mahsdad's (Jeff) 2024 Thread - Q2

Welcome to 2024 Q2 and my little corner of the world

Hi, I'm Jeff. I live in San Pedro California. Moved out from Pittsburgh in 1989. I'm an avid reader. My wife might say I'm bordering on the obsessive. But then, I think that could apply to a lot of us in this group. I also enjoy photography, movies, hiking and playing games and hanging out with my family. Book-wise, I have a pretty eclectic taste in what I read and I hope to give you not so much reviews but my impressions about what I read.

What you will find here is mostly my rambling thoughts, a whole mess of lists I'm keeping track of, my Wishlist and TBR pile temptations and a smattering of my photography. I don't really make a plan for what I'm going to read thru out the year. Its mostly what strikes my fancy from the TBR piles.

Past 75 Threads :
2013 2014 2015 2016
2017 2018 2019 2020
2021 2022 2023

Come in and sit a spell. I'll start of the thread with this image I took out in Joshua Tree and manipulated a bit to make it B&W

2024 Statistics - Q2

A - Audio
ER - Early Review
GN - Graphic Novel
K - Kindle
LL - Life's Library

May
40. Whalefall by Daniel Kraus (A) :
39. UR by Stephen King (K) :
38. A Wild Swan and Other Tales by Michael Cunningham :

April
37. Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu (A) :
36. Walkaway by Cory Doctorow (K) :
35. Chain Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah :
34. Saga Vol 5 by Brian Vaughan (GN) :
33. Erasure by Percival Everett (A) :
32. A Hologram for the King by Dave Eggers (A) :
31. Cut and Thirst by Margaret Atwood :
30. Saga Vol 4 by Brian Vaughan (GN) :
29. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (A) :
28. Unexpected Weather Events by Erin Pringle (ER) :
27. Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka (A) :

2024 Statistics - Q1

A - Audio
ER - Early Review
GN - Graphic Novel
K - Kindle
LL - Life's Library

March
26. The Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl (A) :
25. The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of WWII by Iris Chang (A) :
24. Saga, Vol 3 by Brian Vaughan (GN) :
23. Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu :
22. Where the Deer and the Antelope Play: The Pastoral Observations of One Ignorant American Who Loves to Walk Outside by Nick Offerman (A) :
21. Saga Vol 2 by Brian K. Vaughan (GN) :
20. Danny Champion of the World by Roald Dahl (A) :
19. Martin Dressler by Steven Millhauser :
18. The Lost Weekend by Charles Jackson (A) :
17. As She Climbed Across the Table by Jonathan Lethem (A) :
18. Saga Vol 1 by Brian K. Vaughan (GN) :

February
15. Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology by Chris Miller (A) :
14. Kindred by Octavia Butler :
13. Bookends: Collected Intros and Outros by Michael Chabon (A) :
12. Smoke Gets in Your Eyes : And Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughy (A) :
11. Nothing. Everything by Virginia Montanez :
10. The Rapture of the Nerds by Cory Doctorow/Charles Stross (A) (A) :
9. The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi :
8. Manga Stories #1 by Haruki Murakami (GN) :
7. The Woman Who Died A Lot by Jasper Fforde (A) :
Favorite : Kindred


January
6. IQ84 by Haruki Murakami :
5. The Yellow Wall-paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (K) :
4. Return of the King by JRR Tolkien (A) :
3. Marvel 1602 by Neil Gaiman (GN) :
2. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (A) :
1. Two Towers by JRR Tolkien (A) :
Favorite : IQ84

Audiobook Narrators

Andy Serkis - Two Towers, Return of the King
Jake Phillips - A Christmas Carol
Emily Gray - The Woman Who Died A Lot
John Lee - The Rapture of the Nerds
Caitlyn Doughty - Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
George Newbern - Bookends: Collected Intros and Outros
Stephen Graybill - Chip War
David Aaron Baker - As She Climbed Across the Table
Donald Corren - The Lost Weekend
Peter Serafinowicz - Danny Champion of the World
Nick Offerman - Where the Deer and the Antelope Play
Anna Fields - The Rape of Nanking
Chris O'Dowd - The Fantastic Mr. Fox
Mozhan Marno
Jim Meskimen - Notes on an Execution
Miranda Raison - Lessons in Chemistry
Dion Graham - A Hologram for the King
Sean Crisden - Erasure
Corey Brill
Joy Osmanski - Paper Menagerie
Kirby Heyborne - Whalefall

Pulitzer's Read

Ongoing bucket list to read all the Pulitzer winning novels.

Bold : On the Shelf
Strikeout : Completed

Total Read - 38
2024 - Night Watch
2023 - Demon Copperhead
2023 - Trust
2022 - The Netanyahus
2021 - The Night Watchman
2020 - The Nickel Boys
2019 - The Overstory
2018 - Less
2017 - Underground Railroad
2016 - The Sympathizer
2015 - All the Light We Cannot See
2014 - The Goldfinch
2013 - The Orphan Master's Son
2012 - NO AWARD
- Swamplandia - Nominee
2011 - A Visit from the Goon Squad
2010 - Tinkers
2009 - Olive Kitterridge
2008 - The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
2007 - The Road
2006 - March
2005 - Gilead
2004 - The Known World
2003 - Middlesex
2002 - Empire Falls
2001 - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
2000 - The Interpreter of Maladies
1999 - The Hours
1998 - American Pastoral
1997 - Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer READ
1996 - Independence Day
1995 - The Stone Diaries
1994 - The Shipping News
1993 - A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain
1992 - A Thousand Acres
- My Father Bleeds History (Maus) (Special Awards & Citations - Letters)
1991 - Rabbit at Rest
1990 - The Mambo Kings
1989 - Breathing Lessons
1988 - Beloved DNF
1987 - A Summons to Memphis
1986 - Lonesome Dove
1985 - Foreign Affairs
1984 - Ironweed
1983 - The Color Purple
1982 - Rabbit is Rich
1981 - A Confederacy of Dunces
1980 - The Executioner's Song
1979 - The Stories of John Cheever
1978 - Elbow Room
1977 - NO AWARD
1976 - Humboldt's Gift
1975 - The Killer Angels
1974 - NO AWARD
1973 - The Optimist's Daughter
1972 - Angle of Repose
1971 - NO AWARD
1970 - The collected Stories of Jean Stafford
1969 - House Made of Dawn : DNF
1968 - The Confessions of Nat Turner
1967 - The Fixer
1966 - The Collected Stories of katherine Anne Porter
1965 - The Keepers of the House
1964 - NO AWARD
1963 - The Reivers
1962 - The Edge of Sadness
1961 - To Kill a Mockingbird
1960 - Advise and Consent
1959 - The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters
1958 - A Death in the Family
1957 - NO AWARD
1956 - Andersonville
1955 - A Fable
1954 - NO AWARD
1953 - The Old Man and the Sea
1952 - The Caine Mutiny
1951 - The Town
1950 - The Way West
1949 - Guard of Honor
1948 - Tales of the South Pacific
1947 - All the King's Men
1946 - NO AWARD
1945 - A Bell
1944 - Journey in the Dark
1943 - Dragon's Teeth
1942 - In This Our Life
1941 - NO AWARD
1940 - The Grapes of Wrath
1939 - The Yearling
1938 - The Late George Apley
1937 - Gone with the Wind
1936 - Honey in the Horn
1935 - Now in November
1934 - Lamb in His Bosom
1933 - The Store
1932 - The Good Earth
1931 - Years of Grace
1930 - Laughing Boy
1929 - Scarlet Sister Mary
1928 - The Bridge of San Luis Rey
1927 - Early Autumn
1926 - Arrowsmith
1925 - So Big
1924 - The Able McLaughlins
1923 - One of Ours
1922 - Alice Adams
1921 - The Age of Innocence
1920 - NO AWARD
1919 - The Magnificent Ambersons
1918 - His Family

Hugo's Read

Ongoing bucket list to read all the Hugo winning novels.

Bold : On the Shelf
Strikeout : Completed

Total Read - 41

2023 - Nettle & Bone
2022 - A Desolation Called Peace
2021 - Network Effect
2020 - A Memory Called Empire - Arkady Martine
2020 - This Is How You Lose The Time War - Novella
2019 - The Calculating Stars
2018 - The Stone Sky
2018 - All Systems Red - Novella
2017 - The Obelisk Gate
2016 - The Fifth Season
2016 - Binti - Novella
2015 - The Three-Body Problem
2014 - Ancillary Justice (DNF)
2013 - Redshirts
2012 - Among Others
2011 - Blackout/All Clear
2010 - The Windup Girl
The City & the City
2009 - The Graveyard Book
2008 - The Yiddish Policemen's Union
2007 - Rainbows End
2006 - Spin
2005 - Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
2004 - Paladin of Souls
2003 - Hominids
2003 - Coraline (novella)
2002 - American Gods
2001 - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
2000 - A Deepness in the Sky
1999 - To Say Nothing of the Dog
1998 - Forever Peace
1997 - Blue Mars
1996 - The Diamond Age
1995 - Mirror Dance
1994 - Green Mars
1993 - A Fire Upon the Deep
Doomsday Book
1992 - Barrayar
1991 - The Vor Game
1990 - Hyperion
1989 - Cyteen
1988 - The Uplift War
1988 - Watchmen - category : Other forms
1987 - Speaker for the Dead
1986 - Ender's Game
1985 - Neuromancer
1985 - The Crystal Spheres - David Brin - Short Story
1984 - Startide Rising
1983 - Foundation's Edge
1982 - Downbelow Station
1981 - The Snow Queen
1980 - The Fountains of Paradise
1979 - Dreamsnake
1978 - Gateway
1977 - Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang
1976 - The Forever War
1975 - The Dispossessed
1974 - Rendezvous with Rama
1973 - The Gods Themselves
1972 - To Your Scattered Bodies Go
1971 - Ringworld
1970 - Left Hand of Darkness
1969 - Stand on Zanzibar
1968 - Lord of Light
1967 - The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
1966 - Dune
This Immortal
1965 - The Wanderer
1964 - Way Station
1963 - The Man in the High Castle
1962 - Stranger in a Strange Land
1961 - A Canticle for Leibowitz
1960 - Starship Troopers
1959 - A Case of Conscience
1958 - The Big Time
1956 - Double Star
1955 - The Forever Machine
1953 - The Demolished Man

Retro Hugos - this are given for years when no award was given (more than 50 years ago). Of those...

