Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Priesthood Lesson 22 March 2020


Observations on the word “Repentance”

When I was arrived in Belgium in late 1964 for my Mission to France and Belgium, I had no language training, and I spoke no French.  My first goal was to learn it so that I could teach the Gospel in French. 

One of the things I learned while studying French, was that there were some concepts in English that could be translated directly into French very accurately – while preserving the meaning of what the words meant very clearly.  But I also learned that there were some concepts in English that were very difficult to translate into French, because there were no French words that created exactly the same concept as the English words did.  Also, there were some concepts in French for which there were no appropriate English words.  The best that could be done in both cases was to describe an approximation of the concept in question by sort of talking all around it.

For example, in French, there is no word that is equivalent to the English word “leadership”.  All the French words (e.g., chef, patron) that have to do with leaders tend to carry a connotation of domination, which is not appropriate to the English word, so one has to describe what is meant by “Leadership” while trying to avoid all the French words that connote power and dominance. 

There is a problem of translating INTO English as well.  When I taught a lesson to the High Priest’s Quorum a few years ago, I brought to the discussion no less than seven Greek words that are all found in the New Testament, and all of them are translated into the English word “love”.  Yet there are distinct and understandable differences between each of the seven Greek words, but none of those differences carried over into the single English word.

Similarly, there are two Hebrew words found in the Old Testament, and two Greek words found in the New Testament that are all translated into English as “repent”.  The two Hebrew words distinguish a difference, and the two Greek words roughly distinguish the same difference, and so the two languages can be translated back and forth in an approximate equivalence to each other, but each of the four words is translated into English as “repent” or some variation thereof, and there is no second word in English to use to distinguish the differences that exist in the Hebrew and Greek usage.

In the Hebrew of the Old Testament the two words that are used in the concept of repentance are:
1. NACHAM - to lament, to grieve. This word is describing the emotions that are aroused when one is motivated to take a different course of action.  It means to see that your present course of action is wrong in some way, causing a motivation to take action to change it.
2. SHUB - This word expresses a radical change of mind toward sin and implies a conscious moral separation from sin and a decision to forsake it (to turn away from it) and agree with God.
In the Greek of the New Covenant, the two words used which parallel the Hebrew usage are:
1. METAMELOMAI - to have feeling or care, concern or regret which is akin to remorse. 
2. METANOEO - to have another mind; to re-think; to change – your mind, your approach, your habits, your goals -- to turn from the idols of sin and of self, toward God.
In both Greek and Hebrew one of the words refers to a simple changing of mind without any connotation of the kind of self-loathing or bitter sorrow that we often associate with the English “repent”.
Because we use one word where Greek and Hebrew use two, it is worth our time to consider that the Old Testament was written in Hebrew and the New Testament was written (mostly) in Greek.  There is a difference in meaning in how the two words are used in both the Old Testament and New Testament that can be obscured or even lost in the translation into English.
Now, it may be, on some occasions, that a grievous sin has been committed that justifies all the most negative aspects of the word “repent”, but I believe that a much more common situation is the simple realization that what we have been doing is slightly off course and needs to be adjusted. 
When we drive a car, we are always adjusting our trajectory by turning the steering wheel – sometimes to make only very slight, but absolutely essential, changes in direction.  It is just a simple change in direction. 
Sometimes we have to make more dramatic changes, and sometimes we must make drastic changes in steering and moreover, use the brakes as well.  This would be more akin to the meaning of  “repent” with the full application of all of its negative connotations.
We are told to “repent daily”, and for many of us that “repentance” may be more akin to the slight adjustments we make while driving on a relatively straight section of highway.  This kind of change would be more like the Greek METANOEO – to make a needed change in trajectory, because not to make the change, small as it may be, would lead to disaster in the long run.  This kind of repentance is like turning away from the ditches along the side of the road and toward the center of our lane.
This is the “repentance” that we should emphasize every day.  We should pay attention to our daily lives just as we pay attention to where the car we are driving is heading.  And, just as we see the need to make changes to our steering, we need to see what is happening in our daily lives and make the adjustments that are needed.
This is what it means to repent every day.

Tuesday, October 8, 2019

Handy Traffic Abbreviations

Geary’s Handy Traffic Abbreviations
For Commonly Encountered Traffic Conditions


CKU                Can’t Keep Up                       In heavy traffic, drives in left lane much slower than the car ahead, inviting cars to pull in ahead of him and frustrating those behind him.

