Streamsong #2; Loving the Light - Early Montana Spring

Although I have many Great Horned Owls in the Cottonwood trees along my creek, I haven't spotted any of the nests yet this year, so these are from webcams at the Owl Research Institute about 40 miles north of here, on the way to Flathead Lake.

(from 3/2/2024)

and what the surrounding area still looks like (3-2-2024)



Link to web cams: https://explore.org/livecams/owl-research-institute/great-horned-owl-cam Check it out for all the bird calls happening!

The owls nest earlier than other species of birds so the owlets are fledged and learning to hunt as their prey birds are hatching out.

Hi - I'm Janet.

I've been a member of LT since 2006.

I retired in the fall of 2016 from my career as a technician in an NIAID research lab. (Yes, that made Dr Anthony Fauci my ultimate boss .... way up the chain.)

I'm now enjoying all the things I never had time to do.

I live in the Bitterroot Valley of western Montana along Skalkaho Creek.

I'm about half way between Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks - so if you're traveling or vacationing in the area, I'd love to meet you. Give me a bit of warning, though - the house often looks like a bomb went off in it. Unless of course, you find cluttery piles of books interesting decor (as I do)

Glacier National Park - photo by Jack Bell Photography



I have Appaloosa horses and usually raise a foal or two each year. I'm probably expecting one foal this year - updated photos soon.

One of my mares at her trainer's place here in the valley:



What do I read? A bit of everything. I enjoy literary fiction, mysteries and the occasional feel good cozy. I'm working my way around the world in a global reading challenge. I had started my way through 1001 Books to Read Before You Die (actually 1300 + books since I use the combined version spreadsheet), but that project seems to be on hold. About half the books I read are non-fiction.

I belong to two in-person book clubs and occasionally join a couple of online book clubs. A favorite online club for nature reads is the Glacier Conservancy Book Club here - https://glacier.org/glacier-book-club/ This is a fund-raising arm for Glacier National Park.

Here's the link to my last thread of last year: https://www.librarything.com/topic/353013#n8332996

In 2023 I read 122 books - still need to do reviews on seventeen of them.

2024 BOOKS READ

First Quarter

January

✅1. Two Old Women - Velma Walls - 2013 - library
❤️2. The House of Doors - Tan Twan Eng - 2023 - Global Reading: Malaysia - library -
3. Emergent Properties - Aimee Ogden - 2023 - library
❤️4. Jimmy Bluefeather - Kim Heacox 2016 - Reread - Root #1 -Copy purchased 2023.
5. Tom Lake - Ann Patchett - 2023 - Library Brown Bag Book Club - library
✅6. Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World - John Vaillant - 2023 - library
7. The Great Alone - Kristin Hannah - 2018 - Book Girls Global Tour: Arctic - library
✅8. Almost an Elegy - Linda Pastan - 2022- library
✅9. Fruit of the Drunken Tree - Ingrid Rojas Contreras - 2018 - Global Reading/Book Girls Global Tour - Columbia - library

February
10. A Council of Dolls - Mona Susan Power - 2023 - library -
11. The Remarkable Retirement of Edna Fisher - E. M. Anderson - 2023 - library -
12. Class: A Memoir of Motherhood, Hunger, and Higher Education - Stephanie Land - 2023 - library
13. Unlikely Animals - Annie Hartnett - 2023 - library
❤️14. Funny things : a comic strip biography of Charles M. Schulz - Luca Debus - 2023 - library
15. The Memory of Animals - Claire Fuller - 2023 - library
16. Lost Christianities: Christian Scriptures and the Battles over Authentication - Bart D. Ehrman - 2013 - audiobook/The Great Courses - library
17. The Civilian Conservation Corps in Glacier National Park - David R Butler - 2022 - Glacier Conservancy Book Club - library
18. Wolves at the Door - Judith Pearson - 2008 - NC Book Club - Purch Kindle 2023
19. The Queen of Water – Laura Resay and Maria Virginia Farinango – 2011 – Book Girls (2023) – South America/Ecuador – YA - library
20. Take What You Need - Idra Novey - 2023 - library

March Reading

21. The Fountains of Silence - Ruta Sepetys - 2020 - Book Girls Global Tour - Western Europe - Spain - YA library
22. Candide - Voltaire - 1759 - Library Brown Bag Book Club - Project Gutenberg on Kindle
23. The Mystery Guest - Nita Prose - 2023 - library
24. Fire Scars - John B Wright - 2023 - library
✅25. Neither Wolf nor Dog: On Forgotten Roads with an Indian Elder - Kent Nerburn - 2018 - N Book Club = Reread - library
❤️26. All That She Carried - Tiya Miles - 2022 - library
27. Start Where You Are - Pema Chodron - 1994 - ROOT #2 acq'd 2007

SECOND QUARTER

April Reading

28. How Beautiful We Were - Imbolo Mbue - 2021 - Book Girls World Tour/Global Reading: Cameroon - library
29. The Spy Who Knew Too Much - Howard Blum - 2023 - NC Book Club - Hoopla
30. The Silver Bone - Andrij Kurkow - 2024 - Booker International Long List - library
31. Crooked: The Roaring '20s Tale of a Corrupt Attorney General, a Crusading Senator, and the Birth of the American Political Scandal - Nathan Masters - 2023 - Glacier Conservancy Book Club - library
32. Undiscovered: A Novel - Gabriela Wiener - 2023 - International Booker Long List - Global Reading: Peru - library
33. Homegrown: Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism - Jeffrey Toobin - 2023 - audiobook - library
34. Horse - Geraldine Brooks - 2022 - Reread - NC Book Club - Root #3 for year; acquired 2023
35. Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life - Laura Cumming - 2023 - 2024 Long List Women's Prize for Nonfiction - Global Reading: The Netherlands (Holland) - NF/location/British author - library
36. Lewis and Clark Through Indian Eyes - Alvin M Josephy - 2006 - Library Book Club - library

- 32 BOOKS REVIEWED - 36 - BOOKS READ IN 2024 (Stats are done as reviews are written - always slightly behind!)

YEAR CATALOGED OR ACQUIRED
27 - library/Hoopla

My Books - Year Acquired
1 - 2007
1 - 2023
2 - 2024

1 - Total ROOTS read (acquired before 2024):
1. Jimmy Bluefeather - Kim Heacox purchased 2023 (Reread)

FORMAT
28 - print
2 - audiobook
2 - Kindle

- 16 - Fiction (May Fit into more than 1 category)

----1 - aging
----1 - apocalypse/dystopia
----1 - classics
----1 - colonialism
----2 - contemporary fiction
----2 - environment
----4 - Global Reading
----3 - historical fiction
----4 - literary fiction
----1 - magical realism
----2 - mystery
----1 - Montana
----2 - Native Americans
----1 - Pandemic
----1 - Romantasy
----1 - satire
----1 - sexuality
----1 - Science Fiction
----1 - YA

- 1- Poetry

- 11 - Non-Fiction (may fit into more than one category)
1 - African American
4 - biography
1 - Buddhism
1 - Christianity
1 - Climate Change
1 - Espionage
2 - Global Reading
1 - Graphic Non-fiction
3 - History
22 - Memoir
1 - Natural Disasters
1 - Native Americans
1 - Outdoors
4 - Women

AUTHORS

21 - Female Authors
9 - Male Authors
- Non-binary
- Combination of male and female authors

19 - Authors who are new to me
10 - Authors read before
- Combination (Anthology) of previously read and new to me authors

- 2 Rereads

Original Publication Date
1 - 1759
2 - 1994
1 - 2008
1 - 2011
2 - 2013
1 - 2016
2 - 2018
1 - 2020
4 - 2022
15 - 2023

The Global Challenge: Read five books from each of the 193 UN members plus a few additional areas. (Ongoing project over **Many** years!)

Thread here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/188308
8 COUNTRIES VISITED IN 2024


Create Your Own Visited Countries Map

Countries new for me in 2024
Cameroon Book #1: How Beautiful We Were - Imbolo Mbue - 2022 - Fic (Unnamed African country/author) - 4/2022
Ukraine Book #1: The Silver Bone - Andrij Kurkow - 2024 - Fic/Mystery - (Ukrainian author & location; translated) - 4/2024

Countries Completed With 5 Books in 2024
Spain:Book #5. Fountains of Silence - Ruta Sepetys - Fic/YA - (location, US author) - library - March 2024

Countries previously visited - working toward 5 books per country in 2024
Colombia: #3. Fruit of the Drunken Tree - Ingrid Rojas Contreras - 2018 - Fic (author, travel) - 1/2024
Ecuador: Book #2 The Queen of Water - Laura Resau - 2011- NF/YA - (location, author & coauthor) - 2/2024
Malaysia: Book #3. The House of Doors - Tam Twan Eng - 2023 - Fic (location, author) 1/2024
Peru: Book #2. Undiscovered: A Novel - Gabriella Wiener - 2023 - 2024 Intl Booker Longlist - autofiction- (author, location); read 4/2024

Additional books for countries completed with five books in 2024:
France: Wolves at the Door - Judith Pearson - 2008 - NF (location, US author) 2/2024
France: Candide - Voltaire - 1759 - Fic/Satire (partial location, author) 3/2024


Create your own visited map of The World

***************************************************************************************

41 COUNTRIES VISITED IN 2023 (not quite up to date)

visited 41 states (18.2%)


Create your own visited map of The World

ALL COUNTRIES VISITED: 116


visited 115 states (51.1%)


Create your own visited map of The World

To help expand my global reading, I've been following along The Book Girls Around the World Book Voyage Challenge: https://bookgirlsguide.com/world-reading-challenge/

✔ January: Arctic and Antarctic: The Great Alone - Kristin Hannah US
✔ February: Western Europe: Spain: The Fountains of Silence - Ruta Sepetys 2020 - library
✔ March: Africa/ Cameroon - How Beautiful We Were - Imbolo Mbue
***Reading*** April: Islands : Fiji - A Disappearance in Fiji - Nilima Rao - 2023
May: Eastern Europe and Russia
June: Australia and New Zealand
July: South Asia:
August: Northern Asia
September: Transportation
October: Middle East and Israel:
November: North America
December: South America

2024 In-Person Brown Bag Book Club - Bitterroot Public Library

January: ✔ Tom Lake - Anne Patchett
February ✔ -- Candide by Voltaire
March ✔ -- The Spy Who Knew Too Much by Howard Blum
April ✔ -- Lewis and Clark Through Indian Eyes by Alvin M. Josephy Jr.
May -- The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett by Annie Lyons
June -- A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell
July -- Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus Read
August -- Damascus Nights by Rafik Schami
September -- The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
October -- Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
November -- Yellowface by R.F. Kuang Read
December -- Potluck and 2025 choices

In-Person Newcomers' (and others!) Book Club

✔ January: Jimmy Bluefeather - Kim Heacox -- (reread for me)
✔ February: The Wolves at the Door - Judith Pearson
✔ (Reread) March: Neither Wolf Nor Dog - Kent Nerburn
✔ April - Reread: Horse - Geraldine Brooks

Bimonthly Glacier Conservancy Book Club

January ✔ Crooked: The Roaring '20s Tale of a Corrupt Attorney General, a Crusading Senator, and the Birth of the American… - Nathan Masters
March - Prev read - Tenacious Beasts: Wildlife Recoveries That Change How We Think about Animals - Christopher J. Preston

Goals:
- Read at least two ROOTS each month from the first TIOLI challenges.
- Read at least one book each month acquired in 2023 (counts as one of the ROOTS)

The below numbers include the dozen or so library books I have at home:
As of 03/01/2024: 552 books on physical MT TBR
As of 01/01/2024: 549 books on physical MT TBR
As of 01/01/2023: 535 books on physical MT TBR
As of 01/01/2022: 530 books on physical MT TBR
As of 01/01/2021: 522 books on MT TBR

15 Books Acquired 2024; 2 Books Read :✔
✔ 1. The Wolves at the Door - Judith Pearson NC's Book Club - Kindle
2. The Hundred Years' War on Palestine - Rashid Khalidi - 2/2024
3. Lewis & Clark and Me : Heading West from Traveler's Rest - 2/2024
4. It's Hard to Look Cool When Your Car's Full of Sheep: Tales from the Back Forty - Roger Pond - 2/2024
✔5. Candide - Voltaire - Project Gutenburg/Kindle - 2-2024
6. Epitaph - Mary Doria Russell - 3/2024
7. Elephant Song - Wilbur Smith - 3/2024
8. Uhuru - Robert Ruark - 3/2024
9. Defeating Diabetes - Brenda Davis - 3/24
10. Bangtail Ghosts - Keith MacCafferty - 2/24
11. The Angels Weep - Wilbur Smith - 3/24
12. When the Lion Feeds - Wilbur Smith - 3/24
13. A Time to Die - Wilbur Smith - 3/24
14. The Clinic - Jonathan Kellerman - 3/24
15. Catch as Cat Can - Rita Mae Brown 3/24

I'm intrigued by everyone's lists of series. These are some of the ones that I have read recently: I will add other series that I am also working on.

