Susan's Books for 2024 quondame #4

Sculpture by Guy Laramee

I’m Susan, in the middle of my 8th decade. I live with my husband, Mike, my thirtysomething daughter Becky, Becky’s French Bulldog Nutmeg, the best dog ever, and Mike’s Pug (mix) Gizmo, a very indifferent sort of dog. The dogs both lick a lot.

I read mostly F&SF and have opinions. Otherwise I’ll venture into whatever’s being recommended and looks interesting, and especially if it’s a mystery or historical novel.

I have vast amounts of fiber and fabric and still fool myself that I’ll do something with them using the vast quantity of sewing notions I’ve packed into nooks and corners. I don’t turn my nose up at other sorts of tools either, so you’ll find all sorts of useful but unused things in my drawers and boxes.

Then there are the dolls - from ½” to 21”, mostly late 20th century Madame Alexanders, but hand carved Hittys are well represented and original and reproduction Barbies have had my attention from time to time. I have a particular fondness for characters from books even though they never get them right. Well, there are some Eloise and Fancy Nancy dolls that are spot on, but not usually.

We won’t talk about all the miniature tools and charms here and there.

Women in F&SF - no progress at this time

Sprang

I joined the Zoom meeting in Feb and was entirely overawed by the professional levels displayed. I miss the last couple of sessions, but they are uploaded, so I can check them out later.

The HotE Discord server I'm on is currently hosting 2 book club threads/voice chats, of which I am currently in 1, but we are doing two short works this month.

Of Books and Paper Dragons
If Found, Return to Hell

April:
Book Club is The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories by Yu Chen

August

Sisters of the Vast Black
Sisters of the Forsaken Stars

September

House of Gold I wanted to use this for Aug TIOLI #10, alas.

The book club members seem to have plenty to say about this one - great to have African people and culture, big issues,...
I'm like, it's so YA and high body count and the African stuff seems both contrived - why would people hundreds of years out and without contact with other cultures be so identified with any continent, much less countries, and there is nothing in the initial setting, the breeding/training undersea complex that tracks as African other than skin colors and hair texture. The food is strictly institutional and parents aren't a thing at all.

Fanfic log:

240331:
I've been adding words to my fanfic for 2 day, 1450 or so. Not sure if I'll want to keep any of them but the story is inching in a direction I want to take, so that makes me feel a bit better.

240411:
Fanfic has been accumulating words - but I went sideways on April 5 and now have over 7K words about becoming a (Cirith) god on Zunidh. I hope I can chop it up and slip in bits between difficult (character dealing with painful issues) section of my main story as lighter relief. Of course my baby-god just got betrayed, so maybe not.

240601:

I did a bunch of doggerel and some updates to my fixKip, but after I ordered my Supernote Nomad, I stalled out on everything. Now I'm canceling the order for the hard to get Crystal and will see if the plain white one manages to get to me before another 3 weeks passes...

240814:

The year is getting on and while I've had plenty of thoughts, that's not getting words typed in. I did run some bits through quillbot grammar check but didn't get motivated to be thorough about it.

240331:
I've been adding words to my fanfic for 2 days, 1450 or so. Not sure if I'll want to keep any of them but the story is inching in a direction I want to take, so that makes me feel a bit better.

(thinking isn't writing, some choices were made some time in these 5 months)

240830: 500+ words of Fitzroy's POV with Raphael and Tanaea

240905: 1512 words F w/R&T and F angst, 281 CYH extracts cut 1-3

I got through chapter 9 of CYH by 240908 then just forgot about it?

On 240910 I had a chat with my sister-in-law about trauma recovery using gestalt to reprogram traumatic memory and approaches to troubling visualizations.

240912 Trying out different wordings and structure for Fitzroy POV.

240914 Got through C12 of CYH - music mentioned twice, no emotions attached other than it was good.

240916 Got through C13 of CYH - this is much slower going. It's rough stuff, and I'm reading much more closely.

240916 Got through C14 of CYH - also picked up coffee, and a library book! But traffic kept me from returning paper books.

240918 Got through C16 of CYH

240919 Got through C20 of CYH

240920 Got through C22 of CYH

240928 Wrote a start of on Eidora's POV

241004 Wed & Thursday I reworked Fitzroy's POV, but now it's all thoughts and no action, whereas before it was mostly action and regrettable dialog. But I evolved some ideas, so that's good.

A new member of Disord's HOTE server just announced they too are writing a "Fix Kip" for CYH and have a chapter ready for Beta. Will this set a fire under me or douse the embers?

241005 Got through C27 of CYH

Some more ideas, but they are fading from my mind as my but hurts sitting as long as I have and I need more sleep if my mind isn't to stay mushy!

I did get more Fitzroy and Kip concepts at least tacked into my files.
There are more new words, but lots of old ones have expired.

241006 Got through C30 of CYH

I caught the ideas I was shaky about yesterday, but just to the notes level, no more "words"

241007 Got through C33 of CYH - FINISHED! (Reading that is. Writing, well.....)

241008 Did a bit more work. Cleaned up the first part of FixKip - now called When Hope is Lost - and shared it with my "competitor". We had a nice long discussion - her take is very different and much more spare and all narration. I go for dialog which requires more than one character per scene, at least some of the time.

241009 I got 1040 of re-revised Fix-Fitzroy together which captures the ideas I've come up with, but doesn't flow and is a bit interaction lite. Still it's better than I hoped for on pretty much 0 sleep. Family revelations and fic-adreneline is a bad look. Also, the really great editor nixed me. So I hope to do a complete re-write and run every paragraph through Grammerly yet again. But it does catch missing and errant commas.

241011 I've managed some sleep, and am fleshing out Fix-Fitzroy. Which is sort of cheat title, because my reality is that that bard while devastated and exhausted physically, mentally, and magically, he's in a lot more whole than he was at the end of ATFOTS. He just doesn't think that's possible - nor does anyone else - without Kip. So I'm going to rest him up, but keep him busy until he gets a clue.

241015 Yesterday my "rival" put up another chapter. They are diverging more from my themes version of events. I'm thinking of polishing up my Fitzroy introduction and posting, since that is ground they are not covering. I've some more ideas and better write them - or at least note them down before more of them fall out of my mind. Not having much sleep at all for the past two nights really doesn't help.
I put up my 1400 words of Fitzroy 2 days later. So far only rival has admitted noticing.

241021 No one other than my rival has agreed to beta read my fics, so I'm waiting a bit. I re-read the 5100k word one and I'm beginning to hate it. Awkward language, repetitious, blah, blah. And I changed an important reaction which kind of wipes out what more I did. Arrrgh! But I do have ideas.....

241025 Still no beta volunteers. I am sad. I have 1220+ new words on fixKip and I'm happier with the altered transition. So I will probably get a draft of the second chapter before I get a beta reader. Well, I will take it that I'm writing this for myself, which is of course the case, but sharing is good to. I'll try not to get uber fanciful.

241029 I finished a second chapter of my CYH Kip section and Yay! A person volunteered to read both my Fitzroy introduction and my 2 Kip chapters. So that feels good. I hope I can keep a positive attitude through feed back!

241031 I worked through the feedback on two of the files reviewed by the wonderful person who volunteered as beta reader. Even passing ever paragraph through QuillBot I include text with missing or misplaced commas. I am OK with the Oxford comma, and sometimes know where to put others, but I really don't get it.
I also wrote a third Report from the Island, a sort of alternate view of the Fix-Kip mess.

241104 Reworked the end of chapter 1 and beginning of chapter 2 of Kip's story. Beta reader busy with toddler so that's slowed down.
I wrote up Onaya's account of Kip 2-3, where he's a totally happy 2 year old but bumps into some limits on his way to 3 and gets a whale toy to comfort him.

241106 Not much of a day for doing. I got a few more lines of Onaya's stories down but that's it.

241113 Lack of sleep and jitters (Dorsal Freeze?) have left me with some imaginings but nothing written, nope.

241124 After days of false starts on my Fitzroy-gets-a-grip fic I finally came up with something that works for me. I only had to go into the most grief stricken moment of my life and mine the next two weeks down to bedrock for one paragraph. Easy peasy. I did get about 500 words, but after that start, following up with day-to-day seems a bit floppy.

As of 12/26/2024

Books I have started and put down for over a week:

The Book of M
The Bookbinder
Bound to Please
The Carmina Burana: Songs from Benediktbeuern*
The Middle Kingdoms
The Soul of Civility
Ultra-processed People
The Warburgs

Books I'm currently reading:

Mirrored Heavens
Outskirter's Secret

===========

*This is a large trade paperback with 250+ songs (Carmina) from before 1250, and I may get through 1 or 2 a day. Disappointingly this only include English translations with Latin/Middle High German text online(Link not currently working)

I have these books checked out of the Library as of 12/26/2024

Avenger's Angel
Blood Child and Other Stories
The Book of M
The Bullet Swallower
The Butcher of the Forest
Daring Greatly
The Doors of Eden
Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands
Foul Days
Four Squares
Gender Failure
Geometries of Belonging
The Ghost Theatre
Into the Drowning Deep
The Known World
The Ministry of Time
Mirrored Heavens
More Perfect
My Darling Dreadful Thing
Nightwatch on the Hinterlands
Nobody's Fool
Ocean's Godori
One of Our Kind
The Outskirter's Secret\
Pax Romana
Rouge
The Spear Cuts Through Water
A Tale of the Five Hundred Kingdoms
Thin Air
Ultra-processed People
Wifedom

Not to mention what I have on hold.......

