Clam Reads Books & Dreams of Cheese ❂ 2022 ~ Part I ❂

It turns out that 2021 was one of my best reading years in ages. I'm sure some of that was because of the plague, but I hope that is not the only reason. I am going to attempt to keep it going. Wish me luck, good people.

>1 clamairy: Good luck, and let's hope you do not need a plague to boost your reading.

Happy 2022!

What >2 pgmcc: said.

Much luck, clam. We will all do our best to help by lobbing multiple book bullets at you. Is that helpful? ;)

>3 haydninvienna: Thank you!

>4 Marissa_Doyle: Thank you. Yes, it actually is helpful! Mostly...;o)

Good luck and happy new thread!

>6 Karlstar: Thanks, Jim!

Good luck! You shouldn't have much trouble with that, with all the helpful book bullets flying around LT pretty much all the time.

Happy New Year and happy new thread!

>8 Storeetllr: Many thanks!

Happy New Year! Duck!

Happy reading in 2022!

Happy new year, m'dear! The plague is hardly the thing we expected in the 21st century, but if it's allowing you a good reading experience then I hope that continues in 2022.

Happy New Year! This was a recovery reading year for me after a very meager 2020.

>13 stellarexplorer: Happy New Year! The same for me. I made it through 63 books in 2021, and I'm very thankful that I did.

Happy reading in 2022!

I popped in here to find out what the cheese talk might be, I admit to being slightly disappointed, but happy reading in 2022!

>16 Silversi: LOL Sorry to disappoint you. I promise I will post whenever I try a new one. I have so much cheese in my house right now, it's almost embarrassing. Both of the parties I was planning to bring cheese platters to were cancelled. Luckily my kids are coming back in a couple of weeks for my birthday.

>17 clamairy: haha, I did actually say to myself.. "Ohhh Cheese" and nothing. It's okay, I'll look forward to future cheese tasting posts. By the way, Jim and I did actually go to a cheese tasting once, it was awesome. I'll take that over wine tasting any day.

Happy New Year. I hope you find some great reads!

>18 Silversi: why not both?

>20 stellarexplorer: I did go to a wine tasting once and didn't enjoy it half as much as the cheese tasting. I guess I'm just a one glass of wine kind of girl.

I'm working on a block of aged Havarti* right now and it's delightful. It's creamier than an aged cheddar, and not quite as sharp. I can't use a photo of my chunk because of how mutilated it is.

I found this one at Costco. They have a decent and very fairly priced sellection of cheeses.

*I usually have at least a half dozen kind of cheese open at once. Sometimes twice that.

>22 clamairy: Ooohhh... Havarti is our favorite cheese. From Costco I also like the Jarlsberg, which is a Norwegian cheddar similar to Swiss. We also used to buy rounds of Swedish Farmer Cheese from Ikea but they stopped carrying it years ago. My sister found some online and gave me a tin for xmas this year but we haven't cracked it open yet.

>23 ScoLgo: Jarlsberg with olives is one of my favorite lunches. Be aware that the aged Havarti doesn't taste all that much like the regular stuff. It is its own magnificent thing.

>24 clamairy: Black or green?

(piffling about olives... ;)

>25 ScoLgo: Green! But they don't have to be stuffed.

>22 clamairy: my favorite cheese!

I also love Gouda.

Happy New Year! Cheese and books to you too!

I currently have a cheeseboard of Isle Mull cheddar, Stilton, whisky cheddar, an eglish reclette cheese called Oakenshield, and a blue (mild) goats cheese. Surprisingly it survived NYE.

Thanks for your continued stewardship of our not too unruly group.

Mrs H and I went to one of the local pubs for lunch yesterday and shared a baked Camembert as a starter. This proved to be a mistake, in that we ate so much starter that neither of us could finish our main courses. Never mind. Cheese. Gooey cheese.

>27 fuzzi: Yes! I always have a wedge of the imported Gouda at the ready, and then a smoked one as well...

>28 reading_fox: Those all sound amazing, and you are most welcome.

>29 haydninvienna: Ah, but then you brought home the rest in a doggie bag, I hope!

>30 clamairy: None of the cheese was left. Some of the toasted brioche went back. As to the mains, we actually didn’t leave enough to make it worth while, and most of the surplus was chips/fries. Good ones, but reheated chips are pretty dismal.

>31 haydninvienna: There is an art to reheating chips & fries that I have discovered. Warm them in a microwave just a little bit, then toast them in a toaster oven on parchment paper until they are sizzling. (I realize not everyone uses toaster ovens, but I don't know one can exist without one. LOL)

>32 clamairy: Agreed! A new toaster oven was found under our tree this year.

>32 clamairy: Bless you, clam, you made me laugh. Unfortunately we don’t have a toaster oven. Maybe we should.

>33 ScoLgo: & >34 haydninvienna: They are essential. Especially for me now that I am living alone. I still cook giant meals and then subsist on the leftovers for ages.

Book-reading blessings to you my friend. May this year hold many reading adventures in store for you.

What a great start to the year! Good luck keeping up your winning pace--and keeping things going in the GD. All good wishes, my dear.

Mmmm cheese.

>22 clamairy: Awesome! We haven't had Havarti in a while.

>40 Silversi: I'm not sure about that, we really enjoy a cheese by Yancey's that used to be called just Bergenost, but lately the label says 'Bergenost Havarti'. Don't care what they call it, I call it delicious.

>41 Karlstar: He did indeed prove that we have Havarti in the fridge lol, but I don't normally associate Bergenost with Havarti. I had a few slices of extra sharp cheddar tonight, wasn't feeling yancy fancy.

