Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in. We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.
Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered. We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.
🌼
I asked Dorothy Winsor to share some of her recent book reviews with us for discussion on Medium Cool, a few at a time. If this goes well, we’ll do some more in a couple of weeks. Do you have thoughts on that? Please send me an email message. ~WaterGirl
Dorothy A. Winsor: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Mystery & Thriller
In my experience, people are happier if they’re working on a project. I’ve blogged about this before. By project, I mean some set of actions that people undertake freely. It’s what collectors do, for instance, or quilters, or runners training for a marathon.
When Goodreads published their list of finalists for best book of the year in fifteen categories, I saw a potential project. I decided to read one book from each category. I thought such a project would help me discover some new books and read a little more widely, even in categories such as romance or horror which I usually walk right on by.
Link to my blog post about this project.
WaterGirl asked me to share some of the reviews. Maybe you’ll find something you want to read. You’re also welcome to talk about these books or books of your own choice that you think fit the category. I’m still reading, so I’m going to give you only a few at a time.
The first three categories are Fiction, Historical Fiction, and Mystery and Thriller.
Fiction
Yellowface by R. F. Kuang
Told in first person by a writer who steals a dead writer’s manuscript and publishes it as her own, Yellowface has every bit of horrible behavior you’ve ever seen in writing and publishing. The unreliable narrator is so well done that you start to feel sorry for her, right before she does some other awful thing. It’s like a horror story for writers. I loved it. I’m leading a book club discussion on it in February. We’ll see if the non-writers in the club like it as well.
Historical Fiction
Weyward by Emilia Hart
The story of three women in the Weyward family: Altha in the early 1600s, Violet in the 1940s, and Kate in the contemporary world. All three have a sensitivity to nature that marks them as both healers and witches, categories that slide close together particularly in Altha’s world. Indeed, she’s formally tried for witchcraft. As is common in books with several point of view characters, one gripped me more than the others, that being Kate’s relationship with her abusive husband. Altha was my second favorite, followed by Violet. Eventually, I was drawn in by all of them and found myself eager to learn what happened next with each.
My one quibble with this book is that most of the men are violent and evil. Violet’s brother was an exception, as was Simon, a kind neighbor of Altha. But in general, these women needed to stay away from men if they were to be safe. That seemed to cast a wide generalization about men and the possibility of a relationship that’s close and yet allows women to keep control of their own world.
Mystery and Thriller
The Last Devil to Die
The Last Devil to Die is part of Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series. I love this whole series about old people investigating murders in the retirement community where they live. I think this book is possibly the best since the first one.
Elizabeth, Ron, Joyce, and Ibrahim investigate the murder of an old friend. That’s intriguing. But what I really liked about this book was the further character development that takes place. It’s hard to keep showing new sides of a character in a long-running series, but Osman does a wonderful job here. Joyce looks more bold. Ibrahim reveals a sad part of his past. And Elizabeth suffers a loss.
Additionally, the book is lovely blend of serious and comic.
Yay for old people! Books don’t have to be about the young to speak to a wide audience.
Summary / Discussion
As I look at the three categories I’ve finished, I enjoyed my choices from Fiction and from Mystery & Thriller. I was less satisfied with the Historical Fiction category. I think that when an author chooses a historical era to explore, that choice is often laden with unspoken reasons. The book resonates with a reader if the reasons resonate too.
I move on to the Romance category with some trepidation. I don’t usually read romance. But then, reading more widely is one of the goals of this project. Onward!
You’re welcome to talk about these books or books of your own choice that you think fit the category.
What say you? What kind of review would you give whatever you’re reading?
Baud
And badass jackal.
Alison Rose
I will try to refrain from rambling about how much I loathe the Goodreads Choice Awards. Suffice it to say: I loathe them.
ANYWAY. I absolutely loved Weyward, was a favorite read of last year. I see what you’re saying about the characterization of most of the men, but…OTOH it’s not that far off-base for some of us.
Phylllis
I just finished Doppelganger by Naomi Klein. About her getting confused with the other Naomi (Wolf) and its impact on her.
