Ursula Continues to Explore in 2022 (Part 2)

Hello there, it seemed to be time to start another thread.

I'm Ursula, living in Istanbul since August 2020. I'm an American, Californian by birth, but I keep finding myself living in various other places. My husband is a mathematician, I'm theoretically an artist ... but my time has mostly been taken up with trying to get competent in Turkish. In addition to my reading, I talk about music - Morgan and I try to work our way through a bunch of "best albums of the year" lists.

With the change of seasons, I've decided to add a photo from the Ihlamur Kasrı (Linden Pavilion) taken last week:

Currently Reading:


Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones

Books read in 2022

OCAK / January

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Wild Palms by William Faulkner ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Walking on the Ceiling by Ayşegül Savaş ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Red Clocks by Leni Zumas ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara ⭐️⭐️⭐️

ŞUBAT / February

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
The Book of Disappearance by Ibtisam Azem ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A Strangeness in My Mind by Orhan Pamuk ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Rifqa by Mohammed El-Kurd ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

MART / March

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
No Land to Light On by Yara Zgheib ⭐️⭐️1/2
The Five Wounds by Kirstin Valdez Quade ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Funeral Rites by Jean Genet ⭐️⭐️⭐️
What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
We Wrote in Symbols edited by Selma Dabbagh ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Trout Fishing in America by Richard Brautigan ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

NİSAN / April

Cold Enough for Snow by Jessica Au ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
The Hummingbird's Daughter by Luis Alberto Urrea ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Beirut Hellfire Society by Rawi Hage ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Turkish Gambit by Boris Akunin ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Immortals of Tehran by Ali Araghi ⭐️⭐️1/2

MAYIS / May
The City & the City by China Miéville ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Wolf in White Van by John Darnielle ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
The Nineties by Chuck Klosterman ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Fear and Trembling by Amélie Nothomb ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Nothing but Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw ⭐️⭐️1/2
People Want to Live by Farah Ali ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami ⭐️⭐️⭐️

HAZİRAN / June
Read Dangerously by Azar Nafisi ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Miracle and Wonder by Malcolm Gladwell ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Every Secret Thing by Laura Lippman ⭐️⭐️⭐️
We Had to Remove this Post by Hanna Bervoets ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Abandoned: Sentence: Ten Years and a Thousand Books in Prison by Daniel Genis

TEMMUZ / July
Sleepwalk by Dan Chaon ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Denver Noir by Cynthia Swanson, ed. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Graveyard Apartment by Mariko Koike ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Everything I Need I Get from You by Kaitlyn Tiffany ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

AĞUSTOS / August
Palestine +100 by Basma Ghalayini, ed. ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
On the Road by Jack Kerouac ⭐️⭐️1/2

EYLÜL / September
You Can't Go Home Again by Thomas Wolfe ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Book of Salt by Monique Truong ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez ⭐️⭐️⭐️

EKİM / October
Death by Water by Kenzaburo Oe ⭐️⭐️
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson ⭐️⭐️1/2
Blood Feast by Malika Moustadraf ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Oroonoko by Aphra Behn ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Abandoned: Above Us the Milky Way by Fowzia Karimi

2022 totals
January: 5
February: 5
March: 7
April: 5
May: 8
June: 4
July: 4
August: 3
September: 3
October: 4

Total: 48

Copied from my last thread, because I'm going to continue this shortly ...

In other news, I've been listening to all of the Eurovision contestants, and I've come up with a personal ranking. I think the worst sin is being boring, and the second worst sin is being cynical.

I ranked them based on 1. are they fun? 2. are they interesting/related to the country in some way? and 3. would I want to listen to it again? A song doesn't have to have all 3, but at least one of them should be present. Lots of the 40 countries didn't meet even one of those criteria for me, but something had to go in the middle.

Starting from the bottom:

40. Switzerland Boys Do Cry - Marius Bear
I wanted to cry. Bored to tears.

39. Denmark The Show - Reddi
Wannabe Adele schlock with lyrics that seem to come from inspirational photos on Instagram.

38. United Kingdom SPACE MAN - Sam Ryder
Sigh. The best thing about this song is the (maybe) unintentional hilarity of the lyrics "I've searched around the universe/Been down some black holes"

37. Bulgaria Intention - Intelligent Music Project
Sounds like the Scorpions, not in a good way.

36. Montenegro Breathe - Vladana
I just literally have nothing to say about this. Yawn.

35. Germany Rockstars - Malik Harris
It's like Travis Barker produced a Machine Gun Kelly/Eminem track set to a lost Blink-182 track.

34. Latvia Eat Your Salad - Citi Zēni
Read the lyrics at your own risk. Try-hard.

33. Malta I Am What I Am - Emma Muscat
Apparently what she is, is extremely boring.

32. Greece Die Together - Amanda Tenfjord
Murder-suicide pact, maybe? Perhaps they died together of over-autotuning.

31. Ireland That's Rich - Brooke
Pro: at least you can remember what it sounded like 2 hours later
Con: you remember what it sounded like 2 hours later

Hope I am not too early to wish you a happy new thread, Ursula!

>7 PaulCranswick: Nope, that's just fine! I forget there might be a couple of people up and about in my morning time. :)

I have comments on a book, and the next group of Eurovision songs to post, but those didn't need to be done before visitors arrive!

Cold Enough for Snow by Jessica Au

First line: "When we left the hotel it was raining, a light, fine rain, as can sometimes happen in Tokyo in October."

A slim little book about a woman taking a trip in Japan with her mother. The mother is from China, and moved to Hong Kong. The daughter lives in another country (perhaps Australia, like the author). They travel to hotels, art galleries, tourist sites, and they talk, or don't talk, to each other. It reminded me a bit of Rachel Cusk's Outline series, because the things that are occurring are often backdrops to the conversation the characters are having, or to the narrator's thoughts and memories. As far as I can tell, it's about displacement, relationships, memory, how rarely you see those around you clearly.

If you like things that are described as meditative, interior, or character studies, you may like this. That doesn't mean it was slow, though - it was a very quick read, and also a short one at 136 pages.

Quote: "I thought that some of it was true and some of it was not, but the real truth was how such things allowed someone to talk about you, or what you had done or why you did it, in a way that unraveled your character into distinct traits. It made you seem readable to them, or to yourself, which could feel like a revelation. But who's to say how anyone would act on a given day, not to mention the secret places of the soul, where all manner of things could exist? I wanted to talk more about this, if only to chase the thought further, but I knew too that she needed, and wanted, to believe in such things: that my sister was generous and happiest in the company of others, that I should be careful with money in the month of May, so I said nothing."

Happy new thread!

HAppy new thread :)

>1 ursula: Beautiful magnolia blooms

Lovely photos. Happy new thread, Ursula!

Continuing with Eurovision:

30. Romania Llámame -WRS
Why are the Romanians singing in Spanish and doing a sort of flamenco dance? I have no idea.

29. Lithuania Sentimental - Monika Liu
Some people are really into this one. I am not one of those people - the cabaret vibe doesn't really work for me.

28. North Macedonia Circles - Andrea
Kind of a standard indie pop sort of thing, in English. It's fine, I guess? But it's not setting the world on fire.

27. Finland Jezebel - The Rasmus
I feel like I'm back in the 80s, but with worse hair if that's even possible. Finland had another twee indie contender that lost called "Thank God I'm an Atheist" which I feel would have suited them better.

26. Sweden Hold Me Closer - Cornelia Jakobs
If you like standard ballad-y type things, you might like this. It's no ABBA.

>10 Kristelh:, >11 figsfromthistle:, >12 katiekrug: Thanks! It felt like time to freshen things up a bit.

Happy new thread! The only Eurovision song I caught this year is the one with lyrics that go, "Instead of meat I eat veggies and *****!" because it has, understandably, gone viral 😂

Happy new thread, Ursula!

>13 ursula: At #26 and still no Netherlands?? You must like the song more than I do ;-)

Happy new thread, Ursula. Love the photos you've included!

I haven't seen any of the Eurovision performances, but your description of Ireland's made me laugh.

>15 curioussquared: That's Latvia, I ranked it #34 in >6 ursula: above. I felt like it was trying way too hard to be edgy.

>16 FAMeulstee: I might ... but actually, I don't like the Netherlands' song all that much, there are just a lot of others I hate more. :)

>17 bell7: Thanks for the photo love. Glad Ireland's description made you laugh. (Of course then it made the song get in my head again! ARGH!)

Happy new one!

>19 drneutron: Thanks! Hard to believe a quarter of the year is already gone ...

The Hummingbird's Daughter by Luis Alberto Urrea

Somehow I thought I'd read another book by Urrea, and then I thought I hadn't, and now I discover I have apparently read his collection of short stories, The Water Museum, of which I have no recollection at all.

Okay then, let's talk about this one before I forget it entirely!

First line: "On the cool October morning when Cayetana Chávez brought her baby to light, it was the start of that season in Sinaloa when the humid torments of summer finally gave way to breezes and falling leaves, and small red birds skittered through the corrals, and the dogs grew new coats."

Apparently this story is based on some distant relative of Urrea's. The girl, Teresa, is born the daughter of an Indian and a landowner. Abandoned by her mother, rejected by her aunt, she is ultimately taken under the wing of both her father and the resident curandera, or medicine woman. Teresita, as she is known, demonstrates abilities beyond those of her teacher and by the time she is a teenager becomes viewed as a somewhat unwilling saint. What ramifications that has, who it threatens, and what everyone, including Teresita thinks about it is what the book deals with.

I enjoyed the stories of the life and interactions on the ranch, although there were some incidents glossed over that I wish had been dealt with a little more completely. You have to have a tolerance for magical realism of the miracles occurring and being performed type, and also it's a pretty long book (just about 500 pages) so you won't exactly breeze through it, but I don't regret the time I spent on it.

Quote:

"The Tigers of the Sierra have come to see me."
She grinned. She made a muscle. "Great fighters. Great lovers of God." Teresita laughed as she flexed her arm.
Cruz was tongue-tied. She burned into his eyes with her own. Was she making fun of him?
"I have come to test you?" he managed to say.
She put her fists on her hips and stared at him quite frankly. He did not appreciate the boldness of her stare. "How will you test me, Tiger? Shall we shoot at cans? Race horses?" She put up her dukes. "Fistfight?"
Cruz opened his mouth and said, "Uh."
"If you try to wrestle me," she warned, "I can beat you."

