aspirit in the Library (2021)

Hello!

Now that I know I read more than 75 books a year with my current reading behavior, I'm moving to this group for 2021 CE. What I want to track this year goes beyond books to serial webcomics and favorite short stories in magazines.

This thread is being set up for next year. To see my book tracking for this current year, go to aspirit Drifts Some More Through 2020 Reading.

Messages are welcome, though I feel I should apologies beforehand for being an awkward conversationalist.

Update: There's profanity and sexually suggestive phrases in titles mentioned within this thread. Read or ignore at your own discretion.

Challenge: BingoDOG


more cards

"Classical elements" are air, fire, earth, water, and possibly aether.

Welcome to the group, aspirit.

>21 Sergeirocks: thank you!

I'm playing around with a reading challenge concept.

January - White Gray or Black/White
February - Gray Red
March - Black Orange
April - Indigo Yellow
May - Violet Green
June - Magenta Cyan
July - Red Blue
August - Orange Indigo/Violet
September - Yellow Magenta
October - Green Black
November - Cyan White
December - Blue Multiple

My library ebook hold on Rachel Caine's Ink and Bone expired and has been renewed.

While I wait, I'm going to try reading a 1920s drama by KJ Charles.

I've finished reading Slippery Creatures by KJ Charles. The novel, my first finished in 2021, is engaging and well worth reading.

I'm currently reading Two Rogues Make a Right, historical romance by Cat Sebastian, but a part of my mind is stuck on Slippery Creatures. The sequel to Charles' novel about a World War I military veteran isn't available to me yet. The novels I have that are similar take place during World War II...

When Skies Have Fallen by Debbie McGowan

Fantastical: A Wolf's Resistance by T. J. Nichols

Two Rogues Make a Right is done! I had to push through the second half, but the story overall is a lovely romance among seclusion allowing two scarred young men to together create a life in which they are both healthier, happier, and more helpful to others. ★★★½

A new book for our home library, read as soon as it came out of quarantine: Snuggle Puppy by Sandra Boynton.

Today, I've finished reading the five-chapter preview of Liminality by TJ Nichols and the graphic novel Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker and Wendy Xu.

I'm unsure if I'll read the Liminality; the story is interesting, but the writing quality seems to have started degrading in Chapter 4. Possibly, the degradation was in my reading comprehension, and possibly, the pre-release preview I have is not identical to the first five chapters of the novel released earlier this week.

Mooncakes is as cute as I'd guessed it would be.

edit: typo I didn't want to live with

I read and enjoyed Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas. The novel needed stronger editing to work out its flaws, but for me, the engaging characterizations made up for those. Yadriel and Julian are especially fun together. The story, told from Yadriel's sheltered POV, is relatively gentle in its more realistic portrayals, and you know what? I appreciate that this month. I can use some optimistic fantasy about kids while I'm safely at home with mine.

...Especially because I'm starting into the rawer world of The Fever King by Victoria King. (That both novels have orphaned, impoverished North American main characters with Colombian heritage from their immigrant fathers was an accident. I noticed they do while typing out this message.) I'm going to try to read this novel quickly, maybe without full comprehension of what happens on each page, as I know there are trauma triggers for me that will be hit hard. I've already read the webcomic adaptation.

I'm also trying to ease back into local politics after a break (of watching local politics for signs of anything actually hopeful), so this next week will be interesting.

I finished the manga Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan, Vol. 8 by Hiroshi Shiibashi and kind of accidentally reread Behind the Scenes!! Vol. 1 by Bisco Hatori. (You know how you peek inside a book to refresh your memory then somehow, through the entire day, read the entire thing? Yeah, that happened.)

My plan was to get back to the prose novel Ink and Bone, but the unexpected book child endangerment as the focus in the opening might've put me off for good. I couldn't get into the story before the loan period ended.

I am still making my way through Fever King, which I enjoy overall, just want to be careful with reading.

I've finished reading The Fever King by Victoria Lee (★★★★), decided to set aside J. Scott Coatsworth's The Stark Divide as DNF, and started into The People's Victory: Stories from the Front Lines in the Fight for Marriage Equality about the activism that won marriage rights for same-sex couples in the USA.