182) The Last Word



The Last Word failed to engage me. I just wasn't interested in the deaths or the issues the characters were dealing with. Bernard's self-esteem issues, Natalka's attention mostly on her brother fighting in the Ukraine, Edwin dealing with age but concentrating on being clever. Too many deaths to feel any of them strongly enough to feel moved to catch the perp.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #4: Inspired by Anita – Title Starts with one of the capital letters from the phrase “Having Fun With TIOLI” (H,F,W,T,I,O,L,I)

183) The Naming



This is a fantasy that features the young orphan who turns out to be the chosen one, or in this case, the Fated One. An ancient evil is gaining power; the forces of light are undermined and corrupted. The book is deliberately paced and has a sloggy day-by-day feel, with many more days than interesting days. Reading it in 2024, there isn't any element that hasn't been done to death, and I believe I would have said the same when it came out in 2003. Croggon's facility with language is better than average, and the verses she includes aren't wince worthy, but neither of those make up for the flat lack of entertainment.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #7: Read a book whose title contains an "ing"

184) Ella Minnow Pea



An epistolary novel about missing letters of the alphabet, the very concept of this book is a pun.
The letters that make up this book are both the medium and the message, as the senders, Ella & Tessa and occasionally others, struggle to communicate with a decreasing variety of letters as well as the punishments and consequences for failing to comply with the limitations. Bases around the deification of originator of the sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." and a Council that decides that when a letter falls from the monument, it becomes illegal to use. Eventually only "LMNOP" remain before the island people are saved by:
"Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs."
Amusing enough to spend the time with, but not quite worth popping to the top of the TBR stack for its own virtues.

I could have used this for #1, #5, or #11, but I’m recording that it was

Read for September TIOLI Challenge #6: Read a book set on an island

As usual, my life has been mostly quiet and uneventful, but!
this Saturday a group of friends has scheduled a Tea at a sort of local English Pub,

and

my brother wants my input on a book he has written, so we will be meeting next week for lunch. I don't see how I could read it by then unless I drop everything else, but we'll see.
I've already lectured him on cultural appropriation, mostly to the effect that if he pursues the course and style he's on he can expect objections. I mean, what did he think it meant when none of the Native Americans he tried to contact would speak with him and most didn't reply at all.

OK, I've done what I have to do here!

Happy New Thread, Susan!

Happy New Thread, Susan! I have The Last Word, but have yet to get to it . I hope you enjoy your Tea at a British Pub. I wonder what they will serve ? Your brother's book sound interesting. Enjoy your lunch together.

>11 ronincats:


Thanks Roni!

>12 vancouverdeb: Thanks Deborah!

I don't know what's on the menu for Saturday - It's probably a Cream Tea, but I don't remember this place as doing all the interesting sandwiches which are my favorites. But it will be good to see the people in the group - I think I missed the last get together because of a cold.

Happy new thread Susan

Happy new one, Susan. I smiled when reading your lntro. I do have vast amounts of yarn (no fabric though) and tools and other "stuff" in the house. Tea at a pub with friends sounds wonderful -- I wouldn't know where to find a "tea", let alone a "cream tea", nor a pub here in our Vancouver.

>9 quondame: I just bought a copy last month because I thought my grand, Ellie, should read it.

>15 ArlieS: Thank you, Arlie!

>16 RebaRelishesReading: Welcome Reba.
A google search for "Cream Tea Vancouver, B.C." turned up several candidates, which did not surprise me.

>17 2wonderY: Hi Ruth! That sounds like an inspired choice.

Happy new thread, dear Susan.

Happy new thread!

Happy new thread, Susan. Enjoy your tea.

>18 quondame: But I live in Vancouver, Washington -- often confused (recently even by me when looking for our symphony on-line and ended up calling B.C. instead 🤪)

>20 figsfromthistle: >21 BLBera: Thank you Anita & Beth!

>22 RebaRelishesReading: Sorry for not checking. However, afternoon tea is served in Vancover, WA at a number of venues, though I can't vouch for any of them!

Happy New Thread! My fabric stash lives in plastic bins under the spare room bed, and I'll just say that the layer of dust on the bin lids is... quite thick.

Happy new thread, Susan!

>24 foggidawn: Thank you, Foggi!
I suspect if I put all my fabric in one of the smaller bedrooms, I couldn't!

>25 drneutron: Welcome, Jim!

185) The Jinn-bot of Shantiport



Shantiport is ancient and decaying, with flooded areas, crime lords, and ruling criminals from off-world, though the world is cut off from participating directly in the space-spanning organizations that contest for power in that wider sphere. Lina has sent her bot brother Bador find items, among which is the narrator Maku, whose mission is to record the story of its user. The characters and setting are worth spending time with; the plotting is a bit all over the place, and the ending, while not unfitting, doesn't quite satisfy. And it is sort of an Aladdin retelling. Sort of. The Jinn is not particularly entertaining, being more of a MacGuffin.

This is the 3rd time I've had the book checked out. Well, I've checked out books 20 times and am still considering reading them.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #13: Read a book with a four word title of the form (article) word (conjunction | preposition) word

>27 quondame: I tried to read that one a while back, but for now it's a DNF for me. Just couldn't get that engaged.

>28 foggidawn: It is a bit scattershot. I found it got more pleasant to read as it went on and there was less Bador pounding his chest.

>6 quondame: I try to limit myself to 4 because our public library only lends books for two weeks at a time. I renew what I need to renew after that, but since I'm in the library every Tuesday for the cross stitch group, I try to return them as I finish them when I'm there.

Checking in on your new thread, Susan! I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

>30 thornton37814: Hi Lori! My libraries do 4 week checkouts except in cases of new books. I always think I can get more read in 4 weeks than I ever do - I think there was a time before I got on LT or other net social groups when I did read almost as fast as I now expect to, but well there's always plenty of chances for others to put holds on the books!

>31 alcottacre: Thanks Stasia!

I'm not sure if I quite survived the Tea. The tea and tiers of finger foods were good if not spectacular, the venue more pub than parlor and there were probably above 20 people scattered around ~8 tables all talking at once. I found a corner near the room entrance that was a bit less resonant and enjoyed conversations with two people I'd never much spoke to before. I got one to give me contact info with the excuse of a book recommendation On My Way to Paradise and Mike clued me into who the woman was by mentioning her uncle whose name I recognized.
But - when people finished eating and started moving around and chatting the noise level went way up. Then the adult son (6'3" min) of friends came to chat with the woman sitting across from me. He was right next to me, facing away and 3' directly above my head. I had to shut down, fingers in ears and eyes closed for a lot longer than was comfortable.

Though I think what flattened me was waiting outside in the partial shade for Mike to pick me up. Even within sight of the ocean it was HOT!

Oh, and Mike is alive only because I have the memory of gnat when distracted. He hadn't mentioned that he spilled water on the passenger seat earlier in the day. So I walked into the Pub with a damp butt. I'm hopping the patterned tunic and pants I was wearing disguised that. I really do. Somehow I forgot by the time Mike had parked the car and joined me.

>23 quondame: Really? I should check into that. It would make a lovely girl-friends outing.

>32 quondame: I would say Mike owes you one for that!! Probably went unnoticed by folks in party mood though :)

Is the book you're looking for Good Morning, Monster by Catherine Gildiner?

>33 RebaRelishesReading: I hope you find a place that suits.
Oh, he does.

>34 ReneeMarie: It may well be! Yes. What I found googling was The Body Keeps the Score which also looks interesting.
Thank you!

>35 quondame: The van der Kolk book is uber popular. So is It Didn't Start with You by Mark Wolynn.

>36 ReneeMarie: The title reminds me of the most recent of my sister's (6 years older than I) last email about how she, and probably the all 4 siblings, have the gene allele that predisposes us for bi-polar order and listed, our mother, grandfather, and great grandfather who were all diagnosed bi-polar. Which kind of means it won't end with us either.

186) Embassytown



Apparently, I've read Embassytown twice before, but remembered very little, not even the mood. There is a lot of mood. The mood stressed is that of being under siege, so I don't regret not holding onto it. The characters are serviceable, and the concept is the star with the settings and aliens for interest. It's worth reading, I'd say, but I wouldn't give it a general recommendation; it's too full of itself for that. Also, I prefer more character-driven plotting.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #11: Read a book for the Zodiac challenge (Virgo - read a book with a theme relating to communication)

>22 RebaRelishesReading: Wow! Usually when I look for organizations in Canadian cities, searching from an address in the US, Google and its ilk gives me similar organizations in itty bitty US towns of the same name. Vancouver Washington is bigger and better known than Ottawa Illinois, which is what I got when I tried to find the public library system in Canada's capital, so I'd have naively guessed you'd have gotten your own symphony.

186) The Book Haters' Book Club



After the death of Elliot, her beloved partner in the book store they founded and ran for decades, Irma, to the horror of her two daughters, is selling off the store to a developer for a fraction of what it's worth. The book follows Bree and Laney, the two daughters, and Elliot's lover Thom, in their efforts to save the store. The story is well enough told, and the characters have enough definition to carry it most of the way, if it weren't dragged out quite so long.
My real issue though starts with the title. It's the "Hater's". I felt jarred every time it showed up, and it showed up a lot. It was part of the excessive cuteness of the book, with the fourth wall breaching spirit of Thom acting as a Greek chorus.

Read for September TIOLI Challenge #2: Read a book in which the word "book" appears in the title or author's name

187) The Penelopiad



This is the script of the play adapted by Atwood from her book. The focus is on Penelopy's use of and relationship to the 12 maids/slaves who were hung at Odysseus' order on his return. Eurycleia, his old nurse, is presented as more of a villain than the suitors, who are just selfish brutes out for themselves. Eurycleia, who perhaps should support Penelope, is hostile and untrustworthy, jealously petty.

Read for September TIOLI Challenge #10: read a book by an author you're not particularly fond of

Last night the excitement was Nutmeg and Gizmo cornering a possum under the BBQ. It's lucky neither of them had a snout that could squeeze under there, because it would be badly scratched, perhaps bitten, if the possum had been able to reach it.

This morning there was a 4.1-4.7 earthquake 20-30 miles to the northwest of us. It seemed as if all my local FB friends posted about within 3 min.

>42 quondame:. Earthquake. Yeah, that's usually the way with FB... Did ya feel it? I'm about 35 miles SE of it, and I didn't feel anything, but then, my wife in the next room did. :)

I have Penelopiad (the book) on my shelf, I should get to it sometime

>43 mahsdad: Oh yes. I'm on the second floor and was just doing the floor pounding bit of my exercises so it slid right in on me! I didn't to the FB thing though.

188) Thunder Dog



A report of the escape of Michael Hingson with his guide dog, Roselle, and his co-worker Dave from the 78th floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Interspersed with accounts of his history and life to that point, a bit of religion, and discussions of what being blind isn't. Serviceable and just about exactly the right length.