Another batch of Eurovision songs:

25. Australia Not the Same - Sheldon Riley
I actually really dislike this one, but I think somehow it kept getting pushed up because I had other fish to fry. Anyway, operatic voice, message song. The message is nice, the song is terrible.

24. Georgia Lock Me In - Circus Mircus
Well, this is definitely ... something. I admire their commitment to whatever it is they're doing. They should also possibly be committed.

23. Poland River - Ochman
Another one of these operatic types. He's apparently American, the grandson of a Polish tenor. It reminds me of Nickelback. (And it's still at #23, have mercy on my soul)

22. Israel I.M. - Michael Ben David
Is there a new Queer Eye show looking for a theme song? This would totally work. It's not ground-breaking but at least he looks like he's having fun.

21. Portugal Saudade Saudade - MARO
People seem to like this one. I like the sort of shamanistic vibe, but other than that I don't find much to enjoy. Also I have no idea what Portugal usually goes for, but sending an entry about saudade just seems like pandering. Everyone loves the concept of saudade; it just feels calculated to me.

>21 ursula: I liked this one! And also the sequel, Queen of America

>23 banjo123: Ah, I didn't know there was a sequel! The library has a copy - I'd consider reading it, although my usual pattern is to wait 10 years to get to a sequel, when I've completely forgotten the first book, haha.

Happy new thread, Ursula! Love the topper photo and the sweet pic of the street kitty.

Happy new one!! Trying to get back in the LT swing of things here. Do I get points for that? : )

>25 karenmarie: Thanks! I always think I should share more photos, especially of the street kitties, but good intentions and all of that.

>26 Berly: Thanks! Points are always given freely! I have not been much in the LT swing of things either, trying to be a little more consistent though.

Beirut Hellfire Society by Rawi Hage

First line: "One sunny day at the start of a ceasefire, a father drove with his son down towards where the fighting had been."

The father in that first sentence is a member of the titular group. Their commitment is to giving people burials, no matter their religion or circumstances. Sometimes these are unclaimed and unknown bodies; sometimes they are honoring the wishes of someone whose family wanted something different for them than they wanted (Muslim cemetery when they wanted Christian, etc). Shortly into the book, the father dies and his son, Pavlov, has to honor his wishes for cremation. After that, he's visited by a member of the society, which he has not known existed until now. He had gone with his father to collect and cremate a few bodies, but had never had the whole thing explained to him.

Soon he is enmeshed in the world of death. Or I guess I should say, enmeshed in different aspects of death. He lives in Beirut, so bombs are falling and death is everywhere. His father was an undertaker, and his apartment is above the path for burials in the cemetery he can see from his window. But this leads him into much closer contact with death.

In a sort of interesting parallel, this one ended up also visiting a lot of the themes of Funeral Rites - the transgressive intersection between death and sex and life. What a body really means, what the things that can be done to it mean (or don't). Whether being cavalier with it is freedom or fear. Basically, there are some unpleasant things in this book in service of those themes. Not for the faint-hearted.

For me, I didn't feel like I was really pulled in by the book. Whether it's because of Pavlov's pretty stoic nature, or whether it was just the story overall, I didn't hate it but I also wasn't dying (haha) to pick it up every time.

Quote: "Nevertheless, I hold on to my beliefs and I am more convinced now than ever that this world should be undermined. I do not have the courage to hang myself, so I guess I must still love myself after all. Or maybe I still cling to the conviction that I did the right thing. In any case, repentance will never be a choice for me, regardless of the tragedies I may have caused. I believe that it is through vice alone that we can undermine this world - but with age, one realizes that Nature has perfected indifference and immorality. The world always defeats us. All we can do is mimic it, not undermine it. Or maybe we can refuse it, and convince ourselves that we are constructing or imagining an alternative, like your pious father did."

I went to see the tulips - it's a yearly thing, every April is the Tulip festival. This is at Emirgan Korusu, where the biggest displays are. They weren't all blooming yet, the snow in mid-March threw things into a bit of disarray. But there were enough of them in bloom!

>29 ursula: Gorgeous tulips Ursula. Lucky you.

>30 Caroline_McElwee: Yes! I still have to get back to the other location where they plant them for the month. I was there a couple of weeks ago but they weren't blooming yet.

>29 ursula: Always a lovely sight fields full with tulips, Ursula. To me the sign that spring has arrived.
Nice to see them in their country of origin.

Oh, I love tulips!

>32 FAMeulstee: Indeed, it's a little special to see them here!

>33 katiekrug: I am ... indifferent to most flowers. But I do like these huge displays. There was one that was impossible to get a good shot of that had tulips filling in the outline of Turkey, with red tulips and white (metal I think, not flowers) crescent and star.

>9 ursula: I love the look of this book. And, increasingly, I seem to love slim volumes. Not just because they are unintimidating, but I love the idea of saying something big in not so many words. I'm going to see if I can track this one down.

Eta: I am now number 3 in line to get it from my library :)

>29 ursula: Beautiful flowers! What a wonderful place to visit.

>35 LovingLit: I hope you enjoy it. I often have mixed feelings about these "interior" sort of books. I get absorbed in them, but then when I go to talk about them, I'm really not sure what to say. "Nothing happens except some people talking and thinking"?

>36 figsfromthistle: Yes, the park is very nice even without the tulips, but in April it's amazing.

Ooh, I forgot to continue with the Eurovision entries, oops!

20. San Marino Stripper - Achille Lauro
This one will stick in your head, with its mishmash of English and Italian gender-bending lyrics. Whether that stickiness is a good thing or a bad one is pretty individual, I suspect.

19. Armenia Snap - Rosa Linn
In English. A little indie ditty, cute enough.

18. Spain SloMo - Chanel
Another mishmash of English and the country's language. This is the definition of a generic dance pop song. But it's fine.

17. Austria Halo - LUM!X ft. Pia Maria
At this point, I don't know why some of these songs are this high up on the list. I kind of really don't like this one, aside from maybe the costumes? It's a Rihanna knockoff wannabe.

16. Cyprus Ela - Andromache
Mixed English and Greek lyrics; it's moderately different, moderately memorable. Feels like it actually comes from a country rather than a repository of "hit song" parts to be put together.

The Turkish Gambit by Boris Akunin

First line: According to St. Augustine, woman is a frail and fickle creature, and the great obscurantist and misogynist was right a thousand times over - at least with regard to a certain individual by the name of Varvara Suvorova.

This is the second novel in a detective series featuring a guy named Erast Fandorin. I didn't read the first one; I just picked this one up at a Friends of the Library sale because it looked vaguely interesting. I think it was well before the idea of coming to Turkey was even on the horizon. Anyhow, I finally picked it up and read it now.

And looking back at that first line, maybe I should have known to stop there? In my defense, I thought the main character would be this Fandorin guy whose name is on the cover, after all ("A Fandorin Mystery"). But it turns out we only see him from time to time and we are stuck with Varvara, called Varya for the majority of the time. The outlines of the story: It is 1877 and Varya has decided to run off from Russia to somewhere in Bulgaria to find her maybe-fiancé Petya, who is stationed there as a cryptographer in the Russian army. She is abandoned at an inn by the unscrupulous guy who was supposed to be taking her there, and taken under the wing of a mysterious man who turns out to be Fandorin. He takes her to the army's post but things are complicated and between one thing and another she ends up assisting Fandorin in his office to pay for her keep while she waits for Petya to ... what? I'm not sure. See her, I guess. (They do see each other briefly and he assures her of his intentions, but as I said, things get complicated and that keeps them apart.)

Meanwhile, every man in the camp is interested in Varya (believable, probably, there are only a few nurses or nuns or something in terms of women there), and she is more than happy to flirt with all of them. And be upset if they don't seem effusive enough about their feelings for her. What? She is simultaneously very smart (of course) and modern enough to make herself at home in meetings where women are frowned upon (of course), but she's also an idiot who seems to forget her fiancé if he moves behind a door.

The plot is twisty and turny and double-crossy and Fandorin gets to give one of those "I was led down the wrong path but then I figured it out and I'm only telling this roomful of people about it at the last moment because I knew I had to wait until I had enough proof to convince you" speeches. So there's that.

Quote: "The Turks, who were not notable for their strong nerves, and, as everybody knew, were capable of a brief impulsive effort but balked at the prospect of any prolonged exertion, would naturally be thrown into confusion, perhaps even panic."

The Immortals of Tehran by Ali Araghi

First line: Ahmad was a ten-year-old boy when he was a ten-year-old boy.

In case you're wondering where that first line is going, it's basically saying that when he was that age, he couldn't have guessed the things that would happen in his life, the things that he would see. And that makes sense, because first of all, he will be a grandfather when the revolution in 1978 happens, and second of all, because this book involves magic realism. There are poems that emit light when written (if they're good), a man who is dead but doesn't realize it, a ghost, music that causes trees to blossom ... you get the idea. The first chapter starts off with a bang (pun unfortunately intended) with the death of Ahmad's father in a rather abrupt manner, after which Ahmad stops speaking.

Look, I'm not going to recommend this book to anyone, so let me talk about the things I found interesting/difficult about it. (ie, with spoilers) In the book, there is a fable about cats that leads one character to become convinced that the cats are plotting something. This character tracks the cats' movements around the city in an attempt to find out what is going to happen. There are some scenes of violence against the cats with this character. I feel like in an American book, this would be obvious code for THIS IS A BAD PERSON, or maybe THIS PERSON IS LOSING HIS MIND, but although the people in his life do think that perhaps he is not entirely in touch with reality, (spoiler) his theories seem to be borne out.

Also, one of Ahmad's adult acquaintances decides he's in love with Ahmad's daughter when she is 9, I believe. Again, this is shorthand for THIS IS AN EXTREMELY BAD PERSON in my mind. Ahmad's protective fatherly response is to tell the man that he is forbidden from seeing the daughter for 10 years, at which point they can meet and she can decide. Well, all right. But the daughter begins engineering ways for the man to see her from a distance, because she is ... courting him? In love with him too, at the age of 10? I have no idea. But they run off together when she enters her first year in high school.

