Sibyx Slips into Summer - July&August

Updated August 15. 75 has been achieved. Next goal: 50 more by Dec. 31.

Currently Reading Updated Aug 13 (Latest book first)
The New Yorker: Month of May - 4 issues,
- 1 down 3 to go.
Gary Soto Human Nature Poems
-So far these are excellent
Grace Dane Mazur Hinges: Meditations on the Portals of the Imagination NF
Hilary Mantel Wolf Hall
David Foster Wallace A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again Essays.
-I don't know why this is still here, I'm not really reading it... sigh.

Audiobook: Craig Ferguson American on Purpose memoir

AUGUST
76. 4 New Yorkers* April (one conveniently lost 50% read...)
75. Boyd Morrison The Ark thriller **1/2
74. Kate Atkinson When Will There Be Good News? Mys ****1/2
73. 4 New Yorkers (not read cover to cover, mind you!) March 2011
72. Aimee Nezhukumatathil Lucky Fish poetry ****
71. Kim Stanley Robinson Blue Mars SF ****1/2

Best of July
Mark Halliday Keep This Forever Poetry *****
Brenda Wineapple White Heat Bio *****
Ian McDonald The Dervish House SF ****1/2

Best of June
No best NF
F a) Abraham Verghese Cutting for Stone *****
SF b) Brian Aldiss The Helliconia Trilogy ****1/2

Best of May
NF Daniel Richard Stoddard, Memoirs Unpublished recollection of growing up in Vermont. *****
F Thomas Hardy Far From the Madding Crowd F *****!!

Best of April
NF Baron Wormser The Road Washes Out in Spring ****1/2
F David Mitchell Cloud Atlas F *****

Best of March
NF William Kamkwamba The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind *****
F John Cowper Powys A Glastonbury Romance *****

Best of February
Fiction Helen Humphreys The Frozen Thames F *****
Non-F Emma Larkin, Finding George Orwell in Burma ****1/2 NF, travel

Best of January
Fiction Helen Humphreys The Lost Garden ****1/2
Non F David Grann The Lost City of Z*****

July
70. Audiobook Orson Scott Card The Lost Gate ***1/2
69. Kim Stanley Robinson Green Mars Book 2 of 3 ****1/2
68. Kim Stanley Robinson Red Mars SF ****1/2
67. Mark Halliday Keep This Forever Poetry *****
66. Brenda Wineapple White Heat Bio *****
65. audiobook Alan Bradley The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag Mys ****
64. Natasha Trethewey Native Guard Poetry ****1/2
63. Ian McDonald The Dervish House SF ****1/2
62. audiobook#2 Edward Bloor London Calling F/slight relig. bent ***

July Summary
I'll probably have to come back and edit this, but off the top of my head.....I've continued the heavy SF theme with the Mars Trilogy (which I haven't quite finished) and the McDonald. Add to that a fantasy book, the Orson Scott Card and the slightly fantastic London Calling and you have five out of nine reads in the speculative genre. The bio of Emily Dickinson and her friend Higginson was the only 'serious' read of the month besides the poetry. Three out of nine were audiobooks, which tells you I am still driving around a lot even though I had hoped not to be over the summer! Two of the nine were poetry books -- I read them while my very slow internet loads; it works well. And finally, one mystery, the second Flavia DeLuce. I see there is a third one out, but I will wait for the audiobook as the reader is sublime and perfect. All in all very summery fare. As it should be!

January

1. Kevin J. Anderson Hidden Empire first of seven, space opera (science-lite), enjoyable ***1/2
2. Christopher Isherwood The World in the Evening F ****
3. Mary Ann Shaffer The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society F, ww2, recommended ***3/4
4. Patrick Marnham Wild Mary: A Life of Mary Wesley ****
5. Charles Stross Toast sf/short stories ****
6. David Grann The Lost City of Z adventure *****
7. Helen Humphries The Lost Garden contemp fiction ****1/2
8. Kevin J. Anderson A Forest of Stars space opera ***1/2
9. Jeremy Bernstein Quantum Leaps Science ****
10. Alain de Botton A Week at the Airport NF travel ***3/4
11. Kevin J. Anderson Horizon Storms #3 7 Suns.... space opera ***1/2

February
12. Laura Talbot The Gentlewomen for Virago week F ****
13. Kevin J. Anderson Scattered Suns Book IV Seven Suns Saga - sp/op ***1/2 Defiantly I continue to enjoy this series!
14. Jamie Ford The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet **** Contemp F.
15. R.F. Treharne The Glastonbury Legends in tandem w/ A Glastonbury Romance, background ****
16. Emma Larkin Finding George Orwell in Burma Memoir ****1/2
17. Suzette Haden Elgin Native Tongue sf ***
18. Kevin J. Anderson Of Fire and Night Book 5 (of 7) sp/op ***1/2
19. Kevin J. Anderson Metal Swarm Book 6 (of 7) Saga of Seven Suns. sp/op *** 1/2
20. Helen Humphreys The Frozen Thames F *****
21. Kevin J. Anderson The Ashes of Worlds Book 7 (of 7) of the Saga of Seven Suns sp/op ***1/2
22. Jon McGregor So Many Ways to Begin ER F ****

March
23. William Kamkwamba The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind NF ***** Stars are for the achievement of this inspiring young man.
24. Diane Glancy Stoneheart F ****
25. John A. Greed Glastonbury Tales
26. John Cowper Powys A Glastonbury Romance F *****
27. Ursula LeGuin Always Coming Home SF ***1/2
28. Champlain's Dream David Hackett Fischer *****
A MUST READ to learn about the settling of our neighbor, Canada
29. Brian Aldiss Helliconia Spring SF ****
30. Margaret Atwood Oryx and Crake SF *****
31. Outliers Malcolm Gladwell NF **** (audiobook)
abandoned in March : Stephen R. Donaldson The Mirror of her Dreams * 1/2 fantasy, yawn.

April
32. David Mitchell Cloud Atlas F *****
33. Marge Piercy Woman on the Edge of Time. SF ***
34. Baron Wormser, The Road Washes Out in Spring: a poet's memoir of living off the grid NF ****1/2
35. Kate Pullinger The Mistress of Nothing F (Audiobook) ****
36. Meg Wolitzer Uncoupling F ***1/2
37. Margaret Atwood The Year of the Flood Dystopic ****1/2
38. Francine ProseReading Like a Writer ***** Dangerous reading list!
39. Brian Aldiss Helliconia Summer SF Book 2 of 3. ****
40. Lois McMaster Bujold Cryoburn ***1/2 SF

May
40. Audiobook: Norman Phillips John Lennon: The Life Bio ***1/2
41. Joanna Russ The Female Man SF **** review to come
42. Sharon Creech Love That Dog J poem/novel ****
43. Kazim Ali, Fasting for Ramadan : Personal Meditation ****
44. Karen Russell Swamplandia **** plus. F
45. Anne Tyler Noah's Compass ***1/2 F
46. Harriet Beecher Stowe, Oldtown Folks F ***** A classic portrait of late 18th New England
47. Robin Hobb The Inheritance and Other Stories Fantasy-SS (ER) ****
48. Daniel Richard Stoddard, Memoirs Unpublished recollection of growing up in Vermont. *****
49. Thomas Hardy Far From the Madding Crowd F *****!!
50. Joan Slonczewski A Door Into Ocean SF ***
51. Jennifer Egan A Visit From the Goon Squad F ****1/2

June
61. Brian Aldiss Helliconia Winter SF ****1/2
60. Josephine Tey A Shilling for Candles Mys ****1/2
59. Tommy Hays In the Family Way F ****
58. Justina Robson Natural History SF ****
57. audiobook Alan Bradley The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie Mys ****
56. Nancy Mitford The Water Beetle Essays ***1/2
55. Arthur Machen The Three Impostors Fantasy classic ****1/2
54. Abraham Verghese Cutting For Stone F *****
53. audiobook M.C. Beaton Death of a Gentle Lady Mys **3/4
52. Elizabeth Moon Remnant Population SF ****1/2

I am checking in before I get a month behind!

Hi Stasia, you are scary almost you are so fast!

Not here lately. I have been off LT for a bit now because of family stuff going on. I was just spending a few minutes here :)

Then I am lucky! It is always a pleasure to host you, however briefly!

Another faithful follower. Looks like you're doing some great reading, as usual. Wow, this year is rolling right along.

Found you:)

I see you are reading The Dervish House. I have it out from the library and I think it will be my next book! Looking forward to comparing notes.

Marvelous Janet, when do you think you will start? I hope to blast through it in the next couple of days. I have this insane desire to read the Robinson Mars Trilogy...... we have 2 and 3 at home but not 1, which I just took out from the library here in Wellfleet..... so that will be next..... It's been on my mind for awhile and I have decided on full indulgence for the summer (except for Emily D.).

I'd like to say I'll start today, but to be honest have read nothing all week. Knowing you are reading it might encourage me!

I'm happy to have lucked into your new thread at this point, Lucy. I can't wait to see what you think of *DH* in the end, and REALLY can't wait to see whether you turn into the KSR fan that I am. I've said before that I think that Red Mars is likely a blueprint that we could follow technically for colonization. Probably the tribulations that the First Hundred make for themselves are spot-on too. I liked the series enormously except that he dragged his feet on getting out Blue Mars, so much so that I was much less enthusiastic about it by the time I got it.

One reason I'm keen to read the Mars trilogy is that it is complete! I loathe waiting.

Jump in Janet --- I 'm only 50 pages in so far!

Got you starred in the new thread. I'll probably read The Dervish House next month--I've pretty well filled this month p with all the Juveniles I need to get off my shelves!

I hope your cat is doing better.

Oh, yeah, I wanted to say the same thing--so sorry to hear of your sick cat and hope things are better.

Hi Lucy. I also hope your cat is better.

Cat is doing much better, purring and eating well. Thanks.

glad to hear that kitty is better...

Hi Lucy,
Checking in... hope you are ejoying your vaca and reading...
Tried to get "Fasting for Ramadan" from ER books (based on your review earlier). But - not this time, I'm afraid. It'll pop up another time when I least expect it and I'll nab it. No shortage of books to read here! :)

Dropping by to say hello. Glad the cat's OK. I've been wanting to read the KSR Mars trilogy, but I've got my planned July books in a stack and I'm trying not to get distracted by bright shiny alternatives, since the books in the stack were bright shiny acquisitions of previous months.

