karenmarie - glad to be here in 2022, part XI

Welcome to my eleventh thread of Two Thousand and Twenty-Two!

The Good: Family, friends, kitties, books, in constantly-rotating order. I continue to use a treadmill 3 times a week, and low-sodium is my new normal. Jenna’s home. She started an admin job 3 weeks ago and although it’s not terribly exciting, at least she likes the people, the company, and the fact that she’s got decent if not stellar benefits. It’s Mon-Fri, 7:30 – 4:30.

The Bad and the Sad: Ukraine. Covid. The Supreme Court. The Gang of Psychos whines when they are an ‘activist’ court on Democratic issues, but plow ahead and overturned Roe v. Wade after all the new ridiculously right-wing members promised to honor stare decisis.

The Ugly: The Gang of Psychos is doing more and more to harm to our republic. Even though I have always disagreed with most of their policies, at least they weren't right-wing nut jobs until you-know-who reared his ugly head. I'm avoiding news again.

The encouraging: The overturn of Roe v. Wade may benefit Democrats in the midterms. It’s finally fall, my favorite season.

I am so glad I’m retired, and am beyond grateful that I don’t have to venture out to work to earn a living ever again. I paid my dues. Every day I don’t work is a cause for celebration.

I read and am a charter member of the Redbud and Beyond Book Club, started in 1997. We’ve established a schedule for May 2022 – February 2023, and I loved the first book. I didn’t finish The Sentence and didn’t finish When They Call You a Terrorist, and didn’t finish The Four Winds. I’m actually looking forward to November’s book, Anxious People by Fredrik Backman. I am President for our local Friends of the Library. I gave my resignation, effective June 30, 2023 at the July meeting. I’ll stay on the Board as Immediate Past President for however long the next President serves, then completely leave the Board and just stay on the Book Sale Team. We had a book sale at the end of September and I seem to have escaped getting Covid. It helps to be fully vaccinated and triple boosted, I guess.

I have been married to Bill for 31 years and am mother to Jenna, 29. The three of us live in our own little corner of paradise on 8 acres in central North Carolina USA.

We have three kitties. Jenna and I had a discussion recently about which type of coffee each kitty was.


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Three siblings, circa 1958. I was 5, Doug was 3, and Laura was about 18 months. I may have posted this in a previous year, but here it is again.
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My goal last year was 100 books and I exceeded it by 3. This year’s goal is reduced to 75, but a contemporary and historical romance-reading streak in May, June, July, August, September, almost mid-October already has me at 223 books read. My reading mojo has come roaring back with a vengeance. A reduced pages goal made sense, too, but I’ve already read 67K pages.

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Poetry is not a go-to genre by any means, however, I am going to choose a new poem for each new thread. Thinking about the war in Ukraine and the world’s inability to shut Putin down, I am reminded of the first poem to ever touch me with its antiwar message.

Dulce et Decorum Est
By Wilfred Owen

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.—
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

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2022 – not much better than 2020 or 2021, but in vastly different ways.

Books Read

January
1. The Guncle by Steven Rowley 12/19/21 1/2/2022 324 pages hardcover
2. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling 9/29/21 1/6/22 audiobook 19 hours
3. Some Die Nameless by William Stroby 1/3/22 1/12/2022 337 pages hardcover
4. Should We Stay or Should We Go by Lionel Shriver 1/14/22 1/24/22 266 pages hardcover
5. Faithless in Death by J.D. Robb 1/25/22 1/29/22 385 pages trade paperback

February
6. Forgotten in Death by J.D. Robb 1/29/22 2/1/22 388 pages trade paperback
7. Midnight in Death in Silent Night by J.D. Robb 2/1/22 2/1/22 90 pages mass market paperback
8. Interlude in Death by J.D. Robb 2/2/22 2/3/22 92 pages mass market paperback
9. Remember When by Nora Roberts 2/3/22 2/6/22 243 pages mass market paperback
10. Big Jack 2/6/22 2/8/22 287 pages mass market paperback
11. Haunted in Death in Bump in the Night by J.D. Robb 2/9/22 2/10/22 100 pages mass market paperback
12. Eternity in Death by J.D. Robb in Time of Death Anthology 2/10/22 2/13/22 108 pages trade paperback
13. Ritual in Death by J.D. Robb in Time of Death Anthology 2/14/22 2/14/22 88 pages trade paperback
14. Missing in Death by J.D. Robb in Time of Death Anthology 2/15/22 2/15/22 96 pages trade paperback
15. Possession in Death in The Other Side Anthology by J.D. Robb 2/16/22 2/19/22 80 pages mass market paperback
16. Killing Floor by Lee Child 2/20/22 2/26/22 407 pages mass market paperback
17. Chaos in Death in The Unquiet Anthology by J.D. Robb 2/26/22 2/27/22 90 pages mass market paperback
18. Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America by John McWhorter 2/16/22 2/28/22 194 pages hardcover
19. Taken in Death in Mirror, Mirror Anthology by J.D. Robb 2/27/22 2/28/22 86 pages mass market paperback

March
20. Wonderment in Death in Down the Rabbit Hole Anthology by J.D. Robb 3/1/22 3/1/22 94 pages mass market paperback
21. A Tap on the Window by Linwood Barclay 3/2/22 3/5/22 500 pages hardcover
**abandoned** The Winshaw Legacy by Jonathan Coe 58 pages
22. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 1/7/22 3/8/22 audiobook 21.5 hours
23. The Locked Room by Elly Griffiths 3/8/22 3/10/22 363 pages hardcover
24. Maus by Art Spiegelman 3/11/22 3/11/22 159 pages trade paperback
25. The Book of General Ignorance: Everything You Think You Know Is Wrong by John Mitchinson 1/21/22 3/11/22 315 pages hardcover
26. Better Off Dead by Lee Child and Andrew Child 3/13/22 3/14/22 325 pages hardcover
27. The Scholar by Dervla McTiernan 3/15/22 3/18/22 360 pages trade paperback
28. Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger 3/12/22 3/20/22 302 pages hardcover
29. The Good Turn by Dervla McTiernan 3/18/22 3/23/22 407 pages trade paperback
30. The Woman In Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware 3/24/22 3/26/22 340 pages

April
31. The Hill We Climb by Amanda Gorman 4/9/22 4/9/22 29 pages
32. Last Words by Michael Koryta 3/27/22 4/12/22 420 pages trade paperback
33. The Adults by Caroline Hulse 4/11/22 4/16/22 368 pages trade paperback
34. The Story of Human Language by John McWhorter 3/9/22 4/20/22 audiobook 18 hours
35. A Personal History of Thirst by John Burdett 4/17/22 4/23/22 301 pages hardcover
36. The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn 4/23/22 4/24/22 416 pages Kindle
37. An Offer From a Gentleman by Julia Quinn 4/24/22 4/25/22 419 pages Kindle
38. Romancing Mister Bridgerton by Julia Quinn 4/26/22 4/27/22 412 pages Kindle
39. To Sir Philip, With Love by Julia Quinn 4/27/22 4/29/22 369 pages Kindle
40. When He Was Wicked by Julia Quinn 4/29/22 4/30/22 381 pages Kindle

May
41. It's In His Kiss by Julia Quinn 5/1/22 5/1/22 373 pages Kindle
42. On The Way to the Wedding by Julia Quinn 5/2/22 5/22/22 430 pages Kindle
43. Because of Miss Bridgerton by Julia Quinn 5/2/22 5/3/22 376 pages Kindle
44. The Girl With the Make-Believe Husband by Julia Quinn 5/3/22 5/4/22 384 pages Kindle
45. The Other Miss Bridgerton by Julia Quinn 5/4/22 5/5/22 337 pages Kindle
46. First Comes Scandal by Julia Quinn 5/5/22 5/6/22 371 pages Kindle
47. Just Like Heaven by Julia Quinn 5/6/22 5/6/22 Kindle 218 pages
48. A Night Like This by Julia Quinn 5/6/22 5/8/22 420 pages Kindle
49. The Sum of All Kisses by Julia Quinn 5/8/22 5/9/22 434 pages Kindle
50. The Secrets of Sir Richard Kenworthy by Julia Quinn 5/9/22 5/10/22 378 pages Kindle
51. The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever by Julia Quinn 5/10/22 5/10/22 322 pages Kindle
52. What Happened in London by Julia Quinn 5/10/22 5/11/22 372 pages Kindle
53. Ten Things I Love About You by Julia Quinn 5/11/22 5/11/22 377 pages Kindle
54. The Lost Duke of Wyndham by Julia Quinn 5/11/22 5/12/22 364 pages Kindle
55. Mr. Cavendish, I Presume by Julia Quinn 5/12/22 5/12/22 370 pages Kindle
56. To Catch an Heiress by Julia Quinn 5/12/22 5/13/22 377 pages Kindle
57. How to Marry a Marquis by Julia Quinn 5/13/22 5/14/22 375 pages Kindle
58. Midnight Marriage by Lucinda Brant 5/14/22 5/15/22 322 pages Kindle
59. Autumn Duchess 5/15/22 369 pages Kindle
60. Dair Devil by Lucinda Brant 5/16/22 5/17/22 Kindle
61. Proud Mary by Lucinda Brant 5/18/22 5/20/22 367 pages Kindle
62. Satyr's Son by Lucinda Brant 5/20/22 5/21/22 345 pages Kindle
63. Salt Bride by Lucinda Brant 5/21/22 5/22/22 350 pages Kindle
64. The Duchess Deal by Tessa Dare 5/22/22 5/22/22 366 pages Kindle
65. ‎The Governess Game by Tessa Dare 5/22/22 5/22/22 372 pages Kindle
66. The Wallflower Wager by Tessa Dare 5/23/22 5/23/22 352 pages Kindle
67. Romancing the Duke by Tessa Dare 5/23/22 5/24/22 370 pages Kindle
68. Say Yes to the Marquess by Tessa Dare 5/24/22 5/25/22 373 pages Kindle
69. When a Scot Ties the Knot by Tessa Dare 5/25/22 5/26/22 376 pages Kindle
70. Do You Want to Start a Scandal by Tessa Dare 5/26/22 376 pages Kindle
71. A Night to Surrender by Tessa Dare 5/27/22 5/27/22 376 pages Kindle
**abandoned** The Blind Duke by Olivia T. Bennet 112 pages
72. A Week to be Wicked by Tessa Dare 5/27/22 5/28/22 356 pages Kindle
73. A Lady by Midnight by Tessa Dare 5/28/22 5/28/22 373 pages Kindle
74. Any Duchess Will Do by Tessa Dare 5/28/22 5/29/22 373 pages Kindle
75. One Dance with a Duke by Tessa Dare 5/29/22 5/30/22 384 pages Kindle
**abandoned** Twice Tempted by a Rogue by Tessa Dare 140 pages
76. Deadly Engagement by Lucinda Brant 5/30/22 5/31/22 276 pages Kindle

June
77. Someone to Watch Over Me by Lisa Kleypas 6/1/22 6/4/22 362 pages Kindle
78. Four Nights with a Duke by Eloisa James 6/4/22 367 pages Kindle
79. Desperate Duchesses by Eloisa James 6/4/22 6/5/22 Kindle
80. An Affair Before Christmas by Eloisa Janes 6/5/22 6/5/22 388 pages Kindle
81. Duchess by Night by Eloisa James 6/5/22 6/6/22 6/6/22 361 pages Kindle
82. When the Duke Returns by Eloisa James 6/6/22 6/7/22 375 pages Kindle
83. This Duchess of Mine by Eloisa James 6/7/22 6/8/22 372 pages Kindle
84. A Duke of Her Own by Eloisa James 6/8/22 6/8/22 386 pages Kindle
85. Three Weeks With Lady X by Eloisa James 6/8/22 6/9/22 378 pages Kindle
86. Seven Minutes in Heaven by Eloisa James 6/9/22 6/10/22 Kindle
87. Wilde in Love by Eloisa James 6/10/22 6/11/22 274 pages Kindle
88. Too Wilde to Wed by Eloisa James 6/11/22 6/12/22 370 pages Kindle
**abandoned** How To Be Champion by Sarah Millican 49 pages
89. Born to be Wilde by Eloisa James 6/12/22 6/13/21 361 pages Kindle
90. Say No to the Duke by Eloisa James 6/13/22 6/13/22 364 pages Kindle
91. Say Yes to the Duke by Eloisa James 6/13/22 6/14/22 386 pages Kindle
92. Wilde Child by Eloisa James 6/14/22 6/16/22 374 pages Kindle
93. My Last Duchess by Eloisa James 6/16/22 6/16/22 254 pages Kindle
94. Much Ado About You by Eloisa James 6/16/22 6/17/22 344 pages Kindle
95. Love, Hate & Clickbait by Liz Bowery 6/14/22 6/18/22 325 pages trade paperback
96. Kiss Me, Annabel by Eloisa James 6/17/22 6/9/22 384 pages Kindle
97. The Taming of the Duke 6/19/22 6/20/22 394 pages Kindle
98. Pleasure for Pleasure by Eloisa James 6/20/22 6/21/22 Kindle
99. Lady Susan by Jane Austen 5/29/22 6/21/22 76 pages hardcover
100. Potent Pleasures by Eloisa James 6/21/22 6/22/22 Kindle
101. Duchess in Love by Eloisa James 6/22/22 6/23/22 Kindle
102. Fool for Love by Eloisa James 6/23/22 6/25/22 355 pages Kindle
103. A Wild Pursuit by Eloisa James 6/25/22 356 pages Kindle
104. Governor by Leslie Richardson 6/27/22 6/28/22 400 pages Kindle
105. Lieutenant by Leslie Richardson 6/28/22 6/28/22 273 pages Kindle
106. Chief by Lesli Richardson 6/28/22 6/29/22 244 pages Kindle
107. Yes, Governor by Leslie Richardson 6/29/22 6/29/22 47 pages Kindle
108. Pet by Lesli Richardson 6/29/22 6/30/22 201 pages Kindle

July
109. Dignity by Lesli Richardson 6/30/22 7/1/22 330 pages Kindle
110. Your Wicked Ways by Eloisa James 7/1/22 7/3/22 Kindle
111. Captivating by Onley James 7/3/22 7/3/22 277 pages Kindle
112. Intoxicating by Onley James 7/3/22 7/4/22 374 pages Kindle
113. Exasperating by Onley James 7/4/22 7/5/22 275 pages Kindle
114. Infuriating by Onley James 7/5/22 7/5/22 361 pages Kindle
115. Satisfying by Onley James 7/5/22 7/5/22 75 pages Kindle
116. Bad Habits by Neve Wilder and Onley James 7/6/22 7/7/22 328 pages Kindle
117. Play Dirty by Neve Wilder and Onley James 7/7/22 7/8/22 247 pages Kindle
118. Head Games by Neve Wilder and Onley James 7/8/22 7/8/22 171 pages Kindle
119. Unhinged by Onley James 7/9/22 7/10/22 294 pages Kindle
120. Psycho by Onley James 7/10/22 7/10/22 269 pages Kindle
121. Moonstruck by Onley James 7/10/22 7/11/22 295 pages Kindle
122. Headcase by Onley James 7/11/22 7/11/22 292 pages Kindle
123. Mad Man by Onley James 7/11/22 7/12/22 281 pages Kindle
124. Domesticated Beast by Onley James 7/12/22 7/13/22 296 pages Kindle
125. Endangered Species by Onley James 7/13/22 7/14/22 222 pages Kindle
126. Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow 4/22/22 7/15/22 audiobook 29 CDs, 35.5 hours
127. Dangerous Breed by Onley James 7/14/22 7/15/22 242 pages Kindle
128. Disciplinary Action by Onley James 7/15/22 7/16/22 281 pages Kindle
129. Novel Affair by Ava Olsen 7/16/22 7/17/22 214 pages Kindle
130. His Cocky Valet by Cole McCade 7/17/22 7/18/22 240 pages Kindle
131. His Cocky Cellist by Cole McCade 7/18/22 7/18/22 384 pages Kindle
132. His Cocky Prince by Cole McCade 7/18/22 7/19/22 389 pages Kindle
**abandoned** Deadly Affair by Lucinda Brant 111 pages
133. Dom of Las Vegas by Tricia Owens 7/19/22 7/20/22 138 pages Kindle
134. Limited Liability by Tricia Owens 7/20/22 7/20/22 156 pages Kindle
135. Acceptable Sacrifices by Tricia Owens 7/21/22 7/21/22 161 pages Kindle
136. Devious Lies by Parker S. Huntington 7/22/22 7/23/22 690 pages Kindle
137. High Roller by Tricia Owens 7/23/22 7/23/22 150 pages Kindle
138. Asher Black by Parker S. Huntington 7/23/22 7/25/22 355 pages Kindle
139. Niccolaio Andretti by Parker S. Huntington 7/25/22 7/25/22 331 pages Kindle
140. Bastiano Romano by Parker S. Huntington 7/25/22 7/27/22 486 pages Kindle
141. Renata Vitali by Parker S. Huntington 7/27/22 7/28/22 Kindle
142. Damiano De Luca by Parker S. Huntington 7/28/22 7/28/22 Kindle
143. Most Wanted by Tricia Owens 7/24/22 7/29/22 Kindle 179 pages
144. Ranieri Andretti by Parker S. Huntington 7/29/22 7/30/22 137 137 pages Kindle
145. His to Keep by Violet James 7/30/22 7/31/22 165 pages Kindle

August
146. His to Teach by Violet James 7/31/22 8/1/22 306 pages Kindle
147. Darling Venom by Parker S. Huntington 7/30/22 8/2/22 660 pages Kindle
148. One Bossy Proposal by Nicole Snow 8/3/22 8/5/22 518 pages Kindle
149. Trouble by Tia Louise 8/5/22 8/6/22 268 pages Kindle
150. Lessons in Obedience by Tricia Owens 7/31/22 8/7/22 144 pages Kindle
**abandoned Fearless by Tia Louise** 77 pages
**abandoned Prince by Tia Louise** 176 pages
151. Boss of Me by Tia Louise 8/8/22 8/8/22 285 pages Kindle
152. One to Hold by Tia Louise 8/8/22 8/9/22 192 pages Kindle
**abandoned One to Keep by Tia Louise** 37 pages
153. The Billionaire's Auction by Bri Blackwood 8/9/22 8/10/22 221 pages Kindle
**abandoned Criminal Intentions by Cole McCade 18 pages
**abandoned The Billionaire's Possession by Bri Blackwood** 126 pages
154. Death Defying Acts by Tricia Owens 8/10/22 8/11/22 144 pages Kindle
155. The Dom's Club by Tricia Owens 8/11/22 8/12/22 141 pages Kindle
156. Easy Money by Tricia Owens 8/12/22 8/12/22 127 pages Kindle
157. Significant Other by Tricia Owens 8/12/22 8/13/22 169 pages Kindle
158. Aftermath by Tricia Owens 8/13/22 8/14/22 204 pages Kindle
159. Flesh and Blood by Tricia Owens 8/14/22 155 pages (averaged from 11 books, 1710 pages) Kindle
160. Maximum Commitment by Tricia Owens 8/15/22 8/15/22 165 pages Kindle
161. Fearless Leader by Tricia Owens 8/15/22 8/16/22 241 pages Kindle
162. In the Blink of an Eye by Tricia Owens 8/16/22 8/17/22 214 pages Kindle
163. The Battle for Black by Tricia Owens 8/17/22 8/18/22 298 pages Kindle
164. The Ultimate Team by Tricia Owens 8/19/22 8/20/22 229 pages Kindle
165. My Lover, My Enemy by Tricia Owens 8/20/22 8/20/22 195 pages Kindle
166. To Have & To Hoax by Sienna Blake 8/20/22 8/21/22 204 pages Kindle
**abandoned The Paw-fect Mix Up by Sienna Blake** 114 pages
167. The Sound of Truth by Tricia Owens 8/21/22 8/21/22 234 pages Kindle
168. Bound by Lies by Sienna Blake 8/21/22 8/22/22 248 pages Kindle
169. Shattered Alliance by Tricia Owens 8/22/22 8/23/22 244 pages Kindle
170. Exchange of Power by Tricia Owens 8/23/22 8/25/22 230 pages Kindle
**abandoned Bound Forever by Sienna Blake** 201 pages
171. Prodigal Son by Tricia Owens 8/25/22 8/27/22 173 pages Kindle
172. The Mind Spy by Tricia Owens 8/27/22 8/27/22 170 pages Kindle
173. Hide and Seek by Tricia Owens 8/27/22 8/28/22 189 pages Kindle
174. Master of No One by Tricia Owens 8/28/22 8/29/22 456 pages Kindle
175. Ghost of Lies by Alice Winters 8/29/22 8/30/22 415 pages Kindle
176. The Hitman's Guide to Making Friends and Finding Love by Alice Winters 8/30/22 8/31/22 365 pages Kindle

September
177. Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow 7/16/22 9/2/22 audiobook 12 CDs, 14.5 hours
178. The Hitman's Guide to Staying Alive Despite Past Mistakes by Alice Winters 8/31/22 9/2/22 359 pages Kindle
179. The Sinner and the Liar by Alice Winters 9/3/22 9/3/22 312 pages Kindle
180. Pleasing Master Parker Parts 1-3 by Austin Blake 9/4/22 9/4/22 156 pages Kindle
**abandoned Pleasing Master Parker Part 4 by Austin Blake** 65 pages
181. Billion Dollar Sugar Baby by E.M. Demming 9/5/22 9/6/22 Kindle
**abandoned What He Craves by E.M. Denning ** 45 pages
182. Lucien: A Dark Mafia Romance by Silvia Violet 9/6/22 9/6/22 249 pages Kindle
183. Angelo: A Dark Mafia Romance by Silvia Violet 9/7/22 9/7/22 264 pages Kindle
184. Devil: A Dark Mafia Romance by Silvia Violet 9/7/22 9/8/22 264 pages Kindle
185. Giorgio by Silvia Violet 9/7/22 9/8/22 272 pages Kindle
186. Niall by Silvia Violet 9/8/22 9/9/22 246 pages Kindle
187. Leo by Silvia Violet 9/9/22 9/9/22 260 pages Kindle
188. Xavier by Silvia Violet 9/9/22 9/10/22 302 pages Kindle
**abandoned Remington by Silvia Violet** 215 pages
**abandoned Dom by Jason Collins** 89 pages
**abandoned various starts** 50 pages
189. Bought by Rana Drake 9/11/22 9/11/22 105 pages Kindle
190. Mike Bravo Ops: Rogue by Eden Finley 9/11/22 9/12/22 285 pages Kindle
191. Mike Bravo Ops: Iris by Eden Finley 9/12/22 9/13/22 272 pages Kindle
192. Fake Out by Eden Finley 9/13/22 9/14/22 272 pages Kindle
193. Undercover by Eliot Grayson 9/14/22 9/14/22 188 pages Kindle
194. Pop Star by Eden Finley 9/14/22 9/15/22 314 pages Kindle
195. Defiant by Max Rowan 9/16/22 9/16/22 227 pages Kindle
196. Try by Ella Frank 9/16/22 9/17/22 368 pages Kindle 2013
197. Wicked Heat by Ella Frank 9/17/22 9/18/22 234 pages Kindle
198. Wicked Flame by Ella Frank 9/18/22 9/19/22 201 pages Kindle
199. Inside Affair by Ella Frank 9/19/22 9/19/22 272 pages Kindle
200. Breaking News by Ella Frank 9/19/22 9/20/22 205 pages Kindle
201. Bad Intentions by Ella Frank 9/20/22 9/21/22 251 pages Kindle
202. Good Intentions by Ella Frank 9/21/22 9/22/22 279 pages Kindle
203. Dare You by Ella Frank and Brooke Blaine 9/22/22 9/22/22 278 pages Kindle
204. Dare Me by Ella Frank and Brooke Blaine 9/22/22 9/23/22
205. Forbidden Mafia Prince by Brook Blaine 9/23/22 9/24/22
206. Sinful Mafia Prince Truth or Dare by Ella Frank 9/24/22 9/25/22 276 pages Kindle
207. Married to the Mobster by Leighton Greene 9/25/22 9/26/22 294 pages Kindle
208. Beloved by the Boss by Leighton Greene 9/26/22 9/27/22 338 pages Kindle
**abandoned Worship by Ellis James** 51 pages
209. Enticed by the Enemy by Leighton Greene 9/27/22 9/28/22 328 pages Kindle
210. Seduced by a Sinner by Leighton Greene 9/28/22 9/28/22 340 pages Kindle
211. Ghost by Joel Abernathy 9/28/22 9/29/22 192 pages Kindle
212. Devil by Joel Abernathy 9/29/22 9/30/22 331 pages Kindle

October
213. Kissed by a Killer by Leighton Greene 9/30/22 10/1/22 366 pages Kindle
214. Devoted to the Don by Leighton Greene 10/1/22 10/3/22 467 pages Kindle
215. Just a Bit Shameless by Alessandra Hazard 10/3/22 10/3/22 275 pages Kindle
216. His Lethal Desire by Leighton Greene 10/3/22 10/4/22 396 pages Kindle
217. Extradition by Kelly Fox 10/4/22 10/4/22 296 pages Kindle 2022
**abandoned Protection by Kelly Fox** 183 pages
218. Virtuous by Roelle Denning 10/6/22 10/6/22 271 pages Kindle
219. Indulgent by Roelle Denning 10/6/22 10/7/22 268 pages Kindle
220. Burned by Roelle Denning 10/7/22 10/8/22 272 pages Kindle
**abandoned The Traitor and the Fighter by Alice Winters** 246 pages
**abandoned Take by Ella Frank** 134 pages
**abandoned He Is Poison by K.A. Merican** 256 pages
221. A Pirate's Life For Me by Tricia Owens 10/9/22 10/10/22 730 pages Kindle
222. A Pirate's Honor by Tricia Owens 10/11/22 10/11/22 90 pages Kindle
223. Tough Luck by Annabeth Albert 10/11/22 10/13/22 333 pages Kindle
224. Hard Job by Annabeth Albert 10/13/22 10/14/22 313 pages Kindle
225. Bad Deal by Annabeth Albert 10/14/22 10/15/22 292 pages Kindle
226. Bodyguard to a Sex God by RJ Scott 10/15/22 10/15/22 176 pages Kindle
227. Save the Date by Annabeth Albert and Wendy Qualls 10/15/22 10/16/22 152 pages Kindle
228. Weekend Plaything by Wendy Qualls 10/16/22 10/16/22 42 pages Kindle
229. Sargeant Delicious by Annabeth Albert 10/16/22 10/17/22 78 pages Kindle
230. Off Camera by Wendy Qualls 10/17/22 10/17/22 254 pages Kindle
231. Rockets and Romance by Wendy Qualls 10/17/22 10/17/22 92 pages Kindle
232. Top Priority by Cara Dee 10/18/22 10/18/22 100 pages Kindle
233. Their Boy by Cara Dee 10/18/22 10/19/22 300 pages Kindle
234. Never Stay Gone by Tal Bauer 10/19/22 10/20/22 342 pages Kindle
235. Secret Service by Tal Bauer 10/20/22 10/22/22 420 pages Kindle
236. The Murder Between Us by Tal Bauer 10/22/22 10/23/22 280 pages Kindle
237. Hell and Gone by Tal Bauer 10/23/22 10/23/22 188 pages Kindle
238. Clashing Hearts by Nicky James 10/24/22 10/24/22 265 pages Kindle
239. Rocky Mountain Refuge by Nicky James 10/24/22 10/25/22 296 pages Kindle
240. The Renegade by Silvia Violet 10/25/22 10/26/22 296 pages Kindle
241. The Reaper by Silvia Violet 10/26/22 10/26/22 300 pages Kindle
242. Watch Me by Sloane Kennedy 10/27/22 10/28/22 272 pages Kindle
243. Temporary Partner by Nicky James 10/28/22 10/28/22 349 pages Kindle
244. Linchpin by Jodi Payne 10/28/22 10/29/22 85 pages Kindle
245. Elusive Relations by Nicky James 10/29/22 10/30/22 414 pages Kindle
246. Unstable Connections by Nicky James 10/30/22 10/31/22 457 pages Kindle
**abandoned Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner** 91 pages