Part of what makes reading literature from other countries interesting is that it makes me consider what messages I'm getting from what I'm reading and whether or not those are the messages that are intended by the writer. I don't have the answer here, but it's something I thought about a lot.

Quote: They talked as the old man welded bars across the window. Before he left, he shook Ahmad's hand. "I don't know what you're keeping in that room, my boy, but something tells me you're making the wrong decision again."

>40 ursula: - Um, it's a no for me.

>41 katiekrug: Yeah I think it's a no for most people, so I didn't feel bad about spoilering the hell out of it!

>29 ursula: I am hoping to get to our tulip festival soon. Beautiful photos!! But I am gonna pass on your latest two books. ; )

>43 Berly: I am hoping the tulips hold out until my mother-in-law gets here on Friday, but we'll see!

We'll be sampling a lot of food with her, I'm sure, but Morgan and I went out last week to finally try kumpir, which is a famous street food here. It's basically an enormous baked potato that you then have them top with things from their bar of options.

First, they take the potato innards and mash them up with butter and cheese. Once that's all combined and smooth, you're ready to start topping it.

I put black olives, corn, pickles, red cabbage and mushrooms on mine. Then they drizzle it with ketchup or mayo or both, as you desire. I chose just mayo.

Other options that I did not choose (these are the ones I remember): green olives, Russian salad (basically a potato salad), peas, carrots, red pepper paste, jalapenos, sausage.

>45 ursula: Yum. I do the mashed up innards and cheese, but haven't thought of adding toppings, I will try that Ursula.

The City & the City by China Mieville

First line: I could not see the street or much of the estate.

I suggested this book to Morgan, just knowing that it was 1. supposed to be good, and 2. some sort of fantasy/sci fi/speculative fiction. He read it and really enjoyed it, so I picked it up after him. It's a police procedural set in a sort of alternate world. The main character, Tyador Borlú is a detective in the city/country of Beszel who is investigating the murder of a female archaeology student. The trick is that Beszel is geographically co-located with another city-state, Ul Qoma.

Hmmm? Yeah, this is the problem. Both cities are technically located in the same place. But they have a complicated system for making this work, which involves "unseeing" things that are technically in the other city. Some streets will be totally in one city or the other, so there's no problem. Others are "cross-hatched", and you have to be careful not to see what is actually in the other city, or god forbid, actually cross over into it. That would be breach - and that will land you in trouble with the mysterious group that enforces laws against it, also merely called Breach. Obviously this case is going to be complicated enough to need information from both cities, and Borlú has to navigate all the problems that causes.

I felt like this was a pretty well-plotted but standard mystery against a wildly inventive backdrop. A fun ride; the setting was intriguing and well-realized enough to make the mystery secondary to me.

Quote: With a hard start, I realized that she was not on GunterStrász at all, and that I should not have seen her. Immediately and flustered I looked away, and she did the same, with the same speed.

>45 ursula: that looks good! Absolutely huge with all the toppings. A good thing to eat when really hungry.

Have a great start to the week

>46 Caroline_McElwee: These are maybe not the toppings I'm used to, but they were good.

>48 figsfromthistle: Yeah, the potatoes themselves are incredibly humongous. Then you start piling things on top! I hope you have a great week too.

>47 ursula: I remember enjoying this novel Ursula. Some time ago tho.

>45 ursula: - Can you just get the potato with the innards mashed with butter and cheese and nothing on top? Asking for a friend.

My mom used to make (and I occasionally do) what she called stuffed potatoes - bake a potato, cut it in half, scoop out the inside, mix it with chunks of ham and shredded cheddar cheese, put it back in the potato, and top with more cheese and some bacon bits and stick it under the broiler. Pure comfort food, and so yummy!

>47 ursula: - I read that several years ago - it was an LT rec from someone, I think. I liked it, though I never read any more Mieville.

>47 ursula: The City and the City is one of my favourite novels of all time. In fact I've enjoyed all of the China Mieville novels that I've read, but this is my absolute favourite. We saw him talk at a book event in Ely a few years ago - he was a good speaker.

>50 Caroline_McElwee: It's been out for a good 13 years, I'm not surprised! (By the way, how did 2009 get to be 13 years ago....?)

>51 katiekrug: I don't see why not. I was talking to a Turkish friend and he said he usually only puts on one other topping and some ketchup. So I don't see why plain wouldn't be possible.

Your mom's potatoes sound good. It's weird, it's been almost 2 years since I've had ham or bacon and I weirdly don't miss it.

I imagine Morgan will probably get to another Mieville before I do, because that's kind of how he works. I'll report back if so.

>52 SandDune: He seems like he would be an interesting speaker - I know being an interesting person and having interesting ideas doesn't mean that automatically, but still.

>40 ursula: tricky subject matter! Seems to have made you think about the broader issues of culturally specific practices, and moral relativism. I happen to like the first line, but maybe not the book? :)

>47 ursula: The City and the City sounds awesome! And so does the potato. LOL

>54 LovingLit: Yeah, it's thing I often think about when reading literature from other places, of course, but these particular topics were somewhat surprising to me. Although - the book was set in the '40s-'70s, not the current day, so there's that to consider as well. But there have been several books I've read this year that included some violence against animals, and it didn't always mean what it would in an American book, so.

I am not sorry I read the book for a number of reasons, but it didn't connect with me overall and I wouldn't recommend it. But I read a good number of positive reviews. As always, I just put my thoughts out there and let everyone judge for themselves. :)

>55 Berly: They were both pretty good, haha!

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

Okay, I finished this days ago! But we have been busy with preparations for Morgan's mom to arrive, and then we met up with her and her friend yesterday and spent the whole day wandering the streets. So I'm going to write up my pretty half-assed thoughts about this book while I have a few minutes this morning.

First line: Edwin St. John St. Andrew, eighteen years old, hauling the weight of his double-sainted name across the Atlantic by steamship, eyes narrowed against the wind on the upper deck: he holds the railing with gloved hands, impatient for a glimpse of the unknown, trying to discern something - anything! - beyond sea and sky, but all he sees are shades of endless gray.

It gets old to compare everything to Cloud Atlas, but it's useful shorthand I guess. There are characters living through different eras of time. Edwin of the first line is going to North America in the early part of the 20th century. Someone else is in 2020; another character is an author who is on a book tour after writing a novel about a pandemic caused by a "scientifically implausible flu" - she grew up in one of the colonies on the moon, and the year is 2203. We even hit 2401. What ties these people together is that they all experienced some sort of anomaly - a strange moment in the forest with music and a whooshing sound. What is that all about?

I liked this book quite a lot. It didn't draw me in as completely as Station Eleven, but most books don't, so I don't think that's a terrible negative. There are a couple of tertiary characters who appear in Mandel's book The Glass Hotel, but I hadn't read that one and didn't feel like it was necessary.

Quote: "So we don't own the building," the director said, "but we hold a ten-thousand-year lease on the space."
"You're right. That's magnificent."
"Nineteenth-century hubris. Imagine thinking civilization would still exist in ten thousand years. But there's more." She leaned forward, paused for effect. "The lease is renewable."

Late late late for lots of reasons but I'm going to post what I thought of the rest of the Eurovision songs before it's all decided! (One of my favorites already didn't qualify last night *sadface*)

15. Albania Sekret - Ronela Hajati
There is no good reason for this to be this high up on my list. I was focusing on other things I disliked and this slipped in. Her performance at last night's semifinal was terrible and this is no longer in the running.

14. Netherlands De Diepte - S10
Another one I'm not a huge fan of, and yet here it is. There are a lot of pretty yawn-inducing ballads in this bunch. I will say that she has a lovely voice, and performed it well (if boringly) at the semifinals.

13. Italy Brividi - Mahmoud & BLANCO
Fine. It's fine. Other people like this one a lot. It is just not my style at all. The high notes mostly annoy me.

12. Croatia Guilty Pleasure - Mia Dimšić
This was one of the first songs I listened to, and I think it benefited from that. It's a nice little indie-type song, although it's nothing terribly special. At the semi finals it was staged with a frankly odd interpretive dance. It didn't qualify.

11. Ukraine Stefania - Kalush Orchestra
So catchy! I like the combination of traditional and current. This is a good one.

10. Czech Republic Lights Off - We Are Domi
The video is a mini-dystopia. The song is a kind of clubby little thing. It's pretty all right.

9. Iceland Með Hækkandi Sól - Systur
It's sort of like a multiple-person Icelandic Indigo Girls. I don't find it super inspiring, but if it came up randomly I would be interested enough to investigate what else they had to offer.

8. Norway Give That Wolf a Banana - Subwoolfer
Well, this is the kind of silliness that Eurovision is made for.

7. Serbia In Corpore Sano - Konstrakta
I originally heard this without seeing the video and liked it a lot. Then I saw the video and had no idea what was going on. Finally, I read a translation of the lyrics and it added another layer of 🤔 on top of it.

6. Slovenia Disko - LPS
Swanky. In Slovenian, the entire band is between the ages of 17 and 19. They're just adorable, I like the song, but sadly they didn't make it out of the semifinal.

5. Azerbaijan Fade to Black - Nadir Rustamli
After all my complaining about ballads, I was surprised how much I liked this one. The beginning is a little Air Supply for me, but he has a voice that really works for me. The video

4. Belgium Miss You - Jérémie Makiese
His voice reminds me of someone ... I can't quite place it, but it definitely works for me. It also has a different vibe than the rest of the entries.

3. France Fulenn - Alvan & Ahez
Okay, now this is a vibe. It's sung in Breton, and has a great feel. The staging at the semifinal performance was also something to write home about.

2. Estonia Hope - STEFAN
Look, I know this is ridiculously high for an Estonian spaghetti western. What can I say? It speaks to me.

1. Moldova Trenuleţul - Zdob şi Zdub & Advahov Brothers
Pure fun. Embracing their national identity and making everyone else embrace it, too. As crazy and entertaining as the video was, their semifinal performance managed to capture it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93mpIFeQ4f4

So that's it.

Hey ho, let's go - folklore and rock 'n' roll! Team Moldova.

>58 ursula: Ah, there is S10 at #14 :-)
My bet is that Ukraine will win, not because of the song.

