Richardderus thread #20 in 2011

The will more than likely be my last thread for 2011, so I'm stickin' with the gorgeous image from last thread. Sans poem, though, since that was *horrible*.


The Green Man by Andre Durand

I'm spending November in pursuit of literary glory via National Novel Writing Month. I plan to produce a first draft of my gay Italian boys boinking romance, Alexander in India: An Operatic Romance, of at least 50,000 words by November 30.

So I most likely won't be around here a whole lot! Visit my novel thread if you want to know what's up.

THIS thread is for NEW books read, those published from 2009 to the present.




The Books off the Shelf thread for 2011 is up, though sort of nekkid. My goal there is now 30 books from my shelves read and donated, shared, or generally gotten out of the house.




This thread is for any book I review that was published in 2008 or before, whether I own the book or not, and for whatever reason isn't a book I will get off the shelves.




Review #1: ...thread 3
Review #2: thread 4
Review #3: thread 5
Reviews 4 & 5: thread 6
Reviews 6-8: thread 7
Reviews 9 & 10: thread 8
Reviews 11-13: thread 9
Reviews 14-17: thread 10
Reviews 18-20: thread 11
Reviews 21-24: thread 12
Review 25: thread 13
Reviews 26 & 27: thread 14
Reviews 28-32: thread 15
Reviews 34 & 35: thread 16
Reviews 36 & 37: thread 17
Reviews 38-42: thread #18.
Review #43: thread #19.


Books are reviewed in post:

51. Healing at the Speed of Sound...#216.

50. And So It Goes: Kurt Vonnegut A Life...#208.

49. The Western Lit Survival Kit...#206.

48. Tides of War...#138.

47. Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America...#108.

46. Lizard World...#78.

45. Temporary Perfections...#29.

44. The Made-Up Man...#15.

Wow, I'm first! Good luck on your major writing task!

Best of luck for those creative juices, RD. We'll soldier on without you for the month.

I love that your new thread still has a green bum on it!
Good luck with your book!!

>3 msf59: Speedy McFreeburg! Thanks for the good wishes, Mark.

>4 ffortsa: I doubt anyone will much notice, don't you think, Judy?

>5 ChelleBearss: WHy monkey with success? Too pretty not to, eh what, Chelle?

LOL ... last thread for the year, rdear? What are you smoking today?!!! With the gregarious crowd you attract, you know you'll be breaking the 250 post limit within a month and a half at the very most.

And I want a new thread pic!

I second that Richard....you'll be on another thread in no time. And good luck with your book too.

Don't worry, Caro, we went through this last year. He created AT LEAST another one, if not 5 or 6...

Stephen--left you a message on the last thread...
Richard--You are delusional...last thread my (green) ass!
Smooches.

Not funny! :P

Stopped in to star you and blow a *kiss*.

Last thread..? mmmm hmm

The very best of luck on NaNoWriMo, Rdear. Of course we understand if it somewhat limits your participation here...of course we do.

Will be checking out the link.

*smooch*

Review: 44 of seventy-five

Title: THE MADE-UP MAN

Author: KAREN HEULER

Rating: 3.75* of five

The Book Report: Alyson Salky lives in 1980s New York with her beloved, Peter, their dog Dingo, and a few friends that Alyson can't really account for liking. One of those friends, Maggie, snatches Peter out from under Alyson, which is as we all know a painful experience. So what does Alyson do? She sells her soul to the devil, here called Madame Hope the fortuneteller. Several stinging ironies in that, eh what?

So now we get to the title: Alyson chooses, as her first step in this revenge of hers, to become a man. Yes, actually become a man, as in physically transforming herself into the enemy. Madame Hope, an evil glint in her eye (I confess, it's a horrible pun, but it had to be said), agrees with relish to the proposal and *poof* Alyson becomes Bob. Everyone still remembers Alyson, but Bob is part of each memory now, too. Bob is friends, through Alyson, with Maggie and Peter; Bob is now part of the magazine staff where Alyson once worked; and it's these things that allow Bob to wreak his devilish (!) havoc on the lives of Maggie and Peter.

He does a damn fine job of his revenge! Oh my my, does he do a good job! I was quite awed by Heuler's vicious imagination, and I'd hate to be a character at *this* author's mercy. In the end, though, Alyson passes through her revenge fantasy, and her dark night of the soul, and emerges as a fascinating, multi-dimensional character one would like to have on the next barstool. That would be one interesting conversation.

My Review: Heuler, a well-published short-story writer and novelist, has a deft hand with prose. There's a nice economy to her storytelling, as she brings this sardonic take on the Don Giovanni story home in under 230pp. It's very easy to see how the characters, all of them, fall into the pits and traps and snares that await all humanity. It's a lot harder to judge them for it than it is other writers' characters precisely because Heuler has such a keen sense of what to say and what to leave out.

There are two problems I have with the book: First, as Bob, the author has some characters think he's gay and in love with Peter, while others don't think so at all, including Peter; second, the last paragraphs of the ending seem to me a cheat, an added-on afterthought that adds nothing to the character or the story.

My first issue is a serious one. Structurally, this mooshy-splooshy confusion isn't dealt with in any kind of story-advancing constructive way. Emotionally, it makes little difference, really, simply keeping two characters from getting inconveniently involved at a certain point; and it gives little depth to any of the interactions Bob has. I took a whole star off because of the unnecessary complication and confusion it caused me in reading the book.

The ending, well, it's not in me to spoiler it, but I can say it bothered me a lot less than the botched gay subplot because it was so short-lived, only a few sentences at the very end of this wicked little book.

A nicely made how-the-other-half-lives cautionary tale, a sharp and sarcastic "Mephistopheles in Manhattan," and a darn good candidate for the title "Love's Labours Won and Lost and Won and Lost and...." Read it soon.

Review: 45 of seventy-five

Title: THE OTHER WES MOORE

Author: WES MOORE

Rating: 3* of five

The Book Report: Chronic overachiever and Marine Wes Moore gets captivated by the fate of his fellow Baltimorean and convicted murderer Wes Moore. They meet and become friends, leading to this book.

My Review: More's the pity. This damn thing is like getting a sunshine enema. One feels far crappier about disliking this book than a mere novel, or a tendentious political screed from some libertarian or conservative wingnut.

The author's breezy, anecdotal style is perfectly adequate to the task of telling his story. It's in no way unique or even very interesting, but the points are made, the language is limpidly clear, and I never once thought the publisher was crazy for acquiring but not copyediting the book. This is an increasingly rare feeling on my part.

So what's with the curmudgeonly reaction to it? I loathe being preached at. This book feels preachy and smug to me. I can almost feel Jesus in every word, and this is a most disturbing and disagreeable sensation to me.

I didn't like it, and I doubt I'd like either Wes Moore in the flesh either. I'm glad I read it, but I don't recommend it to anyone not in search of the Wonderbra experience: Uplifted beyond that which is natural (not to mention deisrable).

Aww, I was hoping for a naked red man or naked blue man this time.

Just for you, Tom.

Love the wonderbra imagery. Less so with the blue buns. *shrug*

Very thoughtful of you Richard, but I think Stephen wanted you to keep that picture private.

Glad Blue Buns is just for Tom. I definitely prefer Green Buns. And what, exactly, are Blue Buns hands doing on the other side of that pic, eh?

>19 Berly: I KNOW! *blech*

>20 ty1997: Ooo, biatch!

>21 karenmarie: I. Don't. Want. To. Know.

>20 ty1997: bwaaa haa haaaaa! Too funny.

And what are these at posts 15 and 16....talk of...is it? Books? On this thread?

>23 LovingLit: Thou art neither too old nor too distant to be thwacked, disrespectful whippersnapper.

Watched...well, mostly listened to...a PBS "American Masters" show called Troubadour, about the singer-songwriter era of the 1970s. Oh my my, Youth has flown. PBS--the Public Broadcasting System, redheaded stepchild of the Murrikin TV industry--is making elegiac shows about *my*childhood*!

And just whoinahell is Rosalind P. Walter anyway? She's been writin' checks to the PBS people since...well, since I can remember. How old must this broad be anyway?

Hi Richard - Ii have starred your nano thread - looks interesting - you sure have a way with words:)

Joining in with the disbelief of "last" thread - your last one only took two weeks to get to the magic number:)

*smooch* - have fun with nano.

Case Histories episode 3...ye gods and little fishes...closed captioning at least made it at least comprehensible...sad and depressing, but comprehensible. Scots leaven the Nordic gloom and doom with a few chuckles at least.

19: I thought the same thing! My browser loaded it in two chunks and it stopped halfway, it looked like a guy wearing a bra on his ass. XD

20: Not funny either! I'm fatter with less back hair, thank you very much. Plus, I wouldn't be caught dead in that shade of blue. :P

>24 richardderus:

I saw the "Troubador" thing a few weeks ago and enjoyed it. Used to think that PBS had become the "Rosemary Clooney network" as they trotted her out every Pledge Drive Week.

But I grew in the hard driving folk music of the '60's and it was nice to revisit that energy and that period of my life.

Review: 45 of seventy-five

Title: TEMPORARY PERFECTIONS

Author: GIANRICO CAROFIGLIO

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Book Report: Fourth in the Guido Guerrieri series of Italian legal thrillers, this entry is not a procedural but a traditional private eye investigation. It is a true noir, set in Bari...a weirdly San Franciscan venue, and my how well its noirness is invoked.

