Member: rjacobs17

Back atcha, RJ! Am nearly through Right Ho, Jeeves, which has injected some much-needed silliness into late November. Have just perused the Oxford U. Press catalog - no big bargains there. But I still lust after the book box system in the Levenger catalog. It would just take more thousands than I'm willing to fork over.

Heading into two wild weeks of focus groups, off-site meetings and last-minute research. We were nearly in divorce court this weekend after installing 4 honeycomb shades - they really should come with a warning label "Look up marriage counselor's number before starting installation." Didn't help that the illustrations in the instructions bore no resemblance to the actual mounting bracket, nor that the addendum they included contradicted the rest of the instructions. Picked up my recumbent exercise bike today - found it on Craig's List up in Los Gatos, about 75 minutes north of here. Much less strain on the ankle than is the Nordic Track, and it gets more mobility into the ankle. Need to do something, having become appalling rotund since the start of Anklepalooza lo these three years ago.

Best, as ever,
Lauren the Hutt

posted by stringcat3 at 11:09 pm (EST) on Nov 28, 2009

Glad to hear you're up and running, literally and figuratively. I've read all of Pratchett at least twice and several favorites more than that. I love the witches and want to see Sam Vimes square off with Granny Weatherwax, but DEATH is my hands-down favorite character. I discovered Pratchett about 10 years ago and distinctly remember being on flights to and from CT, where I had a client in Stamford, doing that same snorting and guffawing that seatmates so detest.

I met him a few years ago at a book signing in Santa Cruz. Most affable.

Also recommend Good Omens, the book he wrote with Neil Gaiman.

Ta for now -
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 6:09 pm (EST) on Nov 20, 2009

Completely agree on the Theroux. Where do you stand on Bill Bryson, speaking of travel writers? You sound as though you could use a laugh, and he delivers. In a Sunburned Country and A Walk in the Woods especially funny. I think we may have discussed Tony Horwitz at some point. Not particularly humorous but a terrific writer.

Okay, I tried once again with Pickwick. I lasted about three pages. Maybe there's something later in the book that will hook me? If so, please point the way.

L

posted by stringcat3 at 1:34 am (EST) on Nov 18, 2009

Well! This is what comes of not drinking your hot onion & lemon toddies ;-0 My own travails with a nasty head cold pale by comparison. (Although I do think it's making a play for sinus infection, but I have my augmentin prescription in hand.) So are you home and under house-arrest now? Or are you dragging it into the office so your co-workers can glare at you every time you so much as clear your throat? The H1N1 hysteria has moved many people to a zero-tolerance for sniffles etc. Speaking of which, you're now in a high-risk group so I assume you'll get the vaccine, if you haven't already. I got the regular flu shot but hypochondria alone doesn't put me in a high-risk group.

The Onions stories are uneven thus far. The Beckoning Fair One was a disappointment on some levels - just didn't pay off - and I need to write you a better analysis of my dissatisfaction. And it had such promise, especially when he pulled that old harp cover out of the window box and then when the comb had its disembodied solo. But speaking of Wodehouse, I finished up The Inimitable Jeeves, made it through Carry On, Jeeves over the (sneezy, feverish) weekend and am now launching into Right Ho, Jeeves. Wodehouse is so cozy.

You know, I DID think of The Pickwick Papers the other day, and I promise to go dig it out tonight. I was reminded of it by that version of Little Women that had Wynona Ryder as Jo. In one scene she's reading it to Beth. And speaking of Dickens, there's a new biography of him by Michael Slater which got a good review in the WSJ yesterday. The review also addressed the new Everyman's Library edition of Dicken's Christmas books. It dismissed The Cricket on the Hearth and The Battle of Life as too sugary for modern tastes, but gave the thumbs-up to The Chimes and The Haunted Man. Don't think I've every read the latter - and it's not like me to miss a good ghost story ;-)

I'm also dipping into am amusing book published in 1867 called "Traits and Stories of the Scottish People." Lots of anecdotes arranged in chapters such as clergy, the legal profession, eccentrics, etc. Nice and gossipy.

And my new car book (the one I keep tucked in the map pocket lest I be caught - heaven forfend! - somewhere with nothing to read) is Italo Calvino's If On a Winter's Night a Traveller. Only about 35 pages into it, and I don't think I could read a lot a one go, but that part at the beginning about all the types of books in the bookstore is hilarious.

I see you've recently rated Theroux's Old Patagonian. I fell hard for him over that book - in the '80s he was the only author I bought in hardcover. But after The Mosquito Coast he got too weird for me. Have you read his early short stories? Very enjoyable.

Vitamin C is the watchword!
As ever,
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 11:33 pm (EST) on Nov 16, 2009

Just got my copy of Widdershins today and am about 35 pages into The Beckoning Fair One. A leisurely pace to his tale, has our Mr. Onions.

Am now fighting with Blue Cross who claims that they never authorized the additional physical therapy. The PT office has all the recorded details at hand and is battling on my behalf.

After we kill all the lawyers, we line up the claims adjusters.

Ta for now-
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 11:44 pm (EST) on Nov 9, 2009

Speaking of disgraceful reply times ...

I wish I could plead indolence, but I've been recovering from being gone last week. The project tsunami hit and it's just barely receding. And this weekend I went into a cleaning frenzy, as the ankle felt pretty good. The therapist is breaking down scar tissues around the Achilles, which has improved mobility. I'm almost not limping. Mirabile dictu.

So am nearly through an early H James called Watch and Ward - pretty low-budget stuff, completely predictable and late Victorian. I should move on to The American. I'm charmed by the thought of someone names Onions writing ghost stories, although I see (gotta luv Wikipedia) that he was prolific in other genres as well. Widdershins is his best ghostly collection, it says. Just when I swear to stop buying books ... I've got a little Wodehouse going (Right Ho Jeeves) and a very uneven collection of ghost stories edited by Marvin Kaye. I'm getting sick of things that go bump, so I'll move on. Halloween was the usual frenzy (about 260 was my rough door count) to cap off the season. And I didn't even eat more than, I think, 4 mini Milky Ways. What restraint.

BTW, the film of The Turn of the Screw is called The Innocents, and it's muy creepy.

Yes would like to hear the CD if you ant to fling it in the mail. Am not so well versed in American composers, still less in choral works, so consider me a musical tabula rasa.

posted by stringcat3 at 10:59 pm (EST) on Nov 1, 2009

Ha! I'm back. Not that I was gone, but have been in a frenzy of errands, house-purging, ironing, phys therapy (Round 2) and just plain picking fights with my husband. Mr. Basketball. The knees are pretty much shot, so he usually confines his on-court activity to refereeing. Once he discovered "the run" at the Ashland Y, it was all over. But remember we had evening shows, so that left plenty of time for books, cheese, pastry and icepacks applied to various joints.
Your comment on the Booker list was spot on, as the Brits say. Is there anything so dreary as a short-listed novel? Ian McEwan, A.S. Byatt, John Banville ... Wolf Hall was just extremely well-reviewed in the Wall St Journal.

You did tell me about the engagement but I'm poised for more details about the incipient in-laws. Surely there's some distasteful quirk you've discovered? Or are they boring and sane? Pish tosh.

I've been in October-mode all through September, reading ghost stories and watching snippets of some of the nonsensical ghost shows on cable. They're getting worse. The British crew that includes the blond woman is one of my favorites to hoot at. It's their job to go into haunted edifices, and as soon as they do she gets hysterical. But of all things I'm now reading Henry James' The Europeans. Surprisingly entertaining, readable, even funny. I vaguely remember the movie with Lee Remick and Robin Ellis that came out about 25 years ago; just put it on my Netflix queue. My previous attempts to read James were Wings of the Dove and The Turn of the Screw, both of which had me snoring within the first chapter. (But again, really good movies) I may press on to read "The American" or even "Confidence."

Na ja - the pix of Alsace are lovely. Well done on the rose window. Yeesh, I need to set up a picasa account. All these old photos waiting to be scanned and posted.

Off to Vegas Sunday for a four-day market research conference. Many sessions sound promising, but we'll see. Tuesday night Obama's pollster will be speaking at a cocktail event. I'm hoping to make it to the Hofbrauhaus on Monday night with one of my vendors - ein, zwei, g'zuffa! I'll be dodging hopeful vendors most of the time - I just can't commit to capabilities reviews. Hoping there will be some decent swag. There's nothing that can compare to the big grocery show in Chicago every May. Like Halloween for adults. Plus one year I had my picture taken with both Morris the Cat and the Fancy Feast Cat. How 'bout THEM apples.

Best, as always -
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 12:15 am (EST) on Oct 15, 2009

I must report that the Monterey Wine Festival, at the aquarium, was a blast. Ate like porcine beings, with plenty of vino to splash it down. There was also a Belgian beer stand that had considerable traffic: Stella Artois, Hoegaarden and Leffe. Plus we went through the new seahorse exhibit which was astonishing, if infested with snockered, tattoed wenches who kept shrieking, "They're so cute! Where can I buy one?"

Back to Ashland: we went first up to Medford (technically Central Point) to the Rogue Creamery for cheese. It was our duty to sample all the 8 varieties set out (4 bleus, for which they're known) as well as a number of items in the well-filled vitrines. We came away with their award-winning chocolate stout cheddar - it tastes exactly as the name suggests but far better than one can imagine. Also brought back some "Oregonzola" to Mt. Shasta for a friend. Very creamy take on the blue Eye-talian classic. Next door is Lillie Belle Farms, artisan chocolates, which also exceeded expectations. I'm not a big candy fan (baked goods are my downfall) but they certainly wowed visually and gustatorially. Except for their bleu cheese truffle, make with Rogue bleu. Like garlic ice cream, you taste it for bragging rights, but it's just not comme il faut.

Down in Ashland, we were happy with the Best Western (Bard's Inn) about 3 blocks from the theaters. Much puttering in shops by me, and my husband went to the Y for swimming, sauna and steam room on Saturday then basketball run at 9 am Sunday (groin pull and knee unhappiness but they won five games). I hit four of the book stores, three of which were disappointing in their prices and selection. Did get three of Wilkie Collins' non- Woman In White/Moonstone novels in Dover editions: Armadale, The Dead Secret and Basil.

Henry VIII was on the Elizabethan Stage. We were four rows from the back center, under the balcony overhang, so it felt more like being inside. Saturday was unseasonably hot, but by the end of the play it was quite chilly and the fleece was welcome. The mulled wine at intermission was a big hit - not excessively spices, which is what people usually want to do to mulled wine. Equivocation was in the Angus Bowmer Theater, where we were centerstage 13 rows or so back, decent seats in a packed house. Great sight lines everywhere, it seemed.

My husband was talking about Ashland as a retirement option, which I'm not averse to but I think it would be too granola in the long run for Mr. Republican National Committee. We'd have to visit it in mid-January before making any decisions, of course. And besides which, looking at our 401ks we can retire when we're, say, 87.

So how's the bruising? On the mend? I keep warning you about the perils of leaving the sofa or reading chair ;-)

Off on a round of errands-
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 3:08 pm (EST) on Oct 2, 2009

Quick post (I'm supposed to be reviewing a questionnaire): Henry VIII disappointing due to weak Henry and Ann B (although Katherine was excellent and Wolsey solid). And it's not the most exciting of WS's works - written mainly to get to the baptism finale with the paean to Elizabeth. Equivocation was excellent: Robert Cecil trying to get Shakespeare to write a play about the Gunpowder Plot. Many 'in' Shakespeare and theater jokes but a very serious play nonetheless: when is a lie not a lie? I'd see it again if I could.

More tomorrow - we're at the Monterey Wine Festival tonight over at the aquarium.

Put some ice on that hip!
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 1:27 pm (EST) on Oct 1, 2009

Leaving for Ashland via Mt. Shasta Friday a.m. Travel safely - yak later
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 2:51 am (EST) on Sep 18, 2009

I was just wondering where you'd wandered off to. Congrats on the engagement. Please pass along the role of the groom at the wedding: show up, speak up, shut up. Also please report all sordid details of any detestable in-laws encountered, please. Almost as good as Wodehouse! (Speaking of whom - I just started "Joy in the Morning." Highly satisfactory.)

Cox edited several anthologies; I have the Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories, which is an excellent collection. The Meaning of Night is his novel, 700 pages or so, well-written but a tad slow-moving for my current mood. I skimmed the last quarter or so. He could have used a more ruthless editor. The Great Irish Tales of Horror collection also entertained. I'm getting into my Halloween mode - reread Machen's The Great God Pan the other night. I think his The Three Impostors is extremely creepy, moreso than the borderline nonsense of Lovecraft.

I forgot about the European jaunt. Maybe the Golden Lion will be unexpectedly entertaining when read closer to its locale? I'm reaching here, I know.

Haven't looked at the NYT or any other news today. Have been in a frenzy of reviews: a deluge of urgent e-mails, proposals and a 32-page questionnaire that should have been tighter than it was, as they had two previous studies to draw from. Harrumph. Four pages of detailed comments later ... Plus I needed my roots touched up before we leave.

The red wine cake was a triumph. Even a colleague whom I've never seen touch sweets raved about it. Defintely will repeat.

Ankle seems to have stalled. I made an appointment with the surgeon to have it evaluated, as it's been 7 months. Nearly all the swelling is above the foot now so it's time to get new shoe inserts made, too. It still won't bend forward very far - I lurch like a zombie coming down stairs.

Ta ta for now -
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 1:32 am (EST) on Sep 17, 2009

I believe you're thinking of The Golden Lion of Granpere, which (per www.anthonytrollope.com) is set in Lorraine. I bought it in June but haven't gotten to it yet. I half-heartedly picked up La Vendee the other day (set on the SW coast of France, below Brittany) but have been distracted by Michael Cox's The Meaning of Night and a collection of Irish ghost/horror stories. Cox has edited a number of supernatural anthologies, so let's see what he can do with this Victorian murder mystery - I generally don't bother with mysteries.

