Favorite books read by the Muser in 2021   Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (novel about an unlikable, flawed woman living in a small town in Maine.  The chapters could be read as separate short stories.  Olive Kitteridge has been adapted into a HBO mini-series.)   The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn  (psychological novel with twists about a recluse in New York City who drinks, pops pills, and spies on her neighbors.)   And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini (novel of nine chapters, each told by a different character)   The Islander, a Romance of the Future by Charles Whittlesey (Cultures collide in 2155.  There are two Americas.  The wealthy control most of the land and all the technology, while the poor lead short and squalid lives confined to the remnants of America's collapsed cities, known as Islands.)   The Wedding Dress, Stories from the Dakota Plains by Carrie Young  (Immigrants and others carve out a life in the last of the untamed West.)   Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick  (retitled Blade Runner:  Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep in some later printings) is a dystopian science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick.  The novel is set in a post-apocalyptic San Francisco, where Earth's life has been greatly damaged by a nuclear global war, leaving most animal species endangered or extinct.  The book served as the primary basis for the 1982 film Blade Runner and many elements and themes from it were used in the film's 2017 sequel Blade Runner 2049.)

Philip Kindred Dick (1928–1982) was an American science fiction writer.  He wrote 44 novels and about 121 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines during his lifetime.  His fiction explored varied philosophical and social questions such as the nature of reality, perception, human nature, and identity, and commonly featured characters struggling against elements such as alternate realities, illusory environments, monopolistic corporations, drug abuse, authoritarian governments, and altered states of consciousness.  Born in Chicago, Dick moved to the San Francisco Bay Area with his family at a young age.  He began publishing science fiction stories in 1952, at age 23.  He found little commercial successuntil his alternative history novel The Man in the High Castle (1962) earned him acclaim, including a Hugo Award for Best Novel, when he was 33.  He followed with science fiction novels such as Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) and Ubik (1969). His 1974 novel Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. 

In 2005, Time magazine named Ubik (1969) one of the hundred greatest English-language novels published since 1923.  In 2007, Dick became the first science fiction writer included in The Library of America series.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick

A snickerdoodle is a type of cookie made with flour, butter or oil, sugar, salt, and rolled in cinnamon sugar.  Eggs may also sometimes be used as an ingredient, with cream of tartar and baking soda added to leaven the dough.  Snickerdoodles are characterized by a cracked surface and can be either crisp or soft depending on the ingredients used.  Snickerdoodles are often referred to as "sugar cookies".  However, traditional sugar cookies are often rolled in white sugar whereas snickerdoodles are rolled in a mixture of white sugar and cinnamon.  The cookie is common to Mennonite and Amish communities and was a favorite treat of the Indiana poet, James Whitcomb Riley.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snickerdoodle  Find recipe posted by Michelle Malouf at https://www.hummingbirdhigh.com/2020/12/snickerdoodle-recipe-without-cream-of-tartar.html

Pfeffernüsse are small spice cookies, popular as a holiday treat with Germans, and ethnic Mennonites in North America.  Similar cookies are made in Denmark, and The Netherlands, as well.  They are called Pfeffernüsse (plural, singular is Pfeffernuss) in German, pepernoten (sing. pepernoot) in Dutch, päpanät in Plautdietsch, pfeffernusse or peppernuts in English, and pebernødder in Danish.  Johann Fleischmann, a confectioner from Offenbach am Main created the recipe in 1753.  Goethe praised the pastries.  Felix Mendelssohn went to Offenbach am Main especially to buy them.^[7][8][6] The state of Hesse has served it at state receptions.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pfeffern%C3%BCsse  Find recipe by Gemma Stafford at https://www.biggerbolderbaking.com/pfeffernusse-cookies-recipe/#wprm-recipe-container-40915

In December 2021, Habitat for Humanity dedicated its first 3D printed home to a family in the U.S.  The house dedicated last week in Virginia was completed about four weeks faster than a typical construction schedule—it took just 28 hours to print the 1,200 square foot home.  Officials also estimate that it cost 15-20% less than a  typical home.  The 3D printer constructed the outside of the house, the group still needed contractors to do work on the inside.  https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/national/habitat-for-humanity-dedicates-first-3d-printed-home-to-us-family

Best Reviewed Books of 2021:  Fiction  Link to poetry and horror, science fiction and fantasy at https://bookmarks.reviews/the-best-reviewed-books-of-2021-fiction/

yesternight  (YES-tuhr-nyt) noun  Last night.  adverb  During last night.  From Old English giestran/gierstan (a time one period prior to the present period) + niht (night).  Earliest documented use: c. 450.  A related word is yestreen (yesterday evening). 

In the case of good books, the point is not how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you. - Mortimer J. Adler, philosopher, educator, and author (28 Dec 1902-2001)

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2475  December 29, 2021