>37 aspirit: I have two very, very good friends who supply me with books by the box full...that sent one in their last box to arrive on my door step that you might be interested in. It's called From the Closet to the Altar: Courts, Backlash, and the Struggle for Same-Sex Marriage by Michael J. Klarman. These two men have been together for 25 years and have raised, a soon to be, 20 year old beautiful son. They're two of my dearest friends and they serve on several committees in their community that work to help couples that are facing some of the same difficulties that they did.

>38 Carol420: I am interested. Seeing the courage people had to push the nation forward is a big deal for me, a queer parent (married, but not completely as myself). Thank you!

removed an unnecessary mini-rant on politics

The other day, I read the picture books Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas, by Natasha Yim and Grace Zong, and Anansi and the Pot of Beans, retold by Bobby and Sherry Norfolk, illustrated by Baird Hoffmire.

My child and I tried to listen to an audio narration of the Anansi book, but the way it plays on my phone is wonky. I'm not sure we saw all the pages in the ebook, neither.

Ignoring the technical problems, we both enjoyed the books. (★★★★ for each)

We have new (rehomed) books! The USPS is a mess, not surprising with the continental winter storm and with who's in charge. Still, despite no tracking, our physical books arrived from out of state with not too much damage, only a week after leaving the warehouse.

From the batch, my child and I have already read the picture books Redwoods by Jason Chin and Celebritrees: Historic and Famous Trees of the World by Margi Preus and Rebecca Gibbon. I'd recommend either or both to any reader who likes trees.

I've also finished reading Lindsay Buroker's Snake Heart, an otherworld fantasy novel about an earth mage looking with a small band of adventurers for a lost continent that could possibly save his people from starvation. To find the fertile land, he needs to survive his mother (the title character), her murderous pirate crew, a persistent assassin, a high-ranking mage who likes to erupt volcanoes on top of him, and a bunch of other characters who might prefer him dead as he travel around the world by sea. I was more engaged all the way through with this second book than I was with the first book of the series.

>2 aspirit: Bingo! Down from #5.

I finally got around to reading Rurouni Kenshin: Restoration, Vol. 1 by Nobuhiro Watsuki. This and the second volume in the duology were gifts to my child months ago. Someone online implied it was suitable for young children. It's not-- suitable for my child anyway. She's fascinated by sword arts and Japanese history. She thinks the 30-year-old Kenshin is cute when he's playing gentle enough to be clumsy and clueless. (He's a scary teenager.) Unfortunately, we weren't expecting so many depictions of beheadings, lethal shootings, and gushing blood in manga about a former warrior who last took a life ten years prior. I also must've forgotten how much smoking, alcohol abuse, sexual references, and violence toward children was in the original, so the Teen rating is more valid than expected.

The novel He Came From Ice by Kody Boye and the essays collected in People's Victory: Front Lines in the Fight for Marriage Equality have been put aside.

Boye's writing bores me. I spend too much time trying to figure out why.

The Marriage Equality's essays are good reading but were making me feel lonely. Although I'm married and live with my partner, I feel as if I am alone watching for attacks on our rights and engaging with politics as more than a spectator. The local LGBT activists are taking a disjointed, religious approach toward tolerance that makes me wary. Everyone else seems very far away. Maybe after the pandemic....

I've finished reading The Happy Prince and Other Tales by Irishborn and Dublin-educated Oscar Wilde.

In those five short stories and The Picture of Dorian Gray (previously read and reread), I can already see strong themes in his work. At what point did he realized he was living out the type of life he wrote about? Of course, I've read about him. I have a feeling he had a sense of how his life would end.

After today flipping through The Trial of Oscar Wilde From the Shorthand Reports, I'm determined to continue looking at his own words, perhaps with Selected Poems of Oscar Wilde.

Stories featuring final fight scenes in a crypt: one new Disney-style family movie released this season, three new YA fantasy novels I've read in the past year, and one new speculative novel fans insist isn't YA (despite all the ways it fits in the category) I read in 2019. All the books are about queer main characters.

Does the crypt climax count as a trend?

