The kittibois have continued to reign in cuteness for another week. This picture is utterly adorable, even though it’s a back view. You can just see the love in that snuggle. (Reminder: objects in photo are proportioned different than they appear. George is actually bigger than Tuna, but all George’s size is in his length, and all of Tuna’s is in his width.)
This week’s books were all good or better. Returning to issues of relative size, especially in comparison to earlier in the year, this week’s Stacking the Shelves is positively ginormous. Check it out and see for yourself!
This was certainly an excellent reading week, with A+ books to kick off and close out the week. I adored The Silverblood Promise, and it’s the first thing that gave me real readalike feels for In the Shadow of Lightning. Now I’m stuck waiting for book two in BOTH series. That’s ARRGGGHHHH but it’s a good ARRGGGHHHH. Symbiote just plain gave me the chills, not just for the setting but for the whole entire story. I think I’m glad the author left the door open for a second book, because I want to read what happens next while at the same time I don’t want to know what happens next because I expect it to make the Alienmovies look like the proverbial ‘Sunday School picnic’ in comparison.
I needed a cuddle after Symbiote – and you might too so consider that a warning – so this week’s (not just) cats picture is of ALL my boys cuddled close, with a blissful Tuna head-washing a rather sleepy George in the shelter of Galen’s slippered feet.
This week was weird. We got iced in for Tuesday and Wednesday, trapped by “bridge may freeze before roadway” on all sides. Atlanta kind of shut down Tuesday afternoon and stayed that way until Thursday morning. It didn’t snow, much, but it stayed below freezing, and what we got melted just enough to create black ice conditions. Those are fun. NOT. And it made for a strange week.
Things being what they were/are, and not just about the weather, I realized I needed some comfort reads – and probably will for quite some time. But I’ve been looking for some new comfort reads and that search hasn’t gone so well either. It might be me. It’s probably me. But it tasks me quite a bit because I’m really looking for stories to take me far, far away for a bit and that’s not going nearly as well as I’d hoped.
I’d say that this picture represents Tuna and George not worrying about much of anything – but strictly speaking that’s not true as they both get very concerned about things, and it was so cold here that none of the cats were using the catio for a couple of days even though they have their own fur coats to keep them warm.
So the above picture shows them cuddling together for warmth or comfort or a bit of both. What makes it so very much them is that they are both vying for the positions of “big spoon, little spoon” but they are each as big as the other and that part isn’t quite working for either of them!
This was an excellent reading week! Well, it was from my end of things. However, the end of the week went whack in an unexpected and unfortunate way. I was expecting Friday’s post to be The Serpent Under by Bonnie MacBird for a blog tour from Random Things Tours – and clearly it wasn’t. The tour organizer for Random Things Tours is in hospital and may not be well for a while. I wish her all the best and hope for a speedy recovery. In the meantime, I’m holding onto that review (I really liked the book!) until I hear from her.
Second note, on this coming week’s schedule I have The Baby Dragon Cafe, because I honestly can’t resist the thing. That cover is just adorable and I’m expecting the same from the book inside. I debated whether to review it now or later, because it’s being published both, well, now AND later. The ebook is already out – and it’s only $2.99! The paperback, however, won’t be out until July 1. I have no idea what’s up with that but if, after reading my review you can’t resist, you can get it immediately and dive right in. Or perhaps that should be FLY right in. We’ll see.
Because Hecate has been the featured kitty three out of the past four weeks, I decided it was time to let the boys have their place in the spotlight this week. And so we have this gorgeous picture of Tuna and George, not just together but actually touching and not pretending that the other cat isn’t really the other cat. Although they look a bit disgruntled about it in the picture, they’ve actually become buddies over the last couple of months! Even if they don’t look all that happy about it!
December is officially, or at least officially-ish, half over. Not that December 31st really counts as December since everyone spends the whole day thinking about that last second when the year ends. I mean, we count down to it like its a rocket liftoff and everything!
