And Susan reads on, quondame’s 2020 thread Part IIIa

Lifted from FB, Maks Viktor Antiquarian Books
Author: Arsene Houssaye
Title: Philosophers and Actresses
Edition: 1852, Redfield, New York
From Special Collections, Musselman Library, Gettysburg College

Hi, I'm Susan, a reading septuagenarian who has precious little else to do in spite of my husband's nagging me to make more masks. I collect miniature tools - really miniature, 2" is too big - and dolls of various sorts as long as they have wardrobes. I also own a few more books than are currently catalogued on LibraryThing. Also I like eating more than cooking but am generally interested in food. It's good.

Lifted from FB, Maks Viktor Antiquarian Books
Author: Arsene Houssaye
Title: Philosophers and Actresses
Edition: 1852, Redfield, New York
From Special Collections, Musselman Library, Gettysburg College

Hi, I'm Susan, a reading septuagenarian who has precious little else to do in spite of my husband's nagging me to make more masks. I collect miniature tools - really miniature, 2" is too big - and dolls of various sorts as long as they have wardrobes. I also own a few more books than are currently catalogued on LibraryThing. Also I like eating more than cooking but am generally interested in food. It's good.

Happy new thread, Susan. x

Happy new one!

Happy new thread!!

Hi Susan! Happy new thread. #298 from last thread: I don't think Fredrik Backman is in the business of subtlety.

Happy new thread, Susan!

Hi Susan. Love that topper photo of the book end covers. Wow!

Here, it is what my SIL cynically calls it, "European Colonization Day". It is raining. 😁

In fact the torrents of rain in the last 24 h have been utterly marvellous and I hope the unsettled weather persists to keep the usual "Canada Day" celebrations washed out. The crowds that have been turning out despite our provincial regulations have been ridiculous.

I'm going to finish my current e-Book read as a 'holiday' event and probably give a slightly snarky review. I'm not much enjoying Crazy Rich Asians. Way off-base for my sort of preferred novel.

Hi Susan my dear, Happy new thread dear friend.

>3 PaulCranswick: >4 figsfromthistle: >5 SilverWolf28: >6 richardderus: >7 Dejah_Thoris: >8 SandyAMcPherson: Paul, Anita, Silver, Richard, Dejah, Sandy - Thank you and welcome!

>2 quondame: How did that happen!

>8 SandyAMcPherson: I saw so many "European Colonization Day" posts on FB before the first "Canada Day", that I thought it was a thing, like Indigenous People Day.

I did like Crazy Rich Asians, but I have a weakness for super-rich stories. Moving through the world like you can do just about anything you want has its charms. My older brother knows the author. He, my brother, is pretty rich, but nowhere near that rich.

>10 quondame: I appreciate what you're saying. It was the passionate self-entitlement that was getting to me.

I just realised, I like the St. Cyr novels because the Sebastian character "sees" the horror of poverty and the underside of London. Harris does a decent job of not being preachy about his awareness as well as painting the self-entitled in an unfavourable light.

Perhaps that is why C-R-A evoked my distaste of the storyline. I'm going to finish the book with a modified outlook, I think.

Happy new thread, Susan!

Happy new thread!

#188) The Tiger's Daughter



An interesting fantasy set in a west that has some similarities to our east Asia, with, continually confusing and somewhat annoying to me, a Nissan culture fitting where I'd set a Han one. The characters are better than many in fantasy, and the settings both familiar and strange. The pacing stutters somewhat though not due to the mechanism of most of it being the retelling of their lives by one main character and read by the other.🌈

Meets July TIOLI #6: Read a book by a female author that you haven’t read before

#189) A Burning



While two of the three central characters are fascinating portraits, one the seemingly absurdly ambitious young hjira Lovely, and the other self-justifying PT Sir, the central young woman Jivan, is for all she tells her own story, a bit flavorless. The pace is a a bit slow, even for the short length of the book, and the subject so often distasteful, does not make for a smooth read.

Meets July TIOLI #15: July birthstone challenge - read a book with a predominantly bright red/ pink cover

>14 quondame: Now you have set up a mystery for me. I know I read at least the beginning of this and I recognize the cover. My library doesn't have it and Amazon has no record of me acquiring from them, but when I checked my Kindle, there it was but listed as "new", which means unread. The only thing I can think is that it was one of Tor.com's give-aways at some point.

Check out my comment in the Sector General thread regarding Conway and see what you think of it!

Happy New Thread, Susan. Have a great holiday weekend.

I'm happy to check in with fewer than 25 posts to read to catch up. Hmmm. Did I take a BB hit from Tiger's Daughter? Maybe. Almost. We'll see.
I look forward to following you here and around the group, Susan. You keep us on our toes.

Hi Susan my dear, Happy 4th July dear friend.

Stopping by to hail your new thread, Susan.

#190) The Beautiful Mystery



I'm not sure this is a good place for me to start the series. I don't know, after reading this one, whether I can trust the author with characters I could care about. Since this one takes place away from the usual places and community it's also hard to judge if I'd care for those. As a mystery, well, the 3 major suspects were clear and the lack of intense who-was-where-when given less than 1/2 an hour window, was absurd, which made the possibilities even more obvious.

I put this on hold for May's challenge #17, and it is due tomorrow, so I'm glad it
Meets July TIOLI #9: Read a book that is at least number 7 in a series

>12 FAMeulstee: >13 drneutron: >16 ronincats: >17 msf59: >18 LizzieD: >19 johnsimpson: >20 weird_O: Thanks Anita, Jim, Roni, Mark, Peggy, John, and Bill! Welcome!

Today, at my daughter's urging, I started her and Mike on the path to getting a new dog. Gertie doesn't know her life is about to be ruined, but I know she will never forgive me. It's too bad for her I care more about Becky. I don't really want a new dog just yet either, but I do know that a pet can make all the difference when life is stressful.

In this difficult year with an unprecedented pandemic and where the ills of the past intrude sadly upon the present there must still be room for positivity. Be rightly proud of your country. To all my American friends, enjoy your 4th of July weekend.

>23 PaulCranswick: Thanks Paul. It is sometimes hard to feel a part of something that is putting its ugly laundry on display and making so little progress with the hot water and soap. But I do feel uplifted by the work toward informing and helping with the pandemic that my family members are busy with and all the social activism my friends are involved in, including making real strides in coming out of social lock down with actions an policies that make the bigots who have nested among us know that making members uncomfortable because of their race or gender identification is grounds for removal and the increasing evidence that those with complaints are being heard. We are a large group, over 30K, and though we have mostly been pretty welcoming, it has only been a partial, regional, and relative welcome for many, and that those who have achieved positions in past decades are not always the best to represent the ideals we claim.

>24 quondame: I really liked and appreciated your post, Susan. I don't know how you get the time with your 190 books also already read this year but bravo to you and your friends and family.

Happy new thread Susan!

>2 quondame: >10 quondame: So good you posted twice?

>8 SandyAMcPherson: >10 quondame: I'm guessing that Crazy Rich Asians was written with a bit of tongue-in-cheek? The draw for me was trying to identify places in Singapore; I know the gate posts that are supposed to lead to their huge estate - they lead to the Botanical Gardens - and (I'm pretty sure) the idea that they paid off Google to blank the estate off the maps is an amusing tale.

>16 ronincats: >14 quondame: I have that one too though I don't remember ordering it either. *cue Twilight Zone music*

>22 quondame: Good luck with your search, Susan.

Happy new thread, Susan!

>22 quondame: I hope the search for a new dog goes well. Poor Gertie...

>26 humouress: >25 PaulCranswick: Welcome and thank you.

>27 FAMeulstee: >28 karenmarie: So far the closest match dog turned out to be a scam site. Ah, well. Just looking forward to a new dog has lifted Becky's spirits.
As much as I love dachshunds I agree we've had enough - one really good, not even great dachshund out of 6 is just not a good wager. I've known 1 great dachshund and met 2 others, but out of all the ones my family has had, over 10, that's not sort of sad.
Mike has vetoed Chihuahua and Chihuahua mixes, and those and dachshund mixes are 90% of the adoptable offerings. As we like dogs with short smooth coats, being realistic about our dedication to grooming, we are not seeing much out there.

#191) The Light Brigade



If the book weren't so utterly dystopian and relentlessly grim and grimy, if the main character had even a furlough in a garden, then maybe all the elaborate and gut-felt effort of this thing might have made some sense. The few glimpses of beauty always come before it's destruction, so what is there to support the hope that drives Dietz?🌈

I have to disagree with Dejah_Thoris in her statement about the main character's gender being obscured until the end of the book - Not really a it was unambiguous well before the middle by which time the lack of specific gender rolls and the normalcy of same sex pairings was pretty well established.

I guess I read this because it's nominated for a Hugo and is due day after tomorrow. It would have fit the birthstone challenges for May or June, I think, but this month it
Meets July TIOLI #5: Read a book for the JULY rolling challenge

#192) Sharks in a Time of Saviors



The family at the heart of this story is achingly real, the two talented siblings who don't have their parents attention because the third sibling is really something special. Which is the door, but not the structure of they mystical nature of this book, which doesn't work on the same ground as the character level. The magic might work, I can see that, but for me, not well enough.

Meets July TIOLI Challenge #14: Finish a book that you had got stuck on

#193) Weather



Very much pre-apocalyptic in tone in this set of word sketches the just functioning feral librarian (in this book, someone with out formal training as a librarian who works at a library) gets comfort from her son and husband, but is enmeshed with her dis-functional and everywhere is the feeling that all is at the edge of the precipice. Rather more real in it's non-normative narrative form than I completely enjoy.

Inspired my July TIOLI Challenge #10: Read a book with portions of more than one image on the cover separated by straight line

>32 quondame: Susan, congrats on your new thread and on #193!! I am bowing in your general direction.

And good luck finding the new dog. : )

#194) The Emissary



In this smothering marshmallow apocalyptic book a starving and isolated Japan is run by healthy elderly moving spryly into their second century caring for great-grandchildren who can hardly move for themselves. The author portrays a fey and fragile future, then has enough of the whole thing and brings it to a strange and abrupt end.

Although the blue in the first sentence would qualify this book for entry into the 'J' portion of the
July TIOLI Challenge #5: Read a book for the JULY rolling challenge, it was
Read for July TIOLI Challenge #7: Read a book translated by a woman

>33 Berly: Thanks for dropping by Kim.

Today it looked like we had found the dog in Chula Vista, but either it was a scam or someone really did get to her sooner. It is a bit stressful really, and now Becky has a lead on another, but more expensive litter. My brother and his wife have gotten involved and are willing to add in a bit of financial help, so it's now pretty elaborate in terms of planning an expedition. Since the favored dog is a French Bulldog the demand is pretty high and the supply is sparse and perhaps somewhat mythical.

Hi, Susan. You are a READER, and I envy your ability to consume so many so well.
Once again (because of something I read on somebody else's thread) I recommend America's Original Sin by Jim Wallis, a bona fide socially active evangelical Christian. I almost never get to type those last words together, and I'll add that they don't describe me. This is now an old book but it speaks to the current situation.
Kudos and cheers all around! Keep up the good work!