I don’t read much fiction, but do enjoy a good mystery on occasion. Both Yellowface and the Richard Osman book sound right up my alley.
piratedan
my own favorites in the historical fiction genres are old school entries….
the Flashman series by George MacDonald Fraser – which follows a poltroon, coward, cad and all around lech of a fictional character from Tom Brown’s Schooldays as he fails his way thru the “glory days” of the British Empire and major events that stretch from the 1830’s thru the turn of the century. While the backdrop of sleeping thru one’s life is not for all, the time pieces are incredibly well researched and presented from a “I was there” perspective that erases a great deal of the rose colored glasses approach that many take to history.
It covers history from the Boxer Rebellion back thru the Formation of Germany as a nation state. With a couple of forays into the US as well. Going thru the footnotes and down those rabbit holes is incredibly educational.
WaterGirl
@piratedan:
That’s all one character? He had better be charming!
piratedan
@WaterGirl: in some fashion he is, part of the reason is that as he moves thru history he ends up dealing with powerful people who are just as big villains as he is a small one. So he is tolerable as a narrator. It’s not for everyone but then again, those times and attitudes presented are a different times and society as a whole a reflection of those times.
Almost Retired
I love historical fiction, so I’ll give Weyward a shot. I get that having most of the male characters be violent and boorish can be off-putting, but that’s probably reasonably historically accurate. Much more realistic than the anachronistic non-racist and proto feminist male protagonists in much historical fiction (I’m looking at you Jamie Frasier and Nicollo vander Poele).
Mr. Prosser
I haven’t read all of the Thursday Murder Club tales because it irritated me that Elizabeth (?) is ex-MI5 or some such and still had a friend on active duty who helped out. I was hoping for real amateurs. This is why I am enjoying The Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp by Leonie Swann, a German author living in England. Agnes and her companions live together in her house to save money and have all the common weaknesses age can bring on, frailty, deafness, blindness, wheelchair bound, etc. They take on the case of two homicides. I haven’t finished it but the characters are quite well fleshed out
Alison Rose
@Almost Retired: To be clear, it’s a multi-timeline novel, one of which is set in the present.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Thanks to WG for reminding me this post went up tonight. I had totally forgotten and was watching a confusing Netflix show called “Bodies.” Time travel and the same (?) body found in four different eras.
@Baud: I take pride in my identity as a jackal-American.
@Alison Rose: The Goodreads awards are a popularity contest, that’s true. But I don’t mind taking a look at what’s popular. It doesn’t always wind up being a good fit but then I just stop reading. Weyward is pretty good.
piratedan
@Mr. Prosser: true, but I do enjoy the storytelling Osman has a way of showing even how even “ordinary people” can be extraordinary. Comes from his time on the UK game show Pointless.
Almost Retired
@Alison Rose: Gotcha. But assholes are still with us.
Steeplejack
Can’t comment at length now, but this is very interesting and I hope Dorothy continues the series.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@piratedan: I learned what English history I know from being literature. But Flashman sounds like it might cover some territory Shakespeare missed. I like a less-than-admirable narrator sometimes. Their inner life is amusing.
@Phylllis: I don’t read much non-fiction. I like the satisfaction of plot and character arcs. Fiction is more satisfying than life because of that. But Doppelganger sounds interesting.
MattF
Lately, I’ve been reading and enjoying a bunch of novels by Ursula Vernon (aka T. Kingfisher). The novels tend to be a mashup of a half-dozen different genres— heroic magical fantasy, political drama, romance, horror, mystery… the only genre that’s definitely missing so far is sci-fi. And the novels are very good, she won last year’s Hugo award for best novel with Nettle and Bone. Many of the novels take place in a common sorta-medieval world with magic talking animals, many different gods, and (human) heroes with specific and peculiar talents, like an ability to infuse sourdough starter with needs.
WaterGirl
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I love that your book descriptions are on a whole other level compared to what mine would be.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Almost Retired: I know standards for behavior varied, but I truly think the balance of decent and terrible men is inaccurate in Weyward. And you are not going to draw me into dissing Jamie Frasier! I want to be able to come back here.