Nabbed a cheap copy of The Dervish House on Kindle, so I'll be following you in that -- as in so many other matters literary! -- very shortly!

My felines send best purrs to yours...

Suz -- you'll enjoy it I think -- things are beginning to come together. This kind of very-near-future sf is so good when it is this well done. A bit like Gibson.

I've read around 100 pages of The Dervish House, and I like it so far. There are a lot of characters, and while I can see what the links between various of them might become, the story hasn't really taken off yet, which is fine, because this character/world building stage is fun in itself. Will try to read a big chunk this afternoon, unless the family feels insulted if I don't pay total attention to the tennis (we do have sort of a rule about not being on our laptops while we are doing something together, like eating or watching tv.)

Thumbed your review of the Helliconia books. They're among my favorite scifi books. I'll be interested in your comments on The Dervish House, which I've been considering since Tad's recent review of it.

Happy summer vacation to you!

I've finished The Dervish House. I'm giving it ****1/2 and a highly recommended to those who love the possibilities technologically of the immediate future.... only twentyish years ahead. It's set in Istanbul which has to be one of the most textured places on the planet at this point, a city close to 3000 years old, in constant settlement and among many of the terrific aspects of the book is the city as a character among the humans. The technology is fun, and some of it seems frighteningly probable, from the auto-drive feature on cars to the use of robotics to do various tasks from surveillance (the kind that follows you around, not just stationary cams) to an intelligent vacuum cleaner..... (can't wait!). There is legend, scamming, terrorism - but what makes the book tick are likeable (some even loveable) characters you really care about. There is no 'higher' reach to the book or it would be a five-star, but it is darned close.

And now off to Red Mars which I have been salivating over for months!

I'm jealous of your vacation. After my little sojourn up in Pennsylvania, I have to buckle down to the books and Maryland is hot, hot hot! And humid, humid, humid. The seaside sounds wonderful!

I read Red Mars eons ago but never picked up Green or Blue. Let me know if you decide to go on with them and maybe we could do it together.

It was nice in Wellfleet but I was happy to get back here, I wasn't quite in a vacation mood for some reason. I went sort of limp, didn't want to even leave the house, basically, a real 'letting-down' but maybe that is what I needed?

Today is biography day, first I 'won' the Claire Tomalin bio on pbk swap and then the bio of Alice Sheldon James Tiptree, Jr: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon by Julie Phillips turned up in my mailbox.

I am immersed in Red Mars and loving it!

Now I am REALLY excited -- just got a notice that pbk swap has The Portland Vase for me. That is the sort of book I just gobble up.

I continue to LOVE Red Mars. Interestingly I was in a new (to me) bookshop in a nearby town (Essex, VT, Phoenix Books), a sweet little indie place with charming proprietors and a very good selection of books, esp the contemp fiction, carefully chosen and displayed -- ANYWAY -- there I was while dau was at Spanish Convo class and got into a convo with one of the proprietors and he was almost shocked I was reading it AND loving it. Sure, it is an 'older' book already, but I don't think backhoes and drainage pipes have changed much in the interim -- and except for the videotape glitch, I haven't found any other baddies yet.... not that I would recognize some of them as there is a lot of stuff that is technical enough I wouldn't know.

Beautiful weather lately, although punctuated by violent (but mercifully short) thunderstorms in the afternoon. Makes it hard to mow as the grass never quite dries out.

You remind me that I also need to get to the KSR trilogy. One of these days!

I saw Red Mars in the library a couple of weeks ago and would have taken it out but it was such a badly worn copy that I didn't want to read it. If you continue to love it, I may buy a copy.

Congratulations on finding a new great bookstore nearby. Hope your beautiful weather continues.

Belatedly -- why are you slipping into summer, rather than stomping, soaring, swimming, etc. etc?? Slipping seems v. understated for you!!

Oh I wish, Suz! I was thinking of slipping into cool water. One of my favorite things to do in the past in our pond is to get in quietly and just float around...... not this year as we have a leech infestation and need to get a big load of lime rocks and lime powder in and fix the Ph level of the water. Leeches are...... ugh ugh ugh.

Pat -- I'm reading a library copy of Red Mars too -- so worn that pages 1-112 have actually detached, so once I got past there I simply removed that chunk and set it aside. I'm so weird I am enjoying reading a book that so many others of handled. I thought maybe I'd buy a new pbk for the library when I'm done with it, since it is the Wellfleet Library that I love so. I'll probably buy two copies actually, since we own Blue and Green Mars...... my ocd part can't stand that kind of thing. The descriptions of Mars are darned good -- I think I've said (many) times before I'm a sucker for good physical description of place, esp in a fictional context, it makes everything feel more real and solid -- and Robinson worked so hard with the information he had at the time. As far as I know too, it's pretty accurate. We have a book of photos of Mars and I was looking it over and everything he describes seems how it would look to our eyes. I know too he slaved over imagining just how a colony would put itself together, what would be needed etc. and this all seems deliciously accurate. Then I like the characters -- of course -- they are 'larger than life' but you can accept that in this case as they are people who have been carefully chosen for this mission, they really are exceptional. I like the tension over terraforming vs. leaving the place pristine....

B and I are hugely enjoying the Wineapple bio of Dickinson and her friend Higginson -- it's an excellent book. Really illuminating.

You're making me want to read Red Mars. I'll look for a copy on Amazon later. My library's copy was similar to yours. I actually don't think I've seen a more used library book and for some reason I always think of that Seinfeld episode when I see an obviously used book. I like mine lightly used.

My hold copy of the Wineapple book is in at the library and I'll pick it up later today. Not sure if I'll actually read it as the book funk is still holding on to me. I was in Barnes & Noble yesterday looking for a book to give as a gift and looked at all the fiction books and left with nothing for myself. Very unusual.

You are making me think hard about the book funk malaise -- I wonder -- I've had some extended ones and when they lift I often go off in unexpected directions -- it also brings to mind the way I am when I get a bit depressed -- everything is too much bother, but even that state of mind is sometimes a corrective to a time of great effort and activity. A needed down-time. Nonetheless, I hate book funks. A great time, though to catch up on NYers?????? I am getting a bit desperate about mine.

Oh boy, I'm losing it, just posted my Dickinson thoughts over here -- so if you read that and thought , Hunh? I've moved them to the thread where they belong.

Meanwhile, I finished (if one can ever make that claim) the Natasha Trethewey poems Native Guard. I don't feel remotely equal to reviewing a book of poems -- and there is on the NG page a stunning review already which I can't recommend more highly. The book was handed to me by a poet friend after I said I prefer poetry that has a narrative element. Well. I got a lot more than I bargained for. Trethewey's life story is ..... well..... let's just say it makes many of our worst moments look no worse than say, a badly stubbed toe. Some of the poems tell the story of the black soldiers who fought for the Union, how they were treated. By weird serendipity I've been reading a bio of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson who led a black regiment, the First South Carolina Volunteers so am quite aware of the issues.
Trethewey grew up in Mississippi in a mixed marriage in the 60's. Her poetry is consumed with betrayal, of self, of others and finding a way to some kind of peace. Some of the poems are painful enough to make your stomach knot up. ****1/2

My book came with a CD and she reads beautifully.

Great review of Native Guard, Lucy! BTW, this collection won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 2007. Natasha Trethewey lives here in Atlanta, and teaches at Emory (my most recent alma mater), along with Kevin Young, another outstanding poet. I've read two of her other collections, Domestic Work and Bellocq's Ophelia, which were both excellent, but, oddly enough, I haven't read Native Guard yet, although I own it.

http://creativewriting.emory.edu/faculty/trethewey.html

http://creativewriting.emory.edu/faculty/young.html

Thank you Darryl -- I felt it was a bit of a feeble effort on my part, one can either be very brief writing about a book of poetry or one can find it hard to stop. When you get around to reading it the poem "Southern History" resonated the most directly and personally for me. Who hasn't sat there tongue-tied and in mental agony while someone more powerful than you or someone you felt you owed some kind of respect or whatever, is saying things that you know are utterly - false -- (which feels like an inadequate word here) but you don't know if everyone else listening knows that or if you are the only one.

On another note I finished up another audiobook today, The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag which I want to go on record saying is just about THE WORST TITLE I HAVE EVER ENCOUNTERED hard to remember and way too obscure for the book itself as well. Despite the bad title, Flavia DeLuce is as precocious and engaging as ever and I love the reader, Jane Entwhistle. The mystery too, was sufficiently different in feeling and outcome from the first book not to feel too contrived, although, of course, being a mystery you accept contrivance as a given, it just has to be well done...... and it was. I noticed in a bookstore the other day that there is a third book, and I can't wait until it is out on audio as I am sure it will be. Despite the title, a resounding **** as a mystery.

I thought the reader really makes these books. I stalled on the first one and barely finished the third; the second is one of the few audiobooks I have listened to, and it made it so much more interesting. And I'm not a big audio book fan!

I have a feeling you are right about that -- that Entwhistle brings Flavia to life.

Hi there Lucy!! I understand that you are the self appointed president of the Jackson Brodie Fan club - so having just finished Case Histories By Kate Atkinson -and on to another Jackson Brodie - One Good Turn I had to stop by and say hi to the self appointed President of the Jackson Brodie fanclub!;)

I see that you are a fan of Helen Humphries as well. I''ve just recently read her book Coventry and I loved it! I hope to get onto Lost Garden soon -but for now I'm reading One Good Turn and hope to fit in another Orange Prize nominee.

I enjoy a well read book, too.
Battered is not bad to me :) so you have some company in that weirdness!

>43 vancouverdeb: Don't just say hi, JOIN!!!!!

>44 mckait: Honored to share weirdness w/you Kath

I have finished reading the terrific biography White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson by Brenda Wineapple of the friendship between Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson which I read with Becky (labwriter). It's a five star work, fine research, writing and synthesis. The interweaving of their stories and their lives adds dimension to my understanding of Dickinson the poet, and to the times that she lived and worked in. I'm not going to write a review, I don't think, certainly not this evening...... the thread, should you have any interest, is to be found here

Hi Lucy!
Glad you loved the book - I'm enjoying it a lot myself.

Wonderful writing... high interest... exceeds expectations... glad you & Becky led me to it and thru it! :)
Thanks!

