Vitreous Detachment. Retina is firmly in place. Must be monitored, but he thinks, overall, this was best case scenario and he does not see anything to be concerned about. Had heavy dilation and can’t see much at all, so back later when I can and am in shape to function. Thank you all for your thought and prayers.
Tuesday, December 31, 2024
My Favorite Books of 2024
I had no plans on coming up with a list or creating this post. Just like I don’t understand why I should start a podcast and talk about books even though so many folks say I should, I have no idea why anyone would care about what I have to say about books. So, I did not do a mid-year list and had not planned on doing this.
But, the wonderful Lesa Holstine put out a call for lists a few days ago, and I started thinking about it. One thing led to another, and I put something together. Should you choose to scroll down, you will see that list. You may also see it, again, at Lesa's Book Critiques early next year if she chooses to run it.
Please remember that I remain very slow reading
wise. The books selected refer to my personal tastes, biases, and all that
jazz. I am not saying that these are the best books published. I am stating
that they were my favorites during the past year. In each case, they allowed me
to escape my life here in the real world and that is no small feat. So, without
further explanation….
The Life and Death of Rose Doucette: A
Novel by Harry Hunsicker brings readers to Dallas, Texas,
and private investigator Dylan Fisher. A superb mystery, and one hopes the
start of a series, the read is full of Dallas area landmarks. References that
are often not positive and may bring a snicker while delighting those of us
born and raised in this city. A city where not everything is golden and good. A
great read and well worth your time. (My full review is here.)
The Troubling Death of Maddy Benson: A Samuel Craddock Mystery by Terry Shames deftly deals with a hard subject while entertaining readers with a complicated mystery. A missing woman, a murder, politics and health care in Texas, and a lot more is at work here. The latest in a great series is another very good read. (My full review is here.)
Blind to Midnight: A Nick Ryan Novel
by Reed Farrel Coleman is the second book in the Nick Ryan series that began
with Sleepless City. Nick Ryan continues to work cases as a sort
of fixer and has a wide latitude to solve problems as a NYC police detective.
This book builds off the previous one, like all good series do, so they should
be read in order. (My full review is here.)
Shades of Mercy: A Porter Beck Mystery
by Bruce Borgos is the second in the series that began with The Bitter
Past: A Novel. This one might be better than the first. That first book
was really good too. Nevada Sherriff Porter Beck deals with government operatives,
death and destruction, and a lot more in a great series that should, most
definitely, be read in order. (My full review is here.)
A Lonesome Place for Dying: A Novel by Nolan Chase takes the reader to Blaine, Washington, in this very good police procedural. Chief of Police Ethan Brand has a body just outside of town and it was very definitely murder. That might be the easiest of his many problems to solve. A very complicated police procedural that is full of rich small town characters, a complicated case, and a lot more are at work here. I really hope this is the launch book of a new series. (My full review is here.)
Eli North is a drunk. He is also a deputy thanks to his mom who is the Sheriff. They both have reason to regret his choices in Northwoods: A Novel by Amy Pease. Finding a dead child at the resort on a Wisconsin lake, with another child missing, means Eli is in a mess, professionally and personally. What follows is a highly atmospheric and enjoyable read. One hopes this is also the first book of a series. (My full review is here.)
All The Rage In Texas: An Al Quinn Novel
by Russ Hall is the latest reading in the long running and very good series
that started with To Hell And Gone In Texas. Road rage leads to escalating
violence putting retired Sheriff’s Department Detective Al Quinn and his extended
family in considerable danger. This is a fast paced action read with occasional
humor. (My full review is
here.)
It would not be a favorites list from me without the
latest in this long running series by Steven F. Havill. Perfect
Opportunity: A Posadas County Mystery features Bill Gastner who still
roams the roads of Posada County day or night. A recent thing he saw as he was
driving plays the major role in this complicated and very enjoyable read. (My
review is here.)
The fifth book in the series finds Eve Ronin dealing with a lot in Dream Town by Lee Goldberg. A case caused by the discovery of human remains, another case caused by celebrity status, and a lot more is at work here in a complex police procedural that pulls the reader along at a rapid pace. So too is the occasional flash of humor or sardonic whit as a character comments on the players and the myths that Hollywood spins for our viewing pleasure. (My review is here.)
