My place-holder. Rather than pee on the spot like Fourpawz2, I'll just leave my jacket on the back of the chair. :-)

I don't have any specific goals to work towards. I'm participating in the 999 Challenge and I think that is enough of an objective goal for me for one year. I plan just to list each book that I finish in 2009, maybe with a few comments, and see how many I can get done. My informal goal is 150 books, but this is the last time I plan to think about that. I also don't have any genre or category goals, except as related to the 999 challenge. My categories there include historical, nonfiction, global, and the Civil War. But you will also be treated to a list of all the trashy romances and shoot-'em-up thrillers that I refuse to give up just because I'm trying to read "better" these days!

Please feel free to make suggestions and comments. There's always room for another good book on the wish list.

>1 SJM: You can't beat a good trashy romance and shoot-em-up thriller, preferably in the same book!

- TT

#2 "Oh, John! You have such a big .... gun!"

>3 SJM: Brilliantly encapsulated!

Message edited by its author, Dec 6, 2008, 11:41am.

I can tell that this is going to be a good thread to follow.

Well, that remains to be seen, Joyce, but I'm looking forward to it. I've never done this challenge before and I find that I'm getting excited.

I've got about 20 books stacked up, ready to go as soon as I get to them. Minus the 2 or 3 that I may still finish in December, this will be a good beginning to the new year. They are all over the place - mysteries, romances, nonfiction, classics, plus lots of general fiction.

Trashy romances and shoot-em-up thrillers are two of my favorites!

Same here for police procedurals--I swear they occupy more than a quarter of my library.

Message edited by its author, Dec 28, 2008, 4:25am.

Well, it sounds like we'll have plenty to talk about, then. Even though I've been pretty successful at getting away from a steady diet of romance, thrillers, and police procedurals, I don't have any desire to eliminate such popular "trash" altogether. I may be a snob about some things, but not books!

I try so hard to throw in some classics and thought provoking works but fluff calls my name.

I'm beginning to think this may not have been such a good idea. I just spent more than 30 minutes reading only starred threads, and added 3 titles to my wish list that people have already finished this year. I still haven't read a single word in any of my books. I may have to impose limits on how much time I spend on LT, so that I still have time to read!

I finished up 2008 with a count of 120 books from March 1 through December 31. Twelve books per month, which averages out to 144 books per year. It will be a challenge to make 150 books this year. Especially since I wanted to try to do more classics and nonfiction. We'll just see how that goes - right, cal8769? (ref #10)

I've got 4 books in progress that I'm carrying over from 2008 and will count in 2009 when they are finished. Likewise, the books I start next December but don't finish will go in 2010 totals.

The 4 that I've already started are:
The Amber Room by Steve Berry
The Whiskey Rebels by David Liss
The Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston
A Secret and Unlawful Killing by Cora Harrison

But the book I'm planning to read today is Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum. This will be the kick-off book for my 999 challenge, and will count for my Kansas category.

I'm very excited about reading this year - good luck to everyone in meeting their goals and having fun doing it.

CJ-I think I'm making a NY's resolution to look at LT threads only once a week - for one hour only. Like you, I spend far too much time talking about reading instead of doing it, and I certainly don't need any more recommendations. I had to put a password lock (to slow me down)on my 'look for' spreadsheet because like you, I've already added 6 books. Enjoy OZ.

Hi Sandy...I'm impressed with your reading 120 books last year. I topped out at 76, thus qualifying me for this group. My plan is to check my starred threads once a day and spend the rest of my "free" time reading. I'm sure these Christmas decorations will just take care of themselves. Any ideas for the next Missouri Group read?

#13 - Hi, Donna. I was glad to see you here. This is my first time in this challenge, but it looks like they aren't fussy about numbers, so you would have been welcomed here even if you'd only done 74 books! When the Christmas decoration fairy comes to my house tomorrow to clean up, I'll be sure to remind him (her?) to visit you next.

I talked to one of the librarians about possible Missouri books just as we were settling on Sharp Objects. I saw her again a couple of weeks later and she said she'd been to a reader's advisory meeting and met someone from Kansas City public library (I use the suburban library, based in Independence) who gave her a whole list of possibilities for us. However, she was just getting off work and said she'd give it to me the next time I saw her - which hasn't happened yet. Problem is, I don't know her name to ask for her - the name tags they wear only say "Staff". I was so hoping to be able to make some good suggestions next time - you've made so many that I'm feeling inadequate! I'm just the smallest bit hesitant to take up another Missouri book, after the observation you made about the way we seem to be portrayed in the books we've read so far! I did notice that Gillian Flynn has another book coming out in May - to be based in Kansas City, but not a sequel to Sharp Objects. I guess that could be a possibility for us for later in the year.

#12 Tutu - I'm actually hoping that the pace here may level off in a couple of weeks as everyone settles back into real life after the excitement of the holidays and a new year, then I won't have to be so strict with myself. I'm definitely not good at that!

I did get started on Wizard of Oz yesterday, but (disappointly) only got about 1/3 through it. I kept dozing off in the chair. When my husband suggested going to the mall for a while, I thought that would wake me up so I could finish the book in the evening, but we ended up watching DVD's all evening and doing laundry (do we know how to live, or what?). I'm hoping to be able to finish it after work this evening - so far I'm enjoying it. I keep seeing scenes from the movie and hearing the songs in my head as I read. I know it won't be just like the movie, but there haven't been too many differences yet. The thing I've noticed most is that it really is a children's book. The sentences are short and there are lots of repeated phrases whenever they meet someone new. I can't believe I've never taken the time to read this book before now.

The Wizard of Oz seems like a lovely book to begin a new year of reading. I've never read it and will look forward to hearing your final comments.

>14 About our Missouri Reads, I guess that now that I live in The Ozarks, I have become immune to hillbilly jokes and gibes. I am quick to remind new friends of my Michigander roots. I hope your librarian can point us toward some more upbeat Missouri books. I suppose we should be posting this conversation on our Missouri thread...sorry I got us offtrack.

Don't apologize for the off-topic discussion. This is my thread and I guess we can talk about whatever we want to! I don't think it is the hillbilly gibes that I've really objected to - rather the overall impression of this being a dismal, cheerless place - when it really isn't (at least not any more than anyplace else.) I wonder if that is what people really think of us? As soon as I get that list from the librarian, I'll post on the Missouri thread. I suppose everyone will be ready to consider a new book by now, don't you think?

I'm beginning to think this may not have been such a good idea. I just spent more than 30 minutes reading only starred threads, and added 3 titles to my wish list that people have already finished this year. I still haven't read a single word in any of my books.

I was thinking the same thing! I don't know how I'll ever get any books read this year. And I can't even come close to keeping up with the threads in this one group. I need some more hours in my day!

It will settle down once everyone gets past the "Hi, I starred your thread" phase.

I'm looking forward to your comments on Wizard of Oz--I've never read it so only know the movie. Usually the book is better! I think your "reading nationally" category is a great idea!

#17: My partner comes from Missouri, outside of Springfield. Over 10 years ago, we visited the Ozarks twice, once on a rural sight-seeing trip guided by her brother-in-law, who knew the back country there quite well, and another time to Eureka Springs, Arkansas. I thought the country was beautiful in its own way. John did show us patches of rural poverty in the Ozarks, but nothing I hadn't seen before--rural poverty is rural poverty, it is grim and usually hidden. Eureka Springs is just another tourist town, making its money primarily off The Glass Church where, I gathered, half the southeast comes to be married.

Because of Mary, I got to see quite a bit of southwestern Missouri along with those two excursions into the Ozarks, which really aren't that far from Halltown.

Where exactly do you live, SJ?

2009 Book #1 (finally!)

Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum

I chose this one for the Kansas category in my 999 challenge. A wonderful children's book about a young girl, carried away from her Kansas home in a tornado to the Land of Oz. There, she meets a variety of characters and has many adventures, but always wants nothing more than to return home to Kansas.

Growing up in Kansas, this movie was shown on TV every spring - just at the beginning of tornado season! I was an adult before I realized that Kansas was so bland and Oz so colorful - we only had black & white TV and they looked the same to me. I always knew the movie was based on a book, but this is the first time I've actually read it. I can't believe I waited so long - it was much better than I expected. I gave it a (very rare for me) 5-star rating.

Looks like your reading year is off to a great start! Congratulations!

Sandy, how did the movie and the book compare? I reread Wicked last year, and the differences with the movie Oz, are, of course striking, but I have wondered how much is due to Maquire's expansion of the story and how much is due to deviation from the original Oz story?

Wizard of Oz would be a wonderful book to read with my granddaughters. I'll be looking for a nice copy that I can keep at my house and read with them when they visit.

Do you have your other Kansas books chosen already? Not sure how the 999 Challenge works. I have a book by one of my favorite Missouri authors on my shelf that I will get to sometime called PrairyErth by William Least Heat-Moon. It's a "chunkster" of over 600 pages.

Oops, forgot to say that it is a nonfiction epic of Chase County, KS.

Donna - I don't have my books already chosen, but I do have a list of "possibilities". I think there are more than 20 books on the list! PrairyErth is one of them, but I didn't realize it was so long. In Cold Blood is another, and one that I definitely want to read. In the 999 challenge you choose 9 categories and read 9 books in each category in 2009. The "bonus" challange suggested by the group starter is to finish by 9/9/09 - but that may be pushing it! The "rules" say you may have 9 overlaps - books that count in 2 different categories - but I know there are a few people who are allowing themselves unlimited overlaps. I think it would be just as challenging to see how many overlaps you can devise, completing the challenge with the minimum number of books. As it is, by completing the challenge, you would read 81 books, or 72 with overlaps.

Wizard of Oz would be a great book to read with the grandkids. My kids and I went through a phase were we read several children's classics aloud, but somehow we missed this one. The volume I have is the Kansas Centennial Edition, published by the University Press of Kansas in 2001. It is a mid-sized square book with black and white wood-cut style illustrations. It is very nice, but you might prefer a more colorful version - I'm sure there are several available.

Here is the link to my 999 thread, and if you're interested check out some of the others - the range of categories people have chosen is staggering.
http://www.librarything.com/topic/47438#...

Message edited by its author, Jan 5, 2009, 10:40am.

Thanks for that explanation of the 999 Challenge. It sounds like fun. Maybe I'll get more organized in my reading next year. Lately I've been alternating recommendations from our well-read LT friends and what I call my "close eyes and point" method from my leaning stacks of TBR books...and these don't even include the TBRs that are on the shelves. They don't have a chance!

It's not too late to start the challenge for this year - lots of people have categories like "books from the tbr stack" or books bought before some date (one I saw had a couple of tbr categories - one for books acquired in 2006, 2007, 2008, etc). "LT recommendations" is another category I've seen a few times. Hope you'll consider joining this year.

#24 Joyce, the book and movie are surprisingly similar. The book has several scenes that didn't make it into the movie, but off hand I can't think of anything in the movie that wasn't in the book at all. Of course, details were changed (the ruby slippers were actually silver) and a few things may have been presented in a different order. Actually, now that I think a bit, the biggest difference was the beginning of the movie with the scenes that took place in Kansas before the storm. The book begins with the storm coming and "get into the cellar right now". Chapter 2 is in Munchkin Land.

I think one of the reasons I resisted reading the book for so many years was because I was afraid it would spoil the movie for me. It didn't. I loved the book, and will love the movie even more for having read the book.

Book #2

A Secret and Unlawful Killing: A Mystery of Medieval Ireland by Cora Harrison

Some might call this fluff, since it is not "serious literature", but it also does not have any explicit sex or nudity nor any gratuitous violence or blood, so I'm not sure that it is. It does have foreign words at the beginning of each chapter, translated into English for non-Gaelic speakers, lots of talk about honor, a judge, and several mentions of King Henry VIII, so I think it must be the next thing to serious reading! There are 3 different dead people, and the judge, a woman by the name of Mara, must determine who is guilty of causing the deaths. This is actually the second book in the series about Mara, a brehon (judge) in a kingdom in western Ireland in the very early 1500's. She is not only judge, but detective and jury as well. Not terribly weighty, but different than most other mysteries and entertaining, besides. Start with the first book, My Lady Judge. I gave it 3-1/2 stars.

"It does have foreign words at the beginning of each chapter, translated into English for non-Gaelic speakers, lots of talk about honor, a judge, and several mentions of King Henry VIII, so I think it must be the next thing to serious reading!"

For some reason, this sentence reminds of of 1066 and All That by Walter Sellar, one of the funnier books written.

Tad, I'm not entirely sure how to take that. Thanks ... I think.

ETA OK, I just went and checked out that book since I'd never heard of it. Now I'll be trying to get it checked out at the library.

E, again, TA ACK! My library doesn't have this book. Now I'm on a quest!

Message edited by its author, Jan 6, 2009, 6:39pm.

It's worth it. It's a very quick read and very funny.

>33 $5 ($1 + $4 shipping) here

Thanks, I'll check into it.

#31: Hm. Sounds very similar to the Peter Tremayne, Sister Fidelma series, except that Fidelma was 8th century, as I recall. It's also a terrible series--really poor writing. This one sounds better.

#37 I haven't heard of this series, but I'll take your word for it and not bother. I'll look, instead, for the book you just finished and mentioned over on your thread.

Book #3

Fault Line by Barry Eisler

This one really is a fluff read. I got this book from the Early Reviewer's program and will be posting my review shortly. In this book, 2 brothers who had a falling out following a series of family crises during their teenage years come back together, albeit reluctantly. Ben is a member of a military black ops organization, and Alex is a clean cut attorney. Sarah, an associate of Alex's, is just along for the ride and adds an interesting twist to the tension between the brothers. This book is best enjoyed if you just go along with it. Don't think too hard. Once you accept that the two men would actually seek each other out after so many years, the story begins to pick up. Luckily, the chips on their shoulders don't seem to weigh either man down as they run and hide and try to evade unknown bad guys with guns. While Alex and Sarah try to figure out what the bad guys want - something evidently hidden in their recently-deceased client's patent application for a new encryption software, Ben is working to discover who would want such a thing and why. He's thinking it's the Iranians, but it could be the Russians or the Chinese. Entertaining enough if you aren't expecting more than there is. I think I'm going to give it 2-1/2 or 3 stars.

Great review Sandy...looks like a read I'll pass on. I really appreciate when readers tell it truly and not try to dress up something that isn't to their liking. There are enough really outstanding books calling to us that we need help sorting out which to choose. Happy Reading. Tina (edited to make sense.)

Message edited by its author, Jan 9, 2009, 6:26pm.

Tina, I agree. There are too many good books out there to be tricked into spending time on bad ones. I didn't hate this book, and might pick another by this author if I stumble onto one, but I doubt I'll be seeking him out. It really is perfect if you're wanting a mindless escape from reality. The notes indicate that the author is retired CIA, so maybe it's more plausible than it seems!

I totally agree with your assessment of this book.

Thanks, Joyce. I noticed that you also read this book and didn't think too highly of it.

Please excuse my ignorance of C American geography, I just read about the earthquake in Costa Rica yesterday - hope you aren't experiencing any repercussions from it, I don't know exactly how far that is from you.

Actually, most of our earthquakes--and they're frequent--originate in Costa Rica just over the border or else right on the border. We live about 2 hours by car from the border, in western Panamá, so we usually feel it. The epicenter must have been much further west. I haven't read anything about it because, thanks to my limited online access, I haven't been following the news lately. I'll have to check it out.

I love it--getting news about MY area from the US! Shows you just how isolated we are here.

