As I write this…

What I believe are the last of my posts currently on BookLikes are importing to my WP site. Being a nerd has its advantages, and I used wget to scrape my BookLikes site of all my posts. From there I extracted the titles, posts, post dates and tags into a .csv file and used an importer plug-in to import the csv. It soulds straightforward, but it took a lot of hours because of fiddly clean up stuff, and the Festive Tasks posts just about broke my will to live. But it’s done. No images – yet. And they’re all sitting in draft, because who knows how god-awful unreadable they are the moment, but I now have no excuses for boredom should the lockdown continue. Although we’re binge re-watching The West Wing – you know, so I can remind myself what a less dysfunctional America looked like – so that’s a mighty competitor for my time.

Further good news is I should be able to use these files to update my LibraryThing too. whew.

Blogging, books and birds

So I’m slowly getting the hang of this WordPress thing; coming from an html/css background, I still find it cumbersome, but not so much that I’m willing to hand-script all my posts and pages. Old BookLikes friends like Bookstooge have helped me iron out a few kinks; likely there are still a couple dozen left waiting to be figured out. But I’m slowly starting to move reviews over; a few years ago I did a site scrape of my BL site, and I still have all those files. I’m mentally gearing up to write some filtering scripts that will extract the reviews from them and put them in a .csv file, so I can mass upload here. It will be a staggering amount of work to clean them up, but at least I won’t lose them should BookLikes turn itself off.

Luckily, with Melbourne in Stage 4 lockdown, I have time to concentrate on this and other database driven projects. I’ve been slowly uploading all 22k of my photos to SmugMug, a photo site I’ve been a member for for years, but never took the time to really use. I’ve also been creating life lists on iNaturalist; this is the next step from my original plan to just mark how many birds I’ve seen since moving to Australia, something that’s become a much more engrossing hobby than I’d originally anticipated (see below).

I’ve also bought some books lately – for the first time since February. Some of you know MT’s birthday present to me this year was 50 collectible books of my choosing; that, for obvious reasons, has been put on hold, and I’ve not felt it wise to buy regular books either (not to mention the Aussie dollar is worth only slightly more than the used gum on the sidewalk, making everything so much more expensive). My book haul includes:

71 books found

I also got The Bird Way by Jennifer Ackerman, which I’m currently reading, and Smoke Bitten by Patricia Briggs, which I’ve just recently finished. At least two of those new books should be useable for Halloween Book Bingo 2020: The Sun Down Motel, and maybe, depending on the squares I get, The Constant Rabbit and/or Miss Benson’s Beetle. Those are iffy.

As I mentioned above, Melbourne is in stage 4 lockdowns which means we can’t leave the house for anything except essential shopping within a 5k radius of our house, with a curfew imposed after 8pm. But just before we clamped down, it was bright, sunny and warm for a few days and MT and I got out to the parks to do some hiking (with masks). It was 3 good days that will have to last me the next 6 weeks. I didn’t see any new-to-me birds, but I got some personal best shots of a few:

Sorry for the lost post; I’ve only got so much patience for the WP learning curve so I’m packing it all in!

The Mystery of the Hasty Arrow

The Mystery of the Hasty Arrow
by Anna Katherine Green
Rating: ★★★½
Publication Date: January 1, 1917
Pages: 432
Publisher: Dodd, Mead & Company

Anna Katharine Green was noted for her scientific approach to the murder mystery. First published in 1917 The Mystery of the Hasty Arrow breaks more ground with her in-depth study in the psychological interplay between the murderer, the victim and the witnesses. Although more quietly paced, this mystery presents many elements of a current psychological thriller: blind ambition, narcissism, obsession and betrayal.

It’s a long-term goal of mine to read all of Anna Katherine Green’s mysteries and this one has been sitting on my shelves for awhile now.

AKG was, and is, considered a strong mystery writer, but as is true of most every writer, her work is sometimes better than others. This was one of the ones that wasn’t quite so great, though still an enjoyable read. I imagine Green was going for what we’d call today a police procedural, as the murderer isn’t kept a mystery; the reader is made privy to the information the same time Inspector Gryce first voices his suspicions. I’m not a procedural fan, as it contains less puzzle than I prefer. There was also a plot twist that was either poorly hidden, or I’m too jaded, but I called it from the first. Her reveal of it, though, would have knocked my socks off if I hadn’t guessed early on.

Overall, I enjoyed it and look forward to acquiring more of her work.

Content copied over from: http://jenn.booklikes.com/post/2851626/the-mystery-of-the-hasty-arrow.

