Susan(quondame) Reads 2023-4

Days late and rather short and somewhat lacking, here I am:

I'm Susan, lost in my mid-seventies, married to Mike who has just started returning to the gym after shoulder surgery, whose dog Gizmo only has time for me when I have a snack for her or when Nutmeg, my adult daughter Becky's French Bulldog, is close to me. We get along together pretty well in an almost big enough house in west Los Angeles. In addition to books, I like food, comfortable loud clothing, dolls, fiber crafting supplies, miniature tools and occasionally meeting up with friends.

My 2023 Project, which I haven't forgotten but have neglected!

5 years ago I collected from a FaceBook group a list of favorite women F&SF authors. In addition up until 2018 I was maintaining a much longer list of women F&SF authors, many of whom I had only encountered on other peoples' lists or in advertisements. The first has 224 entries and I haven't counted the latter, but many, many more.
It is time to bring them up to date.

If you have favorite women F&SF authors who started publishing since 2015, let me know. I see a lot, but by no means most of what gets published in that field.

I include trans-women and individuals who present as women, though I'm sure I've make some mistakes and welcome corrections based on an individual author's statements.

The status of >2 quondame:, which didn't change since it was posted on the last thread 6 months ago.

What is sprang and why every would you care about it?

I have a class scheduled in mid September and there may be a class on Christmas ornaments - making covers for balls I suspect sort of tailored tubes which sound fun and also might make great little purses or (god forbid) potpourri bags. I can see using something like that to put outside a hollow split sphere holding a small present.

I read The Terms and Conditions. Does it matter for what? But I did. It should count but I'm not counting it because who would believe me.

Running on Air if you know you know. It's M/M ff mood piece.

228) I Have Some Questions for You



This deliberately paced, somewhat 2nd person narrative, examines a 25 year old murder of a 17 year old woman and a private and somewhat isolated New Hampshire high school. Originally satisfied with the conviction of an athletics teacher for the crime, when podcaster Bodie takes a mini-mester position teaching podcasting and film history her memories and others' efforts to exonerate the man convicted come together to have her re-evaluate more likely scenarios than the obviously flawed one pursued by the state police.
This is an attack of previously only occasionally challenged culture that accepted public groping and demeaning of woman as normal and stigmatized women who expressed anger over it and in fact rarely credited women with real grievance to the extent of not taking death threats or even deaths seriously - unless they could find the right sort of perp, not one of us.

BB lauralkeet

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #11: Read a book with 5 or more words in the title, at least two of them the same length

229) Jade Dragon Mountain .75



This is an interesting story of the scholar Li Du exiled from Beijing who is detained at the mansion of his cousin, the local magistrate of a remote southern city a few days before the Emperor visits for a solar eclipse. When he finds that the death of an elderly Jesuit is a murder his cousin encourages him to leave. The story is competently told and the characters are well drawn though static and arraigned for the plot, which is in the de rigueur mode of layered indirection. The pacing lacked elegance but wasn't uncomfortable. It consciously plays against the Judge Dee mysteries and even references Dee in a story within the story.

BB drneutron

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #15: Read a book where one of the main page (primary) tags is a subject you might study in school

Hello! Welcome!

In addition to >5 quondame: I've been reading fan fic and following Victoria Goddard's Discord page. So at least I had something to do when LT was being bullied.

>6 quondame: Hi Susan. I love the topper of a cake book! That looks like a lot of time to make. I added I have Some Questions For You to my tbr list.

>10 Whisper1: Welcome Linda!

Yay! you can see a picture! LT is recovering!

I hope you can enjoy I Have Some Questions for You. I wouldn't call it a fun read at all, in fact somewhat depressing, so do note that.

Happy New Thread, Susan! I love the library cake topper!

Happy new thread, Susan!

Hi Susan, and happy new thread.

From your last thread: Only read this if you want to be depressed. Only recommend it if you want someone else to be depressed. I should start keeping a “Never, Ever Even Think About Reading This Book” list. The Hole would definitely go on it.

I’m amused at how massage and coffee tables were being used on your last thread.

Congrats on 3 x 75.

>1 quondame: I’m highly amused by your ‘lost in my mid-seventies’. Love the library cake. From my cake decorating days when Jenna was little, I very unhappily remember fondant. Evil stuff.

Happy new thread!

