FOREIGN AFFAIRS - Alison Lurie
1986 LONESOME DOVE - Larry McMurtry *
1987 A SUMMONS TO MEMPHIS - Peter Taylor
1988 BELOVED - Toni Morrison *
1989 BREATHING LESSONS - Anne Tyler
1990 THE MAMBO KINGS PLAY SONGS OF LOVE - Oscar Hijuelos *
1991 RABBIT AT REST - John Updike *
1992 A THOUSAND ACRES - Jane Smiley *
1993 A GOOD SCENT FROM A STRANGE MOUNTAIN - Robert Olen Butler *
1994 THE SHIPPING NEWS - E Annie Proulx *
1995 THE STONE DIARIES - Carol Shields
1996 INDEPENDENCE DAY - Richard Ford
1997 MARTIN DRESSLER - Steven Millhauser
1998 AMERICAN PASTORAL - Philip Roth
1999 THE HOURS - Michael Cunningham
2000 INTERPRETER OF MALADIES - Jumpha Lahiri
2001 THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY - Michael Chabon
2002 EMPIRE FALLS - Richard Russo
2003 MIDDLESEX - Jeffrey Eugenides *
2004 THE KNOWN WORLD - Edward P. Jones
2005 GILEAD - Marilynne Robinson
2006 MARCH - Geraldine Brooks
2007 THE ROAD - Cormac McCarthy
2008 THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO - Junot Diaz *
2009 OLIVE KITTERIDGE - Elizabeth Strout
2010 TINKERS - Paul Harding
2011 A VISIT FROM THE GOOD SQUAD - Jennifer Egan
2013 ORPHAN MASTER'S SON - Adam Johnson
2014 THE GOLDFINCH - Donna Tartt
2015 ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE - Anthony Doerr **
2016 THE SYMPATHIZER - Viet Thanh Nguyen **
2017 THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD - Colson Whitehead **
2018 LESS - Andrew Sean Greer *
2019 THE OVERSTORY - Richard Powers *

Links are to my reviews
* Read, but not reviewed
** Owned, but not read

Every winner of the Booker Prize since its inception in 1969

1969: P. H. Newby, Something to Answer For
1970: Bernice Rubens, The Elected Member
1970: J. G. Farrell, Troubles ** (awarded in 2010 as the Lost Man Booker Prize) -
1971: V. S. Naipaul, In a Free State
1972: John Berger, G.
1973: J. G. Farrell, The Siege of Krishnapur
1974: Nadine Gordimer, The Conservationist ... and Stanley Middleton, Holiday
1975: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Heat and Dust
1976: David Storey, Saville
1977: Paul Scott, Staying On
1978: Iris Murdoch, The Sea, The Sea *
1979: Penelope Fitzgerald, Offshore
1980: William Golding, Rites of Passage
1981: Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children *
1982: Thomas Keneally, Schindler's Ark
1983: J. M. Coetzee, Life & Times of Michael K
1984: Anita Brookner, Hotel du Lac *
1985: Keri Hulme, The Bone People **
1986: Kingsley Amis, The Old Devils
1987: Penelope Lively, Moon Tiger *
1988: Peter Carey, Oscar and Lucinda *
1989: Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day *
1990: A. S. Byatt, Possession: A Romance *
1991: Ben Okri, The Famished Road
1992: Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient * ... and Barry Unsworth, Sacred Hunger
1993: Roddy Doyle, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
1994: James Kelman, How late it was, how late
1995: Pat Barker, The Ghost Road *
1996: Graham Swift, Last Orders
1997: Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things
1998: Ian McEwan, Amsterdam
1999: J. M. Coetzee, Disgrace
2000: Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin *
2001: Peter Carey, True History of the Kelly Gang *
2002: Yann Martel, Life of Pi
2003: DBC Pierre, Vernon God Little **
2004: Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty *
2005: John Banville, The Sea
2006: Kiran Desai, The Inheritance of Loss
2007: Anne Enright, The Gathering
2008: Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger
2009: Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall
2010: Howard Jacobson, The Finkler Question *
2011: Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending **
2012: Hilary Mantel, Bring Up the Bodies
2013: Eleanor Catton, The Luminaries
2014: Richard Flanagan, The Narrow Road to the Deep North
2015: Marlon James, A Brief History of Seven Killings *
2016: Paul Beatty, The Sellout
2017: George Saunders, Lincoln in the Bardo *
2018: Anna Burns, Milkman
2019: Margaret Atwood, The Testaments, and Bernardine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other

Links are to my reviews
* Read, but not reviewed
** Owned, but not read

I stole this from PC's thread. I like these prompts!
***
1. Name any book you read at any time that was published in the year you turned 18:
Faggots by Larry Kramer
2. Name a book you have on in your TBR pile that is over 500 pages long:
The Story of China: The Epic History of a World Power from the Middle Kingdom to Mao and the China Dream
by Michael Wood
3. What is the last book you read with a mostly blue cover?
Wasps' Nest by Agatha Christie
4. What is the last book you didn’t finish (and why didn’t you finish it?)
The Perfect Fascist by Victoria de Grazia; paper book of 512pp, can't hold it
5. What is the last book that scared the bejeebers out of you?
Too Much and Never Enough by Mary Trump
6. Name the book that read either this year or last year that takes place geographically closest to where you live? How close would you estimate it was?
The Trump book; set in Queens and the Hamptons, so just down the road a piece
7.What were the topics of the last two nonfiction books you read?
The last successful rebellion on US soil and caffeine
8. Name a recent book you read which could be considered a popular book?
The Only Good Indians, a horror novel that's really, really good
9. What was the last book you gave a rating of 5-stars to? And when did you read it?
Restored, a Regency-era romantic historical novel about men in their 40s seizing their second chance at luuuv
10. Name a book you read that led you to specifically to read another book (and what was the other book, and what was the connection)
Potiki, which Kerry Aluf gave me; led me to read The Uncle's Story by Witi Ihimaera
11. Name the author you have most recently become infatuated with.
P. Djeli Clark
12. What is the setting of the first novel you read this year?
Hawaii and PNW
13. What is the last book you read, fiction or nonfiction, that featured a war in some way (and what war was it)?
The Fighting Bunch; WWII
14. What was the last book you acquired or borrowed based on an LTer’s review or casual recommendation? And who was the LTer, if you care to say.
There isn't enough space for all the book-bullets y'all careless, inconsiderate-of-my-poverty fiends pepper me with
15. What the last book you read that involved the future in some way?
Mammoths of the Great Plains by Eleanor Arnason
16. Name the last book you read that featured a body of water, river, marsh, or significant rainfall?
Ancient Oceans of Central Kentucky by David Connerly Nahm
17. What is last book you read by an author from the Southern Hemisphere?
Red Heir by Lisa Henry
18. What is the last book you read that you thought had a terrible cover?
please don't ask me this
19. Who was the most recent dead author you read? And what year did they die?
Agatha Christie, 1976
20. What was the last children’s book (not YA) you read?
good goddesses, I don't remember...Goodnight Moon to my daughter?
21. What was the name of the detective or crime-solver in the most recent crime novel you read?
Poirot by Dame Ags
22. What was the shortest book of any kind you’ve read so far this year?
The World Well Lost, ~28pp
23. Name the last book that you struggled with (and what do you think was behind the struggle?)
Lon Chaney Speaks, because I really, really don't like comic books
24. What is the most recent book you added to your library here on LT?
see #23
25. Name a book you read this year that had a visual component (i.e. illustrations, photos, art, comics)
see #23
I liked Sandy's Bonus Question for the meme above, so I adopted it:

26. What is the title and year of the oldest book you have reviewed on LT in 2020? (modification in itals)
The Sittaford Mystery by Dame Aggie, 1931.

Okay. Your turn.

Well hello there! I see Ms Babbitt in your thread topper this time ;0)

Happy new thread, Richard!

Happy new one, Richard! Love the topper - thanks for taking the time to recreate it for us.

Happy new thread, RD!

I've only ever read Tuck Everlasting (love it, of course)...

Happy new thread!

>8 humouress: And Nina is first past the post!

I'm glad you can see her at last.

>11 drneutron: Thanks, Jim!

>10 katiekrug: But the others include a Newbery medalist! Worth a side-trip some boring Sunday, surely.

>9 Crazymamie: It is my pleasure, Mamie, though the original reason I did it is that Author Babbitt died on Halloween 2016 and I lost that topper on the day. So. Annoying. But serves me right for forgetting to copy my work!

*convulsive shudder*

>14 richardderus: SO true.

Hello.

>15 Crazymamie: Awomen.

>16 weird_O: Greetings.

Happy new thread Richard, dear friend.

>18 johnsimpson: Hi John, thank you for your kind wishes. I send them back to you with interest accrued.

Happy new 'un, RDear!

*smoochity-smooch-smooch*

HAppy new one!

Happy new thread, Richard. >14 richardderus: - This is akin to my reading in bed and then seeing the cats look...up. Never a good thing.....

>22 jessibud2: Thanks, Shelley...and no, that is just not good never nohow.

>21 figsfromthistle: Thank you, Anita!

>20 karenmarie: *smooch* Lovely to see you, Horrible.

Happy Sixteenth, Richard. I like those award lists. Luckily I have read the last 20 of the Pulitzer books and 9 of the last 11 Booker winners. I would like to read deeper into the latter, although I just added The Sea.

Happy new thread!

I'm glad to see you re-created your write up on Natalie Babbitt. Even though Tuck Everlasting didn't do anything for me I can understand it's appeal.

>25 quondame: Honestly, Susan, it came out when I was ~16 and you wouldn't've caught me dead with it. I saw the 2002 film and found it perfectly fine; not aimed at me so I never explored deeply. So *shrug*

But the vocal fans (my daughter included) are persuasive.

>24 msf59: That's a pool of enormous depth, Mark, so will be a retirement-long project!

Thanks for the well-wishes, y'all.

What about the Newberry honors?

>27 magicians_nephew: What what about them?

Happy new thread, RD.

>14 richardderus: Spiders are not my fear. Rats. aaaargh

>29 PaulCranswick: This thread is a rodentia-free zone, on pain of banishment and blockage.

Thanks!

Happy new thread, Richard dear!

>1 richardderus: So glad you didn't loose Nathalie Babbitt this time!

>6 richardderus: No answer to the bonus question for me, I didn't write any serious review this year. My statistics tell me that the last review I wrote was in October 2018...

>31 FAMeulstee: Wow! 2018?! That was a minute ago....

Thanks for the well-wishes, Anita!

>30 richardderus: What!!! Not even those little dustmop GPs and their larger friendly kin? I'm allergic after a decade of exposure, but I would if I could.

Happy new thread!

>34 SilverWolf28: Thank you, Silver!

>33 quondame: I have one thing to say about that: Cuy chactado

>1 richardderus: I love The Search for Delicious SO much, Richard! Happy new thread!!

>37 quondame: Hmm, maybe I wouldn't be allergic to them cooked, rabbits are fine eats and I can't stay near one for long when it's hopping about.

>37 quondame: They don't taste half bad, either.

>36 ronincats: I've never heard of it before, Roni, so it is terra incognita to me. Thanks for the well-wishes, too!

>1 richardderus: Great to read about Natalie Bobbitt. I never heard of her before.
Hope you have a happy day ahead what with a shiny new thread and all.

Happy Wednesday RD, I'll be heading out in about 45 minutes to look at 3,700 books and make a decision with another FoL book sort team member as to whether we can take them as a donation. Duplicates, of course, are an enticing issue...

