LizzieD: 2012*1 (Orange January +)

Welcome to 2012! I'll hope to read a lot of Oranges this month. I'll look forward to hearing what you have to say about yours!
I also decided to track pages this year since I have no idea how many I read. I don't have any idea how many to set as a goal either. Also, I don't know what has made me decide to be marine.........







LizzieD: 2011*9

JANUARY

(* = review on main book page)

1. *The Invisible Ones - modern Gypsies in England - an O.K. missing-person mystery
2. Fall on Your Knees - relentless and disturbing - beautiful writing - Orange Long List, 1997
3. Sporting Chance - political shenanigans, albino cockroaches, a stroke, stupidity poison - What's not to love? (reread)
4. Molly Fox's Birthday - quiet, thoughtful, elegiac - June 21 in Dublin - Orange Short List - 2009
5. The Tiger's Wife - folklore and modern sensibility in post-war Yugoslavia - really O.K.
6. The Broom of the System - audio - hilarious, intelligent, wild! I love DFW!
7. The Splendor of Letters - books destroyed; books preserved - much to enjoy!
8. 1Q84 - a little detective/murder mystery; a little romance; a lot of weird = a lot of fun in too much book

NEW IN JANUARY

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - PBS
River of Smoke - Christmas GC
Sprig Muslin - Kindle cheap
A More Perfect Heaven - Kindle Daily Deal
White Teeth ✔ - PBS
Gilgamesh ✔ - PBS
Life and Death in a Venetian Convent: The Chronicle and Necrology of Corpus Domini, 1395-1436 - Kindle
Doc - ✔ (Kindle) Happy Thingaversary!
My Driver - PBS
The Home-Maker - a gift!
The Aguero Sisters - PBS
A Gentle Madness ✔ - Christmas GC
The Last Samurai - Christmas $
Writing with Intent - PBS
The Mysteries of Glass ✔ - PBS
Patience & Fortitude - Happy Thingaversary!
Mission of Honor - Happy Thingaversary!
The Cairo Trilogy - Happy Thingaversary!
Aberystwyth Mon Amour - Thingaversary Gift! THANK YOU!!
The Way the Crow Flies - PBS
The Moon Pool - free on Kindle
Arcadia - ✔ ER ARC
Midnight Fugue - PBS
Look at Me - PBS
The Fall of the Roman Empire - Kindle Daily Deal
Hearts and Minds - PBS
The Great War and Modern Memory - PBS
God's Philosophers - a gift! Thank you, dear one!
Prep ✔ - PBS

What am I waiting for?

Waiting with anticipation whilst placing my star beside this thread!

Welcome back!

Dropping off a star while I wait ...

Hi Peggy, you are pretty foxy sneaking your Orange reading in here! My first book is doing triple duty here and in the Orange and 12 in 12 groups. We have to be creative to fit everything in!

I love visitors before I get set up! Thank you for dropping in, Stasia (What are you waiting for? Something worthwhile, no doubt!), Dee, Chelle, and Donna! And thank you for the official welcome, Jim.
Donna, I have great hopes for Orange January. We'll have to see. Meanwhile, I'm finishing the old/starting the new with The Invisible Ones, an ER ARC. 50 pp in and it's O.K. but not great. I think that the 50 page test is not long enough for me.

Whee! new year with more books!

Um, of course I mean more books to read, not to buy.
Maybe.

Hoping to read an Orange or two myself in January. Looking forward to another great reading year!

Hi Peggy. Welcome back and happy new year!!

Happy New Year, Peggy : ).

Starred

Peggy I have 6 Oranges planned this month. Look forward to keeping up. Happy new year!

Hi Peggy, isn't the anticipation for OJ half the fun?

Happy New Year, Peggy!

Here's to a Happy New Year and a great reading year, Peggy!

Hi Peggy! I look forward to your Orange reads for this month.

Happy New Year, Peggy, and happy reading. I enjoy following your thread, and I'm looking forward to seeing what you'll be reading this year.

Happy New Year!

Peggy: Happy New Year of reading.

Good morning, Peggy, and Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, Peggy!

Hi Peggy, Happy New Year! I hope The Invisible Ones is picking up for you. I have a copy waiting for me.

Hey Lizzie! :)

Happy New Year, friends! I love this friendly place!!
Gail, I can't give up buying - or requesting from PBS - yet. Maybe someday I'll mature, but not today or tomorrow! Genny, I hope to read maybe three Oranges and a few more things, not 6 like Paul! You go, Paul! I have started Fall on Your Knees, and so far, so good. I want to slap the husband/father around a little. He fell in love with his wife when she was 12 and married her when she was 13. Eventually, he was surprised at how young his 13 year-old piano students seemed, but he still felt that Materia had bewitched him. NOT an understanding husband; even though he was young, he was old enough to be an adult. Anyway.
Joanne, I think that if I were reading The Invisible Ones as a straight mystery, I'd be a lot happier with it. I haven't read The Tenderness of Wolves, so I was expecting something more literary (whatever that means). Now about 200 pp in, and it's still O.K. I think Stasia has it coming up too.
Linda, Nancy, Beth, Bonnie, Deborah, Becky, Darryl, qebo, Roni, Tad, Susan, you are all my stars. What a great year it's going to be!

Hi Peggy, Happy New Year!

Peggy, I was sure I'd wished you a happy New Year here but apparently I was hallucinating at the time. I do have you starred.....anyway, I hope 2012 is a splendid year for you, with many wonderful reads.

Peggy, can't wait to hear how you will enjoy Fall on Your Knees. It's a favourite of mine, but you're right about the father - a piece of work!

Hi Peggy,

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, Peggy. I have you starred!

#27: I can't give up buying - or requesting from PBS - yet. Maybe someday I'll mature

If maturing is giving up on buying books, I refuse to do so! lol

Hi, Leonie, Tui, Nancy, Laura, Terri, and Stasia! Nancy, I am enjoying *FoYK* and will be glad to finish *Invisible Ones* so that I can give it more time.
Tui, I've looked for your thread all over the place. Your name on the wiki links to Faith's thread and her link goes to her thread too. Have you started one?
Stasia, you are at least semi-mature because you stuck to your buying ban in '11. Congratulations!

>34 LizzieD:: Here's Tui's thread, and I fixed the wiki too! It makes me feel productive given I'm still in my jammies.

You go, Laura!!! Thanks very much, and you are supremely efficient even in jammies!

Happy New Year Peggy. Sorry you're not enjoying The Invisible Ones more. I really enjoyed it but I would be hard pushed to explain why...

It's a good thing that this is my third year of active posting or I'd be wondering what you were doing reading Oranges instead of eating them...

Happy new year!

Heather, I'm not not enjoying it. I was just expecting a little more. You know how my quibbles have mostly to do about writing. If she is going to do first person narration in two voices, I want to hear the two voices, but Ray and JJ sound just alike. It would have worked fine with 3rd person pov, and I wish that had been her decision. I do like the alternating chapters for added dimension.
Thanks, Suzanne. Yeah. Jargon is fun only if you know about it.

Hi Peggy. I look forward to lurking around here in 2012. Happy New Year!

Hi, Jeanne. Nice to see you again. My first book of the year is a mystery, so you might be interested in it.

THE INVISIBLE ONES
It remained O.K. for me - or maybe a little better than O.K. until the end. I tried, but I couldn't buy it. If you have any interest, you may read my review on the book's main page.

I am bypassing the review for now, Peggy, since I still need to read and review the book. I am sorry that the book was not better for you though and hope your next book is just terrific!

Interesting review, Peggy! I think I may try and get a library copy of this, if only to find out what I make of that ending which opinion seems divided on!

Hi, Stasia and Dee (and thanks). I think I would have been more impressed - except for the ending (and to give credit where credit is due, it was barely hinted at earlier) - if I hadn't been expecting something with more literary heft. I didn't not enjoy it; it just wasn't exceptional, so 3½ stars still feels about right to me.

Hello there my friend, somehow or other I didn't catch up w/yr. thread until now!

Hi Peggy, I'm looking forward to another year of lurking around your thread and getting some great book ideas!

Hi, Lucy and Jan! I'm happy to have you here again!!

I just came by singing,

"It's my THINGA and I'll buy if I want to!
Buy if I want to! Buy if I want to!
You will buy too when it happens to you!!"

I intend to have Doc on my Kindle in a matter of moments, and then I'm looking to AMP for Patience & Fortitude, Cairo Trilogy, and Mission of Honor (more space opera/millitary scifi as discussed on Lucy's thread). Then that's all the book acquisition for awhile except as wish-list offers come up on PBS or I just absolutely can't help myself.

Happy THINGA to you, Peggy. Those are good book choices, at least the two I'm familiar with. I gave up on library for Doc and plan to buy the trade paperback as soon as it's released. I want a hard copy to pass on to my DIL who is from Dodge City.

Happy Thingaversary, Peggy!

And now I have your Thinga song stuck in my head. :-)

LOL, I LOVE your Thinga song, Peggy! It must be published!

Happy Thingaversary, Peggy! I'll be curious to hear what you think of Doc. It's one of the many TBR's I hope to get to this year.

