LizzieD: 2011*1

Happy New Year to Us All!
I'm reading already and this time I'm even going to have a ticker!!!

(* shows a review on the book page)
JANUARY
1. The Blue Flower - strange little book - love and death in 18th century Germany
2. All Clear - scifi - time travel to London, WWII - I loved it in the end!
3. Ex Libris - essays on books - I've found a new sister!
4. The Idea of Perfection - imperfection in Australia - Orange winner, '01 - love, not LOVE
5. Testament of Friendship* - Vera Brittain's biography of Winifred Holtby - worthy of your time and mine
6. Anderby Wold* - Holtby's first; my third - love and loss in Yorkshire
7. Untrodden Peaks and Unfrequented Valleys* - Virago/Beacon Traveler - very detailed descriptions of the Dolomites in 1872

Welcome back!

Found you!

Glad to see you back, Peggy! Nice ticker too :)

Hi Peggy--found you. Happy New Year to you. We had fun here at LT in 2010, and I'm looking forward to another good year in 2011. Now we just need to convince Sib to get her butt over here. Ha.

Thank you for greetings! It feels like home already. I have resolved to keep a better account of what I'm actually reading. So for my first entry, these are the books I've been into and out of for the past couple of days:
Untrodden Peaks and Unfrequented Valleys - Amelia has visited Titian's birthplace and found it a small whitewashed house "disfigured" by an outside chimney. (Who knew?)
All Clear - They're bombing St. Pauls, and Polly, Eileen, and Mike still can't get away.
Testament of Friendship - Winifred's mother publishes a book of her poetry while she's a child.
A Glastonbury Romance - The will is an unpleasant surprise, but John and Mary have reconnected.
The Blue Flower - Fritz is boarding with the Just family in Tennstedt.
Devices and Desires - Valens corresponds with the wife of his cousin Orsea and sends medical help to Orsea's defeated army.
Ex Libris - Ann's youthful attempts at poetry were pretty bad, but they scan!
(I have Anderby Wold and Regenesis out on Aconcagua, the reading mountain, but I haven't gotten into them. Will I hold out?)

Happy New Year, Peggy! Looking forward to another year of reading with you. Let me know when you finish All Clear.

Peggy, I am consistently amazed at the number of books you have going at one time. I love it even though I wouldn't be able to duplicate it. Sometimes I have 6 or 7 books on my "currently reading" list, but rarely am I in fact reading more than two or three. And I also love your succinct aphorismic-like comments about each book (was it Sib who called you Ben Franklin?).

Hi, Peggy. Like you, I am determined to comment on my books as I go this year. But I won't be reading more than 1 (or maybe 2) at a time, so I won't get confused.....

Hello again, Peggy. Just to let you know that I've finally jotted down some not very concise thoughts about The Lacuna and Wolf Hall and some similarities in theme which struck me - you can find these at the end of my final thread for last year, if you are still interested.

Hi Peggy

Welcome back!

Hiya -- are you finding it frustrating that Eileen, Polly and Mike are sooo stuck for sooo long in All Clear? I admit it drove me slightly nuts.

Happy 2011 reading!

I am really looking forward to reading All Clear and Blackout in the next week or two.

Peggy, do I recall you recommending a writer named Carol O'Connel recently? Is there a particular/first one to start with?

Hi Peggy, I have just starred you- I really want to know more about all those books you're reading! I love Winifred Holtby and am hoping to read Anderby Wold soon. Maybe for Virago week...if I find out when Virago week is!

I'm HAPPY to be back here!
Suzanne, I was frustrated in a major way in Blackout to read the same thing character after character. I guess I've come to terms with it now. I haven't read any since my last post, and at 40% on my Kindle, I fear that I ain't seen nuttin yet.
Nevertheless, Stasia, you will breeze right through these and have a lot of fun, I think. The flaws don't ruin the books as far as I'm concerned. Willis is making me want to read Wave Me Goodbye and the other book I have with it in an omnibus about women's experiences in WWII.
Janet, you should definitely start with the first in the series, Mallory's Oracle to get the best background for the continuing characters. I don't think that O'Connell writes as well as Larsson did, but she's pretty good.
Welcome, Dee!!! I meant to read Anderby Wold for Virago week too, but it will clearly take me more than a week, so I want to start now so that I can maybe finish. I don't know when it will be either. Belva has promised to find out and let us know.
The only reading I've done has been in *Testament*, and not much of that. Winifred was apparently a free spirit, not greatly interested in academics (but interested in asking far-out questions) or sports, but writing - especially plays. Her mother gathered an audience for a play she wrote and staged when she was 17, and it was so risqué that several patrons walked out. Love it!
And I've discovered that I'm a "courtly lover" of books for the most part.

#17 I'm with you on being mostly a 'courtly lover' of books - though not as much as my father who prides himself on never getting any creases in the spines of paperbacks he's read, so they look unread.

WOW! More power to him! I'd do that too if I could.

>16 Soupdragon:, 17: I also have Anderby Wold queued up to read this month. I'm not sure when Virago week will be either -- Rachel (bigpinkmarshmallow) last mentioned late Jan or early Feb. I follow her blog (http://bookssnob.wordpress.com/) so will also keep watch there.

#17: Wave Me Goodbye looks like one I would like. Thanks for the mention, Peggy!

I was lost somewhere in the northern woods..... but now I've emerged and found you. All is well.

Hi, Lucy. I feel all better now.
I said that I was going to report on my reading, and I can see that this isn't going to last long.....
*Untrodden/Unfrequented* - I'm into the next chapter and salting the 19th century lady's reaction to peasants and dirt liberally. She is a sufficiently amusing writer to keep me going though - "The floors, the bedding, the rush-bottomed chairs are all as scrupulously clean as the lower part of the establishment is unscrupulously the reverse." (She wrote a bunch of novels as well as her most famous travel book A Thousand Miles Up the Nile.) (p. 132)
All Clear - We now are seeing the near-misses of our 3 heroes rushing around London on the night of December 29, 1940, when St. Paul's didn't burn. I'm thinking that all this can't possibly be by chance. (48%)
Ex Libris - I may be a courtly lover of my books once I get them, but I love used books whether they've been cherished or abused or well-used. And I'm in the next chapter and not going to find a page #. I almost never write a message in a gift book, partly because of the courtly lover thing and partly because the recipient might prefer to trade my gift for another book.
Glastonbury Romance - Well, the romance part continues with John and Mary on the river and a little First Cause again. I'll be happy when the group's books arrive! (p. 77)
The Blue Flower - This is a strange little book. Fritz von Hardenberg, "Novalis," was a German poet who lived at the end of the 18th century. This is his story as he studies law and trains to follow his father as manager of a salt mine. On p. 72 where I've stopped, he has been stopped in his tracks by a 12 year-old girl to whom he has just proposed.
That's about it for today.

Wow, you are starting out your year galloping out of the gate, or is that gates? I love it.

I'm back -- It's Becky's first Thingaversary -- I kept remembering when I wasn't near the computer, forgetting when I was all day, but at last everything came together. So if you come back here, go over there!

My, Peggy, you're going strong with 2011 reading already!

I have you starred.

Found you Peggy!

Books Acquired (!) in 2011
JANUARY
Doreen (from a friend)
Death Comes for the Archbishop (from a friend; a replacement of an old copy)
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow (PBS)
Time Travelers Never Die (PBS)
The Given Day - PBS
The Siege ✔ - PBS - Brenzi, as a matter of fact!
Her Son's Wife - PBS (Wow!!!)
The Lieutenant - Kindle (cheap! for Thingaversary) (This is the first that I actually bought in January)
The Vicar's Daughter - a used VMC, new-style green from Awesome Books (This is one of my Thingaversary books!)
The Housekeeper - for Kindle again and really cheap! At $3.99 not buying it would have been a sin of omission. It's January purchase #2.
Women in the Wall - also January, used from amp
(This is becoming embarrassing, but I've spent right at $20 so far.)
The Genesee Diary ✔ - PBS
Molly Fox's Birthday ✔ - cheap from AMP
The Brother of Daphne - $0 on Kindle
Mrs. Ames ✔ - $3 on Kindle
Roman Mornings - PBS
An Autumn Sowing - $3.97 on Kindle
Mrs. Amworth - $0 on Kindle
Old Filth ✔ - PBS
Mayflower ✔ - PBS (Brenzi again!)
Virginia Woolf: A Critical Memoir - AMP, cheap again
Uncommon Arrangements ✔ - a gift!

✔ = read

I want to add one more thing to my Ex Libris discussion about inscriptions in books. My lovely copy (from a lovelier friend) is "used" but pristine. It was given "to my reading soul mate Anne from Grace." I have such questions about Anne!
(I won't be able to discuss the next essay about reading on the spot because I never go anywhere.)

Hi Peggy, Happy 2nd Thingaversary!!!!

I saw that it was your thingaversary over on Lucy's thread and then went to look for yours and realized I hadn't been on your 2011 thread yet. I went to the wiki that lists all the 75ers and they have your name spelled "Peggie". Is that the correct spelling?

Anyway, glad to have found you and hope you have some good books to celebrate with.

I loved Ex Libris so I'm enjoying all the references to it.

Hello there dear, I am following up with a happy 2nd too! I've been having weird wifi woes this morning or I would have stopped by sooner.

Happy 2nd Thingaversary to you! Have you decided what books you will get to celebrate the auspicious occasion?

Woo hoo! Happy Thingaversary, Peggy!

Thank you one and all! This place is the present, but I'm pretty sure that I'm going to download Kate Grenville's The Lieutenant to Kindle because it's so cheap. (I also have a couple coming in from Awesomebooks that should be my gift to myself.)
(Pat, I am decidedly not Peggie, but it doesn't really matter.)

Happy Thingaversary, Peggy!

And here I sit with a brand new HC copy of The Lieutenant sitting on my shelf. Who knows why I haven't read it yet since I adore Kate Grenville.

Happy Thingaversary Peggy!

ETA maybe the right TIOLI challenge will come up this year, possibly Book Titles with 13 Letters;-)

possibly Book Titles with 13 Letters

Ooooooh! I do like that one, Bonnie. The number 13 is my lucky number!!