Morning, dear one! It's Wednesday, and I want these:


cider pumpkin waffles with salted maple butter

>41 Crazymamie: - *drool*

Morning, RD!

>41 Crazymamie: I want them toooooooo *sob*

>40 karenmarie: duuuupliiiicaaaates

Have a lovely time!

>39 SandyAMcPherson: Babbitt's a monadnock of the academic-endorsed entertainment world. Tuck Everlasting is every teacher's recommendation for kids 10-14 to explore grieving, loss, responsibility, and fortitude bearing your burdens.

Full disclosure: I've never read the whole book. I got there way too late and stalled out before p30.

>42 katiekrug: Snuck in there, did you? Heh, well a hearty g'mornin' to you and get your fork away from my waffles!

>44 richardderus: I got a good laff from the waffle conversation.
Y'all are real spirit-lifters. (Now *I* want some waffles...)

>44 richardderus: - *mouth full*

What waffles?

>46 katiekrug: Back!! Back!!


>45 SandyAMcPherson: If ya ain't havin' fun, yer doin' it wrong.

I saw this on Twitter today, posted by Gabino Iglesias:
Today on Twitter I've seen Trump/his crew/white supremacists getting called the following:
- Coup Clutz Clan
- Y'all Qaeda
- Vanilla ISIS
- Talibangelicals
- Q Cucks Clan

This isn't about politics; this is great writing.
***
I agree with him!

I wish I was half as clever!

"Talibangelicals" made me guffaw!

How could it not?

I've already had DMs on Twitter chastising me for being such a librul cuck.

I thanked them for noticing. ::eyeroll::

*double eyeroll*

>48 richardderus: Ha! I think Y'All Qaeda is the funniest.

>54 mahsdad: It's right up there, Jeff. They're all pretty damned funny.

>43 richardderus: omigosh - I thought Kim sorted you out already. Stop bawling all over my keyboard. And deal out some of those waffles - they look too complicated to make myself.

What do you mean 'none left'? Whip up some more.

'Morning, RDear!

Insomnia sucks and I don't know why I'm up before dawn's early light. But I have coffee at hand, threads to catch up on, and a good book to read. I'll probably go back to bed around 6 or 7 for a few more zzz's.

>48 richardderus: Those are a riot!

*smooch*

Morning, BigDaddy!

>48 richardderus: I love these!!

Ima try this with Thanksgiving leftovers:


turkey, smashed avocado, cranberry, brie, bacon, and mashed potato waffle melts

*edited to make it smaller

>58 Crazymamie: Ooohhh, I'd even eat turkey if it came in those! And so *simple*, just cut the waffles into the smallest squares and you look like you're a Kitchen Witch! (Although for the love of dog don't cut them in half. Y'all wimmins and y'all's "ooo it needs to be dainty" crud. No. It does NOT need to be dainty.)

>57 karenmarie: I hope you're drowsing the day away, Horrible, so as to make up for that *ghastly* early arising.

I love those, too, they make me chuckle every time I read them. *smooch*

>56 humouress: See >58 Crazymamie:

We've moved on from the waffles to the waffle-nibbles. Act fast.

You will be happy to learn that we don't do dainty here at the Pecan Paradisio. And "wimmens" cracked me up, so thanks for that.

>60 Crazymamie: *chuckle*

I know you're not the dainty sort, you raised badass daughters who make biscotti with weird combos and create deeply moving art. All of which wouldn't happen in Daintyworld.

***DO NOT LOOK AT THIS POST IF YOU ARE AT WORK! SERIOUSLY!***

Today is "International Mens' Day" *snort* and, while I was unaware that we needed a special day to celebrate our Y-havin' little oppressed selves *snort* for the love of Pete get the heck over it boys, I did find out in a most agreeable, though ABSOLUTELY NSFW, way:

This lovely line-up landed in my inbox with a solicitation to buy their Worldwide Roar calendar, nude athletes posing to raise $$ for a charity supporting out-ness in atheltics at all levels.

>61 richardderus: Aw, shucks. So very kind of you to say - thank you. *smooch*

>62 richardderus: Oh, my!

>63 Crazymamie: *smooch*
***
Audrey, a new biopic about the movie star and marvelous human being Audrey Hepburn, comes out on 30 November for our UK friends. No word on a US release.

from Funny Face, whose story has NOT aged well though the visuals are out.stand.ing.
I admire Hepburn for her absolute fidelity to her own vision of her life. Her oldest son, Sean Ferrer, says she was "an iron fist in a velvet glove." I hope that assessment would make her proud.

Ah, I loved 'Funny Face' back in the day. I guess it probably doesn't stand up to a re-watch...

But I think I might put 'Roman Holiday' on my watch list for next week when I'm off from work. "Rome. By all means, Rome." Plus, Gregory Peck. Perfection.

>65 katiekrug: I still love it, Katie. I love the memory of seeing its visual delight, I love the silly and absurd musical numbers with fleets of twittering girls (as Kay Thompson called all the interchangeable assistants) like "Think Pink!", I love the Paris scenes (no one tell me Parisians are snobs, they *earned* their superiority by being the people of that extraordinary place), and watching Astaire dance is always, always, always a Good Thing.

Its gender politics suck wookiee balls.

Still.

>66 richardderus: - Okay you've convinced me it is worth a re-watch. I love all sorts of movies and books with questionable gender politics...

>67 katiekrug: I hope it's a delight from giddy-up to whoa.

And Shuggie Bain wins the 2020 Booker! Read all about it!

>69 richardderus: Looks appealing. Thanks for the heads up.

>70 SandyAMcPherson: I hope you'll love it when you read it.

>48 richardderus: I always appreciate having my vocabulary increased.

>69 richardderus: Sounds like a deserved winner, Richard.
The Dutch translation will be published in February next year.

>73 FAMeulstee: I really feel that the judges picked the right winner this year, as I have not since, well, I can't remember for sure but certainly since the 2014 rule change. (That's when they allowed US-only authors to compete. It's a bad decision.)

If you can reserve it now via your library, I'd encourage you to!

>72 quondame: Heh. I concur, Susan.

Happy Friday, Richard. Another mild one here, so I will be getting out for a solo bird ramble. I am also enjoying another story collection, Dinosaurs On Other Planets. It continues to a Golden Age of short fiction.

'Morning, RDear.

>62 richardderus: Retirement does have its perks...

*smooch* from your own Madame TVT Horrible

>76 karenmarie: Hey there, Horrible! It does have its perks indeed. Like getting up "early" at 8.30, haw, so I can get myself groomed and decorated for an appointment without rushing.

*smooch*

>75 msf59: Hey Mark! I'm delighted that shorter fiction is in a Golden Age, and I think it's down to the internet. Without the huge costs of printing x copies and selling x minus 20% to 50% and praying no more than that comes back to you, there's a radical opportunity to do more and different work. This is lovely for the voracious and the serious readers of short fiction.

Ramble on!

Early Wednesday I dropped my phone into a full sink! Thinking fast, I pulled the battery out, dried everything I could find with an old t-shirt, and shoved the lot into a bag of rice. When I got it out of the rice, I put it back together while muttering incantations to the Elder Gods and lo! Cthulhu had mercy and my phone worked!

I can't describe the relief. Bad, bad time to be needing a costly new thing; I ***hate*** phone shopping; and to be unable to make my planned and pledged $100 donation to the Georgia Senate races would've added the glacé cherry on the cat-box-cleanings sundae of being a clumsy old oaf.

Crisis Averted. Joy reigns.

Actual sentence from my Morning Brew business newsletter this morning: "BuzzFeed is launching a branded sex toy ahead of a new Sex and Love vertical, slated to arrive in Q1 of next year."

Dunno about you but my flabby abs hurt from laughing at this idea.

Good news about your phone! I dropped mine in a bowl of soup a couple of weeks ago (don't ask) but only one end got dunked. Of course, it was the end with the charging port, but I was able to clean it out and all is well. Phew!

Have a happy Friday, RD!

>78 richardderus: Oh, what a scare, Richard dear.
I don't like scary stories, so I am glad it ended well :-)

>62 richardderus: Oh, my! Just stopped by to say hi after a bit of a hiatus from LT and - oh, my, whew! is it hot in here? - am so glad I did. *fans self*

>78 richardderus: Yikes! Well, that horror story ended my unlooked for heat wave. Glad you were so quick witted and that the gods and goddesses looked with favor on you.

I already donated to Ossoff's and Warnock's campaigns and will be doing it again after my SS check hits. Also writing a bunch of postcards to get out the vote. We simply must win that state or Biden's administration is going to be as good as toothless.

Happy Friday, Richard!

Biden's team reportedly is vetting Rep. Deb Haaland of New Mexico, a Native American, to head the interior department. That appointment would be, as Mamie likes to say, Full of Fabulous.

>83 weird_O: That would be Full of Fabulous indeed, Bill, and please goddesses make it so. Honestly, if even a third of what the transition team is mooting gets done, I will count this administration as one of the best in my voting life.

>82 Storeetllr: Pretty naked athletes do indeed raise the temperature, Mary. Lovely sight, isn't it.

I am *so*delighted* that my phone still works! It means a lot to me that I can still put my money into this race. It's half my monthly spending money, and it's worth it because without the Senate...as you say...so to hell with gifts! A free rein in the Senate is a better present than an object.

>81 FAMeulstee: It's fine to have scary stories with happy endings! Have a lovely weekend, Anita.

>80 katiekrug: Soup would scare me a lot more than warmish, slightly sudsy water. The viscosity, the suspended particulate matter, the heat...*shudder*

Still, all's well that ends well. I'm grateful for being spared the horrors of shopping for a new one. Happy weekend to you, too...and check Twitter.

Yay on the phone! Any time technology threatens to derail us, and a human wins, it's great! You are quite the quick-thinking human, my friend! :-)

>85 jessibud2: I learned the hard way. *sigh* But if I have a strength, it's learning from my screw-ups!

>78 richardderus: I’m glad your phone is feeling better. I’m still on an iPhone 6 while my kids got the latest gizmo. Usually they get the hand-me-downs but there are some features that have been phased out of the newer models that I still like and want to hang on to.

>83 weird_O: I hope she can make an impact. A couple of weeks ago BBC World Service ran a programme on the horrendous statistics of crimes against Native American women (3 times higher than for the rest of the population) and I confess I couldn’t listen to the whole thing.

Morning, BigDaddy! I'm so glad you were able to rescue your phone. I once unintentionally put mine through both the washer and the dryer - heard something clunking around and opened the dryer door. *sigh* Did the rice routine, and the phone actually worked for another six months. Then nothing. Dead as a doornail. When I took it in to get a new phone, the guy asked me what had happened to it, so I told him. He patiently explained how really I shouldn't do that - I should just wipe off the phone with a damp cloth if needed. *blinks*

>88 Crazymamie: OMIGAWD

First, THE BATTERY! THE BATTERY!!, second, never, ever put the phone into a hot environment to dry it or use a hairdryer or something! The electronics have all kinds of teenytiny "welds" made of gold and lead, both of which melt in low heat. Also, if you drop it into soapy/lake/river/sea water, as weird as it sounds, plunge it into tap water and swish. Those environments have salt and other minerals in higher concentrations than tap water or bottled water and can corrode stuff inside.

*has the vapours*

You got six months of Grace from Hermes, you did! *smooch*

>87 humouress: Hi Nina, the half-bit fruit universe is so utterly unknown to me that I really don't know if 6 is old or new...but apps that get changed/deleted are almost always the very ones that I want the most.

