My little friend Willow likes to keep one paw elevated while she eats. 🐶
Our resident Kingfisher is so photogenic. 🐦
About 10 days ago I reported a bloated dead sheep on the beach to Greater Wellington Regional Council, as it was in their area of responsibility. Today I followed digger tracks and saw they had buried the sheep.
This was intriguing and enjoyable music: DakhaBrakha - Full Performance (Live on KEXP). A group from Ukraine. Interesting listening to their rap. Their website: DakhaBrakha official site - ДахаБраха офіційний сайт.
Excellent Nichelle Nichols cartoon for August 3, 2022 from Kiwi cartoonist Sharon Murdoch. 🖖🏼
Heh, November 1999, when I had long hair and thought having the camera automatically date stamp photos was a good thing.
A nearby hill / mountain had a hat on this morning. Also, I’m messing around with edits to the image.
This year so far, according to my rain gauge, we’ve had more rain than in the whole of 2020 or 2019 and we’ll soon exceed the whole of last year. No wonder the paddock next door is turning into a lake. 🌧
Whew! Some server problem meant that for the last week or two I’ve completed the WSJ crossword on the web. That was a nasty experience. Finally though I can get back to the delights of completing it in Black Ink from @danielpunkass.
186+ mystery books I've loved
I read a lot of mysteries. Some are mediocre — I abandon the ones that are too rubbish — while others are good, or even excellent.
I’ve now developed for myself a list of authors whose mysteries I will always read.
Note: I read on Kindle and can’t bring myself to pay more than ~US$6 for a book unless there is some utterly compelling reason that works for me. That quite possibly excludes some stunningly good authors and some books by authors I know I enjoy. This list also excludes authors whose works I read on paper decades ago.
As a lesbian feminist I very much prefer books by female authors and that feature women, preferably lesbians, in lead roles. I extend flexibility to marginalised groups such as non-binary, non- US or UK authors, and so on.
Even on my ‘always read’ list I might choose to skip a particular book if the subject matter doesn’t appeal — a particularly gory murder, serial killers, lots of violence against women (or animals).
Always check to see if there’s a box set as the price is usually better than buying individual books, and if you get a sample first, the sample is longer.
This (to me) surprisingly long list comes from my record of books I’ve bought from Kindle and where I’m highly likely to just preorder from an author or buy when available. A couple of authors I started reading before I could get the books on Kindle.
It looks like occasionally an author’s had a bit of a dud mid-series and I’ve faltered on buying. Some of these authors have other series I don’t enjoy or that simply aren’t my thing.
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1. Amy Vansant: The Shee McQueen Mystery Thriller Series (3 books)
2. Anne Shillolo: DC Holly Towns Murder Mystery series (6 books)
3. Cari Hunter: The Dark Peak series (3 books) and others
4. Cheri Baker: Kat Voyzey Mysteries (4 books), Ellie Tappet Cruise Ship Mysteries (6 books), Butterfly Island Mysteries (3 books)
5. Cheryl A Head: Charlie Mack Motown Mystery series (6 books)
6. Dana Stabenow: Kate Shugak Novels (20 books), The Liam Campbell Mysteries (5 books), and others
7. Dawn Brookes: Rachel Prince Mysteries (11 books)
8. Elizabeth Gunn: Detective Sarah Burke mystery and suspense series (7 books)
9. Gretta Mulrooney: Tyrone Swift Detective (9 books) and others
10. Jana DeLeon: Miss Fortune Mystery series (22 books)
11. Joy Ellis: DI Nikki Galena Series (13 books)
12. Kristine Kathryn Rusch: Retrieval Artist Universe series (15 books), plus many many other works
13. Leigh Mayberry: Lost in Alaska series (7 books) (seems I missed a couple after one disappointing book — I’m putting that right.)
14. Margaret Mizushima: Timber Creek K–9 Mystery series (8 books) (I see the latest, available for Kindle preorder is a stunning $23. No way I’ll pay that! This series also has a terrible record of not releasing for purchase in Aotearoa New Zealand until 12 months or so after publication, which I think should be a crime in itself. )
15. Marion Todd: Detective Clare Mackay series (6 books)
16. Maureen Carter: DI Sarah Quinn Mystery series (5 books)
17. Mia Gold: Ruby Steele Mystery series (4 books)
18. Misty Evans, Adrienne Giordano: Schock Sisters Private Investigator Mystery series (3 books)
19. Nevada Barr: Anna Pigeon Mysteries series (19 books)
20. Paula Lennon: Detectives Preddy & Harris series (3 books)
Why does @Cheri get a link when no-one else does? Because she’s a Micro.Blog buddy! 😆
And speaking of books before Kindle, my exception is Marcia Muller’s Sharon McCone series, where I was able to find many in used book shops. Great series!
Such an impressive channel! Anyone at all interested in languages will find this video fascinating: What Makes Papuan Languages So Unique?:
Melanesia has the most languages on earth, most of which are Papuan. These features set them apart from surrounding language families.
Then I moved right along to Close to the Edge (Detective Sarah Burke Book 7) by Elizabeth Gunn because I knew it’d be a good read, and it was. 📚
Why was a kindly man, dedicated to looking after the elderly, gunned down by a team of hoodlums wielding military-grade rifles?
I raced through Close to Home (Detective Sarah Burke Book 6) by Elizabeth Gunn. She’s an excellent author who tells a good story. 📚
The victim has no phone, no Medicare card. His neighbors don’t even know his name.
Why would someone do this to a lonely old man?
After a few days I can say that using a feedreader is the best and easiest way to catch up with the overnight Micro.Blog timeline. Thanks to @todor for the link to ‘Friends posts’ in Feeds - Developers - Micro.blog Help Center. I use the wonderful NetNewsWire.
December 2008: flamingos at Honolulu Zoo. What on earth is that one at the back doing with its neck?! 🐦
This cabbage tree serves me as a kind of a high groundwater indicator. Normally it’s several metres from the water in the lake, but with all the rain we’ve had it’s close to being surrounded by water. The second photo of the tree is from midsummer 2017.
Hang in there! 🐦
My thanks to whoever on my timeline mentioned enjoying Only Murders in the Building. I’m loving it so much! 📺
Such a lovely short story by Kristine Kathryn Rusch: Free Fiction Monday: Star:
On the night Anna’s boyfriend tried to kill her, Anna’s badly injured cat Star disappeared.
Now, half a continent away, Anna’s neighbor tells her about a white cat with unusual markings…
This is useful: Create Your Own Acceptance Mantra:
The purpose of an acceptance mantra is to act as a sort of trigger.
It can be used as part of a simple practice to reset your mind when it comes time to accept the situation you find yourself in.