There you have it. Some folks have five favorites. Others have ten. I offer you my thirteen favorites that allowed me to escape from the real world for hours. I hope they work that way for you as well.
As always, thank you for reading.
As always, as we end another year, thank you for paying
any attention, at all, to what I do here.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2024
Monday, December 30, 2024
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Art, Annotated: Your Expert Guide to 500 of the World’s Greatest Works of Art
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Art, Annotated: Your Expert Guide to 500 of the W...: Reviewed by Jeanne I like art. Ever since a long-ago college course in Art History, I’ve been fascinated by it. My taste is admitted...
Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Kingpin by Mike Lawson
I spent much
of my holiday break binge-reading. Throughout November and December I
stockpiled a number of titles I had been wanting to read and among them was the
latest adventure of Joe DeMarco, the troubleshooter for a powerful member of
the House of Representatives. In Kingpin (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2024)
Mike Lawson has produced a riveting political thriller that illustrates the tenuous
threads connecting career criminals and millionaires to each other and to the
Nation’s government.
It all starts
simply enough: a tenants’ rights bill did not pass the House. John Mahoney,
former Speaker of the House and Joe DeMarco’s boss, found that a dozen
representatives he had been sure of had actually voted against it. Brian Lewis,
a first-year law student and a summer intern in his office, was assigned to try
to figure out why the representatives had voted against the bill. Lewis threw
himself into the task and found what he believed to be evidence of bribery. He
was deeply worried and told his mother and his girlfriend that he thought he should
report his findings to someone. Then he turned up dead, an apparent victim of a
drug overdose. His mother insisted that her son was murdered. Mahoney told
DeMarco to try to keep her quiet and to learn if her claims had substance.
DeMarco
couldn’t find anything questionable in the police investigation at first but
then learned about the research Lewis had been so concerned about. No one could
find his notes and Lewis had only talked to his mother and his girlfriend about
it. His office was clean and nothing was in his apartment. DeMarco was about to
give up when he realized the report could be on Lewis’s personal laptop, but the
police did not have it, his mother did not have it, and it wasn’t in his apartment.
DeMarco reported the missing computer to the police and they started searching.
When the laptop was found the next day, showing signs of tampering, they knew
they were dealing with more than an overdose.
There is not a dull moment in this compulsively readable thriller. Those familiar with the activity behind the passage of legislation will understand the references to trade-offs and the quid pro quos on Capitol Hill. DeMarco’s amusing struggles with his air conditioning and the contractor who is supposed to repair it during a miserable Washington, D.C., summer alleviate the high tension. As usual, DeMarco doesn’t tell his boss everything he’s up to. He teams up with the local police and the Capitol Hill police to maneuver and connive his way to an agreeable ending. One of the best in the series. Highly recommended.
·
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
(February 6, 2024)
·
Language: English
·
Hardcover: 288 pages
·
ISBN-10: 0802160883
·
ISBN-13: 978-0802160881
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/40a7NAw
Aubrey Nye Hamilton
©2024
Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.
Sunday, December 29, 2024
Keep A Good Thought If You Will
Keep a good thought if you will as I am about to make even more medical debt---
I had a flash of light in my left eye Thursday evening and then it was like looking through tissue paper or a really dirty window. I see long strands of something that looks like hair hanging from top to bottom surrounded by dirty looking debris. I have had floaters since High School and this looks nothing like have seen before. I just had an eye exam three weeks ago and this never came up. Trying not to panic. Calling eye doc in the morning.
SleuthSayers: Taking Stock, Moving On
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Little Big Crimes: Burned, by Hugh Lessig
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Mystery Fanfare: Mysteries Set at the New Year: New Year's Eve and New Year's Day!
Mystery Fanfare: Mysteries Set at the New Year: New Year's Eve and ...: Happy New Year! Wishing you the best for 2025! May Mystery and Mayhem only happen in crime fiction! Today's list features Myster...