Counselor Guerrieri, as the new translator calls him, is mid-flow on one of his usual if not terribly interesting workdays. He's had to move his law practice into new, American-ish offices because his former secretary has passed the bar and is now of counsel, and the adopted Peruvian daughter of some old friends is in there with him too. Plus a new secretary inherited from a deceased colleague. What was once snug became claustrophobic. So now Guido looks around himself, hating the slickness and the newness, and feeling all at sixes and sevens with his solitary life.

In walks an old colleague, with the zombified parents of a six-months-missing daughter. The Carabinieri, sort of a cross between the sheriffs and the FBI, must have missed something, Guido; you find people, you solve cases, Guido; please, my clients will pay you just to look over the file, Guido, please help them, look at them, they can't function, help them!

What co-dependent with a savior complex could resist such a plea? Not our Guido! No matter that he's a lawyer, not a PI, and no matter that the cop min charge of the case when it was opened is a friend of his, a man he respects, whose investigatory talents he trusts. Someone Needs Guido! And we're off, talking to the friends of vanished Manuela already interviewed, chasing down leads that have grown cold, being seduced and boinked by gorgeous, curvaceous young suspects...all the noir PI tropes are here, and well deployed.

In the end, Counselor Guerrieri solves the tawdry case, as everyone knows he will, but the fact that a Sherlock Holmes short story is the trigger that presents the solution to him is a touch I treasure. That the crime is solved and the guilty punished is a reason to read any fictional mystery, since real life seldom offers such order and satisfaction.

My Review: But then there are the dissatisfactions of this outing in the series. It is not a legal procedural thriller. There is no doubt in the mind of anyone at all that the vanished girl is dead from the get-go, so the suspense is only moderate. I am no fan of the sudden sea change in the direction, for all that I like noirs. I want my legal procedural fix!

And then there's the weirdness of the book being published by Rizzoli. ..!!.. That's right, the pretty-pictures people! It's a nice job, and it's not like they printed the book on 100-pound glossy paper and used overly ornamental dingbats on every page, but it's...unsettling...sort of like finding gay porn in your mama's nightstand. Error 404: File Not Found.

So why give it 4.5 stars, if I hate it? I don't hate it, it's quite well written, if translated in a way I'm less happy with that the previous two-book translator Howard Curtis did the job. But the main reason I've rated the book so highly is the portrayal of the bereaved parents.
***************SPOILER***************************
I've mentioned before that I lost my son when he was two. No worse thing can happen to a person. Manuela's father, heartbreakingly, goes to the train station and waits for his girl to get off the train. He walks up and down the train searching the faces of the arriving passengers, praying hoping believing that one will be his daughter. Guido, who witnesses this, is so powerfully moved that one can feel him suffering for, suffering with, truly having compassion for the mad father. This brief, perfectly imagined, beautifully underplayed scene is worth four stars on its own.
*************END SPOILER************************
Recommended.

Woo, good review, and quite a spoiler, Richard. I can't imagine that situation, and you describe it powerfully. My sympathy for long-ago events.

>30 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe. Thirty years doesn't do much to dull the pain, but you grow into new shapes inside to accommodate the knives and notice them less.

Arggh. Well put.

{{{{hugs}}}}

Great review! (sorry about your son, can't imagine the pain! Hugs!)

*hugs*

{{{Hugs}}}

Great review, rdear ... I do so enjoy the Guerrieri series but haven't yet read Temporary Perfections so this one is definitely being added to my obese wish list.

Weekend plans?

*smooches* to my dear friends and well-wishers! I've spent the evening drinking wine and writing proposals for funders of my big project...tomorrow same again...plus trying to sell my old Buick.

Whatever else my life might be, dull it's not.

Good luck with everything.

>31 richardderus: shivers Richard, I do like the way you write, even if I extremely dislike the subject matter in this instance.
{{{big old bear hug}}}

Just checking in on my friend. Yup, things look good. Another great review...some wine...some writing. xoxo

.....still writing are we Richard?.......

Hi RichardDear! Sounds like things are going well.

Hugs and smooches...

just checking in... xo

Hi guys! Glad to see y'all! Writing away and feeling by turns boring, untalented, uninspired, and like the world's most disgusting perv. In other words, status quo.

BEAUTIFUL fall day! Cool, sunny, dry, light breeze, lovely colors on the oaks, laurels, maples, sassafras, and eastern sumac (which is ending its run). The spinney on the west end of our lawn has a lot of sassafras in it, plus a dogwood that for some reason decided to turn its usual vivid cherry-cough-syrup red late and makes a beautiful contrast to the bright gold sassafras.

*sigh* It's good to be me.

Hope the writing goes well and your place sounds beautiful Richard.

A beautiful day indeed, RD. I walked to work today (it's a little less than 3 miles). A great way to start the day.

Sounds like you are having a wonderful day! Love vivid red trees!
Good luck with your book :)

We had a beautiful day, too. I walked to our polling place to vote. I wish we could have a lot more days like this . . .

Why did I think producing a first draft in 30 days would be fun? Why? It's not fun. It's hard. And I'm feeling pretty frustrated at the whole idea. (For the book.) Who cares? Why would anyone pick up a book about two guys doin' the nasty in the 18th century?

In other words, not feeling upbeat today.

Oh come on. Lots of people would pick up a book about two boys doing the nasty, in any century.

Targets are there to be aimed at, but if you can't hit it exactly, that's just the way things are. Don't kick yourself about it.

Watch some porn?

I think I got it!! I've started the story too late!! The *real* romantic conflict happens earlier, when the laddies first meet!! The section I've been writing so slowly and irritably is the MIDDLE!!

*happy dance* No wonder I wasn't feelin' it. Starting a book in the middle is a lot tougher than building to a known middle. Yay!

eureka! Nice moment for you today :)

Besides, after you write the beginning, if you think that's not a grabber, you can always rearrange, and start at the middle, going back to the beginning as backfill/flashback in the middle.

now..............if that makes sense, you're a sicker puppy than I thought. LOL

Why would anyone pick up a book about two guys doin' the nasty in the 18th century?

I don't know why anyone would pick up a book about two guys don' the nasty...in any century...but, I have done...and probably will do so again...go figger...i can't help myself

Good luck with the book, you!

;-}

well.. sooner one about two women.. Think Sarah Waters...
but I happen to know that rd can do this sort of thing with humor and finesse..
so his? I would probably read...

Yes , Kath...rather 2 Women

but, the "two guys" bit...is good for a laugh, no?

;-}

depends.. depends.. I don't like trash between any two..
tasteful rather.. so?

I prefer "tasteful" myself

but a little "trash" doesn't hurt...if you know your personal limits

;)

true.. but again, a little trash if it's women sets better than between men.. for me..

I do not discriminate!

Though "women" set better...because I'm a woman

the "men" thing....is for the WOW factor...probably "porn"

so, sue me

lol

...I agree with Jude and Kath's preference of lesbians over gay men.

...I suppose saying so was redundant, but sometimes I have an uncontrollable urge to point out the obvious.

That's okay, Stephen

I'd give you a *Hug* here...but you'd get really uncomfortable

so....a "virtual hug".......

;-}

Oh, I don't know, I'm fairly comfortable with being hugged really, so long as I don't have to initiate it. Then I'm at a loss.

I'm convinced that a group of lesbians would be the cure for my social anxiety. More compassionate then a group of men, whom I never feel comfortable around, but without all that speechlessness that plagues me with straight women. What could possibly be more comfortable? Then again, maybe I'm just being self-destructive as usual and subconsciously just want to subject myself to a man-eating feminist. *Rolls eyes*

:)

Stephen... find the right bar and you can do that.. you are over 21...
in fact a beer might help :)

Beer and lesbians...hurray!

I nearly forgot we were on Richard's thread... :P

>66 mckait: that's what we do in NZ instead of dating, drink to excess and see what happens. The amount of alcohol consumed is usually directly proportional to the amount of bases reached at the end of the "date".

Stephen, you can't imagine how many lesbians I know. I can pack them in bus and head to Ohio for an interhugvention if you'd like.

Can I meet you there ty?

to... observe..........

Hi Richard - pleased you sorted out your NaNo funk. I'm still following that thread and look forward to further updates.

Ty : I love your interhugvention idea. I'll join Kath .. but with a video camera.

I want to join the interhugvention!

Sounds like a party to me.. !

And getting wild. ;)

I should never have said anything! Richard, where do you keep your zombie books? I'm barricading myself in that room. Quick, tell me!

I/ possess no zombie books. You on you own, muffin.

Writing going well. All else is hiccups.

Review: 46 of seventy-five

Title: LIZARD WORLD

Author: TERRY RICHARD BAZES

Rating: 3.9* of five

The Book Report: Three centuries of bizarro nonsense in the Florida swamps, featuring dentists who rob teeth from cadavers or maps from old ladies, English earls with horrifying maladies, German hunchbacks with one-eyed daughters who give rise to a dynasty of detestable Southern crackers, and a buncha buncha croakadells. (Gators to thee and me.)

Oh, and fiction's only known were-horsefly.

