“Time to Man Up!”, or: Mother’s Escaped to a New Dimension and Here’s What I’ve Read in the First Six Months of 2024 (three months late)

My mother’s end was sad and pathetic, and very painful to me. Don’t get me wrong—I hated her guts—it’s best she’s gone—but it’s still painful.

The death of the Parasite lasted basically the first half of 2024 (parasite is what I started to call her at the end; she’d burned all her bridges with her preference for drugs and mental delusions over family and friends—I was the last one left who tolerated her—she probably had longer conversations with the pawn broker than her own flesh and blood). She died May 6, then the rest of May and June was spent dealing with the mess she left behind—not just the sizable physical mess (the loon hadn’t thrown away her junk mail for the last five—at least!—years), but the physic, legal, metaphorical, etc. messes left behind as well. 

She was someone who loved to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory just to prove she was right. But she was a dopefiend, and that ALWAYS guided her thought patterns—which were already scrambled; although I’m glad she was half in the bag most of the time: It allowed me to escape from her clutches and live the rich and rewarding life of a feral latchkey child. Did you know I taught myself to make gunpowder at the age of eleven? (Thank you, Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments!) 

[Stuff about books after break...]

The Best Reading of 2023 (About Three Months Late...)

Oh, dear…  Looks like I haven’t posted in more than a year…

Yep, I’ve been busy.

The Best Reading of 2023
[*) = reread]

I look at my selections of Top Books Read for 2023 (as well as the larger list of what I read, and yes, everything I read last year eventually gets reviewed here, so hang on to your hats), and I try to assess patterns. I will tell you, I’m not really one for the “Quality Lit Game” or “Contemporary Literature,” whether snooty NYTimes bestseller, or the YA crowding the book department at Target, or the action-packed Bourne/Reacher-rip-off techno-thriller you’ll find in the last places that still sell mass-market paperbacks. And the things that usually interest me are hardly the norm…