Mamie's 2023 Madness, page 3

A scene from To Have and Have Not. My Dad and I shared a love of Humphrey Bogart, and this was a favorite movie of ours. My Dad would have been 97 today.

I did not mean to fall off the threads so thoroughly in 2022, but life got away from me for a bit.

I'm Mamie. I love that Mary Oliver poem about believing in kindness and in mischief - me, too. I try to squeeze in as much of both as I can in a day. I also have a weakness for snark. And wine. And old movies. For 2023, I am just going to let my mood determine my reading journey.

Currently reading:



Books Completed:

1. The Lost Soul by Olga Tokarczuk, Illustrations by Joanna Concejo, translation by Antonia Lloyd-Jones - 3 stars
2. The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty, audiobook narrated by Eudora Welty - 4.5 stars
3. Hot Milk by Deborah Levy - 4 stars
4. Vanishing Fleece by Clara Parkes, audiobook narrated by Clara Parkes - 4 stars
5. The Distant Echo by Val McDermid - 4 stars, (Karen Pirie, book 1)
6. Bleeding Heart Yard by Elly Griffiths - 4 stars (Harbinger Kaur, book 3)
7. Watership Down by Richard Adams, audiobook narrated by Peter Capaldi - 4.5 stars
8. The Weirdies Get Weirder by Michael Buckley, audiobook narrated by Kate Winslet - 4.5 stars (The Weirdies, book 2)
9. Gun, With Occasional Music by Jonathan Lethem - 4.5 stars
10. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum - 3 stars
11. Bel-Ami by Guy de Maupassant, translation by Margaret Mauldon - 3 stars
12. Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren - 3.5 stars
13. Dubliners by James Joyce, audiobook narrated by Gerard Doyle - 4.5 stars
14. Candide by Voltaire, translation by Theo Cuffe - 4 stars
15. The Lost for Words Bookshop by Stephanie Butland, audiobook narrated by Imogene Church - 5 stars - Katie's Dirty Dozen
16. The Twilight Man Written and illustrated by Koren Shame - 4 stars - recommended by Mark
17. The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo, translation by Louise Heal Kawai - 3 stars, (Kosuke Kindaichi, book 1)
18. Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells - 4 stars (Murderbot Diaries, book 6)
19. Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? written and narrated by Seamus O'Reilly - 5 stars - recommended by Richard, Katie recommended the audio

This should do it - next one's yours!

Morning! It's raining here. Rae has cinnamon rolls in the oven, and the house smells most yum. Yesterday we got a lot done, and the furniture delivery company called and asked if they could deliver Abby's new bed and mattress a day early, so that was delightful.

Last night we watched The Glass Onion which was full of fabulous. We all loved it. Now I want to rewatch the first movie.

On the reading front not much to report. I didn't get any reading done during the day as Birdy, Abby, and I played two rounds of Everdell in the morning. In the afternoon, we worked on the house, so...In the wee small hours I finished off Bel-Ami. *happy dance* I am glad to have read it, but I will not be reading it again.

The coffee today is hazelnut.

We really enjoyed The Glass Onion, too. I can't wait for the next one!

Morning, Katie! Me, too, with wanting the nest one. It was great fun.

Happy new one!

>7 figsfromthistle: Thank you, Anita!

Happy new thread!

>9 ChelleBearss: Thanks, Chelle!

Hi Mamie, I am way behind on your "Madness, part 2" so catching up and dropped in for cinnamon buns. 😋

I saw you gave 3* for Bel-Ami. I tried reading that (or a different translation) and couldn't finish it. I forget why now, so is there a review you wrote on Talk and didn't post on the book page?

I looked at the most recent reviews, and one says "If you read this book, avoid this edition and go for one of the other translations" as the opening sentence. How does one find the translator of any edition to know which one might be better?

Happy number three, dear Mamie.

I must say that your remembrances of your Dad and the obvious love and devotion you have for him has been a source of inspiration for me. Losing my own Mum back in 2021 and not being able to be with her at the time focused my own mind on parental affections.

He would be very proud of you all I'm sure. He certainly had a great taste in movies. xx

>11 SandyAMcPherson: Hello, Sandy! Thanks for stopping in.

I have not yet reviewed Bel-Ami. I just finished it in the wee small early hours of the morning, so still thinking about what I want to say. Basically, I think it is well written and Maupassant is good at setting scenes that seem to come to life, but the story drags. I did almost give up on it, but wanted to see how it played out, so ended up setting it aside and reading something else and then going back to it.

I saw that review, and wondered if I would have liked a different translation more, but I am not wading back in there to find out. The translator is usually listed after the author. As far as knowing which translation to go with, I usually try to read a bunch of reviews to see if there are comments about that. This one I just picked up in a Kindle sale, so took what was cheap. You can also just ask here on LT because usually someone can recommend one. I know that translations can make a huge difference - I found that out with War and Peace. I was listening to one translation and reading another, and the audio one was just so much better.

Happy new thread, Mamie. Already! You are zipping through the books and movies this year.

>12 PaulCranswick: Hello, Paul! Thank you for the kind words - that is so lovely of you to say. My Dad and I were very close, and I mostly had him to myself during my teen years as my sisters are much older than I am and had all moved out by then. I know that he was always proud of me, and that he would be so delighted with the kind and thoughtful individuals that his grandchildren have become. He would love that they love Bogart as much as he did, and thus the torch is passed...

I am sorry you did not get to be with your Mum at the end - that is heart-breaking, but I know she knew how very much you loved her. To be loved is such a powerful thing.

>14 BLBera: Hello, Beth! Thank you. The year is off to an excellent start, and I am so happy about that.

>15 Crazymamie: Indeed and thank you for that, Mamie. Of Mum's possessions she had two large comfortable reading chairs that Hani had delivered to our Sheffield apartment yesterday. (Mum's house has just been sold). Hani went with Mum when she bought the chairs and she wanted us to have them and it seemed a bit surreal seeing them in our small apartment thanks to Hani's picture to me yesterday.

I know you're enjoying lots of happy memories of your dad today. I like that our delightful grandson shares his birthday.

I'm most impressed by your list of books completed! Especially since I'm still working on #2 -- they're chunks, but still I'm sure you've read many more pages than me so far this year. Once I get to the ship, however, I hope/plan to catch up :)

Happy new thread Mamie!

Happy new thread and enjoy your happy memories of your Dad on his birthday! I know how close you were and how much you loved him. : )

Hi Mamie! I'm thinking of you today as you remember your wonderful dad. I hope your memories of the time you spent with him bring you joy today. I have an extra box of Puffs I can share with you, too.

>17 PaulCranswick: You are welcome, my friend. Reading chairs seem like the perfect remembrance! What a lovely thing to have from her.

>18 RebaRelishesReading: I am, thank you, Reba! I like that they share a birthday also.

Several of the books that I have read could fit inside your David Copperfield. I have been lucky to have gotten good quality time for reading so far this month.. Crossing my fingers that once you get to the ship you get as much reading time as you want.

>19 quondame: Thank you, Susan!

>20 Berly: Thanks, Kim! I also gave out gifts this year, so that was fun.

>21 cbl_tn: Hello, Carrie! Thank you so much for that. Most appreciated.

Happy new thread, Mamie! Hope you're having a lovely weekend!

>24 Storeetllr: Thank you, Mary! So far so good with the weekending.

Happy new thread! We did a Knives Out/Glass Onion marathon a couple of weeks ago - loved ‘em both!

>26 drneutron: Thanks, Jim! How fun to watch them together. We loved the first one, and the second one is just as good.

Happy new thread Mamie. Yes please to a cinnamon bun.
Love & hugs for Dad's birthday. The best of them leave a hole, that's for sure.

>28 Helenliz: Thank you, Helen! The cinnamon buns were delicious.

They do, don't they? I love that Leonard Cohen song that says there is a crack in everything and that is how the light gets in. Thank you so much for the kind words.

Morning, Everyone! It's pouring here, and I love me a rainy day. Not much on the agenda except to watch a movie together later today - we meant to do this yesterday, but the day went sideways in a good way, so...Yesterday morning the girls and I played a game of Everdell - Birdy won again as she is a mastermind with strategy. In the afternoon we watched football and Rae made a huge batch of Chex Mix, which made the house smell most yum. In the evening we watched more football.

On the reading front, I finished up Pippi Longstocking while watching football. In the wee small hours I started The Honjin Murders, which is the first book in Seishi Yokomizo's Kosuke Kindaichi series. They are translated from Japanese by Louise Heal Kawai.

The coffee today is hazelnut.

Mamie, I feel it is incumbent upon me to note that you are in a hazelnut coffee rut ;-)

Thank you for pointing that out, Katie. The coffee is usually hazelnut on the weekends because that is Craig's favorite. He drinks iced coffee and hot tea on work mornings, and so Abby and I suit ourselves with the hot coffee. On the weekends we indulge him.

>30 Crazymamie: I listened to that last year - and you've reminded me I meant to follow that up. Hope you enjoy it.

How was it on audio, Helen?

Morning, Mamie! No rain here, but it is predicted for the afternoon/evening. I guess I'm ok with that. Don't have outdoor activities on the agenda, heh. Reading, some shop time, and football on today's to do list. I hope I'll get some time with my children on Zoom. I should do some commenting on the books I've read so far. Focus focus.

>35 weird_O: Morning, Bill! It was raining so hard this morning that when I first looked outside I thought it was a thick fog. Your plans for the day sound perfect. Crossing my fingers for the Zoom time.

Focus. Or don't. It's your day, Oh Weird One, do what is happy making.

>4 Crazymamie: I can't decide whether to rewatch the first one first Mamie.

>30 Crazymamie: Hmm I think I bought one of his other novels last year.

>37 Caroline_McElwee: You don't need to watch it before watching the second one, if that is what you mean, Caroline. I have watched the first one several times just because I like it so much.