Happy Thingaversary, Peggy, enjoy those books!

Great song Peggy!

Happy Thingaversary!

Happy Thingaversary!

Happy Thingaversary, Peggy!

Very clever Peggy with that Thinga song. And a happy one to you.

Happy Thingaversary, Peggy!

Happy Thingaversary!

Cairo Trilogy - good choice.

You would buy too if it happened to you. da da da da da da da

Happy thingaversary, Peggy!

Oh, thank you, visitors all! I do feel as though I've had a celebration! I'm not sure that DH thinks it's a thing to celebrate, but I've loved it!

Peggy, being of an imaginative bent and to help fill in the blanks - do you sing in soprano or alto?!

What an interesting question, Paul! I was originally a first soprano, but now, having lost the top, I sing second soprano - a lot more fun to practice but a lot less fun to perform.

Interesting - I have always loved singing harmony rather than melody and never found any differences in the 'fun' factor :)

Stasia, I have to say that the fun is the freedom of soaring around the top. It feels amazing. Now, if I had a voice of rich texture, I might really love 2nd sop too, but it's basically that thin, clear 1st quality that doesn't stand up so well underneath. Anyway, the music that the church choir sings isn't worth a second thought, more's the pity. We used to have a pretty decent community chorale, but that's long gone.

OK, I will sing second and alto and you can sing first to your heart's content :) I can double first too if need be.

I'll chime in with tenor, which is the part I sing in the choir. (I can actually sing all 4 parts as long as the bass doesn't go too low. I usually don't sing below baritone or above alto. I did sing soprano with the youth choir as I was helping with it a few times this fall. I think I sang bass on a praise team about a year ago when all the other parts were covered and the male tenor wouldn't.)

We can form our own 75ers choir ;)

Hi, Peggy! Happy belated Thingaversary. And Happy Reading in 2012.

Thank you, Linda!
The problem is, Stasia, that the soaring voice is no longer there. I could once, singers take note, make a sustained noise on the A flat above high C. It wasn't a nice noise, but I suspect it could have been trained. No more. I've lost about an octave up there. On the other hand, I can now make a sustained noise on the E below middle C, but that isn't a nice noise either. Lori, my dear hometown friend Suzanne also sings tenor in our church choir, and my college roommate (Betti Lynn, so there's no doubt) was a true baritone. She was a music major and spent a semester training as a soprano, but the next voice teacher decided that that had been a falsetto. Anyway - too late to make a long story short - a 75'ers choir sounds like a winner of an idea, Stasia! Now to find a rehearsal hall and decide on a time and some music!
Since this is a book thread, I'll just say that I'm really enjoying Fall on Your Knees - horrors and all; the writing is so fine that I just think, "That's truly sad/awful/disgusting," and keep right on reading. I'm taking some time off right now to continue my Heris Serano reread, Sporting Chance because it's so much fun. And I read a few pages of The Splendor of Letters every day and a little Barnaby Rudge, so even if my reading time is curtailed, my reading selections aren't.

I enjoy doing these memes, so here's this one again.

Describe yourself: Woman on the Edge of Time

Describe how you feel: All Clear

Describe where you currently live: The Willow Cabin

If you could go anywhere, where would you go: Coventry

Your favorite form of transportation: Company Parade

Your best friend is: Friday's Child

You and your friends are: Outwitting History

What’s the weather like: A Breath of Fresh Air

You fear: Evil for Evil

What is the best advice you have to give: Time Travelers Never Die

Thought for the day: The Idea of Perfection

How I would like to die: Sacred Hunger

My soul’s present condition: Bidding for Love

Well done! I enjoy this meme too.

#70: I love the idea of a 75ers choir. A pipe dream, I know.

#71: Great answers to the meme, Peggy!

I can pick up the bass part if it's not too complicated and I get to make up my own harmonies.
Suggested starting repertoire: The Book of Love, Everyday I Write the Book, Wrapped Up In My Books, anything by Eddie Reader or Booker T. and the M.G.'s., It's Your Thing, Read About Love.

47: Oh, Doc, I've had it on the wishlist... and now it's instant gratification on the Nook, though I don't see reading it this month.

Thread catchup... a belated Happy Thingaversary!

Surely a 75er choir could be assembled virtually?

Hi Stephen and qebo! About this choir - let's sing a great variety: madrigals and scat, chant and doo-wop. I'm ready!
I won't read Doc this month either, but maybe next month? I'm simply thrilled to have it on the Kindle ready to go.

I'll just say that I'm really enjoying Fall on Your Knees - horrors and all; the writing is so fine that I just think, "That's truly sad/awful/disgusting," and keep right on reading. That was absolutely my experience!

Belated happy thingaversary Peggy - and good book choices!

Re singing, I used to think I was a low alto and then had singing lessons and discovered I'm probably a mezzo-soprano when I'm in practice (sadly not anymore). Where do I sign up for the LT choir?

Nancy, I'm glad that you reacted the same way to *Fall/Knees*. It doesn't do to think about it away from the book itself. I'm eager to see what people put in their reviews.
Heather, thank you all around! I think you just signed up!

Peggy - enjoying your harmoniously musical thread. I can still manage a passable tenor and will join in happily on the chorus. You need to have a thought about a theme song methinks.

Oooh, can I put in a special request for the Mozart requiem? Or else Elgar's "The Music Makers", which if not quite as great as the Enigma Variations, is def worth more attention than it gets???

Really interested in what you and Nancy have been saying about Fall on Your Knees. I've had this on my TBR for several years and know it comes highly recommended but whenever I consider reading it (in Orange January or July perhaps), I think, "hmm, incest and abuse, not sure if I'm in the mood for that right now"!

Maybe I should just go for it!

Always thrilled to have another tenor, Paul!!! Suzanne, I think that the Mozart Requiem would be a dandy starting place because I bet a lot of us have sung it before. Now I get to do research on "The Music Makers." I also fell in love with an Arvo Part; choral piece, "...Which Was the Son Of", a setting of Jesus' genealogy according to Luke, when I heard it on "With Heart and Voice" on NPR. It's right HERE.
Dee, I don't know what I'm going to say in my review of this book. The incest is, for my part, the very least of it. Everybody is damaged and crazy, but it's such a beautiful madness and the writing is individual and lovely. I'll finish it today AT LAST, but I don't think that the ending can affect my thoughts. It's appalling as I read, but never depressing. Go figure.
It's also hilarious. I've resisted copying out this passage for you, but I just have to!

Somebody has given Lily, the youngest child (6), a prayer book for Catholic children. Older Frances (11) has read the last prayer (appalling in its own right) --- I'll give you most of it.
O Lord, my God, even now I accept from Thy hand the kind of death it may please Thee to send me with all its sorrows, pains and anguish.
O Jesus, I offer Thee from this moment my agony and all the pains of my death...
O Mary, ...obtain for us perfect sorrow, sincere contrition, remission of our sins, a worthy reception of the most holy Viaticum and the strengthening of the Sacrament of Extreme Unction. Amen

"---Lily has understood everything in the happy-death prayer except for one word.
'What's a viaticum?'
'It's a holy word for clean underwear.'
'Can I see the book now, Frances?'
Lily reaches, but Frances pulls the book away and explains, "When you're about to die and the priest comes and gives you extreme unction, he takes a set of clean underwear out of your drawer and blesses them. Then he puts them on you. Or if it's an emergency and there's no priest, anyone can bless the clean underwear. That's where Furit of the Loom underwear comes from, it comes from the Hail Mary when you say, 'Blessed is the fruit of thy loom, Jesus.'"

I think you've convinced me, Peggy!

>83 LizzieD: That is hysterical! I'm trying desperately not to laugh out loud (I'm in the library) and failing miserably.

>83 LizzieD: That's hilarious!

Thanks you for your comment on my thread, it made me realize that I was missing YOU! Sheesh. I have started 2012 just as I ended 2011 -- behind on threads, even on finding them, apparently.

Count me in on joining the 75-ers choir. I love your repertoire suggestions, and I'm up for anything. I can sing just about any part, and can help conduct, too!

#83 & 84 Convinced me too :-) I will never look at a Fruit of the Loom top in the same way again.

I can hang in the first soprano section. I agree, that "freedom of soaring around the top" is a wonderful feeling. I hope I don't lose it anytime too soon.
What a fun thing an LT choir would be!

Funny!

I forgot how funny that book was Peggy. LOL. I really enjoyed it when I read it and I remember recommending it to a friend who, after reading a bit of it, told me she found it disgusting and didn't know how I could have liked it. Hah!

Oh, Peggy, I LOVE the passage from FOYK! Thanks for taking the time to share it! My chuckle for the day ...

Dee, casvelyn, Anne, Heather, Laura, Lucy, Bonnie, and Nancy, I'm glad that you enjoyed the bit from Fall on Your Knees. I guess that it isn't for everybody, but I was totally under its spell. I just finished and want to say something about it, but nothing is springing to mind. Oh well. Here goes.