Series

Robert Galbraith - Cormoran Strike (1/7)
Elsa Hart - Li Du (2/3)
Anne Hillerman - Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito (5/8)
Alka Joshi - Jaipur Trilogy (1/3)
William Kent Krueger - Cork O'Connor (1/ )
Ngaio Marsh - Roderick Alleyn (2/27)
Dorothy Sayers - Lord Peter Wimsey (2/?)
Nita Prose - Molly the Maid (2/2)
Fred Vargas - Chief Inspector Adamsberg - 2/10

And here's the list of books I still need to review from last year (sigh)

December
122. Fima - Amos Oz - 1994 - Nov TIOLI#1 - Root #3 for month/ #24 for year - Global Reading - Israel - acq'd 2013
121. Narcolepsy: A Funny Disorder that's no Laughing Matter - Marguerite J. Utley - 1995 - Dec TIOLI #1 - ROOT #2 for month/# 23 for year - acq'd 2006
120. Come Together, Fall Apart - Cristina Henriquez - 2007 Book Girls World Tour: Panama - short stories - purch 2023
119. A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea - Melissa Fleming - 2017 - Book Girls World Tour - Middle East/Syria - library (mapped)
118. We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast by Jonathan Safran Foer - 2019 - library
117. YellowFace - R. F. Kuang - 2023 - library
116. Tenacious Beasts - Julian Stockwin - 2023 - New Comers' Book Club - acq'd 2023
✅115. The Maid - Nita Prose - 2022 - library
114. The Future - Naomi Alderman - 2023 - library
113. Murder Your Employer - Rupert Holmes - 2023 - library
112. The Tipping Point - Malcolm Gladwell - audiobook ROOT#1 for month/Root #22 for year; acq'd 2007

November
111. The Buddha in the Attic - Julie Otsuka - 2012 - Library Brown Bag Book Club - library
✅110. Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause - Ty Seidule - 2022 - library
109. The White Mirror - Elsa Hart - 2016 - library
✅108. The Last Thing He Told Me - Laura Dave - 2023 - NewComers' Book Club - library
107. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind - William Kamkwamba - 2009 - Book Girls' World Tour/Global Reading - Malawi - library (on map)

Currently Reading:

The Mystery Guest - Nita Prose



Homegrown: Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism - Jeffrey Toobin - audiobook in the car



Candide - Voltaire - Library Book Club - Project Gutenberg/Kindle - Library Book Club



Crooked: The Roaring '20s Tale of a Corrupt Attorney General, a Crusading Senator, and the Birth of the American Political Scandal - Nathan Masters - Glacier Conservancy Book Club



and slowly making my way through a couple others:
Start Where You Are - Pema Chodron - ROOT
Love is Eternal - Irving Stone - ROOT
Fire on the Rim - Stephen J. Pyne - ROOT
Solving the Climate Crises -

Last review from previous thread:

I enjoy apocalypse and post apocalyptic novels. Not sure where I got this suggestion, but it looks like both Mark and Beth have read this one.



15. The Memory of Animals - Claire Fuller - 2023
– library


There’s a new virus decimating the world. It’s commonly called the dropsy virus as it causes swelling throughout the body It appears to be incredibly deadly.

But there’s hope – a biotech company has devised a promising vaccine. The only downside is that it hasn’t been tried on humans yet – and with the testing including infection with the virus after vaccination, not many people are volunteering. The reward is huge; the company will pay volunteers an almost unimaginable amount of money.

Neffy, a former marine biologistmwith a special interest in octopuses is disgraced and deeply in debt, so she volunteers. The vaccine makes her sick; the virus challenge makes her even sicker. But when she slowly comes back to consciousness, a person provides her with food and drink. She is not alone in the world.

When she has fully recovered, Neffy is told that the vaccine trial was stopped due to the bad reaction she had. She is the only one of the volunteers that completed the trial and now probably immune to the virus. But while she was ill, the virus mutated again to an even more horrific version affecting the brain. Earth’s population seems to have succumbed. Besides Neffy, there are four other people confined within the research center who didn’t receive the vaccine. All the staff fled when the virus became really bad. There is a limited amount of food and a generator within the center that continues to work.

One of the volunteers is there because he needed money to rework his spectacular invention that can take people back inside their memories. It’s not time travel - but it is a way to revisit people and events in your memory. It only works for certain individuals and it is not reliable as to exactly what memory you will revisit. It works for Neffy and the machine’s inventor; the downside is that is highly addictive to spend time with those one has lost.

In the beginning of the end, gangs robbed, raped and pillaged and packs of roaming dogs attacked victims and tore up bodies. The four non-vaccinated volunteers witnessed these events from the windows of the secure center and are terrified to go out although now it seems deadly quiet on the street. As food runs low, they pressure Neffy to go outside to forage. The generator fails. Although there is viral protective gear within the center, no one volunteers to accompany Neffy.

Even as secrets within the center are revealed it’s clear they can no longer stay.

Apparently the author started writing this before Covid struck. Many of the scenarios such as passengers not being allowed to disembark from a airplane will bring up memories of our own pandemic.

That's all she's gonna write! Welcome!

Happy new thread, Janet!

Lots going on over here Janet. Happy new thread.

Happy new thread!

Happy New Thread, Janet. You have started the year with some good reading. I did like The Memory of Animals, so I'm happy to take credit if you liked it. I did like her previous one better, but I am a sucker for dystopian novels.

I am here!

Looking forward to foal photos. When is your mare due?

Happy new one!

Happy new thread, Janet.

How I envy you the beauty of your surroundings!

Happy New Thread , Janet!

>4 streamsong: Hi Janet, It is interesting to note you added The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepety. While going through some books in my quest to get organized, I came across this book today. It looks like I'm destined to read it.

Montana is indeed one of the most beautiful states -- if not THE most beautiful. I may have mentioned that in 2009 Will and I took a vacation to Yellowstone with his cousin and her partner. It was by far the best vacation ever. We drove through Montana to see a rodeo. We each chose something we wanted to do that week, and we all agreed to do what that person chose. Will was the one to chose a rodeo. He saw a flier in the small town where we stayed outside of the park.
I will never forget the image of people in a line riding along with the mountain as their background. Like Paul >23 PaulCranswick: I too envy you the beauty of where you live.

>17 FAMeulstee: >18 mdoris: >19 drneutron: Thank you for stopping in to wave Anita, Mary and Jim.

>20 BLBera: Thank you, Beth. Nothing like a good apocalyptic novel, is there? Except of course, a good literary fiction, or a fun mystery or a ... I get a lot of my suggestions from your thread. It's very dangerous to me.

>21 fuzzi: Hi Lor. Thanks for pulling up a seat. I'm not sure if I'll have any foals this year. I have a couple mares I need to haul in and have vet checked. Crazy set of circumstances last year.
- One mare gives odd signals both ways. She's getting large but still likes talking to my stallion. She needs to be checked by the vet. She has fooled me before.
- One mare I had not planned to rebreed because she foaled so late last year, but my two year old stallion got in with her. She would be due late June.
- The third mare is the one I bought from the auction last fall. I was told she had been bred, but I don't see any signs.

My best bet is one foal, but it could be none. Or two. Or three.

>22 figsfromthistle: Hi Anita! Thanks for coming along on the journey.

>23 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul! Yes, it is beautiful, but remote. At times I envy your city life. Well, maybe not the traffic. I think I'm too old to learn to drive with that many people.

>24 vancouverdeb: Hi Linda! Yes, it's a pretty area of the country. I am glad that you remember your trip to Yellowstone with Will and his cousins with such love.

I have two of the picture books that you recommended home from the library: What You Know First and Snow Horses. Thank you for teaching me about the beauty of children's books.

I'll be interested to see what you think of Fountains of Silence. I haven't read much fiction set in Franco's Spain, and although I liked it, I thought several of Sepetys' other books stronger.

Hiya Janet!

I woke up at 3am last night and couldn't go back to sleep. I finished reading Candide which my book club had talked about on Thursday.

Surprisingly, Candide made a really good book club discussion. We had a great turnout. I didn't specifically count but there were 12-15 people there, many of them people who rarely attend or who were new.

I downloaded it from the Gutenberg Project onto my computer's Kindle app. It was a great way to read it, although I usually don't enjoy electronic reading. But with all the Kindle features like the dictionary or being able to find out more about historical events, it was wonderful.

Thank goodness it wasn't a very philosophical discussion, because I know nothing about philosophy. But we all agreed that the church and power-hungry leaders of countries are still very recognizable almost three hundred years after this was written. We don't seem to have learned much.

Good morning, my Owl friend!

How are you on this okay Monday?

Doing well. Woke up to a skiff of snow, but it's already melted.

I need to go out to feed the four legs before it gets much later.

Heh, sounds pretty fun, im having an okayish day today, about to start animating again

Hey you posted about Funny Things: A Comic Strip Biography of Charles M. Schulz and thought my dh might like it. He is very picky wasnt sure. just opened it and his eyes got big and started reading it. So thanks for the rec ( btw he did give m e a hug for getting)

>33 Owltherian: You know, it's not bad. Chores for something you love go quickly/

>34 cindydavid4: Hi Cindy! I'm, so glad your dh is enjoying Funny Things. I still haven't ordered it for my brother for his birthday at the end of the month, but your report makes me feel more confident about doing so.

>35 streamsong: Welp, i ended up having a panic attack- the teacher kept skipping over me and i was panicking

Here is the small painting I received from Mary Doria Russell for ordering a copy of Epitaph.



Here's the offer she made on FB which I copied onto my last thread: https://www.librarything.com/topic/356590#8412581

And here is where she had to change the offer and only send one painting instead of two due to the overwhelming response.

https://www.librarything.com/topic/356590#8438151

I'll definitely have this framed!

>1 streamsong: Love GHOs! Thanks for sharing the pictures, Janet!

>7 streamsong: I have been doing my own "around the world" challenge, relying on books to provide the information. I will have to check into that link too!

>15 streamsong: I already have that one in the BlackHole or I would be adding it again.

Happy new thread! Have a terrific Tuesday!

This was recommended by Karenmarie. I think she received the recommendation from her friend Karen who is not on LT.



16. Lost Christianities: Christian Scriptures and the Battles over Authentication – Bart D. Ehrman - 2013
- audiobook/The Great Courses
– library

This is highly recommended for those wanting to know how the Bible was put together and how books were judged to be holy cannon. Erdrich addresses the many early opinions on what defined a Christian and the writings by authors whose beliefs were out of the mainstream. These included the secret knowledge of the Gnostics, and the ideas that Jesus was only human or only God. He also sheds light on certain books whose authorship is not as attributed.

It’s a fascinating story, told clearly and with great scholarship.

This was from the library. I need to purchase a copy and listen to it again, strictly due to the wealth of information.

>36 Owltherian: I'm sorry Lily. That must be extremely distressing when you are in class. Do you have techniques to help deal with it?

>38 alcottacre: Hi Stasia! I love the GHO's, too. Although it's nesting season now and they've gone quiet, later in the year when they start calling in the evenings, I sometimes call back and they answer. I've heard this is stressful for the owls as they are confused as to where the strange owl threatening their territory may be. So I don't do it often and keep it very short, but it's an amazing thing to do.

Yup, crazy owl lady here. Lily, I think that's why I love your user name.

Stasia, I'll have to check out your around the world reading. I'm really enjoying it, although I'm not as strict about only counting authors - I sometimes use locations as I will for the Ruta Sepetys book I recently finished, Fountains of Silence set in Franco's Spain.

Terrific Tuesday to you, too!

Happy New Thread, Janet. I love those toppers and you know I am crazy about those owls. I have "Homegrown" on my audio list. I really like this author. Good review of The Memory of Animals. I will have to get to that one.

>26 streamsong: wow. Hauling the mares to the vet? It would be easier if the vet could come out and check all three at once, don't they make ranch calls?

>27 streamsong: I loved What You Know First enough that I bought a copy for my granddaughters.

>37 streamsong: That is really beautiful, Mary.