Satanic corpocratic plots to ruin our peace of mind. I'm sure of it.

Well, I didn't mean to put it into the wash - back when phones were actually pocket sized and texting didn't exist, one could put the phone in a pocket and forget about it. I had no idea it was in there until I heard it clunking about in the dryer. It's the only phone I have ever damaged, so there is that. Craig goes through them like candy.

Oh man, I've been slow to get to your new thread. You certainly convinced me to give Natalie Babbitt and Tuck Everlasting a try. I missed TE in my misspent youth.

Ha! I love Mamie's helpful in-store guy who explained we don't need to put our phones through the washer and dryer, we can just wipe them off. Really?!! Your tips continue to be useful, in contrast. I hope never to need to use them, though.

Good morning, RD! Happy Saturday.

>78 richardderus: Quick thinking, so glad you were able to save your phone and the Georgia runoffs.

>90 Crazymamie: Even though my Galaxy S10 is 3” x 6” in its case, it fits nicely into the back pocket of my jeans.

>91 jnwelch: "Misspent youth" indeed...on its pub day in 1974, you were probably out pub crawling!

Rob left his phone on the beach while surfing once, the tide came in and soaked his stuff, and we had to do rescue archaeology on it. Since then he's left it with me before he goes in. It's a good thing to have that info on hand, because acting fast is the first bit of luck to keep the phone operational.

>90 Crazymamie: Like Joe said, isn't he just the sweetest for telling you you didn't need to do that! Assuming you had done it deliberately, which honestly strains my credulity until I think back to the pre-texting days. We weren't hugely sophisticated about the devices then, so he'd probably seen people who *had* done that kind of thing!

>92 karenmarie: Hi Horrible, happy Saturday to you, too.

Much to Rob's patient sighing regret, I refuse to be "stylish" and wear shirts/t-shirts with pockets. This is where my phone lives.

Bill was getting ready to go out to the dump and bring then go to one of our two favorite restaurants in town to bring home takeout (The Covid-19 Saturday Errands Routine) about 10 minutes ago and asked me to call his cell phone because he couldn't find it. It was in his t-shirt pocket... he normally puts it in the back pocket of his jeans like I do. His work shirts do not have pockets (on purpose, he's like you). We both laughed, put us in a good mood.

>95 karenmarie: Oh dear, I said >94 richardderus: wrong! I meant that all my shirts *have* pockets because that's where my phone lives, and Rob thinks it's "cracker-barrel apparel." (Points for creatively alliterative insult!) But I have had more than one call from him "please call me" so I dial him to his workmates' raucous amusement. Oh, and thus I found out that my ringtone is "In Your Eyes" which was so sweet I got something really big in my eyes and had to go wipe them.

>92 karenmarie: I am old school - I miss the original flip phones that were minuscule in comparison to what's on offer today. And the sentence "Bill was getting ready to go out to the dump and bring home takeout ..." cracked me up because it sounds like he is going to forage for your meal.

>96 richardderus: Oh! So sweet about the ringtone.

>88 Crazymamie: You may always trust me to say the obvious: mansplaining 101.

Happy to see your successful rescue, Richard, and moving on from here to the Italian lesson.

>97 Crazymamie: I think I need to rinse my eyes out again just thinking about it.

...I hadn't thought that Horrible and Bill had joined the Waste-free Economy with such vigor before now...

heh
***
You Can't Keep a Good Woman Down is on sale on Kindle for $2.99! Alice Walker's short fiction is very atmospheric.

>96 richardderus: I'm with Rob on the front pocket esthetics, though I'm with you on the doing what works with your own clothing. There was once a Byronicly gorgeous young man whose habit of keeping a handkerchief in his front pocket was just too much of a turn off. Though really it was just the beacon for other issues.

>97 Crazymamie: >99 richardderus: Wasn't that an attention getting turn of phrase?

>96 richardderus: Bill’s LLBean chamois shirts do not have pockets, and all his t-shirts do. He’s contrary that way.

>97 Crazymamie: and >99 richardderus: and >100 quondame: It made sense in my head although it did come out in a very misleading way. I changed my message but left in the misleading word to let you all continue to be amused at my expense. *smile*

>98 LizzieD: Never use the word "mansplain" or any of its derivatives in this space. It is sexist, demeaning, and personally offensive to me.

>100 quondame: Oh my goodness, yes! That is a giant red flag indeed. And yep, it makes an impact, that phrase. Haw.

>101 karenmarie: It is a truth universally accepted that a joke, waiting to be made, will be made around here. I didn't make the rules, Jane Austen did!

>101 karenmarie: and all the previous stuff about pockets reminds me of a conversation my daughter and I had about the days when T-shirts were undershirts only. My dad, for instance, would never have dreamed of wearing one of his (always white) t-shirts out in public without another shirt over it. And he had an expression he used to something that was poorly designed and inconvenient to use---it was "as handy as a pocket in an undershirt".

The oldest book I've reviewed in 2020 was Longfellow's Song of Hiawatha...the edition wasn't so old, but the work was first published in 1885, so that's what I'm going by. If we're talking about the physical book, then the oldest one I've reviewed is the 1944 first edition of Frances and Richard Lockridge's Killing the Goose.

>96 richardderus: As a w--- (that's another banned word on this thread, right?) I find it uncomfortable to carry a phone in a shirt pocket. So don't do it - end of debate ;0)

'Morning, RD! Wishing you a mahvelus Sunday.

>102 richardderus: I love any phrase that begins "It is a truth universally".

>105 karenmarie: Heh, it really resonates with most readers. Maaahveluuus Sunday wishes!

>104 humouress: Being as you are among the breastèd, it seems logical that your experience would differ from my more hair-cushioned frontage.

And yes, the w-bomb ist Verboten.

>103 laytonwoman3rd: I think the idea of the question was when it was *written* not *printed* so, yeah. Hiawatha FTW.

It's something I've had to explain to my YGC: In A Streetcar Named Desire, Brando in a sleeveless undershirt was instantly decoded to mean he was lower class and uncouth. *Nice* men didn't walk around in their underwear in public!

He was still verschmeckeled but accepted my assurances.

Lots of laffs here this morning. Kept losing my place as I retold some of the discussion to The Man.

We (The Man & I) are in full agreement about wanting to revert to smaller mobile phones.
Made our day, "Bill was getting ready to go out to the dump and bring home takeout ..." . Yes Karen, we knew what you meant, but still, :D

>107 SandyAMcPherson: I'm glad The Man gets to live vicariously among us, Sandy, and that you're laughing away at the chatter. It's always been my hope that others will enjoy my thread as much as I do.

Sunday orisons to you and The Man.

>109 richardderus: - Yup

145 My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman

PEARL RULED (p113)

Real Rating: 2.25* of five

Why do y'all like this guy's books? Everything sounds the same. Everyone sounds the same. None of it is funny or thought-provoking or particularly interesting. I gave it more than the *mumble*-nine pages...a LOT more...that Nancy Pearl hath decreed is fair for a man of my vintage to read just to see if it was going to be better than whatever that other one of his y'all loved so much.

  The wurse doesn't like them at all. It only has about nine of them. When the bell goes, Elsa hugs it hard, hard, hard one more time and whispers, "Thanks for coming!"
  She knows that the other children in the playground see her do it. The teachers may be able to avoid noticing the biggest, blackest wurse appearing out of nowhere in the morning break, but no child in the entire universe could.
  No one leaves any notes in Elsa's locker that day.

Honestly, I can't tell the difference. It's not better, it's not worse, it's simply...indistinguishable from that one. (What was it called? I can't be arsed to look it up.)

It's not me, it's y'all. This stuff is t.d.us. I won't get fooled again.

>110 jessibud2: Ain't it though.

Happy Sunday, Richard. After a successful bird ramble this morning, where another "Lifer" was located, I am spending a lazy afternoon with the books. I just finished my story collection and now moving on to Shuggie Bain which has been getting some pretty good buzz.

>109 richardderus: I LOVE this!!

>113 msf59: I shall coddiwomple thitherward to see which lifer has been added.

Ain't that one grand? I found it lurking on The Mary Sue.

I hope you are as enrapt in Shuggie Bain as I was.

>113 msf59: Where do you post your life list?

For idiots who won't wear their masks (This made me think of you)

>116 Berly: The octopus or the slapping?

>117 humouress: LOL!!!

Morning, BigDaddy! Sorry about that last read - hoping the next one is a vast improvement.

Hiya RD and happy Monday to you.

Coffee, birds, brekkie soon. It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood and I'm on a 2 hour countdown to see the WAPO live stream interview of Barack Obama with Michele Norris and Elizabeth Alexander.

>115 SilverWolf28: Yeah, Mark, is there a place you post the whole list?

>116 Berly:, >117 humouress:, >118 Berly: I'm quite sure that exact thought has crossed my mind three times today. So many idiots out there in the world being flagrantly ignorant and absurdly illogical.

>119 Crazymamie: Well, it's my fault, really. I loathed A Man Called Ove (found the book) and still read this one. *shudder* Never again! They are headed for the beach Little Free Library.

Happy week ahead. *smooch*

>120 karenmarie: Hiya Horrible! Have a lovely time with President Obama today. We're under clouds, but I don't mind that since it means it's not going to blare sunshine into my windows at 2pm. *smooch*

146 A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

Rating: 2.5* of five

THIS is the one that I read most of whose title I couldn't think of when I was reviewing My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry...it was like reading The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared only I already knew the jokes and wasn't really interested in reading it anyway.

What a disappointing read. It's not funny, or profound, or even particularly creative, y'all.

“We always think there's enough time to do things with other people. Time to say things to them. And then something happens and then we stand there holding on to words like 'if'.”
–and–
Ove had never been asked how he lived before he met her. But if anyone had asked him, he would have answered that he didn’t.
–and–
Ove feels an instinctive skepticism towards all people taller than six feet; the blood can’t quite make it all the way up to the brain.

Groundbreaking stuff. So well observed. Why, no one's ever said anything quite that way before.

Except it isn't, and they have. I've got the two Backman hardcovers I have in a special bag heading for the Little Free Library. Farewell.

It got chilly out there! I swear, the temp dropped 10 degrees from the time I woke up (around 7:00) to getting home from the gym (9:30).

Anyway, no work today so I can just cuddle under a blanket and read to my heart's content. *bliss*

Have a good one, RD!

>123 katiekrug: It surely did! I'm so pleased. I like wintertime, and as the temp fell the clouds cleared just enough that it no longer felt like evening, so I'm just as happy as can be.

Shuggie Bain. A must-read. Really.

>4 richardderus:, >5 richardderus: mmmmmmm, book lists.

>6 richardderus: well, that's me sorted for the next 15 minutes!

>62 richardderus: bearing in mind that a person can only zoom so far in, but I think that dude at the back of the line is, um, showing. *giggle*

>97 Crazymamie: Me! me! me! I have an old style flip phone! It induces epic eye-rolls from my children when I whip it out and pretend I am being beamed up by Scottie when really I am just checking my texts :) (sometimes I truly love being a parent)

>125 LovingLit: And Scotty hasn't beamed you up yet?! Montgomery Scott! This is most ungentlemanly of you.

I have ogled and peered and scrutinized and I fear your imagination has, um, filled in the gap re: Bachelor Number Seven. It's a trick of the shadow from Bachelor Number Six's palm.