My Review: Not a big bizarro reader, me. I wondered sometimes what I was doing wandering in the humid swamps of Bazes' imagination. I found such repulsive images there as people being farmed for their organs, clouds of gator-musk inspiring ick-ptui sex, and a claustrophobic sense on nausalgia vu...the dear and familiar stomach-roiling horror of having been here before that Florida inspires in me.

So why rate it so highly? Because, dear reader, in an increasingly bland and featureless literary and cultural landscape, where gay couples are the normal ones on TV and wacky neighbors on sitcoms are largely indistinguishable from the leads in a vain attempt to spice things up, Bazes takes us into places we haven't been taken since A Modest Proposal. The adjective "Swiftian" has been waiting for this book for many long, lonely years.

So, go buy it. I promise you no one will fail to remark on the unique cover art, and the erudite among your acquaintance will be gobsmacked by the fact the BARNEY ROSSET blurbed it. (Frankly, after one repugnant scene involving a wire hair brush and the aforementioned were-horsefly, this was the only reason I kept reading.) Oh, so did Charles Palliser and Peter Coyote, but BARNEY! If not for him, we wouldn't have smutty books to read at all!

Enjoy.

via Caro...oh god how I laugh at this one

2:17 am?! ye gods.

What a rich and varied reading life you lead, Richard. Not a big bizarro reader, me either. And the horror Florida literature provokes in me (sorry Floridians) sounds greater than yours, so I'll pass on this one.

Enjoyable review though - if you migrate it to the book page I'll gladly give it a thumb.

I don't think I could write a decent review at 2 a.m. if you paid me. Well, if you paid me, I'd at least give it a go. But not gratis. A tip of the hat to you.

Hi RD- Just checking in on you and hope the writing is going well. I like the sound of Lizard World. Is this similar territory as Swamplandia?

I, too, like the sound of Lizard World....though it smacketh a bit "close to home"....Since I am a huge fan of A Modest Proposal....ooof! onto The List it goes

***smooch***

Now I see the appeal...it's Livingston Press, fer gawd's sake!

>80 mckait: That's how I felt.

>81 jnwelch: *tips hat back* Thanks, Joe. Should be on the book page.

>82 msf59: Hi Mark! Yes, in a weird sort of way, but no...no kids, more magical realism. Very curious book. Quite sure I'll never read it again, but not ticked that I read it at all.

Hello, Richard! Thank you for the butts! You've made my weekend!

So glad you read and enjoyed Lizard World -Richard. I shall let your copious enjoyment thereof absolve me from having to read and chime in. Not. My. Cup. Of. Tea.......at all.....at all.

hmmm

Now I don't know what to do. Should I keep going on the Italian boys, drop 'em for Lincoln's impeachment and trial in 1870 during his third term, or drop 'em for William II Rufus being murdered because his boyfriend the Bishop of Durham got jealous?

I cast my vote for Lincoln, sir...

But...but...no boys boink each other in that one! Who the hell would care enough to read it if no boys are boinking each other?

Me for one. Sometimes I read entire books with no boinking. I think some others do, too.

V hard to touchpad type w vertigo....even mild case

Who says there can't be boinking in a the Lincoln novel? It was the 70's after all. It was a revolutionary time, filled with all kinds of social progress and questionable experimentation. :)

Introduce the Italian boys to Lincoln.

Your review of Lizard World grabbed me, Rdear .... *gnashing teeth*.... I'll have to add this to my obese wish list

Lincoln is a bigot. He falls into at time warp, wakes up to the Italian boys, gets introduced to gay boinking, learns to accept people who are different than him, returns to his time period, boinks reluctanct men of the time period, then becomes impeached for being gay by the same people who fight for the freedom of slaves. There's your story.

Hoping Lincoln wins the day. :)

Who says there can't be boinking in a the Lincoln novel? It was the 70's after all. It was a revolutionary time, filled with all kinds of social progress and questionable experimentation. :)

Ladies and gentlemen...proof positive that even a stopped clock is right twice a day! Stephen, yes you heard right STEPHEN, said something very smart and insightful! The 70s (of the 18 variety) *were* a time of questionable social experimentation! Reconstruction fills that bill precisely, and the Fourteenth Amendment gifted us with corporations as fictive legal people.

People who read books without boinking in them are, statistically speaking, prone to conservatism and vertigo (there is a theory making its way around that conservatism is a form of spiritual vertigo, but I can't comment on that). Just sayin'

Richard, my dear, I so enjoy your thread and will happily purchase and read any and all books that you produce. And, re:96, Hah! Thanks for a laugh so early in my morning. *smooch*

I'm putting in a vote for poor neglected William Rufus - at least no one else has spoken up for him yet:)

Though I think I just like the way you write ... so anything sounds good.

proof positive that even a stopped clock is right twice a day!

But I'm only right about once per week...

>97 LauraBrook: Thank you, Laura!

>98 calm: I put up the first few hundred words of Alexander in India in my NaNoWriMo thread, just to see if I could seduce you away from Rufus.

>99 Ape: Similes and metaphors are lost on you, aren't they, sweetness?

ETA link for convenience

Similes and metaphors aren't even real, physical things, so how could I possibly lose them on me? Now you're just being silly. ;)

sigh.. Lincoln is out of the picture eh? :(

>101 Ape: Oh, you! :-)

>102 mckait: Only until 2012. I promise I'll get to researchin' it in 2012.

Fair 'nuf

>103 richardderus: promises promises Richard.
Boinking!? *blush blush*

Reading about boinking is about the closest I get to boinking, man or woman.

Sigh.

Thus, thanking you again for the butts.

I'm a world behind on absolutely everything, but you should be off writing something fabulous right now anyway, so I'll just leave a smooch and retreat back into my procrastination grading cave.

Review: 47 of seventy-five

Title: FOOL ME TWICE: Fighting the Assault on Science in America

Author: SHAWN LAWRENCE OTTO

Rating: 4.9* of five

The Book Report: The most unnerving reality in today's social, political, and educational reality is that science, which you are benefiting from this very second as you read this review on the Internet, is underfunded, undertaught, and underapprecitaed by the people of the USA and their political overlords. The reason for this is that an insane religious know-nothingism has infected the Body Politic with a conservative (in the worst possible meaning of that never good term) resistance to accepting reality as it is, instead of how one fancies it should be. This book quantifies the horrors on their way down the pike as this horrifying metastatic stupidity continues unchecked and even promoted by the small-souled fear-mongering Yahoos, in the original Swiftian sense, who shout and rail and spew on Fox "News" and the related echo chambers.

My Review: This book is exactly as tendentious as my book report is. If you don't already agree with its premise, then you're unlikely to consider picking it up. Which is a pity, in my view. For those of us who already agree, this acts either as a call to arms, or a horribly depressing reminder of how the New Dark Ages have already begun. For make no mistake: Stupidity has more gravity than intelligence, and hate has more than enlightenment. Science has proven too many times that gravity always wins for me to have any hope that Good will triumph over Willful Ignorance.

Please prove me wrong. Read this book and get energized to fight the Yahoos. Please.

Read on my National Novel Writing Month forum buddy's thread:

"Now, I realize that's why the whole genre is called Fantasy, but every genre has 'rules' that fans defend like feral rats. In this case, I just don't want to make a mistake along the lines of 'you can't go into the aethersphere like that' or 'Aether energy can't be put in a bucket,' or 'no, you can't eat Aether on your Wheaties...' :::breakfast of automaton champions:::"

I about wet myself laughing at this. And boy howdy, can I come up with ways to procrastinate!

Chuckles on the NaNoWriMo note....Funny, I never thought that "Fantasy" had any rules...except to eschew Crappiness!

Big ole Thumb for the book review...now I gots to find me a copy! My boyfriend is one of the wingnuts (in his case, just plain "nuts") who don't believe in Evolution....don't ask.....I certainly don't...but I love him in spite of his Ignorance...

;-}

#67. I'm a lesbian in PA. I'll come to OH with beer and hug you :-)

Hello! . . .ah gay lincoln? This thread is full of surprises.

108: It sounds right up my alley, only I suspect it'll be a book preaching to the choir, hm?

111: I change my mind! *Hides under desk* What? It's because I don't drink alcohol, that's why I'm hiding, I swear... *Laughs nervously* ...

Maybe we can travel together Nancy :)

...

RD- FOOL ME TWICE sounds fantastic! Great review! It has landed firmly on the WL. Thanks!

Onto the wishlist it goes, Richard. That certainly is a trend I've been watching with trepidation.

I've finally found a Livingston Press book I can't review: "Married but Looking", a collection of boring, heteronormative slime-wallows that I couldn't begin to tell y'all how much I hated.

Uccchhh.

Thanks for that great review; I've added Married But Looking to my wish list.

rd, don't be afraid to tell us how you really feel.....

"heteronormative slime-wallows"

Consider yourself exuberantly hugged for such a great phrase.

Smooched, too.

Horrible

>108 richardderus:: Darn you, Richard, you're supposed to be writing your novel, not telling me about a book that Must Be Read Now.

Especially when the book is a sermon for which I'm already singing in the choir.

I worry that as our technology becomes increasingly magical, the easier it is to believe in magic.

Connie Willis and Neil Gaiman on stage together at FantasyCon 2011, blitherblathering away for an hour (no exaggeration) about their processes, their audience, their opinions:

http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2011/11/video-neil-gaiman-connie-willis-in-conv...

