mahsdad's (Jeff) 2023 Thread - Q2

Welcome to 2023 Q2 and my little corner of the world

Hi, I'm Jeff. I live in San Pedro California. Moved out from Pittsburgh in 1989. I'm an avid reader. My wife might say I'm bordering on the obsessive. But then, I think that could apply to a lot of us in this group. I also enjoy photography, movies, hiking and playing games and hanging out with my family. Book-wise, I have a pretty eclectic taste in what I read and I hope to give you not so much reviews but my impressions about what I read.

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

Past 75 Threads :
2013 2014 2015 2016
2017 2018 2019 2020
2021 2022

Come in and sit a spell. Here's a picture from my neck of the woods, Royal Palms Beach, looking North, well technically West. Enjoy! 🤣

2023 Statistics - Q2

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


June
49. The Imitation Game by Jim Ottaviani (GN) :
48. The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World's Most Precious Manuscripts by Joshua Hammer (A) :
47. Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst :
46. Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde (A) :
45. Einstein by Jim Ottaviani (GN) :
44. The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde (A) :
43. Wool by Hugh Howey (A) :
42. The Wishing Pool and Other Stories by Tananarive Due (ER) :

May
41. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (A) :
40. Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson :
39. Help! A Bear is Eating Me! by Mykle Hansen :
38. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carre :
37. Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde :
36. Persephone by Lev Grossman :
35. The Heart of the Comet by David Brin/Gregory Benford :
Favorite : Lost in a Good Book


April
34. It's Lonely at the Centre of the Earth (GN) by Zoe Thorogood :
33. Tender is the Flesh by Augustina Bazterrica :
32. Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid (A) :
31. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde (A) :
30. Double Feature by Owen King :
29. The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil by George Saunders :
28. White Night by Jim Butcher (A) :
27. Cosmos by Carl Sagan :
Favorite : The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil

2023 Statistics - Q1

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


March
26. Fairy Tale by Stephen King (A) :
25. And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer: A Novella by Fredrik Backman (K) :
24. Sandman: Endless Nights by Neil Gaiman :
23. Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart :
22. Sandman: The Wake by Neil Gaiman (GN) :
21. The Constant Rabbit by Jasper Fforde (A) :
20. Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi (K) :
19. American Cult: A Graphic History of Religious Cults in America from the Colonial Era to Today edit by Robyn Chapman (GN) :
Favorite : Shuggie Bain


February
18. Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty (A) :
17. Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr (A) :
16. West by Carys Davies :
15. Lost Places by Sarah Pinsker (ER) :
14. M is for Monster by Talia Dutton (GN) :
13. Gunfight: My Battle Against the Industry that Radicalized America by Ryan Busse (A) :
12. The Twilight Man: Rod Serling and the Birth of Television :
11. Independence Day by Richard Ford :
10. Sandman: The Kindly Ones by Neil Gaiman (GN) :
9. Drowned Worlds edited by Jonathan Strahan (A) :
Favorite : Gunfight


January
8. The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie (K) :
7. The Deal of a Lifetime by Fredrik Backman (K) :
6. 1984 by George Orwell (A) :
5. Billy Summers by Stephen King (A) :
4. Sandman: World's End by Neil Gaiman (GN) :
3. Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey :
2. A Brief History of Timekeeping: The Science of Marking Time, from Stonehenge to Atomic Clocks by Chad Orzel (A) :
1. Sandman: Brief Lives by Neil Gaiman (GN) :
Favorite : Billy Summers

Audiobook Narrators

Mike Lenz - A Brief History of Timekeeping

Paul Sparks - Billy Summers

Simon Prebble - 1984

Too Many to Name - Drowned Worlds

Ryan Busse - Gunfight

Marin Ireland - Cloud Cuckoo Land
Simon Jones (narrated the book within the book)

Mur Lafferty - Six Wakes

Andrew Wincott - The Constant Rabbit

Seth Numrich (with an appearance by Stephen King) : Fairy Tale

James Marsters : White Night

Susan Duerden : The Eyre Affair

Jennifer Beals (as Daisy Jones) plus a full cast too numerous to name : Daisy Jones and the Six

P.J. Ochlan, Gabrielle de Cuir, Stefan Rudnicki : The Heart of the Comet

Emily Gray - Lost in a Good Book, The Well of Lost Plots, Something Rotten

Jennifer Kim - Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

Edoardo Ballerini - Wool

Paul Boehmer - The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu

Pulitzer's Read

Ongoing bucket list to read all the Pulitzer winning novels.

Bold : On the Shelf
Strikeout : Completed

Total Read - 37
2023 - Demon Copperhead
2023 - Trust
2022 - The Netanyahus
2021 - The Night Watchman
2020 - The Nickel Boys
2019 - The Overstory
2018 - Less
2017 - Underground Railroad
2016 - The Sympathizer
2015 - All the Light We Cannot See
2014 - The Goldfinch
2013 - The Orphan Master's Son
2012 - NO AWARD
- Swamplandia - Nominee
2011 - A Visit from the Goon Squad
2010 - Tinkers
2009 - Olive Kitterridge
2008 - The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
2007 - The Road
2006 - March
2005 - Gilead
2004 - The Known World
2003 - Middlesex
2002 - Empire Falls
2001 - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
2000 - The Interpreter of Maladies
1999 - The Hours
1998 - American Pastoral
1997 - Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer
1996 - Independence Day
1995 - The Stone Diaries
1994 - The Shipping News
1993 - A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain
1992 - A Thousand Acres
- My Father Bleeds History (Maus) (Special Awards & Citations - Letters)
1991 - Rabbit at Rest
1990 - The Mambo Kings
1989 - Breathing Lessons
1988 - Beloved DNF
1987 - A Summons to Memphis
1986 - Lonesome Dove
1985 - Foreign Affairs
1984 - Ironweed
1983 - The Color Purple
1982 - Rabbit is Rich
1981 - A Confederacy of Dunces
1980 - The Executioner's Song
1979 - The Stories of John Cheever
1978 - Elbow Room
1977 - NO AWARD
1976 - Humboldt's Gift
1975 - The Killer Angels
1974 - NO AWARD
1973 - The Optimist's Daughter
1972 - Angle of Repose
1971 - NO AWARD
1970 - The collected Stories of Jean Stafford
1969 - House Made of Dawn : DNF
1968 - The Confessions of Nat Turner
1967 - The Fixer
1966 - The Collected Stories of katherine Anne Porter
1965 - The Keepers of the House
1964 - NO AWARD
1963 - The Reivers
1962 - The Edge of Sadness
1961 - To Kill a Mockingbird
1960 - Advise and Consent
1959 - The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters
1958 - A Death in the Family
1957 - NO AWARD
1956 - Andersonville
1955 - A Fable
1954 - NO AWARD
1953 - The Old Man and the Sea
1952 - The Caine Mutiny
1951 - The Town
1950 - The Way West
1949 - Guard of Honor
1948 - Tales of the South Pacific
1947 - All the King's Men
1946 - NO AWARD
1945 - A Bell
1944 - Journey in the Dark
1943 - Dragon's Teeth
1942 - In This Our Life
1941 - NO AWARD
1940 - The Grapes of Wrath
1939 - The Yearling
1938 - The Late George Apley
1937 - Gone with the Wind
1936 - Honey in the Horn
1935 - Now in November
1934 - Lamb in His Bosom
1933 - The Store
1932 - The Good Earth
1931 - Years of Grace
1930 - Laughing Boy
1929 - Scarlet Sister Mary
1928 - The Bridge of San Luis Rey
1927 - Early Autumn
1926 - Arrowsmith
1925 - So Big
1924 - The Able McLaughlins
1923 - One of Ours
1922 - Alice Adams
1921 - The Age of Innocence
1920 - NO AWARD
1919 - The Magnificent Ambersons
1918 - His Family

Hugos Read

Ongoing bucket list to read all the Hugo winning novels.

Bold : On the Shelf
Strikeout : Completed

Total Read - 40

2021 - Network Effect
2021 - Two Truths and a Lie - Novella
2020 - A Memory Called Empire - Arkady Martine
2020 - This Is How You Lose The Time War - Novella
2019 - The Calculating Stars
2018 - The Stone Sky
2018 - All Systems Red - Novella
2017 - The Obelisk Gate
2016 - The Fifth Season
2015 - The Three-Body Problem
2014 - Ancillary Justice (DNF)
2013 - Redshirts
2012 - Among Others
2011 - Blackout/All Clear
2010 - The Windup Girl
The City & the City
2009 - The Graveyard Book
2008 - The Yiddish Policemen's Union
2007 - Rainbows End
2006 - Spin
2005 - Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
2004 - Paladin of Souls
2003 - Hominids
2003 - Coraline (novella)
2002 - American Gods
2001 - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
2000 - A Deepness in the Sky
1999 - To Say Nothing of the Dog
1998 - Forever Peace
1997 - Blue Mars
1996 - The Diamond Age
1995 - Mirror Dance
1994 - Green Mars
1993 - A Fire Upon the Deep
Doomsday Book
1992 - Barrayar
1991 - The Vor Game
1990 - Hyperion
1989 - Cyteen
1988 - The Uplift War
1988 - Watchmen - category : Other forms
1987 - Speaker for the Dead
1986 - Ender's Game
1985 - Neuromancer
1985 - The Crystal Spheres - David Brin - Short Story
1984 - Startide Rising
1983 - Foundation's Edge
1982 - Downbelow Station
1981 - The Snow Queen
1980 - The Fountains of Paradise
1979 - Dreamsnake
1978 - Gateway
1977 - Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang
1976 - The Forever War
1975 - The Dispossessed
1974 - Rendezvous with Rama
1973 - The Gods Themselves
1972 - To Your Scattered Bodies Go
1971 - Ringworld
1970 - Left Hand of Darkness
1969 - Stand on Zanzibar
1968 - Lord of Light
1967 - The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
1966 - Dune
This Immortal
1965 - The Wanderer
1964 - Way Station
1963 - The Man in the High Castle
1962 - Stranger in a Strange Land
1961 - A Canticle for Leibowitz
1960 - Starship Troopers
1959 - A Case of Conscience
1958 - The Big Time
1956 - Double Star
1955 - The Forever Machine
1953 - The Demolished Man

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

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

Nebulas Read

Bold - On the Shelf
Strike - Finished

2022 - A Master of Djinn
2021 - Network Effect
2021 - Two Truths and a Lie
2020 - A Song for a New Day
2019 - The Calculating Stars
2019 - This Is How You Lose The Time War - Novella
2018 - The Stone Sky
2017 - All the Birds in the Sky
2016 - Uprooted
2015 - Annihilation
2014 - Ancillary Justice DNF
2013 - 2312
2012 - Among Others
2011 - Blackout/All Clear
2010 - The Windup Girl
2009 - Powers
2008 - The Yiddish Policemen's Union
2007 - Seeker
2006 - Camouflage
2005 - Paladin of Souls
2004 - The Speed of Dark
2003 - American Gods
2002 - The Quantum Rose
2001 - Darwin's Radio
2000 - Parable of the Talents
1999 - Forever Peace
1998 - The Moon and the Sun
1997 - Slow River
1996 - The Terminal Experiment
1995 - Moving Mars
1994 - Red Mars
1993 - Doomsday Book
1992 - Stations of the Tide
1991 - Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea
1990 - The Healer's War
1989 - Falling Free
1988 - The Falling Woman
1987 - Speaker for the Dead
1986 - Ender's Game
1985 - Neuromancer
1984 - Startide Rising
1983 - No Enemy But Time
1982 - The Claw of the Conciliator
1981 - Timescape
1980 - The Fountains of Paradise
1979 - Dreamsnake
1978 - Gateway
1977 - Man Plus
1976 - The Forever War
1975 - The Dispossessed
1974 - Rendezvous with Rama
1973 - The Gods Themselves
1972 - A Time of Changes
1971 - Ringworld
1970 - The Left Hand of Darkness
1969 - Rite of Passage
1968 - The Einstein Intersection
1967 - Babel-17
1966 - Dune

National Book Award Winners

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

Man Booker Books
2022 The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida
2021 The Promise
2020 Shuggie Bain READ
2019 The Testaments
2019 Girl, Woman, Other
2018 Milkman
2017 Lincoln in the Bardo READ
2016 The Sellout READ
2015 A Brief History of Seven Killings READ
2014 The Narrow Road to the Deep North
2013 The Luminaries
2012 Bring Up the Bodies
2011 The Sense of an Ending
2010 The Finkler Question
2009 Wolf Hall DNF
2008 The White Tiger
2007 The Gathering
2006 The Inheritance of Loss
2005 The Sea
2004 The Line of Beauty READ
2003 Vernon God Little
2002 Life of Pi READ
2001 True History of the Kelly Gang
2000 The Blind Assassin
1999 Disgrace
1998 Amsterdam
1997 The God of Small Things
1996 Last Orders
1995 The Ghost Road
1994 How Late It Was, How Late
1993 Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
1992 The English Patient
1992 Sacred Hunger
1991 The Famished Road
1990 Possession
1989 The Remains of the Day
1988 Oscar and Lucinda
1987 Moon Tiger
1986 The Old Devils
1985 The Bone People
1984 Hotel du Lac
1983 Life & Times of Michael K
1982 Schindler's Ark
1981 Midnight's Children READ
1980 Rites of Passage
1979 Offshore
1978 The Sea, the Sea
1977 Staying On
1976 Saville
1975 Heat and Dust
1974 The Conservationist
1974 Holiday
1973 The Siege of Krishnapur
1972 G.
1971 In a Free State
1970 The Elected Member
1969 Something to Answer For

100 SFF/Fantasy Reads as compiled by NPR

https://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/139085843/your-picks-top-100-science-fiction-fant...

