#kelly mcmasters

[writerly-ramblings]

Books Read in July:

1). Directions to Myself: A Memoir of Four Years (Heidi Julavits)

2). Bluets (Maggie Nelson)

3). Essays in Love: A Novel (Alain de Botton)

4). The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning (Maggie Nelson)

5). Still Life with Bones: Genocide, Forensics, and What Remains (Alexa Hagerty)

6). Margot (Wendell Steavenson)

7). An Alphabet for Gourmets (M.F.K. Fisher)

8). My Documents (Alejandro Zambra)

9). Planet of Clay (Samar Yazbek)

10). The Leaving Season: A Memoir in Essays (Kelly McMasters)

11). Offshore (Penelope Fitzgerald)

12). Encounter (Milan Kundera)

13). Housekeeping (Marilynne Robinson)

14). Gingerbread (Helen Oyeyemi)

15). A Small Place (Jamaica Kincaid)

16). Where I Was From (Joan Didion)

[alfvaen]

Novel Score

It's sometime around the beginning of a month, which apparently means these days that it's time for me to do a roundup post of the books I read in the preceding month--in this case, January 2024. Once again have been keeping on top of it during the month which helps me actually produce it in a timely manner. Because I started this back in November/December, doing monthly book posts isn't a New Year's resolution, unless the resolution was just "keep doing it". I'm keeping doing it.

Book list under the cut, book-related ramblings may include spoilers for Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series, Martha Wells's Murderbot series, Kelly Meding's Dreg City series, and maybe others. You have been warned.

Ashok Banker: Siege of Mithila, completed January 6

As mentioned previously, I am rapidly running out of books by male "diversity" slot authors in my collection. I read the first Ashok Banker book, Prince of Ayodhya, a few years earlier, and was kind of meh on it, so I wasn't sure if I would continue. But I did pick up the other one as a library discard (ah, the days when I got books and CDs as library discards…back when they used to have a sale rack in the local branch all the time, instead of saving them up for periodic bulk sales…) so I hadn't entirely given up on it. So, in not quite desperation, I turned to Siege of Mithila as my next diversity read.

The series is apparently a retelling of the Ramayana, which is some kind of important epic in India, though I can't judge if it's like "the Bible" or "King Arthur" or "The Iliad" or what, but I assume it's somewhere on that level, at least among certain cultures. My brief skimming of the Wikipedia article on the Ramayana implies that Banker is following the story pretty closely, which means that sometimes it gets a little weird plotwise, but is perhaps more revealing culturally or something. And sometimes it's a wee bit problematic…like the way that the main adversary for the first two books is Ravana, lord of the Asuras (basically demons), who rules over the southern island kingdom of Lanka (like…"Sri Lanka"?), which is populated entirely by Asuras. Which is about like if there was a fantasy series set in England where they had to fight evil demons from the western island kingdom of Eire or something. (Wait…do they have those?) One wonders if this series (or the original Ramayana) are quite as popular in Sri Lanka, then…

Anyway, we mostly follow Rama, the titular Prince of Ayodhya from the first book, and his half-brother Lakshman, but a lot of this book is also set back in the palace in Ayodhya following Rama's father the Maharaja, his three wives, and the evil (and hunchbacked--oh look, it's equating deformity with wickedness, that's awesome) witch Manthara as she and Ravana try to sabotage the kingdom from within. Rama and Lakshman end up going to Mithila instead of back to Ayodhya, and foiling a big Asura attack on the city, which comes unbelievably close to the end of the book and is not quite solved by deus ex machina, but doesn't feel particularly satisfying.

One element of the series is that some of the characters are just like ridiculously powerful sages who were like "I've been meditating for 5000 years so I'm really wise and can do anything, though I guess I should let Rama solve a few things on his own to gain some of his own wisdom". Not that this is all that different from, say, Gandalf or Merlin, of course... There are also some odd storytelling choices, like switching to a different set of characters just at a dramatic point in a different storyline, or, in one major side-quest, just skipping the ending of it and coming back to it a couple of chapters later in flashbacks. Also, one character is given important advice by a ghost which he then completely ignores (luckily other people overrule him, but it bugged me).

The book kind of feels like the second book of a trilogy, but not quite, which makes sense because apparently there are eight other books in the series, so it's not just about fighting Ravana and the Asuras. I'm on the bubble about the series, as you may have gathered, so I don't know offhand if I'll be going on.

T. Kingfisher: Clockwork Boys, completed January 9

I paced myself going through Siege of Mithila, taking seven days for it (I started on December 31st to get a little head start), so it put me a bit behind on my Goodreads challenge (100 books for the year, again). This means, time to read some shorter things! I haven't read any T. Kingfisher yet (though I have read, like, the webcomic "Digger" under her real name, Ursula Vernon, if nothing else), so I let my wife, who has read a lot of them, suggest which one I should start with, and this was the one she chose (at the time; it may have been a couple of years ago). We have it as an ebook from Kobo, which sometimes makes it a little hard to tell how long the book actually is in pages, but Goodreads claimed it was under 300 pages, so it seemed a possible three-day read.

I was, I guess, vaguely expecting a steampunk story involving two boys who were made of clockwork or something, but apparently it's more straight fantasy (not too similar to the Ramayana was far as I can tell, though, which is good because I like consecutive reads to vary in genre if at all possible) where the Clockwork Boys are the bad guys. Also, apparently this is the first of a duology, a "long book split in two" duology as opposed to "book and a sequel featuring the same characters" duology.

The characters seem somewhat interesting, though I'm not sure I'm 100% won over. Sir Caliban for some reason reminds me of both Sanderson's Kaladin and Bujold's Cazaril, but maybe it's just the similarity of names enhancing certain similarities of character. And the demons also made me think of Bujold's Penric books. Maybe the tone is a little light for me on this one. We've got the second one as an ebook too, so I'll finish it off at some point and then maybe take a look at Nettle & Bone or something.

Kelly Meding: The Night Before Dead, completed January 12

As I may have also mentioned previously, I've tried a whole lot of urban fantasy series. Many of them, my wife has enjoyed more than I have, and is all caught up on them, but most of those I'm only a few books in. (I've given up on relatively few--Jennifer Estep and Jess Haines, among others.) For whatever reason, my wife didn't like the first book in Kelly Meding's "Dreg City" series, Three Days To Dead, and this time, to be actually clever about it, I decided to read the book myself and decide if I wanted to continue on in the series before it went out of print. As it turned out, I did like the first book, and I kept reading it on my own. When the series got dropped by the publisher after four books, I even went and bought the last two books (self-published, probably print on demand) to finish the series.

So this is the last one, which is supposed to wrap up the main conflict. Our main character, Evy Stone, started out the series waking up after death in a newly-vacated body; she was part of a group that worked to deal with paranormal threats. This world has beast-form shapeshifters named "Theria", vampires, and lots of types of fey--mostly pretty usual when it comes to urban fantasy--and their existence is unknown to world at large, etc.

Thie book does seem to wrap things up well enough, at least for the main characters, though it's hard to say if all the resolutions are satisfying. Still, it was enjoyable enough. She does have a couple of other, shorter series which I can try next, since we do actually own them. (And maybe some stuff under a different name?)

Lois McMaster Bujold: Brothers In Arms, completed January 15

Next (chronologically) in the reread order, this is the one where Miles goes to Earth and discovers the existence of his clone-brother Mark (spoilers). It starts up with a level of frustration--why does Miles have to stay at the embassy, and why aren't his mercenaries getting paid?--but things mostly work out in the end. Ivan shows up again (by authorial fiat--it's a bit too much of a coincidence, really), we meet recurring character Duv Galeni, and of course Mark, as mentioned already. It's not a particular favourite, but it's pretty good. And without it, how would we get Mirror Dance, and thus Memory?

I feel like I should be able to say more about it, but I've already talked about the Vorkosigan series a lot in previous posts, and, like I said, it's not a particular favourite. I guess I could mention how the first time through the series I read them in publication order, and so this was before The Vor Game and Cetaganda… Also, although we don't see much of Earth outside of London, we do get a good look at the gigantic dikes being used to hold back the ocean, because in the intervening mumble-mumble centuries the sea levels have risen. So presumably the icecaps have melted or something, though it doesn't seem like the Gulf Stream has shut down or anything, so maybe they have managed to mitigate things somewhat. An interesting view of future Earth, anyway, without going too overboard on covering the vast majority of the planet not relevant to our immediate plot.

Seth Dickinson: The Traitor Baru Cormorant, completed January 20

Taking another book from my list of authors to try (currently stored on my pool table); I picked this one because apparently the author has a new book coming out, and I do see people talking about the character from time to time, so clearly this is a book/series that has had some staying power and cultural impact, as opposed to something obscure that apparently sank without a trace. But this is a book that my wife tried, and either didn't finish or didn't want to continue the series.

And, having finished it, I can see why. I wouldn't say that it's a bad book…but I didn't, in the end, like it. I read it all the way to the end, and I've decided I'll leave it there and not try to continue the series. And probably I won't look for other books by Dickinson either. Like Ian McDonald's Desolation Road, which I read last year, I felt, as I was reading it, that this was a book I would have liked a lot better when I was younger, but these days it just doesn't do it for me.

