lisapeet in 2023: Vertical When Appropriate

Greetings for the new year, LT friends! I'm still standing (OK, sitting, but you know what I mean) and intend to go on as I began: vertical when appropriate, with a good attitude when possible.

My main reading goal this year is to read more from my shelves than the library, especially books that have been sent or given to me as gifts—if someone went to the trouble to get a book to me because they thought I'd like it, then it deserves some priority in my reading life. That said, I'm a hopeless instant-gratification library clicker—my home library, NYPL, has a fantastic collection of ebooks—and I have to admit to being a sucker for the tiny thrill of holds coming in.

I've got two books going right now—one a galley from a conference last year, Lydia Millet's Dinosaurs, the other (surprise!) a library hold that just popped up, Annie Ernaux's The Years.

The photo above is of my little stripy cat Spencer surrounded by extra stripes, because that was the thing that made me smile this week and I don't have any thoughts more profound than that.

Happy New Year, Lisa! I can't wait to hear about your first reads of the year. I hope 2023 is a good year for you and yours.

Great picture! Looking forward to following you and your reading

Love the picture! Made me smile too.

Stripes upon stripes! Love it.

Happy New Year! Cute cat (we have a similar one). I look forward to following what you read and am already making space on my wishlist…

I love the subtitle of your thread, and it's meaning for you. Hope you, hubby, and Dr. Son continue to do well.

And a dup post. Will use the opportunity to say I will be following along as usual and happy new year!

Great photo at the top. Hope this year includes some R&R as you make your way through. Look forward to hearing about what you read.

Spencer is adorable. Happy New Year Lisa. Wish you good reading and good all other things too.

Thanks, everyone, and good to see you here. I have a feeling my reviews may run hot and cold this year (number and timeliness, that is... as far as opinion goes they always run warm and cool, at least).

I'm enjoying Annie Ernaux's The Years—so evocative!—but it's not a light read, so I'm taking it in a little at a time rather than in big gulps.

Glad you're enjoying The Years: I found it very moving.

Hi Lisa! Stumped by the pic in >1 lisapeet:. Is it one of those 3D thingummies where you have to squint and stand just so...? All I see is stripes.

>12 Dilara86: She really does a lot without ever directing the reader how to feel. It's a really interesting piece of writing.

>13 LolaWalser: Just stripes! But if you move your mouse so the picture jiggles up and down for a while, I think you can get stoned.

*never ever leaving Lisa's thread*

Loving "vertical when appropriate" as well as your adorable stripy kitty!

Hi Lisa, hope after your difficult December that the New Year is starting well. Looking forward to your reviews.

Very cute kitty...

Hi Lisa, I am usually a lurker in your thread, but just want to say hi (and happy new year if it's not too late!).
I'll be following your reading this year again. Great you're enjoying The Years, it's a great book. I hope I'll be able to read more Annie Ernaux this year.

Hi, Lisa. I’ll be checking in from time to time. It has been a little crazy here so far, but it does usually slow down after a bit. Your cat is just like one we used to have, and very similar to one of my daughter’s cats, although hers is more gray. The striped picture is perfect.

A belated thank you and hi to everyone who's stopped by! It's nice to see new and familiar names, and hopefully I can get a little more interesting than just cat pictures.

This has been a crappy reading month for me—I'm so, so busy with not a lot of downtime, even on the weekends, so it's not a reading slump as much as a reading crunch. But I'm toward the end of The Years and am growing more impressed by it as I go along. I have things to say about it but I'll wait until I'm done.

Very curious about your thoughts on it

I suspect that you will be going to New Orleans next week for the ALA and that will make your January even busier than it has been. The upside is that there will be lots more books to read after the New Orleans visit!

How did I miss your thread!? Well, late to the party but will stop in from time to time :-)

>21 cindydavid4: Still reading, but I'll definitely hold forth on The Years once I'm done. A lot to think about there.

>22 benitastrnad: You guessed right—I'll be in New Orleans all day Friday through early Monday. With a little trepidation about leaving my husband on his own for four days on cat duty, but he's doing well and is pushing me to go... he's probably sick of me hovering over him all the time. I'm going to try not to come home with too many physical books, since I have an iPad full of e-galleys, but I said that last conference and I believe ended up with 10 books that I really wanted in physical form. From what I hear the show floor may be a bit sparse this conference—people are waiting for the Annual conference in Chicago in summer—but I'm sure I'll come away with something or other to weigh my suitcase down. Are you going to be there?

>23 avaland: I'm of the opinion that fashionably late is still a thing. Glad to see you!

Enjoy New Orleans, Lisa. I look forward to your news.

>24 lisapeet:
I am not going to this mid-winter. I don't think anybody from the University of Alabama is going. I don't think that any academic librarians are going - that I know of. I think you are correct that attendance is going to be sparse. I am concerned for ALA because membership in it, and attendance is being actively discouraged. Being active in ALA is not going to get you tenured (if you library is still hiring tenured librarians) and it isn't going to get you promoted. The only thing that does both of those things is to publish academic articles. (yes, I am venting.)

>26 benitastrnad: I am concerned for ALA because membership in it, and attendance is being actively discouraged Boo! Hissss!

>1 lisapeet: Happy New Year! I will take inspiration and try to get at some of my shelf books as well. The Spencer picture is adorable, that is so cuteee. Fluffy creatures give life so much meaning

Lisa, I noticed on the book's page that you loved Paul Harding's Tinkers. Don't know if you are aware that he has a new third book, This Other Eden which tells the story of the last days of the colony on Malaga Island in Maine. I'm sitting over on my thread trying to pull together a review of some sort. Excellent book....

I noticed your comment about Discworld on Jennifer's thread, Lisa and hereby am letting you know I started my own series read at #1, The colour of magic. Wanna catch up, or is coordinating too much pressure? I'm in no hurry. :)

>26 benitastrnad: >27 markon: Attendance at this conference was low, both among librarians and vendors on the show floor. That was a bit dismaying, though not surprising, but also had its upside—vendors seemed really happy with the interactions they were having with people, and a lot of them chalked it up to fewer people and more room to move around. But I agree, ALA is in a bit of a funky place right now. They need to do some reinvention, I think. The president of the organization who's coming in this summer is very left of center, and someone I really like and think is very smart and effective, so we'll see.

>28 liz4444: Spencer is particularly adorable, though I only say that because my other cats can't read.

>29 avaland: I did love Tinkers—a prized possession of mine is a signed copy, from a friend who used to run events at a bookstore and who championed the book like crazy when it first came out. I haven't read Enon yet, though I do have an e-galley, and ditto This Other Eden. I'm a bit worried I'll be underwhelmed, given my affection for the first book, but I'll probably read at least one of them. The most recent interests me a bit more, I think.

>30 LolaWalser: I'll have to check out your thread! I may or may not join in, being constitutionally unable to plan my reading beyond book club books, but I'll read along.

The New Orleans conference was a lot of fun. I went to fewer sessions and panels than I usually do, and more one-on-one meetings with people and meals out—I guess a byproduct of the new position. I enjoyed that a lot, though it's leaving me a bit short for coverage... there are a lot of sessions that were offered online as well, and I guess I'm going to end up watching some this week.