Read for September TIOLI Challenge #8: Pick a topic then read a book on that topic suggested by Talpa

189) Penric's Demon



Young Lord Penric kin Jurald has agreed to his family's plans for him but has not entirely accepted them when, on his way to his betrothal, he acquires a very experienced demon. The combination of young aspirations, worldly experience and divine meddling is delightfully both frothy and thoughtful.

I spent quite a lot of time searching though books that satisfied #9, that were on my Kindle or available for immediate checkout in Kindle format. The pickings were uninspiring and I felt like revisiting a friend to

Read for September TIOLI Challenge #9: Read a book with devils or angels in the title

>38 quondame: Mieville is not an author I typically enjoy so I think I will continue to give that one a pass. I also prefer more character-driven plotting, especially as I grow older and hang around the 75ers more.

>41 quondame: Dodging that BB as I have already read it.

>45 quondame: Seems like our thoughts on that one are similar. I just finished it this past week too.

>46 quondame: Yeah, I really need to get to the Penric series!

Have a wonderful weekend, Susan!

>47 alcottacre: I do love character-driven books, but I can be distracted by interesting individuals in very strange environments.

190) The Silvered



Just re-read again. This is still a great book with an interesting take on werewolves. Expect a lot of character and action, evil villain, strange mage craft. The scenery could be better drawn, but it serves well enough.

This book starts with a young woman, Mirian, who is frustrated that her parents' overriding concern is to use her mage talent to marry her into Pack and enhance their standing and wealth. That she didn't test well enough at university to continue training and hasn't told her parents increases her discomfort with the process. From there, the plot develops rather differently than the expectations for a paranormal romance/relationship inherent in the first chapter commonly indicate. Mirian's choices turn out to make large differences.

Read for September TIOLI Challenge #1: Read a book in which the author's four-letter surname ends with double letters

Constantly impressed by your reading, Susan.

Have a lovely Sunday.

Just delurking to say hello. Hope you had a wonderful weekend!

>50 PaulCranswick: Thank you. As always, I'm just doing my thing.

>51 figsfromthistle: Hi right back! Thank you and I hope you did to and have lots to look forward to this week!

191) A Sorceress Comes to Call



Do you like retold fairy tales? Does it matter if all of the pieces come from different tales, even different genres? Take a threads of The Goosegirl, twisted like a paper chain of mobius strips, half that of CInderella to which the same has been done, paint with Heyer colors but in Bronté tones, and as long as Beauty is the Beast, that's sort of what Sorceress Comes to Call delivers. Maybe it's a cozy house party horror story?

Well darn. a sorceress doesn't rate as a devil, even when she's devilish, and the "ing" is in the author's name, so I guess I just read this one for the fun of it since my loan isn't about to expire, not nearly as soon as about a dozen other books.

>53 quondame: I've got that one on my library checkouts shelf, and am looking forward to diving into it, especially as retold, remixed fairy tales are entirely my jam.

Any specific recommendations for me regarding James H. Schmitz books, Susan? I have never even heard of him, let alone know where to start on reading him. Thanks!

>54 foggidawn: Mine too. I did hang up on the name Falada, but the horse in A Sorceress is sure not the Goosegirl's Falada.

>55 alcottacre: Witches of Karres can be read as a standalone, though it does have sequels.

That and the Telzey Amberdon stories were my dad's favorites, and Telzey Amberdon (The Complete Federation of the Hub Book 1 is a good collection to start with. The were written in mid-20th cent, of course, so even though the are better than 95% (at least) of the era's SF, still.

>49 quondame: the plot develops rather differently than the expectations for a paranormal romance/relationship inherent in the first chapter commonly indicate. That's one of the reasons I liked this book so much - it didn't end up where I was expecting at all.

>57 SandDune: It's always a delight when a book by an author you trust delivers something newly twisted and so much better!

Alas, the doles are drumming and I don't seem to have oars.

Milkman is interesting in it's way, but it is very slow going and written as a series of diversions on what may or may not turn out to be a short timeline, though more than one day as already over a week has gone by. But though not made explicit, it is set in Ireland during the 1970s, which is about as least favorite setting/time combo.

Then I dipped my nose in More Perfect, and boy did I pull it out fast!

I haven't worked up to getting back to my brother's manuscript either, just feeling too low energy.

>59 quondame: I hear ya. That can happen now and again.

I tried with Milkman, but I just didn't connect. Tapped out and moved on.

>60 mahsdad: I'm finding Milkman worth continuing - but in a measured, interrupted way.

192) Dragonwing



8-year-old Moon Shadow is taken from China to San Francisco to join his father. His father is called Windrider after he has a dream in which he was once a dragon and can be in his next life if he passes trials. Windrider is driven to fly. Over the next few years, which include the SF earthquake, we follow Moon Shadow and his father through ups and downs. Well told and evenly paced, this narrative is better at everyday life than high drama.

Read for September TIOLI Challenge #3: Anita Memorial Reads: 1960s & 1970s

193) The Truth According to Ember



Is the prefect guy really perfect if your workplace forbids interoffice dating and he, your coworker, continues to come on to you even though you've told him not to—however reluctantly? This question isn't even asked in this book. All the imperfections, according to Ember, are Ember's. And yes, Ember screws up, but boy does she have help in one area. And the love scenes don't quite get to Z level but are best skipped except for laughs at the clichéd triteness of them.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #4: Inspired by Anita – Title Starts with one of the capital letters from the phrase “Having Fun With TIOLI” (H,F,W,T,I,O,L,I)

I couldn't connect with Milkman when I tried it, but now that I know more about the history of Northern Ireland, I may give it another try in the future. I'm glad it's working for you.

>64 vancouverdeb: I think what I'm enjoying about Milkman is the fern frond structure - how every time any thing comes up off the narration goes exploring that, the character's approach to that, and the gossip about that, and eventually, very eventually, gets back to the stem, moves about 2mm and the off and back with another many lobed diversion. And so on and so on. And people are all described by relationships and eke names.

194) Life After Life



This book has style going for it. Writing style. It follows Ursula who comes to describe life as a palimpsest because she has repeatedly restarted from birth until death, each time altering a "mistake" that had deadly, disastrous, or both consequences for her. The hook is an (attempted?) 1930 assassination of Hitler.
Generally, I don't like books set largely in WWII, and I've read enough books featuring a middle-class English family that I'm never looking for another. Sharing Ursula's viewpoint is a bit austere, and while some of the other characters do leave distinct impressions, they don't inspire much emotion.

Read for September TIOLI Challenge #12: Read a new-to-you book from the NYT's best books of the 21st century, or a suggested substitute

Saturday evening in a spurt of tech venturousness I tested the browser ability on my Kindle. I found that while AO3 access was a bit awkward it was possible to do searches and find my favorites. Up until now I've had to limit the time I spend reading fanfic off AO3 because I did it on my desktop MAC. I can't sit for more than a couple of hours at a time without regrets. I can't sit half a day without major regrets.

But reading from my Kindle in bed? So much easier. I quite overdid it. I'm almost caught up on sleep now. Why is fanfic smut so much better than published smut? (I know my answer. It's because I wouldn't be reading it if I didn't really like the characters.)

Happy Monday, Susan. I also really enjoyed Life After Life. I also loved A God in Ruins. I have not read her latest.

>68 msf59: Thanks, Mark. Now that I've read one Kate Atkinson book, it's good to know there are others when I'm in the mood for her style.

Well, after I read
195) Until Love Stops Screaming I went on to
196) Tenebra on AO3 and lost a few more hours of sleep. Also some other, shorter ones that I haven't entered into LT, Be My Breath Through The Deep Deep Water in which Kip takes Fitzroy to a dream of his heart cave at the Fall and some shorter associate fics.

I still have not got my sleeping back close to optimal hours, so I'm half zombies and still staying up way late, sleeping to late to fit activities I want in a day into the time slots I want them.

But then I got the OK to order Lebanese food for dinner, so deliciousness happened, and there will be more tomorrow.

197) Finding Mr. Write



Fun and not caught up in extended misunderstandings, the sex comes along after period of attraction and isn't detailed. Totally adheres to light romance too good to be true main characters.

BB from MickyFine

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #4: Inspired by Anita – Title Starts with one of the capital letters from the phrase “Having Fun With TIOLI” (H,F,W,T,I,O,L,I)

198) Milkman



Is this book enjoyable? Not really. What Milkman is, is an immersion in a mind under siege. The experiences are entwined with the background from which they arise to such an extent that they are inseparable. The viewpoint character is not unpleasant, but her thoughts are limited and distorted so that there are significant unpleasant, and some very strange, moments. I do recommend this one.

BB from mahsdad

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #5: Read a book that alternates with a person's name and description

Sorry about the lack of sleep, Susan. I am also guilty of staying up too late in order to fit in what I want to/need to get done. And I can't sleep in because I have to leave the house at a specific minute or I'll miss my train. I keep reminding myself that it'll get better once I move but I have no idea when that will be.

Milkman sounds like one of those books that aren't fun to read but are important to have read.

>73 PawsforThought: Thanks. It's been intermittent. Lots of sleep Saturday night, not so much last night.

I wouldn't call Milkman an important read, but it is mind expanding. I'd be interested in a comparison of it, primarily its narrative structure, to James Joyce's Ulysses or maybe even Finnegan's Wake, neither of which I've read, but some descriptions of those works seem to match with how Milkman is told.

>56 quondame: Thank you. I will have to see what I can track down.

>62 quondame: That one sounds good too. I will have to see if I can track it down as well.

>66 quondame: Dodging that BB as I just read it last month.

>72 quondame: I read Milkman several years ago - at Anita's prompting. I am happy that I did. Glad to see you could appreciate it as well.

I can certainly commiserate with the lack of sleep, Susan, and hope the insomnia lets up for you soon!

>75 alcottacre: Ah well, the lack of sleep is due to that ambiguous issue of staying up too late, which I believe I am able to curtail, for the time I want to be up and moving. I don't want to put my book down and I don't want to wake up after noon.
When I think to deploy them, my techniques for getting to sleep work pretty well, though it is more difficult if I'm in the middle of a compelling story.

199) The Hands of the Emperor



Saturday I was checking a passage in chapter 16 and then read to the end, and yesterday I was checking a passage in chapter 3 and read through chapter 16, and then I noticed challenge #8 and read chapters 1 & 2 today. I think the favorite status is well established at this point......

