Suzie The Dog 3/26/2010 - 9/29/2023
After a slow decline in health due to congestive heart failure, we let her go yesterday. Even knowing it was coming and this was the kindest thing to do, I‘m still a bit heartbroken. She was my puppa , and I was her person. ❤️
I will miss her so much.

#readbannedbooks
Read. Banned. Books.

Typical Scalzi, which is always a good time. Also: cats, a pub, guns, unions, foul-mouthed dolphins and a volcano - what‘s not to like?
I like the way Scalzi centers the Average Person and deals with the way larger forces directly impact their lives, and then tosses in some humor, because isn‘t that the way most of us deal with it? Fun read. With Unions! Power to the people, y‘all.

The first of a 26 book mystery series featuring Jean and Pat Abbott, this brought back a lot of memories of high desert living, and the landscapes Crane describes are on point. Made me miss living in the desert a *tiny* bit, and you know, it‘s a dry heat! I especially appreciated the turkey vultures - those guys were everywhere, and you really can locate a dead (whatever) where they‘re circling. Good read - I‘ll probably read more of the series.

#audiocrafting tiny pumpkins. The first completed project made on my CSM (circular sock knitting machine) It took longer to catch all the live stitches and gather them than it did to knit them 😂

Listened to this one for a book group. It was fine, but I care zero about celebrity in general, and have never once wanted to read any TJR. This was the one I didn‘t want to read the least, though, so yay? It was just sad, sad, sad.

I scored points at a trivia game at work today for knowing the name of this "classic children‘s book that shares the name of a fall flower."
Got extra points because I knew Kevin Henkes wrote it. ?
I am alll about the children‘s lit, my friends!

#EuropaCollective

I collect Europa Editions because they are, bar none, fabulous reads. This was no exception.
Tom, the only survivor of a family annihilation tragedy that took place when he was young, returns, floundering, to the isolated island where it happened. His return stirs up emotions and fears in the islanders as they are all forced to deal with the slow motion fall-out of the event and what led up to it. Beautifully, movingly done.

Well I guess they told me!😆
1927 Gearhart circular knitting machine manual.
My (brand new) Erlbacher Gearhart CSM arrived a few weeks ago. The new manuals are much less strongly worded.
Or are less bossy, I guess.

“Boo!” cried George.
“Have mercy!” screamed Martha.
Martha and her stamp collection went flying.
“I‘m sorry,” said George. “I was feeling wicked.
“Well,” said Martha. “Now it‘s my turn.”
“Go ahead,” said George.
“Not right away,” said Martha slyly.

I always forget how funny Marshall‘s books are. Have mercy!

Theater of War is sponsoring this event, which you can watch online on September 30th.
A chance for Atwood fans to see her perform!
Register through Eventbrite (Free)

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/tifa-patient-and-impatient-griselda-tickets-7055270...

#EuropaCollective

One of our upcoming reads is on sale for Kindle today (US)

@mcctrish @GatheringBooks @kspenmoll @LeahBergen @TheBookDream @DrexEdit @Sapphire @TheKidUpstairs @Deblovestoread @charl08 @Adventures-of-a-French-Reader @Tamra @lauraisntwilder @squirrelbrain @Cathythoughts @BarbaraBB @CSeydel @JuniperWilde @julieclair @jlhammar

At times, this was hard to read - Franny goes through so much & it takes most of the book to piece together what‘s happened to her. It can be frustrating to read, as you don‘t have all the pieces to make sense of until the end. This will irritate some (maybe most) readers.
I really liked it though, maybe because I listened to the audio rather than giving it a straight read? In any case I enjoyed this one and it‘s echoes of Moby Dick very much.

I was listening to this chapter while walking my dogs this morning. Quite apropos, as I too have crow friends who follow me around because I throw them peanuts. No gifts yet, but they do leave feathers on occasion. 🪶
#naturalitsy @AllDebooks

Book blurb pet peeve. I have come to hate that phrase. Why, why, why does it show up so often in blurbs? Code for “I‘m really going to surprise you with this ending,” I guess.

Lit myst. FRENCH Lit Myst. Thé translation seems un peu awkward in some places, so I‘m sure it will annoy me about to death, BUT I‘ve laughed twice already, so I‘m willing to see if I can learn to ignore the less than stellar prose. Probably much better in French.