CMALT            Can’t Make A Left Turn        Doesn’t seem to know how gauge the traffic in order to turn left.

CMART           Can’t Make A Right Turn      Sits at a red light until it turns green before making a right turn, even though ample opportunities are available to make such a turn.

CPAB               Can’t Pass A Bus        This person, driving at or near the speed limit in the left lane, comes up behind a bus traveling in the lane to his right.  As he reaches the bus, he slows down to match the speed of the bus so that his front bumper matches the position of the back bumper of the bus, causing the drivers behind him to have to brake.  Slightly increasing his speed (by 1-2 MPH) he takes a long time to creep past; and then accelerates again once past the bus, often increasing his speed by 15 mph or more.

CPAC               Can’t Pass A Car        This person slows down to follow a slower car, never passing, but always blocking anyone else from being able to get around either one.

CPAT               Can’t Pass A Truck    Same as CPAB, only with a truck.  CPAT is more often encountered than is CPAB because there are more trucks on the road than there are buses.

ITWGTWS      If They Won’t Go, They Won’t Stop             Encountered most often in city driving.  This person drives well below the speed limit, seemingly unaware that the approaching light won’t stay green forever.  As the light turns yellow, he suddenly discovers that the light is no longer green, but he doesn’t stop, but continues through the light even though there is ample time to stop.

ITWSTWG      If They Won’t Stop, They Won’t Go             Same as ITWGTWS, only in reverse – often the same driver suffers from both habits.

LCWL              Lane Change Without Looking        See TUA.

LCWS              Lane Change Without Signaling

LCWLOS         Lane Change Without Looking Or Signaling

LG                    Lollygagger                Drives well below the speed limit, as if sightseeing.

LLL                  Left Lane Lover         Drives in the left lane only, often slowly, regardless of traffic.  Same as PILL and WGOOLL

LTFRL             Left Turn From Right Lane              A hazardous maneuver.

OTP                 On The Phone                       Pays attention to his phone instead of to his driving.

PILL                Parks in left lane (lays claim to the left lane and never leaves it); same as LLL and WGOOLL

POACAL          Pull Out And Cross All Lanes           Pulls out into the road, and immediately drives across all lanes to get into the left-most lane.

POAGS                        Pull Out And Go Slow            Pulls out into traffic, but never quite gets up to speed.

RARL               Run A Red Light        Ignores yellow lights and continues through an intersection even after the light has turned red.

RORWS           Right On Red Without Stopping      Ignores the law about stopping before turning right on red – often doesn’t even slow down before turning.

RTFLL             Right Turn From Left Lane              A hazardous maneuver.

SILL                 Slow In Left Lane      Driving in the left lane, but slower than the flow of traffic.  See CKU.

STD                 Slow To Decide          Takes a long time to decide what to do.

STTA               Slow To Take Action              Even after deciding what to do, takes a long time to actually do it.

TLACAL           Turn Left And Cross All Lanes         While making a left turn, drifts across all traffic lanes to end up in the right lane, creating a hazard for oncoming drivers who might want to turn right.

TRACAL          Turn Right And Cross All Lanes       While making a right turn, drifts across all traffic lanes to end up in the left lane, creating a hazard for oncoming drivers who might want to turn left.

TWD               Texting While Driving          A very dangerous habit.

TUA                 Totally Unaware        Pays no attention to events outside of own car.

TPOH              Trucks Passing On Hills        The often observed phenomenon that although big rigs slow down while climbing hills, this is where their contests of trying to pass each other are most likely to take place.  Truck speeds may be only 20-30 MPH, with delta speeds in the 0-2 MPH range for very long distances, and may clog other traffic for long periods.

WGOOTLL      Won’t Get Out Of The Left Lane      Same as LLL and PILL, but PILL is easier to pronounce.


To Be Corolla’d:  To be stuck behind a car that is in a CMALT, CPAT, ITWGTWS, ITWSTYG, LG, LLL, PILL, POAGS, STD, STTA, or TUA mode.  Named after the Toyota Corolla because so often the offender is driving a Corolla.  Not restricted to Corolla drivers, though.

More Driving in the USA


More Driving in the USA

I took another driving trip this year.  My route took me through Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, California, Wyoming, Nebraska, and Iowa.  I spent 10 days driving all day, which gave me ample time to observe other drivers, road conditions, and road signs.  On this trip I was particularly struck by driver awareness, “rules of the road”, and driving courtesy (or lack of it), and how these varied in different states.