Thank you, Caty and Bonnie! That's a good challenge - and 13 is one of my lucky numbers too. (Like my father, I was born on Friday 13th!)
I wanted to say a word about the next Fadiman essays. I too wish that we could come up with an acceptable alternative to his/her. I would suggest "hir," but I'm afraid it doesn't matter what anyone suggests. It's way too hard to work a word like that into the language. (I wish it were too hard to work something like "as well" in. I have a friend who uses that every third sentence, and not always where it fits, "as well." Grrrr.)
And of course, I am an inveterate correcter of writing errors when I see them. I could readily identify with the Fadiman family's scrutiny of menus..... My favorite is "beef burgingnon" at a now-defunct local restaurant.
I've read a little in All Clear (things - and not happy things - are beginning to happen), The Blue Flower, and A Glastonbury Romance today, but I'm too sleepy to have anything to say. And I caved and started Anderby Wold and find that W. Holtby was herself even in her first book. This one is going to be a real pleasure!

The Blue Flower frustrated me no end, too! I felt as if I was being smothered in a duvet, somehow...

Happy Thingaversary!!

Beware -- not everything in Connie Willis is altogether as it seems... I think you'll find the final 20% or so grabs you.

#38: Happy Thingaversary, Peggy! I am glad you are continuing to enjoy Ex Libris.

Isn't Ex Libris wonderful ?
And I'm glad to hear about Anderby Wold, that's on my list to read this month.

#38 I know what you mean about the his/er problem - I come across this a lot with hymns. I understand and approve of the desire to make the language more gender-inclusive in worship as elsewhere, but I hate many of the attempts which have mangled the more-or-less poetry of hymns and other religious texts. My only consolation with hymns is that their texts are mostly rather fluid anyway: if you look into any one in detail you will find numerous editorial changes over the years for a variety of reasons, so perhaps we should accept that they are not a static form. But how to ensure that new writing achieves elegance as well as being gender inclusive?

I'm enjoying these updates. Do keep them coming!

That is good news about Anderby Wold. I was a bit concerned that going from her last book South Riding to her first would be too much of a leap!

Happy to see how your reading is striking you -- I like the day-by-day ups and downs.

>42 gennyt:: ooh genny, as a vicar you must grapple with this all the time. I once attended a Presbyterian church with a progressive husband-wife couple as pastors. They were strong advocates for inclusive language and changed a few things in the worship service. They also introduced a new hymnal that, among other things, changed language on some old stand-bys. This was quite controversial!

I currently attend a Quaker Meeting where the hymnal (yes, Quakers do sing) sometimes designates alternate language with an asterisk/footnote.

It's a touchy subject but one I'm in favor of ...

In general, I also applaud the use of gender neutral language, but our hymn book (possibly the one you used, Laura; not the latest, but still controversial for the Bible Belt) really wrecks some rhythms and stops a train of thought cold. I don't see why they don't leave old hymns as they were written - relics of another age. The director of the denomination's new hymnbook committee was at our church last year. When somebody asked about going back to the original version, he answered, "Which original version?" That echoes what you were saying, Genny.
Now about my reading for the past couple of days.....
All Clear - I'm somewhere around the 60% mark and am quite gripped already. I wouldn't spoil this for anybody, but when things start happening, they really move. I'm keeping an unbiased mind because they don't actually know what's going on; Mr. Dunworthy thinks he does, but we'll see.
The Blue Flower - I want to like this one better than I do because my friend loves it. Maybe it is duvet smothery and not just my lack of focus. His friends and family can't understand the lure of this child, whom his brother finds not pretty and stupid to boot. She can't spell his name correctly. He has now read the beginning of his story, "The Blue Flower" to both Karoline and Sophie and asked them what they make of it. Neither makes very much; nor do I. I shall persevere. (p. 132)
Devices and Desires - I am enjoying this magic-free fantasy. It could be steam punk, I guess, but there isn't a lot of attention given to the technology yet. The characters are interesting. The engineer is going to betray his country's technology to a more primitive state because they were going to execute him for changing a design without permission. His ultimate goal is to reunite with his wife and daughter. His wife is a tough cookie who can hold her own against a government interrogator. Ziani Vaatzes, the engineer, is with the Duke Orsea, ruler of the backward, mountain country - an earnest, rather feckless young man, married to a woman he loves who was also once loved by his cousin, the Duke Valens, a much more able ruler also of a rather backward mountain country. Valens and the cousin's wife are corresponding, but it's not love according to Valens. Clear? I like the writing... "The Eremians proudly boast that nobody has ever taken the citadel by storm. It's hard to imagine why anybody should want to." Check it out, fantasy fans! (p. 159)
This is taking a lot more time than I meant it to. I can now begin to appreciate why people leave their comments until they've finished something. I had meant to give you some of the writing disasters of my former high school students as my commentary on Ex Libris, but you're going to have to bate your breath for that.

Hi LizzieD, can I just say that I love the idea of recording what you're reading as you go along. I've got books all over the place and tend to pick up whatever's closest so like you, I've got several ongoing at the same time.

I don't think I'd be as dedicated at keeping a daily running journal, but it's a great idea for when you feel the need to write SOMETHING, even though you've not finished any of the dozen or so lying beside the bed, the phone, the bath, the bag, at work ...

Have you read the Amelia Peabody Emerson series by Elizabeth Peters. They're inspired by the travels of Amelia B Edwards, and capture a similar 19th century English voice.

Looking forward to hearing about some of those writing disasters!

Me too!

>46 LizzieD:: Peggy, the hymnal I was referring to is for the Presbyterian Church of the USA (not Presbyterian Church in America, which may be more common in your parts). It's blue and was probably published in the early 1990s.

I can now begin to appreciate why people leave their comments until they've finished something. Yeah ... I'm having a hard enough time keeping up with threads, let alone posting anything more than reviews on my own! It's hell being back at work this week :)

I am glad to hear that All Clear is capturing you! Yes, when things start happening, they do!

I'll pull out the writing disasters another day, but here are a few to whet your appetite. These are all from the pens of 11th graders........
"I like McDonalds" because they have the dollar mean you."
"At Tillsbury Queen Elizabeth stepped down from her pedal stool to speak personally to her troops."
"That was truly ahsome."
"I have good self-a-steam."
(And my personal favorite. This was going to be the title of my collection.)
"That was a big missed ape." (Say it aloud if you don't get it.)
(Laura, we are PCUSA down here too, and it's that very blue hymn book that I was talking about.)
Jen, I'm pleased to see you here. I did read some Amelia Peabodys years ago and had no idea that she was based on Amelia Edwards. The setting in Egypt makes sense. Poor AE didn't have an Emerson to keep her company though.

"I have good self-a-steam."

I have to say that's my personal favorite too.

I am going to have to start recording my thoughts on books as I read them too, I guess. It would probably help keep me straight. Of course, my threads might get a little lengthy.

Well, Stasia, considering you don't HAVE a thread yet, not a problem for the moment :) I for one would love to see what you think as you go along.

#55: OK, I may just start doing it. The one I am in the middle of now, In a Summer Season, is very good. Of course, I will probably be done with it before I have a thread :)

He he Janet! I would like that Stasia. For some reason, I find more to say about things folks say as they are reading than about reviews.... the reviews seem complete -- I read them, often star them, but rarely have a comment other than 'nice' in some format or other.

I like the missed ape, that happens to me a lot. Not my fault, the ape did it.

#57: I do not write reviews (except for ER books or older books that I am trying to get others to read), so I just do little blurbs to let other people know about the books. I do not think all books loan themselves to 'thinking out loud,' but I may start doing it with those that do.

Yes, I know you don't write reviews very often, which is very wise of you as it makes for more reading time...... I'm only writing them about books that either have no review at all or I just HAVE to (either ER or because I want to).

#59: The thing I worry about in musing out loud is that it will change the way I read, especially if other people are commenting on my musings.

>52 LizzieD:. Oh Peggy. You have a priceless collection there.

The commented on comment....... the observed particle...... well, you have a point. If anything, little things I like or don't like get fixed a little more firmly in the rattling vacuum that sits on top of my neck. I can't think of anything bad, except that time was spent not reading.

#62: Yeah, and by the time I respond to all the comments, then I have lost more time reading :)

I'm enjoying your comments on your in-progress reads, Peggy. I shall look forward to your verdict on All Clear: I can't decide whether to read that one and Blackout, or not.

I haven't decided whether I like this yet - it is taking way too much time! Meanwhile, here are some more quotes.
English Class
"another words"
"I speach what I fell and I was very upset about this tissue." (I promise; I couldn't have made that up in 100 years!)
"I saw the furniture up side down glass on the floor, and a big fel rat on the telbe." (I can explain this, I think. Both this and the one above were from classes just above special education.)
"He explained to his wife that his conscience would not let him sleep no more. She told him to get a drink of water and relax."
"Macbeth is a very nice and kind man, except that he kills King Duncan of Scotland along with others."
"Funeral directoring can also be called a mortican or undertaker, makes arrangements with families of the decreased for removal of the body to the funeral service." (Almost right out of *Huck Finn*!)
Latin class
"You had to cross the river of sticks on a fairy to get to Hades."
"They had aqua ducks on the tiger river."
"Roman roads were great; the ends were terrible."
"If Daphne could never be Apollo's bride, she could at least be his tree."
"Out in the country their meals consisted of portage, got's milk and cheese and some figs."
"And professional morons would wear the death mask of your forfathers." (I knew right then that I had missed my calling by a thousand + years.)
"The first Roman theater was pompous."
"Achilleas was dipped into the River Stynx as a baby which made his body indispensible."
If that isn't too much, I have more!

Today's comments on The Blue Flower in post 8 at Orange January/July.

The Latin ones are unbelievable! #1 ,#4 are my favorites! Thank you!

Love the quotes, especially the variations on the river Styx!

I am in convulsions over the Latin class ones. Oh my yes, wouldn't we make splendid professional morons?
..."she could at least be his tree"
...aqua ducks...
...the River Stynx
oh my

"They had aqua ducks on the tiger river."

