Streamsong #3; Mountains; Mountains of Books; and a Critter or Two

Ceci est la suite du sujet Streamsong #2 - The Beginning of Spring.

Ce sujet est poursuivi sur Streamsong #4; Heading into Fall.

Discussions75 Books Challenge for 2021

Rejoignez LibraryThing pour poster.

Streamsong #3; Mountains; Mountains of Books; and a Critter or Two

1streamsong
Modifié : Août 23, 2021, 3:02 pm



And the valley where I live:

2streamsong
Modifié : Août 23, 2021, 3:01 pm

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 NIH research lab. 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.

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

I have Appaloosa horses and raise a foal or two each year.

3streamsong
Modifié : Août 23, 2021, 3:41 pm

BOOKS READ 2021

✅ = Outstanding Book! ❤️ = Favorite

FIRST QUARTER

January


1. A Recipe for Daphne: A Novel - Nektaria Anastasiadou - 2019 - LTER - Global Reading: Turkey - digital - acq'd 2020 -
❤️ 2. Cane Warriors - Alex Wheatle - 2020; LTER; Global Reading: Jamaica; acq'd 2020
❤️3. Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre - Max Brooks - 2020 - library
❤️4. I Will Judge You by Your Bookshelf - Grant Snyder - 2020 - library
✅5. Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most - Rachel Maddow - 2019 - RL Book Club - library
6. Cave of Bones - Anne Hillerman - 2018 - library
7. Archaeology from Space - Sarah Parcak - 2019 - library
8. Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World - Anand Giridharadas - 2018 - Real Life Book Club - library
9. Banker - Dick Francis - 1982 - (Reread) - Dick Francis group read; Root #3 - cataloged here 2006
10. The Lord of the Rings (Wood Box Edition) - J. R. R. Tolkien - 2012 - NPR dramatization, audio, ROOT #4 acq'd 2018
❤️11. When Stars Are Scattered - Victoria Jamieson, Mohamed Omar - 2020 - GN - library
12. This is What America Looks Like - Ilhan Omar - 2020 - library

February

13. Burn - Patrick Ness - 2020 - library
14. Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion - Jia Tolentino - 2019 - PBS Now Read This - January - library
❤️15. Migrations - Charlotte McConaghy - 2020 - Global Reading - Greenland/Denmark - library
16. Engineering Eden - Jordan Fisher Smith - 2016 - Glacier Conservancy Book Club - Reread - ROOT #5
17. On Tyranny - Leo Strauss - 2017 - Reread - library
18. The Great Pretender - Susannah Cahalan - 2019 - RLBC - library

March
19. Paradise - Toni Morrison - 1997 - library
20. Vesper Flights - Helen Macdonald - 2020 - library
21. Simon the Fiddler - Paulette Jiles - 2020 - library
❤️22. The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books - Edward Wilson-Lee - 2018 - Global Reading: Spain -library
23. The Devil's Cub - Georgette Heyer - 1932 - library - audiobook
24. The Long Petal of the Sea - Isabel Allende - Library Brown Bag Book Club; Global Reading - Chile (also Spain, Venezuela) - 2020
❤️25. Interior Chinatown - Charles Yu - 2020 - PBS/NYT Now Read This Book Club - library
26. Odds Against - Dick Francis - 1965 - Dick Francis group read - ROOT #6 - acq'd 2012 -
27. Bangkok 8 - John Burdett - 2003 - Global Reading: Thailand - library
28. People Before the Park: The Kootenai and Blackfeet Before Glacier National Park - Sally Thompson - 2015 - Glacier Conservancy Book Club; ROOT #7 - acq'd 2015

4streamsong
Modifié : Août 23, 2021, 3:42 pm

SECOND QUARTER READING

✅ = Outstanding Book! ❤️ = Favorite

April

❤️29. Names for the Sea: Strangers in Iceland - Sarah Moss - 2012 - Global Reading:Iceland - library
30. Lady Cop Makes Trouble - Amy Stewart - 2016 - library
31. Northernmost - Peter Geye - 2020 - Global reading: Norway - library
32. Grain by Grain - Bob Quinn - 2019 - library
33. The Lions of Fifth Avenue - Fiona Davis - 2020 - Library Brown Bag Book Club - library
❤️34. There There - Tommy Orange - 2019 - library
35. Escape from the Ordinary - Julie Bradley - 2018 - RCKN Outdoor Book Club - 2021 purchase -
36. Open Season - C. J. Box - 2001 - (Joe Pickett #1) - library
37. Nomadland - Jessica Bruder - 2017 - PBS Now Read This - library -

MAY
38. Network Effect - Martha Wells - 2020 - library
❤️39. Transcendent Kingdom - Yaa Gyasi - 2020 - Global Reading: Ghana - library
❤️40. The Teeth of the Comb - Osama Alomar - 2017 - Global Reading: Syria - library
41. An Obvious Fact - Craig Johnson - 2017 - library
42. Voices of Rivers - Matthew Dickerson - 2019 - Glacier Conservancy Book Club - purch 2021
43. Piranesi - Susanna Clarke - 2020 - library
❤️44. Concrete Rose - Angie Thomas - 2021 - library
❤️45. Tales From the Inner City - Shaun Tan - 2018 - library
46. Summer Water - Sarah Moss - 2021 - global reading: Scotland - library
47. Homo Deus - Yuval Noah Harari - 2016 - Library Brown Bag Book Club - Global Reading: Israeli author - purchased 2021

June
48. The Grizzly in the Driveway: The Return of Bears to a Crowded American West by Rob Chaney - 2020 library
49. The Missing American - Kwei Quartey - 2020 - Global Reading: Ghana - library
50. Velocity Weapon - Megan E. O'Keefe - 2019 - library
❤️51. Postcolonial Love Poem - Natalie Diaz - 2020 - library
52. Buffalo Jump Blues - Keith McCafferty - 2016 - Newcomers Book Club - library
53. The Left-Handed Booksellers of London - Garth Nix - 2020 - library
54. Mortal Fall - Christine Carbo - 2016 - Glacier Conservancy Book Club - library
✅55. A Promised Land - Barack Obama - 2020 - audiobook - purchased 2021
56. Remote Control - Nnedi Okorafor - Global Reading: Ghana - 2020 - library
57. Bonecrack - Dick Francis - 1971 - Dick Francis Group Read - library

5streamsong
Modifié : Août 23, 2021, 3:50 pm

THIRD QUARTER READING

July

58. The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier and more Creative - Florence Williams - 2017 - The Glacier Conservancy Book Club - library
59. The Story of More: How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go From Here - Hope Jahren - 2020 - library
❤️60. Homeland Elegies: A Novel - Ayad Akhtar - 2020 - global reading: Pakistan (Pakistani American author; partial location) - library
❤️61. Mary's Monster: Love, Madness, and How Mary Shelley Created Frankenstein - Lita Judge - 2018- library
✅ 62. Klara and the Sun - Kazuo Ishiguro - 2021 - library -
63. The Last Green Valley - Mark Sullivan - 2021 - Newcomers Book Club - purchased 2021
64. The Family Upstairs - Lisa Jewell - 2019 - Library
65. Hot Money - Dick Francis - 1987 - Library -
✅ 66. Caste: - Isabel Wilkerson - 2020- RLBC- purchased 2021

August
67. Legends of Micronesia (Book Two) - Eve Grey - 1951 - Reading Globally challenge - Children's Book (Micronesia) -ROOT (not sure when acquired)
❤️68. The Anthropocene Reviewed - John Green - 2021 - library
69. Through Glacier Park in 1915 - Mary Roberts Rinehart - 1916 - Glacier Conservancy Book Club - Reread - ROOT
70. Apeirogon: A Novel - Colum McCann - 2020 - RLBC - library

6streamsong
Modifié : Août 23, 2021, 3:46 pm

**** 68 BOOKS COMPLETED IN 2021 ****

YEAR CATALOGED OR ACQUIRED

1 - 2006
1 - 2012
1 - 2015
2 - 2016
1 - 2018
2 -2020
1 - ROOT not sure of date acquired
6 - 2021
53 - library

FORMAT
3 - audiobook
63 - printed books
2 - digital - read on Kindle


GENRE

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

1 - Black experience
1 - children's book
13 - Global Reading
5 - Historical fiction
2 - Illustrated fiction
1 - Legends
7 - Literary Fiction
1 - Muslim experience
13 - mystery/thriller
2 - Native American
3 - nature/outdoors
3 - Romance
1 - science fiction
1 - short stories
9 - speculative fiction
7 - YA

1 - comics
2 - graphic novel


- 22 - Non-Fiction (may fit into more than one category)
- 1 - agriculture/healthy eating
- 4 - essays
- 1- global reading
- 4 - history
- 5 - memoir
- 2- mental health/hospitals
- 2 - Native Americans
- 7 - nature/outdoors
- 1 - philosophy
- 1 - poetry
- 5 - politics
- 3 - science
- 2 - sociology

AUTHORS

32 - Male Authors
34 - Female Authors
2 - Combination of male and female

42 - Authors who are new to me
26 - Authors read before

3 Rereads:
- Banker - Dick Francis
- Engineering Eden - Jordan Fisher Smith
- Odds Against - Dick Francis (read pre LT?)
- On Tyranny - Leo Strauss

Nationality of Author:
2 - Australia
1 - Chile
2 - Ghanaian
1 - Israel
2 - Somalia/Kenya/US
1 - Syria
1 - Turkey (?)
16 - UK -
41 - United States
1 - United States/Ghana

Birthplace or residence of Author if different from nationality:
1 - child of Jamaican immigrants
1 - Somalia

Setting of book if different than author's nationality:
1 - Scotland
1 - Greenland, Scotland, Anarctica
1 - Iceland
1 - Norway
1 - Jamaica
1 - Micronesia
1 - outer space
1 - Pakistan (partial location)
1 - Spain
1 - Thailand
1 - Ukraine (partial location)
1 - US/India/Germany

Language Book Originally Published in:
66 - English
1 - Greek
1 - 1 - Hebrew

Original Publication Date

1 - 1932
1 - 1951
1 - 1965
1 - 1971
1 - 1982
1 - 1987
1 - 1998
1 - 2001
1 - 2003
2 - 2012
1 - 2015
5 - 2016
4 - 2017
6 - 2018
10 - 2019
25 - 2020
5 - 2021

7streamsong
Modifié : Août 23, 2021, 3:46 pm

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

COUNTRIES VISITED IN 2021


visited 17 states (7.55%)
>Create your own visited map of The World

Australia: Tales From the Inner City - Shaun Tan - 2018 - (illus fiction; Australian author)
Ghana Book #2 Transcendent Kingdom - Yaa Gyasi - Fic (author, partial location) 5/2021
Ghana Book #3 The Missing American - Kwei Quartey - 2020 Fic/myst (author, location) - 6/2021
Ghana Book #4 Remote Control - Nnedi Okorofor - 2020 - Fic/Afrofuturism (author, location) 6/2021
Greenland - autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark - Book#1
Migrations: A Novel - Charlotte McConaghy - 2020 - Fic; (partial location- also Antarctica; UK author) - read Jan 2021
Iceland book #2 : Names for the Sea: Strangers in Iceland - Sarah Moss - 2009 - Non Fic, location, UK author read 4/2021
Israel Homo Deus - Yuval Noah Harari - 2016 - NF - Israeli author
Jamaica: Cane Warriors - Alex Wheatle - 2020
Pakistan additional book: Homeland Elegies: A Novel - Ayad Akhtar - 2020 - Fic (Pakistani American author; partial location)
Somalia# 2. When Stars Are Scattered - Victoria Jamieson, Omar Mohamed - 2020 (Somalia/Kenya) - fictionalized memoir; GN - read 1/2021
Somalia #3 This is What America Looks Like - Ilhan Omar - (Somalia/Kenya/US) - NF - 2020
Spain book 4 The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books - Edward Wilson-Lee - 2018 - NF (location, UK author) - library - March 2021
Syria: The Teeth of the Comb - Osama Alomar - short stories - (location, author)
Thailand Book #4 Bangkok 8 - 2003 - John Burdett - (fic, location, UK author) read March 2021
Turkey: A Recipe for Daphne: A Novel - Nektaria Anastasiadou (fic, author, location) 1/2021

ALL COUNTRIES VISITED


visited 93 states (41.3%)
Create your own visited map of The World

8streamsong
Modifié : Août 23, 2021, 3:48 pm

9streamsong
Modifié : Août 1, 2021, 2:20 pm

As always, I'd like to think that I should focus on books that are currently sitting unread on Planet TBR. I keep hauling books home faster than I can read them and the piles keep growing larger.

These numbers include the library books that I have at home.

As of 8/01/2021: 527 Books on MT TBR
As of 7/01/2021: 527 books on MT TBR
As of 6/01/2021: 522 books on MT TBR
As of 5/01/2021: 522 books on MT TBR
whoops missed April numbers
As of 03/01/2021: 525 books on MT TBR
As of 02/01/2021: 522 books on MT TBR
As of 01/01/2021: 522 books on MT TBR

As of 01/01/2020: 520 books on MT TBR
As of 01/01/2019: 510 books on physical Mt TBR
As of 01/01/2018: 510 books on physical Mt TBR
As of 01/01/2017: 481 books on physical Mt TBR
As of 01/01/2016: 459 books on physical MT TBR

5 ROOTS (Reading Our Own Tomes) Read in 2021

10streamsong
Modifié : Août 23, 2021, 3:49 pm

BOOKS ACQUIRED 2021
13 Purchased
- 1 - Reading
- 3 - Read

1. The Complete Father Brown Mysteries - G. K. Chesterton - Kindle 99 deal 1/18/2021
Read 2. Engineering Eden - Jordan Fisher Smith - 2019 - Glacier Conservancy Book Club - 1/29/2021 - darnit! duplicate book!
3.
4.
5.
Read 6. A Promised Land - Barrack Obama 2020 - used audio CD's
Read 7. Escape From the Ordinary - Julie Bradley - RCKN Outdoor Book Club Read - April 2021
Read 8. The Voices of Rivers -Matt Dickerson - Glacier Conservancy Book Club - April 2021
9. Preordered: Saving Us: A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World - Katharine Hayhoe Releases 9/21 /21 (Ted Talk and climate change talk) - Kindle - ordered April 2021
10. Preordered: The Stone Sister - Caroline Patterson Releases 8/21
11.Read The Voices of Rivers - Matthew Dickerson - Glacier Conservancy Book Club 4/2021
12. Crossing Pirate Waters - Julie Bradley - 2020 - Part 2 RCKN book - 4/2021
13. Making Wawa - George Lang - 2008 - (talk from Traveler's Rest) - 4/2021
---
14. Indian Killer by Sherman Alexie - BPL/Chapter One
15. Living Gluten Free for Dummies - - BPL/Chapter One
16. The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd (misplaced this one when only partially read) - freebie BPL
17. Possessing the Secret of Joy - Alice Walker - 1001 books - freebie BPL
18. Jerk Barbeque from Jamaica - Helen Willinsky - freebie BPL
19. Dashing Through the Snow - Mary Higgins Clark - (I always like having a Christmas cozy or two to read in December) - freebie BPL
20. First Roots: The Story Of Stevensville, Montana's Oldest Community - The Discovery Writers - freebie BPL
21. Ridgeliner - Michael Punke - freebie BPL
And the Mountains Echoed - Khaled Hosseini whoops - already had this one
Read 22. The Last Green Valley - Mark T Sullivan - 2021 - New Book Club - July 2021
Read 22. Caste - Isabel Wilkerson - 2020 - Amazon - July 2021
23. Night Waking - Sarah Moss - 2011 -
24. When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through- Joy Harjo (Editor); 8/7/2021
25. The Big Book of Kombucha - Hannah Crum - 2016 - gift

11streamsong
Modifié : Juin 5, 2021, 11:17 am

May Statistics: 10 Books Read

38. Network Effect - Martha Wells - 2020 - library
❤️39. Transcendent Kingdom - Yaa Gyasi - 2020 - Global Reading: Ghana - library
❤️40. The Teeth of the Comb - Osama Alomar - 2017 - Global Reading: Syria - library
41. An Obvious Fact - Craig Johnson - 2017 - library
42. Voices of Rivers - Matthew Dickerson - 2019 - Glacier Conservancy Book Club - purch 2021
43. Piranesi - Susanna Clarke - 2020 - library
❤️44. Concrete Rose - Angie Thomas - 2021 - library
❤️45. Tales From the Inner City - Shaun Tan - 2018 - library
46. Summer Water - Sarah Moss - 2021 - library
47. Homo Deus - Yuval Noah Harari - 2016 - Library Brown Bag Book Club - Global Reading: Israeli author - purchased 2021

Source
2 - Acquired 2021
- ROOTS
8 - Library


FORMAT
- audiobook
10 - print books
- digital - read on Kindle app

- 5 - Fiction (may fit into more than one category)
- 1 - black experience
- 3 - literary fiction
- 2 - global fiction
- 1 - mystery/thriller
- 2 - short stories
- 2 - Speculative fiction


- 2 - Non-Fiction (may fit into more than one category)
- 1 - Outdoors/Nature
- 1 - philosophy

AUTHORS

- 5 - Male Authors
- 5 - Female Authors

- 4 - Authors who are new to me
- 6 - Authors I have previously read
- Rereads

Countries Visited
Australia (author)
Ghana
Great Britain
Great Britain - Scotland
Israel (author)
Syria

Original Publication Date
1 - 2016
2 - 2017
1 - 2019
3 - 2020
3 - 2021

12streamsong
Modifié : Juil 6, 2021, 1:49 pm

June statistics

10 Books Read in June

48. The Grizzly in the Driveway: The Return of Bears to a Crowded American West by Rob Chaney - 2020 library
49. The Missing American - Kwei Quartey - 2020 - Global Reading: Ghana - library
50. Velocity Weapon - Megan E. O'Keefe - 2019 - library
❤️51. Postcolonial Love Poem - Natalie Diaz - 2020 - library
52. Buffalo Jump Blues - Keith McCafferty - 2016 - Newcomers Book Club - library
53. The Left-Handed Booksellers of London - Garth Nix - 2020 - library
54. Mortal Fall - Christine Carbo - 2016 - Glacier Conservancy Book Club - library
**** Need to review
55. A Promised Land - Barack Obama - 2020 - audiobook - purchased 2021
56. Remote Control - Nnedi Okorafor - Global Reading: Ghana - 2020 - library
57. Bonecrack - Dick Francis - 1971 - Dick Francis Group Read - library

Source
1 - Purchased 2021
- ROOTS
9 - Library


FORMAT
1 - audiobook
9 - print books
- digital - read on Kindle app

- 7 - Fiction (may fit into more than one category)
2 - fantasy
5 - mystery/thriller
1 - SF
2 - YA


- 3 - Non-Fiction (may fit into more than one category)
2 - history
1 - Memoir
2 - Native Americans
1 - Outdoors/nature/wildlife
1 - poetry
1 - politics

AUTHORS

7 - Male Authors
4 - Female Authors

5 - Authors who are new to me
5 - Authors I have previously read
- Rereads

Countries Visited
2 - Ghana
2 - UK

Original Publication Date

1 - 1971
2 - 2016
1 - 2019
5 - 2020
1 - 2021

13PaulCranswick
Juin 3, 2021, 11:27 pm

Happy new thread to a fellow book dragon!