1939 - The Sword in the Stone
1951 - Farmer in the Sky
1954 - Fahrenheit 451

Nebulas Read

Bold - On the Shelf
Strike - Finished

2023 - - Babel, Or, The Necessity of Violence, An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution
2022 - A Master of Djinn
2021 - Network Effect
2020 - A Song for a New Day
2019 - The Calculating Stars
2019 - This Is How You Lose The Time War - Novella
2018 - The Stone Sky
2017 - All the Birds in the Sky
2016 - Uprooted
2015 - Annihilation
2014 - Ancillary Justice DNF
2013 - 2312
2012 - Among Others
2011 - Blackout/All Clear
2010 - The Windup Girl
2009 - Powers
2008 - The Yiddish Policemen's Union
2007 - Seeker
2006 - Camouflage
2005 - Paladin of Souls
2004 - The Speed of Dark
2003 - American Gods
2002 - The Quantum Rose
2001 - Darwin's Radio
2000 - Parable of the Talents
1999 - Forever Peace
1998 - The Moon and the Sun
1997 - Slow River
1996 - The Terminal Experiment
1995 - Moving Mars
1994 - Red Mars
1993 - Doomsday Book
1992 - Stations of the Tide
1991 - Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea
1990 - The Healer's War
1989 - Falling Free
1988 - The Falling Woman
1987 - Speaker for the Dead
1986 - Ender's Game
1985 - Neuromancer
1984 - Startide Rising
1983 - No Enemy But Time
1982 - The Claw of the Conciliator
1981 - Timescape
1980 - The Fountains of Paradise
1979 - Dreamsnake
1978 - Gateway
1977 - Man Plus
1976 - The Forever War
1975 - The Dispossessed
1974 - Rendezvous with Rama
1973 - The Gods Themselves
1972 - A Time of Changes
1971 - Ringworld
1970 - The Left Hand of Darkness
1969 - Rite of Passage
1968 - The Einstein Intersection
1967 - Babel-17
1966 - Dune

National Book Award Winners

2015 - Fortune Smiles
2014 - Redeployment
2001 - The Corrections
1988 - Paris Trout
1985 - White Noise
1983 - The Color Purple - hardback award
1981 - The Stories of John Cheever - paperback award
1980 - The World According to Garp - paperback award
1953 - Invisible Man

Man Booker Books
2023 Prophet Song
2022 The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida
2021 The Promise
2020 Shuggie Bain READ
2019 The Testaments
2019 Girl, Woman, Other
2018 Milkman
2017 Lincoln in the Bardo READ
2016 The Sellout READ
2015 A Brief History of Seven Killings READ
2014 The Narrow Road to the Deep North
2013 The Luminaries
2012 Bring Up the Bodies
2011 The Sense of an Ending
2010 The Finkler Question
2009 Wolf Hall DNF
2008 The White Tiger
2007 The Gathering
2006 The Inheritance of Loss
2005 The Sea
2004 The Line of Beauty READ
2003 Vernon God Little
2002 Life of Pi READ
2001 True History of the Kelly Gang
2000 The Blind Assassin
1999 Disgrace
1998 Amsterdam
1997 The God of Small Things
1996 Last Orders
1995 The Ghost Road
1994 How Late It Was, How Late
1993 Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
1992 The English Patient
1992 Sacred Hunger
1991 The Famished Road
1990 Possession
1989 The Remains of the Day
1988 Oscar and Lucinda
1987 Moon Tiger
1986 The Old Devils
1985 The Bone People
1984 Hotel du Lac
1983 Life & Times of Michael K
1982 Schindler's Ark
1981 Midnight's Children READ
1980 Rites of Passage
1979 Offshore
1978 The Sea, the Sea
1977 Staying On
1976 Saville
1975 Heat and Dust
1974 The Conservationist
1974 Holiday
1973 The Siege of Krishnapur
1972 G.
1971 In a Free State
1970 The Elected Member
1969 Something to Answer For

International Booker Prize

2023 Time Shelter - Georgi Gospodinov (Bulgaria) : trans. Angela Rodel Read
2022 Tomb of Sand - Geetanjali Shree (India) : trans. Daisy Rockwell
2021 At Night All Blood Is Black - David Diop (France) : trans. Anna Moschovakis
2020 The Discomfort of Evening - Marieke Lucas Rijneveld (Netherlands) : trans. Michele Hutchison
2019 Celestial Bodies - Jokha al-Harthi (Oman) : trans. Marilyn Booth
2018 Flights - Olga Tokarczuk (Poland) : trans. Jennifer Croft
2017 A Horse Walks Into a Bar - David Grossman (Israel) : trans. Jessica Cohen
2016 The Vegetarian - Han Kang (South Korea) : trans. Deborah Smith Read

100 SFF/Fantasy Reads as compiled by NPR

https://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/139085843/your-picks-top-100-science-fiction-fant...

1. The Lord of the Rings by Tolkien READ
2. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams READ
3. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card READ
4. The Dune Chronicles By Frank Herbert READ
5. A Song Of Ice And Fire Series by George R.R. Martin
6. 1984 A Novel by George Orwell READ
7. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury READ
8. The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov READ but only the 1st one
9. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley READ
10. American Gods By Neil Gaiman READ
11. The Princess Bride S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure by William Goldman READ
12. The Wheel Of Time Series by Robert Jordan
13. Animal Farm by George Orwell READ
14. Neuromancer By William Gibson READ
15. Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons READ
16. I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov READ
17. Stranger In A Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein READ
18. The Kingkiller Chronicles BY by Patrick Rothfuss
19. Slaughterhouse-Five By Kurt Vonnegut READ
20. Frankenstein By Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
21. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick READ
22. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood READ
23. The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King READ
24. 2001: A Space Odyssey BY by Arthur C. Clarke READ
25. The Stand By Stephen King READ
26. Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson READ
27. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury READ
28. Cat's Cradle By Kurt Vonnegut
29. The Sandman Series by Neil Gaiman READ
30. A Clockwork Orange BY by Anthony Burgess READ
31. Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein READ
32. Watership Down by Richard Adams
33. Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey
34. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein READ
35. A Canticle For Leibowitz By Walter M. Miller Jr. READ
36. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
37. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea By Jules Verne
38. Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes READ
39. The War Of The Worlds by H.G. Wells READ
40. The Amber Chronicles by Roger Zelazny
41. The Belgariad By David Eddings
42. The Mists Of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
43. Mistborn Trilogy Brandon Sanderson
44. Ringworld by LARRY NIVEN READ
45. The Left Hand Of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin READ
46. The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien
47. The Once And Future King BY by T.H. White
48. Neverwhere by NEIL GAIMAN READ
49. Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke
50. Contact by Carl Sagan READ
51. The Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons
52. Stardust by Neil Gaiman READ
53. Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson READ
54. World War Z An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks READ
55. The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
56. The Forever War by Joe Haldeman READ
57. Small Gods A Novel of Discworld by Terry Pratchett
58. The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant The Unbeliever by Stephen R. Donaldson
59. The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold
60. Going Postal A Novel of Discworld by Terry Pratchett
61. The Mote In God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle READ
62. The Sword Of Truth Series by Terry Goodkind
63. The Road by by Cormac McCarthy READ
64. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
65. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson READ
66. The Riftwar Saga by Raymond E. Feist
67. The Sword of Shannara Trilogy by Terry Brooks
68. The Conan The Barbarian Series by Robert E. Howard and Mark Schultz
69. The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb
70. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger READ
71. The Way Of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
72. Journey To The Center Of The Earth by Jules Verne READ
73. The Legend Of Drizzt Series by R. A. Salvatore
74. Old Man's War by John Scalzi READ
75. The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson READ
76. Rendezvous With Rama by Arthur C. Clarke READ
77. The Kushiel's Legacy Series by Jacqueline Carey
78. The Dispossessed An Ambiguous Utopia by Ursula K. Le Guin
79. Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
80. Wicked The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire READ
81. The Malazan Book Of The Fallen series by Steven Erikson
82. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde READ
83. The Culture Series by Iain Banks
84. The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart
85. Anathem by Neal Stephenson
86. The Codex Alera Series by Jim Butcher
87. The Book Of The New Sun by Gene Wolfe
88. The Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn
89. The Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon
90. The Elric Saga by Michael Moorcock
91. The Illustrated Man By Ray Bradbury short works collection
92. Sunshine by Robin McKinley
93. A Fire Upon The Deep by Vernor Vinge
94. The Caves Of Steel by Isaac Asimov READ
95. The Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson
96. Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle READ
97. Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
98. Perdido Street Station by China Miéville
99. The Xanth Series by Piers Anthony
100. The Space Trilogy by C.S. Lewis

100 Horror Reads as compiled by NPR

https://www.npr.org/2018/08/16/632779706/click-if-you-dare-100-favorite-horror-s...

1. Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
2. Dracula by Bram Stoker
3. Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne
4. The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe
5. Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
6. The Turn Of The Screw by Henry James
7. The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen
8. The Monkeys Paw by W. W. Jacobs
9. The Willows by Algernon Blackwood
10. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman READ
11. Oh, Whistle, And Ill Come To You, My Lad by M. R. James and Darryl Jones
12.The Werewolf Of Paris By Guy Endore
13. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson READ
14. Let The Right One In By John Ajvide Lindqvist
15. The Vampire Chronicles (First Triology) by Anne Rice READ
16. Minion (Vampire Huntress Legend Series) by L. A. Banks
17. The Hunger by Alma Katsu
18. Those Across The River by Christopher Buehlman
19. Bird Box by Josh Malerman READ
20. Feed (Newsflesh Series) by Mira Grant
21. World War Z by Max Brooks READ
22. The Girl With All The Gifts by M. R. Carey READ
23. The Shadow Over Innsmouth by H. P. Lovecraft
24. The Ballad Of Black Tom by Victor Lavalle READ
25. The Fisherman by John Langan
26. Laundry Files (Series) by Charles Stross
27. The Cipher By Kathe Koja
28. John Dies At The End by David Wong READ
29. At The Mountains Of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft
30. All Our Salt-Bottled Hearts by Sonya Taaffe
31. Uzumaki by Junji Ito
32. Communion: A True Story by Whitley Strieber OR Majestic by Whitley Strieber
33. The Repairer Of Reputations by Robert W. Chambers
34. The Haunting Of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
35. The House Next Door by Anne Rivers Siddons
36. Burnt Offerings by Robert Marasco
37. The Shining by Stephen King READ
38. House Of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
39. The Elementals by Michael McDowell
40. The Woman In Black by Susan Hill
41. Lunar Park by Bret Easton Ellis
42. The Bone Key by Sarah Monette
43. Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand
44. Infidel by Aaron Campbell, Jose Villarrubia, Pornsak Pichetshote and Jeff Powell
45. The Ruins by Scott Smith
46. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
47. Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? by Joyce Carol Oates
48. The Red Tree by Caitlin R. Kiernan
49. Swan Song by Robert McCammon
50. The Screwfly Solution by James Tiptree Jr.
51. Left Foot, Right by Nalo Hopkinson
52. Come Closer by Sara Gran
53. Furnace by Livia Llewellyn
54. The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter
55. Through The Woods by Emily Carroll
56. Sandman by Neil Gaiman READ
57. Her Body And Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
58. White Is For Witching by Helen Oyeyemi
59. Goblin Market by Christina Georgina Rossetti
60. Experimental Film by Gemma Files
61. The Lottery by Shirley Jackson READ
62. The Collector by John Fowles
63. The Terror by Dan Simmons
64. Intensity by Dean R. Koontz
65. The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum
66. Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite
67. Night They Missed the Horror Show by Joe R. Lansdale
68. Penpal by Dathan Auerbach
69. NOS4A2 by Joe Hill READ
70. Bloodchild by Octavia E. Butler
71. Lord Of The Flies by William Golding READ
72. The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood READ
73. Beloved by Toni Morrison
74. Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation by Octavia E. Butler
75. The Devil In America by Kai Ashante Wilson
76. I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison
77. Books Of Blood by Clive Barker READ
78. The October Country: Stories by Ray Bradbury
79. The Weird: A Compendium Of Strange And Dark Stories by Ann Vandermeer and Jeff VanDermeer
80. The Imago Sequence and Other Stories by Laird Barron
81. Alone With the Horrors: The Great Short Fiction of Ramsey Campbell, 1961-1991 by Ramsey Campbell
82. Things We Lost In The Fire by Mariana Enriquez
83. Shadowland by Peter Straub READ
84. A Head Full Of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay
85. Rosemarys Baby by Ira Levin
86. The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty
87. The Body by Stephen King READ
88. Its A Good Life by Jerome Bixby
89. The Other by Thomas Tryon
90. The Troop by Nick Cutter
91. Elizabeth by Ken Greenhall
92. Please, Momma by Chesya Burke
93. Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark by Alvin Schwartz and Stephen Gammell
94. Goosebumps (Series) by R. L. Stine children
95. Rotters by Daniel Kraus children
96. Jumbies Rise Of The Jumbies by Tracey Baptiste
97. The House With A Clock In Its Walls by John Bellairs
98. Spirit Hunters by Ellen Oh
99. Coraline by Neil Gaiman READ
100. Down A Dark Hall by Lois Duncan

The 75'r Chunkster List

1. The Overstory by Richard Powers READ
2. The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
3. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco READ
4. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
5. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell READ
6. The Witch Elm by Tana French
7. The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood
8. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr READ
9. Little, Big by John Crowley
10. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides READ
11. The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt
12. Possession by A.S. Byatt
13. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel DNF
14. The Queen of the Night by Alexander Chee
15. The Secret History by Donna Tartt
16. The Parisian : A Novel
17. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
18. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
19. The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami READ
20. Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson
21. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie READ
22. American Gods by Neil Gaiman READ
23. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay by Michael Chabon READ
24. The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu
25. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen READ
26. Skippy Dies by Paul Murray
27. A Naked Singularity by Sergio de la Pava
28. An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears
29. A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James READ
30. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson READ
31. The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe
32. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
33. Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin READ
34. JR by William Gaddis
35. Almanac of the Dead by Leslie Marmon Silko
36. Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon
37. Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany
38. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett READ
39. The Stand by Stephen King READ
40. Underworld by Don DeLillo
41. The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
42. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
43. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry READ
44. 2666 by Roberto Bolano
45. Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra
46. Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann
47. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
48. Parallel Stories by Peter Nadas
49. Women and Men by Joseph McElroy
50. A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth

Paul's Alternative 20

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon READ
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
The Far Pavilions by MM Kaye
Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman
Saville by David Storey
To Serve Them All My Days by RF Delderfield
Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres
Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth
Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
Sophie's Choice by William Styron
Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving READ
The Singapore Grip by JG Farrell
Magician by Raymond E Feist
The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
A Chain of Voices by Andre Brink

Bill's Alternative Weird Dozen

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis READ
Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi
Rabbit at Rest by John Updike
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger READ
Cider House Rules by John Irving
The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo
The Book and the Brotherhood by Iris Murdoch
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak READ
August 1914 by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey
Lethal White by Robert Galbraith
The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams READ
11/22/63: A Novel by Stephen King READ
His Dark Materials Omnibus (The Golden Compass; The Subtle Knife; The Amber Spyglass) by Philip Pullman
The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer
Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling READ

Jeff's how the heck did this not get on the other lists list
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami Read
Alaska by James Michener Read
The Line of Beauty - Alan Hollinghurst Read

Weird Books List

From Book Riot - The 100 strange and weird "must read" books. https://bookriot.com/i-got-your-weird-right-here-100-wonderful-strange-and-unusu...

A Jello Horse by Matthew Simmons
After the People Lights Have Gone Off by Stephen Graham Jones
Alligators of Abraham by Robert Kloss
An Exaggerated Murder by Josh Cook
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer READ
Archivist Wasp by Nicole Kornher-Stace
As She Climbed Across the Table by Jonathan Lethem
Bear vs. Shark by Chris Bachelder
Beatlebone by Kevin Barry
Being Dead by Jim Crace
Big Machine by Victor LaValle
Brave Story by Miyuki Miyabe (Author), Alexander O. Smith (Translator)
Cat Country by Lao She
Damnificados by JJ Amaworo Wilson
Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente
Delicious Foods by James Hannaham
Dendera by Yuya Sato (Author), Edwin Hawkes (Translator), Nathan A Collins (Translator)
Disquiet by Julia Leigh
Duplex by Kathryn Davis
Escape from Baghdad! by Saad Hossain
Fram by Steve Himmer
geek loveGeek Love by Katherine Dunn
Girlfriend in a Coma by Douglas Coupland READ
God Help the Child by Toni Morrison
Half Life by Shelley Jackson
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami
Heart of a Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov (Author), Michael Glenny (Translator)
I Crawl Through It by A.S. King
In the House Upon the Dirt Between the Lake and the Woods by Matt Bell
Jamestown by Matthew Sharpe
Just Like Beauty by Lisa Lerner
Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor
Lives of the Monster Dogs by Kirsten Bakis
Long Division by Kiese Laymon
Masters of Atlantis by Charles Portis
Mermaids in Paradise by Lydia Millet
Motherfucking Sharks by Brian Allen Carr
Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi
Mr. Splitfoot by Samantha Hunt
Observatory Mansions by Edward Carey
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood READ
Paper Tigers by Damien Angelica Walters
Prodigies by Angélica Gorodischer
Pym by Mat Johnson
Radio Iris by Anne-Marie Kinney
Remainder by Tom McCarthy
Shine Shine Shine by Lydia Netzer
Sister Mine by Nalo HopkinsonSister Mine by Nalo Hopkinson
Slade House by David Mitchell READ
Slapstick or Lonesome No More! by Kurt Vonnegut
Some of Your Blood by Theodore Sturgeon
Stranger Things Happen by Kelly Link
Sudden Death by Álvaro Enrigue (Author), Natasha Wimmer (Translator)
The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers
The Bear Comes Home by Rafi Zabor
The Beautiful Bureaucrat by Helen Phillips
The Bees by Laline Paul
The Blue Girl by Laurie Foos
The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil by George Saunders READ
The Cheese Monkeys by Chip Kidd
The Country of Ice Cream Star by Sandra Newman
The Daughters by Adrienne Celt
The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson
The Giant’s House by Elizabeth McCracken
The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway
The Gracekeepers by Kirsty Logan
The Hotel New Hampshire by John Irving
The Illumination by Kevin Brockmeier
The Incarnations by Susan Barker
The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead
The Last Illusion by Porochista Khakpour
The Legend of Pradeep Mathew by Shehan Karunatilaka
The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
The Man in My Basement by Walter Mosely
The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry
The Ninth Life of Louis Drax by Liz Jensen
The Orange Eats Creeps by Grace Krilanovich
The Passion by Jeanette Winterson
The Portable Veblen by Elizabeth Mckenzie
The Rabbit Back Literature Society by Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen (Author), Lola M. Rogers (Translator)
The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall READ
The Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli (Author), Christina MacSweeney (Translator)
The Teleportation Accident by Ned Beauman
The Unfinished World and Other Stories by Amber Sparks
The Vanishers by Heidi Julavits
The Vaults by Toby Ball
The Vegetarian by Han Kang READ
The Vorrh by B. Catling
The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
The Weirdness by Jeremy Bushnell
The Wilds by Julia Elliott
Three Scenarios in Which Hana Sasaki Grows a Tail by Kelly Luce
Version Control by Dexter Palmer
Viper Wine by Hermione Eyre
Waiting for Gertrude by Bill Richardson
What Was Lost by Catherine O’Flynn
Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead by Barbara Comyns
You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine by Alexandra Kleeman
Zazen by Vanessa Veselka
Zeroville by Steve Erickson