I've finished the second (and final?) Feverwake book, The Electric Heir by Victoria Lee. My review might be a little harsh. I'm already missing Dara and Noam.

>49 aspirit: Would you believe the story climax for Olivia Helling's Snowmancer involves queer characters and a coffin in a room dedicated to it? I'm pretty sure their fight doesn't count as a crypt climax, but it's close.

By the way, I've heard Denver, Colorado, is being hit by another major blizzard this weekend. I wish good luck to impacted Coloradans.

The Clockwork, Curses, and Coal: Steampunk and Gaslamp Fairy Tales anthology has an excellent opening story. I haven't progressed past it, because I keep forgetting to move the ebook to a device where I can read it at night. Soon.

In the meantime, I've started reading an extended Sneak Peek copy of Winter's Orbit, by Everina Maxwell. I like the setup-- fairly typical science fiction M/M Romance-- and it's by Tor Books! A problem I'm having is one I'm repeatedly experiencing with Tor is the line editing is amateurish, so I frequently stumble on the meaning of a sentence. There are self-publishing that put out higher quality prose. I don't understand why this happens at one of the biggest publishing houses in SFF.(This one got better as it progressed.)

Planning ahead, I've also secured a digital library loan of Andy Weir's The Martian for my next full novel to read. This book will start me into the planetary Martian-themed reading for March.

Getting the full book of Winter's Orbit will be a challenge, but I would like to read the rest. I'm guessing the suggested mystery element will build up after Chapter 4.

I've started into Weir's The Martian. I like the book so far, but the title character's constant calculations for survival are a little off-putting. The situation feels too much like trying to get through a major life change while isolated on the poverty line... overly familiar.

For Day of the Irish, I dug out a couple stories to read for the first time: "Brigid and the Fox", a legend found on a folklore website, and "A Wolf's Story" from Lady Wilde's Ancient Legends of Ireland. I read both aloud to my child but cut off the end of "A Wolf's Story" to make it more palpable for bedtime.

Oh, my gods. My child and student is already asking about German folklore, a topic planned for April, and all I have on hand is an ebook of The Complete Folk & Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm, which I'm tempted to rewrite from start to finish with explanations, as Grimm's works are problematic as records of folklore and as stories read to children today.

'"Master's degree in mechanical engineering," she muttered. "And I'm working in all-night photo booth."'

Anyone who thinks like this should have to spend a month working in an all-night photo booth with the low pay, lack of NASA's employee benefits, threat of robberies, police visits, and dismissive attitudes from other people about the worth of the job.

The Martian is getting on my nerves, and I'm only 15% of the way through the ebook. I might not make it to the end before the loan automatically returns.

(ETA later: Although, some passage are amusing. Weir did an excellent job on scene transitions.)

I've started reading Carrie Vaughn's Martians Abroad. The teenager Polly's grumbling isn't offensive toward readers who don't have the characters' privileges, and she does more interesting things in her downtime than overdose on coffee like an ignoramus.

Hey. I'm changing how I record books here to track a little less. While trying to deal with issues I'm not able to deal with as well as desired, I've been bouncing through book openings (or first halves) looking for stories and poems that can get my mind off how disappointed I am in the world and grievous I am about my life, which, certainly could be worse, even as I know that talking about it risks damaging the listener's mental health....

Books can't provide comfort for every hurt. And some comfort books aren't open for any kind of discussion.

>7 aspirit: May overview-in-progress.

>59 aspirit: I wish you well and peace. There are some hurts that nothing can provide comfort for....not even time.

>60 Carol420: True. And, thank you for your kind wish.

>61 aspirit: You are so much more than welcome.

Happy LGBTQ+ Pride Month!

I celebrated the start of the month by going out to a public library for the first time in more than a year.

Okay, so, may I ramble for a bit? Or a long while?

Ready?

My area's libraries have been open through most of the past year, even as staff have tested positive for COVID-19. Their pandemic responses have been infuriating enough that I'd considered never going to the libraries again, but I had to go. In a moment of spontaneous optimism, I'd promised my child I'd borrow physical items for her after my vaccination. New daily COVID-19 cases are about as low as they'll likely drop all year. This seemed like a good time.

