Tag: Miscellany Page 71 of 177

Saturday Miscellany—1/21/23

On January 21, 2023

In Books, News/Misc., Saturday Miscellany

Let’s start with a question that I’ve been meaning to ask for a bit–can any of you readers suggest US-based book bloggers who focus on (to some degree or another) on Crime Fiction? I was recently asked for some suggestions but both attrition and time have whittled down those that I follow to be almost entirely UK-based bloggers. (nothing wrong with that, but it skews things)

Odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
bullet American book reading statistics for 2022 and 2023 (complete USA survey data)—I was pretty surprised by some of these stats (and wonder about the truthfulness of some of the self-reporting, but I usually do). Big thanks to David Leonhardt for dropping by to share this with me.
bullet I wish Amazon had been honest about why it’s sunsetting AmazonSmile—it’s not technically about reading, but…it’s close enough. I’m with this writer, when I got this email, I smelled something.
bullet Mystery Writers of America Announces 2023 Edgar Allan Poe Award Nominations—I haven’t read nearly enough of these
bullet Does Historical Accuracy Matter in Historical Fiction?: With fiction, the answers are never quite so simple.
bullet TBRCon2023—the all-virtual sci-fi/fantasy/horror convention, streams live from Jan. 22-29, 2023. There’s some really appetizing programming coming up (and the early panel that went up Wednesday is one I definitely have to check out)
bullet 2023 Blogging Goals: The Year of Playing Catch Up—this is probably the smartest list of blogging/reading goals I’ve read for this year. I need to remember to steal this next year.
bullet Speaking of smart things I need to steal, Peat Long continues to think and write well about genre. The most examples are this week’s On Sci-Fantasy and Approaching Genre and Horizontal and Vertical Genres: A Concept
bullet Book Reviews vs. Beta Reading
bullet Let’s Talk Bookish: Collecting Books
bullet Five Year Blogging Anniversary – Top 10 Books—5 Years is a good milestone, but I’m more impressed by the fact that Stephen Writes was able to come up with a Top 10 over that timeframe.
bullet I really appreciate this thread from John Palladino about liking things from “bad” people. I’ve tried to write something like this before, but ended up messing it up.

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet Killer Story by Matt Witten—Theoretically, a story about a journalist launching a podcast to solve the murder of an estranged friend (and save her journalistic career). But it ends up being more than that—including becoming one of the best Crime Fiction novels I read last year. Here’s my take on the book.
bullet Lie to Her by Melinda Leigh—Sherriff Bree Taggart has to deal with more murder and shenanigans. This time involving an internet dating site.
bullet Superfan: How Pop Culture Broke My Heart by Jen Sookfong Lee—a “memoir-in-pieces that uses one woman’s life-long love affair with pop culture as a revelatory lens to explore family, identity, belonging, grief, and the power of female rage.”

The Friday 56 for 1/20/23: The Hero Interviews by Andi Ewington

By HCNewton

On January 20, 2023

In Currently Reading, News/Misc., Quotations, The Friday 56

This is a weekly bloghop hosted by Freda’s Voice.

RULES:
The Friday 56 Grab a book, any book.
Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your ereader. If you have to improvise, that is okay.
Find a snippet, short and sweet.
Post it.

from Page 56 of:
The Hero Interviews

The Hero Interviews by Andi Ewington

Gwenyn: …These bastards are a heroic pain in the arse. My turnip crop is ruined! How am I supposed to recover from this?”

Me: “I—I don’t know…”

Gwenyn: “That’s not even the worst part of it. The worst part is knowing that while I’m here picking up the pieces of our life, the ‘heroes’ responsible are probably patting each other on the back as they head off to celebrate their success by getting blind drunk in the nearest tavern!”

Me: “I’m sorry—”

Gwenyn: “Why are you apologising? It’s not your fault; you’re not one of those hero types, are you? It’s not your mess that was left here to rot. What am I supposed to do with a giant Dragon corpse? You think I’ve got it bad now, just wait another week—the stench from that thing will be almost unbearable. We’ll be forced to move away until the next summer at the earliest—that’s a large portion of our coin for the season lost to these so-called heroes.”