Just finding a minute to catch up here, Richard dear.

>127 ronincats: Hi Roni! Glad to see you out and about. *smooch*

One empathizes with her, but too much is as ineffective as not enough.

>129 richardderus: Block it out! Block it all out! Really, it's just efficient!

>130 quondame: There's days I agree. Today being one.

>129 richardderus: It's just nap time.

We have SNOW! NOOOOOOOOO!! At least I have Shuggie Bain to take comfort in.

>115 SilverWolf28: I keep it on the Audubon App. I really should keep it in multiple places, just to be on the safe side.

>133 msf59: Oh no, no, not fair! Snow?! That is just wrong. First 45's endless asinine antics, then snow. I am very glad for you that you have Shuggie to keep you from madness.

>132 Berly: Heh. No glasses on her, clearly. *smooch*

‘Morning, RD! Happy Tuesday to you.

>129 richardderus: If I was sitting on a subway/train/bus and not wearing glasses, I’d do exactly what she’s done. Aerosols can land in her eyes or she could forget and rub her face then eyes. Almost paranoia, but not quite, IMO.

>135 karenmarie: I think I worry a bit less than y'all do...but then again I've had the damned thing so *could* be sporting immunity, though I think it's deeply unwise to act as if I have. After all, it's a family of viruses that mutate quite quickly.

And yay for glasses, yet again. *smooch*

Good morning, Richard. Quite a lot has been happening for me, as seen on my new thread, where I notice you haven't been to visit. You might find it entertaining! *smooch*

>137 ronincats: *eep* New thread! Okay, I'll be there directly. *smooch*

^Look what I picked up from the library. This was from the short fiction link you sent me last week. It looks awesome and how about that title?

>139 msf59: Got to give her credit for being direct...and goodness only knows how many battles she fought over that title.

Hope it's a good read!

Here's the Thanksgiving social distancing readathon: https://www.librarything.com/topic/326629.

'Morning, RD!

I saw your Zebras on Megan's thread and upped the ante with Christmas Trees.

*smooch*

Morning, BigDaddy!

>143 Crazymamie: Mamie darling, how divine. *smooch*

>142 karenmarie: Christmas Trees?! Ew! They're chemically identical, I know, but there's something...gruesome...about the fake jollity of the shape. *smooch*

>141 SilverWolf28: Thanks, Silver!

But, but... they have sugar sprinkles on them.

>145 karenmarie: Craig absolutely loves those.

>145 karenmarie:, >146 Crazymamie: I barely kept my breakfast down...what gawdawful things Murrikinz will eat! The wax-lips-texture fondant (side trip to fondant-hate-land: that shit's nasty), the bizarrely manipulated CH3OH crystals (they're poisonous at higher concentrations), the gluey spoodge in the middle...just NO.

And Craig's a doctor...!

Right?!

>145 karenmarie: And red dye!

>147 richardderus: Doctors eat a lot of bad food...don't let 'em kidja. My SIL could live on chicken wings and diet soda, and die happy.

>148 Crazymamie:, >149 laytonwoman3rd: It is astonishing to me how many nurses/doctors/paramedics eat crap, smoke, and indulge in mind-altering poisons.

The smoking is the only one I won't put up with.

Happy Wednesday, RD!

I will admit to a fondness, leftover from childhood, for Little Debbie snack cakes in almost any form, but especially Swiss Cake Rolls :)

>151 katiekrug: Nutty Buddy/Bar from the freezer is the only one of their...products...I will eat. I was introduced on my 30th birthday by my late bestie, Betsy, who could *not* believe I'd never even heard of Little Debbie before then. My mother baked...she considered Entenmann's abominable, imagine what she'd've said about Little Debbie (had she known they existed)!

Your thread makes up for the late-night talk shows I (*don't*) miss. Entertainment.

Little Debbie didn't really enter my consciousness until Southern Culture on the Skids brought it to my attention.

Little Debbie was a staple in our house, although mostly they were reserved for my Dad's lunchbox. Craig will eat any of them that do not involve chocolate cake. He loves Nutty Buddy Bars. Notice how those keep getting smaller?

>154 Crazymamie: Yeah, up from 99¢ to $1.99; down from 16oz to 12.5oz. A bit more than double the price in a decade.

>153 weird_O: Thanks, Bill! (I think)
***
Every year on my blog, I promote a reading slant to the Hollydaze. The focus of #Booksgiving as I'm calling it isn't the buying. It's the reading. On Christmas Eve, Icelandic families exchange their gifts, and then...wait for it...settle in and read their new books! This is the beauty of the custom. https://tinyurl.com/y4whj8bt

Something to be thankful for, octobedding!

^Nice!

I enjoyed A Man Called Ove, and whatever language movie they did from it, but you've convinced me with your two reviews that I need go no further.

>129 richardderus: She got it over her nose, which many dim bulbs fail at, but she should've stopped there.

Happy Middle of the Week and Pre-Thanksgiving, Richard. Is there a pagan holiday we should be observing?

Happy Wednesday, Richard. I am well into the second half of Shuggie and firmly hooked. Agnes has just gone on her first date with Eugene. Since I am stuck inside, I am glad I have some terrific company.

>151 katiekrug: Oatmeal creme pies (which are really cookies)....and OGOD I just found a recipe to make them at home.

>157 jnwelch: She was a bit more...enthusiastic...than need be, hm?

I don't recommend further engagement with Backman.

The birthday of the God Antinoüs. 27 November 111CE. I'm down wi'dat.

>156 quondame: Noice!

>159 laytonwoman3rd: Ruh-roh! I sense you're going to be a size larger soon....

>158 msf59: Hey Mark! YAY for Shuggie! You're in for a major heartache....

>159 laytonwoman3rd: - Shall I PM you my address?!?!

Hi RD!

>162 katiekrug: Spread (!) the calories, eh what? Noble of you, Your Kickassness.

If these were not sold out, would you buy one?

>164 richardderus: oh, heck yeah!

I promised you a visit, didn't I?

I couldn't resist buying this finger puppet:


>164 richardderus: Yup, for my husband and kids. :0)

My book club picked Britt-Marie was Here for one of their reads. I know what you mean about Backman. Happy Thanksgiving, Richard. Have a great day!

Morning, BigDaddy! Happy Thanksgiving!

‘Morning, RDear, and Happy Thanksgiving to you!

>146 Crazymamie: Craig is a man after my own heart.

>147 richardderus: Once a year I buy a box of these. I stretched it out over 6 days, and there are only 5 in a box.

>149 laytonwoman3rd: At least it’s not red dye #2, which was carcinogenic, I believe.

>152 richardderus: Drat. I bought some of these when my sister visited last May and had successfully forgotten about them. Now I'll have to buy a box the next time we go grocery shopping.

>154 Crazymamie: Again, Craig’s a man after my own heart. No chocolate cake Little Debbie stuff.

>164 richardderus: So far we haven’t indulged in silly masks.

Time to restore sanity to this thread. While we haven't got the latest season of GBBO in these parts, we have been granted Junior Bake Off with the time stamp MMXIX which, if I translate correctly, is as recent as last year! Although most of them don't have the cooking experience of the GBBO adults, I think they do a lot better than I would. You have to feel sorry for whoever is eliminated each week because they put their heart and soul into it but they can't hold back the tears. But you've got to love the way they all root for each other and even help out if someone might not finish in time.

I've never watched the American Junior Masterchef because a) there seems to be a lot of food wastage via food fights (at least, the way the trailers spin it) and b) they seem to have picked the contestants for their attitude rather than cooking ability (again, based solely on the trailers). It comes to mind because my sis tells me she's watching the latest season of Australian Junior Masterchef. I watched (years ago) probably the first season and those kids were a-ma-zing. I remember there was a pair of non-identical twins of Italian descent and though they spoke with a full Aussie accent I loved the authentic way they pronounced all the Italian ingredients.

>167 Familyhistorian: Oh dear, Meg, that must've been a dreadful experience. I haven't read it, of course, but it can't've been much good.

Happy to see you here!

>166 humouress: That's such a delight, so weird and "who thought of that?!" inducing!

Perfect for me. *smooch*

>165 drneutron: Really? Ha! You never know, do you.

>171 humouress: I'm not a big competition-show watcher in general. I saw some of the Masterchef things and wasn't excited but put off by the goings-on. I like GBBO because grumpy old Paul is really just applying standards, and the bakers root for and help each other. It's nicer and less janglingly angry, though there have been some bakers who looked pretty mutinous as they got the rough side of the judges' tongues.

Why is Singapore denied fresh bake-offs? Does it violate some obscure-to-me cultural norm and need censoring? ::verschmeckeled::

>169 karenmarie: Heh. Gotcha with the Nutty Buddys! *evil cackle*

Et tu, Horribila, with the masks!

>168 Crazymamie: Thank you, Mamie dear. *smooch*

Happy Thanksgiving, Richard

>172 richardderus: >166 humouress: Thanks. She/ he looks so cute but at the same time majestic. I couldn't resist.

>173 richardderus: Well, you'd like JBO in that case.

As for the fresh bake offs, I dunno *shrugs* We've been getting GBBO re-runs on BBC World all year but that, I assume, was because of the lockdowns. I suppose Asia just gets them later. Please, just carry on and don't mind us. We don't mind *sniff*

Happy Thanksgiving, Richard. I got another "Lifer" this morning and now I want to read a little Shuggie until my FIL gets here.

>176 msf59: I hope that turkey is reading his pardon! And YAY for a lifer!!

>175 humouress: If Netflix carries JBO, I'll give it a whirl. Thanks for the suggestion.

Asia? Isn't that, like, a country somewhere around the Pacific Rim? Wait, that's Japan...they don't get baking shows from furriners, it's too not-Japanese for them. Hm. Asia...hmmmm...nope, can't figure it out. Anyway, wherever that place is, I'm sure you've got nice things, too.

>174 jessibud2: Thank you, Shelley.

I hope you enjoy a happy, turkey-free Thanksgiving, RD (but I repeat myself).

Warm wishes of the season to you, my friend. xx

Thanking you most kindly, Katie...doesn't matter if they serve turkey or not, I ain't eatin' it. Fortunately I planned ahead, as always, and have ham and *proper* (read: salted, mixed with apples and celery and carrots and snausages) stuffing.

Not feelin' the pies this year, for some reason. Still, I've got Rob to feed me on Saturday!

Hi Richard, mate, Happy Thanksgiving Day and hope that you are having a good day dear friend.

>181 johnsimpson: Thanks for the kind wishes, John.

This was a *horrible* dinner.

A hamburger, since making something not-turkey is clearly not a priority; the usual clean-up-the-crisper soup; no salad; cold peas, a baked yam (GAG), and one pleasant thing: Carrots in brown sugar/pineapple/plum glaze.

Also a splodge of canned cranberry, and a still frozen slice of blueberry-filling-from-a-can pie.

I ate the burger and the carrots, hurt my broken tooth on the frozen pie, and chucked the rest in the bin.

Since I was prepared for this, I had ham and dressing of my own manufacture for lunch and that made the misery endurable. But pity the poor souls whose one holiday meal this is. Yech!

>182 richardderus: Oh the price of nonconformity. But the still frozen pie is beyond the pale! I'm glad you're the resourceful sort who takes care that you will not be totally at the mercy of others.
Best Thanksgiving wishes all the same!

>183 quondame: Thank you for the kind wishes, Susan!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This Brit wishes to express his thanks for the warmth and friendship that has helped sustain him in this group, RD.