Beneath the Stains of Time: Who Killed the Curate? (1944) by Joan Coggin
Beneath the Stains of Time: Who Killed the Curate? (1944) by Joan Coggin: Joan Coggin was a British writer of light, comedic mysteries and half a dozen of girls' school novels, published under the pseudonym ...
Defending The Crown-- 27th Annual Critters Readers Poll Opened -- Best Review Site
It has
been a year. I honestly never thought I would still be here this long after
Sandi passed. But, I am, and this blog still lives as well. The fact that even
though I am not as active with reviews as I read way slower now, and actually wrote
some of my own fiction that folks thought was worthy of being included in
various projects and published, means that this place did not have as much new
content as I would have liked. I’m sorry about that. I also don’t see it
changing for 2025.
After
reclaiming the title of “Best Review Site” last year, I was not planning on
running again this year. I have never understood why anyone would value what I do here. People tell me I impact the mystery and crime fiction community. I don't see how. Yet, folks keep telling me I have an impact, as they did again in recent days. Then I was reminded how I regretted not entering this deal before and maybe I should just go ahead and enter again. One is supposed to
learn from past mistakes, after all.
So, when
the 27th Annual Critters Readers' Poll opened early last week, I placed Kevin’s
Corner in the running in the Review site category. If you think the blog is worthy, please vote
at https://critters.org/predpoll/reviewsite.shtml
After you
vote, make sure you respond to the confirmation email and registers your vote
so that it is counted.
While currently
we are the only review site listed, I expect that we will once again be going
up against a number of review sites that have teams of reviewers and are active
in many genres across multiple forms of media. Most of them host book giveaways
and other events as well. This site remains an underdog as always because we do
not have all the bells and whistles that other sites have to drive traffic to
them.
If you
think we are worthy of your vote, please go cast your vote today. Remember, you
must respond to the confirmation email for your vote to count.
Thank you
for your continuing support.
Kevin R.
Tipple ©2024
Saturday, December 28, 2024
Life
As some horrible new problem has begun in my left eye in the last 48 hours, this hits home really hard tonight...
Friday, December 27, 2024
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Floriography: An Illustrated Guide to the Victorian Language of Flowers by Jessica Roux
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Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 67 Calls for Submissions in January 2025 - Paying Markets
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Jerry's House of Everything: FORGOTTEN BOOK: DAY OF THE GUNS
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FFB Review: Forgotten in Death: In Death Series by J.D. Robb
It
is late May 2061 as Forgotten in Death: An Eve Dallas Novel by J.
D. Robb begins. begins. It is a pretty early morning and Eve Dallas is on duty
and working at a rubble strewn construction site in Hudson Yards. She has been
dispatched to a body in a construction site dumpster.
The
trail of blood from the fencing four feet away to the side of the construction
dumpster was the first clue for a worker earlier that morning. The body in a
sheet with her head significantly brutalized was the second. The victim was
clearly dead as the body laid on top of the load in the dumpster. The plastic
over it had not done much to hide that fact.
It
is while Lieutenant Eve Dallas of the NYPSD is on that scene, that she is
informed that another body has been found a block away. A worker there has also
found a dead body. Upon arrival, it is clear that the body is from many years
ago. It was buried behind a wall and under some flooring as a restaurant was
built above her. She was also pregnant. It is also a site owned by Roarke as his
company seeks to redevelop a site that had shoddy construction just after the Urban
Wars ended.
Are
the bodies linked, even though they are decades apart? Or, is it just
coincidence that the killings just happened to come to light at the same time.
Dallas,
Peabody, and others investigate in Forgotten in Death: An Eve Dallas Novel.
The result is an entertaining and fast paced police procedural. A lot has
changed by 2061, but people are people and they still kill for all the classic
reasons.
Amazon
Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4f6k12N
My digital
reading copy came through the Libbby/OverDrive account by way of the Dallas
Public Library System.
Kevin R. Tipple © 2024
Thursday, December 26, 2024
Criminal Element: Our Favorite Books of 2024
Came across this thanks to Aubrey posting about it on Facebook
Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 66 Free Writing Contests in January 2025 - No entry fees
Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 66 Free Writing Contests in January 2025 - No entr...: This January there are more than five dozen free writing contests for short fiction, novels, poetry, CNF, nonfiction, and plays. Prizes rang...
