Random (but not really)

Sunday, August 2, 2020

The Books of July

This year.

Jeesh.

The Weight of it AllSo what did I read this month? It was mostly re-reads, and the new books I read were, sadly, really not my thing.

So one new-to-me book that I really enjoyed was The Weight of It All by N.R. Walker, which is a M/M romance set in Australia about Harry, who gets dumped by his long term boyfriend for being too old and too fat. Harry sets out initially to try to change himself to get his ex back, but quickly decides the weight he needs to lose was that of his ex and trying to be what other people want him to be other than who he really is.

It’s lovely.

Other than that, the re-reads were excellent.

Fantasy

The Story of the Stone (1988) Barry Hughart (The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox) 8.5/10
Discworld, City Watch
Guards! Guards! (1989) Terry Pratchett 9.5/10
Men at Arms (1993) Terry Pratchett 9/10
Feet of Clay (1996) Terry Pratchett 9/10
Jingo (1997) Terry Pratchett (Discworld) 7.5/10

Guards! Guards!Romance

Teach Me (2019) Olivia Dade (There’s Something About Marysburg) 7.5/10
Take a Hint, Dani Brown (2020) Talia Hibbert (The Brown Sisters)

Romance, LGBT
A Lancaster Story
Kneading You (2019) C.S. Poe  8/10
Joy (2017) C.S. Poe  8/10,
Color of You (2017) C.S. Poe  7.5/10
The Weight of It All (2016) N.R. Walker 8/10
Knit Tight (2016) Annabeth Albert (Portland Heat) 7/10

Romance, Historical

Haverston Family
Nearly a Lady (2011) Alissa Johnson 8.5/10
An Unexpected Gentleman (2011) Alissa Johnson 8/10
Providence
Tempting Fate (2009) Alissa Johnson 8/10
McAlistair’s Fortune (2009) Alissa Johnson  8/10
Destined To Last (2010) Alissa Johnson  8.5/10
Daring and the Duke (2020) Sarah MacLean (The Bareknuckle Bastards)

nearly a ladyAnd the stats!

All ebooks and mostly re-reads, as previously noted.

eBook: 18
Total: 18
Multiple Formats: 5
Re-read: 13

Oddly, I didn’t read a single mystery this month. I can’t remember the last time that happened.

Fantasy: 5
Romance: 13
Boinking: 10
Historical: 7

Mostly female authors, but rereading Discworld is giving male authors a showing.

Male: 4
Female: 10
Initials: 1

Only one female centered book this month, and not a lot of racial diversity; I classified the Discworld books as white, because in some of the books he pretty blatantly parallels white western society and our reactions to “the other”.

Male: 7
Female: 1
Ensemble: 9
White: 12
Minority: 4
Minority 2ndary: 1
Straight: 9
LGBTQ: 6
LGBTQ 2ndary: 2

And that’s July. Did you read anything particularly good recently?

Written by Michelle at 5:01 pm    

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Categories: Books & Reading,Monthly Round-Up  

Monday, July 27, 2020

BINGO!

I decided to play the Ripped Bodice’s Summer BINGO.

Here’s my card as of today:

Ripped Bodice BINGO

And here’s the list of books:
The Color of You, CS Poe
Daring and the Duke, Sarah MacLean
It Takes Two to Tumble, Cat Sebastian
The House in the Cerulean Sea, TJ Klune
Behind These Doors, Jude Lucens
A Seditious Affair, KJ Charles
Kneading You, C.S. Poe
Destined to Last, Alissa Johnson
An Unnatural Vice, KJ Charles
Knit Tight, Annabeth Albert
McAlistair’s Fortune, Alissa Johnson
The Color of You, C.S. Poe
Blank Spaces, Cass Lenox
Joy, C.S. Poe
Upside Down, N.R. Walker
The Ruin of a Rake, Cat Sebastian
Death in D Minor / The Color of You, Alexia Gordon / C.S Poe
As Luck Would Have It, Alissa Johnson

Written by Michelle at 7:43 pm    

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Categories: Books & Reading  

Sunday, July 26, 2020

Blackwater / Canaan

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Written by Michelle at 7:36 am    

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Categories: Hiking,National Park / Forest,Photos,State Park / Forest,West Virginia  

Sunday, July 12, 2020

Hiking WV: Seneca Creek Backcountry

It’s possible this hike was a little too much for my foot, but today it’s not too bad, so I don’t think I harmed anything, just did a little more than my body was used to.