Glad you had a pretty good day, Richard!

Hi RD, and happy Friday to you.

>180 richardderus: Made me laugh.

>182 richardderus: The mind boggles.

*smooch* from your own Horrible

>188 karenmarie: Hey there Horrible! Thanks for the Friday orisons. I'm sure that turkey was the one that got away.

I confess I was boggled as well. The indifference was breathtaking. Anyway, onward! *smooch*

>187 LizzieD: Thanks, Peggy, I'm pretty resilient when it comes to feeding myself well. I was delighted with my ham'n'dressing dinner. So good!

>186 PaulCranswick: Thank you, PC. That's very kind of you to say. I return the sentiments most heartily.

>185 SilverWolf28: Thank you, Silver, I hope yours was too.

Hi Richard, I wish your Thanksgiving meal had at least been edible. Seemed like it wasn't. At least I don't think I could've eaten it. I see you Meade the best of it so good for you. On to better things. And meals lol.

>190 brenzi: Hi Bonnie! I'm so glad to see you here. Yes, better meals, better days, just better better, for us all!

The most mind-bogglingly useful Reddit thread ever.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/k213qf/what_are_underrated_websites_...

Keep on booking, ma man!

147 Lord Edgware Dies by Agatha Christie

Rating: 4* of five

Perfectly wicked little jeu d'esprit; I absolutely can not imagine a corporeal Poirot putting up with such a rosbif as Arthur Hastings! I can hear Dame Ags gagging behind her typewriter every time he says something else dimwitted:

“Enemies! People these days don't have enemies! Not English people!”
–and–
“But she seemed like a thoroughly nice girl!” said of a suspect who is found dead of an overdose

I know she created Hastings as a foil for the too-clever Poirot to explain himself to, but it's about this time we begin to see the poor chap sent off to the Argentine to be married more often. I don't recall which was his final appearance (before book:Curtain|81903), but I get the feeling he was for the chop as he bumbles and mumbles his way through one of Poirot's more annoying-to-him puzzles. At every step, poor old Belgian, he is positive he knows who did what to whom. Then they die! He is up and down the ladder of clues. He was right, wasn't he, every step of his reasoning? And yes, it is really necessary to have Hastings to narrate. Anything else would be unbearably precious.

And precious is not the word for this story. Wickedly astute. Mordantly amusing. Casually anti-Semitic and deeply unimpressed by Americans. But never twee.

So when it suddenly popped into my Overdrive queue, I leapt upon it like the lion upon the chamois. Gorged my weary, twitching eyes on the feast of unrepentant bourgeois snobbery and ridiculous prejudice. Battened on the clearly experienced writer's unsparing judgment of actors, of opportunists and wheeler-dealers, of the mildly amusing ways they have of trying to drag Our Sort down with their vulgar dollars and scents. (That joke will be *gold* after you've read the book.)

And Lord Edgware? Good riddance to bad rubbish. I was almost, almost sorry the killer didn't get away with it; had it not involved the collateral damage it did, I'd've said, "let sleeping dogs lie," and gone about my day. Ma'at must be preserved, though. Dame Agatha knew best.

Agatha Christie's Poirot season 7, episode 2: Lord Edgware Dies

Rating: 4.5* of five

A fairly faithful adaptation of the story that, but for a late-act solution to a problem handled quite differently, runs along the amusing rails laid down in the novel. A few other things are different for some actually interesting reasons...the seriously dull Donald (!) is a playwright not an actor and it really improves that little thread, for example...but, in the main, we get the purpose and point quite well served.

Hasting, the inimitable bumbler Hugh Fraser, still makes me want to pluck my own eyes out; Japp, as Philip Jackson plays him, is endearingly outclassed; Pauline Moran's Miss Lemon (absent from the novel; see hint about "late-act clue" above) is acerbically pointed as always.

No mention need be made of the One True Poirot.

I rate this version above the book because the more, erm, objectionable traits are eliminated. This is more comfortable for me as a consumer of entertainment and impacts the novel and its pleasures not at all. The story is unaltered by their alteration. So why were they there at all?

>193 weird_O: Thanks, Bill!

>194 richardderus: Always enjoy a good Poirot or Miss Marple.

Why does the president pardon a turkey? Shouldn't it be the other way around? Seriously, though, isn't/ wasn't the offence committed against turkeys?

>194 richardderus: I always vaguely wonder where Miss Lemon came from when she first appears and then forget about my questions while I watch. That series was a good one although I confess that when I watched the programmes, any of the books I had read were only a distant memory for me so I couldn't compare them as you're doing. I'm glad that (for once) they stuck closely to the original writing.

>180 richardderus: I love it! I sure would love to see a flamingo one of these days.

Happy Saturday, Richard. I was out running around with Sue most of the day yesterday, so I missed reading much of Shuggie. I hope to make up for that today.

‘Morning, RD! Happy Saturday to you.

>194 richardderus: I have this on my shelves as Thirteen at Dinner. I appreciate your informative and fun review although, as I’ve mentioned somewhere before, I don’t gag when Hastings is in a book.

Hope you have a restful, reading weekend!

>197 humouress: Ha! Even a domesticated turkey, the stupidest creature on the wide green Earth, wouldn't pardon 45. The pardon the president should be seeking is from the indigenous peoples, starting with the Wampanoag.

>196 thornton37814: I think reading the book and then viewing the filmed version renews my appreciation for the complexities of making people happy via entertainment, more than anything else. But it's also very interesting to see how much leaner and cleaner Dame Aggie's sometimes fussy, overdone books can be on film.

>200 ChelleBearss: Hi Chelle! Glad to see you here. I'm going to see my YGC this evening, so I'm content.

>199 karenmarie: Hey there Horrible, thanks! I'm just, well, *tired* of Hastings. He's a chucklehead, and those acquaintances aren't my meat and drink.

I know she felt the same as I do, given that she stopped using him in 1937 (though he reappears in Curtain: Poirot's Last Case, as I noted above). He was always more present in the stories, always. He has his own Wikipedia page!

>198 msf59: Hi Mark! Being busy on Black Friday is as American as apple pie. Unlikely time to see flamingos in Chicago, anyway, so to hell with it, right?

Enjoy your time with Shuggie today.

Happy Saturday, BigDaddy! Agreed about Hastings - she should have killed him off.

Hoping that your evening with the YGC is full of fabulous!

Thanks, Mamie dear. Poor Hastings, such scorn we pour on him for simply being the best numskull he could possibly be.

And now for an idea I wish I'd either thought of first or never heard of:

Dressing waffles made into a cheese sammy. (I'll add some ham to mine, k?)

>203 Crazymamie: No! Not Hastings! He was invaluable. From my review of The Mysterious Affair at Styles:

Poirot (speaking of the criminal) :

"... We must be so intelligent that he does not suspect us of being intelligent at all."

I acquiesced.

"There,

mon ami, you will be of great assistance to me."

I was pleased with the compliment. There had been times when I hardly thought that Poirot appreciated me at my true worth.

"Yes," he continued, staring at me thoughtfully, "you will be invaluable."

This was naturally gratifying, ...

Poor old Hastings would like to think of himself as the romantic lead, or at least the great detective (since he often thinks that Poirot is no longer on his game), but is usually seen by the other cast members as a sympathetic shoulder to lean on.

>205 humouress: Your impassioned defence (note misspelling) is noted in the "Reasons Nina is an ACTUAL Supervillain" file.

Terry Pratchett. Worth reading any of his books? How about Hogfather? It has been recommended as a holiday read. Have you read it?

I'm quite fond of Terry Pratchett. My favorite book of his is Going Postal. I haven't read Hogfather yet, but it sounds fun.

>208 SilverWolf28:, >207 weird_O: Sir Terry and I do not get on at all. I haven't read anything of his I'd recommend; I am sufficiently unimpressed by him to prefer the filmed version of Hogfather to reading his actual words. (It's included with your Prime subscription.) Though I must say I did enjoy that experience....

>208 SilverWolf28: >209 richardderus: Thanks for the input. Heh. One pro, one con. Stasis.

A lovely, fattening few hours with my Young Gentleman Caller. He brought me a *delicious* dilled-brown butter-roasted pork tenderloin. I had lemon pickle with it and a pilaf with little pearl onions. Given my weird aversion to sweets lately, we ate fresh blueberries instead...he and I polished off an entire kilo between us.

Drunkula, aka Old Stuff, being off imbibing, it was quiet and perfect and exactly what I needed. We talked about Piranesi and Poirot...he liked my review, like Horrible he found it funny...I kibitzed a little about his latest menu ideas...just so comfortable. So now it's about a month before I can see him again because the season's catering is WILD! 4am Zooms and snatched scraps of chat.

But lest that sound like complaining, what awes and delights me is that *he*wants*to*do*these*things. Chooses to come to me, not go find some other twentysomething to hang with. It's intoxicating for me. I'mm ever so grateful and thankful for his companionship and affection.

Lucky, lucky me.

Glad you had such a good afternoon and a nice meal to make up for the horrible excuse of one that was Thanksgiving's.

*smooch*

>212 bell7: Thanks, Mary! It was particularly pleasant that he, alone among my review readers, got the "rails" joke. It was such a great feeling when he actually pointed it out as his favorite "easter egg".
***
"But there is no defending Faulkner’s character, only his characters." Casey Cep's essay on The Saddest Words by Michael Gorra is worth burning a paywall read to absorb: William Faulkner's Demons.

>204 richardderus: Now I'm temped to make up some dressing just ... wait I don't have a waffle iron. Saved. Oh well, there's pumpkin pie in the fridge.

>211 richardderus: So happy for you, Richard dear, that you could enjoy YGC's company for a few hours.

Happy Sunday!

'Morning, RD, and a very happy Sunday to you.

So glad your visit with YGC was full of food and chatter. It's good that business is booming, sad that it keeps him from you for the next month. You haven't mentioned OS recently so I hesitated to bring him up. Glad he was imbibing away so you could have the quiet time with YGC.

Like Susan, I've got pumpkin pie for brekkie, along with some Neese's Hot Sausage that I'll fry up in a bit.

>206 richardderus: *preens*
What misspelling?

>209 richardderus: There's a film?
Hang on - suddenly you're speaking English ;0)

>211 richardderus: Sounds perfect. I'd forgotten about your room-mate - hopefully he hasn't been any trouble for a while.

>215 FAMeulstee: Thank you, Anita! I don't get a lot of in-person time with many, and officially he shouldn't have come to visit at all. I won't tell if you won't!

>214 quondame: Pumpkin pie works, too. I really want to try the dressing-waffle thing, though.

>217 humouress: Now, now, La Overkill, we needn't have the conversation about how absurdly recalcitrant the UK is about its self-evidently and deliberately overcomplexified orthography. Like overusing poor innocent "c"s and "s"s when s and z (who on Earth decided to name it a "zed"? it's a "zee") are called for.

There is a film. I gather that the Vox Populi Anglii was agin it. Got no idea why...Ian Richardson did Death's voice! It was perfect. Something about it just slipped under my guard, unlike the way the books jam up the works.

Do you know? It's the saddest thing I can think to say, but after I no longer live with him I'll forget all about him.

>216 karenmarie: Punkin pie and Neese's...do you know, that should sound icky but it actually sounds delicious.

I just endure Old Stuff. He's not any fun to cope with, prone to alcoholic acting out, but really the main feeling I have for him is pity. His alcoholic dementia will only get worse. His smoking is quite likely to kill him sooner rather than later. And absolutely no one cares.