>60 FAMeulstee: I agree that it's highly likely that Ukraine will win. But I won't be mad, because at least the song is pretty good.

Well, today Morgan and I were supposed to be on a plane to another city in Turkey to join his mom for part of her tour of some places, but unfortunately I have been sick for the last 3 days and so we decided to skip it. Originally I was going to skip it and Morgan was going to go, but he decided he didn't want to risk being sick and getting his mom and her friend sick too.

It's all for the good, since we were having time working out care for our cats while we would have been gone anyway. But I'll have to wait a little longer to see anything besides Istanbul. It's only been almost 2 years!

>62 ursula: - Oh, that's disappointing, and I hope you feel better soon!

Wolf in White Van by John Darnielle

First line: My father used to carry me down the hall to my room after I came home from the hospital.

Do you ever finish a book and realize you have no idea what you'll say about it? This is one of those books. The narrator is a young man, Sean, who runs a turn-based mail-order roleplaying game called Trace Italian. He came up with the ideas for it when he was 17, while he was laying in a hospital bed recovering from an event that is slowly explained (if "explained" is the right word here). The game has been successful, but has also had a pair of players who took it too far into the real world, with serious ramifications.

This is a book that mostly takes place inside someone's head, and the someone in question doesn't always (often?) understand his own thoughts, so there's not a lot of solid resolution, especially where you might want it most. But I felt like it was worthwhile and painted a picture. I just hesitate to say a lot more about it because the labyrinthine nature of trying to get through the layers of Sean's narrative is the whole point (the cover is quite appropriate).

Quote: "I worry that you'll be lonely," she said; she was crying.
"I was going to be lonely anyway," I said which I didn't mean to come out the way it did, but it did, and besides, it was true.

Side note: the author is a member of (often the only member of) the band The Mountain Goats: Here's their video for "This Year"

>63 katiekrug: It's okay. I'm weirdly not that disappointed. I think it's because we were struggling so much to figure out how to get the cats taken care of, and I wasn't going to go if we couldn't get it sorted to my satisfaction. I knew I didn't want to go and be stressed the whole time.

But I would have liked to see loggerhead turtles. Oh well!

I blame the combination of going to the Hagia Sophia in the middle of the day and the presence of two giant cruise ships undoubtedly adding to the crush of people there.

I feel okay, just super congested at this point. I've had a cough/sore throat. My mother-in-law said she felt some of the same, was concerned enough that she took a COVID test but it was negative, so I'm guessing I also just have one of those random things that all these tourists were carrying.

>57 ursula: aaah, the follow up to Station Eleven? I took a long time to get to that one, and I hope to read this one too (eventually) ;)

>65 ursula: sorry to hear about the cancelled plans! It's a pain, I hope you get over is quickly.

I'm way behind Ursula - sorry to read you're not well, hope you feel better soon. Hope you can go see the turtles another time, too.

I loved The City and the City- there was a tv adaptation but I watched the first couple of minutes and couldn't get into it at all, definitely a case of the film in my head was better. I read another one of his The Last Days of New Paris and found it a real slog - only really finished it because it was a Netgalley and I felt I 'had' too, so I think it was probably the detective side of things that made C&C more accessible for me.

>66 LovingLit: I get it! The Glass Hotel is actually between this one and Station Eleven, but I haven't read it yet. Everything I say I want to read has an "eventually" appended to it!

>67 charl08: Yeah, we were considering watching the tv version. I can't figure out how they would have adapted it, so I'm curious enough to check it out.

Thanks to both of you for the well wishes. I am still feeling about the same, cough and congestion. It is slowly easing so I imagine I'll be okay in a few days.

Well, to the surprise of no one, Ukraine won Eurovision. At least the song was good enough to deserve it.

The Nineties by Chuck Klosterman

I am essentially exactly the same age as Chuck Klosterman (he's about 6 months younger than me). And I was pretty sure this is why I related to and loved Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs so much. As I recall, it was a funny and entertaining look back at the 80s. So I was excited to read his take on the 90s.

I don't know what went wrong. There's no fun in this book. I don't know if it's because it inherently wasn't a very fun decade, or because when Gen X became adults the extreme irony became a cage, in such a way that even looking back on it it's impossible to find joy in anything. Whatever the reason, I didn't expect this to be so dry. It was interesting to read his analysis of Reality Bites (it could only have been accepted/viewed the way it was in an extremely small window of time before people wised up that Ethan Hawke's character was not someone to admire and "selling out" was not the end of the world - in fact it might be the only reasonable goal), and I learned some things about the brief trend of clear beverages.

Anyway, it was disappointingly kind of a slog for me. I don't think it was really bad, but it is hard to separate my expectations and judge that fairly.

Quote: Modern people worry about smartphone addiction, despite the fact that landlines exercised much more control over the owner. If you needed to take an important call, you just had to sit in the living room and wait for it. There was no other option. If you didn't know where someone was, you had to wait until that person wanted to be found. You had to trust people, and they had to trust you. If you made plans over the phone and left the house, those plans could not be changed - everyone had to be where they said they'd be, and everyone had to arrive when they said they'd arrive. Life was more scripted and less fluid, dictated by a machine that would not (and could not) compromise its location.

Well, the first plane tickets in almost 2 years are booked.

In 2019, My Chemical Romance played a reunion show in LA (that I didn't manage to get tickets to - gutted!), and after that they announced a reunion tour... which was promptly cancelled of course because 2020. So they rescheduled for 2021, and Morgan bought me tickets to their show in Bologna as a birthday present in late 2020. That tour was also cancelled.

They rescheduled the tour for 2022, and it has now actually started happening (2 shows in the UK played so far). We bought tickets to Budapest, and we are going in less than 3 weeks. I'm so excited and also so full of anxiety about potential cancellations, issues, whatever. (What if we get sick? What if they get sick? Do we have all the required paperwork in order? I never used to be like this.)

But anyway, I'm super excited about it in spite of that.

>71 ursula: - Exciting! I hear you about a whole new world of worries related to travel. We are going to the UK in October, and I am already obsessing.

I hope it all goes perfectly smoothly for you!

>71 ursula: Exciting Ursula, but yes, the stress of waiting and worrying is totally understandable. I probably won't do foreign travel til next year.

>71 ursula: Enjoy Budapest! It is a wonderful city. Hopefully travel will be stress free.

>71 ursula: That is exciting but travel is much more stressful than it used to be or really need be these days. Hani was travelling to Singapore at the KLIA2 last week and my two girls and I dropped her off. After she went through the checkpoint there was an announcement that there was a fire reported in the building and literally nobody acted on the announcement (we hastened our stride as we were leaving the building!). It was evidently a false alarm but people seem so fed up and gloomy that they almost seemed as if they would welcome the flames.

I have many Hungarian friends and I am sure that you'll enjoy Budapest and the Tokaij!

>72 katiekrug: I can't imagine how stressed I'd be if it was a big trip like yours! It's a short flight, we're not going to be there long (36 hours), it will be fine. :)

>73 Caroline_McElwee: This will be our first travel of any kind, except when we came here in August 2020. That was a totally not-normal experience, so this will be different.

>74 figsfromthistle: I hope it will be stress-free too! We've been to Budapest before, in 2019. We're just going for the concert this time. Because of the way the flights work out, we'll be there for 36 hours, so we'll have some time for walking around a bit too, which is nice.

>75 PaulCranswick: As I said to Anita, I've been before, so it's less about Budapest this time, although I am pleased to be going back to the city.

I do wonder how air travel will change, or people's attitudes toward it.

My Chemical Romance!! And Budapest no less. How fun is that? Wishing you less stress and more fun. ; )

>78 Berly: Yes! I am beyond thrilled. Thanks for the good wishes - I know it's going to be a great time, I'm just not used to having such anxiety about plans. On the other hand, I'm out of practice at even making plans, so that undoubtedly has something to do with it.

It's been busy, but I've read some things:

First up, my first 1001 Books list read of the year, at this late stage.


Fear and Trembling by Amélie Nothomb

First line(s): Mister Haneda was senior to Mister Omochi, who was senior to Mister Saito, who was senior to Miss Mori, who was senior to me. I was senior to no one.

A novelized memoir of a young woman named Amélie who goes to Japan to work in a corporation. She was born in Japan although she is Belgian, and she has a love for the country and its people. However, she never finds her footing and instead finds herself rapidly descending the corporate ladder to places she didn't even know it could go. The entire thing is a fish-out-of-water story. In spite of what Amélie "knows" about Japanese culture, she always finds a way to do something wrong. I've seen that some people found her generalizations about Japan and its people quite offensive - but I feel like her actions kept landing her in trouble because of things she didn't understand, so I took her pronouncements about the causes also with a huge grain of salt.

Quote: Ancient Japanese protocol stipulated that the Emperor be addressed with "fear and trembling." I've always loved the expression, which so perfectly describes the way actors in samurai films speak to their leader, their voices tremulous with almost superhuman reverence."

Secondly:


Nothing but Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw

First line(s): "How the fuck are you this rich?" I took in the old vestibule, the wood ceiling that domed our heads.

A group of friends (frenemies, really) gather in a haunted Japanese castle for the wedding of two members of the group. The bride wants to tell ghost stories all night and then get married. To each their own! Anyway, everyone has history together and much of it is both not good and not adequately buried. What is buried, though, is the problem. The reason the castle is haunted is because a bride, when her groom was killed before their wedding day, asked to be buried in the foundations of the house to wait for him. She was buried alive, and eventually other young women met the same fate.

The rest is pretty much what you'd expect, although I wish in the end there had been a little more of it. At only 125 pages, there was simultaneously not time for much to happen and also something constantly happening, without time for the delicious building of suspense that I enjoy about horror.

Quote: The sight of it itched under my skin, like someone'd fed those small, black picnic ants through a vein, somehow; got them to spread out under the thin layer of dermis, got them to start digging.

Both of those sound good!! : )

>81 Berly: Nothing but Blackened Teeth was unfortunately not terribly successful - I wouldn't give it an awful review, but the awful reviews are out there. For me, the main complaint was definitely that it needed more space to be a better scary story. Now, other people had real issues with her writing, so maybe more space wouldn't have been the answer. ;)

>80 ursula: Cool reads, Ursula!

