stonepicnicking_okapi

This bingo card was created by kingstoken. More about the challenge here: https://kingstoken.dreamwidth.org/109837.html




Over 300 pages: The Work of Art by Adam Moss. 432 pages. This is a collection of 43 interviews with different kinds of artists about the artistic process. Summary:

Adam Moss traces the evolution of transcendent novels, paintings, jokes, movies, songs, and more. Weaving conversations with some of the most accomplished artists of our time together with the journal entries, napkin doodles, and sketches that were their tools, Moss breaks down the work—the tortuous paths and artistic decisions—that led to great art.

This is the kind of book that makes you want to read other books and read up on other artists, and it has been the source of my 'new words' for the last few weeks.

[I am also trying to do as many squares as I can of garonne's 2025 Book Bingo here: https://garonne.dreamwidth.org/58219.html so this is also G-I-2: More than 400 pages.]

Book in a Series: Jane and the Prisoner of Wool House by Stephanie Barron. Audiobook. 10 hrs. Narrator: Kate Reading. This is a series where Jane Austen solves mysteries. In this one it is a naval murder in Portsmouth. I didn't think it would be my cup of tea because I don't like Jane Austen, but I listened to an audiobook version of a Christmas novel in the series over the holidays and I found it to be a very serviceable story to have in the background while I do other things. I enjoyed them. I wish my library had more audiobook versions. I don't think I will spend time on the text version. [Also G-O-5: Six or more words in the title]

Female Author: Versed by Rae Armantrout. A collection of poetry. I have posted some of the ones I have enjoyed on Thursdays.

Biography/Memoir: St. Francis of Assisi by G. K. Chesterton. Audiobook. 4 hours. Narrator: Simon Vance. NOT RECOMMENDED. My spiritual guru mentioned this work in one of his recorded lectures. I did not enjoy it. It isn't really a biography. It's more of a discussion of St. Francis with a few biographical details. And there is a lot of religious sermonizing which was very unappealing. [Also for G-G-3: With a placename in the title]

From the Library: Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History by Sidney Mintz. NOT RECOMMENDED. Not just from the library but from the InterLibrary Loan, which a statewide system. This is a very dry anthology textbook which was mentioned in The Work of Art as an inspiration for a warehouse sized sculpture of a Mammy figure made entirely of sugar. It was informative about the history of sugar cultivation and modern eating habits. But it was a struggle to get through it. [Also for G-N-5: Book mentioned in another book]

I'm planning to finish by the end of the summer.



A Main Character Over the Age of 30: The Fury by Alex Michalides. Audiobook. 8 hrs. Narrated by Alex Jennings. Michalides' books always play with unreliable narrator, and this is no exception. The story of an aging movie star and the relationship drama that surrounds her family and hangers-on.

LGBTQ+: It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror edited by Joe Vallese. A great anthology of essays of queer writers reflecting on horror films which have made an impact on their lives. My favorite was about "The Blob" and gender fluidity.

Colour in the Title: Careless in Red by Elizabeth George. Audiobook. 22 hours. Narrated by John Lee. This is number 12 of the Inspector Lynley series. I got it because it was available in my library system and because it fit the bingo criteria. I had never read an Inspector Lynley (and I'm not likely to read another). BUT I binged it because I wanted to find out what happened. It is a police procedural involving tampering with rock climbing equipment. But Lynley's pregnant wife was murdered earlier in the series so he's on walkabout and happens upon the corpse (like Harriet Vane!) in this village. Havers the sidekick was the best part. I was reminded how much better Ann Cleeves is at doing this and I missed Mattew Venn. And if I wanted Tragedy and Really Poor Life Choices by a Cop, I'd just read another Rebus.

If anyone has recommendations for the Humor square, I'll take them. I'm trying to work my way through a book of Dad Jokes but it's a bit pun-ful.

( The full list 20 out of 25 )

3weeks4dreamwidth is celebrating Dreamwidth's anniversary!
Come join in for fun, memes, activities, and more ♥

the challenge of the day is....Book Bingo!

This is organized by the lovely kingstoken. If you'd like to participate here is the card and the information.



Pet or Animal Companion: Hop Til You Drop by J. M. Griffin. This is #3 in the Jules & Bun Mystery series. Jules runs a rabbit rescue and a yarn shop. And Bun is her rabbit, with whom she has a telepathic bond. The murder takes place at an Easter egg hunt. It's...kind of awful. Bun is not cute. He's kind of obnoxious (with no other characteristic like genius a la Sherlock Holmes to make up for being obnoxious). I don't think cozies are my thing. It could have been cute. But it was kind of tiresome.