I restarted my around the world challenge towards the end of last year, Janet, and have gotten to 25 countries with another a few pages from becoming country 26. I have had fun researching Africa and I have around 30 countries with authors already lined up (out of the 53 or so) and the Oceanic areas which are difficult to find authors.

14msf59
Juin 4, 2021, 7:26 am

Happy New Thread, Janet! Hooray for the Book dragon. You are not alone.

15fuzzi
Juin 4, 2021, 8:00 am

16FAMeulstee
Juin 4, 2021, 8:21 am

Happy new thread, Janet.

From your previous thread: Hoping with you that your mare will give you a filly you can keep.

17karenmarie
Juin 4, 2021, 8:30 am

‘Morning, Janet, and happy new thread.

From your previous thread, excellent reading stats for May. I started Homo Deus aeons ago on my Kindle, and just confirmed that I’m 57% of the way through. I can’t remember why I put it down. Its not being your cuppa makes me hesitate to restart it, but with 57% done, it might be worth it. I hope you get the foal with the indoor plumbing, too.

Beautiful valley, and congrats on being a Book Dragon!

18drneutron
Juin 4, 2021, 8:55 am

Happy new thread!

19BLBera
Juin 4, 2021, 11:06 am

Happy new thread, Janet. I love the book dragon quilt. You have amazing stats.

20streamsong
Juin 4, 2021, 1:00 pm



Thank you, friends! I left this thread last night with only the bare bones in place and came this morning to find it decorated by your posts!

21streamsong
Modifié : Juil 7, 2021, 4:30 pm

>13 PaulCranswick: Thanks for the kind words from one of the Dragonmeisters here on LT!

I have two in my stash that I will eventually read for Oceanic countries.

One is Legends of Micronesia Book Two - I hope to read this one with the current Global Reading quarterly category of children's books. I have the original with lots of bare breasted women in the illustrations. Not your average American children's book! I found it several years ago at a Goodwill store.



The other is Oliver Sack's The Island of the Color Blind. While it's not written by an Oceania author, the work he did there ferreting out a gene is very interesting to me.

Both of the above visit several countries, and although, I only use one country per book, it does give me options.

22streamsong
Modifié : Juin 4, 2021, 1:48 pm

>14 msf59: Thank you, Mark! Your reading is an inspiration to me! One of the books that I'm currently reading, The Missing American was from your thread.

>15 fuzzi: Thank you, Lor!

>16 FAMeulstee: Thank you, Anita. We had several major thunderstorms during the night. This morning I found the mare laying down on her side. Never believe books that say that pregnant mares don't lie down flat unless they are foaling! I've actually had several mares do this.

>17 karenmarie: Hi Karen! Homo Deus is an interesting work, but as I noted, philosophy is not my cup of tea. We did have three more people at the second trial of talking about it at the book club. There were a total of 7 participants plus the library moderator who *loved* the book and spoke quite a bit. One couple joined the zoom from California where they are visiting family. They listened to the audio in the car and were so taken by it, they made a special point to participate even on vacation.

Several people called the author, Yuval Noah Harari, "one of the great thinkers of the era".

Just me, I guess. I'll be interested to see what you think.

23streamsong
Juin 4, 2021, 1:46 pm

>18 drneutron: Thank you, Jim. I have just started Velocity Weapon, a rec from your thread. I'll need to read it quickly since it's due back at the library in just a few days.

You are definitely my go-to for authentic science fiction!

>19 BLBera: Hi Beth! I bought the quilt from an ad on FaceBook and wasn't expecting much, but I really like it! I'll do close ups of some of the panels that don't show up well in the photo.

Thank you re the stats. I get sooooo many of my suggestions from you in both literary fiction and dystopian novels. Thank you!

24streamsong
Juin 4, 2021, 2:04 pm

Currently Reading:



And of course - Listening while doing my knee exercises:

25mdoris
Modifié : Juin 4, 2021, 6:59 pm

Happy new thread Janet! Wow, that's crazy going from SNOW to the 90's. Fingers crossed that all goes well with the new foal and you get the plumbing you are wishing for. It is very exciting!

>3 streamsong:, >4 streamsong:, It is wonderful to follow your reading, taking notes on those you marked with a ❤️.

26streamsong
Juin 5, 2021, 10:52 am

Yes, the weather is crazy. A week ago horses were shivering and branches were breaking off trees from the snow. Now, it's so warm it's hard to make the transition. Although I don't have AC, my ancient long haired cat was sitting in front of the Hepa filter yesterday looking for a breeze.

I decided to try to indicate my top reads like several other people are doing. But.... it ain't easy. I had great reading again this month.

27streamsong
Modifié : Juin 5, 2021, 11:11 am

I like the way that book clubs broaden my focus. I've joined the Glacier Conservancy (https://glacier.org/about/ ) Book Club so that I'm reading a bit more about the wild places.



42. Voices of Rivers - Matthew Dickerson - 2019
- Glacier Conservancy Book Club
- purch 2021


Author Matthew Dickerson was an artist in residence at both Glacier and Acadia National Parks, as well as being an enthusiastic fisherman in remote regions of Alaska.

I’ve loved mountains and wild places since a child; somehow I had not considered the special qualities of the creeks and rivers within the wild places, nor the fishy inhabitants’ place in the ecological web.

Some interesting thoughts from the book:
- fish migrating up rivers to spawn bring much needed protein to otherwise protein scarce high places. They bring nutrients not just from lower in the creek, but from far-flung oceans.
- although erosion constantly brings down mountain peaks to be carried off in highland streams, the highland lakes act as seine nets, catching many of the erosion particles.
- Not everything I thought was a trout is a trout; likewise not everything I thought of as salmon is salmon.

Dickerson has a lovely handle on description; he has written both fantasy and books about fantasy and paints vivid word pictures.

My biggest disappointment was the paucity of women in the first three quarters of this book. Finally, in the last section, his wife joined him on canoeing adventures in Acadia.

Recommended for trout fisherman, those interested in Glacier, Acadia Parks and other wild places.

28streamsong
Modifié : Juin 5, 2021, 11:12 am



43. Piranesi - Susanna Clarke - 2020
– library


Piranesi lives in a mansion with infinite rooms. Each room is adorned by dozens and dozens of statues.depicting scenes and stories from elsewhere. Piranesi believes he is a ‘child of the house’ and that the house provides for him.

The lower floors are flooded and provide fish and seaweed; The upper floors often have birds.

The only other living human inhabitant (he’s found a few skeletons) is a man Piranesi calls ‘The Other’, whom Piranesi believes lives far far away in the mansion. They meet for an hour twice a week. The Other sometimes give Piranesi gifts such as vitamin tablets or shoes. But when The Other lets slip that Piranesi’s memory is faulty, Piranesi goes back to the journals that he has kept for years and finds puzzling and disturbing entries. Is The Other really benign? How did Piranesi get here?

I’ve read a couple other books over the last few years featuring ‘portal’ alternative universes including The Starless Sea and The Ten Thousand Doors of January. This is my favorite of the three; perhaps because of the mystery and also the looming sense that all is not right.

29msf59
Juin 5, 2021, 2:04 pm

Happy Saturday, Janet. I enjoyed The Missing American. I hope it works for you too. Ooh, that Harjo collection sounds promising. how is it?

30streamsong
Juin 5, 2021, 2:27 pm

>29 msf59: Hi Mark! Happy Saturday! I think The Missing American is one of the most intriguing mysteries that I've read lately. I've watched several documentaries on the African catfishing scams, and it's amazing to see how they work. Wow on cyberprograms that can patch Skype conversations together to make it appear that you are talking to a real person. I'll be interested to see how the series progresses, and also perhaps interested in Kwei Quartey's other series.

So far I'm enjoying the Harjo edited anthology, When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry although I'm not far into it. Beth had called my attention to it on my last thread - when I mentioned the NA poet Victor A Charlo who it turns out is included in the anthology. Amazon says it has 160 NA poets from 100 nations, and 460 pages.

Someone here on LT has listed all the poets included. My hat goes off to that sort of work here on LT!

I think I may need to buy a copy for reference in my library.

31ronincats
Juin 5, 2021, 10:33 pm

Happy new thread, Janet!

32streamsong
Juin 7, 2021, 1:48 am

Thanks, Roni. I'll be thinking about you this week. I hope it all goes well.

33streamsong
Juin 7, 2021, 1:50 am

Bwahahahahaha! Best FB funny for a long time!

34streamsong
Modifié : Juin 8, 2021, 12:44 pm

Working on the May reviews. The Hate You Give is one of my favorite YA books ever.



❤️44. Concrete Rose - Angie Thomas -2021
- library


In this prequel to The Hate You Give, author Angie Thomas tells the story of Starr’s father, Maverick, during his tumultuous 17th year.

Maverick is an up and coming gang member. He’s one of the younger guys, not yet in on any of the big action, but actively selling pot. His father Don, as one of the OG members and their king, is doing time in prison. In fact, most of the OG’s are either in prison or dead. But as the son of the king, Maverick is often referred to as ‘Lil Don’ – the son of his father, the ruler apparent.

But a maternity test proved that after a quick liaison, Maverick had become the father to a son. The son is left on his doorstep, but with his mother’s help, Maverick steps up to his responsibilities. Life becomes even more complicated after Maverick finds his girl friend is also pregnant. Her folks don’t want their daughter involved with a gang member.

Although we know the result of Maverick’s decisions from his story in THUG, author Thomas made the journey a page turning story of a teenager weighing his options and the life-altering possibilities of getting out of a gang, when the possibilities of doing so are so difficult as to be almost impossible.

I really enjoyed seeing the boy Maverick evolving into the man.

I’m hoping there’s enough room after the end of Concrete Rose, to give another prequel before the events of The Hate You Give.

35streamsong
Modifié : Juin 7, 2021, 12:58 pm

Real life phone convo with brother and sil last night:

Brother: Whatcha up to?
Me: I was just going outside to take a picture of some poop.
Brother: Your life is really exciting.

Backstory: A couple days ago, I found some poop near one of the pens (near an empty pen on southside of driveway; horses are north of the driveway). It was 10-12 inches long and about 4 inches wide. I thought "Is that bear poop?" but dismissed it. Last night, I was watching junk TV and browsing FB when I read that sure enough, there are a couple bears tooling around in the area - a medium size black bear and a cinnamon colored small bear probably also a black bear (Black bear means not a grizzly which are VERY rare in this valley.)

Me: I don't want to live in a place where I have to worry about bears when mares are foaling.
SIL: You're already living there.
Brother: Bigfoot. They like horses. Especially with barbeque sauce.

Haven't seen any more sign, so hopefully it was just traveling through my place.

36mdoris
Juin 7, 2021, 3:47 pm

>35 streamsong: Sometimes life provides too much drama. I can see that a bear and new foal are not a good combo. You will be keeping a very watchful eye!

37BLBera
Juin 7, 2021, 5:48 pm

>33 streamsong: Very funny, Janet.

I read an anthology edited by indigenous writer Heid Erdrich. It included young, newly published indigenous poets. I had a chance to talk with Heid via Zoom and she mentioned the Harjo anthology, so I bought a copy. It might be the next poetry collection I pick up.

I hope you don't have any bear encounters. Do you have foals yet?

I am going to give Piranesi a try.

38msf59
Modifié : Juin 7, 2021, 5:55 pm

>33 streamsong: I hope this trend continues. LOL.

Great review of Concrete Rose! Thumb! Looking forward to it.

39scaifea
Juin 8, 2021, 8:07 am

I need to get round to Concrete Rose soon...

I loved the Poop Watch story! Too funny.

40streamsong
Juin 8, 2021, 12:00 pm

>36 mdoris: Hi Mary - Definitely too much drama! The mare is still holding out. The bear sitings seem to be moving away from me and back up the canyon behind me.

I really need to get some of the brush removed from around the creek to give me a better idea of what's out there.

41streamsong
Modifié : Juin 8, 2021, 12:45 pm

>37 BLBera: Hi Beth! I'm glad you liked it!

I read that Erdrich anthology and decided to give the Harjo a try. I digest poetry **really** slowly. I only want to read a poem or three a day and often go back and reread the previous ones. That's why I think I need to buy the Harjo anthology. It's nice to have checked it out from the library and determined that yes, I am interested and would like to purchase it.

I'm also reading Natalie Diaz's PostColonial Love Poem. It's due back at the library today. Rebel that I am, I'll probably return it a day or two late. Her poems are pretty brutal. Her reality is pretty brutal.

Nope, no foals. I'm only expecting the one and the mare is holding out. :) But Yay! No bear sign eiither.

I'll be interested to see what you think of Piranesi. It's had mixed reviews in the group, but I enjoyed it.

42streamsong
Juin 8, 2021, 12:37 pm

>38 msf59: Hi Mark! I'm glad you thought it was funny. Thanks for the thumb on Concrete Rose. I know you'll like it!

>39 scaifea: Hi Amber! Yay for Concrete Rose! I hope you enjoy it.

Yeah the poop thing felt surreal enough that it tickled my funny bone. It's also funny because my brother is a gastrologist, which means he's very familiar with (non-ursid) poop.

43streamsong
Modifié : Juin 8, 2021, 12:53 pm



❤️45. Tales from the Inner CityShaun Tan - 2018
- Global Reading: Australian author
– library


These are lovely magical stories and illustrations of animals interacting with people in cities. Shaun Tan is the master of the unexpected and a brilliant artist.

The cover is a boy holding a moon fish. One fishes for these extraordinary creatures by sitting on the top of a tall building in the moonlight, holding fishing lines attached to balloons. Unfortunately, moon fish are not meant to live in our world.

My very favorite was the story of the bears which lawyered up and sued humans for torture, property theft and imprisonment. When there was no defense for the charges, the humans ... well

Highly recommended, but I’m not sure what category I’d put it into – illustrated stories, I suppose. My library has this listed as another YA book, but so many of the stories spoke to my adult heart.

5 stars. Another book that I would love to have in my personal library.

44mdoris
Juin 8, 2021, 3:03 pm

>43 streamsong: So glad that you liked Tales from the Inner City. i think my fav was the owl in the hospital. It would be hard to choose because they were all captivating and interesting. Succinctly put "spoke to my adult heart". Well said!

45fuzzi
Juin 9, 2021, 5:30 pm

>43 streamsong: I've enjoyed every book I've read by Shaun Tan.

46streamsong
Juin 9, 2021, 7:59 pm

>44 mdoris: Hi Mary - When I get my copy, I'll have to reread the owl story. I definitely have bears on the brain right now.

>45 fuzzi: Hi Lor! There will be more on my TBR piles, I'm sure!

47streamsong
Juin 9, 2021, 8:05 pm

Well guess who showed up this morning (outdoor plumbing, I'm afraid)



Sorry that this one is sideways, but the spotted tail is unique - I know I haven't seen it before, nor have any of my Appaloosa friends.



48FAMeulstee
Juin 10, 2021, 2:45 am

>47 streamsong: Congratulations, Janet!
He looks lovely with his three dark hooves and a spotted tail :-)

49scaifea
Juin 10, 2021, 6:28 am

Aw, he's adorable! Gosh, I remember those New Colt days on the farm growing up - so exciting!

50msf59
Juin 10, 2021, 7:28 am

Sweet Thursday, Janet. Hooray for the new addition. He is beautiful and I love the spotted tail. What color was the stallion?

51fuzzi
Juin 10, 2021, 9:39 am

>47 streamsong: ooh! Cutie pie!!! 🥰

52streamsong
Juin 10, 2021, 11:20 am

>48 FAMeulstee: Thanks, Anita - Pretty flashy, isn't he?

>49 scaifea: Thanks, Amber. I didn't realize you had grown up around horses. I'd love to hear your story!

53streamsong
Juin 10, 2021, 11:42 am

Hey Mark and thanks!

Hmmm well that takes a bit of Appaloosa genetics to tell you what color he is.

Here he is to the right:

He looks like a white horse, but Appaloosas' base colors are the color of their spots. The white is the Appaloosa patterning gene, called Lp. If they have two copies of the Appaloosa gene, they only have white patterning with few or no colored spots. The gene for Leopard (spotted all over) is called Patn1. A horse with two copies of the Lp gene and at least one copy of Patn1 will appear to be a mostly white horse and is called a fewspot leopard. My stallion is a fewspot leopard.

My stallion is black, but appears white. He actually has two copies of both the Lp (appaloosa) gene and two copies of the Patn1 gene (leopard spots over whole body). Whenever he is crossed with a solid mare, he will throw a leopard Appaloosa. When crossed with a colored Appaloosa, he will throw a fewspot or a leopard.

The base color of the colt is debatable right now. Bay or Buckskin are the two most likely.

54streamsong
Modifié : Juin 10, 2021, 11:43 am

>51 fuzzi: Thanks, Lor!