I went through a period, many years ago, that I loved reading books by Amélie Nothomb and made my way through quite a few of them. In 2003 (nineteen years ago!), I read four of her books. Now I hardly ever hear her name mentioned so I was surprised to see you read one of her books. I just copied my 2003 (!) review of this book from my pc to LT. :D

I picked up Nothing but Blackened Teeth from a local Little Free Library simply because I was intrigued by the cover picture. Let's see if I'll like the story! :D

>83 SqueakyChu: That one is on the 1001 Books list, otherwise I wouldn't have any reason to pick up one of her books either. Well, actually that's not true. I remember looking for anything by her when I was living in Belgium but I couldn't find anything in English.

That cover would be a surprise to run across in a LFL!

People Want to Live by Farah Ali

First line: A week after their son had been shot dead in a street, Salma and Asaf sat staring at each other across the big white sheet on the floor of their drawing room. (Heroes)

This is a collection of short stories set in Pakistan. I don't always get along with short stories, but I really enjoyed every single one of these. Girls in an orphanage dreaming of running away, a truck driver who gets into an accident with unexpected results, tales of marriages and families - those who separated from each other, those who stayed together, those who are coming together again.

Quote: I want to take my parents out to eat.... My mother wants Chinese food. My father wants to know why I like to waste my money. (Present Tense)

Wishing you happy travels! Hopefully all goes smoothly.

>86 banjo123: Thanks! So far, so good. We know what paperwork we need (just our EU-compliant vaccination info on the phone), and our transportation and lodging is all set. Shows have continued as they should so far, so no extra worries on that end. One week to go and we're super excited.

>87 ursula:, have a great trip and hope all goes smoothly.

Thanks, we're working to make sure! So far the biggest potential problem is there is some rain in the forecast on the day of the show.

South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami

I'm back! I finished this book a while ago (in May, in fact), but updates have been sparse here since then.

First line: My birthday's the fourth of January, 1951.

This book of lost love and partially-recovered love was just okay for me. It doesn't have any of the sort of oddball magical realism that is in some of Murakami's books; it's a pretty straightforward story. For me, that's probably a minus. I don't have a ton to say about it, although I did read some comments by other people on it after I finished that suggested there was a more nuanced reading possible.

Quote: If it hadn't rained then, if I had taken an umbrella (which was entirely possible, since I seriously debated doing so before I left the hotel), I would never have met her. And if I hadn't met her, I'd still be plugging away at the textbook company, still leaning against the wall in my apartment at night, alone, drinking, and babbling to myself. Makes me realize how limited our possibilities ever are.

>90 ursula:. Welcome back, how was the trip.

>91 Kristelh: Thanks! The trip was good, I'll go into more detail shortly. :)

Read Dangerously by Azar Nafisi

In letters written to her deceased father, Nafisi talks about Iran, the United States, literature, and the necessity of reading things that challenge society. A lot of what she was talking about was interesting - James Baldwin, Zora Neale Hurston, Margaret Atwood. The actual subject matter and analysis were interesting but the framing device of letters didn't work at all for me. There's a lot of love for this book everywhere, so I'm in a definite minority and you should probably read it if it interests you.

>93 ursula:, I have this on my tbr list and I generally like her books but found I had to get “used to her” when I first starting reading Nafisi.

>94 Kristelh: This was my first one. I somehow completely avoided/missed reading Reading Lolita in Tehran.

So, Budapest!

Our flight in the morning was slightly delayed, but it didn't cause any problems since we had plenty of time before the concert. Got into the city, wandered a bit, had some lunch, checked into the AirBnB, and then it was basically time to head to the venue. (Not really, it was a couple of hours before the doors would open, but people were lining up forever in the regular queue and I was stressed about being in a good spot to see. Being short sucks, and even though we had spots on a terrace instead of the main area, we spent a couple of hours on a sidewalk waiting for the gates to open. But 1. Morgan was super patient and understanding and 2. it paid off 1000%, as I got to be in the very front corner of the terrace.

The show was phenomenal, (almost) everything I could have wished for. There are always a couple of songs I wish they had played at our show - every show on this European tour has had a different set list - but that's minor.

Although there have been a few shows where Gerard Way has dressed up in one manner or another (if you're not familiar, My Chemical Romance has an extremely theatrical past), mostly they have been performing as "dads in a band" as I like to call it.

An overall view from my vantage point


Performing


Another one of my favorite, rhythm guitarist Frank Iero


Magical night, awesome birthday present, super glad Morgan made this happen. He also had a great time. He hadn't listened to the band a ton previously, but he did his homework in the weeks leading up and thought they put on an amazing show.

And the city itself. On the day after the concert, we just wandered a little, ate, and tried to avoid getting heatstroke. It was so hot! Then at 5 pm, we headed back to the airport and came back to Istanbul, finally arriving at 2 AM. That meant we were gone just short of 48 hours, since we had to get up at 3 AM the day before to catch the bus to the airport!

A few shots from the city:

What a great trip Ursula. Definitely a fine birthday present.

You had a great view, Ursula. I love the city shots, beautiful pictures. It looks like a great place to wander, but those temperatures would have floored me.

>98 Caroline_McElwee: It really was! Long-awaited and totally worth it.

>99 charl08: I got exactly the spot I hoped for and it's a rare case where I actually have an unobstructed view. We felt pretty flattened by the heat the second day, but we soldiered on, although we spent a good part of the day at a cafe drinking lemonade. It was nice that we didn't feel like we needed to go and see anything in particular.

Glad the trip and concert were worth the wait!

>96 ursula: I finally listened to a My Chemical Romance track (Welcome to the Black Parade), liked. Can hear notes of Queen. Will listen to more. Thanks Ursula.

Glad you had an awesome time at the concert and enjoyed some of the sights!

>101 katiekrug: So worth it! It was weird (but nice) to travel and do things pretty normally. First time in a long time. Also the first time we've left the city of Istanbul in almost 2 years.

>102 Caroline_McElwee: That's a good place to start, definitely Queen-adjacent (Brian May played it with them at Reading in fact). Helena is also a sort of similarly epic song. The Black Parade overall is an excellent and pretty balanced album; the ones before that lean into the more screamy side of things, and the one after (Danger Days) is a lot more poppy.

>103 figsfromthistle: Yes, all of that! I would never turn down another trip to Budapest.

Love the photos of Budapest, Ursula, and glad you had such a great time!

I, too, had more mixed feelings about Read Dangerously. She kinda stretched the letters in weird ways explaining things she never would have had to for her father but did for the readers, didn't she? But the literary analysis and reflection was well done, I thought.

Thanks for sharing Ursula. Beautiful pictures.

>105 bell7: Thanks! It was definitely a good time, and nice to get out of Istanbul, even if briefly. Exactly what you said about Read Dangerously - it made it a less-than-seamless reading experience for me but I did enjoy it aside from that.

>106 Kristelh: Thanks! It's a lovely city.

Miracle and Wonder by Malcolm Gladwell

Another one I finished a bit ago. An audio "book" but really, as the subtitle says, conversations more than a book. I'm a huge fan of Paul Simon and it was really fun to listen to him reminisce and talk about various aspects of his music, life and career. Not a lot to say beyond that; it's just good stuff.

Glad you had so much fun on your birthday trip! I should try to find Read Dangerously -- I liked her first book.

>110 banjo123: Thanks, I really did! And I should do the reverse and finally get around to Reading Lolita in Tehran. :)

WOW! What a great bday present! Totally jealous. : ) And life may have been a bit more boring since then, but please pop in and bring us up to speed on life again. Hope all is well.

>112 Berly: Heyyy there! Thanks for stopping in. It was an amazing birthday present. Life has not necessarily been more boring since then but it's been hard to get here and update. Will try to catch up ...

First, a beginning to the book updating.


Every Secret Thing by Laura Lippman

First line: They were barefoot when they were sent home, their dripping feet leaving prints that evaporated almost instantly, as if they had never been there at all.

Look, I'm not going to write a lot about these books I've read recently because either there's not a lot to say about them or it's been a while, or both. Two 11-year-old girls are asked to leave a birthday party. On the way home they happen upon a baby in a stroller that they take, and the baby ends up dead. The story begins when the two of them turn 18 and are released back to their hometown.

Typical what-really-happened sort of story. Fine, but nothing to write home about.

Life update:

We got back from Hungary, had a week and then went to another concert here (fun!). Then we started a new Turkish class (C1 level). One week of that, then a week of me going to class alone while Morgan was in Croatia for a conference. When he got back, I had managed to get sick, undoubtedly from spending 3 hours every day in a closed classroom. Also undoubtedly covid. I didn't get tested but it laid me completely flat, as in I slept 22 hours a day for three days straight, had a fever, coughing, etc.

Then of course Morgan came down with it too. So we are finally over it, although we still get winded/light-headed coming up the stairs to our apartment. So I guess we won't be taking this Turkish class after all.

Ooof, sorry to hear about your sickness, Ursula. Glad you're over the worst of it, and hope the aftereffects go away soon.

We Had to Remove This Post by Hanna Bervoets

First line: "So what kinds of things did you see?"

This is a novella about content moderators for a social media site. As would be expected, there are brief descriptions of things no one should ever have to see, and the extremely cold criteria by which they decide whether to take it down or leave it up. The main character attempts to have a life outside of that, although not completely outside since she is dating one of her coworkers.

I feel like this could have been really interesting, but it was just too short. And it ended like a short story might have - abruptly and in the middle of the action. I don't mind still having questions but I felt like the author literally stopped when she ran out of ideas.

Sorry to hear you've both had COVID, Ursula. Hope that the after effects subside quickly.

>117 ursula: I'd wondered about this one, but I hadn't been completely grabbed enough to do something about it. Your post doesn't change that position!

>116 bell7:, >118 charl08:

Thanks. It's probably the 3rd time I've had it since February. I guess I will be spending a lot of time at home this summer (again).

As for the book, I was sad that it seemed to lose its way and then just sort of fizzle out because it seemed reasonably promising at the beginning.

Sleepwalk by Dan Chaon

First line: The first time it happens it's October, and I'm driving through Utah with this young Filipino guy named Liandro.