Happy new thread Susan

Happy new thread, Susan. Sorry it has taken me a while but I have been trying constantly and with frustration aplenty to get onto the site. Completely blocked in Malaysia for the last 20 hours.

Happy new thread!

Happy new thread, Susan! I picked up a copy of I Have Some Questions for You recently and am looking forward to it.

Yay! We're back! Welcome all rejoicing returned exiles!

>12 vancouverdeb: Thanks Deborah!

>13 FAMeulstee: Hi Meg!

>14 karenmarie: Good to see you Karen! Real fondant shares little with the stuff sold at cooking supply stores. My mother carefully tempered the sugar and cured it in that curious cupboard lined room between the kitchen and the dinning area. After that is was a dense silky liquid thickened with almond paste to make lovely painted fruit or exquisite flowers. Or otherwise enhanced used as fillings for hand dipped chocolates.

Thanks Figs, Arlie, Paul, Foggi, and Natalie!

Paul, I got through yesterday by regular checks of the https://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/librarything.com site. The FB announcement by LT that they had take the site down for maintenance wasn't exactly a comfort but did partially calm my worry if not my frustration

DNF Silver Silence

I should have dropped it when I read alpha bear or at least as soon as ice queen came before my eyes but I think I went on for at least a chapter or two. The writing had no flow and I could look forward to 400 more pages of it. It seemed to be using its magic scheme as an excuse for the stalker behavior of Mr stalker bear. Nope. There might have been an excuse for this a decade before it's 2017 publish date, but not really.

230) The Phantom Twin



A graphic novel about the surviving conjoined twin, the one pressured into the separation surgery by her dominating sister. Left with one leg and one arm she returns to the freak show her sister was so intent on escaping. Her sister, though dead is still with her and still deriding her choices. About having to live with the mistakes of others as well as our own and seeing the value and the hazards of the people around you. The art quite suits the story though some of the noses distracted me.

BB from foggidawn

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #2: Read a book with a headline character count of 23 or less

231) Winter's Orbit



Fundamentally silly with a spice of serious. A M/M royal marriage of convenience with two rather romantic young men, strangers to each other until the day of the wedding. One was widowed his former spouse a cousin of the other. Misunderstandings, murder, politics, betrayals, space opera. The characters we spend time with are pretty pleasant if not terribly interesting, and gender seems to be a matter of which pronouns are used and what is worn, and in the milieu of the story indicate by wearing either flint for F or wood for M or glass for U. But gender doesn't seem to have any other weight within the book in terms of rolls or expectations and no children are mentioned as being in the palace, at least at any of the events attended or spaces occupied by the main couple.

BB from LizzieD

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #5: Read a Debut Novel First Published Since 1 January 2020

Happy new one, Susan!

>21 quondame: Glad you liked The Phantom Twin!

>6 quondame: i just got that one from the library yesterday, so I will be reading it soon. I am glad to see that you enjoyed it.

>21 quondame: The Phantom Twin sounds interesting to me. I will have to see if I can locate a copy.

Happy new thread, Susan!

>24 alcottacre: Thanks Stasia!

I'm still spending lots of my time reading Nine Worlds fan fic. Not only is there quite a lot of it there is even more every day. And discussions.
So many good writers.

Happy New thread!

Happy new thread, Susan. I love that you put where you get the recommendations for the books you've read.

>25 quondame: I may tackle the fan fic once I finish with the "official" books. Thanks for letting me know that such a thing existed!

Have a super Saturday, Susan!

>26 Storeetllr: Thank you Mary!

>27 BLBera: Thanks Beth!
Only if I liked the book and if I think the recommender would be glad to know. But I keep track, mostly. Well if several people have mentioned a book here and on FB I may just put a hold on it without recording which mention was the trigger.

>28 alcottacre: Are you on AO3? It took me 2 weeks to get an invitation and a good deal of the ff is private to the server. There is a lot of M/M sex, quite understandable but I'm really fond of the ace version of Kip and don't need the entire G&D boy band in bed.