It has the feeling of fantasy, in that it's set in a different world from our own, and there is none of the futuristic technology that would explain this as being a colony world…but there is also little or nothing in the way of magic. A little alchemy, maybe, but I don't know that it's out of line with what you could achieve with actual drugs. No wizards, and I don't think there were supernatural creatures either. But it's fantasy-coded, and maybe there's some minor thing I'm forgetting. It's not about magic, though. It's really about colonialism, and what happens when you're sucked into the colonizer's system so far that you think that the only way to help your people is by going along with that system. And Baru Cormorant is somewhat autistic-coded, perhaps--not only is she a savant, but she seems to have trouble figuring out the motives and feelings of others. Puts too much confidence in the ability to explain everything using economics (the character and possibly also the author, quite frankly), in a way which reminds me mostly of Dave Sim's deconstruction of faith and fantasy in Cerebus: Church And State. Not sure if it counts as grimdark, but it feels like the honorable are punished for their naivety like in "A Song of Ice And Fire". I lost sympathy for the main character partway through, and never got much for anyone else either. One character I liked and hoped to see more of was (gratuitously?) killed in the middle of the book. I was forewarned of the existence of a plot twist at the end of the book, and when it came, although I wasn't completely surprised, I was disappointed, and I didn't feel that it worked.

So, yeah. Your mileage may vary, but this book did not win me over.

Charles Stross: The Annihilation Score, completed January 25

I wanted something a bit more light-hearted after the previous book, but not, apparently, too much so. Charles Stross's "Laundry Files" series is set against a backdrop of cosmic horror and the looming end of the world, but also of British governmental bureaucracy, out of which he can usually pull of a fair amount of humour, as well as humanity. The main protagonist of the series is Bob Howard (named in honour of Robert E. Howard, inventor of Conan and friend of Lovecraft), computational demonologist, and the books in turn have paid tribute to a lot of different sources--James Bond, vampires, American evangelical megachurches, and--in this book--superheroes. But also, in this book, Bob is not our narrator; instead, we get his wife, Mo, in the fallout of a scene in the previous book (which we get from her POV here) with dire implications for their relationship…which has always been kind of a three-way between Bob, Mo, and Mo's soul-eating sentient violin, and this triangle has now come to a crisis. Plus there's superheroes.

Stross notes in the introduction that he never really read American superhero comics, so he had to pick a few brains about them, but the book really isn't about American superheroes either; he references the British superhero anthology series "Temps" (which I never did manage to read, since I only managed to find the second book, but now I feel like I should check out) as contrasted with the "Wild Cards" series.

All in all it's pretty decent, with lots of witty read-aloud bits, but the pacing is odd; there's a lot of plotlines, and some of them don't seem to progress for a long time. Some of them turn out to be red herrings, I guess, but overall it doesn't gel as well as it could. We don't see much of Bob (which makes sense since this isn't his book), though Mo is a perfectly fine protagonist. I'll be fine going back to Bob for the next book. If I can ever find it.

See, apparently this is the last book in the series I own right now, and probably the next one, The Nightmare Stacks, came and went while I was behind on reading it, and now it's out of print (and possibly never had a mass-market release at all, which is still my preferred format) and seems like it'll be hard to find in any physical format. I mean, I went on a site which allows you to search indie and second-hand bookstores, and the title didn't even come up on search. I have long been resisting switching wholeheartedly over to ebooks (a transition my wife has already made), but I can see that at some point I may have to get used to the fact that ebooks are just replacing mass-market paperbacks for the cheap release format. (I still can't manage to bring myself to spend as much as $8, let alone $12 or more, for an ebook, though. Like…what am I paying for? The publishing costs are minuscule compared to physical copies, and I expect that saving to be passed on to me. I guess I don't know if the extra is being passed on to the author in a non-self-published situation, but given our current corporate hellscape I'm gonna say probably not. Note: if you think this makes me a horrible person who hates writers to make money, please remember that I am married to a writer who I would love to make enough money that I don't have to work, but the publishing industry is horrible and they're the ones that actually have the capability to allow writers to make enough money to make a living, and they're not doing it, so I don't know what to tell you. I've bought thousands of books in my life, even if I don't go out of my way to buy the most expensive ones, because that's a good way to go broke. Get off my back, person I made up for this parenthetical aside.)

Martha Wells: System Collapse, completed January 28

I may be the last person in my house to have read Murderbot. My wife had already read some of Martha Wells earlier books (Raksura series, I want to say) before she read the Murderbot novells, and she loved them and read them to/got our kids to read them too. I eventually scheduled one in (novellas are good when I'm behind on my Goodreads challenge) and…it was okay, I guess? And I kept reading them because, well, more novellas. Last year I read the first novel-length story, Network Effect, and I liked it somewhat better than the novellas, for whatever reason.

I had been putting off the latest one for a little while, though, partly because of my Vorkosigan reread--I generally don't like books that are too close in genre too close together, and they're both kinda space opera-ish, though quite different kinds (Murderbot's future is more corporate-dominated), but next up I'm taking a break for a Dick Francis reread, so I thought I might as well put it in now. Though I've got to say that, since we have it as a physical hardcover as opposed to the digital novella ebooks, I'm really not a big fan of the texture of the dust jacket. Like, it is physically unpleasant to touch, being just a little bit rough. But not as bad as some I'd run across in the past few years, so I don't have to, like, take off the dust jacket to read it.

In the end I didn't like it as well as Network Effect, though I did like the middle bit where Murderbot becomes a Youtube influencer. The early part of the book, Murderbot is in a bit of a depressive state and not fun to read, like the first part of "Order of The Phoenix" or something. I guess if a character is too hypercompetent then nothing challenges them, but I wasn't a big fan of the emotional arc.

Dick Francis: Forfeit, completed January 31

I remember precisely where I was when I first heard of Dick Francis. See, I went to this convention in Edmonton in the summer of 1989, "ConText '89". It was an important convention--a reader-oriented rather than media-dominated SF/Fantasy convention, for one thing, and also it resulted in the formation of the first SF/Fantasy writer's organization in Canada, currently named SF Canada. Oh, and also, I met a cute girl there (Nicole, a YA author guest from northern Alberta), started dating, fell in love, got married, had three kids, and we're still married today.

I also saw this posting for a writing course out at a place called the Black Cat Guest Ranch, in the Rockies near Hinton, and decided to go. There I met Candas Jane Dorsey (who was the instructor for the course) and several other writers, and we later formed a writers' group called The Cult of Pain which is still going to this day. Anyway, I went out for a second course there, with Nicole coming along this time (though we may not have technically been dating and didn't share a room)--I think it was in mid-February sometime--and one evening we were all hanging out in the outdoor hot tub, watching snowflakes melt over our heads, and talking about books. And Candas and Nicole started rhapsodizing about this guy named Dick Francis. I said, "Who?" And they both told me I had to go read him, like, right away.

Dick Francis, apparently, was a former steeplechase jockey turned mystery/thriller writer. Now, mysteries and thrillers were not really my thing--I was into the SF & fantasy--but I supposed I was willing to try it. I was in university and trying to read other stuff outside my comfort zone, like Thomas Hardy and The Brothers Karamazov and William S. Burroughs, so why not. Plus, I wanted my girlfriend to like me. And the first one I picked up was one that one of my roommates had lying around, called Forfeit. It was pretty decent, and I went on to others--Nicole had a copy of Nerve, and I soon started to pick up more--and eventually read almost all of them (a few proved elusive, but I tracked down a copy of Smokescreen not long ago…).

Every book was concerned in some way with horse racing, but there was a wide variety--sometimes the main character was a jockey, but sometimes that was just their side hustle, and they had another profession, or sometimes they did something else like train horses or transport horses, or paint pictures of horses, or they didn't do anything about horses but the romantic interest did… He covered a lot of different professions over his books, they were usually quite interesting, and his characters were always very well-drawn. After his wife Mary (apparently an uncredited frequent collaborator and researcher) died, there was a gap of a few years before he started writing them with his son Felix. I think I read all of those ones, but after he died and Felix started writing solo novels, I haven't really kept up on those ones.

Instead, a few years ago I decided I was going to reread all the books, in publication order, interspersed with my series rereads as I was already doing with Discworld and Star Trek books. Forfeit is his seventh published book…and when I went to look for it on my shelf, I discovered that I actually didn't own a copy, and probably never had. I had just borrowed it from my roommate, and then given it back (a rookie mistake). Was it in print? Of course not, don't be silly. I had managed to find a used copy of Smokescreen online, as I mentioned, but for Forfeit there was only more expensive trade paperbacks, or $8 ebooks. They didn't even have it at the library! Except, well, they did…but I'd have to interlibrary loan it. I went back on forth on which to try to do, and eventually went ILL, and it came in for me at the library on the 20th. So there, overpriced ebooks. (And person I made up for the earlier parenthetical aside.)