Hi everyone! I'm procrastinating. I have to write the end-of-the-honeymoon fight today and I don't wanna. I was up late last night dreading it. I kept busy by cross-posting my old reviews onto Goodreads, which has a very simple reblogging tool.

For TLo, another pretty butt on a readin' man:

Well you've inspired me to write a sex scene into my NaNo this evening... ;)

Wow, them's two round buttocks. ( )( )

They look a little bumpy to me - but very appealing. I really have to watch what I look at while at work.

All I can say is Roll Over, Beethoven...

Wow. That will last me for days.

>124 BekkaJo: Sex scenes = good!

>125 LovingLit: Yeup. Purty ones, too!

>126 ffortsa: Bumpy? I suspect it's low-quality image problems. At least, I hope so for his sake.

But what is he reading?

>129 London_StJ: ...it matters somehow...?

Yum!

Of course it matters!

The first thing I tried to do was read what he was reading. Okay, fine, that's the second thing I did since I guess drooling counts as the first. He seems to be reading the sports section of a newspaper.

129: A newspaper. The sports page. *Thumbs down*

>132 London_StJ: Why? With a butt that pretty, I'm just happy he knows his ABCs. In fact, with a butt that pretty, he can ask me to explain the plot of "Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!" to him and I won't object.

>133 ty1997: Drooling was undoubtedly first, but I harbor secret doubts about your reported second activity....

>134 Ape: More for me!

Christ, there are more butts on this thread than in an ashtray! Fortunately, the ones here look better!

I like a man with a cute butt, who can read, too!

***smooch***

*smooch* back at'cha!

Review: 48 of seventy-five

Title: TIDES OF WAR

Author: STELLA TILLYARD

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Book Report: James Raven has a problem: He's in love with a very unconventional woman, Harry, who loves (even more than she loves James) spending time in her late father's laboratory continuing his experiments and learning about matters scientific. Why is that a problem, you ask? Because this is Regency England and James is an Army officer about to go to war.

Historian and novelist Stella Tillyard hangs a complex and busy plot off these two characters' relationships. They become entwined with the Great and the Good (or really, the No Better Than They HAVE to Be) of Regency times. The Peninsular War claims James within weeks of the wedding, and the marriage, being so new, doesn't seem likely to survive the separation. The marriage vows certainly don't, on either side.

We meet the entire population of The Ton, it seems, as the novel careens from event to event and plot to plot. In the end, the spouses are reunited, and they each bring their honorable intentions to speak not of Love's Labors Snuck In, so as not to hurt the party of the second part. It's a very adult resolution to a very old problem: How much is too much information?

My Review: Curiously flat. Lots of action, lots of Action *waggles eyebrows*, and lots of people rippin' and runnin' from pillar to post. I felt less like a reader than a literary traffic cop. But the Peninsular War, in a funny way, is the character best and most fully drawn here.

I love historical fiction, and I am a big booster of things Regency. I liked the experience of reading this book just fine. What I would have liked more of was James and Harry, to the exclusion of the multivarious real-life characters in the cast. I knew as much about Wellington's inner life as James's, and I don't think that's a good thing in a novel that starts out as about James and his wife.

But all things made by Man have flaws. The very slightly arch tone of this novel could put off a modern-novel-weaned reader, being as it was more in a period mode. I found it charming. Harry's rather free-and-easy life wasn't characteristic of the period, which will get up the nose of some readers; I felt it was adequately explained by the wartime freeing of social strictures, as well as Harry's entree into the Ton under the aegis of the Duchess of Wellington. Aristocratic ladies really do always have more freedom than their common sisters.

On balance, I can recommend the novel to period fanciers and the historically minded. I don't think it will make too many converts, though...more for the congregation than the heathen.

Okay, you caught me. My second activity was to try to figure out the identity of the handsome reader. (Alas, no clue)

>139 ty1997: Uh-huh.

No, I believe you! Really!

o.0

I Love English, Reasons Why (#1289578923):

forficate

PRONUNCIATION:
(FOR-fi-kit, kayt)

MEANING:
adjective: Deeply forked.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin forfex (scissors). Earliest documented use: 1816.

USAGE:
"Now comes a heat from your forficate thighs."
Alexander Trocchi, ed.; Merlin; 1952.


A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
When small men begin to cast big shadows, it means that the sun is about to set. -Lin Yutang, writer and translator (1895-1976)

FIFTY THOUSAND AND NINETY-TWO WORDS.

I made it! I made it!

And now, because there's a publisher interested in it, I'm going to get back to work on the other book. This one will await its fullness and completion. But to tell the truth, I really like Luca and Pietro. Carlo I could do without, but the boys are pretty wonderful. Just all sgangerata from too much pride, too little flexibility, and BAD FRIEND CHOICES.

*waves*

140 > My reputation feels sullied!

141 > Yippee! Hooray! Congrats!

Congratulations Richard.

Catching up. (Simply cannot load this thread at work, what with that full length glass door behind me and the boss who roves.) Congratulations on the 50K+ And thanks for #140. What a language!

136 lol @ jude

good on you rdear... proud of you !

xo

Congrats, RichardDear!

Have a lovely Saturday.

We're off to take winter clothes to Mother-in-Law (the ex of FiL) about 2 1/2 hours from here. An all day event, but the reward will be having an early dinner with daughter.

>142 leperdbunny: Thanks, Tamara!

>143 ty1997: Sullied? More like "cemented." Thanks for the kudos, Tom!

>144 calm: Thank you, calm! I am really pleased with myself, since I was fretting over the time spent away from something that might actually turn into a published book soon.

>145 laytonwoman3rd: I wonder when my thread became NSFW and where was I when it happened? Oh yeah...leading the charge. Huh. Thanks for the congratulations, Linda3rd!

>146 mckait: *smooch* and thanks, #146!

>147 karenmarie: Thank you, Horrible! Enjoy your bonus daughter-dinner.

Hooray for goals and interested publishers and the rewarding punishment of having a story to tell. :-*

Woo-hoo! When it's published, will you sign my copy????

yay!! congrats on reaching your goal!

Woo hoo, nice job on the word count, and love your thought for the day btw ...
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
When small men begin to cast big shadows, it means that the sun is about to set. -Lin Yutang, writer and translator (1895-1976)

>149 London_StJ: Thank you, Crypto! It is indeed rewarding punishment. *smooch*

>150 tloeffler: No.

I'll have it delivered to your office by a ripped porn star who will make you undress him to get to it.

Isn't that better?

>151 ChelleBearss: Thanks, Chelle!

>152 LovingLit: Thanks, Megan! And yeah, that's one of the Eternal Verities.

and a very clever verity it is too :)

simply stopping by to say I thought of you and Claudia today.

Hugs! Big ones!

My goodness, you reached your goal well before the end of the month! Congratulations and a Job Well Done!

Now, about the other book...when we can we expect this? Soon? Or late?

Large hug and *smooch*, Rdear.

>156 Whisper1: Hi Linda! I will tell her when next I see her.

>157 Matke: *crosses fingers* Soon! Soon!

Congrats on the writing, Richard dear!

Congratulations on making your goal....and thanks for the butt?!

Congrats Richard! I never doubted you...very much. :)

>141 richardderus: Well done on reaching your target of 50,000 words, Richard (not forgetting the 92, of course!) Good luck with publication.

Alan/TT

Now that I've managed to come up for air, congrats on reaching your target, Rdear. Will we be invited to your book launch party?

Now you can enjoy Thanksgiving without the 50,000 weighing on your conscience.

Are you doing anything next weekend, btw? If not, how about seeing if Suzanne wants to come out and play on Saturday in the city? I'll be down on LI for T'giving with the in-laws.

>159 ronincats: Thank you, dear Roni! I see that I missed your birthday in my noveling self-absorbtion. Happy belated! *smooch*

>160 avatiakh: You;re quite welcome, Kerry! Sending hugs to the Antipodes!

>161 Ape: ...thank you...?

>162 TheTortoise: Thank you, Alan! And to you, much happiness on your OWN book's publication! Everyone make a point to go over to Alan's profile to see his book's page!

>163 cameling: TDM and fiance will be in PA for the hols, so that's a good idea! I'll give Suz a bell and see what she's up to.

yaaay....a day in the city with my cool LT pals on the horizon? Oh wait, if they're going to be in PA for the hols, what are you doing for T'giving Day?

>165 cameling: Working on my book! A whole extra DAY without any interruptions! I need to get the MS to the publisher before Christmas and that means changing a lot of seemingly petty details that have HUGE ripple effects. I was just sitting here sobbing about how hard it is to do this, when I decided to take a little LT vaca.

Nooo... you can't work on your book all day on TD. Come join my in-laws and me for dinner? I'm actually not sure yet what the plans are, if we're having it at the house, or going somewhere for dinner ... but I'll find out and let you know?

>167 cameling: I shall consider the kind offer, and communicate unto you telephonically in the next day. You're very sweet!

...thank you...?

Hey, c'mon, what makes an achievment all the more glorifying than when someone doubts you? I was just doing you a favor. ;)

>169 Ape: ...okay...I sorta buy it. *smooch*

>153 richardderus: 8-O I love you, Richard! I'll send him back (after he recovers) with a gooey butter cake!

>171 tloeffler: After you're done with the poor lamb, he'll doubtless need to eat the gooey butter cake just to stay conscious!

xoxo

ok... wishing I could join you in the city that day... have fun!!

oh

Just in case you missed it in my thread..............