>26 humouress: That looks interesting.
Half my birth family was peppered with evangelical Christians, and in fact my cousin's daughter is off evangelizing these days - or well maybe she hunkering down wait for Covid-19 to die down.

I just abandoned The Spirit Thief a gratingly smug fantasy with nothing about which to be smug.

#195) Neverwhere



Sometimes, timing is everything about appreciating a book, or not. In this case it's the not. It's a dark inventive journey through scenes of a nightmare - but, as base it's got the nice guy with well, niceness going for him, and the obligatory controlling bitch girlfriend who encounters the (manic pixie) dream girl who leads him to excitement. So Door isn't a total MPDG, but she's opal eyed as her most distinctive feature and opening is her something special but she's not otherwise as interesting as the character "actors" of the ensemble, and Richard is, well, persistently nice, which has been severely re-coded in it's meaning since the mid-90s. That Richard's niceness isn't a shallow cover and Door has real problems, goals and abilities doesn't entirely excuse it for riding an trope that's since had it's ugly underbelly exposed.

I checked this out because of drneutron's mention of the Author's Preferred Text and I'm glad it has a cover that
Meets July TIOLI Challenge #10: Read a book with portions of more than one image on the cover separated by straight lines

#196) We Are All Welcome Here



The characters, Paige the polio stricken quadriplegic mother, Diana her early teenage daughter and somewhat willing hands, and Peacie the absolute miracle of a caretaker are the heart and strength of this book. The overwhelming horror of the polio is used as a bit of hand wave over the less likely good luck portions of the story, but it remains a real look at fairness and freedom seen from the backside.

I found this when I was looking to meet June's #3: Read a book about disability rights, which it doesn't quite meet, but the title
Meets July TIOLI Challenge #8: Read a book with a title you feel is uplifting or cheerful or inspiring

#197) Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad



This short graphic depiction of Harriet Tubman's life and achievements is more an inspirational pamphlet than a narrative. A bit dull in language and art, it is very basic.

Read for July TIOLI Challenge #3: Read a book about a dramatic geopolitical event

#198) Agency



Romp though the future and a linked alternative past with all but a couple of the onscreen humans having the agency of a bag of potato chips. Verity Jane takes a job, meets the AI she is supposed to evaluate and loses all control over her life. Lots of fun shenanigans keep us entertained, but seem totally arbitrary to what is supposedly actually happening.

Since I checked out the hardback in March and the library keeps adding 2 months to the due date giving me no incentive to finish this certainly
Meets July TIOLI Challenge #14: Finish a book that you had got stuck on

The prose of this book brought on a strange side-effect of having seen Hamilton. See if this doesn't come out in rap rhythm when you read it:

"Eventually, having made her decisions, some action might be implemented, usually covertly, resulting in something dramatic happening."

Though there were more heavily polysyllabic prose that I don't think it right to impose on you.

This book also mentions the Military Base where I grew up, China Lake, listed as the Naval Air Weapons Station, but which was the Naval Ordnance Test Station, or as we called it, snots.

>42 quondame: Since rap is what made Hamilton so thoroughly unpleasant an experience for me, I didn't have that cadence in my mind as I read the sentence. I'll take your word for it.

Happy reading week ahead, Susan.

Best of luck with the dog hunt, Susan.

>43 richardderus: I was afraid that the Rap would keep me from getting into it, but it didn't at all, and really there were many songs that seemed so rap-light as to be, well, just songs. Not great songs, but the right songs for the story.
As to the quoted sentence, it wasn't the best illustration - Gibson often gets highly syllabic and after series of illities and alities the beat sneaks in big time. That's just the first I noticed, and the only one I checked the page number for.

#199) American Gods



This time I read the author's preferred text. This is one amazing book and well worth it for anyone who appreciates literal fabulousness in their reading. Rich, textured, amusing, moving, absorbing.
But. This reading, at least my fourth, the overwhelming antique maleness of the godscape just wore me down. A sex goddess, a fertility goddess, two fatelike trinities, and some pale references, none in more than hero-helper roles. No Gaia or other mother, harvest, hunting, mercy, wisdom, underworld, only sex & fate. I mean even the earth was a buffalo-headed male.

I have a multitude of shelves and stacks, but only had examined 2 or 3 before my copy showed up in 7th place and since I had been contemplating a re-read I was glad to find that it
Meets July TIOLI Challenge #1: Read book #7

>46 quondame: A book I loathe. Four stars! If one put a minus sign in front of it, that still wouldn't be enough to express my dislike.

And here it is atop your heap...how intriguing. Tastes are so very quirky.

>46 quondame:, >47 richardderus: That's for sure, RD, " Tastes are so very quirky".
I rated it and while I wouldn't say I loathed it, I should have not bothered finishing it.

I also think the whole premise was very dated, with none of the panoply of deities that could have been ranged as protagonists and rounded out a female angle. When I think about Gaiman's novels generally, there is very little that is attractive to me. I used to feel otherwise, but as I've re-read through (what I owned of) his oeuvre, the women seem less present in the fates of whatever theme is going on.

Yeah, I know that was vague ~ but other than Good Omens, which I think of as a Terry Pratchett novel, I haven't read Neil's work for awhile. I have culled most of the novels, from when I first started an LT catalogue in 2017.

I just got The Annotated American Gods from the library. Not my favorite Gaiman, but I’m hoping I really enjoy the extra material.

I enjoyed American Gods too, Gail, back when it first came out in pb. I don't know what I'd make of it now, and I'm not inclined to try anytime soon.
Thanks for the Better World suggestion. I tried there and at ABE, but the prices are about the same as at AMP. I won't forget Auchincloss on James though, and I'll bet it turns up.
I'm tickled that you're in possession of my favorite ice!

>46 quondame: >48 SandyAMcPherson: Gaiman is never a guaranteed hit for me but Coraline wasn’t bad. I liked The Graveyard Book and of course Good Omens.

Oh brother! Looks like I'm barely here at 11:48 PM, Susan. I did mean the first sentence for you. How I got to Gail for the rest is anybody's guess. Thanks, and I apologize!

>47 richardderus: I can imagine reasons for such a strong negative reaction, and reasons why you might not to have yours hang out publicly in a review or on your thread, but if you think this is a quiet enough corner and care to share your specific dislikes, I'd be interested.

>48 SandyAMcPherson: >49 drneutron: >50 LizzieD: >51 humouress: Ah yes, the opinions are shown to be quite a multitude. I enjoy works that play with the gods, whether bring traditional ones down to earth or leaving them in the spheres, reinventing them online or becoming their avatars. I found American Gods as testosterone laden as our country, which while no joy to me, seems about right.

#200) Moon



A scrap heap of fact, fancy, legend, history, use and misuse. There will be many things you know in here and some you don't, and some are interesting. The telling varies from confusing to engaging to dull to trite. It can be skipped with no real loss.

Read for July TIOLI Challenge #17: Read a book with the same title or first words as one of the surahs of the Quran

My daughter and I made dinner tonight. She did the biscuits using the self-rising flour and hexagonal cutter I ordered from Amazon. I made the gravy based on some rendered bacon fat from some very good bacon sourced with Bulgarian salami from Illinois. It's not pretty, but it's got the taste.

American Gods has never been a favorite of mine, but I do really love Anansi Boys, which is loosely connected to it.

Hi Susan!

I've read 4 of the 6 Gaiman books on my shelves and rated each at 4*. I have two unread and will get to them eventually.

>55 quondame: Not pretty but tasty is infinitely preferable to pretty but tasteless.

Happy New Thread, Susan. Lovely book up top.

I'm sorry Neverwhere didn't work better for you; it's one of my favorites of his. I've re-read it more than once, and every time has been the right time. Dr. Jim has put the author's preferred version on my radar.

American Gods is not a favorite, but an annotated version sounds like a great idea. I hope some day they come out with an annotated version of his Sandman graphic series, with all its allusions to other myths.

I'm reading the new Harry Dresden right now, Peace Talks, and having a good time with it.

>51 humouress: (cont.) ... and Stardust is a good one. I haven't read American Gods myself.

>58 jnwelch: I don't know if you've seen the analysis of how the Manic Pixie Dream Girl is can actually be a young woman on the spectrum, certainly ADHD, who may enliven a fellows life, but is more likely to need help than to provide the rescue from the mundane that books and movies portray. It was so assumed in the plot of mid-century movies and literature, including such classics as The Lady Eve and Breakfast at Tiffany's which long predate the term.

From Wikipedia:
Film critic Nathan Rabin, ... said that the MPDG "exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures." MPDGs are said to help their men without pursuing their own happiness, and such characters never grow up; thus, their men never grow up.

As I mentioned, Door isn't really a MPDG, but she may as well be, for the shape of the narrative. In my recent re-reads of Neil Gaiman, it is the shallowness of his handling of the women/goddesses of his stories that is eating into my enjoyment.

>57 karenmarie: I had many feelings about the Black Orchid, Book of Magic and Sandman comics which I read on and off as Mike brought them home, and mostly read whatever Neil Gaiman has put out, though I know I've missed bits here and there. I like his wry, dark but not always hopeless take on our mythic landscape. Just so far in my revisits, I'm overwhelmed by the offhanded maleness of the works.

>58 jnwelch: I expect to see Peace Talks show up from one or other of the libraries where it's reserved before the end of the year.

#201) Tempest



Tales of Valdemar by a variety of authors, but almost all of one, expected tone.

Read for July TIOLI Challenge #2: Stormy Weather: read a book with storm or a synonym of storm in the title

#202) A Rare Benedictine



A pre-brother Cadfael story and two tails of misdeeds at and about the Abbey that could have happened any when, but are set before A Morbid Taste for Bones.

Read for July TIOLI Challenge #11: Read a prequel (list the series)

About American Gods, my problems are 1) women? as in, living breathing actively participating ones? 2) Shadow Moon doesn't change in any noticeable way after the crap that happens to him; mopey solitary sullen and boring from giddy-up to whoa. 3) Does the author know about gay people? One is left feeling utterly invisible when reading this book. Like not even breathing the same air as his characters do. (The obvious exception is Good Omens and I put that down to Sir Terry's influence.)

Just a frustrating read.

>64 richardderus: 1) I'm with you there. Nothing new for me. 2) He does a bit, but well, he is just the distraction and does get a clue or two. 3) That bites. Though there was one mention of an offstage gay couple and Sam is lesbian. Even this far into the 21st century there are so few books that don't have a binary-primary that I have to flag them. Neil Gaiman has a huge hole near the center of his vision and just sees straight male. Yeah, other people exist, but he doesn't fit in their shoes. Although there are differing opinions on him - a google on Neil Gaimon/LGBT turn up a testimonial or two, which I attribute to the positive dessert of mainstream books with LGBTQ action enough to notice

#203) The Graveyard Book



This not quite modern Mowgli has real enemies to hide from and is adopted by an assortment of ghosts and has a dark, dangerous neither dead nor alive guardian. The book episodically builds to the final confrontation and aftermath. Sort of an origin story with nowhere to go.