Book from your TBR: How to be a Poet by Jo Bell and Jane Commane. This was a very helpful guide. It covers the process, writer's block, inspiration, and there is a lot about publishing and practices in modern poetry publishing. What editors are looking for. How to submit. How to build a track record. Techniques to make your work more serious and things not to do. Interspersed are some philosophical bits which were also good, food for thought.

Sci-Fi or Fantasy: Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold. I listened to the audiobook version which is good. Narrated by Grover Gardner who is a solid American narrator. 8 hours. I learned of it from garonne. I kept thinking, 'oh this is science fiction' or 'oh, this is like Star Trek' or 'oh, this guy is like William Shatner and this lady is like one of the Star Trek ladies.' It is very heterosexual. I don't have any desire to read another but it didn't bother me. Probably what a science fiction lover would say if they read a Golden Age of crime novel.

Cordelia Naismith, the captain of a Betan Astronomical Survey ship, is exploring a newly discovered planet when her base camp is attacked. While investigating, she is surprised by a soldier, hits her head on a rock, and awakens to find that, while most of her crew has escaped, she is marooned with an injured Betan ensign and Captain Lord Aral Vorkosigan of Barrayar, notorious as the "Butcher of Komarr", who has been left for dead by a treacherous rival. During their five-day hike to a secret Barrayaran cache, she finds Vorkosigan not at all the monster his reputation suggests, and she is strongly attracted to him.

( The full list 11 out of 25 )

Multiple POVs: Bullet Train by Kotaro Isaka. [Translated by Sam Malissa] This was recommended by a Japanese ARMY in the Seom chatroom. My sister says there is a movie version with Brad Pitt. It took me about 9 weeks to read this. In many ways, I liked it. The concept is great: five assassin board a non-stop train. There's a snake, a suitcase of money, lots of quirky characters. And it's a closed setting which appeals to the locked-room mystery lover. My only qualm is that there is a lot of child violence and child-on-child violence (one of the assassins is 14 and he's a psychopath and it isn't pretty being in his POV). So that was the drawback. But if you like Pulp Fiction and Guy Ritchie films, this is the book for you.

Seasonal Read: Valentine Murder by Leslie Meier. I wanted a seasonal read that wasn't Xmas and Leslie Meier writes a cozy mystery series with titles for every American holiday. But, boy, was this a shitty book. I know there are better cozies out there. There are probably better seasonal cozies out there. I won't be ready any more about Lucy Stone of Tinker's Cove, Maine (USA). It's just weird. She has 4 kids. Her husband is a run-of-the-mill homophobe. The treatment of the gay couple is shitty (not super-shitty, just regular shitty, and one of them is a murder victim and the husband goes to the funeral and falls asleep, for real) and I was hoping her husband would be murdered by the murderer at the end (but he wasn't, he just got thrown off the roof of the library). bethctg is a librarian and this mystery is around the library and the board and the head librarian and the antique tankard in the library. That part was kind of okay. I like to imagine bethctg solving the murder instead of this lady. I also thought this lady's relationship with technology was weird. The book's only 12 years old but she was perfectly ok with her kids pretending to be big-boobed blonde and catfishing some stranger on the internet for funsies. Like that was no big deal. And she didn't understand how poor people could be addicted to the lottery. It was just yuck. It is possible to write humor about old people not understanding (or learning about) technology and new ideas, The Thursday Murder Club series does a good job of this with Joyce dabbling in bit coin and talking about instagram. But you have to be very subtle/clever/intelligent to make it work. And this really didn't seem true to life.

Banned Book: Another category I always struggle with, so I went with a children's book about a transgendered child. I am Jazz by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings. I have read a few reviews. One about white washing, and I do think that's valid. She's a person of color in real life. The other is about setting up the gender binary, either you're a girl or you're a boy. Some people criticized the comment of 'girl's brain in a boy's body' And she's a girl because she likes dance and mermaids. But for what I wanted it for, which was a first conversation with Minor and Minsiculus with this topic, it was fine. And she wrote it herself (with help) so it's her voice and that's important.

( The full list 6 out of 25 )

All the thanks to kingstoken for organizing the bingo.



Banned Book: The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. Banned for incest and pedophilia. It's not an easy book to read but it is beautifully written.