Hi Richard, I hope you have a wonderful time with the meet up of your lovely LT friends!

>173 mckait: Hello sweetiedarling! What a cute little poofball!

*snicker*

>174 Whisper1: We'll see if it comes off, Linda, being so last-minute. Would be lovely, though it'll mean some time getting the troops together.

Loved your dinner recco on Kath's thread

I can't say anything there...cause I'm not a fan of Hummingbird's Daughter

Regarding "joining you in the City"......someday i hope to return to NYC...Long Island, too

I fear leaving my house, though...my skeevy brother might make a move....never mind he doesn't have keys to the house

Heads up.....

Happy Monday, RD!

*smooch*

>176 jdthloue: Just tell me when the plane arrives, dear.

>177 karenmarie: Happy Monday to you, too, Homebound Horrible! Are you enjoying your Monday away from the rat race?

Just dropping in with ((hugs)) and xx smooches xx for you today, RD :)

STASIA!! Darling heart! So good to see you here! Are you and the whole fam damily well? I've been thinking about you, sending happy turkey holocause day vibes. *smooch*

So far so good - ratless is good. Got up early, read, ate a bit of breakfast, am on my second pot of coffee. I've gotten 2 books ready for bookmooch. Husband came home from 3rd shift work, we'll probably go to lunch and run a few errands around 11:30 or so. Then he'll sleep and I will continue working to get the house under control for Thanksgiving. We had carpets cleaned and stuff's still out from that. The library and parlour are not passable, but will be by the end of today. I hope. As a bonus, it's purty outside.

#176...skeevy brother...love that term...sorry that you also have one of them.

I'm convinced that the Hallmark family is a fantasy!

Rainy and grey here.. not cold. Just about perfect!
So .. no family there for Thanksgiving.. I am guessing there will be no turkey on the menu?

I'm most of the way through Montana 1948 and I'm loving it! Thanks for mentioning it (months ago), Richard. :)

Well done, Richard!

Stephen

Montana 1948 is an incredible book!

Hi, Richard! Just stopping by to say I hope you have a happy (and safe) Thanksgiving!


glitter-graphics.com

LOL ... love the gif Terri.

Rdear.. looks like the 'in-laws decided on a restaurant in Port Jefferson for TD. Would you like to join us, or is that a bit too far for you to venture out just for a meal with dubious individuals?

rdear has asked that I pass on a message.. he is wishing everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving..
and lots of good times with the people we want to be with.. he is not quite up to being online just now..
and so will be away for a bit.. but he is thinking of all of us and sends smooches ! :)

Please wish him a Happy Thanksgiving, Kath. And I hope you have a great one, too!

Hope all is ok!! Sending hugs

Hope you are OK Richard - see you soon.

{{{Hugs}}} and *smooches*

Happy Thanksgiving Richard!!!

>164 richardderus: Rich, you are so kind to promote this impoverished author. :)

Have a great Thanksgiving tomorrow.

Alan/TT

Hope all is well - wishing you a good Thanksgiving.

{{{Hugs}}} Richard. You're loved. Feel better soon!

Happy Thanksgiving, Richard!

Happy Thanksgiving, R.D.! Congrats on finishing the book too! Hooray!

Seven Layer Bars: Done. Caramel Brownies: Done. Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies: Done. Chocolate Cream Cheese Cupcakes: Done. Addiction to Chocolate: Apparent. Turkey: In Brine. Back: Aching. Family: Present. Holidays: Wonderful.

Have a great Thanksgiving Richard!

I hope you have a wonderfully delicious day, Padre.

Happy Thanksgiving Ricardo!! Big hugs, lots of smooches and aromas of yam souffle wafting your way from my kitchen. : )

Happy Thanksgiving, Richard! I'm eager to find out what you've got planned for dinner.

*Hugs*

Richard, I hope you had a good Thanksgiving! *smooch*

Thank you each and every one for the Holocaust of the Avians wishes! I spent the day flat on my back. Today I managed to shower for the first time in faaar too long (the dog scooched away from me when I went to hug her, that's how I knew it was passed time), get up and get to the liberry to get online and send love and smooches to my pals.

I haven't been sluggish in the readies department, though, as the two reviews following will attest. I'll be back the next time I can rouse myself to get to the public wifi.

Review: 49 of seventy-five

Title: THE WESTERN LIT SURVIVAL KIT

Author: SANDRA NEWMAN

Rating: 4* of five

The Book Report: The author, a novelist and humorist, takes the reader on a whirlwind tour of Western literature, from The Odyssey through Ulysses and beyond. In her fast-talking tour guide patter, she offers up a large amount of information about each era covered, a medium amount of information about notable authors and their works, and a huge heap of hilarity and opinion along the way. Helpful touches such as charts showing the “Importance”, the “Accessibility”, and the “Fun” of each work discussed, allow her readers to contextualize Western lit in a quick capsule form.

Really, whether or not one agrees with the author in her assessments is sort of not the point. She has strong, well-founded opinions, and she’s obviously extremely erudite. She quite probably knows more than you do, and she’s quite probably read more than you have, and she most certainly has you whipped all hollow in the funny department. Go with her ratings, and allow her to lead you into temptation. Sorry is one thing you won’t be.

My Review: Move over, Mary Roach. Here’s the *other* woman I want to marry. She’s hilariously funny, she’s devastatingly well-read, and she’s right purty, too. Reading this book felt to me like attending the most delightful cocktail party ever. No matter what conversation one dips into or climbs out of, the laughs keep coming and the knowledge keeps flowing. An example, from the chapter entitled “France and England in the Seventeenth Century: The Shallows”:
“So we’re at Versailles. The flowers in the beds are changed every day for variety; there are a zillion fountains. Men wear puffy satin bloomers with tights and high-heeled shoes. They gesture gracefully using slender canes with ribbons entwined around them. It is, in a word, gay.”

Yea verily, Sister Woman, it is so! Miss Thing then reviews The Princesse de Cleves, a Harlequin romance of a book by Marie-Madeleine de la Fayette, as follows: “While the setting is the ultra-cynical world of the court, the main characters are strenuously, almost extraterrestrially, noble. Two out of three of them literally die of love. While they are suffering major organ failure from their love, they remain extraordinarily polite, expressing their passions in terms like ‘If I dared, I should even say that it is within your power to make it your duty, one day, to preserve the feelings you have for me.’ To which the only answer can be: ‘My duty forbids me ever to think of anyone, and less of you than anyone else in the world, for reasons which you do not know.’ Well then!”

I nearly knocked my computer off my lap three times typing that, I was laughing so hard. In the end, Mme de la Fayette earns an Importance rating of 6 out of ten, an Accessibility rating of 8 out of ten, and a Fun rating of 8 out of ten. And herein, dear Reader, the rub: I follow the logic of her Importance (higher = more) ratings, and the Fun ratings (same as Importance). It’s the Accessibility that gives me pause. An 8 rating should mean a book is…NOT Accessible? EXTRA Accessible? Somehow this part of the rating scheme didn’t jell for me, since some books I found easy are rated as hard (I think) and vice versa. Oh well, it’s a quibble really, this isn’t a textbook.

What it is, is a browser’s delight. The Western Lit Survival Kit is an entire bowl of cocktail nuts, with salt, heavy on the almonds and cashews and light on those awful Brazil nuts that hurt your teeth and taste like rancid packing peanuts. At its best, it’s an entire plate of sherried cheese puffs with dilled shrimp. And like these luxury comestibles, it needs to be treated as an indulgence, read in measured doses, and allowed to exert its maximum effect on you as you savor its rich and delicious flavors.
Available in January 2012. If you only buy one book that month, buy this one.

Excellent reviewing skills Richard, you should be a writer! ;)

Review: 50 of seventy-five

Title: AND SO IT GOES: Kurt Vonnegut A Life

Author: CHARLES J. SHIELDS

Rating: 4.25* of five

The Book Report: Shields, whose biography of Harper Lee was a New York Times bestseller, is set to do it again with this life of the ineffable Kurt Vonnegut, father to Kilgore Trout, Billy Pilgrim, and the unforgettable Montana Wildhack. If any of these names fails to ring a bell with you, please exit the room via the door marked “DUH”. Anyone sixty-five or under should recognize failed SF writer Kilgore Trout as the real hero of Breakfast of Champions (and Vonnegut’s ironic alter ego). Anyone of any age who fails to recognize Billy Pilgrim or Montana Wildhack as the forces in Slaughterhouse-Five hasn’t read the book. Shame! Shame!

Shields began this project with Vonnegut’s blessing. While he was a very short way into the project, Vonnegut suffered the fatal accident (in exactly the way he predicted he would, more than thirty years before it happened) that silenced his curmudgeonly trumpetings from the marshes of sanity, where he spent a forty-year career attempting to bring the rest of us into awareness of the fact that we’re heading the wrong damn way down the shaggy, overgrown path of conformity and unquestioning obedience to Authority. Vonnegut himself wasn’t a willing follower of much of anything, be it a rule or a custom or an order. He did what was expected of him as a husband and a father, in his day and time, but the book illuminates the unspoken reluctance of his participation in any life that wasn’t of, and in, the mind. Writing was Vonnegut’s ruling passion. It trumped all things corporeal. It gave him, as Shields brings out without beating us over the head with the knowledge, a sense of himself as an actor in the world and not just a spectator.