The image created in my mind by that one--oh, oh. Peggy, did this stuff make you laugh or cry?

Giggling uncontrollably at the Latin translation quotes.

...crossing the river of sticks on a fairy... Oh, my.

Here are a few more Latin ones off the top of my head, since you seem to like them.
"They held chariot races in the Glutious Maximus." (She was taking Anatomy at the same time and was just a little confused.)
"Being buried alive was the punishment if a Vestigial Virgin betrayed her valves."
"If a Vestal Virgin betrayed her vowells, ....."
"A Vestal Virgin who betrayed her vows was taken into an underground room and buried to death."
And finally, this one is really a joke about my Southern accent: "Quintus Fufius Medicus is my Raymond name."
(I laughed until I cried, Becky.)

head back laughing at the vestigial virgin betraying her valves...oh Peggy, how do you stand it?
The Southern accent one went over my head.

Loving the quotes, Peggy - I've accumulated quite a pile of them myself over the years. The only one I can think of off-hand comes from a mythology course I taught a couple of years ago; it's funny, yet worrisome: "In ancient Greece, young girls were frequently raped by the gods." Really? That's historical fact, is it? Wow.

The quotes remind me of a piece, The World According to Student Bloopers, that was making the rounds when I was in college -- the college librarian gave me a copy. (She'd gotten it from another librarian.) I laughed until I cried!

I found it online here:
http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~norman/Jokes-file/StudentBloopers.htm

The Southern accent one, Tui, is that I said, "Roman" and the kid heard "Raymond." I tried very hard to write everything on the board/overhead/whatever that I thought might be a problem. I never thought that "Roman" would be in a Latin course.
Amber, I suspect that if that's the worst misconception a student had, you did a marvelous job! Terri, I printed those out long ago with lots of love. A prized possession is The Pocket Book of Boners, illustrated by a very young Dr. Seuss. ("La Belle Dame Sans Merci" is translated "The Beautiful Woman Who Forgot to Say 'Thank You'")
A last one - a "phrase of the week" - which the students had to feed back in English and Latin. Victoria hadn't learned "Cogito, ergo sum," but she made a valiant effort with "Conga gonna sum," which means, "It is what it's going to be - always!" That was my motto for the year. (The next year it was "oh well.")
Today I read only a little - *Blue Flower* which I will finish tomorrow and All Clear in which certain identities and machinations all become clear.

OK, I am not feeling quite so bad about my Latin translations now!

I got behind on your thread and missed your Thingaversary, so a belated Happy Thingaversary!

Enjoying the quotes and the thoughts about the books you're reading.

Oh, Stasia, I can reaffirm your Latin brilliance. Stay tuned! Thank you, Heather!!
Points in common with Anne Fadiman in Ex Libris!
One of my affectations as a very young woman was to write with a good fountain pen in brown ink. Everything now looks as though it was written in very old blood.
I have always loved to read about what characters eat! My only complaint is that writers don't give their characters nearly enough time over their meals.
The essay on plagiarism was hysterically funny. She might have gone on for another ten or twenty pages, but I'm glad that she didn't!

>76 LizzieD:: aha re Raymond. You know I've sat here trying to say Roman with a fake Southern accent, trying to make it sound like Raymond, don't you.
>79 LizzieD:: that is very funny because I used to use green ink and now when I find traces of it (from the 60s), it looks like very old plant ichor. I still use a fountain pen, though. And I always wish, when reading Anne Fadiman, that she lived next door.

>80 tiffin: I did that a little too.

I used a nib with a flat tip so I could make my writing look medieval. Black mostly but sometimes whatever I fancied.

>80 tiffin: & 81 The way very young women seek to define themselves, eh?

I think I was trying to make myself seem more special???? Exotic? Interesting??? Who knows?

#79-83: OK, I feel ridiculous now that I did not do it.

Stasia, you were probably being "special" in some other way! (I was also of the green ink persuasion at one point, but only ballpoint, as fountain pens were much too exotic for my family!)

I have finished The Blue Flower which I didn't much like but can understand the worth of, if that makes sense. I should think about it since there isn't a review to see whether I can do it some justice. Back later!
Stasia, you probably knew who you were well enough not to think that you needed the gilding of "specialness."

I prefer to think of us as arty and creative...and probably limited in our means of expressing it, so coloured ink it was.

I remember not liking The Blue Flower when I read it, even though I really wanted to. But it was such a long time ago, I can't remember why. The characters just weren't sympathetic, I remember that. Looking forward to what you will say.

THE BLUE FLOWER by Penelope Fitzgerald
Nope. I can't review this. I have almost nothing to say about it, not that such a state ever stopped me before. Briefly, Fritz von Hardenberg is a student, a poet, a philosopher, and eventually by book's close, the deputy inspector of salt mines in his district. He falls immediately-upon-seeing-her in love with Sophie von Kühn who is twelve, not particularly bright, not particularly pretty except for her hair, but fun-loving and a little loud like her daddy. All of this happens in 18th century Germany, so there is some interest in what life was like then.
Adding poignancy to the story is a suitable woman who loves Fritz and his younger brother who also loves Sophie. I spent a lot of my time trying to figure out why another of Fritz's brothers is the Bernhard and Sophie's older sister is the Mandelsloh but Fritz is only Fritz and Sophie is only Sophie or Söphegen. I should have been thinking philosophically because that is what this book does. It never works for me.
Fritz calls Sophie "my heart of hearts," "my spiritual guide," and "my Philosophy." Sophie gets his name wrong. I didn't dislike it, but I didn't love much about it except the chapter title, "Algebra, Like Laudanum, Deadens Pain." Once again, I'm out of sync because that was never my experience with algebra and I've been spared the laudanum.
Edited to fix some code

Scary! I know I read this book and I remember NOTHING at all about it except that like Janet, I didn't care for it. So I guess my memory bank wiped it, spit spot, to make room for some other nonsense!

But I am happy for you that you are done. I am in the felicitous state of loving all three books I'm reading, tho I'm whipping through the Isherwood so fast, I'll be done tomorrow. And then what????? Now I have to go look at your current reads and see what's next!

No fancy pens nor ink for me. Black ballpoint pen has always been my preference.

The Blue Flower sounds perfectly uninteresting to me. I shall avoid it!

I just read my first book by Penelope Fitzgerald last month and loved it. It was called The Bookshop. Have you read that one or any of her others, and if so, what did you think of them? I'd like to read more of her books but am not so sure about The Blue Flower after your comments or some of the others that I saw on the book's LT work page.

I read The Blue Flower years ago and think I liked it better than you did, Peggy, but it has been so long ago now that I am not sure. Sad, but true.

I hope your next read is a dandy to make up for that one!

Almost missed your new thread, but now you're found and starred!
Happy new reading year and Happy Thingaversary! :-)

I can't believe those quotes from the Latin classes (Raymond!)...

I read The Blue Flower last year and liked it, but it did not make any of my memorable reads lists.
Enjoyed your Latin class quotes, very hardcase.

I'm here, I'm here, so what's next?

ALL CLEAR by Connie Willis

I was there in London in 1941 and 1944, and all is well that ends as well as life is ever going to let us end. It's impossible to talk about this one without spoilers, I think. I will go on to read some real-life experiences from during the Blitz and V1 and V2 attacks, but details from this book will stay with me. These characters will stay with me too. Anyone who already loves Mr. Dunworthy and crew will be happy to put up with some repetition and slow development. When events finally move, they snowball. I loved this book!

I am starting Blackout this week. I am so excited about finally reading these books! I am glad you enjoyed them, Peggy.

Hey, Peggy, yay! I loved these books!! Of course, I whipped through them at a rate of a day each. Didn't you love Sir Godfrey? He was the most marvelous character.

I adored Sir Godfrey! I believe I would have stayed for him, and either kept him from tour or died with him!

I'm just catching up, but I couldn't just lurk when I have been sitting here laughing at your Latin students (and the rest). Especially the ducks and the Tiger River. When you teach maths, the bad ones are just bad, not funny!

Peggy, I loved your "ahsome" (my favorite) writing disasters from #52, "another words" from #65 and all the vestal virgins who had all kinds of problems...valves, vowels, and being buried to death. Funny stuff.

I've read three books by Fitzgerald and have been underwhelmed by all of them; yet she is an author I want to admire. Perhaps I don't "get" the brevity of her works. The Bookshop was my favorite of hers.

I should go on to read The Bookshop right now, Donna. It certainly is more appealing to me than *Flower*.....but I have more on my plate than I can handle, and most of it is just my taste, so I'm not going there yet.

HI! My name is Suzanne and while I have been reading posts on the YA Group for some time now and became a member over a year ago, this will be my first post.

Thus far in 2011 I have read The Lucky Baseball, Friends of Choice and Real Live Boyfriends.

The idea of reading 75 this year seems almost impossible, so I am excited to make it my first big goal for 2011.

Question: am I suppose to do anything else besides keep a list and post it here? Like a one sentence "about" on each book or not?

I'm still giggling at the malapropisms. They are utterly delightful, in a bizarre kind of way. Hmm, so if the man I love doesn't love me back, I can at least offer to be his tree??? *chortle chortle chortle*

And oh, I'm so relieved that someone else found The Blue Flower irritating and tedious. Nearly a year later, and I'm still bewildered by it. Not in a good way.

Hi, Suzannes! I mean to dig out more of the worst of the worst. It's too cold to get to the part of the house where that treasure lies. (And I think that to be his tree is better than to be his love - sha. I don't know. That relationship thing is way too complicated for me.)
Ah - I just remembered a couple....
From English
"The second time she tried it, it crunk right up." (That's starting a car.)
From a Latin translation (I've always loved this one because I can imagine the look on the Cyclops' face.)
Ulysses is identifying himself to Polyphemus. "Nemo" is translated in a tiny footnote, which my far-sighted student couldn't read, as "No-man.")
"I am called 'Norman.'"
And then there's this one that shows a basic misunderstanding of physiology.
"The wolf gave them his milk."