Rob will be busy...but many in his industry are unemployed. They gave him a substantial raise, told him what they plan for him in 2021, and said "Christmas will be brutal, but we believe you can do it."

That's just great to hear. I think he really landed soft after being so wrenchingly forced to leave Long Beach.

It's Sunday, BigDaddy, which means that Monday is lurking somewhere just around the corner.

>204 richardderus: Waffles from dressing?! Who would have thunk it?

>205 humouress: Okay, Nina. I will stop wishing him dead just for you.

>211 richardderus: This post is just so happy making. Sounds like your evening was full of fabulous. Just like you. *smooch*

Happy Sunday, Richard. I just finished Shuggie and miss it all ready. It might be the best novel I have read this year. The only serious competition is Hamnet. Now, I am getting to read F*ckface. I always come back to the short fiction and this looks like a winner.

>221 msf59: Thanks, Mark! And I know exactly what you mean about Shuggie. It's hard not to think about him struggling and scratching out a meager survival. We are so so lucky.

>220 Crazymamie: *baaawww* Mamie, you're just so sweet! Thank you.

I love the idea of dressingwaffles and, when I showed it to Rob, I saw his mental gearbox shift into high. I expect that the next time I talk to him, I'll get an update on his experiments. He already casually noted that my dressing would not work for the technique because it has too many things in it.

I'm so looking forward to whatever he does with this....

We'll Ignore that vile, pustulent beast of a day. *smooch*

>211 richardderus: - This post made me smile. Glad you had that time together.

>223 katiekrug: It was such a treat. I feel the FaceTime/Zoom/Hangouts are wonderful, and they's spontaneous, but being able to touch is true luxury.

*smooch*

>222 richardderus: My dressing is bread, butter, salt, pepper and sage. Add a bit of broth to get it moist enough to waffle and gravy the results for a win I think. I may just try something like in the griddle press I use for panini, since I saved some roux from Thursday...

>225 quondame: *slobber*drip*drool*

>1 richardderus: I went to the grocery emporium the other day and accidentally mistook the Goodwill for said grocery. They actually had some interesting stuff. One was Tuck Everlasting, a teeny-weeny little thing hidden between two big nothings. I read it Sunday (in my time zone, 1:55 a.m. Monday is still Sunday). Nice. Thanks for suggesting it.

>219 richardderus: *rolls eyes* I’m sure it’s only ‘zeeee’ so it rhymes in the alphabet song.

If I were to dare your ire I would confess to feeling sorry for Old Stuff - but wait! I am an arch-villainess.

>220 Crazymamie: Thank you *mwahh*
(Though for a startled second or so I thought you meant Richard, not Hastings.)

>228 humouress: *She* might indulge you by withdrawing her ill wishes for le rosbif, but *I* celebrate, celebrate do you hear!, his absence from all but nine of the novels!

Actually, I'm glad you're sorry for Old Stuff, someone should be. Even the disagreeable and hard-to-love should get some human feeling.

>227 weird_O: O-ho! I've book-bulleted you, have I? And with my header post?! *polishes nails* I'm better than I thought I was.

Enjoy the Tucks!

Happy Monday to you, RDear.

I went on an orgy of Amazon Christmas gift shopping and now it's time for more coffee and breakfast.

*smooch*

>230 karenmarie: Oh my! An orgy of shopping without changing clothes...exactly what I dreamed of from the age of thirty. And now it's reality...why am I not more delighted...wait, because I'm poor! Well, that's explained. *smooch*
***

Morning, BigDaddy! It's Monday so be careful.

>231 richardderus: Yes, please.

>231 richardderus: - Love the new look. And not a trace of gold plate anywhere....

>233 jessibud2: Heh. It'd get him shanked tout de suite!

...ooohhh...there's an idea!

>232 Crazymamie: It's That Day in spades. Cold, dank, icky weather and I'm very much feelin' it. This is the wintertime analogue to the Dog Days. Barf.

Hi and happy Monday from cold, sodden, gloomy Nyack. I have to say, I miss Pueblo the most on days like this. Yes, it gets cold there, and it rains & snows & hails in winter, and it gets really hot in summer (yes, but it's a dry heat), but it was sunny 258 days per year as opposed to 200 days here. Ah, well, that was then and this is now. I've got a sunlamp (bought for my parrot) that I use when I start getting too depressed, but somehow it's not the same.

>231 richardderus: Looking forward to that.

>235 Storeetllr: Oh yes, Mary, the adjustment from sunny-days to lowering-skies can feel like torture to some.

I, OTOH, *revel* in it. So I'll sympathize if not empathize. No matter what the weather, though, it's a brighter day when I see you around and about. *smooch*

I wish I could enjoy a cold deluge more. Glad it works for you. 😏 I think it must be nice(r) to look out the window with a hot cup of coffee or a snifter of cognac and watch the rain falling on the ocean rather than on a driveway with the neighbor's house just beyond.

>237 Storeetllr: Yeup! That makes literally all the difference.

*smooch*

>239 ronincats: Just visited you to see the new space! Wow.

*smooch*

148 The Dream: A Short Story by Agatha Christie

Rating: 3* of five

Standard greedy-young-wife, angry-young-daughter story. I spent 99¢ on this! Dependably Poirotish solution, and believe me not a second too soon.

Why three stars, Grumbleguts, if you were so annoyed by it? Because rich, greedy Mrs. Farley snarls, "you foreigner!" at Poirot as she's carted off to jail. Dame Aggie gettin' one in for ol' Poirot! He bests the "best"!

Agatha Christie's Poirot, S1E10: The Dream 3.5* of five

In the filmed version, Poirot was agitated about his Little Grey Cells refusing to be cudgeled into fitting the pieces together. Miss Lemon got shoehorned in for no special reason, and thus gets a lovely, lovely gift from Poirot for saying The Magic Words that snick the solution into place.

I do not recall loving Pauline Moran as Miss Lemon more than her reaction to Poirot's...gift. Almost, almost! worth an entire extra star.

Don't kid yourselves, this one's a dog, though. Just as blah and pasty (!) as they come.

Happy Tuesday, Richard dear!

‘Morning, RD, and a very happy Tuesday to you.

>231 richardderus: Heh. Trump Tower. I hope to have that wish fulfilled in 2021.

Well, today looks much nicer than yesterday over here. Hope the same is true where you are! Happy Tuesday!

>244 katiekrug: It's glorious, sunwashed delight! All that sticky-icky sludgy depressingness is gone. I still never got the winds I heard so much about. Don't care, happy happy joy joy with what I've got.

>243 karenmarie: Thanks, Horrible, it's all good (I hope) and will keep getting better as >231 richardderus: gets closer to reality.

>242 FAMeulstee: You as well, Anita my dear.

Hi, RD.

When I googled the pagan guy we celebrated on Nov. 27, I got "Antinous the Gay God", and the explanation that "The gentle gay religion of Antinous was the last manifestation of the ancient pagan faith." Seems like a god who should be better known in the 21st century.:-)

Do you like the Dark Materials books, and the two sequels? I liked the tv adaptation (the movie was generally not good), and the second season is showing up soon.

Morning, BigDaddy! I am doing the December happy dance as we begin the end of 2020.

>247 Crazymamie: I want 2020 in the bad-memory bin. Like, a lot. It's been an awful, bad, terrible year.

I've already lost 40+ friends and acquaintances to COVID (smokers galore in this place), lost 70+ in the AIDS years, and you know what? I'm fucking done with plagues.

>246 jnwelch: Yes, indeed he should, and I really understand why he's not...eww-ick homophobes are already screechingly furious when two fully dressed, tied up men try to kiss in a (pretty blah) film. I am done with assholishness going unchallenged. Life's too short to let idiots tell me it's not okay for me to be seen by people not like me...where I am supposed to be just fine with their lives being celebrated.

No, madam, you're not "normal" you're plain old common. Sorta like pig tracks.

The TV version has the blessing of room to fit in the story, though I don't really *get* some of the editorial changes. Oh wait...toning down the religion-bashing for the sensitive fleurs who see no problem with their religion's making decisions for others. Silly old faggot...always follow the breadcrumbs down to the lowest intellectual level!

Hiya. This is a very busy place!

I was away with coping with the card paradox, (see my thread), with a few of my 'regulars' stopping by to see which rabbit hole I'd fallen down. I'm posting this update on a few threads just so's y'all know I haven't succumbed to a Coronavirus infection.

Looks like it was a nice long weekend with good books and feasting.

Hey, RD. Despite another cold day, I managed to drum up another "Lifer" and if you can believe it, a hummingbird. This little guy is normally seen in the far west. Continuing to love F*ckface: and Other Stories and close to finishing it.

>250 msf59: A hummingbird! In December!! In ILLINOIS!!! That is bizarre indeed. But always good to add a lifer.

>249 SandyAMcPherson: Not dead. Check. Shall coddiwomple thitherward to see what's the haps.

Good morning, RD!

I absolutely adore the word 'coddiwomple'. I just looked it up, and thank you for yet another new word for my vocabulary.

*smooch* from your own Horrible

Morning, Richard. Happy Wednesday. More of info on the hummingbird sighting over on my thread. I am getting ready to start Birdsong, which I have been meaning to get to for ages. Have you read Faulks?

>253 msf59: Hi Mark, yes I've read Birdsong...must be more than 15 years ago, possibly twenty. I wasn't impressed at the time, and never felt called to repeat the experience. You'd think I'd love it...I loved The Ghost Road, after all.

I'll come look into the hummingbirding.

>252 karenmarie: Oh good, Horrible, I'm always happy when one of my unearthed weirdos strikes your fancy. We've got so many words in English that we've just left by the wayside and, often as not, they're still very useful. I found one yesterday that I am *inconsolable* that I didn't find in 2016: insordescent (adj.): growing in filthiness.

I mean! Can you even!

Cold, blustery, and sunshine-y! I'll take it!

Have a cozy Wednesday, RD.

Morning, BigDaddy! I'm craving a BLT with fried egg sandwich, si I'm off to make me one.

>256 Crazymamie: OOOOOOOOOOOO

That looks so scrummy I licked the screen! Enjoy the RL version, sweetness. *smooch*

>255 katiekrug: I'm snugged under a binky & drinking hot coffee so all is well. *smooch*

>252 karenmarie: Oh, is that a real word? I confess I'm a little disappointed ;0)

>252 karenmarie: Ah! Coddiwompling is a cousin to Bunburying maybe? Nice to have the addition with thanks.
I'm tempted to speak of the weather, which means I have nothing to say. Good night, Richard.

'Morning, RDear. Happy Thursday to you. It's 23F here. I actually have to go out in it in about an hour, because today three of us are going to start cherry picking from the 3,700 book donation offer. Another book sort team member will come by later with his truck to bring books to my house. I don't know yet if we're continuing into tomorrow. I'm going to try to get some books for me out of this, but obviously only after we've picked out what the FoL can sell. Or, duplicates. And she might sell some very nice wooden bookshelves.....

*smooch*

>260 karenmarie: Oh, I am so *envious* of your cherry-picking trip! But goodness knows you're the correct pair of eyes for that expedition. You've been with the group long enough to choose things that're likely to get bought.

*smooch*

>259 LizzieD: Not quite the same, but in the ballpark. Bunburying is more light-hearted; coddiwompling is aimless, absent-minded.

Happy Thrusdee. *smooch*

>258 humouress: I am, as always, disappointing to my thread's Supervillainess-in-Chief. So sad.