Wednesday, December 25, 2024
Beneath the Stains of Time: Murder in Retrospect: The Best and Worst of 2024
Beneath the Stains of Time: Murder in Retrospect: The Best and Worst of 2024: Last year, I started " Murder in Retrospect: The Best and Worst of 2024 " with remembering Rupert Heath, of Dean Street Press , ...
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Nevermore: Henry and Clara, Book of Longing, Losing Battles
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Nevermore: Henry and Clara, Book of Longing, Losin...: Reported by Rita Henry and Clara by Thomas Mallon In this riveting novel, Thomas Mallon re-creates the unusual love story of this...
Jerry's House of Everything: SHORT STORY CHRISTMAS WEDNESDAY: THE OTHER WISE MAN
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Short Story Wednesday: Treacherous: Grifters, Ruffians, and Killers by Gary Phillips
Treacherous:
Grifters, Ruffians, and Killers by Gary Phillips is an interesting short story collection.
Beyond the various crimes, the backdrop is often deals with issues of race,
privilege, class, and economic standing. The book is broken into four
categories with each section containing 4 to 7 previously published stories.
The result is 21 crime fictions tales. While they are all good ones, a few that
I very much liked are below.
The book
opens with the first section “Grifters.” A highlight is the opening short
story, “The Performer.” An aging lounge singer is making small talk with a
woman after a set. One thing leads to another, and soon he is, apparently, in
the middle of a mess.
Another
highlight is “Rodger Crumbler Considered His Shave.” 50 years old Rodger Crumber is pleased with
things, but is pretty sure it could be way better. He has a plan to make things
even better and that plan is underway.
The “Bad
Juju” section comes next. These stories are all about messing with people and
things that should not be messed with at all.
“The Snow
Birds” sees folks play polo by using bikes. It is street polo where grudges are
settled and crimes are plotted.
Glen Murry, aka
Junie, is a teen and he does some things for the gamblers in “Sportin’ Men.” He
makes drinks and food and works on his plan. He isn’t the only one with a plan.
“Both of
Shadows and Substance” comes next as the third section.
A truck
driver by the name of Roosevelt Hopkins stops for a meal on the way to the
port. A waitress, a legendary car, and more are at work in “Can’t Be Satisfied.”
Maybe you are
in the mood for zombies? In “Disco Zombies,” taking the drugs and more seems to
have worked out. Then the damn zombies showed up looking to take it all back.
The plan was
to rip off the aging rock star in “House of Tears.” The plan isn’t going as
well as they had thought it would in the first story of section 4, “Hell Bent.”
Racists and
other scumbags, are hard at work in “Masai Back in Town.” Swanmoor put one down
and got intel from the other. He soon learns that the one he left alive is also
now dead as there are multiple agendas in play.
The 21 tales
that make up Treacherous: Grifters, Ruffians, and Killers are all
good ones. These short stories are graphic crime fiction. That means they are
graphic in use of language and also frequently depict in detail violence and sexual
situations between various characters.
Along the way,
the tales consider race, class, economic status, and a lot more. These tales
are not light hearted. Regardless of time period, these feature characters
doing their best to survive. As we all are, every single day, in a world often
stacked to benefit the wealthy and powerful.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/41KuVa4
My ARC
digital reading copy came from the publisher, Level Short (Level Best Books),
through NetGalley with no expectation of a review.
Kevin R.
Tipple ©2024
Tuesday, December 24, 2024
Mystery Fanfare: Chanukah Mysteries // Hanukkah Crime Fiction
Mystery Fanfare: Chanukah Mysteries // Hanukkah Crime Fiction: Chanukah ( no matter how you spell it - Hanukah, Hanukka h ) starts on Christmas this year! Because the holiday lasts eight days, you will ...
Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity: 13 (Warm) Writing Conferences and Workshops in January 2025
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SleuthSayers: Making Fictional Fodder from Emotional Wounds
SleuthSayers: Making Fictional Fodder from Emotional Wounds: What better thing to think about on the day after Festivus, in the hours before Hanukkah begins, and on Christmas Eve Day–all holidays that...