It was like my first time, years ago, except for my cloth mask. The library staff has changed over to strangers. The new workers, sadly, aren't any more competent. They did, however, these accept my gentle guidance on how to use their computer system, locate items, and remember which steps they'd already followed to complete checkout.

(I'd mistakely thought putting everything-- a few items that were showing available at that library-- on hold over the weekend would reduce stress for all of us. Oops.)

After the initial disorientation from discovering collections had been reorganized to leave several bookcases entirely empty, I determined there was nonthing for myself to read this time*. Most of our loans used to come from a farther library that was for a while designated "safe space", so the disappointing selection wasn't a surprise.

The good news is the youngest reader in my house is happy for what I managed to bring home.

More good news is that I currently have discretionary household funds. When I returned home from the library, I went online to buy new books that aren't in my public library system. (We have no dedicated bookstore in this county nor the surrounding counties, so others are always online.)

The sad part of the purchase is that as much as I'd like to donate books to the library so more than my family will see them, I think there's significance in the disappearance of all* the new library books that featured queer themes or POC.

About two years before the coronavirus pandemic started, the regional library system, a partnership between a few counties' libraries, replaced a(n extremely bigoted) purchaser who preferred empty shelves (to anything that might upset the White supremacists in charge of our municipal governments, according to rumors). The new purchaser was anti-censorship. The librarians for a while noted which scientific and technological topics my child brought up in conversation, and books in those topics started to appear. There were also suddenly the faces of POV and rainbow flags on the cover of children's picture books. Black and/or queer characters in YA and adults didn't all die within their stories about having miserable existence, and there were more than a handful of these characters in total. Asian-Americans were represented. We were even seeing books in Spanish, showing Hispanic characters doing everyday things beyond being poor, enslaved, and grateful to their oppressors (a big deal with the migrant worker population we have in my county). While not all of my recommendations were appreciated or purchased, they were accepted without deragotary remarks or any threats.

When the pandemic hit, I was worried we would lose all that progress. Guess what? We didn't. Not all of it. Not unless some books have been put into hiding.* (I've witnessed that form of censorship occur in two different library systems.)

I've checked this system's catalog. The liberal-leaning library that's the primary purchaser's base kept their books from 2018 and 2019. Unfortunately, the library in my extremely conservative city didn't. All of the books that didn't match the pre-2018 collections are gone.* It's not that they're out on loan or now in the other library we'd frequent. Those books are no longer in the regional system. And there's not anything to do about it for now.

There's more good news, though: Somebody behind a desk in the statewide ebook system is focused on diversity this year. I don't have to buy everything my family wants to read.

(ETA:) * Note: I made assumptions that I thought to check after posting here. The books that used to be offered at the closest library are gone; that holds true. What needs more research is how over 50 LGBT books were added during the pandemic. The library removed all the young children's books, moved the graphic novels out of sight, and added adult books... including nonfiction and erotica! Nothing I've found in the catalog is currently checked out. I didn't see any of the "Available" books. Are they shelved as labeled, and I missed them all? What about the two nonfiction African American books that I should have seen when studying the New Books section; were those invisible to me? Now I want to hunt for treasure at the library.

>63 aspirit: Happy LGBTQ+ Pride Month to you also. How frustrated you must be after making an effort to go to your library and finding it had been taken over by "little green people from Mars". I admire you for your efforts to "help" them out. Sounds like they needed some intense training or at least some training of some type. You were kind enough to not name the library, the county or the state but there must be a board of some type that could possibly be interested in investigating the "case of the missing library books". This borders on...if not diffidently downright discrimination. My two friends that I have mentioned before (the ones that bring me books) are on and head several committees that advise our two local libraries of books not only for LGBTQ but African American as well as Asian American interest. Good about your statewide ebook person. I use Hoopla and Midwest Collaborative Library Services for on line ebooks and have found that Hoopla has, and is willing to get, more of the books featuring LGBTQ characters and authors than Midwest is. Same for other "minorities". On a side note: I don't know if you are member of Goodreads...but if you aren't you might be interested to know that yesterday a notice went up asking people to post books and authors that were written by LGBTQ authors or that features gay characters. There were a lot of posts as of this morning. The only thing I disliked about it was that it's a little difficult to find. My two guys made a huge list but haven't posted them yet. I think they are trying to narrow it down so it doesn't fry the system:)

>64 Carol420: Thanks.