>261 richardderus: Ooh - a promotion! Okay, I'm happy now.

>256 Crazymamie: >257 richardderus: I should quit visiting here... Now I want bacon ^^^

You lot are incorrigible mood-enhancers with tasty food-fantasy images.
I actually came here to work off the grumpiness of a--star book I just reviewed. I have to say, the bacon concoction did the trick ~ really&truly I only looked at the picture!

At our house, we're not supposed to eat bacon (me, 'cause of serious lipid issues and His Nibs for that too + salt).
The evil elf that lives in my brain says, "but it's Advent, not Lent..."
Yes, BUT.. I'd rather (*whisper*) eat shortbread.

>263 SandyAMcPherson: The bacon is coming from IL. It is Bosnian bacon as requested by my daughter. I don't think she'll share. It's probably not the best for a Hanukkah breakfast though....

For me it has to be turkey bacon which I know will have RD shaking his head in dismay. Came across it in the UK and it is honestly fabulous.

>265 PaulCranswick: *delicate convulsion*

Turkey bacon? Just eat the tofu, veggie boy.

>264 quondame: "IL"? Israel or Illinois? And what in the world is "Bosnian" bacon's claim to fame?

>263 SandyAMcPherson: *there there, pat pat* One-star reads happen to us all, my dear lady. Soldier on, the next read is statistically unlikely to be another one-star farrago.

>265 PaulCranswick: It must be the brand then Paul.

I know you can't eat pork but, honestly, I'm with Richard (for once). Somebody better catch him before he falls off his chair.

>266 richardderus: Well, actually Bulgarian. The Bosnian restaurant I like serves some of same dishes that are well known in Bulgaria so I tend to conflate the identities. IL is Illinois, George's Brand Meat, and the reason I ordered the bacon from there is that they sent it gratis when I ordered Lukanka and it was fabulous. And Becky's been indirectly asking after it - like "too bad that's not that really good bacon" as if there is anything but really good bacon and great bacon.

>266 richardderus: I'm still not confusing turnips for turkeys, beets for beef, lentils for lamb or cabbages for chickens. Delicious, I kid you not.

>267 humouress: Help the dear fellow up would you.

>269 PaulCranswick: I suppose I'd better since you didn't catch him. Did you miss on purpose - by any chance?

‘Morning, RD!

>261 richardderus: Lots of good books selected. I’d have taken more personally or for friend Karen in Montana but frankly, and this will seem sacrilegious, I got tired of looking at books and my back wasn’t thrilled.

*smooch* from your own Horrible

“If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it.”
—Mary Oliver, “Don’t Hesitate”
The epigraph of Here for It by R. Eric Thomas from this BookRiot article.

One might almost appreciate poetry if more of it was like that.

>271 karenmarie: There are only so many objects one can peruse without ennui setting in...I was so insanely bored in the Louvre after three hours that I couldn't tell Leonardo from Picasso.

>267 humouress:, >269 PaulCranswick:, >270 humouress: I am still reeling from the notion that 1) La Overkill agrees with me about something, and b) PC eats *delicate convulsion* I can't type it again but swears he still can discern beef from beets. Derangement of the senses runs rife in KL, clearly.

>268 quondame: Do the Bulgarians do something special to their bacon? From wild boars, maybe? Interesting about George's marketing ploy...clearly knows his onions, does George. Make people want something only you can give them!

Off to find out what "LUkanka" is....

>272 richardderus:
Why I love Mary Oliver

>272 richardderus: Hooray for Mary Oliver. One of my favorites.

Happy Friday, Richard. I hope all is well. You mentioned The Ghost Road up there. That was written by Pat Barker, not Faulks. I have not read the Barker but I want to.

>268 quondame: Lukanka had me smiling until "...a skin that is normally covered with a white fungus" hit my ocular units. Um, no.

>274 Matke: Yeah, she seems nice.

>275 msf59: Yes indeed, Mark, and Barker's WWI Siegfried Sassoon books are excellent!

Catching up with you.

Turkey bacon? Tried it once. Yuck.

Have a wonderful weekend.

>273 richardderus: I get stimulus overload very quickly at museums - the exhibits the noise the people the standing and moving and changing about the pressure to see the other side blocked by whatever.... I'm good for about 1.5 hrs in a quiet darkened gallery which also gets on my nerves, but different light loving rather than quiet loving nerves. It's a real challenge going to an exhibit with a new companion.

I have real respect for George. I don't suppose Bulgarians are so much better at meats than Poles or Germans, but Lukanka is a cousin of Greek Loukaniko which is a fresh sausage that takes its name from a city on the east coast of Italy famous for its sausages. I could only get Lukanka at our local Bosnian cafe, then I couldn't and my quest to replace what had become, with brine preserved kalamata olives, a staple necessary to my diet, lead me early this year to George. Soon the olives will run out and I have to decide if the exposure to the people at the Farmers' Market is worth having a new quart of the olives. I can make do with the ones from the Italian Deli, but not the same, nope.

Do you have trouble with the white flaky skin on real Italian salami? Same thing really. The taste is very different from the Italian though and I wasn't sure I liked it before I became addicted.

>278 quondame: Yes, that flaky white bleuuurgh must be removed for me before I partake or there is just no way.

Makes no sense whatsoever, I eat blue cheese like it's goin' outta style and will camembert myself into next week. Dunno...milk, yes; meat, no? Inconsistency thy name is me.

Funny what triggers us, isn't it.

>277 figsfromthistle: Hi Anita, and thanks! (agreed re: turkey "bacon")

>273 richardderus: Three hours is a lot, Richard, for any museum, even the Louvre.
We usually plan max. 2 hours when we visit a museum, my concentration fades, sometimes even sooner. Only on vacation we do the 2 hours twice sometimes.

>280 FAMeulstee: That's because you folks are visiting the wrong museums. Science museums, especially interactive ones, suck me in - the Natural History Museum in South Kensington, for instance. I just love the building itself before I even go inside.

And the number of times I've been to the Mall in DC but I've never managed to get past the Air & Space Museum. The last couple of times I just popped in to visit for old times' sakes but I was only finally disgorged at closing time. I may have managed to get to the next one along just before they closed the doors for long enough to look around the lobby but I can't even remember which one it is. I did manage to go to the museum across from the A&S once which had an Escher display on at the time (or is an Escher museum). I know this because I bought a couple of small prints of copies of his works - I have proof!

‘Morning, RD, and happy Sunday to you.

I'm drinking coffee and trying to wake up. The talk of museums has given me a pleasant few minutes remembering wonderful museum visits in my life - King Tut once in LA when I was 10 and once in NC, Georgia O'Keeffe, the Titanic, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the National WWI Museum and Memorial, LA's MoCA, the Getty Museum, etc. I'm always the last one out and always wish I had more time.

>277 figsfromthistle: Thanks for backing me up, Anita!

RD, since you won't countenance a certain bacon substitute and since it must be cold there now, I thought I'd treat you with an Irish coffee - not a waste of either good whisky or great coffee.



Have a great Sunday.

>280 FAMeulstee:, >282 humouress: Oh, no...no indeed. It dates back to my ninth birthday, spent with my eldest sister in Mexico City in the Museo Nacional de Antropología. For. Eight. Hours.

I had an asthma attack (Mexico City in the 1960s wasn't a clean-air hotspot) which she ignored by plonking me on a bench and disappearing for two hours. Then there was the mummy museum in Guanajuato, freshly opened and the reason for our long stay...the hugely long stairs needed to climb to get to it? I fell *down* them after a three-hour tour. Sprained my wrist and ankle.

I relive those nightmares after anything more than a two-hour visit to any museum of anything.

>284 PaulCranswick: Ooohhh, Irish coffee! Yes please, perfect for this quite cold but very sunny Sunday. Thanks!

>283 karenmarie: Hiya Horrible, I think museums are delightful, too...just not too much at once.

The Tut exhibit was glorious, wasn't it? 1976 is the one I remember. (And my favorite Chemise et Cie shirt was papyrus-patterned on a deep brown background. Just beautiful.)

*smooch*

It's not just museums. Before I retired, I had a job that precluded taking vacations of any length, but, after having had to postpone my vacation 2 or 3 times because of trial prep, I requested (& received!) permission to take a month's vacation. I went to Italy and spent the month traveling all over. When I got there, everything seemed magical and amazing. By the end of the third week, I was all, like, "Oh, look, another Tuscan hill town," and "How wonderful. Another Boticelli," and "Huh. Another medieval church." The only thing I continued to appreciate were the coffee bars that stand on almost every corner. (More ubiquitous than Starbucks, but the coffee! Or, I should say, caffè.) And the food. And wine. And gelato. Of course.

Happy Sunday, Richard! *smooch*

>282 humouress: The science/technology museum in Munich, with a submarine to enter and giant nautical propeller suspended from the ceiling is deeply embedded in my memory, and my 19 year old self had to be dragged out of there, but that was quite another person indeed.

>286 richardderus: Tut was pretty amazing, but my favorite(s) of all time were the Scythian Gold exhibits - in the halcyon days of the early 70s LACMA was open weekday evenings and had a fabulous film subscription program (I saw Groucho Marx at the showing of Animal Crackers) and before the show I'd spend about half an hour basking in gold.

>287 Storeetllr: After weeks on a tour bus I was heard to mutter "not another damned view". And for some reason I acquired an aversion to the color of Swiss grass, that bright yellowish green that shows so well in calendar photos, with the orange red roofs.

>287 Storeetllr:, >288 quondame: I wasn't hugely fond of Switzerland myownself. My father's mistress's Christmas carp in the bathtub, unwarned, rather soured me on the place. (Though not so much on Inge. She was a sweetie.)

Views are marvelous in moderation; altarpieces are best seen in books. That way I can close them into invisibility when my atheistic irritation gets unruly.

And, while a month's vacation sounds glorious, I learned how boring it can be to have An Itinerary early in life. The best vacations I ever spent were with Betsy...we'd book a flight somewhere we'd never been, rent a car, and at the airport's driveway end, the driver asked the passenger "left or right?" and turned accordingly.

Bliss.

>289 richardderus: Hah! Carp in the bathtub.

I had no itinerary. I wasn't with a tour. I just went where I felt like going, stayed as long as I wanted. I went to Casteggio (near Milan) to visit a friend for a few days, then Florence for a few days with day trip to Pisa; Rome for 4 or 5 days; Naples for a day; the Amalfi Coast for a day; Pompeii and Herculaneum for a day; Sorrento for a day; Paestum for a couple of days, where I missed the one-a-day train to Sicily; back to Rome for a few more days; Siena for a few days, where I rented a car and drove around Tuscany, visiting San Gimignano, Orvieto, Assisi, Pienza, and getting lost in the hills; back to Florence for a day; then Venice for a few days; then decompressed (which included copious tears, wine and gelato) at Lido de Jesolo, a beach town a bit north of Venice, for a couple of days, before going to Milan for a day and then flying home where next day I collapsed - at my desk at work.

>290 Storeetllr: That does sound exhausting! No wonder you collapsed. And congrats for strategically doing it at your desk.

The things you see on FB. Which one of the Elder Gods do you suppose spawned this bizarro creature?



(This guy posts a lot of weird stuff, some of which has to have been 'shopped, but isn't this too cool if true.)

Hola - I'm not even going to try to catch up, it's been so long. So in advance, hoping is all okay and I don't put my foot in it.