I will say I ate WAY better than I usually do at conferences—did not have a dud or food court meal. And I even got out to see a parade, the Krewe of Chewbacchus—no big floats, very DIY, very sci-fi geeky, very queer. My favorite was the majorette corps of Princess Leias of every size and configuration. Lots of fun. I came home with a bunch of beads and king cake babies like any good tourist, and a few galleys because I'm only human.

Also came home with Covid, apparently. I got back Monday afternoon and started to feel crummy Thursday morning, and tested most decisively positive. Thursday felt like a bad cold, and yesterday and today have felt like a really bad cold and cough. Not a lot worse than that, so far... I can breathe fine, and get around the house and do minor stuff like folding laundry. I'm mostly concerned that Jeff not get it, since he's about to start his second round of chemo on Monday. Fortunately the house is big and drafty.

Unfortunately it's also COLD. We had a cold snap last night, down to 4˚—I know that's nothing like what you Maine and New Hampshire folks got, but cold enough for me. And it takes our house at least 24 hours to recover the heat when temps go down that sharply, so it's been a chilly day. I'm a chilly person anyway, so brrrr... I have a weighted blanket plus a down comforter plus a space heater on in the bedroom. And cats who pile on.

I'm really bad at being sick—I tend to expend a lot of energy insisting that I'M NOT SICK I JUST HAVE THE SNIFFLES... and usually I'm right, actually. But this one is impossible to deny... I feel crummy. I hope it passes quickly. And once again I'm so, so happy to be working from home.

Oye. Wish you and Jeff well with this covid pass. And, yeah, I’m in Philly. The weather sucks.

oh so sorry, hope you guys get well soon and get some heat on the way. We were at 74 today. Wish I could send some to you!

>32 lisapeet: I'm glad you had a fun time in New Orleans, and sorry you came home with Covid. I hope you feel better soon. Are you eligible for Paxlovid?

Once the temps get well below zero and your nose hairs freeze, it starts to feel relative. My body is well-aware of 30 vs 0, but 0 vs -30 is less easy for my body to differentiate. Mostly it's my mind that is abuzz at that point. So 4 is darn cold, especially when you don't feel well. Hot tea? Or if you don't have to work, a hot toddy?

And inquiring minds want to know: which galleys came home with you?

>33 dchaikin: >34 cindydavid4: >35 labfs39: Thanks—I spent yesterday channeling all my illness denial energy into believing that I WOULD start feeling better today, and I do think I am. It's like the tail end of a bad cold at this point, diaphragm muscles sore from coughing and my sinuses all draining at once, but livable.

>35 labfs39: It turns out I am eligible for Paxlovid—NYC lowered the eligibility to 50+—but I missed the window, and anyway I think I'm doing OK without it. Lots and lots of hot tea—no whiskey around for hot toddies, sadly, but very low dose THC gummies help a lot in the same way. I'm more a THC person than an alcohol person anyway... which feels a bit risqué for someone of my generation to say in public, though I don't think it actually is anymore. But yeah, definitely for end-of-day/non work days.

Our thermostat has been wonky in the past week, turning off the boiler—unpleasant to realize when the house is suddenly ice cold, and even less fun when sick. I think we've got it working for now, and the boiler guy is coming Thursday to replace our 20-year-old model. It's warming up this week, and not a moment too soon.

Galleys snagged in NOLA:
The Nightingale Affair by Tim Mason
The Memory of Animals by Claire Fuller
Metropolitan Stories by Christine Coulson
La Tercera by Gina Apostol
Medusa's Sisters by Lauren J. A. Bear

A restrained, but well-chosen, haul, I think.

And a few parade photos, most of them mediocre since my phone doesn't do great in low light. The tote bag in the last one says "Metaphors Be With You," the perfect accessory for a Star Wars–themed parade overlapping with a library conference.

    

NO sounds great, Lisa. I am so sorry you are will.

Nicely restrained book haul as well. I am interested in seeing what Fuller writes next. I have admired two of her previous novels.

Take care.

I'm glad you are feeling better, Lisa. I love the photos. Thanks for sharing.

I’m glad you are on the mend, Lisa. Knock on wood, I’ve still managed to avoid Covid, even though I’ve been exposed.

Thank goodness the cold snap was short lived. It’s already 46 today, where I am in Massachusetts. That’s after minus digits yesterday.

I will say I ate WAY better than I usually do at conferences—did not have a dud or food court meal.

Ahhh, that was generally true for New Orleans--cheap or expensive, outside food would be great.

Metaphors Be With You

Love it!

I'm glad that you're feeling better, Lisa, and I hope that you're back to normal soon.

Which restaurants did you most enjoy in New Orleans? If the conference was held at the Morial Convention Center I would have recommended Cochon, a fabulous Cajun restaurant on Tchoupitoulas which is a short walk from the convention center, and Tommy's Cuisine, an Italian Creole spot also on Tchoupitoulas 2-3 blocks to the west; their Duck Tchoupitoulas, sweetbread, and Creole turtle soup are amazing.

This reminds me that I need to order Carnival king cakes from Gambino's; Mardi Gras is barely two weeks away!

As someone also living in a large old house, I know exactly what you mean. When we had very low temperatures for several days in December and I had to give up on my lifelong habit of turning the thermostat very low at night, because the poor furnace could just not make up the heat during the day. Regular winter weather is fine, but these polar vortexes are too much. But my husband managed to have covid without spreading it to me, so these creaky houses have their benefits. I hope you're fully recovered. Your book haul is lovely -- so good to know that new books by Claire Fuller and Gina Apostol are on their way.

Ugh - Covid is the last thing you need right now with all the busyness you have at home and at work. I hope it passes by quickly without dragging you down too much.

Hope you recover quickly!

I hope you feel better as soon as possible!

I hope you feel better soon. This strain of covid is very catching. I caught it just before Xmas, when my elderly neighbour came hobbling up towards my front door. I went out to meet her and she said she was not well and would I go down to the chemist for her (we live 5kms from the nearest town). I have trouble understanding her patois french and so I lent towards her as she gave me a list of items she wanted and a purse with some money in it. It was only then that she told me that all her family were ill with covid. I got it two days later, but as I have been vaccinated five times and it is a relatively weak strain it was no more than a cold.

Thanks, everyone. It wasn't the worst of Covids, I think—I've been vaxxed four times, which is not quite all of what I should have but did the trick, I think. I'm improving but it's hanging on a while longer than I'd like, feeling like the aftermath of a sinus infection or something—my lungs hurt and I still have what let's call a *productive* cough, and my energy levels aren't quite where I wish they were. That last is probably about not having had the proper time to rest up... people keep asking me if I'm taking time off to recover and I keep wanting to say, "Sorry, have we met?" There is literally no one else to do my work, so I'm just plugging away, trying to build in bits of downtime during the day.

>41 kidzdoc: We did eat at Cochon! And even though I'm not a meat eater, there were some stellar options—I had a catfish in spicy broth that was wonderful, along with really good shared sides of mac'n'cheese, Brussels sprouts, and cucumber salad and a pineapple upside down cake for dessert. I also ate at Taqueria La Lucha—little shrimp tacos that were perfect to hold me over until a late party with finger food; a takeout shrimp po'boy from Mother's, and a fabulous dinner at the extremely charismatic Restaurant R'evolution, where I had wild mushroom risotto, crab beignets, a charred citrus old fashioned (OMG), finished off with a Basque cheesecake. The best part was that I was walking 7-8 miles a day and didn't feel stuffed or weighted down at all (also probably helped by the fact that I never had time for breakfast).