Very well done and based on a true story. POC and intellectually disabled people have been victims of eugenics movements and attempts to control their bodies through violence, enslavement, coercion, imprisonment, and medical means. Incredibly disturbing, but as today‘s struggles with reproductive rights and the distrust of the healthcare system have their roots in these stories, it‘s an important read.

Listened to this one for #nunlitqquarterly and enjoyed it very much. The audio was excellent, and not ever having been a member of a church that had nuns, I found it very interesting, the modern practices of an ancient tradition. I liked the author‘s questions, because honestly, I‘d have had the same ones.
#nunlit

I LOVED this book - the audio was stellar, and it‘s a perfect summer read - pirates, treasure, sea monsters, double-crossing demonic exes - all the adventure one could want while lazing by the pool.
I really enjoyed following Amina, a middle-aged mother who‘d been blackmailed into searching for a former shipmate‘s daughter - around the Indian Ocean, trying her best, despite her aching knees. Looking forward to the next volume. Arrrrrr!

Audiobook for dog walking - a fabulous summer read. So much fun 🏴‍☠️

The legendary pirate Amina al-Sirafi has been living quietly in retirement for ten years when she gets an offer that she can‘t refuse. If she succeeds, she and her family can stop scraping by and have a real, secure future, so away we go! Narrated by Lameece Issaq and Amin El Gamal, who bring the many characters wonderfully to life. Buckle your swashes, mateys!

Such a lovely book. I love the . . . Partial dust jacket? Book belt? Book band?
Whatever they‘re called, I like the design.

I‘m halfway through the audiobook. The narration by Christian Coulson is excellent. It‘s quite a read.

Current read - because the onslaught of cucumbers and summer squash is about to begin. 🥒🥒 🥒

Anyone have other picklin/fermenting/canning favorites?

Happy International Non-Binary People‘s Day!
Great read! You‘ll learn a lot. I certainly did!

I enjoyed the audiobook, which was narrated by Emilia Fox (of Silent Witness! Dr. Nicki Alexander!) but this one is full of tough topics. Mason did a good job depicting most of the mental health issues, but I think the almost instant resolution of some of those issues was a bit too pat. Good overall, especially when depicting anxiety and spiraling thinking, but not exactly true to life. Soft pick, Extra Point because Fox was lovely to listen to.

Enjoying this one much more than I anticipated. There are a lot of moving parts, but then again, aren‘t there always. Each individual‘s needs and wants playing out in intricate,complicated machanations, and everybody neglects the role of chance and nature.
This is an interesting thought, though. How many billions have we squandered over the years trying to build safety?
Star Wars, anyone? Mutually assured destruction? Egad.

This is certainly an interesting read, on the heels of Kate Beaton‘s Ducks. Climate crisis, camps in the frozen areas of Canada, and the ridiculous power of big business. This one has sex workers, which Ducks, thankfully did not, but the theme of viewing women as sex objects in a male- dominated setting is certainly common to both.

I do love me a science-y horror mystery thriller.
Hmmm. That‘s very a specific genre. Oughta be a shorter name for that.

It‘s 90° and humid out here in Virginia. I am now inside in the AC, reading Kate Beaton‘s Ducks while eating watermelon granita with tajin.
I‘m freezing ?

O‘Nan is so good. Truly. The way he gets into the mind of an 80 year old widow is astounding. Although I‘m not 80, due to all my autoimmune diseases I have a lot of the same issues that Emily experiences - difficulty driving at night and judging spatial relationships, the attention and concern about every slightly- off ache or pain, the bird watching. So impressed. ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

My goodness, Dr Bickley is a horrible human being. People‘s ability to rationalize awful behavior to themselves is amazing. The audio, narrated by Bruce Montague, is wonderful.
#GoldenAgeCrimeClub

Found this in my LFL this morning, and since I am a HUGE fan of Maurice Sendak, I have absconded with it.
Sorry, neighborhood children!
Scholastic, second printing, December 1964

A great, devastating read. A mystery with policemen, yes, but also the mystery of grief and surviving and bearing witness to the tragedies societies allow. I‘ll be thinking about this one for a while.