Example:  I was driving north on highway 6/191 in Utah, north of I-70.  After crossing the summit at Soldier’s Summit, which is 7,400 feet high, the road was a single lane in each direction; one lane ascending, and one descending the hill.  The speed limit coming down this side of the hill is 65.  Large trucks, however, as well as people towing large trailers, can’t really go that fast on the curving, two-lane part of the road, so every once in a while there is an added passing lane. I was just behind an 18-wheeler tractor-trailer rig followed by a pickup pulling a large trailer with a car on it.  Both the 18-wheeler and the pickup pulling the trailer had difficulty coming down the two-lane portion of the highway at even 50 miles an hour – they just couldn’t go that fast on the curves.  But when they came to a passing lane, they both immediately pulled away from me right smartly.  I decided to clock both the 18-wheeler and the pickup pulling the car-on-the-trailer.  They were BOTH traveling 80 miles an hour in the passing lane.  The pickup wasn’t able to pass the truck, and I couldn’t even CATCH either one of them.  I thought, “So much for the utility of passing lanes on a road like this.” 

I believe it is exceedingly bad road manners to go slow when passing is not possible, and fast when it is.  It shows that the drivers lack awareness of the plight of other drivers whom they inconvenience, or don’t care, or both.

Example:  I was driving in the mountains of California, heading west on I-80.  I had just passed through Donner’s Pass at the summit and had begun my descent of the western slope.  At this point I-80 is three lanes wide in each direction, and, as a major east/west highway, was carrying a mixed combination of cars and big trucks.  The speed limit was set at 55 mph.  Ahead of me were two trucks, both of which were in the right lane, and traveling somewhat slower than the speed limit in a relatively steep downhill portion of the road.  The trailing truck moved to the center lane to pass the slower truck.  I looked behind me and, seeing that the road behind me was empty, moved to the left lane to pass both trucks.  I had just reached the truck I was passing – and so was now committed to completing the pass – when my rear view mirror was suddenly filled with a rapidly expanding view of the front grill of a very large pickup going very much faster than I was.  I hit the gas to complete my pass quite a bit faster than I had originally intended, and got out of the way.  The pickup accelerated past me and rapidly disappeared down the road ahead of me.  I estimate that he was traveling more than 80 mph – more than 25 mph above the posted speed limit, and more than 45 mph faster than the slower trucks. 

Example:  I was driving west on I-80 in California later that same afternoon.  The speed limit was irrelevant, because traffic density was so great that all lanes were completely full of cars and the whole highway was traveling much slower.  There were four lanes of traffic, and I was in the next-to-right-lane.  I glanced in my right mirror to see a car moving so fast that I concluded there was no way in the world he would be able – even in a full panic stop – to shed enough speed to avoid rear-ending the car ahead of him, who was both braking, and signaling, in an attempt to move to his right into an exit lane.  I also braked – there was no way to speed up or move over – and prepared myself to be a participant in what looked to be a certain accident.  The fast car to my right apparently decided his best course to avoid rear-ending the car ahead of him was to impact my right front fender instead.  As he moved to his left into my fender, my braking cleared enough room for him to just barely clear the front of my car.  He continued, with no decrease in speed that I could see, across my lane, across the lane to my left, and into the left-hand lane of the highway where there was a very short clear space, and then on and out of my sight.  At no time did I see his brake lights or any signal lights – I concluded he had both hands on the wheel and foot on the gas.  I would credit him with driving skills (as he didn’t actually impact anyone), if his judgment hadn’t been so bad.  Also, I credit him with bad road manners, lack of situational awareness, reckless driving, and endangering the health and safety of other drivers.  And he was also, I suspect, suffering from frustration.

Nevertheless, these were two cases – in the same day (and in the same state) – of driving at speeds that posed an immediate danger to other drivers.  I cite them as examples of lack of common courtesy on the road; poor judgment; and a domineering “don’t care” attitude toward other drivers. 

Example:  Three days later, in Iowa, traveling south on I-29, I watched the following incident take place:  A car had pulled out from the right lane to the left lane in order to pass another, (because they were going very slightly faster than that other car).  After he was in the left lane, and just as he came abreast of the car in the right lane, a car entered the highway from an entrance lane on the right.  The car in the left lane, seeing this happen, braked, (thinking, perhaps, to allow the car in the right lane room to pull over in front of him).  But, when he braked, he didn’t actually fall behind the car in the right lane – he just kept pace with it.  The result was that the car on the right also began braking, and the two of them were braking side by side. 

