Joyce reads in 2011, Part 3.

Time for a new thread.

Books read so far this year:

June

103. Flowering Judas by Jane Haddam
102. Murder by Mocha by Cleo Coyle
101. The Little Sister by Raymond Chandler
100. Ratification by Pauline Maier
99. Pirate King by Laurie King
98. Dying Gasp by Leighton Gage
97. Buried Strangers by Leighton Gage
96. Pale Horse at Plum Run by Brian Leehan
95. The Maps of Gettysburg by Bradley Gottfried
94. White Sky, Black Ice by Stan Jones
93. A Dance With Dragons by George R. R. Martin
92. Beekeeping for Beginners by Laurie King
91. Black Flies by Shannon Burke
90. The History of the Siege of Lisbon by José Saramago
89. Over My Dead Body by Rex Stout
88. Outsider in Amsterdam by Janwillem Van Der Wettering
87. Old Men at Midnight by Chaim Potok
86. Davita's Harp by Chaim Potok
85. Blood of the Wicked by Leighton Gage
84. Nowhere to Run by C.J. Box
83. Drawing Conclusions by Donna Leon
82. A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
81. Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin
80. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
79. The White War by Mark Thompson
78. The Godwulf Manuscript by Robert Parker
77. Fer de Lance by Rex Stout
76. Light From Heaven by Jan Karon
75. Shepherds Abiding by Jan Karon
74. In This Mountain by Jan Karon
73. A New Song by Jan Karon
72. The Gates of November by Chaim Potok
71. The Maps of Chickamauga by David Powell and David Friedrichs
70. The Case of the Missing Servant by Tarquin Hall

May

69. Out to Canaan by Jan Karon
68. These High, Green Hills by Jan Karon
67. A Light in the Window by Jan Karon
66. At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon
65. The Gift of Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
64. My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
63. Rob Roy by Sir Walter Scott
62. The Long Ships by Frans G. Bengtsson
61. One Was A Soldier by Julia Spencer-Fleming

April

60. Rough Country by John Sandford
59. Dark of the Moon by John Sandford
58. Gemini by Dorothy Dunnett
57. Caprice and Rondo by Dorothy Dunnett
56. To Lie With Lions by Dorothy Dunnett
55. The Unicorn Hunt by Dorothy Dunnett
54. Scales of Gold by Dorothy Dunnet
53. Race of Scorpions by Dorothy Dunnet
52. The Spring of the Ram by Dorothy Dunnett

March

51. Warlock by Oakley Hall
50. Niccolo Rising by Dorothy Dunnett
49. The Middle Way by the Dalai Lama
48. The Apprentice by Tess Gerritsen
47. Dirt Music by Tim Winton
46. The Surgeon by Tess Gerritson
45. Checkmate by Dorothy Dunnett
44. The Ringed Castle by Dorothy Dunnett
43. Pawn in Frankincense by Dorothy Dunnett
42. The Disorderly Knights by Dorothy Dunnett
41. Queen's Play by dorothy dunnet
40. Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett
39. The Curse of the Pogo Stick by Colin Coterill

February

38. White Nights by Ann Cleeves
37. Raven Black by Ann Cleeves
36. Klee Wyck by Emily Carr
35. The Forest Lover by Susan Vreeland
34. The Ghost and the Haunted Mansion by Alice Kimberly
33. The Ghost and the Femme Fatale by Alice Kimberly
32. The Ghost and the Dead Man's Library by Alice Kimberly
31. The Ghost and the Dead Deb by Alice Kimberly
30. The Ghost and Mrs. McClure by Alice Kimberley
29. Roast Mortem by Cleo Coyle
28. Holiday Grind by Cleo Coyle
27. Espresso Shot by Cleo Coyle
26. French Pressed by Cleo Coyle
25. Decaffeinated Corpse by Cleo Coyle
24. Murder Most Frothy by Cleo Coyle
23. Latte Trouble by Cleo Coyle
22. Through the Grinder by Cleo Coyle

January

21. On What Grounds by Cleo Coyle
20. Tell No One by Harlan Coben
19. Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehane
18. Reasonable Doubts by Giancarlo Carofiglio
17. A Walk in the Dark by Gianrico Carofiglio
16. The Merry Misogynist by Colin Cotterill
15. Anarchy and Old Dogs by Colin Cotterill
14. Disco for the Departed by Colin Cotterill
13. Thirty-Three Teeth by Colin Cotterill
12. The Hummingbird's Daughter by Luis Alberto Urrea
11. Three at Wolfe's Door by Rex Stout
10. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
9. Death in the Andes by Mario Vargas Llosa
8. The Elephant's Journey by José Saramago
7. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
6. The Battle of Wilson's Creek by Edwin C. Bearss
5. Stealing Lumby by Gail Fraser
4. Shibumi by Trevanian
3. The Lumby Lines by Gail Fraser
2. First Battle of Manassas: An End to Innocence by John Hennessy
1. The Maps of First Bull Run; An Atlas of the First Bull Run Campaign by Bradley M. Gottfried

OK

After all my brave, brassy talk about self-discipline--I just bought Blood of the Wicked after catching up on Sandy McCreary's thread. No guts, that's me.

Ah well. You are in good company in this place.

My only consolation.

At least there is one.

Happy birthday, Joyce! I hope you and Mary have a great birthday celebration today!

Thanks, Stasia! Actually, we're celebrating tomorrow. Saturdays are always busy, with people coming in to work. Sunday is our quiet day. Hopefully friends of ours will be over in the afternoon for lunch and cake tomorrow; their house is FINALLY finished, after 3 years of construction, and we think they're moving in this weekend.

Bill, in answer to your question: Stockett made the statement in recounting an answer she made to someone in a conversation. Technically speaking, it was a "fact"--the conversation occurred--even if her statement to the other person was incorrect.

#8: Well then, have a great celebration tomorrow!

Happy twin birthday!

(My birthday is today too!)

#11: Your birthday, too? What fun!

Happy birthday, Joyce!

Thank you, Dejah!

I've got your new thread starred now.

Belated happy birthday!

Thanks, Terri! It was a good one, too--ate too much, had a wonderful time with our close friends Linda and Jeff. I'm not sure how it could have been better. But knowing Mary, next year, when I'm 75, I'm sure she'll try to top it. :-)

Hello Joyce and everyone. I fell asleep at the switch and just got here. A belated happy birthday Joyce. My wife, Maritta, and I have June birthdays.

Just went used book shopping. It helps stretch my budget. The only way I have found to get books is to buy them. I found some gems; another Pauline Maier, From Resistance to Revolution, The Cambridge Illustrated History of Prehistoric Art and The Superorganism which is about ant societies.

Insatiable curiosity made the Elephant's Child from The Jungle Book travel to the great, grey-green, greasy Limpopo River all set about with fever trees. I read books.

Bill, Happy (probably belated) Birthday to you and Maritta!

I've noted Maier's other books. Glad that you will be reading that one so that I decide whether or not to splurge on it! I certainly am finding Ratification a worthwhile read.

I have downloaded The Jungle Book as one of the freebees you can get from Amazon for Kindle. I read that about 60 years ago and decided that it's about time to do a reread! :-)

I'm so far behind on reviews that it's scary but have been reading away. C.J. Box's Nowhere to Run was surprisingly good. Donna Leon's Drawing Conclusions was not. In the middle of Leighton Gage's Blood of the Wicked which takes place in contemporary Brasil, and it is superb. Meanwhile, working away on Ratification and A History of the Siege of Lisbon by Saramago.

I still have a copy of Jungle Book from when I was very young. It has a lot of good illustrations.

$74:
In This Mountain
Jan Karon

Seventh in the Father Tim Kavanaugh of Mitford, NC series.

Father Tim, in his usual role of Saving the World, has too much to do, he thinks, to worry much about keeping to his diebetic diet. Plus he’s resentful of the disease, that prevents him from eating the food he wants. So, he goes on an eating binge; the results are somber, as in a diabetic crisis, he blacks out at the wheel of his car, and a tragic accident occurs. Obsessed with what he feels is his responsibility AND with what the townspeople really think of him after the accident, he falls into a deep depression.

This is the darkest of the Mitford series. Karon writes with sensitivity and perhaps a tad too much idealism (I’ve lived in small towns most of my life, and never found ALL the people to be that forgiving). But the books has all the strengths of the series: fine writing, interesting characters that develop, a strong but not offensive presentation of Christianity. But what I truly appreciate about the series is that it deals with real life in a rather matter-of-fact but yet compassionate way: people die whether from natural causes or disease, life moves on as others retire and move away. children grow up and leave, while others come in to take their place.

This is a very fine installment in an excellent series. Highly recommended.

Shepherds Abiding
Jan Karon

Eighth in the Father Tim Kavanaugh of Mitford, NC series.

It’s Advent, and Father Tim has found what he thinks will be the perfect gift for his wife, Cynthia: an old Nativity set in need of refurbishing. Although he has no skills in this area, Father Tim takes on the task with his usual enthusiasm, aided by friends. Dooley and Lace are quite the young adults, and Tim and Cynthia have a hard time keeping out of the way of the stormy relationship.

All of Karon’s strengths are present: sensitive writing, a robust, attractive, Christian presentation, and characters that are engaging, both series regulars and newcomers.

A strong installment in the series. Highly recommended.

I have two copies of The Jungle Books. Of course, one is in my two volume complete works of Kipling edition. I'm glad the Father Tim series continues to please. Too bad about the Leon--I know you've enjoyed earlier books.

Are you slowing down on your work on the house? Nearing completion?

It really is too bad about Leon. Her earlier books were terrific. But this last is wooden, self-conscious. I think she's written out. But I have to say, the plot was excellent. Bizarre.

I think there's no end to work when you're a homeowner, especially here. Can't remember what I've said, but we had a beautiful iron balustrade, with gate, put in on the porch, some security windows, and security door repair. Kitchen cabinets coming son--we have to buy the hardware today. And roof repair starts Monday, just in time for the rainy season. I don't know how many inches of rain we had last night, but it rained all night long and is still raining as I write, at 5:05 a.m.--unusual. We've had dry weather--what they call here the San Juan summer (Feast of San Juan is June 19)--but that's over now, and the rains have returned--in time for our roof repair.

But the biggest work we have is Ethel, who is nearing the end. Geriatric care, whether of human or, in this case, dog, is an enormous amount of work and expense. It's now a question of knowing the right time to have her put down. We've already arranged for the vet to come to the house when the time comes, on a Sunday. I want her to die in her own home, not have an uncomfortable trip to the vet and die in a clinic room. Just a minute while he shaves her leg, inserts the needle, and then peace while I hold her. 16 1/2 years is a long time.

#76:

Light From Heaven
Jan Karon

Ninth book in the Father Tim Kavanaugh of Mitford, NC series.

Karon wraps it all up in this last book in the Mitford series. Father Tim and Cynthia finalize their plans for retirement, the multiple ongoing story threads are resolved, Dooley and Lace mature, mysteries are brought to light, Father Tim’s old nemesis reappears in a surprising way, and the book ends in an satisfying if improbable way. Life moves on.

What I find remarkable about this series is what appears to be Karon's attitude toward Mitford and its people. No such town has ever existed, and she is not recommending that we search for it. But what seems to me is that instead--and it is the real power behind this series--she is presenting what could be, a role model for living, so to speak. And that is its charm. The old, seductive “If we just (you fill in the blanks), life would be so much better.” Her fill-in-the-blanks is a model of Christian living, an ideal to strive for with all our human failings.

One does not have to buy into this particular model to appreciate the fine writing, the charm of the characters, the cherishing of everyday living and dying, and the sincerity that permeates the books. There is nothing banal about this series. It is a point of view that is very well presented in an entertaining fashion. Can’t ask for much more than that.

Highly recommended.

#77
Fer de Lance
Rex Stout

The first in the fabled Nero Wolfe series, in which we meet the great detective himself and his enterprising assistant, Archie Goodwin.

The plot: a university president suddenly dies while participating in a foursome of golf. His doctor immediately pronounces it as a heart attack, but it turns out to be a fiendishly clever murder. Wolfe and Archie are hired (more or less, sometimes less as the client has second thoughts) to find the murderer. And they do, in a combination of brilliant logical deduction (Wolfe) and tough-guy, fast-talking investigation (Archie).

These are clearly dated (late 1930s); Archie is no Harry Bosch or Rebus or Jack Reacher, but the combination of the obese detective and the street-wise (but gourmand) American is a marvel. As has been pointed out before, the series is modeled on the Sherlock Holmes stories, although Archie is not the bumbling Watson by any means. Still, the West 35th Street house is much like Holme’s Baker Street residence, and Fritz is a fine counterpart to Mrs. Hudson. Holmes had his bees; Wolfe has his orchids. The series is just as much about Wolfe and Archie and their way of life as it is about solving murders.

Dated, yes, but still a very fine read and thoroughly enjoyable. Highly recommended.

>25 Joycepa:: Carolyn (musicmom41) has been re-reading all the Nero Wolfe stories and, as I watch her posts and see others mentioning them, there's this growing urge to to do the same. I blitzed through almost all of them in the late 70s/early 80s and that's plenty of time elapsed.

Hungarian? Didn't the later books have him as born in Montenegro? I definitely will have to re-read the early ones.

Maybe 10 years ago I read a somewhat tongue-in-cheek essay about the OE Theory—that Wolfe was the son of Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler. It was based on the fact that: a) Sherlock Holmes' portrait hangs in Wolfe's brownstone; b) the age is compatible, c) there are some minor comments by Wolfe that he was born with a different name; d) Adler went to the Balkans after she left the Holmes stories; e) Wolfe resembles the physical description of Sherlock's brother, Mycroft, quite a bit; f) Wolfe's methods are very much like those of Holmes; and g) the vowels in their names are identical and occur in the same order: EOOE

:-D I do love these kinds of fancy!

Hi Joyce

Belated Happy Birthday to you, Bill and his wife. I've had such a difficult June with work load and some health issues that I've fallen behind, not only in posting to threads, but in posting happy birthday wishes to June folk.

I love the Mitford series. They are such great comfort reads, yet the author deals with some rather difficult subjects in each book. Your reviews are great and they capture the wonderful essence of the books.