The article I read said that it was the strongest quake there in 150 years, and that it was located in northern CR, 19 miles NNW of San Jose. I guess that sounds like the "away" side of the country from you. Do these things ever have any other impact on you, besides shaking the ground? Like increased traffic or reduced availability of goods or services?

Anyway, glad to hear that you are, evidently, safe and sound.

San Jose is more or less in the middle of Costa Rica (as I recall) and too far away from me to have any real impact.

The quakes at the border or usually between 5 & 6 on the Richter scale, and while we do feel them, they usually cause very little damage. The last one originated a little out at sea but on the Panamanian side, and was, I think, 5.6. It also lasted much longer than usual. I was in bed, asleep, and thought that Fred had jumped out of the bed rather abruptly. turned out the house was shaking. My experience was that of sound--a "whump, whump, whump"--while Mary heard the dishes rattling. She thought it was glorious--i thought she was crazy.

There was no damage to our house. If done correctly, traditional Panamanian construction (which we have) stands up remarkably well to earthquakes, and we had a good builder whose specialty is foundations and walls.

However, I've been building (not very well) dry wall fences of rock, and some of my less stable sections did fall over. No big deal except that it provided gorgeous exit points for Fred, who doesn't need much of an excuse to go AWOL.

I have yet to hear fo any disruption due to earthquakes. What surprise me is that there was no mention that I could tell of the disastrous floods we had here in the province--and in the tourist-oriented, gringo-infested town in the next valley. the destruction was tremendous. Terrible in another province. The ex-pat community really pitched in with material help, because there were hundreds of homeless people, many indigenous Ngobe Bugle, just in our area. Bocas Del Toro was much much worse, cut off from every source of aid except by helicopter (nearly nonexistent here) and by sea. The US sent in aid via the Army and Navy to Bocas.

Flooding is far and away our worse problem. We, where we are, have no problem because we have no rivers nearby You want to see, though, what can happen? go to my profile page, click on the YouTube link, and look at the video entitled The Rains of November. We had a record rainfall this year in several months, which wound up, in December, causing the tower that transmits our wireless Internet signal, to actually fall down--we were without Internet for 8 days.

Ye gods, I do carry on!

Glad to know you are safe where you are Joyce. I hope you continue that way.

Our worst danger is from traffic. Once off the Pan-American Highway, which runs through our major town of DAvid, the roads are two-lane. Panamanians are among the world's worst drivers. They aren't used to cars; the majority of Panamanians depends on buses, bicycles, and heir own two feet to get around. Taxis are common in the towns. It's only been 15 years, for example, that there's been a paved road from DAvid to where I live. Relative prosperity is new for the area, and people who never were in a car except for a taxi in their lives until 2-3 years ago are now driving, many without any sort of instruction, and at ridiculously high speeds. They have no concept of stopping distances, and tend to drive macho SUVs. As a result there's real carnage on the roads. Yesterday, for example, when were were going to David, me driving, a brainless young man on a brand-new motorcycle that, it was clear, he really didn't know how to handle, pulled out directly in front of me, and it was only by a severe swerve that I avoided hitting him and probably killing him. Every time we're out on that main road, we have at least one near-miss and usually from someone else who is pulling out in front to pass (on a curve, many times) or passing and pulling in too soon or doing something else reckless over which we have no control. I wont go into the accidents we've seen.

Snakes? No real problem if you're careful in October and November,main fer-de-lance time. Earthquakes? Adds excitement to our lives (at least to Mary's). Flooding? We have drainage ditches that will divert the rivers of runoff to a creek that borders our property. But the drivers here will kill you and themselves in the process. It's very dangerous.

Message edited by its author, Jan 11, 2009, 5:19am.

OK, I'll stop complaining now about the crazy drivers here. Yours are worse, I think.

Book #4

Trunk Music by Michael Connelly - or Harry Bosch #5. The people over in the mystery readers group were absolutely right when they convinced me to try this series again. I started it several years ago and quit in the middle of the 2nd book. The LT folks insisted that it gets better as it goes. It does. So far, I've liked each book better than the one before it. I gave it 3-1/2 stars because even though I thoroughly enjoyed it, it really doesn't have much substance and a year from now I won't remember which plot this book had.

PS, For those who read it a year ago and have forgotten, this is the one where Harry follows the clues of a mob-style murder to Las Vegas and meets up again with Eleanor Wish, newly released from prison.

#49 sjm: I will agree with the mystery readers group - the Harry Bosch series does get better as it goes along. I really enjoy it.

How many have you gotten through? I like to take a series in order, and I was a little overwhelmed to realize that I'm not half finished with this one yet. I need to let a month or so pass between books, so I won't be finishing Harry Bosch anytime soon. I hope they continue to hold up - so many series begin to decline after a while.

I've read up through Angel's Flight, and am beginning to be bored with the series. Another LTer who thinks very highly of the series, told me that Connelly gets very formulistic in the middle but then picks up again later on. I think I've hit the middle. IMHO, I thought The Concrete Blonde his best book.

Well, after checking, I've read one further, A Darkness More Than Night which left me cold.

Message edited by its author, Jan 12, 2009, 12:28pm.

You're only a couple ahead of me, and it looks like Darkness More than Night is the mid-point, so that sounds consistent with what you've heard. If I know they will improve later, I'm content to slog through a couple of slow ones. I also liked Concrete Blonde very much. I hope I'm not getting them confused, but isn't that the one where we learn about Harry's mother?

#53: Yes, if I recall correctly. All in all, a terrific book, I thought.

Book #5

The Amber Room by Steve Berry

Not one of his Cotton Malone books, but similar in all other ways. An Atlanta judge travels to Germany to investigate the mystery of the amber room, stolen from Russia by the Nazi's and missing since WWII. Her actions are prompted by the sudden death of her father, a WWII veteran of the Soviet army and amber room enthusiast. Bound together with his will, she finds several years worth of correspondence with an old colleague of his with whom he searched for the amber room and other lost treasures on behalf of the soviets after the war, along with a personal note addressed to her specifically advising that she not pursue the amber room. So, of course she must go.

As with Berry's other books that I've read so far, this one is entertaining and interesting for the bits of history he manages to weave into the narrative. But, as with the other books, I think they are a little too long. They all seem to drag a bit in the 3rd quarter. 3-1/2 stars.

Book #6

Tempting Evil by Allison Brennan

A romantic suspense - this one is a little involved. Jo is a romance author who returned to her childhood home in rural Montana following the murder of her husband and son by the abusive boyfriend of her sister, Trixie, who was staying with them at the time. The boyfriend was convicted and placed on death row in San Quentin where he told Aaron, the man in the next cell, all about Trixie and Jo. Aaron began reading Jo's books and came to be obsessed with her. Meanwhile, back in the Montana mountains, the county's new sherriff, Tyler, (still stinging from Jo's refusal to marry him 2 months earlier) is worried about the big winter storm moving in. Tyler moved to Montana with his young son following the death of his ex-wife in order to be near his half-brother (a school friend of Jo's). Jo is very fond of Tyler and only refused his proposal because she isn't quite over her husband yet. About now is when the earthquake hits California and damages the walls at San Quentin, allowing about a dozen death row inmates to escape.

This is all in chapter 1, and if you can't figure out the rest of the book, then you simply aren't paying attention. It was at this point that I asked myself why I am such a sucker for these books. Just like cookies in the cookie jar, I can't leave them alone. The plot is totally transparent, and is never done as well as it could be, and always results in a letdown when it's finished. Why can't I just cut up a nice apple instead of grabbing a handful of cookies? Well, this book is like oatmeal-raisin-nut-bran cookies - delicious AND nutritious. I've been reading Brennan's books from the beginning, and she has never quite clicked - until now. Yes, it ends exactly the way you expect it to, and it follows roughly the expected path to get there. But this time, she manages insert a few surprising - but believable - twists. The characters ring true and consistent throughout. Even the romance is realistic. At least, more so than these books usually are. All in all, a very satisfying read. I'm giving it 4 stars, just because it exceeded my expectations so much.

Sandy,
You make tempting Evil sound "tempting" I'm going to have to put that on the list as a possible replacement for a book in my Category 9 - books found on the Internet .
The Amber Room - I have another Steve Berry book (the Templar Legacy) on my 999, you make me wonder, am I going to enjoy it? Is he a good writer?

Message edited by its author, Jan 14, 2009, 1:22pm.

I've been reading the Harry Bosch series as well. I started Trunk Music a year or two ago and put it down because I just wasn't interested. When I started it again this year, I actually was mad I put it down the first time. The series does get better as you go along.

I remember reading a book several years ago about a search for a room made out of amber but hidden away to keep the Nazis from finding it. Is this the same book as The Amber Room? I remember not much more than that, but I do remember enjoying it. Not enough to want to read again, but I'm trying to recoup a list of books I have read in the past.

#57 - Cheli, Tempting Evil reads fast enough that you could slip it in between 2 of your slated books without putting you off schedule. I was very happy with it.

I read The Templar Legacy a few months ago in anticipation of The Charlemagne Pursuit which I received as an early reviewer book. They are the 1st and 4th books in the Cotton Malone series, and I liked them quite a bit. As I noted, though, Berry seems to consistently drag a bit in the middle, but it is a minor flaw. I am planning to go back and pick up the 2nd and 3rd books in the series later this year. My husband and 15-year old son also read and enjoyed Templar, and I was afraid that I wouldn't get it back in time to finish it myself before it had to go back to the library. I would recommend it.

BR - are you going to continue with Harry Bosch? Even after Joyce's comments in #52 above? For me, forewarned is forearmed and I'm planning to go ahead. I became willing to give Connelly another try after I read his Lincoln Lawyer last year and loved it. It was a new release that was not part of the Bosch series. His newest book - can't recall the title off hand - features both Bosch and Mickey Haller from LL, so I am going to wait until I get caught up on Bosch before I get it.

Tutu, I'm not sure if this is the same book you're thinking of. The amber room is such a great real-life mystery that I imagine there are quite a few books about it. In Berry's book, the Nazi's are the ones who stole and hid the treasure and no one else has seen it since. After the war, Soviets were making a huge effort to recover all their lost artifacts, which is how the judge's father was tied to the mystery in the novel. Don't know how much is true, but from the notes at the end, he did quite a bit of research and tried to keep things realistic. Maybe you could find this book at the library and browse it for a few minutes to recognize if it is the one you're remembering.

Enjoying your thread -- you brought smiles and chuckles to my moment :)

Suslyn - glad you stopped by. It's always nice to know I'm not in here talking to myself!

Book #7
The Whiskey Rebels by David Liss

Judging from the title, I was convinced that the climax of this book would be the government's armed response to put down the whiskey rebellion in 1794. (Comes from reading too many romances, I guess, where you can guess the ending as soon as the book begins.) I was expecting this plot development clear up to the end of the book when it didn't come. The excise tax on whiskey was the key event that led to the rest of the book, but in this story, the "whiskey boys" came east to take their revenge on the men who had taken advantage of them, then kicked them while they were down. Just to refresh your memory from history class: The veterans of the revolution were paid with IOU's since the various state governments didn't have ready cash. After the constitutional congress and Washington's election, Alexander Hamilton took over as secretary of the treasury and pushed for a national bank, and also the assumption of the states' war debt. Until that actually came about, the soldiers' notes were worthless and there were unscrupulous men who offered to trade the worthless notes for valuable land in the west. As it turned out, though, the land was worthless and the notes were very soon to be valuable. Once in the west, hard currency was scarce and whiskey was used for barter. The excise tax hit these people hard. This book follows the story of a group of them who decide to "get even". It twists together the fictional story with historical people and events and provides an interesting inside look at early finance and investing in America. I enjoyed it very much and would like to see this book assigned as supplemental reading to high school students studying American history. I'm giving it 4 stars.

I liked The Whiskey Rebels a lot too, when I read it last year. That whole period in American history seems so neglected - I hardly remember anything about it from school. I love how Liss manages to write interesting historical fiction about subjects that are basically financial. I don't usually think of finances as riveting fiction material, but he manages to do very well with it.

I guess a good writer can make any topic seem interesting.

The book sounds like areal winner, Sandy.

#31

Book 2

The Cora Harrison series about the Mara, the brehon, sounds similar to the Sister Fidelma series by Peter Tremayne. Have you read any of those? How would you compare them?

I haven't read it - have actually never heard of it, but Joycepa in pst #37 also said they sound similar. She went on to say that the Tremayne series wasn't very good.

Book #8

Hot by Julia Harper

A nice little comtemporary romance by an author I'd never heard of before. A small town librarian on the run following a bank robbery and the FBI agent pursuing her develop an unusual relationship via cell phone. A very sweet romance, marred only by the crudeness of his language. Maybe that kind of pillow talk is a fantasy of the author, but it did nothing for me. I give it 3 stars.

edited to try to fix touchstones - no luck.

Message edited by its author, Jan 16, 2009, 10:30pm.

Book #9

The Bible Salesman by Clyde Edgerton

Set in 1950, with flashbacks to the 30's and 40's, this book tells about Henry, a very young man who works as a traveling bible salesman in the deep south. He meets an older man who claims to be an FBI agent investigating a ring of car thieves and asks Henry to work together with him undercover.

The best I can say about this book is that it is short. I found myself not caring very much about any of the characters, or anything they did. There were a few sort of funny comments, but mostly I guess I didn't get the point of the book. Maybe it's just over my head, but I give it 2 stars.

#70: Too bad, because the premise sounds really good.

#71 Well, I thought so, too, especially since the cover comments hinted that it might be, if not a comedy, than at least humorous. I'd sure like to hear from someone who enjoyed this book to find out what I missed or maybe why it didn't "click" with me.

The book did offer some interesting looks at southern society at the time - especially amoung the less affluent folks. There was one scene that was rather poignant for me. Henry's family was in the habit of having an annual family reunion and all the different aunts and uncles were described. Henry had an Aunt Sis, who was the person to ask if you needed to know anything about any of the rest of the family. My husband also has an Aunt Sis, and when I was a young bride Aunt Sis was the one person in his large extended family who took me under her wing and introduced me to everyone and filled me in on who was who and who belonged to whom. I was quite shy back then and she was a life-saver for me. But the scene in the book evoked emotion from me only because I have my own experience with a large southern style family and my very own Aunt Sis, not because I thought it was a masterful bit of writing.

Book #10

The Disorganized Mind: Coaching Your ADHD Brain to Take Control of Your Time, Tasks, and Talents by Nancy A Ratey

A non-fiction self-help book aimed at ADHD adults who are interesting in overcoming the effects of that condition. As as ADHD adult, married to an ADHD adult and having 4 ADHD children, I am well aware that this is a real thing. It is invisible to the world, but inescapable to the one who has it. This book, written by yet another ADHD sufferer, is full of very compassionate yet stern comments about the need to take responsibility for one's behavior, or lack thereof. Best of all, the comments are followed up with loads of practical suggestions for how to actually do such a thing. She is very open with the disclosure that this will not be quick or easy, but promises that it is possible. There were many times when I felt like she was speaking directly to me - she was able to articulate feelings and frustrations that I've had for years that I wasn't even aware of. I have given the book a 3-star rating, but may go back and increase it later if it still resonates after some time has passed.

Good review! I left a comment on your 999 thread about this book--but I see now that you do understand about ADHD and I will definitely get hold of a copy of this book for myself. I'm always willing to learn!

Nancy Ratey's book was one of my favorite reads from last year. Well, yes, it probably did have something to do with my ADHD, and my oldest (16 years old) son's ADHD. My son was struggling in school at the time and it was incredibly helpful for me. Things are going a bit more smoothly for the moment.

My review is here.

Message edited by its author, Jan 17, 2009, 11:00pm.

