Buddhism however seems to have started to stick, in patches: am a lot less irritable than for most of my life and am learning to deal better with the nipping dog of anxiety. Would still love to be a dynamic effective vibrant person who gets what they want through sheer blind charm, but that's even less likely than winning a million dollars.
December stats
Gibson et al, The Difference Engine
Chodron, Living Beautifully
Iwasaki, Geisha, a Life
Lai, When Fox is a Thousand
Wilce, Flora's Fury
-Flora's Dare
-Flora Segunda
Miyabe, Apparitions
-- concerning which, another Lost In Translation tale. The forward mentions Miyabe's echoing of a famous line from a famous horror story- Podolo by L.P. Hartley. Yes-- what? and who? The author of The Go-between, who also wrote weird tales, one of which is called Podolo. Link takes you to the text of the story. Like The Great God Pan, I fail to discern any there there. As with that one, presumably it reads better in Japanese translation.