All good wishes to you!

What total fun, Tad! I had no idea about the speculation. All I know is that certainly Stout admired the Holmes stories. In fact, Mary asked me yesterday about Mycroft, when we were talking about the Wolfe series. I'll have to tell her about all this "fantasizing". :-)

Yesterday I gave up the battle and downloaded Over My Dead Body. Not sure where it falls in the series, but it's an early one.

Linda, I've been trying to get the right description for the way the Mitford books strike me, and so far all I've been able to do is "entertaining role model." But they are wonderful and I love the way she really celebrates the small things in everyday life. In the end, they are all that matter.

ETA: Breaking News!! Mary just informed me that you can go one further: the sequence EROL!! Maybe she should write a new essay. :-)

#78: The Godwulf Manuscript
Robert Parker

First in the Spenser series.

Boston, mid-1970s. Someone has stolen the Godwulf Manuscript from an urban Boston university, and Spenser--an ex-policeman turned private investigator--is hired to recover it. Simultaneously, a student connected with a radical cult organization winds up dead, with four bullet holes in his chest; his young lover is the prime suspect in the murder. Spenser believes the two incidents are connected, but his investigation is frustrated repeatedly by lack of leads.

Parker broke new ground with Spenser, a tough, sarcastic, cynical private investigator with a past. Supposedly, McDonald, Leonard, Connolly developed their protagonists more or less on the model created by Parker with Spenser. I also see no small resemblance with Elvis Cole, Myron Bolitar and some other, more contemporary PIs.

The plot is good although nothing special; what makes the book is the character of Spenser (who, among other things, is quite a good cook) and the interesting characters that fill the story.

Not the best police procedural I’ve read, but interesting enough that I will read at least one more in the series.

Recommended for aficionados.

Don't stop before you get to Early Autumn, Joyce. Even if you skip some of the ones that come before it. It's well worth reading, all by itself. DISCLAIMER: I love Spenser and all of Parker's characters, and I sort of stopped caring if the stories got a little thin over the last few years. I'll read 'em anyway, I would not call any of them "police procedurals" at all. Spenser has a procedure all his own. I enjoy his literary literacy as much as anything.

I intend to keep going, Linda, at least for a while. "Policed procedural". I believe there was a discussion somewhere about trying to classify the different subgenres. I've decided nothing works, so they're all getting lumped under "police procedural" unless they're an "international spy thriller" or something else easily identifiable.

I'm having a lot of fun with early Nero Wolfe.

I remember that discussion, Joyce. It is difficult. I think "Parker novel" may qualify as a genre.

I'll definitely consider it, Linda--it would make my literary life SO much easier! :-)

Don't know when I'll get to the formal review, but I just started--and finished--Black Flies. I couldn't put it down. It's shrot, less than 200 pages, but every one of them is gripping. I recommend it highly.

OMG, I just found out that I've snagged an Early Reviewers copy of Laurie King's Pirate King!!!! WOO HOO!!!!!!!

Good for you, Joyce! I get so excited when I win a new one by one of my favorite authors. Are you still loving the Mary Russell series?

Linda, I think that of its kind, it's the best series going. There's not one bad book in it nor, for that matter, one mediocre or "bleh". What I love about King is that she varies what she does with the books. some are psychological thrillers (Locked Rooms), some are English cottage mysteries, some are historical fiction, and her last two were as close to action-adventure as you're going to get.

She has a novella, Beekeeping for Beginners, coming out as an e-book on July 6th. In it, she describes the first meeting between Holmes and Russell from Holmes' point of view. I've read a few very short excerpts and it promises to be excellent.

What's really fun is that I'm reading The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes for the first time as well.

#35: I am beyond jealous. That was the only ER book I asked for this month and I did not get it. Rats.

Ah, Stasia, my heart goes out to you, it really does. But only my heart--not the book.

It's always a treat to get one of the ER books. Last month I got a copy of My Business is to Create: Blake's Infinite Writing. It opens with a very poignant story about him drawing a portrait of his wife just before he died. I am going to finish the book this weekend.

Looking forward to the review, Bill.

92. Beekeeping for Beginners
Laurie R. King

Depending on what you read, this work is described as either a short story or an e-novella (about 50 pages long). To me, it’s a little long for a short story and maybe just shy of a novella, e-book or otherwise. Also, it’s important to know that I am not a fan of short stories; with few exceptions I find them unsatisfying--not enough length to develop either a solid plot or satisfactory characters.

In this case, character development is not important--IF you are a fan, as I am, of King’s Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series, one of the most consistently excellent of the crime fiction genre. We all know who these two are. What makes is doubly delightful is that, in the first book of the series, The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, the story of Homes and Russell’s first meeting is told at some length--from mary Russell’s point of view. In this story, we get a very different picture of that momentous first encounter--that of Holmes himself.

However, that’s takes up about a quarter of the book. The rest is devoted to the recounting of an episode of those early days, an episode that none of us knew about before--because Mary Russell herself, whose memoirs the series is, never knew. It’s not a question of the solving of a crime, but of preventing one--the early demise of the 15 year old Russell in order to get at her wealth. In it, Homes returns to London and employs his now grown-up Baker Street Irregulars.

It’s very good writing and mildly interesting but light-weight, at least for me, thanks to the length. The book is really two short stories, the first being the meeting and the second the London episode. While I enjoyed both immensely, I was left unsatisfied, feeling that it would have been better if each had been part of a longer work. There is an unresolved feeling to the book for me as a result.

Also, to my surprise, I found myself wishing that the book had been edited a little more. There are redundancies in the early part that could have been avoided, it seems to me. This is all the more apparent because I have NEVER felt that way about King’s works before; as far as I’m concerned, there is not an extra word in any of her other works.

So yes, I enjoyed it. But I have a feeling it would not “turn on” any readers who are new to the series with a thirst to find out more. And that’s too bad.

Included at the end of the book are an “interview” with Mary Russell but Tweet (a "Twinterview"), and two chapters of her forthcoming book, the next in the series, The Pirate King. The former was uninteresting while the latter leaves me impatiently waiting for the arrival of the new book!

Recommended for fans of the Holmes/Russell series.

#39:

Thanks for dropping by, Stasia, with words of cheer and inspiration!! LOL

LOL! Hi, Joyce, are you keeping cool?

Not doing badly at all, Roni, although "winter"--read rainy season--has started and I'm busy keeping the jungle at bay! Or at least the savannah. doing a LOT of reading. What's happening up your way?

Despite your selfishness, I am going to get my hands on a copy of The Pirate King after all. Angela is going to send me her copy. So there! :) lol

Darn! foiled again!! It's always good to have well-connected friends, Stasia. LOL

Actually, I'm not so much selfish as just plain mean. I think there's a difference! :-/

I can relate to the being just plain mean too, Joyce :-)

Good, Stasia! I always knew there was a certain core element in you that I really liked!! LOL Sisters under the skin. :-)

As if there was any doubt!

We've had a couple of warm, muggy days. Good beach days!

For all fines of George Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice series: Book 5, A Dance With Dragons is utterly superb! I've just simply ignored all except the most essential responsibilities (the dogs do need walking!) and have done nothing else but read the book, staying up far, far too late. It's nearly impossible to put it down.

I keep swearing, I'm not going to read the series until it is FINISHED!

Hate to say this, Roni--hopefully we'll all live long enough to read Book 6! Took him 4-5 years for this one. I'm hoping that thanks to the TV series he'll move fast on The Winds of Winter.

#54: I am not reading the series until he finished it either, Roni!

We'll all be old(er) and gray(er). He's averaged about 4 years between books. Started writing it in the mid-90s.

#57: I did not realize he started the series that long ago. Nope, I am not starting them for sure until he finishes. I do not want to have to wait 4 years between clffhangers!

I'm just about 3/4 of the way through the book, and that's what it is so far--a cliffhanger. I'm racing through the thing, dying to find out what happens next. And Martin is terrific in terms of how he structures and paces these novels. He does it by major character.

There are about a dozen subplots-or maybe I should say plot threads--in the books, that he's carried through since the beginning. You can tell that he's getting ready to wind the whole thing up, the way he's maneuvering the characters through these threads in the overall plot.

One thing that really surprised me is that he had a very brief "subplot" more than half way through the book that, unless he's going to come up with some unexpected turn later, serves no purpose whatsoever in the overall story. But he's a genius at twists and turns, so who knows.

These books are LONG--1000+ pages each. I hope to finish this one today which means that in aobut a week I'll have read well over 5000 pages of the series--and loved every bit of it.

I am here to tell you that A Dance with Dragons is terrific. Ye gods, what a series and what an installment. I've done nothing around here for two days except read (well, there's food as well). Even forgot to take the dogs out for their noon walk. More twists and turns than in a box of spiral macaroni, but by the end, some of the threads are being resolved, shall we say.

Wow!! What a book!!!

#60: One of these years I will get to the series. But not until GRRM finishes writing them :)

I am glad you enjoyed A Dance with Dragons so much, Joyce!

De-lurking to say I've enjoyed reading your last thread and this - the discussion of the John Adams series particularly; I watched that a few months back on DVD and really loved it (and learned a lot - I barely knew who John Adams was before hearing people on LT mention the biography on which the TV series is based). I agree about the casting and acting - excellent also.

And I didn't know there were so many more Mitford books - I've read the first 5, I think, but obviously must track down the rest. As an Anglican priest myself, I take comfort from the character of Father Tim and his very real struggles; even if people are a little bit idealised there are still some pretty difficult issues dealt with - and ordinary tiresome everday challenges faced too.

Stasia, I'm LOST without another book to read in the series. I've pre-ordered the DVDs for the 1st season of the TV series, but there's no issue date, so don't know when they'll be coming out. Gads, what a book--and what an ending!

Genny: I think that one of the great powers of the Mitford books is the "ordinary things" that Karon so beautifully portrays. And I agree about the difficult issues. I think she treats aging and dying extremely well, for example. It's a wonderful series.

There you go. Now you do not have to be lost any more :)

Oh delightful, Stasia! I've been reduced to reading the Father Brown stories--no more blood-and-guts, sex-and-swords available for heaven knows how long.

Hmmm, I am trying to think of something that will fulfill your blood-and-guts, sex-and-swords requirements. . .

Hey, not easy, let me tell you. A Song of Ice and Fire is an extremely hard act to follow. But I'm certainly willing to give almost anything a go to fill in the next 3-4 years.

. . .unfortunately, I am not at all up to snuff with the fantasy genre. The only book I could think of is Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay, lol.

I've read Tigana twice and loved it. But, yes, not quite the same--a rather distinctive lack of brutality AND sex, for that matter. I am not a big fan of fantasy. I think most of it is dull, nearly totally without imagination. But not so with Martin's series. I keep seeing comparisons with Tolkien, but to me they aren't at all alike. Lord of the Rings is a classic quest story; Martin's series is much more like a historical novel. I think I read somewhere that he patterned it more or less loosely on England's War of the Roses. Tolkien created an entire culture and sets of languages. He himself said that he was out to write a mythology that England doesn't have, and the "prequels" if you will to Lord of the Rings are proof of that. Martin has done no such thing. Tolkien's characters are shallow and never really develop; Martin's cast of characters is far more extensive and far more complex--and they do develop through the books. Tolkien can actually be boring, frankly--as far as I can tell, if he ever had a sense of humor, he certainly didn't risk exposing it in any of his books! I thought that Peter Jackson and the other screen writers (including his wife Fran Walsh who, I think, did the majority of the adaptation) did an utterly brilliant job of adapting the books--cutting out unnecessary stuff like Tom Bombadil (a character I found boring), doing a brilliant job of incorporating humor through Pippin, and other fine touches. The films are actually more entertaining than the books in many respects. martin doesn't have 'humor" per se except for the black and ironic kind, but Tyrion Lannister, the dwarf, is the main way Martin incorporates such humor, and it works beautifully. One of the reasons that I'm so interested in seeing the movies is that Peter Dunklidge (I think I have the actor's name right) has gotten rave reviews for his portrayal of Tyrion, and has been given an Emmy nomination for best supporting actor in a drama series.

Lord of the Rings set the standard for fantasy epics for two generations, and it is a brilliant work--flawed, but brilliant. Martin's series is different and deserves to be judged on its own.

I love the film versions of The Lord of the Rings. Kerry and I watch them often. Of course, I like the books too.

I read fantasy quite a bit when I was a teenager, but then stopped and have just gotten back to the genre (with the encouragement of Carolyn) in the past couple of years. Currently Carolyn and I are reading Tad Williams Sorrow, Memory and Thorn trilogy.

I used to read sci fi when I was a teenager and young adult but gave it up after it more or less went by the boards--just same old, same old. Got into reading fantasy through reading Ursula LeGuin's sci fi, which at that time were among the first to explore social issues through that medium. But never really got into it.

Carolyn and I began reading scifi/fantasy together 2 years ago. Both of us prefer fantasy to scifi, so our reading is decidedly slanted in that direction.

Weighing in to say that I too read fantasy a lot as a teenager and stopped as I got older. I've tried more again recently, but maybe my 'magic' button is broken? I love HP though so maybe there's hope for me yet.

I've actually surprised myself, Nancy, that I'm as much into the genre as I am. But there really are some excellent series out there. I really dislike Jim Butcher's harry Dresden series--I find it lame--but love his Codex Alera series--I have probably read it 4 times already. Why I'm saving Ursula LeGuin's latest book in her EarthSea series, Tehanu, is not clear to me, but it sits on my shelf, waiting. That is a terrific series, too. I know many people are into Ringworld, but I'm not one of them. Sci fi itself has no interest for me, because the real thing, for me, has always held far more wonder than the fictional one, at least since my 20s. Graduate school finished me forever, I think, for the made-up world; the real one is utterly miraculous in itself, making the fake world boring by comparison.

>74 Joycepa:

Joyce --

I couldn't agree with you more -- I have tried (twice) to get into Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden books and they just don't do much for me. But the Codex Alera series -- I adore it! I've read it several times and I know I'll read it again.

I have to admit, though, I still like some SF.

Dejah:

Have you tried Martin's series yet?

94.White Sky, Black Ice
Stan Jones

First in the Nathan Active, Alaska State Trooper series.