>39 streamsong: Lost Christianities: Christian Scriptures and the Battles over Authentication sounds interesting. I'll check with my library, but I am doubtful.

>41 msf59: Thanks for stopping by, Mark! I hope you enjoy The Memory of Animals when you get to it.

Homegrown: Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of the Right Wing Extremism is sobering. What else have you read by this author?

>42 fuzzi: Hi Lor! Equine vets make fewer and fewer ranch calls and they are very expensive. It's about $200 to come in the driveway without touching the animal. You may remember I had the vet out to check the foal I had born last year. The colt was perfectly fine. The vet check cost $800.

I have a three horse ( slant-load) trailer, so I could haul all three in at once.

What You Know is wonderful. I may need to buy myself a copy

>43 vancouverdeb: Hi Deborah! I'm really thrilled to have it. Of course Epitaph is signed, too.

Lost Christianities: Christian Scriptures and the Battle over Authentication is part of the Great Courses/ Teaching Company series. I'm guessing our library and the connected libraries get many of them as donations after people have listened to them.

Hiya Janet!

>44 streamsong: ouch. Most of the vets in the area have inflated prices. There's one young man who opened his practice a couple years ago and does a wonderful job at reasonable rates. His office is always crowded.

>45 Owltherian: Hi Lily! Yay for weekends!

>46 fuzzi: Hi Lor - Yeah, vet prices are high and seem higher everyday. Farm travel uses a lot of their time, so I understand why they have to charge $$$ for it. And the technology they use like ultrasound machines are pretty similar to human devices except they are much bigger for the large animals. They can bring a portable device with them but at their clinics use a more accurate, larger device along with restraining stocks to put the horse in and keep themselves and the beasties safe. Lab tests are about on a par with human lab tests; drugs, too, cost more for a larger dose.

Right now most of of my vet $$ go to my diabetic cat. He's on insulin twice a day.

This week I took a big step and signed up for the LifeAlert button (Help I've fallen and I can't get up!). I don't plan to wear it inside, but will wear it whenever I am outside doing chores or working with the horses. It makes me feel old, but living by myself and working with unpredictable youngsters and my stallion can be a challenge. Since having the hay stack fall on me a few years ago, I've been very conscous of how vulnerable I can be out here - I would definitely not want to be injured and not get help!

I've tried to remember to take my phone with me when I'm outside, but it's bigger and a bit bulky and also slips out of my pocket when I'm being pretty active. So we'll give this a try. Hopefully I never have to use it.

I'm also going to work on eating a more plant based - maybe eventually vegetarian or vegan - diet. It seems counterintuitive with my T2 diabetes, but my son and his wife are both vegans and have been encouraging me to try this for a while. I'm on several medications, but the ole Fasting Blood Sugar just keeps creeping up, so I'll try something different. I'm taking a class through the Food Revolution Network about tackling TTD by eating plant based, so I'll procede cautiously and see how it works. Tonight's dinner will be a black bean soup.

Ingredients
4 cups water or organic vegetable broth works well too, preferably no or low sodium
1 cup white onion diced
1 cup organic celery diced
1 cup organic corn fresh or frozen
1 cup sweet potato diced
6 ozs organic tomato paste BPA-free canned
3 cups black beans home-cooked or BPA-free canned, drained and rinsed
2 cups organic leafy greens bok choy, stemmed collards greens, stemmed kale, or spinach, chopped
1 cup organic red bell pepper diced
2 cloves crushed garlic
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp salt
(optional) 1/2 cup organic salsa
(optional) ground black pepper
(optional) to taste 2 Tbsps lime juice freshly squeezed

Directions

Heat a large stovetop pot on medium-high heat. Add water or vegetable broth, onion, celery, corn, and sweet potato, and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to medium and cook until the vegetables are almost tender (stir occasionally), about 15 minutes.

Add tomato paste and stir until well combined.

Add black beans, greens, bell pepper, garlic, oregano, thyme, and salt, if using. Cook until the vegetables are tender, about 5 minutes.

Add salsa, if desired, and stir to combine.

Season with optional pepper to taste.

Stir in lime juice just before serving.

It sounds quick and easy. For right now, I'll be skipping using organic ingredients. And, as I am not familiar with only buying canned ingredients in BPA-free cans, I'll look into this a bit more, but for now will use what I have on hand

>47 streamsong: Im glad its the weekend tbh- i can actually go to the bathroom when i need to-

I see those recipes and they look so good, but I just hate to cook. It never comes out right then theres all the mess to clean. sigh.

Hi Janet! Happy new thread.

From your last thread, not only did that group disappear, ArcticStranger removed his library and all content from his profile.

>1 streamsong: Love pics of GHOs, and your view is breathtaking.

>4 streamsong: I read Candide in 2008, using a ratty copy that I culled. When I had the opportunity to get a good copy, I did so.

>6 streamsong: I love your maps.

>39 streamsong: I am so glad you liked this audiobook. Your wanting to buy a copy for your own Library says a lot.

>43 vancouverdeb: Deborah, Ehrman also published a book with the same title, hardcover ISBN 978-0195141832, so if the audiobook isn’t easily available, you might want to try the paper book. It’s also in paperback. I don't know how much the book differs from the audiobook, if at all.

>48 streamsong: Glad you’re doing that. Not fun to wrap our heads around, but necessary, especially for you living alone and when you’re outside.

>48 streamsong: Janet that sounds like a very good and sensible plan and I get it, not really wanting to but it does make complete sense.

>48 streamsong: Sounds like a must-have for every senior who lives alone. Maybe everyone, senior or not. I know I fell once here and couldn’t get up (my fault—we’d only recently moved in, and stuff was everywhere, and I stood on a shaky box to reach something). My phone was in the other room, so I crawled and slithered to where I could pull myself up. No injuries, but I’m seldom without my phone on me now. Of course, I’m not as active as you. Anyway, it’s a great idea to have the life alert button.

Memory of Animals sounds creepy good.

Good luck with the plant based diet. I hope it works for you and look forward to seeing more recipes. Unfortunately, I don’t eat any of the nightshade vegetables—tomatoes, eggplant, potatoes (all favorites 😔)—because of my inflammation issues. Every time I do, my joints ache more the next day. But I try to eat more greens and yellow/orange veggies and less meat.

>49 streamsong: That sounds yummy, Janet. Good luck with the change in diet.

>48 streamsong: That is a good idea, Janet. I've tried to remember to keep my phone when I am doing laundry in my basement, but you are right; phones take up space.

>48 streamsong: I think you're being sensible.

>54 Storeetllr: I have the same issues with the nightshades, and corn, too. Corn's in everything.

I hope you enjoyed the Black Bean soup, it sounds good. I need to lose 30 lbs and I wish I could get myself to stick to any diet. I think the Life Alert button is good idea. I don't have one yet, at the age of 63, but I fell about 13 years ago , right here in our foyer. It was after midnight and Dave was asleep upstairs , with the door shut. I don't think he would have heard me no matter what. I had fractured my wrist and foot, but luckily our youngest son was still living at home and was in sleeping in his bedroom downstairs - and I was downstairs, so I was able to call to him. I guess eventually I could have gotten to the phone myself, but it's a shock and quite painful when something like that happens. I gave a house key to a neighbour after that. My grandma fell on the sidewalk one winter many years ago when she was in her mid 70's, it was icy and snowy. She waited for close to an hour until someone stopped to help, and she had fractured her elbow and her jaw. After that my grandpa insisted on driving her to the store, at least in the winter. So I think it's a good idea.

>50 Owltherian: Oh, Lily, I am sorry if your school is is doing that. My son had ADHD and also sleep issues. We were able to get letters from his doctor and counselor and put a 504 plan in place which legally makes the school have to accommodate and at times, "bend the rules" if it is part of the students diagnosed condition and not the student merely being obstructive. There are disciplinarian teachers who will try to force a square peg into a round hole. Maybe talk to your school councilor with your parents.

>51 cindydavid4: Hi Cindy! Yes, I hear you on cooking! I used to really enjoy trying out complicated new recipes, but like you, hated the mess and sometimes being disappointed with the results. It's worse when you are cooking only for yourself, as all the cleaning and leftovers are yours alone. I'm choosing recipes where I can do part of the prep earlier in the day. By evenings, I am often so tired, I don't want to cook and just grab something. I am hopeful if I start eating better, I'll have more energy.

>59 streamsong: Technically my brother has one, but not me. However, my mother thinks I possibly have ADHD or Autism since I'm very sensitive to noise and such. My advisory teacher doesn't even let us leave the room to go to the bathroom, even if you're on your period or not.

>44 streamsong: I read and loved American Heiress by Toobin. It is about Patty Hearst.

>52 karenmarie: Hi Karen - The Arctic-Stranger mess was the first I'd seen online. I really liked his insights and it felt like he was my first online friendship. I guess that shows that even 10 or 12 years ago rudeness and attacking online was a thing. It's not just symptomatic of this particular time.

He was a Christian pastor but said that in spring he became partly Buddhist. I can't remember the exact quote, but think of it often this time of the year as the world opens up. His profile and books are still up with the spelling Arctic-Stranger, but it looks like it's been inactive since 2012.

Glad you enjoyed the owls and my maps.

I think I'll add the paperback copy of the Ehrman book to my wishlist instead of the Great Courses audio. It's easier for me to look up things with a hard copy than an audio

>52 karenmarie: >53 mdoris: >54 Storeetllr: >55 BLBera: >56 fuzzi: Thanks for the validation about the LifeAlert button. I'm trying to put things in place so that I will be able to safely stay here working with the horses and living the life I want as long as I can - hopefully even 10 or 20(!) more years. My dad was very stubborn and refused to give things up or put things in place that would have helped him stay independent longer.

I just have to remember to put the darn thing on when I go outside. Right now the pendant is next to the front door so I see it when I go out. It's right next to my can of bear-spray, which I am told, also works on mountain lions and ornery people. :)

>54 Storeetllr: That was really a nasty fall, Mary! I'm glad you weren't hurt.

I'll be interested to see what you think of Memory of Animals if you read it.

I'm a bit skeptical about a plant-based diet helping my diabetes when all my focus so far has been on avoiding carbohydrates. I check my FBS each morning, so I will know if I'm heading the wrong direction. Since I have meat in my freezer (I stock up when things are on sale!) I won't be entirely plant based until that is all gone. I'll just try to not buy meat for a while - although I will continue with eggs and cheese.

My SIL also eats non-inflammatory and gluten free. It was a challenge to eat out when my brother and SIL visited last year as my vegan son was also here and I was eating low carb. :)

>55 BLBera: Hi Beth! Thanks for stopping by. I'm doing the diet change gradually. For now, I'll just try to incorporate more plant based dishes. The soup was (is- lots of leftovers!) good. I fixed it with water and thought it a little bland, so I added 2 tsp of Better Than Bouillon at the end, which fixed it right up. My FBS the next morning was lower than it's been for a while, so maybe more complex carbs is a good path for me.

I worked a horse yesterday and had on my new alert button and did feel more secure. I hope this also works for me. Spring's a comin! Gotta get goin!

>56 fuzzi: Hi Lor - I didn't realize how common corn was, although I have tried to avoid high fructose corn syrup. That is very hard to do. I hope the anti-inflammatory helps you!

>58 vancouverdeb: Wow that's awful Deborah! That's the sort of thing I imagine happening to me when I'm out here on my own. I'm glad your son was around to hear you! And the same for your grandmother's fall.

Both my parents fell several times. My father broke his hip when he fell, had it pinned, and then a few weeks later fell again and broke his femur - partly due to the not-healed hip pin.

>61 Owltherian: That's awful, Lily. I hope you can work with your school to get something in place.

>62 msf59: Hi Mark! I'll have to keep American Heiress in mind. I am old enough to easily remember the Patty Hearst kidnapping and the photos of "Tanya".

Homegrown: Timothy McVeigh is fascinating. I have a hard time understanding right wing extremism.

>66 streamsong: I hope so because having to hold my bladder for 4 classes each about 45 minutes each is not easy or comfortable at all.

I read this for one of my in-person book clubs. We had a really interesting zoom conversation with the author Judith Pearson, which was arranged through Ms. Pearson’s web site. If your book club is interested in this book, I’d highly recommend seeing if Ms. Pearson is available to zoom with you.



18. Wolves at the Door: The True Story Of America's Greatest Female Spy – Judith Pearson - 2022
- NC Book Club
- Purch Kindle 2024
3.7 stars

Virginia Hall grew up in a privileged home in the U.S. She always knew that she wanted to have a career in the Foreign Service. To that end, she accepted several low level jobs at US embassies doing secretarial work. And while she was aware that it would be almost impossible for a woman to become a member of the Foreign Service, after numerous requests she was informed that due to an injury that had resulted in the amputation of a foot, she would never be accepted.