FALL ON YOUR KNEES by Ann-Marie MacDonald
Up front, this is a tome about the results of incest. The mother of the family does everything in her power to keep her husband, who married her when she was twelve-going-on-thirteen, away from his oldest daughter whom he loves and for whom he sacrifices. World War I was an answer to a mother's prayer. As they live near the grim sea on Cape Breton Island, the girls become badly damaged people. Kathleen is a brilliantly talented singer who is allowed to escape to New York City for voice training. Mercedes is earnest, straitlaced, and determined to look after her younger sisters. Frances is exceptionally smart and exceptionally bold and disturbed. Incompletely suppressed memories bedevil her. Lily is the innocent baby who sees everything and understands more than she should. They fear and love their father. He seems incapable of questioning his own actions, but his sins are visited on his family for at least their generation.
Somehow, MacDonald manages to keep all this and more from overpowering the book. While she never shies away from any horror, it's really not grim reading most of the time. I was always eager to pick it up even while expecting nothing to be easy. MacDonald's writing is individual and lovely. The book itself is perilous and so beautiful that I don't find myself asking, "What was the point?" which in lesser hands I might have done.

I love all this talk about an LT choir. I'm afraid I will have to be in the audience, but I'll be wildly enthusiastic!

Excellent review of Fall On Your Knees. I'm grateful I read this pre-LT so I didn't have to write a review of this emotional roller coaster of a book!

Wonderful review of Fall on Your Knees, Peggy! Like Donna, I'm grateful I read in prior to LT, so I didn't have to write a review. I remember being completely enraptured with it - the horrors astounding, but I couldn't stop turning the pages, and couldn't put it down! I must reread one day.

Thank you, Donna and Nancy! I liked it so much that I have a copy of her second book, The Way the Crow Flies on its way from PBS. I know what I said about not ordering more books, but at least I'm not exactly buying it.

SPORTING CHANCE by Elizabeth Moon
I don't know what's wrong with folks who don't enjoy Heris Serrano from Elizabeth Moon. I absolutely waft through this trilogy with a great grin of pleasure when I pick it up. It was never intended to be the Great American Novel, but it is great fun for the reader. It also includes a diabolical act perpetrated against a political enemy - probably every thinking person's deepest nightmare. All is well in the end, so I relax and enjoy a true horror novel!!! Except --- did I say that it was fun?

*big grin* So far I've resisted picking up Sporting Chance to read again after Hunting Party...MUST resist, MUST resist........

Peggy, you reminded me that I have a copy of Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon that I want to read soon.

I liked The Way the Crow Flies too, Peggy. Her plots are very dark but so well written.

De-lurking to say hello and chime in on the Orange theme....
My mother called me yesterday to let me know she had bought me a replacement Christmas present...the original present was a sci-fi book which although thoughtful was totally out of my genre and interest range! And her replacement present (all presents are second hand here so its not at huge cost to her) is A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian!

I was very happy to hear this as I can read it for Orange July, along with The Lacuna. I tried so hard to be interested in the first book, but just couldn't feign it! We had a good laugh about it later and agreed to go halves in the profit made from selling it at our upcoming garage sale :)

Happy New Year.

Much love coming your way!

I also enjoyed The Way the Crow Flies, but Laura is right in that it's another dark plot. I had a library copy here in the summer for a reread, but I didn't get to it. One of those books where I remember reading it, remember that I enjoyed it, and roughly what it was about ... but can't remember much more (and that says more about me in terms of time and memory than it does about the book). This has also happened with me when I've read a book in the midst of a lot of life "noise." Now I'm rambling ... sorry, Peggy.

I'll put Fall on your Knees on my WL. Better not for now, it sounds very intense.

Elizabeth Moon? Funny, military horror sci-fi? I can't really imagine it. Which would be a good book to start with?

Roni and Pat, I do hope that life lets up on you soon so that you can read Elizabeth Moon. She is definitely near the top of my feel-good writer list. Besides the ones we've mentioned, I have a special place in my heart for The Speed of Dark which features a high-functioning autistic young man who is given an opportunity to undergo a procedure which will make him normal (whatever that means). She won either Hugo or Nebula for that one. She has a son with Aspergers. And I'd say a word about The Deed of Paksenarrion, three novels about a fantasy paladin, who grew from a sheep farmer's daughter into a hero. The second and third books are high fantasy, and her elves are more Tolkienian than any others I've ever met. More than you wanted to know!
Laura and Nancy, thank you for the thumbs up for The Way the Crow Flies. I see that it's even longer than Fall on Your Knees, but that's how I like 'em. Nancy, I don't think that your comments about reading during "life 'noise'" is rambling at all. Something at that time can be a life-saver even though you don't come out of it remembering book specifics. I know the phenomenon well.
Megan, I'm thoroughly curious to know that the scifi book was. I just got a copy of A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian too, but I know I won't get to it this month. And I add my voice to all those saying "DO get into The Lacuna as quickly as you can. I liked the beginning better than most people, I think, but it does start a bit slowly. Take it on trust that it's worth reading however long it takes you to be fully engaged.
For my part, I'm barely into Molly Fox's Birthday as a palate cleanser before leaping into The Tiger's Wife. I'm finding this first person (but not, DG, present tense) narration very charming and easy reading.

Now you have me slavering to read Moon........ but thanks to your gift I can indulge it to the full!

Peggy, have you read any of her sequels to The Deed of Paksenarrion? While Paks moves in and out of the story, these deal with the characters whose lives she intersected in the first three books, starting chronologically right after book 3. Oath of Fealty and Kings of the North are the first two (first in pb, last in hb, both in Kindle) and the third is coming out in February. The same high quality--it's amazing that she could come back to this after 20 years and be as fresh and true to the story as ever.

After the first 3 Heris Serrano books, I think she did a "David Weber" in the series, which means the political situations were getting so broad and complex that the stories start being more about them than character-focused and not so entertaining imo.

Peggy, I love your review of Fall on Your Knees. I hope you'll post it so I can give it a thumb.

>103 LizzieD: haha, the sci fi novel I got given was Kalik by Jack Lasenby. The fourth and final volume in the "Travellers Quartet". Now I feel bad for running it down (not that I actually have.....) but from reading the back and the first few pages it just doenst appeal at all :)

eta: having a look at how it is categorised on LT , it looks like its more fantasy than Sci-fi.....shows what I know :)

Read it, Lucy!
Roni, I haven't read either of the further adventures of - I believe that I thought that they were the same thing as Liar's Oath which I also haven't read. Stored on my mental list. As you may know, I'm a great Honor Harrington fan and just got my copy of Mission of Honor in the mail today for part of my Thingaversary celebration. I'm not sure why I like them so much, but if he writes it, I'll read it eventually and even reread it. Honestly, I've liked the political ones too. Go figure.
Becky, that's awfully nice of you. It looks to me as though there are plenty of good reviews of Fall on Your Knees. I don't really think I added anything; I'm just glad to have it here to refer to in years to come, and maybe to encourage a friend or two to look at the book.
Megan, I haven't heard of Jack Lasenby, but that does look like a children's fantasy and if it's the fourth of a series, no wonder it didn't appeal! I give your mother full credit for getting you a book though. Mine has given up on me.

Excellent review of Fall on Your Knees Peggy. I loved that book and yet never went on to read anything else she'd written. I'll have to look for The Way the Crow Flies.

Finally made it here, Peggy! Am I too late to join the choir? Can offer first or second alto, second sop or first tenor; or when I have a bad cold, first bass!

I had not heard of Fall on your knees. That quotation was very funny (and the prayer was pretty awful)!

I must get round to reading another Elizabeth Moon - one of the many authors whom I discovered through LT. I have a copy of Sheepfarmer's daughter so that sounds like a good one to try next...

Thank you, Bonnie. I was just browsing at Amazon, and it looks as though *Crow Flies* is her only other novel. They do show two published plays.
Genny, you are most welcome to the choir! One of these first days I'll go back and publish who has signed up so far so that we can see what parts we need to cover. I know that we need a strong 1st sop or 2 and a good bass. We may have to postpone rehearsals until we have a full quotient.
I don't know about anybody else, but I found Sheepfarmer's Daughter the weakest of the original Paksenarrion trilogy - not to say that it's bad, but the others have stayed with me longer.
I really like Molly Fox's Birthday, by the way. I wish I could just sit down and finish it. I like Madden's writing too. She does nothing to call attention to it, but somehow it's way more than a direct narration. That doesn't say what I want to say, doggone it. It's not Bloomsday, but we do have the narrator walking around Dublin and thinking about Molly in June. Good choice, Ms. D!

Ann-Marie MacDonald's play Goodnight Desdemona, (Good Morning, Juliet) is a really charming piece of theatre that should be better known, a sort of Alice in Wonderland meets Shakespeare. I was fortunate enough to work on a production of it in the early 90's and I still have very fond memories of the piece.
And don't forget I'm still available for bass duties. Contrary to all logic, I'm told I have a very acceptable low range for a cat. (Family lore says there may have been an ocelot in the tree way back when.)

T.K., you are most welcome in the choir. I'd almost say that all you need to do is purr, but we really do need a bass! (Do you have some handsome markings???)
I'm tempted by both plays available at Amazon, especially *Desdemona/Juliet*, but I have to read down my new acquisitions a little bit!