Nathan Active is a Native American, an Inupiat (we learn early on that Eskimo is a white man’s term and Inuit is really not correct) born in the village of Chukchi in NW Alaska, across the Bering Strait from Siberia. His 15 year old mother gave him to a white couple for adoption when he was still a baby. Nathan is a Alaska State Trooper, unhappily stationed in Chukchi--he’d rather be in Anchorage where his adoptive parents live. Two apparent suicides of Inupiats within a week are suspicious, however, and Nathan decides to investigate further.

The setting is well done, the circumstances auspicious, and the character seemed interesting. But unfortunately, the plot very early on becomes obvious to a three year old. The writing during most of the book is adequate if not brilliant, but towards the end, it degenerates into mediocrity, as if Jones were in a hurry to get the book done and just slapped some sentences together to more or less tie things up. Too bad, because the scenario had real potential.

Read only if interested in what seems to be a good portrayal of modern Inupiat culture. Otherwise, be prepared to be bored.

I watched the movie Gettysburg last night for the umpteenth time. Outside of the horrendous miscasting of Martin Sheen as Robert E. Lee, it's a good film. Gettysburg was so complex that the film by its very nature has to be just a series of clips, especially since the director and screenwriters hose to focus so strongly on the defense of Little round Top and Pickett's Charge. Rightly so, if you're in the entertainment business.

But one of the problems to come out of Shaara's book and the film is the more or less fixed idea that somehow the 20th maine in general and Joshua Chamberlain in particular won the Battle of Gettysburg all by themselves. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Both the 20th Maine and Chamberlain deserve the credit and the glory they won at such cost. But they were only one of many units that "saved" the Battle of Gettysburg.

I understand fully well the decisions that have to be made in both writing a novel and filming said novel. One was to sideline the part played by Hancock, who was arguably the best general the Union had--bar none. he never had an independent command so he never had the chance to prove if he could lead armies and win battles the way Grant did. More like Sherman--certainly brilliant subordinates. Sherman did not want independent command--he knew his limitations. Hancock, for various reasons, never had the opportunity.

Yes, the 20th Maine is deservedly honored. But what about the 1st Minnesota?

On the second day, the Confederates were about to break the Union line with vastly superior forces. There was a huge gap in the line. Hancock rode up, saw the gap--and sent the 1st Minnesota in to plug that gap until reinforcements could be brought up, a matter of 5 minutes. The 1st Minnesota, veterans all (they were one of the first volunteer units in the war), knew exactly what that meant. It meant that most or all of them were going to die, frankly. But they rushed in and plugged that line, until the reinforcements arrived. And yes, most of them died--out of 262, only 47 survived--and the losses occurred in under 5 minutes. Their incredible bravery occurred at about the same time that the 20th Maine was fighting to defend Little round Top. But the 20th Maine got the glory; almost no one has heard of the First Minnesota.

But no film has been made of the First Minnesota and they have no equivalent of Jeff Daniels to play their commander who, along with his men, knew what was going to happen--and went anyway.

Chamberlain went on to prove his worth. But Hancock was as good or better.

In the film Brian Mallon plays Hancock, and while I don't cringe the way I do when I see pathetic Martin Sheen bumping along on his horse like a sack of wet cement, he's not given much of a role except for Hancock's famous saying just before Pickett's charge, "There are times when the life of a corps commander is not worth much." Mallon is short; Hancock was 6 feet tall and one of the handsomest men in the Union army. He was something of a dandy; he always wore fresh white shirts, and the men used to marvel at how he was able to do so during all the campaigns. He was also considered one of the most foul-mouthed men in the Union army, which is rather awe-inspiring, considering armies.

He was called The perfect Soldier or the Perfect General, I don't remember which. Every general made mistakes. Hancock made only one, during the Battle of the Wilderness. Other than that, his record is better than any other general in the Civil War.

#78: A fine tribute to General Hancock, Joyce.

(I agree with you about the miscasting of Sheen as Lee)

Martin Sheen is an outstanding actor--but what possessed the filmmakers to cast him as Lee is beyond my understanding. Gods and Generals is a very fine book--carries Chamberlain and the 20th Maine, among others, up to Gettysburg and has the finest fictional account of Fredericksburg I've read (best historical account is in Shelby Foote--every time I read it I have to remind myself how much the book cost so as to restrain myself from throwing it across the room). The move is so gawd-awful (with the exception of the Fredericksburg battle) that Jeff Shaara refused permission to film The Last Full Measure. BUT--Robert Duvall, another outstanding actor, was cast as Lee, and he was perfect. Every time I watch Gettysburg I daydream about what it would have been like to have Duvall as Lee in that film.

I have no idea why my interest in Gettysburg has suddenly been rekindled, but I'm rereading Maps of Gettysburg now and contemplating taking on Harry Pfanz's 3 volume work on the battle after that. I've ordered two books on the First Minnesota--have one already on my Kindle, no doubt a mistake if there are too many maps.

Just finished reading the account of the Iron Brigade racing into battle the first day, loading their muskets as they ran.

I think "Hancock the Superb" may be the phrase you are looking for. He was everyone's idea of what the perfect general should look and act like.

Martin Sheen's attempt at a Southern accent was pitiful. He had none of the gravitas required to play the part of Lee. I did enjoy Tom Berenger's portrayal of Longstreet.

Thanks, Bill--that's exactly what I was trying to remember. Didn't McClellan give him that nickname?

I thought Berenger and many of the others were excellent. Hood, Harrison, Kemper, Pickett (especially), Strong Vincent, T.J. Goree--all were well portrayed.

I really love the film--it's not perfect and by the 8th or 9th viewing, the imperfections do start to grate, but the battle sequences are superb, and you really do get a very good view of the personalities and issues in the battle. I never tire of watching it.

ETA: Yep, it was McClellan--after the Battle of Williamsburg in the Peninsula campaign, McClellan wired WA that "Hancock was superb today", and it stuck.

I have never read any of Jeff Shaara's books, but I loved his father's The Killer Angels.

I think you'd really like Gods and Generals, Stasia. You might give it a try. And The Last Full Measure is very good as well.

I noticed on another thread that you have sworn off buying any more books this year. I am going to do the same--as soon as I buy a couple more! Always the hedge. But there are a couple of Civil War books I want, and then it's a moratorium. I have enough reading material on hand to carry me for another year without buying a single more book.

Well, I have to make exception for the one or two I've pre-ordered! LOL

#79: The White War
Mark Thompson

Wars are no different from other human enterprises; those who conduct it can run the gamut from brilliant (few, as in any enterprise) to the truly stupid and incompetent. The problem with any hierarchical organization is that the possibility of the incompetent being in charge of the lives of millions of other human beings is very real. History has shown us time and again that this is the case with armies, where the rise to command is as much based on political influence, chance of birth or other factors as well as merit.

One of the most telling cases in point is the Italian participation in World War I, known as The White War because it was fought mainly in the mountains at very high altitudes; winters were bitter. Italy at that time was still digesting unification of the peninsula. Recently rid of Austria in the Veneto, Italy had territorial ambitions in Austrian south Tyrol and Adriatic. Playing one side against the other, Italy waited until it had favorable secret agreements from England and France before it entered the war, basically to win territory from Austria.

The history of the conduct of the war, mainly by Carona, the head of the army, is one of incredible arrogance, egotism, incompetence, cunning, and total disregard for human life. Carona actually ordered ‘decimation”, the deliberate killing of one man in ten, for various acts that he termed treason; some such acts requiring brutal discipline, were lack of respect or speaking against the government.

In addition, it wasn’t that Carona knew how to conduct a war--he didn’t. Entire armies were basically thrown away on frontal assaults against impregnable Austrian positions. Hemingway called it “the most colossal, murderous, mismanaged butchery”.

One of the results of the war was the rise to power of Mussolini, who traded on the losses and the one battle that the Italians did win--the last one--to gain his position as Italy’s dictator.

Thompson tells the story in a very straightforward, very well-written manner. He not only covers the war, but also the politics of the time and the attitudes generated which have lasted in Italy to the present time. His explanations of the Yugoslavian independence movement and the different ethnic and religious groups within the Austro-Hungarian empire are excellent background to understanding the history of today’s Central Europe, at least those areas around the Adriatic.

Highly recommended.

About two years ago I went through my library and listed all the books I had read. I found that I could go for more than several years without buying a book and have plenty of good books to read. I haven't been able to stop buying books but I have slowed down. Being self-employed I have had some unwanted assistance from the economy.

Well, Bill, like they say--there's a silver lining to every cloud! Or something like that. :-)

I, too, have to think about my bank account. Kindle is a major problem--too easy to order, feels like the books are free, and I can get carried away, to put it mildly. Got to stop.

But not until I have a couple more books--just a couple, that's all. Surely a couple won't bankrupt me!

Buying books is never a bad way to spend money.

Of course, of course--so I keep telling myself--that and "After all, you can't take it with you" and other comforting rationalizations!
:-)

#84: Somehow your book buying ban and my book buying ban do not sound like the same thing, Joyce :)

Actually, I am allowing myself a maximum of 10 books purchased for the year. Thus far, I have bought 3. The majority of my purchases I am saving up for the Joplin meet up in November.

Actually, Stasia, as I've said before, self-discipline, will power, all those wonderful personality traits--I don't have them! But I'm going to try. In connection with that, I have been keeping the vow I made to read at least 2 books I already have for every new one I get. Problem is the ratio of old to new has been declining. But I'm doing better.

Yeah, I have been trying to read more from my own shelves - but the local library's books always seem so much better! lol

See, that's the problem for me with Amazon!

I completely understand!

#95: The Maps of Gettysburg
Bradley Gottfried

There are several fine books out about the Battle of Gettysburg, most notable being Edwin Coddington’s superb one volume work, The Gettysburg Campaign and Harry Pfanz’s exhaustive 3 volume study. But like just about every book on the Civil War, the maps are barely adequate. The maps in Coddington’s book are good but there is just one single map showing the movements of both armies from June 3rd, when Lee began pulling out from Fredericksburg to June 30th, when both armies began concentrating in the Gettysburg area. To say that following the movements of the armies is tedious is understating the case. But graphics are expensive to reproduce in a book, and require a different type of attention to detail. It is no wonder that so many books fall short.

Books of maps--atlases--exist, but usually these are just one-page affairs of a particular battle with a very brief summary of the battle itself. Ghettysburg was the most complex battle of the Civil War, and one-page maps do not even begin to cover the numerous individual engagements which together made up the three days of fighting.

In The Maps of Gettysburg, Gottfried pioneered a new format. He broke down the entire campaign--from the start on June 3rd to the end of Lee’s retreat on July 14--into sections. Each section--sometimes covering one or more days’ of marching, sometimes just a few hours of fighting--has two pages; the left-hand page is text summarizing the action portrayed on the right hand page, which is a map,

The format works beautifully. The text is by necessity a stripped-down, concise summary of events, but that’s no problem; Gottfried is a fine writer. Gottfried has done a wonderful job with both maps and text. There are errors, but they are pretty obvious in most cases, and should not detract from the overall enjoyment of this very fine work. I for one found that for the first time, I understood the movements of both armies from Virginia to Gettysburg.

In addition, there is information on some aspects of the campaign that receive very little attention in works about the battle, such as the short but decisive engagement of Second Winchester on June 10-12 and the cavalry fights that occurred on July 3rd. Lee’s retreat to Virginia is well covered.

Highly recommended.

96: Pale Horse at Plum Run
Brian Leehan

“And I looked, and behold a pale horse,
And its rider’s name was Death,
And Hell followed with Him”

Revelation 6:8

This quote, which opens the book, sets the tone for the description of the participation of the First Minnesota Volunteers on July 2-3, 1863 at the Battle of Gettysburg.

Gettysburg has a hold on the American imagination in a way that no other military engagement has, not even Pearl Harbor. Much of its appeal is due to the best-selling novel by Michael Shaara, The Killer Angels and the equally successful film of that book, Gettysburg. In both works, one of the dramatic highlights, along with Pickett’s Charge, is the heroic stand of the 20th Maine led by Colonel Joshua Chamberlain on Little Round Top. The beauty of fiction is that the author can choose to focus on whatever aspect catches his or her imagination and by skillful use of various literary devices, can ignore other aspects. There’s nothing wrong with that. Certainly The Klller Angels is great entertainment, and thanks to Shaara, many more people have become interested in the US Civil War than would have been the case had the novel never been published.

But there is a tendency to believe that the 20th Maine “saved” the battle, the Union Army and won the war practically single-handed by its stand at Gettysburg. While that engagement was critical, it was by no means the only one that “saved” the Battle of Gettysburg. Equally important was the charge to near-certain death by 8 companies of the First Minnesota on the same day at the same time that the 20th Maine was fighting to preserve the Union left flank.

Due to the shattering of the Union 3rd Corps, there was a gap in the Union line at Plum Run that, had it been taken by the Confederates, would have split the Union defense in two, much the same as happened at Chickamauga and probably with the same result--the defeat of the Union army. But unlike Chickamauga, arguably the Union’s finest general, Winfield Scott Hancock, was present at Gettysburg and in charge of the Union center.

“Reinforcements were coming on the run, but I knew that before they could reach the threatened point the confederates, unless checked, would seize the position. I would have ordered that regiment in if I had known that every man would be killed. It had to be done.” Hancock, after the battle.

The regiment was the First Minnesota. Hancock ordered Colonel Colville to “take those colors” (Wilcox’s brigade). Knowing perfectly well what that meant--something like 332 men against about 1400--the First Minnesota charged--and stopped Wilcox’s brigade cold.
That was not the only contribution of the First Minnesota at Gettysburg. About 100 men survived the charge at Plum Run. Reunited with its other two companies, the First was also involved in the charge the next day that stopped those elements of Pickett’s Charge that breached the stone wall of the Union line.

While Gettysburg is the most dramatic section of the book, Leehan describes how the unit was first formed (possibly the first Union volunteer was from the First Minnesota) and a brief description of other battles in which the First Minnesota participated. he has a very fine section on myths--their formation, their necessity, and how the myth of the First Minnesota’s charge at plum Run was established. According to most accounts, 232 men charged, and 47 survived. Not so, says Leehan: more like 332 in the charge and 100 survivors. Leehan also has small but good sections on weaponry and tactics.