55streamsong
Juin 10, 2021, 3:03 pm



46. SummerwaterSarah Moss - 2021
- global reading- Scotland
– library


We’re told at the very beginning of the book that there will be deaths before the day is over.

And then author Sarah Moss details the activities for the inhabitants of a vacation camp on the shores of a Scottish loch, following them all for one specific day.

Each of the visitors, even the children, have weaknesses, foibles or anger that seem dangerous and make you wonder – is this the one? Is this the story? And the tension builds.

And yet when the end comes, when the thing happens that we’ve been told from the very beginning, it’s unexpected with a shocking, unforgettable final line.

Beautiful character building and world building – if a single day in one small tourist camp can be called a world.
Still, although I was not as taken by it as by her earlier novel The Wall, I’ll be looking forward to more by Sarah Moss.

56scaifea
Modifié : Juin 10, 2021, 3:07 pm

>52 streamsong: My dad and one of my older sisters have always loved horses, so I grew up around them on our farm (quarter horses, mostly, although also one arabian, which, wooof). My sister used to barrel race, but now sticks to riding trails. My dad bought me my own horse for my 7th or 8th Christmas and so I started riding with them, but although I always loved having horses around, I never got over that initial unease at riding (even though Penny (my horse) was slow and gentle as anything) which I think massively disappointed my dad. But the young ones were always wonderful to be around, of course. He loves to tell the story of how I rode in my first parade at 2 months old: he and my sister were riding their horses in the parade, and when he spotted my mom holding in in the crowd, he rode over, scooped me up, and carried me with him the rest of the way. Ha!

57karenmarie
Modifié : Juin 10, 2021, 3:10 pm

Hi Janet!

>47 streamsong: Congrats! You got your little leopard. Strange about the spotted tail, and he’s adorable.

58mdoris
Juin 10, 2021, 7:06 pm

>47 streamsong: Janet, he is a beauty. How wonderful! Thank you so much for sharing the pictures of him.

59streamsong
Modifié : Juin 11, 2021, 3:24 pm

>56 scaifea: That's interesting, Amber. Neither of my kids enjoyed the horses, although my daughter rode for a while. I have QH's in my breeding program;the palomino mare that just foaled is a QH as they are acceptable outcrosses for the Appaloosa Horse Club.

>57 karenmarie: Thanks, Karen. Yup, love that tail.

>58 mdoris: Thanks, Mary!

60streamsong
Juin 11, 2021, 12:12 pm

I just signed up for the next virtual cooking class through the United We Eat refugee program; Hong Kong style fried rice, which should be much easier than the dumplings. (I didn't roll out the dumplings thin enough so they were pretty doughy. The second batch was better, the next batch will be better again!)

https://unitedweeatmt.org/products/virtual-cooking-class

Last time they had people from ten states and sold out of their 50 zoom spots.

I had several friends take the class and it was great to compare notes afterwards.

61m.belljackson
Juin 11, 2021, 4:39 pm

>47 streamsong:
When you are that beautiful, who cares about where your plumbing is as long as it works well!?

So good that both Mom and 'Leonard the Leopard' are so happy, healthy, and strong.

Congratulations all around!

62streamsong
Juin 12, 2021, 1:28 am

>61 m.belljackson: Thank you for the congrats, Marianne. He is a handsome lil beast.

The plumbing matters because a filly would have been retained for my program. Raising horses is a bit like playing chess, only you have to think about your moves five years in advance.

63BLBera
Juin 13, 2021, 10:13 am

Your foal is adorable, Janet. Thanks for sharing the pictures.

I will definitely look for the Shaun Tan book - I love the cover.

I also loved Summerwater. My book club is reading a book by Moss next month.

64streamsong
Modifié : Juin 13, 2021, 10:45 am

Neighbors stopped by last night to see the colt and said they would happy to feed for me for a few days.

Hooray! I'll be runinng down to Salt Lake City at the end of the month to see my son, his bride, and her father as they travel through while my DIL is moving to Orlando for a job. My son will be following this fall. I haven't seen them since their zoom wedding, so even though this will be a very quick trip, I am excited.

Bookish news: I finished Velocity Weapon yesterday, a 500 page SF that Jim had mentioned. As I neared the end, I could tell that there wasn't enough book left and was afraid there would be an unpleasant ending ... but what I didn't realize was that it was the first book of a trilogy. I don't read much SF, and while I will probably go on with the series, I have others I want to read in the meantime.

I also plan to finish a book of poetry today by Native American Author Natalie Diaz, Postcolonial Love Poem.

And I'm reading a mystery for my new RLBC-at-the-restaurant Buffalo Jump Blues. I've read several of this series by Keith McCafferty as he writes about Montana. It's so nice to have something light to turn to after some of the more heavy duties read this month.

There are several more mysteries high on my TBR pile this month. Yay for summertime!

65streamsong
Juin 13, 2021, 10:42 am

>63 BLBera: Hi Beth! Thanks for the congratulations.

I see more Shaun Tan in my future, too.

Which Sarah Moss is your book club reading? The only other available through my library system is an early nonfiction of hers called The Frozen Ship: The Histories and Tales of Polar Exploration I'll have to go through ILL to get more of her titles, which is much more of a process than being able to get one from the 30+ linked libraries in my system.

66karenmarie
Juin 13, 2021, 10:45 am

Hi Janet!

>64 streamsong: I'm happy that you'll get to see your son, DiL, and her father soon. I wish her the best in her new job.

Well, you just gave me a BB - the first in the Sean Stanahan Mysteries, The Royal Wulff Murders. I've written to Karen to see if she knows about the series or author.

67BLBera
Juin 13, 2021, 3:00 pm

Hi Janet - We'll be reading Night Waking. I'll send it on to you when I have read it, if you like.

68msf59
Modifié : Juin 13, 2021, 3:18 pm

>53 streamsong: You are correct, Appaloosa genetics are quite complex. Wow. I did not realize you owned the stallion too. Cool.

I LOVED Postcolonial Love Poem. I hope you feeling the same way. I just finished an excellent collection myself called Habitat Threshold, which I highly recommend.

ETA- I just saw that Postcolonial won the Pulitzer for best poetry. Yah!

69Berly
Juin 13, 2021, 3:59 pm

Hi Janet--
>1 streamsong: Absolutely love that quilt and what a place to live! Beautiful.
>28 streamsong: I have to move Piranesi up the TBR pile!!
>33 streamsong: LOL
>47 streamsong: So cute and unique!
>53 streamsong: Genetics are so complicated, LOL.

And hurray for a family trip!!

70drneutron
Juin 14, 2021, 10:24 am

>64 streamsong: Glad you liked it! Sorry, should have warned you it's a trilogy... 😀

71streamsong
Modifié : Juin 14, 2021, 12:04 pm

>66 karenmarie: Thanks, Karen! I am sooooo excited about this trip. I hope things continue to fall into place.

Today I'm scheduled to get two new tires for my car, followed by an alignment. Although I sincerely need to go car-shopping, I don't make decisions quickly and it seemed too stressful to get it done before my trip.

I'll be interested to see what your friend Karen (and you!) think of the Sean Stanahan detective series. If I had to assign it to a mystery genre, I'd call it 'hairy knees and fly flishing'. 😀 (Maybe I'll start using that as a tag!) Nevertheless, they are popular if not terribly subtle. I met the author Keith McCafferty at a Montana Book Festival event several years ago when his second book had just come out. Oprah had a summer mystery reading program that year and his book (I think the second one) had just been named as part of it.

72streamsong
Juin 14, 2021, 12:11 pm

>67 BLBera: Wow! Wonderful offer. Thank you! I'll PM you.

>68 msf59: Hi Mark - Yes Appaloosa genetics are crazy complicated. There are many other patterns in the Appaloosa breed that have not yet been genetically worked out. For example, you've probably seen Apps with 'blankets' on their rear quarters - that seems to be a combination of half a dozen genes or so. There seem to be enhancer genes and supressor genes.

Appaloosas are like a box of chocolates - never quite sure what you will get.

It's so cool that Postcolonial Love Poem won the Pulitzer. There are wonderful images that will stay in my mind, hopefully forever. I'm sure it was a combination of you and Joe that enticed me into requesting this book.

73streamsong
Juin 14, 2021, 12:16 pm

>69 Berly: Hi Kim! Thanks for all the complements. I do live in a wonderful place, and I try to stay mindful of it. The downside of continuing to live here is that I do miss author talks and cultural events, but this year of everything being on zoom has been so much fun for me. I hope zoom events continue even as other venues start to open.

I'll be interested to see what you think of Piranesi. I thought it was fun, but it has received mixed reviews here on LT.

74streamsong
Juin 14, 2021, 12:21 pm

>70 drneutron: Absolutely no problem, Jim. I should have noticed. The last trilogy I got 'surprised into' was N. K. Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy which became a favorite of mine.

I just have way tooo many books home from the library right now to immediately continue on with the next one, Chaos Vector right now. Have you read all three?

75BLBera
Juin 14, 2021, 12:51 pm

>72 streamsong: Sounds good, Janet. I'll let you know when I've finished it.

76streamsong
Juin 14, 2021, 3:37 pm

>75 BLBera: Thank you! Of course, if you really really love it and decide to keep it, no problem.

On the other hand, if you really dislike it ... I'll take your word for it without reading it. 😀

77streamsong
Juin 14, 2021, 3:43 pm

This 500 page philosophical work is hard to review and even harder to summarize.

But hooray! This long scree is now accomplished and I can go on to my June reviews.



47. Homo DeusYuval Noah Harari - 2016
- Library Brown Bag Book Club
- Global Reading: Israeli author
- purchased 2021

Book description: “"Over the past century humankind has managed to do the impossible and rein in famine, plague, and war. This may seem hard to accept, but, as Harari explains in his trademark style--thorough, yet riveting--famine, plague and war have been transformed from incomprehensible and uncontrollable forces of nature into manageable challenges. For the first time ever, more people die from eating too much than from eating too little; more people die from old age than from infectious diseases; and more people commit suicide than are killed by soldiers, terrorists and criminals put together. The average American is a thousand times more likely to die from binging at McDonald's than from being blown up by Al Qaeda. What then will replace famine, plague, and war at the top of the human agenda? As the self-made gods of planet earth, what destinies will we set ourselves, and which quests will we undertake? Homo Deus explores the projects, dreams and nightmares that will shape the twenty-first century-- from overcoming death to creating artificial life. It asks the fundamental questions: Where do we go from here? And how will we protect this fragile world from our own destructive powers? This is the next stage of evolution"

This was chosen by my book club – and there is certainly lots of discussion worthy content.

Harari believes humankind has learned to manage famine, plague and war; and that they are now only short term challenges.

He also argues that the unique poser of humans derives from the fact that we are able to believe in what he calls intersubjective entities. These do not exist in any physical form, but are non-tangible concepts agreed upon between humans. They include morality, nations, and religions. This ability to form these concepts is what he believes separates humans from other forms of life, and also separates the humanities from the life sciences.

He brings into the conversation science versus morality – with the rise of humanistic religions. His definition of religion include belief systems such as Communism and socialism.

He postulates that the next great challenges (timeline of a hundred years) will involve genetic engineering of humans. Those who can afford to do so, will turn themselves into super-humans – no longer aging, and with augmented mental, physical and emotional skills. These super-humans can become almost god-like. Possibly, artificial Intelligence may also begin to change itself and evolve into something superior to humans. What use will ‘average’ humans with either enhanced humans or AI in control?

I have doubts about his basic principal: have we really learned to manage famine, plague and war? To me, they seem to be popping up in new forms internally within many countries. I see all three of these getting worse with climate change (which Harari believes will be a medium range challenge of the next few decades.)

Lots to think about and consider. I felt the book was worth the time to read but I don’t feel qualified to judge it on anything but interest level. 3.8 stars

I thought the following passage chilling in light of the US political situation today:
“in order to mount a revolution, numbers are never enough. Revolutions are usually made by small networks of agitators rather than by the masses. If you want to launch a revolution, don’t ask yourself, “How many people support my ideas?’ Instead, ask yourself, “How many of my supporters are capable of effective collaboration?’ The Russian Revoluton finally erupted not when 180 million peasants rose against the tsar, but rather when a handful of communists placed themselves at the right place at the right time. In 1917, at a time when the Russian upper and middle classes numbered at least 3 million people, the Communist Party had just 23,000 members. The communists nevertheless gained control of the vast Russian Empire because they organized themselves well. When authority in Russia slipped from the decrepit hands of the tsar and the equally shaky hands of Kerensky’s provisional government, the communists seized it with alacrity, gripping the reins of power like a bulldog …” p154

78drneutron
Juin 15, 2021, 7:21 am

>74 streamsong: I haven’t read the others yet - on my list for the summer, though!

79streamsong
Juin 16, 2021, 10:45 am

>78 drneutron: Sounds like a good plan, Jim. I'll be interested to see what you think!

80streamsong
Juin 16, 2021, 11:10 am

Yesterday I had the windshield replaced in my car to get ready for my upcoming trip.

While they were working on it, I wandered around town - my first town wander since Covid began.

At the used book store, I bought:
Indian Killer by Sherman Alexie
Living Gluten Free for Dummies

and from the free books outside the library chose:
The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd (misplaced this one when only partially read)
Possessing the Secret of Joy - Alice Walker
Jerk Barbeque from Jamaica - Helen Willinsky
Dashing Through the Snow - Mary Higgins Clark - (I always like having a Christmas cozy or two to read in December)
First Roots: The Story Of Stevensville, Montana's Oldest Community - The Discovery Writers
Ridgeliner - Michael Punke
And the Mountains Echoed - Khaled Hosseini

Woot! My first book haul for **MONTHS!**

I also had a primo latte with almond milk, and brought home an authentic Welsh pasty and Boba tea for lunch. Hooray for things opening back up - hooray for vaccinations and the simple pleasure of life!

I also picked up a few books after church on Sunday from the remnants of the church rummage sale - but I want to make sure they were really up for adoption before I add them to the list.

81mdoris
Modifié : Juin 16, 2021, 11:56 am

Nice book haul! Safe travels.

82streamsong
Juin 17, 2021, 11:04 am

>81 mdoris: Thanks, Mary! First book haul in over a year; first travel in over a year. It will be my first seeing my son and new daughter-in-law in a year and a half.

Yesterday, I enjoyed my new-to-me book club discussing Buffalo Jump Blues, over a lovely lunch of seared ahi tuna over a bed of mixed grains. Later, I met a friend and her friends for a glass of wine and more good conversation. We shared some wonderful strawberries one of the group had picked up at the local farmers' market.

I know that I still have to be careful and will mask up on my trip, but oh my! hooray for getting out, good conversation and spreading my wings a bit.

83streamsong
Modifié : Juin 29, 2021, 10:21 am

I'm slowly adding my new acquisitions to my LT library. This is always a joy for me. It's fun to see which of my buddies also have the books I'm adding.

I decided to order the audio of And the Mountains Trembled for my trip next week, even though I just picked up a hard copy in my book haul. I will also finish A Promised Land on the trip. Do I need a third audio? 16- 20 hours of driving, wouldn't hurt to have an extra. :)

I'm currently reading a YA fantasy, The Left-Handed Booksellers of London. I must admit I was mostly intrigued by the title, as my friends here have only given it middling reviews.



I've also started The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Healthier, Happier and More Creative. This was a selection from the Glacier Conservancy Book Club a month or two ago.

84bell7
Juin 18, 2021, 4:03 pm

Congrats on the foal, and I love the explanation of genetics! (It put me in mind of my grandmother explaining iris genetics to me, actually, since the tall bearded, I think, have four sets of chromosomes.)

I hope you like The Left-handed Booksellers of London. It wasn't my absolute favorite Nix, but I still liked it pretty well.

85streamsong
Juin 19, 2021, 9:34 am

>84 bell7: Thanks, Mary! I've always loved genetics - I think it was one of the reasons I decided on a science career.

Yes, I couldn't resist the combination of booksellers (which I used to do in college) and magic. I'm finding The Left-Handed Booksellers of London a quick summer read (no beaches near here or I'd call it a beach read). It's enjoyable, but not compelling me to pick it up every stray second.

What other books by Garth Nix have you enjoyed?

86karenmarie
Juin 19, 2021, 9:47 am

Hi Janet!

>71 streamsong: Here’s what Karen wrote about McCafferty: his wife is longtime Bozeman Daily Chronicle reporter and he is a former reporter now famous for his local fly fishing novels ... ALl of them are set in the Bozeman -- Ennis area Karen’s gotten a part-time job reporting for the Belgrade News, a sister paper of the BDC.

The first in the series is due at my house today.

Getting new tires is always tiresome, but better safe than sorry. I just spent $860 on rotors/calipers/brake pads/and etc. Sigh. The cost of doing business…

>77 streamsong: I’ve still not finished this one. The quote about revolutions is definitely chilling.

>80 streamsong: Congrats on the book haul.

>82 streamsong: Yay for spreading your wings.

87streamsong
Modifié : Juin 19, 2021, 10:27 am

I listened to this author speak twice over the winter on zoom. It's a subject that's important to me because of where I live ... but I'm thinking unless Rachel/The Hibernator is lurking on the threads, will be less compelling to my LT buddies.

It's been a stopper of a review. I wanted to do it in enough detail so I could remember pertinent facts, even knowing that it might be of little interest to my LT friends, although hopefully it may be of interest to others on LT and also GR, But my motivation for doing it was really lagging. Now, it's done and I can go on to the other June reviews.



48. The Grizzly in the Driveway: The Return of Bears to a Crowded American West by Rob Chaney - 2020
– library
3.5 stars

Grizzly bear/ human encounters are becoming more common. Such encounters are often fatal for the human and then the bear.

Although we think of these bears as living in remote mountain wildernesses, the Lewis and Clark expedition encountered these huge bears in the plains of the Dakotas. At that time, they were considered to be mostly carrion-eaters as they followed the great herds of bison. Even as carrion eaters, they were known for their short tempered aggressive responses.

As farmers and ranchers moved to the plains, the grizzlies were brutally exterminated from the plains and pushed back into remote mountain regions, until only a few hundred bears remained.