Never did get to the movies. I've gotten so cheap in my old age: siz bucks for a matinee, when it'll be out on DVD - ergo on Netflix - before you know it. And I want to save my pennies for Ashland. We're seeing Henry VIII and the world premiere of a play called Equivocation. Here's the synopsis:

"Truth-telling in dangerous times. What if the government commissioned you to write the definitive history (make that a self-serving lie) of a national crisis? What story would you tell? Welcome to London, 1605, and the world of King James, the Gunpowder Plot, and the Tower dungeons, as William Shakespeare and his theatre company struggle to create a play to please the king and not lose their hearts, souls, or heads in the process. In a world premiere, Bill Rauch directs Bill Cain’s high-stakes political thriller with ties to both Macbeth and Henry VIII. A must-see for Shakespeare lovers. (Strong language, violent scenes)"

So you see we're hitting Tudor/Elizabethan hard. Can hardly wait for the DVD of The Tudors third season.

Meanwhile, back at AT: CYFH gets bogged down mainly when Glencora is off-stage. There are some rather disturbing scenes toward the end involving the villain and his sister twhich held me, but otherwise about 2/3 through I'd started skimming. If you look through the Palliser threads in the Trollope forum you'll see quite a few comments on the book.

Have never been much for letter collections - they seem like too much work. You either have to keep referring to the notes to figure out most of the references, or they're too banal. And I always want to see the letters to which they're responding or which are returned. Otherwise it's like eating an open-faced sandwich: you get only half of what you're hungry for.

Am making a red-wine cake this afternoon - it's from a recent Food & Wine article on how to use up less than stellar wine. I will report - there always seems to be half a bottle of disappointment hanging around. There was also a recipe for pasta boiled in red wine and water, then served with walnuts and parsley, but I have a good sense of just how far I can push my husband.

Tourjours gai -
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 5:12 pm (EST) on Sep 7, 2009

RJ - speaking of things that will make you laugh, just finished Sutherland's "Curiosities of Literature" which just came out this year. It's like a long, leisurely chat with an extremely well-read, hyper-opinionated, somewhat snarky pal. The very white, thick paper is a pleasure but the typography is particularly poor: misplaced commas, missing letters or words, odd errors such as substituting the numeral 15 for 'is.' Nonetheless, it's your go-to for such tidbits as the relative weight in ounces of various authors' brains (Thackaray, Turgenev, Whitman, et alia), the ealy use of typewriters for writing, the origin of the name "Bronte" (sorry, can't get an umlaut!), the Carlyles' wedding night and many more items of prurient interest.

We're getting record heat here - we sweltered in the high 80s down in Big Sur yesterday, which is extremely unusual. Am pondering whether to abandon the relatively coolness of the house for cinematic chill for the latest Harry Potter. Yes, still haven't seen it (and I call myself an American!).

More later,
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 2:35 pm (EST) on Aug 29, 2009

Haven't touched the WSJ but was just about to head to the back yard with it and a G&T. Weather is glorious. Got the laundry moving, dropped the dry cleaning and made it to the grocery and then to the library. Got a John Sutherland book on literary trivia. Saw on the yahoo Trollope forum that he has a second edition of his "Longman Companion to Victorian Fiction" just out. Right on the wish list! Must scale back the frivolous spending as vacation is over and garbage disposal had to be replaced this morning, along with washers in various dripping faucets. Cha-ching.

Boston was APPALLINGLY hot and humid. We melted at the (outdoor) wedding Sat. The Wayside Inn is lovely, especially in the air-conditioned colonial taproom! Didn't make it to the Brattle Book Shop this time but my husband was impressed with the Harvard Book Store - not to be confused with the Harvard Coop - and the Raven on JFK Blvd. Shipping about 15 books back. Didn't do as much pillaging of my mother's storage unit as we'd planned, as the brutal heat was against us. Did get the big silver tea service out and assorted serving pieces.
Got to the Bunker Hill monument & museum (very nice exhibits), did a Charles River cruise on Tues. Quite pleasant, especially as the humidity had broken. Monday we were on the first tour for the Adams birthplaces and the Old House at Peacefield - only 7 people, with no kids (yay!). Very much worth seeing. Green with envy over the Stone Library that Brooks Adams built in the 1890s or so for 14000+ books. See the virtual tour at www.nps.gov/adam. Also went into the church where John, Abigail, John Quincy and his wife Louisa are buried. Very emotional to go down into the crypt and stand with one's hands on the actual granite sarcophagi. Not much room to move but it's very well lighted (walls all white, too) so not creepy at all. Then assorted fried seafood at The Clam Box on Quincy's Wollaston Beach. There's no point in eating fried clams anywhere but the New England coast.
Understand your approach with your mother and applaud the effort. You're a trooper! My mother is fortunately quite lucid and active at 85 but had one of her dizzy spells on Friday, called 911 and was whisked to the ER. Couldn't find anything wrong - they think it's the crystals that form in her ear (can't remember what the malady is called). She hadn't had an episode in a while. Anyway, was the honorary grandmother at the wedding, as her sister passed last year, and looked like a million.
BTW - have you picked up The Elegance of the Hedgehog? Kept seeing it in the airport shops and it looks promising.

Still on VAYCAY -
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 6:17 pm (EST) on Aug 27, 2009

Finished the Malone this morning. He's a decent enough writer, entertaining, but this one was way too long and he has too much of a tendency now toward "Happy Families" as the British say. And as the Germans make the distinction between an Autor (author) and Schriftsteller (storywriter), so will I. I think his early things, especially "Handling Sin", were far superior.

I'm contemplating what to pack for the Boston jaunt on Thursday. We'll be there 6 days; I'm sure I'll pick up a few things while there but there are those gawdawful long flights and Dallas layover. I have Davies "The Cunning Man" in paper - but may be too heavy going. I want something light-hearted, or some good solid history (I know that's contradictory but I'm a Gemini, after all). Why is it that the books on one's shelves always seem less appealing than what may be waiting on a bookstore's shelves? I did snag Bill Bryson's memoirs and Isabel Allende's "Aphrodite" last week at the Steinbeck Library sale shelves, but they're both hardcover. Hmmn.

Bemusedly,
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 2:49 pm (EST) on Aug 15, 2009

Great Caesar's ghost - don't pay over $20 for Popenjoy! You can probably find a Folio Society edition for that. I'd balk at paying $45, never mind $145.

Mansfield Park just edges out Northanger Abbey for least liked Austen, although there have been some good films of the former. I especially liked the 1999 version directed by Patricia Rozema (just looked it up on wikipedia), but then as the wiki entry points out, it's a loose adaptation and makes Fanny less wimpy than she was in the novel. Actually pretty good write-up.

There was the superb Emma Thompson/Kate Winslet/Hugh Grant/Alan Rickman (rrrrowww!) version of Sense & Sensibility which came out a few years ago - Ang Lee directed. Thompson won an Oscar for the screenplay and was nominated for Best Actress, and there were lots of other nominations and awards. It really holds up - I think we've watched it at least 3 times.

Have not been able to make it to a movie in ages. Wanted to arrange a girls' night out to see J&J but we can't seem to get our schedules coordinated so I'll probably just take Himself, who will enjoy it but want to know why I'm not cooking all those things for him.

Just bought tix for 2 plays in Ashland for next month. Now off to watch Rescue Me so more later. How are you mending, anyway?

Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 12:58 am (EST) on Aug 12, 2009

Crater Lake rocks. Assume the festivities were in Ashland? Don't think we'll make it there this year (again!). Will have to settle for Shakespeare Santa Cruz.

Four Corners arrived on schedule. Yes, Foolscap improved as it went, especially when the action moved to England. Dame Whatsername was a hoot - definitely reminded me of some of the Bryn Mawr faculty. I read Time's Witness quite some time ago - still have a copy. First Lady is sort of a sequel. No, Malone ain't quite as good as I had remembered, but I do think he tells a good story. Handling Sin was his best effort.

Have never heard of Linda Olsson.

Happy to hear that the scar is "beautiful." See, I told you about the massage. Hurts like all get out, as my grandmother used to say, but needs to be done. The ankle is pretty much on schedule. The schedule is, unfortunately, quite slow. I did ambulate sedately through SFO and Cincinnati airports last week. Yes, after the Sonoma jaunt I had to go to Cinci, proving that the universe seeks stasis. Food was wretched, and I hadn't slept through the night in 2 weeks so I was a mite testy. But things are looking up this week, as one of my favorite vendors will be in town to introduce the new VP on the account and spring for lunch at a good French bistro in Old Monterey. We're such schnorrers. But what's the point of being an American if you can't eat too much?

Speaking of which, check out Michael Pollan's NY Times Magazine cover story "Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch" from yesterday (8/2) on cooking trends since Julia Child and the rise of Food Network. One of the most intelligent things I've read in quite some time. And speaking of Julia, I did read Julie & Julia and found it tedious after a while. A blog spun into a novel is never quite meaty enough to run the distance. But we're all itching here to see Meryl play Julia when the movie comes out this weekend.

Picked up Peter Ackroyd's Albion: The Origins of the English Imagination today. Way overpaid for it in a used book store but one must make these sacrifices to keep the barbarians at bay. There are still some Folio Trollopes at The Book Haven in Monterey, in case you're hankering for more. They have Linda Tressel, which I think you own, and An Eye for An Eye, which is a chilling little work, the Autobiography and now I can't remember the other two. Memory like a sieve these days.

Just 2.5 weeks to Boston/Cambridge and the serendipity of the Brattle's outdoor stalls.

Bye for now -
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 3:04 am (EST) on Aug 4, 2009

Popping in for a minute to see what the cat dragged in. Salve! Glad to hear it was a good trip. Yes, love Lithia Park. Hadn't heard that proposal tradition - quite charming.

Thought you were reading Foolscap?? Yes, please send Four Corners.

Am the sales meeting in Sonoma (the hotel, a Renaissance property, is nice but dinner/wine disappointing). Session starts tomorrow at 7:30, which I find barbaric, and with dinner off-site runs through about 8:30 pm. After a rather grueling presentation by one of my research vendors to the category development people, got a little shopping in this afternoon on Sonoma Plaza, which is just as pleasant a spot as I recalled. Need to get back there Thursday after it's all over. Ankle a tad cranky- have the icebag with me and am about to fill it. Must shower before Rescue Me come on.

More later-
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 12:16 am (EST) on Jul 22, 2009

Assume you're home by now, nursing various contusions, scrapes and sore muscles. I'm about a hundred pages into Foolscap, as I haven't reread it since I bought it about 15 years ago. Not as hilarious as I'd remembered but certainly amusing. Off to Sonoma on Tuesday morning for a three-day sales meeting. Not being a line manager anymore I don't get sucked into the presentations (yay!). Just have to sit around looking attentive, a pose I've perfected in 23 years of corporate life.

Ta for now -
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 3:12 pm (EST) on Jul 19, 2009

Salve, amice! (You see I've been at the Latin again.) Excellent news of the biopsy. Was thinking of you this morning as I saw a NY Times travel article on bicycling up the Oregon coast. Are you really hauling all those books around? Tell me at least that they're paperbacks.

I confess to ineptitude regarding getting photos from cell phone to PC. I took a few the other day of one of the cats burrowing in the catnip patch and have yet to determine how to send them. I also fear that Verizon will exact a pound of flesh for such activity.

I've heard many good things about Bend, so you must report with clear eyes. I'm looking at google maps, trying to figure out where your end point will be - Medford? Assume you're heading south from Bend on the Deschutes to the Rogue.

We spent about 3 hours today assembling a large cabinet that we got at Ikea yesterday; we're still married (I'm sure you "smoke", as Jack Aubrey would say, the connection between those two clauses). After four months of limited mobility I'm on fire to clear out clutter, old clothes (I'm never going to be a size 6 again), kitchen gadgets that never quite worked, whatever. I purged the hundreds of recipes that I've been throwing in a drawer for the past decade; anything that requires squeezing liquid from chopped spinach definitely went into the recycling. Now I'm spending much time contemplating what sort of drawer organizers I should buy. This is a good madness to get.

Now, I must confess that Leave It To Psmith is just not grabbing me the way that the Bertie and Jeeves tales do. I pick it up for a few pages now and then but it's certainly no Code of the Woosters. I enjoyed the Mr. Mulliner stories more. Maybe I'm just not in the mood for silliness (cf. no bigod nonsense activity in previous paragraph).

No, never have read Rogue Male (frankly, the title is NOT enticing) but yes, the juxtaposition of title and author's name is amusing. Remind me to relate my Peter O'Toole anecdote sometime - he was signing his bio in an SF shop back in '93. The O'Toole is a favorite of both mine and my mother's, although he did go through all of Lawrence of Arabia looking as though he were smelling camel dung.

Never too much parenthetical commentary, I say. A friend once said that I speak in hypertext.

Pedal hard! Stay hydrated!
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 8:31 pm (EST) on Jul 12, 2009

Always glad to help one regain perspective. So are these "rather energetic sleeping movements" a new development or are you channeling St. Vitus during REM stages? I'm surprised that the Hydrocodone doesn't put you down for the count. It did me - I slept with my legs propped up on a backrest and various pillows and awoke pretty much in the same (stiffened) state. So not to be stoopid, but I thought you were already told that it was melanoma? The biopsy is for deeper tissue, then?

Meanwhile, back at Kim: I'm actually rather a Kipling fan (his verse is a guilty pleasure in the 21st century, no?) but of his prose have read mainly the short stories, plus Captains Courageous . Love his cynical view of Anglo-Indian society. I do have a copy of Kim and of The Jungle Book but was put off both by the twee Disney treatment (I abhor Disney). There's a Sherlock Holmes pastiche, one of the Mary Russell novels by Laurie King, which has Kim as an adult in India playing The Great Game. That did get me curious but obviously not enough. Anyway, I just started reading Stalky & Co. last week. And remember - RK was a New Englander for a while ;-)

Agree that Gilead was a thumping bore. Actually, 'thumping' is too lively - it was a dripping bore. Don't think I made it past 40 pages. Now, I do mean to read Dick eventually but just don't seem to get to it. Loved it as Blade Runner (the director's cut without the voice-over is better). Like many high-schoolers I was heavy into sci-fi but now when I try to read it (e.g., Ringworld last year) I can't get past the clumsiness of the writing, the cliches, the gee-whizziness that replaces character development. I adored Ray Bradbury, who's a lovely writer, but his stories are sadly dated.