It's not really a kindness to not name the place. I'm scared of the people here. Introductions and reunions when I moved here went worse than I'd imagined, and I quickly found out how closely tied to the people in power locally are to those in power in the state and federal capitols. Meanwhile, all my broken connections to people outside my household continue to fray.

I'm the admin for the Queery group here on LT, which is one reason I'm always looking for LGBTQ book lists. Goodreads is an awkward place to look because of the consistent hostility of a few prominent members that occasionally riles others into attacks against queer books and authors. But, wow, do I always learn more about what exists. Some works that are popular on Goodreads don't exist on LT until I enter them. (You know how that is. 😊)

I'll watch for your friends' list over there. Do you have a link to GR's post, by any chance?

>65 aspirit: I will have to post it. They are currently trying to decide if they want to divide it by authors or just run a list. Conner...the defense attorney, wants authors and probably in alphabetical order or sorted by year they published... my "everything in it's place and a place for everything" sweetie:) Luke...the CPA... just says "make the damn list, Nobody cares." To which Conner politely replies..."Well sweetheart...guess what? I care!". Maybe before the month is over I will have it:) If it doesn't come in time to go on Goodreads I will see that you get it anyway. I joined Goodreads first when Amazon posted the "pink banner of doom" saying they were closing Shelfari and keeping Goodreads. I joined mainly because a lot of my friends were going there. Then LibrayThing said they would take everyone from Shelfari free of charge...so of course everyone migrated immediately. I have found that LibraryThing is soooo much easier to use and the administration staff is above and beyond helpful when help is needed. I post to Goodreads and take part in the yearly challenge. Since I read so many books a year that is a pretty easy challenge. I completely understand your concerns about the politics. So Sorry. This should NEVER be an issue in the United States of America!!!

>66 Carol420: Haha, I understand Conner's desire to have the list ordered first. Usually, whether on GR or LT, I add the books to shared lists in the List areas before I forget, then I get around to reordering my list later. I know other list makers want the data for their own projects. But on forums that I know are read by a large number of people looking for maybe the one book they'll read that season? I'm just as likely to give up on trying to post, because figuring out the best order feels both important and impossible.

It's also funny that a CPA doesn't think the order of something matters.

Regarding politics, it's always mattered. I came out as queer late into adulthood because it was obviously not safe in the first several places I lived to not be heterosexual or to acknowledge that the gender assigned at birth was wrong.

LGBT panic defense laws that allow someone to excuse their violence or even killing of another person for being attracted to them are still active in most of the USA. A stranger can say that they were so distressed by what they considered a sexual advance by me, a transgender person, that they had to kill me to defend themselves from moral perversion, and the court can agree that my murder was self-defense! I can have my child taken away by a judge who believes that my very existence is a generally danger to children if I ever end up in court, even for trying to match my legal documents to my actual gender, which requires legal interrogation where I live. And what employers, schools, and medical professionals are allowed to do... ugh.

The right for same-sex/-gender couples to marry isn't as supported as I think many allies believe, either. POTUS 45 removed protections with little fuss from the media (which, yeah, he'd surpressed) and enough of our current Congress and Supreme Court are openly homophobic that all civil protections are at risk. Existing marriages, parental rights, employments, etc. could be made illegal within a few years if the next elections don't go well. Acts attributed to homosexuality or being transgender could (likely will, considering the trends) continue to be made illegal. The belief that the USA is beyond the fight for LGBTQ+ civil rights is, sadly, not based on the whole of reality.

...and I'm venting toward you because the risks of protesting in ways people in my city can see are too much for me I'm sorry this is an awkward response. You probably know all this already, so it's just easier.