However, with research, first spearheaded in Yellowstone National Park by Frank and John Craighead in the 1960’s, and with the passage of the Endangered Species Act of 1973, the grizzlies have made a comeback. They now live in 5 protected areas, which unfortunately, are not contiguous to each other. A grizzly may claim several hundred square miles of territorial range. They also travel to new areas which is a necessity to ensure genetic diversification. As the protected areas are set up now, the grizzlies must pass through land where they are not protected in order to encounter grizzly populations in other protected areas.

This leads to the odd circumstances of having the occasional rare grizzly in odd places – such as on the golf course in Stevensville in the Bitterroot Valley where I live. Although the Selway Wilderness to the west of the Bitterroot Valley has been earmarked for grizzly reintroduction, the introduction has been shelved and grizzlies have not been introduced to this area. This is partly due to the lack of traditional grizzly food, including salmon runs which were eliminated by river dams, and the failure of pine nuts.

This book is an interesting success story on the reestablishment of a species, It is probably of the most interest to those living in grizzly bear habitat or those interested in visiting areas where one can see these great bears such as Yellowstone or Glacier National Parks. It leaves many questions open as to how these apex predators will be managed in the future – often by public input of those not living in bear areas, but whose imaginations have been caught by the spirit of these great animals.

88streamsong
Juin 19, 2021, 10:26 am

>85 streamsong: Hi Karen - Thanks for the interesting comments on McCafferty from your friend Karen. I didn't know his wife was a writer, too. I'll be interested to see what you think - although, as is not unusual, the first of the series is probably the weakest. Number five, Buffalo Jump Blues has so far been my favorite because it has several interesting Montana political themes in it - although a review I read by McCafferty for the book club said he hadn't meant to write a political novel. And no, I haven't read all the books in their proper order, or even at all.

I skipped doing so much maintenance while at home last year that this little three day trip is throwing me for a loop. Tires, rotation, alignment, oil change, new windshield, - and of course the license plates were due this month, too. I really need to buy a new-to-me used low mileage car and trade this one in. But at least, I'll now be safe while car shopping.

I need to work on fences today (my least favorite chore due to lack of hand strength - and I haven't been able to get a fencer out as they seem to be booked into the next millenium).

I also need to do a flying trip to Missoula to buy jeans - another 'chore' I put off this year, but my knee brace has done a number on the jeans I have.

I agree that quotation about revolution was absolutely chilling in >77 streamsong:. We feel safe because we believe the majority believes a certain way - but Harari believes that history shows that a determined minority spearheads revolution.

89BLBera
Juin 19, 2021, 12:37 pm

Yes, hooray for things opening up, Janet! And how nice to get to see your son.

90streamsong
Juin 20, 2021, 12:30 pm

>89 BLBera: Hi Beth! Yes, many hoorays for things opening up. I feel like I've been such a hermit for the last 18 months! I'm still wearing my mask in venues such as grocery stores, because I know we have a low vaccination rate in this county. The recent book club at a restaurant and the wine with friends felt safe as we are all vaccinated.

I *hope* I get to see my son. By evenings, I am exhausted and am not hopeful about getting enough things done around here to be gone even a few days. Mornings, I am stiff and sore and even though I know getting moving is the best way to work out the ouchies, it is soooooo tempting to have another cup of coffee and read another chapter of my book (and play on LT!)

Horse stuff going on, too. At ten days after birth, the mare comes back into heat which causes diarrhea for the foal. This can be all just normal-ish, or it can go downhill for the foal really quickly if he gets dehydrated. We just started this yesterday; this will have to be resolved before I can go. I'm hoping to leave on Thursday, so it will be very close.

91streamsong
Juin 21, 2021, 3:26 pm

Recommended by Mark:



49. The Missing American - Kwei Quartey - 2020
- Global Reading: Ghana (location, Ghanaian author)
- library


This is one of the more interesting mysteries that I have read in a long while.

We’re flung head first into the social niceties of Ghana when an American flies to Ghana, believing that he has found his ideal woman. Instead, he finds that she does not exist, and he is the victim of a scam.

An American journalist friend convinces him that to stay in Ghana and track down the scam would make an excellent story. Our American reluctantly agrees. He talks to the scammers known as Sakawa boys, authorities, including one whose wife he briefly had an affair with in the States, and even a traditional priest whose magic looks very dark indeed.

But then he goes dark. After several weeks with no contact, his son arrives in Ghana to look for him and ends up at the detective agency where Emma Dian is newly employed. Emma has had her own experience with corrupt cops and has had her hopes of working with the police force dashed.

This is an interesting look at the online scams – everything from programs designed to help the scam along, to officials not really believing that Americans being scammed is much of a problem.

I’m looking forward to the next Emma Dian novel.

92BLBera
Juin 25, 2021, 9:07 am

>91 streamsong: This does sound good, Janet.

I've been thinking of you as I read The Center of Everything. I really like Jamie Harrison, who lives in Montana. :)

93jnwelch
Modifié : Juin 26, 2021, 4:40 pm

Hi, Janet.

I’m glad to see you gave Concrete Rose a ❤️. I thought that was a really good prequel. What a writer she is. I’m happy to see her having success.

You book club is reading Caste next month. Hurrah! Can’t wait to hear what you think of that one.

I just finished the terrific Americanah, with all its brilliant and varied perspectives on race and racism.

94streamsong
Juin 27, 2021, 1:42 pm

>92 BLBera: Hi Beth! I enjoyed The Missing American very much.The next in the series, Sleep Well My Lady is waiting for me at the library.

I haven't heard of Jamie Harrison. I do enjoy scoping out Montana authors, and I'm always happy to find another. Thank you!

The New book club that I've joined has another Montana author Mark Sullivan. We'll be reading The Last Green Valley, a historical novel about the Ukraine in WWII.

95streamsong
Juin 27, 2021, 2:13 pm

>93 jnwelch: Hi Joe! Wow! So good to see you here.

I'll be following Angie Thomas's books closely. You (and Mark) were two of the original recommenders that convinced me to read The Hate U Give. Such a talented writer! The future of YA fiction is in outstanding hands.

I just ordered my copy of Caste for the July book club. I'm nervous about leading it. What do I know about this subject?

I haven't read Americanah, Joe, but I know I should do so.

96streamsong
Juin 27, 2021, 2:36 pm

I really enjoyed my quick trip down to Salt Lake City to see my son, his new-ish wife (January wedding with reception on zoom) and her father as they traveled through SLC. Such a treat to be able to travel a bit and hand out family hugs! I had not met either of my co-inlaws in person, but my son's father-in-law was very easy to talk to. I look forward to meeting my co-mother-in-law, too!

My ancient Honda acted up just enough to cause concern, but we made it back safely. It definitely makes me more determined to go car shopping.

I feel that this trip got me out of my Cave mentality - and so I will look forward to more. The Cave Syndrome is a real thing-- after 18 months of social distancing, it's hard to break out into regular routines even after being vaccinated. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/cave-syndrome-keeps-the-vaccinated-in...

One good thing about a lot of driving - I finally finished the audio book of Barack Obama's A Promised Land. It was excellent. I thought that the last chapter about the rise of Trump, the total split between Democrats and Republicans, and the elimination of Osama bin Laden, was especially compelling. Of course that means I'll be looking forward to Part 2 when it becomes available.

I then started And the Mountains Echoed on audio and got about half way through that, too. As for physical reading, I completed the very short novella Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor.

I have lots of reviews to catch up. It's supposed to be a blisteringly hot week, so perhaps I will get them done before the new month rolls around.

97BLBera
Juin 28, 2021, 1:45 pm

I'm glad you got your trip and the chance to see your son and new DIL, Janet.

Please don't send the heat our way. :)

I want to read A Promised Land soon.

98bell7
Juin 28, 2021, 7:49 pm

>85 streamsong: I've also read the Keys to the Kingdom series named after days of the week - it starts with Mister Monday - but my absolute favorite is the Old Kingdom series. Sabriel is the first in that one, and one of the side characters is a very smart cat named Mogget.

99streamsong
Juin 29, 2021, 9:51 am

>97 BLBera: Hi Beth! The trip was wonderful although very short and a lot of driving. I hope to see more of them soon!

The heat is nasty - we just aren't prepared for the 100 degree weather which is covering the entire Northwest and into Montana. Yesterday, I moved some stock panels around so I could move my stallion to a shadier area. I have lots of blessed trees on my place and so the shade cover is wonderful.

I have a portable air conditioner that I can set up if I need to. It's a bit of a pain, so I usually don't use it unless the air is smoky from forest fires (thank goodness not yet!). Our temps get into the 40's and 50's at night, so I can cool the house off and then shut it up for the day as long as the air quality is good.

It took me three months to finish listening to A Promised Land. It was my listen-while-exercising book. (Guess that means I should exercise more!) It was in many ways a tough book to listen to. Our country is so divided and it seems to be getting worse.

100streamsong
Juin 29, 2021, 9:53 am

>98 bell7: Hi Mary! I thought The Left-Handed Booksellers of London really took off about half way through the book. I would definitely read more Garth Nix - so thanks for sharing your favorites!

101streamsong
Juin 29, 2021, 10:00 am

--I don’t read much science fiction, but when I do, it’s probably something recommended by one of the SF meisters here on LT. This one was warbled by Jim. It’s called a space opera in several descriptions – I had to look up that term. Here’s Wikipedia’s definition for anyone as green to SF as I am: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_opera



50. Velocity WeaponMegan E. O’Keefe - 2019
– library
- 3.8 stars

One civilization has developed an important technology that lets them build gates that allow instant space travel from one gate to another. They jealously guard the secret which forms a great portion of their wealth. The elite of the civilization are trained in special schools and, if worthy, when they graduate, have a chip integrated into their brain’s neural network and are known as Keepers. They hold the secrets to the gates and are the de facto rulers of their world.

A second civilization wants the secret of the gates. They have developed a weapon that travels at a fraction of light speed. If it hits a planet the impact will destroy it.

This story has a dual line – the first is that of Sanda Greeve, commanding a mission when war breaks out between the two civilizations. She is badly wounded and is ejected in a space pod designed to put her in stasis to save her life.

The second line is that of her younger brother, Biran, newly minted as a Keeper the very night the war breaks out. He refuses to give up on his sister.

Eventually Sanda’s escape pod is picked up my a mysteriously empty intelligent ship which calls itself Bero. Bero tells Sanda that the war ended hundreds of years ago and Sanda is now one of the few humans left alive in this part of the galaxy.

Bero, however is emotionally wounded. It’s an artificial intelligence with no way to handle negative human emotions. As it and Sanda draw closer, there are more and more questions in Sanda’s mind. And eventually, Bero picks up another escape pod, whose owner’s truth does not match Bero’s.

I loved the relationships, including those with the ship Bero. It fit into other reading I’ve been doing, exploring what it is to be human, and what happens to the human-like artificial intelligence that humans create.

Downsides: this is a 500 page book, and, while it came to a bit of a conclusion, it’s actually the first of a trilogy. So there I am. Will I continue to read? Possibly, but not as high on my tbr list as other books.

102streamsong
Modifié : Juin 29, 2021, 10:25 am

Reading wise, I've started Bonecrack for the Dick Francis group read.



I'm listening to And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini.


And I'm still reading a non-fiction book that my Glacier Conservancy book club read a month or two ago called The Nature Fix Why Nature Makes us Happier, Wealthier and More Creative.

.

I also need to finish finding and prepping ingredients for the next United We Eat refugee program cooking class by indigenous cooks which is tomorrow night ( >60 streamsong: ). This month is Hong Kong style fried rice. It's a very different fried rice recipe since it has both ham and cheese in it. I'm not having much luck finding bok choy which is used in a side dish. Online suggestions for substitutes include swiss chard, Napa cabbage and collard greens. I did see all three of those while out shopping yesterday (even the collard greens!), so I may just go with one of them instead of doing a Missoula trip today.

103streamsong
Juin 30, 2021, 11:45 am



❤️51. Postcolonial Love PoemNatalie Diaz – 2020
– library


This won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. It was justly deserving.

Natalie Diaz’s poems are filled with life: being a part of the whole of the earth, especially the Colorado River.

But she also unflinchingly looks at her brother’s addiction and the ruin it has brought to his life.

Some are uncomfortable for me – I count sexual encounters as intensely private but she fearlessly explores them with the woman she loves.

My favorite poem is “The First Water is the Body”. It’s a long poem, so I will just include a few snippets, but the poem in its entirety is here:

https://orionmagazine.org/article/women-standing-rock/

"The Colorado River is the most endangered river in the United States—also, it is a part of my body.
I carry a river. It is who I am: ’Aha Makav.
This is not metaphor.
When a Mojave says, Inyech ’Aha Makavch ithuum, we are saying our name. We are telling a story of our existence. The river runs through the middle of my body.
So far, I have said the word river in every stanza. I don’t want to waste water. I must preserve the river in my body.
In future stanzas, I will try to be more conservative.
………
A river is a body of water. It has a foot, an elbow, a mouth. It runs. It lies in a bed. It can make you good. It remembers everything.
~
America is a land of bad math and science: the Right believes Rapture will save them from the violence they are delivering upon the earth and water; the Left believes technology, the same technology wrecking the earth and water, will save them from the wreckage or help them build a new world on Mars.
~
If I was created to hold the Colorado River, to carry its rushing inside me, how can I say who I am if the river is gone?
What does ’Aha Makav mean if the river is emptied to the skeleton of its fish and the miniature sand dunes of its dry silten beds?
If the river is a ghost, am I?
Unsoothable thirst is one type of haunting.
…….
~
We think of our bodies as being all that we are: I am my body. This thinking helps us disrespect water, air, land, one another. But water is not external from our body, our self.
My Elder says: Cut off your ear, and you will live. Cut off your hand, you will live. Cut off your leg, you can still live. Cut off our water: we will not live more than a week.
The water we drink, like the air we breathe, is not a part of our body but is our body. What we do to one—to the body, to the water—we do to the other. "

104msf59
Modifié : Juin 30, 2021, 1:53 pm

Happy Wednesday, Janet. I am so glad you enjoyed The Missing American. Good review. My warbling paid off. I hope to bookhorn in A Promised Land by the end of the year. I can't believe I have still not read And the Mountains Echoed, especially after loving his first two books. Maybe, you will supply the nudge I need.

Hooray for Postcolonial Love Poem! I also LOVED this collection. She deserved the Pulitzer.

105streamsong
Juil 1, 2021, 8:26 am

>104 msf59: Hi Mark! I did enjoy The Missing American and have the second in the series Sleep Well My Lady ready to be picked up at the library. Wonderful warbling!

A Promised Land was a bit of a slog - not that it is a chore listeneing to Obama read his work, but there were so many of the issues, especially in his first term, that I had not really followed. I'm glad to have read it.

Postcolonial Love Poem earned my only ❤️ for the month. Mostly I read genre fiction, except for the Obama book.

106streamsong
Modifié : Août 2, 2021, 5:25 pm

June statistics

10 Books Read in June

48. The Grizzly in the Driveway: The Return of Bears to a Crowded American West by Rob Chaney - 2020 library
49. The Missing American - Kwei Quartey - 2020 - Global Reading: Ghana - library
50. Velocity Weapon - Megan E. O'Keefe - 2019 - library
❤️51. Postcolonial Love Poem - Natalie Diaz - 2020 - library
52. Buffalo Jump Blues - Keith McCafferty - 2016 - Newcomers Book Club - library
53. The Left-Handed Booksellers of London - Garth Nix - 2020 - library
54. Mortal Fall - Christine Carbo - 2016 - Glacier Conservancy Book Club - library
55. A Promised Land - Barack Obama - 2020 - audiobook - purchased 2021
56. Remote Control - Nnedi Okorafor - Global Reading: Ghana - 2020 - library
57. Bonecrack - Dick Francis - 1971 - Dick Francis Group Read - library

Source
1 - Purchased 2021
- ROOTS
9 - Library


FORMAT
1 - audiobook
9 - print books
- digital - read on Kindle app

- 7 - Fiction (may fit into more than one category)
2 - fantasy
5 - mystery/thriller
1 - SF
2 - YA


- 3 - Non-Fiction (may fit into more than one category)
2 - history
1 - Memoir
2 - Native Americans
1 - Outdoors/nature/wildlife
1 - poetry
1 - politics

AUTHORS

7 - Male Authors
4 - Female Authors

5 - Authors who are new to me
5 - Authors I have previously read
- Rereads

Countries Visited
2 - Ghana
2 - UK

Original Publication Date

1 - 1971
2 - 2016
1 - 2019
5 - 2020
1 - 2021

These numbers include the library books that I have at home.
As of 7/01/2021: 527 books on MT TR
As of 6/01/2021: 522 books on MT TBR
As of 5/01/2021: 522 books on MT TBR
whoops missed April numbers
As of 03/01/2021: 525 books on MT TBR
As of 02/01/2021: 522 books on MT TBR
As of 01/01/2021: 522 books on MT TBR

107BLBera
Juil 1, 2021, 9:13 am

Hi Janet - Postcolonial Love Poem sounds great. I must look for a copy.

108streamsong
Juil 2, 2021, 9:01 am

>107 BLBera: I think you'd love it, Beth!

109streamsong
Juil 2, 2021, 9:09 am



52. Buffalo Jump Blues - Keith McCafferty - 2016
- Newcomers Book Club
– library


This is number five in the Sean Stranahan mystery series, although it works as a stand alone.

These are Montana-based mysteries, steeped in Montana events and places – such as Great Falls’ (in)famous bar with mermaids. When recently asked about this genre of mystery, I called them ‘hairy knees and fly fishing’.

Sean Stranahan is a fishing guide, artist and part time detective. As he is guiding a raft fishing trip, there is an area below a sheer cliff face where bison are dead and dying. It appears that someone has driven them from the cliffs above in an attempt to recreate the Native American pishkun drives. And of course, there is a body – a Blackfeet Indian killed in a most gruesome way.