EX LIBRIS by Anne Fadiman

What a lovely, wonderful, joyful book! I would love to reread it immediately, but I'll save it for times when I need exactly this level of wit and understanding about my passion. I wish AF were a 75'er. We would love her so much! The last essays were as entertaining as the first; I also enjoy working my way through catalogues, reading aloud, and would haunt any used book store that had the temerity to open in my non-reading community. (Thank you, Stasia, for this uncommon pleasure for a common reader!)

More from the pens of former students.....
English
"V is for Veterans Day. It is when your boyfriend or your husband brings you candy and flowers."
"To be athletic, you've got to have good ihandcornation."
"Last but not last,..."
"A group of girls started the kayoss."
"It's more like the Stephen Pillburg's version."
"---saying the same thing twis or rebeating the idea." (An ESL student, but I was often guilty of rebeating the idea.)
Latin
"Cabbage was used in rome to the cure of death, blindness & etc."
"Its strong power over the human body can take their being. i.e. This stuff can kill you."
"Roman marriag were sometimes held by Spelt Cake Ceremony, you eat a piece of spelt cake and your married for live." (I find this one a very powerful warning.)
"Minerva was the daughter of Jupiter. It is said that he sprained from her head."
"Roads were paved & runts were made by wagons."
"Venus was discovered in the ocean wearing a foam dress."

More giggles, thank you Peggy! A foam dress would be little chilly at this time of year... And I shall be very wary when offered spelt cake in future (doesn't happen very often).

I wasn't so much a different coloured ink person, but I did get into calligraphy in a big way in my teens and introduced various strange pseudo-medieval flourishes into my normal handwriting. I do like writing with a fountain pen (broad nib to get the calligraphic touches), but I've never managed to keep hold of a good one for long, so most things end up being ballpoint, which pains the frustrated scribe in me.

I'm not surprised you enjoyed Ex Libris so much - it is certainly one I shall want to come back to again too.

Ah, Genny, kindred calligraphic spirit!

Just thinking of the foamy dress makes me want to put a log on the fire!

Shall avoid spelt cake like the plague (although I seem to be married "for live" so perhaps it's a moot point...)

Some things need rebeating to get them into thick skulls.

111 Some things need rebeating to get them into thick skulls.

LOL! I was thinking along the same lines, but love the way you phrased that!

I didn't join the Read-a-Thon because I was too late, but I did manage to put away 40 pp apiece in a couple on my current list and a few more in my fantasy.
Testament of Friendship - I enjoy Vera Brittain in spite of her writing, I think. And I was correct in thinking that I'd be happier after she got Winifred Holtby to Oxford a second time where they met. Holtby had a better war than Brittain. She learned some nursing in a private hospital before she went to Oxford the first time. It was a dispiriting place, and she slipped away and joined the WAAC. She became sergeant of a group of girls who tended a home for officers from New Zealand. Then she was sent to France to a Signals Unit at Huchennveille. She wrote sketches about this assignment in a collection called The Forest Unit which sounds truly awful. At any rate, she soon decided that it was too sentimental to publish.
This is taking too long, and nobody much cares anyway!
At Oxford she was considered both brilliant and illiterate - a circumstance that I find interesting. Her tutors complained that she couldn't spell, and she worked hard to teach herself organization. She and Brittain both earned Second Class honors and moved to London together to make their marks as journalists and novelists. Her first novel, Anderby Wold was published when she was 24 and considers the conflict between old and new farming practices that forced her father to sell their home farm. She had been in love with a childhood friend, but he did not settle after the war, and their relationship was always complicated. At this point Brittain got engaged but delayed the wedding for a year while her fiance went to the US, so she and Holtby were free to continue their lives and careers.
Pagans and Christians - I had forgotten what a dense book this is! Fox is looking at both pagan and Christian practice from the middle of the second century through the fourth. His first chapter introduces typical representatives of both types of religious experience. (Hilarion, an Egyptian desert saint of the early fourth century whose life was written by Jerome, blessed the horses and stables of a local Christian whose pagan opponents had been winning big in races. No betting is mentioned, but the Christian horses won after the blessing. Who knew?) After this introduction he looks at pagan religions - multifarious, inclusive, settled in the countryside with local dialects underlying the predominant Greek or Latin, and moving without hindrance from country to town to city and back. Detailed and packed with interpretation! This one is going to take another long time after all.

>113 LizzieD:: This is taking too long, and nobody much cares anyway!
You're wrong there: I do ! I read Testament of Youth recently and was blown away. I am curious about Brittain's later books. Plus reading ToY led me to South Riding and discovery of a new favorite author in Winifred Holtby ... and I'll be reading Anderby Wold for Virago Reading Week !

I love how with books, one thing can lead to another.

Thank you, Laura. That makes me feel better. I think that the emotion of *TofY* sort of pulled me along. Brittain cared greatly for WH too, but somehow this one is less immediately readable.
And don't we love how one book leads to another and another and another? (I've started Anderby Wold but haven't spent much time with it yet. It doesn't read like a first novel to me though, so that's good.)

#107: I am so glad you enjoyed that one, Peggy!

I read everything you write with great interest Peggy because I think you have a sharp insight -- I love it, so please don't stop entirely!

I care too, Peggy. Even though I won't read the book, I like seeing what you are thinking about it as you go. It's interesting that the whole issue of "smart kids who can't spell" isn't JUST a new one, as we might like to think. And Pagans and Christians sounds good, too, if a bit heavy going. I was thinking I might read it as part of my followup to God's Philosophers (was it you who suggested it?) but I see it deals with an earlier period, so I'll park it for now, until I get back on a Roman times related kick, which I probably will at some point.

I'm another who is always interested in reading what you are thinking about books, Peggy!

Thank you all for petting Peggy who occasionally needs it.

While I wait for a return phone call, here are some more messes.
Latin
"They had 12 day light hours & 12 night light hours."
"Catullus was a poet born to two wealthy men." (?)
"They would go to this house of worship and worship the dolls of each one of the gods."
"Apollo had a place where he gave speeches and a maiden would sit on a volcano."
Motto of the State of North Carolina: "E Pluibrus mono bonus" "It is better to be shorter than taller."
English
"He was clapped in the stalks with the other people."
"He was getting bad grades and constantly getting in trouble. He also had a drug problem at this time. During this time he goes to a canceler to seek help."
(That's more help than I'd want.....)

Thus encouraged, I'll say a word about The Idea of Perfection by Kate Grenville. I've started this for Orange January, and I love it even though I'm not to the 50 pp mark! I like her occasionally wry and always individual powers of observation and her way with words. The only thing I don't like so far is her decision not to use quotation marks. Dialogue is not hard to follow, but not to use standard punctuation just seems like an affectation to me.
The other book that I haven't commented on at all lately is Devices and Desires. All of the characters are pretty complex for a fantasy and interesting on top of it. They are likable despite their crudeness. For instance, one of the dukes has captured the leader of a desert tribe and questioned him not only about the way the invaders made it from desert to mountains but also about his personal life. He has thought about the man's life with some sympathy while he was being tortured (the duke was not present for the torture), and when he finishes the questioning, he has him killed without a qualm. They're all like that: a combination of sophistication and brutality.
Anderby Wold is also holding my interest for the first 50 some pages. We are meeting Mary Robson, who is a queen in her small circle of influence. *AW* is much smaller in scope than South Riding, but bids to be well worth the reading. Mary is so far self-aware, self-satisfied, and at peace with her older, dull, occasionally irritating husband. She is also vastly relieved to have paid off the mortgage on her family farm, which is where her true love lies.
Now I need to get back to *aGR*!

>122 LizzieD:: I loved The Idea of Perfection, too. I just came across the "no quotation mark" thing again this week, in Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace. It takes some getting used to.

And I didn't remember that about *AG* until you mentioned it!

I think the canceler (sic) is a little extreme too. Oh Peggy, do you despair or howl with laughter...or a bit of both?

(Tui, I retired!) I did both, often at the same time. There were Latin facts that I required them to write in their notebooks from time to time. Fact 1: "Latin is not English with funny words." Fact 2: "The Latin in your book makes good sense."
Here is a violation of F2:
"Not facial expression because clothes know or get to learn."
I believe that was the all-time worst translation I ever met.

Ow. Or is that Howl?

113 & 114> I have been eagerly checking each new post here for possible updates on Winifred and Vera so yes, we do care!

I am fascinated by Winifred Holtby and would love to read Testament of Friendship but feel I can't read it until I've read Testament of Youth which I never get around to reading despite (or maybe in a weird unconscious way because of) my grandmother giving me her copy when I was 17, saying "every woman should read this".

Sorry that was a long winded way of saying- keep going with those updates!

I'm intrigued as to why K J Parker chose Devices and Desires as the title. It was also used by P D James for one of her Dalgliesh crime novels, and is a quotation from the prayer of confession which comes at the start of the Church of England Book of Common Prayer (of which P D James is a great champion):

Almighty and most merciful Father, we have erred and strayed from Your ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against Your holy laws...

I don't know anything about K J Parker, but just checked on Common Knowledge and see England is her place of residence, so maybe she is also quoting or echoing the prayer in her title. I'll have to check her out - I see that Devices is the first of a series. Have you read others by her?

Hello, Dee and Genny!
I also encourage you to read Testament of Youth. As I say, I'm a bit put off by the writing, but *ToY* is appallingly honest, and I was completely moved by it - so much so that I don't know that I'll ever reread it. The interest of *ToF* is very much specific to Holtby fans, I think. I don't know that I've read a biography before by a close contemporary who loved the subject but didn't idolize her. Using Winifred's poems as the heading of each chapter is a nice touch. It's enlightening to watch her grow while confirming that the novel was truly her strong point. Here's a little poem that ends the chapter in which Vera leaves for the US as a married woman...

The Foolish Clocks
Now she is gone, but all her clocks are ticking
With gentle voices, punctual and polite,
Their thrifty hands the scattered moments picking
Tossed from the careless bounty of the night.

Oh, foolish clocks, who had no wit for hoarding
The precious moments when my love was here,
Be silent now, and cease this pain recording
of worthless hours, since she is not near.

