richardderus's eighteenth 2021 thread

My Yuletide thread for 2021! Welcome, all who come here. I'm wishing for us all to have a brighter, happier 2022.

I'll quote HolidaysCalendar.com for this potted history of Yuletide:

Yule is a pagan holiday that goes back thousands of years and was celebrated by the Germanic peoples of Germany and Scandinavia. No one really knows how old this holiday is because it was {not} written about until about the 4th century. The word Yule is the modern version of the Old English words of ġēol or ġēohol. The time before the Yule Festival was known as ǣrra ġēola and the time after was called æftera ġēola. It’s believed that Yuletide was celebrated for a period of about 12-days.

The main component of any Yule celebration was the Yule log {the bûche de noël above, f/ex, for us centrally heated moderns}. This tree would be cut down on the Winter solstice and fed into the fireplace-and this was done without chopping it into pieces! No, the top of the tree would be fed into the fireplace and over the course of the next 2 months, more and more would be pushed in as the winter progressed. This would become the basis of the Yule log or Christmas block as it is known today. Another tradition of Yule was bringing in various plants to “guard” their life essence. This was a form of sympathetic magic in which practitioners believed they could harness this life force for themselves. Some of the plants that were brought into the home included evergreen boughs, holly, ivy, birch boughs, and mistletoe. Sonargöltr was another aspect of ancient Yule customs. It featured a wild boar that was sacrificed and eaten. It is the basis of many of the Christmas feasts practiced today, except instead of a wild boar, a ham is served today.

In Norse tradition, the god Odin would wander the earth during Yuletide and visit people’s homes. He was described in some of these myths as being an old man with a long white beard. This would be the same depiction that Father Christmas would acquire during the 15th century. Father Christmas would then become known by a variety of other names including Saint Nicholas, St. Nick, Santa Claus, and Kris Kringle.

For Viking children, sugar and hay would be left out for Odin’s 8-legged horse Sleipnir, and for Christian children, cookies would be left out for Santa Claus.

Mistletoe was used by Germanic peoples during Yuletide, just like it is used by Christians for Christmas. For the Germanic peoples of northern Europe, mistletoe was believed to have possessed supernatural qualities and could be used to heal people. The Celtic people also believed that mistletoe had mystical qualities. They believed that it could ward off evil spirits. Nowadays, mistletoe is something that people kiss under.

One of the main things that Christmas borrowed from Yuletide is the placement and decoration of evergreen trees. Ancient Vikings used to decorate evergreen trees with carvings, food, and ornaments just like we decorate our Christmas trees. Another use for trees in Yuletide celebrations was the Yule Log. The Yule Log was a giant log that was meant to burn in the hearth for 12-days-the length of the festival.

Whatever you celebrate, however you decorate...or don't!...may this season of darkening skies give your roots a rest for a bigger, better, brighter 2022.

I'm delighted to introduce, laddies and gentlewomen, my new spirit animal:
The Fucktopus.

**********************
In 2021, I stated a goal of posting 15 book reviews a month on my blog. This year's total of 180 (there are a lot of individual stories that don't have entries in the LT database so I didn't post them here; I need to do more to sync the data this year) reads shows it's doable, and I've done better than that in the past.

I've long Pearl Ruled books I'm not enjoying, but making notes on Goodreads & LibraryThing about why I'm abandoning the read has been less successful. I give up. I just don't care about this goal, so out it goes.




My Last Thread of 2009 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2010 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2011 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2012 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2013 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2014 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2015 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2016 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2017 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2018 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2019 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.
My Last Thread of 2020 Is Here:
Reviews are back-linked there.

First five reviews? 1st 2021 thread..

Reviews 6 all the way through 25 can be viewed in the thread to which I have posted a link at left.

The 26th through 36th reviews occupy thread three.

37th through 44th reviews belong where they are.

Reviews 45 through 58 are listed here.

Reviews 59 through 65 present themselves in that spot.

Reviews 66 through 75 reside in this thread.

Reviews 76 through 98? Seek them before this.

Reviews 99 through 110 remain becalmèd thitherward.

Reviews 111 up to 123 actualize their potential in the linkèd thread.

Reviews 124 through 136 locatable in this locale.

Reviews 137 to 147 (inclusive)? Back up.

Reviews 148 to 155 are available here.

Reviews 156 unto 169 remain, patiently, behind.

Reviews 170 all the way to 177 are just doin' their thang.

Seek ye reviews 178 unto 194? Yea verily, they reposeth thitherward.

Revisti 195 thru 207? Eccolo..

THIS THREAD'S REVIEW LINKS

208 Reckless (Exley & Dyer #1) bemused, post 76.

209 St. Mary's and the Great Toilet Roll Crisis made me snort, post 85.

210 The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting entertained, post 117.

211 Whole (Whole, #1) disappointed, post 136.

212 Winter Counts delighted, post 146.

213 The Santa Suit amused, post 169.

214 A Reluctant Santa occupied, post 273.

215 Cabin Fever: A Best Friend's Father M/M Romance gruntled, post 273.

2020's five-star or damn-near five-star reviews totaled 46. Almost half were short stories and/or series reads. While a lot of authors saw their book launches rescheduled, publishers canceled their tours, and everyone was hugely distracted by the nightmare of COVID-19 (I had it, you do not want it), no one can fault the astoundingly wonderful literature we got this year. My own annual six-stars-of-five read was Zaina Arafat's extraordinary debut novel YOU EXIST TOO MUCH (review lives here), a thirtysomething Palestinian woman telling me my life, my family, my very experience of relationships of all sorts. I cannot stress enough to you, this is the book you need to read in 2021. A sixtysomething man is here, in your email/feed, saying: This is the power. This is the glory. The writing I look for, the read I long to find, and all of it delivered in a young woman's debut novel. This is as good an omen for the Great Conjunction's power being bent to the positive outcomes as any I've seen.

In 2020, I posted over 180 reviews here. In 2021, my goals are:

to post 200 reviews on my blog

to post at least 99 three-sentence Burgoines

to complete at least 210 total reviews

Most important to me was to report on DRCs I don't care enough about to review at my usual level. I still don't want to keep just leaving them unacknowledged. There are publishers who want to see a solid, positive relationship between DRCs granted and reviews posted, and I do not blame them a bit.

Ask and ye shall receive! Nathan Burgoine's Twitter account hath taught me. See >7 richardderus: below. I just need to get better about *applying* it!

I stole this from PC's thread. I like these prompts!
***
1. Name any book you read at any time that was published in the year you turned 18:
Faggots by Larry Kramer
2. Name a book you have on in your TBR pile that is over 500 pages long:
The Story of China: The Epic History of a World Power from the Middle Kingdom to Mao and the China Dream by Michael Wood
3. What is the last book you read with a mostly blue cover?
Wasps' Nest by Agatha Christie
4. What is the last book you didn’t finish (and why didn’t you finish it?)
The Perfect Fascist by Victoria de Grazia; paper book of 512pp, can't hold it...hands too feeble now
5. What is the last book that scared the bejeebers out of you?
Too Much and Never Enough by Mary Trump
6. Name the book that read either this year or last year that takes place geographically closest to where you live? How close would you estimate it was?
The Trump book; set in Queens and the Hamptons, so just down the road a piece
7.What were the topics of the last two nonfiction books you read?
The last successful rebellion on US soil and caffeine
8. Name a recent book you read which could be considered a popular book?
The Only Good Indians, a horror novel that's really, really good
9. What was the last book you gave a rating of 5-stars to? And when did you read it?
Restored, a Regency-era romantic historical novel about men in their 40s seizing their second chance at luuuv
10. Name a book you read that led you to specifically to read another book (and what was the other book, and what was the connection)
Potiki, which Kerry Aluf gave me; led me to read The Uncle's Story by Witi Ihimaera
11. Name the author you have most recently become infatuated with.
P. Djeli Clark
12. What is the setting of the first novel you read this year?
Hawaii and PNW
13. What is the last book you read, fiction or nonfiction, that featured a war in some way (and what war was it)?
The Fighting Bunch; WWII
14. What was the last book you acquired or borrowed based on an LTer’s review or casual recommendation? And who was the LTer, if you care to say.
There isn't enough space for all the book-bullets y'all careless, inconsiderate-of-my-poverty fiends pepper me with
15. What the last book you read that involved the future in some way?
Mammoths of the Great Plains by Eleanor Arnason
16. Name the last book you read that featured a body of water, river, marsh, or significant rainfall?
Ancient Oceans of Central Kentucky by David Connerley Nahm
17. What is last book you read by an author from the Southern Hemisphere?
Red Heir by Lisa Henry
18. What is the last book you read that you thought had a terrible cover?
please don't ask me this
19. Who was the most recent dead author you read? And what year did they die?
Agatha Christie, 1976
20. What was the last children’s book (not YA) you read?
good goddesses, I don't remember...Goodnight Moon to my daughter?
21. What was the name of the detective or crime-solver in the most recent crime novel you read?
Poirot by Dame Ags
22. What was the shortest book of any kind you’ve read so far this year?
The World Well Lost, ~28pp
23. Name the last book that you struggled with (and what do you think was behind the struggle?)
Lon Chaney Speaks, because I really, really don't like comic books
24. What is the most recent book you added to your library here on LT?
see #23
25. Name a book you read this year that had a visual component (i.e. illustrations, photos, art, comics)
see #23
I liked Sandy's Bonus Question for the meme above, so I adopted it:

26. What is the title and year of the oldest book you have reviewed on LT in 2020? (modification in itals)
The Sittaford Mystery by Dame Aggie, 1931.

I really hadn't considered doing this until recently...tracking my Pulitzer Prize in Fiction winners read, and Booker Prize winners read might actually prove useful to me in planning my reading.

1918 HIS FAMILY - Ernest Poole **
1919 THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS - Booth Tarkington *
1921 THE AGE OF INNOCENCE - Edith Wharton *
1922 ALICE ADAMS - Booth Tarkington **
1923 ONE OF OURS - Willa Cather **
1924 THE ABLE MCLAUGHLINS - Margaret Wilson
1925 SO BIG - Edna Ferber *
1926 ARROWSMITH - Sinclair Lewis (Declined) *
1927 EARLY AUTUMN - Louis Bromfield
1928 THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY - Thornton Wilder *
1929 SCARLET SISTER MARY - Julia Peterkin
1930 LAUGHING BOY - Oliver Lafarge
1931 YEARS OF GRACE - Margaret Ayer Barnes
1932 THE GOOD EARTH - Pearl Buck *
1933 THE STORE - Thomas Sigismund Stribling
1934 LAMB IN HIS BOSOM - Caroline Miller
1935 NOW IN NOVEMBER - Josephine Winslow Johnson
1936 HONEY IN THE HORN - Harold L Davis
1937 GONE WITH THE WIND - Margaret Mitchell *
1938 THE LATE GEORGE APLEY - John Phillips Marquand
1939 THE YEARLING - Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings *
1940 THE GRAPES OF WRATH - John Steinbeck *
1942 IN THIS OUR LIFE - Ellen Glasgow *
1943 DRAGON'S TEETH - Upton Sinclair
1944 JOURNEY IN THE DARK - Martin Flavin
1945 A BELL FOR ADANO - John Hersey *
1947 ALL THE KING'S MEN - Robert Penn Warren *
1948 TALES OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC - James Michener
1949 GUARD OF HONOR - James Gould Cozzens
1950 THE WAY WEST - A.B. Guthrie
1951 THE TOWN - Conrad Richter
1952 THE CAINE MUTINY - Herman Wouk
1953 THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA - Ernest Hemingway *
1955 A FABLE - William Faulkner *
1956 ANDERSONVILLE - McKinlay Kantor *
1958 A DEATH IN THE FAMILY - James Agee *
1959 THE TRAVELS OF JAIMIE McPHEETERS - Robert Lewis Taylor
1960 ADVISE AND CONSENT - Allen Drury *
1961 TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD - Harper Lee *
1962 THE EDGE OF SADNESS - Edwin O'Connor
1963 THE REIVERS - William Faulkner *
1965 THE KEEPERS OF THE HOUSE - Shirley Ann Grau
1966 THE COLLECTED STORIES OF KATHERINE ANNE PORTER - Katherine Anne Porter
1967 THE FIXER - Bernard Malamud
1968 THE CONFESSIONS OF NAT TURNER - William Styron *
1969 HOUSE MADE OF DAWN - N Scott Momaday
1970 THE COLLECTED STORIES OF JEAN STAFFORD - Jean Stafford
1972 ANGLE OF REPOSE - Wallace Stegner *
1973 THE OPTIMIST'S DAUGHTER - Eudora Welty *
1975 THE KILLER ANGELS - Jeff Shaara *
1976 HUMBOLDT'S GIFT - Saul Bellow *
1978 ELBOW ROOM - James Alan McPherson
1979 THE STORIES OF JOHN CHEEVER - John Cheever *
1980 THE EXECUTIONER'S SONG - Norman Mailer *
1981 A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES - John Kennedy Toole *
1982 RABBIT IS RICH - John Updike *
1983 THE COLOR PURPLE - Alice Walker *
1984 IRONWEED - William Kennedy *
1985 FOREIGN AFFAIRS - Alison Lurie
1986 LONESOME DOVE - Larry McMurtry *
1987 A SUMMONS TO MEMPHIS - Peter Taylor
1988 BELOVED - Toni Morrison *
1989 BREATHING LESSONS - Anne Tyler
1990 THE MAMBO KINGS PLAY SONGS OF LOVE - Oscar Hijuelos *
1991 RABBIT AT REST - John Updike *
1992 A THOUSAND ACRES - Jane Smiley *
1993 A GOOD SCENT FROM A STRANGE MOUNTAIN - Robert Olen Butler *
1994 THE SHIPPING NEWS - E Annie Proulx *
1995 THE STONE DIARIES - Carol Shields
1996 INDEPENDENCE DAY - Richard Ford
1997 MARTIN DRESSLER - Steven Millhauser
1998 AMERICAN PASTORAL - Philip Roth
1999 THE HOURS - Michael Cunningham
2000 INTERPRETER OF MALADIES - Jumpha Lahiri
2001 THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY - Michael Chabon
2002 EMPIRE FALLS - Richard Russo
2003 MIDDLESEX - Jeffrey Eugenides *
2004 THE KNOWN WORLD - Edward P. Jones
2005 GILEAD - Marilynne Robinson*
2006 MARCH - Geraldine Brooks
2007 THE ROAD - Cormac McCarthy
2008 THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO - Junot Diaz *
2009 OLIVE KITTERIDGE - Elizabeth Strout
2010 TINKERS - Paul Harding**
2011 A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD - Jennifer Egan
2013 ORPHAN MASTER'S SON - Adam Johnson
2014 THE GOLDFINCH - Donna Tartt
2015 ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE - Anthony Doerr *
2016 THE SYMPATHIZER - Viet Thanh Nguyen **
2017 THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD - Colson Whitehead *
2018 LESS - Andrew Sean Greer
2019 THE OVERSTORY - Richard Powers
2020 THE NICKEL BOYS - Colson Whitehead