This is apparently my 4th book by Chaon (I feel like I might have read one or two others, I'm really not sure). It's a near-future dystopia where the main character is working for some shadowy people doing shadowy things. He has a whole passel of identities and burner phones to make this possible, and he mostly takes various types of cargo (often the breathing kind) and drives it to other places, accompanied by his dog Flip. But one day his covers seem to be blown, as he's contacted by someone who knows entirely too much information about him and events spin out from there.

This book gets seriously weird. If you like that, go for it. I dug it, though I also read it through Covid and had the loan run out and had to wait a bit to get it back. This may be responsible for me feeling like it went on a little too long/got somewhat disjointed. It might be just me (I still liked it a lot).

Sorry you have been struggling with COVID, too. I am on day 14 today of round two. UGH. I think I am almost over it though -- crossing fingers. And I am going out for a walk today no matter what -- I can't take my bedroom isolation anymore! LOL. I will mask up. ; )

Sorry to hear you had the lurge Ursula. My sister has only just tested negative after 13 days, the first seven she was pretty much off her feet.

so sorry to hear you are sick.... hope you feel better soon.

Sorry to hear about your illness. Hope it clears soon!

Wishes for a speedy recovery.

>121 Berly:, >122 Caroline_McElwee: Yeah, I was not all back to normal after those first 3 days, they were just the worst of it. It's been over two weeks now and I'm hoping to shake off some of these lingering effects, but as I recall they stuck around for a while after the first time, so we'll see. Sorry to hear you've been in the same boat (again), Kim.

>123 banjo123:, >124 figsfromthistle:, >125 Kristelh: Thanks, all. I'm technically better now but not back to normal.

The Graveyard Apartment by Mariko Koike

First line: When they got up that first morning, the little white finch was dead.

This is the story of a haunted house, or rather a haunted building. Misao, her husband Teppei, their daughter Tamao and their dog Cookie got a great deal on an apartment not too far away from Teppei's work. It's in a recently-built, half-filled apartment building that is surrounded on three sides by a graveyard, a temple, and a crematorium. They decided not to be superstitious about it and moved in. As the first line says, their bird dies immediately. Then Tamao starts talking about being visited by the dead bird, and the TV starts acting weird. Something is clearly going on in the basement, but not so clearly that they don't feel silly with their intuition that something is wrong.

You know how these things go, generally, so you can imagine the build-up to the ultimate conclusion. I felt like ... it was reasonably well written and the story moved along the way it should have, but there was something missing. It lacked that complete sense of dread that something like The Haunting of Hill House manages to communicate even when absolutely nothing dreadful is happening. So, it was fine but it didn't make me shiver.

Denver Noir

This is a collection of short stories set in Denver, by various authors. They're obviously all kind of set in the underbelly of the city. I think it's said in the introduction, something like "even a city with 300 sunny days a year has a dark side", but that's kind of the feeling I had after living in Denver for a number of years. It seems like there are no secrets because it's so bright and flat but obviously it's a city like any other.

Like with all anthologies, it's somewhat uneven. "Noir" encompasses detectives and mysteries, dark and gritty stories of crime, and the supernatural, so it's a mixed bag. I liked a decent number of them, but maybe surprisingly one of my least favorites was by Peter Heller (The Dog Stars). The ones I liked best were by Mathangi Subramanian, the editor, Cynthia Swanson, and maybe Mario Acevedo. I've never read books by any of those authors, but I see that Acevedo writes an urban fantasy series featuring a vampire private investigator with ridiculous titles. Not for me!

Anyway, I guess this is part of a series of books with <City Name> Noir titles, you may want to check out one for a city you're familiar with.

I meant to do this at the end of June, of course, but here are my stats through the end of July.

Happy to see American at 50% or less of my overall total, and I'm good with 50/50 for men vs. women.


Often this is almost 100% just "literature", so it's nice to see some variety here too.


Of course, with so many authors from other places and female authors, it's not surprising that this trends very recent. I don't normally read so many books published within the last year or two.

>129 ursula: What beautiful stats! Nice!

>130 figsfromthistle: Thank you! I hope to keep them as colorful through the rest of the year. :)

Everything I Need I Get from You by Kaitlyn Tiffany

I hate overblown nonfiction subtitles.

Anyway, this is written by a woman who was part of the One Direction fandom, although she makes it clear that she isn't writing a book about 1D, but rather about the connection of fans to their favorite acts, their behavior, and how they've changed the landscape of the internet.

One interesting thing I learned is that back when you had to pay to access certain BBS systems online, at least one was primarily supported by Grateful Dead fans who were essentially doing all the things the fandoms do online today (except writing slash fiction (probably)).

As for the phenomenon of fandom online, especially on Twitter and Tumblr, it was enlightening to see what it looks like from inside. She talked a lot about how the ridiculous inside jokes or minutiae are not really the important part - the important part is that because you understand the jokes and know the minutiae, you mark yourself as a full member of a community. It isn't different in that respect from people who are really into Marvel superhero movies and discussing the detailed interconnections there - the main difference is often age and gender of the fans.

There is talk of harnessing the power of such a large, always-online group for good (K-pop stans flooding racist hashtags with images and videos of their favorite bands until they become unusable), and for bad (harassment of One Direction girlfriends, for instance). It was good that she covered the fun and lighthearted as well as the worrisome and sometimes downright alarming.

>132 ursula: - I've never really understood extreme fan-dom, if I can call it that. I mean, there are things I love but that sort of total immersion is beyond my understanding. A fault of mine, I'm sure. I don't mean to sound judgmental at all.

>133 katiekrug: It's fine, I don't understand people who are so into baseball that they keep all the stats, or people who mentally catalog all the matches of a soccer team and can tell you everything about them. I don't think it's judgmental, it's just a thing I can't imagine doing. It's possible to feel the same way about music fandom without crossing over into "silly girl thing" territory!

It was interesting to me because with My Chemical Romance re-forming, I've seen a lot of the fandom while I look for updates about what they're doing, and a lot of that is old posts/memes/context that I never saw because I wasn't into that back in the day. And one of the things that struck me when I read this book with that backdrop is how damaging the existence of the Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson ship in One Direction was to their friendship vs. how the Gerard Way/Frank Iero ship in MCR affected them. There are a lot of differences - Harry and Louis were teenagers in a manufactured boy band, while Gerard and Frank were men in their 20s pushing a lot of limits; the 1D fans seem to have taken it a lot farther (to my knowledge there were not people saying that the MCR guys’ wives were required by PR), etc. But nevertheless, the boys in 1D quit hugging each other in public, quit being seen alone together at all, which is sad. On the other hand, Gerard got some therapy (not for that directly haha) and said that he understood it was just the fans being creative and had nothing to do with him, he's fine with it. So fine that in one of the recent reunion shows as he approached Frank to hug him, he told the crowd: "Okay, don't get excited!"

That's a lot of probably uninteresting stuff! But I think the book got me thinking about both sides of it - why do fans create these super-communities, with these specific characteristics, and what's that like, being on the other side of it?

>132 ursula: That looks really interesting! There has been an explosion of YA novels that deal with fandom in the past decade or so and it's a subgenre I really enjoy; off the top of my head a few of my faves are Fangirl, Eliza and Her Monsters, and Geekerella. I was very involved in the Harry Potter fandom as a tween and teen--to date myself, book 7 came out when I was in the first half of high school, so I spent the vast majority of middle school reading HP fanfiction online and speculating with other fans about the ending of the series. But I've never been involved in a fandom for a band or something else where the communities are speculating about or shipping real people and that has always given me a bit of the ick.

>135 curioussquared: You're just a bit older than my daughter!

Yes, it is a big difference, fictional characters vs. real people. On the other hand, in a lot of ways writers of fan fiction are clearly writing about fictional characters - whether they're set in alternate universes, remake the characters in some way (female, transgender, a werewolf for example), or just that the actual lives and personalities of celebrities are so unknowable to the fan so as to make them fictional people. The real problem, I think, is when people make it impossible for the celebrity to ignore the existence of fictions. Some people have actually tagged the person in their posts, which is just not okay. Celebrities should be able to go on about their lives without having that shoved in their faces. And yes, if it seems to be causing active harm/discomfort to the objects of your affection, it would seem to be common sense to stop already.

But again, I may have a slightly more lax perspective about it due to the fact that 1. I was not in those spaces in the really crazy MCR days and 2. Gerard Way weighed in on the whole thing and in a series of tweets said something like "no one can tell someone how they should enjoy the thing they enjoy". I mean, his final word on it was:

>136 ursula: LOL. I like Gerard's take on it, too.

The fan-fic probably has good and bad parts to it, but I always think that it's good for young people to be able to find a place where they can be creative and belong.

Palestine +100 by Basma Ghalayini, editor

Another collection of short stories - unusual for me, as it's not my favorite format! But it was hard to resist the premise - writers take on a setting of Palestine in 2048, 100 years after the Nakba. What does that look like? The answers are varied, but all of them are permeated with separation and unfulfilled dreams. I have trouble retaining the details of each story (I should learn to take notes), but while I enjoyed some of them less than others, overall if this sounds like something you might find interesting, I'd recommend it.

>137 curioussquared: :)

>138 banjo123: Yeah, this is a big argument for it, in whatever form. There are already enough people and places discouraging creativity!

In other news, here are a couple of albums I've been listening to recently:


The Horses and the Hounds by James McMurtry (country, singer-songwriter), 2021

Yeah, McMurtry, as in Larry's son. I had no idea he was a musician, although he's been doing it for a long time. Anyway, these songs tell some great stories. One of my favorite lines is from the first song, "Canola Fields"

In a way back corner of a cross-town bus
We were hiding out under my hat
Cashing in on a thirty-year crush
You can't be young and do that
You can't be young and do that


Surrender by Maggie Rogers (indie, singer-songwriter, folk pop), 2022

Ah, this album is so good. She combines field recordings, folk sensibilities, dance pop, terrific lyrics and a powerful voice. My favorite song on the album is "Anywhere with You".

Roll the windows down, kill the radio
I'd rather hear the wind than hear that song I'm supposed to know
By some fucking bro

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

First line: In Siberia, the thawing ground was a ceiling on the verge of collapse, sodden with ice melt and the mammoth detritus of prehistory.

Finished this one. Um, wow. I had no idea this would be the most depressing book in the world. Plague, euthanasia, animal testing, a body farm, death death and more death.