Getting caught up on threads and stopping by to say Hi!

Hi, Lori. I really appreciate your stop. I'm so far behind on threads that I'll never catch up, much less be able to speak to people.

Here's the choir so far. I really think that we need to double parts, so I may not have put you where you'd prefer to be if you indicated that you could sing more than one part. Yep we need a few more eager singers!
1st Soprano: Lauranav and Peggy (Since this is virtual, I can do it!)
2nd Soprano: Stasia, Anne
1st Alto: Genny, Laura L.
2nd Alto: Heather, Jan
1st Tenor: Lori T., Lucy
2nd Tenor: Paul
Bass: Stephen the TK

Accompanist: cbl_tn
Page Turner: Suzanne
Audience: Donna, Megan, casvelyn, Nathalie

I nominate cbl_tn as pianist!

Fall on your Knees: not as harrowing to read as the reviews make it sound, I thought. There's a lot of implied inappropriate debauchery, rather than explicit. The message is pretty clear though, you shouldn't mess with your kids!

eta: re the choir....cant help you there sorry, stage fright!

Oh, can I sing, too? I sing either 1st or 2nd soprano, and can conduct, too:)

>114 lkernagh: - Added Anne to sing 2nd sop, cbl_tn as accompanist, and Donna and Megan as audience!

And this morning I heard a bit of Brahms's *German Requiem* with his 2-piano arrangement. We'll have to do a 2 part Brahms program in that format. Liebeslieder Waltzes first and then the requiem. We'll have to do it twice so that I can sing once and play the secondo once.

# 113 I can either purr or sing but it's damned difficult to do both at the same time as it produces a rather alarming vibrato, what we cats of a certain age sometimes refer to as the Buffy Ste. Marie effect. As to markings, I refer you to the handsome portrait of me that adorns my home page.

I sing either 2nd or Tenor....... so count me in.

I sing loudly and always off-key. Would you like another audience member?

I'll join the first alto section!

>114 lkernagh: Updates to the choir and audience! It's shaping up! Getting us together for rehearsals may be a challenge....

MOLLY FOX'S BIRTHDAY by Deirdre Madden
What a lovely little book!!! A woman playwright thinks about her friend, the actor Molly Fox on her birthday as the friend uses Molly's house in Dublin to work on a new play. She can't get into the writing, so she wanders around the city thinking about Molly (hmmm. I think I may have read something vaguely similar), runs into an old acquaintance and receives a visit from Molly's brother, from Andrew - her friend first, then Molly's, and from a neighbor who is a shy fan of Molly.
The author never tells us her name, but she muses on questions of identity and family relationships: how we perceive ourselves and are perceived in turn. Madden has a little animal motif running through the book that I'm not tempted to think out - a hare, a plastic cow, birds associated with Molly, and a hedgehog. Nobody changes; everybody is more thoroughly understood; everybody is alone, not touched by the things important in their friends' lives, and yet cherished.
The writing is controlled, quiet, and beautiful. I believe that this little story will continue to turn in my mind for some time.

Great review, Peggy. I loved Molly Fox's Birthday, too- one of my all time favourite "Oranges".

>125 Soupdragon:: and I read it because you did, Dee!

And I'll read it because all three of you did! Great and convincing review Peggy!

Ah, Dee and Laura and Bonnie, isn't it great to have a group who generally agree but don't walk in lock-step! I love it! I certainly read it because somebody here did and loved it - probably Dee and Laura.

What an interesting discussion. Unfortunately I can't sing anymore, not even virtually. So I'd just join the audience, if that's okay?

Re: Elizabeth Moon, I loved The Speed of Dark, which I read because of the autism issue. (My son has high-functioning autism.) But I haven't read any of her other works. Maybe I should. Where would you suggest starting?

Good morning, Nathalie and Terri! Nathalie, you get to be part of the audience then...
Terri, it depends on what you want. For space opera go to Hunting Party (my favorite) or her other more recent series that starts with Trading in Danger. For fantasy try Sheepfarmer's Daughter, but know that it's not the best of the series. (Both the *HP* and the *SD* are included in 3-book anthologies, which is what I'd go ahead and get.) For a feminist stand-alone (and I think several people here read it last year; I know that I reread it), try Remnant Population. Elizabeth Moon entertains me with just enough more besides that I'm always happy with her.
As for the choir, I'd like to have one more second alto, another good first soprano, and a male tenor just to change the timbre a bit. Then we can get started!!)

Hi Peggy. Thank you for the excellent review of Molly Fox's Birthday. I am seriously thinking about reading Molly Fox for my last book of the year. Nothing like planning ahead, right? I loved bookending 2011 with two Daniel Silva books, and my first book of the year was by Deirdre Madden, so there you have it! I'm already looking forward to December. ;-)

Donna, that's seriously funny to me. I love the idea of a complete circle at the year's end, but I didn't want to do it last year, and I probably won't want to do it this year either although I was looking forward to The Tenderness of Wolves before I read The Invisible Ones. I'm going to be a bit loose about that.

Hi Peggy - Mollie Fox's Birthday sounds very good. Finally visiting your thread, it takes a while to fit everyone in.

Hi Peggy, it must be your night for visitors from New Zealand! Am going to look for Molly Fox's Birthday in the library - it sounds really good and I remember the good reviews from the usual culprits last year too!

Peggy - lol the 75ers Choir. No ChoirMaster/Mistress - No place for a baritone?!

Love antipodean visitors! *Molly Fox* is so short that would be worth your time just out of curiosity. But it's GOOD!
Paul - no director nor yet a baritone has volunteered. Do you know somebody to go in either spot?
I read a little last night in my current Virago/Beacon Traveler (VSS gift from the generous miss_read). Actually, reading it last night sort of makes it my current V/BT. Emily Eden is delightful! She certainly has the limitations of her time and class, but I can gloss over her insensitivities for passages like this:
"...it is the first time for two years I have felt the carriage going up hill at all, and this was not a simple slope , but a good, regular hill. Then we came to some genuine rocks - great bleak, grey stones, with weeds growing between them, and purple hills in the distance. I felt better directly."
That sounds very contemporary to me.

Just popping over here to say I have now finished Fall On Your Knees (loved loved loved it) and would be more than happy to talk.

Peggy, I'm adding Molly Fox's Birthday to my list. And if you have room for another alto, count me in!

Hi, Anne and Jan. Jan, we have you down for second alto, but if you'd rather sing first, I suspect that either Genny or Laura will trade!
I saw in yesterday's paper that Reginald Hill died. I'm very sorry. I have enjoyed Pascoe and Dalziel almost since the first one was published in 1970.
And on an entirely different plane ---- I found another sheet with more student writing that I saved.

From Latin class
"The Roman medicine unlike ours was very different."
"Roman army had both infantry and Calvery. Men were recruited by providence."
"Farce was a comedy that was either violent or funny."
From English Class
"...everyone's two senses worth should be brought in."
"Undine...viewed others as pawns to make her ends meet."
"Danforth minuplated John and Elizabeth..."

Stay tuned for more!

Oh, I do love singing second soprano! They usually have the money note, as they say.

I loved your comments about Molly Fox's Birthday. I've added it to my WL.

Hope you're having a good week!

#140 I saw that, too (that Reginald Hill recently passed away). I've never read him but picked up A Clubbable Woman late last year so I'm hoping to get to it sooner, rather than later.

I wish I could sing...

Hi Peggy! Sorry I haven't visited yet this year, but I'm here now wishing you all the best in 2012!

Interesting books, interesting conversation. What better way to spend time?

I'm planning on reading 3 Orange books this month - starting next week. Autograph Man and On Beauty by Zadie Smith, Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. Will just get them in before the end of the month.

What a treat to find Anne, Linda, Roni, Karen, and Deseree have been by! Anne, I put you on 2nd - you get to tell us whether we're major or minor. I'll be glad to hear whether you like *Molly* when you get to her. Roni, will you be in the audience? Linda, I've said somewhere else that I like Hill more than Peter Robinson. A Clubbable Woman wasn't his best, but it's good to start a new series with #1. Karen, I'm glad to see you and thank you. Deseree, *O&C* is the only one of those I've read, and I liked it a lot. No surprise there. I'm normally an Atwood fan. I had never heard of The Autograph Man and checked it out quickly. At Amazon anyway, people who loved *OB* and *WT* didn't love *AM*. I have the other 2, but haven't gotten to them. Bonnie (brenzi) enjoyed *WT* so much earlier in the month that that is where I'll go first.
I'm keeping on with The Tiger's Wife. I'm delighted to have it to read, and it's pretty good, but it hasn't carried me away yet, and I'm now 200 pp into it. I wish I had time to read!

Latin Class
"Bacchus was the god of whine."
Overheard in class: "I think you mean Artemis, not Arthritis."

Roni -- it's virtual singing so you can take your pick!

Ooooo I like the Bacchus one!

Fall on Your Knees is already in the BlackHole or you would have hit me with that BB!