So where did we go? It was hot, and COVID-19 cases are skyrocketing in WV, so we wanted somewhere cool, and where there wouldn’t be a ton of people.

Seneca Creek Backcountry fit the spot.

Location: Seneca Creek Backcountry
Trail: Spring Ridge Trail (partial)
Distance: 4.4 miles
Elevation: 3124-4047 feet (932 ft ascent)

Guess who didn’t step on a rattlesnake!!!

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Ooh! A snake! Is that a black snake?
(rattle)
Nope! Not a black snake!

Normally I know I have almost stepped on a rattlesnake by by Michael freaking out at the rattling noise behind me. This was definitely an improvement!

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Up hill!

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More uphill!

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Still uphill.

We didn’t go all the way to the top. We reached the rattlesnake and turned around. Which is just as well becuase my foot was starting to ache by that time.

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Back at the bottom: Gandy Creek.

Written by Michelle at 9:54 pm    

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Categories: Hiking,National Park / Forest,Photos,West Virginia  

Thursday, July 2, 2020

The Books of June

This year is insane. But you already knew that.

I read some good books this month–even a newish release!–but I re-read a lot, so only a few new reads I want to mention.

Turning Darkness Into LightOddly enough, it was all fantasy that floated to the top this month.

NPCs by Drew Hayes is the first book in his Spells, Swords, & Stealth series, and it is (unsurprisingly) wonderful. It’s sword and sorcery, except that the actions of D&D gamers are able to affect the people who live in this world. Like everything Drew Hayes, it’s a delight.

Turning Darkness Into Light by Marie Brennan is a sequel of sorts to her Lady Trent series, where we follow Lady Trent’s granddaughter, as she and a friend attempt to translate some ancient tablets that were discovered.

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune is a fantasy that seems like it wants to be YA (since many of the characters are teenagers) but with all the bureaucracy, really isn’t quite one. It is, however, fun and well-worth reading.

Fantasy

NPCs (2014) Drew Hayes (Spells, Swords, & Stealth) 8/10
Turning Darkness Into Light (2019) Marie Brennan 9/10

Fantasy, Supernatural

The Grimrose Path (2010) Rob Thurman (Trickster) 9/10
The House in the Cerulean Sea (2020) TJ Klune 8/10

The House in the Cerulean SeaMystery

Death in D Minor (2017) Alexia Gordon (Gethsemane Brown Mysteries) 7.5/10

Mystery, Historical

Miss Marple
4.50 from Paddington (1957) Agatha Christie 9.5/10
A Caribbean Mystery (1964) Agatha Christie 9/10
The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side (1962) Agatha Christie 8.5/10,

Romance, Historical

As Luck Would Have It (2016) Alissa Johnson (Providence) 8.5/10

Romance, LGBT

Upside Down (2019) N.R. Walker 8.5/10
Blank Spaces (2016) Cass Lennox (Toronto Connections) 8.5/10
Sins of the Cities
An Unseen Attraction (2017) 8/10
An Unnatural Vice (2017) K.J. Charles 8/10
An Unsuitable Heir (2017) K.J. Charles 7.5/10
Society of Gentlemen
A Fashionable Indulgence  (2015) K.J. Charles 8/10
A Seditious Affair (2015) K.J. Charles 8/10
Upside DownSeducing the Sedgwicks
It Takes Two to Tumble (2017) Cat Sebastian 8/10
A Gentleman Never Keeps Score (2018) Cat Sebastian 8/10
The Turner Series
The Lawrence Browne Affair (2017) Cat Sebastian 8/10
The Ruin of a Rake (2017) Cat Sebastian 7.5/10
Behind These Doors (2018) Jude Lucens (Radical Proposals) 7/10
The Boy in the Red Dress (2020) Kristin Lambert 6.5/10

Audio Book

The Night Watch, Audiobook (1998/2006/2010) Sergei Lukyanenko translated by Andrew Bromfield, narrated by Paul Michael (Night Watch) 9.5/10

Non-Fiction

The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History (2004/2009/2018) John M. Barry  7/10

And now, the stats!

eBook: 23
Audio: 1
Multiple Formats: 6
Re-read: 17

NPCsLots and lots of re-reading this month. In fact, 37% of the books I’ve read this year are re-reads.