Also, I finally read Tuck Everlasting this year (my husband's copy from when he was a boy) and loved it. So wonderful.

'Morning, RD!

I've always been fascinated with Tut. A book that I periodically re-read is Tutankhamun: The Untold Story by Thomas Hoving.

>289 richardderus: My father's mistress's Christmas carp in the bathtub, unwarned, That would sour me even here in the wilds of NC. Yikes.

>294 karenmarie: How Do, Horrible! I'm not sure how many Tut books I've read and loved. I don't remember reading Hoving's book specifically, but did love Making the Mummies Dance and I know it wasn't the first or last book of his I read.

A huge, ugly fish in the only place I could take a bath (and a badly-needed bath, too, I'd been on planes for 12 hours) was not a thing I dealt well with. Carp isn't on my list of comestibles even yet, fifty-one years later.

>293 BekkaJo: Hi Bekka! I'm delighted to see you here! And with happy memories of Tuck Everlasting, too. *smooch*

>292 Storeetllr: It's a nudibranch, and a weird one. It does rather look like Cthulhu in lipstick doesn't it?

149 Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Rating: 4.9* of five

When you begin this voyage into the unknown, you're lulled into a sense of Rightness by this author's almost-familiar archaic language...if one has read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, this feels similar enough to make the initial impression one of either familiar immersion in warm water or an icy-cold dash of horrified repulsion and fear and desire to escape.

Indeed, I found it so simple, so direct, that I suspected a trap was being laid for me. My attention could wander among All the Capital letters, looking for Discrete meaning where there is general background clutter, furniture for The House. The House, you see, is the world. The Worldhouse is Piranesi's Place of Worship and Study, and is as close to infinite as Piranesi can conceive.

The enormity of this task sometimes makes me feel a little dizzy, but as a scientist and an explorer I have a duty to bear witness to the Splendours of the World.
–and–
The Beautiful Orderliness of the House is what gives us Life.

Life is exactly what Piranesi derives from the House. In the Drowned Halls our resourceful cicerone catches fish; in the Coral Halls, among other places, he finds colonies of mussels, and immense floats of seaweed; so the House feeds him at a most modest expenditure of energy and effort. The glorious visuals of this book are like eating Sachertorte then black forest gâteau then prinsesstårta with cheesecake for dessert. The headiest are the moments we see the Drowned Halls and the Western Halls, the latter with their Statue of a Faun:

I dreamt of him once; he was standing in a snowy forest and speaking to a female child.

Could a clearer note be sounded to hark back to Lucy Pevensie and Mr. Tumnus? We're in a Story, laddies and gentlewomen, make no mistake about it. Not some run-of-the-mill novel, a Story, a myth made of sterner Stuff than a mere jeu d'esprit destined for an hours' pleasure. And like all those Stories we've loved and suffered through as we grew into our best selves (which, of course, we all have done like Piranesi has done), there must be An Other. Others are friends. Others are enemies. The Other, in the Story we are told here, is both and neither:

The Other believes that there is a Great and Secret Knowledge hidden somewhere in the World that will grant us enormous powers once we have discovered it.
–and–
‘Who or what is Addy Domarus?’ I asked.

‘A king. Long dead. Someone who possessed the knowledge. Or some of it at any rate. I’ve had success calling on him for aid in other rituals, notably for …’ He stopped abruptly and for a brief moment looked confused. ‘I’ve had success calling on him in the past,’ he finished.

The Other, then, is a Liar and a Manipulator. We see it, standing (more likely sitting, possibly reclining) outside the Story as we must, but our glorious cicerone does not. Or else why would we need his Story told to us?

Like any well-made Myth, the story expands the House and the Other into very odd, very frightening sizes and directions. Piranesi is a Naïf and we can't help but fear for him in his Eternal Present. But he is a scientist, and a methodical man, and he must needs follow clues and puzzle out Meanings in all the things he encounters. He makes complex calculations to determine when the Tides will make some parts of the House dangerous to him; he remembers the cycles of them so he can get food (a thing previous inhabitants...Thirteen of them, now reduced to bones that he cares for and speaks to and feeds offerings...could or did not master). His wanderings in the Halls are carefully notated in his Journals. But all his skills in this world will not stop The End from coming.

Author Clarke begins to crack open Reality and let in the pestiferous Mundane World, and Piranesi really, really Dislikes it. So do I, dear. Especially when the Other's Origin story begins to come clear, with the appearance of someone Piranesi calls the Prophet:

You must have been well worth looking at before, you know … before everything happened. Ah, well! Old age happened to me. And this happened to you. And now look at us!
–and–
'...I’ve never been very interested in what you might call morality, but I drew the line at bringing about the collapse of civilisation. Perhaps that was wrong. I don’t know. I do have a rather sentimental streak.’

But let's be honest. Not one word of this stuff feels false; it's like she's at it again, that Minx of an author, reinventing reality because there's no Reality in it.

The House is valuable because it is the House. It is enough in and of Itself. It is not the means to an end.
–and–
I went to the Eighteenth North-Western Hall and had a long drink of water. It was delicious and refreshing (it had been a Cloud only hours before).
–and–
Reality was not only capable of taking part in a dialogue – intelligible and articulate – it was also persuadable.

Piranesi might not be a map of the journey, plain and notated onto paper, leading you to the House. That journey, Journey to be precise, is purely personal.

Don't kid yourselves; Susanna Clarke knows how to get there.

Hi, Richard. Thank you for the trip through Piranesi. I'm glad that you loved it. I'm still uncommitted. While I loved parts of *JS&MN*, I didn't even like all of it. I see that we diverge again, but I'll probably get to it eventually. Oh well.

Good review. No, I take that back. Great review. I've got Piranesi on hold at the library, waiting behind dozens if not hundreds to get my hands on it. I may have to break down and buy it. (I did like JS&MN exceedingly, and it sounds like I will likewise love this offering, tho I was initially disappointed it wasn't a sequel to JS&MN.)

>296 richardderus: Beautiful review, Richard. That's one read that I find profoundly difficult to predict whether other readers will like but I'm happy it found a kindred spirit in you.

>296 richardderus: >297 LizzieD: Peggy I too have ambiguous feelings about *JS&MN*. I don't dispute Susanna Clarke's skill, but something to do with her viewpoint or values. Even though I've read *JS&MN* twice, I can't say exactly what put me off though I have a sense that it has to do with academic worldview.

I shall be reading Piranesi some time early next year if the holds information on my reservations is correct and may even remember some of your paeans Richard!

>295 richardderus: I have Making the Mummies Dance on my shelves, patiently waiting its turn to come to top of my nonfiction stack. Could be after the Obama book, could be years. They whisper to me in my dreams you know, calling out for attention.

I wasn’t going to say that my dad always called carp garbage fish and we never EVER ate them...

>296 richardderus: Beautiful review of a book I’m not particularly interested in. I dodged the BB.

I loved this image from Piranesi:

This statue represents a heretical pope seated on a throne. He is fat and bloated. He lolls on his throne, a shapeless mass. The throne is magnificent, but the sheer bulk of the figure threatens to split it in two. He knows that he is repulsive, but you can see by his face that the idea pleases him. He revels in the thought that he is somehow shocking. In his face there is mingled laughter and triumph. Look at me, he seems to say. Look at me!

...but couldn't find a place to bookhorn it into my review. You GO, Author Clarke!

>301 karenmarie: *sigh* my aim falters....

Dad was right, the ugly critters are *full* of dinky little bones you can not see or remove before "eating" it. It's traditional among Alpine German-speakers, the ones who invented Krampus, to have the nasty things at Christmas. Figures, doesn't it.

>300 quondame: Piranesi has the deeply desirable virtue of being short...under 250pp...so at least you won't feel smothered by the academic preciousness of Strange/Norrell. Plus it's simply gorgeous, visually overwhelmingly gorgeous, in a way that Strange/Norrell was not.

>299 MickyFine: I don't imagine there are a lot of Perfect Readers for this book out there, but it was so so so so so close to perfection (Raphael's inadequately woven-in ability to walk into the House blew perfection for me) that we'll give it a pass. It's not likely to be the same book for any two readers, even more than that is ordinarily true.

>298 Storeetllr: Thank you most kindly, Mary! *smooch*

...or permaybehaps Kindleborrow it from the library...?

>297 LizzieD: Thank you, Peggy, for the kind words. If you're hesitant, don't jump in and buy it. Get a free sample sent to your Kindle!

It's not the commitment that Strange/Norrell was, being so very much shorter, but it is a definite oddity in the world of fiction. That works, or doesn't, based on so many personal factors it's impossible to know what side you'll end up on until you end up there.

>296 richardderus: Damn. Can you just write my reviews for me from now on? Pretty please? Just so good.

Also, I know I posted here more recently than it shows. WTH?

Anyhow, just here to show my love. Smooch.

>305 Berly: *smooch*

This thread's flown by in twenty days. I'd guess your half-bit fruit company woes kept you off the site for about half of that. So, well, go fight them odds, eh what?

*garshk* You liked my review! *blush*

>304 richardderus: >298 Storeetllr: Kindle books are pretty much the only books I borrow from the library these days. Those and audiobooks. First, the pandemic. Second, the text can be made larger to help my old tired eyes see it better, and when I listen to a book I can do other things like paint or wash dishes or take a walk or play e-mahjong. Third, dead tree books are heavy, and my wrists aren't as strong as they used to be. I'll wait, or I'll buy an e-copy or e-audio.

>296 richardderus: Wow! 4.9/5? Now that's a rare sight. BB for me.

>296 richardderus: Well that's a mighty enticing review for a book that seems to be a bit out of my comfort zone. That doesn't mean I won't read it. That review may have sucked me in. Darn you.

It's not likely to be the same book for any two readers, even more than that is ordinarily true.

Well, that encapsulates it perfectly, I think. Wonderful review, and glad you enjoyed Piranesi! I immersed myself in April, and reading that after a month of lockdown was a surreal experience, let me tell you. But it's one of my top 2020 reads of the year.

>306 richardderus: Book bullet. Requested at the library. 319 on 45 copies.

Oooh - I've been thinking about reading that. On the list it goes.

'Morning, RDear, and happy Tuesday to you.

Happy Safe Harbor Day, too. I won't completely rest easy until I watch the Inauguration on January 20, 2021.

*smooch*

Yeah I devoured "Strange/Norell" and loved it but there were people whose input I value who looked at me strangely when i brought it up.

Adding the new book to the M-BR read list. (must be read)

150 Elysium, or The World After by Jennifer Marie Brissett

Rating: 4.5* of five (I'm eager for her next book to come out in 2021!)

The author, whom I follow on Twitter, commented rather sadly on some people in the blogosphere who took her to task for this book, which apparently was not to their taste.

It was to mine. I enjoyed it so much that, after reading the library's copy, I ordered one for myself because I wanted to have ready access to some of my favorite quotes to share with my Young Gentleman Caller. He's quite partial to this one:

"...You got wings now. You might as well learn how to use 'em. I'll teach you and then you'll come with me."

It makes me very happy to be able to share that with him, and have it mean something good to him, too.

But here's the thing, readers. Here's the central principle of this book as I understand it: Forget Reality. It doesn't exist.

The rest resides a-blogwards.

Congrats on the double 75!!

>307 Storeetllr:, >308 figsfromthistle:, >309 brenzi:, >310 bell7:, >311 Berly:, >312 BekkaJo:, >313 karenmarie:, >314 magicians_nephew:, >316 ChelleBearss: I've responded in my new thread!