I love how the 75ers choir is shaping up! If we need more than piano accompaniment, let me know. I play cornet, violin, guitar, and both piano and organ.

I seldom have a bullet for Stasia, so I'm tickled. So you not only read everything, you play everything too???!!!??? But we need your voice.
Lucy, I don't know how I forgot the Bacchus one. It seems so obvious along with aqua ducks in the Tiger River, which I also got more than once.

More Latin
"Tartarus was the place were all bad souls went for internal punishment."
(Please note the use of "were." I saw that used consistently along with "with" for "went" more times than I can say over the years.)
A translation of de mortuis nil nisi bonum "Say nothing but good to the dead."

DEAR CHOIR,
Lots of *German Requiem* on YouTube. See whether you like the 2 piano accompaniment on this performance. Or suggest something else for us to listen to. (I'll hunt down Suzanne's Elgar soon!)

Dear Choir:

As a non-singer who loves choral music, what about Carmina Burana? Good for letting those vocal cords cut loose.

Oh YEAH!!! Carmina Burana is seriously fun to sing!!! Anybody know a good counter-tenor?!?! I haven't ever sung the Catulli Carmina, and I'd adore to try that! Thanks, Karen!

#149 It IS hard to have a bullet for Stasia, isn't it? About the only time I can do it is if it's an obscure baseball book.

re: Carmina Burana, my 12-year old knows the children's chorus...

oh, oh, oh, totus floreo...

Try getting that out of your head for the rest of the night!

Thanks, Anne. That's minimally better than "Olim lacus colueram" of which I know only a couple of words (to wit: "Miser! Miser! -----fortiter!") In fact, I just put my CD on to get rid of the whole thing, maybe.

#153 ...iam amore virginale totus ardeo ... That's done it - it's stuck there all night now!

Totus totus totus amor est - pro pereo! Pro pereo! Pro pereo!!!!
Oh great. I'm back.

#152: OK, no gunning for Stasia! I already have 10000 books in the BlackHole and no time to read them, especially with school :)

Peggy - choir seems to be shaping up nicely....Nessun Dorma would probably be an appropriate piece given the time and distance between the constituent choral members.

Uh - Thanks for the suggestion, Paul......it's true around here anyway.
And, Stasia, fair is fair with no gunning involved.

THE TIGER'S WIFE by Téa Obreht
I'm not sure what to say. If this had been nominated for the best new writer's Orange, I would have voted for it enthusiastically. For it to have won the big Orange is a little beyond my understanding. I liked it well enough, but I was never swept up into it as many have been, and I'm sure that's my loss. As you know, Obreht places her many Ballkan folklorish legends in a modern setting in post-war Yugoslavia (for want of a better term for location).
The grandfather around whom all the stories circle is the problem for me. I generally love magical realism, but I felt without being able to pin down the reason that Obreht had violated some unspoken convention that left me unable to suspend disbelief. The magic wasn't real enough; the reality wasn't magical enough. The magic wasn't magical enough; the reality wasn't real enough. I too found it hard to see why the granddaughter would not tell her best friend about her grandfather's death and why she would not go home in time for his funeral. I found it hard to believe that an idealistic young doctor would sit and wait for anybody to drown, whatever crazy spell the meeting had put on him. From then on, I was wary, and good writing and universal musings about life and death never drew me in.
I'm glad I read it and grateful to Linda who sent me her extra copy. I'll try again in ten years or so, if they are given to me, to see whether I've changed.

Peggy: Great review of The Tiger's Wife. I agree with you: "I liked it well enough, but I was never swept up into it as many have been..." I liked the integration of folklore and the setting was interesting, but...

I'm with you on The Tiger's Wife, Peggy. Nice summary.

I've not yet read The Tiger's Wife, and have not been rushing to do so, thanks to the rather mixed reception it's had from friends on here. One day, if a copy comes my way...

Peggy, I noticed that when you gave your personal chronological list of popular music on Paul's thread, you included The Kingston Trio among them. I just thought I would mention that that's where my name comes from - a track on one of their albums was called "Genny Glen", and my parents clearly thought this was an interesting variant on Jenny. Though friends who are expert in traditional folk songs tell me that the song was originally called 'Johnny Lad', so I'm not sure where the gender switch happened!

That's a great review, Peggy, though I think I'll give this one a pass.

Paul's right - "Nessun dorma" is the perfect piece for such a time zone challenged choir!

I finally got here, way late to wish you a happy New Year, but I will anyway. From your list of popular music on Paul's thread, I see we're not so different in age and background, although I neglected popular music terribly in my teens. And I find it impossible to catch up.

Anyway, I've found you and starred you and will endeavor to check in from time to time. Not only too many books, too many threads!

It's a dismal day in SE N.C. - rain and mizzle and a little chilly (whereas the temps were supposed to get up to 70°) - so it's especially nice to have had visitors and pats when I come to check. I'm glad not to be the Lone Ranger, Beth and Laura. Genny, I understand perfectly about waiting. I would probably not have read it had it not won and had I not been the person to take up Linda's offer of her extra copy. I confess that I loved only the original Kingston Trio, so I wasn't listening when they sang "Genny Glen." What a fun way to get a name!!! I looked for it at YouTube, found it, didn't recognize it. The words are a bit reminiscent of "With You my Johnny" that I do remember well. When you have time, give a listen here. It's not the same at all!
Nathalie and Judy, you are always very welcome here. I don't know about you, but one of my great disappointments the first few weeks of college was that college people continued to listen to the same popular music as my classmates in high school had. I thought that I was through with all that!

Great review of The Tiger's Wife, Peggy! I appreciate it, too! I've been so ho-hum on whether or not to pick it up. I had planned to read it for Orange Jan but managed to avoid it again. Maybe later, and then maybe not. eta: I'd gladly have given you a thumb for that, but it's not on the main book page.

Hello Sweetie. It is cold, snowy, icy here in NE PA. But, the wonderful part of it all is that there were six male cardinals and two female at the feeder and in the nearby tree. Their vivid colors against the white snow was a joy to behold.

Genny thanks for sharing the story of the derivation of your name. My kids hate it when I play some of my older stuff on the Volvo CD...yesterday it was Ian Campbell Folk Group and it was met with hoots of derision which of course encouraged me to up the volume. Twa Recruitin Searjents is a classic of its type.

What a sweet story, Genny.

Oh my The Kingston Trio! My older sister was a huge fan of theirs.

The odd thing for me was that at my college there was so much LESS music in our dormitory/house -- (first year I was in a big old house with about twelve women, and one man, a grad student, who was living in the attic, unknown to the school!). I went to boarding school and we always had music blaring somewhere during the hours it was allowed, anything from Janis Ian to Eric Clapton to Back. In fact, the first place I heard the Brandenburg was at school, it was HUGELY popular for some reason. Perhaps because no one ever asked to have it turned down.

>159 LizzieD:: I think that to read the book without running into those bumps, you have to step into her framework of metaphor, especially around death. I do know what you mean about the real not being real enough and the magic not being magical enough. I think she was trying to write about that strange interface of the two, that place where the lines get blurred. It's a very hard thing to do and I thought for a first effort she did remarkably well with it. The archetype of death alone would be a killer (elbow to ribs for that awful pun). She was getting through to me with all of it on some kind of subliminal level and I found it very good...maybe years of studying myths and legends doing its work (or I'm not a very logical person?).

#170 you have to step into her framework of metaphor, especially around death. That's an excellent way to put it, Tui. Although for me it just seemed to happen without effort, which is one of the reasons I enjoyed it so. I did have a bit of a problem with the "real" parts, myself, but the magic was all magic for me.

HEADS UP, KINDLE OWNERS! Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Peter Heather's The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians, which was recommended to me by my old friend scribulous. It's only $1.99 for today only!
Hope you are staying warm, folks (Nancy, Linda, Lucy, Tui, and Linda)! Hope you're staying cool, Paul!
Lucy, that is an interesting occurrence at your college....wonder why? Were you guys that busy studying that you couldn't have music?
Thanks for the comment, Tui, especially about the "strange interface" between reality and magic. I've studied myths and legends for years too, but I just couldn't join her. I'm glad that you and Linda did; obviously, a lot was going on there. As I say, I'll try again another time.

I know...that was coals to Newcastle, wasn't it. I've been wracking my brains trying to remember what Blake called that interface between those kinds of things but am coming up completely blank. But I was thinking that if I'd seen a guy not die despite being given every opportunity to do so, I might take him up on his offer to try to drown him just to see if what I was seeing was really happening - a bizarre kind of empiricism. Naw, who am I kidding? I'd run as fast as I could the other way.

Thanks re the Kindle deal.

>172 LizzieD:. Thanks for the heads up, Peggy!

#124 Another orange for my wishlist - I'm sure I've wishlisted more Orange books than I've read this month!

#159 I think that was where I got to with The Tiger's Wife too. I enjoyed it but it I'm not convinced it was the best book from that year's longlist.