Fantasy: 6
Mystery: 8
Romance: 14
Boinking: 11
Historical: 15
YA: 3

The majority of what I read was historical in some form, mostly romance, but a lot of mystery as well.

Male: 3
Female: 14
Initials: 5
Male Pseudonym: 1

Male authors are unlike to catch up with female authors this year, since only 11% of the books I’ve read this year have been by male authors.

Male: 14
Female: 7
Ensemble: 2
White: 13
Minority: 5
Minority 2ndary: 5
Straight: 8
LGBTQ: 14
LGBTQ 2ndary: 1

As far as characters go, guys are edging out gals. Mostly because I’ve been reading a lot of MlM romance.

And that’s June.

What have you read recently that was particularly enjoyable?

Written by Michelle at 3:38 pm    

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Categories: Books & Reading,Monthly Round-Up  

Sunday, June 28, 2020

Sunday Flower Pr0n: WV Botanic Garden

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Written by Michelle at 8:24 pm    

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Categories: Flowers,Photos  

Sunday, June 21, 2020

Sunday Flower Pr0n: Mountain Laurel

I GOT TO GO TO THE WOODS YESTERDAY!

Why is this exciting? Because it’s been five weeks already since I broke my foot, and since the weather was lovely, I put on my foot, grabbed my crutches, and we took a short hike at Coopers Rock.

It was LOVELY to be in the forest. Especially since one of my favorite flowers was on display.

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Hiking with Crutches

Written by Michelle at 10:06 am    

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Categories: Flowers,Photos  

Thursday, June 4, 2020

Some Concepts to Keep in Mind

sunk cost fallacy:
the idea that a company or organization is more likely to continue with a project if they have already invested a lot of money, time, or effort in it, even when continuing is not the best thing to do

Escalation of commitment:
Tendency to invest additional resources in an apparently losing proposition, influenced by effort, money, and time already invested.

self-justification:
The act of making excuses to justify one’s actions or behavior.

cognitive dissonance:
psychological conflict resulting from incongruous beliefs and attitudes held simultaneously

Written by Michelle at 7:10 am    

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Categories: Politics  

Tuesday, June 2, 2020

The Books of May

It’s June. And I’m once again recovering from a broken appendage, unable to hike or do any of the fun things one wants to do in the spring.

SpellboundIn short: I read a lot again.

Mysteries have always been comfort reads for me, and Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple series is the coziest most comforting read there is.

Andrea Camilleri died last year, so his Inspector Montalbano series is quickly drawing to a close. Although some of the most recent stories have been on the weaker side, I very much enjoyed The Safety Net the most recent English publication.

Slippery Creatures is a new series by K.J. Charles and I very much liked it. The Will Darling Adventures are set just after The Great War, which is a time period I really like reading about, since it balances between modern and what we traditionally think of as “historical”.

Of course this crappy time needs romance. I very much recommend Throwing Hearts by N.R. Walker, Love in 24 Frames by C.S. Poe, and the He’s Come Undone: A Romance Anthology by Emma Barry, Olivia Dade, Adriana Herrera, Ruby Lang, and Cat Sebastian. Especially Throwing Hearts because NR Walker writes the sweetest romances, with almost no angst at all AND this one had an sweet secondary romance.

The Immortal ConquistadorI finally read a bunch of the new supernatural fantasy releases that came out in the past several months. There was a backlog because I kept putting off reading the most recent Jane Yellowrock because I knew it was going to be dark and a hard read, which meant I then put off the others. But I finally got through them and of the lot The Immortal Conquistador by Carrie Vaughn was fantastic. It’s the backstory of Rick the Vampire, and has one of my favorite short stories embedded in it. Smoke Bitten by Patricia Briggs is the latest Mercy Thompson book, and was also good and enjoyable.

I read Joanna Chambers Capital Wolves Duet with Gentleman Wolf and Master Wolf and really liked them. There have been a lot of shifter and werewolf books in the past decade or so and fated-mates is a trope I really dislike. This book does werewolves AND mates extremely well. And the last historical was Allie Therin’s Magic in Manhattan Spellbound and Starcrossed which was also set after The Great War and was an historical urban fantasy with a m/m romance where the boinking was fade-to-black.

Anyone got any amazing recommendations for me to escape the awfulness of the world right now?