232) City of Bones



Khat is a krisman, an artificially created adaption of human stock designed to live in the Waste that the planet has become, making a living in the semi-legal relics trade in the city of Charisat which is generally hostile not only to krisman but to all non-citizens, strictly restricting their livelihoods and living places. When he is pressured into assisting a couple of patricians to escape a debt he knows he might be taking too big a chance. He is, but it's even worse - as it always is, but also interesting. The pace and flow of this book was a bit slow for me, and the characters never quite felt "in gear" though they seemed to have potential.
(This is the 1995 edition text, not the Sept. 5, 2023 revised edition)

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #13: Read a book where you can make a word, with at least three letters, with the first letters of title and/or author

Becky went to a play last night with her friends so Mike and I went out to try a newish (well 2019) Turkish restaurant. The set-up was fast food, order at the counter though the service was slow and food delivered to the table. I got neither of the 2 dishes I ordered - lahmacun pida and green salad, but the cheese & doner pida and the chobani salad were excellent as was Mike's interestingly sauced manti. Each dish was generous so we shared a lot and came home with almost as much as we ate.

As we were leaving to go to dinner we were waylaid by a dog walker whose pet was rolling on our lawn. Sonic, of course I asked the dog's name, not the person's, seemed a lovely miniature shepherd or mix of same, was adopted by her daughter a couple weeks back and not quite settled yet but a lovely fellow with a very talkative grand-owner. It's still too hot to take Nutmeg for walks so further encounters with Sonic are unlikely.

233) Loveless



Headed for university Georgia bemoans the fact that she's never kissed a boy. Her two best friends are in a separate college of the same university and she finds she will have a roommate, also a theater kid, the very social and sexually active Rooney. Deciding to take Rooney's advice can get her the experience she wants, yes? Well, nothing's simple and there's lots of angst and drama before our victims of standard expectations can feel they are doing their own thing.

Read at the request of my daughter, Becky. I swear I do not get on her case about finding a boyfriend or girlfriend, nope not at all.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #2: Read a book with a headline character count of 23 or less

Hi Susan my dear, Happy New Thread dear friend.

>32 quondame: Even I don't see myself picking up this one, your review made me smile, Susan.

>29 quondame: Not sure what you mean by AO3, Susan. Mary and I just started Love in a Mist, one of the Greenwing & Dart books, on Sunday.

>34 PaulCranswick: Um thanks? The review or my comment about Becky? (I did not include the Becky comment on my LT review)

>35 alcottacre: The fan fiction I've been reading is hosted on a server at the Archive of Our Own (AO3). The specific works I've read are mentioned on the HotE Support Group at Discord. In order to read fics the authors have set as private users need to have an AO3 account which takes 2 weeks. The discord also include liveblogging for those reading or re-reading Victoria's books. It's fun to see comments of readers somewhat real time.

I signed up for a Discord account last fall because of the promise of extra chapters for HotE and AtFotS, but it took until a week or so ago until I finally found them - not that I was looking once I realized it wasn't like an author's page that you just clicked on "bonus chapters".

>36 quondame: The comment about Becky on your thread review made me smile, Susan.

>37 PaulCranswick: Mission accomplished.

>36 quondame: OK, no I have not been on that server at all - at least as far as I know. I am not likely to use Discord at all. I have been on there several times, but it is just not for me.

>39 alcottacre: It's opaque business was a turn off for me, but I was determined to extract the bonus material. And I've found an amusing group of creatives who sound very like my daughter's milieu which quite interest me now. It's been more decades than any of them have been alive since I last wrote fan fiction (Howard Pyle/Walter Scott) so I doubt I'll be a contributor, but they are so earnest.

234) The Art of Eating



All 5 books included are great treats for food lovers who are willing to allow other opinions to blossom. In one of the last sections of the very last book I was greatly amused to learn the salt free steak had been soaked in soy sauce, but I expect it was as delicious as stated. I learned much about oysters and about the region of Burgundy and the Lake Leman area of Switzerland and was filled with longing to have been there when. Best read when lightly hungry with bread and cheese - good bread and cheese - at hand and a glass of light wine would be welcome.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #13: Read a book where you can make a word, with at least three letters, with the first letters of title and/or author

>40 quondame: The last time I read any fan fiction was probably the mid-1980s. I have never written any.

>42 alcottacre: I have some very different views than I did between 11 and 14. But I still love so many of the same story elements. A good bath and a lovely change of clothes always make me fill better for the poor abused MC.

There seems to have been an evolution in manners appropriate for games since Mike last played Hell with his late boomer friends. My daughter's late millennial milieu seems to do without insulting banter and histrionics which were firmly squelched on appearance.

Hi Susan!