Puskin Vertigo offers several of his novels. There are four books in that particular series that have been translated into English. Not sure if he has written other series or not.

>13 Crazymamie: Thanks for this advice about translations! I usually can find my way, but as in my movie title hunt, it sure paid off to have LT help!

Happy new thread, Mamie. I remember reading The Honjin Murders. It was interesting to see how different the culture was from western society.

Happy third thread, Mamie!

Hi Mamie! Happy new thread to you.

>1 Crazymamie: It still amazes me that Bacall was only 19 when she starred in this movie, 25 years younger than Bogart. I'm so glad your dad were close, and grateful that he gave us our lovely Mamie.

>4 Crazymamie: Ooh, cool. We’ll try to watch it this week.

Morning, Mamie. Happy New Thread! You are on a roll, my friend. I also loved To Have and Have Not. The director Howard Hawks is one of my favorites. I hope you had a good weekend.

It's Monday, folks, so remember not to look it directly in the eye. Looks like we might get some sun today, which is kind of a bummer as I was enjoying the gloom. Yesterday was lovely and lazy. We did a double feature for my Dad's birthday remembrance - All About Eve and Dial M for Murder. The girls had not seen All About Eve before, and they loved it.

Today I have several errands to run, which I am hoping to do this morning. Other than that just basic household stuff. We want to start moving the stuff out of Abby's old room today. Craig is going to replace the old carpet in there with the same cork flooring that he put in Abby's new room.

On the reading front, I listened to three more stories in Dubliners, so now I just have the final story left. In the wee small hours I read from The Honjin Murders.

The coffee today is the Reading Blend, and it's the last of the bag. *sob*

>39 SandyAMcPherson: You are welcome, Sandy. Yep, often just asking a question in this group gets you the answer you are looking for.

>40 Familyhistorian: Thanks, Meg! I am really liking it so far. So true about the culture differences.

>41 FAMeulstee: Thank you, Anita!

>42 karenmarie: Morning, Karen! Thanks.

Right?! And what a great performance. The kind words are most appreciated - thank you, my friend.

You will love it. Daniel Craig's wardrobe cracks me up - from Bond to this:



>43 msf59: Morning, Mark! Welcome home! Hawks made a lot of great movies, that's for sure. I love that he made almost the exact same movie twice - Rio Bravo and El Dorado.

Yep, and both of those Hawk westerns were very good. He was the Man!!

That's a great double feature! I'm glad the girls liked AAE.

I hope you love the last story in Dubliners as much as I do :)

>47 msf59: We also like both movies, but El Dorado is our favorite.

>48 katiekrug: Morning, Katie! It was a lot of fun.

I am hoping to get to that last story today - I will report back.

Mamie, what a lovely tribute to your dad. I’m a fan of Bogart also. *We’re No Angels* is one of my favorites.
Have a great day!

Happy new thread, Mamie! We loved Glass Onion over here too :)

>50 Oregonreader: Thank you, Jan. We're No Angels!! There's one you don't hear mentioned very often. I bet the last time I saw it was with my Dad. I need to see if I can track it down for the girls and I to watch. Thanks so much for mentioning it.

>51 curioussquared: Thank you, Natalie! It was so much fun - we can't wait for the next one.

Morning, Mamie. Not much happening on my end. Loving my current reads and getting reading to head out for my "Rehab" duties. Enjoy your day.

Morning, Mark! Not much happening here, either. Hoping your day is full of happy and that the books continue to be excellent.

Morning Mamie! 3 cheers to thread #3!
Have you watched The Mindy Project on Netflix? I'm really enjoying it.

Have a good one!!

Morning, Lynda! Thank you. I have not seen The Mindy Project - I will check it out.

Hoping your day is also full of goodness.

Morning! Got my errands run yesterday, did some laundry, tidied the kitchen, and made baked potatoes for lunch. I'm blaming Katie's thread. Not much on the agenda for today - vacuuming and dusting. Ugh. We need to get started moving stuff out of Abby's old room, which is going to make a mess of the downstairs for a bit. Well, more of a mess. Heh.

Last night we watched another episode of The Brokenwood Mysteries, and then after Rae went to bed I re-watched two episodes of The Sandhamn Murders.

On the reading front, I finished up Dubliners - I really loved that last story. More on that later as I am hoping to catch up on reviews here. In the wee small hours, I read more from The Honjin Murders - very good so far and I am impressed with the level of details.

The coffee today is gingerbread.

"baked potatoes for lunch"

You're welcome :)

>58 katiekrug: *grin* They were delicious, so thank you, Katie!

>46 Crazymamie: That made me smile too Mamie, he looks like he is wearing a deckchair. I watched it at the weekend. Although I think I enjoyed the first one best, it was fun.

>60 Caroline_McElwee: We laughed out loud when we saw him in that, Caroline. I want to rewatch the first one so I can decide which one I like better.

I think I liked the second Knives Out better, but that may be because we loved the anti-Elon Musk-ness of it :)

I loved that, too, Katie. It's been too long since I watched the first one, so I need to rewatch before making a decision.

That last story in Dubliners is worth the ticket price all by itself - I can see why you collect different editions of this. It's a perfectly encapsulated evening - I felt like I was there. Reminded me of Last Night at the Lobster with how the writing pulls you in and makes you feel like you are a part of the story.

>57 Crazymamie: I may well join the baked potato gang.

Today's tea has mostly been gingerbread.

>63 Crazymamie: - We saw it in the theater on a weekday afternoon. I told TW he should feel guilty about delighting in the mockery of the man who made his weekday afternoon movie date possible through enforced sabbatical from the working world, but he just laughed :)

So glad you loved 'The Dead,' too!

>32 Crazymamie: My husband Kerry is also a hazelnut coffee lover. I, on the other hand, hate coffee. Maybe I should start posting teas of the day?

Have a terrific Tuesday, Mamie! I love seeing Bogie and Baby up top :)

I'd post the coffee brew o' the day, but it'd be the same, day-after-day: French Roast. (I just poured the second cup o' this day into my flask.)

I finished What Is Left the Daughter yesterday, Mamie. You should read it. Unequivocally.

Now reading How to Be Safe by Tom McAllister. I got it from my younger son who saw it on my short Christmas wish list on Amazon. It was there because I took a mention of it by KatieKrug as a bb (she may have intended to be such or maybe not). Not exactly what I expected (but what did I expect, hummm?).

Stay safe. (Heh.)

ETA Andy Borowitz:

Offering his full-throated support for Representative George Santos, Rudolph Giuliani said that “it’s time for Republicans to pass the torch to a new generation of liars.”

“I get why some Republicans are knocking the kid—they’re envious of his raw talent,” Giuliani told Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity. “But we should be showing him our respect. I mean, look at this kid’s body of work. He could turn out to be the Michael Jordan of lying.”

>64 Helenliz: Come on, Helen, you know you want to. Bake. The Potato.

I adore gingerbread tea. I'm hoping it was the Teappigs one.

>65 katiekrug: Made me laugh, too, Katie!

>66 alcottacre: Stasia, I would love if you would post your tea choice daily.

Thank you. Hoping your Tuesday also reeks of terrific.

>68 Crazymamie: It was indeed. >:-D

>67 weird_O: Hello, Bill! And what is your favorite brand of French Roast?

I promise to read it. I mean, how could I possibly resist Unequivocally?

Your touchstone is wrong - I'm guessing you meant How to be Safe. I was not familiar with it, so I looked it up. Katie and Suzanne both gave it 5 stars, and it is on my Dirty Dozen list from 2018, so...

Politics these days makes me sad and also makes me want to vomit at the same time. I feel like we are living in our own dystopia.

>69 Helenliz: *grin* One of my very favorite teas.

>46 Crazymamie: Daniel Craig's outfit -- LOL!! And tea talk and potatoes. I'm a happy visitor.

>72 Berly: Hello, Kim! I'm am thrilled to help to provide you with some happy. Somebody really had fun with Craig's wardrobe.

Oh, How To Be Safe is such a good, interesting book! Glad to see Bill is reading it.

ET fix touchstone.

>74 katiekrug: I didn't remember anything about it until I looked it up, Katie. Rereading your review of it makes me want to get to it soonish.

Fixed the Touchstone. Thanks you, Mamie. And Katie.

It’s too late for lunch today but I’m thinking I’ll have potatoes for dinner. I even have some sour cream to go with it!

Thank you, menu solved.

Wasn’t Glass Onion fun!?! I wish Knives Out was streaming free somewhere. I’ll have to get the dvd from the library since I’m not sure which one I liked better. A double feature would be fun.

What a lovely way to honor and remember your father with your kids!

>76 weird_O: You're welcome, Bill.

>77 Oregonreader: Hello, Jan! Ha! Happy to help with the menu planning.

>78 Copperskye: It was, Joanne! We actually purchased Knives Out because we loved it so much, so I just need to make time for a rewatch. I do think a double feature would be full of fabulous.

Thank you.

Morning, All! We're expecting high winds and storms today, so I am planning on just hanging. I have a crazy headache which I know is weather related. Yesterday was good - I got things done and even snagged a big chunk of reading time in the afternoon. Not sure what today will bring - I'm planning on just taking it as it comes. Maybe bake some cookies or muffins. I'm leaning towards pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, which are a favorite of mine. I like to sprinkle toasted chopped hazelnuts on the top so that as they bake, the nuts become embedded in the muffin top.

Last night Rae and I watched two episodes of Agatha Raisin, and then I rewatched another episode of The Sandhamn Murders.

On the reading front, I listened to some more of The Lost for Words Bookshop while cleaning. In the afternoon I read Candide - I've had this in the stacks for awhile, so I happy to have finally made time for it. Bonus is that my copy is a Penguin Deluxe Classic edition, so deckled edge pages. *squee* In the wee small hours I read from The Honjin Murders.