I seem to have finished a second book of poetry in the stack I've recently acquired, Mark Halliday's Keep This Forever. I won't attempt to review the poems as poetry as I am strictly a proser who likes to read poetry in the summers..... but.... I LOVED it. There is nothing inaccessible or obfusc here; Halliday's poetry persona is a man who is admitting, from the get-go, that he never gets anything quite right, that he suffers intense moments of 'what is this all for , all this fighting, all this intensity, and self-centeredness, and selfishness, given that we all die and so soon..... but you can also sit for a long time with one of these poems and see how carefully crafted they are despite the smooth way you can read them and the way they make you wince and laugh and both sympathize with and distance yourself a bit..... Superb, and highly highly recommended for those who don't usually read poetry and wished they did read some poetry but feel intimidated. Some of the longer poems are so funny I wish I could put them here, but they are just too long. These two are more serious but they resonated deeply with me as I have been through exactly this and hardly knew how to begin parsing the complexity of what I was feeling at the time. *****

SKEIN
At the moment when my father died
I was in the next room
on the phone talking to my wife
five hundred miles away.
We had so much to say.
With animation we spoke of life:
next week, next month-
a skein of possibilities in play.
I talked with unusual briskness
and sharp enunciation because
I knew I must be a vigorous adult
with a major problem just one room away.
Dimly hearing all that, my father
rested his hands on the cool sheet
and felt there wasn't enough reason to stay.

LAST TOUCH
He lay there propped up on his bed
deathmasked

When I leaned down and kissed his forehead
it was not exactly that I felt a warm wish to kiss him

it was more that I needed a gesture
an outward sign of farewell
Maybe I knew that later I would need to remember
that I leaned down and kissed his forehead

I was not full of grief
though grief was quietly building its embassy
far downtown in my head

I was in awe of my own astonishment
transfixed by the loud silence of the blatancy of
my pure inadequacy in the encounter
but I kissed his cool forehead
like someone saying Goodbye full of feeling
to help myself feel it later
in the icicle moments of sudden reality.

Goose bumps! Hackles rising! It's so hot here that I need the chill, but I'm not sure that's the route I would have chosen. Thanks, Lucy.

I really like the poems you quote, Lucy, and would like to check out the longer ones. I have a good high school chum whose father died last week--this poet sounds like one that would really appeal to him and I'm going to recommend the book to him. How fortuitous the timing!

Thanks Roni -- I think I would have liked someone handing or recommending the Halliday back when I was struggling along with my mother. Those poems are serious ones, but some of them are very very funny.

#48 - The Halliday poems you quoted were great, and I think this book will fit really well into my "must read more poetry and try to like it" project!
ETA: Have given your review a thumb - surprised to find no others there.

I like the way the poet describes the out of body observing oneself phenomenon; the kind of hyper-self-awareness we all get at significant moments...

A proser, are you?! I'll have to remember that description.

Too hot to type more. Later...

There was a lot of pleasant banter in my MFA program betwixt poets and prosers.

I will have to keep my eye out for this book of poetry. It sounds like something I'd like. Unfortunately, my library doesn't have it.

Hi Lucy : ). I so admire your reading poetry ... something I almost never do!

#46: Both you and Becky recommending the book makes it a must-read for me. Unfortunately my local library does not have it!

Hi Lucy. Just dropping by to say hello. I'm so far behind on threads that I won't even try to catch up.

Halliday's book looks good, Lucy! Nice review and interesting poems that make sense.

Made me realize, I never got the chance to say good-bye to my Dad.
My sister was too young and not allowed in the hosp room - so I had to stay with her in the waiting room. Geeze! That sucked. :(

I think that's one of the great points Halliday makes, death as an experience that is never 'the way it should have been' for the living, just because of the way life is.

I have The Dervish House on my tbr pile and now you have me looking to bump up the Mars books as well and I just had to get the Helliconia trilogy. There are just not enough hours in the day to read all this scifi.

BTW I'm down in Parsippany NJ at a Harp Festival -- won't be reading much for the next five days.

However I can report that I did finish Red Mars last night before conking out. A great read, and my goodness, what a ride to the finish of book one. I was a bit surprised by some of the demises, but..... after reading the Aldiss Helliconia series I know that this kind of 'saga' isn't just about this or that character but about the place as much as anything else, so.... the passing of this or that person you might have been attached to is, well, just part of the flow.

Have a great time at the Harp Festival Lucy.

A harp festival? Sounds cool! Have a great time, Lucy!

Hi Lucy - I have no idea what I've done with your previous thread but at least I'm all caught up with this one!

Glad you enjoyed Red Mars so much and I was also intrigued by the Mark Halliday poetry book you mentioned.

Hope you have a great time at the harp festival.

My former harp teacher runs the show and I am one of her henchmen, so I work here -- I get to do some fun things too!

Henchperson. Heh. Have fun!

Play beautiful music! :)

Hi Lucy, just been catching up on your last thread and this. Happy harping!

Re discussion of 'canning' on your previous thread, I'm trying to think if we have an equivalent generic term for that activity over here, because we certainly don't 'can'. I think 'preserving' may be it - the name for the big pan for boiling up jams etc is a 'preserving pan', but people mostly talk about 'jam making'. But this is more about turning fruits etc into spreads than simply preserving them to eat later. Anyway, whatever we call it, I've not done much of it for a couple of decades. When I lived in a new house once on the very edge of the town, with hedgerows heading off almost from my doorstep, I did spend that autumn harvesting all the wild blackberries and rosehips I could carry, and made blackberry and apple jam, blackberry wine (not very successful) and rosehip syrup. I think that was the year I also bought a crate of over-ripe tomatoes in the greengrocers and made and bottled my own tomato sauce.

I love home-made preserves anyway, and thankfully my sister and mother and plenty of the (older especially) members of my congregation still do make a lot of them, so I get to enjoy them frequently.

I used to read a lot of poetry when I was young. These days, it
just makes me restless, I don't usually enjoy it anymore.

I am mostly harping, when I'm not harp wrangling -- (one of my jobs here is guarding the harps that people put in the harp 'corral') -- this is not high level corporate stuff, no indeedy, but I am hanging about with my harp buddies, go to a few classes, and play music in-between things, very little sleeping! Certainly no reading...... right now it's concert time and the job is guarding the sales area, etc. ready for the onslaught. I love doing this actually, it's so different from what I normally do!

Harp Wrangling! Now there's a job that had never occurred to me! Yeeee Ha!

Glad you are having fun! Wish I was there to hear the harp music.
Guess I'll have to wait til I get to Heaven! lol

Hi Lucy. Thanks for checking in. Sounds like a wonderful time.

#71: Harp Wrangler. Sounds like one of those jobs that should have shown up on the old What's My Line? television show!

Sounds like lots of fun!

Harp wrangler: item on heavenly classified jobs ad listing. Needed: Harp wrangler. Must have clean conscience and strong shoulders.

For a taste of who's here -- Grainne Hambly (in my humble the best of the best in Irish harping) and William Jackson (Scottish, great musician, a best of the best, Scottish) check out this You-Tube of them playing a gorgeous piece together. They've created more than that lately and have a beautiful 4 month old girl named Eilidh (Aylie) -- (she's here too!) HARP

For Welsh, this fellow, Bill Taylor is the last word -- he's playing with nails on a wire-strung harp: Welsh harper He kind of blabs a bit before starting up, but it's worth it.

For something really different here is Tomoko Sukagawa playing an Iranian tune on a 'kugo' harp: kugo .

Enjoy!

#78: Beautiful music, Lucy! Thanks for sharing the links. Off to listen to more. . .

ETA: I could not get to the 'kugo.' The link just takes me to an LT book page?

ahhh... heavenly Sunday music! Thanks, Lucy!

78: That's lovely. Thanks.

I will be back to listen to these links. Thanks for posting them. I never would have thought that Parsippinay (sp?) NJ would be such a mecca for harp players. To me it means big malls and a river that sometimes floods.

Stasia -- I've fixed it -- I put a plus instead of an equal sign somewhere...... so not forgiving to human error!

I should add - conference is done but I am spending one more night here (Hilton Parsippany) to rest before the long drive tomorrow (going back to the Cape). I hope to get in bed early and do some serious READING. I am so deprived, although music is really, for me, just as good. (whispers so as not to offend)

Just as good but different, please!?! Both are necessary, don't you think?
Lovely music - but I haven't listened to the kugo yet.

Again, lovely, lovely music but I've only listed to the first two yet - must remember to come back and hear the kugo.

Music is just as good as books too for me - and I'm reminded that I have not practised my pipes for far, far too long - I've got right out of the habit of going to my weekly class...

Enjoy the reading time!

#83: Thanks for fixing the link, Lucy. I enjoyed the kugo music.

Can't download audio files in the hospital, but will get onto these as soon as I get home.

July 18 the last post on this thread, Sib. I had to find it by using the Wiki list. Hope you're just off & away enjoying some beach somewhere or other.

You can see my degree of energy as compared with Becky's by checking out the time of our respective visits here, but I had the same thought. Somebody had posted this article about musicians' intelligence on my fb page, and I thought that it was interesting enough to pass along to you.... Musicians are Probably Smarter Than the Rest of Us{!}. Keep on enjoying your vacation!

No "energy" here, Peggy--just inability to sleep past 5:00 a.m., regardless of when I go to bed.

No apologies for liking music - it's just as necessary as books! (IMHO)

It makes me happy that you all notice my absence..... I am fine -- I am reading a little less than usual, what with the harp festival and now the rigors of vacationing -- we have friends staying with us and that does make it harder to find both reading and LT time...... I do try to mainly post about books, even though that is not always obvious. We head home on Sunday, and after that I think things might become more regular again. Summer is such a distracting time!

I loved that article! You know, I started playing the harp seriously in my late forties, learning by ear and I do think that it has done good things for my brain. It was very hard at first, but I was very determined -- a lot like learning a language can be, I think.

Music is a language, isn't it?

Yes, but in a different way? It's more patterns, at least, I absorb it more as sets of patterns, consciously, whereas with language I'm tangled up in the meanings that obscure the patterns or interact with them in some way -- poet turf indeed!

Beastly hot here, in the 80's at 10:30 -- way out on the Cape too, a piece of land hardly more than five miles from Bay to Atlantic..... we're all staying up waiting for things to cool a bit more.

