( Covers - Image Heavy. Click on the pictures to go to the book's Goodreads page.Collapse )

Click on the month headings to see my musings/book discussion. Feel free to join in here or on the monthly post for any book.

( January 2016 - November 2016Collapse )

December (I am writing this up in March 2017, so these books are a bit fuzzy, unfortunately.)
91. As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes - The Princess Bride is one of my favorite movies, so of course I loved reading Cary's memoir of the filming.  He was also able to get most of the cast to participate, so it felt more like a cast memoir, in a way.
92. Loosed Upon the World: The Saga Anthology of Climate Fiction edited by John Joseph Adams - This was a pretty long anthology, but there were a lot of new-to-me authors that I noted to remind myself to check them out further.  If you want the author list, let me know and I'll see if I can dig up the paper where I wrote them down.  From what I recall, the sttorie tended to fall into three camps: the world is on the verge of sucking, the world officially sucks but is not too bad yet, and Defcon Suckage - Everyone is Screwed.  Needless to say, I wasn't really a fan of Defcon Suckage.  I often find dystopian tales far too bleak.  My favorite "genre" if you will was corporate climate fiction.  XD  Yes, that is a thing.  One of my faves was about a company that harvested icebergs.  But one of my favorite stories wasn't corporate-related but weather related...bad storms would pick up drugs somehow[Spoiler (click to open)]and if you got caught out in them, you could OD.I think that one was by Tobias Bucknell, but don't quote me on that.
93. Singletasking: Get More Done One Thing at a Time by Devora Zack - One of my goals for work (we have to do yearly goals for our performance reviews/raises) was to read/listen to a book in our online business library.  I waited until the last minute, so I picked this short audiobook.  I am rotten at paying attention when it comes to audiobooks, but the basic gist is that our brain is not suited to multitasking.


Goodreads said that I finished 94 books, but that doesn't match up with my LJ total.  I don't feel like troubleshooting again--I accidentally counted A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet twice and it took forever to find that one, so we'll say I read 90+ books this year, which almost doubled my Goodreads 2016 goal of 50 books.  I set 50 books as my goal again on Goodreads for 2017, but I think I won't be reading as many books this year due to my late start.

Favorite Book (5 stars): There are 18 that I rated with 5 stars on Goodreads in 2016, and I can't pick a favorite, so I'll stick them all behind a cut. These are not in any sort of order - it's just the order GR sorted them.
( These are a few of my favorite things....Collapse )

Least Favorite (1 or 2 stars): The High Mountains of Portugal by Yann Martel (historical fiction, magical realism, cultural: Portugal)
I rated 14 books with 2 stars in 2016 on Goodreads, but I can definitively say that Martel's book was the worst of the bunch. XD

I think I like Metallica's version a little better, but it probably wouldn't exist without Thin Lizzy's version, and Thin Lizzy are Irish, so.....



Traditional version by The Dubliners


If you are jonesing for some more Irish music, I have a little in my IRELAND tag.

( Rest of the covers...Collapse )

Thoughts about the books, if I had any, are located at the linked month headings.  Click on the book covers if you want a proper summary/book blurb.

( Read more...Collapse )

This is the largest amount of books that I've read in quite a while. I have a feeling I won't read this many next year, but I plan to try to read more widely again.

My yoga teacher shared this today - I thought it was worth repeating.

“Let someone love you just the way you are – as flawed as you might be, as unattractive as you sometimes feel, and as unaccomplished as you think you are. To believe that you must hide all the parts of you that are broken, out of fear that someone else is incapable of loving what is less than perfect, is to believe that sunlight is incapable of entering a broken window and illuminating a dark room.”
― Marc Hack

Other than 311 (the sweatiest show I've ever been to) and the failed JLC show, I only saw a few roller-derby related acts (don't ask me any band names), Dochas, Danu and Altan.

This is pretty good show...Star & Micey are the group, Jack Oblivion is the guy with the hat. I used to have some WEVL shirts, but they were "liberated" from me. :-P



You might be surprised to know that Memphis has a pretty healthy garage rock scene. Star & Micey kinda go forth between that and maybe a bit of country-western tinged folk.

Also, Harlan T. Bobo is pretty good...I have two of his albums, well one full album, one album's liner notes. ;-P I was bad about leaving stuff in that time period, that's for sure.



If you are interested in listening to WEVL, they have a live-stream here: http://wevl.org/

I was amused by the Hawaiian slack guitar show they had when I lived there - not sure if they have that show any more. I mean how much material could there be....maybe there is several years' worth, no idea.

"If you start with a bang, you won't end with a whimper."
-- T.S. Eliot


Not sure I believe this, but hey, it was on my book-related calendar today, so what the hell.

Also, have some music, albeit possibly cheesy.  I've been going to a weekly yoga class lately, and it has been a Good Decision.

ikel89 will be pleased, perhaps, that I took some photos that the camera I have access to can actually handle.  No low-light/night shenanigans here, just a lotta zooming in -- a bit not-quite macro-style.  Part of this is on Facebook, but I posted a more complete set here.

And until I get a job (which has not been overly successful so far), this will have to serve as an interim thank you for alenky_cveto4ek.


( If you weren't aware: for me, Nature is GodCollapse )

Alright, need an ego boost.  I am 5'10"...it kinda sucks sometimes?  Sometimes I think life woud be a little easier in certain arenas (actually quite a few that are fairly important) if I were a bit shorter or at least closer to the average female height where I live?  (Don't get me wrong, there are many advantages to being tall, no question.)  I dunno, can't change my height and I know this, but still...it can be exhausting dealing with assumptions and having to be a bit of an acrobat.  I just wanna be myself, you know?  Ingrained gender roles/expectations...bah! I don't run around in skirts/dresses and hot pants/short shorts that often...and I don't think I should have to? I mean, it is tough finding shit that fits! And even when I do, I tend to just get gawks...and that's it? I mean, do I need to learn how to do cartwheels or what? Change my personality? (sorry, won't be.) Am I Skeletor to people? Super intimidating since I am sort of quiet IRL?  I don't know. Do I have to hold people's hands and treat them like they are a bit...? Sheltered?  Have never seen a tall woman before?  A unicorn?  In the grand scheme of things, I am actually not super tall, just above average heightwise (which is a bit of a nebulous area between "regular" sizes and "tall" oftentimes for me...but that is another rant).  There is a reason that it is sometimes easier to just wear men's clothes, since most tall women are not size 2s.  I don't think my skeleton would *allow* me to be that phyiscally skinny.  I was wearing US size 8s and 10s as a teen and I was fairly skinny then.

NEED TO MOVE TO SCANDINAVIA!  Or somewhere else where I might actually be "short" or average for once!  XD

Aha, Grace Jones is apparently 5'9"...yes, this is good. Someone tall who wears freakin' pants!

( Read more...Collapse )
Adele is also 5'9"

( Read more...Collapse )
Hey Brigitte Nielsen did some songs..she is 6'1"  (the song is...eh...but the video is at least interesting)

( Read more...Collapse )
Both Beyonce and Katy Perry are 5'7" apparently. Close enough, since popular music is covered in shorter ladies. (But still below average male height in the US, I believe, so I am putting an asterisk!)

( Read more...Collapse )

Uh oh, the ladies in ABBA are apparently "only" 5'8"...might have to carefully choose this moving plan.  ;-D

( Read more...Collapse )

And I will put some songs by guys, but I honestly think most of that is ALL talk NO action. You could do much, MUCH better, guys.  It's kinda telling that the women are alone in these pictures?  Just an object to ogle?  A leg lamp from A Christmas Story?  :-P

( Read more...Collapse )