Jeff's Weird Additions
Help! A Bear is Eating Me by Mykle Hansen
WhaleFall by Daniel Kraus

2024 Reading Recap

Books Read : 26
# of Authors : 21
Authors of Color : 1 (5%)
Lady Authors : 5 (24%)
Narrators : 13 (Most books - Andy Serkis : 2 )
Rereads - 8 (31%)

Pages Read - 3,545 Hours Read - 5 days, 11 hrs, and 54 mins

Books Purchased/Gifted/Found - 69

Scatter Plot

My favorite graphs for some strange reason. Not quite sure they're useful for anything, I just like them artistically. Here's all the books I've read plotted out in order of when they were published

2024 Reads

2024 Books of the Month

January : IQ84 by Haruki Murakami
February : Kindred by Octavia Butler
March : Where the Deer and the Antelope Play: The Pastoral Observations of One Ignorant American Who Loves to Walk Outside by Nick Offerman



#botm

Happy new thread Jeff!

Lovely weather today!

Happy New Thread Jeff!

Happy new one, Jeff!

>16 quondame: Thanks Susan. Nice, cold, sunny, mixed with pouring down rain. I think, however, its over now. It rained a ton here yesterday.

>17 Owltherian: Thanks Lily

>18 drneutron: Thanks Jim

Happy new thread, Jeff.

I love to wallow in your lists!

>19 mahsdad: Your very welcome!

>20 PaulCranswick: I am a wallow-enabler. LOL

>21 Owltherian: np Lily, happy to have visitors

Happy New Thread! I love all your lists, they broaden my reading horizons.

Happy New Thread, Jeff. Off of Paul's List, I have a copy of Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks. Let me know if you would be interested in a shared read.

Happy new one!

>24 msf59:
I would be interested in joining in on a shared read of Birdsong. I have been trying to get that one read for a couple of years. I keep picking it up and the only thing that gets done with it is moving it around.

I like the picture in the header. It has an Ansel Adams feel to it, but a bit darker. I like the light shading in the upper right corner - very odd but great positioning. Good job on that photo.

Depending on the month, I could be up for a conjoined reading of Birdsong. A copy is in my possession. I've seen parts of the film that was aired on Masterpiece Theater. I just checked to confirm that Eddie Redmayne had the lead role.

Happy new thread, Jeff!

Nice to go through your lists every quarter :-)

A blanket thanks to all visitors to the new thread, I'm glad you're here for my drivel.

>24 msf59: Hi Mark. I think I'll pass on Birdsong this go round. Thanks for thinking of me tho.

>27 benitastrnad: Thanks Benita. I really like Adam's work and that was what I was going for. I am known for my odd takes on composition. :) But now that you call me out, I think I'm going to have to edit it a little. There's a little bit of another tree on the right edge that I should have cropped out. Its all I can see now.

>1 mahsdad: There, I fixed it. :)

And in case you're interested, here's the original before I BW'd it.

Just saw a TikTok video with a book guy who was giving one sentence reviews of some classic books. Couple where quite profound

Stranger in a Strange Land - I loved the book so much, it helped me find a god of my understanding
Starship Troopers - I loved this book so much, it helped me lose the god of my understanding

- I used to love Stranger, but the older I get, my opinion of it changes (last time was 10 years ago, will probably never read it again), but together, its just about spot on.

Snow Crash - Stupid Name, but you'll never forget it. One of the best things to come out of cyberpunk.

- Truth. I like it almost more than Neuromancer, might be time to read it (well either of them) again.

>32 mahsdad:
I have Snow Crash on my shelves and this review makes me want to go get it and start reading.

It is one of my favorite books. I've read it at least 5 or 6 times. I usually hesitate to say... Read This (only because of my irrational fear of what you'll think of me if you read it and you think its crap. LOL), but if you're remotely into cyberpunk and scifi, I'd said definitely read it.

Looking over your lists, I see some titles I really can recommend: Trust, American Pastoral, The Shipping News, All The King's Men, and The Age of Innocence are some of my favorites.

>35 ffortsa: Thanks Judy. I have All the King's Men and I'm surprised I don't have American Pastoral on the shelf. I'll look for the others as well.

>1 mahsdad: Happy new thread!

I urge you to get to All the King's Men soon. It's one of my all-time favorite American novels. Why are there 2 titles on the Pulitzer list for 2023?

>37 ocgreg34: Hi Greg, thanks!

>38 laytonwoman3rd: Hi Linda. I have King's Men on the shelf. I got it from Bill for Christmas in 2017. I suppose I should read it sometime. :) It was a tie last year. Both books got the award.

New Book - Audio

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus



Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel–prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with—of all things—her mind. True chemistry results.

But like science, life is unpredictable. Which is why a few years later Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant star of America’s most beloved cooking show Supper at Six. Elizabeth’s unusual approach to cooking (“combine one tablespoon acetic acid with a pinch of sodium chloride”) proves revolutionary. But as her following grows, not everyone is happy. Because as it turns out, Elizabeth Zott isn’t just teaching women to cook. She’s daring them to change the status quo.

Laugh-out-loud funny, shrewdly observant, and studded with a dazzling cast of supporting characters, Lessons in Chemistry is as original and vibrant as its protagonist.

Back in 1961, when women wore shirtwaist dresses and joined garden clubs and drove legions of children around in seatbeltless cars without giving it a second thought; back before anyone knew there'd even be a sixties movement, much less one that its participants would spend the next sixty years chronicling; back when the big wars were over and the secret wars had just begun and people were staring to to think fresh and believe everything was possible, the thirty-year-old mother of Madeline Zott rose before dawn every morning and felt certain of just one thing: her life was over.

#newbook

New Book

Chain-Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah



Loretta Thurwar and Hamara “Hurricane Staxxx” Stacker are the stars of the Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly popular, highly controversial profit-raising program in America’s increasingly dominant private prison industry. It’s the return of the gladiators, and prisoners are com­peting for the ultimate prize: their freedom.

In CAPE, prisoners travel as Links in Chain-Gangs, competing in death matches before packed arenas with righteous protestors at the gates. Thur­war and Staxxx, both teammates and lovers, are the fan favorites. And if all goes well, Thurwar will be free in just a few matches, a fact she carries as heavily as her lethal hammer. As she prepares to leave her fellow Links, Thurwar considers how she might help preserve their humanity, in defiance of these so-called games. But CAPE’s corporate own­ers will stop at nothing to protect their status quo, and the obstacles they lay in Thurwar’s path have devastating consequences.

She felt their eyes, all those executioners. "Welcome, young lady," said Micky Wright, the premier announcer for Chain-Gang All-Stars, the crown jewel in the Criminal Action Penal Entertainment program. "Why don't you tell us your name?" His high boots were planted in the turf of the BattleGround, which was long and green, strokedd with cocaine-white hash marks, like a divergent football field. It was Super Bowl weekend, a fact that Wright was contractually obligated to mention between every match that evening.

#newbook

Fantastic Photo Friday
Happy Friday folks. Well apparently Mother Nature has flipped the script on the US. Its cold and rainy on the West Coast and there's earthquakes on the East Coast. In the words of Peter Venkman... Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... MASS HYSTERIA!