Dick Francis novels have turned to be pretty rereadable, because they're not primarily mysteries of the sort where you don't remember which of the suspects is guilty; they're mysteries where the main character has to figure out who's behind the crimes and then avoid getting killed by them. Some of it is competency porn as they use their special skills to solve problems. And some of it just because of the engaging characters, which are maybe not quite all the way there in the earlier books (the ones I've reread so far are still books from the 60s, so the female characters could be more nuanced). In Forfeit what I recalled from that first read (some 34 years ago) was that the main character was a sportswriter, it started with one of his colleagues killing himself, and his wife was disabled and bedridden. (And one exciting scene in the middle of the book in which spoilers.) Though it turned out I was conflating two suicide openings (Nerve also starts with one, a gunshot suicide on the first page, whereas Forfeit's is more falling out of a window), and the exciting scene is missing an element I was sure was there.

So that's eight books in one month, which is basically enough to keep up on my Goodreads challenge, but I also managed to squeeze in a couple more on the side track. First of all, there was my brother's book, Paths of Pollen, which came out last year; my mom went to the book launch in Toronto and brought back a signed copy for me. As one might expect, it talks about honeybees (and the time he was working on our stepfather's apiary), but covers a lot of pollen details I didn't know, about all the other bees, beetles, butterflies, insects, and other animals that also do pollination. It's a sobering look at how plants reproduce and how we're screwing it up in a lot of cases. (I hadn't realized before how much insects use pollen as food…somehow I thought they were nectar-eaters and they just picked up pollen because the plants forced them too, but I guess it makes sense that they also eat it.)

Then there was another one of the Love & Rockets ebook bundle that I've been going through. This volume, Esperanza, is around the latest stuff I read in the Love & Rockets Vol. 2 comics (which I have only read once or twice), so it's fairly unfamiliar to me. Despite it being named after Esperanza "Hopey" Glass, most of the book seems to revolve around Vivian, a.k.a. Frogmouth, a hot, buxom woman with an unfortunate voice, who both Maggie and Ray are lusting after, despite her problematic relationships with some violent criminals. Ray and Maggie do meet up again briefly; Maggie's working as an apartment superintendent, Hopey's working in a bar but trying to get into a teaching assistant job, surreal things happen with Izzy, Doyle's around as well, and we see brief glimpses of Maggie's sister Esther. It was interesting but I didn't find it altogether compelling.

With ten books for January, that means I'm really read up to 36.5 days into the year, or February 5th, so I'm a little bit ahead. I'll be taking advantage of this to start off February with a longer book, for my female diversity slot--Fonda Lee's Jade Legacy, to wrap up that series. More about that next month, of course…

[just-a-bookish-reader]

Upcoming Posts

Review of In These Hallowed Halls (ARC) (⭐⭐⭐)

Review of Murder Your Employer (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐)

Readathons (each will get their own dedicated post)

Up next tbr

Books I'm excited for (coming out 2023-2024)

Academia related novels/series I plan to read around August-end of September

Spooky/Gothic/Horror/Dark Fantasy/Other Halloween Vibes books I plan to read around September-end of October

Cozy books I plan to read after December 16 (I graduate my undergrad then so I probably won't have any list for November)

These posts won't necessarily come out in this order nor soon (ie: spooky gothic list will probably come out closer to september) and I will try to remember to update this post as needed with others!

[porterdavis]

Preaching to the choir

Here are quotes from the people who know Donald Trump best:

Mike Pence — Trump's Vice President

“It should come as no surprise that I will not be endorsing Donald Trump this year.”

Mark Esper — Trump's Secretary of Defense

“Trump is not fit for office because he puts himself first and I think anybody running for office should put the country first.”

James Mattis — Trump's Secretary of Defense

“Trump's use of the Presidency to destroy trust in our election and to poison our respect for fellow citizens has been enabled by pseudo political leaders whose names will live in infamy as profiles in cowardice. Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people - does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us.”

John Kelly — Trump's Chief of Staff

“Trump is a person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about. He's a person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators. A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law.”

Mick Mulvaney — Trump's Chief of Staff

“I am working hard to make sure that someone else is the nominee.”

Mark Milley — Trump's Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

“Trump is a wannabe dictator. We don't take an oath to an individual. We take an oath to the Constitution, and we take an oath to the idea that is America - and we're willing to die to protect it.”

John Bolton — Trump's National Security Advisor

“There will be celebrations in the Kremlin if Trump is elected in November. Putin thinks that he is an easy mark. Donald Trump wants Americans to treat him like North Koreans treat Kim Jong Un. Get ready.”

Cassidy Hutchinson — Trump's Assistant to Chief of Staff

“If Trump is elected president again in 2024, I do fear that it will be the last election where we're voting for democracy because, if he is elected again, I don't think we'll be voting under the same Constitution.”

Stephanie Grisham — Chief of Staff to Trump's Wife Melania

“I did not vote for Trump in 2020.”

Sarah Matthews — Trump's Deputy Press Secretary

“Trump has a history of making unhinged comments. He helped incite a deadly insurrection on our nation's Capitol.”

Anthony Scaramucci — Trump's Director of Communications

“Trump's going to make things rougher for people. He has already said he's going after his adversaries using the Department of Justice. When someone's telling you they're going to flex and be a dictator on day one and go after their adversaries, this is against the 200+ year experiment of America.”

Alyssa Farah Griffin — Trump's Director of Strategic Communications

“The reason that I cannot in good conscience endorse Donald Trump this year also has to do with the fact that he is walking away. Not just from keeping faith with the constitution on January 6th, but also from a commitment to fiscal responsibility, a commitment to the sanctity of life, a commitment to American leadership in the world.”

Bill Barr — Trump's Attorney General

“I have made clear that I strongly oppose Trump for the nomination and will not endorse Trump. One of the reasons I'm against Trump as the nominee is I don't think he's going to move the country forward.”

HR McMaster — Trump's National Security Advisor

“It would be terribly divisive for our country for Trump to run again.”

Take it from those who know him best!

[cardinalcringe]

(And in case you don’t have a NYT subscription, here they all are):

“We don’t take an oath to a country. We don’t take an oath to a tribe. We don’t take an oath to a king or a queen, or to a tyrant or a dictator. And we don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator.” - Mark Milley

“The president has very little understanding of what it means to be in the military, to fight ethically or to be governed by a uniform set of rules and practices.” - Richard Spencer

“President trump and other officials have repeatedly compromised our principles in pursuit of partisan advantage and personal gain.” - HR McMaster

“Donald trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people- does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort.” - James Mattis

“ I have a lot of concerns about Donald trump. I have said that he’s a threat to democracy.” - Mark Esper

“ a person who admires autocrats and murderers dictators. A person who has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law.”- John Kelly

“ I think the events of the capital, however, they occurred, were shocking. And it was something that, as I mentioned in my statement, I cannot put aside.”- Elaine Chao

“Unfortunately, the actions and rhetoric following the election, especially during this past week, threaten to tarnish these and other historical legacies of this administration. The attacks on the Capital were an assault on our democracy, and on the tradition of peaceful transitions of power of the United States of America, brought to the world.”- Alex Azar

“Moron.” - Rex Tillerson (re: trump, repeatedly)

“It’s more than just a bunch of papers and what big deal is this and so forth. Lives can be lost.” - Dan Coats

“I didn’t feel he did what he needed to do to stop what was happening.” -Betsy DeVos (a stupid bitch overall, but still right)

“It will always be, ‘Oh, yeah, you work for the guy who tried to overtake the government.’” - Mick Mulvaney

“The fact of the matter is he is a consummate, narcissist, and he constantly engages in reckless conduct that puts his political followers at risk and the conservative and Republican agenda at risk.” -Bill Barr

“By the time I left the White House, I was convinced he was not fit to be president… I think it is a danger for the United States if he gets a second term.” -John Bolton

“We need more seriousness, less noise, and leaders who are looking forward, not staring in the rearview mirror claiming victimhood.” - Mike Pompeo

“He asked me to put him over the Constitution, and I chose the Constitution, and I always will.” - Mike Pence

“He went down a path he shouldn’t have, and we shouldn’t have followed him, and we shouldn’t have listened to him. And we can’t let that ever happen again.” - Nikki Haley

Stupid. Selfish. Divisive. Authoritarian. Unserious. Tyrant. Professional Victim. Insurrectionist. Narcissist. Dangerous. Moron.

Trump’s best people sum him up.

[vote-democrat-president-congress]

"In any election, it’s hard to know whose word to trust. And in a polarized country, many Americans distrust any information that comes from the other side of the political divide. That’s why the criticism of Donald Trump by those who served with him in the White House and by members of his own party is so striking. Dozens of people who know him well, including the 91 listed here, have raised alarms about his character and fitness for office — his family and friends, world leaders and business associates, his fellow conservatives and his political appointees — even though they had nothing to gain from doing so. Some have even spoken out at the expense of their own careers or political interests.

The New York Times editorial board has made its case that Mr. Trump is unfit to lead. But the strongest case against him may come from his own people. For those Americans who are still tempted to return him to the presidency or to not vote in November, it is worth considering the assessment of Mr. Trump by those who have seen him up close.

