Not the Booker Shortlist & Other Tidbits

Not the Booker Shortlist, with one more to be selected. 

The only one of these I've read is Dark Pines, which I enjoyed,
especially its deaf protagonist Tuva Moodyson.
I'm also interested in The Ruin, a new crime series set in Ireland.

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Writers opinions of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights.
Despite many disparaging remarks about the classic,
writers like Virginia Woolfe, Joan Didion, Alice Hoffman,
and Joyce Carol Oates all admired it.
Interesting to read their views!
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There is a word for everything,

even it is from another language.

Source

Reading, Books, and Fearless Librarians

What is the point of reading, if you forget most of what you read?  It's OK to "Forget" Most of What You Read  says that "forgetting is not forgetting."       

I may not be able to recall most of what I read when asked on the spur of the moment, but much of what I read resurfaces when the occasion arises--in a conversation or when reading another book that references information I've read previously.  My subconscious background has been broadened--and maybe my understanding is more complete when an esoteric subject arises.

Even in fiction (especially if a book sends me to research an actual person or event) the information can be relevant in many other instances.  Novels that I can't even remember have led me to explore historical events, to reconsider social problems, to question my previous beliefs, to become more empathetic and understanding of certain situations.

I read a lot, and much of what I read is purely for entertainment. But even bad fiction can provide insight.  When I read nonfiction, I find myself more critically aware of what I read in fiction.  As a result, a novel I've all but forgotten may have influenced my reading in ways beyond conscious awareness, and nonfiction reading can help me appreciate the characters and events in various novels and to judge the accuracy of the history or setting.

I love this article about librarians on horseback.  

"The Pack Horse Library initiative was part of President Franklin Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration (WPA), created to help lift America out of the Great Depression, during which, by 1933, unemployment had risen to 40 percent in Appalachia. Roving horseback libraries weren’t entirely new to Kentucky, but this initiative was an opportunity to boost both employment and literacy at the same time." (source)

There are more photos and information in the article.  Librarians are, indeed, amazing!  This was not an easy job, but these women could certainly be proud of the work they were doing.

Looking Through Forgotten Drafts

I recently found this draft that I'd never posted, and I like it as much or more than I did originally:  

On Myth & Moor by Terri Windling, I found the following : 

Some time ago I stumbled across these words by children's book writer Cornelia Funke (author of The Thief Lord, Inkheart,  etc.), and they've been pinned to the wall above my desk ever since:

"I pledge to use books as doors to other minds, old and young, girl and boy, man and animal.

"I pledge to use books to open windows to a thousand different worlds and to the thousand different faces of my own world.

"I pledge to use books to make my universe spread much wider than the world I live in every day.

"I pledge to treat my books like friends, visiting them all from time to time and keeping them close."

Looking through other drafts that were never completed, I found this:

Found on Martine's blog 

The witchery of living
is my whole conversation
with you my darlings.
All I can tell you is what I know.
Look, and look again.
This world is not just a little thrill for the eyes.
It's more than bones.
It's more than the delicate wrist with its personal pulse.
It's more than the beating of the single heart.
It's praising.
It's giving until the giving feels like receiving.
You have a life - just imagine that!
You have this day, and maybe another, and maybe still another.
- Mary Oliver

 I have 23 drafts that have been sitting there.  Books I never reviewed, things I liked, links to stuff, etc.  Looking over the the list was interesting, and maybe I'll look at some of the others more closely later, but I loved these two and wanted to share.

This article is recent, but interesting--Silent Book Clubs, reading in solidarity.

Miscellaneous and The Great Passage

 Finally, I'm cutting back on my reading.  This year--because of anxiety, perhaps--I've been reading like a maniac.  May has seen a cut back in reading and a return to doing a little embroidery while binge watching Drama Fever and Netflix.  Since I need to keep my hands busy, I make tiny "whatevers" to work on as I watch.

Some books that I enjoyed in April and have scheduled for closer to publication:

The Hunting Hour by Margaret Mizushima
The Prague Sonata by Bradford Morrow
The Black Painting by Neil Olson
Down a Dark Road by Linda Castillo

All of the above are advanced reader galleys from NetGalley.

My favorite book so far in May is The Great Passage by Shion Miura, which was a pleasure.  Not action-packed, but the details of making a Japanese dictionary are not the stuff of action.  The book is, however, the stuff of delight for anyone who loves words.  And quirky characters.  And dictionaries.  