Monday, December 23, 2024
Beneath the Stains of Time: The Case of the Ghost of Christmas Morning (2021) by P.J. Fitzsimmons
Beneath the Stains of Time: The Case of the Ghost of Christmas Morning (2021) ...: P.J. Fitzsimmons is a ghostwriter for mainstream genres who " dreams of an alternative reality in which P.G. Wodehouse wrote locked roo...
SleuthSayers: Writing Advice from 1908, Part 2
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Bitter Tea and Mystery: Mom Meets Her Maker: James Yaffe
Bitter Tea and Mystery: Mom Meets Her Maker: James Yaffe: I read My Mother, the Detective , a collection of the Dave and Mom stories by James Yaffe in 2019. The stories were first published in the...
Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Fields Where They Lay by Timothy Hallinan
Timothy
Hallinan has given the mystery reading world three distinctly different and
very good series. The first is about Simeon Grist, a private investigator in
Los Angeles, the second is set in Bangkok where Hallinan lives part time, and
the third returns to Los Angeles, home of Junior Bender, a professional thief
and occasional private investigator.
Fields Where
They Lay
(Soho, 2016), Junior’s sixth adventure, finds him in thrall to a member of the
Los Angeles underworld, as he is so often. A Russian mobster with the unlikely
name of Tip Poindexter is the sole owner of a rundown shopping mall in suburban
Los Angeles. He decides it takes a thief to catch a thief so he strongarms
Junior into determining who is responsible for the rampant shoplifting in his
mall. The monthly loss reports are staggering but the store owners have not identified
a single bandit or a group of thieves.
When Junior
discusses security measures with each shop owner, he learns that most of them
do not expect to stay open after the holiday rush. Several storefronts are
already vacant and Junior is struck by how worn the facility appears, despite
the throng of shoppers intent on spending their money. Among the vacancies is
the only major department store that closed at the end of the previous holiday
season. The loss of the anchor tenant pushed the mall even closer to the brink
of failure.
While Junior
is looking for mall exits that are not under surveillance of the security
cameras, which is how he assumes the loot is leaving, he examines the dark
upper floors of the shuttered department store and stumbles on the body of one
of the shop owners. He has no alternative but to call the police, the last
thing Poindexter or Junior wants. In no time Junior’s assignment expands to
finding the killer.
The fading of
the shopping mall phenomenon is captured perfectly here, as is the hollow
desperation of the holiday commercial frenzy. The operational side of a mall is
explored, similar to Silvermeadow by Barry Maitland (Orion Publishing, 2000),
the reader is taken behind the scenes to regions not usually thought of by bargain
hunters. Junior’s cynicism is always front and center but never quite
overwhelms his essential humanity, which is the nicest thing about him. Junior’s
ex-wife and only child occupy a lot of his focus in every book; this time
Junior has also acquired a girlfriend. It’s easy to forget about the mystery
while Junior’s personal life and his trenchant observations about the season’s
consumerism are so entertaining but Junior gets to the bottom of both the
murder and the shoplifting in a thoroughly unexpected manner.
Starred
reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, Booklist, and Library
Journal. A Kirkus Best Book of 2016 and a Publishers
Weekly Best Book of 2016.
·
Publisher: Soho Crime; First Edition
(October 25, 2016)
·
Language: English
·
Hardcover: 384 pages
·
ISBN-10: 1616957468
·
ISBN-13: 978-1616957469
Amazon
Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4gnc09X
Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2024
Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.
Sunday, December 22, 2024
Mystery Fanfare: CHRISTMAS MYSTERIES: Short Story Anthologies and Novellas
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Little Big Crimes: Eight Very Bad Nights, by Tod Goldberg
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Beneath the Stains of Time: Ho-Ho-Homicide: "A Murder in Christmas Village" (2015) by Alex Colwell
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Sample Sunday: Excerpt: First Contact in Santa Rage: A Killer Claus Compendium
Normally, I would have been on top of
this, but I’m not doing too well. Earlier this month, the anthology, Santa
Rage: A Killer Claus Compendium. Edited by Jay Hartman, published by White
City Press, it includes my short story, First Contact. It is available at the publisher in
both digital and paperback versions and at other platforms.