The foot/ankle actually felt pretty good on Friday and Saturday, so I went into errand and cleaning frenzies, overdid it and was hobbling yesterday. There was a sour cream pound cake perpertrated Saturday night. Stuck it in the oven, turned around and saw all the butter still on the counter, so had to snatch the pan out, scrape the batter into the bowl for a quick mix with the butter and then back into the re-greased and floured pan. So the crumb was nice, as I'd used cake flour, but on the whole a tad dry due to the bungling. But if that's the worst outcome for absentmindedness, well and good. Despite all the fireworks cancellations, I saw a decent display just by sitting on the curb in front of my house. Decidedly illegal, of course, but some of these people spent a lot of money - many of the fireworks looked professional. And by 10 pm all was quiet again.

Nope, never made it to Longwood. And what is this 'walking' you speak of? It seems I've heard of such a thing, far in the past ...

Keep me posted and don't pick at it -
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 2:46 am (EST) on Jul 7, 2009

Never mind about your arm - I've just discovered that out of the 50 novels that Newsweek thinks we should be reading now, I've read exactly ... two*! I'm mortified! How can I show my cyber-face in librarything-public again?

*Trollope's "The Way We Live Now" and Shelley's "Frankenstein" as I'm sure you're wondering

Plunged into despair worthy of a Russian novelist,
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 5:03 pm (EST) on Jul 2, 2009

Glad to see your check-in. Bought him SPF 70 this morning. Hydrocodone definitely makes one, shall we say, wacky.

Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 3:17 pm (EST) on Jul 2, 2009

RJ - just checking in although you probably won't see this until afterwards.

And the umbrella has the wings of Nekhbet, a vulture goddess. As I recall Nut is portrayed only as an arched body with stars on it/her. But I could be wrong there. The Egyptian pantheon was never my strong suit.

posted by stringcat3 at 2:36 am (EST) on Jul 1, 2009

Well, we're back, and despite gimpiness had a decent time, to the extent that it's my husband, instead of me, saying "Why don't we do that more?" To start with, we had uncharacteristically warm, sunny weather in place of our June gloom. And I didn't realize that it was the weekend of the Gay Pride Parade, so the city was jumping and in a party mood. Fortunately I always take ear plugs.

We got there around noon on Saturday and I drove us immediately to Tommy's Joynt at Geary and Van Ness which serves large hunks of various roasted meats almost as cheaply now as they did back when they opened in '47. We slaughtered a couple of platters of corned beef, cabbage and boiled 'taties for about $20. Excellent sourdough rolls. Okay, my corned beef & cab is better but you can't argue with that deal in SF. We then pottered about in Chinatown for a bit. Red Blossom had a surfeit of overattentive 20-somethings working there who were like gnats. We looked in some of the gift (junk) shops but I enjoyed The Wok Shop more and gained some time for poking around in there by taking my husband into the Eastern Bakery next door and procuring a chocolate-dipped macaroon for him - he's a sucker for coconut. We parked in the garage under Portsmouth Square which has a gorgeous monument to RL Stevenson (a 3-masted bronze ship in full sail atop a granite stele) and of course the commemorative plaque marking where Captain Montgomery of the USS Portsmouth first raised the flag over SF (then Yerba Buena and a Spanish possession). On to dinner in the Outer Richmond district - fine Moroccan interpreted by rather fey Californians. All good, although my husband's face was priceless when he saw his chocolate spice cake dessert: 3 one-inch squares.

We made it to the De Young by 9:30 am Sunday so I could be sure of borrowing a wheelchair. The disability access is right into the concourse outside the exhibit. We had the VIP tickets that came with the hotel package so we had no time restriction for entrance. The show wasn't so much about Tut as it was about placing him in the context of his family and the Amarna heresy. While neither the gold mask nor any of the large gold coffins were included this time, as they were in '79, the show was actually better historically and in some ways artistically. Then of course there were the geniune Made In China Egyptian reproductions (okay, they did have some nice blown and gold-leafed glass from the Gyp). I confess I bought a few things: a scarab stele, a Horus head hand mirror and an umbrella with a wing motif from some sky goddess. Hey, I was on vacation. We tried to go for dim sum in the Outer Richmond at a very good but rather expensive place and lo, no parking for at least three blocks square, so we ended up with novelle Vietnamese that was good but not terribly filling. A quick stop at Ghiridelli Square for Himself to get a chocolate ice cream and then back to reality.

Anyway, to things literary. Don't be so impressed with what I've read: I've never been able to read the Russians (BO-ring), nor any of the Latin Americans besides Isabel Allende, and many Jewish authors of renown such as Chaim Potok or Sholom Aleichem They just don't speak to me. And I have tried. But how in the world could you have managed to read all of Wodehouse? Even the Mr. Mulliner stories? Remarkable! If you haven't read Code of the Ws lately then it certainly is time to revisit it.

Hey, what about Tristram Shandy? It's maddening the first time but once you get the joke it's hilarious. One of my favorites.

So Wedneday it is. And then what? At home for a week or so, then off to Oregon? You're right, that highly guy behavior. Which crater is it? Sounds excessively athletic.

Keep me posted.

Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 2:24 am (EST) on Jun 29, 2009

Yikes! What a communique! I hardly know where to start, so I'll work my way down.

Can You Forgive Her? is quite put-aside-able (channeling book blurbers here) so if you can get hold of Popenjoy, do so.

Never been to Quebec but everyone raves about it. Closest is the two Canadian studies we've fielded in the past couple of months. I now know how to say "chat room" in Quebecois: chambre a clavardage (don't know how to get accents here). I theorized that "clavardage" somehow was connected with 'bavardage' - gossip - and sacre bleu! it's a combo of that and 'clavier' keyboard.

Oy. Melanoma. What can I say? I've just sent my husband to have more things scraped off his face and head, and I keep nagging about the hat and sunscreen, as I dread what you're now going through. I'll have him add you into his prayers - he's a Baptist, as you may recall, and so handles all the God stuff we require. I'll get in touch with my inner Californian and sent positive energy your way. Okay, who am I kidding - I have no inner Californian. You'll have to settle for various Bostonian profane pronouncements such as, well that really [choice of rude verb in 3rd person present active indicative]. But as I understand it, melanoma has a sneaky way of popping up suddenly after you think you've sent it packing, so you couldn't have seen it coming. Just do what they tell you to. Don't be a guy about it.

Am shocked, shocked I say, that you hadn't heard of the Ashland festival. We keep meaning to get there but somehow it's always "next year." It doesn't help that the city isn't terribly accessible by air. It's quite beautiful - we were there in June for a friend's graduation a few years ago. I love Much Ado - assume you've seen the Kenneth Brannagh film (now, let's NOT get into how he should never have divored Emma).

But I'm thrilled, thrilled I say, that you've discovered Michael Malone. I heard him speak in '89 at a literary breakfast program at the Indian Point Yacht Club in Greenwich CT (I'm not making this up) on the same program with Dan Rather and Sharon Kaye Penman, the historical novelist. Dan and Sharon were good speakers, but MM was a hoot - he'd just published "Foolscap" and I think you'd love it. A commedia d'academia. A professor decides to take revenge on a colleague by faking a play by Sir Walter Raleigh. Of course things get out of hand and hilarity ensues. Handling Sin was excellent. Haven't read Four Corners of the Sky - must get it at the library. His detective novels (First Lady and Uncivil Seasons) are good, too, and I hate detective novels. But The First Noel was embarrassingly bad, and Dingley Falls was lame.

You know, the nautical nattering will grow on you. Really. But I always found the land scenes more interesting than those set at sea, in general.

Oh, you need some silliness. I prescribe plenty of Wodehouse, perhaps some Douglas Adams. I know you're not much of a Terry Pratchett fan, but consider The Amazing Maurice, a children's book but really a cross-over. In that vein, Jasper Fforde's The Fourth Bear and The Big Over Easy - bizarre riffs on nursery rhymes and pretty funny.

And so to bed, as Pepys would say. I'm listening to focus groups via videostream online tomorrow - blech.n Saturday we're off to SF for the weekend. We have tickets for the King Tut show opening at the De Young, and will be wined and dined by one of my research vendors Sat. night. We're staying in Union Square - handy for shopping and Chinatown. I know people sneer at all the shops on Grant Ave, Chinatown's main drag, but you can get extraordinary amounts of great junk for a pittance, and the Red Blossom Tea Shop is a marvel.

Courage, mon brave -
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 3:53 am (EST) on Jun 26, 2009

Just finished Is He Popenjoy? - liked it immensely. Quintessential AT - mismatched marriages, a disputed heir, a false friend (shades if Lizzie Eustace), hunting scenes ... can't think why it shouldn't be more popular.

How's M&C going? Are you an O'Brian convert yet? Can't type more now - strained my left forearm (an aftermath of "crutchitis") with too much mouse this week, so I'm one-handed for a while. But the Latin goes well - I've found even more online resource sites for study and practice.

Best, as always -
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 6:23 pm (EST) on Jun 21, 2009

Actually, no - the PureHeart review was one of those featured on the LT home page. I don't know what made me start to read it, as it doesn't get truly withering until after the first couple of sentences. I joined Early Reviewers but haven't requested a book in quite some time. The offerings are usually of little interest to me or there are a gazillion requests for something.

Snagged AT's "The Golden Lion of Granpere" in, yes, a Folio Society edition last week in Monterey. My quest to own all his novels is now over. I'm about to start "Is He Popenjoy?"

On an entirely different note, we watched an excellent Iranian movie tonight called "The Color of Paradise." I had no idea that the mountains outside Tehran were so beautiful. I always think of Iran as similar to Iraq: a dry, hellish moonscape (and that's without the war). Any Iranian movies we've seen we've enjoyed - they're always superbly acted and have unpredictable plots. I have difficulty reconciling the sensitivity to the human condition that's on film with what we see happening there politically.

Best -
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 2:17 am (EST) on Jun 15, 2009

RJ - you've GOT to read the LT review of Pureheart posted by StormRaven. It's on the home page now. The review itself is extremely long, but you HAVE to scroll down to where the publisher, author and reviewer get all pissy with him. One of the funniest things I've read in a while.

Hail, StormRaven! Defender of grammar and coherent writing!

More on O'Brian later -
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 1:36 am (EST) on Jun 11, 2009

To continue: P O'B is usually easy to find for a buck or two, and there's always half.com. Remember that the plots are often secondary to the characters, the era and the set pieces that showcase the intersection of the two. If things become exceedingly nautical (usually in a battle), just skim until you get back to a literary even keel. You'll be surprised, though, how much of the sea stuff you pick up as you go, and then there's the companion glossary, A Sea of Words. If you don't have the latter tell me and I'll bung it into the next post (feeling awfully Australian, for some reason). I have a 2nd edition you can have. I was saving it in hopes that my middle brother, who has an M.A. in history, would at some point become entranced by the O'Brian, but instead he frittered away his time on a law degree. Of course one of the key roles of the doctor, Stephen, is to be the lubber so that Jack can explain things to him/us.

Harry Heathcote was an embarrassment. AT needed to churn out an Xmas story, and now it's the reader's stomach that's doing the churning. Forgot to mention Dr. Whortle's School as a stand-alone. Many AT fans mention it as a favorite. I gave it a solid B. The "hero" is too saintly, while the good doctor is decidedly not. He's presented "warts and all" and you'll like him all the better for it. I think I may tackle Popenjoy after I finish The Code of the Woosters, which is one of the funniest damn books ever written. And having Fry and Laurie in my mind's eye and ear is only a plus. Wish they'd filmed more Wodehouse.

The ankle recovers by fits and starts. Yesterday morning I couldn't put any weight on it at all for hours, then this afternoon I was only mildly gimpy. And then there's nearly every other joint chiming in with its own "Ack und Krack" as the Germans might say. The limp and the crutches mess everything up. I've got a feeling that my physical therapist and I are at the start of a beautiful friendship -

Yes, do share the translation bloopers. I love bloopers of any description. I share your distaste for Rabelais - not so much incomprehensible as a prolonged yawn. I have a copy of Gargantua and Pantagruel around somewhere but have never gotten more than a page or two into it. Never figured out what the big deal was. I guess when you don't get the jokes immediately there's really no fun left in it. Think of trying to watch Jon Stewart 20 years from now. No context.

A bientot-
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 2:24 am (EST) on Jun 8, 2009

Just spent about 20 minutes composing an extraordinarily witty and pithy reply to you and then LIKE A COMPLETE CYBER IDIOT closed the window accidentally before I sent it. And now I have to go marinate things and look at research reports.

Anyway - haven't read Is He Popenjoy? yet. Good AT stand-alones: The Claverings, The Bertrams, The Kellys and the O'Kellys, Mr. Scarborough's Family, Marion Fay, He Knew He Was Right. An Eye For an Eye is a quick read. There's always The Way We Live Now if you feel like 900 pages of people behaving badly.

You know, I thought from the start that the side trip to Monterey from Oregon plan was logistically dubious.

More later-

L

posted by stringcat3 at 7:23 pm (EST) on Jun 7, 2009

Was thinking of you today as I passed many bicyclists on Rt. 68, the old highway between Monterey and Salinas. It's definitely bike country around here. Also, scored a Folio Society edition of Is He Popenjoy? at The Book Haven in Old Monterey this afternoon, so I now have all AT's novels. If you do get to Monterey this summer, the shop is worth a look.

L

posted by stringcat3 at 10:28 pm (EST) on Jun 2, 2009

Reports on IT outsourcing in emerging markets? Would rather have nosehairs plucked with heated tweezers.

Monarch of the Glen, which is on my Netflix Instant queue, is rather a soap-operish BBC series, but the Scottish Highlands scenery is marvelous and the divine Susan Hampshire as the matriarch is delightful. More of chick-flick caliber than I think you'd have patience for.

I'm off AT for a bit as well. Actually haven't been reading much of anything over the past two weeks, with the onslaught of studies coming and going. The worst of it is over for a while.

Yes, AT did indeed expend far too much time on tiresome creatures while worthy souls such as Mrs. Grantly are too quickly removed from the stage. But I always loved the Archdeacon - you know, he could have been Italian, with his short temper and love of plotting revenge.

The nerve tingling is an expected side effect of the mucking about with the tendons at the back of the heel and along the outside of the foot (the tendon sheath had to be shaved back to a normal thickness). It seems to have lessened over the weekend after Friday's mini debauch: some friends, some neighbors, much red wine and a major dent in a three-layer yellow cake with fudge frosting. I'm heading in to the office tomorrow for the first full day since 2/19. Woodrow K. Cat will be dismayed - his on-demand rump-scratches will be quite curtailed. (BTW - there's a famous Patrick O'Brian joke about curtailed - watch for it.)