After Vonnegut’s death, his widow and his oldest son pulled back from full participation in the preparation of this life. I think that was not a good decision, myownself, because a more appreciative and less tendentious biography I have yet to read. I think the author’s intent was to write a real life of the man, not to grind an axe to a sharp edge in order to slice and dice the reputation of anyone. That’s rare. And it’s a delight to see it done so well.

My Review: I don’t know about you, but this Boomer cut his literary teeth on Vonnegut. No one can claim full citizenship in the USA without reading Slaughterhouse-Five. It’s in the Constitution, it just has to be. The experience of the firebombing of Dresden, firsthand, from an emotional standpoint and by a man who lived through it, is something that all of us in this self-satisfied, we’re always right, country need to experience. It’s not an anti-war novel. It’s not a screaming polemic. It’s a man’s attempt to put his life into perspective, and that life includes one experience…the firebombing…that renders perspective forever out of reach. And Vonnegut was always looking for perspective in his work. The author of this life seeks out the actors in his life, and then more or less gets out of the way while they fill him in on what it was like to know Kurt Vonnegut. In a strange way, I think this book would have appealed to the negative, curmudgeonly, perpetual victim that was Vonnegut, because he would have at last seen his own life in perspective.

Perfect he was not. He stank as a father. He wasn’t a good husband to his first wife, insulting her, cheating on her, demanding she be his servant girl (though it’s never put this way in the book, it was really really clear to me that this was so); he was a crap friend to some very deserving people, eg Knox Burger, whose editorial support Vonnegut repaid by pusillanimously giving then withdrawing his very significant business dealings from Burger, who had founded a literary agency on the strength of Vonnegut’s being his client. But his talent was in storytelling, in distilling the life he wasn’t good at living into thought-provoking and very trenchant morality tales.

Even if you haven’t read Vonnegut before now (!), read this life. It is a great roadmap to the 20th century’s preoccupations. And, I will just bet, it will make the previously unexposed curious enough about this mordant, tendentious, ironical storyteller to pick up one of his books.

>207 LovingLit: OOO OOO A compliment! *smooch*

Thank you for the entertaining and helpful reviews of And So It Goes and The Western Lit Survival Guide, Richard. I've had my eye on both for my English major son whose favorite author is Vonnegut. I trust your opinion so now both are on order for Christmas (although one will obviously be a little late). They'll be perfect - much appreciated!

Hi Richard, as always your reviews are sheer brilliance and make me want to click on the little shopping basket icon.
Both going on my wishlist, thanks.

Very good reviews as always Richard.

I'll be back the next time I can rouse myself to get to the public wifi. What no internet at home!!

I hope whatever the problem is is sorted out soon.

Feel better. *smooch*

#180: RD, I had a very nice Thanksgiving. I hope you did too.

More ((hugs)) and xx smooches xx while I am here.

Great reviews, Richard. I love fun lit survey books like The Western Lit Survival Kit, so I'm running down to my computer keyboard (oh, I'm already here) and pre-ordering this one. I also ate up Vonnegut books when young, and now have a son who does. Can't decide whether I want to find out more about the man behind the curtain, but the bio sounds like a good one.

Sorry you were feeling poorly. I hope the holiday weekend is picking up for you.

I always like your review of a book better than the book itself, no matter how great it turns out to be. : ) Adding The Western Lit Survival Kit to my WL. Smooch.

Review: 51 of seventy-five

Title: HEALING AT THE SPEED OF SOUND

Authors: DON CAMPBELL and ALEX DOMAN

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Book Report: The authors are both sound guys. They have written a book together that unifies the research each has done over the years into the role that sound plays in the brain's processing of information and also the role that sound's brain effects play in the good physical and mental health of each one of us.

Campbell's 1997 book The Mozart Effect was an early overview of the then-emerging science of the brain's response to sound. Doman founded a company called Advanced Brain Technologies to apply the science Campbell discussed to everyday issues and problems.

This is the perfect book to read on a NooKindlEreader, because the text is loaded with free sound downloads and links to various resources that us tree-book readers must tediously and laboriously type into our home computing devices to share, not simply tappy-tappy-tap to appreciate in real time.

My Review: So, well, ummm. Not a prose stylist's exercise book, this one, though by no means is it incompetently executed. It's an informative book, the information is presented clearly and concisely, and there is nothing at all that's not footnoted, linked (seventy-six of them!), or backed up.

But oh my goddesses how desperately I longed for a well-turned sentence, or a metaphorical flourish that was even slightly surprising, or just a laugh. The authors, worthy and serious men, are short on humor in this book. Earnest is, I believe, the mot juste for their presentation, and while that's not at all inappropriate, it wore on me. I dreaded coming back to the book, not because I wasn't interested in their subject...quite the contrary!...but because it was like sitting down with a guy who looks like Brad Pitt and talks like Stephen Hawking.

Recommended? Sort of? But to those who are in need of its mother lode of information about the brain's sound universe, and how manipulating that can create much-desired changes in a person's daily life. Casually curious readers are best off skimming a bit in the bookstore and then deciding how much they want to pursue the topic. Perhaps a visit to the book's website would be a better choice for those readers.

>210 Copperskye: Thanks, Joanne! I'm glad to see you round and about. Your son will be very interested in how Vonnegut the man and Vonnegut the writer intertwine, I expect. *smooch*

>211 avatiakh: Hiya Kerry! Sheer brilliance might be overstating the case a wee tidge, like a whole huge heap, but I appreciate the thought. I suspect The Western Lit Survival Kit will give you hours of fun. *another smooch*

>212 calm: Bless you, dear calm! I hope all the world's problems become as easy to solve as my petty issues. *a further smooch*

>213 alcottacre: Stasia my love! So good to see you! I send hugs and smooches right back!!

>214 jnwelch: Hi Joe! Thanks for coming by, and I appreciate the kind words of praise. The Vonnegut book is a good one, but I'd leave it for later with your son. I seem to recall that he's still a teen, and I think this kind of book isn't really a good teen read...a few fewer facts won't hurt his appreciation for the works, where more facts just might.

>215 Berly: Berly-boo! Thanks for sayin', as the saying goes, but wow! I'm gonna get a swelled head soon, y'all keep puffin' me up like this! *biggest smooch of all*

Hallo RichardDear!

*smooches* from Horrible

Holocaust of the Avians Day is a good one.

I live to amuse...they want to pain the comfy-chair room in the liberry, where I sit, so I'm in and out in moments flat. *smooches* to all!

He lives!

>Rich, loved the review of The Western Lit Survival Guide. If the book is half as good as your review, we are in for a treat!

Would everyone stop all that disgusting emotional slobbery stuff - my British sensibilities can't stand it! :)

Alan/TT

Rdear: So glad you are among us once again. Currently reading the Survival Guide, a great book, as you so cleverly pointed out.

Review: 52 of seventy-five

Title: DEAD AND GONE

Authors: CHARLAINE HARRIS

Rating: 3.75* of five

The Book Report: Sookie Stackhouse, Bon Temps, Louisiana. That's all the address you'll ever need to mail off a big box of Pandora's leftover troubles. I suspect that, even though it's a fictional place, the parcel will arrive and be oh-so-generously distributed.

THIS time, the Sookster is beset by the murder of a family member in a grisly, quasi-religious way; the end of a long-time friendship; the loss and near-loss of some of her nearest and dearest supernatural beloveds; and horribly confusingly, a radical, radical change in her relationship to Eric Northman, Viking vampire and sheriff of Sookie's home turf, that she's either thrilled about or horrified by, depending on the day.

My Review: I recently rented the second season of True Blood, the HBO show based on Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse novels. The show is more inspired by the milieu of the books than a faithful rendering of them. Coming back to literary Bon Temps after two rapid-fire season viewings, I can't say I think one is better than the other, but rather that each has its merits.

This outing is a solid novel, more than I could say about the previous one (All Together Dead), wherein events transpire that make this book's painful lessons for Sookie seem like overkill. The series is mature, which is often a cue to stop reading it for a while so as to judge if can or will recover some of the energy and momentum of the first books. Not so much a problem here, truthfully; energy and momentum the books have got. The question is, is the written series going places you as a reader want to go?

I begin to suspect it is not headed my way. I'm not ready to say “piffle-winkin'-ptui” and walk away, but I am now more interested now in the HBO series. The second season focuses on a one-book character of the Maenad, played by the worth-going-straight-for hottie deluxe Michelle Forbes (“Ensign Ro” on ST:TNG). Her presence in Bon Temps brings back Sam's memories of his childhood, wildly different from the one given him in the books. We see Sam Trammell, who plays Sam Merlotte, naked a good bit, which is nice. We don't see Jason Stackhouse, played by the smokin'-hot Ryan Kwanten, naked this season, though shirtless fairly often. Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer, the leads Sookie and Bill Compton, do some serious sexin' this season too, which is nice for all y'all straight people, I suppose.

But the big surprise here is Bill's newly made vampire, Jessica. She's completely new. Nothin' like this in the books! But what a great character she is. All the way around, the series is surprising me, and the books are not, so I am trending away from print in this case.

And that makes me sad.

Oh, Jesus..now you're reading "Sookie Stackhouse"

you will certainly be "on the top" with reviews...

