Reading In and Out 11/10/2026

Man this last week has been rough! I read some stuff, but not what you'd expect. I had a great birthday, right up until my dog had to have emergency surgery. We were supposed to have a plumber come yesterday, but they rescheduled for today. Which worked out, because now we have a big ass leak somewhere. So he's going to deal with both issues. Also, we found out yesterday that our tax guy left the company, so we have to start over with another one. Le sigh. Needless to say, my reading has been all over the place.

OUT

The Bishop of Durham Attempts to Surrender the City by Susannah Clarke - My kid picked up my pre-order of this book last Tuesday. I sat down after dinner Wednesday evening and went through it. It's written like an Arthurian legend, or a folk tale. It's set in 1101, after the Norman conquest. The Bishop is actually French. When the fairies invaded the north of England, the city of Durham was surrounded by trees which blocked all travel into and out of the city. The Bishop declared his intention to surrender to the fae king, so the trees moved back and he made his way to the New Castle where the fairy king had taken up residence. There are some trials and tests at the castle, and he finally meets the king (who is actually a human 14-year-old boy, who was raised by the fae.) It all winds up happily, as you would expect. The gray-scale illuminations are very accurate to the time of the story, which is entertaining. I will probably read this again.

100 Animals That Can F^cking End You by Mamadou Ndiaye - The author is an animal biologist who was laid off during COVID so he started a social media outlet talking about animals. He would basically just talk about animals with interesting facts, etc. It took off. He put together this book on animals that can and will kill humans in the right circumstances. Some of those circumstances are more likely than others. Also, he's really funny. Each entry is 2-4 pages long and contains lots of pictures. I read it on Saturday while we waited to hear how our dog was recovering from her surgery.

CONTINUING

Fatal Remedies by Donna Leon - I'm still at 75% on this one. I haven't really been back to work since I got to that point. Can't wait to be reunited with this baddie.

One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig - I really didn't have the emotional bandwidth for this one much this weekend. I read a few pages, but not enough to really move the needle.

Bodies of Magic by Freya Marske - This one got the most love because I drove places a few times, so I listened in the car. I'm at the 60% mark now. It's a pretty long book; the print version has 452 pages. I'm getting there slowly but surely.

And there is nothing new to report. I had new ones, but I finished them. So here we are.

We are heading directly into the season of chaos. My first bell concert is Nov. 19. Between Dec. 2 and Dec. 14, I have 10 more concerts. On Dec. 12, my son is scheduled to graduate from college. I also have 2 programs to present for work in the next month. I would like to schedule a menty b for right after Christmas. Until then, I'm just hanging on by my fingernails.