No coffee yet today. Currently I'm drinking GingerAle because my headache is making me feel slightly nauseous. Tragic, I know. Perhaps coffee will happen later.

Good morning Mamie! I missed all of yesterday on your thread. Whew, I'm out of breath now. Those muffins sound amazing. I hope the headache passes quickly so you can move on to the all-important coffee!

Morning, Mamie. Happy Wednesday. I hope the headache departs quickly. It is currently snowing here and will through the day. We have only had just a few inches for the entire month so we are due. It looks like it will be a book day.

I watched Notorious yesterday. Sooooooo good and Ingrid Bergman has never looked lovelier.

Hi Mamie, and happy Wednesday to you.

>80 Crazymamie: Darned barometric pressure! I'm sorry about the headache. I had to look it up, but I read Candide in 2008. I thought it was more recent than that. I gave it 3.5 stars.

I always smile when I read about your deckle-edge-pages fangirling.

Boo to the headache! I hope it leaves you alone soon. The muffins sound like a good anti-dote.

I read Candide several years ago and was a little surprised how much I enjoyed it. I only gave it 3 stars, apparently (just checked), but I remember it fondly.

>81 lauralkeet: Morning, Laura! The muffins are most yum. We used to get pumpkin chocolate chip muffins from our favorite coffee house in Indiana all the time, and they used slivered almonds on the tops of their muffins. I tried it with hazelnuts the last time I made them just for fun, and I really loved them like that. Abby and Rae prefer the almonds, so that's what I put on theirs, but the rest of us love the hazelnuts.

Thank you for those good wishes.

>82 msf59: Morning, Mark! Happy Wednesday to you. Thank you - me, too, with he headache departing. Snow! That is most exciting. It's pouring here. And hooray for a book day - reading and watching the snow fall sound like a perfect day to me.

Notorious is my very favorite Hitchcock film! I need to rewatch that one soon.

>83 karenmarie: Morning, Coffee Sister! Happy Wednesdaying.

Yep - it's the change in barometric pressure that triggers the headaches.

I temporarily gave Candide four stars, but that could change. I am still pondering it.

The deckled edge pages get me every single time. They make me so happy.

>84 katiekrug: Morning, Katie! Boo indeed. Thanks for the good wishes. It has refused to budge so far.

I'm not sure what I was expecting with Candide, but I read it in one big gulp. Satire does not always work for me, but this one cracked me up.

>85 Crazymamie: remind me where you used to live in Indiana, Mamie? I grew up in Cincinnati, went to Purdue, and had a co-op job in Evansville so I know the state fairly well. I'm guessing you were either in Indy or "The Region," as it's called.

>87 lauralkeet: I am originally from Fort Wayne, Laura. Craig and I lived in Indy for several years, and that is where Rae was born. Then we moved to Yorktown, but we had a Muncie address because we lived on a county road. Craig did his first two years of medical school at Purdue.

>80 Crazymamie: That's quite a cover for Candide! I read it in high school, it was assigned in my AP English class. I loved it. As you said in >86 Crazymamie: satire doesn't always work for me either but this one hit the mark.

>89 ursula: Yes, and the cover is very funny, Ursula. I felt like I was reading A Series of Unfortunate Events, but for adults.

>88 Crazymamie: thanks Mamie! Despite my claims of knowing the state well, I’ve never been to Ft Wayne or Muncie. But I can find them on a map 😃

Muncie is the home of Ball State University. I have not been in either city for more than a decade, so I am sure a lot has changed since I lived there.

11. Bel-Ami by Guy de Maupassant, translation by Margaret Mauldon - 3 stars

"How nice to be able to use religion like an umbrella-cum-sunshade. When it's fine, you've a walking stick, when it's sunny, a parasol, when it rains, an umbrella and, if you don't go out, you can leave it in the hall."

Set in Paris, this is the story of a man's ever growing appetite for money and position. It is easy at the beginning of the story to feel sorry for him, but as he climbs his way up on the backs of the very people who helped him out, it becomes harder and harder to root for him. He is corrupted by his greed and finds it easier and easier to excuse his own behavior. I loved the descriptions of both place and character in this novel, but the story loses its pacing part way through and tends to drag in parts. I thought the ending was perfect. I am glad to have read it, but it is not one that I will read again.

12. Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren - 3.5 stars

I remember watching the movies made from these books when I was young. And the book is one I think I would have loved to have read out loud to me like our teacher often did in second grade. Pippi is such a unique character - she is only nine and lives alone and is the strongest girl in the world. She is fun and daring and kind. What adds to the book's charm are the black and white illustrations scattered throughout the story:

>80 Crazymamie: I have that very edition of Candide, Mamie. Deckled edges indeed. Story's not bad either.

ETA: I occasionally listened to WOWO, back in the AM radio days, when you could tune in to far away stations at night, thanks to Fifty-Thousand Watts Clear Channel!! In eastern PA, I could listen to WLS from Chicago and WOWO in Fort Wayne and a station in Buffalo, WKBW.

13. Dubliners by James Joyce, audiobook narrated by Gerard Doyle - 4.5 stars

"A few light taps upon the pane made him turn to the window. It had begun to snow again. He watched sleepily the flakes, silver and dark, falling obliquely against the lamplight. The time had come for him to set out on his journey westward. Yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly upon the Bog of Allen and, farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves. It was falling, too, upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill where Michael Furey lay buried. It lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses and headstones, on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns. His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead."

I have this is a gorgeous Penguin Deluxe Classics edition with deckled edge pages. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Gerard Doyle while following along in print. Doyle's narration is full of fabulous, and I highly recommend the audiobook as a way to immerse yourself into these stories. There are 15 short stories in this collection, and all of them are good, but some of them are excellent. My favorite one was the final one titled "The Dead". It perfectly encapsulates a single evening, and it does it so well that I felt like I was there.

>96 weird_O: And aren't the little cartoons on the cover so funny and clever, Bill?! I especially love the character chart on the inside flap:

14. Candide by Voltaire, translation by Theo Cuffe - 4 stars

"'Do you believe,' said Candide, 'that men have always massacred each other as they do to-day, that they have always been liars, cheats, traitors, ingrates, brigands, idiots, thieves, scoundrels, gluttons, drunkards, misers, envious, ambitious, bloody-minded, calumniators, debauchees, fanatics, hypocrites, and fools?'

Do you believe,' said Martin, 'that hawks have always eaten pigeons when they have found them?"

This was very fun. As I mentioned to Ursula, it reminded me of A Series of Unfortunate Events if that series had been written for adults. I was delighted that people you thought were dead kept turning back up.

Sorry to hear about the weather headache.

wow, lots of reading there.

>100 Helenliz: Thank you, Helen. It's beginning to ease back a bit finally.

I'm just now getting around to writing down a few thoughts about the books I had finished but not posted. January has been very kind to me reading-wise.

>80 Crazymamie: I'm sorry about your headache - I know how that can trash a day.
Candide was one of those stories I read long after I was familiar with some of its elements because of my mother's French obsession and the Leonard Bernstein musical. She made many references to it and quoted it regularly.

Well, your recent books took me down memory lane: childhood (Pippi), high school (Candide) and even college (Bel-Ami)!! That leaves Dubliners for me to read in adulthood. : )

You’ve reminded me of Candide which I haven’t read since college days. Too long ago to even think of. I hope I can find your edition. Love the cover.

Hope your headache is better.

I commiserate on the headache. I have had a migraine all day today. It has also been snowing heavily all day here, still is. I think I could do a better and more accurate job of weather prediction than most of those guys on tv...

>97 Crazymamie: & >99 Crazymamie: Great books both and you got such wonderful covers to enjoy them by!

Headaches are no fun and have hopefully been banished by now. xx

I hope by the time you read this, you headache is a distant memory.
>99 Crazymamie: Is this a graphic novel version of Candide? I read Candide ages ago but I don't think I truly appreciated it. It's probably time to look into this one.

>45 Crazymamie: I think Benoit Blanc was rocking a whole different wardrobe in Glass Onion. At least that's how it seemed to me.

The Candide characters are fun!

Morning, Mamie. Sweet Thursday. We did get a few inches of snow and it was wet and heavy. Bree and Sean are going to Florida for a long weekend. Bree will drop Jack off here later today and we get to hang with him for a few days. You know we will love it but it will be a bit exhausting too. Wish us luck.

Morning! I just have a low grade headache today, so hooray for that. Last night Craig and Rae brought us home Mexican takeaway which was much appreciated. I mostly just took it easy yesterday - stayed in my jammies, hung out in the Big Bed and read. In the evening, Rae and I watched an episode of Brokenwood Mysteries - we just started season two.

On the reading front, I finished listening to The Lost for Words Bookshop - it made me cry, and this will be my first five star read of the year. Thank you, Katie, for recommending this one. It was full of fabulous. I think up next on audio will be Did Ye Hear Mammy Died, which was a recommendation from Richard. Katie said it was great on audio narrated by the author, so I am going that route. In print I started The Stone Diaries by Carol Shield - another of my Penguin Deluxe Classics, and it pulled me right in. Late in the afternoon I was cruising the threads, and I saw the GN review that Mark wrote for The Twilight Man: Rod Sterling and the Birth of Television, so I went to add it to my Amazon list and discovered that I could read it for free on Birdy's Comixology subscription, so I did. Very well done, and the artwork is so perfect for the story. Thanks, Mark for bringing this one to my attention. In the evening, I read the next story in Claire Keegan's Antartica - these are sad, so I am spacing them out. Keegan's writing is breath-taking. In the wee small hours, I read some more in The Honjin Murders - really liking this one.

The coffee today is Cafe Du Monde.

>102 quondame: Thank you, Susan. Luckily, even though I never got rid of the headache, I did manage to lose the nausea. And it was a dark and gloomy day, so no bright light to contend with.

I love that your mom quoted Candide. Did you like it?

