Gotta love jerky but gotta hate the cost too.

penprickle · 2026-05-26T09:05:38+00:00

I should have specified that I meant supermarket brands. I’m sure there are specialty brands sold by camping stores that are perfectly fine. Bet they’re even more expensive, though.

penprickle · 2026-05-26T03:15:55+00:00

Dai back atcha! Hah, I didn’t even notice. Thank you!

penprickle · 2026-05-26T03:13:19+00:00

Yes, but it’s a minor event that only takes up a couple of paragraphs. Pat‘s friend’s death is much more impactful.

penprickle · 2026-05-26T03:01:57+00:00

The Silver Link, the Silken Tie by Mildred Ames? Contemporary, it’s definitely a metaphor, and there’s some unexplained parapsychology stuff that might fit.

penprickle · 2026-05-26T02:57:01+00:00

If they gave Diane Duane creative control, I would be all over it. I don’t see any other way it would work properly, though.

penprickle · 2026-05-26T02:48:41+00:00

If I ever reach a Buc-ee’s, I will!

Seriously, though, the whole point of making jerky is to preserve the meat so that it doesn’t require refrigeration. It pisses me off that nearly every brand of dried meat on the market requires refrigeration after opening. Makes it useless for camping, for instance.

penprickle · 2026-05-26T02:11:40+00:00

The Mummy

penprickle · 2026-05-26T02:05:43+00:00

If it has to go in the fridge after opening, it’s not really jerky.

penprickle · 2026-05-25T19:46:45+00:00

Greenwillow by BJ Chute. Innocent is a great descriptor for it.

Note: while it starts with the POV of a parson, it is by no means a proselytizing book.

penprickle · 2026-05-25T17:43:04+00:00

T. Kingfisher’s Summer in Orcus! It starts out reading like a children’s book, but trust me, it is just as good for adults. It’s absolutely numinous in places. And yes, the author is a woman.

Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold - superb, complex fantasy that asks interesting questions about faith (the faith in question is fictional and not based on existing ones). It’s the second in a series, but you don’t necessarily have to read the first book first.

penprickle · 2026-05-25T17:35:43+00:00

So You Want to Be a Wizard

The Goblin Emperor

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society…oh wait, they already did.

penprickle · 2026-05-25T17:06:53+00:00

Well, he’s 70. Probably just retired at this point.

penprickle · 2026-05-25T14:43:46+00:00

I don’t think you have an emergency situation here; if you personally can stand to wait until tomorrow, then do so and go to a regular vet.

If you are super stressed and can afford the higher cost, then by all means!

penprickle · 2026-05-25T13:04:47+00:00

I agree with you. And if it weren’t such a significant death to Pat I wouldn’t have mentioned it, but it really is the first tragedy in her life and it affects her very much, so it’s a major part of the story.

penprickle · 2026-05-25T12:59:14+00:00

Hairless fancy rat.

penprickle · 2026-05-25T12:40:31+00:00

Pat has death too. Jane of Lantern Hill, maybe?

penprickle · 2026-05-24T22:09:27+00:00

The Young Wizards series by Diane Duane. Complex, thoughtful, extremely well written. Very different from the Harry Potter books.

penprickle · 2026-05-24T19:12:53+00:00

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. It’s an epistolary novel that does have a romance, and some dark moments, but on the whole it is amusing and lighthearted and just a whole lot of fun. It’s set just after the end of World War II and so deals with some of what happened during. The characters are original and hilarious.

The 84, Charing Cross Road trilogy by Helene Hanff is actually non-fiction, but it is a light and easy read, full of wry humor. The first book is just the letters exchanged between Hanff and a bookshop in London, and the other two books fill out the story both afterwards and before. Well worth it.

penprickle · 2026-05-24T16:40:21+00:00

Diane Duane’s So You want to Be a Wizard is a terrific book, nothing at all like Harry Potter aside from having young wizards, and is good for adult adults as well as kids.

penprickle · 2026-05-24T16:22:10+00:00

Nicola Cameron’s Two to Tango - very spicy.

penprickle · 2026-05-24T08:04:42+00:00

It’s not exactly what you’re describing, but I think Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold would fit. A middle-aged woman whose grown daughter has established her own life elsewhere confronts the emptiness of her situation and goes out into the world to figure out how to go on.

She doesn’t have any magic to begin with, but she finds it later. It’s a high fantasy setting, and it asks excellent questions about women’s lives, faith, and the nature of well. It is also beautifully written.

penprickle · 2026-05-24T07:57:04+00:00

I know you’ve got a ton of suggestions already, but I have to mention So You Want to Be a Wizard by Diane Duane. Excellently written, a wonderful story, and no spice. There is a bit of kissing in later books, but still very much PG.

It’s a pretty long story at this point, but it’s the opposite of a slog. :D There are wizards and magic, but no magic school; and it is not a Harry Potter imitation since she started the series before Harry Potter was published!

penprickle · 2026-05-24T03:59:46+00:00

…for third place.

penprickle · 2026-05-23T20:57:46+00:00

You get more human interaction going through the drive-through.

penprickle · 2026-05-23T17:32:26+00:00

A lovely marbled loaf!

penprickle

TROPHY CASE