>40 Silversi: >41 Karlstar: >42 Silversi: I buy the Yancy Smoked Gouda. It's a lot softer than a 'real' Dutch Gouda, but I'm a sucker for smoked cheeses.

>36 clamairy: ❤️❤️❤️

>39 Bookmarque: I know...

Aldi's had a BAG of white cheddar curds for sale. It came home with me.

They're very rich, and even I can't eat more than three or four at a time!

>45 fuzzi: I visited my dad in Minneapolis in August 2018 just in time to go to their enormous state fair - I hadn't realized until then that curds come in a variety of flavors! My stepmom brought me around to her favorite fair food vendors and we tried a lot of different ones, although I still prefer the plain fried ones.

I also loved the giant green olives - they are stuffed with cheese, then breaded and fried and served on wooden skewers.

>46 Darth-Heather: ::drool::

>46 Darth-Heather: I never knew that anyone breaded and fried olives, but that sounds delicious.

>46 Darth-Heather: They sound delicious.

>43 clamairy: We've had that one too, it is excellent. We live closer to Yancey's now, so we've been happy to see there's a better selection. Trish is also fond of the steakhouse onion.

For the curious: https://www.yanceysfancy.com/ and https://www.yanceysfancy.com/grand-reserve-bergenost-havarti

>50 Karlstar: I will keep an eye out for that. My local grocery (an IGA) in Connecticut had their horseradish cheese, and I loved it. My local grocery here is also an IGA but I don't think I've seen any of their cheeses there. I've been getting the Smoked Gouda at a BJs.

Happy new year Clam! Glad to see that you are starting in style with lots of CHEESE! I hope it will be a great year for you in books too.

>45 fuzzi: Oh boy cheese curds. You know what those are good for? Poutine! So yummy.

>45 fuzzi: & >53 Silversi: I do not know these cheese curds whereof you speak. The only cheese curds I am familiar with is cottage cheese. Is that what you mean? It comes in bags?

Curds are what get get when you separate milk solids from the liquid (whey). They then get salted and sometimes seasoned with different flavors. They are cut into chunks. I really don't know the process of making cottage cheese but these curds are not in any type of cream or whatever makes cottage cheese.

>55 Silversi: Cottage cheese is curds and whey. Little Miss Muffet's interrupted meal.

>54 MrsLee: Wikipedia says this:
Cheese curds are the moist pieces of curdled milk either eaten alone as a snack, or used in prepared dishes. These are chiefly found in Quebec, in the dish poutine, and in the northeastern, midwestern, mountain, and Pacific Northwestern United States, especially in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Wikipedia

sometimes also called "squeaky cheese", the ones I get at our state fair in NH look like this:


the ones I had in Minnesota were battered and fried, sometimes coated in spices too.

>57 Darth-Heather: Is the end result all that different from Lebanese labneh, other than not being preserved in olive oil?

>58 hfglen: I don't know for sure if they are the same, but putting them in olive oil sounds really tasty. Are labneh made from cows milk?

>59 Darth-Heather: AFAIK yes, via a yoghurt stage.

>54 MrsLee: You can substitute fresh mozzarella for it in recipes--they're similar though not the same.

>57 Darth-Heather: CULVER'S...oh my.

https://www.culvers.com/stories/signature-stories/cheese-curds-meet-the-master-c...

>56 Meredy: So cottage cheese is tiny cheese curds in something? Cream? Now I'm wondering why it is healthy or diet food.

>63 Karlstar: It's in whey, and if it's made with skim or low fat milk then it's supposedly healthier. I do all full fat dairy, with the exception of ½&½ in my tea and coffee. (And that is only because I have trouble finding organic cream except in itty bitty containers!)

>55 Silversi: Oh, that's exactly what I thought it was, but I've never seen it so large before! We used to be able to buy large curd cottage cheese, which I loved. I would say that those curds were about 1/2" across. Now all I can find is the nasty tiny curds which have a granular feel in the mouth. Yeuchsh!

My brother never ate cottage cheese, and in fact doesn't eat any cheese at all, because when we had hogs and dairy cows, my grandmother made her own butter, and separated the milk from the cream. What we didn't drink, she poured into a large tub outside. Over a few days it would curdle and then she would feed it to the hogs in their grain, but in the meantime, it became full of flies and had a smell. She never made cheese for our consumption to my knowledge.

>1 clamairy: You know, I really love this time of year on LT. Everyone shows up (or at any rate, many do) to start their new year's threads and offer greetings all around. It's like a class reunion. I wish we could keep it up year round, but it's great anyway to pop back into our favorite pub and find a crowd of friends. Even we introverts and reserved types like a party atmosphere now and then.

>66 Meredy: Yes, it's wonderful that so many of us are here and that we all have such good intentions about keeping our threads going. I like this kind of party because I can sneak out when I've had enough and come back the next day.

I am reading my first ever book by Louise Erdich and I don't know what I was expecting, but this is wild. Now I understand why The Sentence has made so many 'Best of 2021' lists. It's basically about a haunted bookstore, which I know has already been done to death. But the catch here is that the author is a background character in her own fiction, which makes it even more surreal. It is, at it's heart, about reading life-altering books. I'm just past the halfway mark, so I may be back later saying I hate it, but I seriously doubt that.

>66 Meredy: Yes! I mean, I'm one of those semi-absent people at least responding, I do read a lot of threads. I like the sense of community without anyone expecting me to have something to say all of the time.

>68 clamairy: I actually have that e-book on hold at the library!

>66 Meredy: ditto! It is fun to see all of us energized and back in the pub, if only to wave and duck back out for a bit.

>68 clamairy: oh my, that sounds cool! I’m going to see if my library has it.

