Really, it’s Wednesday; since Sunday we have been on the same rollercoaster as parents of a newborn, taking shifts, calming noises, cleaning accidents, having fun, bingeing Caesar shows about getting along with dogs.
Not so good pics
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Sinister Magic by Lindsay Buroker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Sorry for a repeat. I finished reading/listening to the Kindle Text-to-Speech edition a week ago. And though I liked it overall, the story was lost to me as the person named Nin was referred to as Nine-Inch-Nails, EVERYTIME! It pulled me out of the story, and I felt very distracted while attempting to read.
It is on Audible! I can’t tell you what a marvelous book it is with a narrator! Vivienne Leheny told Lindsay Buroker’s story with enthusiasm. It felt like a totally different story. Ms. Leheny acted out all the characters, making it easy to differentiate who’s who.
I don’t think I discussed location in my last review. I felt right in the story with the places, including Bend, Oregon, Seattle, Washington, and points between. I felt I was right there in the story. I hope everyone gets the chance to read this series.
I’m not going to bug him. So, no new pics. He’s being quiet right now. Cruchy-Coffee Bean-Snoopy has us on 24 our watch. We’ve all decided on Snoopy, even if he doesn’t quite look like the comic canine. I believe Coffee Bean works better, but I was outvoted.
We are all tired. He’s sweet. But he can bark! Both cats are in hiding. I haven’t seen Sammie since the dog came in. And the barking has him hiding under my bed, not even coming out to eat.
Shiloh is hiding until all the humans get quiet. He came out to play with Snoopy around eleven last night. He has gorgeous green eyes that you can feel staring through you. He came out and played with Snoopy. He ran up and parked on the top of the cat tree. He looked outside for a while, and when I got up to take a picture, he returned to his hiding place. So, sorry, there are still no pics of him.
Snoopy’s problem is humans. He comes from a single-mom family with a bunch of kids. No men. Here, four adults who live moving about the house cause barking. He doesn’t recognize us if we go into the bedroom or bathroom and come back out. This happens all night, all day. When we talk to him, he realizes we are good but forgets shortly after we move about in our house.
He pulls while walking in our yard. My knee has been yelling at me, so I do the Ceasar thing and stop when he pulls so I don’t injure myself further. Chris has to do that, too, as his stability can go awry. Mostly, Snoopy wants to run us all over the yard. The younger guys of the house will have to help him with that.
He’s so cute, though. When he gets too hyper, he grabs his blue bunny rabbit, which is bigger than him. He gives it some shakes, then cozies up and will fall asleep with it. Again, sorry, no pics with puppers and bun-bun.
Crunchie, whose name needs a change in this place where he’s prey size, is slowly settling in.
Every time one of us leaves and reenters the room he barks a lot. But he reaches full relaxation easily. He has claimed Chris’s chair.
Or a nice place on the floor.
Sammie and newbie, Shiloh, are staying hidden.
All fuzzies and humans except me, are male. Both cats are neutered. But Crunch still needs that. He’s only a year and will be on a leash until we feel he safely knows his boundaries, and has been fixed and completely vaxed.
We are so happy. It was wonderful to see my son. But he’s got a lot to work on at home so we only got a short visit.
Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
What an adventure!
This book takes the apocalyptic point of view from the beginning to the end. Our main character is the daughter of a preacher. She is black, but her skin color is not the point. She is a teenager in a protected community that suddenly isn’t. As a teen, she sees things her way, not like her parents or anyone else. So, it is a story of growing up in social, physical, and psychological chaos.
I have to admit to loving the story. I did get tired of the God Seed of her making against the biblical verses of her father. But it was her experience, so I accepted it as the character’s point of view, not preaching to the reader. This blended with her bringing together a group of people wandering up the California highway and byways while protecting each other and defending their rights to live in this new world.
Though the story leaves the reader in a safe place, not a cliffhanger, I feel the need to read the next and see what happens now that they have settled. My e-library had this one but not the next, so I requested that they get it.
It must be nice for black readers to have stories that reflect them. I’m not black, but I would love to see diversity more often. As much as I love seeing female authors writing strong female characters, let’s see more of the female experience in other races and experiences. Maybe our future generations of people will have books written from all points of view, encouraging the reading experience of all society! I’d love to read more about women who are in their sixties and seventies and older! Let’s ensure everyone sees the world from characters like them!
~~~~
The above review was from six years ago. I decided to read it again because a member of our church used a quote from this book for a service theme.