November
247. Twinkle Star by Nicky James 10/31/22 11/1/22 174 pages Kindle
248. Rocket Science by K.M. Neuhold 11/1/22 11/2/22 320 pages Kindle
**abandoned Above and Beyond by Lucy Lennox** 170 pages
249. Opal in Gems Collection by V.L. Locey 11/2/22 11/2/22 100 pages
250. Black Balled by Andrea Smith 11/3/22 11/4/22 314 pages Kindle
251. Guns Blazing by Andrea Smith 11/4/22 11/4/22 143 pages Kindle
252. Rebound by Kate Hawthorne 11/4/22 11/6/22 Kindle
253. A Real Good Lie by Kate Hawthorne 11/6/22 11/6/22 282 pages Kindle
**abandoned His Submissive by Lucy Lennox and Sloane Kennedy ** 107 pages
**abandoned A Cold Hard Truth by Kate Hawthorne ** 132 pages
254. First You Fall by Scott Sherman 11/8/22 11/9/22 253 pages Kindle
255. Anxious People by Fredrik Backman 11/7/22 11/10/22 336 pages hardcover
256. Daybreak by Kate Hawthorne 11/10/22 11/11/22 207 pages Kindle
257. Second You Sin by Scott Sherman 11/11/22 11/11/22 314 pages Kindle
258. Just Business by Annabel Rose 11/11/22 11/11/22 78 pages Kindle
259. Just One Night by Felice Stevens 11/12/22 11/13/22 324 pages Kindle
260. Bossy by N.R. Walker 11/13/22 11/13/22 270 pages Kindle
261. Spencer Cohen Series, Book One by N.R. Walker 11/13/22 11/13/22 Kindle
262. Daddy's Precious by Hayden Hall 11/13/22 11/14/22 Kindle
263. Rule Breaker by Lily Morton 11/14/22 11/15/22 274 pages Kindle
264. Deal Maker by Lily Morton 11/15/22 11/16/22 304 pages Kindle
265. The Mysterious and Amazing Blue Billings by Lily Morton 11/16/22 11/16/22 262 pages Kindle
266. The Sunny Side by Lily Morton 11/17/22 11/17/22 364 pages Kindle
267. Risk Taker by Lily Morton 11/17/22 11/18/22 270 pages Kindle
268. The Summer of Us by Lily Morton 11/19/22 11/19/22 212 pages Kindle

Currently Reading:

Pilgrim by Timothy Findley 6/20/22 486 pages hardcover 1999
By the Numbers by K.M. Neuhold 11/xx/22 Kindle 2021

The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith audiobook 11/1/22
The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith 8/30/22 112 pages hardcover 2022
The Federalist edited by Jacob E. Cooke 5/28/22 656 pages hardcover 1961

Adds. Last year was supposed to be a year of controlling my insatiable need for books, but I fell off the wagon big time. 316 books acquired last year, which was ridiculously high compared to the previous year's 128.

I won't make any promises for this year, though.

1. Kindle - An Elderly Lady Is Up To No Good by Helene Tursten and Marlaine Delargy
2. Amazon - The Longevity Plan by Dr. John D. Day and Jane Ann Day
3. Amazon - My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk
4. Amazon - Should We Stay Or Should We Go by Lionel Shriver
5. Kindle - Sam by Lonnie Coleman - RD
00 The Book of General Ignorance: Everything You Think You Know Is Wrong by John Mitchinson - bought December, just added to catalog
6. Amazon - Faithless in Death by J.D. Robb
7. Amazon - Forgotten in Death by J.D. Robb
8. Kindle - Walking on the Ceiling by Aysegül Savas
9. Jenn - A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler
10. Kindle - Kohinoor by William Dalrymple
11. Kindle - Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson
12. Amazon - Mr. Flood's Last Resort by Jess Kidd
13. Kindle - In the Presence of Absence by Mahmoud Darwish
14. Kindle - Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World by Fareed Zakaria
15. Kindle - South Sea Fever by D.A. Horncastle
16. Amazon - Jim Hanvey, Detective by Octavus Roy Cohen
17. Amazon - Abandoned in Death by J.D. Robb
18. Amazon - Maus I by Art Spiegelman
19. U of Chicago Press - A Brief History of Death by W.M. Spellman
19. U of Chicago Press - Patty's Got a Gun: Patricia Hearst in 1970s America by William Graebner
20. U of Chicago Press - Nuns Behaving Badly: Tales of Music, Magic, Art, and Arson in the Convents of Italy by Craig A. Monson
21. U of Chicago Press - Confederate Cities: The Urban South during the Civil War Era by Andrew L. Slap
22. Amazon - Down the Rabbit Hole by J.D. Robb
23. Amazon - Mirror, Mirror by J.D. Robb
24. Amazon - The Unquiet by J.D. Robb
25. Kindle - Twenty-Five to Life by R.W.W. Greene
26. Amazon - The Book of Disappearance by Ibtisam Azem
27. Amazon - Raise High The Room Beam, Carpenters and Seymour an Introduction by J.D. Salinger
28. Kindle - The Narrative of Sojourner Truth by Sojourner Truth
29. Amazon - Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-reader by Vivian Gornick
30. Thrift Shop - Beau Brummell: The Ultimate Man of Style by Ian Kelly
31. Thrift Shop - The Mummy Congress: Science, Obsession, and the Everlasting Dead by Heather Pringle
32. Thrift Shop - Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women by Geraldine Brooks
33. Thrift Shop - Last Words by Michael Koryta
34. Book Sale Volunteer book - Royal Escape by Georgette Heyer
35. Book Sale Volunteer book - Counterfeit Conspiracies by Ritter Ames
36. Book Sale Volunteer book - Marked Masters by Ritter Ames
37. Friends Book Sale - Abstract Aliases by Ritter Ames
38. Friends Book Sale - Fatal Forgeries by Ritter Ames
39. Friends Book Sale - Bronzed Betrayals by Ritter Ames
40. Friends Book Sale - Soul Mountain by Xingjian, Gao
41. Friends Book Sale - Carolina Moon by Jill McCorkle
42. Friends Book Sale - Pulse by Felix Francis
43. Friends Book Sale - Blue Labyrinth by Preston & Child
44. Friends Book Sale - Transcription by Kate Atkinson
45. Friends Book Sale - Miss Kopp Just Won't Quit by Amy Stewart
46. Friends Book Sale - Montana 1948 by Larry Watson
47. Friends Book Sale - The Case of the Caretaker's Cat / The Case of the Perjured Parrot by Erle Stanley Gardner
48. Friends Book Sale - Bland Beginning by Julian Symons
49. Friends Book Sale - Blue Lightning by Ann Cleeves
50. Friends Book Sale - The Color of Lightning by Paulette Jiles
51. Friends Book Sale - The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers
52. Friends Book Sale - Postmortem by Patricia Daniels Cornwell
53. Friends Book Sale - The Shadow District by Arnaldur Indridason
54. Friends Book Sale - The Only Story by Julian Barnes
55. Friends Book Sale - Miss Pinkerton by Mary Roberts Rinehart
56. Friends Book Sale - Riding the Rap by Elmore Leonard
57. Friends Book Sale - The Wandering Fire by Guy Gavriel Kay
58. Friends Book Sale - Insidious Intent by Val McDermid
59. Friends Book Sale - Swing, Swing Together by Peter Lovesy
60. Friends Book Sale - Snow by Orhan Pamuk
61. Friends Book Sale - The Summer Tree by Guy Gavriel Kay
62. Friends Book Sale - Midnight Assassin: A Murder in America's Heartland by Patricia L. Bryan and Thomas Wolf
63. Friends Book Sale - An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
64. Friends Book Sale - The Darkest Road by Guy Gavriel Kay
65. Friends Book Sale - A Bitter Feast: A Novel by Deborah Crombie
66. Friends Book Sale - The Simple Art of Murder by Raymond Chandler
67. Friends Book Sale - The Bridesmaid by Ruth Rendell
68. Friends Book Sale - Dick Francis's Gamble by Felix Francis
69. Friends Book Sale - Killing the Shadows by Val McDermid
70. Friends Book Sale - The House of Silk: A Sherlock Holmes Novel by Anthony Horowitz
71. Friends Book Sale - The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn
72. Friends Book Sale - A Puzzle for Fools by Patrick Quentin
73. Amazon - The Adults by Caroline Hulse
74. Thrift Shop - The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead
75. Thrift Shop - Tar Heel Ghosts by John Harden
76. Thrift Shop - Guilty Not Guilty by Felix Francis
77. Kindle - From Manassas to Appomattox by James Longstreet
78. Leftover from Friends Book Sale - A Personal History of Thirst by John Burdett
79. Kindle - The Road to Oxiana by Robert Byron
80. Amazon - Like a House On Fire by Caroline Hulse
81. Amazon - The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn
82. Kindle - The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn
83. Kindle - An Offer From a Gentleman by Julia Quinn
84. Kindle - To Sir Phillip, With Love by Julia Quinn
85. Kindle - When He Was Wicked by Julia Quinn
86. Kindle - On the Way to the Wedding by Julia Quinn
87. Kindle - Because of Miss Bridgerton by Julia Quinn
88. Kindle - The Girl With the Make-Believe Husband by Julia Quinn
89. Kindle - The Other Miss Bridgerton
90. Friend Karen - Stolen Words: The Nazi Plunder of Jewish Books by Mark Glickman
91. Kindle - First Comes Scandal by Julia Quinn
92. Kindle - Just Like Heaven by Julia Quinn
93. Kindle - A Night Like This by Julia Quinn
94. Kindle - The Sum of All Kisses by Julia Quinn
95. Kindle - The Secrets of Sir Richard Kenworthy by Julia Quinn
96. FoL Audio Visual Sale - The History of the Supreme Court by Professor Peter Irons
97. FoL Audio Visual Sale - Shakespeare's Tragedies by Professor Clare R. Kinney
98. Fol Audio Visual Sale - The Terror of History: Mystics, Heretics, and Witches in the Western Tradition by Professor Teofilo F. Ruiz
99. Fol Audio Visual Sale - How to Read and Understand Shakespeare by Professor Marc C. Conner
100. Fol Audio Visual Sale - 1066: The Year That Changed Everything by Professor Jennifer Paxton
101. Kindle - The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever by Julia Quinn
102. Amazon - Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan
103. Kindle - Ten Things I Love About You by Julia Quinn
104. Kindle - The Lost Duke of Wyndham by Julia Quinn
105. Kindle - Mr. Cavendish, I Presume by Julia Quinn
106. Kindle - To Catch an Heiress by Julia Quinn
107. Kindle - How to Marry a Marquis by Julia Quinn
108. Kindle - Midnight Marriage by Lucinda Brant
109. Kindle - Murder at the Brightwell by Ashley Weaver
110. Kindle - The Duchess Deal by Tessa Dare
111. Kindle - Autumn Duchess by Lucinda Brant
112. Kindle - Dair Devil by Lucinda Brant
113. Kindle - Proud Mary by Lucinda Brant
114. Kindle - Satyr's Son by Lucinda Brant
115. Kindle - The Bridgertons: Happily Ever After by Julia Quinn
116. In the House, found in a drawer - A Southern Album: Recollections of Some People and Places and Times Gone By by Irwin Glusker
117. Amazon - The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story by Nikole Hannah-Jones
118. Kindle - The Plot to Seize the White House: The Shocking True Story of the Conspiracy to Overthrow F.D.R. by Jules Archer
119. Kindle - The Governess Game by Tessa Dare
120. Kindle - The Wallflower Wager by Tessa Dare
121. Kindle - Romancing the Duke by Tessa Dare
122. Kindle - Say Yes to the Marquess by Tessa Dare
123. FoL volunteer book - The Federalist edited by Jacob E. Cooke
124. Kindle - When a Scot Ties the Knot by Tessa Dare
125. Kindle - Do You Want to Start a Scandal by Tessa Dare
126. Kindle - The Blind Duke by Olivia T. Bennett
127. Kindle - A Night to Surrender by Tessa Dare
128. Kindle - A Week to be Wicked by Tessa Dare
129. Kindle - A Lady by Midnight by Tessa Dare
130. Kindle - Any Duchess Will Do by Tessa Dare
00 Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari - bought it in 2017 but had forgotten to add it to my catalog
131. Kindle - One Dance with a Duke by Tessa Dare
132. Kindle - Twice Tempted by a Rogue by Tessa Dare
133. Kindle - The Sentence by Louise Erdrich - returned. Ugh.
133. Kindle - Desperate Duchesses by Eloisa James
134. Thrift Shop - Siler City - Verses for the Dead by Preston & Child
135. Thrift Shop - Siler City - Love is Blind by Lyndsay Sands
136. Thrift Shop - Pittsboro - Two Graves by Preston & Child
137. Thrift Shop - Pittsboro - Don't Look Down by Jennifer Crusie & Bob Mayer
138. Thrift Shop - Pittsboro - Duchess by Night by Eloisa James
139. Kindle - Someone to Watch Over Me by Lisa Kleypas
140. Kindle - Four Nights With a Duke by Eloisa James
141. Kindle - Desperate Duchesses by Eloisa James
142. Kindle - An Affair Before Christmas by Eloisa James
143. Kindle - Duchess by Night by Eloisa James
144. Kindle - When the Duke Returns by Eloisa James
145. Kindle - This Duchess of Mine by Eloisa James
146. Kindle - A Duke of Her Own by Eloisa James
147. Kindle - Three Weeks with Lady X by Eloisa James
148. Kindle - Seven Minutes in Heaven by Eloisa James
149. Kindle - Wilde in Love by Eloisa James
150. Kindle - Too Wilde to Wed by Eloisa James
151. Amazon - Reclaiming Two-Spirits: Sexuality, Spiritual Renewal & Sovereignty in Native America by Gregory D. Smithers
152. Kindle - Born to be Wilde by Eloisa James
153. Kindle - Say No to the Duke by Eloisa James
154. Kindle - Say Yes to the Duke by Eloisa James
155. FoL volunteer book - Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
156. FoL volunteer book - Selected Poems of Langston Hughes
157. Kindle - Wilde Child by Eloisa James
158. Kindle - My Last Duchess by Eloisa James
159. Kindle - Much Ado About You by Eloisa James
160. Amazon - Pilgrim by Timothy Findley
161. Kindle - Kiss Me, Annabel by Eloisa James
162. Kindle - The Taming of the Duke by Eloisa James
163. Kindle - Pleasure for Pleasure by Eloisa James
164. Kindle - Potent Pleasures by Eloisa James
165. Kindle - Memoir of Jane Austen by James Edward Austen-Leigh
166. Kindle - Duchess in Love by Eloisa James
167. Kindle - Fool for Love by Eloisa James
168. Kindle - Governor by Lesli Richardson
169. Kindle - The Wild Pursuit by Eloisa James
170. Kindle - The Complete Works of Alexander Hamilton
171. Kindle - The Affectionate Shepherd by Richard Barnfield
172. Friend Karen - The Mutual Admiration Society: How Dorothy L. Sayers and her Oxford Circle Remade the World for Women by Mo Moulton
173. Amazon - Pietr the Latvian by Georges Simenon
174. Kindle - Lieutenant by Lesli Richardson
175. Kindle - The Canterbury Tales and Other Poems by Geoffrey Chaucer
176. Kindle - Chief by Lesli Richardson
177. Kindle - Yes, Governor by Lesli Richardson
178. Kindle - Pet by Lesli Richardson
179. Kindle - Dignity by Lesli Richardson
180. Kindle - Diligence by Lesli Richardson
181. Kindle - Desire by Lesli Richardson
182. Friend Jan - Open and Shut by David Rosenfelt
183. Friend Jan - First Degree by David Rosenfelt
184. Friend Jan - Bury the Lead by David Rosenfelt
185. Kindle - Your Wicked Ways by Eloisa James
186. Kindle - The Politics of Vaccination ed Christine Holmberg et al.
187. Kindle - Captivating by Onley James
188. Kindle - Exasperating by Onley James
189. Kindle - Infuriating by Onley James
190. Kindle - Satisfying by Onley James
191. Kindle - Bad Habits by Neve Wilder and Onley James
192. Kindle - Play Dirty by Neve Wilder and Onley James
193. Kindle - Head Game by Neve Wilder and Onley James
194. Kindle - Unhinged by Onley James
195. Kindle - Psycho by Onley James
196. Kindle - Moonstruck by Onley James
197. Friend Linda (Whisper1) - You and Me and the Wishing Tree by Nancy Tillman
198. Friend Linda (Whisper1) - You're Here for a Reason by Nancy Tillman
199. Kindle - Headcase by Onley James
200. Kindle - Mad Man by Onley James
201. Kindle - Domesticated Beast by Onley James
202. eBay - Arabella by Georgette Heyer
203. Kindle - Endangered Species by Onley James
204. Kindle - Dangerous Breed by Onley James
205. Amazon - Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout by Lauren Redniss
206. Amazon - Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
207. Amazon - What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher
208. Kindle - The Benefits of Farting Explained (and) A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift
209. Kindle - Disciplinary Action by Onley James
210. Kindle - Novel Affair by Ava Olsen
211. Kindle - His Cocky Valet by Cole McCade
212. Kindle - His Cocky Cellist by Cole McCade
213. Kindle - His Cocky Prince by Cole McCade
214. Kindle - Criminal Intentions S01 E01 The Cardigans by Cole McCade
215. Kindle - Dom of Las Vegas by Tricia Owens
216. Kindle - Limited Liability by Tricia Owens
217. Kindle - Acceptable Sacrifices by Tricia Owens
218. Book Warehouse Asheville - Amberlough by Lara Elena Donnelly
219. Kindle - His to Keep by Violet James
220. Kindle - Tied Up by Jesse Fuchs
00 The Dead Sea Scrolls by The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences
221. FoL volunteer book - The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow
222. Amazon - Trust Exercise by Susan Choi
223. Kindle - The Roommate Risk by Talia Hibbert
224. Thrift Shop - Going Under by Justina Robson
225. Thrift Shop - Selling Out by Justina Robson
226. Thrift Shop - Chasing the Dragon by Justina Robson
227. Thrift Shop - Down to the Bone by Justina Robson
228. Kindle - Home Grown Talent by Joanna Chambers
229. Kindle - A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn
230. Amazon - The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith
231. Kindle - The Histories: Complete by Herodotus
232. FoL 'free' book that would otherwise go to the thrift shop - The Hidden Gospel by Neil douglas-Klotz
233. FoL 'free' book that would otherwise go to the thrift shop - Good News Study Bible - the Bible Societies and Harper Collins
234. FoL volunteer book - book sale prep - Gentleman Jack: The Real Anne Lister by Anne Choma
235. FoL volunteer book - book sale prep - I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong
236. Amazon - Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman by Lucy Worsley
237. FoL volunteer book - book sale prep - The Gospel of Judas ed by Rodolphe Kasser
238. FoL Book Sale - Haikus for Jews by David M. Bader
239. FoL Book Sale - Jewish Holy Scriptures Prepared for Use of Jewish Personnel of the Army of the United States
240. FoL 'free book' - In a Dark Dark wood by Ruth Ware
241. - 250. Complete Works of Flavius Josephus in Ten Volumes
251. FoL F22 Book Sale - Someone Perfect by Mary Balogh
252. Amazon - Grant by Ron Chernow
253. FoL F22 Book Sale - Colonel David Fanning: The Adventures of a Carolina Loyalist by John Hairr
254. FoL F22 Book Sale - Dollar Animal Origami by Won Park
255. FoL F22 Book Sale - Writing & Fighting the Civil War: Soldier Correspondence to the New York Sunday Mercury by William B. Styple
256. FoL F22 Book Sale - The Silk Roads: A New History of the World by Peter Frankopan
257. FoL F22 Book Sale - Killing Reagan: The Violent Assault That Changed a Presidency by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard
258. FoL F22 Book Sale - The Westminster Historical Atlas to the Bible, Revised Edition by George Ernest Wright
259. FoL F22 Book Sale - The Jewish Study Bible by Adele Berlin
260. FoL F22 Book Sale - Torah a Modern Commentary/Hebrew Opening (English and Hebrew Edition) by Gunther Plaut
261. FoL F22 Book Sale - Shakespeare on Love by Stephen Brennan
262. FoL F22 Book Sale - Jews in British India: Identity in a Colonial Era by Joan G. Roland
263. FoL F22 Book Sale - Concise Dictionary of Judaism by Dagobert D. Runes
264. Amazon - The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman
265. FoL F22 Book Sale - Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew by Bart D. Ehrman
266. FoL F22 Book Sale - Judaism FD 2e by Rabbi Ted Falcoln
267. FoL F22 Book Sale - The Jewish Book of Why by Alfred J. Kolatch
268. FoL F22 Book Sale - The Essential Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
269. FoL F22 Book Sale - The Complete Idiot's Guide to Classical Mythology by Kevin Osborn
270. FoL F22 Book Sale - New Stories from the South 2000: The Year's Best by Shannon Ravenel
271. Amazon - Toksvig's Almanac 2021: An Eclectic Meander Through the Historical Year by Sandi Toksvig
272. FoL F22 Book Sale - Recollections of My Slavery Days by William Henry Singleton
273. FoL F22 Book Sale - Pictorial History of the Jewish People by Nathan Ausubel
274. FoL F22 Book Sale - The American Jewish Album : 1654 to the Present by Allon Schoener
275. FoL F22 Book Sale - The Book of Proverbs by
276. FoL F22 Book Sale - Turkish Literature by Epiphanius Wilson
277. FoL F22 Book Sale - Persian Literature Volume II by Richard J.H. Gottheil
278. FoL F22 Book Sale - Moorish Literature and Malayan Literature by Chauncey C. Starkweather and René Basset
279. FoL F22 Book Sale - Persian Literature Volume I by Richard J.H. Gottheil
280. FoL F22 Book Sale - J.D.Salinger by James Lundquist
281. FoL F22 Book Sale - Paradise Screwed by Carl Hiaasen
282. FoL F22 Book Sale - In the Hurricane's Eye: The Genius of George Washington and the Victory at Yorktown by Nathaniel Philbrick
283. FoL F22 Book Sale - Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard
284. FoL F22 Book Sale - Runaway Slaves: Rebels on the Plantation by John Hope Franklin
285. FoL F22 Book Sale - Revolutionary Summer: The Birth of American Independence by Joseph J. Ellis
286. FoL F22 Book Sale - In the Light of the Menorah: Story of Symbol by Yael Israeli
287. FoL F22 Book Sale - A Touch of Dead by Charlaine Harris
288. Amazon - A Line to Kill by Anthony Horowitz
289. FoL - A History of the Crusades by Steven Runciman, Folio Society Slipcased
290. Kindle - A Pirate's Honor by Tricia Owens. Bought by mistake, but only noticed after I finished reading it. Sigh. It should have been a Kindle Unlimited borrow.
291. Kindle - Bodyguard to a Sex God by RJ Scott (I know, I know... what can I say?)
292. Kindle - Save the Date by Annabeth Albert and Wendy Qualls freebie, $0.00
293. Kindle - Top Priority by Cara Dee freebie, $0.00
294. FoL - The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
295. Amazon - Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
296. Amazon - The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith - audiobook
297. FoL Volunteer Book - Aesop's Fables by Aesop
298. FoL Volunteer Book - The Birds & The Frogs by Aristophanes
299. FoL Volunteer Book - The Poems of Robert Browning by Robert Browning
300. FoL Volunteer Book - The Way of All Flesh by Samuel Butler
301. FoL Volunteer Book - Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
302. FoL Volunteer Book - The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
303. FoL Volunteer Book - The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
304. FoL Volunteer Book - The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
305. FoL Volunteer Book - David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
306. FoL Volunteer Book - Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
307. FoL Volunteer Book - On the Origin of Species by Charles Dickens
308. FoL Volunteer Book - Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
309. FoL Volunteer Book - The Brothers Kramazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
310. FoL Volunteer Book - The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
311. FoL Volunteer Book - The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas père
312. FoL Volunteer Book - Faust by Johann Wofgang von Goethe
313. FoL Volunteer Book - She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith
314. FoL Volunteer Book - The Iliad by Homer
315. FoL Volunteer Book - The Odyssey by Homer
316. FoL Volunteer Book - Tales of The Alhambra by Washington Irving
317. FoL Volunteer Book - The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
318. FoL Volunteer Book - The Poems of John Keats by John Keats
319. FoL Volunteer Book - Paradise Lost by John Milton
320. FoL Volunteer Book - The Rights of Man by Thomas Payne
321. FoL Volunteer Book - The Tragedies by William Shakespeare
322. FoL Volunteer Book - Oedipus the King by Sophocles
323. FoL Volunteer Book - The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne
324. FoL Volunteer Book - The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hide by Robert Louis Stevenson
325. FoL Volunteer Book - Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
326. FoL Volunteer Book - War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
327. FoL Volunteer Book - Fathers & Sons by Ivan Turgenev
328. FoL Volunteer Book - Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
329. FoL Volunteer Book - The Aeneid by Virgil
330. FoL Volunteer Book - The Poems of Yates by W. B. Yates
331. FoL Volunteer Book - The Arabian Nights
332. Amazon - Desert Star by Michael Connelly
333. Amazon - The Conjure-Man Dies by Rudolph Fisher
334. Amazon - The Metropolitan Opera Murders by Helen Traubel
335. Amazon - Average Jones by Samuel Hopkins Adams
336. Amazon - Room to Swing by Ed Lacy
337. Kindle - Diver's Paradise by David Goodwin

Culls. Last year I culled 72. While looking for some books for friend Louise today I saw two very poor quality mass market paperbacks that I should cull... perhaps I can focus on culling unreadable books if they don't hold sentimental or intrinsic value, of course.