>66 Meredy:, >67 clamairy:, >69 Silversi: >71 catzteach: Yes, it is perfect!

>68 clamairy: I have read some of Erdrich's earlier work and enjoyed it but The sentence sounds especially good. I am not buying it until after I've read The night watchman though, as I already own that one!

Ducking in to say “Hi, I’m mostly lurking.”

But curds and whey… I just had to get me a bowl. I like the small curd, and dry. But I can usually only find it with 4% milkfat, so, oh well.
I am pleased till today that I was able to take a Dairy Production class in college. It was mostly book work, but we did visit the college’s dairy products facility. They mostly made cottage cheese and ice cream for the dorm cafeterias. Most vividly, I recall the huge vat where curdling was done. The semisolid curd was cut into the size wanted using screens, and most of the whey was drained before cream ( milkfat) was added.

Check out the “Uses” section of the Wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curd

Yum!!!!

>68 clamairy: I've never read Erdich before either, but this one looks good and like something I'd really enjoy.

>73 2wonderY: Breakfast this morning was soft curds and pineapple, aka cottage cheese and pineapple. It's one of my go-to breakfasts because it keeps me going a long time. I've never had dry curds. I'll have to look for them next time I'm in a specialty shop, which might be awhile because I'm still more or less isolating.

Whey

I worked for several of the large dairy co-operatives in Ireland. At one stage they were producing enormous amounts of whey which for them was basically a by product from their cheese manufacturing. At the time there was a limited number of things whey could be used for so they were always looking for new ways of using whey. Their R&D teams were working hard looking for product ideas. The findings from their R&D led to the setting up of some very successful nutritional companies producing supplements, energy drinks, health-foods, etc... This business has grown significantly and been very successful in the export markets.

Where there's a will there's a (use for) whey.

>75 pgmcc: He-he! Good one.

>73 2wonderY: Very interesting indeed!

>74 Storeetllr: Borrow it, don't buy it. I suspect this writing style is not for everyone.

>75 pgmcc: Heh heh. Very clever! Yes, it's a main ingredient for most of the powdered protein mixes I've tried on and off over the years. (Now I'm using powdered peanuts in my shakes, with milk, yogurt and fruit.)

* pops head round door to wish you a Happy New Year and Many Yummy Books for 2022!*

Mmmm...CHEESE!

>22 clamairy: that looks delicious! I’ve been on a Humboldt Fog run lately. And evening snacks of pieces of Italian parmigiano

>75 pgmcc: Am I hallucinating (again ...) or is Emmental(-type) cheese made from boiled-down whey?

>80 hfglen:
I do not know the answer to that, and as with every wikipedia consultation one does not get the answer one seeks, not that you can believe everything you read in wikipedia anyway.

>80 hfglen: I don't believe so. I was under the impression that whey is what is left after the solids that are used to make all cheeses are strained out.

When we experimented making cheese at home, I saved the whey and made some of the best pizza crust ever. Just right for putting the cheese on! The cheese we made was similar to mozzarella.

>80 hfglen: The only cheese I’m sure is made from whey is ricotta, but apparently there are others. No familiar ones though. I believe emmenthaler cheese is made from cows’ milk (or, as the Quarantine Service in Oz regrettably used to say, “the lacteal secretion of a bovine”).

>80 hfglen: Ricotta is not a 'solid' cheese, though. (But I love it!) I've been doing a lot of googling. There are a few cheeses that are made from the whey after the solids (curds) for firmer cheeses have been removed. But even then I believe there is leftover liquid, that is still called whey. Should it be double whey? Whey squared?

>85 clamairy: Extra Virgin Whey?

I have some vodka made from whey.

>87 Bookmarque: How is that done? And what does it taste like?

Same as any other spirit is made - you have a mash bill and then for this they just add whey to it. Gives it a bit more of an earthy flavor, less floral or herbal.

>89 Bookmarque:
Whey better than other vodka?

Whey.

No whey!

>92 clamairy:
According to >91 Bookmarque:, it is, “Yes whey!”

Besides.

Gin!

>94 Bookmarque:
Gin whey?

Whey gin.

Too.

Well, we have the booze and cheese sorted. This is feeling like a piffle party. Only another 53 posts to go.

I don't do vodka*. I'm a gin woman. (And wine and local ales.) I tried a fine scotch with my brother-in-law a while back, and that was also much to my liking.

*Mainly because it doesn't taste like anything, thus lending itself too easily to overconsumption.

>98 clamairy:
*Mainly because it doesn't taste like anything, thus lending itself too easily to overconsumption.

Hence the choice of students who do not want to return home with the smell of drink on their breath that their father might detect. (You might think that is from personal experience, but I could not possibly comment.)**

It goes down particularly easily in a Black Russian cocktail.

**One can get away with falling about in a drunken stupor as long as there is no smell of alcohol on one's breath.

>99 pgmcc: I think that is an urban legend. I have heard people say this for decades, but can still smell alcohol fumes on someone's breath when it's from vodka.

Found this:

Whenever anyone tells you “this alcohol can’t be smelled on you”, just giggle. Because all alcohol, regardless of taste or clarity, will be smelled on your breath, and maybe even out of your pores if you drink enough. Alcohol smells like alcohol. Take a nice, deep whiff off that vodka bottle. It doesn’t smell like nothing, and neither will you.

>100 clamairy:
You're tying to trick me into telling you how I passed my dad's sniff tests when I got home after drinking vodka and blackcurrant, but I am not going to tell you about that.