Speaking of which - you'll be on the Monterey Peninsula this summer? Give a shout and I'll buy you a glass of local red. I should be here except for 7/20-23 when I'm at a sales meeting in Sonoma. Although how Monterey is a side trip for Oregon escapes me. Surely you're not going to ride down the coast? This area is, as I'm sure you know, quite bicycle-mad. Personally, I haven't been on one in a good 30 years. I don't want to remember there are bones down there.

Off to icepacks-
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 12:23 am (EST) on Jun 2, 2009

Just popping in to see how the wedding went. Priceless description. Now you see why I tell my Missouri-born husband that the only way I'm going to the Ozarks is in an urn.

Two questionnaires down (one English, one Canuck-French for the same study - 41 pages each), reviewed the live links and they're off. Another qx to review tomorrow. Two more studies to field next week. One report due back tomorrow. Two proposals pending. And all I want to do is watch "Monarch of the Glen" from Netflix (BBC series set in Scotland). I'm in the middle of Season 3. I'm toying with the idea of single malts - I haven't tasted any since I was 14 and we sneaked some from an aunt's bar. Recall it being nasty but there were a good number of things I so deemed then which later I acquired a taste for.

Ankle is unhappy about rehab. I'm back to one crutch + Rockports. The nerve tingling is back. Wretched thing.

The Latin goes placidly along. I realized that I don't really need to get through all the grammar in a few months. I butted up against participles, where I cast upon the rocks last time, and decided to slow down and enjoy a more stately progress. I'm acquiring a few other grammar books as each has its strengths; I quite like the "Teach Yourself" series.

BTW - How much do I owe you for the books? My husband tore the label off the box and reused the latter before I could see what the shipping came to.

I really have to start getting to bed before 2. I'm going back to the office on Monday.

We'll have to have a good chat about LC of B. I believe I gave you fair warning that it couldn't hold a candle to the earlier volumes. And then that shocker with Mrs. Proudie. You know the story, I presume, of how AT decided to kill her off? It's in his Autobiography - he overheard two men complaining about the continuing characters and made a sudden decision to do it. Have you read through the Barchester forum? Quite some good observations there.

Yawning -
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 4:42 am (EST) on May 27, 2009

Quick one: books arrived yesterday in good shape.

More later after questionnaire hell abates -

Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 3:04 pm (EST) on May 21, 2009

Hey, no prob. I assumed you were still traveling. Very busy week here, between work and houseguests and watching season 1 of "Monarch of the Glen" via my Roku box. The boot is off (yay!) and I'm into Rockports on both feet, but the ankle ain't happy about it (harrumph). More nerve irritation, edema and sharp pain, so I'll have the therapist look at it tomorrow and see what's going on. Something doesn't feel quite right.

Never have read Rebecca, although I have a copy here. I did read her novel that involved chemically-induced time travel to medieval England, The House on the Strand, which I'd give a B-. Yes, Rebecca the movie, directed by Hitchcock, is rather a cult favorite and notorious because he changed the ending to make it more palatable. The book is more gruesome. Speaking of gruesome, have you actually read Wuthering Heights? It's hardly a "romance" in the Barbara Cartland sense. Quite grim in its depiction of serious sexual obsession (hints of necrophilia), revenge, mental and physical child abuse and assorted other less than attractive human behaviors. To quote an old Shoe comic strip on Moby Dick: for one of the great classics of literature, this is a surprisingly good book.

I've read both Neverwhere (liked it) and American Gods (loved it) as well as Anansi Boys, a close sequel to American Gods and just as good. I'm sure you're aware that Gaiman is a pal of Terry Pratchett. They wrote a book together called Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch. The eponymous heroine is one of the minor witches from Pratchett's Discworld. Truly an outstanding effort from both, or as Clive Barker said, "The Apocalypse has never been funnier." But I have no use for Gaiman's "graphic novels" (puhleese - they're comic books, people).

Didn't read Name of the Rose, just saw the movie. It had its moments, helped not a little by Connery (mrrrrow!) plus the Sherlock Holmes homage was amusing (William of Baskerville as a detective). I do need to get a copy - it shows up in book sales for a buck all the time.

Am about 2/3 through AT's The Bertrams and find it more entertaining than many other of his B-listers; it was unfairly maligned in the introduction. No hunting scenes yet but there's a merciless depiction of a buncha old ladies playing whist in a watering hole that's a few notches down from Bath.

Ta for now -
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 3:30 am (EST) on May 14, 2009

Mea culpa - I've been reviewing questionnaires and now have unexpected (but not unwelcome) houseguests. If you want neither The Fixed Period nor Cousin Henry then please fling them in the mail. If you decide to keep them, no doubt other copies will surface. Isn't the Brattle fun? Didn't you feel European while browsing at the outside stalls? And I find the prices inside reasonable enough.

Check out this essay on physical versus e-books, which uses an Oxford edition of Ayala's Angel as an example.

http://www.altx. com/ebr/ebr7/ 7miller/index. html

More later -

Tzarina of Research

posted by stringcat3 at 5:31 pm (EST) on May 6, 2009

Well, Mr. Ambiguity, I never claimed to have any memory left, except for completely useless items such as the lyrics to "Rawhide" which I sang (just a few verses) for the physical therapist today who is not only Japanese but too young to have ever seen the show. I did remind her of the reprise in The Blues Brothers. and she announced that she was 4 years old when that film was released. Oy.

Anyway, congrats on your score. I definitely would like The Fixed Period - let me think about Cousin Henry today. I need to work myself into justifying the purchase (this should take me about 6 hours). The American Senator was an oddly didactic book - the senator's pontificating seems at odds with the narrative. I wonder whether AT mashed up the materials for two different novels. Na ja - I have an Oxford World Classics edition so TAS can reside with you.

Am pleased that the Modern lived up to its rep. Don't you HATE it when you've raved about someplace and then you hear that it was a disaster? But what is this "I don't eat pastries"? Please tell me that it's an unwilling denial and not some processed sugar phobia. Now that I reread that sentence, it doesn't seem quite right, on the surface, in sentiment but I think you know what I mean. Or as Napoleon used to yell at his soldiers, "Go on, you bastards! Do you think you're going to live forever?"

If you want good (and cheap!) Vietnamese, there's Pho Pasteur on lower Washington. That Malaysian place across the street from it is supposed to be good but I've never been in there.

I came by these chins honestly -
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 7:26 pm (EST) on Apr 29, 2009

Wretched man, why didn't you give me the respective publishers? I'm guessing that the Pallisers are the Oxford editions in the green DJs - you can always find the other three to complete the set. They should be $10 for the Oxford, $15 if they're Folio. Go up to $20 for Folio. If the other four, all minor ATs, are in hardcover, are they Folio Society? HH is a Christmas story set in Australia, which AT visited when his son lived there. Sort of a ripping yarn, which many Trollopeans enjoy for its own worth. I have it in paper. Linda Tressel is good but depressing - you should probably get it. It's usually paired with another novella, Nina Balatka, which I preferred. The Fixed Period is a great oddity, as it's sort of science fiction - AT does "Logan's Run"! It's pretty much for completists, as it's so strange and not terribly good; if you don't want it, I'll take it. Cousin Henry is touted as AT trying out psychology by portraying the effects of a guilty conscience; you should get it if it's in decent shape, as it's not often found in hardcover. If you don't want it, get it for me as well, please.

I make everyone fat. It's a gift. Now I'm starving, thinking of those fig cookies at the Modern. My sister occasionally sends a 2-lb box of cookies (like we need them!), proving that blood is thicker than coffee.

Salut!
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 6:05 pm (EST) on Apr 28, 2009

Give my regards to the Brattle! See whether they have any of the Folio Society ATs left - they were mostly in a narrow case facing the front door but go down the aisle on the far left, all the way to the end, and see what's there alphabetically. They double-stack the shelves so don't forget to look behind. You can always ask the owner, Kenny Gloss, whether he has any in storage.

$130 for one volume? Have you completely lost your mind? And you're warning ME off meds?! You're on your own on this one.

Am supposed to be using only one crutch now but that takes quite a toll on my right shoulder (bursitis!). Will see what the therapist says tomorrow. Gimped my way to a concert of the San Francisco Scottish Fiddlers last night here in Salinas. Their director is Alasdair Fraser, the guy who wrote the theme for the film of The Last of the Mohicans and played on the soundtrack. Great evening - made me want to break out my fiddle again. Of course, my shoulder may have something else to say about it.

If you make it to the North End, get over to Galleria Umberto and then to the Modern Pastry. Mmmmn. Or Sultan's Kitchen down on State Street. If I lived there I'd weigh 400 pounds and be broke all the time.

What ho (been reading Wodehouse, as you see) -
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 2:35 am (EST) on Apr 27, 2009

Actually we get spring weather at various times all through the year - except for the rain which as you know is pretty much only a November to March occurrence, sometimes Oct - April. The later pattern is something New Englanders never cease to wonder at.

Yes, we are rather obsessive about wrapping books for transit. I've had too many books damaged by shoddy packaging. Besides, two were in great condition and weren't mine!

The Science of Fear reminds me of Gavin de Becker's book Fearless. He's a security consultant who's first book, The Gift of Fear, argues that humans need to listen to their fear instinct as it's usually correct. When we try to rationalize it away (as women in particular often do for fear of not appearing polite!) we get into trouble. He gives very specific cases and how to deal with them, and shows why the usual approach is wrong. It's an important book that I've often bought for friends, particularly those troubled by a stalker. He also has one on how to keep kids safe that so damn sane it's astonishing. He points out that much of our conventional wisdom is dangerously wrong, e.g., telling kids not to talk to strangers. His solution for lost or threatened kids: talk to a stranger - a strange woman, that is. Kids should be taught to go up to the nearest adult woman, particularly if she has kids, and ask for help.

Anyway: I've gone back to Teach Yourself Beginner's Latin as a refresher. I'll eventually get back to the big guns: Wheeler's 5th edition grammar. Must get the new thyroid meds as my memory is pathetic - I'm on the cusp of hypothryoidism which "is really common with women your age." Do you realize the Latin for "old man" is "senex" from which we derive "senior" and "senator" while for "old woman" it's "anus" from which we derive .... never mind. Just tells me where I stand.

Have graduated to one crutch, which makes negotiating the kitchen much easier. Kind of overdid it yesterday so I'm icing and elevating today - no running the Big Sur Marathon this weekend. Was planning to go to the Big Sur Bakery for lunch today and then to Nepenthe which is having its 60th anniversary party involving much cake, alcohol and the Chicano All-Stars, a favorite local band.

Boogie-oogie-oogie -
Lauren

Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 7:08 pm (EST) on Apr 24, 2009

Bravo! Hope you're not hoarse from the efforts. Yes, Framley is fun is, as you point out, rather improbable. Still like Dr. Thorne better, though. Can't really reco Eating With the Victorians - rather uneven set of essays. Good descriptions of the differences between service a la Russe and a la Francaise. I enjoyed Inside the Victorian Home, by Judith Flanders, much more. Speaking of food writers, what about M.F.K. Fisher? She's sort of food/travel. Always can be found used - she was so widely in print.

My husband finally shipped your books + the 2 ATs yesterday, after they'd been sitting in the front hall for over a week. Harrumph.

Rehab is painful, which means she's doing it right. I won't be able to put full weight on the ankle for 2-3 weeks. Boot + crutches is how we roll. At least the swelling is starting to subside from "sausage on end of leg" level. I try to keep the compression stocking on - seems to be more effective than the Ace bandage, as the latter doesn't compress evenly when it has to go around the heel. The progress isn't linear - it may be several days between noticeable improvements.

Have had an otherwise kinda crummy week: got absolutely killed in taxes (my husband didn't withhold enough) and have been racing to get four big studies signed off by the VP before she leaves for two weeks in Hawaii. Got there but hair was on fire. On the other hand, my elder brother was in Oakland visiting his late girlfriend's sister and sprang for Easter brunch for us all at The Claremont in Berkeley - $90 a head! The sparking wine flowed freely but the buffet wasn't so much better than what the Monterey hotels do for holidays at half the price. The service was, however, superb and we had a window table. The view is spectacular, as the hotel is at the top of the hill overlooking the bay, SF, the Golden Gate and the Bay Bridge.

And listen, buckeroo - how you THINK you decide and how your brain actually does it are two different things. And as a marketer, it pays my mortgage to know the difference.

Best, as always,
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 7:42 pm (EST) on Apr 17, 2009

What a memory - yes, my paternal grandfather's family was from Campo di Giove, about 50 miles SE of L'Aquila. No relatives left there, but I was sorry to see the devastation. I'm sure every shop in Boston's North End has a collection jar on the counter by now.

I was going to read more of the Yates, but after finishing RR was so depressed that I'm sending it back to the library. Agree: completely unlikeable characters, all of them. On the subject of drinking - I'm reminded of the observation made by Charles Ryder in Brideshead Revisited, something about drinking while in high spirits (no pun intended) and a wish to extend the joy of the moment. Of course Sebastian was looking for numbness, quite the opposite. I'm in the Charles column; plus I love the taste of beer. Always have, ever since my great-grandfather used to give us sips.

The research isn't papers, it's custom consumer research, mainly quantitative right now. Dole is an huge international company - back in the day it practically owned countries in Central America. My job is essentially to figure out what the brand or new product managers need to know (and I've been both, so that's the easy part), hire the research vendors and work with them to design the studies. Then I have to make sure that the reports are written to answer the business questions clearly. Not a little of my time is keeping the managers from improperly applying data or misinterpreting it. Advertising makes fun of focus groups, which is one of the types of research used, but they do have their uses. Like anything else, you need to pick the right tool. If you ask the right consumer the right question the right way, you'll get the information you need.

Anyway - no, I'm off my Davies binge, but I do have a copy of The Merry Heart downstairs for someday. I'm not a big fan of letter collections - most of the time you have no clue what's going on unless you read the zillion footnotes.

Rescue Me is back on the air, we're getting more rain, and dinner was chicken tagine with carrots and olives over couscous. Huzza.

Sing it, RJ -
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 3:39 am (EST) on Apr 8, 2009

I did indeed see the review, and it just added to my resolve to avoid Oates whenever I can. Never have understood all the rave reviews she gets. She's dreary (our Margaret Drabble) and a mediocre writer.