I am toying with the idea of culling a book for every book I acquire. Toying only, but I did just find 3 mass market paperbacks with print too small or too yellowed.

1. Kissing the Gunner's Daughter by Ruth Rendell
2. Artists in Crime by Ngaio Marsh
3. A Dark Adapted Eye by Barbara Vine (pseudonym for Ruth Rendell)
4. Some Die Nameless by Wallace Stroby reasonable, but not enough to award it permanent shelf space
5. Cold Shot to the Heart by Wallace Stroby
6. The Heartbreak Lounge by Wallace Stroby
7. The Devil's Share by Wallace Stroby
8. Kings of Midnight by Wallace Stroby
9. Gone 'Til November by Wallace Stroby
10. Suite 606 - contains an Eve Dallas novella, duplicated in another book on my shelves
11. Out of This World - contains an Eve Dallas novella, duplicated in another book on my shelves
12. Dead of Night - contains an Eve Dallas novella, duplicated in another book on my shelves
13. The Lost - contains an Eve Dallas novella, duplicated in another book on my shelves
14. Big Jack - duplicate of a copy in Remember When
15. The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht
16. The Winshaw Legacy by Jonathan Coe
17. Number 11 by Jonathan Coe
18. The Power of Babel by John McWhorter
19. The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware
20. A Personal History of Thirst by John Burdett - liked it but not enough for shelf space
21. A God in Ruins by Leon Uris
22. Accused by Lisa Scottoline
23. Betrayed by Lisa Scottoline
24. Corrupted by Lisa Scottoline
25. Keep Quiet by Lisa Scottoline
26. Look Again by Lisa Scottoline
27. Every Fifteen Minutesby Lisa Scottoline
28. The New Oxford Book of Seventeenth Century Verse edited by Alastair Fowler
29. Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda
30. White Oleander by Janet Fitch
31. Lady Sophia's Lover by Lisa Kleypas
32. The Chamber by John Grisham
33. Japanese Proverbs
34. Somewhere I'll Find You by Lisa Kleypas
35. Stranger in My Arms by Lisa Kleypas
36. Midnight Angel by Lisa Kleypas
37. Only With Your Love by Lisa Kleypas
38. Because You're Mine by Lisa Kleypas
39. Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas
40. When Strangers Marry by Lisa Kleypas
41. Forever My Love by Lisa Kleypas
42. Untamed Heart by Georgina Devon
43. Those Who Hunt the Night by Barbara Hambly
44. The Wind Dancer by Iris Johansen
45. From Time to Time by Jack Finney
46. Time and Again by Jack Finney
47. 3 by Finney by Jack Finney
48. Larry's Party by Carol Shields
49. Birds of North America by Pearson, Thomas Gilbert. (Revised by David L. Wray and Harry T. Davis).
50. The Quaker by Liam McIlvanney
51. The Drunken Forest by Gerald Durrell
52. Second Sight by Isobel Bird
53. So Mote It Be by Isobel Bird
54. Merry Meet by Isobel Bird
55. Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko
56. The Round House by Louise Erdrich
57. A General Introduction to PsychAnalysis by Sigmund Freud
58. An Anonymous Girl by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen
59. The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn - I have all the other books just in Kindle and don't want to get them all in paper, so...
60. In the Dark House by Deborah Crombie
61. A Bitter Feast by Decorah Crombie
62. Necessary Blood by Deborah Crombie
63. Early Man and the Ocean by Thor Heyerdahl
64. How to Do Everything by Courtney Rosen & the eHow Editors
65. Willoughby's Return by Jane Odiwe
66. The Last Girls by Lee Smith
67. Dangerous Lady by Martina Cole
68. A Very Private Plot by William f. Buckley, Jr.
69. A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash
70. Rotters by Daniel Kraus
71. The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
72. On The Road by Jack Kerouac
73. Dangerous Lover by Lisa Marie Rice
74. Where the Heart Is by Billie Letts
75. Chasing Cezanne by Peter Mayle
76. Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver
77. Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver
78. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
79. The Crow Road by Iain Banks
80. I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai
81. Down to the Bone by Justina Robson
82. Chasing the Dragon by Justina Robson
83. Selling Out by Justina Robson
84. Going Under by Justina Robson

Statistics Through October 31

246 books read
17 of them on my shelves before 1/1/22 and not rereads
23 books abandoned, 2644 pages abandoned
73032 pages read
107 audiobook hours
Avg pages read per day, YTD = 240
Avg pages read per book, YTD = 297

Book of the Month: Temporary Partner by Nicky James

Books by Month
January - 4 paper books 1312 pages, 1 audiobook 19 hours
February - 14 paper books, 2473 pages
March - 10 paper books, 3193 pages, 1 audiobook 19.5 hours
April - 9 paper books, 3173 pages, 1 audiobook 18 hours
May - 36 e-books, 13344 pages including 2 books abandoned with 252 pages counted
June - 31 e-books and 1 paper book, 10,849 pages, including 1 book with 49 pages abandoned
July - 37 e-books and 1 audio book 36 hours, 10,030 pages including 1 book with 111 pages abandoned
August - 31 e-books, 8,550 pages, including 7 books with 749 pages abandoned
September - 34 e-books and 1 audio book 14.5 hours, 9,211 pages plus 6 books abandoned with 515 pages
October - 34 e-books (again!), 5 books abandoned with 910 pages

Author
Male 10%
Female 90%

Living 99%
Dead 1%

US Born 88%
Foreign Born 12%

Platform
Hardcover 4%
Trade Pback 5%
Mass Market 4%
Audiobook 3%
e-Book 84%

Source
My Library 55%
Library 2%
Kindle Unlimited 42%
My Library, culled after reading 2%
Borrowed from a friend 0%

Misc
ARC/ER 0%
Re-read 2%
Series 86%

Fiction 98%
NonFiction 2%

Author Birth Country
Australia 6%
Canada 2%
England 3%
Ireland 1%
Sweden 0.4%
US 87.6%

Original Decade Published
1870-1879 0.4%
1950-1959 0.4%
1980-1989 0.4%
1990-1999 2.8%
2000-2009 13%
2010-2019 45%
2020-2029 38%

Category
Contemporary Fiction 58.6%
Crime Fiction - Mystery, Thriller, Suspense 9.8%
Fantasy 0.8%
Graphic Novel 0.4%
Historical Fiction 27.6%
Informational Nonfiction 2.0%
Poetry 0.4%
Science Fiction 0.4%

Acquisition/Source Date
2007 - Joined LT, added 1853 books 2
2011 8
2013 1
2018 1
2019 2
2020 1
2021 5
2022 111
Kindle Unlimited 109
Library 4
Other 2

Average Rating
2.0 - Bad 4
2.5 - Average 6
3.0 - Good 23
3.5 - Very Good 38
4.0 - Excellent 133
4.5 - Outstanding 41
5 - Masterpiece 1

Average Rating 3.85

October Lightning Round

Kissed by a Killer by Leighton Greene 9/30/22 10/1/22 Kindle

Morelli Capo Nick and Morelli Family lawyer Carlo’s story. Hookups turn into more, Carlo is almost murdered and Nick saves him. Nick disobeys Morelli Boss Luca and there are repercussions from that. An enemy is after something and things are interesting there, too. Caveat emptor re sex.

Devoted to the Don by Leighton Greene 10/1/22 10/3/22 Kindle

Back to Finch and Luca, as they work to determine what the enemy is looking for. Lots of action in this one, all of it interesting and fun. Finch shows that he can dish violence with the best of ‘em, and things resolve nicely. Caveat emptor re sex.

Just a Bit Shameless by Alessandra Hazard 10/3/22 10/3/22 Kindle

Improbable story of an eighteen year-old recruited to be a sugar baby by MI6. I know… Caveat emptor re sex.

His Lethal Desire by Leighton Greene 10/3/22 10/4/22 Kindle

JJ and Miller’s story. JJ is an LA mobster, Miller is a retired-from-TV artist. JJ is told to find Miller’s missing sister. Reasonable mystery on top of the romance, good character development. Of course there’s sparkage and violence. This one takes place in LA, which always makes me happy. Caveat emptor re sex.

Extradition by Kelly Fox 10/4/22 10/4/22 Kindle

Rand is challenged at an employee meeting by Joe, who’s then fired. Rand tracks Joe down to self-servingly offer him a job to keep the business from imploding, finds out Joe’s the bastard son of a mobster. Joe needs to hide, in Rand’s apartment, of course… you can see where this is going. HEA, caveat emptor re sex. A bit preachy about corporations being socially responsible – I like the idea but of course very few are.

Virtuous by Roelle Denning 10/6/22 10/6/22 Kindle

First in a series about mobsters, Nico and Toby’s story. Guess who’s the mobster? *smile* Nico sees Toby perform – he’s a violinist – and is enraptured. Toby’s backstory intrudes, Nico and family rescue him. I’m perfectly happy with moral ambiguity and bad guys getting it from our hero bad guys. Caveat emptor re sex.

Indulgent by Roelle Denning 10/6/22 10/7/22 Kindle

Second in the series, the story of Matteo and Lev. Lather, rinse, repeat, but highly satisfactory for all that. Lev’s father owes money to low-level mobsters, who do Matteo a favor and remove the debt that Lev’s father owes to them. Matteo wants to own Lev body and soul, Lev rebels, danger ensues, HEA. Caveat emptor re sex.

Burned by Roelle Denning 10/7/22 10/8/22 Kindle

Third in the series, the story of Mirko and Nathan. Nathan and Mirko fall in love in high school but Nathan flees. Twelve years later he returns to take over his uncle’s vet practice. Mirko is bent on revenge, but things don’t work out that way. Misunderstandings, kidnappings, and etc., later, HEA. Caveat emptor re sex.

A Pirate's Life For Me by Tricia Owens 10/9/22 10/10/22 Kindle

A series by an author I like that I’ve resisted but finally succumbed to. This is a trilogy in one volume:

Book One:Captain & First Mate
Book Two: Island Paradise
Book Three: Pirate Triumvirate

The story of Lucas, straight, assigned to the gay pirate show instead of the straight pirate show on a Caribbean island. He is unwilling to give up and return to Chicago after a messy breakup, so vows to be ‘gay’ enough to stay. Adventures and romance ensue. I really liked this 3-novels-in-one-book and just kept reading. It helps that yesterday I spent 4.5 hours in the ER before getting called back and had such a good book to read. The plot started out as a “Really?” but the character development of the members of the show was deftly and vividly handled. The plot, across 730 pages, meandered but in a positive way that kept me involved. I can’t speak to how this truly reflects the G of LGBTQIA+ since I’m straight, and I wouldn’t presume, but human emotions are human emotions and these rang true for me. Caveat emptor re sex.

A Pirate's Honor by Tricia Owens 10/11/22 10/11/22 90 Kindle

An earlier pirate effort, this one historical fiction, that failed miserably for me. Jaime’s lover is rumored to have been killed by the Dread Pirate West – she used this reference to The Princess Bride way too often – and Jaimie gives up his life on land to roam the seas searching for West. He finds him, they get together, they part, they get back together. Shallow, too many coincidences without enough writing to cover for them, too mushy. Caveat emptor re sex.

Tough Luck by Annabeth Albert 10/11/22 10/13/22 Kindle

Former child star Danny Love has a stalker, and at-loose-ends former SEAL friend of Danny’s brother Cash is asked to protect Danny when Duncan can’t. Sparkage, unlovable dogs, HEA for both. Caveat emptor re sex.

Hard Job by Annabeth Albert 10/13/22 10/14/22 Kindle

Second book in series, with Danny’s half brother Duncan going on tour with Ezra and his band as security chief. Duncan is pretty far in the closet, but sparkage, danger, familial resistance, and HEA. Caveat emptor re sex.

Bad Deal by Annabeth Albert 10/14/22 10/15/22 Kindle

Third book in series. Harley is on security duty when Ambrose is attacked. Harley literally saves his life. Worried about security while at a niece’s wedding, Ambrose hires Harley to be his bodyguard while pretending to be his boyfriend. Predictable, sparkage, satisfying. HEA and caveat emptor re sex.

Bodyguard to a Sex God by RJ Scott 10/15/22 10/15/22 Kindle

Adam is hired to guard Logan when Logan comes to the UK to participate in a fan conference for his TV show. There’s a stalker in the UK. There’s also instant attraction between the two, which slow simmers with a bit of naughty thrown in. The book used way too much shorthand for character development, but I liked the plot twist about the stalker, and HEAs always get to me. Caveat emptor re sex.

Save the Date by Annabeth Albert and Wendy Qualls 10/15/22 10/16/22 Kindle

Hookup gets embarrassing when Randall and Hunter meet the day after at Randall’s sister’s wedding. He’s her Man of Honor and Hunter is the groom’s best man. All’s well that ends well, with sparkage and snarky descriptions of a destination wedding. Caveat emptor re sex.

Weekend Plaything by Wendy Qualls 10/16/22 10/16/22 Kindle

Sebastian agrees to a no-commitments weekend with Lance, who never invites a ‘toy’ back for another weekend. However, at the end of this novella, we see glimpses of a future relationship. Caveat emptor re sex.

Sargeant Delicious by Annabeth Albert 10/16/22 10/17/22 Kindle

Another novella, Foodie Damien ‘advertises’ for a platonic date for a Valentine’s Day gourmet meal. Xavier is coming home from deployment soon and they strike up an email conversation and go to the dinner. Damien’s romantic disasters are amusing. Xavier’s large, loving, and boisterous family are fun to read about. Sparkage turns into more. HEA. Caveat emptor re sex.

Off Camera by Wendy Qualls 10/17/22 10/17/22 254 pages Kindle

Devon, closeted famous actor, meets out Max, creative director at a children’s museum when he comes for a fan conference. Much sparkage, much angst by Devon. Vivid characters, especially Max’s bio child with his sister/wife and Devon’s niece. It takes Devon a while to figure out what’s important, but it’s HEA all the way. Caveat emptor re sex.

Rockets and Romance by Wendy Qualls 10/17/22 10/17/22 92 pages Kindle

Cody and Julian both work for NASA in a red state. Both are out, but after some initial sparkage, Julian backs off. He eventually figures out what’s important, though, so once again HEA and caveat emptor re sex.

Top Priority by Cara Dee 10/18/22 10/18/22 Kindle

Colt and Lucas meet at a truck stop in the middle of a wicked storm, have dinner together, spend one night together. Colt is deployed for a year. Laugh out loud moments, serious moments, true emotions. HFN and caveat emptor re sex.

Their Boy by Cara Dee 10/18/22 10/19/22 Kindle

8 years later, and Colt and Lucas have built a life together. The only thing missing? A Little for their Dom natures. The emotions were true, the trauma that Kit went through when his parents died beautifully portrayed. The kink was a bit much, frankly, so no more of this series. Caveat emptor re sex.

Never Stay Gone by Tal Bauer 10/19/22 10/20/22 342 pages Kindle

13 years after Shane rejected Dakota, we find Shane a Deputy Sheriff in a West Texas county and Dakota a Texas Ranger. There’s a serial killer burying bodies in Shane’s county and Dakota is sent to help with the investigation. Renewed sparkage and caveat emptor re sex. The mystery is solid and I never saw the resolution coming. Whew. Very, very well done. Like Jane Harper’s novels of Australia capture the heat and characters, this one captured the searing desert and characters of West Texas. Caveat emptor re sex.

The Murder Between Us by Tal Bauer 10/22/22 10/23/22 Kindle

I’m sold on books by this author – tense thrillers with a strong romance angle between two men. In this case it’s Noah, FBI field agent, and Cole, FBI profiler. They meet in Las Vegas, thinking they would never meet again, but Cole is pulled into a serial killer case in Des Moines, Noah’s home office. I found the whole thing fun and fascinating. It was well paced, with strong dialog and plot. I particularly liked that Noah was married to a woman and divorced, with his 16-year old daughter living with him. The dynamic between Katie and Cole is sweet. Would that all teenagers were so committed to their father’s happiness and openness with his newly-discovered sexuality. Nothing untoward, just total acceptance. And the serial killer plot was grisly and nuanced and I could never have predicted the denouement. Caveat emptor re sex.

Hell and Gone by Tal Bauer 10/23/22 10/23/22 Kindle

Less fleshed out than The Murder Between Us, but complete, believable, and full of interesting information about the Crazy Mountains of Montana and Stock Detectives. Everett is struggling after leaving the Army, becomes a Stock Agent and is assigned to a series of cattle rustlings and now murder. Bad guys and cowboys abound, including Lawrence, who brings a dead body to the Sheriff’s office in order to get his attention about the bad things happening. I loved the HEA. Caveat emptor re sex.

Clashing Hearts by Nicky James 10/24/22 10/24/22 Kindle

Developer’s son Lachlan tries to make offer to buy out Easton’s failing ranch. Easton can’t stand Lachlan, Lachlan hates that Easton won’t sell. However, there’s sparkage and two lonely men trying to find true love and a HEA. Very satisfying. Caveat emptor re sex.

Rocky Mountain Refuge by Nicky James 10/24/22 10/25/22 Kindle

This one was fascinating because of Huxley’s paranoid personality disorder. He’s also witnessed his husband Nathaniel’s murder and held him in his arms as he died. He drains his bank account and vanishes. 5 years later, Aspen, a juror on the case that convicted Nathaniel’s murderer, is leading the final season of his grizzly bear research project, and recognizes the elusive and reclusive Huxley. There’s sparkage and working through how to have a relationship with a person whose illness informs his every action. I was stunned by it, frankly. Caveat emptor re sex.

The Renegade by Silvia Violet 10/25/22 10/26/22 Kindle

Grant and Jacob have a one night stand. Jacob’s ex tracks Jacob down, Jacob flees, asking friend Rogue to help him. Coincidence, Rogue is Grant’s brother. Hookup sparkage turns into long-term sparkage. Oh, there are safe houses, the FBI, murder and mayhem, and mares giving birth. Caveat emptor re sex.

The Reaper by Silvia Violet 10/26/22 10/27/22 Kindle

TJ, a hitman, is one of the people who are staying at the safe house because his father, a mobster, sends him there. TJ does not want to be there. Rhys, Grant’s younger brother and Rogue’s twin, is repelled by having a hitman there but there’s an immediate connection between the two of them. TJ helps them with a threat, Grant/brothers help TJ when one of his cousins comes gunning for him. Rhys and TJ overcome their supposed hate, and it's HEA. Caveat emptor re sex.

Watch Me by Sloane Kennedy 10/27/22 10/28/22 Kindle

Private security bodyguard Nicolai is the last ditch attempt by his boss to properly guard Jude, a successful wheeler-and-dealer, who is curiously reluctant to accept this protection from a series of written threats and a break in of his apartment. Nicolai scares him into submission and discovers why Jude doesn’t want anybody to learn anything about his private life. Lots of angst and playing on the heartstrings, some of which was interesting and some of which was eye-rolling. Nicolai breaks the rules when the sparkage between them ignites. A few ups and downs, the threat eliminated, HEA. Caveat emptor re sex.

Temporary Partner by Nicky James 10/28/22 10/28/22 Kindle

First book in the four-book Valor and Doyle series. Doyle and Valor are called to work together on the kidnapping of a 5-month old baby boy. They work for different divisions of the police department, met at a conference earlier in the year, shared a kiss, then that was it. There’s intense sexual interest and the building of a working partnership to solve the kidnapping. The characters are well developed, the plot intricate and believable, and the solution more than satisfying. Several cases, past and present, and several of the characters all have motives and possible connections to the case because of one overriding issue. To say anything would be to create spoilers. Doyle and Valor’s personal chemistry goes off the charts, and I can’t wait for the second in the series. Caveat emptor re sex.

Linchpin by Jodi Payne 10/28/22 10/29/22 Kindle

Quinn cleans up after mob hits and finds a strange situation – the body he’s expecting to find is very much a living person. He’s ordered to take the man to his place, where things get very interesting. I loved the plot twist and sparkage. Caveat emptor re sex.

Elusive Relations by Nicky James 10/29/22 10/30/22 Kindle

Second in the Valor and Doyle series. This time, Doyle and his partner Fox get assigned to the case of Valor’s ex and his lover. The lover has been murdered, Valor’s ex left for dead. He’s in a coma and can’t tell them anything. Valor asks to help and the powers that be allow that. There’s another overriding issue that Valor’s ex, his lover, and other men are involved in. Valor and Doyle move further along in their relationship. Valor wants a husband and children, Doyle is a player. The solution is well done, the relationship between Valor and Doyle moves to another level. Highly satisfactory. Caveat emptor re sex.

Unstable Connections by Nicky James 10/30/22 10/31/22 Kindle

Third in the Valor and Doyle series finds us with a strange reversal on a kidnapping: children that were kidnapped 3-4 months previously are being let go and asking for Valor. The first child returned has the backpack of the sister who was kidnapped 30 years ago. The second child has another bit of info for Valor, and by now he’s been tasked with revisiting his sister’s kidnapping with his father. His father is crusty and unyielding to say the least, and tension and upset flare into harsh words on both sides. In addition, a hidden piece of Doyle’s past comes back to bite him. Between Valor’s insecurities from his previous relationship and Doyle’s dealing with his own personal issues, there is a real risk for the relationship to crumble. However, HFN wins out, the cases get solved, and I was pleased. James writes convincing emotional dialogue, and the dynamic between Doyle, a player who’s scared about his feelings for Valor, and Valor, whose insecurities make him question Doyle’s feelings, is fascinating to watch. Caveat emptor re sex.

103 books read

0 Masterpiece
17 Stunning
51 Excellent
28 Very Good
6 Good
1 Average
0 Bad
0 Very Bad
0 Don't Bother
0 Anathema

Best Fiction
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine
Widow of the South by Robert Hicks
Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley
The Mandibles: A family, 2029 – 2047 by Lionel Shriver

Best Nonfiction
Killing Lincoln by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard
Ties That Bound: Founding First Ladies and Slaves by Marie Jenkins Schwartz
Never Caught by Erica Armstrong Dunbar
A Promised Land by Barack Obama
Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit

Top five overall for the LT Top Five Books of 2021 list:
An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine
Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley
Killing Lincoln by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard
Ties That Bound: Founding First Ladies and Slaves by Marie Jenkins Schwartz
A Promised Land by Barack Obama

…...

Welcome!

Happy new thread Karen!

>2 karenmarie: Nice work with the reading! I just barely passed 100 titles read.

>9 karenmarie: Thank you, Susan!

One of your favorite things in recognition of being first (don't know if you collect Madame Alexander dolls or not, but at least the thought is there!)



>11 ocgreg34: Thank you, Greg! I usually read about 100 books a year. Congrats on 100 so far this year.

Happy new one!

Happy new thread!

Happy new thread, Karen.

Safely going beyond 3,000 posts on your threads this year. x

Happy New Thread. It must have taken a lot of time to log all those books throughout this thread. Congratulations for a jo well done!

Happy new thread, Karen!

>1 karenmarie: I am with Irina in which type of coffee, I just had my first cup of black coffee (no sugar). I do like Zoe's espresso once in a while, no sugar either. I have no idea what Wash's pumpkin spice latte is.

New-thread orisons, Horrible! I'm glad you're safe, if not yet as sound as we need you to be not to be in pain. *smooch*

Happy Saturday, Karen. Happy New Thread! I got to spend some time with Jackson the last 2 days and we are going over there for dinner tonight. Yah. He is still not walking but he is taking several steps. Double Yah! Meeting a birding buddy this AM. I will be bundled up. Have a great weekend.

>13 figsfromthistle: Thank you, Anita!

>14 drneutron: Thanks, Jim, and thanks for taking such good care of this group.

>15 PaulCranswick: Thank you, Paul. Fancy that – I’ll get over 3000 posts this year. This group is very important to me even if I’m not posting on very many threads right now.

>16 Whisper1: Thank you twice, Linda. I normally read about 100 books a year, so this year is a total anomaly. I’ve had to really work hard at tracking things.

>17 FAMeulstee: Thank you, Anita. I just had my first couple of sips of coffee, black, no sugar. Inara's black coffee is her no-nonsense nature, Zoe's is her acerbic/strong nature, and Wash's is an homage to his sweetness and general squishiness because of the whipped cream.

The Pumpkin Spice Latte is a coffee drink made with a mix of traditional autumn spice flavors (cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove), steamed milk, espresso, and often sugar, topped with whipped cream and pumpkin pie spice. The beverage is most commonly associated with Starbucks, which first offered the drink in the fall of 2003. The popular flavor has inspired a wide range of product variations that appear on a seasonal basis. Wikipedia

>18 richardderus: Thank you, RDear. Yes, sound will be attainable next week. As you well know, constant pain is draining, both physically and mentally/emotionally.

>19 msf59: Hi Mark, and happy Saturday to you, too. Thanks re my new thread. I’m glad I got the first message prepped a while back – it really snuck up on me this time. Yay for Jackson time and dinner tonight. I’m glad he’s is taking several steps. He just doesn’t trust that walking will get him around better than crawling. Definitely a day for being bundled up there in Chicagoland. It’s 38F here but going to a high of 79F. Thanks re my weekend – same to you.

Wordle 483 4/6* adieu, vocal, crash, catch

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Ah, coffee. I did some good puttering yesterday in the Sunroom and plan on doing a bit more today, along with reading and possibly watching a bit of Premier League Soccer if Bill goes out to get us take out for lunch.

Jenna won't be home 'til tomorrow - her friends won't be back 'til very late.

OH wow! This is a new thread. I'll have to come back later to catch up. Meanwhile, I'm delighted to see you keeping on in your most enthusiastic way!
There you are back with your good 4! Wordle in 5 for me today. It could have been 3, but I was trying to pin down as many consonants as I could. Oh well.

Hi Peggy!

At the ER on Monday the doctor said something and whatever I replied had him saying "You seem to be a positive person" and I said "I try". Sometimes that's the best it gets, just trying.

Yay for Wordle in 4. Here are my stats, just for S&G (s***s and giggles):

Happy new one Karen. Cute family photo. I would have loved to have had siblings.

Happy new thread, Karen! Wow! I'm number 25, lol.

Well, at least the doctor thinks you're a positive person? That's nice.

>1 karenmarie: >17 FAMeulstee: If I claimed the same coffee preferences as Anita, I would be semi-accurate. Daily I have black coffee - but it is a mocha flavored bean, and when I go to pick up my beans I get a latte to tide me over. And an espresso is an option if one is on offer in the morning.

>21 karenmarie: What, no ginger in pumpkin spice? Ginger is necessary for my fall spicing.

Oh, Karen. I'm positive you are a person. I'd swear to it but not at it. There are already too many things I swear at. Judi would always correct me when I spouted the standard epithets out of order.