Links are to my reviews
* Read, but not reviewed
** Owned, but not read

Every winner of the Booker Prize since its inception in 1969

1969: P. H. Newby, Something to Answer For
1970: Bernice Rubens, The Elected Member
1970: J. G. Farrell, Troubles ** (awarded in 2010 as the Lost Man Booker Prize) -
1971: V. S. Naipaul, In a Free State
1972: John Berger, G.
1973: J. G. Farrell, The Siege of Krishnapur
1974: Nadine Gordimer, The Conservationist ... and Stanley Middleton, Holiday
1975: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Heat and Dust
1976: David Storey, Saville
1977: Paul Scott, Staying On
1978: Iris Murdoch, The Sea, The Sea *
1979: Penelope Fitzgerald, Offshore
1980: William Golding, Rites of Passage
1981: Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children *
1982: Thomas Keneally, Schindler's Ark
1983: J. M. Coetzee, Life & Times of Michael K
1984: Anita Brookner, Hotel du Lac *
1985: Keri Hulme, The Bone People **
1986: Kingsley Amis, The Old Devils
1987: Penelope Lively, Moon Tiger *
1988: Peter Carey, Oscar and Lucinda *
1989: Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day *
1990: A. S. Byatt, Possession: A Romance *
1991: Ben Okri, The Famished Road
1992: Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient * ... and Barry Unsworth, Sacred Hunger
1993: Roddy Doyle, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
1994: James Kelman, How late it was, how late
1995: Pat Barker, The Ghost Road *
1996: Graham Swift, Last Orders
1997: Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things
1998: Ian McEwan, Amsterdam
1999: J. M. Coetzee, Disgrace
2000: Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin *
2001: Peter Carey, True History of the Kelly Gang *
2002: Yann Martel, Life of Pi
2003: DBC Pierre, Vernon God Little **
2004: Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty *
2005: John Banville, The Sea
2006: Kiran Desai, The Inheritance of Loss
2007: Anne Enright, The Gathering
2008: Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger
2009: Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall
2010: Howard Jacobson, The Finkler Question *
2011: Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending **
2012: Hilary Mantel, Bring Up the Bodies
2013: Eleanor Catton, The Luminaries
2014: Richard Flanagan, The Narrow Road to the Deep North
2015: Marlon James, A Brief History of Seven Killings *
2016: Paul Beatty, The Sellout
2017: George Saunders, Lincoln in the Bardo
2018: Anna Burns, Milkman
2019: Margaret Atwood, The Testaments, and Bernardine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other
2020: Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain

Links are to my reviews
* Read, but not reviewed
** Owned, but not read

Author 'Nathan Burgoine posted this simple, direct method of not getting paralyzed by the prospect of having to write reviews. The Three-Sentence Review is, as he notes, very helpful and also simple to achieve. I get completely unmanned at the idea of saying something trenchant about each book I read, when there often just isn't that much to say...now I can use this structure to say what I think's important and not try to dig for more.

Think about using it yourselves!

And now, knock yourself out.

hi

or Boo!

So Doctors and Friends was extraordinary, I am exhausted. Wonderful author

Happy new thread!

>1 richardderus: Very festive. Logged into Yule. Not my favorite of the French holiday treats - croquembouche was, but it appeared on the holiday board in much butter cream glory for quite a few years.

>8 richardderus: Nope, staying in.

>9 mckait:, >10 mckait: Boo back! You're first...you get to wear the crown.


Kimmery Martin's got That Thing, the one where you just can't stop. I really really really hate you for bringing her to my attention. This, too, is All YOUR Fault!!

*smooch*

ETA size

Happy new thread, RD!

Happy new (and final?) thread, Richard.

Happy new one, RD!

I love that image of the gorgeous fireplace flanked by Christmas trees... I could spend hours in that big chair with a book. Or two....

>14 jessibud2: I sure as heck hope it's the final, Shelley, but if it gets over 300...*shiver*...I'll kinda haveta won't I.

>13 alcottacre: Thanks, Stasia!

I mean, um, I mean *hmmf* I appreciate your noticing I have a new thread, since you don't notice books I love.

*smooch*

>11 quondame: Hi Susan! I do much the same thing as you do (from last thread) when funds are easy but poverty means pinching the pennies til Abe squeals.

Croquembouche was never a favorite of mine. All that gluey plop holding together my choux? Nope. Gimme profiteroles one at a time and hold the chocolate.

Buttercream feeds my serious umami addiction. *yum*

Yay! I see you've spruced the place up for the season! Good to see you!

I'm going to use the Burgoine method tonight to review There There for my building newsletter. They've got ferocious word limits, so that technique should be just about right.

>15 katiekrug: ...or a Kindleful with a bottle of port and a lovely Waterford port glass?


Tasting, anyone?

>17 justchris: Hiya Chris! Happy to see you making the rounds. Burgoineing is *perfection* for that situation, so I hope it works well.

Happy New Thread!

>1 richardderus: Mmmmmmm, yum! (All of the pics.)

Happy new thread, Richard!

Advent-Christmassy-treats thread.
Yay.



Elfie says hello and leaves homemade mince tarts for you...

>18 richardderus: - Yes, please!

>12 richardderus: yay! I love wearing crowns.

As for Kimmery Martin you're welcome.

xo

>24 mckait: Dreadful woman. You've cost me so many hours' reading my own books! Aren't you ashamed?!

>23 katiekrug: Pull up a chair!

>22 SandyAMcPherson: Ohhh yes please


>21 Storeetllr: Heartily agree re: yum, Mary! *smooch*

>20 SilverWolf28: Thanks, Silver!

Happy new thread, Richard!

>26 richardderus: Yum. I make mine with a higher dough to filling ratio turnover style, but the basics remain the same.

Happy new one!

Happy new one, RD.

>18 richardderus: I'm always happy to have a tipple of port. My late mum always used to enjoy a glass or three of Harvey's Bristol Cream (sherry) at Christmas.

Mmmmm…. port!

Happy new one!

>31 drneutron: Thanks, Jim, I'm pretty sure port gets all our votes, eh?

>30 PaulCranswick: I love cooking with sherry but not drinking it. I made a sherry roux that, lightened with crème chiboust, filled many a herby-flavored-fondant iced choux bun.

>29 figsfromthistle: Thank you, Anita!

>28 quondame: Yum indeed. *sigh*

>27 bell7: Thank you, Mary! *smooch*

>32 richardderus: Oh great revelations! It was crème chiboust my mother faked out by folding heavy whipped cream, just short of stiff, into Jello vanilla pudding with an added dash or two of quality flavor. I knew she hated the work involved in cc and found a surprisingly delicious short cut. As I had previously been dragooned into stirring duties, I wasn't likely to complain. Also she was phobic about raw eggs, so there's that.

Oh, I do love the idea of a Yuletide thread. I wasn't going to start another one this year, but I might just steal this idear.

Happy new thread, Richard! Happy Yuletide!!

>32 richardderus: That does sound delicious. Mum used to make her own sherry trifle which the idea of that lovely meringue lightened cream flavoured with sherry called up.

Would my Gingerbread Bundt Cakes fit into the Yuletide theme?

>26 richardderus: and >32 richardderus: Yum!

I got a bottle of port this year for a recipe--flourless almond and porto cake from Pati's Mexican Table. https://patijinich.com/flourless-almond-and-porto-cake/

Just picked up bourbon for Bourbon-spiked apple bread. Pretty much my whole liquor cabinet is for baking.

Happy new thread, Richard!

>30 PaulCranswick: Harvey's Bristol Creme, I haven't seen that in years. My parents used to indulge around Christmas too. Must be a British thing.

Happy new thread, Richard.

Happy new thread, Richard dear!

>1 richardderus: I love the winter solstice, best time of year :-)

Happy Friday, Richard! Happy New Thread. I love the Christmas topper! We are going to Grand Rapids for the weekend, so I will be out of touch for a few days. Have a great weekend.

>41 FAMeulstee: Hi Anita! It's my favorite Holiday season, though I go big on my dates. Mama and I decorated for St. Nick, the 6th, and took the decorations down on Epiphany, January 6th. I don't decorate my room...for who, my roommate? nope...but it's always a lovely memory.

>40 Helenliz: Thank you, Helen!

>39 Familyhistorian: Thanks Meg! Holly jolly Yuletide wishes.

Sherry in general is a British import...like all fortified wines...to these shores. Murrikinz drank & drink beer, like the low-class economic migrants we came from; the religious nuts didn't and still don't drink Satan's Slide-Slippery-Making stuff.

>38 justchris: Almond and port-wine cake! Ooo yeah, that was a fancy one. And bourbon-spiked apple bread sounds excellent.

>37 benitastrnad: Would they just! I adore gingerbread spices, so I am all in.

>36 PaulCranswick: That's where I got the idea, PC, was trifle! I figured it worked there, so it'll work here. The difference is that the roux works to keep the chiboust-plus inside the choux buns.

>35 humouress: Thank you, Tropical Supervillainess! It's beginning to feel real.

>34 laytonwoman3rd: Heck, why not, Linda3rd? It's not like it costs anything more than minimal effort.

>33 quondame: That's crée pâtissiére, Susan, chiboust's got the whites in...leave those out, it's crée pâtissiére, which works fine if you don't mind some spurtage.

>42 msf59: You snuck in while I was posting, Mark! Have a lovely trip to and time in Grand Rapids. I'm bettin' it'll be a no-reads weekend, then.

From my morning starter-upper newsletter, Morning Brew:
What do the following words have in common?

Assess

Banana

Dresser

Grammar

Potato

Revive

Uneven

Voodoo

If no one gives the correct response (and if you get Morning Brew let someone have the fun of figuring it out!) ***UNDER A SPOILER TAG*** by noon, I'll post it.

>47 richardderus: I have an answer - not saying it's the right one.

Happy new thread Richard!

>477 They all have an initial character followed by a palindrome.

>49 swynn: Correct...but there's another level to that....

>48 Helenliz: Put a spoiler tag on it and let's hear it!

>51 Helenliz: I had the same as >49 swynn:. I ought to be revising our audit process... It it maybe not getting all of my attention!

>51 Helenliz: And then you're both correct, but missing something inherent in that answer....

All three of these deals come with my imprimatur of value-for-dollars-spent.
Alice and Bob Meet the Wall of Fire is Kindleable for $1.99...a must-have for science-curious non-scientists, collecting essays from Serious Names from Quanta Magazine: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BT5ZZQW/
Son of the Storm, excellent African-themed fantasy novel, is Kindleable for $2.99: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08HLNFK9K/
The Complete Poems Anne Sexton is Kindleable for $1.99: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01BXW8G18/

>53 richardderus: Ooooh, thanks for the tip on Alice and Bob Meet the Wall of Fire! I'm always looking for new accessible-to-someone-who-used-to-hate-science books.

>54 Storeetllr: Most welcome, Mary! *smooch*

>56 laytonwoman3rd: ALSO true, and correct, but again not *quite* the solution:
Take the first letter off each word and put it on at the end; it's the same word.
So everyone was absolutely right but didn't go one li'l step beyond.

>38 justchris:
That is also true of my liquor cabinet. The exception is Campari. I like a little Campari spritzer in the summer time in the evenings, but everything else is there because I need it for cooking.

>44 richardderus:
I love Gingerbread spices too! I especially love the combination with coffee. The two together are unbeatable. I mix my own Gingerbread spice because I like to put black pepper in it. Not to much, but more than what I think might be in commercial mixes. Out in the wilds of Kansas it is hard to find commercial Gingerbread mix, so I have always just mixed my own.

>58 benitastrnad: Oh, I was only willing to spend the eleventy jillion dollars on Starbucks silliness when they made gingerbread lattes. They haven't since 2019 and it appears they won't again, damn it all.

I agree about black pepper, though I branched out and used long pepper from OliveNation, which was absolute perfection, and grains of paradise which I didn't like as well as I like black pepper.

OliveNation also makes lemon and lime powders for when you want the kick, not the wetness, and zest is too powerful.

Negroni, please, extra Campari.

I'm giving some thought to BookRiot's 2022 Read Harder Challenge as a spice-me-up of meeting my reading goals. Since I'll post over 200 reviews (posts aren't the same as reviews posted, as some posts cover as many as four books!) on my blog this year *easily* I think I need to get a little more pushy. 210 reviews posted seems like a cheat as a goal since I'm on track for that now. I'm thinking 225...approximately 10% increase over this year's actual total.

This is the list:

1. Read a biography of an author you admire.


2. Read a book set in a bookstore.


3. Read any book from the Women’s Prize shortlist/longlist/winner list.


4. Read a book in any genre by a POC that’s about joy and not trauma.


5. Read an anthology featuring diverse voices.


6. Read a nonfiction YA comic.


7. Read a romance where at least one of the protagonists is over 40.


8. Read a classic written by a POC.


9. Read the book that’s been on your TBR the longest.


10. Read a political thriller by a marginalized author (BIPOC, or LGBTQIA+).


11. Read a book with an asexual and/or aromantic main character.


12. Read an entire poetry collection.


13. Read an adventure story by a BIPOC author.


14. Read a book whose movie or TV adaptation you’ve seen (but haven’t read the book).


15. Read a new-to-you literary magazine (print or digital).


16. Read a book recommended by a friend with different reading tastes.


17. Read a memoir written by someone who is trans or nonbinary.


18. Read a “Best _ Writing of the year” book for a topic and year of your choice.


19. Read a horror novel by a BIPOC author.


20. Read an award-winning book from the year you were born.


21. Read a queer retelling of a classic of the canon, fairytale, folklore, or myth.


22. Read a history about a period you know little about.


23. Read a book by a disabled author.


24. Pick a challenge from any of the previous years’ challenges to repeat!

I liked all of them except the comic and I'm still looking for GNs that don't make me want to scream and barf, so it's a good challenge.