>99 pgmcc: Like when we used to chew gum after sneaking a smoke. Doesn't really fix the problem since the smoke is all over you! Also, when your face is green and you throw up after smoking a cigar, your mom is not unwise, though she may look the other way in mercy thinking you have had punishment enough.*

*I wouldn't know this, it's just something I've heard.

It doesn't help with smelling like smoke, but I kept a jar of peanut butter out of the house either stashed or in my car. A spoonful of that always worked. Not that anyone really got in my face, but at least I smelled like lunch.

>75 pgmcc: I know it's possible to make a sort of plastic from the casein in milk--it was popular in the early twentieth century for making buttons and brush handles and so on--but I can't remember if the casein derives from whey.

ETA: nope. Whey is a byproduct of casein production. Ah well.

>104 Marissa_Doyle: So those buttons are just very hard cheese? Makes sense. I have several in my collection. They’re pretty nondescript.

>105 2wonderY:
Leave them a few years to mature.

I’m late to the party. You guys have been having too much fun!

I don’t have much to contribute to the whey conversation. I don’t eat cottage cheese. Can’t handle the texture. I wonder if I’d like dry whey? Or is it ‘wheys?”

As for the alcohol smell. My 10th grade Social Studies teacher told us if we ate peanuts, that would hide the smell from our parents or the cops. I can honestly say I never needed to try that trick.

Clam, I picked up The Sentence from the library yesterday. It’s next on my pile.

>83 MrsLee: You made pizza crust from whey? Impressed!

>107 catzteach: Oh I can't eat cottage cheese either, ricotta is okay in stuff, but no whey on the cottage cheese. They tried to feed it to me in the hospital once when I was completely out of it and I still didn't swallow it lol.

We have used cottage cheese as a key ingredient in making paté. Really delicious paté.

I could imagine that working a treat with ham, venison or smoked snoek. Yummm!

>109 Silversi: There were other ingredients, like flour, as well. :)

wow, Clam, you really opened the floodgates by instigating talk of cheese :)

>113 Darth-Heather: I did indeed! I'm sure I'll be dumping cold water on the discussion when I post my review of The Sentence later today. ;o)

>114 clamairy: Then we shall all have to migrate to the cheese group, carrying our PGGBs.

>113 Darth-Heather: You know what they say. Its not easy, being cheesy.

You know I was extolling the joys of LT to an academic this past week (someone I know on Twitter) and I wish I'd seen this whole exchange about cheese curds. I'd have mentioned it to her as an example of serendipitous learning, cultural exchange, etc. Meanwhile, I just want to comment on tha cartoon appearing in >36 clamairy: because that's exactly what I need to say to the book piles all around me.

I've never read any Louise Erdich. Where might one want to start? With The Sentence?

>117 jillmwo: She won the Pulitzer last year for The Night Watchman, but I haven't read it yet so I can't comment on it.

I have heard buzzings about Louise Erdich for years, and after she won the Pulitzer I must admit I sort of relegated her to the 'probably too chewy for me' category in my head. But The Sentence made it onto a bunch of 'Best of 2021' lists so I decided to borrow the ebook and give it a shot.

The protagonist is a Native American ex-convict working in a book store, who ends up being haunted by a customer who has passed. I think the thing I loved the most about this book was the constant conversations about books. There are even lists of titles in places. Anything I had already read on the lists were books that I loved, so I can only assume just about all of the rest are worth my time.

But the timing of the book also hit me. It starts in the Fall of 2019 and barrels right into the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. I could identify with this:

"The reports kept saying that those who died had underlying health issues. That was probably supposed to reassure some people—the super-healthy, the vibrant, the young. A pandemic is supposed to blow through distinctions and level all before it. This one did the opposite. Some of us instantly became more mortal."

This one is set in Minneapolis, mostly in a bookstore owned by the author who actually shows up a time or two. Very meta! The story also covers the time during the murder of George Floyd. I learned a bit about how fragile the relationship is between Native Americans and the police.

"You rarely hear about police killings of Indigenous people, though the numbers are right up there with Black people, because so often it happens on remote reservations, and the police don’t wear cameras."

If you are squeamish at all about any of these things then this book is not for you, but I was entranced, and I will be reading more of her work.

>119 clamairy:
I am taking cover behind a mountain of unread books. I have already been hit by too many BBs this week. My Kindle is beginning to creak with the weight of the books in it. I can see The Sentence slipping into my Kindle in the not too distant future.

Speaking of Native Americans, have you read anything by Thomas King? Thomas King has written several collections of short stories and I have enjoyed all of them. The first collection I read was, Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative. I really enjoyed them. They are the type of stories that force you to think of the world from a different perspective.

>120 pgmcc: No fair. You take cover and snipe BBs at me instead...

>120 pgmcc: And this book bullet contains at least 200 more with its lists and such. You are wise to hide.

>121 -pilgrim-: Haha!

>122 clamairy:
You are such an evil temptress. I went to Amazon and read the first few pages. It is not in my Kindle yet, but I suspect it will be there in the not too distant future.

Complimenting me on hiding was a clever reverse psychological trick. It only made the book more attractive.

E.T.A. OK! You win. It is on my Kindle now.

>123 pgmcc: Oh! I'm only slightly sorry... 😆
I'll be buying a copy when it goes on sale.
I actually might buy a paper copy so I have easy access to those lists. I tried to save them as Kindle notes, but the one at the end was just too long.

>119 clamairy: Another BB direct hit here too! I have read two of hers already: The Master Butchers Singing Club and The Bingo Palace. Both are true to her writing style, which is as you describe, somewhat uncomfortable but interesting and well considered.

>124 clamairy:
Sorry? I bet. Talk about a smile that goes to the eyes.

Can you not highlight the list and email it to yourself as a qoute?