@Mr. Prosser: Are old people having some sort of moment in fiction? The Sunset Years sounds like a fun read.
frosty
@piratedan:
He’s a great character! Somehow when he’s in pursuit of all of the above he ends up doing the right thing. Kind of like in the wrong place at the wrong time and he runs away to save his hide and in the process saves the day.
OT: Flashman came up in the comments a couple of years ago and I mentioned I had half a dozen of them that I was contemplating unloading. I got a reply from piratedan and sent them all to him to add to his collection. Glad he’s still enjoying them!
piratedan
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Fraser uses him as a foil to examine various points of time during the heyday of the British Empire, from the involvement with the slave trade from Africa to the US by the Brits to the Opium Wars in China to campaigns in Africa and multiple times in India, the US Civil War, the Gold Rush, etc etc etc… so pretty much the entire Victorian era.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@MattF: I really liked Nettle and Bone. Kingfisher is a prolific and very readable writer.
Alison Rose
@Almost Retired: INDEED.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@WaterGirl: I tend to be chatty. :-)
frosty
@piratedan: Fraser mentions in passing that Flashman won the Medal of Honor from both the Union and Confederate armies. But he never wrote any of his Civil War exploits in a book! Just a mention in passing, dammit!
Anyway
Your project is cool and I’ve been checking out your reviews when you mention them on BJ. Especially the genres that I don’t normally read.
My two recent reads are “Kaiju Preservation Society” which I enjoyed and “The Maid” which I didn’t care for. I see what the author was doing in The Maid but it got too tedious and one-note for me. Re Kaiju I recently saw Godzilla: Minus One and am on a Kaiju kick.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@MattF: Kingfisher did those Paladin books, right? And A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking? And I think she used to write fanfic of some sort. As I say, she’s prolific. I get tired just thinking of it.
She must still find playfulness in writing. I think that’s what saves you from burning out. I loved writing fanfic because it was no-stakes, sociable, and just fun. I could experiment and fail and then laugh and move on. Kingfisher feels like that.
schrodingers_cat
@frosty: Was it you who was telling me about Speedball crowquill nibs?
BTW, I finally have the full set of FaberCastell’s Albrect Durer watercolor pencils. I think I am in love.
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I used to read a lot of fiction. I seem to have completely stopped since the Orange One took office. I need to get back to it!
schrodingers_cat
@Steeplejack: How did your Teams meeting go?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Anyway: I hadn’t heard of “The Maid,” so I just went and read the review. It sounds appealing and has a huge readership. I take it the book didn’t work for you. That happens.
I read Kaiju Preservation for my Science Fiction read for this project. I see there’s a possible move in the works.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@schrodingers_cat: I love your enthusiasm for colored pencils, etc. Maybe you’re not reading fiction because you found something else satisfying that lets you escape The Orange One’s warping of the world.
piratedan
@frosty: I appreciate the POV takes of people like Bismark, Disraeli and Lincoln and Kit Carson. The books cover them as people not as characters but obviously Fraser has done his homework on trying to present them as they are and likely interactions with someone such as himself.
When your stories range from the Crimean War to the Battle of Little Big Horn, you really have a passion for history.
MattF
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Yes, the Paladin novels are by Kingfisher. I found them somewhat uneven, with ups and downs. She certainly is prolific, as you say.
VFX Lurker
I read Terry Pratchett’s 2001 novella The Last Hero, illustrated by Paul Kidby. The geriatric Cohen the Barbarian and his Silver Horde plan to blow up Cori Celesti, the home of the gods. It’s up to the heroic Captain Carrot, the cowardly wizard Rincewind and the inquisitive Leonard of Quirm to stop them.
A funny and moving story about aging, mortality, gods, heroes, legends, and changing norms.
schrodingers_cat
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Thanks. I started coloring when we shutdown for COVID in the March of 2020. I started with what I had on hand, which was basically office supplies. I have slowly added to my supplies over the past 3 1/2 years
That has also lead to me drawing and painting again.
NeenerNeener
@schrodingers_cat:
If you’re on Facebook look for “Jemma Jason”. She’s one of my former co-workers, and she’s spent the last 5 years or so doing art projects using fancy art pens and pencils and documenting how well she liked or didn’t like the results, how colorfast the ink was, etc.