I'm wondering if, in lieu of setting a numerical goal for Burgoines (see >7 richardderus:), I could just agree with myself to use the technique on 3-stars-and-under reads about which I don't much care and count them as reviews here but not blogged...or should I just blog 'em in gangs...I dunno, but I read a lot of books I don't talk about because someone loved it & I loathed it or just didn't care much about it, or I simply have no useful response...it filled time, it failed to offend or delight me. Is that information useful to anyone? Would you care if I did that and gored your reading ox?

ETA link

Happy new thread, RDear!

>1 richardderus: Cool information. Great photos. Bill got a honey-baked ham for Thanksgiving from his boss, and I’m NOT eating any of it because of the low-sodium diet I’m currently on. Sigh.

>18 richardderus: We have some Waterford Lismore Claret Wine Glasses – close enough? Bigger's better, right?

>61 karenmarie: *smooch*

A claret-glass-ful of port would be soooooooo cloying it'd rot your teeth, (un)curl your hair, and knock the birds off the feeders from the sugarfumes.

No. Ham.

No! This shall not stand! One piece at the Yule board won't cause another STEMI!

Happy Yuletide, Richard - what a beautiful thread! And thank you for the historical information in >1 richardderus:! I love that stuff - did you know information about things most people never consider. I'm sure some people roll their eyes when I get going about something I've learned, which perhaps goes to show that I need to hang out here more.

>18 richardderus: Yes, please!

>60 richardderus: This is an awesome challenge, and while I realize it's for 2022, I've read many books either this year or last that fit, namely #s 2, 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, 13, 19. Maybe it's not in the spirit of the challenge, but middle grade literature is having something of a golden age for diverse authors and stories. So a recommendation for #6 (that you can take or leave) is When Stars Are Scattered. Again, middle grade, so not technically YA, but absolutely wonderful. And GNs aren't really my thing. Some are outstanding, and I love that they pull kids into reading who might not read otherwise, but I tend to be a reader who misses the extraordinary artwork because I am accustomed to reading text when reading. I have to force myself to really take in the pictures.

Happy Friday. It is snowing here at long, long last. My school in the mountains has had a bit of snow this year, but this day should break Denver's longest ever snowless streak. We're going to be in serious water trouble next summer and fall if we don't get a lot more.

>63 AMQS: Howdy do, Anne! Glad you came to see me today.

I'm surely hoping your snows are heavy when they come. And soon! The summer could get grim....

I'll even try something middle-grade, since I'm fairly sure I haven't read anything aimed there since the 1960s. And totally with you re: pictures...I need to learn their reading technique! I ignore the pictures and am done with the story in 15min. Not quite what they have in mind...so I go back and look at the art, which usually gets monotonous really really quickly.

I have no solution to this problem.

Some Yuletide cheer, comin up:

>57 richardderus: Aha!

>16 richardderus: What do you mean I ignore the books you love? Did I not finish The City Beautiful a couple of weeks ago? I loved it! lol

((Hugs)) and **smooches**

>60 richardderus: I am tempted to try that list, but between TIOLI and the Asian Authors challenge next year, I do not want to add another to my plate. Best of luck to you with it though, Richard.

Have a wonderful weekend!

>66 alcottacre: Considering my oppositional predisposition, Stasia, I'm still hesitant to take on any challenges at all ever...heck, I balk at *my*own*goals! But there are things on there that I'm already sure I'll be reading so it could work....

Yeah. ONE whole book. Whee. *scowl*

>65 laytonwoman3rd: I didn't see it, either, so it gave me a grin.

>67 richardderus: I am absolutely positive that there are other book recommendations of yours that I have loved. I just cannot think of them right now :)

*scowling right back at you*

>60 richardderus: Ooooh, that is an intriguing list, and meshes with a lot of my goals anyways. I didn't try to read for the 2021 challenges, but I use their spreadsheets and without trying, I managed to read books that fit more than half of the challenges, so it wouldn't be a huge stretch for me, either. The one really hard one would be horror - but I could maybe have a short story/novella that I could read in a day, and then noless harm done (heck, I listened to a terrifying short story that LeVar Burton read on his podcast once).

>69 bell7: Gotcha covered: Any one of these four Stephen Graham Jones novellas, prices from FREE to $3.99 reviewed and linked here https://expendablemudge.blogspot.com/2021/10/four-stephen-graham-jones-novellas-...

It's a good set of challenges, and at a two-a-month pace it's very doable.

>68 alcottacre: *smooch*

>70 richardderus: Oh excellent! I've bought a couple of his novels for our collection on the strength of reviews so that may indeed be a good way to go. I got through Horrorstor (read in two days, stopped at a before-it-all-got-really-bad point to be able to sleep) for a librarian genre book group a few years ago, so one of his novellas should do. The 50-Foot Indian in particular sounds like an intriguing premise.

>71 bell7: I think you'll love SGJ's stuff. He's got something special...his werewolf novel Mongrels is terrific.

...isn't Horrorstor Grady Hendrix...or am I getting them confused...

And! Thanks to Anne in >63 AMQS:, the Universe brought a MG novel by a BIPoC creator on horror themes to my inbox! The Forgotten Girl by India Hill Brown will work for the challenge, fit into Spooktober reading, and keep me solvent by being $1.99 here (through the 31st, if y'all want one too): https://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-Girl-India-Hill-Brown-ebook/dp/B07M5CWL9P/

>72 richardderus: Yes, sorry I wasn't clear about my train of thought there. It's the last horror I read (along with a couple of short stories by H.P. Lovecraft, one of which is sort-of inspired by my hometown), and because it was short and the way I read it, I was able to read it without nightmares. That was the connection there.

I have... a very good imagination, so no horror for me after dark. I couldn't even go to bed after watching an episode of LOST, I'd have the weirdest dreams ever.

>73 bell7: I completely relate to your imagination-in-overdrive issue, Mary. I frequently find myself possessed of unwanted images that get processed in dreams. I've learned to deal with them using lucid dreaming techniques, though, as I read far too much to limit myself to not-before-bedtime rules!

Good morning, RDear! Happy Saturday to you.

>62 richardderus: I could have a morsel of ham, but honestly, it's not worth the sodium mgs. I was going with the Waterford, but we do have port-wanna be glasses - liqueur glasses or cordial glasses.

*smooch*

208 Reckless by Jess Whitecroft

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: When pirate Henry Dyer’s ship captures the French frigate Sans Souci, nobody seems to know why Captain Buckler has been chasing such a neglected and unprepossessing prize ship. The puzzle only gets more perplexing when they take the ship and find an English girl in leg irons.

It’s an old and popular love story—the pirate and the virgin who steals his heart away, only this time the pirate is the virgin and the girl isn’t a girl at all. She is James ‘Jem’ Exley, thief, molly, occasional actor and full time transvestite. Jettisoned to the New World in order to spare his aristocratic family any further disgrace, Jem is glamorous, flamboyant and fascinating.

At only nineteen, Henry is determined to prove himself a man one way or the other, and is astonished to find that nothing makes him feel like more of a man than his increasingly reckless passion for Jem. As their love leads them into trouble, the mysterious circumstances of Jem’s capture lead Henry deeper into a mystery that not only upends his whole world, but sees them running for their lives across the Caribbean.

Stolen jewels, scheming Captains and devious drag artists–Black Sails meets Blackadder in this steamy eighteenth century romp from the author of These Violent Delights and Going Sasquatch.

THIS WAS A GIVEAWAY ON AMAZON. THANK YOU.

My Review: Among the many possible variants of “surprised by love” that exist, this one is a less-than-ordinary choice to use. Henry Dyer, pirate, is not the usual hero; Jem Exley, “damsel” in very deep distress, is not the usual heroine. I’m not sure that a pirate in eighteenth-century Caribbean waters would’ve known the word “transvestite” but it’s clearly a concept any moderately immoral character would’ve encountered long ago, so I’ll go with its being used in this context without crabbing too much. The response to it in the flesh was as reasoned and reasonable as I’d’ve expected it to be.

But the molly herself? That backstory! What a way to make a character fly off the page and into my heart! The stakes couldn’t possibly be higher than “being myself would cost me my life but there is no one else I could be so, so be it.” There’s a huge softness in my readerly heart for characters who take agency and act with decision to make their Otherness into a way of being in the world that wants them to fail.

While making myself comfortable in this world, I was often thinking, “what is it here that Author Whitecroft is trying to tell me in the choices?” Usually that means I’m insufficiently wrapped in the story; here, I was reasonably sure I was being led somewhere but not sure enough of where to simply sit back and enjoy the ride. But, as the story unfolds, there is simply nothing for it but to…simply sit back and enjoy the ride. I was all up in this story from chapter two forwards. The action, my dears, simply does not let up. Whee!

The reason that elicits a "Whee!" from my ever-darkening heat-pump (can't rightly call it a heart anymore) is that I am all about quests, mysteries, puzzles in my fiction. I am also an avid follower of Ma'at, I like order. Just not the order most of y'all like...conformity ≠ order. Sameness is not safety. Look at the burgeoning problems presented by monoculture: Cavendish bananas, the ones in your grocery store, are going extinct because they're clones, identical plants, and they've been targeted by a rot that is unfixable. The precise same thing happened to the Gros Michel bananas of my childhood. (BTW the reason artificial banana flavor tastes like it does is that they were aiming for the more powerful taste of the Gros Michel variant.)

Bananas? What the hell...oh right, sameness. Anyway, this book demonstrates a strong affinity for Ma'at in her "spirit in which justice was applied rather than the detailed legalistic exposition of rules" sense. The spirit of Justice demands that Jem get his Henry into bed, into the strange and ever-shifting constellation of acts and demands and solutions that make up a transvestite prostitute thief's life in a time where the mere determination that those things constitute an identity not a pathology was inconceivable. Since this story represents a modern take on the topic, they *do* end up constituting an identity. And do you know what? I am just fine with that. As a gay man of a certain age, whose own family contains other gay men even older than I, it's not in the least inconceivable (and I do know what that word means) that people very like Henry and Jem existed and throve despite their absence of trace evidence in the historical record.

The resolution of this story's plot leaves me disposed to seek out the sequel in hopes that the author's wells have not run dry regarding the Life Piratical of Jem and Henry.

>75 karenmarie: ...ham...not...worth...
...
...well, it's not me giving it up, so good that you're not feeling deprived. I wasn't ever the biggest Waterford fan but I confess it was Mama's Lismore set that taught me about port, claret, sherry, white wine, and hock glasses, and what each was for.

Have yourself a merry little Saturday!

>76 richardderus: I'm so pleased!
***
Jess the Reckless☠Waving black flag
@JessWhitecroft

Replying to @expendablemudge
Thank you so much! This was great. Never read so much about bananas in a book review before but I don't think there's any danger of Jem or Henry ever becoming part of a monoculture, banana or otherwise!
***
When authors like your take on their work, it really makes the work of writing reviews that much sweeter.

>60 richardderus: I misread number 11 as ‘an aromatic main character’. Teach me to read things properly!

We are all very keen on port and I do have some Waterford glasses to put it in. (Well, sherry glasses, but I think they’re probably the right size). Even Jacob likes port, which seems slightly odd to me as it doesn’t seem the sort of thing that a 21 year old ought to be drinking.

>78 richardderus: That is wonderful, Richard! I am so happy to see that authors are recognizing the hard work you put into your reviews!

Happy Saturday! ((Hugs)) and **smooches**

>80 alcottacre: Thanks, Stasia, I love having the validation. And she was so clearly interested, since she read the whole review (which is the only way she knows about the bananas)!

*smooch*

>79 SandDune: HA! I love that...though the last book I read about an aromatic character I read was Boxer, Beetle, and that had little appeal.

Jacob's taste for port is of a piece w/his other, more sophisticated than the ordinary 21yr old, traits. I know you're quite pleased with and proud of the man he's becoming, as indeed you should be.

I have missed a great deal this year (as I seem to most years), but I didn't want to miss the opportunity to send you seasonal greetings. We've not been able to host our Yule part for two years now, but I'll think of you on the 21st!

>82 London_StJ: Thank you, my darling dear, and a joy-filled Yule to all y'all! *smooch*

>78 richardderus: Well there's bananas and there are other lovely delights in our unmono'd world.

209 St. Mary's and the Great Toilet Roll Crisis (The Chronicles of St Mary's #11.1) by Jodi Taylor

Rating: 5* of five

As Jodi said, "A short story, dedicated to NHS workers, inspired by the recent toilet roll crisis."

It's a snippet, free on the Author's website; it was written "to stave off boredom" and it has; but, if you're not already a Disaster Magnet, you'll be lost s to the reason it's a five-star screaming-laughter my-sides-are-sore read.

Not that one needs to be au fait with the series to love stuff like this:

"...No, this is serious. Our own supplies {of t.p.} are being requisitioned and carted off to London. Government bottoms for the use of, presumably."

"Are you sure? I'd have thought with the amount of arse-lick..."

"Max!"

"I would have thought toilet rolls would be redundant in Westminster. Just saying."

Heh. Yes. Well, the only other thing you need to know is that Markham, our resident Senior Disaster Magnet, has a Brilliant Idea and, from there, Nature takes her course.

I laughed, I really really laughed, and that is the gift that this series keeps on giving to me. This free, downloadable shortie is too much fun to pass up.

>84 quondame: *chuckle* Yes, there are, and aren't we grateful for them while they last!

>85 richardderus: I find I've been eating bacon butties. I tend to throw on tomato, and the bread isn't close to farmhouse fresh, but I imagine that even in GB needs must. Yes, some good laughs in that one!

>87 quondame: There's never a time a bacon butty would go amiss, is there? Tomato or no.

>85 richardderus: That is a series I seriously need to get back to. Maybe in the New Year? I miss the loons at St Mary's!

>89 alcottacre: Abso-blinkin'-LUTELY!! These are joyous, life-affirming, laugh and cry and gasp and shout reads. I will be sad when we no longer have them.

Sadly, Anne Rice has died. She was 80, and had suffered a debilitating stroke. Her son Christopher Rice tweeted this:

‘Morning, RDear! Happy Sunday to you.

>77 richardderus: “Not worth the sodium mgs.” is a variation on the life-long dieter’s “Not worth the calories.”

Mama's Lismore set. That reminds me – Bill’s Mama gave us 6 Waterford Claret Wine Glasses when we got married. I’m pretty sure she had more Waterford, but I never saw it as I was helping her shut down her house. Guess she gave it to someone or sold it. Not that I need more wine glasses...

>78 richardderus: Congrats on Jess Whitecroft’s reply.