The problems faced by the dedicated team of lexicographers include etymology, choosing what to include, choosing appropriate and accurate definitions and examples, choosing the perfect thinness of paper and more.  A little romance, very little, but important, is also worked into this short novel.

I've always been amused by Samuel Johnson's Dictionary (1755).  At the conclusion of his long preface, he says,  "I have protracted my work till most of those whom I wished to please, have sunk into the grave..."  That remark would have been appreciated by Mituma Majime and his colleagues.  

Kindle First.  

Fiction. 2011; 2017.  Print length:  224 pages.

Digressions on Dictionaries

From Johnson's Dictionary:

lexicographer:  a writer of dictionaries; a harmless dredge

patron: commonly a wretch who supports with insolence and is paid with flattery

oats: a grain which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.

And what about  Ambrose Bierce's (1911) Devil's Dictionary.  Love my copy.
Admiration, n. Our polite recognition of another's resemblance to ourselves.
Egotist, n. A person of low taste, more interested in himself than me.
Love, n.  A temporary insanity cured by marriage.
Malefactor,  n. The chief factor in the progress of the human race.
Marriage, n. The state or condition of a community consisting of a master, a mistress and two slaves, making in all two.

On Cats.  Lucy loves the fountain.  

 Unfortunately, She also loves lizards, which she enjoys delivering to me.  Sometimes, I'm quick enough for a rescue, but sometimes not.  I happen to love these tiny chameleons, and it bothers me a great deal that Lucy and Edgar find them enticing in another way entirely.

Green anole lizard -- Source

How has May been for you?  Reading? Gardening?

One Thing Always Leads to Another

Last night, my husband was watching The Magnificent Seven, and when I walked through to make a cup of tea, I stopped and watched a little.  Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson--they continue to be as memorable in their roles as they were in 1960.  (A remake of TM7 is scheduled for 2016.)

Watching the scenes from this classic reminded me of how much I enjoyed Into the Beautiful North, which I reviewed in May.  Partly because of the way the movie inspired Nayeli to take her band of friends north to search for seven warriors to help reclaim their little village from banditos, partly because of the unusual nature of this immigrant story, and partly because of the situation in Europe and the influx of immigrants from Syria--my mind made consistently wider connections and kept me thinking for a while before I could return to the book I was reading.    

I want to read more by Luis Alberto Urrea the author of Into the Beautiful North, and I want to watch The Seven Samurai, the inspiration for The Magnificent Seven.   
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After reading Failing Our Brightest Kids in September, I took Teresa's recommendation for How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character  by Paul Tough (not yet reviewed) which was mentioned in Failing Our Brightest Kids .  

HCS was also an excellent look at education and learning, and I ordered a book that it mentioned (I think it was mentioned FOBK as well)--Learned Optimism:  How to Change Your Mind and Your Life by Martin Seligman, who with Stephen Maier, made the first steps to challenging Skinner's behaviorism theory (in which the learner is essentially passive, responding to either positive or negative reinforcement).  Seligman and Maier made huge dents in this theory that had predominated in learning psychology.  

One thing always leads to another....
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I love these guys.

Books for the New Year

NetGalley reads to be published in 2015.

The Just City by Jo Walton is due to be released January 13, 2015; blog post scheduled for December 30.   What if Plato's ideas from The Republic were actually carried out?  So many philosophical questions debated.  Loved it!

Monday's Lie by Jamie Mason -- I loved Mason's Three Graves Full and was thrilled to get this latest book from NetGalley.  It doesn't disappoint.  To be released in February; my review is scheduled for January 19, 2015.

Murder in the Queen's Wardrobe: An Elizabethan Spy Thriller by Kathy Lynn Emerson is a mystery set in one of my favorite historical periods. Release date March 1, 2015.  Haven't scheduled this review yet. 

The World's Coolest Bookstores & Other Miscellany

Via CNN Style, this slide show of fascinating bookstores has articles describing each in more detail if you scroll down.