WWW Wednesday, January 18, 2023

By HCNewton

On January 18, 2023

In Books, Currently Reading, News/Misc., WWW Wednesday

I am having the hardest time staying awake this week, which is messing with my reading a bit, but I’m so tired that I don’t care (which is a strange feeling for me, normally that’d get me stressed out). I know it doesn’t matter—this is a hobby, not a paying gig—it’s just an observation.

This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived on Taking on a World of Words—and shown to me by Aurore-Anne-Chehoke at Diary-of-a-black-city-girl.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Easy enough, right?

What are you currently reading?

I’m reading the captivating while creepy and unnerving (and likely to get nastier-sounding adjectives before I’m done) The Perception Of Dolls by Anthony Croix, edited by Russell Day and am listening to the strangely charming Ms. Demeanor by Elinor Lipman, Piper Goodeve (Narrator) on audiobook.

Blank Space

What did you recently finish reading?

Last week, I finished Seanan McGuire’s Lost in the Moment and Found and A Drink Before the War by Dennis Lehane, Jonathan Davis (Narrator) on audio. Both were everything I hoped for.

Blank Space

What do you think you’ll read next?

My next book should be The Hero Interviews by Andi Ewington—I’m going to need a lighter read after my current novel, and this should fit the bill. My next audiobook should be Half-Off Ragnarok by Seanan McGuire and Ray Porter, Emily Bauer (Narrators) as I continue revisiting this series.

Blank Space

What’s getting your attention lately?

Saturday Miscellany—1/14/23

By HCNewton

On January 14, 2023

In Books, News/Misc., Saturday Miscellany

I don’t know about the rest of you, but my 2023 reading has started off strong. If things keep up at this rate 2023 is going to be fantastic (I don’t expect it, but it’d be nice).

Odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
bullet 5 Ways To Be a Healthier Reader in 2023
bullet It turns out that people don’t want a coloring book based on a novel about domestic abuse.—I’ve never read Hoover, but I’ve watched a little of back and forth about her work lately. My jaw dropped, though, when I saw that there was going to be a coloring book based on the book. I’m so glad things worked out this way.
bullet So I was wrong last week when I predicted I was at the end of the 2022 wrap-ups that I wanted to share. Here are two more:
bullet 2022 : The ones that got away—I liked this idea enough that I almost came up with my version, but decided it’d be too depressingly long.
bullet My end of year stats for 2022: late, of course.—love the graphs…
bullet In Search of New Reading Rituals
bullet What to expect in 2023, according to science fiction—what a fantastic idea…
bullet Between Utopia and Dystopia: the Mixtopian Borderlands—Mixtopian is a word I’m going to be adding to my vocabulary (maybe? I mean, I hope to…it’s a nifty category)

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet Everybody Knows by Jordan Harper—the author’s name should be enough, but if you need more…”a “black-bag” publicist tasked not with letting the good news out but keeping the bad news in” tries to discover who gunned down her boss.
bullet Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett—A charming and cozy(ish) Victorian Fantasy, that I really can’t sum up in a sentence or two. Maybe you’d be better off reading my post about it from last month.
bullet Early Grave by Paul Levine—Jake Lassiter’s last case has him facing off against High School Football. It’s a heckuva ride, as I talked about earlier this week.
bullet Lost in the Moment and Found by Seanan McGuire—I’d say this wasn’t your typical Wayward Children book, but is there a typical one? I just finished this last night and it’s likely one of my favorites in this series. Heart-wrenching, tense, and full of beautiful sentences—with a couple of nice cameos from books in the series.

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Blue Bell and jason Lee who followed the blog this week. I hope you enjoy the content and keep coming back.

The Friday 56 for 1/13/23: Lost in the Moment and Found by Seanan McGuire

By HCNewton

On January 13, 2023

In Currently Reading, Fantasy, Fiction, News/Misc., Quotations, Seanan McGuire, The Friday 56, Wayward Children

This is a weekly bloghop hosted by Freda’s Voice.