>103 Berly: Kim, I am happy to have taken you on a trip down memory lane - how fun. And you saved the best one for last - good job!

>104 Oregonreader: Jan, I am also hoping you can find my edition. I love those Penguin Deluxe Classic editions. One of my favorite things.

>105 RebaRelishesReading: It is better today, Reba, thank you.

>106 jessibud2: Sorry about your migraine, Shelley. Hoping it is gone now. I hear you about the weather predicting. Abby and I are both sensitive to changes in barometric pressure.

>107 PaulCranswick: Agreed, Paul. I love both of those covers.

Thank you. Not completely gone, but much better today. I don't feel like I have a vise on my head, so that is happy making.

Hi Coffee Sister! I see that today’s a coffee day after yesterday’s barometric-pressure-no-coffee-morning, although I’m sorry you haven’t completely gotten rid of the headache.

>111 Crazymamie: Yay for yesterday's Mexican takeaway, jammies, and hanging out in the Big Bed. Yum for Café Du Monde coffee.

>108 Carmenere: Thank you, Lynda.

Nope, not a GN version - the cover just features a cartoon format. Now I am wondering if there is a GN version...

>109 Familyhistorian: Well, Meg, he was on an island, so we are seeing him in vacation wardrobe. Heh.

I had a lot of fun with Candide, and the character map made me laugh out loud.

>110 msf59: Morning, Mark! Sweet Thursday. How did we get to Thursday again so soon? Hooray for the snow - not fun to shovel when it is heavy and wet, so my sympathies there. But so pretty to watch fall and to see spread out on the ground when it is new.

How fun to have Jack all to yourselves for the weekend, but I also get the part about it being slightly exhausting. Good luck to you, my friend, although I know you do not need it. The good think about being the grandparent is that you get to give them back. Heh.

>114 karenmarie: Morning, Coffee Sister! The coffee is delicious, and a most welcome treat after yesterday. Thanks concerning the headache. I am used to it, so I can handle the low grade kind of background noise that the current headache provides. Much, much better than yesterday.

It was so lovely to just have dinner brought home to us. And jammies and the Big Bed are always a comfort. When Craig and I first upgraded to a king size bed, the kids were young, and they were so impressed by the size that they called it The Big Bed, and we still refer to it that way. It has had many a story read out loud in it and many a movie watched. It's like an old friend.

The Lost for Words Bookshop also made me cry. I hope you love "Mammy" as much as I did!

And The Stone Diaries is an all-time favorite of mine. I also have that beautiful edition - I read an old used copy I had and then wanted a nicer one since it became a favorite :)

Lots of good reading/listening ahead for you!

Morning, Katie - I was just over at your place!

I absolutely loved The Lost for Words Bookshop - perfect marriage of book and narrator. Bittersweet and sad, but also hopeful which is not always easy to pull off. I am very excited to get to "Mammy".

The Stone Diaries is part of your Dirty Dozen - you had mentioned on someone else's thread that it was a favorite of yours, and I added it to your DD back then. I just checked, and it was back in 2020. I love how it just pulls you right into its pages.

January has been such a joy. It's wonderful to have my reading mojo back and to be back here - I missed all of you so much last year.

>118 Crazymamie: - We are glad you are back :)

I'm also having a good reading month. I probably just jinxed February with that, but oh well....

>119 katiekrug: Thank you so much, Katie. You cracked me up - I think February will be full of fabulous for both of us, so there.

>97 Crazymamie: There is a fine film version of 'The Dead' by John Huston, Mamie.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dead_(1987_film)

I saw you saw...what I bought yesterday. Giddy-ness.

>121 Caroline_McElwee: Oh! Thanks for that, Caroline! I have added it to my queue.

>122 weird_O: Indeed I did. You did good, Oh Weird One.

>112 Crazymamie: It's hard to say, as my memories of it are all mixed up with the opera. I don't think it was the sort of story I went for then, and probably not so much now either, a young man sent out into the world to show how brilliant the author is.

>118 Crazymamie: Likewise, Mamie.

It is lovely to see you back and the mojo with you. I am also having a good reading month and it isn't quite over yet!

Hope the headache is so low grade that it disappears off the scale.

>124 quondame: Gotcha. It worked for me because it was so short.

>125 PaulCranswick: Paul, thank you for that. January has been full of fabulous. Glad that you are also having a month filled with good reading.

The headache is gone today, so your good wishes worked.

I am trying to figure out how I got 60 posts behind (again!)

>99 Crazymamie: Candide was one of the classics I wanted to get read last year, but never did. I will have to see if I can manage to get to it this year instead. Thanks for the reminder, Mamie!

>111 Crazymamie: I also enjoyed The Lost for Words Bookshop when I read it. I am glad to hear that the book worked so well for you!

I really need to track down Antarctica as soon as I read the Keegan book already here, Foster.

>126 Crazymamie: Glad to hear that the headache has gone!

" It's wonderful to have my reading mojo back and to be back here."

^But not nearly as much as we love having you back. 😁

Morning, Mamie. Happy Friday. Our first night with Jackson went fine. A full day with the boy today. I had to DNF a book yesterday. A rare occurrence for me but I am glad I moved on to something lighter and more fun.

I watched Top Gun: Maverick yesterday. A big, dumb movie but I enjoyed it.

Mayhem and Abby hanging out yesterday.

Morning, Everyone! Yesterday was good - spent most of the day on my feet, but I got a lot done. Birdy and I prepped stuff for omelets and salads, and last night we had baked potato bar for dinner. Today Craig and Rae are off, so we are hoping to get some stuff done around the house. I have to take the babies to the vet this morning - Mayhem has an ongoing issue, and Mischief has what we think is chin acne. Anyone have any experience with this?

Last night Rae and I watched an episode of Brokenwood Mysteries and an episode of Madame Blanc.

On the reading front, I started Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? on audio, and it is full of fabulous. In the wee small hours I finished up The Honjin Murders and read the next two stories in Claire Keegan's Antartica.

The coffee today is hazelnut.

>128 msf59: Thank you so much for that, my friend. Greatly appreciated and speaks to my heart.

>129 msf59: Morning, Mark! Happy Friday! Hoping your weekend with Jackson is full of happy. You and Sue might need a nap when it is over. I need to come and see what you DNF. I set stuff aside all the time, but that is because I am a mood reader, so I don't try to power through something that isn't working for me very often.

I have not seen that one yet, and I am so not a Tom Cruise fan, but we will probably watch it at some point.

One of my previous cats had that feline acne on his chin, too. He was one of my first cohort of cats so it has to be at least 20 or more years ago, so I can't remember what the vet told me to do. Probably not much except to try to keep that area of his skin clean. Is Mischief a sloppy eater? That could be part of the problem (and solution). Let us know what the vet says!

>132 jessibud2: Hello, Shelley! Mischief is not a sloppy eater, and they only eat dry food - none of our cats will eat moist food. I goggled to see what could be causing the black spot on her chin, which at first we just thought was dirt. Most of the advise said to keep it clean and the medicine they mentioned happened to be one that we had. Mischief has allergies - she has to get a steroid shot every 5 weeks or so.

Anyway, I had not heard of chin acne until I goggled it. Now I realize that she has had it several times before but it went away on its own. Do you remember if your cat had it coming and going?

Morning, Mamie!

I've never heard of cats having acne. Weird! It sounds like it may be easy to clear up and I hope that's the case with Mischief. My sweet Susie once had what looked like a boil come up on her bottom lip, and that turned out to be allergies and was also easily fixed, thank goodness.

LOVE the photo of Mayhem and Abby!

Morning, Amber! Apparently the acne is just on the chin - I had not heard of it before, and we are just guessing based on internet info. Our vet appointment is at 10am, so I guess we will find out soon.

SO glad you love the photo! I was sitting on the couch next to that chair, and when I looked over they both looked over at me, and it cracked me up, so I took a photo with my phone.

Yes, my cat Buddy had it only on his chin and under it and it did come and go from time to time. I don't remember using any medicine (though I may have; just don't remember). I always feed my cats both wet and dry, though most of them prefer dry, it's true. One of my current cats, Owen, is a real slob when it comes to eating. He seems to enjoy removing some of his food and placing (or dropping) it on the placemat I have under his bowl. But that said, he does a decent job of keeping himself clean so who knows how the acne actually develops. Good luck.

Lovely to see a photo of a grinning Abby! And the cat is cute, too, of course :)

>130 Crazymamie: Awe, what a great pic! I love the books in the background too.

Another voice loving that photo of Abby and Mayhem!

I came. I saw. I'm leaving.

But I be back.

>130 Crazymamie: Great photo Maime. I can see "You again", in Mayhem's eyes.

We are back from the vet. Feel free to skip this. If you remember, Mayhem is our cat that ate all the rubber bands and hair ties and had to have surgery to remove them from his stomach and intestine several years ago. He also struggles with constipation. A few weeks ago he had been throwing up routinely, so we had him back at the vet and they x-rayed him. He was constipated, but they also saw that his kidneys are now two different sizes, which is not good. We had to leave him for several hours while they ran tests and gave him an enema. His tests were all normal (which is good), but the kidney thing could indicate renal lymphoma. They sent him home on meds, and he had been doing great, but he started throwing up again, so back we went today. Constipated even though he had been eating and drinking and still pooping. Another enema, poor baby. So now we change his food and see if we can add probiotics, and they are upping the dose of meds he was on. There is currently no definitive test for renal lymphoma in cats - what they do is remove the kidney and biopsy it, which is a no go for us, since that is too invasive and the prognosis is not good. All this to say could you please send positive thoughts our way - the last two years have been really rough, and Mayhem is only 6.

Mischief does have chin acne. The vet said what we were doing was the right thing, and also gave her a steroid injection (which she was due for in two days anyway). Chin acne is often an allergic reaction to something.