In any case, am as integrated into work as I can be from my SleepNumber mattress. Have three nice, fat research studies about to kick off (two for Canada, which will be interesting), and another that's a gleam in the VP's eye, all with two of my favorite vendors. I think it will be a while before I travel again; I have a feeling the next sojourn will be back to MA for a wedding in late August. Not that I'm so eager to go schvitz, but my mother is still emptying her various storage areas and the pickins will be good. I know the big silver tea service is mine for the packing, and there's a stack of Limoges platters that are going begging. She was the warrior queen of yard sales but "at this hour of my life" is getting rid of it all "so you kids better come and take it or it's all going to Goodwill." She's not fooling anyone - she couldn't get so much as another teacup crammed in anywhere.

But I digress.

Speaking of dreary, I picked up Richard Yates from the library Friday, the Everyman's Library edition with Revolutionary Road, The Easter Parade and Eleven Kinds of Loneliness. Am about 100 pages into RR - quite good but a reminder of why everyone in Westchester and Fairfield (CT) Counties drinks so much. And very reminiscent of Cheever's stories. But in a strange way it makes me yearn a bit for back in the day living in NYC - it was so much easier to have a social life. And my stomach allowed a much higher alcohol intake than the once a week or so it tolerates now. Then I recall that I am more than a little misanthropic and would probably stay home with a book anyway.

How did the Mozart go? Did you record? Despite my idle atheism I do enjoy much of the music of Eastertide - St. Matthew's Passion, for instance. And I've never been so mean as to turn down a Cadbury egg or a Shrove Tuesday pancake. BTW - we caught the first episode of Little Dorrit last Friday and were hooked, so are now caught up after tonight's second installment.

Was able to put my foot down flat today - I know you share my tremulous joy.

Ta for now -
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 1:58 am (EST) on Apr 6, 2009

I adored Miss Dunstable. Wait'll you see who gets her. She's in Framley Parsonage as well - wish AT had written her into more books (unlike that drippy Planty Palliser).

Sometimes I wonder at the things that catch my interest. I spent about an hour the other night reading wikipedia entries on playing cards. Who knew that the familiar suits aren't used in other countries. Take Germany: coins, bells, acorns and oh something else weird. And the 52-card deck isn't universal, either. I've been so sheltered.

I don't trust those temporary handles. If it ain't screwed into a wall stud, fuggehdabowdit.

Tra la la la la -
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 4:56 am (EST) on Apr 3, 2009

Would love the CD, should you record. Although my heart belongs to Chopin (whom I always picture as Hugh Grant because of that biopic where Judy Davis played Georges Sand).

I'm in the midst of Wodehouse's Mr. Mulliner stories, taken according to the author's prescribed medium dose of "not more than two or perhaps three stories a day ... taken before retiring." For some reason I've not had the Trollopean urge since December - must have been all that Robertson Davies putting me off. I did, however, have a Trollope sighting while reading some excerpts from Louisa May Alcott's journals. Seems old AT paid his respects at Orchard House in Concord during one of his U.S. visits.

Didn't make it far into Little Dorrit on Sunday. My husband insisted that the (protracted) bathing ritual start at 9 rather than 11, as he wanted to hold to his normal 10pm bedtime. So hard to get good help these days. Now that I am decasted at least I can perform ablutions on my own - I just need to have him haul me out as I dread falling and adding injuries. One of the major milestones will be when I can actually stand in the shower, rather than sit on that plastic stool. So much more conducive to the contemplative state.

Am enjoying Jonah Lehrer's How We Decide, despite its position on the NYT bestseller list (I usually avoid it like the plague). Besides a few grammatical lapses (using 'if' for 'whether' particularly grates on my excessively refined sensibilities), his writing is lucid and engaging. Reminds me that I did enjoy the experimental psych class I had to take as an undergrad. Whether the book translates into anything directly applicable to business, I have yet to discover, but fascinating stuff nonetheless, e.g., the role of dopamine in gambling addiction. I'm now wondering, though, what my complete lack of interest in gambling means. Really - I was bored stiff in Vegas casinos.

workin' the walkin' boot -
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 3:41 am (EST) on Apr 1, 2009

I have Little Dorrit scheduled for tonight, right after Kings. I think Nickleby was superior. Like much of Dickens, Little Dorrit is another drippy, completely unbelievable female lead who spoils the whole thing (remember Wilde's comment on the famous death scene in Old Curiosity Shop?). The new Terry/Irving book was reviewed in today's NY Times complete with repro of the famous picture (which, it says, was taken in Tennyson's bathroom!). I have a copy of her memoirs here somewhere. Speaking of female leads, I'm going to send you Dover editions of AT's Rachel Ray and Castle Richmond. I think you'll like the eponymous heroine of the former. Castle is one of his Irish novels, rather B-list AT, but notable for its contemporary and unusually realistic portrayal of the Irish famine. I've replaced them with Folio Society copies from my December indulgence at the Brattle Book Shop.

The drawback to Wedlock wasn't the soapiness - it was the author's unrelenting need to cram every damn last factoid into the narrative, which detracted from the pace of what is, after all, high melodrama. Like Small House at Allington and Last Chronicle of Barset. And yes, the Dale sisters are two of the most infuriating women in Victorian literature. My hand aches to slap Lily soundly.

Time going fast? Now THAT'S something I haven't experienced in a while. I have (I am somewhat abashed to admit) discovered online Monopoly. I sometimes play late at night against the computers so the games don't take more than 25-30 minutes. A pleasant diversion and more enjoyable than the sessions I remember with siblings where we had to keep an eye on my elder brother who was a notorious cheat, and which ended if the cat came along and lay down on the board (house rule).

Cast removal in 20 hours and counting -
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 10:29 pm (EST) on Mar 29, 2009

There's a special place in hell reserved for people who break sets.

Congrats on the AT haul - Powell's is such a dangerous place. But O'Brian is easy to pick up here and there, especially with the charity book sale season fast upon us.

You've read The Warden and Barchester Towers, correct? Those two really need to be read in that order. You can skip them to get to Dr. Thorne but do read the latter before Framley. I think Small House is the weakest in the series but many people choose it as their favorite; you do need to read it before undertaking Last Chronicle (which AT considered the best of the six). You should check both the Barchester and Palliser threads in the Trollope forum for more commentary.

You know, I never read the Oz books. Not sure why they didn't attract me as I read nearly everything else in the children's section (the Andrew Lang fairy books were particular favorites).

The Color of Magic was disappointing. Nice to see how they imagined Ankh-Morpork, but much of Pratchett's humor is in his writing - the puns and digressions! - so of course that was lost. Curry manned up as an evil wizard, but Sean Astin was an unconvincing Twoflower (who, as I recall, was supposed to be vaguely Asian). Pratchett had a nice little cameo as one of the "scientists" directly exploration of what's over the edge of Discworld. I dropped out 8-9 to watch (yes) Ian McShane in Kings.

I am fully prepared for the disgusting specimen that will emerge. The atrophy was noticeable a week ago. The foot is still quite numb and not amenable to being touched - it's going to be interesting to see what happens with the walking boot.

Anyway: finished both the Manguel and Wedlock. The latter seems ripe for Jerry Springer or what'sername who wrote "Smart Women, Foolish Choices." I don't have a lot of sympathy for serial stupidity, but the story was interesting. Felt it suffered a bit from excessive detail, as in "I did all the research so I'm going to cram in every last date, location, name, etc., that I uncovered." Felt it bogged down the narrative.

The Manguel was, as I said before, uneven but had many inspiring passages. Here's a favorite from page 254: "Visitors often ask if [sic] I've read all my books; my usual answer is that I've certainly opened every one of them. The fact is that a library, whatever its size, need not be read in its entirety to be useful; every reader profits from a fair balance between knowledge and ignorange, recall and oblivion."

Back to discrete choice modeling -
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 3:45 pm (EST) on Mar 24, 2009

You're right - just hope she knows who Ulysses is. One of my favorites - I used to keep the last 6 lines pinned up in my office.

You underestimate yourself on the O'Brian. And I was woefully ignorant on matters nautical, nevermind the Napoleonic Era, when I started it. It's more about the people than the ships. Now, Hornblower was about the ships, and HH was a thumping bore.

Given that Manguel isn't shy about dropping references and citations into his work, I'd agree that he hasn't mentioned Pratchett because he hasn't read him. Now, if book shelves are your thing, you must must read Henry Petroski's THE BOOK ON THE BOOKSHELF which is, mirabile dictu, a history of how books are stored. One of my faves.

I'm of mixed feelings on the finale of BG. I thought the last few episodes weren't up to snuff - too many Caprica flashbacks that still seem superfluous. Not with a bang but with a whimper. And what the hell was Kara Thrace? What was all that "Harbinger of Death" crap? Never resolved.

On the other hand, Ion is showing Pratchett's "The Colour of Magic" this Sunday night at 7 pm local time. On ion.com go to the upper right to plug in your zip and find where they are on your cable line-up. Tim Curry is one of the wizards - he's always a hoot. That'll interfere with Kings at 8 pm, so I'll have to figure out when it'll be rerun. I've had the hots for Ian McShane ever since his Lovejoy days. Always had a weakness for men with black hair and black hearts ;-) But I married a redhead and it was the best thing I ever did.

Never fear my descent into career - if I were going to do that I'd be a VP at Kraft by now, reading trade journals and updating my profile on sundry networking sites instead of reading obscure British novels. Ah! the 3rd DVD of A DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME had a short conversation on Trollope in the midst of an air raid.

More like 9.625 days, but why quibble? To quote the inimitable mehitabel, there's a dance in the old dame yet -

Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 3:07 am (EST) on Mar 21, 2009

WEDLOCK arrived yesterday afternoon - many thanks. I read the first two chapters last night - entertaining indeed. I was going to call her the Paris Hilton of her day but her intellectual pursuits lift her high above that twit. But E! and TMZ would have loved her.

I'm about halfway through THE LIBRARY AT NIGHT, which I'm finding very uneven but of course that's not surprising for a collection of essays. There are some that are just blather (e.g., As Mind) and some rise to delight (e.g., As Island). I was disappointed that the essay As Space didn't mention Terry Pratchett's concept of L-space (the extradimensional connection among all libraries and bookstores). On the whole I'm struck once again by (and envious of) Manguel's erudition.

I was suggesting that YOU, my dear RJ, read the Aubrey-Maturin series from the beginning, as you'd said not long ago that you felt like reading historical fiction. I'm just not in the mood for the boys right now. And as I'm back at work electronically now my leisure is sadly curtailed. (It had to be - that damned mortgage payment keeps coming up.) I am, however, watching an excellent production of Powell's A DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME, starring James Purefoy. Got it through Netflix and highly recommend it. 4 DVDs. Much of the subplot meandering is excised, natch, but I don't miss it.

Only 9 1/2 days to cast off. Not that I'm counting or anything. Appreciate your good wishes - more than I get from Twoey the Bad Cat. He's figured out that I'm not going to get up and provide cat concierge services, so he doesn't even bother to come in. At least Woodrow K. Cat logs some on-the-bed time, even if it's just to get his rump and jowls scratched.

More signs of the Apocalypse: the very intelligent 21-year-old who comes in a few hours a day to "minion" for me had no idea who either Pavarotti or Tennyson was. Tut tut - age is no excuse - when I was 21 I was quite familiar with both.

Harrumph.
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 4:56 pm (EST) on Mar 20, 2009

Stratego is an old battlefield game, much less complex than Risk (but what isn't?) that calls heavily upon the memory, hence my apprehension.

Only 3 more weeks to go. I've been off all meds since Saturday night - the reactions were catching up with me. The ankle aches but not the worst pain I've ever experienced. Slowly coming out of the fog - reread Harry Potter #7 yesterday and today so now I can at least get through an entire book. I'm eying The Library At Night - may attempt it tomorrow. I still fall asleep at odd times, as the med schedule totally destroyed my pattern.

Kubrick's Barry Lyndon suffered mainly from the miscasting of Ryan O'Neal (Neil? I forget) in the lead, but it was a gorgeous film. Wedlock sounds like fun, if you'd like to pitch it into the mail. I'm about to order a few things from the Edward R. Hamilton catalogue (including Ad Infinitum, a history of Latin) as well as that new book on decisionmaking, How We Decide. I justify the expenditure in the face of medical bills and my husband's 10% paycut (he works for the State of CA) by remembering that I'm not out sprinkling dollars around Salinas and Monterey.

My husband has kept his teaching credentials current for a good 20 years or more - taught from elementary through high school, with lots of basketball coaching. He was in high-tech marketing but hated it. After a year or so of that when we moved here he got a chance to teach at Salinas High and become a basketball coach, then got his MA in edu admin and became an asst. principal. Couple of years later he was recruited to the CA Dept of Corrections as an edu administrator and has never looked back. Best job in education he's ever had, he says: no parents, no kids, no after-school activities, 100% motivated students. If anyone gives him even a whisper of trouble there's a guy with a gun on his hip just down the hall. But yes, we can go almost nowhere in town without him being recognized by a former student or a basketball player, especially as he has often refereed city league games.

Anyway, he's just finishing "Big Cotton" by Stephen Yafa, which he highly recommends. I picked it up at a book sale - it's been remaindered around. It's a history of (you guessed it) that ultimately explains how The Gap became possible.

I am indeed pleased that you enjoyed Harem and Black Room so much. But are you inclined to start the Aubrey-Maturin series from the start? I haven't had an urge to reread it in quite a while but have been foisting it off on various acquaintances, with the recommendation that they buy A Sea of Words right from the get-go.

I'm only a few chapters into An Old Man's Love. As the intro warned, it is far from classic Trollope. The heroine sounds drippy. I think I need a scone or two to get in the mood to tackle it, but people are taking seriously my admonition not to ply me with pastries while I'm not burning calories. I may have to go off the wagon and send one of my minions over to Starbucks tomorrow for a maple-walnut. I detest their coffee, but we don't have a Peet's in Salinas and I know for a fact that no one in the near vicinity can make a proper cup of tea, so there's no point in wasting any of my good Yunnan in the attempt.

Whining again,
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 12:35 am (EST) on Mar 10, 2009

Only 26 more days to go with this @$&*#^@ cast on. You may report to the good brothers that I've somewhat made my peace with it, although the first 24 hours were exceedingly difficult. And I did finally get my hair properly washed with a foray to the Supercuts across the way. Nothing like a clean scalp to improve morale. We have yet another of my husband's former students, Miguel, as well as his girlfriend who take various shifts as go-fers. Tonight I initiated Miguel into the thrill and dismay of playing Stratego (remember that one?). I saved face with a win, but he had me worried for the first half of the game.