I think I've overdosed on Neil Gaiman for a while. Not sure why I had this checked out, but it was coming due and at least it

Meets July TIOLI Challenge #12: Read a book with 151 pages or more

#204) The Preacher



You have be somewhat claustrophillic to revel in the small town, dense family day to day grit of Lackberg's world, but there is clear observation and unusual kinks in her world to appreciate in any case.

This also was eminently coming due, so now I can hurry on to the next book on the e-queue but it does
Meets July TIOLI Challenge #13: Read a book that fits a Seattle Public Library Summer Book Bingo Category

#205) The Final Solution



I suppose he had to do it. And I suppose the old man at 89 could be so feeble and intermittent, but he need not be so. (Helene Tursten's Maud is much livelier at 88}. The inhabitants and visitors to the parish are interesting.

The WWII period and the young Jewish refugee contribute to the make this
Meet July TIOLI Challenge #3: Read a book about a dramatic geopolitical event

>15 quondame: >32 quondame: these have been warbled/raved about by Mark and Ellen respectively lately :)

>54 quondame: It can be skipped with no real loss.
I love this phrase :)

#206) Cloud Atlas well, really
but it has so many devoted fans that it should take a few dings.



It's brilliant how 6 slush pile genre books have been dipped in self-righteous detail and served up as a best seller. I have read good versions of all 6 stories, and these aren't. Clever, a bit, and the language should be used to better purpose. The 4th, the alte kaker escape fantasy could have been completely left off and my pain would have cut a bit short. No such luck. The decent characters are too stupid to live and corp-rat badness is such a bore.

I really do resent 90% of the time I spent reading this and would have Pearl ruled it but I had signed up to
Read for July TIOLI Challenge #5: Read a book for the JULY rolling challenge

Life is short and there are so many good writers out there... even if it was a tioLi challenge, no?
(Just butting in with an unsolicited opinion. Can we still be friends?)

>70 SandyAMcPherson: If I couldn't be friends with people who disagreed with me, well, it doesn't bear thinking about. Besides, there's noting in what you said that I disagreed with.
Clearly, most readers disagree with my assessment of Cloud Atlas, but my reaction is based on my experiences and preferences, so I differences are expected.

#207) The Martian



A good story of predictable arcs - problem occurs, is dealt with some lull, then new problem, but the details were inventive. It did overflow my nerd buffers, but my MacGyver enjoyment tops out quickly.

Meets July TIOLI Challenge #16: Read a book that takes place in space

#208) The Return of Philo T. McGiffin



Sometime in the decade before women were admitted to the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Philo T. McGiffin arrives as a pleb, having to stretch to reach the minimum height requirement, with no outstanding skills or personality and having a healthy fear of heights and fire, he discovers he shares the name of the academy's legendary practical joker. This is a first year story with a protagonist, who except for race, is much ultimately disadvantaged except for his determination not to leave. It must be great fun for anyone who went to Annapolis, but it is very, very grueling.

Pulled from Naval Academy Reading List I
Read for July TIOLI Challenge #4: Read a book with a connection to the U.S. Naval Academy

Busy day for me. For a very low level of norm.
I went out and exchanged library books, fixed up my bedroom visible from my Mac's camera to look bizarrely neat, and video conferenced with the Kaiser internist.
I'll have to get some blood work, yetch for having to go were sick people hang out, and nothing can be done for any of the problems that actually ruin my day. Well the medications probably will lengthen my life a bit, but I'll still hurt all over.
Then I had to go back out into the world and pick up Gertie's anti-itch tablets. Last week was her anti-itch injection. That girl has a serious itch issue.
I ordered a new bed, a Purple, with almost all the trimmings. Mike is sick of me sleeping on the Purple dog bed which takes up too much room.
Then LT gave me an award after I added yet another cover and reached 250 points.

>74 quondame: I wish you felt healthier. No wait! ~~ I wish you *were* healthier.
So sorry that you will still hurt all over. Even with meds. Chronic pain is just so darn wearing.

Yay for the silver medal. I went and looked at the medal list on my profile and see a silver one as well. I don't know when that appeared. I mostly forget to look at my own profile, except to list the titles on my 75-er reads.

I played the last hunt game, but I don't think those icons have been added...

What is a "Purple" bed that has trimmings? I found the brand online (which I'd never heard of) and omg, they're expensive!

>75 SandyAMcPherson: I'm not really ill, just fat and old and no internist is willing to send me to a specialist for my thumbs - if I were 30-50 and I'd been their patient for 20 years, maybe, but the one really responsive internist I had got fed up with the system - she'd gladly tell me when there was nothing she could do, but would react instantly when I brought her something - like just barely shingles - that she could treat. Ever since then it's been one wispy woman after the next, who all had to go through the you-need-to-lose-weight spiel.

The Purple isn't a bargain, but there are more expensive options out there. I was in a Kickstarter for their dog beds and put the one I go on top of my regular mattress to cushion my body. I sleep curled on my side so my arm rests over the edge 2"-3" below my rib cage so less squishing. I don't know how I'll do with a level surface again. The trimmings are a frame/mattress pad. It comes with sheets and a pillow. I have lots of pillows - they help a bit, too.

>74 quondame: I was very sad reading your post, Susan and only a little relieved reading >76 quondame:.

We were yesterday moving office on 118 Project from the custom built office outside the site into an office created in the podium area of the project itself. I had a habit of storing scrap paper under my desk so that I can use the reverse side for scribbling drafts or jotting down notes and it had accumulated over the months. I had to get down on the floor and put it all in waste disposal bags yesterday and with my present condition it was such an uncomfortable chore and I was wheezing, dizzy and joint sore when I raised myself up task completed. I really must start to take care of myself.

Even if the body isn't quite working as it did your brain at least is a well oiled machine, Susan, 208 books done already is awe inspiring.

>77 PaulCranswick: Thanks Paul! I'm doing OK for someone my age and weight. I've got a great digestion and mostly sleep pretty well. But yes, you should listen to yourself and take more care for yourself day to day. You will likely regret not taking more care, but later and less intensely.

>69 quondame: 1/2* is more reasonable; the fillum was, erm, pretty to look at.

>72 quondame: *gasp* you liked it?! *plotz*

The fillum was pretty to look at, too.

>76 quondame: Oh that *irritating* "lose weight and All Will Be Well" Horst Wessel!

I weighed ~340lb 20 years ago. I lost over 115lb. I started having MORE gout attacks. Consternation! Shock! My joint problems got worse, the gout meds ruined my digestion...because I lost weight & no one thought to change any of my prescriptions! Despite the fact I asked them to!

grrr

Anyway....

>79 richardderus: Well so did you, apparently. The Martian that is.

Oh, yeah. I rethought my decision to get bypass surgery, because, well, I remembered in time that a good digestion and a short memory are the requirements for happiness. Not, bummer, a guarantee, but throwing away one seemed ill advised. And I probably have lots of poisons stowed away in the blubber.

#209) The Ghost Bride



Slow starting, this adventure which spends time in a Chinese afterlife, both is and is not strange and new. Li Lan is sought as a ghost bride of a recently deceased son of the wealthy Lim family and because her father has lost the family fortune and taken to opium she has few choices. The pacing could be better and the plot is tracing paper close to YA girl with something special, though, Li Lan is in the story because she was chosen to be the ghost bride, though her inquiring attitude, scholarship and stubbornness make her a participant and not just a pretty prize. I liked that she made mistakes and tried things that didn't work.

This caught my eye over on the Green Dragon group and
Meets July TIOLI Challenge #6: Read a book by a female author that you haven’t read before

>80 quondame: Then may it work like a champ. Anything for a good digestion. Any.Thing.

>81 quondame: *faint*

...I...I...rated it four...and...but...you...who are you?!

>82 richardderus: I do read because I enjoy visiting strange new worlds and meeting interesting characters. I was amused by it being both same-same and new-strange.

You haven't left any record in LT of your reaction to it.

>83 quondame: No? I didn't review it, but I thought I had put a few stars on it...well, I see you're correct. I'll stick it in the squibs post I need to do this month to fix that up.

My husband's new 77" toy has arrived. The floor will be vibrating for the rest of the weekend as he plays all the big effects movies he's found 4K discs for.


Boy do the apples in The Wizard of Oz glisten!

#210) A Song for a New Day



What happens to musicians when it's illegal for crowds of any size to gather? In a future too like our present to be anything but horrific, a smallpox like plague has completed the work of terrorists in keeping people as isolated as they can be and vast majority of jobs are done from home for huge monopolies that deliver by drone. Two women, Luce the musician and Rosemary the recruiter try to be true to who they are and the music they love. 🌈

I read it because it is this 2019's Nebula winner
Meets July TIOLI Challenge #12: Read a book with 151 pages or more (list the number of pages)

Hi, Susan! You've been busy lately on the book front, I see. I'm sorry you didn't like Neverwhere; it's my favorite Gaiman, along with the Sandman GNs and The Graveyard Book. (Disclaimer: I listen to Neverwhere as an audiobook read by Gaiman; same with The Graveyard Book. He's really good at reading his own books.) Can't say I agree on American Gods, tho, and probably rated it closer to 3 stars, and that was being my usual generous self. Glad you enjoyed The Martian and The Ghost Bride, two that I very much enjoyed.

As to your health issues, you have my sympathy and my empathy, tho the last time I saw my PCP I told her about my painful feet, ankles, knees and hips and said, glumly, that I supposed losing weight would help, and she said NO! I'm still kind of in shock. Also a bit discouraged. Apparently, NOTHING will help with the pain, at least according to her. I'm doomed.

>76 quondame: I can't quite picture how one sleeps on a Purple dog bed. When my daughter was pregnant, she slept on one of those U-shaped pillow things. After she had the baby, she gave it to me, and I'm finding it very helpful for more comfortable positions for my legs and support for my torso.

>87 Storeetllr: As to the dog bed, it's a large rectangle 4+" thick. I put it on my side of the king mattress and put a lot of pillows between it and the head of the bed. My elbow fits between the pillows and the top edge of the dog bed, below the rest of my body. If I prop everything just right I can sleep through the night and wake up with no pinches or acute aches. It takes a lot of finagling to get to just right, alas!

#211) York: The Shadow Cipher



In a New York a few parallel worlds toward steampunk from ours the July following 7th grade is becomes a quest for twins Tess and Theo and neighbor Jaime who share an unusual apartment building, once the home of the Morningstarr twins, inventors who reshaped the city in the early 19th century and left behind a scavenger hunt that has still not been completed in 160 years to which Tess and Theo's grandfather dedicated his life. Because a developer has purchased their building and they will be evicted at the end of July, finding the treasure has real urgency. Fun, with better than usual juvenile characters, dragged a bit, and the puzzles/solutions mostly seemed arbitrary which was temporarily annoying.

Meets July TIOLI Challenge #6: Read a book by a female author that you haven’t read before

I am probably going to spend more than a day reading the new space opera Unconquerable Sun, so I thought I'd share my other obsession, dolls.

