The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 7-7-24

Posted on July 7, 2024July 5, 2024 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand

As many Reading Reality regulars may already be aware, on Wednesday, July 3, 2024, our beloved Lucifer T. Cat left us to climb the Rainbow Bridge. My post from Wednesday, Bitter to Receive, celebrates a bit of his life with us and pours out the smallest measure of my grief – but I still feel as if I’m on the verge of tears most of the time.

The remaining members of the clowder, Hecate (now eldest as well as grumpiest), George, Luna and Tuna, all circled around and sniffed his carrier after we came home without him, but seem to be settling into their new normal. Their humans are still utterly unsettled.

I’ve been reading ahead a lot these last couple of days, as well as re-reading a whole bunch of comfort reads. It’s one of the ways that I deal with things. Galen’s been playing a good but kind of creepy game, Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden, and now I’m playing it too. It’s a game about dealing with ghosts, and isn’t that a bit on-target right now – at least for this household?

Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Sparkle Time Giveaway Hop
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book PLUS EVENT-WIDE AMAZON/PAYPAL PRIZE in the Early Summer Giveaway Event
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Christmas in July Giveaway Hop
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the SUMMER 2024 Seasons of Books Giveaway Hop

Blog Recap:

Sparkle Time Giveaway Hop
B+ #BookReview: Better Living Through Algorithms by Naomi Kritzer
A- #BookReview: Guard the East Flank by M.L. Buchman
Bitter to Receive
#GuestPost: July 4th 2024
Christmas in July Giveaway Hop
Stacking the Shelves (608)

Coming This Week:

The Mummy of Mayfair by Jeri Westerson (#BookReview)
Penric and the Bandit by Lois McMaster Bujold (#BookReview)
This Great Hemisphere by Mateo Askaripour (#BookReview)
Daughters of Olympus by Hannah M. Lynn (#BookReview)
The Price of Redemption by Shawn Carpenter (#BookReview)

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 6-30-24

Posted on June 30, 2024June 27, 2024 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand

It was a very ‘B’ week, with one notable exception. Ivy, Angelica, Bay by C.L. Polk was exceptional, as was the podcast of St. Valentine, St. Abigail, St. Brigid, the short story that sets it up. Which also led to my discovery of the podcast Levar Burton Reads and now I’m totally hooked.

As you read this, I’m in San Diego for this year’s American Library Association Conference, no doubt adding to the height of my already towering TBR pile. The cats are being taken care of – but we know they still miss us based on how clingy they are when we get back. And we certainly miss them.

But none of us are missing the kitty interloper (kittyloper?) on the outside of the catio screen in this picture – and the number of screen patches has quadrupled since this was taken! Clearly this cat can see that our clowder has a good thing going and he wants to be part of it!

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 6-23-24

Posted on June 23, 2024June 22, 2024 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand> Winner announcement

This week’s books turned out to be good to excellent! And Galen did one of his guest posts and a blog hop started this week so it was a bit of an easy week – also good!

Speaking of good, I’ve been going through this year’s Hugo nominations and picking one nominee per week that I hadn’t already read to read and review. Between Library Journal and Reading Reality it turned out that I’d read a fair number of the novels and novellas during the year, but I don’t read a lot of short fiction unless it’s in a collection – and that usually happens well after the fact. So far, the short stories and novelettes have ranged from OK to great, so I’m just making my final selections more difficult even if they will be better informed!

The above picture is a combination of “if I fits I sits” – writ rather large – and “possession is 9/10ths of the cat”. There are three cat beds on top of my dresser – as shown above. Lucifer has firm possession of the heated bed on the right as he glares at anyone who even thinks about ousting him from it. The middle cushion is only used when Lucifer doesn’t have possession of HIS bed, so he has a comfy place from which to glare at the interloper. That’s Tuna on the left, the biggest cat in the house in the smallest bed. Because he wants to be Lucifer’s buddy and Lucifer is barely tolerant of that fact. And because Tuna seems to enjoy overflowing his sleeping spots – as his other favorite bed is equally under proportioned to his generous purrson.