1. The Lord of the Rings by Tolkien READ
2. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams READ
3. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card READ
4. The Dune Chronicles By Frank Herbert READ
5. A Song Of Ice And Fire Series by George R.R. Martin
6. 1984 A Novel by George Orwell READ
7. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury READ
8. The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov READ but only the 1st one
9. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley READ
10. American Gods By Neil Gaiman READ
11. The Princess Bride S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure by William Goldman READ
12. The Wheel Of Time Series by Robert Jordan
13. Animal Farm by George Orwell READ
14. Neuromancer By William Gibson READ
15. Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons READ
16. I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov READ
17. Stranger In A Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein READ
18. The Kingkiller Chronicles BY by Patrick Rothfuss
19. Slaughterhouse-Five By Kurt Vonnegut READ
20. Frankenstein By Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
21. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick READ
22. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood READ
23. The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King READ
24. 2001: A Space Odyssey BY by Arthur C. Clarke READ
25. The Stand By Stephen King READ
26. Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson READ
27. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury READ
28. Cat's Cradle By Kurt Vonnegut
29. The Sandman Series by Neil Gaiman READ
30. A Clockwork Orange BY by Anthony Burgess READ
31. Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein READ
32. Watership Down by Richard Adams
33. Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey
34. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein READ
35. A Canticle For Leibowitz By Walter M. Miller Jr. READ
36. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
37. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea By Jules Verne
38. Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes READ
39. The War Of The Worlds by H.G. Wells READ
40. The Amber Chronicles by Roger Zelazny
41. The Belgariad By David Eddings
42. The Mists Of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
43. Mistborn Trilogy Brandon Sanderson
44. Ringworld by LARRY NIVEN READ
45. The Left Hand Of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin READ
46. The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien
47. The Once And Future King BY by T.H. White
48. Neverwhere by NEIL GAIMAN READ
49. Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke
50. Contact by Carl Sagan READ
51. The Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons
52. Stardust by Neil Gaiman READ
53. Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson READ
54. World War Z An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks READ
55. The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
56. The Forever War by Joe Haldeman READ
57. Small Gods A Novel of Discworld by Terry Pratchett
58. The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant The Unbeliever by Stephen R. Donaldson
59. The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold
60. Going Postal A Novel of Discworld by Terry Pratchett
61. The Mote In God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle READ
62. The Sword Of Truth Series by Terry Goodkind
63. The Road by by Cormac McCarthy READ
64. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
65. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson READ
66. The Riftwar Saga by Raymond E. Feist
67. The Sword of Shannara Trilogy by Terry Brooks
68. The Conan The Barbarian Series by Robert E. Howard and Mark Schultz
69. The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb
70. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger READ
71. The Way Of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
72. Journey To The Center Of The Earth by Jules Verne READ
73. The Legend Of Drizzt Series by R. A. Salvatore
74. Old Man's War by John Scalzi READ
75. The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson READ
76. Rendezvous With Rama by Arthur C. Clarke READ
77. The Kushiel's Legacy Series by Jacqueline Carey
78. The Dispossessed An Ambiguous Utopia by Ursula K. Le Guin
79. Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
80. Wicked The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire READ
81. The Malazan Book Of The Fallen series by Steven Erikson
82. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde READ
83. The Culture Series by Iain Banks
84. The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart
85. Anathem by Neal Stephenson
86. The Codex Alera Series by Jim Butcher
87. The Book Of The New Sun by Gene Wolfe
88. The Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn
89. The Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon
90. The Elric Saga by Michael Moorcock
91. The Illustrated Man By Ray Bradbury short works collection
92. Sunshine by Robin McKinley
93. A Fire Upon The Deep by Vernor Vinge
94. The Caves Of Steel by Isaac Asimov READ
95. The Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson
96. Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle READ
97. Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
98. Perdido Street Station by China Miéville
99. The Xanth Series by Piers Anthony
100. The Space Trilogy by C.S. Lewis

100 Horror Reads as compiled by NPR

https://www.npr.org/2018/08/16/632779706/click-if-you-dare-100-favorite-horror-s...

1. Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
2. Dracula by Bram Stoker
3. Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne
4. The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe
5. Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
6. The Turn Of The Screw by Henry James
7. The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen
8. The Monkeys Paw by W. W. Jacobs
9. The Willows by Algernon Blackwood
10. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
11. Oh, Whistle, And Ill Come To You, My Lad by M. R. James and Darryl Jones
12.The Werewolf Of Paris By Guy Endore
13. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson READ
14. Let The Right One In By John Ajvide Lindqvist
15. The Vampire Chronicles (First Triology) by Anne Rice READ
16. Minion (Vampire Huntress Legend Series) by L. A. Banks
17. The Hunger by Alma Katsu
18. Those Across The River by Christopher Buehlman
19. Bird Box by Josh Malerman READ
20. Feed (Newsflesh Series) by Mira Grant
21. World War Z by Max Brooks READ
22. The Girl With All The Gifts by M. R. Carey READ
23. The Shadow Over Innsmouth by H. P. Lovecraft
24. The Ballad Of Black Tom by Victor Lavalle
25. The Fisherman by John Langan
26. Laundry Files (Series) by Charles Stross
27. The Cipher By Kathe Koja
28. John Dies At The End by David Wong READ
29. At The Mountains Of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft
30. All Our Salt-Bottled Hearts by Sonya Taaffe
31. Uzumaki by Junji Ito
32. Communion: A True Story by Whitley Strieber OR Majestic by Whitley Strieber
33. The Repairer Of Reputations by Robert W. Chambers
34. The Haunting Of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
35. The House Next Door by Anne Rivers Siddons
36. Burnt Offerings by Robert Marasco
37. The Shining by Stephen King READ
38. House Of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
39. The Elementals by Michael McDowell
40. The Woman In Black by Susan Hill
41. Lunar Park by Bret Easton Ellis
42. The Bone Key by Sarah Monette
43. Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand
44. Infidel by Aaron Campbell, Jose Villarrubia, Pornsak Pichetshote and Jeff Powell
45. The Ruins by Scott Smith
46. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
47. Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? by Joyce Carol Oates
48. The Red Tree by Caitlin R. Kiernan
49. Swan Song by Robert McCammon
50. The Screwfly Solution by James Tiptree Jr.
51. Left Foot, Right by Nalo Hopkinson
52. Come Closer by Sara Gran
53. Furnace by Livia Llewellyn
54. The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter
55. Through The Woods by Emily Carroll
56. Sandman by Neil Gaiman READ
57. Her Body And Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
58. White Is For Witching by Helen Oyeyemi
59. Goblin Market by Christina Georgina Rossetti
60. Experimental Film by Gemma Files
61. The Lottery by Shirley Jackson READ
62. The Collector by John Fowles
63. The Terror by Dan Simmons
64. Intensity by Dean R. Koontz
65. The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum
66. Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite
67. Night They Missed the Horror Show by Joe R. Lansdale
68. Penpal by Dathan Auerbach
69. NOS4A2 by Joe Hill READ
70. Bloodchild by Octavia E. Butler
71. Lord Of The Flies by William Golding READ
72. The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood READ
73. Beloved by Toni Morrison
74. Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation by Octavia E. Butler
75. The Devil In America by Kai Ashante Wilson
76. I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison
77. Books Of Blood by Clive Barker READ
78. The October Country: Stories by Ray Bradbury
79. The Weird: A Compendium Of Strange And Dark Stories by Ann Vandermeer and Jeff VanDermeer
80. The Imago Sequence and Other Stories by Laird Barron
81. Alone With the Horrors: The Great Short Fiction of Ramsey Campbell, 1961-1991 by Ramsey Campbell
82. Things We Lost In The Fire by Mariana Enriquez
83. Shadowland by Peter Straub READ
84. A Head Full Of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay
85. Rosemarys Baby by Ira Levin
86. The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty
87. The Body by Stephen King READ
88. Its A Good Life by Jerome Bixby
89. The Other by Thomas Tryon
90. The Troop by Nick Cutter
91. Elizabeth by Ken Greenhall
92. Please, Momma by Chesya Burke
93. Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark by Alvin Schwartz and Stephen Gammell
94. Goosebumps (Series) by R. L. Stine children
95. Rotters by Daniel Kraus children
96. Jumbies Rise Of The Jumbies by Tracey Baptiste
97. The House With A Clock In Its Walls by John Bellairs
98. Spirit Hunters by Ellen Oh
99. Coraline by Neil Gaiman READ
100. Down A Dark Hall by Lois Duncan

The 75'r Chunkster List

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

Paul's Alternative 20

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

Bill's Alternative Weird Dozen

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

Jeff's how the heck did this not get on the other lists list
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
Alaska by James Michener Read

2023 Reading So Far

Books Read : 26
Pages : 3,861
Listened : 5 days, 3 hours, 40 minutes

# of Authors : 20
Authors of Color : 1 (5%)
Lady Authors : 7 (35%)
Narrators : 9

Scatter Plot

My favorite graphs for some strange reason. Not quite sure they're useful for anything, I just like them artistically. Here's all the books I've read plotted out in order of when they were published

2023 So Far

2023 Books of the Month

January : Billy Summers by Stephen King
February : Gunfight: My Battle Against the Industry that Radicalized America by Ryan Busse
March : Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart



#botm

All done. Now to backfill

Happy new one, Jeff

Hey Thanks for stopping by Paul! Hope you had a good Saturday! And its 2 in the morning. Goto Bed. ;)

Happy new one, Jeff. That's a lotta lists!

Hi Shelley, Yeah, but now that I've done them, its just a matter of copy/paste from the last thread. It used to be a crap-shoot as to whether or not the touchstones would actually work when loading a big message, but the LT gremlins have done a great job over the years of improving that process.

And so RD won't fell left out, here's yesterday's FF post sans offending feline image. ;)

70 97 110 116 97 115 116 105 99 32 80 104 111 116 111 32 70 114 105 100 97 121

(FF post try 2) - Last post of the quarter. Amazing. I'll create the new thread tomorrow, but I didn't want to delay this, trying to keep consistent ;) Its April, so I guess I better do my taxes. LOL. So that's what I've got on the agenda for the weekend. Whee Fun! Oh that reminds me, property taxes are due. Ain't adulting fun!

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

Reading - Cosmos by Carl Sagan 54%
Reading - Broken (in the best possible way) by Jenny Lawson 23%
Listening - White Night by Jim Butcher 28%
eBook - Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson 18%

Finished Books

26. Fairy Tale by Stephen King (A) : . This was King's Covid book, at least that's what the blurb said. He wanted to write something that made him happy. Charlie, is a high school senior, football star. After he helps out an elderly neighbor. He finds that the neighbor has been hiding a secret and that secret leads Charlie to another world and a mythic quest to save it and its people. A fun read. Read on Audio.
25. And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer: A Novella by Fredrik Backman (K) : . I'll read anything by Backman. This is a novella about a man coming to grips with his oncoming dementia and how his family deals with it as well. Not sure if the whole story is actually in the man's mind or how much is "real", an interesting literary device. It is a really good read. A contender for BOTM this month for me.

#FF

Happy new one, Jeff!

Happy new thread Jeff!

Happy new one!

Happy new thread, Jeff!

Happy new thread!

Your lists:

Your Pulitzer List (why did you start at 1928 and jump to 1940?) - 19 books read
Your Hugos List - 5 books read (Sci/Fi is not my bag usually)
Your Nebulas List - 4 books read
Your Booker List - 36 books read (my preferences again to the fore!)
Your 100 S/F Fantasy - 22 books read
Your 100 Horror - 10 books read
75er's Chunksters List - 10 books read
Bill's Weird Dozen - 3 books read

Thanks everyone for all the new thread salutations. Most appreciated.

>26 PaulCranswick: Pulitzer list - I think where ever I got the initial seed, only went back to 1940, but then I got a copy of The Bridge of San Luis Rey but I never went back to fill in the gap. I should do that.

As far as my other lists are concerned. Its very interesting how reading goes and what we're exposed to. We're just about the same age and I read more SFF and Horror until I found this group and my literary eyes have been opened wide. Such a good thing!

>27 mahsdad:
I think we all have our comfort reads. Mine is mystery and fantasy. I can also say that this group has widened my reading to include lots more nonfiction than I read in the past. Thanks to you a dug out my copy of Cosmos a few weeks ago and am seriously considering reading it. But I have that book from Inter-Library Loan on Churchill's gardens at Chartwell to get done first.

Happy new thread!

>28 benitastrnad: Glad I could influence you to shift your TBR around with Cosmos, to at least consider it. Its a never ending juggling act of timing the end of your library books and your hold lists from the library and the mountain of books to read that you have in the house. Or is that just me ;)

>29 foggidawn: Thanks Foggi!

Speaking of Mt. TBR. We finally went on our annual Christmas book shopping spree. The last several years we never really get anything for each other, but promise to go splurge at a book store and then a fun lunch. Usually its Vroman's in Pasadena. But this year we went to the Last Bookstore in Downtown LA, and went to lunch at the Grand Central Market in Pershing Square. A fun day.



Laura got.

22. The Mask by Stanislaw Lem. But she got it in French. She's been doing Duolingo for well over a year and wanted to push her self to try to read an actual book.
23. In Legend Born by Laura Resnick
24. Perdido Station by China Mieville

The Kid got
25. Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
26. The City in the Middle of Night by Charlie Jane Anders

I got...
27. Regeneration by Pat Barker
28. The Eye in the Door by Pat Barker
29. The Ghost Road by Pat Barker
30. The Wall of the Sky, The Wall of the Eye by Jonathan Lethem. Story Collection
31. Werewolves in Their Youth by Michael Chabon. Story Collection

#BH

>31 mahsdad: Oh, I do have to get to The Last Bookstore. I might even be tempted to buy a book!

>31 mahsdad: Oh, the Regeration Trilogy. I've read the first two - haven't gotten to the third yet. Barker is a wonderful writer, and she really brings home the horrors of that war.

Could have sworn I I posted replies but they're not there anymore.

>32 quondame: Susan, Yeah its a fun quirky bookstore. Mostly used stuff, so plan on a treasure hunt. Going to Grand Central is a must as well. Only a couple blocks away. Also, not sure if its every weekend, but there was a Farmer's Market going on right outside the bookstore yesterday.