From the famous Shakespeare and Company in Paris to a bookstore in China where backpackers can stay overnight; from a former glove factory in Detroit converted into the largest new and used bookstore in the world to the John King Used & Rare Books, also in Detroit, which has a copy of the writings of Thomas Aquinas published in 1482 in Venice.  Beautiful pictures and interesting details.
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Have you heard of Bookbub?  Free and discounted ebooks - nice.  This article in the NY Times explains more about these one day deals.  "At HarperCollins, executives said they have seen books designated as daily deals go from 11 copies sold in one day, to 11,000 copies the next."
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OK - I have a weakness for genius kids, robots, and androids. Have therefore decided I must watch at least one episode of Annedroids to see what Anne comes up with in her junkyard laboratory.
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I've finished Visions by Kelley Armstrong, an ARC that arrived in the mail.  I read Omens last year and was so excited to have another Cainesville interlude.  I've become a big fan of Armstrong and will review it soon.  Also recently in the mail, Bitter River by Julia Keller.  Another very good book and yet to be reviewed.  And on Wed., an uncorrected bound manuscript by Louise Penny arrived:  The Long Way Home.  I haven't even started it, but it is Louise Penny so I expect to love it.

A couple from NetGalley that I'm looking forward to are now on my Kindle.  What a book glutton am I!  
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I've finished more Halloween figures and still have a few in progress.  Working on altering a book as a Book of Spells for a Halloween prop.  Love Halloween!  More details on my other blog.  

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It is getting close to time for Carl's R.I.P. challenge.  Any good suggestions for this year's R.I.P. challenge?  I'll suggest Edgar Cantero's Supernatural Enhancements which I recently reviewed.  And if you haven't read any Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White is a perfect book for the challenge--well, any Wilkie Collins, but Woman in White is my favorite.  

A few favorites from previous R.I.P. challenges:

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
Renfield: Slave of Dracula by Barbara Hambly (Hambly has quite a few good possibilities)
Almost anything by Sax Rohmer (especially if you want a vintage twist)
Dissolution by C.J. Sansom (plenty of Gothic elements)

I think I've reviewed all of the above during one challenge or another.

Hope you are having a great weekend!

I have several books in progress--some of which have been in progress for at least a month. I've considered adding them to the DNF pile, but continue to wait until the time I've read all the books in the TBR pile that look interesting.

I finished Farthing by Jo Walton which left me with a stunned feeling.  Like Dominion, Farthing is an alternate history with the premise that Britain negotiated a peace with Hitler.  
The books are very different despite the similar premise.  I actually like Farthing better, but I'm not quite ready to dive into Ha'Penny, described as a companion book to Farthing.  I need to allow Farthing to settle a bit.  Sometimes the abuse of power can be a bit too much, even in an alternate history.

Lots of reviews to write.  Nothing new there.  

I've been busy cleaning out the attic and trying to rescue my studio from absolute chaos.  It is really difficult to do anything creative in the disaster that room has become.  The attic opens from the studio and the area is very small, but I've used it to stash anything I didn't want to deal with at the moment.  Trying to go through and empty as much as possible so I can fill it up again.  Endless cycle.

Around Christmas I started making hearts stuffed with lavender and flaxseed, then added more before Valentine's Day.  Because they are small and made with scraps of fabric and yarn, I've just continued making them in a kind of meditative way.

My clay figures, half a dozen or more, have been sitting around for months now, but when I finally get the studio back in some kind of order, I'll need to work on finishing them.

-------------Cool Stuff-----------------

Ekaterina Panikanova makes collages using old books.

Bibliomaton (Jeffrey Maib) makes wonderful automata from books. 

 Check him out on Etsy.

Home Again

Got back from Baton Rouge yesterday afternoon.  Erin's surgery went well, and the doctor is confident that she got everything.  As smoothly as the surgery went, there were some post-surgery complications, but Erin was finally released on Sunday, minus one kidney.  A week in the hospital is no vacation, but we were certainly glad to have met several outstanding nurses with patience and compassion.

Erin is doing well, up and about, and feeling so much better.  She and Brandon are preparing for another winter onslaught.  Baton Rouge and New Orleans are completely unaccustomed to ice and snow.  The last blast shut down much of B.R., but since we were in the hospital, we did not have to deal with the problem of closed roads and highways.  The icy weather even closed the Pontchartrain Causeway in New Orleans.  Unheard of!  

And now a new surge of icy precipitation is moving in.  The deep south is becoming a deep freeze.  

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I'm tired, more from emotional upheaval than anything else, but am so relieved that Erin is doing well.  