Morning, Karen. Happy Sunday. Yep, it is football day but both of our teams are awful. At least my Bears lost Thursday night so I get a break on not having to watch them today. Looking forward to the Chiefs/Bills match up later this afternoon. Now, that will be a good one. Not much planned for the day. Books and taking Juno for a long walk. That is it, my friend.

>24 RebaRelishesReading: Hi Reba! Thank you twice. I’m grateful for my siblings. Growing up, my sister and I were not close. We’re 3 ½ years apart, me being the elder, and it took until our 20s before we could really appreciate each other. My brother stopped communicating with my sister in 2009 and me in 2010, which makes me very sad.

Bill’s an only child but not by design – his mother miscarried a little girl when Bill was 2 or 3. Jenna’s an only child by design because I was 40 when she was born and she and I had a rough delivery.

Neither Bill nor Jenna has ever expressed sadness about their ‘only’ status, but I’m sad that Jenna will never have a sister/brother relationship like I do with my sister.

>25 The_Hibernator: Hi Rachel, and thank you. I guess most people who come through ER are in worse shape than I was. Plus, I didn’t figure it was my job to be anything but grateful for their help.

>26 quondame: I’m much more a creature of habit, Susan – black coffee, no sugar, in the morning. Freshly ground beans, our delicious well water, my Bunn coffee maker. I can’t remember the last time I had coffee at a restaurant – perhaps fall of 2019 when I had breakfast at a local hangout before a Friends book sale.

Having never had a Pumpkin Spice Latte, I cannot attest to the flavors. I do agree with you about the necessity of ginger in fall spicing. The pumpkin pie recipe I use for Jenna’s birthday ‘cake’ in August and at Thanksgiving is from a 1950s Meta Givens cookbook and does not use clove – it calls for ¼ t ginger, ¾ t cinnamon, and ⅛ t nutmeg.

>27 weird_O: Why, thank you Bill. Last time I checked I was a person, too. And yes, don’t swear at the person. Please continue to swear, though – I have been seriously swearing since high school, although the one time I swore around my mother – my wallet had been stolen and I came home and said “Some f***er stole my wallet” - she told my dad, who said I was hysterical, and they sent me to my room. No sympathy about my wallet being stolen and no help in getting replacement SS card or DL. I’m sure Judi didn’t send you to your room. *smile*

>28 msf59: 'Morning, Mark! Happy Bear-less Sunday to you. Yes, both of them are pretty bad, although the owners of the Panthers fired Matt Rhule after last week's debacle. They play today at 4:05 our time, with interim head coach Steve Wilks. My backup team, the Chiefs, play at 4:25 our time, so depending on the Panthers game goes, we might switch.

Wordle 484 3/6* adieu, drape, spade Huzzah!

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Don't know when Jenna will be home, but hope it's earlier than later so she can relax then mentally gear up for tomorrow's work day.

Coffee, reading, Panthers and/or Chiefs.

Wordle in 3! GOOD for you!!!!! I am happy with my 4 and off to work on getting Mama up for breakfast. Enjoy another gorgeous October day!

>1 karenmarie: That Wilfred Owen poem was the first one to ever make me think I could appreciate a poem. (It might also be the last one, but that's a personal failing.)

Hi Peggy! Thanks. 4 is good, and kind regards to your mama. It's a lovely October day, isn't it?

>31 ursula: Hi Ursula. I probably like a few more poems/poets than you do, but poetry is not my go-to-genre either. Especially free verse, which in most cases I truly do not consider poetry. Note that I say most. Not all.

I watched Man U/Newcastle soccer with Bill. *blinks* I don't know what got into me. However, no more TV 'til the Panthers game this afternoon. Even if it's Arsenal, the men's version of Jenna's team, Arsenal Women.

Smoochling, thank you for visiting me while Valerie's much-desired and delightful visit kept me from being here.

>29 karenmarie: I took 4 despite Wordleing at 1pm! Four! For such a blindingly obvious word, too.

...you...watched...a...soccer...*blink*

Who are you?!? What have you done with Karen?!? HORRIBLE!! DON'T WORRY WE WILL FIND YOU NOW WE KNOW AN IMPOSTOR IS IN YOUR PLACE

Happy new thread, Karen. You had me beat on the Wordle score today.

Morning, Karen. Sorry about your Panthers. Ugh. I know you are a Chiefs fan and so am I but I also like the Bills so I am glad they pulled that one out. Great game. Probably the best 2 teams in football.

We saw a red-breasted nuthatch stop at our feeder yesterday. The first time ever for our backyard. Yah! We also had a stray female red-winged blackbird. Sue saw a flicker too but I did not. Do you spot migrants at your feeders? I am joining a bird walk this AM.

>33 richardderus: You're most welcome, RDear. Sorry about your 4...

I did watch soccer. I enjoyed it, too. My You're most welcome, RDear. Sorry about your 4...

My Doppelgänger was pretty insistent on watching the match.

Much sadness at the Panthers game, although it was more tolerable than recent games. We were even up twice, and Christian McCaffrey ran for 49 yards only to have the rally fizzle.

Sigh.

>34 Familyhistorian: Thank you, Meg. I'm working on Wordle right now, along with my first cup of coffee.


>35 msf59: Hi Mark, and good morning. Enjoy your bird walk this a.m. Panthers - ugh is right. I did not like what I saw from the interim head coach - too much visible anger and angst. And I don't know what was up with Robbie Anderson getting sent to the locker room. They needed him. I’m sorry the Chiefs lost, but didn’t watch the game. Too much TV yesterday with the soccer game and the football game.

Yay for the Red-Breasted Nuthatch. NC is in their nonbreeding range, so I’d like to see one sometime. What was it eating, since the AllAboutBirds.Org website says they eat insects? And the Flicker and the Red-Winged Blackbird. Lots of visitors.

I have seen migrants at our feeders over the years, but so far nothing this fall. I don’t know how much longer the migration south occurs.

Wordle 485 4/6* This one took way too long. adieu, eight, timer, stein

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Friends Board meeting at 10, doctor's office to get the fluid aspirated out of my Bakers Cyst at 2:40. Fun times, both.

Good afternoon, ((((((Karen)))))). I hope the aspiration works wonders and isn't too awful a process. QUITE a busy day for you, and I very much hope that you can get comfy and enjoy the rest of it with a book!

I'm pleased to have wordled in 3 today - happens less frequently to me than to you. I got all 5 letters in two tries, and the right word was the one and only that sprang to mind.

Hi Karen. I'm simply stopping by to see how you are. Good luck with the aspiration of your Bakers cyst. I hope it isn't painful!

Are you home from your procedure yet? I hope it was untroublesome. *smooch*

Hope you're resting well, Karen. Good night!

Morning, Karen. Very cold and windy here yesterday and not much better today. I have Rehab duties today. You asked about red-breasted nuthatch and their diet. I assume both nuthatches feed primarily on insects but will supplement with seeds, whenever they can. Most birds that stay in the north have to do this, because of lack of insects in the winter.

I got some pretty unhappy news re the cyst yesterday – it has ruptured. They can’t aspirate because all the blood and fluid will come back. No treadmill for at least 4 weeks although they say I can use a stationary bike. I have to wear a compression stocking (ordered yesterday from the new teensy pharmacy in town, Bill will pick it up for me), ice several times a day, no heat, elevate as much as possible. They also said that although once again, DVT was ruled out, they want a different kind of ultrasound than what they did in the office – one that will confirm absolutely once and for all that I do not have a DVT. Why they didn’t do that at the ER last week is a mystery – and I feel that it was their responsibility to insist. I was too relieved to hear about the D-dimer blood test result to insist on the ultrasound too. If the ultrasound indicates DVT, they’ll refer me to hematology. Sigh. If no DVT, follow up visit in 4 weeks and if things are better under control, PT to stretch my calf. Oh, and until things are completely resolved? 3 – 4 months. I’m an unhappy camper, as you can imagine.

>37 LizzieD: Hi Peggy! Sorry I didn’t write back yesterday. I was not in a very good frame of mind. Yay for 3 in Wordle for you. I got it in 3 today.

>38 Whisper1: Hi Linda. I would have been happy to have severe pain had they been able to aspirate it, but no joy in Mudville. I’m less distraught this morning, but still…

>39 richardderus: Hiya, RDear. I’m taking deep breaths and trying to settle into another new normal. *smooch*

>40 LizzieD: Hi Peggy. Last night was no better than recent nights, but I’m downstairs with coffee and running a load of sheets.

>41 msf59: Hi Mark! Brrr! Yay for Rehab. I hope it goes well. Ah, got it re Nuthatches. We don’t have many insects in winter either.

Wordle 486 3/6* adieu, spice, exist

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Plans for today include a whole lot of puttering and reading and hoping the compression stocking fits. The measurements guide on the package would have had me get medium based on ankle size, large based on thigh size, and extra large on calf size - which is what I went with since it's swollen. Not cheap, but I just got my OTC card reloaded by Blue Cross, so have $70 to use 'til the end of December. Free compression stocking.

I'm so sorry you have something new to contend with, Karen. Not fair.

Hey, I just got my first of the season dark-eyed junco, under my feeders. Yes, they are harbingers of winter but they are nice to have around for the next several months.

>43 katiekrug: Thanks for the sympathy, Katie.

>44 msf59: Ooh, Juncos. I love seeing them at my feeders, but I haven't seen any yet this fall.

Oh, Karen. That doesn't seem fair. Any chance that this will be the last you see of the cyst once the healing is done?

>42 karenmarie: Free compression stocking = excellent! Those puppies ain't cheap.

I sigh a heavy, heavy sigh for the rupture and the new management regime that this requires of you. The DVT ultrasound will, I feel sure, still indicate no such condition exists as you're asymptomatic. In their shoes, though, I'd be extra cautious and get one done anyway with your cardiac history. Annoying as it is, it's worth the extra trouble and effort for you to be *really*sure* that the pain and swelling is just a Baker's cyst.

All of which your grown-up-lady self knows but it never hurts to reiterate the obvious.

...so, what's this "mansplaining" thing I'm hearing so much about...?

:-P

>42 karenmarie: So sorry to read the cyst has ruptured, Karen. It is hard to take no treadmill, while you were so well on your way. I hope the pain has not worsened...
(((hugs)))

OH No. Oh no. oh no. I'm sorry, Karen. That is not the news anybody was hoping for, but ruling out the DVT will be a good thing. You need not tell me about compression hose. GRRRR. I join you in wishing it were not so. Sorry I can't join you in dealing with it. Prayers and love though. ((((((((((KAREN))))))))))

(Wordled in 4 today. Congrats on your 3!)

Karen, I’m sorry for the bad news about your Baker’s cyst eruption. You were doing so well with your treadmill schedule. I find it interesting that you can use a stationary bike. You will make the best of all the changes I’m sure, but I’m sorry that, once again, health issues have the upper hand. Keep us posted. Your LT friends are good listeners. ;-)

Sorry about your knee diagnosis, Karen. I hope things go well from here forward and that you're soon pain-free and able to get back to your usual activities.

>46 ffortsa: Hi Judy. Bakers Cysts don’t play fair, I guess. Being up and about during the day is better than the painful nights being horizontal. I just took a tramadol and have already iced my calf this morning. It’s off to the pharmacy and grocery shopping. Yes, I could ask Jenna to grocery shop but I don’t want to feel too pathetic and decrepit…

Good question about the cyst – I didn’t ask. This is the second time I’ve had one in my left calf – or the second time the one-and-only has appeared. First time a steroid shot kept it managed, guess this time it wasn’t going to go gentle into that good night.

>47 richardderus: I’m more worried about how compression-y it will feel than the cost, frankly. I’ll try to put it on myself, but if not, then Jenna can help me tonight. Yup, 1000% sure is what is needed at this point re a DVT. “Just” a Bakers Cyst is deceptive – swollen and bruised ankle, swollen calf, and swollen lower thigh. Fist-sized lump in the back of my calf. Damned thing.

Bill tends to mansplain, other than that ?

>48 FAMeulstee: Thank you, Anita. Makes me nervous about abandoning the treadmill for a while, but I have almost 10 months solid treadmill work, 3 x a week, 30 minutes each time, with few times missed (perhaps 8 times in all?), so will either just relax into no workout for a month+ or get up the energy next week to see if a stationary bike at the senior center will work or be too painful. Thank you for the hugs, too. They are definitely appreciated.

>49 LizzieD: Thank you for the prayers, love, and hugs, my dear friend. Wordle in 4 is good, 3 was a combination of luck, confirming that my word choices were in the 2,309 options, and also confirming that my word choices have not already been Wordle Words. After that, easy peasy.

>50 Donna828: Thank you, Donna. The doctor told me that if I use a stationary bike, to press down with my heal and not my toes – which seems like it would hurt worse, but we’ll see. Health issues suck, but are better than the alternative. My goal is to be around ‘til my 90s or so to see my daughter settled down and happy.

>51 RebaRelishesReading: Thanks, Reba. I’m mentally gearing up to give this the proper attention to what the doctor told me to do and not do and to relax into the TIME it will take to get fully recovered. I’m an impatient beast at best, and working on patience will be good for me, if not much fun.

>52 karenmarie: Poking fun at myself for mansplaining is all.

>42 karenmarie: Major bummer. I hope you find a quick path to less pain and inconvenience.

>53 richardderus: Ah. Got it, you mansplainer, you. *smooch*

>54 quondame: Thanks Susan.

...
I'm rather proud of getting the compression stocking on all by myself. I'm so glad I got the thigh high ones rather than the knee high ones since the back of my knee is painful.

For some reason my OTC card didn't work, so the pharmacy let me take the compression stockings home and pay them on Thursday, the next time I'm in town. I thought it might be their system since they're a small pharmacy and she had to use a special app NOT on their regular system, but I went to Walgreen's after to test my card by trying to use it to buy acetaminophen. It didn't work there either, so it's definitely the card. I won't get a new OTC card for 5-7 business days, so will also have to buy the stockings with another card. However, I have 'til the end of the year to spend $70 OTC, which won't be hard at all.

Grocery shopping done, too.

Now I don't need to go out tomorrow at all, introvert that I am.

Hi Karen my dear, Happy New Thread.

Ack, Karen. I've just caught up with today's posts and the not-fun news about the Baker's cyst. Not fun at all. Thinking of you, wishing you well for the ultrasound and strength to get through the next *mumble mumble* period of time until things settle down again.

>56 johnsimpson: Hi John and thank you.

>57 lauralkeet: Thank you, Laura. Yup. *mumble mumble* period of time.

Wordle 487 6/6* Man, oh man. adieu, guilt, juicy, suing, quill, quirk

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Jenna's getting ready to leave, Bill's actually going to work today.

The compression stocking is surprisingly comfortable and actually makes it easier to walk once I've been up and about for a while.

Morning, Karen. Happy Wednesday. What is the status of the cyst? Is it under control? Rehab went fine yesterday. Less animals, so less to do. I am doing Trail Watch this AM and then meeting my cousin for lunch.

'Morning, Mark! Happy Wednesday to you, too, and I'm glad Rehab went fine. And Trail Watch today and lunch with a cousin. I envy you close relatives - I only have 4 first cousins, all men, all not living nearby. Of course three of the four are evangelical Christians and I am not, so perhaps it's a blessing in disguise.

Cyst. I'm amazed at how much the compression stocking is helping. Right now, with tramadol and the stocking, it barely even hurts. Stunning compared with previously. Of course we've got a month of ice, elevation, stocking, no walking (treadmill) as Phase I. I might go to the Senior Center tomorrow after lunch with the Librarian to see what stationary bikes they have.

I'm really glad to see you're feeling good this morning thanks to the compression stocking and some good meds.

>59 karenmarie: Gracious, your streak was really testing you today. Mine irritated me because I was Wordleing before coffee. That was a mistake.

So So So glad that the compression stocking is working!

>62 lauralkeet: Hi Laura, and thank you.

>63 richardderus: First six in a while, for sure, RD. And yes to the compression stocking working.

...
Brekkie. Futzing, reading. Although it's almost a waste of the time home alone, I might nap a bit.

>64 karenmarie: Napping in the quietness is bliss, not a waste. Just sayin'

I had two naps today, so double bliss. *smooch*

So glad the compression stocking is working well for you, Karen. I hope you can find a stationary bike somewhere.
And you finally had a day alone at home :-)

Happy Thursday!

So sorry you've been having such pain and glad it is getting better. I loved the two 'funnies' near the top -- the Harry Potter and I'm Going To Kill You and the book addict chart! Both apply! Glad you had a quiet day to yourself.

Yes, I haven't visited threads much this year, but I have a 'new' plan to stop in on one person a day when I check in here. I get overwhelmed when I try to visit more.

Morning, Karen. Sweet Thursday. Glad to hear the cyst is coming along fine and that the compression sock is working. Early start for me this AM- I am meeting my birding buddies and we are venturing to the lakefront, to see what we can stir up. Enjoy your day.

>67 FAMeulstee: Hi Anita, Happy Thursday to you, too. I’m grateful for this compression stocking. I took it off last night, thinking that a breather was in order, but quickly realized that I’m more comfortable with it on right now so went through the serious effort of getting it back on. After I’d put it back on, Jenna wandered in to say good night, and I told her she dodged Helping Mom With the Compression Stocking. Thanks. See below for my stationary bike plan.

>68 sibylline: Hi Lucy! So nice to see you here. Thanks re the pain. My daughter found all three of those funnies. She knows the type of humor I like.

I’m glad you’ve got a ‘new’ plan re visiting LT threads. I certainly understand the overwhelming potential for threads. I am woefully behind visiting some of my friends here. The summer was quite stressful and now, early fall has had its challenges.

>69 msf59: ‘Morning, Mark, and a sweet Thursday to you, too. Managing the ruptured cyst is my number one priority right now. I didn’t ice it yesterday because I was so cold all day for some reason, but it’s on my agenda for today. Enjoy your early start birding buddy adventure. Thanks re my day. I saw a female Downy at the suet feeder yesterday, along with some of the usual suspects.

…
Yesterday was a nice bit of completely alone time – as I mentioned above I ended up taking two naps. I also found some old wrapping paper and was happy to use some for birthday presents for friend Karen in Montana, and I also found a bit of Happy Birthday bug paper tucked into the Escher paper, so all three presents had a unique theme. I bought these papers when Jenna was a wee tike, then promptly misplaced them. I've found them off and on over the years, and will now put them on a shelf in the Sunroom although I won't catalog them. They do have ISBN #s, though.



Wordle 488 4/6* adieu, dirge, devil, denim

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Lots of errands today:

1. paying the pharmacy for fronting the compression stocking to me on Monday - my OTC card didn't work and they let me have the stocking so I could figure the situation out. I'll have to pay with a regular credit card, but that's okay.
2. having lunch with Rita the Librarian
3. dropping off the last two bags of books that have been hanging out in my SUV for over a month now as donations to the Friends. I'll sort them into the proper cubbies while there, too.
4. checking out the stationary bike situation at the The Senior Center

Flagged the spammer, and the profile. Ew.

>70 karenmarie: Horrible! I got today's in 3!! I was so pleased. You're getting a new OTC card from Blue Cross, right? It stinks that you couldn't use it for this very-needed item. Still, you *can* pay for it, so it's all good...I think your pharmacy is full of fabulous for making the item available because they know you.

Sorting the donation that you're dropping off...yeah, you're you all righty all right. I confess I'm a little surprised they weren't sorted as you put them in the bag, TBH.

...oh wait...

*smooch* from your secret admirer

>72 richardderus: Hiya, RDear! I flagged the spammer too.

Congrats on three. Yes, my new OTC card will arrive in 5-7 business days from when I called it in 2 days ago. I'm okay with that. The very nice thing about BCBS is that I pay $10/month for it, and get $280/year in OTC. It's a definite win in a stacked-against-the-consumer world of insurance here in the US.

This little pharmacy is quite wonderful. I'm seriously considering switching my meds from Walgreens to them, although I must admit that there are things I frequently buy at Walgreens, not using OTC obviously, when I go there for prescriptions/OTC - like cards, hair scrunchies, and etc. I got my bivalent Covid booster at the little pharmacy in September and am going to go there for my flu shot, perhaps this afternoon when I pay for the stocking. So. After lunch, before going back to the Library to drop off books.

I already sorted the books into donations to Friends and donations to Thrift Shop. Thrift shop donations include all the things that I, as an official member of the book sort team, know we won't keep to sell. There are too many categories to bother sorting into the bags. 16 categories? Something like that. If I remember, I'll count and report back later.

*smooch* back

Yesterday the vet returned my Monday call re Inara peeing in the bathtub to get attention - Inara has kidney issues as do many senior kitties. The vet calls it kidney sand - not big enough to register as stones, but enough to keep her kidneys irritated and always have blood in her urine.

No antibiotics yet, but I will give her Miloxicam 3 days in a row instead of every 3 days, so give her an anti-inflammatory jolt.

The real reason I'm posting this it to say that when I asked how Dr. Cindy was, she said she had a rough night with her dogs and threatened to sell them on eBay. I was charmed with this, especially as she followed it up with giving them all doggie smooches.

I never want to sell my kitties on eBay, but some humans...

>74 karenmarie: I *insist* you charge at least $100 for me on eBay.

>73 karenmarie: I knew you'd have it organized. But yeah, 16 categories-plus is way too time-consuming until the final donation.

I was thinking of Y-chromosome humans, but you're definitely not one of them... You, sir, are a keeper.

I'll try to remember to take a picture of the cubbies. There's another group of book sale team members who box the cubby books and put them on carts for the next sale. Next sale is scheduled for late March 2023. We're already accumulating donations.

Im so glad the compression socks are helping! Amazon has a great assortment of wild colors and styles as well as those made for people with wider calves

Good luck also with your ultrasound! Hoping you pass that with flying colots!

I tried to message you after your first post after returning from the doctor but my computer crashed. Something to do with the battery which got got enough to slightly warp the computer case. So Im offline for a week or so except for my phone. Maybe this is a good time to buy a tablet!

>70 karenmarie: I finished off my copy of the Escher wrapping paper a few years back - it lasted many seasons though. Vintage that is.

>77 streamsong: I'm cheap, Janet, and figure that the two stockings I have will be enough - one clean and one being worn. Thanks re the ultrasound. It's scheduled for the 28th.

Sorry about your computer. I had a tablet for a while, but never really used it. So took it off the plan and it's still floating around here somewhere.

>78 quondame: I loved the paper when I saw it, and am glad that I've still got enough to last a while.

...
So here are the Friends donation cubbies.



If a donation's a keeper, then it gets sorted into the proper cubby. There are 20 23 cubbies, plus boxes on a desk for mass market paperbacks set aside for a local used book store owner, strange things to Habitat, books that may be of more value set aside for the woman who researches them, and children's books broken into 3 categories - board, chapter, and YA. I think that's it.

I spent a bit of time sorting this afternoon - got all the bags of books out of my car finally. I enjoyed being in there by myself and fondling the books.

>42 karenmarie: Karen, I'm sorry for this bump in the road. I understand the frustration of going to an appointment thinking of the procedure to be done, and then coming home without what you thought would happen.

I will think of you on the 28th!

Hi Linda, and thank you for the sympathy and thoughts for the 28th. You, of all people, know about bumps in the road. Frankly, I think about what you've gone through over the years and realize that this isn't even a speed bump, much less a spike strip.

Wordle 489 6/6* Gads. adieu, bless, phone, froze, trove, grove

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Off to the Orthopaedics Clinic this a.m. for my quarterly cortisone shot(s?) in my knee(s?). I'm going to tell them all about the ruptured Bakers Cyst. I have no idea whether or not they can inject cortisone or even if they would, based on the fact that another office of the UNC Healthcare system is treating me. I'm also going to ask if they can/will do DVT imaging and save a week's worth of minor worrying. I've had 3 medical offices say it's not a DVT, but only the imaging will finally resolve it.

Alex the house cleaner is coming over today.

Morning, Karen. Happy Friday. Despite being windy and cold down at the lakefront, we had a good time, clocking in 41 species. The highlights were a juvenile bald eagle, in flight, an American Kestrel feasting on something in a treetop and scores of sparrows. I think we had 8 or 9 different species. Jackson duties today and with the temps rising to nearly 70, I will be taking the boy for a nice hike.

>79 karenmarie: Looks like a cool, relaxing task.

>82 msf59: Hi Mark! Happy Friday to you, at the end of the day. Yay for your successful birding adventure, yay for having Jackson duty today.

Book sorting is fun, as long as it's not a box of mildewy or ancient books we can't/won't sell.

...
After consulting with one of the sports medicine doctor, the PA was able to give me cortisone shots in both knees. My next appointment, in January, is with an orthopedic surgeon to discuss knee replacement surgery, with the understanding that the cardiologist, my GP, and my dentist (for some reason) will release me for surgery. Instead of my right knee it would be my left knee, because knee replacement surgery will get rid of the arthritis AND the Bakers Cyst.

Between the flu shot yesterday and the emotional/physical appointment today, I'm seriously whupped.

Off to read and sleep.

>83 karenmarie: That is a huge relief...the left replacement especially. No more Baker's cyst issues!

>79 karenmarie: They look so forlorn, all empty and sad...but they certainly have the BISAC categories all set!

*smooch*

Morning, Karen. Happy Saturday. It sounds like you have your hands full of these medical issues. I hope it all works out. My Jackson day went swimmingly, and Bree will drop him off here, early afternoon. Lots of Jackson time and our weekend weather will be gorgeous.

>84 richardderus: Hiya, RDear! It is a huge relief that I will most likely be able to get it done early in the year. Frankly it's a bit scary, but better than the alternative.

Live and learn - BISAC - as an example, we combine Bible, religion, and philosophy together, antiques, architecture, performing arts, etc. together. Every once in a while someone has a question about where to 'cubbyize' a book. We don't spend too much time anguishing over it though.

>85 msf59: 'Morning, Mark, happy Saturday. Thanks re the medical issues. I'm hoping that the steroid shot in my left knee will help some with the Bakers Cyst pain. I actually slept 5 hours straight last night although I had the help of mother oxy... first night of any more than 2-3 hours straight for several weeks now.

Yay for Jackson day, yay for another one today.

Wordle 490 3/6* adieu, grief, spiel

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Nothing scheduled except for Bill to make a dump run and pick up lunch for us. Jenna's got the whole weekend at home, yay. She and I might make a medium-ish food run on Sunday, and my sister and I are planning on having a phone call on Sunday, too. She's busy today with Heather/Amber and the boys. My nephew and wife are expecting their first baby, a girl, sometime between now and early November. The date jumps all over the place, but as I told Laura last night, "Ah, so Melody is due whenever the f*** she decides to show up, then."

>86 karenmarie: ...as are all babies, as we know...

You beat me by 1 on Wordle today. Interesting word!

I'm glad I stretched your knowledge base with BISAC categories! *smooch*

Good morning, Karen! I'd love to see us maintain our Wordle roll; too bad it doesn't work that way.
Enjoy this gorgeous October day!!!!!

