....the incomplete is clearly more beautiful than the perfect. A deeper beauty in the blemished than in the unblemished So many of us go crazy trying to make everything perfect and it is OK when it is not. The incomplete use to drive me crazy also. I needed to start something and get it done perfect now. I use to struggle with that alot and learned to be a little more patient. Sometimes it does work tho. I like to take time to sit outside and read a magazine or book or even to take time to watch the birds. Before I use to go out and think about all the weeds that I need to tend to, or the grass will need to be mowed in a few days. I now can sit out there and just be in the moment. That took a lot of practice and sometimes I can still feel myself struggling with it.

I'm currently reading Passion for Books: A Book LoverÂs Treasury of Stories, Essays, Humor, Lore, and Lists on Collecting, Reading, Borrowing, Lending, Caring for, and Appreciating Books. I don't know if it's famous or not, but I laughed out loud when I read Umberto Eco's "How To Justify a Private Library". [For]people who possess a fairly sizable library (large enough in my case that someone entering our house canÂt help but notice it; actually, it takes up the whole place), a visitor enters and says "What a lot of books! Have you read them all?" At first I thought that the question characterized only people who had scant familiarity with books... But there is more to it than that. I believe that, confronted by a vast array of books, anyone will be seized by the anguish of learning and will inevitably lapse into asking the question that expresses his torment and his remorse... In the past I adopted a tone of contemptuous sarcasm. 'I haven't read any of them; otherwise, why would I keep them here?' but this is a dangerous answer because it invites the obvious follow-up: 'And where do you put them after you've read them?' The best answer is the one always used by Roberto Leydi: 'And more, dear sir, many more,' which freezes the adversary and plunges him into a state of awed admiration. But I find it merciless and angst generating. Now I have fallen back on the riposte: 'No, these are the ones I have to read by the end of the month. I keep the others in my office,' a reply that on the one hand suggests a sublime ergonomic strategy and on the other leads the visitor to hasten the moment of his departure.

Everyone has kept their lists rather short so I will also; although it will not be a really complete list (indecisive is my middle name). Anyway here in no particular order are some of my favorites: My Dear I Wanted To Tell You -Louisa Young The Flight of Gemma Hardy-Margot Livesy The Baker's Daughter-Sarah McCoy The Unfinished Business of Elizabeth D.-Nichole Bernier The Care And Handling of Roses With Thorns-Margaret Dilloway Survivor-Gregg Hurwitz Say You're Sorry-Michael Robotham Love Anthony-Lisa Genova and many mysteries esp. the latest 2 Simon S. books by Susan Hill and The Black Box by Michael Connelly which I just finished.

I have slowly been working my way through that "50 Best Science-Fiction and Fantasy" list that i posted here a couple years ago (I've now read 41 of the 50), so not surprisingly, two of my 'best of 2015' are from that list: Ubik, Philip K Dick - in a world of telepaths and precognitives playing with your perceptions, what is real and what is not? The last page still leaves you wondering! The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester - although written in the 50's, the story and ideas are as good today, in fact, Bester uses SF ideas that have now become standard in all SF. Bester described it as "Count of Monte Cristo" in space and it was a thrill ride to read. When I finished, all I could do was sit there, breathless, and say WOW. :) The Owl Who Liked Sitting on Caesar: Living with a Tawny Owl, Martin Windrow - thanks to whomever mentioned this last year. I owned a parrot for 30 years, and this book captures all the charm, work and heartache of keeping a bird as a pet. Silently, and Very Fast, Catherynne Valente, a Locus-award winning novella about an artificial intelligence. The AI tells the story (although it takes a while to figure that out), from its first development as a house monitor program, through a multi-generational evolution with the original programmer's descendants, when the question still remains - is this a true intelligence or merely programmed responses, yet how does it differ from the learned responses of a human. Interspersed with several creation myths & fairy tales told from the perspective of the AI. Fascinating. Valente knows her stuff. Babel-17, Samuel Delany - I tried twice to read Delany's Dahlgren, which is on all of the 'best of' lists, but gave up and tried his earlier Hugo & Nebula winner, Babel-17, which uses the concept language drives perception. A page-turner that kept surprising me. I noticed that The Martian showed up multiple times above; I enjoyed it very much but found that the explication of all Watney's ingenious solutions eventually got tedious. And anyone at NASA can tell that the NASA center Weir talked to the most was JPL (just as with Tess Gerritsen's Gravity, you knew she did her research at Johnson Space Center)! Being at Headquarters (which every NASA center loves to hate), I found it amusing that in both novels HQ was portrayed as the villain/obstacle to overcome.