Meets October TIOLI Challenge #8: Read a book that is, is written by, or includes a favorite

200) House of Gold



This is a collection of parts in search of a real story. It concerns people descended from the nations of Africa on a planet that has been both stressed and isolated. Much is made of the African origin and features of the characters, but that's as far as it goes—nothing in the cultures, choices, or actions has anything to do with Africa, though some clothing items do. We have superpowered teens pairs, a Prime and a Proxy each, so that each Proxy narrator is caught between their Prime and the other Prime's Proxy.
Basically though, it kept blowing its promise until it ran out, and then it was hurriedly wrapped up.

This book was choice of the Discord/HOTE book club for September.

Meets October TIOLI Challenge #7: Read a book that includes a formal event where a character has to give a speech or propose a toast

201) The Cemetery of Untold Stories



"And regrets are just a way to make the same mistakes over and over."
Fanciful, strange. The lives of the women in this novel have all been molded by men who are either unfaithful, brutal, or both. Their lives remain their own, whether kept to themselves or shared. Alma, a writer who finds she cannot complete stories she has worked on for years, takes advantage of an inheritance in her native Dominican Republic to create a cemetery in which to bury them. But given the right audience, they tell themselves. Thus the reader learns what Alma sought, which is both compelling and disappointing.
The novel also provides excellent depictions of the persistence difficulties arising among siblings.

Meets October TIOLI Challenge #10: Read a book you think has a scary or disturbing title

202) Petty Treasons



The Emperor's story about the recovery of his magic, his reducing the influence of the Ouranatha, and how he got his Hands and potential friend Cliopher sayo Mdang, and why that was more important and more the same thing than Kip ever knew.

Read For October TIOLI Challenge #15: Read a book whose title breaks a law or a commandment

This Life or the Next is not proving a fun read.

And besides I have all the (not) joy of (>4 quondame:) working my way through the grueling fanfic CYH, to feel I'm at least writing my fic against the proper sequence of events and settings.

And I should get back to my brother's tangle of a novel.

203) This Life or the Next



The stop-start somewhat rambling presentation of this twice fictionalized account of a young Norwegian born son of Pakistani immigrants jailed for associating with terrorists takes a while to become accustomed to. That it is translated into English probably adds to the distance the reader from the narrator and his experiences in Norway, Syria, and back in Norwegian prison. Enfolded within, I found more evidence that those leaders focused and driven enough to be active rebels are rarely the sort of men who work well with others.

So far this year I've read about intra-revolutionary bloodshed in Ireland Milkman and Sri Lanka Brotherless Nights. It is distressing in a way that so many revolutionaries doom themselves to failure because of the very self-confirmed righteousness that powers their rebellion.

Meets October TIOLI Challenge #11: Read a book whose title includes the word "life" or "death" or both

204) Cross Your Heart

The second re-read of the heartbreaking fanfic in the Nine Worlds

205) The Book Eaters



The characters are realistic for monsters but not really engaging—the main POV being a bit of a whine mistress. Not that she doesn't have stuff to whine about; she has plenty. But! Who needs yet another oppressed young woman, even if she is a strange sort of creation? She isn't really monstrous, but she must be so out of love for her son, who is.
The setup includes such a huge problem that belief never can quite get off the ground. Statistically, the monsters would have died out in about 10 generations instead of just being on the brink in our time—and that's if there were a lot of them to start with.

BB from drneutron

Meets October TIOLI Challenge #16: Read a book whose title includes something "written"

206) Hard Stop

I thought I'd try one of karenmarie's smuts books.
This one was "this attractive guy I have to spend time finds me attractive, let's fuck" which is fine in real life, but isn't what I find to be engaging in fiction.
Also the sex seems pretty much in the same mode as the smutty MF books, just different parts.

Hi Susan!

Behind as usual, happy newest thread. This is what I wrote in July: I have got caught up on your mini reviews since I last visited. I don’t know whether to be happy or sad that I didn’t get any BBs.

Although, I may re-read Mansfield Park based on your pithy and intriguing mini review.

>1 quondame: Love your description of the dogs.

>6 quondame: I loved 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World. I asked our Branch Librarian if she’d order it, she did, and I devoured it.

>7 quondame: I really liked the first two Harbinder Kaur books, but although I have books 3 and 4 haven’t felt compelled to read them. Hmmm. Maybe next year to read then cull?

>32 quondame: Tea survived. Glad Mike’s still alive, too. I do not like groups that have to meet across multiple tables, and really only like it if there are 8-9 or less at a round table. You’re still not necessarily getting all the conversations, but you can jump into one if you hear something fun. Our book sort team goes out after book sorting on Tuesdays and it can be anywhere from 3-10 people.

>53 quondame: “… paint with Heyer colors but in Bronté tones … Sometimes your words just stun me.

>66 quondame: Generally, I don't like books set largely in WWII… Agree completely.

>67 quondame: I’m sorry you can’t sit for more than a couple of hours without regrets and can’t sit half a day without major regrets. For me, the point was 'driven' home for me yesterday when I drove 30 miles round trip for my first set of errands and then 50 miles round trip for my second errand. Back seizing up much? I hobbled into the house after the second one.

>81 quondame: I’m flattered that you tried one of my smut reads. I gave it 4.5 stars, it seems. I agree that Also the sex seems pretty much in the same mode as the smutty MF books, just different parts. I just like reading about the MM parts instead of the MF parts these days.

>82 karenmarie: I seem to be able to sit comfortably longer in cars than in my desk chair. I'm sorry you don't find it the same. Driving while physically unhappy is the pits.

I think M parts just have fewer culturally negative baggage. At least to women. I'm sure people with them can pile on plenty of baggage.

Hi, Susan. Sorry you are in discomfort when you sit too long. At least you can sit in bed, which has the added feature of being right there for you when you want to take a nap. I’m not able to sit for long periods either without major stiffness. I also can’t stand for any length of time without major back pain. Lying down without moving leaves me stiff too. I’m just a mess. 😂

>84 Storeetllr: Yes, getting to this age range has it's drawbacks. In bed I have a wedge for my head and an improvised bolster for under my knees (3 pillows in 1 king case, wrapped in a down blanket). Also all but the bottom sheet on my side of the bed is not shared with my husband, so I can pile it up and arrange it as I like.

As to sitting - I can do a few hours a day, just that by the time I've done all the online "tasks" I've built up over the past decade, with LT in the last 5 years and Discord this year, I've pretty much used up my back and so haven't been able to bring my best to my fic writing.

Standing is pretty much a nope, and walking is tricky.

I hope you have some more comfortable time in the coming weeks!

207) A Princess for Christmas



Two lovely people with parental death and other challenges don't really deal with vast class differences so much as hand wave them cutely.
It was meant to be a Hallmark book + sex, and that's what it is. The sex keeps within the major MF romance tropes but isn't by the numbers as much as some.

BB from MickyFine

Meets October TIOLI Challenge #12: Read a book whose title makes a complete sentence when preceded by "I don't want to be...

This Life or the Next sounds very interesting. I loved Brotherless Nights. It was sad, but I learned a lot and felt for the characters.

>87 vancouverdeb: They are very different reading experiences. Brotherless Nights is explicitly engaged with the exterior life and facts of what happened, This Life or the Next is about shaping a plausible yet acceptable narrative. What they share is expressing a resulting profound disillusion.

208) The Shadow of Time



I read the beta copy of my brother's book. I will not at this time give it a rating. He plans to publish it under his own imprint this year.

Meets October TIOLI Challenge #2: Read a book with an automobile model name in its title

208) We Solve Murders



Lots of events and characters, twisty but... I didn't feel at all surprised except by one element. It felt overly elaborated for the amount of actual content, but not to the point of painfully dragging. And there were a couple of LOL moments.

Meets October TIOLI Challenge #6: Inspired by Anita – Read a book that has an LT rating of 3.5 or more at the time of posting

209) 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World



A retrospective on the life of a Turkish woman, 1943-1990, born in the small city of Van, who runs away from a problematic wedding only to be sold to a brothel in Istanbul. Her five close friends are introduced during her dying thoughts, and how they react immediately after her death forms the final section of the book. It is engaging and well paced, though a bit lite on painful for a story about a life relegated to the despised edges of her society. I didn't get quite as solid a feel for her as the person described by her friends.

Read for October TIOLI Challenge #3: Read a book about a measure of time

>90 quondame: I'm trying to get into We Solve Murders right now, but I may not be in the mood for a mystery, as I keep being drawn to other things.

>92 foggidawn: I feel We Solve Murders jumped around too much at the beginning to exert real pull.

210) The Word for World is Forrest



40 or maybe even 50 years ago, my issue with this book was that it wasn't as an intriguing adventure or a magical quest as the other LeGuin books I'd read. Today my issues are that I spent way too much of the book being repeatedly dragged through the inner justifications of a disagreeable character, with no real balance from the disastrous realities facing the other viewpoint characters. The difference between readings is that I can now articulate why this is a book that I can appreciate but not enjoy.

Read for October TIOLI Challenge #9: Read a book which has a forest or woods as an important setting, or a forest or woods featured on the book cover or in the title

Dave is reading We Solve Murders, and I think he is enjoying it. Eventually I will get it from the library too.

>95 vancouverdeb: Dave's recommendation would absolute override my meh!

211) Good Morning, Monster



A single therapist gives the history and treatment of five survivors of childhood abuse. The type of abuse varies, and the patients are very much individuals, but there is an underlying similarity in both the damage and the treatment. All of the accounts are enlightening and well told, but 3 of this sort and a couple of different types of posttraumatic stress would have suited me better.

Recommended? by ReneeMarie

Meets October TIOLI Challenge #4: Read a book for the Zodiac challenge (Libra - object on the cover from the symbol list)

I am finding the breathing technique discussed in The Body Keeps the Score insufficient to the stress of reading it while tired. Probably also when rested, but I'll test that later.
For now I'm treating the anxiety with a few later chapters of The Hands of the Emperor

212) Moonstorm



A dull entry into the teenagers pilot lancers (mecha) in space battles. That it is vaguely Korean-flavored doesn't make it more interesting. The only bit interesting and new to me was faith-based gravity. That was used effectively, but wasn't enough to make up for the routine nature of the story, including the genius hacker friend used as a machete to get through all practical challenges.