While not in the league of McPherson, Catton, Foote, Coddington, or others, Leehan is still a good enough writer to engage and keep the reader’s attention. This is a very fine little book, that brings to the fore the actions and courage of a small group of relatively unknown men who helped shape the history of the United States.

Highly recommended.

#95: I know that one is already in the BlackHole!

#96: I have not heard of that book before, so I am adding it to the BlackHole. Thanks for the review and recommendation, Joyce.

Two thumbs up from me for your reviews :)

Thanks, Stasia. Both very worthwhile books. I have another book coming on the First Minnesota. Supposedly it complements Leehan's book.

Got to get some other reviews written, soon!

So, Joyce...when are you taking that trip back to PA so we can visit the battlefield together? You could surely give the tours by now, and maybe do a better job of explaining things than the rangers!

Linda, I really, really want to do it. My problem right now is in my left hip. Or the muscles--the quads--in that thigh. I can't walk for great distances. I'm working on that, but I may also be limited in mobility due to osteoarthritis--my left hip area is filling in and I will need a hip replacement at some time in the future. I'm not sure just how much of my walking problems are muscular and how much is the arthritis.

Another problem has been Ethel, our old, OLD Lab. We've been doing geriatric care for her for a year and a half, and it has given me an entirely new perspective on such care. She is an ENORMOUS amount of work; while I could probably handle her and the rest of the house and property by myself, Mary can not. Her Spanish is nonexistent and you simply cannot get along, totally, here without it. Plus she can not do some of the routine maintenance and repair work that I do.

Basically, both of us have put our lives on hold until Ethel dies, which most likely will be in a matter of weeks. I've already made arrangements with our wonderful vet to come to the house on a Sunday to put her down--just a question of which Sunday. I doubt she'll last out August.

However, we're smack in the middle of our rainy season, and that's just added work. Our marvelous young gardener/handyman, Juan, graduates from colegio--high school--in December; until that time he can come only 1 day a week at most. Which means that maintenance falls a lot on us. While we've taken drastic steps to cut down the amount of work, it still requires both of us.

Realistically speaking, I'm looking at next year. When I will be 75. I'd love to wait until 2013 for the anniversary, but again, I can't count on either being alive or well enough to do the trip at 76. I'm pretty strong and vigorous, but I have to face reality.

So--I'm hoping, for my 75th birthday in June of next year, to make the trip. That's a good time of year here for one of us to leave, and Juan will be working at least 2 days and probably 3 days a week for us while he goes to university (I intend to help him with that).

Don't be ridiculous--those rangers have forgotten more than I'll ever know! But thanks for the compliment, anyway. :-) But I intend to scan some maps and take them with me.

I would also love to visit Scranton. I haven't been there in about 20 years and then just visited my mother in South Side. I could see that the central area had undergone great changes, but my trips were fairly short and were focused on my mother.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for that birthday trip coming about, Joyce. And I'm sorry about Ethel...an aging dog is such a drain on the heart. If you get to Scranton, we'll hoot around a little!

You could drop by Texas and pick me up on the way to Pennsylvania, Joyce!

Listen, Stasia, if i go to the States and don't see my brother in the Phoenix area, he's going to kill me! Of course, he'll have to come to Panama to do so, so I may be safe after all! :-) If I go to TX--that's too close to AZ. I could lie and tell him that I just went to PA. There are times when honesty is not the best policy. :-)

I'd like to plan on the trip. We need to get through these next few months; I'll start thinking about it after Christmas.

Stasia, we could manage it somehow. Maybe we could meet halfway or something. Don't count on me for anything but local driving--I should not do any long-distance driving in the US--totally unused to it after 7 years away. Plus at my age, my reflexes are not quite what they were when I was a young thing of 65. :-)

I never had any reflexes to begin with, so I bet yours are still better than mine :)

OK, we can meet halfway between Texas and Panama - say Mexico somewhere?

Absolutely NOT Mexico--don't even dream of it. Too damned dangerous, period. There is NOWHERE in Mexico that is safe.

OK, I am terrible at geography. Where would you suggest is halfway if not Mexico?

Well, I was thinking halfway between TX and PA! :-)

Ah, OK. Tennessee perhaps?

Hmm--not bad. We might think about hitting a Civil War site or two there. Chickamauga is just over the border in Georgia.

I'd like to point out that I am in Pennsylvania. See you in a year or two!

#109: Oh, we could hit a ton of CW sites along the way, I have no doubt!

Lookout Mountain, Tennessee. Excellent spot to visit. Also Bleak House in Knoxville, which was Longstreet's headquarters during the Battle of Knoxville. Not that I have any interest in going back to Tennessee for quite some time.

Joyce --

I didn't realized you lived in Panama -- I'd been assuming Pennsylvania, although that sounds as though it's correct, too, in terms of your LT name.

I'm sorry about Ethel. I understand putting your life on hold while dealing with an elderly pet -- in my case, cats. I hope you can make the most of whatever time is left for you together.

Back @ post #75 you asked if I'd tried the Matin books and the (belated) answer is no. I'm not all that crazy about big, epic fantasy series and for the most part I avoid books that are really dark. I'm under the impression that the Martin works are both. That said, I may give them a try after he's finished them all -- if I like them, I can run right through them with no waiting on cliffhangers. All the LTers who like them so much have made me think I'll have to try them someday!

#110: Yes, Pittsburg! Be fun to get together with all the "close" LTers.

#111: Stasia, I'm serious. Let's do some serious thinking about it. I want to check out we pages of National Parks at the different sites, see what I can come up with. We'd have to whittle down for sure.

#112: Linda, it's really all part of the same deal--go to Chickamauga, go to Lookout Mountain.

#113: Dejah, actually the pa in my user name IS for Panamá, although I grew up and went to college in PA. Even though I was born in NYC, I consider PA my "home" state.

Ethel: it's difficult. We work hard at keeping her clean and comfortable. She gets "baths" 4-6 times a day, since she's completely incontinent and at the moment we can't use diapers on her. She's on a special diet, and eats 4x/day. If we're doing everything right, she sleeps. Even if we're doing everything right, there are times when she really can't get comfortable. So far, her good days and good times far outnumber her bad ones.

Martin's works ARE dark, no question. By the time he's finished the series, you may have retired from active life and have the time to read them! :-)

ETA: I have to say it's the greatest irony that I have to travel a thousand miles or so to go to Gettysburg. I got my undergraduate degree at Dickinson College in Carlise. There were a few buildings that still sported Minié ball holes in the walls from when the Confederates came through on their foraging raid. I managed to get to Gettysburg in my senior year, but knew very little about the battle then. What I remember to this day is Devil's Den and The Angle and a vague memory of Little round Top.

I really want to see McPherson's Woods and the railroad cut, if it's still there. I want to see where the 6th Wisconsin charged, where the Iron Brigade made its heroic stand, where Buford's Cavalry held off Heth's division, where that moron Sickles placed the 3rd Corps that nearly caused the collapse of the union line. I want to stand as close as I can to where Hancock sent in the 13th and 16th Vermont to flank Kemper in Pickett's Charge, and where he sent in the First Minnesota. Little Round Top, of course. Culp's Hill. Plum Run. The Valley of Death. All of it. And this time I'll know what I'm seeing.

#114: I am serious too, Joyce. I am sure that we can work something out. My hubby, Kerry, would like to tag along?

Thought you might be interested in this, Joyce: http://news.yahoo.com/ceremonies-150th-anniversary-manassas-battle-160349092.htm...

The more the merrier, Stasia! I'd love to meet Kerry. As well as you, come to think of it, but I feel I already have! :-)

I'll check out the Manassas link later--today is a horribly busy day. But thanks--yes I know 150 years for First Manassas. My niece lives in Manassas Junction but has absolutely no interest in the Civil War!

Shame on your niece! :)

Aaargh. The ignorance of the young--she's only in her 30s.

That explains it!

Joyce, I'm adding your last two books to my list. We actually used to live just outside Gettysburg, and my husband and I took some classes at the seminary there. I'm always trying to add to my knowledge of the battle.

I know that Gettysburg has had to have changed in the 50+ years since I was there, but I remember it as a beautiful little town, much like Carlisle only bigger, I think. When did you live there?

I think you'll enjoy both books. I'm very prejudiced in favor of, very enthusiastic about the atlas. It really does make the best sense of the battle that I've seen.

I've just started a massive book I've had for at least 3 years: The Civil War Times Illustrated History of the Civil War, Volume I: Fort Sumter to Gettysburg. It's over 1300 pages of mostly photographs with (so far) wonderful text. I have an entire book on the origins of the war in the decade before 1860; this book beautifully summarizes that information in one chapter, with accompanying photographs of places and people. Right now, I'm on the chapter on the navies. Each chapter is written by a different person. There is one titled "The Boys of '61", which is nearly heartbreaking to read, as it talks about the thousands of volunteers on both sides who flocked to enlist, afraid the war would end before they would have a chance to have some fun. And then came the Battle of First Bull Run or First Manassas, which of course has just celebrated its 150th anniversary this weekend (actually, July 16th is the anniversary date). If you can lay your hands on this book, do get it. the photographs are literally and figuratively priceless.

#122: I checked and my local library does not have the Davis book. Rats.

I'm not surprised, Stasia. I imagine that they would be extremely expensive for a local library. I bought mine used and still winced at the price.

There are some wonderful photographs such as an aerial photograph of Boston in 1860--taken from a balloon! And a great picture of the wharf at the end of Wall Street in New York, showing a crowd of masts of ships anchored there. 1860 Broadway, already, according to the text, one of the busiest streets in the world. Steamers delivering grain tied up at Omaha. Photos of Grant and Perkins leather store in Galena, with Grant standing in front. Charleston, Wade Hampton's gardens, Fairfax Courthouse before the fighting. And that's just a sample of the first 213 pages!

I know you do a lot of interlibrary loans--maybe you can get hold of it in that way.

I do not do a lot of interlibrary loans. I used to but got fed up with how long it took to get hold of everything. By the time I finally got my hands on a book, I was no longer in the mood for it :)

I will just have to break down and buy the book some time. Not this year though.

Look for it used, Stasia. I'm not even sure it's still in print, for that matter.

Oh, yeah. I pretty much buy all of my books (when I am buying them, that is) used any more.

You know, I have no idea why I even said that! Of course you'd look for it used! Getting more feeble-minded by the day.

LOL! Yeah right, Joyce. Feeble-minded, that is you. :)

You have no idea, Stasia, you have no idea. *sigh*

Yeah, I do. The shame of it is, I am 25 years younger than you :)

What can I say, Stasia--youth like yours is indeed its own problem, but cheer up--there's a cure--and it happens all by itself! LOL

The ultimate cure-all:

A little drastic, don't you think? :-) I had more in mind graceful aging. I haven't done it but I understand it's possible! LOL

I can tell you for sure that I am not going to age gracefully. I have not done anything gracefully my entire life. Why start now?

You do have a point. I, however, lead an active fantasy life, and I always imagine that I will do something, someday, gracefully. so far, not realized that particular wild imagining, but I figure there's always hope.

Hope for you and me both!

#78 *LIKE* This is why I lurk on your list. I love the fact that you know Civil War history and you write about it well.

122 I lived there in the mid '90's, Joyce, and have visited occasionally since then. It's still a lovely town, but it has gotten very tourist-y (is that a word?), as one might expect. I can't help but feel that business names like General Pickett's Buffet are a wee bit tacky.

#140: Oh dear heavens, Terri--tacky barely touches it!! BUT I have to say, I may have to go there just to be able to say that I Ate At General Pickett's Buffet and perhaps get a souvenir--of what, certain things pop to mind but let's not go there this early in the morning before breakfast.

#138: I'm not an expert Steven--I only wish I were. I fall into that category of Civil War buff, but believe me, there are plenty of people on LT who are more knowledgeable. I get wistful when I read of those who have made it a goal to visit as many Civil War battlefields as possible. But I do enjoy reading about it. I just wish I had access to more original materials, but one of the truly wonderful things that has happened in the past few decades is that renewed interest in the Civil War has made publishing many original sources, such as diaries, feasible. I've read only the major ones--Mary Chestnut, Elisha Rhodes and that of Gideon Welles--and memoirs such as Grant's and Sherman's and the wonderful, wonderful Co. Aytch by Sam Watkins (I have some others waiting for me). They are marvelous glimpses into life at that time.

Just finished Buried Strangers last night and recommend it to anyone who is interested in Brasil--and who has a strong stomach--this is not a cozy mystery. Gage has lived outside of São Paulo for many years, and writes authentically about Brasil. He is especially good at writing, however briefly, about the ex-president, Lula. This is the second of his books I've read and they are violent--but then Brasil is violent. Even I wasn't prepared for his statistics on violent crime in São Paulo.

I'll do a more formal review later, but if you can hack the violence, this is an excellent book.

#142: I think I will give that one a pass. I would not make it past the violence, I suspect.

Just got home from seeing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2. How utterly magnificent! The best movie of all 8 and I'm so glad they went all out on it. Mary was in tears at the end and I was close to it, although I've read the book several times. What a great job they did in sticking so close to the book!

We'll probably see it again next week if the subtitled copies are still in town. At a couple of points, I was glad for the subtitles so I could understand what was being said!

Oh hooray! I'm so glad you liked it.

#141. Maybe not an expert, but more knowledgeable than I am, and giving me some great reading ideas. As for Harry Potter, I'm going this weekend and looking forward to it. Just watched part 1 (rented). Once of the nice things about 2 parts is that they can do more justice to the plot, and it looks like it's working very well. So far at least, the story holds together much more nicely than it would as a single movie. (But I don't understand the subtitle part. Parseltongue?)

Sorry Steven--many people know that I live in the country of Panamá and of course Spanish is the language here. Movies are either subtitled in Spanish (subtitulado) or voice-over (doblado) so that what you hear is Spanish. There are only two theaters here in David, and the first week that the movie was on (opened same week as in US), all copies were doblado. I threw a fit, swearing up and down I would wait for the DVDs if I had to (as I did for #6) so that I could hear the original voices. But Friday, one of the theaters in town brought in two subtitled copies so we gringoes could hear it in the original voices! There were very few people at the 2:30 matinee yesterday--maybe about a dozen--and 4 of us were Americans. Surprised me that there were that many Panamanians, actually.