Great review, also. muddy21. I'm glad your son is doing better--hang in there! My son has learned to use his ADHD as an asset! He's a well functioning adult now and is currently working on getting his DPT (doctor of Physical Therapy) degree while working as a PTA.

>73ff I need Ratey's book. I know there are positive aspects to being ADHD, but it can be so trying!

The Bible Salesman could be an ironic critique of fundamentalism. Henry is struggling with literal interpretation of some passages in the Bible and pondering truth and accuracy. He is clueless in real life that he is being manipulated into stealing cars. There is no questioning going on there. He believes the lies and then acts on them with little thought or reflection. Reality has to bang him over the head before he wakes up.

Replace Henry with fundamentalists and the con-man with totalitarian or authoritative governments pushing out propaganda and you have good people being manipulated unawares. That's my take on it but I could be wrong. I wasn't blown away by the book. I think I gave it 3 or 3 1/2 stars.

Is VisibleGhost anything like tangible ghosts? (Of Tangible Ghosts)

Slightly, kinda, sorta, at times. Actually, I'm reading a book with some kind of visible tangible ghost except it's called a Spirit in this case. I haven't quite figured out what's going on.

#73, #76, #77 There are definitely positives that come with the negatives of ADHD. It's important to find a place (psychologically as well as physically) where you can be accepted with tolerance and flexibility, while also working very hard at taking responsibility for yourself.

I keep telling my son that he'll make a great adult - it's a matter of making it from here to there! And he's much closer now than he's ever been ;0)

I think the "coaching" point of view is what made this book so important for me. It's of great value to people who live with ADHD in the ones they love, as well as to the people who live with it in themselves.

*now returning this thread to its rightful owner*

Sorry for the hijack, sjmccreary, and thanks for your patience!

#81 No apology necessary. I've been a bit out of touch the last few days, so it is nice to come "home" to such a good discussion. Sorry I missed it. I was uncertain whether the statements I made re ADHD were entirely appropriate. Everyone's comments were so positive. In real life, this is not something I ever mention. Occasionally I'll talk about the experiences I've had with the kids, but only to very close friends or family (and still I sometimes get the "look" when I disclose that we medicated all 4 of our children at one time or another). Wenever someone else shares that they are struggling with ADHD in their kids, I always open up. I would have loved to know I wasn't alone when I was going through that with young children. But I NEVER talk about ADHD in myself. Ever. And I was a little nervous about mentioning it here. I'm always afraid that I will come across as one of those people who is just looking for an excuse on which to blame all their shortcomings. (You know - it's OK that my house is always cluttered and I can never find anything because I have ADHD and that's just the way we are. Ack.) I think that is why I enjoyed the book so much. She encourages you to acknowledge that ADHD exists and is the reason for many of the problems we experience, but does not allow it to be an excuse for not trying to control the impulses to be distracted or to procrastinate, or whatever. I am still accountable for the way I behave, no matter what influence is being exerted by the ADHD. The "coaching" part that muddy21 mentioned is the part I'm uncertain about, but I am willing to give it a go. I am planning to purchase this book (pretty rare for me) just so I can keep referring back to it and even mark it up if I want to. OK, I'm climbing back off the soap box now. Sorry - I get kind of wound up sometimes.

I can sympathize entirely with your reluctance to discuss ADHD. It's so hard to know how people will respond, even (or especially) teachers. It runs the gamut from "Oh, now I understand - that makes total sense!" to the ones who don't believe it's real, don't believe in medication, think it's over-diagnosed, etc., etc.

There's another book I found very helpful - Delivered from Distraction by Ned Hallowell and John Ratey, both of whom are doctors who have ADHD themselves and have studied it extensively in others. John Ratey is the husband of Nancy Ratey of Disorganized Mind, so she has experience dealing with it from a partner-point-of-view as well as in herself.

Please--I wish more people would write about their experiences, those that the rest of us haven't had,no matter what they are. Those who give "the look"--and I know variations of it quite well--are not people you either want to or should care about--I was about to write something a lot stronger but this isn't my thread.

I can't remember where--either in my blog or on my thread--I've written, more than once about the lack of intimacy in American culture that makes loneliness a national personality trait, not just condition. As I' sure is well known to people who read my thread, I dearly love lame jokes of almost any kind, and I am considered to be, in person, an upbeat, practical, hard but fair woman who speaks her mind. The fear of "otherness" in the US is so strong that people almost never talk about "real" things unless it can be done so in the context of "it's not my fault" or "I'm in the same boat as everyone else". This was especially true of the Pacific Northwest,where I lived nearly half of my life. It is an appallingly superficial area.

There are many reasons why I left the US and will never return except for a last visit or, God forbid, if my brother dies, but that's one of them. After 67 years of life in the US, I left no friends behind. After nearly 5 years here, I have three Panamanian friends, especially one man my age. Here in Latin America, you talk about real things.

So, please--don't be afraid to do so. I personally welcome it. I've lived a hard life, not an easy one, and I am always at a minimum sympathetic, usually empathetic, to others' struggles, no matter of what origin. THAT is what binds us, not what's in our houses or garages, or where we spend our summer vacations.

>84 amen and amen.

#83 Actually, our teachers have been universally wonderful. Without exception, the reaction has always been "oh, now I understand". They didn't always know what to do next, but they never questioned the validity of the diagnosis. It was always other parents or (worse) friends who don't have children, who were the most judgemental (especially about the medication)

#84 Joyce, don't stifle yourself on my account. I am one of the least easily offended people I know. (except that time 2 years ago when I applied for a $5000 visa gold card, was turned down and the bank offered me a $500 secured visa card instead. But that is another story). I think a certain amount of openness and frankness comes with age - I certainly see it in myself as I get older, and in my mom who was never very demonstrative when she was younger. I wonder if that is the wisdom that "primitive" cultures revered about their elders.

#85 amen, again.

Everyone here has been so nice. *hugs all around*

I am willing to discuss this topic anytime, so don't think I am dismissing you, but I have been trying to respond to visibleghost's comment at #78 unsuccessfully - either I get interupted, or the network hiccups or something happens - and I don't want to appear as though I am ignoring him/her.

#86: {snort} That'll be the day, when I stifle myself!!

About aging: what I definitely see in myself among other things is a great deal more caution, much less of a belief in certain types of risk-taking. Which is why we need young people who firmly believe that ANYTHING can be done. Hopefully, with the combination, we can find some sort of balance.

Anyone here, besides me, old enough to remember that poem, "When I Grow Old, I Shall Wear Purple"? I have been wearing purple for a very, very long time. :-)

I think that greatest advantage of advanced age is to be able to look back and se the patterns in your life,and really start to understand, find some meaning to your life. And BELIEVE ME, as death approaches, your priorities shift BIG TIME. Hopefully, since I am far from done with life, I'll live another 20 years or so,since my health, as far as I can tell, is excellent. But clearly at 71, one has to think of mortality in a far different way than one thinks of it at, say, 50.

I never did much worry about what the neighbors thought, but now I could care less about ANYONE'S opinion--just what I think of myself as I understand the mistakes I've made, the good things I've done, and the things that happen totally out of anyone's control. There's more of the last-named than there is of almost anything else, I would say.

Oh well, enough philosophizing--just got done with about 3 hours of climbing up and down extension ladders to clean off the ceiling in one of our bathrooms. Now for a good book! God knows I deserve it, I've been so good this morning. :-)

#78 I think your take on The Bible Salesman is as valid as any, and certainly makes more sense than my own reaction which was "huh?" Even though I consider myself to be generally intelligent and having the ability to understand complex and intangible topics, I have never been able to see through to any hidden meanings in literature. Now, if someone will point out to me that this character represents one thing, and that situation represents another, THEN I can make connections and draw conclusions. I read pretty literally, and on a literal basis, this book fell flat for me. If there had been some heads up that there were deeper meanings, I would have been able to read in a different context and, perhaps, enjoy the book more. What led you to make the interpretation that you did? What were your clues?

#87 Oh my, you HAVE been good. Please feel free to take the rest of the day off if you want to. I do remember that poem, and have always liked it. I have never feared or dreaded aging like so many people do. Although, I must admit that as I get deeper and deeper into middle age, "old" age is beginning to look all too real. We live very near a large retirement community. Our local supermarket has an eating area in one corner with cafeteria-style food service during the day. In the evening, it is closed, but they make the space available to community groups for meetings, etc. One evening I had my teenage daughter run into the store to pick something up in a hurry. When she came out, she was laughing and told me about the group of senior citizens who were having a line-dancing class in the cafeteria. I commented something about how much fun that must be to be able to go line-dancing at the grocery store. She cocked her head and looked at me and said "Mom, you're the only person I know who is actually looking forward to getting older". When I was younger than she is, I resolved to enjoy all stages of my life. After all, what good is it to dread being over 70 or 50 or 30 (which was pretty old back then) when you will hopefully spend so many years being that old? Whenever my husband begins to complain about getting older, I tell him that it beats the alternative and to pipe down. As I see it, we have only a certain amount of energy to spend on ourselves. We can either use it up worrying about what the neighbors think, or focused on how unpleasant we find growing up and getting older and wishing we were young again, or we can spend it making the most of where we are right now. I want to do more of that last, and less of the other 2.

#89: Your way is a lot more fun! :-)

I have only one problem with getting old--I simply can't work the way I used to. Other than that--hey, it's fine with me! I'm rather enjoying it.

>88 I'm with you. Symbolism just goes right over my head. Actually even when folks point it out I'm usually thinking, "no, it's a rocking chair... says 'rocking chair' means 'rocking chair'" Pretty literal, sadly translates to social cues as well. If I have a problem with you or something around me, I'll address it if I can't let it go. So it often/usually doesn't occur to me that others function differently.

Well you seem to be generating gut-spilling! yikes. :)

#90 Yet another thing to be looking forward to!

#91 Oh, yes, the missed social cues. I could live with it in myself, but sometimes I feel like a total clod around others. Probably a large part of the reason that I tend not to open up in public much - at least until I feel I know the people around me pretty well. When they first meet me, strangers think I am so quiet and reserved. It means "rocking chair" to me, too.

You know,I'm glad to find others who think that a cigar is just a cigar,and a rocking chair just that, too. If it's symbolism, it has to hit me in the face like a 20 lb salmon before I recognize it. I'm a very literal thinker along with all the rest of you who have declared so, so much so that when things start getting a little heavy in the symbolism sector, I tend to get annoyed--holds up the story for me.

That's exactly it. You have a much better way with words than I do.

#88, I think I've lost my ability to take authors literally. They have joined preachers, politicians, and pundits as purveyors of words that need to be parsed in my outlook, because half the time they're just effing with their audience and the other half of the time they're pushing a personal bias, intentional or unintentional. There are few, if any, innocent authors. Which is fine and at the core of the human experience. Some would consider this outlook cynical or skeptical. I think I would call myself a skeptical analyst that still misses a lot.

My first clue? The author is Southern (US) and knows the use of Southern manners and politeness. A remark can be made to a well-mannered person of this area the reply might be, " That's lovely, dear." That remark can be indifferent, genuine, sarcastic, or downright rude. The author's point or points are therefore unlikely to be in-your-face. They are more likely to be subtle.

I read some reviews of the book after posting to this thread to see if some others came to the same conclusion I did or if I was completely off base. Several of them mentioned the dichotomy of Henry being in a genuine search for answers in one area of his life while not even bothering to ask even simple questions in another area of his life. The meaning of that then broke into various interpretations with none of them quite matching mine. I'm not certain of the author's intent which is why I used qualifiers.

I think you're right in that whatever the author's intentions were the end result is ambiguous and as straight humor doesn't work very well.

Book #11

The Draining Lake by Arnaldur Indridasson

This is the latest in the Inspector Erlendur series. A skeleton is discovered in a dry lake bed, with a cold-war era listening device attached as an anchor. Erlendur and his fellows follow up on all the unsolved missing persons reported during the 1960's in a effort to discover the identity of the body. The fact that the equipment found with the body was Russian suggests that the person may have had something to do with one of the eastern bloc diplomatic corps, but those embassies are not necessarily very helpful. The book includes flashbacks to 1950's Leipszig, East Germany and follows the activities of a group of socialist university students from Iceland invited to study there on scholarship. This wasn't my favorite book of the series. Erlendur loves solving cold cases, and missing persons are his favorite, but there were no road blocks or real set backs in his investigation. It was too easy. Also, the developments in his personal life were not as interesting as in previous books. I gave it 3-1/2 stars, and am hoping that the next book will be better.

#95 Well, of course I noticed that Henry was not consistent in his reactions to different parts of life. It does seem obvious that this is a key point. I guess I'm more likely to interpret this as being a personal development/coming of age situation. Henry was taught growing up to believe in the infallibility of the bible, and so he agonizes over the inconsistencies he discovers there. He wasn't taught much about the outside world, so he appears to take everything at face value, never questioning what he sees or hears. Only when he questions the intent of the men around him are we sure that he has "grown up". It also seems that it was at the same time that he stopped worrying about the confusing bits he came across in the bible. I don't know if the fact that it was set in the south, or that it took place just when it did, are significant or not. They aren't to me, anyway. I still say that if the author wants me to know the significance of something, he needs to tell me. Maybe sometimes I have additional knowledge that would enable me to see deeper meanings without help, but that seems along the lines of an inside joke which is going to leave someone out. This time it was me who was left out.

I'm glad you shared your comments with me. I would never have taken the southern setting as a clue of some deeper meaning or symbolism. You've given me something to consider and ponder over as I read other things.

sjmccreary, I blame my fall from grace from reading fiction literally on Ursula LeGuin. Years ago, I read an edition of The Left Hand of Darkness with an introduction by the author on fiction. Paraphrasing, she said all fiction authors were liars and tried to manipulate the readers thoughts and emotions with their lies. It was quite good. It's probably in one of her collections of essays also.

Over time I read some other theories of reading (and writing) fiction. For me, I found this added to my reading pleasure instead of detracting from it. Reading something such as The Seven Basic Plots heightened my awareness of plotting but didn't destroy my appreciation of plotting. I might give up on some books sooner but at other times I now recognize how good some authors are at plotting.

I have a book with a short story by Tillie Olsen that includes several critical essays by different people. I haven't read it yet but I'm reasonably confident that they all read and understood the story in their individual ways and that will show in the essays they wrote.

I don't let this stuff bog me down too much. While I'm reading, either the book is enjoyable or thought provoking to me or it's not. I'm glad you asked for opinions on The Bible Salesman. You're the first person I recall on these boards that mentioned reading it.

VG

My library has a copy of The Seven Basic Plots, so I placed a hold on it. At 700+ pages, I might not read cover-to-cover, but I'm interested in seeing what he has to say - especially since the reviews here for this book seem to be mixed. I always appreciate picking up tidbits of knowledge that will allow me to appreciate the inner workings of the things around me - books included.

And I agree, in the end the book is either enjoyable or thought provoking or it's not. And what speaks to someone else might miss me completely. Which is why there are so many books - so we can each find something to enjoy.

Book #12

1066 and all that by Walter Sellar

This was first mentioned here by TadAD in msg #32 above. So, of course, I HAD to read it. It is just as I'd expected: funny, irreverant, short. Perhaps best appreciated by someone who'd been expected to learn English history in school, but I enjoyed it all the same. It covers English history from the Roman invasion in 55 BC through the end of WWI, including illustrations and tests, in 116 pages. I gave it 3 stars.

After reviewing some of the other books in my library, I realized that 3 stars is not consistent with my reaction to this book. I'm going to change it to 3-1/2 or 4 stars. It's not a heavyweight book, but it does it's intended job beautifully.