I assume that there was a lot of speculation about the physicality of their relationship. Brittain's daughter said that such a question infuriated her mother as it depreciated the value of women's friendships.
Genny, I've thought about the title too. So far I'd have to say that the devices probably refer to the engineer's creations. I think that it's likely punny. The characters have some depth, and it's not a typical fantasy. I have read one other KJP book, the first of an earlier series (*Fencer* I'm having a senior moment with the title). It was immediately darker than *D&D* and I like this one better a couple of hundred pages into it. It's quite a sizable book.

I love your student writings Peggy. Keep 'em coming. The Idea of Perfection was a 5 star read for me. Harley and Douglas are two of my favorite literary characters. I envy you reading it for the first time.

Testament of Youth is in my B&N cart as we speak :)

Testament of Youth was my favourite book last year, and I have Testament of Experience (her sequel) here. I haven't read South Riding or any other of WH's books yet, but I have South Riding in a box in storage at home... next year!

I loved The Idea of Perfection too, but had forgotten the punctuation thing. Have you read The secret river? That was excellent too.

Ps. That Nemo/Norman thing from one of your dopier specimens had me in tears of laughter trying to repeat it to my husband. Took me about 5 minutes to manage it!

Bonnie, buy the book! Cushla, read South Riding! You see that I'm loving *Friendship*. I had a huge juxtaposition of excitement and disappointment this morning with the mail. I had ordered Testament of Experience from AwesomeBooks, and the package arrived today......but they sent *Friendship* instead. I've e-mailed them with my original order (I had a brief few minutes of worry that I had inadvertently clicked on the wrong book, but I'm at least that compos.) I'll be interested to see how they make it right, and I want, desire, NEED *TofE*!
*IofP* is my first Grenville, but it won't be my last. I downloaded The Lieutenant to my Kindle just because it was so cheap. --- And I love the Nemo/Norman thing too. What was a Cyclops to think?
I'm about to run out.
Latin
"Juno was jealous of Jupiter's children from moral women."
"People didn't hardly stay in inns because they were dangerous, so they split a token in half and gave one to the person they were sleeping with."
English
"...to make a mense with her, ...."
"The guard did not willingly seize fire."
"The subject displays a pestimistic attitude toward the world."
"...hung it on the limp of a tree."

>128 Soupdragon:: Ahem. Pardon me while I climb up on my soapbox and adjust the microphone.
DEE: LISTEN TO YOUR GRANDMOTHER!

Testament of Youth was my very favorite book of 2010, and the one that had the most profound impact on me. I had never even heard of it until Cushla read it (thanks!), and serendipitously I read an amazing review of it around the same time Cushla posted about it here on LT.

I do hope you'll read it ... as you can see it is much admired by many who admire the books you admire! :)

>135 lauralkeet::Oh my goodness, I nearly fell off my chair then!

I have to admit that I wasn't sure when first given Testament of Youth 25 years ago but since joining LT, I have become more interested in women's writing from this time and I know it really is a must read. It's just sometimes must-reads stay on my shelf while I wait for the perfect moment to read them.

I will definitely, definitely read it this year! Watch this space- well not actually this one because it's Peggy's- watch my thread!

Okay, Laura (and Nana)? You may now step down from the box. My grandmother is no longer with us but I somehow picture her behind you and the microphone, Laura!

Peggy, I'm chuckling as I read all these quotes from your students but I'm starting to get dismayed that they're so many of them!

Hi Peggy, I think Devices and Desires sounds like it would be a good read for me. Thanks for the suggestion. Now that I've found your thread, I have starred it.

This is just the best of the worst, Pat, but you may well be concerned. We certainly haven't done a very good job of teaching this generation to write here, and I'm not convinced that the rest of the country is doing all that much better.

I rushed out and bought Testament of Youth because of several readers here (Laura and Cush, for two) who loved it. It is going to be my mid-January read.

And Peggy, I love reading your thread, don't think you go on for too long, and very firmly want you to keep it up. There.

Hi Peggy, I finally found and starred your thread. I read Testament of Youth about 20 years ago and I definitely need to go back and read it again. Thanks for the nudge!

A quotation from my current fantasy, Devices and Desires ---
"Addled with too much concentration and too little sleep, he'd read it over three or four times before he finally got a toehold in a crevice between its slabs of verbiage, and hauled himself painfully into understanding."

>143 LizzieD:: Been THERE a few times! hehe

>143 LizzieD: LOVE that one! I've been there too. Have you posted it over on the Quotes thread? Be sure to do so, they'll love it too.

And for impenetrable reasons, best not examined, I love that kind of verbal mountaineering!

Some reading today: A Glastonbury Romance - I don't have anything to say, but I'll not say it over on the group read.
The Idea of Perfection - I really like the way that Grenville writes. I do wish that she had chosen not to pepper her character's reflections with so many italics. Or maybe I wish that she had used italics for only one person. Felicity seems a likely candidate. I guess one thing it does is call attention to the great similarities between Harley's trying not to be wound and Felicity's reminding herself to beware of lines and wrinkles.
Testament of Friendship - WH has gone to South Africa and become a phenomenon, lecturing all over the place and meeting many prominent people. VB stresses the conflict between WH's desire to make a difference and her desire to be an artist. Apparently, many people faulted her for devoting so much time to the League of Nations Union rather than to her writing.

With thanks to Laura, here are the best-sellers from 1944, my natal year!
FIction
Strange Fruit Lillian Smith
The Robe Lloyd C. Douglas
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Betty Smith
Forever Amber Kathleen Winsor (Be still my heart!)
The Razor's Edge W. Somerset Maugham
The Green Years A. J. Cronin
Leave Her to Heaven Ben Ames Williams (This is the only book on her shelf that my mother forbade me to read.)
Green Dolphin Street Elizabeth Goudge
A Bell for Adano John Hersey
The Apostle Sholem Asch
Non-Fiction
I Never Left Home Bob Hope
Brave Men Ernie Pyle
Good Night, Sweet Prince Gene Fowler
Under Cover John Roy Carlson
Yankee from Olympus Catherine Drinker Bowen
The Time for Decision Sumner Welles
Here Is Your War Ernie Pyle
Anna and the King of Siam Margaret Landon
The Curtain Rises Quentin Reynolds

----not a stellar year

#148: I have read a few of those! I love The Razor's Edge myself.

Me too -- and I think it was a decent year! Bell for Adano is a terrific read as was A Tree grows in Brooklyn, Green Dolphin Street, and The Robe was certainly a very entertaining read! I haven't read Yankee From Olympus but I am betting it's a great read and belongs there! Two books at once by Ernie Pyle, though, that is a bit much!

So -- did that stop you??? Did you ever read Leave her to Heaven? If my mother had ever stopped me from a book that would have absolutely sealed the deal that I would have to read it!!!

Oh yeah. I read *Leave Her* but only after I was an adult. I'm not sure what the fuss was about - I think that the "her" murders her new husband's son or brother or something like that. I loved *Tree* and could have met Betty Smith when she was living in Chapel Hill because she was an acquaintance of an uncle, but I didn't quite have the nerve. I think *Robe* is the only other one I've read. If I've read Goudge, I've totally forgotten, so it doesn't matter. I don't feel particularly drawn to make up any deficits right now.

I've heard of two of those - The Robe and Green Dolphin Country - indeed I have a copy of the latter that I may have read a long time ago but don't really remember anything about it if so.

#143 Love that quote!

I LT'ed so long this afternoon that I didn't get any reading in. I did look into Pagans and Christians again. In this period the very, very wealthy still give generously to their hometowns, or sometimes to other towns in their region (he relates one story of earthquake relief), but those less able tried to shift their municipal duties to someone more able to pay for them. My favorite detail is that people, even women, were willed pieces of land or a house (one-twelfth of a field or one-twentieth of a house, for instance) as their inheritance. Wouldn't that make living an interesting proposition?

If I only get one-twentieth of my house, I want the library :)

Stasia, surely your library is more than one-twentieth of your house??

What interests me is how people got to be so wealthy in those days? Does the book tell us, Peggy?

#157: Probably, Janet. But I am taking the library anyway!

Janet, this book doesn't say, but the very, very wealthy inherited land in huge amounts with slaves to work it and had interests in international trade, just to name a couple of ways.
Testament of Friendship - Winifred comes home from her time in South Africa firmly committed to the cause of the black South African. She spent enormous chunks of her time and her own money from then until her death working for the cause. I didn't know that she was such a reformer. As a devotee of VMC's I was interested to read that her man working in the trade union movement in South Africa wrote when he was going back there that he and his wife were spared the usual social ostracism on the voyage (I'm going to get to the point in a minute) until Naomi Mitchison and her husband left the boat. (p.258)


English
"...the trait that Hardy admired most about his belated wife."
"Would your dad change your dipper when you were little?"
"We saw the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson Monument, and a real live prostitute!"
Latin
"Pomona she was a wood niff."
"The Illiad is believed to be a ballet."
"The family actually live in the pantry."
You see that I am getting to the end of these.... I do wonder what I said to get the last two comments.............

Hmmm, Achilles in a tutu? I like it!

Hi! I'm getting a new project started to get together great recommendations for books by themes. I've called it Books By Themes (BBT) and your suggestions are most welcome! Here's the link.

The Idea of Perfection by Kate Grenville

I loved it, but I didn't LOVE it as I might have because of a couple of stylistic choices which ended up driving me batty. I had never read K. Grenville before, and I'm a trifle vexed with her because she might so easily have decided not to be gimmicky.
The first decision, not to use quotation marks, was not a big deterrent to enjoyment. Most of the time conversation was transparent. I can recall only two or three times of having to go back and reread in order to find the sense.
My other problem, though, is more fundamental. She uses italics in every character's internal monologues, and a good part of the book is internal monologue. Now I use italics here often, but I'm not
writing a sustained narrative, and most of the time I'm not trying to say something insightful about the human situation. Grenville's italics had two bad effects on me. First, the characters tend to sound exactly alike, and they aren't. For awhile I thought that this might be the point. Harley and Felicity are so different in their whole approach to life that their self-obsessions are not readily apparent as the same thing. Douglas sounds like them too, even as he is also aware of other people only as they react to him. Second, the italics tend to trivialize deeper awareness that Harley, at least, gains because we are accustomed to see them used for incidentals. I don't think I'm being hard to please, but you decide by looking at a heavily italicized segment from Harley's mind. (I've ignored the paragraphing.)
"It was the dogs themselves. It was the way they adored you. --- Husbands adored you too, at least at first. Being adored was something she had come to mistrust. She felt adoration to be a small and lovely-looking bomb that could blow up in your face at any time. --- But it could not be Harley Savage who was being adored, because Harley Savage was not adorable."
When she arrives at something of an epiphany, the same italics occur. I leave it to you, but the woman can write, and the book was character-driven and deeply interesting. So I gave it four stars and will leave this caveat here for friends.