Our movies change on Fridays. We can't get back in this week, so we're hoping that at least one subtitulado copy will still be running so that we can see it again next week.

The DVDs will probably be out around Christmas. What we're going to do then is take a day out, probably a Sunday, and play them both back-to-back.

I'm not a gadget person but I do love movies. While they're cheap here--we pay #1.85 whenever we go because we're "jubiladas"--over 55--and we get special discounts--we have to travel to David which is 20 miles away, and neither of us like to travel in the late afternoon in the rainy season; it can be quite dangerous. Also, the movies here (don't know about Panama City since I pay no attention to what happens there) are very family-oriented--lots of the animated ones and comedies. Foreign films don't make it to any theater in Panama, as far as I can tell. Can't remember if The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo series made it here--I don't think so.

So, my one indulgence has been a 42" flat-panel HD TV and recently a Blu-Ray DVD player. Both come with features I can't use here in Panama, but that's ok--my movies (and I have nearly 100) play beautifully on the Blu-Ray. Practically speaking, I have to buy them. There's one rental place in David--Blockbuster--but their titles are limited and we have to get them back in 3 days. Given the distance we have to travel and the fact that we can't always make it back in that amount of time, we almost never rent.

I love "jubiladas"! Beats "seniors" all to the dickens.

The Spanish sounds like the right idea, no question. LOL

"Jubilar" is the verb, meaning "to retire".

Well, the Latin, jubilare, means "to raise a shout of joy". If I ever get to retire you can be darn sure that's what I'll do!

I'm sure that the Spanish is derived from that very sense. At least I've always thought so. But the other word, the noun, has changed in Panama, anyway, to mean someone who is over 55 for a woman and 60 for a man. It's a classification,now, for visas. I'm in this country under that visa, which is a permanent one. You have to meet certain requirements for it but it's far and away the most common one. Age requirements are the same, plus some income requirements. But anyone--panamanian or foreigner-- who meets the age requirement is entitled to discounts, the most trivial of which is, I suppose, the one for movies. I get a discount on all medications, even over-the-counter ones like aspirin, say. Discounts on travel, discounts for restaurants, others.

Hi Joyce, I seemingly lost you, but now you are found.

Add me to the list of those who aren't going to start a Song of Fire and Ice until it's finished.

I hated Martin Sheen as Lee in what is otherwise one of my favorite movies. Well, Sheen and the bad fake beards. There was a recent History Channel docudrama/edutainment show on Gettysburg. While it was generally awful, it was interesting that the 20th Maine was unmentioned. I'd like to assume the film makers figuered they got too much attention already, but I don't think that's the case.

Adding Pale Horse at Plum Run to the tbr pile, maybe I'll read it right after I get to Sickles at Gettysburg. I imagine few people from Minnesota considered him the "Hero of Gettysburg".

Last time I counted I had about 10+ years of reading available on my shelves. I did institute a "new" book buying moritorium. Used books are still OK. I'm still getting them faster then I can read them.

And lastly, then I'll give you your thread back, your discussion regarding your hoped for trip to Gettysburg has inspired me to do some battlefield touring of my own. It's practicaly criminal that I haven't been to Chancellorsville, the Wilderness, or Spotsylvania, since they're only about an hour away. I'm going to start this fall, too damn hot now. I need to break out Rhea and Sears.

Well, Mike, I'm happy to tell you that I have never forgotten out correspondence about your trip to Gettysburg. It's always been in the back of my mind, and has inspired me to keep the plan for my own trip alive. Before I go, I hope we can correspond some more on what you particularly liked about the battlefield.

I'm trying to be realistic about what I can visit usefully in 3 weeks--I don't dare stay away from here longer than that unless something unforeseen comes up that will allow me more time. There's enough around Chattanooga that I can feel satisfied about the time spent there, if indeed that's where we'll wind up besides Gettysburg.

You know, I don't have any of Sears' books! Just realized that. I think Rhea's books on the Wilderness and Cold Harbor are absolutely magnificent. Let me know what you think of the Sickles book.

About the only thing I don't like about the Gettysburg film (outside of Martin Sheen and the miscasting of Hancock) is in some of the extra material on the DVDs. There's some "historian" from, I think, the U of VA but could be wrong, who is obviously an older man and who says in the kindest, most trustworthy, grandfatherly voice, "The Civil War was not about slavery, it was never about slavery" that sends me ballistic every time so I don't watch it any more. Yeah, and Mammy and the chilluns were just so happy as slaves on the plantation that they would have never left if that mean ol' Sherman hadn't done gone and invaded Georgia! Southern revisionist trash and I'm surprised the producers left it in the material. Should have had Shelby Foote vet that section.

Joyce, you would have "loved" the docents at Bleak House in Knoxville. Two totally unreconstructed ex-belles, both clearly born in the 20th century, but just not willing to give up the cause quite yet.

Hmph. Remind this totally unreconstructed Socialist not to bother.

LOL! They might not ALL be cut from that cloth. The place itself was quite worth visiting.

Just got my ARC of Pirate King!!!!

Woot! Jealous, I am jealous!

About half way through. As usual, it's different from her others. She really never writes the same style book twice. MUCH more convoluted story line.

You are right about her not writing the same book style twice, Joyce. I think that adds to the strength of the series, although I am sorry to hear about the MUCH more convoluted story line.

I'm not giving anything away by talking about the story line. It's about a film about a film about Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta, The Pirates of Penzance. It's sort of an excuse to look at the silent film industry AND travel to Lisbon, meet Fernando Pessoa, and then go onward. Lots more characters than usual to keep track of (where we share Russell's confusion and frustration!), and the original reason why Russell is there to begin with seems to be lost in this other stuff. But I think that's a red herring.

King said that she wanted to do something new, something just sort of silly and crazy, because she was at the point where she was afraid she'd start killing of either Homes or Russell! And she has--it's far more whimsical than anything else she's written. Lot of Russell-style ironic humor. Plenty of places where I've just laughed out loud.

Her blog on writing is fascinating. She starts with a location and works from there.

I like the sounds of 'Lots of Russell-style ironic humor.' I cannot wait to read the book for myself.

I've spent most of my life in Knoxville, and I'm embarrassed to say I've never toured Bleak House. In fact, I didn't know that it's open for tours. I thought it was just used as a venue for events like weddings.

The only local Civil War site I've spent any time at is Fort Dickerson. My parents used to take us there on picnics when I was a child, and I loved to run and play on the mounds of the earthen fort.

#163 It's well worth a visit. When we were there, 3 or 4 years ago now, I didn't realize it was a "venue". It seemed a little, well, bleak, for that purpose. The grounds were not especially well tended, I didn't think. But I can see how it could be quite lovely, especially in the spring.

#147. Absolutely fascinating. I did not realize. My wife is going to be so jealous. She is a latinophile who loves to travel middle and south america and I think she (not-so-secretly) wants to live there for a while at some point in the future.

Being a tourist and actually living in a 3rd world country are two polar opposites. Living here is NOT FOR MOST AMERICANS. There are many Americans who bought property, built houses here and who are desperate to leave but can't--thanks to the housing market. This is NOT the US on the cheap--it is a foreign country with its own culture which clashes in many important respects with US culture. The same is true of just about every other Latin American country I know of.

We realize that. That's one of the attractions!

Oh the positive differences are wonderful, believe me. It's the others. Here in Panamá it's juego viva, which basically translates that everyone is out to cheat you out of you socks (an attitude which exists in other LA countries). then there's the difference in work ethic. The indifference to quality and truly shoddy quality of work. the lack of things that you take for granted. the government bureaucracy ,not to mention the fat that the current right-wing government is in collusion with Columbian drug cartels and the current president, who is probably certifiably crazy, is out to become a dictator. The corrupt police. the lack of police protection or fire fighting. In Panama, the truly terribly cuisine (I really should say lack of one).

And let's not forget the US ex-pat community, most of whom should be outlawed to Siberia or better yet, Mars.

The positives make it worth while for me. I like the laid-back culture, the emphasis on families, the fact that physicians here are actually dedicated to health care delivery, the excellent medical services. But none of us are ever less than painfully aware of the price.

99. Pirate King
Laurie King

Step right up, folks, to the latest in the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series. In this her 11th full-length book, King has, as usual, written a book that is completely different from its predecessors; it’s one of her great strengths as a writer that she can do so, and just about flawlessly.

This time, she’s written farce.

Holmes has been contacted by Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard about crimes that have been associated with films produced by England’s premier film company, Fflyte Films. Lestrade wants Holmes to go undercover to accompany the film company as it sets out on its latest production: a film of a film (yes, you read correctly) about Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta, The Pirates of Penzance. Because of Randolph Fflyte’s (Fflytes of Fancy!) fanatic devotion to realism, no, it won’t be filmed on the Cornwall coast, because Englishmen are not swarthy enough to be pirates! So, Realism dictates that the cast to Lisbon Portugal must go in search of the correct skin tone and Realism. russell, who is posing effectively as the executive producer’s amanuensis, comes very swiftly to loathe the word.

And so it goes, with an overflowing cast of characters (13 daughters, 13 pirates, and 6 constables, not to mention others), a bare wisp of a plot, and lots of Russell-style ironic humor.

The look at the silent film industry is superficial but fun, the view of 1924 Portugal is superficial but fun, and the depiction of Fernando Pessoa, Portugal’s premier poet (and multiple personality) is also superficial but fun.

In fact, that’s the operative adjective. The book is extremely lightweight but fun, a rollicking good time for all with a story line that could itself be the subject of a comic operetta. If you’re not expecting the seriousness and weight of previous books such as The God of the Hive and just let yourself relax and let go, you will enjoy yourself immensely in this tongue-in-cheek bit of froth from an outstanding author.

Highly recommended.

I have to get back to that series. I've only read the first, and I really want to read the one that dovetails with Kim. Nice review, Joyce. (Well, not that that is anything new!)

Thanks, Roni! :-)

#153 - I glad I'm inspiring.

I've never seen the DVD extras for Gettysburg. I'm not sure my copy has extras or maybe I've just never watched them.

My way of describing the causes of the war is that it was fought because of slavery, but not over slavery. I'm not sure if I've stolen that language or if I came up with it on my own.

Good way of putting it generally, although there were plenty of abolitionists who were fighting for exactly that reason. Yet I'm certain from what I've read, that they were not in the majority.

I'm speaking more in relation to why there was a war rather then why individuals went to war. So there were definately soldiers fighting for or against slavery in addition to the myriad other reasons soldiers decide to go to war.

Hot News! Bradley Gottfried has published The Maps of Antietam It's so new there is no touchstone but I did see it for sale.

IMHO Beyond it's economic importance slavery was the only solution the Southern whites knew for living in an area where the population was one-third and higher African-American. They did not feel that slavery was safe in a country that made a hero out of John Brown and elected Lincoln president and they left. Then the South fought to be left alone. I think the North fought because of their very strong belief in the Union. Abolitionism grew as the North found out that in order to defeat the South they had to destroy it and that meant destroying slavery.

Nothing really fits into these nice and neat generalizations. I don't know this, I just like to think about it. Thinking is fun.

You find all kinds of really interesting books Joyce. Then your reviews make me feel like I must get them and read them. Sherlock Holmes does Gilbert and Sullivan. What an imagination the author has.

OK--I understood--and agreed with you the first time, Mike. Naturally, I couldn't keep my mouth shut (or my keyboard idle) so I went ahead and added my one-half cent and confused the issue!!

Bill, everything I've read about why they went to war agrees with a multiplicity of motives except for the actual origin, which was the disagreement over the extension of slavery into the territories. There were plenty of southerners who didn't care one way or another about slavery, but fought what they saw was a Union invasion. Plenty of southerners who really didn't agree with secession but could not fight against their home states. Fighting to end slavery was a minority opinion in the North that grew but nothing I've read ever said that that was the majority. Yes, all kinds of reasons, no question.

Wow! Oh frabjous joy! Off to Amazon to see if I can get it. Hot news indeed, Bill--thanks!!

As for Laurie King's imagination--non-stop creativity. I follow her blog posts on FaceBook and Goodreads. She writes about writing as well as other stuff (including knitting!) She has an interesting way of starting a new Russell/Holmes book. First she picks a locale (San Francisco, Lisbon, India) and then a historical (or fictional) character alive and working at that time (Dashiell Hammett, Fernando Pessoa, Kim), and then goes to work on a plot. Her next will be in Japan, chronologically before Locked Rooms. I'm not sure she's followed this design with every one of her series books, but 3-4 at least.

Bill, I just checked amazon. Maps of Antietam has NOT been published yet but I have pre-ordered it. What you're seeing is the all-too-common promotional hype these days, making sure everyone knows the book is coming. Amazon does not have a publication date up, so it may be as much as 6 months away.

My mistake Joyce. Taken in by marketing. They even show the thumbs up with like (8) beside it even though the book has not been released. B&N lists a publication date of September 19.

Events were much more complex than my statements. You have to consider the fact that several states seceded only after Fort Sumter and Lincoln's call for volunteers. From that point of view he declared war on the South and they reacted to his threats of aggression.

100. Ratification
Pauline Maier

In modern times, the Constitution of the United States has been held by its citizens in such esteem (when they pay attention to it at all) as to put it in the category of a “sacred text.” But that was by no means the case in 1787 and 1788, when the newly-drafted Constitution was sent to the states for ratification.

The fledgling nation was in terrible shape in 1787. The Articles of Confederation, under which the young republic had operated, were inadequate. Most pressing was the issue of revenue. The Federal government could not raise revenue directly, but only through requisitions on the state governments. Some paid at least part of their obligations, but most did not, thanks to war-time debts and wide-spread disruption in the economy resulting from the War for Independence. As a result, the United States was in danger of defaulting on its loans (what else is new) and had no money to pay its bills.

But revenue was not the only issue. The country had no army, and was totally dependent on poorly trained and equipped state militias. There was real danger from hostile Native Americans and threats from the British and Spanish. The legislative process was cumbersome.