Read several books while there and have plenty of reviews already to catch up on.  Finished The Hatch and Brood of Time by Ellen Larson, Vertigo 42 by Martha Grimes (Yep, love me some Richard Jury), Dominion by C.J. Sansom (whoa, what a frightening alternate history of WWII--if Britain had surrendered), Mercy Snow by Tiffany Baker (beautifully written, I'll have some great quotes from this one), The Dirty Book Murder by Thomas Shawver (a bookseller, Japanese erotica, a Colette novel with inscriptions--one to Sylivia Beach and one by Hemingway that make that work priceless, and something hidden in one of the books that makes this auction haul worth murder), and The Quick by Lauren Owen (almost finished).

Sitting in a hospital room for seven days provided plenty of time for reading, and when I wasn't reading, I worked on some embroidery tucked in my purse just in case.  I'm so glad that the books in my que were good ones because they kept my mind busy.  My slim little Kindle held plenty of escape.
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Miscellaneous

*  Martha Grimes has written a new Richard Jury book!  The title Vertigo 42 comes from a bar instead of a pub this time.  Thank you, NetGalley!

*  Hidden pictures!  You may have seen this on Facebook, but so cool!  More here.

*  Finished two books about soul mates and reincarnation.  I'm not much into soul mates.  Fee and I are soul mates by default; no one else could put up with either of us.

*  Tomorrow we leave for Baton Rouge.  Erin's surgery is scheduled for early Monday morning.  I will be there for a while.

*

http://introverteddork.tumblr.com/post/41826027349

*  Have a couple of books in progress and some NetGalley e-books to keep me busy in B.R.   Reading The Hatch and Brood of Time by Ellen Larson (another title cadged from Shakespeare)and The Paper Sword by Robert Priest, a YA fantasy.  Both are pretty good so far.  Then I'll indulge in the new Richard Jury by Martha Grimes and Dominion, a new C.J. Sansom novel.

Reading in Transit

 Street Photos of Commuters Reading on the Subway. ( via Read in a Single Sitting)

And here is a Facebook site of the subway readers.  I love seeing people of all ages reading on the subway, totally absorbed, sometimes with book titles showing, sometimes not.



Sam has an interesting, and a bit disturbing, post about the way our Kindle and Nook e- readers provide information about our reading choices and habits.

I was pleased to see that Nan of Letters from a Hill Farm found Midnight in Peking as interesting as I did.  Click the link to read her review; my review is here.  Author Paul French happens on an account of an unsolved murder in Peking in 1937 and investigates the story.

French uncovers a great deal of information and relates this true crime story, revealing the time period and the cover-ups, in an entirely readable way.




Another gem via Read in a Single Sitting:  Ten Unusual Micro Libraries.  I Love this one...

Photo by SuperFurryLibrarian/Flickr

This is the kind of thing that occupies me when I don't want to write reviews.

This and That

My goodness, I've been an absent blogger so often lately.  My good intentions don't always come to fruition; despite my goals of keeping up with this blog, I repeatedly fall behind.  Keeping up with more than one blog appears to mean that I can keep up with only one blog at a time.

At least, I finally posted my review of Sheri S. Tepper's Beauty on Sunday-- that is quite an accomplishment.  Katherine Langrish liked it, and Katherine's knowledge of fairy tale and fantasy is pretty thorough.  Not that I'm changing my opinion; I was disappointed, but Katherine has made me think about the book again.  Anyone else read this one?

My quilting and miscellaneous blog has been getting much more attention lately because I've been stitching prayer flags and experimenting with surface design techniques.  Most evenings I've settled in for stitching and watching television instead of reading, but I think I'm beginning to experience a sea change, the reading bug has begun to catch on again.

Like Carl, I'm a great fan of The Guild, but I'm all caught up with those episodes and have to wait for more.  (AACK - a note from Carl...they haven't even begun filming the new episodes).

Lately, I've been deeply immersed in Korean television series and highly recommend Tree With Deep Roots .  My friend Thomas got me addicted to this one, and now my husband is also addicted.

Finally finished Cryptonomicon!  Loved it!  Well worth the time expended on this one.  The closer I came to the end, the slower I read, the more pauses I took, the more I tried to delay the conclusion.

Almost finished with A Rising Thunder, the latest in the Honor Harrington series by David Weber and have begun River Secrets by Shannon Hale, which is part of the Bayern series and will go toward my Once Upon a Time reads.