>126 pgmcc: I was able to save the shorter ones as notes, but apparently Amazon has a length limit and the list at the end of the book exceeded that length. If I'd known I would have broken it into sections and saved it before I returned the ebook.

>125 Darth-Heather: Those look good! Especially that second one. Added to my wishlist!

>119 clamairy: you have made me even more excited to read this book next! I’ll have to keep my phone handy to scan those lists of books.

I just finished The Eye of the World as read by Rosamund Pike and I loved it. I want to keep going, but Ms Pike hasn't yet recorded the next book in the series, The Great Hunt. I might have to go Old School, and buy it for my Kindle. I thought about getting the only Audible version that is available, which is read by Kate Redding and Michael Kramer, but the reviews are very mixed for that narration.

I won't be posting much because of spoilers, but this story is different in several places from the TV series. Some of the changes I understand. Increasing or focusing on the roles of the women characters was a welcome improvement from the book. Also, there really is zero surprise at who turns out to be The Dragon Reborn, as the story focuses on that person almost entirely. They were smart to keep that a secret in the series until the final episode.

I'm still working on On Animals and I am glad that I am almost done. The last chapter was about taxidermy, and I almost skipped it entirely. I am not sure what to listen to next. I still have 60+ titles from Audible that I haven't listened to yet.

>130 clamairy: I got about six books in and haven’t picked up the series from there. I really like the books, they are just so long, they are hard to read during the school year.

>131 catzteach: Yes, they are intimidating, which is why I never picked them up before. Even when I could have gotten free used copies at the library book sales I used to volunteer at in CT I didn't bring them home. I am hoping that the second book won't be as intimidating on my Kindle. Hahaha...

Unfortunately, they still feel intimidating on kindle as well, at least to me. I got through the first one (mostly, I did skim a couple of chapters).

>133 Silversi: You have to stay away from the thingy that estimates how much reading time remains in the book!

>134 clamairy: lol right.. I've been reading this book for a week and I'm at 22%. :(

>134 clamairy: & >135 Silversi:
That is one of the most irritating things I feel about reading on an e-reader; you have not sense where you are in the book, and how big the book is.

>135 Silversi: I had a similar experience with a book. I was reading for days and the percentage complete scarcely moved. I had thought the book was about 150 pages but it turned out to be closer to 600.

>134 clamairy: & >135 Silversi: this is one reason I don’t like e-reading. I like to be able to look at where my bookmark is to see how much I’ve read.

>136 pgmcc: & >137 catzteach: But that's what the status bar at the bottom is for. You can choose a percentage completed or a time remaining estimate.

Happy birthday Clam! May the year ahead bring you lots of books and CHEESE!

Happy birthday Clam! May this year bring lots of love, laughter, and good books!

Happy birthday Clam. Have a lovely day.

>139 Sakerfalcon: >140 catzteach: >141 Athabasca: Thank you so much!

Happy birthday Clam!

Happy birthday! Are you having cheesecake?

Happy Birthday, Clam! May I wish you loads of good books and good CHEESE!

I hope you are having a lovely birthday!

>143 haydninvienna:, >144 Karlstar:, >145 hfglen: & >146 pgmcc: Thank you! There will be cheese, of course, but apple pie, not cheesecake. :o)

Happy Birthday! I made the best macaroni and cheese ever this morning. Wish I could share it with you.

Happy birthday! It's my mother-in-law's birthday as well and I planned on making her an apple pie too. I haven't actually done it yet lol but I have the ingredients here waiting for me. Hope you have a wonderful day.

Happy birthday!

>148 MrsLee:, >149 Silversi: & >150 NorthernStar: Many thanks. It was a wonderful day!

Finally stopping in to say Happy New Year and new thread. I've just put The Sentence on hold after reading your initial description of it. I have read LE before and mostly enjoyed her. This one sounds like a lot of fun.

I finished On Animals by Susan Orlean, author of The Library Book which I also enjoyed. This is a collection of animal related essays and articles and not really a cohesive narrative. Very enjoyable and informative. Including this little bit of trivia:

In the nineteenth century, Paul Julius Reuter founded his news service as a string of pigeon posts.

I've already moved on to Wide Sargasso Sea which was recommended in The Sentence.

Here is the list of books that Louise Erdich called Short Perfect Novels:

Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil Hrabel
Train Dreams by Denis Johnson
Sula by Toni Morrison
The Shadow-Line by Joseph Conrad
The All of It by Jeannette Haien
Winter in the Blood by James Welch
Swimmer in the Secret Sea by William Kotzwinkle
The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald
First Love by Ivan Turgenev
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Waiting for the Barbarians by J. M. Coetzee
Fire on the Mountain by Anita Desai

I had only read two of these (Sula & Mrs. Dalloway), and as I had enjoyed them both I decided to give several more try. I admit some of the subjects are too depressing for me to consider reading at this point.

That's a really interesting set of titles. I am not familiar with many of them but seem to recall that I tried to read The Blue Flower years back, but was unsuccessful. But I keep revisiting the idea of reading Virginia Woolf.

>153 clamairy: Is Wide Sargasso Sea the one about young Bertha Mason?

>156 Jim53: Antoinette Mason is the character's name. It's a prequel to Jane Eyre.

Edited to add: Of course about 5 pages after I posted this her husband started calling her by her mother's name, which was Bertha. A bit of gaslighting, I assume.

Yeah. I am just not sure how to rate Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. I did enjoy quite a bit of it, and the writing style (especially the last quarter or so of the book) is beautiful. But the story itself is just grim. I won't be recommending this one to many people.

I've moved on to The Empress of Salt and Fortune and I got sucked right in. Many thanks to Jill for the reminder to read this.