I really liked The Idea of Perfection, but I do remember the italics thing. It didn't bother me but it did do something to the tone (huh, that's as analytical as I get about books).

Have you read The Secret River yet? I liked that one a lot too, and learnt lots about Australian colonization along the way.

We use italics here to try to mimic how we might be putting a stress on a word in speech, to aid understanding in a voiceless medium. But in a book, when an author uses italics I get the niggling sense that he/she might think I'm too stupid a reader to interpret properly or that I can only read the book a specific way: their way. grrrr

Italics = hammer upside the head.

Once in a while, sure, particularly in non-fiction to emphasize a point. But in fiction, a writer should be able to suggest the emphasis without having to TAKE A BLUNT INSTRUMENT TO THE TEXT.

I can live without quote marks; I think it's conditioning that makes me want them. When I read in French, I adapt quite quickly to different conventions for how dialog is written, so I should be able to do so in English, too, right??

Cushla, I have The Lieutenant loaded on my Kindle but haven't succumbed to the appeal of The Secret River yet. I likely will.
Tui and Suzanne, I'm grateful for the support on the italics because a lot of people name this book their favorite, and I was afraid of offending by criticizing. I do think that quotation marks are so a part of reading English that they make the narrative more transparent - or maybe the lack of them makes the reader work a little harder on something that doesn't really deserve harder work.

I am one of the IOP fans but wouldn't be the slightest bit offended even if you hated it!

I do understand that fear though. I was reluctant to admit that I wasn't 100% impressed with the first (and so far only) Dorothy Whipple that I read last year because so many people love her!

Hi Peggy: Is it possible that I have not stopped by here yet this year? How can that be?

Hope your new year is going well so far.

Hey, Dee and Linda! I've snooped on both your threads lately without anything to say. I'm trying not to mouth off if I really have nothing! I didn't have IOP. I think Grenville is a lovely writer. I said that already, so I'll shut it.
Oh. While I was here, I wanted to catch up a little with Testament of Friendship. I've read through WH's few very happy, productive years before she got sick. She did an amazing amount of work! Before they diagnosed Bright's Disease, she was resting because of her high blood pressure. I was more touched by her reaction to that than to her complete acceptance of her imminent death later. She said, "I still find it hard to believe that that feeling of extraordinary physical exhilaration which makes me want everyone else to drink champagne at parties in order to get near my own plane of natural stimulus, was simply the symptom of a disease...I have doubts sometimes whether my blood pressure, which made me feel so enormously alive and so avid of experience, is not the proper one and this poor half-stupefied condition to which they are reducing me may be a disease...I warn you that if I find myself when back in the normal world one of those half-alive people for whom I used to be so sorry, I'll run myself back to my old state of stimulus and live fully or bust."

>165 Chatterbox:: Wow, I use italics a lot in my posts. I apologize to those that I've been hammering. ;-)

I liked both of the Grenville books being discussed. Peggy, I thought you had a valid point about her style of writing that bothered you. I frequently like a book but point out what could have been better imo. Darn it, there go those italics again!

Donna, I think italics are fine when we're talking to each other. We're not (or I'm not) trying for serious literary effect here. I thought it was a sort of cheap short cut, and I really didn't understand it because the woman is obviously a writer.

Hi Peggy. Just dropping in to say hello. I put IOP on my wishlist. It's amazing how a small tick can be so annoying. Sometimes it's just one word that for some reason the author has fallen in love with. In one of the books I'm currently reading, Walking the Bible, the guy has inexplicably (didn't he have an editor--or at least a reader who would tell him?) used food similes throughout the book. He does it constantly, and the reader must either give up on the book or (as I did) decide to find it funny. "The sky had been growing gradually darker in the last half hour, but suddenly the sun must have set, because the blue silver of the sky quickly turned white, then yellow, orange, and peach. It was like watching a bowl of melting Life Savers." Really???

Anywho, hope you have a good Saturday.

That's really funny, Becky! But, annoying too. I mean Life Savers? I think there is a word out there for comparing things that oughtn't to be put in the same breath -- sunset and Life Savers would be on my list. Let me see, let's join Hyperbole with Pathetic Fallacy and stir it up in the melting pot and you get...... Pathetic Hyperbole! Close enough for me! (Hub and I worked that up together, to give credit where credit is due.)

>172 labwriter:: laughed out loud but also had a brain "ew"
>173 sibylline:: hahaha!

Love it, both of you!!!! That's real *Dark and Stormy Night* material. I don't believe that editors exist any longer. I wish I had time to write some Pathetic Hyperboles of my own....a new figure of speech.

#135 Yes, ma'am. Adding Testament of Youth to my wishlist right away, ma'am!

Testament of Friendship also sounds very interesting and apropos of Winifred Holtby, a copy of South Riding arrived this week! Also, the one and only review so far for Testament of Friendship had me in stitches...

#172 Are these Life Savers?



Seconding tiffin's 'Ew'!

They look like fruit Polos. When did they finished making them? Or do they still exist?

*Heads off to google*

Oooh, they do still exist. How exciting!

It would be a sadder world without Lifesavers - just not melting in a bowl!
Heather, I hadn't intended to write a real review of *Testament* since I had mentioned it here off and on as I read it. That one little review couldn't stand by itself though, so I made the effort. (That review reminds me of a quotation from person unknown to the effect that when we read a book we don't understand, we might want to give a moment's consideration to the proposition that it might not be the book's fault.)

TESTAMENT OF FRIENDSHIP by Vera Brittain
I'm awfully glad to have read this one and invite you to the book page for a brief overview and what I sort of thought. I believe that all the good souls who are reading Holtby in January would do well to move right on over to this book when they finish. I suddenly want her letters and all of the novels and her Virginia Woolf criticism.

Caty, Rhubarb and Custard? Plum and Mint???? Eeee-ewww indeed!

Rhubarb and custard sweets were quite nice, if I recall correctly (although I don't actually like real rhubarb) but I'm certainly firmly in the ewwww camp regarding the plum and mint. I don't even want to contemplate that flavour combination, let alone try it.

ETA I just mentioned at home that I'd come across that site googling to find out whether fruit Polos still exist, and we've just had a good long reminisce about all our favourite childhood sweets. Pear drops and coconut mushrooms and flying saucers that tasted like polystyrene (ick) filled with sherbet. I think I have a few birthday presents sorted.

Lifesavers are wonderful candy. Indeed they are still on the market and they are yummy!

Hi, Peggy! Just passing through, but laughing like crazy at the English and Latin quotes. I've also added Testament of Youth to my TBR list, and I'll go from there. You have a great thread going here!

Karen O.

I think I will pass on The Idea of Perfection. It sounds like the italics thing would irritate me as much as it did you, Peggy.

Great review of Testament of Friendship. And that's so funny about the food similes - when I was a kid there was an ad for Lifesavers with teenagers sliding down a waterslide in enormous ones, or something like that... but Mum never bought us any!

Great review Peggy and duly thumbed. Both Testament of Youth and Testament of Friendship have gone on the wishlist.

Thank you kindly, ladies....
Caty has spurred me on to think about the kids' candy from my youth: candy corn and marshmallow peanuts (to get the orange spectrum out of the way), Mary Janes, BB-Bats, Tootsie Rolls, peeps, Lifesavers (naturally), coconut squares (pink and white; I don't know what they were called). I know I'm leaving out some favorites.
I'm putting most other reading aside to finish Anderby Wold for this Virago Week, but I did start another fantasy yesterday, North Shore: The Awakeners by my feminist scifi guru Sheri S. Tepper. I've been saving it, and January seems like a good time to for something really frivolous and fun.

Lovely review, in your thorough but succinct style I so admire...... Hope the Tepper is fun.

Peggy, wonderful review of Testament of Friendship; duly thumbed. Testament of Youth is on its way to me as we "speak". I'm really looking forward to it.

marshmallow peanuts

Are you talking about circus peanuts? Mmmmm.

ew, circus peanuts. and peeps. blech.
But then if it's not chocolate, I'm probably not interested.

Thank you again. Yes, I do believe I mean circus peanuts!

I've broken down and put the Brittain's on the wishlist. Oh gnashing of teeth.

Loved the review of Testament of Youth and all the updates as you've been reading it. I was fascinated by Holtby before and am now even more soon. Thank you!

edited to remove comment about fruity polos which I now see has already been made!

That's awfully nice, Dee. You know, I forgot to mention that she was a really tall woman - 5'10". She loved clothes too, but I wonder from the few pictures that I've seen whether she might not have been a bit gawky. Brittain describes her as statuesque, a blond queen.

In my next life I will be a statuesque, blond queen.
(in this life I'm 5' tall, brunette, and most un-regal)

Speaking of kids' treats -- I remember, from England, things like Opal Fruits. I just realized that a Korean deli near me in Brooklyn now stocks all the English chocolate bars I used to love -- Toffee Crisp, Aero, etc. -- and even Crunchie bars! Between teeth and migraines, don't dare eat them any more, so it's torture to go in there...

Ah. Opal Fruits are Starbursts. I didn't know that. I'm sorry about the teeth and migraines. The ever-expanding stomach is not enough to keep me away from chocolate.
Laura, I always wanted to be little and cute. I was 5'8" - not Holtby material but still tall enough to dance as a teenager with the guy's head on my shoulder.

ANDERBY WOLD by Winifred Holtby
I enjoyed this one. It wasn't terrific, but it does show her promise as a novelist by being as well-done as many books by more experienced writers. I did review it - not very thoughtfully - because nobody else had.