I'm not going to achieve my holiday goal of knocking of all three book in the Red, Green and Blue Mars trilogy of Kim Stanley Robinson, but I have finished book 2. I'm definitely into a very hazy dazy lazy state of mind and have no desire to write anything terribly cogent about it -- I had a good time reading, love the stuff about Mars, admire all the work he put into making it plausible-ish. One aspect that is part of this book especially is what it feels like to live way past the norm -- many of the main characters, the 'first hundred' are now upwards of 140 years old. Some have memory problems, some struggle with a feeling that everything has happened before, and anger over the loss of youthful looks and various things; it's well done and thoughtful. You get the feeling that several of them are beginning to feel that as soon as Mars feels safe and independent they might stop the longevity treatments and let themselves go.

I am a firm believer in music being a language.
I would explain my thoughts if it were not so blasted hot :(
Glad to know that you are having a nice time .

Told a friend today that it was too hot for me to read -- struck him speechless. But it's true -- my brain is struggling to focus!

Music is a language -- yes, but a different kind of language? I argue it's one reason why it's so hard to describe music in "words" -- like describing tastes (all those silly attempts on menus and wine lists???)

I started to struggle with trying to say something about music and language -- but I can't -- I don't know enough. They share some characteristics, but not across the spectrum.

So I'm back in VT after all my travels..... as I drove north I watched the sky clear and the temp fall -- I think I'll get to sleep w/out a fan on tonight, hallelujia.

Haven't read a word today, although on the drive we listened to Orson Scott Card's The Lost Gate and are almost done, in the middle of the final disk, right now! We'll have to go driving around tomorrow and finish up!

The sky was so clear here at sunset that it had that greenish tinge. So rare!

Welcome home! Glad you had some cooler temps to greet you.

Hi Lucy! I took your advice and joined this group. I think reading 75 books before the end of 2011 from this point would be quite a mean feat, but I shall see what I can do! Hope you are well.

Thank goodness the heat has broken somewhat!

Anyway, I finished Red Mars but haven't quite figured out what I want to say in review. Maybe later today. I'll add Green Mars to the Kindle for travel.

Welcome Home! - both here and in RL.
We're getting 2 days of 90's before the heat soars again. A serious thunderstorm yesterday afternoon put us down to 75° briefly, and it was heaven.

Usual first day home -- so much laundry and so many bills!

I'm so sorry it's going to get so hot again Peggy because sooner or later those heat waves come up this way at this time of year!

We have gentle rain right now, which is kind of surprising. I don't remember it in the forecast.

Tad -- looking forward to your assessment of Red. I'm forty or so pages into Blue.

Things are a bit static on my thread - I have waded through most of my obligations and have had a chance to read almost 200 pages of Blue Mars but I still have many hundreds to go. I have, thank goodness, gotten past a dull part where the Martians are forging a constitution for themselves. It's necessary for the total aims of the book, but slow for the ole reader who just wants some action and character development.....

I read my poetry book when my computer is slow loading, which is about half the time. It's a pretty good use of the time. I'm expecting that by Sunday I'll add three more books, Blue Mars, Lucky Fish and the audio book I've been working on. One of the poems in Lucky Fish is about Aimee's disgust at a suggestion that she should change her name to something simple and 'American' like Smith. One page can have a splittingly funny poem, the next something searing. She's unusual, certainly, and good.

Ooooh, just finished The Magician King; you're going to love it, Lucy!!

Hi Lucy! Welcome home! I trust the laundry is done by now. :)
That Mars Trilogy looks fun... please stop reading books I haven't read yet!
Most of them sound really good and I just can't keep up.

Oh Claudia I feel the same way! Sometimes it is exhilarating to know all these wonderful books are out there, sometimes it is just overwhelming.

I didn't know about The Magician King so it didn't get on my birthday list (Sunday). I put 'a puppy' on my list this year, but I know I'm not getting one. Boo hoo. (Mainly because I am the puppy finder..... and everyone knows that!)

Glad to know you are back home safe and sound, Lucy!

Since I truly don't have a lot to say about my reading I'll indulge in nature reports:

I've been watching at dusk for bats and last night I saw one, maybe two swooping around the pond eating bugs. Our pop. has been decimated 75% by the white nose thing. Bats eat bugs, esp mosquitoes. So I'm bats for bats.

This morning the dew was so thick it looked, backlit by the sun, like frost. Phew!!!

Coyotes are, for some reason, pooping at regular intervals (about ten yards apart) down our driveway. Can't help but feel these are a message to my dog and me as we walk down this road every morning early.

Otherwise, still immersed in Blue Mars.

I'm bats for bats too but haven't noticed a dwindling of our population. Now I'll be on the lookout. Encrypted coyote poop - that's deep!
The Wise Man's Fear is so much fun! I believe I'll again opt to be entertained over improved.

Have you been to Austin, Texas where the bats camp out under the bridges?

I'm pretty sure I can decode the encryption.......

I've been to Austin, but I haven't seen the bats. It's only hibernating bats that get this thing, maybe the ones in Texas and generally in the warmer states don't? So they are ok....

Why does it worry me that you can decrypt coyote poop???

#112: Check this out - http://news.yahoo.com/hordes-bats-delight-texas-city-residents-151909893.html

"Why does it worry me that you can decrypt coyote poop???"

LOL!!!! This thread can go anywhere! Love it! Arrrrooooo!

I admit that it would worry me to walk my dog in coyote land....
I worry walking dunkers in dogs run free here land..

114: Cool!

114 Yes indeed, what a great article and a great accommodation/adaptation the city has made! I love it that they are building more bat-friendly bridges.

The coyotes use very very bad language so I can't put in here what they are saying.

Still reading Blue Mars.

Awaiting a beeeg thunderstorm.

Back to add a link to the thread I made over on the New Yorker Support Group - for an August New Yorker Marathon for anyone who has a stack lurking under the bed..... here .

Send your beeeg thunderstorm down my way!

Still reading Blue Mars... 200 pages to go.

The t-storm fizzled, but it did rain. I have no reason to be here. I should be finishing up that book!

"I have no reason to be here." What??? That's never stopped me.
Hot. HotHotHotHotHotHot............

I'm with you, Peggy. The heat is making me loco en la cabeza.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEAR LUCY!!!!!


glitter-graphics.com

Happy birthday! No puppy? But maybe books?

Lucy, have a wonderful birthday!

Happy Birthday, Lucy!

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday Lucy!

Have a great, special day!

Happy birthday, my dear! I've instructed the coyotes to spell the b-day message out to you, as well...

May you receive many books, and enjoy many happy returns!

happy birthday!

I shudder to think what the coyotes would say!

Thank you all! Haven't opened most of my presents yet, oh yeah, I'm into delayed gratification all right. Actually, no one has told me it's ok to yet and in fact, some people haven't even put any out where I might see them. I did lug home a nice big box from Amazon from the PO a few days ago, so I'm hopeful.

Oh wait, I did get one book so far, Anne Enright's The Forgotten Waltz. Happy about that.

Hi Lucy, I've just had a good laugh reading some of the recent posts here, especially the coyote poop messages, and I am really loving the fresh perspective on the Mars trilogy. I must've read them about 10 years ago and I loved them but your excitement about them is making me want to do some rereading.

And one last book for July -- finished up the latest audiobook Orson Scott Card The Lost Gate. More on it tomorrow maybe. It was a fun listen, shared with my daughter on a bunch of long car rides together.

Happy Birthday, Lucy!!!
Hope you had a good party and got lots of great presents (mostly books).
What kind of cake did you get?

I got four books and an audiobook!

Kate Atkinson Started Early, Took My Dog mys
Patrick Rothfuss Wise Man's Fear Fan
George R. R. Martin Dance With Dragons Fan
and the previously mentioned Booker book,
Anne Enright The Forgotten Waltz. contemp F

The audio book is the Craig Ferguson memoir, which he reads himself -- it's already in the car waiting and I've forgotten the title, but it was highly recommended by many folks right here on LT as extremely funny. (Scottish guy moves to LA).

A bit heavy (literally) on the fantasy side, but I'm ok with that.

We ate at my favorite restaurant the night before and that was the 'official' b-day night, and naturally, I indulged in a naughty dessert and got the singing treatment and all. So we just had cherries and ice cream last night. It's not easy around here to get a good cake, and the hubster really isn't up to it. Gotta teach the daughter to bake obviously!

The best thing last night was the first good corn of the year. Heaven.

Today is August 1st so the NYer Marathon starts today. I'm not starting a new thread this month, but I will re-order things up top, as if.

Hi Lucy, it sounds like you had a great birthday. Fresh corn is better than cake any day! Belated birthday wishes from me.

Very nice haul indeed! I hope that Dance with Dragons is better than the reviews it's gotten at Amazon. I will definitely get it and read it no matter how bad it is, but I could have put a major hurt on Martin for what he did with A Feast for Crows. *WM'sF* is at least as good as *NotW*. I'm a bit over half through and could easily lose most of the folk tales; otherwise, it's a treat.
I am so envious of your just starting fresh corn that I could - well, I don't know what I could. In fact, that's the #2 way that I'd know that I was really, seriously rich. I'd follow the fresh corn crop up the coast. (You know that corn is truly fresh only if you shuck it on the way to the house from the garden and have the water already at the boil, right?) (#1 way of recognizing serious riches: fresh sheets washed in Ivory Snow and bleach and dried in the sun on my bed every night. The expense comes in flying them in from somewhere that the sun was shining when the weather where I am was cloudy.)

You are making me laugh! The corn was about that fresh too -- we didn't pick it, but we know what field it came from right near us.

My real problem with the Martin is that it has been so long since I read Feast, which I thought was no different from the others except for the fact that some of the characters were missing...... Although, amazingly, I do remember where most of the characters were when last I hung about with them even if some of their names have gotten a bit opaque in my head. We were talking about the series last night and agree that it was more or less 'killing' Martin -- somehow the story is wearing him down -- I think he is 'up' to it as a writer, but we were speculating that the story itself is so grindingly dark and rugged that it might be taking a toll somehow on him. He does seem to spend an awful lot of time running around to conferences and such.... I forget too how many are planned? One or two more? If only one, maybe he will feel less oppressed now? I'm sorry to hear some of the reviews are bad -- but I never pay much attention to them in a series this long and complex. It's unbelievable the task he set himself, just so massive.

I'm jealous of the sweet corn. Here in Georgia the season comes and goes so quick - I had real fresh sweet corn once this summer. And I'm going home to Iowa later than usual this year, so I'll miss it there. Sigh.