Had just started Trollope's "An Old Man's Love" which was his last complete novel (he didn't finish "The Landleaguers") when Miguel came in. The novel is more psychological than most of AT and the intro compares it to some of Henry James' work - less plot-driven and has much less of the narrator's voice to guide us or comment. I've cut way back on the narcs so if I get another good sleep tonight I may be able to focus enough to make headway in it tomorrow. I want to get back to The Library at Night as well. I have all of March, of course.

Many people indeed forget what a good writer Orwell was. He rather doomed himself with Animal Farm and 1984 for which most people remember him. They read those in high school, think of him as a science fiction writer and never get to the other novels (Burmese Days!) or the nonfiction, especially the essays.

No sympathy on the Dante. Wasn't there something about "lasciate ogni speranza" that perhaps you should have heeded? ;-)

Easy with that snow shovel -
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 12:59 am (EST) on Mar 5, 2009

Ha! Needed that laugh. I remember watching that version of Far when it first made it to TV, as my mother is a huge Julie Christie fan (it was Dr. Zhivago that did it). Why do we never hear anyone described as "wanton" anymore? It has such a great flinging-hair-over-the-shoulder feel to it. I'm trying to think of someone today who would qualify as wanton: most that come to mind (e.g., Amy Winehouse, Britney Spears) are just pop-tarts.

"Eppur si muove" was a weak attempt at humor, meaning that despite the situation at the end of my leg I can still make round trips up and down the hall and into the bathroom. The room doesn't spin, but I can feel a bit lightheaded, especially with 2 of the Oxycodone. I overpromised pretty much everyone on what I'd get done in these first two weeks, so I'll have to let you outpace me in Inferno. I just can't concentrate enough to read for more than 10-15 minutes, and the material can't be more demanding than the local paper. I did follow the Obama speeches last night and this morning, with the subsequent GOP whinging from Bobby Jindal.

Overall I prefer Hardy's verse to his prose. Got started on the former through my Freshman English professor, a Hardy scholar who concentrated on the poems. There is that rather embarrassing eulogy he wrote to his cat ("purrer of the spotless hue") but I cut huge slack to anyone mourning a pet, especially a feline. The poems he wrote after his wife died can be quite wrenching.

Off for more ice packs -
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 9:22 pm (EST) on Feb 25, 2009

Just two cantos? Perche tanta vilta nel core allette? Just kidding - I was checking the length of the cantos (canti?) and that line caught my eye. Sure, two cantos at a go is fine: remember, I'm reading a trot, with plenty of endnotes. I got through Fagles' Aeneid at a decent clip so I am undaunted at the prospect of the Inferno. BTW - there's a blurb from Fagles on the back cover of this Mandelbaum translation: "Exactly what we have waited for these years, a Dante with clarity, eloquence, terror and profoundly moving depths." Mind you, I make no promises about the other two books, althoughI feel that completist urge beginning to rise.

Netflix has only "Monteverdi: Banquet of the Senses."

And what is this "when you get your sense of humor back" stuff? I never lose it - and that's often gotten me into trouble.

in pre-gimp mode -
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 6:22 pm (EST) on Feb 19, 2009

Yes, World of Wonders is a slog. I'm skimming for Eisengrim's recital of his early life. Always go for the juicier bits Most psychobabble leaves me cold, which is odd considering I make my living figuring out how consumers behave, or will behave. It seems that much of psychology today is about making excuses for people who need to be told to pull up their big kid pants and get going. Or as the Italians say, pick up the cross and keep moving. I don't remember how it goes in my paternal grandfather's dialect (his parents came from Albanella).

I now may have to spring for a second Netflix box for downstairs. My husband has become quite taken with it. The nice thing about the instant queue is that if something isn't to one's taste (e.g., a too too dismal Hardy adaptation) there's plenty more to sample. With the DVDs, the choices are of course far vaster but if you don't like what's at home, that's it for about three days.

You're a better man than I am for tackling the Dante. Shall I read along with you nel mezzo del cammin di my recuperation? I have the Allen Mandelbaum translation - a "trot" as we used to call them Does anyone still use that term for side-by-side, dual-language editions? I'm just not in the mood for the Latin - it'll hit me some day, but not this week. I have Wheelock's 6th edition, plus the accompanying workbook and Groton & May's 38 Latin Stories, as well as Teach Yourself Beginner's Latin (more medieval) and Ritchie's Fabulae Faciles: A First Latin Reader, first issued in 1903. I have a 1918 printing in quite decent shape. The editor was a professor of Latin at Phillips Exeter, and he most obligingly left the accents in the texts. I do struggle with the accents.

Monterey is about 30 minutes away; I work on the edge of it, cheek by jowl to the airport, and it's 23 miles door to door. Downtown is another 3-4 miles. But it occurred to me later that I have the pre-op meeting in Santa Cruz next Thursday at 5, and there's no way I'm going to get my husband to come back in hideous rush hour traffic to go to a poetry reading. Route 1 is brutal at that hour.

What happened in September? I take it that he's now hale and hearty, or on the way. Isn't he a chef? I do thank you for the kind thoughts, which is what prayers should be. Too bad so many people forget that part ;-)

But just to prove how truly wicked I am, I am thinking of Mark Twain's quote on profanity (Under certain circumstances, urgent circumstances, desperate circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer).

Waiting for the bolt to strike -
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 4:18 pm (EST) on Feb 16, 2009

STOP READING THIS AND GO BUY THE NETFLIX BOX AT ROKU.COM!

It came today - takes about 10 minutes to unpack and set up (okay, 20 because it took that long to figure out the batteries they sent were dead). We watched an excellent modern take on Taming of the Shrew with Shirley Henderson as Kate (played Marie in the BBC's The Way We Live Now and Moaning Myrtle in the Harry Potter movies) and Rufus Sewell as Petruccio. Much other fun stuff now put into the queue, including a production of Hardy's Under the Greenwood Tree (okay, Hardy's not exactly fun). I can hardly wait to be bedridden.

You know, now that you mention exclamation points, Terry Pratchett does indulge in a surfeit of strenuous punctuation. Becomes rather embarrassing in places ... he really does know better.

It seems unlikely that there will be any degree. I finally caught up with someone at the Chicago School of Psychology today to see whether the courses they listed for the MA in consumer psych were really as basic as they appeared to be - 'fraid so. I could TEACH them. He had no other ideas for online work and suggested finding doctoral level programs; yeah, they're so plentiful in Central California. So, never mind.

I started the last leg of the Deptford Trilogy, World of Wonders, out of some ridiculous completion compulsion, and find I can endure it only by skimming it. I honestly don't understand why it wowed everyone - something about the love of psychoanalysis that blossomed with the earliest Boomers? I'm restocking the bedroom bookcases in preparation for the siege: much of that Trollope I bought in December and some other odds and ends. I wonder whether I'll get the urge to go back and pick up basic Latin - got only halfway through Wheeler's intro book a few years ago. After the old cat died I didn't have the heart for it - she used to sit on a pillow on the library table while I worked. Maybe I'll just read consumer research journals. Maybe I'm overthinking all of this.

Donald Hall, the poet laureate, will be in Monterey next Thursday - I'm going to try to go hear him.

Woodrow K. Cat thinks finches are delicious.

Goodnight Moon -
Lauren

Woodrow K. Cat thinks

posted by stringcat3 at 3:53 am (EST) on Feb 12, 2009

Much Darwin and Lincoln frenzy these days, of course. Finches always make me think of the little yellow freeloaders who subsist on the EXPENSIVE AS HELL thistle seed in our birdfeeder. I had said that when the old cat died (which she did in 8/07) that was the end of the free lunch (dinner, snacks ...). The birdfeeder was there for her entertainment more than for the feathered schnorrers - it was "Kitty TV." But Mr. Nature insisted that we keep it, despite the mess and expense.

Anyway. No, have never been able to stomach romance novels. They're so embarrassingly formulaic. The closest I ever came was a few Catherine Cooksons many years ago. Your suggestion that our mothers would get along may be dashed, as my mother abhors dirty stories. I think it's the Irish in her. She always got sniffy about my "earthy expressions" as she put it.

This week is the last of my jaunts for quite a while - just focus groups up in Sunnyvale. I'm having surgery on the left ankle on 2/20. There are three bone things wrong and they've messed up the tendons in at least 2 places and I've HAD IT with inserts and braces and cortisone. So, 7-10 days with ankle elevated above the heart, then 6 weeks of absolutely no weight on it, then about 6 months of PT. I'm saving up the Manguel for the ordeal, unless you want it back sooner than later, in which case I'll cave and order a copy. Am also thinking of getting that Roku Netflix box so I can watch lots of obscure foreign movies and British TV series that I know my husband would never sit through.

Pursuit of the Houseboat got more entertaining as it went on; I imagine the same people who thought Punch was a laff riot were slapping their knees over Pursuit. It IS funny, but the style quite dated. Now that I think of it, the same description applies to me.

Limping along,
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 12:26 am (EST) on Feb 9, 2009

Manguel arrived today - looks excellent. Thanks for sending -

Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 12:02 am (EST) on Feb 3, 2009

I saw that news about the WaPo Book World demise. Yet another sign of the apocalypse along with the report that British street signs will drop apostrophes (e.g., St. Pauls Way instead of St. Paul's Way).

Thanks for sending the Manguel - I'm just in the mood for it. BTW my husband's last name is Williamson, so he won't open it. As he enjoyed the other Manguel I'm sure he'll at least look at this one. He just zipped through Harold Holzer's "Lincoln at Cooper Union" this weekend and hasn't started anything new.

No, no juicy disclosures unshared. I was merely conjecturing that if one were the type of person who, given the chance, would paw through an author's desk (and who among us is not?) then one might have some shade of that experience when perusing "The Hand of the Poet."

Woodrow decided to forgo the G&T in favor of drinking out of a muddy puddle in the yard. Ah, cats. Had I WANTED him to drink out of the puddle, he'd be demanding a glass with a little umbrella in it.

Are you perchance a Sherlock Holmes fan at all? I'm wending my way through The Pursuit of the Houseboat, the parody by John Kendrick Bangs circa 1897. Its arch tone is a bit creaky but there are flashes of wit.

And Robert Downey, Jr. (mrrow!) will play the great detective in a film to be released this November.

Off to review 18 pages of questionnaire -
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 11:14 pm (EST) on Feb 1, 2009

Well, now you can go back to the beginning of the saga. As you've discovered, you need to have a diagram of the ship handy, at least for the first few books, so you can follow what's going on. Sort of like reading many historical works - always helps to have a map for reference. In case you haven't "smoked it" yet, Diana is Stephen's inamorata and Sophie is Jack's. I can't remember whether the respective marriages have occurred by the time of this book.

I recall western PA/northeastern OH as desolate indeed, especially in midwinter(actually, I found Ohio like that year-round when I lived there).

Speaking of deterioration and bleakness: have never been an Updike fan and agree with your assessment. I made it through one early book - title escapes me - and then sampled others valiantly but to no avail. The analogy to Nabokov is perfect; I've never been able to get more than 30 pages into any of the latter's books.

The Wall Street Journal needs to stop writing such excellent book reviews, as they make me want to buy nearly everything they take up. Recently saw a review for "Script & Scribble: The Rise and Fall of Handwriting" and I long to own it. I have "The Hand of the Poet: Poems and Papers in Manuscript" and found it almost as good as pawing through the desk of someone famous (ooh, perhaps have revealed too much there).

Well, sun's over the yardarm - Woodrow K. Cat and I are off to have a gin & tonic.

Chin chin -
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 6:53 pm (EST) on Jan 30, 2009

R - sorry to read about your mother-in-law. A parent's death takes us one step closer to our own mortality.

Desolation Island is the fifth book in the series, and as I recall it was a good one. The series is actually one long novel, so while you read them as stand-alones it's best to read them in order. One picks up immediately where the previous left off. The earliest were the best, so you don't want to miss any.

Regards -
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 11:58 pm (EST) on Jan 26, 2009

Nope, never read about Sor Juana. Religious books or new age spiritual (I think of Paz as the latter - am I wrong?) just don't hold my interest. I slaver after The Library at Night, however - thanks for the offer. I see that it was published last year, so I'll be extra-kind to its binding. Alert me when you're ready for The Billy Ruffian. BTW - just saw an ad in the NY Times Book Review for a Patrick-O'Brian themed cruise to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Trafalgar. Too rich for my blood! Plus I'm more of an armchair sailor.

Minneapolis wasn't terribly cold; temps were mid- to high 20s, and it was just airport to hotel to research facility and reverse. Phoenix mild but a bit rainy.

I always think of Jesuits as being rather sharp-tongued and not averse to giving an unruly boy a good smack upside the head, so that part fits, but for some reason I also picture them as tall and athletic and swanning around in perfectly ironed cassocks (no idea where that came from) so none of that applies.

Must say that volume 2 of the Deptford trilogy was more interesting than the second volume of the Cornish, but I was getting I bit impatient with the Jungian hoo-ha, although I consider it far more acceptable than the Freudian stuff (oops - into which camp does your wife fall, if either?).

But speaking of psych - am considering a master's in consumer psychology, which if course is directly applicable to market research and new product development. Such an undertaking would cut drastically into pleasure reading time, so it would not be undertaken lightly, but I'm getting an itch for something academic and I'm sure I can get Dole to pay for most of it (no small inducement).

Haven't decided whether to plunge into the last book or launch into another Trollope, perhaps John Caldigate. Got another stack of books from the local Friends sale including Beethoven's Hair, Dubliners and a commedia d'academia, Small World. And am still making my way through the Dawkins.

Ciao! Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 3:32 pm (EST) on Jan 24, 2009

Don't feel guilty about the BT packing - we always have loads of peanuts around and I'm glad to offload them. The green ones are biodegradable, BTW. of course, my husband threw all the petro-peanuts in the same bags and I wasn't going to pick them out again.

