My mother used amaryllis as part of her holiday decorations until she moved up to a 5th floor apartment. The angle of light up there causes them to break themselves.
I got in the habit, following her example. I like the red ones. They are very festive. But, I think this one, with its thin, red edge, is my favorite.
It doesn’t survive outside. (I tried it.) But, I’m going to put this in a pot outside for the summer and try to force it again in the Fall.
I’m listening to Martha Wells’ All Systems Red. This is the first of her Murderbot series. The Murderbot is a genderless cyborg who is the security detail for a human colony on a new planet. I kind of envision a smaller Robocop. It’s shorter than most of the books I listen to at under 4 hours. But, it is entertaining and I expect I’ll continue the series.
I checked out Amy Stewarts’ The Drunken Botanist: the plants that create the world’s great drinks from the library via Libby. It’s more agricultural anthropology than a celebration of cocktails. It’s pretty light reading and entertaining. I have learned that sake is only served hot to cover up the fact that it’s not a particularly good sake and that rye whiskey was developed because it can stand long periods of cold better than others grains.
Noir is a collection of fantasy and scifi short stories, all in the noir style, edited by David B. Coe & John Zakour. I bought the Kindle version because I wanted to read a particular story by one of my favorite fantasy authors and I am having a delightful time with the rest of them.
I paused Moby Dick. I was finding it entertaining until Ahab actually made an appearance and he just sucked all the light from the room. I expect I’ll give it another shot in a week. But, if there isn’t more leavening, I’ll let myself give it up. I get why Melville is so engaging for people. His turn of phrase is wonderful. He was a writer of his time and the racism and misogyny is pretty thick in a story that is lugubrious.
Editting to add: I love Nalo Hopkinson’s alternate reality stories. I finished Blackheart Man, recently, and I was startled to find I had come to the end. Not that it ended abruptly. I was just perfectly happy to continue following the lives of her people.
I have killed all 3 sites and it’s a relief. I do have a BlueSky account with this userid. But, I’m not giving the Zuckerberg empire access to my attention any longer. I spent a couple of weeks collecting info so that I can stay in touch with people.
We went out for dinner to Dixon’s Jamaican Taste in Burlington tonight. I got the escovich fish. She asked if I wanted it with the head on and I said, “sure.” I’m really glad that they don’t actually use plates and just serve everything in styrofoam containers. After I ate as much as I could get off the fish with plastic ustensils, half of my peas-and-rice, and double cabbage, I just flipped the top over to bring leftovers home. Then, I picked that fish head like I meant business. I was not comfortable doing that in front of people. Even people that don’t know me. And the young woman behind the counter does recognize us after half a dozen visits in as many months.
If I want Chuck to do something with me in Burlington, “Dixon’s” gets him in the car without fail.
I am not loving my new work schedule. But, it could be worse and I have an escape plan if it becomes critical. Medicare kicks in this July and my 401(k) is healthy.
Lately, I’ve been getting overtime and spending that on myself. I have ordered a recliner to replace the large, worn out chair where I usually sit in the living room. It’s supposed to be here before my mother visits the end of February. If they wait until the cut off date, I’m going to be annoyed.
I’ve been doing 20 Plants in 20 Days and I think I’ll transcribe it here because I think at least one person who doesn’t use that site would get a kick out of it.
I’m kind of expecting that with no Meta, I’m likely to use this more.
A friend wrote a post about what she has read this year using the NYT picks for book of the year. I have read nothing on that list. I have, however, read as voraciously as ever and GoodReads has reminded me what some of them were. Since I have been inconsistent about logging and have also had a hard time choosing something that looked interesting lately, I have been rereading old favorites a lot for the last part of the year and the GR list looks like I have not done as much reading as usual.
For example, right now, I’m rereading Thud! It is one of my favorite DiscWorld books and I’m finding it very soothing. I wish I liked Pratchett’s Long Earth series as well. But, I don’t. I do think his stand alone fantasy stories, Nation and Dodger, are both highly entertaining.