>85 richardderus: Thanks, RD, I enjoyed that. I left off reading St. Mary’s at book 4. Seems like it might be time to start back up. Only 9 behind.

>91 richardderus: Sad. What a lovely tweet.

*smooch*

>91 richardderus: a very moving tribute.
I seem not to have ever read any of her books, though. Sounds a very spunky, inspiring lady.

>93 SandyAMcPherson: Hi Sandy! I agree, it's moving and so lovely from son to mother.

Maybe don't sprain anything rushing to get something of hers...I think you'd like them about as much as straight gin. Upsetting the tum, wrinkling the nose, swearing at passers-by while staggering down the sidewalks of Halifax. England.

>92 karenmarie: Happy Sun's Day, Horrible. It's sad to me that Rice is dead, despite my volatile relationship to the books she wrote. She defined urban fantasy before it had a name, her fresh and fascinating take on vampires was truly a polar vortex in a world of Hammer Films/Christopher Lee archetypes, and the Mayfair Witches made something slightly musty and uncool into a louche, savorable naughty pleasure.

Thanks for the congrats. Jess now follows me and has a pleasantly snarky manner!

Considering the fact that the Waterford fabric contains 24% lead it might not be so bad not to have them!

*smooch*

I guess I should be glad that we have actually never used them, eh? Just what we need on top of other environmental pollutants, lead poisoning.

I only read the first 2.5 books of The Vampire Chronicles by Rice. for some reason The Queen of the Damned just didn't do it for me and I abandoned it and the series.

Sad to hear that Anne Rice has died. Unlike many, I enjoyed (most of) her books. Of course, I'm a horror/fantasy aficionado, so there's that, but I also liked her writing style, for the most part.

Congrats on being recognized by an author (who sounds really cool and I'm going to be looking for her books) for the stellar reviewer you are!

>94 richardderus: There were a few gems in the first and only book of hers I read, but the writing kept me from trying more.

>90 richardderus: Yes, it will be a sad day when we do not have any more of them. I need to get on with reading them!

Happy Sunday, RD. ((Hugs)) and **smooches**

>98 alcottacre: Well, no need to go mad, now is there? heh

>97 quondame: It's certainly not to everyone's taste...like Louise Penny and her short, choppy sentences.

>96 Storeetllr: Oh hey...here's a free one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09579BMSJ/
The Last Single Man in Texas: “They’re not going to pay me, I have no idea what my job is, and I have to spend the next six months in a cage match with Satan in Chuck Taylors. I can already feel the blistering hatred that’s about to break out between us, like the tingle before a herpes sore.”

When River O’Sullivan meets Benjamín Reyes at a job interview for a Houston tech firm it’s loathing at first sight. River thinks Ben is a spoiled, snotty rich brat who knows far too well that he’s gorgeous, while Ben dismisses rough Philly kid River as a hypersensitive pathological liar who dresses like ‘a dollar store Tyler Durden.’

To make matters worse they are forced to together in competition for an unpaid internship at a workplace so lousy with corporate jargon and motivational nonsense that neither of them knows what the company even does, or what they’re supposed to be doing there, beyond picking up after their slimy boss Blair’s dog. It’s only when River and Ben finally admit to each other that they have no idea what their jobs are that they realise their pure and uncomplicated hatred of each other is the one small island of sanity they’re clinging to in their lunatic workplace. And that said hatred would be much better focused on Blair.

As hate gives way to grudging respect and affection, River begins to wonder if he could ever get Ben to consider him as more than just an unlikely friend, or if that’s a thing that would never happen, even if River was the last single man in Texas.

Dog theft, revenge porn, corporate skullduggery, and a deeply regrettable incident with an electric banana – it’s all going on in this enemies to lovers slow burn romance.

>95 karenmarie: The amount of lead exposure from drinking out of lead crystal is vanishingly small. It's the optics that made stemware companies move to borosilicate glass only.

Happy Yule surprise of the day: Imperial purple Tentacled American from
Mary the Mad Knitter! *smooch*

>99 richardderus: We drink out of our lead crystal. In fact I’m going to be drinking out of it in about 10 minutes.

>101 SandDune: ...this explains so much...

heh

Srsly there's no credible evidence that the stuff's passed an appreciable dose of lead to anyone.

>100 richardderus: Aww, 8 legs and purple, what could be better!

Glad you like it! *smooch*

>102 richardderus: I have lots of other things that I’m far more worried about ….

>105 SandDune: Given who's in 10 Downing Street, awomen to that.

>104 bell7: I love it! And it made Old Stuff laugh and be cheerful. Bonus points to you for that...which of course you *instantly* lost with that BookPage and its List of BookLust.

>103 quondame: Not a heck of a lot, Susan, it's the best Sunday Surprise in forever.

>106 richardderus: All week I have been hoping against hope that the Conservative party will decide to get rid of Boris. So far in his tenure he's been protected by being ahead in the opinion polls (god knows why) but now Labour are 7-8% ahead overall, and apparently in the last opinion poll 53% of people thought Boris should resign against 28% who thought he ought to stay. The Conservatives are actually pretty quick to stab their leaders in the back if they think they're an electoral liability, so we shall see what happens. There's a by-election next week (for a Conservative MP who had to resign because of accusations of corruption). The Conservatives have a 22,000 majority, which is usually fairly unassailable, but the bookies currently have the Liberal Democrat's as 1/2 favourites to win. If the Conservatives lose there are going to be some pretty unhappy Conservative MPs all staring at Boris ...

>107 SandDune: TBH I'd expect folk to vote for Jeremy Thorpe's shade before anyone tied to BoJo.

>105 SandDune: and >106 richardderus: ... "I have lots of other things that I’m far more worried about …." Yes.

That's all. Just total agreement on that point.

>109 SandyAMcPherson: Ain't that the truth.

>43 richardderus: the religious nuts didn't and still don't drink Satan's Slide-Slippery-Making stuff.

Strange that, my religious indoctrination (which didn't take) involved alcohol for communion. I'm remember it tasting like sherry. (A taste I was familiar with at 12) but then we were C of E, not religious nuts. I remember being taken aback when at a similar United Church ceremony and they served grape juice.

Just dropping in and trying to process too many posts. Love the Octopus, love the reviews, hands over eyes because I do NOT need another list of book challenges when I'm already out of control, and I must, must must get to the new St. Mary's books!

I haven't had coffee yet, I may be fraying at the edges.

Love the octopus. I have a friend who crochets something similar to a design used as comforters for premature babies. Crochet being one of those dark arts I have never got my head around.

>105 SandDune:: never a truer word...

>111 Familyhistorian: The difference between church & chapel. For a short while we used to go to a church that used Mead for communion. I was never confirmed, so I never had it, but Mum used to make a point of breathing on me. Probably to see me wrinkle my nose. Still not a fan of Mead. Mind you, not something you see much, so it has not exactly limited my drinking options.

Morning, Richard. Yep, back from our beery misadventures but it sure was fun. Now, I need to get back to healthy ways and Jackson should keep me out of trouble this AM. I also NEED to get out and do some walking.
I hope you had a good weekend. Looking forward to starting Hench soon and I hope a few people join me on that one.

>43 richardderus:, >111 Familyhistorian:, >113 Helenliz: Mu grandparents went to this little Missionary Baptist church out in the middle of nowhere Louisiana. When I was growing up, we'd go with them while visiting during the summer. They used wine in communion because it says so in the Bible, but wanted to make sure nobody liked it, so used Mogen David 20-20 (AKA Mad Dog), the worst possible wine they could... 😂

'Morning, RDear!

Cute purple octopus.

Today's a visit with the cardiologist, bit of grocery shopping, and a visit to see Rita at the Library. I may or may not be whupped when I get home, but there are always naps to look forward to.

*smooch*

210 The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting by K.J. Charles

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Robin Loxleigh and his sister Marianne are the hit of the Season, so attractive and delightful that nobody looks behind their pretty faces.

Until Robin sets his sights on Sir John Hartlebury’s heiress niece. The notoriously graceless baronet isn’t impressed by good looks, or fooled by false charm. He’s sure Robin is a liar—a fortune hunter, a card sharp, and a heartless, greedy fraud—and he’ll protect his niece, whatever it takes.

Then, just when Hart thinks he has Robin at his mercy, things take a sharp left turn. And as the grumpy baronet and the glib fortune hunter start to understand each other, they also find themselves starting to care—more than either of them thought possible.

But Robin's cheated and lied and let people down for money. Can a professional rogue earn an honest happy ever after?

THIS WAS A LOVELY SURPRISE GIFT FROM MY YOUNG GENTLEMAN CALLER. THANK YOU, MY LOVE.

My Review: It requires a particular kind of innocence and faith to be a gambler. I have never had that innocence and I don't think the gods like it when one uses words like "faith" in connection to cynical, bitter people like me. So the fact that a significant portion of this tale takes place in gambling hells and among those who see some...merit? value?...in the damnfoolishness of gambling chafed on my nerve. I was, of course, perfectly prepared for the fortune hunting. After all, it's in the title. And I myownself have never had any negative judgment of fortune hunters who live up to their bargain. (I also see no problem with porn models and other sex workers getting paid to do things I did for free back when there was interest in having me do them. To me, it means they're better at business than I was, not immoral or broken or bad.)

An entirely different conversation, one far more impassioned and full of moral thunderation, would be had if we were to discuss the system that makes these options not only viable but desirable and even, on sadly frequent occasions, necessary. That is not where we are in this particular Regency romance.

It does, however, come very close to being the conversation that Robin and Hart end up having, in several different forms, several different times. What makes the read worth its frustrations (I am impatient in the face of self-righteousness and annoyed by selfish, self-serving blinders on powerful people) is the fact that Author Charles writes the scenes of conflict between privileged and petitioner without for a moment forgetting that each is, in the final analysis, correct; only their viewpoints need to be altered, their idées fixes challenged at the source. And it's no surprise to me that Author Charles knows the essential truth of change: to work, it has to be to not merely from. Which requires a huge jolt of Want. A clinging tendril of need can't help but speed up the fall of the old and the triumph of the new.

Does anyone know a better way to add powerful want and many tendrils of need than to use sex? I don't. And with Hart's Position and his Code, well...them changes were a-gonna smother before moving anything a millimeter. Robin's wantonness, his unfeigned joy in the glorious work of sensual pleasure, means he is in a unique and effective position (!) to effect badly needed, salubrious changes in the essentially caring heart within Hart.

“Sorry? You want to kiss me?”

Hart was still looking away, but Robin could see his ears redden. “You need not, if it is not to your taste.”

“Jesus wept. Of course it is to my taste. I thought it would be spikes and a dildo.” Hart made a spluttering noise.

There it is. Reduced to its essence, there is the book: Are we having the same conversation about the same subject? Do we trust each other enough to find out? And in the end, are there words for what we need...from Life, from each other?

Finding one whose ability to offer that which one actually needs and still isn't overmatched by their own needs...that is a dim, receding dream for many, if not most, people throughout history. It makes the offer of Happily Ever After one of the romance genre's sweetest siren songs. Add onto that dismal truth the way the world has (and still does) treat gay men...the need for a dose of unreality in the form of seeing others, imperfect others more like we actually are, succeed in its attainment is ever urgent. This story's achievement of the HEA is quite dramatic, very theatrical, and damn near begs to be committed to film. I'm not at all sure the sex scenes would make it onto the screen...hell, I'm quite sure they would not because the sex...it's really not suitable for straight people. I can say that, while I get it and would never demand that straight people open their minds a bit more as a group, some of the more willing to challenge their boundaries would do very well to make this book a toe-dipper into thinking without judgment about gay sex. There is absolutely no coercion, no forcing, no shortage of imaginative and playful coupling in the story. I think many IRL couples could do worse than emulate Hart and Robin's ways and means.

Why I'm rating this four stars, instead of the five it sounds like I'm awarding, is easily explained: These men are damned abrasive. The effort of reading while screaming in the first third of the story told against the thrill of the ball. It's not like everyone needs to be likeable or that all the traffic lights need to turn green immediately...the struggle to connect was effective, and it felt as though this HEA was earned.

The problem was the relentlessly self-righteous Hart and the revoltingly self-serving Robin. It was sold to me as "this is how these men are." It wasn't ever UNsold. It was a lot to ask me to simply...jettison...all that, even with the later pillow talk that blew the cobwebs away. Had it been more evenly apportioned throughout the book, say to other characters as well not simply the men in their safe cocoon sharing, I might've been less brought up short at the ball scene's events. I might've been more willing to invest in that sharing. As it was, I was already too set in my response of them being damaged to shift easily into feeling them to be as wounded, hurt as they each actually were.

It is not a fatal flaw. It was a case of seeing the road to the highest peak go on after I got off the ride. And yet, make no mistake, I'd go on the ride again! This read was a pleasure and a badly needed one for me. Author Charles makes her stories fizz and snap and sparkle. Come join the fun with this one.

>116 karenmarie: Happy Mmmday, Horrible! I'm pleased you're getting back to the cardio so soon. They're going to be a part of the routine for a while...thank goodness. Naps are good, whupped or not, and great to boot. Don't overdo at the grocery, please? "Oh just one more thing" can really quickly turn in to overtired. /worry-warting

*smooch*

>115 drneutron: ::eyeroll:: I wonder how many alcoholics they made by serving the sugarbowl-soaked-in-grape-fizz. There's a reason that bilge sells to the people it does.

As always with that lot, it's the unintended blowback.

>114 msf59: Excellent plans, Mark, walking and babytimes. You're on track for a terrific week.

>113 Helenliz: It's all Dark Art to me...taking string of different widths and using a metal rod to create A Usable Thing? Isn't that the actual definition of Dark Art?!

Have a week to remember fondly, Helen, thanks for stopping by.

>112 BekkaJo: FaGawdSake Bekka! What the devil are you doing wandering around here uncaffeinated?! Go get that hit before you fall in a heap of overstimulation!

*smooch*

>111 Familyhistorian: Grape juice! The weirdness of that is...is...I am actually literally at a loss for words.

Have a lovely week ahead, Meg, I'm glad you stopped in.

Dropping by with Mumbleday smooches. xx

>113 Helenliz: Mead, I hadn't heard of that being used before, Helen. Sherry was bad enough but, as you say, it didn't put me off alcohol in any way.

>115 drneutron: Sounds like the powers that be were trying to make it more like medicine than an intro to the pleasures of drinking, Jim.

>119 richardderus: Grape juice, and there was no warning! Hard to swallow that one.

OK, I need to steal the purple octopus. I love it!