Meets October TIOLI Challenge #2: Read a book with an automobile model name in its title

This should be DNF, but I didn't feel like diving into any other of the dozens of books on my TBR, and I had to have breaks from The Body Keeps the Score.

While I am just about certain I do not have repressed trauma memories or have significant impacts from PTSD, something in the book keeps pushing me to hyperventilate. Recently my brother published a paper describing his 50 years of living through what absolutely is a neglect/PTSD reaction.
Though separated by less than 3 years, his infancy was different from mine because our mother was immobilized for weeks after he was born and restricted for months from lifting or holding heavy "objects" and he was left to the dubious care of his siblings and unprofessional paid babysitters.
He has had a very successful career, and now has a wonderful wife, but it has been rough for him especially since, on the surface, he is privileged - a tall, healthy, athletic, fair haired (well bald now) white man from an educated middle class family which encouraged and paid for his college education.

213) Sidetracked



This book is not a mystery but the story of a murderer and the policeman searching for the murderer. The characters are well done and distinct, so even without reading any of the preceding books in the series, I felt for them and found them believable. The action and steps in the discovery also made sense.
The translation into English flows well and never jars.

Read for October TIOLI Challenge #5: Anita Memorial Reads: 1980s & 1990s

214) The Body Keeps the Score



In this book, the physical differences associated with people showing symptoms of trauma are given and, to some extent, explained. The treatments over 40–50 years that have resulted in a decrease in symptoms and changes in the behaviors within the brain are described, and likely explanations are given for how they work and for whom. The case studies given are brief and focused.

Commentary, not review:
What is most surprising is how many non-drug treatments seem to surpass drugs and have lasting effects where the effects of drugs are gone when the drug is discontinued. It is less surprising that drugs remain the treatment of choice—they are easier to provide and make money for their producers.
I have seen numerous examples of drugs only working for a few years, after which the search for a new medication produces stress of its own. And the underlying causes for which the drugs are needed aren't addressed at all, in spite of the existence of some very cost-effective treatments.

>97 quondame: I think I will give that one a pass. Too close to home for my liking.

>98 quondame: Favorite reads are a great way to treat anxiety, I have found. I hope The Hands of the Emperor (what a wonderful pick!) works for you.

>100 quondame: That looks like a good one. I will have to see if I can locate a copy. Thanks for the review and recommendation, Susan.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

>99 quondame: Such a enticing cover. Shame the content was disappointing!

Happy rest of the week!

Delurking to say hi, Susan!

>100 quondame: Looks good! I’ll have to see if I can find a copy.

>102 alcottacre: At least >97 quondame: and >101 quondame: concentrate on successful treatments and individuals successfully treated.

Victoria Goddard has been working well for months now. I'm surprised that re-reads are never seeming old after so long.

You're welcome and thank you!

>103 figsfromthistle: It was on a list of Locus recommends, but I'm not sure to whom it should be recommended.

>104 Storeetllr: I may go back and catch the earlier books in the series.

215) The Wishing Pool



These stories are more creepy than all-out horror, often using the vulnerabilities of family and relationships for impact. They are mostly quite short, which may be why I didn't find much depth or anything outside the conventions of horror that I know.

Read for October TIOLI Challenge #1: Read a book of short stories by a female author

216) Beowulf: A New Translation



Wow. This is one delightful bit of writing! The language is playful and welcoming. Cleaver and compassionate, the emphasis is on human qualities, good and bad, in all the actors. Grendel and his mother are in some ways less monstrous than Beowulf, whose outrageous strength proves a match and more to theirs, but he is kept from monstrosity because he makes support of his lord and land his limits, his strongest desire being the lasting fame of a good name.

Meets October TIOLI Challenge #4: Read a book for the Zodiac challenge (Libra - read a book with an object on the cover from the symbol list)

My daughter reminded me at 11:57PM last night to place the yearly Lego order - today being the first day that the Books are My Passion gift with purchase set is available. There's been enough buzz on this set that I was aware of it, which is a first.

I've distracted myself re-reading. Until Love Stops Screaming and Portrait of a Wide Seas Islander.
The God of Small Things isn't proving to be my thing. I think I've read more books about or referencing the Christians of the Malabar coast than I knew existed, and this doesn't rank with the others.

>107 quondame: Hi Susan! You really enjoyed it? Five stars. I’m intrigued.

It’s good to have some comfort reads.

>108 quondame: I don't really buy Lego, Susan, but I have my eye on that set too . It is my sister's birthday in early November, and she would like a gift card, so I will get her that. The Lego she wants costs $120.00 , so I have to spend $50.00 to get that set. I think that is what I am going to do. I just happened upon the Lego set on Instagram or something.

>110 EllaTim: It really is Beowulf, but as told to a modern sports team in their vernacular.

>111 vancouverdeb: Becky's already got it assembled. I didn't get off with that small and investment. My daughter turned her nose up at the Nightmare Before Christmas set as being not one bigger build so I went for the Pac-Man game as being really different from previous years.

Oh , lucky you, Susan! I'm might try making my Lego myself, but if I do get it, I have my sister and a niece who can assemble it for me. My sister wants the Lego Santa's Post Office, so I am fortunate there. Right now our Lego store is closed for renovations, so we'll wait until November 2nd when it opens again. Or so my sister told me.

>108 quondame: I love that LEGO. I had no idea they had anything like that. Checked it out on-line but I have no one to buy the necessary basic order for so I guess I'll just drool at the book ones.

>113 vancouverdeb: Well, it was for Becky - she's the Lego-er of the house hold. I even had to buy her her own electronic assembly mat after she borrowed the one I use for sprang.

>114 RebaRelishesReading: Isn't it cute?

217) Eloise in Moscow



Eloise creates less havoc in Moscow than one might expect. And the reader is given a find the spy quest on each page. I does have a very narrow emotional or message type range though.

Meets October TIOLI Challenge #14: Read the Last Major Published Work by an Author in their lifetime

218) The God of Small Things



Take two timelines a couple of decades apart. The earlier line is a few times longer than the later one. Cut each one into beads and string them on threads, every third or fourth bead equipped with a compass pointing to the big, dark whirlpool of a bead near the end of the early string. Cut each string in several pieces. Tangle them up. Try reading that.
I did not enjoy the experience of this book. The story, about a dysfunctional family of no great character and with one dishonestly malevolent member, heads precipitously toward more than one of the tragedies littering the Indian landscape. The language is compelling, as is the imagery. The only aspect I found worthwhile was the portrayal of children making their own sense out of the adults' insane behaviors. Oh, and the second timeline is dreck.

Meets October TIOLI Challenge #13: Read a book that is Booker related

>108 quondame: That looks like a great Lego set! Not that I am prejudiced in favor of books or anything. . .

Good news for me, Susan! I called my sister today to see if she wanted to go to the Lego store later today so I could procure The Books are My Passion Set. She already went to the Lego story early this morning, purchased enough Lego to get The Books are My Passion Set . Yes! I may go over later today and pick it up. All I owe is a money for her birthday toward her Lego as gift. What a good day!

>118 vancouverdeb: Sounds like a good deal for both of you!! Congrats.

Oh, I've been neglecting my thread.

>117 alcottacre: >118 vancouverdeb: >119 RebaRelishesReading: Yay Legos!

219) The St. Nicholas Day Wager



Lighter than Bridgerton, and no more historically conforming, this is a silly romance that isn't exactly what's on the cover but sort of is. Not painful, but lots of better things to do with your time.
Read for November TIOLI Challenge #16: Read a book (F/NF) about a December holiday that you haven’t celebrated in the past

220) The Other Wind



In some ways the slightest of the Earthsea books, in others a profound re-imagining of LeGuin's world that addresses issues that unsettled me from the beginning and invalidates nothing of the original trilogy.
The language is simple without being spare, evocative without being elaborate.
Every character is both themselves and a necessary piece of a moving puzzle.

Read for November TIOLI Challenge #2: Anita Memorial Reads: 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s

221) A Perfect Fit



Lovely, and very very very lightweight. The illustrations are delightful.

Read for November TIOLI Challenge #10: Read a book about the Jewish American Experience

222) The Gilda Stories



This is an episodic novel about the eponymous character, second of that name, from her conversion to a vampire in 1850 to a post-apocalyptic 2050. In 1991, this wasn't the first black lesbian vampire in literature, but maybe the second. The 2050 section is very weak in comparison with the 19th and 20th century portions. That the vampires centered in this story don't kill and do "give back" and are representatives of the found family theme make it even more unusual than the race & gender centered.

Meets November TIOLI Challenge #12: Read a book with "silver" or "gold" or a name that means silver or gold in the title

It's been a long time since I worried about money.
Maybe I never did.
As a young person, faltering on my start in life,
my parents stood behind me while I found my financial feet.
I was lucky in the time I started the type of work I found, and at the advantage I was able to take opportunities that were rarer than I thought.
So I'm retired in a lovely house with what I thought were enough investments to last the decades of my retirement, even though I don't have a substantial pension.
But if/when the economy tanks, if/when healthcare is no longer supported by the US government, those investments won't last long.
As in most of the economic crashes of the last 50 years, the rich will buy up the property we can no longer afford to keep, and at a discount that won't leave us much to live on afterward.
Yes, I am agonized for what all immigrants, LGBTQ+ people, and non-Kristians will face in addition to the collapse of our economy, but just now I'm worried sick for myself.

>121 quondame: Adding the LeGuin book to the BlackHole, Susan. Thank you for the recommendation!

>122 quondame: I am agonized over what all Americans - except possibly the rich ones - will face. For those of us who are retired, I am wondering what the future holds, if it holds anything at all for us.

>123 alcottacre: I think it's only those who have substantial international wealth that will prosper. The numbers attached to their wealth may deflate, but their relative position on the scale will rise a bit.
It's not really about wealth so much as control, and capital is the new divine right of kings. Some ordinary people may prosper a while as court jesters, patronized artists, and suppliers of luxury goods, and realistically the tech base maintenance is necessary to that sort of regime, but restricting access to education will keep most subservient.

>124 quondame: restricting access to education will keep most subservient Boy, isn't that the truth!