Moi..don't know from HBO...have a few of the books...can't recall if I've read
**********

Silliness makes never mind

**Smooch** to you...for being alive

;-}

Review: 53 of seventy-five

Title: A RED HERRING WITHOUT MUSTARD

Authors: ALAN BRADLEY

Rating: 4.125* of five

The Book Report: Flavia de Luce of Buckshaw, Bishops Lacey, is in it up to her neck again in this third outing of Alan Bradley's wildly popular series. This time she burns down a gypsy woman's fortune-telling tent, takes the woman home over her father's presumed objections, and then finds the lady bludgeoned almost to death in her caravan.

Next up is a meeting with the gypsy's semi-estanged granddaughter, deliciously yclept Porcelain, whose surprise presence in the crime-scene caravan causes Flavia to be assaulted and, subsequently, to invite the woman home with her. While escorting the younger gypsy into Buckshaw, her rambling, underheated Stately Home, Flavia espies a for-sure corpse dangling from Poseidon's trident. (That's one of Buckshaw's fountains, not the real Poseidon, of course.) It proves to be local ne'er-do-well and remittance man Brookie Harewood, last seen slouching about in Flavia's drawing room! Will the wonders never cease!

No, in fact, they won't, and Bradley spins a net for every red herring imaginable as Flavia encounters forgers, thieves, religious dissenters called Hobblers who baptize babies a la grecque) by dipping the little angels into running water by one heel, long-lost smelly men, reams of chemistry textbook stuff that manages not to make the reader's eyes roll back in their sockets,and murderers. Mustn't overlook the murderers.
One empathizes with Colonel de Luce, widower and soon-to-be bankrupt. He has a precocious daughter. Poor bastard.

My Review: Whatever else it is, this book is fun. It's just plain old-fashioned chuckle-inducing fun. It's a little ramshackle, what with the plot holes and all, and the behavioral improbability index starts high and never comes down, but so what? Flavia's chemistry fetish caused me to smirk a bit in the first book, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, and her all-around precocity wasn't helping stuff. I found the Colonel to be an absurd character, someone directly from the Wodehouse Warehouse. There just isn't enough vitriol to heap on Flavia's horrid sisters, Ophelia and Daphne (Feely and Daffy to Flavia).

But here's the thing: Each of these characters is reported in Flavia's first-person, eleven-year-old perspective. Keep that in mind, and there is a sudden SNAP as the lenses in the optometrist's big, black machine fall into place: “Better now, or now?”

And that's when you should read these books: Now.

I don't get the combination of you and Sookie either, but each to his own?
Flavia is beginning to call out to me though..
drat it

Kath..you might not like Flavia (the character)...but The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie...wasn't a bad STORY.....intricate enough....

I haven't read the other two

.......

Couple great reviews! I'm looking forward to starting the "Flavia" books in the new year
Love True Blood, but found I couldn't get into the books. The tv show is actually one of the shows that my fiance and I both like and can watch together.

Hope all is well in your little slice of the world :)

Hi Richard! I just finished a " Flavia -thon" reading through all 4 books at once. I really had fun reading them! I think they are just enchanting. Glad to see that you enjoy them too. How about Dogger? I think other than Flavia, Dogger is definitely my favourite character....

We're opposites here, RD - I love the Sookie Stackhouse series and couldn't stomach the HBO True Blood - watched 1 1/2 episodes and mailed Season 1 off to a friend.

Hope you're having a lovely Sunday.

*smooches*

Horrible

Rich, now for the first time you can see the face behind The Tortoise. See me in all my glory on my author page!

Alan/TT

Drive by hugs. X

I'm so glad to see back on the active list here, Rdear ... we all just get all confused whenever you're away for too long.

Review: Movie!

Title: MOLIERE

Auteurs: LAURENT TIRARD and GREGOIRE VIGNERON

Rating: 4.9999* of five

The Plot Summary: The well-studied life of France's greatest contribution to the world of the theater, Jean-Baptiste Poquelin dites Moliere, contains a two-year-long gap. No facts are known about that time, and no documentary evidence has surfaced in the past 400 years to fill in that infinitesimal blip. Well, hell, thought Laurent Tirard, lemme plug that there hole with a story that explains the later appearance of such timeless characters as The Miser and Tartuffe.

And did he ever. The gap contains Elmire and Jourdain, the bourgeois couple so viciously skewered and so lovingly limned in The Bourgeois Gentleman, and Tartuffe himself, in his stiff-necked foolishness, his crafty ineptitude, is revealed to be Moliere himself. Oh gosh, oh golly, what a sheer joy to know now that I've seen this fiction that Moliere was the man he satirized! The movie is a mashup of the plots of Tartuffe and The Bourgeois Gentleman, meaning slamming doors, foolish misunderstandings, lots of salacious smooching, and laughs that hurt, laughs that come from painful identification with the person laughed at, and also the sense that one is superior to that person.

My Review: Bearing in mind that my normal review for all plays, Aeschylus to Stoppard and points between, is “plays, blech,” the plays of Moliere are exceptionally diverting things...comedies, in the same sense that life is a comedy. That is to say, funny if you're a sick fuck. Well, that's me, because Tartuffe causeth me to split my sides and The Bourgeois Gentleman gave unto me a hernia from prolonged mirth. As this movie combines the best bits of both, I had a rollicking good time, and the actors were absolutely marvelous in their roles.

The ending made me cry like a little girl reading Little Women for the first time.
I had to deduct .0001 star for being French.

Here for just a moment...library trip to return "Religulous" by Bill Maher...major hilariosity!

Sending hugs and smooches

I'll weigh in here...and give you a thumb for Moliere because i first discovered his work in Junior Year French Class...for feck's sake

I will now Exit-Stage-Left.....to leave room for your Fan Club

I miss you, Sweetie
;-}

Saw Tartuffe performed by theater group while at college in 1971 - enjoyed in immensely. Now you make me want to see this movie.

You just had to say Little Women, though, didn't you? Am I the only person of the female gender who never read and has no desire to ever read LW?

I've seen this movie and your review's made me remember what I liked so much about it. Hmm... maybe it's time to watch it again. Now that winter's upon us (not that you could tell from the warm weather!) I love staying in for movie nights.

Little Women...so love it!

A happy holiday to you, Rdear. Love the Flavia books, but Sookie leaves me cold. Frozen, even.

Back at the end of the month.

Just received my ER copy of The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. Can't wait to meet Miss deLuce.

hey there richard (1 handed typing again)...its dec, does that mean u will be making an appearance on your thread again now? i havent read the new posts properly so forgive me if you have already discussed this....

Ya Richard! Ya Moliere! Iread...one-handed? What happened?

>243 Berly: feeding baby while LT'ing, as tricky as it sounds :)

We seek him here, we seek him there .... ?

We seek him largely in vain just at the moment. My old and dear friend Betsy died this morning, only 54, while waiting for a lung transplant. I spoke with her last night, very briefly, and we planned to speak again today. So I got a chance to hear and say "I love you" one last time.

Don't wait to say it, folks, no one knows when the end is coming.

I'm at the liberry now, because I was gonna go bananas if I sat in the house one more minute, so took myself off to get my head shaved. (Old mourning tradition.) Wintertime may not be the most logical moment to do this....

I will ***FINALLY*** have Internet at home on Wednesday. I will also have a new phone number for those who might need it. What it is, well, I for one cannot say.

I will not miss this year when it's over. No indeedy do. So long 2011.

I'm sorry about your friend, Richard. And very glad you had that last conversation. *shoulder squeeze*

I'm sorry to hear about your friend! Life is really too short
Hugs!

Ah, what a shame. Sorry to hear about your friend Betsy, Richard.

:(

I'm so sorry to hear about Betsy, Rdear. {{{{Hugs}}}}

Can you PM me your new phone number when you know what it is? ;-)

I'm so sorry to hear about Betsy, RichardDear.

Hugs and kisses to you, dear one.

I am sorry Richarddear that you lost your friend...
I hope 2012 will be gentle for us all!

That is truly rough for you Richard, I suppose its a small consolation that you got to tell her of your love for her. It is a huge reminder to all of use to not waste time with the people we love.

{{{{{Hugs}}}}}

*Big hug and smooch*

I'm so very sorry to hear about your friend, Richard. People younger than I am should not be dying. I'm so glad you got to say it to her one more time. Seems the only real regrets are for those things we didn't do.

Hope you're okay...

I will not miss this year when it's over. No indeedy do. So long 2011.

Neither will I, RD, neither will I. I am sorry to hear about your most recent loss. I am one of those who will require your new phone number too, so please PM me. Thanks.

((Hugs)) and xx smooches xx

Adding my sympathies here. I will be keeping you in my thoughts.

*Hugs*

{{{Hugs}}} Richard - so sorry to hear.

Hoping very much for a better 2012.

Yep, me too. So sorry for your loss.

>246 richardderus: Rich, you have my sympathy. I lost my first wife of 35 years to a lung disease at the age of 56. My current wife nearty lost me this year to a heart attack! So I too, will be glad to see the end of 2011. It has been very stressfull in lots of ways.

Here's to a happy 2012 for all of us!

Alan/TT

It's Wednesday! Hope your internet is fixed:)

Richard, I couldn't agree with you more regarding taking the opportunity to say I love you when and while we can.

So, dear one, I love you indeed!