>158 clamairy: You're very welcome. I'll look forward to hearing your thoughts on it.

>158 clamairy: I read Rhys' After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie when I was a surly teen and loved it. I haven't read any of her other works, because I don't think I'm capable of handling the grimness as an adult.

Vo's novella was one of my favorites in 2020. I thought the second volume was good, albeit less of a miniature epic.

>160 libraryperilous: I might put that Rhys on my 'maybe some day' list. I have to say I am going to be very careful about anything else I pick from that Erdich list. I'll be checking ratings and reviews here on LT.

>155 jillmwo: I own that one so I guess it's in the house somewhere. I have book cases in five rooms at this point, and still quite a few books in boxes. :o/

Many thanks to jillmwo for The Empress of Salt and Fortune recommendation. Loved this one. The setting, the characters and the language were all wonderful. Highly recommend this one. I think it's on sale right now, so that doesn't hurt either. I'll be reading the second one sooner rather than later, but right now I'm a few pages into my OverDrive loan The Doors of Eden and I am hooked!

I just finished The Doors of Eden (many thanks to Sakerfalcon for the BB) and enjoyed it quite a bit. I will definitely be reading more by this author. (In fact I already own Children of Time.) Loved the science/anthropology/evolution bits the best. My only real complaint was that the bad guy had no redeeming features whatsoever.

Hope this isn't considered a spoiler, but there are Neanderthals in this book visiting from another timeline (branch) and this comment struck me:

"Foolish daring means your people burn themselves up. Your branch, daring pays off more. But you let people with strong words tell you what the truth is. Kings, emperors, tyrants. You are about the many for the few, for the one. In our branch, you learn what you can do for your family and your neighbours.”

Now I will be moving on to A Spindle Splintered.

Oh, and I will also be reading Maus, because LibraryThing is having a group read here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/339164

>163 clamairy: I really liked Children of Time. I've put a hold on The Doors of Eden. And I almost checked out A Spindle Splintered the other day. I have too many library books right now, though.

>165 catzteach: I hear ya. I try to only have one or two digital loans at a time. Is there a lot of real science in Children of Time, as well?

>163 clamairy: I'm glad you enjoyed it! I need to get to some of the author's other books which are on the TBR pile. I too have Children of time.

>163 clamairy: I don't mind occasionally if the villain has no redeeming qualities. Onto The List it goes!

>166 clamairy: I don't remember.

I borrowed A Spindle Splintered because I loved Harrow's book The Once and Future Witches so much, and because libraryperilous mentioned that it existed last Fall. This was good fun, though definitely a bit more tongue-in-cheek than that first one I read.

I'm going to finish Maus and try to work on several other books I'm partway through, like The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois, The Queen's Gambit and The Genius of Birds.

Edited to add: Ha! Best laid plans of mice and clams... I just borrowed The Witness for the Dead from OverDrive.

>170 clamairy: I just finished Ten Thousand Doors of January by Harrow. Quite good and very imaginative. So BB here for me.

>171 majkia: So happy to hear this, as several people in here said they didn't finish it, or just weren't thrilled with it. I enjoy her writing style, and I own Ten Thousand Doors of January, but I might save it for 'reading on the beach' weather.

Ten Thousand Doors was Harrow’s first novel; and my impression was that it got away from her. It would have been better split into two. But with The Once and Future Witches, she has proved that she has gotten control of the form. I love her old-fashioned phrasing and her progressive themes.

>173 2wonderY: I will keep that in mind when I get to it. (I know how easy it is for things to "get away" from me.)

Huh. I wasn't a huge fan of Ten Thousand Doors, but I may pick up Once and Future Witches.

Hope you enjoy The Witness for the Dead as much as I did! I assume you've already read The Goblin Emperor, which is the first in the series and which I think should be read in order, though they are each about different characters in that world.

>170 clamairy: Enjoy The Witness for the Dead! Brush up on your vocabulary in The Goblin Emperor first, maybe?

>176 Karlstar: >175 Storeetllr: Was there a glossary in that? It hasn't been that long since I read it, but my brain is leaky. I might open it on my Kindle Fire, so I don't have to keep switching back and forth.

Haha, I went in cold and spent the first few chapters of Witness for the Dead (which I didn't know was the second book in the series) wondering "What the heck?" Then I just decided to go with it and ended up loving it so much I read it again (as text) right after, which made everything a bit less fraught with uncertainty. (There is a glossary in Witness.)

I thoroughly enjoyed Goblin Emperor. Will have to grab the two sequels. Is it a trilogy or do you have the impression that this is an on-going series?

>179 jillmwo: There's only the one so far. Hope you enjoy it!

.179 >180 clamairy: Well, The Witness for the Dead is set in the same world as Goblin Emperor, and the main character in Witness was a secondary character in Goblin Emperor, so I kind of think of them as part of what I hope is a long series, although technically clam is right and Witness is the first in the Cemeteries of Amalo series. I believe The Grief of Stones, a sequel to Witness, is due out in July. If that all makes sense.

>177 clamairy: >178 Storeetllr: I just checked my copies of Goblin Emperor and Witness for the Dead. In the beginning of Goblin Emperor, there is a long list of people and place names, which helps with some of the city/geographical references. I didn't actually find a glossary in my copy of either one. I must have been thinking of the list of place names.

I took multiple book bullets for The Witness for the Dead in here, and I am glad I did. I got so immersed in this Katherine Addison book that I had dreams about it several nights in a row. I honestly cannot recall that happening to me for ages. It's set in the same world as The Goblin Emperor, and I had the same difficulty keeping the names straight at first. (That is my only complaint about this world - that both the place and character names seem to be almost deliberately convoluted.) Anyway, I got past all of that quickly. I love poor (somewhat broken) Thara Celehar, who still goes about his duties reading the thoughts of the recently dead despite his depression and anxiety.