I mean, it was good. Each chapter follows a different character, but they're all connected even though the stories span millennia and light years. And you know it's good because some of those chapters will tear your heart right out of your chest and stomp it to a pulp in front of you. Others, thankfully, not so much.

Oh man, my visits here have been sporadic!

My reading is spread among a few different long/slow-going books (On the Road, Death by Water, You Can't Go Home Again. And then I guess I haven't been spending quite as much time reading as normal. I've been doing a couple of drawing challenges, which have taken up a lot of time, and it's been so HOT.

Morgan went to Croatia for a conference, and then had 2 weeks of conferences here in Istanbul. A mathematician friend and his wife were here for that, so we spent some time with them.

We saw a kitten in the park across the street get cornered by dogs and went down to see how we was, finding out his foot was injured. Took him to the vet - nothing broken, no bite through the skin even, but it was swollen and he wasn't using it so we sheltered him in our bathroom for a few days to let him recover. He's back in the park now and doing well.

Cute kitty.

>139 ursula: I thought this collection was fascinating. More than the individual stories, some of the ideas have stayed with me (especially how borders might be technologically enforced in the future).

>143 ursula: Just seems all eyes! How lovely to be able to return them "home".

>144 Kristelh: He is a cutie! We call him Fasulye (Bean).

>145 charl08: Yeah, there was definitely a lot to think about in terms of the continuation/extension of borders and checkpoints etc. in those stories.

He is mostly eyes, he's about 3 months old. And it was good to put him back out there with a better chance. We saw him yesterday morning and he seemed happy.

>129 ursula: Oh, I like your stats! I hope you're able to keep them as colorful as you have been. My US reading covers about 74% so far this year, the least it's been since I started keeping track, but the difference between this year and last year is currently slightly more titles from the UK, which isn't exactly the sort of branching out I'd like to see.

>142 ursula: Awwww, he's a cutie.

>147 bell7: We'll see, I'm currently reading some dead white guys in trying to get more books off the 1001 Books list in this year. But hopefully I can finish somewhere similar to where I was in those stats.

I know what you mean about UK authors not being quite the variety you'd like! I was happy that that wasn't my 2nd nationality, as it frequently is.

The kitty is a cutie! He's sweet as can be, too, he loves people. We see him out there on the playground even when there are a bunch of kids running around, picking him up and putting him down.

Love Maggie Rogers! Did you listen to the Song Exploder with her?

>149 banjo123: I'm obsessed! But no, I haven't listened to her Song Exploder, I'll have to check it out. I used to listen to that podcast pretty frequently but then I fell out of the habit. Thanks for the heads up!

>70 ursula: when Gen X became adults the extreme irony became a cage, in such a way that even looking back on it it's impossible to find joy in anything
Ack. That is so true Irony will only get you so far.

>143 ursula: yay for kitten rescuing!!

>151 LovingLit: Yeah, I think we robbed ourselves of a lot of joy. I like to see Gen Z'ers who manage to just embrace the cringe. Looking/being "cool" is overrated.

The kitten is doing great out there, we see him just about every day, and every day improves his chances of survival as he gets bigger and smarter.

On the Road by Jack Kerouac

Sigh.

First line: I first met Dean not long after my wife and I split up.

I have avoided and avoided this book. I tried to start it a couple of times in the distant past but I've just always had an aversion to it. In the past 3-4 years I read The Dharma Bums and The Subterraneans as a sort of way to acclimate myself to Kerouac, with mixed results.

The whole plot is in the title, and everyone knows this book, so I'm just going to talk about my reactions to it. If anyone is inspired by this book, they don't have two brain cells to rub together. This is a sad book about sad people. Even they occasionally realize their lives are pathetic when they stop drinking long enough to think. Traveling the country and down into Mexico isn't really that glamorous (or interesting) when all you do is the same stupid shit you do in your hometown, with the same stupid people. When I was done with the book and putting it into my spreadsheet, I commented to my husband that I wish I could double-fail it on the Bechdel test and we had the following exchange:

Morgan: Is there one female character in the book who couldn't be replaced by a blow-up doll?
Me: His aunt cooks.

There are some good passages in there, and I kind of get what he was going for and can admire that, but overall this is not good.

Also, I never mentioned that about a week after we returned from seeing My Chem in Hungary, we went to a show here in Istanbul. We saw DIIV, a band that is usually classified somewhere in the shoegaze, dream pop, post-punk area. If you're curious, here's the video for one song I really like, Skin Game.

It was in a venue that holds 800 people, so pretty intimate! We hung out on the balcony since I was getting buried behind 6 ft+ tall guys on the floor.

Hi Ursula! And of course, it's way too long since I visited.

>45 ursula: Wow. Yum. I’d vote for corn, mushrooms, sausage, and jalapenos. No mayo or ketchup, though it might be too dry then.

>47 ursula: I read this one in 2010 and only rated it 3 stars because I had a hard time working through the ‘wildly inventive backdrop’, as you put it. I have 3 others by Miéville, as yet unread, because this first one was so unsettling to me.

>51 katiekrug: Katie, we call ‘em twice-baked potatoes and only use lots and LOTS of cheese, usually mozzarella. They’re special occasion potatoes and usually show up for Christmas dinner to go with our Prime Rib.

>57 ursula: On my shelves, I really need to try to get to this one this year. Sigh.

>64 ursula: And onto the wish list it goes!

>71 ursula: Pass, but I do love the quote.

>96 ursula: and >97 ursula: I’m so glad you got excellent seats and had such a wonderful time in Budapest.

>115 ursula: Yikes, Covid strikes.

>136 ursula: Well. Now I know what IDGAF means, having just looked it up. Even at the height of my Beatles fandom in 1963/4, all I did was buy a few fan magazines and fantasize about dating them. My Queen romance, which started in 2018, has waned a bit, and nothing new has hit my personal music horizon. I have several book author crushes, but never follow them online. I just read their stuff.

>142 ursula: Sorry it was so depressing.

>148 ursula: I'm currently reading some dead white guys Makes me smile. I’ve only read one book by a dead white guy this year – J.D. Salinger – and since he’s one of my favorite authors ever, I don’t feel that it was a burden at all.

>153 ursula: You’ve given me another book to cull. I have bought and gotten rid of this one several times over the decades, but enough is enough. Thanks for the inspiration.

>153 ursula: I read that one in college (probably the best time, if one were to read it at all) and remember liking the first half but reading the rest in a sort of fascinating horror saying to myself, "He must've been out of his mind high writing this." And then finding out he was exactly that. Morgan's question made me laugh.

>155 karenmarie: I think it really needs some kind of condiment, yeah ... but maybe with corn and mushrooms, there's enough moisture in those + the cheese mixed into the potato that it would be okay.

I really want to read more of John Darnielle's books but you know how that is - it's hard to make space a lot of times!

I'm glad/sorry you now know what IDGAF means. When I was in high school, it was Duran Duran for me. It was actually noted in the book that there was some fan fiction circulated among Beatles fans!

No worries about How High We Go in the Dark being depressing - it was a good depressing. Some of my favorite reads are depressing.

I think that anyone who had doubts about On the Road could safely chuck it. I'm not sorry I read it, because now I feel like I have given Kerouac plenty of a chance.

>156 bell7: Yeah, I think college is a good time for a lot of things like this, although moreso if you have some critical thinking skills. (I know I didn't, personally, when I was in college. Other people certainly had their heads on straighter.) I also think the book probably would have been pretty good if it had stopped after the first half.

And yes, Morgan always has some great interjections. :)

You Can't Go Home Again by Thomas Wolfe

First line: It was the hour of twilight on a soft spring day toward the end of April in the year of Our Lord 1929, and George Webber leaned his elbows on the sill of his back window and looked out at what he could see of New York.

Morgan picked this one up last year, started it and said "nope", so I approached it with some trepidation. But he has less tolerance for a certain kind of writing, a certain kind of novel (he also hated Babbitt). So I think it's just the detailed description and the interiority of it that turned him off. Anyway, George Webber from that opening sentence is an aspiring writer, and has some success with his first novel. However, it all seems a little too close to events and people in the town where he grew up and he gets a lot of hate over it. Then he has a crisis or two as he tries to write his second novel.

Some other stuff happens, kind of. Look, this is a writer writing about being a writer and although things happen, there's not much in the way of actual plot. It's most notable for its descriptions of Americans and American life, and I was struck by how much of it is still true. I enjoyed most of it, although it was a loooong book and it could have been shorter.

Quote: Suddenly we realize that America has turned into something ugly - and vicious - and corroded at the heart of its power with easy wealth and graft and special privilege ... And the worst of it is the intellectual dishonesty which all this corruption has bred. People are afraid to think straight - afraid to face themselves - afraid to look at things and see them as they are. We've become like a nation of advertising men, all hiding behind catch phrases like 'prosperity' and 'rugged individualism' and 'the American way.' And the real things like freedom, and equal opportunity, and the integrity and worth of the individual - things that have belonged to the American dream since the beginning - they have become just words, too.

Hi from a hospital in Istanbul! This is obviously not where I planned to be, but Friday night I was very, violently ill, and after that I had extreme stomach pain that wouldn’t go away. After 2 days of trying to get treatment (one hospital wouldn’t treat foreigners except in outrageous amounts of US dollars; the other didn’t have a radiologist on Sundays), on Monday I finally made it in to a doctor who when I explained my symptoms, said “yes, and why did you wait so long to come in”, which is a little funny now that it doesn’t make me want to scream. Anyway, the diagnosis was large gallstone and accompanying infection. Surgery in my future but at the moment I’m in the hospital getting antibiotics and pain meds. Maybe the operation will be tomorrow.

Oh, no, Ursula, I'm so sorry to hear this! I hope you get relief soon and recover quickly!

Oh my! I am glad that you were able to find a hospital to diagnose and treat you. Sending speedy healing vibes your way!

Oh no!! Feel better soon!

Get well soon Ursula!

Oh sounds nasty! So glad that you’ve found a hospital now.

Ooof. Hope everything goes well!

Dang it! Good luck with the surgery!!

Thanks, everyone. I’ll be here in the hospital getting antibiotics until Saturday, then I’ll be able to go home and return early Monday for surgery. This has really been something else, whew. Not excited about the surgery (although I know it’s a small thing), but excited to be done with all of this.