She quit her position and headed to Paris to see the country. Soon after she arrived, the Nazis attacked France. Hall and a close friend volunteered to become ambulance drivers at the front. When the Maginot Line was overrun, the work increased exponentially until the fall of France.

Eventually Hall left for Great Britain where she was recruited by the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) to work within France as part of the French Resistance movement. Hall’s excellent French, and knowledge of the French countryside made her work invaluable and her presence almost invisible.

Inevitably though, her resistance cell was discovered, and she had to escape through the deeply snow covered Pyrenes by foot - on her leg prosthetic literally made of wood.

However, she was not content to remain on the sidelines and as soon as possible returned undercover to France, this time as part of the American Office of Strategic Services since the US was now formally at war with Germany. This time she chose even more hazardous work.

This was an excellent account of a woman who, despite several books and an independent movie, is not well known in the US.

>67 Owltherian: That sounds miserable, Lily. If a heart to heart with the teacher doesn't help, I hope your parents will step in on your side.

>69 streamsong: It is miserable and i hope that she starts letting me go to the bathroom.

>64 streamsong: Not the first, or last, time I’ve taken a tumble in the past few years, but definitely the worst. I’ve been lucky not to have broken anything when I’ve fallen. *touches wood*

None of my libraries has The Memory of Animals on audiobook, darn it, so I’m not sure I’ll get to it anytime soon. I’ll check Audible too when I get the chance.

I hope your new diet works for you. You’ve cleared it with your doctor, right? I know when I started an elimination diet a few years ago, I told my doctor first. I was afraid she would scold me, but she told me to go for it and that it was a good idea and had solid medical standing. I was surprised but relieved.

>57 fuzzi: Oh! Yes, it is impossible to avoid corn unless you cook completely from scratch. I haven’t had a problem with corn, though recently I’ve been eating more packaged food. It’s harder to cook from scratch when you can’t stand for long periods without pain. I hope to get back to “real” food soon.

>68 streamsong: Sounds amazing! I’m going to look for it.

>68 streamsong: Hi Janet! A woman to admire, such courage!

>72 Storeetllr: Hi Mary! Sorry to hear that, best well wishes for you.

>70 Owltherian: Lily, I hope you get a plan in place soon!

>71 Storeetllr: Hi Mary. The tumbles are scary. Getting back up can be scarier.
I hope your find an audible copy of The Memory of Animals and that if you do, you enjoy it.

No, I must confess I haven't cleared my new way of eating with my doctor. I know that the medical establishment would suggest I eat less carbs rather than switching to less meat and more complex carbs. I see the doc every six months for full blood panels, so if things are going well, I'd rather talk to him about it with some positive (lower) numbers. I also take part in a program through my BC/BS where I can take my blood sugar readings as many times a day as I like - it immediately gets uploaded to them and they send me a 'canned' response. So if this has a negative effect on my BS, I will know

I tried to talk to my doctor about what I should do to stop my fasting blood sugar from continuing to increase.. He said "You could try eating less at night" and bolted from the room. I think he had no clue (the internet says that most doctors are taught that diabetes is progressive and not reversible). He did not even suggest I talk with a nutritionist or an endocrinologist. Grrrr.

Oh dear - what is going on with your feet that is making it hard to stand?

It sounds like Insulin Resistance and Type 2 Diabetes are caused by general inflammation, too, so I'll keep the corn in mind.

>73 Storeetllr: and >74 EllaTim: I hope you like Wolves at the Door It's amazing how often stories of women are overlooked. Most of the members of the book club enjoyed it; one lady said she didn't really like the writing style- she felt it a bit dry and unemotional.

>75 streamsong: Welp i hope so too but to be honest i forgot to use the bathroom at lunch and now I'm very uncomfortable.

This was a YA book suggested by the Book Girls Global Book Voyage which I didn't get read last year. :)



19. The Queen of Water – Laura Resau and Maria Virginia Farinango – 2011
– Book Girls World Tour - South America/ Global Reading – Ecuador
– YA
- library


Sample from opening pages of book:

“The mestizos (the descendents of the Spanish colonists) thought they were as white and precious and delicate as fresh bread. They spoke Spanish and had fancy last names like Palacios and Cevallos. They were the doctors and dentists and teachers and bankers and landowners. They kept out of the sun so they wouldn’t grow dark like the Indians. Even if their skin was brown, like mine, they claimed they had no Indian blood and proudly held up their names and clothes to prove it.

“And then there were us, the indigenas, with skin as rough and ruddy as freshly dug potatoes, cheeks chapped raw by the sun and wind. The mestizos called us longos, stupid Indians, dirty Indians, poor Indians. We had awkward, backward names like Farinango, which our grandparents signed with an X on contracts they couldn’t read. In this way, our grandparents sold their land and them forever after paid the mestizos half their harvest to rent what was once theirs.

“As a little girl, I hated those mestizos.

“Yet I wanted, desperately, to be one.

“When I was about seven I left my world” p2

This is based on the true story of a seven year old Quechua Indian girl, Maria Virginia Farinango, taken from her indigenous home in Ecuador by a well-to-do mestizos couple, consisting of a dentist and a professor. Children taken like this were kept as virtual slaves expected to do all the nastiest and most burdensome household and child care chores without recompense. Since Virginia had grown up in a village with dirt floors without electricity or water, she had no idea how to manage such chores and was severely beaten on a regular basis for not living up to expectations.

While some girls were taken back to their villages periodically to visit their families, Virginia’s captors added psychological abuse and told Virginia that her mother no longer wanted her; if taken back her mother would sell her to someone else who treated her even worse. Later it becomes clear that Virginia’s family did not know where she had gone or why she stayed away.

Virginia was promised school, but it never happened. Instead, she was locked in the house while her white captors were gone for the day and she was rarely allowed outside. However, her master gave her the key to learning how to read and Maria devoured the household books and later the schoolbooks her master’s children had.

As she grew into a beautiful teenager her master’s kindness and interest in took a sexual turn and Maria’s position became intolerable. She was able to contact her family with the help of a neighbor and escape.

Although she first returned to her family and indigena village, it became clear that she no longer belonged there in the deep poverty, lack of schools, and unending field labor.

Virginia reached for the stars, supporting herself as a maid while applying to mestizo schools and entering a nation wide pageant. She dreamed of a future where “dirty Indians” could take their places with futures beyond the poor villages or domestic servants.

This was interesting and well-written. Virginia’s story began in the 1980’s. It is no longer legal in Ecuador for children to be taken from their indigina families. Yet children of these villages still do not have the opportunities for school and careers that the mestizos do. Very different and yet the same in many ways as Native Americans were and are treated here in the U.S. – looked down upon as being a less intelligent and a lesser people by the descendants of those who conquered the area.

>75 streamsong: Not my feet, or not only my feet. 😬 I’ve got osteoarthritis pretty bad. My knees are a mess, as is my lower back, and I’m still recovering from hip replacement surgery. Getting old isn’t to sneeze at. 😛

Wolves at the Door: The True Story Of America's Greatest Female Spy , Janet. I'll have to look into that one. Great comments!

>79 Storeetllr: Hi Mary - I'm so sorry; I didn't realize. I have some arthritis in my feet, so I guess I projected that onto you. I hope that as your hip heals , you'll get some relief for that part at least.

>80 vancouverdeb: I hope you like it Deborah! There are so many stories of unsung women, both hugely heroic and those keeping their families and lives together against great odds.

I'm currently rereading Neither Wolf nor Dog for one of my in person book clubs next week. In the chapter I've just finished, one of the Lakota women says that it's the Native women holding the people and culture together; that the men have fought for two hundred years and are broken.

A second book that I am reading now is All That She Carried. It's a true family story of a black woman making a bag with two or three small things inside, but mostly filled with love for her nine year old daughter to take with her on the auction block as the daughter is being sold away. It won the National Book Award in nonfiction last year, and is up for the new Nonfiction International Women's Book Award.

Both are very humbling.

The last few days I have spent wonderful time sorting out reads from various lists that have just come out. I juggle my interests, recs from my wonderful LT and other friends, what my interlinked library system has available and countries I am interested in reading for my Global Challenge Reading.

This morning next month's choices for the Book Girls' Global Voyage were released for next month's theme of island countries. There is always a wonderful selection of almost every genre. I chose a historical mystery A Disappearance in Fiji by Fijin author Nilima Rao. I've never read a book from Fiji and a mystery sounded like a good antidote to some of the bleaker things I've been reading.

Earlier in the week, I had requested The Silver Bone (ha! another mystery!) by Ukrainian Andrif Kurkow and Undiscovered by Peruvian Gabriela Wiener from the Booker Prize Long List.

I chose The Wren The Wren by Anne Enright to start off my reading of the Women's Prize list.

20. Take What You Need - Idra Novey – 2023
– library
3.5 stars

Jean left her marriage when her stepdaughter Leah was ten years old. The two were completely out of contact until four years previously when Jean had invited Leah for a visit.

The area where the family had lived, and where Jean still lives, has deteriorated into a rough, poverty stricken, almost abandoned town in Appalachia. Jean has become a sculptor of derelict metal and other scraps which she fashions into huge works that she calls manglements. Jean has befriended a young, alcohol-driven, gun carrying very red-neck young man to help her with the heavy work.

The reunion between Lean and Jean failed when Jean took Leah to a favorite overlook and the young man helper appeared as part of a group of men that terrorized Leah. When Leah perceived that Jean has chosen helping this young man rather than nurturing her daughter, Leah once again put the relationship behind her.

Now Leah has received a phone call that her mother has died while working on her sculptures. It’s up to Leah to decide what to do with Jean’s beloved manglements and the frightening young man that Jean was trying to help.

It’s a bit ironic that this is a story of good intentions, high expectations and failed connections because that is how I would describe how the book worked (or did not quite work) for me.

>83 streamsong: I loved this one, Janet. Sorry it doesn't quite work for you.

All That She Carried does sound interesting.

Heya Janet!

>84 BLBera: Hi Beth! Sometimes literary fiction does not work for me. I'll have to go back and see if I can find what you said about it.

I wonder, though, if it had anything to do with my friend's experience two summer's ago. Did I mention it here?
She was the market master of the local farmer's market. She got on the bad side of the local right wing militia who are very active in this county. A group of them followed her around at the market, wearing guns and keeping a hand on their holsters. Even though it was photographed and recorded, the local judge said it wasn't intimidation and none of the local newspapers would report it. It got bad enough she quit her job and I think she still has some PTSD issues. Guys with guns intimidating women and those they think are weaker are very real here. I think I lost my respect for the mother, Jean, at that point.

All That She Carried is interesting and heart breaking. In a way its a bit like a Finding Your Roots episode as they are trying to piece back which plantation the little girl was born to and where she was sold. I had no idea Charleston, South Carolina was such a mecca of the slave trade.

It won the National Book Award for fiction in 2023 and is on the Women's Nonfiction prize list for 2024.

I have also decided to try and finish the random ROOTS that I have started based on the TIOLI challenge each month. I have four of these in progress (sigh). One of them is a real oldie, Irving Stone's Love is Eternal about Mary and Abraham Lincoln, so I am getting a second view of slavery at the same time.

>85 Owltherian: Heya back at you Owl Lily.

Janet, I hope you get to see an endocrinologist soon, and maybe a dietician. Internists are good for general medicine, but diabetes needs knowledgeable care. Can you go to one without a referral? If not, urge your PCP to refer you. As far as I know, complex carbohydrates are preferred for diabetics.

A note also to Owltherian. Try to find a occupational therapist with a specialty in sensory integration. A friend of mine does that, and has had a lot of success with neurodiverse patients. She's not in your area, otherwise I would recommend her directly.

>87 ffortsa: Hi Judy - Thanks for stopping by. I think that seeing a medical diabetic specialist is excellent advice, but not easy to do in this area. The method of eating I am trying out is predominantly complex carbohydrates and legumes along with plenty of non-starchy vegetables. I am also continuing to eat a small amount of of fish and animal based proteins. So far it is reflected in my FBS by a drop of about 20 points, which makes me pretty happy. I'll be interested to see how it affects my A1C.

March Reviews! Yay!

This was my choice from the February list of the Book Girls’ Global Tour for Western Europe. It is the third book that I have read in the previous 12 months by Ruta Sepetys. This one is set in Spain, under the rule of Franco - a time period which I was not very familiar. Sepetys herself is from the USA. Although her books are often called YA, they fall into the crossover category to be enjoyed by both teens and adults. Although this one was very good, my favorite continues to be Salt To the Sea.