This one was actually more interesting to me than others in the series as it touches on the problems of the bison when they leave the protection of Yellowstone National Park. It also is a mini-handbook on the problems of jurisdiction on and off Indian Reservations. In an interview, the author said he didn’t mean to write a political novel – but this one is more political, and so to me more interesting than others in the series.

110BLBera
Juil 2, 2021, 2:18 pm

My library has a copy so I will pick it up on my next visit.

111streamsong
Juil 3, 2021, 12:00 pm

>110 BLBera: Beth, I'm sure you'll enjoy Natalie Diaz. As LT says, confidence rating high. :)

I've started Homeland Elegies and it is as wonderful as Ellen and others promised.

The heat here is brutal, ranging in the 90's to 100 and no relief for at least the next week. On Wednesday, I skipped cooking during the refugee-supporting ethnic cooking class - although I stretched out on the floor with a fan and watched it. After chasing down all the ingredients, I want to cook it soon, but the heat has me nauseated. I'm barely getting through the list of 'must-do's' each day.

Luckily, it does cool down into the low 60's here at night, so mornings are very nice. I am able to open all the doors and windows at night and then close them during the day. The huge trees surrounding my place keep the heat down until late afternoon. I have a so called 'portable' air conditioner that I could set up. It's the size of a small refrigerator and is very cumbersome. I usually only use it when the forest fire smoke is too heavy to open the windows at night, and thankfully! thankfully! we are not getting smoke yet.

112streamsong
Juil 4, 2021, 12:37 pm



53. The Left-Handed Booksellers of London - Garth Nix - 2020
– library


Susan Arkshaw always wanted to track down her father. She had a list of possible male contacts from her very spacy mother whom she always suspected of taking too many drugs in her youth.

When she traveled to London to meet the first and most likely candidate, she found herself in a dangerous situation and was rescued by the attractive Merlin St. Jacques.

Merlin is one of the ‘left-handed booksellers of London’ – known for being the action and adventure branch of a magical family.

It’s not an easy journey to discover her true father. There is danger and death, betrayals, many plot twists and turns and a satisfying bit of romance. It appears that Susan herself has very ancient magic in her genes.

Light summer YA read. I couldn’t resist the description of book sellers and magic, but it took until I was halfway through the book for me to become invested in the story. I found it fun, but not sure I’d recommend it.

113streamsong
Modifié : Juil 30, 2021, 2:19 pm

Hooray! I finally finished my first book in July, so here are my ongoing July statistics:

July statistics

9 Books Read in July

58. The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier and More Creative - Florence Williams - Glacier Conservancy Book Club - library
59. The Story of More: How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go From Here - Hope Jahren - 2020 - library
❤️60. Homeland Elegies: A Novel - Ayad Akhtar - 2020 - global reading: Pakistan (Pakistani American author; partial location) - library
❤️61. Mary's Monster: Love, Madness, and How Mary Shelley Created Frankenstein - Lita Judge - 2018- library
✅ 62. Klara and the Sun - Kazuo Ishiguro - 2021 - library
63. The Last Green Valley - Mark Sullivan - 2021 - Newcomers Book Club - purchased 2021
64. The Family Upstairs - Lisa Jewell - 2019 - Library
65. Hot Money - Dick Francis - 1987 - Library
✅ 66. Caste - Isabel Wilkerson - 2020 - purchased 2021 - RLBC

Source
2 - Purchased 2021
- ROOTS
7 - Library


FORMAT
- audiobook
8 - print books
- digital - read on Kindle app
1 - graphic novel

- 6 - Fiction (may fit into more than one category)
1 - fictionalized biography (in verse)
1 - historical fiction
2 - literary fiction
2 - mystery, suspence

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

1 - history
1 - Outdoors/nature/wildlife
1 - Science
1 - Sociology

AUTHORS

4 - Male Authors
5 - Female Authors

6 - Authors who are new to me
3 - Authors I have previously read
- Rereads

Countries Visited
1 - Germany (partial location)
1 - India (partial location)
1 - Pakistan (partial location)
3 - UK
1 - Ukraine (partial location)

Original Publication Date

1 - 1987
1 - 2017
1 - 2018
1 - 2019
3 - 2020
2 - 2021

114connie53
Juil 5, 2021, 10:01 am

Hi Janet. I've been neglecting everybody's threads, just keeping my own thread updated because of Peets health and, I must admit, the good weather that had me reading out in the garden sometimes.

I will try to visit more regularly.

115streamsong
Juil 5, 2021, 12:27 pm

>114 connie53: Hi Connie! I also have not done well keeping up with my LT friends' threads. Off to your thread to see what is happening with Peet.

Reading is the best therapy when times are stressful. I'm glad you have such a pleasant place to read.

116kidzdoc
Juil 5, 2021, 12:46 pm

Nice review of Homo Deus, Janet. I want to get to it soon, but I probably won't before next year.

Postcolonial Love Poem sounds interesting...

117streamsong
Juil 6, 2021, 12:30 pm

Hi Darryl! It's always nice to see you on my thread.

Yes, so many books, so little time! Homo Deus was very thought provoking.

Do you read much poetry? I don't remember any that you have recommended, but as someone who reads limited poetry myself, I may just not be remembering right.

Postcolonial Love Poem was gorgeous - and as someone who lives in a state with seven reservations, I am interested in Native voices.

118streamsong
Modifié : Juil 7, 2021, 5:53 pm

Read for the June Glacier Conservancy Book Club.



54. Mortal Fall - Christine Carbo - 2016
- Glacier Conservancy Book Club
– library


This is the second of a series of mysteries set in Glacier National Park. As the author focuses on a different protagonist each time, it works as a stand alone, although some references are made to the previous book.

A body is found down a cliff just off a popular hiking trail. Although it was clear that the person fell, he was an experienced back country researcher. There are no signs that he tried to break his fall. His research might have resulted in wolverines being put on the endangered species list, a controversial move which would eliminate wolverine trapping and possibly limit use of public land.

While park officer Monty Harris is investigating the first body, he finds a body of a second man nearby. This body was clearly on the site before the researcher’s body. What could have linked these two men?

The investigation takes Monty into his own troubled past. His older brother still lives in the area and may or may not know more about Monty’s childhood friend who mysteriously disappeared after a prank gone wrong by the older brother. Monty’s father is an alcoholic; his mother was often immobilized by mental illness. His brother spent part of his teen years in a wilderness type school for troubled youth.

The writing is beautiful, especially the descriptions of Glacier National Park and the surrounding wilderness areas. I enjoyed the environmental and wildlife issues. The mystery itself was less compelling, and I felt that the ending had pulled a rabbit out of a hat.

119streamsong
Modifié : Août 23, 2021, 4:03 pm

Currently reading:

This is one of my favorite books of the year so far:



The new one on climate change by the author of Lab Girl



Continuing my audio book:



and continuing with a few poems a day:

120kidzdoc
Modifié : Juil 6, 2021, 8:41 pm

>117 streamsong: I read a modest amount of poetry, Janet, but I haven't read much yet this year. The only poetry collection I've finished is Candy-Coated Unicorns and Converse All Stars by the Nigerian-British poet and playwright Inua Ellams, which was recommended to me by, I think, spiralsheep, and was quite good.

The one poetry collection that I read and absolutely loved recently is A Portable Paradise by Roger Robinson, a Black British poet, spoken word artist and musician, which won two prestigious British literary awards, the T.S. Eliot Prize in 2019, and the Ondaatje Prize in 2020. The two sections of it that were particularly brilliant were the ones about the horrific Grenfell Tower fire in West London in 2017 that claimed at least 72 lives (I was in London when it happened, although I didn't see the fire or smoldering ruins from the tower until I stayed in Shepherd's Bush in West London later that year), and the one about a grief stricken father (possibly himself) whose extremely premature newborn was critically ill.

I'm about to start reading Anos Ku Ta Manda by Yasmina Nuny, who is originally from Guinea-Bissau but currently lives and performs in Birmingham, UK. I'm leading the third quarter Reading Globally theme which is titled The Lusophone World: writing from countries where Portuguese is or was an important language, and I'll read a dozen or more books from Lusophone Africa, including that book.

I'll probably buy Homeland Elegies soon, possibly later this month if I visit my favorite indie bookshop in Atlanta.

121streamsong
Juil 7, 2021, 4:36 pm

>120 kidzdoc: Wow, Darryl - your post really sent me down the rabbit hole. I had gotten up early to try to accomplish a few things outside before the heat got too bad; decided to check LT while eating my oatmeal ... and then two hours later ...

I do remember you telling the story on your thread about the Grenfell Tower fire and the poem. I have A Portable Paradise on my big river wish list. I think Joe also liked that one.

And then of course I checked out The Lusophone World thread- awesome job, Darryl! I was able to find a copy of Woman of the ashes by Mia Couto through our library group so I will try that one. Hurray! I haven't done any reading for Mozambique in my global challenge >7 streamsong: . There are several other blank-to-me countries that I could also read (such as Angola) if I can find copies.

I used to do at least one book per quarter with the group, but it's gone by the wayside a bit lately.

And then I remembered that I had not read the book from my shelf that I had chosen for the second quarter Global Reading of children's books. I had mentioned my plan to do so in >21 streamsong: saying "I have the 1951 original with lots of bare breasted women in the illustrations. Not your average American children's book! I found it several years ago at a Goodwill store."

.

So then I found the book, read the first two legends and spent time on Wikipedia figuring out the sovereign nations of Micronesia.

122streamsong
Juil 7, 2021, 5:59 pm



✅55. A Promised Land - Barack Obama - 2020
- audiobook
- purchased 2021


From the preface : “I wanted to pull the curtain back a bit and remind people that, for all its power and pomp, the presidency is still just a job, and our federal government is a human enterprise like any other, and the men and women who work in the White House experience the same daily mix of satisfaction, disappointments, office friction, screw-ups and small triumphs as the rest of their fellow citizens.”

“And because I heard in church basements and on bungalow porches, the very same values that had been drilled into me by my mother and grandparents – honesty, hard work and empathy, I came to trust the common thread that existed between people.” P 15

Not much to say that hasn’t been said about this book. I believe that Obama succeeded in his task: to document his political career, the first two years of his presidency, and his interactions with other national and world leaders, while at the same time showing his humanity.

I listened to the audiobook. At 28 hours long, it took time and commitment to finish. However, Obama is such a wonderful reader and orator, that listening did not seem like a chore.

The book ends with both the rise of Trumpism and the killing of Osama bin Laden. I’m looking forward to volume 2 of his memoir.

The sheer length of it knocked it down half a star for me.

123streamsong
Juil 8, 2021, 12:47 pm



56. Remote Control - Nnedi Okorafor – 2020
- Global Reading: Ghana
- library
(3.8)

Five year old Fatima loved to climb the shea tree outside her family’s home and look at the stars. She could see words written in the stars, although she could not read them. She would copy them into the dirt surrounding the tree.

Then one day while she was in her tree, a meteor shower of glowing green crystals left one of its fragments at the foot of her tree. She picked it up and was forever changed. Whenever she was hurt or afraid she glowed green and death sprang from her.

When a tragic accident by her hands left her entire family and village dead, Fatima began walking. She became known as “Death’sAdopted Daughter” and her true name was lost, even to herself. People who tried to harm her died; others left small offerings of food and clothing for her.

Can she control this power? Can she rid herself of it? Is there way to become normal for so abnormal a person? What will happen to so abnormal a child who longs for companionship?

Award winning author Nnedi Okorafor has called her style of stories Afrofuturism with mixes of traditional Ghanaian culture, elements of science fiction (robocops with drones), fantasy and magical realism.

I enjoyed this novella, but wish there had been more answers. What is the corporation LifeGen that twines through the story? I can’t help but wonder if this is the first of a series.

124kidzdoc
Juil 8, 2021, 2:06 pm

>121 streamsong: Oops. I hope that you were still able to accomplish those chores, Janet!

I'm pretty sure that I first learned about A Portable Paradise from Caroline McElwee. It was certainly deserving of those two prestigious literary awards, and it's definitely on the list of the top 5 poetry collections I've read this century.

I believe that the 24 story Grenfell Tower is still standing in West London. The fire did not cause the building to crumble, and for too long it stood as a charred memorial of the tragedy, one that is easily seen in that part of West London, and on elevated Circle and Hammersmith & City Line Underground trains between Latimer Road and Ladbroke Grove stations. I'm sometimes reminded of it whenever I drive past the two massage parlors on Piedmont Road in Atlanta where six Asian women were murdered in cold blood in March of this year, which is a common occurrence on that busy street; I passed by them this morning while I was running errands, and both buildings, located on either side of the road, continue to be abandoned.

I'm glad that you'll read Woman of the Ashes, and I look forward to your thoughts about it. I read my first book by Mia Couto, The Tuner of Silences, last month, which was superb, and I'll borrow Sleepwalking Land from the Atlanta Public Library later this month. I bought the Kindle version of his novel Confession of the Lioness, and I'll read it later this summer.

I did read a couple of books for the Reading Globally theme on Childhood, and I'll try to review them sometime next week.

Nice reviews of A Promised Land and Remote Control. I haven't read anything by Nnedi Okorafor yet, but I hope to soon.

125witchyrichy
Juil 10, 2021, 10:33 am

Hope the heat has broken in your neck of the woods and the bears have stayed away.

We have glimpsed bears in the field next to our farm, but they seem to stay in the woods and swamps around us. Every now and then, one wanders out of the Great Dismal Swamp and into the metro area to the east of us.

126streamsong
Modifié : Juil 10, 2021, 1:28 pm

>124 kidzdoc: Ah well. The thing about chores on this place is that they are never ending and being retired means I always have tomorrow. :) Until of course, something happens that if I had only gotten to it sooner, I'd be better off.

I'm looking forward to Women of the Ashes. The library website says it is 'in transit' but I already have 15 books checked out, so it will be a while before I get to it, I'm afraid.

I'm not sure you'll like Nnedi Okorafor's work since, the ones I've read at least, are YA and speculative fiction. She's become such a prominent Ghanaian voice that you'll probably enjoy reading her for that alone even if the genre she writes is outside of your favorite genres.

On the other hand, you may love her! I would never have believed how much I'd enjoy some YA and graphic fiction until some of my LT buddies convinced me to expand my reading. I've just started reading Mary's Monster a graphic novel about Mary Shelley. That one seems to have been recommended by Joe, Mark, Ellen, Linda and more. No way to beat that!

127streamsong
Modifié : Juil 10, 2021, 1:26 pm

>125 witchyrichy: Hi Karen! Thanks for visiting! It's good to see you! The heat is here to stay for at least another week with highs continuing in the 90-100 range.

Unfortunately, forest fire smoke has also settled in. The fire is far from us in the Idaho wilderness to the west, but as are winds are generally from the west, the smoke travels here to our valley, settles in and decides to stay. Ugh.

No bears, though and I'm not hearing reports in the area either. I've never actually seen a bear on my place, although I have seen them in town - the young ones get confused, wander into town and then climb a tree and stay until they are removed.

I do have lots and lots of deer and fawns, though. I have to keep the garage door shut or they will get into the grain I store there. Bob the not-so-feral cat I adopted earlier this year is doing a splendid job with mice and something a little bigger (maybe a pack rat?) but is useless in keeping deer and wild turkeys out of the grain. :)

128streamsong
Juil 10, 2021, 4:49 pm

And, finally, the last of the June reviews! June was a heavy month for mysteries for me, with two mysteries for book clubs as well as the Dick Francis group and another as well.


57. Bonecrack - Dick Francis - 1971
- Dick Francis Group Read
– library
3.8 stars

Neil Griffon ran away from his horse trainer father’s domineering ways when Neil was a young teenager. But now, his father has been badly injured and Neil comes to his aid to run the business involving millions of dollars of horses until a highly reputable horseman can be found to take over.

But before that can happen, Neil is kidnapped. He is told that the kidnapper’s son must be taken into the racing stable and allowed to act as a top jockey, riding the favorite horse or the entire stable will be destroyed. To back up his threats, a horse has its leg broken. When Neil doesn’t please the kidnapping thug as to the way his boy is progressing, another horse dies.

Neil must stay and see it through.

It’s an interesting look at two very different dysfunctional father and son relationships: the first where the son resisted his father; the second where the father demands the unreasonable to indulge his son’s whim.

As in most of Francis’ novels the protagonist Neil is a good guy who also endures incredible amounts of pain.

But can he hold things together, using what is at best an amateur jockey backed by his sociopathic father, for the months until his own father can once more take the reins?

I was glad to see that even written in 1971 (fifty years ago!), there is a reasonably good women’s role as the head ‘lad’ who became the actual trainer was a talented woman.

129msf59
Juil 11, 2021, 3:27 pm

Happy Sunday, Janet. I also loved Homeland Elegies. I am so glad to hear you are feeling the same. I also liked The Story of More but not as much as Lab Girl.

130streamsong
Modifié : Juil 12, 2021, 1:28 pm

>129 msf59: Thanks, Mark. I'm behind on reviews, but working away at them.

Homeland Elegies was special.

I liked The Story of More as a very clear picture of how we got where we are in climate change. I think it will help me express my views to the deniers - although, we know, that facts do nothing but irritate them.

131streamsong
Modifié : Sep 2, 2021, 12:49 pm

Monday reading update:

A very intriguing historical fiction set during the fall of Nazi Germany and based on a true story. It's the choice of my newish bookclub and I'm really enjoying it:




For the Reading Globally second quarter challenge - a children's book (Marshall Islands)


Continuing my audio book:



and continuing with a few poems a day:

132BLBera
Juil 13, 2021, 9:36 am

>131 streamsong: Looks like a lot of great reading, Janet. I'll watch for your comments.

133streamsong
Juil 13, 2021, 11:48 am

>132 BLBera: Thanks for stopping by, Beth!

I just finished Mary's Monster this morning. What a compelling story of Mary Shelley's life! I was completely ignorant of her life with Percy Bysshe Shelley, and the pain and tragedies she underwent as a result of flaunting the conventions of the day.

This one will go onto my list of very favorite graphic novels!