Book on Your TBR List: Save the Cat by Blake Snyder. I purchased this book months and months ago but hadn't yet read it. It's a very informative book (which I will keep and try to apply its principles of movie script writing to my own storytelling through ficcing). But the author is very much a Hollywood person. Very obnoxious. So I have to wade through a lot of capitalist, celebrity, materialistic bullshit to get to the ideas (which are good, how to structure a story). He shits on the film Memento and holds films like Miss Congeniality and Legally Blonde (which made a lot of money), but it was funny because as I got to that part, I realized I had just rented Memento from the library because I like it so much (because it's so different from normal movies).

Free Space: The Devil's Flute Murders by Seishi Yokomizo. This has been my 'bag book' (the book in my purse/bag which I read at soccer practice, swimming lesson, etc.) A recently translated from the Japanese originally written in 1951. I have read the four earlier in the series and it is typical of them. Family drama (incest!) and a very high body count and a locked room murder and Kosuke Kindaichi as detective.

LGBT+: The Secret Life of Country Gentlemen by KJ Charles. I DNF my first choice for this so I elected something I knew I would like. You can't go wrong with M/M romance with KJ Charles. It was enjoyable, light and sentimental and predictable (but not in a bad way). One of the protagonists is interested in newts so I kept thinking of Gussie Fink-Nottle.

Disability or Mental Health: About Us: Essays from the Disability Series of the New York Times edited by Peter Catapano and Rosamarie Garland-Thomson. This was good. Each essay is very short 2-4 pages and they are from people with all kinds of disabilities covering all different aspects of life. I would recommend it. The one line that sticks with me is that one of the writers mentioned Jesus asking the blind man what he wanted before healing him and the author made the point that Jesus' first gift was the gift of agency. That was cool.

Recommended: Servant of Death by Sarah Hawkswood which is the first in the Bradecote and Catchpoll series. A medieval mystery. Very similar to Cadfael but the ones investigating are not clerics (but this first murder does take place in an abbey). This was recommended by smallhobbit and I have been meaning to give it a go (given how much I like Cadfael). I knew it was a book that Hobbit liked because everyone was competent at their job. A very enjoyable mystery.

Book published the year you were born: 1975 was a good year for Stephen King. He published Salem's Lot. Having read the original Dracula many times, it was easy to connect the dots. And it does show the truth of the death of small towns (literally and figurative). I didn't like the protagonist so I am sad the vampires didn't get him but the boy got away, too. This was an audiobook version (~18 hours) and Ron McLarty (a narrator I didn't know) did a solid job.

And that's a blackout! Wheee!

Thanks again to kingstoken. See you next year!

( The full list )

I've got a bingo! Hurrah!



Written by an Author from your State or Country: When I saw Together in a Sudden Strangeness: America's Poets Respond to the Pandemic I thought of this square. I normally try to find a Baltimore writer but I think this book fulfills the spirit of the prompt very well.

Person's Name in the Title: Jumping Jenny by Anthony Berkley. Anthony Berkley is a mystery writer from the Golden Age of Crime. He is brilliant. He is also an obnoxious misogynist. It depends on my mood whether I can ignore the latter in favor of the former. He also likes his last minute twists (which I love). The murder takes place at a fancy dress/costume party where guests dress as famous murderers or victims and the victim has a severe case of Borderline Personality Disorder, for those familiar with it. I have BPD myself so it's easy to see. And Roger Sherringham (Berkley's detective) loathes her. But the crime is clever and the twists are many, many and I did get some glee in watching Sherringham twist himself into knots. Amazing ending, too. Excellent narration. I listened to it on youtube here.

ebook or audiobook: Post after Post-mortem by ECR Lorac. Another Golden Age of Crime work. I love Lorac and was very pleased to find this full length version on Youtube here. Lorace's detective MacDonald investigates the supposed suicide of a young writer. A letter lost in the mail which arrives after the death makes the family suspicious that it wasn't suicide after all. Very well done. Good narration, too.

( The full list )

Just a heads up that I will be doing 7 days, 7 covers again in March. I was thinking of starting it on Friday, so one cover a day for 7 days, of books I own posted without caption.



Book Made into Movie or TV Series: Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus series has been made into a TV series. Dead Souls is a work which was made into episode 3 of season 1 of Rebus. It is a fairly typical police procedural but I find it Very Comforting. Mostly because Rebus makes poorer life choices than I do. It is set in Scotland and this particular title deals with pedophiles, missing persons, old secrets, Rebus and his current and former girlfriends/lovers getting all tangled up and Rebus drinking too much. It's like an episode of Law & Order: SVU. I also used to find old episodes of Law & Order (the original) comforting. My sister gave me 5 Rebus books (used) for Xmas and I was saving the last two for my trip but as that trip isn't happening and I'm in need of comfort, I'll probably crack the next one open tonight!