Have a nice weekend, everyone. Today's image is the is another of my Joshua Tree visit. Their nickname is the Jumping Cactus. Its a misnomer, but don't get close because it you will get stuck, so quickly it is like they jumped out at you. :)



Book Update
>2 mahsdad: Q2 Books
>3 mahsdad: Q1 Books
>4 mahsdad: Audiobooks

Reading - Growing Up Yinzer: Memories from Beloved Pittsburghers by Dick Roberts : 56%
Reading - Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah : 15%
Listening - Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus : 45%
eBook - Walkaway by Cory Doctorow : 68%
Graphic Novel - Saga Vol 4 by Brian K. Vaughan : 54%

Finished Books

28. Unexpected Weather Events by Erin Pringle (ER) : Got this book thru LT's Early Review program for an honest review. This is a collection of short stories, where the characters are dealing with life, generally in the winter and the crap that it throws at them. Whether it is death, a cancer diagnosis, war. They all were pretty good reads, with the exception of the last one, that I really didn't connect with. I'd recommend this, if you're looking for a decent collection of stories. (If anyone is really interested and wants my copy, PM me and I'll send it out)

27. Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka (A) : Listened to this on audio. This was a very interesting take on the crime thriller. We already know who did it, he's on death row for killing several young girls back in the day. Today is is last day and we watch the him has he goes thru his day on his way to the execution chamber. Intercut with this we go back in time to meet the women in his life, those who raised him, those he killed and those who caught him. What's absent, to good effect, is all the violence of the actual crimes. We know he did it, we don't have to "see" it, we just get to meet and understand the people around him. A good quick read.

#ff

>42 mahsdad: How pointed! I love the sky/mountain background.

It seems very chilly here today, though there is quite a bit of sunshine sprinkled about.

Hi Susan. Thanks!

Yeah, currently, its still in the 50's down here. But after the rain ended, the Simpsons Clouds made an appearance

Under the heading of Why Am I Not Surprised

A Louisiana House Bill (777) has been introduced making it a criminal offense for libraries and their workers from being members or associating with the ALA.

https://bookriot.com/louisiana-hb-777/

>45 mahsdad: Terrifying.

>45 mahsdad: Wait! Is it still April 1st?!

>47 ReneeMarie: You'd think so, but sadly no.

Here's the actual bill https://www.legis.la.gov/Legis/ViewDocument.aspx?d=1357708

its not very long and now that I read it, its still bad, but the article (or at least my interpretation of the article) was spun differently.

the summary of it is:

Proposed law prohibits a public official or employee from expending public funds to or with
the American Library Assoc. Further prohibits a public employee from requesting or
receiving reimbursement or remuneration in any form for continuing education or for
attending a conference if the continuing education or conference was sponsored or
conducted, in whole or in part, by the American Library Assoc.

but if you violate this, you can be fined up to $1,000 and/or imprisoned (with or without hard labor) for up to 2 years.

>48 mahsdad: Louisiana has really got to stop hanging out with the likes of Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida...

>48 mahsdad: >49 ReneeMarie: Maybe The Deep South should actually secede...

>49 ReneeMarie:
I have long said that the worst mistake this country ever made was letting Texas into the union back in 1845. The second biggest mistake was electing Ronald Regan.

>51 benitastrnad: I agree. But then I lost two jobs when the govt. moved the contracts from CA to TX. And as a Californian I had already had far too much of Regan in power.

>51 benitastrnad: Haven't thought much about TX, but I agree that the country started speeding downhill thanks to Reagan and people who thought like him. As I've said elsewhere here, I was a teenager who wrote anti-Reagan poetry. I've never changed my mind about him.

In 1980, I voted for the Communist Party ticket of Gus Hall and Angela Davis rather than Reagan or Carter. While I'm proud I didn't ever vote for Reagan, I am ashamed I didn't back Jimmy Carter for a second term. WTF was I thinking?

But also, Louisiana. Where the governor threatened the scholarships of members of the excellent LSU women's basketball team because some/all of them failed to appear for the playing of the national anthem. Good grief.

Little Book Haul

Laura had a craft fair today and after I helped her setup, I congratulated my self with a trip to Book-Off. Got these off the $1 shelf

70. Horse by Geraldine Brooks
71. Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions - Daniel Wallace
72. The Keep by Jennifer Egan

#bh

New Book - audio

A Hologram for the King by Dave Eggers



In a rising Saudi Arabian city, far from weary, recession-scarred America, a struggling businessman pursues a last-ditch attempt to stave off foreclosure, pay his daughter’s college tuition, and finally do something great. In A Hologram for the King, Dave Eggers takes us around the world to show how one man fights to hold himself and his splintering family together in the face of the global economy’s gale-force winds. This taut, richly layered, and elegiac novel is a powerful evocation of our contemporary moment — and a moving story of how we got here.

Alan Clay woke up in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It was May 30, 2010. He had spent two days on planes to get there. In Nairobi he had met a woman. They sat next to each other while the waited for their flights. She was tall, curvy, with tiny gold earrings. She had ruddy skin and a lilting voice. Alan liked her more than many of the people in his life, people he saw every day. ... If he had courage he would have found a way to spend ore time with her. But instead he got on his flight and flew to Riyadh and then to Jeddah.

#newbook

>54 weird_O:
And now Louisiana is going to fine or jail librarians who request state support, as in time off from work, to attend any American Library Association function.

>45 mahsdad: Excuse me?

>55 mahsdad: Nice score!! You deserved it.

>58 Berly:

>54 weird_O: I know right?

>55 mahsdad: It will probably take me well into my next life before I get to them, but I never confuse the hobby of buying books with the hobby of reading them. :)

Okay, I know what you all come to love (maybe?) and expect from my page, lots and lots of book lists. This one came from LA Times. its the "best" books about Hollywood. Its a very interesting list of fiction, memoir, analysis/criticism books about the movie business. One that I've read, several that I know I want to read, and plenty that are interesting to see in a list, but not that I will ever decide to read.

From the article...

It’s been said that Hollywood is more an idea than a place, and no task punctuates the notion quite like asking people to choose the best Hollywood book of all time: “What do you mean,” they inevitably ask, “by ‘Hollywood’?”

The list that follows, compiled from a survey of experts in the worlds of publishing and entertainment and written by regular contributors to The Times’ film and books coverage, answers that question more astutely than I ever could. In fiction and non-, across genres and decades, these 50 titles compare Hollywood to an assembly line, a criminal enterprise, a high-seas expedition and much, much more — a penchant for shape-shifting that might explain its hold on the cultural imagination.

The list, in reverse order (# 1 is at the bottom)

Movies (And Other Things) by Shea Serrano
Myra Breckinridge by Gore Vidal
The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood by Sam Wasson
Dead Stars: A Novel by Bruce Wagner
Arabs and Muslims in the Media: Race and Representation after 9/11 by Evelyn Alsultany
The Deer Park: A Novel by Norman Mailer
Everybody Thought We Were Crazy: Dennis Hopper, Brooke Hayward, and 1960s Los Angeles by Mark Rozzo
Stay Tuned: An Inside Look at the Making of Prime-Time Television by Richard Levinson and William Link
Making the White Man's Indian: Native Americans and Hollywood Movies by Angela Aleiss
Reel by Kennedy Ryan
Raising Kane by Pauline Kael
Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies and Bucks by Donald Bogle
Madly, Deeply: The Diaries of Alan Rickman by Alan Rickman
Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma by Claire Dederer
Memo from David O. Selznick by David O. Selznick
Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies by Molly Haskell
Hollywood Babylon by Kenneth Anger
The Jaws Log: Expanded Edition by Carl Gottlieb
You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again by Julia Phillips
L.A. Confidential by James Ellroy
The Celluloid Closet : Homosexuality in the Movies by Vito Russo
Lulu In Hollywood: Expanded Edition by Louise Brooks
The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film by Michael Ondaatje
Money: A Suicide Note by Martin Amis
Third Girl From The Left: A Novel by Martha Southgate
Beautiful Ruins: A Novel by Jess Walter READ
Eve's Hollywood by Eve Babitz
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
West of Eden: An American Place by Jean Stein
Erasure by Percival Everett
The Studio by John Gregory Dunne
Final Cut: Art, Money, and Ego in the Making of Heaven's Gate, the Film that Sank United Artists by Steven Bach
The Classical Hollywood Cinema by David Bordwell, Janet Staiger and Kristin Thompson
The Devil's Candy: The Bonfire of the Vanities Goes to Hollywood by Julie Salamon
Postcards from the Edge by Carrie Fisher
What Makes Sammy Run? by Budd Schulberg
The Kid Stays in the Picture: A Notorious Life by Robert Evans
The Pat Hobby Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War by Mark Harris
Making Movies by Sidney Lumet
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls by Peter Biskind
Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu READ
Picture by Lillian Ross
The Player by Michael Tolkin
Adventures in the Screen Trade by Willliam Goldman
Get Shorty: A Novel by Elmore Leonard
Hitchcock by François Truffaut
The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West
Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion

Amazed to see The Celluloid Closet on this list! Cool.

Have a great week, Jeff.

Yeah, I know. I also never knew that Myra Breckinridge was a trans character. Never read it, or saw the movie. I'm curious on how it might be viewed today, a much different, but then probably not so different world.

Thanks for visiting!

>60 mahsdad: One I've always heard lauded that's not one the list is City of Nets by Otto Friedrich.

We are reading Myra Breckinridge for one of our f2f book groups at the end of the month. Not one I've read before, but I knew about the transgender theme. I've read a few others on that Hollywood list, and of course some of them were turned into movies as well. It is an interesting collection.

Myra Breckinridge is not one of the dozen books on the list that I have read, but it's on the shelf.