As a result, a convention was called to meet in Philadelphia in order to amend the Articles of Confederation. But it soon became clear that it was better to write a whole new Constitution, since there was no real hope of salvaging the Articles into a workable document.

While the arguments for ratification were compelling, there were equally strong, valid arguments against adopting the Constitution as written, which was what was being asked. While different states raised varying numbers of objections, the ones on which all opponents agreed were direct taxation, representation, and a lack of specific guarantees or a Bill of Rights such as existed in many (but not all) state constitutions.

Maier tells the story, state by state, of the struggle for ratification and it is fascinating. No two state conventions and ratification processes were like. They ran the gamut from Pennsylvania, were ratification was ramrodded through the state convention and there was violence against opponents in Philadelphia after ratification, to Rhode Island and North Carolina who abstained from ratification and joined the new Union later. But in all 13 states, the debate was on real issues, with real concerns and with true patriots on both sides. Clearly much has been lost in the intervening years.

While absorbing, Ratification is not a fast read. But it is definitely a worthwhile one. Highly recommended.

Oh heavens, Bill--of course events were much more complicated than either one of us is stating, or Mike, for that matter. We're just doing posts here, not writing full-length books! although it would be intriguing, wouldn't it? To write a book or series of essays about what WE now think, 150 years later? Because I just completed watching the John Adams series on DVD, I've begun rereading McCullough's John Adams and have really been inspired by both the movies and the book. Who amongst us writes these days? Probably the best of us does blogs, which is great--I'm glad t hat medium exists. I'e done one and gave it up after 2-3 years, because in the end it was too much work and really inadequate. Who writes--or worse--reads--essays anymore? What truly adequate books, thoughtful ones and not political polemics, have been written about government? Looking at the authors who have put out ones recently, I'd rather read about black magic and Satanism, which seem far more honest and worthwhile than what has been transpiring in politics in the past few years and especially within the past few weeks. Adams remarked that eh thought that the 18th century was probably the most important to have lived in, given the magnitude of events that transpired. He may have been right. While there were scoundrels--there always have been and always will be--I'm with Adams on the imperfectability of humankind--there were also men and women of stature who thought and wrote profoundly. Today?

That's why I think that reading Ratification is a really good idea--to discover, perhaps, what real giants thought and how they acted--and wrote.

Interesting observations about Adams and his contemporaries, Joyce. I've just watched the first two episodes of that series myself, and had the same thought---where are these men's equals today? You can't write profoundly if you don't think profoundly. THAT's the loss I think we suffer from most. Even during the sometimes acrimonious debates about independence from Britain, the interchanges were articulate, issue-oriented, and seemingly motivated by something other than the selfish need to be RIGHT. Of course, we're looking back from a great distance, and can't really know, but I think McCullough stuck pretty close to primary sources, and the players as he presents them certainly feel real to me. Of course, they weren't hampered by the "sound bite" phenomenon, either.

The series stuck pretty closely to the book; the book quotes Adams' and Jefferson's notes and those of others as well as what official records exist. Letters: the extent of the Adams' family correspondence is a national treasure.

I agree about the lack of thought. Watching the series/reading the books and watching what is going on today? The comparison is ludicrous.

As for the tyranny of the 'sound bite"--exactly whose responsibility is that, anyway--TV or the people who acquiesce in watching and "thinking" that they're seeing the news? The media reflects society.

97. Buried Strangers
Leighton Gage

Second in the Chief Inspector Mario Silva series of the Brasilian Federal Police.

I’ve spent a good deal of time in Brasil, staying, for periods ranging from 6 weeks to 3 months, with either poor families or with Catholic missionaries. During every visit, I heard rumors of street kids disappearing, victims, my friends insisted, of the traffic in organ transplants. Gage has written a chilling novel involving that trade.

One of the strengths of Gage’s strong writing is the atmosphere of authenticity he gives to his locales. They feel “right”, and his characters behave as Brasilians, and are thoroughly believable. Brasil is a violent country, and what Gage describes is not exaggerated.

Gage writes very dark police procedurals indeed; they are very well written, fast-paced, powerful. But be prepared for the violence.

According to Gage, who in his notes talks about the rumors of trade in organ transplants, they’ve never been confirmed. I found the same thing; no one could ever come up with proof that it existed. But the rumors persist.

Highly recommended with the qualification that the violence level is high.

Joyce, we agree that we agree.

According to Savas Beatie, Maps of Antietam will be published in September, but we'll see. I added it to my Amazon wishlist so as long as it's out by X-Mas I'll be good.

I recently heard Pauline Maier on one of the Stanford U podcasts, "The American Founders and Their World", and immediately wanted to read her book. It's also on my Amazon wishlist. If you're interested, you can get the podcasts from Itunes at no charge, they're part of Itunes U. I definitely recommend them. Jack Rakove moderated them, guests included Gordon Wood, Annette Gordon-Reed, and Andrew O'Shaughnessy amongst others.

I also agree with your other post regarding writing, I too started a blog but have slacked off and haven't written anything for it this year. I really should start back with it, maybe one day I'll work my way up to writing essays.

Mike, I really wish you would write essays. Also Bill. I know this sounds utterly bizarre, but I have been thinking the past few days of the 3 of us (plus anyone else who wanted to contribute) of writing essays on "government". I don't have any clear definition of that, but this site is made up, primarily, of mature readers--people who have been around a while and who read, no matter what genre, thoughtfully.

I think blogs, overall, are a real plus, but they have their distinct and severe disadvantages. I'm pretty sure you can limit your readership with some sort of filtering function, but I have never really wanted to do that; one of the main reasons I started my blog was to provide some solid information about what life was like here as opposed to the advertising hype and outright lies told by real estate developers and promoters. The misinformation is staggering. But once you open up your blog to the world, you let the crazies in and they find you. I have communicated with the longest-writing blogger here in my province, and he says the same thing. One reads about the nuts on the Internet, and the comments that are made on some online newspapers, for example, are chilling. But I was unprepared for venom. Now--believe me, I can hold my own without resorting to viciousness and I used various methods.

But blogging can be a drag as well, and depending on what you're trying to do with it, I think many people sort of get bored with it after a while. I just could not maintain the effort given everything else going on in my life.

Plus I think that a regular blog, particularly if it become "popular"--meaning you get any sort of interest--is difficult to maintain in quality. I also feel that the nature of Internet writing really demands brevity (which I can always practice to everyone's relief, no doubt), and while that's good, it does mean that you can't treat anything in real depth.

I'm not sure what we could accomplish by this, and I know that your schedule in particular is a heavy one. but wouldn't it be fun to do something like that? Bill, you could indulge in your speculation!! :-)

In addition, Mike, thanks for the tip about Maier's podcasts; I will most definitely check them out. I think she did a terrific job of organizing what could have been truly dull reading into a great book that really illuminates a critical moment in US history.

What do you (all) think?

I enjoyed your review of Ratification. I think it will generate interest in the book outside of the usual suspects who would automatically put this book on their tbr list. You show how the writing of the Constitution was a natural part of the growing pains of young America.

I think your idea about writing essays on "government" is fascinating. We need to develop a process that would make this project relevant and accessible. Gives me something more to think about.

WOO HOO, Bill!!!!! Exactly the response I was hoping for! May you be the first of many.

I completely admit to being influenced by my reread of John Adams as well as Ratification.

As starters, I personally am not interested in partisan politics--BUT I am VERY interested in the experiences and reflections that lead people to the stances they have both as regards to politics and government. I'm also very interested on takes on culture and society, since government and politics are embedded in these.

Yes, a process is needed. And a venue. I'm inclined to use LT for starters but again, the fact that it's an Internet and therefore computer-driven medium really discourages any length. That actually may be a good thing while we develop ideas and test the waters for ourselves--maybe "starter" essays.

What interests me above all else is the differences in background we all would bring to it. you're a lawyer, I'm a (former) scientist, Mike is a college/university student at a mature age, and so many others--Linda Koons, Stasia (if we can blast her loose to write), Dejah, Steven, Terri, Roni--everyone who has contributed here for that matter.

Later, perhaps, we could think about whether or not we wanted to publish. :-) But that's not the main idea.

And Sandy, and REbecca, and everyone else--if I haven't mentioned your name, it's because the list of people is so long and I'm so tired right now.

Another idea:

This is after all a book site. What about organizing around books, both "classical" shall we say, and modern, that influenced the founders of the US (and England and Canada--why not?). For example, I believe John Locke was quite influential with Adams and Jefferson, anyway--I'd have to check.

Just a thought.

If you're taking subscriptions, sign me up. As far as contributing, I feel honored to be included in your list there, Joyce, but can't quite see having much to say on the subject. I'm one of those people who find the history of government utterly fascinating and the current events stuff incomprehensible and boring as hell. Wait now....that might be a topic right there. See what you've done???

Linda, myself I'm interested in people's reactions to government. And yes, absolutely, there you go--first topic already!! LOL I think it would be great--why do you find it incomprehensible and boring since you are so interested? Hmm? I'd sure like to know.

I downloaded this morning the works of John Locke and at least some of René Descartes.

Oh, and Linda? Start writing, thanks. :-)

Aye, aye, Skipper!

*waving* at Joyce - hopelessly behind :)

Yeah, well, catch up, Stasia, because I've just given you an assignment, and you need to get cracking.

I so love to give orders and have them obeyed without question! That was a career path I would have enjoyed--dictator.

"She who must be obeyed"!!!!

Don't get power hungry with us Joyce.
We are a group that is abuzz with enthusiasm.
The Legacy Library project has some interesting sources for books that influenced the Founders.


I have a two volume set The Debate on the Constitution which is all contemporary sources from the ratification debate. I have been thinking about selecting out a few of the sources and writing an essay comparing their backgrounds and points of view. Something to think about.

One of my major problems in life has been that I can't get away with anything. Rats!

Sounds outstanding, Bill--have at it! I'm still rereading John Adams but have Locke in my Kindle, waiting. One of the things I'm tossing around in my mind is the expectations of government at the time of the Constitution and now. Something that focuses on the common good. Like aid to education.

A piece of trivia from the book, which I had forgotten: Adams wrote the Massachusetts state constitution. It's the oldest functioning constitution in the world.

I do dearly love the people in this group! :-)

#195: Well, I missed the assignment, so your dictatorship is not going well right off the bat. . .

See, that's my problem--always some darned hitch or another. Just can't count on people to carry out orders.

You are to write, Stasia, something, anything about "government" and that's a loose term. Take a look at Linda's comment #190. And I'm going to start by writing an expanded version of something I've already talked about here, the origin of my political/intellectual roots, which is actually European. I think that there are a lot of people like Linda who are puzzled and bored by today's "politics" because there's no content to engage them--just slogans. But I'm really waiting to read what she has to say. And you. And others.

#200: Government -- a bunch of people I cannot seem to live either with or without

There's your topic! LOL

No, that is not my topic. That is the entirety of my statement.

Stasia, if you could just expand that into a 300 word essay.......

And, my dear, from the state you live in comes the following story courtesy of the WA Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/rick-perry-wages-an-assault-on-the-ivory-...

It seems that universities in Texas are now to be run on a profitability basis--that professors are to be evaluated on the basis of whether they are making money for Texas universities or costing them money.

This is why the US is sliding towards 3rd world status and why China, Japan, and other nations, such as Australia and Canada will surpass the US--already have, in some areas, in technology and standard of living.

I want to look at, myself, the changes in attitude towards public education in the US as my topic.

I hate politics. I hate politicians. Anymore it seems as though it is all rhetoric and no substance. I want Jimmy Stewart in 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.'

The US is practically 3rd world status now. What a shame.

Stasia, I am so with you.

Every time someone I know here goes back to the US for whatever reason, they come back stunned at what is happening and grateful to be here. Our food supply is safer than yours, for example. We have affordable, accessible, excellent health care. Of course, Panamanians have a total lunatic at the head of their government, but who are we to point fingers at any other government? The corruption here is honest, anyway--very aboveboard and nobody here pretends that making the rich wealthier is good for the country and is a patriotic act.

The news out of Europe today is scary and for all the grandiose posturing in WA, their precious bloody markets are dropping like rocks. I hate politicians second only to bankers--all of whom are collecting their fat bonuses, you notice. US and to a lesser extent English bankers wrecked the world's economy, and did WA do anything to insure that it won't happen again? Rhetorical question.

I freely acknowledge my political roots and attitudes. But I defy anyone to prove to me at the moment that the US is not in the midst of class warfare--and the rich are winning. The problem with the rich is that they are truly stupid--they really don't understand that if there is no middle class and people have no money that sooner or later the poor dears will themselves be in trouble. Henry Ford understood that very well, but maybe it's due to inbreeding among the wealthy, but there seems to be a deterioration in whatever brain functions they did possess that has led to this destruction.

Mary and I are nearly totally dependent on Social Security, and neither one of us collects vast sums. I have a small pension from Boeing (I didn't work there long enough to get much). You can imagine what we thought and felt when it looked like the US was going to default and they were talking about postponing SS payments. Fortunately, I have reserves and small though my pension is, we probably could scrape by with help from my savings, only because we're here. But God help those who are in a similar position who live in the US. They would not be able to survive.

I keep mentioning Henry Ford too, Joyce to anyone who will listen. Certainly no hero but smart enough to know how to actually keep the money flowing his way unlike the yahoos today who can't seem to understand that their short-term gain from eliminating the middle class will ultimately be their doom.

I've long been interested in the Virginia Ratifing Convention, although I don't know much about it. Give me a little while though and I can give you 300 words although there's no guarantee they'll be coherent. Do I have a deadline editor Joyce?

Nancy, almost no one is listening.

What came to my mind today was the picture I think in the New York Times 3 years ago of a youngish-looking man, a hedge fund manager, I think, who was quoted as saying "Greed is good." It wasn't 3 weeks later that the world economy started crashing.

In every philosophical or religious system of which I am aware, greed is considered a deadly sin--a vice. Naturally, there are plenty of people who pay lip service to that and are fully committed to greed. There always have been and there always will be. But that was the first time I have seen anywhere the vice of greed being publicly elevated to a virtue--and no one objected.