>67 aspirit: Please vent all you want. I spent 25 years watching these two wonderful, lovable, sweet, men fight first of all to just dare say that they loved one another and then fight and actually have to move to another state to marry and you wouldn't believe what they went through to have a child. You would have thought the lawyers and the judge thought they were going to boil the baby alive and eat it for dinner. Luke was fired from his first job because a co-worker saw him and Conner in a gay bar with some friends. Conner's question was what was the supposed straight co-worker doing there to start with? Not that straight people can't or shouldn't go...they just shouldn't judge if they do. I regress...but it angers me when people have nothing better to do than find fault with those that don't agree with their views...rather it's religion, politics, or sexual orientation. I fully understand your fears and I am so sorry that you have to endure that in this "free" country. I do have some of the list...they are still working through their room of books. I will warn you that the list is 4 pages long. I settled the alphabetical order question by typing the list and putting it in alphabetical order. Goodreads won' t let me post anything that long so I just made some suggestions there from the books that Conner and Luke have loaned (???) me. Ha! can you say they're loaned if they're never going to get them back?:). Let me know if you want the entire 4 pages that I have now or a page now and another later on. I figured you would maybe sort them before posting on your group site as you may already have some of them. I'll send them to you as an IM whenever you are ready.

Okay.

Hi!

I've been meaning to post comparisons between books and about why I probably won't go into my current public library again. (Never again during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Not after.) But instead of those writings, I'm posting an in-Talk review of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo, translated by Cathy Hirano.

Tags: library borrow, ebook, overdrive, dnf, nonfiction

Rating: ☆

Review: The first 20% of the book was overly repetitive. The next 50% was overly irritating. I skimmed the remaining 50% and had to remember that throwing my ereader across the room would do no good.

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up might be useful for "ordinary" (Kondo's words) people who are solidly middle to middle-upper class; rarely reread or reuse anything other than apparel and furniture; and don't usually care about recycling, repurposing, or rehoming goods to people in need. I found myself answering "Do you ever...?" with the affirmative while Kondo says "no one" does; I stopped trusting her opinions.

Example: Kondo asserts that no one ever reads the books in their unread pile. "So get rid of all those unread books." (WTF, lady?!) She implies, as she does with every type of item she addresses, that readers of her book can go out and get whatever they want whenever they want to. (She obviously never associates with poor people.) And, apparently, she usually throws books away! With no concern at all about whether or not those books might "spark joy" for others near her. Or you know, for the global trash crisis, which I know many Japanese governments are concerned about. (We lived in different worlds....)

I kind of dislike the author based on what I've read in this book. And this was after I convinced myself that what was going around on social media back when she was trending was a misrepresentation of the KonMari method. Nooope. The naysayers weren't exaggerating.

As a side note-- The subheaders "Storage experts are hoarders" might be the fault of the translator, but everyone responsible for that line is a douche. Those two groups of people aren't the same. I've met actual hoarders and seen two in their homes. They were both, despite existing on opposite sides of the continent, women in highly dangerous living situations because of mental illness, unable to get decent healthcare because of social stigma. What they weren't was well-off people able to keep items nicely tucked away for later use. For fucksake. The word "hoarding" shouldn't ever be a part of a for-profit marketing campaign. Ever.

I guess the book is supposed to be inspirational, but no, it's made me more wary of the author and the household cleanup method she named after herself.

As a final thought (if I'm lucky), the translator, if not the original author, have different concepts of what "tidying up" means. Kondo appears to contradict herself when using the word, so she does, too, if the translation is accurate.

>69 aspirit: Yikes! This pushes so many of my buttons as well! For some reason, I've been thinking about my long-gone great-uncle this past week. He was a hoarder who lived in terrible conditions. I wished we could have helped him, but we had no concept of hoarding as a mental illness. By the end, his house had neither running water nor electricity - the council had stopped those because it was earmarked for demolition. He stayed on regardless, collected rainwater to wash in and everyday, my grandmother made him a big flask of coffee to drink. Clearing out the house after he went to a care home was awful.

I've read your posts about the area you live in and your library, and I'm so sorry you're having to deal with this.