Alison Rose
@Anyway: I was quite underwhelmed by The Maid, and didn’t appreciate the author’s wink-wink-nudge-nudge as far as the MC’s characterization.
arrieve
A couple of people have recommended the Thursday Murder Club and I think that’s up next. I’m reading Prophet Song, the Booker prize winner. It’s about a family in a dystopian Ireland that has gone totalitarian. It’s a gripping read, and terrifyingly plausible, but I will definitely need something lighter.
schrodingers_cat
@NeenerNeener: Is she on YT or Pinterest? I am not on FB.
Is this her?
princess leia
@schrodingers_cat: That is so interesting, as i had the exact opposite response- I have a hard time reading non-fiction. I find epics like the Lord of the Rings propelled me into big tomes like Les Miserables and War and Peace, and I found I liked living in those worlds…
frosty
@schrodingers_cat: Speedball crowquill nibs? No I don’t think it was me. I had a set of Rapidographs many years ago, and some kind of fountain pen with an italic nib, but that was it.
billcinsd
I am reading Pale Horse at Plum Run about the 1st Minnesota at Gettysburg.
I recently finished Nearly Departed in Deadwood by Anne Charles and am just about done with Morgue for Whores by Roy Edroso
dexwood
Nothing to add to the discussion. Just want to say how much I like, have always liked, Medium Cool. Off to help tuck my wife’s 95 year old parents into bed after meds and oxygen adjustments.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@arrieve: Thursday Murder Club would be lighter. I live in an over-55 condo building. TMC felt like someone had been observing me and my neighbors.
Prophet Song sounds challenging, but worth reading.
frosty
@piratedan: Did you ever read Fraser’s memoir from WWII in Burma: Quartered Safe Out Here? It wasn’t safe, BTW.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@billcinsd: My niece’s husband (James Hessler) is a docent at the Gettysburg battlefield. He’s written several books about the battle, that I think are pretty well written.
Kristine
I just started How to Die in Space by Paul M. Sutter PhD. Mostly for research purposes.
The last fiction I read was a lovely novel by Sherwood Smith entitled Tribute. It takes place in a culture analogous to China of several hundred years ago, but there are touches of other East Asian and Southeast Asian cultures. A young peasant girl auditions at a school of music, which is her only shot at anything approaching a decent life. The story explores the world of the school and the language of music; there are some fantasy elements, but they don’t dominate the story. I call it “lush fantasy,” with richly realized cultures and characters. I’m not the world’s greatest fan of fantasy and I loved it.
NeenerNeener
@schrodingers_cat: Yep, that’s her.
On her FB page she goes into the different kinds of pens and/or pencils she’s currently playing with, the paper she’s using, how colorfast the ink turned out to be, and the various stages of the art she’s currently working on.
schrodingers_cat
@NeenerNeener: I like the pen and ink work. Very interesting. Does she blog?
FelonyGovt
I just finished America Fantastica by Tim O’Brien. Kind of a “road trip” novel about a guy who robs a bank and “kidnaps” the young female teller, who decides to go along for the ride. Engaging characters. The novel also tackles the malevolent folks who spin increasingly crazy conspiracy theories in today’s America.
And before that, Zadie Smith’s “The Fraud”, about a woman living in the household of a British writer at the time of Dickens, the celebrity trial of a man claiming to be a long-lost aristocrat, and the horrible legacy of colonialism in Jamaica. Also excellent.
NeenerNeener
@schrodingers_cat:
I’ve only seen her FB posts.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Kristine: I like stories that use some unexpected element–like music– to show the world in a different way.
VFX Lurker
That may have been me during the New Year’s Zoom, where you showed your beautiful use of color in your artworks.
In the 90’s, I drew small-press comics. I used Bristol board, India ink, crow’s quill pen nibs for inking art, and Speedball C-5 nibs for lettering word balloons. Mishaps involved:
I currently use Clip Studio Paint, which has none of the above weaknesses. CSP also has a “lasso-and-fill” tool that I love to use for creating shapes quickly. I use “lasso-and-fill” to get through most of Inktober each year.
zhena gogolia
I’m (slowly) reading The Raj Quartet. ETA: by Paul Scott. It’s very skillfully written. It’s a British perspective, of course, but it’s very hard on the British. I’m just starting the third book out of four.