>47 lisapeet: I am drooling. Take care. I hope you feel better soon.

>47 lisapeet: not having had the proper time to rest up
Ugh, sorry it's dragging on, and that rest is so difficult to achieve.

>47 lisapeet: Excellent! You dined in three of my favorite NOLA restaurants, Lisa: Cochon, Mother's, and especially Restaurant R'evolution, which is easily one of my five favorite restaurants in the world. Their signature dish, Death by Gumbo, is absolutely mind blowing, and it's probably my all time favorite entrée, in terms of its rich complex taste and unique presentation. Several food bloggers and cooking television programs have highlighted their gumbo, including this one by Nick Solares from The Meat Show:

Watch: A Deconstructed Gumbo Dish to Die For at New Orleans’ R’evolution

Mother's makes very good po' boys, but my favorite ones come from Domilise's Po-Boy & Bar, a classic hole-in-the-wall joint in Uptown New Orleans; like me, Dan and Deborah probably went there regularly when they were students at Tulane.

>50 kidzdoc: Cool, good to know I dined in your NOLA canon! I think someone at our table at R'evolution had the Death by Gumbo—I passed because of the Andouille sausage—but everything was really top-notch, appetizers and drinks included. And the waiter was great, very personal and just short of over-the-top—he had us laughing and interacting with everyone in the place (we were a table of six or so). Obviously he's very good at what he does.

I'm headed down to Miami for a mini-conference Monday morning, back Tuesday night. Probably no fun eating—food is provided at the conference, though if their vegetarian offerings of the past few years are any indication, I'll be hitting up the late-night Whole Foods takeout around the corner. There's also a great cheapo Peruvian place nearby, La Granja, that has bigass margaritas and a really good shrimp platter that I've hit up a few times. I should be more adventurous, but when time is tight you go with what you like.

>51 lisapeet: I'm curious about your mini-conference in Florida or all places. Seems to be the center of anti-libraries from what I hear in the news

That is a quick trip, Lisa. I hope you are feeling better.

>52 Nickelini: Florida is definitely one of the centers of anti-library legislation, anyway, along with Missouri, Louisiana, Texas... the list goes on dispiritingly. But Miami is headquarters for the Knight Foundation, which is a nonprofit that makes grants for journalism, tech, the arts, etc. They're also library-adjacent in a small way—for a couple of years they held a competition to fund innovative library projects, and though they abandoned that, they've still held this conference every year, except for 2021 and 2022 because of the pandemic. This is the first one in a while, and I'm looking forward to it—it's small, hand-picked guest list, and I really like a lot of the people involved. I was a judge on their second News Challenge on Libraries and helped with planning of their first conference in 2017, and I've gone to all of them.

>53 BLBera: Yeah, I would have liked to spend a little more time in Miami—catch a good meal, sit out by the water—but I don't want to take the extra day away from either home or work. I'm traveling so much for work this year that I really have to pick and choose how I spend my time, and Miami wasn't a winner this year. And I am feeling better, though I still have a leftover cough. I'm going to have to test again today to make sure I'm negative. I slept 10 hours last night, which is a crazy lot for me, and I feel like I caught up a bit after a really hectic work week.

>29 avaland: Tinkers is the best of the three, imo, but the other two are worthy reads also. They are short reads.

>54 lisapeet: I'm glad you're feeling better, Lisa. The Florida conference sounds interesting.

Just catching up with your thread, here. Jealous that you got to go to New Orleans. Sorry about the Covid, but glad that it seemed to be a relatively mild case. Most of my favorite NOLA restaurants are probably gone, as I left in 1986, although you got to Mother's, which is on my list of favorites. Mandina's in Mid City is still going strong. Next time you gotta hit that spot. Hope you have/had fun in Miami. Of all the places you could be going in Florida, I think that city's the most interesting. There was some good food to be had in Little Haiti when I was there a few years back.

Cheers!

Hope you are Covid-free and feeling 'normal". And I hope you have some healthy down-time between all the travel.

Well, it wasn't a bad case but it lingered forever... I think I was tired and fuzzy headed for a good couple-three weeks, and I'm usually a bounce-back-fast person. Probably because I've had zero downtime. But the conference in Miami was great! A lot of fun, lots of good information and socializing, and an excellent fish taco sampler dinner (with a SAMOVAR of margaritas for the table... I don't really drink and haven't had a hangover in years, but I just blamed it on the Covid leftovers). I'm glad I went.

I haven't posted a book review all year, yeesh. I'll get to them soon, because I've been doing some interesting reading—if not a whole lot, since I've mostly been falling into bed and passing out right away. And that probably won't get better for a while, since my husband is having another surgery on Friday because of a tumor recurrence. He's not catching any breaks this winter.

Prayers that your husband's surgery is successful and uncomplicated, Lisa. I hope that you're feeling back to normal soon.

Hoping for a smooth procedure for your husband and some calmer times for you both all around.

Hope your husband's surgery goes well. You have had a lot going on. You'll get to the book reviews or not. We'll all be here anyway :-)

Best wishes for your husband's surgery. It's certainly been a rough winter for you.

Best wishes, Lisa.

Don't worry about book reviews focus on ypu and your husband. Hoping for positive news, I m thinking of you both

You guys both sound like you could use catching a break. Hope the surgery goes well and you continue to feel better as well.

Thanks, all. It really has been a crappy year so far, but nothing much to do except tromp through it. And I'm definitely not worried about posting reviews here! Those are pretty far down on my list of things that need to get done, but they are fun to write whenever I do.

All my griping about the new position aside, the company has posted the job ad for a new editor-in-chief (my former boss's position) and I'm going to apply for it. I feel like I'm already doing much of that work, so how much worse could it be? And I'd get paid better for it. Either way will be fine—I'll either get the role or someone else will and will ultimately take some of the work off my plate.

Readingwise, I'm finishing up Angela Barrett's Natural History—not one of her strongest, but I'm always there for her stories of people moving through that early-modern-science era (in this collection, Civil War to early 20th century). It's still totally engrossing. Last week I read Joy Kogawa's Obasan for my book club, which was a heartbreaker but so well done... more on that later.

>67 lisapeet: Andrea Barrett
I don't generally read short stories, but maybe interconnected would be a different experience. I've had The Voyage of the Narwhal sitting around forever. Have you read it?

Sorry about your crappy year, and wishing you a turn toward better times.

Thank you, CR friends. It's always good to have folks in my court, both virtual and live.

>68 qebo: I did read The Voyage of the Narwhal years ago, and remember really liking it. I'm a sucker for arctic exploration stories, and I recall it being very immersive. There was also one passage that made me burst into tears, though that had a lot to do with my own predisposition and is no reflection on the general mood of the book, though it (obviously, given the subject) has its dark sides. I do recommend it, though.

I hope all goes well with your husband's surgery. Sounds like you're not catching much of a break this year so far.

Thanks for the well wishes. Jeff's surgery was postponed to Monday because he tested "presumptive positive" on his pre-op PCR test. Those results can drag on for months—it's been a full month-plus since he was sick with it—so we called his hospital team and made noise about the surgery being time-sensitive, and they relented and rescheduled. I'm going to be working all weekend to try and get a head start on next week, when we're also closing an issue—yeah, I'll be the person with two laptops in the Columbia Presbyterian waiting room—but this morning I'm playing hooky to have breakfast with a very dear friend who's in town from Nashville for the weekend. She had offered to hang out with me at the hospital when the surgery was going to be today, but since it's not... we can just have a meal and catch up.