Has anyone read the Shadow Prowler?  The third and final book in the trilogy is out, and I'm wondering if I want to give it a try.  So much better to begin a series that is already complete than having to wait for each new book.

Back From New Orleans Trip

We had a short road trip following Bayou Teche from Port Barre to Morgan City.  Then on to New Orleans and back through Baton Rouge.  It was great fun, and I've covered the highlights over at Bayou Quilts.

I've got a review of Believing the Lie by Elizabeth George scheduled and need to write a review of Beauty by Sheri S. Tepper.

Cryptonomicon is still in progress, and I'm still enjoying it, but have to include other books as breaks...thus the two mentioned above.


Watched an interesting documentary, Millay at Steepletop.  Edna St. Vincent Millay is one of my favorite poets, and I enjoyed the documentary in honor of National Poetry Month.

Here is one of her poems that fits the Once Upon a Time Challenge.

Bluebeard

This door you might not open, and you did;
So enter now, and see for what slight thing
You are betrayed... Here is no treasure hid,
No cauldron, no clear crystal mirroring
The sought-for truth, no heads of women slain
For greed like yours, no writhings of distress,
But only what you see... Look yet again—
An empty room, cobwebbed and comfortless.
Yet this alone out of my life I kept
Unto myself, lest any know me quite;
And you did so profane me when you crept
Unto the threshold of this room to-night
That I must never more behold your face.
This now is yours. I seek another place. 

Edna St. Vincent Millay

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Ten Amazing Life Lessons You Can Learn from Albert Einstein posted on Dumb Little Man.

Lists and DNF

 Are you one of those individuals who love lists?  I am.  I make them, lose them, find them, usually too late to make use of them. And I enjoy reading lists that other people make.

Dickens now qualifies as my favorite list maker of all time.  He created this list of fake books for his library at Tavistock.  And then, AND THEN...he had a bookbinder create the fake book backs and added them to the shelves.   (found via Mary's Library--thanks, Mary!)

The first few titles from his list:

History of a Short Chancery Suit
Catalogue of Statues of the Duke of Wellington
Five Minutes in China. 3 vols.
Forty Winks at the Pyramids. 2 vols.

My embroidery interlude appears to be waning, and I'm enjoying a return to the reading cycle.  I'm so ready to immerse myself in the Once Upon a Time Challenge and have finished The Summoner: Book I of the Necromancer Chronicles by Gail Martin.

Today, I have a trip to the library scheduled to see if I can find some of the titles I've added to the list of possibilities for the challenge.  I love our library, and although they don't always have the books I'm looking for, I usually find plenty to keep me busy.

In the DNF file:  Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi.  I got half way through, sometimes thinking I'd like it, then openly bored, then a little interest...until I finally decided I didn't really like Mr. Fox, or Daphne, or Mary Fox enough to continue the strange little chapters of stories that were only vaguely connected.

I really enjoyed The Icarus Girl by Oyeyemi, and even enjoyed much of her style in Mr. Fox, but the fairy tale variations didn't engage me--or maybe they did, but they didn't satisfy.  It would have been a good read for Once Upon a Time, but just didn't work for me.

Great cover, though, don't you think?  Has anyone read this?  What did you think?

All Hallow's Read

Neil Gaiman promotes a new tradition:  The All Hallow's Read.  Give someone a scary book!


I really must review my recent R.I.P. Reads.

Catching up is hard to do.

This and That

Sam posted  about public bookshelves in Germany and Portugal.  What a great idea.

Still working on the books for the R.I.P. Challenge.  Not as much success this year, but I have finished two more books that I need to review:  The Night Strangers and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

Some of this year's Halloween crafting:

Black cat sculpted from air drying clay and standing on an old rusted grater.

Terracotta pot with Mod Podged napkins, a pumpkin poppet made last year, a bat from Michael's, and fall foliage from Michael's.

 Fabric flowers and another black cat head that never got a body.

Bitter and Boo--cloth and clay dolls and fabric and burlap pumpkins.

Rag garland ( just strips torn from Halloween fabrics) with skeletons from Michael's.

I love Halloween!

Reviewing, etc.

I'm still trying to finish all the reviews left undone in July and August.  Like everyone else, I get distracted from the reviews by life and current reading.

If only I would write the review as soon as I finish the book, all would be well.  Of course, I don't.  And from reading your blogs, you all have the same problem and frequently find yourself way behind in the reviewing.