“All that you touch,
You Change.
All that you Change
Changes you.
The only lasting truth
is Change.
God
is Change.”
Take it how you will. I feel this one now more than ever. And maybe, having lived so long, I see how much everything I knew and know changes minute by minute. Maybe change isn’t the thing to be afraid of. Even when it is all so frightening at times, I think this is the faith to hang onto. When my children were young, and they were going through stages, I might have wanted to take credit when, say, they finally hit the toilet. But I accepted that it may have been just the change they needed. The world keeps spinning. Orbits continue. But never exactly the same. Sometimes, the change is huge, sometimes tiny. Sometimes, we influence it, and often, it influences us.
I stick with my review from the past. But I read it through Audible with the narrator Lynne Thigpen this time. She did add to the depth I feel in the book.
I highly recommend anything by Octavia E. Butler but start here. I think you might like it.
Today on the calendar will be a red-letter special day for us and these special guys. They are on their way. And may make it all the way here or spend the night at a motel if my son gets too tired to drive.
Does anyone see what we see? The more things change…
We still miss our black and white Kali, rat terrier, Rosey, black cat, and Teddy ginger.
Sammie, ginger, will hopefully welcome his new friends soon. I hope they like each other.
Thing is… We’re “baby proofing”. 🤞🤞🤞The new fuzzy kiddos are coming up tomorrow. So we’re busy around here.😀
I’ll try to ‘stream’ the babies in if I can, tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Sammie doesn’t seem very worried.
Pardonable Lies by Jacqueline Winspear
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is my favorite Maisie Dobbs mystery yet. The addition of Orlaugh Cassidy as narrator brought this story to life. Also, the author brought more depth to Maisie Dobbs. Her past resurfaces, and her life is in constant danger.
Ms. Dobbs travels in this book. That’s where a narrator who can speak dialects and other languages comes in. I can’t imagine reading this with Kindle Text-to-Speech. Or even visually, as Orlaugh Cassidy helps you feel like you are watching the movie. The France trips were a great experience.
All the Maisie Dobbs are fun so far. Jacqueline Winspear puts a lot of research into her books to help readers feel they have fallen into that era and place.
Libby had this audiobook to loan. I am so happy to be able to read these books.
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Need a laugh? Here’s a fun book. I didn’t get it at first. When I realized it was supposed to be funny, I grinned for most of the book. It is British humor, my favorite.
I had been reading the Maisie Dobbs series, so I expected a serious mystery or something.
This review isn’t working. Here’s the blurb from GoodReads:
When sensible, sophisticated Flora Poste is orphaned at nineteen, she decides her only choice is to descend upon relatives in deepest Sussex.
At the aptly named Cold Comfort Farm, she meets the doomed Starkadders: cousin Judith, heaving with remorse for unspoken wickedness; Amos, preaching fire and damnation; their sons, lustful Seth and despairing Reuben; child of nature Elfine; and crazed old Aunt Ada Doom, who has kept to her bedroom for the last twenty years.
But Flora loves nothing better than to organize other people. Armed with common sense and a strong will, she resolves to take each of the family in hand. A hilarious and merciless parody of rural melodramas, Cold Comfort Farm (1932) is one of the best-loved comic novels of all time.
I hear there’s a movie. I’ll have to look that up. I picked this edition up from Libby. I think it might have been even better as an audiobook.
*”Instead of having such faith that things will turn out badly, why don’t you try to believe that they will turn out just fine–no matter what we do or don’t do? Do you really think that whoever is up there in heaven cares if we dance and sing and drink crémant?”
“What you are doing is believing, not thinking. It’s a choice. The problem is that you do not believe in something that makes you happy, What’s the point of that?”
Okay, it’s a two-fer! Shoot, let me count again. A six-fer? I found that last quote by Laura Bradbury in *The Grape Series #6, My Grape Escape. Laura and her husband may actually be putting a bid on a house in France. She’s afraid she will jinx it by drinking to it.
I’m going to stick to Laura’s husband, Franck, and state the thing I’ve been afraid to jinx. The good news that my son gave me is that his girlfriend will bring us a dog and cat soon. The previous owners have to move and can’t take the animals. She asked if we wanted them, and without a beat, I said YES! <–That loud, too! And that, the day after, I colored these cuties (a coloring app on my Fire) and put the picture on my front door as a sort of vision board.
So, that’s my secret. I will be happy.
Darswords 
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