This coming week is, more or less, the last normal-ish week until after the New Year – or at least as normal as things ever get at Chez Reading Reality.
Today’s cat picture shows a sort of normal that I’ll admit we weren’t expecting to see. The cat outside looks like he’s asking for some child in the house to come out and play with him. The cat inside is George, looking like he wants to go out and play – or at least figure out how the cat on the outside, who resembles him rather a lot, is related to him. Which he probably is. Because we got George in the neighborhood – George is our pandemic baby – we learned that George’s momcat had lots of littles roaming around the neighborhood. We were told she even had one more litter before she finally got trapped, neutered and released. Still, we know George has a LOT of siblings and niblings (collective term for nieces AND nephews just like siblings is the collective term for brothers AND sisters) running around the subdivision and probably nearby as well, so we’re thinking he’s related to George somehow. We’re pretty sure this handsome fellow is a fellow because he has the jowls of a male cat who either was never neutered or was snipped after maturity.
But no, we’re not letting George out to play. He has plenty of people and kitties and things to play with at home!
Another year, another Thanksgiving. Hecate, George, Luna, and Tuna are with us, and for that we are thankful. No joy is unmixed, however; this year we lost Lucifer.
Some readings for today, beginning with “Frederick Douglass” by Robert Hayden:
When it is finally ours, this freedom, this liberty, this beautiful
and terrible thing, needful to man as air,
usable as earth; when it belongs at last to all,
when it is truly instinct, brain matter, diastole, systole,
reflex action; when it is finally won; when it is more
than the gaudy mumbo jumbo of politicians:
this man, this Douglass, this former slave, this Negro
beaten to his knees, exiled, visioning a world
where none is lonely, none hunted, alien,
this man, superb in love and logic, this man
shall be remembered. Oh, not with statues’ rhetoric,
not with legends and poems and wreaths of bronze alone,
but with the lives grown out of his life, the lives
fleshing his dream of the beautiful, needful thing.
It has pleased Almighty God to prolong our national life another year, defending us with His guardian care against unfriendly designs from abroad and vouchsafing to us in His mercy many and signal victories over the enemy, who is of our own household. It has also pleased our Heavenly Father to favor as well our citizens in their homes as our soldiers in their camps and our sailors on the rivers and seas with unusual health. He has largely augmented our free population by emancipation and by immigration, while He has opened to us new sources of wealth and has crowned the labor of our workingmen in every department of industry with abundant rewards. Moreover, He has been pleased to animate and inspire our minds and hearts with fortitude, courage, and resolution sufficient for the great trial of civil war into which we have been brought by our adherence as a nation to the cause of freedom and humanity, and to afford to us reasonable hopes of an ultimate and happy deliverance from all our dangers and afflictions:
Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do hereby appoint and set apart the last Thursday in November next as a day which I desire to be observed by all my fellow-citizens, wherever they may then be, as a day of thanksgiving and praise to Almighty God, the beneficent Creator and Ruler of the Universe. And I do further recommend to my fellow-citizens aforesaid that on that occasion they do reverently humble themselves in the dust and from thence offer up penitent and fervent prayers and supplications to the Great Disposer of Events for a return of the inestimable blessings of peace, union, and harmony throughout the land which it has pleased Him to assign as a dwelling place for ourselves and for our posterity throughout all generations.
Robin Flower’s translation of Pangur Bán:
I and Pangur Bán, my cat,
‘Tis a like task we are at;
Hunting mice is his delight,
Hunting words I sit all night.
Better far than praise of men
‘Tis to sit with book and pen;
Pangur bears me no ill-will,
He, too, plies his simple skill.
‘Tis a merry thing to see
At our tasks how glad are we,
When at home we sit and find
Entertainment to our mind.
Oftentimes a mouse will stray
In the hero Pangur’s way;
Oftentimes my keen thought set
Takes a meaning in its net.