For the August Take It Or Leave It Challenge, my entry is to read a book with a doll connection. I added the page Take It or Leave It Challenge - August 2020 - It's a Doll so people can post pictures of the doll or figure. Even if you totally avoid challenges, if there is such a book you remember, post about it there! I'd like to know.

>90 quondame: Oh I love this idea!
And thanks for the link. I never could reliably find the TIOLI so posted only a few times there about 2 years ago.

>91 SandyAMcPherson: Once you've starred one TIOLI page there's a handy link at the top that gets you to all the TIOLI pages and 1 wiki/month.

#212) Unconquerable Sun



Space opera full out. Sun, the problematical daughter and heir to a growing buffer state turned empire, escapes a number of accidents and attacks as the story gets off to a deliberate and not very interesting start, but the action starts and complexity of the situation grows and careens through land air attacks and space battles, with hidden reveals popping up like pearls on a string - and we're only getting started. 🌈

So why not more stars? Well, I don't like space empires. Or space battles. And the parts I liked most about this work better in a full out fantasy, rather than science-fantasy.

I pretty much read everything that Kate Elliott publishes and this is her latest so it nice that it

Meets July TIOLI Challenge #16: Read a book that takes place in space

Hi Susan!

>74 quondame: Sorry about the medical issues and Gertie’s itch issue, yay for the new Purple bed. I’d love to get a new mattress/box spring, but thick foam toppers seem to work well enough. I’m on my second one in 4 years. What I might allow myself to get one of these fine days is an Ekornes stressless chair. Hideously expensive, but I have a friend who swears by it.

>76 quondame: ‘fat and old’ – I can relate. Too bad your insurance doesn’t allow you to go to a specialist without a referral from your GP. My GP has told me that I need to lose weight but he doesn’t badger me with it every time I see him. I’m considering hypnosis and/or acupuncture.

>85 quondame: 77” OLED. My, my. I bought my husband a 65” OLED in 2017 because that’s the biggest that the room can support without looking ridiculous, and we both enjoy the quality and true black. Fun for your husband, for sure!

>94 karenmarie: I chose Kaiser for my Medicare provider. I have some choice of GP/Internist, but not much beyond woman vs man, and when they move or leave so does any relationship. But the physical therapy dept has fixed me more times than that of the previous group, where I had had one great internist who also quit.

The bed is still a few weeks off, though the sheets have arrived. Mike is enjoying the new TV nightly, rattling the house at almost earthquake levels. He didn't replace his speakers with the rest of the sound system, which is why we could afford the bed, but the old ones are plenty loud and split level architecture distributes sound generously.

#213) Deeplight



Thirty years after the monster gods of the islands of Myriad killed each other off in the cataclysm, 14 year old Hark finally is caught during one of his friend Jelk's capers and indentured out to a different island serving among the remnants of the old god's priesthood, while spying on them for his owner. This is a long play on fearsome powers, monsters as gods, the worship of power, the power of fear. And a pretty good story too, though the abusively manipulative Jelk is immediately wearing. This is an interesting take on elder gods that dwelt in an undersea.

Read on airplane mode, it only
Meets July TIOLI Challenge #12: Read a book with 151 pages or more

#214) Good Omens



It is of course very funny. It is of course very funny in the way of guys making jokes for themselves and their best buds. Which makes it a not quite my thing, but, yes I can see why it's your thing thing. I do enjoy irreverence and you kind of have to to enjoy a demon and an angel who've associated for so long they're more important to each other than their own 'side' is to them. The repeated notion that they are just sides and not real values is stated, but not portrayed as hell is given most of the interesting action in typical, if bent, form.
Though I believe Neil's claim that this is the most repaired books he's seen, our first edition mass market paperback is in very good condition, no coffee stains or squashed bugs showing I've read it. But then I just finished the e-book version, so that's probably why.

Read for August TIOLI Challenge #1: Read a book with at least 750 conversations on LibraryThing

Which number of conversations has now increased by 1!
I see I've ended July with a tale of monsters as gods and started August with monstrous gods.

>97 quondame: Ineffable, surely!

>97 quondame: Ah, the Ineffable...same as the Divine...?

I am, for once, more chary with my stars than you are! I only gave it three. (The TV version gets four-and-a-half.)

>97 quondame: Good overview; only recently have I inclined my view that yeah, it's a guy jokey thing that Neil G. does. Terry P's novels, however, never struck me that way.

I gave 3½ ★s to Good Omens.
My review (2018) had the caveat that there was a disjointed sense to the middle-to-last third chapters which inclined me to consider that Neil Gaiman's hand was showing and I didn't like it as much.

#215) A Rising Man



While the idea of mysteries set in the Calcutta of 1919 seems promising, and there are some good bits, this book doesn't quite jell. The newcomer in charge of investigating of the murder of a civil servant fairly high up in the colonial administration is structured in a fairly obvious way but what damages the book for me is that I felt no sense of place, only the relentless emphasis on the stifling heat of April.

I may have reserved this hoping for a shared read for July's TIOLI Challenge ##8: Read a book with a title you feel is uplifting or cheerful or inspiring, or because it sounded interesting when Crazymamie reviewed the sequel, but it
Meets August TIOLI Challenge #5: Read a book which came into your possession since March 15

>98 ronincats: Surely.
>99 richardderus: Fangirl here.
>100 SandyAMcPherson: Yes, the boys were a bit tired of the playpen and just finished it all up snap snap.

>102 quondame: The playpen!
I laffed myself silly with that - so snarky. I adore it! Thanks.

I reviewed a ton of fibre arts books today. Just mini-reviews because, finally, I uploaded a lot of my reference books to the LT catalogue.

It was a great time to cull the sewing book shelves. The wind has been horrific and out doors filled with too much flying dirt and small pieces of someone's construction waste (I think). Yuck. Up north, tornado warnings.

I seem to be spending a lot of reading time in British ruled Far East these days, and each view is so completely filtered as to make me feel more like I've been pushed through to an alternate reality. Even The Mystic Masseur, which was set in the Caribbean, has British East Asian milieu.

Edited because my original post was terribly out of sync. with what's being discussed. I think I was overtired.

I do hope you are well, Susan. And that the devastating rise in cases of infection doesn't involve any of those near and dear. I *must* quit looking at the world Covid graphs!

Ouch! I loved Door in Neverwhere (I'd like to read more about her adventures), Cloud Atlas turned me into a David Mitchell fan, to the point where I only have one of his published books left to read, I also loved The Graveyard Book (although that one sat better with you), and I imagine there were others I liked that got whacked. Oh well. I did learn why RD isn't a Gaiman fan - his (Gaiman's) relentlessly straight characters. And it's always a good thing to be reminded that my perspective isn't everyone's. :-)

Just delurking to say hello!

>106 jnwelch: I find that often men like a woman character written by a male author that I find defined only by a quirk or two or to me behaves and reacts exactly as I'd expect a man to do in the same circumstances. But we bring such different experiences to reading, such different tastes as well, so I usually think nothing of a 1.5 pt spread in evaluations.

>107 figsfromthistle: Hello! Thanks for stopping by!

#216) The Gift of Rain



This is a well told, heartrending story with two major and unforgivable flaws. It presents an almost Malay free Malaysia, concentrating almost entirely on Chinese, British and Japanese interactions, and uses reincarnation as a tinny excuse for actions which seem substantially organic to the situations, so rather than adding depth and resonance the spiritual element debases the whole. This is a story of empire and love and how both rend and demolish the people they affect. The two central characters have a homosexual relationship presented with such delicacy that it is difficult to see giving this book a rainbow.

This is not at all a romance, though as mentioned it is about love and fleetingly includes one of the romantic scenes I've read, but within the stated limits it
Meets August TIOLI Challenge #8: Read a book for the August CFF Mystery Challenge Challenge (Romance Awareness month)

>109 quondame: Another one I liked a bit more than you, Susan. Did you read his Garden of Evening Mists? You might have similar criticisms but, oh my, what a book. Feels like we've been waiting forever for a new one from him.

>110 jnwelch: No, this is the first of his that I've read. In someways it is amazing, though I really think it would be a sounder book without the reincarnation theme. People making what choices they can in truly evil conditions is quite substantial enough to carry a world of story.

>69 quondame: ouch! (haha) Cloud Atlas certainly has its fans around here, including me. But I sometimes do wonder if I wasn't just so relieved to have finished, and understood, a book, that I have it a high rating for that!

>109 quondame: I loved this one as well, similar to Joe, it seems. :)

>109 quondame: what >110 jnwelch: said

Hi Susan!

>97 quondame: I saw the series first, read the book after. I preferred the series but could see myself re-reading the book one of these days. no coffee stains or squashed bugs showing I've read it. I still occasionally find a book that has sunflower seed shells in it, and my copy of Snow Falls on Cedars was my MiL’s before I spilled coffee on it and had to buy her a new one.

>109 quondame: On my shelves, waiting for the right time.

>114 karenmarie: Late at night, reading a physical book in bed by an old IKEA led lamp, the bugs occasionally obscure the text - and if one should become a repeat offender, the pages will snap shut on it. I've encountered the like in an library book or two so I know other readers are similarly beset. Coffee and it's stains, of course, are ubiquitous.

#217) The Pull of the Stars



Very readable, briskly moving account of 3 days in the company of nurse Julia Powers on the makeshift influenza/maternity ward of a Dublin hospital in the last gasp of the Great War. I avoid Irish and WW settings, so why I checked this out, I can't say. The WW aspect wasn't bad, but it had everything that cause me to avoid Irish settings. 🌈

Meets August TIOLI Challenge #4: Read a book where one of the title words starts or ends with the letter "P"

#218) Have His Carcase



Once the solution is known, this book stands up less well than any to re-reading. I so often wanted to bash LPW&HV for not figuring it out chapters earlier, and really didn't enjoy the rotten lots and the rotten attitudes which filled the majority of those chapters. It's full of cleverness, of course, and making games, rhymes and puzzles of bits is so literary, but to me, quite unreal.

Meets August TIOLI Challenge #11: Read a book where the first word of the title is longer than the second

#219) Stay With Me



How life can be made difficult for a good woman, Nigerian edition. Yejide was the motherless daughter in a household of many wives, for four years has been the sole, childless wife of Akin, and both her own, unloving stepmothers, and Akin's family require children for him and force him to take a second wife. Over the years that follow, it isn't the second wife that's the major problem, it is failed communication and the devastation of infant mortality and sickle cell anemia in a climate of political repression and instability that shatters the marriage. If you're up for marital disaster, this will do.

Meets August TIOLI Challenge #7: Read a book by an author who has been longlisted for the Woman's Prize for Fiction

>116 quondame: I read her Room and hated it; The Wonder was less awful but still only scraping to three stars by charity; and I decided that Author Donoghue and I weren't to be besties. So I've stopped trying.

>118 quondame: Actually looks interesting to me...gawd help me...

>119 richardderus: In this novel, Donoghue doesn't seem either deft or insightful, just intent on putting out a retread message in her own brand.

#220) Samantha Spinner and the Super-Secret Plans



Fun and silliness and absurd adventures full of covert puzzles for those so inclined. The SSP is a bit ad hoc to justify the title, but well absurd.