Dear Mike, you can take as much time as you want. And I have a hard time believing that you'll be incoherent! And do take as many words as you want. I was just chivvying Stasia into writing at all! Remember the old English classes when we had to write on 'How I Spent My Summer Vacation" in 300 words? That flashed thru my mind when I was replying to Stasia! LOL! Looking forward to reading what you have to say, Mike.

I've changed my mind yet again and intend to write about one of the major objections to ratifying the Constitution--the lack of term limits for members of Congress. Where they ever right!

#206: But I defy anyone to prove to me at the moment that the US is not in the midst of class warfare--and the rich are winning.

My sister and I were having a discussion about this very thing not 2 months ago. Linda and I have discussed it several times. I completely agree with you, Joyce.

There's no other logical conclusion, Stasia. And it's been going on for some time. It actually started with Reagan. The method is called "Starve the Beast" and is a deliberate tactic to bring the government at the very least to a standstill and then claim emergency and cut spending to--you guessed it--entitlement programs such as Social Security and later, Medicare. All you have to do is an Internet search on Starve the Beast and you'll get plenty of hits.

Does this seem at all relevant, I wonder.

And notice what's started to happen--the defense industry and the health care industry are already lobbying against the cuts.

Stop the 3 wars and rescind the Bush tax cuts, which did nearly nothing for the middle class, and then see what happens.

However, stopping wars and cutting defense means that companies such as Boeing, Lockheed-Martin and many others don't make money selling arms. BIG money.

I can't go into it here--this is horrendously long as it is--but I personally have watched the futility of a small part of foreign aid. I would stop ALL foreign aid, myself--including selling arms to Israel or ANYONE. But honey--you think that that's going to fly? Too much money involved.

I really don't think that one model fits all, no matter what we're talking about, and the economy is one of those systems. Too complex for one size fits all. But the Keynsian model comes closest. I have been totally impressed with Paul Krugman, who has predicted every single thing that has happened, including the bust of the housing market. He did NOT get the origin correct nor the magnitude, but was warning for years about overpriced housing.

He and other Keynsians have been saying the same thing over and over--cutting spending is not the way. Job creation--getting people back to work and money flowing into the economy--is the way.

Oddly enough, one financial analyst yesterday was saying that the markets are dropping because of exactly that--cuts in spending are not the way--job creation is necessary.

One does not have to have a Nobel Prize in economics to understand that if money is being taken out of the economy--as it will be to the state governments certainly--people won't have the ability to earn, pay taxes, and buy things. Everyone suffers--local governments, state governments, federal government. Want a really good example? Look at the Depression of the 30s. When FDR pumped money in through public works, mainly, the country began to recover. Then he stopped those programs prematurely and the country went into a double-dip depression--the so-called Roosevelt Depression of 1937.

Here in Panama, the world recession has hurt but not as much as it might have. Again, this is too long, but the right wingnut thug who currently heads the government has done one thing correctly--he's had a massive public works program going for roads and public buildings that is keeping at least the construction industry--Panama's most important actual industry (I don't count banking as industry, just legalized theft)--going. Of course the rabiblancos (the roughly 28 obscenely rich families who rule Panama) are getting their cut, but at least some money is getting into the economy through the workers.

Stasia, if you don't already read her, I would recommend going to the online WA Post and searching for Kathleen Parker's latest column. She is a conservative Republican, whose columns are always worth reading, much as I used to read Dave Brooks of the NY Times as well (before the Times started their policy of just 20 free articles a month). Parker's last column was an unadulterated rant against the Tea Party--she all but called them traitors.

Another interesting read is John McCain's latest. No one has accused him yet of being a wild-eyed leftist liberal. His last speech in the Senate was a complete denunciation of conservatives. Good ol' John--now that he's not seduced by running for President and the chimaera of power, he's returned to thinking again.

But in the US, thinking certainly does have its problems, running against the tide as it does.

#212: I read almost no political columnist because they generally do nothing for me other than make my blood boil and my blood pressure spike :) I will see if I can find the Parker column that you recommend though, Joyce. I know next to nothing about the Tea Party.

ETA: Found the column and agree with Parker.

There are a few good ones. My politics are pretty left of center but I admire both Brooks and Parker, as I do the two Senators from Maine, Olympia Snow and Susan Smith. I have actually modified my thinking on some issues, thanks to thought-provoking columns by Brooks. True conservatives are absolutely necessary, particularly in a two-party system. But they are now pretty rare.

I read because I believe in knowing wht the enemy is thinking.

One of the maxims by which I think any truly thinking person should live is "Follow the money". The Tea Party purports to be a grass-roots organization, but if you look at its initial funding, it came from very wealthy right wingnuts. It is a haven for racists. They have been trying to play that down but it keeps cropping up.

Don't take my word for it--read about it. It is probably one of the most dangerous political movements in American history. And because the American electorate is by and large one of the most ignorant in the world and thus easily manipulated, they have a significant number of people believing in them. But don't kid yourself--when you look even casually, the racism is blatant. Among other things.

Look at who their political leaders are. That will tell you a good deal.

Although I am a conservative, I am not a Tea Party advocate. I am not that far to the right. When I took one of those tests for a government class that is supposed to tell you where your political leanings lie, I ended up as a Progressive, which surprised me. I was sure I was going to be a Republican.

Classifications rea always a problem. For me, it's just easy to say that I'm a left-wing liberal and let it go. Most of the time, it's not worth my time or energy to explain otherwise. my best friend here in panama is a conservative Republican from Texas, if you can believe it! :-0 He and I have had long discussions and are remarkably close in viewpoint on certain issues.

My political origins are in reality European Socialism, my inheritance from my Italian father. But I am not a Socialist. In reality, I am not a member of any "ism" because any ideology, as far as I'm concerned, is inherently limited. But i am most certainly NOT a fan of predatory capitalism as is now practiced in the US.

I personally think it's too late for the US. Change is too rapid and the US has fallen behind in almost every index that can be measured. It certainly does not lead in health (Panamanians are better off), nor in education nor in literacy nor in life span nor in standard of living. However, I think we are at the top or nearly so in our ability to kill on a massive scale. Good for us.

Every empire has its time in the sun, and the US's sun is setting--rapidly. And we have no one to blame but ourselves. For over a generation, we have let education slide, we have gone after labor with a vicious vengeance (the US has always been hostile to labor), we have succumbed to demagoguery and allowed money and the subservient media (the US ranks somewhere about third in the world for freedom of the press, by the way) to determine our politics which are simply an outgrowth of the incredible shift in morals and ethics that has taken place in the US certainly over my lifetime.

I have gotten myself into more trouble than I care to think about by insisting that the US is a nation of atheists, whose religion is secular materialism. I look at so-called Christians of just about any persuasion, and that's what I see. I am no admirer of John Paul II, but he nailed it, calling the culture of the US a culture of death. And so it is. Greed is a virtue.

In one of Donna Leon's books, one of the middle ones, she has a troubled Brunetti reflecting about religious education in the Italian school system. He has concluded exactly what I have--that Christianity is bad but the alternatives are so much worse. That is the dilemma.

If you want a thought-provoking read, check out Constantine's Sword, and you will get at least one view of where Christianity went wrong--when it became the state religion. I used to go to the services of a fundamentalist Methodist church, because a good friend was the minister there and her sermons were always excellent. One of the point she made repeatedly in trying to keep her church out of politics was that every time Christianity has gotten mixed up with politics and government, Christianity has come out the loser. History bears that out.

#216: One of the point she made repeatedly in trying to keep her church out of politics was that every time Christianity has gotten mixed up with politics and government, Christianity has come out the loser. History bears that out.

Boy, isn't that the truth!

Yeah, well. Who reads history.

Me. And you.

And Stasia, hey--we count! LOL

#220: Well, to 2 anyway :)

#221: Off to check out that link. . .

I think that the model the Republicans are trying to impose is a low taxes, low service government. This was the type of government they had in the South for much of the early 1900's. Huey Long was a hero in the 1920's for providing free textbooks to school children.
The cutting back in state and local government is one of the factors keeping the unemployment figures from improving.
The economy has to have money in circulation in order to function.

A friend of mine read that the 400 richest people in America control as much wealth as the poorest 100 million. Many of the rich just sit on their money they make no real contribution to the economy. They are the people who fund the Tea Party.

There have been several threads about the Tea Party people distorting American history to suit their own ideology. Ideologues by definition ignore facts that do not fit their ideas. They are the "True Believers" described in Eric Hoffer's book.

Several years ago when Christmas fell on Sunday many "Christian" churches did not hold services so their members could stay home and open presents. America has lost its moral compass and now most people are just out for themselves.

I realize I am ranting on but it truly hurts me to watch a great country destroy itself from within.

Bill, you and me both. I am in pain when I see what's happening. And if you think YOU'RE ranting, what about all I've written this morning? LOL

But you know it's a truism that stable relationships, including governments, almost never fall from without--they fall because of decay within. That is as true of governments as it is of marriages.

My problem with the Tea Party leaders and others like them is that they truly do not believe in democracy--they really want an oligarchy, much as it is here in Panama, for example. Paul Krugman has stated several times, with examples, that the right wing of the Republican party has never viewed a liberal government as legitimate. That is the case these days, with an African-American president.

During the last election, a conservative Republican acquaintance sent me, by mistake, some political cartoons put out by a Republican group. They were Little Black Sambo cartoons. He did hear back from me.

Not that such racism was confined to the Republicans. In my home state of Pennsylvania, there was PLENTY of it, by Democrats. However, there were enough yellow dog Democrats to throw the state to Obama.

I can't get it to link, but there is a sickening article in the WA Post today about the recent shutdown of the FAA. It was yet another Republican hijack, by a Florida representative who is very anti-labor. In an interview with Dana Milbank of the Post, he admits to having done it calling it just a "tool" to get what you want. And poor baby, he is totally bewildered as to why nobody likes him now! Aw.

That's what we have these days--government by hijack, artificial emergencies, in the never-ending lust for power.

One of the most interesting analyses I've ever read was many, many years ago by a Freudian who said that terrorists and other ideologues were not driven by rational thought but by emotion. I think you have the puppet masters, the very wealthy who pull the strings and then you have the second rank, the public face, who usually are out for power, and then you have the rank and file who are usually driven by fear.

I have never understood why the rich always have to have more.

#224: I have never understood why the rich always have to have more.

I daresay because money is an addiction - just like books. I know I always want more of them.

#224: I have never understood why the rich always have to have more.

I'm lucky enough to know almost no rich people, but the one family I do know believe they deserve it and that they earn it. They are third generation and have no idea that being born on third base does not mean you personally hit a triple. I was in their suite at a baseball game last year and the owner of the box (who my co-worker is married to) actually said that he would, "Never sit in the regular seats with the animals".

Knowing them, I was so confused because they are fairly liberal or non-concerned about social/moral issues and yet will happily vote for people who espouse extremely conservative notions. In my naivete, I could not understand why they weren't interested in changing their party back to the days of fiscally conservative socially moderate/liberal folks like (all PA) John Heinz, Arlen Specter or Elsie Hillman. It took me far too long to figure out that they don't care that they are partnering with batshit crazy people who are racist, homophobic etc. They only care about protecting their money which insulates them from any ill-effects of the social agenda those people espouse.

I find it chilling.

Wow, Nancy--that's an absolutely fascinating take. But together with Bill's comment, it makes sense.

Stasia--there are addictions and then there are the necessities of life. There is no such thing as too many books.

#227: There is no such thing as too many books

I used to say to the girls 'There is no such thing as too many books or too much money.' I will take the first part, but a lot of people would take the second I think.

Here's the way I look at it--try the phrase "A library can have too many books." LOL

About greed: it's always been with us. I wish I had a photographic memory so that I could remember every nugget in John Adams. After the Revolutionary War, all the old patriots who had fought and suffered personal loss complained about the greed and corruption running rampant through the new nation at that time. Every age has it. ll one can do is live one's own life to some moral standard and try to restrain the rabid wolves who are always on the fringes of the flock, ready to move in.

Actually, I don't know if wolves can get rabies. But you get my meaning.

I've seen involuntary poverty and it truly is terrible. I also know a few people who have chosen to live in voluntary poverty or close to it and admire them. I've also known two self-made millionaires, both women, and both crazy, as far as I am concerned. One equated a lack of money with death, so you can imagine her drive for ever more. The other was Jewish and was convinced that the US would institute its own holocaust and was piling up money, easily converted to liquid assets, so that she and her son could flee the country to Canada when the pogroms started. My sample is too limited but they are the only two I've ever known.

Bill has brought up the right wing agenda. Historically, when you look at the US, in those sections of the country where such an agenda has been in force--the South during Reconstruction in particular but before the Civil War as well--those sections have been the poorest in the nation; one can argue that that was due to lack of services.

I have never known a millionaire of any stripe. All that money must just wreak havoc with their brains.

Who's to say? 2 data points are hardly enough.

True, but the public behavior of celebrity millionaires such as Paris Hilton etc leads me to believe that all that money wreaks havoc with their brains.

Check out Nancy White's post.

Plus I am in so agreement with Bill. The moral compass is gone.

Used to be, if you were a robber baron, you at least had to do something for the public good in order to maintain your status in at least a professing Christian society. Examples are the Mellons, Carnegies, Rockefellers.

These days, that's not the case--in fact, it's quite the opposite. Much as I loathe Bill Gates and the truly slimy way he got his money, fact is that he and his wife (and I give great credit to his wife), are indeed donating money to worthy causes. They are among the very few.

It isn't necessary now.

I completely agree about the moral compass being gone.

ETA: I also think the sense of personal responsibility has been eroded. I cannot tell you how many people I see in my line of work who tell me that 'it was someone else's fault.'

Ye gods, the refusal to take responsibility for one's actions seems to be a national disease. I have always seen that as a mark of immaturity. children will try to blame others or in some way deny responsibility to escape punishment. I have thought for years that the US is made up predominantly of emotional children. I used to tell Europeans I knew, and later south Americans, that I really believed that the US was a nation of children playing with nuclear matches. I don't think anyone can truly understand the US unless you take this into account. It accounts for creativity, certainly, but lately the creativity seems to have fallen by the wayside and all you see are little children grabbing what they can and stuffing it in their mouths, screaming "Me! Me! Me!" and "More! More! More!"