Because why WOULDN‘T I want to read a book that features a 266-pound chicken?
Pinkwater‘s Lizard Music was a favorite of mine when I was a kid - and is the book that probably led me to my love of SciFi and the surreal - so I was pleased to find this at the Book Sorting today. 🐓

Daddy‘s Gone A-Hunting is the story of Ruth, a middle class housewife in 1950s Britain, and how she tries to save her daughter from repeating her mistakes and her stifling, constricted life. Mortimer brilliantly depicts the social expectations of a certain class and Ruth‘s struggle to fit within them and the pressing need to break out. While it seems like settings such as these, with their rigid social roles, ⬇️
#PersephoneClub

Reading for a book group discussion, and listening to the audio (which is superb) while dog-walking. DC is my favorite Dickens and I absolutely LOVE the way Kingsolver has transposed the story to modern-day SW Virginia. All the litttle callbacks to the original, from slithery U-Haul/Uriah, all the way up to “Janet! Donkeys!” Amazing, full stop.

The audio was good, but the strips themselves are better, especially the jokes in the backgrounds - book titles, newspaper headlines, tee shirt slogans.
And I love that this cover‘s a take on a Norman Rockwell painting. 😁
(Norman Rockwell, The Gossips, 1948 Saturday Evening Post cover)

Current read, and I‘m not sure this is the book for me. The language is beautiful, as you‘d expect from a poet, but the sadness is pretty overwhelming at times, and dwelling on things is not my personal way of dealing with things, so it‘s a LOT. There are some interesting set pieces in here, too, so I‘d say it‘s worth a read.

I mean, Audible keeping stuff exclusive, BOO. But at the same time, they‘re really the only ones with the financial depth to get things like this made (same goes for the stunning full-cast audios of Sandman.) It‘s a quandary.
Jane Lynch is brilliant here, and I am laughing a lot. More, please. ❤️

Having just collected my fourth autoimmune disorder - rheumatoid arthritis! Yay!- I thought it was time to give this a listen. O‘Rourke does an excellent job of explaining why ADs are so difficult to diagnose, particularly in the US healthcare system. Freud, the “hysterical woman” trope, and the emphasis on treatment of acute issues all play a part. It‘s good to know that I‘M not the crazy one, finally. Highly recommended.

As a milspouse, I‘d really rather we not continue to “take up the quarrel,” but I do appreciate the way McCrae so pointedly presents the dead here, as individuals who were so recently just like us, and expecting to go on.
Hooah, my friends. Missing you.

Reading this before I put it out in the LFL - I am laughing so hard at the picture of The Pigeon. 😂

I‘m not sure why this edition has a slightly different title, but I like the cover. Ambrosio‘s got quite the hairdo.
#GoldenAgeCrimeClub

Lazybones evening. Yeah, she‘s got her own down duvet, the sneaky doggo. 🙄

Received my signed copy + a MDR watercolor painting in the mail today!

Ahhh, the art world. It‘s very weird. Not sure whether I should be amused, horrified, or despairing for the soul of humanity here.

I may use this some day. “For ineffable reasons, I simply cannot.”

I love the way Lacey pulls in cultural reference points. Unlike this one, many are skewed due to the secession of the Southern Territories and the ensuing fascist theocracy. Horrifying thought, but quips like this are also making me laugh.

Mary Doria Russell posted this yesterday. I ordered from MacsBacks online, and got my confirmation today signed Book, a watercolor painting from MDR, AND supporting a small bookstore. Winning all over the place!

https://www.macsbacks.com

Absolutely loving this one. I read Pew last year, and X has many similar themes: the dystopian in the everyday, the societal need/demand to define and categorize people and what happens when an individual refuses to be defined, or defined in "suitable" categories. And the South secedes (and rejoins, eventually,) so there‘s that.
Thought provoking.

Audiobook for dog walking. This is the second DS Harbinder Kaur I‘ve read, and I like her a lot. Audio is well done, and it‘s a good listen for walking, as it‘s interesting, but easy to follow and not super complicated.
I only like to have to think a little while we‘re walking, people, is what I‘m saying. Have to keep an eye peeled for oncoming traffic and manage dog and deer encounters, after all