>20 quondame: You’ve consistently mentioned your mother’s skills as a cook and baker, and the description of real fondant as being a dense silky liquid thickened with almond paste makes me wish I could get hold of some. Fruit and flowers would be the best use, of course.

>32 quondame: I don’t mention Jenna looking for a girlfriend either. Nope. Don’t go there. SomeGuyInVirginia told me a while back that Jenna needs to find a rich Savannah widow, but Jenna would have to hie herself off to Savannah to look for this mythical creature. *smile*

>45 karenmarie: As I have been roundly taken to task for alleged bi-bashing and how it unhappy it made my daughter feel - among the openly stated motivations for the breakup of one of the base couples of my 30s social group was the need for partners of both sexes and I had perhaps concentrated my negative feelings about sexual irresponsibility on the bi rather than the behavior.

Which is to say that I have become determined to not be surprised by whatever gender the next individual admitted as of interest to my daughter should be.

Becky has always been perplexed by my declarations that certain individuals are attractive when I am talking about people I don't know. In that and in other ways she seems to be indicating she is on the ace spectrum at least so far as requiring substantial familiarity before attraction. Which really makes more sense than the whole across a crowded room scenario.

But that seems somewhat complicated for introverts in that clear attractiveness has motivated me to interact somewhat more than it has tied my tongue though I've seen it paralyze others. But without the motivation might two or three or however many tolerably compatible people just stew before their own screens rather than chancing an interaction?

The mere thought exhausts me. I shall grab a dog and a book for an hour or so.

235) The Murder of Mr. Wickham



An amusing outing with the leads of 5 of Jane Austen's novels and the daughter of the 6th. Apparently Knighley went to school with Darcy and is the distant cousin of the Bertrams. The Wentworths are temporary tenants and the newlywed Brandons have been invited to Donwell Abbey as Emma's cousin as has Miss Juliet Tilney, daughter of a novelist Emma met while at Bath! Beyond the freedom with which Miss Tilney and Mr Jonathan Darcy move about not too much damage is done to Austen's characters and the writing is light and humorous and, well, Mr Wickham dies, gratifying many a reader.

BB from 2wonderY

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #14: Read a book with a person or animal's name in the title

>47 quondame: I read The Murder of Mr Wickham earlier this year and really enjoyed it . It was a fun read. Great review, Susan.

>48 vancouverdeb: Thanks Deborah!

236) Embers

Fan Fiction hosted on AO3

For fans of Victoria Goddard's The Hands of the Emperor alfgufu has filled in Cliopher's career between his return to Solaara and into the events of Petty Treasons. This is very much the Cliopher of The Hands of the Emperor, but in not so finished a form and as it is told very closely from his view point it is almost all about the work though the reader will be able to catch some clues that Cliopher misses. If you'd like hanging around with Cliopher for less glamorous times, this is very satisfying. The length of a short book, a credible version of "the joke" is included.

237) The Woman in the Library



This is an embedded novel, a story within a story, but how deeply is ambiguous. Well told and quirky, a bit un-credible as to characters and their actions and it isn't about character development though the created personalities are interesting.

BB from jnwelch

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #12: Read a book, F/NF, where either the word libraries or librarians is included in the initial tags section

>47 quondame: That one sounds fun. I will have to see if I can get hold of a copy.

>50 quondame: I read The Woman in the Library last year, so I am dodging that BB.

Have a fantastic Friday!

>51 alcottacre: Hi Stasia. Not a bad Friday and our delivery order of Oaxacan food was a complete success.

238) Ithaca



It's 8 years after the Trojan war ended and Penelope has been using every strategy to keep herself Ithaca out of the hands of the ruthless and useless men who would kill her son and inevitably destroy it in a way with the other entitled suitors. It is a nearly relentless exposure to toxic masculinity as narrated by the goddess Hera who certainly knows her toxic males. Only Penelope's stratagems and the bitter humor of goddess and women forced to employ indirection make it palatable, but never becomes a comfortable narrator.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #10: Read a book, fiction or nonfiction, about a war that took place before you were born

239) Thornhedge



Sometimes a high hedge is meant to protect those on the outside. This inside out Sleeping Beauty is a sweet discourse on the nature of monsters and the myths of tales.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #8: Read a book you were planning to read for one of the August 2023 challenges

240) The Road to Roswell



Playful and fun with one very annoying character, this book makes a great deal of fun at the expense of UFO believers while including aliens and UFOs. It assembles as implausible a resolution as any cheery alien encounter has come up with, otherwise I would have rated it rather higher because it is a very fun read.