The car in the left lane, by braking, blocked the car in the right lane from having any way to maneuver.  That car had no choice but to brake sufficiently to allow the car coming in from the right to pull in ahead of him.  Once that had happened, the car in the left lane pulled ahead again.  It was perhaps a good intention to brake in the left lane and thus slow the speed down, and so forth, but its actual effect was that it eliminated any possibility of maneuver for the car in the right lane, who then had to rely solely on his ability to brake to avoid an accident.

There are several things wrong with this scenario:  In the first place, the passing car needs to get his passing done and then get out of the way – he was traveling only slightly faster that the car he was passing, and did not increase his speed for the pass; in the second place, the car in the entrance lane needs to control his entrance speed and timing so as to not interfere with the freeway traffic; and in the third place, people need to be aware of hazards that are not necessarily in their own lane, such as, for example, that traffic in the right lane must deal with entrance ramps and may have a need to change speed, or move to the left, on occasion.

Since the 1950’s, modern multi-lane interstate highways have taught generations of drivers that they can drive at their own speed in their own lane, and other drivers will go around them – sometimes on the left (the preferred option), and sometimes on the right (the hazardous option) – and that they can exhibit this behavior in whichever lane they want.

This attitude is wrong on two levels.  First, it is hazardous to force others to pass on the right because it is harder to see cars overtaking on the right than it is to see cars overtaking on the left.  Even with mirrors on both sides of the car, the visibility on the right is just not as good as on the left.  The possibility exits, and it is not just a theoretical possibility, that the car being passed will be unaware of a car passing on the right, and may make a move that will put both cars in danger.  Second, it is appallingly bad manners to do so. 

Safe driving depends critically on courtesy – the “manners of the road” – these manners (not speed limits) are the PRIMARY reason that travel by car is as safe as it is.  Ignorance, or disregard, of these manners leads to sloppy and hazardous driving.  It is dangerous, stupid, and unforgiveable to be unaware of, or to disregard, such courtesy.

I often drive on two-lane roads, and there I see the same lack of awareness, poor passing techniques and bad manners that I see on interstate highways.  On two-lane roads, however, lack of awareness, poor driving, and bad manners are even more noticeable than on multi-lane roads, because all the traffic is confined to the single lane, and passing opportunities are much more limited.

Example:  Climbing uphill out of Denver, westbound on I-70, there are multiple lanes.  The right lane is obstructed by trucks that have to gear way down while climbing the hill; the next lane over from the right lane is obstructed by trucks that are passing the trucks in the right lane because they can go slightly faster than those trucks.  The next lane over is full of trucks that are trying to pass trucks that are passing the trucks in the right lane.  Because of the “trucks passing trucks passing trucks” phenomenon, all of the cars – ALL of the cars – want to drive in the left lane.  So, what that does is take four lanes of road and essentially reduce it to one lane where all the automobile traffic now goes as slow as the SLOWEST car in that lane, and believe me, between those people who want to go 20 mph FASTER than the speed limit, and those people who want to go 30 mph SLOWER than the speed limit – and they ALL want to drive in the left lane – it is REALLY exciting driving uphill in Colorado. 

Driving downhill is also exciting, because some drivers want to drive downhill at or above the speed limit, and others want to go very slowly downhill because, seemingly, they are afraid their cars will leave the road and fly off into space if they don’t ride their brakes all the way downhill.

When I travel long distances, I prefer to stop for gas at truck stops, as the rest rooms are better, and truck stops have convenience stores that cater to travelers. The only problem with gassing up at truck stops is that you are FOREVER behind big trucks, either exiting the highway or on the streets leading back to entrances to the highway, so you’re always behind a big truck.  Well – that’s a small price to pay.