Message edited by its author, Jan 28, 2009, 2:02am.

#100: Sounds right up my alley!

>99: I keep meaning to pick up the Seven Basic Plots - sounded really impressive.

I'm really late to the party on your thread (sorry - hi! - catching up with about a week's worth of posts), but I'm really interested in the ADHD discussions. The book you read was aimed, you say, at ADHD adults, but do you think some of the techniques it described could be applied to kids (or rather, adopted by adults dealing with ADHD kids)? I'm having some difficulty finding information in this sort of area so I'm looking for any leads I can.

The ADHD book, The Disorganized Mind was aimed at adults dealing with their own ADHD. There were sections for adults who have ADHD bosses or spouses/partners, but these were pretty short. There are tons of books for parents dealing with ADHD kids. I can't give you any titles off the top of my head, but look at the bookstore or library or ask your doc. Probably some of the people here can recommend some good ones. I bet I've read more than 2 dozen different books over the years. My #1 complaint about them is that they are aimed at non-ADHD parents. Never, in all my years of getting treatment for my kids for ADHD, has a single doctor or book ever addressed the issue that the parents might also be ADHD - even though it is widely recognized that the condition tends to be hereditary. The most common feature of helping kids handle ADHD is to provide them with a highly organized and structured environment. That is no more possible for the ADHD parent than it is for the ADHD child. Which is where THIS book comes in - she actually helps the ADHD adult learn how to do this for herself. However, I DO think this book might be helpful for a parent to use to help an older kid learn to monitor their own actions. The technique she teaches is called self-coaching. I think it would be wonderful if a parent could teach this skill to an ADHD teen. Those teens are going to be adults soon and will definitely need coping skills when Mom and Dad aren't around to provide structure for them.

Tell us about your kid(s) - what is going on with them? How old? What specific problems are you dealing with? If you aren't comfortable posting in a public forum, feel free to leave me a private message. Meanwhile, I'm going to be looking for some good titles to suggest to you.

As far as Seven Basic Plots goes, I picked the book up at the library yesterday. Not only is it 700+ pages, it is small print. It looks very scholarly. Unless it just grabs me by the throat (ouch), I will probably only skim. But I am looking forward to getting into it. It makes sense that there are only a limited number of stories to be told, and that everything we have is a variation of one or another of them. I hope that understanding that will make it easier to decipher the books and movies I come into contact with, and (hopefully) make them more accessible and enjoyable.

Book #13

Have You Seen...?: A Personal Introduction to 1,000 Films by David Thompson

I don't know why this book was published. I read the jacket comments and the author's introduction, and I still don't know why he wrote it. This author, a famous film critic, has put together a list of 1000 movies, listed alphabetically. Each movie has a page-long essay about it, its makers or stars, the plot, its profitability, his reactions to it, pretty much whatever he felt like writing. He doesn't rate them or rank them. He doesn't even like all of them. I guess he's at least watched them all, although in the acknowledgments he admits to often falling asleep during a movie. Many are very obscure, including several foreign films and silent films and silent foreign films. Some are made for-TV-movies, including foreign made-for-TV movies. (I don't think there are any silent made-for-TV movies, though, more's the pity.) The oldest is from 1895, the most recent are 7 from 2007 (including "No Country for Old Men" and "Sweeney Todd").

The essays were pretty interesting - they reminded me of the little talks that Robert Osborn gives on Turner Classic Movies as introductions before the show starts. I was surprised at some of the movies that are in here, and I don't know what it means if a movie is NOT included. I am not a serious movie buff, and maybe that is the problem. I was familiar with only a minority of these titles, and have actually seen fewer still. This book doesn't work for me - I'll keep my Leonard Maltin guide instead. 2 stars.

I've this link several times lately, and finally decided to try it. Not sure what I think of the results - I guess I need to read the book before deciding. Although, according to this, "You might be one of the greatest people of all time". So maybe not such a bad description. ;-)

You're Watership Down!

by Richard Adams
Though many think of you as a bit young, even childish, you're
actually incredibly deep and complex. You show people the need to rethink their
assumptions, and confront them on everything from how they think to where they
build their houses. You might be one of the greatest people of all time. You'd
be recognized as such if you weren't always talking about talking rabbits.

Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Message edited by its author, Jan 29, 2009, 8:01pm.

Book #14

Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston

I'm not sure what to say about this book - it took me quite a while to finish it, and I haven't taken time yet to mull it over. It is a fictionalized account of the life of Joe Smallwood. http://www.wordplay.com/gullages/bio-joe.... will take you to a short article about the man. Most of the incidents mentioned in the article are included in the book, however the book effectively ended in the 1950's - shortly after Newfoundland became a Canadian province. Smallwood was a key figure in the effort to achieve confederation in 1949. The other main character in the book, Sheilagh Fielding, known simply as "Fielding", is evidently fictional, according to comments by the author I found online. (She gets her own book in Custodian of Paradise). I'm glad that Johnston wrote Fielding into the story. Without her, Smallwood would be too unrelently obstinate. He is not presented as a very personable or likable man. Fielding is a tragic figure who manages to bring out some humanity in Smallwood, who loves her from afar.

I chose this book because I wanted to "visit" Newfoundland as part of the global reading challenge. (I don't post over there anymore, but I'm still trying to do the reading.) To quote Fielding, "For all their supposed hospitableness, there is something in the character of Newfoundlanders, a deviousness let us call it, that comes out in their dealings with outsiders who would do well to stay away." (pg 426) Good advice. The place is presented as being dark and cold, its people grim, isolated and poverty-stricken. Johnston is a talented author, but I'm glad to be leaving Newfoundland. 3-1/2 stars.

Hmm. A somewhat different view of Newfoundlanders from Proulx's The Shipping News. But then her novel is set in more recent times.

#105: It is a pleasure to have you in our group, sjmccreary, since you are possibly one of the greatest people of all time!

Message edited by its author, Jan 30, 2009, 6:09am.

#108: What a flatterer you are, Stasia!! :-)

ETA: A shameless one at that!

Message edited by its author, Jan 30, 2009, 6:17am.

#110: Hey, if you are going to have one of the greatest people of all time in the group, you might as well take advantage, Joyce.

True, true--hadn't considered it in quite that light.

#107 I don't know, Joyce. I read your review of The Shipping News. Your description of the people and place doesn't sound so different than those in Colony of Unrequited Dreams. I'm sure I haven't done a good job conveying the mood of the book. I'm not sure I ever could. You might be right, though, about the different time of the stories. This one generally takes place between the wars, from 1920's through 1940's, including the great depression. Although, there is some action during the 1950's relating to Smallwood's attempts at economic development in the new province. But that was generally a dismal failure. I can't say that I ENJOYED the BOOK, but I guess I enjoyed READING the book. I'd be interested in reading something more upbeat (and shorter) by this author, as I think he is very skilled.

#108 Thanks, Stasia. I don't like to boast, but speaking as of the greatest people of all time, it is a pleasure to be part of the group. ;-D

#112: I was referring to the part about deviousness in dealing with outsiders. I didn't get that from The Shipping News. Kinda bizarre people, sure, but not particularly devious. There were a few outsiders in the book, but they had been there long enough, I suppose, to qualify as part of the place. Still, if my long-ago experience with native New Englanders is any example, it takes decades not to be tagged as a newcomer.

#114 I though "devious" was a strange word to use there - not the one I would have chosen. But certainly there was a feeling of "lack of openness and honesty". Not a active intent to deceive, but a sense of apathy, a lack of interest or sympathy towards outsiders. Not welcoming.

The Shipping News was one of my fav reads last year and caught me totally by surprise. *off to Joyce's thread to read her review*

#114: I'd say "decades" is a generous understatement of the length of time it takes to no longer be considered a newcomer in New England. :o)

Sandy,
I,too, got Watership Down - want to chat about talking bunnies? Only us great people can you know!

#117: You're probably right! I know that we lived there for some time, and NEVER ever felt like we'd made it--and that was in Connecticut.

re New England

One of my favorite jokes about New England: (I won't mention the specific state mentioned in the joke--don't want to offend anyone!:-) )

A young women and her new husband moved to New England and settled down in one of the more rural areas. They really loved the area where they lived but they somehow always felt a little left out--they were treated as special visitors, but didn't feel like they belonged. Then the wife became pregnant and she was so delighted. One day when she went to the general store in their little community she just had to share the good news with the proprietor: "I'm so excited, My husband and I are going to have a baby and at last we will have a real New Englander in the family!"

The proprietor replied: "You can put a cat in the oven, honey, but that don't make it a biscuit!"

>105: sjmccreary & >118: cyderry

wow, three of us!
I got Watership Down too, maybe time for a great talking bunnies chat?

maybe we should change our logons to the talking bunnies? or start our own group ... the TALKING BUNNIES!

You could always do a 'Group Read' similar to the ones already in train for War and Peace and Don Quixote. There might be others who would join in if invited . . .

Book #15

The Snack Thief by Andrea Camilleri - the 3rd book in the Inspector Montalbano series

In this episode, Montalbano is able to deflect the assignment to investigate the case of a Tunisian fisherman being shot to death while on board an Italian fishing boat, by a Tunisian patrol boat. That earns him an extra 2 hours sleep that morning before he wakes to another case of a retired businessman who was found stabbed to death in the elevator of his apartment building. The first real clue was the discovery that the man had a Tunisian cleaning woman who came to his office 3 days a week, despite the business having been closed for several years. We also learn more about Montalbano's past, and witness his conflict as he contemplates whether he wants to live as a family man or continue as a carefree bachelor.

I first chose this series as a result of the mystery & thriller group here on LT. I hung out there quite a lot when I first joined LT and they had an ongoing/recurring discussion about mysteries set in non-English-speaking locations. This series was mentioned over and over and highly recommended. I concur. The series starts with The Shape of Water, and this book is the best one yet. 4 stars.

#120 That is funny - but it's hard to believe that NE is really that tightly knit.

#121-122 We Watership Downer's seem to be multiplying like rabbits! (couldn't resist)

#123 An excellent idea, but I suspect it would take longer to set up a group and get a discussion going than it would to read the book. I think I will be adding it to my list of books for this year - I've never read it and now am getting too curious.

You know, I was just sitting here looking at this humongous pile of really serious STUFF thinking how much I'm really in the mood for a good old who dun it, but not quite a dainty cozy, so I checked out the reviews of Inspector Montalbano, and since I fell in love with Sicily when I had to make several business trips there years ago, I have put in a reserve on this one and will pick it up at the library tomorrow. Thanks for the tip.

The Inspector Montalbano series is one of the finest going at the moment. And I can heartily recommend the movies, too--Luca Zingaretti is a perfect Montalbano, and his supporting cast is all you could ask for and more.

ETA: Start with the first one, The Shape of Water, if you can.

Message edited by its author, Feb 1, 2009, 4:35pm.

#125 sjmccreary

"#120 That is funny - but it's hard to believe that NE is really that tightly knit."

I did say the joke referred to a particular NE state--so insert your favorite tightly knit state!

NE probably isn't quite so tightly knit these days - in the cities - but in the medium to smaller towns in my NE state it still is that way.

Book #16

Annie, Between the States by L. M. Elliott

This is a very nice YA novel set in Northern Virginia during the civil war. It features Annie, age 16 when the war begins, who finds herself in the middle of the Battle of Manassas in chapter one. She and her mother busy themselves caring for wounded union soldiers who were left behind as the army moved onward. Annie's first "patient" was a Massachusetts man whose life was saved by the book of poetry he carried in his pocket which deflected the bullet. For Annie, also a lover of poetry, this provides a beginning point on which to build a relationship throughout the rest of the book. But since Virginia is their home, and her brothers are both fighting for the confederacy, Annie is conflicted about any feelings she might have toward a Yankee man. She also grows increasingly more conflicted about the issue of slavery, especially since her family has always treated their slaves very well, teaching them to read and write and referring to them as "servants".

I chose this book for the civil war category I have in my 999 challenge. The title came to me, I think, by way of the civil war thread over in the "what are you reading now" group. Aimed at younger readers, the horrors of war were diluted somewhat, but the issues of war and slavery are definitely not sugar-coated or glorified. I thought it was well-researched, well-written, and fairly realistic (if not quite as grim as it probably would have been). I liked it very much. 4 stars.

#130: Sounds like a very good book, sjmac. On to the Continent it goes~

I just got a copy of Have You Seen A Personal Introduction to 1000 Films yesterday. Did you read the whole thing??? I don't intend to sit down and read it all in one go, but just dip into it to see what he thinks about certain films either that I've seen or that I'm planning to see or just opening it at random pages.

I've read a few already and quite like the randomness of his style. But I don't think I'm always going to agree with him on everything - his piece on the Sopranos, for example, he treats it as if all of the series added together were one film, which I think is unfair. I actually thought there wasn't enough foreign cinema in it though, as there have been some great films from Central and South America in recent years that I thought would merit inclusion.

I have The Snack Thief to read soon too, which I also found out about on the Crime board here. Glad you liked it.

I haven't taken much time for posting the last few days. Have had a bad cold, so just read instead.

Book #17

Running Hot by Jayne Ann Krentz
An entertaining paranormal romantic suspense - part of the Arcane Society series. All the principles in this series have some kind of physic or paranormal ability which can be used either for good or evil. The good guy gets the bad guy and then he gets the girl. What could be more satisfying? Normally, I don't have any patience for anything paranormal, but for some reason I kind of like this series. 4 stars.

Book #18

Beowulf as translated by Seamus Heaney
I never read this book in school, and all the bits and pieces I've heard about it through the years still didn't prepare me for what I found here. The thought that this story is 1,000 years old and still intact is enough to intice me to take a look. The people in the story, living with a combination of Christian and pagan beliefs and rituals, are fascinating. They fight each other and help each other and are totally accepting of whatever comes their way. I'm not a big fan of poetry, so the poetical aspects of the writing escape me, except one line that I love. Beowulf is describing how he didn't kill Grendel outright, but dealt him a mortal wound when he tore the creature's arm off at the shoulder. Talking about Grendel, Beowulf says "He is hasped and hooped and hirpling with pain..." (line 975). I love saying that one out loud. It sounds like Dr Seuss. The other line that I liked was a little later, when they're still talking about how it was God's will that Grendel was killed, thus preventing even more deaths. Then they say, "Whoever remains for long here in this earthly life will enjoy and endure more than enough." (line 1060-1061) I loved this one and will be keeping my eyes open for a used copy to buy. 4-1/2 stars.

Book #19

Plum Spooky by Janet Evanovich
I just really don't care much for the "between the numbers" books in the Stephanie Plum series. The regular books are silly and far-fetched, and often laugh-out-loud funny. The in-between books are just ridiculous. I'm always hard pressed to describe the plot of one of these books after I've read it - there really isn't one. At least the number books have a story that moves along from beginning to end. The recurring Diesel character - I don't get him. He's what - magic? He pops in and out and opens locked doors and starts cars without keys, he can read minds, he smells like cookies, women find him irresitable. I'd take Ranger or Morelli over Diesel any day. 2-1/2 stars.

Book #20

The Faithful Spy by Alex Berenson
This one I liked. John Wells, a CIA agent has been undercover inside al Qaeda since before 9/11. He's been under so long, that his handlers at Langley fear he's "gone native" and begin to question his trustworthiness. When al Qaeda begins to gear up for another series of attacks on the US, Wells worries that they don't trust him, either. I think there is a sequel to this book - I'll be hunting for it soon. 3-1/2 stars.

Message edited by its author, Feb 6, 2009, 6:42pm.