>111 Familyhistorian: Grape juice is what they use at my local Baptist church too, so if I was served wine, I would probably be taken aback by that!

Happy Monday, RD! I hope you have a wonderful week. ((Hugs)) and **smooches**

>117 richardderus: I read, and liked, several of her books about a year ago on Libby, so you might be able to find more there.

>123 SilverWolf28: Hi Silver! Hope you're well & happy.

I think I've got all her books Kindled, though if she's got one coming out soon I don't. I'm a big fan. Her dry wit and level of steam make her work just right for me.

>122 alcottacre: Grape juice! *shudder*

Good luck with depriving me of my made-specifically-for-me-in-my-favorite-color spirit animal.

>121 Familyhistorian: How extraordinarily thoughtless of them not to post a warning outside, something along the lines of "WE HAVE NO TASTEBUDS...GRAPE JUICE WITHIN"

>124 richardderus: I'm doing good, wishing the weather around here was behaving more like December than spring.

-Karl Stevens

>126 msf59: Cat Pictures Please!

https://fb.watch/9TTgWaxoYP/

Hopefully this link will get you to the story I want you to see!

*smooch*

>100 richardderus: Purple octopi love!! And wishes for a wonderful Tuesday. Smooches.

Reviewer of Long Standing's Lament: I'm reading someone I really love's short stories and I don't like the experience. It's a conundrum. I *must* review it, they'll notice if I don't, and I haven't hit on the angle to enable me not to lie and still come out with a sense of my own integrity.

I sigh mournfully. I am Interestingly Pale. I have even...gasp!...lost sleep.

>129 Berly: Isn't he glorious? I love the little guy's every tentacle. *smooch* for a thrilling Tuesday!

>128 ronincats: It's on Facebook, which won't let me in...sorry, Roni.

>127 quondame: Never.

>126 msf59: Ha! Bad call, Batman, that failed HARD.

>125 SilverWolf28: Since climate is what we expect, and weather is what we get, when what we get isn't reasonably close to what we're expecting, there's Trouble in Paradise.

>130 richardderus: Tricky one. Is there something in the format that isn't allowing what you usually love about their work the space to flourish? Short stories are tricky beasts. And some people have the mastery of them and some just really don't. I listen to a fair few on my commute (means I can stop and not feel I have to sit in the car for 10 minutes to get to the end of a chapter) and some are excellent. And then...

Currently on a good one, half way through the Hidden Girl and Other Stories which is maybe a bit more sci fi than my normal selection, but is working out well.

>126 msf59: ha, that's what he thinks!

>57 richardderus: But ... that's because they're palindromes.

>128 ronincats: 💗

>131 richardderus: I don't have Facebook but I could see it. What did you do??

Hiya, RDear. Happy Tuesday to you.

>130 richardderus: Ah, I had that experience with the author of Midwife of the Blue Ridge, which I loved. I abhorred and abandoned her second book, The Tory Widow, received as an ER book, and wrote an honest review. She stopped communicating with me. Just for shits and giggles, I’ve posted the review on my thread.

Tuesday *smooches*

211 Whole (Whole, #1) by E.A. Rohler

Rating: 3* of five

The Publisher Says: Imagine stumbling upon a parallel universe in which every person on Earth has a second self – another part of themselves preventing them from truly being whole – everyone, that is, except you.

For 22-year-old Mara Martin, discovering there is a world where her deceased father is still alive and the love of her life wants nothing to do with her is a lot to take in. Her own life was finally falling into place, and now she must wrap her head around the alternate lives of everyone she knows. Throw in the fact that she is part of an elite group of people who are designated to save the Earth from eventual destruction, and she just might start losing her mind – but not without learning a thing or two about love along the way.

I TRIED A FREE KINDLE SAMPLE OF THIS BOOK FROM BOOKBUB.

My Review: Three stars for the premise, none for the execution. The first-person narration was entirely too girly. clothes and cakes and her hawt boyfriend. Then, at the end of the sample *bam* everything changes.

I've been down that path too many times to want to do it again...disbelief, anger, whining "I wanna go home" ad nauseam. Plus I don't care about clothes and only slightly more about cakes if we're not going to be seeing a lot of them. As in, if cakes are the point then I'll go with it.

What I won't do is spend 99¢ on a whiny girl.

>135 bell7: Thanks, Mary! *smooch*

>134 karenmarie: OIC...well, I did read your review on your thread. It was...bracingly honest.

*smooch* for a Tuesday to remember!

>133 humouress: Hackers stole my account and changed my security questions. *shrug* I live just fine without it.

re: 57...yes, but that isn't the ONLY thing they have in common so it isn't the whole answer.

>132 Helenliz: I liked Liu's current collection, too. My issue is that when I'm reading a collection (like Liu's f/ex) that *works* as a whole, as a unit, I can read them one after another. In this case they just...don't fit together. But I figured out (on Horrible's thread) how to start the review: "This is a collection to dip into not slurp down greedily." I can work with that!

>136 richardderus: I will not spend 99 cents on her either!

Happy Tuesday, RD. ((Hugs)) and **smooches** for today

>138 alcottacre: I think you'd be too irked to endure too much of her, Stasia. She's Mary Sue the TSTL Twinkiefluff.

*smooch* to you, too!

Hi Dear Richard, a belated happy new thread, i seem to be always so far behind on new threads this year, oh well i will try to do better in 2022.

Sending love and hugs from both of us along with Hannah and Elliott, dear friend.

Hey, RD. I started Hench today. It has been a fun ride. I like her style.

>141 msf59: Hi Mark! Happy that you're happy so far. I think it holds up all the way through.

>140 johnsimpson: Hi There, John! I'm glad to see you making the rounds. You and Karen and the family stay safe and well.

I finished A Terrible, Horrible, No Good Year tonight and loved it, RD. Thanks for the recommedation of that one.

Happy Wednesday, Richard!

>136 richardderus: Too bad about that one. The general plot sounded interesting though.

>144 figsfromthistle: It was so disappointing for that reason, Anita. Very good idea and ruined by the way it's written. Perfect, I suppose, for someone whose tastes are more women's fiction-y.

>143 alcottacre: Oh, I'm so glad! I admit I'm not surprised, since it's such an upbeat and encouraging work. I can't think of too many who wouldn't appreciate it!

212 Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden

Rating: 4.75* of five

The Publisher Says: A groundbreaking thriller about a vigilante on a Native American reservation who embarks on a dangerous mission to track down the source of a heroin influx.

Virgil Wounded Horse is the local enforcer on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. When justice is denied by the American legal system or the tribal council, Virgil is hired to deliver his own punishment, the kind that’s hard to forget. But when heroin makes its way into the reservation and finds Virgil’s nephew, his vigilantism suddenly becomes personal. He enlists the help of his ex-girlfriend and sets out to learn where the drugs are coming from, and how to make them stop.

They follow a lead to Denver and find that drug cartels are rapidly expanding and forming new and terrifying alliances. And back on the reservation, a new tribal council initiative raises uncomfortable questions about money and power. As Virgil starts to link the pieces together, he must face his own demons and reclaim his Native identity. He realizes that being a Native American in the twenty-first century comes at an incredible cost.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: This is a Brulé Lakota Winter Count:

This cultural tradition, extremely briefly summarized in a Wikipedia article, organizes this novel’s ideas. Virgil Wounded Horse, our aptly and prophetically named vigilante-cum-enforcer hero in this thriller, touches on this fascinating piece of (half) his ancestry’s sense of time and place often enough to make the title of the book emerge organically in the reader’s mind. Virgil muses at one point, “Winter counts were the calendar system used by the Lakota, but they weren't like modern ones. I'd loved the little pictures in the calendars, each image showing the most significant event from the past year.” He muses again, at a later point, “Winter counts. This was the winter of my sorrow, one I had tried to elude but which had come for me with a terrible cruelty.” I think both are ideas of how he, his world, and his sense of self, are in motion at all times. It makes his entire life spent in action make sense…he’s not a Lakota insider, like ex-girlfriend Marie Short Bear, whose ancestry is flawlessly pureblood and perfectly in tune with the power structure within the Rosebud Reservation. He’s not an insider in the white world, either, being a mixed-race outcast from its racist system. It’s been a blessing in that any curse can be turned into an advantage if you’re looking for a way to do it. He’s got a place enforcing justice outside white and Native American legal systems, as required.

What this means is that the character is perfect for a thriller that needs telling to get people to care about the problems heaped on Outsiders, Othered people, by all systems of government. The tribal justice system (arguably distorted by its necessary accommodation to white codes) as much as any other. Virgil is outside, and that is the perfect place to be when the upper echelon needs something done that won’t “look good.” The value of face, of taking things at face value, is something white people with our media obsession have raised to virtual apotheosis; it’s far from untrue of other cultures, however. Marie Little Bear’s tribal leadership position means he can’t directly do the effective thing against the drug cartels hooking Native kids on heroin, with the well-known tragic consequences.

Had the plague not touched Virgil’s nephew, hard, he wouldn’t have agreed to take on the violent and greedy and frankly evil people. But when it’s family, things look different, don’t they. What happens on the reservation has its roots in the not-distant city of Denver. Marie and Virgil set out to confront the ills of their corner of the world by going outside that corner, by bearding the lion in his den, and they are not surprisingly at some disadvantages there. It is as revealing to consider their troubles and issues within the white world of Denver as to examine the world of the reservation in promotion, tolerance, and perpetuation of toxic social maladjustment.

I’m impressed by the way this thriller uses its author’s straddled worlds…he’s Lakota and teaches Native American Studies at the Metropolitan State College of Denver, so clearly he’s quite adept at code-switching…as a full and integrated world for Virgil Wounded Horse. We’re not expected to see Virgil as a man out of place in two worlds, we’re expected to see a man discovering his place in his own world. It is a fine distinction, but an important one. Virgil is an outsider in each of those large, obvious social constructs. He is making his own world, one in which he is the norm, as in the end that is what we all must do to “fit in.” Where the world doesn’t have a place for you, make one.

That is the gift of this read to the reader. Join Virgil Wounded Horse in his thrilling world.

This post is the 1,000th on my blog! I’ve written many thousands of book reviews over the years of many truly enjoyable books. I’m very happy that, after eight and a half years, I’ve reached this milestone blog post with a review of a book I’m happy to recommend that you read as a Booksgiving treat to yourself.

>146 richardderus: - Onto the list!

Wednesday smooch. x

>146 richardderus: Hah! Already on my list - it made it right onto my Overdrive wishlist.

Hiya, RD and a very happy Wednesday to you!

>136 richardderus: Huh. Unoriginal premise wedded to zero stars for execution.

>146 richardderus: Unoriginal premise wedded to excellent execution. Having just watched Longmire, the themes are fresh in my mind and I'll pass, at least for now. Congratulations on your 1000th blog post.

*smooch*

>149 karenmarie: Hiya Horrible, how's tricks? Yeah, >136 richardderus: is a disappointment, but at least it didn't cost me 99¢ to find out.

I don't think the premise of >146 richardderus: was the point so much as the execution and the #OwnVoices aspect. It's getting tougher for me to read outsider-y takes on the world's many corners. The consciousness shift has happened....

*smooch*

>148 drneutron: Happy to know it's there, Jim, it's a thumping good read. Enjoy it!

>147 katiekrug: My aim is true...ha!! *smooch*

Latest news from Webb Telescope - problem with the ground system comms with the spacecraft on top of the launch vehicle. Delayed until December 24....

Uh-huh. Shocked, shocked, I'm not. Maybe it will get launched during the Civil War coming to a Capitol near you.

This is what we call the death march to launch. Every day something new pops up that has to be squashed. PSP was the same way...

>151 drneutron: So much for the 12/22/21 numerical palindrome safety net. 12/24 now....dang it! But soon!

>130 richardderus: R--Sorry about the lackluster SS collection from the usually admired author who shall remain nameless. Good luck writing the review!

>154 Berly: Hi there Berly-boo! Oh, I'll be fine now that I've cracked the first-line problem. It was staring me in the face...the more time I spent reading, the less happy I felt...that's kind of a clue, right there.

>153 drneutron: In any system this complex and complicated there are a squillion things that can go wrong and only one way for it all to go right. That's like making a playground for Probability.

>146 richardderus: Adding that one to the BlackHole. Congratulations on 1000 posts on your blog, RD!

((Hugs)) and **smooches** for today

>156 alcottacre: Yay! Another hit!

Thanks for the congrats. It only took 7 years, leaving out the mental-health crisis year. Of course there are more *reviews* than that up!

>157 richardderus: Well, the 7 years were going to go by at any rate, so you might as well have been doing something constructive during them anyway :)

>158 alcottacre: Pretty much describes why I do what I do. Plus needing an external memory! I still find books I've reviewed that I can't really remember that well.

>146 richardderus: Congratulations on 1000 blog posts, Richard!

>146 richardderus: Congratulations on the 1000 blog posts and all the reviews. That does sound a worthy installment with which to reach such a milepost.

Interesting activist on the loose in Texas!

>161 quondame: How Cthulhu-approvèdly chilling....

And donated by T. Boone Pickens LOLOLOL oh yes, that really made my day brighter! Heh.

>161 quondame:, >160 FAMeulstee: Thanks, y'all. It actually snuck up on me this year.

Great review of Winter Counts, Richard. This one was on my radar, fell off at some point and now it is back, thanks to you.

>163 msf59: Thanks, Mark! It's been a labor of love, and an effective answer to the "...now that I'm awake, what'll I do?" issue that bedevils so many.

I think you'll really enjoy the read...Winter Counts is violent, and it's gritty in its honesty about the problems of its setting, but it's oddly hopeful for all that.

I'm really surprised I'm not further behind on your thread than I was. I had a horrible post-booster headache that kept me in bed most of the day. Thanks to acetaminophen, it's beginning to ease--at least enough to check in at LT.

Happy Thursday, Richard dear!

>167 FAMeulstee: Thursday greetings, Anita! Have a terrific day. *smooch*

>166 weird_O: Delightful, Bill, and so creative...I am always amazed at how something like that occurs to a found-object artist.

>165 thornton37814: Things are slowing down before the end-of-2021 burst as the new group goes up. Have a good Thursday, Lori!

213 The Santa Suit by Mary Kay Andrews

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: From Mary Kay Andrews, the New York Times bestselling author of Hello, Summer, comes a novella celebrating the magic of Christmas and second chances in The Santa Suit.