First
Contact
It was 2 A.M. and the blood was still warm because the old AC in the Waffle House was barely working. It had been 112 just hours ago for the official high at the big airport and it was still 97 there this hour. My little part of NE Dallas always ran hotter year-round than DFW Airport, so I was pretty sure we might still be over 100. Summer in Texas, record heat and drought, sucks, and it was doing nothing to help my ever-present insomnia.
I’d always had it. But, after the kids moved out, and then
a few months later my wife passed, it got way worse. I didn’t want pills as
they did not work and made things worse. Years earlier, I had an intense love
affair with alcohol and it had helped some, but it also damn near destroyed my
marriage. I was not a happy drunk. An ultimatum was laid down and thank god I
had the good sense to stop. I also had the good sense that without her, if I
started drinking again, I might never to stop.
So, on the nights it was really bad when I could not
sleep and felt like I was coming out of my own skin, I got in my car and drove
around a little while before going to the nearby Waffle House. I’d hang out
awhile, eat, and surf on the iPad or bring a print book. This was one of those
bad nights. I was a semi regular late-night denizen so my presence did not stir
up the regulars or the two employees. Being the middle of the week meant it was
also far safer than the Friday and Saturday night crowd, dominated by drunks,
and folks who want to fight for no reason at all.
Jesse was on the grill, as usual, and had brought me a
burger with everything on it and fries earlier which has vanished pretty fast.
He was back trying to pick up Shelly, despite the fact that I was pretty sure
she played for the other team. It wasn’t ever going to happen. He was in the
friend zone and would never get out.
The two regulars finished their meals and headed out
into the night. A DPD car rolled through the nearby intersection with its
flashers going and then they went dark. Anything to not stop for the red light
that went far longer than it should. A typical Texas summertime night.
I shifted a little more in my usual back booth as the paltry
AC wheezed above me spewing what it could to ease the temp downwards. I’d had
enough of social media and got off in order to read the latest Terry Shames
book. Texas author Bill Crider had Sheriff Dan Rhodes. Shames had Sheriff
Samuel Craddock. Both had gotten me through many a dark period. Craddock was
out talking a case over with his cows. As usual, they seemed far more
interested in eating than helping. It came to mind that maybe I needed some
cows to talk to when things were working me over. I doubted that my northeast
Dallas neighbors would be too happy with that idea.
As I always did, I was sitting facing the door when he
walked into the place. Dressed all in black, the man had black sunglasses on
over his eyes too. Dressed in a black t-shirt, black pants, and black boots was
one thing, but the accompanying black jacket seemed totally ridiculous in this
heat. I could barely stand the heat and humidity and I was in a t-shirt and
jeans.
Not that I had much time to think about any of it as
this guy, who looked like something out of Hollywood casting for a tough guy in
a direct to digital release movie, came straight at me. At a little after 2
A.M. in the morning, with the searing drought in full effect and that had meant
70 something plus days in a row with no rain at all, he looked like he was here
to rob the place.
Or kill me.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3ZEZjzV
Kevin R. Tipple ©2024
Multiple term past President of the Short Mystery Fiction Society, Kevin R. Tipple reviews books and short stories, watches way too much television, and offers unsolicited opinions on anything. His short fiction has appeared in magazines such as Lynx Eye, Starblade, Show and Tell, and The Writer’s Post Journal, among others. Mystery Weekly Magazine published his story, The Damn Rodents Are Everywhere, in May of 2021 and soon had to change their name to Mystery Magazine. His short story, The Beetle’s Last Fifty Grand, appears in the 2022 anthology, Back Road Bobby and His Friends, and everyone involved seems to have survived the experience unscathed. His short story, Visions of Reality, appears in Crimeucopia-Say It Again. Earlier this year, the Notorious in North Texas: Metroplex Mysteries Volume III anthology was released and includes his short story, Whatever Happened To…? Also released earlier this year is the anthology, Larceny & Last Chances: 22 Stories of Mystery & Suspense, which includes his crime fiction short story, The Hospital Boomerang. Fully trained before marriage, Kevin can work all major appliances and, despite a love of nearly all sports, is able to clean up after himself.
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