Knee replacement is not easy but it is SO worth it in my experience. My knees will be 11 years old next month and I regularly tell them how much I love them :)

>87 richardderus: Babies definitely rule their tiny worlds because we are so gobsmacked with love for them, and the best of us will do anything, anything, for them.

Glad I got a one-word advantage on you today, RD, but oh! yesterday was definitely not my day.

>88 LizzieD: Playing Wordle is the win, getting it in fewer words is just gravy. Yes, today's a gorgeous Carolina blue sky day.

>89 RebaRelishesReading: Hi Reba, and thank you for the encouragement. I'm glad your 11-year old knees hear regular words of love.

...
Lunch, soccer, a bit of laundry. Much reading, see next entry.

235. Secret Service by Tal Bauer





From Amazon:

A passionate, thrilling, and addictive standalone MM romance.

President Brennan Walker captivated me from the moment I walked into his Oval Office.

He’s a mystery I’m determined to unlock. I don't know what's hiding inside Brennan's gaze when he looks my way, or why black lightning keeps crashing between us. He’s a storm at midnight, a dark moon rising, trouble on the horizon.

I’m on the verge of sliding into discoveries and truths that maybe I’m not ready for.

I've never been with a man, but now? I'm dreaming about his bleu clair eyes and wondering what it would feel like if his lips touched mine. There’s something here, something between us, like the oxygen we’re breathing is igniting before each inhale.

But he’s the president. I'm his Secret Service agent. He’s the job.

He's forbidden.

If we cross this line, Brennan could lose everything.

I know I have to walk away.

But I can't.

How much are we willing to risk?

And how badly will this go up in flames?

Why I wanted to read it: I’ve been on a romance binge since April, and most recently reading books about men in love with men. It’s a rich genre, and it’s really opened my eyes and expanded my thinking. Love’s a spectrum, romance is a spectrum. This is the second by Tal Bauer I’ve read, and both are excellent.

I haven’t felt compelled to write a book report about a romance before this one this year, but oh my. This is a stunner of a romance and a stunner of a thriller.

The plot moves among several time lines, between Reese and Brennan’s points of view. The writing is powerful, emotional, true to both romance novels and thrillers. It’s simply one of the best books I’ve read this year. Why, you ask, only 4.5 stars? Because I’m really stingy with stars, and this book was occasionally confusing because of the multiple timelines.

But I kept wondering how it could resolve happily for our heroes and am proud to think that at least one bit of plot middle-of-the-book became clear pretty early on.

Not a lot of gray here, morally speaking, to me. Patriotism, love, good guys winning out over bad guys. Yup. Hits lots of my buttons.

Six word review: Bigger than life men and love.

>91 karenmarie: Oh HELL. Your Horrible ways...! *grumble*

>90 karenmarie: *smooch* for another good Wordleday.

>92 richardderus: Yup. Gotcha. *smooch*

Wordle 491 4/6* adieu, mouth, murky, mummy

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Not a good night. For some reason my leg cramped big time and I didn't get a lot of sleep.

Morning, Karen. Happy Sunday. Sorry to hear you didn't sleep well. I was hoping for 2 good nights in a row for you. We have Jackson over here. We love the heck out of this little guy but he can be exhausting. I have no idea how Bree does it 24-7. He is sleeping with Sue in the spare bedroom. I am listening for him.

We are hosting a family get together today. We haven't had one of these in a while. Hey, a week from today we leave for Cancun. Yah!

Hi Mark, and happy Sunday to you. Thanks. I was unhappy, to say the least. Now I'm going to go back to bed for a while.

Toddlers are, by definition, 24/7 exhaustion for their families. Burden of love, for sure. Have fun with your family get together, and Yay for your Cancun adventure.

>93 karenmarie: hissssbooooooooohissssss on the sleeplessness! I'm sad when I lose sleep, so I relate to the not-good part.

*smooch*

It was a *phew*day today...guessing games annoy me.

Sorry, sorry, sorry about the leg and the sleep. I wish you a nap today if you want it and a better night.

I got it in 5, but at least I got it. Have a lovely Sunday, (((((Karen))))).

>97 richardderus: Hiya, RD. Losing sleep isn't fun, but it was the phenomenally painful leg cramp that I couldn't get rid of for hours that really did me in. *smooch*

>98 LizzieD: Thanks, Peggy. I napped twice and am going upstairs now.

...
I didn't watch the game, but the Panthers won. I did watch my backup team, KC, beat the 49ers, so that was good. I'm sad that McCaffrey was traded to the 49ers. He played well today although weird to not see him in a Panthers uniform.

>99 karenmarie: Erni followed you with cramps in her calf muscles yesterday but didn't understand my unkind references to "Hopalong Cassidy". She looks a bit happier and is walking a little less gingerly this morning as I hope you will be with a good night's rest, Karen. xx

>100 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul. Poor Erni - I can seriously relate. I know the Hopalong reference, but didn't realize the character was based on a series of stories and 28 novels. Naturally, he wasn't the clean-cut, sarsparilla-drinking hero as portrayed in radio and on TV. And I cannot imagine you making unkind references - I'm sure they were made with affection and kindness. Bar-20 was the first novel.

No vicious leg cramps last night, thank goodness. I got up early this morning to an alarm. I have a fasting blood draw in a bout 2.5 hours and could have slept in 'til 8 or so, but wanted to say good-bye to Jenna as she headed off to work. Bill's going to work today, too, so I might just only go for the blood work and go grocery shopping tomorrow and enjoy the time alone in the the house.

Thank goodness I drink my coffee black, no sugar, which is allowed for this type of blood work. This is in anticipation of my regular GP annual exam next week.

Wordle 492 4/6* adieu, laugh, vault, fault

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Morning, Karen. Glad you had a good night sleep. Good luck with the blood work and enjoy that quiet house.

We enjoyed having the family over and Sue, per usual, put on a terrific spread. It was another gorgeous day in the Midwest. Of course, I also enjoyed hanging out with Jack, three days in a row. Meeting my birding buddies this AM.

'Morning, Mark, and thanks re the good night's sleep. Blood work is a snap - thank goodness I'm not trypanophobic (have a fear of needles). Quiet house is important for gaining energy for me, being an introvert.

Yay for all the Jackson time and the family party. Enjoy your birding adventure this morning.

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I just broke down and bought the first artificial Christmas tree in my entire life. We're talking since the 1970s when I started having my own apartments and houses. Jenna will be here this year and we could have a 'real' tree, but it's a huge amount of effort and realistically only she would be able to do any of the heavy lifting. It's just become too much and rather than not have a tree at all, we've decided to have an artificial one. Sigh.

>101 karenmarie: Enjoy that solitude! It's so rare....

I also was a 4fer today, and am perfectly pleased with it.

I've joined you and Erni in Hopalongness...I pinched my sciatic nerve last night and it is HELLISH.

Keep in mind that I wear a Fentanyl patch to deal with constant pain. And it *still* hurts like sixty!

Good morning, Karen. You're home, I hope, from the blood work and getting on with having the house to yourself and the cats! Enjoy!!!!!

I duplicated your efforts exactly after my starter words. Good for us!

>103 karenmarie: We've had an artificial tree for years -- originally because of D2's allergies but then I realized that not having to fight with strings of lights did a lot to improve my enjoyment of Christmas and I wouldn't go back to "real" trees for anything now. :)

Deepest sympathy for leg cramps and sciatica -- either one is the greatest pain ever imo!

>103 karenmarie: >106 RebaRelishesReading: Mike and Becky will probably insist on a full sized real tree again this year. It pushes all my stuff out of the big room and I never see it again. Those bullies.

>104 richardderus: The solitude was so rare that I didn’t get back here yesterday, RD. Yesterday’s 4 is appreciated given that it took 6 today. I’m so sorry about your sciatic nerve STILL being hellish even with a fentanyl patch. *smooch*

>105 LizzieD: Hi Peggy. Yes, the blood work was phenomenally easy. 15-minute drive to the doctor’s office, check in, wait literally 3 minutes before she called me back. Slightly different in that they wanted me to pee in a cup, too. That accomplished, I gave them 4 vials of blood and was walking back to my car by 9:02, back here in the house before 9:20. I decided to not go grocery shopping and plan on going today after my first Book Sort Tuesday since March 10, 2020. I may or may not go to late brekkie/early lunch at a local hangout with them after book sorting and eating. Yay for us, too, on Wordle!

The cats and I relaxed and puttered and did laundry and read. A happy day.

>106 RebaRelishesReading: Hi Reba. Our last tree was in 2019 because of Covid and needing Jenna to be home when she couldn’t be. Our artificial tree will arrive on Saturday. We’ll unbox it and set it up to confirm that it works, then re-box it or possibly just leave it out ‘til after Thanksgiving and decorate early. Oh, the possibilities! Thanks re the leg cramps and Bill’s sciatica. I’ve decided that taking the compression stocking off at night is a good thing, and it’s already back on for the day. I got 5 hours straight last night.

>107 quondame: I’m sure they’re doing it to Get Rid of Your Stuff, Susan. Photos! Inventory! Make sure it’s all back after Christmas.

Wordle 493 6/6* adieu, roost, holly, poppy, comfy, foggy Whew!

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Book sorting! Afters with the group at a good local hangout! Grocery shopping! A busy but much anticipated day.

Like Reba, we've had an artificial tree for many years. When we moved last year, the biggest challenge was figuring out where to store it (we didn't like where it was left by the movers--too difficult to access). Having decided on the location (a literal "cupboard under the stairs") we then had to move the contents of said cupboard elsewhere. That just happened about a month ago, so the tree will have been stored for about 2 months before it comes out again.

I vote for leaving your new one out, in all its glory.

ETA: Just to clarify, we didn't keep the tree up and decorated all that time. We took everything down and put the parts in their designated storage bags, and then it sat in the dining room all that time.

Morning, Karen. It looks like it will be a rainy day here. I have Rehab duties today. I am sure I will get wet. Enjoy your day.

ETA- Oh, yeah- Go Bears! They were on fire last night. Too bad they can't play at that level, for every game.

>108 karenmarie: The sciatic nerve pinch is still hurtin' today. My 3day on Wordle made me care less about it, though!

Have a great sorting, fondling, and sniffing day, Horrible. *smooch*

>109 lauralkeet: Hi Laura! I’m glad you found a good non-holiday permanent spot to store the artificial tree. Bill also said we should just leave it out until after Thanksgiving, when we’ll put all the ornaments on, and I'm happy with that idea. Afters - well, assuming Jenna won't be living at home next year means that it has to go someplace easy to get to, so possibly my closet in the master bedroom tucked away behind the long hanging clothes.

>110 msf59: Hi Mark! I hope Rehab went well. My day was busy, see below. Yay Bears. Wow. 33-14.

>111 richardderus: I am sorry the pinched nerve is still pinched, Hopalong. When I woke up this morning I had pushed all the covers off, was chilled to the bone, had a hitch in my gitalong, and am downstairs trying to loosen up and warm up with coffee and the propane heater. Yay for your 3. *smooch*

…
Yesterday was busy and fun. There were 8 of us. That included three boxers/rack movers and 5 book handlers. We got through everything donated, one or more rack's worth, in 1.75 hours then most of us went to Virlie’s for either late breakfast or early lunch. I sorted and fondled and sniffed books to my heart’s content. Friend Rhoda rejected a book about the Russian Revolution because it was musty, so I snagged it for Jenna – Russia in Revolution: 1900-1930. First edition, almost excellent condition. We got a complete set of first US edition Harry Potter books, including Tales of Beadle the Bard that I salivated over but alas! the Friends kept them. Imagine that.

After that I took Karen in Montana’s birthday present/books from book sale box to the PO. I had one, only one, thing in there that wasn’t a book, but couldn’t send it media mail, honest (and paranoid person that I am that it would get inspected), so spent $52 on postage. And that was cheapest. I’ll look into UPS next time since there’s now a UPS office in the new little pharmacy. I honestly didn’t think of it ‘til I’d already paid and left the PO. Grocery shopping, then home. I made turkey tacos for supper last night using Stasia’s low-sodium taco seasoning mix recipe. Jenna helped with chopping lettuce and etc.

With and after dinner we watched the weekend’s Premier League soccer match between Brighton and Man City. Since we didn’t know the result, it was a perfect way to spend a bit of time in front of the idiot box.

Jenna’s just arriving at work, Bill’s asleep. I finished up a really intriguing romance last night – Rocky Mountain Refuge. Huxley, who witnessed the murder of his husband and held him while he died, fled to a remote location in the Canadian Rockies and has been ‘missing’ for 5 years. Aspen, leader of a grizzly bear research project, recognizes the elusive and reclusive Huxley and things go up and down from there. Huxley suffers from paranoid personality disorder and the author doesn’t shy away from injecting his illness into his relationship with Aspen and the world. I really liked it a lot.

Wordle 494 5/6*adieu, stump, tough, count, flout

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Morning, Karen. Happy Wednesday. You did have a busy day yesterday. Could you have sent the non-book item separately? It might have been cheaper. 52 bucks is ridiculous. Shipping has got so expensive.

I have Trail Watch duties today. Fortunately, the rain is over for now.

>112 karenmarie: 4day for me, thanks to eight letters eliminated in the first two words. I was especially pleased not to take all six when it easily could've been a guessing-game day.

Rocky Mountain Refuge makes such great points in its story, doesn't it? "Mental health isn’t a joke. It’s really fucking real, and if people spent more time trying to understand it than shunning those who suffer, then maybe people like my brother wouldn’t have felt so trapped and alone in this world." Wonderful story!

Wednesday's foggy and dank here. I'll take it in preference to hot (ie, over 70°) but it's a bit of a downer.

Good morning, Karen. I trust that you are all warmed up and ready to get on with things. What a fun time you had with the books yesterday! I hope that you get the H.P. collection if you still want it when sale time comes. I'm sure you know to close the musty book in a box with baking soda until the smell is eaten. I do that a lot with things I get from PBS.

5day for me too. I was thinking of the word earlier this week - about what a good Wordle goal it would be. *sigh* We keep our streaks and move on.

Happy Wednesday!

It was a five day for me as well. Sounds like you had a great day with all those books!

Glad you had such a nice day yesterday! Peace!

I meant to say and didn't that I spent what I'm going to spend of birthday $ right now on the Harry Potter movies on DVDs. They came today, and Mama and I have had a fine time watching the first half of the first one. Yay!

Good night. Sleep well - I do hope you can.

Happy Thursday, Karen!

We haven't had a christmas tree for decades, I think the last one was in 1997.
If I am in the mood, I decorate the house plants in December, it is nice to have some extra light in the dark days. That has happened twice since we moved here in 2005.

>113 msf59: Hi Mark! Sweet Thursday to you. I was very busy on Tuesday, which let me be NOT busy yesterday. I did to out to pick up an antibiotic for Inara, but that’s it for outside the house yesterday. I probably could have sent the non-book item separately – I didn’t want to deal with the stress of another box but really should have. I’ll do it next time. Not that I’ll cheat, but how often did/does the post office open media mail? I hope Trail Watch went well yesterday.

>114 richardderus: Yay for a 4 day, RD. I loved that book, RD, and remember that quote perfectly – it’s Chris visiting Aspen after Aspen’s back in town, telling him his personal story and helping him realize what Huxley needs AND what Aspen needs for their relationship to work. Foggy and dank are to be expected at the beach, I think, although that doesn’t make them more palatable if that kind of weather gets you down. Being from SoCal near, but not at, the beach, meant that the mornings were hazy/overcast. It usually burned off noon-ish. I always liked walking to school on those hushed mornings, with tiny droplets of water in the air.

>115 LizzieD: Good morning a day later, Peggy. The things I did yesterday included puttering, reading, emptying the dishwasher (a task I really, REALLY dislike), washing up a few pans, playing with my books, and having a wonderful moment when I discovered two pieces of paper in a book I was getting rid of.

While putting up books in the Library, noting their new locations, and making room by culling books I knew I’d never read, I decided to cull a Barbara Kingsolver book, tanned and rather dilapidated. When I took it off the shelf, I saw that there were two papers in it – a business card and a piece of thick cream-colored paper with just a name in beautiful calligraphy:



Rhoda is my dear friend from the FoL, her husband was director of the Toledo Museum of Art, and this card from the Akron Museum of Art with her name on it is a dead giveaway that she donated the book AND that I bought it – in 2009, when it was added to my catalog.

I sent her an email with the above scanned jpeg yesterday and here’s what she wrote back to me:

Karen - you won’t believe what the piece of paper with my father’s name is. How it got to that book, I have no idea. When my mother died - some years after my father - I wanted to save my father’s diploma from Columbia University. It was a huge achievement for him - an immigrant, not so fluent in English, no money, etc. We took the diploma out of its frame and tried to roll it up. It fell apart instantly - the paper must have dried out - and the only thing I could rescue was his name. I remember nothing about where I put it, and how it got to that book, I don’t know. But I would love to have the piece of paper - maybe I could get it on Tuesday. Thank you so much for checking with me.

The card and last remaining bit of her father’s diploma are in an envelope safely in my car waiting for Tuesday.

I can’t imagine getting the HP collection – the Library wears out copies of HP on a regular basis and we frequently set them aside for the Librarians. I pointed that out the other day. The Children’s Librarian was not in, so they just boxed them as part of regular childrens books. I hope the Librarians get to them at the next book sale set up.

I have all the HP books, audiobooks, Tales of Beedle the Bard, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and various copies of the UK Bloomsbury editions and one Canadian Raincoast edition. One of the UK editions I have is the ‘adult’ dust jacket.

Today is a 4 for me.

>116 figsfromthistle: Hi Anita. I had a lot of fun with the books, and anticipate shelving more from the book sale today. I also have the emotional bandwidth to do some culling, too, as I did yesterday.

>117 The_Hibernator: Hi Rachel, and thank you.

>118 LizzieD: We love the Harry Potter movies completely separate from the books. The first is closest to the book, IMO, and Richard Harris as Dumbledore is the best. I’ve scandalized Bill and Jenna by saying that I wouldn’t mind a remake as long as they stuck closer to the books and made the movies, starting with book 3, perhaps even book 2, as a two-movie detailed dive. I want blast-ended skrewts! I want Peeves!

My sleep was a bit disrupted last night, and as you can see, I’m already up. That’s okay, though – got to chat with Jenna. She just left for work about 15 minutes ago.

>119 FAMeulstee: Hi Anita, and thank you! Christmas trees are a huge amount of effort, frankly, and although I’ve always been willing to do it, didn’t have one in 2020 or 2021 because of the pandemic and the stark realization that live trees were getting to be too much for Bill. I can't do them alone anymore either, and Jenna’s visits were never timed for getting one early in the season. Ah well, problem solved on Saturday.

Decorating house plants is an excellent idea. Maybe you can take a photo of a decorated one this Christmas and post it.

Wordle 495 4/6* adieu, cloak, catty, carry

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Today I have the goal of working up a detailed dive into our monthly expenses to go over with Bill. I also would really like to get all the books on the card table here in the Sunroom put up somewhere, meaning that I'll probably cull some, too.

In the meantime, Coffee, LT, Reading.

Morning, Karen. Sweet Thursday. I forgot to mention- My son Matt is in the process of officially moving out. He is staying in a basement apartment, at his girlfriend's parents' place. We are elated. It is nice just having the 3 of us here, including Juno of course. Yah! Meeting my birding buddies this AM.

I think you would like Courting Mr. Lincoln. I am enjoying it very much. Let me know if you are interested.

"How often did/does the post office open media mail?" I have no idea. Very random. I think I have had a package checked 1 time, in a dozen years. The only hassle is, is they send it back to you.

Hiya, Mark! Sweet Thursday to you, too. I'm glad that Matt is moving out, because all children should do that at one point or another, even if the come home. You, Sue, and Juno, with Jackson/Bree/Sean visiting, is a good thing.

Jenna, of course, is home right now, and I'm glad she's here and not renting a room from some crazy friends of hers or living out of her car, as she envisioned at one point earlier this year. I want her to find someone to love and to be loved fiercely by that person, have a cat or two or three, and live a long and happy life.

They don't fine you? Just send it back? Well. *blinks* It might be worth the risk. I'd just have to not look the PO clerk in the eye if they ask if it's only books/media because I can lie with the best of them but prefer not to.

Well, at least Jenna has had the experience of living on her own. Matt has not. He NEEDS it and his girlfriend NEEDS it but this is still not the big time. They will not be paying much to stay there. Good luck to Jenna!

>120 karenmarie: What wonderful serendipity that you found Rhoda's father's diploma! I k now that you have made her week or month or year to have it in hand.

O.K. I see that you have enough HP for getting on. Some child is going to be pleased beyond saying to have the complete set, I hope.

Wordle 4 for me today too. How, I wonder, did we both come up with c in our early guess?'' Off to do stuff, but I wish you a day as lovely as it is itself.

It's been a morning...*shudder*

I don't mind foggy mornings, really, as they're part of the price for living near the beach. But THREE DAYS of dank, drippy not-quite-rain-but-could-be-soon fog got me down. My reward is the sunwashed breezy gorgeousness outside now. So beautiful!

3day chez moi. *preens*

I'm sending smooches your way for a simple path to the expenses convo.

Karen, that is such a poignant story about your friend Rhoda being reunited with her father's signature from his diploma. I'm so glad you did the detective work to make someone very happy.

It is a big step to change from real to artificial tree. I think you will find this solution much easier. We store ours in our John Deere room with the riding lawn mower and a ton of gardening equipment. I figure if I go to the trouble of decorating a tree, I want it to be on display for a longish time...in our case almost 6 weeks. It's in our living room which we hardly use, and it makes me happy. You will have to post a picture of your tree when you get it gussied up.

OMG! You all are so clever with your first words!

>123 msf59: Jenna lived on her own from fall 2011 til July of this year, except for a time at home after she dropped out of a 4-year college near Charlotte and then moved to Wilmington to start at another 4-year school. I seem to remember that was about 7-8 months. She dropped out from that, worked as a team leader for a house cleaning company til fall of 2018, when she finally buckled down and got a 2-year Business Admin degree in May of 2020. To complete the timeline, she moved to Asheville last summer but two unsatisfactory jobs there and a $100/month rent increase drove her home. She’ll make her own luck, but we’re glad she feels like she can come home when she needs to.

>124 LizzieD: Hi Peggy. It made me very happy that something so significant to her was hiding in a book with someone who knew her and her connection to Ohio. I have a bit of HP, yes. *smile* I’ve read the books twice and listened to them 5 times. With Wordle, my second word is always something with all of the vowels. I have it set to Hard Mode, which requires me to use all previous clues in subsequent guesses. If there’s only one vowel, I try to think of a word with that vowel and an O. Today’s result follows that logic, and it’s a 4 for me.

Thanks re my lovely day – it was one. I took a nap and read and puttered.

>125 richardderus: I’m sorry you had a morning yesterday, RD. Three days in a row makes yesterday a nice reward. Congrats on the 3. I still need to finish the data dump from my Amazon card to go with the data dump from our checking account and categories by expense. Fun times.

>126 Donna828: Hi Donna. I had no idea what the bit of paper with David Lakritz was, and was amazed at its significance to someone I’ve known for 12 years at book sales.

You’ve given me the idea of storing the tree in our garage. If I rebox it every year then put it in a huge trash bag and seal it with shipping tape each year, it should stay safe and sound. The garage is attached to the house and it will be easy to schlep it back in each year. We usually have a tree out for about 4-5 weeks, but now we’ll be able to have it out and decorated Thanksgiving weekend and keep it up ‘til the first weekend of the new year. I’m glad your tree solution makes you happy, and I’ll definitely post a pic or two.

>127 The_Hibernator: Rachel, I dithered around before settling on adieu as my first word. Interestingly, it is not one of the 2,309 words that are Wordle solutions, but I use it every day. Some people pick a new word to start with each day. In addition, I have Wordle set to hard mode, meaning that Any revealed hints must be used in subsequent guesses. If you don’t use those letters, it won’t let you continue with that word as a guess. It saves me lots of Oops, although it doesn’t prevent me from using a yellow letter in the same wrong position on subsequent guesses. I’m glad you’re now a Wordle-er.

Wordle 496 4/6* adieu, place, freak, sneak

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*blinks* Bill has gone to work again. He's supposed to be working full time at the office again, but is playing chicken with his boss, who is squishy at best, and only working at the office 3 days a week. However, I cannot remember the last time he actually went to work 3 days a week. I think his boss has finally put the real fear of being fired into him, which, frankly, is not a bad thing. We can certainly use the double-dip income from his social security and decent-paying job in addition to my social security and pension from Magneti Marelli.

I have an ultrasound at the UNC hospital 10 miles away in Siler City at 10 a.m. to finally settle the question of whether in addition to a ruptured Bakers Cyst I have a blood clot in my left leg. None of the three previous attempts at getting a complete answer were successful. The doctor I saw on September 30th didn't refer me for one, this same hospital didn't recommend I have one when I went in there on October 10th and was there 7.5 hours (the ultrasound for this procedure is right there), but finally, the Sports Medicine Doctor at the building my GP is in said we really needed to get a definitive answer about a blood clot. The D-dimer test was indicative of no blood clot, but not definitive. Sigh.

I might reward myself with a visit to the thrift shop in town since it's only a mile away from the hospital. Because... books... right?

I think I'm going to make low-sodium chili tonight. Off I go to get ground beef out of the freezer and set light kidney beans to soaking.

I'm sure getting wordy these days. Time to get more coffee, record another book read, then possibly read a Federalist paper and definitely start Anxious People for November 10th's book club meeting.

Morning, Karen. Happy Friday. I not only got some birding in yesterday, on a beautiful fall day but I got to spend a little time with Jackson, while Bree did some showings. I will also see him for a short time today. Sue will hang out with him this afternoon. Getting ready and pumped for our trip. I had a good time with Anxious People. Enjoy.

Hi Mark! Happy Friday to you, too. Wow. Birding and Jackson, two of your favorite things. Enjoy your time with him today, too. Yay for your upcoming trip, glad you had a good time with Anxious People. Nothing else by Backman after my reading A Man Called Ove has appealed, so here's hoping my second foray into his oeuvre is successful.

Good morning, Karen, I'm counting on the the ultrasound showing a definitive negative so that you can let that nagging anxiety go.
Happy thrift shopping!
4 for me today too, and as you know, I don't have that hard rule. I do sort of follow Richard's admonition about using the 3 letters every time if they show up in my first word.

Morning, Horrible. How's by you?

>128 karenmarie: Oh. Well, definitive answers are always best. Go get 'em, tiger.

*smooch*

>126 Donna828: >128 karenmarie:

Artificial Trees not only save the Life of one more tree,

but they contribute a tiny bit to helping the Climate since
the following year not so many will be cut down
so more oxygen will help the air.