>33 ffortsa: Thanks for the added push Judy, good to know. I think I got the initial BB from Bill. Now if I were only independently wealthy so I could read all I wanted. ;)

>5 mahsdad: For Paul - thanks for the nudge, I added the missing Pulitzer books to the list, and realized that San Luis Rey wasn't my oldest book. I also have a copy of Arrowsmith on the shelf as well. That's from 1926

Hurray for a new quarter, 'cause it prompts new threads. Mine is coming to a boil. I'll have to follow Paul's lead (>26 PaulCranswick:) and tally my reading from your lists. A plethora of items on The To-Do List.

Hey Bill, Glad I can enable your "bad" habits as well.

>5 mahsdad: psst. The Touchstone on The Town takes you to Little Town on the Prairie. You wanted it to go to Conrad Richter's book?

ETA: >9 mahsdad: it's a sad thing when Tad Williams doesn't make the top 100 list.

I see Uncle Amazon is shutting down Book Depository. Not good news for our gift exchange.

>39 laytonwoman3rd: Oh, that is bad news. Ugh, Amazon.

>38 fuzzi: Thanks Fuzzi, I'm sure I've fixed that on some thread over the years, but of course, every time I copy the list to a new thread, LT does its thing and builds the touchstone. Sometimes their logic is a bit off.

I'll have to take your word for Tad Williams. Never read him, but I do have one of his on the WL.

>39 laytonwoman3rd: Well that sucks

I know its probably not free shipping (which was the allure of BD), but I've started using Bookshop.org when I want to buy retail on line. You get to pick your favorite independent bookstore and they get a commission for what you buy.

>41 mahsdad: I use Bookshop.org a lot too. Our library has a combination branch and retail outlet in the mall in Scranton, so I support it this way as much as possible. I also try to buy directly from some independent bookstores on occasion, such as those owned by authors, or having some other connection for me. For example, Birchbark Books (owned by Louise Erdrich), Oxford Square Books, in Oxford, MS (you know why), Ann Patchett's Parnassus Books...it's fun. And you can usually pre-order a signed copy of the newest work of a bookstore owner/author that way without paying a premium.

My starting word paid off today.

Wordle 654 2/6

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>31 mahsdad: What a wonderful book store! I could stay in there all day. Your topper is lovely! Your are a great photographer!

>42 laytonwoman3rd: Very cool

>31 mahsdad: Thanks Linda, I really appreciate it.

New Book

The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil by George Saunders



Welcome to Inner Horner, a nation so small it can only accommodate one citizen at a time. The other six citizens must wait their turns in the Short-Term Residency Zone of the surrounding country of Outer Horner. It's a long-standing arrangement between the fantastical, not-exactly-human citizens of the two countries. But when Inner Horner suddenly shrinks, forcing three-quarters of the citizen then in residence over the border into Out Horner territory, the Outer Hornerites declare an Invasion in Progress - having fallen under the spell of the power-hungry and demagogic Phil.

So begins The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil. Fueled by Saunders's unrivaled wit, outlandish imagination, and incisive political sensibility, here is a deeply strange yet strangely familiar fable of power and impotence, justice and injustice - an Animal Farm for our times.

#newbook

>46 mahsdad: This looks very interesting!!!

It is very weird and surreal, in a good way.

>41 mahsdad: which Tad Williams do you have on your WL?

If anyone wants a short introduction to his works I recommend Child of an Ancient City. His Dragonbone trilogy is massive but doesn't read massive. It does start slow.

>31 mahsdad: OMG! That's bookstore heaven right there! I could spend all day in there ;)

>49 fuzzi: I have Sleeping Late on Judgement Day on the WL. But I have no idea why. I usually tag it with who suggested it. And now that I look at it, its not even the first book in the series. I must have saw it on someone's new book list, or year end list. I added it to LT in 2014, which was when this book was published.

>50 figsfromthistle: Yeah its pretty wild.

Book Haul

32. The Wishing Pool and Other Stories by Tanarive Due. A collection of horror stories that I got from last month's ER selections

#BH

Jeff, I discovered the site Thriftbooks.com. and it is both a blessing and a bane. The books are good quality and used, some of my recent finds are sent brand new for only 4.59. I've overspent my book budget already this year. I know I would not have been able to contain myself as well as you did when you visited that wonderful book store recently.

>53 Whisper1: I recommend bookfinder.com, which searches ALL the online booksellers like Abebooks and Thriftbooks, even have options displayed from eBay and Amazon, AND....independent booksellers (which I try to buy from)!

>53 Whisper1: >54 fuzzi: Thank you my friends. I'll have to add those to my links. I've used Abebooks in the past. I'll have to add them to my "instructions" for Christmas this year.

New Book - AUDIO

Heart of the Comet by Gregory Benford/David Brin



Gregory Benford and David Brin come together again to issue a new edition of their bold collaboration about our near human future in space, planting our boots . . . and staking our destiny . . . on becoming the People of the Comet. Prescient and scientifically accurate, Heart of the Comet is known as one of the great "hard sf" novels of the 1980s. First published in 1986, it tells the story of an ambitious manned mission to visit Halley's Comet and alter its orbit, to mine it for resources. But all too soon, native cells— that might once have brought life to Earth—begin colonizing the colonists. As factions battle over the comet's future . . . and that of Earth . . . only love, courage and ingenuity can avert disaster, and possibly spark a new human destiny.

Kato Died First. He had been tending the construction mechs - robots that were deploying girders on the thick black dust that overlay the comet ice. From Carl's viewpoint, on a rise a kilometer away, Kato's suit was a blob of orange amid the hulking gray worker drones. There was no sound, in spite of the clouds of dust and gas that puffed outward near man and machines. Only a little static interfered with a Vivaldi that helped Carl concentrate on his work

#newbook

Fantastic Photo Friday!

End of an Era, after a little over 2 years, I've run out of language translations to top my Friday posts. I even went geeky with my last 3 posts, Binary, Hex and ASCII. Oh well, I'll keep posting anyway, its a well established habit now. Happy Friday everyone. This weekend is going to be all about TAXES. I've put them off long enough. Got to get them done by Monday. Thursday we're headed into the lion's den...Flying to Florida to see my Mom and my SIL. My family is great to visit with, just not too sure about the state of their state nowadays. I'll try to keep next week's post on time, but we're flying back the following Friday, so that one might have to wait until Saturday.

Your image today is just something bright and sunny...



Book Update
>2 mahsdad: Q2 Books
>3 mahsdad: Q1 Books
>4 mahsdad: Audiobooks

Reading - The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil by George Saunders 64%. A short little book that I should finish tomorrow. Very surreal, a funny political farce.
Reading - Broken (in the best possible way) by Jenny Lawson 27%.
Listening - Heart of the Comet by Gregory Benford/David Brin 5%
eBook - Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson 22%

Finished Books

28. White Night by Jim Butcher (A) : Bad guy vampires killing witches, Dresden to the rescue. Not my favorite of the series, but very fun listens. Read, as always, by James Marsters
27. Cosmos by Carl Sagan : . Classic Read. Not too sciency, not too preachy, a must read for any human being.

Suppose you take an apple pie and cut it in half; take one of the two pieces and cut it in half; and, in the spirit of Democritus, continue. How many cuts before you are down to a single atom? The answer is about ninety successive cuts. Of course, no knife could be sharp enough...But there is a way to do it.

The Sun has been in such a stable situation for the past five billion years. Thermonuclear reactions like those in a hydrogen bomb are powering the Sun in a contained and continuous explosion, converting some four hundred million tons of hydrogen into helium every second.

If the general picture of an expanding universe and a Big Bang is correct, we must then confront still more difficult questions. What were conditions like at the time of the Big Bang? What happened before that? Was there a tiny universe, devoid of all matter, and then the matter suddenly created from nothing? How does that happen? In many cultures it is customary to answer that God created the Universe out of nothing. But this is mere temporizing. If we wish courageously to pursue the question, we must of course ask the next, where God comes from. And if we decide this to be unanswerable, why not save a step and decide that the origin of the universe is an unanswerable question Or, if we say that God has always existed, why not save a step and conclude that the universe has always existed?

Every thinking person fears nuclear war, and every technological state plans for it. Everyone knows it is madness, and every nation has an excuse. There is a dreary chain of causality

#FF

New Book

Double Feature by Owen King



Sam Dolan is a young man coming to terms with his life in the process and aftermath of making his first film...

Unraveling the tumultuous, decades-spanning story of the Dolan family's friends, lovers, and adversaries, Owen King's epic debut novel combines propulsive storytelling with mordant wit and brims with a deep understanding of the trials of ambition and art, of relationships and life, and of our attempts to survive it all.

The script was for a film called Who We Are, a drama set at Russell College, the small liberal arts school in northern New York where Sam had matriculated. The partly autobiographical story had been his senior thesis.

#newbook

New Book - Audio

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde



Sure I just started Heart of the Comet yesterday, but Libby library holds take precedent, so I'm starting this. 😁

The first in a series of outlandishly clever adventures featuring the resourceful, fearless literary detective Thursday Next - a New York Times best seller!

In Jasper Fforde's Great Britain, circa 1985, time travel is routine, cloning is a reality (dodos are the resurrected pet of choice), and literature is taken very, very seriously. England is a virtual police state where an aunt can get lost (literally) in a Wordsworth poem and forging Byronic verse is a punishable offense. All this is business as usual for Thursday Next, renowned Special Operative in literary detection. But when someone begins kidnapping characters from works of literature and plucks Jane Eyre from the pages of Brontë's novel, Thursday is faced with the challenge of her career.

My Father had a face that could stop a clock. I don't mean that he was ugly or anything; it was a phrase the ChronoGuard used to describe someone who had the power to reduce time to an ultraslow trickle. Dad had been a colonel in the ChronoGuard and kept his work very quiet.

#newbook

>57 mahsdad: Good luck with the taxes, Jeff.

Your Friday photo is as bright as the weather here today :-)

I was up in PV today for an Easter Party. Lovely weather!

>60 FAMeulstee: Sad that I had to write an annoyingly big check, but satisfied in the knowledge that its a check I'm able to write without worry. There are many people in this world that couldn't

Thanks for the photo love

>61 quondame: Hey Susan, glad you made the trek down to my neck of the woods, hope it was a pleasant visit.

So I'm listening to The Eyre Affair on Libby. If you use it, you know that it will tell you how long it will take to finish a book based on how much time you've spent with it. So I looked at the details and apparently, I started reading it 2 years ago but never finished it for some reason (probably switched to another held book), but never finished.

So Libby told me that since I first picked up the book 2 years ago, it would probably take me 10 years to finish it. I'm a slowish reader, but I'm not THAT slow. LOL

>63 mahsdad: Another 10 years would be a little excessive.

I first used Libby for audio a few weeks ago, and I noticed that it had a speed-up feature. You might try it out and see if it's as good as Audible's.

Maybe just another 5 years, then.

FWIW, I loved the silly book, and its sequel.

>64 ffortsa: Hey Judy, I haven't really used Audible much at all, but Libby's speed feature is great. Usually, I'm at 1.4x, but depending on the author or if the prose is a little dense, I might downshift to 1.25x. At this point, if I go back to normal, it seems really SLOW. ;)

I'm sure I'll finish well ahead of schedule. Already at 40%.

its a reread, as well all the other TN novels. There's not just 1 sequel. There's 7 books in total for Thursday Next. Plus the Nursery Crime series, Shades of Grey, Constant Rabbit.

Heck, I'd recommend anything the man has written

A quote from And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer by Fredrik Backman that I forgot to share (was looking thru my Kindle clippings)

The only time you've failed is if you don't try once more

>66 mahsdad:- I loved that book, Jeff. That and Ove are the only 2 by him I've read so far.

Hi Shelley. I highly recommend My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry. It was the first one I read of his, and I almost think I like it more than Ove

I actually own that one too. I'll get to it soon as it lives in the basement and that is my next room. I have decided to read by room each month this year. Jan, my bedroom, Feb, my computer room, March was my guest room, this month is books from the shelves in the living room. May will be the basement and then I start over. Different approach, but I hoped it would inspire me to read more off my own shelves.

Ha, that's a great idea. I have probably 4 areas as well that I could use as a basis for selection. Might have to try that. :)

Fantastic Photo Friday!

Well we made it to Tampa for our vacation. I didn’t bring my PC and I don’t like posting on my iPad, I’m better with a real keyboard, so just a quick post. Happy weekend all!

Here’s a pretty flower for you. (Assuming I got this to work)





Book Update
>2 mahsdad: Q2 Books
>3 mahsdad: Q1 Books
>4 mahsdad: Audiobooks

I think I’ll just leave it at that, just a little post to know I’m still around. 😁🤘🌞

#FF

ETA- not sure if this looks messed up to you too, apparently the normal html code I always use don’t work right on my tablet. I blame Apple.

Sorry, I’ll have to fix these when I get back

ETA part 2. Figured it out. Apparently Apple’s quote mark is a different one from what html was expecting. It caused the img src command to go haywire

ETA- not sure if this looks messed up to you too, apparently the normal html code I always use don’t work right on my tablet. I blame Apple.

Sorry, I’ll have to fix these when I get back

Apple's a stellar fall-company, Jeff. It surely must be the fault of Apple.

ETA: Have a fun and/or relaxing vacay.

Hey Bill, see above, yep it was Apple’s fault

Lucky guess today

Wordle 668 6/6

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Fantastic Photo Friday (okay Saturday)!

We made it home, nothing makes you realize how big this damn country is better than a East to West flight between the coasts. Going against the winds, it takes 5 hours to make it. We landed early (huzzah!), but of course, our parking spot was occupied (darn!), so we had to wait about 25 minutes which pretty much erased the early landing. But we didn't check our bags and were pretty much on the freeway within 30 minutes of landing. Made it home by 11:30, not too bad. A good trip, didn't do to much at all in the way of sight seeing, but it was just a hang out with family for a week.