‘Gainst the wall he sets his eye
Full and fierce and sharp and sly;
‘Gainst the wall of knowledge I
All my little wisdom try.
When a mouse darts from its den,
O! how glad is Pangur then;
O! what gladness do I prove
When I solve the doubts I love.
So in peace our task we ply,
Pangur Bán, my cat, and I;
In our arts we find our bliss,
I have mine, and he has his.
Practice every day has made
Pangur perfect in his trade;
I get wisdom day and night,
Turning darkness into light.
First things first, this is the first weekend of the 2024 Ho-Ho-Ho Readathon. Have you signed up and started on your holiday reads, yet? I’m one of the Elves this year, and I’m hosting a Holiday Book Bingo Challenge. I also started on my own personal reads for the Readathon with a Christmas romance, but this week I have a couple of Hanukkah romances – and I’m ever so pleased to see more of those available each year. If you’re looking for books and/or audiobooks to peruse for your own participation, the Under the Mistletoe Collection of short stories and audiobooks have each been just the right size for an Xmas reading stocking and they’ve been terrific so far – I’ve finished three and am thinking about a fourth. (They’re a bit like the reading equivalent of potato chips – you can’t read or listen to just one!) They’re free with Amazon Prime, which is an even better excuse to treat yourself to a bit of light and fluffy reading!
Second, it’s the weekend before Thanksgiving. I don’t know about the rest of you, but the holidays totally snuck up on me this year. We’re going to have a pretty low-key Turkey Day – whether we get an actual turkey boob or not. Yes, I said “turkey boob”. There’s just the two of us. Galen doesn’t like the drumsticks. And there’s just the two of us. The amount of leftovers we’d have if we did a whole turkey for just us two humans doesn’t bear thinking about. Also this clowder of cats does not expect to eat ‘people food’ and we have zero desire to encourage such an expectation. So we just get a turkey breast and call that more than enough – which it generally is. Hence, ‘Turkey Boob’ – which we really need to pick up this weekend!
Then again, we might get a little Honey-Baked Ham. Those are yum, too! (And also not for cats.)
But speaking of cats, and also of this time of the year, today’s cat picture is one I’d like to call the ‘Changing of the Guard’. First, it’s utterly adorable that Tuna and George are cuddling now. But in this particular picture it seems as if Tuna has taken on George’s usual slightly suspicious expression so that he can keep watch, suspiciously of everything of course, while his buddy takes a well deserved nap from his general suspiciousness.
Did you remember to reset your clocks last night? Or, does everything reset itself in your house?
If you are a U.S. citizen, have you voted yet? If not, do you have plans to vote on Tuesday? The right to vote is precious, and like so many other precious things, either you use it or you lose it – one way or another.
Tomorrow’s review will be The Small and the Mighty by Sharon McMahon. I wanted something just a bit more relevant for just before Election Day than I generally worry about and that book turned out to be a gem as well as fitting for the week, as the thing that many of those unsung heroes fought and in some cases even died for was the right to vote.
The rest of the week is mostly comfort reads, because whatever happens on Tuesday – and after – the world will be different. The question is how much and in what ways.
Which leads me to today’s cat picture and a bit of a story to go with it. This is a portrait of something we refer to in this household as the ‘Butts of Bast’. Our current clowder of cats does not snuggle with each other. We’re still shaking our heads about that, as the previous clowder did, very much and all the time. But that group consisted of a family that had been raised together. LaZorra and Erasmus – the momcat and dadcat – were also siblings from the same litter. They had two daughtercats, Sophie and Mellie, who were also their niececats. (Sort of like an Egyptian pharaoh family, just with cats.) The little girls each had their own respective parentcat. Sophie was daddy’s girl and Mellie was mommy’s girl. I’m referring to their actual feline parents – not the humans. The little girls had very little to do with us by their own choice.