But I’m always multitasking. Reading Jeanine Basinger and Sam Wasson’s oral history of Hollywood out loud to my husband. It’s fun.
And for work — The Twelve Chairs. Can’t find a translation I like, or I’d recommend it. But the next thing I have to read for work is highly recommendable: House of the Dead by Dostoevsky (Penguin, David McDuff). Everyone should read it.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@FelonyGovt: Is that the same Tim O’Brien who wrote The Things They Carried? Because that’s a great book about Vietnam. I see Fantastica is fiction. I wasn’t sure from the description. Given the craziness around us, it’s hard to know sometimes.
FelonyGovt
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Yes, the same author, also wrote Going After Cacciato. This is his first book in a long time and, he says, will be his last.
ETA I’m definitely a fiction fan, only occasionally read non-fiction, although right now I’m reading Why We Love Baseball. 🙂
Starfish
Thanks. I wanted to read an R. F. Kuang novel, but the length of Babel was intimidating.
Some of the Goodreads reviews are just so mean. I just finished reading Black Cake, and I loved the big themes it was taking on and how it was taking them on. I found some catty GoodReads reviewing making fun of the dialog for being simplistic and the sentences for being short.
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: I read the first two books of the 4 a long time ago. It was not a pleasant read so I didn’t continue. I don’t even remember much of it now.
schrodingers_cat
@VFX Lurker: This has happened to me. I think I may have broken the nib. Do you remember the brand of the Bristol board?
piratedan
@frosty: aye and Mr. American, enjoyed both, he has a style that I enjoy… but understand that he’s not for everyone.
Kristine
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
The way music can alter moods and make people feel certain ways is an important element in the story. Fold that in with an extremely structured society as seen by outsiders struggling to function if not fit in.
As I said, I really liked it and it is not my usual kind of book.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Starfish: Yellowface is very different from Kuang’s other work. Although I guess I shouldn’t generalize since the only one I’ve read is Babel. But Yellowface is contemporary fiction, not fantasy.
Goodreads can be a really nasty place if you happen to become someone’s target or maybe just become too popular. People gang up. And writers can behave badly too. Just recently, a new writer whose book was under contract but not out yet got a bunch of people to leave one-star reviews to another new writer’s book. It was nasty enough that the publisher eventually pulled the contract.
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat: I can tell that most people don’t read the third volume, because it’s in much better shape (from the library) than the first two!
Mary
@Alison Rose: I loved Weyward too. I will definitely read it again.
Miss Bianca
OK, I’m going to do a pisser of a review here.
Maybe I’m just feeling salty because I’ve just spent way too much time reading one of those goddamn books that everyone was throwing bouquets around over a few years back and found it the biggest, most insulting CHEAT of a detective novel I think I’ve ever read – which would be Tana French’s In the Woods.
I should have realized when I read the prologue and found it overwritten and prolix that I was in for an unsatisfying read, but then it seemed to get better – had some humor, had some suspense, had a terrific set-up for the initial mystery, and well-enough written to be compelling, tho’ my eyes were rolling at the amount of sheer suspension of disbelief I had to summon to accept the central premise.
HERE BE SPOILERS, SO CAVEAT LECTOR…
To wit, that a guy who was involved in the mysterious disappearance of two childhood friends, who has conveniently suffered complete amnesia about the events in question – hell, claims to have suffered complete amnesia about *all* his childhood memories – could somehow not only become a police detective without *any* of this background coming out by the simple expediency of *changing his first name*, and THEN to go on to investigate ANOTHER murder in his hometown, which may or may not be tied to the first, and NOT tell his supervisor about his past, etc etc – it just became too much.