Guess i need to reread Feast for Crows so I'll be up to speed when my copy of dance with dragons comes in at the library. I do wonder if Martin will be ab le to finish this series, but if he writes it, I'll read it.

First day of my NYer marathon was successful -- and a reminder about why I like the magazine so much -- two people I'd never heard of had extensive essays in the March 7 issue (with which I am done) -- Mo Ibrahim, the Sudanese billionaire (made cell phones available to Africa) and his program to reward good governance, and the German writer Theodor Fontane -- in fact -- I have to scamper off to his page here and see what I want to put on my wishlist.

Sorry to have missed your birthday Lucy but it sounds like it was a happy one. Our fresh corn season just started and we live for these next few weeks and will eat corn just about every night.

I think that the fascinating part of Mo Ibrahim's attempt to reward good governance is that for at least the last two years, he hasn't been able to find anyone to give the prize to... He made the list of top global philanthropists, but earned my opprobrium by failing to return phone calls. Harumph.

Interesting that the NYer had an essay about Fontane; our local NPR station has begun a series on overlooked writers and the first one, which aired last week, was about Fontane. I asked a friend about him, and he (friend) sez he is better known as a poet but still recommends his books. Ho hum. I need at least another century...

Hi Lucy, belated Birthday Greetings! Definitely need to get daughter trained in cake baking though!

Nice haul of books too. I have Started Early lined up for reading soonish too - along with another 200 or so books of course ...

I know what you mean Suz -- I thought I was doing pretty well reading Doblin and Musil and the like but then here comes along this guy who was inspirational to Thomas Mann!!!! It's the same with food -- always something you've never heard of coming along at you on a menu.

We have to take a break from corn every few days.... but it's hard!

Yes, I do need to teach my daughter how to bake a cake. I'd have been thrilled with a plate of brownies with some candles poked in, but .... I wasn't going to make them for myself. Nuhunh, have to draw the line somewhere.

I have had to decide that maybe for the next six months NO BOOKS THAT AREN"T FROM MY TBR SHELVES -- it's silly, in fact to call them shelves at this point because they are higgledy piggledy in the vicinity around the area of the TBR shelves at this point as well.

But what I am REALLY here for is to report that I have finished the Robinson trilogy about Mars. It's an almost five -- and maybe I'm being picky -- but here and there it just drags and becomes a bit too pedantic -- which is funny, in a way, because one of the very best characters, Sax Russell, is a bit of a pedant/absent-minded scientist/affectless type, who grows and evolves wonderfully during the course of the three books. It is also a bit too utopian for my cynical self to quite believe -- that we would be so transformed by Mars as to give up being bullies, but what the heck. So much of it was so delicious, so interesting, so convincing and so thrilling, who cares? It has a very very satisfactory ending, at least I liked it.

I was dying to head out to Aldebaran with the next group of starfarers!

144 - I forgot to say hmph! that the Ibrahim pr folks didn't call you back!

I think it takes guts to say 'No one met our criteria this year'!

Hehehah! Hand over the Presidency of the Jackson Brodie Club to me indeed! LOL! Yes, I did read 4 Jackson Brodies in July! ;) I wonder if Kate Atkinson's other books are as good? Have you any experience? I do like Helen Humphries as well - I see that you do too. I've only read Coventry and very much enjoyed it!

I'm onto Far To Go by Allison Pick. I have to raise my literary cachet ;) It's long listed for the Man Booker Prize this year, and has been sitting on my shelf. Always great to get a book off the shelf! It promises to be a good / great read so far.

Ohhh Happy Birthday, Lucy!

Happy Belated Birthday, Lucy! Nice haul!

Happy belated birthday from me also!
I am getting lots of great recommendations from reading this thread- I have added Game of Thrones and Red Mars to my wishlist, although having spent a tidy sum just the other day on books bought as a result of LT discoveries, they may have to wait a while!

Happy belated birthday Lucy!

So I'm well into Wolf Hall -- I'm usually a bit so-so with historical novels, fussy, I guess, but this one is so effervescent and no one has said "OK" yet, or the equivalent..... I'm going to have to seriously review my English history I can see......

In other book news, I realized today that I've been hoarding Atkinson's last book, so now I can go ahead and read it. I'm like the little kid who holds a handful of chips in one hand and eats with the other.

Marathon update: I finished New Yorker #2 (March 14). If you want to know anything about it you can go here . To do four a week I have to read one in one day and then the rest I can take two days, not a bad approach at all. Since it is August I will already be two months behind by the end of this, but I think I will start doing a New Yorker month whenever I have four months piled up, so the next one will be in November.

Hooray for Lucy and Wolf Hall! If you find an O.K. or anything else in it, I'll --- I don't know what I'll --- be hornswoggled, maybe. It's very fine. I think I've said that I had read quite a number of pages before I picked up the fact that "he" is always Cromwell. When you finish, you should read Elaine's review: masterful!

#152 It's certainly in a separate league from most other historical novels. And requires a radical reappraisal of a character usually cast as the villain in other tellings of this period. Glad you are enjoying it so far.

I've finished a book of poetry -- I have slow internet for the time being at home and so I read a poem or two while things load. This last is by Aimee Nezhukumatathil -- Good poems, visceral and sensuous and accessible. She picks small things to write about, like pennies or hedgehogs, expanding them. She'll use the form of a recipe or superstitions sometimes, but change the list to something rich and strange, not food to eat, but food for the spirit, tales for the soul.

This is my favorite - I have a fifteen year old person in my household and we have lots of mosquitoes this year and we like to watch the stars at night. Our daughter is actually pretty enthusiastic about it, but she usually heads in first because of the bugs, or cold, or something:

MOSQUITOES

When my father wanted to point out galaxies
or Andromeda or the Seven Sisters, I'd complain
of the huzz of mosquitoes, or of the yawning
moon-quiet in that slow, summer air. All I wanted

was to go inside into our cooled house and watch TV
or paint my nails. What does a fifteen-year-old girl
know of patience? What did I know of the steady turn
of whole moon valleys cresting into focus?

Standing there in our driveway with him
I smacked, my legs, my arms, and my face
While I waited for him to find whatever pinhole
of light he wanted me to see. At night, when I washed

my face, I'd find bursts of blood and dried bodies
slapped into my skin. Complaints at breakfast about
how I'd never do it again, how I have more homework
now, Dad. How I can't go to school with bites all over

my face anymore, Dad. Now---I hardly
ever say no. He has plans to go star-gazing
with his grandson and for once, I don't protest.
He has plans. I know one day he won't ask me

won't be there to show me the rings of Saturn
glowing gold through the eyepiece. He won't be there
to show me how the moons of Jupiter jump
if you catch them on a clear night. I know

one day I will look up into the night sky
searching, searching---I know the mosquitoes
will still have their way with me---
and my father won't hear me complain.

Great poem.

Yep. And I'm there and wishing all over again that it were not so.

Lovely poem. I'm going to share with my daughter (almost 17).

One slightly annoying thing is that there are meant to be quite long space after the Dad and the next words..... it adds a lot to the poem, a kind of 'stop'.

I LOVE that poem, Lucy! Will have to see if my library has it.

Great poem, Lucy! Thanks for sharing it.

Lovely poem Lucy, vivid imagery. I too have a (almost) 15 yr old daughter that loves stargazing with me.

And I'm looking forward to your review of Wolf Hall, mostly because I'm still using delay tactics (and other brick sized book distractions) to put off the reading of it and I really do need to get to it.

I hope you won't be disappointed -- I don't know if it is August or what, but my reviews have been kind of skimpy and lazy of late. In general I am not much in the way of a reader of historical fiction normally, for no reason really, so whatever I say about Wolf Hall once I am done won't have the weight of a review by someone who's crazy about the genre.

Mostly reporting that I did, lamely, finish my 4th NYer -- so I am done with March 2011 and tomorrow I will begin April.

I am counting the four issues as one book.

I admire you reading poetry, Lucy. Something I very rarely do. Okay, so my next book up is Atkinson's Case Histories, and I need to know who the new prez of the Jackson Brodie club is? - You? Deb? - hehe

Yep, I handed over the scepter to Deb. I did however break down last night to begin reading When Will There Be Good News.

My relationship to poetry is baffling to me -- I have no idea what it is that poets do that makes a line of words into a poem, not prose. When I like a poem however, it resonates nicely, sort of like an instrument in tune or something like that. That's the only way I 'recognize' a 'good' one, but that is ridiculously subjective! In short, I read it, but I don't expect, most of the time, to get any of it. However, I have a high tolerance for simply letting words into (and out again) my head whether I get anything or not.

Ah, so Deb is in charge of the Jackson Brodie brigade then, hehe. I have to finish A Fine Balance this afternoon so I can start Case Histories.

Love the sound of your relationship with poetry - no wonder you enjoy reading it.

#165: I wish I enjoyed reading poetry. The lack is definitely something I need to remedy, I just cannot get up the enthusiasm to do so :/

I love what you said about poetry (#165). I don't usually "get it" either, but sometimes, the concept of painting a picture with words just jumps out at me and it's great. I have decided to read just one or two short poems every day, hoping to find ones I love, and then eventually I will have a set of them (10, 20, 100?) I know I like and can revisit. Most days I don't find anything I want to add to that list, but it's exciting trying. For my birthday my younger daughter bought me the first volume of the Bloodaxe anthology, Staying Alive (she knew I was interested because I had asked her to get it from the library but it was never on the shelf) and I am slowly slowly working my way through that.

It was LT that got me to start reading some poetry but it's often hit or (more likely) miss. I loved Billy Collins' The Trouble with Poetry but haven't liked the other books of his I've tried. I also loved Tony Hoagland's What Narcissism Means to Me.

I'm glad to hear that others don't always "get" poetry. If I read too many poems in a row that don't mean anything to me, it'll take me awhile to try something else.

My library unfortunately didn't have anything by Aimee N (can't remember how to spell her last name) but they did have Staying Alive and that's on hold now. Thanks for the recommendation Janet.

I didn't realize Staying Alive was a first volume in a series - I will have to look for others, since I ended up buynig that one. I love what you said about poems resonating Lucy. When they work, they seem to point to something beyond what the literal words say.

I sympathize with your review "fuge" too. It's been several months since I wrote anything approaching a review. I am just doing weekly summaries these days.