I was traveling on I-70 towards St. Louis, from the west.  About 50 miles away from St. Louis, the speed limit was 70 and the traffic was generally moving at about 75.  If I went slower than that, I got passed a lot.  If I went faster than that, I would be passing other people, so I didn’t go faster than that.  As I approached St. Louis, the speed limit began to go down, first from 70 to 65, to 60 and then to 55.  When it went from 70 to 65, nobody slowed down – I saw only two people who did.  But generally it was similar to driving before the speed limit changed.  Then traffic density began to go up, as more people joined the traffic going into St. Louis.  The speed limit went from 65 to 60, and NOBODY slowed – NOBODY!  At 65, I was being passed on both sides by people going faster than that – and some going a great deal faster.  At one point I saw, in the right lane, a garbage truck.  He was going much slower than the traffic, and had his flashers on so people wouldn’t run into him.  Out of curiosity, I clocked him.  He was going 60 miles an hour, which was the actual speed limit.  But at that speed, he felt that he had to put his flashers on, to warn people that he was going slowly.  At about the same time, I was passed by a string of cars that sort of left me in the dust, so out of curiosity I clocked them, too.  I clocked them at 82 miles an hour, which is faster than ANYBODY went back when the speed limit was 75.  

When the speed limit dropped to 55, traffic speed remained a good 15 to 20 mph over the speed limit.  I mean, I was being passed by everybody.  NOBODY was obeying the speed limit.  (And virtually ALL of those cars passing me had local Missouri plates, which gives some insight on the cultural habits of the local drivers in a big city.)

I believe that one of the problems that causes this disparity in speed is that, out in the countryside, people are in it for the long haul, and they realize it is going to take them some time to get where they’re going.  But in the city, most people aren’t driving all that far, and they’re in a big hurry to get there.  They have things to do, and they have schedules to meet, and they’re frustrated with their inability to navigate through traffic and get to where they want to go in a reasonable time – reasonable to them, that is.  So, there are two factors at work here:  one is the relatively short distance that people drive in and around cities; and the other is that they are not in a “long haul” mentality.  They’re in the “I’m in a hurry and these people are in my way” mentality. 

Another factor that causes people to drive fast in the city, is that these are people who are very familiar with the roads they’re driving on – they’ve driven them many times, and they are mixed in with other people who may be coming through the city for the first time, who are long-haul distance travelers, who are NOT as familiar with the roads – they don’t know what’s coming up, so they may be more cautious.  And, the people who have driven the roads before – here comes one around me now on the right, having crossed three lanes without signaling, in order to take an exit – aah, what was I going to say – the people in the city, who are very familiar with the roads, and who know what’s coming up, where the curves are, how fast they can take the curves, and so on, they’re just frustrated by people who don’t know the roads as well as they do, and a high level of frustration is one of the principle causes of bad driving.

Anyway, when you get near a city, the spread in speeds that you encounter goes up.  Out on the main highway you don’t get much more spread than about five miles an hour.  Even the trucks don’t go all that much more slowly than the cars out on the main highway, so the spread in speeds is relatively narrow.  But in the city, although speed limits go down, the speed spread goes up – it goes WAY up.   People are now going 20 miles an hour over the speed limit instead of five.  And even when speed limits have dropped – in this case 15 miles an hour – there are a percentage of cars now traveling faster than the original speed limit out in the country.  In the city you have probably a 30-mile-an-hour spread in speeds, instead of just five.  And it is this disparity in speeds between cars that causes city driving to be so dangerous.  The greater the spread, the more dangerous it is to drive, and in the city that spread is remarkably higher than it is in the countryside.

For your reference, there are four states where the speed limit reaches 80 mph.  They are Kansas, Utah, Nevada, and Wyoming.  Speed limits of 75 are common west of the Mississippi River, but are generally no more than 70 east of the river.

Roads in the USA are terrible.  Even the best of them degrade rapidly and are in need of constant upkeep.  Generally, roads are supposed to be designed to last 20 years, but in reality they seem to only last about 5 years before they need to be repaired, and when the repairs begin, they never end.  As soon as a road is improved, it invites a heavier traffic load as drivers move to that road to escape the more inferior ones they previously had to use.  Road closures and repair zones are ubiquitous throughout the country.  It is best to recognize this issue before leaving on a road trip, and include those delays in your planning. 

I like books

Beginning in February, 2007 I began to keep track of the books I was reading.  It has now been 12 years since I began to keep track, and in that time I have read 766 books, for an average of just over 63 books per year, or about one every six days or so.  When I run out of books to read, I slide into depression, which only gets worse until I go to the bookstore and buy more. 