RULES:
The Friday 56 Grab a book, any book.
Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your ereader. If you have to improvise, that is okay.
Find a snippet, short and sweet.
Post it.

from Page 56 of:
Lost in the Moment and Found

Lost in the Moment and Found by Seanan McGuire

On the other side of the door, where the shop should have been, a jungle stretched all the way to the horizon, fat, round-trunked trees dripping with vines and flowers, their twisting branches reaching for the sky like the spread fingers of enormous hands. Something moved in the deep foliage, and brightly colored birds perched on the vines, clacking their beaks and calling to each other at the sight of her.

It wasn’t possible. It wasn’t logical. It wasn’t real. It couldn’t be real.

Antsy stepped through the door. Only one foot; she was at least clever enough to leave her other foot solidly on the wooden floor of the thrift store. One of the vast, bright-petaled flowers was close enough for her to lean over and pluck it before retreating back through the door and closing it behind her. The flower didn’t disintegrate when pulled into the thrift store. It remained in her hand, bright and blooming, petals almost the same color as a good, ripe watermelon.

She stared at it, trying to understand how this could be happening.

WWW Wednesday, January 11, 2023

By HCNewton

On January 11, 2023

In Books, Currently Reading, News/Misc., WWW Wednesday

You ever spend days planning your reading around the release day of a certain book and then when the book doesn’t arrive have to rejigger a bunch of your plans (including how to spend the majority of your time off of work for the night)? Please say I’m not alone in doing this. It’s been one of those weeks for me, the result of my rejiggering is in the first and third answers below.

This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived on Taking on a World of Words—and shown to me by Aurore-Anne-Chehoke at Diary-of-a-black-city-girl.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Easy enough, right?

What are you currently reading?

I’m reading the riveting and complex Blackwater Falls by Ausma Zehanat Khan and I’m revisiting the Alex Verus finale with Risen by Benedict Jacka, Gildart Jackson (Narrator) on audiobook.

Blank Space

What did you recently finish reading?

Yesterday, I finished The Night Watch by Neil Lancaster (and I am so upset with myself for sleeping on that one) and the goofy Destructive Reasoning by Scott Meyer, Luke Daniels (Narrator).

Blank Space

What do you think you’ll read next?

My next book should bring me back to Eleanor West’s School for Wayward Children with Lost in the Moment and Found by Seanan McGuire . It’s been too long since I spent time with Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro, so my next audiobook should be A Drink Before the War by Dennis Lehane, Jonathan Davis (Narrator).

Blank Space

What are you up to?

2023 Plans and Challenges

By HCNewton

On January 10, 2023

In Books, Calendar Items, Miscellany, News/Misc.

Finally it’s time to stop looking at 2022 (as fun as that’s been) and to start focusing on 2023.

Typically, I’m reticent to get into calling my shots, as it were, too much anymore—there’s a project from 2020 still hanging over my head to point out the problems with me doing that. I’m sure there are older abandoned (or “paused”) projects, too —I just don’t want to go spelunking through the archives to find more personal failures (minor, to be sure, but technically failures).

I do have things I want to accomplish here over the next 12 months for a variety of reasons—and listing them like this helped last year (although, you’ll see a lot of echoes here from that post. But most of those echoes are of a “continue doing this” nature). So, here’s what I’m going to shoot for around here in the next 12 months.
Continue that Literary Locals Project!
Cut down on my Goodreads Want-to-Read list and the unread books that I own (a perennial project, but I made some strides last year)—at least two of the Book Challenges this year should be a fun way to help.
I’m going to finish my Classic Spenser series and maybe find another Classic to do a project read-through. We’ll see about that. (This is a repeat from last year, but it’s nagging at me)
I’m going to continue to be picky in the Book Tours I participate in. I still like Tours, they expose me to things I wouldn’t normally read—and I’m going to keep doing them. But if I’m picky, it helps me focus on other things.
Similarly, I’m doing fewer Book Challenges. I like the ones I’ve picked out—but they’re concrete things, no more of these “Read as Many of X as You Can” challenges. They don’t move the needle one bit for me as far as picking books—I read as many as I’m going to anyway, just with a count. But Challenges with specific targets can be fun. I’ll talk about those in a minute.
Try to interview more authors (maybe others, too?), and get better at that, too. The Literary Locals series is helping with that.
I have one other new feature that I’ll be debuting soon(ish). I’m excited about it, but need a couple of more things to happen before I tell you anything.