I'm completely underwater with work, but trying to grab some quality time for myself here and there. I just started Andrea Wulf's Magnificent Rebels: The First Romantics and the Invention of the Self, which is a 500+-page library book, so I'll definitely be sneaking in reading time whenever I can.

>71 lisapeet: I admire your ability to juggle so many balls so well. Good luck with everything

Hope everything went okay and that you are getting some that quality time for yourself....

Haha, not am I only not caught up on everyone else's threads, I'm not even caught up on my OWN thread.

My husband did fine with his surgery and was home in a few days—I was glad to have him home and not to be schlepping two laptops back and forth from the hospital. He's mostly just been taking it easy, though we went out yesterday and had lunch with friends—good sushi, then diner pie and coffee, which is my idea of culinary heaven.

The week of his surgery was a miserable workweek for me, closing an issue, shorthanded as we have been since December, and I lost a lot of time dealing with hospital stuff—couldn't take any time off—so there were a few verrry late nights. The last couple of weeks have been relatively easy and I've been able to do a lot of work housekeeping, so to speak, to get ready for what I'm sure will be a particularly brutal issue close: big project, delayed by my boss leaving, so everything's going to happen last minute. I've brought in as much outside help as I can, but I'm still going to be the last line of defense on that one. So... quality time for myself? Well, I haven't worked at all the last two weekends, so I guess that's as close as I'm going to come for a while.

All of the above means not much reading time, unfortunately. I get into bed at the end of the day and am asleep before I finish five pages. So I'm still reading Magnificent Rebels, which I'm enjoying a lot but it's a doorstopper, so I'm sure my library checkout will expire before I'm done. I'll just put another hold on it and hope I haven't forgotten too much of what went before by the time I get it back again, and in the meantime maybe read some fiction.

Glad all went well with the surgery, Lisa. I hope the workload settles down for you soon.

I'm glad the surgery went well and if you don't have that much free time, you did at least get a few weekends. Wishing you luck with all the challenges at your job!

Yay for uneventful surgery, good sushi, and diner pie w coffee (so Twin Peaks, Agent Cooper...)

Oh and yes--highly confidential message follows--THE MIDGET IS IN THE TOASTER! THE MIDGET IS IN THE TOASTER!

Finally.

I am so glad the surgery went well and hope you get more help soon.

Pleased to hear that the surgery went well. And good luck with the job application.

I didn’t know there was a new Andrea Barrett coming out, thanks for mentioning it! I also love The Voyage of the Narwhal.

Hope things have settled down so you can read a bit.

Wishing you a break and good luck with work and other stuff.

>74 lisapeet: oh I wish things get easier for you soon. Is your boss aware of.your situation? Supportive?

Glad to hear Jeff is home recuperating. Wish you the best with the job application and coping with what life sends you.

Thanks for the good wishes, everyone. You all make me want to crawl out of the woodwork and say hi. Hi!

Everything's bumping along over here, work is busy as ever, Jeff is taking it easy and doing his chemo. I had a screening interview for the EIC position and I thought it went well—I was confident and relaxed and had a lot to say on the subject of why I'm a good candidate. It's so much easier going through the whole process when you already have a job, that's for sure. Anyway, we'll see what comes of that. Work is still hard but I'm also beginning to enjoy the boss-like aspects of it a bit more.

I had three things break on me last week: a tooth (non-painful, mostly filling, but I need to get it dealt with; the SIM card on my phone, which died out of the blue and had to get replaced so I could get calls and texts, both of which it turns out I'm extremely dependent on; and the power steering fluid line on my car, which is now with my mechanic. None of them difficult to deal with, but c'mon, universe. That's enough of that. Oh and a tiny baby raccoon died in our basement and I have to bury it tomorrow.

>77 LolaWalser: OK, I knew exactly what you meant...

>82 cindydavid4: Everyone at work knows the basics of what I'm dealing with, and are all very kind about it. That said, I don't share a ton, just keeping on keeping on and doing my job well. There will be some point when I'll need to take people up on that "whatever you need" offer, but now isn't it. So other than taking some time for doctors' appointments and extra errands, I try not to let too much of my personal life bleed over into my work life.

As I predicted, I only made it halfway through Magnificent Rebels before my checkout period ran out, so I'm waiting for a new hold to come around and in the meantime reading Girl, Woman, Other for my book group. I like it—not a challenging read but an interesting and lively one, pretty good for right now.

I hope all of you are well and having better-than-average Mondays.

Troubles come in threes? Maybe you're done with broken things for now. I loved Girl, Woman, Other; in fact it's one I will probably read again at some point.

Good luck with your job.

I too just read Girl, Woman, Other and agree with "not a challenging read but an interesting and lively one, pretty good for right now."

I read it and liked it, but if I was forewarned I would have had paper and pen handy to make some family trees! but it was very well done

Hopefully the universe is done with the bad things around you and you get to enjoy some event-less times for a bit... And great for the good news up-thread - I had been missing for a bit so just catching up a bit.

>88 AnnieMod: What Annie said!

Take care of yourself, Lisa. Good luck with everything, and hopefully the pendulum has swung and only good things are coming your way.

Thanks, everyone. I'm guessing the universe has a lot more in store for me, but I'll settle for a reprieve. Well, I'm having a weekend with no work, so that'll do. Just finished an enormous project for our May issue, which closed early yesterday morning, and that's a big relief. Had a second interview for the EIC job, which I feel went OK but I'm fairly neutral about the whole thing. On Wednesday I'm headed out to our Library Safety Summit in Columbus, OH, a place I have no pre-existing thoughts about whatsoever. Just a few days and I'll be glad to be back home afterward, but I'll get a chance to catch up with one good libraryland friend whom I haven't seen since before the pandemic, so that'll be nice.

I liked Girl, Woman, Other a lot—such a fun, sweeping tale for our times. Our book club is talking about it on Tuesday, so that should be a good conversation. Now reading Losing Music by my friend John Cotter—he ran the longtime book review site Open Letters Monthly, which had a family of blogs of which my old Like Fire was one. It's about his losing his hearing to a (as of the book's halfway mark) disease that's stubbornly undiagnosable—really very well done, with a lot of resonance for me as the spouse of a chronically ill person.

Columbus, OH

Coincidence... a book* I'm reading was published by "Two Dollars Radio" with HQ there--1124 Parsons Avenue--"a bar, café, and bookstore specializing in the best in independently published literature".

*They can't kill us until they kill us, Hanif Abdurraqib

>91 lisapeet: I used to travel a lot to Columbus for work at one point. Their airport is always under some type of construction. :)

>92 LolaWalser: Oh! I forgot Two Dollar Radio is headquartered there—they're a favorite publisher of mine. I'm not sure how much walking-around time I'll have, but if I do that would be a great destination. How are you liking the Abdurraqib?

>93 AnnieMod: As someone whose base airport is LaGuardia, that will probably make me feel right at home.

>92 LolaWalser: Ah, I'm waiting for my library hold to come in on They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us.