134streamsong
Juil 13, 2021, 12:16 pm



58. The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier and More Creative - Florence Williams - 2017
- The Glacier Conservancy Book Club
- library


If you enjoy the outdoors, you’ve probably heard that being in nature can do wonders for your stress levels and overall health.

This books addresses practices such as forest bathing in South Korea and Japan, wilderness schools in the US for troubled teenagers as well as ADHD therapy. It also discusses scientific studies.

There are huge benefits to being outdoors. Stress related cortisol levels drop and increase brain waves that lead to better focus, calmness, and creativity. Our brains react positively to fractals found in the leaves of trees and the ripples in water. Being in a place where you use all five senses at once can help with brain trauma. In addition, being in nature can recharge our sense of awe – which many researchers believe is essential for humans.

The author suggests outdoor walks every day; a longer outdoor engagement once a week and an occasional or periodic outdoor several day immersion.

This is an interesting summary of the benefits of being outdoors in nature. Most of the material I was familiar with, although it was nice to have it all in one place.

I wish the author had addressed working in the outdoors doing such tasks as gardening and animal care. I suspect there are many of the same benefits as relaxing or recreating in nature.

135connie53
Modifié : Juil 14, 2021, 1:22 pm

Hi Janet. Here I am again scrolling trough your thread

>123 streamsong: Love that cover!!

136streamsong
Juil 14, 2021, 11:45 am

Hi Connie - Thanks for stopping by! It's pretty quiet over here and I appreciate your support!

It is a great cover, isn't it? Have you read any thing by Nnedi Okorafor ?

137connie53
Juil 14, 2021, 1:22 pm

No not yet! I've asked my brother to find it for me. He is very good in those things. So maybe I can read this one soon.

138mdoris
Juil 14, 2021, 8:46 pm

Thanks for your enthusiasm Janet. I have just requested Mary's Monster from the library.

139streamsong
Juil 15, 2021, 1:55 pm

>137 connie53: All right! Yay for brothers!

>138 mdoris: Hi Mary - I hope you enjoy Mary's Monster. Since I was a science major, I have all sorts of holes in my knowledge of literature (and philosophy and art and psychology and ...)

Yesterday I started Klara and the Sun. It's due back today and I can't renew it since others are waiting. It's hot and smoky out there so I think I'll just get all the critters fed and give myself a reading day. The forecast is for thundershowers this pm which will clear out the air - and hopefully not start any more fires!

140mdoris
Modifié : Juil 17, 2021, 7:08 pm

Hi Janet. Just got and polished off Mary's Monster. It has been ages since I have read a graphic novel and I thoroughly enjoyed it and a big thank you for the recommendation. Still horrible and upsetting the lack of women's rights of the time and so glad the author wove that into the story.

I knew quite a bit about Mary Shelley and her life with the poet Shelley as I had seen a film about her called Mary Shelley from 2017, a few years ago as part of our community art film series. It was well done! That's when we were gathering for viewing films. Those were the days!
Here is the trailer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EaDRhPm1DM

141karenmarie
Juil 18, 2021, 10:03 am

Hi Janet!

>128 streamsong: Excellent review – I wish I’d written it. Your interpretation of the two father-son relationships is perfect, and I agree about the ‘head lad’ being a strong woman and a welcome addition. Hot Money is next up for July-August.

Karen mentioned the smoke – she can’t see the Gallatin mountains, which she can normally see off her deck. I think it’s bad where you are, right?

142streamsong
Juil 19, 2021, 12:40 pm

>141 karenmarie: Thanks, Mary! I'm glad you enjoyed the graphic novel. Thanks for mentioning the film - I'm able to get it through Netflix, so I'll be watching it shortly.

I miss the library film-viewing nights, too, which we only did in February. Hopefully, they'll be back again.

143streamsong
Modifié : Juil 20, 2021, 11:14 am

>142 streamsong: Hi Karen! Thanks for the complement on the review. Political snark alert: There's a certain politician that I wonder if has ever been tested for tertiary syphilis.

I have Hot Money home from the library, so I'll be joining in soon.

Yes, the smoke is bad. At times yesterday we could see some blue sky and shadows. Today it is very dark out there and I'm sure it is the 'unhealthy' range. We may get some showers over the next few days which would help clear the smoke out.

144streamsong
Juil 22, 2021, 11:50 am

Both my book clubs were cancelled this week.

There were too many people gone for my new book club which was reading The Last Green Valley. That discussion was postponed until August.

That brings us to Caste, the library book club selection that I am supposed to lead. We have had some debate whether the club is the 4th Thursday or last Thursday of the month. At the last meeting, (which I didn't attend since I was heading to SLC), apparently the decision was made to go with the last Thursday - so next week.

I'm nervous about moderating this one. Living in a red area of a red state, if we draw participants that aren't the usual book club group, fireworks could fly. I've been reading online questions and discussions about the book and getting prepared as I can - but it's a bit unnerving.

Anyone have any thoughts or resources to share that they particularly liked, I'd appreciate it. I'm also reading as many negative reviews as possible, so I can think about such statements ahead of time.

145karenmarie
Juil 23, 2021, 10:01 am

Good luck with Caste. Being in a red part of a red state has to be ... challenging... I'm in a purple county of a usually red state. We're only purple on paper, however - we're blue in the north and east and blood red in the west and south.

Our real life book club will be meeting in September to restart, although of course, the delta variant and potential new waves of Covid could put the kibosh on it.

The women of the group have the option of re-choosing their 2020 book or selecting something new - unfortunately, IMO, one of the women wrote "I have thought about proposing, for this year or next, that we each choose a book by an author of color to spend a year from that perspective. What would everyone think of that?" and rather than actually talk about it several of the women jumped on the bandwagon and are picking books by an author of color. I just might pick a British mystery out of contrariness. One of the women sent me a text "I think the word for a bunch of middle class white women thinking they're fighting white supremacy by reading books by Black authors in their book club is 'performative.'" She nailed that one. Acting upon confirmed or changed opinions, on the other hand, is admirable.

146connie53
Juil 24, 2021, 2:01 pm

>137 connie53: And he did find it, so it's now waiting it's turn on my kobo!

147streamsong
Modifié : Juil 25, 2021, 5:48 pm

>145 karenmarie: Hi Karen. It's always good to see you.

"I think the word for a bunch of middle class white women thinking they're fighting white supremacy by reading books by Black authors in their book club is 'performative.'" I love that. I want to be her bestie!

Reading authors of color in an all white book club is a tough one. I know I'm not qualified to lead the discussion on Caste, either. :( That's why I'm reading so much online ahead of time, crossing my fingers and hoping for the best.

A British mystery would be a nice break!

Right now, I'm reading (and really enjoying) Hot Money. I'm in a simple Dick Francis-y mood.

I started reading Apeirogon which was the book club book I missed last month when I was in SLC. It's a bit too heavy, but I haven't altogether given up yet.

>146 connie53: Glad he found it for you, Connie! I'll be interested to see what you think!

148streamsong
Juil 25, 2021, 5:34 pm

From the author of Lab Girl:



59. The Story of More: How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go From Here - Hope Jahren - 2020
– library

In 2016 author Hope Jahren emigrated to Norway as she feared scientific intellectual freedom might be compromised in the United States.

She was asked to teach a course on climate change at the University where she was working. This book is the result of her research for that course.

It’s very clear and concise. There are lots of good scientific facts (increase of population, increase of atmospheric CO2 levels, agricultural advances that lead to more disparity between the first world and third world countries) presented in a way that is both scientific and quite readable for the non-scientist.

The ‘Where to Go From Here’ section is quite short and boils down to her mantra: “Use less and share more”. She advocates changing your own practices first. Identify a cause you are interested in and make one change in your own life.

For instance, if you are worried about food insecurity, you could vow not to let your personal food go to waste. (This one hit home for me as I always have some veggies that go bad and end up in my compost bin). Spoiled food is not just a handful of bad celery, but represents water, fossil fuel and people’s lives as they grow it and transport it to you.

If you are worried about energy efficiency and worldwide rising CO2 levels, start by replacing one electrical appliance with a more efficient one. She advocates choosing the appliance that is using most of your energy as a percentage of your bill – she gives the example of a changing out your water heater instead of deciding to vacuum once a month instead of once a week. Unfortunately, that choice would would only make a miniscule difference in your energy footprint. (tears on my part)

When one habit is entrenched, go on to the next.

I do not think this book would change anyone’s mind who already has their mind firmly made up that climate change is a hoax – but it has given me a logical way to present facts.

I do wish the ‘Where to Go From Here’ section was longer.

3.8 stars

149PaulCranswick
Modifié : Juil 26, 2021, 1:28 am

>144 streamsong: & >148 streamsong: Race and Climate Change - wowzer two incendiary subjects these days!

>145 karenmarie: I like that too.

Isn't race all about our intention. I will always hark back to the beautiful words of MLK who envisioned a world how I think we ought to try to make it be. The colour of one's skin should not make any difference and to many of us I do not believe it does. It does still matter very much to some though unfortunately.

I really enjoy the works by authors for the stories they tell and the way they tell them and I think that many writers of colour have wonderful/moving stories to tell but I will cast a critical eye over someone's writing irrespective of their background. I like reading things from varied sources which is why I undertook my Around the World Reading Challenge as the listening to and trying to understand different perspectives should always be enriching.

On race (which is a very difficult and sensitive issue) my own worldview is that the drawing of attention to continuing inequalities of race is needful and I am all in favour of our sportsmen and women "taking-the-knee" so long as it is a symbol of opposition to racism not a political statement in favour of a political organisation like BLM and ANTIFA whose wider aims and motives I would not support. I am in favour of a balanced teaching of history in schools but not one which seeks to stigmatise a section of the classroom for the ills of the past. I do not consider myself (and certainly not my mixed-race children) to blame for the slave trade anymore than I blame the Danes & Norwegian for the pillaging of the English coast and enslaving of the people of the North nor do I blame the Germans of today for the horrors visited upon the world by Hitler and his henchman. I don't blame them but it is important to know about it and remember - the history of slavery, race relations and civil rights deserve the same remembrance.

I thought I would just pop across, say hi and comment on books, but the posts were too interesting to ignore. xx

150streamsong
Modifié : Juil 27, 2021, 1:38 pm

Thanks, Paul. All very interesting comments!

As you know, I'm also interested in reading authors from around the world and from many perspectives. And, I have a wonderful black daughter-in-law. I am immensely looking forward to my grandchildren!

I think the problem with all white book clubs is that we may not understand what the author is really trying to say - as good as our intentions are, we will only be able to discuss our (white) reactions to a book written by a person of color. Nevertheless, I think there is value in trying to understand, even if we don't achieve it perfectly.

It's why I am spending time on the internet trying to read comments and reactions to Caste. And why I appreciate your comments and Karen's. I hope a few more people chime in!

I think here in the US, not all racism is intentional or as blatant as the white militants' marches. There is still so much systemic structural racism. For instances, although schools have some federal money, they are mostly funded by property taxes in the local area they serve. That means areas with fewer businesses, no industry, no expensive homes, are at the bottom of the school system funding. Inner city school serving the poor can have crumbling buildings, poorly paid, less qualified teachers and even hand me down books from other more prosperous school systems.

There are infrastructure problems such as lead water pipes in poor areas as well as more industrial pollution.

On certain Indian reservations, Native Americans are lacking power and water.

I'm not sure Antifa exists except in the minds of the right.

The book When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir by Patrisse Khan-Cullors which I read in 2018 was my first strike-deep-to-my-soul realization that my grandsons (and daughters, but more commonly black men) could be gunned down.

151EllaTim
Juil 27, 2021, 6:49 pm

>148 streamsong: Hi Janet! Interesting and timely. I would wish for a book with a very long section on where to go from here. We are all such small people trying to have an influence on such a big world. Still, she is right, you have to start somewhere.

>134 streamsong: I think I would like this book, and I totally agree with you, there is more than just walking and looking. I love gardening, and I find it so calming and stress relieving to get my hands dirty in the earth. I have a vegetable garden, where I have to do just that. Maybe it’s the result of growing up on a farm, who knows.

Wishing you good luck with the book group. I haven’t read Caste and I am interested in it. But the first thing I thought of, from the title, was the Indian caste system. Does she write of the international situation?

152msf59
Juil 27, 2021, 6:55 pm

Hi, Janet. It looks like we both enjoyed The Story of More. She is a good writer. Good luck with Caste. I hope your book club is cooperative. I still need to read that one.

153streamsong
Juil 28, 2021, 9:48 am

>151 EllaTim: Hi Ella! It's always good to have you stop in.

I think it's the political action that will be required to take care of the big things. She doesn't touch on that at all. And while I believe that I can do small changes in my household, ultimately it must be an effort of nations.

I haven't had much luck with my gardening. The deer are fierce and seize every new shoot that comes up, even plants listed as 'deer resistant'. I've contemplated putting in a small green house to protect the plants as well as extending my short growing season.

Yes, in Caste Wilkerson compares the US racially based system to India's caste system and also Germany in the 1930's and 40's. Today will be lots of reading to get ready for tomorrow's book club.

154streamsong
Modifié : Juil 28, 2021, 10:44 am

>152 msf59: Hi Mark! Yes, I thought The Story of More was interesting. I've been trying to eat less meat, especially red meat, for a while now, so that is what I've decided to focus on. Also, I'm doing a bit of car shopping and trying to mindfully consider efficiency.

I know that my biggest energy-sink is my small horse raising operation. I am careful not to outproduce what I can personally keep, but foals born now may may live 20 - 30 years and may well out live me and will also run smack into climate change.

On that cheerful note here is a picture of my foal (the one and only this year) at 30 days.



Definitely one of the nicest I've raised! Besides the eye catching color, he has a huge hip, wide chest, strongly muscled and a wonderful personality.

155streamsong
Juil 28, 2021, 10:42 am

This is interesting (to me at least - *grin*)

I give blood regularly and am happy to do so due to the shortage in the US. The last time I gave blood was the end of May.

Last week I received an email saying that my antibodies showed that I had been vaccinated but had not had a Covid infection. (Correct) They asked if I would take a survey and I agreed. There were lots of questions to confirm that their results were correct (dates and type of vaccination, had I ever been diagnosed, had I ever had symptoms) and then lots of questions about my mask wearing habits. Someone is collecting a huge amount of data! But I'm happy to contribute to the science, if even in a very small way.

I suspect that since I am a regular donor, they will be interested to see how my antibody profile progress - how long the vaccination antibodies persist, or if I seroconvert and show that I am do get a mild break-through case of Covid.

But, if you are curious to see if your vaccination worked (remember that in a small number of people, the vaccination won't), if you give blood, you will find out.

156karenmarie
Juil 28, 2021, 11:12 am

Hi Janet!

>154 streamsong: We're going to be needing to get Bill a new vehicle soon. We rode in a Toyota RAV4 recently and loved the interior room an comfort, but the nearest Toyota dealer is 30 miles away. Ford is only 11 miles away and we're thinking of sticking with Ford if possible. What are you looking at?

Nice pic of your foal. I'm glad he's such a good'un.

>155 streamsong: I gave blood once, in 1972, and had such an awful experience (not the Red Cross's fault), that I've shied away ever since. Good to know, though.

157streamsong
Modifié : Juil 28, 2021, 6:44 pm

>156 karenmarie: Hi Karen! I've had incredibly good luck with Honda's, although I've seen disparaging remarks here on LT about them. I'm not sure why, though.

I want a small SUV/hatchback - too often I use my car when I pick up grain from the feed store. I currently have the fifty pounds bags put on the back seat. They are much easier for me to unload than reaching down and into my Civic's trunk. (Don't ask about last week when the grain store teen age boy was showing off his muscles and throwing them in two at a time.... and one split open ..... )

The hatchback is also for my (invisible for now) dog, camping gear etc.

Yeah, the foal is a good one.

I'm sorry it was such a nightmare to give blood. I call it my super power. :)

158BLBera
Juil 28, 2021, 10:17 pm

Your foal is beautiful, Janet.

Interesting information about blood donation; I donate regularly but haven't gotten any information about COVID; perhaps this varies by state? I'm scheduled to donate tomorrow. Fingers crossed that hemoglobin will be good enough.

I hope you report on your conversation about Caste.

159scaifea
Juil 29, 2021, 7:30 am

Your foal is so lovely! Thanks for sharing the photo.

It used to be the case that I couldn't give blood (iron deficiency), although I suspect now I could. Maybe I should look into it... Your survey info is so interesting!

160msf59
Juil 29, 2021, 7:40 am

>154 streamsong: The foal looks beautiful, Janet. He is going to be a big and healthy boy. Are you going to breed him?

161Whisper1
Juil 29, 2021, 9:43 pm

>154 streamsong: Janet, How beautiful!!!!

162FAMeulstee
Juil 30, 2021, 7:11 am

>154 streamsong: I just came here with the intention to ask how your foal is doing, Janet.
And then I find this picture, he is lovely! :-)

163streamsong
Juil 30, 2021, 1:03 pm

>158 BLBera: Thank you, Beth.

We might well be in different regions for blood giving; or they might have various age groups or whatever targeted for their testing or their surveys. Do you use the ARC Blood Donor App on your phone? The email said it would be on my app. I just checked - I found it under 'history' and it says Antibodies: Reactive - although it does not break it down into the various types of antibodies.

Caste report to follow below. Spoiler: No one showed up with guns strapped to their hips, which, since Montana is open carry, is always a possibility at contentious meetings. (and honestly had me worried).

164streamsong
Juil 30, 2021, 1:14 pm

>159 scaifea: Hi Amber! It's nice to have you stop by. Thanks re the foal.

There's a blood shortage now, so it would be a good time to try again. It really is very easy.

>160 msf59: Thanks, Mark. No, I need to get out of handling stallions. I will be getting my Medicare card very soon and handling stallions can be tricky and is a younger person's game.