Today's image is the sunset we watched on Lido Key, near Sarasota. I've got more of them so you'll probably be seeing this again. :)



Book Update
>2 mahsdad: Q2 Books
>3 mahsdad: Q1 Books
>4 mahsdad: Audiobooks

Reading - Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica. Just started this last night when we got home. I finished my previous book on the plane.
Reading - Broken (in the best possible way) by Jenny Lawson 29%
Listening - The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. Starting a reread of the Thursday Next books. Love these books. 89%
eBook - Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson 45%
Graphic Novel - It's Lonely at the Centre of the Earth by Zoe Thorogood. 34%

Finished Books

30. Double Feature by Owen King : . I got this on the discounted, discounted rack at B&N. Owen is Stephen King's other author son. (the more known is Joe Hill), and this is his first novel. After I started reading it, I wasn't sure if I would continue, one of the reviews I read said that it was "overwritten" and I tend to agree. I almost put it down around 50 pages or so, but I continued on. Ultimately, the story and characters did grab me and I enjoyed the read. If I didn't have a couple long plane rides, it probably would have been more of a slog. Its the story of Sam, and his life after his failed first movie and how he and his weird friends, and his relationship with his B-movie actor Dad transpire. King does do some time jumps to go back and show his early life and his Mom and Dad's early life to set the stage. A good first effort, but I would probably not go out of my way to read more.

29. The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil by George Saunders : . This was an excellent, weird short little novella, that I would highly recommend, if you like Saunders, or if you like weird surreal reads. The blurb said it was Animal Farm for our times, and that's an apt description. Instead of animals, its weird creature that might be people, might be robots, can't really be sure. The country of Inner Horner is so small, it can only contain 1 person at a time, the other 6 must wait in a special area of Outer Horner which surrounds that. Phil, a citizen of Outer Horner, gets all up in himself and starts making rules that impact those of Inner Horner and ultimately becomes the ruler of Outer Horner for a bit, but then everything unravels.

"My People!" he shouted in the stentorian voice. "As long as they are existent, they seem to keep rising up against us! Therefore, for us to be at total peace, they must be totally gone!"... "All of them?" asked Freeda. "The whole country?" said Melvin. "Are we not us?" bellowed Phil. "Are they not them? Us being us, do we not, being fully good, have the right to end what, totally bad, threatens us, even in the slightest? Would it not be negligent to do otherwise?"

#ff

Can't go to Florida without going to a bookstore. A fave place of my SIL and nieces is Mojo Books and Records in Tampa.

I went deep with my WL and got a bunch that have been there for a while. Plus a very weird one.

33. Zone One by Colson Whitehead
34. Binti by Nnedi Okorafor
35. Zoo City by Lauren Beukes
36. A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin
37. Help! A Bear is Eating Me by Mykle Hansen. Saw the cover of this and couldn't resist, then I read the back and REALLY couldn't resist.

Marv Pushkin: is pinned under his SUV somewhere in Alaska, hates Alaska, nature, people and especially his wife. Loves his SUV, his clothes, his money, his drugs and himself...is such and asshole...but does he deserve to be eaten by a bear?

#BH

>76 mahsdad: - Beautiful!

Thanks Shelley!

New Book

Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica



The international sensation about a dystopian world in which humans are being processed for food and society is divided into predators and prey. "What a compelling, terrible beauty this novel is. My heart was breaking even as my skin was crawling." - Lisa McInerney, author of The Glorious Heresies

Carcass. Cut in half. Stunner. Slaughter line. Spray wash. These words appear in his head and strike him. Destroy him. But they're not just words. They're the blood, the dense smell, the automation, the absence of thought. They burst in on the night, catch him off guard.

#newbook

>76 mahsdad: That is a fantastic photo, Jeff!

Thanks Darryl, I appreciate it!

I just finished the 7th book in the Thursday Next series, Jeff. I simply forgot it, after reading the 6th book a couple of years ago. One sentence, all by itself on the page opposite the acknowledgements, asserted that "Thursday Next Returns in TN8: Dark Reading Matter." The acknowledgement was dated 2012, so I'm glad—11 years later—I wasn't holding my breath.

Wow, that’s a great sunset!

Love the sunset photo!! And glad you had fun on the other coast with family. Can't wait to hear what you think of Help! A Bear is Eating Me. : )

>57 mahsdad: WOW! What a photo!

>83 weird_O: Hey Bill. Fforde is very adept at mis-leading his readers in the best possible way. While its too bad he ended the TN series, there are plenty of other odd books in his arsenal to peruse. Rumor has it that he's doing another Nursery Crimes book and a sequel to Shades of Grey but I won't hold my breath on these either. :)

>84 drneutron: >85 Berly: >86 Whisper1: Thanks for the photo love. I appreciate it.

>85 Berly: Certainly Kim. Its a short one, so it will make a good palette cleanser between books, that I'm sure I'll get to shortly.

Fantastic Photo Friday

Hey folks, glad to make it to Friday, getting back to work after a week+ off was tough. Looking forward to the weekend. We are actually going to be ambitious and venture out tomorrow to an Art show in Venice and a Craft show in Santa Monica. Yeah us.

Here's another sunset shot from Florida, enjoy. Have a great weekend!



Book Update
>2 mahsdad: Q2 Books
>3 mahsdad: Q1 Books
>4 mahsdad: Audiobooks

Reading - Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica. 64%. Seriously trippy book. Quick read, pretty good so far.
Reading - Broken (in the best possible way) by Jenny Lawson 29%
Listening - Heart of the Comet by David Brin 17%
eBook - Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson 52%
Graphic Novel - It's Lonely at the Centre of the Earth by Zoe Thorogood. 53%

Finished Books

32. Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid (A) : This hold came in just as I was finishing Eyre Affair. Not my usual fare, but it was pretty good. I had seen it in book stores for years and was always interested, but now that there's a Prime series about it, that made me actively pick it up. Its sort of an epistolary story about a "famous" rock band in the 70's, that zoomed up the charts and burned out quickly. Narrated by a bunch of people as they dictate their versions of the story to a nameless reporter writing a retrospective. Very MTV's Behind the Music. Some of the narrators that I recognized are : Jennifer Beals, Benjamin Bratt, Judy Greer, and many others.

31. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde (A) : A classic, in my opinion. Thursday Next is a member of the Literary Crimes division and has to track down a super villian who's kidnapped Jane Eyre out of her book. Love Fforde's stuff

#ff

>88 mahsdad: Oh wow!

You have a great eye, Jeff. Fabulous photo!

>88 mahsdad: Wonderful photo!

And you got me with a book bullet and a TV show bullet for Daisy Jones and the Six. I’ve been meaning to take a look at the show, but I think I’ll start with the book. Thanks!

Karen O

Okay, I swear I posted this at least twice. Oh well.

>89 quondame: >90 jessibud2: >91 klobrien2: Thanks for the photo love

Karen - glad to provide the BB incentive!

2023 Books of the Month

January : Billy Summers by Stephen King
February : Gunfight: My Battle Against the Industry that Radicalized America by Ryan Busse
March : Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
April : The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil by George Saunders





#botm

April Recap

Books Read - 8 (34)

Overall sources
DTE - 26%
Audio - 35%
Digital - 38%

Useless data point, I've finished 31% of my books on Sunday, and I finally finished a book on Friday so all days are represented..

Unique Authors - 27
Lady Authors - 10
Authors of Color - 1

>88 mahsdad: if only Flahdah wasn't run by idiots and scum. Oh, and had a decent climate. Oh, and smelled better.

If only Flahdah was New York in other words.

Pretty pic, though. Happy May reading.

>95 richardderus: Hey buddy. You are too right about Flahdah (I like that, but maybe FlahDuh is better. LOL). Mum's leaving to head back North this weekend, just when the climate is getting unbearable. Just in time for summer in Pittsburgh, maybe not so great a trade-off. I'll stay out here with the fruits and nuts.

New Book

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carre



The man he knew as "Control" is dead, and the young Turks who forced him out now run the Circus. But George Smiley isn't quite ready for retirement, especially when a pretty, would-be defector surfaces with a shocking accusation: a Soviet mole has penetrated the highest level of British Intelligence. Relying only on his wits and a small, loyal cadre, Smiley traces the breach back to Karla, his Moscow Centre nemesis, and sets a trap to catch the traitor. The first novel in John le Carre's celebrated Karla trilogy, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is a heart-stopping tale of international intrigue.

The truth is, if old Major Dover hadn't dropped dead at Taunton races Jim would never have come to Thursgood's at all. He came in mid-term without an interview, late May, it was, though no one would have thought it from the weather, employed through one of the shiftier agencies specialising in supply teachers for prep schools, to hold down old Dover's teaching till someone suitable could be found.

#newbook

Book Haul

37. New Kid by Jerry Craft. This is a Newbery Award winning graphic novel about life as a new kid in middle school. We saw the author interviewed on the Daily Show and it was a snap buy to support him. After a a detour to Alabama, when I mistakeningly sent it to Benita (thanks Benita for sending it over), its on the shelf.

#bh

>88 mahsdad: love it. Silhouette shots can be so tricky.

Thanks Fuzzi! It was a case of just keep shooting and see what sticks.

>98 mahsdad:
Glad to see that you got the book. And!!! it was a day ahead of scheduled delivery. Way to go USPS!

Fantastic Photo Friday

Hey Folks, congratulations for making it another 2% in our journey around the sun. Not too much on the agenda for the weekend. Might have to make one last trip to Bed, Bath and Beyond, to see what dregs are left before they close. Last weekend we went to an art gallery to see one of our favorite artists. Laura loves him so much that she would love to actually buy a piece, but considering the small ones run to the mid-5 figures, that's pretty much out of the cards. So we did buy the exhibit book and a signed print.

Here's a close up from one of them. (I'll post the full image next)



Book Update
>2 mahsdad: Q2 Books
>3 mahsdad: Q1 Books
>4 mahsdad: Audiobooks

Reading - Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carre 27%. Had this on the shelf for a long time, this was a random pick from my TBR
Reading - Broken (in the best possible way) by Jenny Lawson 29%
Listening - Heart of the Comet by David Brin 66%
eBook - Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson 62%

Finished Books

34. It's Lonely at the Centre of the Earth (GN) by Zoe Thorogood : . Read this, because I saw it on Mark's currently reading list and thought it looked interesting. An autobiographical story of the artist/author's struggle with depression as she's on a deadline to write her new book. A good read, very interesting mix of drawing styles.

33. Tender is the Flesh by Augustina Bazterrica : . Boy, this one ain't for the faint of heart. The "macguffin" is a bit of a stretch, in my opinion... Its a world where a virus infects all animals, except humans, that causes humans not to be able to eat animals, so humans resort to eating humans. The story follows a man who works at a processing plant and has to come to grips with the morality of his world. It struck me as a cross between Sinclair Lewis's The Jungle and Harry Harrison's Make Room! Make Room! (or as you might more know it, the movie Soylent Green). Its a short book, a really good read, but an intense one.

#ff

Forgot to say that the artist is Gaiin Fujita.

Here's the full piece that the above comes from



And, a couple years ago, he was commissioned to make a limited edition library card for the LA Public Library, here's that image



ETA - fixed his name, its Gajin, not Gaijin

Soylent Green making a lot more sense with so many states refusing Assisted Euthanasia.

really like the art and the artist. Thanks.

>101 benitastrnad: Thanks Benita! USPS for the win. Completely different than my recent UPS experience when I was due to get a package, saw that it was out for delivery, actually could see on the website that the truck was in the neighborhood, and then I get a message that delivery was attempted, customer was not at home. Complete lie, I was home all day, no one rang the doorbell (it needed a signature). I figure the driver just wanted to go home early and said that it was a missed delivery so he could be done. Called it complain, and got it a couple hours later, they said it was "on the wrong truck" Yeah, right.

>104 m.belljackson: That was pretty much the idea in the book, that and no more jails, get convicted, go right to the processing plant. ::Shiver::

>102 mahsdad: Tender is the Flesh sounds delicious.

How are you getting on with Broken? I listened to it and thought it was amazing. One of my bests so far this year.

Soylent Green was one of those films that have become prophetic in hindsight. Another is Silent Running, which I was thinking of the other day after reading something about the increasing loss of forests. I remember crying over that one, old tree hugger that I am.

>102 mahsdad: I also enjoyed Tender Is the Flesh, but it's a lot. I am not much affected by a lot of what I read, but she got me a few times, definitely.

Love the art, thanks for introducing me to Fujita - I was assuming his first name was self-given (gaijin means "foreigner"), but I see that it's Gajin without the first i, and now I'm not sure anymore.

>107 Storeetllr: Tender is a worthwhile read, just plenty of trigger warnings.

Broken is great, I lover her stuff. I'm making slow progress, just because its on my nightstand to pick up like a "nightly devotional" when I wanted a change of pace from the current book. I haven't read past what I have listed for a couple weeks, I need to get back to it. A goal of mine, if I ever make it to San Antonio, I want to go to her bookstore.

Its been a long time since I watched Soylent Green, read the book back in 2014. I don't think I've ever seen Silent Running. Just watched the trailer on YT. Very trippy.

>103 mahsdad: How gorgeous! The card especially pleases me.

The Bazterrica and I were incompatible. Twenty-one pages and out. I took it back to the Little Free Library. The conceit was too on-the-nose as a critique of capitalism for me to do more than roll my eyes. Until I saw my brain, actually. Subtle it weren't.

>108 ursula: Hi Urula. Me too, I'm not too affected by reading, I'll read just about anything content-wise. But like you said, she got me a few times, too.

Thanks for setting me straight on Gajin's name. My brain was always adding in the extra "i", because to me that was the word I was expecting to see. I was even looking right at his name just now and didn't really register that I had it wrong. Glad to spread the awareness of his stuff.

>110 richardderus: Hey RD. thanks for stopping by.

I can certainly understand. I agree about the conceit, it was a little heavy handed. But I guess I was just able to let it go and keep reading. No harm, no foul either way. Life's too short to keep reading books you aren't connecting with.