>136 jessibud2: Shelley, Mayhem will do that, too, with his food sometimes. Apparently chin acne is not really about hygiene - it's usually more of an allergy thing, and Mischief is allergic to all kinds of things, so... At least now we know what it is - she has had it before but it went away on its own and did not look as irritated as it did this time. Before it just kind of looked like dirt, and so we just gently cleaned her chin. The ointment might be new since Buddy's time - pet meds have come a long way just in the past few years, it seems like.

>137 katiekrug: Thank you, Katie! Abby was having a pretty good day yesterday, and those are so precious. Mayhem kept jumping up on her for a cuddle, and she was so delighted with him.

>138 Carmenere: Thank, Lynda! That is my Christmas haul in the background.

>139 RebaRelishesReading: Thank you, Reba! I did not know if Mayhem would stay put for me to get the photo, but he was a very good sport yesterday.

>140 weird_O: Thanks. For. Stopping. In. Good to see ya, Oh Weird, One.

>141 Caroline_McElwee: Thank you, Caroline. I know, right?! I was interrupting their private moment.

Yikes. Only 6? Poor thing. One of my previous cats ate through 3 headphone cords before I clued in but nothing bad happened, thank goodness. I was going to suggest Omega 3 fish oil but you said they don't eat wet food. I use it sometimes and mix it into the wet food, to help things go down smoothly. Poor Mayhem. And also that gel from a tube, sometimes called Laxatone or Petromalt. They say to squeeze a blob onto your finger and scrape it behind their upper teeth however, I just put it onto my finger and Theo licks it clean. Owen has nothing to do with it, so it's a hit or miss type of thing. I sure hope things work out for Mayhem.

Thank you, Shelley. Yep - only 6. Someone dumped him and his siblings behind a business that one of my son's friends worked at, and he scooped the kitties up and found them all homes. He knew that Rae had been wanting a tabby, so he called to see if we wanted to come look. It was late at night and Rae was already asleep, so Daniel and I went and took a look and brought her one home as a surprise. He was so little we had to bottle feed him at first. Here he is with Mercy:



He is on Lactulose, and the vet said he will probably just have to stay on it.

Hoping sweet Mayhem bounces back quickly under the new regimen. We've been through all sorts of ordeals with pet cats so I can relate and sympathize.

Lovely pic of Abby!

>147 lauralkeet: Thank you, Laura. It's always something, isn't it?

Glad you like the photo!

>146 Crazymamie: - Oh my goodness. Only my first 2 were ever that small. They were littermates when I brought them home at 6 weeks old. My favourite pic is of me holding one in each palm. All my other were adopted as bigger cats.

>142 Crazymamie: I love the photo of Abby and Mayhem — such a happy pic!

And I'm so sorry Mayhem is having a rough go of it at the moment. It's a shame there's no diagnostic remedy except an invasive surgery, but we will send super-healing thoughts his way and hope for the best. He's lucky to be surrounded by his loving people and his fellow feline.

Sending good vibes to Mayhem!

>146 Crazymamie: Aww very cute. Hope Mayhem is able to heal quickly.

Regarding people who dump animals off to fend for themselves it is utterly cruel. I am glad that your son found homes fo all of them. I live in the country and soo many people abandon unwanted house cats. It lead me to three wonderful cats over the years though ( most who had health issues-I am guessing the reason they were abandoned).

Anyhow, happy weekend!

Sending all the best wishes for your kitty, Mamie.

I am also sending good cat thoughts to your kitties, Mamie. I remember reading Candide a few years ago and absolutely loving it. Every so often, I stumble on an absolute gem of a book that is on the 1,001 List which keeps me going back for more!

Best wishes for the kitties. We went through a bad patch with Cleo after we brought Rollo into the family, it is so difficult when they're struggling.

Poor little Mayhem. Lots of love winging its way to you.

Morning, Mamie. Happy Saturday. Our weekend is going well with Jackson. They are still sleeping upstairs and I never heard him through the night. We have friends coming over this afternoon and there will be little kids. We will see how Jack does. He is shy around strangers. Hope he loosens up.

>146 Crazymamie: Love it!

Thought of you this morning while I had my Saturday morning treat of a latte. Went for Toffeenut syrup.

Gentle strokes to Mayhem. I hope he has many more happy years with you all.

Afternoon, All! I am late to the threads today and missed morning all together. We had a lazy morning just hanging out and watching some vlogs with Abby that she loves to watch. We also got some stuff hung up in her new room, and Craig is putting in some canned lighting in there. And sconces on either side of the bed. I can't wait to see the end result.

I got the panini press out and made a delicious ham and turkey sandwich for lunch with some sliced honey crisp apple. Now I am thinking about indulging in a glass of wine while reading in the Big Bed. It's bright and sunny here today, and the sun is coming in full force in the master bedroom where the south wall is practically all window. All three cats are napping in here, and Abby is on the recumbent exercise bike that we purchased last year. It's quiet and calm, and it feels like a warm embrace. I am usually not one for the sun, but it is lovely in this moment.

Last night we re-watched the first Knives Out movie, so now I can say that the first one is my favorite of the two, but they are both excellent fun.

On the reading front, most if yesterday was spent with errands and household stuff, so I did not snag any reading time during the day. In the wee small hours I read from Antarctica and started Velvet was the Night, which I am not sure I am in the mood for, so I might try something else and come back to this one later.

The coffee today was hazelnut.

Your plans for the day sound delightful, Mamie. At this time of year you definitely have a sun & warmth advantage over most of us.

Reading in bed with a glass of wine sounds pretty great to me, Mamie. I hope you do decide to indulge!

>149 jessibud2: Shelley, we got all of our current cats as kittens. Mercy we found in our crawl space almost nine years ago. Mischief was inside a boxful of kittens left outside of the PetSmart where Daniel was working at the time. He took them inside and called the local shelter, but they said if they took her they would have to put her down because they just didn't have room and she was sick. She was a tiny little thing with ear mites and fleas and an eye infection.

I would love to see that photo if you come across it and feel like sharing.

>150 rosalita: Thank you, Julia! It makes me smile big every time I see it. I so appreciate the kind words and your good wishes for Mayhem. I guess there is a new test for dogs but not one for cats yet.

>151 katiekrug: Much appreciated, Katie!

>152 figsfromthistle: Thank you, Anita!

I completely agree with you. It was Daniel's best friend Lance who took them in and found homes for them. He had called Daniel because he knew Rae wanted a tabby, and three of the kittens were silver tabbies. I am so glad that you have also taken in unwanted cats over the years. It really is sad.

Hoping your weekend is also full of happy.

>153 MickyFine: Thank you so much, Micky!

>154 DeltaQueen50: Thanks, Judy! Much appreciated. I hear you abut that 1001 list - it's really been a mixed bag for me, but I agree there are some absolute gems in there. Also some absolute losers. Heh.

>155 ursula: Thank you, Ursula. So true about when they are struggling, especially since you can't explain what is going on to them.

>156 Helenliz: Thanks so much, Helen!

>157 msf59: Afternoon, Mark! Happy Sarturdayness too you! I am not shocked that your weekend is going well with Jackson. Don't worry about Jack - he'll be fine; every personality is different, and there is nothing wrong with being more introverted, I was the same way. Still am, really - I like my chosen people.

Glad you love the photo - he is so tiny there and now he is our biggest cat.

>158 Helenliz: I am touched that you thought of me, Helen. That latte sounds delicious!

>159 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, thank you so much for that. Many more years would be full of fabulous.

>161 lauralkeet: Thank you, Laura. Ironically, I love cold and gloomy. Adore rain. And fog. Today the warmth and sun are working for me.

>162 katiekrug: I have already poured the wine, Katie! I plan of finishing up here and then snuggling in with the books.

>163 Crazymamie: - I just put the photo on my thread, Mamie, so as not to clog up your thread. It was in a frame in my living room so was easy to find. Lousy colour quality but it's nearly 40 years old!! The notation I wrote on the back says that photo was taken in June of 1984!

>168 jessibud2: I love the photo, Shelley! You could have posted it here no worries, but I appreciate your thoughtfulness. I don't mind people posting that sort of thing here at all. June of 1984! I had just turned 17 and finished my junior year of high school. Now I am hearing 80s music in my head - this is a good thing as I love 80s music.

Books and a glass of wine sounds like a wonderful afternoon, Mamie. I enjoyed “Knives Out” more too. More unexpected, as it was the first, I think.

>130 Crazymamie: Great photo!

>142 Crazymamie: Sending tons of positive vibes from my Chalfont and Mallory to Mischief. Adding a few of my own too.

>146 Crazymamie: Aw, cute!

Happy Saturday!

>169 Crazymamie: - They were littermates, Mamie and were part of a litter of 5, born under my friend's bed. He was quite eager to get them adopted asap! I took these 2. They were so teeny! But they grew to be BIG! lol

>170 Familyhistorian: So far so good, Meg. Yes, and the first one also has more of Craig in the spotlight.

>171 alcottacre: Glad you like the photo, Stasia! Thank you so much for those good vibes from you and yours.

Yes, and he is huge now. Not fat, but long and lean and just big.

Happy Saturday to you, my friend!

>172 jessibud2: I bet he was so delighted that you chose two! Our Mayhem did, too, with the growing.

>130 Crazymamie: Nice to see Abby looking so happy. Is it cold in Georgia at the moment as she looks like she is wrapped up warm against the winter?!

Have a lovely weekend and give my love to all at the Pecan Paradisio.

>174 PaulCranswick: It is, indeed, Paul. Yesterday I think the high was 52F here, which is cold for Georgia this time of year. Abby's clothing is not about the temps - she cannot stand air movement on her skin, especially her arms and hands. When she is having a sensitive day, she even wears gloves inside. We found a company that makes very soft lightweight gloves that work for her.

Thank you for those good wishes. Sending our love back to you and hoping that your weekend is also full of lovely.