Consider the Platypus

Consider the Platypus: Evolution through Biology's Most Baffling Beasts
by Maggie Ryan Sandford, Rodica Prato
Rating: ★★★★
Publication Date: August 27, 2019
Pages: 272
Genre: Natural Science
Publisher: Black Dog & Leventhal

Interested in the origins of the species? Consider the Platypus uses pets such as dogs and cats as well as animal outliers like the axolotl and naked mole rat to wittily tackle mind-bending concepts about how evolution, biology, and genetics work.
Consider the Platypus explores the history and features of more than 50 animals to provide insight into our current understanding of evolution. Using Darwin's theory as a springboard, Maggie Ryan Sandford details scientists' initial understanding of the development of creatures and how that has expanded in the wake of genetic sequencing, including the:

• Peppered Moth, which changed color based on the amount of soot in the London air;
• California Two-Spotted Octopus, which has the amazing ability to alter its DNA/RNA not over generations but during its lifetime;
• miniscule tardigrade, which is so hearty it can withstand radiation, lack of water and oxygen, and temperatures as low as -328°F and as high 304 °F;
• and, of course, the platypus, which has so many disparate features, from a duck's bill to venomous spur to mammary patches, that scientists originally thought it was a hoax.

Surprising, witty, and impeccably researched, Sandford describes each animal's significant features and how these have adapted to its environment, such as the zebra finch's beak shape, which was observed by Charles Darwin and is a cornerstone of his Theory of Evolution. With scientifically accurate but charming art by Rodica Prato, Consider the Platypus showcases species as diverse as the sloth, honey bee, cow, brown kiwi, and lungfish, to name a few, to tackle intimidating concepts is a accessible way.

I had this book on my list to buy long before it was published, so when I did buy it a few months ago, I was surprised: I was expecting the book to be about the platypus. Silly me.

It is, instead, a book about the animals that display aspects of evolution in its most baffling forms, or animals through whom are knowledge of evolution and homo sapiens has been advanced. It’s cheekily written, and could almost be used as a supplemental text for introductory classes in high-school, though it’s nowhere near comprehensive enough. Each animal gets between 2-4 pages, with a generous, though not excessive, illustrations.

I learned a bit about just about everything, and learned about a few creatures I’d never really heard of before. Light, enjoyable to read, and something that is easily picked up and digested in small bits.

Content copied over from: http://jenn.booklikes.com/post/2851650/consider-the-platypus.

Urban Aviary: A Modern Guide to City Birds

Urban Aviary: A Modern Guide to City Birds
by Marc Martin, Stephen Moss
Rating: ★★★★½
Publication Date: August 6, 2019
Pages: 160
Genre: Natural Science
Publisher: White Lion Publishing

A unique guide to the unusual and often surprising birds that soar above our cities around the world.

From frigatebirds wheeling over Rio de Janeiro to bowerbirds displaying in the suburbs of Canberra, penguins in Cape Town to pelicans in San Francisco, and huge flocks of starlings roosting around the Colosseum in Rome, the world’s cities are home to a remarkable array of feathered citizens.

Through Stephen Moss’s expert knowledge and insight, Urban Aviary provides a beautiful guide to some of the most extraordinary species of city birds that have become native, including helpful spotting hints and fact boxes for each bird, all of which are brought to life by Marc Martin’s distinctive and beautiful watercolours.

I bought this because it was pretty. The author takes us on a whirlwind tour across the world, highlighting one bird in each major city that has, despite all the odds, thrived. Each gets one page, and the facing page is a watercolour of the bird, done by Marc Martin, and each is astonishingly wonderful in its simplicity and detail.

As a bonus to the eye-candy, I learned quite a bit about a range of birds; even the ones I’d already heard of had facts that were new to me, so it’s a win all around.

Content copied from: http://jenn.booklikes.com/post/2852797/urban-aviary-a-modern-guide-to-city-birds.

Reading Progress Update – 105 out of 255 pages

Format: Paperback

The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think
by Jennifer Ackerman
isbn: 1925713768
Publication Date: May 5, 2020
Pages: 355
Genre: Science
Publisher: Scribe Publishers

'There is the mammal way and there is the bird way.' This is one scientist's pithy distinction between mammal brains and bird brains- two ways to make a highly intelligent mind. But the bird way is much more than a unique pattern of brain wiring, and, lately, scientists have taken a new look at bird behaviours. What they are finding is upending the traditional view of how birds conduct their lives, how they communicate, forage, court, breed, and survive. They're also revealing not only the remarkable intelligence underlying these activities, and disturbing abilities we once considered uniquely our own - deception, manipulation, cheating, kidnapping, and infanticide - but also ingenious communication between species, cooperation, collaboration, altruism, culture, and play.