Administration insiders:

He will always put his own interests and gratifying his own ego ahead …”

Bill Barr

He was extremely vulnerable to manipulation.”

Fiona Hill

… he was getting input from people who were calling him up, I don’t know who ...”

Anthony Fauci

… undermined American democracy baselessly …”

Thomas P. Bossert

He doesn’t take responsibility for the bad news …”

David Lapan

… says a whole lot more about him than it will ever say about Asian Americans.”

Elaine Chao

… equality and freedom can never be equated with white supremacists …”

Gary Cohn

His behavior had grown increasingly erratic and unnerving.”

Betsy DeVos

The F.B.I. is under attack by the president of the United States.”

Andrew McCabe

A person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators.”

John Kelly

Sometimes it’s just better to steer clear of him.”

Anthony Scaramucci

… I do regard him as a threat to democracy …”

Mark Esper

Trump’s temperament wasn’t rational …”

Cassidy Hutchinson

… doesn’t know the difference between the truth and a lie …”

Dan Coats

… he tries to divide us.”

James Mattis

… loyalty was mostly a one-way street.”

Cliff Sims

… I think he’s a terrible human being.”

Mick Mulvaney

… caused direct harm …”

Deborah Birx

… very little understanding of what it means to be in the military …”

Richard Spencer

… the most reckless and deadly piece of information I have ever heard.”

Rick Bright

Literally everything I’ve tried to do on cutting drug costs, you have killed it.”

Alex Azar

… played to Trump’s ego and insecurities with flattery.”

H.R. McMaster

… flashbacks to my earlier career as a prosecutor against the Mob.”

James Comey

The turnover suggested instability and disorganization to our adversaries …”

Mike Pompeo

… renders coherent foreign policy almost unattainable.”

John Bolton

He is wholly unfit to be in office.”

Alyssa Farah Griffin

… a huge violation of your most important oath …”

Marc Short

He has built up a DNA of defensiveness.”

Sean Spicer

You are using the military to create fear in the minds of the people …”

Mark Milley

… Anyone that puts themselves over the Constitution should never be president …”

Mike Pence

… not consistent with our national security objectives.”

Rex Tillerson

Trump relentlessly … puts forth claims that simply are not true.”

Ty Cobb

The root of the problem is the president’s amorality …”

Miles Taylor

Do you think Trump wants a guy to win after him?”

Steve Bannon

… He’s saying some crazy shit.”

Don McGahn

… They are loyal to no one.”

Stephanie Grisham

The Trumps & Trump Inc.

You can’t trust him.”

Maryanne Trump Barry

… a cheat, a liar, a fraud, a bully …”

Michael Cohen

‘I wanna do what I wanna do’ … ”

Fred Trump III

Trump does not have the temperament …”

Kwame Jackson

He pushed me up against the wall …”

Jill Harth

…actually a racist.”

Omarosa Manigault Newman

Honest work was never demanded of him …”

Mary L. Trump

… the competition reality show set about an American fraud …”

Bill Pruitt

… the hint of menace beneath the surface …”

Gwenda Blair

Our job was to make him look legitimate …”

Jonathon Braun

If you disagreed with Donald, he put you out of his inner circle.”

Randal Pinkett

Republican politicians

He is a coward.”

Dick Cheney

This man is a pathological liar.”

Ted Cruz

He's a race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot.”

Lindsey Graham

There is nothing ‘conservative’ about Donald Trump.”

Adam Kinzinger

The cheapest S.O.B. I’ve ever met in my life.”

Chris Christie

He’s not loyal.”

Justin Amash

He sought a coup by misleading people with lies.”

Arnold Schwarzenegger

… Power, revenge and retribution is his real motivation …”

Denver Riggleman

Reckless, outrageous and undignified behavior …”

Jeff Flake

The healing of the Republican Party cannot begin with Trump as president …”

Geoff Duncan

… taking advantage of the trust placed in him by his supporters …”

John Boehner

He is a con artist.”

Marco Rubio

… a weakening of our shared American values …”

John Kasich

I think he’s toxic for the Republican Party and for the country.”

Larry Hogan

He’s willing to significantly undermine them …”

Bob Corker

There has never been a greater betrayal by a president …”

Liz Cheney

… an intensifying crescendo of conspiracy theories …”

Mitch McConnell

He should have immediately denounced the mob …”

Kevin McCarthy

… the most expensive and least effective way to do border security …”

Will Hurd

… not decency, not truth, not character, not integrity …”

Bill Weld

He tried to violently overthrow our government.”

Joe Walsh

… We shouldn’t have listened to him.”

Nikki Haley

… bitterness, combativeness and self-interest.”

Charlie Baker

Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud.”

Mitt Romney

… will spend the entire campaign whining about his legal troubles …”

Chris Sununu

… requires the kind of character he just doesn’t have.”

Paul Ryan

Conservative voices

He built a wall of lies …”

Charlie Sykes

If someone says something nice about him, they are our friend …”

Henry Kissinger

He wasn’t motivated by what he didn’t know.”

Hugh Hewitt

… corroded and corrupted American democracy …”

J. Michael Luttig

This is not leadership our country needs.”

Bob Vander Plaats

… We need a new standard-bearer.”

Erick Erickson

Lying is Trump’s toxic superpower.”

Rich Logis

… a floundering, inarticulate jumble of gnawing insecurities …”

George Will

Trump might be the greatest charlatan of them all.”

L. Brent Bozell III

World leaders

… I can't understand how Donald Trump can be on the side of Putin.”

Volodymyr Zelensky

A frightened dog barks louder.”

Kim Jong-un

… stands for a great division in the country.”

Olaf Scholz

… If there is a second time, it won’t be easy …”

Justin Trudeau

I deeply regret that President Trump has not conceded defeat …”

Angela Merkel

Where has our role model for democracy gone?”

Kazuyoshi Akaba

… clearly a threat.”

Christine Lagarde

… President Trump radiates insecurity.”

Kim Darroch

He’s a show-off.”

Mauricio Macri

[tomoleary]

Kelly Freas (1922-2005) “Labyrinth” by Lois McMaster Bujold Science Fiction Analog cover (August 1989) Source

“Illustrates the 4-armed musician character Nicol”

[the-psudo]

Trump's People

“The American people deserve to know that President Trump asked me to put him over my oath to the Constitution. … Anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be president of the United States.” — Mike Pence, Trump's vice president

“Someone who engaged in that kind of bullying about a process that is fundamental to our system and to our self-government shouldn’t be anywhere near the Oval Office.” — Bill Barr, Trump's 2nd attorney general

“Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us.” — James Mattis, Trump's 1st secretary of defense

“I think he’s unfit for office. … He puts himself before country. His actions are all about him and not about the country. And then, of course, I believe he has integrity and character issues as well.” — Mark Esper, Trump's 2nd secretary of defense

“We don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator. We take an oath to the Constitution and we take an oath to the idea that is America – and we’re willing to die to protect it.” — retired Gen. Mark Milley, Trump's chairman of the joint chiefs

“(Trump’s) understanding of global events, his understanding of global history, his understanding of US history was really limited. It’s really hard to have a conversation with someone who doesn’t even understand the concept for why we’re talking about this.” — Rex Tillerson, Trump's secretary of state

“He used to be good on foreign policy and now he has started to walk it back and get weak in the knees when it comes to Ukraine. A terrible thing happened on January 6, and he called it a beautiful day.” — Nikki Haley, Trump's 1st ambassador to the United Nations

“Someone who I would argue now is just out for himself.” — Chris Christie, Trump's presidential transition vice-chairman

“We saw the absence of leadership, really anti-leadership, and what that can do to our country.” — HR McMaster, Trump's 2nd national security adviser

“I believe (foreign leaders) think he is a laughing fool.” — John Bolton, Trump's 3rd national security adviser

“A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law. There is nothing more that can be said. God help us.” — John Kelly, Trump's 2nd chief of staff

“I quit because I think he failed at being the president when we needed him to be that.” — Mick Mulvaney, Trump's acting chief of staff and US special envoy to Ireland, resigned after January 6th, 2021

“He is the domestic terrorist of the 21st century.” — Anthony Scaramucci, one of Trump's former communications directors

“I am terrified of him running in 2024.” — Stephanie Grisham, another former communications director

“When I saw what was happening on January 6 and didn’t see the president step in and do what he could have done to turn it back or slow it down or really address the situation, it was just obvious to me that I couldn’t continue.” — Betsy DeVos, Trump's secretary of education, resigned after January 6th, 2021

“At a particular point the events were such that it was impossible for me to continue, given my personal values and my philosophy." — Elaine Chao, Trump's secretary of Transportation, resigned after January 6th, 2021

“…the president has very little understanding of what it means to be in the military, to fight ethically or to be governed by a uniform set of rules and practices.” — Richard Spencer, Trump's 1st secretary of the Navy

“The President undermined American democracy baselessly for months. As a result, he’s culpable for this siege, and an utter disgrace.” — Tom Bossert, Trump's 1st homeland security adviser