#133: sjmac, I will admit that Jayne Ann Krentz is one of my guilty pleasures authors and I really enjoy her Arcane Society books, both the ones written under her own name and the historical ones written under her Amanda Quick pen name.

As far as Evanovich goes, I think her best works are the early Plum novels, but I keep reading them anyway, simply because I want to know what Grandma Mazur is going to do next! I quite agree with you about Diesel, though. I am really not sure what purpose he is supposed to serve.

The sequel to The Faithful Spy is The Ghost War. I have not read either of them, but they look good and I will add them to the Continent.

#134 I like the contemporary Arcane books better than the historicals. Again, I'm not sure why since I normally prefer historicals. I think I just want to see what new kinds of "talent" she can come up with and the related uses for it, and the contemporaries seem to move at a brisker pace.

The Evanovich series - well, I certainly agree that the early books were better. I deleted several sentences of scathing comments about the development of the series before posting my message above! I guess I keep reading them (including the between-the-numbers books) in hopes that she will get back to her top form. I love Grandma Mazur, and Lula, too. These books are excellent in audio. I think C J Critt is the usual reader, and she is wonderful.

Hope you're feeling a ton better soonest!

#136 Thanks for the good wishes - I'm finally feeling better.

Book #21

Lima Nights by Marie Arana
I'm not sure what I expected from this book, but it isn't what I got. This is the story of a middle-aged white man in 1980's Lima, Peru. He comes from a wealthy family, lives in the best part of town, is married and has 2 teenaged sons. To all appearances, his life is perfect. He went with his friends to a tango bar where he first sees, then dances with, a young native Peruvian woman. He becomes obsessed with the woman, breaking his own rule about not getting too attached to his casual conquests. The woman, actually only 15 years old, is an Indian girl who lives in the worst slum with her mother and 2 brothers. She prides herself on being smart enough to get ahead in life by using her wits and sexuality. The two develop a relationship that neither seems willing or able to resist. Twenty years later, they are still together, but nothing else is the same. The book ends as each one finally is forced to face and accept their true feelings about the other.

I first became aware of this book several weeks ago when it was reviewed in the local Sunday paper. It is beautifully written, and is definitely a page-turner, but is far from a simple love story. I gave it 3 stars, because I just can't love it, but don't dislike it, either.

It sounds really good, though. Looks like one I have to get.

#137: I'm with Joyce, sjmac. It looks like one I would like to read.

I'm glad your feeling better now!

#138, 139 I think you both will like Lima Nights. As for me, I've gone on to something far less substantial (but tons more fun)...

Book #22

Curse of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz
This is the sequel to The Spellman Files which introduced the Spellman family and their family-owned PI business. In this book, Izzy, the family's adult daughter, becomes suspicious of the family's new next-door neighbor, John Brown, because of his too-ordinary name and his reluctance to provide proof of identity. In her zeal to discover the truth about him, Izzy ends up violating a temporary restraining order he had filed against her and is arrested. Facing the loss of her PI license if she is convicted, Izzy must come to grips with the consequenses of her actions over the years.

I loved the first book, which I discovered at the library by accident. Izzy Spellman reminds me a little of Stephanie Plum. She is not suited for any ordinary job, she manages to get herself into sticky situations, she has an entire cast of supporting characters who are just as quirky as she is. I think these books are fun, laugh-out-loud silly. Like Stephanie, Izzy is warm and caring at heart. She just doesn’t always know how to show it. 3-1/2 stars.

I read The Spellman Files last year, but did not realize there was a sequel out. Thanks for mentioning it - I will see if my local library has it.

#141 There is a 3rd Spellman book coming out this spring - Revenge of the Spellmans. I've already got it on hold at my library.

Book #23

The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan
This nonfiction is an account of the dust bowl period of the 1930's in the high plains of Eastern Colo and New Mexico and areas of western Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. Egan tells the story from the perspective of several real-life families who lived in these areas throughout the entire period. He begins by describing how the region came to be settled in the early 1900's, and why the land was plowed up and planted to wheat and corn in the 1920's. There were folks, even in those early days, who claimed that that land should not be plowed, but they were, of course, ignored. After the damage was done, it still took years before any serious consideration was given to the claim that the disaster was not a natural one - that it was entirely man-made. Some probably still don't believe that, though, since they are still farming out there. If you ever fly over western Kansas, you'll be able to see the perfectly round fields of wheat growing only within the confines of the irrigation equipment that sucks water up from the Ogallala aquifer 8 times faster than it is being replenished. A difficult story to read, but an important reminder that we are capable of inflicting real damage in a very short amount of time.

I found this book for the Kansas category in my 999 challenge (along with about 20 other candidates), but was encouraged to go ahead and read it after seeing Joycepa's review of it on her 75-book thread last month. Highly recommended. 4 stars.

Just to clarify - not a difficult BOOK to read, but not a pleasant STORY.

Message edited by its author, Feb 15, 2009, 7:05pm.

I found it hard to read, too (I also just finished it today!). Thinking about those poor people and poor animals! Reading anything about the Ogallala aquifer makes me so angry - another man-made disaster in the making.

Great review, Sandy!

Message edited by its author, Feb 15, 2009, 9:49pm.

#142: Thanks for the info about the new Spellman book. I will have to look for it.

Having seen a couple of reviews of The Worst Hard Time now, I am going to have to bump it up on the Continent. Evidently it is a popular book because both copies at my local library are checked out at present.

#143, 144 I had an especially hard time getting started in the book - I hate being preached at, and I was afraid that was what would happen. But it didn't. The story is told in a very readable fashion, with a very nice balance of science and human interest. I'm glad the book seems to be popular, I think it is an important story for people to understand. Our library has 23 copies, and 17 are currently checked out (including the one I have). I'll be talking it up whenever I have the chance. Stasia, I hope you like it, too. Jennifer, I know what you mean. The descriptions of the dust that got into absolutely everything were incredible - the most heart-breaking scene in the book for me was Black Sunday. After all those folks had been through, to wake up to such a gorgeous day and being able to open up the houses and get everything clean, and then....

#144..(please excuse for highjacking your thread Sandy) Stasia---the book is also available in audio and is most compelling to listen to. I think it is one of the few books I would label as a MUST READ. I know you will (i started to say Enjoy but that's not a word one uses with this book) be glad you read it when you finish.

Ok, here's your thread back ;-)

I didn't know it is available in audio - my library doesn't have it. Normally I love audio books, but the photos are so incredible in this book, you should get a print copy just to look at even if you use audio for the text. Thanks for the info, Tina.

I meant to tell Stasia, though, that the Spellman books are also available in audio, and I would highly recommend them. Christina Moore is the reader, and she is fantastic with these books.

Thanks to both of you for the info on the audiobooks, but unfortunately, my local library does not have either book in that format.

Stasia, does your library do inter-library loan? i get at least 70% of my audio library loans from a library not my own. I just put the request in to the local library, and they find it for me.

Yes, my library does do ILL. I have never used it for audiobooks, though, just print versions. Thanks for mentioning it, because I had not thought to do audiobooks that way.

I never thought about doing ILL for audio's either. I've used it for print books, but if my library doesn't have the audio version, I just settle for the print version. I'll try to remember that next time I really don't want the print version. And I know just which book that I want to "read" but don't want to read. I'll ask about it this evening when I go over there. Thanks for the suggestion!

Book #24

The Treasure by Iris Johansen

This romantic suspense is set in 1196, and takes place largely in Rome and Syria, with the first and last pages set in Scotland. Kadar and Selene, refugees to Scotland years earlier, are forced to return to Syria to face the man who drove them away. He demands they retrieve a treasure for him that is located in Rome. They go to Rome, find the treasure, and fall under the spell of it and its guardians.

This is the second book I've read recently by this author. I didn't care for the first, a contemporary romantic suspense set in Colorado, because of the unexpected paranormal elements it contained. Well, forewarned is forearmed, so this time I was was expecting something magical and mystical (and was not surprised when it showed up). But this book might as well have been set in present-day Colorado, for all the flavor of time and place that Johansen gave this story. The only details that would have been out of place in modern Colorado were the few mentions of stone castles. There were discussions of ancient Egypt and the library at Alexandria, but those were as distant to the characters in this story as they are to us. Another disappointment. I've got another Johansen book on the TBR stack. I'll give it a try, but if it is another miss I'm finished with Iris Johansen. 2 stars.

#152: I like Johansen's Eve Duncan series, so you might give that one a try. The first book in the series is The Face of Deception.

The title that I have is And then you die, which was recommended by someone here when I was disappointed with the first book I read. Are you familiar with that one?

Yes, I've read that one. It's not bad (and I am not at all sure about some of the medical procedures in it, since I am not a doctor), but not Johansen's best. I think the beginning of the book is very good.

The Eve Duncan series, I think, is one of those series that you need to read from the beginning which is why I recommended you try The Face of Deception.

I'll look for that one next, assuming And then you die doesn't put me over the edge! Thanks for the recommendation - I really want to like this author, she seems to be everywhere. I'm not a doctor, either, but I'll be paying attention to the medical procedures all the same.

#156: It could be that Johansen is just not an author for you. I keep saying it because it is true: Not every book is for every body.

Of course, if you do not like Johansen, I may never speak to you again :)

Well, then of course I'm sure I'll learn to love her! :-)

I agree, though, some books and some authors just don't work for some people, no matter how widely loved they are by everyone else.

#158: There are 2 books that spring to mind immediately for me of books that most people love and I do not like at all: Wuthering Heights and The Great Gatsby.

Literature is just like any other art form - subjective. What does it for one person does not necessarily do it for another. The great thing about books is that there are so many available, you are sure to find at least one that you love.

Book #25

What I Did For Love by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

A very light and quick contemporary romance. A TV- turned movie-actress ends up with her old sitcom co-star (despite a mutual hatred that has existed between them for years) as a way of coping with her recent divorce from another actor who ran off with his latest co-star.

I have enjoyed everything I've ever read by Phillips, although for some reason I didn't expect to enjoy this one much. I was wrong - as good as anything else she's done. 3-1/2 stars.

Book #26

Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy

This book would most probably be classified as Utopian. It was written in 1887, published in 1888. The premise is that a man is placed into a trance in Boston in 1887 and is not revived until he is discovered in 2000. The rest of the book concerns his becoming acquainted with society at the end of the 20th century. Most of the "advancements" that Bellamy anticipates deal with the economic system of labor and government. According to him, by now the government is supporting each one of us equally, and employs each one of us for a length of service from age 25 to 45 when we are furloughed, but held in reserve until age 55. (After first having educated us and given us our choice of vocational training.) The nation's labor force, including professionals and educators, are referred to as the "industrial army" and the economy is, in fact, operated like the military (which no longer exists). He has very little imagination in regards to technological advances - they being limited to 1) live music being broadcast into homes as a subscription service via telephone wires, 2) sidewalk coverings which automatically provide protection against rain and snow when needed, and retracted when not - they take the place of individual umbrella's, and 3) all currency being replaced by "credit cards" which are issued to each citizen by the government to be used for all spending - they consist of pasteboard cards which have dollar denomination blocks printed that are blacked out as the "money" is spent. The real purpose of the book was to speculate about the advances which were anticipated in society dealing with the treatment of different classes of laborers and consumers and the capitalistic private enterprise system of commerce.

The book was intellectually interesting - to me it seemed more an historical document than a work of fiction. As a novel, it was very dull. I had an audio version (read by Edward Lewis) and the best description I can give of the production is "soporific". I had to restart 3 of the 7 disks because I dozed off in the middle. (Forturnately, I was not listening in the car!) The dialogue was stilted, consisting of a series of lectures or sermons more than actual conversations. One scene, where they actually attended a Sunday sermon, was almost unbearable - actually extending the entire 20 or 30 minutes that such a sermon might last. There was, of course, no character development or plot to speak of.

I would not recommend this book to any general reader. If you like obsure historical writing, or uptopian settings, you should give it a try. It's not very long and if I can get through it, then anyone can. 3 stars, just for the intellectual/historical interest. As recreational reading, it doesn't earn more than 1 star.

#160 re What I did for Love

Wow! A TV that turns into a movie actress! That sounds like fantasy to me.

(I realize the -...- were a clue to how it should be read, but I missed them the first time and got a huge laugh! It brightened my day--thanks.)

The real fantasy would be turning the movie actress into a TV. Then she could just be switched off and ignored. (In case you can't guess, I don't like reality programming or gossip magazines.) Sorry I wasn't clearer. The book was fun, though.

Book #27

Dark of Night by Suzanne Brockmann

I first posted this book onto my 999 challenge thread, and then debated about how I wanted to post it here. I got off onto a bit of a rant about it over there, but that is how I really feel, so I decided just to copy and paste the same comments here. I'm not sure why I got so worked up about it, since it really is just a fluff read and I knew that going in.

According to the author page here on LT, this is the 14th Troubleshooters book. Plus how many SEAL Team 16 books before that? I've loved both these series from the first, but I feel like crying "Uncle". There are SO MANY characters that keep showing up again and again that I can't keep them straight. Why can't she put a cast of characters in the front of the book? She has one on her web site, I think, how hard would it be to copy that into each new book? Plus, I think the plots are becoming unnecessarily convoluted. I've read every one of the earlier books, but I still didn't feel like I knew what was going on until the middle of the book. This one, especially, would have made no sense at all without having read the one that came before it. So, why isn't the fact that this is a series indicated on the cover of the book? If I'd picked this one up blind, I don't think I would have finished it, and would probably have avoided this author in the future. And while I'm complaining, enough already with the swearing. I've read books written by men about the same kind of macho alpha male characters, but none of them has half as much swearing as Brockmann's. I think that Brockmann has gotten pretty full of herself and is now more concerned with putting out bestselling books than writing good stories. Her books seem to be increasingly arrogant - there is just an attitude about them that I'm beginning to find off-putting.

All that having been said, I did like the book. She is an extremely talented writer and the book is fast paced (once you get your feet under you, in the beginning it was just dizzying). The romances are hot and steamy. To me, this is the epitome of "brain candy" - you can't put it down and rush through to the end only to be left with a "that's it?" feeling. Fun while it lasts, but.... I give it 3 stars.

Actually, another author that I began having the same kinds of feelings about is Diana Gabaldon who wrote Outlander. I loved that book, and read the next 2 or 3 in the series. But then I began seeing too much of the author in the book and gave up on the series. (Does that even make sense? I wish I were better at expressing myself.)

I think you are expressing yourself extremely well, Sandy.

Maybe so, but am I making sense?

Yes, it does to me--when the characters stop being themselves and they all start sounding alike or the author's agenda or even lack of imagination starts showing through--then I always see the author. For me, that's when a book gets boringly predictable.

For me, at least in this case, it's more a matter of the author coming across as trying to be clever, because after all, aren't they awfully clever to have written such popular books. They're just trying too hard. Both these ladies are incredibly talented, and I like them better when they seem to relax and just write. Or maybe I've got it backwards. I like the early work better - when they probably WERE trying harder. Some of my impressions come from looking at their other materials. With Gabaldon, it was her book An Outlandish Companion, which was a combination of the background and history of the various characters in the series, and an insiders look at how this author writes. Maybe that's where the "see how clever I am" attitude I'm perceiving comes from. With Brockmann, I get the same feelings from her web site. Then, I'm not able to leave those impressions about the author behind when I pick up their next book to read. I want my authors to at least pretend to be humble.

You know those acknowledgements that many authors put into their books, thanking all the people who helped them with their research? The standard closing comment is always along the lines of "any errors that made it into the book despite all this help are my fault". That's the kind of humility I want to see. Although, pretending is sometimes good enough. I read a book by Harlan Coben, I think it was. He included a rather lengthy acknowledgement in the beginning of his book and closed with the comment that "if a mistake made it into the book, then it's not my fault". That made me laugh.