>94 lisapeet:, >95 ursula:

I'm one-third in and would highly recommend it, even as someone almost extraterrestrial to the popular musics of my lifetime. Or maybe that's part of the fascination. I looked up tracks on YouTube and mostly it's like trying to eat soup with a fork. But the big thing is how he relates the music to politics and social conditions.

P.S. Just noticed today's "Daily New Yorker" has a piece on Abdurraqib, if you can get to it (I can't, used up my freebies.)

The daily NYer thing was a piece by Abdurraqib on Little Richard... maybe it was excerpted from the book? But let me know if you want me to see if I can gift it to you. I know the NYT has that feature, not sure about the NYer (but given the price of a subscription these days, they should).

All sorts of other Abdurraqib resonances this week, though. I keep a longish queue of podcasts for my morning walks, and the one that popped up the day before I left, quite randomly, was this Longform episode talking with him, in which he discussed Columbus and the Columbus Public Library at length. And he was the prominent blurber for the book I just finished, Losing Music (which was excellent).

The Columbus Public Library was indeed lovely, and the space we used was large and airy, perfect for our needs—I didn't get the whole tour, but maybe next time I'm there (March 2024, most likely). The event went really well, something I can be proud of, and I performed all my emceeing and introducing duties well. Now back to work and catching up, since I missed 2-1/2 days (because I was working!).

Finishing up Magnificent Rebels, which finally came back around care of NYPL. It's a bit long, but still a fascinating account of how all those brilliant minds came together, fed off each other and glorified themselves, and eventually fell out pretty bitterly.

>97 lisapeet: Welcome back, Lisa. Glad your event was a success. I like the cover of Magnificent Rebels (the one with the feather).

>97 lisapeet: It sounds like a great event, Lisa. I'm glad it went well. Magnificent Rebels looks good.

>97 lisapeet:

Congrats on the event and thanks for the offer (I don't think it was in the book), but no need, as I'm satisfied that I've become acquainted with the person without having anything worthwhile to comment on the music he talks about (to say nothing of the sports). I used to feel I've missed out in not being in sync with my generation regarding musical tastes, and, well, that's certainly true in a way... but his essays have helped me to get rid of regret I may have felt about this.

Hey there. I'm still here, still somewhat vertical—hoping the absolute worst of this gnarly year is behind me, or at least that's what I'm going to tell myself until proven wrong.

I made it up to five interviews for the EIC job and they went with someone in a completely different direction from what I do, a person with marketing and comms skills (someone I know and like). Which makes me think that it took them that long to figure out what they wanted, and I have no problem with them deciding on a whole other set of skills. I'm actually kind of relieved... it's not as if I want to work harder than I do, though I'm sure I would have stepped up if I'd been the person they wanted. Now I'm just hoping the new person makes my job at least a little easier.

Jeff's doing OK, a couple of clean MRIs and about to finish up his sixth month of chemo, at which point everyone will put their heads together and decide whether to do six more or stop there. Every day, a day at a time.

I'm headed out to Chicago on Friday for the American Library Association Annual conference—anybody here going? I'm half looking forward to getting away, half dreading being away from home. But it's always like that.

Currently reading Lolly Willowes for my book club and absolutely loving it. But hey! I'm going to try and catch up on my year's reads with some capsule reviews, so we all have something to talk about. Hope everyone is well.

Whoo, I'm an entire half year behind. These are going to be VERY capsule reviews.



Started off the year with a good one, Annie Ernaux's The Years. Such an interesting approach to memoir, even if I'm not familiar with a lot of the French current history/politics/pop culture she discusses. But situating oneself in the news stream to examine a life feels so much like the way people think but don't always write, which was cool—and the backdrop of the 20th century/early 21st made for a very rounded portrait of a life, if that makes sense.

You can tell it wasn't an American account because she barely ever mentions work.

O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker—I adored this, despite and fell in love with the heroine, despite her dark nature. It's a slim novel, a coming-of-age-noir set in mid-20th-century Scotland, black and very dryly funny and really beautifully written. There's a manor house, a pet raven, and a protagonist who just doesn't fit into the mold she's supposed to... I think just about anyone who's been a teenager will relate. This is not quite like anything else you might think of that would slot into those categories, and made me happy to read despite its sad ending (not a spoiler). Absolutely recommended, especially if you like that kind of arch but kindly UK voice along the lines of Muriel Spark, Sylvia Townsend Warner, et. al (though this was originally published in 1991, so a bit later in that milieu).

Lydia Millet's Dinosaurs was quite good—it takes on at first what I thought might be too many of threads, but that turned out not to feel overloaded by them. A good social novel, agreeable, and very readable (not meant as faint praise at all).

Do I Know You?: A Family's Journey Through Aging and Alzheimer's by Bette Moskowitz. My sister sent me this—it so much echoes our own mom's journey through dementia, and our experiences of trying to do the right thing by her. Sometimes almost uncannily so—when Moskowitz describes her mother commenting loudly on the size of the nursing home aides' butts I whooped out loud, because our mom did exactly that, to our chagrin. She sums that up nicely toward the end: "When I compare notes with others, I see how strikingly similar the events are, and yet how heartbreakingly particular. But in the end, it is the particularity which must be considered, because for all the similarities, each case is as different as the proverbial snowflake, its progress as individual as a cold."

And that's about right. This brought back a lot of memories of mom's last years, most of them—oddly—good ones, even though they were definitely hard times. But it was also oddly reaffirming, and I finished the book feeling that we made a lot of the right decisions about her care, and done right by her overall. Which is kind of priceless, yeah? Thanks to my dear sister for sending this along.

Natural History: Stories by Andrea Barrett—not absolutely primo Voyage of the Narwhal Barrett, but I always love her golden age of science exploration subject matter and how she treats it, so I was happy.

Obasan by Joy Kogawa was a heartbreaker, but beautifully written, and such an eye-opener about how Canada treated its citizens of Japanese ancestry. Really horrifying—I knew about the U.S. and the internment camps, but this was a bit of a surprise, though I suppose it shouldn't have been, with second- and third-generation Japanese-Canadians forced to give up all their possessions and their homes, and relocate to shantytowns to perform forced labor. Kogawa was originally a poet, and it shows. Recommended.

>102 lisapeet:, >103 lisapeet: I have both of these - moving both up the pile!

>102 lisapeet: Work is a four letter word. I am still dipping into Les années

wow some nice reads there! at first I thought Id try O Calendonia but the more i read what its about, the more uncomfortable I am. Had a rather difficult adolecense and dont feel the need to revisit it

>101 lisapeet:
I am not going to ALA this year. I will miss going, but I am currently staying with my elderly mother who is suffering through a bout with Shingles. I plan on going next year when ALA is in San Diego. I LOVE going to Chicago and am sorry that I will miss it. There is a lively group of LT'ers who usually try to gather for an LT Meetup, but this year they are not meeting.

I hope that you will come home with a couple of ARC's and let us know about them.

>107 lisapeet:
That's a BB. Our library has the sequal Itsuka - but not Obasan. I put both of them on my TBR list. I already had the Sylvia Townsend Warner book on my TBR list. But I suppose I should move it up. Right now I am trying to get through all of the Kent Haruf books. Just finished Eventide.

>102 lisapeet: Interesting that you enjoyed The Years despite its Frenchness. For me a lot of the appeal was that I grew up in the same world and almost the same timeline, although my social background and personal history are very different. I liked it but not as much as La Place (A Man’s Place).