Finding those bullets, sort of molted? I'd have been right on your heels, Tui, but neither of us is a doctor......
Heather, I am finding an incredible number of the more obscure Orange nominees readily available at PBS, which I realize that you don't have access to. I'll bet you could mooch them though. At any rate, I've now ordered far more than I'll read in the next three years, and I don't have any great urge to stop. Again, I'm reassured to see another reader whom I respect not totally on board the *T'sW* bus.
(Hi, Becky! Hope we both enjoy the Heather. If I don't, I confess that I'll begrudge them even $1.99. Tight.....me.

THE BROOM OF THE SYSTEM by David Foster Wallace
This was my first audio book ever, and I think that it was DFW's first novel. I loved it! It moves the reader into his own wacky territory immediately and never lets up. I think I'm probably going to have to read it to have half a hope of seeing what he was up to as far as world view is concerned. Meanwhile, it was totally hilarious. I rode extra blocks, laughing my head off, as I listened. The characters are not healthy nor are they well-adjusted, but unlike *IJ*, this one didn't compel me to stop reading (listening) and regroup. I can either stop here or write pages. I'll stop with "Roughage!"
(The reader, Robert Petkoff, was very good. At first I wasn't happy with his decision to "do" women's voices, but I relaxed, and found most of his inflections spot on.)

I'm so excited that you loved listening to the Wallace!

It looks like I need to put another book by David Foster Wallace on the WL. I wasn't expecting the humor I'm finding in Infinite Jest; of course, I'm still in the "honeymoon" phase of the early pages.

Glad to get feedback from two other DFW fans. Donna, if you're already enjoying *IJ*, I'd say that you'll honeymoon more or less the whole book through. I don't think that I've said what I meant about *Broom*. It's a serious book too, but the sublime silliness of it sort of overwhelms me. AND I finished another one today. Good for me!

A SPLENDOR OF LETTERS by Nicholas A. Basbanes
This is the third book of his series about books, but was my first. I am impossibly intrigued by writing about vanished libraries and untranslated remnants and miraculously surviving artifacts, so I loved and adored the first several chapters of this book. What is more important: the content or the physical book itself? (Yes!) The problems of acid-based paper are a little less fascinating, followed in rapid succession by even less interesting discussions of the loss of digital/cyber material and speculation about the book of the future. (In 2003 it looked as though single-page e-books were going nowhere.) But "less interesting" does not mean "uninteresting," and I'm eager to get back to the first two in the series.

Good Morning To You!

Enjoyed your remarks on A Splendor of Letters, Peggy. Basbanes is covering a lot of interesting territory! I love having somewhere to visit where readers love to talk about books about books - does it get much better?

Well Peggy, once again you've managed to intrigue me with your book choice. I'd never heard of Nicholas Basbanes but I love books about books so I'll be looking for his.

Hi, Peggy, I'm here to thank you for the heads up about the Kindle Daily Deal the other day--The Fall of the Roman Empire by Peter Heather. I grabbed it up and started looking it over for "readability" today--and I can't put it down. I've done very little reading in this period, but it seems like this one is a good choice for someone like me. It's cold outside, which keeps me away from my garden, so this is a good time for a "big book" like this one. Thank you!

>179 LizzieD:. I am impossibly intrigued by writing about vanished libraries and untranslated remnants and miraculously surviving artifacts

You sound like you would make a great genealogist!

Linda, Nancy, Bonnie, and Becky, thank you for coming by. I think Suzanne mentioned Basbanes in passing as she discussed something else, and now I'm hooked. I bought all three of his book books and am dithering about starting A Gentle Madness. I really, really need to finish one of my big ones - like 1Q84, which I'm still liking - and I know that God's Philosophers is on the way, and that it's going to be a monster.
Becky, I'm happy to pass on the favor. Again, it was Suzanne who pointed out the Kindle Daily Deal to me. Most of them are stinkers, but I'm thrilled to have the Rome book (and even more thrilled that you're liking it) and the biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, which I'll be reading to discuss with a local group in April. Anyway, I check there as soon as I log on every morning.
DH is the genealogist in the family. Since his paternal family settled here, he has access to all the tax records, deeds, wills, etc., and has turned into quite the genealogical detective.

I've been loving Nicholas Basbanes for a couple years now, since I started subscribing to the magazine Fine Books & Collections, for which he writes. Not sure why I haven't snagged onto any of his books yet. That will have to be remedied!

I love, love, love A Gentle Madness. I hope you enjoy it when you finally get around to reading it, Peggy.

A Splendor of Letters looks like required, if not, compulsory reading for our group! Thanks for the enthusiastic and excellent review Peggy and for making my overstretched hitlist even more unwieldy.

Stasia, you're making not reading *Gentle Madness* even harder. I guess I could just peep into it a little!
Paul, that's what we're here for. I wonder if any Basbane readers think that I did myself a disservice by starting with the last of the books. I chose the last one first because it looked the most interesting to me at the time. I don't know what to recommend to anybody else about where to start.
This week I'm really into 1Q84. For the first hundred pages or so, I thought that it was going to be my least favorite of the three Murakamis I've read. Now I don't know. Even though it's huge, it seems more tightly constructed to me - or at least, I can see the two threads of the story moving toward intersection. I wonder whether anybody else had quibbles about the translation. It's the same translator, but I thought that *Wind-Up Bird* read as if it had been written in English (more fool me....I just read a reviewer at Amazon who said that what we have in English is an abridgment or adaptation. Phoo), but this one sort of jerks along from time to time. It's real Murakami-weird though, so I"m enjoying it.

I am planning to read 1Q84 this year as well, but later in the year. My experience with Murakami is that for a couple of days he will demand all my reading attention, so I need to make room for his book. I am a little scared of the size as well, I hope I won't get an overdose of his writing.

Interesting about the translation. I also found the English versions always very smooth to read and the one German translation I tried felt so bumpy that I almost couldn't finish it.

Peggy, enjoyed your remarks on IQ84. I hesitate to admit here I've not read Murakami, at least not yet. Had to smile at It's real Murakami-weird though, so I'm enjoying it. Well said!

Hi Peggy! Thanks for stopping by my thread! You've had a rather wonderful start to the year. One book I will eventually try to get to is Fall on Your Knees. So many , including yourself have recommended it... at the moment I have quite a few books in my TBR pile - I'll keep it in mind, but I don't like to plan to heavily... :)

I've dipped into the Basbanes collections, but oddly have never read them cover-to-cover. May have to do that one day...

Meanwhile, I'll volunteer to conduct or turn pages for the pianist! I'm quite sure you don't want me to sing. Even the cats wince when I caterwaul these days.

Nathalie, it took longer for me to get into *84* than the other two, but I'm hooked now. Nancy, give him a try! At worst you can quit, but at best you will have found an amazing Japanese author.
Suzanne, you are now the official page-turner - a significant task and not one that everybody can perform satisfactorily. I'm going for cover-to-cover with N. Basbanes. Thank you for the introduction!

A belated thanks for The Tiger's Wife review. I'm someone else who's umming and ahhing about this one (though this i-pad believes I'm jamming and aching about it)! I have read some great reviews of it but when I read yours, it made me think: "that's probably how I would feel about it"!

You've reminded me I need to get back to Wind-up Bird Chronicle. I'm about three quarters of the way through but put it aside for other things last year and didn't get back to it. I don't know why as I was enjoying it a lot. Won't think about IQ84 until I've got that one done and dusted!

Hey Random Question O.o

When you created your ticker on TickerFactory which section did you go in?
Because I did Objects/Actions and it doesn't show for example like yours where it says "7 Books Done - 68 To Go"

I don't know, Dee. If you're not carried away by the T's Wife, you may jam and ache. My guess is that you will have to read it - I certainly would have sooner or later since I don't question the Orange judges quite as automatically as I do the Booker ones.
I need to reread *Wind-Up Bird*, but it's one whose details have stayed with me over a pretty long time, and that takes an extraordinary book. *84* is something else. I can't decide whether it's trite or profound or some of both, but I'm still flipping pages both because it won't let go and because I'd love to finish it this month. (I'm not making myself any promises though because we have a special lecture series at church this weekend....J. Herbert Nelson of the PCUSA's Office of Public Witness in D.C., in case there are any closet or otherwise Presbyterians out there. He's a fantastic speaker, so I'm looking forward to the event.)
Hi, TJ. I PMed you a random answer! Come back anytime!!

196: I have read the first few pages of The Tiger's Wife and felt somewhat detached from what I was reading. I do have a tatty copy which I received in a swap so will probably read a few more pages at some point!

Hi Peggy: I was thinking about you -- there was something in the news (or maybe in the paper) about Latin.

Hmmmm, if I could remember better, I'd be dangerous. I think it had something to do with how they've switched from Latin to English on plant names. Or something like that.

>159 LizzieD: harking way back here I know, but thanks for your thoughts on The Tigers Wife as one that has been bandied about all over LT I was considering reading it, but....maybe not now :)

I came across this link on another thread (not on the 75) and this feels like the best place to post it!!!

To Tartle or to Tingo, that is the question

Aww...link is no good.