BB from bell7

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #7: Read a book about contact with extraplanetary aliens or alien abduction

>53 quondame: I am interested as to why there seems to be such a plethora of such books (updating or fictionalizing Greek mythology) - is it a newish phenomena or is it something that has always happened?

>55 PaulCranswick: In a sense it has always happened Ulysses, and I've read fairytale and myth retellings and subversions since the 1970s, so these fit into a sort of women centric re-telling/subversion of pre-Classical Greek myth and legend. I mean all those heroes had mothers and most had a wife or two and sisters of whom men recorded next to nothing, so it's a wide open field in which to play.

>54 quondame: Glad you liked Thornhedge! I have the Willis on my list.

>57 foggidawn: Road to Roswell is definitely Willis-lite. Lighter than Bellwether.

241) Grave Sight



Harper is aware of dead bodies in her vicinity and when close to one knows the cause of death. She has had this ability since being struck by lightning and has made it her profession. But there are drawbacks when finding a body reveals what someone does not want known. A fast moving stranger in a hostile town story.

Read for AMERICAN AUTHORS CHALLENGE--SEPTEMBER 2023--LADIES OF CRIME.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #2: Read a book with a headline character count of 23 or less

Hi Susan!

>55 PaulCranswick: and >56 quondame: Asked and answered – I’m glad the wide open field is beginning to be populated.

>59 quondame: I love the Harper Connelly series, and am sorry that Harris only wrote 4 of them. When I get off my MM romance binge, 463 books and counting, I’d like to think I’ll re-read it.

Hi Susan,
I admit to skimming... because of thread explosion, like dandelions in the lawn when you go away for 3 weeks.

Had a great westcoast visit and *no smoke*, though there sure has been a lot in Saskatchewan since I went on holiday. Had a couple days of it on my return, too.

I read several e-books and one paperback (mostly in airport departure lounges).

~ The airline travel sure ain't what it used to be!

>60 karenmarie: Hi Karen. I'm pretty sure the Harper Connelly book was a re-read, but from before 2007. It's kind of hard to forget a character who survived a lightning strike. I think I've read of one or maybe two others, but not many.

>61 SandyAMcPherson: It's great you had a smoke-free sojourn and I hope it had other agreeable aspects as well. I admit to doing a bit of skimming on my daily rounds. There are a number of topics that my brain isn't going to absorb whether or not I read the posts so...

Travel is so much better than 100+ years ago, but it still has it's trials. I don't think travel in north America is as good as the last 30 years of the 20th century.

>54 quondame: I’m listening to Thornhedge and getting discouraged. The middle is over-long, m’thinks. I will keep on, with your encouraging rating.

DNF The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies

When the "sensible" Augusta started getting fluttery over the wounded highwayman it was clearly not going to be a book I could endure. I like the idea and would have delighted episodes handled with patience, subtlety and forethought. But that in not this book.

DNF Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

This was utterly on message every sentence of every paragraph. I found it utterly uninteresting.

>64 quondame: I own The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies but I have not tried to read it yet. I know we are all different in what we enjoy, so fingers crossed. I've had to DNF one book this year so far.

>60 karenmarie: I enjoy fiction derived from mythology, Karen, so I am happy about this too.

>61 SandyAMcPherson: Sandy / Susan if the green new deal is implemented we will be flying nowhere. I will not get into an electric aeroplane! Maybe the zepellins will make a comeback. Still I suppose China and India will control the world economy then so we will be able to fly with them.

>65 vancouverdeb: Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer which I read and re-read for decades before encountering any late 20th or 21st cent. Regency fiction have made it difficult for me to enjoy much of the modern stuff. I loved Sorcery and Cecelia and a couple of other, but often I nope books early.

>66 PaulCranswick: So much Percy Jackson!!! 😜

242) Spirits Abroad



All of these stories are good, and some are excellent. Mixtures of family, spirits, ghosts, tumbled with wry humor and spread across the various landscapes to which those who have lived in Malaysia may have moved, at least temporarily - or in the case of hell, more or less forever until reincarnation.