I look forward to the release of The Grief of Stones in mid-June.

>183 clamairy: I loved this too. So atmospheric and I adore Celehar. Glad you liked it - roll on June!

Last night I finished Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History by Art Spiegelman. I am foregoing sharing the image of the cover, as I don't want a Nazi swastika in my thread, even if it is the cover of a prize winning book. It was a tough read, but not without some humor. Art's parents survived Auschwitz, and his graphic novels tell the tale perfectly. I'm starting the second one tonight.

>183 clamairy: Glad you liked it, it was one of the very few books I pre-ordered on Amazon.

>186 Karlstar: I will have to wait a few weeks to decide, but I think I might have liked it more than The Goblin Emperor. Or maybe I just liked it differently. Celehar knows his responsibilities, though there was a lot of the same fear of stepping on toes that Maia had to deal with. Plus a lot of shame.

She's a great writer. I have not read anything she's written as Sarah Monette as that appears to be mostly horror. Not a genre I read much anymore. LOL (And judging from my dreams about Celehar and the ghoul I think I'll avoid those.)

>183 clamairy: Right, this has to move to the top of my TBR pile. I'm so glad Addison is writing more in this world.

>187 clamairy: I love Monette's Melusine series but they are VERY dark. The worldbuilding is amazing and the characters, though they are deeply screwed up, are compelling.

>187 clamairy: I read a couple of the Kyle Murchison Booth stories and was unimpressed.

So glad you enjoyed The Witness for the Dead! It's one of my favorites so far this year, though I think I enjoyed The Goblin Emperor just a tad more. (It could have been the readers, who are not the same.) I don't even know why I'm so drawn to this world and these characters so much, but I am. Anyway, I think I've read Monette in the (distant) past and have a vague remembrance of not enjoying whatever it was. I could be wrong. I'll have to try the Mesuline series.

>188 Sakerfalcon: I love her writing, but I will have to think about that series. It's not like I have a shortage of well-written things to read. LOL

>189 libraryperilous: Good to know.

>190 Storeetllr: Do you only do audio books these days? I still read a lot more than I listen. (Except when gardening season comes... LOL)

My eyes aren't up to it these days, so yes, mostly audiobooks. I'll read something on the Kindle if that's the only way I can access a book I really want to read, and sometimes I read a book on Kindle that I already listened to, just to get more depth to it. (I do the same with audio if I've already read a book on Kindle.) Paperbacks are completely out.

>192 Storeetllr: I'm so sorry about the eye issues. I love the adjustable font on the Paperwhite. What kind of Kindle are you using?

>193 clamairy: Kindlewhite. I've got two problems, one of which I think of as a lazy eyelid. After awhile, one of my eyes pretty much closes, making it hard to read even with large font. (I can't be on the computer for a long time either.) I've seen a doctor about it, and there's not much can be done (that I can afford; it's considered elective surgery so my insurance wouldn't cover it - at least back when I first tried to deal with it).

>194 Storeetllr: Yikes. I had a friend who had that surgery in both eyes a year or two ago. I'm pretty sure insurance covered it because it was having an impact on her driving.

>195 clamairy: Hmm. May be a good time to revisit the issue with my current doctor.

ETA Perhaps this time I should complain about it affecting my driving rather than just my reading. LOL

>196 Storeetllr: Yes, absolutely!

I'm done with Maus II : A Survivor's Tale : And Here My Troubles Began, and I am glad I read it, but as you might suspect there was little of what I could call enjoyment involved. (There was some humor.) I have been avoiding books about the entire era for a decade or so. I just couldn't deal with it, fictional or otherwise. So, yes, this was a worthy set of books to lift my ban for, but I won't be looking for anything else about this time period just yet.

>198 clamairy: I thought you had decided (>185 clamairy:) to avoid posting any bookcovers that include the swastika on your thread?

>199 -pilgrim-: I did. And then like many thinking rational people I did this amazing thing called 'changing my mind.' Also, I preferred the additional artwork on the second cover.

I don't read books about that time period either, but I also made an exception for Maus and Maus II, as well as the Erik Larson book about Churchill, The Splendid and the Vile, and I'm glad I did. Now I'm reading Truman, knowing it too will include that time period. I guess I also change my mind sometimes.

>201 Storeetllr: Do you recommend that Larson book?
(I have the Truman already.)

And here's a toast to those of us who are willing to change our minds after thinking about things! 🥂🍾

>202 clamairy: Cheers!

I'd suggest a group read of Truman but that just sounds like a lot of work.

I don't like all of Larson's books, but that one was worth it, I thought. (For comparison, I loved Devil in the White City but not Dead Wake.)

I still don't read books about that time period, especially ones that specifically feature Hitler and his minions & co-criminals or are about The Holocaust. It's just too painful. Although, I reserve the right to change my mind. :)

ETA >203 Karlstar: I wasn't sure I would continue Truman, it started out kind of slow, but honestly, I stayed up till 3 am reading it, it's so interesting.

>204 Storeetllr: Good to know about the Larson. I've only read The Devil in the White City.

I bought the hardcover of Truman for my husband when he was still able to enjoy books. He really loved McCullough. I think I've only read 1776, but the HBO series based on his book John Addams was outstanding.

>203 Karlstar: I think that might have to wait a bit, but I would give it a go!

Truman's my first McCullough, though I've had the hardcover of John Adams on my bookshelf for years. Since I lived in California, actually, which I moved from in 2013, so... Not sure why I never actually read it. (I was able to read actual books back then.)