>125 alcottacre: Sadly, it is. So many people I've met in their 30s and 40s are paying off student loans, moving from job to job because there aren't many permanent positions in the fields they're educated for and they are overqualified for the available jobs. Such a huge resource of creativity and will being, if not wasted, expended to deal with daily shit and temporarily satisfying entertainments.

>122 quondame: Scary times, for sure. I'm definitely feeling the dread of the future if things play out as threatened.

>127 foggidawn: Just the thought of losing health care and social security is terrifying.
Maybe it will terrify enough people so that it doesn't fully happen.
But the coming term will surely be hideous for so many vulnerable people and there isn't a lot of reason to think a change will be possible after that.

Already today I've learned two new terms:
dorsal freeze and sensory inclusive. The later might help with some instances of the former.
I have to get my dorsal ass unfrozen so I can enjoy a sensory inclusive light display at the zoo.

223) Ant Story



An amusing, if slightly annoying, set of mini adventures in the realm of the ants, specifically leaf cutter ants. Cartoon ant Rubi tells stories no ant can hear—then one day an ant answers and listens. But the answering ant, Miranda, isn't certain it is an ant, and as they try to return to the hive, Miranda is proven right in a way Rubi finds disturbing. But Rubi can converse with Miranda, and that means more than disgust at species imperatives, doesn't it?
Oh, this is really a vehicle for lots of ant facts wrapped in anecdotes.

Read for November TIOLI Challenge #1: Read a book with a two-word title, with at least one of its title words beginning with the same letter as one of the two beginning letters of the previously listed book title

224) A Half-built Garden



We have here the story of first contact, in which the alien leaders are mothers carrying small children who will only negotiate with matching representatives. Wryly called diaper-punk. Earth in 2083 still has nations, but they are not as relevant to the lives within their borders as are the watershed co-operatives, who manage the community and environment with an algorithmic real-time networked system. Which, inconveniently for them but not for the corporate relics, starts malfunctioning shortly after the aliens land in the Chesapeake watershed. (I know why it wasn't the Yellow River, but it really should have been). Also, the aliens are sure that humans will welcome being taken off planet to live in the Rings and believe it is so necessary that it should be done even without consent. So there are problems to solve, at length and in detail.
The writing is fairly dense; the story doesn't drag, but it's a sluggish flow without clearly marked tropes to hold on to, so the text has to be read closely. Which means that 350 pages make it seem longer than some 600-page books.
Oh, TW: hentai is mentioned where it is relevant in the text.

BB from 2wonderY

Meets November TIOLI Challenge #4: Inspired by Anita. Read a book by a female author that has a female

>131 quondame: I'll add it to the list.

Well, Susan, I didn't get off that lightly with my Lego Books are my Passion Set. My sister liked it so much she wanted to keep it. So, I went on Ebay and purchased the set for $80.00 Cdn. I just couldn't think of any Lego I actually wanted, so this seemed the easiest and cheapest route. I hope you enjoy the light display at the zoo.

>126 quondame: I went back to school at 50 and will be paying off student loans until the day I die. I am so sorry for the younger people - which includes my own daughter, Catey - who are having to deal with the mess.

Have a wonderful weekend, Susan!

>133 vancouverdeb: You made a choice I find very difficult - I'm more likely to order another large set (for next year?) than go with the less expensive option for item X. I have made that sort of choice, but not usually.

>134 alcottacre: My daughter is suitably grateful that my one time hunk of capital when she was 4 grew into enough for 3.5 years of college, and it wasn't a strain to supply the funds to finish off the 4th year. But getting a degree in 4 years isn't possible for many.
I really hate that our culture doesn't value, but often requires, formal education.

225) Harriet the Invincible



Harriet provides a romp in this fairy tale inversion. The hamster princes, told of the impending, inevitable curse which will face her in a couple of years, takes advantage of the invulnerability it grants her to go adventuring. When the time comes inevitability has more slack and pitfalls than she expects.

Read for November TIOLI Challenge #3: Read a book by an author you've read before but in a series you've never read

226) The Fiction Editor



This book is delightful. McCormack exhibits a combination of wit and intelligence, demonstrating a profound understanding of readers, writers, and editors, essentially people. The stated purpose is to propose that editing is an art in which craft is not only important, it is essential. And that that craft is not only largely lacking but also seen as unnecessary by many, maybe most, of those whose job it is to edit.
The first part of the book is a lecture in three sections; the second portion is labeled Notes. The lecture is the chassis; the Notes are the engine. Or vice versa, but both are vital.

I will be buying a Kindle version; there are perfect or perfectly amusing lines to be highlighted and several useful additions to my vocabulary. At least my reading vocabulary. Vitiate is one of them. It happens to be used in the next book I'm planning to read.

Meets November TIOLI Challenge #15: Read a book that makes you "well-read"

I am enjoying Caprice and Rondo. Dunnett has such complete control over her narrative and presents convincing historical detail and texture so integrated into the story, so interactive with the characters, that far from having a feeling of info dump, I feel intrigued by the depths, tantalized by the specifics.
This is the seventh of eight books in the House of Niccolo, and a re*-read done without going through the first six.

227) Caprice and Rondo


This book is such a pleasure to read!
It is well written, clever, and keeps moving through the trials of the divided House of Niccolo, from Bruges to Tabriz. Nicholas has reinvented himself at the beginning and continues to do so under stress until nearly the last page, goaded by those who both understand him and have found him useful. All of the deep historical detail is folded in as part of the plot and never seems like any sort of info dump.

I'm not sure how many times I've read the series, at least 5, and I found no difficulty jumping into vol 7. I was familiar with everyone, their history and character, and knew exactly where in the story arc i was. But don't try starting here, even a re-read, unless you are confident it will be the same for you.

Read for November TIOLI Challenge #8: Read a book where the title contains a musical term

I am wiped out! I was at Kaiser from 8:15 AM until noon, their checkin system was down, and I got sent for blood draw and an X-ray. Also to get a prescription which, because it would be $740/mo, in spite of the Dr. putting me on a different set of drugs to show they didn't work (they really didn't work).
But I think the kicker is the flu shot and the RVS. It's probably good I didn't get the COVID vac. as well.

>140 quondame: Wow, that's a lot to deal with all at once. Hope you don't have any unpleasantness from the vaccines or, at least, that it's very short term. I got Coved and Flu at the same time this year and had a very sore arm for a day from one of them but otherwise no problem. I had RSV last year and no reaction at all to that one. Hope it's all easy for you too.

>141 RebaRelishesReading: I am feeling better today. The problem that worried me the most may just be an infection - I'll see if the antibiotic sent out today will fix it. Still have 18 niggling problems, but well, they're niggling...

228) The Weaver of the Middle Desert



Arzu is the oldest of the three Avramapul sisters, the one who does not go off adventuring but uses the threads of the world to weave her works. She and Pali travel to pay a visit to Sardeet, settled in a city by the ocean with her second husband. The reader gets a considered view of Pali and Sardeet and some story of Arzu, though Arzu has already become entirely herself, leaving little for development or conflict of her own.

Meets November TIOLI Challenge #13: Read a book with a geographical term in the title or author's name

228) Blood Trail .25



Someone is killing members of a werewolf family. Henry calls in Vicki to look into the problem, but the killings take place at night, and she has no night vision. The story is quick-moving, and Vicki's ex-partner pulls himself into the action in a rural area outside the small city of London, which provides a few interesting characters to the mix. A decent read, not at all a must-read.

Meets November TIOLI Challenge #5: Read a book with something fragile, liquid, or perishable in the title

Wow! A prescription that costs $740 a month! There are few drugs that Dave's company doesn't cover and I think now there is pharma care for seniors and perhaps children, but again, a few drugs are not covered. I have just gotten the covid vaccine this year, so far. My mom is 82,and she got RSV from my granddaughter several years ago. Melissa ended up hospitalized for three days, needing oxygen, while my mom told me she felt very unwell. I think RSV impacts the elderly and very young the most. Melissa had just turned two at the time.

>144 vancouverdeb: Oh, Melissa's RVS must have been terrifying! I'm so glad they both recovered.

>142 quondame: Glad you're feeling better -- hope that trend continues. ((Susan))

>146 RebaRelishesReading: Thanks!

I've got diverted to re-reading the Ancillary trilogy of the Imperial Radch series because I will be re-reading Translation State for Discord/HOTE Book Club in December and when I read it in June I felt I didn't have as much background as I wanted.

229) Ancillary Justice



Both mind bending and wonderfully readable. This is a serious space opera in a far far future with alien aliens and more alien humans.

Meets November TIOLI Challenge #1: Read a book with a two-word title, with at least one of its title words beginning with the same letter as one of the two beginning letters of the previously listed book title

230) A Tangled Web



A suitably twisted version of Hades and Persephone and not Orpheus and Eurydice. Hades and Persephone have fallen in love and plan her abduction to get her away from her over-protective mother. Leo & Bru are in the way of the pretend abduction and Bru is taken. It's all very mechanical and unmagical.

Meets November TIOLI Challenge #4: Inspired by Anita. Read a book by a female author that has a female main character

232) Tadek and the Princess



Tadek has an extremely sentimental attachment to the deceased Princess, Kadou's mother. It is not without cause. She saw his potential when he was near starving and made it possible for him to get training to join the guard. Then she died and he was left rudderless.

233) Ancillary Sword



Ancillary Sword is just as interesting a read as Ancillary Justice, but it seems to consist of a series of diversions, entertaining and satisfying, but which don't seem to fold neatly into the same plot.

Meets November TIOLI Challenge #1: Read a book with a two-word title, with at least one of its title words beginning with the same letter as one of the two beginning letters of the previously listed book title

Well, there, I'm caught up on a few day's reading. My mind is beginning, with a few nights of almost enough sleep, to come out of brain freeze. Or is it dorsal freeze, and my nervous system and not my brain and does it matter. I'm still feeling sub-sub-par and par wasn't all that. So, no fic writing, not much focus, just more than since a few days before the election.

>229 I have the Leckie books on my TBR; glad to hear you are enjoying them.

>150 foggidawn: They aren't quite as leading edge as they were 10+ years back, but remain enough different and good enough in themselves to be among my highly recommended SF.