I don't know if I'm making any sense or not, but I feel like I'm just digging a deeper hole, so I'll just stop here.

OK. where I'll continue to put my two centavos in will be with my favorite dead horse to beat, Doctorow and the March. If ever there was a book that fit into what you've described, it's that one. What came across for me was the incredible arrogance of the man--I, e.l. doctorow, am just too important to get the facts right and nobody is going to check on me because I, e.l.doctorow am a creator of literature and I am Important. I will never read another book by that prime-time jerk.

I think that what you're talking about is a kind of preening. See how good I am.

I read that same acknowledgement by Coben and I, too, laughed out loud.

ETA: Actually, an way you want to complain about any type of behavior that an author does that you don't like, let me know and I'm sure I can point out how Doctorow did whatever it is you hate in The March.

Message edited by its author, Feb 24, 2009, 1:07pm.

Joyce, I can always count on you to say in 10 words or less what takes me a page or more. I think "preening" may be exactly the word that I couldn't come up with. I hate that. (Preening, I mean, not that you came up with the right word.)

ETA: You may have just issued a challenge I can't resist - to find some bad author behavior that Doctorow isn't guilty of!

Message edited by its author, Feb 24, 2009, 7:57pm.

Sandy, if I've done so, then it will be the first time in recorded history that I have been more concise than just about anyone else. usually I need three paragraphs to say what another person can do in those 10 words!

Book #28

And Then You Die by Iris Johansen

Finally, I found a Johansen book that I didn't feel cheated by. This book is about a photojournalist who stumbles onto 2 instances of mass murder in a row, and the the leader and appearant turncoat form the paramilitary organization who seems to be involved in the second. This being a romantic suspense and not a straight thriller, she of course finds someone to fall in love with in the midst of all the carnage.

This is not a great book - even for a fluff read. But there is no woo-woo paranormal stuff going on, so I was happy. (Now I know what to ask whenever an Iris Johansen book is recommended.) I give it 3 stars.

I will now try the series that Stosia recommended back in post #152, et seq. I can't seeing her becoming an automatic author for me, but with the reassurance that there are no paranormal elements, I'm willing to read Johansen again from time to time.

#172: sjmac, I may have unintentionally mislead you about the Eve Duncan series. There is one paranormal element, if you want to call it that, in the books, but it is one I can live with. I do not know if I should tell you or not what it is since you are going to read the first book. I would much rather you tried it without my telling you so that it is not spoiled for you, but if you want me to tell you what it is, I will do so.

No, if you think it might spoil the book, don't tell. I'm glad to know that it is there, though. I have a much higher tolerance for paranormal if I'm expecting it. Especially since you are giving me the impression that it is not a major element.

#174: Boy, as to whether it is a major element or not - to me, no. To you, ?

I'll let you know what I think after I've read it. (As if you could stop me!) :-)

I'll probably wait a month or two before getting it, though. I've got quite a stack right now, mostly nonfiction, which is slower for me. If I can get through that, I'll want to go on a fiction binge and I've been wanting to pick up the next installments of the various series I've started. Then, I'll be looking for new stuff.

OK, it will be interesting to see your take on it.

I like the Eve Duncan books a lot. I hadn't really thought about that element as paranormal, duh. Guess it is though. For me it's not a major part of most of the stories, though there is that one... ;->

Enjoy. (at least we hope you do!)

OK, now you guys have aroused my curiousity! I'll definitely be checking out that book - just have to get through this stack of nonfictions first.

#179: OK, now you guys have aroused my curiousity!

Isn't that what we are here for?

#180 Yes, and thanks so much. ;-) I'd offer to return the favor, but you read everything anyway, so I can't imagine inticing you to something new!

#181: Hah! I add new books from other people's lists all the time.

Book #29

The Unfolding of Language by Guy Deutscher

This is a very readable and interesting look at the ways that languages develop over time. He talks about how, in every time and every language, purists bemoan the disintegration of the language. He shows us tons of examples of how one root word in an early language is still present in modern language. He demonstrates the possible progression from "Me Tarzan" to the complex languages we know now. He talks about oddities in gender that are found in different languages (e.g., in German a maiden is neuter but a turnip is feminine; in an Australian aboriginal language there exists a gender for edible vegetables which includes airplanes). He talks about the regularities and irregularities of nouns and verbs in a variety of languages and how they came about.

I originally chose this book to fit into the Dewey Decimal challenge. It is the first linguistics book I've come across that has actually been as interesting as the cover blurbs sounded, and the first one I've actually read all the way through. He includes pages of notes, a bibliography, and glossary for those who want to dig deeper (not me, thanks). It is informative and interesting without being either scholarly or flippant. Recommended for those who enjoy nonfiction topics. 3 stars.

Message edited by its author, Mar 4, 2009, 5:36pm.

The Unfolding of Language sounds excellent! Another one for the wishlist!

This really sounds like a good one, Sandy. Languages utterly fascinate me, and this appears to be right up my alley!

Book #30

John Quincy Adams by Robert V Remini

This is a very compact (155 pages), but complete biography of our 6th president. It reveals his life beginning at the time of the American revolution, when he was only about 9 years old, growing up in the home of (now) famous parents John and Abagail Adams, his education and travels, entry into diplomatic and then political life, and his run for the presidency. His troubled term in office (1825-1829) was examined pretty closely, and then his end-career back in the US congress until his death in 1848.

This book is part of the American Presidents series. This is a series of short, but well-written biographies of quite a few of our presidents (I think there are around 30). This is an excellent introduction to the life and service of an often over-looked former president. It is easy to read, but interesting and informative. I give it 4 stars.

The John Quincy Adams book looks good. Are you doing the U.S. Presidents challenge? I've signed up but haven't read any since it started.

Yes, I am, and that is why I chose this book. I signed up quite a while ago, but this is the first book I've read for it. I read bio's of the first 5 presidents before joining, so that's why it looks like I'm starting with #6. I decided to read them in order because I thought the problems and issues from one president to the next would overlap, and I figured it would be easier to understand the context of one if I was familiar with the issues faced by the one before him. The American Presidents series is good if you're feeling intimidated about getting started - they are pretty short and easy to read, but still very informative. Hope to see you over there soon!

Book #31

O! Pioneers by Willa Cather

Set in the late 1800's in a fictional location in western Nebraska, this is the story of a Swedish immigrant family trying to make a go of farming. The book spans 20 or 30 years, ending around 1900 (during the Alaska gold rush). It follows Alexandra, the only daughter and oldest child of the family, who is the only one who truly understands the land and its potential. She is the one who is successful at farming, her brothers just follow along behind her and their neighbors are in awe of her success. A harsh land generates harsh events, and Alexandra must deal with disappointment and heartbreak even as she revels in her freedom and prosperity.

I enjoyed this book very much. The language is very lyrical and soothing. The story is comforting. All Alexandra had to do was work long and hard, and never give up hope, and her farm would be successful. Of course, she never indulged herself in dreams of marriage or a family of her own. Her brothers who did marry and have families, and the youngest brother who went off to school, all had less successful lives than Alexandra. I wondered what influence this book (first published 1913) had in the decisions of some of the real life families who settled in the high plains that were later caught up in the dust bowl, as discussed in The Worst Hard Times (msg #142, above). 4 stars.

sounds like a rainy-day book :)

#189: I love Willa Cather! She has become a favorite of mine over the past few years. I hope you enjoy some of her other works as well. My personal favorite to date is My Antonia.

#191 This was my first Cather book. I was hoping to like her because I was planning to read My Antonia later in the year. Glad to hear you like it even better.

Book #32

The Seven Daughters of Eve by Bryan Sykes.

This is a fascinating account by an Oxford University researcher of his work in the uses of mitochondrial DNA to identify which prehistoric clan a person is decended from. He claims that 95% of European natives are decended from only 7 ice-age women. He was able to show that the "iceman", the 5000-yr old body that was discovered in the Alps several years ago, was a cousin to one of the women working in Sykes' lab, they having identical mitochondrial DNA. The entire current world's population decends from only about 30 different prehistoric women. The mitochondrial DNA is passed, intact except for random mutations, from mother to daughter and then to each of her children, including sons. Sykes may be a research scientist, but he is a skilled enough writer to make what could be a dull and dry topic interesting for nonscientists like me - there is no math or chemistry in here (yay!). He also provided an interesting look into the politics of research science - after all, not everyone agrees with every new theory and there is a protocol for proving yourself to the scientific community. There is a companion body of research which identifies the movement and ancestry of people through the male line. There is even a website where you can order a DNA test and find out which "daughter of Eve" is your grandmother. But it's kind of expensive. :-( I love this topic, and loved this book. 4 stars.

Message edited by its author, Mar 10, 2009, 12:00pm.

#192: Cather, to me, is one of those writers who could even make dirt sound good. Her prose is breathtaking at times.

I have The Seven Daughters of Eve home from the library now to read. I hope I enjoy it as much as you did.

I hope you do, too. It's hard for me to imagine how anyone even mildly curious about the world could not be interested in this research, but I guess not everyone feels the same as I do, which is also hard for me to imagine! ;-)

ETA - Cather DID make dirt sound good! There was so much in O! Pioneers about the land that it became a character - The Land.

Message edited by its author, Mar 10, 2009, 12:09pm.

no math? no chemistry? :-(

The Seven Daughters of Eve does sound really interesting. Something cool that just came out in the last year or so - it turns out that the trait "blue eyes" comes from this one mutation, and it is the same mutation in all blue-eyed people (not that they genotyped all blue-eyed people but statistics suggest that), and based on the surrounding DNA (something called SNPs that they can use to tell how old a mutation is, like did it happen 30,000 or 1 million or 6 million years ago) they could tell that this mutation for blue eyes only arose once in humans, meaning that all blue-eyed people probably descend from the ancestor in which the mutation arose. Making all blue-eyed persons inbred mutants.

Huskies with blue eyes also have the same mutation, but since the mutation dates to after the last dog-human common ancestor, they aren't related to blue-eyed people.

Your random factoid for the day.

ETA: I have blue eyes, so I am not insulting blue-eyed people by calling us "inbred mutants".

Message edited by its author, Mar 10, 2009, 12:45pm.

My husband and daughter both have blue eyes (my sons and I all have brown or hazel). I've called my daughter a "blue-eyed mutant" for years. I'm so pleased to be validated!

I don't mind math when I'm doing it, but I don't like reading someone else's math. But I just don't get chemistry. It was the only subject in school I never understood, no matter how hard I tried. Very frustrating then, and now.

My father also has blue eyes, and when I called my daughter a mutant, and she asked about my husband, "mutant" and then, what about grandpa? "he's a mutant, too". She threatened to tell him I said that, but I don't think she did, because I never got in trouble!

Sandy,

But I just don't get chemistry. It was the only subject in school I never understood, no matter how hard I tried.
I do understand...I was nearly a strait A student except for that D in Chemistry... I jut didn't get it.

FYI - I must be a green eyed mutant.

Message edited by its author, Mar 10, 2009, 1:49pm.

My entire family is mutants! My hubby has beautiful baby blues, I have murky ones, Beth has clear ones, and Catey has kind of green blue ones.

Both of my parents are brown-eyed, BTW, and both my sister and I ended up with blue eyes. Go figure.

What a shame about the "not getting it" in chemistry! As someone who taught at the college and university level for years, I can tell you that the most common cause of that lack was absolutely lousy teaching. I found out that students in high schools were being taught by driver's ed teachers or equivalent, and even when taught by a qualified science teacher, that teacher more often than not majored in biology.

Chemistry is incredibly fascinating, far more than physics (I am NOT prejudiced!) because chemistry grew up from practical matters--the textile dye works in Egypt, for example. Pottery making (glazes). We've been practical sorts from the beginning. to me, the world around me is explained through those natural laws. Eventually, I went to grad school and got my degree formally in chemistry but with an emphasis in biochemistry. The beauty of understanding the miracle of cells at the molecular level can not be described.

Late at night, I'd be doing some research on one of the major spectographs. I used to watch the pen at that point (we are talking many, many years ago) tracing out a line that recorded how an enzymatic reaction was taking place, and many times I used to think of the phrase from the Bible, which I now can not remember (not being in grad school anymore) but the one that starts "Mene, mene,...." I never have lost my awe of the utter magnificence of processes occurring at the molecular level, no mater what they were, whether biological in origin or not.

I'm no good in the sciences, but my youngest daughter is studying biochemistry at the University of Washington, and she just got a grant to study how mice can regenerate veins (arteries?) in their hearts. She is so Smart! (My oldest daughter's good at science too--she's a resident in pediatrics). Brag, brag. (Sorry).

#200: You have every right and even obligation to brag about your wonderful daughters!

#200: Brag all you want! That's what kids are for, right?

#199: Joyce, the phrase you are looking for is "Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin. It is from the book of Daniel.

I knew I could count on you, Stasia! I used to look at that wavering thin red line and practically see the finger.

#203: I am obviously too predictable.

#199 I figured I could get a comment from you if I made a remark about chemistry! I think our high school chemistry teacher was probably pretty good - it was a big school, so she taught neither drivers ed nor biology. Chemistry only. My 3 best friends loved her, took a second year and then all went on to major in related subjects in college - one is actually a chemistry major, another in pharmacy, and the third is a med tech. Me? I'm an accountant. I never did well, or even liked, science class in school. Now, however, science and history are probably 90% of my nonfiction reading, and I find it fascinating. (And everyone in the family fights to be on my team in trivial pursuit)

I wanted to take physics instead, but my dad (who loved chemistry) talked me out of it. I tell people that that was the only bad advice he ever gave me!

You are definitely in the minority, Sandy--I was truly astonished at how many people told me their high school chemistry teacher was, basically, unqualified. Or perhaps I should say that that was the case in WA and OR. The Northwest at that time definitely had an inferior educational system compared, certainly, to the Midwest. The best schools my kids went to were in Nebraska. When we moved to OR, they basically repeated a year.

That's interesting. Now, we think of the NW as being so high-tech. Their education, especially science and math, must surely be excellent. I don't think my school was exceptionally good, but I think this particular teacher must have been something special. Although it was lost on me, my friends found her to be truly inspiring and still talk about her occasionally. I barely even remember taking her class.

"Hi-tech" was/is Microsoft in the Seattle area. I've been gone from OR for so long that all I vaguely remember is Hewlett-Packard there or near there.

It wasn't really the universities--it was the grade and high schools. In Seattle itself, there were good schools, but my children even insist that their friends--the ones they left behind in Lincoln, NE--received a much better education than they did. In fact, my two sons , who attended the University of OR plus my daughter-in-law, insist that the education they received there was greatly inferior to that of friends who graduated from colleges and universities in the East and Midwest. About that I don't know--but I do know what the k-12 situation was like for my kinds--inferior--and on Whidbey Island, WA--a joke. But then I can't comment about Midwestern schools during that particular time period--from about 15 years ago until about 5 years ago--either.

Top students from anywhere have no problem, but mediocre schools affect the ones further down in the pack--the B and C students.

All I know is what I found out by surveying my students, every term in every class, about their backgrounds for a period of about 5 years. Then I stopped because the results were always the same, and I was in chemistry, not sociology.

I also might add that the first few days of my non-majors classes I spent teaching fractions. Seems as if no one--and I mean no one--could do fractions, and they were vital to the way I taught. so--I had to teach 5th grade arithmetic. Remedial reading was beyond my capability, and I could do nothing with those students who lacked any ability to comprehend an English sentence.

