Ukraine and a Book Series I Highly Recommend

Yesterday started out slow, but picked up in the afternoon, a fact which I was grateful for. We ended up with an OK day, when the outlook at noon had been rather dismal. I suspect things were a bit slower because it was a truly beautiful early Spring day - sunshine, lollipops, etc in abundance. When the weather is great, we often don't do well because people want to be outdoors. But I had two sales from neighborhood wanderers who had wandered through in the morning and then returned in the afternoon to purchase something that had caught their eye. Yippee! That's what we want. 

"They", whoever "they" is, estimates casualties in 
Ukraine at 4300 people. I call BS on that. I know 
there are thousands more dead who were caught in 
cities that were bombed, shot on roads as they tried 
to escape, or who merely stood by helpless as they 
were mowed down. Ukraine needs help and we're 
sitting on our hands. They need our troops on the 
ground along with the NATO troops. I call BS!

The war continues, and I'm so very frustrated about how slowly the democratic allies are moving to help the people of Ukraine. The "no boots on the ground" BS is starting to get to me. We're letting a small nation destroy itself against a much larger one because we can't get our act together enough to get out there and help. Sure, we're sending armaments and humanitarian aid, but that's not really going to cut it. They need personnel to help. People afraid of triggering World War III simply are blind to the fact that we're more than likely already involved in it. It makes me wonder what history will say when they review the past few months. I suspect history won't be very kind to the aggressors or the allies. 

In the meantime, Ukraine fights and dies. 

Want to read something unusual and excellent? I can't 
recommend this series highly enough. Of course, I've 
heard Nahuatl (language), and have enough knowledge 
of how the names are pronounced to hear them in 
my head. And I'm quite familiar with Tenochtitlan - its' 
layout and history. No Spaniards in this one - it's 100% 
Aztecan. 

I'm in the middle book of a series I started a few years ago and loved. I'm not sure why I didn't immediately go on to the next in the series - I suspect it's because I didn't realize the others had been published. It's the "Obsidian and Blood" series by Aliette de Bodard - a very prolific and excellent writer. The "Obsidian and Blood" series of three books is an Aztec noir fantasy where Cortez didn't arrive in Tenochtitlan, or maybe it's before the arrival of the Spaniards. But the characters aren't historical. Still, the society she's created around the ancient Aztecs is fascinating and rings true - whether or not it actually was that way in reality. Want something different? Read the first of the series, "Servant of the Underworld", then move on to "Harbinger of the Storm" and finally, "Master of the House of Darts". Highly recommended. 

I'm off to the pool. Have an excellent day and I'll be back tomorrow.