My method for buying (or borrowing library) books is simple:  I go up and down the aisles and look at the books as they go by.  When I find one that seems to “call” to me, I pick it up and look at it.  The “calling” may be because I recognize the author, or because of the cover, or because of the title, or because of the subject, or for none of these reasons.  Sometimes the book that “calls” to me seems to just stick out from the others.  I then read the blurb on the back cover (or the inside, if it is a hardcover book).  If the blurb has too many made-up words, I reject it immediately.  If not, I will probably keep it.  I skip over authors I have read before and didn’t care for.  I look for new books by authors I liked.  I will pick out 6 or 8 books to take home.  I have a need to always have some in reserve.  When I get to the last one, I begin to worry about running out of things to read.

I prefer female authors to male authors, as a rule, because female authors tend to write more about the people in the story, while male authors tend to write more about the events of the story, and I usually find the people more interesting. 

I read all kinds of books.  I used to concentrate on Science Fiction, because that was where I would find the mythology was that was driving the authors to imagine “out of this world” events.  But then Science Fiction morphed to include Fantasy, and I liked them for the same reason, only Fantasy was no longer mostly concerned with outer space, but also incorporated inner space. 

I read non-fiction books mostly about science topics, and especially alternate ideas about physics – a subject I studied intensely in college, where I came away with the distinct feeling that my professors knew a lot less than they thought they did.  I keep thinking there should be an underlying philosophy of the world around us that explains why it operates the way it does, but mostly I learned just the rules whereby it operates, without any further explanation of why it should be that way.  At the most basic level of the sciences I studied, I found that no one could actually explain what these things were.  No one knows what an electron actually IS, for example.  All I got were rules about how it functioned.  No one knew what gravity actually IS, but only the “laws” by which it operated.  I could compute how things would work, so I could solve engineering problems, but I still didn’t know what was actually HAPPENING at a fundamental level.  So I keep searching.

I have always been interested in things that no one could explain, so those kinds of books seemed to “stand out” as I passed them in the library, or the bookstore.  I used to call them “weird books”, and they fascinated me, because no one knew how to explain the things reported in these books – aluminum artifacts from before aluminum was known, for example, or silver bowls found in a bed of coal.  It all seemed to indicate that our view of history was woefully incomplete, and that modern science wasn’t the first to discover all the things it claimed to discover.

At college we had a saying:  “Often in error, but never in doubt”, which was first applied to students and faculty at other centers of higher learning – MIT, for example – but which I later applied to many of my own professors, with, as it turned out, very good reason.

I read historical fiction in preference to non-fiction history because the fictional stories can spend more time providing a “feel” for the time period in which it is set while still providing historically correct dates for important events.  I maintain that “non-fiction” history is still fictional anyway by reason of the author’s choice of what to leave out of the narrative, and the writing style is far less interesting.  I always wonder what the author is leaving out.  I keep thinking of the saying that “history is written by the winners” and I wonder how the book would be different if I could compare it to one written by those who were left out of the narrative.  But nothing is complete – even living through the events of the time is not a complete experience of those events – so the history books can be a source for events, names, and dates, but I like historical fiction for a fuller “experience” of the time and place. 