“Donald’s an idiot.” — Michael Cohen, Trump's former personal lawyer and fixer

“Trump relentlessly puts forth claims that are not true.” — Ty Cobb, Trump's White House lawyer

“We can stand by the policies, but at this point we cannot stand by the man.” — Alyssa Farah Griffin, one of Trump's directors of strategic communications, now a CNN political commentator

“Donald Trump, who would attack civil rights icons and professional athletes, who would go after grieving black widows, who would say there were good people on both sides, who endorsed an accused child molester; Donald Trump, and his decisions and his behavior, was harming the country. I could no longer be a part of this madness.” — Omarosa Manigault Newman, a top aide in charge of Trump's outreach to African Americans

“I thought that he did do a lot of good during his four years. I think that his actions on January 6 and the lead-up to it, the way that he’s acted in the aftermath, and his continuation of pushing this lie that the election is stolen has made him wholly unfit to hold office every again.” — Sarah Matthews, one of Trump's deputy press secretaries, resigned after January 6th, 2021

“I think that Donald Trump is the most grave threat we will face to our democracy in our lifetime, and potentially in American history.” — Cassidy Hutchinson, Trump's final chief of staff’s aide

[mariacallous]

NATO has safeguarded U.S. and trans-Atlantic security for 75 years, under Democratic and Republican presidents alike. Could NATO survive a second Donald Trump administration? Most likely not—at least not with the United States as a committed ally and alliance leader. That would pose serious challenges for the European part of the alliance.

Trump’s skepticism about NATO

Trump’s skepticism of allies and alliances dates back well more than three decades. He believes they impose an outsized budgetary burden on the United States, for which it is not “paid.” Further, he believes allies use their defense savings to bolster their industries, out-compete the United States in trade, and take American jobs.

Trump’s views seemed to change little when he assumed the responsibilities of the presidency. At his first NATO meeting in 2017, he complained that allies did not devote 2% of their gross domestic product to defense, a goal NATO leaders had set as a target to meet by 2024 (more than two-thirds of allies will hit that target this year). At a 2018 alliance summit, Trump reportedly asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Advisor John Bolton: “Should we make history here and pull out of NATO?”

Trump did not endorse Article 5 of NATO’s 1949 Washington Treaty, also known as the North Atlantic Treaty, which states that an attack against one “shall be considered an attack against them all.” Reaffirming Article 5 is something American presidents ritualistically do, in part because Article 5 does not commit allies to a specific action. However, American presidents other than Trump made clear the United States would come to the aid of an attacked ally with U.S. military force. That bolsters deterrence.

Trump has signaled something very different. In February, he told a campaign rally that he had warned allies that, if they did not pay up, he would “absolutely not” defend them, adding “I would encourage [the Russians] to do whatever the hell they want.”

Trump does not appear to share other presidents’ view that the United States has a vital national interest in a stable and secure Europe, which NATO helps to ensure. Further, bases in Europe allow the U.S. military to forward-deploy forces closer to hot spots in the Middle East and Africa (United States Africa Command, for example, is headquartered in Germany). And NATO has invoked Article 5 only once in its history: in defense of the United States after 9/11. More than 1,000 NATO troops died in Afghanistan fighting alongside their American comrades. They were there only because they were U.S. allies.

On the other hand, Trump seems to have an affinity for autocrats, and for Russian President Vladimir Putin in particular. He has rarely criticized Putin, whose war on Ukraine has blown up Europe’s security.

The fact that the Trump administration nevertheless bolstered the U.S. military presence in Europe and increased sanctions on Russia should offer little assurances. As president, Trump showed a weak grasp of how the U.S. government works and of how to turn his views into policy. Moreover, advisors such as retired generals John Kelly (White House chief of staff), H.R. McMaster (national security advisor), and Jim Mattis (secretary of defense) worked to soften his worst impulses.

Policy and players in a second Trump administration

Things would almost certainly play out differently in a second term in which Trump’s instinctive skepticism about NATO, affinity for Putin, and disdain for Ukraine would take charge. His campaign website says the United States should “finish the process we began under my Administration of fundamentally reevaluating NATO’s purpose and NATO’s mission.” That is oddly timed when Moscow has launched the bloodiest war in Europe since World War II, and NATO is as important as ever for deterring and containing Russia.

Plans have been developed to translate Trump’s views into policy. The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 section on Europe offers three visions for dealing with Russia1, two of which would appear to lessen the U.S. commitment to NATO, and leaves it to the president to decide. Trump almost certainly would choose one of those two.

A briefing paper that reportedly got attention in Trump’s inner circle argued that the United States should adopt a “dormant NATO” policy. That would mean shifting the primary defense burden to European allies while America served as an offshore “balancer of last resort.” That diminution of the U.S. role in NATO appears to mesh well with Trump’s thinking.

Lists are being prepared of potential officials to implement those policies. The lists will not include the likes of Kelly, McMaster, and Mattis, but people such as Richard Grenell and Elbridge Colby. Grenell, who served as Trump’s ambassador to Germany, has been described as transactional and isolationist; in 2020, he pushed for a drawdown of U.S. troops in Germany because the Germans had not met the 2% defense spending target, a target that NATO had agreed should be met by 2024 (and which Germany hit this year). Colby argues for a China-first policy that would leave little room for the U.S. commitment to NATO.

Moreover, today’s Republican Party is no longer the party of Ronald Reagan and John McCain. While some Republican senators and members of Congress support a strong U.S. presence in NATO, few have shown any readiness to challenge Trump, who has firmly locked down his position as GOP leader. In fact, quite the opposite. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has consistently supported NATO and Ukraine, recently penned an op-ed entitled “We Cannot Repeat the Mistakes of the 1930s.” However, he has endorsed Trump, whose America First views echo precisely those mistakes. In any case, McConnell will step down from his leadership position in November.

Bolton has flatly predicted: “In a second Trump term, we’d almost certainly withdraw from NATO.” The 2024 National Defense Authorization Act includes a provision requiring two-thirds Senate approval for a decision to leave NATO. However, it is not clear that would survive a legal challenge. Even if Trump did not formally withdraw, he could draw down U.S. forces in Europe and, if it came to it, simply ignore Article 5.

Views of NATO allies in Europe

Allied leaders already have reason to doubt Trump’s commitment to the alliance. If Trump wins in November and Putin shares that doubt, the security risk for Europe would grow significantly.

NATO leaders understandably view the prospect of Trump’s return with trepidation and privately talk of “Trump-proofing” the alliance while considering ways to persuade the former president of NATO’s value. That trepidation is a factor that has helped boost defense spending by European NATO members—as a way to demonstrate that Europe is taking on a greater share of the burden but also as a hedge against a Trump decision to downgrade the U.S. commitment to the alliance. Some European officials have reached out to Trump; those efforts have not had an evident effect.

Were Trump to win in November and then reduce the U.S. commitment, a number of challenges would confront European NATO members. First, Ukraine. Trump recently reiterated that he would end U.S. support. That would mean a greater financial burden on Europe, but Europe alone lacks the defense industrial capacity to meet Ukraine’s needs, at least in the near term.

Second, Russia. NATO’s European members collectively have an economy many times larger than Russia’s. They would need time, however, to turn that into hard military power and would face a particular struggle making up for enablers now provided by the U.S. military, such as intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets; heavy airlift; and long-range strike capabilities such as conventionally-armed air- and sea-launched cruise missiles.

Third, the nuclear dimension. Were Trump to fold the nuclear umbrella the United States extends over NATO, could the nuclear forces of Britain and France suffice to protect all European members of the alliance? The possible end of the American extended deterrent has even prompted a discussion in Berlin about a German need for nuclear arms.

Fourth, NATO leadership on major questions traditionally has come from Washington. If the United States under Trump were to withdraw, as Bolton predicted, or just dramatically cut back its role, who would take up the leadership mantle?

European members of the alliance must further build their militaries and continue to take on a greater share of the defense burden for Europe, particularly as the United States has to deal with a rising China in the Indo-Pacific region. That shift is already well underway: non-U.S. members of NATO (European members plus Canada) accounted for about 27% of total NATO member defense spending in 2014; in 2024, that figure had risen to about 36%. The problem is that even that kind of increase likely would not prove enough for Trump—who has suggested that allies devote 4% of GDP to defense—and that, if reelected, he would move abruptly to scale back the U.S. role in the alliance. NATO absent a strong U.S. commitment in a second Trump administration would be a very different—and considerably weaker—organization.

There is a small chance that Trump, who often seems uninterested in specific policies, might leave NATO alone. Even in that event, however, could Europe count on the mercurial and unpredictable former president when the chips were down? It would not appear to be a good bet.

[audikatia]

I'll be honest, it was a lot of rereads this year because 1) I love rereading favs and 2) so many of the new books I read this year were just eh.