Janet, good idea, and I will do that too: read a couple of poems a day. The other thing about poetry is that I can read only one poem at a time if I hope to get anywhere with it. It has to sit and make its way around a bit. Some do that more easily than others. If I'm not to be simply reading words, 2 a day is my limit. And, of course, some poems aren't worth the rumination. Anyway, I pledge to try, and I think I'll start with Roethke since I know I like him.
Happy to know that the New Yorker pile is lowering, Lucy.

Ladies, you are an inspiration with your poetry reading. Great comments.

I love Roethke. "I learn by going where I have to go" (Can't remember the title, but that is more or less the first line, is one of my favorites.)

If you ask me (which you didn't) the way poetry is approached in schools (essentially dissection, which you will recall, involves a dead animal) kills it dead so that the kids (who grow up) consider it not to be a necessary or desirable part of life. It's crazy since the very first way people told stories involved putting them in rhythmic repetitive form so they could remember, and many of the songs they love read decently as poems too ...... there is a lot of obscure, academic and frankly elitist stuff out there, but there is so much more than that. It takes confidence though, to say, 'what crap! This is not for me!' and toss a book of poetry across the room. You wouldn't hesitate to say that about a novel, a tv show, a movie. What I'd do (have done) is go to a bookstore or library and go to the poetry section and just randomly pull books off the shelf and if you like say, three in a row in one book, well, that one might just work for you. The main thing is not to be 'respectful' - treat it as something you should be able to understand.

Aimee etc. apparently mostly calls herself 'Aimee Nez' but that won't work for trying to ask a librarian if they have her book!

Aren't I a bit full of it today!

It's funny which poems stick with kids and which don't. Both of mine did quite a bit of poetry throughout primary and secondary school English classes, and they included a fair bit of modern "relevant" poetry, which did help some of the kids get into it more easily. And of course they did quite a bit of Shakespeare. Neither of my kids came out a massive poetry lover (so far), but both of them told me one of the poems they most liked and best remembered was Tennyson's The Lady of Shalott! My younger daughter also loved Browning's The Laboratory. Of modern stuff, Simon Armitage and Carol Ann Duffy went down well (so I know they have good taste, since I like those, too.) So, just proof that if schools do it right, it can "work".

I went to a school that did it right too. And my daughter loves poetry and had a good teacher 6-8th grade (same one).

I think I was in the middle ranks of the poetry teachers. Most of the time, I tried them on what I already liked. They would say, "Why do you care about this?" and I'd tell them. On the other hand, I forced some advanced classes to memorize some stuff as we "did" the chronological American lit thing. Often they could choose, but for some reason that I don't recall now, I made a lot of them learn the last lines of "Thanatopsis." They moaned and complained and whinged, and then were the world's proudest kids when they had conquered it. My long distance harriers all used it to set their pace when they ran! (And to complete my disgrace, we diagrammed that last sentence that they had memorized as the climax of our grammar study. Most of them thought that was hysterical.)

(ETA: That's a favorite Roethke of mine too, except that the first line is "I wake to sleep and take my waking slow" then, "I feel my fate in what I cannot fear./I learn by going where I have to go." This is going to be one of my poems for today!)

Staying Alive is a great anthology; I bought that and the next one for Christmas presents for a friend for a couple of years running; should have got copies for myself too, as I enjoyed dipping in to them. He keeps them in his downstairs loo ('bathroom' for you across the Atlantic) which is actually a good place for poetry anthologies: you can spend a few minutes while in there trying out a poem or two.

A daily dose of poetry might sound like making yourself take your medicine, ie not sure you'll like it but it's good for you! But perhaps it's more like wandering along a beach, randomly picking up pebbles or shells that catch your eye. Mostly you look at them and then put them back; sometimes, you really like a particular one because of its shape or colour or markings, and decide to take it home with you.

Oh Genny, that is lovely! So well put.

My dau's teacher made them memorize buckets of poetry, plus my dau was Titania in 8th. They all loved it, well, my girl loved it and all the kids I knew did. I think she has more poems memorized than I ever did.

Thanks for putting the right lines of the Roethke here, I knew it was wrong, but that is the line that is always in my head! At one point I had it memorized, but most of it has fallen right out of my head.

I can only hang my head and say I am not doing so well with my New Yorker Marathon goals since I picked up the Atkinson....

#177 Genny, love your analogy of poetry/picking shells along the beach. Well said!

Mostly stopping by to say hello.

I was going to read Wolf Hall after there were so many initial raves. Then I heard a spate of "what was all the fuss about?" comments and backed away. I hate to give up on books and it's so large that it really is a definite commitment. So I'll be quite interested to hear your final reviews, particularly since you claim not to be a huge history maven.

Poetry's a tricky one, isn't it? I would count myself as someone who broadly speaking, enjoys poetry, but I hardly ever pick up a book of poems for pleasure. I have a few on my shelf- predictable stuff mainly- Sylvia Plath, T.S.Eliot...also some Hungarian poetry in translation.
Hungarians are crazy about poetry. It's really a national obssession. Wherever Hungarians gather, sooner or later the evening will turn to poetry reciting, and you'll be amazed how long they can go on for!
There is a lot of poetry memorisation going on in Hungarian schools. In my year spent teaching in a Hungarian secondary school I once witnessed a poetry reciting competition! This would anathema be to the British education system I grew up in that would frown on such rote learning, but perhaps we are the poorer for it.
Hungary is also perhaps the only country in the world where a poet has sparked a revolution - when Sandor Petofi stood on the steps of the National Musuem in 1848 and recited a poem urging Hungarians to revolt against their Hapsburg masters. And then there's Miklos Radnoti, a Hungarian Jew, whose most famous poems were found sewn into his clothing when his body was exhumed from a mass grave after enduring a forced march in 1944, whose poems are just tremble-inducing in their intensity.
Ok, possibly more than anyone needed to know about Hungarian poetry, but if like me, you find it fascinating, there is an excellent volume available in English translation: In Quest of the Miracle Stag.

Wow... the things you learn on LT!
Very interesting...
Thanks, HanGerg!

Thank you Hannah -- I've put Quest on my wishlist.

Now, for the record. If you want to know how to speed up reading that mouldering pile of magazines? Take them, one at a time, to a library or cafe, take it out of yr. bag, get your coffee or whatever, and then, notice you are late and leave in a hurry, leaving behind the magazine. This is what I did with the April 1 issue of the New Yorker. I had read the cartoons. And I can't admit to being the least bit regretful. I still have something like 9 to read before the end of August.

The next issue, which I started last night, has a great article (this was back in April, mind you) about people waiting for the next George R. R. Martin installment of his fantasy opus about the continent and people of Westeros. I hugely enjoyed it, and am glad for him that he got this latest book out on schedule. I was intrigued by the article actually -- how rude people were to him, how utterly callous -- if he hurried and published a book full of mistakes then he would be criticized and he admitted that he had to write very slowly and carefully for just that reason, had a heck of a time with his own chronology.

#183: I'll have to find that issue of the New Yorker as that slant on Martin intrigues me. I've only heard the other side of the story which portrays it in quite a different light. As always, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

I have always wished that I had the kind of memory that retained poetry en masse. An ex bf could reel off reams of Shakespeare and poetry but however much I have read long-time faves, like Arnold's "Dover Beach", I can remember at most a few lines at a time. The last time I was required to learn stuff by heart was when I was 10 and 11 -- we studied Hiawatha, by Longfellow, and had to memorize chunks of that, and our religion teacher had us memorizing parts of the psalms. I also played a couple of roles in school plays at that age -- the Judge in Toad of Toad Hall, and the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz. But it's a good thing I never wanted to act, as I'd have had trouble memorizing lines!

Poetry -- I like what I like. It tends not to be sappy saccharine stuff, and not to be opaque modernist stuff. It is just what appeals to me and is wildly esoteric. I don't pretend to be a critic, and I can't understand w hat drives people to create poetry or the imagery etc. that results in the same way that I understand the impetus to tell a story or structure a narrative. Much of what I read never resonates at all. There are poets whose work I like consistently, and others that I 'get' but just don't appreciate -- like Emily Dickinson. I like her poetry only when set to music by Copland, etc.

Hahaha! Me the new President of the Jackson Brodie Fanclub! :) Thanks for that, and thanks for liking my review on Far to Go by Alison Pick. Since then I've read the Sisters Brothers which is a fabulour comic noir western -at least that's the best I can think of to describe the book.

I don't know that this counts towards the Jackson Brodie Fanclub - but since I've read all of the Jackson Brodie books - I purchased Behind the Scenes at the Museum another book by Kate Atkinson;) I've not gotten to it yet.. but I intend to do so fairly soon...

Reading even a little Roethke has set me to thinking about poetry again, that is, as far as I think about anything. I would have said day before yesterday that what I like most is the vivid imagery of good poetry. That would be a lie. I love the sound of the words and the rhythm even when I have no idea what's going on in the man's head. That's it.

Me too, Peggy.

Sternly: Now Deb your main duty as the President is to..... hmm...... just what exackly was it I did???? Given Brodie's personality, I think the only proper way to be president of his fan club is to not embarrass him. Also, please yourself above all. Gloat about holding this august title. That sort of thing. Spend odd moments totting up reasons why Brodie is such an appealing mensch. Be gruff but kind, in fact, be a sucker around dogs. etcetera You'll know when to pass on the scepter.

All Atkinson's books are superlative, but only the Brodie's count toward this position.....

I fell in love with certain poets in high school, that age where we all try to be bad poets. We read Dylan Thomas' Fern Hill as sophomores, and it sang its way into my heart. My teacher asked if anyone knew what it meant and was shocked when I did--although it means more from my current perspective! It still gives me shivers. I've never been able to memorize it, though.

http://www.bigeye.com/fernhill.htm

#188 Lucy, laughing out loud at your job description for the president of the Jackson Brodie fan club. I was saying to Deb that I'm not far into Case Histories and he has already cracked me up by referring to his dentist as "stacked" and observing that she drives "a bit of a hairdresser's car" - so maybe these attributes could go on the list of desirable, but not necessary, traits for the president to have. hehe

Just my car is enough to exclude me from the club. It's not fancy really, just safe, 4wd and very dull, esp as we bought it 2ndhand. Just what IS a hairdresser's car, I wonder. My lack of rack would also exclude me, but maybe we could just limit it to wearing a racier cut of top when reading a Brodie?