{{{{hugs}}}}

I'm back online at home! Oh frabjous day callooh callay!!

You're all sweetiedumplings to wish me well at this moment. I am most fortunate. And I'll get back to normal soon. Until then, here's a review:

Review: 54 of seventy-five

Title: DEAD RECKONING

Author: CHARLAINE HARRIS

Rating: 3.75* of five

The Book Report: Sookie Stackhouse's latest print outing. I'm sure I missed something along the way. Too many givens aren't what my memory offers...well, who knows, I might just be sufferin' from worsening Half-heimer's. It certainly feels that way when one is internetless for long stretches! Facts I gave not a second's thought to, because I could pop online and look 'em up, are all wetware storage reliant. I suspect the little elf who does my mental filing has grown very lazy in these internetty years.

Our various dramatis personae are all a-whirl in this outing...how odd, right?...over the Nevada vampire king, Felipe, choosing the reprehensible (even for a vampire) Victor as his Regent. Victor's got his knickers in a knot because he felt he should be King of Louisiana, not just Regent. And, insult to injury, Felipe is separating the Louisiana/Arkansas merger that was effected before the mass deaths two (possibly three) books ago when Sophie-Anne married whatever the King of Arkansas's name was before everyone at the wedding was slaughtered. Felipe chose to keep Eric, Sookie's vampire-rite husband, as Sheriff, the only individual so favored, and thus Victor's gunning (literally and figuratively) for him. Eric, Sookie, and some oddly assorted allies decide that gunnin' for someone is a two-way street after Victor is revealed as the force behind the new vamp club ruining Eric's business, and the roadhouse ruining Sam's beloved Merlotte's, in an unsubtle effort to make Eric come for Victor so Eric can be killed without explanation or expiation.

Yeah, good luck with that. And good luck to Eric in his new, unexpected, and possibly Sookie-less life, as arranged by his now-dead maker, very different from the one he has in True Blood.

Anyhoo, throw in Claude the hot gay faery/stripper, Dermot the damaged faery uncle, Mr. Cataliades the demon (literally not pejoratively) lawyer, Amelia the renegade witch and her former pussycat Bob, and a return visit from nutball Sandra Pelt, and the corpses stack up to agreeable heights in the accustomed way of Harris's books. As is expected in this series, the ending is another sea-change in the life of the Sookster, not yet brought quite to fruition. If this technique has palled on you, avoid this book.

My Review: Well, what can one say? I mentioned in the last review that I wasn't at all ready to give up on bookish Bon Temps. This book does nothing to push me in one direction or the other. I liked it, and I was very pleased as always to immerse myself in the supe-filled universe that Sookie inhabits. I suspect that, barring a return to the terrible flatness of the un-fun All Together Dead, I'll read along in the series. I won't be out trolling for converts, though, like I do with Louise Penny's addictive-as-chocolate-coated-nicotine-infused-heroin-enrobed-crack Three Pines mysteries. I don't imagine my non-proselytic stance will harm Mother Harris's rep or bottom line.

I'll have to loop back and fill in some details from the book I missed. I suspect I've got the gist from Harris's carefully crafted fill-ins, but some of the fill-ins have left me curious about the full version. (Good job, Mother Harris! I'm tough to inveigle!)

And I am amused to note that The Sookie Stackhouse Companion is now available. Really? A concordance? How Biblical. I might not like Sookie's Jesusy thoughts, but isn't this a bit much?

Well done on getting back online. I'm avoiding Sookie after not getting past pg3 of book 1.

Review: 55 of seventy-five

Title: I AM HALF-SICK OF SHADOWS

Author: ALAN BRADLEY

Rating: 4* of five

The Book Report: Flavia de Luce does Christmas. Buckshaw, Bishop's Lacey, is now the scene of Ilium Films's new Phyllis Wyvern extravaganza, The Cry of the Raven. The film company has paid the desperately strapped-for-cash Colonel Haviland de Luce a sizable sum to use Buckshaw as the backdrop for this bound-to-be-mega hit, which means Christmas will be spent with an entire film crew up the family's collective backside. Flavia meets the famous Miss Wyvern as she enters the house, charming as cheesecake on a plate of strawberries, even winning the adulation of the normally suspicious Flavia by demonstrating her apparently genuine interest in matters of murder: She quotes from the dreadful gossip sheet Illustrated London News about a recent scandalous killing. Well then!

Not long after the lady's arrival, the cast and crew and director make their various appearances, as doe the Vicar, with a modest proposal: He'd like famous movie star Wyvern to appear as Juliet, her star-making role, in a village fete in aid of the church roof's repair. To absolutely universal astonishment, Miss Wyvern agrees, and the plot begins to spin faster and faster. Since the hairpins have begun to fall, and Miss Wyvern's true meanness is revealed, the fact that she's murdered by someone present at Buckshaw after the fete...which includes just about the whole village, since a blizzard's blown in, sealing all the audience in Buckshaw's foyer...comes as no surprise whatever.

Even though the bloom has gone off the rose of Flavia's admiration for the lady, a murder under her own roof is simply too much to resist meddling in! And meddle she does, searching the victim's room and even standing in at the post-mortem examination of the body. Flavia, though, is callously shut out by Inspector Hewitt of the Hinley P.D., as is his wont. He has, thinks Flavia, personal animus against her now, as Flavia made a terrible break at tea taken in the Hewitt home.

But in the end, Flavia solves the horrible, tawdry crime, and fails to become the next murder victim herself by dint of one of her chemistry experiments designed to trap Santa Claus on his way to the chimney, thereby disproving her horrible, heartless sisters's claims that there is no Santa. And, at the very tippy-end of the book, Buckshaw's future at the hands of the tax receivers is probably averted thanks to the very play that caused the Christmas crisis to begin with...a lovely, deft scene that wrapped up an end I was really ticked about having loose.

Merry Christmas indeed, Flavia.

My Review: Every series needs a Christmas book. This is it. If you liked the others, this one will please you; but it has the standard plot-hole and plausibility flaws. If they didn't tick you off before, they won't now, either. Happy Holidays!

Hi Richard, happy holidays to you too. Come over to my thread for a hearty helping of Christmas Cookies.

http://bernardin.tumblr.com/post/14182869809/could-netflix-bring-firefly-back-fr...

Attention all Browncoats...something to pray for this Xmas!

#273: Oh, amen, brother! And isn't that just a gorgeous picture of them all? Sigh.

awaiting direction to new thread...........................................................................

New thread? What fer? In a few days, the 2012 group'll be up!

>276 richardderus: Rich, I will be coming out of my shell in 2012!

Alan/TT

Review: 56 of seventy-five

Title: THE IMMORTALISTS

Author: KYLE MILLS

Rating: 2.375* of five

The Book Report: Progeria is a rare genetic disorder that causes the very young to age at a rate unimaginable to us normal folk. It is always fatal, and it can't even be ameliorated. It's a cruel, cruel disease, and since it's so extremely rare, no one in the drug industry cares enough to work on it, since there's not a profit to be made. (Typing that sentence made me nauseated.)

Researcher Richard Draman isn't one of those profit-driven asshats, because his daughter is a progeria sufferer. His old acquaintance Annette Chevalier, star geneticist and research superstar, kills herself suddlenly, and then her husband shows up on Richard's doorstep to give him a copy of all Annette's research. Which he takes, apparently without a qualm, and without thinking through what will inevitably occur since he's in possession of research conducted FOR someone BY someone neither of whom are him.

He then goes and shows the research to a shadowy figure from Annette's and his past, a man who was absolutely the top of the field, who **MYSTERIOUSLY DISAPPEARED** FOR TWENTY YEARS! I mean, this is as stupid as all those horror movie screamers who wear high heels for a walk in the forest. The dude DISAPPEARED and now reappears for no special reason? That should be a huge blinking red sign saying "stay away!" to a person who is in illegal possession of someone else's intellectual property.

Oh well, anyway, there's some other stuff that happens, and then the author got bored and slapped on an ending. It involves an idiotic reversal of fortune, and is more annoying to me than I can adequately express in words.

My Review: Great idea! Mediocre execution! HORRIBLE ending! Avoid like it has cooties!

I'm thinking I won't read that one. :-) Very effective review.

Oh thank you for keeping my TBR pile from progeria.

I concur

Yes, sir!

Here's to 2012, Peanut zombies chasing Charlie, and saving me from that horrible book! And prompted by the untimely passing of your friend....Love you!! Just thought you should know.

((Hugs)) and xx smooches xx, RD.

Good Grief indeed!

Well it's good to see you back online Richard:)

Hope you have a good day.

For a second, I thought I was in Stephen's thread.

Heya gangeroonie...I forgot...anyone who wants my new phone number send me a PM because the idea of trudging through almost 300 posts to find out who said yes is daunting, And I'm nowhere near efficient enough to have noted it down.

well, aren't you the early bird (fran)?

Not really...I'm almost always up now...just hand hurts too much to work on my book this morning. Sustained typing is prob. out today.

break time then.. that isn't a bad thing.. you should be well into it by now?
Sorry about the pain though :(

Clumsy + gouty = owwwww

owwwww indeed. Hope you feel better soon. And it is so nice to see your thread active again. November was barren without you.

Awww, that's very kind, Judy! I'm ramping back up after a series of unpleasant events, so 2012 *will* be a better year.

See you the 26th!

I gave up and started another thread.