And, after immersing myself in the largely asexual 9-worlds (Lays of the Hearth-fire in practice if not in theory) it's a bit of a relief to have characters, even if not the main character, who do make sexual connections without making them the point of everything. As much as is horrifying about the Radch, it seems to not be seeped in sexual hang-ups. Sometimes relationships are problematical, and there hasn't been anything graphic at all, just the assumption that adult humans do have sexual relationships.

234) Ancillary Mercy



Re-read:
The events in this book are pretty much one after the other when they aren't one on top of the other. The conclusion is a balance of HFN for our protagonists and what could be even somewhat plausible. It isn't plausible, that is, but it is somewhat satisfying.
Original:
The all-female pronoun/roll writing still feels like a crowbar in my brain, and I want to know who is male and who is female, even though the viewpoint character is not even human and has inhabited bodies of any available gender. I can’t even remember which of the on-world characters who do use gendered pronouns are which. A pretty good read, but not like the first.

Meets November TIOLI Challenge #1: Read a book with a two-word title, with at least one of its title words beginning with the same letter as one of the two beginning letters of the previously listed book title

Well, that's 2 recent purchases:
1) steps to make it easy for the dogs to get on our rather lofty bed. Those got used at 3:51AM when Nutmeg decided to join Mike and Me rather than returning to Becky. I think we'll make sure her door is open and ours closed in future. Nutmeg takes her time settling in and then can be an aggressive cuddle-er.

2) a rollator of sufficient width for me to use the seat comfortably. I've been dreading even going for short walks because my hips often freeze painfully, and although it has never lasted long, I do need to sit a bit to loosen up again. If I can walk a bit more, I hope I will feel comfortable without it before too long, but it's bound to be needed for more eventually.

235) The Fairy Godmother



The initial work in the 500 Kingdoms series is amusing and a bit overstuffed, but it doesn't drag much. It does repeat itself often and doesn't hold up all that well to a decades-later reread, but it delivers pretty much as promised.

Meets November TIOLI Challenge #4: Inspired by Anita. Read a book by a female author that has a female main character

236) Killers of the Flower Moon



This is a horrific account of the deaths, investigations, trials, and oversights of murders of the oil-rich Osage headright holders in the early 1920s. And of how J. Edgar Hoover used a curtailed investigation to establish himself securely in the federal hierarchy.
The murderous conspiracy, or multiple conspiracies, were carried out by men masquerading as friends and helpers of the Osage—just the sort of men who have again come to power in the USA. Let us all carefully and as securely as possible record what they will not want to survive their ascendancy, whether it is 2 years, 4 years, or the rest of our lifetimes.

Read for November TIOLI Challenge #14: Read a book about a government agency, specify the agency

Susan, WOW! What an incredible review of Killers of the Flower Moon. I read the book shortly after it was published. Your review temps me to re-read it.

>156 Whisper1: Thank you, Linda.

237) Bad Cree .75



Bad Cree deals with the grief of the individuals within a family and how coping mechanisms for some have negative impacts on others. It is also a ghost story, but one that is only sporadically effective. The main character's internalization of "bad" seems to be a problem in itself and is not particularly well handled.

BB from scaifea

Meets November TIOLI Challenge #7: Read a book for the Zodiac challenge (Scorpio - read a book with a word or phrase on page 1 or page 8 from the list: see thread for info)

Happy Tuesday, Susan. The Fairy Godmother? LOL. I thought Flower Moon was excellent and so was the film. Very dark stuff. Glad you also had a good time with The Backyard Bird Chronicles.

>159 msf59: I needed breaks from Killers of the Flower Moon. When Mercedes Lackey isn't painfully, mechanically, dull, her playfulness works for me.

238) The Serpent King .25



By and large, this is a competently told, feeling account of the senior year of three close friends who are otherwise misfits. The outspoken Lydia, a fashion blogger with loving, supportive parents; Travis, whose abusive father has fallen further into alcoholism following the death of Travis's older brother; and the central Dill, son of a preacher father imprisoned for having child pornography and a mother who sees only the narrowest possible godly path for her son in accepting the hardships under which they live and appreciating Jesus' sacrifice. That Dill's father tried to shift the blame for the pornography onto Dill and his mother and several of the ex-congregation believed him is just one added burden he feels he will bear his whole life in a town of less than 5000 people.
What didn't quite work for me was the assumption that such disparate and, in two cases, troubled teens would bond so easily and completely, mostly because they are community outliers. It would be great if that were the case, but even intelligence and good will seldom dent adolescent self-absorption. Second was killing off Travis in an arbitrary incident to force a path for Dill to change. I find that is, in some ways, an easy route to force choices and resolutions on other characters.

BB from scaifea

Meets November TIOLI Challenge #6: Read a book with a connection to chivalry

>148 quondame: That one by Amy Tan looks to be quite interesting.

Happy rest of the week :)

>137 quondame: That one looks very good. I will have to see if I can locate a copy.

>138 quondame: I really need to read Dorothy Dunnett at some point. I have owned several of her books for years and yet not read them.

>148 quondame: Ancillary Justice and the Amy Tan book are already in the BlackHole or I would be adding them again.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Thank you, Susan, for your energy, honesty and insight. I am not a huge fan of SF as you know but I always appreciate your views on your reading, oftentimes nodding along as if I understand everything about it!

Have a lovely Thanksgiving weekend and thanks so much for your friendship in this special group.

>163 alcottacre: Your black hole is a treasure trove.

>164 PaulCranswick: Thank you, Paul. I hope the coming month is great for you!

Hi Susan.

>135 quondame: In hindsight, Jenna should have taken a gap year then gone to the local 2-year community college and then gone to a 4-year school if that’s what she wanted. As it is, she ended up with an AA degree in business, which she probably will never use, and is currently taking a Pharmacy Technician course and will take the national certification test early next year. Her wife is a 6th year PhD candidate who will get her degree in early 2026. We hope she will get a university-level teaching position. Jenna can be a pharm tech pretty much anywhere in the US.

>149 quondame: and previous. I’m sorry about the 18 niggling things. Sorry about still being sub-sub-par.

>153 quondame: Dog steps and a rollator are good purchases. We don’t have dogs, but my niece and her wife do, and I was happily bemused when I first saw steps being used in the 2010s. I should probably have had a rollator after my knee replacements, but just had a walker. Bill probably needs a rollator.

I hope your Thanksgiving was good.

>166 karenmarie: I took a rare outside the house visit to the local SF convention this weekend and noticed all sorts of accommodations or lack thereof among my age group. Many motorized scooters, all but one used by women, walkers, all used by women, canes used about 50-50. And several men and a couple of women who would clearly benefit from one of the above, but who just kept hobbling slowly along.
My hips lock up with muscle cramps within a football field length from my starting point if I am unsupported. I do hope the rollator will allow me to get my hips beyond that behavior, but even if it doesn't, I'll still be able to get further with much less pain.

We did our usual homemade pumpkin pie and restaurant Polish dinner, both much enjoyed.
Thank you.
Your Thanksgiving sounded lovely.

239) The Fraud



I have a limited quota for the lives of the middle class of the 19th century, and this exceeded what I consider reasonable limits. The humor was very abstract, and none of the characters, based on real individuals, was particularly interesting. Dickens, the man and his works, are not subjects of admiration, but he is described as a great, if sometimes disconcerting, observer.

Meets November TIOLI Challenge #9 Get back into (or restart) a book you started before the end of August this year

240) It Didn't Start with You



Epigenetic and assumed trauma are considered as the sources of current dysfunction and emotional disconnection. The author gives examples of defining and addressing such issues. The diagnoses and treatments might well work no matter what the source of the current concern, but that doesn't enter this picture. If disease can benefit from placebo, emotional issues must as well—or if we are just considering the treatment as based on potentially misdiagnosis, if it is shown to benefit the same problems from more personal experience, it working for 'adopted' or 'generational' sources is not surprising.
I feel this book provides good information, but it is a bit blinkered and has some unfortunate language & ideation—life force is not how I would describe positive emotional connections.

Meets November TIOLI Challenge #17 Read a book with a negative in the title

241) World War I



This is a survey of a survey and light at that. The selection of who is actually named is maybe the most interesting aspect. The Russian Tzar & Tzarina, Rasputin, Kaiser Wilhelm, the Archduke Ferdinand and Sophia, Ghandi, Woodrow Wilson, and a handful of others, but no contemporary British or French politicians or military.

Read for November TIOLI Challenge #11 Read a book about the "Great War"

Susan, at first I was tempted to add World War 1 to my TBR pile, but 2.5 stars indicates you were not all that thrilled with this book. Next year I hope to read more about WW1. I've primarily read a lot about WWII. I finished another book regarding Eleanor Roosevelt (my hero.) She was incredibly instrumental in advocating peace and way ahead of her time regarding Civil Rights and the ugly way in which blacks were treated.

>168 quondame: I ran out of time on TIOLI, so I picked something even shorter than I would have on the last day. 20th century history, and especially war history, is not a subject, or subjects, I enjoy. Nor am I much interested.

>165 quondame: I love that: "treasure trove." It sure is!

>168 quondame: Sounds like I can pass on those. . .I am getting pickier as I get older, lol.

Have a terrific Tuesday, Susan!

>171 alcottacre: Getting pickier is one of the privileges of getting older!

242) Od Magic



This book feels like a disjoint collection of lovely, exotically familiar fabrics, each with contradictory textures, formed into an obscure tapestry. It has not previously stuck in my memory, nor do I expect it to after this reading. There is not enough warp to hold the weft in my mind.

Read for December TIOLI Challenge #1: Read a book with a two-word title in which the first word starts with the letter "O"

243) Those Who Hold the Fire



241204 - Going back to this after I've utterly seeped myself in all things Kip, I really appreciated the level of detail and attitude on display!

Kip has learned the lays and dances and the forms of patience he must hold to be taná though his failure to dive for a flame pearl has shaken him and at 13 the strength of his desire pushes him toward perfection. Now he seeks to win the obsidian pendant to center his efela ko. We get snips of Kip's life outside his house in Tahivoa, the barber shop and the house of Saya Dorn and what seems like rather of lot of young impatient earnestness from Kip for such a short story.

Meets for December TIOLI Challenge #8: Rolling challenge: alternate between books that have a wintry/cold word and a summery/warm word in the title

Hi Susan!

>168 quondame: It Didn’t Start With You – tempting and onto the wish list, but I didn’t actually buy it.