Read for August TIOLI Challenge #9: Read a book for the PAST / PRESENT / FUTURE Rolling Challenge

Well, the purple bed is installed upstairs and there appear to be no casualties or wrecked tsotchkes in it's wake. I'm all admiration for Becky's ability to tell Mike he's brain dead and that end is the head. My back started the day out, so I was well out of the mess, though the only competent parallel parker in the family. Anyone who has maneuvered large heavy items up stairways curves will know the same skills are involved. Our 12 lb dachshund is happy with the new mattress. Mike and I will find out more how it suits us tonight.

Oh, and my engagement ring, missing since August 2016, turned up under the bed along the mid-line about a third of the way from the head. No wonder we couldn't find it. As it has a 1.2 ct diamond it was missed. Too bad my ring finger is all puffy these days.

Well, happy days with the mattress installation and congrats on finding a significant ring!

As is the way of the world, I had never heard of this book or film before your mentioning it yesterday, and look what I see today:

https://www.tor.com/2020/08/06/the-magic-of-translation-interviewing-kikis-deliv...

>123 ronincats: Oh thank you! I didn't know there hadn't been an English translation until recently.

Hi Susan, glad to know the purple bed is set up. Awesome what turned up under the bed. So happy for you. And all best wishes for a good sleep.

>121 quondame: I'm thinking my grandkids need some silliness in their lives. Covert puzzles sound intriguing. How are they "covert" and can a 6 yo enjoy or is this really a book for a 10 y.o.?

>125 SandyAMcPherson: It's not really for 6ish kids, more 8-12. There are puzzles that the characters follow, but there are some built into the text in different ways - at the conclusion of the story the puzzles are described, followed by solutions.

#220) The Red-stained Wings



Brisk moving fantasy in an eastern milieu. Though I had mostly forgotten the first book of this series, I had almost no trouble following the action or characters - this time I very much liked the scenes with the raja Himadra, and Gage finds some very interesting company.

Meets August TIOLI Challenge #13: Read a book by an author who shares a first name with my parents or their descendants

Hi Susan!

>116 quondame: I was stunned by Donoghue’s Room but haven’t felt inclined to read anything else by her. I love WWI settings but usually avoid Irish setting, so will happily pass on this one.

>118 quondame: I have always felt bad for Mrs. Weldon, looking for love after a lifetime of repression. One of Sayers' best and one of my favorite scenes in the LP/HV ‘verse is from this book: “Grateful! Good God! Am I never to get away from the bleat of that filmy adjective? I don’t want gratitude. I don’t want kindness. I don’t want sentimentality. I don’t even want love—I could make you give me that—of a sort. I want common honesty.’

‘Do you? But that’s what I’ve always wanted—I don’t think it’s to be got.’

‘Listen, Harriet. I do understand. I know you don’t want either to give or to take. You’ve tried being the giver, and you’ve found that the giver is always fooled. And you won’t be the taker, because that’s very difficult, and because you know that the taker always ends by hating the giver. You don’t want ever again to have to depend for happiness on another person.’

‘That’s true. That’s the truest thing you ever said.’

‘All right. I can respect that. Only you’ve got to play the game. Don’t force an emotional situation and then blame me for it.’

‘But I don’t want any situation. I want to be left in peace.’

‘Oh! but you are not a peaceful person. You’ll always make trouble. Why not fight it out on equal terms and enjoy it? Like Alan Breck, I’m a bonny fighter.’

‘And you think you’re sure to win.’

‘Not with my hands tied.’

‘Oh!—well, all right. But it all sounds so dreary and exhausting,’ said Harriet, and burst idiotically into tears.

‘Good Heavens!’ said Wimsey, aghast. ‘Harriet! darling! angel! beast! vixen! don’t say that.’

He flung himself on his knees in a frenzy of remorse and agitation.

‘Call me anything you like, but not dreary! Not one of those things you find in clubs! Have this one, darling, it’s much larger and quite clean. Say you didn’t mean it! Great Scott! Have I been boring you interminably for eighteen months on end? A thing any right-minded woman would shudder at I know you once said that if anybody ever married me it would be for the sake of hearing me piffle on, but I expect that kind of thing palls after a bit. I’m babbling—I know I’m babbling. What on earth am I to do about it?’

‘Ass! Oh, it’s not fair. You always make me laugh. I can’t fight—I’m so tired. You don’t seem to know what being tired is. Stop. Let go. I won’t be bullied. Thank God! there’s the telephone.”

>120 quondame: And if I didn’t need any more confirmation, ‘retread message in her own brand.’ is damning.

>122 quondame: Yay for the bed. And double yay for finding your engagement ring.

>122 quondame: YAY!!

>127 quondame: Cover mismatch....

>126 quondame: Thanks for the advice/insights about the puzzles.

I think I'll see if I can find a physical book to peruse... might be a challenge in our now-restricted entry to book shops. And whether they stock 2018 titles. However, I'll keep your age group suggestion in mind.

>128 karenmarie: I both like and am impatient with LPW & HV. I remember completely loving them and gleefully wallowing in DLS's superiority, but frankly I feel rather more for the Mrs Weldons and Alexanders who are so harshly judged. Life has landed some substantial blows on our protagonists, but they are so buoyed up by privilege and intellect, by awareness of superiority, that it's just hard to get thoroughly into their corner in recent decades.
LPW's appeal to Harriet is deft and comes close to Darcy's letter, as I'm pretty sure it was intended to do as a reveal to HV of what going on with him. I still prefer Miles Vorkosigan's letter to Ekaterin, but as that's in a SF/genre book, it hardly qualifies as literature.

>129 richardderus: It's quite nice. Lovely variable support.
Thank you, I fixed the erring entry.

>130 SandyAMcPherson: As there is a map important to the plot, having a paper version of the book would have been a big plus. I hate not being able to read the map on kindle, and have a raft of downloaded fictional maps in my Book file.

#221) Love, Stargirl ()



For an innocent high school misplaced love story this is fine. 16 year old Stargirl has moved away from her ex-boyfriend in Arizona and hangs out with a 6yo, an 11yo, and an agoraphobic old woman, but she's just fine, really, and through the love letter/journal to Leo we follow her from summer to winter, being herself. As the second book in a diptych I guess this is a spoiler for the first, from Leo's pov, but I only dipped into the beginning of that.

Read for August TIOLI Challenge #10: August birthstone challenge - read a book with a predominantly lime green cover

>127 quondame: Are these books related to The Eternal Sky trilogy? I usually enjoy Elizabeth Bear so I should look for these.

>133 ronincats: Set in the same landscape/sky spaces. If there are any characters in common, I've forgotten too much to recognize them.

#222) Or What You Will



Oh wow. This is probably not Jo Walton's best book, but it is the book that most speaks to me, though I am no more a Shakespeare scholar than I am a classicist, still when, on the last page, the two names were spoken, they were the names that I had given. And in many ways this is the closest book to reading Le Guin that isn't Le Guin.
It is fanciful and real, and though the author says it is meditations on Renaissances and death and subcreation it is also very much about making and remaking self and the plurality of self. Also, she states, so much better than I can:

"There is a pernicious lie in Western culture that Sylvia has tried to combat in her books for years, and it is this: a child who is not loved is damaged beyond repair. Relatedly, anyone who has been abused can never recover. These lies are additional abuse heaped on those who have already suffered. Being told that the worst thing in the world has happened to you and you cannot recover can be a self-fulfilling prophecy."

Meets August TIOLI Challenge #5: Read a book which came into your possession since March 15

Hi Susan!

>131 quondame: I’ll give you privilege and intellect, but don’t completely buy superiority. However, that would be a great face-to-face discussion in a lovely café somewhere. I’ve now got as many LT family members to meet when I go to SoCal as I have bio family members.

I’m not a SF fan per se. I absolutely do consider it literature and have read many great books in the genre. If you think it stands up to reading outside its context, I’d love a link or copying it into a message or even posting the letter here.

>135 quondame: Well, you got me. My shiny new copy will arrive on Friday.

>136 karenmarie: I surely would love a chance to meet with you for such discussions! And if Kogi survives the recent unpleasantness the offer of kimchi carnitas fries is still open.

What I mostly love about the F&FS books that have become dear to me is that whatever the personal problems of the characters the story and milieu give them ways to deal with it rather than wallow in it. There is always something worth accomplishing by people ready to do it. Mysteries do that too and most genre fiction. I just love the spice of something else. Bujold is recognized as one of the best of the character driven SF writers.

Or What You Will breaks all sorts of story telling conventions and shows off that it is doing so. It is sure not perfect, but it is so readable and telling.

Catherynne M. Valente, subject of a recent discussions, has something very worth saying on twitter gasp!

>135 quondame: can not

pro
cess

>138 quondame: Isn't that a wonderful thread? She nailed this, so no one can ever stare blankly again and mouth platitudes like "they just don't know" or "that's not really what they think"

#223) The Haunted Mesa



There is maybe a novella worth of story buried under the re-repetitive speculation and re-retelling of Anasazi lore, and all of a short story's worth of character. But even then it isn't much of a story and no development of character and all sorts of bits and pieces which would have been interesting if they had been put to good use are stuck on like straw on dung. A mess.

Read for August TIOLI Challenge #12: Read a book by Louis L'Amour

>140 quondame: "bits and pieces ...are stuck on like straw on dung..."

I knew there was I reason I never read any of the copious Louis L'Amour novels that came in and then left the house...

Great commentary, Susan! Ha.

>141 SandyAMcPherson: Oh no! I suspect his westerns, though likely equal meant for the boys, are good stuff. This is clearly the result of an author working outside his genre.

'Morning, Susan!

>137 quondame: And if Kogi survives the recent unpleasantness the offer of kimchi carnitas fries is still open. Let's hope so.

So how's the Purple bed? Does it help your back and provide a good night's sleep? Enquiring minds and all that... I may be in the market for a new mattress.

>143 karenmarie: The Purple™️ is quite comfortable - so far I wake up in the position I fell asleep and haven't overheated at all. I still have a bit of discomfort in whichever shoulder I slept on - Mike gets up at 6 to feed the dogs and I usually get to the bathroom and back and rearrange sides, but it doesn't persist at all after I've done my stretches.

#224) Lost Transmissions



Some interesting morsels are set in the matrix. This retrospective is divided by medium - books, movies, architecture, art and design, music, fashion, fandom/pop culture. Books and movies contain much more of lost works than the other areas, where, with the exception of games, it seems assumed that SFF aspects of the culture are created lost. I grew a bit tired of the main author's voice and her citing of her co-author. Also, the blatantly heterosexual fiction by women writers of the late-mid 20th century who have faded away don't rate any mention.

Meets August TIOLI Challenge #9: Read a book for the PAST / PRESENT / FUTURE

Pearl Ruled The Ranger of Marzanna A few chapters in, a handful of bodies of imperial troops, including the captain, are found where they've fallen in an action the imperials had won and were able to leave with no opposition. These troops are described as extremely good and disciplined. So no, they would not abandon the bodies untended, with arms and armor, when they could have thrown the bodies over horses and ridden with them, or at least the captain. It was winter, to boot. Nothing in the early chapter was good enough to spend a whole long book on such sloppiness.