Total list with ratings below:

Wise Gals: The Spies Who Built the CIA and Changed the Future of Espionage by Nathalia Holt ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Maid by Nita Prose ⭐️⭐️

Book Lovers by Emily Henry ⭐️⭐️

Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Agent Josephine: American Beauty, French Beauty, British Spy by Damien Lewis ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Any Way the Wind Blows by Rainbow Rowell ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Pallbearer’s Club by Paul Tremblay ⭐️⭐️

Harry Potter and the Art of Spying by Lynn M. Boughey ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Golden Boys by Phil Stamper ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Honeys by Ryan La Sala ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The 99 Boyfriends of Micah Summers by Adam Sass ⭐️

Teen Titans: Beast Boy Loves Raven by Kami Garcia and Gabriel Picolo ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Teen Titans: Robin by Kami Garcia and Gabriel Picolo ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Bad Gays: a Homosexual History by Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

My Dearest Darkest by Kayla Cottingham ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Woman in the Window by A. J. Finn ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han ⭐️⭐️

It’s Not Summer Without You by Jenny Han ⭐️⭐️

We’ll Always Have Summer by Jenny Han ⭐️⭐️

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Seige and Storm by Leigh Bardugo ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Rise and Ruin by Leigh Bardugo ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Everyone in My Family has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels, and Crooks by Patrick Raddon Keefe ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Dead End Girls by Wendy Heard ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Bravely by Maggie Stiefvater ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Afterglow by Phil Stamper ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson ⭐️⭐️⭐️

As Good as Dead by Holly Jackson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Monster’s Bones: The Discovery of T. Rex and How It Shook Our World by David K. Randall ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Five Survive by Holly Jackson ⭐️⭐️

Spell Bound by F.T. Lukens ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide by Rupert Holmes ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Queer Principles of Kit Webb by Cat Sebastian ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Fake Dates and Mooncakes by Sher Lee ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Any Way the Wind Blows by Rainbow Rowell ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

All the Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

When Brooklyn was Queer by Hugh Ryan ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Something Wild and Wonderful by Anita Kelly ⭐️⭐️

Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Real Queer America: LGBT Stories from Red States by Samantha Allen ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Only One Left by Riley Sager ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Opal by Maggie Stiefvater ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

So This is Ever After by F.T. Lukens ⭐️⭐️⭐️

One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

One of Us is Next by Karen M. McManus ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

One of Us is Back by Karen M. McManus ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Liar City by Allie Therin ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

In Deeper Waters by F.T. Lukens ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Red White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The World Without Us by Alan Weisman ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Seriously, Murder? by Monica Hoopes ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Awakening by Kate Chopin ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Drift by C. J. Tudor ⭐️⭐️

Scones and Scofflaws by Jane Gorman ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune ⭐️⭐️

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Ten Things That Never Happened by Alexis Hall ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Wolfsong by TJ Klune ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Funny You Should Ask by Elissa Sussman ⭐️⭐️

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix ⭐️⭐️

Small Favors by Erin A. Craig ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Foxhole Court by Nora Sakavic ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Raven King by Nora Sakavic ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

All the King’s Men by Nora Sakavic ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Christine by Stephen King ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Male Gazed by Manuel Betancourt ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Haunting of Alejandra by V. Castro ⭐️⭐️

Hemlock Island by Kelley Armstrong ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Vanishing Stair by Maureen Johnson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Hand on the Wall by Maureen Johnson ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Box in the Woods by Maureen Johnson ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Nine by Maureen Johnson ⭐️⭐️

The Iliad by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Art Thief by Michael Finkel ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Children on the Hill by Jennifer McMahon ⭐️⭐️

Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Gwen and Art are Not in Love by Lex Croucher ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

When Crack was King by Donovan X. Ramsey ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Slippery Creatures by K. J. Charles ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Sugared Game by K. J. Charles ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Subtle Blood by K. J. Charles ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Monsters by Claire Dederer ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Allergic by Theresa McPhail ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[accidentalspaceexplorer]

December Monthly Recap

I read more in December than I did in November, a good indicator of the holiday break and also my better mood and stress levels. My favorite book I read this month was A City on Mars, which was a really fascinating and intriguing nonfiction book about space travel and space settlement. My least favorite was A Night to Surrender, although it had a lot of competition (not the best reading month quality wise).

A City on Mars by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith: 5/5

A Delicate Deception by Cat Sebastian: 3/5

The Blue, Beautiful World by Karen Lord: 2.5/5

The Hallowed Hunt by Lois McMaster Bujold: 4.25/5

Witch Hat Atelier, Vol. 11 by Kamome Shirahama: 4.5/5

Vicious by V.E. Schwab: 4/5

Four Roads Cross by Max Gladstone: 4.75/5

Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros: 4.5/5

The Secret, Book, and Scone Society by Ellery Adams: 2.75/5

The Fiancee Farce by Alexandria Bellefleur: 5/5

A Night to Surrender by Tessa Dare: 2/5, dnf

Knit, Purl, a Baby and a Girl by Hettie Bell: 2.5/5

All the Hidden Paths by Foz Meadows: 4.5/5

The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England by Ian Mortimer: 4/5

And my final stats for my goals below the cut, although I'll talk about them again when I reflect on how they went:

23 in 2023: 18 [+1]

Read 100 books: 188/100 [+14]

Translated works: 5 [+1]

Physical TBR: 16 [+2]

Top of TBR: 8 [+1]

Books in Spanish: 7 [+0]

Read 40% AOC: 22.2% [-0.5%]

Discworld Books: 3 [+0]

Series: 32 started vs. 36 caught up/finished [+0/+5]

Storygraph recs: 2 | avg. 3.25/5 [+0]

Indigenous authors: 3 [+0]

[monkeyjaw]

Year in Review (by way of books) 2023

Books and Comics/Graphic Novels 2023

January

The Doubtful Guest – Edward Gorey (illustrated book/graphic novel)

The Promised Neverland: Volume 6 – Kaiu Shirai, Posuka Demizu(manga)

The City and the City – China Mieville

Sandman Volume 6: Fables and Reflections – Neil Gaiman, various artists (graphic novel)

Sandman Volume 7: Brief Lives – Neil Gaiman, Jill Thompson, Vince Locke (graphic novel)

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas – Frederick Douglas, read by Charles Turner

The Sandman Volume 8: World’s End – Neil Gaiman, various artists (graphic novel)

The Bartimaeus Trilogy 2: The Golem’s Eye – Jonathan Stroud

The Man Who Fell To Earth – Dan Watters, Dev Pramanik (graphic novel)

The Carpet People – Terry Pratchett, read by Stephen Briggs

Hikaru no Go Volume 15: Sayanara – Takeshi Obata, Yumi Hotta (manga)

Hikaru no Go Volume 16: The Chinese Go Association – Takeshi Obata, Yumi Hotta (manga)

Witch Hat Atelier Volume 1 – Kamome Shirahama (manga)

February

The Sandman Volume 9: The Kindly Ones – Neil Gaiman, Marc Hemple, various artists (graphic novel)

Titus Groan – Mervyn Peake, read by Simon Vance

Paper Girls Volume 3 – Brian K. Vaughan, Cliff Chiang (graphic novel)

Beastars Volume 1 – Paru Itagaki (manga)

Revenge of the Librarians – Tom Gauld (graphic novel)

Lucifer Volume 1: Devil in the Gateway – Mike Carey, Peter Gross (graphic novel)

Saint Young Men Volume 1 – Hikaru Nakamura (manga)

The Sandman Volume 10: The Wake – Neil Gaiman, Michael Zulli, Jon Muth, Charles Vess (graphic novel)

Hikaru no Go Volume 17: A Familiar Face – Takeshi Obata, Yumi Hotta (manga)

Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand – Helen Simonson

Beastars Volume 2 – Paru Itagaki (manga)

Woman World – Aminder Dhaliwal (graphic novel)

Black Paradox – Junji Ito (manga)

Beastars Volume 3 – Paru Itagaki (manga)

March

Lucifer Volume 2: Children & Monsters – Mike Carey, Peter Gross, Ryan Kelly (graphic novel)

Doomsday Book – Connie Willis, read by Jenny Sterlin

Moonshadow – J.M. DeMatteis, Jon J. Muth, Kent Williams (graphic novel)

The Magic Fish – Trung Le Nguyen (graphic novel)

Sleepless Volume 2 – Sarah Vaughn, Leila Del Luca (graphic novel)

The Monkey Prince Volume 1: Enter the Monkey – Gene Luen Yang, Bernard Chang (graphic novel)

Unbroken – Lauren Hillenbrand, read by Edward Hermann

Thrawn: Ascendancy 2: The Greater Good – Timothy Zahn, read by Marc Thompson

Thud! – Terry Pratchett, read by Stephen Briggs

April

Operation Mincemeat – Ben McIntyre

Beastars Volume 4 – Paru Itagaki (manga)

Parasyte Volume 2 – Hitoshi Iwaaki (manga)

Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand – Helen Simonson

The Promised Neverland Volume 7 – Kaiu Shirai, Posuka Demizu (manga)

Parasyte Volume 3 – Hitoshi Iwaaki (manga)

The Wheel of Time Bk 4: The Shadow Rising – Robert Jordan

Twig – Skottie Young, Skyle Strahm (graphic novel)