>69 aspirit: I admire your excellent restraint. I hate the woman and I haven't even read her book...and don't think I'll be doing so...at least in this lifetime. If she honestly thinks that no one reads the books in their unread pile...she obviously is not a member of any of the groups here or on Goodreads, that I belong to. I could no more throw a book away than I could flap my arms and fly to the moon. I still have the first book I ever read by myself. It's over 50 years old and the fuzz has long fell off the "Fuzzy Wuzzy Puppy" but I cherish that little book because not only was it the pioneer of my love of the written word... it was a gift from my grandfather. My two guys, Conner and Luke that bring me books, have an entire room that is shelved floor to ceiling with books...some they have yet to read but they are certainly not throwing them out. I hope that it came from your awful library and not from any hard earned efforts on your part. You can take it back and have the pleasure of throwing it in the return box. I agree with >70 Dilara86: in being so very sorry that anyone, or any institution would treat anyone and make them feel like your library has you.

>70 Dilara86: The saddest part is that my library system has been awarded the best in the state. I don't want to believe everywhere else is worse, so I imagine the local libraries are good at promoting themselves to the big city folk, just like how the rural high school I graduated from was able to hide that its student body was overall barely literate so it could get a high rating for merit-based state funding.

At least I sometimes feel safe at home if I don't talk to anyone in the area (with the help of a spouse who runs errands). That's better than most anywhere else I've lived. Acceptance is way too much a stretch, but I would like to feel safe sometimes.

>71 Carol420: Yes, I'm grateful the ebook was a loan! Hitting the "Return" button brought a small dose of relief.

>2 aspirit: Bingo! Again. Sixteen across.

I had forgotten about the card for a while.

My homeschooled student's new school year has begun! I've discovered that our state has a separate ebook library for her age group. The loan system is easy to use, so we're incorporating the loans into lessons and reading through multiple books every day.

This means I have more books to catalog but less time to do it. I'm trying to plan ahead to match up lesson themes with special days and events.

The federal government is now deliverying a child credit monthly. We have also bought physical books and STEM games with it.

Bingo! Three down.

Bingo! Eleven across.

Bingo! Twenty-one across.

My entering and tracking books read is months out of date. I'll be working on catching up this weekend.

>78 aspirit: Wondered if things were okay in your life. Good to hear from you.

>80 Carol420: Okay enough, I guess. Life is stressful for everyone these days.

Last night, I saw a holiday movie, Single All the Way, a new release, that looks as if it decided to ignore the past five years, which made for an awkward juxtaposition with reality. No one in the movie was talking about masks, viral tests, vaccinations, distancing, airflow, recently decreased friends and family members, hospital capacity, fights in stores, supply chain problems, climate change, or politics (while of course indirectly making political statements). Everyone had plenty of money for everything they wanted to do, secure housing, and whatever jobs they wanted to work without fear for their lives if plans fell through.

Watching the movie wasn't a relief from everyday reality but-- it was strange, like witnessing a case study of perfect lives from not long ago. The perfection comes across as irresponsible now.

So, I'm a little bummed that instead of celebrating a gay Hallmark-style movie, I'm thinking about how it's come years late.

That's what life is like anymore.

In good news, my family has housing, digestible food, running water and electricity, an income, savings to get through a month without that income, first aid supplies, a stocked home library, phone and internet access, the most common vaccinations, and each other. We're doing well on basic survival. We can't address certain health issues and have big household issues we don't know how to address, but we're used to getting by mostly on our own.

We're trying to figure out how to celebrate the upcoming change of seasons. I don't yet know what that will look, smell, or sound like.

We are lucky, though. I can think about options.

>81 aspirit: Sounds like your movie was a real let-down or at least a minor disappointment. It's like getting a book that everyone is raving about and discovering that it doesn't do anything for you. My mother loved Hallmark movies. She said she could always count on a 'happily ever after" and when I thought about it, I thought she was right. Everything was always sweetness and light in their movies. Too bad real life doesn't go like that. I'm glad that you and your family are doing well, and things are as good as they can be for you. Things are going okay for my husband and I also. He does his woodwork and I read. We try not to let all the excitement overwhelm us:) He has done so much woodwork...kept some...sold some ...but given most of it away. I truly believe that all the trees left in the world are running and screaming for their lives. My two friends, Conner and Luke are also sticking in there. Luke's little closet office looks a lot smaller now with two years' worth of paperwork crammed into 6 months' worth of closet. Conner only works 2 days a week in his office at the courthouse and the rest from home if he doesn't have a case. The "Up-side" is that he now has more time to buy me books:) Somehow, he just can't see that being a bonus. He says he needs to stay close to Luke. When he said that I though "how sweet". Turns out there was nothing romantic about it. He says he needs to be close in case all the papers on Luke's desk and shelf fall over and bury him alive:) They're planning to go visit their son in January. Seems Lucus has a new girlfriend. They're both a little apprehensive about meeting her as this is the first girl, he's actually wanted them to meet. It was good to hear from you. Take care and be safe.