Joyce,
I probably did have a bad chemistry teacher in high school. My Mother-in-law was a chemist for the Food and Drug administration and on many occasions we had very interesting conversations on the experiments that she worked on. I don't know if it fascinated me after school because it didn't count or because she talked about it with such enthusiasm.

Sounds like she worked back in the days when Food and Drug actually did something! So many Federal agencies have been eviscerated during the past 8-9 years.

Enjoying your thread :) Dad was an organic chem prof and researcher, but science and math didn't take with me either.

211: Oh, there's no question that for some people it's a straightforward matter of the imagination working in other areas. Or way of thinking. It certainly is NOT required to understand and enjoy chemistry, but it didn't hurt that I am an abstract linear thinker, either! But I think the really top people are more right brain than left brain.

#212: more right brain than left brain

That explains why I do not get it - I have no brain, lol.

Stasia, you are such a twit!! :-)

#214: Not on purpose, I'm not.

There's absolutely no getting ahead of you, Stasia, and I don't know why I even try! LOL

#216: Masochism

I quite enjoyed the one year of chemistry I took in high school, "organic chem" being my favorite module... however, I was hopeless in the class and almost failed due to excessive math. :S I did very well in the organic component though, and I think that's what saved me in the end. I remember working so hard in that class, and barely getting by with a 55%. Still, I really liked it. I think I'm just allergic to math. :(

I'm going to join the chemistry-haters team. I always had good grades in it, because I generally had good grades, and I did understand it but I always found it sooo boring. Probably my least favorite class in high school. Now physics...that's a different case altogether. I ♥ practical :)

#219 That's why I always wished I'd taken physics instead. The biggest mystery I wanted solved was "why are my keys always in the bottom of my purse when they are the last thing that I put in there?" Plus, that was the class that all the cute geek guys took! ;-)

Practical! PHYSICS!!?? Adolescent hormones I can understand--chemistry, after all--but you realize those physicist types live in alternate universes. Of course, some of the names they have for sub-atomic particles and forces are cute like "barn" (from can't hit the broad side of a barn), quarks and other things that seem more at home in Tolkien, so, yes, fantasy reads. Of course.

I meant, you know, how does a lightbulb work?? That kind of thing. I see physics as kind of...the bigger picture, as opposed to chemistry when you're working on cell-level. How to things WORK. How to measure things. Etcetera. But then of course it's true that I had an awful, boring chemistry teacher and a ...well, not great but at least very enthusiastic physics one :)

#222: ohmygawd, real missionary work needed here! And please don't take my carrying on about cellular level stuff as the only thing! For instance, acrylic ("water-based') paints are an absolute marvel of modern chemistry. Adhesives, composites, alternative fuels, solar energy panels, adn a lot more.

And it pains me to say this, but believe it or not, we chemists measure things, too! Wow, I can see that I have to rally the profession to get the word out--clearly the physics boys and girls, none of whom can find their way out of a paper bag, have had their propaganda machine going! :-)

And yes, I think it's much easier to be an "attactive" (if incompentent) physics teacher than it is to be an "attractive" (if incompetent) chemistry teacher. The latter have you do a lot of unnecessary memorizing while the former have you knock small metal balls together and attract iron filings with magnets. Lots more fun, if perhaps not terribly enlightening.

But then I'm prejudiced.

Actually, physics is a country I like to visit but I've never wanted to live there. i prefer to understand why certain thins stick to each other and others don't, how fish breathe, how we're related, those of us with blue eyes, to just one Ice Age ancestral female. All chemistry.

How do 100 ft tall trees get water up to their tops? How do trees prepare for the winter? How do plants trap energy from the sun? What prevents a bird's feet from freezing in the winter? Why is mammalian blood red and some other types of blood blue?

You can answer all of these things at a superficial level, just as you can answer how does a light bulb work at a superficial level, but you won't understand a light bulb until you get down to the subatomic level, while you won't know the miracle of trees going dormant in the winter until you get down to the molecular level.

That's the difference between chemistry and physics. I've always been content with the higher level of organization, molecules, with an occasional foray into physics, which is concerned mainly with the sub-atomic level. In reality, physics has a narrower focus than does chemistry.

*sigh* This is almost as bad as my rants on the US Civil War.

...clearly the physics boys and girls, none of whom can find their way out of a paper bag

I beg to differ. Back in 2006, my compatriots and I launched a spacecraft to do a fly-by of Pluto. After a trip of 2.5 billion miles, we'll be where we want to be within less than a mile. Navigation we can do! 8^}

BTW, New Horizons will be there July of 2015! http://pluto.jhuapl.edu

Message edited by its author, Mar 11, 2009, 11:57am.

" And yes, I think it's much easier to be an "attractive" (if incompentent) physics teacher than it is to be an "attractive" (if incompetent) chemistry teacher. The latter have you do a lot of unnecessary memorizing while the former have you knock small metal balls together and attract iron filings with magnets. Lots more fun, if perhaps not terribly enlightening. "

Well that pretty much sums up both my physics and chemistry experience. I'm sure either of the two can be marvelous, if you are interested in them. I've always found physics more interesting, but never studied that at all after highschool either so my knowledge of it is pretty basic. I'm studying English: Linguistics & Literature, not at all related to our discussion. (or is it?) I'm just saying if I HAD to pick one of the two it would be physics. But, to me, neither of them is as fascinating as the way words work and language operates :) We all have to defend our personal interests!

And I must say, great defending on msg 223! Though I'm probably never gonna like chemistry, at least now I know that it CAN be interesting :)

#224: Yes, but look where that paper bag had to be! out in space!!

#225: If you asked me what was more important, I'd say linguistics, literature, and the general study of human behavior. throw in history. While it's true that the study of chemistry and physics has certainly given us more creature comforts and a longer life span, there is the other side to the way the knowledge has been used.

I'm well aware that the difference in interests is the kinds of questions that interest us. Mine have shifted with age. Far more interested now in history than any of the sciences.

When I was in graduate school, working until 1 or 2 am those last two terrible years, I used to wonder about the sanity of anybody who would choose to be in a laboratory, for heaven's sake, at those hours rather than home in bed snuggled up against another human being. I took a certain morbid pride that at least I never worked on Christmas Eve, although I had every other day of the year--and then one year I had to work on Christmas Eve.

By and large, scientists are not terrible social people or good company. And I most definitely include myself in that description.

Message edited by its author, Mar 11, 2009, 12:46pm.

#224: You realize, of course, that all of this is in very good fun! it's a running 'battle" I've carried on for years with my physics colleagues. Why, some of my very best friends have been physicists! :-)

Yep, that's why the smiley! You ought to see some of the wars between engineers and physicists. 8^}

#228: Do NOT get me started on engineers! Half of them--and that's being generous--can not speak or write the English language (talking about US engineers--I worked for Boeing) and the rest can't think. All they can do is build small-scale sulfuric acid plants and dam rivers. Not well, either.

Okay, Joyce. I went to high school 40 years ago in a small midwestern town--570 students in a four-year high school. We had one teacher who taught biology (sophomores), advanced biology, and algebra, and one who taught general science (freshmen), chemistry (juniors), and physics (seniors), one class of each. My freshman year we had this wonderful teacher, Mr. Jerry Deemer, who made general science magical. At the end of the next year, he was hired by a company in Chicago and we got this brand new teacher for chemistry our junior year. He lectured. He was booorrrrring! I never understood chemistry, but I perfected techniques for tic-tac-toe and connecting dots into squares and battleship in that class. Joyce--I never was able to get my mind around the concept of WHAT a mole was. Can you help me?

#230: Well, here goes.

It's a standard number, a unit of measure. It's exactly like the idea of a dozen. There are always twelve in a dozen of anything. That way you could, if you wanted to compare how big 2 dozen eggs are compared to, say, two dozen gold bricks! Or two dozen houses. Or compare weights--which may not seem everyday useful but is incredibly important in chemistry. That's it, basically. The number of items in a mole is gawdawful huge--600,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (give or take). This is a tad simplified but it works.

It allows me to calculate certain types of behavior, such as how much antifreeze you need in your car radiator to protect it down to a certain temperature. Your service station attendant has a chart but that chart is based on the number of moles of antifreeze is necessary to lower the freezing point of a set amount of water. It's the number of "particles"--in this case, molecules of antifreeze. But if you wanted to really have fun, you could imagine a mole of stars, a mole of beer cans (think of the litter!), a mole of white rabbits, a mole of chrysanthemums--it's always the same number.

And in a bow to our physicist, it's like the value of using the unit parsec in astronomy and science fiction--it makes the huge numbers easy to work with.

And because this is fun for me--something I haven't thought about in years and years--the mole is used in some terribly important ways. suppose you had to have an IV after surgery, let's say. you don't just put in water--you have some sort of electrolyte solution--sometimes it's just a plain salt solution--saline--sometimes more complicated. you can't use just water because if you dilute the blood, water will pass into the cells and, just like a balloon with too much air (particles) burst the cell. Basically, you have to have the same number of particles--salt, let's say--in a pint of IV solution that exists in a pint of blood.

That's the way a 200 ft tree can pump water from its roots to the very top of its branches--by regulating the number of moles--the number of particles of everything dissolved--in the sap. It's also the way that trees go dormant in the winter.

The mole is a powerful way of allowing us to describe and predict certain types of behavior. And keep our car radiators from freezing and help our bodies out after surgery.

oh wow I wish I had such an enthusiastic chemistry teacher :)

I LOVED teaching! Particularly non-majors. It was really fun for me to take terrified people--mainly older women who were returning to pursue careers especially in nursing--and just show them how to become A students. I had the weirdest grade curves--a two-humped camel. The bigger hump was As and Bs. And I never graded on a curve but on an absolute grading scale--90-100 an A, etc. Curves allow people to be sloppy and it works against cooperation--after all, if you help someone else out, you might give them an advantage on the curve. Not true of an absolute system. used to gladden my heart to see a bunch of my students studying together in the cafeteria.

I took the courses no one wanted and the people no one wanted. The Arabs, the southeast Asians, the non-majors, particularly women (remember what era we're talking about). all I did was give the minorities a fair shake and show the women how to succeed. That was my greatest satisfaction in teaching. anyone can teach majors--they're motivated for whatever reason. plus, too damned many of the majors were pre-med or pre-dent and they were among the most obnoxious students around, for obvious reasons. all they cared about was the grades to get into med school or dental school and believe me they would go to any lengths to get those grades.

These, of course, are sweeping generalizations, but like most sweeping generalizations, have a basis in fact.

I suppose this makes me sound like some sort of hero, but the fact of the matter is that this was the easiest route for me to take. i loved the students, I loved showing people who were scared out of their minds that they could not just pass but become stellar students--and once the fear left, I could show them the magic of my world.

I actually got paid to have this kind of fun! LOL

Unfortunately, not enough, and I had to leave.

Message edited by its author, Mar 11, 2009, 3:10pm.

Never mind me, just popping in to post another book. The discussion makes me wish that I'd had Joyce for a chemistry teacher. I might not have understood more about chemistry, but I'm sure I would at least have gained an appreciation for the subject. Too bad all teachers aren't as passionate about their subjects and students as you are, Joyce.

Book #33

In the Footsteps of Marco Polo by Denis Belliveau.

This book is one of those companion books to a PBS production, but the best one I've ever seen. It is beautiful. Belliveau, and his friend Fran O'Donnell, decide to recreate the travels of Marco Polo to determine whether the old tale could have been true or was pure fabrication. They did not allow themselves to travel by air, and spent 2 years traveling by jeep, camel, boat, and horseback through 20 different Asian countries. Their observations about the terrain, the historical sites and, most of all, the people they met were fascinating. They were frank in describing the difficulties they experienced with bureaucrats and border patrols throughout the trip. They were also open in revealing the emotional impact they experienced. The text in interspersed with quotations from Marco Polo's book. The similarities between Polo's experiences and observations were eerily similar to many of the modern expedition, confirming their belief that Polo did, in fact, travel to the places he claimed that he did.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I know I'll never be able to travel to any of these places, so being able to read about someone else's travels will have to be good enough. They described the food, the accomodations, the weather, the clothes, and best of all, the people they met. The photos are fabulous. I gave it 4 stars.

Message edited by its author, Mar 11, 2009, 8:24pm.

#235: Looks like another one I will have to try. I read a good one on Polo last year, so might as well read another one this year, lol.

What did you read last year?

You want all 490 books or just the Polo one, lol.

Marco Polo : from Venice to Xanadu by Lawrence Bergreen (since I am assuming you just wanted the one).

#229: Ouch, on behalf of the engineers I work with.

It's funny that drneut mentioned battles between engineers and physicists -- we have several joint institutes at the university I work for and they seem to play well together... ah well.

#238 Actually, I wanted all 490! ;-) I think the Bergreen book is referenced in this one - they included a short bibliography/additional reading list in the back. I think this was on it.

#239 My brothers are both engineers, I would believe just about any story of bad behavior about one of their ilk! I know for a fact that one brother does NOT play well with others - they put up with him because they think he is some kind of genius or something. But I've known since he was 4 that he is just a brat!

#240: You can check them out here http://www.librarything.com/topic/28160 if you are really interested, but I don't think you really meant it :)

The book on Marco Polo is the only thing of Bergreen's I have read to date, but I will probably read more of his books in future.

Sorry to hijack you thread, Sandy! And what's worse, in doing so, to make myself look like such a bundle of virtues!! Sort of nauseating, really.

Anyway, my apologies.

#241 Stasia, I browsed your list through 3/31. Very impressive. I've read a few of those books, and have heard of a few more. The one that popped out at me was The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta. I was pretty underwhelmed by that one - kept waiting for something interesting to happen. Anything interesting. But nothing ever did. I'm going to check into the Bergeen book on Marco Polo, though.

#242 Never apologize, Joyce. You're welcome to hold court here anytime! Unless you start conducting actual chemistry lessions. Then you're out! ;-)

>235 LOL I had just looked up to the top of my window to see whose thread this was ...

#243: As I recall, I was rather wishy-washy about that one. Not a favorite and certainly not one I plan on ever re-reading.

#244 Me, too. Wanted to be sure I didn't post my book on someone else's thread!

Book #34

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass.

This is a very little book that tells a big story. Frederick Douglass begins his narrative with his birth in about 1817, the son of a dark-skinned slave woman and an unknown white man - possibly his master. He tells of one outrage after another that was endured by him, members of his family, and fellow slaves in a dispassionate voice, without embellishments or hyperbole. When he was about 7 years old, he was sent to Baltimore to live with his owner's son-in-law's brother and serve as companion to his young son. His new mistress, new to slave-owning, was at first warm and kind and began teaching him to read. Her husband rebuked her, telling her that was the surest was to ruin a slave. Douglass taught himself to read in spite of his master's decree, and discovered the truth of the statement. By reading about the abolitionism movement, he became acutely aware of of his slavery and vowed that he would become free one day. He was moved from master to master throughout his teens, working as a field hand for a while - perhaps the most brutal fate of any for a slave. He organized an escape attempt with several other slaves, but it was compromised just hours before the plan was to be implemented. After being jailed, Douglass was returned to Baltimore where he learned to be a calker in the shipyards. As a slave, he was forced to turn over his entire wage to his master, usually $6-9 per week, who would sometimes give him back a few pennies to keep for himself. He found this even more degrading than if the master had kept the entire sum - he said it was an acknowledgement by the master that he (Douglass) was really the only one who had any rights to the money. He then began to plan another escape. He was intentionally vague about how this was accomplished in order to protect those who had helped him, to enable more slaves to find their way to freedom, and to keep slaveholders ignorant of the means of escape. After he found his way to New England, he encountered racial prejudice from white workers fearing for their jobs. Eventually, he became involved in the abolitionist movement and came to the notice of the movement's leaders who pressed him into service as a speaker.