When newly-divorced Ivy Perkins buys an old farmhouse sight unseen, she is definitely looking for a change in her life. The Four Roses, as the farmhouse is called, is a labor of love—but Ivy didn't bargain on just how much labor. The previous family left so much furniture and so much junk, that it's a full-time job sorting through all of it.

At the top of a closet, Ivy finds an old Santa suit—beautifully made and decades old. In the pocket of a suit she finds a note written in a childish hand: it's from a little girl who has one Christmas wish, and that is for her father to return home from the war. This discovery sets Ivy off on a mission. Who wrote the note? Did the man ever come home? What mysteries did the Rose family hold?

Ivy's quest brings her into the community, at a time when all she wanted to do was be left alone and nurse her wounds. But the magic of Christmas makes miracles happen, and Ivy just might find more than she ever thought possible: a welcoming town, a family reunited, a mystery solved, and a second chance at love.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: Author Andrews is an established force in romantic-fiction publishing, with thirty-ish successes on her credits. You know, therefore, that you're not going to feel duped or cheated when you read her work. There is no realistic chance you're getting some hyped-up yet unsatisfying work, something you'd look at with frustration as you wondered how to get back those three hours.

What's on offer here is a sweet, unsteamy romantic story about a house, its secrets, and a town full of the kind of people you wouldn't look at twice unless you Believe, like Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. After all, who's to say who's who? The fact that everyone, literally everyone, comes out of this short read with exactly what they need and what the want, well...it's a category romance with a Christmas theme and its title is The Santa Suit. You're getting what you signed up for!

I was drenched in Satan's piss three times (that is, the w-bomb was dropped on my unwilling reader's head) but with a twist: the w-bomber was in all three cases a woman doing that at another woman! So that had the virtue of novelty. It did not make it more pleasant.

There are the expected numbers of miracles, aka coincidences, in the course of the film, I mean novella! There are people doing the right thing grudgingly. but doing it; there are a lot of reminders that this isn't the Big City and everyone knows everyone else. That, mes vieux, is again what you signed up for. And you're going to get your HEA with a heaping tablespoon of sentimentality, too. I can't help myself...I lapped it up, I gurgled with disgust when w-bombed and I squirmed a wee tiny bit when gender politics made me uncomfortable (the Bechdel Test score here is not zero...it's negative). But I lapped it up.

One big reason is that Author Andrews is a seriously experienced wordsmith. I can't quote you any special lines, they're all perfectly adequate and none are lumpenly out of place; they aren't memorable. I didn't go in expecting them to be, so another check in the met-expectations box. I wasn't planning to write a whole review, only a Burgoine, but the presence of the dog Punkin and the four hens (a-calling!, in this case) and the overwhelming presence of Shiny Brite and C9 decorations...well...I was weak.

I love the verve and gusto of people who decorate their fool heads off for the Solstice Holiday, call it Yule or Saturnalia or Christmas. It's a dark, long night and we need the blessèd relief of bright colors and shiny surfaces. In our reads, too. Enjoy this one. Happy Holiday!

Morning, BigDaddy! Congrats on 1,000 blog posts! Whoa. Finally caught back up with you, and I had fun doing it. *smooch*

>146 richardderus: A direct hit. Onto The List it goes.

>169 richardderus: I love some of her older stuff - we were just talking about Savannah Blues over on Katie's thread.

>170 Crazymamie: Hi Mamie! I'm glad you enjoyed getting caught up here, and looka me! Even gotcha square and fair with a book-bullet.

The Santa Suit isn't a startling work of genius, or a slab of simply perfect prose, but it was a good version of what it is.

‘Morning, RDear! Happy Thursday to you.

>149 karenmarie: I’d rate Longmire about 6-6.5 or so on a scale of 1=white men are supreme, 10=insider-take on a culture is the only valid construct.

>152 richardderus: …the Civil War coming to a Capitol near you. Scary and not out of the range of actually happening.

>169 richardderus: I have 7 by Andrews, 1 unread (Deep Dish), and I love her stuff. I’m happily surprised that you like her, too.

>171 richardderus: …a good version of what it is. A perfect way of saying it.

*smooch* from your own Horrible

>172 karenmarie: I concur with your Longmire rating...by no stretch the worst, better than many, not #OwnVoices but sensitive enough not to set off my gag reflex.

I'm not averse to a story with romantic tinges featuring straight people. I just don't want to be reminded of the mechanics. Andrews dodges that bullet.

Happy Thursday! *smooch*

A 1,000 Long(mire) Santa Suits!!! Happy Thursday. Smooch.

>146 richardderus: Went to add that one to my wishlist, and find it's already there!

>175 laytonwoman3rd: Well then, time to move it up, Linda3rd! It will repay you handsomely for the read.

>174 Berly: Ha! Cute one, Berly-boo. Thanks, and happy Thursday to you too. *smooch*

>168 richardderus: I looked for the new group the other day and didn't see it. I'll have to look again!

>60 richardderus: I like this challenge! It's diverse, and I bet would make you find some gems.

And knitted and steampunk octopi (?) as well!

>178 LovingLit: I agree, Megan, it's a fun one. I hope it does lead to some cool discoveries.

The octopodes are my faves. Big shock, no?

>177 thornton37814: It's not up yet, but the day it goes up this is a ghost town populated by a few weirdos (eg Horrible, Katie) who insist 2022 starts on 1 January. I myownself think any year starts when I say it does, because it matters not at all to the calendar (an entirely artificial construct since the year began on different dates in days of yore, and still begins at other times in other calendrical systems...yet it's all one planet).

>179 richardderus: - I'm not one of the "weirdos" who refuses to make a thread before the first of the year! I actually wish the new group would go up a bit earlier, but I understand Jim's logic about it and endeavor to be patient...

Happy Thursday, RD! ((Hugs)) and **smooches** for today

>179 richardderus: Well, this is the regime under which I've lived my whole life so I'll just accept that one arbitrary, tough had I a choice, September would be the 7th month. I read a speculation that some men in Rome were named after their birth months rather than Septimus etc. being the 7th son, thus giving us clues as to what months earlier in the year were called or something of the sort - I believe July and August were Latin versions of 5th and 6th, but the rest of the relevant information, if any, has sieved away.

>182 quondame: I am sure Amber will know, if you need to check up.

I'm not as sanguine as you are, I guess; things need to work *for*me* or I ignore them.

>181 alcottacre: *smoochiesmoochsmooch*

>180 katiekrug: ...I could've sworn you were! I'm sorry, you're not one of those weirdos just the common-or-garden weirdo we all know and love.

>179 richardderus: >183 richardderus: I am one of those weido's, at least I was the last five years. And plan to continue ;-)

>179 richardderus: I'm one of those who sticks to the calendar year for the groups, but others can (and do) choose when they want to begin.

>185 thornton37814:, >184 FAMeulstee: ...weirdos...calendars are all completely made up! Even the solar year doesn't (and can't be made to) match human calendars. Oh well...I'll see y'all over in the 2022 threads after the 1st, then.

Now about Jim starting the group, who has the juice to go jog his elbow?

>186 richardderus: I may visit them prior to the 1st, but I won't begin posting books until the 1st.

>182 quondame:. I thought July and August were the added months - named after Julius Caesar and Emperor Augustus, respectively. Because nothing says power like being able to alter time itself. >:-)

I reside in the Category group, which starts in October each year. Just to allow loads of time to get sorted.

>184 FAMeulstee: >185 thornton37814: I'm with you, ladies! I'm not like some people who think the calendar revolves around them ;0)

>189 humouress: It would appear, Madam, that you are suggesting the calendar...nay, the Universe...does not revolve around moi. Absurd on its face, disprovable by facts, yet I still must remind you that this is lèse-majesté and that it carries Consequences.

>188 Helenliz: Considering the magnitude of the organizational task required by the Category Challenges, an extra three months to plan an executable strategy is urgent.

>187 thornton37814: It's all down to the person doing it...one gets to organize one's life to one's liking outside the workplace. It's the perk of being a grownup lady or laddie.

Happy Friday, Richard. Jackson time this AM. Yah! It looks like winter temps are back for a while, but it shouldn't keep me from hitting the trails, I just have to add a couple more layers. At the halfway point of Hench and it continues to entertain.

Morning, BigDaddy! We have made it to Friday! Love the calendar discussion.

‘Morning, RDear!

>173 richardderus: It’s always gratifying when you and I agree on something.

>179 richardderus: I am another one of those weirdos who insist 2022 will start on January 1. I have my first-of-the-year thread almost ready, but I like clean cut-offs and lines in the sand.

>184 FAMeulstee: and >185 thornton37814: Yay Anita and Lori!

>186 richardderus: Yes, it’s totally arbitrary. ATD, my dear. Come January 1 I'll be hundreds of messages on dozens of threads behind.

Heh. I see all the talk about the new group...

Let's just say my calendar is clearing up mid next week...

My annual Yuletide message is posted at Expendable Mudge Muses Aloud. I'll be slacking on posting reviews...I'm over 200 on the blog and waaaay over that here...but will be reading and pondering what to make out of 2022.

Goals...goals...always need goals....

Eating Bûche de Noël!

>194 drneutron: Y'all heard it here first!! We get a Yule giftie from the Solar Astronomer!

>193 karenmarie: Sweetiedarling...I wouldn't dream of adding stress to your day...but isn't hundreds of messages on dozens of threads behind on 1 Jan the very definition of stress? And wouldn't it be wise to make "healthy heart-wise decisions" one of your EARLY resolutions? And wouldn't that entail, oh I don't know, bending your self-imposed rule about at least visiting and commenting in the new group for the first time ever?

I'll leave you to ponder.

>192 Crazymamie: Calendars are *fascinating* because they say so much about the way we see the world and how we, as a mass, decide to organize information. And they touch every one of us, every day, and make our worlds look a certain way...that's IMMENSE power, imposed from a source we can't just decide to revoke!

>191 msf59: Hiya Mark! I hope you're enjoying your grandbaby time!

>194 drneutron: - Oooh, yay! And isn't that a tad earlier than usual? I seem to recall that you usually don't post the new group until after Christmas. But I am not complaining!

Happy Friday, RD. I feel personally attacked by this spring-like weather. Where's my cold and snow to get me in the holiday spirit?!?!

>197 katiekrug: Thank you, smoochling, same back at'cha. Go read this HILARIOUS obituary! I plotzed.

Next week it's supposed to get *seriously* cold! Like, yay, but what the hell Weather Goddess why wait until the WEEK OF?!?

>198 richardderus: - Ha! I saw that obit a few days ago. So hilarious. And now I have life (or death?) goals.

I don't want it to get too cold while we are away because I will worry about frozen pipes and such. I can't win...

>197 katiekrug: For the last bunch of years I've waited until the week between Christmas and New Year's Day, usually the 26th or 27th. I just feel like doing it next week and I've got the time while babysitting the folks working on remodeling a bathroom.

>200 drneutron: Yay! And may I say again for emphasis, YAAAAAY!!!

>199 katiekrug: Oh, yeah...I forgot about the in-laws. Oh hell.

Death goals! HA! That's what I got: Death goals. I want Rob to write me an obit like that!

Cool and crisp here - and I'm just watching a glorious sunset, with the glowing red ball dropping across the bay.
Ruined by the fact that I'm still working and have a cracking head ache. But pretty all the same.

I'm off island for a week from next Wednesday, but I don't think there is any chance of my pipes freezing! Just sad I'll miss my Christmas day sea swim - we are going in for New Years instead :)

4 stars for a Mary Kay Andrews - nice! I confess I haven't read any of her books, but perhaps when I am in the right mood (and I don't have quite such a stack of library books breathing down my neck) I will try one. I read Elin Hilderbrand for the first time this year and enjoyed it.

Funny to see the different responses to the old group/new group and thread reading and posting. I seem to be an outlier - I usually set up my thread early, if I have the time, and shift over all my stars and concentrate on people's "next year" thread, but other than responding to posters, I'm not super active on my own thread until the 1st of the year. I still have Dec wrap-ups and favorites of the year to sort out. So that's how I handle the plethora of posts that come at the end of December. But with the holidays landing on a weekend, I've got both Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve off from work, so who knows i may do things differently this year.

>203 bell7: It's all seriously mood-altering weirdness for me, Mary. I knew from a prior experience of one of her books (no faintest recollection of which one) that I wouldn't be all up in the straight-people business (which is a deal-breaker for me) so I could afford to take the risk.

It was fine.

I think it'll be tougher for me this year than others to go over early. I need to think carefully about next year's plans because I really need to get this astonishing backlog all handled. And *gulp* I absolutely MUST do something about indexing my blog. It's scandalous that I can spend a half-hour seeking one particular review because Google has done zero to improve the site-search function on Blogger. So it's up to me *sob* to start the damn process already and to get it done by 31 December 2022.

nnnnnnoooooo now I've written it down! It will haunt me if I don't live up to it!!

>202 BekkaJo: Um, no, Bekka...freezing isn't likely. But your New Year's Day dip might be a weentsy tidge cooler than you're planning for....

Have a delight of a Holiday, and thank you for stopping in! *smooch*

I got my Yule-traditional warm thing to wear today!

I love this shade of green, it makes me happy every time I see it. And warm? It's got a fleece lining!

Did someone from here visit my Amazon wishlist and gift me with a copy of Green Mountain, White Cloud? If so, thanks! If not, *aaarrrgh* because not acknowledging gifts makes me a crazy person! (Okay, crazyer.) And if it was you, go complain to Half Price because they didn't include the card. Unless...oh dear...it's an eeeville plotte to send me over the edge....

>205 richardderus: - Love that green! We always get my MIL something warm as one of her Christmas presents since she moved from South Florida to Northern Virginia. My granny used to always get me mom something warm because Mom was always cold, even in the depths of summer...

>198 richardderus: OMG that obit! I'd have to write one for myself if I wanted all the juicy details of my misspent youth to come out because I've not shared many of them with my lovely (and really quite naive) daughter.

Happy Friday, Richard!

>208 Storeetllr: Ha! She'd get quite the eyeful, then...but better late than never?

Happy Frey's Day! *smooch*

>207 katiekrug: Isn't that just delish? While I'm seldom cold, it makes a difference to have something cuddly to keep me from getting that way. Although I'd trade all my clothes for Simu Liu snuggling up....

>209 richardderus: Heh. Or maybe I'll just take it all to the grave with me and spare everyone the appalled horror.

>210 Storeetllr: Stuff and nonsense! What's a misspent youth for, if not to terrify and revolt the (grand)kids in one's old age!