And THEN, the author has the goddamn GALL to drag you through 400+ pages with the promise that somehow, you’re going to get some answers about the mysterious disappearance – a far more compelling mystery than the dreary second murder – and keep throwing out hints that there might be something supernatural involved – okay, it’s a police procedural, but it *is* set in Ireland, where some people still unironically believe in fairies – and then…just…plain…
REFUSE TO SOLVE IT. Leave it hanging, with the colossal PITA narrator just saying – after he’s fucked up the second case, after he’s fucked up his relationship with his partner, a way more interesting character, after he’s fucked up the fucking up of the fucking up, just saying, “oh, well, I guess I’m never going to remember what actually happened!”
And that’s it. That’s the end.
I was so goddamn enraged, I almost threw the book into the fire, after wanting first to throw it at the wall and scream at the author, “YOU BITCH!!”
And this piece of tripe won multiple awards, including an Edgar! Christ Almighty! If I had been her editor I don’t know how I would have refrained from fucking *pistol-whipping* her and then saying, “if you don’t know how to SOLVE a mystery, then don’t fucking WRITE it!”
VFX Lurker
In the above case, I think it was one of the cheaper Bristol board pads with tear-out sheets. I don’t remember the brand. I didn’t spend as much money on materials as I should have.
I remember the Ferrari of Bristol board at the time was Strathmore 500. I once paid for expensive Strathmore 500 sheets at a campus art supply store in the mid-90’s, and these did not tear under crow quill pen nibs. I later switched to a brush, though.
Twenty years ago, I bought three different kinds of manga paper from the Kinokuniya bookstore in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles. At least one of them had a surface like steel plate — no nib or mechanical pencil could scar it. It took inking like a champ. It may have been the DELETER brand.
These manga papers were aimed at comics production, however, not art galleries. I used a pH pen to confirm that at least one of the papers had a higher acid content, meaning that the paper would yellow over time. Absolutely magical drawing surfaces, though. If you use them, be sure to scan/photograph them, or store them away from sunlight. They’re wonderful, but they are not archival-quality.
zhena gogolia
@Miss Bianca: Sounds good! //
billcinsd
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Looks like he has written some about Sickles at Gettysburg which is sort of related to the Plum Run book
MomDoc
Having spent so much time writing, I haven’t been reading much over the past year. But I have signed up for the Goodreads challenge for this year. I have some old books that I haven’t read yet that I am going to take a look at. I also have read several interesting reviews about Yellowface so I think I will add that to the list too.
I hadn’t heard of the Thursday Murder Club Mystery series. It sounds like it’s right up my lane. i will check it out!
Asparagus Aspersions
I just finished Yellowface, and I couldn’t put it down. It was incredibly discomfiting, and at times the fact that I felt any sympathy at all for the narrator made me squirm. I loved it.
Currently reading Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty . I read another book by the same author, Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland, and really enjoyed it.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Miss Bianca: Love this review. People so seldom can tell you why they hate a book this hard. Having said that, I confess I read this book several years ago and don’t remember having a strong reaction to it at all. Maybe I have amnesia. :-)
@Asparagus Aspersions: I will reconsider my disbelief in the afterlife if I can be assured the Sacklers will burn in hell forever.
Chris
In the historical fiction department, discovered Sharpe about a year and a half ago. Have now watched the entire TV show (minus the two India episodes that weren’t on YouTube), and read a variety of the books, all out of order, whenever I could find one in used bookstores or libraries. Thoroughly enjoyed that one, found it easier to get into than its naval counterparts Hornblower and Aubrey/Maturin.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Chris: Plus, Sean Bean.
Miss Bianca
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I am afraid this may end up as one of those dreaded one-star reviews on Goodreads. :)
I think the biggest reason I felt so mad was because it was written *just well enough* to keep me going through the Multiple Idiot plot, only to feel not just let down, but actually *dropped* from the top of a literary 40-story building, with the author and narrator waving at me and jeering, “so long, sucker!”
And I missed going to see Wonka because I wanted to finish the damn book! *Pout*
(Sad to say, I hated Yellowface too. For different reasons. Which I *won’t* go into here. There’s only so much salt’n’bile all y’all need in your critical diets!)
Mr. Prosser
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Leonie Swann writes in German, Sunset came out in 2020 but was only translated and published in 2023. So Far I’m enjoying it.