21. The Fountains of Silence – Ruta Sepetys - 2020
- Book Girls Global Tour - Western Europe - Spain
- YA
- library

This is set in the 1950’s about twenty years after Generalissimo Franco’s rule began in Spain. Franco is beginning to allow business with other countries.

Daniel, is the son of a rich Texas oilman. His father hopes to make oil deals which will enrich both his business and Franco. He has traveled to Madrid with his family to meet the dictator in person. Daniel has no interest in the oil company and plans to be a photojournalist. Although he has been cautioned about taking photographs in Franco’s Spain, he does so, capturing images that the dictator’s strong men are not happy to see, including a nun carrying a dead baby.

Daniel is intrigued by Ana, a maid at the hotel. Her parents were both anti-Franco republicans, killed during the revolution. Lke other offspring and relatives of those who fought Franco, Ana's family are still paying the price.

This is a vivid picture of Spain under Franco’s dictatorship: there are many orphaned children of the anti-Franco movement, who, denied education and opportunity, have no path to better themselves. A friend of Ana’s brother, an orphan who sleeps on the streets, takes up the path of bullfighting as a means to escape his situation.

But the true story here is the continuing mystery of thousands of children who disappear from those who fought against Franco.

There is also a strong romantic story in this novel, too, which does give it more YA tones than the others I have read by this author.

Once again Sepetys has produced strong research and an unforgettable story.

>89 streamsong: looks good!

I heading to the library to see if they have the Fountains of Silence bu Ruta Seetus. It's beeen on my TBR list for awhile. Thanks for your excellent review.

Good review of The Fountains of Silence. I am a fan of this author but missed this one. Back on the TBR. Your job is done. 😁

Best wishes with The Wren, The Wren, Janet. I just finished it , and it was not my thing, but I know many people have enjoyed it. Great results with your FBS .

>90 The_Hibernator: Thank you, Rachel. Have you read anything by Ruta Sepetys?

>91 Whisper1: Thank you, Linda. I hope you enjoy it!

>92 msf59: Hi Mark! It's nice to see another Sepetys fan. I just started reading her within this year. I think the fact that she is called a YA author is off-putting to many people. Oh the labels!

>93 vancouverdeb: Hi Deborah! Thanks for your thoughts on The Wren The Wren. This will be my first by Enright, since I have the impression that her books are pretty bleak. As this one was called less bleak, I thought I'd give it a try. It will probably be a while before the copy I have on hold shows up for me at the library. I think there are only two or three copies in our linked library system which spans western Montana.

Had a late night cookie binge, so yesterday's FBS was a bit alarming. I'm doing a 14 hour fast between supper and the FBS so have not yet done today's. Progress, not perfection, right?

Today is my in-person book club which meets at one of my favorite restaurants in town. We'll be discussing Neither Wolf nor Dog which I read a few years ago. It's gotten quite a bit of attention over the years it's has been published. Here is my review from 2020:

As the book blurb on the back of the book says: “An unlikely cross between On the Road and Black Elk Speaks, Neither Wolf nor Dog takes us past the myths and stereotypes of the Native American experience, revealing an America few ever see.”

After author Kent Nerburn helped his Native American students publish the stories of their elders, he was contacted by an elder who wanted Nerburn to write a book for him.

Although the elder, referred to only as Dan, had written down many of his thoughts over the years, he ended up burning them, and instead took Nerburn on a Indian roadtrip across the high plains, through the Badlands and to the site of Wounded Knee. As they drove and experienced, Dan gave Nerburn many of his little lectures in the context from which they were born.

Beautifully written and much to think about. 4.5 stars.

Lunch at this restaurant is a wonderful antidote to my own plain-ish cooking. I usually order the Ahi tuna on a bed of couscous with a peanut sauce. I usually ask them to hold the kimchi as sometimes it is too spicy for me- they make it in house and the spiciness varies according to who made it. I don't know if I'll ever go full vegetarian or vegan when such wonderful dishes exist in the world.

22. Candide – Voltaire - 1759
- Library Brown Bag Book Club
– Global Reading: France
- Project Gutenberg on Kindle

What do you say about one of the most famous satires of the western cannon written in 1759 by French philosopher Voltaire?

It’s biting political and religious satire featuring our friend, Candide, a naïve young man trying to make sense of the world while living through a series of misadventures after he is ejected from his very pleasant youthful life .

He has been taught by his tutor, Professor Pangloss, that everything works out for the best and that we live in the best of all worlds; that everything has evolved to precisely this point of perfection because of the perfection that went before. For example one of Pangloss’s assertions is that eyeglasses being the shape they are shows the perfection of the shape of the nose.

I’ve never been a great fan of comedy by absurdity, but what really struck me is that many of our institutions such as the church, ruling countries, armies and our ideas of paradise haven’t come that far in the almost 300 years since this was written.

Hi Janet--Soooo far behind here, but wishing you luck with the new diet and I totally enjoyed Candide when I read it back in high school. I think the classroom discussion probably helped make it even more fun. Hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend. : )

Hi Kim! Thanks for stopping by! I am really having trouble keeping up with LT - although I try to visit a thread or two each day.

The Candide discussion at the book club was good - I can imagine it being quite lively with a group of high school students! When this book was chosen, I really wasn't looking forward to reading it at all. It just goes to emphasize how good it can be to be part of a group that encourages reading outside of our norms.

>96 streamsong: I think it might be time for me to read this again. I think I would appreciate it more now than I did in high school.

I was away from my laptop and thus LT for most of the month. Good for you for getting the Life Alert. I discovered that my Apple Watch has a "fall" feature: I fell on a walk around the farm and it came up to ask if it needed to call my emergency number. And...somewhat more embarrassing, I discovered that my Watch called 911 when I accidently pressed the wrong button too many time as I sleepily tried to get the clock to appear without my glasses on. Fortunately, the local sheriff's office responded and told me how to turn off that feature. It's nice living in a small town.

Thanks for sharing the soup recipe. We are not vegetarians but I work a lot of plant-based food into our diet.

>99 BLBera: Hi Beth! I didn't read it in high school and had only a few literature classes in college, so I believe this was my first time reading it. In places it seemed very familiar, though. I'm not sure if that is just the 'knowing a smattering about many classics but never read it' syndrome.

>100 witchyrichy: Hi Karen! I'm getting used to the putting on the Life Alert as I go out to do horse stuff. It gives me a bit more confidence. My Dad made several not-wise decisions as he aged which ultimately limited his life style. I'm trying to set myself up for staying with my lifestyle as long as I possibly can.

So far I have hit the Life Alert button once by mistake. I was throwing a dead mouse in the outside garbage can (eeww ick!) and not paying enough attention to other concerns.

That is interesting about your Smart Watch. I bet the sheriff knew how to change the settings because he has dealt with it before! I don't have a Smart Watch, but I'll ask my brother whether his is the same.

You're welcome for the soup recipe. I don't see myself becoming totally vegan or vegetarian either, but like you, incorporating more plant-based recipes. I've joined several FB groups for plant based recipes. One person said that he was a "climatarian" hoping to reduce his impact on the planet. Other people have called themselves "switchatarians" meaning they eat more plant based foods but also other choices. More are doing it for health reasons like I am - I don't know if that makes me a "healtharian" - I haven't heard that term used.

This week I am going to try to make - you'll never guess so I'll put it in as a spoiler to highlight the surprise Vegan bacon from banana peels - although you can also use the same marinade on tofu so I think I'll try both. Love me a BLT sandwich with vine ripe tomatos. Yup, this is a real recipe and not an April Fool's joke. I had no idea they were edible. There are multiple recipes on the web. I'll report back after I give it a try.

23. The Mystery Guest – Nita Prose - 2023
– library

This is the second in the Molly the Maid cozy mystery series.

Molly is a neurodivergent woman who was raised by a loving grandmother (now deceased) who helped her understand others by using many little rules and sayings which Molly took to heart. She is now the chief housekeeper at an upscale hotel, where in the initial book, she was believed to be a murderer due to her different way of interacting with the world.

This time Molly is helping prepare the hotel for a lavish author event where a very well known and beloved mystery author, J. D. Grimthorpe, will be giving an important announcement to his gathered fans. By shear chance, Grimthorpe was a major player in Molly’s childhood. They have not met for many years and he no longer recognizes the child he once knew.

But … just as he begins to speak, he dies.

It seems to be murder – and once again one of the maids is the chief suspect.

Molly has learned to become very observant of things, events and people in an effort to demystify people’s actions and understand what is happening. This can make her the perfect detective as she sees things others overlook – but she can also misunderstand what has occurred– and sometimes her grandmother’s concrete rules can lead her astray when situations don’t fit neatly into specific boxes. In both books, I felt the police were characterized as not-too-bright – surely they would realize a speaker would have notes and the notes were missing.

I enjoyed learning more of Molly’s back story and thought the dual time line worked well. I also enjoy reading about a neurodivergent woman with a responsible job, a love interest and good friends who treat her with respect.

All in all cozy mysteries are perfect when one needs a break from tougher subjects – and this one fit that category very well. If the author continues the series, I'll read onward. 3.8 stars.

Today at 6pm the new-this-year Women's Prize for Nonfiction will announce their shortlist. I read All That She Carried and have Thunderclap home from the library waiting for me to get to it. https://womensprize.com/prizes/womens-prize-for-non-fiction/

So many book lists recently released! I have several from the Women's Prize for Fiction requested from the library, but none read yet. I'm still lagging away on the Booker's from last year, too.

I'm currently listening to a non-fiction Cold War spy account, The Spy Who Knew Too Much for book club tomorrow. Not exactly my thing, but I can listen and sort my tax papers at the same time.

Tonight is also the Glacier Conservancy Book Club's author talk by Christopher J Preston for Tenacious Beasts: Wildlife Recoveries That Change How We Think about Animals I had read this one at the end of last year so didn't reread it.

Well, I had a late night chocolate binge last night, Janet. I purchased some very small Easter Eggs for my two grandchildren and then I ate quite a few myself! I'll have to go back to the chocolate store tomorrow. It's great that so many people here on LT are so interested in the Women's Prize for Non Fiction. I'm so into the fiction prize longlist, I'm not sure I will get to any of them any time soon.

>104 vancouverdeb: Hi Deborah! Drat that chocolate! I cannot have just one piece of anything sugary. The rest of it just calls my name.

I'm always at the mercy at what comes in for library holds. When the Women's Prize for Non-Fiction was announced, I thought several sounded interesting and they came in quickly, so they are waiting for me. I think there are far more people discussing the fiction award and I have not received or read a single one. :( Ah well.

All That She Carried was extraordinary and made it onto the short list of six books.

# Waiting to be Read
* Requested from Library

Women’s Prize for Nonfiction, 2024 Shortlist

✅ Laura Cumming - Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death - British
#Naomi Klein - Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World
Noreen Masud - A Flat Place - British
✅ Tiya Miles - All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake American
Madhumita Murgia - Code-Dependent: Living in the Shadow of AI - British
* Safiya Sinclair - How To Say Babylon: A Jamaican Memoir - Jamaican

Women's Prize for 2024
Short List announced 4/23

*The Wren, The Wren by Anne Enright
#Brotherless Night by V.V. Ganeshanathan
#Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad
Restless Dolly Maunder by Kate Grenville
Soldier Sailor by Claire Kilroy
River East, River West by Aube Ray Lescure

The Rest of the Women's Prize Long List:

The Blue Beautiful World by Karen Lord
And Then She Fell by Alicia Elliot
8 Lives of a Century-Old Trickster by Mirinae Lee
Western Lane by Chetna Maroo
A Trace of Sun by Pam Williams
Ordinary Human Failings by Megan Nolan
Hangman by Maya Binyan
The Maiden by Kate Foster
In Defense of the Act by Effie Black
Nightbloom by Peace Adzo Medie

International Booker 2024 Thanks to Darryl for this list!