>188 Helenliz: The names were changed, but the months weren't added - though a day was stolen from the end of the year (our February) to make them 31 days each. The year started in March, but one source I read said there weren't "months" between December and March, just well, days. Strange as January is named after the Roman Janus.

>198 richardderus: Oh that is brilliant!

>205 richardderus: If the color is anywhere close to what shows up on my screen, it is a fabulous shade. Fleece is the right response to cold, for sure.

>205 richardderus: Lovely color, Richard dear, looks good!
I think your hands and feet need some protection to the cold.

>213 FAMeulstee: Heh...it's 16C today, Anita, I was modeling the hoodie and, the instant my friend clicked her camera, I ripped that sweaty thing off! *whew*

>212 quondame: It's utterly brilliant and I can tell he was his mother's son...too bad he's a top. (If you read this, sweetienubbins, that was a joke.)

I was quite surprised that the color came out so well! The lighting in the back room isn't great but that green conquered all. It's one big reason I love it so much.

The new hoodie looks very cozy, RDear, although I did have a giggle over pairing it with sandals. Wishing you more seasonally-appropriate temperatures soon! *smooch*

>215 MickyFine: Ha! Yes, sandals with hoodie is a bit weird...though indoors a hoodie is just plain weird no matter what.

Happy weekend-ahead's reads! *smooch*

You look MAHvelous. I love that color, and it's one of Rae's favorites.

>216 richardderus: "...though indoors a hoodie is just plain weird no matter what." A hoodie is my preferred garb. I wear one inside most days. Not out because Georgia. *sigh*

>217 Crazymamie: But Mamie...it's never below 80° in Jawjuh. Why on Earth would you need a hoodie anywhere?

Thank you, sweetiedarling. I adore the color!

-Harry Bliss

^Wow, this one was drawn especially for you, RD.

>205 richardderus: Ready to rumble!

Morning, BigDaddy! Happy Saturdayness.

>218 richardderus: But I am from Indiana. I like the weight and feel of a hoodie.

>219 msf59: This made me laugh!

Hi Richard. Been awhile since I've been here. Either that, or things are moving at breakneck speed here...

I also love the calendar talk. Me, I'm in it for the pictures. ;-) I usually have at least 3 calendars on my walls, maybe 4. A moveable art-fest.

‘Morning, RDear! Happy one-week-before-Christmas to you.

>194 drneutron: The longer you wait, Jim, the less overwhelmed I’ll be on January 1….. just sayin’.

>195 richardderus: I saw a video of how to make Bûche de Noël, just can’t imagine the energy needed for it this year. The recipe calls for the making of meringue mushrooms – they’re very cute.

>196 richardderus: You’re maddeningly logical, of course, and I’m maddeningly stubborn. I’ll ponder. We’ll see. *smile*

>198 richardderus: Had I been sipping coffee while reading that obituary, I’d have snorted coffee and/or choked. What an obituary! What a writer that daughter is.

>205 richardderus: Very nice. I guess it’s you in there… Gorgeous color.

>208 Storeetllr: I haven’t shared too many of the details of my misspent youth with Jenna either… Bill knows and married me anyway.

>216 richardderus: Dare I admit that I only switch out of jammies when I have to go out in public? I have two pair of delicious fleece jammies for the winter. We keep the house coolish anyway, and I don’t overheat.

*smooch* from your own Horrible

>222 karenmarie: Hi Horrible! *smooch* for a good and restful Saturday.

I don't switch out of jammies when I need to go outside anymore. I wear thick, fleecy jammies instead of flimsy yoga pants, but that's my concession to etiquette. What fer? Nothing's outside that should be in and no one can see through them....

It was her gay son who wrote the obit, sweetiedarling. Sadly he and I are not a good fit position-wise, or I'd be on the way to Manhattan...(I promise that was a joke, Rob)

Pondering is good.

>221 jessibud2: Hi Shelley! I used to be much more into the pictures on calendars than I am now. I'd keep them, thinking I'd reuse the images somehow; then realized I was never going to do some art project and chucked 'em in the bin. New-calendar-day ritual now involves going through them after they're down and then firmly binning the thing.

>220 Crazymamie: Hiya Mamie me lurve, how's tricks? I'd feel suffocated wearing a hoodie in Georgia! But it ain't my corpus so I merely note the, um, noticeable disconnect between need and use.

Ain't that a hoot and a holler?

>219 msf59: I absolutely feel Seen, Mark! Bliss clearly knows me well, though we've never met.

Happy Saturday!

>223 richardderus: Aack. I read it too quickly. I've saved it to a Word document - printed it so Bill could read it - and will read it again with my new perspective.

"...I merely note the, um, noticeable disconnect between need and use." But I need to be comfortable. A hoodie is comfort for me.

>226 Crazymamie: Fair point.

>225 karenmarie: Heh. See if you feel differently!

>224 richardderus: - I make envelopes from old calendar pages! And yes, that means I *do* write letters and postcards and send real snail mail to people. Thus, my envelopes. :-) I knew I had saved them for a reason! ;-)

>228 jessibud2: I am so deeply uncraftsy that I'd make a complete dog's breakfast of such a project. Sounds pretty cool, though!

200,000 watts of power from the sun has to be almost totally blocked?! YOWZA

Watch The Insane Engineering of James Webb Telescope on Real Engineering, an Irish engineer's YouTube channel.

I missed the obituary the first read through, and have gone back and read it. SO funny. May I be sent up in as much style (though... I'm not sure I've lived quite the exciting enough life for it).

Talking about hot weather, it was warm enough that I would have went swimming today if the creek hadn't been flooded.

>232 SilverWolf28: UGH!! That's just not right for December north of the 30th Parallel.

>231 bell7: I showed it to Rob and he said he wasn't sure he wanted to know enough to write because he's so boring he'd just be jealous and anxious.

>228 jessibud2: >229 richardderus: I still have calendars from the 70s. And 80s. And one from the 90s. *sigh* I finally tossed a bunch when I moved from Colorado to NY, but I did keep some. I keep meaning to do something with them, but, like you, Richard, it somehow never happens. >228 jessibud2: That does sound cool!

>234 Storeetllr: - I just take apart a few different sized envelopes and use those as templates. It's really not difficult and it's fun!

>235 jessibud2:, >234 Storeetllr: It sounds like sewing, or knotting, or crocheting...Black Art impossible for seven-thumbed people like me.

Happy Sunday!

>205 richardderus: Looks nice and warm!

'Morning, RD!

Today I'll be working on making sure all the bags of Friends book donations are filled reasonably so Friends book sale team members Richard and Lindy can take them away and free up my Library again. Of course, a few might make their way on to my shelves from the donation whose donor said I could have what I wanted... it's been 11 months and I'm looking through them again. Tsundoku reigns at my house today, I think.

*smooch*

>238 karenmarie: Ooohhh, that sounds delightful, and an enviable way to spend Sunday!

Not to mention the pleasures of getting your library back. *smooch* with just a little *happy dance*

>237 figsfromthistle: Hi Anita! Thank you, and the same wishes heartily returned. Today being chilly, I will probably give that bad boy a test run sometime soon.

>233 richardderus: This is the hottest December that I can ever remember. The latest I've went swimming in previous years was late October.

>205 richardderus: I love the hoodie, RD, and completely agree about the shade of green. Looks like you are nice and toasty.

I hope you have a wonderful week. ((Hugs)) and **smooches**

>204 richardderus: Sea temperature is currently around 10.2 Celsius, so not too bad. It doesn't feel it AT ALL but it's warmer than the air temp - which maxed at around 8.7 Celsius yesterday.

Just a pot weekend de-lurk anyway. And I too like the jumper. Love me a hoodie.

Happy day, Richard. It's cooled off here quite a bit, and I'm going to have to scrape the frost off my car before work.

'Morning, RD!

Coffee, reading The Guncle, rehab, and working on the books is the plan for today. I hope your plan is a good'un, too.

*smooch*

>244 karenmarie: Happy Monday, Horrible! I hope The Guncle is amusing and entertaining you between bouts of moving the books around which goodness knows is a bad idea for someone who's just had a STEMI but far be it from me....

>243 bell7: Here as well, Mary, it's a whopping 38°/3C after the low 60s last weekend. I'm scraping frost off my toes!

Tomorrow it's Yule! If this ancient seasonal celebration isn't familiar, my #bookblogger cred is @ your disposal: https://tinyurl.com/2p98v28n
I'm celebrating #Yuletide & #Booksgiving by reading. Don't faint. It's out of character, I know. I'll be reminding you of good reads!

Hey, RD. I hope those current reads are treating you right. I haven't seen a review in a little while. Just a few pages left in Hench. You were spot on with this one, my friend.

>247 msf59: Yay for Hench-loving! It's just about the best superhero story I've ever read.

>246 richardderus: OK, now I'm afraid!

>249 quondame: *tsk* that is an angel, as described in the bible! Heathens are the only ones who need to fear.

>250 richardderus: Well, I happen to be a heathen, and there is a good reason their first words are so often quoted as "Be not afraid!" Not very Raphael.

>246 richardderus: Looking forward to those reminders!

>252 alcottacre: Heh...I mostly keep them to Twitter and Goodreads.

>251 quondame: And it's very telling to me that their messiah's first words on reappearing are "don't touch me!"
***
Thanks to The Girls of Grinch Gulch, I've decided to post my Yule tackiness here only. After all one wouldn't wish to cause annoyance!

I know it is Tuesday, Richard dear, but it is also Midwinter. Happy Yule!

Grinchy Girl, checking in with Tuesday greetings and smooches. xx

Morning, BigDaddy! Another Grinchy Girl checking in. I started Hench last night, which made me think of you. *smooch*

Morning (to you, afternoon for us). Grinchy Girl three checking in. I'm relying on threads like this to let me know what day it is - on holibobs.

>254 FAMeulstee:, >255 katiekrug:, >256 Crazymamie:, >257 Helenliz: Happy Yule, one and all! (Even the Grinchy Gulch Gang.)

Keeper of the Light by Maggie Hasbrouck

It's a weird thing. The Solstice is the MID-point of the season but we're so far removed from Nature in this world we've created that the acknowledgments of the planet's natural cycles aren't meaningful in the same way they once were.

Old Father Christmas engraving c.1845

But the urge to decorate colorfully and to make the darkening world just a bit brighter survives. It's a good thing, and whatever you call it or however you make it manifest in your world, today's astronomical event is a great symbolic moment to focus your energy onto the ongoing task of welcoming brightness and light back into your world.

Yule lights display in Brighton, England

Blessèd Yule, my lights!

>258 richardderus: - Wonderful images!

Hiya, RDear! Happy Tuesday to you.

>245 richardderus: I must admit that Bill got a teensy bit irritated with me for doing last-minute book and path-clearing stuff yesterday, but the books are now all gone (except for the last-minute Karen books from one of the donations that the original donor said I could pick through for myself). No single bag of books weighed too much, and I only carried one heavier or two lighter bags at a time. I’m stubborn but not too stupid, after all, and I split heavy bags into lighter bags. *smile*

>246 richardderus: Ah. Winter solstice, in other words. Happy reading!

*smooch*

>260 karenmarie: I'm sure Bill was worried, as anyone would be; stubborn outweighs smart far, far more often than not so it's a natural response. I'm glad for you that you're back in possession of your library. It does feel so good, doesn't it? *smooch*

>259 katiekrug: That Maggie Hasbrouck painting is simply gorgeous, isn't it? I'm glad I discovered her work: https://maggiehasbrouck.blogspot.com/p/art.html


The technique is really interesting, called "photo encaustic" which is a new one on me!

Ah pretty lights and pictures. Happy Yule to you too Richard.

>262 BekkaJo: Thanks, Bekka! *smooch*

Great Yule light from York, Richard. We love light displays - and try to contribute our own small way to lighting the dark.

>264 drneutron: The good folk of Brighton are chartering flights and packing their pitchforks to have their revenge on you for your lèse-majesté, but I concur...just stunning.

Happy Yule, Richard! This is one of my favorite days of the year, when I know the days are gradually going to become longer and bring about the green of spring. Or, at least that's how I like to think of it, though who knows anymore with global climate change. Beautiful pictures! I especially love Keeper of the Light. Stunning.

>266 Storeetllr: Happy Yule, fellow reveler! We're still far enough away from the wretched misery of summer that I can be happy for more daylight.

Maggie Hasbrouck is new to me, and a very happy discovery indeed.

>261 richardderus: These are beautiful, Richard dear, especially the man with dog!

>268 FAMeulstee: It's a lovely portrait, I agree, and of course we like it...there's a dog!

>269 richardderus: Not only the dog, it is a little abstract. Not so polished(?) as the others.

>258 richardderus: I love that top image, Richard!

>271 msf59: Isn't he magnificent? And I love that it's a "photo encaustic" which process I can't figure out...

>270 FAMeulstee: There's that, too...the realistic ones are nice but I do enjoy some thought-provoking in my figurative art.

214 A Reluctant Santa by Roan Parrish

Rating: 3.5* of five

It's exactly what it says it is...the holidays are hard for people who are lonely, and harder still for people who aren't glib and glad-handed. Here's a sweet story about two men whose holidays just got brighter because they took a chance, smiled instead of scowled, and connected. Free from the author's website, and excellent value for money spent.

215 Cabin Fever: A Best Friend's Father M/M Romance by Brigham Vaughn

Rating: 4* of five

An age-gap romance about a divorced dad falling for his son's best friend is an automatic "yes" from me. We all like seeing our lives on the page, don't we. And goodness knows the existence of romantic stories with older men as objects of desire are most agreeable to my over-60 self.

What makes this story a success is its refusal to play into the hot-young-stud seducing the older guy; the connection the men feel is more like what I experience with my own Young Gentleman Caller. Talking and laughing and enjoying time spent together is so much more important than sex because there's just so much more of it.

Given the sex scenes aren't extended, and they are pretty clearly signaled therefore easy to skip, I'd give a guarded mmmaaaybe to straight people. The men are fond of each other and quite willing to kiss but if THAT bothers you what on Earth are you doing around me anyway?!

Happy Yule Ricardo! And you do look good in green. : ) The Obit was hilarious! And Hench is NOT about superheroes but their underfamed counterparts -- the villains!! Come on, get it right. I loved it! Smooch.

>274 Berly: Happy Yule back at'cha, Berly-boo! I'm pleased I got to wear my green out in the world since it got quite chilly. I wore my red knitted cap and got "Merry Christmas!"ed all walk long. That was a lovely thing.

If there are no supervillains, what good are superheroes? Hm?