Read for September TIOLI Challenge #4: The "Three's the Bees Knees" Challenge: Read a book whose author's either first or last name has only 3 letters in it

243) The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian



Bitter and funny and hopeful and despairing, this is mostly the story of one wrenching year in the life of Junior who leaves his reservation to attend high-school in a white town twenty-some miles away. His family, precarious at the beginning is ravaged by deaths and his best friend becomes an enemy and he is treated as a traitor. And yet survives and finds a place to grow.

Read for September TIOLI Challenge #1: Read a book tagged "racism"

244) Cloudy



Pretty much content free. Too much for an incurious child, nothing for a curious one.

Read for September TIOLI Challenge #3: Read a book with a word in the title from the September Songs List

245) Fog Island



The illustrations are worth looking at though the artist never actually observed a woman spinning, but the story is a bit flat and if it echos with Irish legend that isn't conveyed in the language.

Read for September TIOLI Challenge #6: Read a book whose title would fit as a name for the posted picture

246) Paris



The drawings of Paris make this almost worthwhile. A lesbian longing story written and sketched by men, has penniless arts student Juliet painting a portrait of Deborah a British aristocrat smothered in convention.

Read for September TIOLI Challenge #9: Read a book with a place name in the title

Happy almost Friday.

Phew! I managed to dodge BB's this visit mainly because I already read 4 of them ;)

>69 figsfromthistle: Thanks Anita!

One of the benefits of reading a lot is that you've read a lot of what others are just getting a round to.

Since I skipped it I slipped Spirits Abroad into >68 quondame:.

247) Hands to the wheel

FanFic on AO3
Cliopher returns to Solaaris with the results of the Littleridge negotiations and finds while less time has passed there than has for the travelers, still changes are part of what he - and his staff - must contend with. But the change which will have the most impact is the change to his own position.

248) The Moorchild



This is the changelings tale. Expelled from underhill because as half human she cannot disappear properly and so endangers her community the moorchild is swapped with a human infant. Her babyhood is difficult and she is shunned and bullied by the other children. The flow is not sprightly which might not suit the telling of a difficult childhood though it would certainly help getting through it.

BB from fuzzi

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #15: Read a book where one of the main page (primary) tags is a subject you might study in school

249) Mammoths at the Gate



Chih returns to their abbey to find it threatened by mammoths, a beloved mentor dead, the mentor's neixin deeply depressed, most of the scholars absent for special research and their childhood friend in charge which results in interesting challenges, not all theirs to address. Lively and textured with humor and sadness.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #13: Read a book where you can make a word, with at least three letters, with the first letters of title and/or author

>68 quondame: What a beautiful cover to Spirits Abroad, Susan.

Have a wonderful weekend.

>72 PaulCranswick: I like it too! Thanks!

250) The Heroine's Journey



The addressed audience is genre writers who want to satisfy their readers.
The definition of the heroine is someone who solves problems she encounters by networking and delegating in a story that ends with her happily embedded in the family she has established. The biological sex of the heroine need not be female.

The hero is strongest when he wins by his own effort and may end up on top, but without much company there. The biological sex of the hero need not be male. The the aimed at response to the story is excitement.

While the heroine's journey can have elements, plot points, archetypes, themes in common with the hero's journey, they start off differently and usually end even more differently. The the aimed at response to the story is comfort.

The book is chatty and maybe a bit defensive in tone, and several times I wanted 2-5 more paragraphs expanding or supporting the current topic but it was on to the next chapter.

This book was favorably reviewed on Goodreads by Lois McMaster Bujold, who is mentioned in the text.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #15: Read a book where one of the main page (primary) tags is a subject you might study in school

>73 quondame: Looks interesting. Onto the list it goes!

>74 Storeetllr: It's not deep, but it makes its points.

251) Warriorborn



Warriorborn Lieutenant Sir Benedict is sent on a mission which pits him and his team of 3 warriorborn criminals against completely unexpected antagonists as well as more expected ones. Fortunately he is able to be of service to some unexpected allies as well.

This is a little refresher for The Cinder Spires before The Olympian Affair comes out!

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #4: The "Three's the Bees Knees" Challenge: Read a book whose author's either first or last name has only 3 letters in it

Congrats on reaching, and even in passing the 350th books read.

I'm soldiering away to see if I can finish Twilight (my book #85). I think it was a completist hang up because I was really not liking how the author developed the series (The Mediator) after book 4. I can be pigheaded because of having the niggle that maybe the story will turn out the way it was like in the first three (hah, faint hope).