Short List:

Not a River by Selva Almada (Argentina), translated by Annie McDermott
Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck (Germany), translated by Michael Hofmann
The Details by Ia Genberg (Sweden), translated by Kira Josefsson
Mater 2-10 by Hwang Sok-yong (South Korea), translated by Sora Kim-Russell and Youngjae Josephine Bae
What I’d Rather Not Think About by Jente Posthuma (the Netherlands), translated by Sarah Timmer Harvey
Crooked Plow by Itamar Vieira Junior (Brasil), translated by Johnny Lorenz

** Rest of the Long List**
Simpatía by Rodrigo Blanco Calderón (Venezuela), translated by Noel Hernández González and Daniel Hahn
White Nights by Urszula Honek (Poland), translated by Kate Webster
A Dictator Calls by Ismail Kadare (Albania), translated by John Hodgson
✔ The Silver Bone by Andrey Kurkov (Ukraine), translated by Boris Dralyuk
Lost on Me by Veronica Raimo (Italy), translated by Leah Janeczko
The House on Via Gemito by Domenico Starnone (Italy), translated by Oonagh Stransky
✔ Undiscovered by Gabriela Wiener (Peru), translated by Julia Sanches

24. Fire Scars – John B Wright - 2023
– library


As climate change causes forests to become ever drier due to decreased snowfall, higher temperatures and earlier snow melt , the challenge of wildfires increases.

The 1949 Mann Gulch fire where thirteen firefighters lost their lives is well known. The site is considered almost holy by the firefighting community, including smoke jumpers and the elite hot shot crews. Now a famous actor has caused offense by building a palatial home on private property overlooking the gulch. But this year is extra dry and once again fire rushes up the gulch, burning the home to the ground. The actor’s daughter is missing. Matt Solberg, a tracker, author on the subject and head of a search and rescue unit is called in to find her. There are clear signs that the fire was deliberately started.

But it’s only the beginning of the fire season. More fires break out in western Montana. Is it a coincidence that many of them destroy highly vulnerable new subdivisions built along the forests’ edges? Several of these fires show signs of arson, but clues left behind at the fires are inconsistent.

I have lived in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana for forty years. The most amazing parts of this book are the local details. Every road, every trailhead, every mountain is accurate and referred to by name. (I can’t comment on the subdivision names, because I don’t keep track). In addition, Wright has nailed the simmering-to-a-boil politics of the area: newcomers coming in with money, old timers who have lived here for generations, hippie type environmentalists, ranchers and those whose politics are on the extreme right. In Missoula the mix also includes scientists from the University and the core of firefighters based at the Smoke Jumper Center.

There are a multitude of suspects; each of the groups has its radicals and ex-wives. I was a bit skeptical that Matt Solberg would be called in by the FBI as a fire expert and tracker to do the sleuthing around the fires.
Nevertheless, I really enjoyed the book. I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in the political climate of this microcosm of the west, this specific area, forest fires and a different sort of mystery – I believe this was called an ‘enviromystery’.

>106 streamsong: This sounds really good, Janet. Great comments.

Thanks, Beth. It was definitely fun to read a book with such accurate details about the place I live.

I left my previous review written in 20202 for Neither Wolf Nor Dog in >95 streamsong:. I don't think I'll add to it or change it. I'll just note in here and drive on
.
25 Neither Wolf Nor Dog: On Forgotten Roads with an Indian Elder - Kent Nerburn - 1996
- Reread - Newcomers' Book Club
- library

**** 7 BOOKS COMPLETED IN MARCH ****

21. The Fountains of Silence - Ruta Sepetys - 2020 - Book Girls Global Tour - Western Europe - Spain - YA library
22. Candide - Voltaire - 1759 - Library Brown Bag Book Club - Project Gutenberg on Kindle
23. The Mystery Guest - Nita Prose - 2023 - library
24. Fire Scars - John B Wright - 2023 - library
25. Neither Wolf nor Dog: On Forgotten Roads with an Indian Elder - Kent Nerburn - 2018 - N Book Club = Reread - library
26. All That She Carried - Tiya Miles - 2022 - library
27. Start Where You Are - Pema Chodron - 1994 - ROOT #2 acq'd 2007

YEAR CATALOGED OR ACQUIRED
1 - 2007
1 - 2000 (reread)
5 - 2024 - Library

Total ROOTS read (acquired before 2023)
1 - acquired 2007



FORMAT
6 - print
1 - online - Project Gutenberg

GENRE

4 Fiction (may be in more than one catagory)
1 - classic
1 - environment
1 - global reading
2 - mystery

- - Non-Fiction (may fit into more than one category)

1 - Black history
1 - Buddhism/ philosophy
1 - Native American

Original Publication Date

1 - 1759
1 - 1994
1 - 2018
1 - 2020
1 - 2022
2 - 2023

- 4 - female authors
- 3 - male authors
- - combination of male and female authors

4 - Authors who are new to me
3 - Authors read before

1 - Rereads

Countries Visited:
1 - England
1 - France
1 - Spain

The below numbers include the dozen or so library books I have at home:
As of 04/01/2024: 563 books on physical MT TBR- (10 books acquired)
As of 03/01/2024: 552 books on physical MT TBR
As of 01/01/2024: 549 books on physical MT TBR
As of 01/01/2023: 535 books on physical MT TBR
As of 01/01/2022: 530 books on physical MT TBR
As of 01/01/2021: 522 books on MT TBR

*******Running Total of Books Read in April*********

9 completed in April

28. How Beautiful We Were - Imbolo Mbue - 2021 - Book Girls World Tour/Global Reading: Cameroon - library
29. The Spy Who Knew Too Much - Howard Blum - 2023 - NC Book Club - Hoopla
30. The Silver Bone - Andrij Kurkow - 2024 - Booker International Long List - library
31. Crooked: The Roaring '20s Tale of a Corrupt Attorney General, a Crusading Senator, and the Birth of the American Political Scandal - Nathan Masters - 2023 - Glacier Conservancy Book Club - library
32. Undiscovered: A Novel - Gabriela Wiener - 2023 - International Booker Long List - Global Reading: Peru - library
33. Homegrown: Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism - Jeffrey Toobin - 2023 - audiobook - library
34. Horse - Geraldine Brooks - 2022 - Reread - NC Book Club - Root #3 for year; acquired 2023
35. Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life - Laura Cumming - 2023 - 2024 Long List Women's Prize for Nonfiction - Global Reading: The Netherlands (Holland) - NF/location/British author - library
36. Lewis and Clark Through Indian Eyes - Alvin M Josephy - 2006 - Library Book Club - library

YEAR CATALOGED OR ACQUIRED
1 - library

Total ROOTS read (acquired before 1/1/2024)



FORMAT
1 - print

GENRE

1- Fiction (may be in more than one catagory)
1 - Colonialism
1 - Enviornment

- - Non-Fiction (may fit into more than one category)

Original Publication Date
1 - 2021

- 1 - female authors
- - male authors
- - combination of male and female authors

1 - Authors who are new to me
- Authors read before

- Rereads

Countries Visited:
1 - Cameroon

Deservedly winner of the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 2021, this came to my attention when it was listed this year for the newly inaugurated Women’s Prize for Nonfiction.



26. All That She Carried - Tiya Miles - 2021
- library


In 2007 at a Nashville yard sale what appears to be a very old cotton sack is found among other odds and ends of cloth. On this bag is this embroidered inscription:

“ My great grandmother Rose
mother of Ashley gave her this sack when
she was sold at age 9 in South Carolina
it held a tattered dress 3 handfulls of
pecans a braid of Roses hair. Told her
It be filled with my Love always
she never saw her again
Ashley is my grandmother
— Ruth Middleton, 1921”

Based on the last name embroidered on the bag, the finder donates it to the prestigious Middleton Place Foundation in Charleston, SC, a museum of an antebellum plantation.

Eventually it comes to the attention of historian Tiya Miles. She uses the very sketchy slave records of Middleton Plantation to try to trace Rose and her daughter Ashley (an unusual name for an ‘unfree’ person as Miles calls the enslaved). Although these names do not occur in the Middleton records, she does find them among the records of a nearby slave holder.

There are not many facts to be found. The genealogical line of the woman who did the embroidery died out two generations later without heirs. The contents of the sack are gone; it is empty.

And so Tiya details what she can find, speculates on events, and fills the book with details such as what this bag may have originally held, the only types of cloth unfree people were allowed to use for clothes, the meaning of wild pecan trees to Native people in the area, and the use of hair strands twisted into various ornaments for remembrance. Because of the paucity of facts available, at times she seems to be stretching points as she gives symbols to the colors of the embroidery Ruth Middleton used.

And yet, this empty sack and the story of the frightened nine-year-old girl sold away from her grieving mother never to see each other again, thoroughly captured my imagination. The sack is now on loan to the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History – one of very few documented possessions of the unfree who, generally, weren’t allowed possessions. It’s a story that documents a moment in time but is witness to people untraceable earlier than this event and unknowable regarding the lives of both giver and receiver. It is totally searing and illuminates the atrocity of slavery.

Happy April Fools Day! If you enjoy the NYT Connections puzzle, there's a special April Fool's edition today.

https://www.nytimes.com/games/connections

HOORAY! Last of the March revieiws. Although I am doing a terrible job of visiting threads, I am keeping up with reviews better than I did last year.

This is part of my goal of reading some the oldest books in my TBR pile. I use the #1 prompt in the Take it Or Leave It Challenge to read the book I have owned the longest that falls into the cateory. This was from several months ago and I can't even remember what the prompt was!



27. Start Where You Are – Pema Chodron - 1994
- ROOT #2
- acq'd 2007


Book Desciption:" With insight and humor, Pema Chödrön presents down-to-earth guidance on how we can "start where we are"--embracing rather than denying the painful aspects of our lives. Pema Chödrön frames her teachings on compassion around fifty-nine traditional Tibetan Buddhist maxims, or slogans, such as: "Always apply only a joyful state of mind," "Don't seek others' pain as the limbs of your own happiness," and "Always meditate on whatever provokes resentment." Working with these slogans and through the practice of meditation, Start Where You Are shows how we can all develop the courage to work with our inner pain and discover joy, well-being, and confidence.”

Several years ago during a very painful portion of my life, I was introduced by a therapist to Buddhist wisdom as an adjunct to my Christian faith. I findd these slogans useful and a good quiet meditation for the beginning of the day to align my heart, mind and purpose. The chapters are very short and I believe I would be benefited by reading them regularly.

>101 streamsong: Did you make the vegan banana bacon?? How did it go?

No, I haven't tried it yet. I'll definitely report back when I do!

Happy Friday, Janet. It is very hard to avoid BBs over here. You are consistently reading quality books. Fire Scars & All That She Carried caught my attention this time.

Have you read The Vaster Wilds yet? If not, I think it would be one you would like.

Hi Mark! Thanks for visiting! I'm glad you left with a few BB's.

Ha! That I don't even have to leave my thread to receive BB's! No, I haven't read The Vaster Wilds but it does seem like one I would like. Onto the wishlist it goes!

I chose this title from the Book Girls' twenty or so books focused on Africa for March. I try to choose books from countries that I haven't read previously. This one fits perfectly as the author is from Cameroon although the country in the story isn't identified. Colonialism is a tough subject, though, and I found this a pretty bleak read.



28. How Beautiful We Were – Imbolo Mbue – 2021
- Book Girls World Tour/Global Reading: Cameroon
– library
3.7 stars

This takes place in an unnamed country in Africa under a dictator’s thumb. He has made a deal with an oil company that the company may take all the oil under one village’s land.

The dictator makes masses of money from this project. The oil company also makes masses of money, especially as it turns out, they had signed an agreement that they have no responsibility for consequences for the villagers’ health, the taking of their land or disruption of their way of life. At first the villagers are excited to learn there will be jobs. But very few of them receive jobs or money. Those who do seem to be creatures owned by the company. The environmental impacts are huge: oil spills destroy farm land, the once pristine river has been dubbed the River of Death due to its chemical load and constant burning at the oil site destroys the air.

When children sicken and die, the men of the village organize a delegation to the capital to talk to the government, but the delegation disappears. Another delegation then goes to check on the first with discouraging results. The dictator solves the complaints by sending in in his military to permanently quiet the villagers by massacring them.

An international justice organization takes up the case to expose the American oil company. At first it seems things will get better as the company agrees on some reparations and bottled water for the children. They provide secondary schooling for the older children and the best scholar in the village, a girl named Thula, is sponsored to go to the United State for college and post graduate work. She learns how ordinary people can stand together to change the course of history.

But nothing really changes – more broken promises, more violence and killings. It’s a pattern that has repeated itself since the first Europeans arrived in the area to take slaves and then later ‘recruited’ workers for their rubber plantations. It’s a story of greed and money and ‘might making right’ whether the might belongs to the colonialists, the corporations, or the leaders within the country itself. All is compounded by suspicions of tribes against each other and the naïve belief of the villagers that if the authorities only knew about the people’s suffering, they would act to fix it.

This book is pretty bleak. Are there answers? I’m also left (as I’m sure the Cameroonian author intended) contemplating how much responsibility belongs to the western nations using the oil.