Other rereads this year have been Kevin Hearne’s Iron Druid series and its companion Ink And Sigil trilogy. The last book was coming out and I wanted to get back up to speed. I reread Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, Alex Bledsoe’s vampire books and Becky Chambers’ Robot and Monk duology. There have been some other rereads. These are what come to mind first.
I am a fan of Nghi Vo and love her Singing Hills Cycle series of novellas. I started reading them when the first one came out in 2020 and in early November I discovered I had missed a couple. And, apparently, the ones I had read were through the library the first time because they weren’t in my Kindle. So, I bought them all and had a little festival.
They are stories about a wandering cleric from a mountain monastery who travels around collecting stories. They have a friend/nag/helper who is a spiritual creature in the shape of a bird. She remembers everything and helps make sure stories are written correctly. They don’t always travel together for various reasons. and the two of them periodically go back to check in at the monastery. The novellas are not chronological. So, reading them as it suits you is fine. This series makes me laugh out loud and has made me cry.
According to GoodReads, the shortest book I read this year was one of hers. The Fox Roads is not part of the Singing Hills Cycle and, at 38 pages with 3 significant characters, is more short story than novella.
Chuck and I both read Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead. Chuck read it first and recommended it. It is David Copperfield in Appalachia. specifically southwest Virginia. I remember the original Dickens story just enough to recognize some of the story elements. But, not enough to interfere with finding this version new and engaging. I like Kingsolver’s writing and will be inclined to read more of her books.
I enjoyed Louise Erdrich’s LaRose and her Future Home of the Living God. Erdrich writes about Native Americans and the White people who live along side them. Her settings are usually in northern America and/or southern Canada, sometime in the last 100 years. Her stories are of individuals living their lives in their particular place and time. I have never put one of her books down, unfinished.
John Grisham’s Sooley is about a young man playing UNC basketball. It’s a good story set in my area, which is always pretty cool. You don’t have to understand basketball to get it. The ending was a little simplified. I felt like Grisham either ran out of steam or ran out of time.
Dweller on the Threshold by Skyla Dawn Cameron was a great ghost story. I had to put the book down to catch my breath, one night. It did NOT go where I anticipated for the ending and I really liked how it turned out.
I binged Ben Aaronovich’s Rivers of London/Peter Grant series. It’s another one I’d gotten behind on and I turned my kid on to them. So, we kind of read them together. They do need to be read in chronological order. There are some graphic short stories that go along side the novels. They aren’t necessary. But, they were fun. I bought all 3 collections of graphic novels. I gave them to Cannon after I had my turn with them.
A new friend on Threads (another damn Meta social media site) turned me on to Sarah Painter’s Crow Investigations Series. It’s another contemporary fantasy series I binged.
Shelley Noble’s The Tiffany Girls is an historical fiction look at how Louis Comfort Tiffany’s company made the glass that made him famous. I like well researched historical fiction and I like art glass. So, this was right up my street.
I put down a couple of books. The Violence by Delilah Dawson seemed to be a revenge fantasy for DV survivors. I thought Going Through the Change by Samantha Bryant was a really bizarre take on perimenopause. It’s advertised as a “menopausal, superhero novel.” I guess the changes were supposed to be extremes of actual perimenopause symptoms. But, they were so extreme that only occurs to me in retrospect and the superhero part took longer to develop than I had patience for. I was not the intended audience for either of these.
When I was 11, I got to spend extra time with my dad during school breaks because I was “too old for day care and too young to be left by myself all day.” On the way to the NCSU campus where he was finishing up his PhD, we passed a Wonder Bread factory. It was heavenly and that is a very physical memory for me. I remember the chill of the Fall air, the heater from the car blowing on my face and that scent! And I got bonus time with my dad, who was my favorite person in the world.
I am the Audience 