In fact a couple nights ago my stallion slipped out of his pen into the driveway as I was doing water buckets. I almost despaired of catching him again as he was having such a good time. Eventually, everyone decided they were tired of running along the fence line (Ice on one side, the gang of six on the other) and decided to eat dinner instead. So Ice decided to let me catch him so he could have a drink and dinner, too. After he was safely back, I wished I had videoed some of that - prancing, tail flagged, running, bucking, rearing. So beautiful, but so scary. I was afraid I'd either get run over by him, or he'd go over a fence.

165streamsong
Juil 30, 2021, 1:15 pm

>161 Whisper1: Thanks, Linda! It's always good to see you!

>162 FAMeulstee: Thanks, Anita, I always enjoy your visits, too!

166streamsong
Juil 30, 2021, 1:57 pm

The book club with Caste went very well. It was our first time back in person with about ten people physically attending and one person on Zoom.

I was worried that we would have dissenters show up, and I could imagine they might even come wearing guns as Montana is an open carry state. I was at a presentation about refugees a few years ago with armed, organized dissenters. And we've had the library at various times harassed about the 'un-American' books the book club chooses to read. So when I read Caste and saw Obama praised and drumpfs policies challenged, I was afraid it might get tense.

We had a great round table discussion about racism. I barely had to speak at all, although I had a list of discussion questions from the internet that I planned to throw out if the talk stalled. We really didn't get to the heart of Wilkerson's thesis that the hierarchy in the US is based on a Caste system and not just on race. :)

Then afterwards, a couple of us went to a restaurant for a lovely lunch. One of the newer people who I didn't know very well was sort of standing around and was pleased when I invited her along.

However, it turned out at lunch that she disclosed that she was not exactly 'anti-vaxxer' but definitely believed in the freedom to make up your own mind, and since, she believed she and her husband had already had Covid, she didn't see the need to be vaccinated. That was very awkward for me. I was the one that invited her and sat next to her unmasked for an hour. Luckily the percentage of cases is very low here.

I'm not sure how that works socially. How could I have asked her about her status before I invited her? Anyhoo, I think I learned a lesson.

167streamsong
Modifié : Juil 30, 2021, 2:27 pm



❤️60. Homeland Elegies: A Novel - Ayad Akhtar – 2020
- global reading: Pakistan (Pakistani American author; partial location)
– library

This is a semi-autobiographical novel of a first generation American Muslim Pakistani man and his father, an immigrant from Pakistan.

It’s a wonderful look at the problems of being a non-Hispanic brown man in America – you’re assumed to be Arab and an enemy, especially after the 9-11 attacks and especially if you are Muslim.

It’s a very political novel, as Trump occurs as a character for whom the protagonist’s father was briefly a cardiologist. Trump’s policies are examined in the light of making life more complicated for Muslim Americans.

The author also addresses how America is an oligarchy ruled by the money of the very rich. As few of the very rich are immigrants, we see how one very rich immigrant aspires to break into this class. In addition, we see the problems of a credit based society and how it can enslave people on the lower rungs.

There was one chapter towards the end that seemed to appear out of nowhere as a black man tells our protagonist why he is a Trump supporter and how he feels that will help him to the higher rungs of economic class.

Besides US politics, the author expands on the political and personal consequences when Britain partitioned Muslim Pakistan from Hindu India.

There is lots of food-for -thought in this book. I found it very readable, and feel that besides being entertained, I learned a bit about how the world works for others. What more can one ask from a novel?

A few quotes I especially liked:
“The established majority takes its we-image from a minority of its best, and shapes a they-image of the despised outsiders from the minority of their worst.”
… A sociologist named Norbert Elias. German Jew who left in thirty-three, when the Nazis took ove. Saw what was coming before most did. Which isn’t a surprise, for someone who can have a thought like that. “ p 139

“Of course, Riaz explained, debt had always been a way to entertain the masses—it was from him I first heard that famous John Adams quotation: ‘There are two ways to conquer and enslave a nation: one is by the sword, the other by debt’ –but something was different now. With the advent of Reagan and the innovations of Miken, this predation on the populace was now the very basis of our increasingly global economy. The current of anger growing across the world had nothing to do with immigration, he believed, but was all about the System that debt had created, an inescapable, asymmetrical, transformational force. The people paid into this regime with their catalogs of monthly debt payments and subscription fees, all to support what was now the only true political order of our time, a corporate regime that offered no representation, no vote, no participation in either the velocity of its appetites or the bearing of its destructive course. “ p 154

168EllaTim
Juil 30, 2021, 5:07 pm

>166 streamsong: I’m glad it turned out well. A good discussion and no rifles present!

At the moment Amsterdam has a high number of infections, and even vaccinated people can be contagious, so that’s scary. I have decided to stay outside, meet people outside. Eating out also outside.

169streamsong
Modifié : Juil 31, 2021, 1:11 pm

>168 EllaTim: It's so good to see you as always! And thanks for appreciating my relief at how things turned out for my book club!

It wouldn't actually have been rifles (long guns) , but rather handguns in holsters on hips so they are very visible, and to me, very intimidating.

Yes, I need to change my rules-of-going out again. It was so wonderful to have a few months where I went unmasked to many places, but with rising cases and new variants, I'll have to take a step back.

170BLBera
Juil 31, 2021, 4:03 pm

Hi Janet - I'm so glad your book club discussion went smoothly. One never knows.

Since my granddaughter is 7, and can't yet get vaccinated, my daughter and I wear masks if we are going to be indoors. I still see a few people masked in the grocery store, etc. But that is a touchy situation you were in. If it is someone I don't know, I feel fine asking, especially if I"m going to be indoors.

Homeland Elegies sounds wonderful. Thanks to Ellen, I have a copy here, waiting.

171kidzdoc
Juil 31, 2021, 6:23 pm

Nice review of Homeland Elegies, Janet. That's another book I hope to get to later this year.

172streamsong
Août 1, 2021, 12:53 pm

Hi Beth! Big sigh of relief from me on the book club.

That makes perfect sense that you are masking for your granddaughter.

I need to be more proactive about asking people. We are now in a different reality - even with the vaccine. I called my friend M yesterday who was at the lunch. I can't remember which side of 80 she is on - very close either way - and who is having COPD symptoms from the smoke in the air. I apologized to her for inviting the lady in question. She had not quite heard the conversation the same way that I did, and is not sure if the first lady was vaccinated or not.

It's neat that Ellen sent you Homeland Elegies. I hope you enjoy it!

173streamsong
Août 1, 2021, 1:09 pm

>171 kidzdoc: Hi Darryl! I think you'll really like Homeland Elegies.

My copy of Woman of the Ashes has arrived from my library hold, so I'll be starting that in the next few weeks.



174streamsong
Modifié : Août 12, 2021, 12:28 pm

July statistics

9 Books Read in July

58. The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier and More Creative - Florence Williams - Glacier Conservancy Book Club - library
59. The Story of More: How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go From Here - Hope Jahren - 2020 - library
❤️60. Homeland Elegies: A Novel - Ayad Akhtar - 2020 - global reading: Pakistan (Pakistani American author; partial location) - library
❤️61. Mary's Monster: Love, Madness, and How Mary Shelley Created Frankenstein - Lita Judge - 2018- library
---the ones below are still unreviewed ---
✅ 62. Klara and the Sun - Kazuo Ishiguro - 2021 - library
63. The Last Green Valley - Mark Sullivan - 2021 - Newcomers Book Club - purchased 2021
64. The Family Upstairs - Lisa Jewell - 2019 - Library
65. Hot Money - Dick Francis - 1987 - Library
✅ 66. Caste - Isabel Wilkerson - 2020 - purchased 2021 - RLBC

Source
2 - Purchased 2021
- ROOTS
7 - Library


FORMAT
- audiobook
8 - print books
- digital - read on Kindle app
1 - graphic novel

- 6 - Fiction (may fit into more than one category)
1 - fictionalized biography (in verse)
1 - historical fiction
2 - literary fiction
2 - mystery, suspence

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

1 - history
1 - Outdoors/nature/wildlife
1 - Science
1 - Sociology

AUTHORS

4 - Male Authors
5 - Female Authors

6 - Authors who are new to me
3 - Authors I have previously read
- Rereads

Countries Visited
1 - Germany (partial location)
1 - India (partial location)
1 - Pakistan (partial location)
3 - UK
1 - Ukraine (partial location)

Original Publication Date

1 - 1987
1 - 2017
1 - 2018
1 - 2019
3 - 2020
2 - 2021

As pf 8/01/2021: 527 books on MT TBR
As of 7/01/2021: 527 books on MT TBR
As of 6/01/2021: 522 books on MT TBR
As of 5/01/2021: 522 books on MT TBR
whoops missed April numbers
As of 03/01/2021: 525 books on MT TBR
As of 02/01/2021: 522 books on MT TBR
As of 01/01/2021: 522 books on MT TBR

175streamsong
Modifié : Août 1, 2021, 1:23 pm

This may have been a recommendation from Linda, although I see that Joe and Mark and others also recommended it.



❤️61. Mary’s Monster: Love, Madness, and How Mary Shelley Created FrankensteinLita Judge - 2018
- library


This is a graphic novel biography of Mary Wollstonecraf Shelley, the author of Frankenstein.

As a college science major, I missed out on literature. And while I’ve tried to remedy that and I have read Frankenstein several times, I did not know the author’s story.

Mary’s mother died soon after Mary was born. Her father, a well known intellectual and political philosopher, remarried. Mary’s stepmother made life hard for Mary. Eventually, through her father’s circle Mary, met the poet Percy Shelley.

She fell in love with the married man and became pregnant at sixteen.

If you’re not familiar with Mary Shelley’s story, I don’t want to give away details of her subsequent life which was as twisty and turn-y as any modern day made-for-TV drama.

I learned many details of Mary’s life and have new respect for the woman and her creation.

This will be on my ‘favorite graphic novels’ list.

176streamsong
Août 1, 2021, 2:42 pm

As of August 1st, I'm reading the following books:

Apeirogon: A Novel - Colum McCann



The Anthropocene Reviewed - John Green


Continuing my audio book:

And the Mountains Echoed - Khaled Hosseini (Yay! a ROOT!)



Also continuing:

Legends of Micronesia: Book Two - Eve Grey (Yay! Another ROOT!)



and although I had to return this to the library, I've ordered a copy from my local bookstore and will continue to read:

When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry - edited by Joy Harjo



177streamsong
Août 2, 2021, 5:27 pm

Someday, perhaps, I'll get all my previous month's reviews done before the new month begins.
Yeppers.



✅ 62. Klara and the SunKazuo Ishiguro - 2021
– library
- 4.25 stars

Klara is an AF or Artificial Friend. Her kind is especially useful to the genetically modified kids who have more brain power than average. They no longer attend regular schools and so lack social stimulation.

Klara longs to be picked as she stands in the shop window, even as newer, more recent models come out and Klara becomes slightly obsolete even before being sold.

But at last she has her human and her family and she vows to do her very best by them.

It’s a precarious situation as not all children undergoing the genetic enhancement process survive. Klara’s new person, Josie, is having a very hard time and having to spend more and more time ill in bed. Josie’s older sister didn’t survive the process.

Klara, with her solar powered batteries, has been taught to head for the sun.

It’s an interesting look at what we define as humanity, friendship, loyalty and even old age.

I do have a quibble. It seems to me that a robot friend would need to have at least a basic understanding about the science of the earth, especially being friends to kids with higher than usual intelligence and advanced tutoring.

178connie53
Août 3, 2021, 4:25 am

179msf59
Août 3, 2021, 8:41 am

Wow! You have some terrific reads going. Great review of Homeland Elegies. I loved the novel as well and it inspired me to read Driftless, as well, which was also wonderful. And hooray for Klara!

I think I may have mentioned this before, but have you ever seen The Rider? I re-watched it again and it is an absolutely beautiful film and of course, horses are featured prominently.

180karenmarie
Août 4, 2021, 9:52 am

Hi Janet!

>164 streamsong: Fun and scary with your stallion having a frolic.

>166 streamsong: I’m so glad it went well. And, better to be over-prepared than underprepared.

Yikes and double yikes about Ms. (probably) Unvaccinated.

I’ve got a potential situation going with our Friends book sale team – our former volunteer coordinator has stepped in to help us with our (now in jeopardy) September book sale and she’s told me that she only got one dose of vaccine and won’t get the second one EVER. This is what she wrote recently, totally incoherent and just so wrong on so many levels. I am sorry, but I am a firm believer the shots (not vaccines) can cause much more damage now and/or in the future to prevent Covid of which you have a 99% chance of surviving and with the correct treatment of Hydroxychloroquine or Ivermectin is amazingly enabling for survival and cost prohibitive.. Anyway, she will be invited to the August 17th go-no-go meeting for the September Book Sale, but I’m now lobbying for us to use GoToMeeting.

I don’t know how to ask about a person’s vaccinated state if it’s someone you don’t know – I have known Sue for 6 years and assumed she was fully vaccinated when I asked her.

>169 streamsong: Yes, I need to change my rules-of-going out again. It was so wonderful to have a few months where I went unmasked to many places, but with rising cases and new variants, I'll have to take a step back. You said it perfectly, and Bill and I are already reverting to lockdown mentality.

>174 streamsong: Excellent reading month! I’m always envious of the amount of nonfiction you read.

>176 streamsong: The Anthropocene Reviewed is intriguing.

181streamsong
Août 4, 2021, 10:38 am

>178 connie53: Thank you, Connie!

>179 msf59: Hi Mark! Yes, I read some great stuff in July. I'll have to look into Driftless. I've added it to my 'recommended by Mark' list.

I love the movie The Rider. I love that while it is fictionalized, all the 'actors' are real people pretty much playing out their stories. The way director Chloé Zhao (also director of Nomadland incorporates not only the main character, but his autistic sister, his brain damaged friend and even the Pine Ridge Reservation into the story is amazing.

I should watch Chloé Zhao's first movie, Songs My Brothers Taught Me.

182streamsong
Août 4, 2021, 11:15 am

>180 karenmarie: Hi Karen! Thanks for all your comments.

With the temps in the 90's and the unhealthy-for-all-groups air quality, I know I'm not doing as much as I should with the horses .... which means they get bored and into trouble.

My silly three year old gelding has decided it's a good idea to stand in the 100 gallon water trough with his front feet and paw like mad. It's kind of funny. Of course that means the water is always filthy and dumping 100 gallon trough to clean it is a challenge for me.

We are definitely blazing new social mores, aren't we? Would your former volunteer coordinator agree to wear a mask? or is that a Ha! question. There is no way to change people's minds with facts once they are down the rabbit hole.

The Anthropocene Reviewed is fun and funny and perfect escape reading. It's probably going to be a 5 star read for me.

183streamsong
Modifié : Août 7, 2021, 1:25 pm

This was chosen for the 'Newcomers' Book Club which my friend who administers it recently asked me to join, even though I've lived here for thirty five years. Ah, well, some people here say that you are a newcomer if your grandparents didn't grow up in this valley, so, by that definition I qualify. And the group meets in person over lunch at a nice restaurant - although I value every one of my online book friends, my heart hungers right now to discuss things in person!

The discussion was delayed until August as several members were out of town.



63. The Last Green Valley - Mark Sullivan - 2021
- Newcomers Book Club
- purchased 2021


This is a novelization based on a family history. The Martels were part of a German community that had lived in the Ukraine for more than a century in order to obtain better farmland.

When Stalin had taken over the Ukraine, the German families starved and family members disappeared into concentration camps. When Hitler then took over the same territory, the Martels were given certification as “pure blood” Germans based on their family records and given preferential treatment.

But then the war turned again and in March 1944 Stalin’s troops were pushing into the Ukraine. The Martels knew that if they were captured by the Russians they would be condemned as Germans and sent to concentration camps. Their only option was to join the fleeing Nazis, whom they not only hated, but to do so would be brand them as Nazis and end their dream of someday emigrating to Western freedom.

This is a vividly written story of very hard choices. It is a part of WWII history that I did not know and found fascinating.

It was page turning until the last few chapters; then we see how the surviving family became a prominent family in Bozeman, Montana. But somehow, the immediacy is lost in these chapters as the author tells us what happened instead of keeping us within the story.

184streamsong
Août 5, 2021, 1:31 pm

Hooray! Yesterday the smoke dissipated and my mood lifted.

I gave the two year old gelding a work on the longe line; I rode my exercise bike for the first time in WEEKS; and in the dark last night I thoroughly sprayed a huge hornets' nest the size of a basketball that is in my yard and right at horse nose height. Today I'll cautiously knock it down with can of spray in hand ... it popped up quickly and I've been afraid to let the horses graze in the yard lest a curious nose give it a nudge.

I also went to the small Organic Wednesday's farmer's market yesterday afternoon. There is a large, general market on Saturdays, but it is always packed and nary a mask in sight.

Anyway, I bought freshly picked strawberries, Flathead sweet cherries, cherry tomatoes and a parsley plant.

Unless you've been to Montana, you have no idea that there are thriving sweet cherry orchards on the East Side of Flathead Lake, between Missoula and Glacier Park. Most of these are small, family orchards, selling produce from stands along the highway. Unfortunately, there is a forest fire in the area just as the harvest is in full swing. Twenty or so buildings have burned so far, and the Warehouse and Packing Plant on Finley Point had to be evacuated and shut down. They've managed to reopen the plant but I'm sure there are many small growers who are devastated by the event. If you see Flathead cherries in your store (as opposed to cherries raised in Washington) - support them. Sweet cherries are wonderful eaten plain or dried, but harder to make desserts than the standard pie cherries. I love them in clafoutis, though.

185m.belljackson
Août 5, 2021, 2:52 pm

>180 karenmarie: How about sending out a general "We all need to be vaccinated!" memo to the entire book sale team, with a "Let me know,Your name"
at the end...?

186FAMeulstee
Août 6, 2021, 3:35 am

>184 streamsong: Glad your day was a better one, Janet, now the smoke is gone.
You got a lot done in one day :-)

187streamsong
Août 6, 2021, 12:52 pm

>185 m.belljackson: Hi Marianne - it's a tricky situation to be sure.

I just deleted a FB friend request from someone new to my area who seems to have some things in common with me - but her last three posts were anti-vaccination misinformation screes.