This is well written with just enough hope dangled that circumstances will change to keep me reading.

Hiya Janet! How are ya?

wow that is pretty bleak but I think it mirrors what is happening now I think in West Africa (cant remember where, read about it a few months ago, about an oil company buying up land.)

>117 streamsong: I really enjoyed? this one. Mbue is so good.

>118 Owltherian: - Hi Lilly! Stressing out over doing my taxes which I always put off until the last minute.

>119 cindydavid4: Hi Cindy - Yes, very bleak but I agree that it is probably a reality in some oil-driven western African dictatorships today.

>120 BLBera: Hi Beth - Mbue's writing was very good and I liked the way her chapters followed various viewpoints. It would have been a good four star read for me, but the story threw me into a hole and left me there. Every time I enjoyed a character, they died or were murdered - and whoops!- back down to the bottom of the hole. Just too bleak for my current state of mine. Nevertheless, I know the story will stay with me.

The exploitation by the oil company reminded me of a book called Survive the Fittest written by one of our scientific post docs, Henry Amaechi Onwubiko . I didn't write a review but here is a description on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/1425992676?tag=bookfinder-test-b2-20&linkCode=osi&...

>121 streamsong: Ah, I have heard taxes are bad. Im dealing with a light fever (99.3) and i had just eaten a biscuit & some corn meal gravy without pain which was nice.

Hey, Lilly. Taxes are like other things - not so bad if you do not procrastinate and have to do them against a deadline.

Ah, taxes take so much of your money, especially i think work taxes and stuff sadly.

Yes, taxes take lots of money, although there are many countries where they are higher than in the US. And they provide so much we need - roads, schools, healthcare for kids that can't pay, aid to our allies, military spending and scientific research - where I spent my career.

Its a lot to pay, especially if you get raises.

if you dont make much you shouldnt have high taxes.

>114 streamsong: Also interested in the new bacon...! Good luck on the taxes. Ugh.

>126 Owltherian: Not much in the way of raises now that I'm retired.

>127 cindydavid4: Agreed that it should be that way, Cindy. I don't believe in the 'trickle down' tax cuts for the rich, which the last administration so gleefully accomplished.

>128 Berly: Hi Kim! Still haven't tried it. I eat the bananas before they go super ripe and the stores haven't had any of the extra ripe bananas lately. I'm not sure if it would be the same if I took the yellow peels and let them go dark after eating the banana. Would the sugar content still change? Besides the same marinade on tofu, I have since seen recipes with that marinade on rice paper and carrots made thin with a hand peeler.

>129 streamsong: Ah, i think that would make it a little easier i think.

I added the Booker International shortlist to my post >105 streamsong:. I have complete one - The Silver Bone by Andrij Kurkow a good enough mystery set in post WWI Ukraine, which I have not yet reviewed and which had a lot of very complicated historical details.

I am reading a second: Undiscovered by Gabriela Wiener of Peru. This one seemed more prize-worthy. It is a fictionalized autobiography (they called it autofiction - a new term for me) of a woman with strong indigenous roots and one white Spanish great-grandfather who was an explorer and plunderer of thousands of Peruvian artworks

Neither made the short list. :)

>131 streamsong: I look forward to your comments on these, Janet.

>130 Owltherian: :)

>132 BLBera: Hi Beth - Thanks for stopping by and the encouragement. Yay! I'm only a few reviews behind at this point. But that also means that I am not doing as much reading right now, either. I am stuck on a few books that I am trying to finish, but they aren't calling to me. I HATE not finishing books.

I picked up a few more at the library yesterday including Brotherless Night.

**read for one of my in person book clubs. At the end of the meeting, one of the regular members who had recommended this book, revealed that her father was in the CIA and had disappeared when she was a baby, although her family continued to get the occasional card from him until his death some fifteen or twenty years later.



29. The Spy Who Knew too Much – Howard Blum - 2023
- Library Book Club
– Hoopla - audiobook


Tennent “Pete” Bagley was a CIA operative in the midst of the Cold War. with Russia. He was once a promising young star in the CIA, but when he insisted there was a high level mole in the organization, others agreed. Unfortunately, Bagley himself became the target of the mole investigation which ultimately led to his early retirement.

But then several years later an abandoned yacht was found adrift with various high tech spyng devices aboard. Sometime after that, a body identified as CIA agent John Paisley was pulled from the water. He was identified before the autopsy was started, although the physical characteristics of the body didn’t match with Paisley’s description. His wife was not allowed to view the body before cremation.

And so Bagley got back into the game, using only the records that freedom of information act would allow any citizen to use. His goal was to identify what happened to Paisley and once again try to find the high level mole. He also wanted to be able to reconnect with his daughter who was married to the son of the man who led the investigation of Bagley.

There are various books and a movie already in existence about this era and Bagley’s cases, including one Bagley wrote. Howard Blum has written much more about the Cold War Era Espionage and has a vivid writing style. However, this book became quite confusing to me as it jumped back and forth along several timelines. I also listened to it in the audioversion, and the time shifts along with my unfamiliarity with Russian names, made it even more confusing. I would definitely not recommend this in audio and only cautiously recommend it for those interested in the Cold War spy vs spy games.

>134 streamsong: Wow, Janet, that is some story.

Hi Paul! Not one that I would usually pick up to read - but that is the beauty (and downfall) of book clubs. That and the fact that I (almost always) finish books that I start.

>136 streamsong: Thats the same with me, i usually finish books pretty fast after i get them, and that very much happened with Heartstopper which i got the next two and finished both of them.

So yesterday I had some downtime - I was working on taxes and once more thought I had my Microsoft Windows hijacked. I have been pretty loose about clicking on unknown websites as I explore vegetarian eating and recipes.When this happened before, the techs had to wipe my entire computer and reinstall everything. So naturally, I was beyond frantic. Hooray, hooray! This time I had not clicked on to the virus itself, but one of the sham look alike sights that try to get you to call them to 'fix' the problem.

I was thoroughly shaken and needed a break, I decided to try the banana peel bacon recipe here: https://itdoesnttastelikechicken.com/banana-peel-bacon/ It was very easy. The marinade was delicious: soy sauce or coconut amines, smoked paprika, powdered garlic, and real maple syrup. I think whatever you soaked in this stuff would taste good.

I didn't trust that the recipe said the peels would become crisp after they cooled down. So part of the experiment was overcooked and had a bit burned flavor. Part was not quite cooked enough and was a bit chewy. One slice seemed to be done about right and was crispy and smoky. I loaded them all between pieces of toast and had a decent enough BBLAT (banana bacon, lettuce, avocado and tomato) sammy. Unless I was a bacon starved castaway adrift on a desert island with the right spices, it wouldn't satisfy me as bacon.

Not bad. Not bacon.

I was mostly intrigued that this throw away could be considered 'found food'. No one seems to have investigated the nutritional value of banana peel but all the recipe bloggers agree that it has less fat and more fiber than the real thing. :) I can see it as a fun project cooking with kids.

But this summer when the tomatoes are picked ripe and gorgeous, I will indulge in a small amount of real bacon.

>137 Owltherian: Happy Saturday, Lilly. Yes, you can tell how much I like a book by how quickly I read it! Sounds like you are the same way.

>139 streamsong: Yeah, especially when im bored i can finish pretty much three giant books in an hour i belive- lots of people say 'your not actually reading' when i am.

>140 Owltherian: That's a wonderful skill to have.

I chose this after reading about it on this year's International Booker Long List. I've been a bit bogged down in non-fiction reads for my various book clubs and a mystery sounded like a bit of light relief. In additiion, this is the first book I've read by a Ukrainian author for my Global Challenge - and Ukraine is vitally important to US and European foreign policy.



30. The Silver Bone – Andrij Kurkow - 2024
- International Booker Long List
– Global Reading: Ukraine (Ukrainian author and location – translated work)
- library
- 4.3 stars

It’s just at the end of WWI and Ukraine is in chaos. The Russian (Red) army has possession of Kiev, but the White Army continues to fight not very far away. In addition, there are Cossacks, Chinese Communist troops, Ottoman and Hetman (new term for me) also in the picture, making it sometimes a challenge to distinguish the good guys.

In the opening sentences, Samson Kolechko’s father is killed by a Cossack’s saber. Samson is also struck, but he is merely concussed and has an ear cut off. He retains the ear, hoping to have it reattached. Although reattachment isn’t possible, he discovers the severed ear can hear conversations around it, giving him a remote listening device.

The Russian Army billets two soldiers in Samson’s apartment. They have orders to commandeer from the civilian population all goods that may be of use to the Russian army. Eventually, with the help of the detached ear, Samson realizes that some of the goods they are confiscating are being stolen by the soldiers and ending up at his place instead of the proper requisitioned goods site.

When his father’s desk is taken by mistake, Samson files a complaint with the authorities. Due to the shortage of workers, he is offered a job trying to solve thefts by soldiers in the city. His first case of course, is solving the thefts of the two soldiers billeted in his apartment. Jobs no longer pay salaries; a government job however does pay in meal vouchers at the local government cafeteria, so Samson abandons his hopes of becoming an electrical engineer and becomes a crime investigator instead.

He finds the two have obtained a curious assortment of goods, including a great deal of silver objects, most notably a life size human femur made entirely of silver.

The historical details were fascinating. I knew nothing about this part of the Ukraine’s history. The author slowly builds the world of the historical Ukraine, richly generous in the details. This is the first book for the series and due to the author’s world building, I felt the mystery itself was rather slow getting started as Samson doesn’t start his investigating until after a third of the book has passed. I liked Samson as a character, as well as his boss and the woman probably destined to become his love interest. The solution to the mystery is quite unique and stays within the time-context of the story. I’ll look forward to reading the next in the series.

dont want to rain in your thread, but Unless this statement was tongue and cheek there is a bit of a blopper in this book

"Eventually, with the help of the detached ear, Samson realizes that some of the goods they are confiscating are being stolen by the soldiers and ending up at his place instead of the proper requisitioned goods site."

people who have an ear detached or damaged can still hear, the mechanism is in the three little bones youo all learned at school theear drum, op cochclear and the auditory nerve. he wouldnt need the detached ear to help him tho it might help him localize sound but you can do that with a cupped hand.

I hope this wont take the enjoyment of the book, Just that I am a teacher of children with hearing loss, try to set people right on myths and such, and im retired so you can take the teacher out of school but you cant take the school from the teacher

let me know if Im being obnoxiojs :)

Hi Cindy - no I probably didn't explain it very well. He can hear just fine out of the side of his head with the external ear severed, although the author does go into detail about how his ability to localize sound is limited.

Hearing with the severed ear is a bit of magical realism. He has the severed ear safely tucked away in a box in a drawer when he begins to realize that he can hear the two soldiers talking in the room where the ear is.

This is what I said in my review:

"Although reattachment isn’t possible, he discovers the severed ear can hear conversations around it, giving him a remote listening device.

The Russian Army billets two soldiers in Samson’s apartment. They have orders to commandeer from the civilian population all goods that may be of use to the Russian army. Eventually, with the help of the detached ear, Samson realizes that some of the goods they are confiscating are being stolen by the soldiers and ending up at his place instead of the proper requisitioned goods site."

I'll think about how to rephrase it to make it a bit clearer.

>141 streamsong: It really is, and its fun to surprise people with how many books i buy and read

>144 streamsong: no no you did fine; i didn't realize this was a book with magic realism. I can so see that happening! my apologies for the lecture!

I wish I had one of those detacted ears. I lost my hearing in my left ear at 8 from chicken pox. Have since never been able to localize sound. its a bit better now; I have 'cros' hearing aids; a normal one in the right, and the left one sends sound from that ear to the right aid. Pretty amazing tho it doenst help much when the sound around me is really bad. But Im thankful for what I have at least!

>145 Owltherian: What do you do with all the books you buy? Do you trade them in, give them away, colllect them for your library?

>146 cindydavid4: Hi Cindy! It's interesting, isn't it how a personal experience or misfortune can lead to one's life work helping others. Your students are very lucky to have someone with a doorway into understanding their problems.

My son had a very bumpy time in high school - he graduated with his PhD in psychology last winter and has now just passed his national boards. He has a heart for helping kids with the problems he once struggled against.

