Author Archives: Thistle

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About Thistle

Queer, neurospicy, chronically longwinded oversharer. 40s; they/them. ✍️📷🐈📚🥾🇩🇪🏳️‍🌈😇💖🐍

Stillhouse Lake, by Rachel Caine

Posted on February 23, 2018 by Thistle

Imagine that you discover that your husband of almost a decade is a serial killer. Imagine finding yourself accused of being an accomplice. Imagine that once you’re acquitted, no one believes that you’re innocent, and the internet trolls at large … Continue reading →

Posted in 2018, Adult, Prose | Tagged , | 5 Comments

Jojo’s Story

Posted on February 21, 2018 by Thistle

As I said Sunday, Jojo’s story begins last Tuesday during Yoga With Cats at the San Antonio Cat Cafe. It was the first time I’d met him, and he walked right up to me, climbed on my feet, and curled … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal | 9 Comments

Truly Devious, by Maureen Johnson (audio)

Posted on February 19, 2018 by Thistle

Eighty years ago, there was a kidnapping and murder at the Ellingham Academy, a special school for individual learning in Vermont. Stevie Bell, a new student at Ellingham, is determined to solve the cold case. Then a new mystery arises, … Continue reading →

Posted in 2018, 2020, Prose, Young Adult | Tagged , , , , | 7 Comments

Sunday Coffee – Valentine’s Week

Posted on February 18, 2018 by Thistle

It’s been another one of those crazy weeks. I’ve been quiet on the blog because I haven’t had much to talk about. Since reading Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine (twice), I was unable to settle to anything else for almost … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal | Tagged , | 10 Comments

A Decade of Blogging

Posted on February 15, 2018 by Thistle

Technically, my ten-year-blogoversary was yesterday, but I didn’t get my act together in time to post this, so I’m a bit late. I don’t mind. I started my blog on Valentine’s Day, in the wee early hours of the morning … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Talk | Tagged | 12 Comments

Sunday Coffee – Flu

Posted on February 11, 2018 by Thistle

It was bound to happen. The flu season is bad this year and Jason was the only one of us to get a flu shot yet. We were complacent and silly. And last Saturday, while Ambrose was at a friend’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal | Tagged | 5 Comments

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, by Gail Honeyman (audio)

Posted on February 9, 2018 by Thistle

Eleanor Oliphant is a peculiar woman. She has little to no social skills, she speaks so precisely that it borders on absurd, and she is completely detached from emotion. Around her thirtieth birthday, life begins to change. She and a … Continue reading →

Posted in 2018, Adult, Prose | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Wellness Wednesday – Cultivate a Life You Love

Posted on February 7, 2018 by Thistle

Please note: this post was pre-drafted before my grandmother’s health declined. I’m still allowing it to post, but I will be very slow to respond to comments. *** Back in the fall, an article on personal happiness popped up in … Continue reading →

Posted in Wellness | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

The Girl on the Velvet Swing, by Simon Baatz (audio)

Posted on February 6, 2018 by Thistle

Subtitled: Sex, Murder, and Madness at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century Trigger warning: sexual violence Spoiler warning: These are actual events, so I will discuss details. In the early 1900s, Evelyn Nesbit was raped by architect Stanford White, who … Continue reading →

Posted in 2018, Adult, Prose | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Sunday Coffee – On Saying Goodbye

Posted on February 4, 2018 by Thistle

Thursday morning, I got word that my grandmother’s health was in rapid decline. She’d been in poor health for a few weeks with pneumonia, but now the hospice nurse said her body was shutting down. I went straight over to … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal | Tagged | 8 Comments