>196 LizzieD:: I just finished this too and will add my review to yours, probably tomorrow. I can't believe it hadn't been reviewed yet!

Sorry about the deleted message above, Peggy. There was some kind of gremlin in the system and my message kept coming up blank despite much editing and refreshing!

Thanks for your review of Anderby Wold. I was planning to read it this week (Virago week) but have postponed it to February (Winifred Holtby month!). Have you read The Crowded Street? I loved, loved, loved that one- even more than South Riding!

WOW! I haven't read The Crowded Street, and that's praise indeed because I loved *SR*. My only other Holtby so far has been Poor Caroline which I liked a lot. I guess it's my #2 Holtby of the moment. I'm waiting with bated breath for Elaine's generous offer of Uncommon Arrangements to arrive in my box. I plan to jump right into the Holtby/Brittain/Catlin trio.

Edited to get the title of the book right.

Oh, Uncommon Arrangements does look good, doesn't it? It also appears to be available new at a very reasonable price on Amazon. Hmm...

I might be in the minority preferring The Crowded Street to South Riding. It's a different sort of book with a smaller canvas and focuses on one character. I loved them both, actually! Muriel's best friend in The Crowded Street is apparently loosely based on Vera Brittain.

I can't wait for *UA*! And isn't AMP a money sink? Those $4 and $5 purchases mount way too high when I'm not careful. But isn't owning books the best!?!?!?!
(My only other Holtby is The Land of Green Ginger, and since I've also ordered her criticism of V. Woolf, I think that I will not pursue either *Streets* or Mandoa! Mandoa! although that is the one I'm really hot to read next. Maybe my name will come up at PBS.
Meanwhile, I am about to finish my Dolomites book, and I will rejoice. I was v e r y patient; I think I've been reading it for 4 or 5 months, but I am finally tired of descriptions of mountains, their elevations, the way up and the way down, and the dirtiness of inns/albergos along the way. Umpf. That's what my review is going to say.
On a more interesting note, I'm apparently in the minority in that I'm enjoying the first section of Cloud Atlas and I've hit a really good spot in A Glastonbury Romance, so that's pulling me along. And I've never tired of Devices and Desires, my fantasy. It's just that it's huge, and I don't read it often.

Glad aGR is picking up for you! Can't wait to hear from someone other than myself over on the thread! hint hint

Peggy, I'll looking forward to what you think of Cloud Atlas. I read it last fall and I'm still not sure what I think of it. I always am interested in your reviews.

Hi, Lucy and Jan! I'm off to say something, anything, about aGR. And, thank you, Jan. I wonder if you've been reading the group discussion of *CA*? I'm staying away from it until I get a little farther into the book.
Right now though, I'm thrilled to announce that I have finished my Amelia Edwards!!!

UNTRODDEN PEAKS and UNFREQUENTED VALLEYS
I think I have an almost limitless tolerance for travel writing, but I sped through to the end of this one. She was a very competent writer, but the book is pretty much without a soul or without personality. I reviewed it since it didn't have a review on its page, but I'm not sure that I did it justice. There exists more appealing 19th century travel writing, and I'm off to check on some!

>200 LizzieD:: I read Uncommon Arrangements a few years ago and had totally forgotten there was a Holtby/Brittain part...must dig that out again to read just that chapter.

I succumbed and bought Mandoa! Mandoa! on EBay, as well as The Land of Green Ginger. I really feel the need to have everything she wrote.

I'm pretty much the same except that I'm waiting for my name to come up at PBS for *M!M!* and *Crowded Streets* in VMC's. I did jump in and order the Virginia Woolf critical monograph (I think that's what she called it) cheap from AMP. Oh. I said that already. Sorry.

>206 tiffin:: good for you, Tui! Those are the two I still need. Might also succumb someday.

>207 LizzieD:: I have *M!M!* on my PBS wishlist too. *shoves Peggy out of the queue* oops, pardon me, I got carried away.

Great review for Untrodden Peaks and Unfrequented Valleys!
I finished it this morning and in the very last chapter she earned an additonal half star with me for her description of St Ulrich, one of the few places mentioned in the book where I have already been. The tradition of woodcarving still exists for the tourists, but toyland has sadly and completely disappeared.
But for the main part I was either enraged (when she described the local people as savages) or bored. I liked the drawings, but couldn't she have added some of the guides and the mules as well? But that would have been too personal.

Edited to correct typo

I've just finished South Riding which I adored and I'm also now feeling the urge to collect everything that Winifred Holtby ever wrote! I'm enjoying your reviews of her books, so thank you.

Hi Peggy. Just letting you know I'm lurking. I wish I could comment, but I know nothing about any of these books. Your comments are interesting, nonetheless. I assume you've read Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Rebecca West? (20th century, but she's still a great travel writer). My edition is one of those Penguin books with the teeny font, so I just don't know if I can tackle it or not, but I'd like to.

Congrats on finishing Peaks and Valleys, I know it's been kind of a slog. Great review.

Thank you all. I feel my existence is justified. Becky, I've read some (2 or 300 pages) of *Lamb/Falcon* in the same Penguin edition (purple, right?). I enjoyed it, but I treat my travel books as occasional reading: 10 pages today, 5 tomorrow. Other things intruded on that one because it is such a monster, and I've never finished. Now I'll need to start over, but I hope to one day. In the meantime, I took down my new Isabella Bird, Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan and my Mary Kingsley, Travels in West Africa, to see which gets to be the next up for several months reading. I love IB, but Kingsley's appealing style won me over in a page. So I'm off on a 700+ page journey with her, and I have her biography to pick up when I'm ready for it. YAY!
Nathalie, by the time I got to St. Ulrich with Edwards, I was too tired to upgrade my evaluation. That was an amazing picture though - a whole town either carving wood or painting the wood carvings. I was bemused, I guess, at the woman who spent her life carving six different animals because her mother had taught her those six because she had learned them from her mother, and so on and so on across the generations.
Katie, you are most welcome here! I'm sorry that I had missed your thread before, but now I'll be as faithful a follower as I can.

#213: I brought home Travels in West Africa from the library a couple of weeks ago. I read a biography of her several years ago and have been meaning to get to her own work, so I will be reading it shortly.

How fun that you both finished treading the peaks at the same time (peggy and nathalie). Fascinating about the carver who only did the same six animals, a specialist, reaching back no doubt at least to the middle ages, maybe further? What a thought!

I'm so happy you are reading Mary Kingsley. I'll have to read TiWA too, but not right now. You are amazingly courageous to take on and 1100 pager with a 700 pager......

This is a hard thread to catch up on--so many good books! I'm looking forward to more about Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan.

Hey, Carly! Thanks for the visit. Unfortunately, we'll both have to wait for Persia and Kurdistan because I've embarked with Mary Kingsley on a trip to West Africa. The woman is charming! I hope her wit continues!!
In other reading, I stayed with *Glastonbury* for a bit yesterday. I find the characters very, very strange, and that's peculiar because they are so ordinary. They have all kinds of cosmic connections of which they are largely unaware. But I like it.
I'm reading about pagan cults in Pagans and Christians, which Fox maintains were satisfying both emotionally and physically (a source of meat), contrary to the usual take on pagan worship as Christianity was emerging. He gives some interesting and mildly disgusting details about animal sacrifice which I will spare you..... Fox demands concentration but repays it well.
I'm into the second chapter of Cloud Atlas and like it even better than the first. This is another book to be read without questions, I think. I'm not quite ready to start the group read spoiler thread, but I'm looking forward to it.
And I started The Willow Cabin last night and am thoroughly hooked!
So yesterday was a pretty good day after all!!!

Yippee! My very good, used copy of Holtby's Virginia Woolf: A Critical Memoir has arrived. I've been calling it a monograph, but it's decent 200 page book. I do so wish that I were Stasia or Suzanne so that I could start it now too. *sigh* for fast average reading......

Hello, Peggy! Just waving as I catch up on threads :)

I do hope you enjoy Cloud Atlas!

Hi Peggy, oh my you do have such an eclectic reading passion. You make me very envious. I find it difficult to give my attention to more than one book at a time. I spent a good deal of my time reading Cloud Atlas with a question mark on my face but what a workout he gives the brain. Genius, pure and simple. I'll be reading that one again, for sure. I ended up loving it but I'm sure a reread will uncover new and interesting things that escaped me during the first read.

Hi Bonnie and Stasia! I did read a little more of *CA* this afternoon - more than I would have had LT been up! So now I've finished the first Frobisher section, and I'm going to see whether that's enough to let me look at the *CA* thread. What a piece of work that guy is!

Hi Peggy. Nice to be back on LT!

#220: I ended up loving it but I'm sure a reread will uncover new and interesting things that escaped me during the first read.

I can guarantee it, Bonnie - at least, it was that way with me.

I love your thread, thanks for leading me to it!

I am currently reading Blackout and am lost and a bit disappointed. I've enjoyed her other books so much. Doomsday Book is one of my all-time favorites and To Say Nothing of the Dog is wonderful. Did you feel this way with Blackout? I know Connie Willis said Blackout and All Clear were meant to be one book, so perhaps things will become more clear in the second book.

I love your student quotes. I was an undergraduate writing tutor for an animal physiology class once, and the animals were moving in all sorts of interesting ways due to misplaced modifiers. I wish I had kept a list like you did.

Looking forward to more of your thoughts on Cloud Atlas.

BOOKS ACQUIRED IN FEBRUARY
(Ordered in January)
Under the Skin - PBS
Confederates in the Attic - PBS
Belinda - PBS --- an original green Virago!

Hi There

I'm compiling a list of birthdays of our group members. If you haven't done so already, would you mind stopping by this thread and posting yours.

Thanks.

http://www.librarything.com/topic/105833

Lizzie, I just read your post on Stasia's read-a-thon thread and wanted to comment, but I thought maybe they would prefer it if I put it somewhere else. I love what you wrote and can so relate to it:

I'm a reader from a long line of readers. Memorized every read-to-me book and recited it while turning pages, including the wait for the pages that had been permanently removed. Was furious after the first day of first grade that I hadn't been taught to read. What a useless place! Don't remember learning, but I remember my mother not teaching me, as she followed the teacher's advice before first grade. (And I still begrudge those lost years.) Loved and adored The Five Little Peppers books.