>107 lisapeet: >111 benitastrnad: I too enjoyed Obasan and did not know there was a sequel. Thanks for that, Benita.

>36 lisapeet: have you started The Memory of Animals? I’m reading it now - I’m fascinated - in a gruesome sort of way.

Nice to get an update. Seems like you’ve been treading water all year, but hanging in there. I wish you professional peace and satisfaction. I bought The Years recently as part of personal birthday present. I hope to get to it next year sometime (or sooner). Like you, i won’t get those cultural references.

>107 lisapeet: so, I’m listening to this biography of J Edgar Hoover and i’m at the American Japanese internment, which was insane and pointless. I was intrigued that for all JEH’s inherent racism and fear and unimaginative mindset, he was dead-set against mass internment of Japanese American citizens. He thought it was going to only cause problems and bad feelings, and thought any action taken should be done individual by individual. JEH was no angel, or even good. But it’s interesting that he did that, and that the entire country felt differently. Roosevelt, congress and especially the military leadership wanted full Japanese internment, and it was supported by the American public. So the FBI had to concede.

>111 benitastrnad: >113 labfs39: I also did not know there was a sequel to Obasan. I'll be on the lookout for it!

>115 dchaikin: Interesting historical note on Hoover Dan.

didnt know that either. crazy

Re the job, I think these things happen for a reason, and with everything that your dealing with at home perhaps it's just meant to be.

Enjoyed your recent reviews.

Great capsule reviews, Lisa. I loved Dinosaurs. It's absolutely one of my favorite reads this year. I agree about Barrett's stories.

Fingers crossed that Jeff continues to do well.

It sounds like you are in a good place at work; I do hope your work load improves with the new editor.

Yoohoo, Lisa! Jerry, Liz, and I are planning a mini get-together in NYC on Sunday. Interested? See my thread for details, still being sorted.

>121 rocketjk: Yes! Hope you can make it.

I'm in! Barring any last-minute emergencies. Our old cat has lymphoma and is seizure prone, which I'm trying to manage with meds he hates. And I've had some small health woes this week that seem to have resolved. It's like the House of Job here... when I do show up, you can all admire the purple fingernail that I squashed in my garage door.

But seriously, looking forward to seeing you all! And I found plans in labfs39's thread, so I'm good to go.

*waves*

Sorry about all the travails, Lisa. Another midget coming your way!

fingernail that I squashed in my garage door.

*faints*

>122 lisapeet: trying to manage with meds he hates
Been there, so my sympathies. Envious of the meetup, looking forward to photos.

Definitely would be lovely to see photos of your meet up!

>125 AlisonY: I've got a good one on my phone. I'll have it up here Monday morning.

It was lovely meeting you, Liz, Jerry, and Stephanie yesterday, Lisa. Thank you for making the long trek downtown on a Sunday. I made it home with all my treasures from the Strand. I'm already looking forward to the next meetup. :-) Jerry and I posted photos on my thread.

Such a good meetup with Lisa, Liz, Jerry and Stephanie! I really enjoyed the conversation and the organic cruising around the Strand, converging and picking up books and talking and moving on to other shelves and tables and coming together again... It was a nice mellow gathering. Everyone came away with really good-looking piles of books, too. I was restrained, for once, and came home with exactly one: a used hardcover copy of William Maxwell's They Came Like Swallows—I recently listened to an episode of the Backlisted podcast on his So Long, See You Tomorrow, which I've read and loved, and they had good things to say about this one too.

I have the next week off, the first stretch of PTO longer than a long weekend that I've taken in a year, and it's VERY needed and welcome. I'd planned to get up to see my son and daughter-in-law in Syracuse for a few days, but the cancer-ridden, seizure-having old cat needs his meds twice a day and he'd just hide from a cat-sitter, and boarding him at my vet would be traumatic for the poor old guy. Plus I'm not thrilled with how my 25-year-old car is behaving—the temperature gauge gets stuck periodically, which doesn't seem like a good thing for a four-hour drive in August, and the AC needs recharging, and my mechanic is AWOL, so I think one of the things I'm going to do this week is go car shopping before it's an emergency.

I have also put in an application to adopt a dog, as insane as it might sound given everything else I've got going on. But I'm a dog person who's been dogless for 3-1/2 years, and if we were accepted for adoption—it's like applying for college or something, complete with a long, long application and answers that take some serious thought (Sample Q: "How much would you spend on a dog with medical issues?" My A: "I would carry pet insurance so money wouldn't be the first thing I'd worry about, but if a treatment or intervention went too far into five figures I'd have concerns about the dog's quality of life"... no wonder they called me back), this guy might bring some needed light into the house. I have some questions for them too—he's reportedly good with cats, but he needs to be very, VERY good with cats, to start with. I'm speaking with the rescue person tomorrow evening, so we'll see.

I still have to catch up on reviews, but given my slow reading rate this year that's not insurmountable. Right now I'm reading 2-3 short stories out of each of 22 collections for the first round of selection in LJ's Best Books—Short Stories of 2023. It's a little frustrating—some of them I just want to keep going in, but have to stop and move on to the next—but also a great way to sample a bunch of books that I've been collecting all year.

A few stripey cat pix:


Teenage mischief incarnate, Spencer


Dear fat toothless ray of sunshine Iris


Our sweet frail old man Francis, sleeping in his favorite spot on my desk

I’m sorry about your car, but love hearing about the meetup. And love the cat pictures. Wish you well on the dog adoption.

>128 lisapeet: Aw, cats. You seem to have caught them all at the perfect moment to illustrate their characters.

>102 lisapeet: I bought The Years early this year, but haven't come round to reading it. However, I did start some of her other books, many of which are very short and very readable. Your review whets my appetite for the main work.

>106 lisapeet: Yes, if you have an interest in natural history, then Andrea Barrett's novels and short stories are great. Unfortunately, I couldn't bring all of my books with me from China, so I left it behind.

>128 lisapeet: I'm a dog person too, but your cat photos are adorable. What sort of dog are you considering? Good luck on your car hunt, and I hope you have a fabulously relaxing week off.

Just love the cat photos. I wish my moggie was that affectionate; when she reached cat teenage years she stopped sitting on my lap and took up her own spot farthest away from us (but at least she's still kind of sitting with us, unlike the other teenagers in the house).

I hope the dog works out. I'm sure the cats will quickly tell him who's boss.

>128 lisapeet: I had thought I was fine being in a dogless house, but your own quest has me wondering.

I am also a dog person, Lisa, but your cat pictures are adorable. And I love my daughter's cat. Good luck with the car shopping.

Every time a new comment shows up here, it’s a good excuse to revisit your cat pictures. 🙂

Thanks, all. I love my kitties very much, and I'm glad it shows. We had to say goodbye to sweet Francis today—he was still having seizures even with the phenobarbital, and in the last few days went into a really swift decline. He would totter out, eat a little food, totter to his bed, and then retire to the narrow space behind the washer, where he spent most of his time sleeping. You could push him over with a finger. And he was still having seizures as of Monday. So we decided not to wait until he was in obvious pain or seizing nonstop and called the hospice vet who had come for both our little black cat Alvy in 2019 (Francis's BFF—he never really liked another cat after Alvy died) and our dog Dorrie in 2020. He went out at home, in my lap, eating Churu (the cat equivalent of crack), with Jeff and I petting him and telling him what a good boy he was and how much we loved him. I'm so sad. He was with us for almost 15 years. But he had a good long life and I was glad to be able to give him a decent end.