>81 aspirit: UPDATE on above post: It's January 2022 and Conner and Luke had a great visit with their son but the said 'girlfriend" they were supposed to meet has bit the dust. I think my two guys are a bit relieved. Hope things are going well for you and yours. haven't seen any post in quiet sometime.

>83 Carol420: Their son and his girlfriend separated, but not by death, I take it? I can't remember when I last saw or heard "bit the dust" referring to anything other than death, but it's hard to believe your friends would be relieved that she's died. But I also have trouble understanding why a couple would travel this month only to meet a new girlfiend. What if the result of that visit was long covid? A hospital visit that put additional pressure on our exhausted medical systems? Or... death?

May everyone continue to be well in that family.

My family is getting by.

We're tentatively planning for a vacation later this year. I'm not especially experienced with multi-day vacations taken for the fun of it, as that's always been like a higher-class privilege when it's not actually a workcation partially covered by an organizational budget, and I'm not entirely sure how to ensure there's more good than bad in a personal trip. We have limitations that few other families have. The place we've promised to take our child is not allowing changes or cancellations unless the buyer pays a hefty fee, which makes accurate guesses about what will be happening with weather, pandemic, and politics more valuable if we decide to take that risk.

I also don't like how I have to plan for her to go on this trip that she's been waiting for these past two years but without me in case my health degrades any more.

After watching part of a telehealth appointment I had to drive to another state to attempt to complete, she had nightmares about my death when no one in the dream who had the power to help in a medical crisis would actually help. And it's... not an unrealistic dream.

I'm frustrated with everything in the larger world, currently.

Except for our weather. We were dealing with extreme heat and what are typically summertime storms a few weeks ago. Nature attempted to adjust. Other areas are struggling with unusual amounts of snow and ice. Not here. We have lovely wintertime weather now.

In other news, I'm watching efforts to ban books and track (with the intent to punish) American families for accessing the books that don't meet some disturbingly tight and extremely bigoted standards. My state's latest attacks are against public schools. We homeschool, but we rely on a state-owned ebook system that's meant to supplement school libraries.

If state censorship continues to succeed, it will also change public perception of reading, of what should be allowed in bookstores, etc. I grew up in an area where the only books legally accessible are what censors only want to be legally accessible now. The situation is worrisome.

I guess it's also something close to triggering. I'm trying to share less about what anyone in my household reads. That's why I intend to not create a public tracking thread for 2022.

Even what I have written here is making me uncomfortable. I am far too aware that it's public.

>84 aspirit: I am so very sorry that things are this difficult for you. Life shouldn't ever be that hard. It seems that a lot of things that we always looked at as freedoms are being censored...or trying to be censored, these days. Lucas's girlfriend...No, she didn't die. Sorry... I guess I chose the wrong expression. They were only together about two weeks. She did manage to kill any chance she had to get to know Lucas better. She certainly didn't share the same values that Lucas has and seemed to be more interested in hanging out with her friends than in the education that her parents are paying dearly for. I think the biggest obstacle and what drew a halt to the relationship, was that Lucus had learned that she was unapproving about his parents. Sorry, you don't get to choose your parents and Lucas had never encountered any negativity before. He knew how hard they fought for the right for him even to be born. Luke and Conner didn't go to just meet the girlfriend...she became an add on to their planned visited with Lucus, and if she was important to him, they wanted to meet her. Their concern was what Lucas had already shared with them about her values and how he was feeling that the attraction was misplaced. Oh well, he's young and there will hopefully be someone that deserves him.