>63 richardderus: I'm not sure of the context of that image, was it supposed to be a GIF, or were you just tapping out of the conversation? :)

>64 ReneeMarie: Hi Renee, thanks for stopping by, and the suggestion

>65 ffortsa: >66 weird_O: I may have to put it actually on the WL, and not just here in my never ending list of lists. :)

I got my copy of The Razor's Edge today from the library. Way early for our joint read in May. But I wasn't sure how long inter-branch transfers took. So I have it, but I won't start reading it until later in the month.

Funny, it was the first time in a long time that I had actually been in the library and I had no clue what I was doing. The desk clerk pointed me in the general direction of the reserves shelf and I stood there looking like a lost puppy and someone had to take me (figuratively) by the hand and walk me over. I guess I'm getting to the dottering old man phase of my life. LOL.

>68 mahsdad: Libraries are one of the few public venues I am confident in. All the people like books. It's all good.

>68 mahsdad: Oh absolutely, it just felt weird there for a minute. As you say...All good.

>67 mahsdad: Jphn Cena curtsying seemed like the right way to say "peace out" in the context of Myra Breckenridge, somehow, since he's so resolutely manly mannish.

Glad you now have the reserved bookshelf figured out!!! : ) I had to ask where it was because my library underwent a renovation after Covid and I hadn't been there in quite a while.

>71 richardderus: Totally understand. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't reading anything unintended into it. ;)

>72 Berly: I think that was part of my problem too (renovations), Its probably been at least a couple years since I was physically in the library. And I had never done a book transfer request before.

It is surprising how confusing small changes in familiar library services can be. The UA Library recently changed its Inter-Library Loan form and the first time it came up it totally confused me. However, I have gotten accustomed to it after the second or third experience filling out the form, so it doesn't seem so bad.

So, not sure if I knew this, but Apple made a movie out of Blake Crouch's Dark Matter

here's the trailer : https://youtu.be/1RZe0TWkA5A?si=FwbKdJjQiBJZ--1H

>75 mahsdad: Really? I'll have to check that out; I enjoyed the book.

I enjoyed it too, but its been so long, I might have to read it again. Have to see if its on Libby. For me audio is a great format for rereads

Fantastic Photo Friday
Happy Friday folks. I see we all survived the rapture foretold by this week's eclipse. Did anyone consider that it did actually happen and all those evangelicals were just heathens like the rest of us. LOL!

At any rate, hope you all have a great weekend, and here's another Joshua Tree pic for you to ponder. Enjoy...



Book Update
>2 mahsdad: Q2 Books
>3 mahsdad: Q1 Books
>4 mahsdad: Audiobooks

Reading - Growing Up Yinzer: Memories from Beloved Pittsburghers by Dick Roberts : 59%
Reading - Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah : 41%
Listening - A Hologram for the King by Dave Eggers : 69%
eBook - Walkaway by Cory Doctorow : 69%
Graphic Novel - Saga Vol 5 by Brian K. Vaughan : 19%

Finished Books

31. Cut and Thirst by Margaret Atwood : A free kindle read from Amazon's First Reads program. A short story about a group of elderly women friends meet weekly to reminisce on their lives. During these gatherings, they plot to get revenge on the group of writers to ruined the career of one of their friends. They find it's easy to talk about devious plans, but its harder and has unintended consequences when you act on them. Pretty decent story.

30. Saga Vol 4 by Brian Vaughan (GN) :

29. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (A) : Read on audio. A very popular book that was getting all the buzz in the last year, as well as a series on Apple. Set in the late 50's, Elizabeth Zott is a highly intelligent woman, who has to deal with the misogyny of the times. She's expelled from a doctoral program because she was a victim of assault by her advisor, she gets a lab tech job, but when her famous chemist boyfriend passes away, she's fired as being because she's going to be an unwed mother. Through circumstances she becomes a famous host of a cooking show, despite all the push backs of her male superiors. And in the end, because it makes perfect sense 😁, she leaves her cooking show to go back triumphantly to her life as a research chemist and all is figuratively right with the world. A very good read.

#ff

>78 mahsdad: I'm pondering why I'm not spotting any Joshua Trees. It is a good view!

>79 quondame: Oh ye of little faith, you just have to look closer. There's at a ton of them in the picture. Tho to be honest I had to zoom in myself to see them.

Here's a crop of just to the left of the road, there's plenty there. LOL.

>80 mahsdad: I can only just make out the white side guards in >78 mahsdad:, so without immediate ability to enlarge that image, I'm not going to feel inadequate.

>80 mahsdad: Weird - saw the photo and thought we were looking for Bison...

>78 mahsdad: Love the framing you chose for the image, and the light you caught is very emotive.

Happy weekend-ahead's reads! I'm looking forward to Dark Matter, too.

>78 mahsdad: Lessons in Chemistry on my WL. I need to get it for my Thingaversary.

>81 quondame: Do NOT feel inadequate Susan. I'm sorry if I made you feel that way, not my intention. I too, even though I was there in Joshua Tree, couldn't have told you there were Joshua Trees until I zoomed in. I was just trying to be funny.

>82 m.belljackson: I suppose thousands of years ago, there could have been bison in the photo. (WAY back in the day, there were bison out here, they've found them in the La Brea tar pits

>83 richardderus: Thank you kind sir

>85 mahsdad: And I was trying to be wry. I guess I'll have to work on that.. It is a great photo!

Some great photos as always and your reading is also very impressive this year, Jeff.

New Book - audio

Erasure by Percival Everett (narrated by Sean Crisden)



Thelonious "Monk" Ellison's writing career has bottomed out: his latest manuscript has been rejected by seventeen publishers, which stings all the more because his previous novels have been "critically acclaimed." He seethes on the sidelines of the literary establishment as he watches the meteoric success of We's Lives in Da Ghetto, a first novel by a woman who once visited "some relatives in Harlem for a couple of days." Meanwhile, Monk struggles with real family tragedies—his aged mother is fast succumbing to Alzheimer's, and he still grapples with the reverberations of his father's suicide seven years before.

In his rage and despair, Monk dashes off a novel meant to be an indictment of Juanita Mae Jenkins's bestseller. He doesn't intend for My Pafology to be published, let alone taken seriously, but it is—under the pseudonym Stagg R. Leigh—and soon it becomes the Next Big Thing. How Monk deals with the personal and professional fallout galvanizes this audacious, hysterical, and quietly devastating novel.

My journal is a private affair, but as I cannot know the time of my coming death, and since I am not disposed, however unfortunately, to the serious consideration of self-termination, I am afraid that others will see these pages. Since however I will be dead, it should not much matter to me who sees what or when. My name is Thelonious Ellison.
And I am a writer of fiction.

#newbook

In my zeal to post my new book, I forgot to respond to my latest lovely visitors.

>86 quondame: Tone is so hard to gauge in text posts. They've never come up with an adequate sarcasm font. All good!

>87 PaulCranswick: Thanks Paul for the photo love. As far as my reading, I wouldn't be half the reader I am if it wasn't for this group giving me the good ideas and suggestions!

New Book - audio

Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu (narrated by Corey Brill/Joy Osmanski)



A publishing event: Best-selling author Ken Liu selects his award-winning science fiction and fantasy tales for a groundbreaking collection - including a brand-new piece exclusive to this volume.

With his debut novel, The Grace of Kings, taking the literary world by storm, Ken Liu now shares his finest short fiction in The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories. This mesmerizing collection features all of Ken's award-winning and award-finalist stories, including: "The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary" (finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, and Theodore Sturgeon Awards); "Mono No Aware" (Hugo Award winner); "The Waves" (Nebula Award finalist); "The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species" (Nebula and Sturgeon Award finalist); "All the Flavors" (Nebula award finalist); "The Litigation Master and the Monkey King" (Nebula Award finalist); and the most awarded story in the genre's history, "The Paper Menagerie" (the only story to win the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Awards).

A must-have for every science fiction and fantasy fan, this beautiful book is an anthology to savor.

There is no definitive census of all the intelligent species in the universe. Not only are there perennial arguments about what qualifies as intelligence, but each moment and everywhere, civilizations rise and fall, much as the stars are born and die. Time devours all. Yet every species has its unique way of passing on its wisdom through the ages, its way of making thoughts visible, tangible, frozen for a moment like a bulwark against the irresistible tide of time. Everyone makes books.

#newbook

>90 mahsdad:
I have a copy of this collection. I saw it when I packed it into a box in preparation for the move. Darn - I can hear it singing to me now.

I'm only about 20 minutes into the first story - Bookmaking Habits of Select Species. Its pretty good so far. If you find it, I'd say slot it into rotation. :)

>90 mahsdad: I liked this collection. I've followed Ken Liu since I read story The Paper Menagerie and he can be quite good.

>93 quondame: Hi Susan, I'm a couple stories in now, and it is a pretty good collection, I'm enjoying it

Fantastic Photo Friday
We made it another week. And for that you deserve some flowers...