But in the midst of death there is life, and it looks like the dog adoption is going through! This is Jasper and I love him already. He'll be transported up from Texas on 9/23. We adopted Dorrie sight unseen based on the good vibes in her photos, and this guy is really similar.

>138 lisapeet: I'm so sorry to hear about Francis, Lisa. I know he was really ill, but it's always hard to say goodbye. We had a home vet come when our old black lab was unable to continue with any quality of life. It was a similar experience, a quiet and peaceful goodbye. For a long time afterward I would think I glimpsed him out of the corner of my eye, following me around as I worked in the garden. They become such a part of our lives.

But life goes on, as you say, and Jasper looks adorable. I hope he brings you some energy and healing.

My condolences on the loss of Francis. And Dorrie is adorable. Have fun introducing her to your family.

{{{lisa}}}

Oh, I’m really sorry for your loss of Francis. Jasper looks perfect and i hope he brings you lots of joy.

Sorry that you had to say goodbye to such a good and sweet friend. Congratulations on the new pooch.

RIP Francis. Jaspter looks adorable.

So sad about Francis, Lisa. Jasper looks like a huge sweetie. Spence is a silky striped delight. And Iris is unbelievably orange.

>138 lisapeet: Oh Lisa, it's so sad when you have to say goodbye to them. But as you say, in the midst of heartache, a new furry friend to help fill the void. He looks like a good 'un.

>138 lisapeet: goodbye to sweet Francis
Oh, I'm sorry. I know how difficult it is to gauge when.
Jasper looks friendly.

Thank you for all your kind words about Francis, and your shared excitement about Jasper. We pick him up next Saturday, and I'm SO excited... and it's been so long since I was really excited about anything big, I'm enjoying the leadup very much. Turns out he's not got any corgi in him (I was wondering about how that would have happened in semi-rural Texas)—he's a red heeler/Australian shepherd mix, and therefore probably smarter than Jeff and I put together.

There will be lots of training and maybe even some agility—I could build him some little jumps in the back yard and run him through them. He'll need to learn commands, but he's housebroken, and I love training. He'll need lots of exercise and stimulation, but... jeez, so do I. This should be very mutually beneficial.

I still need to catch up on reviews here, but to live in the present for a moment: Just finished up LJ's Best Books 2023 short story category judging, which meant I spent the past few weeks reading the first three stories out of something like 20 collections. It was fun to sample so many, but frustrating because I hate to recommend a collection without having read it all the way through. But you can kind of vibe what's strong and what's not, and what will appeal to enough of an audience that a library should spend money on it or not.

I'm going to go back and finish some of my favorites, so right now I'm reading the rest of Jamel Brinkley's Witness, which is so good. There was a lot of great short fiction out this year, for those of you who celebrate.

Also reading a poetry collection by my friend Diane Mehta, Tiny Extravaganzas, which comes out next month. I'm interviewing her for Bloom, which should be fun... having a friend who's a poet can be fraught, because there's just so much so-so poetry out there and you never want to say so to people's faces, but she's a fantastic poet and I'm really enjoying it.

I am always looking for good poetry, so I will give Mehta a try, Lisa. Enjoy your pup!

>148 lisapeet: We had an Australian cattle dog mix and she was a sweet dog, good with cats and children, but also needed plenty of stimulation. She loved going places with us and learned how to gently accept treats from children when their parents weren't looking. She never met a body of water she wouldn't jump right into.

>148 lisapeet: our medical people doctor suggested we get an Australian shepherd. The doctor would rather talk about dogs than people - can’t blame him. There was an Austrailian cattle dog lived across the street years ago. He knew what time I got up for work and he would be sitting at our gate. I’d let him in our house and he would eat kibble with our lab.

>148 lisapeet: People often asked if our 100% cattle dog was part corgi because she had shorter legs and of course enormous ears.

They are challenging dogs, but also incredibly rewarding.

Catching up; I'm sorry you're having such a difficult year too, and particularly sorry about Francis. I love your cat photos! My little moggie, Ivy, is a wild tiger during the day but come evening she curls up on my lap while I read (if I'm not already sitting down when she arrives she shepherds me to the sofa). Have you got Jasper now? How's it going? He is beautiful!

Hi everyone! Jasper has been here for a week and a half, and wow... we really got lucky. He's a fantastic dog—sweet, affectionate, well-mannered, eager to please, good with the cats, housebroken, knows "no" really well (too well... I think someone was harsh with him, because if you say it too sternly he wilts a little), non-destructive (though he likes to take our personal objects and put them in his bed to sleep with—it's very endearing as long as he doesn't chew anything), bright as a button, almost always cheerful.

It's an adjustment for him, for sure—he was with his former rescuer, in a small rural town in Texas, for almost a year. So he's afraid of city noises, and got so scared on our last short walk that he hasn't wanted to leave the front gate on a leash since. That's fine—we have a big yard to play in, and eventually he'll feel more secure (and probably more bored) and want to venture out. I would like to get him to the dog run eventually, since I think he misses playing, but he can move at his own rate. He and our youngest cat, Spencer, have developed a friendly relationship already, and Spencer no longer runs away when Jasper starts bouncing around and play-bowing at him. The other cats are mostly staying upstairs, although Iris comes down to stare at him at least once a day—Jasper also dislikes the flight of stairs in our house, even though I put down carpeted treads, so he's been mostly hanging out downstairs, including overnight. He came up twice to sleep with us, and he's a lovely bed-sharer, so I hope he gets over that one soon too. But we have plenty of time, and I think he's making great progress. Because he was with someone for so long, he's very receptive to affection, and he's a sweet cuddler. Do I sound smitten? I'm smitten.

   

   

>154 lisapeet: how wonderful!

whats not to love

He's very sweet. How could you not be smitten.

>154 lisapeet: I'm so glad it's such a good match! His ears are adorable.

Nice! Congratulations.

Aww, he sounds adorable! I too love his ears.

We need a librarything for dogs. Eat any good books lately?

Jasper sounds adorable. You lucked out with him.

He does sound (and looks) adorable!

Oh, those pictures!

My dog is afraid of fireworks, which are legal and outrageously popular here. So, around July 4 (her birthday!) and Jan 1 she refuses to go outside at night, so we only do morning walks (where she feels safe). But then a few days go by she eventually decides she’s ready again and can’t understand why i’m not taking her for her evening walk.

I'm glad Jasper is settling in well. Snuggly and playful go well together.

Hurray for Jasper being a hit! Of course we'll need pictures of him and Spencer buddying up. :)

>154 lisapeet: AHHHHHHHHHHH! *Kermit flailing arms*

Love the sweet little doggie. If his cattle dog is strong, soon he will be sleeping in your bed because he doesn't want to let his people out of sight if nothing else!

Thanks, everyone! Jasper is really a super little guy, and it's fun watching his personality emerge. He's still scared of walking out on the street, so we play in the yard, but I've gotten him to go down the front stairs and sit inside the gate, with the help of some treats. So... baby steps. But speaking of steps, he's mastered the ones inside the house—cat food is a great motivator.