>207 Storeetllr: The size makes it a bit intimidating.

Size never bothered me. The bigger the better was my motto, at least when the book was good. (I read Jonathan Strange in hardcover. Also The Stand, expanded version and The Lord of the Rings, Volumes I through V, The Name of the Rose, Invisible Man, and Lonesome Dove, among others, all before the advent of books on CD. Or at least before I started to listen to most books.)

ETA I listened to most of those books as audiobooks after first having read them in print.

>209 Storeetllr: I've read all of those with the exception of Jonathan Strange, but as time goes on I am much more intimidated by book size because of the time commitment.

>210 clamairy: Size also affects whether one can read the book in bed.

>210 clamairy: Yes, time is a precious commodity these days. I admit I had to think carefully about whether I wanted to invest 54 hours, 11 minutes (!) on the audiobook ofTruman, then decided to go for it because, frankly, I haven't been finding anything shorter that I care to finish lately. Also, I'm a firm believer in The Pearl Rule and DNFing books that don't interest me, so I could stop anytime if I didn't want to continue it. Surprisingly, Truman really grabbed me and I haven't wanted to stop reading (listening to) it to go to sleep at night. I'm at the part now where he was nominated to be FDR's running mate, and I may have to get the Kindle version and reread that part because it made absolutely no sense. Politics back then was insane(r than it is today),

>202 clamairy: clam, I wasn't impressed by The Splendid and the Vile. If you do want something on a similar topic, I suggest historian Lynne Olson--all her books on WWII are worth reading. Try Citizens of London or maybe Last Hope Island.

>211 Jim53: I've stopped reading paper in bed.

>212 Storeetllr: I'm glad you found a pearl. An ear pearl, even!

>213 Marissa_Doyle: Thanks for the input. I don't plan to start any WW II history any time soon.

I really enjoyed this one. Thank you to pgmcc & Bookmarque (I think it was you two who let this pony out of the barn... and slapped its rump!) for getting so many of our eyeballs on this gem.

I'm saving my comments for the last thread.

>215 clamairy:
It was Bookmarque who mentioned it in passing. I simply commented that I had it and had not read it. Then Sakerfalcon jumped in…

Bookmarque deserves the credit, but it did not take long before we became legion.

I really enjoyed it too. Such a beautiful adventure with humour, intrigue, espionage, and even a bit of pathos.

>215 clamairy: I’m really enjoying it! I’m not quite done with chapter 22.

>215 clamairy: It's on my March pile, toward the top.

>216 pgmcc: I wasn't quite sure who to blame thank for this one. Thank you both...

>217 catzteach: I'm so glad you're enjoying it!

>218 Storeetllr: The more the merrier! If you're listening then you're probably going to want to take some notes!.

>219 clamairy: A lot of characters/places with similar names? That usually messes me up on audiobooks, at least until I get into it.

>220 Storeetllr: No, just a lot to keep track of.

>221 clamairy: Thanks for the heads-up! I'll let you know how it goes.

>222 Storeetllr: I'm sure you'll be fine once you get into it. I think I kept notes for the first 100 pages or so, and then I didn't need them anymore.

>223 clamairy: I am documenting which characters appear in which chapters. I am hopeful this will help me map out a re-read a la the app that no longer exists. I am taking my time with this book, am only through chapter 40 so far... and really enjoying the experience.

>224 ScoLgo: I applaud you for planning that. I was thinking it would make an incredible miniseries, until I realized there would be a few 'big reveals' that would be given away early.

When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain is the second book in the Singing Hills Cycle and while it was great fun it was not quite as good as the first one, The Empress of Salt and Fortune. I started Susan Cooper's Greenwitch last night, but I'm not sure if I'll be staying with it.

>226 clamairy: Yes, the discussion of memory and folklore—and whose story survives—felt a little preachier in this one. I'm looking forward to the third volume because Almost Brilliant will be back.

>227 libraryperilous: I think this story suffered a bit for her absence. And I agree, it was slightly heavy-handed. Still enjoyable, though.

I'm still hoping to learn why the plural pronouns.

>229 Jim53: You mean when referring to the main character? Because Chih is a cleric and is gender neutral. I'm not sure if all the clerics are gender neutral in this world, but this one is, and I was under the impression their sect was as well.

I've got When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain but haven't read the first one yet, so...off to the library I go!

>231 Storeetllr: Did you get the second one from Tor? That's where mine came from. Then I bought the first one when again had it on sale. Very well worth it! But they are short. (Like Murderbot length.)

>230 clamairy: I was assuming it was that sort of thing, but I tend to wonder how this sort of thing comes about. Is it some sort of commentary on priestly abstinence? Something about being a cleric that makes procreation, or maybe even sex, dangerous or at least difficult? Inquiring minds (this one, at least) want to know.

>232 clamairy: Yes, I did, but I haven't read it yet. I managed to score an audiobook of the first from the library and will start that as soon as I finish (or in between sessions with) Arcadia.

I have to say, I almost stopped reading Arcadia after the first couple of chapters because I just didn't care about any of the characters, but then I reminded myself that you really enjoyed it, so I kept going. I'm on Chapter 14 now, and I am enjoying it much more. I haven't had a lot of trouble keeping characters/timelines straight (after the first paragraph of each change), so I haven't been keeping notes. I admit to feeling a great deal of satisfaction when it was revealed that the fairy seen by Jay turned out to be Rosie.

>234 Storeetllr: You're going to experience a lot of those moments! Yeah, I almost bailed at one point as well. I'm so glad I didn't, and I hope you will be just as glad.