>186 FAMeulstee: Hi Anita! Yes it's good that the smoke has lifted. We've had three nicer days in a row (my definition of a nicer day is being able to see shadows for at least part of it). Unfortunately, I'm sure the smoke will continue to come back until snow falls in the mountains in September or October.

It was amazing how quickly my mood lifted when the smoke did.

188kidzdoc
Août 6, 2021, 8:08 pm

Nice review of Klara and the Sun, Janet. I'll probably read it next month.

189karenmarie
Août 7, 2021, 9:06 am

Hi Janet!

>183 streamsong: Karen always talks about being 5th generation Montanan. I think her family have always been in Gallatin County, but am not 100% sure.

>184 streamsong: Yay for the smoke lifting, riding your exercise bike, and etc. For some reason I didn’t get to have any Flathead cherries when I visited Karen (and you) in 2018. She talks about them all the time.

>185 m.belljackson: It may be moot, Marianne, because we’ve shifted tactics and are having an email vote to decide whether to have the sale. Two people I expected to vote to have the sale voted to postpone it ‘til November, which is a decent idea. I had told the head of the team that I was probably not going to come to any meetings the partly-vaccinated volunteer coordinator was going to attend.

190streamsong
Août 7, 2021, 1:03 pm

>188 kidzdoc: It's good to see you, Darryl. I'll be interested to see what you think about Klara and the Sun.

191streamsong
Août 7, 2021, 1:15 pm

>189 karenmarie: Hi Karen! I wonder if your friend Karen has read The Last Green Valley in >183 streamsong: . Apparently the Martels are very prominent in the Bozeman area with part of the Bobcat stadium named for their large donation.

The Flathead cherry harvest only lasts a few weeks - could be you missed it!

The smoke is still better today - hooray, hooray!

Our FOL fall sale has been cancelled, too. As I mentioned previously, they are selling books for $5 each (! on the price hike) at the local bookstore. The reason given was that they do not have enough volunteers ... but my friend who volunteers there has been told there is nothing for her to help with and although I'm supposedly on a list of people who would like to volunteer, I've never been contacted, either. Skullduggery afoot in small town politics!

192streamsong
Août 7, 2021, 1:26 pm

Not sure where I got the recommendation for this one.



64. The Family UpstairsLisa Jewell - 2019
– Library


Libby Jones had always known that when she turned 25, she would receive an inheritance from her dead parents . She was adopted after her parents’ death, had a normal middle class life and hoped to become a manager where she works.

But soon after the named birthday, she learned that her inheritance was a huge mansion in a very desirable London neighborhood. Although the details were sketchy, the lawyer had saved a newspaper clipping from the time, explaining that her parents and another man were found dead in the home in what was possibly a murder/suicide. Libby (formerly known as Serenity Lamb) had been a well-cared for baby found in another room. Neighbors said there were several teenagers who lived at the address, although the police found no trace of them. There were rumors of a cult.

As Libby is grasping at the implications of suddenly becoming a multi-millionaire, she has no idea that the missing teenagers from long ago will also begin showing up at the house, one by one.

Definitely suspenseful and a page turner, We see the story unfold from Libby’s view and from those who went missing (one an unreliable narrator). All the riddles aren’t solved until the final pages. And even then, one has to wonder … An entertaining summer read.

193streamsong
Août 8, 2021, 2:16 pm

Im offline for a bit. I picked up a PUP virus and in getting rid of it must have deleted something vital. Computer hospital on Monday

I

194streamsong
Août 10, 2021, 9:11 am

I'm back. PUP (Potentially Unwanted Program) gone for good and internet problem solved.

And here's the sad but true - instead of paying my internet last month, I somehow paid Dish network twice and missed the internet payment. You'd think since I had been a customer for years they would have sent me an email saying 'You missed your payment.' But no, after two weeks they just cut me off without a word.

As they say, of all the things I miss as I age, I miss my brain the most.

195karenmarie
Août 10, 2021, 11:52 am

Glad you're back up.

Yes, it would have been a friendly gesture for someone to call you or send an email.

My MiL used to say "I miss my mind."

196streamsong
Août 11, 2021, 11:07 am

>195 karenmarie: Hi Karen!

Yes, I was off the net for three days - until Verizon let me know what the problem was. Customer service at it's not-so-best. Because of all the trees at my place, none of the satellite internet links work and I have to use a Verizon hotspot. At the time, it was the only hotspot available. Now, I think I'll see what else is out there.

197streamsong
Modifié : Août 23, 2021, 4:15 pm

August statistics

2 Books Read in August

67. Legends of Micronesia (Book Two) - Eve Grey - 1951 - Reading Globally challenge - Children's Book (Micronesia) -ROOT (not sure when acquired)
❤️68. The Anthropocene Reviewed - John Green - 2021 - library

Source
- Purchased 2021
1 - ROOTS
1 - Library


FORMAT
- audiobook
2 - print books
- digital - read on Kindle app
- graphic novel

- 1 - Fiction (may fit into more than one category)
1- legends

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

1 - essays

AUTHORS

1 - Male Authors
1 - Female Authors

2 - Authors who are new to me
- Authors I have previously read
- Rereads

Countries Visited
1 - Micronesia

Original Publication Date

1 - 1950
1 - 2021

As of 8/01/2021: 527 books on MT TBR
As of 7/01/2021: 527 books on MT TBR
As of 6/01/2021: 522 books on MT TBR
As of 5/01/2021: 522 books on MT TBR
whoops missed April numbers
As of 03/01/2021: 525 books on MT TBR
As of 02/01/2021: 522 books on MT TBR
As of 01/01/2021: 522 books on MT TBR

198BLBera
Août 12, 2021, 6:40 pm

I think customer service is a lost art.

I was going to compliment you on your reading of books from your shelves, but then I looked at the dates more closely...:)

199EllaTim
Août 12, 2021, 7:16 pm

>194 streamsong: That is annoying! I guess it’s all been automated so no one notices or cares when something goes wrong.

200streamsong
Août 13, 2021, 12:02 pm

>198 BLBera: and >199 EllaTim: Hi Beth! and Ella!

I know the internet providers have probably been very, very busy this year with all the online learning etc, but wouldn't you think someone would have written a line of code sending an automatic email before disconnecting a customer? Luckily my phone is from a different provider so I wasn't entirely removed from the world.

>198 BLBera: Ha Beth! Yes, I am not reading many of my own books this year. I've only read a total of 9 that I owned before January first (ROOTS) and several of those were rereads. I've read 6 that I acquired in 2021 and 53 from the library. I hope to be more mindful this last part of the year and get a few more read.

Yesterday, I picked up four from the library. ;)

It's all youse guys faults. Every time I visit a thread, I add books to my library hold list.

201streamsong
Août 13, 2021, 12:12 pm



65. Hot MoneyDick Francis - 1987
– Dick Francis group read
- Library


Wealthy gold investor Malcom Pembroke has had five wives (including one dead and one recently murdered). He has seven live children (about half with spouses and children of their own). He also has a son who is institutionalized for brain damage. This son was the sole survivor of an automobile accident that killed his mother and brother.

Now someone is trying to kill Malcom.

Recently, he has been spending millions of pounds on frivolous pursuits while his offspring are all scrambling for money.

Could it be that someone in the family wants to inherit Malcom’s money before he spends it all? Would a family member be willing to kill him?

Malcom settles on his estranged son Ian, an amateur race jockey, to help him solve the puzzle and keep him alive.

The horses are almost a secondary story in this novel. The complicated family relationships are what make this story shine – and moves it into the pole position as one of my favorite Dick Francis reads.

202streamsong
Août 13, 2021, 12:27 pm

I have one last review for August - Caste. It may take a day or three to get it written, but then I'll start a new thread. :)

In the meantime, I have hit a bit of a reading block with Apeirogon. It's an amazing story with a unique writing form - but it's not one that I easily pick up when I have a few minutes to read.

203Familyhistorian
Août 14, 2021, 12:11 am

Good to see that your in-person discussion of Caste turned out so much better than you anticipated, Janet. Love the pictures of the foal.

204connie53
Août 14, 2021, 4:24 am

Hi Janet. I'm with you on the brain and age thing. It's very annoying sometimes.

205msf59
Août 14, 2021, 7:56 am

>181 streamsong: I love your thoughts on Chloe Zhao. I did see Songs My Brothers Taught Me. It is a good film but not a great one but you can see her developing her style. I am so glad you loved The Rider.

Happy Saturday, Janet. I hope you are doing well and I hope the foal is doing fine.

206BLBera
Août 14, 2021, 9:32 am

>200 streamsong: I hear you, Janet. My library limits me to 30 holds, and I am embarrassed to admit how many times this year I've reached the limit. It's all LT's fault!

207streamsong
Modifié : Août 16, 2021, 12:36 pm

>203 Familyhistorian: Hi Meg - it's good to see you. Yes, I was very relieved the way the book club discussion of Caste turned out. It's a sad commentary that one can no longer discuss ideas in a public place such as the library book club without having an element of fear.

>204 connie53: I definitely need a youth brain pill, Connie. Prevagen is highly advertised here, but I just checked the online price $80 for 60 pills. Maybe I just need to play more online brain games. :)

208streamsong
Août 16, 2021, 12:51 pm

>205 msf59: Hi Mark! I have Songs My Brothers Taught Me up soon on my Netflix queue. Chloe Zhao is a director to watch for sure.

The colt is doing fine although the high temps and unhealthy smoke levels continue, limiting the amount of time I'm out with the horses.

>206 BLBera: Hi Beth! Your comment made me go count my library holds. I currently have 20, with one ready to pick up (DVD's Season 8 of Heartland), and two in transit. 12 books checked out.

209streamsong
Août 16, 2021, 1:05 pm

I'm still somewhat bogged down but making progress with Apeirogon: A Novel. I'll need to choose a light quick fiction once I get this done.

On Tuesday, the Glacier Conservancy Book Club meets via zoom to discuss Through Glacier Park in 1915 by Mary Roberts Rinehart. It's a short, fun book that I have read several times.

On Wednesday, my new book club will meet to finally discuss The Last Green Valley. Yay for restaurants and meeting to talk books!

I've also started the next selection for next week's Library Book Club: Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope. I had previously read their book, Half the Sky which I enjoyed very much.

210streamsong
Modifié : Août 17, 2021, 2:00 pm

Well, this changed my plans for the day.



There is supposed to be a significant storm coming in this afternoon, but this cottonwood tree came down before the storm hit. Although my drive way is completely blocked, luckily it just stopped short of my pasture fence. And I do have a way that I can exit cross country through the south pasture if I really need to leave.

You can see how dry the grass along the driveway is with the six weeks of prolonged heat. And you can also see that the mountains which should be in the background are totally obscured by forest fire smoke.

211mdoris
Août 17, 2021, 8:54 pm

>210 streamsong: Oh dear Janet. Every day a new challenge Hope you get some help to deal with the cottonwood and get the help SOON!

212streamsong
Août 17, 2021, 10:18 pm

>211 mdoris: Hi Mary! It's frustrating to have things happen that I just don't have the physical ability to deal with.

I plugged in the battery for my little itty bitty chain saw.

And then I called a neighbor who does tree service and hooray! Like magic ! It's all taken care of.

213mdoris
Août 18, 2021, 12:00 am

Well done!

214scaifea
Août 18, 2021, 7:59 am

Oh, wow! I'm so glad you were able to get it taken care of so quickly!

215bell7
Août 18, 2021, 8:09 am

Hooray for helpful neighbors! Glad you were able to get some help taking care of the cottonwood tree.

Looking forward to your review of Caste, and hope the discussion went well!

And I'm in a very similar boat with library books/holds. I had been up to 15 books out, so I returned some (some unread, some read) and am now down to 9, with 16 holds out of a possible 20 (one on the way).

216kidzdoc
Août 18, 2021, 8:14 am

Yikes. Thank goodness for helpful neighbors!

217BLBera
Août 18, 2021, 8:54 am

Glad you got your tree removed, Janet. It's really dry here as well. This morning, the meteorologist says we have an eight-inch deficit for the year! Sunny days are nice, but we need rain.

The fires are terrible.

218karenmarie
Août 18, 2021, 9:26 am

Hi Janet!

>210 streamsong: It’s always something. I’m glad you have another way to get out through the south pasture.

You and Karen – smoke obscuring the mountains.

219jnwelch
Août 18, 2021, 10:27 am

Hi, Janet. I shouldn't have fallen behind. You've been reading all sorts of books i like. I'm a Nnedi Okorafor fan, and enjoyed Remote Control. You're right, it seems like there's more story to be told.

How great to see your review of {Postcolonial Love Poem! That one is a real standout, and remains underread, IMO, even with the Pulitzer.

I always enjoy reading Dick Francis. You're right again, so often the lead is a good guy who goes through an awful lot of pain. I always thought that probably went back to Francis's days as a jockey. I'm sure he rode while banged up more than once.

220streamsong
Août 19, 2021, 12:28 pm

>213 mdoris: Thanks, Mary! In this case the telephone was stronger than my chain saw abilities for sure!

>214 scaifea: It was an utter relief, Amber!

221streamsong
Août 19, 2021, 12:37 pm

>215 bell7: Hi Mary! The discussion of Caste went well. I talked about it a bit in>166 streamsong: if you're interested. I think I finally have my review ready. I'll post it shortly.

>216 kidzdoc: That's the truth, Darryl. He did charge me but I think it was far short of what I was expecting and I was grateful he came the same afternoon.

222streamsong
Août 19, 2021, 12:44 pm

>217 BLBera: Hi Beth: We did get some rain (hooray, hooray) but not the wicked bad storm that was predicted. Temps have dropped into the 50 and it is starting to feel a bit like fall.

>218 karenmarie: Hi Karen! Yes that's the problem with having land; there IS always something unexpected that comes up. Nevertheless, I am happy to still be able to live here.

I have thought about taking down that gate many times since I can't see it from my house and yard area, and for some reason, people mess with it and often leave it open. I had never thought of it as an 'escape route' before. Perhaps it just needs a lock on the gate.

223streamsong
Août 19, 2021, 12:47 pm

>219 jnwelch: Hi Joe - It's good to see you out and about! I hope we're both guessing correctly and that Remote Contnrol has a sequel. I get so many of my favorite suggestions from you.

I'm enjoying the Dick Francis group read - you might enjoy joining in for a book or two. I know, I know - so many books, so little time ....

224streamsong
Août 19, 2021, 12:58 pm



66. Caste: - Isabel Wilkerson - 2020
- RLBC
- purchased 2021


Isabel Wilkerson makes a strong case that racism in America isn’t just racism – it’s actually a caste system. She points out the term ‘race’ is a flexible thing; for example until recently eastern Europeans were not classified as white in the US.

She has eight points that she says define a caste system: divine will and the law of nature; heritability; endogamy and the control of marriage and mating; purity versus pollution; occupational hierarchy; dehumanization and stigma; terror as enforcement; and lastly inherent superioirty versus inherent inferiority.

Those in the lowest caste become both scapegoats and a self-fulfilling prophecy of failure as they are denied opportunity. She proposes that American blacks, can never overcome the caste (color) they were born into, no matter how successful they become until the caste system itself is overthrown.

She parallels the American system with the well known Indian system of caste, with untouchables or brokens, at the bottom of the rung.

She also discusses the caste system in Nazi Germany with Jews on the bottom rung – and makes the astonishing point that the Nuremberg anti-Jewish laws were based on Jim Crow laws in the south. (i.e. no intermarrying between ‘races’; the smallest drop of ‘undesirable blood’ makes one a member of the undesirable caste).

Although personally, I’m not sure I understand the nuances of caste vs race, Wilkerson makes clear the history of discrimination and physical violence against blacks and other non white people in America. Although some advances have been made, I came away from this book realizing that total equality is far too late in coming.

225kidzdoc
Août 20, 2021, 7:07 am

Nice review of Caste, Janet. I'll visit my parents next week, where my copy of Caste is (my father is reading it), and I'll write a review of it while I'm there.

226bell7
Août 20, 2021, 7:21 am

>221 streamsong: oh thanks for pointing out your post on it, Janet, somehow I missed it in quickly trying to catch up. Sometimes the discussions where I don't have to talk much are the best ones, so I'm glad the discussion went smoothly without people coming to protest the pick. And yikes! to the woman coming to dinner afterwards and telling you she didn't think she needed to vaccinate because she'd already had covid.

227msf59
Août 20, 2021, 7:27 am

Happy Friday, Janet. Good review of Caste. I plan on getting to that one. Sorry, about the cottonwood, drought and smoke. I hope things improve.

228streamsong
Août 21, 2021, 1:10 pm

>225 kidzdoc: Thanks, Darryl. I'll be quite interested to see what you thought of Caste.

In the meantime, I have started Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn for this week's book club. It's an interesting look at how America has failed the blue collar worker and how Trump was able to exploit that as a basis for being perceived as a populist president.

229streamsong
Août 21, 2021, 1:16 pm

>226 bell7: No problem, Mary. I miss and misremember so much of what people have said on their threads.

I was very relieved that there was no ardently held opposition to the discussion of Caste. I'm not good at holding my own in debate - I tend to freeze up and lose my train of thought.

>227 msf59: Hi Mark! Thanks for the complement on the review. I think you'll be intrigued by Caste when you read it. I learned a lot from it ... even if what I learned wasn't very pleasant, so I can't say that you'll 'enjoy' it. It's intriguing and thought provoking.

230BLBera
Août 21, 2021, 2:02 pm

Great comments on Caste, Janet. That is on my "read-soon" pile.

231streamsong
Août 21, 2021, 2:06 pm

It's a cold, rainy day in the mid 50's here today. It's a welcome relief from the heat and smoke!

But I decided not to attend a regional Celtic festival with a friend. I may go tomorrow although, as it's the last day, I'll miss out as some of the bagpipe bands will have left early.

232streamsong
Août 22, 2021, 11:41 am

>230 BLBera: Hi Beth! Although Caste is not an easy read, it's very worthwhile. I'll be interested to see what you think when you get to it.
Ce sujet est poursuivi sur Streamsong #4; Heading into Fall.