>133 m.belljackson: or...(says the user of artificial trees)... you could buy a living tree in a pot and plant it after Christmas and help the environment even more :)

>134 RebaRelishesReading: Great idea!- it has been a challenge to keep a living tree safe until Spring in a Wisconsin winter.

This would work perfectly further south.

131 Hi Peggy! The ultrasound was a definite negative – no blood clot. I’m pleased. No more anxiety. I didn’t go to the thrift shop, just came home instead. Yes for your 4.

>132 richardderus: Hiya, RDear. I’m really tired but had a good day with the ultrasound results. I made chili and cornbread, too, so there’s that. *smooch*

>133 m.belljackson: There are definite advantages to artificial trees not killing a tree, but the energy expended on making an artificial tree takes years and years to offset, Marianne.

>134 RebaRelishesReading: My friend Louise and her husband used to buy live trees for Christmas and plant them. We never did it for a variety of reasons, and now it’s moot.

>135 m.belljackson: That far north would be a challenge to keep a living tree alive through the winter.

>136 karenmarie: Re: Artificial vs. real trees - it's the old "If they can send a man to the moon" -

instead of making the fake trees in China with the High and ever-increasing costs of sending them over, etc.,

how about creating new recyclable ones here?

>136 karenmarie: Cheers for NOT having a blood clot. Also for making a place for yourself in the line for joint replacement. I myself got an appointment with the orthopedic doc my son and his wife recommended for treatment for the hip flexor pain I've been having since the forced marching they entertained me with in Copenhagen, Amsterdam, and Dublin in July. I'm looking forward to taking a walk.

I'm so glad to hear the blood clot ultrasound was negative! What a relief that must have been for you. Plus chili and cornbread ... YUM.

Hope today is similarly excellent, Karen.

Morning, Karen. Happy Saturday. I have a group bird walk, followed by a volunteer lunch today. This is put on by my bird club. Looks to be a lovely day and then I will get home to finish packing. I will bring Juno over to Bree's place this evening. Not spotting much at my feeders, although the male common grackle has been dropping back by.

Clot-free Saturday greetings, Horrible. Neither of my current reviewed books will appeal to you, so feel free to skip 'em.

It's the perfect late-fall/early-winter day outside today so I am the camper happy. *smooch*

>137 m.belljackson: I agree with you in theory, Marianne. The tree we’re getting is made in China. If it were profitable to make here, there would probably be one or more manufacturers doing it and advertising as such. It’s all a matter of the brand of capitalism we have here, which includes corporations being equated with human beings, profitability to satisfy stockholders over those human beings, and etc. BTW, I saw a live Christmas tree lot while out the other day. Before Halloween? Then I thought that perhaps the NC tree farmers might be hurting and needing the money early. I'll find a tree lot that sells wreaths soon so I can put one up, although I won't put my angels on it 'til after Thanksgiving. This pic is from 2018.



>138 weird_O: Thanks, Bill. I’m glad to hear that you are going to see an orthopedic doc. The technology is there. Let’s use it!

>139 lauralkeet: Yesterday ended up being pretty good. Thanks, Laura.

>140 msf59: Busy Saturday for you, Mark. The best part will be finalizing your packing and getting Juno over to Bree’s. I do hope there it not another furniture chewing episode. I haven’t seen any Grackles for quite a while.

>141 richardderus: *smile* Thanks, RDear. I’ll come visit in a minute, and most likely skip them based on the description. However, you never know, and I’ve been telling Bill for almost 32 years that I reserve the right to be inconsistent. I got up late to the alarm, staggered downstairs and into the kitchen to make coffee, watch the last of the Man City Leicester match, and am now here, drinking more coffee. Let’s see… 53F with a high of 66F. Too warm. Yesterday’s high of 50F was more my idea of October fall. *smooch*

Wordle 497 4/6* adieu, ripen, bicep, libel

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Aforementioned Christmas Tree is out for delivery, arriving by 8 p.m. Coffee is being consumed. Reading will get done. Gathering up of various types of trash will get done to put in Bill's car, along with other types of trash, for him to go to the dump then get bring home lunch.

HOORAY for free-circulating blood! Also for one less thing to nag at you!!!!

Hmm. We planted one white pine Christmas tree, and it grew quickly and was enjoyable until a hurricane, Fran? Floyd?, blew it out of true. Then it became a thing to be avoided, and we eventually cut it down before it went all the way over and crushed something.
We haven't had a tree in several years since I'm too tired to decorate it when I get home at night and not motivated to get up early to do it. My DH manages to contrive something reminiscent of a tree each year --- last year it was magnolia leaves on a wooden cone. Mama has never had a tree in her little house, but she has a ceramic table model with multi-colored lights Remember those? *sigh* I loved having the tree in the house for the smell and the memories.

Glad the medical news is good Karen :)

>143 LizzieD: I do remember those ceramic Christmas trees. As small as they were it would be so easy these days to make even smaller LED or tiny fiber optic versions.....

>143 LizzieD: Ah yes, Peggy, you know me – I always have a list of things that nag/worry me and this is now checked off. I can only completely relax when the only things on my worry list are those that I can’t change or are further down the list time-wise (like knee replacement surgery next year).

I have one of those little ceramic trees with multi-colored lights. Or perhaps I have the one we inherited from Bill’s mama that has gold or white lights and Jenna has the one my mother sent to me when I lived in Connecticut that has the multi-colored lights. Your DH sounds lovely regarding Christmas decorations.

>144 RebaRelishesReading: Thank you, Reba. It’s a load off my mind although a GP, the emergency room at the local hospital, and the sports medicine/ortho doctor all said they didn’t think it was a blood clot.

What I need to do is be more aggressive in asking what the next step/definitive diagnosis is after they tell me something then insist that I get that next step/definitive diagnosis (within reason, of course). Had I insisted on that with the GP, I could have saved time, fretting, and $125.

>145 quondame: Hi Susan. I think I’ll try to find ours when we decorate for Christmas.

Wordle 498 5/6* adieu, bloat, loath, salty, waltz

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Arsenal plays Nottingham Forest at 10 a.m., then the Panthers play the Falcons at 1 p.m. And, if that's not enough sports for one day, I might watch the Chiefs play the Titans at 8:20 p.m.

Reading, maybe setting up the Christmas tree to make sure it's not defective but NOT decorating it. Chili and corn bread for supper.

Morning, Karen. Happy Sunday. I had a good time with my birding buddies yesterday on a beautiful fall day. Such a good group of folks. Later on, I even saw Jackson for a brief time, while I dropped off Juno but he was doing his own thing. I won't be able to watch any football today, because we will be in the air. I just hope my Bears play well against the Cowboys.

My son is taking us to the airport. Obviously, I won't be on LT much for the next week but there appears to be free Wifi there so I will check in when I can.

Hi Mark! Happy Sunday and happy first day of your Cancun adventure. I hope you and Sue have a wonderful time.

I am conflicted about the Bears/Boys game since Bill's a Dallas fan, but since the Bears are 3-4 and the Cowboys are 5-2, I'l be cheering for your team, the underdog.

Good morning, Karen! Speaking of cares and concerns, I am happier than I can say that I am completely uninterested in any sport or sports team until Carolina round ball season. Then I care some but not as much as I used to. Lucky me.

Wordle in 4 today. Sometimes our first words don't give us all we need. I could have used Richard's #2 today, and you could have used mine.

Relax and enjoy your Sunday!

ETA: I meant to ask. Do you, does anybody, do the NYT Vertex? It's sort of mindless and I enjoy it except yesterday's. I can't get the head right, so I'm starting over.

>146 karenmarie: Arsenal plays Nottingham Forest at 10 a.m.

...?!...

...!!!...

I'm so glad that your ultrasound was negative!

Wordle in 6 for me today - 2 on Saturday - and got skunked on Friday. I am nothing if not inconsistant!

Smoochling, if you haven't done so already, procuring The Holiday Experiment by Rhys Everly is a sound decision and a wise investment in your Yuletide reading pleasure.

ETA/touchstone error

>149 LizzieD: Hi Peggy! When I moved to Chapel Hill to marry Bill in March of 1991, I neither knew nor cared about any team or individual in any sport. This included the Olympics. Bill loves Carolina round ball too, as you know. He also loves Carolina football and college football in general. Me, not so much. But for some reason, in the last 31 years of living here and being married to Bill, I’ve come to love Panthers football and because of Jenna, I now love World Cup and am coming to love Premier League soccer. Go figure.

Funny story. The first Sunday after I moved in with Bill in March of 1991, a month before we got married, his dad and stepmom Kay invited us to Sunday dinner. This was a standing invitation for Bill, and Kay’s mom Pat also drove herself over. Anyway, I was writing thank yous to friends in California for wedding shower gifts after dinner while they watched Carolina basketball. There was this maniac running up and down the side lines yelling. I asked who that man was, and four heads simultaneously turned to me with disbelief and, I forget who, said “That’s Dean Smith.” Like I knew Dean Smith’s name, but I figured out that he was the coach.

Congrats on Wordle. I got today’s in 3, but admit to looking at the list of 2,309 words AND the list of words already used to get there.

I do not play Vertex. I just tried it, but although I’m a visual learner, I really didn’t get it, frankly.

>150 richardderus: I know. Me watching Premier League soccer and actually being interested in a particular team/game. AND, I installed the Premier League and FIFA apps on my cell phone. Who is this strange person who’s infiltrated Karen’s LibraryThing account, right?

>151 streamsong: Thanks, Janet. Me, too. It’s a great load off my mind, and I’m resolved to be more aggressive in seeking treatment to eliminate possibilities mentioned if I’m having a problem. Medicare and Blue Cross Blue Shield Blue Medicare HMO please me.

Being inconsistent with Wordle is the nature of the beast for most of us. My goal is to not get skunked, although when I do I just shrug and say “Oh, well.”

Karen keeps me apprised of the weather and any other interesting situation in your town or county, being the reporter that she is.

>152 richardderus: Hiya, RDear. I just Kindle Unlimited it. I’m in the middle of the 3rd Valor and Doyle mystery/romance by Nicky James, but may read it next. I like the description of it. Thanks!

Wordle 499 3/6* adieu, abort, aptly

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Annual physical at 9 a.m. Bloodwork done last week so we can discuss it. I still have a truly nasty bruise where a newbie did the blood draw last Monday, but hey. I bruise these days if you even just look at me.

A bit of grocery shopping, but not a full-list trip, after, then home again home again jiggity-jig.

>153 karenmarie: I am clearly wandering the strands of the multiverse. Horrible wouldn't put a FIFA app on her phone. I guess I'll have to start calling the person whose thread this is "Karen" until I figure out how to get back through the multiverse to the strand where 45 was Hillary and I could crab about her failings and flubs and Horrible can wag her finger at me.

Three!! Wow. I really hate you!

*smooch*

Good morning, Karen. Three for me too! I'm happy.

I'm giggling at the Dean Smith story. If Woody Durham were a god (according to our much-younger Carolina loyalist), Dean was THE UNIVERSE.

Doc for you; dentist for me. May we both come out just fine!

The Dean Smith story cracked me up, Karen.
But now inquiring minds want to know ... do you follow any particular Premier League team or will pretty much any match attract your attention?

>154 richardderus: Hiya, Mr. Derus. This is multiverse 888 Karen wondering how the heck you figured it out. What I guess I’ll do is bleed the ‘verses together so the perfection that is me can merge with the mostly perfection that is karenmarie. Books, check. Coffee, check. Panthers, check. New passion about Arsenal, check. Dark chocolate, check. Red wine, check. Contemporary MM romance, check. *preens* over three. *smooch*

>155 LizzieD: Hi Peggy, and congrats for three. Ah yes, Woody Durham. Another because-of-marriage man I know about. Hope the dentist went well. The doctor visit went well. I’ve now lost 56 pounds.

>156 lauralkeet: Hi Laura. Glad you liked it. Well. Premier League. Because Jenna loves Arsenal women and Bill’s been watching Premier League for a while now, he and Jenna naturally became interested in Arsenal Men. When they started watching Saturday AND Sunday PL soccer, I started watching along, and it’s nice to follow the league-leading team. Plus hello, Mikel Arteta, head coach. So easy on the eyes.



Watching good soccer is always good regardless of team, but I like Arsenal.

Ave, Triple8. Mr. Soccer Coach is a pleasant looking person. I myownself would like to become...acquainted...with this Arsenalois gent:

Yum.

There's a silly, fun PNR book, The Tribulations of Ross Young, Supernat PA...“Company policy forbids me from exchanging my blood, my soul, or my firstborn child with customers”...on KU now: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B094LQ6L69

>158 richardderus: 'Morning, Rdear. He doesn't trip my trigger, your Gabriel Jesus, but to each his/her own.

I was heavily into PNR with Anita Blake and Sookie Stackhouse, but not so much recently. However, thanks to Kindle Unlimited it's an easy click, download, queue, and open. Thanks. *smooch*

Wordle 500 5/6* Ugh. Alphabet soup. adieu, miner, linen, sinew, piney

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Book sorting at 9, possible late brekkie/early lunch at Virlie's with however many of the crew are in the mood to socialize after.

I'll go back to the grocery store to get more Power Up Antioxidant, something Jenna likes and that we haven't been able to get recently. On Amazon it's $19, and at the store it's $5.99. Caveat emptor consumer.

>157 karenmarie: Thanks Karen! I don't follow any one team but have a sort of vague passing interest in English football, having lived there for a few years albeit 20 years ago now. Inexplicably, my brother (who has not lived there) is a huge fan, and of Everton in particular. He watches Premier League every weekend. I'm not sure why we don't do the same, actually ... it just hasn't risen to the top of our viewing list.

Hi Laura. You're welcome.

I have a built-in disinclination to sit in front of the idiot box too much - it comes from my mother wandering into the living room when I was a child, walking over to the TV, turning it off, and saying "That's enough of the idiot box. Do.Something.Else."

However, recently I've really started enjoying football/soccer and watched parts of two matches on Saturday and the Arsenal match on Sunday. We can also watch replays on Peacock and have done that pretty much every night of the last two weeks as I'm not in a good headspace to watch much of anything serious. I'll still reach a breaking point and literally just walk away in the middle of a match (except for Arsenal), but I do that with American gridiron football, too. I'm really looking forward to the World Cup. The American men made it in this year and that's an extra bit of potential excitement.

Everton, eh? I'll have to pay special attention.

edited to add: October statistics and Lightning Round in >5 karenmarie: and >6 karenmarie:.

>159 karenmarie: ...it's the smile...*sigh*

So the Ammy seller buys it for $6 and triples the price...sounds legit...

I took 4 today and was a widge surprised it was the word it was! *smooch*

Alphabet soup for me on the wordle today, too. I tried tines, miner, and fined before guess six with piney. Weird word.

Happy sorting and lunch, Karen! Then an afternoon of reading + nap before supper prep..... that's what I'd do.

>159 karenmarie: Patricia Briggs and Ilona Andrews series went down like so many potato chips. There are some other authors that go on the PC (and that's not politically correct) list.

>120 karenmarie: Wow! Wonderful story. How something that was lost and precious can come back to us when the time is right.

Happy ( almost) mid week!

>162 richardderus: Hiya, RDear. He does have a winner smile. Wordle was interesting.

Ammy is a combination of wonderful and evil, of course. I’ve learned over the years to not assume they have the cheapest prices, but absolutely appreciate that they have pretty much anything I need. Living where I do, 8 miles from the closest town and 30 miles away from most real opportunities to get esoteric things, I really appreciated being able to get the plastic shelf holders I needed when the weight of books started collapsing shelves with brass pegs and the 1 1/8" Round Slip-On Rubber Folding Metal Chair Leg Tip Replacements I needed when the old ones on the small stepladder I inherited from Bill’s Mama cracked and broke away last year. *smooch*

>163 streamsong: Hi Janet. Since it’s not a secret that there are only 2,309 correct solutions out of the 12K+ words available in English, I check my guesses against that list all the time. Except for the first word that I always use, adieu, which is NOT a valid Wordle solution, I only consider words on that list. Here’s an interesting tidbit: According to data collected by The New York Times, the most common first guesses are "adieu", "audio", "stare", "raise", and "arise" – Wikipedia

>164 LizzieD: Hi Peggy, and thank you. I had a great day book sorting and enjoying lunch with most of the book sort team. It’s always loosey goosey regarding who’ll be at book sorting AND at lunch. Yesterday there were 7 of the 10 members of the team who had sorted. Two members of the team were not at sorting, although sometimes folks don't sort but show up for lunch. No nap, alas, but it made for a good night’s sleep even though I’m up early. I did get some good reading in yesterday. Alas, it's still romances - which I'm now classifying as contemporary fiction vs historical fiction, separate from mystery/suspense/thriller.

>165 quondame: Hi Susan. I’ve never read either author. I like your description of their series going down ‘like so many potato chips.’ I buy potato chips and consume them all the time - lightly salted Lays are my fav and work out nicely in my 2,000 mg sodium max per day - but have learned to put a small handful into a bowl and bring that bowl into the Sunroom rather than bring the bag in and then try to limit myself to a handful.

>166 figsfromthistle: Rhoda was happy to get it back yesterday, Anita. And at lunch she started the story for the book sort team, and let me finish it. Proper awe and astonishment all round. What are the odds, eh, especially since I’d had that book on my shelves since 2009? Happy Wednesday to you.

Wordle 501 4/6* adieu, evict, remit, inept

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Jenna got off safely to work half an hour ago. Bill's staying home because there's the potential that a landscaping company we got a quote from last week could come by today to start 2 days of a 3-person crew to return our landscaping to responsible homeowner landscaping instead of white trash landscaping.

I'll be puttering and reading and possibly making my grandmother's gingerbread recipe. It fits into a 9x13 pan. She wouldn't have done this to it, but I'll frost it with cream cheese frosting.

I admit to a book acquisition frenzy yesterday - we received a donation of what I initially thought was one box of Easton Press leather-bound hardcovers which our research team member decided should only be put in the regular 'Oldie and Classic' section. I confirmed with the sorter who put them up that yes, indeed, we would be selling them for $3/each in the spring. I then told Rhoda that I lusted after them and would be willing to pay $5/each for them. She said to go ahead and take them, just not there at the end of book sorting. So I went back after lunch, thinking okay - one box. Well, it turns out that there were 6 boxes, which turns out to be 42 books.

Sounds like a nice day yesterday, and oh my! What a haul!

>167 karenmarie: If I counted the books on the photo well, you took them all :-)

WOW! WOW! WOW!, etc. That's amazing, and they look to be in wonderful condition. WELL DONE, KAREN!!!!!!!!!! I can't wait for you to get around to listing the titles.

Wordle in 4 for me today too. It's a bit sad since I had 4 letters, one correctly placed, after my 2 starter words.

>168 katiekrug: Hi Katie! I had a very good day yesterday, and the haul still has me stunned. Plus, a bit of guilt, but not too much. *smile*

>169 FAMeulstee: I did take them all, Anita. I owe the Friends $210 and will pay them at the next sale. It’s already in my desk calendar for the end of next March.

>170 LizzieD: Hi Peggy, and yes. Wow. They are all in very good to excellent condition. Sorry that you couldn’t get it in 3, but 4 is quite respectable.

Here are the books:

Aesop's Fables by Aesop
Politics & Poetics by Arisotle
The Birds & The Frogs by Aristophanes
The Poems of Robert Browning by Robert Browning
The Way of All Flesh by Samuel Butler
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
On the Origin of Species by Charles Dickens
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Brothers Kramazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas père
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin
Faust by Johann Wofgang von Goethe
She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith
The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
The Iliad by Homer
The Odyssey by Homer
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Tales of The Alhambra by Washington Irving
The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
The Poems of John Keats by John Keats
Paradise Lost by John Milton
The Rights of Man by Thomas Payne
The Talisman by Sir Walter Scott
The Tragedies by William Shakespeare
Oedipus the King by Sophocles
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hide by Robert Louis Stevenson
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Fathers & Sons by Ivan Turgenev
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
The Aeneid by Virgil
The Poems of Yates by W. B. Yates
The Arabian Nights

>167 karenmarie: OMG, lucky you!!

>167 karenmarie: ...Holy...Goddess...of...Books...!!!

Wow. Just, yes, of course you had to and WOW. All the wows. Superlative of wow, where are you, I need you now.

Good on yinz for rescuing them from the hoi polloi whose vandal-ish ways would doubtless have seen them mangled and turned into protest art by some annoying little twidgee with a can of soup and a wooly grasp of reality.

*smooch*

That is an amazing haul!

Wow, that book haul is incredible Karen. There's no denying there are perks to being on the Friends.

>167 karenmarie: Yep, snacks get poured in a bowl, bag is closed.

Well isn't that a lovely excess!

You da best. Wham! What a score. See, now I'm jealous. So, ah, where are you going to put 'em, hon?

>171 karenmarie: WOW, that is a lot of classics, Karen.
Happy Thursday!

>172 RebaRelishesReading: I know, Reba, I’m very, very lucky.

>173 richardderus: I must admit that I feel strongly that being on my shelves and loved and appreciated by me goes a long way towards assuaging the (continuing but diminishing) guilt I have for taking advantage of being on the sort team. *smooch*

>174 drneutron: Hi Jim. It is, isn’t it? I started cataloging them yesterday, will confirm the info and make sure the cover matches mine and isn’t an Amazon cover.

>175 lauralkeet: There are definitely perks. Of course there’s a bit of work, too, especially now that we’ve started our Tuesday morning sorting. It got a bit crowded on Tuesday, though, so I may do a bit of sorting on other days that I’m in town and not always go on Tuesdays.

>176 quondame: A lovely excess is exactly right, Susan. And now that I’m losing weight, albeit more slowly than right after my heart attack, I’m trying to play more tricks on myself regarding volume.

>177 weird_O: Hiya Bill. Thanks. Major score for sure. Well, ah, I still have most of the books from the September FoL sale on a table here in the Sunroom that need to get put up and will make room for them in the Sunroom. The Easton Press books will go on shelves above and below the existing shelf of Easton Press books in the Library. I’m reconciled to having to double stack again, so non-Easton Press books will most likely get double stacked.

>177 weird_O: Hi Anita, and happy Thursday to you. Yup. I honestly don't know what non-classic books Easton Press offers, but they are not cheap unless you find deals on eBay or other sites. If I start looking at EP books, I may go off the deep end. I figure 42 is enough for now. I actually have 7 duplicates from this batch, and one friend will get two and another friend will get the other five.

Wordle 502 3/6* adieu, audio, aloud

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Chiropractor appointment this morning, a teensy bit of grocery shopping, then playing with my new books.

>179 karenmarie: I had a 3day, too. I'm glad you're able to rescue such glorious items! *smooch*

>179 karenmarie: >180 richardderus: 3, glorious, 3 for us 3! Yippee!!!

Those wonderful books will be right at home in your lovely home, and I'm happy for you and for them. I have to say that I love used books in every condition. I guess I have to say that I love new books too. Never mind.

Enjoy your day!

>181 LizzieD: YAY!!

Wonderful book haul. I'd be dubious about the translations of some of them - probably older styles - but aside from that, delicious! Enjoy their glow on the shelf.

>180 richardderus: Hi RDear. Happy next day to you. I had a three today, too, and have another one today. Yes, the books are glorious. *smooch*

>181 LizzieD: Yippee!! for sure, and today’s three also makes me happy. What? You love books in any condition? I can’t believe that, Peggy. *smile* Oh, wait. Shelves all over your house with thousands of books… I guess I can.

I had a pretty good day, see below.

>182 richardderus: The three Wordle-teers.

>183 ffortsa: Hi Judy. Thanks re the books. Oh yes, absolutely, I’d have to research some of these before reading in case the translation was questionable. A perfect example is Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. I have a copy on my shelves and read it in February of 2008, giving it 4*. Here’s the first paragraph of my review:

This is a new translation from the French, published by the Naval Institute Press, the book-publishing arm of the U.S. Naval Institute in 1993. Walter Miller and Frederick Walter have done a fantastic job capturing the flavor of the world in 1868 and the excitement of the story. I had never read 20,000 Leagues, so don't have the other translation to compare to. According to Miller and Walter the earlier English translations were badly done, with poor science, and cut out 1/4 of the original book. They are highly indignant that the poor translations hid Jules Verne's fine scientific mind. So many of the things that were fantasy in 1868 are reality now. This translation showcases the sound science behind the fantastic submarine.

Wordle 503 3/6* adieu, color, photo

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The chiropractor visit was, as it always is, good. The bit of grocery shopping, for 4 things, turned into $67 and tonight's supper, fresh salmon, among other things. I played a bit with the books, but not as much as I wanted to. Perhaps today.

Bill went to work, but only half a day, since the landscaper is supposed to be here any minute now, with a 2-man crew, for a 2-3 day cleanup effort around the house. Bill knows I don't like dealing with outside stuff, or even some of the inside infrastructure stuff, for that matter. However, Tom is irritated with Bill enough that he said Bill had to be in half a day.

Gives me the house to myself for half a day.

So, books, landscaper, reading, and etc.

Oh, good Friday vibes, then...hopefully the landscaper is a light management job and Bill's getting the not-too-unclear message.

I'm off to be therapized. *smooch*

Therapized sounds like a pain-management unguent or cold pill... I hope getting therapized is productive. *smooch*

>186 karenmarie: I think of therapy as pain management...tracing the contours of negative, troublesome events and redirecting their course away from the things that hurt the most, so yeah: Unguent for the spirit.

What a wonderful windfall of books! Color me green! You've worked so hard for the FOL though, that you deserve every page of them!

Wordle in 4 today. I bombed a few days ago with inept. I tell myself I missed it because it's not a word I have to use very often.

I was very happy not to wake up to snow today. But it's coming. Oh it's coming. And then we plunge into the teens next week.

Good morning, Karen, and happy day to you!!! ABSOLUTELY, you deserve every page of those gorgeous books! Have fun!!!

You are on a Wordle roll now. Enjoy that!

>187 richardderus: Therapy is pain management, you’re right. I’ve seen therapists three different times in my life and all have helped with my mental and emotional pain. *smooch*

>188 streamsong: Hi Janet. Oh yes, I’m very happy. And yes, I’ve spent thousands of hours since 2016 with FoL volunteer work.

I’ve been known to use inept to describe any one of a number of people in my life… *smile* Early snow, and oof! Into the teens you go. We’re enjoying mild weather right now, which saves on propane bills.

>189 LizzieD: Hi Peggy, a day late. Thank you re the books. I finished cataloging them yesterday, getting the correct covers, and moving all 35 into the Library, having already taken 7 in there that turned out to be duplicates. If I have time today, I might start rearranging shelves to put them in close proximity to each other. Today’s Wordle is 4 again and I got it quickly.

Wordle 504 4/6* adieu, blade, bread, dream

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So today the three of us are going to the Verizon store in Sanford, a town about 28 or so miles south of us. Bill and Jenna for sure, and possibly I, will get new cell phones. Then, possibly lunch at an old haunt of mine from when I worked in Sanford for 25 years.