>167 ursula: Yep, he's a very velcro dog, which is fine with me. And he does like to sleep with us, though he doesn't have a high tolerance for people moving their legs around and tends to get down off the bed to sleep in his crate at least part of the night. With his stuffed animals, which he loves and carries around the house and tosses in the air when he's in a bouncy mood. He is SO endearing.

>166 LolaWalser: Oh all right, if you insist: Jasper & Spencer at play
(I don't think LT lets us post videos, does it?)

Anyway, these days I (we all, yes?) need al the unambiguous joy we can scrounge, and he's fine source of that.

Ahhh, the dreaded double post. My mouse is hairtriggery lately, and sometimes does stuff like that. The universe is telling me I need to post more, I guess.

OK, I'm not going to go back and review all the books I've read since the summer, even if there haven't been as many as usual: work, life, tired eyes at the end of the day, etc. etc. But here's a good one:



We read Leonora Carrington's The Hearing Trumpet for our book club, and it was definitely a hit: a surrealist, wonderfully weird tale of a very old woman consigned to a fantastical facility, the people she encounters there, and the adventures they have. It's full of strong-willed characters navigating old age and a very strange universe. Carrington's writing here has exactly the right surrealism-to-logic proportions to keep the book from spiraling out into whimsy, which is why I don't always like surrealism or magical realism—that ratio needs to be just right. This one is funny and dark, but never silly. It made for a great book club discussion, especially for all of us ladies of a certain age. Definitely recommended if you're one of those, or even if you're not. There is a lavender limousine.

Nice review! And I am really charmed by the Jasper updates.

need al the unambiguous joy we can scrounge, an

o yes

Jasper & Spencer at play

awwwwwww

>170 lisapeet: I've had this on my wishlist since Deborah/arubabookwoman reviewed it ages ago. I wonder if my book club would be interested...

Adorable video!

>170 lisapeet: This one sounds great, Lisa.

I'm glad Jasper has found a good home.

>168 lisapeet: (we all, yes?)
Yes. Awww.

Hi all, and apologies for the prolonged absence. This really was a hell of a year, and even though I know the flipping of the calendar is an artificial construct and 2024 could hold its own hardships, I'm glad to see the last of 2023. BUT I'm still vertical, for the most part, and the little ship that I'm captain of remains afloat. Jasper is a ray of sunshine, as are the cats.

A few end-of-year reads:

Tiny Extravaganzas by Diane Mehta is a lovely poetry collection (the writer is a friend, but I would think so even if I didn't know her). It's multilayered and complex, but always with a way in to the heart of each poem—musings on on interacting with art/dance/music, on loss, on age, on parenting an almost-grown child—sophisticated, knockout imagery, lurking empathy, and inventive, fun-to-read-out-loud language.

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk. I read this for my book club and loved it—being now firmly in the older, cranky, animal-company-seeking lady demographic that, I'm discovering, has some wonderful representation in fiction. I've already bought a copy of this as a Christmas gift for a fellow cranky old animal loving friend, and recommended it to another (who will have much more love for the astrology component, which is not my thing in the least but I appreciated as an example of any method that we get attached to to help make sense of the world).

America Fantastica by Tim O'Brien. This kind of slapstick social satire isn't quite my groove, but I'm a longtime fan of The Things They Carried and I volunteered to interview him for a work event. I had plenty to talk about with him, and he was charming and had plenty to say, so all was good.

Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily and Amelia Nagoski. I think I am not the target audience for self-help books, but this is a subject that is of some interest to me this year and came recommended by a friend, so I went in with an open mind. There were some concrete ideas that were definitely of value for me, especially around physically managing the stress cycle so that it can conclude rather than keep spinning, and hammering home the importance of sleep... someday I'll internalize that one. I guess that's the point of this kind of book, take what you need and leave the rest... Anyway, I'm glad I read it even if not all of it stuck.

The Possibilities by Yael Goldstein-Love. A parallel universe story hinging on new motherhood and those feelings and fears. There's a missing baby and infant loss, which probably would have triggered the hell out of me 35 years ago, but at this remove felt more like a plot point than a horror. The premise was a slow burn—maybe a little too slow? the book could have done without a couple of the characters/scenes and been a bit more urgent—but it was a good concept.

I'm STILL reading Doris Lessing's The Golden Notebook for a late January book club, with other books interspersed. It's a big dense social 1960s feminist novel, sprawling and full of physical and emotional minutiae, and very much of its time. The men are all horrible, and the women very conflicted about pretty much everything, but it's a fascinating collage. I honestly have no idea what's going to happen from page to page. This was on my parents' shelves when I was little, and I'm sure my mom read it—she was very much a proto-feminist—and I wish I could talk to her about it, and what that particular brand of outrage looked like at the time.

I'll set up my 2024 thread, and really hope to be more active and present. I've been a little too underground even for me.

I love Plow. And I’m intrigued by the Golden Notebook. Nice to get an update from you. Happy holidays. Wish you some better life work balance. 🙂

how is your husband doing?

Nice to get an update from you, Lisa. I hope 2024 is a good one for all of us (although being an election year, my stress levels are likely to be up there). I'm glad Jasper continues to delight and entertain. Take care!

I started The Golden Notebook during covid lockdown and couldn't concentrate enough to get through it. I'd like to get back to it some time, though. That's a bold book club choice!

I hope you have a better 2024!

>180 japaul22: >176 lisapeet: >177 dchaikin:
The Golden Notebook was a life-altering book for me when I read it in 1980. I had read other Lessing books and for many years she was one of my top ten favorite writers.

I don’t know if the Notebook has stood the test of time. I don’t think I really want to know, but will be interested in reading what people’s views on it are today

The Golden Notebook was on my parents's shelves too! I've never read it but would like to some day.

Good to see you back, Lisa. Hope all is well at home.

>176 lisapeet: It makes me so happy to hear that Tim O'Brien was charming! I didn't know he had a new book, although it also doesn't sound like my kind of thing.

Edited to add: I read The Golden Notebook some years back and didn't necessarily know what to make of it. Then earlier this year I read My Work by Olga Ravn, which was heavily influenced by that, and it made me vaguely curious if I would feel differently about The Golden Notebook if I were to take another look at it.

Thanks for all the good wishes. I feel like it's tempting fate a bit to vow that 2024 will be better, but if it's not it'll at least be bad in different ways from 2023.

Jeff's doing OK—he just finished up a year (!) of chemo at the beginning of this month, and it's been hard on him. His last MRI (Wednesday) was clear, so hopefully life can stay uneventful on the health front for awhile. We did some visiting last week, which was nice—I think we both get a bit isolated up here, with most friends at least an hour away by subway. Jasper has been to both a Thanksgiving and Christmas get-together, and he turns out to be a very good guest. Here he is at my friend Jane's house at Christmas with his eye on the desserts (he's actually super polite around food and doesn't beg, but is always interested in everything people are up to).

Jasper is such a good dog. Glad Jeff is doing ok. Wish you guys a great 2024!

>185 lisapeet: Jasper is such a visibly intelligent dog. Here's hoping for a much smoother 2024.

That's great news about Jeff. I hope that 2024 is a good year for him, you, and your family.

Thanks, all. I hope it's a good year, in one way or another, for all of us.

Great news about Jeff. Happy New Year!

Thank you, Beth, and to you as well!

My ongoing saga is continued in lisapeet 2024: Dispatches from the Back Yard.