>147 streamsong: I usually collect them for my library, and read them quite quick

>147 streamsong: its funny because at the time I decided I wanted to teach HI, I wasnt thinking that it was about me; I didn't consider myself disabled, so it wasnt impt. (which might have something to do with my mom refusing to think I had a hearing loss and that I just wasn't paying attention to her) However meeting students who were deaf in college and learning what they experiences, not only realized Id like to be involved in the field, I realized how my own experiences shaped me, and how much I wanted to help similar folk dealing with what I did. so its been a journey And thanks/ it was a lot of fun; with my health issues right now I cant work in a classroom but its my goal after these issues resolve

Congrats on your son!

>148 Owltherian: In that case, Lilly, you fit right in! Most of us have huge personal libraries - I know that I have books that I collected when I was still in school. Where you differ from us, is that most of us have huge collections of unread books - it's amazing how the TBR collections can grow!

>149 cindydavid4: Thanks, Cindy for the congrats for my son. Next step is taking state boards; first for Pennsylvania where he lives and then for other states he may choose to do telehealth in.

Your journey is fascinating. I hope you get to return to the classroom.

>150 streamsong: I buy books, sometimes forget i have them and then get rid of them due to me not feeling interested in it anymore

Ah, that happens to all of us, Lily. I need to purge some books that I've lost interest in and likely will not read now. Although it seems as soon as I purge unread books, there is some pressing reason for me to read them.

>152 streamsong: Exactly, its like we can never get rid of them

One of my in-person book clubs discussed Geraldine Brooks's Horse yesterday. I'm still in the middle of my reread and enjoying it. The list of characters is so varied and complicated and the foreshadowing is wonderful. It was a good choice for a book club - those not interested in the subject of race horses ( a good portion of the club I might add) had artists and art history, the Civil War, and the whole overarching theme of race and racism from the mid 1800's to the current time.

Hi Janet! Re large personal libraries, I had to get rid of mine when I got married, we didn't have the space. But we're building it up again.

Hi Rachel - Yes, purging books is a never ending process, and lack of space is a real reason to have trim out the collection.

Although I plan on staying here (knock on wood, God willing) several more years, I am already contemplating my cases of books and starting the inevitable down sizing. I try to discard several with each book I purchase - or add to my collection. This isn't working very well for me - I'll have to come up with a new plan.

I have a hard time discarding books too, Janet. Once a year or so, I do a big purge and either take them to the one second bookstore in town that takes used books, or I donate them to charity. My local library still is not taking book donations and " not for the foreseeable future" . That has been the case since covid, and I'm not sure why. They are building a new, larger, library to replace the one I most often go to, so maybe it is just a matter of not enough space. They do have book sales, but it is just library books that they are getting rid of.

>152 streamsong: Yes, it is hard to get rid of books. Little by little.

>142 streamsong: The Ukrainian one sounds good.

>157 vancouverdeb: Hi Deb- Thanks for stopping by! There aren't many options for selling or donating books in my small town. Of course, there is Goodwill. The library takes donations but I don't like their sorting policies. They are also very short of space and prefer to give them away.

I need to get my act together as I have quite a few that I have picked up here and there with the intention of selling them online. The XDH and I used to do that as a side business and did fairly well in the days before there were so many options to buy books online.

>158 BLBera: Hi Beth! Everything I do is little by little, which means that most things never do look quite done.

I enjoyed the Ukrainian mystery, although mostly its a world building set up for future books. I can see why it was unique and history-rich enough to make the Long List for the IB. However, it is *just* a mystery, so I also see why it didn't progress to the Short List.

I do enjoy my global reading.

Chosen by the Glacier Conservancy Book Club as not only an interesting episode of US history driven by a Montana Senator, but because Senator Thomas J Walsh had an enduring interest in Glacier National Park, including one of the rare private cabins within the Park.

This one took me forever to finish reading - I hated to give up on it, as I like to think of myself as having a good working knowledge of Montanans and Montana history. But the machinations of political fraud just aren't my thing - even if some of the events and accusations echo events happening today.



31. Crooked: The Roaring '20s Tale of a Corrupt Attorney General, a Crusading Senator, and the Birth of the American Political Scandal – Nathan Masters – 2023
– Glacier Conservancy Book Club
– library

Many are familiar with the Teapot Dome scandal under President William G Harding’s administration. Oil reserves vital to the US military interest ended up being leased out to those who subsequently became millionaires.

Not as well known are the many other scandals perpetrated by other high-ranking officials in Harding’s administration, including his US Attorney General, Harry Daugherty.

Junior Montana Senator Thomas J Walsh, who had run for office on an anti-corruption ticket was the committee head leading Senate investigations against Daugherty. Daugherty was ultimately shown to be involved in many shady deals to make him a rich man, including the incredibly profitable selling licenses to move bootleg liquor during Prohibition, sales of public land, movies of boxing macthes shown across state lines and other illegal schemes. These were brought to light after Harding’s death and then after the suicide of a possible gay love interest of Daughterty’s.

The 1920’s Jazz Age loved its scandals and and scofflaws and led to the term ‘Jazz Age Journalism’ with the public eager for details of the latest scandals.

It was also the rise of the FBI under J Edgar Hoover and Daugherty was not above using Hoover and his new department, leading to the first instances of national investigations being weaponized against those trying to bring the perpetrators to justice.

It’s an interesting chapter of history, bringing light to one of the earliest scandal-ridden administrations whose officials were more interested in using the Presidency to create huge fortunes, than in creating stability for the American people.

Recommended for those interested in US history and its politics.

I seem to be swimming in nonfiction books right now.

I'll work on my review for Undiscovered by Gabriela Wiener , which although is fiction from the Booker International Long List, seems like nonfiction since it is fictionalized autobiography.

I had several books arrive that I had requested for the Women's Nonfiction Prize. I should finish one of them, Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death today or tomorrow. Contrary to descriptions of this book, the thunderclap seems to be the Dutch Golden Age of Painting, and not the 1654 explosion of a gun powder magazine in Delft, killing hundreds of people including artist Carel Fabritius. It's well written and the paper is beautiful quality - it feels so nice to the touch and is perfect for the fifty or so illustrations.

I'm reading another nonfiction for the library book club on Thursday: Lewis and Clark Through Indian Eyes. It's an anthology by nine Native American authors. Some reflect on the their people's interactions with L&C as seen through the L&C Journals. Others are more focused on the results of the L&C expedition and how it led to what Native Americans experience today. As with all anthologies, some essays are of much more interest to me than others.

Since one of the authors in the anthology is Debra Magpie Earling, it reminded me to start reading The Lost Journals of Sacajewea, especially as I've signed up to attend a storytelling workshop with Ms Earling that starts on Thursday.

I started The Lost Journals of Sacajewea yesterday. The 'new speech' which strikes me as similar to flow of consciousness is somewhat off-putting. Beth, I went back to read your review that you did in March - I agree with what you said although I'm only thirty pages into it. This will not be the easy read I was looking for in the midst of my non-fiction sea.

Interestingly enough, there is also an essay on Sakakawea in Thursday's book club book Lewis and Clark Through Indian Eyes. It is written by Gerald A. Baker, a Mandan-Hidatsa and includes a 1925 article from a newspaper by a Hidatsa man named Bullseye who says S was his grandmother and gives an account of her life and death that varies quite a bit from other stories.

An acquaintance, a 90 year old man and well known breeder of Appaloosa horses (including this mare that I bought last fall) may have interrupted a theft of several of his horses. He was hit on the back of his head with a hammer and left, not to be discovered for several days. He passed away yesterday. Although I didn't know him personally, this has me shaken to the bone.



Rumors are flying right now and details are a bit sketchy. I pray the murderer is caught. This is evil incarrnate.

Rest in peace, Gene.

ETA 4/23: Some of the details may not be quite true -- I forwarded some info on FB (truck of interest, etc,) that probably were not. Hopefully the truth is found.

That’s horrible! I’m so sorry this has happened, and yep, I hope the police get the murderer soon.

>164 streamsong: oh my god how horrible! so sad it took so long to fine him. .and yeah i dont really believe in hell but I do believe there are people who deserve it. these murders esp so

RIP Gene Winchester

lets keep track of our seniors, check on them be sure they are ok.

You do seem to be reading a lot of non-fiction books, Janet. I'm very sorry to read about the acquaintance of yours that was murdered . I hope they find the whoever did fast.

Thanks Jim, Cindy and Deborah.

There's a lot of conjecture going on. I forwarded a message on FB about his death with a 'be on the lookout for a certain truck' etc. only to find out that wasn't all good information and deleted it all.

>167 vancouverdeb: Hi Deborah - That's the way the library books and book club choices fall right now - lots of non-fiction. Even the fiction I am working on for my review - Undiscovered - chosen from the International Booker list seems more like non-fiction.

But I did pick up several of my requests from the library today and there are several fiction included - I just need to avoid the mysteries for a while, too, I think

>154 streamsong: psst...the Touchstone is wrong for "Horse".

Oh, it's about Lexington? I might want to check that out. I've been a fan of thoroughbred racing since I was a child. I have a book that goes into deep detail about genetics, Legacy of Lexington. Yes, I'm that smitten.

There's a book by Doris Gates, Little Vic, which explores the racing industry in early to mid 1900s America. It's about an orphan boy with a love of a horse, and actually sounds a little similar to your read. The book is aimed at a juvenile audience but is mature enough to be appreciated by an adult who loves a good story.

>164 streamsong: I'm so sorry to hear about Gene.

Be aware of your surroundings, friend. Do you have a dog?

Hi Lor - Yes Horse is about Lexington, although there is a double time line with the current time line being about art history (mostly of Lexington), his skeleton and also race relations. I loved it. It will be interesting to hear what you think of the Lexington history if you read it. Geraldine Brooks is a horsewoman so she gets the horse details right.

Little Vic does sound somewhat similar. I'll keep an eye out for it.

No new info on Gene but thank you for the condolences.

Gene's death did touch me in all my vulnerable areas - living alone, not likely to be found for a few days etc. At least I have my Life Alert which I can activate in any sort of emergency.

I don't have a dog since my Golden passed away a few years ago. The outside lighting isn't very good either. That moose calf (moose are invisible in the dark) hanging around a few months ago really made me aware of how much I would appreciate a dog's nose and ears.

>163 streamsong: I'm glad my comments were helpful. I'll be interested to hear about the workshop with Earling. I've had my eye on Thunderclap; I really enjoyed Cumming's book on Velazquez. One of these days...

I've been reading mostly new library books by authors that I like and trying to read through the Women's Prize long list.

>164 streamsong: That is so sad.

>164 streamsong: Horrible news about the attack on your acquaintance. Of course it gives you pause, as the profile is so close. I've admired you living alone, but it must be fraught when this happens.

>172 BLBera: Hi Beth - always nice to see you! The Lost Journals of Sacajewea is a challenge but very intriguing. There are so many stories of her life before and after the L&C expedition - a true North American mythic figure.
I'm in the grim part now, where she undergoes daily rape by her captors and watches other tribal members also mistreated by them. The storytelling workshop with Earling is tonight - some evenings I'm just too tired to do evening activities so we shall see.

Thunderclap was amazing.

I've gotten myself into reading trouble (currently 12 home from the library) since several of the lists sound so interesting. I'm also reading 2 of my own - 3 if you count a very tardy Early Reviewers book.

>173 ffortsa: Hi Judy- Yes, you've called it exactly. It's a shocking thing to be done to someone you know (even if only very slightly) - and in many way his life circumstances echo my own.

I do fear being hurt and not getting help - it's why I bought the Life Alert earlier this year.

I had chosen this from the International Booker long list because I often have trouble finding South American authors for my around the world challenge.



32. Undiscovered: A Novel – Gabriela Wiener - 2023
– 2024 International Booker Longlist
- Global Reading: Peru
– library 3.5 stars

This is a fictionalized memoir – or ‘autofiction’ (new term for me).

Gabriela Wiener examines being a Peruvian indigenous person, while also having a fourth generation grandfather, Charles Wiener, who famously looted tens of thousands of pre-Columbia works from Peru that he took back to France. The author explores her grandfather’s legacy which seemed to include using (stealing) other explorers’ discoveries and research. He also left behind a native woman pregnant with his child, which he never knew. This child was (or perhaps was not) the founder of the numerous offspring with the surname Wiener in Peru.

The author lives in Spain in a polyamorous marriage to one man and another woman. She explores this aspect of her personality and how growing up with a split identity in Peru may contribute to her unusual marriage and affairs. In Peru she attends a group that explores why natives may prefer sexual relationships with those of the offspring of the white colonial offspromg mestizos.

It’s definitely a confusing background for her, with more than the average person’s conundrums in figuring out who she really is.

I thought that the indigenous/colonial conqueror tension was interesting. I was less interested in her explorations of her sexuality – frankly reading about other people’s sex bores me.