Still on a soccer roll, so will watch some soccer this weekend. Arsenal plays tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. our time and we'll have to watch it on replay 'cuz getting up for anything non-essential at 7 a.m. on a Sunday just ain't happening.

>190 karenmarie: I hope your cell-phoning trip is a huge success.

Utterly agree with you re: 7am calls for any but the most urgent of reasons.

Y'all are going to have a great time today, I'm sure! Enjoy! Happy new phone!!!

Back and forth we go.... I Wordled in 3 today and am happy again.

Hope you enjoy your new cell phone Karen! What kind are you planning on getting?

>191 richardderus: Our cell-phoning trip was a great success. I decided to get a new phone, actually. Jenna got an iPhone 14, I decided to get a Google (ugh) Pixel 7, and Bill, rather than get the Samsung Galaxy S22 whatever, decided to get a Pixel 7, too. I'm still figuring stuff out, but so far so good. We got great trade in value - a total of $1750 for the three phones. Of course we had to pay tax and accessories today, so that cost about $600 or so, but we're now all caught up on technology again.

>192 LizzieD: Yay for your three, Peggy. We did well in Sanford, then came up to the Pitt to get take out lunch. Bill and Jenna had subs/fries, I had a grilled chicken salad.

>193 The_Hibernator: See above, Rachel - a Google Pixel 7. The store guy recommended it over the S22 so I overcame my hatred of Google and think I'll be pleased with it. It's got a few things that are different and I need to see if there's any way I can get the Google Search widget off the home screen 'cuz I use duckduckgo.

I took a lovely nap, got up at 6 p.m., and we watched the replay of the Leeds Bournemouth match. What a stunner. Excellent match, and the team I picked won.

And now it's upstairs to read, possibly chat with friend Karen in Montana, and go to sleep. I hope to get a good night's sleep since I didn't get a good one last night. Not pain per se, just woke up at 4:30 and stayed up.

>194 karenmarie: Well I had to read that twice I decided to get a Google, Karen. At first I didn't believe what I was reading ;-)
Great you are all enjoying being caught up with technology!

I hope you slept well.

Hi Anita! Yes, how the mighty are fallen. Or, rather, inexplicably drawn to the phone. Can't easily explain it. Oh well, I'll just go with it.

Wordle 505 4/6* adieu, cable, shale, stale

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Not much planned for today. I've had 2 sips of coffee, have a good book in hand, and the house is quiet. Both Bill and Jenna are still asleep. Kitties are fed and the gingers have gone outside. There is peace in the kingdom.

Morning, Karen. Happy Sunday. We are back and I am happy to be getting back into my usual routine. We had a good time but 6 plus days of eating, drinking and reclining at the pool is a bit much. I did get plenty of solo birding in (more on that later) and actually finished a book, so I made the best of it. Books, football and laundry today. That is my agenda. Oh, yeah I also have to tend to those neglected feeders.

I hope all is well in NC.

I have a Pixel 5a, so I am familiar with the "...and what does this do...?" phase of change. I keep my antique LD phone to tote around with me because, if I drop or lose the Pixel, I will be *inconsolable* and the LG, not so much. I am constantly having the phone slide out of my pocket or drop it onto the table or desk. It's...quavery...these days but, after six years, owes me nothing.

Soooo. You ventured into...The Dark Side. My son gave me a Pixel about three years ago, and it does a little too much. Nonetheless, I am grateful that I have it. Meanwhile, everyone in his family has an iPhone.

     Me...with my Pixel. 

>197 msf59: Hi Mark, a day late. Trips are fun, home and routines are fun, too. You are way more energetic/outdoorsy than reclining at the pool and hanging out. I’ll come visit for the bird report.

All’s well here in NC except that I walked away from the Panthers at the half - they were down 35 - 0 to the Bengals. Bill watched all of it. They took Walker out and put Mayfield in. Panthers scored 3 touchdowns to Bengals 1, so the final score was 42-21. The big news is that I bought a Pixel 7, a Google device. You know my opinion of Google, and all I can do is say that the siren call of NOT a Samsung and being a newer phone led me on. I’m very happy with my new phone, with the exception of not being able to get rid of the Google search widget on the home page. I put the duckduckgo widget on and that’s that.

>198 richardderus: Ah, another Pixel owner. Keeping an old ‘throwaway’ is a good idea. I always tucked my cell phone in the back pocket of my jeans because they were snug. Well, I’ve now lost 56 lbs, about 48 or so then, and one of the few times I ate out this year my cell phone dropped out of my pocket. I didn’t realize it, got all the way home. Got logical, called there, they had it, and the only pain I had was having to drive back into town.

Separate but related – while looking for a silicone case for the new phone, I saw one that has 2 metal rings embedded into the case. It comes with a lanyard to attach to the rings so you could carry your phone around your neck. Not a bad idea for some folks, just not me.

>199 weird_O: Hiya, Bill. I did. Brain fart, but I think I’ll really like it. There is a battery overheating issue that we didn’t know about, but all it requires to get around is the newest technology cables, AC adapters, and wireless chargers.

I love that picture.

If a phone does too much, all you have to do is just use what you need. Here's an interesting article about cell phone power vs Apollo-era computers. Smart Phone vs Apollo computers Folks with iPhones love them for Facetime – at least with my niece/wife, sister, and nephew/wife.

Wordle 506 2/6* adieu, unite. I could have tried guile, but fortunately chose the positive word.

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Jenna's up and getting ready for work. Bill's still asleep, but is planning on going to work today. I'll be getting caught up with my Aunt Joyce - my mother's sister - at 11 our time. She lives near Santa Cruz, and will turn 87 this year.

Other than that, books, puttering, possibly baking some cookies.

Morning, Karen. I have a Pixel and like it a lot. Sorry about your Panthers. The Giants had a bye this week, so all my football energy was focused on TW's Dolphins :)

Morning, Karen. Of course, I returned home with a cold. I am hoping for a full rebound today. Nothing planned. Just hanging with the books and Juno. She was a very good girl for Bree. Sorry, about your Panthers. Yep, it is frustrating. My Bears lost too but it was a very entertaining game, with our QB Fields breaking the record for most rushing yards by a QB.

ETA- I added a few bird pics.

>200 karenmarie: How strange, Karen, your Wordle word isn't the one I had today.

>200 karenmarie: ...how do we have a different word...mine was BEGIN!

I need to get a good case for my Pixel. I got one with it and it's black, which is the problem I've had with every phone I've ever owned. Hard to find when I let 'em slip. After the New Year I'll go looking unless I see a sale.

Listen, a burner phone for lunch out and the like is a great load off my mind. That will mean, however, that I need to get the infrastructure ready for when it dies or breaks...so here I am thinking about embarrassing lanyards like I'm in second grade.

Glad you got to chat with Auntie! *smooch*

CONGRATULATIONS on Wordle in 2! I also had the other word, and it almost defeated me.

Hope you and your aunt enjoyed the phone conversation. Mama's spirits are certainly lifted when a niece or nephew calls - except that the 4 who call most often also talk 45+ minutes at a time, leaving Mama worn out.

Enjoy the rest of this gorgeous day!

I too had the other Wordle word today.

>23 karenmarie: our Wordle history looks kinds similar :) I mostly get mine in 4 as well, and also have a 97% success rate!

>201 katiekrug: Hi Katie – good to know you like your Pixel. Yup, poor Panthers.

>202 msf59: I’m sorry you picked up a cold, Mark, hoping you’ve rebounded. Our game was not entertaining like yours.

>203 FAMeulstee: I’m flummoxed, Anita, why I don’t have the same word as y’all.

>204 richardderus: Totally puzzled, RD.

Even if I wanted my phone on a lanyard, although it is pretty much too embarrassing, I wear an eyeglass holder necklace. My aunt and I talked for 2 hours and got all caught up. *smooch*

>205 LizzieD: Thanks re my two, although why I had one word and everybody else had another word is weird beyond measure.

I had a good day – reading, errands, playing with my new EP books in the Library, and etc.

>206 RebaRelishesReading: What planet was I on this morning to have a different word?

>207 LovingLit: Hi Megan. Four is my most common result too.

…
Dratted time change. Wake up early, tire early.

>200 karenmarie: Oooh good job. Wordle in two!!

Happy week ahead.

Hi Anita, and thanks. I hope you have a good week, too.

Wordle 507 3/6* adieu, slant, snarl - is this the word other folks got?

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>210 karenmarie: No, again I had an other word, Karen. It looks like your Wordle took a different path yesterday.
my word today was spell

Hi Anita!

Weird. I just sent an email to nytgames. Don't know if I'll get a response or not.

I hope you're having a good day so far.

>212 karenmarie: Takes away part of the fun, Karen, this way you can't compare the Wordle result with others.
I hope you do get a response of nytgames.
So far so good, my morning was nice and quiet. Frank has just woken up, and we are having our coffee (my second, his first).

Morning, Karen. I decided not to go into Rehab today and to rest up one more day. Feeling better, though. We have a few days of seasonal weather this week, with a very warm day on Thursday but then the bottom drops out for the weekend. Only in the 30Fs. WTH?

Hoping for the best on this Election Day. Boy, things are sure scary out there at the moment, aren't they?

Things are so scary I want to hibernate somewhere safe for 15 or 20 years........ not really. But I am anxious.

Yep. I got Anita's word instead of yours. Weirdness abounds!

Enjoy one more gorgeous day, dear Karen!

>210 karenmarie: Like >211 FAMeulstee: and >215 LizzieD: I got that word not yours...are you a subscriber to the paper? That might be the difference.

Anyway, try to stop gnawing your nails to nubs until the results come in. *smooch*

>213 FAMeulstee: Hi Anita. Didn’t get a response overnight from the NYTimes, may never get one. Coffee is such a pleasure for those of us who love the taste, isn’t it? My daughter loves the smell, but doesn’t like the taste.

>214 msf59: ‘Morning, Mark. I hope resting another day puts you back in top form. Jenna and I voted when she got home from work last night, but our Democratic Senate candidate lost to the Gang of Psychos. Sigh.

>215 LizzieD: I barely want to look at the news, Peggy. Weirdness on the Wordle front. I had a good day yesterday, mostly.

>216 richardderus: I realized that I somehow got to Wordle without using my subscription, RD, so today’s word is via subscription, although my stats have continued without interruption.

I mostly slept well, but got perhaps 3 hours at the most at a time. *smooch*

Wordle 508 4/6* adieu, china, faint, rainy

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I've got the house to myself. Unfortunately, I have a dentist appointment, regular checkup, at 4 p.m. and may stop at the thrift store up at the end of the county on the way there. So I'll leave at 2:45 or 3.

>217 karenmarie: Hi Karen! I've been watching your Wordle saga, and can confirm you're now back in sync with the rest of us. Must have been due to using your subscription (or not).

Enjoy your time to yourself, for as long as it lasts.

>217 karenmarie: Your Wordle is back in sync, Karen. Glad to see the same word today!

Morning, Karen. Happy Wednesday. At least the "red wave" never transpired. Whew! It would sure be nice if we could hold on the "House". I am meeting my birding buddies this AM. I miss them. Now, Sue is sick. Sighs...

>218 lauralkeet: Hi Laura. Thanks for the back-in-sync confirmation. That begs the question, though - do subscribers get different words than non-subscribers?

I really would like to spend most of today reading Anxious People for tomorrow's book club. It's quite good, but I'm really escaping to the world of romances. Sigh.

>219 FAMeulstee: Yay, Anita! More confirmation that I'm back in sync.

>221 karenmarie: I am not a subscriber, not even an account, and I have the same words. But I don't live in the US, so that could make a difference.

>219 FAMeulstee:, >218 lauralkeet:, >217 karenmarie: Whatever it was caused it, I'm glad you got The Word today.

Have a delightful time today! Even those hours alone should make a delightful difference.

*smooch*

Happy Thursday, Karen!

Looks like you were ahead woth the other Wordle words. Today's Wordle looked familiair when I found it.

>222 FAMeulstee: I’m puzzled again, see below.

>223 richardderus: I’m back out of sync, alas, RD. *smooch*

>224 FAMeulstee: Hi Anita, and thank you. And pfui, this word does look familiar. And this time, it took 3 because I couldn’t believe it was this word and tried guile first

Wordle 509 3/6* adieu, guile, unite. See >200 karenmarie: above for word 506.

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Yesterday was an orgy of reading a paper book, Anxious People for today's book club meeting. I love it, and only have 15 pages to go. I didn't want to rush reading the end but absolutely had to leave for the dentist yesterday.

Dentist visit went fine. Uneventful. My favorite kind of visit. I'm already scheduled for May 15 next year.

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Today is a whole bunch of reading and puttering. I do have to install the new Pixel stand for wireless charging. Bill wanted them instead of our old ones, so there you go.

>225 karenmarie: Glad to see you are back in sync with us, Karen! We might know tomorrows word now ;-)

If we do, Anita, I'm gonna use it instead of my standard starting word because I never have, and otherwise never will, get Wordle in 1! I'm shameless in this regard...

***Thanks Anita for pointing out that I posted a message for Peggy here! ***

>227 karenmarie: I will do the same, Karen, a one time possibility ;-)
I had the Dutch Woordle in one once.

ETA I think you posted >228 karenmarie: in the wrong thread...

Morning, Karen. Sweet Thursday. I had a nice walk with my birding buddies yesterday. We even managed to spot a Carolina Chickadee, which we do not see very often. Sue is still under the weather, so I am taking her shift this AM, with Jackson. I miss the little guy and with the mild weather, I hope to take him for a stroll.

'Morning, Mark, and sweet Thursday to you, too. Yay for a birding buddies adventure, and wow for the Carolina Chickadee. You're just north of the northern edge of the range on allaboutbirds.org - silly little bird for straying. *smile* Sorry Sue's still under the weather, hope you and Jackson have a good stroll.

255. Anxious People by Fredrik Backman





From Amazon:

A People Book of the Week, Book of the Month Club selection, and Best of Fall in Good Housekeeping, PopSugar, The Washington Post, New York Post, Shondaland, CNN, and more!

“A quirky, big-hearted novel…Wry, wise, and often laugh-out-loud funny, it’s a wholly original story that delivers pure pleasure.” —People

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove comes a charming, poignant novel about a crime that never took place, a would-be bank robber who disappears into thin air, and eight extremely anxious strangers who find they have more in common than they ever imagined.

Looking at real estate isn’t usually a life-or-death situation, but an apartment open house becomes just that when a failed bank robber bursts in and takes a group of strangers hostage. The captives include a recently retired couple who relentlessly hunt down fixer-uppers to avoid the painful truth that they can’t fix their own marriage. There’s a wealthy bank director who has been too busy to care about anyone else and a young couple who are about to have their first child but can’t seem to agree on anything, from where they want to live to how they met in the first place. Add to the mix an eighty-seven-year-old woman who has lived long enough not to be afraid of someone waving a gun in her face, a flustered but still-ready-to-make-a-deal real estate agent, and a mystery man who has locked himself in the apartment’s only bathroom, and you’ve got the worst group of hostages in the world.

Each of them carries a lifetime of grievances, hurts, secrets, and passions that are ready to boil over. None of them is entirely who they appear to be. And all of them—the bank robber included—desperately crave some sort of rescue. As the authorities and the media surround the premises these reluctant allies will reveal surprising truths about themselves and set in motion a chain of events so unexpected that even they can hardly explain what happens next.

Rich with Fredrik Backman’s “pitch-perfect dialogue and an unparalleled understanding of human nature” (Shelf Awareness), Anxious People is an ingeniously constructed story about the enduring power of friendship, forgiveness, and hope—the things that save us, even in the most anxious times.

Why I wanted to read it: Real life book club book for our November discussion.

Oh my. This book appealed to me from the Dedication:

This book is dedicated to the voices in my head, the most remarkable of my friends.

And to my wife, who lives with us.

and, the first paragraph.

A bank robbery. A hostage drama. A stairwell full of police officers on their way to storm an apartment. It was easy to get to this point, much easier than you might think. All it took was one single really bad idea.

I was hooked.

This book immediately and forcefully reminded me of a book I’ve read multiple times and that I have on my shelves: A Dram of Poison by Charlotte Armstrong. The similarity is in how the defining action by the person in emotional pain ripples out to a disparate group of people who end up coalescing into a unified entity, saving the person in pain and healing the other people in unexpected ways. Oh my again.

One of the appeals of this book is that Backman is writing directly to ME. He’s telling this story to ME in a profoundly powerful narrative that binds me to the bank robber, the policemen, the real estate agent, and everybody else whose part in the story makes it more than the sum of its parts.

Here are a few quotes. I put Post It flags on pages until about halfway through, when I realized that pretty much every page had something to offer and identifying meaningful dialog or observations almost becomes meaningless.

The policeman clenches his teeth so hard that he looks like he’s trying to breathe through his toenails.

“Do you know what the worst thing about being a parent is? That you’re always judged by your worst moments. You can do a million things right, if you do one single thing wrong you’re forever that parent who was checking his phone in the park when your child was hit in the head by a swing. We don’t take our eyes off them for days at a time, but then you read just one text message and it’s as if all your best moments never happened. No one goes to see a psychologist to talk about all the times they weren’t hit in the head by a swing as a child. Parents are defined by their mistakes.”

”And … winners earn a lot of money, which is important, I assume? What do you do with yours?”

“I buy distance from other people.”

The psychologist has never heard that response before.

“How do you mean?”

“Expensive restaurants have bigger gaps between the tables. First class on airplanes has no middle seats. Exclusive hotels have separate entrances for guests staying in suites. The most expensive thing you can buy in the most densely populated places on the planet is distance.”

”…Since she got pregnant everything’s become so serious, because parents are always serious and I suppose we’re trying to fit in. Sometimes I don’t think I’m ready for the responsibility – I mean, I think my phone is asking too much of me when it wants to install an update, and I find myself yelling: ’You’re suffocating me.’ You can’t shout that at a child. And children have to be updated all the time, because they can kill themselves just crossing the street or eating a peanut. I’ve mislaid my phone three times already today, I don’t know if I’m ready for a human being.”

”Sometimes Roger drives me crazy, too. He uses our hairdryer to … well, you can guess … he sticks it under his towel. That’s not how you’re supposed to use a hairdryer … not there. That makes me want to scream!”

Julia shuddered.

“Urgh! Ro does exactly the same thing. It’s so disgusting it makes me feel sick.”

Anna-Lena bit her lip.

“I have to admit that I’ve never thought of that. That you might have problems like that. I always assumed it would be easier if you lived with a … woman.”

Julia burst out laughing.

“You don’t fall in love with a gender, Anna-Lena. You fall in love with an idiot.”

Six word review: A bank robbery with love stories.

>232 karenmarie: Glad to see you enjoyed Anxious People, Karen. Backman is a good writer.
I read it in January 2021, you can find my short thoughts here.

Good report on Anxious People, Karen. I'ma have to fetch it from its hiding place and read it. Last night I dipped into The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World by Simon Winchester.

>232 karenmarie: Good heavens, Horrible. One might be excused for thinking you liked this book. That, of course, being an impossibility...a translated book by a man? It is to laugh...I feel the need to consult with The Voices in My Head to find out what happened.

I'll leave a *smooch* until they get back to me about it.

>210 karenmarie: You can bet I'll give this one a shot tomorrow just in case!!!! We should consider forming an association.

And --- you got me with Anxious People. *Ove* never called me very forcefully, but I like the sound of this one. Thank you very much!

>225 karenmarie: I'm glad you had a boring dentist appointment.
My dental technician is retiring - I've been seeing her for 40+ years, so that will be a big change. At the practice I've gone from seeing the father to the son and suspect the son will retire at a younger age than his dad - who kept on a bit past when he should have according to my lower lip.

Morning, Karen. Sad news to relate- Sue's Dad passed away yesterday morning. So yesterday was tough. I was already over at Bree's place with Jackson and then rushed away to be with Sue and my BIL, at the apartment. Obviously, they both took it hard. I will keep an eye on her today but first I have to help with Jack.

I am glad you enjoyed Anxious People so much. I wasn't as much of a fan.

>223 richardderus: ‘Morning, Anita. I liked your comments, especially I was impressed again how Backman can touch (and manipulate) my emotions. He also plays very well with my gender bias. If an author is good, I forget that my emotions are being manipulated. With bad authors I see it pretty quickly.

>234 weird_O: Fetch it. I see that it is on your shelves, acquired in February. I have a fondness for Winchester, having 10 books by him on my shelves, but not The Perfectionists. I’ve read four of the ones I have.

>235 richardderus: Shh! Don’t tell anybody about how much I like this book. Okay, so I’ve only read 11.59% male authors so far this year, grumble grumble. Don’t you love that he dedicated the book to the voices in his head and to his wife? *smooch*

>236 LizzieD: ‘Morning, Peggy. I’m mostly over grumpy old men, having read A Man Called Ove and abandoned The One Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared. This book has nothing to do with grumpy old men.

>237 quondame: Hi Susan. Yes. Boring, uneventful works for cleaning appointments and annual exams. Ooh, big change. 40+ years with the same dental technician. Amazing. I’ve actually been seeing this same technician for perhaps 5 years now. She’s a tad too cheery for me, and I always apologize at the end of the visit for being a bit snarly when I first come in. I even asked her what her Thanksgiving plans were when I was on the way out. Oof. Your lower lip?

Wordle 510 4/6* adieu, drake, plead, medal

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Jenna's gone to work, Bill is apparently staying home - I had to wake him up half an hour ago because of a tornado warning, which just expired. We were in the Book Bath. I don't like this kind of excitement.

So today's reading, puttering, playing with the Easton Press books. I've got 63 of the 72 here on the floor, getting ready to figure out how to keep them all together. I might need to adjust shelf heights. Fun times.

>238 msf59: Oh, Mark, I am so sorry. My condolences to Sue, you, and your family. Of course it was tough.

Interesting how we dodge and weave back and forth with our liking/not liking books. So on this one we'll ATD - agree to disagree.

>239 karenmarie: What an exciting day ahead of you, Karen! I'm hoping for rain!

Wordled in 5 today. Oh well.

Oh they look so lovely all lined up! What did you do with the duplicates?

>239 karenmarie: Actually, Anxious People is in Box 23, not on a shelf. Whatevs...

As you might have seen, I have seven Winchesters (bang bang), three of which I have read. In a few days, when I'm 200 pages into The Perfectionists, I'll have read half of my Winchester holdings. Hmmm.

As an old man, sometimes grumpy, I understand your being "mostly over" us. Maybe that's why I'm living alone. I'm sorry you abandoned the book about the 100-year-old grump; I still want to read it.

And of course you know I love the books and bookcase shot.

By the bye, I saw my doc yesterday, and my bloodwork was so good she mused about cutting back on a couple of meds. I got the flu shot (finally). Gotta schedule another Covid booster.

>241 LizzieD: Hi Peggy. We definitely got rain and a couple of power flickers but no outage. Sorry about the 5 for Wordle.

>242 streamsong: Thanks, Janet. I particularly like the reflection of the gilt-edges on the area rug/carpet – didn’t notice ‘til I posted the picture this morning. Two duplicates to one friend for Christmas, the other five to friend Karen in Montana for Christmas. Shhh! Don’t tell Karen - she doesn’t know about the duplicates or that they’re part of her Christmas.

>243 weird_O: Okay. Box 23. Whatevs back… *smile* Yup to your Winchesters, too. Half down, a good and symmetrical thing.

I was over reading about old men who are sometimes grumpy, not having them in my life. I am very pleased that you are in my life, and your living alone is because of circumstances beyond your control. With the exception of this very strange and sustained romance book streak I’m in, I usually don’t like reading too many books that are too similar in a row – I get bored. Not bored yet, and it’s been since April. I can’t explain it.

Thanks re the books and bookcase shot, and yay for your bloodwork being so good that you may get cut loose of a couple of meds. Yay for the flu shot, and please do schedule the Covid booster. I’m flu vaccined and Covid boostered up.

>239 karenmarie: Gorgeoumous!

Have a lovely book-club weekend, smoochling.

Thank you, RichardDear. Books please me. Book organizing, book reading, and book club discussing a book are in the plan for this weekend. Along with soccer (!). Panthers played Thursday, but I didn't watch. *smooch*

Wordle 511 4/6* adieu, caper, hazel, valet

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As mentioned above, lots of books things this weekend.

>246 karenmarie: Book things are always good, Karen.
Speaking of soccer, Frank and Wilco were lucky to find tickets for the match tonight: Newcastle United - Chelsea.

Hi Anita!

I'm envious of Frank and Wilco's match tickets. I love watching Newcastle's Miguel Almirón, except when they're playing Arsenal. He's absolutely deadly.

I hope you're doing well with Frank gone, taking good care of yourself.

>248 karenmarie: I am doing better than I expected, Karen.
And it helped that I had Frank on the phone an hour ago.
I am learning to enjoy my alone time, like you :-)

They tried to get tickets before they left, but the match was sold out. On the ferry they met a group of Dutch, who were on their way to the match. They had two tickets left, and sold them to Frank and Wilco.

Good morning, Karen! Enjoy your book-y day.

Morning, Karen. Happy Saturday. I enjoyed my day with Jackson yesterday and then spent some time in the afternoon with some of our immediate family, just hanging out and playing games. Cloudy and only in the 30s today, so I will keep it to backyard birding. There was some action there yesterday and my red-breasted nuthatch is back. Yah!

I love, love your Easton Press collection, along with the rest of those magnificent books.

>246 karenmarie: Lots of good activities this weekend! I'm so pleased. I, too, took 4 to get the answer today and was unusually pleased that my 3rd and 4th words were related: PLEAT then VALET.

>246 karenmarie: >252 richardderus: Oh well. I'm at 5 again. Otoh, I'm encouraged that my last two words are the same as Richard's last two.

Enjoy your day!

>253 LizzieD: I see our Great Minds have led us down the same path yet again, Peggy!

>244 karenmarie: Hooray for wonderful Christmas gifts. But, oh, darn I was hoping that you had no idea what to do with them and I could help you out. :)

Four for me for Wordle today. >252 richardderus: I'm not sure if my last two words might interact or not. But... it makes me think it might be fun to create a daily sentence with the words An alien with a supercharged space laser shot the bagel from Sir Pomphrey's hand as his valet was brushing the crumbs from his coat.

Thought I'd drop in and say Hi! before you make a new thread. LOL. Good luck rearranging the shelves for your collection. Yikes! And keep enjoying the romances -- if you're not bored why switch?

>249 FAMeulstee: Glad to hear that, Anita, and glad that you got to speak with Frank today.

And wow for Frank and Wilco getting tickets off a group of Dutch folks heading over to the match.

>250 katiekrug: Hi Katie, and thank you. Mostly soccer-y, but definitely book-y, too. I got the Easton Press books sorted by size, because that will help me figure out if I need to adjust the shelf height on one or more shelves to get them 63 of the 72 together. 8 small ones and one oversized one will have to stay where they are, I'm afraid.