>106 mahsdad: Yikes - I forgot about the Jail thing - too many Good Ones would disappear along with the Proud Boys...

>113 m.belljackson: I know, right! ;)

>112 mahsdad: ... especially after a stroke or three.

>115 richardderus: You ain't whistlin' Dixie there, my friend

>103 mahsdad: I do love the Gaijin Fujita art - surely his parents did not name him Gaijin! That's my library card! Well one of them.

>117 quondame: No they didn't name him Gaijin. As Ursula pointed out, its actually Gajin (without the extra "I"), I had been mis-spelling it. Got to go fix my post.

I was going to go get the P-22 card, but I think you had to cancel your account and get a new one with a new number to get the special cards. That's what I had to do for this one, so I didn't bother. Its not like I use it much, I've read 12 audiobooks so far this year, all from LAPL, and haven't been in a branch once.

>106 mahsdad: I had a similar experience. Fed Ex said the item was out for delivery, then it was marked "delivered". I was working from home, had the blinds open and could see the street from where I was sitting. No Fed Ex truck every drove by or stopped. Fortunately it was an item from eBay, and after I complained I got my money back.

>119 fuzzi: At least Fed-ex drivers are better than Amazon drivers. They'll block an entire freeway to make their delivery down the street. LOL.

What's everyone's thoughts on the Pulitzer this year? Or should I say PulitzerS.

Both...

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
Trust by Hernan Diaz

I've heard great things about both, and I want to read them. I wonder how/why they decided on two winners. When in past hears (2012 was the latest) where they don't pick any winners.

I’ve had good luck with online purchasing until recently. Last November, I bought something through an ad on Instagram. It never arrived, but I forgot about it until late December. The company said they shipped it and I had to contact the shipper, which was USPS. They said they never got the package and I should get a refund. Haha. Not happening from the Chinese company and I haven’t even tried my credit card company. It wasn’t that expensive, so I’m counting it as a lesson to never buy from an unknown Chinese company again. Only other problem was also recent. Got a great deal from Amazon on a paint brush I’ve been wanting for a long time. It didn’t arrive with the other stuff in the package. I contacted Amazon and they refunded immediately, but I’d rather have had the brush. Now it’s not available at any price.

Glad to be able to shop (relatively) safely in stores again.

Hi Mary, several years ago, my kid experienced the same thing. She saw an add on IG for some sweatshirts. Never got them, I tried getting email confirmations and they kept saying it was on the way. Never came. I filed a dispute with Amex and after a couple months, got the money. Then a couple months later, the items showed up. Whoops. They never came after me for the money. I think some of those Chinese companies are so "fly by night" with their ordering systems, they're just counting on volume to get them by, if they don't ship it, oh well, how are you going to fight it, if they get a chargeback from the CC, oh well, there's 10 more orders right behind it.

I'd check with your CC, see if you can still file a complaint and get a chargeback? Worst that can happen is they say "No"

>122 Storeetllr: I've been stung by Chinese companies, one in particular that double-charged my credit card. Fortunately the card was with my credit union, who credited my account and went after the company themselves. It was suggested by the person I spoke with that I not order from unknown retailers from China due to numerous problems they've seen.

I mainly use eBay now because they will credit you quickly in a dispute. Amazon is good, but Marketplace is not, have had lots of issues with them.

Hey, Jeff. I hope you can bookhorn in both Demon Copperhead & Trust. Any other GN recs? Once I finish I'm Still Alive, I will be out of ideas.

Not sure if I can recommend any GNs that you haven't already read, I get most of my recommendations from you. LOL. In fact I'll have to look for I'm Still Alive.

But so far this year I've read...

Gaiman's Sandman series (at least finished it up)
M is for Monster
Twilight Man
American Cult
It's Lonely at the Centre of the Earth

Last year it was
Parenthesis
Slaughterhouse Five

I'm sure you've read all of these, but if you haven't all are worth the time

Fantastic Photo Friday

Howdy Folks, we've made it another week, and I'm glad. Not too much on the agenda. Its Mother's Day weekend, which means we're going to do whatever Laura wants to do, up to and including leaving her alone and not making her do a bloody thing. LOL. Here's to you, all you Mother's out there. We wouldn't be here without ya!

Today's image is of some ice-plant flowers I took on one of my lunch-time walks this week. Enjoy!



Book Update
>2 mahsdad: Q2 Books
>3 mahsdad: Q1 Books
>4 mahsdad: Audiobooks

Reading - Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carre 57%
Reading - Broken (in the best possible way) by Jenny Lawson 33%
Listening - Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde. 25%. Book 2 of the Thursday Next series
eBook - Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson 66%

Finished Books

35. The Heart of the Comet by David Brin/Gregory Benford : . (AUDIO) A pretty decent 80's sci-fi book. A colony of people have landed on Halley's Comet with the intent of basically strapping engines to it and redirecting it to a parking orbit near earth where it can be harvested. What could possibly go wrong? Brin and Benford explore ideas of close system societies and how they might diverge, alien lifeforms, generation ship dynamics (sleep pods to allow shifts of workers over many decades), cloning, and the idea of AI and digital consciousness. The story is told from the perspective of 3 different people and the audio had a different narrator for each person, an effective technic.

#ff

>127 mahsdad: Ice plant flowers are gorgeous aren't they? Have a lovely Mother's Day celebration.

I think I read THE HEART OF THE COMET in the 80s but it's blended into the whole mass of stuff from the era. Brin always delivered on his plot promises, IIRC, but I don't remember specific details... thank goodness for reviewing. I retain so much more.

>128 richardderus: Thanks RD!

I'm surprised I hadn't read COMET back in the day. Before my mind was expanded by this group, I pretty much only read sci-fi and I'm sure I've read most of Brin's stuff over the years, at least up thru the Aughts.

I'm not a very good reviewer, but I should do that more, because you're right, writing down your thoughts, does tend to cement things in the noggin'

Have a Great Weekend!

Happy Friday, Jeff. Ooh, I like the ice-plant photo. Thanks for the GN rundown and the link you shared. I immediately requested Einstein, which I had been meaning to read. Have you read this author? If not, he is one of the best at GN bios.

>130 msf59: Hey Mark, sorry I didn't reply sooner, never seemed to be in a place (aka not on my computer) to respond.

As far as the GN list goes, I've been wanting to read Gender Queer for a while, it seems to be on all the top banned lists, and that's always a reason to read it. (and as a Dad - adjacent to the "alphabet mafia", it seems to be required reading). I also want to read Feynman and Einstein for Beginners, plus a whole bunch more.

Fantastic Photo Friday

Happy Friday everyone. Nothing much to report. I've been flying solo for a couple days, while Laura went out to Palm Springs to help her Mom, she should be back this evening. The kid and I went to Guardians of the Galaxy 3 last night. It was a fun watch. But I'm very easy when it comes to movies, I'll watch just about anything. The last thing I can remember absolutely despising, was Mel Brooks' "Dracula: Dead and Loving It". We went to see it in Westwood when it came out (MANY years ago) and I'm pretty sure we walked out. It was that or "The American President" (Rob Reiner, Aaron Sorkin), I think we chose poorly. LOL.

Anyway, Today's image is from a walk at a local "urban" marsh we went to last weekend.



Book Update
>2 mahsdad: Q2 Books
>3 mahsdad: Q1 Books
>4 mahsdad: Audiobooks

Reading - Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carre 83%
Reading - Broken (in the best possible way) by Jenny Lawson 33%
Listening - Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde. 83%. Book 2 of the Thursday Next series
eBook - Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson 75%
Short Story - Persephone by Lev Grossman 49%. It's an Amazon Prime Original Story, in the Into Shadow series. I've read a few of these stories in the various series that they put out. I think I saw an AD, or someone posted about it on FB. Its a quick read. I only started it on Wednesday.

Finished Books

Didn't finish anything this week. May's going to be a short month, book count-wise. Though, I'm pretty sure I'll get 3 done by the end of the weekend.

#ff

>132 mahsdad: pretty blossom indeed. "Urban marsh" hits my ear oddly. I'm so old that I remember the only time we heard the word marsh was when it was the subject of the verb "to drain".

Hoping you are enjoying Micaiah Johnson's book.

>133 richardderus: thanks RD. Its a Vernal freshwater marsh, which means it has no built-in water source. So the verb; "To Drain" is pretty accurate. Its basically feed by rain and drainage. By August its completely dry, until the "winter". It was original an area that was used in oil production and so was never commercially developed, its bordered by pretty major streets and right next door to a car wash and a Target. We were using the Merlin app (can identify bird sounds) as we walked around, and on the corner with the car-wash, that's about all we could hear. LOL.

I am enjoying the Johnson book, quite a bit, its a very interesting multi-verse premise. its taken me a long time, as I'm usually just reading DTE books around the house. I only take the Kindle when we go out to restaurants and such. I think, however, after I finish Tinker, Tailor..., I'll have to just knock it out and finish it.

New Book - AUDIO

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabriella Zevin



From the best-selling author of The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry: On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn’t heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom.

These friends, intimates since childhood, borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won’t protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts.

Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love.

Before Mazer invented himself as Mazer, he was Samson Mazer, and before he was Samson Mazer, he was Samson Masur - a change of two letters that transformed him from a nice, ostensibly Jewish boy to a Professional Builder of Worlds - and for most of his youth, he was Sam, S.A.M. on the hall of fame on his grandfather's Donkey King machine, but mainly Sam.

On a late December afternoon, in the waning twentieth century, Sam exited a subway car and found the artery to the escalator clogged by an inert mass of people, who were gaping at a station advertisement. Sam was late.

#newbook

New Book

Help! A Bear is Eating Me by Mykle Hansen



MARV PUSHKIN: is pinned under his SUV somewhere in Alaska ... hates Alaska, nature, people and especially his wife ... loves his SUV, his clothes, his money, his drugs and himself ... is such an asshole ... But does he deserve to be eaten by a bear?

You think you have problems? I'm being eaten by a bear! Oh, but I'm sorry, forgive me, let's hear about your problems. Mmm-hmm? So, your boss is mean to you? Is your car not running well?
Perhaps you're concerned about the environment. Boo, hoo! Your environment just ate my foot!
I'm bleeding on your environment!

#newbook

>136 mahsdad: *snort* poor ol' Bruin gonna get Montezuma's Revenge from that there salty dog.

Oh yeah, so far he's an arrogant prick. It will be interesting to see if there is any saving resolution for this guy. its very surreal so far.

>138 mahsdad: Leo Tolstoy was described in nearly the same arrogant way, so maybe there's hope for your character?

>139 m.belljackson: Maybe there is. I've read at least a few stories where a character was completely unredeemed, but the story was still a good one. Gone Girl comes to mind. Absolutely hated the main characters, in the end. But really enjoyed the experience of reading the book.

Fantastic Photo Friday

Yea, its that time of the week! its been a hectic one, as my work-wife/partner on the support desk where I work was off, plus a bunch of other people, so the tickets came fast and furious. Oh well, that's why they pay me the slightly above average bucks.

Here's a nice flower in a slightly odd placement for you. If you're in the states, enjoy you're extra day off, unless you work in a mattress store, sorry for the extra work. Happy Memorial Day.



Book Update
>2 mahsdad: Q2 Books
>3 mahsdad: Q1 Books
>4 mahsdad: Audiobooks

Reading - Help! A Bear is Eating Me by Mykle Hansen 75%
Reading - Broken (in the best possible way) by Jenny Lawson 37%
Listening - Tomorrow Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin 46%.
eBook - Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson 88% I might actually finish this soon. Only been reading it for 81 days. :)

Finished Books

38. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carre : Classic Cold War spy novel. There's a mole in British intelligence and outsider Smiley and his band of "misfits" have to figure out who. I've wanted to read le Carre for years, never did until now. Very cerebral. James Bond it ain't. A very good read, I'm glad I read it, but he might not be my cup of tea. I'll probaby not continue on with the trilogy.

37. Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde : This series, I will continue. I love Thursday Next (and all things Fforde). This is book 2 and its a reread for me. Thursday is fighting another villain out in the real world, and gets recruited into Jurisfiction, the police department in the Book world.

36. Persephone by Lev Grossman : This is a short story in the "Into Shadow" series on Amazon. A coming of age story with a superhero/x-men bent.

#ff

Lovely flower, and in a good place I'd say.

I just liked the way it landed upside down on the sidewalk. Compositionally perfectly on the crack (IMHO)

>141 mahsdad: Wow, that color is stunning!

I've read and enjoyed Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Lost in a Good Book (how could I not).

Thanks Susan.

With Fforde, I love all his cheesy puns, and I'm sure I'm not getting all of them. I love his characters names. Thursday Next aside. With this book I noticed Harris Tweed, Cannon and Fodder (two agents who end up dead, we assume), Braxton Hicks, Jack Schitt, and his half brother Brik Schitt-Hawse, to name but a few

>141 mahsdad: the flower looks great in that composition. The color is intense and makes the foregrounding of the geometric shape of the blossom effective as a Statement.

Are you enjoying the Zevin read still?

Happy weekend ahead's reads, Jeff.

>146 richardderus: Hey RD. Thanks for the photo comments. I am crap at actually being able to describe art (or be critical with books), like folks like you. I can't necessarily describe WHY I did something other than, I keep turning and shifting until something clicks.

As far as the Zevin goes, I am definitely enjoying it. For the most part, my Kindle is my going out of the house book. When we go to a restaurant (we've been together for 30+ years, we are very comfortable in our own silences), or pretty much anywhere I'm going to have downtime. so I'm not reading it every day. Its the only reason it going to mess up my stats when I'm doine. Ha!.

My piles of DTE's sometimes make me feel guilty about reading pixels when I'm at home. Though I am getting to the point in the book where I think I'm just going to have to power thru to the end. I might just do that after I finish Help!, which will probably be tonight or tomorrow.

Have a great weekend, too!