I only got the one wish list book, but as always, I love your pithy and intelligent reviews.

>174 karenmarie: I appreciated the diagnosis possibilities and the treatments, but would have preferred that the author considered that they were dealing with ranges rather than points.

Whatever digestive distress leveled Mike from Sunday night through Wednesday stepped on my last night.
I'll be puddled in bed. Back sometime soon.

244) Alliance Unbound



Alliance Unbound takes 600+ pages to tell less than 120 pages worth of story, and it isn't by far the most interesting story. Lots of re-repetitive speculation, angst, and conversations where all involved already have all the information. The pair of lovers demonstrate no heat or urgency; hell, they are rarely in the same space. And the only actual action is the result of a needless risk taken so there would be some action.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #14: Read a book you put on, and took off, the TIOLI challenge in 2024

Well, I didn't get back near as soon as I would have liked. I still don't feel back. The fever's gone after 3 days, and I've slept a lot, but with Mike down for 5 days and now me, the mess is bigger and the time shorter, so not a great start for this year's holidays.
My sympathies for all who are or will soon be, dealing with their own seasonal messes.

I'm sorry Mike and you have been so sick, and you're right - not a good way to start the holidays. I hope things start looking up.

>179 karenmarie: Thanks. I'm over the digestive-distress fever thing, and Mike had a couple of good days but now has a sore throat.
Becky hasn't shown any similar symptoms, though we've piled up the ameliorative supplies (towels, trash bags, electrolyte fizzies) so she won't have to fend for herself.

Monster bug hit Becky last night. She was forearmed with electrolyte fizzies, lined bucket, and many, many towels. She seemed to show signs of coherence this morning, so some of the above may have helped.

245) Fish Tails



Fish Tails stays too long. The anti-patriarchal rants are frequent, as if the reader has the attention span of a gnat, and the contents of conversations within the chapter are repeated more than once. At least there are quite a number of events to wrap all this around. The overindulgence in bizarre silliness has also grown old—not everything needs a so cute-it-makes-me-rech name, frequently spoken.
As much as I enjoyed a final visit with old friends, I thought the timelines could have been much more creatively jiggered to achieve the delightful results. What would throwing in a couple of thousand years between stories have hurt? So sad that there will be no more Sheri Tepper books. No one has her particular angle on getting our problems eliminated.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #7: Read a book that links to the PDG's Centenary

My 2024 most highly rated first reads were:

Beowulf: A New Translation
The Body Keeps the Score
Brotherless Night
The Fiction Editor
Glorious Exploits

Except for Glorious Exploits, it was a surprise to me.

The current belief is that all of us came down with a noro virus. Very, very contagious. But not over the internet.

246) The Wings Upon Her Back



Why? The story takes place in an embattled city-state where no one, most especially the protagonist in the end stages of an abusive relationship, is having any fun. She is obsessed with flight, but we never see her soar. The world-building is of some interest, and the characters workably realistic, but I didn't find them the least bit compelling. Zenya seemed to entirely lack any of the calculation and alertness I'd expect of a person for decades near the center of power, even one manipulated from 15.
It's not a bad book, but there are many better reads out this year, and I was disappointed not to find anything attractive in the world or story.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #6: Read a book whose title completes the sentence "All I want for Christmas is..."

247) Translation State



Enae, left with the equivalence of a generous remittance, is pressured on a hopeless search for a Presger translator missing 200 years so as to be out of the way of the person who has purchased the old and illustrious family name. Enae takes a different approach than past searchers and finds someone quite unexpected. This is space adventure in a richly imagined milieu with believable personal and political stakes. Also deep weirdness. It is very absorbing and hard to put down.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #5: Read a book in honor of my recently deceased father, Edward (Ed)

I'm not the target audience for Private Peaceful. Don't like secret guilt, especially undeserved - wtf was a small boy doing near tree felling!?! Poisonous family members are another yetch. And Tommo is a bit of a wet blanket. The entire family seems a basket of victims. I also avoid WWI (and all 20th & 21st century war set books).
I'm at 48% so it won't go on forever at least.

248) Private Peaceful



I'd say there's no meat on the bones of this book, except there's no real bones to it either, just a roll of skin covered in serious sauce. It's too thin a fare to recommend to any young person who is actually curious about soldiers' experiences of early 20th-century life and WWI. In a final note, there's a vague wave at shell shock, but that isn't even passed by in the actual story.
The writing is pretty enough, but the contents are all predigested scenes from decades of interpretation and limited imagination.

Read for September TIOLI Challenge #2: Anita Memorial Reads: Wild Card

249) Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil .75



Enae, left with the equivalence of a generous remittance, is pressured on a hopeless search for a Presger translator missing 200 years so as to be out of the way of the person who has purchased the old and illustrious family name. Enae takes a different approach than past searchers and finds someone quite unexpected. This is space adventure in a richly imagined milieu with believable personal and political stakes. Also deep weirdness. It is very absorbing and hard to put down.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #15: Read a book whose title implies something that gives comfort or joy

I've now been sick for 2 weeks. Becky and I are blaming Mike who went to a work party on the 8th and then came down with a nasty cold which jumped on our weakness from the gastric bug and has us coughing, hacking, and sniffling.
Of course, Mike is also suffering from all this, but we feel that he chose to go out and risk it, so tough.

>188 quondame: Hope you get to feeling better. I've had a lot of sinus stuff that came close to being a cold but wasn't. I did end up getting a little hoarse because so much was draining. That, of course, is what you want it to do, but I had to get a little help to keep it from draining the wrong way! I'm glad everything I needed was relatively cheap.

>189 thornton37814: I'm sorry to hear you haven't been well. It's hard this time of year.
I am feeling a bit better. I got enough sleep last night that I'm not in a total fog, and that's because my cough was no longer so violent. My ribs are a bit sore, but not so bad as they were after a night of nausea.

250) The Mountain In the Sea .25



Yes! Octopuses! The truly alien intelligence we really should get to know better. Is their first communication really "fuck off?"
A researcher and an android study the sea monsters on an island in an archipelago purchased by an AI conglomerate that evacuated all prior inhabitants who were not respecting its protected status as a sea life refuge.
One young man is kidnapped to become a slave on an automated fishing factory ship, and another young man is given the job of hacking an AI beyond anything he's seen before.
The characters are interesting if not compelling and the action moves right along. The stakes are realistic, though the body count gets very high.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #4: Read a book for the Zodiac Challenge (Sagittarius: Rolling Half and Half (A-M first name/N-Z last name)

Susan, I hope you feel better soon. I'm glad that after so many dud's, you read a four star book. I'm adding the Mountain In the Sea to my TBR pile.

>192 Whisper1: Thanks, Linda. I am feeling better, though not quite as quickly as I liked. I'm finally getting longer chunks of sleep, which is a big plus.

251) He Who Drowned the World



Ouyang and Wang Baoxiang are no fun to spend time with. Zhu Yuanzhang is a lot less fun than in She Who Became the Sun. And except for Ma, the women are nasty pieces of work indeed. Well, most of the men, with the exception of Xu Da, are. It's a lot of fuss, and there doesn't really seem to be a world that can be made better, considering the inhabitants we've spent time with.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #10: Read a 'leftover' book that you've been planning/intending to read since Jan 1, 2024

252) The Gift of Magic



Two tales where Archer's Beach and its unusual inhabitants do a bit of extra good for individuals that don't have any real reason to expect it.

Read for September TIOLI Challenge #9: Read a book with a title that conveys generosity, however you define it

Nadolig Llawen, Happy Christmas and Happy Holidays!

>196 SandDune: >197 johnsimpson: Thank you, Rhian and John!

253) Buried Deep and Other Stories



Good entertainment and some original delights.

And who wouldn't love Capt. Elizabeth Bennet of the Aerial Corps? In this Temeraire AU, Novik gives us a sly but heartfelt take on playing with beloved classics. And Marcus Antonius and Vici are such irreverent fun.

Buried Deep is about the Ariadne reaction to the entombment of the Minotaur and a demonstration in the perils of burying something hoping to put it out of the mind—especially when gods are involved.

The Long Way Round introduces us to an inconsistently practical sister and her younger brother, who, becoming the one a champion sailor and the other a boat architect, find a need to go where no one, they think, has gone before but require rather entangling alliances to reach for their goals. However this new world develops, it will be worth visiting.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #13: Read a book about something magic

>181 quondame: Oh no! Hope a speedy recovery ahead for Becky.

May you have a wonderful Christmas holiday.

Thinking of you at this time, Susan.

>201 Whisper1: >202 PaulCranswick: Thank you and best wishes of the season, Linda and Paul!

254) Pan's Labyrinth .25



I'd rate the illustrations more highly (); they are quite interesting. This is an emotional visual tale that is not well served by translation into narrative. The oppressive villainy of Vidal particularly does not do well in description.

Read for September TIOLI Challenge #12: Read a book with some tie to Spain

We had an exhausting but very congenial Christmas. My brother and sister-in-law had a good time, everybody liked their presents and the dinner and Nutmeg especially enjoyed Becky's new slippers.

Nutmeg is a lovely dog. I like the ears and bright, expressive eyes. I hope you can rest from an exhausting Christmas.

Hi Susan!

>205 quondame: Exhausting, congenial, good time. I’m glad to hear it, and I love the pic of Nutmeg and the slippers.

>194 quondame: Too bad about that one. I ended up giving it unread to my daughter Beth (along with the first one in the duology).

I hope you have a wonderful holiday season and a happy New Year, Susan! I am looking forward to seeing your reading in 2025.

>206 Whisper1: >207 karenmarie: >208 alcottacre: Thank you Linda, Karen, and Stasia!

>208 alcottacre: They were quite readable, and, alas quite forgettable.

255) Balancing Stone .



Hope Stornaway is staying for the winter holidays with the Darts, all pretty much unknown to her before this holiday—or, in the case of Mr. Dart and his niece, recently met at a murder scene, in company with Jemis and Hal, classmates of hers from Marrowlea. Jemis drops by when the Darts are out with a family ceremony, and they go for a walk. As always when Jemis is involved, it gets interesting.

This just showed up this morning and bumped what I was reading aside, and it also

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #3: Inspired by Anita: 3 letters from the word “December” are in the title