>175 Crazymamie: That is pretty chilly, Mamie.

Give her a gentle hug from your pal in the tropics. Great to see her looking so happy. xx

>176 PaulCranswick: Yeah. It is what it is - the CRPS has been a journey for all of us, but we are finding our way. We were very thankful to find the gloves, as she is also very sensitive to texture, so not just anything works.

Will do with the gentle hug. Yesterday and today have been good days for her, which makes all of us smile. xx

*Service Announcement*

Carrie started a thread for what we are watching, and you can find it here: What We're Watching

>178 Crazymamie: I love oldish movies as you know but I don't watch nearly enough TV these days. I will stop by though and try to get some ideas. The girls are often on Netflix binges and did watch that Wednesday girl thingy recently.

>179 PaulCranswick: Oh, Abby and I loved Wednesday! Thanks, Paul!

So happy to hear Abby has had a mini-run of good days -- may it last forever!! Hugs to you all, including Mayhem.

‘Morning, Coffee Sister! Happy Sunday to you.

>130 Crazymamie: Aww, Abby and Mayhem hanging out – lovely pic. Thanks for sharing. I’ve never heard of kitty chin acne. Yay for hazelnut coffee.

>142 Crazymamie: Poor baby, only 6 and with such serious problems. Positive thoughts and healthy kitty energy on the way to the Pecan Paradisio.

>146 Crazymamie: Too cute for words – TCFW as we say around here.

>177 Crazymamie: Gentle hugs from for Abby from me, too.

>181 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, thank so much for that. We so appreciate the hugs and the good wishes.

>182 karenmarie: Morning, Coffee Sister! I was just over at your place wishing you Sunday happiness.

Glad you like the photo of Abby and Mayhem - me, too!

I am shocked you have not heard of kitty chin acne - you are my kitty guru. I thought you knew all things kitty. I had not heard of it before, either, so we are both learning new things.

Thanks for the positive thoughts for Mayhem. Yes, only 6 seems like a tough break. He is such a sweet and funny cat.

I love TCFW! Mercy was a very good sport about two new kitties in just a few months time. I think they have been good for her. Lately we have even found Mercy and Mischief curled up on a bed within a few feet of each other, which is new.

I will give your hugs to Abby - she will be delighted.

Morning Mamie! Sending positive and healing thoughts out to Mayhem. Poor dear I hope your kitty has a full recovery.

Good Sunday Morning, Y'all! Yesterday was a success. Craig got the canned lighting installed in Abby's new room, and it looks great. Before, there was just the lights from the ceiling fan, and those were horrible. Now she can dim the lights and it gives her a lot more control over brightness. Today will be mostly laundry and football.

Last night we watched nothing. Shocking, I know.

On the reading front, I listened to some more of Did Ye Hear Mammy Died?, read some in The Stone Diaries, and started Fugitive Telemetry. I have been hoarding this last Murderbot book, but since there is a new one coming out in November (which I have pre-ordered!), I decided I could indulge myself. Love me some Murderbot!

The coffee today is hazelnut - we're back in the Hazelnut Rut, as Katie would say, but tomorrow will definitely bring something not hazelnut.

>184 Carmenere: Morning, Lynda! Thank you so much for the positive thoughts for Mayhem.

Morning, Mamie! It sounds like Abby's room is coming together nicely. Our house is full of terrible lighting that we are slowly trying to make better. It makes such a difference...

My coffee today is my usual - crappy Folgers with hazelnut creamer :)

>187 katiekrug: Morning, Katie! The room is looking good. She ordered some very Art Deco looking sconces for either side of the bed, and I can't wait until they come and we can see them in the room because I think they are going to be full of gorgeous. I think she is also going to replace the light kit on the ceiling fan with some type of chandelier attachment. The green on her walls is so decadent and soothing. She still needs to pick out a new comforter or quilt for the top of the bed - she is wanting something in a delicate pink. This one of the prints she hung on the wall:



She is going for a garden type of vibe in the room.

You are so right right about lighting. Ironically the brightest and best lighting in this house is in the master bedroom. Heh.

Your coffee comments made me laugh. The important part is that there IS coffee.

Morning, Mamie! Happy Sunday. Go Bengals! Go 49ers! We are wrapping up our weekend with Jackson. He is being a bit fussy today, so it might be a good thing. We sure loved having him, though. Enjoy your day.

Afternoon, Mark! Happy Sunday. Poor Jackson, he is probably missing his parents and his things even though he loves you and Sue so much. It's hard to be little.

We will be rooting for Chiefs and Eagles today, but really, for me personally, I would be happy with any of the four remaining teams taking it all.

Finally, a Chief's fan, although it does sound reluctant. Haha.

I'm sorry to hear that Mayhem has some health issues. He is so itty bitty in >146 Crazymamie:. I loved that picture upthread with Abby. It sounds like Mayhem is getting the care he needs without being too invasive. Please keep us posted, Mamie.

>191 Donna828: No, I love the Chiefs, Donna. And I have a sister who lives in Kansas City. What I meant was that I don't have any objections to any of the teams that are among the final four.

Thank you for those kind words concerning Mayhem. He went from itty bitty to long, lean and 13 pounds. He has such a funny personality. He constantly try to herd us all into the same room - we wants us to be together where he can keep an eye on us, I guess. I will keep you posted.

I love the cat pictures and stories. Sadly, I’m allergic to close contact with cats and can’t adopt any.
It does remind me of two newborn kittens we found on my parent’s roof years ago. Their eyes were still closed. We brought them down, made them a cozy bed and I bottle fed them. Every time I walked into the room, they would squeal for my attention. So sweet.

>188 Crazymamie: Sounds like that's going to be a beautiful, soothing room -- perfect!

>193 Oregonreader: Jan, that is a sadness. We did not have any for many years because I have a niece that is very allergic that spent loads of time at our house when she was younger. Now she is married with children of her own and lives in Indiana, so our Georgia house has cats. Plus, we feel like the Universe sent us theses cats, and its rude to say no to a gift.

>194 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, I am hoping it turns out exactly how she wants it. There is so much we can't fix, but this we can help with.

*edited to fix the post number

Morning, Mamie. Well, both of your teams won. I was just disappointed that the 49ers lost their star rookie quarterback early and struggled the rest of the game. The Chiefs game was a good one. Mahomes is a marvel.

Very cold here, so it will keep me indoors and off the trails. More book time, right?

Morning, All! Gray and raining here today. Yesterday was mostly about laundry and football. Daniel came over to watch the Eagles/49ers game with us, so that was fun.

On the reading front, no reading got done during the day, but in the wee small hours I finished up Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells.

No pot of coffee today as Abby and I both opted for espresso. She used a lungo shot and made a latte. I used two regular shots and made an iced white mocha. We have the same syrup that Starbucks uses, and I love making this at home because I use less than half the amount of syrup that they do.

>196 msf59: Morning, Mark! That was so sad about Purdy yesterday. And then Josh Johnson getting concussion. Really tough breaks, and I felt badly for the 49ers. The Chiefs/Bengals game was a good one, and I love when it comes right down to the last minute like that.

Not cold here, but it is raining. We got big storms through last night, and it's a small miracle that I don't have a migraine today.

Hoping the books are kind to you, my friend!

Morning, Mamie! Your espresso drink sounds delicious. I'm going to finish up a book today that should land on the DD list. Stay tuned...

>199 katiekrug: Morning, Katie! The drink is full of fabulous. Most exciting about another for the DD list!!

Happy Monday!
I love hazelnut coffee and that's that I usually make. Nate likes his stronger so sometimes he will use a different brand when I'm not having any

>201 ChelleBearss: Hello there, Chelle! I am totally jealous of your slow falling snow. Luckily, we are having some fast falling rain, which I also love.

Hazelnut coffee is delicious and definitely our go-to coffee. Abby and I are more adventurous coffee drinkers than Craig, so we like to branch out during the weekdays.

OKay, so I was logging my current read of Fugitive Telemetry, and I noticed that Network Effect was not marked as read. Um...I checked my reading log for last year where I reread all of the Murderbot books and then, I thought, read the only full length novel in the series, but it is not there. I skipped a book? Or did I read it and not log it? I have no idea, so I will be picking that up next - I guess we'll see if it brings me any sense of dé·jà vu or not.

I got the football outcome I wanted. Pleased that you backed the winning teams also. Now don't lose your head and root for the Chiefs in the SB. Eagles all the way.

That football viewing certainly interfered with reading yesterday. And now The Internets are interfering with reading today. I think I will overcome.

>204 weird_O: Hello there, Bill! Rae will be rooting for the Chiefs, and Daniel will be rooting for the Eagles. I will be rooting for a good game. I promise not to lose my head.

Sorry about the Internets interfering. The nerve! Hoping that you do overcome. I have faith in you, Oh Weird One.

Hi Mamie: I recently listened to Network Effect as well; somehow I had forgotten it. I think some of the comments said it could be read after Fugitive Telemetry. I liked it because ART is back.

Morning Mamie! Good to see you here today! Sadly, I was rooting for the Bengals. At least we have one good football team in Ohio.
Your espresso latte looks to be perfection. I'm just a plain ole regular cup of joe. I am proud of myself, I finally made the switch from Maxwell House and now grind my own beans. Have a good one!

Enjoy your rainy day, Mamie. It's cold here but I'm hoping it will warm up enough that I don't have to scrape the frost off my car later. I love the sunlight though which is probably as much a novelty for me as the rain is for you.

>206 BLBera: I just honestly can't remember if I read it or not, Beth. My memory for those kind of things is not what it used to be. I do love ART, though. *grin* I'm going to read several chapters and see if it feels familiar.

>207 Carmenere: Afternoon, Lynda! It was a fun game to watch.

I also love just a regular black cup of coffee, which is what I grew up with. That's how I drink it in a restaurant. I like for my first cup of the day to be milky, so I get a bit fancier then. Hooray for grinding your own beans - it really makes a huge difference, doesn't it?