It was only when Mellie was the last survivor, 17 years later, that she started to turn to us AT ALL. At first, she’d sleep on the bed but not touch us. Then she’d let us touch her and pet her – A LITTLE – but only if we approached from her rear so that she could pretend it was the ‘hand of Bast’ – the Egyptian cat goddess – petting her and not those dreadful humans.
This picture is of George and Tuna. They play together now, they chase each other, they shake the house a bit as they’re both rather large. But they don’t cuddle with each other and they don’t cuddle with Luna or Hecate. Tuna doesn’t even cuddle with Luna now, and they are also littermates. They all do cuddle with us, just not each other. In this picture, Tuna and George are clearly touching each other – they were napping butt to butt. BUT, when Galen woke them they both focused on him and refused to acknowledge the other cat touching their butt. Hence, the ‘Butts of Bast’.
There are plenty of bookish/bloggy things to make a note of this Sunday, starting with Rough Pages by Lev A.C. Rosen, which was utterly awesome, as has been the whole Evander Mills series, and I can’t say enough wonderful things about the narrator, Vikas Adam. I’m going to be SO disappointed if the series doesn’t continue and if Adam doesn’t continue narrating it.
I don’t have a lot of A+ reviews. I do have a lot of B and higher, because if a book isn’t at least that good I’ll probably DNF and just move on. Life is too short to read books that aren’t working. But A+ are rare – as they should be – because a book has to be just about perfect – or at least perfect for me. This was a VERY good reading week!
One note about bloggy stuff, because I got an email about just this kind of thing earlier this month – and it’ll probably happen again. Most giveaway hops start on a specific day and if that’s not a good day for the site the site can’t participate. Which is completely understandable from all sorts of perspectives. Howsomever, because the Versatileer-sponsored giveaway hops, like the Fall 2024 Seasons of Books Giveaway Hop and the Late Fall Amazon/PayPal Giveaway Event! are open for six weeks or more, the organizer has a five-day window for sites to post. That specifically means that I’m grateful to be able to participate in the Late Fall Event because I can post on October 17 instead of the official start date October 16, which is the day I’m participating in the Silly Pumpkins Giveaway Hop. And that’s not silly at all. But George – see picture below – certainly is!
Here’s George, looking like he’s having a literal meltdown. Or that he’s melting down into the couch. Or both. Last weekend Galen was out of town as part of a several day trip to see his sister and attend a work conference. The cats ALL made me very aware that I am the inferior cat servant and that they missed him every bit as much as I did! George and Tuna often act like bookends on this couch, one cat on each end, and this end is George’s usual spot. But he’s usually up at the top there, checking out his domain. In this shot it looks like he’s melting down into the thing – possibly as prep for pulling it all over his head!
Today is the first day of 2024’s Banned Books Week! So celebrate your freedom to read by reading a banned book to see what the challenge really is all about. Learn what is actually IN the book in question to see for yourself why is made so many people so very uncomfortable – which is what banning is REALLY all about. I could say more, but anything I might come up with has been said better elsewhere, to take just one example, Stephen King’s essay from 1992 titled “The Book-Banners: Adventure in Censorship is Stranger Than Fiction”.
I’m going to change back to our usual run of cat and bookish news, inspired by this picture of George saying, “Make it stop, make it stop right MEOW!”
The schedule for this week is more or less solid, although the order may change as I’ve already finished Graveyard Shift – which was terrific in audio. The recap of last week includes a book (The Daughters’ War) that is certainly going to be on my “Best of the Year” list for this year as well as my Hugo nominations next year. Which I can’t believe I’m already thinking about, but now that it’s really, truly fall, even if the temperature is supposed to hit 90° today, the end of the year feels like it’s coming on fast.
Speaking of fall starting and summer ending, the Summer 2024 Seasons of Books Giveaway Hop ended at midnight. I may, or may not, be awake and functional at that point. If I’m not awake – which I was not – the winner announcement read TBD but it has now been filled in with the name of the actual winner!
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