The starter words were working well today. 😁

Wordle 707 3/6

🟩🟩⬛⬛⬛
🟨🟨🟨⬛⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

>147 mahsdad: I don't think you're crap at expressing your opinions, Jeff, I think you're not very interested in analysis of arts topics. I guess it's the nature of your tech life and it's intense focus on analysis...why turn your pleasure activity into work-lite?

You're probably right, thanks!

Book Haul

The new local independent book shop in town is now open ... Sunken City Books.

That means Laura and I had to go support a new local business.

For Laura...
38. Shadows and Light by Anne Bishop
39. The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver

for Me...

40. The Nix by Nathan Hill
41. Ordinary People by Judith Guest
42. But What of Earth? by Pies Anthony

And since my 16th Thingaversary just passed, I think we'll count these 5, plus the previous 12 as my spread out Cranswickian Haul! :)

ETA - I just got a book in the mail from CityBooksPittsburgh

43. Kaufmann's: The Family That Built Pittsburgh's Famed Department Store - I couldn't resist when I saw them post the book on Instagram

#bh

>151 mahsdad: Pretty darn near Cranswickian, indeed. Lovely haul, Jeff!

😊📕📖📗📘📙📚😎

New Book

The Wishing Pool and other stories by Tananarive Due



I got this as an ARC from LT's Early Review program. But its a special ARC, or not really an ARC, its a complete first edition hardback with dust jacket and everything. The only thing they did was put a big X thru the ISBN number on the back so you couldn't scan it.

American Book Award-winning author Tananarive /Due's second collection of stories includes offerings of horror, science fiction, and suspense - all genres she wields masterfully. From the mysterious, magical town of Gracetown to the aftermath of a pandemic to the reaches of the far future, Due's stories all share a sense of dread and fear balanced with heart and hope.

Joy nearly got lost on the root-knotted red dirt path off Highway 99, losing sight of the gaps between the live oaks and Spanish moss that fanned across her hood and windows like fingertips. Driving back to her family's cabin twenty years later reminded her that the woods had rarely been restful for her.

#newbook

New Book

Gauntlet The Phoenix Cycle: Book One by John G. Doyle



John is a self published author that I found on Tik-Tok, and he went sort of viral and got into the best-selling charts on Amazon, and I succumbed to "peer" pressure and bought the first book when it was on sale.

Time travel, the power sought after and craved by everyone and held by none. Until now. Not only is time travel very real to Jericho, he’s used it in the usual ways one would expect—getting rich, predicting world-changing events and, more importantly, traveling to whenever he chooses just for kicks. But just when he thinks his secret is safe, he discovers two other time travelers. One politely wants him to stop while he’s ahead. The other wants to end time as we know it and bring the planet to the brink of destruction. So, no pressure.

I might be dead in a few hours. Please, I don't need your pity, sympathy or any other means of giving me the pick me up gig because, honestly, I think I'm way past the dealing with death issue. My only regret is that, if I do happen to die soon, it won't be from natural causes, I can assure you. Which bits, really, because I bet a tired old doctor would've just loved to have had a patient that was almost ok with dying.

#newbook

>151 mahsdad: Positively Jeffian that haul I would say!

Have a great long weekend, buddy.

Hey Paul, Ha! I'll take it.

Thanks for stopping by!

Like I, or we, need another list of books to read, I'm starting on a new project.

the LA Times Op-Ed page today (Sunday) had an article about a very interesting mapping project that a woman named Susan Straight did over the pandemic. She created a lists of 1,001 novels about American life and mapped them to their regional places.

Here you can see the interactive map of where they all take place in 11 different regional zones.

https://storymaps.arcgis.com/collections/997b82273a12417798362d431897e1dc

But as we here are all about lists and keeping track of what we've read, this mapping doesn't do anything for me, other than look pretty.

So I'm building a Google Sheet that will have all of the books listed and which region they are in. I just got started, so when I get it built I'll share it, so you all can share my pain of yet more books to add to the WL.

:)

>158 mahsdad: What a cool project!

>158 mahsdad: That is fantastic, Jeff - what a splendid resource!

I am going to have hours of fun looking for those on the list / map that I don't yet have.

>158 mahsdad: Hmm, interesting. I'm actively trying to read less American authors but I'll definitely check out some of the California books.

>160 PaulCranswick: I know, me too.

>161 ursula: Hi Ursula. I'm not sure how many are American authors (tho I'd hazard a guess that its a majority), it was the idea of novels set in specific places across America

Okay, if you have access to Google Sheets, here's the link to the Library of America 1001 books

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XYjmsBpf97BS7YYwXZtr-HB3NUzHesyrYpN58q4b...

Feel free to make a copy of it and update your progress. The progress tab will automatically count every time you put an "X" in the Read column.

I'm at 4%, so a LONG way to go, not that I'll ever finish this or any other of the lists I'm keeping track of. :)

Haven't quite figured out how or where I'll update this in LT, but at least its here.

Oy! I take it that it's one to a customer, meaning that no author appears on the list more than once. A pity. I made by copy of your sheet, Jeff, and I have to say we've read many of the same books. I've read quite a number of the authors, but not the selected titles. Sort fun; comes in a time of a lot of weird distractions.

>163 mahsdad: Thanks, I've downloaded it.

It lists House of Leaves in region 2. I just started this with no expectation that I will ever finish it, but so far it has taken place in Los Angeles. Of course it it a found manuscript book where the manuscript at least starts off being about a movie that is imaginary even in the outer context of the book and that movie may feature region 2.

>165 quondame: Well, I can't account for the veracity of the geographical location of these books. Goodness knows how she was able to compile such a list. :)

>163 mahsdad: I have saved a copy of it and checked:

Of the 1000 books listed I have read 59
Of the 1000 books listed I own a further 116.

Hi, Jeff. I hope you had a good holiday weekend. I really want to get to Tomorrow, Tomorrow, Tomorrow. It keeps getting nudged aside. I am really enjoying both my memoirs, especially When the World Didn't End: A Memoir, which is about growing up in a cult. Do you remember if The Lyman Family was mentioned in that cult GN that we read? I do not.

Are you still up for doing a shared read of The Line of Duty in June? I have my copy pulled and plan on starting it, early in the month. It is a Big Boy.

>162 mahsdad: I got the concept. :) I just assumed the authors would mostly be American as well.

Edited to add: Looks like I've read 77 of the books listed.

>163 mahsdad: To my surprise, I've read 75 of these books. I didn't count the ones that were made into movies that I've seen (lots of movies I haven't seen, of course). Some of the choices I thought odd - titles that are not the best known of the author, for instance. Or the complete omission of Norman Mailer. And many of the authors are completely unknown to me.

Thanks for passing on the list. I have some of these on my shelves, physical and digital, already, and will check them off as I go.

>167 PaulCranswick: Plenty of areas to branch out into, when ever you can't find anything else to read in your current library. :)

>168 msf59: Hey Mark. Tomorrow, Tomorrow, Tomorrow is pretty good, a little on the YA romance side, but not too much. I guess I was expecting more Ready Player One from a technology side, and while there is a big game component, it isn't sci-fi. Its a drama set against the lives of characters who write video games for a living. Its a good audio read.

I don't remember the Lyman family either. I just borrowed the GN again and couldn't find it. Guess there are too many cults to be complete in a comic book.

Its The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst, right? Not The Line of Duty? I do plan on reading it. I probably should have started it instead of The Wishing Pool because its a chunkster, but I will start it this weekend, and I'm sure you'll catch up. :)

>170 ffortsa: Yeah, I guess its one woman's choice on what goes where. You're right about Mailer. Also, mentioning him, made me think of Truman Capote. I always get The Executioner's Song mixed up with In Cold Blood, or at least think of them together. She picked Breakfast at Tiffany's, iconic yes, but I would think ICB more so.

Maybe another project I'll have to do, is start tracking the primary geography of the books I read and start my own map. Like I've got nothing better to do. :)

Glad you are still up for reading The Line of Beauty and no not The Line of Duty. LOL. I probably won't start it until next week.

>171 mahsdad: Hm. I thought LT provided some of those widgets for us. Maybe only at the country level.

eta: If you go to charts and graphs: common knowledge: places you get lists based on where your entries take place - for instance, Ironweed is listed under Albany, N.Y. I don't know how easy this info is to export to spreadsheets or maps, but some of it is already here.

>172 msf59: 👍

>173 ffortsa:, I totally forgot about the Charts and stuff.

It kinda does, but it looks like its a "Place" that's mentioned in the book. When I did against my Hugo's read collection, it had

Arrakis - Due
Battle School - Ender's Game
Earth - Ender's Game

etc... I guess it depends on what's mentioned in the book itself, or that someone put in Common Knowledge.

Too much data, too little time. :)

>163 mahsdad:
I have read 43 of these titles.
I suspect the reason why you haven't read very many is that many many of them are either Children's or Young Adult novels. They wouldn't be the first kinds of titles that an adult would look at for reading material.

>175 benitastrnad: Interesting. Thanks for the insight Benita. I hadn't really looked that closely at the titles themselves yet, other than to flag the ones I had read.

Little Free Library

44. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. Found in one of my neighborhood Little Free Libraries. Couldn't pass it up

#bh

>177 mahsdad: I'm closing in on the end of Project Hail Mary. It's a bit gimmicky, but a decent SF read.

Loved The Martian, liked Artemis, maybe this will be in the middle. (When I eventually get to it).

>179 mahsdad: It's more solid than Artemis, but I felt he didn't quite grok the trope he used for that.

2023 Books of the Month

January : Billy Summers by Stephen King
February : Gunfight: My Battle Against the Industry that Radicalized America by Ryan Busse
March : Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
April : The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil by George Saunders
May : Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde





#botm

May Recap

May was a slower month, longer books tend to do that. June will probably be the same with Line of Beauty in the on-deck circle. But its not a numbers game, right?

Books Read - 6 (41)

Overall sources
DTE - 28%
Audio - 35%
Digital - 38%

Useless data point, I've finished 30% of my books on Sunday, with Saturday coming in 2nd @ 25%

Unique Authors - 33
Lady Authors - 12
Authors of Color - 2

Fantastic Photo Friday

Happy Weekend! Even though it was a short week for me, it was still a long week. Here's a pretty flower



Book Update
>2 mahsdad: Q2 Books
>3 mahsdad: Q1 Books
>4 mahsdad: Audiobooks

Reading - The Wishing Pool and Other Stories by Tananarive Due 52%
Reading - Broken (in the best possible way) by Jenny Lawson 37%
Listening - Wool by Hugh Howey 9% Read this many years ago, never finished the trilogy. Was searching for a new audio and this came up due to the advertisements for the AppleTV show
eBook - Gauntlet by John G. Doyle 9%

Finished Books

41. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (A) : . This one has been all over Book-Tok as one of the "hip" books of the moment, so I succumbed. It didn't disappoint. Its a romanc-y/rom-com type of story about the lives of 2 geeky friends who meet under trying circumstances as kids, then again as young adults and start writing video games together. Professional jealousy between the two, plus a love/friend triangle going on with their business partner, dealing with success, drive the story. Before I read it, I had visions for some reason of Ready Player One, but I was wrong. Its just a nice personal drama with a bit of video game nerd content thrown in. Worth the time.

40. Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson : I really enjoyed this, despite it taking me forever to finish. A very interesting take on the multi-verse. People can travel to other versions of Earth, but only if their doppelganger is already dead. Its not pretty when they're not. Only a few can do it, and are tasked with keeping tabs on what the other worlds are doing. Corporate greed is looking to exploit the process, to mine the other worlds for resources to support the world where the have and have-nots is glaringly defined. A little dystopian, a bit of unrequited love subplot. A very enjoyable read.

Some quotes...

Nelline, I am commending you into the arms of the earth, the preserver of all mercy. I am returning you to everlasting peace, and to the denser reality of the creator of all. Don’t be scared. Don’t regret. Whatever time you had, it was enough. Whatever you accomplished, it was enough. We will remember your good deeds for the rest of our lives. We will forget your wrongdoings forever. Thank you, thank you, thank you, for spending your time in the dirt with us. (I'm not religious by any stretch, but this is a lovely "prayer" for a deceased loved one)

I'm sure he drinks in attention like cracked ground drinks rain

because our dead are only weights on our backs when we won’t let them walk beside us, when we try to pretend they are not ours or they are not dead.

39. Help! A Bear is Eating Me! by Mykle Hansen : A short, weird, surreal book, that was a fun read. Marv is a white arrogant, misogynistic, entitled asshole of a boss who takes his staff out to nature in Alaska and finds himself trapped under his Range Rover with a bear eating his feet. It gets weird from there. Never quite sure what's real and what's in his mind. Even though you'll hate this guy and what he's doing, it is a worthy read.

#ff

>183 mahsdad: - Wow! What the heck is that? I don't think I've ever seen a flower like that! Great shot.

Its a Torch Lilly or Common Red Hot Poker. They're native in Africa, but have been cultivated for garden plants.

... not that I knew that, thanks to Apple's plant identification feature in Photos, on the phone

>183 mahsdad: Beautiful red-hot poker photo!

Excellent readin too. I'll see you around...it's the Pride Month review push...

>2 mahsdad: I was given "Tender Is the Flesh" as a Valentine's Day gift from my partner and enthusiastically enjoyed it. I was not expecting that ending!

>186 richardderus: Hi RD, good luck cranking out the reviews. Good exercise for your hand. How is that going? Getting more control over the left side? Hope so!

>187 ocgreg34: Hey Greg, thanks for stopping by. Yep, that was such a trippy book. TBH, I kinda like what that says about your relationship that your partner got you that for V-Day. LOL!

>188 mahsdad: And I bought him a book called David Bowie Made Me Gay since he's a huge Bowie fan. 8-)

>181 mahsdad: Ooh! I've read 3 of your best from 2023 and I totally agree. Keep it going!

>189 ocgreg34: Even though I'm only LGBT adjacent, that looks like a fascinating read

>190 Berly: Hey Kim. There ain't nothing but to keep going. It feels good that I'm in good company with my opinions. Sometimes I think the things I like are nowhere near what anyone else likes. :) Thanks for stopping by!

