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Best Books of 2022: Terri Schlichenmeyer’s Bookworm Sez!
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm Sez
Best Books of 2022
It happens every year.
The decorations come down. The last of the Christmas leftovers have been eaten. Errant bits of ripped wrapping are found and discarded. You have no more holiday candy or cookies, you look around at your empty hands, and you wonder now what?
Now it’s time to settle in and read for the rest of the winter season. For your pleasure, here are the Top Five Bookworm Picks for the Best of 2022…
Fiction
Lovers of fairy tales are in for a big surprise with “The Book Eaters” by Sunyi Dean (Tor, $26.99). It’s a dark, dark legend filled with evil dragons that look like men, princesses that are worse than second-class citizens within their realms, and a chase that will chill you. Book lovers will adore this tale, especially if you don’t necessarily need a happily-ever-after.
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Survey Results: The ‘All In One’s Have It
Thank you to everyone who took the survey about including all or just part of The Weekly Readlines in the subscriber email. The ‘All In One’ votes took it by a slim margin. So … I’ll include a significant amount of the Readlines news roundup in the weekly email, along with a link to read the rest. If you’d like to get them separately every week, just subscribe to my new Substack newsletter and you’ll get them unadulterated every Friday!
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Q Audiobooks: Chemistry, by Rachael Sommers, Narrated by Lori Prince
Q Audiobooks is a feature at LGBTSr offering audiobooks of interest to the LGBTQ listener.
Chemistry
By: Rachael Sommers
Narrated by: Lori Prince
Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
4.8 out of 5 stars (59 ratings)Also available in Kindle and Paperback
An opposites-attract, ice queen lesbian romance about finding the softest of hearts behind the highest walls.
Newly minted high school teacher Lily Cross is young, bubbly, and can’t wait to put her fresh ideas into practice in the classroom. Her excitement is derailed after a disastrous run-in with a colleague. Lily didn’t realize she’d have to win over her fellow teachers as well as her students, but that’s okay. Lily’s up to the challenge.
Disillusioned Eva Thomas never imagined she’d wind up as a teacher in her hometown, or worse, suffer the boundless, puppy dog enthusiasm of a new colleague. Eva has no interest in making friends—or making nice. She just wants to survive her day and be left alone. That’s easier said than done when Lily Cross has you in her sights.
Their clashing arguments lead to sparks and then the impossible…attraction. But how can two such different people ever work?
©2022 Rachael Sommers (P)2022 Tantor
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Q Audiobooks: Chemistry, by Rachael Sommers, Narrated by Lori Prince
Q Audiobooks is a feature at LGBTSr offering audiobooks of interest to the LGBTQ listener.
Chemistry
By: Rachael Sommers
Narrated by: Lori Prince
Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
4.8 out of 5 stars (59 ratings)Also available in Kindle and Paperback
An opposites-attract, ice queen lesbian romance about finding the softest of hearts behind the highest walls.
Newly minted high school teacher Lily Cross is young, bubbly, and can’t wait to put her fresh ideas into practice in the classroom. Her excitement is derailed after a disastrous run-in with a colleague. Lily didn’t realize she’d have to win over her fellow teachers as well as her students, but that’s okay. Lily’s up to the challenge.
Disillusioned Eva Thomas never imagined she’d wind up as a teacher in her hometown, or worse, suffer the boundless, puppy dog enthusiasm of a new colleague. Eva has no interest in making friends—or making nice. She just wants to survive her day and be left alone. That’s easier said than done when Lily Cross has you in her sights.
Their clashing arguments lead to sparks and then the impossible…attraction. But how can two such different people ever work?
©2022 Rachael Sommers (P)2022 Tantor -
Restaurant Review: 4 Comfy Yums for Plumsteadville Inn (Plumsteadville, PA)
By Mark McNease
Plumsteadville Inn
5902 Easton Road Pipersville, PA
Tel: 215-766-7500
$$ – $$$ (depending on what you order)
4 Overall Yums (3.5 food, 4.5 service)Yes, the restaurant reviews are back. In my early blogging days I sometimes got responses from restaurants I reviewed, but that’s not why I’m doing it. I love to eat, and I love to write, it’s that simple
I realized that some of our favorite places to eat are not the sort of fine-dining, 5 Yum establishments I sometimes have the good fortune to rave about. Sometimes they’re just diners, or casual establishments, and I can’t fairly compare them to a $200 meal, excluding tip, that was worth every penny. In the case of Plumsteadville Inn, where we went for the second time last night, they’re just very inviting, popular, often crowded and crowd-pleasing places where you can get good comfort food and great service.
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Restaurant Review: 4 Comfy Yums for Plumsteadville Inn (Plumsteadville, PA)
By Mark McNease
Plumsteadville Inn
5902 Easton Road Pipersville, PA
Tel: 215-766-7500
$$ – $$$ (depending on what you order)
4 Overall Yums (3.5 food, 4.5 service)Yes, the restaurant reviews are back. In my early blogging days I sometimes got responses from restaurants I reviewed, but that’s not why I’m doing it. I love to eat, and I love to write, it’s that simple
I realized that some of our favorite places to eat are not the sort of fine-dining, 5 Yum establishments I sometimes have the good fortune to rave about. Sometimes they’re just diners, or casual establishments, and I can’t fairly compare them to a $200 meal, excluding tip, that was worth every penny. In the case of Plumsteadville Inn, where we went for the second time last night, they’re just very inviting, popular, often crowded and crowd-pleasing places where you can get good comfort food and great service.