Hi, LInda. I'm proud that Latin makes you think of me - even if it is disappearing! Here is a link!
Lucy, I couldn't find your specific link either. Phooey.
Dee and Megan, I'm going to feel awful in 20 years when you both read *T'sW* and love it. (Dee, I do trust your instinct about the book.) Maybe in 20 years I'll love it. And as I said, I didn't dislike it - I just never yielded to it. Maybe I am still unhappy that The Memory of Love didn't win.

And Peggy....your link just goes to a blank "New Topic" page on LT. Somethin' funny's goin' on... *cue creepy music*

202: Peggy, I love the idea that in twenty years time, I'll be posting in my 2032 challenge thread that I'd finally got around to that forgotten classic The Tiger's Wife and loved it and that'll you'll be posting back, expressing your remorse that you didn't encourage me to read it in 2012 ;)

DAH DAH DAH DAH......hmmm...that doesn't quite work. Let me try my link again!!! ???...... O.K. That one works! Maybe it was just last night.
Dee, that's great!!! In 20 years time when technology has burgeoned, maybe you'll be able to slap me around in real time. Please be gentle. I'll be really old.
I'm finding 1Q84 a real page flipper, and it's a good thing if I'm going to finish it by the end of the month.

>204 Soupdragon:: in 20 years time, I hope I will be able to remember that I read it and enjoyed it so that I can neener neener both of you.

I've started 1Q84 but am only two chapters in. I've never read Murakami before, but I've really enjoyed the two chapters I've read and looking forward to the rest--I'm just a little daunted by the length, so I'm glad to hear it's a page flipper! But I'm not even aiming to finish it in January--maybe volume 1.

I must see if my son in law will lend me his copy of 1Q84--he got it for Christmas, and finished it, I believe. He's a big fan of Murakami, but I already have his copy of Kafka on the Shore waiting so maybe he won't lend me another until I've read that!

I'm going to post that link again, it is really worth a look:

Tingo and Tartle

I'm going to post that link again, it is really worth a look:

Tingo and Tartle

I think it works now. ENJOY!

210: Hmm, human nature is similar everywhere...

#179 Oh, one day I will read some Nicholas Basbanes. Unfortunately A Gentle Madness is out of print over here and only available used for £17.

And you're making 1Q84 sound very good. I refused to let myself buy it because I've still only read one book by Murakami (Norwegian Wood) and I've had Kafka on the Shore on my shelves for ages waiting to be read. But all the discussion about 1Q84 makes me want to start reading it which is madness.

#210 Fascinating - thanks Lucy!

Tui, you don't have to wait 20 years. You can neener me anytime you want.
Linda and Heather, I really like Murakami too. I'm not sure that *Kafka* isn't the better book; at least, it's a lot tighter, but I've never read Norwegian Wood. As I've said ad nauseum, *Wind-Up Bird* is my favorite, and I don't believe *84* is going to beat it.
Lucy, THANK YOU for the "Tingo and Tartle*! I find that the older I get, the more I tardle. That whole site gets a bookmark from me! Some of those sound like words you'd make up - especially the borrowing your neighbor's stuff one and the exchanging significant glances one. I guess we are all kin as qebo says.

So I should start with "Wind Up Bird"?

If you want the best of the best, I think you should start with *Wind-Up Bird*!

"Tingo" and its definition just made me laugh out loud. And also made me think of other people's bookshelves. Watch out! :D

Hi, Sarah! Aren't you glad you came? I am! And May is now guarding my bookshelves.....

I certainly am! Hooray for new words and visiting other people's threads! And I promise that I won't tingo your books. I'll save that for nearer folks... like David (tapestry100). :D

>215 LizzieD: I agree; The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is my favorite Murakami novel.

>214 Chatterbox: I'll differ a bit with Peggy and Darryl on Murakami, Suzanne. While The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is one of my favorites of his, and a great book, no doubt about it, a lot of readers find it very challenging. To me, Kafka on the Shore is another great one of his that is an easier starting point. I actually started with his After the Quake, a slim collection of his short stories, and got hooked from there.

I started with Kafka on the Shore and found it the quicker (not sure if easier) read than The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle which was #3. Between those two I read Norwegian Wood which is easier in the sense that it is 'closer to reality' and less dense than the other two. If my memory is right, it also doesn't have those multiple levels/ story threads. It is not my favorite (4 stars "only"while the others have 4,5 stars), but it might also be a good starting point and it is shorter (380 pages).

I don't want to write explicit spoilers here, but there was one chapter in "Kafka" which might not make it a good start book. I got through it, but it disturbed me, and I saw in reviews that some people put it down right there.

Glad to get Murakami input from you, Darryl, Joe, and Nathalie. I'm guessing that Suzanne probably doesn't need to ease into Murakami. I really liked *Kafka* too, and they are the only two I've read except for 1Q84, and I'm at the 74% mark in that one and need to jump in again so that I can finish in January. Did I say it here? The writing in this one is much less good than I remembered in the other two. I don't know whether he was doing something different here or whether my taste has changed. "The owl continued hooting knowingly off in the woods. That voice sounded encouraging to Tengo, but at the same time like a warning. Or maybe a warning that contained a note of encouragement. It was a very ambiguous sound." That's a typical sample and strikes me as loose and uninspired. I'm glad that I'm liking the story for the most part.

I read a review of IQ84 in Literary Review that basically put out the premise that there is a law of diminishing returns reading Murakami. Have only read Norwegian Wood and soone to read Kafka on the Shore so I wondered what those more familiar with his work thought of the LR premise?

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll try one of those this year in order to ease myself into 1Q84, which I do want to read, as the premise sounds as intriguing as the size is daunting. I think I'd be better off getting a sense of Murakami as a writer and his themes before attempting it.

Paul, that's interesting. The LR premise describes my experience exactly, but I'm not sure of its validity since *84* is only my third Murakami, and I suspect that I read the best first. I have one more in my library which I hope to get to eventually, then I'll decide whether to leave him on my favorites list or let him go!
Suzanne, I'll be interested to read your reviews when you get to him.

I think the LR premise is all wet, Paul. Kafka on the Shore is one of his more recent ones (2006), and it's terrific. Like other top authors, all of his are good, in different ways. Some of his early ones are bizarre and great, but don't fit the diminishing returns theory as The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and After the Quake and Kafka on the Shore and Sputnik Sweetheart all came later. I'm also not a big fan of Norwegian Wood (good as it is) compared to his others, and that was his first big hit in Japan.

Some reviewers have found 1Q84 rambling and repetitive, and that presumably is what triggered the theory for this LR reviewer. I didn't have that problem - I found the book immersive and haunting. I actually had a hard time turning to other books after reading it, because I'd become so set in its style.

In short: hogwash.

I've not read any of Murakami's work, but I'm thoroughly enjoying my lurk. You've always got a great conversation going over here, Peggy!

Wet with hogwash, eh, Joe? Yuck! I don't know. If you read his absolute finest first, and his second-best second, it's going to feel as though you're getting diminishing returns. I have a feeling though that the LR person wouldn't care about order, that the Murakami experience is powerful whatever the first book is, and then less so and less so. (Is that close, Paul?) So I can't bring out the hogwash or the whitewash just yet.
I don't quite think that 1Q84 rambles - he knows where he's going, but it is repetitive in a way that drives me nuts. He writes little summaries of the action from time to time, and I've been right with him; I don't need reminding and the characters don't need reminding. I've certainly immersed myself in it to the exclusion of almost anything else, and I've been eager to jump back in most days as soon as I woke up. At this point though, I'm ready to finish - and I have to say that if Tengo goes back to that playground one more time without being seen (trying to avoid a spoiler here), I may hurt my Kindle, and I love my Kindle.
Hi, Nancy! Isn't LT great??? Where in my little town could I find somebody to talk with about Murakami?

I agree with you about the great discussions here, Peggy. You can tell I have strong feelings about Murakami's books. But the idea of taking an author's best books and lining them up and saying best, second-best, third-best, etc. means "diminishing returns" seems unhelpful and unfair. You could do that with any author. Plus, for me, this is like, which one of your children is your favorite? They're all great. Diminishing returns? Give me a break!

Just stopping by to say hello, Peggy!

Noooooo, save the Kindle!

Interesting Murakami discussion which has me wondering--hmmm, so what should I do? I have Kafka on the Shore checked out from the library, and I have my own copy of 1Q84, which I've read exactly two chapters of. I've never read any Murakami before. After two chapters I'm interested enough in both the story and the writing to keep reading, although I confess the size of the book is getting me down. I have no problem returning the other to the library unread, and going back to it later, but I'm wondering if there's one I should read first. Thoughts?

Joe, I think we pretty much agree about Murakami, but I look forward to your review of 1Q84 when I finally finish it today! I'm a little behind, but I should be able to knock off the remaining 100 pages before my self-imposed deadline. The Kindle is O.K., Suz, he decided to do something else which may be equally frustrating but is different at least. Anne, you've seen that *84* reads pretty fast although the size is daunting. I think that *Kafka* is the better book, but I'd decide whether I was really going to miss Aomame if I didn't keep on with her. I would say that if you read *84* and get tired of it, you should still go back and give *Kafka* a chance. I know Joe will say, "READ THEM BOTH!!!"
Hi, Terri! I appreciate the visit.
And Ooo! I forgot to add that I won No Mark Upon Her from ER for January. Yay!