>145 quondame: I've spent pleasurable moments thumbing through that book. I don't know exactly how I'd review it since it's a browser's book, but it is a pleasant diversion when I need one.

Happy Sunday free from slovenly writing.

I am starting a little bit of a fitness and health regime tomorrow, Susan and hope to report some improvement soon in my own lifestyle condition. Am a bit depressed looking at all the clothes in the wardrobe that don't fit me.

Looking forward to seeing what you'll read for your 3x75.

>147 richardderus: It's a library copy that was due back, so I just barrelled through - I may revisit it as there were some works that I'd both missed and that interested me.

>148 PaulCranswick: I hope it goes well with your new plans. I am quite familiar with the don't fit depression.

It's the most recent Anita Blake, so definitely into the guilty pleasures realm.

#225) Sucker Punch



Less sex, no less talking, there is actually some plot and twists, but mostly it is an excuse to play with Olaf/Otto which is just gross, and have girl on girl action. All the absurdities wrapped around something that isn't quite at all absurd, it goes by at the usual spritely/bogged down in discussion jerk pace.

Meets August TIOLI Challenge #11: Read a book where the first word of the title is longer than the second

#226) The Firework-Maker's Daughter



This one gets a whole star extra because of the illustrations by S. Saelig Gallagher. If the 3 non-southeast Asian characters hadn't appeared as big nosed closeset-eyed as the rest of the men than I'd feel guilty at the my delight in the illustrations. They are full of a whimsical joy which, alas, is not intrinsic to the text, which isn't bad but tries too hard.

Meets August TIOLI Challenge #8: Read a book for the August CFF Mystery Challenge Challenge

>150 quondame: Congratulations on reaching 3 x 75, Susan!

Hi Susan!

>144 quondame: Good to know. I can't imagine waking up in the same position, but it sure would be nice to have slept the night through without some tossing and turning.

>150 quondame: All the absurdities wrapped around something that isn't quite at all absurd, it goes by at the usual spritely/bogged down in discussion jerk pace. Your pithy evisceration is exactly why I am currently not reading any more Anita Blake… I’ve read the first 20, have the next 2 on my shelves, and haven’t any inclination to continue the series. Whether it’s yet or forever is unclear.

And wow, congrats on your trifecta.

>150 quondame: Yay!

Hi Susan my dear, congrats on 3 X 75 books for the year so far, sending love and hugs dear friend.

Impressive reading, Susan. Congratulations on 3x75

>151 FAMeulstee: >152 karenmarie: >153 richardderus: >154 johnsimpson: >155 PaulCranswick: Thank you Anita, Karen, Richard, John, Paul!

>153 richardderus: Nothing succeeds like excess.

And I have just increased my knowledge of Maine and it's literary figures by googling my way through 2020 Maine Treasure Hunt!

#227) Strange Itineraries



Tales that are always oblique to the reality we experience but which have much to say to the ghosts we carry and to our inability to live in the now. Powers characters may interact with literal ghosts or experience non-sequential time more directly than we do, but there is something dead accurate that they tell us.

Meets August TIOLI Challenge #14: Read a book published before 2010

#228) The Ogre Downstairs



As if the a newly formed family with 3 children of one parent and 2 of the other's doesn't have enough issues, add chemistry sets that change the rules of the world - but of course it does work out, not that it would, but, well, fiction!

Read for August TIOLI Challenge #2: Read a book from one of the lists on fivebooks.com

Actually this book should have been somewhere between #222 & #225, but I lost track of it.

>157 quondame: Congrats on finishing the lobster hunt. I was fortunate in just using tag searches and so forth.
Except #12. I gave up on that one probably because I got hung up on searching Idaho right off the bat and then didn't know what else to try!

Also !! 3x75 reads and it's only August... I laughed at your comment "Nothing succeeds like excess."

>159 quondame: DWJ is a prime favourite in our house. Especially The Ogre Downstairs.
I did a re-read a couple years ago and was struck by a sense of a disconnect.

The father/step-father driving all over that crowded Island was such a futile exercise (looking for Sally). Realistically, it would have taken days to negotiate that distance. Yeah a small niggle and as you say, fiction! I was tempted to change my rating...

>161 SandyAMcPherson: It's strange how minor aspects of a book can have such an impact on how it is evaluated. I wouldn't know that the hunt for Sally was improbably choreographed, but did feel in the latest Tim Power's novel that his characters got further with fewer fuel stops in less time than current traffic permits. I guess I wasn't up for magical fixes to difficult family issues when I read The Ogre Downstairs.

#11 & #13 took the most googling for me.

Pearl Ruled On Beauty. Howard was insufferable, Kiki was obscured, the younger family members were painful to be around and academic politics have been a long standing allergy. Also the pacing was rubbish, clingy rather than flowing. The small bits I skimmed about Rembrandt paintings seemed gems embedded in egoizing dross.

>162 quondame: I think there was an early glitch in #12. I just went back now and typed in what I searched before (because it was so darn obvious (and I was pretty sure that it was a tag) and pow, success ~;D

Re, what I was saying about hunting for Sally, I think it was as much a frustration of prolonging a futile idea that vexed me. I do remember that my younger one didn't like all those mushroom heads turning into aggressivly fighting, so maybe that's why I felt the story ended so weakly.

>159 quondame: ...!!!...

>163 quondame: I Pearl Ruled her entire ouevre after that book. Yech.

>165 richardderus: I made two attempts, the second one trying to find something, but nope, impenetrable.

Hi, Susan.

>128 karenmarie: Oh, what a treat to read that LPW-HV exchange again in the spoiler. Thanks, Karen!

I still prefer Miles Vorkosigan's letter to Ekaterin, but as that's in a SF/genre book, it hardly qualifies as literature. Oh, you won my heart with that one, Susan. I love Miles and Ekaterin, two of my favorite characters in hardly qualifying literature. I keep hoping Bujold will give us more of them.

>167 jnwelch: Bujold is so worth it. I do wish there were a ready cure for her eye issues.

#229) Peace Talks



This is a ramp up book. More of Harry's enemies are active against him, the stakes for the Accord and for Chicago are upped, and again, and then Harry is compelled to act so that some of his friends become his enemies and then - see you next volume. Perhaps Sucker Punch is a better title for this than for Hamilton's latest.

Meets August TIOLI Challenge #4: Read a book where one of the title words starts or ends with the letter "P"

This is a month for not reading all the books I checked out.

I'm Peal Ruling In the Miso Soup because I'm not interested in hanging out with a serial killer in the stews of Tokyo.

>135 quondame: What would you say is Jo Walton’s best book Susan? I’ve really enjoyed some of her books: Tooth and Claw and Among Others in particular. Others less so. I’ve got Or What You Will on my kindle waiting for me.

>171 SandDune: What Makes the Book So Great is my favorite. I think her fiction is idiosyncratic enough that it's very much a matter of taste. I've avoided the loose change, because I avoid all axis victory books. I thought Tooth and Claw delightful, and Among Others very impressive. The Thessaly series is so much on the intellectual side that I got tired of being impressed. I enjoyed the Sulien books, as well as My Real Children and Lent was a blast in a groundhog day fashion.
I'll have to hunt down Lifelode.

#230) In the Bleak Midwinter



A bit of nonsensical small town police plus woman Episcopal priest new in town. Easy enough reading except when Clair barges in yet again all good intentions and blind to consequence.

Meets August TIOLI Challenge #14: Read a book published before 2010

#231) The Empress of Salt and Fortune



A small gem of an other world fantasy in which the history of a discarded Empress from the north and how she deals with internal exile is revealed. 🌈

Meets August TIOLI Challenge #5: Read a book which came into your possession since March 15

I've been having problems with LT for 2 days now. First, I can't change covers on an added book, and second sometimes I just get a page error when I select Talk. Is this a general problem or should I consider myself special?

>175 quondame: Im having similar problems, Susan, but I feel mine stems from my Apple safari playing up because it wants me to upgrade. I sometimes switch it to "chrome" and can then iron out the issues.

>176 PaulCranswick: I'm using Firefox on my Mac, and the most common problem is

500 Internal Server Error / nginx/1.19.2

So server error aren't on the browser/client side I shouldn't think.
-

I use Firefox on my Mac and haven't been having any of those problems, Susan. FWIW

>178 ronincats: It looks like all the problems were sort of related, the image issue coming about because of adjustments to decrease downtime due to server overloads.

Also wanted to ask how the purple mattress was working out after a few more nights on it!

>180 ronincats: It's good. It seems soft, but is very supportive.

>175 quondame: Seriously, of course you should consider yourself special.
Anyone who can read 230-something books in less than nine months... 🎉

Also, you have done some pretty fancy footwork monitoring all kinds of tricky computer issues and pushed advised me to try different things than my thinking 'everything' is a bug.

FYI: I have a Mac Notebook OS uses High Sierra, ver. 10.13.6 (17G14019), a 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7 Processor with not even half of the 8GB memory used. Works just fine with my two browsers (Safari and Firefox, I keep those updated).

The system report returned everything satisfactory, so I'm just blathering away here to say, "Ain't us, Cousin". There were less than a 100 members on LT too which seems like a very tiny proportion accessing LT.

Starting last week sometime, I was having so many error messages, frozen screens and unresponsive Talk situations when I could not post, that I gave up on LT for several days. Couldn't upload to my junk drawer either. I see today has been much improved.
Hope this is useful to add to the statistical aspects of how many people were having trouble recently

>182 SandyAMcPherson: My book addiction makes quantity rather inevitable, though I must admit the last two years of LT have seen far fewer re-read binges than previous years, and far more books outside the F/SF.

I rarely assume I'm the only one with any computer glitch I encounter, though I must admit this was an issue about a week ago when a mere quit and restart on my browser cleared up a problem of a day's duration.

Not that I do much to maintain my computer - why only yesterday Mike installed the MS Office programs for which he has, who knows why, a family license. My versions died a couple of versions of OS back.

I'm pretty skeptical of the 'all fine now' status in the Bug group - often enough the testing wasn't extensive enough to really define the scope of the problem, so the fixes are, almost as often as not, partial or temporary. In my glory days as a bug fixer I often got 3rd or 4th hand bugs that had been "fixed" until nastier symptoms, many side effects of fixes, brought the issues to my desk. Once, when adding a new item caused a crash the fix was to disallow adding items. No more crashes, but no more functionality either.

Oh well, I've been wandering around the Ashen Sea with Baru Cormorant who seems to have collected a world of enemies and is still trying to make more. This 3rd book is really really long...

>183 quondame: Hi Susan, thanks for the view from your end on LT glitches etc.
What is "Ashen Sea" and who is Baru Cormorant? I am seriously out of the loop!