Spring Rain: a graphic memoir – Andy Warner (graphic novel)

The Multiversity – Grant Morrison, various artists (graphic novel)

The Promised Neverland Volume 8 – Kaiu Shirai, Posuka Demizu (manga)

Goldie Vance Volume 2 – Hope Larson, Jackie Ball, Brittney Williams (graphic novel)

Team of Rivals (Abridged) – Doris Kearns Goodwin, read by Richard Thomas

Stretching the Heavens – Terry L. Givens

May

The Promised Neverland Volume 9 – Kaiu Shirai, Posuka Demizu (manga)

Parasyte Volume 4 – Hitoshi Iwaaki (manga)

Parasyte Volume 5 – Hitoshi Iwaaki (manga)

Conan Volume 1 – Robert E. Howard, L. Sprage De Camp, Lin Carter

Parasyte Volume 6 – Hitoshi Iwaaki (manga)

The Promised Neverland Volume 10 – Kaiu Shirai, Posuka Demizu (manga)

Penric’s Demon – Lois McMaster Bujold, read by Grove Gardner

Kamen Rider: The Classic Manga Collection - Shōtarō Ishinomori, translated by Kumar Sivasubramanian (manga)

 Parasyte Volume 7 – Hitoshi Iwaaki (manga)

Shuna’s Journey – Hayao Miyazaki, translated by Alex Dudok de Wit (manga)

Parasyte Volume 8 – Hitoshi Iwaaki (manga)

Maggy Garrison – Lewis Trondheim, Stephane Oiry (graphic novel)

Double Cross – Ben McIntyre

The Promised Neverland Volume 11 – Kaiu Shirai, Posuka Demizu (manga)

June

The Promised Neverland Volume 12 – Kaiu Shirai, Posuka Demizu (manga)

The Promised Neverland Volume 13 – Kaiu Shirai, Posuka Demizu (manga)

My Hero Academia Volume 1 – Kohei Horikoshi (manga)

Think Again – Adam Grant

Adventure Game Comics Volume 1: Leviathan – Jason Shiga (graphic novel)

Ranma ½ Volume 35 – Rumiko Takahashi (manga)

Ranma ½ Volume 36 – Rumiko Takahashi (manga)

The Promised Neverland Volume 14 – Kaiu Shirai, Posuka Demizu (manga)

Thrawn Ascendancy Volume 3: Lesser Evil – Timothy Zahn, read by Marc Thompson

Leviathan Wakes – James S.A. Corey

The Man Without Talent – Yoshitsaru Tsuge (manga)

July

A Bride’s Story Volume 3 – Kaoru Mori (manga)

The Promised Neverland Volume 15 – Kaiu Shirai, Posuka Demizu (manga)

The Promised Neverland Volume 16 – Kaiu Shirai, Posuka Demizu (manga)

Almost American Girl – Robin Ha (graphic novel)

The Woman Who Smashed Codes – Jason Fagone

The Swamp – Yoshiharu Tsuge (manga)

The Wheel of Time Book 5: The Fires of Heaven – Robert Jordan

A Bride’s Story Volume 4 – Kaoru Mori (manga)

Pulp – Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips (graphic novel)

Locke & Key: Small World – Joe Hill, Gabriel Rodriguez (graphic novel)

Breaking Cat News – Georgia Dunn (graphic novel)

August

Labyrinth Coronation Vol 1 – Ryan Ferrier, Simon Spurrier, Daniel Bayliss (graphic novel)

A Bride’s Story Volume 5 – Kaoru Mori (manga)

Worst Journey In the World Volume 1 – Sara Airress (graphic novel)

Best American Comics 2016 – various artists, writers, edited by Roz Chast (graphic novel)

Labyrinth Coronation Volume 2 – Ryan Ferrier, Simon Spurrier, Daniel Bayliss (graphic novel)

Hikaru no Go Volume 19: One Step Forward! – Takeshi Obata, Yumi Hotta (manga)

Hikaru no Go Volume 20: The Young Lions – Takeshi Obata, Yumi Hotta (manga)

Thirsty Mermaids – Kat Leyh (graphic novel)

Criminal: Coward – Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips (graphic novel)

Parable of the Sower – Octavia E. Butler, read by Lynne Thigpen

Hikaru no Go Volume 21: Great Expectations – Takeshi Obata, Yumi Hotta (manga)

Hikaru no Go Volume 22: China vs. Japan – Takeshi Obata, Yumi Hotta (manga)

Hikaru no Go Volume 23: Endgame – Takeshi Obata, Yumi Hotta (manga)

Dead Boy Detectives Vol. 1: Schoolboy Terrors – Toby Litt, Mark Buckingham, Gary Erskine (graphic novel)

Dead Boy Detectives Vol 2: Ghost Snow – Toby Litt, Mark Buckingham, Gary Erskine (graphic novel)

Seek You – Kristen Radtke (graphic novel)

John Constantinte Hellblazer Volume 2: The Devil You Know – Jamie Delano, David Lloyd, Richard Piers Rayner (graphic novel)

September

Once & Future Volume 5: The Wasteland – Kieron Gillen, Dan Mora (graphic novel)

The Once and Future Witches – Alix Harrow

The Sandman Presents: The Deadboy Detectives – Ed Brubaker, Bryan Talbot, Steve Leialoha (graphic novel)

Batman: The Doom That Came To Gotham – Mike Mignola, Richard Pace, Troy Nixey, Dennis Janke (graphic novel)

Free Country: A Tale of the Children’s Crusade – Neil Gaiman, various writers, artists (graphic novel)

Man’s Search For Meaning – Victor E. Frankl, read by Simon Vance

John Constantine Hellblazer Volume 1: Original Sins – Jamie Delano, Mark Buckingham, Richard Piers Rayner (graphic novel)

Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? – Roz Chast (graphic novel)

Edge of Spider-Verse – Dan Slott, Jason Latour, various artists/writers (graphic novel)

Spider-Gwen Volume 1: Greater Power – Jason Latour, Robbi Rodriguez (graphic novel)

John Constatine Hellblazer Volume 3: The Fear Machine – Jamie Delano, Alfredo Alcala, Mark Buckingham, Mike Hoffman (graphic novel)

Cosmic Odyssey – Jim Starlin, Mike Mignola, Carlos Garzon (graphic novel)

October

The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. –edited by Clayborne Carson, read by LeVar Burton

Spider-Women – Robbie Thompson, Jason Latour, various artists (graphic novel)

Spider-Gwen Volume 2: Weapon of Choice – Jason Latour, Robbi Rodriguez (graphic novel)

Gender Queer – Maia Kubata (graphic novel)

Black Orchid Book 1 – Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean (graphic novel)

Black Orchid Book 2 – Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean (graphic novel)

Black Orchid Book 3 – Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean (graphic novel)

Tombs – Junji Ito (manga)

Locke & Key: The Golden Age – Joe Hill, Gabriel Rodriguez (graphic novel)

Wraith – Joe Hill, Charles Paul Wilson III (graphic novel)

A Great and Terrible King – Marc Morris, read by Ralph Lister

The Birds and Don’t Look Now – Daphne du Maurier, read by Peter Capaldi

My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness – Nagata Kabi (manga)

Spider-Gwen Volume 3: Long-Distance – Jason Latour, Robbi Rodriguez (graphic novel)

The Birds & Other Stories – Daphne du Maurier

November

John Constantine Hellblazer Volume 4: The Family Man – Jamie Delano, Grant Morrison, various artists (graphic novel)

The Feng Shui Detective Agency – Nury Vittachi

Delicious in Dungeon Volume 1 – Ryoko Kui (manga)

The Saga of Swamp Thing Volume 1 – Alan Moore, Stephen Bisette, John Totleben (graphic novel)

Spider-Verse – Dan Slott, various writers/artists (graphic novel)

Breakfast With Socrates – Robert Rowland Smith

Harleen – Stjepan Sejic (graphic novel)

Spider-Gwen Volume 4: Predators – Jason Latour, Robbi Rodriguez (graphic novel)

Spider-Gwen Volume 5: Gwenom – Jason Latour, Robbi Rodriguez (graphic novel)

Flipped – Wendelin Van Draanen

American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer – Kai Bird, Martin J. Sherwin, read by Jeff Cummings

Spider-Man, Spider-Gwen: Sitting in a Tree – Brian Michael Bendis, Jason Latour, Sara Pichelli, Robbi Rodriguez (graphic novel)

December

John Constantine Hellblazer Volume 5: Dangerous Habits – Garth Ennis, Jamie Delano, various artists (graphic novel)

My Solo Exchange Diary Volume 1 – Nagata Kabi (manga)

Birds of Prey Volume 1 – Chuck Dixon, Jordan B. Gorfinkel, various artists (graphic novel)

My Solo Exchange Diary Volume 2 – Nagata Kabi (manga)

Shuna’s Journey – Hayao Miyazaki, translated by Alex Dudok de Wit (manga)

When Stars Are Scattered – Victoria Jemison, Omar Mohamed (graphic novel)

My Alcoholic Escape From Reality – Nagata Kabi (manga)

Dune Messiah – Frank Herbert, read by Simon Vance, Euan Morton, Scott Brick, Katherine Kellgren

Smoke Bitten (Mercy Thompson #12)  - Patricia Briggs

Lore Olympus Volume 1 – Rachel Smythe (graphic novel)

Diary of a Young Girl – Anne Frank, read by Selma Blair

Lore Olympus Volume 2 – Rachel Smythe (graphic novel)

Spider-Gwen Volume 6: The Life of Gwen Stacy – Jason Latour, Robbi Rodriguez (graphic novel)

Hungry Ghosts – Anthony Bourdain, Joel Rose, various artists (graphic novel)

I read 156 books and graphic novels in 2023. 119 graphic novels, 37 books. 25 non-fiction, 131 fiction. 69 graphic novels, 50 graphic mangas. 15 re-reads.