>76 SandyAMcPherson: Not there yet. Haven't ever as far as I know.

>68 quondame: Happy to see The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian was a topper for you, Susan.
I read it in my early LT days, June 2009, and still remember it.

>77 quondame: You can tell arithmetic is not my forté. Or maybe, just poor reading skills late at night. But it *is* only September and 50 more books-read by Dec 31 seems very possible, no? Not that such a goal is the point of reading... just an admirable achievement.

>78 FAMeulstee: It is distinctive, which I find unfortunately unusual in stories by/about Native American life, probably because there are problems so screamingly critical that not to write about them would seem irresponsible.

>79 SandyAMcPherson: I do expect to get too 300, but not much beyond. We'll see.

252) The Star-Touched Queen



Borrowing elements from Beauty and the Beast, East of the Moon etc, and flavored with decorative elements from the Indian subcontinent, we have a despised princess promised love and power and taken away to a magical kingdom. But something is not what it seems (of course) and what she learns is as dangerous as not knowing. Sometimes told like a YA and sometimes like a fairy tale, the flow and weight are unbalanced, just barely serviceable.

BB from scaifea

I read The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian a while ago and really liked it. I've read his other books which I also enjoyed.

You are amazing -- 252 books read this year!!!

>82 Whisper1: It is a great read! Good to see you drop by Linda!

>82 Whisper1: I will agree with Linda, Susan. The constant flow of reading here is jaw-dropping sometimes.

>84 PaulCranswick: Aw gosh.

253) Silver Nitrate



In Mexico city in the early 1990s Montserrat is a horror movie buff and sound engineer being pushed out of her job by a new boss who favors younger, cheaper workers who do not get in his face. Her best friend from childhood is the handsome Tristan who is haunted by the memory the costar who died while driving from a party in a crash that injured his face and resulted in career damage because of spiteful and powerful connections. The two get ensnared, mostly by Montserrat in a tangle of film and magic which may result in the resurrection of a 1960s era mystic. It's not painful, but it's not compelling or convincing and a horror novel should be all of those.

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #14: Read a book with a person or animal's name in the title

>86 quondame: I’m looking for a few good (relatively new) horror novels for next month. Sadly, this one won’t be on the list. Thank you for reading it so I don’t have to.

>64 quondame: Sorry to hear about your DNFs, Susan. I really hate those things, lol.

>68 quondame: Not familiar with that one by Zen Cho, but I do have her Sorcerer to the crown in the BlackHole. I will have to get to it and look for the other. Thanks for the review and recommendation of Spirits Abroad. I have already the Sherman Alexie book, so I get to dodge that BB.

>71 quondame: I already have The Moorchild in the BlackHole, also thanks to fuzzi. I see that Mammoths at the Gates is the fourth in a series. Do you need to read the entire series to be able to appreciate it?

Have a wonderful Wednesday, Susan!

>86 quondame: Very much lines up with my opinion of Silver Nitrate. This one was a bit disappointing, her books are usually better.

>87 Storeetllr: I'm currently reading Our Share of Night which has involved me at a much higher level though I'm only 16% in.

>88 alcottacre: Sorcerer to the Crown and its sequel really didn't click with me, but Black Water Sister did.

Mammoth at the Gates doesn't directly depend on the earlier novellas, but they are so good why would you want to miss them. And the world building does help.
Thanks Stasia!

>89 drneutron: Yes, Silvia Moreno-Garcia can do better. I'm not sure if I prefer authors who regularly deliver at a or near 3.5 level to those that float between 2.5 and 4.0. I've collected a lot of 4.5s and 5.0s over a lifetime but I don't feel entitled to those, they are a delightful gift.

I am making slow work of Our Share of Night. OK I've been spending way to much time on (if you only read The Hands of the Emperor but not other Victoria Goddard books with Cliopher)Kip | Fitzroy smut over on AO3.

Dinner tonight was 6 varieties of boneless! wings. There were some leftovers but they'll probably all be gone before I'm ready for lunch tomorrow - it's getting late enough that they might be gone before I'm up for breakfast.

>90 quondame: I will look out for your thoughts on that slab of a book as I have it weighing down my own shelves at the moment.

Boneless wings and you had leftovers?! Impossible in my house, Belle and I would probably come to fisticuffs over the last one!