Hang in there!! Sending good mojo. And hugs.

Well, things changed again. Got a ton of tests done at the hospital, and got released on Saturday as planned, but now I've got a bit of a reprieve and will be going back for surgery on Wednesday.

My hands and arms are a mass of needle pokes, bruises, and collapsed veins. The last blood draw we needed to get, the nurse managed by catching it as it dripped slowly out of the back of the needle. So it will definitely be nice to have a couple of extra days to relax and recover at home before having to go back.

>171 ursula: Sounds painful, Ursula, like being used as pincushion...
I hope you can recuperate a bit, and good luck with the surgery!

>172 FAMeulstee: Definitely like being a pincushion!

I went out today for the first time in over a week (aside from painful walk/crawls up and down the stairs and into taxis), and it was so nice. A friend is visiting the city and I was able to go out to lunch with them at a place a few blocks from our apartment. I mean, I couldn't eat anything, haha, but I was able to sit with her, her boyfriend, and Morgan while they ate.

One more full day at home and then back to the hospital. I'm nervous, I have to admit. I've never had surgery before. But it's what's required so I just have to get with the program.

The Book of Salt by Monique Truong

First line: Of that day I have two photographs and, of course, my memories.

Picked up blind, as are many of my reads. Turns out this story is narrated by a Vietnamese cook who is in Paris working in the household of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas.

I'm not even going to bother really writing a review - I had read about half of this when my gall bladder attacked, and then I was semi-conscious for days beofre I felt well enough to even consider reading again, and so it was a disjointed experience and I don't think I can fairly judge the book. It was fine.

Quote: For a traveler, it is sometimes necessary to make the world small on purpose. It is the only way to stop migrating and find a new home.

I'm considering finally tackling the Gertrude Stein I have here next, but it may not be the right time for it what with surgery and all. Or maybe it's the perfect time, haha.

Hope everything went smoothly with the surgery, Ursula.

>175 bell7: Thank you!

Surgery went well, they took out the enormous gallstone and the also-enormous gallbladder. The doctor showed me pictures of mine as well as pictures of a more normal one and wow, things were bad. Coming out of the anesthesia was no fun at all, and it's hard for me to conceive of people doing elective surgery for anything just because of that, but I went home the day after it and I'm getting around.

They did the surgery laparoscopically, so there are 4 small-ish incisions rather than one large one, which will supposedly make recovery easier. I can't really eat much of anything for a week (mostly soft bland food, no chocolate, minimal fat, no eggs), but it's a fair trade.

Glad to hear that surgery went okay. I agree with you, it's hard to imagine people "wanting and seeking surgery". But glad you could have the lap kind of gallbladder surgery. So much easier. If you need surgery in future be sure to tell them you have difficulty coming out of anesthesia.

>153 ursula: Even they occasionally realize their lives are pathetic when they stop drinking long enough to think.
Lol- I love this (the review, that is. The book I was not overwhelmed by).

The whole travelling waster thing was, I guess, a reaction against the conformist times of the day.

>171 ursula: collapsed veins! Doesn't sound pleasant. Just like before my eyes went and I was pleased to have good eyesight, I am (currently) thankful to be blessed with solid, easy to 'find' veins.

>177 Kristelh: I am definitely glad I didn't have to go the "open" route for the surgery! I don't think I had any unusual difficulty coming out of the anesthesia - that seems to involve being notably slow to come out or confused. I just had uncontrollable shivers and a lot of nausea, which seems to be pretty normal.

>178 LovingLit: Definitely a reaction against the times. I guess I just feel like it's great if people actually get inspired to be curious about people and the world, but that curiosity was almost completely lacking in the book.

My veins have always been impeccable in the past, I've been pleased to also have "good veins"! But I guess days of not eating, hardly drinking, and having nonstop IVs just took their toll. (I also used to be happy to have good eyesight, but age has taken that!) I'm hoping when I go back in for my post-op checkup the day after tomorrow there won't be any blood tests required.

>161 ursula: >176 ursula: That sounds very unpleasant Ursula. Hopefully you are now fully in recovery.

>179 ursula:, yes, those are normal effects of coming up out of anesthesia. Perhaps they can provide you with more warm blankets (and check on them) and maybe something for the nausea. Not sure about the latter.

Glad to hear surgery went well!

>180 Caroline_McElwee:, >181 Kristelh:, >182 curioussquared: Good thoughts appreciated, I'm doing okay now (about a week and a half after surgery).

Still maybe not where I'd like to be, but getting there. I have to remind myself that the things that say a week after surgery you should be essentially back to normal don't take into account the insane infection I had and the fact that I spent several days not very conscious and a week in the hospital before that surgery.

Slowly reintroducing foods, etc.

Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez

It was fine overall, but had some truly terrible clunkers in the writing.

>183 ursula: I've read it can take a year for the chemicals they use to get out of your system.
Please be kind to yourself.

I shall continue to skip past On the Road in the lists of classics we're supposed to have read.

Sorry to hear about the surgery--it sounds miserable but glad you are getting better.

>185 charl08: Safely skippable!

>186 banjo123: Thanks, it was not the most fun way to spend 3 weeks but I am now gallbladder-less and can't say I miss it!

My stats are a disaster from not playing at all for a bit and then not playing consistently but today's Wordle was kind of exciting for me

Wordle 472 2/6

🟨🟨🟨⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

In other news, I'm close to finishing a book that I've been reading for an eternity, which is also exciting.

And in other other news, here's another album I've been listening to endlessly:



The Long Way, the Slow Way by Camp Trash

This is emo - it's funny, that term has been undergoing a re-evaluation in the wider world and also in my own head. I used to think of it as "bands with singers who couldn't carry a tune" because that seemed to be the trend back in 2005-2007 when I decided I didn't like it. And in the wider world, there were various waves of emo - the one that originated with hardcore and was more screamy, midwest emo, 3rd wave emo, etc. We're apparently on the 5th wave of emo now and I'm realizing that a lot of it aligns with my default favorite genre of music: sad bastards with guitars. In this case, the guitars are often twinkly.

Anyway! This album just spoke to me instantly when I put it on. The musicians all have day jobs and live scattered across the country: the guitarist is in Portland and is I believe a teacher in addition to freelancing as a writer for music sites; the bassist (his brother) is an attorney on the east coast, the singer and drummer I think both still live in Florida where they all met each other.

My favorite song on the album is "Lake Erie Boys", but I like the last lines from the last song, "Feel Something":

You and me are gonna see this the whole way through
The people we used to be are gonna see us the whole way through

Death by Water by Kenzaburo Oe

I picked this one up because Oe is a Nobel prize winner whose work I have not read, and the library didn't have Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids, which is on the 1001 books list. I have read it steadily (aside from the gall bladder incident) since August and it was slow going. I guess that Oe's books are pretty autobiographical, and this is about his author alter ego trying to write his last book, so maybe this wasn't the place to start. Nevertheless, it was repetitive and really underwhelming on just about every level.

>188 ursula: I love that cover! But as I have never heard of the band I will have to check them out!

>190 LovingLit: I like tons of kinds of music, I try to remember to occasionally post here about what I'm listening to, as much for anyone else as for myself in the future I guess!

I'm close to finishing a couple of books, somehow I've ended up with 4 different ones going at once. That's a thing I used to do pretty routinely but haven't felt up to for a long time. Maybe I'll finish the year out strong, who knows!

>192 ursula: Maybe I'll finish the year out strong, who knows!

Yeah, oh yeah. You will. I am with you on that. A strong finish.

>193 weird_O: Cheers to strong finishes!

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson

Why did I check this out? I don't even remember. I love cursing and tolerate self-help? I don't know. Anyway, it's kind of the Buddhist "life is suffering" philosophy filtered into f words - you can and should choose how you suffer, what you suffer for, what you give a fuck about. Valid. Less valid is that it really reads a lot like The Alchemist in all the ways I hated - it's so simple to just choose to be poor and vagrant in the pursuit of your ideals. This guy talked about how he got out of college and it was a terrible job market so he just tried starting his own things, since he was a "failure" anyway. He coasted around sleeping on friends' couches, used spare change to get McDonald's etc. I mean, that's great if you can do it but it's not like this is an option for everyone (or safe for everyone).

Also he made a lot of comments alluding to people wanting to cast themselves as victims, but in the context being upset about "a college professor saying maybe some Halloween costumes really aren't that offensive", or similar situations. I found those comments uncomfortably close to the right-wing "snowflake" statements.

Anyway, my advice is to read something else on the topic of figuring out how to let the small stuff go and how to live with being uncomfortable in general, but especially in pursuit of the things you care about.

>195 ursula: Thanks for taking the hit with that one, Ursula - I will gladly pass.

Have a lovely weekend.

Blood Feast by Malika Moustadraf

This is a collection of short stories by a feminist Moroccan writer. They are all quite short, and depict various aspects of living as a woman in a repressive society mostly, although one story is about a trans or intersex (it's not clear from the writing) character as well. There was a translator's note at the end that I really wish I had read first, because it provided autobiographical details that really filled in a lot of information about the circumstances of Moustadraf's life and also information about plays on words and slang that provided extra context. On the other hand, obviously it summarizes the stories it's talking about in a few sentences, so maybe I should have just taken the information there and re-read the stories in question.

Anyway, Moustadraf is dead (died in 2006 at age 37), and this was published posthumously. In her lifetime she had a hard time getting published because of her outspoken views, and this is the first English translation of any of her work. I'm not much of a short story person, but the added context from the translator made me glad I read these.

>196 PaulCranswick: Thank you Paul, it was an okay weekend. Hope yours was good!

Oroonoko by Aphra Behn

From the 1001 Books list. Published in 1688, this is a book about a prince, Oroonoko, and how he ends up enslaved in Surinam and what happens to him (and the love of his life) there. Spoiler: nothing good.

I was kind of surprised how easy this was to read. I was definitely apprehensive just because of the 1688 date, but honestly it was pretty easy reading. This was kind of equal parts "noble savage" and "white people suck", which is much better than I would have expected for the time.

>199 ursula: We read this in my Major British Writers survey class in college and I agreed with your take on it. Behn's play The Rover is also worth a read IMO.

>200 curioussquared: Ah, good to know about The Rover!