I would say the two topics here represent high and low pretty well, no? 189 - thanks for that link.

'High and low' indeed - all human life is here! Love the musings on both Brodie and poetry...

And I like your new approach to getting through the pile of New Yorkers, Lucy. I have a similar pile of journals which I'm meant to be working my way through while I'm away. I keep putting them into my backpack when heading out for the day, but bringing them back again usually unread. I must try the leaving them on the table in the cafe trick next time.

*waving* at Lucy

192 - Yes, and you can console yourself with the thought that maybe whoever picks it up REALLY REALLY wanted to read it.

Well, I've gobbled up When Will There Be Good News - it's gory, unsettling and, as ever, Atkinson manages to take down my defenses, so that I care about everyone more than I should. I would give it 5 stars except I was a bit tweaked with all the sneaky song and movie references in the text and the chapter headings. It detracted, I'm afraid, from my involvement here and there, and simply felt like authorial boredom/showing off, sorry, Kate. I kept thinking -- did she make a list of all the songs and movies she was going to slip slyly into the text? Did someone put her up to it? There was less of it as the book progressed (or else I was too involved to bother noticing or caring).

This time round my favorite character was Reggie. She's a brilliant addition to the fold of charismatic loners that Atkinson has given us.

I'm naming my next male dog or cat Jackson Brodie. It's settled.

I realize this is not an actual review but a response. I've not been in the mood to review things, and I expect the book has a million of them. Obviously I loved it and am recommending it.

I loved Reggie too! But I don't remember those song and film references. Did I miss them at the time? Will have to go and pick up a copy (there's one on the first floor landing with the general fiction here at Gladstone's Library) to see what you are on about, and try to recall if I was distracted by these at the time.

#194 Thanks for comments on When Will There Be Good News, Stasia. I'm still dawdling my way through Case Histories - my summer reading has been so slow. But I'm very much enjoying so far, and I love what you say about the fold of charismatic loners that Atkinson has given us. Loners work for me! I'm happily reading on now ...

When I get home I'll pick out a few of the references -- many chapter titles are movie titles: Les Regles du Jeux is one that comes to mind..... Another was "A Good Man is Hard to Find" (ref to the F. O'Connor short story).... the song lines were embedded in the text and I didn't mark any of them, I should have, but they shouldn't be too hard to find......

Lucy, I loved that one too, it seems they just get better and better. I admit I ignored the chapter headings after a while. I thought Reggie was great. I'd forgotten who Louise was, having read the series out of order. I'm waiting to read the 4th book since there isn't a 5th ...

#197 I went back and had a look at a copy, and didn't recognise any chapter titles as being films - I guess I'm not very film literate! I did notice, and remember now, lots of quotes from the Lyke Wake Dirge, which I liked because it seemed to fit the mood of the story. But will be interested to see what other song lines you've noticed that may have passed me by. I'm intrigued enough to want to do a re-read but I really can't justify that so soon, especially since the plot has been refreshed in my mind thanks to the TV series.

"I'm naming my next male dog or cat Jackson Brodie. It's settled."
OK. NOW I really got hit by a BB, Lucy.
I'm ordering Case Histories from Ammy.

*heavy sigh* It doesn't take much. I'll bite! ;-)

You're all going to force me to read One Good Turn soon, aren't you. *sigh* There's just so much that I want to get to, and *OGT* is on the list, but I was saving it for later except that you're not going to let me, are you?

#201 I was saving it for later except that you're not going to let me, are you? Nope, hehe.

I am bemoaning the fact that the local library still does not have book 4 in the JB series. Arg!

Yup, we've got you all skewered, Claudia, Laura and Peggy! Resistance is futile.

I decided to read some of the quick trashy books I have around because...... well..... because it's late August and things are very very disorderly and distracted around the house. Try, hubby is supposed to go on a teaching gig (abroad) tomorrow early and he can't find his passport. If any of you are gifted in long-distance dowsing to find things, do let me know your findings. We're just about ready for anything. BTW if you follow Peggy's thread you know that my husband is a 'piler' -- every surface in his part of the room has a pile of papers and things. Every drawer is full. etc. There is one place he ordinarily puts it, so the fact it is not there means.... disaster. Last time he used it was to go to Montreal in April..... that's a long time to utterly forget what you did with it -- but it would mean he had it in a pocket most likely, for the border.

So anyway, the embarrassingly silly book I am reading is called The Ark by Boyd Morrison. It is not really a real book, more like a 'screenbook' or a 'bookplay' -- something ridiculously improbable but terribly exciting happens every few pages. Just from the title, I think you can guess, more or less, the plot. I picked this book up for a dollar, that is my only excuse -- no the real excuse was that it was for the hubster.

Tomorrow horrible weather is blowing in for several days. It's lovely today and a hawk -- probably a red-tail keeps flying over our pond and field making that 'kir' sound, but every time I grab the binocs he goes away.

Oh my gosh and yesterday when daughter and I were pulling into the last part of our driveway, we saw the rump of our beige-y cat on the edge of the ditch on the left side of the road and then we saw him leap and THEN! Out of the ditch flew up a huge and very indignant TURKEY -This bird had to be two or three times bigger than Simon. Anyhow. Simon trotted nonchalantly out of the ditch a minute later, very pleased with himself!

Now that darned hawk is back, gotta go!

Good for Simon! I just finished The Ark as well, but a different version, a children's book written in 1953 about postwar Germany. I loved it as a child, still love it now. Good luck on finding the passport--did he take any folders or envelopes of papers when he went in April?

Oh goodness! A lost passport and a deadline - what a nightmare! I was about 2 hours late setting off on my holiday, because at some point during the process of packing the car, I managed to mislay the car keys. So once everything was packed, I had to unpack it all again to check every bag, as well as retrace my steps round and round the house checking every surface and likely hiding place. It was in a side pocket of one of the packed bags, the one I didn't bother checking until late in the process of course. Even trying to be systematic in these circumstances is not easy. I then got myself a speeding ticket on the drive down because I was driving too fast trying to make up for lost time. More haste, less speed! So - commiserations for your husband and for the whole household being turned upside down: I hope it turns up soon.

#204 Your Simon story made me chuckle Lucy :-)

Sending 'passport come out' thoughts.

Hi Lucy. Hope that passport has turned up. I know that panicky feeling when you need to find something and know your stuff is "disorganized."

I also loved When Will There Be Good News?. Reggie was probably my favorite character too. I don't think I recognized all the film and literary references but I was thrilled to recognize the reference to Parsifal (Louise refers to this when she first sees Jackson in the hospital and he looks so vulnerable) because I've been following some LT discussions about the connections between the Myth of Parsifal and the book Matterhorn. Otherwise, this would have gone right over my head like most of the other ones.

Sounds like you're well protected with Simon the fearless cat around!

Back to the poetry discussion, (of which I don't read as much as I'd like, probably because in so many literature courses we had to "dissect" the poems) I love this one:

Introduction to Poetry by Billy Collins

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with a rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

************************************

I couldn't remember this, other than the line about waterskiing across the surface of a poem, and about torturing a confession out of the poem, and when I googled to try find it, I also found this, which I also like:

How to Eat a Poem by Eve Merriam

Don't be polite.
Bite in.
Pick it up with your fingers and lick the juice that may run down your chin.
It is ready and ripe now, whenever you are.

You do not need a knife or fork or spoon
or plate or napkin or tablecloth.

For there is no core
or stem
or rind
or pit
or seed
or skin
to throw away.

Oh Thank You!!! These are wonderful.

Yay! I knew the Merriam poem but not the Collins. I really need to read him.
Sending vibrations out to the passport. I can only imagine! Wishing calm and method in search to the whole household.

Yikes, hope the passport appeared before launch time, Lucy. Love your line, I decided to read some of the quick trashy books I have around because ... - exactly what my summer has been like. I've enjoyed tremendously, but it's been in and out constantly; I had company for ten days, etc. And good on your cat, Simon. I had a chuckle about the turkey, hehe.

I like those too.

*waving* at Lucy

At the beginning of each class, I used to read a poem to my writing classes and then have them "free write" for 10 minutes. They could write about anything they wanted to write about, but I sort of hoped the poem would spark something in them. A couple of my favorite books to read from were put together by Garrison Keillor: Good Poems and Good Poems for Hard Times. I remember one of my students making the remark, indignantly, "Who says those are good poems?" I guess that sort of attitude comes from the infection of political correctness and the abortion of an idea that we can't make any judgments about anything. I gave the student my best wall-eyed look and said, "Why, Garrison Keillor, of course." If you're not absolutely crazy about poetry and would like a book that will sort of ease you into it, I recommend Keillor's books. I'm pretty sure that's where I was first introduced to Billy Collins. He was U.S. Poet Laureate when I was teaching, so I used him and his website quite a bit in my classes. I remember Robert Pinsky was PL before Collins was, and there was a wonderful website to help students learn about poetry. I think Pinsky had a poem a day or something. The current PL is Philip Levine, and I'm sorry to say don't know his work. That was at least one thing I taught my students--about the PL. Are they teaching kids anything in school these days? --Don't I sound like a cranky old lady? Now I understand where the crankiness of the old comes from--heh.

Well here is the skinny on the passport saga -- no passport. So. What he is doing instead is catching a ride to Boston this afternoon with an sil who will be up here visiting her son at camp down near Rutland. In the morning he will go somewhere and get himself an Emergency passport, which you can do, apparently, and then he's on a late aft. flight to his overseas destination. Walla! The airline was very nice and aren't charging him a full fare; they were (unbelievably) quite accommodating and helpful.

So we are making a whole day of it -- to see our nephew and take ZB and some friends to this cool place in West Rutland called 'The Carving Studio' -- a marble-carving workshop in the grounds of one of the big old marble quarries from which btw most of the marble in NYC, Phillie etc. is from -- they were put out of biz when people started importing Italian marble cheaper, believe it or not -- cheaper labor etc, cheaper to haul a boat over the Atlantic than a train down from Vermont..... anyhow..... it's a beautiful and strange place full of rusted equipment and unexpected artworks. Here is a link: marble . Any of you out there with a yen to get your hands into stone, this is the place for you!

My hubster used to spend a lot of time down here, so I know it very well.

Of course it is threatening to be a rainy day. But warm, so who cares.

I'm glad that your husband will be able to get an emergency passport. Your earlier post made me check to be sure that I had my passport for next week (which I do).