>208 Familyhistorian: Thanks, Meg! We actually get quite a bit of rain, but the sun down here is a fierce thing. And we do get tons of sun, so it is kind of exhausting for someone like me who craves the gray and gloomy with a slight chill. When Craig retires, we will definitely move more north. Hoping you get your warmth.

>203 Crazymamie: Fortunately Fugitive Telemetry is complex enough that it does very well as a re-read.

>210 quondame: Most excellent, Susan. I think all of them as good as rereads. I just reread through them last year, and it was great fun. It will be interesting to see if I actually read it or just thought I did. Heh. Plus, novel length!!

>211 Crazymamie: As a high volume re-reader I do too - but I found much I didn't remember from my first excursion with Fugitive Telemetry.

>212 quondame: Interesting, Susan. I feel like I always forget more than I remember except with books that I have read a thousand times. I am 100 pages in, and I have definitely not read this one before, and what is cracking me up is that I am absolutely giddy about it. A surprise unread Murderbot! And it's the longest one.

>188 Crazymamie: The room sounds like it's going to be great! Can't wait until it's done and see a picture :)

Not today, but you can see how the fog works magic in the pecan grove. Abby's photo.

Morning! I woke up to a gorgeous fog. Craig says we have been under a fog advisory since midnight. I love looking out over the pecan grove and seeing ghostly visages of trees. Today I need to pay the bills and run several errands, but I will wait until the fog burns off before venturing out.

Yesterday we pretty much just did what had to be done and nothing more. I mean, Monday. Lat night Rae and I watched the Christmas episode of Madam Blanc, which was the only episode we had left. Then we watched an episode of Schitt's Creek - the Cabaret one.

On the reading front, I finished listening to Did Ye Hear Mammy Died?, which was excellent - everything Katie and Richard had promised. Then I started reading Network Effect, and it turns out that I did somehow manage to skip this one altogether. I'm about 100 pages in, and I can't wait to see what happens next. I'm hoping to finish up one more book today to give me an even twenty for January, but we'll see. Either way, it's been a month full of fabulous for me.

The coffee today is pumpkin spice.

>214 figsfromthistle: I will be sure to share photos once it's finished, Anita.

Morning, Mamie. Only 1F here. I better really bundle up for my Rehab duties. I hope they assign me to an indoor task. Fingers crossed. My PM, will be a thawing out and lots of book time. Glad you are having a good time with the Murderbot series.

>215 Crazymamie: What a great photo. Go Abby!

>215 Crazymamie: - Beautiful photo!

Good luck with the bills and errands. I will be doing similarly exciting stuff :-P

So glad you loved Did Ye Hear Mammy Died?!

>217 msf59: Morning, Mark! Wow - that is cold, please be careful. We are going to 74F today, so yeah.

Abby has a very good eye with the camera. Glad you like the photo.

>218 katiekrug: Morning, Katie! I will pass on your compliment to Abby.

Right?! Oh, the joys of adulting.

Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? was so full of fabulous - I gave it the full five stars.

>215 Crazymamie: Wow, that's beautiful!

>215 Crazymamie: Great photo!

>220 ChelleBearss:, >221 BLBera: Thank you, Chelle and Beth. We never get tired of looking at the pecan grove - it is beautiful in every season (I use the term loosely because Georgia only really has two seasons). Heh.

>215 Crazymamie: Stunning photo Mamie. Good shot Abby.

>215 Crazymamie: Oh what a beautiful photo!

So glad that you enjoyed Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? - Katie and Richard convinced me to read it last year, it was my lone audiobook (though I often read along to see how things were spelled...), and one of my favorite books of the year. Glad you're enjoying Network Effect as well. She has another novel in the series due to come out later this year, and I am pumped!

>215 Crazymamie: Wow!! Amazing, beautiful photo. Should be enlarged, framed and hung in a prominent spot.

‘Morning, Coffee Sister! Happy Tuesday to you.

>215 Crazymamie: Ooh, lovely photo of the pecan grove. Abby done good! And pumpkin spice. If Jenna liked coffee, and if we lived closer to each other, she'd would be hanging out with you all because of Pumpkin Spice. Pumpkin pie is her favorite pie and birthday cake. Just sayin’…

>223 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks, Caroline!

>224 bell7: Thank you, Mary! It was such a great memoir, and hearing him read it himself was awesome. I usually have to speed audios up, but this one I actually slowed down in places.

>225 RebaRelishesReading: An excellent idea, Reba! I have several that she has taken of that grove in different seasons that are full of gorgeous.

>226 karenmarie: Morning, Coffee Sister! Happy Tuesdayness!

Thank you - I love her photos. And Jenna would be more than welcome here. I wish we did live closer to each other - how fun would that be?! Tell Jenna that I will be making pumpkin chocolate chip muffins for Abby's birthday, which is on Thursday. I also have big love for pumpkin anything.

Here's a funny from my errand running today. I went to the library to renew my card, and after that I was browsing the books. I had my back to the customer service counter, but an older gentleman was returning a book and wondered if there was anything more by that author. The Library Dude says, "We have one more in the system, but that is at a different branch, and it is an audio." Older Gentleman says that he doesn't do audio. Could he (Library Dude) perhaps recommend something in the same vein. I kid you not, Library Dude says, "Well, let's see...this is a novel..." and he then proceeded to direct the gentleman to the new fiction section. *blinks* How lucky for Older Gentleman that the library has so many novels available right now.

>228 Crazymamie: - Library Dude should be fired!

16. The Twilight Man: Rod Serling and the Birth of Television, Written and illustrated by Koren Shame - 4 stars - recommended by Mark

Mark recently read and reviewed this one, and when I went to add it to my Amazon "Check the library" list, I saw that I could borrow it for free with Birdy's Comixology subscription. So that is what I did. I downloaded and started it right away just to get a feel for it, but I ended up just reading it all in one sitting. Mark was right; it's very well done. The art is a perfect fit for the story.

>229 katiekrug: Agreed.

17. The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo, translation by Louise Heal Kawai - 3 stars, (Kosuke Kindaichi, book 1)

This one is good but weird. There is a lot of explaining, and I liked the first half better than the second half because I got tired of the author explaining how clever he had been. What I loved was that it is also an homage to the locked room mystery, and there are loads of locked room mysteries mentioned here but none of them are spoiled for the reader. I do want to read another in the series to see if the author calms down bit and settles into telling the story in a way that feels less spoon fed.

>215 Crazymamie: Magical. I hope your day is too.

>228 Crazymamie: Bad, library dude, bad.

18. Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells - 4 stars (Murderbot Diaries, book 6)

"I just realized I don’t like the phrase “as far as I knew” because it implies how much you actually don’t know. I’m not going to stop using it, but I don’t like it as much anymore."

This is the sixth entry in the Murderbot Diaries series by Martha Wells, and it does not disappoint. These books are completely addictive, and each one has been excellent. There is a new one coming out on November 14th of this year.

>233 quondame: Aw! Thanks, Susan!

Right?!

19. Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? written and narrated by Seamus O'Reilly - 5 stars - recommended by Richard, Katie recommended the audio

"Wakes surround you, smother you even...(with) a cycle of social interaction that gives the entire process a strangely unreal tinge. Perhaps that's the point, and the whole wake system is just a ruse aimed at preventing emotional breakdown by demanding a ritual period of event management for the mourner. Of course, you can be alone with your dark, broiling thoughts, but only once you've made and distributed six hundred cups of tea."

This is poignant and charming and funny and bittersweet and delightful all rolled up in one. Narrated by the author whose mother died when he was just five and could not possibly understand the depth of the grief that suddenly surrounded him. He was on the younger end of the eleven children in the family that were then raised by an amazing father. This had me laughing out loud, and if I had been reading instead of listening to it, I think there would have been a marked quote on every page. It's just that good. The audiobook is narrated by the author who does a fabulous job of it, but he speaks very rapidly, so do yourself a favor and slow it down a bit if you listen to this one. Highly recommended. A huge thanks to both Katie and Richard for pointing me to this one.

>237 katiekrug: *grin*

>228 Crazymamie: *snort*

>232 Crazymamie: I think that's fair. I have the next in the series on order to listen to.

I love love love the photo of the pecan grove, Mamie. So this is on your property? Does it actually yield pecans, like enough to eat and/or cook with?

And the Library Dude is incredible. I mean honestly, wtf?!!

>239 Helenliz: I was surprised by how unhelpful he was, Helen.

I thought it was weird how the author seemed to be narrating the tale - kept taking me out of the story.

>240 lauralkeet: The pecan grove is behind our property and extends down the street, so it's such great view. It's a commercial grove, so yes it does. We have five pecan trees on our property, and they yield quite a few pecans - definitely enough to cook with. Here is a photo I took several years ago that shows it better and in season. That's Abby in the foreground.



Yes, and he was not a youngster. I'm guessing he was around my age.

>215 Crazymamie: - I love this photo. So atmospheric! >241 Crazymamie: is also lovely but I am more in the fog camp!

>230 Crazymamie: - I just picked this up from the library yesterday!

>242 jessibud2: Me, too, Shelley! I love fog and also the photo that Abby took. I was just trying to give Laura an idea of how big the pecan grove is.

I thought the GN was really well done - not one I would have found on my own because our local libraries just don't have a huge GN collection.

>215 Crazymamie:, >242 jessibud2: Love the misty view of the pecan grove. Like Shelley, I am in the atmospheric foggy view camp.

>234 Crazymamie: I should really put the Murderbot Diaries on my WL (ideas for reading in the future, TBH).

>230 Crazymamie: I am so glad you enjoyed The Twilight Man. I am picking up a copy of Twilight Zone: Essential Episodes from the library. Sue is up for watching them with me too.