Thanks, Peggy. Sorry if I came on too strong about it. I may have been over-caffeinated. :-)

Joe Joe Joe....one of the things I like about Literary Review is that I agree with very little of it - except the thrillers section as she basically likes everything anyway.

There is naturally a law of diminishing returns if you start with the best and most celebrated and then work your way down. This would apply to most of my own favourites Priestley, Greene, Maugham, Dickens, Collins etc as well the Japanese maestro. If you try to read chronologically which this smartass tries to (Norwegian Wood) being an exception as I bought it cheap then you should see the writer develop rather than diminish.

Nice to see you so unsure and indecisive about Murakami's talents as a writer (kidding again!) - I haven't read enough but I have to say that the one I did read I enjoyed and note that it is generally considered in his second rank of works.

Certainly don't endorse the LR view but glad to see it caused a stir! Good discussion mate...not sure about the hogwash though not supposed to imbibe porky products but horseshit would have served equally and I don't eat that either!

Hi Peggy thanks for hosting this invigorating discussion.

There is naturally a law of diminishing returns if you start with the best and most celebrated and then work your way down. Not to mention that sometimes the "best" is also the most difficult, and therefore not the "best" place to start for that reason. See my previous rants all over this site on the subject of teaching Faulkner the wrong way 'round. ;>)

Linda, Faulkner is hard but rewarding work for me. Noted with interest your recommendation to start with The Unvanquished or The Hamlet (where you yourself got started). Haven't read either of your two top picks Absalom, Absalom! or Light in August but did enjoy As I Lay Dying whilst struggling with The Sound and the Fury no doubt cos I started in the wrong place.

Hi to Joe, Paul, and Linda. Naturally, we haven't even glanced at personal taste. I keep proclaiming *Wind-Up Bird* as Murakami's best, but Joe has put forward *Kafka* only once, I think. I'm curious, Linda. What's your opinion on teaching "A Rose for Emily" in high school as an introduction to Faulkner? Or "The Bear"? Or "Barn Burning"? (I went from The Sound and the Fury to The Hamlet as I began my own Faulkner quest. I have a bunch of the good ones yet to go, maybe half, in fact.) Back to *84*!

Hah! Thanks, Paul (>235 PaulCranswick:) - the problem sometimes with posting is it doesn't necessarily convey tone, and I don't want to be a total jerk, just a partial one. I hope I succeeded. :-)

Yes, I'm a big Kafka fan, Peggy (Murakami's and the original, actually). I'd put it on the same plateau as Wind-up Bird.

#238 Any of those short works are good intros, in my opinion, Peggy. "A Rose for Emily" often works to stimulate interest in the author, because its gothic aspect appeals to so many young people; the other two are a bit better to illustrate his style, and they really open the door to his wider world.

Thanks for clarification, Joe, and I don't allow jerks here, AND you are most welcome, ergo .....
*preening* for Linda because I taught all three at one time or another....

Certainly not a Jerk Joe - passionate defence of Murakami - well done sir!

Speaking of Faulkner, my first exposure to him was as an 18 year old college freshman when the professor assigned The Sound and the Fury. Gah! I had no idea what I was reading. I haven't read any Faulkner since although I do have Light in August on my shelf and will possibly get to it this year.

Enjoying the Murakami conversation. I haven't read any of his yet but I have Norwegian Wood and The Windup Bird Chronicle and I'm leaning toward NW.

I have only read Norwegian Wood and Wild Sheep Chase, neither of which I particularly enjoyed. Is there one you would recommend, Peggy, to give him a third chance?

The Sound and the Fury is one of my all-time favorites. I've never understood why people struggled with it -- which is what is so great about reading and book discussions. Everyone comes to each book with a different set of experiences and expectations. No two people every read the same book.

I have been skimming the wonderful Murakami discussion. What a great hostess you are Peggy.

Hi, and thank you for the visits, Paul, Bonnie, Tui, and Beth! (Beth you make my shy heart happy.) I now have read only 3 Murakamis, so I don't know Norwegian Wood. I have read that it isn't typical Murakami (comment, Joe?), so I have it way down my get and read list. Tui, *wind-Up Bird* is a tour de force of magical realism. I thought it was pretty significant in dealing with serious material too. *Kafka* is a retelling of the Oedipus legend, for a while at least, with a man who talks "Cat." Take your pick!

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
This is one that I simply hung on to for the ride. Tengo, the cram school math teacher and aspiring novelist and Aomame, the physical fitness coach and (her other profession would be a spoiler) seem to have nothing to do with each other, but the first book alternates chapters between them. Add the seventeen year-old daughter of a cult leader who has cobbled together a fantasy, the cult that she escaped, a police woman who hands out parking tickets by day and indulges in sexual conquests on occasional nights, and a super-rich old lady with a devoted assistant and security guard. Then throw in a world with 2 moons and the beliefs of the above-mentioned cult, as well as a debarred lawyer turned private agent. I'm not sure what you have, but it kept me flipping pages for most of the book.
For the first time I had trouble with Murakami's style. Basically, he had none, and I was disappointed. I didn't appreciate many, many plot summaries inadequately disguised as a character's musings. I thought when I read The WInd-Up Bird Chronicle that it was approaching great literature. I don't have the same feeling about this one. I needed to read it though, and I enjoyed it more than not. I'll be happy to be educated about its depth.

I'll mail you my copy of Norwegian Wood, Peggy. I can't remember if I have your address or not, so if you pm it to me, I'll send it on.

Great review of IQ84, Peggy. Thanks for that. I'm interested in your remarks about the writing style of this one (and I haven't read it), but what came to mind is "What happened here?"

Faulkner -- I read As I Lay Dying last year; it was my first Faulkner. It was one of those books that makes me say, OK, objectively he is a great writer, but it never connected with me on a visceral level and made me jump for joy the way books that I love tend to do. Glad I read it; not in much rush to read more, though.

#249 Don't leave him there, please. It's one of the more frequently taught novels, but I think that's because it's relatively short. I've been a big fan of Faulkner for going on 40 years, and it was just in the last couple years that I've been able to appreciate AILD. It will never be one of my favorites.

Hi Peggy, I love all the Faulkner and Murakami discussion here. I fully intend to read more books by both of these authors but for different reasons. I love the world Faulkner writes about and want to spend more time there. As for Murakami, I'd like to just figure out what in heck he's trying to tell me! Lol. I think your first line about 1Q84 sums up my feeling about HM...

This is one that I simply hung on to for the ride.

All of his books have been a roller coaster ride for me. I'm shaken when I get off, but realize in retrospect that I had a lot of fun along the way.

Yay! I know IQ84 was not your cuppa.

All of his books have been a roller coaster ride for me. I'm shaken when I get off, but realize in retrospect that I had a lot of fun along the way.

Great description of Murakami's works, Donna. I'm midway through Book 1 of 1Q84, and so far I have that same giddy feeling of pleasure that I had when I read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, A Wild Sheep Chase and other of my favorite books of his.

Oh my Peggy, you certainly do have a way with words I had trouble with Murakami's style. Basically, he had none, Well said my friend.

Tui, THANK YOU! You know I'm all over such an offer!
Nancy, I don't have any idea whether the Murakami/Rubin team changed or if I did. Since I posted my comments here, I've read several reviews on the book page and at Amazon. I'm not the only one dissatisfied with the writing, but I don't know whether those people appreciated the writing in his other books. Donna and Darryl, I'll be interested in what both of you have to say about *84*. See? Darryl is not displeased so far. Maybe you will show me what I've missed. Lucy, it wasn't quite my cuppa, and I so wanted it to be. I think I downloaded it to Kindle with my birthday money. What greater evidence of hope and anticipation could I give???
Suzanne, I'm with Linda on Faulkner. As I Lay Dying remains in my unread pile along with *Absalom*, *Light*, and *Moses* to name some of the biggies. I have to be in the mood to tackle him again, but when I do, I know that the pleasure will be there.
Today I read 50 pages or so of Barnaby Rudge. It is still my least favorite Dickens, but enough humor and fine writing shine up from the murk that I will keep going. I hope to read this one and at least one more that I really like (but not Bleak House or Our Mutual Friend because I reread those almost at the drop of a hat) for his bicentennial year.

Great review of 1Q84, Peggy. I am hoping to get to that one over the summer when school is out of session.

Murakami is one of my LT discoveries and I have read several and enjoyed them all. I like the discussion here and Joe's passionate defense of one of his favorite authors.

Peggy - thanks for pointing out the Dickens bi-centennial. I'm going for Dombey and Son as my Dickens re-read as I haven't done it in a while. All his books except Martin Chuzzlewit which I have never been able to fully enjoy are already like old friends. Don't re-read that often but for Dickens, Greene, Maugham, Steinbeck, Tolkein (Hobbit & LOTR) and Priestley are exceptions to that rule.

Great minds, Paul. *Dombey* is the one I was thinking about for #2, but I have to finish the Rudge Trudge first.