Wow, sounds like he lucked out, Lucy!

Whew! Emergency passport saves the day! I wonder if the original one will turn up as soon as he is gone?

Almost certainly, Genny, in my experience! I have lost TWO library cards this year, and both times they turned up as soon as I had spent the money (only £2, but still) on the replacement.....

I am very glad to hear that the passport situation has been worked through and that the airline was so accomodating, Lucy.

No word yet from the spousal unit -- I expect he is in some government office at the mo'.

So I have 'achieved' 75 but I HATE it that this stupid book, The Ark by Boyd Morrison gets that honor, and sat here for a few minutes wondering if I should pretend NOT to have read it. Truthfully, I kind of skimmed it in the end -- just to see if ANYTHING non formulaic and interesting would happen, which it didn't. I said above that it was really a screenplay -- but even then, kind of a boring one. What was I thinking?????? It gets **1/2 stars only because it is not badly written or edited -- the story, although rather silly, never goes off the rails in some completely incomprehensible way that the reader can't follow at all.

Otherwise I am struggling along with my New Yorker Marathon -- did not make it through April, and am stuck on New Yorker #3 of the month, which is full of articles that interest me, darn it!

I will return, chastened, tail dragging, to Wolf Hall now, which really should have been #75 in a just universe. I may switch them around, in fact, when I finish.

Well, congrats anyway!

Yep, congratulations. May your Book 100 be STELLAR!

Congrats on 75! I'm at 47 and wondering what that says about me and 2011? Oh well. I'm hoping to make it to 50 by December--haha.

Yeah on 75, sorry it wasn't a great book.

Over a 100 posts while I was away. I'm following the advice from the wonderful (*cough*) movie Gumball Rally: "What's behind me is not important!"

Congrats on 75!
sat here for a few minutes wondering if I should pretend NOT to have read it So honorable. Consider your review as a good deed warning others away.
Yikes re passport! Glad there's a fix. I had a frantic week of passport searching last summer, retracing my possible thought process since its last known use. Once I found it, I recalled why I'd put it there, made perfect sense at the time.

Congratulations on reaching the 75 book mark!

Congratulations on reading 75 books, Lucy!

I'm nervous really about where that passport will turn up when it does turn it, as I am sure it will.

Tad, I'm happy you are back, and I am confident you didn't miss a thing here! At least nothing that I said, others, of course have been brilliant.

Sorry to hear that no. 75 was such a dud! I don't see why you shouldn't switch the order when you've finished Wolf Hall after all, you started that one before the Ark. I hope you are getting more out of Thomas Cromwell's ruminations...

>232 gennyt:: I'm with Genny! Count something good for #75!

Official sanction to do what I was thinking of doing!!! Excellent!!! I like your logic.
I am getting more out of Cromwell's ruminations every day -- esp when I contrast it with a book like The Ark. I am, I confess a little bogged in Wolf Hall -- I confessed I'm not much of a historical fiction reader, why, I don't know, and that isn't even true, because I can think of several historical fiction books I've adored. I even know a reasonable amount about the reign of Henry 8 although I know a lot more about the reign of his daughter. I love the portrait of her mother -- kind of getting a clue where all that wit and fire came from? Henry is no slouch, but he's so caught up in his kingliness, so hampered by it. Ah well. I love Cromwell's pack of boys, his nephew, sons, apprentices, adopted -- but I don't know enough about him to know what Mantel's sources for portraying him this way are.....

But I came here mainly to report that the April 18 issue of the New Yorker was a winner -- so many good pieces in it that I got entirely bogged down and missed the end of the week deadline of my marathon (I should be reading May now, but I'm not) . Just to give you a taste -- a writer accompanies a Chinese tour group around Europe, then a piece on visiting two of the great pieces of Land Art from the '60-'70's -- "The Lightning Field" by Walter De Maria in New Mexico and "Spiral Jetty" by Robert Smithson in Utah on Salt Lake. It was all I could do not to jump in the car and head west to visit them. In fact, as I read the pieces I was thinking, why do I always just read about these amazing pieces? -- there are several more too, one or two of them that have been under construction for decades....

THEN came the article by Jonathan Franzen about visiting this inhospitable island way off the coast of Chile -- a meditation on the appeal of Robinson Crusoe, the rise of the novel, the death of David Foster Wallace (a close friend) and bird-watching. It is a disarming piece -- Franzen's description of his camping ambition versus what actually went on provides a degree of humor that balances the raw misery of the slow acceptance of Wallace's gruesome death (he killed himself in a way calculated to anger and alienate-- I don't know, don't need to know, the details). I had guessed, just from what I have read of Wallace's work, much of what Franzen reveals here -- chilling and so so sad. All woven together so beautifully in this essay -- one of the best personal pieces I've read in many a year. The connection Franzen makes between his own manageable ups and downs and the condition of Wallace brings several parts of this essay together: "In the summer before he died, sitting with him on his patio while he smoked cigarettes, I couldn't keep my eyes off the hummingbirds around his house and was saddened that he could, and while he was taking his heavily medicated afternoon naps I was studying the birds of Ecuador for an upcoming trip, and I understood the difference between his unmanageable misery and my manageable discontents to be that I could escape myself in the joy of birds and he could not."

And as if that wasn't enough -- a piece on Freya Stark. I haven't read her books on the Middle East, but my mother had a couple of her books about touring ruins in Turkey that I loved - and now I see I will have to seek out the earlier work.

I apologize for the length of this and I commend anyone who read through it!

I am off to stuff two cats and a dog into their travel cases and onto leash for a multiperson trip to the vet -- daughter is going along as my wrangler.

Good luck with pet wrangling! It's bad enough trying to get one animal to the vet...

That Franzen piece sounds very thoughful and moving. Good to share vicariously in your New Yorker reading.

My thanks too, Lucy. Now I don't feel that I even need to read them except maybe the Franzen and Stark pieces....... Nope. You took care of me! Hope you and all concerned are home by now!

234: I'm looking forward to April 18 NYer, someday...
Oh, the pet wrangling. I have to capture the cats in order of intelligence, otherwise the smart ones realize what's up and disappear.

Hi Lucy! Congrats on #75 - whatever it is! If I had 3 wishes, one of them would no doubt be the ability to read twice as much as I do now. Well, heck... if I'm only going to have 3 wishes... make that the ability to read 100 x as much! I wonder if my mind would explode??? Better be careful what I wish for.

Anyway - 2.5 stars is pretty dismal, but reaching a milestone like 75 is awesome!

Thanks for the fireworks Claudia!
Here merely to report that I finished the last April NYer just now, and so can move on to may.
The story, by Thomas McGuane was the best one I've read in months and months.

>237 qebo:: I have to capture the cats in order of intelligence, otherwise the smart ones realize what's up and disappear.
Oh that's a brilliant idea which I must remember! Failure to do so has caused me more problems on "vet appointment day" than I care to think about.

I have always resisted the lure of the New Yorker, but your description of that April 18th issue makes me think I should reconsider. Then again, when on earth would I ever read them? Maybe I'll just continue to enjoy your descriptions.

Good luck with the cat wrangling! I feel for you!

I haven't tried it -- but I think you can read an article from it here and there on line? Or I could always copy anything you really were interested in and send it along. The DFW piece was really good.

I have mixed feelings about the NYer -- but I don't do a lot of 'news' -- not anymore -- there's too much of it and it isn't at all clear to me what matters and what doesn't until the dust settles, it is, besides a bunch of Sciency mags my main source of information...... several months late...... I'm hoping to catch up and then stay in the one to three month range. That seems to work very well for me. On the whole I'd rather read about the seals returning to the New York Harbor.

Successful trip, all pets declared healthy.

Congratulations on hitting 75, Lucy. I completely agree with Genny's reasoning too and think you should switch the book order :)

Good news on the pet front. And yes, I had a look, and I can read quite a lot of the New Yorker free online, so I guess I will add it to my "look at every now and then" website list.

I sincerely hope I am able to get Stasia's "Woo Hoo" gif by the end of the year. :}
But... War and Peace is coming up... so... maybe not this year. :{

Congrats on good pet reports!
Have a great day, Lucy!

Hi Lucy. I'm looking for someone who knows something about or who has read something by Simone Weil (1909-1943). I don't know anything about her, beyond what I can find quickly on the Wikipedia site. Flannery O'Connor mentions her many times in her letters. F. O'C. was particularly happy to have received a copy of her journals--or notebooks, or something. I was just wondering if you might have encountered her.

Oh dear, woman, you are perilously close to the "dreaded" 250. Heh.

>234 sibylline:: I liked your report on the Franzen article about David Foster Wallace... and other things. I'm planning to read Infinite Jest early in 2012 and am very curious about this tortured author.

Congratulations on reading your 75th book. By all means, change the order to make Wolf Hall your milestone book. I won't tell. ;-)

Lucy, do I remember you saying you wanted to join this group read of Infinite Jest, or am I confused?

Oh yes, I am planning to read IJ with the group in 2012-- I couldn't think of tackling it alone. I'd also like to read Gilgamesh with others, just to get that out there, I don't care when -- it's one of those books.

I don't know much about Weil -- just a few snippets of the facts of her life. I think I tried reading something, a collection of her sayings, or notebooks, and found the writing a bit too cool to engage me fully. Of course, it may be that I tried it in French, back in the day, and it was too hard for me so I lost interest.....

And oh dear, must I rilly start a new thread. So messy, it's only August 18th! I had really hoped to make it to September. Trudges off to make new thread..... I'll be back eventually with a link.

But before I go, I have finished one of the four NYers for this week, May 2 -- quite a full one with articles about the latest royal wedding (which I had ignored), followed (somewhat hilariously, to me,) by a piece on quantum computing (as Chandler Bing would say, "Could there BE two more unrelated topics?). Then a piece on Obama's gradually emerging approach to foreign policy and one of those signature NYer articles, a piece about a con-man and the FBI -- just an interesting piece about clever, wicked, ultimatedly stupid people. The story, once again, was a decent one and I zipped a bit fast over the review of a new bio of Gandhi and reflections on his real contribution -- the most crucial piece of which may be the unflagging recognition that modern life quashes the ethical lived one - that the scientific view by 'desacralizing nature ..made it prey without inpunity to the most ruthlessly systematic extractive political economies --" - the reviewer mentions Simone Weil, B., as one of the other 20th century philosophers who make this point, btw.

The new thread is here