Book Update
>2 mahsdad: Q2 Books
>3 mahsdad: Q1 Books
>4 mahsdad: Audiobooks

Reading - Growing Up Yinzer: Memories from Beloved Pittsburghers by Dick Roberts : 65%
Reading - Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah : 75%
Listening - Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu : 11%
eBook - Walkaway by Cory Doctorow : 71%
Graphic Novel - Saga Vol 5 by Brian K. Vaughan : 58%

Finished Books

33. Erasure by Percival Everett (A) : Read this on audio. This was a very interesting book in both premise and writing style. The premise is that Thelonious Ellison, an African American Professor of English Literature and novelist, is struggling with his career, and his family (especially with his Mother, who is starting to succumb to dementia. He writes "literature" and can't get his books published anymore because he isn't "black enough". After a first time author writes a stereotypical urban novel and it gains wide success, he sort of snaps and writes what in his mind is a satirical response to her book, pretending to be a black convict writing about his experiences. He calls it My Pafology and after publishers climb all over themselves to get it, he renames it Fuck. And its still an unexpected/amazing (to him) runaway success. The interesting stylistic take is that its a book within a book. The middle part is the reading of My Pafology. Such an interesting wide shift in tone and dialog, as expected. A really good read. Its been made into a movie called American Fiction staring Jeffrey Wright.

32. A Hologram for the King by Dave Eggers (A) : Read on Audio. Alan Clay is struggling salesman coming to the end of his career trying land that one big deal. He travels to Saudi Arabia to sell IT infrastructure to the King for his new business city being built in the middle of the desert. Part of the sales pitch is to show of the company's new holographic conferencing system (this seems pretty cool, but it was written in 2012 before the era of Zoom that we now live in :) ). He and his team go to this tent every day to wait for the King's arrival, no one knows when or if he'll show. Its kind of a Waiting for Godot sort of thing. While he's waiting, we just get a kind of meditation on his life and where things have gone off the rails. It was a pretty good, quick read.

#ff

>95 mahsdad: Poppies/golden poppies
blooming in the sun
closing up at evening/when the day is done...

>96 richardderus: Thanks RD. Speaking of that, I saw a video that someone posted after the eclipse. She did a time-lapse of her tulips as the eclipse was happening. It wasn't totality, so they didn't close up completely, but they did definitely realize it was getting dark and closed up. Nature is neat.

>95 mahsdad: A great shot of those simple, fascinating flowers.

I adore that photo! Very rich, warm color.

>98 quondame: Thanks Susan

>99 elorin: Thanks Robyn

>95 mahsdad: I bought a copy of Erasure after we saw "American Fiction"...great movie, by the way. I hope to get to reading it soon!

>94 mahsdad: Hi Greg, good to know about the movie. We hardly go out to the movies nowadays. Maybe I'll catch it on streaming somewhere

Fantastic Photo Friday
Happy Friday, here's another flower to start off your weekend...



Book Update
>2 mahsdad: Q2 Books
>3 mahsdad: Q1 Books
>4 mahsdad: Audiobooks

Reading - Growing Up Yinzer: Memories from Beloved Pittsburghers by Dick Roberts : 75%
Listening - Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu : 80%
eBook - Walkaway by Cory Doctorow : 91%
Graphic Novel - Saga Vol 6 by Brian K. Vaughan : 37%

Finished Books

35. Chain Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah : This is a excellent story about a world that is an extrapolation, I think, of the prison industrial complex and our reality TV obsessed populous. Shades of the Hunger Games, Battle Royale, Running Man and the Roman Gladiators, hardened criminals have the option to sign onto the CAPE program where they are put into Chain Gangs (teams) where the members have to fight members of other Chains to the death. If they survive 3 years, then they will win their release. Loretta Thurwar is coming up to her final match. And the book is a series of vignettes about her story, her "teammates", the competition and the protestors who appose this barbaric event. Very gritty and brutal, but an excellent story.

34. Saga Vol 5 by Brian Vaughan (GN) :

#ff

>103 mahsdad: I'm not surprised you enjoyed Chain Gang All-Stars as much as you did.

Happy weekend-ahead's reads!

I love Fridays! Beautiful buzzy bee!

>104 richardderus: Yeah, it was a good read. I liked Friday Black quite a bit as well

>105 elorin: Aw thanks Robyn

New Book

A Wild Swan and Other Tales by Michael Cunningham



Fairy tales for our times from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Hours

A poisoned apple and a monkey's paw with the power to change fate; a girl whose extraordinarily long hair causes catastrophe; a man with one human arm and one swan's wing; and a house deep in the forest, constructed of gumdrops and gingerbread, vanilla frosting and boiled sugar. In A Wild Swan and Other Tales, the people and the talismans of lands far, far away―the mythic figures of our childhoods and the source of so much of our wonder―are transformed by Michael Cunningham into stories of sublime revelation.
Here are the moments that our fairy tales forgot or deliberately concealed: the years after a spell is broken, the rapturous instant of a miracle unexpectedly realized, or the fate of a prince only half cured of a curse. The Beast stands ahead of you in line at the convenience store, buying smokes and a Slim Jim, his devouring smile aimed at the cashier. A malformed little man with a knack for minor acts of wizardry goes to disastrous lengths to procure a child. A loutish and lazy Jack prefers living in his mother's basement to getting a job, until the day he trades a cow for a handful of magic beans.
Reimagined by one of the most gifted storytellers of his generation, and exquisitely illustrated by Yuko Shimizu, rarely have our bedtime stories been this dark, this perverse, or this true.

Most of us are safe. If you're not a delirious dream the gods are having, if your beauty doesn't trouble the constellations, nobody's going to cast a spell on you. No one wants to transform you into a beast, or put you to sleep for a hundred years. The wraith disguised as a pixie isn't thinking of offering you three wishes, with doom hidden in them like a razor in a cake.

#newbook

With this book, I will proffer, again, my disdain for deckled edges and french flaps. This is a smallish book of short stories and the deckled makes it impossible to flip thru easily and the damn french flaps just get in the way.

I know I'm in the minority around here, but so be it.

If the deckled comes as an actual result of the binding process (like in antique books) then great. But as a choice to do it. Nah. Same with French flaps. I know its just a way to put advertisements and blurbs on the back cover and mimic what you'd have with a hard bound book with a dust jacket. Well then just put on a dust jacket. :/

Okay rant over. LOL.

Enjoy your day.

>108 mahsdad: I wish I still had my favorite french-flapped book...it was a printing sample from a Canadian company that wanted a piece of Delacorte's business. The cover was six colors on the front and a screen of a fine pattern on the inside that was printed in metallic ink. Probably cost them $5 each to print and bind which is A LOT. It was very impressive. Among the jetsam of my life, sadly.

>109 richardderus: Well in that case, when its a special book, my arguments are moot. That's too bad that you and it diverged paths. I have quite a few things that I've parted with involuntarily, that I always thing fondly of. But in the end, its just stuff. :)

New Book - ebook

Ur by Stephen King



Tapping into our primal fears of modern technology, which made Cell a number-one best seller, Stephen King sets his sights on the latest high-tech gadget in UR, in which a mysterious e-book reader opens a disturbing window into other worlds.

Reeling from a painful break-up, English instructor and avid book lover Wesley Smith is haunted by his ex-girlfriend's parting shot: "Why can't you just read off the computer like everyone else?" He buys an e-book reader out of spite, but soon finds he can use the device to glimpse realities he had never before imagined, discovering literary riches beyond his wildest dreams...and all-too-human tragedies that surpass his most terrible nightmares.

From vintage cars (Christine and From a Buick 8) to household appliances (Maximum Overdrive) to exercise equipment (Stationary Bike), Stephen King has mesmerized us with tales of apparently ordinary machines that take on lives of their own. UR gives this classic theme an up-to-the-minute spin, resulting in a horror masterpiece for our time and for the ages.

When Wesley Smith's colleagues asked him - some with an eyebrow hoicked satirically - what he was doing with that gadget (they all called it a gadget), he told them he was experimenting with new technology, but that was not true. He bought the gadget, which was called a Kindle, out of spite.

#newbook

New Book - audio

Whalefall by Daniel Kraus (read by Kirby Heyborne)



Jay Gardiner has given himself a fool’s errand—to find the remains of his deceased father in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Monastery Beach. He knows it’s a long shot, but Jay feels it’s the only way for him to lift the weight of guilt he has carried since his dad’s death by suicide the previous year.

The dive begins well enough, but the sudden appearance of a giant squid puts Jay in very real jeopardy, made infinitely worse by the arrival of a sperm whale looking to feed. Suddenly, Jay is caught in the squid’s tentacles and drawn into the whale’s mouth where he is pulled into the first of its four stomachs. He quickly realizes he has only one hour before his oxygen tanks run out—one hour to defeat his demons and escape the belly of a whale.

Suspenseful and cinematic, Whalefall is an “powerfully humane” (Owen King, New York Times bestselling author) thriller about a young man who has given up on life…only to find a reason to live in the most dangerous and unlikely of places.

Highway 1 drones. Cypress trees roar. Gulls shriek in squadrons. Yet all Jay Gardiner hears is his father awakening the family at six AM Weekdays, weekends, holidays, the man's blood so attuned to tidal patterns that he gets up without an alarm to begin the bedroom invasions, cowbelling his coffee cup. Sleepers, arise!

#newbook

>111 mahsdad: Oh boy! Now let's see what you make of UR!

>113 richardderus: About half-way thru (working on some other reads too). It started a little slow, but it is rapidly ramping up, like all good King reads do. I like it.

April Recap

Books Read - 11 (37)

Overall sources
DTE - 22%
Audio - 51%
Digital - 27%

Unique Authors - 30
Lady Authors - 9
Authors of Color - 3

Rereads - 10

Another good reading month. A lot of good reads where at least 6 could have been my top pick.