I had to google Kip | Fitzroy and AO3. (My last name is Kip, so it caught my attention.)

Have a delightful weekend!

HI Susan.

>62 quondame: The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors, a gift from mckait in 2011 is the one I remember reading. Other books that I own that have lightning in the title: Blue Lightning, Lightning Men, and The Color of Lightning.

Wishing you a great weekend.

>92 PaulCranswick: I'm not at all hating Our Share of Night, but it's not drawing me in or carrying me along at all and is due back at the library in a couple of days. Meanwhile.....

We ordered with an eye toward leftovers as we often do on Friday night. Still there were very few left.

>93 Storeetllr: Thanks!

>94 karenmarie: Metaphoric lightning but Too Like Lightning would be my contribution to that list.

I must be too tired to be on LT.

I didn't understand a thing in the last 5 posts. 😵‍💫
Except about the chicken wings, boneless even!

>95 quondame: Done!

>96 SandyAMcPherson: I finished off the leftovers for breakfast rather than trying to have them later. That was good.

>97 Storeetllr: And thanks again! Properly covered now.

Hi Susan! I'm just trying to catch up on threads - again. You're not far off your fourth 75 while I'm still working towards my first.

I have a vague memory of making fondant icing in cooking class as a child using egg whites and icing sugar. Marzipan is made with almonds, right?

>99 humouress: Yes, marzipan is ground almonds sweetened.

The fondant my mother made was pretty much sugar and water cooked in an exact sequence of temperatures, which in the high desert, were not the sea level temperatures given in cookbooks. For some months she would fill a shopping cart with sugar from the PX and experiment.
Once the fondant was tempered it was poured onto a marble slab and worked until solid. Then it was place into flat containers and cured for a couple of weeks.

Mmmm, marzipan!

>101 Storeetllr: I've found it can't be the only sweet on offer, but for those who like it it's good on occasion.

254) Dead Djinn in Cairo



I enjoyed my re-read mostly because of all the delightful ways early 20th century mixed with fabled elements less familiar than the northern European ones to which I've been amply exposed, and found plot and characters sufficient but not at the same level.

Read for October HotE Book Club on Discord

Meets September TIOLI Challenge #9: Read a book with a place name in the title

255) The Haunting of Tram Car 015



This mage-punk roar through the wire ways of 1912 Cairo as newly partnered agents of the Ministry of Alchemy try to de-spell the presence attacking passengers on the titular tram car. They find that it isn't the low-level djinn they were expecting, and keep encountering the cresting of the women's suffrage movement as they attempt to identify and control it. Lively and interesting, seeped in the spices of the orient.

Read for October HotE Book Club on Discord

Meets October TIOLI Challenge #4: Read a book that has a title word that starts with an O, an N or a D

256) Autobiography of Cassandra, Princess and Prophetess of Troy



Before Circe, before Ithaca, before my 30 year old daughter was born we have this screamingly blatant feminist retelling of Cassandra's story, and how she feels about what's been said about her. And what a complete shit Apollo is. And she's right.
The form is more like working notes for a novel than a novel, though there's still impact, and indeed Apollo is a shit and Achilles is a heel, Agamemnon an idiot, and Cassandra has fewer kind words for Odysseus than Circe.

Read for October TIOLI Challenge #9: Read a book with a title containing at least 2 of the following - a religious title, a royal title, and/or a political title

>64 quondame: I found The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies different from the usual run of the mill Regency romance. Though not in the vein of Jane Austen it centred its episodes around issues facing women of the day (young, impoverished girls being kidnapped for the slave trade, for example)

>103 quondame: Laugh out loud moment. Great review.
I've often had the eye:roll moment when reading these myths. I wonder what the original 'back-in-the-day' stories were like. No wait, probably even more appalling.

PS. I think I'd like to read Molinaro's work, but (of course), I'll have to hunt around the secondhand markets (in person). Ursule Molinaro's work does not appear in either the public library's provincial catalogue or the university's.

>104 humouress: It's clear that The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies did collect fans, and I liked the idea of a pair of spinsters being effective at championing women, but couldn't come up to any belief that it could work as shown or that I would enjoy the showing.

>105 SandyAMcPherson: What I find most appalling is having no sense of what stories for women would have been - I can only imagine men as audiences for hero tales or Homer, which failure (my imagination's) is as dreadful as the possibility there were few to none.