>174 quondame: *ow*ow*ow*

>184 SandyAMcPherson: A baroque almost unbearable but somehow compelling toxic colonial empire fantasy trilogy(but to be expanded) starting with The Traitor Baru Cormorant in which our tribadist protagonist is recruited to participate in high levels of the colonial administration with the understanding that revealing her inclinations means complete destruction.
This is an entirely unnecessary read for any but those who enjoy seeing how far fantasy boundaries can be pushed without overt rewards. Not as much fun as hippos in the Mississippi.

#232) The Tyrant Baru Cormorant



The world and people in this book are just interesting enough to make the work of reading it very close to worthwhile. It is both difficult and compelling. At half again as long as the previous two volumes, it is full of twists and strangeness, fatal and almost fatal plans and accidents. Somethings are accomplished, and some things are left in the air - a fourth book is planned, but not promised for the near future. Good, maybe there will be time to recover from this one. 🌈in a weird way.

Meets August TIOLI Challenge #5: Read a book which came into your possession since March 15

My daughter put a deposit on a puppy. Take home is a few days away.

>188 quondame: And then what happens? Does daughter with puppy need training or ...?
All best wishes for a happy pair.

>188 quondame: What a completely adorbs puppers! I hope it's a long and happy life together.

>188 quondame: What a cutie!

Aw, a puppy! So cute.

Just stopping by to wish you a lovely Sunday.

>188 quondame: Lovely! What sort is it?

>189 SandyAMcPherson: >190 richardderus: >191 Narilka: >192 Storeetllr: >193 SandDune: Thank you for the good wishes - here she is, Nutmeg! (inspired by Nutmeg of Consolation, full name Nutmegan Marie Frank)


As you see, Gertie isn't thrilled with an unwanted little sister.

Little did I know a couple of months ago when I entered:
June TIOLI Challenge #4: Read a book whose title contains a word that you would use to name a puppy

>189 SandyAMcPherson: Becky wants to train Mike and me. Nutmeg has already shown more alertness and intelligence than any of our dachshunds.

>193 SandDune: Nutmeg is a French Bulldog. If we didn't require a young, small, short haired, female, non-barking, non-dachshund, non-chihuahua, that pretty much what was left.

Hi Susan!

Nutmeg is adorable. Poor Gertie. I hope she quickly gets reconciled to the intruder. Our senior kitty was less than enthralled when we got Zoe and Wash in December, but things have settled down in 8 months.

>195 karenmarie: Gertie is continuing being bummed out. Nutmeg is already a new sort of challenge for all of us. Except Mike. Mike is going full hands off on this one.

Glad to know your new cats have found their place!

#233) Hitty: Her First Hundred Years



For 6.25" of mountain ash, the fictional doll Hitty, does get around a lot. Between her Maine island origin in the early 19th century to her achievement of a place in a New York antique store window, she goes on a whaling expedition, spends time with a cobra in India, returns to Philadelphia and visits much of the Midwest and south before being returned to her original home though not her original owner. Written by the woman who purchased the eponymous doll from the New York store, this imaginative set of tales is quite the lesson in how the attitude with which we accept our circumstances determines their meaning. And Hitty's attitude is quite charming in its mix of acceptance and judgement.

Re-read for August TIOLI Challenge #3: Read a book about a doll, or for which there is a doll

The Original Hitty ____________________ My Hitty

#234) Kiki's Delivery Service



Not quite as good as the movie based on it, but a sweet set of adventures for a starter-witch.

Meets August TIOLI Challenge #14: Read a book published before 2010

#235) The Angel of the Crows



A really good read, episodic but working to its conclusion. This is for those open to reworkings of Sherlock Holmes. Dr. J.H. Doyle retired from Afghanistan takes rooms with Crow, a de-homed angel, in a world where angels seem to be more like genii locorum than heavenly messengers, and werewolves and vampires are legal, but hell hounds and nerophages are not. There is sort of a best-hits tone overlayed with the hunt for Jack the Ripper but the combination of familiar with novel really worked for me.

Meets August TIOLI Challenge #5: Read a book which came into your possession since March 15

#236) Sister Outsider



Beyond amazing. This book provides a tool kit for reshaping the self to implement our most positive aspects, and is itself an example of the work done.

"We share a common interest, survival, and it cannot be pursued in isolation from others simply because their difference make us uncomfortable. We know what it is to be lied to. The 60s should teach us how important it is not to lie to ourselves. Not to believe that revolution is a one-time event, or something that happens around us rather than inside of us. Not to believe that freedom can belong to any one group of us without the others also being free. How important it is not to allow even our leaders to define us to ourselves, or to define our sources of power to us."

So many truths so well expressed. Alas, I haven't read this woman's poems. I should get right on it!

Meets August TIOLI Challenge #10: August birthstone challenge - read a book with a predominantly lime green cover

3x****
1x*****

WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH STARLESS?!?

>201 richardderus: I wondered about that, too.
:D

>201 richardderus: >202 SandyAMcPherson: All of these are books I chose to read and I did give Ovitz Agonistes but it's an article not a book, so I'm not bothering with space for it on my thread, nor should you.

Also:

I've been playing with my dolls! (Why I'm so cheery, nope it's not the puppy.)

See if you can identify the 9 book characters in the following two pictures. A small complication is that 2 of the 3 actress dolls in the second photo aren't wearing what they wore in the major films of the book(s).

Hitty with Barbie (Barbies are important in the Ring of Fire series), Eloise with Sabina (under the table), Edith with Little Bear

Lyra Silvertongue, Susan Pevensie, Hermione Granger

>204 quondame: Good thing there were spoilers to click. I got exactly zero on this fun post! :D
Thanks.

Hi Susan!

I echo Sandy - Good thing there were spoilers to click. I got exactly zero on this fun post! :D

However, when I really looked at the first pic I do recognize Barbie. I still have my Barbie from 1963, although her blonde-ponytail head got lost in the shuffle and I have my sister's platinum-blonde bubble hair Barbie head.

I thought Barbie was that overly-skinny bosomy doll?

I recognized Hermione, but that was it. Susan Pevensie and Lyra! What fun!

>206 karenmarie: My mother, always hostile about my doll attachments, gave them all away while I was at college. There were other purges of my things, rather unnecessary in a house with 4 large bedrooms and 2 or 3 people. I now have rather a lot of early 60s Barbies and reproductions thereof. Also boggling numbers of fashion dolls from the 90s and beyond. But not as many as books.

>207 SandyAMcPherson: Barbie is slim and stacked, and in full size is taller than Hitty or this Eloise and Edith. But tiny dollhouse size Barbie is, until next week, Hitty's only non-clothing possession.

>194 quondame: Nutmeg is adorable!

Happy Humpday, wherever it may take you.

#237) Harrow the Ninth



Complex layering of deceits and an interweaving with scenes from an alternate version of the previous volume, all played out in unappealing settings with little in common with either our world or projected deep space futures of our world, make this a dense and balky read. With alliances charged with rotted feelings and enmities implacable as inexplicable this shouldn't work, but, well, it does. 🌈

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #4: #4: Read a book for The Numbers Game

#238) The Elements of Pop-Up



This is a fun hands on sample book of the forms for creating the structures used to make paper pop up. I would have appreciated an envelope of pieces and a few glue strips, but they do offer the dies for the shapes online.Also the more complicated mechanical aspects are left unexampled - how to join parts that rotate around a center point, how to anchor and assemble with string.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #11: Read a book whose title completes the sentence "Please tell me..."

OK, it's been awhile. When I set up to take the pictures in >204 quondame: I sort of jump started my manic/creative/ADD mix and kept thinking of all the things I could do with my dolls and make for them and that lead to paper engineering and pop-ups which are nothing I've done before. I kept thinking up different things to do and couldn't find the essential tools - mostly shoved into bins for Christmas clean up. I couldn't sleep for my mind racing through things to try and figuring out why that fold wouldn't work as a pop-up but could be built as a breakdown.

Last night my brother and sister-in-law dropped by to meet Nutmeg and do a distanced dinner. It had cooled down from 98℉ enough so we were fine for the twilight hours. I'm trying to get my brother to buy a cricut machine or laser cutter for his workshop. I might even try to set up his 3D printer if I get desperate enough, but it's 4 years old, so obsolete I'm sure even if NIB.

Spin spin, and a new puppy interrupting (marvelous little being, but really out of our class) whenever I get going. There's sewing, knitting, furniture building, scene setting and shopping for all the projects I can imagine, oh maybe I should read something.

Time to curl up with Gertie and sink into a book.

>213 quondame: and >214 quondame:. Interesting book review and it was fun reading about what you've been doing and planning.

I like reading about pop-up construction but long ago realised that I wanted the first ones I ever made to turn out well. Which of course is naive. I begrudged the time it would take to spend at least 200 or more hours to learn how to turn out something that doesn't look so homemade (instead of handcrafted). But I still gravitate to books like The Elements of Pop-Up, although I abandoned all but the simplest of pop-up crafts.

>215 SandyAMcPherson: No way am I going to spend that sort of time on them. The shapes I want are fairly simple, furniture, some of which doesn't even need to pop up, more just fold flat and be simple to assemble. For the later I have some experience with collapsible furniture for medieval camping - tables and beds that can be disassembled so that beds, tables and benches for a household (not necessarily a family) of 4 can fit into one standard van with room for tents, clothing and other necessities. I don't need to be that extreme, and cloth tape will do instead of bed frame brackets, but the geometries are similar.

#239) A Blink of the Screen



A few stories and very short bits both Discworld and not, in the other order, over the course of Terry Pratchett's career. Familiar ground to be sure, with several delightful passages, but not an absorbing read. I'm sure the illustrations, all grouped at the end, are much better in a larger, more colored form than the Kindle allows.

I'm hoping this
Meets September TIOLI Challenge #12: Birthstone challenge for September - read a book with a predominantly deep blue cover

I saw this this morning and had to commit a haiku:

Too many hot walks
now the dog follows us
eager for her bed

#240) Seraphina



Dragons, music, diplomacy and deceits figure in this tale of the young Seraphina. Working as the assistant to the music master of the Goerdd court, she has been enjoined by her father to avoid any personal attention, but filling in for a performer at a prince's funeral service exposes her, eventually, to the perils and possibilities of being recognized for what you are. Quite readable and a pleasant variant on fantasies with both conflict and cooperation with dragons.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #15: Read a book that features a dragon

Wow...

I was here. I scanned a hun'erd posts. I got nothing. But it was fun...and rewarding...to visit.

>220 weird_O: I'm sorry you left empty shelved, but glad you enjoyed the browse. Thanks for leaving your card.

>219 quondame: I read a book with a dragon, too! Red Heir...a dragon defeats the baddie...and he's about as long as your finger. Enjoyable fluff that kept me from thinking about the End Times we're living through.

>222 richardderus: Dragons are still out there, though not as when every other cover on the F&FS new book shelf featured one. It sounds like Red Heir was quite the romp.

I appreciate those who use their resources to fight the good fight out there. Me, I'll comment, vote, and otherwise bury myself in as many good books as I can pile on.