2022 Book Challenges

Goodreads Challenge
My oldest son taunted me into upping my annual goal to 250 this year. I’ve topped that the last 7 years, so I feel pretty good about meeting that. I’d kept my goal lower because 200 seemed realistic—and anything above it was just gravy. Ultimately, I really don’t care if I hit it—or beat it.

Well, okay, I don’t care that much.

12 Books
I did this one last year, and it really expanded my reading. This year looks like it’ll do the same. There are 2 books I’d had on my list of “should probably read” and 1 book that I’d never heard of before, but instantly wanted to read as soon as it was recommended. The rest? I’m looking forward to reading them, but I’m relatively certain I wouldn’t have picked on my own. BTW, I could use one more recommendation to finalize this list.

2022 While I was Reading

I’ve done this one for the last few years—and Ramona’s done a great job of stretching me. And will continue to do so—this year’s categories look like a lot of fun, too.

Your TBR Reduction Book Challenge

I really appreciate the way this one is put together, and it’s pretty easy—just 1 book a month and my TBR should go down by at least 12. This was pretty helpful last year, and I expect the same this year. I’ve actually already knocked off the January stretch goal, and should have the actual goal done next week.

Beat the Backlist Reading Challenge;

I’ll be pairing this one with my Goodreads Want-To-Read goal and the TBR Reduction challenge as much as I can. It’s really just a way to trick myself into doing better at both of those. I’ve seen a few people do this lately, and it seemed like a good idea. Still, I’m not a glutton for punishment—I’m only going for the 24-prompt version.

I’ll also undoubtedly do the 20 Books of Summer Challenge…that’s been pretty fun. And I can easily combine it with 2 or 3 of the above challenges, to be super-productive.

That’s everything I have planned, I can’t wait to see what unplanned things happen around here. Hope you’re around to join in the fun!

(Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay)

Highlights from December: Lines Worth Repeating

By HCNewton

On January 9, 2023

In Books, Currently Reading, News/Misc., Quotations

Highlights from the Month
Since high school, I’ve collected quotations like philatelists collect tiny bits of paper. In every book I read I scratch out copies of far too many quotations for me to use in my posts. Last year, I was inspired by Witty and Sarcastic Book Club’s annual Quotables: Words that Stuck with Me post, but there’s no way that I could just do an annual version, it’d be far too long.

So, I started a monthly (usually) version. They’re likely my favorite posts each month (at least in the top 3 in any given month). I don’t know how many of my readers dig these, but I do, so they’re sticking around.

Here are the lines from December that really stuck with me.

Radio Radio by Ian Shane

Yeah, there’s no question. This woman thinks that I am a moron. The sad thing about that is that I’ve been presenting her with plenty of evidence that I am. I’ve gone from being “interesting charming guy” to Boo Radley in less than six seconds. I’ve lost my focus and my home court advantage. I need to get my cool back in short order.

The Twist of a Knife by Anthony Horowitz

“Moxham was strikingly beautiful, the sort of place that turns up in jigsaw puzzles or Harry Potter films.”

Sacrifices by Jamie Schultz

He chambered a round.

“For ghosts?” Karyn asked.

“I ain’t willing to rule out bullets just on principle alone. They might work, and I got nothing else.”

“Plus, it makes you feel better.”

“That, too.”

“If I live through this, you’re a lifesaver,” she said to Bobby.

“You sure this is a good idea?” Nail asked.

Anna gave him a bland look. “It’s been months since we were in the same area code as a good idea. This is just what we’re stuck with.”

Secrets Typed in Blood by Stephen Spotswood

Want to see a prosecutor salivate? Had them a slam-dunk case that’ll generate good press for everyone who touches it.