Mystery, Police

The Safety NetThe Safety Net (2017/2020) Andrea Camilleri (Inspector Montalbano) 8/10

Mystery, Cozy

Miss Marple
The Murder at the Vicarage (1930) Agatha Christie 7.5/10
The Body in the Library (1942) Agatha Christie 8/10
Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories (1985) Agatha Christie 9/10
The Moving Finger (1943) Agatha Christie 7.5/10
A Murder Is Announced (1950) Agatha Christie 8/10
They Do It With Mirrors (1952) Agatha Christie 7.5/10
A Pocket Full of Rye (1953) Agatha Christie Rating: 8/10
Apple Cider Slaying (2019) Julie Anne Lindsey (A Cider Shop Mystery) 7.5/10
Murder in G Major (2016) Alexia Gordon (Gethsemane Brown Mysteries) 7/10
Too Big to Miss (2006) Sue Ann Jaffarian (An Odelia Grey Mystery) 7/10
The Secret, Book, & Scone Society (2017) Ellery Adams (Secret, Book, & Scone Society) 6/10

Graphic Novel

Heathen: Volume 2 (2019) Natasha Alterici, Rachel Deering 7.5/10

Murder in G MajorMystery, LGBT

Slippery Creatures (2020) K.J. Charles (The Will Darling Adventures) 8/10
Principles of Spookology (2020) S.E. Harmon (The Spectral Files) 7.5/10

Romance, LGBT

Throwing Hearts (2020) N.R. Walker 8.5/10
Love in 24 Frames (2019) C.S. Poe 8/10
His Grandfather’s Watch (2015) N.R. Walker 7.5/10
Five Dates (2015) Amy Jo Cousins 7/10

Meet Cute Club (2020) Jack Harbon (Sweet Rose) 6.5/10

Romance

He’s Come Undone: A Romance Anthology (2020) Emma Barry, Olivia Dade, Adriana Herrera, Ruby Lang, and Cat Sebastian 8/10

Fantasy, Supernatural

The Immortal Conquistador (2020) Carrie Vaughn (Kitty Norville) 9/10
Smoke Bitten (2020) Patricia Briggs (Mercy Thompson) 8.5/10
Shattered Bonds (2019) Faith Hunter (Jane Yellowrock) 7.5/10
Capital Wolves Duet
Gentleman Wolf (2019) Joanna Chambers 8/10
Master Wolf (2020) Joanna Chambers 8.5/10
Magic in Manhattan
Spellbound (2019) Allie Therin 8/10
Starcrossed (2020) Allie Therin 8/10

And the stats!

Trade Paperback: 1
eBook: 26
Multiple Formats: 7
Re-read: 7

One comic this month, and all the re-reads I own in multiple formats.

Fantasy: 9
Mystery: 13
Romance: 11
Boinking: 8
Historical: 11
Comic: 1

Lots of mysteries. Lots of historicals. Lots of romance. Lots of fantasy. Lots of everything, really.

Male: 2
Female: 21
Initials: 4

Another bad year for male authors it looks like.

Male: 13
Female: 11
Ensemble: 3
White: 13
Minority: 7
Minority 2ndary: 7
Straight: 15
LGBTQ: 11
LGBTQ 2ndary: 1

I’m still reading a fair amount of M/M romance, so lots of male characters. Still lots of white characters, but a some minority representation here, and not too shabby as far as non-straight representation.

And that was May.

Written by Michelle at 7:27 pm    

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Categories: Books & Reading,Monthly Round-Up  

Wednesday, May 13, 2020

Parallels in Reading:Encephalitis Lethargica

I have read Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple books more times than I can count, yet I feel like I discover something every re-read.

Because there is something timeless about the stories, I tend to forget they are, in fact, set in a specific place and time. In this case, 1930, between the two world wars.

‘Is he really ill?’ ‘There’s nothing radically wrong with him. You know, of course, that he’s had Encephalitis Lethargica, sleepy sickness, as it’s commonly called?’

Christie, Agatha. Miss Marple Bundle: The Murder at the Vicarage, The Body in the Library, and The Moving Finger (eBook Bundle) (Kindle Locations 1593-1594). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

This popped out at my because (for obvious reasons) I’ve been reading about the 1918 flu, and came across encephalitis lethargica as part of that story.

a new brain disease that appeared in Europe and North America between 1916 and 1926. The disease, a kind of sleeping sickness known as encephalitis lethargica, killed an estimated five million people before it abruptly disappeared.

other medical scientists in years since have argued that the sleeping sickness was a peculiar result of the 1918 flu. In 1982, R. T. Ravenholt and William H. Foege, two scientists at the Centers for Disease Control, made this case based on epidemiological data from Seattle, Washington, and the Samoa Islands.