>146 richardderus: That could win my end of the year Book Recommendation prize. PM me your address, RD, so I can make sure I don't send something to the wrong place.

>205 richardderus: That could well be Lincoln green Robins Richard.

>219 msf59: Now what do cats and dogs know? Isn't poultry for the birds?

I hope that the festive season is coming upon you pleasantly, dear fellow.

Just dropping in to wish you a happy Solstice celebration as the year turns, Richard dear!

Happy Solstice to you! I've enjoyed getting caught up here, Richard. That obituary! Thanks for posting that one.

Hope you are doing well, RD. Happy Wednesday to you! ((Hugs)) and **smooches** for today.

Apparently "encaustic" is a process of using paint mixed with wax.

We just saw a show here of Jasper John's work and apparently he used a lot in the early days.

Not sure of "encaustic" photos are from the same process

‘Morning, RDear! Happy Wednesday to you.

>198 richardderus: That video’s gone viral and I saw an interview with the son on my cell phone last night.

*smooch* from your own rehab-day Horrible

>281 karenmarie: Hi Horrible, happy to see you this Humpday. Isn't it great thay he's getting his fifteen seconds of fame from telling his mother's story? I bet that would give her a laugh.

Be safe at rehab! *smooch*

>280 magicians_nephew: It's a strange thought, an encaustic photo...I can't make that fit with the process of developing the photo, and just waxing a print doesn't sound like it'd work at all. ???

>279 alcottacre: Thanks, Stasia! Looking good so far, anyway, so that works for me.

>278 AMQS: Hi Anne! I'm so glad you enjoyed it. The guy deserves his moment...that was a great gift he gave his mother. Holly happydays to you and yours.

>277 ronincats: Thank you, Roni, and the same wishes heartily returned. You're setting into having weather again quite naturally, it seems, so the Solstice must feel like something real again. *smooch*

>276 PaulCranswick: Hi PC, thanks for dropping by! I hope you'll find a chance to read Winter Counts, it was a very involving story. Lincoln green, heh, yep I'm goin' for the Robin Hood look. All's I know is it's happy-making for many who see it including me.

Just spreading the news on some of the more active threads...

There's this new thing I made... https://www.librarything.com/ngroups/23588/75-Books-Challenge-for-2022

Happy holidays!

>284 drneutron: For the only time ever, all the digits in my thread number are multiples of eleven!
https://www.librarything.com/topic/337711
Ain't that wild.

Ok, that's just weird! 😀

>285 richardderus: Cool. Strange portents for the new year, maybe?

>287 quondame: Strange indeed...just so long as they're GOOD strange.

Good strange! I feel it. : )

Happy Thursday, Richard dear!

>285 richardderus: How cool, and like Kim^ said: feels good strange :-)

Morning, BigDaddy!

>289 Berly: Me, too! Good strange is full of fabulous.

>291 Crazymamie:, >290 FAMeulstee:, >289 Berly: I am trusting to Woman's Intuition here. Work that magic, y'all.

'Morning, RD!

I see that there are already 37 messages on your first thread of 2022. I wonder if you'll already be into a second thread by January 1?

*smooch*

>285 richardderus: I love serendipitous stuff like that! ((Hugs))

>294 alcottacre: I do, too! Makes me grin all foolish-like.

>293 karenmarie: Perish forbid! I'm sure the folks who bother to take some time to coddiwomple over there won't be in that big a rush. I bet Amber's got at least 70 by now.

Happy Christmas Eve Eve!

xx

>296 katiekrug: *smooch* Third night of Yuletide, too!

Or in other words: Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!

>298 SandDune: Thank goodness for simultaneous translation for us simpletons...thanks, Rhian, and may the season bring y'all some BRIGHTness for a change.

https://pics.cdn.librarything.com//picsizes/d5/a2/d5a2ada47f63cf66369376c7a674368422f7345_v5.jpg 3x">

‘Morning, RDear! Happy Thursday to you!

>295 richardderus: Nope, Amber’s only got 42 messages. You’re now right behind her at 40.

>301 karenmarie: Thanks, Horrible! Wow...forty-two...so she DOES have all the answers!

>300 johnsimpson: Thank you, John!

Have a great holiday, Richard. What is for Christmas dinner?

>303 msf59: Beautiful owl! I'm having ham with Glory Greens on rice and sour cream. *drool*

>275 richardderus: Well, we don't really need superheroes ;0)

Wishing you and yours the very best of the season and good health and happiness for 2022.

>305 humouress: Totally with ya there, we absolutely don't!

I'm looking forward to making this damned COVID thing endemic so we can get back to Life-living instead of all this craptastic see-saw one bad idea to another nonsense. The new pills that keep the deeply vulnerable from risk of death give me real hope for a decent "normal" returning before I'm dead of other causes.

Happy Christmas Eve Whoopy-Do to You, Richard. I won't burden you with graphics. All good.

>307 weird_O: Heh, no worries either way, Your Weirdness. Spend the holiday splendidly.

>309 ronincats: *smoochiesmoochsmooch*

>310 richardderus: *smooch*

Have a wonderful holiday season, Richard!

>312 Storeetllr: Thank you, Mary! *smooch*

Merry Christmas Eve, BigDaddy! *smooch*

>314 Crazymamie: Thank you sweetiedarling!

Have a lovely holiday, RD.

Happy Holidays Richard!

>318 quondame: ...as long as you aren't *burning* them...

>317 PaulCranswick: Thanks, PC.

>316 mahsdad: I shall endeavor to keep the night holy. I'll use it to read!

Hiya, RD! Merry Christmas.

So how does Christmas get celebrated/not celebrated at a Kosher Jewish Assisted Living community?

>306 richardderus: I agree 100% - yay for eventually getting Endemic Covid.

Christmas *smooch* from your own Horrible

>320 karenmarie: Hi Horrible! It's a gray, rainy Saturday, so the Jews are busily doing their sabbath thing and the staff are feeding the inmates the usual Saturday horrors. Hard-boiled eggs from yesterday, scoops of pre-made deli salads for lunch, all because Work is forbidden on the sabbath.

There is, as one might imagine, a lot of grumbling about this. I ignore the whole thing. I'll get around to doing *my* thing later.

Thinking fondly of you today, Padre! I hope the day, and the food, gets better.

While I have a break in the Christmas action here:




I hope you have a wonderful day, RD. I love you! ((Hugs)) and **smooches**

>323 alcottacre: Thanks, Stasia! *smooch* spend it well, Sparkles

>322 London_StJ: Thank you most kindly, dear Cryptodaughter, and I of all y'all! *smooch*

>319 richardderus: Well there are the Twilights in our tinder pile.....

Merry Christmas!

May I assume you have seen this?

https://www.tor.com/2021/12/24/i-cthulhu-or-whats-a-tentacle-faced-thing-like-me...

>327 ronincats: An annual tradition chez moi for ages now! I love the sheer verve of Gaiman's take on Interview with the Vampire.

>326 SilverWolf28: Thank you, Silver!

>325 quondame: Perfectly in keeping, unquestionably the best use of them.

Hoping your having a wondetful Holiday seasion

‘Morning, RDear! Happy Sunday to you.

>321 richardderus: Urp. No thanks. And what, exactly, was your thing later?

*smooch*

Morning, BigDaddy! Sorry your Christmas Saturday was full of the dreary - I wish I could have sent you our sunshine. Hoping today is full of lazy and happy making moments. *smooch*

>331 Crazymamie: Hey there, Mamie! I've got the *perfect* winter day out there today, cold and bright with no wind to speak of. *happy sigh* I'm hoping Rob will be able to come visit for a while, but I can't be sure. Schedules rule his life, trains and work and school.

>330 karenmarie: My thing was my delicious ham/greens/rice with sour cream. Oh yum. So mush of it...and I still, over the course of the day, managed to eat it all!
*oink*

>329 BBGirl55: Thank you, Bryony, it's been just fine so far.

>332 richardderus: Crossing my fingers for the visit. Hooray for the perfect winter day!

Richard, I hope you had a lovely holiday and that you are enjoying a restful Sunday.

These were our family ornaments this year and, despite COVID, a merry time was had by all. I hope the same is true for you and here's to next year!!

>335 Berly: Facebook won't show images elsewhere, Kimmers, but I'm sure they were wonderful.

How come I can see them? Better now?

They're your photos, so your computer stores them; I'm still seeing a box.

I uploaded the photo to LT. I don't get it. Sorry...

>339 Berly: No worries! I'll re-log in, tomorrow, maybe we'll get lucky.

It was warm enough on Christmas Day that I went swimming in the creek!! The water was chilly, but I had a lot of fun!

I'm late to the game for holiday wishes but I will say an early Happy New Year to you, Richard.

>342 jessibud2: Late? Heh, early...I'm moving permanently to 2022 tomorrow.

>341 SilverWolf28: That sound awful to me, but so long as you're happy it's all good.

>343 richardderus: I am moving over before next weekend...

I hope you have a wonderful upcoming week, RD. ((Hugs)) and **smooches** I will not be setting up my thread on the new group page until next weekend.

>345 alcottacre: At your own pace, my dear lady. No one needs to do things only one way, after all. *smooch*

I, OTOH, have posted the first book review of 2022: Review 001 of 220 is of Genevieve Cogman's eighth Invisible Library novel, The Untold Story. It slapped, I'm happy to say, addressing things I'd very much hoped we'd hear about at some point; it's in post 48.

Morning, BigDaddy! You're moving over to the new thread now? Just checking so I know where to find you.

Hiya, RDear! Happy Monday to you.

Jenna will be home about 12:30 p.m. and will stay through Friday morning. I’m happy.

In the meantime, coffee, a bit of brekkie, and rehab.

*smooch*

>348 karenmarie: Hi Horrible! Oh, yes, you'll be delighted to have Jenna home that long, and no mistake. Have a good rehab! *smooch*

>347 Crazymamie: I'll respond to posts here, and notify the stragglers and malcontents that the Action is elsewhere, but nothing new here.

Hi Richard, Thanks for dropping by. As always I enjoy your comments and book reviews. Best wishes for a healthy, and fabby bookish year to come.

>349 richardderus: Gotcha!

>351 Crazymamie: :-)

>350 SandyAMcPherson: Thanks, Sandy! I'm glad you're out-n-about. Enjoy this weird tag-end of the year, either year, that a *proper* calendar (Mayas, Aztecs, Egyptians) would classify as "between" not "of" either what comes before or after.

>335 Berly: ff I couldn't see Kim's photo on any threads yesterday, until quite late in the day. Then they showed up, and are still there, for me.

>353 laytonwoman3rd: Having logged in again, I can now see it too!

>335 Berly: I LOVE them, Berly-boo! "One day of coal 364 days of fun" describes my approach to life.

>354 richardderus: Yay! You can see my snarky ornaments!! Your favorite is the one I gave my son. He loves it. : )

Hey, where are the reviews? Slacking? I know you have been reading. You can't fool us. 🙂

>356 msf59: see >346 richardderus:

>357 richardderus: Whew! Ok, thanks!

>346 richardderus: I have really got to get back to the Invisible Library series at some point. I think I have read the first 3? I am not sure even on that!

((Hugs)) and **smooches** RD

>359 alcottacre: I'd say it's probably a good idea, Stasia, since the books increase in complexity and the stakes get a lot higher as the events unfold.

>358 msf59: And today I unveiled Review #2 of 2022!

all good wishes for the new year, Richard

>361 magicians_nephew: And heartily returned, Jim!

Hiya, RD! I'm stubborn, and will visit here today for sure, may or may not visit here before I visit you on your first thread of 2022.

*smooch from one of the "stragglers and malcontents"

>363 karenmarie: *sigh* you do you, Boo. *smooch*
***
I love finding fairy-tale retellings and story re-envisionings that include me. Briarley did that, and I loved it: post 76.

Cove by Cynan Jones — my book review
I can not forget this read. I refer to it in my head, I think about its stark, vividly limned images. I am so deeply glad Author Cynan wrote it. This is my 2021 Six-Stars-of-Five read.

>365 richardderus: Quite intriguing! Definite BB for me.

Well, a 6 of 5 stars review says it all!

For all the dual-thread citizens, this post is link-land to the 2022 goals and plans in the thread y'all should be paying attention to instead of this one.
***
>367 Berly:, >366 figsfromthistle: It's a fabulous book and you should go buy one immediately.

I'll close out my somewhat infrequent posts on your thread this year, by saying, yet another BB from RD. Thanks buddy!

See you in next years thread. I'll make my migrations over on Friday.

>368 richardderus: I do what I'm told. Cove is ordered!!

>370 Berly: Excellent. I have not steered you wrong. (Well, not this time for sure.)

>369 mahsdad: See you there, then!

Which one book-bulleted you? >364 richardderus: or >365 richardderus:?

>365 richardderus: Ordered! I can follow instructions as well as the next person :)

Have a wonderful Wednesday, Richard! ((Hugs)) and **smooches**

>372 alcottacre: Heh...even when you're good, you're bad! Ordering another book...risking The Singularity by adding one more....

>373 richardderus: Ah, well. I will be well prepared for The Singularity, I suspect.

It was Cove that slew the beast.

>375 mahsdad: You won't regret it. At all.

Read my way through this thread only to see that the action is elsewhere. I'd say that's the story of my life but that's not really true when I think on it.

I had to go back and read that obit. I was a wonderful over the top tribute!

>377 Familyhistorian: It's a terrific way to send off, and up, a pistol-packin' Mama!

You're not alone, there are multitudes who find no urgency in getting rid of this fechacte year. Me, I wasn't about to wait a nano longer than physics demanded.

Happy last Thursday of 2021, Richard dear!

Sweet Thursday, RD. I read Cove about 3 years ago and thought it was just okay. Funny, how that works, right? I remember it being very short, so maybe I will revisit it one of these days.

>380 msf59: It is weird, isn't it. I just think a book's ability to move someone is a complex of events and feelings. When it's right, it's great!

>379 FAMeulstee: Thank you, Anita!

Today got away from me, but I wouldn't be me without a wish for a good Thursday, right?

*smooch*

>383 richardderus: *smooch*

https://pics.cdn.librarything.com//picsizes/5d/02/5d029540654e5a9636b45767a774368422f7345_v5.jpg 3x">

Forget your stresses and strains
As the old year wanes;
All that now remains
Is to bring you good cheer
With wine, liquor or beer
And wish you a special new year.

Happy New Year, RD.

>327 ronincats: Ooh, thanks for the link.

>346 richardderus: How did you post reviews this year (2022) for books you read last year (2021)? See, physics doesn't account for that.