Then, of course, you can't quite catch up because you have continued reading, working, and living!  Blahhhh.
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Two of the activities that are important to my version of living are doll-making and quilting.  I've made several small art quilts for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative.

We all hope that research will help find a preventative, a cure.  In fact, this morning, I heard that insulin in a nasal spray showed promising results in slowing the slow deterioration of the brain.

We carry the hearts of our loved ones with us whether they remember us or not.

When Laddie was in assisted living and then a nursing home, patients would frequently approach me to ask if I would take them home.  I wanted "home" to be cheerful, even if I couldn't take them.

These will be sold at an AAQI auction and the proceeds donated to Alzheimer's Research.  My quilts have been sent, but are not yet assigned.

The organization is all volunteer, all quilts are donated, and all proceeds are donated.
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Some of my most recent doll finishes are Izannah Walker inspired.  Harriet and Matilda are cloth and clay with weighted bottoms.

Very old-fashioned ladies.  I have two more in the works.

Mysteries

Some new mysteries of interest from Stop Your Killing Me:


The Red Velvet Turnshoe  by Cassandra Clark; Sister Hildegard is on a secret mission to Italy in 1383-- set during the dangerous period of the Hundred Years War and the Black Plague.

Out of the Dawn Light   by Alys Clare; a fourteen-year-old diviner (who can find lost things and dowse for water) is convinced to find a mysterious object.  The first in a series set in 1087.  I like the period.

The Worst Thing  by Aaron Elkins; Brian is a former abductee who is skilled at designing hostage negotiations.  He still has panic attacks and nightmares and relies on Xanax to live a normal life.  A psychological thriller.

Mind's Eye by Hakan Nesser (I recently read one of the Chief Inspector Van Veeteren novels and enjoyed it)
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This is the hottest summer.  EVER!  At least in my memory.  Days of 109 degrees;  the ground has heated up so much that it doesn't even cool down much at night.  And no rain.  We are in the midst of pretty serious drought in north Louisiana, not as bad as Texas, but bad.   Burn bans, heat advisories, low water reservoirs.

Reading is an escape!

Cellar Door

This article in the New York Times discusses words that people find beautiful.  I read Tolkien's remark about "cellar door" years ago, but was surprised to find that those words have been mentioned by many others.

Beautiful words that I can think of right off-the-bat...murmur, wander, meander, peregrine, lilting, moonlight.  Poets and fantasy writers are especially likely to use and coin beautiful words, which may explain my love of both.

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New June Mystery/Crime Releases that interest me:

Jan Burke - Disturbance (an Irene Kelly mystery)

Craig Johnson - Hell is Empty  (Walt Longmire mystery)

New ARCs that have arrived in the last several days:

Monoculture by F.S. Michaels

Before the Last All Clear by Ray Evans

Daughters of the Revolution by Carolyn Cooke

What I'm reading now:

Nemesis by Jo Nesbo

Books I've ordered:

Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sachs 

The Brain that Changes Itself  by Norman Doidge (I read a library copy 2 years ago; want my own copy)

Chime by Franny Billingsly (recommended by Nancy the Bookfool)

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (recommended by Carl of Stainless Steel Droppings)

Awareness Through Movement by Moshe Feldenkrais

I have several reviews scheduled and a few more to write, but I'm catching up!

Reading and Eccentricity

Cycles come and go, as all of you know and many of you have posted about.  Usually I complain when I'm in a dry cycle and can't find anything that really calls to me, but I'm in a reading cycle right now, sometimes a book a day.  All pure escapism and lots of mystery/crime, particularly Scandinavian crime novels.  I'll never catch up on reviews.  I have ten books that I haven't reviewed and am almost finish with another.  

And I have a huge TBR pile.  These are just the ARCs that have arrived that I haven't posted about. 

I'm actually hoping this reading mania will end soon.  I don't want a dry spell, but just something more normal than what is happening now. 

The unreasonable heat and humidity and  a lack of energy for anything else figure into this cycle.  I'll read a little during the day, then for five or six hours at night.  

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I have finished another Eccentricity.  He doesn't have a name yet, I just call him Red.  Suggestions?

We will be going to visit our daughter this weekend for her birthday.  Hoping that will lift my energy and enthusiasm level and break this incessant reading cycle.