New Book

The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst



I finished The Wishing Pool last night, so I'll be starting this today. Joining in with Mark, Benita and whomever else. Given the heft of it and my reading pace, it should prove to take pretty much the whole month to read. :)

From Alan Hollinghurst, the acclaimed author of The Sparsholt Affair, The Line of Beauty is a sweeping novel about class, sex, and money during four extraordinary years of change and tragedy.

In the summer of 1983, twenty-year-old Nick Guest moves into an attic room in the Notting Hill home of the Feddens: conservative Member of Parliament Gerald, his wealthy wife Rachel, and their two children, Toby-whom Nick had idolized at Oxford-and Catherine, who is highly critical of her family's assumptions and ambitions.

As the boom years of the eighties unfold, Nick, an innocent in the world of politics and money, finds his life altered by the rising fortunes of this glamorous family. His two vividly contrasting love affairs, one with a young black man who works as a clerk and one with a Lebanese millionaire, dramatize the dangers and rewards of his own private pursuit of beauty, a pursuit as compelling to Nick as the desire for power and riches among his friends. Richly textured, emotionally charged, disarmingly comic, this is a major work by one of our finest writers.

Peter Crowther's book on the election was already in the shops. It was called Landslide!, and the witty assistant at Dillon's had arranged the window in the scaled-down version of that natural disaster. The pale-gilt image of the triumphant Prime Minister rushed towards the customer in a gleaming slippage.

#newbook

Hey, Jeff. I read about 60 pages of The Line of Beauty today. Like many books that I start, it took a few pages to get in the rhythm of his narrative. By 20 pages I was locked in and I am pleasantly surprised how much I am enjoying it. His smart writing is excellent.

I requested Tomorrow, Tomorrow, Tomorrow from the library.

Hope you like T, T, T when you get to it.

My # of pages read per day have been increasing over the years, but I'm usually getting 20 pages a day, so I'll be playing catch up, but I'm glad to see that you caught on pretty quickly. Looking forward to it.

>192 mahsdad: >193 msf59: I hope you both enjoy Hollinghurst. He was one of my best finds in 2021, and I ended up reading three books by him in a few months time. The fourth book is still waiting at the shelf, maybe this year...

>195 FAMeulstee: Hi Anita. So far so good with Beauty. Mark said it took him about 20 pages to get connected and that's about what it was for me too. I'm about 50 pages and and liking it a bunch

Ah shoot. I was composing my FF post, accidentily clicked on a touchstone link instead of opening on a new tab and lost everything. I'm going to redo it, but I'm sure my second stab at wit will fall short. LOL. Might be a little later, as I have some work to do.

Fantastic Photo Friday

Okay, lets try this again. What was I saying? Oh yeah... Happy Weekend everyone! Laura's headed out to Palm Springs tomorrow to get her Mom. They're flying back East to Boston on Monday for her (Mom) to visit her sisters, probably for the last time (getting old sucks). So I'll be flying solo for the week. I'm not going to know what to do with myself.

Today's image comes from me driving across the new bridge in Long Beach. The old bridge was the Gerald Desmond Bridge, and during the construction they called this one, the New Gerald Desmond, or the New GD bridge. But when construction was finished, the city fathers, in their infinite wisdom, decided that they would call it, the Long Beach International Gateway. Nah, no character, it will still be the Gerald Desmond to me. Anyway, enjoy...



Book Update
>2 mahsdad: Q2 Books
>3 mahsdad: Q1 Books
>4 mahsdad: Audiobooks

Reading - Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst 10%
Reading - Broken (in the best possible way) by Jenny Lawson 37%
Listening - Wool by Hugh Howey 92%
eBook - Gauntlet by John G. Doyle 25%.
Graphic Novel - Einstein by Jim Ottaviani 42%

Finished Books

42. The Wishing Pool and Other Stories by Tananarive Due (ER) : - I got this from ER for an honest review. Its supposed to be an ARC, which generally isn't supposed to be a retail ready print. But this one totally is a hardback first edition. All they did was scratch out the barcode with a sharpie so you can't scan it at a store. At any rate, I'm quite glad that I got the chance to read these 14 short stories.

From the blurb on Amazon... In her first new book in seven years, Tananarive Due further cements her status as a leading innovator in Black horror and Afrofuturism.

Most of the stories, aren't quite hard horror, but very suspenseful and thrilling, many dealing with racism as the main driver of the horror. The title story is a classic, be careful what you wish for type of story. Suppertime, I think, is her take on an Eldritch or Lovecraftian horror story. The last sections of the book are a series of stories set in the same universe dealing with the dystopian aftermath of a pandemic, written so I understand BEFORE Covid. If you're into horrific, creepy stories, then I highly recommend this collection.

#ff

>198 mahsdad: Tananarive Due is the wife of a friend who also writes and I've been leery of reading her books because I avoid horror. But maybe....

>199 quondame: You know Stephen Barnes, cool. I haven't read too much of his stuff, but I'm pretty sure I read some of the stuff he wrote with Larry Niven, including the Dream Park stuff.

This collection wasn't too horrific, certainly not has horrific as Tender is the Flesh that I just read, but I can understand the hesitancy.

She also did a podcast a couple years ago, called The Company of the Mad, which was a limited series discussing Stephen King's The Stand

>200 mahsdad: Yes. Until Covid I'd see Steven Barnes at Larry Niven's parties, and back in the day at Conventions and other local get togethers. We've been arguing about the same thing for decades now, though mostly only on FB. He says all anger comes from fear, and I say that while fear often leads to anger, it isn't the only source. I think any irritation can lead to anger, but as a Black man in the US I figure he has different perspectives.

And you know Niven too. You are one hip chick. The latest I've read of his was Inferno and Escape from Hell, that he and Jerry wrote many years ago. Their take on Dante.

That's interesting about fear and anger. Where have I heard that before.... hmmm... oh yeah. Fear leads to Anger. Anger leads to Hate. Hate leads to Suffering. Fear is the path to the Dark Side. ;)

>202 mahsdad: I've read those. I've met and known a number of F&SF authors, but those are two who would know who I was were my name mentioned.

Yeah, I suppose that given our hobby/obsessions, we've all met at least a few authors/famous people. It a much smaller subset of those who the author/famous people have "met" you.

>198 mahsdad:
Somebody is making a slew of these cable-stayed bridges. There is one in St. Louis that carries I70 over the Mississippi and now there is one in Kansas City that carries traffic over the Missouri. Both bridges look alike and both of them look like this one.

Hey, Jeff. I hope you had a chance to read a chunk of The Line of Beauty over the weekend. I have just about 100 pages left. Yes, it is a long novel but it moves along well and of course the writing is stellar. Such a pleasant surprise.

>205 benitastrnad: Hey Benita. It must be a stylish trend. Or else maybe its a more sturdy design? They are certainly photographically interesting. :)

>206 msf59: Hey Mark, I'm not sure I'll be able to keep up with your pace, but I am making good progress for my speed of reading. I'm about 120 pages in. Its a pretty engaging story so far. Thanks for pointing me to it, I wouldn't have probably ever read this with out the nudge.

Book Haul

After taking Laura and her Mom to the airport this morning, I swung by the mall and went to BookOff. Its a Japanese based used book/cd/dvd/video game store that has a pretty decent fiction section, Including the $1 section. Where I got all of these.

45. Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson
46. News of the World by Paulette Jiles
47. The Feral Detective by Jonathan Lethem - First Edition (not that its really worth anything)
48. Sharks in the Times of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn - First Edition as well
49. The Desert Rose by Larry McMurtry

#bh

So I'm listening to The Well of Lost Plots, vol 3 of the Thursday Next books by Jasper Fforde. And I just came across a passage that made me remember how important a good narrator is and how tough their job can be at times.

In context, Thursday and company are in a book where a mispelling virus has been released and a fellow Jurisfiction agent has been fatally wounded and this is their last interaction in the hospital

"Is it safe to go up to him?" "Yes - but be prepared for some mispelings."

I sat by his bed while Havisham stood and spoke quietly with the doctor. Snell lay on his back and was breathing with small, shallow gasps, the pulse on his neck racing - it wouldn't be long before the vyrus took him away and he knew it. I leaned closer and held his hand through the sheeting. His complexion was pail, his breething labored, his skein covered in painful and unsightly green pastilles. As I wotched, his dry slips tried to foam worlds but all he could torque was ninsense.

"Thirsty!" he squeeked. "Wode - Cone, udder whirled - doughnut Trieste - !"

He grisped my arm with his fungers, made one last stringled cry before feeling bakwards, his life force deported from his pathotic mispeled boddy.

"He was a fine operative." sad Havisham as the doctor pulled a sheep over his head.

These books must be very fun to record.

>209 mahsdad: What a hoot! I read the first two Thursday Next books, need to get back to them! I bet they’re fun to listen to!

Karen O

>209 mahsdad:
I read all of the Thursday Next books and thought they were hilarious. Especially the ones about the ISBN 13's. I thought I was finding them funny because I was a librarian and the humor is so literature oriented. That appears to not be the case, as you are really liking them as well.

Jeff, You are an incredible photographer! You have a lot of talent. I like your colorful images. Thanks for taking the time to post these!!!

Ooh. I haven't read The Well of Lost Plots. Sounds hilarious.

>210 klobrien2: >211 benitastrnad: >213 ffortsa: I'm glad there's more Fforde aficionados around here. I love all of his stuff. I've read everything but his YA - Chronicles of Kazam series. I've only read The Last Dragonslayer with that series

>212 Whisper1: You are too kind Linda, I'm glad you like them.

>214 mahsdad: Another Fforde ffan here!

Yea! I'm almost done with The Well of Lost Plots, I'll probably go right to Something Rotten, assuming its available. These are all re-reads for me, but they are perfect on audio.

New Book - AUDIO

Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde



The fourth installment in Jasper Fforde’s New York Times bestselling series follows literary detective Thursday Next on another adventure in her alternate reality of literature-obsessed England—from the author of The Constant Rabbit

The popularity of Jasper Fforde’s one-of-a-kind series of genre-bending blend of crime fiction, fantasy, and top-drawer literary entertainment builds with each new book. Now in the fourth installment, the resourceful literary detective Thursday Next returns to Swindon from the BookWorld accompanied by her son Friday and none other than the dithering Hamlet. But returning to SpecOps is no snap—as outlaw fictioner Yorrick Kaine plots for absolute power, the return of Swindon’s patron saint foretells doom, and, if that isn’t bad enough, The Merry Wives of Windsor is becoming entangled with Hamlet. Can Thursday find a Shakespeare clone to stop this hostile takeover? Can she vanquish Kaine and prevent the world from plunging into war? And will she ever find reliable child care? Find out in this totally original, action-packed romp, sure to be another escapist thrill for Jasper Fforde’s legions of fans.

A Cretan Minotaur in Nebraska - The Minotaur had been causing trouble far in excess of his literary importance - first by escaping from the fantasy-genre prison book Sword of the Zenobians, then by leading us on a merry chase across most of fiction and thwarting all attempts to recapture him. The mythological half-man, half-bull son of Queen Pasiphae of Crete had been sighted within Riders of the Purple Sage only a month after his escape. We were still keen on taking him alive at this point, so we had darted him with a small dose of slapstick.

#newbook

Fantastic Photo Friday

Well my week of bachelorhood comes to an end tomorrow. Laura and her Mom are headed back from Boston tomorrow night. I took this Monday off so it was a short week, which is always nice. So nice, I think I'll do it again. Taking this Monday off as well. (Its the nice problem to have that I have too much PTO accumulated and have to take some off). Oh and to all you pater familias out there.... Happy Father's Day!

Here's a photo of a flower that I didn't realize had a bug in it, until just now. :)



Book Update
>2 mahsdad: Q2 Books
>3 mahsdad: Q1 Books
>4 mahsdad: Audiobooks

Reading - Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst 45%
Reading - Broken (in the best possible way) by Jenny Lawson 37%
Listening - Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde. 18% Book 4 of the Thursday Next series
eBook - Gauntlet by John G. Doyle 34%.
Graphic Novel - Einstein by Jim Ottaviani 77%

Finished Books
44. The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde (A) : (AUDIO), book 3 of the series. In this one, Thursday is becoming a full-on agent in Jursifiction, her mentor is Mrs. Havisham, she's pregnant, her husband has been eradicated when he was 2, she's living in an unread book, and helping deal with some corporate shenanigans with the impending release of BOOK version 9, the operating system that runs all books. To say nothing of the protests that the Nursery Rhyme characters are having in support of better working conditions. As usually a very fun, and funny read.

43. Wool by Hugh Howey (A) : (AUDIO) A closed door dystopian society mystery. Everyone lives in a vast silo. Been that way for as long as anyone can remember. The world outside is unlivable. If you go against the rules of the silo or speak ill of things, you are tasked with going outside to clean off the sensors. Its a death sentance. After a power struggle, the newly minted Sheriff, Juliette, is relived of her duties and sent to clean. She surives, walks away and finds another silo. They are not alone. Pretty decent read. Apparently, Howey self-published this as a series of novellas on Amazon Direct and it became a viral success.

#ff

>218 mahsdad: Lovely flower shot.

I seem to have neglected The Well of Lost Plots, but the library has an audio of it that I've snagged to exercise with.

Thanks for the flower love.

Well... on audio is pretty good. The narrator - Emily Gray, who's been on all so far but The Eyre Affair does a nice job. I like her.

>218 mahsdad: Wool didn't work for me. I felt like I'd read every bit of it - except the cleaning bit - somewhere before.

Happy Saturday, Jeff. Nice flower shot. I really enjoyed the Silo trilogy. We are also watching "Silo" on Apple- a series based on the books. It has been very good.

>221 quondame: >222 msf59: See that's the glory of books. A book that doesn't work for one, works just fine for another. Susan - I'll grant you that it is a bit formulaic, but it did work for me.