My brother was three years older and we both had the same first grade teacher. Miss Wilson told my parents, "Don't let Becky teach herself to read. I will teach her when she gets to my class." I guess that's what my brother had done, and she was going to make darned sure I didn't do it too. I remember sitting in our little reading group ("Red Birds" and "Blue Birds," even back in the 1950s) and thinking when some of the other kids would read aloud, (oh, forgive me, but I had an edge even then) "What dolts! Can't they see the letters on the page?" I begrudge those lost years, too. I remember I would bring books home from the library and page through them, "pretending" to read. I have the clearest memory of asking, "Dad, what's an IS-land?" I didn't understand the strange look he gave me, but it was probably because he didn't realize I had been "secretly" teaching myself to read. Actually, I couldn't help it. A lot of my early reading was learned from the words on my crayons (as did my son, I later found out). R-E-D--who didn't know what that was? Anywho, I loved what you wrote. I also loved the The Five Little Peppers books!

#227 Love your post, Becky. I was fortunate to have parents who helped me learn to read early, without discouragement from my future teachers.

I wonder if teachers did that because they did not want to be challenged with teaching a child who is reading far above grade level? What a bizarre way of thinking!

Yes, great post and response to post and all that.

>228 tymfos:. Miss Wilson was a wonderful teacher in many ways, but she had her own way of doing things, and it probably wasn't any more complicated than that. She was a single woman from rural Kansas and was one of those teachers who was completely dedicated to her job. For her it was a calling. But strict--oh my, was she ever. I don't think that hurt us one bit, though, and I'm very sure no student ever left her class at the end of the year without knowing how to read.

Wow, Holtby on Woolf? That's something to linger over! I'm going to have seek that out, pronto!

I'm sure my bibliomania frustrated teachers, but I was probably oblivious to it as I don't recall anything of that nature. I do recall spending most of one year reading books under my desk... bored by the work on offer.

#231: I did the same thing! One year in middle school I read a lot of trashy Princess Di biographies under my desk during reading class. I figured I was reading, and it was reading class, so no problem, right?

>230 labwriter: Miss Wilson sounds like my Miss Ellen's clone. I suppose that she was a martinet, but I didn't notice. I guess that I have always been a bit rigid myself - except where I slop over - and I was always appalled by the girls (always girls) who read under their desks before they rushed through the assignments. I rushed and then read.
(I have to finish something before I start Holtby on Woolf, but I hope to read it for the Monthly Author group in this Holtby February.)
(And Becky? I ordered both your Mitford bio and The House of Mitford for good measure. That's almost all I can afford this month except what comes in through PBS. January was a stinker!) And woe to the Touchstones!

This was delightful! My mother taught me to read very young. I had the measles when I was 18 months old and to keep me distracted, she cut out the alphabet, hung it around the room, and pointed to the letters as my alphabet song record played. She claims I had it down pat by time I was over the measles. She also taught me to read phonetically (sounding out the letters, putting them together to make the words), so I was up and reading independently by 3. I am so grateful that there weren't any teachers telling her not to teach me or to follow that later experiment of word recognition. I have had 60 years with books as my constant companions and friends as a result.

I had measles and mumps at the same time. Poor Mama read aloud until she was hoarse (Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates and Caddie Woodlawn), but I was merciless. I can still hear myself saying, "Read on, my friend, read on." And I'm envious of those of you who read early and continuously!

#234: Sounds like me, Tui. My mother taught me to read at age 3 too and I have not stopped since.

Loving this discussion! I really need to ask my mother how old I was when I learned to read. I remember being bored stiff while all the other kindergarteners learned the alphabet, but I'm not sure if I already knew how to read then or...just the alphabet! Learning how to read at age 3 is really great!

(I just spent time with an 'average' 6-just-turned-seven year old and he didn't know how to read. I was surprised. I shouldn't have been, I guess. I'm just out of touch with what's normal.)

I learned to read at age 3, too, though my parents didn't actively teach me. That's before I have any coherent memories, so I literally cannot remember not knowing how to read, or even learning how.

#238
I also learned to read at 3, taught by 3 older sisters. Wouldn't it be interesting to know the average age of learning to read by LTers? I wonder if the age we begin affects lifetime habits.

I don't remember learning how to read, but my mom says that when I was 4, she and I were making my dad a Kahlua cake for his birthday, and I said, "Did you know this was made in Mexico?" about the Kahlua. She asked me how I knew that, and I said, "It says right here on the bottle, 'Made in Mexico.'" It's always nice to find out your kid can read by having them read a liquor bottle to you :)

well that brought a chuckle, Carly!

Tell that one to your grandmother! That's so funny!! And I'm still envious of all you early readers. I was 5 and in first grade. I'm heading to the sofa right now to play catch-up.
For an update, I continue a little A Glastonbury Romance, Cloud Atlas, and Devices and Desires daily, and have picked up Regenesis and The Willow Cabin for the past couple of days. I am a late-comer to the worlds of C.J. Cherryh, but Cyteen eventually got under my skin and blew me away. (Now there's a pretty picture.) I was most irritated by the endless navel-gazing of Justin Warrick in *C*, but was immensely pleased to meet him again in *R*. (For those of you who don't know Cherryh or this particular Cherryh, she is a prolific writer of scifi, and the science in this particular set of books is genetic engineering.) *D&D* continues to please by its surprisingly good writing and its slightly skewed take on fantasy. *Willow Cabin* is lovely although it could so easily not be. Set in the 30's, its the story of a young, immensely talented actress in love with and loved by an equally talented, married, older surgeon. They are discreet enough to maintain his reputation but not hers. So. Lots of wonderful books to be getting on with!

Edited and re-edited to fix Touchstones, but Hallelujah! that they work now!!!

I must have been reading fluently at before 5, as we moved then, and I went backwards dramatically. I spent about 7 weeks in a new school before moving again, and didn't speak at school the entire 7 weeks. I also stopped writing, and stopped reading.

The not speaking has always been my defense mechanism, I didn't speak at all for my first term at nursery school either.

I don't remember learning to read, but I remember the first time I could read in my head, and getting so immersed in a book that I blinked and realised where I really was. In primary school, we had about 15 mins between coming in from lunch and starting lessons, to do with what we would, and I would sit at my desk and read. Blocking all the noise and the world out.

I sort of learned to read by osmosis -- my mom read to me constantly, and I just sort of picked it up. I was into the second first grade reading book before I came to a word in that I didn't know.

Love the story about the liquor bottle, Carly! With me, it was the sports page -- I surprised my mom by commenting on a trade that the Phillies had made which was written up in the newspaper.

Apparently the first word I read or recognized was "Esso". Because my father worked there... Still haven't asked my mother about when I started reading.

I wish I knew the first word I read. I don't remember the process, and Mama missed it. (Hi, Jenny, Terri, and Suzanne.)

My son and I were in a supermarket and he read a sign, "I_C_E - Ice!" When his kindergarten teacher finally starting sending books home, he started reading aloud in the car. I was so surprised that he could read I almost ran off the road! All that reading to him paid off.

Ah, the memories these reading stories are evoking! Although I had memorized books before going to school, I don't think I learned to read until kindergarten. By 1st grade I was so far ahead that the teacher used to send me to the kindergarten to help them learn to read. I read everything and everywhere. In high school I was sent to the principal's office for reading Anna Karenina in history class. I had told my horrible teacher that when I stopped having a 104 average in the class, he could tell me what to do. Needless to say that did not go over well. Finally I convinced the janitor to let me have a cleaning closet which I turned into a personal reading room. I "missed" a lot of school.

Being a voracious reader, I was mildly discouraged when my daughter rejected learning to read. Then I realized the problem. She had no patience with reading beginner books, even long enough to learn and move on. We read so many "real" books to her, that if it wasn't a novel, she couldn't be bothered. Even now, at age 7, she will read, but doesn't enjoy it. I tell her that if she practices, she will be able to read what she wants, but it doesn't seem to sink in. We've started doing a family read time every night where we all sit on the couch and read silently, which seems to be helping. Meanwhile we continue to read to her every evening. I'm reading her Little Women and hubby is reading Black Beauty. She also listens to a lot of audio books of similar ilk. I hate to stop reading to her, but we are probably reinforcing her lack of interest in doing it herself. She has an amazing vocabulary though!

Edited to try and fix touchstones.

Yet another great story, Lisa. I have to believe that your daughter will eventually get impatient and want to continue the story on her own. Then she'll polish her skills.
Your comment about your daughter's vocabulary stirred up another not so pleasant memory for me. When I was in the fourth grade, the teacher gave me an X on writing. (My mother was especially incensed because the X filled the whole box, but the little double-checks on everything else were tiny, tiny, tiny.) I cried the whole way home and contemplated running away for the shame. The problem, as it turned out, wasn't my handwriting nor yet my composition. I couldn't spell the words I was using. She couldn't give me an X on spelling because I made 100's on the spelling words, so what was she to do? I think Mama made some suggestions --- and I learned to live with somebody who didn't think I had hung the moon, a good lesson for the time. (On the other hand, something about my present insistence on that bold X suggests that I'm not over it!)

I was so sure my daughter was going to be a math prodigy. When they gave her a little readiness test at the end of preschool, they asked her to draw a triangle, a circle, and a square. The teacher showed me what she had done - a first! She drew a perfect little equilateral triangle, then carefully enclosed it in a circle, then drew a perfect square touching the circle just in four precise spots. Most kids just drew the shapes side by side. Unfortunately, this was not an indication of math skills to be!

Mamzel, that is a perfectly delightful story! I'm not sure what it portends, but I'm sure that I'd like your daughter a lot!

Mamzel we had a similar experience with out daughter -- in preschool someone handed her a triangle made of wood and asked her how many 'sides' it had -- Four, she said promptly counting the bottom side -- the teacher nearly fainted.

They really do think outside the box, don't they?

#250: That is pretty funny.

Having reached the magic number, I'm setting up shop again HERE