I do have some favorite authors:
Ilona Andrews, for the “Magic …” series.  Magic Bites; Magic Burns; etc. and the “Edge” series:  “On the Edge”; “Steel’s Edge”; “Fate’s Edge”, etc. 
Katherine Arden, for the Russian books in a fairy tale style:  “The Bear and the Nightingale”, and “The Girl in the Tower”, and the third installment that isn’t out yet, which I am looking forward to.
Pip & Tee Morris Ballantine, for the hilariously funny stories:  “Phoenix Rising”, “The Janus Affair”, “Dawn’s Early Light”, and “The Diamond Affair”.
Steve Bein, for the trilogy of Japanese sword novels, “Daughter of the Sword”, “Year of the Demon”, and “Disciple of the Wind”.  These are stories of lethal confrontation, but really well done.
Anne Bishop, for her series that begins with “Written in Red”, “Murder of Crows”, “Vision in Silver”, Marked in Flesh”, and “Etched in Bone”; but not her books in other series, which I didn’t much care for.
Patricia Briggs, for all of her books.  I have read 19 of them.
Susan Cain, for her non-fiction book “Quiet” on the value of introverts, because I am one.
Jacqueline Carey for “Kushiel’s Dart”, which was very different from anything I had read before.  This one broke new ground, but the follow-on books in the series didn’t keep up to the standard of the first one.
Gail Carriger, for her absolutely delightful books called “Souless”, “Changless”, “Blameless”, “Heatless”, and “Timeless”.  They were like stepping out of my own life and into another one in Victorian London.
S. A. Chakraborty, for “The City of Brass”.  Others are coming out in hardcover, but I will wait until I can get them in paperback, unless I break down and get them at the library.
Genevieve Cogman, one of my most favorite authors, who can’t write fast enough to satisfy me.  Her books are:  “The Invisible Library”, “The Masked City”, “The Burning Page”, “The Lost Plot”, “The Mortal Word”.  If you read these books, you MUST start at the beginning and read them in order.
Julie E. Czerneda, a biologist who writes really good biologically oriented science fiction, including:  “A Turn of Light”, “A Play of Shadow”; “Survival (1 of Species Imperative)”, “Migration (2 of Species Imperative)”, and “Regeneration (3 of Species Imperative)”.
Rod Duncan, for “The Bullet-Catcher’s Daughter”, “Unseemly Science”, and “The Custodian of Marvels”
Kim Harrison, for her long series (15 books) that begins (and you MUST start at the beginning) with “Dead Witch Walking” and then continues with titles taken from all the Clint Eastwood movies.  The last three books in this series exceeded my own rating system – I had to add another level to cover them.
Emma Jane Holloway has three good books:  “A Study in Silks”, “A Study in Darkness”, and “A study in Ashes” about Sherlock Holme’s niece.
Conn Iggulden writes very good historical fiction.  I have read 7 of them, but there are more.
Erika Johansen, for her wonderful trilogy that begins with “The Queen of the Tearling”, and continues with “The Invasion of the Tearling”, and ends with “The Fate of the Tearling”. Each book is significantly different from the others.
Robert D. Kaplan is not a fiction writer, but travels a lot and writes very thoughtful pieces about geo-political issues around the world.
Ann Leckie wrote a really interesting trilogy:  “Ancillary Justice”, “Ancillary Sword”, and “Ancillary Mercy”.  It took me a while to understand the rules of this story, but I found it fascinating.  She followed with a book about a different location in space, where the rules were different yet again, called “Provenance”.  This book views the previous trilogy from outside that story, and sheds light on the odd rules of those books as well as telling a new story altogether.
Scott Lynch wrote “The Lies of Locke Lamora”, “Red Seas Under Red Skies”, and “The Republic of Thieves” about clever people conning each other, with a love story embedded in them as well.  Now that they are all out, you won’t have to wait years for the next installment like I did.
Devon Monk wrote excellent fantasy stories about Portland, Oregon, near where I grew up.  I have read 16 of these books.
Laura Resnick wrote absolutely delightful and very funny stories with mangled titles such as “Doppelgangster”, “Unsympathetic Magic”, “Vamparazzi”, “Polterheist”, “Disappearing Nightly”, “The Misfortune Cookie”, and “Abracadaver”, and I enjoyed every single one of them.
Michelle Sagara has a series of books that all begin with “Cast in …” that are intensely enjoyable to read.  She isn’t through yet, and I wait anxiously for each new one to come on the market.  She also has other series and writes under more than one name.
Zecharia Sitchin writes alternative views of pre-historical earth events.  People either love him or hate him.  His views are mostly counter to the mainstream historians of the pre-history eras, so they all hate him, but a lot of work has gone into his take on history.
Sherwood Smith, for his “Inda” series: “Inda”, “The Fox”, and “King’s Shield” which together make up one really good story.
Jodi Taylor:  I will read anything she writes.  I simply love her “Tales of St. Mary’s” books, which are all about time travel (studying history in contemporary time) like you never imagined before, and are the best rendition of time travel I have ever read.  These books are just fabulous in the extreme:  “Just One Damned Thing After Another”, “A Symphony of Echoes”, “A Second Chance”, “A Trail Through Time”, “No Time Like the Past”, “What Could Possible Go Wrong”, “Lies, Damned Lies, and History”, “And the Rest is History”, “ and “Argumentation of Historians.  You don’t have to read them in order, but you will lose a lot of context if you don’t.
Will Thomas, for his stories about a rookie private investigator in old London.  Very well written, and poor Thomas Llewelyn, our hero, suffers injury in the line of duty in most stories.  “Some Danger Involved” is the first one.  The first book that I read was about three books into the story.  I recommend starting at the beginning, because our hero progresses through the books, and how he changes over time is the most interesting part.