Author You've Never Read Before: Kill 'em and Leave by James McBride. This was a biography of the soul/funk singer James Brown. It is very, very well done. James Brown is from South Carolina (I am also from South Carolina) and the descriptions of the area and its inhabitants and history resonated with me. One of the baddies (one of the lawyers who drained Brown's estate after he died) is even from the town where I grew up. The sad, sad end is that Brown left his money to educate poor children in South Carolina and Georgia, and because of lawsuits by his heirs and political arrangements which allowed lawyers to bill/dwindle the estate, none of the money has ever been used that way.

( The full list )

Starting off strong.

Craft, Hobby, or Cookbook: The Puzzler: One Man's Quest to Solve the Most Baffling Puzzles Ever, from Crosswords to Jigsaws to the Meaning of Life by A. J. Jacobs. I wrote about this on Sunday but a great overview of many different types of puzzles. I read the text, and now I am going to go back and try my brain at some of the sample puzzles at the end of each chapter.

Book with a Woman Protagonist: Absent in Spring by Mary Westmacott. The book focuses on Joan Scudamore, a British woman traveling back from the Middle East andstuck in a foreign rest house and coming to terms with the kind of person she is. I read it on archive.org.

More than 300 pages: Moby Dick by Herman Melville. One of the classics I'd never read. I listened to an audiobook version narrated by Anthony Heald. It was very funny in parts, which surprised me. I liked Ishmael and Quequeg the best, of course. Especially Quequeg and his coffin.

Big, big thanks to kingstoken for hosting the challenge and doing up the card!!



POC Author: The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations by Toni Morrison. I read the large print version, and it was 600 pages. The entries span forty years but they were very interesting. Politics, the writing process, history.

Recommended: The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller [audiobook, narrated by Frazer Douglas, 11 hours]. This is the story of Achilles told through his lover Patroclus. I liked it once the Trojan War started. I don't like coming of age stories, so that part was not interesting to me. But I still binge-listened because Frazer Douglas does an excellent job with the voices.

Wild Card: Best Detective Stories of Cyril Hare by Cyril Hare. I love Cyril Hare and this book is perfect for me. Very clever detective stories. Short and concise and really clever. I had read maybe four or five before but most were new to me.

Set in Your State or Country: Baltimore Blues by Laura Lippman [audiobook, narrated by Debroah Hazlett, 10 hours]. A decent, forgettable story. Baltimore is the nearest city to where I live. I recognized many of the place names. It's a female journalist turned investigator. If you like Janet Evanovich, this is sort of the Baltimore equivalent. I won't read another but it was fine to listen to while I worked on a puzzle.

Place in the Title: The Cornish Coast Murders by John Bude [1935, e-book]. Part of the British Library Crime Classics collection. Another fine but forgettable story. I liked the setting. But the resolution to the crime required a bit more suspension of disbelief than I like to give.

( Full list )

3 more to add to the bingo.



Graphic Novel: I Know What I Am: The Life and Times of Artemisia Gentileschi by Gina Siciliano. I got this because I wanted to know more about this Baroque painter after getting stickers of her art as 'bonuses' in an art pack I bought from Etsy. For that purpose, it was great. Very comprehensive. But I think if you wanted this for the 'graphic' part of the graphic novel, you would've been disappointed. The illustrations were fine but not very exciting.

Seasonal Read: The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny. This is an Inspector Gamache novel in Quebec, and it opens on a village Easter egg hunt. There is much discussion of the history of the egg hunt, and I liked that part. So, the murder takes place in a haunted house during a seance. And I can't help but hear Miss Marple's voice in my head, "My dear, if I wanted to commit a murder, I don't know that I would rely on 'fright.'" And yet that's what this murderer [more or less] does. The motive of the murderer is sort of questionable, too. It's a modern novel and I just don't believe that people actually murder other people for so nebulous a collection of feelings and grudges. Maybe in Midsomer. There is also a police corruption subplot which I didn't care about.

Published in 2022: The Maid by Nita Prose [audiobook narrated by Lauren Ambrose, 9 hours and 37 minutes]. A maid discovers a dead body in a hotel. The maid is autistic (on the spectrum at least) and so I was CRINGING so badly about the way people treat her and take advantage of her but RIGHT at the moment I was going to stop and turn it in, things turn around for her and she gets some real friends and everything gets sorted out. Of course, it had to end with heterosexual romance which made me roll my eyes a little. And some twists. Meh. But the narrating is great. No criticism of that.

( Full list )