2024 Books of the Month

January : IQ84 by Haruki Murakami
February : Kindred by Octavia Butler
March : Where the Deer and the Antelope Play: The Pastoral Observations of One Ignorant American Who Loves to Walk Outside by Nick Offerman

April : Chain Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah




#botm

Fantastic Flower Foto Friday
I'm rebranding, its all flowers all the time. Well probably not, but it is today. :) Happy weekend



Book Update
>2 mahsdad: Q2 Books
>3 mahsdad: Q1 Books
>4 mahsdad: Audiobooks

Reading - Growing Up Yinzer: Memories from Beloved Pittsburghers by Dick Roberts : 78%
Listening - Whalefall by Daniel Kraus : 72%
eBook - UR by Stephen King : 62%
Graphic Novel - Saga Vol 6 by Brian K. Vaughan : 60%

Finished Books

38. A Wild Swan and Other Tales by Michael Cunningham : A short but very excellent collection of what I would term Fractured Fairy Tales. The essential stories we grew up on, just from a slightly different perspective and a little bit more real. "Crazy Old Lady" tells the story of Hansel and Gretel from the Witch's perspective, "Little Man" from Rumpelstiltskin's. "Her Hair" is the somewhat horrific aftermath of Rapunzel. A worth while read.

"Jacked" - Fair tales are generally moral tales. In the bleaker version of this one, mother and son both starve to death. That lesson would be: Mothers, try to be realistic about your imbecilic sons, no matter how charming their sly little grins, no matter how heartbreaking the dark-gold tousle of their hair. If you romanticize them, if you insist on virtues they clearly lack, if you persist in your blind desire to have raised a wise child, one who'll be helpful in your old age... don't be surprised if you find that you've fallen on the bathroom floor, and end up spending the night there, because he's out drinking with his friends until dawn.

"Steadfast; Tin" - They Stay married...because the marriage isn't all that bad, because getting unmarried seems so difficult, so frightening, so sad. They can separate after the kitchen is finished; after the kids are a little older; after they as a couple have finally passed through the realm of irritation and bickering, and reached the frozen waste of the unbearable.

37. Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu (A) : Listened on audio. An excellent collection of sci-fi and near scifi stories. Many award winning and award nominated. Including the title story; which won the Hugo, Nebula and World Fantasy Awards. Good Hunting, a story that mixes Chinese mythology with modern times was adapted in Netflix's Love, Death and Robots animated series.

36. Walkaway by Cory Doctorow (K) : In an age where the modder culture reigns supreme in a post scarcity world, its possible for people to walkaway from the "Default" world and live outside of the corporate/commercial driven life the world has become. The Default world doesn't like that and pushes back. This is another story (Rapture of the Nerds was another one), where Docotorow explores the "singularity", is it possible and what happens when you do, when you can completely walk away, and upload your conscience to the cloud. And a very interesting take here, once you're in the cloud, what's to prevent you from being copied so there are now multiples of you in the cloud. An interesting story. If you're into his stuff, it's probably a good one to pick up.

That's why you never hear politicians talking about "citizens", it's all "taxpayers", as though the salient fact of your relationship to the state is how much you pay. Like the state was a business and citizenship was a loyalty program that rewarded you for your custom with roads and health care.

Anything invented before you were eighteen was there all along. Anything invented before you're thirty is exciting and will change the world forever. Anything invented after that is an abomination and should be banned.

The internal politics of the Redwater family are always and only about one thing. "Money". "Power. Money's just keeping score"

The network interprets censorship as damage and routes around it

#ff

>117 mahsdad: A very in your face flower. The colors of that shot are amazing.

Thanks Susan!

>117 mahsdad: I just got A Wild Swan from the library and it will soon be before my little eyes! Good to see that you thought it a worthwhile read.

Love your flower picture! All of that color really charms me! Good job!

Karen O

>117 mahsdad: Beautiful zinnia! I'm glad you liked the Liu stories.

Great weekend, Jeff!

>120 klobrien2: I am always amazed with this group, when I read a book that I would consider obscure and that no one has heard of, but yet, right away, some one pops up... Me too. :)

Thanks for the flower love, to you and RD.

>121 richardderus: I think I would have given at least an extra half star except for a couple stories that just didn't hit completely for me. Over all an excellent read.

>117 mahsdad:
I have a copy of Paper Menagerie that I haven't read yet. Thanks to you I dug it out and moved it to a more accessible and visible location. I have copies of two of the three Dandelion Dynasty novels but like other series I just haven't devoted the time to them to get them off of my shelves. I am working on several of my series and slowly reading my way through them. Unfortunately, some of my authors keep writing more books for the series. Only Jacqueline Winspear has announced that she is ending her Maisie Dobbs series. That is a good thing for me. I know that I only have 18 more of those books to read.

I like the way Cory Doctorow thinks. I have heard several interviews with him and find him to have an interesting point-of-view about all things techie, as well as what is going on in the Internet and its world. He does some excellent writing for YA's about the tech world and its pitfalls. I have several of his books on my TBR list but haven't gotten to them - as of yet.

Happy Friday, Jeff. I thought The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories was excellent. I should do a reread of that one, one of these days. You got me with A Wild Swan and Other Tales.

>123 benitastrnad: Menagerie is the first of Liu's stuff I've read. I'll have to try to get to his novels. And maybe, eventually, I'll actually read Three-Body Problem, which he translated.

I've been following Doctorow for years, from Boing Boing, to his podcasts before there were actually podcasts. He used to read his stories himself. He has a very interesting perspective.

>124 msf59: Menagerie - I listened to it on audio, it worked really well. Wild Swan - do you want my copy, or just leave it on the WL?

>125 mahsdad: Sure, I'll take it. Thanks, Jeff.

>125 mahsdad: Either Ken Liu's translation of Three Body Problem is purposely awkward or it got away from him. The book is still worth reading, but in spite of quite a lot.

>122 mahsdad: From my Save Shelves = finding more books that no one else seems to have read or even heard of:

Next to the two volumes of THE LION TREES was Domestic Violets, one of those rare novels that is actually funny.

>126 msf59: I just messaged you

>127 quondame: Interesting. Glad to hear your take

>128 m.belljackson: Never heard of either of those. Always glad for more suggestions for the neverending pile. :)

New Book - shared read

The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham



Larry Darrell is a young American in search of the absolute. The progress of this spiritual odyssey involves him with some of Maugham's most brillant characters - his fiancee Isabel, whose choice between love and wealth have lifelong repercussions, and Elliot Templeton, her uncle, a classic expatriate American snob. The most ambitious of Maugham's novels, this is also one in which Maugham himself plays a considerable part as he wanders in and out of the story, to observe his characters struggling with their fates.

I have never begun a novel with more misgiving. If I call it a novel it is only because I don't know what else to call it. I have little story to tell and I end neither with a death nor a marriage. Death ends all things and so is the comprehensive conclusion of a story, but marriage finishes it very properly too and the sophisticated are ill-advised to sneer at what is by convention termed a happy ending.

#newbook

>129 mahsdad: The first volume of The Lion Trees was intriguing; volume two pretty convoluted.

Domestic Violets was one where I just wanted it to go on and on because I now Knew Those People!

>131 m.belljackson: Cool, thanks for the info

New Book - audio (reread)

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch off the West by Gregory Maguire



With millions of copies in print around the world, Gregory Maguire’s Wicked is established not only as a commentary on our time but as a novel to revisit for years to come. Wicked relishes the inspired inventions of L. Frank Baum’s 1900 novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, while playing sleight of hand with our collective memories of the 1939 MGM film starring Margaret Hamilton (and Judy Garland). In this fast-paced, fantastically real, and supremely entertaining novel, Maguire has populated the largely unknown world of Oz with the power of his own imagination.

Years before Dorothy and her dog crash-land, another little girl makes her presence known in Oz. This girl, Elphaba, is born with emerald-green skin—no easy burden in a land as mean and poor as Oz, where superstition and magic are not strong enough to explain or overcome the natural disasters of flood and famine. Still, Elphaba is smart, and by the time she enters Shiz University, she becomes a member of a charmed circle of Oz’s most promising young citizens.

But Elphaba’s Oz is no utopia. The Wizard’s secret police are everywhere. Animals—those creatures with voices, souls, and minds—are threatened with exile. Young Elphaba, green and wild and misunderstood, is determined to protect the Animals—even if it means combating the mysterious Wizard, even if it means risking her single chance at romance. Ever wiser in guilt and sorrow, she can find herself grateful when the world declares her a witch. And she can even make herself glad for that young girl from Kansas.

Recognized as an iconoclastic tour de force on its initial publication, the novel has inspired the blockbuster musical of the same name—one of the longest-running plays in Broadway history. Popular, indeed. But while the novel’s distant cousins hail from the traditions of magical realism, mythopoeic fantasy, and sprawling nineteenth-century sagas of moral urgency, Maguire’s Wicked is as unique as its green-skinned witch.

A mile above Oz, the Witch balanced on the wind's forward edge, as if she were a green fleck of the land itself, flung up and sent wheeling away by the turbulent air.
white and purple summer thunder heads mounded around her. Below, the Yellow Brick Road looped back on itself, like a relaxed noose.

#newbook

Glad you have The Razor's Edge on the docket. When are you starting it? I will start it soon but with a birding adventure coming up, I doubt I will get much reading in.

>134 msf59: I started it over the weekend. I'm about 50 pages in. TBH, it was a little bit of a slow burn starting up, but now that I'm more acquainted with his writing style and the characters its gaining more momentum.

I have no fear that you will catch up and pass me when you get to it. :)