Kolata, Gina. Flu (p. 292). Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Kindle Edition.

Now, there is no definitive evidence for this, but as I said, it jumped out at me, and reminded me that those book was written little more than a decade after The Great War, and World War II was still on the horizon.

Written by Michelle at 8:39 pm    

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Monday, May 11, 2020

Hiking WV: Watters-Smith Memorial State Park

Really, more of a saunter than a hike.

Watters Smith Memorial State Park

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Written by Michelle at 2:21 pm    

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Categories: Photos,State Park / Forest,West Virginia  

Friday, May 8, 2020

Kid’s Books and Death and Illness

Last night during my bedtime reading about the flu epidemic of 1918, I came across a mention of cholera, which jolted loose in my brain The Velveteen Rabbit. And then I remembered The Secret Garden, which opens with the little girl’s family all dying of cholera. (The Velveteen Rabbit is scarlet fever). Which immediately brought to mind a scene from the Little House books, where they all suffer from some terrible illness on more than one occasion. (I was remembering a scene where everyone is sick and Laura (while dreadfully ill) has to go to the well to fetch everyone water.)

What struck me is that when I was reading these books, all of this seemed completely normal–people got sick and died. I mean, how many kids’ books centered around plucky orphans of unknown providence?

In retrospect, it seems weird to me, these deaths that all but casually happened in the background, but then it seemed normal. After all, my grandmother talked about family members who died as kids.

I’m sure there are other such books I read as a kid, but these came immediately to mind. I have memories of reading about a polio epidemic, and tuberculosis (consumption) but I can’t remember any specific books off the top of my head.

Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams- scarlet fever
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett – cholera
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder – scarlet fever, malaria (Was the malaria in By The Banks of Plum Creek?)
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott – scarlet fever

Of course, I feel like I jumped immediately from kids books to Sherlock Holmes and Miss Marple, so I guess all my childhood reading was full of death.

Epidemics in Children’s Literature

Written by Michelle at 7:32 am    

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Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Bias in Books

Coming as a completely surprise to almost no women, an analysis of almost 200 bestselling fiction books by SuperSummary found that best-sellers were overwhelmingly written by men, and about men, and that those male authored, male-centric books frequently don’t past the Bechdel test.

As I said, this shouldn’t be a shock to any reader who has been paying attention.

But where the research got interesting was in the analysis of the language used to describe characters.

Female characters were most often described with words like beautiful and pretty and married, while men were most often described with words like big and great and rich.

Although they did a lot of research, the graphs are clear and concise, and it’s not a long read, so I highly recommend you browse the article.

And then consider the characteristics of the books you’ve been reading.

Strong Man; Beautiful Woman: Exploring Gender Differences in Literature

Written by Michelle at 6:19 pm    

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Sunday, May 3, 2020

Hiking WV: Cranberry Wilderness

When we want to hike without seeing other people, we head to the Cranberry Wilderness.

Location: Cranberry Wilderness
Trail: Middle Fork Trail (partial)
Distance: 4.2 miles
Elevation: 2494 – 2664 ft (177 ft)

We’ve hiked eastern portions of this trail before, so we decided to find the western trail head and start there.

The trail starts with a creek crossing.

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Then quickly goes to another creek crossing.

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The trail runs beside (in) the creek for awhile.

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Then we finally reached a crossing that was deeper than we capable of crossing while keeping our feet dry.

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If it were warmer, I would have taken off my boots to cross, but it was a little too chilly for that, so we headed back.

So, we’ll go back when it hasn’t been raining for a month (and have water shoes, for the deepest crossings).

We then went to a different spot and were attacked by approximately ten billion flies, so we quickly gave up.

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Despite rearranging our masks to cover not just our mouths but also our ears, and wearing glasses, the flies were just too irritating to deal with, when most of our walk was going to be along a creek.

But the views on the brief walk were pretty!

Written by Michelle at 10:49 am    

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Categories: Hiking,National Park / Forest,Photos,West Virginia  
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