Naturally, this is a sweeping generalization. But I think it is the prevailing culture in one way or another.

Here's a view of a Panamanian whose family has owned a coffee business for 3 generations and who has been educated in the US; she has a doctorate from Case Western.

She thinks that the prevailing values of Americans are: "I see it. I like it. I want it. I deserve it. I have a right to it."

This is an articulate view. But it is a prevailing view in many parts of Latin America. And they're right.

The US sense of entitlement is alive and well. I see it all the time.

Well, I'm off to do roof repair. Our young handyman, Juan, is here, and as soon as the roof dries off, he'll be working on it outside and I'll be on a 12 ft stepladder inside. I'm not looking forward to it.

Be careful!

My sample size is two as well and therefore too small.

Besides the folks mentioned in my post above, I knew one other (very) wealthy woman who was the daughter of a steel mill owner. Since she was a politically radical lesbian, I'm pretty sure she isn't representative of most extremely wealthy people. She passed away a few years ago but I adored her. Her mother taught her children that privilege begets responsibility. Given how privileged most Americans are, we should all be teaching them that.

What is upsetting me lately is the way that working class folks are sold a bill of goods that caters to their basest fears (racism, gun control, welfare abuse, loss of independence/freedom). Jane's family (WV) all have bought it. Many of them actually have these extremely bizarre "Friends of Coal" bumper stickers on their cars which is flatly astonishing given what mountain top mining is doing to their state. And although many of them receive government subsidy of some kind usually as health insurance for their children, they don't recognize that they are the people getting the 'entitlements' and think someone else is ripping off their tax dollars.

I recognize that catering to people's ignorance and fear of the unknown is not new strategy on the part of the haves (Irish hatred anyone?), but I hate that we haven't improved at recognizing that racist and 'othering' tactics only prevent us from being effective. Where is our Eugene Debs, MLK Jr, Woody Guthrie? We need a new Voice. Or perhaps he or she is out there, and I haven't heard them yet.

Someone like this guy: http://digital.library.pitt.edu/images/pittsburgh/cox.html

Edited for clarity.

Well, Nancy, 2 + 2 = 4, so the database has just doubled! LOL

I really haven't done any reading on it, but in recent years I have come to believe that the American hostility to labor, which is virulent, comes from the fact that industrialization here really took of at about the time of increased immigration, particularly from Ireland (potato famine) and the failed revolutions in Europe of 1848. There were entire regiments of Union soldiers in the Civil War that were composed of Germans, who didn't speak a word of English. many of the Germans moved into what is now the Midwest--Ohio especially--but the Irish stayed in the big cities and became the labor pool. Given that English descendants ran things, and the attitudes towards those pesky rebellious Irish existed, it's easy to see where the alien, then, comes under particular hatred. Later came the southern European immigration, such as my mother's father, to work as wage slaves in the coal mines of northeastern PA, along with Russians and Poles. i won't go into discrimination against Italians, but the only act of physical violence I have ever done in y life was when some runty Irish kid called my little brother one of those names, and I slugged him. by that time, the Irish had political power and used it against the latest immigrants, the Italians and eastern Europeans.

Then came the great Black Migration from the south. I will never ever forget the day in the 60s when I watched on TV those good Italians from Cicero, Illinois doing their best to harm black civil rights marchers. I cried. My brother and I get into it, and I want to kick his ass from here to kingdom come because he has forgotten. When he was young and in the Air Force, he was stationed in Biloxi, Mississippi--where he was refused service. In Scranton, PA, everyone knows that he's Italian. But half of our heritage is southern Italian, and please look at the map of Italy in relation to Africa. My brother has very negroid features (although less so as he's gotten older).

Americans have always hated labor unions, and the labor movement has never been as strong as in Europe where the labor pool was homegrown, so to speak. English trade unions were made up of native-born Englishmen, not dirty Irish or Italians or, worse, blacks.

I'm not sure this holds up, but it's a working hypothesis, anyway. Not that the English didn't fight labor unions--they most certainly did--but labor is respectable in Europe, and it is NOT in the US.

As for the working classes buying the crap--I have talked and written myself hoarse over the sheer ignorance of the American electorate as a whole.

Just look at some statistics, like the run-up to the Iraq War. roughly 25% of the country was against the war, and that is a significant percentage. But put another way 75% of the US electorate was lusting to go to war. That means that 3 Americans out of every 4 bought the obvious lies. I personally could not believe it. The propaganda barrage was so much like Hitler's Germany that we had people in my part of the state writing open letters comparing the speeches with those of Goebbels--and I am telling you, they were so close it was terrifying. I, naive old fool that i WAS, honestly thought that after Vietnam the US had learned a lesson. one generation later, the US proved once again that its people can not think their way out of a paper bag. I was utterly aghast at the behavior of my Senators, from one of the most liberal states in the US. both liberal Democrats. both women. I never forgave either of them or the utter cowards in the Democratic Party who raced to be the first to approve a resolution proposed by sociopaths. I found myself in a nightmare, cheering that racist Robert Byrd who held up a copy of the Constitution and pleaded for it.

I had a good friend in San Francisco who told me about the hero's welcome Barbara Boxer got when she returned

On the current economic issues, I most certain rail against the Republicans, who will never ever represent the best interests of anyone but the rich. But believe me, the Democrats bear their share of responsibility for the current state of affairs, just on different issues.

The fact is that in recent years, the US electorate has behaved like a bunch of frightened sheep who are ridiculously easily led astray until even the semi-literate populace can dimly see that maybe things are not so hot and they'll even vote for a person of color because it really has gotten so bad.

Who balanced the budget and had surpluses? A democratic President. Who UNbalanced the budget through wars and spent all that surplus, with record deficits? A Republican.

But of course, who remembers?

You do.

101. The Little Sister
Raymond Chandler

I fully recognize the importance of Raymond Chandler in the mystery genre. Philip Marlowe was, at that time, a breakthrough creation.

That said, I find I can not get past the dated writing (the 40s slang is meaningless to me), the stereotypes, and above all, the attitude towards women. Marlowe has but to walk into a room, and any woman there--whether from Manhattan, Kansas or Hollywood--immediately swoons into his arms and begs to be hauled off to bed at a minimum or else attacks him in her sexual frenzy. With, as far as I can tell from the text, no real reason to do so. By the middle of the (short) book, it was mildly offensive and, much worse, utterly boring.

Yet Chandler could write. There are gems such as:

“Her voice faded off into a sort of sad whisper, like a mortician asking for a down payment.”

and

“The dull, ready-made clothes, worn without style, with a sort of contempt; the look of men who are poor and yet proud of their power, watching always for ways to make it felt, to shove it into you and twist it and grin and watch you squirm, ruthless without malice, cruel and yet not always unkind.”

That’s excellent writing. But for me, there’s not enough of it to overcome the problems with being mired in a particular time and place, and Marlowe’s world-weariness, which gets annoying. You just want to shake him and yell, “Get a grip, man.”

For fans of Chandler.

102: Murder by Mocha
Cleo Coyle

10th in the Clare Cosi Coffeehouse Mystery series.

No one expects that “cozy” mysteries provide convoluted plots, hard-core police work, or carefully developed characters. Their charm and attraction lies in their themes; there are cozies set in bookstores, tea houses, coffee shops, libraries, pastry shops and others. Their attraction lies in the way the authors can creatively use such settings to provide adequate mysteries that depend a great deal on locale and the details of such enterprises Being a coffee addict myself and fortunate enough to live in one of the world’s premier coffee growing areas, I have really enjoyed Cleo Coyle’s Cofffeehouse Mysteries series. A major attraction of the books has been the inclusion of appendices that have tips on coffee grinding, preparation, and recipes for cookies, coffee drinks and, at times, main entrés, all of which feature coffee in one way or another.

But while no one expects Jamie Lee Burke, Michael Connelly, or Laurie King in her many guises, still there is an expectation that the story line will be at least adequate without too many areas where the reader has to suspend belief too violently in order to carry on. There is also a need for a reasonable level of quality writing.

Murder by Mocha falls down seriously in these areas. The premise of the plot--a new product line involving chocolate for the Village Blend that is supposedly aphrodisiac combined with a revenge motif--is decent, but the development of the plot is too loose. Coyle also has to decided whether she is writing in the mystery or chick lit genre, because as far as I’m concerned, she fails badly in the combination. She also uses a plot gimmick that she’s used before, far more successfully than in the current book; we meet the villain right away (although we don’t know the identity), and we get flashes of her thoughts and plans along the way. Coyle this time has not done it well. The villain comes off as a cardboard character with no life.

One of the real attractions of the series has been Coyle’s locales; she has taken us all over the City of New York in other books, introduced us to ethnic neighborhoods and small businesses, writing with real love for the city she and her husband live in. That’s not present in this book. There’s a little bit about Rockefeller Center, but that’s about it.

Even the recipes are disappointing, at least to me. I love chocolate as much as the next person, I suppose, but the total emphasis on desserts leaves me wishing for some of her pasta recipes.

I think series authors always have a major challenge in keeping their series and characters fresh. In addition, it’s clear from Laurie King’s blog and other writings that authors now have to take over too much of the promotion of their books. For a successful series, publishers demand a book practically every year of a certain length. These are problems without question, and only the best, it seems to me, are able to perform to standard under such pressures. I think this time, Coyle has found the challenge too much.

Recommended for fans of the series.

Nice reviews, Joyce!

ETA: I received my copy of Pirate King from Angela this past week. I am hoping I enjoy it as much as you did.

According to King, Pirate King was her way of refreshing the series at this point. She said that after God of the Hive, she told her publisher that either she was allowed to do something totally different or the next book would probably kill off either Russell or Holmes, the way she was currently heading. so she did indeed do something totally different! It's tongue in cheek and demonstrates what a truly good writer King is. She can do almost anything.

I can see King's point, so I am glad she was able to do something different - and pull it off successfully.

As a Raymond Chandler fan I can understand some of your criticisms of his writing. Personally I enjoy the dated writing. For me it gives a flavor to his stories. I recently read Fer-De-Lance and noticed language and life style that would be out of place today. For instance, Archie Goodwin living in one room of Nero Wolfe's house seemed to me a bit dated.
The only book of Chandler's I have read recently was Farewell My Lovely. The most prominent female character was a femme fatale who made some moves on Marlowe for her own reasons. I have The Little Sister in a Chandler anthology and this will give me an excuse to read it.


I started doing some reading on the project I wrote about. It's very interesting. I am starting out with the men who were convention delegates and refused to sign the Constitution. I figured that would be a place to get some good ideas. Most of the written items are taken from the Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution used by the author of Ratification. The books also have the original publication information.

Bill, I am so jealous of your access to original sources! I've started on mine but am forced to use Ratification and John Adams and whatever i can find on the Internet.

I didn't find Fer de Lance that outdated, at least not in language. Archie can get a bit tedious in the early books, but Marlowe was too much for me to swallow.

Mine come from Library of America. Gordon S. Wood used some cites from their Writings of the Founders series in Empire of Liberty. I was impressed.

Your discussion makes me think of Thomas Frank and What's the Matter With Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America, exploring why so many Americans vote against their economic and social interest. It's a good book.

Flowering Judas
Jane Haddam

Number 26 in the Gregor Demarkian of Philadelphia series.

Once again, Demarkian is called into a small town, this one in New York State, to consult with the local police on a baffling death. At first, he’s just as happy to take the case, since Bennis, in the throes of remodeling a townhouse they’ve just bought at the end of Cavanaugh Street where they currently live, has covered every surface with samples--of carpeting, of bathroom fixtures, of counter surfaces, you name it. In order to take a shower, Demarkian has to empty the tub of samples of bathroom tiles. But all other thoughts vanish in the face of the collapse of his old friend, George Tenemakian, whose 100th birthday is just two weeks away. Frantic over George’s condition, Demarkian reluctantly goes to Mattatuck, New York, to meet not only a bizarre set of circumstances, but an equally bizarre set of characters, including the local police “commissioner”.

Haddam’s Demarkian series can be of wildly varying quality; you never know what you’re going to get when you open a new installment in the series. But when Jane is good, she’s very very good, and this is one of her better ones.

She’s a very formulaic writer; the first chapter always introduces the suspects and gives some of the back story. Almost always, the plot revolves around some social or other issue that is incensing Haddam at the moment. At first glance, it does appear that that element is absent from the book, but there is one character whose sole reason for existence is to highlight an injustice.

Haddam’s writing in this book is in her usual distinctive style, and it is crisp and to the point. She always manages to come up with at least one lunatic (but believable) character wandering the streets unrestrained, and Mattatuck does so provide. The plot is a bit dodgy which weakens the book towards the end, but Flowering Judas has just about everything good that the followers of the series enjoy.

Highly recommended.

OK, Bill--will check them out.

Roni, I'm glad someone has an idea. The "political" dialogue of today has gone into the wildest realms of science fiction and fantasy and not even good sci-fi. I've put up on my FaceBook page a link to an article in the WA Post that details the origin of the current debt and financial crisis--right smack in 2001 with the Bush years. The wars and the Bush era tax cuts.

I'll see if I can get that book.

Meantime, since the inmates are running the lunatic asylum, we might as well read books. While we can. I've taken a break from "serious" reading and just ripped through 3 light-weight mysteries, one of which is good, the others? Meh!

Uh oh--a spammer in 252. Given that this is LT, there's no easy way to get rid of him, naturally--Goodreads is very good on that process.

I have flagged #252 but nothing shows. It's a straight commercial pitch for bicycles.

Please flag #252 and get him out of here.

Laurie King on Pirate King:

http://www.laurierking.com/clapboards-calamities.html

I flagged 252.

Checking out the link for Laurie R. King. . .

Thanks, gang!

Starting a new thread here

I flagged #252's profile, Joyce. That's the way to bring him to the attention of the administrators.

Well done, everyone, because he's outta this thread, anyway. Thanks, Linda--I'll go to the profile immediately.

#247. Bill, I'm with you. I also understand the criticisms, but it gives a flavor for the period and the way people thought (well anyway, as much as any novel can I guess) that I love. And the writing is so much fun.