I thought this account was fascinating. Douglass, and many others like him, proved to the world that African slaves are intelligent, thinking, human beings by their articulate writings and persuasive speeking. Many times he pointed out the hypocracy of the brutality of the most religious of the slave owners. He included an appendix to the narrative in which he explained his feelings about Christianity, since he had been so critical of devout Christians. He ended the narrative with these comments and this poem:

"I conclude these remarks by copying the following portrait of the religion of the south, which I soberly affirm is 'true to the life,' and without caricature or the slightest exaggeration. It is said to have been drawn, several years before the present anti-slavery agitation began, by a Northern Methodist preacher, who, while residing in the south, had an opportunity to see slaveholding morals, manners, and piety with his own eyes"

A PARODY

Come, saints and sinners, hear me tell
How pious priests whip Jack and Nell,
And women buy and children sell,
And preach all sinners down to hell,
And sing of heavenly union.

They'll bleat and baa, dona like goats,
Gorge down black sheep, and strain at motes,
Array their backs in fine black coats,
Then seize their negroes by their throats,
And choke, for heavenly union.

They'll church you if you sip a dram,
And damn you if you steal a lamb,
Yet rob old Tony, Doll, and Sam,
of human rights, and bread and ham,
Kidnapper's heavenly union.

They'll loudly talk of Christ's reward,
And bind his image with a cord,
And scold, and swing the lash abhorred,
And sell their brother in the Lord
to handcuffed heavenly union.

They'll read and sing a sacred song,
And make a prayer both loud and long,
And teach the right and do the wrong,
hailing the brother, sister throng,
With words of heavenly union.

We wonder how such saints can sing,
Or praise the Lord upon the wing,
Who roar, and scold, and whip, and sting,
And to their slaves and mammon cling,
In guilty conscience union.

They'll raise tobacco, corn, and rye,
And drive, and thieve, and cheat, and lie,
And lay up treasures in the sky,
By making switch and cowskin fly,
In hope of heavenly union.

They'll crack old Tony on the skull,
And preach and roar like Bashan bull,
Or braying ass, of mischief full,
Then seize old Jacob by the wool,
And pull for heavenly union.

A roaring, ranting, sleek man-thief,
Who lived on mutton, veal, and beef,
Yet never would afford relief
To needy, sable sons of grief,
Was big with heavenly union.

'Love not the world,' the preacher said,
And winked his eye, and shook his head,
He seized on Tom, and Dick, and Ned,
Cut short their meat, and clothes, and bread,
Yet still loved heavenly union.

Another preacher whining spoke
Of One whose heart for sinners broke:
He tied old Nanny to an oak,
And drew the blood at every stroke,
And prayed for heavenly union.

Two others oped their iron jaws,
And waved their children-stealing paws,
There sat their children in gewgaws,
By stinting negroes' backs and maws,
They kept up heavenly union.

All good from Jack another takes,
And entertain their flirts and rakes,
Who dress as sleek as glossy snakes,
And cramtheir mouths with sweetened cakes,
And this goes down for union.

4-1/2 stars. Highly recommended.

Message edited by its author, Mar 15, 2009, 11:35pm.

#247: I completely agree with your review of the book. I think it should be mandatory reading for everyone.

I read this for a class in early American History a few years ago, and found it very powerful as well. If you are interested in slave narratives, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano is also very good, as is The History of Mary Prince. Hard reading emotionally, but important to read.

I read one biography of Douglass which I adored (ETA don't know the title now, 15+ years ago I think). I hope to run across this one sometime. Thank you.

Also ETA wasn't he the most amazing man?! Have you read anything on George Washington Carver? He's another of my heroes :)

Message edited by its author, Mar 18, 2009, 6:42pm.

#250 I think there are about 3 Douglass books out there - but don't know if they're entirely different or not. I haven't read anything by or about George Washington Carver since grade school when we had the obligatory unit on African-Americans during Black History Month. One year, (about 6th grade, I think) I had an elderly black lady for a teacher. (I say elderly - she was maybe 60!). This was back around 1970 and we still had forced bussing in our schools for intigration. In her class we had "black history" all year - as part of our regular history lessons. We really had a chance to learn about the real contribution some of these people made to our nation because they were amazing individuals, not because of their race. George Washington Carver was "the most amazing man". Thanks for reminding me of him - I'll make a note to seek him out later this year.

Book #35

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson.

I kept hearing how good this book was and how much everyone loved it, but I really had no idea what it was about. In short: A financial journalist is found guilty of libel after he published a story about a prominent businessman and his supposed crooked dealings. After the verdict, the journalist is contacted and offered a job by an aging industialist who wants a chronicle of his family, and the family business, written and published. That is the cover story. What he really wants is for someone to try one last time to solve the 40-year old mystery of his niece's disappearance (and assumed death). The "girl" in the title is the young, unconventional reasearcher who assists him in trying to solve the mystery.

I agree with "everyone". I thought the book was very good, and I enjoyed it very much. Looking forward to the next in the series. 3-1/2 stars.

Message edited by its author, Mar 23, 2009, 4:29pm.

Book #36

The River Wife by Jonis Agee.

This is a multi-generational story of a family from SE Missouri. Heidi Ducharme, a young bride, pregnant and alone in her husband's house while he is mysteriously called away for business night after night in the 1930's, discovers a set of journals handed down for generations in the family and begins to read. The story begins with the New Madrid earthquake that was centered in this area in 1812. The earthquake caused Annie Lark's home to collapse on top of her, trapping her inside. The 16-year old girl's family fled, leaving her to die alone. Three days later, a French trapper named Jacques Ducharme rescued her, cared for her, and then married her. Despite the first section focusing on Annie, most of the book is centered around Jacques, as he outlives first one wife then another, and as he engages in different "business" ventures (he is nothing more than a thief and pirate), and ends up raising the daughter born to him in his old age. After Jacques, the book tells the story of Maddie, the daughter, and then Heidi, who is married to Maddie's son.

I thought it started out very promisingly. The story of Annie and Jacques is interesting and well-told. I was pretty excited about reading the book. Then things began falling apart. The transition from one generation to the next, even from one scene to the next, became abrupt and forced. The characters were less well-developed. I no longer felt that I was becoming acquainted with them. It was more like coming into a movie in the middle and not quite understanding who everyone is and how they are connected to one another. Or even what it happening. There are too many loose ends that aren't tied up, or even adequately explained. Maybe this is another of those times when the real meaning has just gone over my head, but I didn't get it. The ending didn't come soon enough, but was still too abrupt and not at satisfying. I only gave it 2 stars. This book is our current group read over in the Missouri readers group - after we discuss it, if someone is able to explain it to me, maybe I'll feel better and change its rating. Until then, I really can't recommend it. HOWEVER, the reviews are all over the place and some people loved it, so don't automatically take my word for it.

That someone won't be me, Sandy, I'm afraid. I agree with your review. As I just said over in the MO readers group, I'd have ended it after Annie died. The novella is a highly underrated literary form, and it would have worked out well for this story.

I'd have liked to read more (in a completely different story) about Omah. Freed slave/river pirate has the makings of a fantastic story.

I agree that Omah would have made a great story - I'm hopping over to MO readers to (more propertly) talk more there.

Book #37

Battle Cry of Freedom by James M McPherson.

I can't believe I finally finished this book. I've been working on it since early January. It is a re-read for me. The first time through, in 1997, it actually took twice as long as this time.

What shall I say about it? I've often heard it referred to as the best single volume history of the American civil war. McPherson actually begins his narrative in the 1850's, not long after the end of the Mexican war. Many of the civil war generals fighting against each other during the civil war were comrades getting their first taste of combat in the Mexican war - some were even classmates at West Point. McPherson also discusses many of the divisive issues that led up the the secession of the Confederate states, including slavery. Once the war begins, he proceeds chronologically examining not only battles and military strategy, but also the impact of the war on politics, the economy, business and industry, foreign policy, and public opinion - in both the north and the south. The final part examines different theories about WHY the north won and whether it was a foregone conclusion. He also looks at some of the issues and effects of the war which continued into reconstruction and until the turn of the century.

I continue to highly recommend this book to anyone interested in this important American historical period. At 900+ pages, it is not a fast read, but diligence here will be rewarded. I give it 4-1/2 stars.

#256: I agree with you about recommending McPherson's book. I think it should be mandatory reading for any student of the Civil War.

I just stumbled onto your thread... you've got some lively discussions in here! From literalism to chemistry to some interesting books. I will be following in the future.

#258 Welcome. I thought by your name that you might be a doctor or other medical person. But according to your profile, you're an attorney? If there's an interesting story, we'd love to hear it. Is that you "playing" the typewriter in your profile photo?

#257 This WAS mandatory reading for me back in '97. I was doing an independent study of the different impacts the war had on the lives of northern and southern women. My instructor insisted I read this book as background, to provide an overview of the whole war. I think what I really like best about this book is that it includes insights into the rest of society. That has always been my main interest when studying any historical period - what were the lives of the people like? What was it like to live there then? I'm not such a military fanatic that just rehashing battles and military campaigns holds my interest for very long. I have more appreciation of it when placed into the context of the entire country's experiences during this time.

#259: LOL. Nope, not a doctor but a somewhat disillusioned lawyer. And to answer your questions, "Cauterize" has been my internet handle since I was 15 because I pulled it from a song lyric by my favourite band. Actual lyric: "I cauterize my left side breaks"...I'm not kidding. Ahh, the craziness of youth! The picture isn't me but one of my personal heroes, Tina Fey. I just wanted an emblem of my geek love.

#260 I'm so glad I'm not 15 anymore! It's a great picture, nonetheless. Just about everyone I've ever know becomes disillusioned in their late 20's. My theory is that, now that you're really and truly a grown-up, you discover that it's really not all that wonderful. My advice? Unless you just hate the law, stick with it. You can make a very comfortable living in that profession. Plus, it's one of the more flexible professions out there. At least you have a profession. Your lucky mom. My kids are all STILL in school. I think my oldest son will be needing an extension to his 10-year college plan!

#261: The law is okay, it's other lawyers that are terrible. It's a field full of aggressive, patriarchal, snobby, judgmental, elitist, back-stabbing, workaholic, A-Type personalities. Yep, and I am none of those things. It wasn't so bad when they were on the other side of the table, but when your co-workers are screwing you over, it's not so fun. That's why I'm in a state of whether I still want to do this job.

I think when I was 15, the best thing I did was pick this handle ;). I still love it. I love "C" words and I like the fire/burning connotations of it. Plus, I never have to fight other people for the name when I register for websites, etc. It's just embarrassing for me now, when I think of where I got the inspiration.

LOL, you should cut your kids off if they dawdle too long. I had to pay for my law degree (my second one), but I did have some help with the living expenses.

And yeah, my mom probably does love me. I married a doctor (chiropractor). He likes my handle, for obvious reasons :)

#262 I used to think I wanted to go to law school. But I probably would have had the same opinion of the other lawyers as you do. I'm a CPA, and my colleagues are bad enough. They remind me of a bunch of little Napoleons. But, over time, I managed to get myself into a wonderful position (accounting is another delightfully flexible profession). I am self-employed, work from a home office, limit my clients to those in a single, specialized industry and work about 25-30 hours per week. My clients, who are small and can't afford an accountant on staff, think I am wonderful because I come in and fix their problems - a real ego boost for me. But, I had to pay my dues and put up with a series of bad jobs and worse bosses before I could do this.

My son informed me that after one more year he will be able to apply for financial aid on his own, without having to report our income, too. Then he will be well and truly on his own. I hope.

I agree with Cauterize about lawyers--I'm a lawyer who wishes I could own a bookstore. Fortunately, I'm a tax lawyer, and my adversary is usually the IRS, which contrary to popular opinion is usually not difficult to work with.

Law is a flexible field though. I practiced law for 12 years, took off 10 years, then went back to work 12 years ago when my kids starting going to college. I was extremely fortunate to find a firm that allows me to work as little or as much as I want. When I first went back to work, I still had elementary school age children at home, so I worked only 8-10 hours per week. As they got older, I worked more full time. Last year I decided to begin to wind down (and I think I would have completely retired by now except for the economy's plummet and the 2 kids still in college). I currently work from home, like you SJ (go into office maybe once a month) and still get to pick how much I want to work--on a case by case basis. I feel very fortunate.

Fortunate, yes. I keep waiting for someone to find out what I'm doing and make me stop. It somehow feels wrong to have such a perfect job. There are several professions that I think are ideal for working women who need different balances between work and family at different times of life, while still paying a decent salary. Men, too, I guess, but they generally emphasize work. Accounting and law are two biggies - nursing is another, maybe the biggest of all. I've known nurses who worked only on weekends, when their husbands were home to watch the kids, and made as much or more working Fri-Sat-Sun nights as most of the rest of us did in a regular 40-hour work week.

I know the pinch you're talking about - I also have 2 kids in college, plus 1 graduating from HS this spring, and another graduating 2 years later. It's only money. It grows on trees, right? ;-)

#263, 264: I am so envious of you guys! It sounds like you are so content with your work, I am always jealous of people who love their jobs. *sigh*

#266 Don't give up - it takes time and effort to work yourself into the place where you want to be. Just don't listen to the people who tell you that it's not possible. Maybe it's not possible NOW, but you'll find a way if it's important to you.

I was still working full-time even after I had 4 kids. Then I quit completely for a few years before going back part-time, just like ABW. That gradually worked into self-employment as first one then another call came in for "some extra help if you have time".

In a few years, you'll be telling your own story.

Book #38

The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton by Jane Smiley.

This is the story of a young Illinois woman who meets and marries a Massachusetts man who is passing through on his way to Lawrence, Kansas with the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company - an organization seeking to send anti-slavery settlers to the Kansas territory in an effort to prevent it from being admitted to the union as a slave state. Lidie, who never had strong opinions on way or the other about the slavery issue, travels to Lawrence with Thomas, her new husband, and becomes involved with the abolitionist society there. While there, she and the other settlers endure the constant threats and attacks from the pro-slavery Missourians in addition to the usual difficulties of homesteading on the virgin western prairie. After a particularly brutal attack, Lidie travels back to Missouri to seek out the perpetrators and exact revenge. She falls ill and is taken in by a wealthy slave-holding family and stays with them for several weeks, enjoying the ease of life afforded by the presence of slave laborers. Struggling to understand her own feelings about the issue, and those of her husband, and invited to stay with the family indefinitely, Lidie must decide what action to take next.

This was a deceptively large book - only 1-1/2 inches thick, it had 450 thin pages of smallish type. It took longer than I expected to finish. But, the story was interesting enough that it held my interest. There is a lot going on in there. In an interview with the author, printed at the end of the book, Smiley said she wanted to write "about the intersection of ideology and violence in American life" after the Oklahoma City bombing. A friend of hers instantly suggested "Kansas, 1850". An excellent choice. My next goal is to determine the accuracy of the historical events as presented in the book. But even if they aren't quite right, this is an excellent picture of what happens when people with widely different convictions are allowed to confront each other beyond the reach of the law. Not a pretty picture. I'm giving it 3-1/2 stars, mostly because I thought it was just too long.

This thread is becoming too long - I'm going to start the 2nd quarter over here:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/61398&...

#267: Thanks for all your encouraging messages. I know there will be the perfect job for me, I just gotta go through all the struggles to find it - like everyone else!

And 270 messages, it is one of the longest of the groups. It's cool because that means you have read some discussion-provoking books. I'll be following you on the new one.