To ensure that, I’d slipped out to use the facilities and, instead of powdering my nose, placed calls to The Times, The Associated Press, and the New York City Office of Reuters. I decided to save Time Magazine for the morning, they were a weekly after all, and could wait.

My boss rolled her eyes. Well, really just one eye, the false one remained more or less glaring at me.

In the kind of stories that Holly wrote, someone was always having a shock and the blood drains from their face. I’d never seen it happen in real life, not until that moment. In a blink, our client’s face went the sickly pale of cabbage and corpses.

“It’s possible,” she said. “Though it would be rather imprudent.”

“Three murders under his belt? I don’t think our guy is the prudent type.”

Pet by Akwaeke Emezi

“Well, I suppose one could see how you could see that. Only if you don’t know what a monster looks like, of course.”

What does a monster look like? Jam asked.

Her mother focused on her, cupping her cheek in a chalky hand. “Monsters don’t look like anything, doux-doux. That’s the whole point. That’s the whole problem.”

“Angels aren’t pretty pictures in old holy books, just like monsters aren’t ugly pictures. It’s all just people, doing hard things or doing bad things. But is all just people, our people.”

Midnight Blue-Light Special by Seanan McGuire

There’s something to be said for keeping your friends around you when things get bad. It may not be good for their life expectancies, but it’s sure as hell easier on the heart.

When you decide to be the immovable object standing in front of the unstoppable force, you’d better pray that you’re right about being immovable, and they’re wrong about being unstoppable.

Scattered Showers by Rainbow Rowell

Kindred Spirits

Elena couldn’t remember the first time she saw a Star Wars movie . . . in the same way she couldn’t remember the first time she saw her parents. Star Wars had just always been there. There was a stuffed Chewbacca in her crib.

The original trilogy were her dad’s favorite movies—he practically knew them by heart—so when Elena was little, like four or five, she’d say they were her favorite movies, too. Because she wanted to be just like him.

And then, as she got older, the movies started to actually sink in. Like, they went from something Elena could recite to something she could feel. She made them her own. And then she’d kept making them her own. However Elena changed or grew, Star Wars seemed to be there for her in a new way.

Winter Songs for Summer

Summer was curled into a ball on her dorm room floor.

Or as close as she could get to a ball.

She wasn’t one of those girls who could collapse into nothing. She was curled into more of a boomerang shape. A miserable boomerang.

She should probably move onto the bed, but it felt more pathetic to lie on the floor, and the floor was closer to her speakers.

She had a small, all-in-one stereo with a dual cassette player and a radio and a three-CD carousel. It was her prize possession; she’d saved up for six months to buy it.

In the old days, when Summer wanted to listen to one song over and over, she’d have to hit rewind on the tape deck and then guess when to stop. Or sometimes she’d make a tape with the same song dubbed over and over—that was time-consuming.

Now she could put in a CD and press repeat track, and listen to the same song infinitely without ever getting up—without ever having to shift out of her misery.

It had really revolutionized this breakup.

“Happy songs are the saddest thing to listen to when you’re unhappy,” the guy said matter-of-factly. “That’s just physics.”

“That’s not physics.”

“They break your heart because they make you think about the last time you were happy.” He took another bite. “Also, don’t argue with me about physics. I’m a physics major. What’s your major?”

“Secondary education.”

“Okay, I won’t argue with you about that.”

E.B. White on Dogs edited by Martha White

I like to read books on dog training. Being the owner of dachshunds, to me a book on dog discipline becomes a volume of inspired humor. Every sentence is a riot.

I can’t quite figure out why I am so busy all the time; it seems silly and is against my principles.