Starting in March with Unbroken, I started reading a number of books about World War II. I think I had, as ever a goal to read more non-fiction and since there are so many books on the 2 World Wars, they are often the ones that I’m able to check out from the library without a super long wait list. Then Oppenheimer came out this summer so I was more intrigued and decided to read the basis for the film (which is atypical for me outside of comics). Following Unbroken I read a few spy books, Operation Mincemeat and Double Cross in May by Ben McIntyre that were super interesting.

I had previously read The Confidence Men about 2 British POWs from WWI who escaped a Turkish POW camp by (among other things) a Ouija board. I had started reading The Diary of Anne Frank/Diary of a Young Girl sometime this past year I think and finally finished it near the end of the year and Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search For Meaning in October. I started listening to The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich in November or December and read for my family’s book club The Woman Who Smashed Codes about Elizabeth Friedman and her husband who developed cryptology in the US between World War I and II and was treated pretty wretchedly by the US government for her efforts. This was in no small part due to J. Edgar Hoover, who seems to be more and more a villain every time I have the misfortune of encountering him in books and other media.

A manga series I had started last year, The Promised Neverland, I’m close to finishing (I believe there are 20 volumes, which isn’t super long for a manga series. Full Metal Alchemist is 20-something volumes if I remember correctly) and I finally finished Hikaru no Go about a teenager who accidentally finds himself competing in the Japanese game Go due to a haunted Go board in his grandfather’s attic. A web comic that my wife got me interested in, Lore Olympus, retells the story of Persephone and Hades with a combination of contemporary and antiquity culture. The comic is broken up into “seasons” and the second season was recently finished so I wanted to read up to that point while waiting for the end of the third season. Unfortunately, it was long enough ago that I had read up to the end of the first season I ended up having to start over. But this was good as there were a number of things I caught the second time through and appreciated more on a re-read.

      I also read the 4th and 5th Wheel of Time books for the second time this past year, which was an interesting experience. There were a lot of things I remembered incorrectly because of the 25ish years since I read them initially. I don’t think I’m going to read the entire series all the way through again, but I might read book 6. I finished re-reading The Sandman (partly due to the release of the Netflix series) and went on a kick of other Vertigo (an imprint of DC Comics that focused on non-superhero books, more adult and more creator-controlled that is now largely if not entirely defunct) titles (the Dead Boy Detectives, Hellblazer, Swamp Thing). Don’t know where I’ll go with that. Also read a decent amount of Spider-Verse comics (mostly Spider-Gwen but one big crossover book that was sort of the culmination of the Spider-Verse storylines (I think?)) that was interesting. Spider-Gwen is a great comic that has yet to lead to the frustration I felt with the later Miles Morales books.

      Nagata Kabi’s memoirs about self-esteem, her fraught relationship with her parents, alcoholism and eating problems is both interesting and very frustrating. I am very lucky to not have hardly any of her emotional, mental and health issues that are wound up together but reading her mangas it is hard not to want to shake her when she seems to recover from one life-threatening catastrophe only to work herself into another. I’m morbidly curious about her later volumes about pancreatitis.

      Lastly, there were some books on Arthur and some non-fiction or books by African-American authors that I had intended to start or finish that I’m dragging my heels on. We’ll see what happens in the next year with that.   

[thecryptidcottage]

@soliloquivm.

      ↳ ft. kelly + ( muse up to player! )              in the kitchen of kelly’s flat

          ❝ think of it like a game of... oh, come on, what’s that show called ? ❞ when he’d invited the other over to hang out for an impromptu dinner at his place, it had been with the expectation that he’d actually remember to stop at the market on the corner on his walk home from work. but while kelly mcmaster is known among his friends for many things, to his misfortune, his memory does not make the list. clearly. ❝ chopped ! that’s it, isn’t it ? the one with all the mystery ingredients you’ve got to put together to make some sort of michelin-star meal ? it’s like that. ❞ as he speaks, the musician meanders the space of a small, cramped kitchen, drifting from cabinet to cabinet and plucking out various ingredients on the sparse shelving that catch his eye. ❝ the prize for winning ? the satisfaction of a creative meal and a job well done. and, uh, ❞ he pulls a can from the shelf and wrinkles his nose at the expiry date before tossing it into the bin across the room, ❝ not getting botulism.❞ kelly swivels on his heels to face the other, flashing a bright grin. ❝ what do you say ? you in ? ❞

[influxovsnux]

1. His vice president, Mike Pence: “The American people deserve to know that President Trump asked me to put him over my oath to the Constitution. … Anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be president of the United States.”

2. His second attorney general, Bill Barr: “Someone who engaged in that kind of bullying about a process that is fundamental to our system and to our self-government shouldn’t be anywhere near the Oval Office.”

3. His first secretary of defense, James Mattis: “Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people – does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us.”

4. His second secretary of defense, Mark Esper: “I think he’s unfit for office. … He puts himself before country. His actions are all about him and not about the country. And then, of course, I believe he has integrity and character issues as well.”

5. His chairman of the joint chiefs, retired Gen. Mark Milley, seemed to invoke Trump: “We don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator. We take an oath to the Constitution and we take an oath to the idea that is America – and we’re willing to die to protect it.”

6. His first secretary of state, Rex Tillerson: “(Trump’s) understanding of global events, his understanding of global history, his understanding of US history was really limited. It’s really hard to have a conversation with someone who doesn’t even understand the concept for why we’re talking about this.”

7. His first ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley: “He used to be good on foreign policy and now he has started to walk it back and get weak in the knees when it comes to Ukraine. A terrible thing happened on January 6 and he called it a beautiful day.”

8. His presidential transition vice-chairman, Chris Christie: “Someone who I would argue now is just out for himself.”

9. His second national security adviser, HR McMaster: “We saw the absence of leadership, really anti-leadership, and what that can do to our country.”

10. His third national security adviser, John Bolton: “I believe (foreign leaders) think he is a laughing fool.”

11. His second chief of staff, John Kelly: “A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law. There is nothing more that can be said. God help us.”

12. His former acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, who resigned as US special envoy to Ireland after January 6, 2021: “I quit because I think he failed at being the president when we needed him to be that.”

13. One of his many former communications directors, Anthony Scaramucci: “He is the domestic terrorist of the 21st century.”

14. Another former communications director, Stephanie Grisham: “I am terrified of him running in 2024.”

15. His secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, who resigned after January 6: “When I saw what was happening on January 6 and didn’t see the president step in and do what he could have done to turn it back or slow it down or really address the situation, it was just obvious to me that I couldn’t continue.”

16. His secretary of transportation, Elaine Chao, who resigned after January 6: “At a particular point the events were such that it was impossible for me to continue, given my personal values and my philosophy.

17. His first secretary of the Navy, Richard Spencer: “…the president has very little understanding of what it means to be in the military, to fight ethically or to be governed by a uniform set of rules and practices.”

18. His first homeland security adviser, Tom Bossert: “The President undermined American democracy baselessly for months. As a result, he’s culpable for this siege, and an utter disgrace.”

19. His former personal lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen: “Donald’s an idiot.”

20. His White House lawyer, Ty Cobb: “Trump relentlessly puts forth claims that are not true.”

21. A former director of strategic communications, Alyssa Farah Griffin, who is now a CNN political commentator: “We can stand by the policies, but at this point we cannot stand by the man.”

22. A top aide in charge of his outreach to African Americans, Omarosa Manigault Newman: “Donald Trump, who would attack civil rights icons and professional athletes, who would go after grieving black widows, who would say there were good people on both sides, who endorsed an accused child molester; Donald Trump, and his decisions and his behavior, was harming the country. I could no longer be a part of this madness.”

23. A former deputy press secretary, Sarah Matthews, who resigned after January 6: “I thought that he did do a lot of good during his four years. I think that his actions on January 6 and the lead-up to it, the way that he’s acted in the aftermath, and his continuation of pushing this lie that the election is stolen has made him wholly unfit to hold office every again.”

24. His final chief of staff’s aide, Cassidy Hutchinson: “I think that Donald Trump is the most grave threat we will face to our democracy in our lifetime, and potentially in American history.”

We have to beat him in numbers to high to contest