No Sunday School trauma, just a naturally contrarian nature. I didn't turn Godless; more never saw the point of gettin' religion, much to my very Catholic grandmother's dismay. At age 12, when I was up for confirmation, I told the priest that I didn't like the way the Church treated women and I certainly didn't believe in whoppers such as a virgin birth and transubstantiation. I think I told him that normally if you came across someone who professed belief in such things, you'd throw a net over him (or her). Needless to say, I was never confirmed. Yes, Dawkins is quite Jesuitical, something I, too, have been accused of. Reading him, I think "yes, THAT'S what I should have said" or "I wish I'd known to say this." I imagine it's something like what a gay or lesbian child/teen must experience upon discovering that there are, indeed, others out there and they make no apologies for who they are.

But as I once told a VERY fundamentalist co-worker, "If I weren't damned, what would be the point of you being saved?"

In any case, The Library at Night sounds wonderful (I just read a couple of reviews).

Now, not to harsh your mellow, as some say out here, but the BG season opener was dismal (it's already available on the sci-fi channel site). They can only get better. Dragged, dragged, dragged, with a really unexpected death and the revelation of the 5th Cylon coming as an anticlimax. We were both bummed, after all the anticipation. And let us agree if not on religion then on the excellence that was STNG. You can have Cylon #3, I'll take Worf (it's that ultimate bad-boy appeal).

Off to Minneapolis and Phoenix tomorrow -
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 3:39 am (EST) on Jan 19, 2009

I must steal "cultural nuclear winter."

Yes, the Grand has about as much ambiance as the Grand Hoover Dam. Per the entertainment line-up: you could drink some mustard in warm water, which will make you retch for about an hour. Sorry I couldn't get back to you in time on mingle-mode for last night, but I'll share my thoughts (like you can stop me): of course, Penn & Teller, hands-down, but if that really is an outside shot, then Tom Jones can be enjoyable when he gets back to his raunchy Welsh roots, which I imagine he will in Vegas. I've lost interest in Cirque de Soleil. They've gotten progressively weirder over the years. If not Tom, then Elton. Hey, it's kitsch but energetic fun and you're in Vegas so don't fight the fun. As for Brittany, Celine or Barry, I'd rather have a lighted cigarette shoved up my left nostril than sit through any of their shows.

Speaking of the last, I'm back from Ann Arbor, where it was 8* at noon yesterday but as I, too, was locked in a hotel-car-meeting circuit with not even a sniff of a bookstore. It didn't really matter until last night when trying to get out of Detroit. After a delay waiting for the plane to show up, we had to wait on the runway for de-icing, after which they discovered the toilets weren't getting any water because of a frozen valve. Back to the gate, 1/2 hour wait to actually get to the gate, wait for the maintenance guys, wait for push-back crew, wait for take-off slot, then 4 1/2 hours of overheated, max capacity flight. Got to bed at 4 am Left Coast time, or 24 hours after crawling off the lumpy mattress at the Ann Arbor Courtyard Marriott.

Am enjoying the Dawkins not only for his excellent writing and wit, but for the coherence of his arguments. I've been an atheist since, oh, about age 6 but have no aptitude for hard sciences. My husband handles all the God stuff - he's a Baptist (but he does know the Bible was NOT written in English). I've read nearly all the New Testament in Greek and think Christ is a hoot. Where did this "meek and mild" crap come from? He liked to mix it up. Too bad about the ages 12-30 lacuna. Bet he was out stealing donkeys for joytrots and smoking manna as a teen-ager ;-)

In less controversial territory, all the delays let me get halfway through the first installment of Davies' Deptford trilogy, Fifth Business. It's entertaining but not the wow I expected. It suffers in comparison to the Salterton set, which was funny with spikes of hilarity and much more scathing in social commentary. Deptford reminds me very strongly of the Cornish books, especially What's Bred In the Bone. Had I started with Deptford, I probably would be more impressed. But not the slog that the Cornish became.

I'm ready for some new Pratchett. Hope he literally can keep his wits about him long enough for another Discworld entry. I want to see the Witches and the Watch go toe to toe.

Happy you're enjoying Black Room. I've recommended it a number of times but no one has ever acted on the reco.

Woo hoo for new Battlestar Galactica season tonight -

Lauren the Cylon

posted by stringcat3 at 3:51 pm (EST) on Jan 16, 2009

Actually in Ann Arbor, where it's about 16. I believe it hit 80 in Salinas today.

Reading Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion. Quite well-written and very funny to boot. I read some of the Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine on the plane - somewhat uneven but decent enough for a first try. I was halfway through Sherlock Holmes Was Wrong but didn't want to travel with a hardcover.

Unfortunately no time to nip downtown to any of the bookstores: all-day sessions for the next two days then out Thursday night. That's not such a bad thing - I just counted that I've acquired 42 books in the last 6 weeks. Time to prune the shelves again.

Lauren, contemplating snow

posted by stringcat3 at 10:52 pm (EST) on Jan 13, 2009

www.svtea.com Lichee Congou is item T0032, only $1.35 for a one-ounce packet.

I have scoured my library for history, bio, and historical bio recos, selected for good writing, and a ripping yarn where possible:

The Black Room at Longwood: Napoleon's Exile on Saint Helena is part history, part travelogue. The author is a journalist who was a hostage in the Middle East for several years - as I recall, he spent most of that time blindfolded in a cellar. He never mentions that experience, but the reader's knowledge of it adds poignancy. I believe Edward R. Hamilton has it remaindered for a buck.

Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before -Tony Horwitz. Another journalist-author. Retraces Cook's voyages, alternating between the 18th century and today. I never realized Cook was not the imperialistic bastard many have made him out to be.

A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, based on her diary 1785-1812 - Louise Thatcher Ulrich. PBS did an excellent docudrama. The author teaches at Harvard, I believe. Won A Pulitzer for it.

Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War. Also by Tony Horwitz. In the South, many think it's just half-time. Best sections are on the re-enactors.

Down and Out in Paris and London - George Orwell. Will kind of put you off restaurants for a while, though.

84, Charing Cross Road. Okay, it's not really bio, but it's charming and literate.
Movie was kind of goofy, as I recall. Quick read.

The Billy Ruffian: The Bellerophon and the Downfall of Napoleon - David Cordingly. The bio of the British ship-of-the-line on which Napoleon surrendered.

The Book on the Bookshelf - Henry Petroski. A history of book storage. Don't laugh - it's fascinating. One of my favorites.

Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth - William Bryant Logan. Yes, it's about dirt. And it is so beautifully written, it made me want to be a burrowing mammal.

Harem: The World Behind the Veil - Alev Lytle Croutier. I had to buy my mother a copy of this, she was so taken by it.

How the Irish Saved Civilization - Thomas Cahill. The best of his books. Can almost make you forgive their cuisine (or lack thereof).

Thackeray: The Life of a Literary Man - D.J. Taylor.

Trollope: A Biography - N. John Hall.

Wodehouse: A Life - Robert McCrum. Explains that unfortunately Nazi broadcast scandal. And who knew he was so big on Broadway?

Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community and War - Nathaniel Philbrick. The best version of the Pilgrim settlement I've read, and you'll really understand King Philip's War, which set the U.S. on its disastrous path of Indian relations.

Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies - Jared Diamond. One of those books that's so brilliant you keep thinking, "it's so obvious, why didn't I think of that?" and the answer is, because you aren't a brainiac linguist/anthropologist. I confess I did skip over a lot of the more technical linguistics, but the rest is great.

A History of Reading - Alberto Manguel. I may reread this one in a bit.

Blood and Thunder: The Epic Tale of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West - Hampton Sides. Not an era I usually am drawn to, but this grabbed me. You'll understand why the Southwest is still in a tug-of-war between the U.S. and Mexico.

You have raised a point on which I get tedious, especially when there's alcohol involved. Why do schools insist on making teenagers read books that were certainly not even remotely intended for them? Or even worse, making grade-schoolers read Steinbeck's "The Red Pony" which is, not surprisingly, de rigueur out here.

Am entering a Sherlockian phase with the acquisition of "Sherlock Holmes Was Wrong" and Marvin Kaye's first issue of the Sherlock Holmes Magazine.

ta for now -
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 3:20 am (EST) on Jan 10, 2009

Yes, Lyre of Orpheus was a disappointment. I'm going to put off the Deptford Trilogy for a while. I'm getting a little burned out on novels and may turn towards business books - there are a few consumer marketing things of interest that have come out in the past few months.

I've always been a binge reader - when I'm hooked, I'm thorough. I will probably reread some of AT, not right away, of course. And once I get through all the fiction, there's always the lit crit to tackle. Charterhouse of Palma is another classic I haven't been able to get through - not sure which translation I have. The only thing I've read by Howells is "The Rise of Silas Lapham" which was of some interest but not enough to make me want to continue exploring his oeuvre. Surely we're not so far removed from Christmas that Pickwick is out of season. And especially not in Ann Arbor. (And I do get to go to Minneapolis the following week!)

Not to lecture (much) but I'm sure we can both name a good number of people who couldn't find time to rest a cold but had time made for them when it became pneumonia. Harrumph. One of my colleagues had this experience last year and has had permanent heart damage from it, at 42. So no more excuses. Think of all you could read! And eat little pastries with fine teas (screw the lemon and onion at this point). I recommend Lychee Congou imported by Simpson & Vail. Lovely without milk as well as with, and the perfect companion for Chinese you can have delivered and eat in front of the TV while wrapped in blankets on the sofa. Rent a cat if you don't have one and you'll be all set.

BTW - Last Sunday's NY Times Travel section ran this article on Kyoto and its connection with The Tale of Genji:

http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/01/04/tra...

Best -
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 12:54 am (EST) on Jan 7, 2009

And Aickman is packed and ready to go tomorrow as well.

I have no reading goals for 2009 beyond the 50-Book Challenge, although I wouldn't mind finishing up all of AT's novels (I've now chalked off 35 of the 47) but probably won't make more than a large dent in the balance. With that December score at the Brattle, I need to locate only The Fixed Period, Is He Popenjoy? and The Golden Lion of Granpere.

(BTW -Thanks for the Pratchett item - I'll look at it presently.)

Yes, Genji is quite a challenge. I owned an Everyman's Library copy for ages but could never penetrate more than about 30 pages, so gave it up and sold it. A friend who studied Japanese for years assured me that my reaction was not unfounded. But don't let that put you off ;-) I also have never been able to get into the great Russian novels. Put me to sleep every time. And yet they are among the Immortals.

Monica Dickens was a great-granddaughter and a prolific writer with a wonderful sense of humor, which I grant you ran in the family. I do have a copy of Pickwick - maybe I'll take it with me next week when I'm off to Ann Arbor. (Bet you wish it were you, huh? Well, I'll dig out the long johns.) I've tried it a couple of times but it didn't grab me. I remember that I owned Irving's Tales of the Alhambra for about 15 years before I read it, and then loved it. ("Unputdownable!" in review vernacular.)

And speaking of taking a shot - yes, my dear sir, I would have been done with the Cornish but took time out to read The Ghost Map as well as various sections of the Wall St. Journal and the NY Times which needed to head for the recycling bin. Given the price of the hard-copy subscriptions, I hate to toss them without at least a quick scan. As I think I said to you, but it may have been to digifish, the first book of the Cornish was entertaining, the second less so, and the third (Lyre of Orpheus) rather a slog but a recent chapter brightened up considerably with a dinner party at which all present behaved abominably. I will continue in the hopes that other such scenes are forthcoming.

I take it the cold has receded? Did you threaten it with the lemon and onion?

Happy 2009 -
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 10:57 pm (EST) on Jan 4, 2009

Just popping in for a sec while in the midst of year-end filing hell -

If you want lots of happily-ever-after without too much angst preceding, try AT's The Belton Estate or Rachel Ray. Both available online at http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/t/trollope....

Because I have absolutely NO CONTROL - while out looking for lunch today, bought a Folio Society edition of John Aubrey's Brief Lives. It was mentioned sporadically in the first book of Davies' Cornish Trilogy, The Rebel Angels. Cracking good fun, that (the Davies, not the Aubrey). But I expect no less from the Aubrey. Now, I actually enjoyed the Salterton Trilogy muchly. It's this Cornish one that's bogged down in book 2. I've abandoned it temporarily to read AT's Sir Harry Hotspur of Humblethwaite, which my Trollope pal digifish just finished last week and called "quite intense and tragic." One of the shorter novels, its pacing and uni-plot approach remind me of Dr. Wortle's School. Unfortunately it's not available on the U of Adelaide site, but then, doesn't sound as though you'd be in the mood for it. Although about 1/3 into it, I haven't encountered any of the tragedy yet. Just straightforward Victorian marriage-market manoeuverings.

I must confess now that I made it only halfway through the Inferno - in translation, to boot. My Eye-talian progenitors are rolling.

More later -

posted by stringcat3 at 7:17 pm (EST) on Dec 29, 2008

Yikes - another cold? Or is it part two of the previous? Takes a long time to really shake one. Sorry to hear of such Yuletide affliction. Probably brought on by tromping around out in the snow looking for a tree, a pursuit I gave up lo these many years ago ("This one? What about this one? What's wrong with this one? Well, what about THIS one? Why can't you make up your mind - I'm freezing! It's getting dark -let's just go get that first one we liked - 1/2 mile back!"). Don't even both with a real one at all, as the task of getting it straight in the stand would eventually have led to a courtroom for either divorce or homicide.

Arizona was ... interesting. My husband's relatives simply can't cook. They even messed up the infamous green bean casserole (too much soup!). Na ja - I got in touch with my inner bitch yesterday and insisted that we take his aunt to a decent place for a good Boxing Day lunch - none of those cheapo chains she's always dragging us to (Macaroni Grill for Xmas Eve!). But they're terribly nice people who love my husband dearly and make much of him on his birthday -yes, he was an Xmas baby.

Glad your son made it in - we waited in San Jose nearly 4 hours for our plane which was delayed on the ground there in Portland. They really got walloped and of course don't have the equipment to deal with such storms.

On to literary yak: The Claverings was, as I recall, my first Trollope and got me hooked. I haven't written a review but in a Trollope forum thread - Neither Barset nor Palliser- called it "one of the most cynical and riveting novels of 19th century mores I've ever read" and later commented "There's a certain cold-eyed brutality in that society's dealings with 'transgressing' women which AT captures extremely well. He doesn't indulge any mawkish inclinations the way he did at the end of TWWLN."

You tease me with this "literary project." As Stephen Maturin, Captain Jack Aubrey's pal, would say, "I am with child to know." An expression quite disconcerting to 21st-century eyes.