>251 msf59: Hi Mark, and happy Saturday to you, too. Glad you had some Jackson and family time. Way cool about the Red-Breasted Nuthatch. Thanks re my EP books.

>252 richardderus: Hiya, RD! Thanks re the activities. Yay for your 4.

>253 LizzieD: We keep dancing around each other, you, RD, and I, don’t we Peggy? The day’s been good. Arsenal just beat Wolverhampton 2-0 and are up by 5 points over Man City heading into the World Cup. US plays Wales on the 20th.

>254 richardderus: I’m the odd-one out today.

>255 streamsong: Hi Janet. *smile* What can I say? Karen gets priority. Oooh, I like the idea of a Wordle guess sentence. Adieu, gorgeous! I bet you wish you could caper about with the hazel-eyed valet just one more time.

>256 Berly: Hi Kim! Nice to see you here. I need to start prepping thread XII.

>257 karenmarie:, >255 streamsong: Oh, that is a great game! I'll try it out on tomorrow's effort. Thanks, Janet!

*smooch* for my dear ol' Horrible

>258 richardderus: Hiya, RDear. Happy Sunday to you.

Wordle 512 4/6* drated alphabet soup. adieu, irate, image, inane. Adieu, cranky, but don't get irate, because any image of you is not inane.

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I think the HVAC guys are coming out today to do the winterizing/maintenance part of our contract. And, book club is at 2 p.m. at Blanche's house to discuss Anxious People.

There's soccer today but not the Panthers because they played Thursday night.

Morning, Karen. Happy Sunday. I had a perfectly lazy day yesterday. Other than taking Juno for a walk, I hung out with the books and Sue I watched a couple of shows. She is still battling this stubborn cold. As of now, it should be another quiet day. I have laundry to do, along with a Costco run, otherwise it will be books and football. Congrats on your Panthers win the other night and Go Bears!! Looking forward to a repeat of last week's performance.

Hi Mark! Happy Sunday to you, and I'm glad to hear that you had a lazy day yesterday. I'm sorry Sue is still battling a stubborn cold. Quiet day? Laundry, Costco, books, and football? Of course your Costco is probably not 30 miles away like ours is. I gave up on it in 2020 with the pandemic and have sourced things elsewhere.

My book club meeting has been postponed because Blanche and her husband are both sick, but with different ailments. I'll be extremely disappointed if we don't meet to discuss this book, Anxious People, because I loved it so much.

>261 karenmarie: I have no idea where there's a Costco in my county...turns out there are two within three miles! Too bad I can't get there. (Not really because I loathe those huge stuff-poriums where one needs a hand truck and a servant to collect all the goods.)

Happy week-ahead's reads, smoochling, and may the book club rev up sooner instead of later so y'all can kvell over the anxiety folk.

Good morning, Karen! I LOVE your sentences with Wordle, and I'll try to emulate you from now on. 3 for me today, hee hee, as we continue our circle dance.

Enjoy book club! Enjoy real fall weather!!

>257 karenmarie:. Lucky Karen!

Glad you liked th sentence game.

Three for me today! I knew the second word wasn't right but it still proved very helpful.

Because of the purple alien the entire indie production seemed quite inane. This is going to get old quickly with an alien in every sentence!

>262 richardderus: If there was a Costco that close, I’d use it, if nothing more than for the gas savings, which are significant. We’ve gotten significant savings over the years, even with paying the annual membership.

Haven’t checked my email about re-scheduling book club. I’ll just re-read my review to get the flavor of the book again for either 11/27 or 12/3. *smooch*

>263 LizzieD: ‘Morning, P.A.! Janet’s idea, and I like it. It can always work for me because of my beginning word leading into a second descriptive word for what follows. So far it’s fun. Today’s dance has me at 4.

Book club has been postponed because Blanche and her husband are both sick. We’ll reschedule. The real fall weather is a Brrrr! Right now it’s about 31F out.

>264 streamsong: Hi Janet. Our 31F is shorts weather in Montana, according to Karen. Your weather sounds awful – cold with air stagnation, and Karen’s is 19F, high of 26F, with a chance of snow. Winters in Montana are about as attractive (to me, at least!) as summers in NC.

Wordle 513 4/6* adieu, steak, blame, maple. Adieu, sous chef! I loved the steak and do not blame you one bit for whoever poured maple syrup on it! I'm sorry they fired you.

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Jenna's already left for work, Bill's staging his lunch stuff/etc. and will leave in about 15 minutes.

I have a follow-up appointment with the Sports Medicine doctor re my Bakers Cyst this morning - he is probably going to schedule me for PT and I'm going to ask him if I can get back on the treadmill yet.

Reading, playing with the EP books, and etc. otherwise.

Janet just finished a book I must have mentioned, Twelve by Twelve by William Powers, although I'm pretty sure I didn't actually recommend it unless it was early on before I finished it. Just in case she or anybody else is interested in what I thought about it, here are my comments from August 24, 2012. I gave the book 2*.

I finished Twelve by Twelve by William Powers and it was the most smarmy, off-target, didn't-deliver-on-the-premise book I've read in a long time. Rather than talking about how it was living in the twelve by twelve as the majority of the book, he threw bits and pieces in about living there while pontificating on what he calls ecocide, global warming, wars, etc. Repetitively, boringly, pie-in-the-sky idealistically. He's extremely critical of anybody who isn't white, upper middle class, and college educated although I don't think he'd admit it. He's very race and class conscious at all times. I was particularly put off by this supposedly wonderful man deciding he and his baby mama just didn't share enough in common to be a real father to his daughter, who lives in Bolivia with her mother (who is not Bolivian, but is just living there). He anguishes about this in words, but in practice seems very content to just have a long distance relationship with the child he's fathered and supposedly is totally enamoured with and loves. Baby mama apparently agrees, according to him - they all get along great. Sheesh. What a creep. Egomaniacal, conflicted. I don't want to meet this guy at all. Great fodder for our bookclub meeting in September - I've got a feeling I'll be one of the few people who don't swoon over this book.

And I was the only person who didn't swoon over this book. Poor Sarah, whose book it was, handled my diatribe quite well.

Morning, Karen. Once again my Bears should have won but gave it away with penalties and a turnover. Sighs...but since Bree and Jack came over to visit us for awhile, it was a lovely afternoon.
My Costco is less than 10 minutes away and I go through the store rapidly, grabbing the items I need. I am usually home door to door in 45-50 minutes.

I have Trail Watch this AM. Sue took one more day off at work. Her and her brother will go to their Dad's apartment and start taking care of things there. Thankfully, it is a small apt.

'Morning, Mark. Ah, sorry about your Bears. Giving a game away is worse than losing from the gitgo. It takes me 45 minutes just to drive to the Costco. The benefits to living in the middle of nowhere still outweigh the advantages of living closer to amenities, though.

I hope Trail Watch goes well.

Poor Sue. I think she's still getting over being sick, right? And now to have to deal with her father's death and cleaning out his apartment. Yes, thankfully it's small.

Hi Horrible! I forgot about the sentence thing, but it was a 4day so I'm pretty pleased overall. Today's reviews won't appeal much so no need to make a special trip.

*smooch*

>235 richardderus: Happy day, Karen! I like that our 3rd and 4th words were the same, and I love your sentence!

>270 richardderus: Hiya, RDear. I always visit, and always at least look at what the Publisher says, your star rating, and your first paragraph. Most times, even if I don't think it's for me, I read the review. You use your words well. *smile*

>271 LizzieD: Hi Peggy, and thank you re my sentence. I hope today's passes muster, too.

Wordle 514 5/6* adieu, bloat, lanky, plank, snarl. Adieu, mon cher pirate, as you anticipate the bloat-ed corpse you're consigning to the deep, you lanky and bloodthirsty hunk; watching your victim as he walks the plank and you snarl at his impertinence in attacking you. Clunky sentence, but it uses all the words.

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Yesterday's visit with the ortho doctor for the Bakers Cyst followup went well. I can start using the treadmill again, so I think I'll swing by there after the book sorting and before grocery shopping today.

Jenna is probably just arriving at work, and Bill is in the living room drinking coffee and watching the news.

Morning, Karen. Well, we are waking up to snow. Looks to be about 2 inches or so. I don't think we had our first measurable snow until Christmas, last year. Sighs...At least the road and sidewalks are clear. Sue returns to work today and I will head off to my Rehab duties. Thankfully, I put in my birdbath heater yesterday.

Glad to hear your follow-up went well.

Hi Horrible, happy Tuesday. I am expecting absolutely nothing from this day since it's already handed me a tippy-tippy-top read to start with. *swoon*

Sending hugs and smooches!

>272 karenmarie: We should have kept the Wordle word from >210 karenmarie:, Karen, for a Wordle in one ;-)

>275 FAMeulstee: :))

Love your sentences! They are highly indicative of the books you've been reading which make them much more interesting than mine.

Three for Wordle today. I get three's when I use my two-initial-word system. Today was alien, gourd, snarl. And the sentence for my three words: The alien tried to use a gourd as a fishing reel, but it made a nasty snarl.

>273 msf59: Hi Mark. Well. Snow. It wouldn’t hurt my feelings to get early snow, or even ANY snow. We had a bit last year, but nothing significant. You’re in the same boat as my friend Karen in Montana – early snow. She got 12” last week, and it’s been frigidly cold this week. Monday it was 20F and snowing when she was at work.

I hope Rehab went well and I hope Sue is fully recovered. Ah, I’ve got to put the birdbath heater out this week. I actually know where it is, and I know where the extension cord is too, so it’s just a matter of doing it. Thanks for the reminder! And thanks re the doctor follow up. I’m encouraged.

>274 richardderus: Yay for a tippy-tippy-top read, RD. I am in the second book of a damned fine romance series, myownself, so know that feeling of elation with good words on the page. Or Kindle. *smile and smooch*

>275 FAMeulstee: ‘Morning, Anita. I never got a reply from the NYTimes games folks but didn’t expect one, actually. I just wanted to alert them that I had a weird thing going on. I remember the Logistics Manager at my last job – he’d call me and say “We have an anomaly” when referring to the Master Scheduling/Materials Requirements Planning subsystems of the manufacturing system. My strange two-day different words was definitely an anomaly.

>276 streamsong: Hi Janet. This sentence stuff is fun. Thanks re my sentences. I debated about putting the actual word at the end of today's skunk, but decided not to. Six words is enough.

Wordle 515 X/6* Blech. adieu, raven, later, caper, wafer, maker. Adieu, lovely raven, I will spend time with you later, after I caper in the woods while consuming many candy wafers, trying to avoid meeting my Maker.

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Jenna left for work 16 minutes ago. Bill will be leaving in about 15. I will have the house to myself and am chuffed. No official errands, might possibly ease back into the treadmill today, but knowing me and knowing how much I love being in the house, not necessarily.

In the meantime, coffee, LT, reading.

Morning, Karen. Happy Wednesday. Hooray for being "chuffed"! Well, our snow is gone. Good thing, because I am leading a bird walk this AM. I have had a few people cancel, which is normal, especially with the colder weather. Hope we see some good birds. I got to work inside at Willowbrook yesterday, tending to some animals in the "Bird Nursery". At least it kept me out of the elements.

Enjoy your quiet day.

>277 karenmarie: Savor your alone-time! Treadmilling waiting one more day won't be as bad as denying yourself the quiet pleasure of just *being* in your space.

(Old Stuff was out getting drunk yesterday so I battened as well.)

Today's reads disappointed me. Oh well.

Happy Thursday, Karen!

>277 karenmarie: Sorry you didn't get the Wordle :'(
I hope you had a good day on your own.

>278 msf59: Hi Mark! Sweet Thursday to you. I hope the bird walk went well, even if it was cold. I did enjoy my quiet day. I was alternately busy puttering and reading, baking Pecan Puffs and preparing dinner. After dinner, I fell asleep on the couch about 20 minutes into a replay of a Premier League game and only woke up after it was over.

>279 richardderus: Hi RD! The treadmill and I did NOT get reacquainted yesterday. My alone time took precedence. Yikes to Old Stuff going out to get hammered – good while he was gone but potentially nasty when he returned, right? Sorry about your disappointing reads. *smooch*

>280 FAMeulstee: Hi Anita, and thank you. Ah well re Wordle – into every Wordler’s life a little skunking must fall.



Today was better. And the time alone gave me a chance to a bit more recharging.

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Wordle 516 4/6* adieu, clone, geese, there. While you were bidding adieu to the hot Arsenal coach and I was wishing he could be cloned, the skein of Canada Geese flew over there.

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Jenna's packing her lunch and getting ready to leave, Bill's still asleep. Nothing major on the to-do list and I'm reading a good book.

Morning, Karen. Sweet Thursday. My bird walk went surprisingly well, despite the cold and light snow. I think there were 10 of us hardy souls. We clocked in 23 species, which is pretty decent for this time of year. The highlight was spotting a Common Loon on the big lake. They migrate through here in the winter and will stick around for awhile in they can find enough food sources.

I will go to Bree's this afternoon, to help with Jackson for a couple of hours. Sadly, it is too cold to take him for a walk.

'Morning, Mark! Sweet Thursday to you, too. I'm glad the bird walk went 'surprisingly well.' I've never seen a loon... I wish YouTube videos counted. *smile*

I'm glad you're getting some Jackson time in today, even if it's 'only' inside.

Good morning, Karen! 4 for me today too and no sentence because it's eye shots day, so I have to move along.

Ah - fans of Andy Griffin will recognize the call of the ______-crested lake loon. I'm embarrassed to have forgotten.

I wish you a fine day. Looks like we finally have autumn!

ETA: ANDY GRIFFIN??? Holy Moly! My brain may not work in the morning, but I suddenly realized that I had called Mr. Griffith, Griffin. Oh good grief.

*ngurmph*

Horrible. It's Thursday.

*bleurgh*

I hate when people tell me them being nasty is nothing compared to... and thinking they're Right.

ETA I read Rhys's newsletter before being fully caffeinated and that's just ruined me for the day.

Hi Karen my dear, just stopping by to say that i am trying to catch up with my friends and their threads after my recent illness travails. I hope all is well with you, Bill, Jenna, Inara, Zoe and Wash my dear, we are both well now we are over the bug that has been doing the rounds.

Sending love and hugs to you all from both of us dear friend.

>284 LizzieD: Hi Peggy. 4 days are not bad at all – I have another one today. Ah, I hope the shot went well.

I haven’t watched The Andy Griffith Show in decades and I can’t help with the _______-crested lake loon reference either. A quick dive down the Internet hole did not yield anything. The actress who played Aunt Bea retired to Siler City (sah-ler city, the big town) and her house recently sold again. It's quite lovely.

Oh yes, autumn – our emergency heat isn’t working. When it gets to 45 outside, it kicks in, and right now the Sunroom is 57F. The HVAC guy is coming back – he obviously didn’t fix it on Tuesday when he did the winter maintenance on our systems. Sigh.

Merv, Andy, Melanie … lots of Griffi___s.

>285 richardderus: >285 richardderus: I hope its being Friday improves things, RD. Hmm. Justifying nastiness because it’s not as bad as someone else’s is a very slippery slope. I’m tempted to sign up for Rhy's newsletter – or shouldn’t I? It also comes with two free books to download. Decisions, decisions. And, how many newsletters do you read a day?

>286 johnsimpson: Hi John! Oh, I didn’t realize you’d been sick. I’ll come visit in a minute. We’re all hanging in there, including the kitties. Inara’s really getting old, but the doctor says she’s doing well for her age. She has some kind of permanent low-grade inflammation of her kidneys, so she gets meloxicam every 3rd day. We also just finished a round of antibiotics. She’s almost 15 ½. Sending love and hugs to you, Karen, and Felix, who also gets kitty skritches.

Wordle 517 4/6* adieu, color, lymph, glyph. Adieu, mon cher archaeologist, and may the color of the rocks near the lymph (Merriam Webster's 2nd definition) be the glyph (Merriam Webster's 3rd definition) that leads you to a new and major discovery.

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I successfully worked out on the treadmill at the Senior Center yesterday. No incline, slow pace (1.4 mph, not 2.3), for 30 minutes. Last night was rather more interesting than I would have liked pain-wise, but once up I am doing fine. I may go today, but lots of other things are going on and I may not make the time. That's okay in my new world view - I'll try to go 3 times next week.

The HVAC guy's coming back today, and Bill decided to stay home so I wouldn't be burdened with dealing with him. It's a nice theory, but I'm pretty sure Bill's now at the stage of using any reason at all to not go into the office. Alex the house cleaner comes today at 11, too.

Since Bill's home, I'm going to go the Verizon store 30 miles away to get a new clear glass cover for my Pixel 7 cell phone since the upper left corner has developed a bubble. While I'm there, I'm going to ask them to sync said Pixel 7 to my 2012 Ford Escape, since I already spent 10 minutes trying to figure it out and failed abysmally. I also think I'm going to go Thanksgiving grocery shopping. I've already got a 15-lb turkey in the freezer, and need various and sundry things for sourdough dressing, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, and 3 pies - pecan, pumpkin, and banana cream. Might as well get it out of the way since I'll be out.

In the meantime, coffee, LT, looking at the gorgeous Carolina blue sky, and and then a bit of reading.

Morning, Karen. Happy Friday. Good luck with the various stuff you have going on there today. Is the HVAC guy there for just a cleaning? Sue is off for the next four days. Hoping to finish up cleaning out her Dad's apartment. She has been working hard. We have a small memorial set up for tomorrow- Just immediate family and we will all spend the weekend together, just hanging out and reminiscing.

I enjoyed my time with Jackson yesterday afternoon. He is starting to walk everywhere now. ❤️

'Morning, Mark! Happy Friday to you.

I guess you could say that the HVAC guy was out here for just a cleaning - we pay a yearly fee to get winter/summer system checks and various materials/labor discount benefits. He came out to fix the emergency heat problem but also do the winter check for all 3 HVAC systems. He was supposed to pay strict attention to the emergency heating problem of the main floor HVAC system. He did find a problem with something that was dirty because we use propane. He cleaned or replaced it - I neither know nor care - but obviously that wasn't enough.

Yay for Sue getting the next four days off. I hope she - and her brother, right? - get her Dad's apartment finished. I'm glad to hear about the memorial and weekend for you all.

I didn't realize Jackson was walking everywhere now - I love it when they finally figure out that walking gets them more places and quicker than crawling. What a dolly.

I wish you smoothness in your busy day, Karen. I should have ordered Thanksgiving supplies this week, but this holiday always sneaks up on me. I don't need much, so I'm hopeful that the store will have it when I get around to it.

I'm glad that you were able to get back on the treadmill but sorry you had to pay for it at all. That you're fine being up and about is a Good.Thing.

>289 karenmarie: I just can't quite bring myself to believe someone who's been told something isn't working deserves the benefit of the doubt when it still isn't working after they leave. I'm glad Bill's handling it, whatever his motive.

>287 karenmarie: I got it in three today because I literally could not come up with another word that fit that pattern except the one it turned out to be.

I get about a dozen author newsletters and, thankfully, they're not daily! I probably scan fifteen or twenty a day, really read six: New York Times, Morning Brew, Literary Hub, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, and Intelligencer.

>290 LizzieD: Hi Peggy, and thank you. The day was smooth.

We’ll need to make a last minute grocery store run for bananas for Rebecca’s Mother’s Banana Cream Pie and whatever I haven't thought of/bought, but that’s okay. Believe it or not, I couldn’t find heavy cream, only light cream. I bought it but really want/need heavy cream. I actually did quite well yesterday out and about, too.

Thanksgiving is a big deal here at the house because we feel it’s neglected between Halloween, which we don’t celebrate any more except for one bag of candy corn for Bill, and Christmas, which is a secular and important holiday for us. T-day is cloth linens, decorations, everything from scratch except for Sister Schubert’s Parker House Style Yeast Rolls. I hope you get the things you need and get done what you need to get done for T-Day.

>291 richardderus: Well, RD, I expressed my unhappiness that it required a second trip and Bill just shrugs – he seems to think this kind of stuff is a process whereas I think of it as a Fix It Right The First Time person. We've stopped talking about it. I get cranky and he gets huffy.

Yay for your three yesterday – that’s what I got today.

Wow, just wow, at your daily word consumption.

*smooch*

Wordle 518 3/6* adieu, alert, avert. Potential political adieu, liberal comrade, as we strive to stay alert regarding the attacks on our republican form of government and try to avert the descent into a populist, protectionist, isolationist, and nationalist * United States.

* Wikipedia, political positions of t****

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Not much on the agenda this weekend except to make pie crusts and freeze 'em until Wednesday, when I'll bake a Pecan pie and a Pumpkin pie and bake the Banana Cream Pie crust, which I'll make the filling for on T-day.

Bill recorded a French Ligue 1 soccer match last week, and we'll probably watch it today with our take-out lunch.

The auxiliary heat is working this morning, as it's 24F outside and the aux heat cuts on when the outside temp is 45F or less.

Morning, Karen. Happy Saturday. Sue put in quite a bit of time at her Dad's yesterday, with the help of her SIL. I helped too, moving some furniture out and loading up most of his stuff to bring back here. We will have to finish sorting it all out, a little at a time. It was damn cold too. January weather. Sue has a quick trip there tomorrow and it will be all done. Matt is taking his car. Nothing new but better than what he currently has.

We are having a very small service at 11am today, then a luncheon and then we are coming back here. A life celebration. Enjoy your day, my friend.

>292 karenmarie: Getting the crusts made early is The Key to enjoying the holiday cooking. The dough has time to really set up, get that flour hydrated properly, and the fat(s) truly solid. Pecan, pumpkin, and banana cream pies?! Ooo yummers!

Well done you on that 3day! (he fumed jealously)

*smooch*

Good morning, Karen, and congratulations on getting ahead of T-giving and a 3-day. Me too! We're the same after our first words.

Enjoy your day and stay warm!

>292 karenmarie: I'm in pie overload just thinking about 3 types, all ones I love - but I only make the pumpkin and it's rare I eat pecan and as to cream pies - well quite a special event.

Hi Karen...I hope your knee replacement surgery goes well. I didn't know that it will also get rid of arthritis. You have been through so much this year!!! I wish I could wave a magic wand and take these health issues away from you.

You are special. Please take good care of yourself. I'm glad your daughter is with you as having one more person to help does mean a lot.

All good wishes to you!

>293 msf59: ‘Morning, Mark, and happy Saturday to you. I’m glad things are moving along with your FiL’s belongings, glad Matt’s getting the car. I hope the service and luncheon/life celebration went well yesterday and that Sue can get some rest today.

>294 richardderus: ‘Morning, Rdear. Crusts out of the way and getting the dining room set up this week are the two biggest things. Other than that, I like the last minute prep and work. Jenna will be home for the first time since 2019 because of the damned pandemic, so that will be wonderful. And helpful. Yup, all these pies. I mean, once I get going, why ever not? The crusts are the big thing, frankly, since I make ‘em from scratch. The pies are actually easy, just measuring, mixing, then baking. Or measuring, mixing, cooking, slicing, pouring. It’s quite fun, and although I’m not having anything that will be death by salt (bye-bye olives, pickles, and French onion soup mix dip), I’m not going to sodium mg count on T-day.

Thanks re my 3. Today was alphabet soup, and it took me 5. *smooch*

>295 LizzieD: ‘Morning, Peggy, and thank you. Yay for our 3s. I got chilled towards the end of the evening, like I frequently do, and it was winter sheets and corn bags all the way. I hope you had a good day, too.

>296 quondame: Hi Susan. Bill and our friend Geoff love pecan pie, Jenna and I love pumpkin, and once Rebecca started bringing her mother’s banana cream pie that got added to the list. Pandemic and various other things have prevented Rebecca/family from getting together with us since 2018 (?, 2019?) so I’ve been making it. The recipe is super easy and can be used to make coconut or chocolate cream pie, too. I can live without the pecan pie, but I admit that I always have a bit of pumpkin AND a bit of banana cream pie. So does Geoff’s wife Diane. Jenna manages to eat the leftover pumpkin pie for breakfast and dessert the next several days unless I am lucky enough to sneak in and get a piece for myself.

>297 Whisper1: Hi Linda. Thank you re the devoutly-to-be-wished-for-and-dreaded-at-the-same-time knee replacement surgery. Since my arthritis is in the knee joint, getting the old knee joint out of there gets rid of the arthritis. I was happily surprised that the Bakers Cyst goes away, too, and glad I thought of asking that question. I was originally going to get my right knee replaced first, but now it's the left knee. We’ve both been through a lot – you for much, much longer than I – and thank you for wanting to wish my health issues away.

Right now, except for the Bakers Cyst and the knee/SI joint problems, my only real health issue is … either tiredness from my heart or tiredness from being 69 ½. I’m actually quite lucky.

Jenna being here makes me very happy. She’s occasionally cranky, as are we all, but she’s fun, helpful, intelligent, snarky, and my own sweet girl. She’s a mama’s girl, too, as she puts it, and that extra level of care has helped more than I can say since I had my heart attack a year ago. All good wishes to you, too, my dear.

Wordle 519 5/6* adieu, flake, chase, grape, brave. Adieu, mon cher sommelier, I'm sorry you were so flakey we had to chase you away from grape's best use, even though you were brave to recommend pairing Glühwein with prime rib. Well. That was challenging and not completely successful.

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Panthers play at 1 p.m., but I'm not necessarily interested in watching. We'll see. Jenna's going to meet Justin, her best friend from high school, a fellow trombone player, to celebrate his birthday by buying him lunch and getting caught up. I might make salmon for dinner.

Yesterday Jenna put the new shelf support pegs in place on the shelves that I'll be putting all the Easton Press books together. The brass pegs collapse the holes with too much weight, but the support pegs have a flange that holds them in place. I learned this the hard way when I put books on the shelves in Jenna's former playroom/my Retreat. Today I'll probably play with books again, too.

Morning, Karen. Happy Sunday. Everything went very smoothly yesterday. Yes, tears were shed but lots of joy was spread around too. My BIL's family and Bree and Sean came back here and we visited, played games and watched some college football, well into the late evening. The only thing missing was our Jackson. He spent the day and night with his other grandma. It did give Bree and Sean a break. We are going over to my BIL's place this afternoon, to continue our family celebration, along with watching some football. Go Bears! Go Panthers!

Glad to hear you got your shelves taken care and I hope Jenna has a good visit with her friend.

Hi Mark, and happy Sunday to you, too. I'm glad things went well, sorry Jackson was with his other grandma. However, Bree and Sean getting a break is a good thing.

Go Bears! Go Panthers! I may even watch the game, although I'm going to watch the first World Cup Match, Qatar against ... whoever... which has already occurred and I don't want to go to the FIFA app to see who in case I see the result.

Off to create a new thread...