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Now on Substack: Mark McNease On Topic
It’s a blog! It’s a newsletter! It’s a new adventure in writing!
Having just discovered Substack and all the great writers, journalists, thinkers and contemplatives offering up their intellectual property, I decided to jump right in. Mark McNease On Topic is the result. I’ll be examining something at least twice a week (gun rights, self-creation, the dangers of the unwoke, politics, culture). And on Fridays I’ll put out my Weekly Readlines news roundup.
While a lot of the writers on Substack are journalists or quasi-journalists offering paid subscriptions roughly the monthly cost of a cappuccino, mine will be free until further notice or until I have a much bigger subscription base. So why not sign up now and take this journey of discovery, recovery and misdirection with me!
Here’s my first official post from this morning (New World Disorder). Like a good blob of dough on a floured baking board, I expect to knead this out week by week until it’s something everyone in their wrong mind will want to get in their inbox. Yours, Mark.
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Now on Substack: Mark McNease On Topic
It’s a blog! It’s a newsletter! It’s a new adventure in writing!
Having just discovered Substack and all the great writers, journalists, thinkers and contemplatives offering up their intellectual property, I decided to jump right in. Mark McNease On Topic is the result. I’ll be examining something at least twice a week (gun rights, self-creation, the dangers of the unwoke, politics, culture). And on Fridays I’ll put out my Weekly Readlines news roundup.
While a lot of the writers on Substack are journalists or quasi-journalists offering paid subscriptions roughly the monthly cost of a cappuccino, mine will be free until further notice or until I have a much bigger subscription base. So why not sign up now and take this journey of discovery, recovery and misdirection with me!
Here’s my first official post from this morning (New World Disorder). Like a good blob of dough on a floured baking board, I expect to knead this out week by week until it’s something everyone in their wrong mind will want to get in their inbox. Yours, Mark.
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Savvy Senior: Tips for Being a Long-Distance Caregiver
Listen my interview with Savvy Senior’s Jim Miller on the One Thing or Another Podcast.
By Jim Miller
Dear Savvy Senior,
What tips do you recommend for long-distance caregivers? I help take care of my stubborn 86-year-old mother who still lives at home about 150 miles from me.
Need Advice
Dear Need,
Providing care and support for an aging parent who lives far away can present a variety challenges that can make the job difficult and stressful. Here are some tips and resources that may help you.
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Book Review: The Battle Cry of the Siamese Kitten, by Philipp Schott, DVM
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm SezThe Battle Cry of the Siamese Kitten, by Philipp Schott, DVM
c.2022, ECW Press $17.95 280 pagesOh, those tiny little claws are sharp!
You don’t expect something that small to draw blood, but there it is on the back of your hand. Fortunately, the pain is overwhelmed by the big ears and the huge eyes and the tail like a car antennae. You fell in love with your kitten one-point-three seconds after it landed in your hands and in the new book “The Battle Cry of the Siamese Kitten” by Philipp Schott, it does more than purr!
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It’s a Very Scary Christmas: ‘A House In the Woods’ Joins A Book Funnel Giveaway (Dec. 16 – Jan. 6)
Wait up for Santa while you read one of these blood-tingling books by authors who know how to chill and thrill. My own supernatural chiller, ‘A House in the Woods,’ is among this great collection of free reads you can download from December 16 – January 6. Why not make Christmas a scream this year?
Just click HERE to start downloading, and prepare not to sleep for awhile! Authors include: Steve Hudgins, Jade Madden, Ben Farthing, Faith Gardner, Levi Fuller and many more!
(All books require joining the author’s email list.)
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The Weekly Readlines December 16
 The Weekly Readlines (rhymes with headlines!) is a feature at LGBTSr.com, offering news you can use every week.
 Quote for the Week: “I will never not fight back.” – Robin Tyler, comic and activist
 BIG CUP: THE WEEK’S TOP STORIES First the good news: President Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act, ensuring federal protection for same-sex marriage and requiring states to honor marriages performed where they are legal. And the Biden administration proposed a crackdown on those ubiquitous (Not)Medicare Advantage plans.
Krysten Sinema surprised absolutely no one when she changed her party affiliation to Independent. If she needs another attention fix, she may well become a Republican. And Texas broke through the anti-trans floor to sink even lower, demanding personal information on all the transgender Texans it can find. Scary times.
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LGBTSr Subscriber Survey: How Do You Prefer the Weekly Readlines News Roundup?
Compiling the Weekly Readlines (rhymes with headlines!) news roundup takes the most time, so I’ve decided to send them all in the subscriber email as opposed to an excerpt and link. But … would you prefer to receive them as a separate email each week, or as the lead in the weekly LGBTSr email with other new content/links?