(Image by DaModernDaVinci from Pixabay)

Saturday Miscellany—1/7/23

By HCNewton

On January 7, 2023

In Books, News/Misc., Saturday Miscellany

Running a little late today, it’s been a weird day. (also, I have a bumper crop of links today)

Odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
bullet Last week, I linked to a short list of the new works that have entered the Public Domain this week. Here’s a couple of better lists from Duke’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain and LitHub
bullet Please, let this be the strangest story in publishing for the year. I’m not sure I can take anything worse. A romance author returned to social media after faking her own death in an apparent book-promotion ploy: ‘I simply want my life back’. Michael Gallagher’s substack has a good overview and some responses from the author
bullet AI-Narrated Audiobooks at Apple Books, reports The Guardian and The Verge
bullet Yesterday was Sherlock’s Birthday: Happy 169th Birthday, Sherlock Holmes—I particularly enjoyed reading how they came up with the date.
bullet What Can We Learn from Barnes & Noble’s Surprising Turnaround?: Digital platforms are struggling, meanwhile a 136-year-old book retailer is growing again. But why?
bullet 37 Years Later, We’re Still Living the Nightmare of White Noise
bullet Good Company: Mickey Haller and the Enduring Appeal of ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’
bullet What I’ll Be Doing In 2023—Benedict Jacka outlines the way the rest of the year will (hopefully) go, featuring the release of his new series!
bullet Are we really going to start disinfecting our used books?—really??
bullet And a few more (probably the last?) Best of/Year in Reviews for 2022:
bullet The damppebbles Top Ten(ish!) of 2022
bullet 2022 in Review: Reading Stats & Year in Review—Reader Voracious goes crazy with the stats
bullet Goodbye 2022! The best reads of my year plus stats!—from Runalong the Shelves
bullet The Orangutan Librarian shares My Reading Stats for 2022 – A Bookish Overview!
bullet Bookforager’s 2022 Progress Report
bullet Top 10 Books Read In 2022 from Peat Long’s blog. You should also check out the 2022 Peaties
bullet Reader@Work’s Year in Review: A Look Back at 2022
bullet Mike Finn’s My Twelve Best Reads in 2022
bullet Kerri McBooknerd’s 2022 Reading Wrap Up
bullet Best Reads of 2022 —from Jo Linsdell
bullet In case you’re looking for inspiration for 2023, here’s a few ideas:
bullet My 2023 Bookish Intentions—from Never Judge a Book by its Cover
bullet Fi’s Bibliofiles sets out to Slay the Series
bullet A Look Ahead at 2023—for Reader@Work
bullet The Case for Touching All Your Books
bullet Quenby Olson has given us all a justification for collecting unread books
bullet 5 Middle Grade Books For Adults
bullet Top 10 Humorous Science Fictions for 2023
bullet My Love Affair with Words

A Little Help for Our Friends:
bullet Caffinated Beverages—the new online home for Jeremy Billups art and books. Check it out!

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet The Thing in the Snow by Sean Adams—”a thought-provoking and wryly funny novel—equal parts satire and psychological thriller—that holds a funhouse mirror to the isolated workplace and an age of endless distraction.”
bullet Courage under Fire : Under Siege and Outnumbered 58 to 1 on January 6 by Steven A. Sund—the former Chief of the Capitol Police talks about the fateful day

Lastly, I’d like to say hi and extend a warm welcome to Aditi Kundu, who followed the blog this week. I hope you enjoy the content and keep coming back.

The Friday 56 for 1/6/23: Pieces of Eight by Peter Hartog

By HCNewton

On January 6, 2023

In Currently Reading, News/Misc., Quotations, The Friday 56

This is a weekly bloghop hosted by Freda’s Voice.

RULES:
The Friday 56 Grab a book, any book.
Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your ereader. If you have to improvise, that is okay.
Find a snippet, short and sweet.
Post it.

from Page 56% of:
Pieces of Eight

Pieces of Eight by Peter Hartog

I positioned myself behind the chair next to Deacon, my hands resting on its curved back. Beyond the windshield, Empire City blurred, blended streaks of shifting colors without beginning or end. Night had long fallen, soaking the world beneath a snowy abstract blanket where truth slept with lies and deceit. So many thoughts crowded my mind vying for my attention: the Flynns, the One, Pop, Ivan and the bratva, Jack, Mahoney, my feelings for Charlie.

And Leyla.

“It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones,” I quoted quietly.

I shook my head in bemusement. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had been right. My brain-attic was near capacity. Questions bounced around in my mind, banging off of dusty facts, clues, details and other minutiae, a vast amorphous jumble that up until now, had formulated little to no answers.