#240) The Baron of Magister Valley



A pre-interregnum Monte Cristo type tale that gets lightly over the post escape machinations if nothing else. Lots of authorial ranting, so that were the work not fantasy it would be utterly self indulgent. It is, however very Brust.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #1: Read a book whose title is or contains the name of your school

So today I was supposed to drive down to my brother's lab space off a shopping mall. I understand he even cleared a path through the accumulation of tools and projects and made sure there was a chair I could sit in. However, Gertie was unwell. Woke me up 4AM. I'm feeling that. I spent the morning with her at the vets and the most likely diagnosis is acute puppyitis. She probably caught somethings from the puppy and is way too stressed out. I can understand.
I've been slowly collecting the bits and pieces I'll need for my crafting projects. I indulged myself to the tune of about $20 and bought a little machine that makes cords - it's a sold as a friendship bracelet and necklace set, but makes simple 8 or 12 stand kumihimo cords.
Mike picked up a small comic book collection (it mostly fits under a 6' table) and is sorting through it. Our living room is likely to resemble my brother's lab before the pandemic is over and we have to clean up for people to visit.

#241) A Wizard's Guide To Defensive Baking



A mostly cute but also subversive story in which it's not so much what you can magic or how strongly, but how imaginatively. Our 14 year old protagonist is seriously pissed that the adults neither prevented the problems nor stepped up to solve them, which is, in my experience, not the usual YA attitude. I found it dragged a bit, but then I'm dragging a bit.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #9: Read a book where the number of pages added together is 11 or more

#242) My Lady's Champion



An utter horny romantic soufflé of a tale. The 11th century would blush if it were remotely plausible.

Read for September TIOLI Challenge #3: Read a book by a woman author: Alphabet challenge

I'm sorry Gertie's unwell, mostly likely stress and whatever from the puppy. I hope she's already better with all the extra attention I assume you're giving her.

Inara had a relapse the other day - attacked Wash simply because he was up on the couch at the same time she was.

>228 karenmarie: Thanks for the concern. Gertie is now being treated for a couple of parasites, and I think it's possible she ate some soap, but the last would have to be after the vet visit because I used it that morning and couldn't find it this morning. I was in a hurry and could have dropped it and it might have something to do with the messes she's leaving about.
Sorry Inara and Wash aren't behaving totally compatibly. While Nutmeg won't leave Gertie alone at least Gertie has lost interest in what the puppy is doing on a minute by minute basis.

Thank you, Susan, for giving me a go-ahead boost for The Wizard's Butler. At least, I think it was you, although I can't find anything in this thread to substantiate it. Anyhow, I quite enjoyed it, it was much more substantial than I anticipated, and I think I'll check out Lowell's space opera now.

>230 ronincats: Roni, that book sounds really good. It must be a 2020 publication. Doesn't show up in any of my PL's.
Was your copy an e-Book?

>230 ronincats: Nope, SilverWolf28. But now I have to have a look at it.

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik and Battle Ground by Jim Butcher just jumped from my recommended library list to my holds list! I may even get my copy of one or the other delivered sometime this year!

>233 quondame: That's the issue with paper books, isn't it, the lead times are so frustratingly incalculable...who knows when someone's kid will accidentally dunk the system's only copy of Cow Goes Moo that you've been waiting for into the toidy?

Spend a day replete with breatheable air.

>232 quondame: Thanks for the correction and lead, Susan. I should have looked it up in Conversations rather than assuming it was you.

>233 quondame: A Deadly Education will leap onto my Kindle on the 29th! While the library has it on order, there are already 13 holds on a single copy.

>234 richardderus: Ah, but these are the e-book versions, and I'm much more optimistic for early delivery than I expressed.

>235 ronincats: The e-book holds on unreleased books always say 1 copy, but once the book is released there are often more.

#243) What Did You Eat Yesterday? Vol. 1



The food aspect is the best. The 43 year old lawyer Shiro Kakei displays little pleasure in anything but planning, shopping for, preparing, and eating food. He has a live in boyfriend Kenji, but is not openly out except to his parents and seems closed in and angry.
That there is plenty of room for growth for both Shiro and Kenji is about the best that can be said about them.🌈

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #6: Read a book by an author who is not only from a different country than you, but also from a different continent

#244) Before I Fall



The writing is a tour de force, the first section is a shot through the rapids followed by a deft mix of serious and light frantic and calm. I could not for myself feel that Sam should not blame Lindsey at all for her death, but I can sort of see, with how it ended that, for Sam, Lindsey wasn't at fault. I however, wanted to dash Lindsey's brains against the wall.

Read for September TIOLI Challenge #7: Read a book whose title starts with a preposition

I'm so upset about the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She is a heartbreaking loss in heartrending times.

Yep. Devastated.

#245) Lifelode -



Part of this is a what would it be like if - part is a fantasy of gradient magic more this direction less that - and part is what a pain interfering gods can be. What if technology got only as far as mill wheels and swords, and what if sexual orientation and chastity weren't issues; time goes slowest in the east where yeya, magic forms everything into the shape of gods and fastest in the west where yeya takes too much effort to be worth practicing; goddess very much wants to get back a woman who has left her and returned to the midlands and an estate that now belongs to her great grandson. As expected, a god can cause a great deal of trouble and pain. 🌈

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #9: Read a book where the number of pages added together is 11 or more

...heartbreaking loss in heartrending times. Yes. I'm upset about RBG, too. Didn't sleep well Friday night, have seriously cut back on news consumption.

I hope Gertie's coming along.

>242 karenmarie: Yes, thank you, Gertie is coming along. She is much improved though a bit on the sluggish side, though with an older dachshund it's hard to tell. Nutmeg is a perfectly good-natured maw on paws.

Tzaddik Ruth Bader Ginsburg guide us home.

#246) Spellswept -



Not to painful, but an Angland ruled by the Boudiccate? That repelled the Romans and the Normans but well, not the Angles in between? Fluffy fantasy romance which deals with stepping outside the society's gender expectations for profession, but not our society's.

Happy Monday!

>246 quondame: #246? How interesting that they're echoes! Almost to read #250, have you decided what to hate there?

:-P

>248 richardderus: Well, I didn't notice. I'm sure I'll think of something. I've got a number of read-for's rather than meet, to complete this months TIOLI.

#247) Divergence



All the usual stuff for which we read these books. But this one is more than usually claustrophobic. Bren spends almost all of Divergence in a windowless train car or a windowless room with a crowd of others. Likewise Cajeiri scenes are all deep within the Bujavid. But things do happen, as usual in the latter portion of the book after the tensions have been turned up tight enough.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #14: Read a book that was published in September, 2020

#248) The Resisters



I just wasn't in the mood for dystopian baseball. The tone of the book requires something more troubling than the little guys triumph, and one is conscious of that once the tone is established, so I found it hard to appreciate.

Read for September TIOLI Challenge #13: Read a book featuring a sport that's currently "in season"

#249) Liavek



A shared world startup with less than total coherence. Some of the authors decided that the set up was more guidelines than rules and one even read the map backwards.

I somehow confused this book with the original Borderland book, which couldn't be re-printed because one or more of the original authors or the estate of such couldn't be contacted. At least it
Meets September TIOLI Challenge #5: Read a 20th century book

I have just been feeling low, reading more slowly, making flabby attempts at collecting my crafting materials for potential projects only to have to straighten up the table for dinner. There is a lot of dust.
Nutmeg is growing by leaps and bounds, leaping, bounding, chewing, making her own vocabulary of puppy sounds as she does. She is quite adorable and not the least bit restful as all her sleepy time is gathered by my daughter and she is only given to my care when she has gotten rambunctious.
And now I learn that licorice causes high blood pressure! Bummer. I like my Good-n-Plenty. And Finnish licorice is even better than the Australian stuff.

I'm sorry you're feeling low, Susan.

Ignorance was bliss, right? I'm sorry that you now know about black licorice raising blood pressure. I personally like Red Vines Black Licorice twists but rarely get them any more. I love Good-n-Plenty, too.

Hang in there.

>253 quondame: ...added to the Master List of 2020's Indignities (slightly above the first-ever zombie hurricane)...

>254 karenmarie: >255 richardderus: I've got to believe that the reported case was at least as much the sugar as the licorice, and I only went through bags of the Australian stuff the first weeks I discovered it - by the time TJ's was hawking the stuff I'd slowed my consumption.

Little Gertie had the sort of adventure one is glad is over. She became fascinated by Nutmeg's small blue squeaky penguin and was running about the bedroom with it. It got under my dresser and she followed - well half-way followed and got stuck. She is a very low dog, but once she turned on her side the ribs were just stiff enough and wide enough for her to be firmly stuck, and you cannot pull backward on a dachshund that has it paws planted forward - not without pulling up. My daughter was able to slowly maneuver her out, but it was not a pleasant experience for my furry girl.

#250) Hid From Our Eyes



Nope. Some good stuff here, but nope, it just doesn't jell.

Read for September TIOLI Challenge #10: Read a book where the author’s name and the title on the spine are in two different colors

>253 quondame: Bummer to feel like this, Susan. I'm on a similar page, especially regarding flabby attempts at collecting my crafting materials. Not only does it feel pointless, I think I'm not into paper crafting anymore. I used to like making pop-up cards and stencilling greeting card blanks.

Fortunately, I have no trouble reading (as long as the book appeals).

Hi Susan my dear, congrats on reaching 250 books for the year, sending love and hugs dear friend.

#251) Spy, Spy Again



About as co-incidence ridden a plot as any author could contrive, we go on a quest with Tory Mag's son and Kyril the 4th child of the King to seek the location of a young assassin cousin who disappeared near the border with Karse.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #2: Read a book that has the word lie or a synonym for lie in the title or subtitle

>258 SandyAMcPherson: Sorry your in a down place as well. It seems the common condition these days. Well, there's books, and dogs, and a few things to play with, so though it's not likely to get better soon, it's bearable.

>259 johnsimpson: Thanks for dropping by John!

>261 quondame: there's books, and dogs, and a few things to play with, especially dogs.
And dogs are so droll (and rambunctious, vis á vis >256 quondame:).

Doggy irony

#252) Captain Underpants and the Wrath of the Wicked Wedgie Women



Pre-sophmoric, as silly as the title but not quite able to reach really high levels of levity.

Read for September TIOLI Challenge #8: Read a book with a strong emotion or feeling in the title

I was reading IQ before I started Righteous for TIOLI Challenge #8, which I might have done if I just powered through. I'm not feeling like powering through a kleenex. So I asked my daughter to find something short that would meet the challenge. She's great, isn't she!

#253) Sugar



The past of the woman who moves in next to Pearl Taylor is plain to her friends, but Pearl sees something in Sugar that she needs. It's set up for tragedy and both hits and skips it by a thread, but the life that others can bring to - or take from - our lives is rich and textured.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #4: Read a book for The Numbers Game

Happy end of September, Susan. You've sure powered through a great number of books this months. Kleenex reads aside, if you were interested in a retrospective of September reading, what title was your most enjoyable/engaged one?

>265 SandyAMcPherson: Before I Fall was an amazing bit of writing and Lifelode quite suited me. I was waiting for how bad it would get all through Sugar so I kept it a bit more distant than works for full enjoyment.