Drawing on personal observations, the latest science, and her bird-related travel around the world, from the tropical rainforests of eastern Australia and the remote woodlands of northern Japan, to the rolling hills of lower Austria and the islands of Alaska's Kachemak Bay, Ackerman shows there is clearly no single bird way of being. In every respect - in plumage, form, song, flight, lifestyle, niche, and behaviour - birds vary. It's what we love about them. As E.O. Wilson once said, when you have seen one bird, you have not seen them all.

Jennifer Ackerman is the same author that wrote The Genius of Birds, which I thoroughly enjoyed – so when I saw this one my one furtive pre-lockdown-stage-4 visit to my local bookstore, I snatched it up with faith that it would be just as interesting as the first one.

So far, it’s not let me down. MT has been the unwilling recipient of a multitude of fascinating bird facts. A bonus is that so many of the birds she mentions are from Australia, and are – so far – ones that I’ve been privileged to see myself in the wild.

Smoke Bitten (Mercy Thompson, #12)

Smoke Bitten
by Patricia Briggs
Rating: ★★★★
Series: Mercy Thompson #12
Publication Date: March 19, 2020
Pages: 344
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Orbit Books

Mercy Thompson returns in another thrilling instalment from No. 1 New York Times bestselling author Patricia Briggs

I am Mercedes Athena Thompson Hauptman. My only 'superpowers' are that I turn into a thirty-five-pound coyote and fix Volkswagens. But I have friends in odd places and a pack of werewolves at my back. It looks like I'm going to need them.
Centuries ago, the fae dwelt in Underhill. When they were cast out, they left behind their great castles, troves of magical artefacts . . . and their prisoners. Without the fae to mind them, those creatures roamed freely through Underhill wreaking havoc. Only the deadliest survived.
Now one of those prisoners has escaped. It can look like any creature it chooses and if it bites you, it controls you. It lives for chaos and destruction and can make you do anything - even kill the person you love the most. Now it is here, in the Tri-Cities. In my territory.
It won't, can't, remain. Not if I have anything to say about it.

Finally! A Mercy Thompson book that didn’t include storylines with animal sacrifice. The last few books before this had me seriously hesitant to continue with the series, and even after buying this, it stared at me for about a week before I picked it up with the intention of putting it right back down again if it even looked at an animal the wrong way.

Fortunately – and unfortunately – I never had to put the book down. At least, not until 2.30am when I finally gave into sleep, only to pick it up again the next morning and finish it off.

That’s not to say the story was perfect; it was good, but the sub-plot between Mercy and Adam was meh, and got terribly schmaltzy towards the end (keeping in mind I have a low tolerance for “the power of love”).

The main plot concerned something that got out of Underhill and started possessing people, making them kill others, before it killed them and moved on. This was more interesting to me, although it never really achieved ‘gripping’. And towards the end, but long before the climax, I guessed who the smoke demon was, which was both a tiny bit disappointing, and also – YAY! I was right! – making it a wash overall.

Generally, I enjoyed the story and it restored my faith in the series. I hope book 13 stays away from the witches, although with that number, I don’t like my chances.

It’s done! It’s done! My library project is finally (almost) done!

For those that follow(ed) me on BookLikes, you know that about 6 months ago, MT and I embarked on a home improvement project, turning my ‘library’, ie the room with a few book cases in it and not much else, into a full fledged floor-to-ceiling shelves LIBRARY. We had acres of solid wood we salvaged from MT’s new office space, a former sushi bar, and between us we have acres and acres of books.

The room originally looked like this:

You can see the books stacked on top of the cases, and I’d bi-leveled the shelves themselves by building mini shelf inserts. We’d also purchased a few vertical book spines over time, as well as building shelves on top of our wardrobes (we have tall ceilings).

The (90%) finished, new and improved, library:

Excuse the bad lighting; I say it’s 90% finished because I still need better lighting, and there *is* a fourth wall, with a desk on it, and we still have some wood left, but at the moment, with me working from home, I have two large monitors hogging up most of the space. Once I can start working from my offices again, and I’m down to one computer, I’ll have a better idea where those shelves should be placed – and likely those shelves will serve several masters, not just books (business binders, etc). So, for all intents and purposes, it’s done. Though now I need to find a ladder to reach those high shelves!