>241 Crazymamie: Thanks Mamie. I love that you have that right in your backyard, so to speak, but without the responsibility of tending it. It's really beautiful.

>244 SandyAMcPherson: Same. Love the fog. And the rain. Would be giddy to see the grove covered in snow, but that is not likely to happen.

Murderbot is so much fun, Sandy.

>245 msf59: Thanks for bringing it to my attention, Mark. I remember watching The Twilight Zone many years ago when they brought it back. It was a very cool show.

>246 lauralkeet: You're welcome, Laura. That grove is one of the reasons we bought this house - for the view. It's full of gorgeous, and you are right about not having to maintain it.

I'm feeling pretty good about my January reading - I read a total of 19 books, and none of them were losers.

Numbers in parentheses are for year to date.

Books read: 19 (19)

Mine, Acquired in 2023: 2 (2)
Mine, Acquired prior to 2023: 15 (15)
Library: 1 (1)
Borrowed elsewhere: 1 (1)

Fiction: 16 (16)
Non-fiction: 3 (3)

Audiobook: 7 (7)
Kindle: 7 (7)
Paperback: 3 (3)
Hardback: 2 (2)

Re-reads: 0 (0)
GNs: 1 (1)
Translations: 5 (5)

Female authors: 9 (9)
Male authors: 10 (10)
Non-binary authors: 0 (0)

Author origin:
America: 6 (6)
England: 4 (4)
France: 1 (1)
Ireland: 2 (2)
Israel: 1 (1)
Japan: 1 (1)
Poland: 1 (1)
Scotland: 1 (1)
Sweden: 1 (1)

1. The Lost Soul by Olga Tokarczuk, Illustrations by Joanna Concejo, translation by Antonia Lloyd-Jones - 3 stars
2. The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty, audiobook narrated by Eudora Welty - 4.5 stars
3. Hot Milk by Deborah Levy - 4 stars
4. Vanishing Fleece by Clara Parkes, audiobook narrated by Clara Parkes - 4 stars
5. The Distant Echo by Val McDermid - 4 stars, (Karen Pirie, book 1)
6. Bleeding Heart Yard by Elly Griffiths - 4 stars (Harbinger Kaur, book 3)
7. Watership Down by Richard Adams, audiobook narrated by Peter Capaldi - 4.5 stars
8. The Weirdies Get Weirder by Michael Buckley, audiobook narrated by Kate Winslet - 4.5 stars (The Weirdies, book 2)
9. Gun, With Occasional Music by Jonathan Lethem - 4.5 stars
10. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum - 3 stars
11. Bel-Ami by Guy de Maupassant, translation by Margaret Mauldon - 3 stars
12. Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren, translation by Susan Beard - 3.5 stars
13. Dubliners by James Joyce, audiobook narrated by Gerard Doyle - 4.5 stars
14. Candide by Voltaire, translation by Theo Cuffe - 4 stars
15. The Lost for Words Bookshop by Stephanie Butland, audiobook narrated by Imogene Church - 5 stars - Katie's Dirty Dozen
16. The Twilight Man Written and illustrated by Koren Shame - 4 stars - recommended by Mark
17. The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo, translation by Louise Heal Kawai - 3 stars, (Kosuke Kindaichi, book 1)
18. Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells - 4 stars (Murderbot Diaries, book 6)
19. Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? written and narrated by Seamus O'Reilly - 5 stars - recommended by Richard, Katie recommended the audio

Morning! Yesterday really got away from me. The errands took longer the I anticipated, but I did get everything on the list done, so there is that. Birdy and I made little meatloaves, corn casserole, and great northern beans for dinner.

Last night Rae and I watched an episode of Brokenwood Mysteries and an episode of Agatha Raisin.

On the reading front, nothing got done during the day. In the wee small hours I read from Network Effect.

The coffee today is Cafe Du Monde.

Here are the Book Bullets I took for the month:

The List:

1. River of Shadows by Rebecca Solnit - The Weird One
2. Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose - Judy in NY
3. The Man Who Could Move Clouds by Ingrid Rojas Contreras - Beth - memoir
4. The Crane Wife by CJ Hauser - Charlotte - memoir
5. Babel by R. F. Kuang - Jim thinks I would love this
6. The Barrakee Mystery by Arthur William Upfield - Julia
7. Burning Questions: Essays and Occasional Pieces by Margaret Atwood - Beth
8. The Other Typist by Suzanne Rindell - Queen Judy
9. Amnesia Moon by Jonathan Lethem - The Weird One
10. Parallel Journeys by Eleanor Ayer - Carrie
11. As She Climbed Across the Table by Jonathan Lethem - Joe
12. The Bangalore Detectives Club by Harini Nagendra - Meg
13. A Career in Books by Kate Gavino - Meg - GN
14. The Silent Land by Graham Joyce - Queen Judy
15. The Female Quixote by Charlotte Lennox - Jan
16. A Lady’s Guide to Fortune Hunting by Sophie Irwin - Sandy
17. Godmersham Park by Gill Hornby - Charlotte
18. Radio Silence by Alice Oseman - Amber
19. Mutual Admiration Society by Mo Moulton - Jan
20. Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky (trilogy) by Patrick Hamilton - Paul
21. The Twilight Man: Rod Serling and the Birth of Television by Koren Shadmi - Mark - GN Read 1/2023
22. Semicolon by Cecelia Watson - NY Judy
23. The Pleasure of Reading edited by Antonia Fraser - Stasia
24. Queenie: Godmother of Harlemby Elizabeth Colomba - Mark
25. Light from Uncommon Starsby Ryka Aoki - Mary (bell7)
26. The Ardent Swarm by Yamen Manai - Carrie
27. Love on the Brain - Ali Hazelwood - Micky
28. Dearly by Margaret Atwood - Helen - Poems

Katie’s 2023 Dirty Dozen:

1. The Lost Garden by Helen Humphreys
2. Now Is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson
3. I Came All This Way to Meet You: Writing Myself Home by Jami Attenberg - NF
4. Georgie, All Along by Kate Clayborn

>248 Crazymamie: excellent roundup, Mamie! If I'm not mistaken, though, Pippi Longstocking is also a translation from Swedish 🙂

>250 Crazymamie: very pleased that I made your list of January book bullets, and looking forward to your thoughts on Light from uncommon stars.

Happy February!

>252 bell7: Morning, Mary!

Duh! Thank you for pointing that out.

Happy February to you!

Morning, Mamie! Happy February. You had a good reading month in January and lots of BBs too. I also had a good month. Nice to kick off the year that way. I am enjoying My Heart is a Chainsaw. He is such a dark, creative author.

Morning, Mark! Happy February. Right?! The book bullets are kind of crazy, but since I joined this group my reading has expanded and improved - I am better at knowing which books I will like. I am thrilled with my January results - feels so good to have my reading mojo back.

I absolutely loved My Heart is a Chainsaw, and I cannot wait until next Tuesday when the second book in the trilogy comes out - Don't Fear the Reaper. I pre-ordered it as soon as it was available.

‘Morning Mamie!

>227 Crazymamie: – I could find a recipe online, but would you share yours? I most likely have all the ingredients here.

>228 Crazymamie: Bad Library Dude, Bad Library Dude.

>248 Crazymamie: Congrats on a stellar reading month. I’ve read 5 of your 19 – 2, 5, 7, 10, and 14 and really need to read Bleeding Heart so I can return it to friend Rhoda.

>249 Crazymamie: Birdy and I made little meatloaves, corn casserole, and great northern beans for dinner. Okay, that’s it. We’re moving in.

>256 karenmarie: Morning, Karen!

I'm happy to share! I'll post it after responding here.

Yes. Bad Library Dude. Very bad.

Thank you! And yes, do make time for Bleeding Heart Yard.

"Okay, that’s it. We’re moving in." *BIG smile*

Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Chunk Muffins
The perfectly moist and tender pumpkin spice muffins filled with chocolate chunks!
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 35 minutes
Servings: 1 dozen
Author: Julie Chiou
INGREDIENTS

▢ 1 2/3 cup all purpose flour
▢ 1 cup granulated sugar
▢ 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
▢ 1 teaspoon baking soda
▢ 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
▢ 1/4 teaspoon salt
▢ 2 large eggs
▢ 1 cup plain pumpkin puree
▢ 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
▢ 6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, roughly chopped (I just use chocolate chips)

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 °F and line muffin tins with baking cups.
In a medium bowl, whisk together, flour, sugar, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together eggs, pumpkin, and butter.
Slowly add the dry ingredients and mix until well combined.
Fold in the chocolate chunks with a spatula.
Scoop batter evenly into muffin tins and bake 20-25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Let cool in pan for 5 minutes before removing and cooling completely on a wire rack.
Store in an airtight container for up to 4 days.

* I got this recipe from this blog: Table for Two® by Julie Chiou

I like to add chopped toasted hazelnuts or slivered almonds to the tops of the muffins before baking. Just sprinkle on top and push down slightly, and the nuts will imbed into the tops of the muffins as they cook.

Thank you, my dear!

Copied, pasted, printed. I've got everything at the house one way or another - I'll make up the pumpkin spice mix. Looks like it will be 3x our pumpkin pie recipe that calls for 1/4 t ginger, 3/4 t cinnamon, 1/8 t nutmeg.

>259 karenmarie: You are most welcome! Hope you like them as much as we do.

>251 Crazymamie: - Hell, yeah!

Morning, Mamie!

>261 katiekrug: *Grin*

Morning, Katie!

Howdy, Mamie!

>215 Crazymamie: oooo atmospheric and spooky

>230 Crazymamie: The Twilight Man is one the way to me via the library. I can not wait!

Morning, Mamie!

I made mini meatloaves last week! Twins, clearly.

>263 Carmenere: Howdy, Lynda! Glad you like the photo.

Hooray! It's a good one.

>264 scaifea: Morning, Amber! I am honored to be twins with you.