Three French hens to you and yours -
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 2:32 pm (EST) on Dec 27, 2008

Me again -

Remember you said something about wanting to know which Trollope novels to read? I just stumbled across this POV (which I don't necessarily endorse) and thought it might be of interest.

http://www.ourcivilisation.com/smartboar...

Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 3:54 pm (EST) on Dec 21, 2008

HA! Not only do I make everyone fat, I make them buy books. But as our hometown boy, John Steinbeck, remarked, "I guess there are never enough books." The National Steinbeck Center sells a T-shirt printed with that quote. Of course, they also sell one with Doc Ricketts' quote, "There's nothing like that first taste of beer."

Now I must confess to have misinformed you about a wikipedia entry on Aickman. Seems it's on the English version (en.wikipedia.org). And second part of the confession: I'm not hooked on his stories. They go on too long, for too little payoff. Call me a literary Philistine, but I like the traditional short story "twist" ending. Gimme Saki every time. So I'm going to pack him up nicely and send him back, surmising that I have perhaps redeemed myself with the Dumas. I've got The Queen's Necklace in to-be-read status, along with about 20 other items, so I'll say 'no thanks' to the Waldrop. Besides my recent Trollope haul, my neighbor sent over a pile of books (we sometimes exchange) including a surprisingly engrossing, 700-page novel about Mary Lincoln. And I had just started Robertson Davies' Cornish trilogy (runs about a thousand pages). None of this bodes well for fresh air and exercise.

Speaking of marrow spoons (the lack of which we were lamenting last week in Phoenix) and of wikipedia, the latter has some interesting articles on tableware and particularly specialty spoons (found I was woefully uninformed on absinthe spoons).

Break a leg with the Mass - are you a vocalist or an instrumentalist? The Dona Nobis Pacem always makes me teary. Yo-Yo Ma's lovely holiday release for Starbucks (see, I told you I was a Philistine) is "Songs of Joy & Peace" which features a number of versions of DNP, including a contrapuntal track with Auld Lang Syne on trumpet. Exquisite.

Dona nobis pacem, indeed -
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 3:39 pm (EST) on Dec 21, 2008

Of course it's vile. That's why I've never drunk any of it.

I've been incommunicado since my laptop picked up a worm on Saturday. I delivered it this morning to the ever-patient IT people who assured me that I'm not the only one affected and are now scrubbing the techno-beastie, but I was off e-mail for the interim.

The Brattle purchases arrived today. What a delightful thing it is to sit in one's library (okay, it's the converted dining room) by the light of a Christmas tree, sipping wine while unpacking a box of books and cataloguing them. Had I had perhaps something in the chocolate family it would have been perfect.

Should you call the Brattle for the Dumas books, they're outside on one of the $5 carts.

I beg to point out that I was NOT in the area affected by the ice storm (it didn't get much east of Worcester) so you must lay blame in other quarters. I was off to Phoenix on Sunday, where far from basking in December sun I encountered more cold, rainy weather. So what - a good excuse for ordering osso buco.

You realize, I hope, that you've thrown down the gauntlet re: Terry Pratchett and Waldrop. Unfettered weirdness doesn't much appeal to me, though, e.g., I'm not a big Burroughs fan. Much of Pratchett's appeal is his humor - it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing - and his inventiveness springs from a satirical vein. To put it another way, weirdness for weirdness' sake leaves me cold: I hate French cinema.

The Aickman arrived while I was gone. Will probably get at it this weekend.

Fa la la la la -
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 11:36 pm (EST) on Dec 17, 2008

Flu/cold remedy my husband swears by: half a raw onion sliced into very hot water with the juice of about a quarter lemon. Yes, you drink it - it sounds like the start of a soup recipe.

Mainly Trollope, all in Folio Society editions which the Brattle sells for $15 each (and I was going to drop $25 in Ann Arbor next month on La Vendee!). They've shipped them for me: An Eye for an Eye, Miss Mackenzie (which I have with me for the plane to Phoenix tomorrow), An Old Man's Love, John Caldigate, The Bertrams, La Vendee, The Landleaguers, The Struggles of Brown, Jones & Robinson, and Marion Fay. And then the pleasant young lady, smelling blood, showed me the Folio editions in the shop window and I ended up with Richard Burton's account of his Near Eastern travels. I'm back to the Brattle tomorrow before I leave to peruse the outdoor stalls. They were shuttered on Wednesday and Thursday due to the nasty, cold rain. Should I buy the 8 volumes of Dumas' novels for $5 each? Or the 19 volumes of Bret Harte (one missing)? No, of course not, but the sickness is such that I actually considered it as I darted into the shop this afternoon for a cheap paperback of Barchester Towers. My sister, a Dickens fan, has never heard of Trollope, so I'll start her out with BT. And because I have NO control, I snagged a Folio Society of Dickens' My Early Life for her for Christmas. A presentation copy still with the wrapper - never read. It's a good thing I don't live here. I'd be 250 pounds and broke.

posted by stringcat3 at 7:27 pm (EST) on Dec 13, 2008

Hey - there's no Wikipedia article on Aickman! Maybe you should post one

Lauren, in rainy cold Boston, who spent $173 at the Brattle Book Shop yesterday mainly on Trollope

posted by stringcat3 at 1:20 am (EST) on Dec 12, 2008

You're forgetting the time difference. I posted at 1 am. I'm a late-night person by nature, which means adjusting to corporate America's "up and at'em" tendencies is painful. My husband, on the other hand, is closer to your schedule. He rarely makes it past 10 pm and is up at 5.

Haven't been to Philly in about 30 years and it's not slated for a visit anytime soon. I wonder why, now that I think of it, that I've never done focus groups there. Just did some in Baltimore last summer - not exactly the crossroads of Western civilization. This round is Boston, Columbus OH and Phoenix. Annoying mix of wardrobe required. Always get to Brattle Bookshop and sometimes the Commonwealth, as they're right downtown off Boston Common and between the hotel and the research facility. No time for Cambridge stores this round. Hoping to get to the Back Bay Book Annex.
Cheers -
Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 11:37 pm (EST) on Dec 7, 2008

Barchester Chronicles en route to you via media mail. Check that you have a decent sherry and some biscuits on hand.

Guilt is for wimps. If you can't get into O'Brian, give it up. I've tried Anthony Powell several times and still don't see what the fuss is about. And Russian literature is tedious beyond endurance, yet there are those who thrive on a steady diet of it.

Cheers -

Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 3:56 am (EST) on Dec 7, 2008

For an open heart and an open hand, one should never apologize. I'll see how I take to Aickman (probably won't get here before I leave - Salinas isn't quite the beaten path). I'll also see what turns up in Boston used bookstores next week. It's business travel for eight days but I excel at squeezing in a bookstore blitz - hit 3 in 90 minutes in Ann Arbor last month with my boss and another manager in tow.

Didn't mean to dampen you on Pratchett - I just happened to have had that recent e-mail. Have never heard of Fermor (just looked him up) but do occasionally read narrative travel. As for Aubrey-Maturin, there's actually a LT Patrick O'Brian forum (HMS Surprise) with a thread "Does Aubrey & Maturin affect the way you speak?" O'Brian created a unique voice for that series, and it seeps into your pores. I try to convert people - just bought a nice used copy of Master and Commander for the VP at our design firm. He went to some naval school in southern Illinois (I'm not making this up) and served one summer on a square-rigged training vessel. Me, I'm an armchair sailor. I don't get seasick but I don't like the discomfort.

Will get the BT series in the mail before I leave, and maybe as soon as Friday. We're packing Xmas gifts to be shipped, as my husband is a maniac for early shipping and waiting until I'm back is cutting it too close. Not that he shops or wraps anything, of course, just hauls the boxes to the post office. Take your time with it, please. It has its charms.

regards -

Lauren

posted by stringcat3 at 2:23 am (EST) on Dec 4, 2008

BTW - I forgot to say that I do think your mother should try some Terry Pratchett. Maybe "Equal Rites" to start? Definitely stick to the witches' novel thread. I'm reading his new YA "Nation." Good, of course, but not particularly funny. Somewhat disappointing on that account. I thought it would be more along the lines of his Tiffany Aching books or the Amazing Maurice.

Lauren
aka stringcat3

posted by stringcat3 at 12:06 am (EST) on Nov 29, 2008

Aickman sounds just the thing - I read some reviews on amazon. Unfortunately, both volumes of his collected stories are out of print and I don't see any copies on either half.com or abebooks. Plenty of copies of the short collections - any recos on where to start?

What I meant by my not encountering anything remotely creepy was in reference to putatively haunted locations (inns, houses, etc.). Certainly there are some very weird writers out there. I had a brief fling with Lovecraft a year ago but he gets too ridiculous. Arthur Machen can be extremely unsettling but also goes off the deep end occasionally (although loved his "The Three Impostors"). I have no patience with Henry James.

Thanks much for your kind words on my writing, although "surly and annoying" are adjectives that also could apply to me ;-). The best advice I ever had was "never write a sentence that you would never actually speak to someone." Does help cut through the murk. I resolve in the New Year to review more. Being naturally critical and nothing loathe about sharing my thoughts, I don't know why I haven't been more disciplined about reviewing.

stringcat3

posted by stringcat3 at 7:10 pm (EST) on Nov 28, 2008

What a gracious response!

I've read all of M.R. James and much of Le Fanu (of course many of his tales are weird, not ghostly). I just saw a recommendation pop up for Robertson Davies' "High Spirits" which is a collection of ghost stories that he composed for Christmases over 18 years - need to get a copy. See the librarything reviews for more info.

Yes, Christmas does turn thoughts to visitors from beyond the thin veil. I'd love to learn of your favorite collections. There's one in my library called "Women of the Weird" that I think is particularly fine. As much as I love ghost stories, I've yet to encounter anything even remotely creepy. And then there's my mother, a woman so down to earth she rarely reads fiction, who's continually walking into cold spots, seeing people who are long gone - you know the drill. I told her it's the Irish in her. "Well, I don't like it - I don't even believe in ghosts." "Well, Ma, they obviously believe in you."

I was amused to see that the distinction lives on between Sicilian and Italian. My paternal grandmother, whose parents were from Salerno, always pointed out to people which sister had married a Sicilian.

Hoping you're not being too buffeted by the storms on Wall Street -

stringcat3

posted by stringcat3 at 7:36 pm (EST) on Nov 21, 2008

I'm embarrassed to say that I haven't been checking messages for QUITE some time, and I don't think I ever responded to your request for lighter Trollope. If I have already, then I'm having a senior moment. If not, mea culpa.

I believe most AT fans would say his most humorous novel is Barchester Towers. Mrs. Proudie drives most everyone to extraction, scenes with Madame Neroni are always a scream, the Archdeacon is hilarious in his perpetual pugnacity, the icky Mr. Slope will make your skin crawl (Alan Rickman played him to perfection in the miniseries). If you don't like BT, you probably won't like anything else he's written.

I found The Kellys and the O'Kellys amusing mainly for the scenes with Mrs. O'Kelly giving as good as she gets. AT had a terrific ear for Irish repartee.

By coincidence, I've been reading He Knew He Was Right this week - I'm just about 100 pages from the end. I'd seen the TV adaptation and was rather put off by its gloominess, but the novel is rightly judged to be one of AT's best. Miss Stanbury of course is the comic relief, and she is truly memorable, not the least for the occasion when she goes up one side of Mr. Gibson and down the other for his lackluster wooing of Dorothy. And then Mr. Gibson is whiplashed by the righteous indignation of Camilla French.

I hope I've been of some (belated) help. AT was not a satirist, so he'll never approach our best beloved Terry P. If you find yourself slogging along, try Robertson Davies' Salterton Trilogy. I especially enjoyed the middle novel, Leaven of Malice.

Do let me know how you fare.

Again, sorry for the delay.

posted by stringcat3 at 2:20 am (EST) on Nov 16, 2008

HI - you added my library to your interesting libraries list. Just curious about how you stumbled across me (so to speak!) and what makes my collection interesting to you.

stringcat3

posted by stringcat3 at 11:20 pm (EST) on Jul 28, 2008

I read your review of Nabokov's 'Ada' and agree entirely! Was very disappointed with such a piece produced by someone of Nabokov's stature and gifts.

posted by Carolyn1983 at 8:07 pm (EST) on Mar 4, 2008

Thanks for adding my library to your interesting libaries. I also enjoy following the recommendations of Michael Dirda in his books and also in his live discussion every wednesday at Bookworld (especially the more obscure/unusual and older books he talks about).

posted by hlskye at 4:09 pm (EST) on Feb 14, 2008

Thanks for adding my library to your interesting libaries. I also enjoy following the recommendations of Michael Dirda in his books and also in his live discussion every wednesday at Bookworld (especially the more obscure/unusual and older books he talks about).

posted by hlskye at 4:08 pm (EST) on Feb 14, 2008

You are right on about Dirda and I have some reservations with regard to McCarthy. I enjoyed All the Pretty Horses, but found Blood Meridien to be unreadable, and have not attempted any of his more recent novels. Thanks for your recommendations, I have read and enjoyed Eco's Name of the Rose while I thoroughly studied Gilgamesh, including Ferry's translation. The Lunar Men I will move up on my list as I have wanted to read that for some time. I enjoyed rereading Silas Lapham last year so I will add Indian Summer to my list as I admire Howells. I did not intend the message to be private, so I'm not sure why it was.
Good reading!

posted by jwhenderson at 3:01 pm (EST) on Feb 9, 2008

Thanks from me, also, for adding my library to your interesting libraries list. I've had a mooch through yours now, and I suspect that (like me) you haven't catalogued your whole collection yet. I really must get round to that. (I keep saying that).

I found a couple more we have in common, and I've added those. Anyone who has read both "A Time of Gifts" and "Between the Woods and the Water" is a friend of mine. Not "Mani" or "Roumeli"? Also worth reading, although they don't have the epic quality of the great walk.

posted by desultory at 3:58 am (EST) on Feb 9, 2008

Thanks for adding my library to your interesting libraries list. I see we share an interest in the writings of Michael Dirda among others. I find his reviews both a source of pleasure and ideas for further reading. We also share some of my favorites including Embers, Memoirs of Hadrian, Kim and The Leopard - all great reads. Are there any we do not share that you would recommend?

posted by jwhenderson at 3:02 pm (EST) on Feb 6, 2008