Notice the nice generous gaps I left for future growth? All my fiction is on these shelves; we really wanted to keep some of the old bookcases, so we made some compromises in other parts of the house to fit them in – not ideal, but pretty ok – and they are housing my non-fiction and some of MT’s fiction (he wanted to maintain our above-wardrobe shelving for his less-active authors), as well as my TBR books.

I don’t have to tell anyone reading this how big a difference it makes to have room for the books you own. We can see our floors again, and without stacks of books everywhere, I feel like I can breath again; clutter makes me anxious, and with everything else going on, it was almost the straw that broke the camel’s back. With everything tidy again, I find myself enjoying my books and reading much more than I did 3, 4 or 6 months ago. I’m even eyeing new book purchases, though I’ll likely wait a bit longer for things to stabilise pandemic wise, when the Aussie dollar will hopefully find its way out of the sewer.

State of Being and Bookishness

So, with the way things are going over at BookLikes, I’ve dragged myself kicking and spitting back over to my blog, and have spent at least the last two weeks swearing at WordPress and the dearth of plug-ins that do what I want done. WordPress has been such a pain in my ass that I’ve been *this* close to building my own damn database a couple of times, but finally, a few days ago, I stumbled across a Pay plug in called Book Library, created by someone called Nose Graze. It does both more and less than what I want it to do, but mostly more. It allows me to build my own book database, though I can’t bulk upload; it tracks my reading, though I haven’t figured out how to do pages over percentages, and the widget lacks a progress bar; and it allows me to track multiple editions, multiple reads, and purchase dates and locations. Oh! and series. So it’s more win than loss, but I still find WP clunky as hell.

I’m still using BookLikes when it will allow me, and I hold out some hope that someone will, someday, see the value in what’s there. If I could buy it, I would, but I can’t even justify buying books (though I was pissed off enough to buy the plug-in) so unless they give it away, I’m stuck here. It could be worse; I could be stuck with nothing but GoodReads.

Anywho, my tiny corner of the world is back in lockdown until at least mid August, because people don’t listen to what they don’t want to hear, and mistook flattening of the curve to elimination of the virus, and now it’s raging through Victoria.

After three months of not taking advantage of the first lockdown, MT and I finally got it together the second time around and have been kicking numerous home projects to the curb. Our library is finally done – pictures to follow in the next post – and today we’re getting a new toilet installed – pictures not to follow; this was NOT one of our projects, but the toilet decided it just couldn’t go on any longer – or, more specifically, the seal between it and the floor gave way and the thing was so old it wobbled. Also, my kettle is acting ominously, because nothing says Pandemic induced financial crisis like all the most crucial appliances dying at once. But the house is clean and organised, pictures are almost all hung where they should be, and my library is done – and I have empty shelves!!

A Lady’s Guide to Gossip and Murder

A Lady’s Guide To Gossip And Murder
by Dianne Freeman
Rating: ★★★½
Series: Countess of Harleigh Mystery #2
Publication Date: June 25, 2019
Pages: 277

How far will some go to safeguard a secret? In the latest novel in Dianne Freeman's witty and delightful historical mystery series, the adventurous Countess Harleigh finds out . . .

Though American by birth, Frances Wynn, the now-widowed Countess of Harleigh, has adapted admirably to the quirks and traditions of the British aristocracy. On August twelfth each year, otherwise known as the Glorious Twelfth, most members of the upper class retire to their country estates for grouse-shooting season. Frances has little interest in hunting-for birds or a second husband-and is expecting to spend a quiet few months in London with her almost-engaged sister, Lily, until the throng returns. Instead, she's immersed in a shocking mystery when a friend, Mary Archer, is found murdered. Frances had hoped Mary might make a suitable bride for her cousin, Charles, but their courtship recently fizzled out. Unfortunately, this puts Charles in the spotlight-along with dozens of others. It seems Mary had countless notes hidden in her home, detailing the private indiscretions of society's elite. Frances can hardly believe that the genteel and genial Mary was a blackmailer, yet why else would she horde such juicy tidbits? Aided by her gallant friend and neighbor, George Hazelton, Frances begins assisting the police in this highly sensitive case, learning more about her peers than she ever wished to know. Too many suspects may be worse than none at all-but even more worrying is that the number of victims is increasing too. And unless Frances takes care, she'll soon find herself among them . . .

I enjoyed this follow up to A Lady’s Guide to Etiquette and Murder, but found certain plot points in the beginning irritatingly obvious, which, in turn, had me dragging my heels to finish it. Once the characters had the ‘ah-hah’ moment I’d had almost immediately, the story become more interesting. I liked the little twist at the end; it wasn’t totally surprising, as the story could have worked either way, but it added a bit of zing.

I look forward to the third book.