August 12, 2020 at 11:38 pm (Flowers, Food and Drink, Links, Lists, Movies, Philippine History, Publishers, Recommended, television)
Tags: blogs, history, inspirations, restaurants, The Philippines, war literature, websites
Self’s List of Bookmarks has grown during the pandemic! And keeps growing.
The past week, these:
August 10, 2020 at 3:00 pm (Books, Lists, Places, Surprises, Weather)
Tags: biographies, COVID Reading, humor, Mondays, nonfiction, reading lists, summer
The Lazy B got about ten inches a year, barely enough, and in some years not that.
— p. 9, First: Sandra Day O’Connor
The first female justice on the US Supreme Court grew up on a cattle ranch called the Lazy B in Arizona, and the ranch hands (most from Mexico) named their horses Hysterectomy, Hemorrhoid, Idiot, and in one case, Swastika (in jest, self is sure)
Stay safe, dear blog readers. Stay safe.
July 31, 2020 at 5:54 pm (Food and Drink, Lists, Surprises, Traveling, Wall Street Journal)
Tags: fast food, Fridays, restaurants
Chipotle Triples Its Online Sales (and self has never eaten in Chipotle!)
Las Vegas Sands Revenue Drops by 97%
Whirlpool Benefits from Stay-Home Repairs
Dow Jumps 165, Lifted by Pfizer Shares
Dairy Prices Near Levels Before Slump
July 30, 2020 at 8:32 pm (Artists and Writers, Explorers, Filipino Writers, Links, Lists, Publishers, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: experimental, Literary Magazines, Readings, sadness, summer
Just recently, self heard The Octopus Literary Salon, in Oakland, where she and friends had all variously read, had closed. SAD! It was a mainstay of the local literary community.
Self was just looking through her pile of contributor copies (for stories she’s published in literary magazines) and realized that there are quite a goodly number that do not exist anymore. Like, The Rambler? This magazine of nonfiction appeared in North Carolina, survived a number of years, and took two of self’s flash.
How about Isotope? A place for creative and science writing. Edited by poet Chris Cokinos. In the same issue as poetry and plays, an essay on math (with numbers!) or biology. This one published out of Utah.
Here are self’s list of The Departed (the ones she knows about):
Most of these magazines fell into the experimental and/or social justice arena. They were trying to do something different, and their presence in the literary world was exciting (Face it, if self had to rely solely on the big literary magazines, her career would have been over years ago). They were labors of love (as every literary magazine, big or small, is) and their vision was unique.
Stay safe, dear blog readers. Stay safe.
July 25, 2020 at 2:32 am (Food and Drink, Lists, Salon.com, short story collections, television)
Tags: adaptations, COVID Reading, Fridays, Justified, memories, noir, reading lists, short story, summer, Timothy Olyphant
Reading Elmore Leonard’s Chickasaw Charlie Hoke.
There is a “big redhead” named Vernice, looking “like a strawberry sundae in her La-Z-Boy.”
There is “bourbon over crushed ice.”
There are mentions of “a pit boss at Bally’s,” a waitress at the Isle of Capri coffee shop.
There is an “RV in a trailer park on the outskirts of Tunica, Mississippi.”
Very fun reading Elmore Leonard. It brings back all the FEELZ about Justified, the F/X series that ran for six seasons and had Timothy Olyphant! Timothy Olyphant! Who Salon’s TV reviewer described as “one tall, cool drink of water”!
Stay safe, dear blog readers. Stay safe.
July 24, 2020 at 3:53 am (Conversations, Lists, short story collections)
Tags: COVID Reading, noir, reading lists, summer
Reading Elmore Leonard’s “Sparks.”
There must be gin.
There must be a rich widow who knows how to roll a joint.
There must be a detective of a certain age (and he must be a Jim or a Joe)
There must be dialogue like this:
“But, basically, Joe, we got together the way people usually do, and fell in love.”
“He was a lot older than you.”
“What you’re asking now, did I marry him for his money. Sure, that had a lot to do with it. But I liked him.”
It is summer, it is summer, it is summer. Summer and noir go together like white on rice.
Stay safe, dear blog readers. Stay safe.
July 7, 2020 at 10:49 pm (Books, Lists, Personal Bookshelf, Recommended, Women Writers)
Tags: book lists, Chinese writers, COVID Reading, English writers, favorites, fiction, novel, reading lists, romance, science fiction, summer, The Expanse, translation
New COVID Reading, post-Expanse:
July 7, 2020 at 7:31 am (Books, Lists, Personal Bookshelf, Recommended, short story collections, Women Writers)
Tags: book lists, COVID Reading, English writers, fantasy, nonfiction, novel, reading lists, science fiction, summer
Self had an unbelievable string of great reads, in the spring. Here were the books she read:
After that run, she stumbled on The Expanse, and has so far read four novels in the series (The ninth is supposed to appear either this year or next. Ha!), all of them super-engaging. Highly recommend!
Stay safe, dear blog readers. Stay safe.
July 1, 2020 at 3:12 pm (Books, Lists, Memoirs, Personal Bookshelf, Recommended, television, Women Writers)
Tags: biographies, book lists, COVID Reading, Daphne du Maurier, English writers, favorites, literature of medicine, medicine, memoirs, memories, reading lists, summer, The Expanse, thrillers
Self is still reading Cibola Burn. What can she say? It’s been a busy week. Havelock and Naomi are together (She’s his prisoner; they should hook up). But Holden is still Naomi’s titular boyfriend (though he doesn’t think of her much, not for almost 300 pages)
Self does like Havelock. Which is why, if Naomi were to start developing feelings, self would not mind a bit. Besides which, she loves their conversation while she is Havelock’s prisoner.
Did self say caged? Indeed she did! Naomi is in a cage, and she has to do all her business in that cage, including pee-ing.
Perhaps her affection for Havelock developed from the actor who plays him in the series. (He survives a pole sticking out of his chest! He visits a Belter brothel to learn how to speak Belter! He knew Miller!)
Someone on goodreads has written a thesis in the guise of a review on Cibola Burn, and hundreds of people apparently read it and liked it. So Americans do read! Probably as much as, or more than, POTUS!
This post is about all her favorite reads of Julys past. Herewith:
July 2016: Girl Waits With Gun, by Amy Stewart (Is this ever going to be a movie?)
July 2017: Barbarian Days, by William Finnegan
July 2018: Manderley Forever, by Tatiana de Rosnay
July 2019: Open Heart: A Cardiac Surgeon’s Stories of Life and Death on the Operating Table, by Stephen Westaby
Stay safe, dear blog readers. Stay safe.
June 18, 2020 at 5:30 pm (destinations, Flowers, Links, Lists)
Tags: Cee Neuner, Garden, summer
Love Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge this week. Self loves flowers!
Self took her camera to her garden to try and capture “one single flower.” These are the roses growing in her front yard.
Barbra Streisand Rose
Frida Kahlo Rose
Rabble Rouser Rose
More flowers:
Stay safe, dear blog readers. Stay safe.
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