I've never read the other 2, but I think I will eventually. I picked up Wool for a re-read exactly because of the Apple series. We just signed back up for Apple to watch the new season of Lasso, I might have to watch this as well while I've got it.

thanks for stopping by!

Starter words for the win again

Wordle 728 4/6

🟩🟩⬛⬛⬛
⬛⬛🟩⬛⬛
⬛⬛🟨⬛⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Book Haul

Okay, a very little book haul. I went to see The Flash today. Not too bad, IMO, a fun cheesy comic book movie with lots of cameos. Anyway, next to the theater is a Good Will store. I went in, just to check out the books. Not too many of interest and only got one.

50. The Monk of Mokha by Dave Eggers

#bh

Ooof! Somehow I lost this thread. Got it starred now.

I am quite enjoying your photo Fridays

Have a great Sunday, Jeff.

Have a great Dad's Day, Jeff. I think I've cleared the cycle of family obligations (graduations, mostly). Been invited to lollygag by the swimming pool for Dad's Day, and so I shall. Might read a book.

>226 figsfromthistle: Hi Figs, thanks for finding me again. Glad you're liking my pictures

>227 PaulCranswick: Thanks Paul Hope you had a great weekend!

>228 weird_O: Thanks Bill. Nothing like a good lollygag to finish out the weekend!

Book Haul

I took the day off today and did a little one day late Father's Day outing (since we spent yesterday mostly in the car driving back and forth to Palm Springs to take the MIL home). We went up to Pasadena to the Huntington Library, Art Museum and Gardens. Walked around the gardens for a bit, saw some art and went into their library exhibit, where they have a whole collection of historical papers and books. Saw some rough draft pages from Octavia Butler and Hilary Mantel, as well as a Gutenberg Bible and a really old copy of Canterbury Tales (pictures soonish). We then found a little hole-in-the wall Thai restaurant that's right across the street from my favorite excuse to drive the hour to get to Pasadena... Vroman's Bookstore.

It was a light day, but we got

51. A Wild Swan and Other Tales by Michael Cunningham. NPR best book in 2015. A collection of fairy tales reimagined
52. Night Shift plus... by Eileen Gunn. A slim collection of stories and essays (I think) that I caught my eye in the SciFi section. Ursula Le Guin blurb said "Without Eileen Gunn, life as we know it would be so dull we wouldn't recognize it.
53. Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch by Rivka Galchen (Laura pick). Historical Fiction telling the story of Katharina Kepler, who was accused of being a witch.
54. Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames (Liz pick). Epic fantasy of some sort
55. The First Bright Thing by JR Dawson (Liz pick). Queer scifi/fantasy for fans of The Night Circus

#bh

Here's a couple of the pictures I took from the Library display at the Huntington

Kindred by Octavia Butler (whom I didn't realize was a Pasadena native)


Slow Days, Fast Company by Eve Babitz (whom I've never heard of)


Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel


Gutenberg Bible


Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (the entirely wrong way to spell Jeffrey :) )

Very cool pictures!

Karen O

Thanks Karen!

Fantastic Photo Friday

Another short week. Took this Monday off as well. Since we had to drive out to Palm Springs on Sunday (Father's Day), we took a little trip to the Huntington Library and Gardens on Monday (as you heard above). It was busy (Juneteenth is a holiday and schools out so lots of people around), but being outside, it wasn't too bad. I've got several decent shots from the grounds. I actually took my "big" camera out for a change. I'll probably be subjecting you to a few over the coming weeks.

Here's the first...



Book Update
>2 mahsdad: Q2 Books
>3 mahsdad: Q1 Books
>4 mahsdad: Audiobooks

Reading - Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst 75% Still got about 5 days left, hopefully I'll be able to up my page count average over the weekend. I'm currently at about 23 pages a day.
Reading - Broken (in the best possible way) by Jenny Lawson 37%
Listening - Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde. 92% should finish this up today.
eBook - Gauntlet by John G. Doyle 34%.
Graphic Novel - Imitation Game: Alan Turing Decoded by Jim Ottaviani 52%. After finishing Einstein, I enjoyed Ottaviani's style and looked for his other books. This one stood out more than the others, like Feynman. its pretty good.

Finished Books
45. Einstein by Jim Ottaviani (GN) : Got this from the library using Libby. I've read my last couple GNs using Libby, rather than Hoopla. Seems they have a larger catalog. At any rate, thanks to Mark for suggesting this. It was a pretty good read about the life of Einstein. He didn't sugar-coat the physics. I'd like to think I'm pretty good when it comes to science and math, but his stuff, once you get past "the Equation", is pretty daunting. I liked Ottaviani's style of having the surrounding characters break the fourth wall and turn to talk to the reader to explain what was going on, out side of the narrative.

#ff

>234 mahsdad: I love the architecture of the cactus. The red color's so vibrant!

Good reading ahead!

So close to getting it in one

Wordle 736 2/6

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>235 richardderus: Could have sworn I replied here. Whoops. Hey RD, thanks for stopping by. I did start reading The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu, wow what a fascinating read. I'm ashamed to admit that I know little about the history of Africa, something that I'm glad books like this can rectify

New Book - AUDIO

The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World's Most Precious Manuscripts by Joshua Hammer



In the 1980s, a young adventurer and collector for a government library, Abdel Kader Haidara, journeyed across the Sahara Desert and along the Niger River, tracking down and salvaging tens of thousands of ancient Islamic and secular manuscripts that had fallen into obscurity. The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu tells the incredible story of how Haidara, a mild-mannered archivist and historian from the legendary city of Timbuktu, later became one of the world's greatest and most brazen smugglers.

In 2012, thousands of Al Qaeda militants from northwest Africa seized control of most of Mali, including Timbuktu. They imposed Sharia law, chopped off the hands of accused thieves, stoned to death unmarried couples, and threatened to destroy the great manuscripts. As the militants tightened their control over Timbuktu, Haidara organized a dangerous operation to sneak all 350,000 volumes out of the city to the safety of southern Mali.

Over the past 20 years, journalist Joshua Hammer visited Timbuktu numerous times and is uniquely qualified to tell the story of Haidara's heroic and ultimately successful effort to outwit Al Qaeda and preserve Mali's - and the world's - literary patrimony. Hammer explores the city's manuscript heritage and offers never-before-reported details about the militants' march into northwest Africa. But above all, The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu is an inspiring account of the victory of art and literature over extremism.

He shifted nervously in the front passenger seat of the four-wheel drive vehicle as it approached the southern exit of the city. Down the tarmac road, in the pink light of the desert morning, two gunmen stood beside a checkpoint made from a rope strung across a pair of oil barrels. They were lean men with beards and turbans, Kalashnikov semiautomatic rifles slung 0over their shoulders. Take a deep breath, he told himself. Smile. Be respectful. He had already been arrested once by the Islamic Police, hauled before a make shift tribunal, interrogated, and threatened with Shariah punishment. That time he had managed - just barely - to persuade them to set him free. He couldn't count on being lucky a second time.

#newbook

>238 mahsdad: - I read that one a few years ago and enjoyed it. I will admit, it was the title that drew me in, but the story was a good one, too and kept me engaged.

>239 jessibud2: Hi Shelley. RD had suggested it several years ago and then the other day, he was talking about it. His review was getting a bunch of new views and it reminded me. I'm about a third of the way thru already, its a pretty good read so far.

>238 mahsdad:
I liked Bad-Assed Librarians but it really wasn't that much about the librarians or the library. In fact, as a librarian I was appalled at what the GMO's allowed them to do and what the librarians didn't do. What it really did for me was help to explain abut why that area of Africa is so susceptible to radicalism and how the radical religious organizations there work, and where their loyalties are. it used the library as the background to doing all that. I was glad that I read it as I have a much better understanding of the forces at work there. Mainly - climate change and the pressure that puts on everyone in the region.

>241 benitastrnad: interesting.

>241 benitastrnad: Hi Benita, I take your point that so far the people dealing with the books can only be loosely called librarians. I, like you, am really glad to be reading this to expand my woefully lack of knowledge of the continent and the rich history of the countries there.

>242 ffortsa: Hi Judy, yeah, it is a pretty interesting read.

New Book

The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers



Finalist for the National Book Award, The Yellow Birds is the harrowing story of two young soldiers trying to stay alive in Iraq.

"The war tried to kill us in the spring." So begins this powerful account of friendship and loss.

In Al Tafar, Iraq, twenty-one-year old Private Bartle and eighteen-year-old Private Murphy cling to life as their platoon launches a bloody battle for the city. Bound together since basic training when Bartle makes a promise to bring Murphy safely home, the two have been dropped into a war neither is prepared for.

In the endless days that follow, the two young soldiers do everything to protect each other from the forces that press in on every side: the insurgents, physical fatigue, and the mental stress that comes from constant danger. As reality begins to blur into a hazy nightmare, Murphy becomes increasingly unmoored from the world around him and Bartle takes actions he could never have imagined.

With profound emotional insight, especially into the effects of a hidden war on mothers and families at home, The Yellow Birds is a groundbreaking novel that is destined to become a classic.

The Ware tried to kill us in the spring. As grass greened the plains of Nineveh and the weather warmed, we patrolled the low-slung hills beyond the cities and towns. We moved over them and through the tall grass on faith, kneading paths into the windswept growth like pioneers.

#newbook

For anyone who's read The Sympathizer by Viet Than Nguyen, they are doing a mini-series on Max.

Here's the trailer https://youtu.be/wr7hBPhXrus

It stars many Vietnamese (and other Asian actors) that I'm not familiar with, but the well known American's are Robert Downey Jr (he's a Producer) and Sandra Oh.

It won the Pulitzer in 2016, I've had it on the shelf for a while, might have to get to it soon.

The show looks pretty interesting, too bad I don't have Max.

New Book - AUDIO

Appaloosa by Robert B. Parker



Arriving in a small nineteenth-century western town only to discover that its sheriff has been killed and its residents placed at the mercy of renegade rancher Randall Bregg, itinerant lawmen Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch find themselves facing an unusually challenging adversary who works by playing psychological games. By the author of Double Play. 125,000 first printing

It was a long time ago, now, and there were many gunfights to follow, but I remember as well, perhaps, as I remember anything, the first time I saw Virgil Cole shoot. Time slowed down for him. He fought with an odd stateliness. Always steady and never fast, but always faster than the man he was fighting.

#newbook

Book Mail

56. Nothing. Everything. by Virginia Montanez. Montanez is from Pittsburgh and used to be an anonymous blogger called PittGirl back in the early days of blogging and social media. I've been following her since the early aughts. I've heard good things and I wanted to support her and the local book store where I bought it.

#bh

Fantastic Photo Friday

Hooray, its Friday again, and its the last Friday of the Month, Quarter and Half-Year. Wow, time just doesn't slow down, now does it? :) Looks like I almost broke 250 posts for the quarter. That's not too bad, more than the last 3. I'll be starting up a new thread tomorrow. For today, enjoy a nice sunflower I saw on my walk yesterday. Have a great weekend everybody. And for those of US persuasion, enjoy your long weekend for the Fourth, unless you're in the service industry and have to work anyway, or have a company that doesn't believe in automatic long weekends and don't have Monday off (like me, I suppose). :)



Book Update
>2 mahsdad: Q2 Books
>3 mahsdad: Q1 Books
>4 mahsdad: Audiobooks

Reading - The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers 57%
Reading - Broken (in the best possible way) by Jenny Lawson 37%
Listening - Appaloosa by Robert B Parker 50%
eBook - Gauntlet by John G. Doyle 60%.

Finished Books
49. The Imitation Game by Jim Ottaviani (GN) : Graphic novel "biopic" about the life of Alan Turing, without with we probably wouldn't be looking at things on computers today. To say nothing of the fact that we probably wouldn't have won WWII. Tragically, he was convicted of the crime of being gay in 1952. He was forced to endure chemical castration and died in 1954 of cyanide poisoning. There's still debate on whether it was accidental or suicide. He was only 41. This was an unintentional selection for Pride Month, but I'm glad I read it.

48. The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World's Most Precious Manuscripts by Joshua Hammer (A) : . This is the story of how a vast collection of ancient manuscripts in Africa were saved in the 80s from nature and obscurity and then later saved again in 2012 from Islamic extremists. The middle part of the book became less about the manuscripts and more about Al Qaeda and the political uprisings of the time. Would have liked more about the books, but it was a very good read, and I learned a lot about a region and time in history that I know very little about.

47. Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst : I read this at the suggestion of Mark for a group read this month. It wasn't so much a group read, as a parallel read. I'm glad for the nudge. Set in Thatcher's England, and follows a young gay man living his life in two worlds, the LGBT community and the upper crust political world of the family he lives with. I naively, totally forgot that this was set in the 80s and should have realized that AIDS would play a picture in the story and when it reared its ugly head, I was caught off guard. An award winning book that is well worth the time. For the group, if you're keeping track, at just over 500 pages, I'm adding it to the 75 Chunksters list.

Some quotes...

The strange, the marvelous thing was that at no point did Gerald say what he considered Nick actually to have done. It seemed as natural as day to him to dress up the pet lamb as the scapegoat.

"These champagne flutes are simply enormous!" she said. "I know, they're sort of champagne tubas, aren't they," said Nick

She noticed nothing, and yet she remembered everything

46. Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde (A) : Book 4 of the series. In this one Thursday is back in the real world taking care of her son Friday, who's father was erased from time when he was 2. She's trying to get her husband back, while trying to stop a fictional person from taking over England and the Book World. Oh and Hamlet has taking a vacation from his play and is helping her out. Very funny and punny. I love how completely silly and insane Fforde's world is, but how seriously he takes it. Case in point, the fate of the world might hinge on the outcome of the Croquet Superhoop of 1988 (Yes, full contact croquet is a thing, bigger than Football's World Cup)

#ff

>248 mahsdad: The sunflower is a big ol' smile on a tall stem, innit?

Glad the reading's treatin' yinz well!

Hey RD, thanks for stopping by. You're too right about sunflowers!